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CwpclopeUta 3Srrtanntca
OR, A
DICTIONARY
OF
ARTS, SCIENCES, AND MISCELLANEOUS
LITERATURE;
ENLARGED AND IMPROVED.
THE FIFTH EDITION.
.
jKustcateO toitb nearly sir JjunOreD Cngraftings.
VOL. XVI.
indocti discant; ament meminisse periti.
EDINBURGH:
Printed at the Encyclopaedia Press,
FOR ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND COMPANY, AND THOMSON BONAR, EDINBURGH!
GALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER, LONDON ; AND THOMAS WILSON
AND SONS, YORK.
1815.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica.
P&rtliia.
i
Ancient
■divifions.
2
Whence
peopled.
®aufe of
th« Par-
thians re¬
volt from
Antiochus
1'heus.
PAH
PAR
PARTHI A, a celebrated empire of antiquity, bound¬
ed on the welt by Media, on the north by Hyrca-
nia, on the eaft by Aria, on the fouth by Carrnania the
defert $ furrounded on every fide by mountains, which
ftill ferve as a boundary, though its name is now chan¬
ged, having obtained that of Eyrac or Arac; and, to di-
ftinguilh it from Chaldtea, that of Eyrac Agami. By
Ptolemy it is divided into five diftrith, viz. Caminfine,
or Gamifene, Partheyne, Choroane, Atticene, and Ta-
biene. The ancient geographers enumerate a great ma¬
ny cities in this country. Ptolemy in particular reckons
25 large cities ; and it certainly mult have been very
populous, fince we have accounts of 2000 villages, be-
fides a number of cities, which were deftroyed by earth¬
quakes. Its capital was named Hecatompolis, from the
circumftance of its having 100 gates. It was a noble
and magnificent place j and, according to fome, it ftill
remains under the name of Ispahan, the capital of the
prefent Perfian empire.
Parthia is by fome fuppofed to have been firft peopled
by the Phetri or Pathri, often mentioned in Scripture,
and that the Parthians are defcended from Pathrufim
the fon of Mifraim. But however tfue this may be
with regard to the ancient inhabitants, yet it is cer¬
tain, that thofe Parthians whd were fo famous in hi-
ftory, defcended from the Scythians, though from what
tribe we are not certainly informed.
The hiftory of the ancient Parthians is totally loft.
All that we knew about them is, that they were firft
fubjefl to the Medes, afterwards to the Perfians, and
laftly to Alexander the Great. After his death the
province fell to Seleucus Nicator, and w4s held by him
and his fucceflfors till the reign of Antiochus Theus,
about the year 250 before Chrift. At this time the
Parthians revolted, and chofe one Arfaces for their
king. The immediate caufe of this revolt was the
lewdnefs of Agathocles, to whom Antiochus had com¬
mitted the care of all the provinces beyond the Eu¬
phrates. This man made an infamous attempt on Ti-
ridates, a youth of great beauty ; which fo enraged
his brother Arfaces, that he excited his countrymen to
revolt and before Antiochus had leifure to attend to
the rebellion, it became too powerful to be crulhed.
Seleucus Callinicus, the fucceffor of Antiochus Theus,
attempted to reduce Arfaces ; but the latter having had
fo much time to ftrengthen himfelf, defeated and drove
his aatagonift out of the country. Seleucus, howrever,
in a Ihort time, undertook another expedition againft
You XVI, Part I.
Arfaces •, but was ftill more unfortunate than he had Parthia.
been in the former, being not only defeated in a great—y-"-*
battle, but taken prifoner, and died in captivity. The
day on which Arfaces gained this vidtory was ever alter
obferved among the Parthians as an extraordinary fefti-
val. Arfaces being thus fully eftabliftied in his new
kingdom, reduced Hyrcania and fome other provinces
under his power ; and was at laft killed in a battle
againft Ariarathes IV. king of Cappadocia. From this
prince all the other kings of Parthia took the furname
of Arfaces, as thofe of Egypt did that of Ptolemy, from
Ptolemy Soter.
Arfaces I. was fucceeded by his fon Arfaces II. who,
entering Media, made himfelf mafter of that country,
while Antiochus the Great was engaged in war with
Ptolemy Euergetes king of Egypt. Antiochus, how¬
ever, was no fooner difengaged from that war, than he
marched with all his forces againft Arfaces, and at firft
drove him quite out of Media. But he foon returned
with an army of 100,000 foot and 20,000 horfe, with
which he put a flop to the further progrefs of Antio¬
chus ; and a treaty was foon after concluded, in which
it was agreed, that Arfaces fhould remain mafter of Par¬
thia and Hyrcania, upon condition of his allifting him
in his wars with other nations. 4
Arfaces II. was fucceeded by his fon Priapatius, who Conquefls
reigned 15 years, and left three fons, Phraates, Mithri- of the Par-
dates, and Artabanus. Phraates, the elder, fucceeded ^r^sm0“
to the throne, and reduced under his fubjeftion the
Mardi, who had never been conquered by any but A-
lexander the Great. After him, his brother Mithrida-
tes was invefted writh the regal dignity. He reduced
the Badhrians, Medes, Perfians, Elymeans, and overran
in a manner all the eaft, penetrating beyond the bound¬
aries of Alexander’s conquefts. Demetrius Nicator,
who then reigned in Syria, endeavoured to recover thofe
provinces ; but his army wras entirely deftroyed, and
himfelf taken prifoner, in which ftate he remained till
his death ; after which vidfory Mithridates made him¬
felf mafter of Babylonia and Mefopotamia, fo that all
the provinces between the Euphrates and the Ganges
were now fubjett to his power.
Mithridates died in the 37th year of his reign, and Antiochus
left the throne to his fon Pbrahates II. who was fcarce ^^etes d®*
fettled in his kingdom when Antiochus Sidetes march-
ed againft him at the head of a numerous army, under w}!0ie ar_
pretence of delivering his brother Demetrius, who was my.
ftill in captivity. Phrahates was defeated in three
A pitched
Parthia.
6
Alliance
cor, eluded
ivith the
Romans.
C'rafius re-
folves on a
war with
the Par¬
thian s.
8
Plunders
the temple
at Jerufa-
lem.
PAR [2
pitched battles ; in confequence of which he loft all the
countries conquered by his father, and was reduced
■within the limits of the ancient, Parthian kingdom.
Antiochus did not, however, long enjoy his good for¬
tune ; for his army, on account of their number, a-
mounting to no fewer than 400,000, being obliged to
ieparate to fuch diftances as prevented them, in cafe of
any fudden attack, from joining together, the inhabi¬
tants, whom they had moil cruelly opprefled, taking ad¬
vantage of this feparation, confpired with the Parthians
to deftroy them. This was accordingly executed ; and
the vaft army of Antiochus, with the monarch himfelf,
were flaughtered in one day, fcarcely a Angle perfon
efcaping to carry the news to Syria. Phrahates, elated
with this fuceefs, propofed to invade Syria } but in the
mean lime, happening to quarrel with the Scythians,
he was by them cut off with his whole army, and was
fueceeded by his uncle Artabanus.
The new king enjoyed his dignity but a very ibort
time, being, a few days after his acceftion, killed in
another battle with the Scythians. He was fucceeded
by Pacorus I. who entered into an alliance with the
Romans j and he by Phrahates III. This monarch
took under his prote6Hon Tigranes the fon of Fi-
granes the Great, king o Armenia, gave him his
daughter in marriage, and invaded the kingdom with
a deiign to place the fon on the throne of Armenia •,
but on the approach of Pompey he thought proper to
retire, and foon after folemnly renewed the treaty with
the Romans.
Phrahates wTas murdered by bis children Mithri-
dates and Orodes; and foon after the former was put to
death by his brother, who thus became foie mailer of
the Parthian empire. In his reign happened the me¬
morable war with the Romans under Craffus. I his
was occafioned not by any breach of treaty on the fide
of the Parthians, but through the ftiameful avarice of
Craffus. The whole Roman empire at that time had
been divided between Caefar, Pompey, and Craffus j
and by virtue of that partition, the eaftern provinces
had fallen to the lot of'Craffus. No fooner was he in- '
veiled with this dignity, than he refolved to carry the
war into Parthia, in order to enrich himfelf with the
fpoils of that people, who were then looked upon to
be very wealthy. Some of the tribunes oppofed him,
as the Parthians had religioufly obferved the treaty ;
but Craffus having, by the afiiftance of Pompey, car¬
ried every thing before him, left Rome in the year 55
B. C . and purfued his march to Brundufium, where he
immediately embarked his troops, though the Avind
bleAv verv "high ; and after a difficult paffage, where
he loft many of his fliips, he reached the ports of Ga¬
latia.
From Galatia Craffus haftened to Syria, and paffing
through Judea, plundered the temple at Jerufalem in his
Avav. He then marched A?ith as great expedition as he
could to the river Euphrates, which he croffed on a
bridge of boats : and, entering the Parthian dominions,
began hoftilities. As the enemy had not expe&ed an
invafion, they Avere quite unprepared for refiftance ; and
therefore Craffus overran all Mefopotamia ; and if he
had taken advantage of the confternation which the
Parthians Avere in, might have alfo reduced Baby¬
lonia. But inftead of this, early in the autumn, he re-
paffed the Euphrates, leaving only 7000 foot and IQQO
] P A 11
horfe to garrifon the places he had reduced *, and put- Parthia.
ting his army into winter quarters in Syria, gave *
himfelf totally up to his favourite paflion of amafling
money.
Early in the fpring, the Roman general drerv his
forces out of their winter quarters, in order to purlue
the Avar Avith vigour j but, during the winter, Orodes
had collefted a very numerous army, and Avas well
prepared to oppofe him Before he entered upon ac¬
tion, however, the Parthian monarch ient ambaffadors
to Craflus, in order to expoftulate with him on Ins in-
juftice in attacking an ally of the Roman empire •, but
Craffus, without attending to Avhat they laid, only re¬
turned for anfwer, that “ they ftiould have his aniwer at
Seleucia.”
Orodes, finding that a Avar ivas unavoidable, di¬
vided his army into Iavo bodies. One he command¬
ed in perfon, and marched toAvard Armenia, in order
to oppofe the king of that country, Who had raifed a
confiderable army to aflift the Romans. The other he
fent into Mefopotamia, under the command of Surena
or Surenas, a moil experienced general, by Avhofe con-
du6l all the cities which Craffus had reduced Avere ^
quickly retaken. On this fome Roman foldiers Avho His foldieft
made their efcape, and fled to the camp of Craffus,difhearten-
filled the mind of his army Avith terror at the accountsed-
of the number, poAver, and ftrength, of the enemy.
They told their fellow foldiers, that the Parthians
Avere very numerous, bra\re, and avcII difeiplined •, that
it was impoftible to overtake them Avben they fled, or
efcape them Avhen they purfued ; that their defenfive
Aveapons Avere proof againft the Roman darts, and their
offenfive Aveapons fo (harp, that no buckler could re-
fift them, &c. Craffus looked upon all this only as
the effeft of cowardice : but the common foldiers, and
even many of the chief officers, Avere fo diftreartened,
that Caffius, the fame avIio aftenvards confpired againft
Ctefar, and moft of the legionary tribunes, advifed Craf¬
fus to fufpend his march, and confider better of the en-
terprife before he proceeded farther in it. But Craflus
obftinately perfifted in his former refolution, being en¬
couraged by the arrival of Artabazus king of Armenia,
Avho brought Avith him 6coo horfe, and promifed to fend
10,OCX) cuiraffiers and 30,000 foot, whenever he ffiould
ftand in need of them. At the fame time, he adviled
him by no means to march his army through the plains
of Mefopotamia, but to take his route over the moun¬
tains of Armenia. He told him, that as Armenia Avas
a mountainous country, the enemy’s cavalry, in Avhich
their main ftrength confifted, Avould there be entirely
ufelefs •, and befides, his army would there be plenti¬
fully fupplied Avith all manner of neceflaries : whereas,
if he marched by the way of Mefopotamia, he Avould
be perpetually haraffed by the Parthian horfe, and fre¬
quently be obliged to lead his army through fandy de-
ferts, where be would be diftreffed for Avant of u ater
and all other provifions. This falutary advice, however,
Avas reje6led, and Craffus entered Mefopotamia Avith an
army of about 40,000 men.
The Romans had no fooner croffed the Euphrates,
than Caffius advifed his general to advance to fome of
thofe towns in Avhich the garrifons yet remained, in or¬
der to halt and refreffi his troops : or if he did not choofe
to folloAV this advice, he faid that his beft way Avould
be to march along the banks of the Euphrates to Seleu¬
cia j
PAR E 3
Parthia. cla ; as by tbis method he would prevent the Parthians
v ’ from furrounding him, at the fame time he would be
Betri°ed plentifully fupplied with provilions from his {hips. Of
by Abga- this advice Craflus feemed to approve •, but was dif-
rus king of fuaded by Abgarus king of Edefla, whom the Romans
Edefl'a. took for an ally, but who was in reality a traitor fent
by Sarenas to bring about the deflruftion of the Roman
army.
Under the conduft of this faithlefs guide, th.e Ro¬
mans entered a vaft green plain divided by many rivu¬
lets. Their march proved very eafy through this fine
country •, but the farther they advanced, the worfe the
roads became, infomuch that they were at laft obliged
to climb up rocky mountains, which brought them
to a dry and Tandy plain, where they could neither
find food to fatisfy their hunger, nor water to quench
their thirft. Abgarus then began to be fufpe£ted by
the tribunes and other officers, who earneftly entreated
Craffus not to follow him any longer, but to retreat to
the mountains ; at the fame time an exprefs arrived
from Artabazus, acquainting the Roman general that
Orodes had invaded his dominions with a great army,
and that he was obliged to keep his troops at home,
in order to defend his own dominions. The fame
meffenger advifed Craffus in his mafter’s name to avoid
by all means the barren plains, where his army would
certainly perifh with hunger and fatigue, and by all
means to approach Armenia, that they might join their
forces againft the common enemy. But all was to no
purpofe •, Craffus, inftead of hearkening either to the
advice of the king or his own officers, firft flew into a
violent paffion with the meffengers of Artabazus, and
then told his troops, that they were not to expeft the
delights of Campania in the moft remote parts of the
world.
Thus they continued their march for fome days crofs
a deft rt, the very fight of which was fufficient to throw
them into the utmoft defpair : for they could not per¬
ceive, either near them or at a diflance, the lead tree,
plant, or brook, not fo much as a hill, or a fingle blade
of grafs; nothing was to be fecn all around them but
huge heaps of burning fand. The Romans had fcarcely
got through this defert, when word was brought them
by their fcouts, that a numerous army of Parthians was
advancing full march to attack them ; for Abgarus, un
der pretence of going out on parties, had often conferred
with Surenas, and concerted meafures with him for de-
ftroying the Roman army. Upon this advice, which
occafioned great confufion in the camp, the Romans be¬
ing quite exhaufled and tired out with their long and
troublefome march, Craffus drew up his men in battalia,
following at firft the advice of Caffius, who was for ex¬
tending the infantry as wide as poffible, that they might
take up the more ground, and by that means prevent
the enemy from furrounding them : but Abgarus affur-
ing the proconful that the Parthian forces wrere not fo
numerous as was reprefented, he changed this difpofition,
and believing only the man who betrayed him, drew' up
his troops in a fquare, which faced every wray, and had
on each fide 12 cohorts in front. Near each cohort
he placed a troop of horfe to fupport them, that they
might charge with the greater fecurity and boldnefs.
'rims the whole army looked more like one phalanx
than troops drawn up in rnanipuli, with fpaces between
them, after the Roman manner. The general himfelf
Parthia.
] PAR
commanded in the centre, his fon in the left wing, and
Caffius in the right.
In this order they advanced to the banks of a imall
river called the Bct/iJJiis, the fight of which was very
pleafing to the loldiers, who were much haraffed with
drought and exceflive heat. Moft of the officers were
for encamping on the banks of this river, or rather rivu¬
let, to give the troops time to refrefh themfelves after
the fatigues of fo long and painful a march j and, in the
mean time, to procure certain intelligence of the num¬
ber and difpofition of the Parthian army ; but Ciailus,
fuffering himfelf to be hurried on by the inconfiderate
ardour of his fon, and the horfe he commanded, only
allowed the legions to take a meal Handing } and before
this could be done by all, he ordered them to advance,
not flowly, and halting now and then, after the Roman
manner, but as faft as they could move, till they came
in fight of the enemy, who, contrary to their expecta¬
tion, did not appear either fo numerous or fo terrible
as they had been reprefented } but this was a ftratagem
of Surenas, who had concealed his men in convenient
places, ordering them to cover their arms, left their
brightnefs ftumld betray them, and, ftarting up at the jj
firft fignal, to attack the enemy on all fides. rl he lira- The battle
tagem had the defired effeft ; for Surenas no fooner gave of Carrhse.
the fignal, than the Parthians, rifing as it wTere out of
•the ground, with dreadful cries, and a moft frightful
noife, advanced againft the Romans, who were greatly
furprifed and difmayed at the fight •, and much more fo,
wdien the Parthians, throwing off the covering of their
arms, appeared in finning cuiraffes, and helmets of bur-
niftied fteel, finely mounted on horfes covered all over
with armour of the fame metal. At their head appear¬
ed young Surenas in a rich drefs, who was the firft who
charged the enemy, endeavouring, with his pikemen, to
break through the firft ranks of the Roman army ; but
finding it too clofe and impenetrable, the cohorts fup-
porting each other, he fell back, and retired in a feem-
ing confufion ; but the Romans were much fnrpriled
when they faw themfelves fuddenly furrounded on all
fides, and galled with continual (bowers of arrows.
Craffus ordered his light-armed foot and archers to ad¬
vance, and charge the enemy 5 but they were foon re-
pulfed, and forced to cover themfelves behind the heavy¬
armed foot. Then the Parthian horfe, advanced near
the Romans, difeharged fhowers of arrows upon them,
every one of which did execution, the legionaries being
drawn up in fueh clofe order, that it was impoffible for
the enemy to mifs their aim. As their arrows were of
an extraordinary weight, and difeharged with incredible
force and impetuofity, nothing was proof againft them.
The two wings advanced in good order to repulfe them,
but to no effedt } for the Parthians {hot their arrows
with as great dexterity when their backs were turned,
as when they faced the enemy ; fo that the Romans,
whether they kept their ground, or purfued the fly¬
ing enemy, were equally annoyed with their fatal ar¬
rows.
The Romans, as long as they had any hopes that the
Parthians, after having fpent their arrows, would either
betake themfelves to flight, or engage them hand to
hand, flood their ground with great refolution and intre¬
pidity ; but when they obferved that there were a great
many camels in their rear loaded with arrows, and that
thofe who emptied their quivers w heeled about to fill
A 2 them
PAR [ 4 ] PAR
Parthia.
rs
Extreme
diftrefs of
the Ro¬
mans.
them anew, they began to lofe courage, and loudly to
complain of their general for fuffering them thus to
ftand ftill, and ferve only as a butt to the enemy’s ar¬
rows, which, they well faw, would not be exhaufted
till they were all killed to a man. Hereupon Craffus
ordered his fon to advance, at all adventures, and at¬
tack the enemy with 1300 horfe, 500 archers, and 8
cohorts. But the Parthians no fooner faw this choice
body (for it was the flower of the army) marching up
againft them, than they wheeled about, and betook
themfelves, according to their cuftom, to flight. Here¬
upon young Craflus, crying out as loud as he could,
1 hey fly before us, puflied on full fpeed after them, not
doubting but he fhould gain a complete victory 5 but
when he was at a great diftance from the main body of
the Roman army, he perceived his miftake j for thofe
who before had fled, facing about, charged him with
incredible fury. Young Craflus ordered his troops to
halt, hoping that the enemy, upon feeing their fmall
number, would not be afraid to come to a clofe fight 1
but herein he was likewife greatly difappointed ; for the
Parthians, contenting themfelves to oppofe his front
with their heavy-armed horfe, furrounded him on all
fides ; and, keeping at a diftance, difcharged inceflant
fhowers of arrows upon the unfortunate Romans, thus
furrounded and pent up. The Parthian army, in wheel¬
ing about, raifed fo thick a duft, that the Romans could
fcarce fee one another, much lefs the enemy : never-
thelefs, they found themfelves wounded with arrows,
though they could not perceive whence they came. In
a fhort time the place where they flood was all ftrown
with dead bodies.
Some of the unhappy Romans finding their entrails
torn, and many overcome by the exquifite torments they
fuffered, rolled themfelves in the fand with the arrows in
their bodies, and expired in that manner. Others en¬
deavouring to tear out by force the bearded points of the
arrows, only made the wounds the larger, and increafed
their pain. Moft of them died in this manner ; and
thofe who outlived their companions were no more in a
condition to aft ; for when young Craflus exhorted
them to march up to the enemy, fome fliowed him their
wounded bodies, others their hands nailed to their
bucklers, and fome their feet pierced through and pin¬
ned to the ground •, fo that it was equally impoflible for
them either to attack the enemy or defend themfelves.
The young commander, therefore, leaving his infantry
to the mercy of the enemy, advanced at the head of the
cavalry againft their heavy-armed horfe. The thoufand
Gauls whom he had brought with him from the weft,
charged the enemy with incredible boldnefs and vigour ;
but their lances did little execution on men armed with
auiraffes, and horfes covered with tried armour : how¬
ever, they behaved with great refolution ; for fome of
them taking hold of the enemy’s fpears, and clofing
with them, threw them off their horfes on the ground,
where they lay without being able to ftir, by reafon of
the great weight of their armour ; others, difmounting,
crept under the enemy’s horfes, and thrufting their
fwords into their bellies, made them throw their riders.
Thus the brave Gauls fought, though greatly haraffed
with heat and thirft, which they were not accuftomid
to bear, till moft of their horfes were killed, and their
oommander dangeroufly w'ounded. They then thought
it advifeable to retire to their infantry, which they no
fooner joined, than the Parthians invefted them anestf, Parthia.
making a moft dreadful havock of them with their ar- v—
rows. In this defperate condition, Craffus, fpying a
rifing ground at a fmall diftance, led the remains of his
detachment thither, with a defign to defend himfelf in
the beft manner he could, till fuccours ftiould be fent
him from his father. The Parthians purfued him ; and
having furrounded him in his new poft, continued
fhowering arrows upon his men, till moft of them were
either killed or difabled, without being able to make
ufe of their arms, or give the enemy proofs of their
valour.
Young Craffus had two Greeks with him, who had
fettled in the city of Carrhae. Thefe, touched with
compaffion, at feeing fo brave a man reduced to fuch
ftraits, preffed him to retire with them to the neigh¬
bouring city of Ifchnes, which had declared for the
Romans 5 but the young Roman rejefted their propo-
fal with indignation, telling them, that he would ra¬
ther die a thoufand times than abandon fo many valiant
men, who faerificed their lives for his fake. Having
returned this anfwer to his two Greek friends, he em¬
braced and difmiffed them, giving them leave to re¬
tire and Ihift for themfelves in the beft manner they
could. As for himfelf, having now loft all hopes of
being relieved, and feeing moft of his men and friends
killed round him, he gave way to his grief; and, not Tiie
being able to make ufe of his arm, which was ftiot of young
through with a large barbed arrow, he prefented his ^raflu?.
fide to one of his attendants, and ordered him to put
an end to his unhappy life. His example was fol¬
lowed by Cenforius a fenator, by Megabacchus an
experienced and brave officer, and by moft of the no¬
bility who ferved under him. Five hundred com¬
mon foldiers wrere taken prifoners, and the reft cut in
pieces.
The Parthians, having thus cut off or taken the whole
detachment commanded by young Craffus, marched
without delay againft his father, who, upon the firft ad¬
vice that the enemy fled before his fon, and were clofely
purfued by him, had taken heart, the more becaufe thofe
who had remained to make head againft him feemed to
abate much of their ardour, the greateft part of them hav¬
ing marched with the reft againft his fon. Wherefore,
having encouraged his troops, he had retired to a fmall hill
in his rear, to wait there till his fon returned from the
purfuit. Young Craffus had defpatched frequent ex-
preffes to his father, to acquaint him with the danger he
was in; but they had fallen into the enemy’s hands, and
been by them put to the fword : only the laft, who had
efcaped with great difficulty, arrived fafe, and inform¬
ed him that his fon was loft if he did not fend him an '
immediate and powerful reinforcement-. This news
threw Craffus into the utmoft confternation ; a thoufand
affecting thoughts rofe in his mind, and difturbed his
reafon to fuch a degree, that he fcarce knew what he
was doing. However, the defire he had of having his
fon, and fo many brave Romans who w-ere under his
command, made him immediately decamp, and march
to their affiftance ; but he was not gone far before he
was met by the Parthians, who, with loud fhouts, and
fongs of vidlory, gave, at a diftance, the unhappy father
notice of his misfortune. They had cut off young Craf-
fus’s head, and, having fixed it on the point of a lance,
were advancing full fpeed to fall on the father. As they
drew
14
Diftrefs of
CralTus.
PAR , [
Partliia. drew near, CraiTas was ftruck with that difmal and af-
—\r—’ fefting %ht; but on this occafion, behaved like a hero :
for though he was under the deepeft concern, he had
the prefence of mind to ftifle his grief, for fear of dif-
couraging the army, and to cry out to the diftnayed
troops, “ This misfortune is entirely mine ; the lofs of
one man cannot affett the vi&ory: Let us charge, let
us fight like Romans : if you have any compaffion for a
father who has juft now loft a fon whofe valour you ad¬
mired, let it appear in your rage and refentment againft
thefe infulting barbarians.” Thus Craffus ftrove to re¬
animate his troops j but his efforts were unfuccefsful:
their courage was quite funk, as appeared from the faint
and languiftiing fhout which they raifed, according to
cuftom, before the aftion. When the fignal was given,
the Parthians, keeping to their old way of fighting, dif-
charged clouds of arrows on the legionaries, 'without
drawing near them ^ which did fuch dreadful execution,
that many of the Romans, to avoid the arrows, which
occafioned a long and painful death, threw themfelves,
like men in defpair, on the enemy’s heavy-armed-horfe,
feeking from their fpears a more quick and eafy kind of
death. Thus the Parthians continued plying them in-
ceffantly with their arrows till night, when they left
the field of battle, crying out, that they would allow
the father one night to lament the death of his fon.
This was a melancholy night for the Romans. Craf¬
fus kept himfelf concealed from the foldiery, lying not
in the general’s tent, but in the open air, and on the
bare ground, with his head wrapped up in his paluda-
mentum or military cloak ; and was, in that forlorn
condition, fays Plutarch, a great example to the vulgar,
of the inftability of fortune ; to the wife, a ftill greater
of the pernicious effedls of avarice, temerity, and ambi¬
tion. O&avius, one of his lieutenants, and Caffms, ap¬
proached him, and endeavoured to raife him up and
confole him: but, feeing him quite funk under the
weight of his affliftion, and deaf to all comfort, they
fummoned a council of war, cnmpofed of all the chief
officers ; wherein it was unanimoufly refolved, that they
fhould decamp before break of day, and retire, without
found of trumpet, to the neighbouring city of Carrhae,
which was held by a Roman garrifon. Agreeable to
this refolution, they began their march as foon as the
council broke up j which produced dreadful outcries
among the fick and wounded, who, perceiving that they
were to be abandoned to the mercy of the enemy, filled
the camp with their complaints and lamentations : but
their cries and tears, though very affedling, did not flop
the march of the others, which, indeed, was very flow,
to give the ftragglers time to come up. There were
only 300 light horfe, under the command of one
AEgnatius, who purfued their march wfftbout flopping.
Thefe arriving at Carrhae about midnight, Ignatius,
calling to the centinels on the walls, defired them to
acquaint Coponius, the governor of the place, that
Craffus had fought a great battle with the Parthians;
and, without faying a word more, or letting him know
who he was, continued his march with all poflible expe¬
dition to the bridge of Zeugma } which he paffed, and
by that means faved his troops, but was much blamed
for thus abandoning his general.
The meffage which he fent to Coponius was of fome
temporary fervice to Craffus. For that commander,
5 ] PAR
wifely conjecfuring, from the manner in which the Parthia.
unknown perfon had given him the intelligence, that—v—J
fome misfortune had befallen Craffus, immediately or¬
dered his garrifon to ftand to their arms; and, march'
ing out, met Craflus, and conduced him and his army
into the city : for the Parthians, though informed of
his flight, did not offer to purfue him, obferving there¬
in the fuperftitious cuftom which obtained among them
and the Perfians, not to fight in the night; but when
it was day, they entered the Roman camp, and having
put all the wounded, to the number of 4000, to the
fword, difperfed their cavalry all over the plain, in pur-
fuit of the fugitives. One of Craflus’s lieutenants,
named Vargunteius, having feparated in the night from
the main body of the army, with four cohorts, miffed
his way, and was overtaken by the enemy ; at whofe
approach he withdrew to a neighbouring hill, where he
defended himfelf, with great valour, till all his men
were killed, except 20, who made their way through
the enemy, fword in hand, and got fafe to Carrhae : but
Vargunteius himfelf loft his life on the occafion.
In the mean time Surenas, not knowing whether suren'as
Craffus and Caflius had retired to Carrhae, or chofen a pretends
different route j in order to be informed of the truth, t0.CGnfer
and take his meafures accordingly, defpatched a meflen-^*1
ger, who fpoke the Roman language, to the city of Car¬
rhae, enjoining him to approach the walls, and acquaint
Craffus birafelf, or Caflius, that the Parthian general was
inclined to enter into a treaty with them, and demanded
a conference. Both the proconful and his quaeftor Caf-
fius fpoke from the walls with the meffenger ; and, ac¬
cepting the propofal with great joy, defired that the
time and place for an interview might be immediately
agreed upon. The meffenger withdrew, promifing to
return quickly with an anfwer from Surenas : but that
general no fooner underftood that Craffus and Caflius
were in Carrhce, than he marched thither with his whole
army ; and, having invefted the place, acquainted the
Romans, that if they expefled any favourable terms,
they muft deliver up Craffus and Caflius to him in
chains. Hereupon a council of the chief officers being
fummoned, it was thought expedient to retire from Car¬
rhae that very night, and feek for another afylum. It
was of the utmoft importance that none of the inhabi¬
tants of Carrh-ae ftiould be acquainted with their defign
till the time of its execution j but Craffus, whofe whole
condudl evidently {hows that he was blinded, as Dio
Caflius obferves, by fome divinity, imparted the whole
matter in confidence to one Andromachus, choofing him
for his guide, and relying injudicioufly on the fidelity of
a man whom he fcarce knew. Andromachus immedi¬
ately acquainted Surenas with the defign of the Romans;
promifing at the fame time, as the Parthians did not
engage in the night, to manage matters fo, that they
ftiould not get out of his reach before daybreak. Pur-
fuant to his promife, he led them through many wind¬
ings and turnings, till he brought them into deep
marftry grounds, where the infantry were up to the
knees in mire. Then Caffius, fufpe6ting that their
guide had led them into thofe bogs with no good de¬
fign, refufed to follow him any longer ; and returning
to Carrhae, took his route towards Syria, which he
reached with 500 horfe. Odlavius, with 5000 men
under his command, being conduced by trufty guides,
gained:
3-
PAR r 6 ] PAR
PartKIa. gamed the mountains called by Plutarch and Appian
Sinnaci, and there intrenched himfelf before break of
day.
As for Craffus, he was dill entangled in the marihes,
when Surenas, at the rifing of the fun, overtook him,
and invefted him with his cavalry. The proconful had
with him four cohorts, and a fmall body of horfe ; and
with thefe he gained, in fpite of all oppofition, the fum-
mit of another hill within 12 furlongs of O&avius ; who
feeing the danger that threatened his general, flew to his
afliftance, firft with a fmall number of his men, but was
foon followed by all the reft, who, being alhamed of their
cowardice, quitted their poll, though very fife, and char¬
ging the Parthians with great fury, difengaged Craffus,
and obliged the enemy to abandon the hill. Upon the
retreat of the enemy, they formed themfelves into a hol¬
low fquare ; and placing Craffus in the middle, made a
kind of rampart round him with their bucklers, refo-
lutely protefting, that none of the enemy’s arrows fhould
touch their general’s body, till they were all killed fight¬
ing in his defence. Sorenas, loth to let fo fine a prey
efcape, furrounded the hill, as if he defigned to make a
new attack : but, finding his Parthians very backward,
and not doubting but the Romans, when night came, on,
would purfue their march, and get out of his reach, he
had recourfe again to artifice •, and declared before fome
prifoners, whom he foon after fet at liberty, that he was
inclined to treat with the prqconful of a peace ; and that
it was better to come to a reconciliation with Rome, than
to fow the feeds of an eternal war, by (bedding the blood
of one of her generals.
Agreeable to this declaration, Surenas, as foon as the
prifoners were releafed, advanced towards the hill where
the Romans were polled, attended only by fome of his
officers, and, with his bow unbent, and open arms, in¬
vited Craffus to an interview. So fudden a change feem-
ed very fufpicious to the proconful; who therefore de¬
clined the interview, till he was forced, by bis own
foldiers, to intruft his life with an enemy whofe treachery
they had all experienced ; for the legionaries flocking
round him, not only abufed him in an outrageous man¬
ner, but even menaced him if he did not accept of the
propofals made him by the Parthian general. Seeing,
therefore, that his troops were ready to mutiny, he be¬
gan to advance, without arms or guards, towards the
cnemv, after having called the gods and his officers to
witnefslhe violence his troops offered him ; and intreat-
ed all who were prefent, but efpecially Ocftavius and
Petronius, two of the chief commanders, for the honour
of Rome their common mother, not to mention, after
his death, the (hameful behaviour of the Roman legion¬
aries. Oflavius and Petronius could not refolve to let
him go alone •, but attended him down the hill, as did
likewife fome legionaries, keeping at a diftanee. Craffus
was met at the foot of the hill bv two Greeks who, dif-
mounting from their horfes, fainted him with great re-
fpeft ; and defired him in the Greek tongue, to fend
fome of his attendants, who might fatisfy him that Sure¬
nas, and thofe who were with him, came without arms.
Hereupon Craffus fent two brothers, of the Rofcian
family, but Surenas having caufed them to be feized,
advanced to the foot of the hill, mounted on a fine horfe,
and attended by the chief officers of his army. Craffus,
who waited for the return of his two meffengers, was fur-
prifed to fee himfelf prevented by Surenas in perfon, when
he leaft expected it. The Parthian general, perceiving, Parthia^ ^
as he approached Craflus, that he was on fooi, cried out, 'r—J
in a feeming furprife, “ What do I fee ? a Roman gene¬
ral on foot, and we on horfeback ! Let a horfe be brought
for him immediately.” “ You need not be iurprifed (re¬
plied Craffus) : we are come only to an interview, each
after the cuftom of his country.” “ Very well (an-
fwered Surenas), there (hall be henceforth a lading
peace between King Orodes and the jieople of Rome :
but we muft fign the articles of it on the banks of the
Euphrates } for you Romans do not always remember
your conventions.” Craflus would have fent for a horfe 5
but a very ftately one with a golden bit, and richly ca-
parifoned, was brought to him by a Parthian ; which.
Surenas prefenting to him, “ Accept this horfe from my
hands (faid he), which I give you in the name of my
mailer King Orodes.” He had fearce uttered thefe
words, when fome of the king’s officers, taking Craffus
by the middle, fet him upon the horfe, which they be¬
gan to whip with great violence before them in order to
make him quicken his pace. Otlavius, oftended at this
infult, took the horfe by the bridle ; Petronius and the
few Romans who were prefent, feconded him, and flock¬
ing all round Craffus, flopped his horle. The Parthians
endeavoured to repulfe them, and clear the way for the
proconful *, whereupon they began to juftle and pufti one
another with great tumult and difonder. At laft, 061a-
vius, drawing his fword, killed one of the king’s grooms j
but, at the fame time, another coming behind Odlavius,
with one blow laid him dead at his feet. Both parties
fought with great refolution, the Parthians driving to
carry off Craffus, and the Romans to refcue him out of
their hands. In this fcuffie moil of the Romans who l6
came to the conference were kdled •, and among!! tbecraffus
reft, Craffus himfelf, but whether by a Roman or a Par-killed,
thian is uncertain.
Upon his death, the reft of the army either furrender-
ed to the enemy, or, difperfing in the night, were pur-
fued, and put to the fword. The Romans loft in this
campaign at leaft 30,000 men ; of which 20,coo were
killed, and x0,000 taken prifoners.
When the battle of Carrhfe was fought, King Orodes
was in Armenia, where he had made peace with Arta-
bazus. While the two kings were folemnizing their
new alliance with expenfive and public fcafts, Styllaces
or Svllaces, a Parthian officer, whom Surenas had fent
with the news of his late vi61ory, and the head of Craf¬
fus as a proof of it, arrived in the capital of Armenia.
The tranfports of joy which Orodes felt at this fight,
and thefe news, are not to be expreffed ; and the loids
of both kingdoms, who attended their fovereigns, raifed
loud and repeated (bouts of joy. Syllaces was ordered
to give a more particular and diftin61 account of that
memorable a6tion \ which when he had done, Orodes
commanded melted gold to be poured into Craflus’s
mouth ; reproaching him thereby with avarice, which
had been always his predominant paffion.
Surenas did not long enjoy the pleafure of his vi61ory ; Surenas put
for Orodes, jealous of his power and authority among ^eath by
the Parthians, foon after caufed him to be put to death.' ^C(es•
Pacorus, the king’s favourite fon was put at the head
of the army \ and, agreeably to his father’s dire£lions,
invaded Syria : but he was driven out from thence with
great lofs by Cicero and Caflius, the only general who
furvived the defeat of Craffus. After this we find no
menthjft
PAR
[ 7
I’anhia.
iS
w ar com¬
menced a-
gainft the
Parthians
by VI ark
Antony.
19
Pacorm de¬
feated a»id
killed by
Ventidius.
20
Orodes
murdered.
mention of the Parthians, till the time of the civil war
between Ctefar and Pompey, when the latter fer.t am-
baffadors to folicit fuccour again!! his rivals. 1 his Orodes
was willing to grant upon condition that Syria was de¬
livered up to him -, but as Pompey would not confent to
fuch a propofal, the fuCcours were not only denied, but,
after the battle of Pharfalia, he put Lucius Hirtius in
irons, whom Pompey had again fent to a!k affiftance, or
at leal! to defire leave to {belter himfelf in the Parthian
dominions.
Caefar isfaid to have meditated a war again!! the Par¬
thians, which in all probability would have proved fatal
to them. His death delivered them from this danger.
But, not long after, the eallern provinces, being griev-
oufly oppreffed by Mark Antony, rofe up in arms and
having killed the tax-gatherers, invited the Parthians to
join them and drive out the Romans. They very readily
accepted the invitation, and croffed the Euphrates with
a powerful army under the command of Pacorus, and
Labienus a Roman general of Pom pay’s party. At firft
they met with great fuccefs, overran all Afia Minor, and
reduced all the countries as far as the Hellefpont and the
Egsean fea, fubduing likewife Phoenicia, Syria, and even
Judea. They did not however long enjoy their new con-
quefts : for being elated with their vi£lories, and defpi-
fing the enemy, they engaged Ventidius, Antony’s lieu¬
tenant, before Labienus had time to join them, and were
utterly defeated. This fd diflieartened Labienus’s army,
that they all abandoned him and he himfelf, being thus
obliged to wander from place to place in difguife, was at
laft taken and put to death at Cyprus. Ventidius purfu-
ing his advantage, gained feveral other viclories 5 and at
laft entirely defeated the Parthian army under Pacorus,
cutting almoft the whole of them in pieces, and the
- prince himfelf among the reft. He did not, however,
purfue this laft viclory as he might have done ; being
afraid of giving umbrage to Antony, who had already
become jealous of the great honour gained by his lieu¬
tenant. He therefore contented himfelf with reducing
thofe places in Svria and Phoenicia which the Parthians
had taken in the beginning of the war, until Antony ar¬
rived to take the command of the army upon himfelf.
Orodes was almoft diftra&ed with grief on receiving
the dreadful news of the lofs of his army and the death
of his favourite fon. However, when time had refto-
red the ufe of his faculties, he appointed Phrahates, the
eldeft but the moft wicked, of all his children, to fue-
ceed him in the kingdom, admitting him at the fame
time to a (hare of the fovereign authority with himfelf.
The confequence of this was, that Phrahates very foon
attempted to poifon his father with hemlock. But this,
contrary to expectation, proving a cure for the dropfy,
which an excefs of grief had brought upon the king, the
unnatural fon had him ftided in bed, and foon after not
onlv murdered all his own brethren, who were thirty in
number, but cut off all the reft of the royal family, not
fparing even his own eldeft ion, left the difeontented
Parthia is ftiould place him, as he was already of age, on
the throne.
Many of the chief lords of Parthia being intimidated
bv the cruelly of Phrahates, retired into foreign coun¬
tries : and among thofe one Moncefes, a perfon of great
diftinCHon, as well as ikill and experience in war. This
man, having fled to Antony, foon gained his confidence,
and was by him eafily prevailed upon to engage in a war
" 4
] PAR
againft his countrymen. But Phrahates juftly dreading Partlda.
the confequenccs of fuch a perfon’s defection, fent a fo- v
lemn embaffy to invite him home on fuch terms as he
fliould think fit to accept; which greatly provoked An¬
tony ; though he did not hinder him from returning, left
others ftrould thereby be difeouraged from coming over
to him. He therefore difmilled him with great civility,
fending ambaffadors at the fame time to Phrahates to treat
of a peace. Thus he hoped to divert the Parthian mo¬
narch’s attention from making the neceffary prepara¬
tions for -war, and that he fhould be able to fall upon
him in the fpring when he was in no condition to make
refiftance. But herein he was greatly difappointed •, for
on his arrival at the Euphrates, which he intended to
pafs, and enter the Parthian dominions on that fide, he
found all the paffes fo well guarded, that he thought pro¬
per to enter Media with a defign firft to reduce that
country, and then to enter Parthia. 21
This plan had been fuggelled to him by Artabazus Antony
king of Armenia, who in the end betrayed him ; f°r
inftead of conducing the army the ilraight way from 0f
Zeugma on the Euphrates, to the Araxes which part-nienia.
ed Media from Armenia, and which was about 500
miles diftant from the place whence he firft fet out,
Artabazus led them over the rocks and mountains fofar
about, that the army had marched above 1000 miles
before they reached the borders of Media, where they
intended to begin the war. Thus they were not only
greatly fatigued but had not fufficient time, the year
being far fpent, to put in execution the defign on
which they had come. However, as Antony was im¬
patient to get back to Cleopatra, he left behind him
moft of the baggage of the army, and 300 w-aggons
loaded with battering rams and other military engines
for fieges ; appointing Statianus, one of his lieutenants,
with a body of 10,000 men, to guard them, and to
bring them, by flow marches, after the army. With
the reft of the forces he marched more than 300 miles
before the reft, without allowing his men any refpite till
he arrived at Praafpa or Phrahata, the capital of Media,
which he immediately invefted. But the Parthians, well
knowing that he could not make any progrefs without
his military machines, paffed by his army, in order to
attack Statianus j which they did with fuch fuccefs, that 22
the body commanded by him were all to a man cut off, Ten thou,
and all their military engines taken, among which wastand Ro-
a battering ram 80 feet long.
Antony, notwithftanding this difafter, continued the'
fiege of Praafpa ; but was daily haraffed by {'allies of the
garrifon from within, and the enemy’s army without.
At laft he began to think of a retreat when his provi-
lions were almoft exhaufted, finding it impoffible to be¬
come mafter of the city. But as he was to march 300
miles through the enemy’s country, he thought proper
firft to fend ambaffadurs to {he Parthian monarch, ac¬
quainting him that the Roman people were willing to
allow him a peace, provided,he would reftore the tland-
ards and prifoners taken at Carrhse. Phrahates received
the ambaffadors, fitting on a golden throne j and, after
having bitterly inveighed againft the avarice and un¬
bounded ambition of the Romans, told them that he
would not part with the ftandards and prifoners j but
that if Antony would immediately raife the fiege of
Praafpa, he would fuffer him to retire unmolefted.
Antony, who was reduced to great lit aits, no fooner
. received
mans cut
off.
PAR
iParthia.
23
Antony
leaves Par-
ihia in
great dif-
trefs.
24
Parthia
fubdued
by Tra¬
jan.
received this anfwer than he broke up the fiege, and
marched towards Armenia. However, Phrahates was
not fo good as his word 5 for the -Romans were attacked
by the enemy no fewer than 18 times on their march,
and were thrice in the utmoft danger of being cut off.
A famine alfo raged in the Roman army j upon which
they began to defert to the enemy •, and indeed Antony
would probably have been left by himfelf, had not the
Parthians, in a very cruel as well as impolitic manner,
murdered all thofe who fled to them in light of the reft.
At laft, after having loft 32,000 men, and being re¬
duced to fuch defpair that he was with difficulty pre¬
vented from laying violent hands on himfelf, he reached
the river Araxes ; when his men, finding themfelves out
of the reach of the enemy, fell down on the ground, and
kiffed it with tears of joy.
Antony was no fooner gone, than the kings of Me¬
dia and Parthia quarrelled about the booty they had
taken •, and after various contefts Phrahates reduced all
Media and Armenia. After this, being elated with his
conquefts, he oppreffed his fubjefts in fuch a cruel and
tyrannical manner, that a civil war took place ; in which
the competitors were alternately driven out and reftored,
till the year 50, when one Vologefes, the fon of Gortar-
zes, a former king, became peaceable poffeffor of the
throne. He carried on fome wars again ft the Romans,
but with very indifferent fuccefs, and at laft gladly con-
fented to a renewal of the ancient treaties with that
powerful people.
From this time the Parthian hiftory affords nothing
remarkable till the reign of the emperor Trajan *, when
the Parthian king, by name Cofdroes, infringed the
treaty with Rome, by driving out the king of Arme¬
nia. Upon this Trajan, who was glad of any pre¬
tence to quarrel with the Parthians, immediately haft-
ened into Armenia. His arrival there was fo fudden
and unexpe&ed, that he reduced almoft the whole
country without oppofition •> and took prifoner Partha-
mafiris, the king whom the Parthians had fet up. Af¬
ter this he entered Mefopotamia, took the city of Nifi-
bis, and reduced to a Roman province the whole of that
wealthy country.
Early in the fpring of the following year, Trajan,
who had kept his winter quarters in Syria, took the
field again 3 but was warmly oppofed by Cofdroes.—
He found him encamped on the banks of the Euphrates,
with a defign to difpute his paffage 3 which he did with
fuch vigour, that the emperor, after having feveral times
attempted to ford that river, and been always repulfed
with great, daughter, was obliged to caufe boats to be
built on the neighbouring mountains, which he privately
conveyed from thence on carriages to the water fide ;
and having in the night time formed a bridge with
them, he paffed his army the next day *, but not with¬
out great lofs and danger, the Parthians haraffing his
men the whole time with inceffant ftiowers of arrows,
which did great execution. Having gained the oppofite
bank, he advanced boldly into Affyria, the Parthians
flying everywhere before him, and made himfelf mafter
of Arbela. Thence he purfued his march ; fubduing,
with incredible rapidity, countries where the Roman
ftandard had never been before difplayed. Babylonia,
or the province of Babylon, voluntarily fubmitted to
him. The city itfelf was, after a vigorous refiftance,
laken by ftorm 5 by which means he became mafter of
[ 8 ]
PAR
all Chaldea and Affyria, the two richeft provinces of Parthia. .
the Parthian empire. From Babylon he marched to > '
Ctefiphon, the metropolis of the Parthian monarchy j
which he befieged, and at laft reduced. But as to the
particulars of thefe great conquefts, we are quite in the
dark j this expedition, however glorious to the Roman
name, being rather hinted at than defcribed, by the
writers of thofe times. While Trajan was thus making
war in the heart of the enemy’s country, Coldroes, hav¬
ing recruited his army, marched into Mefopotamia, with
a defign to recover that country, and cut off all commu¬
nication between the Roman army and Syria. On his
arrival in that province, the inhabitants flocked to him
from all parts ; and moft of the cities, driving out the
garrifons left by Trajan, opened their gates to him.
Hereupon the emperor detached Lucius and Maximus,
two of his chief commanders, into Melopotamia, to keep
fuch cities in awe as had not revolted, and to open a
communication with Syria. Maximus was met by Cof¬
droes j and having ventured a battle, his army was en¬
tirely defeated, and himfelf killed. But Lucius being
joined by Euricius and Clarius, two other commanders
fent by Trajan with freffi fupplies, gained confiderable
advantages over the enemy, and retook the cities of Ni-
fibis and Seleucia, which had revolted.
And now Trajan, feeing himfelf poffeffed of all the
beft and moft fruitful provinces of the Parthian empire,
but at the fame time being well apprifed that he could
not, without a vaft expence, maintain his conquefts, nor
keep in fubje&ion fo fierce and warlike a people at fuch
a diftance from Italy ; refolved to fet over them a king
of his own choofing, who ffiould hold the crown of him
and his fucceflbrs, and acknowledge them as his lords
and fovereigns. With this view he repaired to Ctefi¬
phon ; and having there affembled the chief men of the
nation, he crowned one of the royal family, by name 25
Parthanafpates, king of Parthia, obliging ali who were Partha-
prefent to pay him their allegiance. He chofe Partha-
nafpates, becaufe that prince had joined him at.his fij'ftkmgb/the
entering the Parthian dominions, conducted him with Roman em-
great fidelity, and ffiown on all occafions an extraordi-peror, but
nary attachment to the Romans. Thus the Parthians
were at laft fubdued, and their kingdom made tributary dnven ou ‘
to Rome. But they did not long continue in this ftate
of fubjeftion : for they no fooner heard of Trajan’s
death, which happened ffiortly after, than, taking up
arms, they drove Parthanafpates from the throne ; and
recalling "Cofdroes, who had retired into the country of
the Hyrcanians, openly revolted from Rome. Adrian,
who was then commander in chief of all the forces in the
eaft, and foon after acknowledged emperor by the army,
did not with, though he was at that time in Syria with a
very numerous army, to engage in a new war with the
Parthians •, but contented himfelf with preferving the
ancient limits of the empire, without any ambitious pro-
fpefts of further conquefts. Therefore, in the beginning
of his reign, he abandoned thofe provinces beyond the
Euphrates which Trajan had conquered ; withdrew the
Roman ganifons from Mefopotamia ; and, for the great¬
er fafety of other places, made the Euphrates the boun¬
dary of, and barrier in, thofe parts, polling his legions 26
along the banks of that river. Unfuccefs-
Cofdroes died after a long reign, and was fucceeded
by his eldeft fon Vologefes : in whofe reign the Alani W1q1qie
breaking into Media, then fubjcdl to the Parthians, Romans.
committed
PAR - [
PartRIa. committed tlicre great devaftations but were prevail-
ed upon, with rich prefents fent them by Vologefes,
to abandon that kingdom, and return home. Upon
their retreat, Vologefes, having no enemy to contend
with at home, fell unexpectedly upon Armenia ; fur-
prifed the legions there *, and having cut them all in
pieces to a man, entered Syria-, defeated with great
daughter Attilius Cornelianus, governor of that pro¬
vince and advanced without opposition to the neigh¬
bourhood of Antioch ; putting everywhere the Ho¬
mans, and thofe who favoured them, to the fvvord.
Hereupon the emperor Verus, by the advice of his
colleague Antoninus furnamed the Philofopher, leaving
Rome, haftened into Syria : and having driven the Par-
thians out of that province, ordered Statius Prifcus to
invade Armenia, and Caflius with Martins Verus to
enter the Parthian territories, and carry the war into the
enemy’s country. Prifcus made himfelf mailer of Ar-
taxata ; and in one campaign drove the Parthians, though
not without great lof> on his fide, quite out of Armenia.
Caflius, on the other hand, having in feveral encounters
defeated Vologefes, though he had an army of.400,000
men under his command, reduced, in four years time, all
thofe provinces which had formerly fubmitted to Trajan,
took Seleucia, burnt and plundered the famous cities of
Babylon and Ctefiphon, with the fiately palaces of the
Parthian monarchs, and (truck terror into the moft re¬
mote provinces of that great empire. On his return, he
loft above half the number of his forces by ficknefs and fa¬
mine-, •fothat, afterall,the Romans, asSpartianusobferves,
had no great reafon toboaft of their victories and conquefK
However, Verus, who had never Itirred during the
whole time of the war from Antioch and Daphne, took
upon him the lofty titles of Parthicm and Armenicus, as
if he had acquired them jufily in the midlt of his plea-
fures and debaucheries. After the revolt and death of
Cafiius, Antoninus the Philofopher repaired into Syria
to fettle the affairs of that province. On his arrival
there, he was met by ambaffadors from Vologefes ; who
having recovered moft of the provinces fubdued by Caf-
fius, and being unwilling either to part with them or
engage in a new war, folicited the emperor to confirm
him in the polteffion of them, promifing to hold them of
him, and to acknowledge the fovereignty of Rome. To
thefe terms Antoninus readily agreed, and a peace was
accordingly concluded between the two empires; which
Vologefes did not long enjoy, being foon after carried off
by a diftemper, and not murdered by his own fubjeCls,
as we read in Conftantinus Manaffes, who calls him Be-
legefes.
Upon his death, Vologefes III. the fon of his bro¬
ther Sanatruces, and grandfon of Cofdroes, was raifed
to the throne. He fided with Niger againlt the em¬
peror Severus : who thereupon having fettled matters
at home, marched with all his forces againft him ; and
advancing to the city of Ctefiphon, whither he had re¬
tired, laid clofe fiege to that metropolis. Vologefes
made a moft gallant defence : but the city, after a long
fiege, and much bloodfiied on both fides, was at length
taken bv aflault. The king’s treafures, with his wives
and children, fell into the emperor’s hands : but Volo¬
gefes himfelf had the good luck to make his efcape ;
which was a great difappointment to Severus. who im¬
mediately despatched an exprefs to acquaint the fenate
with the fiiccefs that had attended him in his expedition
Vol. XVI. Part I.
9 1
PAR
_a7
Ctefiphon
taken by
Severus.
againft the only nation that was then formidable to Parthia.
Rome. But he had no fooner croffed the Euphrates
than Vologefes recovered all the provinces except Me-
fopotamia, which he had reduced. Thefe expeditions
were chargeable to the Romans, and eoft them much
blood, without r< aping any advantages from them ; for
as they had not fufficient forces to keep in awe the pro¬
vinces they had fubdued, the inhabitants, greatly attach¬
ed to the family of Arfaces, never failed to return to
their ancient obedience as foon as the Roman armies
were withdrawn. Vologefes was foon after engaged
in a u'ar flill more troublefome and deflrutlive, with
his brother Artabanus, who, encouraged by fume of
the difcontented nobles, attempted to rob him of the
crown, and place it on his own head. Vologefes gained
feveral victories over his brother and rebellious fubjedds ;
but died before he couid re (tore the empire to its former
tranquillity.
Artabanus, who had a numerous a’-tny at his devo¬
tion, did not meet with any oppofition in feizing the
throne, vacant by the death of his brother, though
Tiridates had a better title to it, as being his elder
brother. He had fearce fettled the affairs of his king¬
dom, when the emperor Caracalla, ciefirous to figna-
lize himfelf as fome of his predeceffors had done,
by fome- memorable exploit againll the Parthians, fent
a folemn embaffy to him, defiring his daughter in
marriage. Artabanus, overjoyed at this propofa!,
whibh he thought ivould be attended with a lading
peace between the two empires, received the ambafi'a-
dors with all poffible marks of honour, and readily 2g
complied with their requeft. Soon after, Caracalla Infammis
fent a fecond embaliy to acquaint the king that he treachery
was coming to lolemnize the nuptials ; whereupon Ar-ot tlie etn~
tabanus went to meet him attended with the chief ofdtd’
the nobility and his bell troops, all unarmed, and in
moft pompous habits : but this peaceable train no fooner
approached the Roman army, than the foldiers, on a fig-
nal given them, falling upon the king’s retinue, made a
moft terrible flaughter of the unarmed multitude, Ar¬
tabanus himfelf efcaping with great difficulty. The
treacherous Caracalla, having gained by this exploit
great booty, and, as he thought, no lefs glory, wrote a
long and boafting letter to the fenate, afluming the title
of Parthicus for this piece of treachery ; as he had be¬
fore that of Germanicus, for murdering, in like manner,
fome of the German nobility.
Artabanus, refolving to make the Romans pay dear
for their inhuman and barbarous treachery, raifed the
moft numerous army that had ever been known in Par-
tliia, croffed the Euphrates, and entered Syria, put¬
ting all to fire and fword. But Caracalla being mur¬
dered before this invafion, Macrinus, who had fuc-
ceeded him, met the Parthians at the head of a mighty
army, compofed of many legions, and all the auxilia-
nes of the ftates of A.fia. J he two armies no fooner A. delperatc
came in fight of each other, but they engaged with battle be-
the utnioft fury. The battle continued two days;tween the
both Romans and Parthians fighting fo obitinately,
that night only parted them, without any apparent mam.
advantage on either fide ; though both retired when
night had put an end to the conteft, crying, Victory,
victory. The field of battle was covered all over with
dead bodies, there being already above 40,000 killt'd,
including both Romans and Parthians : neverthelefs
B Artabanus
throw the
Parthian
empire.
PAR [ io
P«rthia, Artabaftus 'was heard to fay, that ihe battle was only
Parti. begun, and that he would continue it till either the
' " v Parthians or Romans were all to a man cut in pieces.
But Macrinus, being well apprifed that the king came
highly enraged againft Caracalla in particular, and
dreading the confequences which -would attend the de-
ftru&ion of his army, lent a herald to Artabanus, ac¬
quainting him with the death of Caracalla, and propo-
fing an alliance between the two empires. I he king,
underftanding that his great enemy was dead, readily
embraced the propofals of peace and amity, upon con¬
dition that all the prifoners who had been taken by the
treachery of Caracaila fliould be immediately reftored,
and a large fum of money paid him to defray the ex-
pences of the war.
Thefe articles being performed without delay or he-
litation, Artabanus returned into Parthia, and Macri¬
nus to Antioch.
The^er- As Artabanus loft on this occafion the flower of
fians revolt his army, Artaxerxes, a Perfian of mean defcent, but
and over- Gf great courage and experience in war, revolting from
the Parthians, prevailed on his countrymen to join him,
and attempt the recovery of the fovereign power,
which he faid they had been unjuftly deprived of, firft
by the Macedonians, and afterwards by the Parthians,
their vaffals. Artabanus, upon the news of this revolt,
marched with the whole ftrength of his kingdom to
fupprefs it *, but being met by Artaxerxes at the head
of a no lefs powerful army, a bloody battle enfued,
which is faid to have lafted three days. At length
the Parthians, though they behaved with the utmoft
bravery, and fought like men in defpair, were forced
to yield to the Perfians, who were commanded by a
more experienced leader. Moft of their troops were
cut off in the flight; and the king himfelf wras taken
prifoner, and foon after put to death at Artaxerxes’s
order. The Parthians having loft in this fatal en¬
gagement both their king and their army, were forced
to fubmit to the conqueror, and become vaffals to a na¬
tion which had been fubjeft to them for the fpace of
475 years.
For an account of the manners, cuftoms, Stc. of the
ancient Parthians, fee the article Persia.
PARTI, Partie, Party, or Parted, in Heraldry,
is applied to a ftrield or efcutcheon, denoting it divided
or marked out into partitions.
PARTI per pale, is when the ftiield is divided perpen¬
dicularly into two halves, by a cut in the middle from
top to bottom.
PARTI per fefs, is when the cut is acrofs the middle
from fide to fide.
PARTI per bend dexter, is when the outcomes from
the upper corner of the ftiield on the right hand, and
defcends athwart to the oppofite lower corner.
PARTI per bend JiniJler, is when the cut, coming
from the upper left corner, defcends acrofs to the oppo¬
fite lower one.
All thefe partitions, according to M. de la Colom-
biere, have their origin in the cuts and bruifes that
have appeared on fliields after engagements •, and be¬
ing proofs of the dangers to which the, bearers had been
expofed, they gained them efteemj for which reafon
they were tranfmitted to pofterity, and became arms
and marks of honour to their future families.
] 'PAR
PARTIALITY. See SELF-partiality and Pre- Partiality
JUDICE- . Particle
PARTICIPLE, in Grammar, an adjeftive formed .
of a verb *, fo called becaufe it participates partly of the
properties of a noun, and partly of thofe of a verb. See
Grammar.
PARTICLE, in Phyfics, the minute part of a
body, an affemblage of which conftitutes all natural
bodies.
In the new philofophy, particle is often ufed in the
fame fenfe with atom in the ancient Epicurean philo¬
fophy, and corpufcle in the latter. Some writers,
however, diftinguilh them } making particle an affem¬
blage or compofition of two or more primitive and
phyfically indivifible corpufcles or atoms j and cor-
pulcle, or little body, an affemblage or mafs of feveral
particles or fecondary corpufcles. The diftin&ion,
how’ever, is of little moment; and, as to moft purpofes
of phyfics, particle may be underftood as fynonymous
with corpufcle. Particles are then the elements of
bodies: it is the various arrangement and texture of
thefe, with the difference of the cohefion, &c. that
conflitute the various kinds of bodies, hard, foft, li¬
quid, dry, heavy, light, &c. The fmalleft particles or
corpufcles cohere, with the ftrongeft attractions, and
always compofe larger particles of weaker cohefion j
and many of thefe cohering compofe larger particles,
whole vigour is ftill weaker j and fo on for divers fuc-
ceflions, till the progreftion end in the largeft par¬
ticles, on which the operations in chemiftry, and the
colours of natural bodies, depend, and which, by coher¬
ing, compofe bodies of fenfible bulks.
The cohefion of the particles of matter, according
to the Epicureans, was effefted by hooked atoms ; the
Ariftotelians thought it managed by reft, that is, by
nothing at all. But Sir Ifaac Newton ftiows it is by
means of a certain power whereby the particles mutual¬
ly attraft or tend toward each other, which is ftill per¬
haps giving a fa£I without a caufe. By this attraction
of the particles he (hows that moft of the phenomena of
the leffer bodies are effe&ed, as thofe of the heavenly
bodies are by the attraction of gravity. See Attrac¬
tion and Cohesion.
Particle, a term In Theology, ufed in the Latin
church for the crumbs or little pieces of confecrated
bread, called in the Greek church The Greeks
have a particular ceremony, called t&jv of the
particles, wherein certain crumbs of bread, not confe-
erated, are offered up in honour of the Virgin, St John
Baptift, and feveral other faints. They alfo give them
the name of oblatio. Gabriel archbilhop of-
Philadelphia wrote a little treatife exprefs ruv
wherein he endeavours to (how the antiquity
of this ceremony, in that it is mentioned in the litur¬
gies of St Chryfoftom and Bafil. There has been
much controverfy on this head between the reformed
and catholic divines. Aubertin and Blondel explain
a paffage in the theory of Germanus patriarch of Con-
ftantinople, where he mentions the ceremony of the
particles as in ufe in his time, in favour of the former ■,
Meflaeurs de Port Royal conteft the explanation ; but
M. Simon, in his notes on Gabriel, of Philadelphia,
endeavours to (how that the paffage itfelf is an inter¬
polation, not being found in the ancient copies of Ger-.
jnanus.
2
PAR [ n
Particle manus, and confequently that the difpute is very ill
II grounded. . .
Partner. Organic PARTICLES, are thofe tmall moving bodies
_ lh‘P~ , which are imperceptible without the help of glades•>
£or befides thofe animals which are perceptible to the
fight, fome naturalifts reckon this exceedingly fmall
fpecies as a feparate clafs, if not of animals properly
fo called, at lead of moving bodies, which are found
in the femen of animals, and which cannot be feen
without the help of the microfcope. In confequence
of thefe obfervations, different fyftems of generation
have been propofed concerning the fpermatic worms
of the male and the eggs of the female. In the fe-
cond volume of Buflfon’s Natural Hiftory, feveial ex¬
periments are related, tending to fhow that thofe mov¬
ing bodies which we difeover by the help of glades in
the male femen are not real animals, but organic, lively,
aftive, and indetlruflible molecules, which podefs the
property of becoming a new organized body dmilar to
that from which they were extra&ed. Budbn found
fuch bodies in the female as well as in the male Je-
xnen; and he fuppofes that the moving bodies which
he obferved with the microfcope in infudons of the
germs of plants are likewife vegetable organic molecules.
Needham, Wrifberg, Spalanzani, and feveral other wri¬
ters on the animal economy, have purfued the fame
track with M. de Buffon.
Some fuppofe that thefe organic molecules in the
femen anfwer no purpofe but to excite the venereal
tlefire: but fuch an opinion cannot be well founded ;
for eunuchs, who have no feminal liquor, are neverthe-
lefs fubjeft to venereal defire. With refpeft to the
beautiful experiments which have been made with the
microfcope on organic molecules, M. Bonnet, that
learned and excellent obferver of nature, remarks that
they feem to carry us to the fartheft verge of the fen-
fible creation, did not reafon teach us that the fmalleft
vidble globule of feminal liquor is the commencement
of another univerfe, which, from its infinite fmallnefs,
is beyond the reach of our beft microfcopes.—Animal¬
cules, properly fo called, mult not be confounded with
the wonderful organic particles of Budbn. See Ani¬
malcule.
Particle, in Grammar, a denomination for all thofe
fmall words that tie or unite others, or that exprefs the
modes or manners of words. See Grammar.
PARTING, in Chemiftry and Metallurgy, an opera¬
tion by which gold and filver are feparated from each
other. See Chemistry, and ORES, Reduction of.
PARTISAN, in the art of war, a perfon dexterous
in commanding a party •, who, knowing tjie country
well, is employed in getting intelligence, or furprif-
ing the enemy’s convoys, &c. The word alfo means
an officer fent out upon a party, with the command of
a body of light troops, generally under the appellation
of the partifan’s corps. It is alfo neceffary that this
corps fhould be compofed of infantry, light horfe, and
huffars. . '
PARTNERSHIP, is a contraft among two or more
perfons, to carry on a certain bufinefs, at their joint ex¬
pence, and ffiare the gain or lofs which arifes from it.
Of this there are four kinds.
I. Occafional joint trade, where two or more mer¬
chants agree to employ a certain fum in trade, and
divide the gain or lofs fo foon as the adventure is
: ] P A 11
brought to an idue. This kind of contraft being ge- Pa^’‘,er'
nerally private, the parties concerned are not liable for n'iJ"
each other. If one of them purchafe goods on trull,
the furnifher, who grants the credit through confidence
in him alone, has no recourfe, in cafe of his infolvency,
again ft the other partners. They are only anfwerable
for the ffiare of the adventure that belongs to the infol-
vent partner.
If it be propofed to carry the adventure farther
than originally agreed on, any partner may withdraw
his intereft ; and if it cannot be feparated from the
others, may infill that the whole ffiall be brought to an
iffue.
II. Standing companies, which are generally efta-
bliffied by written contrail between the parties, where
the ftock, the firm, duration, the divifion of the gain
or lofs, and other circumftances, are’ inferted.
All the partners are generally authorized to fign by
the firm of the company, though this privilege may
be confined to fome of them by particular agreement.
The firm ought only to be fubferibed at the place
where the copartnery is eftabliffied. If a partner has
occafion, when abfent, to write a letter relating to
their affairs, he fubferibes his own name on account of
the company. When the fame partners carry on bu¬
finefs at different places, they generally choofe differ¬
ent firms for each. The fignalure of each partner is
generally fent to new correfpondents j and when a
partner is admitted, although there be no alteration in
the firm, his fignature is tranfmitted, with an intima¬
tion of the change in the copartnery to all their corre¬
fpondents. Houfes that have been long eftablilhed,
often retain the old firm, though all the original part¬
ners be dead or withdrawn.
The powers of each partner are, in general, dif*
cretionary ; but they ought not to a£t, in matters of
importance, without confalting together, when there
is an opportunity. No partner is liable to make good
the lofs arifing from his judging wrong in a cafe where
he had authority to a<5l. If he exceeds his power,
and the event prove unfuccefsful, he mull bear the lofs",
but if it prove fuccefsful, the gain belongs to the com¬
pany : yet if he acquaints the company immediately
of what he has done, they mull either acquiefce there¬
in, or leave him the chance of gain, as well as the rilk
of lofs.
All debts contrafted under the firm of the company
are binding on the whole partners, though the money
was borrowed by one of them for his private ufe, with¬
out the confent of the reft. And if a partner exceeds
his power, the others are neverthelefs obliged to imple¬
ment his engagements ; though they may render him
refponfible for his miffiehaviour.
Although the fums to be advanced by the partners be
limited by the contrafl, if there be a neceffity for raifing
more money to anfwer emergencies or pay the debts of
the company, the partners muff furnifti what is neceffary,
in proportion to their ffiares.
A debt to a company is not cancelled by the private
debts of the partner: and wffien a partner becomes infol-
vent, the company is not bound for his debts beyond the
extent of his ffiare.
The debts of the company are preferable, on the
company’s effefts, to theN private debts of the partners.
Partnerffiip is generally diffolved by the death of a
B 2 partner 5
FAB [ 12 ] PAR
Partner- partner ; yet, when there are more partners than two,
■ A'P- ^ may, by agreement, fubfitt among the furvivors.
Sometimes it is ftipulated, that, in cafe of the death of a
partner, his place {hall be fupplied by his fon, or feme
other perfon condefcended on. The contract ought to
fpecify the time and manner in which the furviving
partners fhall reckon with the executors of the deceafed
for his {hare of the flock,^and a reafonable time allowed
for that purpofe.
When partnerftiip is diflblved, there are often out-
ftanding debts that cannot be recovered for a long time,
and effedls that cannot eafily be difpofed of. The part-
nerfhip, though diffolved in other refpefts, Hill fubfifts
for the management of their outftanding affairs : and
the money ariiing from them is divided amongvthe part¬
ners, or their reprefentatives, when it is recovered. But
as this may protradl the final fettlement of the com¬
pany’s affairs to a very inconvenient length, other me¬
thods are fometimes ufed to bring them to a conclufion,
either in confequence of the original contract, or by
agreement at the time of diffolution Sometimes the
debts and e{fe£ts are fold by auftion ; fometimes they
are divided among the partners •, and when there are
two partners, one divides them into lhares, as equal as
pofiible, and the other cboofes either {hare he thinks beil.
If a partner Avithdraws, he continues refponfible for
his former partners till it be publicly known that he
hath done fo. A deed of feparation, regiftered at
a public office, is fufficient prefumption of fuch noto¬
riety.
III. Companies, Avhere the bufinefs is conduced by
officers. There are many companies of this kind in
Britain, chiefly eftablifhed for purpofes which require
a larger capital than private merchants can command.
The laws with refpeft to thefe companies, Avhen not
confirmed by public authority, are the fame as the
former, but the articles of their agreement ufually
very different. The capital is condefcended on ; and
divided into a certain number of {hares, Avhereof each
partner may hold one or more, but is generally reftric-
ted to a certain number. Any partner may transfer
his {hare j and the company muff admit his affignee as
a partner. The deatli of the partners has no effedl on
the company. No partner can aft perfonally in the
affairs of the company: but the execution of their bu¬
finefs is intrufted to officers, for whom they are refpon¬
fible •, and, Avhen the partners are numerous, the fu-
perintendency of the officers is committed to direftors
chofen annually, or at other appointed times, by the
partners.
IV. Companies incorporated by authority. A royal
charter is neceffary to enable a company to hold lands,
to have a common feal, and enjoy the other privileges
of a corporation. A charter is fometimes procured,
in order to limit the rilk of the partners : for, in every
private company, the partners are liable for the debts,
without limitation *, in corporated focieties, they are on¬
ly liable for their {hares in the flock of the fociety. The
incorporation of focieties is fometimes authorized by aft
of parliament: but this high authority is not neceffary,
unlefs for conferring exclufive privileges.
Moral and PaleV ^ays» “ I know of nothing upon the fub-
PoUtical jeft of partnerffiip that requires explanation, but how
Phiiofophy. the profits are to be divided where one partner contri¬
butes money and the other labour, which is a common Partner-
cafe. flrip,
“ Ru/e. From the flock of the partnerflrip deduft ^artr^ge*
the fum advanced, and divide the remainder between "v""
the moneyed partner and the labouring partner, in the
proportion of the interefl of the money to the Avages
of the labour, alloAving fuch a rate of interefl: as money
might be borrowed for upon the fame fecurity, and fuch
Avages as a journeyman Avould require for the fame la¬
bour and truft.
“ Example. A advances loool. but knoAvs nothing
of the bulinefs •, B produces no money, but has been
brought up to the bufinefs, and undertakes to conduft
it. At the end of the year the flock and effefts of
the partnerffiip amount to 1200I. confequently there
are 200I. to be divided. Noav nobody A\Tould lend
money, upon the event of the bufinefs fucceeding,
which is A’s fecurity, under 6 per cent, therefore A
muft be allowed 60I. for the interefl: of his money. B,
before he engaged in the paftnerfliip, earned 30I.
a-year in the fame employment : his labour, therefore,
ought to be valued at 30I. and the 200I. muft be di¬
vided between the partners in the proportion of 60 to
30} that is, A muft receive 133I. 6s. 8d. and B 661.
13s. 4d. If there be nothing gained, A lofes his in-
tereft, and B his labour, which is right. If the origi¬
nal flock be diminiffied, by this rule B lofes only his
labour as before ; Avhereas A lofes his intereft and part
of the principal 5 for Avhich eventual difadvantage A
is compenfated, by having the intereft of his money
computed at 6 per cent, in the divifion of the profits
Avhen there is any. It is true, that the divifion of the
profit is feldom forgotten in the conftitution of the
partnerffiip ; and is therefore commonly fettled by ex-
prefs agreement j but thefe agreements, to be equitable,
ffiould purfue the principle of the rule here laid doAvn.
All the partners are bound by what any one of them
does in the courfe of the bufinefs •, for quoad hoc, each
partner is confidered as an authorized agent for the
reft.”
PARTRIDGE, a fpecies of bird. See Tetrad,
Ornithology Index.
The partridge, is fo valuable at the table, that a
great many Avays of taking it have been invented by
fportfmen, all of which fucceed from the natural folly
and timidity of the animal.
The places partridges delight in moft are corn fields,
efpecially Avhilft the corn groAvs, for under that cover
they Ihelter and breed : neither are thofe places unfre¬
quented by them Avhen the corn is cut doAvn, by rea-
fon of the grain they find there, efpecially in wheat
ftubble, the height of Avhich they delight in, being to
them as a covert or ffielter. When the wheat ftubble
is much trodden by men or beafts, they then betake
themfelves to the barley ftubble, provided it be frefli
and untrodden ; and they Avill, in the furrows, amongft
the clots, branches, and long grafs, hide both them¬
felves and coveys, Avhieh are fometimes 20 in number,
nay 30, in a covey.
When the winter feafon is arrived, and the ftubble
fields are ploughed up, or over-foiled Avith cattle, par¬
tridges refort into the upland meadows, and lodge in
the dead grafs, or fog, under hedges, amongft mole
hiles, or under the roots of trees 3 fometimes they refort
to
PAR [i
Partridge, to coppices and underwoods, efpeciaily if any corn fields
’"Y’"—' are adjacent, or where there is grown broom, brakes,
fern, &c.
In the harveft time, when every field is full of men
and cattle, in the day time they are found in the fallow
fields which are next adjoining to the corn fields, where
they lie lurking till evening or morning, and then they
feed among the (heaves of corn.
When their haunts are known, according to the fitua-
tion of the country and feafon of the year, the next
care muft be to find them out in their haunts, which is
done feveral ways. Some do it by the eye only ; and
this art can never be taught, but learned by frequent
experience, the colour of the birds being fo like that of
the earth at a diflance, that no eye but a very conver-
fant one could diftinguilli them. When they are once
feen, the bufinefs is to keep the eye upon them, and
then to keep in continual motion. They are a very
lazy bird, and by this means will let a perfon almoft
tread upon them •, though if the perfon (lands dill to
eye them, they will rife immediately though they be
at a confiderable diliance.
Another method of difcovering them is, by going
to their haunts very early in the morning, or at the
clofe of the evening, which is called the jucking time.
The noife of the cock partridge is to be attended to
at this time, and is very loud and earned. The hen
will foon come up to the cock after her making the
noife, which (Ire does by way of anfwer •, and when
they are got together, their chattering will difcover
them. Thus they may always be found at thefe times.
But there is yet a better method of finding this bird,
which is by the ca//. The bufinefs, in order to have
fuccefs in this wray, is carefully to learn the notes of
the partridge, and be able to imitate all the feveral
founds. When perfeiT in this, the perfon is to go to
the haunts morning and evening, and placing himfelf
in fome place where he can fee the birds without being
feen by them, he is to liden to their calling •, and when
they are heard, he is to anfwer in the fame notes,
doubling again as they do : by continuing this, they
may be brought fo near, that the perfon lying down
on his back may count their whole number. Having
in this manner found where the birds are, the next care
is to catch them.
They are fo foolifh, that it is extremely eafy to take
them in nets. In order to this, there needs no more
that the going out, provided with two or three nets,
with mefhes fomewhat fmaller than thofe of the phea-
fant nets, and walking round about the covey, a net
is to be fixed fo as to draw over them, on pulling a
line at a didance. All this may be eafily done $ for
fo long as the fportfman continues moving about, and
does not fix his eye too intenfely upon them, they will
let him come near enough to fix the net without mov-
'ing. If they lie fo draggling, that one net will not
cover them, then two or three mud be fixed in the fame
manner. The fportfman may then draw the nets over
them, and they will often lie dill with the nets upon
them till he comes up to fright them j then they will
rife, and be entangled in the net.
A fecond method of taking them is with bird lime:
this is done by means of wheat draws. Thefe mud
be large, and cut off between knot and knot ; they
mud be well limed with the bed and dronged bird
3 ] PAR
lime, and the fpcrtfman mud carry a great number out Partridge,
with him. Having found a field where there are par- ■ —
tridges, he is to call ; and if they anfwer, he is then
to (tick up the limed draws in rows acrofs two or three
lands, and going backward, call again to them, lead¬
ing them on in the road w’here the draws are : they will
follow one another like a dock of chickens, and come
out to the call ; and will in their way run upon the
draws, and liming themfelves they will daub one ano¬
ther by crowding together, fo that very few of them
will be able to efcape.
But there is yet a pleafanter way of taking them
than this, that is, by driving of them. In order to this,
an engine is to be made of canvafs duffed with draw,
to reprefent a horfe j this horfe and nets are to be taken
to the haunts of the partridges, and the nets being
placed danting or flopwife in the lower part of the field,
the fportfman is to take the wind in his back and get
above them, driving them downwards 5 his face is to
be covered with fomething green or blue, and placing
the horfe before him, he is to go towards them dowly
and gently $ and by this means they will be raided on
their legs, but not on their wings, and wdll run before
the horfe into the nets. If in the way they go into a
wrong path, the horfe is to be moved to face them :
and they will be thus driven back again, and driven
every way the fportfman pleafes.
The partridges of Abydinia, w7e are told, are very
large, being as big as capons.
In Jeremiah xvii. xi. we have the following curious
padage : “ As the partridge (itteth on eggs, and hatch-
eth them not •, fo he that getteth riches, and not by
right, dvall leave them in the midfl: of his days, and at
his end diall be a fool }” which is explained by Mr Poole
as follows : It is no wonder if we cannot be certain
as to the fenfe of thefe words, fo far as they concern
natural hiftory, when we are not certain what bird it
is to which this doth relate. We trandate it partridge :
others will have it to be a cuckoo; but certain it is,
that it is the fame word which we trznfate partridge,
(1 Sam. xxvi. 20.) j and cuckoos ufe not to be much
hunted after. How' the partridge is faid to fit on eggs
and hatch them not, is yet a greater queftion. It may
be occafioned fo many w'ays, viz. either fitting upon
wind eggs ; or being killed before the eggs are hatch¬
ed ; or having its eggs deftroyed by the male partridge,
or by fome dog or other vermine *, or, its ned being
found, having her eggs taken from her, that it is hard
to determine which the prophet means. Of all others,
I lead approve of that which Jerome makes the fenfe,
though the thing be true (if we may believe Cadiodo-
rus and feveral natural hidorians, Aldrovandus, &c.),
that partridges have fuch a love and defire to hatch
young ones, that having lod their own eggs, they will
deal the eggs of other partridges, and hatch them ;
which being hatched, the young ones knowing the cry
of their proper dams, hearing them call, leave the par¬
tridge that hatched them (which is one thingL^uoted
by Aldrovandus, to (how the fagacity of that bird) ; but
if this were the fenfe, the words would be, ‘ as the par¬
tridge fitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them, but enjoyeth
them notwhereas they are, ‘ hatcheth them not
that is, having lod them, either by fome man that hath
taken them from her, or by fome vermin or wild bead.”
Poole's Ar.not. in Loc.
m
Partridge
II
Pafcal.
PAS [14
The words In the original are, iV xbl in, which
the Septuagint tranflate e^aim &c. “ 1 he par¬
tridge cried j it gathered together what it had not pro¬
duced and fome tranflate the Hebrew, “ The par¬
tridge lays many eggs, but does not hatch them all.
Le Clerc, upon the authority of Bocchart, underftands
the Hebrew word kore here to fignify a woodcock. Le
Clerc’s tranflation is as follows : Rijitcuia ova colligit^
fed non park ; facit fbi divitias, fed fine jure, medihfuis
diebus eas relinquit, atque ad extremum fulta ef.
PARTURITION, the a& of bringing forth or be¬
ing delivered of young. See Midwifery.
PARTY, in a military fenfe, a fmall number of men,
horfe or foot, fent upon any kind of duty j as into an
enemy’s country to pillage, to take prifoners, and to
oblige the country to come under contribution. Parties
are often fent out to view the roads and ways, get in¬
telligence, feek forage ; to reconnoitre, or amufe the
enemy upon a march : they are alfo frequently fent up¬
on the flanks of an army or regiment, to difeover tne
enemy if near, and prevent furprife or ambufeade.
PARVICH, an ifland near Dalmatia, and one. of
the bell peopled and moft confiderable of thofe which
are under the ^urifdiftion of Sibenico. It contains a
great number of filhermen, and a confiderable number
of perfons employed in agriculture. It contains many
Roman antiquities, which evidently fliow that it was a
Roman ftation. It feems to be among the number of
"“thofe iflands which Pliny calls Celaduffae, which is fup-
pofed to be an inverfion of which means ill
founding or noify. Parvich is not of large extent, but
it is extremely fertile. Every produft fucceeds in per-
fe6tion there : we mean thofe products of which a very
(hallow ground is fufeeptible } fuch as wine, oil,, mul¬
berry-trees, and fruit. Lhe afpeft of this ifland is alfo
very pleafant at a diftance, whereas that of the others
adjacent difgufts the eye, by their too high, rocky, and
bare hills. The name of Parvich feems to have been
given it becaufe it is the firft one meets with on going
out of the harbour of Sibenico } for the Ulyric word
oornf fignifiesyfry?.
PARULIDES, in Surgery, tumors and inflamma¬
tions of the gums, commonly called gum-boils. They
are to be treated with difeutients like other inflammatory
tumors.
PARUS, or Titmouse, a genus of birds belonging
to the order of pafferes. See Ornithology Index.
PASCAL, Blaise, one of the greatefl; geniufes
and bed writers France has produced, was born at
Clermont in Auvergne, in the year 1623. His. father,
Stephen Pafcal, born in 1588, and of an ancient fa¬
mily, was prefident of the court of aids in his province :
he was a very learned man, an able mathematician, and
a friend of Defeartes. Having an extraordinary tender-
nefs for this child, his only fon, he quitted his office
in his province, and went and fettled at Paris in 1631,
that he might be quite at leifure for the inftruftion of
him • and BlaTe never had any mafter but his father.
From his infancy he gave proofs of a very extraordi¬
nary capacity : for he defired to know the reafon of
ev .rv thing : and when good reafons were not given
him. he would feek for better ; nor would he ever yield
his affint but upon fuch as appeared to him rvell ground¬
ed. There v as room to fear, that with fuch a call of
mind he would fall into free thinking, or at leail into
1
PAS
heterodoxy ; yet he was always very far from any thing
of this nature.
What is told of his manner of learning the mathe¬
matics, as well as the progrefs he quickly made in that
feience, feems almofl. miraculous. His father, percei¬
ving in him an extraordinary inclination to reafoning,
was afraid left the knowledge of the mathematics
would hinder his learning the languages. He kept
him therefore as much as he -could from all notions of
geometry, locked up all his books of that kind, and
refrained even from fpeaking of it in his prefence. He
could not, however, make his fon refrain from mufing -
upon proportions •, and one day furprifed him at wmrk
with charcoal upon his chamber-floor, and in the midft
of figures. He afleed him what he was doing ? I am
fearching, fays Pafcal, for fuch a thing ; which was
juft the' 3 2d propofition of the firft book of Euclid.
He a Iked him then how he came to 'think of this ?
It was, fays Pafeal, becaufe I have found out fuch
another thing : and fo going backward, and ufing the
names of bar and round, he came at length to the de¬
finitions and axioms he had formed to himfclf. Does
it not feem miraculous that a boy fliould work his way
into the heart of a mathematical book, without ever
having feen that or any other book upon the fubje6h,
or knowing any thing of the terms ? Yet we are af-
fured of the truth of this by Madame Perrier, and feve-
ral other writers, the credit of whofe teftimony can¬
not reafonably be queftioned. He had, from hence¬
forward, full liberty to indulge his genius in mathe¬
matical purfuits. He underftood Euclid’s Elements
as foon as he caft his eyes upon them '. and this was
not ftrange •, for, as we have feen, he underftood them
before. At 16 years of age he wrote a treatife of co¬
nic fe&ions, which was accounted by the moft learned
a mighty effort of genius ; and therefore it is no won¬
der that Defcartes, who had been in Holland a long
time, fhould, upon reading it, choofe to believe that
Mr Pafcal the father was the real author ef it. At
19, he contrived an admirable arithmetical machine,
which was efteemed a very wonderful thing, and would
have done credit as an invention to any man verfed in
feience, and much more to fuch a youth.—About this
time his health became impaired, and he was in confe-
quence obliged to fufpend his labours ; nor was he in a
condition to refume them till four years after. About
that period, having feen Torricelli’s experiment re-
fpefting a vacuum and the weight of the air, he turned
his thoughts towards theft: objefts •, and in a conference
with Mr Petit, intendant of fortifications, propofed to
make farther refearches. In conftquence of this idea,
he undertook feveral new experiments, one of which w.as
as follows :—Having provided a glafs tube, 46 feet in
length, open at one. end, and fealed hermetically at
the other, he filled it with red wine, that he might di-
ftinguilh the liquor from the tube. He then elevated
it in this condition ; and having placed it perpendicu¬
larly to the horizon, flopped up the bottom, and plun¬
ged it into a veil'd full of water, to the depth of a foot;
after which he opened the extremity of the tube, and
the wine defeended to the diflance of about 32 feet from
the furface of the veffel, leaving a confiderable vacuum
at the upper extremity. He next inclined the tube,
and remarked that the wine rofe higher : and having
inclined it till the top was within 32 feet of the
ground*
Pafcat.
Pafbal.
PAS
ground, making the wine thus run out, he found that
the water rofe in it, fo that it was partly filled with
that fluid, and partly with wine. He made alfo a great
many experiments with fiphons, fyringes, bellows, and
all kinds of tubes, making ufe of different liquors, fuch
as quickfilver, water, wine, oil, &.c.; and having pub-
liflied them in 1647, difperfed his work throughout all
France, and tranfmitted it alfo to foreign countries. All
thefe experiments, however, afcertained effe&s, without
demonftrating the caufes. Pafcal knew that Torricelli
conjectured that thofe phenomena which he had obfer-
ved were occafioned by the weight of the air (a) j and,
in order to difcover the truth of this theory, he made an
experiment at the top and bottom of a mountain in Au¬
vergne, called Le Pmj de Dome, the refult of which
gave him reafon to conclude that air was weighty. Of
this experiment he publifhed an account, and fent copies
of it to moft of the learned men in Europe. He like-
wife renewed it at the top of feveral high towers, fuch
as thofe of Notre Dame at Paris, St Jacques de la
Boucherie, &c. ; and always remarked the fame differ¬
ence in the weight of the air, at different elevations.
This fully convinced him of the weight of the atmo-
fphere •, and from this difcovery he drew many ufeful
and important inferences. He compofed alfo a large
treatife, in which he thoroughly explained this fubjeCf,
and replied to all the objeClions that had been ftarted
againft it. As he thought this work rather too prolix,
and as he was fond of brevity and precifion, he divided
it into two fmall treatifes, one of which he entitled, A
Differtation on the Equilibrium of Liquors; and the
other. An Eflay on the Weight of the Atmofphere.
Thefe labours procured Pafcal fo much reputation, that
the greateft mathematicians and philofophe'rs of the age
q>ropofed various queftions to him, and confulted him
refge&ing fuch difficulties as they could not folve.—
Some years after, while tormented with a violent fit
of the toothache, he difcovered the folution of a pro¬
blem propofed by Father Merfenne, which had baffled
the penetration of all thofe who had attempted it.
This problem was to determine the curve defcribed in
the air by the nail of a coach-wheel, while the machine
is in motion. Pafcal offered a reward of 40 piftoles to
any one who fflould give a fatisfa&ory anfwer to it.
No one, however, having fucceeded, he publifhed his
own at Paris 5 but as he began now to be difgufted with
PAS
the fciences, he would not put his real name to It, but
fent it abroad under that of A. d’Ettenville.— 1 his
was the laft work which he publifhed in the mathema¬
tics j his infirmities now increafing fo much, that he
was under the neceffity of renouncing fevere ftudy, and
of living fo reclufe, that he fcarcely admitted any perion
to fee him.
After he had thus laboured abundantly in mathema¬
tical and philofophical difquifitions, he forfook there
{Indies and all human learning at once $ and determi¬
ned to know nothing, as it were, for the future, but
Jefus Chrift and him crucified. He was not 24 yeatp
of age, when the reading fome pious books had put
him upon taking this holy refolution •, and he became
as great a devotee as any age has produced. Mr Paf¬
cal now gave himfelf up entirely to a ftate of prayer
and mortification. He had always in his thoughts thefe
great maxims, of renouncing all pleafure and all fuper-
fluity •, and this he praftifed with rigour even in his
illneffes, to which he was frequently fubjedl, being of
a very invalid habit of body : for inftance, when his
ficknefs obliged him to feed fome what delicately, he
took great care not to relifh or tafle what he ate. He
had no violent affe&ion for thofe he loved j he thought
it finful, fince a man poffeffes a heart which belongs on¬
ly to God. He found fault with fome difcourfes.of his
lifter, which fhe thought very innocent ; as if fhe had
faid upon occafion, that (he had feen a beautiful w'oman,
he would be angry, and tell her, that fhe might raife bad
thoughts in footmen and young people. He frequent¬
ly wore an iron girdle full of points next to his fkin ;
and when any vain thought came into his head, or when
he took particular pleafure in any thing, he gave himfelf
fome blows with his elbow, to redouble the prickings,
and to recal himfelf to his duty.
Though Mr Pafcal had thus abftra&ed himfelf from
the world, yet life could not forbear paying fome at¬
tention to what was doing in it 5 and he even intereft-
ed himfelf in the conteft between the Jefuits and the
Janfenifts. The Jefuits, though they had the popes
and kings on their fide, were yet decried by the peo¬
ple, who brought up afrefti againft them the affaflina-
tion of Henry the Great, and all the old ftories that
were likely to make them odious. Pafeal went far¬
ther *, and by his Lettres Provinciales (b), publifhed in
1656, under the name of Louis de made them
the
[ 15 1
Pafcal.
(a) Before this period, all thofe effefts which are now known to be produced by the weight of the atmofphere
"were attributed to Nature’s abhorrence of a vacuum.
(b) The origin of thefe letters was this : for the fake of unbending his mind, Pafcal ufcd often to go to
Port Royal des Champs, where one of his lifters had taken the veil, and where he had an opportunity of feeing
the celebrated Mr Arnaud, and feveral of his friends. This gentleman’s difpute with the doctors of the Sorbonne,
who were endeavouring to condemn his opinions, was of courfe frequently brought upon the carpet. Mr
Arnaud, folicited to write a defence, had compofed a treatife, which, however, did not meet with approbation,
and which he himfelf confidered as a very indifferent work. Pafcal being one day in Qompany, fome of thofe
prefent, who were fenfible of his abilities, having faid to him, “ You who are a young man ought to do fome-
thing he took the hint, and compofed a letter, which he fhowed to his friends, and which wras fo much ad¬
mired, that they infifted on its being printed. The objedl of this letter is an explanation of the terms, next
poxvcr,fufficient grace, and aSiualgrace ; and the author here fhows, as well as in two others winch followed it,
that a regard for the faith was not the motive which induced the doftors of the Sorbonne to enter into difpute
with Mr Arnaud, but a defire of oppreffing him by ridiculous queftions. Pafcal, therefore, in other letters
which he publifhed afterwards, attacks the Jefuits, whom he believed to be the authors of this quarrel, and in the
$goft elegant ftyle, feafoned with wit and fat ire, endeavours to render them not only odious but ridiculous. For
PAS [ i
Pafc'al. tlie fubjefl of ridicule. “ Thefc letters (lays VTol-
taire) may be conlidered as a model of eloquence and
humour. The bell comedies of Moliere have not more
wit than the firtl part of thefe letters ; and the fublimi-
ty of the latter part of them is equal to any thing in
JBoffuet. It is true, indeed, that the whole book was
built upon a falfe foundation ; for the extravagant no¬
tions of a few Spanifti and Flemilh Jefuits were art¬
fully afcribed to the whole foeiety. Many abfurdities
might likewife have been difcovered among the Domini¬
can and Francifcan eafuifts ; but this would not have
anfwered the purpofe ; for the whole raillery was to be
levelled only at the Jefuits. Thefe letters were intend¬
ed to prove, that the Jefuits had formed a delign to cor¬
rupt mankind ; a defign which no feci or fociety ever
had, or can have.” Voltaire calls Pafcal the firft of
their fatirills ; for Defpreaux, fays he, mull be confider-
ed as only the fecond. In another place, fpeaking of
this work of Pafcal, he fays, that “ examples of all the
various fpecies of eloquence are to be found in it.
Though it has been now written almort 100 years, yet
not a tingle word occurs in it, favouring of that vicif-
fitude to which living languages are fo fubjedl. Here
then we are to fix the epocha when our language may
be faid to have affumed a fettled form. The bifhop of
Lucon, fon of the celebrated Buffy, told me, that atking
one day the bithop of Meaux what work he would covet
moft to be the author of, fuppofing his own perform¬
ances fetafide, Boffuet replied. The Provincial Letters/’
Thefe letters have been tranflated into all languages, and
printed over and over again. Some have faid, that
there were decrees of formal condemnation againft
them ; and alfo that Pafcal himfelf, in his lad illnefs,
detefted them, and repented of having been a Janftnift :
but both thefe particulars are falfe and without founda¬
tion. Father Daniel was fuppofed to be the anonymous
author of a piece againft them, entitled, The Dialogues
•f Cleander and Eudoxus.
Pafcal was only about the age of 30 when thefe let¬
ters were published, yet he was extremely infirm, and
his diforders increafing foon after, fo much that he con¬
ceived his end faft approaching, he gave up all farther
-thoughts of literary compofition. He refolved to fpend
the remainder of his davs in retirement and pious medi-
,tation j and with this view he broke off all his former
<5 ] PAS
conneClion, changed his habitation, and fpoke to no
one, not even to his own domeftics. He made his own
bed, fetched his dinner from the kichen, carried it to
his apartment, and brought back the plates and difh.es
in the evening •, fo that he employed his fervants only
to cook for him, to go to town, and to do fuch other
things as he could not abfolutely do himfelf. In his
chamber nothing was to be feen but two or three chairs,
a table, a bed, and a few books. It had no kind of or¬
nament whatever ; he had neither a carpet on the floor
nor curtains to his bed ; but this did not prevent him
from fometimes receiving viiits ; and when his friends
appeared furprifed to fee him thus without furniture, he
replied, that he had what was neeeffary, and that any¬
thing elfe would be a fuperfiuity, unworthy of a wife
man. He employed his time in prayer, and in reading
the Holy Scriptures ; and he wrote down fuch thoughts
as this exercife infpired. Though his continual infirmi¬
ties obliged him to ufe very delicate food, and though
his fervants employed the utmoft care to provide only
what was excellent, he never relifhed what he ate, and
feemed quite indifferent whether what they brought him
was good or bad. When any thing new and in feafon
was prefented to him, and when he was afked, after he
had finifhed his repaft, how he liked it, he replied,
“ You ought to have informed me before hand, I ftiould
have then taken notice of it.” His indifference in this
Pafcal.
refpeCl was fo great, that though his tafte was not viti¬
ated, he forbade any fauce or ragout to be made for him
which might excite his appetite. He took without the
leaf! repugnance all the medicines that were preferibed
him for the re-eftablifhment of his health ; and when
Madame Perrier, his fifter, feemed aftonifhed at it, he
replied ironically, that he could not comprehend how
people could ever fhew a diflike to a medicine, after be¬
ing apprifed that it was a difagreeable one, when they
took it voluntarily *, for violence or furprife ought only
to produce that effebf.
Though Pafcal had now given up intenfe ftudy, and
though he lived in the moll temperate manner, his health
continued to decline rapidly and his diforders had fo
enfeebled his organs, that his reafon became in fome
meafure affe&ed. He always imagined that he faw a
deen abyfs on his left fide, and he never would fit down
till a chair was placed there, to fecure him from the
danger
this purpofe he employs the form of dialogue, and introduces an ignorant perfon, as men of the world generally
are, who requefts information refpefling the queftions in difpute from thefe doflors, whom he confults by pro-
pofing his doubts $ and his anfwers to their replies are fo perfpicuous, pertinent, and juft, that the fubjefl is illu-
flrated in the clearell manner poflible. He afterwards expofes the morality of the Jefuits, in fome converfations
between him and one of their cafuifls, in which he flill reprefents a man of the world, who feeks for inftruflion,
and who, hearing maxims altogether new to him, teems aftonifhed, but ftill liflens with moderation. I he
eafuift believes that he is fincere, and relifhes thefe maxims; and under this perfuafion he difeovers every thing
to him with the greateft readinefs. The ether is ftill furprifed } and as his inllruflor attributes this furprife
only to the novelty of his maxims, he ftill continues to explain himfelf with the fame confidence and free¬
dom. This inftruflor is a fimple kind of man. who is not overburdened with acutenefs, and who infenfibly
engages himfelf in details which always becoroc mere particular. The perfon who liftens, wifhing neither to con-
tradifl him.nor to fubferibe to his doclrine, receives it with an ambiguous kind of raillery j which, however,
fufficiently fhow<- what opinion he entertain® of it. The Jefuits reproached the author with having employed only
raillery againft them, and with having mifreprefented feveral paffages of their authors } which induced Pafcal to
write eight more in vindication of himfelf. All thefe letters, in number 18, written in a ftyle altogether new
in France, appeared in 410, one after another, from the month of January 1636, to the month of March of the
year following.
pas r
danger 'which he apprehended. His friends did every
thing in their power to banifh this melancholy idea from
his thoughts, and to cure him of his error, but without
the delired effeft: for though he would become calm
and compofed for a little, the phantom would in a few
moments again make its appearance and torment him.
The caufe of his feeing this lingular vifion for the firlt
time, is faid to have been as follows : His phyficians,
alarmed on account of the exhaufted Hate to which he
was reduced, had advifed him to fubllitute eafv and
agreeable exercife for the fatiguing labours of the clofet.
One day, in the month of Oftober 1654, having gone
according to cuftom to take an airing on the Pont de
Neuilly, in a coach and four, the two firft horfes fud-
denly took fright, oppofite to a place where there was
no parapet, and threw themfelves violently into the
Seine ; but the traces luckily giving way, the carriage
remained on the brink of the precipice. The Ihock
which Pafcal, in his languifhing fituation, mull have re¬
ceived from this dreadful accident, may eafily be ima¬
gined. It threw him into a fit, which continued for
fome time, and it was with great difficulty that he could
be rellored to his fenfes. After this period his brain
became fo deranged, that he was continually haunted
by the remembrance of his danger, efpecially when his
diforders prevented him from enjoying fleep. To the
fame caufe was attributed a kind of vifion or ecllafy that
he had fome time after : a memorandum of which he
preferved during the remainder of his life in a bit of pa¬
per, put between the cloth and the lining of his coat,
and which he always carried about him. Some of the
Jefuits had the,ba(enefs and inhumanity to reproach this
great genius with the derangement of his organs. In
the Dictionary of Janfeniil Books, he is called a hifpo-
xhondriac, and a man of a wrong head and a had heart.
But, as a celebrated writer has obferved, Pafcal’s dif-
order had in it nothing more furprifing or difgraceful
than a fever, or the vertigo. During the lad years of
his life, in which he exhibited a melancholy example of
the humiliating reverfes which take place in this tran-
fitory feene, and which, if properly coniidered, might
teach mankind not to be too proud of thole abilities
which a moment may take from them, he attended
all the falutations (c), vinted every church in which
relicks were expofed, and had always a fpiritual alma¬
nack, which gave an account of all thofe places where
particular acts of devotion were performed. On this
■occafion it has been faid, that “ Religion renders great
minds capable of little things, and little minds capable
of great.”
In company, Pafcal was diltinguilhed by the amiable-
nefs of his behaviour *, by his eafy, agrqeable, and in-
ftruCtive converfation, and by great modeltv. He pof.
felfed a natural kind of eloquence, which was in a man¬
ner irrefiltible. The arguments he employed for the
molt part produced the effe£t which he propofed ; and
though his abilities entitled him to affiime an air of fu-
periority, he never difnlayed that haughty and imperi¬
ous tone which may often be obferved in men of ffiining
talents. The philofophy of this great man confilled in
Vol. XVI. Part I.
(c) Certain folemn prayers, which are repeated at
churches*
7 1 PAS
renouncing all pleafure, and every fuperfluity. He not
only denied himfelf the molt common gratifications 5
but he took alfo without reluftance, and even with plea¬
fure, either as nouriffiment or as remedies, whatever
was difagreeable to the fenfes ; and he every day re¬
trenched fome part of his drefs, food, or other things,
which he confidered as not abfolutely needfary. To¬
wards the clofe of his life, he employed himfelf wholly
in pious and moral reflexions, writing down thofe which
he judged Avorthy of being preferved. The firll piece
of paper he could find was employed for this purpofe *,
and he commonly put down only a few words of each
fentence, as he wrote them merely for his own ufe. The
bits of paper upon Avhich he had Avritten thefe thoughts,
Avere found after his death filed upon different pieces of
firing, Avithout any order or conneXion; and being co-
pied exaXly as they Avere written, they were afterwards
arranged and publiflied.
The celebrated Bayle, fpeaking of this great man,
fays, A hundred volumes of fermons are not of fo much
avail as a fimple account of the life of Pafcal. His hu¬
mility and his devotion mortified the libertines more
than if they had been attacked by a dozen of miffion-
aries. In a word, Bayle bad fo high an idea of this
philofopher, that he calls him d paradox in the human
fpecies. “ When avc confider his charaXer (fays he),
avc are almoft inclined to doubt that he Avas born of a
Avoman, like the man mentioned by Lucretius :
“ Ut vix humami videatur Jlirpe creatus”
Mr Pafcal died at Paris the 19th of Auguft 1662,
aged 39 years. He had been fome time about a Avork
againft atheifls and infidels, but did not live long enough
to digeft the materials he had colleXed. What was
found among his papers Avas publiffied under the title of
Penfees, &c. or Thoughts upon religion and other fub-
jeBs, and has been much admired. After his death ap¬
peared alfo two other little traXs; one of which is in-
titled, The equilibrium of fluids; and the other, The
weight of the mafs of air.
The Avorks of Pafcal were colleXed in five volumes
8vo, and publiflied at the Hague by De Tune, and at
Paris by Nyon fenior, in 1779. This edition of Paf¬
cal’s works may be confidered as the firft publiflied ; at
leaft the greater part of them were not before colleXed
into one. body ; and fome of them had remained only in
manufeript. For this colleXion, the public Avere indebt¬
ed to the abbe Boffu, and Pafcal deferved to have fuch
an editor. “ This extraordinary man (fays he) inherit¬
ed from, nature all the powers of genius. He Avas a
geometrician of the firft rank, a profound reafoner, and
a fublime and elegant Avriter. If we refleX, that’ in a
very ffiort life, oppreffed hy continual infirmities, he in¬
vented a curious arithmetical machine, the elements of
the calculation of chances, and a method of refolving
various problems refpeXing the cycloid ; that he fixed
in an irrevocable manner the Avavering opinions of the
learned refpeXing the weight of the air ; that he wrote
one of the completeft works which exift in the French
language j and that in his Thoughts there are paffages,
C the
certain hours, and on certain days, in the Popiffi.
Pafcal
II
Pafiphae.
PAS [ 18
the depth and beauty of which are incomparable—we
{hall be induced to believe, that a greater genius never
exifted in any age or nation. All thofe who had ocea-
fion to frequent his company in the ordinary commerce
of the world, acknowledged his fuperiority •, but it ex¬
cited no envy again!! him, as he was never fond of
ihowing it. His converfation inftru&ed, without mak¬
ing thofe who heard him fenfible of their own inferiori¬
ty •, and he was remarkably indulgent towards the faults
of others. It may be eafily feen by his Provincial Let¬
ters, and by fume of his other works, that he was born
■with a great fund of humour, which his infirmities could
never entirely deftroy. In company, he readily indul¬
ged in that harmlefs and delicate raillery which never
gives offence, and which greatly tends to enliven con¬
verfation ; but its principal objeeff generally was of a
moral nature. For example, ridiculing thofe authors
who fay, Mif Book, nnj Commentary, my Hiftory, they
would do better (added he) to fay. Our Book, our Coni'
mentan/, our Hijlory; lince there are in them much
more of other people’s than their own.” An elegant
Latin epitaph was infcribed on his tomb.
PASCHAL, fomething belonging to the paffover,
or Eafter. See Passover and Easter.
PAS-EP-A, the chief of the Lamas, particularly
eminent for having invented chara&ers for the Moguls.
He was much efteemed by the Chinefe, though the li¬
terati exclaimed againft the manner in which the people
demonitrated their affeftion. There is {till at Pekin a
my an or temple, built in honour of Paf-ep-a in the time
of the Mogul emperors. He died in 1279.
PASIGRAPHY (from 5r«f, omnis, and y^m^fcri'
bo'), the art of writing on any fubjeft whatever, fo as to
be univerfally underftood by all nations upon earth. rl he
idea of eftablifhing fuch a language is deemed by many
extremely fanciful and abfurd, while the pradticability
of it is as ftrenuoufly contended for by others. Hints
refpecting fuch a fyftem of writing as might be under-
llood by all mankind, are to be met with in the writings
of many eminent philofophers } but if fuch an attempt
failed in the hands of a Leibnitz, a Kircher, a Becher,
a Wilkins, and fome others, it is at lead, to be pre-
fumed, that the execution of a pafigraphy, or univerfal
language, will always be found to bear a ftriking ana¬
logy to the chimerical fentiments which were formerly
entertained refpefting the dodtrines of the quadrature of
the circle, the multiplication of the cube, the philofo-
.pher’s {tone, or perpetual motion, all of which have
been finely ridiculed by Dean Swift in his idea of circu¬
lar flint. Kant is clearly of opinion, however, that fuch
a pafigraphy falls within the limits of poffibility ;—nay,
he even afferts, that it will adlually be eftablifhed at
fome future period. And, while none of its admirers
venture to bid us believe that it will ever be univerfally
fpoken or underftood, they confidently think, that, by
means of it, the valuable labours of erudition and hu¬
man genius will be effedhially prevented from ever fall¬
ing into oblivion. See a Memoir on this fubjedt in Ni-
cholfon’s Journal, ii. 342. 4to,
PASIPHAE, in fabulous hiftory, daughter of the
Sun by Perfeis. who married Minos king of Crete. She
djfgraced herfelf by an unnatural paffion for a bull,
which we are told fhe was enabled to gratify by means
of the artift Daedalus. This celebrated bull had been
given to Minos by Neptune, to be offered on his altars.
] PAS
But as the monarch refufed to facrifice the animal on
account of his beauty, the god revenged his diiobedi-
ence by infpiring Pafiphae with an unnatural love for
him. This fable, which is univerfally believed by the
poets, who obferve, that the minotaur was the fruit of
this infamous commerce, is refuted by fome writers •,
who fuppofe that the infidelity of Pafiphae to her hul-
band was betrayed in her affedfion for an officer of the
name of Taurus, and that Dtedalus, by permitting his
fioufe to be the afylum of the two lovers, was looked
upon as acceffory to the gratification of Pafiphae’s luft.
From this amour with Taurus, as it is farther remarked,_
the queen became mother of twins; and the name of
Minotatirus arifes from the refemblance of the children
to the hulband and the lover of Pafiphae. Minos had
four fons by Pafiphae, Caftreus, Deucalion, Glaucus,
and Androgeus 5 and three daughters, Hecate, Ariadne,
and Phaedra.
PASQUIN, a mutilated ftatue at Rome, in a corner
of the palace of the Urfini. It takes its name from a
cobler of that city called Pafquin, famous for his fneers
and gibes, and who diverted himfelf by palling his
jokes on all that went through that ftreet. After his
death, as they were digging up the pavement before
his door, they found in the earth the ftatue of an an¬
cient gladiator, well cut, but maimed and half-fpoiled:
this they fet up in the place where it was found, and by
common confent named it Pajqum. Since that time all
fatires are attributed to that figure } and are either put
into its mouth, or pafted upon it, as if they were writ¬
ten by Pafquin redivivus •, and thefe are addreffed by
Pafquin to Marforio, another ftatue at Rome. When
Marforio is attacked, Pafquin comes to his afiiftance $
and, when Pafquin is attacked, Marforio aflifts him in
his turn ; that is, the people make the ftatuesfpeak juft
what they pleafe.
PASQUINADE, a fatirical libel faftened to the
ftatue of Pafquin : thefe are commonly (hurt, witty, and
pointed ; and" from hence the term has been applied to
all lampoons of the fame caft.
PASS, or Passade, in fencing, an advance or leap
forward upon the enemy. Ot thefe there are feveral
kinds \ as paffes within, above, beneath, to the light,
the left, and pafles under the line,.&e. I he meafure
of the pafs is when the fwords are fo near as that they
may touch one another.
Pass, in a military fenfe, a ftrait and difficult paffage,
which {huts up the entrance into a country.
?ASS Parole, in military affaiis, a command given at
the head of an army, and thence communicated to the
rear, by palling it from mouth to mouth.
PASSADE, in the manege, is a turn or courfe of a
horfe backwards or forwards on the fame fpot of ground.
Hence there are feveral forts of paffades, according to
the different ways of turning, in order to part or return
upon the fame tread, which is called clofing the pajfude ;
as the paffade of one time, the paffade of five times, and
the raifed or high paffades, into which the demivolts are
made into curvets. See Horsemanship.
■See NORTH-WeJi Pajfage,
North EaJlPaJJ'age, and
T
North-wejl PASSAGE.
North-eajl Passage, i Pole.
Right of Passage, in commerce, is an impofition or
duty exafted by fome princes, either by land or fea, in
certain clofe and narrow places in their territories, on
all
PAS
yaffage all veffels and carriages, and even fometimes on performs
11 or paffengers, coming in nr going out of ports, &c.
PallioTL rp|ie mofl; celebrated paflage of this kind in Europe is
the Sound : the dues for palling which ftrait belong to
the king of Denmark, and are paid at Elfinore or Cro^-
nenburg.
PASSANT, in Heraldry, a term applied to a lion
er other animal in a fhield, appearing to walk leifurely:
for mod beads, except lions, the trippant is frequently
ufed inftead of pajfant.
PASSAU, an ancient, handfome, and celebrated
town of Germany, in Lower Bavaria, with a bifhop’s
fee and fort. The houfes are well built, and the cathe¬
dral is thought to be the fined in all Germany. It is
divided into four parts, three of which are fortified ; but
the other is only a fuburb, and has nothing but an old
cadle in which the bidiop generally refides. It isfeated
at the confluence of the rivers Inn and Iltz, in E. Long.
13. 34. N. Eat. 48. 26.
Passau, a bidropric of Germany, lying between
Lower Bavaria, Auflria, and Bohemia. It extends
not above 20 miles where larged •, and has no confE
derable place, except the capital, which is of the fame
name.
PASSERES, the name of one of the orders (the
6th) into which the clafs of birds is divided. See Or-
NITHOLOGY Index.
PASSIFLORA, or Passion Flower ; a genus of
plants belonging to the gynandria clafs •, and in the
natural method ranking under the 34th order, Cucurbi-
tacece.. See Botant Index.
PASSION, is a word of which, as Dr Reid obferves,
the meaning is not precifely afeertained either in com¬
mon difeourfe or in the writings of philofophers. In its
original import, it denotes every feeling of the mind oc¬
casioned by an extrinfic caufe •, but it is generally ufed
V to fignify feme agitation of mind, oppofed to that date
of tranquillity in which a man is mod mader of himfelf.
That it was thus ufed by the Greeks and Romans, is
evident from Cicero’s rendering the word by
W'hich the philofophers of Greece exprefled it, by per-
turbatio in Latin. In this fenfe of the word, paflion
cannot be itfelf a di/hncl and independent principle of
adlion ; but only an occafional degree of vehemence
given to thofe difpodtions, defires, and afiedlions, which
are at all times prefent to the mind of man •, and that
this is its proper fenfe, w'e need no other proof than that
paflion has always been conceived to bear analogy to a
dorm at fea or to a temped in the air.
With refpeft to the number of paflions of which the
mind is fufceptible, different opinions have been held
by different authors. Le Brun, a French writer on
painting, judly confidering the expreflion of the paflions
a very important as well as difficult branch of his art,
has enumerated no fewer than twenty, of which the
dgns may be exprtff d by the pencil on canvafs. That
there are many different dates of mind producing
different effefts which are vifible on the features and
the gedures, and that thofe features and gedures ought
to be diligently fludied by the artid, are truths which
cannot he denied ; but it is abfurd to confider afl thefe
different dates of mind as pafjions, fince tranquillity is
one of them, which is the reverfe of paffion.
The common dividon of the paffions into deftre and
averjton, hope and/er/r, joy and grief love and hatred,
PAS
has been mentioned by every author who has treated of Pafilcn,
them, and needs no explication ; but it is a quedion of '"“■"’V
fome importance in the philofophy of the human mind,
whether thefe different paffior.s be each a degree of an
original and innate difpofition, didind from the difpt.fi-
tions which are refpeftively the foundations of the other
paflions, or only different modifications of one or two
general dilpofitions common to the whole race.
The former opinion is held by all who build their
fydem of metaphyfics upon a number of diflinft internal
fenfes ; and the latter is the opinion of thofe who, with
Locke and Hartley, refolve what is commonly called
inflincl into an early affociation of ideas. (See In¬
stinct). That without deliberation mankind inflantly
feel the paflion of fear upon the apprehenfion of danger,
and the paflion of anger or refentment upon the recep¬
tion of an injury, are truths which cannot be denied :
and hence it is inferred, that the feeds of thefe paffions
are innate in the mind, and that they are not generated,
but only fwell to magnitude on the profpeft of their re-
fpe&ive objedls. In fupport of this argument, it has
been obferved that children, without any knowledge of
their danger, are inftin&ively afraid on being placed on
the brink of a precipice j and that this paffion contri¬
butes to their fafety long before the y acquire, in any de¬
gree equal to their neceffities, the exercife of their ra¬
tional powers. Deliberate anger, eaufed by a voluntary
injury, is acknowledged to be in part founded on reafon
and refle£lion ; but where anger impels one fuddenly to
return a blow, even without thinking of doing mifehief,
the paffion is inflinftive. In proof of this, it is obfer¬
ved, that inflinflive anger is frequently raifed by bodily
pain, occafioned even by a dock or a done, which in-
dantly becomes an obje<R of refentment, that we are
violently incited to cruffi to atoms. Such conduft is
certainly not rational, and therefore it is fuppofed to be
neceffarily indin<Aive.
With refpeft to other paffions, fuch as the lud of
power, of fame, or of knowledge, innumerable inftances,
fays Dr Reid, occur in life, of men who facrifice to them
their eafe, their pleafure, and their health. But it is
abfurd to fuppofe that men ffiould faerifice the end to
what they defire only as means of promoting that end ;
and therefore he feems to think that thefe paflions mud
be innate. To add drength to this reafoning he ob¬
ferves, that we may perceive fome degree of thefe prin¬
ciples even in brute animals of the mod fagacious kind,
who are not thought to defii e means for the fake of ends
which they hav4 in view.
But it is in accounting for the paffions which are dif-
interefted that the advocates for innate principles ftem
mod completely to triumph. As it is impoffible not to
feel the paffion of pity upon the profptft of a fellow
creature in didrtfs, they argue, that the bafis of that
paffion mud be innate ; becaufe pity, being at all times
more or lefs painful to the perfon by whom it is felt,
and frequently of no ufe to the perfon who is its objeft,
it cannot in fuch indances be the refult of deliberation,
but merely the exertion of an original inftinft. The
fame kind of reafoning is employed to prove that grati¬
tude is the exercife of an innate principle. That good
offices are, by the very conditution of our nature, apt
to produce good will towards the benefaflor, in good
and bad men, in the favage and in the civilized, cannot
furely be denied by anyone in the lead acquainted with
C 2 human
C 19 1
PAS
t 20 ]
PAS
Pafllon. human nature. We are grateful not only to the bene-
factors of ourfelves as individuals, but alfo to the bene¬
factors of our country ; and that, too, when we are
confcious that from our gratitude neither they nor we
can reap any advantage. Nay» we impelled to be
grateful even when we have reafon to believe that the
obje£ts of our gratitude know not our exiitence. This
paflion cannot be the effedt of reafoning, or of aflociation
founded on reafoning j for, in fuch cafes as thofe men¬
tioned, there are no principles from which reafon can
infer the propriety or ufefulnefs of the feeling. That
'public fpirit, or the affection which we bear to our coun¬
try, or to any fubordinate community of which we are
members, is founded on inflinct, is deemed fo certain,
that the man deftitute of this affeftion, if there be ary
fuch, has been pronounced as great a montter as he who
has two heads.
All the difinterefted paffons are founded on what
philofophers have termed benevolent ajfeclion. Inftead
therefore of inquiring into the origin of each paffion
feparately, which would fwell this article to no purpofe,
let us liften to one of the fineff writers as well as ableft
reafoners of the age, treating of the origin of benevolent
affeftion. “ We may lay it down as a principle (fays
* E[fays onTix Reid*), that all benevolent affections are in their
thf Ait^e nature agreeable ; that it is effential to them to defire
the good and happinefs of their objects and that their
objects mult therefore be beings capable of happinefs.
A thing may be defired either on its own account, or
as the means in order to fomething elfe. That only can
properly be called an objeit of defire which is defired
upon its own account •, and therefore I confider as bene¬
volent thofe affeftions only which defire the good of
their object ultimately, and not as means in order to
fomething elfe. To fay that we defire the good of
others, only to procure feme pleafure or good to our¬
felves, is to fay tlrat there is no benevolent affedlion in
human nature. This indeed has been the opinion of
lome philofophers both in ancient and in later times.
But it appears as unreafonable to refolve all benevolent
affections into felf-love, as it would be to refolve hunger
and thirft into felf-love. Thefe appetites are neceffary
for the prefervation of the individual. Benevolent af¬
fections are no lefs neceffary for the prefervation of fo-
ciety among men *, without which men would become
an eafy prey to the beafts of the field. The benevolent
affeCtions planted in human nature, appear therefore no
lefs neceffary for the prefervation of the human fpecies
than the appetites of hunger and tbirft.” In a word,,
pity, gratitude, friendlhip, love, and patriotifm, are
founded on different benevolent affeCtions j which our
learned author holds to be original parts of the human
confutation.”
This reafoning has certainly great force $ and if au¬
thority could have any weight in fettling a queftion of
this nature, we know not that name to which greater de¬
ference is due than the name of him from whom it is
taken. Yet it muff be confeffed that the philofophers,
who confider the affeCtions and paffions as early and deep
rooted affociations, fupport their opinion with very plau-
fible arguments. On their principles we have endeavour¬
ed elfewhere to account for the paffions of fear and love,
(fee Instinct and Love) •, and we may here fafely
deny the truth of what has been ftated refpeding fear,
which fee ms to militate againff that account. We have
attended with much folicitude to the aCtions of chil- Pafllon-
dren •, and have no reaion to think that they feel ter- " '*
ror on the brink of a precipice till they have been re¬
peatedly warned of tin ir danger in fuch lituations by
their parents or their keepers. Every perion knows
not only that they have no original or infiinCtive dread
of fire, which is as dangerous to them as any precipice $
but that it is extremely difficult to keep them from that
defirudive element till they are either capable of weigh¬
ing the force of arguments, or have repeatedly experi¬
enced the pain of being burnt by it. W ith reiped to
hidden refentment, we cannot help confidering the ar¬
gument, which is brought m proof of its being inftinc-
tive, as proving the contrary in a very forcible manner.
InftinCf is feme myiierious influence of God upon ihe
mind exciting to aClions of beneficial tendency : but
can any benefit arife from wreaking our impotent ven¬
geance on a ftoek or a flone ? or is it fuppoiable that
a Being of infinite wifdom would ixcite us to adions fo
extravagantly foolifh ? We learn from experience to de¬
fend ourfelves againft rational or feniible enemies by re¬
taliating the injuries which they iniiid upon us ; and
if we have been often injured in any particular manner,
the idea of that injury becomes in time fo clofely afib-
ciated with the means by which it has been co.nftantly
repelled, that we never receive fuch an injury— a blow
for inftance—without being prompted to make the ufual
retaliation, without refieding whether the objed be
fenfible or infenfible. So far from being inffindive does
refentment appear to us, that we think an attentive ob-
ferver may eaiily perceive how the feeds of it are gra¬
dually infufed into the youthful mind; when the child,
from being at fird a timid creature fhrinking from every
pain, learns by degrees to return blow for blow and
threat for threat.
But inftead of urging what appears to ourfelves of
moft weight againit the inffindive fyftem, we fliall lay
before our readers a few extrads from a differtation on
the origin of the paflions, by a writer vvhofe elegance of
language and ingenuity of inveftigation do honour to
the fchool of Hartley.
“ When an infant is born (fays Dr Sayers f), there f Ei/quifi-
is every reafon to fuppofe that he is born without ideas, r/ewj Me-
Thefe are rapidly communicated through the medium tapJpjical
of the fenfes. The fame fenfes are alfo the means of"'" ,te‘
conveying to him pleafure and pain. Thefe are the
hinges on which the paffions turn : and till the child is
acquainted with thefe fenfations, it would appear that
no paffion could be formed in his mind ; for till he has
felt pleafure and pain, how can he defire any objed, or
wbh for its removal ? How can he either love or hate ?
Let us obferve then the manner in which love and ha¬
tred- are formed ; for on thefe pafiiens depend all the
reft. When a child endures pain, and is able to deted
the caufe of it, the idea of pain is conneded in his
mind with that of the thing which produced it; and if
the objed which occafioned pain be-again prefented to
the child, the idea of pain affociated with it arifes alfo.
This idea confequently urges the child to avoid or to
remove the objed ; and thus arifes the paffion of dillike
or hatred. In the fame manner, the paffion of liking
or love is readily formed in the mind of a child from the
affociation of pleafant ideas with certain objeds which
produced them.
“ The paflions of hope and- fear are Rates of the
mind
PAS [2
Paffion. rnlnd depending upon the good or bad profpeft.s of
’ v gratifying love or hatred ; and joy or fomnv arifes from
the final luccefs or difappointment which attends the
exertions produced by love or by hatred. Out of thefe
paflions, which have all a perceptible relation to our
own good, and are univerfaliy acknowledged to be lel-
fi!h, all our other paflions are formed.”
To account for the paflions called (Ljhitcrcjled, he
obferves, that in the hiltory of the human mind we
find many inflances of our dropping an intermediate
idea, which has been the means of our connecting two
other ideas tog-ether ; and that the affociation of thefe
two remains after the link which originally united
them has vanifhed. Ot this fa£t the reader will find
luflicient evidence in different articles of this work
(fee Instinct, N° 19. and Metaphysics, N° ioi.) :
and, to apply it to the difintereffed paflions, let us fup-
pofe, with Dr Sayers, that any individual has done to
us many offices of kindnefs, and has confequently much
contributed to our happinefs *, it is natural for us to
feck with fome anxiety for the continuance of thofe
pleafures which he is able to communicate. But we
foon difcern, that the fureft way of obtaining the con¬
tinuance of his friendly offices is to make them, as
much as poflible, a fource of pleafure to himfelf. We
therefore do every thing in our power to promote his
happinefs in return for the good he has conferred upon
us, that thus we may attach him to us as much as we
are able. Hitherto all is plainly felfifti. We have been
evidently endeavouring, for the fake of our own future
gratification, to promote the happinefs of this perfon :
but obferve the confequence. We have thus, by contem¬
plating the advantage, to be derived to ourfelves from
promoting the profperity of our friend, learned to aflb-
ciate a fet of pleafant ideas with his happinefs ; but the
link which has united them gradually efcapes us, while
the union itfelf remains. Continuing to affoeiate plea-
lure with the well-being of our friend, we endeavour to
. promote it for the lake of his immediate gratification,
without looking farther ; and in this way his happinefs,
which w'as firft attended to only as a means of future en¬
joyment, finally becomes an end. Thus then the paf-
fion which was originally felfilh, is at length dijinterejl-
ed; its gratification being completed merely by its luc-
cefs in promoting the happinefs of another.
In this way does our author account for the origin
of gratitude; which at laft becomes a habit, and flows
fpontaneouflv towards every man who has either been
or intended to be our benefablor. According to him,
it is eafy to obferve alio, that from affociating pleafure
with the happinefs of an individual when we procure it
1 ] PA S
ourfelves, it mult of courfe foon follow, that we Ihould Patfioo.
experience plealure from a view of his happinefs any ——v—■■
way produced ; fuch happinefs raffing at all times plea¬
fant ideas when it is prefented to our minds. This is
another feature of a difintercfted affebf ion, to feel de¬
light from the mere increale of happineis in the objebt
■whom we love.
“It may be objebfed, perhaps, that parents feem to
have an utjhndhve difinterelled love of their offspring :
but furely the love of a parent (a) for a new-born in¬
fant is not ufually equal to that for a child of four
or five years old. When a child is firlt born, the pro-
fpebi and hopes of future plealure from it are fufficient
to make a parent anxious lor its prefervation. As the-
child grows up, the hope of future enjoyment from it
mult increafe : hence would pleafure be affoeiated with •
the well-being of the child, tlie love of which would of-
courfe become in due time dilinterefted.”
Our author does not analyze p/Vy, and trace it to its
fource in feififhnefs ; but he might eafily have done it,
and it has been ably done by his mailer. Pity or
compaflion is the uneafinels which a man feels at the
mifery of another. It is generated in every mind dur¬
ing the years of childhood ; and there are many cireum-
llances in the conltilution of children, and in the mode -
of their education, which make them particularly fuik
ceptible of this paflion. The very appearance of any
kind of mifery which they have experienced, or of any
ligns of diftrefl which they underftand, excite in their
minds painful feelings, from the remembrance of what
they have fullered, and the apprehenfion ot their fuf-
fering it again. We have feen a child a year old high¬
ly entertained with the noife and ftruggles made by
its elder brother when plunged naked into a veflel fil¬
led with cold water. This continued to be the cafe
for many days, till it was thought proper to plunge
the younger as well as the elder ; after which the daily,
entertainment was foon at an end. The little crea¬
ture had not been itfelf plunged above twice till it
ceafed to find diverfion in its brother’s fufferings.—
On. the third day it cried with all the fymptoms of the
bittereft anguiib upon feeing its brother plunge,
though no preparation ivas then made for plunging
it felt ; but fyrely this was not difinterefted fympathy,
but a feeling wholly felfilh, excited by the remem¬
brance of what it had fullered itfelf, and was appre-
henfive of fuffering again. In a (hurt time, however,
the painful feelings accompanying the fight of its bro¬
ther’s ftruggles, and the lound of his cries, were doubt-
lefs fo affociated with that fight and that found, that
the appearance of the latter would have brought the
former
(a) 1 hat this is true of the father is certain ; but it may be queftioned whether it be equally true of the mo¬
ther. A woman is no fooner delivered of her infant, than ihe careffes it with the utmoft poffible fondnefs. We
believe, that if (lie ivere under the neceffity of making a choice between her child of four years, and her infant
an hour old, fhe would rather be deprived of the latter than of the former; but we are not convinced that this
would proceed from a lefs degree of affe&ion to the infant than to the child. She knows that the child has be-
xore his fourth year efcaped many dangers which the infant muft encounter, and may not efcape ; and it is there¬
fore probable that her choice would be. the refult of prudent refle&ion. Though we are not admirers of that
phijofophy which fuppofes the human mind a bundle of inftinfts, we can as little approve of the oppofite feheme
which allows it no inkindts at all. Ihe re^yij of a mother to her new-born infant is undoubtedly inftindlive, as
the onlv thing which at that moment can be affociated-with it in her mind is the pain Ihe has fuffered in brincr-
mg it to the world. 4
PAS f 2
Paffion. former along with them, even though the child might
have been no longer under apprehenlion of a plunging
itfelf. This aflbeiation, too, would foon be transferred
to every boy in the fame circumftances, and to fimilar
founds and druggies, from whatever caufe they might
proceed.
f Obferva- Thus, as Dr Hartley obferves f, “ when feveral
t^°ns 'in children are educated together, the pains, the denials
Man' of pleafure, and the furrows which air eft one generally
extend to all in fume degree, often in an equal one.
When their parents, companions, or attendants are fick,
or afflidded, it is ufual to raife in their minds the naf-
cent ideas of pains and miferies by fuch words and figns
as are fuited to their capacities. They alfo find them-
felves laid under many reftraints, on account of the
ficknefs or affli&ion of others ; and when thefe and fuch
like circumftances have raifed in their mind1' defires to
remove the caufes of their own internal feelings, i. e. to
eafe the miferies of others, a variety of internal feelings
and defires become fo blended and afibciated together,
as that no part can be diftinguifhed feparately from the
reft, and the child may properly be faid to have com¬
panion. The fame fources of compaftion remain, though
with fome alteration, during our whole progrefs through
life. This is fo evident, that a reflecting perfon may
plainly difeern the conftituent parts of his eompaffion
while they are yet the mere internal, and, as one may
fay, felfifh feelings above mentioned •, and before they
have put on the nature of compaftion by a coalef-
cence with the reft. Agreeably to this method of
reafoning, it may be obferved, that perfons whofe nerves
are eafily irritable, and thofe who have experienced
great trials and afflictions, are in general more difpofed
to compaftion than others •, and that we are moft apt
to pity others in thofe difeafes and calamities which we
either have felt or of which we apprehend ourfelves to
be in danger.”
The origin of patriotifm and public fpirit is thus
traced by Dr Sayers: “ The pleafures which our
country affords are numerous and great. The with to
perpetuate the enj lyment of thefe pleafures, includes
the wifh to promote the fafetv and welfare of our coun¬
try, without which many of them would be loft. All
this is evident! v felfifh ; but, as in the progrefs of gra¬
titude, it finally becomes difinterefted. Pleafant ideas
are thus ftronglv conneCled "ith the welfare of our
country, after the tie which firft bound them together
has efeaped our notice. The profperity which was at
firft defirable as the means of future enjoyment, be¬
comes itfelf an end : we feel delight in fuch profperity,
however produced ; and we look not beyond this imme¬
diate delight. It is thus not difficult to obferve in what
manner a general and difinterefted benevolence takes
place in a mind which has already received pleafure
from the baopinefs of a few $ the tranfition is eafy to¬
wards affocia ing i> with happinefs in general, with the
hanpinefs of any being, whether produced by ourfelves
or bv anv other caufe whatever.”
From this reafoning, om- author concludes, that all
our naftions mav be traced up to original feelings of re¬
gard for owrfelves. * Thus (in the forcible language of
» Warbur a learned writer * of the fame fchool) does felf-love,
under the varving appearance of natnra! affection, do-
meftic relation, and the connexions of focial habitude,
at firft work blindly on, obfeure and deep in dirt: But as
2 ] PAS
it makes its way, it continues riling, till it emerges into Paffion.
light } and then fuddenly expiring, leaves behind it the —v—
faireft iffuc,”—-benevolent affection.
Self-love partook the path it firff purfu’d,
And found the private in the public good.
Thus have we ftated the two oppofite theories refpeft-
ing the origin of paflions in the mind, and given our
readers a fhort fpecimen of the reafonings by which they
are fupported by their refpe&ive patrons. Were we cal¬
led upon to decide between them, we Ihould be tempted
to fay, that they have both been carried to extremes by
fome of their advocates, and that the truth lies in the
middle between them. “It is impoflible f but that f Dr Price’t
creatures capable of pleafant and painful fenfations,
fhould love and choofe the one, and diilike and avoid
the other. No being who knows what happineis and
mifery are, can be fuppofed indifferent to them, without ^
a plain contradiflion. Pain is not a pojjib/e object ot de¬
fire, nor happinefs of averjton.'"—lo prefer a greater
good though diflant, to a leis good that is prefent *, or
to choofe a prefent evil, in order to avoid a greater fu¬
ture evil—is indeed wife and rational conduit ; bul to
choofe evil ultimately, is abfolutely impoflible. Thus
far then muft be admitted, that every being poffeffedof
fenfe and intellect, neceffarily defires his own good as
foon as he knows what it is •, but if this knowledge be
not innate, neither can the defire. Every human being
comes into the world with a capability of knowledge,
and of tourfe with a capability of affedlions, defires, and
paflions •, but it feems not to be conceivable how he can
aflually love, or hate, or dread any thing, till he know
whether it be good, or ill, or dangerous. If, therefore,
we have no innate ideas, we cannot poflibly have innate
defiles or averfions. I hofe who contend that vve have,
feem to think, that without them reafon would be in-
fuffieient, either for the prefervation of the individual or
the continuation of the ipecies j and fome writers have
alleged, that if our affections and paftions were the mere
refult of early affociations,they would neceffarily be more
capricious than vve ever find them. But this objection
feems to arife from their not rightly underllanding the
theory of their antagonifts. The diioiples of Locke and
Hartley do not fuppoie it pofllble for any man in fociety
to prevent fuch affoeiations from being formed in his
mind as thall neceffarily produce defires and averfions ;
far lefs do they think it poffible to form affociations of
ideas utterly repugnant, io as to defire that as good
which his fenfes and intellect have experienced to be
evil. Affociations are formed by the very fame means,
and at the very fame time, that ideas and notions are
impreffed upon the mind •, but as pain is never miftaken
for pleafure by the fenfes, fo an objeCt which has given
us only pain, is never affociated with anv thing (hat
makes it delireable. We fay an nbjeCl that has given
us only pain, beeaufe it is poffible to form futh an ailo-
ciation between life and the lofs of a limb, as to make
us grateful to the furgeon by whom it was amputated.
Affociations being formed according to the fame laws
by which knowledge is acquired, it by no means follows
that paflions rcTulting from them fttould be more capri¬
cious than they are found to be ; and they certainly are
fuificiently capricious to make us fufpcCt that the greater
part of them has this origin, rather than that they are
all iniufed in the mind by the immediate agency of die
Creator.
PAS [ 23 ] PAS
Paflion. Creator. If man be a being formed with no innate
 ideas, and with no other inilinctive principles of action
than what are abfolutely necelfary to preferve his exig¬
ence and perpetuate the fpecies, it is eaiy to perceive
why he is placed in this world as in a date of probation,
where he may acquire habits of virtue to fit him tor a
better. It is likewife eafy to perceive why fome men
are better than others, and why fome are the {laves of
the molt criminal paflions. But all thb is unintelligible,
upon the fuppofition that the feeds of every palTion are
innate, and that man is a compound of reafon and of in-
ftindls fo numerous and various as to fuit every circnm
fiance in which it can be placed.
If paflions, whatever be their origin, operate inftan-
taneoufly, and if they be formed according to fixed laws,
it may be thought a queftion of very little importance
whether they be inftin&ive or acquired.—This was long
our own opinion ; but we think, that upon maturer re-
fleclion we have feen reafon to change it. If paflions be
the refult of early affociations, it is of the utmoft confe-
quence that no improper affociations be formed in the
minds of children, and that none of their unreafonable
defires be gratified. Upon this theory it feems indeed
to depend almoft wholly upon education, whether a child
(hall become a calm, benevolent, fleady, and upright
man ; or a pafiionate, capricious, felfith mifcreant. By
teaching him to refent every petty injury, the feeds of
irafcibility are fown in his mind, and take fuch root,
that before the age of manhood he becomes intolerable
to all with whom he muff converfe. By exciting num-
berlefs delires in his youthful mind, and intlantly grati¬
fying them, you make him capricious and impatient of
difappointment ; and by reprefenting other children as
in any degree inferior to him. you infpire him with the
hateful paffion of pride. According to the inftinctive
theory, education can only augment or diminifh the
flrength of paffions ; according to the other theory, it is
the fource of by far the greater part of them. On ei¬
ther fuppofition, parents (hould watch with folicitude
over the adlions of their children \ but they will furely
think themfelves obliged to be doubly watchful, if they
believe, that through their negleft their children may
acquire hateful paffions, to which, if properly educated,
they might have remained Itrangers through their whole
lives. And let it be remembered, that this folrcitude
fhould begin at an early period ; becaufe the mind is
fufceptible of deep affociations much fooner than is fome-
times imagined. Without this fufceptibility, no language
could be learned •, and therefore a child by the time he
learns to fpeak, may have planted in his mind the feeds
of paffions, on the juft regulation and fubordination of
which depends in a great meafure the happinefs of man¬
kind. See MORAL Pfnlofophy, Part I. chap. 1. &. 2.
Part III N° 216.
PASSIONS and Emotions, difference between them.
See EMOTIONS and Paffions.
External Si'^ns of Emotions and PASSIONS. So inti¬
mately connefled are the foul and body, that every agi¬
tation in the former produces a vifible effedft upon the
latter. There is, at the fame time, a wonderful uni¬
formity in that operation •, each clafs of emotions and
paflions being invariably attended with an external ap¬
pearance peculiar to itfelf. Thefe external appearances,
or figns, may not improperly be confidered as a natural
■language, exprefling to all beholders emotions and paf-
S
lions as they rife in the heart. Hope, fear, joy, grief, Paflion,
are ditplayed externally: the charafter of a man can be
read in his face j and beauty, which makes fo deep an
impreffion, is known to refult, not to much from regular
features and a fine complexion, as from good nature, good
fenie, fprightlinefs, fweetnefs, or other mental quality,
expreffed upon the countenance. Though perfect {kill
in that language be rare, yet what is generally known is
futhcient for the ordinary purpofes of life. But by what
means we come to underftand the language, is a point of
fome intricacy. It cannot be by fight merely; for upon
the molt attentive infpedlion of the human vifage, all that
can be difeerned are, figure, colour, and motion, which,
fingly or combined, never can reprelent a paflion nor a
fentiment : the external fign is indeed vifible ; but to
underftand its meaning, we mull be able to conned it
with the paflion that caufes it ; an operation far beyond
the reach of eye-light. Where then is the inltrudor to
be found that can unveil this fecret connexion ? If we
apply to experience, it is yielded, that from long and
diligent obfervation, we may gather, in fome meafure,
in what manner thofe we are acquainted with exprefs
their paflions externally ; but with refped to ftrangers,
rve are left in the dark ; and yet we are not puzzled
about the meaning of thefe external expreflions in a
ftranger, more than in a bofom companion. Further,
Had we no other means but experience for underftand-
ing the external figns of paflion, we could not expecl
any uniformity, nor any degree of Ikill, in the bulk of
individuals ; yet matters are fo much better ordered, .
that the external expreflions of paflion form a language
underftood by all, by the young as well as the old, by
the ignorant as well as the learned : We talk of the
plain and legible charaders of that language ; for un¬
doubtedly we are much indebted to experience, in de¬
ciphering the dark and more delicate expreflions. Where
then fliall we apply for a folution of this intricate prob¬
lem, which feems to penetrate deep into human nature ?
Undoubtedly if the meaning of external figns be not de¬
rived to us from fight, nor from experience, there is no
remaining fource whence it can be derived but from na¬
ture.
We may then venture to pronounce, with fome de-Elements
gree of confidence, that man is provided by nature with °f
a fenfe or faculty that lays open to him every paflion by
means of its external expreflions. And we cannot enter¬
tain any reafonable doubt of this, when we refled, that
the meaning of external figns is not hid even from in¬
fants : an infant is remarkably affeded with the paffions
of its nurfe expreffed on her countenance ; a fmile cheers
it, a frown makes it afraid : but fear cannot be without
apprehending danger ; and what danger can the infant
apprehend, unlefs it be fenfible that its nurfe is angry ?
We muft therefore admit, that a child can read anger
in its nurfe’s face ; of which it muft: be fi nfible intuitive¬
ly, for it has no other mean of knowledge. We do not
affirm, that thefe particulars are clearly apprehended by
the child ; for to produce clear and diftind perceptions,
refledion and experience are requifite : but that even an
infant, when afraid, mull have fome notion of its being
in danger, is evident.
That we Ihould be confeious intuitively of a paflion
from its external expreflions, is conformable to the ana-
logy of nature : the knowledge of that language is of
too great importance to be left upon experience 5 becauffe
a
PAS [
a foundation fo uncertain and precarious, would prove
jrreat obftacle to the formation of focieties. Wifely there¬
fore is it ordered, and agreeably to the fyftem of Provi¬
dence, that we Ihould have nature for our inftruaor.
Such is the philofophy of Lord Kames, to which ob*
ie&ions unanfwerable may be made. It is part of the
inltindive fyltem of metaphyfics, which his lord (hip has
carried farther than all who wrote before him, and per¬
haps farther than all who have fucceeded him in this de¬
partment of fcience. That a child intuitively reads anger
in its nurfe’s face, is fo far from being true, that for feme
flrort time after birth it is not terrified by the mod men¬
acing ge(lures. It is indeed abfolutely incapable of fear
till ft'has fuffered pain, (fee Instinct)-, and could we
conftantly carefs it with what is called an angry look, it
would be cheered by that look, and frightened at a
fmile. It feels, however, the tjfe£ls of anger, and is loon
capable of obferving the peculiarity of feature with which
that paflion is ufually accompanied; and thefe two be ¬
come in a (liort time fo linked together in its tender
mind, that the appearance of the one naturally fuggeils
to it the reality of the other.
Should it be faid that a loud and fudden node (lartles
a child immediately after birth, and that, therefore, the
infant mult be inltinftively afraid, the tact may be ad¬
mitted, without any neceffity of admitting the inference,
The nerves of an infant are commonly very irritable, and
the ftrong impulfe on the auditory nerveh may agitate its
whole frame, without infpiring it with the pa (lion of
fear. The loud noife is in all probability not the
fign* of approaching danger, but the immediate caufe
of real pain, from which the infant (brinks as it
would from the prick of a pin or the fcorching of
a candle. But we have faid enough in the article im¬
mediately preceding, and in others which are- there
quoted, to (Low how the paflions may be formed by al-
fociations even in early infancy, and yet operate as if they
were inftintfive. This being the cafe, we (hall through the
remainder of this article fuffer his lord (hip to fpeak his
own language, without making any further remarks upon
it. We are induced to do this for two reafons j of which
the firft is, that many of our readers will probably prefer
his theory to ours*, and the fecond is, that his conclufions
refpe&ing the figns and language of paffion hold equally
good from either theory.
We perfeftly agree with him, that manifold and ad¬
mirable are the purpofes to which the external figns
of paflion are made fubfervient by the Author of our-
nature.
l. The figns of internal agitation difplayed externally
to every fpeSator, tend to fix the fignification of many
words. The only effectual means toafcertain the mean¬
ing of any doubtful word, is an appeal to the thing it re-
prefents: and hence the ambiguity of words exprefliye
of things that are not objefts of external fenfe-, for in
that cafe an appeal is denied. Paflion, ftri&ly fpeaking,
is not an objeft of external fenfe: but its external figns
are: and by means of thefe figns, paflions may be ap¬
pealed to with tolerable accuracy thus the words that
denote our paflions, next to thofe that denote external
objects, have the mod diftintt meaning. Words figni-
fving internal a£Hon and the more delicate feelings, are
lefs diftinft. This defeft, with regard to internal aftion,
is what chiefly occafions the intricacy of logic: the terms
that fcience are far from being fufficiently afcertained,
24 ] 'PAS
even after much care and labour bellowed by an eml- Paffioa.
nent vvriter-f-j to whom, however, the world is greatly ' '
indebted, for removing a mountain ot rubbifli, and
moulding the fubjeft into a rational and correft form,
the fame defe£l is remarkable in criticifm, which has for
its ohjeft the more delicate feelings; the terms that
denote thefe feelings being not more diftinft than thofe
of logic.
2. Society among individuals is greatly promoted by
that univerial language. Looks and geftures give direct
aceefs to the heart-, and lead us to feleft, with toler¬
able accuracy, the perfons who are worthy of our con¬
fidence. It is furprifing how quickly, and for the molt
part how corre£lly, we judge of character from external
appearance.
3. After focial intercourfe is commenced, thefe ex¬
ternal figns, which diffufe through a whole aflembly the
feelings of each individual, contribute above all other
means to improve the locial affections. Language, no
doubt, is the molt comprehenfive vehicle for communi¬
cating emotions: but in expedition, as well as in power
of conviction, it falls (hurt of the figns under confider-
ationj the involuntary figns efpecially, which are inca¬
pable of deceit. Where the countenance, the tones,
the geltures, the aClions, join with the words in com-
municatingemotions, thefe united have aforce irrefiftible.
Thus all the pleafant emotions of the human heart,
with all the focial and virtuous affeCtions, are, by means
of thefe external figns, not only perceived, but felt.
By this admirable contrivance, converfaljon becomes
that lively and animating amufement, without which
life would at bell be infipid: one joyful countenance
fpreads cheerfulnefs inftantaneoufly through a multitude
of fpeClators.
4. Diffocial paffions, being hurtful by prompting vio¬
lence and mifchief, are noted by the moft confpicuous
external figns, in order to put us upon our guard. thus
anger and revenge, efpecially when fudden, difplay
themfelves on the countenance in legible charaClers.
The external figns, again, of every paflion that threatens
danger, raife in us the paflion of fear: which frequently
operating without reafon or reflection, moves us by a fud¬
den impulfe to avoid the impending danger.
5. Thefe external figns are remarkably fubfervient to
morality. A painfulpaflion, being accompanied with
difagreeable external figns, mult produce in every fpec-
tator a painful emotion: but then, if the paflion be fo-
eial, the emotion it produces is attractive, and conneCts
the fpeCtator with the perfon who fuffers. Diffocial paf¬
fions only are productive of repulfive emotions, involving
the fpeCtator’s averfion, and frequently his indignation.
This artful contrivance makes us cling to the virtuous,
and abhor the wicked
6. Of all the external figns of paflion, thofe of afflic¬
tion or diftrefs are the moft illuftrious with refpeCt to a
final caufe, and defervedly merit a place of diflinCtion.
They are illuftrious by the Angularity of their contri¬
vance -, and alfo by infpiring fympathy, a paflion to
which human fociety is indebted for its greateft bleffmg,
that of providing relief for the diftrefied. A fubjeCl lo
intereftingdeferves a leifurely and attentive examination.
The conformity of the nature of man to his external cir-
cumftance is in every particular ivonderful: his nature
makes him prone to fociety j and fociety ts neceffary to
bis wellbeing, becaufe in a folitary (late he is a helplefs
being,
PAS
Paflion. being deftltute of fupport, and in his diflreffes deftitute
—"■vof relief: but mental fupport, the lliining attribute -of
fociety, is of too great moment to be left dependent
upon cool reafon ; it is ordered more wifely, and with
greater conformity to the analogy of nature, that it
ftiould be enforced even inltinctively by the paffion of
fympathy. Here fympathy makes a capital figure •, and
contributes, more than any other means, to make life
eafy and comfortable. But however eflential the fym¬
pathy of others maybe tooar well being,,one beforehand
would not readily conceive how it could be raifed by
external figns of dill refs j for confidering the analogy of
nature, if thefe figns be agreeable, they mull give birth
to a pleafant emotion leading every beholder to be plea-
fed with human woes : if difagreeable, as they undoubt¬
edly are, ought they not naturally to repel the fpeiflator
from them, in order to be relieved from pain ? Such
would be the reafoning beforehand ; and fuch would be
the effe& were man purely a felfilh being. But the be¬
nevolence of our nature gives a very different direftion
to the painful paffion of fympathy, and to the defire
involved in it: inftead of avoiding diflrefs, we fly to it
in order to afford relief5 and our fympathy cannot
be otherwife gratified but by giving all the fuccour
in our power. Thus external figns of diffrefs, though
difagreeable, are attractive j and the fympathy they
infpire is a powerful caufe, impelling us to afford re¬
lief even to a ftranger, as if he were our friend or rela¬
tion.
It is a noted obfervation, that the deepeft tragedies
are the molt crowded j which in an overly view will be
thought an unaccountable bias in human nature. Love
of novelty, defire of occupation, beauty of aftion, make
us fond of theatrical reprefentations $ and when once en¬
gaged, we muff follow the ftory to the conclufion, what¬
ever diftrefs it may create. But we generally become
wife by experience , and when we forefee what pain we
fhall fuffer during the courfe of the reprefentation, is it
not furprifing that perfons of refleClion do not avoid fuch
fpe&acles altogether ? And yet one who has fcarce re¬
covered from the diftrefs of a deep tragedy, refolves
coolly and deliberately to go to the very next, without
the flighteft obftruClion from felf-love. The whole my-
ftery is explained by a Angle obfervation : That fympa¬
thy, though painful, is attraClive ; and attaches us to an
objeCl in diftrefs, inftead of prompting us to fly from it.
And by this curious mechanifm it is, that perfons of any
degree of fenfibility are attraCled by affiiClion ftill more
than by joy.
I o conclude : the external figns of paffion are a ftrong
indication, that man, by his very conftitution, is franl-
ed to be open and fincere. A child, in all things obe*
dient to the impulfes of nature, hides none of its emo¬
tions 5 the favage and clown, who have no guide but
pure nature, expole their hearts to view, by giving w’ay
vto all the natural figns. And even when men learn to
diffemble their fentiments, and when behaviour degene¬
rates into art, there ftill remain checks, that keep dif-
fimulation within bounds, and prevent a great part of
its mifchievious effeCls : the total fuppreffion of the vo¬
luntary figns during any vivid paffion, begets the ut-
moft uneafinefs, which cannot be endured for any con-
fiderable time: this operation becomes indeed lefs pain¬
ful by habit; but luckily the involuntary figns cannot,
by any effort, be fuppreffed or even diffembled. An
Vol XVL Part L
PAS
abfolute hypocrify, by which the chara£ter is concealed Paffioss.
and a ficlitiousone affumed, is made impracticable; and —
nature has thereby prevented much harm to fociety.
We may pronounce, therefore, that Nature, herfelf fin-
cere and candid, intends that mankind ftiould preferve
the fame charadler, by cultivating fimplicity and truth,
and baniftiing every fort of diffimulation that tends to
mifchief.
Influence of PASSION xuith refpeB to our Perceptionsi
Opinions, and Belief. So intimately are our perceptions,
paffions, and aClions, connected, it would be wonderful
if they (hould have no mutual influence. That our ac¬
tions are too much influenced by paffion, is a known
truth ; but it is not lefs certain, though not fo well
known, that paffion hath alfo an influence upon our per¬
ceptions, opinions, and belief. For example, the opi¬
nions we form of men and things are generally direCted
by affeCtion : An advice given by a man of figure has
great weight; the fame advice from one in a low condi¬
tion is defpifcd or negleCted : a man of courage under¬
rates danger ; and to the indolent the flighteft obftacle
appears unfurmountable. All this may be accounted for
by the Ample principle of affociation.
There is no truth more univerfally known, than that
tranquillity and fedatenefs are the proper ftate of mind
for accurate perception and cool deliberation ; and for
that reafon, We never regard the opinion even of the
wifeft man, when we difcover prejudice or paffion behind
the curtain. Paffion hath fuch influence over us, as to
give a falfe light to all its objects. Agreeable paflions
prepoffefs the mind in favour of their objefts; and difa¬
greeable paffions, not lefs againft their obje&s: A wo¬
man is all perfection in her lover’s opinion, while in the
eye of a rival beauty fhe is awkward and difagreeable :
when the paffion of love is gone, beauty vanifties with
it ;—nothing is left of that genteel motion, that fprightly
converfation, thofe numberlefs graces, which formerly,
in the lover’s opinion, charmed all hearts. To a zealot
every one of his own fed: is a faint, while the moft up¬
right of a different fed are to him children of perdition *
the talent of fpeaking in a friend, is more regarded than
prudent condud in any other. Nor will this furprife any
one acquainted with the world ; our opinions, the refult
frequently of various and complicated views, are com¬
monly fo flight and wavering, as readily to be fufceptible
of a bias from paffion.
With that natural bias another circumftance concurs,
to give paffion an undue influence on our opinions and
belief; and that is a ftrong tendency in our nature to
juftify our paffions as well as our adions, not to other#
only, but even to ourfelves. That tendency is pecu¬
liarly remarkable with refped to difagreeable paffions :
by its influence, objeds are magnified or leffened, cir-
cumftances fupplied or fuppreffed, every thing coloured
and difguifed to anfwer the end of juftification. Hence
the foundation of felf-deceit, where a man impofes upon
himfelf innocently, and even without fufpicion of a bias.
We proceed to illuftrate the foregoing obfervations by
proper examples.
Gratitude, when warm, is dften exerted upon the
children of the benefador; efpecially where he is re¬
moved out of reach by death or abfence. The paffioa
in this cafe being exerted fof the fake of the benefador,
requires no peculiar excellence in bis children : but the
pradice of doing good to thefe children produces affect
33 tic*
r 25 ]
PAS [26
PatTion. tion for them, 'which never fails to advance them in our
“■""'v-—' efteem. By fuch means, ftrong connexions of affeXion
are often formed among individuals, upon the flight foun¬
dation now mentioned.
Envy is a paflion, which, being altogether unjufti-
fiable, cannot be excufed but by difguifing it under fome
plaufible name. At the fame time, no paflion is more
eager than envy to give its objeX a difagreeable appear¬
ance : it magnifies every bad quality, and fixes on the
moft humiliating circumflances :
CaJJius. I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life •, but for my Angle felf,
I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of fuch a thing as I myfelf.
I was born free as Caefar, fo were you 5
We both have fed as well, and we can both
Endure the winter’s cold as well as he.
For once, upon a raw and gufty day,
The troubled Tyber chafing with his fhores,
Csefar fays to me, Dar’fl; thou, Caflius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And fwim to yonder point ?-—Upon the word.
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bid him follow ; fo indeed he did.
The torrent roar’d, and we did buffet it
With lufty finews ; throwing it afide,
And ftemming it with hearts of controverfy.
But ere w^e could arrive the point propos’d,
Caefar cry’d, Help me, Caflius, or I fink.
I, as iEneas, our great anceftor,
Did from the flames of Troy upon his fhoulder
The old Anchifes bear ; fo from the waves of Tyber
Did I the tired Caefar : and this man
Is now become a god •, and Caflius is
A wretched creature, and muft bend his body
If Caefar carelefsly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain j
And when the fit was on him, I did mark
How he did (hake. ’Tis true, this god did fliake
% His coward lips did from their colour fly ;
And that fame eye whofe bend doth awe the world
Did lofe its luftre : I did hear him groan •,
Ay, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his fpeeches in their books,
Alas ! it cry’d ^—Give me fome drink, Titinius,—-
As a fick girl. Ye Gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of fuch a feeble temper fbould
So get the ftart of the majeftic world,
And bear the palm alone. Julius Ccefar, aX. ii. fc. 3.
Glo’fter, inflamed with refentment againft hisfon Ed¬
gar, could even force himfelf into a momentary convic¬
tion that they were not related :
O ftrange faften’d villain !
Would he deny his letter ?—I never got him.
King Lear, aX ii. fc. 3.
] PAS
When by great fenfibility of heart, or other nleans,
grief becomes immoderate, the mind, in order to ju-
ftify itfelf, is prone to magnify the caufe ; and if the
real caufe admit not of being magnified, the mind feeks
a caufe for its grief in imagined future events :
Bujby. Madam, your majefty is much too fad :
You promis’d, when you parted with the king,
To lay afide felf-harming heavinefs’^
And entertain a cheerful difpofition.
^ueen. To pleafe the king, I did 3 to pleafe myfelf,
I cannot do it. Yet I know no caufe
Why I fhould welcome fuch a gueft as grief j
Save bidding farewell to fo fweet a gueft
As my fweet Richard : yet again, methinks,
Some unborn forrow, ripe in Fortune’s womb,
Is coming tow’rd me 3 and my inward foul
With fomething trembles, yet at nothing grieves,
More than with parting from my lord the king.
Richard II. aX ii. fc. 5*
Refentment at firft is vented on the relations of the
offender, in order to punifti him 3 but as refentment,
when fo outrageous, is contrary to confcience, the mind,
to juftify its paflion, is difpofed to paint thefe relations
in the blacked; colours 3 and it comes at laft to be con¬
vinced, that they ought to be punilhed for their oAvn de¬
merits.
Anger, raifed by an accidental ftroke upon a tender
part of the body, is fometimes vented upon the unde-
figning caufe. But as the paflion in that cafe is abfurd,.
and as there can be no folid gratification in puniftiing*
the innocent, the mind, prone to juftify as well as to
gratify its paflion, deludes itfelf into a conviXion of the
aXion’s being voluntary. The conviXion, however, is
but momentary ; the firft refleXion ftrows it to be erro¬
neous : and the paflion vaniflieth almoft inftantaneoufly
with the conviXion. But anger, the moft violent of all
paflions, has ftill greater influence : it fometimes forces
the mind to perfonify a ftock or a ftone if it happen to
occafion bodily pain, and even to believe it a voluntary
agent, in order to be a proper objeX of refentment.
And that we have really a momentary conviXion of its
being a voluntary agent, muft be evident from confider-
ing, that without fuch conviXion the paflion can neither
be juftified nor gratified : the imagination can give no
aid 3 for a ftock or a ftone imagined infenfible, cannot
be an objeX of punilhment, if the mind be confcious
that it is an imagination merely without any reality (a).
Of fuch perfonification, involving a conviXion of reality,
there is one illuftrious inftance. When the firft bridge
of boats over the Hellefpont was deftroyed by a ftorm,
Xerxes fell into a tranfport of rage, fo exceflive,. that
he commanded the fea to be punilhed with 300 ftripes 3
and a pair of fetters to be thrown into it, enjoining the
following words to be pronounced : “ O thou fait and
bitter water ! thy mafter hath condemned thee to this
punifhment for offending him without caufe 3 and is
Paflion.
(a) We have already lltown how a man may be inftigated to wreak his vengeance on a ftock or a ftone,
without ever confidering whether it be fenfible or infenfible : (See Passion). If the ftory o er^es e
he may have confidered the fea as fenfible and animated, without dreaming that a ftock or a ftone is io. .the
fea was a god among many of the pagans, and was confidered as fuch by Xerxes, otherwife he could not m e
applauded men for not facrificing to it..
PAS [27
Pafiion. refolvcd to pafs over thee in defpite of thy infolence :
with reafon all men negle£t to facrifice to thee, becaufe
thou art both difagreeable and treacherous.”
Shakefpeare exhibits beautiful examples of the irregu¬
lar influence of paflion in making us believe things to
be otherwife than they are. King Lear, in his diftrefs,
perfonifies the rain, wind, and thunder ; and in order to
juftify his refentment, believes them to be taking part
with his daughters :
Lear. Rumble thy bellyful, fpit fire, fpout rain !
Nor rain, wind, thunder, fire, are my daughters.
I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindnefs ;
I never gave you kingdoms, call’d you children 5
You owe me no fubfcription. Then let fall
Your horrible pleafure.—Here I (land, your brave ;
A poor, infirm, weak, and defpifed old man !
But yet I call you fervile minifters,
That have with two pernicious daughters join’d
Your high-engender’d battles ’gainft a head
So old and white as this. Oh ! oh ! ’tis foul!
A£t iii. fc. 2.
King Richard, full of indignation againfl: his favourite
horfe for carrying Bolingbroke, is led into the convic-
tien of his being rational:
Groom. O, how it yearn’d my heart, when I beheld
In London ftreets, that coronation-day,
When Bolingbroke rode on Roan Barbary,
That horfe that thou fo often hall beltrid,
That horfe that I fo carefully have drefled.
K. Rich. Rode he on Barbary ? tell me, gentle friend,
How went he under him ?
Grootn. So proudly as he had difdain’d the ground.
K. Rich. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back !
That jade had eat bread from my royal hand.
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not Humble ? would he not fall down,
(Since pride mull have a fall), and break the neck
Of that proud man that did ufurp his back ?
Richard 11. aft v. fc. II.
Hamlet, fwelled with indignation at his mother’s fecond
marriage, was ftrongly inclined to leffen the time of her
widowhood, the Ihortnefs of the time being a violent
circumltance again!! her j and he deludes himfelf by
•degrees into the opinion of an interval fliorter than the
real one:
]
PAS
Hamlet.
-That it Ihould come to this !
But two months dead ! nay, not fo much ; not two—
So excellent a king, that was, to this,
Hyperion to a fatyr : fo loving to my mother,
That he permitted not the wind of heav’n
Vifit her face too roughly. Heav’n and earth !
Mull I remember—why, (lie would hang on him,
As if increafe of appetite had grown
By what it fed on : yet, within a month 
Let me not think—Frailty, thy name is Woman !
A little month ! or ere thofe (hoes were old,
With which fhe follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears why Ihe, ev’n Ihe 
(O heav’n ! a beaft, that wants difcourfe of reafon,
Wou’d have mourn’d longer) married ivith mine uncle,
My father’s brother ; but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month !—
Ere yet the fait of moll unrighteous tears
Had left the flulhing in her galled eyes.
She married Oh, moll wicked fpeed ! to poll
With fuch dexterity to inceltuous (fleets !
It is not, nor it cannot, come to good.
But break, my heart, for I muft hold my tongue.
Aft i. fc.
Paflion.
The power of paflion to falfify the computation of
time is remarkable in this inftance ; becaufe time, ha¬
ving an accurate meafure, is lefs obfequious to our de¬
fires and wilfles, than objefts which have no precife
ftandard of magnitude.
Good news are greedily fwallowed upon very (lender
evidence ; our wifties magnify the probability of the
event, as well as the veracity of the relater j and wre be¬
lieve as certain what at bed is doubtful:
Quel, che 1’huom vede, amor li fa invifible
E 1’ invifibil fa veder amore.
Quefto credute fu, che ’1 mifer fuole
Dar facile credenza a’ quel, che vuole.
Or land. Furiof. cant. ift. 56.
For the fame reafon, bad news gain alfo credit upon the
flighted evidence : fear, if once alarmed, has the fame
effeft with hope, to magnify every circumdance that
tends to conviftion. Shakefpeare, who (hows more
knowledge of human nature than any of our philofo-
phers, hath in his Cymbeline reprefented this bias of the
mind j for he makes the perfon who alone was aflefted
with the bad news, yield to evidence that did not con¬
vince any of his companions. And Othello is convinced
of his wife’s infidelity from circumdances too flight to
move any perfon lefs intereded.
If the new’s intered us in fo low a degree as to give
place to reafon, the effeft will not be altogether the
fame : judging of the probability or improbability of
the dory, the mind fettles in a rational conviftion ei¬
ther that it is true or not. But even in that cafe, the
mind is not allowed to red in that degree of convic¬
tion which is produced by rational evidence ; if the
news be in any degree favourable, our belief is raifed
by hope to an improper height; and if unfavourable,
by fear.
This oblervation holds equally with refpeft to future
events : if a future event be either much wifhed or dread¬
ed, the mind never fails to augment the probability be¬
yond truth.
That eafinefs of belief, with refpeft to wonders and
prodigies, even the mod abfurd and ridiculous, is a
llrange phenomenon •, becaufe nothing can be more
evident than the following propofition, That the more
Angular any event is, the more evidence is required to
produce belief: a familiar event daily occurring, being
in itfelf extremely probable, finds ready credit, and
therefore is vouched by the flighted evidence ; but to
overcome the improbability of a drange and rare event,
contrary to the courfe of nature, the very dronged evi¬
dence is required. It is certain, however, that won¬
ders and prodigies are fwallowed by the vulgar, upon
evidence that would not be fufficrent to afcertain the
mod familiar occurrence. It has been reckoned diffi¬
cult to explain that irregular bias of mind 5 but we are
now made acquainted with the influence of paflion up¬
on opinion and belief j a dory of ghofls or fairies, told
X) 2 with
Paflion.
PAS [2
with an air of gravity and truth, raifeth an emotion of
wonder, and perhaps of dread 5 and thefe emotions im-
pofing on a weak mind, imprefs upon it a thorough
convidlion contrary to reafon.
Opinion and belief are influenced by propenfity as
well as by paflion. An innate propenfity is all we have
to convince us that the operations of nature are uni¬
form : influenced by that propenfity, we often rafhly
think, that good or bad weather will never have an
end; and in natural philofophy, writers, influenced by
the fame propenfity, ftretch commonly their analogical
reafoninas beyond iult bounds. See METAPHYSICS,
N° 133* I34*
Opinion and belief are influenced by affe£hon as well
as by propenfity. The noted ftory of a fine lady and a
curate viewing the moon through a telefcope is a plea-
fant illuftration : “ I perceive (fays the lady) two flia-
dows inclining to each other they are certainly two
happy lovers “ Not at all (replies the curate), they
are two iteeples of a cathedral.”
Language of PASSION. Among the particulars that
compofe the focial part of our nature, a propenfity to
communicate our opinions, our emotions, and every
thing that aflfe£ts us, is remarkable. Bad fortune and
injuitice afreft us greatly; and of thefe we are fo prone
to complain, that if we have no friend or acquaint¬
ance to take part in our fuflferings, we fometimes utter
our complaints aloud, even where there are none to li-
ifen.
But this propenfity operates not in every flate of
mind. A man immoderately grieved, feeks to afflift
himfelf, rejecting all confolation : immoderate grief ac¬
cordingly is mute j complaining is ftruggling for confo¬
lation.
It is the wretch’s comfort ftill to have
Some fmall referve of near and inward wo,
Some unfufpefted hoard of inward grief,
Which they unfeen may wail, and weep, and mourn,
And glutton-like alone devour.
Mourning Bride, a cl i. fc. I.
When grief fubfides, it then, and no fooner, finds a
tongue : we complain, becaufe complaining is an effort
to diiburden the mind of its diftrefs. This obfervation
is finely illuftrated by a ftory which Herodotus records,
book iii. Cambyfes, when he conquered Egypt, made
Pfammeticus the king prifoner ; and for trying his con-
flancy, ordered his daughter to be drelfed in the habit
of a flave, and to be employed in bringing water from
the river $ his fon alfo was led to execution with a halter
about his neck. The Egyptians vented their forrow in
tears and lamentations: Pfammeticus only, wfith a down-
caft eye, remained filent. Afterward meeting one of
his companions, a man advanced in years, who, being
plundered of all, was begging alms, he rvept bitterly,
calling him bv his name. Cambyfes, ftruek with won¬
der, demanded an anfwer to the following queftion :
« Pfammeticus, thy mafter Cambyfes is defirous to
know, why, after thou had ft feen thy daughter fo igno-
minioufly treated, and thy fon led to execution, without
exclaiming or weeping, thou fhouldft be fo highly con¬
cerned for a poor man noway related to thee ?” Pfam¬
meticus returned the following anfwer: “ Son of Cyrus,
the calamities of my family are too great to leave me
the poiver of wTeeping ; but the misfortunes of a compa-
■ - 2
8 ] PAS
nion, reduced in his old age to want of bread, is a fit Pafliun.
fubjeft for lamentation.” »
Surprife and terror are filent paffions, for a different
reafon: they agitate the mind fo violently, as for a time
to fufpend the exercife of its faculties, and among others
the faculty of fpeech.
Love and revenge, when immoderate, are not more
loquacious than immoderate grief. But when thefe paf¬
fions become moderate, they fet the tongue free, and,
like moderate grief, become loquacious. Moderate
love, when unfuccefsful, is vented in complaints j when
fuccefsful, is full of joy exprefied by words and gef-
tures.
As no paflion hath any long uninterrupted exiftence,
nor beats always with an equal pulfe, the language fug-
gefted by paflion is not only unequal but frequently in¬
terrupted j and even during an uninterrupted fit of paf-
fion, we only exprefs in words the more capital fenti-
ments. In familiar converfation, one who vents every
Angle thought, is juftly branded with the character of
loquacity ; becaule feniible people exprefs no thoughts
but what make feme figure : in the lame manner, we
are only difpofed to exprefs the ftrongeft impulfes of
paflion, efpeeially when it returns with impetuolity after
interruption.
It is elfewhere obferved * that the fentiments ought* See the
to be tuned to the paflion, and the language to both. article
Elevated fentiments require elevated language : tender
fentiments ought to be clothed in words that are foft
and flowing : when the mind is deprefled with any paf-
fion, the fentiments muft be expreffed in words that are
humble, not low. Words being intimately connedfed
with the ideas they reprefent, the greateft harmony is
required between them : to exprefs, for example, an
humble fentiment in high-founding words, is dilagree-
able by a difeordant mixture of feelings j and the dif-
cord is not lefs when elevated fentiments are drefled in
low words :
Verfibus exponi tragicis res comica non vult.
Indignatur item privatis ac prope focco
Dignis carminibus narrari coena Thyeftae.
Horat. sirs Poet. 1. 89.
This, however, excludes not figurative expreflion, which,
within moderate bounds, communicates to the fentiment
an agreeable elevation. We are fenfible of an effedl di-
redtly oppofite, where figurative expreflion is indulged
beyond a juft meafure : the oppofition between the ex¬
preflion and the fentiment makes the difeord appear
greater than it is in reality.
At the fame time, figures are not equally the lan¬
guage of every paflion: pleafant emotions,which elevate
or fwell the mind, vent themfelves in ftrong epithets
and figurative expreflion ; but humbling and difpiriting
paflions affeft to fpeak plain :
Et tragicus plerumque dolet fermone pedeftri.
Telephus et Peleus, cum pauper et exul uterque,
Projicit ampullas et fefquipedalia verba,
Si curat cor fpe&antis tetigiffe querela.
Horat. Ars Poet. 95.
Figurative expreflion, being the work of an enlivened
imagination, cannot be the language of anguilh or di¬
ftrefs. Otway, fenfible of this, has painted a feene of
diftrefs in colours finely adapted to tire fubjedt: there is
feareely
Faifron.
PAS t 29 ] PAS
Paffkm. fcarceiy a figure in it, except a (hort and natural fimile
with which the fpeech is introduced. Belvidera, talking
to her father of her hufband ;
Think you faw what paft at our laft parting 5
Think you beheld him like a raging lion,
Pacing the earth, and tearing up his fteps,
Fate in his eyes, and roaring with the pain
Of burning fury j think you faw his one hand
Fix’d on my throat, while the extended other
Grafp’d a keen threat’ning dagger : oh, ’twas thus
We laft embrac’d, when, trembling Avith revenge,
He dragg’d me to the ground, and at my bofom
Prefented horrid death $ cry’d out, My friends !
Where are my friends ? fvvore, wept, rag’d, threaten’d,
lov’d $
For he yet lov’d, and that dear love preferv’d me
To this laft trial of a father’s pity.
I fear not death, but cannot bear a thought
That that dear hand fliould do th’ unfriendly office.
If I Avas ever then your care, norv hear mej
Fly to the fenate, fave the promis’d lives
Of his dear friends, ere mine be made the facrifice.
Venice Preferv'd, A£t v.
To prelerve the forefaid refemblance between Avords
and their meaning, the fentiments of active and hurry¬
ing paffions ought to be dreffed in words where fyllables
prevail that are pronounced fhort or fall; for thefe make
an impreffion of hurry and precipitation. Emotions, on
the other hand, that reft upon their objects, are beft ex-
prefled by words where fyllables prevail that are pro¬
nounced long or floAV. A perfon affected Avith melan¬
choly, has a languid and flow train of perceptions. The
expreffion beft fluted to that ftate of mind, is Avhere
Avords, not only of long, but of many fyllables, abound
in the compofition j and for that realbn, nothing can be
finer than the following paffage :
In thofe deep folitudes, and arvful cells,
Where heav’nly-penfive Contemplation dwells,
And ever-mufing Melancholy reigns.
Pope, E/oifa to Abelard.
To preferve the fame refemblance, another circumftance
is requifite, that the language, like the emotion, be
rough or fmooth, broken or uniform. Calm and fweet
emotions are bell exprefled by Avords that glide foftly:
furprife, fear, and other turbulent paffions, require an
expreffion both rough and broken.
It cannot have efcaped any diligent inquirer into na¬
ture, that, in the hurry of paffion, one generally expref-
fes that thing firft which is moft at heart 5 which is
beautifully done in the following paflage :
Me, Me ; adfum qui feci: in me convertite ferrum,
O Rutuli, mea fraus omnis. JEneid, ix. 427.
Paffion has often the effeft of redoubling words, the
better to make them exprefs the ftrong conception of
the mind. This is finely imitated in the following ex¬
amples.
   Thou fun, faid I, fair light !
And thou enlighten’d earth, fo freffi and gay !
Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, avooUs, aad plains!
And ye that live, and move, fair creatures ! tell,
Tell, if ye fatv, how came I thus, hotv here.—
Paradife Lojl, viii. 273.
  -Both have finn’d ! but thou
Againft God only j I, ’gainlt God and thee ;
And to the place of judgment Avill return \
There with my cries importune Heav’n, that all
The fentence, from thy head remov’d, may light
On me, foie caufe to thee of all this wo j
Me ! me ! only juft object of his ire.
Paradife Lojl, x. 930.
In general, the language of violent paffion ought to
be broken and interrupted. Soliloquies ought to be fo
in a peculiar manner : language is intended by nature
for fociety j and a man when alone, though he ahvaya
clothes his thoughts in Avords, feldom gives his Avords
utterance, unlefs when prompted by fome ftrong emo¬
tion j and even then by ftarts and intervals only.
Shakefpeare’s foliloquies may be juftly eftablilhed as a
model j for it is not eafy to conceive any model more
perfedt. Of his many incomparable foliloquics, the tAVo
following only fliall be quoted, being different in their
manner.
Hamlet. Oh, that this too, too folid flefh would
melt,
Thaw, and refolve itfelf into a dew !
Or that the Everlafting had not fix’d
His canon ’gainft felf-flaughter ! O God ! O God !
Hoav Aveary, ftale, flat, and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the ufes of this Avorld !
Fie on’t! O fie ! ’tis an unAveeded garden,
That groAvs to feed : things rank and grofs in nature
'Poffefs it merely.———That it fliould come to this !
But two months dead! nay, not fo much*, not tAVo—
So excellent a king, that Avas, to this,
Hyperion to a fatyr : fo loving to my mother,
1 hat he permitted not the Avinds of heav’n
Vifit her face too roughly. Heav’n and earth !
Muft I remember—why, (he Avould hang on him,
As if increafe of appetite had groAvn
By AA'hat it fed on : yet, Avithin a month —
Let me not think—Frailty, thy name is Woman !
A little month ! or ere thofe fhoes were old,
With which the follow’d my poor father’s body,
Like Niobe, all tears-.  Avhy ffie, ev’n the- 
(O heav’n ! a beaft, that wants difeourfe of reafon,
Would have mourn’d longer—) married with mine
uncle,
My father’s brother j but no more like my father
Than I to Hercules. Within a month ! 
Ere yet the fait of moft unrighteous tears
Had left the fluftiing in her galled eyes,
She married Oh, moft Avicked fpeed, to poft
With fuch dexterity to inceftuous flieets !
It is not, nor it cannot come to good.
But break, my heart, for I muft hold my tongue.
Hamlet, A£t i. fc. 3.
“ Eord. Hum ! ha ! is this a vifion ? is this a dream }
“ do I fleep ? Mr Ford, awake ; arvake, Mr Ford *,
“ there’s a hole made in your beft coat, Mr Ford! this
“ ’tis to be married ! this ’tis to have linen and buck
u balkets! Well, I Avill proclaim myfelf Avhat I am j
« 5
PAS ’ [ 3°
iPaflion. I will now take the leacher 5 he is at my houfe ;
“ he cannot ’fcape me $ ’tis impoffible he (hould j he
« cannot creep into a halfpenny purfe, nor into a pep-
« per-box. But left the devil that guides him Ihould
“ aid him, I will fearch impoflible places j tho’ what I
“ am I cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not, fhall
“ not make me tame.”
Merry Wives ofWindJor^ a£f iii. 1c. laft.
Thefe foliloquies are accurate and bold copies of na¬
ture : in a paflionate foliloquy one begins with think¬
ing aloud, and the ftrongeft feelings only _ are expref-
fed j as the fpeaker warms, he begins to imagine one
liftening, and gradually Aides into a conne&ed dif-
courfe.
How far diftant are foliloquies generally from theie
models ? So far indeed as to give difguft inftead of plea-
fure. The firft feene of Iphigenia in Tauris difeovers
that princefs, in a foliloquy, gravely reporting to her-
felf her own hiftory. There is the fame impropriety in
the firft feene of Alceftes, and in the other introdu&ions
of Euripides, almoft without exception. Nothing can
be more ridiculous j it puts one in mind of a moft curi¬
ous device in Gothic paintings, that of making every fi¬
gure explain itfelf by a written label iffuing from its
mouth. The defeription which a parafite, in the Eu¬
nuch of Terence (aft ii. fc. 2.) gives of himfelf, makes
a fprightly foliloquy; but it is not confiftent with the
rules of propriety ; for no man, in his ordinary ftate of
mind and upon a familiar fubjett, ever thinks of talking
aloud to himfelf. The fame objc&ion lies againft a fo¬
liloquy in the Adelphi of the fame author (a£t i. fc. 1.).
The foliloquy which makes the third feene, aft third of
his Heicyra, is infufferablej for there Pamphilus, fober-
ly and circumftantially, relates to himfelf an adventure
which had happened to him a moment before.
Corneille is unhappy in his foliloquies : 1 ake for a
fpecimen the firft feene of Cinna.
Racine is extremely faulty in the fame refpeft. His
foliloquies are regular harangues, a chain completed in
every link, without interruption or interval : that of
Antiochus in Berenice (a£t i. fc. 2.) refembles a regu¬
lar pleading, where the parties pro and con difplay
their arguments at full length. The following folilo¬
quies are equally faulty Hoju^tet^ a6t iii. fc. y. , Mi~
thridate, aft iii. fc. 4‘ anc^ *v‘ S’ i Iphigenia,
aft iv. fc. 8. r 1 • cy u
Soliloquies upon lively or interefting fubjefts, but
without any turbulence of paftion, may be carried on in
a continued chain of thought. If, for example, the na¬
ture and fprightlinefs of the fubjeft prompt a man to
fpeak his thoughts in the form of a dialogue,^ the ex-
preftion muft be carried on without break or interrup¬
tion, as in a dialogue between two perfons j which juf-
tifies Falftaff’s foliloquy upon honour:
“ What need I be fo forward with Death, that calls
not on me ? Well, ’tis no matter, Honour pricks me
“ on. But how if Honour prick me off, when I come
on ? how then ? Can honour fet a leg ? No. Or an
“ arm ? No. Or take away the grief of an wound ?
« No. Honour hath no fkill in furgery then ? No.
“ What is Honour ? A word.—What is that word ho-
-u nour ? Air ; a trim reckoning.—Who hath it ? He
■“that dy’d a Wednefday. Doth he feel it? No.
Doth he hear it ? No. Is it infenfible then ? Yea,
] PAS
“ to the dead. But will it not live with the living ? Paflioa.
“ No. Why ? Detraftion will not fuffer it. Therefore
“ I’ll none of it $ honour is a mere fcutcheon: and fo
“ ends my catechifm.”
Firjl Part, Henry IV. aft v. fc. 2.
And even without dialogue a continued difeourfe may
be juftified, w'here a man reafons in a foliloquy upon an
important fubjeft j for if in fuch a cafe it be at all ex-
cufable to think aloud, it is neceffary that the reafoning
be carried on in a chains which juftifies that admirable
foliloquy in Hamlet upon life and immortality, being a
ferene meditation upon the moft interefting of all fub¬
jefts. And the fame confideration will juftify the foli¬
loquy that introduces the 5th aft of Addifon’s Cato.
Language ought not to be elevated above the tone of
the fentiment.
Zara. Swift as occafion I
Myfelf will fly, and earlier than the morn
Wake thee to freedom. Now ’tis latej and yet
Some news few minutes paft arriv’d, which feem’d
To (hake the temper of the king-—-Who knows
What racking cares difeafe a monarch’s bed ?
Or love, that late at night ftill lights his lamp,
And ftrikes his rays through dufle, and folded lids,
Forbidding reft, may ftretch his eyes awake,
And force their balls abroad at this dead hour.
I’ll try. Mourning Bride, aft iii. fc. 4.
The language here is undoubtedly too pompous and la-'
boured for deferibing fo Ample a circumftance as abfence
of fleep. In the following paflage, the tone of the lan¬
guage, warm and plaintive, is well fuited to the paflion,
which is recent grief: but every one will be fenfible,
that in the laft couplet fave one the tone is changed,
and the mind fuddenly elevated to be let fall as fuddenly
in the laft couplet:
II detefte a jamais fa coupable viftoire,
II renonce a la cour, aux humains, & la gloir
Et fe fuiant lui-meme, au milieu des deferts,
II va cacher fa peine au bout de 1’universj
UJoit yue le foleil rendit le jour au monde.
Soil qu'il jinit fa courfe au vajie Jein de Conde,
Sa voix faifoit redire aux echos attendris,
Le nom, le trifte nom, de fon malheureux fils.^
Henriade, chant, viii. 229.
Light and airy language is unfuitable to a fevere paf-
fion. .
Imagery and figurative exprellion are difeordant, m
the higheft degree, with the agony of a mother, who
is deprived of two hopeful fons by a brutal murder.
Therefore the following paffage is undoubtedly in a bad
tafte:
^ueen. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes?
My unblown flowers, new appearing fweets ?
If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual.
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother’s lamentation.
Richard III. aft iv. fc. 4.
Again:
K. Philip. You are as fond of grief as of your child.
Con/lance. Grief fills the room up of my abfent child,
J ' Lies
PAS [
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garment with his form j
Then have I reafon to be fond of grief.
K. John, a& iii. fc. 9.
Thoughts that turn upon the exprelfion inftead of
the fubjeft, commonly called a play of words, being
low and childilh, are unworthy of any compolition,
whether gay or ferious, that pretends to any degree of
elevation.
In the Amynta of Taffo, the lover falls into a mere
play of words, demanding how he who had loft himfelf,
could find a miftrefs. And for the fame reafon, the
following paffage in Corneille has been generally con¬
demned :
Chimene. Mon pere eft mort, Elvire, et la premiere
epee
Dont s’eft armee Rodrigue a fa trame coupee.
Pleurez, pleurez, mes yeux, et fondez-vous en eaux,
La moietie de ma vie a mis I’autre au tombeau,
Et m’oblige a venger, apres ce coup funefte,
Celle que je n’ai plus, fur celle que me refte.
Cid, a6l iii. fc. 3.
To die is to be banilh’d from myfelf:
And Sylvia is myfelf: banifti’d from her,
Is felf from felf *, a deadly baniftiment!
Two Gentlemen of Verona, a£t iii. fc. 3.
Countefs. I pray thee, Lady, have a better cheer :
If thou engroffeft all the griefs as thine,
Thou robb’ft me of a moiety.
All's well that ends well, aft iii. fc. 3.
K. Henry. O my poor kingdom, fick with civil
blows !
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care ?
O, thou wilt be a wildernefs again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.
Second Part, Henry IV. aft iv. fc. 11.
Cruda Amarilli, che col nome ancora
D’amar, ahi laffo, amaramente infegni.
Pafor Fido, aft i. fc. 2.
Antony, fpeaking of Julius Caefar :
O world ! thou waft the foreft of this hart j
And this, indeed, O world, the heart of thee.
How like a deer, ftricken by many princes,
Doft thou here lie ! Julius Ccefar, aft iii. fc. 3.
Playing thus with the found of words, which is ftill
worfe than a pun, is the meaneft of all conceits. But
Shakefpeare, when he defcends to a play of words,
is not always in the wrong j for it is done fometimes to
denote a peculiar charafter, as in the following paf¬
fage : * r
K. Philip. What fay’ft thou, boy ? look in the lady’s
face.
Lewis. I do, my Lord, and in her eye I find
A wonder, or a wond’rous miracle ;
The ftiadow of myfelf form’d in her eye }
Which being but the ftiadow of your fon, *
Becomes a fon, and makes your fon a ftiadow,
31 ] PA S
I do proteft, I never lov’d myfelf
Till now infixed I beheld myfelf
Drawn in the flatt’ring table of her eye.
Faulconbridge. Drawn in the flatt’ring table of her
eye !
Hang’d in the frowning wrinkle of her brow !
And quarter’d in her heart ! he doth efpy
Himfelf Love’s traitor : this is pity now,
That hang’d, and drawn, and quarter’d there ftiould be,
In fuch a love.fo vile a lout as he.
King John, aft ii. fc. 5.
A jingle of words is the loweft fpecies of that low
wit, which is fcarcely fufferable in any cafe, and leaft of
all in an heroic poem : and yet Milton in fome inftances
has defeended to that puerility :
And brought into the world a world of wo.
 . Begirth th’ Almighty throne
Befeeching or befieging 
Which tempted our attempt  
At one flight bound high overleap’d all bound.
  With a ftiout
Loud as from numbers without number.
One ftiould think it unneceffary to enter a caveat
againft an expreflion that has no meaning, or no diftinft
meaning j and yet fomewhat of that kind may be found
even among good writers.
Sebafhan. I beg no pity for this mould’ring clay.
For if you give it burial, there it takes
Poffeflion of your earth :
If burnt and fcatter’d in the air j the winds
That ftrow my duft, diffufe my royalty,
And fpread me o’er your clime j for where one atom
Of mine ftiall light, know there Sebaftian reigns.
Dryden, Don Sebnfian King of Portugal, aft L.
Cleopatra. Now, what news, my Charmion ?
W ill he be kind ? and will he not forfake me ?
Am I to live or die ? nay, do I live ?
Or am I dead ? for when he gave his anfwer,
Fate took the word, and then I liv’d or dy’d.
Dryden, Allfor Love, aft ii.
If ftie be coy, and fcorn my noble fire,
If her chill heart I cannot move $
Wrhy, I’ll enjoy the very love,
And make a miftrefs of my own defire.
Cowley, poem inferibed “ The Requeft.’'’
His whole poem inferibed My PiBure is a jargon of
the fame kind.
 ’Tis he, they cry, by whom
Not men, but war itfelf is overcome.
Indian ^ueen.
Such empty expreflions are finely ridiculed in the Re-
hearfal.
Was’t not unjuft to ravifti hence her breath,
And in life’s ftead to leave us nought but death ?
Aft iv. fc. 1.
Passions, in Medicine, make one of the nort-natu-
rals, and produce very fenfible effefts. Joy, anger, and
fear, are the principal. In the two firft, the fpirits are
hurried with too great vivacity j whereas, in fear or
dread jt-
Faffion.
* See Ora¬
tory, N°
so.' 37.
Plates
Cl - W,
and’
CCCCYI
PAS [32
dread, they are as it were curbed and concentrated :
whence we may conclude, that they have a very bad ef-
fe£t upon health 5 and therefore it will be belt to keep
them within bounds as much as poffible, and to preferve
an inward ferenity, calmnefs, and tranquillity.
Passions, in Painting, are the external expreffions of
the different difpofitions and affections of the mind ; but
particularly their different effeCts upon the feveral fea¬
tures of the face : for though the arms, and indeed eve¬
ry part of the body *, ferve likewife, by their quick,
languid, and varioufly diverfified motions, to exprefs the
patiions of the foul } yet, in painting, this difference is
molt confpicuous in the face. See Painting, and
Drawing, § 8.
As we have given engravings of Le Brun’s drawings
of the paffions, we (hall here fubjoin the account which
he has given of each of thefe heads.
1. The effeCts of attention arc, to make the eyebrows
fink and approach the fides of the nofe •, to turn the
eyeballs toward the objeCt that caufes it ; to open the
mouth, and efpecially the upper part j to decline the
head a little, and fix it without any other remarkable
alteration.
2. Admiration caufes but little agitation in the mind,
and therefore alters but very little the parts of the face ;
weverthelefs the eyebrow rifes ; the eye opens a little
more than ordinary •, the eyeball placed equally be¬
tween the eyelids appears fixed on the objed ; the
mouth half opens, and makes no fenfible alteration in
the cheeks.
3. The motions that accompany admiration with ajio-
mjhment are hardly different from thofe of Ample admi¬
ration, only they are more lively and ftronger marked;
the eyebrows more elevated ; the eyes more open •, the
eyeball further from the lower eyelid, and more fteadily
.fixed : The mouth is more open, and all the parts in a
much ftronger emotion.
4. Admiration begets efteem, and this produces vene¬
ration, which, when it has for its objeft fomething di¬
vine or beyond our comprehenfion, makes the face de¬
cline, and the eyebrows bend down 5 the eyes are almoft
fhut and fixed : the mouth is fhut. Thefe motions are
gentle, and produce but little alteration in the other
parts.
5. Although rapture has the fame objeCl as venera¬
tion, onlv confidered in a different manner, its motions
are not the fame ; the head inclines to the left fide j
the eyeballs and eyebrows rife direCtly up •, the mouth
half opens, and the two corners are alfo a little turned
up : the other parts remain in their natural ftate.
6. 'The paffion of dejire brings the eyebrows clofe to¬
gether and forwards toward the eyes, which are more
open than ordinary : the eyeball is inflamed, and places
itfelf in the middle of the eye •, the noftrils rife up, and
are contrafted towards the eyes •, the mouth half opens,
and the fpirits being in motion give a lively glowing
colour.
y. Very little alteration is remarked in the face of
thofe that feel within themfelves t\\e fweetnefs of joy, or
joy with tranqwll'ty. The forehead is ferene ; the eye¬
brow without motion, elevated in the middle •, the eye
prettv open and with a laughing air ; the eyeball lively
and fhiningthe corners of the mouth turn up a little
the complexion is lively } the cheeks and lips are red.
] PAS
8. Laughter, which is produced by joy mixed with
furprife, makes the eyebrow rife towards the middle of
the eye, and bend towards the fides of the nofe j the
eyes are almoft fhut, and fometimes appear wet, or filed
tears, which make no alteration in the face •, the mouth
half open, fhows the teeth ; the corners of the mouth
drawn back, caufe a wrinkle in the cheeks, which ap¬
pear fo fwelled as to hide the eyes in fome meafure j
the noftrils are open, and all the face is of a red co¬
lour.
9. Acute pain makes the eyebrows approach one an¬
other, and rife towards the middle; the eyeball is hid
under the eyebrows ; l he noftrils rife and make a wrinkle
in the cheeks; the mouth half opens and draw’s back :
all the parts of the face are agitated in proportion to the
violence of the pain.
10. Simple bodily pain produces proportionally the
fame motions a- the laft, but not fo ftrong : i he eye¬
brows do not approach and rife fo much ; the eyeball
appears fixed on iome obje£! ; the nolfrils rife, but the
wrinkles in the cheeks are lefs perceivable ; the lips are
further afunder towards the middle, and the mouth is
half open.
11. 'J he deje&ion that is produced by fadnefs makes
the eyebrows rife towards the middle of the forehead
more than towards the cheeks ; the eyeball appears full
of perturbation ; the white of the eye is yellow ; the
evelids are drawn down, and a little fwelled ; all about
the eyes is livid ; the noftrils are drawn downward ; the
mouth is half open, and the corners are drawn down ;
the head carelefsly leaning on one of the fhoulders : the
face is of a lead colour ; the lips pale.
12. The alterations that weeping occafions are ftrong-
ly marked : The eyebrows fink down towards the mid¬
dle of the forehead ; the eyes are almoft clofed, wet, and
drawn down towards the cheeks ; the noftrils fwelled ;
the muffles and veins of the forehead appear ; the mouth
is fhut, and the fides of it are drawn down, making
wrinkles on the cheeks ; the under lip pufhed out, pref-
fes the upper one : all the face is wrinkled and contraft-
ed ; its colour is red, efpecially about the eyebrows, the
eyes, the nofe, and the cheeks.
13. The lively attention to the misfortunes of another,
which is called compajjion, caufes the eyebrows to fink
towards the middle of the forehead ; the eyeball to be
fixed upon the objeft ; the fides of the noftrils next the
nofe to be a little elevated, making wrinkles in the
cheeks ; the mouth to be open ; the upper lip to be lift¬
ed up and thruft forwards ; the mufcles and all the parts
of the face finking down and turning towards the objeft
which excites the paflion.
14. The motions of/corn are lively and ftrong : The
forehead is wrinkled ; the eyebrow is knit; the fide of
it next the nofe finks doevn, and the other fide rifes ve¬
ry much ; the eye is very open, and the eyeball is in
the middle ; the noftrils rife, and draw towards the eyes,
and make wrinkles in the cheeks ; the mouth Units, its
fides finking down, and the under-lip is pufhed out be¬
yond the upper one.
15. An objett defpifed fometimes caufes horror, and
then the eyebrow knits, and finks a great deal more.
The eyeball, placed at the bottom of the eye, is half co¬
vered by the lower eyelid ; the mouth is half open, but
clofer in the middle than the fides, which being drawn
back.
Paflion.
WSc////*- r
PASSIONS
PLATE CCCCn
//. /Z? v'/sz /’s/A'/ Sru//i./
\ .
X
W:\
/
PAS
P;.fllon back, makes 'wrinkles in the cheeks; the face grows
Psilve Pa^e» anc^ t^ie eyes become livid j the mufcles and the
~ veins are marked.
16. The violence of terror or fright, alters all the
parts of the face; the eyebrow rifes in the middle ;
its mufcles are marked, fwelled, prefl'ed one againft
the other, and funk towards the nofe, which draws up as
well as the noltrils ; the eyes are very open ; the upper
eyelid is hid under the eyebrow ; the white of the eye
is encompaffed with red; the eyeball fixes toward the
lower part of the eye; the lower part of the eyelid
fwells and becomes livid •, the mufcles of the nofe and
cheeks fwell, and thefe laft terminate in a point toward
the fides of the noftrils 5 the mouth is very open, and its
corners very apparent; the mufcles and veins of the
neck ftretched ; the hair Hands on end j the colour of
the face, that is, the end of the nofe, the lips, the ears,
and round the eyes, is pale and livid j and all ought to
be ftrongly marked.
17. The effefts of anger fhow its nature. The eyes
become red and inflamed j the eyeball is Haring and
fparkling •, the eyebrows are fometimes elevated and
fometimes funk down equally : the forehead is very
much wrinkled, with wrinkles between the eyes 5 the
noHrils are open and enlarged : the lips prefling againfl
one another, the under one rifing over the upper one
leaves the corners of the mouth a little open, making a
cruel and difdainful grin.
1%. Hatred or jealonfij w’rinkles the forehead; the
eyebrows are funk down and knit; the eyeball is
half hid under the eyebrows, wljjch turn towards the
object; it fliould appear full of fire, as well as the white
of the eye and the eyelid ; the noflrils are pale, open,
more marked than ordinary, and drawn backward fo
as to make wrinkles in the cheeks; the mouth is fo
(hut as to (how the teeth are clofed ; the corners of
the mouth are drawn back and very much funk ; the
mufcles of the jaw appear funk ; the colour of the face
is partly inflamed and partly yellowifh; the lips pale or
livid.
19. As defpair is extreme, its motions are fo like wife ;
the forehead wrinkles from the top to the bottom ; the
eyebrows bend down over the eyes, and prefs one ano¬
ther on the fides of the nofe; the eye feems to be on
fire, and full of blood ; the eyeball is diflurbed, hid un¬
der the eyebrow, fparkling and unfixed ; the eyelid is
fwelled and livid; the noflrils are large, open, and lift¬
ed up; the end of the nofe finks down ; the mufcles,
tendons, and veins, are fwelled and Hretched ; the upper
part (>f the cheeks is large, marked, and narrow towards
the jaw ; the mouth drawn backwards is more open at
the fides than in the middle ; the lower lip is large and
turned out j they gnafli their teeth ; they foam ; they
bite their lips, which are pale; as in the refl of the
face ; the hair is Hraight and Hands on end.
Passion-Flower. See Passiflora, Botany In¬
dex.
PASSION-lVeek, the week immediately preceding the
feflival of Eafler ; fo called, becaufe in that week
our Saviour’s paflion and death happened. The Thurf-
day of this week is called Maun day Thurfday; the
Friday, Good Friday; and the Saturday, the Great
Sabbath.
PASSIVE, in general, denotes fomething that fuf-
£ers the aftion of another, called an agent or aHive power.
Vol. XVI. Part I.
PAS
In grammar, the verb or word that expreffes this paflion Paftive
is termed a pajjive verb : which, in the learned langua- p. J;..,
ges, has a peculiar termination ; as amor, doceor, &c. obedience.
in Latin ; that is an r is added to the aftives, amo, t *
doceo : and, in the Greek, the inflection is made by
changing into epxi; as totUm rvTrlcfioti, &c. Bui in.
the modern languages, the pafiive inflection is performed
by means of auxiliary verbs, joined to the participle of
the paft tenfe ; as, “ I am praifed,” in Latin laudor,
and in Greek i-icaviopoti ■, or, “ l am loved,” in Latin
amor, and in Greek Qiteapat. Thus it appears that the
auxiliary verb am, ferves to form the paflives of Englifli
verbs : and the fame holds of the French ; as, Je fuis
loue, “ I am praifed fai ete hue, “ I have been prai¬
fed,” &c. See Grammar.
Passive Title, in Scots Law. See Law, Part III.
N° clxxx. 30.
PASSIVE Obedience, a political doCtrine which has
been much mifreprefented, and is, of courfe, very ob¬
noxious to the friends of freedom. Some nonjurors, in
the end of the lafl and in the beginning of the palling
century, imagining that monarchy is the only lawful
form of government, and that hereditary monarchy is
the only lawful fpecies of that government, have coupled
with paflive obedience the ridiculous notion of a divine,
hereditary, indefeafible right of certain families to go¬
vern with defpolic fway all other families of the fame
nation. The abfurdity of this notion needs not to be
dwelt upon ; but it may not be improper, to obferve,
that it has nothing to do with paffive obedience.
As taught by the ablefl reafoners, who think that
they are fupported by the holy fcripture, paflive obedi¬
ence is as much a duty under republican as under mo¬
narchical governments ; and it means no more, but that
private individuals are bound by the mofl folemn moral
ties not to refifl the fupreme power wherefoever placed
in any nation. The fupreme power can only be the le-
giflature; and no man or body of men, who have not
the power of enaCling and abrogating laws can, on this
principle, claim paflive obedience from any fubje6t.
Whether the principle be well or ill founded, the ab¬
furdity which commonly attaches to the phrafe pqjjive
obedience, originates from the miflaken loyalty of the
adherents of the houfe of Stuart, who to aggravate the
illegality of the revolution, were wont to reprefent
James II. as fupreme over both houfes of parliament,
and of courfe over all law. That fuch reveries were
foolifli, we need no farther evidence than the flatute-
book, which (hows, that in the office of legiflation, the
king, lords, and commons, are co ordinate ; and that
when any one of thefe powers {hall take upon iifelf to
counterafl the other two, the duty of paflive obedience
will oblige the fubjeft to fupport the legiflature. That
refiflance t© the legiflature, if lawful on any occafion,
can be fo only to oppofe the molt violent tyranny, has
been flrown by Mr Hume with great cogency of argu¬
ment, and is indeed a propofition felf-evident. That it
can never be lawful on any occafion, Biftiop Berkeley
endeavoured to prove by a chain of reafoning which
it would be difficult to break. We enter not into
the controverfy, but refer our readers to Hume’s Ef-
fays and Berkeley’s Paflive Obedience and Nonrefiff-
ance, or, as it was intitled by a late editor, The Mea-
fure of Submiffi.m to Civil Government. We {hall on¬
ly obferve, that there is a great difference between
E uBive
[ 33 ]
PAS [ 34 ] ' PAS
Paffive aBive and pajjive obedience 3 and that many who c-on-
Obedience fi ler themfelves as bound on no account whatever to re-
Paflover. M tlle hipreme power, would yet fuffer death rather
1. y—.... than do an Immoral a£Hon in obedience to any law of
earthly origin.
Passive Prayer, among the mystic divines, is a total
fufpv niion or ligature of the intelledtual faculties 3 in
virtue whereof, the foul remains of itfelf, and as to its
own power, impotent with regard to the producing of
any effe&s. The paflive fiate, according to Fenelon, is
only paffive in the fame fenfe as contemplation is, 1. e. it
does not exclude peaceable, difinterefted adts, but only
unquiet ones, or fuch as tend to our own intereft. In
the paflive ftate, the foul has not properly any aflivity,
and fenfation, of its own : it is a mere infinite flexibility
of the foul, to which the feebleii impulfe of grace gives
motion.
PASSOVER, a folemn feftival of the Jews, inftitu-
ted in commemoration ot their coming out of Egypt 3
becaufe the night before their departure, the deftroying
angel, who put to death the firft-born of the Egyptians,
paffed over the houfes of the Hebrews without entering
therein, becaufe they were marked with the blood of
the lamb which was killed the evening before,and which
for this reafon was called the pajchal lamb, i his featt
was called pajcha bv the old Oreeks and Romans 3 not
we prefume irom Trxa-yp), “ I fuffer,” as Chryfoftom, Ire-
nseus, and Tertullian, fuppofe, but from the Hebrew
word pefah, pajfage, leap. The following is what God
ordained concerning the paflover of the Jews, (Exod.
xii.). The month of the coming forth from Egypt was
looked upon from this time to be the firff month of the
facred or ecclefiaftical year, and the fourteenth day of
this month, between the two vefpers, that is, between
the fun’s decline and his fetting : or rather, according
to our manner of reckoning, between two o clock in
the afternoon and fix o’clock in the evening at the equi¬
nox, they were to kill the pafchal lamb, and to abitain
from leavened bread. The day following being the fif¬
teenth, counting from fix o’clock of the foregoing even¬
ing, which concluded the fourteenth, was the grand
featt of the paffover, which continued feven days. But
it was only the firft and the feventh day that w7ere fo¬
lemn. The lamb that was killed ought to be without
any defedt, a male, and yeaned that year.^ ^ If no lamb
could be found, they might take a kid. I hey killed a
lamb or a kid in every family 3 and if the number of
thole that lived in the houfe was not fufficient to eat a
lamb, they might join two houfes together. With the
blood of the pafchal lamb they fprinkled the door-pofts
and lintel of every houfe, that the deftroying angel, at
the fight of the blood, might pafs over them, and fave
the Hebrew children. They were to eat the lamb the
fame night that followed the facrificc 3 they ate it roaft-
ed, with unleavened bread, and a falad of wild lettuce.
The Hebrew fays literally, with bitter things, as fuppofe
muftard, or any thing of this nature to give a relifh. It
was forbid to eat any part of it raw, or boiled in water,
nor were they to break a bone, (Exod. vii. 46. Numb,
ix. 1 2. John xix. 36.) 3 and if anv thing remained to
the day following, it was thrown into the fire. They
that ate it were to be Jn the pofture of travellers, ha¬
ving their reins girt, their (hoes on their feet, their ftaves
in their hands, and eating in a hurrv. ‘But this laft part
of the ceremony was but little obferved, at leaft it was
5
of no obligation, but only upon that night they came PafTover.
forth out of Egypt. For the whole eight days of the
palfover no leavened bread was to be uied 3 and who¬
ever fhould eat any, vras threatened to be cut off^
from his people. With regard to the ceremonies which
are obferved in relation to the bread, fee the article
Bread.
They keep the firft and laft day of the feaft, yet fo
as that it was allowed to drefs vidtuals, which was for¬
bidden on the Sabbath-day. The obligation of keeping
the paffover v'as fo ftrict, that whoever ihould negleft to
do it, was condemned to death, (Numb. ix. X3-)- But
thofe who had any lawful impediment, as a journey,
ficknefs, or any uncleannefs, voluntary or involuntary 3
for example, thofe that had been prefent at a funeral, or
by any other accident had been defiled, were to defer
the celebration of the paffover till the fecond month of
the ecclefiaftical year, or to the fourteenth day of the
month Jair, which anfwers to April and May. It wa*
thus the Lord ordered Mofes, upon the occafion of the
inquiry of fome Ifraelites, who had been obliged to pay
their laft offices to fome of their relations, and who be¬
ing thus polluted, were not capable of partaking of the
pafchal facrifice, (2 Cbr. xxx. 1, 2, &c.). The modern
Jews obferve in general the fame ceremonies that were
praftifed by their anceftors, in the celebration of the
paffover. On the fourteenth of Nifan, the firft-born fail
in memory of God’s fruiting the firft-born of the Egyp¬
tians. The morning prayers are the fame with thofe
faid on other feftivals. They take the roll of the pen-
tateuch out of the chef, and read as far as the end of
the twelfth chapter of Exodus, and what is contained
in the eighteenth chapter of Numbers, relating to the
paffover. The matron of the family then fpreads a ta¬
ble, and fets on it two unleavened cakes, and two pieces
of the lamb, a ffioulder boiled and another roafted, to
put them in mind that God delivered them with a
ftretched-out arm. To this they add fome fmall fifties,
becaufe of the leviathan ; a hard egg, becaufe of the
ziz 3 fome meal, becaufe of the behemoth, (thefe three
animals being appointed for the feaft of the eledt in the
other life) 3 and peas and nuts for the children, to pro¬
voke their curiofity to aik the reafon of this ceremony.
They likewife ufe a kind of muflard, which has the ap¬
pearance of mortar, to reprefent their making bricks in
Eg\pt. The father of the family fits down with his
children and flaves, becaufe on this day all are free.
Being fet down, he takes bitter herbs, and dips them in
the muftard, then eats them, and diftributes to the reft.
Then they eat of the lamb, the hiftory and inftitution
of which is at that time recited by the mafter of the fa¬
mily. The whole repaft is attended with hymns and
prayers. They pray for the prince under whofe domi¬
nion they live, according to the advice of Jeremiah
(xxix. 7.), “ Seek the peace of the city whither I have
caufed you to be carried away captives, and pray unto
the Lord for it : for in the peace thereof ffiall ye have
peace.” See the article Feast, &c. The fame things
are put in praftice the two following days ; and the fef¬
tival is concluded by the ceremony habdala or diftinc-
tion. This ceremony is performed at the clofing of the
Sabbath-day, at which time the mafter of the houfe pro¬
nounces certain benedi&inns, accompanied with certain
formalities, requefting that every thing mav fucceed well
the week following. After going out of the fynagogue.
PafTover,
Paffport
PAS [ 35 ] PAS
they then eat leavened bread for the laft time. (Leo of
Modena, p. iii. c. 3. and the Rabbins). While the tem¬
ple was Handing, they brought their lambs thither, and
facrifieed them, olfering the blood to the prieft, who
poured it out at the foot of the altar. The paffover
was typically predi&ive of Chrift our ChriHian paffover,
(1 Cor. v. 7.). As the deftroying angel paffed over the
houfes marked with the blood of the pafchal lamb, fo
the wrath of God paffes over them whofe fouls are
fprinkled with the blood of Chriit. The pafohal lamb
was killed before Ifrael was delivered, fo it is neeeffary
Chrift thould fuffer before we could be redeemed. It
was killed before Mofes’s law or Aaron’s facrifices were
enjoined, to ihow that deliverance comes to mankind by
none of them; but only the true paffover, that Lamb
of God flain from the foundation of the world, (Rom.
iii. 25. Heb. ix, 14.). It was killed the firit month of
the year, which prefigured that Chrift: fhould fuffer
death in this month, (John xviii. 28.). It was killed in
the evening, (Exod. xii. 6.). So Chrift fuffered in the
laft days, and at this time of the day, (Matt, xxvii. 46.
Heb. i. 2.). At even alfo the lun fets, which (hows that
it was the Sun of Righteoufnefs who was to fuffer and die,
and that at his paflhm univerfal darknefs (hould be upon
the whole earth, (Luke xxiii. 44.). The paffover was
roafted with fire, to denote the iharp and dreadful pains
which Chrift ftiould fuffer, not only from men, but from
God alfo. It was to be eaten with bitter herbs, not on¬
ly to put them in remembrance of their bitter bondage
in Egypt, but alfo to typify our mortification to fin, and
readinefs to undergo affliblions for Chrift, (Col. i. 24 ).
Many erroneoufly imagine, that the paffover was inftitu-
ted in memory of the Ifraelites pafting the Red Sea;
though it is certain the fealt was held, and had its name,
before the Ifraelites took a ftep of their way out of E-
gypt, and conftquently feveral days before their palling
the Red Sea. Befides the paffover celebrated on the
fourteenth of the firft month, there was a fecond paffover
held on the fourteenth of the fecond month after the
equinox, inftituted by God in favour of travellers and
fick perfpns, who could not attend at the firft, nor be at
Jerufalem on the day. The Greeks, and even forne of
the catholic doflors, from the thirteenth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth, chap'ers, of St John, take occafion to con¬
clude, that Jefus anticipated the day marked for the pafs-
over in the law ; but the authority of three evangelifts
feems to evince the contrary. See Whitbv’s Differta-
tion on this fubiecf, in an appendix to the fourteenth
chapter of St Mark. F. Lamy fuppofes, that our Lord
did not attend at the paffover the laft year of his life ;
which fentiment has drawn upon him abundance of
©ppofers. F. Ha douin afferts, that the Galileans ce¬
lebrated the paffover on one day, and the Jews on an¬
other.
PASSPORT, or P *ss. a licence or writing obtain¬
ed from a prince or governor, granting permiffion and
a fafe conduft to pafs through his territories without
moleftation : Alfo a permiffion granted by any ftate to
navigate in fome particular fea, without hinderance or
moleftation from it. It contains the name of the veffel,
and that of the mailer, together with her tonnage and
the number of her crew, certifying that (he belongs to
the fubjefts of a particular ftate, and requiring all per-
fons at peace with that ftate to fuffer her to proceed on
her-voyage without interruption.
The violation of fafe-conduffs or paflports exprefsly
granted by the king or by his ambaffadors to the fub-
jedls of a foreign power in time of mutual war, or com- v
milling a£ts of hoftility againfl fuch as are in amity,
league, or truce with us, who are here under a general
implied fafe-condu£l, are breaches of the public faith,
without which there can be no intercourfe or commerce
between one nation and another ; and fuch offences
may, according to the writers upon the law of nations,
be a proper ground of a national war. And it is draft¬
ed by the ftatute 31 Hen. VI. cap. 4. ftill in force, that
if any of the king’s fubjefts attempt to offend upon the
fea, or in any port within the king’s obey fam e, or a-
gainft any flrarger in amity, league, or truce, or under
falfe-conduft, and efpecially by attacking his pe fon, or
fpoiling him, or robbing him of his goods , the lord-
chancellor, with any of the juftices of either the king’s-
bench or common-pleas, may caufe full reftitution and
amends to be made to the party injured. Paiquief fays
that pa/Jj)o?'t was introduced for pojje par tout. Balzac
mentions a very honourable paffport given by an empe¬
ror to a philofopher in thefe terms: “ If there be any
one on land or fea hardy enough to moleft Potamon, let
him conlider whether he be ftrong enough to wage war
with Caefar.”
Passport is ufed likewife for a licence granted by a
prince, for the importing or exporting merchandizes,
moveables, &c. without paying the duties. Merchants
procure fuch paffports for certain kinds of commodities:
and they are always given to ambaffadors and minifters
for their baggage, equipage, &c.
Passport is alfo a licence obtained for the importing
or exporting of merchandizes deemed contraband, and
declared fuch by tariffs, &c. as gold, filver, precious
ftones, ammunition of war, borfes, corn, wool, &c. upon
paying duties.
PASSUS, among the Romans, a meafure of length,
being about four feet ten inches, or the thoufandth part
of a Roman mile. The word properly fignifies, the fpace
betwixt the feet of a man walking at an ordinary rate.
See Measure.
PASTE, in Cookery, a foft compofition of flour,
wrought up with proper fluids, as water, milk, or the
like, to fcrve for cafes or coffins, therein to bake meats,
fiuits, &c. It is the balls or foundation of pyes, tarts,
patties, pafties, and other works of paftrv. It is alfo
ufed in confeftionary, &c. for a preparation of fome
fruit, made by beating the pulp thereof with fome fluid
or other admixture, into a foft pappv confiftence,
fpreading it into a difti, and drying it with fugar, till it
becomes as pliable as an ordinary pafte. It is ufed oc-
cafionally alfo for making the crufts and bottoms of pyes,
&c. Thus, with proper admixtures, are made almond
paftes, apple paftes, apricot paftes, cherry, currant, le¬
mon, plum, peach, and pear paftes.
Paste is likewiff ufed for a preparation of wheaten
flour, boiled up and incorporated with water ; ufed by
various artificers, as upholfterers, faddlers, bookbinders,
&c. inftead of glue or fize, to faften or cement their
cloths, leathers, papers, &c. When pafte is ufed by
bookbinders, or for paper-hangings to rooms, they mix
a fourth, fifth, or fixth, of the weight of the flour of
powdered refin ; and where it is wanted ftill more 'e-
naeious, gum arable or any kind of fize may be added.
Pafte may be preferved, by diffolving a little fublimate,
5 2 in
P.a’p.irt
II
Pafte.
P A 3
in the proportion of a dram to a quart, in the water em¬
ployed for making it, which will prevent not only rats
and mice, but any other kind of vermin and inledts, from
preying upon it.
Pastes, in the glafs trade, or the imitation or coun¬
terfeiting of gems in glafs •, fee Gem.
PASTEBO ziRD, a kind of thick paper, formed of
feveral iingle rtieets palled one upon another. The chief
ufe of palteboard is for binding books, making letter-
eafes, &e. See Paper.
PASTERN of a Horse, in the manege, is the di-
ftance betwixt the joint next the foot and the coronet of
the hoof. This part (hould be Ihort, efpecially in mid-
dle-fized horfes ; becaufe long patterns are weak, and
cannot fo well endure travelling.
PASTERN Joint, the joint next a horfe’s foot.
P AS IT L, or Pastel, among painters, a kind of
pafte made of different colours ground up with gum-wa¬
ter, in order to make Crayons.
Pastil, in Pharmacy, is a dry compofition of fweet-
fmelling relins, aromatic woods, &c. fometimes burnt to
clear and fcent the air of a chamber.
P AS F I ME, a fport, amufement, or diverfion. Pa-
ftimes of fome kind feem to be abfolutely neceffary, and
to none more than to the man of ftudy j for the moft
vigorous mind cannot bear to be always bent. Conflant
application to one purfuit, if it deeply engage the atten¬
tion, is apt to unhinge the mind, and to generate mad-
liefs ; of which the Don Quixote of Cervantes, and the
aftronomer of Johnfon, are trvo admirably conceived in-
ftances. But though paftime is neceffary to relieve the
mind, it indicates great frivolity when made the bufinefs
of life ; and yet the rich and the great, who are not
obliged to labour for the means of fubfittence, too often
rove from paftime to paftime with as eonftant afliduity
as the mechanic toils for his family, or as the philofopher
devotes himfelf to the cultivation of fcience. When
thofe paftimes tend to give elafticity to the mind or
ftrength to the body, fuch conduct is not only allowable,
but praife-worthy ; but when they produce effefls the
reverfe of thefe, it is both hurtful and criminal. The
gaming-table, the mafquerade, the midnight affembly of
any fort, muft of neceftity enfeeble both the body and
the mind ; and yet fuch are the faftiionable amufements
of the prefent day, to which many a belle and many a
beau facrifice their beauty, their health, their quiet, and
their virtue.
Far different were the paftimes of our wifer anceftors :
Remote from vice and effeminacy, they were innocent,
s
From the ancient re- Paftime-
cords of this country, it appears, that the fports, amufe- ‘ * -
ments, pleafures, and recreations, of our anceftors, as de¬
fended by Fitz-Stephen (a), added ftrength and agility
to the wheels of ftate mechanifm, while they had a di-
reft tendency towards utility. For moft of thefe ancient
recreations aie refolvable into the public defence of the
ftate againft the attacks of a foreign enemy. The play
at ball, derived from the Romans, is firft introduced by
this author as the common exercife of every fchool-boy.
The performance was in a field, where the refort of the
moft fubftantial and confiderable citizens, to give encou-
ragement and countenance to this feat of agility, was
fplendid and numerous. . The intention of this amufe¬
ment at this period of time was to make the juvenile
race affive, nimble, and vigorous 5 which qualities were
requifite whenever their aftiftance fliould be wanted in
the proteftion of their country, j. he next fpecies of
paftime indeed does not feem to have this tendency $ but
it was only, as it feems, an annual cuftom : This was
cock-fighting. The author tells us, that in the after¬
noon of Shrove-1 uefday, on which day this cuftom pre¬
vailed, they concluded the day in throwing the ball :
which feems to infinuate,that the cock-fighting was mere¬
ly in conformity to ancient ufage, and limited only to
part of the day, to make way for a more laudable per¬
formance. We may reafonably fuppofe, although this
author is entirely filent upon this head, that while cock-
fighting was going on, cock throwing was the fp ort of
the loweft clafs of people, who could not afford the ex¬
pence of the former (b). Another fpecies of manly ex¬
ercife was truly martial, and intended to qualify the ad¬
venturers for martial difeipline. It is related by Fitz-
Stephen thus: “ Every Friday in Lent, a company of
young men comes into the field on horfeback, attended
and conduced by the beft horfemen : then march forth
the fons of the citizens, and other young men, with dif-
armed lances and fhields ; and there pra&ife feats of
war. Many courtiers likewife, when the king is near
the fpot, and attendants upon noblemen, do repair to
thefe exerciles j and while the hope of viftory does in¬
flame their minds, they fhow by good proof how fervice-
able they would be in martial affairs.” This evidently
is of Roman defeent, and immediately brings to our
recollcdlion the Lucius Trojce, fuppofed to be the in¬
vention, as it was the common exercife, of Afcanius.
The common people, in this age of mafeuline man¬
ners, made every amufement where ftrength was exert¬
ed the fubjedf-matter of inftruftion and improvement:
inftrufted
36 ] PA
manly, and generous exercifes.
(a) Otherwife called William Stephanides, a monk of Canterbury, who lived in the reign of King Stephen to
the time of Richard l. He wrote a Latin treatife, in which he gives an account of the feveral paftimes which
were countenanced in his time. Bale in his writings draw's a pleafing portrait of him. He is likew'ife fketched
in itrong and forcible outlines of praife and commendation by Leland. Bale fays thus of him : “ The time which
other people ufually mifemployed in an idle and frivolous manner, he confecrated to inquiries which tended to in-
creafe the fame and dignity of his country : in doing which, he was not unw'orthy of being compared to Plato 1
for like him, he made the ftudy of men and heaven his conftant exercife.”
_(b) 1 here were places fet apart for the battles of thefe animals, as at this day, where no one was admitted
without money. I hefe places, or pits commonly called, were fchools, as at this day, in which people were
inftn.&ed in the dodtrines of chance, lofs and gain, betting and wagers, and particularly in the liberal art
of laying two to one. Cock-throwing has been laudably abolifhed ; for it was a fpecies of cruelty towards an
innocent and ufeful animal j and fuch a cruelty as would have kindled compaflion in the heart of the rankeft bar¬
barian.
Paftime.
PAS [
inftru£led to exert their bodily ftrenglh in the mainte¬
nance of their country’s rights j and their minds im¬
proved by fuch exertion, into every manly and generous
principle.
In the vacant intervals of induftry and labour, com¬
monly called the holy-days, indolence and inaftivity,
which at this day mark this portion of time, were found
only in thofe whofe lives were diftempered with age or
infirmity. The view which Fitz-Stephen gives us of the
Eafter holydays is animated. “ In Eader holydays they
fight battles upon the water. A fhield is hanged upon
a pole, fixed in the middle of the ftream. A boat is
prepared without oars, to be borne along by the violence
of the water; and in the forepart thereof ftandeth a
young man, ready to give charge upon the fhield with
his lance. If fo be that he break his lance againft the
fhield, and doth not fall, he is thought to have perform¬
ed a worthy deed. If without breaking his lance he
runs ftrongly againft the fhield, down he falletb into the
water ; for the boat is violently forced with the tide :
but on each fide of the fhield ride two boats, furnilhed
with young men, who recover him who falleth foon as
they may. In the holydays all the fummer the youths
are exercifed in leaping, dancing, (hooting, wreftling,
calling the ftone, and pratftifing their fhields ; and the
maidens trip with their timbrels, and dance as long as
they can well fee. In winter, every holyday before din¬
ner, the boars prepared for brawn are fet to fight, or elfe
bulls or bears are baited.”
Thefe were the laudable purfuits to which leifure was
devoted by our forefathers, fo far back as the year 1130.
Their immediate fucceflbrs breathed the fame generous
fpirit. In the year 1222, the fixth year of Henry III.
we find, that certain mafters in exercifes of this kind
made a public profeflion of their inftruftions and difci-
pline, which they imparted to thofe who were defirous
of attaining excellence and vidlory in thefe honourable
atchievements. About this period, the perfons of better
rank and family introduced the play of Tennis (c) ; and
erefled courts or oblong edifices for the performance of
the exercife.
About the year 1253, in the 38th year of Henry III.
the Quintan was a fport much in fafhion in almoft every
part of the kingdom. This contrivance confifted of an
37 1 PAS
upright poll firmly fixed in the ground, upon the top of Paftime.
v Inch was a crofs piece of wood, moveable upon a fpin-
dle ; one end of which was broad like the fiat part of
a halberd, while at the other end was hung a bag of
fand. The exercife was performed on horfeback. The
mafterly performance was, when, upon the broad part
being ftruck with a lance, which fometimes broke it,
the affailant rode fwiftly on, fo as to avoid being ftruck.
on the back by the bag of fand, which turned round in-
ftantly upon the ftroke given with a very fwift motion.
He who executed this feat in the moll dexterous manner
was declared vi£lor, and the prize to which he became
entitled was a peacock. But if, upon the aim taken, the
contender mifearried in linking at the broadfide, his
impotency of Ikill became the ridicule and contempt of
the fpeflators.
Dr Plott, in his Natural Hiftory of Oxfordlhire, tells
us, that this paftime was in praflice in his time at Ded-
dington in this county. “ They firft (fays this author)
fixed a poll perpendicularly in the ground, and then
placed a fmall piece of timber upon the top of it, faften-
ed on a fpindle, with a board nailed to it on one end, and
a bag of land hanging at the other. Againft this board
they anciently rode with fpears : now as I faw it at
Deddington only with ftrong Haves, which violently
bringing about the bag of fand, if they make not good
fpeed away, it ftrikes them in the neck, or (boulders,
and fometimes perhaps ftrikes them down from their
horfes; the great defign of the fport being to try
the agility both of man and horfe, and to break the
boaid ; which, whoever did, wras accounted conqueror :
for whom heretofore there was fome reward always ap¬
pointed.” (d) 1
Matthew Paris, fpeaking of this manly diverfion, fays,.
“ The London youths made trial of their (Length on
horfeback, by running at the Quintun; in doing which,
whoever excelled all the reft was rewarded with a pea¬
cock.” 'Phis fport is continued to this day in Wales ;
and being in ufe only upon marriages, it may be confi-
dered as a votive paftime, by which thefe heroic fpirits
feem to wifti^ that the male iffue of fuch marriage may
be as ftrong, vigorous, and a&ive, as thofe who are at
that time engaged in the celebration of this feftive ex¬
ertion of manhood. Virtuous exercTfes of this kind'
would
(c) T he word Tennis feems to owe its original to the French lanpuage. • if fo the frame is of .i
7? V7„b? f“Und 10 f"rd evldence^pon^thisibbjef^ 1 F^the'
wt 1 Tng pf " t,-he ,balL 1, n-° .pa, t "f Z*™’ but ratlwr a circumitance cafually attendia. it
mce, during the performance of it the ball is in continual motion, fo there can be no (euetz at this iunaure Vr
SaPaa ,n Fran^e call(;d T™n0ir O Is a town which differs onlv in a letter, called SenJois in the di-
/\°'r?!iampagrK ^ 'T 116 P aCe Where the balls were firft made’ and the ffame introduced ’
(D) * his was certainly an exercife derived from a military inftitution of the Romans, though not inftrumentallv
lure ^11 ^ C°n V ^ ^ and dirP<)fiti(>" Roman camps, which w^re formed into a fquare fi
ure will find there were four principal gates or paffages. Near the Qucejlorium, or Qfiiseftor’s apartment ^vas the
Fo, um: or what is now caUed a futtlmg-houfe, and from being near the ^ueeftor’s ftaih.n called L^/ioriu^ forum
At tins part was a fifth gate Quintana, where the fiddlers were indrufted in the difeipline of tlm Pa/aria which
jas to aim at and ftrike their javelins againft an upright poll fixed in the ground, as a kind of pro/u/ion to a real
engagement with an enemy. By the frequent prance of this exercife, fometimes called exercitium ad pa/um bl
butTl ri T’ ^ drrS 81 !fngr^. ac<[Uired not onW a dexterity and addrefs in the management of tlfeir arms7
but a conftant and regular exaflnefs in the direftion of them. Titus Livius Patavinus, cap 2 Panciro//us ReZ»,
Memoral.hh. 11. tit. 21. Vu/tunus in Augujlanis Monumentis, lib. li. p. 237. P
7"n int° ‘he R“man Cam[,S’ ',1,ich the)rPlundmd> Livius. od S&eJIormn forum,
PAS [ 38 ]
P.ifttme. would be too rude and barbarous for the attendants on
pleafure in the prefent age. The hand would tremble
at the weight of the javelin •, and the heart would pant
upon the apprehenfion of perfonal infecurity. While
thefe exertions of triumphant prowefs continued, the
fordid degeneracy of difpoikion, the fupple bafenefs of
temper, were unknown : for the love of country, as the
Roman orator has wifely obferved, included all other
virtues. Rut if we guard the palace ot honour, like
the brazen caitle of Danae, with every- poffible fecurity,
importunate corruption will be ever waiting at the gate,
to fuze an opportunity of intrufion. Thefe feats of ho¬
nourable conteft were fucceeded by the gilded banners
of exhibition, and all the long train of dependents in
the intereil of indolence : for the writers of thefe times
inform us, that the foft pleafures of the ilage forced the
pafl.es to public favour in the year tflP1’ an^ bkewife in
the year 1409 ; fo that utility, which before flood on
the right hand of pleafure, was now ordered to withdraw
for a feafon. The drama, it feems, was attempted by a
fet of ufelefs and infignificant perfons called parifh-
clerks; who, becaufe they had the knowledge of the
alphabet, ignorantly prefumed that this included every
other fpecies of knowledge. The fubjeft was truly fe-
rious, the creation of the world j but the performance
muft’have been ludicrous. It was, however, honoured
with the atiendance of noble perfonages *, and royalty
itfelf deigned to caft a favourable eye upon it, for the
king and queen were prefent. Thefe interludes lafted
no longer than the time requifite for the former confe¬
deracy of utilitv and pleafure to refume its powers*, as
when the pliable bow by being too much bent is put out
of (hape, and by its elafticity recovers its former pofi-
tion. The lance, the fliield, the ball, and the equeftrian
proceflion, came forward again, and put the dramatic
ufurper to flight. After this period,_ thefe.objefts of ge¬
nerous pleafure feem to have had their audience of leave,
and one general ob]e£f, indeed no lefs manly than the
former, to have filled their ftations, which was archery*
This had a continuance to the reign of Charles I. for
wre find in many hofpitals founded in that reign among
the articles of benefaction recorded upon their walls,
this Angular provifion, arms for the boys, which figni-
fied bows and arrows.
There are many places at this day, formerly retorted
to, tor the praftice of this noble art, diflinguifhed by
appellations which indicate their ancient ufage : fuch as
Brentford Butts, Newington Butts, and many others of
the like denomination, it appears.from 33 Hen. VIII.
that by the intrusion of other pernicious games, archery
had been for a long time difufed *, to revive which this
ftatute was made. It feems that the bows of the belt
PAS
kind were made of yew'*, and that this wood might be Paftime.
readily obtained for this purpofe, yew-trees were planted '
in churchyards. -The forts of thofe only who were per-
tons of fortune and fafhion, if under 17 years of age,
were permitted to ufe fuch bows. The words of the
ftatute are Angular, and ran thus : “ No perton under
feventeen years, except he, or his father or mother,
have lands or tenements to the yearly value of ten
pounds, or be worth in value or moveables the fum of
forty marks fterling, {hall {hoot with any bow of yew,
which {hall be bought for him, after the feaft of our La¬
dy next coming, under the pain to lofe and forfeit fix
{hillings and eightpence.” Two obfervations arife here
upon thefe words. One, that the yew-wood, not being
to common as other wood, might probably be toon found
deficient, as it was the beft wood for making bows, if
not reitrained in the ufe of it to particular ages and per¬
fons, as young people wantonly deftroy what is put into
their hands for ufeful purpofes. The other obfervation
is, that the age of 17 is by this ftatute diftinguiflied as
the age of diferetion, when young people are more at¬
tentive and confiderate in things of private concern ; an
age in thefe times which few ever arrive at, and tome
never. This ftatute makes provifion of other kinds of
wood for the common people in the following manner :
“ To the intent that every perton may have bows of
mean price, be it enaCIed, that every bowyer {hall, for
every bow that he maketh of yew, make four other bows,
meet to {hoot with, of elm, witch hafill, afli, or other-
wood apt for the fame, under pain to lofe and forfeit for
every fuch bow to lacking the fum of three {hillings and
fourpence.” It feems there was a fpecies of yew at this
time called elh, which wood was ftronger and more
pliant than the common yew mentioned in this ftatute,
and the price of it fixed. “ Moreover, no bowyer
{hall fell or put to fale to any of the king’s fubiecls,
any bow of yew of the tax called elk, above the price
of three {hillings and fourpence, under the pain to
forfeit twenty {hillings for every bow told above the
faid price.”
From thefe feveral confiderations which occur in
this ftatute, we can trace three refplendent qualities,
courage, ftrength, and agility *, which three united,
infpired to more, generofity and magnanimity. Up¬
on the decline of this and other polilhed (e) amufe-
ments, a favage deformity of manners fprung up, but
fpangled here and there with the oppofite charadlcr of
lazy opulence, which began now to ereft her velvet
ftandard in defiance of chafte and regular manners.
Towards the beginning of James I.’s reign, military
prowefs feems to have founded a retreat (f). He, to
gratify the importunity of the common peopto, and at
the
fE') How widely different the conceptions of politenefs at this day from what they were in the mo rc me
ao-es of Greece and Rome ! Thefe two ftates agreed in fixing the ftandard of this accomplithment upon the fltnefs
and oropriery of things. We bend to an arbitrary impofture of language, trufting to the tonfe and meaning o ou
otmolite Gallic neighbours, as if this ifland was at all times to be the foot-ball of that continent. o define po-
Seneto in its ancient and Vue tonfe, it is a manly exertion of conduct founded upon every noble and virtuous
prim-mle Gallic politenefs is an effeminate impotence of demeanor, founded upon fallacy, evafion, and every
F^fidil artifice. There can be no tocurity, no happinefs, no profperity, awaiting this kingdom, to long as we fawn
to tafhions »h?t difgrace humanity, and to manners which confift of more than I unic pir a v.
FuT has been confidently aflVrted by tome hiftorians, that James was, during his whole life, ftruck with ter-
Jupon the fight of a drawn fword > which was the reaton of his great unwillingnefs in bellowing the bonou-f
P A S [ .39
Pafhme, the fame time to obviate his own fears upon a refufal,
.Paftinaca. publiilaed a book of fports, in which the people had
been fome time before ufually indulged on Sunday even¬
ings, but which had been lately prohibited. Thefe fports
confided of dancing, finging, wreftling, church ales, and
ether profanations of that day.
Charles, his fucceffbr, wifely, in the very entrance
of his reign, abolifhed thefe fports. The adtof Charles
ftates the feveral amufements in part $ by which wre
may conjecture what was the remainder as dated in
the book of fports by James. It is neceflary to tran-
Icribe that part of the adt relating to this fubjedt.
“ Forafmuch as there is nothing more acceptable to
God, than the true and fincere rvorfhip of Him, and
fervice according to His holy will, and that the holy
keeping of the Lord’s day is a principal part of the
fervice of God, which in many places of this realm
hath been, and now is, prophaned and negledted by a
diforderly fort of people, in exercifing and frequenting
bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes,and common-plays,
and other unlawful exercifes and padimes, negledling
divine fervice both in their own pariihes and elfewhere :
Be it enacted, that from and after forty days next after
v the end of this fedion of parliament, there diall be no
meetings, affemblies, or concourfe of people, out of their
own parifhes, on the Lord’s day, within this realm of
England, or any the dominions thereof, for any fports
or padimes whatfoever : nor any bear-baiting, bull-bait-
ing, interludes, common-plays, or other uni awful exercifes
or padimes, ufed by any perfon or perfons within their own
paridies: and that every perfon and perfons offending in
any of the faid premifes, diall forfeit for every offence the
ium of three {hillings and fourpence ; the fame to be
employed and converted to the ufe of the poor of the
pariih where fuch offence ihall be committed.” All
this was perhaps proper, and diowed the didinguidied
piety of this unfortunate monarch. But in this age like-
wife ended the manly fports of Britons, and nothing was
introduced that could compenfate for the lofs.
All thefe lufory arts, confidered as vehicles of plea-
fure, from the variety of their inventions, reprefent plea-
fure as a fleeting phantom : evincing at the fame time
the dability of happinefs as fpringing from internal
order. Even refiex adts, pregnant with future hopes
of folace and focial recreation, have more true feelings
in expectancy than thole which arife from the objedt
in poffefijon. Nay, pleafure is found frequently in the
imagination only : for Ixion’s difappointment frequent¬
ly awaits us when we advance to embrace this Juno of
our defires.
Upon the whole, happinefs, the only thing of intrinfic
value, mud arife in the heart, and be fomething more
folid than what mere amufement can poflibly fupply.
Amufements or padimes ought to be confidered only as
neceffary relaxations from feverer and more ufeful em¬
ployment ; and in this point of view they may be folely
purfued ; but they become criminal when they occupy
the place of the bufinefs of life.
PASTINACA, the Parsnep, a genus of plants
Paftinaca
if.
Patacci.
] PAT
belonging to the pentandria clafs j and in the natural
method ranking under the 45th order, Umbellate.• See
Botany Index.
PASIOPHORI, among the ancients, wrere prieds
whole office it was to carry the images, along with the
fhrines of the gods, at folemn fedivals, when they were
to pray to them for rain, fair weather, or the like. The
Greeks had a college of this order of prieds in Sylla’s
time. The cells or apartments near the temples, where
the padophori lived, Avere called pajlophoria. There
W'ere feveral lodging rooms for the prieds of a fimilar
kind in the temple of Jerufalem.
PASTORAL, in general, fomething that relates
to diepherds : hence we fay, padoral life, manners,
poetry, &c.
# Padoral life may be confidered in three different Blair's
views ; either fuch as it now a&ually is j when the leBlures,
date of diepherds is reduced to be a mean, fervile, and vol‘
laborious date j when their employments are become 11
difagreeable, and their ideas grofs and low : or fuch
as we may fuppofe it once to have been, in the more
early and fimple ages, when it ivas a life of cafe and
abundance j when the wealth of men confided chiedy
m flocks and herds, and the diepherd, though unre¬
fined in his manners, was refpe&able in his date : or,
lafily, fuch as it never was, and never can in reality
be, when, to the eafe, innocence, and fimplicity of the
early ages, we attempt to add the polifhed tade, and cul¬
tivated manners of modern times. Of thefe three dates,
the fird is too grofs and mean, the lad too refined and
unnatural, to be made the groundwork of padoral
poetry. Either of thefe extremes is a rock upon which
the poet will fplit, if be approach too near it. We will
be difguded if he give us too much of the fervile em¬
ployments and low ideas of actual peafants, as Theocri¬
tus is cenfured for having fometimes done ; and if, like
fome of the French and Italian writers of padorals, he
make his diepherds difeourfe as if they were courtiers
and fcholars, he then retains the name only, but wants
the fpirit of padoral poetry.
PASTOBAL Poetry. See PoETRY, Part II. feci. 4.
PASTRY, that branch of cookery which is chiefly
taken up in making pies, palties, cakes, &c. See Paste.
. ^.Cullen obferves, that pade is very hard and in-
digedible without butter ; and even with it, is apt to
produce heartburn and acefcency. Perhaps thi* is in-
creafed by the burned butter, from a certain fenfibility
in the donjach, which occafions all empyreumatic oils
to be long retained, and fo produce acidity.
PAb rURE, or PASTURE Land, is that referved for
feeding cattle. See Agriculture Index.
PA f/ECI, in Mythology, images of gods which
the Phoenicians carried on the prows of their gallies.
Herodotus, lib. iv. calls them Wtaoeen The word is
Phoenician, and derived from pet/iica, i. e. titulus. See
Bocchart’s Chanaan, lib. ii. cap. 3. But Scaliger does
not agree. . Morin derives it from 7n0jj*o5, monkey, this
animal having been an object of worfhip among the
Egyptians, and hence might have been honoured by
their
ft , :h" f',1. r tl„, junaure, he had fuel, a tr. mar ..pen him, that inflead of laving the f.vord upon the
I f ,“f llle Perfo" to be kmsOed. he frequently would be obferved almort to thn.lt the point of it into th»
faee ot .he party : winch occaf.oued thofe about him to aff.it him in the direftion of hh hand1;
PAT [ 4° 1 PAT
Patseci, their neighbours. Mr Elfner has obferved, that He-
Varagonia. does not call the pataeci gods ; but that they
1 v obtained this dignity from the liberality of Hefychius
and Saidas, and other ancient lexicographers, who
place them at the ftern of Ihips-, whereas Herodotus
placed them at the prow. Scaliger, Bochart, and Sel-
den, have taken fume pains about this fubjeft.—M. Mo¬
rin has alfo given us a learned differtation on this head
in the Memoires de l' Acad, des Infcript. et Belles Lett res,
tom. i.j but Mr Elfner thinks it defe&ive in point of
evidence.
PATAGONIA, a country of South America, com¬
prehending all that country extending from Chili and
Paraguay to the utmoft extremity of South America;
that is, from 350 almoft to 540 of latitude : being fur-
rounded by the countries juft mentioned, the South and
North feas, and the ftraits of Magellan, which feparate
it from the ifland called Terra del Fuego, and extend
about 116 leagues in length from fea to fea, but only
from half a league to three or four in breadth.
This country had the name of Terra Magellanica,
from Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguefe officer in the
fervice of the Catholic king, who is reported to have
failed through the ftraits that alfo bear his name, from
the North to the South fea, in the year I 519.
The lofty mountains of the Andes, which are cover¬
ed with fnow a great part of the year, travelling the
country from north to fouth, the air is faid to be much
colder than in the north under the fame parallels of
latitude. Towards the north, it is faid to be covered
with wood, and ftored with an inexhauftible fund of
large timber; whereas, to the fouthward, not fo much
as a fingle tree fit for any mechanical purpofe is to be
feen: yet there is good pafture, and incredible numbers
of wild horned cattle and horfes, which were firft
brought hither by the Spaniards, and have increafed
amazingly. Freffi water, we are told by fome writers,
is very fcarce; but if that were really the cafe, it is dif¬
ficult to conceive how the prefent inhabitants and fuch
multitudes of cattle could fubfift. 1 he eaft coaft is
moftly low land, with few or no good harbours: one of
the belt is Port St Julian.
Patagonia is inhabited by a variety of Indian tribes;
as the Patagons, from which the country takes its
names; the Pampas, the Coffares, &c. of whom we
know very little. Only it appears, from the accounts of
former voyagers, lately confirmed by Commodore Byron
and his crew, and the teftimonies of other navigators,
that fome of them are of a gigantic ftature, and clo¬
thed with Ikins; but it would feem that there are
ethers who go almoft quite naked, notwithftanding the
inclemency of the climate. Some of them alfo, that
live about the ftraits, if we may credit the navigators
who have paffed that way into the South fea, are per-
feft favages : but thofe with whom Commodore Byron
and his people converfed, are reprefented as of a more
gentle, humane difpofition ; only, like other favages,
they live on fifh and game, and the fpontaneous pro-
duflions of the earth.
The Spaniards once built a fort upon the ftraits, and
left a garrifon in it, to prevent any other European na¬
tion paffing that way into the South fea: but moft of the
men periftied by famine, whence the place obtained the
name of Port Famine; and no people have attempted to
plant colonies here ever fince.
About the middle of the ftiait is a promontory called Patagonia.
Cape Fro far d, which is the moft foutherly on the con- *''
tinent of South America.
On the coafts of Patagonia lie a great number of
iflands, or clufters of ifla'nds. On the weft coafts are the
illands Madre de Dios, Santa Trinidad, Santa Cruz,
the ides of the Chunians and Huillans, the Sarmientos,
and many others; to the number of 80 in all, as fome
fay. Of thofe on the fouth coaft, the moft confider-
able are Terra del Fuego, and Staten Land. See thefe
articles.
A vaft deal has been faid refpe£Hng the ftature of the
Patagonians, by people of different nations, and on va¬
rious occafions. We {hall in'ert the following letter
from Mr Charles Clarke, who was on board Byron’*
ftiip in 1764, and gave this account to Dr Maty.
“ We had not got above 10 or 12 leagues into the
ftraits of Magellan, from the Atlantic ocean, before
we faw feveral people, fome on horfeback, fome on foot,
upon the north fhore (continent), and with the help of
our glaffes could perceive them beckoning to us to
come on ffiore, and at the fame time obferved to each
other, that they feemed to be of an extraordinary fize:
However, we continued to ftand on, and ftiould have
paffed without taking the leaft farther notice of them,
could we have proceeded ; but our breeze dying away,
and the tide making againft us, we were obliged to
anchor; when the commodore ordered his boat of 12
oars, and another of fix, to be hoifted out, manned, and
armed. In the firft went the commodore, in the other
Mr Cummins our firft lieutenant, and myfelf. At our
firft leaving the ftiip, their number did not exceed 40 ;
but as we approached the ftwre, we perceived them pour¬
ing down from all quarters, fome galloping, others run¬
ning, all making ufe of their utmoft expe-dition. They
colle&ed themfelves into abody juft at the place we fleer¬
ed off for. When we had got within I 2 or 14 yards of
the beach, we found it a difagreeable flat (bore, with
very large Hones, which we apprehended would injure
the boats ; fo looked at two or three different places to
find the moft convenient for landing. They fuppofed
we deferred coming on ffiore through apprehenfions of
danger from them; upon which they all threw open the
{kins which were over their fhoulders, which was the
only clothing they had, and confequently the only
thing they could fecret any kind of arms with, and
many of them lay down clofe to the water’s edge.—The
commodore made a motion for them to go a little way
from the water, that we might have room to land,
which they immediately complied with, and withdrew
30 or 40 yards ; we then landed, and formed each man
with his mulket, in cafe any violence fhould be offered.
As foon as we were formed, the commodore went from
us to them, then at about 20 yards diftance: they feem¬
ed vaftly happy at his going among them, immediately
gathered round him, and made a rude kind of noife,
which I believe was their method of finging; as their
countenances befpoke it a fpecies of jollity. The com¬
modore then made a motion to them to fit down, which,
they did in a circle, with him in the middle, when Mr
Byron took fome beads and ribbons, which he had
brought for that purpofe. and tied about the women’s
necks, with which they feemed infinitely pleafed. We
were ftruck with the greateft aftonHhment at the fight
of people of fuch a gigantic ftature, notwithftanding our
previous
1
PAT [ 41 1 PAT
Patagonia, previous notice with glafies from the fliip. Their body
was increafed, by the time we got in there, to the num¬
ber of 500, men, women, and children. The men and
women both rode in the fame manner; the women had a
kind of belt to clofe their Ikins round the waift, which
the men had not, as theirs were only flung over their
(boulders, and tied with two little flips, cut from the
(kin, round the neck. At the time of the commodore’s
motion for them to retire farther up the beach, they
all difmounted, and turned their horfes loofe, which
were gentle, and flood very quietly. The commodore
having difpofed of all his prefents, and fatisfied his cu-
riofity, thought proper to retire ; but they were vaftly
anxious to have him go up into the country to eat
with them. That they wanted him to go with them
to eat, we could very well underfland by their motions,
but their language wras wholly unintelligible to us.—
There was a very great fmoke to which they pointed
about a mile from us, where there mud have been fe-
veral fires ; but fome intervening hills prevented our
feeing any thing but the fmoke. The commodore
returned the compliment, by inviting them on board
the drip ; but they would not favour him with their
company ; fo we embarked, and returned to the (hip.
We were with them near two hours at noon-day with¬
in a very few yards, though none had the honour of
fhaking hands but Mr Byron and Mr Cummins ; how¬
ever, we were near enough, and long enough with
them, to convince our fenfes, fo far as not to be cavil¬
led out of the very exiflence of thofe fenfes at that
time, which fome of our countrymen and friends would
abfolutely attempt to do. They are of a copper co¬
lour, with long black hair ; and fome of them are cer¬
tainly nine feet, if they do not exceed it. The com¬
modore, who is very near fix feet, could but juft reach
the top of one of their heads, which he attempted on
tip-toes, and there were feveral taller than the perfon
on whom the experiment was tried. They are prodigi¬
ous (lout, and as well and as proportionally made as
ever I faw people in my life. That they have fome
kind of arms among them, is, I think, indifputable,
from their taking methods to convince us they had none
at that time about them. The women, I think, bear
much the fame proportion to thu men as our Europeans
do; there was hardly a man there lefs than eight feet,
mod of them confiderably more. The women, I be¬
lieve, run from feven and a half to eight feet.—Their
horfes were (lout and bony, but not remarkably tall ;
they are, in my opinion, from 15 to 154 hands. They
bad a great number of dogs, about the (izeof a middling
pointer, with a fox nofe. They continued on the beach
till we got under way, which W'as two hours after we
got on board. I believe they had fome expectations of
our returning again ; but as foon as they faw us getting
off, they betook themfelves to the country.
“ The country of Patagonia is rather hilly, though
not remarkably fo. You have here and there a ridge
of hills, but no very high ones. We lay fome time at
Port Defire, which is not a great way to the north¬
ward of the ftraits, where wetraverfed the country many
miles round. We found fire-brands in different places,
which convinced us there had been people, and we fup-
pofe them to have been the Patagonians. The foil is
fandv, produces nothing but a coarfe harfti grafs, and a
few (mail fhrubs, of which Sir John Narborough remark-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
ed, he could not find one of fize enough to make the Patagonia,
helve of a hatchet 5 which oblervation vve found very JJ"' v '*
juft. It was fome time in the winter we made this vifit
to our gigantic friends. I am debarred being lb parti¬
cular as I could wi(h, from the lofs of my journals, which
were demanded by their lordlhips of the admiralty im¬
mediately upon our return.”
That the whole of this account is true, we cannot
affert ; but that the writer has been mifltd in fome re-
fpedls, and mifinformed with regard to fome of hrs
faCls, is at lead probable: for Captain Wallis, who
went out to the ftraits of Magellan after Byron’s re¬
turn, gives a different turn to many of the oblervatioris;
and with refpe6l to the ftature of the people, he differs
very materially. We (hall give the following epitome
of his remarks on what occurred to him.—He had
three (hips with him, which entered the ftraits on the
16th December 1766, and came to an anchor in a bay
fouth of Cape \irgin Mary, where they were imme¬
diately accofted by a whole troop of Patagonians, who
made figns for them to come on (bore. The captain,
having made previous difpofitions for the fecunty of
his men in cafe of an attack, manned all the boats be-
longing to the three (hips, and with a party of ma¬
rines landed on the beach where thole giants had af-
fembled. The commanders of the three (hips, and moft
of their officers, were of this party. On their leaping
affiore, the Indians feemed to welcome them; and being
by figns defired to retreat, they all fell back, and made
room for the marines to form. When they were drawn
up, Captain Wallis advanced, and by figns directed
the Indians to feat themfelves in a femicircle, which
they readily underftood and obeyed. He then diftri-
buted among them knives, feiffars, buttons, beads,
combs, and particularly ribbons, with which he com¬
plimented the women, who received them with a mix¬
ture of pleafure and refpeft. He then gave them to
underftand that he had dill more valuable articles to
bellow, and (bowed them axes and bill-hooks ; but, at
the fame time, pointed to fome guanicoes and oftriches,
intimating that he expedled fome of thofe in return:
but they either did not, or would not, underftand him 5
fo that no traffic took place.
The whole company that were affembled on this oc-
cafion, had each a horfe, with a faddle and bridle. The
faddle had a fort of ftirrups, and the bridle was made
of thongs of leather very well put together, for the pur-
pofe of guiding the horfes. The women, as well as the
men, rode allnde. I lie men, in general, wore each a
wooden fpur : but one of them had a large pair of Spa-
nifti fpurs, brafs ftirrups, and a Spanifti feimitar. Their
horfes w'ere nimble and fpirited, but (mall in proportion
to their riders, fecmingly not above 14 hands high.
Their dogs were of the Spanilh breed. The captain,
having purpofely provided himfelf with meafuring rods,
found that the tailed man among them meafured'only
fix feet feven inches high ; feveral were within an inch
or two as tall: but the ordinary fize was from five feet
ten inches to fix feet. It is pity that none of our voy¬
agers thought of meafuring the whole fize of one of
thofe gigantic men. They tell us, indeed, that they
are well made, that they are proportionally large, and
that they are robuft and bony ; but they give us no cri¬
terion to judge of their bulk, nor one intlance of their
extraordinary ftrength. As they are reprefented not only
F peaceable^
P A T
[ 42 ]
PAT
Fatsagoma, psaceable, but remarkably tractable, fome trials might
t, _^ v j^avfc been made o£ the weight they could have lifted,
and how much they could exceed in that refpeft the
ttrongeft man in the (hips. This, iji a great meafure,
would have determined the point, which is yet left
doubtful by the different relations that are given by the
different voyagers who have feen thefe people, no two of
them agreeing in the fame defcription. -^11 agree,
however, that their hair is black, and harfli like bridles
that they are of a dark copper colour, and that their
features are rather handfome than ugly , that they
clothe themfelves decently with the {kins of guanicoes ,
that they paint themfelves varioufly •, and there is rea-
fon to fufpeft, that by that variety they diftinguifh their
tribes. Thofe feen by Commodore Byron were painted
round both eyes, no two of them alike ^ thofe feen by
Captain Wallis had only a red circle round the left eye }
and thofe feen by Bougainville had no circle round
the eyes, but had their cheeks painted red. This may
account for the different reports of voyagers concerning
their flature it is not impoflible, nay, it is very pro¬
bable, that they may vary in this particular, according
to their tribes •, as is feen in the Highlands of Scotland,
where one clan of the Campbells is remarkably tall,
and another of the Frafers remarkably fhort. Were it
not for fome fuch natural difcrimination, there could not
be fo wide a difference in the defcriptions of gentlemen,
who, having no ends to ferve, eitner in falfifying one
another’s reports, or in impofing. upon the public, can¬
not be fuppofed to miftake wilfully.
One remarkable obfervation made by our voyagers
muff not be omitted } and that is, that though our
people could diftinguifh but one word of their language,
which the Englifti pronounce c/iewow, and the French
/hawa, yet the Patagonians could repeat whole fenten-
ces after our men more diftindfly than almoft any Euro¬
pean foreigner of what nation foever. This appears the
more lingular, as, among the illanders between the tro¬
pics, it was hardly poflible to make them articulate any
of our words. Sydney Parkinfon, in a fpecimen he has
given us, fays, that though the Englifh remained at Ota-
heite three months, the neareft the natives could approach
the found of Cook was Toote; Banks, Opane; Colander,
'Tolano ; Gore, Towara; Monkhoufe, Mata ; and fo of
' the reft : whereas the Patagonians prefently ^got by
heart this fentence of invitation, Come afhore, Lnglifh-
men ! which they {bowed they well underftood, by re¬
peating it afterwards whenever the fliips came fo near
the fhore as to be within call.
Another very remarkable particular is, that they had
none of the characters of a ferocious people •, there was
no offenfive weapon among them, except the feimitar
already mentioned. The men, indeed, had a kind of
fling, which they ufe in hunting, confiding of two round
ftones of about a pound weight each, connected together
by a thong. Thefe ftones were faftened to the extre¬
mities of the thong •, and, when they threw them, they
held one ftone in the hand, and fwung the other about
the head. “ They are fo expert in the management of
this double-headed fhot (fays the writer of the voyage),
that they will hit a mark not bigger than a {hilling
with both thefe ftones at the diftance of fifteen yards *,
tarded in their flight, and eafily overtaken. Bougain- Patagoma-
ville fpeaks of thefe flings as common among other In- pata"init
dian nations in South America j but we do not remem- ■ ^ , h
ber to have feen this affertion confirmed by any other
voyager.
Thefe people certainly drefs differently as well as
paint differently ; for the drefs deferibed by Bougain¬
ville is very unlike the drefs of thofe feen by the Eng¬
lifh voyagers. Captain Wallis invited fome of them
on board his {hip : but, among all the wonders that
were ftiown them, none feemed to attract their notice"
fo much as the looking-glafies : they looked in the
glaffes and at each other ; they laughed and gazed^
and gazed again and laughed 5 in fhort, there was no
end to their merriment when in poffeffion of this article
of curiofity. They ate whatever was given them, but.
would drink nothing but water. In this they differ
from all the tribes of Indians in North America,^ who
are immoderately fend of fpirituous liquors. 1 hey
admired the European fheep, hogs, and poultry ; but
did not feem over-defirous of any thing they faw ex¬
cept clothes. When the marines were exercifed to en¬
tertain them, they appeared difconcerted 5 an old mai^
among them made figns, by ftriking his breaft, ana
tumbling down and lying as if he had been dead upon
deck, that he knew the effea of their guns; and none
of them feemed eafy till the firing was over. When
the captain had fatisfied his own curiofity, and, as no
imagined, theirs, he gave them to underftand, that .he
was going to fail, and that they muft depart j which
they were very unwilling to do. However, having
given each of them a canvas bag, with fome needles
ready threaded, a knife, a pair of feiffars, a few beads,
a comb, and a looking-glafs, he difmiffed them, with
great reluftance on their part, particularly on that
the old man’s, who by very fignificant figns expreffed
his defire tow flay till funfet.
P ATAGONULA, in Botany, a genus of plants be¬
longing to the pentandria clafs. See Botany Index,
PAT AN, a kingdom of Alia, in the Eaft Indies,
and in the peninfula of Malacca, and on the eafterti
coaft between the kingdoms of Siam and Paha. The
inhabitants are partly Mahometans and partly Gentoos y
but they are all very voluptuous. The air is wholefome,
though very hot; and they have no feafons but the
winter and fummer. The former is more properly the
rainy feajpn ; and contains the months of November,.
December, and January. The woods are full of ele¬
phants and many wild animals. Some voyagers pre¬
tend that this country is governed by a queen, who
never marries, but may have as many gallants as, fhe
pleafes. They have fome trade with the Cbinefe.; and
the principal town is of the fame name, which is one
of the ftrongeft in thefe parts, having a well defended .
harbour. • r*
Patan, a town of Afia, and capital of a province 01
the fame name, in the dominions of the Great Mogul;
it is very little known. E. Long. 109. O. N. Lat. 27.
3°PATAVINITY, among critics, denotes a peculi¬
arity of Livy’s diaion ; derived from Patavium or Pa¬
dua, the place of his nativity; but wherein this pata-
with both thele nones ai uie unieuiuc ui imccu yaiw ? — r „ „ , a
but their method of availing themfelves of their dexteri- vinity confifts, they are by no means agree .
tv apainft the suanicoe and ofttich is, to fling the ftones Afimus Pollio, according to Quintilian, taxed Livj
l iTentt je Sr legs, by which means They are re- with patavimty. But what he meant by th.s cenfure
wa
P A T { 43 3 PA T
Patavinity xve believe no man can fay. Morhof believes it to be
Patella a ^ngu^ar turn expreffior>> and feme phrafes peculiar
i .1 V ‘ . to the Paduefe. All we certainly know about it is,
that it was a fault in the language of Livy, not in the
fentiments or manners. In all probability, it is one of
thole delicacies that are lo!i in a dead language. Dan.
Georg. Morhof publilhed a treatife De Patuvinitate
Liviana, at Kiel, in 1685, where he explains, very
learnedly, the urbanity and peregrinity of the Latin
tongue.
PAT AHA, (Livy, Mela) 5 the capital of Lycia, to
the eaft of the mouth of the river Xanthus 5 famous for
-a temple and oracle of Apollo, thence called Patareus,
three fyllables only ; but Patarceus, (Horace). For the
fix winter months, Apollo gave anfwers at Patara j and
for the fix fummer at Delos, (Virgil, Servius) : thefe
are the Lycue Sortes of Virgil. The town was fituated
in a peninfula, called Liciorum Cherfonefus, (Stephanus).
A&s xxi. 1. St Paul in his paffage from Philippi to Je-
Tufalem, came to Miletus, hence to Coos, then to Rhodes,
and from Rhodes to Patara j where having found a
fhip that was bound for Phoenicia, he went on board
and arrived at Jerufalem, to be at the feaft of Pente-
•coft.
PAT AVIUM, (Tacitus, Strabo), a town of tire
Tranfpadana, fituated on the left or north bank of the
Medoacus Minor ; founded by Antenor the Trojan,
{Mela, Virgil, Seneca) ; Patavini, the people, (Livy) *,
who himfelf was a native, and by Afinius Pollio char¬
ged with patavinity. Now Padua, in the territory and
to the weft of Venice. E. Long. 12. 15. N. Lat. 45.
30-
PAT AY, a town of France, in the province of Or-
leannois, remarkable for the defeat of the Englifn in
1429, and where Joan of Arc did wonders. E. Long.
1. 43. N. Lat. 48. 5.
P AT E, in Fortification, a kind of platform, refem-
hling what is called an horfe's [hoe.
P ATEE, or Pattee, in Heraldry, a crofs, fmall in
the centre, and widening to the extremities, which are
very broad.
PATELLA, or Knee-pan, in Anatomy. See Ana¬
tomy Index.
Patella, or Limpet, a genus of fhell-fhh belong¬
ing to the order of vermes teftacea. See Conchology
Index.
PATELLA, in the Hiftory of Infers, a name given
by Lifter and other authors to a little hulk or ftiell,
found on the bark of the cherry, plum, rofe, and other
trees, containing an animal within, and ufeful in colour¬
ing. T hefe patellae are of the form of globes, except
where they adhere to the tree, and are for the moft part
of a filming chefnut colour. The hulk itfelf ftrikes a very
fine crimfon colour on paper, and within it is found a
white maggot which is of no value : this, in time,
hatches into a very fmall but beautiful bee. The fize
of this bee is about half that of an ant. They have a
fting like bees, and three fpots placed in a triangle on
the forehead, which are fuppofed to be eyes. They are
of a black colour, and have a large round whitilh or
pale yellow ipot on the back. The upper pair of wings
are lliaded and fpotted, but the under pair are clear. It
might be worth while to try the ftiells or hulks in order
dilcover whether the colour they yield might not be
ufeful. It is to be remarked, that the deepeft coloured Patella
hulks afford the fineft. and deepeft purple : they muft be ^
ufed while the animal in them is in the maggot form Patera'
for when it is changed into the bee ftate the Ihell is dry
and colourlefs. Lifter, who firlt obferved thele patellae,
went fo far on -comparing them with the common
kermes, as to affert that they were of the fame nature
with that production : but his account of their being
the workmanthip of a bee, to preferve her young maggot
in, is not agreeable to the true hirtory of the kermes ;
for that is an infeCt of a very peculiar kind. He has in
other inftances been too juftly cenfured for his precipi¬
tancy of judging of things, and perhaps has fallen into
an error by means of it here. It is very poflible that
thefe patellae may be the fame fort of animals with the
kermes, but then it produces its young within this Ihell
or hulk, which is no other than the Ikin of the body of
the mother animal but as there are many flies whofe
worms or maggots are lodged in the bodies of other
animals, it may be that this little bee may love to lay
its egg in the body of the proper infeCI, and the mag¬
got hatched from that egg may eat up the proper pro¬
geny, and, undergoing its own natural changes there,
iflue out at length in form of the bee. This may have
been the cafe in fome few which Dr Lifter examined ;
and he may have been milled by this to fuppofe it the
natural change of the infeCt.
PATENT, in general, denotes fomething that
Hands open or expanded : thus a leaf is faid to be pa¬
tent, when it Hands almoft at right angles with the
ftalk.
Patent, or Letters Patent. See Letter.
PATER NOSTER, the Lord's Prayer, fo called from
the two frrft words thereof in Latin.
Pater Nojier, iflands of Alia, in the Eaft Indian
fea, fo called becaufe of the great number of rocks,
which failors have likened to the beads with which the
Papifts tell their pater-nofter. They abound in corn and
fruits, and are very populous.
Pater Patratus, was the name of the firft and princi¬
pal perlon in the college of heralds called Feciales. Some
fay the Pater Patratus was a conftant officer and per¬
petual chief of that body ; and others fuppofe him to
have been a temporary miniiter, eleCted upon account
of making peace or denouncing war, which were both
done by him. See Feciales.
PATERA, among antiquaries, a goblet or veflel
ufed by the Romans in their facrifices ; wherein they
offered their confecrated meats to the gods, and where¬
with they made libations. See Sacrifice and Liba¬
tion.
The word is Latin, formed tsova.pateo, “ I am open
quod^ patent, “ becaufe it has a great aperture in con-
tradiftindiion to bottles, &c. which have only narrow
necks, or whofe aperture is lefs than the body of the
veffel.
On medals the patera is feen in the hands of feveral
deities ; and frequently in the hands of princes, to
mark the facerdotal authority ioined with the impe¬
rial, &c. V
Hence F. Joubert obferves, that befides the patera,
there is frequently an altar upon which the patera Teems
to be pouring its contents.
The patera was of gold, filver, marble, brafs, glafs, or
F 2 earth 5
PAT f 44 ] p A
and they ufed to inclofe it in urns with the allies his inlincerity and partiality.
?atera, earth , cuu ... ...w. «».—
Paterculus. tjie after it had ferved for the libations of
v the wine and liquors at the funeral.
The patera is an ornament in arehite61ure, frequently
feen in the Doric frieze, and the tympans of arches *,
and they are fometimes ufed by themfelves, to ornament
a fpace j and in this cafe it is common to hang a firing
of hufksor drapery over them : fometimes they are much
enriched with foliage, and have a mafk or ahead in the
centre.
PATERCULUS, Caius Velleius, an ancient Ro¬
man hiftorian, who flourifhed in the reign of Tiberius
Crefar, was born in the year of Rome 735. His ance-
ilors were illuffrious for their merit and their offices.
His grandfather efpoufed the party of Tiberius Nero,
the emperor’s father •, but being old and infirm, and not
able to accompany Nero when he retired from Naples,
.he ran himfelf through with his fword. His father was
a foldier of rank, and fo was Paterculus himfelf. He
was a military tribune when Caius Caefar, a gramdfon of
Auguflus, had an interview with the king of the Par-
thians, in an ifland of the river Euphrates, in the year
7 t;3. He commanded the cavalry in Germany under
Tiberius •, and accompanied that prince for nine years
fucceffively in all his expeditions. He received honour¬
able rewards from him \ but we do not find that he was
preferred to any higher dignity than the praetorffiip.
The praifes he beftows upon Sejanus give fome probabi¬
lity to the conjecture, that he was looked upon as a
friend of this favourite, and confequently that he was
involved in his ruin. His death is placed by Mr Dod-
well in the year of Rome 784, when he was in his 50th
year.
He wrote an abridgement of the Roman Hiflory in
two books, which is very curious. His purpofe wras
only to deduce things from the foundation of Rome to
the time wherein he lived j but lie began his work with
things previous to that memorable era 5 for, though the
beginning of his firft book is wanting, wre yet find in
what remains of it, an account of many cities more an¬
cient than Rome. He promifed a larger hiftory *, and
no doubt would have executed it w ell : for during his
military expeditions he had feen, as he tells us, the pro¬
vinces of Thrace, Macedonia, Achaia, Afia Minor, and
other more eallerly regions ; efpecially upon the fhores
of the Euxine fea, which had furniihed his mind with
much entertaining and ufeful knowledge. In the A-
bridgement which we have, many particulars are related
that are nowhere elfe to be found *, and this makes it
the more valuable. The flyle of Paterculus, though
miferably difguifed through the careleffnefs of tranferi-
bers, and impoffible to be rellored to purity for want
of manuferipts, is yet manifeftly worthy of his age,
which was the time of pure Latinity. The greateft
excellence of this hiftorian lies in his manner of com¬
mending and blaming thofe he fpeaksof; which he does
in the fineft terms and moft delicate expreffions. He is,
however, condemned, and indeed with the greateft rea-
fon, for his partiality to the houfe of Auguflus ; and for
making the moft extravagant eulogies, not only upon
Tiberius, but even upon his favourite Sejanus: whom,
though a vile and cruel monfter, Paterculus celebrates
as one of the moft excellent perfons the Roman com¬
monwealth had produced. Lipfius, though he praifes
him iu other refpedls, yet .ceofures him moft feverely for
      ^. “ Velleius Paterculus Paterculus
(fays he) raifes my indignation : he reprefents Sejanus as it .
endowed with all good qualities. The impudence of, at f
this hiftorian ! But we know that he was born, and
died, to the deftrutftion of mankind. After many com¬
mendations, he concludes, that Livia was a woman more
refembling the gods than men : and as to TLiberius, he
thinks it a crime to fpeak otherwife of him than as of
an immortal Jove. What fincere and honeft mind can
bear this ? On the other hand, how artfully does he
everywhere conceal the great qualities of Caffiar Germa-
nicus ! how obliquely does he ruin the reputation of
Agrippina and others, whom Tiberius was thought to
hate ! In ihort, he is nothing but a court-proftitute.
You will fay, perhaps, it was unfafe to fpeak the truth
at thofe times : I grant it $ but if he could noti write
the truth, he ought not to have written lies : none are
called to account for filence.” La Mothe le Vayar has
made a very juft remark upon this occafion : “ The
fame fault (fays he) may be obferved in many others,
who have written the hiftory of their own times, with,
a defign to be publiffied while they lived.”
It is ftrange, that a work fo elegant and worthy ler
be preferved, and of which, by realon of its ftiortnefs,
copies might be fo eafily taken, (hould have been fo
near being loft. One manufeript only has had the luck
to be found, as well of this author among the Latins
as of Hefychius among the Greeks : in which, fays a
great critic of our own nation, “ The faults of the
feribes are found fo numerous, and the defeats fo be¬
yond all redrefs, that notwithftanding the pains of the
learned and moft acute critics for two whole centuries,
thefe books ftill are, and are like to continue, a mere
heap of errors.” No ancient author but Prifcian makes
mention of Paterculus : the. moderns have done him in¬
finitely more juftice, and have illuftrated him with notes
and commentaries. He was firft publiffied from the
manufeript of Morhac, by Rhenanus, at Bafil in 1520:-
afterwards by Lipfius at Leyden in 1581 ; then by
Gerard Voffius in 1639 ; next by Boeclerusat Straffiurg
in 1642 j then by Thyfius and others ■, and, laftly, by
Peter Burman at Leyden, 1719,111 8vo. Ro the Ox¬
ford edition in 1693, 8vo, were prefixed the Ahnales
Velleiani of Mr Dodwell, which ftiow deep learning and
a great knowledge of antiquity.
PATH, in general, denotes the courfe or track mark¬
ed out or run over by a body in motion.
For the path of the moon, &c. fee M©ON, &c.
Astronomy Index.
PATHETIC, whatever relates to the paffions, or
that is proper to excite or awake them. The word
comes from the Greek TraSog, jHtJjion or emotion. See
Passion.
Pathetic, in Mufic, fomething very moving, ex-
preffive, or paftionate *, capable of exciting pity, com-
paffion, anger, or other paffions. Thus we fpeak of
the pathetic ftyle, a pathetic figure, pathetic fong, &c.
The chromatic genus, with its greater and lefler femi-
tones, either afeending or defeending, is very proper
for the pathetic 5 as is alfo an artful management of
difeords •, with a variety of motions, now briik, now
languiftiing, now fwift, now flow.
Nieuwentyt fpeaks of a mufician at Venice who fo
excelled in the pathetic, that he was able to play any
of his auditors into diftra&ionT he lays alfo, that the
g?eatk
PAT [ 45 ] PAT
Pathetic great means he made ufe of it was the variety of mo-
.11 tions, &c.
Patience. PATHOGNOMONIC, among Phyjicians, an ap¬
pellation for a fymptom, orconcourie of fymptoms, that
are infeparable from a diilemper, and are found in that
only, and in no other.
PATHOLOGY, that part of medicine which ex¬
plains the nature of difeafes, their caufes and fymp¬
toms. See Medicine.
PATHOS, a Greek term, literally fignifying paf-
(ion.
PATHROS, a city and canton of Egypt, of which
the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel make mention ;
Jerem. xliv. I. 15. Ezek. xxix. 14. xxx. 14. We do
not very well know its fituation, though Pliny and
Ptolemy the geographer fpeak of it by the name of
Phaturis •, and it appears to have been in Upper Egypt.
Ifaiah (xii. 2.) calls it Pathros •, and it is the country
of the Pathrufim, the pofterity of Mizraim, of whom
Mofes fpeaks, Gen. x. 14. Ezekiel threatens them
with an entire ruin. The Jews retired thither notwith-
ftanding the remonft vances of Jeremiah } and the Lord
favs by liaiah, that he will bring them back from
thence.
PATIENCE, that calm and unruffled temper with
which a good man bears the evils of life, from a con-
viftion that they are at leaif permitted, if not fent, by
the beft of Beings, who makes all things work together
for good to thofe who love and fear him.
The evils by which life is embittered may be redu¬
ced to thefe four : 1. Natural evils, or thofe to which
we are by nature fubje£l as men, and as perifhable ani¬
mals. The greateft of thefe are, the death of thofe
whom we love, and of ourfelves. 2. Thofe from which
wTe might be exempted by a virtuous and prudent
conduit, but which are the infeparable confequences
of imprudence or vice, which we {hall call punifhmerits 5
as infamy proceeding from fraud, poverty from prodiga¬
lity, debility and difeafe from intemperance. 3. Thofe
by which the fortitude of the good are exercifed fuch
as the perfecutions raifed againft them by the wicked.
To thefe may be added, 4. The oppofition againit which
we muft perpetually ftruggle, arifiog from the diverfity
of fentiments, manners, and charaifers of the perfons
among whom we live.
Under all thefe evils patience is not only neceffary
but ufeful : it is neceffary, becaufe the laws of nature
have made it a duty, and to murmur againft natural
events is to affront providence ; it is ufeful, becaufe it
renders our fufferings lighter, fliorter, and lefs dan¬
gerous.
Is your reputation fullied by invidious calumnies ?
rejoice that your chara&er cannot fuffer but by falfe
imputations. You are arraigned in a court of judi¬
cature, and are unjuftly condemned : paflion has in¬
fluenced both your profecutor and your judge, and you
cannot forbear repining that you fuffer although in¬
nocent. But would it have been better that you
fhould have fuffered being guilty ? Would the greateft
misfortune that can befal a virtuous man be to you a
confolation ? The opulence of a villain, the elevated
Ration to which he is raifed, and the honours that are
paid to him, excite your jealoufy, and fill your bofom
with repining? and regret. What! fey you, are riches,
dignity, and power, referved for fuch wretches as this ? Patience.
Ceafe thefe groundlefs murmurs. If the poffeffions you " V*~~
regret were real benefits, they would be taken from the
wicked and transferred to you. What would you fey
of a fuccefeful hero, who, having delivered his country,
ihould complain that his fervices were ill requited, be¬
caufe a few fugar-plums were diftributed to fome chil¬
dren in his pretence, of which they had not offered him
a lhare ? Ridiculous as this would appear, your com¬
plaints are no better founded. Has the Lord of all no
reward to confer on you but perilhable riches and empty
precarious honour ?
It is fancy, not the rcafon of things, that makes life
fo uneafy to us. It is not the place nor the condition,’
but the mind alone, that can make any body happy or
mxferable. ^
He that values himfelf on confcience, not opinion,
never heeds reproaches. When we are evil fpoken of,
if we have not deferved it, we are never the worfe ; if
we have, we Humid mend.
Tiberius the Roman emperor, at the beginning of
his reign, afted in moft things like a truly generous,
good natured, and clement prince. All flanderous re¬
ports, libels, and lampoons upon him and his admini-
ftration, he bore with extraordinary patience j faying,
“ That in a free ftate the thoughts and tongues of
every man ought to be free and when the fenate
would have proceeded againft fome who had publifhed
libels againft him, he would not confent to it ; faying,
“ We have not time enough to attend to fuch trifles ;
if you once open a door to fuch informations, you will
be able to do nothing elfe; for under that pretence every
man will revenge himfelf upon his enemies by accufing
them to you.” Being informed that one had fpoken de-
tratftingly of him : “ If he fpeak ill of me,” fays he, “ I
will give him as good an account of my words and ac¬
tions as I can ; and if that be not fufficient, .1 will fethfy
myfeif with.having as bad an opinion of him as he has
of me.” Thus far even Tiberius may. be an example
to others.
Men will have the fame veneration for a perfon who
fufters adverfity without dejedtion, as for demoliftied
temples, the very rains of which are reverenced- and
adored.
A virtuous and well-difpofed perfon, is like to good
metal ; the more he is fired, the more he is refined ; the
more he is oppofed, the more he is approved ; wrongs
may well try him and touch him, but cannot imprint in
him any falfe ftamp.-.
The man therefore w ho poffeffes this virtue (patience).,
in this ample fenfe of it, {lands upon an eminence, and
fees human tilings below him * the-tempeft indeed may
reach him ; but he Hands fecure and- collected againft
it upon the-bafis of confcious virtue, which the fevered
ftorms can feldom {hake, and never overthrow.
Patience, however, is by. no means incompatible -
with fenfibility, which, with all its inconveniences,
is to be cherilhed by thofe who underftand and wilh to
maintain the dignity of their nature* To feel for others,
difpofes us to exercife the amiable virtue of charity, which
our religion indifpenfebly requires. It conft'tutes that
enlarged benevolence which philofophy inculcates, and
which is indeed comprehended in Chriftian charity. It
i& the privilege and the ornament .of mao} and the pain
which
Patkuel.
PAT [ 46 1
Patience tvhich it caufes is abundantly recompenfed by thatfweet crown of Dvveden
fcnfation which ever accompanies the exercife of benefi¬
cence.
To feel our own mifery with full force is not to be
deprecated. Afflidtion foftens and improves the heart.
Tears, to fpeak in the ftyle of figure, fertilize the foil in
■which the virtues grow. And it is the remark of one
who under flood human nature, that the faculties of the
mind, as well as the feelings of the heart, are meliorated
by adverfity.
But in order to promote thefe ends, our fufferings
muft not be permitted to overwhelm us. We mult op-
pofe them with the arms of reafon and religion } and to
exprefs the idea in the language of the philofopher, as
well as the poet, of Nature, every one, while he is com¬
pelled to feel his misfortunes like a man, fhould refolve
alfo to bear them like a man.
PAT
Refign’d in ev’ry ftate,
With patience bear, with prudence pufti, your fate j
By fuffering well our fortune, we fubdue,
Fly when flie frowns, and when {he calls purfue.
PATIGUMO (a corruption of the words pate-de
guimauve) ; the name of a fort of pafte or cakes much
ufed on the continent as an agreeable and ufeful
remedy for catarrhal defluxions, and fuppofed lay
Dr Percival to confift of gum-arabic combined with
fugar and the whites of eggs (fee the article Hunger).
But we have been informed that the powdered fubftance
t)f the marflimallow is the chief ingredient of the com-
pofition.
PATIN, Guy, profeffor of phyfic in the royal col¬
lege of Paris, was born in 1602. He made his way
into the world merely by the force of his genius, being
at firft corrector of a printing-houfe. He was a man of
great wit and erudition : he fpoke with the gravity of
a Stoic, but his expreflions were very fatirical. He
hated bigotry, fuperftition, and knavery } had an up¬
right foul, and a well-difpofed heart. He was a moft
tender father, courteous to every body, and polite in
the higheft degree. He died in 1672, and did not owe
his reputation to any writings publifhed in his lifetime
upon phyfic 5 but his letters which appeared after his
death have rendered his name famous. He left a fon
mentioned in the enfuing article.
PATIN, Charles, who made a great figure in the
world, and excelled in the knowledge of medals. He
was born in Paris in 1633 ; and made fo furprifing. a
progrefs, that he maintained thefes in Greek and Latin,
on all parts of philofophy, in 1647. •^■e ^ie
law in compliance to an uncle, and was admitted an
advocate in the parliament of Paris •, but could not
lay afide that of phyfic, for which he always had an
inclination. He therefore quitted the law, and devoted
himfelf to phyfic •, in which, after taking the doctor’s
degree, he applied himfelf to praftice with great fuc-
cefs. He afterwards travelled into Germany, Holland,
.England, Switzerland, and Italy. In 1676, he was
appointed profeffor of phylic in Padua ; and three years
after was created a knight of St Mark. He died in that
city in 1694. His works are many, and well known to
the learned world. His wife too, and his daughters,
were authoreffes.
PATKUL, John Reinhold, was born of a noble
family in Livonia, a northern province belonging to the
3
The Livonians having been fiript
of their privileges, and great part of their eftates, by
Charles XL Patkul was deputed to make their com¬
plaint *, which he did with Inch eloquence and courage,
that the king, laying his hand upon his fhoulder, faid,
‘ You have fpoken for your country as a brave man
fhould, and I efteem you for it.’
Charles, however, who added the bafenefs of hypo-
crify to the ferocity of a tyrant, was determined to
punifli the zeal and honefty which he thought fit to
commend •, and a few days afterwards caufed Patkul
to be declared guilty of high treafon, and condemned
to die. Patkul, however, found means to efcape into
Poland, where he continued till Charles was dead. He
hoped that his fentence would have been then reverfed,
as it had been declared unjuft even by the tyrant that
procured it: but being difappointed in this expedtation,
he applied to Auguftus king of Poland, and folicited
him to attempt the conqueit of Livonia from the
Swedes j which, he faid, might be eafily effedted, as
the people were ready to (hake off their yoke, and the
king of Sweden was a child incapable of compelling their
fubjedtion.
Auguftus poffeffed himfelf of Livonia in confequence
of this propofal) and afterwards, when Charles XII.
entered the province to recover it, Patkul commanded
in the Saxon army againft him. Charles was vidtori-
and Patkul, fome time afterwards, being difguft-
i\u!
ed at the haughty behaviour of General Fleming, ^Au-
guftus’s favourite, entered into the fervice of the Czar,
with whom Auguftus was in ftridt alliance, and a little
before Charles compelled Auguftus to abdicate the
throne of Poland, and his fubjeas to eled Staniflaus
in his Head. The Czar fent Patkul, with the title of
his ambaffador, into Saxony, to prevail with Auguftus
to meet him at Grodno, that they might confer on the
ftate of their affairs. This conference took place ; and
immediately afterwards the Czar went from Grodno to
quell a rebellion in Aftracan. As foon as the Czar was
gone, Auguitus, to the furprife of all Europe, ordered
Patkul, who was then at Drefden,tobe feized as a ftate
criminal. By this injurious and unprecedented adtion,
Auguftus at once violated the law of nations, and weak¬
ened his own intereft; for Patkul was not only an am¬
baffador, but an ambaffador from the only power that
could, afford him proteftion. The caufe, however, was
this: Patkul had difeovered that Auguftus’s minifters
were to propofe a peace to Charles upon any terms; and
had therefore formed a defign to be beforehand with
them, and procure a feparate peace between Charles and
his new mafter the Czar. The defign of Patkul was
difeovered; and, to prevent its fuccefs, Aguftus ven¬
tured to feize his perfon, affuring the Czar that he was
a traitor, and had betrayed them both.
Auguftus was foon after reduced to beg a peace of
Charles at any rate; and Charles granted it upon cer¬
tain conditions, one of which was, that he ftiould de¬
liver up Patkul. This condition reduced Auguftus to
a very diftrefsful dilemma : the Czar, at this very time,
reclaimed Patkul as his ambaffador; and Charles de¬
manded, with threats, that he ftiould be put into his
hands. Auguftus therefore contrived an expedient by
which he hoped to fatisfy both : he fent fome guards
to deliver Patkul, who was prifoner in the caltle of
Konigftein, to the Swedifti troops; but by fecret or-
0 ders
PAT
Patkul. cJers privately difpatched, he commanded the governor
v to let him efcape. The governor, though he received
this order in time, yet difappointed its intention by his
villany and his avarice. He knew Patkul to be very
rich ; and having it now in his power to fuffer him to
efcape with impunity, he demanded of Patkul a large
fum for the favour : Patkul refuled to buy that liberty
■which he made no doubt would be gratuitoully reftored,
inconfequence of the Czar’s requifition and remonftrance;
and, in the mean time, the Swedilh guards arrived with
the order for his being delivered up to them. By this
party he was firft carried to Charles’s head quarters at
Albranftadt, where he continued three months, bound
to a flake with a heavy chain of iron. He was then
conduced to Cafimir, where Charles ordered him to be
tried ; and he was by his judges found guilty. His fen-
tence depended upon the king ; and after having been
kept a prifoner fome months, under a guaH of Mayer-
feldt’s regiment, uncertain of his fate, he was, on the
28th of September 1707, towards the evening, delivered
into the cuftody of a regiment of dragoons, commanded
by Colonel Nicholas Hielm. On the next day, the
29th, the colonel took the chaplain of his regiment
afide, and telling him that Patkul was to die the follow-
ing day, ordered him to acquaint him with his fate, and
prepare him for it. About this very time he was to
have been married to a Saxon lady of great quality, vir¬
tue, and beauty ; a circumftance which renders his cafe
ftill more affecting. What followed in oonfequence of
the colonel’s order to the.minifter will be related in his
own words.
“ Immediately after evening fervice I went to his pri-
fon, where I found him lying on his bed. The firft com¬
pliments over, I entered upon the melancholy duty of
my profeflion, and turning to the officer who had him
in charge, told him the colonel’s orders were, that I
fhould be alone with his prifoner. The officer having
withdrawn, Patkul grafping both my hands in his, cried
out with moft affedting anxiety and diftrefs, My dear
paftor ! what are you to declare ? what am I to hear ?
I bring you, replied I, the fame tidings that the prophet
brought to King Hezekiah, Set thine houfe in order, for
thou muJI die. To-morrow by this time thou {halt be
no longer in the number of the living ! At this terrible
warning he bowed himfelf upon his bed and burft into
tears. I attempted to comfort him, by faying that lie
muft, without all doubt, have often meditated on this
fubjeft : Yes, cried he, I know, alas ! too well, that
we muft all die; but the death prepared for me will be
cruel and infupportable. I aflured him that the manner
of his death was to me totally unknown 5 but, believing
that he wmuld be prepared for it, I was fure his foul
would be received into the number of happy fpirits.
Here he rofe up, and folding his hands together, Mer¬
ciful Jefus ! let me then die the death of the righteous !
A little after, with his face inclined to the wall, where
flood his bed, he broke out into this foliloquy: Auguf-
tus! O Auguftus, what muft be thy lot one day ! Muft
thou not anfwer for all the crimes thou haft committed ?
Pie then obferved that he was driven out from his coun¬
try, by a fentence agaxnft his life, pronounced for doing
what the king himfelf encouraged him to do, faying to
him one day in terms of much kindnefs, ‘ Patkul, main¬
tain the rights of your country like a man of honour,
and with all the fpirit you are capable of.’ That flying
PAT
into an enemy’s country was alfo unavoidable, as the Patkul.
country of an ally would not have afforded him protec- ''"““V—
tion ; but that he w7as in Saxony a wretched exile, not
a counfellor or advifer ; that before his arrival every
thing was already planned, the alliance with Mufcovy
figned, and the meafures with Denmark agreed upon.
‘ My inclination (faid he, after a paufe) were always to
ferve Sweden, though the contrary opinion has prevail¬
ed. The eledtor of Brandenburg owed his title of kiner
of P ruff a to the fervice.s I did him ; and when, in re-
compenfe, he would have given me a confiderable fum
of money, I thanked him, and rejedled the offer ; add¬
ing, that the reward I moft wiftied for was to regain the
king of Sweden’s favour by his interceffion. This he
promifed, and tried every poffible method to fucceed, but
without fuccefs. After this I laboured fo much for the
intereft of the late emperor in his Spanifti affairs, that I
brought about what fcarce any other man could have
effedted. The emperor as an acknowledgement gave me
an affignment for 50,000 crowns, which I humbly laid
at his feet, and only implored his imperial majefty’s re¬
commendation of me to my king’s favour : this requeft
he immediately granted, and gave his orders according¬
ly, but in vain. Yet, not to lofe any opportunity, I
went to Mofcow while the Swedifli ambafladors were at
that court; but even the mediation of the Czar had no
effedt. After that I diftributed among the Swedifti prK
foners at Mofcow at leaft 100,000 crowns, to ffiow the
ardent defire I had, by all ways, to regain the favour of
their fovereign. Would to heaven I had been equally
in earneft to obtain the grace of God.’—At thefe words
another fhower of tears fell from his eyes, and he re¬
mained for fome moments filent, and overwhelmed with
grief. I ufed my beft endeavours to comfort him with
the affurance that this grace would not be denied him,
provided he fpent the few hours ftill left in earneftly im¬
ploring it j for the door of heaven’s mercy was never
fhut, though that of men might be cruelly fo. ‘ This
(replied he), this is my confolation ; for thou art God
and not man, to be angry for ever.’ He then inveighed
bitterly againft Auguftus, and reproached himfelf for
having any connexion with a wretch who was wholly
deftitute of all faith and honour, an atheift, without
piety, and without virtue. ‘ While he was at War-
faw (faid he), and heard the king was advancing to at¬
tack him, he found himfelf extremely diftreffed. He-
was abfolutely without money, and therefore obliged
to difmifs fome of his troops. He had recourfe to my
affiftance, and intreated me, for the love of God, to bor¬
row whatever fum I could. I procured him 400,000
crowns *, 50,000 of which, the very next day, he fquan-
dered on trinkets and jewels, which he gave in prefents
to fome of his women. I told him plainly my thoughts
of the matter \ and by my importunity prevailed, that
the Jews Ihould take back their toys, and return the
money they had been paid for them. The ladies were
enraged 5 and he fwore that I ffiould one time or other-
fuffer for what I had done : there indeed he kept his
word ; would to God he had always done fo with thofe
he employed !” I now left him for a fhort time, and at
feven in the evening I returned •, and the officer being
retired, he accofted me with a fmiling air, and an ap¬
pearance of much tranquillity, ‘ Welcome, dear fir, the
weight that lay heavy on my heart is removed, and I al¬
ready feel a fenfible change wrought in my mind. I am
ready;-
t 47 1
PAT [48
Patkul. ready to die : death is more eligible than the folitude of
•““"v—-a long imprifonment. Would to heaven only that the
kind of it were lefs cruel. Can you, my dear lir, inform
me in what manner I am to fuffer I anfwered, that it
had not been communicated to me j but that I imagin¬
ed it would pafs over without noife, as only the colonel
and myfelf had notice of it, ‘ 1 hat (replied he) I
efteera as a favour •, but have you feen the fentence ? or
muft I die, without being either heard or condemned ?
My apprehenlions are of being put to intolerable tor¬
tures.’ I comforted him in the kindeft manner I could •,
but he was his own beft comforter from the W ord of
God, with which he was particularly acquainted ; quot¬
ing, among many other paffages, the following in Greek,
We tnuji enter into the kingdom of heaven through many
tribulations. He then called for pen and ink, and in-
treated me to write down what he Ihould diftate. I did
fo, as follows: ( . r . -
‘ Tejlamentum, or my lajl will as to the difpojition of
my eJ'eBs after my death.—I. His majefty King Augu-
ftus, having firft examined his confcience thoroughly, will
be fo juft as to pay back to my relations the fum he owes
me which, being liquidated, will amount to 50,000
crowns } and as my relations are here in the (erviet of
Sweden, that monarch will probably obtain it for them.’
“ At this he faid, let us flop here a little •, I will
quickly return to finifti this will ; but now let us ad-
drefs ourfelves to God by prayer. Prayers being end¬
ed, ‘ Now (cried he) I find rayfelf yet better, yet in
a quieter frame of mind : Oh ! were my death lefs
dreadful, with what pleafure would I expiate my guilt
by embracing it !—Yes (cried he, after a paufe), I
have friends in different places, who will weep oyer
iny deplorable fate. What will the mother of the king
of Pruftia fay ? What will be the grief of the Countefs
Levolde who attends on her ? But what thoughts muft
arife in the bofom of her to whom my faith is plighted?
Unhappy woman ! the news of my death will be fatal
to her peace of mind. My dear paftor, may I venture
to beg one favour of you ?’ I affured him he might
command every fervice in my power. ‘ Have the good-
nefs then (faid he, preffing my hand), the moment I am
no more, to write—Alas ! how will you fet about it ? a
letter to Madam Einfeidelern, the lady I am promifed
to Let her know that I die her’s} inform her fully of
jny unhappy fate : Send her my laft and eternal fare¬
well ! Pvly death is in truth difgraceful •, but my manner
of meeting it will, I hope by heaven’s and your aflift-
ance, render it holy and bleffed. This news will be her
only confolation. Add farther, dear Sir, that I thanked
her with my lateft breath for the fincere affeftion fbe
bore me : May (he live long and happy : This is my
dying wilh.’—I gave him my hand in promife that I
would faithfully perform all he defired.
“ Afterwards he took up a book : * 1 his (faid he)
is of my own writing. Keep it in remembrance of me,
and as a proof of my true regard for religion. I could
wilh it might have the good fortune to be prefented to
the king, that he may be convinced with what little
foundation I have been accufed of atheifm.’ Taking it
from his hand, I affured him that my colonel would not
fail to prefent it as foon as opportunity offered.
44 The reft of his time was employed in prayer, which
he went through with a very fervent devotion. On the
30th of September I was again with him at four in the
1
F A T
morning. The moment he heard me he arofe, and ren- ^
dering thanks to God, allured me he had not llept fo
foundly for a long time. We went to prayers •, and in
truth his piety and devout frame of mind were worthy
of admiration. About fix he faid he would begin his
confeflion, before the din and clamour of the people
without could rife to difturb his thoughts. He then
kneeled down, and went through his confeflion in a
manner truly edifying. The fun beginning to appear
above the horizon, he looked out of the window, faying.,
Salve fejla dies ! ‘ This is my wedding-day. I looked,
alas ! for another, but this is the happier ; for to-day
{hall my foul be introduced by her heavenly bridegroom
into the affembly of the bleffed !’ He then alked me,
whether 1 yet knew in what way he was to die ? I an¬
fwered, that I did not. He conjured me, by the facred
name of Jelus, not to forfake him ^ for that he Ihould
find in my company fome contolation even in the midlt
of tortures. Galling his eye on the paper that lay on
the table, 4 This will (laid he) can never be finilhed.’
I alked him, whether he would put his name to what
was already written ? 4 No (replied he, with a deep
figh), 1 will write that hated name no more. My rela¬
tions will find their account in another place j falute
them for me.’ He then addreffed himfelf again to God
in prayer, and continued his devotions till the lieutenant
entered to condudl him to the coach. He wrapped him¬
felf up in his cloak, and went forward a great pace,
guarded by 100 horfemen. Being arrived at the place
of execution, we found it furrounded by 300 f0°t fol-
diersj but at the fight of the flakes and wheels, his hor-
is not to be deferibed. Clafping me in his arms,
Patkufl
4 Beg of God (he exclaimed) that ray foul may not be
thrown into defpair araidft thefe tortuies . I comforted,
I adjured him to fix his thoughts on the death of Jifus
Chrift, who for our fins was nailed to a crofs.
now on the fipot where he was to fuller, he
bid the executioner to do his duty well, and put into his
hands fome money which he got ready for that purpofe.
He then ftretched himfelf out upon the wheel ; and
while they were ftripping him naked, he begged me to
pray that God would have mercy on him, and bear up
his foul in agony. I did fo •, and turning to all the
fpe£lators, faid to them, Brethren, join with me in
prayer for this unhappy man. 4 Yes (crieci he), allift
me all of you with your fupplications to heaven.' Here
the executioner gave him the firft ftroke. His cries w ere
terrible : 4 O Jefus ! Jefus ! have mercy upon me.’ This
cruel feene was much lengthened out, and of the utmoft
horror j for as the headfman had no fkill in his bufinefs,
the unhappy vidlim received upwards of 1 5 feveral blows,
with each of which were intermixed the moft piteous
groans and invocations of the name of God. At length,
after two ftrokes given on the breaft, his ftimgtL and
voice failed him. In a faultering dying tone, he was juft
heard to fay, 4 Cut off my head ?’ and the executioner
ftill lingering, he himfelf placed his head on the fcaffold :
After four ftrokes with an hatchet, the head was fepa-
rated from the body, and the body quartered. Such was
the end of the renowned Patkul.”
Charles XII. has been very generally and feverely
cenfured for not pardoning him, and we are not inclined
to vindicate the fovereign. Yet it muft be remembered,
that Patkul was guilty of a much greater crime than
that which drew upon him the. difpleafure of Charles
XT.
PAT [ 49 ] PAT
t*atkul XI. He incited foreign powers to attack his country
p ^11 when under the government of a boy, hoping, as he
a n" , faid himfelf, that it would in fuch circutndances become
an eafy conqueft. He was therefore a rebel of the word;
kind 5 and where is the abfolute monarch that is ready
to pardon fuch unnatural rebellion ? Let it be remem¬
bered, too, that Charles, among whofe faults no other
inftance of cruelty has been numbered, certainly thought
that, in ordering the execution of Patkul, he was dif-
Charging his duty. That monarch, it is known, believ¬
ed in the poffibility ofdifcovering the philofopher’s Hone.
Patkul, when under fentence of death, contrived to im-
pofe fo far upon the fenate at Stockholm, as to perfuade
them that he had, in their prefence, converted into gold
a quantity of bafer metaL An account of this experi¬
ment was tranfmitted to the king, accompanied with a
petition to his majelly for the life of fo valuable a fub-
jedl ; but Charles, blending magnanimity with his fe-
verity, replied with indignation, that he would not
grant to intereft what he had refufed to the call of hu¬
manity and the intreaties of friendlhip.
PATMOS, in Ancient Geography, one of the Spo-
rades (Dionylius) •, 30 miles in compafs (Pliny) \ con¬
cerning which we read very little in authors. It was
rendered famous by the exile of St John, and the Reve¬
lation (bowed him there. The greateft part of interpre¬
ters think that St John wrote them in the fame place
during the two years of his exile ; but others think that
he did not commit them to writing till after his return
to Ephefus. The ifland of Patmos is between the idand
of Icaria and the promontory of Miletus. Nothing has
done it more honour than to have been the place of the
banifhment of St John. It is now called Patino, or Pac-
tmo, or Patmol, or Palmofa. Its circuit is five and
twenty or thirty miles. It has a city called Patmos,
with a harbour, and fome monafteries of Greek monks.
It is at prefent in the hands of the Turks. It is eon-
fiderable for its harbours ; but the inhabitants derive
little benefit from them, becaufe the corfairs have ob¬
liged them to quit the town, and retire to a hill on which
St John’s convent Hands. This convent is a citadel con¬
fiding of feveral irregular towers, and is a fubilantial
building feated on a very fleep rock. The whole ifland
is very barren, and without wood *, however, it abounds
with partridges, rabbits, quails, turtles, pigeons, and
fnipes. All their corn does not amount to 1000 barrels
in a year. In the whole ifland there are fcarcely 300
men : but there are above 20 women to one man, who
expeft that all flrangers who land in the ifland fhould
carry fome of them away. To the memory of St John
is an hermitage on the fide of a mountain, where there
is a chapel not above eight paces long and five broad.
Over head they (how a chink in the rock, through
which they pretend that the Holy GhoH di&ated to
St John. E. Long. 26. 84. N. Lat. 37. 24.
PATNA, a town of Afia, in the dominions of the
Great Mogul, to the north of the kingdom of Bengal,
where the Englifh have fa&ories for faltpetre, borax,
and raw filk. It is the capital of the province of Ba-
har, a dependency of Bengal, in the empire of Indo-
Han, fituated in a pleafant country, 400 miles eafl of
Agra. It extends feven miles in length on the banks
of the Ganges, and is about half a mile in breadth.—
Mr Rennel gives Hrong reafons for fuppofing it to be
the ancient Palibothra. The town is large and po-
VOL. XVI. Part I.
pulous, but the hordes are built at a difiance from each T itr,.v
other. E. Long. 85. 40. N. Lat 45. 25.
PATOMACK, a large river of Virginia, in North ' ’
America, which riles in the Alleghany mountains, fe-
parates Virginia from Maryland, and falls into Chefa-
peake bay. It is about feven miles broad, and is na¬
vigable for near 300 miles.
PATONCE, in Heraldry., is a crofs, flory at the
ends •, from which it differs only in this, that the ends
inftead of turning down like a fleur-de-lis, are extend¬
ed fomewhat in the pattee form. See Flory.
PATRAi, a city of Achaia. Ibis place was vifit-
ed by Dr Chandler, who gives the following account
of it. “ It has often been attacked by enemies, taken,
and pillaged. It is a confiderable town, at a diffanco-
from the lea, fituated on the fide of a hill, which has
its fummit crowned with a ruinous caltle. This made
a brave defence in 1447 againff Sultan Morat, and held
out until the peace was concluded, which firlt rendered
the Morea tributary to the Turks. A dry flat before it
was once the port, which has been choked with mud.
It has now, as in the time of Strabo, only an indifferent
road for veffels. The houfe of Nicholas Paul, Eiq. the
Englilh conful, Hood on part of the wall either of the
theatre or the odeum. By a fountain was a fragment
of a Latin infcription. We faw alfo a large marble
buff much defaced *, and the French conful fhowed us a,
collection of medals. We found nothing remarkable in
the citadel. It is a place of fome trade, and is inhabited
by Jews as well as by Turks and Greeks. The latter
have feveral churches. One is dedicated to St Andrew
the apoffle, who fuffered martyrdom there, and is of
great fanClity. It had been recently repaired. The fite
by the fea is luppofed that of the temple of Ceres. Bv
it is a fountain. The air is bad, and the country round
about overrun with the low Ihrub called glycyrrhiza or
liquorice.”
Of its ancient ftate, the fame author fpeaks thus ;
“ Patrge affilted the Aitolians when invaded by the
Gauls under Brennus *, but afterwards was unfortunate,
reduced to extreme poverty, and almoft abandoned. Ao-
guftus Caefar reunited the fcattered citizens, and made
it a Roman colony, fettling a p'ortion of the troops which
obtained the viftory of AClium, with other inhabitants
from the adjacent places. Patrce reflourilhed and enjoy¬
ed dominion over Naupaftus, Oeanthe, and feveral ci¬
ties of Achaia. In the time of Paufanias, Patrae was
adorned with temples and porticoes, a theatre, and an
odeum which was fuperior to any in Greece but that of
Atticus Herodes at Athens. In the lower part of the
city was a temple of Bacchus AEfymnetes, in which was
an image preferved in a chefi, and conveyed, it waS
faid, from Troy by Eurypylus •, who, on opening it,
became difordered in his fenfes. By the port were
temples ; and by the fea, one of Ceres, with a pleafant
grove and a prophetic fountain of unerring veracity in
determining the event of any illnefs. After fupplicating
the goddefs with incenfe, the lick perfon appeared,
dead or living, in a mirror fufpended fo as to touch the
furface of the water. In the citadel of Patrae was u
temple of Diana Laphria, with her ftatue in the habit of
a huntrefs of ivory and gold, given by Augufius Caffar
when he laid waffe Calydon and the cities of AEtolia ta
people Nicopolis. The Patrenfians honoured her with
a yearly feffival, which is d-efcribed by Paufanias who
Q was
Patrae
H
Patriarch.
PAT [ 5° ] P A T. . r. . „ . .
They formed a circle round the altar by others to be an in (lance o^prophcticinfpirationmore
was a fpe£tator.  —
with pieces of green wood, each 16 cubits long, and
within heaped dry fuel. The folemnity began with a
xnoft magnificent proceffion, which was doled by the
virgin-prieftefs in a chariot drawn by (tags. On the
following day, the city and private perfons offered at the
altar fruits, and birds, and all kinds of victims, wild-
boars, (tags, deer, young wolves, and beads full grown j
after which the fire was kindled. He relates, that a
bear and another animal forced a way through the fence,
but were reconduded to the. pile. It was not remem¬
bered that any wound had ever been received at this ce¬
remony, though the Ipectacle and facnfice were as dan¬
gerous as favage. The number of women at Patrae was
double that of the men. They were employed chiefiy
in a manufadure of (lax which grew m Elis, weaving
garments, and attire for the head.
° P A.TRANA, or Pastrana, a town of New Caitiie
in Spain, with the title of a duchy. It is feated between
the rivers Tajo and Tajuna, in W. Long. 2. 45. i\. Lat.
4°PATRAS, an ancient and flourilhing town of Eu¬
ropean Turkey, in the Morea, capital of a duchy, with
a Greek archbi(hop’s fee. It is pretty large and popu¬
lous 1 and the Jews, who are one-third part of the in¬
habitants, have four fynagogues. 'I nere are feveral
handfome mofques and Greek churches. I he Jews car¬
ry on a great trade in (ilk, leather, honey, wax, and
cheefe. There are cyprefs trees of a prodigious height,
and excellent pomegranates, citrons, and oranges. _ it
has been feveral times taken and retaken, and it is juk
now in the hands of the Turks. It is feated m E. Long.
21. 41. N* Lat. 38. . r t
PATRICA, a town of Italy, in the territory ot the
church, and in the Campagna nf Rome, towards the
fea-coaft, and eight miles eaft of Oftia. About a mile
from this place is a hill called Monte de Lrjono which
Jbme have thought to be the ancient Lavimum founded
bv iEneas. _ , Q_
' PATRES CONSCRIPTI. See Conscripi and b£-
a tircumftance
and can be de-
of the dignity
PATRIARCH, Patriarcha, one of thofe firff fa¬
thers who lived towards the beginning of the world, and
who became famous by their long lines of defeendants.
Abraham, Ifaac, and Jacob, and his twelve fons, are the
patriarchs of the Old Teftament 5 Seth, Enoch, &c.
were antediluvian patriarchs. , .
The authority of patriarchal government exiffed m
the fathers of families, and their firft-born after them,
exercifing all kinds of ecclefiaftical and civil authority
in their refpeaive hrufeholds and to this government,
\vbich ladt1^ tiR tirne t^ie ^rae^tes dwelling in
Egypt fome have aferibed an abfolute and defpotic
power,’extending even to the punilhment by death In
proof of this, is produced the curfe'pronounced by Noah
upon Canaan (Gen. ix. 25.) but it muff be obferved,
that in this affair Noah feems to have afted rather as a
prophet than a patriarch. Another mftance of fuppofed
defpotic power is Abraham’s turning Hngar and Iihmael
out of his family (Gen. xxi. 9, &c.) 5 but this can hard¬
ly be thought to fur nidi evidence of any Angular autho¬
rity veiled in the patriarchs, as fuch, and peculiar to
thofe ages. The third inflance brought forward to the
fame purpofe is that of Jacob’s denouncing a curfe upon
Simeon and Levi (Gen. xlix. 7.), which is maintained
2
than of patriarchal power. The fourth intlance is that
of Judah with regard to Tamar (Gen. xxxviii. 24.) $ with
regard to which it is remarked, that Jacob, the father ot
Judah, was dill living •, that Tamar was not one of his
own family ; and that die had been guilty of adultery,
the punidiment of which was death by burning j and
that Judah on this occafion might (peak only as a pioie-
cutor. .
On the whole, however, it is difficult to (ay which ot
thefe opinions is mod agreeable to truth. Men who
believe the origin of civil government, and the obliga¬
tion to obedience, to arife from a fuppofed original con-
trad, either real or implied, will be naturally led to
weaken the authority of the patriarchs : and thofe
again who efteem government to be a divine inftitution*,
will be as apt to raife that authority to the higheft pitch
that either reafon or feripture will permit them. It
cannot be denied, that authority exided in fathers, and
defeended to their fird born, in the firff ages of the
world •, and it is neither unnatural nor improbable to
imagine, that the idea of hereditary power and heredi¬
tary honours was firft taken from tliis eircuniffance.
But whether authority has defeended through father
and (bn in this way to our times, is
that cannot in one inftance be afferted,
nied in a thoufand. 1 he real fonree
and of the authority of modern times feems to have
been, (kill in the art of war, and fuccefs in the conduft
of conquefts. r
Jewi/h PATRIARCH, a dignity, refpeamg the origin
of which there are a variety of opinions. The learned
authors of the Univerfal Hiftory think, that the firff
appearance and inftitution of thofe patriarchs happened
under Nerva the fucceffor of Domitian. It feems pro¬
bable that the patriarchs were of the Aaronic or Levi-
tical race ; the tribe of Judah being at that time too
much depreffed, and too obnoxious to the Romans to be
able to affume any external power. But ot whatever
tribe they were, their authority came to be very confi-
derable. Their principal bufuaefs was to inflruft the
people-, and for this purpofe they inftituted fehools in
feveral cities. And having gained great reputation for
their extraordinary learning, zeal, and piety, they might,
in time, not only bring a great concourfe of other Jews
from other part/, as from Egypt and other weffers pro¬
vinces of their difperfion, but like wife prove the means
of their patriarchal authority’s being acknowledged
there. From them they ventured at length to levy a
kind of tribute, in order to defray the charges of their
dignity, and of the officers, (viz. the Apojoliox Legoti),
under them, whofe bufinefs it was to carry their orders
and decifions through the other provinces of their dif¬
perfion, and to fee them punftually executed by all, that
feme fhadowT of union at lead might be kept up among
the weftern Jews. They likewife nominated the doctors
who were to prefide over their fehools and academies
and thefe were in procefs of time ftyled chiefs and prin¬
ces, in order to raife the credit of that dignity, or to im¬
ply the great regard which their difciples weie to p<ty
to them. Thefe chiefs became at length rivals of the
patriarchs and fome of them poffeffed both dignities at
once ; an ufurpation which caufod not only great confu-
fion amongft them, but oftentimes very violent and
bloody contefts. However, as the Jewifh Rabbles have
trumped
PAT [ 5i 1 PAT
Patriarch, trumped up a much older era for this patriarchal dig-
~' nity, and have given us a fucceffion of them down to
the fifth century, in which it was aboliihed, it will not
be amifs to give our readers the fubftance of Avhat they
have written of fhe rife and progrefs of this order of
men ; and at the fame time to fhow them the abfurdity
and falfehood of that pretended fucceflion to this imagi¬
nary dignity.
According to them, the firft patriarch was Hillel, fur-
named the Babylonian, beeaufe he was fent for from
thence to Jerufalem about 100 years before the ruin of
their capital, or 30 years before the birth of Chrift, to
decide a difpute about the keeping of Eafter, which on
that vear fell out on the Sabbath day ; and it was on
account of his wife decifion that he was raifed to that
dignity, which continued in his family till the laid fifth
century. He was likewife looked upon as afecond Mo-
fes, becaufe he lived like him 40 years in obfcarity, 40
more in great reputation for learning and fanclity, and
40 more in poffe(Turn of this patriarchal dignity. They
make him little inferior to that lawgiver in other of his
excellencies, as well as in the great authority he gained
over the whole Jewifh nation. The wonder will be,
how Herod the Great, who was fo jealous of his own
power, could fuffer a ftranger to be raifed to fuch a height
of it, barely for having decided a difpute which mud in
all likelihood have been adjudged by others long before
that time.
However, Hillel was fucceeded by his fon Simeon,
whom many Chriltians pretend to have been the vene¬
rable old perfim of that name, who received the divine
infant in his arms. The Jews give him but a very ob-
fcure patriarchate 5 though the authors above quoted
make him, moreover, chief of the fanhedrim •, and Epi-
phanius fays, that the prieftly tribe hated him fo much
for giving fo ample a teftimony to the divine child, that
they denied him common burial. But it is hardly cre¬
dible that St Luke fliould have fo carelefsly paflfed over
his twofold dignity, if he had been really poffeffed of
them, and have given him no higher title than that of
a juft and devout man.
He was fucceeded by Jochanan, not in right of de-
fcent, but of his extraordinary merit, which the Bab¬
bies, according to cuftom, have raifed to fo furprifing a
height, that, according to them, if the whole heavens
were paper, all the trees in the world pens, and all the
men writers, they would not fuffice to pen down all his
leffons. He enjoyed his dignity but two years, accord¬
ing to fome, or five according to others: and was the
perfon who, obferving the gates of the temple to open
of their own accord, cried out, “ O temple, temple !
why art thou thus moved ! We know that thou art to
be deftroyed, feeing Zechariah hath foretold it, faying,
“ Open thy gates, O Lebanus, and let the flames con-
fume thy cedars.” Upon this he is further reported
to have complimented Vefpafian, or rather, as fome
have correfled the ftory, Titus, with the title of king,
alluring him that it was a royal perfon who was to
deftroy that edifice ; on which account they pretend
that general gave him leave to remove the fanhedrim to
Japhne.
The Jewifh writers add, that he likewife ere&ed an
academy there, which fubfifted till the death of Akiba j
and was likewife the feat of the patriarch 5 and confift-
'ed of 30© fchools, or elaffes of fcholars. Another he
ere&ed at Lydda, not far from Japhne, and where the
Chriftians have buried their famed St George. He li¬
ved 120 years, and being aiked, what he had done to
prolong his life? he gave this wife 'Aifwer-, I never made
water nearer a houfe of prayer than four cubits 5 I never
difguifed my name : I have taken care to celebrate all
feftivals: and my mother hath even fold my head orna¬
ments to buy wine enough to make me merry on fuch
days ; and left me at her death 300 hogfheads of it, to
fandftify the Sabbath.—The doctors who flourilhed in
his time were no lefs confiderable, both for their num¬
ber and chara&er *, particularly the famed Rabbi Cha-
nina, of whom the Bath Col was heard to fay, that the
world was preferved for the fake of him ; and R. Ni-
codemus, whom they pretend to have flopped the courfe
of the fun, hke another joftlua.
He was fuceeeded by Gamaliel, a man, according to
them, of unfuflferable pride j and yet of fo univerfal au¬
thority over all the Jews, not only in the weft, but cvef
the whole world, that the very monarchs fufftred his
laws to be obeyed in their dominions, not one of them
offering to obftrudl the execution of them. In his days
flourithed Samuel the Lefs, who compofed a prayer full
of the bittereft curfes againtl heretics, by which they
mean the Chriftians-, and which are ftill in ufe to this
day. Gamaliel was no lefs an enemy to them ; and
yet both have been challenged, the former as the cele¬
brated mafter of our great apoftle, the other as his dif-
ciple in his unconverted ftate.
Simon II. his fon and fucceffor was the firft martyr
who died during the fiege of Jerufalem. The people
fo regretted his death, that an order was given, inftead
of ro hampers of wine, which were ufually drank at
the funeral of a faint, to drink 13 at his, on account of
his martyrdom. Thefe bumpers were in time multiplied^
they tell us, to fuch lhameful height, that the fanhedrim
was forced to make fome new regulations to prevent that
abufe.
Thefe are the patriarchs which, the Rabbles tell us,
preceded the deftrudlion of the temple ; and we need no
farther confutation of this pretended dignity, than the.
lilence of the facred hiftorians, who not only make not
the leaft mention of it, but affure us all along that they
were the high-priefts who prefided in the fanhedrim; and
before whom all cafes relating to the Jewilh religion
were brought and decided* It was the high-prieft who
examined and condemned our Saviour; that condemned
St Stephen ; that forbade the apoftles to preach in
Chrift’s name ; and who fat as judge on the great apo¬
ftle at the head of that fupreme court. The fame mav
be urged from Jofephus, who muft needs have known
and mentioned this pretended dignity, if any fuch there
had been ; and yet is fo far from taking the leaft notice
exit, that, like the evangelifts, he places the pontiffs
alone at the head of all the Jewilh affairs ; and names the.
high-prieft Ananus as having the care and direction of
the war againft the Romans;—which is an evident proof
that there were then no fuch patriarchs in being.
To all this lAt us add, that if there had been any
fuch remarkable fucceflion, the Talmudifts would have
preferved it to future ages ; whereas, neither they, nor
any of the ancient authors of the Jewith church, make
any mention of it; but only fome of their do&ors, wh«
have written a confiderable time after them, as of wri¬
ters to whom little credit can be given in points of this
G 2 nature ;
Paf-'.arch.
PAT [5
Patriarch, nature •, efpecially as there are fuch unfurmountable con-
Patriarchs, traditions between them, as no authors either Jewilh or
Christian have, with all their pains, been hitherto able
to reconcile.
Their fucceflion, according to the generality ©f thofe
rabbles, Hands as follows :
i. Hillel the Babylonian. 2. Simeon the fon of Hil-
lel. 3. Gamaliel the fon of Simeon. 4. Simeon II.
the fon of Gamaliel. 5. Gamaliel II. the fon of Sime¬
on II. 6. Simeon III. the fon of Gamaliel II. 7- Ju~
dah the fon of Simeon III. 8. Gamaliel III. the fon
of Judah. 9. Judah II. the fon of Gamaliel III. 10.
Hillel II. fon of Judah II. 11. Judah III. fon of Hil¬
lel II. 1 2. Hillel III. fon of Judah III. 13. Gama¬
liel IV. fon of Hillel III.
According to Gants Tzemach David, who hath re¬
duced them to 10, they are
1. Hillel the Babylonian. 2. Simeon the fon of Hil¬
lel. 3. Rabb. Gamaliel Rebona. 4. R. Simeon the fon of
Gamaliel. 5. Rabban Gamaliel his fon. 6. R. Jehu-
dah the prince. 7. Hillel the prince, his fon. 8. Rab¬
ban Gamaliel the Old. 9. Simeon III. 10. R. Judah,
Nadi or prince.
On the whole, it cannot be doubted but that their
firft rife was in Nerva’s time, however much Jewilh pride
may have prompted them to fallify, and to affert their
origin to have been more ancient than it really was.
Nor have the Jews been faithful in giving an account of
the authority of thefe men. They have exaggerated
their power beyond all bounds, for the purpofe of repel¬
ling the arguments of Chriftians : for their power was
certainly more Ihowy than fubftantial. In time, how¬
ever, they certainly impofed upon the people ; and what
power they did poffefs (which the Romans only allowed
to be in religious matters, or in fuch as were connefted
with religion) they, exercifed with great rigour. Their
pecuniary demands, in particular, became very exorbi¬
tant j and was the caufe of their fuppreflion in the year
42.9.
Patriarchs, among Chriftians, are eccleftaftical dig¬
nitaries, or bilhops, fo called from their paternal autho¬
rity in the church. The power of patriarchs was not
the fame in all, but differed according to the different
cuftoms of countries, or the pleafures of kings and coun¬
cils. Thus the patriarch of Conftantinople grew to be
2 ] PAT
a patriarch over the patriarchs of Ephefus and Caefarea, Patriarchs^
and was called the oecumenical and univerfalpatriarch ; v '"f
and the patriarch of Alexandria had fome prerogatives
which no other patriarch but himfelf enjoyed, fuch as
the. right of confecrating and approving every fingle bi-
ftiop under his jurifdiftion.
The patriarchate has been ever efteemed the fupreme
dignity in the church : the biffiop had only under him
the territory of the city of which he was biffiop ; the
metropolitan fuperintended a province, and had for fuf-
fragans the bilhops of his province } the primate was
the chief of what w’as then called a diocefe (a), and had
feveral metropolitans under him •, and the patriarch had
under him feveral diocefes, compofing one exarchate, and
the primates themfelves were under him.
Ulher,. Pagi, De Marca, and Morinus, attribute the
eftablilhment of the grand patriarchates to the apoftles
themfelves *, who, in their opinion, according to the de-
fcription of the world then given by geographers, pitch¬
ed on the three principal cities in the three parts of the
known world ; viz. Rome in Europe, Antioch in Alia,
and Alexandria in Africa : and thus formed a trinity of
patriarchs. Others maintain that the name patriarch
was unknown at the time of the council of Nice j and
that for a long time afterwards patriarchs and primates
were confounded together, as being all equally chiefs of
diocefes, and equally fuperior to metropolitans, wdio
were only chiefs of provinces. Hence Socrates gives
the title patriarch to all the chiefs of diocefes, and rec¬
kons ten of them. Indeed, it does not appear that the dig¬
nity of patriarch was appropriated to the five grand fees
of Rome, Conftantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Je-
rufalem, till after the council of Chalcedon in 451 ; for
when the council of Nice regulated the limits and pre¬
rogatives of the three patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and
Alexandria, it did not give them the title of patriarchs,
though it allowed them the pre-eminence and privileges
thereof; thus when the council of Conftantinople ad¬
judged the fecond place to the bilhop of Conftantinople,
who till then was only a fuffragan of Heraclea, it faid
nothing of the patriarchate. Nor is the term patri¬
arch found in the decree of the council of Chalcedon,
whereby the fifth place is affigned to the bilhop of
Jerufalem •, nor did thefe five patriarchs govern all the
churches.
There
(a) The word diocefe was then of very different import from what it bears now. Under the article Episcopa¬
cy it was obferved, that the firft founders'of churches regulated their extent and the juriffiftion of their biffmps by
the’ divifions of the Roman empire into civil jurifdiaions. One of thefe divifions was into provinces and diocefes.
A province comprifed the cities of a whole region fubjefted to the authority of one chief maglftrate, who refided
in the metropolis or chief city of the province. A diocefe was a ftill larger diftrift, comprehending within it fe¬
veral provinces, fubjeft to the controul of a chief magiftrate, whofe refidence was in the metropolis of the diocefe.
The iurifdiftion of the bifhops of the Chriftian church was eftabliftied upon this model. T he authority of a pri¬
vate biffiop extended only over the city in which he refided, together with the adjacent villages and furrounding
traa of country. This diftria was called though it comprehended many panfties in the modern fenfe of
that word. Under Arcadius and Honorius the empire was divided into thirteen diocefes . 1. Ehe Oiiental dio-
eefe containing fifteen provinces ; 2. The diocefe of Egypt, fix provinces 5 3. The Afiatic diocefe ten provinces j
. Xhe Pontic diocele, ten provinces *, 5. The diocefe cf Thrace, fix provinces •, 6. i he diocefe of Macedonia, fix
Provinces • 7 The diocefe of Decia, five provinces •, 8. The Italic diocefe, feventeen provinces j 9. 1 he diocele of
Illyricum, fix provinces ; 10. The diocefe of Africa, fix provinces ; II. The Spamffi diocefe feven provinces *
12". The Gallican diocefe, feventeen provinces; 13. The Britannic diocefe, five provinces. Each of thele pro¬
vinces comprehended many 7ru(>otxicti, and each wx^uttsc many modern parifhes. See Bingham’s Ongmes Sacra‘s
Book ix.
PAT [ S3 ] PAT
Patriarchs There were befides many independent chiefs of dio-
u . cefes, who, far from owning the jurifdi&ion of the grand
. patriarchs, called themfelves patriarchs; fuch as that of
Aquileia : nor was Carthage ever fubje<5l to the patri-
* Ecclef. arch of Alexandria. Molheim * imagines that the bi-
Hifi. vol. i. Ihops, who enjoyed a certain degree of pre-eminence
zS4- over the reft of their order, were diftinguilhed by the
Jewilh title of patriarchs in the fourth century. The
authority of the patriarchs gradually increafed, till, about
the elofe of the fifth century, all affairs of moment with¬
in the compafs of their patriarchate came before them,
either at firft hand or by appeals from the metropolitans.
They confecrated bifhops 5 affembled yearly in council
the clergy of their refpeftive diftrifts ; pronounced a
decifive judgment in thofe cafes where accufations were
brought againft bilhops j and appointed vicars or depu¬
ties, clothed with their authority, for the prefervation
of order and tranquillity in the remoter provinces. In
fliort, nothing was done without confulting them ; and
their decrees were executed with the fame regularity
and refpeft as thofe of the princes.
It deferves to be remarked, however, that the autho¬
rity of the patriarchs was not acknowledged through
all the provinces without exception. Several diftridts,
both in the eaftern and weftern empires, were exempted
from their jurifdidtion. The Latin church had no pa¬
triarchs till the fixth century; and the churches of Gaul,
Britain, &c. were never lubjedt to the authority of the
patriarch of Rome, whole authority only extended to the
fuburbicary provinces. There was no primacy, no ex¬
archate nor patriarchate, owned here 5 but the bilhops
with the metropolitans, governed the church in com¬
mon. Indeed, after the name patriarch became fre¬
quent in the weft, it was attributed to the bilhops of
Bourges and Lyons j but it was only in the firft fignifi-
cation, viz. as heads of diocefes. Du Cange fays, that
there have been feme abbots who have borne the title
of patriarchs.
PATRIARCHAL CROSS, in Heraldry, is that
where the lhaft is twice crofted; the lower arms being
longer than the upper ones.
PATRICIAN, a title given, among the ancient
Romans, to the defcendants of the hundred, or, as fome
will have it, of the two hundred, firft fenators chofen
by Romulus ; and by him called patres, “ fathers.”
Romulus eftablilhed this order after the example of the
Athenians; who were divided into two claffes, viz. the
iUTrar^xg, patncios, and S/iporixov?, popu/ares. Patri¬
cians, therefore, were originally the nobility; in oppoli-
tion to the plebeians. They were the only perfons whom
Romulus allowed to afpire to the magiftracy ; and they
exercifed all the funftions of the priefthood till the year
of Rome 495. But the cognizance and chara&er of
thele ancient families being almoft loft and extinguiftied
by a long courfe of years, and frequent changes in the
empire, a new kind of patricians were afterwards fet on
foot, who had no pretenfions from birth, but whofe title
depended entirely on the emperor’s favour. This new
patriciate, Zozimus tells us, wasereded by Conftantine,
who conferred the quality on his counfellors, not becaufe
they were defcended from the ancient fathers of the fe-
nate, but becaufe they were the fathers of the republic
or of the empire. This dignity in time became the
higheft of the empire. Juftinian calls it futnmam digni¬
tatem, In effed, the patricians feem to have had ths
I
precedence of the confu/ares, and to have taken place Patrician
before them in the fenate ; though F. Faber aflerts the II.
contrary. What confounds the queftion is, that the two Patrick*
dignities often met in the fame perfon ; becaufe the pa¬
triciate was only conferred on thofe who had gone
through the firft offices of the empire, or had been con-
fuls. Pope Adrian made Charlemagne take the title of
patrician before he affuraed the quality of emperor; and
other popes have given the title to other kings and prin¬
ces by reafon of its eminence.
Patrician is alfo a title of honour often conferred
on men of the firft quality in the time of our Anglo-
Saxon kings. See Thank.
PATRICIAN Deities, Patrick Dii, in Mythology, were
Janus, Saturn, the Genius, Pluto, Bacchus, the Sun, the
Moon, and the Earth.
Patricians, in ecclefiaftical writers, were ancient
fedaries, who difturbed the peace of the church in the
beginning of the third century : thus called from their
founder Patricias, preceptor of a Marcionite called
Symmachus. His diftinguiftiing tenet was, that the
fubftance of the fteffi is not the work of God, but that
of the devil: on which account his adherents bore an
implacable hatred to their own fleffi ; which fometimes
carried them fo far as to kill themfelves. They were
alfo called Tatianites, and made a branch of the En-
cratitac.
PA 1 RICK, St, the apoftle of Ireland, and fecond
bilhop of that country, fie was born April 5th A. D.
373> of a good family, at Kirk Patrick near Dumbarton",
in what is now called Scotland, but then comprehended
under the general name of Britain.—His baptifmal name
Suceath, fignifies, in the Britiffi language, “ valiant in
war.” On fome inroad of certain exiles from Ire¬
land he was taken prifoner, and carried into that king¬
dom, where he continued fix^earsin the fervice of Mil-
cho, who had bought him of three others, when Patrick
acquired the new name of Cothraig, or Ceathar-Tigh,
i. four families. In this time he made himfelf mafter
of the Irifti language, and at laft made his efcape, and
returned home on board a ihip. About turn years after,
he formed a defign of converting the Iriffi either in
confequence of a dream, or of refleflion on what he
had obferved during his acquaintance with them. The
better to qualify himfelf for this undertakingj he travel¬
led to the continent, where he continued 35 years, pur-
fuing his ftudies under the direflion of his mother’s un¬
cle St Martin, biffiop of Tours, who had ordained him
deacon ; and, after his death, with St German, bilhop
of Auxerre, who ordained him prieft, and gave him his
third name Mown or Maginim.
An ancient author, Henricus Antifioderenfis, who
wrote a book concerning the miracles of St German,
confiders it as the higheft honour of that prelate to have
been the inftruftor of St Patrick: “ As the glory of a
father ffiines in the government of his fons; out of the
many difciples in religion who are reported to have been
his fons in Chrift, fuffice it briefly to mention one by far
the moft famous, as the feries of his aftions ffiows/Pa¬
trick the particular apoftle of Ireland, who being under
his holy difcipline 18 years, derived no little knowledge
in the infpired writings from fuch a fource. The moft
godly divine pontiff, confidering him alike diftinguith-
ed in religion, eminent for virtue, and ftedfaft in doc¬
trine ; and thinking it abfurd to let one of the beft la¬
bourers^
PAT [ 54 ] PAT
Patrick, bourers remain inactive in the Lord’s vineyard, re- of Down lay claim to it, on the authority of the follow- t rat^fk'
commended him to Celeftine, pope of Rome, by his ing verfes;
prefhyter Segetius, who was to carry to the apoftolic Thefe three in Down i;e in tomb one,
fee a teftimonial of ecciefiaftical merit of this excel- Bri patricius> and Columba pious,
lent man. Approved by his judgment, lupported by
his authority, and confirmed by his bleffing, he fet Thofe of Glaftenbury in England, from the old monu-
out for Ireland ; and being peculiarly deftined to that ments of their church : And fome Scots affirm iiim^ to
people as their apoftle, inftrudted them at that time by have been both born and buried among them rit Giaf-
his dodrine and miracles *, and now does and will for- gow. His genuine works were-collefted and printed by
ever difplay the wonderful power of his apoftlelhip.” Sir James Ware, 1656. His immediate iucceflor in this
Lailly, Pope Celeftine confecrated him bifhop, and fee was St Binen or Begnus.
vave him his moft familiar name Pat news, expreflive Order of St PATRICK, an inftitution which took place
of his honourable defeent ; and to give luftre and in Ireland in the year 1783. On the fifth of Febru-
weight to the commiftion which he now charged him ary, in that year, the king ordered lelters-patent to
with to convert the Iriih. Palladius had been here a be paflfed under the great leal of the kingdom of Ire-
year before him on the fame defign, but with little land, for creating a fociety or brotherhood, t<. be called
fuccefs: the faints Kieran, Ailbe, Declan, and Ibar, knights of the illuftrious order of St P n trick, of which Ins
were precurfors both to Palladius and Patrick. But majefty, his heirs, and fucceffors, lhall perpetually be
the great office of apoftle of Ireland was referved for our fovereigns, and his majefty’s lieutenant-general and
prelate, who landed in the country of the Evolein, or at general-governor of Ireland, &c. lor the time being,
Wicklow, A. D. 441. His firft convert was Sinell, ftiall officiate as grand-mafters 5 and alfo for appointing
eighth in defeent from Cormac king of Leinfter ; but Prince Edward, and feveral of the prime nobility of Ire-
xiot meeting with encouragement, he proceeded to Dub- land, knights companions ot ti e laid illuftrious order,
lin, and thence to Ulfter,' where he founded a church Patrick, Simon, a very learned Englifh biffiop,
(afterwards the famous abbey of Saul, in the county of was born at Gainlborough in Lincolnfhire in 1626.
Down), remarkable for its pofition, being made out of In 1644 he was admitted into Queen’s college, Cam-
a barn, and its greateft length reaching from north to bridge, and entered into holy orders. After being for
fouth. After labouring feven years indefatigably in his fome time chaplain to Sir Walter St John, and vicar of
great work, he returned to Britain, which he delivered the church at Batterfea in Surrey, he vas preferred to
from the herefies of Pelagius and Arius •, engaged feve- the rectory of St Paul’s, Covent-garden, in London,
ral eminent perfons to affift him j vifited the ifle of where he continued all the time of the plague in 1665
Man, which he converted in 440, when the biffiopric among his parifhioners^ to their great comfort. In
was founded ; and, A. D. 448, returned to the fee of 1668 he publiffied his Friendly Debate between a Con-
Armao-h (a), which he had founded three years before ; formift and a Nonconformift. 1 his was anfwered by
and in 13 years more completed the converfion of the the Diffenters, whom he had much exafperated by it 5
whole illand (b). After giving an account of his com- but by his moderation and candour toward them after-
miffion at Rome, he once more returned hither, and wards, they were perfeaiy reconciled to him, and he
fpent the remainder of his life between the monafteries brought over many of them to the communion of the
of Armagh and Saul, fuperintending and enforcing the eftabliftied church. In 1678 he was made dean of
great plan of doarine and difeipline which he had efta- Peterborough, where he was much beloved. In 1682,
blilhed. After having eftabliffied fchools, or an aca- Dr Lewis de Moulin, who had been a hiftory-profef-
demy here, he clofed his life and miniftry at Saul ab- for at Oxford, and written many biller books againft
bey, in the 120th year of his age, March 17- A. D. the church of England, fent for Dr Patrick upon his
493’, and was buried at Down afterwards, in the fame lick bed, and made a folemn declaration of his regret
grave with St Bridget and St Columb, in the fame on that account, which he figned, and it was publiffi-
place. Refpefting his burial-place, however, there ed after his death. During the reign of King James,
have been great difputes and it has been as great a the dean’s behaviour (bowed that he had nothing more
fubiedl of debate with the religious, as Homer’s birth- at heart than the Proteftant religion ; for which he
Dlace was formerly among the cities of Greece. ’Ihofe ventured all that was dear to him, by preaching and
v writing
(a) At Armagh St Patrick founded, A. D. 443 or 447, a priory of Auguftine canons, dedicated to St Peter
and St Paul, much enriched by the archbiftiops ; reftored by Imar O Hedegan in the I 2th century. It was grant¬
ed, A. D. 1611, to Sir Toby Caulfield, knight. St Patrick alfo founded there a houfe of canoneffes of the fame
order, under his fifter Lupita, called Templeua firta, or the “ houfg of miracles.”
We are told, that Armagh was made a metropolitan fee in honour of St Patrick; in confequence of which it
was held in the higheft veneration not only by bifliops and priefts, but alfo by kings and biffiops, as the venerable
Bede informs us. . .
(B) There is a cave in the county of Donegal or Tir-connel, near the fourceof the Liffey, which, it is pretend¬
ed, was dug by Ulvffes, in order to hold converfations with infernals. The prefent inhabitants call it E//an n1
Fradnton/ or the “ idand of Purgatory, and Patrick’s Purgatory.” They affirm, with a pious credulity, that
St Patrick the apoftle of Ireland, or fome abbot of that name, obtained of God by.his earneft prayers, that the
pains and torments which await the wicked after this life might be here fet forth to view, in order the more eafily
to recover the Irifh from their finful ftate and heatheniffi errors*
PAT
Patrick
.11
Fatriotiim.
writing againft the errors of the church of Rome. In
1687 he publiihed a prayer compofed for that difficult
_ time, when perfecution was expelled by all who Itood
firm to their religion. The year after the Revolution,
the dean was appointed bifhop of Chichefter, and was
employed with others of the new biihops to fettle the
affairs of the church in Ireland. In 1691 he was
tranHated to the fee of Ely, in the room of the de¬
prived Biffiop Turner. He died in 1707, after having
publiffied various works ; among which the moft dif-
tinguiffied are his Paraphrafes and Commentaries on
the Holy Scriptures, three volumes folio. Thefe, with
Lowth on the Proverbs, Arnold on the Apocrypha,
and Whitby on the New Teftament, make a regular
continued commentary in Englifh on all the facred
books.
PATRIMONY, a right or eftate inherited by a
perfon from his anceftors.
The term patrimony has been alfo given to church-
eflates or revenues; in which fenfe authors Hill fay,
the patrimony of the church of Rimini, Milan, &c.
The church of Rome hath patrimonies in France, A-
frica, Sicily, and many other countries. To create
the greater refpeft to the eftates belonging to the
church, it was ufual to give their patrimonies the names
of the faints they held in the higheft veneration : thus
the eitate of the church of Ravenna was called the pa¬
trimony of St Apollinarius ; that of Milan, the patrimony
of St Ambrofe; and the eftafes of the R man church
ivere called the patrimony of St Peter in Abrwzxo, the
patrimony of St Peter in Sicily, and the like.
What is now called St Peter's patrimony is only the
duchy of Caftro, and the territory of Orvietto. See
Castro, &c.
PA TRIO I'lSM, a love of one’s country, which is
one of the nobleft paffions that can warm and animate
the human breall. It includes all the limited and par¬
ticular affections to our parents, children, friends, neigh¬
bours, fellow citizens, and countrymen. It ought to
direct and limit their more confined and partial actions
within their proper and natural bounds, and never let
them encroach on thofe facred and firft regards we owe
to the great public to which we belong. Were we f«-
litary creatures, detached from the reft of mankind,
and without any capacity of comprehending a public in-
tereft, or without affections leading us to defire and pur-
fue it, it would not be our duty to mind it, nor crimi¬
nal to negleft it. But as we are parts of the public
fyftevn, and are not only canable of taking in large views
of its interefts, but bv the ftrongeft affections connected
with it, and prompted to take a (hare of its concerns,
ve are under the moft facred ties to profecute its fecuri-
ty and welfare with the utmoft ardour, efpecially in
times of public trial.
“ Zeal £>r the public good (fays Mr AddifoiO is the
charaCteriftic of a man of honour and a gentleman, and
muft take place of pleafures, profits, and all other private
gratifications : that whofoever wants this motive, is an
open enemy, or an inglorious neuter to mankind, in pro¬
portion to the mifapplied advantages with which na¬
ture and fortune have hlefft d him.” This love of our
country does not import an attachment to any parti¬
cular foil, climate, or fpot of earth, where perhaps we
firft drew our breath, though thofe natural ideas are
•ften affociated with the moral ones j and, like ex-
[ 55 ]
PAT
ternal ligns or fymbols, help to afeertain and bind Patriot 1 fin.
them j but it imports an affeClion to that moral fyf- "v~—^
tem or community, which is governed by the fame
laws and magiilrates, and whofe feveral parts are vari-
oufly conneded one with the other, and all united
upon the bottom of a common intereft. Wherever
this love of our country prevails in its genuine vigour
and extent, it fwallows up all fordid and felfilh re¬
gards j it conquers the love of eafe, power, pleafure,
and wealth ; nay, when the amiable partialities of
friend (hip, gratitude, private affeCfion, or regards to a
family, come in competition with it, it will teach us
to facrifice all, in order to maintain the rights, and
promote and defend the honour and happinefs of our
country. To purfue, therefore, our private interefts in
fubordination to the good of our country \ to be examples
in it of virtue, and obedient to the laws ; to choofe fucb
reprefentatives as we apprehend to be the belt friends to
its conftitution and liberties \ and if we have the power,
to promote fuch laws as may improve and perfeft it ;
readily to embrace every opportunity for advancing its
profperity *, cheerfully to contribute to its defence and
fupport ; and, if need be, to die for it :—thefe are
among the duties which every man, who has the happi¬
nefs to be a member of our free and Protellant conftitu¬
tion, owes to his country.
The conftitution of man is fuch, that the moft felfilh
paffions, if kept within their proper bounds, have a ten¬
dency to promote the public good. There is no paffion
of more general utility than patriotifm ; but its origin
may unqueftionably be termed felfjh. The love of
one’s relations and friends is the moft natural expaafion
of felf-love : this affeClion conneCls itfelf too with local
circumilances, and fometimes cannot eafily be feparated
from them. It often varies, as relationlhip or place
varies; but acquires new power w hen the whole com¬
munity becomes its objeCt. It was therefore with An¬
gular propriety that the poet faid, “ Self love and focial
are the fame.” Under the article Calais we have al- Rapin'±
ready given the outlines of the tranfaCHons of its fiege^/fi
by Edward III. during which the inhabitants difplayedF-d,lu-
a degree of patriotifm truly wonderful. Hiftorv fearce-
ly affords a more diftinguiffied inftance of true pa¬
triotic virtue than on this ocea' on. We fhall therefore
give a fuller account of this remarkable affair, as one of
the beft examples that can poffibly be felefted of the vir¬
tue we have been explaining. The inhabitants, under
Count Vienne their gallant governor, made an admir¬
able defence againft a well difeiplined and powerful
army. Day after day the Englifh effefted many a
breach, which they repeatedly expeCItd to ftorm by
morning; but, when morning appeared, they wondered
to behold new ramparts railed nightly, ereCled out of
the ruins which the day had made. France had now
put the fickle into her fecond harveft fince Edward with
his victorious army fat down before the town. The
eyes of all Europe were intent on the iffue. The Eng-
lilb made their approaches and attacks without remif-
fion ; but the citizens were as obftinate in repelling all
their efforts. At length, famine did more for Edward
than arms. After the citizens had devoured the lean
carcafes of their half ftarved cattle, they tore up (fid
foundations and rubbiih in fearch of vermin : they fed
on boiled leather, and the weeds of exhaufted gardens ^
and a morfel of damaged corn was accounted matter of
luxury*
PAT [56
fatrlotifm. luxury* In this extremity they refolved to attempt the
v y.,..,. enemy’s camp. 1 hey boldly fallied forth j the Eng-
lilh joined battle j and, after a long and defperate en¬
gagement, Count Vienne was taken prifoner^ and the
citizens, who furvived the (laughter, retired within their
gates. On the captivity of their governor, the com¬
mand devolved upon Euftace Saint Pierre, the mayor
of the town, a man of mean birth, but of exalted virtue.
Euftace foon found himfelf under the neceflity of capi¬
tulating, and offered to deliver to Edward the city,
with all the poffeflions and wealth of the inhabitants,
provided he permitted them to depart with life and li¬
berty. As Edward had long fince expedled to afcend
the throne of France, he wras exafperated to the laft de¬
gree againft thefc people, whofe foie valour hau defeat¬
ed his warmed hopes} he therefore determined to take
an exemplary revenge, though he w'iftied to avoid the
imputation of cruelty. He anfvvered by Sir V alter
Mauny, that they all deferved capital puniftiment, as
obftinate traitors to him, their true and notable fe¬
ver eign *, that, however, in his wonted clemency, he
confented to pardon the bulk of the plebeians, provided
they would deliver up to him fix of their principal ci¬
tizens with halters about their necks, as vidims of due
atonement for that fpirit of rebellion with which they
had inflamed the common people. All the remains of
. this defolate city were convened in the great fquare j
and like men arraigned at a tribunal from whence there
was no appeal, • expefled with-throbbing hearts the fen-
tence of their conqueror. When Sir Walter had declar¬
ed his meffage, confternation and pale difmay was im-
preffed on every face : each looked upon death as his
own inevitable lot; for how fliould they defire to be
faved at the price propofed ? Whom had they to deliver
up, fave parents, brothers, kindred, or valiant neigh¬
bours, who had fo often expofed their lives in their de-
fence ? To a long and dead filenee, deep fighs and
oroans fucceeded, till Euftace Saint Pierre afeending a
Tittle eminence, thus addreffed the affembly “ My
friends and fellow-citizens, you fee the condition to
which we are reduced j we muft either fubmit to the
terms of our cruel and enfnaring conqueror, or yield up
our tender infants, our wives, and chafte daughters, to
the bloody and brutal luffs of the violating foldiery.
We well know1' what the tyrant intends by his fpecious
offers of mercy. It does not fatiate his vengeance to
make us merely miferable, he would alfo make us cri¬
minal : he would make us contemptible : he will grant
us life on no condition, fave that of our being unworthy
of it. Look about you, my friends, and fix your eyes
on the perfons whom you wi(h to deliver up as the vic¬
tims of your own fafety. Which of thefe would you
appoint to the rack, the axe, or the halter ? Is there any
here who has not watched for you, who has not fought
for you, who has not bled for you ? Who, through
the length of this inveterate fiege, has not fuffered fa¬
tigues and miferies a thoufand times worfe than death,
that you and yours might furvive to days of peace and
profperity ? Is it your prefervers, then, whom you
would deftine to deftrudlion ? You will not, you can
not, do it. Juftice, honour, humanity, make fuch a
treafon impoffible. Where then is our refource ? Is
there any expedient left, whereby we may avoid guilt
and infamy on one hand, or the defolation and hor-
riors of a facked city on the other ? here is, my
] PAT
friends, there is one expedient left *, a gracious, an ex-
cellent, a god like expedient ! Is there any here to' V
whom virtue is dearer than life ! Let him offer him-
ftlf an oblation for the fafety of his people ! he (1 all
not fail of a bleffed approbation from that power, v ho
offered up his only Son for the falvation of mankind.”
He (poke-—but an univerfal filence enhied. Each man
looked round for the example of that virtue and mag¬
nanimity in others, which all wifhed to approve in
themfelves, though they wanted the refolution. At
length Saint Pierre refumed : 44 It had been bafe in
me, my fellow-citizens, to promote any matter of da¬
mage to others, which I myfeli had not been willing
to undergo in my own perion. But 1 held it unge¬
nerous to deprive anyT man of that preference and efti-
mation, which might attend a firft offer on fo fignal
an occafion : for I doubt not but there are many here
as ready, nay, more zealous for this martyrdom than I
can be, however modefty and the fear of imputed often-
tation may withhold them from being foremoft in ex¬
hibiting their merits. Indeed the ftation to which
the captivity of Count Vienne has unhappily railed me,
imports a right to be the firft in giving my life for
your fakes. I give it freely, I give it cheerfully. Who
comes next? Your fon ! exclaimed a youth, not yet
come to maturity.—Ah, my child ! cried St Pierre j I
am then twice facrificed.—But no—I have rather be¬
gotten thee a fecond time.—Thy years are few, but full,
my fon 5 the vidim of virtue has reached the utmoft
purpofe and goal of mortality. Who next, my friends ?
This is the hour of heroes.—Your kinfman, cried
John de Aire ! Your kinfman, cried James Wiffant !
Your kinfman, cried Peter Wiffant!—44 Ah ! (exclaim¬
ed Sir Walter Mauny, burfting into tears), why was I
not a citizen of Calais ?” The fixth vidim Avas dill
wanting, but was quickly fupplitd by lot, from num¬
bers who were now emulous of fo ennobling an example.
The keys of the city were then delivered to Sir Walter.
He took the fix prifoners into his cuftody. He ordered
the gates to be opened, and gave charge to his attend¬
ants to conduft the remaining citizens with then fami¬
lies through the camp of the Englifti. Before they de¬
parted, however, they defired permiflion to take their
laft adieu of their deliverers.—What a parting ! what a
feene ! they crowded with their wives and children about
St Pierre and his fellow-prifoners. They embraced,
they clung around, they fell proftrate before them.
They groaned } they wept aloud } and the joint cla¬
mour of their mourning paffed the gates of the city,
and was heard throughout the camp. At length Saint
Pierre and his fellow vidlims appeared under the con-
dudl of Sir Walter and his guard.. All the tents of
the Englifti were inftantly emptied. The foldiers
poured from all parts, and arranged themielves on
each fide to behold, to contemplate, to admire this
little band of patriots as they paffed. They murmur¬
ed their applaufe of that virtue which they could not
but revere even in enemies $ and they regarded thole
ropes which they had voluntarily, affumed about their
necks as enfigns of greater dignity than that of the
Britilh Garter. As foon as they had reached the
royal prefence, “ Mauny (fays the king), are thefe the
principal inhabitants of Calais ?” “ They are (fays
Mauny) *, they are not only the principal men of Ca¬
lais, they are the principal men of France, my lord,
xfc
PAT
[ 57 ]
PAT
PatriotUm. 1£ virtue has any ftiare in the act of ennobling.”
' _,r- y—— « Were they delivered peaceably, (fays^ Edward) ?
Was there no refiftance, no commotion among the
people ?” “ Not in the leaft, my lord. They are felf-
delivered, felf-devoted, and come to offer up their inefti-
mable heads as an ample equivalent for the ranfom of
thoufands.”
The king, who was highly incenfed at the length
and difficulty of the fiege, ordered them to be carried
away to immediate execution ; nor could all the re-
inonftrances and intreaties of his courtiers divert him
from his cruel purpofe. But what neither a regard
to his own intereff and honour, what neither the dic¬
tates of juffiee, nor the feelings of humanity, could
effieft, was happily accomplifhed by the more, powerful
influence of conjugal affeftion. The queen, who wras
then big with child, being informed of the particulars
refpefting the fix victims, flew into her hufband’s pre¬
fence, threw herfelf on her knees before him, and, with
tears in her eyes, befought him not to ftain his character
with an indelible mark of infamy, by committing fuch
a horrid and barbarous deed. Edward could refute no¬
thing to a wife whom he fo tenderly loved, and efpeci-
ally in her condition •, and the queen, not fatisfied with
having laved the lives of the fix burghers, conducted
them to her tent, where flie applauded their virtue, re¬
galed them with a plentiful repaft, and having made
them a prefent of money and clothes, fent them back
to their fellow-citizens.
The love of- their country, and of the public good,
feems to have been the predominant paffion of the Spar¬
tans. Pedarelus having miffed the honour of being
chofen one of the three hundred who had a certain
rank of diffinCfion in the city, went home extremely
Plutarch's pleaf'd and fatisfied ; faying, “He was overjoyed there
Life of Ly- were three hundred men in Sparta more honourable than
iurgus.
I)ion, lib.
■mi. p. 570.
nnd Rol¬
an's Rom.
Hi ft. v. i. p
,366.
himfelf.”
The patriotifm of the Romans is well known, and has
been juffly admired. We ihail content ourfelves at pre¬
fent with the following example ; a zeal and patriotic
devotion fimilar to which is perhaps fcarcely equalled,
and certainly is not exceeded, in hiftory.
Rome, under the confuls Cajfo Fabius and T. Vir-
ginius, had feveral wars to fuffain, lefs dangerous than
troublefome, againft the Hxqui, Volfci, and Veientes.
To put a flop to the incurfions of the lafl, it would
have been neceffary to have eltabliflied a good garrifm
upon their frontiers to keep them in awe. But the
commonwealth, exhaufted of money, and menaced by
abundance of other enemies, was not in a condition to
provide for fo many different cares and expences. The
family of the Fabii (bowed a generofity and love of
their country that has been the admiration of all ages.
They applied to the fenate, and by the mouth of the
conful demanded as a favour that they would be pleaftd
to transfer the care and expences of the garrifon ne-
ceflary to oppofe the enterprrfes of the Veientes to
their houfe, which required an affiduous rather than a
numerous body, promifing to fupport with dignity (he
honour of the Roman name in that poll. Every body
was charmed with fo noble and unheard of an offer j
and it was accepted with great acknowledgment. The
news fpread over the whole city, and nothing was talk¬
ed of but the Fabii. Every body praifed, every body
admired and extolled them to the Ikies. “ If there
VOL, XVI. Part I.
were two more fuch families in Rome,” faid they, “ the Patriottffa,
one might take upon them the war againfl the Volfci,^
and the other againft the ^Equi, whilft the common¬
wealth remained quiet, and the forces of particulars 1'ub*
dued the neighbouring flates.”
Early the next day the Fabii fet out, with the con¬
ful at their head, robed, and with his infignia. Never
was there fo fmall, and at the fame time io illuftrious,
an army feen ; for which we have the authority of
Livy. Three hundred and fix foldiers, all patricians,
and of the fame family, of whom not one but might
be judged worthy of commanding an army, march
againfl the Veii full of courage and alacrity, under a
captain of their own name, Fabius. They were fol¬
lowed by a body of their friends and clients, animated
by the fame fpirit and zeal, and actuated only by great
and noble views. The whole city flocked to fee fo fine
a fight j praifed thofe generous foluiers in the highefl
terms ; and promifed them cor.fullhips, triumphs, and
the moft glorious rewards. As they paffed before the
capitol and the other temples, every body implored the
gods to take them into their protection 5 to favour their
departure and undertaking, and to afford them a fpeedy
and happy return. But thofe prayers were not heard.
When they arrived near the river Crimera, which is not
far from Veii, they built a fort upon a very rough and
fleep mountain for the fecurity of the troops, which they
furrounded with a double folic, and flanked with feverai
towers, 'i his fettlement, which prevented the enemy
from cultivating their ground and ruined their com¬
merce with ftrangers, incommoded them extremely.
'The Veientes not finding themfelves flrong enough to
ruin the fort which the Romans had ereffed, applied
to the Hetrurians, who fent them very confiderable
aid. In the mean time the Fabii, encouraged by the
great fuccefs of their incurfions into the enemy’s coun¬
try, made farther progrefs every day. Their exceffive
boldnefs made the Hetrurians conceive thoughts of
laying ambufeades for them in feveral places. During
the night they feized all the eminences that command¬
ed the plain, and found means to conceal a great number
of troops upon them. The next day they difperfed
more cattle about the country than they had done be¬
fore. The Fabii being apprifed that the plains were
covered with flocks and herds, and defended by only a
very fmall number of troops, they quitted their fort,
leaving in it only a fufficient number to guard it. The
hopes of a great booty quickened their march. They
arrived at the place in order of battle 5 and were pre¬
paring to attack the advanced guard of the enemy,
when the latter, w ho had their orders, tied without flay¬
ing till they were charged. The Fabii, believing tbem-
felves feeure, feized the Ihepherds, and were preparing
to drive away the cattle. The Hetrurians then quitted
their fkulking places, and fell upon the Romans from all
fides, who were moft of them difperfed in purfuit of
their prey. All they could do was to rally immedi¬
ately ; and that they could not effecl without great, dif¬
ficulty. They foon faw themfelves furrounded on all
fides, and fought like lions, felling their lives very de ar»
But finding that they could not fuftain this kind of com¬
bat long, they drew up in a w< dge, and advancing with
the utmoft fury and impetuofity, opened themfelves a
paffage through the enemy that led to the fide of the
mountain. When they came thither, they halted, and
H fought
PAT t 58 ] PAT
Patrionfm fougVit with freih courage, the enemy leaving them no
tl i time to refpire. As they were upon the higher ground,
^Faaoclu.s ciefenc!eci themi'elves with advantage, notwithftand-
ing their fmall number 5 and beating down the enemy,
w'ho ipared no pains in the attack, they made a great
daughter of them. But the Veientes having gained the
top of the mountain by taking a compafs, fell fuddenly
upon them, and galled them exceedingly from above
with a continual ihower of darts. The tabii defended
themfelves to their laft breath, and were all killed to a
man. The Roman people were highly affe&ed with
the lofs of this iliuftrious band of patriots. The day of
their defeat was ranked amongft the unfortunate days,
called nefajli, on which the tribunals were lhut up, and
no public affair could be negocialed, or at leafl: con¬
cluded. The memory of thefe public-fpirited patrici¬
ans, who had fo generoully lacrificed their lives and for¬
tunes for the fervice of the Hate, could not be too much
honoured.
PATRIP ASS IANS, Patripassiani, in church
hiftory, a Chriflian fedt, who appeared about the lat¬
ter end of the fecond century } fo called from their
afcribing the paffion to the Father ; for they afferted
the unity of God in fueh a manner as to deltroy all di-
ftindVions of perfons, and to make the Father and Son
precifely the fame ; in which they were followed by
the Sabellians and others. The author and head of the
Patripaflians wras Praxeas, a philofopher of Phrygia in
Alia. Swedenbourg and his followers feem to hold the
fame faith.
PATROCLUS, a Grecian chief at the Trojan war.
He was the fon of Mencetius, by Sthenele, whom fome
call Philomela or Po/ymela. The murder of Clyfony-
mus, the fon of Amphidamas, by accident, in the time
of his youth, made him dy from Opus, where his father
reigned. He went to the court of Peleus king of Phthia.
He was cordially received, and contradfed the moll in¬
timate friendlhip with Achilles the king’s fon. When
the Greeks went to the Trojan war, Patroclus went
with them at the exprefs defire of his father, who had
vifited the court of Peleus ; and he accordingly em¬
barked with ten fhips from Phthia. He was the con-
ftant companion of Achilles •, lodged in the fame tent 5
and, when he refufed to appear in the field of battle,
becaufe he had been offended by Agamemnon, Patro¬
clus imitated his example, and by his abfence was
the caufe of much evil to the Greeks. At lall, how¬
ever, Neftor prevailed upon him to return to the war,
and Achilles permitted him to appear in his ar¬
mour. The bravery of Patroclus, together with the
terror which the fight of the arms of Achilles infpired,
foon routed the vidforious armies of the Trojans, and
obliged them to fly to the city for fafety. He would
have broken down the walls’, but Apollo, who inte-
refted himfelf for the Trojans, oppofed him *, and Hec-
'tor, at the inftigation of that god, difmounted from
his chariot to attack him as he attempted to ftrip one
of the Trojans whom he had flain. This engagement
was obftinate •, but Patroclus was at length over¬
powered by the valour of Hedtor, and the interpofition
of Apollo. His arms became the property of the
conqueror ; and Hedtor would have fevered his head
from his body had not Ajax and Menelaus prevented
it. His body was at laft recovered, and carried to the
Grecian camp, where Achilles received it with the
5
loudefl: lamentations. His funerals were obferved with Patrociu*
the greateft folemnity. Achilles facrificed near the
burning pile twelve young Trojans, four of his horfes, aJ n* .
and two of his dogs ; and the whole was concluded
by the exhibition of funeral games, in which the con¬
querors were liberally rewarded by Achilles. 1 he
death of Patroclus, as deferibed by Homer, gave rife
to new events. Achilles forgot his refentment againft
Agamemnon, and entered the field to avenge the
fall of his friend j and his anger was gratified only
by the {laughter of Hedlor, who had more powerfully
kindled his wrath by appearing at the head of the Tro¬
jan armies in the armour which had been taken from
the body of Patroclus. The patronymic of Adlorides
is often applied to Patroclus, becaufe A&or was father
to Menoetius.
PATROL, in war, a round or march made by the
guards or watch in the night time, to obferve what
paffes in the ftreets, and to fecure the peace and tranquil¬
lity of a city or camp. The patrol generally confilts of
a body of five or fix men, detached from a body on
guard, and commanded by a ferjeant.
They go every hour of the night, from the beating
of the tattoo until the reveille : they are to walk in the
flreets in garrifons, and all over the camp in the field,
to prevent diforders, or any number ot people from al-
fembling together : they are to fee the lights in the fol-
diers barracks put out, and to take up all the foldiers
they find out of their quarters. Sometimes patrols con-
fift of an officer and 30 or 40 men, as well infantry as
cavalry ; but then the enemy is generally near at hand,
and conlequently the danger the greater.
PATRON, among the Romans, was an appellation
given to a mafter who had freed his flave. As foon as
the relation of mailer expired, that of patron began :
for the Romans, in giving their Oaves their freedom,
did not defpoil themfelves of all rights and privileges
in them •, the law Hill fubjefted them to confiderable
ferviees and duties towards their patrons, the r.tgledl of
which was very feverely punifhed.
Patron was alfo a name which the people of Rome
gave to fome great man, under whofe protection they
ufually put themfelves j paying him all kinds of honour
and refpeft, and denominating themfelves his clients 5
w hile the patron, on his fide, granted them his credit
and protection. They were therefore mutually attach¬
ed and mutually obliged to each other j and by this
means, in confequence of reciprocal ties, all thofe fedi-
tions, jealoufies, and animofities, which are fometimes
the effeCt of a difference of rank, were prudently a-
voided : for it w’as the duty of the patron to advife his
clients in points of law, to manage their fuits, to take
care of them as of his own children, and fecure their
peace and happinefs. The clients were to affifl their
patrons with money on feveral oceafions •, to ranfom
them or their children when taken in war ; to contri¬
bute to the portions of their daughters ; and to defray,
in part, the charges of their public employments. They
were never to accufe each other, or take contrary fides ;
and if either of them was conviCled of having violated
this law, the crime was equal to that of treafonj and
any one was allowed to kill the offender with impunity.
This patronage was a tie as effe&ual as any confangui-
nity or alliance, and had a wonderful eifeCf towards
maintaining union and concord among the people for
the
PAT [ 59 ] PAT
'Patron, the fpace of 600 years; during which time we find no
rationale, diffenfiqns or jealoufies between the patrons and their
Wnr—^ clients, even in the times of the republic, when the po¬
pulace frequently mutinied againft thole who were molt
powerful in the city.
Patron, in the church of Rome, a faint whofe name
a perlon bears, or under whofe protection he is put, and
whom he takes particular care to invoke 5 or a faint in
whofe name a church or order is founded.
Patron, in the canon or common law, is a perfon
who, having the advowfon of a parfonage, vicarage, or
the like fpiritual promotion, belonging to his manor,
hath on that account the gilt and dilpolition of the be¬
nefice, and may prefent to it whenever it becomes va¬
cant. The patron’s right of difpofing of a benefice ori¬
ginally arifes either from the patron or his anceitors,
&c. being the founders or builders of the church ; from
their having given lands for the maintenance thereof j
or from the church’s being built on their ground j and
frequently from all three together.
PATRONAGE, or Advowson, a fort of incor¬
poreal hereditament, confilting in the right of prefen-
tation to a church or ecclefialiical benefice. Advow¬
fon, advocatio, fignifies in clientelam recipere, the taking
into protection ; and therefore is fynonymous with pa¬
tronage, potronatvs: and he who has the right of ad-
Slack/f. vowfon is called the patron of the church. For when
Comment, lords of manors firft built churches on their own de-
mefnes, and appointed the tithes of thofe manors to be
paid to the officiating minifters, which before were given
to the clergy in common (from whence arofe the divi-
fion of parifhes), the lord who thus built a church, and
endowed it with a glebe or land, had of common right a
power annexed of nominating fuch minifter as he pleafed
(provided he were canonically qualified) to officiate in
that church, of which he was the founder, endower,
maintainer, or, in one word, the patron.
Advowfons are either advowfons appendant, or advorv-
fons in grofs. Lords of manors being originally the only
founders, and of courfe the only patrons, of churches, the
right of patronage or prefentation, fo long as it continues
annexed to the poffeffion of the manor, as fome have
done from the foundation of the church to this day, is
called an advowfon appendant: and it will pafs, or be
conveyed, together with the manor, as incident and
appendant thereto, by a grant of the manor only, with¬
out adding any other words. But w here the property
of the advowfon has been once feparated from the pro¬
perty of the manor by legal conveyance, it is called an
advowfon in grofs, or at large, and never can be ap¬
pendant any more; But it is for the future annexed to
the perfon of its owner, and not to his manor or lands.
Advowfons are alfn either prefentative, col/ative, or
donative. An advowfon prefentative, is where the pa¬
tron hath a right of prefentation to the biffiop or ordi¬
nary, • and moreover to demand of him to inftitute
his clerk if he finds him canonically qualified : and
this is the moft ufual advowfon. An advowfon colla-
tive, is where the bifhop and patron are one and the
fame perfon : in which cafe the biffiop cannot prefent
to himfelf *, but he does, by the one aft of collation,
or conferring the benefice, the whole that is done in
common cafes, by both prefentation and inftitution.
An advowfon donative, is when the king, or any fub-
jeft by his licence, doth found a church or chapel, and
ordains that it ffiall be merely in the gift or difpofal of Patronage,
the patron j fubjeft to his vifitatiun only, and not to tatrony-
that of the ordinary j and vetted abfolutely in the clerk >
by the patron’s deed of donation, without prefentation,
inftitution, or indutfion. This is faid to have been an¬
ciently the only way of conferring ecclefiaitical bene¬
fices in England; the method oi inllilution by the bi¬
ffiop not being ettablifhed more early than the time of
Archbiffiop Becket in the reign ot Henry IE and there¬
fore, though Pope Alexander III. in a letter to Becket,
feverely inveighs againil the prava confuetudo, as he calls
it, of invelliture conferred by the patron only, this how¬
ever ffiows what was then the common ulage. Others-
contend that the claim of the biffiops to inllitution is as
old as the firft planting of Chriftianity in this ifland j
and in proof of it they allege a letter from the Engliffi
nobility to the pope in the reign of Henry the Third, re¬
corded by Matthew Paris, which fpeaks of prefentation
to the biffiop as a thing immemorial. The truth feems
to be, that, where the benefice was to be conferred on
a mere layman, he was firft prefented to the biffiop in
order to receive ordination, who was at liberty to exa¬
mine and refufe him : but where the clerk was already
in orders, the living was ufually veiled in him by the
foie donation of the patron •, till about the middle of the
12th century, when the pope and his biffiops endeavour¬
ed to introduce a kind of feudal dominion over ecclefi-
aftical benefices, and, in confequence of that, began to
claim and exercife the right of inftitution univerfally, as
a fpecies of fpiritual inveftiture.
However this may be, if, as the law now Hands, the
true patron once waves this privilege of donation, and
prefents to the biffiop, and his clerk is admitted and in-
llituted, the advowfon is now become for every prefenta¬
tive, and (hall never be donative any more. For thefe
exceptions to general rules and common right are ever
looked upon by the law in an unfavourable view, and
conftrued as ftriftly as poffible. If therefore the patron,
in whom luch peculiar right refides, does once give up
that right, the law, which loves uniformity, will inter¬
pret it to be done with an intention of giving it up for
ever •, and will therefore reduce it to the ftandard of
other ecclefiaftical livings. See further, Law, Part III.
Seft. v. N° clix. 5—10.
Arms of PATHONAGE, in Heraldry, are th >fe on the
top of which are fome marks of fubjeftion and depen¬
dence : thus the city of Paris lately bore the fleurs de¬
lis in chief, to {how her fubjeftion to the king; and the
cardinals, on the top of their arms, bear thofe of the
pope, who gave them the hat, to Ihow that they are his
creatures.
PATRONYMIC, among grammarians, is applied
to fuch names of men or women as are derived from
thofe of parents or anceftors.
Patronymics are derived, I. From the father ; as
Pelides, 1. e. Achilles the fon of Peleus. 2. From
the mother; as Philyrides, i. e. Chiron the fon of
Philyra. 3. From the grandfather on the father’s
fide j as AEacides, i. e. Achilles the grandfon of AEa-
cus. 4. From the grandfather by the mother’s fide j
as Atlantiades, i. e. Mercury the grandfon of Atlas.
And, 5. From the kings and founders of nations; as
Romulidte, i. e. the Romans, from their founder King
Romulus.
The terminations of Greek and Latin patronymics
H 2 are
FAT [ 60 J P A U
Patronymic are chiefly four, viz. des, of which we have examples
Pattan a'Dove ; wj-, as Thaumantias, i. e. Iris the daughter of
i. ' ' . Thaumas ; is, as Atlantic, i. e. Eleflra the daughter of
Atlas ; and ne, as Nerine, the daughter of Nereus. Of
thefe terminations des is mafculine ; and as, is, and ne,
feminine •, des and ne are of the firft declenfion, as and
is of the third.
The Ruffians, in their ufual mode of addrefs, never
prefix any title or appellation of refpeft to their names;
but perfons of all ranks, even thofe of the firft diftinc-
tion, call each other by their Chriftian names, to which
they add a patronymic. Thefe patronymics are formed
in fome cafes by adding Vitch (the fame as our Fitz, as
Fitzherbert, or the fon of Herbert) to the Chriftian
name of the father ; in others by Of or Ef •, the former
is applied only to perfons of condition, the latter to
thofe of inferior rank Thus,
Ivan Ivanovitch, Ivan Ivanof, is Ivan the fon of
Ivan : Peter Alexievitch, Peter Alexeof, Peter the fon
of Alexey.
The female patronymic is Efna or Ofna, as Sophia
Alexee ha, or Sophia the daughter of Alexey ; Maria
T/anofna, or Maria the daughter of Ivan.
Great families are alfo in general diftinguilhed by
a furname, as thofe of Romanof, Galitzin, Shereme-
tof, &e.
PA.TROS, mentioned by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, ap¬
pears from the context to be meant of a part of £-
gyp-. Bocchart thinks it denotes the Higher Egypt j
the Septuagint tranflate it the country of Patfiure ; in
PI inv we have the Nomos Pathurites in the Thebais; in
Ptolemy, Pathyris, probably the metropolis. From the
Hebrew appellation Patros comes the gentilitious name
Patlvuftm, (Mnfes).
P ATTANS, PataVS, or Afghans, a very warlike
race of men, who had been fubje&s of the vaft empire
of Bochara. They revolted under their governor Ab-
ftagi, in the 10th century, and laid the foundation of the
empire of Ghizni or Gazna. In the Differtation pre¬
fixed to vol. iii. of Dow’s Hiftory, we have this account
of the Pattans.
“ 1"hey are divided into diftimft communities, each
of which is governed by a prince, who is confidered
by his fubje&s as the chief of their blood, as well as
their fovereign. They obey him without reluctance,
as they derive credit to their family by his greatnefs.
They attend him in his wars with the attachment which
children have to a parent *, and his government, though
fevere, partakes more of the rigid difcipline of a general
than the caprice of a defpot. Rude, like the face of
their country, and fierce and wild as the ftorms which
cover their mountains, they are addifted to incurfions
and depredations, and delight in battle and in plunder.
United firmly to their friends in war, to their enemies
faithlefs and cruel, they place juftice in force, and con¬
ceal treachery under the name of addrefs.”
The empire, which took its rife from the revolt of
tlw Pattans, under a fucceffion of warlike princes rofe to
a furprifing magnitude. In the beginning of the nth
century, it extended from Ifpahan to Bengal, and from
the mouths of the Indus to the banks of the Jaxertes,
which comprehends at lead half of the continent of Afia.
They had fled to the mountains on the borders of Per-
fia, that they might efcape the fword, or avoid fubmit-
ting to the conquerors of India j and there they formed
4
their ftate, which the Moguls were never able thorough- Pattain,
ly to i'ubdue. Indeed they fometimes exerciftd depre- , .
dations on the adjacent countries ; nor was it poflible v
for the Moguls either to prevent it or to extirpate them.
They were fenfible that the climate and foil of the deli¬
cious plains would only ferve to rob them ot that hardi-
nefs they contracted in the hills to which they rvere con¬
fined ; they, therefore, for a long time gave no indica¬
tions of a defire to exchange them for more pleafing a-
bodes, or a more acceflible fituation. This enabled them
to brave the victorious army of Nadir Shah, whofe troops
they quietly fuffered to penetrate into Hindoftan, and
waited his return with the fpoils of that country.—They
then haraffed his army in the ftraits and defiles of the
mountains, and proved themfelves fuch abfolute mafters
of the paffes, that they forced him to purchafe from them
his paffage into Perfia.
In the beginning of the iBth century, they had
fpread themfelves over the adjoining province of Kanda¬
har ard fuch was the imbecility of the Perfian empire
at that time, that many other provinces and tributary
ftates were alfo induced to revolt. When the king or
lhah of that time, whofe name was Hujfein, oppofed the
growing power of this warlike people, he was totally de¬
feated, and Ifpahan was befieged and obliged to furren-
der, after having fuffered dreadful calamities, to an ar¬
my confifting of only 30,000 men. In confequence of
this, they brought about a revolution in Perfia, and
fubjeCted it to themfelves. This fovereignty, however,
they only held for feven years and 21 days, having fal¬
len a facrifice to the enterprifing fpirit of Kouli Khan,
or Nadir Shah. See Persia and Afghans.
PAU, a town of France, in the province of Gafcony
and territory of Bearne, having formerly a parliament, a
mint, and a caftle. “ The city of Pau (fays Wraxal *) * Tour
will be for ever memorable in hiftory, fince it was the through
birthplace of Henry IV. That immortal prince was France.
born in the caftle, then the ufual refidence of the kings
of Navarre. It ftands on one of the moft romantic and
fingular fpots I have ever feen, at the weft end of the
town, upon the brow of a rock which terminates per¬
pendicularly. Below runs the Gave, a river or rather
a torrent which rifes in the Pyrenees, and empties itfelf
into the Adour. On the other fide, about two miles
off, is a ridge of hills covered with vineyards, which
produce the famous Via de Jorenpon, fo much admired ;
and beyond all, at the diftance of nine leagues, appear
the Pyrenees themfelves, covering the horizon from eaft
to weft, and bounding the profpebl. The caftle, though
now in a ftate of decay, is ftill habitable ; and the apart¬
ments are hung with tapeftry, faid to be the work of
Jane queen of Navarre, and mother of Henry IV. Ga¬
llon IV. count de Foix, who married Leonora heirefs of
the crown of Navarre, began the edifice in 1464 j but
his fucceffor Henry d’Albret completed and enlarged it
about the year 1510, when he n ude choice of the city of
Pau for his refidence, and where, during the remainder
of his reign, he held his little court. In a chamber,
which by its fize was formerly a room of ftate, is a fine
whole length portrait of that Jane queen of Navarre
whom I have juft mentioned. Her drefs is very fplen-
did, and refembles thofe in which our Elizabeth isufual-
ly painted. Her head-drefs is adorned with pearls j
round her neck fhe wears a ruff’, and her arms, which
are likewife covered with pearls, are concealed by her-
habit
? A V t 6
Fan, habit quite down to the wrirt. At her waift hangs by a
Pavan chain a miniature portrait. The fingers of her right
v hand play on the firings of a guitar ; and in her left
fire holds an embroidered handkerchief. The painter
has drawn her as young, yet not in the firft bloom of
youth. Her features are regular, her countenance thin,
but rather inclining to long; the eyes hazel, and the
■eyebrows finely arched. Her nofe is well formed, though
large, and her mouth pretty. She was a great princefs,
of high fpirit, and undaunted magnanimity. Her me¬
mory is not revered by the French hilforians, becaufe
{he was the proteclrefs of the Huguenots and the friend
of Coligni but the actions of her life evince her diftin-
guifhed merit.
“ In one of the adjoining chambers, is another nor-
trait of Henry IV. himfelf when a boy ; and on the fe-
cond floor is the apartment in which he was born. The
particulars of his birth are in themfelves fo curious, and
and as relating to fo great and good a prince, are fo pe¬
culiarly interefting, that I doubt not you will forgive
iny enumerating them, even though you Ihould have feen
them elfewhere.—His mother Jane had already loit two
fons, the duke de Beaumont and the count de Marie.
Henry d’Albret, her father, anxious to fee an heir to
his dominions, enjoined her (when Ihe accompanied her
hufband Anthony of Bourbon to the wars of Picardy
againft the Spaniards), if Ihe proved with child, to re¬
turn to Pau, and to ly-in there, as he would himfelf fu-
perintend the education of the infant from the moment
of its birth. He threatened to difinherit her if (he fail¬
ed to comply with this injunction. The princefs, in
obedience to the king’s command, being in the ninth
month of her pregnancy, quitted Compiegne in the end
of November, traverfed all France in i 9 days, and ar¬
rived at Pau, where (lie was delivered of a fon on the
13th December 1553. She had always been defirous to
fee her father’s will, which he kept in a golden box •,
and he promifed to (how it to her, provided the admit¬
ted of his being prefent at her delivery, and would, du¬
ring the pains of her labour, fing a fimg in the Bearnois
language. Jane had courage enough to perform this
unufual requeft ; and the king being called on the firft
news of her illnefs, (lie immediately lung a Bearnois
fong, beginning, ‘ Notre Dame du bout du pont, aidez
*■ See rjen. moi en cette heure.’—As (he finifhed it, * Henry was
IV. King o/born. The king inftantly performed his promife, by
France. giving her the box, together with a golden chain, which
he tied about her neck ; and taking the infant into his
own apartment, began by making him fwallow fome
drops of wine, and rubbing his lips with a root of gar-
Fhey ftill fhow a tortoife-ftiell ■which ferved him
for a cradle, and [s preferved on that account. Several
of the ancient fovereigns of Navarre refided and died in
the cafile of Pau. . Francois Phoebus, who afcended the
throne in died here in T483.”
Pau is a handfome city, well built, and contains near
6000 inhabitants. It is a modern place, having owed
its exiftence entirely to the caftle, and to the refidence
of the kings of Navarre. W. Long. o. 4. N. Lat. 43.
15. ‘
PAVAN, or Pavane, a grave dance ufed among
the Spaniards, and borrowed from them ; wherein the
performers made a kind of wheel or tail before each
other, like that of pnvo. “ a peacock from whence
she name is derived, f he pavane was formerly in great
i ] ? A V
repute ; and was danced by gentlemen with cap and Pavan
fword ; by thofe of the long robe in their gowns, by pav-|jon^
princes with their mantles, and by the ladies with their . ' ^ _ 1
gown tails trailing on the ground. It was called the
grand bally from the folemnity with which it was per¬
formed. To moderate its gravity, it was ufual to intro¬
duce feveral fiourifties, paflades, capers, &c. by way of
epifodes. Its tablature or fcore is given at large by
Thoinot Arbeau in his Orchefographia.
PAVETTA, a genus of plants belonging to the te-
trandria elafs; and in the natural method ranking under
the 47th order, StellaUe. See Botany Index.
PAVIA, an ancient and celebrated town of Italy,
in the duchy of Milan, and capital of the Pavefan, with
an univerfity and biftiop’s fee. It was anciently called
Ticinuniy from its lituation on that river, and lies 20
miles to the fouthward of Milan. It was formerly the
capital of the Longobardic kingdom, and is ftill remark¬
able for the broadnefs of its Itreets, the beauty and rich-
nefs of fome of its churches, and fur its university found¬
ed by Charlemagne, and tor leveral other literary infti*
tutions. Here is a biftiop’s fee, which was once the
richeft in Italy, but is now dependent on the pope; and
upon the whole the city is gone to decay, its trade be¬
ing ruined through the exactions of the government.
The few objeifts within it worth the public attention be¬
long to the clergy or monks ; and the church and con¬
vent of the Carthufians are inexpreflibly noble, the court
of the convent being one of the fined in the world, and
furrounded by a portico fupported by pillars, the whole
a mile in circumference. It is defended by ftrong walls,
large ditches, good ramparts, excellent baftions, and a
bridge over the river Fafin. In the centre of the town
is a ftrong caftle, where the duke of Milan was wont to
refide. I here are a great number of magnificent caftles,
and firnie colleges. It was taken by the duke of Savoy
in 1706 ; by the French in 1733 ; by the French and
Spaniards in 174Si but retaken by the Auftrians in
1746. E. Long. 9. t;. N. Lat. 45. 10.
PAVILION, in Architediure, fignifies a kind of tur¬
ret, or building, ufually infulated, and contained under
a (ingle roof; fometimes fquare, and fometimes in form
of a dome : thus called from the refemblance of its roof
to a tent.
Pavilions are fometimes alfo projecting pieces, in the
front of a building, marking the middle thereof; fome¬
times the pavilion flanks a corner, in which cafe it is
called an angular pavilion. The Louvre is flanked
with four pavilions : the pavilions are ufually higher
than the reft of the building. There are pavilions built
in gardens, commonly called funtmer-houfes, plea fur e~
houfes, &c. Some caftles or forts confilt only of a Angle
pavilion.
Pavilion, in military affairs, fignifies a tent raifed
on polls, to lodge under in the fummer time.
Pavilion, is alfo fometimes applied to flags, colours,
enfigiw, ilaudards, banners, &c.
Pavilion, in Heraldry, denotes a covering in form
of a tent, which inverts or wraps up the armories of di¬
vers kings and fovereigns, depending only on God and
their fword.
The pavilion confifts of two parts; the top, which is
the chapeau, or coronet; and the curtain, which males
the mantle.
None but fovereign mcmarchs, according to the French
heralds,
p A V [ 62 ] P A V
Pavilion heralds, may bear the pavilion entire, and in all its parts.
p J! r Thofe who are ele&ive, or have any dependence, fay
. ‘l^iri-s' , t]ie heralds, muft take off the head, and retain nothing
but the curtains.
Pavilions, among jewellers, the underfides and cor¬
ners of the brilliants, lying between the girdle and the
collet.
PAVING, the conftrudtion of ground-floors, Ilreets,
or highways, in fuch a manner that they may be conve¬
niently walked upon. In Britain, the pavement of the
grand ftreets, &c. is ufually of flint, or rubble-ftone 5
courts, ftables, kitchens, halls, churches, &c. are paved
with tiles, bricks, flags, or fire-ftone j fometimes with a
kind of freeltone and ragftone.
In fume flreets, e. g. of Venice, the pavement is of
brick : churches fometimes are paved with marble, and
fometimes with mofaic work, as the church of St Mark
at Venice. In France, the public roads, flreets, courts,
&c. are ail paved with gres or gritt, a kind of free-
ftone.
In Amftcrdam and the chief cities of Holland, they
call their brick pavement the burgher mujlers pavement,
to diftinguifli it from the ftone or flint pavement, which
ufually takes up the middle of the flreet, and which
ferves for carriages ; the brick which borders it being
deftined for the paffage of people on foot.
Pavements of free-ftone, flint, and flags, in flreets, &c.
are laid dry, i. e. in a bed of fand; thofe of courts, fta-
bies, ground-rooms, &c. are laid in a mortar of lime and
fand *, or in lime and cement, efpecially if there be vaults
or cellars underneath. Some mafons, after laying a
floor dry, efpecially of brick, fpread a thin mortar over
it •, fweeping it backwards and forwards to fill up the
joints. The feveral kinds of pavement are as various as
the materials of Avhich they are compofed, and whence
they derive the name by which they are diftinguiflied ;
as,
1. Pebble-paving, which is done with ftones collefted
from the fea-beach, moftly brought from the iflands of
Guernfey and Jcrfey : they are very durable, indeed the
moft fo of any ftone ufed for this purpofe. They are
uft d of various fizes, but thofe which are from fix to
nine inches deep, are efteemed the moft ferviceable.
When they are about three inches deep, they are deno¬
minated holders or howlers ; thefe are ufed for paving
couit-vards, and other places not accuftomed to receive
carriages with heavy weights •, when laid in geometrical
figures, they have a very pleafing appearance.
2. Rag-paving was much ufed in London, but is very
inferior to the pebbles •, it is dug in the vicinity of
Maidftone in Kent, from which it has the name of Kent-
ifh ragstone; there are fquared ftones of this material
for paving coach tracks and footways.
3. Purbeck pitchers ; fquare ftones ufed in footways 5
they are brought from the ifland of Purbeck, and alfo
frequently ufed in court yards •, they are in general
from fix to ten inches fquare, and about five inches
deep.
4. Squared paving, for di ft in 61 ion by fome called Scotch
paving, becauie the firfl: of the kind paved in the man¬
ner that has been and continues to be paved, came from
Scotland ; the firfl; wras a clear clofe ftone, called blue
whynn, which is now difufed, becaufe it has been found
inferior to others iince introduced in the order they are
hereafter placed.
5. Granite, a hard material, brought alfo from Scot¬
land, of a reddifti colour, very fuperior to the blue
whynn quarry, and at prefent very commonly ufed in
London.
6. Guernfey, which is the beft, and very much in ufe ;
it is the fame ftone with the pebble before fpoken of, but
broken with iron hammers, and fquared to any dimen-
fions required of a prifmoidical figure, let with its fmall-
eft bafe downwards. The whole of the foregoing paving
fhould be bedded and paved in fmall gravel.
7. Purbeck paving, for footways, is in general got in
large furfaces about two inches and a half thick •, the
blue fort is the hardeic and the beft of this kind of
paving.
8. Yorkf jirc paving, is an exceeding good material
for the fame purpofe, and is got of almoft any dimenfions
of the fame thicknefs as the Pbrbeck. This ftone will
not admit the wet to pafs through it, nor is it affe6ted
by the froft.
9. Ryegate or firefone paving, is ufed for hearths,
ftoves, ovens, and fuch places as are liable to great heat,
which does not affeef the ftone if kept dry.
10. Newcajllefags, are ftones about two feet fquare,
and one inch and a half or two inches thick ; they an-
fwer very well for paving out-offices : they are fome-
what like the Yorkflure.
Pavin#.
11. Portland paving, with ftone from the ifland of
Portland ; this is fometimes ornamented with black mar¬
ble dots.
1 2. Swedlandpaving, is a black flate dug in Leicefter-
ffiire, and looks well for paving halls, or in party-co¬
loured paving.
13. Marble paving, is moftly variegated with differ¬
ent marbles, fometimes inlaid in mofaic.
14. Flat brick paving, done with brick laid in fand,
mortar, or groute, as when liquid lime is poured into
the joints.
1 3. Brick-on-edge paving, done with brick laid edge-
wife in the fame meaner.
16. Bricks are alfo laid flat or edgewife in herring¬
bone.
17. Bricks are alfo fometimes fet endwife in fand.
mortar, or groute.
18. Paving is alfo performed with paving bricks.
19. With ten inch tiles.
20. With foot tiles.
21. With clinkers for ftables and outer offices.
22. With the bones of animals, for gardens, &c.
And, 23. We have knob paving, with large gravel-
ftones, for porticoes, garden-feats, &.c.
Pavenu .its of churches, &c. frequently con lift of ftones
of feveral colours •, chiefly black and w hile, and of feve¬
ral forms, but chiefly fquares and lozenges, artfully dif-
pofed. Indeed, there needs no great variety of colours
to make a furprifing diverfity of figures and arrange¬
ments. M. Truchet, in the Memoirs of the French A-
cademy, has fliovvn by the rules of combination, that
two fquare ftones, divided diagonally into two colours,
may be joined together chequerwife 64 different wrays :
which appears furprifing enough *, fince tivo letters or fi¬
gures can only be combined two ways.
The reafon is, that letters only change their fituation
with regard to the firft and fecond, the top and bottom
remaining the fame *, but in the arrangement of thefe
ftones, each admits of four feveral fituations, in each
avhereof
P A U [ 63 ] P A U
Paving, ■whereof the other fquare may be changed 16 times,
t>aul‘ . which gives 64 combinations.
Indeed, from a further examination of thefe 64 com¬
binations, he found there were only 32 different figures,
each figure being repeated twice in the fame fituation,
though in a different combination ; fo that the two only
differed from each other by the tranfpofition of the dark
and light parts.
PAUL, formerly named Saul, was of the tribe of
Benjamin, a native of Tarfus in Cilicia, a Pharifee by
profeffion ; firft a perfecutor of the church, and after¬
wards a difciple of Jefus Chrilt, and apoftle of the Gen¬
tiles. It is thought he was born about two years before
our Saviour, fuppofing that he lived 68 years, as we
read in a homily which is in the 6th volume of St Chry-
foftom’s works. He was a-Roman citizen (A6ts xxii.
27,28.), becaufe Auguftus had given the freedom of
the city to all the freemen of Tarfus, in confideration
, of their firm adherence to his interefts. His parents fent
him early to Jerufalem, where he ftudied the law at the
feet of Gamaliel a famous doftor (id. xxii. 3.). He made
very great progrefs in his ftudies, and his life was al¬
ways blamelefs before men} being very zealous for the
whole obfervation of the law of Mofes (id. xxvi. 4, 5.).
But his zeal carried him too far ; he perfecuted the
church, and infulted Jefus Chrilt in his members (1 Tim.
i. 13.)} and when the protomartyr St Stephen was
itoned, Saul was not only confenting to his death, but
he even flood by and took care of the clothes of thofe
that ftoned him (A£ts vii. 58, JPO* Phis happened in
the 33d year of the common era, fome time after our
Saviour’s death.
At the time of the perfecution that was raifed againft
the church, aicer the death of St Stephen, Saul was one
of thofe that fhowed moft violence in diftrefling the be¬
lievers (Gal. i. 13. and A6ts xxvi. 11.). He entered
into their houfes, and drew out by force both men and
women, loaded them with chains, and fent them to pri-
fon ( Acts viii. 3. and xxii. 4.). He even entered into
the fynagogues, where hecaufed thofe to be beaten with
rods that believed in Jefus Chrift, compelling them to
blafpheme the name of the Lord. And having got ere- Paul.
dentials from the high-prieft Caiaphas, and the elders of 
the Jews, to the chief Jews of Hamafcus, with power to
bring to Jerufalem all the Chriftians he Ihould find there,
he went away full of threats, and breathing nothing but
blood (Adslx. 1, 2, 3, &e.). But as he was upon the
road, and now drawing near to Damafeus, all on a hidden
about noon, he perceived a great light to come from hea¬
ven, which encompaffed him and all thofe that were with
him. This fplendour threw them on the ground ; and
Saul heard a voice that laid to him, “ Saul, Saul, why
perfecuteft thou me ?” It was Jefus Chrilt that fpoke
to him. To whom Saul anfwered, “ Who art thou,
Lord ?” And the Lord replied to him, “ I am Jefus of
Nazareth whom thou perfteutell; it is hard for thee to
kick againlt the pricks.” Saul, all in conlternation,
alked, “ Lord, what is it that thou wouldlt have me.
do Jefus bid him arife and go to Damafeus, where-
the will of the Lord Ihould be revealed to him.
Saul then rofe from the ground, and felt that he was
deprived of light 5 but his companions led him by the
hand, and brought him to Damafeus, where he conti¬
nued three days blind, and without taking any nourilh-
ment. He lodged at the houfe of a jew named Judas.
On the third day, the Lord commanded a difciple of
his, named Ananias, to go to find out Saul, to lay his
hands upon him, and to cure his blindnefs. And as
Ananias made excufes, faying that this man was one of
the moil violent periecutors of the church, the Lord faid
to him, Go and find him, becaufe tins man is an inilru-
ment that I have chofen, to carry my name before the -
Gentiles, before kings, and before the children of If.
rael } for I will {how him how many things he mull
fulfer for my name. Ananias went therefore, and
found Saul, laid his hand upon him, and reftored him to
his fight } then rifing, he was baptized, and filled with
the Holy Ghoft. After this he continued fonie days
with the difeiples that were at Damafeus, preaching in
the fynagogues, and proving that Jefus was the Mef-
fiah (a).
From Damafeus he went into Arabia (Gal. i. 17.),
probably
thn^hlve^rT^10" °f furhu Tn’ at fuch a tirae’ and by fuch means’ furnifties one of the moll complete proofs
the dSl irriT" °f the11drVme 0n8™r°{. our holy re%!on- That Saul, from being a zealous peHecutor of
turnW tl £ f u u-Cre ^ °nCe 3 dlfcJPle bimfdf’ is a faft which cannot be controverted without over-
felf faid he °d He mult therefore have been converted in the miraculous manner in which he him-
poftet an enttufiaft 7 7 777 7^ be a di™e revelation ; or he mult have been either an m-
If he 77 • ’7 a dT i° !he (raud °f others- There not another alternative poffible.
fome motiVe : Vs7 M°i7cle) ^Buf the ^ kneW- 7^ ^ heb?en induced to that part by
v„ ■ , , ' But the only conceivable motives for religious impoiture are, thehonesofad-
authorhyof theT/rrelieion ^ 777 7777 °f gratify5n^ forne Paffion or appetite under the
1 • i • r 4.1 n * a hat none of thefe could be St Paul’s motive for profefling the faith of Chrilt cm-
the latter faTtb r°Thofl ..7 °i 77™ ant} Cbn?‘anity at tbe Period °f bis forfaking the former and embracing
Le weiifwere^indiffent^m'e^oDwelTeH f!'f diS"ity' ^ thofe ,o
.1 r f, . . . ’ °PPrened, and kept from all means of improving their fortunes. The certainconfe-
of acquirimTim re° ^ in^tbe Part Chriltianity was the lofs not only of all that he pofleffed, but of all hopes
mkT SZ/ hJTaf’ y "Tt"’?8 I’erfecu,,i ,he Cl'rima"5> ht- had h»P“ tifing almoft to a certain,/of
nucit ?ecll„d hi" a^t, , ,' ft'V,h° .T'' head of lbT *“ "'“t" nothing could fe
fcholar tf r r • i ie ^ea .n.blcb H' 'ad thown in that perfecution. As to credit or reputation could the
that the M”„t fhrh L^ruJht ^tMbeTin-g “ “'““'’“r 'I'a col]e^ "l ? Could he flatter himfelf,
were to the Jews a ftnmhr L 0lild’ m °r OUt of Judea> do him honour, when he knew that “ they
him to mke ,h leT/iZ “fp’ and,t0 tlle GrAs fo‘'li(hneli Wa,it llK" the °f pnwer that induced
e ■ • Power. over whom - over a flock of flreep whom he himfelf had affified to de-
ftrojy
Paul.
P A U f 64
probably into tbe neighbourhood of Damafeus, being
then under <he government of Arctas king of Arabia j
and having remained there for a little while, he return
cd to Damafeus, where he began again to preach the
gofpel. The Jews could not bear to fee the progrefs
that the gofpel made here $ and fo refolved to put him
to death: and they gained to their fide the governor of
Damafcus, who was to apprehend him, and to deliver
him to them. Of this Saul had early notice; and
knowing that the gates of the city were guarded night
and day to prevent him from making his elcape, he
was let down over the wall in a bafket. And coming
to Jerufalem to fee Peter (Gal. i. 38.), the difciples weie
afraid to' have any correfpondence with him, not believ¬
ing him to be a convert. But Barnabas having brought
him to the apofilcs, Saul related to them the manner of
his converfion, and all that had followed in confequencc
of it. Then he began to preach both to the Jews and
Gentiles;, and fpoke to them with fuch firength of ar¬
gument, that not being able to withftaitd him inreafon-
jng, they refolved to kill him. For this reafon, tiic
brethren brought him to Crnfarea of Paleitine, hom
whence he came, probably by fea, into his own coe.ntiy
Tarfus in Cilicia.
There he continued about five or fix years, from the
year of Chrifl 37 to the year 43; when Barnabas com¬
ing to Antioch by the order of the apoftles, and there
having found many Chriftians, went to I arlus to fee
Saul, and brought him with him to Antioch ; Adds xi.
20, 25, 26.) •, where they continued together a whole
year, preaching to and inftrufting the faithful.. During
this time, there happened a great famine in Judea
] P A U
(id. ib. 27, 28, &.C.), and the Chriftians of Antioch f*auI-
having made fome collections to aflift their brethren at * 'r“
Jeruialem, they made choice of Paul and Barnabas to
go thither with their offering. They arrivtd therein
the year of Chrift 44; and having acquitted themfelves
of their commiflion, they returned again to Antioch.
They had not been there long before God warned them
by the prophets he had in this church, that he had ap*
pointed them to carry his \vord into other places. Then
the church betook themfelves to faffing and praying, and
the prophets Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen, laid their
hands on them, and fent them to preach whither the
ILily Ghoft fhould conduft them. And it was proba¬
bly about this time, that i-, about the year of Chrift 44,
that Paul being rapt up into the third Heaven, law
there ineffable things, and which were above the cora-
prehenfion of man (2 Cor. xii. 2, 3, 4. and Acts xiii. 4,
5, 6, &c.).
Saul and Barnabas went firft into Cyprus, where they
began to preach in t he fynagogues of the Jews. When
they had gone over the whole ifland, they there found a
Jewifh magician called Bar-jefus, who was with the pro-
conful Sergius Paul us; and who refifted them, and en¬
deavoured to prevent the proconful from embracing
Chriftianity: whereupon St Paul ftruek him with blind-
nefs; bv which miracle the proeonful, being an eye-
witnefs of it, was converted to the Chriftian faith.
From this converfion, which happened at the city of
Paphos, in the year of Chrift 45, many think, that the
apoftle firft began to bear the name of Fait I, which St
Luke always gives him afterwards, as is fuppofed in
memory of his converting Sergius Paulus. Some be¬
lieve
fttov, and ivhofe very Shepherd bad lately been murdered ? Perhaps it was with the view of gratifying fome been,
-tiou’s paffion, under the authority of the new religion, that he commenced a teacher ot that religion . t his cannot
be alleged; for his writings breathe nothing but the Aria.# morality obedience to magrftrates, order and govern-
men,, with the utmoft abhorrence of all licentioufneft, idlenef., or loofe behavonr, under the cloak of religion.
We nowhere read in his works, that faints are above moral ordinances; that dominion is funded in giace; that
monarchy is defputifm which ought to be abolifhed; that the fortunes of the. r,cl, ought to be d.vleed among A,e
poor; that there Is no difference in moral aaions; that any impulfe, of the mind are to d,reft us againft the light
of our reafon and the laws of nature; or any of thofe wicked tenets by which the peace of focaety has been often
difturbed, and the rules of morality often broken, by men pretending to ac. under the* lima,on of otvirte u vc.a-
tion. He makes no diftinaions like the iropoftor of Arab,a m favour of h.mfelf; nor does any part of hts life, ei¬
ther before or after his converlion to Chriftianity, bear any mark of a libertine dlfpofition. As among the Jews,
fo among the Chriftians, his converfation and manners were blamelefs.—It lias been tometimes objeded to the
-other apoftles, bv thofe who were refolved not to credit their teft.mony, that Having been deeply engaged with
lehis during his'life, they were obliged, for the fupport of their o wn credit, and from havmg gone too far to re¬
turn, to continue the fame profeffions after his death; but this can by no means be fatd of St 1 aid. On the con¬
trary whatever force there may be in that way of reafomng, n all tends to convince us, that St I aul mutt natu-
W/I’have continued a Jew, and an enemy to Chrift Jefus. If riey were engaged on one fide, le was as ftrongly
engaged on the other. If fliame withheld them from changing fides, much more ought ,t to have Hopped him;
who, from his fuperior education, mull have been vaflly more fenfible to that kind of fliame than the mean and il¬
literate fishermen of Galilee. The only other difference was, that /%, by qufttmg them Mailer after his death,
might have preferved themfelves ; whereas he, by quitting the Jews, and taking up the crofs ot Chnft, certainly
brought on his own deftru&km. . c r, tt r. i i i •
A? St Paul was not an impoftor, fo it i, plain he was not an enthufiaft. Heat of temper, mdaneholy igno¬
rance and vanity, are the ingredients of which enthufiafb is compofed; but from all theft, except the firft, the
apoftle appears to have been wholly free. That he had great fervour of real, both when a Jew and when a Chrif.
,L maintaining what he thought to be right, cannot be denied; but he was at all tunes fo much mailer ol ins
temper a, in matters of indifference, to “ become all things toall men,” with the mod pliant condefcenf.on,
"bending his notions and manners to theirs, as far as his duty to God would permit; a condufl compatible neither
with the ftiffnefe of a bigot nor with the violent impulfes of fanatical delufion. 1 hat he vtas not melancholy, is
plain from his cor.dua in embracing every method which prudence could fuggeft to efcape danger and ftmn perfe-
P A U [ 65 ] P A U
lievc that he changed his name upon his own conver-
' iion 5 and Chryfoftom will have this change to take
place at his ordination, when he received his million at
Antioch ; while others fay, he took the name Paul on¬
ly when he began to preach to the Gentiles : and,
finally, feveral are of opinion, that he went by the
names of both Haul and Paul, like many other Jews
who had one Hebrew name and another Greek or Latin
one.
From the ifle of Cyprus, St Paul and his company
Went to Perga in Pamphylia, where John Mark eft
them, to return to Jerufalem : but making no flay at
Perga, they came to Antioch in Pifidia ; where going
into the fynagogue, and being defired to fpcak, St Paul
made them a long difcourfe, by which he fliowed, that
Jefus Chrift was the Mefliah foretold by the prophets,
and declared by John the Baptift ; that he had been un-
juft ly put to death by the malice and jealoufy of the
Jews \ and that he rofe again the third day. They
heard him very attentively ; and he was defired to dif¬
courfe again on the fame fubjecl the next Sabbath-day j
and feveral, both Jews and Gentiles, followed them, to
receive particular in ft ructions more at leifure. On the
Sabbath-day following, almoft all the city met together
■to hear the word of God : but the Jews, feeing the con-
eonrfe of people, were moved with envy at it 5 oppofed,
with blafphemies, what Si Paul faid 5 and not being
able to bear the happy progrefs of the gofpel in this
country, they raifed a perfecution againft the two
apoftles : whereupon Paul and Barnabas", Ihaking off the
dull upon their feet againft them, came from Antioch in
Vol. XVI. Part I.
Pifidia to leonium. Being come thither, they preach¬
ed in their lynagogue, and converted a great number,
both of Jews and Gentiles j arid God confirmed their
commiftion by a great number of miracles (A&sxiv. 1,
2, &c.). In the mean time, the unbelieving Jews, ha¬
ving incenfed the Gentiles againft Paul and Barnabas,
and threatening to ftone them, they were obliged to re¬
tire to Lyltra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, where they
preached the gofpel. At Lyftra, there was a man who
had been lame from his mother’s womb. This man fix¬
ing his eyes on St Paul, the apoftle bid him rife, and
ftand upon his feet : whereupon he prefently rofe up,
and walked ; the people, feeing this miracle, cried out,
that the gods were defcended among them in the fhape
of men. They called Barnabas Jupiter, and Paul Mer~
cury, becaufe of his eloquence, and being the chief
fpeaker. I he prieft of Jupiter brought alfo garlands
and bulls before the gate, to offer facrifices to them :
but Paul and Barnabas tearing their clothes, andcafting
themfelves hito the middle of the multitude, cried out
to them, friends, what do you do ? we are men as well
as yourfclves ; and we are preaching to you to turn
away from thefe vain fuperftitions, and to worfhip only
the true God, who has made heaven and earth. Bui
whatever they could fay, they had much ado to reftrain
them from offering facrifices to them.
In the mean time, fome Jews of Antioch in Pifidii
and of Iconium coming to Lyftra, animated the people
againft the apoftles. They ftoned Paul, and drew him
out of the city, thinking him to be dead. But the dif-
ciples gathering together about him, he rofe up among
i them
Paul.
\
'cution when he could do it without betraying the duty of his office or the honour of his God. A melancholy en-
lf St PauTfoXe^111’"-'’ P f r ^ CT0t affMs With abfurd Fnaftces : but the hoLefs
tie TWrl y m 16 fimPllC1.t5r of a Sodfy hfe? and in the unwearied performance of his apoftolical du-
mafter not nl TT^n T ^ ^ wh° is not ^ himfelf; for he appears to have .been
with the Greek ^ ^ J ti but aIfo (,f tIie Gr^k phdofophy, and to have been very c'onverfant even
the Greek poets I hat he was not credulous, is plain from his having refifted the evidence of all the mira
c es performed on ear,, by Chrift, a, rvell as thofe that were afterward walked by the apoftles the fame rf
nkl as’ any maTtha1, r a’ he CO,Uld "'i1 ,,aVe been a ftra"«er- A"1* >l'a* as free from va-
ronr r ? W- AJ ref IVed; may be satbered from a11 that we fee in his writings, or know of his life He
nf fmnXs ril ^ ^ Caft °[thl ap0ftlf’ and not meet to be called an apoftle, gHe fays that he is the chief
and all the ^ ln.tbe terms, univerfal benevolence to faith, and prophecy, and miracles,
^ver fanatic^refer'virtueloT’11 " ^ Couldbe endow.ed- Is this lhe language of vanity or enthufiafm ? Did
martyrdom ?? 1 * 115 °Wn rel!S10US 0Pini°ns, to illuminations of the fpirit, and even to the merit of
Str Pa?1 r\neJther an imPoftor nor an enthufiaft, it remains only to be inquired whe-
few ill tera e fiffi 7 r ^ud?ofT°thers : ^/his intluJry -eds not be long, for who was to deceive him? 1
moft enlivenedTtb * >e ^porfible for fuch men to conceive the thought of turning the
fraudln the Ve4 at cruelleft of their perfecutors, into an apoftle, and" to do this by a
<rant tn r. 7 r A f, ^reat.eft agamft them and their Lord. But could they have been fo extrava-
ftnd his converfion to ifav P/l!/Aa//rl impoffible for them to execute it in the manner in which we
brthter than fun" Go M ^ th^ P-duce a light in the air, which at mid-day was
of the comrnnv ? Could tl™ i7 Aake, ba^ bear worcls from out of that light which were not heard by the reft:
idseyes and reftn^l ^ blfd t ^ dayS after that and then make Laics fallo ff from
lieve that all ih fe tl”01 ^ f by 3 ^°rdr- °r’ C0U,d the? make h5m and thofe who travelled with him be-
*11 this. f bin8'S bad liaPPened» lf they had not happened ? Moft unqueftionably no fraud was equal to
?rCn,"rl5a-ft’ "°r ^ b>; *,:e ofofl— it follows, that
tions on the Cnnvorfi f A ’o i „ 1 f;hnftian rellglon 1S a divine revelation. See Lyttleton’s “ Obferva-
to fabricate a f,,,.,.;,,,,"" “/ St PaU! ’, a to which it has been truly faid, that infidelity has never been able
'“te a ‘Pootofs -anfwer, and of winch this note is a very fi.ort and imperfea abridgement.
Paul.
P A U [ 66 ] P
them, entered again into the city, and tire day after tioch with toilers from the
1 left it with Barnabas to go to Derbe. And having here
preached the gofpel alfo, they returned to Lyftra, to
Iconimn, and to Antioch of Pifidia. Faffing through¬
out Pifidia, they camo to Pamphylia, and having
preached the word of God at Perga, they went down
into Altalia. From hence they fet fail for Antioch m
Syria, from whence they had departed a year before.
Being arrived there, they affembled the church together,
and told them the great things God had done by their
means, and how he had opened to the Gentiles a door
(if falvation *, snd here they continued a good while with
A U
apoftles, which contained
f'auii
the difeipies.
St Luke does not inform us of the athons of St 1 aui
from the 45th year of Chrift to the time of the council
-at Jerufalem, which was held in the 5C)^k year of Chrift.
I'here is great likelihood that it was during this interval
that St Paul preached the gofpel from Jerufalem to llly-
ricum, as he informs us in his epMIe to the Romans
(xv. 19-) > and this without making any flay in thole
places where others had preached before him. He does
not acquaint us with the particulars of thefe journeys,
nor with the fuccefs of his preaching •, but he fays in ge¬
neral, that he had fuffered more labours than auy other,
and had endured more prifons. He was often very near
death itfelf, fometimes upon the water and fume times
among thieves. He run great dangers, fometimes from
the Jews and fometinjes among falfe biethrcn and per-
verfe Chriftians j he was expofed to great hazards, as
well in the cities as in the deferts: he fuffered hunger,
third, nakednefs, cold, fadings, watchings (2 Cor. xi.
23.-27.), and the fatigues infeparable from long jour¬
neys, which were undertaken without any profpedt of
human fuccour *, in this very different from the good
fortune of others who lived by the gofpel, who received
fubfidence from thofe to whom they preached it, and
who were accompanied always by religious women, who
minidered to them in their neceffary occafions.. He
made it a point of honour to preach gratis, working
with his hands that he might not be chargeable to any
one (1 Cor. ix. 1.—15.) *, for he had learned a trade,
as was ufual among the Jews, which trade was to make
tents of leather for the ufe of thofe that go to war
(Afts xvlii. 3,). A . . , r
St Paul and St Barnabas were at Antioch when lome
perfons coming from Judea (A6!s xv. 1, 2, &c.) pre¬
tended to teach, that there was no falvation without cir-
cumcidon, and without the obfervation of the other le¬
gal ceremonies. Epiphanius and Philader fay, that he
that maintained this was Cermthus and his followers.
Paul and Barnabas withdood thefe new doftors ; and it
"was agreed to fend a deputation to the apodles and c i¬
ders at Jerufalem about this quedion. Paul and Barna¬
bas were deputed j and being arrived at Jerufalem, they
reported to the apodles the fubjecR of their commiffion.
Some of the Pbarifees that had embraced the faith, af-
ferted, that the Gentiles that were converted ought to
receive circumcifion, and to obferve the red of the kw.
But the apodles and elders affembling to examine into
this matter, it was by them decreed, that the Gentiles,
who were converted to Chridianity, fhould not be obli¬
ged to fubmit to the yoke of the law, but only to avoid
idolatry, fornication, and the eating of things drangled,
and blood.
St Paul and St Barnabas were then lent back to An-
the decifion of the quedion, and the refolution of that
augud affembly. The apodles alfo deputed Jude fur-
named Batfabas and Silas, who were principal brethren,
to go to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas to give
their tcilimony alfo of what had been decreed at Jem-
falem. Being arrived at Antioch, they affembled Rm
faithful, read to them the apodles letter, and acquaint¬
ed them, that it had been refolved to difeharge them
from the yoke of the ceremonial law. Some time alter
this, St Peter coming to Antioch and joining himfelf to
the converted Gentiles, he lived with thern without
feruple *, but Come brethren happening to arrive there
from Jerufalem, he feparated himfelf from the Gentile
converts, and did no longer eat with them ", lor which
condud St Paul publicly cenfured him (Gal. li. x 1 —16.).
St Paul (id. ii. 2, 3, &c.) in the fame journey to Jeru¬
falem declared openly to the faithful there the dotfrme
he preached among the Gentiles’, and belides, dilcour-
fed of it in private among the chief of them in prefence
of Barnabas and 1 itus. St Peter, St James, and S,
John, with whom he had thefe converfations, could find
nothing either to be added or amended in fo pure and
fo found a dodrine and demeanour. They faw with joy
the grace that God had given him 5 they acknowledged
that he had been appointed the apoftle of the Gentiles,
as St Peter had been of the circumcifion. They con¬
cluded that Paul and Barnabas ffiould continue to preach
among the Gentiles’, and only recommended to them to.
take care concerning the colledions Ion the poor }. that
is to fay, to exhort the converted Chriftians among the
Gentiles, to affift the faithful brethren in Judea, who
were in neceffity $ whether it were becaufe they had fold
and diftributed their goods, or becaufe they had been ta¬
ken away from them (Htb. x. 54.). .
After Paul and Barnabas bad continued feme days at
Antioch, St Paul propofed to Barnabas to return ana
vifit the brethren through all the cities wherein they
had planted the gofpel, to fee in what condition they
were. Barnabas confented to the propofal ’, but infifted
upon taking John Mark along with them. Ihis was
oppofed by Paul, which produced a feparation between
them. Barnabas and John Mark went together to Cy¬
prus •, and St Paul, making choice of Silas, croffed over
Syria and Cilicia, and came to Derbe, and afterwards
to Jjvftra (Afts xvi. 1, 2, &c.). Here they found a
difciple, called Timothy, whom St Paul took with him,
and circumeifed him that he might not offend the Jews
of that country. When, therefore, they had gone over
the provinces of Lycaonia, Phrygia, and Galatia, the
Holy Ghoft would not allow them to preach the gofpel
in the proconfular Afa, wdiich contained Ionia, /Folia,
and Lydia. They therefore went on to Myfia, and
coming to *1 roas, St Paul had a vifion in the night. A
man, habited like a Macedonian, prefented himfelf be¬
fore him, and faid, Pafs into Macedonia and come and
fuccour us. Immediately he fet out on this journey, not
doubting but that God had called him into this coun¬
try..
Embarking therefore at Troas, they failed to Neapo-
lis. Thence they came to Philippi, where upon the
fabbath-day they went near the river fide, where the
Jews had a place of devotion, and where they found
fome religious women, among whom was Lydia, who
was converted and baptized, and invited tne apoftle and
Ins
P A U [ 67 ] P A U
Paul. his company to lodge at her houfe. Another day, as
v ' they went to the fame place of devotion, they happened
to meet a maid fervant poffelTed with a fpirit of divina¬
tion, who followed St Paul and his company, crying
out, that thefe men were the fervants of the moft high
God, who declared to the world the way of falvation.
This The did for feveral days together ; at laft St Paul,
turning himfelf towards her, faid to the (pirit, I command
thee in the name of Jefus Chrift to come out of the body
of this woman : upon which it immediately left her.
But the mafters of this damfel, who made much money
by her, drew Paul and Silas before the magiftrates, and
accufed them of attempting to introduce a new religion
into the city. For this the magiftrates ordered them to
be whipt with rods upon the back and fhoulders, and af¬
terwards fent them to prifon.
Towards midnight, as Paul and Silas were finging
hymns and praifes to God, on a fudden there was a great
earthquake, fo that the foundations of the prifon were
(haken, and all the doors flew open at the fame time,
and the fetters of the prifoners burft afunder. The
gaoler being awakened at this noife, and feeing all the
doors open, he drew his fword with an intention to kill
himfelf, imagining that all the prifoners had made their
efeape. But Paul cried out to him, that he ftiould do
himfelf no mifchief, for they were all fafe. Then the
gaoler entering and finding all the prifoners there, he
brought out Paul and Silas from this place, afking them
what he muft do to befaved ? Paul and Silas inftru£ling
him and all his family, gave them baptifm. After this
the gaoler fet before them fomething to eat j and when
the morning was come, the magiftrates fent him word
that he might release his prifoners, and let them go a-
bout their bufinefs. But Paul returned this anfwer to
the magiftrates •, Ye have publicly whipped us with
rods, being Roman citizens j ye have thrown us into
prifon 5 and now ye would privately difmifs us : But it
ftiall not be fo, for you yourfelyes (hall come to fetch us
out. The magiftrates hearing that they were Roman
citizens, carpe to excufe themfelves ; and having brought
them out of prifon, they defired them to depart out of
their city. Paul and Silas rvent firft to the houfe of Ly¬
dia, where having vifited and comforted the brethren,
they departed from Philippi.
Then paffing through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they
came to Theffalonica the capital city of Macedonia,
where the Jews had a fynagogue (A£ls xvii. 1, &c.).
Paul entered therein, according to hiscuftom, and there
preached the gofpel to them for three Sabbath-days fuc-
ceftively. Some Jews and feveral profelytes believed in
Jefus Chrift, and united themfelves to Paul and Silas :
but the greatest part of the Jews being led away by a
falfe zeal, raifed a tumult in the city, and went to the
houfe of Jafon where St Paul lodged. But not finding
him there, they took Jafon and led him before the magi¬
ftrates, where they accufed him of harbouring in his
houfe people that were difobedient to the ordinances of
the emperor, and who affirmed that there was another
king befides him, one Jefus whom they preached up.
But Jafon having given feeurity to anfwer for the poople
who were accufed, he was difmifled to his own houfe ;
and the night following the brethren conduced Paul
and Silas out of the city, who went to Berea, where
they began to preach in the fynagogue. The Jews of
Berea‘heard them .gladly, and many of^hem were con¬
verted ; as alfo feveral of the Gentiles, and many wo- Paul,
men of diftin&ion that were not Jeweffes. u—y—
The Jews of Theflalonica being informed that Paul
and Silas were at Berea, came thither and animated the
mob againft them j fo that St Paul was forced to with¬
draw, leaving Silas and Timothy at Berea to finifti the
Work he had fo happily begun. Thofe who conduced
St Paul embarked along with him, and brought him a*"
far as Athens (Theod. in 1 Thefial.), where he arrived in
the 52d year of Jefus Chrift. As foon as he was got
thither, he fent back thofe that had brought him, with
orders to tell Silas and Timothy, that he defired them
to follow him to Athens as foon as poifible. In the
mean time, he went into a fynagogue of the Jews, and
preached to them as often as he had opportunity *, and
difputing with the philofophers who were frequent in
that place, they at laft brought him before the Areopa¬
gus, accufing him of introducing a new religion. St
Paul being come before the judges, pleaded in his own
defence, that among other marks of fuperftition which
he had found in that city, he had obferved an altar in-
feribed, “ To the unknown God.” It was therefore
this God whom they confeffed that they knew not, that
he came to make known to them. Afterwards he
fpoke to them of God the creator of heaven and earth,
of the fuperintendence of a providence, of the laft
judgment, and of the refurretftion of the dead. But
after they had heard of the refurre<Rion, fome made (com
of him, and others defired te hear him another time,
However fome of them embraced the Chriftian faith, of
which number was Dionyfius a fenator of the Areopa¬
gus, and a woman called Damaris, and feveral others
with them.
St Timothy came from Berea to Athens according
to the requeft of St Paul, and informed him of the
perfecution with which the Chriftians of Theflalonica
were then affli&ed. This obliged the apoftle to fend
him into Maccedonia, that he might comfort them and
keep them ftedfaft (1 Thefial. iii. 1, 2, &c.). After this
St Paul left Athens and went to Corinth, where he
lodged with one Aquila a Jew, and by trade a tent-
maker (A£b xviii. I, 2, &c.). With this Aquila the
apoftle worked, as being of the- fame trade himfelf.
But, however, he did not negle61 the preaching of the,
gofpel, which he performed every day in the fyna¬
gogue j (howing both to the Jews and Gentiles that
Jefus was the Mefliah. There he made feveral con¬
verts : and he tells us himfelf (1 Cor. i. 14—iy. and
xvi. 15.) that he baptized Stephanus and his whole
houfe, with Crifpus and Gaius. About the fame, time
Silas and Timothy came to Corinth, and acquainted
him with the good ftate of the faithful at Thefl'alonica;
and foon after this, he wrote his firft epiftle. to the Thef-
falonians, which is the firft of all the epiftles that he
wrote and not long after he wrote his fecond epiflle to
that church.
St Paul, now finding himfelf encouraged by the pre¬
fence of Silas and Timothy, went on with the work ot
his miniftry with new ardour, declaring and proving
that Jefus Chrift was the true Mefliah. But the Jew*
oppofing him with blafphamous and opprobrious words,
he (hook his clothes at them, and find, “ Your blood be
upon your own head j from henceforth I (hall go to the
Gentiles.” He then quitted the houfe of Aquila, and
went to lodge with one Titus Juft us, who was originai-
I 2 ]y*
P A U l 68 ] P A U
Paul. Iy a Gentile, but one that feared God. In the mean
-v—-1 time the Lord appeared to St Paul in a vifion, told
him, that in Corinth he had much people j and this
was the reafon why the apoftle continued there eight
months.
But Gallic the prticonful of Achaia being at Co*
rinth, the Jews of that city rofe up again!! Paul and
carried him before Gallio, accufing him of attempting
to introduce a new religion among them : however,
Gallio fent them away, telling them he would not
meddle with difputes that were foreign to his office.
Paul continued fome time longer at Corinth } but at laft
he fet out for Jerufalem, where he had a mind to be
prefent at the feaft of Pentecoft. Before he went on
ihipboard, he cut off his hair at Cenchrea, becaufe he
had completed his vow of Nazariteffiip, in which he
had engaged himfelf. He arrived at Ephefus with
Aquila and Prifcilla, from whence he went to Crefarea
of Paleftine, and thence to Jerufalem. Here having
performed his devotions, he came to Antioch, where
he (layed fome time ; and then paffing from thence, he
made a progrefs through all the churches of Galatia
and Phrygia fucceffively ; and having gone over the
higher provinces of Afia, he returned to Ephefus, where
he abode three years •, that is, from the year of Chriffi-
54 to the year 57 (Ads xix. r, 2, &c.).
St Paul having arrived at Ephefus, he found there
fome difciples that had been initiated by Apollos, who
had only baptized them with the baptifm of John. St
Paul inftruded them, baptized them with the baptifm
of Jefus Chrift, and laid his hands on them ; whereupon
they received the Holy Ghoft, the gifts of languages
and of prophecy. The apollle afterwards went into the
fynagogue, and preached to the Jews for three months,
endeavouring to convince them that Jefus Chrift was
the Meffiah : but as he found them very obftinate, he
feparated himfelf from them, and taught daily in the
fchool of one Tyrannus. He performed there feveral
miracles, infomuch, that the linen that had but touched
his body, being afterwards applied to the lick, they
were prefently cured of their difeafes, or delivered from
the devils that poffeffed them. He alfo fuffered much
there, as well from the Jews as from the Gentiles •, and
he himfelf informs us (1 Cor. xv. 31, 32.), that, after
the manner of men he fought with beafts at Ephefus ;
that is to fay, that he was expofed to wild beafts in the
amphitheatre, fo that it was expedled he Ihould have
been devoured by them ^ but God miraculoufly deliver¬
ed him : though fome are of opinion, that the fight
here mentioned by St Paul was nothing elfe but the
icuffle he had with Demetrius the filver-fmith and his
companions, who were difappointed in their attempt of
putting the apoftle to death. It was during his abode
at Ephefus that the apoftle wrote his epiftle to the Ga¬
latians.
After this St Paul propofed, at the inftigation of the
Holy Ghoft, to pafs through Macedonia and Achaia,
and afterwards to go to Jerufalem, faying, that after he
had been there, he muft alfo fee Rome ; and having fent
Timothy and Eraftus before to Macedonia, he tarried
feme time in Afia. During this time, he received in¬
telligence that domeftic troubles had rifen in the church
of Corinth, and that abufes had begun to creep in 5
which made him refolve to write his tuft epiftle to that
church.
*
Soon after this, taking leave of the diiciples, he de- Paul,
parted for Macedonia (Adis xx. 1, 2, &c.). He em-'““"'V’-
barked at Troas, took Timothy with him, and together
paffed into Macedonia (2 Cor. ii. 1 2. and vii. 5—15-)*
Titus came thither to him, and acquainted him with the
good effedls that his letter had produced among the Co¬
rinthians j and told him, that1 the colledlions that had
been made by the church of Corinth for the faithful in
Paleftine were now ready •, which engaged Paul to
write a fecond letter to the Corinthians. St Paul, ha¬
ving paffed through Macedonia, came into Greece or
Achaia, and there continued three months. He vifited
the faithful of Corinth : and having received their alms,
as he was upon the point of returning into Macedonia,
he wrote his epiftle to the Romans.
At laft lie left Greece and came into Macedonia, in
the year of Chrift 58, intending to be at Jerufalem at
the feaft of Pentecoft. He flaid fome time at Philippi,
and there celebrated the feaft of the paffover. From
hence he embarked and came to Troas, where he con¬
tinued a week. On the firft day of the week the dif¬
ciples being affembled to break bread, as St Paul was to
depart the day following, he made a difeourfe to them
which held till midnight. During this time a young-
man called Eutychus, happening to fit in a window and
fall afteep, fell down three ftories high, and was killed
by the fall. St Paul came down to him, and embraced
him, and reftored him to life again. Then he went up
again, broke bread and ate it, and continued his dif¬
eourfe till daybreak, at which time he departed. Thofc
of his company took {hip at Troas ; but as for him¬
felf he went on foot as far as Affos, othervvile cal¬
led. /a, and then embarked along with them at
Mitylene. From hence he came to Miletus, whithes?
the elders of the church of Ephefus came to fee
him ; tor he had not time to go to them, becaufe he
was defirous of being at Jerufalem at the feaft of Pen¬
tecoft.
When thefe elders had arrived at Miletus, St Paul
difeourfed with them, and told them that he was going
to Jerufalem without certainly knowing what ftiould
happen to him ; however he did not doubt but that h®
had much to fuffer there, fince in all cities the Holy
Ghoft had given him to underftand, that chains and af-
fti&ions waited for him at Jerufalem. Neverthelefs, he
declared to them, that all this did not terrify him, pro¬
vided he could but fulfil his miniftry. After having
exhorted them to patierce, and having prayed along
with them, he went on board, going ftraight to Coos,
then to Rhodes, and thence to Patara (Acls xxi. I, 2,
&c.), where finding a ftiip that was bound for Phoeni¬
cia, they went on board and arrived fafe at Tyre. Here
they made a flop for feven days, and then going on, they
arrived at Ptolemais, and thence at Caefarea, where they
found Philip the evangelift, who was one of the feven
deacons. While St Paul was there, the prophet Aga-
bus arrived there alfo from Judea ; and have taken St...
Paul’s girdle, he bound his own hands and feet with it,
faying, “ Thus {hall the Jews of Jerufalem bind the man
that owns this girdle, and {hall deliver him up to the
Gentiles.” But St Paul’s conftaney was not fhaken by
all thefe predictions, and he told them, that he was
ready, not only to fuffer bounds, but death itfelf, for ths
name of Chrift.
When he was come to Jerufalem, the brethren re¬
ceived
P A U
Paul. ceived him with joy ; and the day following he went
to fee St James the Lefs, bilhop of Jerufalem, at whofe
houfe all the elders affembled. Paul gave them an ac¬
count of what God had done among the Gentiles by
his miniftry. Then St James informed him, that the
converted Jews were ftrangely prejudiced againft him,
becaufe they were informed he taught the Jews that
lived among the Gentiles and out of Paleftine, that
they ought to renounce the law of Mofes, and no
longer cireumcife their children. Therefore, continued
St James, we mull affemble them here together, where
you may fpeak to them yourfelf, and undeceive them.
Moreover do this, that your a£tions may verify your
words: join yourfelf to four men that are here, and
who have taken upon them a vow of Nazaritelhip-, and
that you may (hare in the merit of their adlion, contri¬
bute to the charge of their purification, and purify your¬
felf alfo, that you may offer with them the offerings
and facrifices ordained for the purification of a Nazarite.
See Nazarite.
St Paul exactly followed this advice of St James, and,
on the next day went into the temple, where he declared
to the priefts, that in feven days thefe four Nazarites
would complete their vow of Nazaritelhip ; and that he
would contribute his {hare of the charges. But to¬
wards the end of thefe feven days, the Jews of Afia hav¬
ing feen him in the temple, moved all the people againft
him, laid hold of him, and cried out, “ Help, ye ifrae-
lites, that is he that teaches every where againft the
law, and againft the temple, and has brought Gentiles
into the temple, and profaned this holy place.” At the
fame time they laid hold on him, {hut the gates of the
temple, and would have killed him, had not Lyfias the
tribune of the Roman garrifon there run to his refcue,
taken him out of their hands, and brought him into the
citadel. St Paul being upon the fteps, defired the tri¬
bune to fuffer him to fpeak to the people, who followed
him thither in a great multitude. The tribune permit¬
ted him, and St Paul, making a fign with his hand,
made a Ipeech in Hebrew (Adis xxii.), and related to
them the manner of his converfion, and hismiftion from
God to go and preach to the Gentiles. At his mention¬
ing the Gentiles, the Jews began to cry out, “ Away
with this wicked fellow out of the world, for he is not
worthy to live.”
Immediately the tribune made him come into the
caftle, and ordered that he ftiould be examined by whip¬
ping him, in order to make him confefs the matter why
the Jews were fo incenfed againft him. Being now
bound, he faid to the tribune, “ Is it lawful for you to
wdiip a Roman citizen before you hear him ?” The
tribune hearing this, caufed him to be unbound, and
calling together the priefts and the fenate of the Jew's,
he brought Paul before them, that he might know the
occafion of this tumult of the people. Then Paul be¬
gan to fpeak to them to this purpofe, (Adtsxxiii.) :
^ Brethren, I have lived in all good confcience before
God until this day.” At which words, Ananias, fon
of Nebedeus, who w'as the chief-prieft, ordered the by-
ftanders to give him a blow in the face. At which St
Paul faid to him, “ God fhall finite thee, thou whited
wail •, for fitteft thou to judge me after the law, and
commandeft me to be fmitten contrary to the law
i hofe that were prefent faid to him, “ Revileft thou
God’s high prieft?” St Paul excufed himfelf by faying,
P A U
that he did not know he was the high-prieft, “ For it
is written, thou {halt not fpeak evil of the ruler of thy
people.” Then perceiving that part of the affembly
Avere Sadducees, and part Pharifees, he cried out,
“ Brethren, I am a Pharifee, the fon of a Pharifee j of
the hope and refurreftion of the dead I am called in
queftion.”
Then the affembly being divided in interefts and opi¬
nions, and the clamour increafing more and more, the
tribune ordered the foldiers to fetch him awrny out of
the affembly, and bring him into the caftle. The fol¬
lowing night the Lord appeared to Paul, and faid
to him, “ Take courage, for as you have borne tefti-
mony of me at Jerufalem, fo muft you alfo at Rome.”
The day following more than 40 Jews engaged them-
felves by an oath, not to eat or drink till they had
killed Paul. They came, therefore, and made known
their defign to the priefts and chiefs of the people,
faying to them, “ To-morrow caufe Paul to appear
before you, as if you would inquire more accurately
into his affair, and before he can come to you, we will
lie in wait for him and kill him.” But St Paul, being-
informed of this confpiracy by his lifter’s fon, ac¬
quainted the tribune with it ^ who gave orders that
the night following he ftiould be fent to Caefarear to
Felix the governor, who had his ordinary refidence
there. Felix having received letters from Lyfias, and
being informed that St Paul was of Cilicia, he told
him he would hear him when his accufers fhould ar¬
rive.
Five days after, Ananias the high-prieft and foms.
of the fenators came to Cajfarea, bringing with them
Tertullus the orator, to plead againft Paul. Tertul-
lus accufed him of being a feditious per fon, a difturber
of the public peace •, one who had put himfelf at the
head of a fe£t of Nazarenes, and who made no fcruple
even to profane the temple, (id. xxiv.). But St Paul
eafily refuted thefe calumnies, and defied his accufers to
prove any of the articles they had exhibited againft
him : he ended his difeourfe by faying, “ That for the
doiftrine of the refurreftion from the dead, bis adver-
faries would have him condemned.” Felix put off the
further hearing of this caufe till another time •, and,
fome days afterwards, came himfelf with his wife Dru-
filla to hear Paul ; and being in hopes that the apo-
ftle would purchafe his freedom with a fum of money,,
he ufed him well, often fent for him, and had frequent
converfations with him.
Two years having thus pafftd away, Felix made way
for his fucceffor Portius Feftus j but being willing to
oblige the Jews, he left Paul in prifon. Feftus being
come to Jerufalem, the chief priefts defired to fend for
Paul, with a defign to fall upon him by the way. But
Feftus told them, they might come to Ccefarea, where
he would do them juftice. Hither the Jews came, and'
accufed Paul of ieveral crimes, of which they were able
to prove nothing (id. xxv.j. Feftus then propofed to
the apoftle to go to Jerufalem, and be tried there ; but
he antwered, “ That he was now at the emperor’s tri¬
bunal, where he ought to be tried; and that he appeal¬
ed to Csefar:” whereupon Feftus, having conferred with
his council, told him, that therefore to Ctefar he fhould
§°-
Some days after, King Agrippa and his wife Bere¬
nice coming to Caffarea, defired to hear Paul ; who
pleaded.
[ G 1
Paul.
P A U { 70
pleaded Ills caufe with fuch ability, that Agrippa ex¬
claimed, “ Almoft thou perfuadcft me to be a Chrilban.”
See Agrippa. , n t •
As foon, therefore, as it was refolded to fend Paul in¬
to Italy, he was put on board a fhip at Adramyttiurn, a
city of Myfxa-, and having paffed over the feas of CiU-
cia and Pamphylia, they arrived at Myra, in Lycia,
where, having found a ftiip that was bound for Italy,
they went on board, (jd. xxvii.). But the feafon being
far advanced (for it was at leal! the latter end of Sep¬
tember), and the wind proving contrary, they, with
much difficulty arrived at the Fair'Haven, a port m the
ifle of Crete. St Paul advifed them to winter there :
however, others were of opinion they had better go to
Phenice, another harbour of the fame iflandj but as they
were going thither, the wind drove them upon a little
illand^called Clauda, where the mariners, fearing to
Hrike upon fome bank of fand, they lowered their mall,
and furrendered themfelves to the mercy of the waves.
Three days after this, they threw overboard the tack¬
ling of the {hip. Neither fun nor liars had appeared
now for 14 days. In this extreme danger, an angel ap¬
peared to St Paul, and allured him, that God had given
him the lives of all that were in the (hip with him.;
which were in all 276 fouls. St Paul told them of.his
vifion, exhorted them to take courage, and promifed
them that they ffiould all come alive into an ifiand ; and
that the veffel only ffiould be loft. On the 14th night
the feamen caft out the lead, and thought by.their
founding that they approached near to fome.land. They
were attempting to fave themfelves by going into the
boat; but St Paul told the centurion and the f.ddi.ers,
that except the failors continued in the (hip, their lives
could not be faved. Then the foldiers cut the ropes of
the boat, and let her drive. About daybreak, St Paul
perfuaded them to take fome nouriftiment, afluring them
that not a hair of their heads fliould perifti. After his
example, they took fome food, and when they had eaten,
they lightened their veffel, by throwing the corn into
the fea. Day being come, they perceived a {bore, where
they refolved, if poffible, to bring the ftiip to. But
the veffel having ftruck againft a neck of land that run
out into the fea, fo that the head remained fixed, and
the Hern was expofed to the mercy of the waves; the
foldiers, fearing left any of the prifoners ftiould make
their efcape by fwimming, were for putting them all
to the fvvord. But the centurion would not fuffer
them, being willing to fave Paul ; and he commanded
thofe that could fwim to throw themfelves firft out of
the veffel; and the. reft got planks, fo that all of them
came fafe to fhore. Then they found that the ifland
was called Melita or Malta ; the inhabitants of which
received theai with great humanity, (Acts xxvii. 1, 2,
3, &c.).
They being all very wet and cold, a great fire was
lighted to dry them ; and Paul having gathered up a
handful of fticks, and put them upon the fire, a viper
leaped out of the fire, and took hold of his hand. Then
the barbarous people laid to one another, “ Without
doubt this man is a murderer ; and though he has been
faved from the ftiipwreck, yet divine vengeance ftill
purfues him, and will not fuffer him to live.” But
Paul, (baking tlie viper into the fire, received no in¬
jury from it. The people, feeing this, changed their
opinion of him, and took him for a god; which opi-
2
] P A U
nion of theirs was more confirmed, by his curing the
father of Publius, the chief man of the ifland, of a fever ^
and bloody-flux. After this miracle, they all brought
out their flck to him, and they were healed. See Mk-
I.iTA. -
At the end of three months they embarked again ;
and arrived, firft at Syracufe, then at Rhegium, and
laflly at Puteoli. Here St Paul found fome Chriftians*
‘who detained him for feven days ; then he fet out foi11
Rome. The brethren of this city having been inform¬
ed of St Paul’s arrival, came to meet him as far as
Appii forum, and the Three Taverns. And when he
was come to Rome, he was allowed to dwell where he
pleafed, having a foldier to guard him, who was joined
to him with a chain, dhree days afterwards, St Paul
defired the chief of the Jews there to come to him. He
related to them in what manner he had been feized m
the temple of Jerufalem, and the neceffity he was un¬
der of appealing to Geefar. I be-Jews told him, that
as yet they had received no information about his af¬
fair ; and, as for Chriftianity, they knew nothing of
it, but only that it was fpoken againft everywhere ;
however, that they (hould be very willing to have fome
account of that doftrine from him. A day was ap¬
pointed for this purpofe ; when St Paul preached tc*
them concerning the kingdom of God, endeavouring
to convince them from Mofes and the prophets, that
Jofus was the Meffiah. Some of them believed what
he had faid to them, while others ditbelieved; fo
that they returned from him divided among them¬
felves.
Paul dwelt for two whole years at Rome, from the
year of Chrift 61 to the year 63, in a lodging that he
hired ; where he received all that came to him, preach¬
ing the kingdom of God, and the religion of Jefys
Chrift, without any interruption.
Hitherto we have had the A61s of the Apoftles for
our guide, in compiling the hiftory of St Paul; what xve
(hall add hereafter, will be moftly taken from his oivn
Epiftles. His captivity did not a little contribute to
the advancement of religion ; for he converted feveral
perfons even of the emperor’s court, (Philip, i. .12—18,
and iv. 22.). The Chriftians of Philippi, in Macedo¬
nia, hearing that St Paul was a prifoner at Rome,
fent Epaphroditus their bifliop to him, to bring him mo¬
ney, and otherwife to affift him in their name, (Phil. ii.
25.). Epaphroditus fell fick at Rome; and when he
went back to Macedonia, the apoftle fent by him his
Epiftle to the Philippians.
It is not known by what means St Paul was deliver¬
ed from his prifon, and difeharged from the accufation
of the Jews. There is great probability that they durft
not appear againft him before the emperor, as not hav¬
ing fufficient proof of what they laid to his charge.
However that may be, it is certain that he was fet at li¬
berty, after having been two years a prifoner at Rome.
He wrote alfb, during this imprifonment, his Epiftles to
Philemon and the Coloffians.
Pie was ftill in the city of Rome, or at leaft in Italy,
when he wrote his Epiftle to the Hebrews. St Paul,
having got out of prifon, went over Italy; and, accord¬
ing to fome of the fathers, paffed into Spain ; then into
Judea ; went to Ephefus, and there left Timothy (Heb.
xiii. 24. and 1 Tim. L 3.) ; preached in Crete, and
there fixed Titus, to take care to cultivate the church
lie
Paul.
P A U [ 71 ] P A U
Paul
he had planted in that place. Probably he might alfo
vifit the Philippians, according to the promife he had
made them, (Phil. i. 23. 26. and ii. 24.) ; and it is be¬
lieved, that it was from Macedonia that he wrote the
Firft Epiftle to Timothy.—Some time after, he wrote
to Titus, whom he had left in Crete ; he delires him to
come to Nicopolisj from whence, probably, he fent this
letter. The year following, that is, the 65th year of
the Chriftian era, the apoftle went into Afia, and came
to Troas, (2 Tim. iv. 13.). Thence he went to vifit
Timothy at Ephefus, and from that to Miletus, (2 Tim.
iv. 20.). Laftly, he went to Home; and St Chryfoftom
fays, that it was reported, that having converted a cup¬
bearer and a concubine of Nero, this fo provoked the
emperor, that he caufed St Paul to be apprehended, and
clapped into prifon. It was in this laft place of confine¬
ment that he wrote his Second Epiftle to Timothy,
which Chryfoftom looks upon as the apoftle’s laft tefta-
ment. See Timothy and Titus.
This great apoftle at laft confummated his martyr¬
dom, the 29th of June, in the 66th year of Jefus
Chrift, by having his head cut off, at a place called
the Salvian Waters. He was buried on the way of
Oftium, and a magnificent church was built over
his tomb, which is in being to this day. Ca/met's
Dia. &c.
Paul, 6V, Cave or Grotto of, in the iftand of Malta,
where St Paul and his company took ihelter from the
rains, when the viper faftened on his arm. Upon this
fpot there is a church built by the famed Alof de Vig-
nacourt, grand-mafter of the order, in the year 1606, a
very handfome, though but a fmall, ftrufture. On the
altar-piece is a curious painting, reprefenting the apoftle’s
lhaking off the viper, furrounded with men, women, and
children, in attitudes of admiration and furprife, and in
the old Maltefe garb \ and the whole very well execut¬
ed. On the top of the painting is the following infcrip-
tion :
Vipera ignis acta calore fruftra Pauli
Manum invadit ; is infulae benedicens
Anguibus et herbfs adimit omne virus.
M.DC.V.
Paul, firft biftiop of Narbonne, or Sergius Paulus
the proconful, converted and made biftiop by St Paul,
was defeended from one of the beft families of Rome.
It is laid the apoftle called himfelf Paul, from his name.
The Spaniards will have him to be their apoftle, which
is not improbable 5 and it is faid he died a martyr at
Narbonne.
Paul V. by birth a Roman, was firft clerk of the
chamber, and afterwards nuncio to Clement VIII. in
Spain, who honoured him with a cardinal’s hat. He
was advanced to the papal chair the 16th of May 1605,
after Leo XI. The ancient quarrel between the fecu-
lar and ecclefiaftical jurifdiftions, which in former times
had ocafioned fo much bloodftied, revived in the reign
of this pontiff. The fenate of Venice had condemned
by two decrees, 1. The new foundations of monafteries
made without their concurrence. 2. The alienation of
the eftates both ecclefiaftical and fecular. The firft de¬
cree paffed in 1603, and the fecond in 1605. About
the fame time a canon and abbot, accufed of rapine and
murder, were arrefted by order of the fenate, and de¬
livered over to the fecular court; a circumftance which
could not fail to give offence to the coart of Rome.
Clement VIII. thought it proper to diffemble or take
no notice of the affair ; but Paul V. who had managed
the Genoefe upon a fimilar occafion, flattered himlelf
with the hopes that the Venetians would be equally
pliant. However, he was difappointed j for the fenate
maintained that they held their power to make laws of
God only ; and therefore they refufed to revoke their
decrees and deliver up the ecclefiaftical prifoners into
the hands of the nuncio, as the pope demanded. Paul,
provoked at this behaviour, excommunicated the doge
and fenate5 and threatened to put the whole ftate under
an interdid, if fatisfadion was not given him within the
fpace of 14 hours. The fenate did no more than proteft
againft this menace, and forbid the publication of it
throughout their dominions. A number of pamphlets,
from both fides, foon announced the animofity of the
two parties. The Capuchins, the Theatins, and Jefuits,
were the only religious orders who obfcrved the inter¬
dict. The fenate {hipped them all off for Rome, and
the Jefuits were banifhed for ever. Meantime his holi-
nefs was preparing to make the refradory republic fub-
mit to his fpiritual tyranny by force of arms. He levied
troops againft the Venetians ; but he foon found his de~
fign baulked, as the caufe of the Venetians appeared
to be the common caufe of all princes. He had re-
courfe, therefore, to Henry IV. to fettle the differences:
and this prince had all the honour of bringing about a
reconciliation between the contending parties. His am-
baffadors at Rome and Venice began the negotiation,
and Cardinal de Joyeufe finifhed it in 1607. It was
agreed upon, that this cardinal fhould declare at his
entry into the fenate, that the cenfures of the church
were to be taken off, or that he would remove them ;
and that the doge Ihould at the fame time furrender to
him the deeds of revocation and proteft. It was alfo
ftipulated, that all the religious who were banifhed, ex¬
cept the Jefuits, ftiould be reftored to their former pri¬
vileges. In fine, the Venetians promifed to fend an am-
baffador extraordinary to Rome, in order to thank the
pope for the favour he had done them *, but they w’ould
not allow the legate to fpeak of his holinefs granting
them abfolution. Paul was wife enough to overlook
the whole matter, but endeavoured to put an end to
another difpute, which had been long agitated in the
congregations de auxiliis. He caufed it to be intimated
in form to the difputants and counfellors, that, as the
congregations were now diffolved, it was his exprefs or¬
der that the contending parties (hould no longer conti¬
nue to cenfure one another. Some authors have affirm¬
ed that Paul V. had drawn out a bull againft the doc¬
trine of Molina, which only wanted to be promulged j
but for this fa£t there appears to be no other evidence
than the draught of tins bull, which we meet with in
the end of the hiftory of the above-mentioned congrega¬
tions. Paul w?as rtrongly folieited, but in vain, to make
the immaculate conception of the holy virgin an article of
faith. He contented himfelf with fairly forbidding the
contrary do&rine to be publicly taught, that he might
not offend the Dominicans, who, at that time, maintain¬
ed that fine wfas conceived, like other human creatures,
in original fin. His holinefs afterwards applied himfelf
to the embelliffiing of Rome, and was at great pains to
collect the works of the moft eminent painters and en¬
gravers. Rome is indebted to him for its moft beautiful
fountains^
P A U [72
fountains, efpecially that where the water fpouts out
from an antique vafe taken from the thermae or hot-
baths of Vefpafian, and that which they call aqua Pao-
la, an ancient work of Auguftus, rettored by Paul V.
He brought water into it by an aqueduct 35 miles in
length, after the example of Sixtus V. He completed
the frontifpiece of St Peter, and the magnificent palace
of Mount Cavallo. He applied himfelf in a particular
manner to the recovering and repairing ancient monu¬
ments, which he made to advance, as much as the na¬
ture of them would admit, the honour of Chriftianity 5
as appears from an elegant infcription placed upon a co¬
lumn of porphyry, taken from the temple of Peace, and
bearing a beautiful flatue of the Virgin, at the fide of
the church of St Mary the elder :
Impura falfi templa
Quondam numinis
Jubente moefta perferebam Ctefare :
Nunc laeta veri
Perferens matrem Dei
Te, Paule, nullis obticebo fceculis.'n
His pontificate was honoured withfeveral illuftrious em-
baflies. The kings of Japan, Congo, and other Indian
princes, fent ambaffadors to him. He took care to fup-
ply them with miffionaries, and to found bifhopricks in
thefe countries newly brought over to the faith. He
fhowed the fame attention to the Maronites and other
eaftern Chriftians. He fent legates to different ortho¬
dox princes, both to teftify his efteem for them, and to
confirm them in their zeal for religion. He died the
28th of January 1621, aged 69 5 after having confirmed
the French Oratory, the Urfulines, the Order of Chari¬
ty, and fome other inftitutions. Bold in his claims, but
of narrow' views, he diftinguifhed himfelf more by his
piety and knowledge than by his politics. It has been
remarked, that he never paffed a Angle day of his pope¬
dom without celebrating mafs. He enjoined all the re¬
ligious in the profecution of their ftudies to have regu¬
lar profeffors for Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic j if
there were any among themfelves properly qualified } or
it that was not the cafe, to take the affiftance of laymen
for that purpofe, until there were fome of their own or¬
der who had learning enough to inftruft their brethren.
It was very difficult to carry this decree into execu¬
tion ; and indeed it was always very imperfe&ly ob-
ferved.
Paul, Father, whofe name, before he entered into
the monaftic life, was Peter Sarpi, was born at Venice,
Anguft 14. 1552. His father followed merchandife,
but with fo little fuccefs, that at his death he left his
family very ill provided for •, but under the care of a
mother whofe piety was likely to bring the bleffing of
providence upon them, and whofe wife conduct fupplied
the want of fortune by advantages of greater value.
Happily for young Sarpi die had a brother, mailer of a
celebrated fchool, under whofe direction he was placed
by her. Here he loft no time, but cultivated his abili¬
ties, naturally of the fir ft rate, with unwearied applica¬
tion. He was born for ftudy, having a natural averfion
to pleafure and gaiety, and a memory fo tenacious that
he could repeat 30 verfes upon once hearing them. Pro¬
portionable to his capacity was his progrefs in literature:
at 13, having made himfelf mailer of fchool learning,
he turned his ftudies to philofophy and the mathematics,
] P A U
and entered upon logic under Capella of Cremona, who, Paul,
though a celebrated mailer of that fcience, confeffed
himfelf in a very little time unable to give his pupil any
farther inftruclions.
As Capella was of the order of the Servites, his feho-
lar was induced by his acquaintance with him to engage
in the fame profeffion, though his uncle and his mother
reprefented to him the bardlhips and aufterities of that
kind of life, and advifed him with great zeal again!! it.
But he was fteady in his refolutions, and in 1566
took the habit of the order, being then only in his
14th year, a time of life in molt perfons very improper
for fuch engagements, but in him attended with fueh
maturity of thought, and fuch a fettled temper, that he
never feemed to regret the choice he then made, and
which he confirmed by a folemn public profeffion in
1572.
At a general chapter of the Servites held at Man¬
tua, Paul (for fo we lhall now call him) being then on¬
ly 20 years old, diftinguilhed himfelf fo much in a pu¬
blic difputation by his genius and learning, that William
duke of Mantua, a great patron of letters, folicited the
confeiit of his fuperiors to retain him at his court, and
not only made him public profefibrof divinity in the ca¬
thedral, and reader of cafuiftical divinity and canon law
in that city, but honoured him with many proofs of his
erteem. But Father Paul finding a court life not agree¬
able to his temper, quitted it two years afterwards, and
retired to his beloved privacies, being then not only ac¬
quainted with the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldee
languages, but with philofophy, the mathematics, canon
and civil law, all parts of natural philofophy, and che-
miftry itfelf 5 for his application was unintermitted, his
head clear, his apprehenfion quick, and his memory re¬
tentive.
Being made a prieft at 22, he was diftinguiftied by
the illuftrious Cardinal Borromeo with his confidence,
and employed by him on many occafions, not without
the envy of perfons of lefs merit, who were fo far ex-
afperated as to lay a charge again!! him before the In-
quifition, for denying that the Trinity could be proved
from the firft chapter of Genefis ; but the accufation
was too ridiculous to be taken notice of. After this he
paffed fucceffively through the dignities of his order, of
which he rvas chofen provincial for the province of Ve¬
nice at 26 years of age ; and difeharged his port with
fuch honour, that in 1579 he was appointed, with two
others, to draw up new regulations and ftatutes lor his
order. This he executed with great fuccefs •, and when
his office of provincial was expired, he retired for three
years to the ftudy of natural and experimental philofo¬
phy and anatomy, in which he is faid to have made fome
ufeful difeoveries. In the intervals of his employment
he applied himfelf to his ftudies with fo extenfive a ca¬
pacity, as left no branch of knowledge untouched. By
him Acquapendente, the great anatomift, confeffes that
he was informed how vifion is performed 5 and there are
proofs that he was not a ftranger to the circulation of
the blood. He frequently eonverfed upon aftronomy
with mathematicians, upon anatomy with furgeons, upon
medicine with phyfieians, and with chemifts upon the
analyfis of metals, not as a fuperficial inquirer, but as a
complete matter. He was then chofen procurator gene¬
ral of his order ; and during his refidence at Rome was
greatly efteemed by Pope Sixtus V. and contracted an
intimate
P A U
Paul. intimate friendfhip with Cardinal Bellarmine and other
   eminent perfons.
But the hours of repofe, which he employed fo well,
were interrupted by a new information in the Inquifi-
tion ; where a former acquaintance produced a letter
written by him in cyphers, in which he faid, “ that he
detelled the court of Home, and that no preferment was
obtained there but by difiioneft means.” This accufa-
tion, however dangerous, was paffed over on account of
his great reputation ; but made fuch impreflions on that
court, that he was afterwards denied a biihopric bv Cle¬
ment VIII. After thefe difficulties were furmounted,
F. Paul again retired to his folitude; where he appears,
by fome writings drawn up by him at that time, to have
turned his attention more to improvement in piety than
learning. Such was the care with which he read the
feriptures, that, it being his cuffom to draw a line
under any paffage which he intended more nicelv to
confider, there was not a fingh . word in his New
Teftament but was underlined. The fame marks of
attention appeared in his Old Teftament, Pfalter, and
Breviary.
But the moft aft ive feene of his life began about the
year 1615; when Pope Paul V. exafperated by fome
decrees of the fenate of Venice that interfered with the
pretended rights of the church, laid the whole date un¬
der an interdift. 1 he fenate, filled with indignation at
this treatment, forbade the bifhops to receive or publiffr
the pope’s bull j and, convening the reftors of the
churches, commanded them to celebrate divine fervice
in the accuftomed manner, with which moft of them
readily complied : but the Jeluits and fome others refu-
fing, were by a folemn edift expelled the date. Both
parties having proceeded to extremities, employed their
ableft writers to defend their meafures. On the pope’s
fide, among others, Cardinal Bellarmine entered the lifts,
and, with his confederate authors, defended the papal
claims with great feurrility of expreffion, and very fo-
phiftical reafonings ; which were confuted by the Vene¬
tian apologifts in much more decent language, and with
much greater folidity of argument. On this occafion
F. Paul was moft eminently diftinguiftied by his Defence
of the Rights of the fupreme Magiftrate, his Treatife of
Excommunication, tranflated from Gerfon, with an A-
pology, and other writings; for which he was cited be¬
fore the Inquitition at Rome 5 but it may be eafily ima¬
gined that he did not obey the fummons.
The Venetian writers, whatever might be the abilities
of their adverfaries, were at leaft fuperior to them in
the juftice of their caufe. The propofitions maintained
on the fide of Rome were thefe : Tha,t the pope is in-
vefted with all the authority of heaven and earth : that
all princes are his vaffals, and that he may annul their
laws at pleafure : that kings may appeal to him, as he
is temporal monarch of the whole earth : that he can
difeharge fubjefts from their oaths of allegiance, and
make it their duty to take up arms againft their fove-
reign: that he may depofe kings without any fault com¬
mitted by them, if the good of the church requires it:
that the clergy are exempt from all tribute to kings, and
are not accountable to them even in cafes of high-treafon:
that the pone cannot err : that his decifions are to be re¬
ceived and obeyed on pain of fin, though all the world
ihould judge them to be falfe: that the pope is God upon
earth : that his fen fence and that of God are the fame ;
Vol. XVI, Part I,
P A U
and that to call his power in queftion is to call in queftion
the power of God : maxims equally Ihocking, weak, per¬
nicious, and abfurd ; of which it did not require the abi¬
lities and learning of F. Paul to demonftrate the fallehood
and deftruftive tendency. It may be eafily imagined
that duch principles were quickly overthrown, and that
no court but that of Rome thought it for its intereft to
favour them. The pope, therefore, finding his authors
confuted and his caufe abandoned, was willing to con¬
clude the affair by treaty ; which, by the mediation of
Henry IV. of France, was accommodated upon terms
very much to the honour of the Venetians. But the
delenders of the Venetian rights, though comprehend¬
ed in the treaty, were excluded by the Romans from the
benefit of it : fome, upon different pretences, were im-
prifoned •, fome fent to the galleys ; and all debarred
from preierment. But their malice was chitriy aimed
againft F- Paul, who foon felt the efftfts of it 5 lor as
he was going one night to his convent, about fix months
after the accommodation, he was attacked by five ruffi¬
ans armed with ftilettoes, who gave him no lefs than 15
(tabs, three of which wounded him in fuch a manner
that he was left for dead. The murderers fled for re¬
fuge to the nuncio, and were afterwards received into
the pope’s dominions; but were purfued by divine
juftice, and all, except one man who died in prifon,
perilhed by a violent death.
This, and other attempts upon his life, obliged him
to confine himfelf to his convent, where he engaged in
writing the Hiftory of the Council of Trent; a work
unequalled for the judicious difpolition of the matter,
and artful texture of the narration ; commended by Dr
Burnet as the complete!! model of hiftorical writing ;
and celebrated by Mr Worton as equivalent to any pro-
duftion of antiquity j in which the reader finds “ liber¬
ty without licentioufnefs, piety without hypocrify, free¬
dom of fpeech without negleft of decency, feverity with¬
out rigour, and extenfive learning without oftentation.”
In this, and other works of lels conlequence, he
fpent the remaining part of his life to the beginning
of the year 1622, when he was feized with a cold and
fever, which he neglefted till it became incurable. He
languilhed more than twelve months, which he fpent
almoft wholly in a preparation for his paffage into eter¬
nity ; and among his prayers and afpirations was often
heard to repeat, “ Lord ! now let thy fervant depart in
peace.” On Sunday the eighth of January of the next
year, he rofe, weak as he was, to mafs, and went to take
his repaft with the reft ; but on Monday was feized with
a weaknefs that threatened immediate death ; and on
Thurfday prepared for his change, by receiving the via¬
ticum, with fuch marks of devotion as equally melt¬
ed and edified the beholders. Through the whole
courfe of his illnefs to the laft hour of his life he was
confulted by the fenate in public affairs, and returned
anfwers in his greateft weaknefs with fuch prefence of
mind as could only arife from the confcioufnefs of in¬
nocence.
On Saturday, the day of his death, he had the paf-
fion of our bleffed Saviour read to him out of St Jobn’s
gofpel, as on every other day of that week, and fpoke
of the mercy of his Redeemer, and his confidence in his
merits. As his end evidently approached, the brethren
of his convent came to pronounce the laft prayers, with
which he could only join in his thoughts, being able to
K pronounce
[ 73 1
P A U [ 74 ] P A U
Paul pronounce no more than tl,el'e worda, EJlo pirpMa, Paul, an Armenian by birth, arho lived under the reign Prficmx
It “ Mayeft thou laft for ever j” which was underftood to of Juttinian II. In the feventh century a zealot caded
Paulicuns. ^ (ra for the profperity of his country. Thus Conftantine revived this drooping fed, which had fuf-
' " died F. Paul, in the 71ft vear of his age 5 hated by the fered much from the violence of its adverlanes, and was
Romans as their moft formidable enemy, and honoured ready to expire under the feverity ot the imperial edicts,
by all the learned for his abilities, and by the good for and that zeal with which they were carried into execu-
his integrity. His deteftation of the corruption of the tion. The Paulicians, however, by their number, and
Roman church appears in ail his writings, but particu- the countenance of the emperor Nicephorus, became
lariy in this memorable paffage of one of his letters : formidable to all the Fafh _
“ There is nothing more effential than to ruin the repu- But the cruel rage of perlecution, which had for
tation of the Jefuits. By the ruin of the Jefuits, Rome fome years been fufpended, broke forth with redoubled
will be ruined ; and if Rome be ruined, religion will violence under the reigns of Michael Curopalates and
reform of itfelf.” He appears, by many paifages in Leo the Armenian, who mflidled capital puniihment
his life, to have had a high efteem for the church on fuch of the Paulicians as refufed to return into the
of England ; and his friend F. Fulgentio, who had bofom of the church. The emprefs Theodora, tutorefs
adopted all his notions, made no fcruple of admini- of the emperor Michael, in 845, would oblige them
Itering to Dr Buncombe, an Englifli gentleman who either to be converted or to quit the empire : upon which
fell fick at Venice, the communion in both kinds, ac- feveral of them were put to death, and more retired
cording to the Common Prayer which he had with him among the Saracens 5 but tney were neither all exter-
in Italian. F. Paul was buried with great pomp at the minated nor banimed. . _ ^
public charge, and a magnificent monument was erefted Upon this they entered into a league with the Sara-
to his memory. cens} and choofing for their chief an officer of the
Paul, in fea language, is a ffiort bar of wood or greatell refolution and valour, wrhofe name was Carbeus,
iron, fixed clofe to the capftem or windlafs of a ffiip, to they declared againft the Greeks a war which was car-
prevent thofe engines from rolling back or giving way ried on for fifty years with the greateil vehemence and
when they are employed to heave in the cable, or fury. During thefe commotions, fome Paulicians, to-
otherwife charged with any great effort. wards the conclufion of this century, fpread abroad their
PAULI ANISTS, Paulianistte, a feft of heretics, doftrines among the Bulgarians; many of them, either
fo called from their founder Paulus Samofatenus, a na- from a principle of zeal for the propagation of their
tive of Samofata, eleaed biffiop of Antioch in 262. opinions, or from a natural defire of Hying from the per-
His doarine feems to have amounted to this : that the fecution which they fuffered under the Grecian yoke,
Son and the Holy Ghoft exift in God in the fame man- retired, about the clofe of the eleventh century, from
ner as the faculties of reafon and aaivity do in man-, Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed fettlements in other
that Chrift was born a mere man j but that the reafon countries. Their firft migration was into Italy j whence,
or wifdom of the Father defeended into him, and by in procefs of time, they Cent colonies into almoft all the
him wrought miracles upon earth, and inflrufted the other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a con-
nations; and, finally, that on account of this union of fiderable number of religious affemblies, who adhered to
the Divine Word with the man Jefus, Chrift might, their do&rine, and who were afterwards perfecuted with
though improperly, be called God. It is alfo faid, that the utmoft vehemence by the Roman pontiffs. In Italy
he did not baptize in the name of the Father and the they were called Palarini, from a certain place called Pa-
Son, &c. j for which reafon the council of Nice order- tana, being a part of the city of Milan, where they held
ed thofe baptized by him to be re-baptized. their affemblies:, and Gathan or &a%ari, from Gazaria,
Being condemned by Dionyfius Alexandrinus in a or the Leffer Tartary. In France they were called
council," he abjured his errors to avoid depofition ; but Albigenfes, though their faith differed widely from that
foon after he refumed them, and was a&ually depofed of the Albigenfes, whom Proteftant writers generally
by another council in 269.—He maybe confidered as vindicate. (See Albigensls). Ihe firft religious
the father of the modern Socinians and his errors are affembly the Paulicians had formed in Europe is faid to
feverely condemned by the council of Nice, whofe have been difeovered at Orleans in 1017, under the
creed differs a little from that now ufed, under the fame reign of Robert, when many of them were condemned
name, in the church of England. The creed agreed to be burnt alive. The ancient Paulicians, according to
upon by the Nicene fathers, with a view to the errors of Photius, expreffed the utmoft abhorrence of Manes and
Paulus Samofatenus, concludes thus : rav? ^ /isyovraas yv his doctrine. Ihe Greek writers comprife their errors
Tran *vk j)v ttqiv yivvYiSitvcti. ovx. ttv, Sec. ratOav? xvxQiput- under the fix following particulars: I. 1 hey denied that
« x-kSoMicyi KKi XTTocrloXiKn  “ But thofe this inferior and vifible world is the production of the
who fay there was a time when he was not, and that he Supreme Being ; and they diftinguifh the Creator of the
was not before he w^as born, the catholic and apoftolic world and of human bodies from the moft high God
church anathematizes.” To thofe who have any vene- who dwells in the heavens: and hence fome have been
ration for the council of Nice this muft appear a very led to conceive that they were a branch of the Gnoftics
fevere, and perhaps not unjuft, cenfure of fome other rather than of the Manichaeans. 2. They treated con-
modern fefts as well as of the Socinians. temptuoufly the Virgin Mary ; or, according to the ufu-
P AULICIANS, a branch of the ancient Manichees, al manner of fpeaking among the Greeks, they refufed
fo called from their founder, one Paulus, an Armenian, to adore and worfhip her. 3. They refufed to celebrate
in the feventh century ; who, with his brother John, the inftitution of the Lord’s Supper. 4. They loaded
both of Samofata, formed this fedl: though others are the crofs of Chrift with contempt and reproach ; by
of opinion, that they were thus called from another which we are only to underftand, that they refufed to
5 follow
P A U [ 75 ] P A U
Paiilicians follow the abfurd and fuperditious pra<?Hce of the Greeks,
!' who paid to the pretended wood of the crofs a certain
t| , fort of religious homage. 5. They rejected, after the
example of the greateft part of the Gnoitics, the books
of the old Teftament •, and looked upon the writers of
that facred hiftory as infpired by the Creator of this
world, and not by the fupreme God. 6. They exclud¬
ed prelbyters and elders from all part in the adminiftra-
tion of the church.
PAULINA, a Roman lady, wife of Saturnius go¬
vernor of Syria, in the reign of the emperor Tiberius.
Her conjugal peace was diilurbed, and violence rvas of¬
fered to her virtue, by a young man named Mundus,
who fell in love with her, and had caufed her to come
to the temple of His by means ot the prielts of that
goddefs, who declared that Anubis wilhed to communi¬
cate to her fomething of moment. Saturnius complain¬
ed to the emperor of the violence which had been offer¬
ed to his wife ; and the temple of Ids was overturned,
and Mundus banifhed, &c.— L'here was befides a Pau¬
lina, wife of the philofopher Seneca. She attempted to
kill herfelf when Nero had ordered her hufband to die.
The emperor, however, prevented her •, and fhe lived
fume few years after in the greateft melancholy.
PAULINI A, a genus of plants belonging to the oc-
tandria clafs, and in the natural method ranking under
the 23d order, Trihilatce. See Botany Index.
PAULINUS, a biihop who flourifhed in the early
part of the 7th century, He was the apoftle of York-
fhire, having been the firft archbilhop of York, i his
dignity feems to have been conferred on him about the
year 626. He built a church at Almonbury, and dedi¬
cated it to St Alban, where he preached to and convert¬
ed the Brigantes. Camden mentions a crofs at Dewf-
borough, which had been credited to him, with this in-
feription, Paulinas hie preedicavst et celebravit. York
was fo fmall about this time, that there was not fo much
as a fmall church in it in which King Edwin could be
baptized. Conftantius is faid to have made it a biftiop-
ric. Pope Honorius made it a metropolitan fee. We
are told that Paulinus baptized in the river Swale, in
one day, 10,000 men, befides women and children, on
the firft converfion of the Saxons to Chriftianity, befides
many at Halyftone. At Walftone, in Northumber¬
land, he baptized Segbert king of the Eaft Saxons.
Bede fays, “ Paulinus coming with the king and queen
to the royal manor called /Id Gehrin (now Yeverin),
ftaid there 36 days with them, employed in the duties
of catechizing and baptizing. In all this time he did
nothing from morning to night but inftrudl the people,
who flocked to him from all the villages and places, in
the doffrine of Chrift and falvation ; and, after they
were inftru&ed, baptizing them in the neighbouring ri¬
ver Glen.” According to the fame Bede, “ he preach¬
ed the word in the province of Lindifli ; and firft con¬
verted the governor of the city of Lindocollina, whofe
name was Blecca, with all his family. In this city he
built a ftone church of exquifite workmanthip, whofe
roof being ruined by long negleft or the violence of the
enemy, only the walls are now Handing.” He is alfb
faid to have founded a collegiate church of prebends
near Southwell, in Nottinghamftfire, dedicated to the
Virgin Mary. This church he is faid to have built
when he baptized the Coritani in the Trent.
PAULO, Marco, a celebrated traveller, was fon to
Nicholas Paulo, a Venetian, who went with his brother
Matthew, about the year 1255, to Conftantinople, in
the reign of Baudoin II. Nicholas, at his departure,
left his wife big with child ; and (he brought to the
world the famous Marco Paulo, the fubjeft of this me¬
moir. The two Venetians, having taken leave of the
emperor, croffed the Black fea, and travelled into Ar¬
menia ; whence they palled over land to the court of
Barka, one of the greateft loids of Tartary, who loaded
them with honours. This prince having been defeated
by one of his neighbours, Nicholas and Matthew made
the beft of their way through the deferts, and arrived at
the city where Kublai, grand khan of the Tartars, refi-
ded. Kublai was entertained with the account which
they gave him of the European manners and cuftoms;
and appointed them ambafladors to the pope, in order to
demand of his holinefs a hundred miffionaries. They
came accordingly to Italy, obtained from the Roman
pontiff two Dominicans, the one an Italian, the other
an Aiiatic, and carried along with them young Marco,
for whom Kublai expreffed a fingular affedtion. This
young man, having learned the different dialedts of
Tartary, was employed in embaflies which gave him
the opportunity of traverfing Tartary, China, and other
eaftern countries. At length, after a refidence of feven-
teen years at the court of the grand khan, the three Ve¬
netians returned to their own country, in the year 1 295,
with immenfe fortunes. A Ihort time after his return,
Marco ferving his country at fea againft the Genoefe,
his galley, in a great naval engagement, was funk, and
himfelf taken prifoner, and carried to Genoa. He re¬
mained there many years in confinement ; and, as well
to amufe his melancholy as to gratify thofe who defired
it from him, he fent fur his notes from Venice, and com-
pofed the hiftory of his own and his father’s voyages in
Italian, under this title. Del/e maraviglie del mondo da
lui vidute, &c. 5 the firft edition of which appeared at
Venice, in 8vo, 1496. His work was tranflated into
different languages, and inferted in various colledlions.
The editions moil efteemed are the Latin one publilhed
by Andrew Muller at Cologne, in 4to, 1671 ; and that
in French, to be found in the colledlion of voyages pu-
bliftied by Bergeron, at the Hague, 1735, in 2 vols 4to.
In the writings of Marco Paulo, there are fome things
true and others highly incredible. It is indeed difficult
to believe, that as foon as the grand khan was informed
of the arrival of two Venetian merchants, who were
come to fell theriaca (or treacle) at his court, he fent
before them an efcort of 40,000 men, and afterwards
difpatehed thefe Venetians ambaffadors to the Pope, to
befeech his holinefs to fend him a hundred miffionaries.
It is equally difficult to believe that the pope, who
doubtlefs had an ardent zeal tor the propagation of the
faith, inftead of a hundred, ffiould have fent him only
two miffionaries. There are therefore fome enors and
exaggerations in Marco Paulo’s narrative ; but many
other things which were afterwards verified, and which
have been of fervice to fuccetding travellers, prove that
in feveral refpedts his relation is valuable. He not only
gave better accounts of China than had been before re¬
ceived ; but likewife furniftied a defeription of Japan,
of many of the iflands of the Eaft Indies, of Madagaf-
car, and the coafts of Africa ^ fo that from his work it
might be eafiiy colledled, that a direct paffage by fea to
the Indies was not only poffible, but practicable. It
K 2 may
P A U [ 76 ] PEA
may be worth while to add, that, in the opinion of the
authors of the Univerfal Hiftory, what he wrote from
his own knowledge is both curious and true, fo that
where he has erred his father and uncle mult have de¬
ceived him.
PAUL US TEmilius. See JEmiLIUS Paulus.
PA VO, the Peacock •, a genus of birds belonging
to the order of gallinae. See Ornithology Index.
Pavo, in AJlronomy, a conflellation in the fouthern
hemifphere, unknown to the ancients, and not vifible in
our latitude. It conlifts of 14 ftars, of which the names
and htuations are as follows :
The eye of the peacock
In the breaft
In the right wing
in the middle
In the root of the tail, firft
5-
fecond
third
fourth
fifth
fixth
10.
feventh
laft
In the right foot
In the left foot
Longitude
20
24 41
18 41
3
3
36 11 18
46 56 21
45 34
44 29 8
53 2444 6 *3
3
51
3*
42 28
2 42 11
3 55 22
5 11 3
o 49 34
29 39 1
27 22 54
24 7 44
1 22 11
9 43 7
Latitude
South.
41 37 9
39 3 23
^7 10 46
38 54 M
3 36
73s
40 9 28
41 28
48 6
50 49
See Astronomy.
PAVOR, a Roman deity, whofe worlhip ivas intro¬
duced by Tullus Hoftilius, who, in a panic, vowed a
fhrine to him, and one to Pallor, Palenefs ; and there¬
fore they are found on the coins of that family.
PAUSANIA, in Grecian antiquity, a feftival in
which were folemn games, wherein nobody contended
but free-born Spartans ; in honour of Paufanias the
Spartan general, under whom the Greeks overcame the
Perfians in the famous battle of Plataea.
PAUSANIAS, a Spartan king and general, who
fighalized bimfelf at the battle of Plataea againft the
Perfians. The Greeks, very fenfible of his fervices, re¬
warded his merit with a tenth of the fpoils taken from
the Perfians. He was afterwards appointed to command
the Spartan armies, and he extended his conquefts in
Afia •, but the haughtinefs of his behaviour created him
many enemies ; and the Athenians foon obtained a fu-
periority in the affairs of Greece.—Paufanias, diflatisfied
with his countrymen, offered to betray Greece to the
Perfians, if he received in marriage as the reward of his
perfidy the daughter of their king. His intrigues were
difeovered by means of a young man who was intrufled
•with his letters to Perfia, and who refufed to go, on re-
colledting that fuch as had been employed in that office
before had never returned. The letters vrere given to
the Ephori of Sparta, and the perfidy of Paufanias was
thus difeovered. He fled for fafety to a temple of Mi¬
nerva ; and as the fanflity of the place fereened him
from the violence of his purfuers, the facred building
was furruunded with heaps of Rones, the firft of which
x
was carried there by the indignant mother of the un- Paufanias
happy man. He was ftarved to death in the temple, !!
and died about 474 years before the Chriftian era. . Feace*
There was a feftival and folemn games inftituted to his
honour, in which only free born Spartans contended.
There was alfo an oration fpoken in his praife, in
which his adlions were celebrated, particularly the
battle of Pfataea, and the defeat of Mardonius. See
Pausania.
Pausanias, a learned Greek hiftorian and orator, in
the fecond century, under the reign of Antoninus the
Philofopher, was the difciple of Herodus Atticus. He
lived for a long time in Greece ; and afterwards went
to Rome, where he died at a great age. He wrote an
excellent defeription of Greece, in ten books; in which
we find not only the fituation of places, but the antiqui¬
ties of Greece, and every thing moft curious and worthy
of knowledge. Abbe Gedoin has given a French tranf-
lation of it, in 2 vols 410.
PAUSE, a flop or ceflation in fpeaking, finging.
playing, or the like. One ufe of pointing in gram¬
mar is to make proper paufes, in certain places.—
There is a paufe in the middle of each verfe ; in an
hemiftich, it is called a rejl or repofe. See Poetry,
and Reading.
PAW, in the manege. A horfe is faid to paw the
ground, when, his leg being either tired or painful, he
does not reft it upon the ground, and fears to hurt him-
felf as he walks.
PAWN, a pledge or gage for furety of payment of
money lent. It is faid to be derived d pugno, quia res
quee pig nor i datilur, pug no vel rnanu traduntur. The
party that pawns goods hath a general property in them ;
they cannot be forfeited by the party that hath them in
pawn for any offence of his, nor be taken in execution
for his debt ; neither may they otherwife be put in
execution till the debt for which they are pawned is
fatisfied.
If the pawn is laid up, and the pawnee robbed, he is
not anfwerable ; though if the pawnee ufe the thing, as
a jewel, watch, &c. that will not be the worfe for wear¬
ing, which he may do, it is at his peril ; and if he is
robbed, he is anfwerable to the owner, as the ufing oc-
cafioned the lofs, &c.
If the pawn is of fuch a nature that the keeping is
a charge to the pawnee, as a cow or a horfe, &c. he
may milk the one and ride the other, and this (hall go
in recompenfe for his keeping.
Things which will grow the worfe by ufing, as appa¬
rel, &c. he may not ufe.
PEA, in Botany. See PlSUM.
PEACE, Temple of, a celebrated temple at Rome,
which was confumed by fire A. D. 191 j produced, as
fome writers fuppofe, by a flight earthquake, for no
thunder was heard at the time. Dio Caffius, however,
fuppofes that it began in the adjoining houfes. Be that
as it will, the temple, with all the furrounding buildings,
was reduced to afhes. That magnificent ftru£ture had
been raifed by Vefpafian after the deftrudtion of Jerufa-
lem, and enriched with the fpoils and ornaments of the
temple of the Jews. The ancients fpeak of it as one of
the moft ftately buildings in Rome. There men of
learning ufed to hold their affemblies, and lodge their
writings, as many others depofited their jewels, and
whatever elfe they efteemed of great value. It was
like wife
PEA
Peace Hkewife made ufe of as a kind of magazine for the
^ fpices that were brought by the Roman merchants
Peak' , out of Egypt and Arabia ; fo that many rich per-
fons were reduced to beggary, all their valuable effects
and treafures being confumed in one night, with the
temple.
PEACH. See Amygdalus, Botany and Gar¬
dening Index.
PEACOCK. See Pavo, Ornithology Index.
PEAK of Derbyshire, a chain of very high
mountains in the county of Derby in England, famous
for the mines they contain, and for their remarkable
caverns. The moft remarkable of thefe are Pool’s-
hole and Elden-hole. The former is a cave at the foot
of a high hill called Coitmofs, fo narrow at the en¬
trance that paflengers are obliged to creep on all-fours;
but it foon opens to a confiderable height, extending
to above a quarter of a mile, with a roof fomewhat re-
fembling that of an ancient cathedral. By the petrify¬
ing water continually dropping in many parts of the
cave are formed a variety of curious figures and repre-
fentations of the works both of nature and art. There
is a column here as clear as alabafler, which is called
The dgueen of Scots"1 Pillar, becaufe Queen Mary is faid
to have proceeded thus far when (he vifited the cavern.
It feems the curiofity of that princefs had led her
thus far into this dark abode ; and indeed there are
few travellers who care to venture farther j but others,
determined to fee the end of all, have gone beyond it.
After Hiding down the rock a little way, is found the
dreary cavity turned upwards : following its courfe,
and climbing from crag to crag, the traveller arrives at
a great height, till the rock, doling over his head
on all fides, puts an end to any further fubterraneous
journey. Juft at turning to defcend, the attention is
caught by chafm, in which is feen a candle glim¬
mering at a vaft depth underneath. The guides fay,
that the light is at a place near Mary Queen of Scots’
pillar, and no lefs than 80 yards below. It appears
frightfully deep indeed to look down ; but perhaps
does not meafure any thing like what it is faid to do.
If a piftol is fired by the Queen of Scots’ pillar, it will
make a report as loud as a cannon. Near the extremi¬
ty there is a hollow in the roof, called the Needle's
Eye ; in which if a candle is placed, it will reprefent a
ftar in the firmament to thofe who are below. At a
little diftance from this cave is a fmall clear ftream
confiding of hot and cold water, fo near each other,
that the finger and thumb of the fame hand may be
put, the one into the hot water and the other into the
cold.
Elden-hole is a dreadful chafm in the fide of a moun¬
tain j which, before the latter part of the laft century,
was thought to be altogether unfathomable. In the
time of Queen Elizabeth, a poor man was let down
into it for 200 yards; but he was drawn up in a fren¬
zy, and foon after died. In 1682, it was examined by
Captain Collins, and in 1699 ^7 Captain Sturmy, who
publifhed their accounts in the Pbilofophical Tranfac-
tions. The latter defcended by ropes fixed at the top
of an old lead-ore pit, four fathoms almoft perpendicu¬
lar, and from thence three fathoms more obliquely, be¬
tween two great rocks. At the bottom of this he-
found an entrance into a very fpacious cavern, from
whence he defcended along with a miner for 25 fa-
77 ] PEA
thorns perpendicular. At laft they came to a great Peak
river or water, which he found to be 20 fathoms M
broad and eight fathoms deep. The miner who ac-
companied him, infilled that this water ebbed and
flowed with the fea •, but the Captain difproved this
aflkrtion, by remaining in the place from three hours
flood to two hours ebb, during which time there w.as
no alteration in the height of the water. As they
walked by the fide of this water, they obferved a hol¬
low in the rock fome feet above them. The miner went
into this place, which was the mouth of another cavern ;
and walked for about 70 paces in it, till he juft loft:
fight of the Captain. He then called to him, that he
had found a rich mine ; but immediately after came
running out and crying, that he had feen an evil fpi-
rit; neither could any perfuafions induce him to re¬
turn. The floor of thefe caverns is a kind of white
ftone enamelled with lead ore, and the roofs are en-
crufted with fhining fpar. On his return from this
fubterraneous journey, Captain Sturmy was feized with
a violent headach, which, after continuing four days,
terminated in a fever, of which he died in a ftiort
time.
Peak of Tenerife. See Teneriffe.
PE AN. in Heraldry, is when the field of a coat of
arms is fable, and the powderings or.
PEAR. See Pyrus, Botany and Gardening
Index.
PEAR-Glafs. See VlTREA Lacryma.
PEARCE, Dr, lord bilhop of Rochefter, was the
fon of a diftiller in High Holborn. He married Mifs
Adams, the daughter of a diftiller in the fame neigh¬
bourhood, with a confiderable fortune, who lived with
him 52 years in the higheft degree of connubial hap-
pinefs. He had his education in Weftminfter fchool,
where he was diftinguilhed by his merit, and ele£led
one of the king’s fcholars. In 1710, when he was 20
years old, he was elefted to Trinity College, Cam¬
bridge. During the firft years of his refidence at the
univerfity, he fometimes amufed himfelf with lighter
compofitions, fome of which are inferted in the Guar¬
dian and Spedlator. In 1716, he publiftied his edi¬
tion of Cicero de Orntore, and, at the defire of a friend,
luckily dedicated it to Lord Chief Juftice Parker (af¬
terwards Earl of Macclesfield), to whom he was a
ftranger. This incident laid the foundation of his fu¬
ture fortune ; for Lord Parker foon recommended him
to Dr Bentley, mafter of Trinity, to be made one of
the fellow's ; and the doctor confented to it on this
condition, that his lordftnp would promife to unmake
him again as foon as it lay in his power to give him
a living. In 1717, Mr Pearce was ordained at the
age of 27 } having taken time enough, as he thought,
to attain a fufficient knowledge of the facred office.
In 1718, Lord Parker was appointed chancellor, and
invited Mr Pearce to live with him in his houfe as
chaplain. In 1719, he was inftituted into the redlory
of Stappleford Abbots, in Efiex ; and in 1720, into
that of St Bartholomew, behind the Royal Exchange,
worth 400I. per annum. In 1723, the lord chancel¬
lor prefent* d him to St Martin’s in the Fields. His
Majefty, who was then at Hanover, was applied to in
favour of St Claget, who was then along with him :
and the do&or aflually kifled hands upon the occa-
fion; but the chancellor, upon the king’s return, dif-
- puted
PEA [78
ymted the point, and 'was permitted to prefent Mr
Pearce.—Mr Pearce Toon attrafted the notice and
efteem of perfons in the higheft ftations and of the
greateft abilities. Befides Lord Parker, he could rec¬
kon amongft his patrons or friends, Lord Maccles¬
field, Mr Pulteney (afterwards Earl of Bath), Arch-
bilhop Potter, Lord Hardwicke, Sir Ifaac Newton,
and other illuftrious perfonages.—In I724> t^ie ^e‘
gree of doflor of divinity was conferred on him by
Archbilhop Wake. The fame year he dedicated to his
patron, the earl of Macclesfield, his edition of Lon¬
ginus on the Sublime, with a new Latin verfion and
notes.
When the church of St Martin’s was rebuilt, Dr
Pearce preached a ftrmon at the confecration, which
he afterwards printed, and accompanied with an cflay
on the origin and progrefs of temples, traced from the
rude ftones which were firft ufed for altars to the noble
itru&ure of Solomon, which he confiders as the firft
temple completely covered. His obfervations on that
building which is called the Temple of Dagon removes
part of the difficulty which prefents itfelf in the narra¬
tion of the manner in which Samfon deftroyed it.
The deanery of Winchefter becoming vacant, Dr
Pearce was appointed dean in 1739 ; and in the year
1744 he was elefted prolocutor of the lower houfe of
convocation for the province of Canterbury. His friends
now began to think of him for the epifcopal dignity ;
but Mr Dean’s language rather declined it. However,
after feveral difficulties had been ftarted and removed,
he confented to accept the biftiopric of Bangor, and
promifed Lord Hardwicke to do it with a good grace.
He accordingly made proper acknowledgements of the
royal goodnefs, and was confecrated Feb. 12. 1748*
Up on the declining ftate of health of Dr Wilcocks,
bifhop of Rochefter, the bifhop of Bangor was feveral
times applied to by Archbilhop Herring to accept of
Rochefter, and the deanery of Weftminfter, in exchange
for Bangor ; but the biffiop then firft fignified his de¬
fire to obtain leave to refign and retire to a private
life. His lordfliip, however, upon being prefled, fuf-
fered himfelf to be prevailed upon.—“ My Lord (faid
he to the duke of Newcaftle), your grace offers thefe
dignities to me in fo generous and friendly a manner,
that I promife you to accept them.” Upon the death
of Bilhop Wilcocks he was accordingly promoted to
the fee of Rochefter and deanery of Weftminfter in
17 «6. Biffiop Sherlock died in 1761, and Lord Bath
offered his intereft for getting the bilhop of Rochefter
appointed to fucceed him in the dioeefe of London j
but the bifhop told his lordfhip, that he had deter¬
mined never to be biffiop of London or archbiftiop of
Canterbury.
In the year 1163, his lordfhip being 73 years old,
and finding himfelf lefs fit for the bufinefs of his Ra¬
tions as bifhop and dean, informed his friend Lord
Bath of his intention to refign both, and live in a re¬
tired manner upon his private fortune. Lord Bath un¬
dertook to acquaint his majefty ; who named a day and
hour, when the biffiop was admitted alone into the clo-
fet. He told the king, that he wiftied to have fome in¬
terval between the fatigues of bufinefs and eternity ; and
defired his majefty to confult proper perfons about the
propriety and legality of his refignation. In about two
SKonths the king informed him, that Lord Mansfield
] PEA
faw no objection *, and that Lord Northington, who had ftearce.
been doubtful, on further confideration thought that the v—
requeft might be complied with. Unfortunately for the
bifhop, Lord Bath applied for Biffiop Newton to fuc¬
ceed. This alarmed the miniftry, who thought that
no dignities ftiould be obtained but through their hands.
They therefore oppofed the refignation ; and his majefty
was informed that the biftiops difliked the defign. His
majefty fent to him again 5 and at a third audience told
him, that he mull think no more of refigning. The
bifhop replied, “ Sire, I am all duty and fubmiflion
and then retired.
In 1768 he obtained leave to refign the deanery ; in
1773, he loft his lady 5 and after fome months of linger¬
ing decay, he died at Little Ealing, June 29. 1774-
This eminent prelate diftinguifhed himfelf in every
part of his life by the virtues proper to his Ration. His
literary abilities, and application to facred and philolo¬
gical learning, appear by his works } the principal of
which are, A letter to the clergy of the church of Eng¬
land, on occafion of the biibop of Rochefter’s commit¬
ment to the Tower, 2d edit. 1722. Miracles of Jefus
vindicated, 1727 and 1728. A review of the text of
Milton, 1733. Two letters againft Dr Middleton, oc-
cafioned by the doUor’s letter to Waterland, on the
publication of his treatife, intitled, Scripture Vindicated,
3d edit. 1752. And finee his death, a commentary with
notes on the four Evangelifts and the aftsof the Apoft-
les, together with a new tranflation of St Paul’s firft
Epiftle to the Corinthians, with a paraphrafe and notes,
have been publifired, with his life prefixed, from origi¬
nal MSS. in 2 vols qto.
The following charafler of this excellent biffiop was
publi(lied in the Gentleman’s Magazine for 1775, and
was written, as we are told, by a contemporary and
friend. “ The world has not loft for many years a more
refpeU able member of fociety than the late Dr Pearce 5
nor the clergy a more pious and learned prelate. In his
younger days, before he became a graduate, he publifh-
ed that excellent edition of Longinus, ftill admired and
quoted by the beft critics. What is faid of Longinus
himfelf by our excellent Englifti poet, is as applicable
to the editor : ‘ He is himfelf the great fublime he
draws •' for very few of his order ever arrived at that
perfection in eloquence, for which he was fo juftly cele¬
brated. His diftion was fimple, nervous, and flowing 4
his fentiments wore juft and fublime •, more fublime than
the heathen critic, in proportion to the fuperior fublimity
of the Chriftian revelation. Yet he was never puffed up
with the general applaufes of the world, but of an hum¬
ble deportment, refembling the meek Jefus as far as the
weaknefs of human nature can refemble a character with¬
out fin. His countenance was always placid, and dif-
played the benevolence of his heart, if his extenfive cha¬
rity had not proved it to a demonftration. His thirft of
knowledge prompted him to a very (tudious life, and
that rendered both his complexion and conftitution deli¬
cate yet it held out by the blefling of Providence be¬
yond the 85th year of his age ; which is the more ex¬
traordinary, confidering the midnight lamp had caff a
palenefs over his complexion 5 yet with all his learning
and knowledge, his humility and modefty reftrained him
from many publications, which the world may hope for
from his executors ; one particularly in divinity, which
has been the object of his contemplation for many years
paft.^
Pearl.
PEA [ 79 ] PEA
Pearce paft. With a view to complete that work, and to re-
ii tire from the baftle of the world, he ftruggled fo hard
Pear*‘ , to refign his bilhopric, &c. After poffeffing the efteem
and veneration of all who knew him for a long feries
of years, either as re&or of a very large parifti, or as a
dignitary of the church, he has left the world in tears ;
and gone to receive the infinite reward of his piety and
virtue.”
PE ARCH. See Perca, Ichthyology Index.
PEARCH-G/ue, the name of a kind of glue, of re¬
markable ftrength and purity, made from the Ikins of
pearches.
PEARL, in Natural HiJlonj, a hard, white, fhining
body, ufually round!fh, found in a tetlaceous filh, a fpe-
cies of Mya; which fee, ConchologY Index.
Pearls, though elleemed of the number of gems,
and highly valued in all ages, proceed only from a dr-
llemper in the animal that produces them, analogous to
the bezoars and other ftony concretions in feveral ani¬
mals of other kinds. For an account of the mode of
formation of the pearl, fee Conchology, p. 476 j for
the hi dory of the pearl fifhery in the bay of Condatchy
in Ceylon, fee Ceylon, p. 363 j fee alfo Cordiner’s
Hiftory of that ifland, 410.
Mr Bruce mentions a mufcle found in the fait fprings
of the Nubian defert; in many of which he found thofe
excrefcences which might be called pearls, but all of
them ill formed, foul, and of a bad colour, though of
the fame confidence, and lodged in the fame part of the
body as thofe in the fea. “ The mufcle, too (fays our
author), is in every refpect fimilar, I think larger. The
outer Ikin or covering of it is of a vivid green. Upon
removing this, which is the epidermis, what next appears
is a beautiful pink without glofs, and feemingly of a cal¬
careous nature. Below this, the mother-of-pearl, which
is undermoft, is a white without ludre, partaking much
of the blue and very little of the red •, and this is all the
* difference I obferved between it and the pearLbearing
mufcle of the Red fea.”
“ In Scotland, efpecially to the northward, in all ri¬
vers running from lakes, there are found mufeles that
have pearls of more than ordinary merit, though feldom
of large fize. They were formerly tolerably cheap, but
lately the wearing of real pearls coming into fafhion,
thofe of Scotland have increafed in price greatly beyond
their value, and fuperior often to the price of oriental
ones when bought in the ead. The reafon of this is a
demand from London, where they are aftually employed
in work, and fold as oriental. But the excellency of all
glafs or pade manufactory, it is likely, will keep the
price of this article, and the. demand for it, within
bounds, when every lady has it in her power to wear in
her ears, for the price of fixpence, a pearl as beautiful in
colour, more elegant in form, lighter and eafier to carry,
and as much bigger as (he pleafes, than the famous ones
of Cleopatra and Servilia. In Scotland, as well as in
the ead, the fmooth and perfect {hell rarely produces a
pearl \ the crooked and didorted {hell feldom wants one.
The mother-of-pearl manufactory is brought to the
greated perfection at Jerufalem. The moil beautiful
fhell of this kind is that of the peninim already men¬
tioned ; but it is too brittle to be employed in any large
pieces of workmandrip •, whence that kind named dor a
is mod ufually employed ; and great quantities of this
are daily brought from the Red fea to Jerufalem. Of
thefe, all the fine works, the crucifixes, the wafer-boxes,
and the beads, are made, which are font to the Spanilh
dominions in the New World, and produce a return in-
camparably greater than the itaple of the greaced manu-
fa&ory in the Old.
Very little is known of the natural hidory of the pearl
fidi. Mr Bruce fays, that, as far as he has oblerved, they
are all duck upright in the mud by air extremity \ the
mufcle by one end, the pinna by the fmall tharp point,
and the third by the hinge or fquare part which projects
from the round. “ In {hallow and clear dreams ({ays
Mr Bruce), I have feen fmall furrows or tracks upon the
fandy bottom, by which you could trace the muicle
from its lad dation ; and thefe not tlraight, but deviat¬
ing into traverfes and triangles, like the courfe of a drip
in a contrary wind laid down upon a map, probably in
purfuit of food. The general belief is, that the mufcle
is condantly dationary in a date of repofe, and cannot
transfer itfelf from place to place. This is a vulgar pre¬
judice, and one of thofe fads that are miltaken for want
of fufficient pains or opportunity to make more critical
obfervations. Others, finding the fird opinion a falfe one,
and that they are endowed with power of changing place
like other animals, have, upon the fame foundation, gone
into the contrary extreme, fo far as to attribute i\viitnefs
to them, a property furely inconfident with their being
fixed to rocks. Pliny and Solinus fay that the mufcles
have leaders, and go in Hocks 5 and that their leader is
endowed with great cunning to proted himfelf and his
flock from the fifliers } and that, when he is taken, the
others fall an eafy prey. This, however, we may juflly
look upon to be a fable ; fome of the molt accurate ob-
fervers having difcovered the motion of the mufcle,
which indeed is wonderful, and that they lie in beds,
which is not at all fo, have added the red, to make their
hiitory complete.” Our author informs us, that the
mufcles found in the fait fprings of Nubia likewife travel
far from home, and are fometimes furprifed, by the
eeafing of the rains, at a greater didance from their beds
than they have drength and moilture to carry them. He
affures us, that none of the pearl-fifh are eatable 5 and
that they are the only fiih he law in the. Red fea that
cannot be eaten.
Artificial Pearls^ Attempts have been made to
take out llains from pearls, and to render the foul
opaque-coloured, ones equal in luflrc to the oriental.
Numerous proceffes are given for this purpofe in books
of fecrets and travels j but they are very far from
aufwering what is expected from them. Pearls may be
cleaned indeed from any external foulneffes by wafliing
and rubbing them with a little Venice foap and warm
water, or with ground rice and , fait, with darch and
powder blue, plader of paris, coral, white vitriol and
tartar, cuttle-bone, pumice-done, and other fimilar fub-
ftances 5 but a {fain that reaches deep into the fub-
dance of pearls is impoflible to be taken out. Nor can
a number of fmall pearls be united into a mafs fimilar to
an entire natural one, as fome pretend.
There are, however, methods of making artificial
pearls, in fuch manner as to be with difficulty didin-
guiflied from the bed oriental. The ingredient ufed for
this purpofe was long kept a fecret ; but it is now dif-
covered to be a fine filver-like fubdance found upon the
under fide of the feales of the blay or bleak fifh. The
leaks, taken off in the ufual manner, are waflied and
rubbed
PEA [
Pnart rubbed with frefh parcels of fair water, and the feveral
 v liquors fuffered to fettle; the water being then poured
off. the pearly matter remains at the bottom, of the con¬
fidence of oil, called by the French ejfence J'orient. A
little of this is dropped into a hollow bead of bluilh glais,
and thaken about fo as to line the internal furfaceq after
which the cavity is filled up with wax, to give folidity
and weight. Pearls made in this manner are dittin-
gui(liable from the natural only by their having fewer
blemifhes.
Mot/ier-of-PEABL, the {hell* not of the pearl cyder,
but of the mijtilus margaritiferus. See Mytiiajs, Con-
CttOLOGY Index- .
PEARL Ajh, a fixed alkaline fait, prepared.cmeny in
Germany, Ruffia, and Poland, by melting the falts out
of the allies of burnt wood-, and having reduced them
again to drynefs, evaporating the moifture, and calcin¬
ing them for a confiderable time in a furnace moderately
hot. The goodnefs of pearl-allies mult be diitinguilhed
by a uniform and white appearance, they are neverthe-
lefs fubject to a common adulteration, not eafy to be di-
ftinguidied by the mere appearance; which is done by
the addition of common fait. In order to hnd out this
•fraud., take a fmall quantity of the fufpefted fait-, and
after it has been foftened by lying in the air, put it over
the fire in a Ihovel: if it contains any common fait, a
crackling and flight explofion will take place as the fait
grows hot. r i r
Pearl-alhes are much ufed in the manufadlure of.glais,
and require no preparation, except where very great
tranfparency is required, as in the cafe of looking glafs,
and the bell kind of window-glafs. For this purpofe
diffolve them in four times their weight of boiling wa¬
ter : when they are diflblved, let the folution be put into
a clean tub, and fuffered to remain there 24 hours or
more. Let the clear part of the fluid be then decanted
off from the fediment, and put back into the iron pot in
which the folution was made -, in this let the water be
evaporated till the falts -be left perfeftly dry.. Keep
thofe that are not defigned for immediate ufe m ftone
iars, well fecured from moifture and air.
Mr Kirwan, who inftituted a fet of experiments on
the alkaline fubftances ufed in bleaching, &c. (fee Irijh
TranfaB. for 1789), tells us, that in 100 parts of
the Dantzick pearl-alh, the vegetable alkali amounted
’ to fomewhat above 63. His pearl-alh he prepares by
calcining a ley of vegetable alhes dried into a fait to
whitenefs. In this operation, he fays, “ particular care
fhould be taken that it Ihould not melt, as the extrac¬
tive matter would not be thoroughly confirmed, and the
alkali would form fuch a union with the earthy parts as
could not eafily be diffolved.” He has “ added this
caution, as Dr Lewis and Mr Doffie have inadvertently
dire died the contrary.” We apprehend, however, that
here is a little inaccuracy*, and that it was not for pearl-
alh, but for the unrefined pot-alh, that thefe gentlemen
direfted fufion. The fa& is, that the. American pot-
alhes, examined by them, had unqueftionably. fuffered
fufion; which was effefted in the fame iron pot in which
the evaporation wasfinilhed, by rather increafingthe fire
at the end of the procefs: by this management, one of
the moll troublefome operations in the whole manufac¬
ture, the feparation of the hard fait from the veffels with
hammers and chiffels, was avoided; and though tbe-ex-
tra&ive matter was not confumed, it was burnt to an in-
80 ]
PEA
diffoluble coal; fo that the fait, though black itfelf, pro¬
duced a pale or colourlefsfolution, and was uncommonly
ftrong. Mr Kirwan has alfo given tables of the quan- ^
titles of alhes and fait obtained from different vege¬
tables; and he concludes from them, 1. . llvat in ge¬
neral weeds yield much more a flies, and their allies much
more fait, than woods; and that confequently, as to
falts of the vegetable alkali kind, neither America,
Triefte, nor the northern countries, poffels any advan¬
tage over us. 2. That of all weeds, fumitory produces
molt fait, and next to it wormwood; but il we attend
only to the quantity of fait in a given weight of allies,
the allies of wormwood contain molt. 1 rifolium Jibri-
num alfo produces more allies and fait than fern.” See
Potash.
PEARSON, John, a very learned Englifli bilhopm
the 17th century, was born at Snoring in 1613. Alter
his education at Eton and Cambridge, he entered into
•holy orders in 1639, and was the fame year collated to
the prebend of Netherhaven in the church of Sarum. In
1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord-keeper Finch,
and by him prefented to the living, of Torrington in Suf¬
folk. In x6qO he was made minifter of St Clement’s,
Fall Cheap, in London. In 1657, he and Mr Gunning
had a difpute with two Roman Catholics upon the fub-
jedl of fchifm; a very unfair account of which was print¬
ed at Paris in 1658. Some time after, he publilhed at
London An Expofition of the Creed, in folio, dedicated
to his parilhioners of St Clement’s Eaft-Cheap, to wnom
the fubftanee of that excellent work had been preached
feveral years before, and by whom he had been defired
to make it public. The fame year he likewife publilhed
The Golden Remains of the ever memorable Mr John
Hales of Eton; to which he prefixed a preface, contain¬
ing, of that great man, with whom he had been ac¬
quainted for many years, a charader drawn.with great
elegance and force. Soon after the Reftoration, he was
prefented by Juxon, then bilhop of London, to the rec¬
tory of St Chriftopher’s in that city; created doftor of
divinity at Cambridge, in purfuance of the king’s letters
mandatory; inftalled prebendary of Ely, archdeacon of
Surry; and made mafterofjefus college in Cambridge:
all before the end of the year 1668. March 25th 1661,
he was appointed Margaret profeffor of divinity in that
univerfity; and, the firft day of the enfuing year, was
nominated one of the coramiflioners for the review of
(he liturgy in the conference at the Savoy. April 14th
1662, he was admitted mailer of Trinity college in
Cambridge; and, in Auguft, refigned his reftory of St
Chriftopher’s and prebend of Sarum.—In 1667 he was
admitted a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1672 he
publilhed at Cambridge, in 4to, Vindicice EpiJlolarum S.
Ignatii, in anfwer to Monf. Daille; to which is fubjoin-
ed, Ifaaci Vojjiiepiftolce duce adverfus Davidem Blondel-
lum. Upon the death of the celebrated Wilkins, Pear-
fon was appointed his fucceffor in the fee of Chefter, to
which he was confecrated February 9th 1672 3-
1682, his Annates Cyprianici, five tredecim an norum,
qxnbus S. Cyprian, inter Chrijhanos verfatus ejl, liijiona
chronolo^ica, was publilhed at Oxford, with Jell s edi¬
tion of that Father’s works. Pearfon was difabled from
all public fervice by ill health a confiderable time before
his death, which happened at Chefter, July 16. 1686.
PEASANT, a hind, one whofe bufinefs is in rural
labour.
It
Pearl
11
Peafant.
PAafant
PEA C
It is amongfl: this order of men that a philofopher
' would look for innocent and ingenuous manners. The
fituation of the peafantry is fiich as fecludes them from
the devaluations of luxury and licentioufnefs; for when
the contagion has once readied the recefles of rural
retirement, and corrupted the minds of habitual inno¬
cence, that nation has reached the fummit of vice, and
is haliening to that decay which has always been the
effect of vicious indulgence. . 1 he peafantry of this coun¬
try ftill in a great meafure retain that fimplicity of man¬
ners and rullic innocence which ought to be the eha-
rafteriftic of this order of fociety ; and, in many parts,
their condition is fuch as, were all its advantages fuf-
ficiently known, would create envy in the minds of
thole who have toiled through life, amidft the bultle
of the world, in quell of that happinefs which it could
not confer.
O for tun at os nimium, fun ft bona nor in t.
Agricolas.  Virgil.
In other countries the peafants do not enjoy the
fame liberty as they do in our own, and are confe-
quently not fo happy. In all feudal governments they
a e abjeft Haves, entirely at the difpofal of fame petty
ncfpot. 1 his Avas the cafe in Poland, where the na¬
tive peafants were fubjed to the molt horrid flavery,
though thofe defcended of the Germans, Avho fettled
in Poland during the reign of Boleflaus the Chaffe
and Caffimir the Great, enjoyed very dillinguiHied pri¬
vileges. Amongil the native Have-, too, thofe of the
crown Avere in a better condition than thofe of indivi¬
duals. See Poland.
The peafnnts of Ruffia (Mr Coxe tells us) are a
hardy race of men, and of great bodily ftrength. Their
cottages are conffrufted with tolerable propriety, after
the manner of thofe in Lithuania 5 but they are very-
poorly furniiaed. j he peafants are greedy of money,
and, as the fame author informs us, fomewhat inclined to*
thieving. They afford horfes to travellers, and aft the
f:»xe's Tra part of coachmen and pollilions. “ In their common in-
p'tr !rC°Uf th"y,T remarkably polite to each other:
Rujial K?Vake 0 , t le'r caP at meeting ; bow cereraoniouHy
Sweden, anc* “e^uently, and ufually exchange a falute. "J hey
and Dot. accompany their ordinary difcourfe with much action
i'iark‘ and innumerable gellures • and are exceedingly fervilc!
m their expreffions of deference to their fuperiors : in
accofting a perfon of confequence, they proffrate them-
Llves, and even touch the ground with their heads.
, ^ were often ftr»ok at receiving this kind of eallern
Jioniage, not only from beggars, but frequently from
ihemffKir^ 0CCafi°n3lly from fome the peafants
“ The peafants are well clothed, comfortably lodged
end feem to enjoy plenty of wholefome food. Their
rye-bread, whole blacknefs at frff difgufts the eve, and
whole fournefs the taffe, of a delicate traveller/ agrees
very well with the appetite : as I became reconciled to
it from ufe, I found it at aU times no unpleafant morfe]
y ;vhxvi Pd njlh !ninSe-r’ k was ciuite delicious:
5i ] PE A
they render this bread more palatable, by fluffing it Avitb Peaf<mt\
onions and groats, carrots or green corn, and feafoning
it Avith Ivv-eet oil. I lie rye-bread is lometim.es Avhite,
and their other articles of food are eggs, falt-filh, bacon,
and muHirooms; their favourite dilh is a kind of hodgc
podge, made of fait or fometimes fieih meat, groats,
rye-flour, highly feafoned with onions and garlick,
which latter ingredients are much ufed by the Ruffians.
Befides, mulhrooms are fo exceedingly common in tbefo
regions, as to form a very effential part of their provi-
fl°n. I feldom entered a cottage Avithout feeing great
abundance of them 5 and in palling through the markets,
I Avas often aftonilhed at the prodigious quantity expofed
for fale : their variety was no lefs remarkable than their
number ; they Avtre of many colours, amongft Avhich I
particularly noticed Avhite, black, broAvn, yellow, green
and pink. The common drink of the peafants is quafs,
a fermented liquor, fomeAvhat like fAveet wort, made by-
pouring Avarm wrater on rye or barley meal ; and deem¬
ed an excellent antifcorbutic. They are extremely fond
of Avhilky, a fpirituous liquor diftilled from malt, which
the pooreft can oceafionally command, and Avhich their
inclination often leads them to ufe to great exet fs.”
Thefe people are extremely backward in the me¬
chanic arts, though, Avhere they ha\-e much intercourle
Avith other nations, this does not appear, and there¬
fore does not proceed from natural inability ; indeed
Are have already given an inftance of one peafant of
Ruffia, who feems to poffefs very fuperior talents. See
Neva.
The drefs (ff thefe people is well calculated for the
climate in which they live : they are particularly care¬
ful Or their extremities. On their legs they wear one
or two pair of thick worfted ftockings; and they en¬
velope their legs with w-rappers of coarfe flannel, or
cloth feveral feet in length, and over thefe they fre¬
quently draw a pair of boots, fo large as to receive
their bulky contents Avilh eale. j[ he loAver fort of
People are grofsly ignorant; of which w-e fliali give a
very furprifing inftance in the words of Mr Coxe.—-
“In many families, the father marries his fon Avhile a
boy of feven, eight, or nine years old, to a girl of a
more advanced age, in order, as it is faid, to procure
an able-bodied Avoman for the domeftic fervice : he
cohabits Avith this perfon, noxv become his daughter-
in-laAv, and frequently has feveral children by her.
In my progrefs through Ruffia, I obferved in fome
cottages, as it were, two raiftreffes of a family j one the
peafant’s real wife, who Avas old enough to be his mo¬
ther) and the other, Avho was nominally the fun’s
wife, but in reality the father’s concubine/ Thefe in-
cefluous marriages, fanflified by inveterate cuftom, and
permitted by the parifh-priefts, Avere formerly more
common than they are at prefent; but as the nation
becomes more refined, and the priefts fomewhat more
enlightened ; and as tjiey have h.tely been difeounte-
nanced by government, they are daily falling into dif-
ule 5 and, it is to be hoped, avjII be no lonf-er tolera¬
ted (a).”
L
The
ries from a1*! ranks o/neonlp*^’ am ^ un(*'j5 m-v °wn obffirvation, and Avliich I authenticated by repeated inqui-
Siberia, ah oufh tP atho rfvito hr **7*** *** in *“ <>- Zo
„ author gives another reafon tor thofe early marriages. ‘ The peafants and common people
feafant.
PEA [82
The pedants of Raffia, like thofe of Poland, are
divided into tbofe of the crown and thofe of indivi¬
duals; the firft of which are in the heft condition •, but
all of them undergo great hardlhips, being fubjedt to
the defpotic will of fome cruel overfeer. 1 hey may
obtain freedom, r. By manumiffion on the death of
their mafter, or otherwife : 2. By purchafe ; and, laftly,
By ferving in the army or navy. The emprefs has
redreffed fome of the grievances of this clafs of her
fubiefts. The hardinefs of the peafants anfes in a great
meafure from their mode of education and way of hie,
and from the violent changes and great extremes of heat
and cold to which they are expofed.
« The peafants of Finland differ widely from the
Ruffians in their look and drefs : they have for the moil
part fair complexions, and many of them red hair : they
{have their beards, wear their hair parted at the top, and
hanging to a confiderable length over their (boulders (b).
We could not avoid remarking, that they were m gene¬
ral more civilized than the Ruffians-, and that even in the
fmalleft villages we were able to procure much better
accommodations than we ufually met with in the larged
towns which we had hitherto vifited m this empire.
The peafants of Sweden (Mr Coxe informs us) are
more honed than thofe in Ruffia } in better condition,
and poffefling more of the convemencies of lile, both
with refpeft to food and furniture. “ They are well
clad in flrong cloth of their own weaving. Fheir
cottages, though built with wood, and only of one
dorv, are comfortable and commodious.. 1 he room
in which the family deep is provided with ranges of
beds in tiers (if I may fo exprefs myfelf), one above
the other : upon the wooden teders of the beds in
which the women lie, are placed others for the recep¬
tion of the men, to which they afeend by means of
ladders. To a perfon who has jud quitted Germany,
and been accudomed to tolerable inns, the Swediffi cot¬
tages may perhaps appear miferable hovels ; to me, who
had been long ufed to places of far inferior accommo¬
dation, they feemed almod palaces.. The traveller is
able to procure many conveniences, and particularly a
fenarate room from that inhabited by the family which
could feldom be obtained in the Polifli and Ruffian vil¬
lages. During my courfe through thofe two countries,
a bed was a phenomenon which feldom occurred, ex¬
cepting in the large towns, and even then not always
completely equipped } but the poored huts of Sweden
were never deficient in this article of comfort: ^n evi¬
dent proof that the Swediffi peafants are more civilized
than thofe of Poland and Ruffia.—After having witneis-
ed the flavery of the peafants in thofe two countrie:', it
was a pleafing fatisfadlion to find myfelf again among
freemen, in a kingdom where there is a more equal di-
] PEA
vifion of property j where there is no vaffalage j where
the lowed order enjoy a fecurity of their perfons and ^
property ; and where the advantages refulting from this
right are vifible to the commoned obferver.”
The peafants of Holland and Switzerland are all in
a very tolerable condition not fubjedl to the undifpu-
ted controul of a hireling maffer, they are freemen,
and enjoy in their feveral dations the bleffings of free¬
dom. In Bohemia, Hungary, and a great part of Ger¬
many, they are legally flaves, and differ all the mifenes
attendino' fuch a condition. In Spain, Savoy, and Italy,
they are little better. In France, their fituation was
fuch as to warrant the fird Revolution but by carrying
matters too far, they are now infinitely worfe than they
were at any former period. , , , , r j
PEAT, a well known inflammable lubltance, meet
in many parts of the world as fuel. There are two
fpecies 1 r j •
I. A yellowiffi-brown or black peat, found m moor-
ifh grounds in Scotland, Holland, and Geimany.
When freffi, it is of a vifeid confidence, but hardens
by expofure to the air. It confids, according to Kir-
wan, of clay mixed with calcareous earth and pyrites y
fometimes alfo it contains common fait. While foft,
it is formed into oblong pieces for fuel, after the. py-
ritaceous and dony matters are feparated. By.dittil-
latton it yields water, acid, oil, and volatile alkali j the
adies containing a fmall proportion of fixed alkali ; and
being either white or red according to the proportion of
pyrites contained in the fubftance.
* The oil which is obtained from peat has a very pun¬
gent tade ; and an empyreumatic fmell, lefs fetid, than
, r • 1    fo tVian that nf mineral
Peafant,
Peat.
that of animal fubdanees, more fo than that of mineral
bitumens : it congeals in the cold into a pitchy mafs,
which liquefies in a fmall heat : it readily catches fire
from a candle, but burns lefs vehemently than other
oils, and immediately goes out upon removing the exter¬
nal flame : it diffolves aimed totally in reftified fpmt of
wine into a dark browniffi red liquor.
2. The fecond fpecies is found near Newbury in Berk-
ffiire. In the Philofophical Tranfadions for the year
*757’ have an account of this fpecies j the fubdance
of which is as follows :
Peat is a compofition of the branches, twigs, leaves,
and roots of trees, with grafs, draw, plants, and weeds,
which having lain long in water, is formed into a mafs
fo foft as to be cut through with a ffiarp fpade. The
colour is a blackiffi brown, and it is ufed in many places
for firing. There is a dratum of this peat on each fide
the Rennet, near Newbury in Berks, which is from
about a quarter to half a mile wide, and many miles
long. The depth below the furface of the ground is
from one foot to eight. Great numbers of entire trees
\ , ’ . biflions are attentive to prevent thefe marriages as much as poffible, and have of late fucceeded
fXZtheir6tmdeavourst Tt" s only the inhabitants of foi of the provinces in Ruffia that 11,11 reta.n tins bad
^'(B'i'xhe have generally dark complexions and hair ; they alfo wear their beards, and cut their hair
ftiorts
are found lying irregularly in the true peat. I hey are
chiefly oaks, alders, willows, and firs, and appear to
, have been torn up by the roots ; many horfes heads,
and bones of feveral kinds of deer, the horns of the an¬
telope, the heads and tufks of boars, and the heads of
beavers, are alfo found in it. Not many years ago an
urn of a light brown colour, large enough to hold about
a gallon, was found in the peat-pit in Speen moor, near
Newbury, at about 10 feet from the river, and four
feet below the level of the neighbouring ground. Juft
over the fpot where the urn was found, an artificial hill
was raifed about eight feet high j and as this hill con-
iifted both of peat and earth, it is evident that the peat
was older than the urn. From the fide of the river fe¬
veral femicircular ridges are drawn round the hill, with
trenches between them. The urn w;as broken to fhivers
by the peat-diggers who found it, fo that it could not be
critically examined; nor can it be known whether any
thing was contained in it.
For the mode of converting mofs or peat into a va¬
luable manure, fee Agriculture Index.
PEAUCIER, in Anatomy, a name given by Win-
flow, in his Treatife on the Head, and by fome of the
French writers, to the mufele called by Albinus latijji-
?nus colli; and by others detrahens quadraius, and qua-
dratus gence. Santorini has called the part of this which
arifes from the cheek mufculus riforius novas ; and fome
call the whole platyf?na myoides.
PEBBLES, a trivial name frequently given to dif¬
ferent varieties of the agate. See Agate, Mineralogy
Index.
PEC ARY, in Zoology. See Mammalia Index.
PECCANT, in Medicine, an epithet given to the
humours of the body, when they offend either in quan¬
tity or quality, i. e. when they are either morbid, or in
too great abundance. Moft difeafes arife from peccant
humours, which are either to be corre&ed by alteratives
and fpecifics, or elfe to be evacuated.
PECHEM, in the Materia Medico, a name given by
the modern Greek writers to the root called behem by
Avicenna and Serapion. Many have been at a lofs to
know what this root pechem was; but the virtues a-
fcribed to it are the fame with thofe of the behem of
the Arabians; its defcription is the fame, and the divi-
fion of it into w'hite and red is alfo the fame as that of
the behem. Nay, the word pechem is only formed of
behem by changing the b into a p, which is very com¬
mon, and the afpirate into £, or ch, which is as com¬
mon. Myrepfus, who treats of this root, fays the fame
thing that the Arabian Avicenna fays of behem, name¬
ly, that it was the fragments of a woody root, much cor¬
rugated and wrinkled on the furface, which was owing
to its being fo moift whilft frelh, that it always ftirunk
greatly in the drying.
PECHYAGRA, a name given by fbme authors to
the gout affe&ing the elbow.
PECHYS, a name ufed by fome anatomical writers
for the elbow.
PECm 1 \ RBE, an epithet ufed by fume medical
writers for the fcurvy.
PECK, a meafure of capacity, four of which make a
Tauftiel.
Peck. Franch, a learned antiquarian, was born at
Stamford in Lincolnfhire, May 4. 1692, and educated
Cambridge, where he took the degrees of B. and M.
A. He was the author of many works, of which the
firft is a poem, entitled, “ Sighs on the Death of kfueen
Anne $” printed probably about the time of her death
in 1714. Two years afterwards he printed “ TO 'Y^OS
''ATION ; or an Exercife on the Creation, and an Hymn
to the Creator of the World ; written in the exprefs
words of the facred Text, as an Attempt to (how the
Beauty and Sublimity of the Holy Scriptures, 1716,
8vo.” In 1721, being then curate of King’s Clifton in
Northamptonftiire, he iffued propofals for printing the
Hiftory and Antiquities of his native town, which was
publithed in 17 27, in folio, under the title of “ Academia
tertia Anglicana ; or the Antiquarian Annals of Stam¬
ford in Lincoln, Rutland, and Northamptonftiires $
containing the Hiftory of the Univerlity, Monafteries,
Gilds, Churches, Chapels, Hofpitals, and Schools there,
&c.” infcribed to John duke of Rutland. This work
was haftened by “ An Effay on the ancient and prefent
State of Stamford, 1726, 410,” written by Francis Har¬
grave, who, in his preface, mentions the difference
which had arifen between him and Mr Peck, on ac¬
count of the former’s publication unfairly foreftalling
that intended by the latter. Mr Peck is alfo therein
very roughly treated, on account of a fmall work he had
formerly printed, entitled, “ The Hiftory of the Stam¬
ford Bull-running.” Mr Peck had before this time ob¬
tained the reffory of Godeby near Melton in Leicefter-
fhire, the only preferment he ever enjoyed. In 1729,
he printed on a Angle fheet, “ Queries concerning the
Natural Hirtory and Antiquities of Leicefterfhire and
Rutland,” which were afterwards reprinted in 1740 5
but although the progrefs he had made in the work was
very confiderable, yet it never made its appearance. In
1732 he publiihed the firft volume of “ Defiderata
Curiofa; or, a Colledlion of divers fcarce and curious
Pieces relating chiefly to Matters of Englilh Hiftory 5
confifting of choice trafls, memoirs, letters, wills, epi¬
taphs, &c. tranfcribed, many of them, from the origi¬
nals themfelves, and the reft from divers ancient MS.
copies, or the MS. collations of fundry famous anti¬
quaries and other eminent perfons, both of the laft and
prefent age : the whole, as nearly as poflible, digefted
into order of time, and illuftrated with ample notes,
contents, additional difcourfes, and a complete index.”
This volume was dedicated to Lord William Manners,
and was followed, in 1735, by a fecond volume, dedi¬
cated to Dr Reynolds biftiop of Lincoln. In 173J Mr
Peck printed in a 410 pamphlet, “ A complete catalogue
of all the difcourfes written both for and againft popery
in the time of King James II. containing in the whole
an account of 457 books and pamphlets, a great number
of them not mentioned in the three former catalogues 5
with references after each title, for the more fpeedy
finding a further account of the faid difcourfes and their
authors in fundry writers, and an alphabetical lift of
the writers on each fide.” In 1739 he was the editor
of “ Nineteen Letters of the truly reverend and learned
Henry Hammond, D. D. (author of the Annotations on
the New Teftament, &c.) written to Mr Peter Stain-
nough and Dr Nathaniel Angelo, many of them on
curious fubjefts, &c.” Thefe were printed from the
originals, communicated by Mr Robert Marfden arch¬
deacon of Nottingham, and Mr John Worthington.
The next year, 1740, produced two volumes in 410*
one of them entitled, “ Memoirs of the Life and Ac-
L 2 tioris
Peck.
PEC
[ 8+ 1
tions of Oliver Cromwell, as delivered in three pane¬
gyrics of him written in Latin , the fhif, as faid, by
Don Juan Roderiguez de Saa Menefes, Conde de Pen-
guiao, the Portugal ambaffador j the fecond, as affirmed
by a ceftain Jefuit, the lord ambaffador’s chaplain yjet
both, it is thought, compofed by Mr John Milton (La¬
tin fecretary to Cromwell), as was tiie third ; with an
Engliffi verfion of each. The whole illuftrated with a
large hiftorical preface-, many fimilar paffages from the
Paradife Loll, and other works of Mr John Milton, and
notes from the bed hiftorians. To all which is added,
a colleftion of divers curious hiftorical pieces relating to
Cromwell, and a great number of other remarkable per-
fons (after the manner of Defiderata Citriofct, v. i. and
ii.)” The other, “ New Memoirs of the Life and
poetical Works of iYXr John Milton j with, firft, an ex¬
amination of Milton’s ftyle ; and fecondly, explanatory
and critical notes on divers paffages in Milton and
Shakefpeare, by the editor. Thirdly, Baptiftes $ a fa-
cred dramatic poem in defence of liberty, as written in
Latin by Mr George Buchanan, tranflated into Eng-
lifli by Mr John Milton, and firft publifhed in 1641,
by order of the houfe of commons. Fourthly, the
Parallel, or Archbilhop Laud and Cardinal Wolfey
compared, a Vifion by Milton. Fifthly, the Legend
of Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, knt. chief butler of
England, who died of poifon, anno 157®’ ^ hifto¬
rical poem by his nephew Sir Thomas Throckmor¬
ton, knt. Sixth, Herod the Great, by the editor.
Seventh, the Refurreclion, a poem in imitation of Mil-
ton, by a friend. And eighth, a Difcourfe on the Har¬
mony of the Spheres, by Milton with prefaces and
notes.” Thefe were the laft publications which he
gave the world. When thefe appeared, he had in con¬
templation no lefs than nine different works j but
whether he had not met with encouragement for thofe
which he had already produced, or whether he was
rendered incapable of executing them by reafon of his
declining health, is uncertain ; but none of them ever
were made public. He concluded a laborious, and,
it may be affirmed, an ufeful life, wholly devoted to
antiquarian purfuits, Aug. 13. 1743, at the age of 61
years.
PECORA, in Zoology, the fifth order of the elafs
mammalia, in the Linnean fyftem. See Zoology.
PECQJJET, John, was a phyfician in Dieppe,
and dfed at Paris in 1674. He was phyfician in or¬
dinary to the celebrated Fouquet, whom he entertain¬
ed at his fpare hours with feme of the moil amufing
experiments in natural philofophy. He acquired im¬
mortal honour to himfelf by the difeovery of a lafteal
vein, which conveys the chyle to the heart; and which
from his name is called le Kcferv&ir de Pecquet. This
difeovery was a freffi proof of the truth of the cir¬
culation of the blood : though it met with oppofition
from many of the learned, particularly from the famous
Riolau, who wrote a treatife againft the author of it,
with this title : Adverfus Pecquetum et Pecquetiunos.
The only works which we have of Pecquet, are, I. E.r-
■perimenta nova An atomic a, publifhed at Paris, 1654.
2. A Differtation, De Thoracis Lafteis, publiihed at
Amfterdam, 1661. He was a man of a lively and a£live
genius but his fprightlinefs fometimes led him to adopt
dangerous opinions. He recommended, as a remedy for
aR difeafesj the ufe of brandy. This remedy, however,
PEC
proved fatal to himfelf, and contributed to ffiorten his Pe^jaei
days, which he might have employed to the advantage II
ftp ... 0 Peculium,
or the public. .
PECTEN, the Scallop ; a fpecies of ffiell-fiffi. See
Ostrea, CONCHOLOGY Index.
PECTORAL, a facerdotal habit or veftment, worn
by the Jewiffi high-prielt. I he Jews called it LJhofcheny
the Greeks A«y<ov, the Latins rationale and pe ft or ale,
and in our veriion of the Bible it is called breajiplate.
It confided of embroidered fluff, about a fpan fquare,.
and was worn upon the breaft, fet with twelve precious
ftones, ranged in four rows, and containing the names of
the twelve tribes. It was fattened to the (houlder by
two chains and hooks of gold. God himfelf preferibed
the form of it. See Breastplate.
Pectoral, a breaflplate of thin brafs, about 12 fin¬
gers fquare, worn by the poorer foldiers in the Romgjv
army, who were rated under loco drachmae. See Lo-
KICA.
Pectoral, an epithet for medicines good in difeafes
of the breafl: and lungs.
PECTORALIS. See Anatomy, Table of the
Mufcles.
PECULATE, in Civil Law, the crime of embez¬
zling the public money, by a perfon intruded with the
receipt, management, or cuttody thereof. 1 his term is
alfo ufed by civilians for a theft, whether the thing be
public, fifeal, facred, or religious.
PECULIAR, in the Canon Law, fignifies a particu¬
lar pariflr or church that has jurifdiction within itfelf
for granting probates of wills and adminiftrations,. ex¬
empt from the ordinary or bifliop’s courts. The king’s
chapel is a royal peculiar, exempt from all fpiritual ju-
rifdidlion, and referved to the vifitation and immediate-
government of the king himfelf. There is likewifethe
archbiffiop’s peculiar ; for it is an ancient privilege of
the fee of Canterbury, that wherever any manors or
advowfons belong to it, they forthwith become exempt,
from the ordinary, and are reputed peculiars : there are
57 fuch peculiars in the fee of Canterbury.
Befides thefe, there are fome peculiars belonging to
deans, chapters, and prebendaries, which are only ex¬
empted from the jurifdiftion of the archdeacon : thefe
are derived from the biffiop, who,may vifit them, and
to whom there lies an appeal.
Court of PECULIARS, is a branch of, and annexed to,
the court of arches. It has a jurifdi&ion over ail thofe
pari flies difperfed through the province of Canterbury,
in the midit of other diocefes, which are exempt from
the ordinary’s jurifdiflion, and fubjeft to the metropo¬
litan only. All ecclefiaftical caufes, ariling within
thefe peculiar or exempt jurifdiclions, are originally
cognizable by this court: from which an appeal lay.
formerly to the pope, but now by the flat. 25 Henry.
VIII. c. 19. to the king in chancery.
PECULIUM, the flock or eftate which a perfon,
in the power of another, whether male or female, either
as his or her flave, may acquire by hisinduftry. Remap
flaves frequently amafled eonfidtrable furhs in his way.
The word properly fignifies the advanced price which a
flave could get for bis mailer’s cattle, &c. above the
price fixed upon them by his mafter, which was the
llave’s own property.
In the Romifli church, peculium denotes the goods
which each religious referves and poffeffes to himfelf.
PEDALS^
P ED [ 85 ] FED
Pfeclals PEDALS, the largeft pipes of an organ, fo called
II. becaufe played and Hopped with the foot. The pedals
Pedanan. ^ are ma(je ancj 0f ^ood j they are ufually 13 in
number. They are of modern invention, and ferve to
carry the founds of an oftave deeper than the reft. See
Organ.
PEDAGOGUE, or Pedagogue, a tutor or ma¬
iler, to whom is committed the difeipline and direction
of a fcholar, to be inftrufled in grammar and other arts.
The word is formed from the Greek eiywyo?,
puerorwn duSior, “ leader of boys.”
M. Fleury obferves, that the Greeks gave the name
pcedagogus to flaves appointed to attend their children,
lead them, and teach them to walk, &c. The Romans
gave the fame denomination to the flaves who were in-
trufted with the care and inftruclion of their children.
PEDANT, a fchoolmafter or pedagogue, who pro-
fefles to inftruA and govern youth, teach them the hu¬
manities, and the arts. See PEDAGOGUE.
Pedant is alfo ufed for a rough, unpoliflied man of
letters, rvho makes an impertinent ufe of the^fciences,
and abounds in unfeafonable eriticifms and obfervations.
Dacier defines a pedant, a perfon who has more read¬
ing than good fenfe. See Pedantry.
Pedants are people ever armed with quibbles and
fyllogifms, breathe nothing but difputation and ehi-
canery, and purfue a propofition to the lall limits of
logic.
Malebranche deferibes a pedant as a man full of falfe
erudition, who makes a parade of his knowledge, and is
ever quoting fome Greek or Latin author, or hunting
back to a remote etymology.
St Evremont fays, that to paint the folly of a pedant,
we muft reprefent him as turning all converfation to fome
one fcience or fubjedl he is beft acquainted withal.
There are pedants of all conditions, and all robes.
Wlcquefort fays, an ambaffador, always attentive to
formalities and decorums, is nothing elfe but a political
p dant.
PEDANTRY, or Pedantism, the quality or man¬
ner of a pedant. See Pedant.
To fwell up little and low things, to make a vain
fhow of fcience, to heap up Greek and Latin, without
judgment, to tear thofe to pieces who differ from us
about a paflage in Suetonius or other ancient authors, or
in the etymology of a word, to ftir up all the world
againft a man for not admiring Cicero enough, to be in-
terefled for the reputation of an ancient as if he were
our next of kin, is what we properly call pedantry.
PE DARI AN, in Roman antiquity, thofe fenators
who fignified their votes by their feet, not with their
tongues ; that is, fueh as walked over to the fide of
thofe whofe opinion they approved of, in divifions of the
fenate.
Dr Middleton thus accounts for the origin of the
word. He fays, that though the magifirates of Rome
had a right to a place and vote in the fenate both du¬
ring their office and after it, and before they were put
upon the roll by the cenfors, yet they had not pro¬
bably a right to fpeak or debate there on any queftion,
at leaf! in the earlier ages of the republic. For this
leems to have been the original diftin&ion between them
and the ancient fenators, as it is plainly intimated in the
formule of the confular edift, font abroad to fummon
she ienate, which was addrefftd to all fenators, and to
4
all thofe who had a right to vote in the fenate. From Peilariati
this diitindlion, thofe who had only a right to vote jl;
were called in ridicule pedanan ; becaufe they fignified ^.r , "
their votes by their feet, not their tongues, and upon ■ , - ~
every divifion of the fenate, went over to the fide of thofe
whofe opinion, they approved. It was in allulion to this
old cuftora, which feems to have been wholly dropt in
the latter ages of the republic, that the mute part of the
fenate continued (till to be called by the name of pida-
rians, as Cicero informs us, who in giving an account to
Atticus of a certain debate and decree of the fenate up¬
on it, fays that it was made with the eager and general
concurrence of the pedarians, though againft the autho¬
rity of all the confulars.
PEDATURA, a term ufed in Roman antiquity,
for a fpace or proportion of a certain number ot feet
fet out. This word often occurs in writers on milita¬
ry affairs : as in Hyginus do Caftrametatione, we meet
with meminerimus itaque ad computatione cohortis eyui-
tatee milharue peda(uram ad mille trecentos fexuginta
dan debere; which is thus explained: The pedatura, or
fpace allowed for a cohors equitata or provincial cohort,
confifting of both boric and foot, could not be the fame
as the pedatura of an uniform body of infantry, of the
fame number, but muff exceed it by 360 feet 5 for the
proportion of the room of one horfeman to one foot foi-
dier, he affigns as two and a half to one.
PEDERASTS, the fame with Sodomites.
PEDESTAL, in Architecture, the lowed part of an
order of columns, being that part which fuftains the co¬
lumn, and ferves it as a foot to ftand. See Column.
PEDIyEAN, in Grecian antiquity. The city of
Athens was anciently divided into three different parts 5
one on the defeent of a hill ; another on the fea-fhore ;
and a third in a plain between the other two. The in¬
habitants of the middle region were called Pe-
dueans, formed from ttcc^p, “ plain,” or “ flat or as
Aridotle will have it, Pediaci: thofe of the hill, Dia-
crians; and thofe of the fhore, Paralians.
Thefe quarters ufually compofed fo many different
faflions. Pififtratus made ufe of the Pediaeans againft
the Diacrians. In the time of Solon, when a form of
government was to be cbofen, the Diacrians chofe it
democratic ; the Pediceans demanded an ariftecracv ;
and the Paralians a mixed government.
PEDICLE, among botanifts, that part of a flalk
which immediately fuflains the leaf of a flower or a fruit,
and is commonly called afoot/talk.
PEDICULUS, the Louse, a genus of infeeds be¬
longing to the order of aptera. See Evrovi OLOGY
Index.
PEDILUVIUM, or Bathing of tire Feet. The
ufes of warm bathing in general, and of the pediluvium
in particular, are fo little underflood, that thev are often
prepoderoufly ufed, and fometimes as - injudicioufly ab-
dained from.
In the Edinburgh Medical Effays, we find an inge¬
nious author’s opinion of the warm pediluvium, not¬
wit hdanding that of Borelli, Boerbaave, and Hoffman,
to the contrary, to be, That the legs becoming warmer
than before, the blood in them is warmed : this blood
rarefying, didends the veffels ; and in circulating im-.
parts a great degree of warmth to the red of the mafs}
and as there is a portion of it condantly paffing through
the legs, and acquiring new heat there, which heat is in
the
Pcdiar.
FED [ 86 ]
"Fedilu- courfe of circulation communicated to the reft of the lars
vil!rn blood, the whole mafs rarefying, occupies a larger fpace,
" and of confequence circulates with greater force. 1 he
* volume of the blood being thus increafed, every veffel
is diftended, and every part of the body feels the effects
of it; the diftant parts a little later than thofe jirft heat,
ed. The benefit obtained by a warm pediluvium is ge¬
nerally attributed to its making a derivation into the
parts immerfed, and a revulfion from thofe affedted, be-
caufe they are relieved ; but the cure is performed by
the direct contrary method of operating, viz. by a great¬
er force of circulation through the parts affected, remo¬
ving what was ftagnant or moving too iluggifhly there.
Warm bathing is of no fervice where there is an irre-
foluble obftruftion, though, by its taking off from a
fpafm in general, it may feem to give a moment’s eafe ;
nor does it draw from the diftant parts, but often hurts
by pufiling again ft matter that will not yield with a
ftronger impetus of circulation than the ftretched and
difeafed veffels can bear : fo that where there is any
fufpicion of fcirrhus, warm bathing of any tort ftiould
never be ufed. On the other hand, where obftru&ions
-are not of long Handing, and the impacted matter is
not obftinate, warm baths may be of great life to refolve
them quickly. In recent colds, with flight humoral
peripneumonies, they are frequently an immediate cure.
This they effeft by increafing the force of the circula¬
tion, opening the ikin, and driving freely through the
lungs that lentor which ftagnated or moved {lowly in
them. As thus conducing to the refolution of obftruc-
tions, they may be confidered as fhort and fafe fevers ;
and in ufmg them we imitate nature, which by a fever
often carries off an obftru6iing caufe of a chronical ali¬
ment. Borelli, Boerhaave, and Hoffman, are all of
opinion, that the warm pediluvium adds by driving a
larger quantity of blood into the parts immerfed. But
arguments muft give way to fafts : the experiments re¬
lated in the Medical Effays feem to prove to a demon-
ftration, that the warm pediluvium a£b by rarefying the
blood.
A warm pediluvium, when rightly tempered, may be
ufed as a fafe cordial, by which circulation can be roufed,
or a gentle fever raifed ; with this advantage over the
cordials and fudorifics, that the effeft of them may be
taken off at pleafure.
Pediluvia are fometimes ufed in the fmallpox ; but
Dr Stevenfon thinks their frequent tumultuous opera¬
tions render that fufpe&ed, and at beft of very doubt¬
ful effeft ; and he therefore prefers Monf. Martin of
Laufanne’s method of bathing the {kin, not only of the
legs, but of the whole body, with a foft cloth dipped in
warm water, every four hours, till the eruption ; by
which means the puftules may become univerfally high-
-er, and confequently more fafe.
PEDIMENT." See Architecture.
PEDLAR, a travelling foot-trader. See Hawkers.
In Britain (and formerly in France) the pedlars are
•defpifed ; but it is otherwife in certain countries. In
Spanifti America, the bufinefs is fo profitable, that it
is thought by no means diftionourabk ; and there are
many gentlemen in Old Spain, who, when their cir-
cumftanees are declining, fend their fons to the Indies
to retrieve their fortunes in this way. Almoft all the
•commodities of Europe are diftributed through the
Southern continent of America by means of thefe ped-
3
FED
Thev come from Panama to Paita by fea ; and
in the road from the port laft mentioned, they make
Peura their firlt voyage to Lima. Some take the road
through Caxamalca ; others through iruxillo, along
{bore from Lima. They take their paflage back to
Panama by fea, and perhaps take with them a little car¬
go of brandy. At Panama they again flock themlelves
with European goods, returning by lea to Paita, where
they are put on ihore; there they hire mules and load
them, the Indians going with them in order to lead them
back. Their travelling expences are next to nothing ;
for the Indians are brought under fuch fubjedlion, that
they find lodging for them, and provender for their
mules, frequently thinking it an honour done them for
their guefts to accept of this for nothing, unlefs the
ft ranger now and then, out of generofity or compaflion,
makes a ftnall recompenfe.
In Poland, where there are few or no manufattures,
almoft all the merchandife is carried on by pedlars, who
are laid to be generally Scotfmen, and who, in the reign
of King Charles II. are faid to have amounted to no
fewer than 53,000
PEDOMETER, or Podometer, formed from ttvs,
pes, “ foot,” and fitlpv, “ meafure,” way-wifer ; a me¬
chanical inftrument, in form of a watch, confifting of
various wheels with teeth, catching in one another, all
difpofed in the fame plane ; which, by means, of a chain
or firing faftened to a man’s foot, or to the wheel oi a
chariot, advance a notch each ftep, or each revolution
of the wheel ; fo that the number being marked on the
edge of each wheel, one may number the pace.->, or mea¬
fure exaftly the diftance from one place to another.
There are fome of them which mark the time on a dial-
plate, and are in every refpedt much like a watch, and
are accordingly worn in the pocket like a watch. See
Perambulator.
PEDRO, Don, of Portugal, duke of Coimbra, was
the fourth child and fecond furviving fon of King John
of Portugal, and was born March the 4th I394’
father gave him an excellent education, which, joined
to ftrong natural abilities and much application, render¬
ed him one of the moft aecompliftied princes of his time.
He was not only very learned himfelf, but a great lover
of learning, and a great patron of learned men. It was
chiefly with a view to improve his knowledge that he
fpent four years in travelling through different countries
in Europe, Afia, and Africa, with a train fuitable to
his quality ; of which travels there is a relation ftill ex¬
tant, but fo loaded with fabulous circumitances, that it
wounds the reputation it was defigned to raife. At his
return he efpoufed Ifabella, daughter to the count of
Urgel, and grand-daughter to Don Pedro, the fourth
king of Portugal, which was efteemed a very great ad¬
vancement of his fortune. He was elefled into the moft;
noble order of the Garter, April 22. 1417, in the fifth
year of the reign of his coufin Henry V. grandfon of
John of Gaunt, by the father’s fide, as our duke of
Coimbra was by the mother. In 1440 f*6 'vas declared
regent during the minority of his coufin Don Alonfo V.
fon of King Edward, who died by the plague. He
found fome difficulty at firft in the difcharge of his of¬
fice, both from the queen-mother and others. But, up¬
on the whole, his adminiftration was lo mild and fo juft,
that the magiftrates and people of Lifbon concurred in
demanding his leave to ere£t a ftatue to him. \ he re-
gent
Pedlar
II
Pedro.
PEE
[ 87 ]
PEE
gent thanked them, fald he fhould be unwilling to fee a
work of their’s demolHhed ; and that he was fufficiently
rewarded by this public teftimony of their affedtions.
The queen dowager wilhed to raife difturbances in Por¬
tugal by aiming to recover the regency to herfelf; but
the lleadinefs of the regent’s adminiftration, the attach¬
ment of the bed part of the nobility to him, and his en¬
joying, in fo abfolute a degree, the confidence of the
people, not only fecured the interior tranquillity of the
date, but raifed the credit likewife of the crown of Por¬
tugal to a very great height in the fentiments of its
neighbours: for, in the courfe of his regency, he had
made it his continual dudy to purfue the public good ;
to eafe the people in general, and the inhabitants of
Lilbon in particular, of feveral impofitions ; to maintain
the laws in their full vigour •, to give the king an ex¬
cellent education ; and if that had been at all pra£lica-
ble, to diffufe a perfedt unanimity through the court, by
affuaging the malice arid envy of his enemies. The
king when he came of age, and the cortes or parliament,
exprelfed their entire fatisfadlion with the regent’s ad-
minidration *, and all parties entirely approved of the
king’s marriage with Donna Ifabella,the regent’s daugh¬
ter, which was celebrated in 1446. The enmity of his
enemies, howrever, was not in the lead abated by the re¬
gent’s being out of office. They dill perfecuted him
with their unjud calumnies, and unfortunately made the
king hearken to their falfehoods. The unfortunate
duke, when ordered to appear before the king, was ad-
vifed to take with him an efcort of horfe and foot. In
his paflage he was proclaimed a rebel, and quickly after
he w'as furrounded by the king’s troops. Soon after he
was attacked, and in the heat of adtion he was killed :
nor was the envy of his enemies even then fatiated ; his
body was forbid burial; and was at length taken away
privately by the peafants. His virtue, however hated
in courts, was adored by the uncorrupt part of his coun¬
trymen. At length, though, by an infpedlion of his
papers, the king faw, when it was too late, the injuf-
tice that had been done the man who had behaved fo
well in fo high and difficult an office ; and whofe papers
only difcovered figns of further benefit to the king and
his dominions. In confequence of thefe difcoveries, the
duke’s adherents were declared loyal fubjedls, all pro-
fecutions were ordered to ceafe, and the king defired the
body of Coimbra to be tranfportcd with great pomp
from the caftle of Abrantes to the monaftery of Batal-
ha ; where it was interred in the tomb which he had
eaufed to be ere&ed for himfelf. The royal name of
Don Pedro occurs often in the hiftory of Portugal, and
many who bore the name were Angularly diftiftinguiffied
either for great abilities, or external fplendour. See POR¬
TUGAL.
PEDUNCLE, in Botany. See Pedicle.
PEEBLES, a royal borough and county town of
Peebles-ffiire or Tweedale, is fituated on the banks of
the Tweed, 22 miles fouth from Edinburgh. Peebles
was a royal refidence in the time of James I. of Scot¬
land \ and here it is fuppofed, he compofed the poem of
“ Peebles at the Play.” Peebles has confiderable avooI-
len manufactures, and is noted for excellent beer. The
population in 1801 amounted to 2000 inhabitants.
^ PEEBLES-SHIRE, or Tweedale, a county of
ocotJand, extending 36 miles in length and about 10 in
breadth. It is bounded on the eaft by Ettrick Foreft,
on the fouth by Annandale, on the weft by Clydefdale,
and on the north by Mid-Lothian. Tweedale is a hilly
country, well watered with the Tweed, the Yarrow,
and a great number of fmaller ftreams that fertilize the
valleys, which produce good harvefts of oats and barley,
with fome proportion of wheat. All the rivers of any
confequence abound with trout and falmon. The lake
called Wejl-Water Loch fwarms with a prodigious num¬
ber of eels. In the month of Auguft, when the wTeft
wind blows, they tumble into the river Yarrow in fuch
ffioals, that the people who wade in to catch them run
the rifle of being overturned. About the middle of this
county is the hill or mountain of Braidalb, from the~top
of which the fea may be feen on each fide of the ifiand.
Tweedale abounds with limeftone and freeftone. The
hills are generally as green as the downs in Suffex, and
feed innumerable flocks of ffieep, that yield great quan¬
tities of excellent wool. The country is w'ell {haded
Avith woods and plantations, abounds Avith all the necef-
faries of life, and is adorned Avith many fine feats and fe-
\reral populous villages. The earls of March were he¬
reditary ffieriffs of i'Aveedale, Avhich beftoivs the title of
marquis on a branch of the ancient houfe of Hay, earls
of Errol, and hereditary high conftables of Scotland.
The family of TAveedale is, by the female fide, defeend-
ed from the famous Simon de Frafer, proprietor of great
part of this county, and who had a great {hare in obtain¬
ing the triple viftory at Roftin, The chief toivn in
Tweedale, is Peebles, a royal borough, and feat of a
preft>ytery,pleafantly fituated on the banks of theTAveed,
over Avhich there is at this place a {lately ftone bridge
of five arches. In the neighbourhood of Peebles, near
the village of Romana, on the river Lene, Ave fee the
veftiges of tivo Roman caftella, or ftationary forts 5 and
a great many terraces on the neighbouring hills, Avhich
perhaps have ferved as itinerary encampments. In the
{hire of TAveedale there are many ancient and honour¬
able families. Douglas of Cavers, who was hereditary
fheriff of the county, it is faid flill preferves the ftand-
ard and the iron mace of the gallant Lord Douglas,
Avho fell in the battle of Otterburn, juft as his troops
had defeated and taken Henry Percy, furnamed Hoi-
fpur. In the churchyard of Drumelzier, belonging to
an ancient branch of the Hay family, the famous Mer¬
lin is fuppofed to lie buried. There Avas an old tradi¬
tional prophecy, that the Iavo kingdoms fhould be united
Avhen the Avaters of the Tweed and the Panfel fliould
meet at his grave. Accordingly, the country people ob-
ferve that this meeting happened in confequence of an
inundation at the acceflion of James VI. to the crown
of England.
The population of this county, in 1801, amounted to •
8717. But the folioAving is the population at Iavo dif¬
ferent periods, according to its pariffies.
PtebleS-
fhire.
Parifhes.
I Broughton
Drumelzier
EddleftoAvn
Glenholm
5 Inverleithen
Kilbucho
Kirkurd
Linton
Population
in I75S*
367
305
679
392
559
279
310
SS1
Population in
XV)°—
264
270
710
3°o
560
362
288
928
L
yne
P E E
JV-cWev
flnro
II
Peers.
Pur'ifbes.
Lyne
10 Man n or
Newlands
Peebles
Skirling
St'-bo
11; 'i’raquair
16 TwetcirrauU
Population
in !755-
265
3 20
jpo9
1896
335
3X3
651
397
8908
S107
8ioy
* Stati/l,
Hi ft. vol- xx.
Decreafe, 801 *
PEEK, in the fea-languago, is a word ufed in vari¬
ous fenfefe. L bus tlie anchor is lam to be Urpeek, when
t he (liip being about to weigh comes over her anchor in
fuch a manner that the cable hangs perpendicularly be¬
tween the haufe and the anchor.
To heave a-|ieek, is to bring the peek fo as that the
anchor may hang a-pcek. A {hip is faid to ride a-peek,
when lying with her main and foreyards hoilied up, one
end of her yards is brought down to the flirouds, and
the other raifed up on end ; which is chiefly done when
flie lies in rivers, left other (hips falling foul of the yards
fliould break them. Riding a-broad peek, denotes much,
the fame, excepting that the yards are only raifcd to
half the height.
Peek is alfo ufed for a room in the hold, extending
from the bitts forward to the ftern : in this room men
of war keep their powder, and merchantmen their
victuals,
PEEL, a town in the iile of Man, formerly called
Holm-town, has a fort in a fmall iiland, and.a garrifon
well fupplied with cannon. In it are the ancient cathe¬
dral, the lord’s houfe, with fome lodgings of the biftiops,
and other remains of antiquity.
PEER, in general, fignifies an equal, or one of the
fame rank and'Ration : hence in the afts of fome coun¬
cils, we find thefe words, with the confent of our peers,
bi/hops, abbots, &c. Afterwards the fame term was
applied to the vaflals or tenants of the fame lord, who
were palled peers, becaufe they were all equal in condi¬
tion, and obliged to ferve and attend him in his courts;
and peers in fiefs, becaufe they all held fiefs of the fame
lord.
The term peers is now applied to thofe who are im~
pannelled in an inqueft upon a perfon for convicting or
acquitting him of any offence laid to his charge : and
the reafon why the jury is fo called, is becaufe, by the
common law and the cuftom of this kingdom, every per¬
fon is to be tried by his peers or equals ; a lord by the
lords, and a commoner by commoners. See the article
Jury,
PpEE of the Realm, a noble lord who has a feat and
vote in the houfe of lords, which is alfo called the
Houfe of Peers,
Thefe lords are called peers, becaufe though there is
a diftinttion of degrees in our nobility, yet in public ac¬
tions they are equal, as in their votes in parliament, and
in trying any nobleman or other perfon impeached by
commons, See. See Parliament.
88 ] PEE
Houfe of Peers, or Houfe of Lords, forms one of the
three eftates of parliament. See Lords and Parlia¬
ment.
In a judicative capacity, the houie of peers is the fu-
preme court of the kingdom, having at prelent no origi¬
nal jurifdi&ion over caufes, bui only upon appeals and
writs of error ; to rectify any injuitice or miitake of the
law committed by the courts below, io this authority
they fucceeded of courfe upon the diffolution of the Aula
Regia, For as the barons ot parliament were conftituent
members of that court, and the reft of its jurifdidion
was dealt out to other tribunals, over which the great
officers who accompanied thole barons were reipeftively
delegated to prefide, it followed, that the right of re¬
ceiving appeals, and luperintending all other juriidic-
tions, Itill remained in that noble alfembly, from which
every other great court was derived. 1 hey are there¬
fore in all cafes the laft retort, from whole judgment no
farther appeal is permitted ; but every fubordinate tri¬
bunal muff: conform to their ^determinations: Ihe law
repofing an entire confidence in the honour and con-
fcience of the noble perfons who compofe this important
affembly, that they will make themfelves mailers of
thofe queftions upon which they undertake to decide ;
fince upon their dec iff on all property muft finally de¬
pend. "See Lords, Nobility, &c.
PEERS, in the former government of France, were
twelve great lords of that kingdom ; of which fix were
dukes and fix counts ; and of thtfe, fix were ecclefial-
tics and fix laymen : thus the archbilhop of Rheims, and
the bilhop of Laon and Langres, were dukes and peers;
and the bilhops of Chalons on the Mam, Noyons, and
Beauvais, were counts and peers. The dukes of Bur¬
gundy, Normandy, and Aqurtain, were lay peers and
dukes ; and the counts of Flanders, Champagne, and
Touloufe, lay peers and counts. Thefe peer's afiifted at
the coronation of kings, either in perfon or by their re-
prefentatives, where each performed the fund ions at¬
tached to his refpeclive dignity : but as the fix lay peer¬
ages were all united to the crown, except that of the
count of Flanders, fix lords of the firft quality were cho-
fen to reprefent them : but the ecclefiaftical peers gene¬
rally affifted in perfon. The title of peer was lately be¬
llowed on every lord whofe eftate was ere<fted into a
peerage ; the number of which, as it depended entirely
on the king, was uncertain.
PEERESS, a woman who is noble by defeent, crea¬
tion, or marriage. For, as we have noblemen of feveral
ranks, fo we may have noblewomen ; thus King Hen¬
ry VHI. made Anne Bullen marchionefs of Pembroke;
King James I. created the lady Compton, wife to Sir
Thomas Compton, countefs of Buckingham, in the life¬
time of her hulband, without any addition of honour to
him ; and alfo the fame king made the lady Finch, vif-
counfefs of Maidftone, and afterwards counteis of Win-
chelfea, to her and the heirs of her body ; and King
Georqe I. made the lady Schulenbcrg, duchefs of Ken¬
dal.
If a peerefs, by defeent or creation, marry a perfon
under the degree of nobility, ftie Hill continues noble :
but if Ihe obtain that dignity only by marriage, ftie lofes
it, on her afterwards marrying a commoner ; yet by the
couftefy of England, flue generally retains ihe title of
her nobility.
PEG
Peerefs A countefs or baronefs may not be arrefted for debt
li or trefpafs \ for though in refpeft of their fex, they can-
Pt‘gu' , not lit in parliament, they are neverthelefs peers of the
realm, and lhall be tried by their peers, &c.
PEWIT, a fpecies of gull. See Larus, Ornitho-
X.OGY Index.
PEGASUS, among the poets, a horfe imagined to
have wings; being that on which Bellerophon was fabled
to be mounted when he engaged the Chimera. See Chi¬
mera.
The opening of the fountain Hippocrene on Mount
Helicon is afcribed to a blow of Pegafus’s hoof. It was
feigned to have down away to heaven, where it became
a eondeilation. Hence
Pegasus, in AJlronomy^ the name of a conflellation
of the northern hemifphere, in form of a flying horfe.
See Astronomy.
PEG MARES, a name by which certain gladiators
were dillinguithed, who fought upon moveable fcaffolds
called which were fometimes unexpectedly rai¬
led, and by this means furprifed the people with gladia¬
tors in hot contention. They were fometimes fo fud-
denly lifted up as to throw the combatants into the air ;
and fometimes they were letdown into dark and deep
holes, and then fet on fire, thus becoming the funeral-
piles of thofe miferable wretches ; and roafling them
alive to divert the populace.
PEGU, a very eonfiderable kingdom of Afia, be¬
yond the Ganges. The country properly fo called is
but about 350 miles in length from north to fouth, and
as much in breadth from eafl: to weft. It is fituated on
the eaftern fide of the bay of Bengal, nearly oppofite to
Arixa, and to the north-eaft of the coaft of Coromandel.
It is bounded on the north by the kingdoms of Arrakan
and Ava ; on the eaft by the Upper and Lower Siam,
on the fouth by part of Siam and the fea ; and on the
weft by the fea and part of Arrakan.
The kingdom of Pegu is faid to have been founded
about 1100 years ago. Its firft king was a feaman ;
concerning whom and his fucceflbrs we know nothing
till the difcovery of the Eaft Indies by the Portuguefe
in the beginning of the 16th century. In 1518 the
throne of Pegu was poflelTed by one Breflagukan, with
whom Antony Correa the Portuguefe ambaffador fo-
lemnly concluded a peace in 1519. This monarch was
poflfeffed of a very large and rich empire, nine kingdoms
being in fubjeftion to him, whofe revenues amounted to
three millions of gold. We hear no farther accounts of
his tranfaClions after the conclufion of the treaty with
the Portuguefe. In 1539 he was murdered on the fol¬
lowing occafion : Among other princes who were his
tributaries was Para Mandara, king of the Birmans or
Barmans, i hefe people inhabited the high lands called
Pangavirau, to the northward of the kingdom of Pegu.
Their prince, by one of the terms of his vaflalage, was
obliged to furnifti the king of Pegu with 30,000 Bir¬
mans to labour in his mines and other public works. As
the king ufcd frequently to go and fee how his works
went forward, and in thefe journeys took along with
him none but his women, the Birmans obferving thefe
vifits frequently repeated, formed a defign of robbing
the queen and all the concubines of their jewels ; and
purfuant to this defign, the next time the king vifited
the. works, they murdered him, and having ftripped the
ladies, fled to their own country.
Vol. XVL Part I.
P E G
By this enormity all Pegu was thrown into confu-
fion : but, inftead of revenging the death of their king,
the people divided everywhere into fadions ; fo that
Dacha Rupi, the lawful heir to the crown, found him-
felf unable to maintain his authority. Of thefe commo¬
tions, the king of the Birmans taking the advantage,
not only fhook oft the yoke, but formed a defign of con¬
quering the kingdom of Pegu itfelf.—With this view he
invaded the country with an army of more than a mil¬
lion of toot, and 5000 elephants ; betides a great fleet
which he fent down the river Ava towards Bagou or
Pegu, the capital of the empire ; while he himfeif
marched thither by land. Juft at this time Ferdinand
de Mirales arrived at Pegu from Goa with a large, gal¬
leon richly laden on account of the king of Portugal.
As foon as Dacha Rupi heard of his coming, he tent to
defire his afliftance againft the enemy. This he obtain¬
ed by great prefents and promifes : and Mirales, felting
out in a galliot, joined the king’s ftiips. Had the num¬
bers been any thing near an equality, the fuperior fkill
of Mirales would undoubtedly have gained the victory :
But the fleet of the Birmans covered the whole river,
though as large as the Ganges, while that of Dacha Ru¬
pi could fcarcely be obferved in comparifon with them.
Mirales did every thing that man could do, and even
held out alone after the natives hid deferted him ; but
at laft, oppreffed and overwhelmed with numbers, he
was killed, with all his men.
Thus Para Mandara became mafter of all Pegu; af¬
ter which he attacked the tributary kingdoms. In 1544
he befieged Martavan, the capital of a kingdom of the
fame name, then very great and flouriftiing. The land
forces which he brought againft it confifted of ^00,000
men, while by fea he attacked it with a fleet of 1700
fail; 100 of which were large galleys, and in them 700
Portuguefe commanded by John Cayero, who had the
reputation of being a valiant and experienced officer.
The fiege, however, continued feven months, during
which time the Birmans loft 120,000 men ; but at lait
the befieged king, finding himfeif ftraitened for want of
provifions, and unable to withftand fo great a power, of¬
fered terms of capitulation. The befiegers would admit
of no terms, upon which the diftreffed king applied to
the Portuguefe in the fervice of his enemy ; for by their
affiftance he doubted not to be able to drive away the
Birmans. Accordingly, he fent one Seixas to Cayero,
intreating him to receive himfeif, his family, and trea-
fure, on board the four ftiips he had under his com¬
mand ; offering, on that condition, to give half his
riches to the king of Portugal, to become his vaffal, and
pay fuch tribute as fliould be agreed upon. Cayero con-
fulted the principal officers, and in their prefence afked
Seixas what he thought the treafure might amount to.
Seixas anfwered, that out of what he had feen, for he
had not feen all, %two fhips might be loaded with gold,
and four or five with filver. This propofal was too ad¬
vantageous to be flighted ; but the reft of the officers
envying the great fortune which Cayero would make,
threatened to difeover the whole to the king of Barma or
Birma if he did not rejeft it. The unhappy king of
Martavan had now no other refource but to fet fire to
the city, make a fally, and die honourably with the few
men he had with him : but even here he was difappoint-
ed ; for by the defertion of 4000 of his troops the ene¬
my were apprifed of his defign, and prevented it. Thus
M betrayed.
[ 89 ]
/
PEG
[ 9° 3
PEG
Pegu, betrayed, he capitulated with the Banna king for his
—. 1 own life and the lives of his wife and children, with
leave to end His days in retirement. All this was rea¬
dily granted, but the conqueror intended to perform no
part of his promife. The city was plundered and burnt,
by which above 60,000 perfons penfhed, while at leaft
an equal number were carried into flavery. Six thou-
fand cannon were found in the place-, 100,000 quinta s
of pepper, and an equal quantity of other ipices. 1 he
day after this deftruftion, 21 gibbets were erefted on a
hill adjoining to the city, on which the queen her
children, and ladies, were executed, by hanging them
up alive by the feet: however, the queen expired with
anguifh before die fuflfered fuch a cruel indignity. 1 he
kine, with CO of his chief lords, was calf into the lea,
with Hones about their necks. This monftrous_ cruelty
fo provoked the tyrant’s foldiers, that they mutinied, and
he was in no fmall danger of fuffenng for it: however,
he found means to pacify them -, after which he pro¬
ceeded to befiege Prom, the capital of another king¬
dom. Here he increafed his army to 900,000 men.
The queen by whom it was governed offered to lubmit
to be his vaffal-, but nothing would fatisfy the Barma
monarch lefs than her furrender at difcretion, and put-
tine all her treafure into his hands. I his flie, who
knew his perfidy, refufed to do: on which the city was
fiercely affaulted, but greatly to the difadvantage of the
Barmas, who loft near 100,000 men. However, the
city was at laft betrayed to him, when Mandarabe-
haved with his ufual cruelty. Two thoufand children
were (lain, and their bodies cut in pieces and thrown
to the elephants; the queen was ftnpped naked pub-
lic’y whipped, and then tortured, till (he died, the
young king was tied to her dead body, and both toge¬
ther caft into a river, as were alfo 300 other people of
^ While the tyrant was employed in fortifying the city,
he was informed, that the prince of Ava had failed
down the river £ueytor with 400 rowing veffels having
= 0,000 foldiers on board ; but that, hearing of the
queen’s difafter, he flopped at Meletay, a ftrong fortrefs
about 12 leagues north of Prom, where he waited to be
ioined by his father the king of Ava with 80,000 men.
On this news the Barma king fent his fofter-brother
Chaumigrem along the river fide with 200,000 men,
while he himfelf followed with 100,000 more. I he
prince, in this emergency, burnt his barks, forming a
vanguard of the mariners, and, putting his fmall army
in the beft pofition he could, expefted the enemy. A
moft defperate engagement enfued, in which 800 only of
the prince’s army were left, and 115,000 out of 200,000
Barmas who oppofed him were killed. The 800 Avans
retired into the fort: but Mandara coming up foon af¬
ter and being enraged at the terrible havock made in
his’army, attacked the fortrefs moft violently for feven
days; at the end of which time, the 800, finding them-
felves unable to hold out any longer, rufhed.out in a
dark and rainy night, in order to fell their lives at as
dear a rate as poffible. This laft effort was fo extreme¬
ly violent, that they broke through the enemy’s troops
in feveral places, and even preffed fo hard on the king
himfelf that he was forced to jump into the river. How¬
ever, they were at laft all cut off, but not before they
had deftroyed 12,000 of their enemies.
Mandara having thus become mafter of the fortj com¬
manded it to be immediately repaired j and failed up Pe;
the river to the port of Ava, about a league trom the '
capital, where he burnt between 2000 and 3000 veffels,
and loft in the enterprife about 8000 men.. The city
itfelf he did not think proper to inveft, as it had been
newly fortified, was defended by a numerous garnfon,
and an army of 80,000 men was advancing to its relief.
The king alfo, apprehenfive of Mandara’s power, had
implored the prote&ion of the emperor of Siam; offering
to become his tributary on condition that he would af-
fift him with his forces in recovering the city of Prom.
To this the emperor readily affented; which news great¬
ly alarmed the Barma monarch, fo that he difpatched
ambaffadors to the Kalaminham or fovereign of a large
territory adjacent, requefting him to divert the emperor
from his purpofe. On the ambaffadors return from this
court, it appeared that the treaty had already taken ef-
feft; but as the feafon was not yet arrived for invading
Ava, Chaumigrem, the king’s fofter-brother, was fent
with 150,000 men to reduce Sebadi or Savadi the capi¬
tal of a fmall kingdom about 130 leagues north-eaft from
Pegu. The general, however, failed in his attempt;
and afterwards endeavouring to revenge himfelf on a
town in the neighbourhood, he was furprifed by the
enemy and put to flight. . ^
In the meantime, the empire of Siam fell into great
diftraaions; the king, together with the heir to the
crown, were murdered by the queen,.who had fallen in
love with an officer, whom {he married after her huf-
band’s death. However, both of them were foon after
killed at an entertainment; and the crown was given to
a natural brother of the late king, but a cowaid and a
tyrant. On this Mandara refolved to invade the coun¬
try; and, his principal courtiers concurring in the
fcheme, he colkaed an army of 800,000 men, with no
fewer than 20,000 elephants. In this army were 1000
Portuonefe, commanded by one James Suarez, who al¬
ready'"had a penfion of 200,000 ducats a-year from the •
kino of Pegu, with the title of his brother, and gover¬
nor of the kingdom. With this formidable army he fet
out in April 1548. His firft atchievement was the tak¬
ing of a fortrefs on the borders of the enemy’s country;
before which, being feveral times repulfed, and having
loft 3000 of his men, he revenged himfelf by putting.all
the women to the fword. He next befieged the capital
itfelf; but though the fiege was continued for five
months, during which time the moft violent attacks
were made upon it, the affailants were conftantly repul¬
fed with great lofs. However, it was ftill refolved to
continue the fiege; and a mount of earth was raifed, on
which were placed 40 pieces of cannon, ready to batter
it anew, when, in October, advice was received of a re¬
bellion having broke out in Pegu.
The perfon who headed the rebels on the prefent oc-
cafion was Shoripam Shay, near akin to the former mo¬
narch flain 12 years before. He was a religious perfon,
of great underftanding, and efteemed a faint. As he
was a famous preacher, he made a fermon, in which he
fet forth the tyranny of the Birmans in fuch a manner,
that he was immediately taken out of the pulpit, and
proclaimed king by the people, who, as a token of fo-
vereignty, gave him the title of S/iemindoo. T he. firft
a6t of fovereignty which he exerted was to cut in pieces
15,000 Birmans, and feize on the treafure ; and fo a-
greeable was this change of government to all ranks of
* people^
PEG [91
people, tliat in three weeks time all the ftrong holds of
Pegu fell into his hands.
On this news the king immediately raifed the fiege in
which he was engaged, and in 17 days got to Marta-
van. Here he was informed, that Shemindoo had poll¬
ed 500,000 men in different places, in order to intercept
his paflage *, at the fame time that he had the mor¬
tification to find 50,000 of his bell troops deferted. To
prevent a greater defertion, after 14 days flay, he de¬
parted from Martavan, and foon met Shemindoo at the
head of 600,000 men. A defperate engagement fol¬
lowed j in which Shemindoo was entirely defeated,
with the lofs of 300,000 men. Of the Birman troops
•were flain 60,000 j among whom were 280 Portu-
guefe.
The morning after this victory, the tyrant marched
to the city : the inhabitants of which furrendered, on
condition of having their lives and effedls fpared. The
kingdom being thus again brought under his fubjeflion,
his next Hep was to punifli the principal perfons concern¬
ed in the rebellion : their heads he cut off, and confif-
cated their eltates, which amounted to no lefs than ten
millions of gold. Others fay, that he put all without
dillinftion to the fword, excepting only 1 2,000, who
took fhelter in James Suarez’s houfe 5 that alone afford¬
ing an afylum from the general flaughter. The plunder
was incredible, Suarez alone getting three millions.
All thefe cruelties, however, were infufficient to fecure
the allegiance of the tyrant’s fubjefts: for in lefs than
three months news was brought that the city of Marta¬
van had revolted 5 and that the governor had not only
declared for Shemindoo, but murdered 2000 Birmans.
Mandara then fummoned all the lords of the kingdom
to meet him with their force, within 15 days, at a place
called Mouchau, not far from his capital, W'hither he
himfelf went with 300 men, to wait their arrival. But
in the meantime he received intelligence that the fhemin
or governor of Zatan, a city of fome confequence, had
fubmitted to Shemindoo, and alfo lent him a large fum
of gold. The fhemin was immediately fent for in order
to be put to death : but he, fufpefting Mandara’s de-
fign, excufed himfelf by pretending ficknefs ; after
which, having confulted with his friends, he drew toge¬
ther about 600 men j and having with thefe privately
advanced to the place where the king was, he killed
him, with the few attendants that were about him at
the time. The guards in the court being alarmed with
the noife, a fkirmifh enfued with the fhemin’s men, in
which about 800 were flain on both fides, moft of them
Birmans. The fhemin then retreated to a place called
Ponte/; whither the people of the country, hearing of
the death of the king, who Avas univerfally hated, re-
forted to him. When he had affembled about 5000
men, he returned to feek the troops which the late king
had with him and finding them difperfed in feveral
places, eafily killed them all. With the Birmans were
flain 80 out of 300 Portuguefe. The remainder fur-
rendered, Avith Suarez their leader ; and Avere fpared,
on condition of their remaining in the fervice of the
ftiemin.
The fhemin, noAV finding his forces daily increafe, af-
fumed the title of king ; and, to render himfelf the more
popular, gave out that he Avould exterminate the Birmans
fo effe&ually, as not to leave one in all the kingdom.
It happened, hoAvever, that one of thofe who were Avith
1 PEG
the late king at the time he Avas murdered, efcaped the
general flaughter j and, fwimming over the river, in¬
formed Chaumigrem of the king’s death. He had Avith
him 180,000 men, all of them natives of Pegu, except-
ing 30,000 Barmas. He knew very Avell, that if the
natives had known that the king Avas dead, he and all
his Barmas AVould have inftantly been put to the fword.
Pretending, therefore, that he had receh'ed orders to
put garrifons into feveral places, Chaumigrem difpatch-
ed all the natives into different parts j and thus got rid
of thofe whom he had fo much caufe to fear. As Ibon
as they Avere marched, he turned back upon the capital,
and feized the king’s treafure, together with all the
arms and ammunition. He then fet fire to the maga¬
zines, arfenals, palace, fome of Avhofe apartments Avere
ceiled with gold, and 2000roAving veflels Avhich were on
the river. Then deftroying all the artillery, he tied with
the 30,000 Barmas to his own country, being purfued
in vain by the natives of Pegu.
Thus the fhemin of Zatan Avas left in quiet poffeffion
of the kingdom j but, by his repeated a£ls of tyranny
and cruelty, he fo difgufted his fubjeiffs, that many fled
to foreign countries, while others Avent over to Shemin¬
doo, Avho began noAV to gather ftrength again. In the
mean time, James Suarez, the Portuguefe Avhom Ave
have often mentioned, loff his life by attempting to ra-
vith a young Avoman of diftinftion ; the fhemin being-
unable to protect him, and obliged to give him up to
the mob, Avho ftoned him to death. The fhemin him¬
felf did not long furvive him ; for, being groAvn intole¬
rable by his opprefflons, moft of his followers abandoned
him, and he wras befieged in his capital by Shemindoo
Avith an army of 200,000 men, and foon after flain in a
fally j fo that Shemindoo noAV feemed to be fully efta-
bliftied on the throne. But in the mean time Chaumi¬
grem, the fofter-brother to the deceafed king, hearing
that Pegu Avas very ill provided Avith the means of de¬
fence, invaded the kingdom with an army of 300,000
men. Shemindoo met him with three times their num¬
ber ; but his men, being all natives of Pegu, were in¬
ferior in ftrength, notwithftanding their numbers, to the
enemy. The confequence Avas, that Shemindoo was de¬
feated Avith prodigious flaughter, and Chaumigrem caufed
himfelf to be proclaimed king of Pegu. Shortly after,
Shemindoo himfelf Avas taken ; and, after being treated
Avith the utmoft cruelty, Avas beheaded.
The hiftory of Chaumigrem is very imperfeft. Hoav-
ever, we know that he was a very great conqueror, and
not at all inferior in cruelty to his predeceffors. He
reduced the empire of Siam and Aracan, and died in
*583 } being fucceeded by his fon named Pranjinokoy
then about 50 years of age. When this prince afeend-
ed the throne, the kingdom of Pegu was in its greateft
height of grandeur •, but by his tyranny and obftinacy
he loft all that his father had gained. He died in 1599,
and after his death the kingdom of Pegu became fub-
je£t to Aracan. For fome time paft it has been tribu¬
tary to the more powerful kingdom of Ava j the fove-
reigns of Avhich country have hitherto been extremely
cantious of permitting Europeans to obtain any fettle-
ment among them.
The air of Pegu is very healthy, and prefently reco¬
vers fick ftrangers. The foil alfo is very rich and fertile
in corn, rice, fruit, and roots 5 being enriched by the
inundations of the river Pegu, which are almoft incre-
M 2 dible.
P E I
[ 92 ]
PEI
Plate
CCCCVII
Travels in
to Dalma¬
tia.
dible, extending above 30 leagues beyond its channel.
It produces alio good timber of feveral kinds. -The
country abounds with elephants, buffaloes, goats, hogs,
and other animals, particularly game *, and deer is fo
plenty in September and October, that one may be
bought for threepence or fourpence: they are very Hethy,
but have no fat. There is ttore of good poultry ; the
cocks are very large, and the hens very beautifuj. As
for fi(h, there arc many forts, and well tatted. In Pegu
are found mines, not only of gold, iron, tin, and lea ,
or rather a kind of copper or mixture of copper and
lead, but alfo of rubies, diamonds, and fapphires. 1 he
rubies are the belt in the world j but the diamonds are
fmall; and it is faid they are fometimes found in the
craws of poultry. Befides, only one family has the pri¬
vilege of felling them ; and none dare open the ground
to dm for them. The rubies are found in a mountain
in the province of Kahlan, or Kapelan, between the city
of Pegu and the port of Sirian.
But for a fuller account of Pegu, and the Birman
empire, fee Asia, from p. 740 to p. 760 ; and for a
defeription of the temple of Shoemadoo, of which we
have given an engraving, taken from Syme’s Embaffy
to that kingdom, fee alio Asia, p. IS1'
PEGUNITUM, in Ancient Geography, (Ptolemy) j
Pigtihli#, (Pliny) ; a town or citadel of Dalmatia, on
the Adriatic, oppofite to the ifland Brattia, fcarcely five
miles off, and 40 miles to the eaft of Salome. Accord¬
ing to Fortis, a mountain, a large hollow, and fubma-
rine iprings are feen here. “This hollow, (fays, be)
feems to have been excavated by fome ancient river.
The fprings which bubble up from under the fea are fo
confiderable, that they might pafs lor the riling again of
a river funk under ground. Vrullia has the fame deri¬
vation as the word Vril, which in Sclavonian fignifies a
fountain ■, and this etymology, rendering the name of
Vrullia the Berullia of Porphyrogenitus analogous to
that of Peguntium, fince nsyt; and Vril are fynonymous,
induces me to believe, that the caftle named Peguntium
by ancient geographers was fituated in this place, and
not at the mouth of the Cettina. No remarkable vefti-
ges of antiquity now exill on the fpot •, yet it is evident,
by the quantity of fragments of vafes, tiles, and. iepul-
chral inferiptions now and then dug up, that this traft
of coaft was well inhabited in the Roman times. The
principal caufe why the traces of ancient habitations can¬
not be difeovered about Vrullia, is the fteepnefs of the
hill above it, and the quantity of ftones brought down
from thence by the waters. The mouth of the hollow
two years preached the Sunday-evening s leftuie at the
meeting-houfe in Miles-Lane, London, and then fettled ^
at Cambridge. In 1713 he was removed to a congre¬
gation at Exeter, where he continued till the year 1718 :
when the Calvinifts among the diffenters propofmg a
fubfeription to articles of faith to be figned by all the
diffenting minifters in the kingdom, feveral articles were
propofed to him and Mr John Hallet, another diffenting
minifter at Exeter, in order to their fubferibirg them,
they both refufed, imagining this proceeding of their
diffenting brethren to be an unworthy imposition on reli¬
gious liberty and private judgment 5 and for this they
were ejedted from their congregation. Upon this, a new
meeting was opened for them at Exeter, of which Mi
Peirce continued roinifler till his death, in 1726. He
was a man of the ftridteft virtue, exemplary piety, and
great learning. He wrote, 1. Exercitatio phitofophica Ac
Homamcria Anaxagorea. 2. Thirteen pieces on the
Controverfy between the Church of England and the
Diffenters. 3. Ten pieces on the Controverfy about the
Ejedhnent at Exeter. 4. Six pieces on the Dodlrine of
the Trinity. 5. A Paraphrafe and Notes on the Epittles
of St Paul to the Cololhans, Philippians, and Hebrews.
6. An Effay in, favour of giving the Eucharift to ChiE
dren. 7. Fourteen Sermons.
PEIRESC, Nicolas Claude Fabri, born in 1580,
was defeended from an ancient and noble family, feated
originally at Pifa in Italy. At ten years of age, he was
fent to Avignon, where he fpent five years in the jefuits
college, in the ftudy of what in Scotland and on the
Continent is called humanity. From Avignon he was,
in 159^, removed to Aix, and entered upon the itudy
of philofophy. In the interim, he attended the. proper
matters for dancing, ritiing, and handling arms } in all
which, though he performed the leffons regularly, it was
with reluctance : for this being done only to pleafe an
uncle, whofe heir he was to be, he never pradtifed by
himfelf, edeeming all the time loti that was not fpent
in the purfuits of literature. During this period, his fa¬
ther being prefented with a medal of the emperor Arca-
dius, which was found at Belgenfer, Peirefc begged the
favour of it ; and, charmed with deciphering the cha¬
racters m the exergue, and reading the emperor s name,
he carried the medal with a tranfport of joy to his uncle j
who for his encouragement gave him two more, toge¬
ther with fome books upon the fubjeft. I his is the
epoch of his application to antiquities, for which he be¬
came afterwards fo famous. In 1596, he w'.as fent to fi-
nifh his courfe of philofophy under the Jefuits at lour-
non, where he turned his attention particularly to cof-
Ptirce,
Peirei'c.
of Vrullia is dreaded bv feamen, on account of the fud- • —    * , A r
den impetuous gulls of wind that blow from thence, and mography, as being neceffary to the undei Handing o
in a moment raffe a kind of hurricane in the channel be- hiftory, abating, however, nothing of his application to
tween the Primorie and the ifland of Brazza, to the antiquity, in which he was affifted by Petrus Rogerus,
great danger of barks furprifed by it
PEINE FORTE ET DURE, (Eat. panu forth et dura),
fignifies a fpecial punifhment infii&ed on thofe who, be¬
ing arraigned ol felony, refufe to put themfelves on the
ordinary trial, but ftubbornly Hand mute 5 it is vulgarly
called prefing to death. See ARRAIGNMENT.
PEIRCE, James, an eminent diffenting minifler,
was born at Wapping, in London, in the year i6y4»
and was educated at Utrecht and Leyden •, after which
he fpent fome time at Oxford, in order to enjoy the be¬
nefit of frequenting the Bodleian library. Fie then for
one of the profeffors, and a fkilful medalilt : nor did he
omit the fludy of humanity in general, wherein he was
the mafter and inftruCtor of a brother who was with him.
But to do all this he was obliged to fit up late at nights 5
and fo much-labour and attention, as he was naturally
of a tender conftitution, increafed the weaknefs of his
ftomach formerly contracted, and for which he had ufed
a kind of digeitive powder. Being recalled by his
uncle in 1597, he returned to Aix, and entered there
upon the ftudy of the law j which he profecutcd, how-
everrfo as to find leifure to vifit and eonverfe frequent¬
ly
SHOEMADOO
PLATE CCCCVU
JEmjravecL byW fa I) .Lizars Edm?
PEI t 93 J PEI
ly with Peter A. R. Bagarr, a moft ikilml antiquary,
who was afterwards made niafter of the iewels to Hen¬
ry IV.
The fullowing year he went again to Avignon, to
carry on his courfe of law under one Peter David 5 who,
being well {killed likewife in antiquities, was pleafed to
fee Peirefc join this ftudy to that of the law. But Ghi-
bertus of Naples, auditor to Cardinal Aquaviva, fed his
curiofity the moft, in ihowinghim feme rarities, j'uch as
he had never feen before. Ghibertus alfe lent him Gol-
tzius’s Treatife upon Coins, and adviied him to go into
Italy, efpecially to Rome, where he would meet with
curiofities to fatisfy his moft ardent wiihes According¬
ly, his uncle having procured a proper governor, he and
his brother fet out upon that tour September 1599; and
pailing through Florence, Bononia, and Ferrara, when
he had ftaid a few days at Venice, he fixed his relidence
at Padua, in order to complete his courfe of law. But
once a quarter, going to Venice to get calh for bills of
exchange, he took thefe opportunities of introducing
himfelf to the moft diftinguilhed literati there j and was
particularly careffed by F. Contarin, procurator of St
Mark, who was pofl'effed of a curious cabinet of medals,
and other antiquities, without knowing the value of
them. This was fully Ihown to him by Peirefc, who
likewife explained the Greek inferiptions upon his me¬
dals, and the monumental ftones. After a year’s ftay
at Padua, he fet out for Rome, and arrived there O&u-
ber 1600, in order to be in time for feeing the jubilee ;
to celebrate which, the Porta Sanfta would be opened
in the beginning of the next year. He paffed fix months
in this city, viewing the numberlefs curiofities there, and
in cultivating the friendftiip of Galileo, by whom he was
much beloved. This friendftiip led him to carry his re-
fearches into aftronomy and natural philoftphy ■, and he
was prefent when Fabricius ab Aqua pendente, out of a
parcel of eggs upon which a hen was fitting, took one
every day, to obferve the gradual formation of the chick
from firft to laft. From this time it was generally ac¬
knowledged, that he had taken the helm of learning in¬
to his hand, and began to guide the commonwealth of
letters.
Having now fpent almoft three years in Italy, he be¬
gan to prepare for his departure : and in the end of
1602, having packed up all the rarities, gems, &c.
which he had procured, and put them into the road to
Marfeilles, he left Padua, and crofting the Alps of Ge¬
neva, went to Lyons \ where receiving money he made
a handfome prefent to his governor, who took the route
of Paris. From Lyons he went to Montpelier, to im¬
prove himfelf in the law under Julius Parius. From
Montpelier he difpatched more rarities to his uncle,
who fending for him home, he arrived at Aix in No¬
vember ; but, bringing Parius along with him, he ob¬
tained leave to return to Montpelier in a few days. He
waited upon Parius back again, under whom he conti¬
nued purfuing his law ftudies till the end of 1603, when
he returned to Aix, at the earned requeft of his uncle,
who, having refigned to him his fenatorial dignity, had
ever fince the beginning of the year laboured to get the
king’s patent. The degree of dodlor of law was a ne-
ceffary qualification for that dignity. Peirefc, there¬
fore, having kept the ufual exercife, took that degree
Jan. 18. 1604, when the aforefaid patent was given in
to the fenate, and ordered to be recorded : yet Peirefc
2
procured leave not to be prefently entered into the lift
of fenators. The bent of his inclination was not fo
much to bufinefs as to advance arts and fciences, and to
alfift all the promoters of learning. For this purpofe,
he refolved to lead a fingle life j fo that when his father
had concluded a match lor him with a refpe&able lady,
he begged to be excufed.
In 1605, he accompanied G. Varius, firft prefident
of the fenate at Aix, who was very fond of him, to Pa¬
ris j whence, having vifited every thing curious, he
crofted the water, in company with the king’s ambaf-
fador, 1606, to England. Here he was very graci-
oufly received by King James L; and having feen Ox¬
ford, and vilited Camden, Sir Robert Cotton, Sir
Henry Saville, and other learned men, he pafled over
to Holland ; and after viiiting the feveral towns and
univerfities, with the literati in each, he went through
Antwerp to Bruffels, and thence back to Paris, to ice
the ceremony of the Dauphin’s baptilm ; which being
folemnized Augult 24. he returned home in September
1606, being expected lor the ordering of the family
affairs.
Prefently after this, he purchafed the barony of Rians;
and at the felicitation of his uncle, having approved
himfell before that affembly, he was received a fenator
on the 1 ft of July 1607. January 1608 he loft his
uncle; and the following year, falling himfelf into a
dangerous fever, recovered by eating mulk-melons be¬
fore fupper, for which he had conceived a longing.
He wTas ordered by his phyfician to eat them before
his meals without bread, and to drink a glafs of pure
wine upon them. He continued this method all his life
afterwards; and grew fo fond of them, that, though he
could abftain from any other meat as he lifted, yet to¬
wards them he profeffed he was unable to niafter him¬
felf. He frequently experienced, that in the mulk-me¬
lon feafon he was never troubled with the gravel. In
1618, having procured a faithful copy of “ the Aftsof
the Monaftery of Maren in Switzerland,” he publilhed
a fecond edition of that work. As it was written in de¬
fence of the royal line of France againft Theodoric
Piefpordius, who had attempted to prove the title of the
Auftrian family to the French crown by right of fuc-
ceflion, he was, upon this publication, nominated the
fame year, by Louis XIII. abbot of Sanfla Maria Aqui-
ftrienfis. He ftayed in France till 1623 ; when, upon
a mtffage from his father, now grown old and fickly, he
left Paris, where he had fptnt feven years and feme
months. He arrived at Aix in O(Sober ; and not long
after preferred to the courts patent from the king, per-
mitiing him to continue in the funflion of his ancient
dignity, and to exercife the office of a feeular or lay
perfon, notwithftanding that, being an abbot, he had
affumed the charafler of a churchman. To this the
court of parliament not affenting, decreed unanimoufly,
that, being already admitted into the firft rank, he
fhould abide perpetually therein •, not returning, as the
cuftom of the court was, to the inferior auditory, w here¬
in trials are ufually had of criminal cafes. In 1625, he
buried his father, who had been long afflifted with the
gout. In 1627, he prevailed with the archbilhop of
Aix to eftablifti a poft thence to Lyons, and fo to Paris
and all Europe ; by which the correfpondence conftant-
ly held with the literati everywhere was much facilitat¬
ed. In l6?9, he began to be much tormented with the
ftrangury
P E K
t 94 ]
PER
Gafendfs
Life of
Peirefc, in
Englijh,
Lond.
i657*
ftranralry and haemorrhoides j and in 1631, having cc>ni-
pleted the marriage of his nephew Claudius with i ar-
(jaret Alrelia, a noblewoman of the county of Avignon,
he beftowed upon him the barony of Rianty, together
with a grant of his fenatorial dignity, only refervmg the
funaion to himfelf for three years. But the parliament
not waiting his furrendry of it, he refented that affront
fo heinoufly, that he procured, in 1635, letters patent
from the king to be reftored, and to exercife the office
for five years longer, which happened to be till Ins
death : for being feized, June 1637, _ mth a teve^
that brought on a ftoppage of urine, this put an end
to his life on the 24th of that month, m his 57th
ytThe chara&er of Peirefc may be fummed up in a
few words. His perfon was of a middle fize, and of a
thin habit: his forehead large, and his eyes gray 5 a
little hawk-nofed j his cheeks tempered with red j the
hair of his head yellow, as alfo his beard, which he
ufed to wear long ; his whole countenance bearing the
marks of uncommon and rare courtefy and aftability.
In his diet he affefted cleanlinefs, and m all things
about him 5 but nothing fuperfluous or coftly. His
clothes were fuitable to his dignity *, yet he never wore
filk. In like manner, the reft of his houfe was adorn¬
ed according to his condition, and very well furmlhed *,
but he negle&ed his own chamber. -Inftead of tapeltry,
there hung the pidures of his. chief friends and of fa¬
mous men, befides innumerable bundles of commenta¬
ries, tranfcripts, notes, colleaions from books, epiftles,
and fuch like papers. His bed was exceedingly plain,
and his table continually loaded and covered with pa¬
pers, books, letters, and other things ; as alfo all the
feats round about, and the greateft part of the floor.
Thefe were fo many evidences of the turn of his mind j
in refpedl to which, the writer of his euloge compares
him to the Roman Atticus •, and Bayle, confidenng his
univerfal correfpondence and general afliftance to all the
literati in Europe, dallied it out luckily enough, when
he called him “ the attorney general of the ht^ary re¬
public ” The works which he publilhed are, Hiito-
ria provinciae Gallic Narbonenfis •” “ Nobilium ejuf-
dem provincise familiarum Origines, et feparatim la-
bricii•'” “ Commentarii rerum omnium memona dig-
narum’fua aetate geftarum “ Liber de ludicris na¬
turae operibus •” “ Mathematicaet aftronomica vana ;
« Obfervationes mathematic* •,*’ “ Epiftolae ad b. P.
UrbanumVIII. cardinales Barberinos, &c.; Au-
thores antiqui Graeci et Latin! de ponderibus et men-
furis •” “ Elogia et epitaphia “ Infcriptiones an¬
tique et novae “ Genealogia domus Auftnacae j”
“ Cafalogus librorum biblioth. reg. “ Poemata va-
ria'” 14 Nummi Gallic!, Saxonici, Britanmci, &c. j
«« Linguae orientales, Hebraea, Samaritana, Arabica,
Egyptiaca, et Indices librorum harum linguarum j
“ Obfervationes-in varies au&ores.” It is remarkable,
that though Peirefc bought more books than any man
of his time, yet his colleftion left was not large. The
reafon was, that as fall as he purchafed, he kept con¬
tinually making prefents of them to fuch learned men
as he knew they would be ufeful to. .
PEKIN, the capital city of the empire of China, m
Afia, where the emperor generally refides. It is fitu-
ated in a very fertile plain, 20 leagues diftant from the
great wall. This name, which fignifies the northern
Pekin,
court, is given to it, to diftinguifh it from another con- , f
fiderable city called Nanking, ox the fouthern court.
The emperor formerly refided in the latter j but the
Tartars, a reftlefs and warlike people, obliged this
prince to remove his court to the northern provinces,
that he might more effeaually repel the meurfions of
thofe barbarians, by oppofing to them a numerous mi¬
litia which he generally keeps around his perfon. It
is an oxadt fquare, and divided into two parts j namely,
that which contains the emperor’s palace, which is in
the new city, or, as it is called, the iartars city, be-
caufe it is inhabited by Tartars ever fince they conquer-
ed this empire *, the other, called the Old City, is inhabi¬
ted by the Chinefe. The circuit of both thele together
is c 2 Chinefe lys,each of which contains 240 geometri¬
cal paces ; being, without the fuburbs, full fix leagues
in circumference, according to the moft accurate mea-
furement made by order of the emperor. _
Thofe who have paid attention to the population of
thisplace,reckonthenumberof inhabitants at 2,000,000}
but we learn from Sir George Staunton, in his account
of the late embaffy to China, that the population of this
prodigious city is not lefs than 3,000,000.
Grofier tells us, “ that the height and enormous Qrofier's
thicknefs of the walls of the Tartar city excite admi- Defcription
ration j twelve horfemen might eafily ride abreaft up-of China.
on them •, they have fpacious towers raifed at intervals,
a bow-fliot diftant from one another, and large enough
to contain bodies of referve in cafe of neceflity. 1 he
city has nine gates, which are lofty and well arched.
Over them are large pavilion-roofed towers divided in¬
to nine ftories, each having feveral apertures or port¬
holes : the lower ftory forms a large hall for the ufe of
the foldiers and officers who quit guard, and thofe ap¬
pointed to relieve them. Before each gate a fpace is
left of more than 360 feet : this is a kind of place of
arms, inclofed by a femicircular wall equal in height
and thicknefs to that furrounding the city. The great
road, which ends here, is commanded by a pavilion-
roofed tower like the firft, in fuch manner, that, as the
cannon of the former can batter the houfes of the city,
thofe of the latter can fweep the adjacent country. The
ftreets of Pekin are ftraight, about 120 feet wide, a full
league in length, and bordered with (hops. It is afto-
nifhing to fee the immenfe concourfe of people that con¬
tinually fills them, and the confufion caufed by the pro¬
digious number of horfes, camels, mules, and carriages,
which crofs or meet each other. Befides this inconve¬
nience, one is every now and then flopped by crowds,
who ftand liftening to fortune-tellers, jugglers, ballad-
fingers, and a thoufand other mountebanks and buffoons,
who read and relate ftories calculated to promote mirth
and laughter, or diftribute medicines, the wonderful ef-
fefts of which they explain with all the eloquence pe¬
culiar to them.
“ People of diftinftion oblige all their dependents
to follow them. A mandarin of the firft rank is al¬
ways accompanied in his walks by his whole tribunal ;
and, to augment his equipage, each of the inferior man¬
darins in his fuit is generally attended by feveral dome-
ftics. The nobility of the court, and princes of the
blood, never appear in public without being furrounded
by a large body of cavalry ; and, as their prefence is re¬
quired at the palace every day, their train alone would
be fufficient to create confufion in the city. It is very
Angular,
P E K [ 95 J P E K
Pekin; Angular, that in all this prodigious concourfe no women
are ever feen •, hence we may judge how great the po¬
pulation of China muft be, fince the number of females
in this country, as well as everywhere elfe, is fuperior
to that of the other fex.
“ As there is a continual influx of the riches and
merchandize of the whole empire into this city, the
number of ftrangers that refort hither is immenfe.
They are carried in chairs, or ride on horfeback j the
latter is more common: but they are always attended
by a guide, acquainted with the ftreets, and who knows
the houfes of the nobility and principal people of the
city. They are alfo provided with a book, containing
an account of the different quarters, fquares, remarkable
places, and of the refidence of thofe in public offices.
In fummer there are to be feen fmall temporary (hops,
where people are ferved with water cooled by means of
ice ; and one finds everywhere eating-houfes, with re-
frefhtnents of tea and fruits. Each kind of provifion has
a certain day and place appointed for its being expofed
to fale.
“ The governor of Pekin, who is a Mantchew Tar¬
tar, is ftyled Governor of the Nine Gates. His jurif-
di£lion extends not only over the foldiers, but alfo
over the people in every thing that concerns the police.
No police can be more aftive ; and it is furprifing to
fee, among an infinite number of Tartars and Chinefe
mixed together, the greateft tranquillity prevail. It
is rare, in a number of years, to hear of houfes being
robbed, or people affaffinated. All the principal ftreets
have guard rooms, and foldiers patrole night and day,
each having a fabre hanging from his girdle, and a
whip in his hand, to correft, without diftindtion, thofe
who excite quarrels or caufe diforder. The lanes are
guarded in the fame manner; and have latticed gates,
which do not prevent thofe from being feen who walk
in them : they are always kept ffiut during the night,
and feldom opened even to thofe who are known ; if
they are, the perfon to whom this indulgence is granted,
muft carry a lanthorn, and give a fufficient reafon for
his going out. In the evening, as foon as the foldiers
are wanted to their quarters by beat of drum, two
centinels go and come from one guard-room to ano¬
ther, making a continual noife with a kind of caftanet,
to (how that they are not afleep. They permit no
one to wTalk abroad in the night-time. They even
examine thofe whom the emperor difpatches on bufi-
nefs •, and if their reply gives the leaft caufe of fufpi-
cion, they have a right to convey them to the guard-
room. The foldiers in each of the guard-rooms are
obliged to anfwer every time the centinels on duty
call out.
“ It is by thefe wife regulations, obferved with the
greateft ftri&nefs, that peace, filence, and fafety reign
throughout the whole city. The governor is alfo
obliged to go the round ; and the officers ftationed on
the walls, and in the towers over the gates (in which
are kept large kettle-drums that are beat every time
the guard is relieved), are continually difpatching fub-
al terns to examine the quarters belonging to the gates
where they are ported. The leaft negleft is puniftied
next morning, and the officer who was on guard is
cafhiered. This police, which prevents no&urnal af-
femblies, would appear no doubt extraordinary in Eu¬
rope, and in all probability would not be much reliflied
by our young men of fortune and ladies of quality. Pekin.
But the Chinefe think juftly : they confider it to be the ""y—
duty of the magiftrates of a city to prefer good order
and public tranquillity to vain amufements which gene¬
rally occafion many attempts againft the lives and pro¬
perty of the citizens. It is true, the fupport of this po¬
lice cofts the emperor a great deal; for part of the fol¬
diers we have mentioned are maintained for this purpofe
only. They are all infantry, and their pay is generally
very high. Their employment confifts not only in
watching for thofe who may occafion difturbance in the
day-time, or walk abroad during the night; they muft
alfo take care that the ftreets are kept clean and fwept
every day ; that they are watered morning and evening
in time of dry weather j and that every nuifance is re¬
moved. They have orders alfo to aflift in this labour
themfelves ; and to clear the kennels, that the water
may have a free courfe.”
The walls of the emperor’s palace, including that
and the gardens, are about two miles in length. “ Al¬
though (fays Grofier) the Chinefe architefture has no
refemblance to that of Europe, the imperial palace of
Pekin does not fail to ftrike beholders by its extent,
grandeur, and the regular difpofition of its apartments,
and by the lingular ftrufture of its pavilion-roofs, orna¬
mented at each corner with a carved plat-band, the
lower extremity of which is turned upwards. Thefe
roofs are covered with varnilhed tiles of fo beautiful a
yellow colour, that at a diftance, they make as fplendid
an appearance as if they were gilded. Below the upper
roof there is another of equal brilliancy, which hangs
floping from the wall, fupported by a great number of
beams, daubed over with green varnifh, and interfperfed
with gilt figures. The fecond roof, with the proje£lion
of the firft, forms a kind of crown to the whole edifice.
The palace is a fmall diftance from the fouth gate of
the Tartar city. The entrance to it is through a fpa-
cious court, to which there is a defcent by a marble
ftaircafe, ornamented with two large copper lions, and
a baluftrade of white marble. This baluftrade runs in
the form of a horfe-fhoe, along the banks of the rivulet,
that winds acrofs the palace with a ferpentine courfe, the
bridges over which are of marble. At the bottom of
this firft court arifes a facade with three doors : that in
the middle is for the emperor only ; the mandarins and
nobles pafs through thofe on each fide. Thefe doors
condudl to a fecond court, which is the largeft of the
palace : it is about 300 feet in length, and 50 in
breadth. An immenfe gallery runs round it, in which
are magazines, containing rich effedls, which belong
to the emperor as his private property j for the public
treafure is entrufted to a fovereign tribunal called Hou-
pou. The firft of thefe magazines is filled with plate
and veffels of different metals ; the fecond contains the
fineft kinds of furs ; the third, dreffes lined with fable,
ermine, minever, and foxes Ikins, wffiich the emperor
fometimes gives in prefents to< his officers 5 the fourth
is the depofitory of jewels, pieces of curious marble,
and pearls fifhed up in Tartary ; the fifth, confifting
of two ftories, is full of wardrobes and trunks, which
contains the filk fluffs ufed by the emperor and his fa¬
mily ; the reft are filled with bows, arrows, and other
pieces of armour taken from the eneirfy or prefented by
different princes.
“ The royal hall, called Tai-hotien, or the Hall of
N the
Pekin.
Mod. Un.
liifl. voLvii
P E K t _
tlie Grand Union, is in tins fecond court. It is built
upon a terrace about 18 feet in height, incrufted with
Avhite marble, and ornamented ivith balluitrades of ex¬
cellent workmanfhip. Before this hall all the manda¬
rins range themfelves, when they go, on certain days,
to renew their homage, and perform thofe ceremonies
that are appointed by the laws of the empire. 1 his
hall is almoft fquare, and about 130 feet in length.
The ceiling is carved, varnifhed green, and loaded with
gilt dragons. The pillars which fupport the roof within
are fix feet in circumference towards the bafe, and are
coated with a kind of maftich varnilhed red •, the floor
is partly covered with coarfe carpets, after the Turkim
manner 5 but the walls have no kind of ornament, nei¬
ther tapeftry, luftres, nor paintings.
“ The throne, which is in the middle of the hall,
confifts of a pretty high alcove, exceedingly neat. It
has no infcription but. the charafter ching, which the
authors of this relation have interpreted by the word
holy: but it has not always this fignification *, for it
answers better fometimes to the Latin word eximius,
or the Englilh words excellent, p-crfcB, mojl wife. Upon
the platform oppofite to this hall Hand large veffels of
bronze, in which incenfe is burnt when any ceremony
is performing. There are alfo chandeliers lhaped like
birds and painted different colours, as well as the wax-
candles that are lighted up in them. 1 his platform
is extended towards the north, and has on it two leffer
halls •, one of them is a rotunda that glitters with varnifh,
and is lighted by a number of windows. It is here that
the emperor changes his drefs before or after any cere¬
mony. The other is a faloon, the door of which opens
to the north : through this door the emperor muff pafs,
■when he goes from his apartment to receive on his
throne the homage of the nobility ; he is then carried
in a chair, by officers dreffed in long red robes bordered
with filk, and caps ornamented with plumes of feathers.
It would be difficult to give an exaft defcription of the
interior apartments which properly form the palace of
the emperor, and are fet apart for the ufe of his family.
Few are permitted to enter them but women and eu¬
nuchs.”
The temples and the towers of this city are io nu¬
merous, that it is difficult to count them. Provifion^
of all kinds are exceeding plentiful, they being, as
well as the merchandifes, brought from other parts by
means of canals cut from the rivers, and always crowded
with veffels of different fizes, as well as from the adja¬
cent country. An earthquake which happened here in
1731 buried above 100,000 perfons in the ruins of the
lioufes which were thrown down. E. Long. 116. 41.
N. Lat. 39. 54.
We have already, under the article Observatory,
mentioned the famous obfervatory in this city, of which
we (hall give this further account from the Univerfal
Hiftory. “ The Chinefe had thought nothing in
the univerfe could equal in magnificence this famous
place ; and one of the moft celebrated mathematicians
of the royal academy of Paris hath made no fcruple to
reprefent it as one of the greateft prodigies of art and
ingenuity, of beauty and magnificence; and yet, when
; ] pel
this celebrated ftruGure came to be viewed by more
proper and unbiaffed judges, it appears to have been
of little worth as to its ancient machines, and lefs as
to its fituation ; and that all that is now valuable in it
is owing to the improvements made by Father Verbielt
a Flemilh Jefuit, who eaufed a new fet of inffruments
to be made, with extraordinary care, neatnefs, and pie-
cilion.
“ This fabric ftands in a court of a moderate extent,
and is built in the form of a Iquare tower, contiguous
to the city wall on the iniide, and railed but ten or
twelve feet above its bulwark. The afeent up to the
top is by a very narrow ftaircafe $ and on the platform
above were placed all the old inftfuments, which, though
but few, took up the whole room, till Father Verbieft
introduced his new apparatus, which he difpofed in a
more convenient order. I hefe are large, well cbH,
and embellilhed •, and were the neatnefs of the divifions
anfwerable to the work, and the teleieopes iaftened to
them according to the new method, they would be
equal to thofe of Europe j but the Chinele artificers
were, it feems, either too negligent, or incapable of
following his di regions. As to the old i oft rumen ts,
they were, by order of the emperor Kang-hi, fet afide
as ufelefs, and laid in the hall near the tower, where
they may be leen through a crofs-barred window, all
covered with ruff, and buried in oblivion.
“ In this famed obfervatory there are five mathema¬
ticians employed night and day, each in a proper apart¬
ment on the top of the tower, to oblerve air that paffes
over their heads: one of them is gazing towards the
zenith, and the others towards the four points of the
compafs, that nothing may efcape their notice. T heir
obfervations extend not only to the motions of the
heavenly bodies, but to fires, meteors, winds, rain, thun¬
der, hail ftorms, and other phenomena of the atmo-
fphere •, and thefe are carefully entered in their journals,
and an account of them is brought every morning to
the furveyor of the mathematics, and regiftered in his
office.”
PELAGIANS, a Chriftian fe£t who appeared
about the fifth or end of the fourth century. They
maintained the following do&rines : 1. That Adam was
by nature mortal, and, whether he had finned or not,
would certainly have died. 2. That the confequences
of Adam’s fin were confined to his own perfon. 3. 1 hat
new-born infants are in the fame fituation with Adam
before the fall. 4. That the law qualified men for the
kingdom of heaven, and was founded upon equal
promifes with the gofpel. 5. That the general refur-
region of the dead does not follow in virtue of our
Saviour’s refurre£iion. 6. That the grace of God is
given according to our merits. '7- ^ grace
not granted for the performance of every moral aft}
the liberty of the will, and information in points of
duty, being fufficient, &c. The founder of this feft
was
PEL AG I US, a native of Great Britain ; but whe¬
ther of England, Scotland, or Wales, is as uncertain as
it is immaterial (a). He was born towards the clofe
of the fourth century, and educated in the monaftery
of
Pekin
Pelt
agios.
f a) Dr Henry thinks he was born in North Wales j that his real name was Morgan, of which Pelagms
PEL f 97 ] PEL
TMagius. of Banchor, in Wales, of which he became a monk,
" ' and afterwards abbot. In the early part of Ins life he
went over to France, and thence to Rome, where he
had the infolence to promulgate certain opinions fome-
•what different from thofe of the infallible church. His
morals being irreproachable, he gained many difciples 5
and the dreadful herefy made fo rapid a progrefs, that,
for the falvation of fouls, it became neceffary for the
pope to exert his power. Pelagius, to avoid the dan¬
ger, in the year 409 paffed over to Sicily, attended
by his friend and pupil Celeftius. In 411 they landed
in Africa, continued fome time at Hippo, and were
prefent at the famous conference between the Catholics
and Donatifts which was held at Carthage in 412.
From thence they travelled into Egypt; and from E-
gypt, in 415, to Palelline, where they -were gracioufly
received by John bilhop of Jerufalem. In the fame year
Pelagius was cited to appear before a council of fcven-
teen bifhops, held at Diofpolis. They were fatisfied with
his creed, and abfolved him of herefy. The African
bifhops, however, being difpleafed with their proceed¬
ings, appealed to the Roman pontiff: he firft approved,
and afterwards condemned, the opinions of Pelagius,
who, with his pupil Celeftius, was publicly excommu¬
nicated ; and all the bifhops who refufed to fubfcribe
the condemnation of the Pelagian herefy were immedi-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
ately deprived. What became of him after this period Pelagius*
is entirely unknown ; but it feems very probable that Ptdag°ia-
he retired to Banchor, and died abbot of that monaf-
tery. He wrote, 1. Kxpqfttionmn in epij}. Paulinas, lib.
xiv. 2. Epiflo/a ad Demetriadem de virginitate. 3. Ex-
planationis fymboli ad Damafum. 4. Epijiolce ad viduam
dux. 5. De libera arbitno. Thefe and many other
fragments are fcattered among the works of St Jerome.
They are alfo collefled by Garnerius, and publifhed in
Append, op. Mercatoris, p. 373. Cave.
PE LAGOS A, an iflandin the Adriatic, which, to¬
gether with feveral rocks that appear above water near
it, are the remains of an ancient volcano. “ I will not Travels
aflure you (fays Fortis) that it was thrown up out of Dal^
fea like fevcral other iilands in the Archipelago, though”*^0*
there is fume ground to fufpeft this to have been the cafe j
becaufe we find no precife mention of it in the molt an¬
cient geographers. It fhould feem that it ought not to
be confuied with the Diomedee, from which it is 30
miles diftant •, yet it is not impoftible that they have
reckoned it among them. The lava which forms the
fubftance of this ifland, is perfectly like the ordinary
lava of Vefuvius, as far as I could difeover in pafling
near it. If a natural! ft fhould land there, and vifit on
purpofe the higheft parts of the iftand, perhaps we might
then know whether it has been thrown up by a fubma-
N rine
is a tranflation ; and that he was born on the 13th of November A. I). 354, the fame day with his great anta-
gonift St Auguftin. The fame learned hiftorian gives us the following account of Pelagius and his great coadju¬
tor Celeftius. “ He received a learned education in his own country, moft probably in the great monaftery of
Banchor near Chefter, to the government of which he was advanced A. D. 404. "He was long efteemed'and
loved by St Jerome and St Auguftin, whgkept up a friendly correfpondence with him by letters before they difeo-
vered the heretical pravity of his opinions *, for Pelagius, being a cautious and artful man, for fome time vented his
peculiar notions as the fentiments of others, without difeovering that they were his own. At length, however, he
threw off the mafk, and openly publifhed and defended his do&rines at Rome about the beginning of the fifth cen¬
tury. This involved him in many troubles, and drew upon him the indignation of his former friends St Jerome,
and St Auguftin, who wrote againft him with great acrimony. He is acknowledged, even by his adverfaries, to
have been a man of good fenfe and great learning, and an acute difputant, though they load him with the moft
bitter reproaches for his abufe of thefe talents. His perfonal blemifhes are painted in very ftrong colours ; and he
is reprefented by thefe good fathers, in the heat of their zeal, as a very ugly fellow, ‘ broad-flmuldercd, thick-neck¬
ed, fat headed, lame of a leg, and blind of an eye.’ Even the moft northern parts of this ifland (Britain) pro¬
duced fome men of learning in this period. Celeftius, the difciple and friend of Pelagius, w'as a Scotfman, who
made a prodigious noife in the world by his writings and deputations about the beginning of the fifth century.
He defended and propagated the peculiar opinions of his mafter Pelagius with fo much learning, zeal, and fuccefs
that thofe who embraced thefe opinions were frequently called Celeftins. Before he became acquainted with thefe
doclrines he wrote feveral books, which were univerfally admired for their orthodoxy, learning, and virtuous ten¬
dency. After he had fpent his youth in his own country in a ftudious privacy, he travelled for his further im¬
provement to Rome, where he became acquainted with Rufinus and Pelagius, and was by them infe£fed with their
herefies. From that time he became the moft indefatigable and undaunted champion of thefe herefies, and thereby
brought upon himfelf the indignation of the orthodox fathers of thefe days^ who gave him many very bad names in
their writings. St Jerome, whofe commentaries on the Ephefians he had prefumed to criticife, calls him, ‘ an ig¬
norant, ftupid fool,, having his belly fwelled and diftended with Scots pottage ; a great, corpulent, barking dog
who was fitter to kick with heels than to bite with his teeth ; a Cerberus, who, with his mafter Pluto (Pelagius) .
deferved to be knocked on the head, that they might be put to eternal filence.’ Such were the flowers of rhetoric
which thefe good fathers employed againft the enemies of the orthodox faith ! But candour obliges us to obferve
t at this was perhaps more the vice of the age in which they lived than of the men. Both Pelagius and Celeftius
were very great travellers .; having vifited many different countries of Afia and Africa, as well as Europe, with a
view to elude the perfecutions of their enemies, and to propagate their opinions. It is no inconfiderable evidence of
t ieir fuperior learning and abilities, that their opinions gained great ground in all the provinces both of the eaftern
and weftern empire, in fpite of the writings of many learned fathers, and the decrees of many councils againft them.
ie Pelagian and Celeftian herefy (fays Photius) not only flourilhed in great vigour in the Weft, but was alfo
propagated into the Eaft.’
PEL [ 98 ] .. . P E
Pelajtfa rinc volcano, as the iDand near Santerini was in our fubinit to King Nebuchadnezzar
II aee ; or if we outfit to believe it the top of fome an-
Pelatiah * - * * ’ -1 —j/:j —
cient volcanic mountain, of which the roots and hdes
have been covered by the waters, which divided Africa
from Spain, forming the itraits of Gibraltar •, an inva¬
sion that no one can doubt of who has examined the
bottoms and fhores of our fea. The Liffan filhermen
fay, that Pelagufa is fubjeft to frequent and violent
earthquakes j and the afpe£t of the itland proves at firft
light, that it has fuffered many revolutions ; for it is
rugged, ruinous, and fubverted.” __
PEL AI AH, a Levite (Nehem. viii. 7. x. 10.)* He
was one of the principal Levites that returned from cap¬
tivity, and was one of thofe that ligned the covenant that
Nehemiah renewed with the Lord.
PEL ALI AH. fon of Amazi and father of Jeroham,
pf ,he family of Palliur fon of Malchiah, of all whom
mention has been made : he was of the race of the
prlefts (Nehem. xi. 12.).
PELASGI. See Pelasgiotis.
PEL ASGIA (Pliny) ; the ancient name of Lejbos;
fo called from the Pelafgi, its firft inhabitants (Diodo¬
rus Siculus). Alfo the ancient name ol Peloponnefus,
from Pelafgius, a native of the country (Nicolaus Da¬
rn afcenus, Ephorus). . . . , „
PEL ASG1CUM (Paufamas, Pliny) > the north wall
of Athens j fo called from the builders, the Pelafgi.
There was an execration pronounced on any that ftiould
build houfes under this wall, becaufe the Pelafgi,
dwelling there, entered into a confpiracy agamft the
Athenians (Thucydides). ,^,0-1
PELASGIOTIS, a third part of 1 heffaly (Stra¬
bo) ; fo called from a very ancient people, the Pelafgi,
called Pelafgiotce (Ptolemy) *, who formerly, together
with the iEolians, occupied Theffaly, and thence that
part was called Pelafgicum Argos; befides many other
parts of Greece. Their name Pe/afgi, or Pe/argi, de¬
noting ftorks, was given them from their wandering
roving life (Strabo). The poets extend the appellation
to Greeks in general. Pelafgus, the epithet. Some of
the inhabitants of Crete were called Pelafgi (Homer) j
who thus alfo calls the neighbouring people to the C1I1-
cians in Troas. The Pelalgi were originally of Arcadia,
(Hefiod) ; but AEfchylus makes Argos, near Mycenae,
their country. The Pelafgiotis was fituated between
Pieria and Macedonia to the north and weft, I heiialiotis
to the fouth, and Magnefia to the eaft, (Strabo, Pliny).
PELATHt,, were free-born citizens, among the A-
thenians, who by poverty were reduced to the necef-
ftty of ferving for wages. During their fervitude they
bad no vote in the management of public affinrs, as
having no eftate to qualify them ; but this reftriaion
was removed whenever they had releafed themfelves
from their fervile fituation, which they were allowed
to do when able to fupport themfelves. While they
continued fervants, they had alfo a right to change
their mafters. We find them fometimes diftinguithed
bv the name of Theta:.
y PEL ATI AH, fon of Hanamah, and father of 11m,
of the tribe of Simeon. He fubdued the Amalekites
upon the mountain of Seir (1 Chron. iv. 42.).. I he
time of this ad ion is unknown. ... .
Pelatiah, fon of Benaiah, a prince of the people,
who lived in the time of Zedekiah king of Judah, and
oppofed the wholefome advice given by Jeremiah, to
  Ezekiel (xi. 1, 2, 3, Pclatiah
4.) being a captive in Mefopotamia, had a vifion, in
which he favv five and twenty men at the door of the
temple of Jerufalem, among whom were Jaazaniah
the fon of Azur, and Pelatiah the fon of Benaiah,
who were the moft remarkable. Then the Lord faid
to him, “ Son of man, thefe are the men that have
thoughts of iniquity, and who are forming pernicious
defig ns againft this city, faying, Have not the houfes
been built a long time ? Jerufalem is the pot, and we
are the fleftt. Thus faith the Lord : You have made
great havock in this city, and have filled its ftreets
with dead bodies. I hole men are the ftefti, and the
city is the pot. But as for you, I will make you
come forth from the middle of this city, and 1 will
make you periih by the hand of your enemies. As
he was prophefying in this manner, Pelatiah the fon
of Benaiah died.
PELE, (Stephanus). There were two towns of this
name in Theffaly ; the one fubjeft to Eurypylus, the
other to Achilles j both extinH. Peleus the gentilitious
name (id.) . , . .
PE LEG, fon of Eber, was born m the year of the
wmrld 1757- The feripture fays his father gave him
the name of Peleg, fignifying divifion, becaufe in his
time the earth began to be divided (Gen. xi. 16. x.
25. ) j whether it was that Noah had begun to diftri-
bute the earth among his defeendants, fome years be¬
fore the building of Babel j or that Peleg came into the
world the fame year that Babel was begun, and at the
divifion of languages *, or that Eber by a fpirit of pro¬
phecy gave his fon the name of Peleg lome years before
the tower of Babel was begun, is not abiolutely certain*
That which here perplexes the interpreters is, firft, that
Peleg came into the world not above 100 years after the
deluge. But it fhould feem, that the number of men
was not then fufficient for fuch an undertaking as that
of Babel. Secondly, Joktan the brother of I emg
had already thirteen fons at the time of this difperfion,
■which happened after the confufion of Babel (Gen. x.
26, 27, 28, &c.). Peleg being born in the thirty-fourth
year of Eber (Gen. xi. 16.), it is impoflible his bro¬
ther Joktan fhould have fuch a number of children at
the birth of Peleg. It feems therefore that he was
not born at the time of the difperfion. To this may¬
be anfwered, that Mofes has there enumerated the
names of the thirteen fons of Joktan (in Gen. x. 26.)
by way of anticipation, though they were not born
till a good while after the confufion at Babel •, but as
they poffeffed a very large country, it was convenient
to take notice of them, and to name them among the
other defeendants of Noah, who divided the provinces
of the eaft among themfelves. However this may have
been, at the age of thirty years Peleg begat Reu ; and
lie died at the age of 239.
PELETHITES. The Pelethites and Cherethites
were famous under the reign of King David. They
were the moft valiant men in the army of that prince,
and had the guard of his perfon. See Ezekiel xxv. 16.
Zephaniah ii. 5. 1 Sam. xxx. 14. 2 Samuel xv 18.
xx. 7. Patrick's Comm. Pool's Annot. and Delamj s Hff..
of the Life of David. ... ,
PELETHRONII, a name or epithet given to the
Lapithae, either becaufe they inhabited the town of.
Pelethronium at the foot of Mount Pehon in Ihel-
P ^ L t 99 1 PEL
felctlifonii faly, or becaufe one of their number bore the name of
II Pelethro/iius. It is to them, we are told, that man-
. PeIeus/ i kind are indebted for the invention of the bit with
which they tamed their horfes with fo much dexte-
/ rity.
PELETHRONIUM (Nicander and Scholiaft) ; a
town of Theffaly, lituated in a flowery part of Mount
Pelion ; and hence the appellation throha, fignifying
“ flowers.” Lucan fays the Centaurs were natives of
that place j to whom Virgil afligns Mount Othrys.
Molt authors, however, afcribe the breaking of horfeS
to the Centaurs. Some make the Lapithae and Cen¬
taurs the fame ; others a different people j allowed how¬
ever to be both of Theffaly. Their ftory is greatly in¬
volved in fable. See LaPITHUS.
PELEUS, in Tablllous Hijlory, a king of Theflaly,
fon of iEacus and Endeis, the daughter of Chiron. He
tnarried Thetis one of the Nereids, and was the only
mortal man who ever married an immortal. He was
Concerned in the murder of his brother Phocus, and
Was therefore obliged to leave his father’s dominions.
He fled to the court of Eurytus the fon of Aflor, who
reigned at Phthia, or according to the opinion of Ovid,
the truth of which is queflioned, to Ceyx king of
Trachinia. He was purified of his murder by Eurytus,
With the ufual ceremonies, and the king gave him his
daughter Antigone in marriage. After this, as Peleus
and Eurytus went to the chafe of the Calydonian boar,
the father-in-law was accidentally killed by an arrow
which his fon-in-law had aimed at the bead. This un¬
fortunate accident obliged him to banifli himfelf from
the court of Phthia, and he went to lolchos, where he
was alfo purified of the murder of Eurytus by Acaftus
the king of the country. His refidence at lolchos was
fhort: Aftydamia the wife of Acaftus fell in love with
him •, but when ftie found him infenfible to her paf-
fionate declarations, (he accufed him of attempts upon
her virtue. The king her hufband partly believed the
accufations of his wife ; but not willing to vfblate the
laws of hofpitality, Jay putting him inftantly to death,
he ordered his officers to conduct him to Mount Pe¬
lion, on pretence of hunting, and there to tie him
to a tree and to leave him a prey to the wild beads
of the place. The orders of Acaftus were faithful¬
ly obeyed : but Jupiter knowing the innocence of
Ins grandfon Peleus, ordered Vulcan to fet him at
liberty. As loon as he had been delivered from dan¬
ger, Peleus affembled his friends in order to punilh the
ill treatment which he had received from Acaftus.
He took lolchos by force, drove the king from his
pofleffions, and put to death the wicked Aftydamia.
On the death of Antigone, Peleus made love to The¬
tis, of whofe fuperior charms Jupiter himfelf had been
enamoured. His pretenfions were reje&ed ; for as he
was but a mortal, the goddefs fled from him with the
utmoft abhorrence, and the more effe&ually to evade
his inquiries, (he generally aflumed the (hape of a bird,
or a tree, ot of a tygrefs. Peleus’s paffion was fanned
by refufal: he offered a facrifice to the gods; and Pro¬
teus informed him, that to obtain Thetis he muft fur-
prife her while (lie was afleep in her grotto, near the
(bores of Theffaly. This advice was immediately at¬
tended to*, and Thetis, unable to efcape from the grafp
of Peleus, at laft confented to marry him. Their nup¬
tials were celebrated with the greateft folemnity, all the
gods attending and making them each the rtioft valu- Peieiu,
able prefents. The goddefs of Difcord was the only
one of the deities who was abfent j and (lie punilbed S~
this feeming negleft by throwing an apple in the midll
of the affembly of the gods, with the infeription of
Detur pUlchrton. The celebrated Achilles was the
fruit of this marriage, whofe education was early en-
trufted to the Centaur Chiron, and afterwards to Phoe¬
nix, the fon of Amyntor. Achilles, it is well known,
went to the Trojan war, at the head of his father’s
troops; and Peleus gloried in having a fon who was fu¬
perior to all the Greeks in Valour and intrepidity. His
death, however, was the fource of great grief to Peleus \
but Thetis, to comfort her hufband, promifed him im¬
mortality, and ordered him to retire into the grottoes of
the ifland of Leuce, where he (bould fee and converfe
with the manes of his fon. Peleus had a daughter called
Polydora, by Antigone.
PELEW ISLANDS, a clufter of fmall iflands fituated
between the latitudes of 50 and 70 north, and the longi- *
tudes 134° ancl 136° eaft. Various Conjectures have
been formed refpecting the time of their firft difeovery
by Europeans. Mr Keate, the editor of the only voyage
in which we have any account of their climate, (oil, and
produce, together with the manners of their inhabitants,
thinks they Were firft noticed by the Spaniards from
the Philippines, and by them named Pa/os from the
number of trees growing in them refembling the marts
of ibips. This conjecture has been vehemently oppofed
lay a critic, who affirms that the whole of Mr Keate’s
introduction is erroneous, and that the iflands in queftion
were firft difeovered by a French Jefuit named Pere
Papin. The Jefuit, he imagines, was direCted to them
by one of the inhabitants, who had found his way to the
Moluccas, where he w^as baptized. They are faid to
have been again noticed by P. Centova in 1724, who
faw at Agdane, the capital of the Merian iflands, fome
of the inhabitants ; and from their account gives a de-
feription not very favourable of tbefe harmlefs iflanders.
Centova’s defeription is to be found in the 15th volume,
and the relation of the difeovery by P. Papin in the nth
volume, of Lcttres Edifiantes et Curieufes, publiftied at
Paris 1781.
The lateft and moft authentic account of them, how¬
ever, is given from the Journals of Captain Wilfon of
the Antelope, a packet belonging to the Eaft India
company, which w;as wrecked upon one of them in Au-
guft 1783. This (hip was fitted out in England by the
court of dire&ors in the fummer 1782, as was then ge¬
nerally underftood, for a fecret expedition. Whatever
may have been her deftihation, as (lie rvas proceeding
from Macao in fqually weather, the man who, on the
night of the 10th of Auguft, had the look-out, fuddenly
called out Breakers ! But the found of the word had
fcarce reached the ears of the officer on deck, before
the (hip ftruck and ftuek fall *, and in Id's than an hour-
bulged and filled with water. Having fecurtd the gun¬
powder, fmall arms, bread, and fuch other provifions as
were liable to be fpoiied by water, Captain Wilfon, af¬
ter many difficulties, effeCfed a fanding. The crew of
the Antelope confided of 33 Europeans befides the cap¬
tain, and 16 Ckinefe: and the only poffible means by
which they could be delivered from an ifland, which at
firft appeared to them uninhabited, was by building a
(hip capable of tranfporting them to the neareft Euro-
N 3 pean
-1’elew
Illands.
P EL [ico
pean i'ettlement in that quarter of the globe. Whilft
they were meditating upon this undertaking, the natives
appeared on the fecond day after their arrival; and their
intercomfe with them was facilitated by means which
appear as fingular as they were providential. Captain
Wilfon had a fervant recommended to him at Macao,
who fpoke both the Malay and Englifti languages per¬
fectly well } and they had not been long at Pelew be¬
fore they had the good fortune to meet with a Malay,
who had been thrown by a tempeft upon this very fpot
about a year before, and had made himfelf acquainted
with the language of the country ; fo tnat by this ex¬
traordinary event each party had an interpreter who
could readily explain their wants and defires, and by
that means prevent a number of mifconceptions which
might have arifen from making ufe of figns and geftures
only.
The natives are all of a deep copper colour, going
perfectly naked. They are of a middling ftature, very
flraight, mufcular, and well formed y but their legs,
’ from a little above their ancles to the middle of their
thighs, are tatooed fo very thick, as to appear dyed of
a far deeper colour than the reft of their {kin. Their
hair is of a fine black, long, and rolled up behind, in a
fimple manner, clofe to the back of their heads, which
appeared both neat and becoming ; but few of them
had beards, it being the general cuftom to pluck them
out by the roots.
They began by ftroking the bodies and arms of the
Englifh, or rather their waiftcoats and coat fleeves, as
if they doubted whether the garment and the man were
not of the fame fubftance ; and as the Malay explained
the circumftances to them, our people were greatly fur-
prifed at the quicknefs with which they feemed to com¬
prehend every information he gave them. The next
thing they noticed was our people’s white hands, and
the blue veins of their wrifts-, the former of which they
feemed to confider as artificial, and the other as the
Englifti manner of tatooing. After being fatisfied in
this particular, they expreffed a further wifli to fee
their bodies-, and, among other things, were greatly
furprifed at finding hair on their breafts, it being confi-
dered by them as a great mark of indelicacy, as it is
their cuftom to eradicate it from every part of the body
in both fexes.
They afterwards walked about, teftifying great cuno-
fity at every thing they faw, but at the fame time ex¬
prefling a fear that they might be thought too intruding.
As our people were conducting them to the tencs, one
of the natives picked up a bullet, which had been cafu-
ally dropped on the ground, and immediately expreffed
his furprife, that a fubftance fo fmall to the eye ftiould
be fo very ponderous to the touch ; and on their enter¬
ing the tent, a large Newfoundland dog, and a fpaniel,
which had been tied up there to prevent their being
loft, fet up a moft violent barking, and the natives a
noife but little lefs loud, which at firft it was not eafy
to account for. They ran in and out of the tent, and
feemed to wifli that they might be made to bark again.
This the Malay foon explained to be the effeCt of their
joy and furprife, as thefe were the firft large animals
they had ever feen, there being no quadrupeds of any
fpecies on thefe iflands, except a very few grey rats in
the woods.
After fome time it was agreed on by Captain Wilfon
5
]
PEL
and his people., that Come of the crew fliould be Cent to
the king of the place, in order to folicit his friendlhip,
and intreat his permiflion to build a veflel that might
carry them back to their own country. This bufmefs
was allotted to the captain’s brothei j and dunng nis
abfence, Raa Kook, the king’s brother, and feveral of
the natives, remained with our people. Ihis amiable
chief feemed to place an entire confidence in thole he
was among j he endeavoured to accommodate himfelf to
their manners y would fit at table as they did, i nil tad
of fquattiog on his liams -, and inquired particularly into
the principles and caufes of every thing he obfervtd
about him, lending his perfonal afliftance in all that was
going forward, and even defiring the cook to let him
aid him in blowing the fire.
In order to conciliate their affeclions, Captain Wilfon
had prefented Arra Kooker, another of the king s bio-
thers, with a pair of trowfers ; but having conceived a
greater paflion for a w.hite fliirt, one was immediately
given to him } which he had no fooner put on, than he
began to dance and jump about with fo much joy, that
every body was diverted by his fingular geftures,^ and
the contrail which the linen formed with his {kin. I his
prince was about of a ftiort ftature, but fo plump
and fat that he was nearly as broad as he was long. He
pofleffed an abundant ftiare of good humour, and a won¬
derful turn for mimickry ; and had befidcs a counte¬
nance fo lively and expreffive, that though our people
at this time were ftrangers to almoft all he faid, yet his
face and geftures made them accurately comprehend
whatever he was deferibing.
After three or four days, Abba Thulle the king arri¬
ved with a great retinue. He was received with every
mark of refpea by the {hip’s company, who were exer-
cifed before him, and fired three volleys in different
pofitions. The furprife of the natives, their hooting, hal¬
looing, jumping, and chattering, produced a nolle al¬
moft equal to the difeharge of the muikets ; and w hen
one of the men ftiot a bird, which was done to dilplay
the effeiff of their arms, the furprife it occafioned was
wonderful. Some of the natives ran for it, and cai.itd
it to the king, who examined it with great attention, but
was unable to comprehend .how it could be wounded,
not having feen any thing pafs out of the gun.
Raa Kook expreffed great impatience to {how the king
whatever had impreffed his own mind and taking his
brother by the hand, led him to a grindftone which was
fixed behind one of the tents. He immediately put it
in motion, as he had frequently done before } at the ra¬
pidity of which the king was greatly aftonilhed, parti¬
cularly when he was informed that it would fiiarpen
iron. Captain Wilfon ordered a hatchet to be brought
and ground, that they might more readily perceive its
operation, when Raa Kook eagerly feized the handle,
and began turning it, appearing highly delighted to let
his brother fee how well he underltood it. The whole
appeared like fomething fupernatural •, but the circum-
ftance which moft bewildered their ideas was, how the
fparks of fire could come, and how a ftone fo wTell wet¬
ted could become fo foon dry.
The king then vifited the different tents, and inquired
about every thing he faw : all was novelty, and of courfe
interefted his attention. When he got to the tent where
the Chinefemen were, who had been brought with them
from Macao, Raa Kook, whofe retentive mind never
loft
Pele’.v
Iflands.
PEL [ ioi ] PEL
Pelew loft a fingle trace of any thing he had been informed
Iflands. of,'acquainted the king that thefe were a people quite
’"~v different from the Englifli, and that he had learnt there
were many other nations belides thefe interfperfed
through the world, feme of which fought with guns
and others with boarding-pikes, an inftrument which,
he-held very cheap in comparifon with the former.
When the king heard his brother difeouding about
a variety of nations, who all fpoke differently, and had
before him the example of the Chinefe, whofe language
was not the fame with the Englifh, he appeared inltant-
ly thoughtful and ferious, as if ftruck by conceptions
which had never before croffed his mind. He remained
a while penfive and bewildered j and this circumltance
impreffed on every one at the time an idea that there
was every reafon to imagine that there had never been
a communication between thofe people and any other
nation: and ‘indeed it is evident, that if Pere Papin
did really vifit them in 1710, they had before 1783
loft the remembrance of every trace of European man¬
ners. This indeed is not furprifing, as they had no
other record than knots fimilar to the quipes of Peru at
the landing of the Spaniards.
Raa Kook w'ould now fliow his brother the kitchen,
which was in the hollow of a rock, a little above the
cove. It was at the time w'hen the cook was preparing
dinner j and though the implements were exceedingly
fcanty, an iron pot, a tea kettle, a tin fauce-pan, with
a poker, a pair of tongs, and a frying-pan, were here of
fufticient confequence to excite admiration j nor were the
bellows now forgotten by Raa Kook, who taking them
up, as he explained their ufe to the king, feemed ambi¬
tious to let his brother fee what an adept he was at
blowing. The little bald cook, who was always elofe
fhaven, and never wore any thing on his head, was like-
wife pointed out to the king as an objeft of merriment
and curiofity.
Some time after this the king requefted five of Captain
Wilfon’s men to attend him in a war he was going to
make againft the inhabitants of a neighbouring illand
called Or oolongs who, as he faid, had done him an inju¬
ry. But before this requeft was made known, he had
long ftruggled with a delicacy of fentiment which no
one would have expected to find in regions fo disjoined
from the reft of mankind. This was no other than
that it might prove a temporary inconvenience to the
unfortunate ftrangers who had fought his protection, and
might be confidered by them as an ungenerous proceed¬
ing. It was, however, no fooner made known, than
Captain Wilfon inftantly complied •, and every face,
which had before been clouded with doubt and appre-
henfion, became immediately brightened and gay.
In this enterprife little more was done than braving
their enemies, ftripping fome cocoa-nut trees of their
fruit, and carrying off a number of yams and other pro-
vifions ; but in another, which was undertaken againft:
the ifland of Artingall, they were more fuccefsful, and
ihowed figns of the fame fanguinary difpofition which
fome demon has infufed into the whole human race.
Nine prifoners of war who had been taken upon this
occafion were cruelly put to death ; and notwithftand-
ing the Englith ftrongly remonftrated againft this pro-,
ceeding, all the arguments they could ufe were of no
avail. In juftification of their conduft, they alleged
the neceffity of doingit for their own fccurity, declaring
that they had formerly only detained them as menial fer- Pelew
vants, but that they always found means to get back to ,
their own country, and return with fueh a force as fre¬
quently made great depredations.
Having given this general account of the charafter
and conduct of thefe hitherto unknown people, we now
proceed to lay before our readers what we have learned
of their government, cuftoms, manners, and arts, toge¬
ther with a defeription of the face of their country. In
this the editor of Captain Willon’s voyage mult be our
guide; and if our narrative do not fatisfy the man of
fcience, it is to be obferved, that the Antelope was not
a fliip fentout purpofely to explore undifeovered regions,
nor were there people on board properly qualified to efti-
mate the manners of a new race of men ; they had
amongft them no philofophers, botanifts, or draughtfmen,
experienced in fuch fcientific purfuits as might enable
them to examine with judgment every objedt which
prefented itfelf. Diftrefs threw them upon thefe iflands j
and while they were there, all their thoughts w’ere oc¬
cupied on the means of liberating themfelves from a fi-
tuation of all others the moft aftlidling to the mind,
that of being cut off for ever from the fociety of the
reft of the world.
It,.however, clearly appears-, from their uniform tefti-
mony, that at Pelew the king was confidered as the firft
perfon in the government.
“ He was looked up to as the father of his people }
and though divefted of all external decorations of royal¬
ty, had every mark of diftindtion paid to his perfon.
His rupacks or chiefs approached him with the greateft:
refpedt ; and his common fubjects, whenever they paffed
near him, or had occafion to addrefs him, put their
hands behind them, and crouched towards the ground.
Upon all occurrences of moment, he convened the ru¬
packs and officers of ftate ; their councils were always
held in the open air, where the king firft ftatedthe bufi-
nefs upon which he had ailembltd them, and fubmitted
it to their confideration. Each rupack delivered his
opinion, but without rifing from his feat ; and when the
matter before them was fettled, the king Handing up
put an end to the council.
“ When any meffage was brought him, whether in
council or elfewhere, if it came by one of the common
people, it was delivered at fome diftance in a low voice
to one of the inferior rupacks, who, bending in a
humble manner at the king’s fide, delivered it in the
fame manner with Ids face turned afide. His com¬
mands appeared to be ablolute, though he adfed in no
important bufinefs without the advice of his chiefs ;
and every day in the afternoon, whether he was at Pe¬
lew or with the Engliffi, he went to fit in public for
the purpofe of hearing any requefts, or of adjufting any
difference or difpute which might have arifen among
his fubje<fts.”
But thefe, according to our editor, feidom happened j
for as their real wants were but few, and they faw no¬
thing to create artificial ones-, every one was chiefly oc¬
cupied with his own humble purfuits •, and as far as the
ftiip’s crew, who remained among them about three
months, could decide, they appeared to conduct them¬
felves towards each other with the greateft civility and
benevolence ; never wrangling or entering into quarrel-
fome contentions, as is euftomary among thofe who call
themfelves a polilhed and enlightened people. Even*
when
PcMw
Iflands.
PEL [102
wlien clulclrfcii fliowed a difpofition of this kind, they
ftrongly marked their difpleafure, by ftifling with re¬
buke their littlfe animofities.
The character of the king is thus drawn by the edi¬
tor : “ The excellent nlail who reigned over thefe fons
of nature, {bowed himfelf in every part of his conduft
firm, noble, generous, attd benevolent j there was a
dignity in all his deportment, a gentlertefs in all his
manners, and a warmth and fenfibility about his heart,
that won the love of all who approached him. Nature
had bellowed on him a contemplative mind, which be
had improved by thofe reflections that good fenfe dic¬
tated and obfervation confirmed; The happinefs of his
people feemed to be always in his thoughts; In order
more effectually to flimulate them to ufeful labour, he
had himfelf learnt all the few arts they poffeffed, and
was looked on in fome of them to be the belt workman
in his dominions. Placed as he was by Providence in
its obfeurer feenes, he lived beloved by his chiefs, and
revered by his people *, over whom, whilft he preferved
a dignity which diltinguiflied his fuperior ftation, he
reigned more as the father than the fovereign. The
eyes of his fubjefts beheld their naked prince with as
much awe and refpect as thofe are viewed with who
govern poliflied nations, and are decorated with all the
dazzling parade and ornaments of royalty ; nor was
the purple robe or the fplendid diadem neceffary to
point out a character which the mafterly hand of nature
had rendered id perfeCt.
Next in power to the king was his brother Raa
Kook, who was official general of all his forces. . It
was his duty to fummon the rupacks to attend the king
for whatever purpofe they were wanted. He was alfo
his prefumptive heir ; the fucceffion of Pelew not going
till it had nnfled throi
1
PEL
to the king’s children till it had palled through his bro¬
thers ; fo that after the demife of Abba Tbulle, the fo-
Vereignty would have defeended to Raa Kook } on his
demife to Arra Kooker ; and on the death of this laft it
Would have reverted to Qui Bill, the king’s eldell fon,
when Lee Boo, his fecond fon, of whom we have much
to fay, would have become the hereditary general.
The office of firft minifter is deferibed as follows :
« The king was always attended by a particular chief
or rupack, who did not appear to poflefs any hereditary
office, but only a delegated authority. He was always
near the king’s perfon, and the chief who was always
firft confulted j but whether his office was religious or
civil, or both, our people could not learn with any cer¬
tainty. He was not confidered as a warrior, or ever
bore'arms, and had only one wife, whereas the other
rupacks had two. The Englifh w'ere never invited to
his houfe, or introduced into it, although they were
•eondufted to thofe of almoft every other chief.”
Of the rupacks it is obferved, “ That they could
- tardy be regarded as chiefs or nobles j they Were not
all of the fame degree, as was plain by a difference in
the bone (a) they Wore : they generally attended the
king, and were always ready at his command to accom¬
pany him on any expedition with a number of canoes
• properly manned, and armed with darts and fpears, who
were to remain with him till they had his permifiion to
return home with their dependents. In this part of
their government we may trace an outline of the feudal
fyftem j but from the few opportunities our people had
of inveftigating points of internal government, it appear¬
ed that the titles of rupacks were perfonal badges of
rank and diftinction •, nor did they apprehend they were
hereditary honours, unlefs in the reigning family, who
muft of neceflity be of this clafs.”
As to property, it was underftood, “ That the people
poffeffed only fuch as arofe from their own work and la¬
bour, but no abfolute one in the foil, of which the king
appeared to be general proprietor. A man’s houfe, fur¬
niture, or canoe, was confidered as his private property,
as was alfo the land allotted him, as long as he occupied
and cultivated it} but whenever he removed with his
family to another place, the ground he held reverted to
the king, who gave it to whom he pleafed, or to thofet'
who folicited to cultivate it,”
All that part of the illand which they had an opportu¬
nity of feeing is faid to have been well cultivated. It was
covered with trees of various kinds and fizes, many of
which muft have been very large, as they made canoes
of their trunks, fome of which were capable of carrying
twenty-eight or thirty men. Among the timber trees
was noticed the ebony, and a tree which when pierced or
wounded, yielded a thick white liquor of theconfiftence
of cream. “ They had alfo a fpecies of the manchineel
tree, in cutting down of which our people frequently
got Hliftered and fwelledj the inhabitants pointed out
the caufe, faying it was owing to their being fprinkled
by the fap. This they reckoned among the unlucky
trees, and advifed our people againft the ufe of it.”
But the moft Angular tree noticed at Pelew, was one
in its fize and manner of branching notunlike our cher¬
ry tree, but in its leaves refembling the myrtle. Its
peculiarity was, that it had no bark, but only an out¬
ward coat of about the thicknefs of a card, which was
darker than the infide, though equally clofe in texture.
Its colour Was nearly that of mahogany, and the wood
was fo extremely hard, that few of the tools which the
Englith had could Work it. They alfo found cabbage-
trees, the wild bread-fruit, and another tree whofe fruit
fomething refembled an almond. But yams and cocoa-
nuts, being their principal articles of fuflenance, claimed
their chief attention.
The ifland Coorooraa, of which Pelew is the capital,
likewife produced plantains, bananas, Seville oranges,
and lemons, but neither of them in any confiderable
quantity. None of the iflands which the Englifli vifited
had any kind of grain. As to birds, they had plenty
of common cocks and hens, which, though not domefti-
cated, kept running about near their houfes and planta¬
tions •, and what appears extremely fingular is, that the
natives had never made any ufe of them, till our people
told them they were excellent eating. Pigeons they
accounted a great dainty $ but none but thofe of a cer¬
tain dignity were permitted to eat of them. 'I he En-
glilh left them two geefe, which were the only remains
of their live flock.
Krnm
Pfclcw
Hands.
(a) This was a mark of rank worn upon the wrift, with which Captain Wilfon was invefted by the king; but
•*wbat animal it came from our people could not learn.
PEL [i
P-elew From the defeription of the country it appears to be
very mountainous ; but fume of the valleys are repre-
fenled as extenfive and beautiful, affording many delight¬
ful profpefts. The foil being very rich produces great
abundance of grafs, which, as there are no cattle to eat
it, grows very high, and was fcorched and burnt up by
the fun. Our people faw no river at Pelew ; their fup-
plies of frefh water being obtained from fmall ftreams
and ponds, of which there are a great many.
From this account of the fcanty produce of thefe
iflands, it is evident that no luxury reigned among their
inhabitants, whofe principal article of food appears to be
fifh 5 they had no fait, nor did they make ufe of fauce or
any feafoning in any thing they ate. Their drink was
alfo as Ample as their diet : it principally confided of
the milk of the cocoa nut ; but upon particular occafions
they ufed a kind of fweet drink and fherbet, which lat¬
ter had the addition of fome juice of orange.
The iflands appeared to be populous, though to what
extent could not be afeertained. Their houfes were
raifed about three feet from the ground, upon ftones
which appeared as if hewn from the quarry. The inte¬
rior part of them was without any divifion, the whole
forming one great room, which rofe in a ridge like our
barns, the outfide being thatched thick and clofe with
bamboos or palm leaves. All their implements, uten-
Als, weapons of war, and canoes, are much of the fame
kind with thofe which were found in the South fea
iflands.
In their marriages they allow a plurality of wives,
though not in general more than two. When a woman
is pregnant, the utmoll attention is paid to her ; but
upon other occaficns no more refpeft is fhown to one
fex than the other. “ One of our people endeavouring
to make himfelf agreeable to a lady belonging to one of
the rupacks, by what we fhould call a marked affiduity,
Arra Kooker, with the gre.ateft civility, gave him to
underfland that it was not right to do fo.”
They have places particularly appropriated to fepul-
ture ; their graves being made nearly the fame as they
are in our country churchyards. The corpfe is attend¬
ed only by women, who at the place of interment make
a great lamentation. The men, however, affemble round
the body before it is carried to the grave, on which oc-
cafion they preferve a folemn filence ; “ their minds,
from principles of fortitude or philofophy, being armed
to meet the events of mortality with manly fubmiffion,
diverted of the external teftimony of human weakneR”
On the article of religion our editor obferves, “ That
among all the race of men whom navigation has brought
to our knowledge, few appear to be without a fenfeof
fomething like religion, however it may be mixed with
idolatry or fuperftition. And yet our people, durino-
their continuance with the natives of Pelew, never faw
any particular ceremonies, or obferved any thing that
had the appearance of public worfhip. But though
there was not found on any of the iflands they vifited
any place appropriated to religious rites, it would per¬
haps be going too far to declare that the people of Pe¬
lew had abfolutely no idea of religion. Independent of
external teftimony, there may be fuch a thing as the re¬
ligion of the heart, by which the mind may in awful
filence be turned to contemplate the God of Nature •
and though unbleffed by thofe lights which have point¬
ed to the Chriftian world an unerring path to happinefs
>3 ] PEL
and peace, yet they might, by the light "of reafon only, Pelew
have difeovered the efficacy of virtue, and the temporal ^anc^s'
advantages arifing from moral redlitude. 'r““
“ Superftition is a word of great latitude, and vaguely
defined : though it hath in enlightened ages been called
the offspring of ignorance, yet in no time hath it exifted
without having fome connedion with religion. Now
the people of Pelevv had beyond all doubt 1’ome portion
of it, as appeared by the wiffi exprefled by the king
when he faw the fliip building, that the Engliffi would
take out of it fome particular wood, which he perceived
they had made ufe of, and which he obferved was deem¬
ed an ill omen, or unpropitious.
“ They had alfo an idea of an evil fpirit, that often
counteraded human affairs. A very particular inftance
of this was feen when Mr Barker, a moft valuable mem¬
ber in the Englifti fociety, fell backwards from the fide
of the veffel, whilft he was on the flocks : Raa Kook,
who happened to be prefent, obferved that it was owing
to the unlucky wood our people had fuffered to remain
in the veffel, that the evil fpirit had occafioned this mif-
chief to Mr Barker.”
f hey likevvife appeared to entertain a ftrong idea of
divination, as was evident from the ceremonies they
pradifed before they undertook any enterprife of mo¬
ment. A few occurrences, which are mentioned in the
courfe of the narrative, would alfo lead us to believe
that they could not be altogether unacquainted with the
nature of religious worfhip ; for when they were prefent
at the public prayers of the Englifh, they expreffed no
furprife at what was doing, but feemed defirous to join
in them, and conftantly preferved the moft profound fi¬
lence. I he general even refufed to receive a meffage
from the king which arrived during divine fervice. And
upon another occafion, when Captain Wilfon told Lee
Boo, that good men would live again above, be replied,
with great earneftnefs, “ All fame Pelew j bad men
flay in earth ; good men go into fky ; become very-
beautiful j” holding his hand up, and giving a flutter¬
ing motion to his fingers. Some later voyagers, how¬
ever, have affirmed, that thefe people, notwithftanding
their fuperftition, have no notion whatever of a Deity j
a circumfiance to which it is extremely difficult to give
full credit.
The moft wonderful circumftances in the hiftory of '
this people, except that la-ft mentioned, are the acute-
nefs of their underftanding, their hofpitality, and the
implicit confidence which theyplaced in utter ftrangers.
That their manners were pleafing, and their fociety not
difagreeable, is evident from the conduft of Madan-
Blanchard, one of the feamen, who, when the veffel
was built and ready to take her departure with his cap¬
tain and his companions, was left behind at his own par¬
ticular requeft. That they had the fulleft confidence
in Captain Wilfon and his crew, is put beyond a doubt
by the behaviour of the king and Raa Kook when their
guefts were to leave them. Raa Kook folicited his
brother’s permiffion to accompany the Englifh, but from
prudential motives was refufed. The fovereign, how¬
ever, refolved to entruft his fecond fon Lee Boo to Cap¬
tain Wilfon’s care, that he might improve his mind, and
learn fuch things as at his return would benefit his
country.
The inftrudfions which he gave the young man, and
the fortitude which he' ffiawed upon this occafion,
would
PEL
[ IO+ 1
PEL
'Pulew
IflanAs.
Would have done honour to the moft enlightened mind.
( Upon delivering him to Captain Wilfon, he ufed thefe
expreffions : I would wilh you to inform Lee Boo
of all tilings which he ought to know, and make him
an Englifhman. Xhe fubjcct of parting with my fon
I have frequently revolved ; I am well aware that the
diftant countries he muft go through, differing much
from his own, may expofe him to dangers, as well as
difeafes, that are unknown to us here, in confequence
of which he may die ; I have prepared my thoughts to
this : I know that death is to all men inevitable y and
whether mv fon meets this event at Pelew or elfewhere
is immaterial. I am fatisfied, from what I have ob-
ferved of the humanity of your character, that if he is
'lick you will be kind to him and fhould that happen,
which your utmoft care cannot prevent, let it not hin¬
der you, or your brother, or your fon, or any of your
countrymen, returning here } I fhall receive you, or
any of your people, in friendlhip, and rejoice to fee you
again.” How noble ! This is the language of a king,
a father, and a philofopher, who would have been de¬
lighted to fee bis fon with European accomplifliments.
But, alas ! the fubfequent hiftory of this amiable youth
muft force a tear from the eye of every reader whofe
heart is not callous to the genuine feelings of nature
and humanity. As foon as they arrived at Macao, the
houfe into which he firft entered, and the different ar¬
ticles of furniture, fixed him in filent admiration } but
what ftruck his imagination moft was the upright walls
and flat ceilings of the rooms, being utterly unable to
comprehend how they could be fo formed. When he
was introduced to the ladies of the family, his deport¬
ment was fo eafy and polite, that it could be exceeded
by nothing but his abundant good nature } and at his
departure, his behaviour left on the mind of every
one prefent the impreflion, that, however great the fur-
prife might be which the feenes of a new world had
awakened in him, it could hardly be exceeded^ by that
which his own amiable manners and native polifti would
excite in others.
They were now conduced to the houfe of an Eng-
lifli gentleman, who introduced them into a large hall,
which was lighted up, with a table in the middle, co¬
vered for fupper, and a fideboard handfomely decorated.
Here a new icene burft at once upon Lee Boo’s mind •,
he was all eye, all admiration. The veflels of glafs par¬
ticularly rivetted his attention ; but when he furveyed
himfelf in a large pier glafs at the upper end of the hall,
he w'as in raptures with the deception. It was in truth,
to him, a feene of magic, a fairy tale.
Soon after the people of the veffel came on ftiore,
fome of them went to purchafe things they were in want
of *, in doing which they did not forget Lee Boo, w'ho
was a favourite with them all. Among the trinkets
they brought him was a firing of large glafs beads, the
firft fight of which almoft threw him into an ecftacy :
he hugged them with a tranfport which could not have
been exceeded by the interefted poffeffor of a firing of
oriental pearls. His imagination fuggefted to him that
he held in his hand all the wealth the world could
afford him. He ran with eagernefs to Captain Wilfon
to fhow him his riches, and begged he would get him
a Chinefe veffel to carry them to the king his father,
that he might fee what the Englilh had done for him •,
adding, that if the people faithfully executed their
charge, he would at their return prefent them with one
or two beads as a reward for their fervices. t
Having no quadrupeds at Pelew, the flieep, goats,
and other cattle, which he met with at Macao, were
viewed with wonder j but foon after, feeing a man pafs
the houfe on horfeback, he was fo much aftonilhed,
that he wanted every one to go and look at the ftrange
fight. After the matter, however, was explained to
him, he was eafily perfuaded to get upon horfeback
himfelf*, and when he was informed what a noble, do¬
cile,,and ufeful animal it was, he befought the captain
to fend one to his uncle Raa Kook, as he was fure it
would be of great fervice to him.
Omitting a number of other particulars of this kind,
which excited his curiofity and ftiowed the excellent
difpofition of his heart, we ftiall follow him to Eng¬
land, the country from which he was never to return.
Here he had not been long before he was fent to an aca¬
demy to be inftru&ed in reading and writing, which he
was extremely eager to attain, and moft afliduous in
learning. His temper was mild and compaflionate in
the higheft degree 5 but it was at all times governed by
diferetion and judgment. If he faw the young alking
relief, he would rebuke them with what little Englifti
he had, telling them it was a ftiame to beg when they
were able to work •, but the entreaties of old age he
could never withftand, faying, “ Muft give poor old
man, old man no able to work.”
He always addreffed Mr Wilfon by the name of
Captain, but never would call Mrs Wilfon by any other
name than mother, looking on that as a mark of the
greateft refpeft j and fuch was the gratitude of his heart
for the kindnefs they (bowed him, that if any of the fa¬
mily were ill, he always appeared unhappy, would creep
foftly up to the chamber, and fit filent by the bediide
for a long time together without moving, peeping gent¬
ly from time to time between the curtains, to fee if they
flept or lay (till.
He was now proceeding with hafty ftrides in gaining
the Englifti language, writing, and accounts, when he
was overtaken by that fatal difeafe, the fmallpox, which
the greateft pains had been taken to guard him againft
and notwilhftanding the utmoft care and attention of
his phyfician, he fell a viaim to this fcourge of the hu¬
man race.
Upon this trying oceafion, his fpirit Avas above com¬
plaining, his thoughts being all engroffed by the kind¬
nefs of his benefaaors and friends. He. told his at¬
tendant, that his father and mother ivould grieve very
much, for they knerv he was fiek. This he repeated
feveral times, “ and begged him to go to Peleiv, and
tell Abba Thulle that Lee Boo take much drink to
make fmallpox go away, but he die ; that the captain
and mother very kind ; all Englifti very good men ;
much furry he could not fpeak to the king the number
of fine things the Englifti had got.” Then he reckoned
up the prefents which had been given him, defiring that
they might be properly diftributed among the chiefs,
and requefting that particular care might be taken of
two glafs pedeftals, which he begged might be prefent-
ed to his father.
We have given this ftiort hiftory of Lee Boo, becaufe
it exhibits in a ftrong light the manners of the natives
of the Pelew iflands, to which avc know nothing fimilar
in the hiftory of man from the favage ftate to that of
civilization.
Pelerv
Iflands.
PEL [ 105 ] PEL
Iff^ civilizat-i°n* They appear to have had no communica-
‘iric ‘ , tion with any other people, and were yet neither
treacherous, cruel, nor cowardly. They are a ftriking
inftance of the wreaknefs of all the plnlofophic theories
by which mankind are ufually traced from their origin
through the feveral ftages of favagifm, barbarifm, and
civilization, down to the period of refinement, ending
in effeminacy.
Since the publication of Captain Wilfon’s voyage
we have fome further accounts of thefe illands, all con¬
firming what we wrere firfl. told of the gentlenefs of
the people. Two armed {hips were, by order of the
court of direftors, fitted out at Bombay, for the pur-
pofe of furveying the ifiands of Pelew, and furnifiling
the natives with domeftic animals, and fuch other things
as might add to the comforts of life. Among the pre-
fents to the king were fwords and other European im¬
plements of war; of which it is at leal! pofiible that he
and his people might have been equally happy had they
remained for ever in total ignorance. The foundation
of a fort was likewife laid on one of the ifiands, and pof-
feflion of it taken in the name of the Englifii; we trufi:
with no remote view of enfiaving the people, or of driv¬
ing them from their native country. It has been like¬
wife announced in a late publication, that Captain
M‘Cluer, who commanded the armed fliips, was fo de¬
lighted with the manners of the king and his fubjefts,
that he has refolved to pafs the remainder of his days on
thofe ifiands at the early age of 34. The following is the
fequel of the adventure here alluded to. The two veflels
called the Panther and Endeavour, under the command
of Captain M‘Cluer, were fitted out for a voyage to the
Pelew ifiands, to acquaint Abba Thulle the king with
the death of his favourite fon Lee Boo, who WTent to
England with Captain Wilfon in the Antelope in 1783,
where he died. On the 24th of Auguft 1790 Captain
IVPCluer failed from Bombay, having on board Meflrs
White and Wedgeborough, who had been fiiipwrecked
with Captain Wilfon, and w7ere much efteemed by the
king of thofe ifiands, at which he arrived in January
1791. Abba Thulle, the king, received them with de-
monftrations of joy as EnglHhmen, of whom he had pre-
vioufly found reafon to entertain a very favourable opi¬
nion. The prefents which the company fent to Abba
Thulle were landed with all convenient fpeed. Thefe
coniifted of a confiderable quantity of live ftoek, fuch as
cows, bulls, ewes, rams, goats, -pigs, and poultry, to¬
gether with arms, ammunition, and packages of’hard¬
ware, comprifing a number of articles which could not
fail to be of lingular advantage to the natives. The
grateful king was aftonifiied at the meaning of all this,
and being informed that it was a fmall acknowledge¬
ment for his generous treatment of the crew of the An¬
telope when wrecked on his coaft, he exprefled his re¬
gret that it was not in his power to have done more.
With the nature and fituation of thefe ifiands, as wmll
as the amiable and engaging manners of the natives,
Captain IVPCluer was fo we'll pleafed, that he confidered
them as a paradife, where he could fpend with pleafure
the remainder of his days. Soon after thefe tranfadlions
the Panther failed in the month of February from the
Pelew ifiands for China, the Endeavour remaining be¬
hind till her return, which happened on the 10th of
June the fame year. Having vifited thefe ifiands a
third time, after a furvey of the coaft of New Guinea,
Vol. XVI. Part I.
he fignified to the officers of the Panther his intention of
refigning the command of the expedition, and remain¬
ing on the ifiands. To render his new7 fituation as com¬
fortable as poffible, he requefted from Mr Wedge-
borough about 20 mufkets with bayonets, 12 piftols,
12, pole-axes, 2 wall-pieces, fufee and piftol ammuni¬
tion, an anvil, bellows, frame-faw, Handing vice, &c.
After a confultation with the other officers, it was
agreed on to fend him thefe articles, on condition that
they (hould be accounted for by his attorneys, if the
Eaft India Company ffiould not be fatisfied with the
meafure. This refolution was carried into effe£l in the
month of February 1793.
Scarcely, however, had he been 15 months in his new7
fettlement till he became impatient to abandon it, and
he foon after fet fail for Macao. He returned to the
Pelew iflands in the year 1795, for the purpofe of re¬
moving his family •, and failing from thence to Bom¬
bay, he touched at Bencoolen, where he met with a
frigate bound for Bombay, into which he put a part of
his family with fix Pelew women, failing himfelf with
the other natives towards Bengal, from which lafi place
he fet fail fome time after } but neither he nor any of
his crew have been fince heard of.
PELI AS, in fabulous hiftory, twin-brother of Neleus,
was fon of Neptune by Tyro, daughter of Salmoneus.
His birth w'as concealed by his mother, who wiftied her
father to be ignorant of her incontinence. He was ex-
pofed in the woods, but his life was preferved by
ffiepherds } and he received the name of Pe/ias, from
a fpot of the colour of /ead in his face. Some time af¬
ter Tyro married Cretheus, fon of Aiolus, king of lol-
chos, and became mother of three children, of whom
fEfon was the eldeft. Pelias vifited his mother, and
was received in her family-} and after the death of
Cretheus, he unjuftly feized the kingdom, which be^
longed not to him, but to the children of Tyro by the
deceafed king. To (Lengthen himfelf in his ufurpation,
Pelias confulted the oracle ; and when he Was told to
beware of one of the defeendants of AEolus, who {hould
come to his court with one foot ftiod and the other
bare, he privately removed the fon of AEfon, after he
had openly declared that he was dead. Thefe precau¬
tions proved vain. Jafon, the fon of AEfon, who had
been educated by Chiron, returned to lolchos, when
come to years of maturity ; and having loft one of his
(hoes in-crofting the river Anaurus or the Evenus, Pe¬
lias immediately perceived that this was the perfon
whom he had fo much dreaded. His unpopularity
prevented him from afling with violence to a ftranger,
whofe uncommon drefs and commanding afpebl had
raifed admiration ill the people. But his aftoniffiment
v’as greatly excited, when he faw Jafon arrive at his
palace, with his friends and his relations, and boldly
demand the kingdom which he had ufurped. Pelias,
confcious that his complaints were well founded, en¬
deavoured to divert his attention, and told him that he
would voluntarily refign the crowm to him, if he went
to Colchis to avenge the death of Phryxus, the fon of
Athamas, 'whom AEeres had cruelly' murdered. He
further declared, that the expedition would be attend¬
ed with the greateft glory, and that nothing but the
infirmities of old age had prevented himfelf from
vindicating the honour of his country, and the iniuries
of his family, by puniftiing the aflaffin. This fo warm1
O ly
Pelew
lilands,
Pelias.
PEL [ ic
Pelias ]y recommended, was with equal warmth accepted by
H the young hero, and his intended expedition was made
. known all over Greece. While Jafon was abfent in the
Argonautic expedition, Pelias murdered Ailon and
all his family •, but, according to the more received
opinion of Ovid, ALfon was ftill living when the Ar¬
gonauts returned, and he was reftored to the flower of
youth by the magic of Medea. L'his change in the
vigour and the conftitution of ALfon aftonifhed all tne
inhabitants of lolchos •, and the daughters of Pelias, who
have received the patronymic of Peliades, expreffed
their defire to fee their father’s infirmities vanifh by
the fame powerful magic. Medea, who wifhed to a-
venge the injuries which her hufband Jafon had re¬
ceived from Pelias, railed the defires of the Peliades,
by cutting an old ram to pieces, and boiling the defh
in a cauldron, and then turning it into a fine young
lamb. After they had feen this fuccefsful experiment,
the Peliades cut their father’s body to pieces, after they
had drawn all the blood from his veins, on the aflu-
rance that Medea would replenifh them by her won¬
derful power. The limbs were immediately put into
a cauldron of boiling water ; but Medea fuftered the
fiefh to be totally confumed, and refufed to give the
promifed affiflance, and the bones of Pelias did not
even receive a burial. The Peliades were four in num¬
ber, Alee lie, Pifidice, Pelopea, and Hippothoe, to
whom Hyginus adds Medufa. Their mother’s name
was Anaxibia, the daughter of Bias or Philomache, the
daughter of Amphion. After this parricide, the Pe¬
liades fled to the court of Admetus, where Acaflus, the
fon-in-law of Pelias, purfued them, and took their pro¬
tector prifoncr. The Peliades died, and were buried in
Arcadia.
PELICAN, a genus of birds belonging to the order
of anferes. See Ornithology Index.
Pelican, in Chemi/iry, is a glafs alembic confifling
of one piece, with a tubulated capital, from which two
oppofite and crooked beaks pafs out, and enter again at
the bottom of the cucurbit. This veffel was contrived
by the older chemifls for a continued diftillation, but has
gone into difufe.
PELICANUS, a genus of birds belonging to the
order of anferes. See ORNITHOLOGY Index.
PELION (Diodorus Siculus, &c.), Pe/ios, mms
underftood, (Mela, Virgil, Horace, Seneca), a moun¬
tain of Theffaly near Ofla, and hanging over tlu; Sinus
Pelafgicus or Pegaficus; its top covered with pines,
the fides with oaks, (Ovid). Said alfo to abound in
wild afh, (Val. Flacctis). From this mountain was cut
the fpear of Achilles, called pelias, which none but him-
felf could wield, (Homer). Dicearchus, Ariflotle’s
fcholar, found this mountain I 2 90 paces higher than any
other of Theflfaly, (Pliny). Pelius, Cicero; Peliacus,
(Catullus), the epithet.
PELLA, in Ancient Geography, a town fituated on
the confines of Emathia, a difiriA of Macedonia, (Pto¬
lemy) ; and therefore Herodotus allots it to Bottiaea, a
maritime diftrift on the Sinus Thermaicus. It was the
royal refidence, fituated on an eminence, verging to the
foutb-weft, encomnailed with unpaffahle marfhes fummer
and winter: in which, next the town, a citadel like an
ifiand riles, placed on a bank or dam, a prodigious work,
both {Importing the wall and fecuring it from any hurt
by means of the circumfluent water. At a diftance, it
2
5 ] PEL
feems clofe to the town, but is feparated from it by the Pella,
Ludias, running by the walls, and joined to it by a Pelletier,
bridge, (Livy) : diftant from the fea 120 ftadia, the v
Ludias being fo far navigable, (Strabo). Mela calls
the town Pelle, though moil Greek authors write Pel/a.
The birth-place of Philip, who enlarged it; and after¬
wards of Alexander, (Strabo, Mela). Continued to be
the royal refidence down to Perfes, (Livy). Called
Pella Colonia, (Pliny); Colonia Juiia Augnjla, (Coin).
It afterwards came to decline, with but few and mean in¬
habitants, (Lucian). It is now called T« n«eA<*7m«, the
Little Palace, (Holftenius). Pellceus, both the gentiliti-
ous name and the epithet, (Lucian, Juvenal, Martial.)
—Another Pella, (Polybius, Pliny) ; a town of the
Decapolis, on the other fide the Jordan; abounding in
water, like its cognominal town in Macedonia; built
by the Macedonians, (Strabo); by Seleueus, (Eufebius);
anciently called Bntis, (Stephanus); Apamea, (Strabo);
fituated 35 miles to the north-eafl of Gerafa, (Ptolemy).
Thither the Chriftians, jufl before the fiege of Jerufalem %
by Titus, were divinely admonifhed to fly, (Eufebius).
It was the utmoft boundary of the Pertea, or Transjor¬
dan country, to the north, (Jofephus).
PEI^LETIER, Bertrand, a celebrated chemical
philofopher, was born at Bayonne in 1761, and very
foon difeovered a ftrong predilcAion for the fciences,
to cherifh which he had every thing in his father’s
houfe that could be reafonably defired, and here he ac¬
quired the elements of that art for which he was after¬
wards fo famous. His fubfequent progrefs he made
under Darcet, who admitted him among the pupils at¬
tached to the chemical laboratory of France. Five
years intenfe application under fuch a mafler, gave him
a flock of knowledge very uncommon at his years. As
a convincing proof of this, he publidled, when only 21,
a number of valuable obfervations on arfenic acid, pro¬
ving, contrary to the opinion of Maequer, that, fulphuric
acid diftilled from the arfeniate of potafli, difengages the
acid of arfenic.
Encouraged by the fuccefs which attended his firfl
labours of a chemical nature, he communicated his re¬
marks on the cryflallization of fulphur, cinnabar, and
the deliquefeent (alts; the examination of zeolites, par¬
ticularly the falfe zeolite of Freyburg, which he difeo¬
vered to be merely an ore of zinc. He alfo made ob¬
fervations on the oxygenated muriatic acid, in reference
to the abfiirption of oxygen ; on the formation of others,
chiefly the muriatic and the acetous; and a number of
memoirs on the operation of phofpborus made in the
large way; its eonverfion into phofphonc acid, and its
combination with fulphur and moll metallic fubflances.
It was by bis operations on phofphorus that he burnt
himfelf fo feverely as nearly to endanger his life. Imme-
diately on his recovery he began the analyfisof different
varieties of plumbago from France, England, Germany,
Spain, and America, and gave both novelty and intereft to
his work, even after the labours of Scheele on the fame
fubjedt had made their appearance. The analyfis of
carbonate of barytes led him to make experiments on
animals, from which he difeovered that this earth is a
real poifon, in whatever way adminiffered. Strontites
was alfo analyfedby this celebrated chemift, which was
found to contain a new earth.
Pelletier difeovered a procefs for preparing verditer
in the large way, equal, it is faid, in beauty to that
which
PEL [i
Pelletier which is manufaftured in England. He was alio
among the firft who (hewed the poflibility of refining
bell metal, and feparating the tin. His firif experi¬
ments were pe rformed at Paris, after which he went to
the foundery at liomilly, to prove their accuracy in the
large way. He was foon after this admitted a member
of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, and afterwards
accompanied Borda and General Daboville to La Fere,
to aflift in experiments on a new fpecies of gunpowder.
Being obliged to pafs great part of the day in the open
air during a cold and moilf feafon, in order to render his
experiments more decifive, Ins health, which xvas natu¬
rally delicate, was very much impaired. He partly re¬
covered it, but again fell a vidtim to his thirl! after
knowledge, for he w'as at one time nearly deflroyed by
infpiring the oxygenated muriatic acid gas, which occa-
fioned a convulfive afthma, which at times appeared to
abate, but was found to be incurable. The. affillanee
of art was infufficient to fave him, and he died at Paris
on the 21ft of July 1797, of a pulmonary confumption,
in the flower of his age, being only 36.
PELLETS, in Heraldry, thofe roundles that are
black ; called alfo ogrejjes and gunjlones, and by the
French torteaux defable.
PELLICLE, among phyficians, denotes a thin film
or fragment of a membrane. Among chemifts it figni-
fies a thin furface ofcryflals uniformly fpread over a fa-
line liquor evaporated to a certain degree.
PELLISON, or Pellison Fontamer, Paul,
one of the finelt geniufes of the 17th century, was the
fon of James Pellifon counfellor at Caftres. He Was
born at Beziers in 1624, and educated in the Proteflant
religion. He ftudied with fuccefs the Latin, Greek,
French, Spanilh, and Italian tongues, and applied him-
ielf to the reading the bell authors in thefe languages •,
after which he ftudied the law at Caftres with reputa¬
tion. In 1652 he purchafed the poll of fecretary to the
king, and five years after became firft deputy to M.
Fouquet. He fuffered by the difgrace of that minifter j
and in 1661 wras confined in the Baftile, from whence
he w'as not difcharged till four years after. During his
confinement he applied himfelf to the ftudy of contro-
verfy •, and in 1670 abjured the Proteftant religion.
Lours XIV. beftow'ed upon him an annual penfion of
2000 crowns j and he likewife enjoyed feveral polls. In
1676 he had the abbey of Gimeht, and fome years after
the priory of St Orens at Audi. He died in 1693.
His principal works are, 1. The Hiftory of the French
Academy. 2. Reflexions on religious Difputes, &c. in
4 vo^- tsmo. 3. The Hiftory of Louis XIV. 4. Hi-
dlorical Letters and Mifcelianies, in 3 vols. 1 2mo.
PELOPIA, a feftival obferved by the Eleans in
honour of Pelops. A ram was facrifieed on the ocea-
fion, which both pnefts and people were prohibited
Trom partaking of, on pain of excommunication from
Jupiter’s temple : the neck only was allotted to the of¬
ficer who provided wood for the facrifice. This officer
was called 1 and white poplar was the only wood
■made ufe of at this Lolemnity.
PELOPONNESUS, (Dionyfius), a large peninfula
to the fouth of the reft of Greece ; called, as it were
Pelopis nefus, or itifula, though properly not an ifland,
but a peninfula •, yet wanting but little to be one, viz.
the ifthmus of Corinth, ending in a point like the leaf
of the platane or plane tree. Anciently called Apia
07 ] PE L
and Pelufgut ; a penir.fula fecond to no other country PXopon-
for noblenels ; fituated between two leas, the Egean nel,Ui
and Ionian, and refembling a platane-leaf, on account pe]u|uin
of its angular receffes or bays, (Pliny, Strabo, Mela). f
Strabo adds from Homer, that one ot its ancient names
was Argos, with the epithet Achnicum, to diftinguilh it
from 1 heflaly, called Pelafgicum. Divided into fix
parts ; namely, Argolis, Laconica, Meffenia, Elis,
Achaia, and Arcadia, (Mela). Now called the Morea.
PELOPS, in fabulous hiftory, the iim of Tantalus
king of Phrygia, went into Elis, where he married
Hippodamia the daughter of Oenomaus king of that
country ; and became fo powerful, that all the terri¬
tory which lies beyond the ifthmus, and compofes a
confiderable part of Greece, w'as called Peloponnefus,
that is, the ijland of Pelops, from his name and the
word Nif*.
PEL I A, a fmall, light, manageable buckler, ufed
by the ancients. It was worn by the Amazons. The
pelta is faid by fome to have refembled an ivy leaf in
form ; by others it is compared to the leaf of an Indian
fig-tree 5 and by Serbius to the moon in her firft
quarter.
PELT ARIA, a genus of plants belonging to the
tetradynamia clafs, and in the natural method rank¬
ed under the 39th order, Siliquofe. See Botany
Index.
PELUSIUM, in Ancient GeograpAu/, a ftrong eitv
of Egypt, without the Delta, diftant' 20 ftadia from
the fea ; fituated amidif mar flies ; and hence its name
and its ftrength. Called the key or inlet of Egypt (Dio¬
dorus, Hirtius) ; which being taken, the reft of Egypt
lay quite open and expofed to an enemy. Called Sin
(Ezekiel). Pelufiacus the|epithet (Virgil, Diodorus).
From its ruins arofe Damietta. E. Long. 22°, N. Lat.
O O 7
31 •
Mr Savary gives us the following account of this
places “ The period of its foundation, as well as that Letters on
of the other ancient cities of Egypt, is loft in the uh-Egypt.
fcurity of time. It flourifhed long before Herodotus.
As it commanded the entrance of the country on the
fide of Alia, the Pharaohs rendered it a conliderable
fortrefs c one of them raifed a rampart of 30 leagues in
length from the walls of this town to Heliopolis. But
w'e find from the hiftory of nations that the long wall of
China, thofe which the wreaknels of the Greek emperors
led them to build round Conftantinople, and many
others, built at an immenfe expence, were but feeble
barriers again!! a warlike people : thefe examples have
taught Us, that a Hate, to be in fecurity againft a foreign
yoke, muft form warriors within itfelf, and that men mull
be oppofed to men. This rampart which covered Pelu-
fium, did not flop Cambyfes, who attacked it with a
formidable army. The feeble cbaraXer of the fon of
Amafis, unable to prevent the defertion of 200,oco
Egyptians, who went to found a colony beyond the ca¬
taracts, had not force fufficient to oppofe that torrent
which broke in upon his country. Cambyfes, after a
bloody battle, wherein he cut his enemies to pieces, en¬
tered Pelufium in triumph. That memorable day, which
faw the defertion of one part of the Egyptian militia
and the ruin of the other, is the truo epoch of the fubju-
gation of that rich country. Since, that period, it has
palled under the yoke of the Perfians, the Macedonians,
the Romans, the Greeks, the Arabs, and the Turks. A
O 2 continued
p £ M [ 108 ] P E M
Pelufium continued ilavery of more than 2000 years feems to fe¬
ll cure them an eternal bondage.
Pembroke. „ fjerodotus, who vifited Pelufium fome years after
the conqueft of Cambyfes, relates an anecdote which
I cannot omit : ‘ I furveyed (fays he) the plain where
the two armies had fought. It was covered with hu¬
man bones collected in heaps. Thofe of the Perfians
were on one fide, thofe of the Egyptians on the other,
the inhabitants of the country having taken care to fepa-
rate them after the battle. They made me take notice
of a fact which would have appeared very aftonilhing to
me without their explanation of it. The Ikulls of the
Perfians, which were flight and fragile, broke on being
lightly itruck with a ftone ; thofe of the Egyptians,
thicker and more compaft, refifted the blows of flint.
This difference of folidity they attributed to the cuftom
the Perfians have of covering their heads from their in¬
fancy with the tiara, and to the Egyptian cuftom of
leaving the heads of their children bare and fhaved, ex-
pofed to the heat of the fun. This explanation appear¬
ed fatisfaftory to me.* Mr Savary affhres us that the
fame cuftoms ft ill fubfift in Egypt, of which he fre¬
quently had ocular demonftration.
“ Pelufium (continues he), after pafling under the
dominion of Perfia, was taken by Alexander. The brave
Antony, general of cavalry under Gabinius, took it from
his fucceffors, and Rome reftored it to Ptolemy Auletes.
Pompey, whofe credit had eftablifhed this young prince
on the throne of Egypt, after the fatal battle of Pharla-
lia took refuge at Pelufium. He landed at the entrance
of the harbour; and, on quitting his wife Cornelia and
his foA, he repeated the two following verfes of Sopho¬
cles, ‘ The free man who feeks an afylum at the court
of a’king will meet with-flavery and chains.’ He there
found death. Scarcely had he landed on the (hore, when
Theodore the rhetorician, of the ifle of Chio, Septimius
the courtier, and Achillas the eunuch, who commanded
his troops, wilhing for a viftim to prefent to his con¬
queror, {tabbed him with their fvvords. At the fight of
the affaflins Pompey covered his face with his mantle,
and died like a Roman. They cut off his head, and em¬
balmed it, to offer it to Caefar, and left his body naked
on the (bore. It was thus that this great man, whofe
warlike talents had procured the liberty of the feas for
the Romans, and added whole kingdoms to their ex¬
tended empire, was bafely flain in fetting foot on the
territory of a king who owed to him his crown. Philip
his freedman, colfeaing together, under favour .of the
night, the wreck of a boat, and ftripping off his own
cloak to cover the fad remains of his matter, burnt
them according to the cuftom. An old foldier, who had
ferved under Pompey’s colours, came to mingle his tears
with thofe of Philip, and to aflift him in performing the
laft offices to the manes of his general.—Pelufium was
often taken and pillaged during the wars of the Romans,
the Greeks, and the Arabs. But in fpite of fo many
difafters, flie preierved to the time of the Crufades her
riches and her commerce. The Chriftian princes having
taken it by ftorm, lacked it. It never again rofe from
its ruins } and the inhabitants went to Hamietta. See
Damietta.
PELVIS, in Anatomy. See Anatomy Index.
PEMBROKE, Mary, Countess of. See Her-
BERT. > . .
Pembroke, in Pcmbrokeflrire, in England, is the
3
principal town in the county. It is ntuated upon a p ®
creek of Milford-Haven, and in the moft pleafant part
of Wales, being about 256 miles diftant from London.
It is the county-town, and has two handfome bridges
over two fmall rivers which run into a creek, forming
the wreft fide of a promontory. It js well inhabited,
has feveral good houfes, and but one church. JLhere is
alfo a cuftomhoufe in it. 1 here are feveral merchants
in it, who, favoured by its fituation, employ near 200
fail on their own account j fo that, next to Caermarthen,
it is the largeft and richeft town in South Wales. It
has one long ftraight ftreet, upon a narrow part of. a.
rock ; and the tw-o rivers feem to be two arms of Mil¬
ford-Haven, which ebbs and flows clofe up to the town.
It was in former times fortified with walls, and a mag¬
nificent caftle feated on a rock at the weft end of the
town. In this rock, under the chape], is a natural ca¬
vern called Wogan, remarked for having a very fine
echo : this is fuppofed to have been a ftore-room for the
garrifon, as there is a ftaircafe leading into it from the
caftle. This ftrudture being burnt a few years after it
was erefted, it was rebuilt. It is remarkable for being
the birth-place of Henry VII. and for the brave defence
made by the garrifon for Charles I. The inhabitants
amount to 1842.
PEMBROKESHIRE, a county of Wrales, bounded
on all fides by the Irifli fea, except on the eaft, where it
joins to Caermarthenfhire, and on the north-eaft to Car-
diganfhire. It lies the neareft to Ireland of any county
in Wales; and extends in length from north to fouth
3 5 miles, and from eaft to weft 29, and is about 140 hv
circumference. It is divided into feven hundreds ^ con¬
tains about 420,000 acres, one city, eight market-towns,
two forefts, 145 parifties, about ir,8oo houfes, and in
1801 about 56,000 inhabitants. It lies in the province of
Canterbury, and diocefe of St David’s. It fends three
members to parliament, viz. one for the {hire, one for
Haverfordweft, and one for the town of Pembroke..
The air of Pembrokelhire, confidering its fituation,
is good ; but it is in general better the farther from the
fea. As there are but few mountains, the foil is gene¬
rally fruitful, efpecially on the fea-ooafts; nor are its
mountains altogether unprofitable, but produce pafture
fufficient to maintain great numbers of ftieep and goats.
Its other commodities are corn, cattle, pit-coal, marl,,
fifti, and fowl. Among thefe laft are falcons, called
here peregrines. Amongft the birds common here are
migratory fea-birds, that breed in the ifle of Ramfey,
and the adjoining rocks called The Eifhop and his Clerks.
About the beginning of April fuch flocks of fea-birds,
of feveral kinds, refort to thefe rocks, as appear incre¬
dible to thofe who have not feen them.
The inhabitants of this county make a very pleafant
durable fire of culm, which is the duft of coal made up
into balls rvith a third part of mud. The county is
well watered by the rivers Clethy, Dougledy, Cledhew,
and Teive ; which laft parts it from Cardiganfliire.
There is a divifion of the county ftyled Rhos in the
Welch, by which is meant a large green plain. J. his
is inhabited by the defcendants of the Flemings, placed
there by Henry I. to curb the Welch, who were never
able to expel them, though they often attempted it.
On the coafts of this county, as well as on thofe of
Glamorganfliire and the Severn fea, is found a kind of
alga or laver, which is gathered in fpring ; and of which
0 the
PEN
Pembroke- tBe inhabitants make a fort of food, called in Welch
^;ire* Ihavan, and in Englifh black butter. Having waftied it
, ^ ' , clean, they lay it to fvveat between two flat flones, then
fhred it fmall, and knead it well, like dough for bread,
and then make it up into great balls or rolls, which is
by fome eaten raw, and by others fryed with oatmeal and
butter. It is accounted excellent againft many diftem-
pers.
PEN, a town of Somerfetfhire, in England, on the
north-eaft fide of Wincaunton, where Kenwald a Weft
Saxon king fo totally defeated the Britons, that they
were never after able to make head againft the Saxons j
and where, many ages after this, Edmund Ironfide
gained a memorable vi&ory over the Danes, who had
before, i. e. in loot, defeated the Saxons in that fame
place.
Pen, a little inftrument, ufually formed of a quill,
ferving to write withal.
Pens are alfo fometimes made of filver, brafs, or
iron.
Dutch PENS, are made of quills that have palled
through hot afhes, to take off the groffer fat and moi-
fture, and render them more tranfparent.
Fountain PEN, is a pen of filver, brafs, &c. contri¬
ved to contain a confiderable quantity of ink, and let
it flow out by gentle degrees, fo as to fupply the writer
a long time without being under the neceffity of taking
Plate frefh ink.
CGCCVII. The fountain pen is compofed of feveral pieces. The
* middle piece, fig. I. carries the pen, which is ferewed
into the infide of a little pipe, which again is foldered
to another pipe of the fame bignefs as the lid, fig. 2.; in
which lid is foldered a male ferew, for fere wing on the
cover, as alfo for flopping a little hole at the place and
hindering the ink from pafling through it. At the
other end of the piece, fig. 1. is a little pipe, on the
outfide of which the top-cover, fig. 3. may be ferewed.
In the cover there goes a port-crayon, which is to be
ferewed into the laft-mentioned pipe, in order to flop the
end of the pipe, into which the ink is to be poured by
a funnel. To ufe the pen, the cover fig. 2. muft be
taken off, and the pen a little fliaken, to make the ink
run more freely.
There are, it is well known, fome inftruments ufed
by praftical mathematicians, which are called pens, and
which are diftinguifhed according to the ufe to which
they are principally applied j as for example, the draw¬
ing pen, &c. an inftrument too common to require a
particular defeription in this place. But it may be pro¬
per to take fome notice of the geometric pen, as it is
not fo,well known, nor the principles on which it de¬
pends fo obvious.
The geometric PEN is an inftrument in which, by a
circular motion, a right line, a circle, an ellipfe, and
other mathematical figures, may be deferibed. It was
firft invented and explained by John Baptift Suardi, in
a work intitled Nuovo Injlromentiper la Defcri%%ione
di diverfe Curve Antichi e Moderne, &c. Several wri¬
ters had obferved the curves arifing from the compound
motion of two circles, one moving round the other 5 but
Suardi firft realized the principle, and firft reduced it
to practice. It has been lately introduced with fuccefs
into the fleam-engine by Watt and Bolton. The num¬
ber of curves this inftrument can deferibe is truly ama¬
zing j the author enumerates not lefs than 1273, which
PEN
(he fays) can be deferibed by it in the fimple form. We
fliall give a fhort defeription of it from Adam’s Geome-, r>enancc-,
metrical and Graphical Effays. *
Fig. 1. reprefents the geometric pen ; A, B, C, the plate
Hand by which it is fupported ; the legs A, B, C, are CCC^CVIL
contrived to fold one within the other for the converri- 1q
ence of packing. A ftrong axis D is fitted to the top
of the frame ; to the lower part of this axis any of the
wheels (as i) may be adapted ; when ferewed to it they
are immoveable. EG is an arm contrived to turn round
upon the main axis D; two Hiding boxes are fitted t»
this arm ; to thefe boxes any of the wheels belonging
to the geometric pen may be fixed, and then did fo that
the w'heels may take into each other and the immove¬
able wheel 1; it is evident, that by making the arm EG
revolve round the axis D, thefe wheels will be made to
revolve alfo, and that the number of their revolutions
will depend on the proportioa between the teeth.
is an arm carrying the pencil ; this arm Hides backwards
and forwards in the box c d, in order that the diftanee
of the pencil from the centre of the wheel h may be
eafily varied ; the box c d is fitted to the axis of thu
wheel h, and turns round with it, carrying the arm fg
along with it : it is evident, therefore, that the revolu¬
tions will be fewer or greater in proportion to the dif¬
ference between the numbers of the teeth in the wheels
h and 1; this bar and focket are eafily removed for
changing the wheels. When two wheels only are ufed,
the bar Jg moves in the fame direflion with the bar
EG ; but if another wheel is introduced between them,
they move in contrary dire6lions.
“ The number of teeth in the wheels, and confe-
quently the relative velocity of the epicycle or arm
fSi may be varied in infinitum. The numbers we
have ufed are 8, 16, 24, 32, 40, 48, 56, 64, 72, 80,
88, 96.
“ The eonftrudlion and application of this inftru¬
ment is fo evident from the figure, that nothing more
need be pointed out than the combinations by which va¬
rious figures may be produced. We Hiall take two as
examples :
“ The radius of EG (fig. 2.) muft be to that of fg F;g, 3
as 10 to 5 nearly ; their velocities, or the number of b *
teeth in the wheels, to be equal 3 the motion to “be in
the fame direction.
“ ^ the length of fg be varied, the looped figure
delineated at fig. 3. will be produced. A circle may Fig. >
be deferibed by equal wheels, and any radius but the
bars muft move in contrary diredtions.
“ To deferibe bij this circular motion a f might line
and an ellipfs. For a ftraight line, equal radii, the ve¬
locity as 1 to 2, the motion in a contrary diredtion ; the
fame data will give a variety of ellipfes, only the radii
muft: be unequal 3 the ellipfes may be deferibed in any
diredtion.” See fig. 4. ^
Pen, or Penfock. See Penstock.
Sea-PEN. See Pennatula, Helminthology In¬
dex.
PENANCE, a puniflimentj either voluntary or im-
pofed by authority,, for the faults, a perfon has commit¬
ted. Penance is one of the feven faeraments of the
Rornilh church. Befides falling, alms, abftinence, and
the like, which are the general conditions of penance,
there are others of a more particular kind 3 as the re¬
peating a certain number of ave-marys, pater nollers,.
and;
[ J09 1
PEN
[ i io 1
PEN
Penance
II.
Pencil.
and credos, wearing a bair-rtiirt, and giving one’s felf a
certain number of itripes. In Italy and Spain itisulual
, to fee Cliritlians almolt naked, loaded with chains and
a crofs, and ladling themfelves at every llep.
PENATES, in Roman antiquity, a kind of tutelar
deities, either of countries or particular houfesj in which
lad fenfe they dift'ered in nothing from the lares. See
Eares.
The pennies were properly the tutelar gods of the
Trojans, and were only adopted by the Romans, who
gave them the title of penates.
PENCIL, an inftrument ufed by painters for laying
on their colours. Pencils are of various kinds, and^
made of various materials } the larged forts are made ox
boars bridles, the thick ends of which are bound to a
dick, bigger or lefs according to the ufes they are de*
figned for j thefe, when large, are called brujhgs, i lie
finer forts of pencils are made of camels, badgers, and
jquirrels hair, and of the down of fwans ; thefe are tied
at the upper end with a piece of drong thread, and en-
clofed in the barrel of a quill.
All good pencils, on being drawn between the lips,
come to a fine point.
Pencil, is alfo an indrument ufed in drawing, writ¬
ing, &c. made of long pieces of black lead or red
chalk, placed in a groove cut in a dip of cedar •, on
which other pieces of cedar being glued, the whole is
planed round, and one of the ends being cut to a point,
it is fit for ufe.
Black lead in fine powder, dirred into melted ful-
phur, unites with it fo uniformly, and in fuch quantity,
in virtue perhaps of its abounding with lulphur, that
though the compound remains fiuid enough to be pour¬
ed into moulds, it looks nearly like the coarfer. forts of
black lead itfelf. Probably the way which Prince Ru¬
pert is faid to have had, mentioned in the third volume
of Dr Birch’s Hidory of the Royal Society, of making
black lead run like a metal in a mould, io as to ferve for
black lead again, confided in mixing with it fulphur or
fulphureous bodies.
On this principle the German black lead pencils are
faid to be made 5 and many of thofe which are hawked
about by certain perfons among us are prepared in the
fame manner : their melting or foftenmg, when held to
a candle, or applied to a red-hot iron, and yielding a
bluifh flame, with a drong fmell like that of burning
brimdone, betrays their compodtion •, for black lead it¬
felf yields no fmell or fume, and fuffers no apparent al¬
teration in that heat. Pencils made with fuch additions
are of a very bad kindy they are hard, brittle, and do
not cad or make a mark freely either on paper or wood,
rather cutting or fcratching them than leaving a colour¬
ed droke.
The true Englidi pencils (which Vogel in his mine¬
ral fydem, and fome other foreign writers, imagine to
be prepared alfo by melting the black lead with fome
additional fubdances, and cading it into a mould) are
formed of black lead alone fawed into flips, which are
fitted into a groove made in a piece of wood, and an¬
other flip of wood glued over them : the fofteil wood, as
cedar, is made choice of, that the pencil may be the ea-
fier cut •, and a part at one end, too ftiort to be conve¬
niently ufed after the red has been worn and cut away,
Is left unfilled with the black lead, that there may be
no ivafte of fo valuable a commodity. Thefe pencils
Pencil
Pendulum.
are greatly preferable to the others, though feldom fo
perfect as could be wiflied, being accompanied with
fome degree of the fame inconveniences, and being ve- _
ry unequal in their quality, on account of different iorls
of the mineral being fraudulently joined together in one
pencil, the fore part being commonly pretty good, and
the red of an inferior kind. Some, to avoid thefe im-
perfedtions, take the finer pieces of black lead itfelf,
which they faw into dips, and fix for ufe in port cray¬
ons : this is doubtlefs the fured way of obtaining black
lead crayons, whofe goodntfs can be depended on.
PENDANT, an ornament hanging at the ear, fre¬
quently compofed of diamonds, pearls, and other jew¬
els.
PENDANTS, in Heraldry, parts hanging down from
the label, to the number of three, four, five, or fix at
mod, refembling the drops in the Doric frieze. When,
they are more than three, they mud be fpecified in bla¬
zoning.
PENDANTS of a Ship, are thofe dreamers, 'or long
colours, which are fplit and divided into two parts, end¬
ing in points, and hung at the head of mads, or at the
yard-arm ends.
PENDENE-Vow, in Cornwall, in England, on the
north coad, by Morvath. There is here an unfathom¬
able cave under the earth, into which the fea flows at
high water. The cliffs between this and St Ives fliine
as if they had dore of copper, of which indeed there is
abundance within land.
PENDENNIS, in Cornwall, at the mouth of Fal¬
mouth haven, is a peninfula of a mile and a half in
compafs. On this Henry VIII. eredted a cadle, oppo-
fite tw that of St Maw’s, which he likewife built. It
was fortified by Queen Elizabeth, and ferved then for
the governor’s houfe. It is one of the larged cadles in
Britain, and is built on a high rock. It is dronger by
land than St Maw’s, being regularly fortified, and ha¬
ving good outworks.
PENDULOUS, a term applied to any thing that
bends or hangs downwards.
PENDULUM, a vibrating body fufpended from a
fixed point. For the hidory of this invention, fee the
article Clock.
The theory of the pendulum depends on that of the
inclined plane. Hence, in order to underdand the na¬
ture of the pendulum, it will be neceffary to premife
fome of the properties of this plane-, referring, however,
to Inclined PLANE, and to the article Mechanics, for
the demondration. ......
I. Let AC (fig. 1.) be an inclined plane, AB itsCCCCVltt
perpendicular height, and D any heavy body : then H- u
the force which impels the body D to defeend along
the inclined plane AC, is to the abfolute force of gra¬
vity as the height of the plane AB is to its length AC ;
and the motion of the body will be uniformly accelerat¬
ed.
II. The velocity acquired in any given time by a
body defeending on an inclined plane AC, is to the
velocity acquired in the fame time by a body falling
freely and perpendicularly, as the height of the plane
AB to its length AC. The final velocities will be
the fame 5 the fpaces deferibed will be in the fame
ratio ; and the limes of defeription are as the fpaees
’deferibed.
III. If a body defeend along feveral contiguous
■planes*
Plate
S' 4
PEN [i
FcmUminr. planes, AB, BC, CD, (fig. 2.) the final velocity, name-
' v ly, that at the point D, will be equal to the final velo¬
city in defcending through the perpendicular AE, the
perpendicular heights being equal. Hence, if thefe
planes be fuppofed indefinitely Ihort and numerous, they
may be conceived to form a curve, and therefore the
final velocity acquired by a body in defcending through
any curve AF, will be equal to the final velocity ac¬
quired in defcending through the planes AB, BC, CD,
or to that in defcending through AE, the perpendicular
heights being equal.
IV. If from the upper or lower extremity of the
vertical diameter of a circle a cord be drawn, the time
' of defcent along this cord will be equal to the time of
defcent through the vertical diameter ; and therefore
the times of defcent through all cords in the fame circle,
drawn from the extremity of the vertical diameter, will
be equal.
V. The times of defcent of two bodies through two
planes equally elevated will be in the fubdupficate
ratio of the lengths of the planes. If, inftead of one
plane, each be compofed of feveral contiguous planes
fimilarly placed, the times of defcent along" thefe planes
will be in the fame ratio. Hence, alfo, the times of
defcribing fimilar arches of circles fimilarly placed will
be in the fubduplicate ratio of the lengths of the arches.
VI. The fame things hold good with regard to bodies
proje&ed upward, whether they afcend upon inclined
planes or along the arches of circles.
1 he point or axis of fufpenfion »f a pendulum is that
point about which it performs its vibrations, or from
which it is fufpended.
The centre of ofcillation is a point in which, if all
the matter in a pendulum were collefted, any force
applied at this centre would generate the fame'ano-ular
velocity in a given time as the fame force when applied
at the centre of gravity.
I be length of a pendulum is equal to the didance
between the axis of fufpenfion and centre of ofcilla¬
tion.
Let PN (fig. 3.) reprefent a pendulum fufpended
from the point P ; if the lower part N of the pendu¬
lum be raifed to A, and let fall, it will by its own gra»
vity defcend through the circular arch AN, and will
have acquired the fame velocity at the point N that a
body would acquire in falling perpendicularly from C
to F, and will endeavour to go off with that velocity
in the tangent ND ; but being prevented by the rod
or cord, will move through the arch NB to B, where,
lofing all its velocity, it will by its gravity defcend’
through tne arch BN, and, having acquired the fame
velocity as before, will afcend to A. In this manner
it will continue its motion forward and backward along
the arch. ANB, which is called an ofcillatory or vibra-
ton/ motion ; and each fwing is called a vibration.
Prop. I. If a pendulum vibrates in very fmall circu¬
lar arches, the times of vibration may be confidered as
equal, whatever be the proportion of the arches.
Let PN (fig. 4.) be a pendulum ; the time of de-
fcnbing the arch AB will be equal to the time of de-
fcribing CD ; thefe arches being fuppofed very fmall.
.Tom AN, CN ; then fince the times of defcent along
all cords in the fame circles, drawn from one extremity
°AXTher^TrtiC? diaJneter> are efiual •> therefore the cords
AN, LN,and consequently their doubles, will be deferib-
'UZ-1
11] PEN
ed in the lame time j but the arches AN, CN being Pendulum,
luppofed very fmall, will therefore be nearly equal to v 111
their cords : hence the times of vibrations in thele arches
will be nearly equal.
. PROP. II. Pendulums which are of the fame length
vibrate in the fame time, whatever be the proportion of
their weights.
This follows from the property of gravity, which is
always proportional to the quantity of matter, or to
its inertia. When the vibrations of pendulums are com¬
pared, it is always underflood that the pendulums de-
feribe either fimilar finite arcs, or arcs of evanefeent mag¬
nitude, unlcfs the contrary is mentioned.
Prop. III. If a pendulum vibrates in the fmall arc
of a circle, the time of one vibration is to the time of
a body’s falling perpendicularly through half the length
of the pendulum, as the circumference of a circle is to&its
diameter.
Let PE (fig. 5.) be the pendulum which deferibes Fig. 5.
the arch ANC in the time of one vibration ; let PN
be perpendicular to the horizon, and draw the cords
AC, AN ; take the arc E e infinitely fmall, and draw
EFG, efS perpendicular to PN, or parallel to AC ;
deferibe the femicircle BGN, and draw e r, g s perpen-
dicular to EG : now let time of defcending through
the diameter 2PN, or through the cord AN : Then
the velocities gained by falling through 2PN, and by
the pendulum’s defcending through the arch AE, will
be as \Z2PN and BF ; and the fpace deferibed in the
time t, after the fall through 2PN, is 4PN. But the
times are as the fpaces divided by the velocities.
Therefore
4pn
4/2BN
or 2^/2PN : t :
defcribing E e:
/X E e
vApNxBF'
Ee .
/.=r: time of
v/BF
But in the fimilar
triangles PEF, E er, and KGF, G g s.
As PE=PN : EF r: Ee: errr^xEe;
And KG —KD : FG
PN
r n EG
vG^.
EF
But e r—G s ; therefore —L x E e:
PN
Hence E e—
PN x FG
'KD
FG
KD
XG^.
X Gg.
the time of defcribing Eerr
But by the nature of the
KDx EF
And by fubfiituting this value of E ^ in the former
equation, we have tl '' - . - - -
/ X PN X FG X C g
2KD x EF X s/BF x 2PN
circle FG—v'BFxFN, and EF=r\/PN_j_Pjr_{-FN.
Hence, by fubftitution, we obtain the time of deferibinp-
£ f t X PN x y/BFl< FN xGjx J
2KDX>/PN-f-PFx FN x v/BF x 2PN
 'Xy/PNxG^ __/X ^/IPN xG g
2KD X y/PN-f-PF X v/2 ~ 4KD X v/PN + PF ~
t X sj2PN
:XGj. Eut NF, in its mean
2BN x v^2 PN—NF
quaiitity for all the archt'S G^, is nearly equal to NK •
for if the femicircle deferibed on the diameter Bn’
which correfponds to the whole arch AN, be divided
into.
PEN [ii
Pendulum, into an indefinite number of equal arches, , Scc.the fum
‘ , of all the lines NF, will be equal to as many times N k, as
there are arches in the femicircle equal to Gy; there-
fore the time of defenbing E
X G y. Whence the time of deferibing the arch AED
 'XnAPN x • and the time of de-
feribing the whole arch ADC^or the tune of one vi-
u . . /Xx/^PN X2BGN. But
bration, is _ 2BNXn/2pN_NK X
when the arch ANC is very fmall, NK vamjhes, and
then the time of vibration in a very fmall arc is
'XyApN Now if t
be^he time of defeent through 2PN j then fince the
fpaces deferibed are as the fquares of the times T t will
be the time of defeent through ^PN : therefore he
diameter BN is to the circumference 2BGN, as the
time of falling through half the length of the pendulum
is to the time of one vibration. • r
Prop. IV. The length of a pendulum vibrating le-
conds is to twice the Ipace through which a body falls
in one fecond, as the fquare of the diameter of a circle
is to the fquare of its circumference. .
Let </= diameter of a circle = I, c _ circumference
=12.141 CQ, &c. / to the time of one vibration, and p the
length of the correfponding pendulum 5 then by the
laft propnfition c : d :: 1" : time of falling through
half the length of the pendulum. Let r == fpace de¬
feribed by a body falling perpendicularly in the firli
fecond : then fince the fpaces defenbed are in the lub-
duplicate ratio of the times of defcnption, therefore
pt . ^ ;; V7: Vi~p. Hence c* : d* :: 2s : p.
]
pen
the time of vibration of the pendulum PO in a fubdu-
plicate ratio of PN to PO. . , ,
If the length of a pendulum vibrating feconds be
39.174 inches, then the length of a pendulum viola¬
ting half feconds will be 9.793 inches. For 1 : T ::
^39.174 :
39-I74.
V x •, and 1
=9-793-
39.174 : x. Hence
Fig. 6.
It has been found by experiment, that in latitude
r jJL° a body falls about 16.11 feet in the fir ft fecond .
hence the length of a pendulum vibrating feconds in
that latitude is=J^=a= 3 3->74
3*14I59l
Prop. V. The times of the vibrations of two pen¬
dulums in fimilar arcs of circles are in a fubduplicate
ratio of the lengths of the pendulums. . .
Let PN PO (fig- 6.) be two pendulums vibrating in
the fimilar arcs AB, CD ; the time of a vibration
of the pendulum PN is to the time of Vibration
of the pendulum PO in a fubdupheate ratio of PN
t0 Since the arcs AN, CO are fimilar and fimilarly
placed, the time of defeent through AN mil be to
‘the time of defeent through CO in the fubdoplicate
ratio of AN to CO : but the times of defeent through
the arcs AN and CO are equal to half the times of
vibration of the pendulums PN pO refpeaivel^
Hence the time of vibration of the pendulum PN m
the arc AB is to the time of vibration of the pen¬
dulum PO in the fimilar arc CD in the ^duyUcate
nf AN to CO : and fince the radii PN, PO aie
Import to the fimilar arcs AN, CO therefore
the time of vibration of the pendulum PN will be to
T *
Prop. VI. The lengths of pendulums vibrating in
the fame time, in different places, will be as the forces
of gravity. .. . ...
For the velocity generated m any given time is Ui-
reftly as the force of gravity, and inverfely as the quan¬
tity of matter. Now the matter_ being fuppofed the
fame in both pendulums, the velocity is as the force of
gravity •, and the fpace paffed through in a given time
will be as the velocity ; that is, as the gravity.
Since the lengths of pendulums vibrating in the
fame time in fmall arcs are as the gravitating forces and
as gravity increafes with the latitude on account of the
fpheroidal figure of the earth and its rotation about its
axis ; hence the length of a pendulum vibrating in a
given time Avill be variable with the latitude,^ and the
fame pendulum will vibrate flower the nearer it is car¬
ried to the equator. . . , .
Prop VII. The time of vibrations of pendulums
of the fame length, afted upon by different forces of
gravity, are reciprocally as the fquare roots oi the
'Tor when the matter is given, the velocity is as the
force and time ; and the fpace deferibed by any given
force is as the force and fquare of the time. Hence the
lengths of pendulums are as the forces and the iquares
of the times of falling through them.. But thefe times
are in a given ratio to the times of vibration ; whence
the lengths of pendulums are as the forces and the
fquares of the times of vibration. Therefore, when the
lengths are given, the forces will be reciprocally as the
fquare of the times, and the times of vibration recipro¬
cally as the fquare roots of the forces.
Cor. Let p — length of pendulum, ^ _ force at
gravity, and t =: time of vibration. Then fince p _
I / i
gXt*. Hence g—P X ^ } an(^ 1— ^ P X ~-
That isj the forces in different places are direftly as
the lengths of the pendulums, and inverfely as the fquare
roots of the times of vibration ; and the times of vibra¬
tion are direftly as the fquare roots of the lengths oi the
pendulums, and inverfely as the fquare roots of the gra¬
vitating forces. .
Prop. VIII. A pendulum which vibrates in the
arch of a cycloid deferibes the greateft and leaft vibra¬
tions in the fame time. - .
This property is demonftrated only on a fuppoiition
that the whole mafs of the pendulum is concentrated m
a point: but this cannot take place in any really viora-
ting body, and when the pendulum is of finite magni¬
tude, there is no point given in pofition which deter¬
mines the length of the pendulum 5 on the contrary the
centre of ofcillation will not occupy the fame place in
the given bodv, when deferibing different parts oi the
traft it moves through, but will continually.be moved m
refpeft of the pendulum itfelf during its vibration, it
may, however, be obferved, that Huyghens, aware that
PEN [ i
Pendulum, a pendulum ball fufpended at the end of a thread vibra-
y tbig between cycloids, would not defcribe a cycloid
with its centre of ofcillation, gave a very beautiful and
fimple method of fufpenflon, which fecured its vibrations
in that curve. Harrifon, whofe authority is next, inlifts
on the advantage of wide vibrations, and in his own
clocks, he always ufed cycloidal checks. This circum-
ftance has prevented any general determination of the
time of vibration in a cycloidal arc, except in the ima¬
ginary cafe referred to.
There are many other obftacles which concur in ren¬
dering the application of this curve to the vibration of
pendulums defigned for the meafures of time the fource
of errors far greater than thofe which by its peculiar
property it is intended to obviate} and it is now wholly
difufed in pradlice.
_ Although the times of vibration of a pendulum in
different arches be nearly equal, yet from what has been
faid, it will appear, that if the ratio of the lead of thefe
arches to the greateft be confiderable, the vibrations will
be formed in different times •, and the difference, though
fmall, will become fenfible in the courfe of one or more
days. In clocks ufed for aftronomical purpofes, it will
therefore be neceffary to obferve the arc of vibration ;
which if different from that defcribed by the pendulum
when the clock keeps time, there a corredlion mull be
applied to the time Ihown by the clock. This correc¬
tion, expreffed in feconds of time, will be equal to the
half of three times the difference of the fquare of the
given arc, and of that of the arc defcribed by the pen¬
dulum when the clock keeps time, thefe arcs being ex¬
preffed in degrees ; and fo much will the clock gain
or lofe according as the firft of thefe arches is lefs or
greater than the fecond.
1 hus, if a clock keep time when the pendulum vi¬
brates in the arch of 3°j it will lofe 10^- feconds daily
in an arch of 4 degrees.
For^_3’‘X 3-7><4—IOi feconds.
The length of a pendulum rod increafes with heat;
and the quantity of expanfion anfwering to any given
- c v deSree heat is experimentally found by means of a
rwete?' Pyr«meter t i but the degree of heat at any given time
Chemi- J.s lho'vn by a thermometer : hence that inftrument
etry ihould be placed within the clock cafe at a height near-
lndeK' }y equal to that of the middle of the pendulum j and
its height, for this purpofe, fliould be examined at lead:
once a day. Now by a table conftru&ed to exhibit the
daily quantity of acceleration or retardation of the clock
anfwering to every probable height of the thermometer,
the corresponding corre&ion may be obtained. It is
alio neceffary to obferve, that the mean height of the
thermometer during the interval ought to be ufed In
Six’s thermometer this height may be eafily obtained;
but in thermometers of the common conftrudlion it will
be more difficult to find this mean.
It had been found, by repeated experiments, that a
brals rod equal in length to a fecond pendulum will
expand or contradt part of an inch by a change
ot temperature of one degree in Fahrenheit’s thermo¬
meter ; and finee the times of vibration are in a fubdu-
phcate ratio of the lengths of the pendulum, hence an
expanfion or contraaion of x^o part of an inch will
anlvver nearly to one fecond daily : therefore a change of
one degree m the thermometer will occafion a difference
m the rate^of the clock equal to one fecond daily.
13 ] PEN
\\ hence, if the clock be fo adjulled as to keep time Pendulum..
when the thermometer is at 550, it will lofe 10 feconds '    
daily when the thermometer is at 6j°, and gain as much
when it is at 450.
Hence the daily variation of the rate of the clock
from lummer to winter will be very confiderable. It
is tiue indeed that moll pendulums have a nut or re¬
gulator at the lower end, by which the bob may be rai-
fed.or lowered a determinate quantity; and therefore
while the height of the thermometer is the fame, the
rate of the clock will be uniform. But fince the ftate
of the weather is ever variable, and as it is impoffible to
be raifing or lowering the bob of the pendulum at every
change of the thermometer, therefore the corredlion
formerly mentioned is to be applied. This correftion,
however, is in fome meafure liable to a fmall degree of
uncertainty; and in order to avoid it altogether, feveral
contrivances have been propofed by conftruaing a pen¬
dulum of different materials, and fo difpofing them that
their effe&s may be in oppofite diredions, and thereby
counterbalance each other ; and by this means the pen¬
dulum will continue of the fame length.
. Mercury/ PENDULUM. The firft of thefe inven- Mercurial
tions is that by the celebrated Mr George Graham. In 1‘endulum.
this, the rod of the pendulum is a hollow tube, into
which a fufficient quantity of mercury is introduced.
Mr Graham firft ufed a glafs tube, and the clock to
which it was applied was placed in the moft expofed
part of the houfe. It was kept conftantly going, with¬
out having the hands or pendulum altered, from the oth Philof.
ot June 1722 to the 14th of Odober 1725, and its rateIrar,f
was determined by tranfits of fixed ftars. Another
clock made with extraordinary care, having a pendu- N ,391‘
lum about 60 pounds weight, and not vibrating above
one degree and a half from the perpendicular, was placed
befide the former, in order the more readily to compare
them with each other, and that they might both be
equally expofed. The refult of all the obfervations was
this, that the irregularity of the clock with the quick-
filver pendulum exceeded not, 'when greateft, a fixth
part, of that of the other clock with the common pen¬
dulum, but for the greateft part of the year not above
an eighth or ninth part; and even this quantity would
have been leffened, had the column of mercury been a
little ffiorter : for it differed a little the contrary way
from the other clock, going fafter with heat and flower
with cold. To confirm this experiment more, about the
beginning of July 1723 Mr Graham took off the heavy
pendulum from the other clock, and made another with
mercury, but with this difference, that inftead of a glafs
tube he ufed a brafs one, and varnifhed the infufe to
fecure it from being injured by the mercury. This
pendulum he ufed afterwards, and found it about the
fame degree of exatftnefs as the other.
I he Gridiron PENDULUM is an ingenious contri- Gridiron
vance for the fame purpofe. Inftead of one rod, this Peudulum>
pendulum is compofed of any convenient number of
rods, as five, feven, or nine ; being fo connected, that
the effeft of one fet of them counteracts that of the
other fet; and therefore, being properly adjufted to
each other, the centres of fufpenfion and ofcillation
will always be equidiftant. Fig. 7. reprefents a gridiron r-
pendulum compofed of nine rods, fteel and brafs al- 'S' **
ternately. The two outer rods AB, CD, which are
of fteel, are faftened to the crofs pieces AC, BD by
^ means
PEN [ i'
-Bendutum. means of pins. The next two rods, EF, GH, are of
 1 brafs and are fattened to the lower bar BD, and to the
fecond upper bar EG. The two following rods are of
Heel, and are fattened to the crofs bars EG and ilv.
The two rods adjacent to the central rod being of
brafs, are fattened to the crofs pieces IK and GM ,
and the central rod, to which the ball of the pendu¬
lum is attached, is fufpended from the crofs piece Li\x,
and paffes freely through a perforation in each of the
crofs bars IK, ED. From this difpofition of the rods,
it is evident that, by the expanfion of the extreme
rods, the crofs piece ED, and the two rods attached
to it will defcend : but lince thefe rods are expanded
by the fame heat, the crofs piece EG will confequent-
ly be raifed, and therefore alfo the two next vods; but
becaufe thefe rods are alfo expanded, the crofs bar IK
will defcend ; and by the expanfion of the two next
rods, the piece LM will be raifed a quantity fufhcient
to counteract the expanfion of the central rod. Vv hence
it is obvious, that the effed of the ftecl rods is to in-
creafe the length of the pendulum m hot weather, and
to diminitti it in cold weather, and that the brafs rods
have a contrary effea upon the pendulum. I he ettett
of the brafs rods mutt, however, be equivalent not only
to that of the fteel rods, but alfo to the part above the
frame and fpring, which conneas it with the cock, and
to that part between the lower part of the frame and
the centre of the ball. r * r r
M. Thiout. Another excellent contrivance for the lame purpose
is deferibed in a French author on clock-making, it
was ufed in the north of England by an ingenious ar-
tift about 40 years ago. This invention is as follows .
A bar of the fame metal with the rod of the pendu¬
lum, and of the fame dimenfions, is placed again ft the
back part of the clock cafe j from the top of this a part
proiefts, to which the upper part of the pendulum is
conneaed by two fine pliable chains or filken ftnngs,
which juft below’ pafs between two plates of bra s,
whofe lower edges will always terminate the length of
the pendulum at the upper end. Thefe plates are fup-
ported on a pedeftal fixed to the back of the cafe.
The bar refts upon an immoveable bafe at the knver
T>art of the cafe j and is inferted into a groove by
which means it is always retained in the fame pofition.
From this conftruftion, it is evident that the extenfion
or contraaion of this bar, and of the rod of the pen¬
dulum, will be equal, and in contrary direaions. lor
fuppofe the rod of the pendulum to be expanded any
given quantity by heat; then, as the lower end of the
bar refts upon a fixed point, the bar will be expanded
upwards, and raife the upper end of the pendulum juft
as much as its length was increafed; and hence its length
below the plates will be the fame as before.
Of this pendulum, fomewhat improved by Mr Grot-
thwaite watch and clock-maker, Dublin, we have the
following deferiptien in the rranfaftions of the Royal
Fia S Irifh Academy, 1788.-“ A and B (fig. 8.) are two
rods of fteel forged out of the fame bar at the fame
time, of the fame temper, and m every refpea fimilar.
On the top of B is formed a gibbet C ; this rod is
firmly fupported by a fteel bracket D, fixed on a large
piece of marble E, firmly fet into the wall F, and hav¬
ing liberty to move freely upwards between crofs fta-
ples of brafs, I, 2, 3, 4, wh)ch ^ only m a point
L front and rear (the ftaples having been carefully
4 ] PEN
formed for that purpofe) ; to the other rod is firmly Pendulum,
fixed by its centre the lens G, of 24 pounds weight, '
although it Ihould in ftriettnefs be a little below it.
This pendulum is fufpended by a ftiort fteel fpring on
the gibbet at C ; all which is entirely independent of
the clock. To the back of the clock plate I are firm¬
ly ferewed two cheeks nearly cycloidal at K, exactly m
a line with the centre of the verge L. The maintain¬
ing power is applied by a cylindrical fteel ftud, in the
ufual way of regulators, at M. Now, it is very evi¬
dent, that any expanfion or contraclion that takes
place in either of thefe exa&ly fimilar rods, is inftantly
counterafted by the other ; whereas in all compenfatiun
pendulums compofed of difterent materials, however
juft calculation may feem to be, that can never be the
cafe, as not only different metals, but alio different bars
of the fame metal, that are not manufa&ured at the
fame time, and exactly in the fame manner, are found
by a good pyrometer to differ materially in their degrees
of expanfion and contraaion, a very fmall change affect¬
ing one and not the other.”
The expanfion or contraaion of ftraight grained fir Tir Pendu.
wood lengthwife, by change of temperature, is fo fmall, him‘
that it is found to make very good pendulum rods.
The wood called fapadillo is faid to be ft ill better.
There is good reafon to believe, that the previous ba¬
king, varnifhing, gilding, or foaking of thefe woods in
any melted matter, only tends to impair the property
that renders them valuable. 1 hey ftiould be limply
rubbed on the outfide with wax and a cloth. In pen¬
dulums of this conftruaion the error is greatly dimi-
niftied, but not taken away.
Angular PENDULUM, is formed of two pieces or legs A?,gtdar
like a fedlor, and is fufpended by the angular point. Fendv m‘
This pendulum was invented with a view to dimmilh the
length of the common pendulum, but at the fame time
to preferve or even increafe the time of vibration. In
this pendulum, the time of vibration depends on the
length of the logs, and on the angle contained between
them conjointly, the duration of the time of vibration
increafing with the angle. Hence a pendulum of this
conftruftion may be made to ofeiilate in any given
time. At the lower extremity of each leg of the pen¬
dulum is a ball or bob as ufual. It may be eafily
frown, that in this kind of a pendulum, the fquares
of the times of vibration are as the fecants of half the
angle contained by the legs : hence if a penaulum of
this conftruClion vibrates half feconds when its kgs
clofe, it will vibrate whole feconds when the
fo as to contain an angle equal to
are
legs are opened,
1r
2 The'Conical or Circular PENDULUM, is fo called or
from the figure deferibed by the firing or ball of the
pendulum. This pendulum was invented by Mr Huy¬
gens, and is alfo claimed by Dr Hooke.
In order to underftand the principles of this pendu¬
lum, it will be neceffary to premife the following lem¬
ma, viz. the times of all the circular revolutions of a
heavy globular body, revolving within an inverted hol¬
low paraboloid, will be equal, whatever be the radii of
the circle deferibed by that body.
In order therefore, to conftruft the pendulum fo
that its ball may always deferibe its revolutions in a pa¬
raboloid furface, it will be neceffary that the rod of
the pendulum be flexible} and that it be fufpended in
1 fiich
PEN [i
Pendulum, fucli a manner as to form the evolute of the given pa-
^ v ~ rabola. Hence, let KH (fig. 9.) be an axis perpendi-
cular to the horizon, having a pinion at K moved by
the laft wheel in the train of the clock ; and a harden¬
ed ftcel point at H moving in an agate pivot, to render
the motion as free as poSible. Now, let it be required
that the pendulum fliall perform each revolution in a
fecond, then the paraboloid furface it moves in mutt
be fuch whofe latus reclum is double the length of the
common half fecond pendulum. Let O be the focus
of the parabola MEC, and MC the /utus rectum ; and
make AEzr lVlO~ ,jMC the length of a common
half fecond pendulum. At the point A of the verge,
let a thin plate AB be fixed at one end, and at the
other end B let it be fattened to a bar or arm BD per¬
pendicular to DH, and to which it is fixed at the point
H. The figure of the plate AB is that of the evolute
of the given parabola MEC.
The equation of this evolute, being alfo that of the
27 27
femicubical parabola, is ~px‘*z=.y'i.—Let -A/JzrPj then
P#*—and in the focus V—ly. In this cafe 'lx*—
t/s=^P* : hence »*—^P1, and = ^
diltance of the focus from the vertex A.—By affuming
the value of „r, the ordinates of the curve may be found;
and hence it may be eafily drawn.
The tiring of the pendulum muft be of fuch a length
that when one end is fixed at B, it may lie over the
plate AB, and then hang perpendicular from it, fo that
the centre of the bob may be at E when at reft. Now,
the verge KH being put into motion, the ball of the
pendulum will begin to gyrate, and thereby conceive a
centrifugal force which will carry it out from the axis
to fome point F, where it will circulate feconds or half
feconds, according as the line AE is 9.8 inches, or
inches, and AB anfwerable to it.
One advantage poffeffed by a clock having a pendu¬
lum of this conftrudion is, that the fecond hand moves
in a regular and uniform manner, without being fubjed
to thofe jerks or ftarts as in common clocks ; and the
pendulum is entirely filent.
Theory has pointed out feveral other pendulums,
known by the names of Elliptical, Horizontal, Rotulary,
&c. pendulums. Thefe, however, have not as yet at¬
tained that degree of perfedion as to fupplant the com¬
mon pendulum.
Obferving that both the gridiron and mercurial pen¬
dulums are fubjed to many inconveniences and errors,
Air Kater has attempted to conftrud one poffefling fuch
properties in refped of cheapnefs and accuracy as he
thinks might juftly give it the preference to any other.
As wood poffeffes a lefs degree of expanfibility by
means of heat than any other fubftance ; on this ac¬
count, if it could be rendered quite impervious to
moifture, it would be the beft of all fubftances for the
rod of a pendulum ; and as it alfo appears that zinc,
above all other metals, poffefles the greateft degree of
expanfibility by means of heat, he cqnfidered it the beft
fubftance which could be employed for a compenfation.
His next objed was to rnftitute a fet of delicate experi¬
ments, in order to afcertain the precife degree of the
expanfibility of wood by the application of heat, and he
difcovered by the ufe of a pyrometer, that a rod of very
15 ] PEN
dry, well feafoned white wood, four feet long, three- Pendulum
fourths of an inch broad, and one-fourth of an inch ^ it. ,
thick, when expofed in an oven to the temperature of   " .
23 30, had contraded. Being again put into the oven,
where it vras permitted to remain for a longtime, till it
became a little difcoloured, with a view to diftipate the
whole of the moifture, it was placed in the pyrometer,
and allowed to remain till it reached the temperature of
the room, or 490, when it was found to have contrad¬
ed 0.0205 °f an inch with 186° of Fahrenheit, from
which we obtain by proportion 0.0049 °i an inch f01’
the expanlion of one foot with 1800 difference of tem¬
perature. Thus,
0.020 c x 180 o.oiqB •
 786 =-^-=0.0049.
But for a general defcription of this pendulum, and
a full account of the manner in which it is conftrudted,
we muft refer our readers to the inventor’s own paper,
Nichol. Jour. vol. xx. p. 214.
Befides the ufe of the pendulum in meafuring time,
it has alfo been fuggefted as a proper ftandard for mea-
fures of length. See AIeasure.
PENEA, a genus of plants belonging to the tetran-
dria clafs, and in the natural method ranking with thofe
of which the order is doubtful. See Botany Index.
PENELOPE, in fabulous hiftory, the daughter of
Icarus, married Ulyffes, by whom Ihe had Telemachus.
During the abfence of Ulyffes, who was gone to the fiege
of Troy, and who ftaid 20 years from his dominions, fe¬
veral princes charmed with Penelope’s beauty, told her
that Ulyffes wras dead, offered to marry her, and preffed
her to declare in their favour. She promifed compli¬
ance on condition they would give her time to finilh a
piece of tapeftry (he was weaving ; but at the fame time
the undid in the night what fhe had done in the dayq
and by this artifice eluded their importunity till Ulyf-
fes’s return.
Penelope, a genus of birds of the order of gallitne.
See Ornithology Index.
PENESTICA, (Antonine), a town of the Helve-
tii, fituated between the Lacus Laufonius and Salodu-
rum ; called Petcnifca by Peutinger. Thought now to
be Biel, (Cluverius) ; the capital of a fmall territory in
Swifferjand.
PENEUS, (Strabo) ; .a river running through the
middle of Theffaly, from weft to eaft, into the Sinus
Thermaicus, between Olympus and Offa, near Tempe
of Theffaly, rifing in Mount Pindus, (Ovid, Val. Flac-
cus).
PENETRATE, a facred room or chapel in private
houfes, which was fet apart for the worfhip of the houfe-
hold gods among the ancient Romans. In temples alfo
there were penetralia, or apartments of diftinguilhed
fandlity, where the images of the gods were kept, and
certain folemn ceremonies performed.
PENGUIN, or PlNGUIN. See Penguin, Orni¬
thology Index.
PENICILLUS, among furgeons, is ufed for a tent
to be put into Avounds or ulcers.
PENIEL, or Penuel, a city beyond Jordan, near
the ford or brook Jabbok. This avrs the occafion of
its name. Jacob, upon his return from Mefopotamia,
(Gen. xxxii. 24, &c.) made a ftop at the brook Jabbok :
and very early the next morning, after he had fent all
P 2 the
PEN [ii
Pemel the people before, he remained alone, and behold an
.11 angel came, and wreftled with him till the day began
t mu-nee.. ^ appear. Then the angel faid to Jacob, Let me go,
for the morning begins to appear. Jacob anfwered, I
(hall not let you go from me till you have given me your
bkfling. The angel bleffed him then in the fame place,
which Jacob thence called Peniel, faying, I have feen
God face to face, yet continue alive.
In following ages the Ifraelites built a city in this
place, which was given to the tribe of Gad. Gideon,
returning from the purfuit of the Midianites, overthrew
the tower of Peniel, (Judges viii. 17O* ant^ Pu*- tlm
inhabitants of the city to death, for having refufed fuften-
ance to him and his people, and having anfwered him in
a very infulting manner. Jeroboam the fon of Nebat re¬
built the city of Peniel, (1 Kings xii. 25.). Jofephus
fays, that this prince there built himfelf a palace.
PENINNAH, the fecond wife of Elkanah, the fa¬
ther of Samuel. Peninnah had feveral children, (1 Sam.
i. 2, 3, &c.), but Hannah, who afterwards was mother
of Samuel, was for a great while barren : Peninnah, in-
liead of giving the glory to God, the author of fruitful-
nefs, was elevated with pride, and infulted her rival
Hannah. But the Lord having vifited Hannah, Penin¬
nah was thereupon humbled : and fome interpreters
think, that God took away her children from her,, or
at leaft that (he had no more after this time, according
to the words of the fong of Hannah, (1 Sam. ii. 5.),
“ The barren hath born feven, and fhe that hath many
children is waxed feeble.”
PENINSULA, in Geography, a portion or extent
of land joining to the continent by a narrow neck or
iftbmus, the reft being encompaffed with water.
PENIS, in Anatomy. See Anatomy Index.
PENITENCE, is fometimes ufed for a ftate of re¬
pentance, and fometimes for the aft of repenting. See
Repentance. It is alfo ufed for a difcipline, or punifti-
ment attending repentance ; more ufually penance.
It alfo gives title to feveral religious orders, confifting
either of converted debauchees, and reformed proftitutes,
or of perfons who devote themfelves to the office of re¬
claiming them. Oi this latter kind is the
Order of PENITENCE of St Magdalen, eftabliffied
about the year 1 272 by one Bernard, a citizen of Mar-
feilles, who devoted himfelf to the work of converting
the courtezans of that city. Bernard was Seconded by
leveral others \ who, forming a kind of fociety, weie at
length erefted into a religious order by Pope Nicholas
III. under the rule of St Auguftine. F. Gefnay fays,
that they alfo made a religious order of the penitents,
or women they converted, giving them the fame rules
and obfervances which they themfelves kept.
Congregation of PENITENCE of St Magdalen at Paris,
owed its rife to the preaching of Y. 1 ifferan, a Francif-
can, who converted a vaft number of courtezans about
the year 1492. Louis duke of Orleans gave them hjs
houfe for a monaftery ; or rather, as appears by their
conftitutions, Charles VIII. gave them the hotel called
Bochaigne, whence they were removed to St George’s
chapel, In 1572. By virtue of a brief of Pope Alex¬
ander, Simon biftrop of Paris, in 1497, drew up for them
a body of ftatutes, and gave them the rule of St Augu¬
ftine. It was neceffary, before a woman could be ad¬
mitted, that flic had firft committed the fin of the fleffi.
None were admitted who were above 35 years of age.
3
6 ] PEN
Till the beginning of the laft century, none but peni- Penitence
tents were admitted 5 but fince its reformation by Mary
Alvequin, in 16x6, none have been admitted but maids,
who, however, ftill retain the ancient name penitents. u—I
PENITENTS, an appellation given to certain fra¬
ternities of penitents diftinguiffied by the different ffiape
and colour of their habits. Thefe are fecular focieties,
who have their rules, ftatutes, and churches, and make
public proceffions under their particular croffes or ban¬
ners. Of thefe there are more than a hundred .the moft
confiderable of which are as follow : the white penitents,
of which there are feveral different forts at Rome, the
moft ancient of which was conftituted in I 264 ; the
brethren of this fraternity every year give portions to
a certain number of young girls, in order to their being
married: their habit is a kind of white fackloth, and
on the ffioulder is a circle, in the middle of which is a
red and white crofs. Black penitents, the moft confi¬
derable of which are the brethren of mercy, inftituted
in 1488 by fome Florentines, in order to affift criminals
during their imprifonment, and at the time of their
death : on the day of execution they walk in proceffion
before them, finging the feven penitential pfalms and
the litanies 5 and after they are dead, they take them
down from the gibbet and bury them j their habit is
black fackcloth. There are others whofe bufinefs it is
to bury fuch perfons as are found dead in the ftreets :
thefe wear a death’s head on one fide of their habit.
There are alfo blue, gray, red, green, and violet peni¬
tents •, all of whom are remarkable for little elfe befides
the different colours of their habits.
Mabillon tells us, that at Turin there are a fet of pe¬
nitents kept in pay to Avalk through the ftreets in pro¬
ceffion, and cut their (boulders with whips, &c.
PENITENTS, or Converts of the name of Jefus, a con¬
gregation of religious at Seville in Spain, confifting of
women who had led a licentious life, founded in 1550*
This monaftery is divided into three quarters : one for
profefled religious 5 another for novices ; a third for thofe
who are under correftion. "When thefe laft give figns
of a real repentance, they are removed into the quarter
of the novices, where, if they do not behave themfelves
well, they are remanded to their correftion. They ob -
ferve the rule of St Auguftine.
PENITENTS of Orvieto, are an order of nuns, infti¬
tuted by Antony Simoncelli, a gentleman of Orvieto in
Italy. The monaftery he built was at firft defigned for
the reception of poor girls, abandoned by their parents,
and in danger of lofing their virtue. In 1662 it was
erefted into a monaftery, for the reception of fuch.as,.
having abandoned themfelves to impurity, were willing
to take up, and confecrate themfelves to God by fo-
lemn vows. Their rule is that of the Carmelites.
Thefe religious have this in peculiar, that they un¬
dergo no noviciate. All required is, that they con¬
tinue a few months in the monaftery in a fee mar habit ^
after which they are admitted to the vows.
PENITENTIAL, an ecclefiaftical book, retained
among the Romanifts j in which is preferibed what, re¬
lates to the impofition of penance and the reconcilia¬
tion of penitents. See Penance.
There are various penitentials, as the Roman peni¬
tential, that of the venerable Bede, that of Pope Gre¬
gory III. &c.
PENITENTIARY, in the ancientChiiftianchurch,
a-
PEN f i
Pemten- a name given to certain prefbyters or priefta, appointed
tijl}ry in every church to receive the private confeflions of the
Penn, people, in order to facilitate public difcipline, by ac-
—mJ quainting them what fins were to be expiated by public
penance, and to appoint private penance for fuch private
crimes as were not proper to be publicly cenfured.
Penitentiary, at the court of Rome, is an office in
which are examined and delivered out the fecret bulls,
graces, or difpenfations relating to cafes of confcience,
confeffions, &c.
Penitentiary, is alfo an officer, in fome cathedrals,
verted with power from the bithop to abfolve, in cafes
referved to him. The pope has at prefent his grand
penitentiary, who is a cardinal and the chief of the
other penitentiary priefts eftabliffied in the church of
Rome, who confult him in all difficult cafes. He pre-
fides in the penitentiary, difpatches difpenfations, abfo-
lutions, &.c. and has under him a regent and 24 proc¬
tors, or advocates of the facred penitentiary.
PENM AN-Mawr, a mountain in Caernarvonlhire,
1400 feet high. It hangs perpendicularly over thefea,
at fo vart a height, that few fpeftators are able to look
down the dreadful fteep. On the fide which is next the
lea, there is a road cut out of the fide of the rock, about
fix or feven feet wide, which winds up a fteep afcent,
and ufed to be defended on one fide only by a flight
wall, in fome parts about a yard high, and in others by
only a bank, that fearce rofe a foot above the road.
The fea was feen dafhing its ivaves 40 fathoms below,
with the mountain rifing as much above the traveller’s
head. This dangerous road was a few years ago fecured
by a wall breaft-high, to the building of which the city
of Dublin largely contributed, it being in the high road
to Holyhead.
PENN, William, an eminent writer among the
Quakers, and the planter and legiflator of Penfylvania,
was the fon of Sir William Penn, and was born at Lon¬
don in 1644. 1° 1660, he was entered a gentleman
of Chrift-Church, in Oxford ; but having before receiv¬
ed an impreffion from the preaching of one Thomas
Loe a Quaker, withdrew with fome other ftudents from
the national worfhip, and held private meetings, where
they preached and prayed amongft themfelves. This
giving great offence to the heads of the college, Mr
Penn, though but 16 years of age, was fined for non¬
conformity ; and continuing his religious exercifes, was
•it length expelled the college. Upon his return home,
he was on the fame account, treated with great feverity
by hi,3 father, who at laft turned him out of doors ^ but
his refentment afterwards abating, he fent him to France
in company with fome perfons of quality ; where he con¬
tinued a confiderable time, and returned not only well
flailed in the French language, but a polite and ac-
complilhed. gentleman. About the year 1666, his fa¬
ther committed to his care a confiderable ertate in Ire¬
land. Being found in one of the Quakers meetings in
Cork, he, with many others, was thrown into prifon :
but on his writing to the earl of Orrery, was foon dif-
charged. However, his father being informed he ftill
adhered to his opinions, fent for him to England, and
finding him inflexible to all his arguments, turned him
out of doors a fecond time. About the year 1668, he
became a public preacher among the Quakers j and that
year was committed clofe prifoner to the Tower, where
he wrote feveral treatifes. Being difeharged after feven
7 ] PEN
months imprifonment, he went to Ireland, where he alfo Penn.
preached amongft the Quakers. Returning to England, 1 
he was in 1670 committed to Newgate, for preaching
in Gracechurch-ftreet meeting-houfe, London ; but be-
ing tried at the feffions-houfe of the Old Bailey, he was
acquitted. In September the fame year, his father died;
and being perfedly reconciled to him, left him both his
paternal bleffing and a good eftate. But his perfecu-
tions were not yet at an end ; for in 1671 he was com¬
mitted to Newgate for preaching at a meeting in Wheel-
ei-ftieet, London 5 and during his imprilonment, whicli
continued fix months, he alfo wrote feveral treatifes.
After his discharge, he went into Holland and Ger¬
many 5 and in the beginning of the year 1672, married
and fettled with his family at Rickmanfworth in Hert-
fordftiire. Hie fame year he publiftied feveral pieces ;
and particularly one againft Reeve and Muggleton. In
1677, he again travelled into Holland and Germany in
order to propagate his opinions ; and had frequent con-
verfations with the princefs Elizabeth, daughter to the
queen of Bohemia, and filler to the princefs Sophia, mo¬
ther to King Geo. I. In 1681, King Charles II. in
confideration of the fervices of Mr Penn’s father, and
feveral debts due to him from the crown at the time of
his dtceafe, granted Mr Penn and his heirs the province
lying on the weft fide of the river Delaware in North
America, which from thence obtained the name of Pen~
fy/vama. Upon this Mr Penn publiftied a brief account
ol that province, with the king’s patent; and propofing
an eafy purchafe of lands, and good terms of fettlement
for luch as were inclined to remove thither, many went
over. Thefe having made and improved their planta¬
tions to good advantage, the governor, in order to fe-
cure the planters from the native Indians, appointed
commiffioners to purchafe the land he had received
from the king of the native Indians, and concluded a
peace with them. The city of Philadelphia was plan¬
ned and built 5 and he bimfelf drew up the fundamental
conftitutions of Penfylvania in 24 articles. In 1681,
he was elefted a member of the Royal Society j and the
next year he embarked for Penfylvania, where he conti¬
nued about two years, and returned to England in Au-
guft 1684. Upon the acceftion of King James to the
tin one, he was taken into a great degree of favour with
his majefty, which expofed him to "the imputation of
being a Papift j but from which he fully vindicated
himfelf. However, upon the Revolution, he was ex¬
amined before the council in 1688, and obliged to give
fecurity for his appearance on the firft day of next term,
which w'as afterwards continued. He was feveral times
difeharged and examined ; and at length warrants being
iflued out againft him, he was obliged to conceal him¬
felf for two or three years. Being at laft permitted to
appear before the king and council, he reprefented his
innocence fo effefilially that he was acquitted. In Au-
guft 1699, with his wife and family, embarked for
Penfylvania ; whence he returned in 1701, in order to
vindicate his proprietary right, which had been attack¬
ed during his abfence. Upon Queen Anne’s acceflion
to the crown, he was in great favour with her, and was
often at court. But, in 1 h]0’]^ he was involved in a law-
fuit with the executors of a perfon who had been for¬
merly his fteward; and, though many thought him ag¬
grieved, . the court of chancery did not think proper fo
relieve him j upon which account he was obliged to live
within
Penn,
.Pennant-
PEN t 11
within the rules of the Fleet for feveral months, till the
matter in difyute was accommodated. He died in 1718.
At one period of his life, Penn lodged in a houfe in
Norfolk-ftreet in the Strand. In the entrance to it he
had a peeping-hole, through which he could fee any
perfon that came to him. A creditor one day fent in his
name, and having been made to wait more than a rea-
fonable time, he knocked for the fervant, whom he aik-
ed, “ Will not thy mafter fee me ?” “ Friend (anfwer-
ed the fervant) he has feen thee, but he does not like
thee.”
Mr Penn’s friendly and pacific manner of treating
the Indians produced in them an extraordinary love for
him and his people j fo that they have maintained a per-
fe£t amity with the Englifh in Penfylvania ever fince.
He was the greatell bulwark of the Quakers ; in whofe
defence he wrote .numberlefs pieces. Befides the above
works, he wrote a great number of others 5 the moft
e[teemed of which are, 1. His Primitive Chriflianity re¬
vived. 2. His defence of a paper, intitled Gofpel Truths,
agawji the Exceptions of the Eijhop of Cork. 3* His Pei-
fuafive to Moderation. 4. His Good Advice to the
Church of England, Roman Catholic, and Proteftant
Diffenter. 5. The Sandy Foundation lhaken. 6. No
Crofs, no Crown. 7. The great cafe of Liberty of
Confidence debated. 8. 1 he Chriftian Quaker and his
Teftimony Hated and vindicated. C). A Dilcourfe of the
general Rule of Faith and Pra&ice, and Judge of Con-
troverfy. 10. England’s Prefent Intereft confidered.
II. An Addrefs to Proteftants. 12. His Refledions
and Maxims. 13. His Advice to his Children. 14. His
Rife and Progrefs of the People called Quakers. 15. A
Treatife on Oaths. Molt of thefe have palfcd feveral
editions, feme of them many. The letters between Wil¬
liam Penn and Dr Tillotfon, and William Penn and
William Popple, Efq. together with Penn’s letters to
the princefs Elizabeth of the Rhine, and the countefs of
Flornes, as alfo one to his wife on his going to Penfyl¬
vania, are inferted in his works, which were firft col¬
lected and publifiied in 2 vols. folio, and the paits fince
feledted and abridged into 1 vol. folio, are very much
and defervedly admired for the good fenfe they contain.
PENNANT, Thomas, Efq. a celebrated naturalift,
was born in Flintfhire, about the year 1726. His
family had their refidence in that country for feveral
hundred years •, and he informs us himfelf, that he ac¬
quired the rudiments of his education at Wrexham,
from whence he was lent to Fulham. Not long after
this he went to the univerfity of Oxford, where his pro¬
grefs in claffical knowledge was very confiderable *, after
which he turned his attention to the fludy of jurifpru-
dence •> but it is no where faid that he ever followed the
law as a profeflion.
We are informed that his tafle for natural hiftory, for
his knowledge of which he afterwards became fo confpi-
cuous, was firft excited by the perufal of Willoughby’s
Ornithology, a copy of which had been fent him in a
prefent. He began his travels at home, which was cer¬
tainly the moft proper ftep, to acquire a knowledge of
the manners, curiofities, and productions of his native
country, before he attempted to delineate thofe of any
other nation. He then vifited the continent, where he
acquired additional knowledge refpeaing his moft fa¬
vourite ftudies, and became acquainted with fome of the
moft celebrated literary characters which that period
8 ] PEN
produced. When he returned home he married and had Pennant,
two children •, but he was 37 years of age before he'
gained polfeflion of the family eftate, after which he
took up his refidence at Downing.
On the death of his wife he fet out again for the con¬
tinent, where he became acquainted with Voltaire, Buf-
fon, Pallas, and other eminent characters. Being an
author as early as the year 175° (then only 24 years of
age), he had acquired a confiderable degree of reputa¬
tion in that capacity, by the time he became acquainted
with the forementioned philofophers. His reputation as
a naturalift was eftablilhed by his Britifti Zoology in
four vols. qto, and itill farther increafed by his epiftolary
correfpondenee with fo great a man as Linnaeus. He
undertook a tour to Cornwall at an early period of life,
and alfo felt an irrefiftible propenfity to furvey the works
of nature in the northern parts of the kingdom, for
this purpofe he fet out for Scotland in 177L anc^ Puh-
liftied an amufing account of his tour in three vols. 4to,
which was deftined to receive fuch a fhare of public fa¬
vour as to pafs through feveral editions. His Welch
tour was publilhed in 1778, and his journey from Che-
fter to London in 1782, in one volume 4to. About
1784 came out his ArClic Zoology, a work which was
very much efteemed, both in his own, and in many
other countries. lie alfo gave the world a natural hi¬
ftory of the parifhes of Holywell and Downing, within
the latter of which he had refided for more than 50
years. Not long before his death appeared his View of
Hindoftan, in two vols. 410, to undertake which it feems
he had felicitations from private friends, as well as the
ivilhes of perfons entirely unknown to him, ivhich Avere
expreffed in the public prints. This was unqueftionably
a very bold attempt in a man Avho Avas turned of 70, a
period at Avhich the faculties of the mind muft certainly
be impaired, efpecially Avhen exerted Avith vigour for
fuch a number of years before. NotAvithftanding his
great age, hoAvever, the Avork is executed in an able
mannur, bearing a ftrong refemblance to the introduc¬
tion of his Ardlic Zoology.
He alfo publifhed a letter on the earthquake Avhich
Avas felt-at DoAvning in Flintftiire, in the year 1753?
another which Avas inferted in the Philofophical Tranf-
adlions in 17565 his Synopfis of Quadrupeds in 17715
a pamphlet on the militia 5 a paper on the turkey, and
a mifcellaneous volume.
Almoft every fpecies of literary honour Avas conferred
upon him 5 for he was complimented Avith the degree
of LL. D. by the univerfity in which he Avas educated}
he Avas alfo felloiv of the Royal Society, and a member
of the Society of Antiquaries} a fellmv of the Royal
Society of Upfal in Sweden 5 a member of the American
Philofophical Society; anhonorary member ofthe Anglo-
Linnaean Society, &c. &c.
He Avas enabled to exhibit the greateft hofpitality at
his table, in confequence of the ample fortune Avhich Avas
left him at his father’s deceafe, and he gave the profits
arifing from the fale of feveral publications to charitable
endoAvments. By his generous patronage a number of
engravers met Avith great eacouragement, and he con¬
tributed not a little to the promotion of the fine arts.
About the age of 50 he married for the fecond time, a
Mifs Moftyn, fifter of his neighbour, the late Sir Roger
Moftyn of Flintlhire. The concluding part of his life
Avas cheerful, and it may be affirmed that he fcarcely
Pennant
II
Penny.
PEN [i
felt the advances of old age. He died at his feat at
Downing in 1798, and in the 72d year of his age.
He inherited from nature a ilrong and vigorous con-
ftitution ; his countenance was open and intelligent ;
his difpofition aftive and cheerful j and his vivacity,
both in writing and converfation, made him perpetually
entertaining. His heart was kind and benevolent, and
in the relations of domeftic life his conduft was highly
worthy of imitation. The didreffes in which his poor
neighbours were at any time involved gave him un¬
feigned uneafinefs, and he endeavoured to relieve them
by every means in his power. He was poffelfed of can¬
dour, and free from common prejudices, a truth fully
evinced in all his publications. The people of Scotland
were proud to confefs, that he was the firft Englith tra¬
veller who had fairly reprefented their country in its fa¬
vourable, as well as in its lefs pleafing appearances. His
%le is lively, and fitted to convey the ideas Avhich he
intended to exprefs, but it is not always corredt. In
zoology his arrangement is judicious, and his deferip-
tions charafleriftic. If we difeover feveral traces of va¬
nity in thofe works which he publifhed near the clofe of
life, it ought to be remembered that it is the vanity of
an old man, which is feldom difagreeable ; and it is alfo
the vanity of one who in the meridian of life gave the
world fuch fruits of his labours as will be juftly admired
in all fucceeding ages, while a tafte for polite and valu¬
able literature- is cherifhed among men.
PENN AT UL A, or Sea-pen, a genus of animals
belonging to the order zoaphy ta. See Helmintholog y
Index.
PENNI, Giovanni Francisco, born at Florence,
in 1488, was the difciple of Raphael, who obferving his
genius and integrity, intruded his domeftic concerns
entirely to his management; by which means he got the
appellation of il fat ore, or the “ ft e ward,” which he
retained ever after. I he genius of Penni was-univer-
fal ; but his greateft pleafure was in painting landfcapes
and buildings : he was an excellent defigner, and co¬
loured extremely well in oil, diftemper, and frefco.
He painted portraits in an exquifite ftyle j and had fuch
nappy natural talents, that Raphael left him heir to his
fortune in partnerfliip with Julio Romano b-is fellow-
djfciple. After Raphael’s death, Penni painted many
pictures at Rome, particularly in the palace of Chigi,
fo exactly in the ftyle of his mafter, that they might
not undefervedly have been imputed to him : he finifh-
ed, in conjunction with Julio and Pierino del Vao-a the
celebrated defigns of the battles of Conftantine, and
others,, which Raphael had left imperfedt; but difter-
mg with them about a copy of the transfiguration,
which the pope intended for the king of France, they
feparated. Penni went to Naples *, but the air of that
country difagreeing with his conftitution, he died foon
after in 152R. He had a brother called Lucca Penni
who worked at Genoa and other parts of Italy in con-
jundfion with Pierino del Yaga, who married his fifter •
he went thence to England, where he worked for
Henry VIII. and for feveral merchants ; was employ¬
ed by Francis I. at Fontainbleau 5 but at laft quitted
the pencil, and devoted bimfelf to engraving.
PENNY, or Pent, in commerce, an ancient Englifh
coin, which had formerly confiderable currency ; but is
now generally dwindled into an imaginary money, or
5
»9 1 PEN
money of account. Camden derives the wnrd from the
Latin pecunia, “ money.”
I he ancient Englifh penny, penig, or pening, was
the firft iilver coin ftruck in England; nay, and the
only one current among our Saxon anceftors : as is-
agreed by Camden, Spelman, Dr Hicks, &c.
I be penny was equal in weight to our three-pence 5.
five of them made one fhilling, or fcilling Saxon ; 30
a mark or mancufe, equal to 71-. 6d.
• ^ie time of King Edw. I. the penny was ftruck
with a crofs, fu deeply indented in it, that it might be
eafily broke, and parted, on occafion, into two^ parts,
thence, called half-pennies ; or into four, thence called
fourthingr or farthings.—But that prince coined it with¬
out indenture, in lieu of which, he firft ftruck round,
halfpence and farthings.
He alfo reduced the weight of the penny to a ftand-
ard 3 ordering that it fhould weigh 32 grains of wheat,^
taKen out of the middle of the ear.—This penny was
called .the penny fer ling.—Twenty of thefe pence were
to weigh an ounce 3. whence the penny became a
weight as well as a coin. See Sterling and PENNT-
Weight.
The penny fterling was long difufed as a coin ; and.
was fcarce known, but as a money of account, contain¬
ing the twelfth part of a fhilling ; but of late years it-
has been introduced into the Britilh current coin.
Penny, in ancient ftatutes, &c. is ufed for all’filver
money. And hence the ward-penny, aver-penny, hand-,
red-penny, tithing-penny, and brothal-penny.
Penn2-Weight, a I roy weight, containing-twenty-
mur grains 3 . each grain weighing a grain of wheat ga~
the red out of the middle of the ear, well dried. The,
name took its rife hence, that this was anciently the
weight of one of our ancient filver pennies. ’ See
Penny.
Twenty of thefe penny-weights make an ounce
iroy.
PENRITH, an ancient town of the county of Cum¬
berland in England, feated under a bill called Penrith-,
re//, near the rivers Eamont and.Lowther. It is a
great thoroughfare fur travellers 3 but has little other,
trade, except tanning, and a fmall manufadure of
checks. Formerly it had a caftle, but it is now in ruins..
In the churchyard is a monument of great antiquity
confiding of two done pillars 11 feet 6 inches high, and
5 m circumference in the lower part, which is rounded 3
the upper is fquare, and tapers to a point 3 in the fquare
part^ is . feme fretwork, and the relievo of a crofs 3 and
on the interior fide of one is the faint reprefentation of
fume animal. Both thefe ftones are mortifed at their
lower part into a round one : they are about 15 feet
plunder, and the.lpace between them is inclofed on each
fide with two very large but thin femicircular ftones ; fo
that .there is left between pillar and pillar a walk of two
feet in breadth. I wo of thefe leffer ftones are plain, the
others have certain figures, at prefent fcarcely intelligi¬
ble. Not far from thefe pillars is another called the
giant's thumb, five feet eight inches high, with an ex¬
panded head, perforated on both fides 3 from the middle
the done rifes again into a leffer head, rounded at top •
but no part has.a tendency to the figure of a crofs, bein<r
In no part mutilated. The pillars are faid to have been
fet up in memory of Sir Owen Cmfarius, a famous war-
P E N f 120
rior buried here, who killed fo many wild bears, which tol
much infefted this county, that the figures of bears, cut
out in done, on each fide of his grave, vyere fet there in-
remembrance of the execution he made among thofe
beads *, and it is likewife faid his body extended from
one pillar to the other. In the market-place there is a
town-houfe of wood, beautified with bears climbing up
a ragged daff. There is a memorandum on the north
fide of the vedry without, that, in 1598, 2266 perfons
died here of the plague. There is a charity fchool in
this place for 20 boys, and another for 30 girls, main¬
tained by 55k a-year, by the facrament-money and pa-
rilh-dock. In 1715 the Scotch Highlanders entered
this town, and quartered in it for a night, in their way
to Predon, without doing much harm $ but in the lad
rebellion, in 1745, they were, it is faid, very rapacious
and cruel. Its handfome fpacious church has been lately
rebuilt, and the roof fupported by pillars, whole malts
are of one entire reddifh done, dug out of a neighbour-
ing quarry. On the . ead part of the parilh, upon the
north bank of the river Eamont, there are two caves or
grottoes, dug out of the folid rock, and fufficient to con¬
tain zoo men. Thepaffageto them is very narrow and
dangerous j and it is podiblethat its perilous accefs may
have given it the name of IJis Parlis; though the
vulgar tell drange dories of one Ms, a giant, who lived
there in former times, and, like Cacus of old, u.cd to
feize men and cattle, and draw them into his den to de¬
vour them. But it is highly probable, that thefe iub-
terraneous chambers were made for a fecure retreat m
time of fudden danger; and the iron gates, which were
taken away not long ago, feem to confirm that luppoh-
tion. The population in 1801 was nearly 4000.
Long. 4. 43- N. Lat. 54. 35' ,
PENROSE, Thomas, was the fon of the reverend
Mr Penrofe, reftor of Newbury, Berks, a man of high
character and abilities, defeended from an ancient Cor-
nifli family, beloved andrefpedted by all who knew him.
Mr Penrofe, jun. being intended for the church, purlued
his dudies with fuccefs, at Chrid-church, Oxon, until
the dimmer of 1762, when his eager turn to the naval
and military line overpowering his attachment to las
real intered, he left his college, and embarked in the
unfortunate expedition againd Nova Colonia, m South
America, under the command of Captain Macnamara.
The iffue was fatal. The Clive (the larged veffel) was
burnt 1 and though the Ambufcade efcaped (on board of
which Mr Penrofe, adting as lieutenant of marines, was
wounded), yet the hardlhips which he afterwards ludain-
ed in a prize floop, in which he was dationed, utterly
ruined his conditution. Returning to England with
ample tedimonials of his gallantry and good behaviour,
he finidied, at Hertford College, Oxon, his courfe of
dudies; and having taken orders, accepted the curacy
of Newbury, the income of which, by the voluntary
fubfeription of the inhabitants, was confiderably aug¬
mented. After he had continued in that dation about
nine years, it feemed as if the clouds of difappointment,
which had hitherto overdiadowed his profpeCts, and
tin&ured his poetical effays with gloom, were clearing
away ; for he was then prefented by a friend, who knew
his worth and honoured his abilities, to a living worth
near 500I. per annum. It came, however, too late ; for
the date of Mr Penrofe’s health was now fuch as led lit¬
tle hope, except in the affidance of the waters of Bril-
]
P E N
Thither he went ; and there he died in 1779, aged Peim.fe
36 years. In 1768 he married Mils Mary Slocock of pen(]]cola
Newbury, by whom he had one child, Thomas, who 1 ,
was educated at Winton College.
Mr Penrofe was refpefted for his extenfive erudition,
admired for hiseloquence, and equally beloved and edeem-
ed for his focial qualities. By the poor, towards whom
he was liberal to his utmod ability, he was venerated to
the highed degree. In oratory and compofition his ta¬
lents were great. His pencil was ready as his pen, and
on fubjefts of humour had uncommon merit. To his poeti¬
cal abilities the public, by their reception of his Flights
of Fancy, &c. have given a favourable tedimony.
PENRYN, a town of Cornwall, in England, feated
on a hill at the entrance of Falmouth-haven by Penden-
nis cadle. The inhabitants in 1801 exceeded 2000; and
the dreets are broad and well paved. There are fo
many gardens and orchards in it, that it refembles very
much a town in a wood. It is well watered with rivu¬
lets, and has an arm of the fea on each fide of it, with a
good cudomhoufe and quay, and other neat buildings.
It drives a confiderable trade in pilchards, and in the
Newfoundland fiftiery. It was anciently governed by
a portreeve ; but James I. made it a corporation, con¬
fiding of a mayor, 11 aldermen, 12 common-council-
men, with a recorder, deward, &x. an office of record
.-every three weeks, with a prifon, and power to try felons
in their jurifdi£!ion. And he granted, that the mayor
and two aldermen drould be juftices-of the peace, and
that they diould have a guildhall. There was once a
monadery in this place, which was a cell to Kirton; and
there are dill to be feen a tower, and part of the garden
walls, the ruins of a collegiate church. It has neither
church nor chapel, but belongs to the paridi of Gluvias,
a quarter of a mile off. It has fent members to parlia¬
ment ever fince the fird year of Queen Mary ; and
James II. granted it a new charter, whereby their elec¬
tion was veded in the magidracy only; but it was never
made ufe of, all the inhabitants that pay fcot and tot, who
are not much above zoo, being the electors. Mr Rymer
gives a very remarkable account how Penryn was once
faved by a company of drolling players. He fays, that
towards the latter end of the z6th century the Spa¬
niards were landing to burn the town jud as the players
w?ere fetting Samfon upon the Philidines ; which per¬
formance was accompanied with fuch drumming and
fhouting, that the Spaniards thought fome ambudr was
laid for them, and fcampered back to. their dups.
Queen Elizabeth founded a free-fehool in this place.
W. Long. 4. 58. N. Lat. 50. 23.. .
PENSACOLA, a fettlement in North America,
fituated at the mouth of a river on the gulf of Mexico.
It was edablidied by the French, and ceded to Great
Britain in Z763. Its fird difeoverer was Sebadian Ca¬
bot in Z497. ^ . . .
The year Z78Z, fo eventful to Britain in many re-
fpeas, was alfo remarkable for the reduftion of Penfa-
cola by the Spaniards under Don Bernardo Galvez.
Great preparations for this expedition had been making
at the Havannah ; but it was for fome time retarded by a
dreadful hurricane which attacked the Spanidi fleet, and
by which four drips of the line, befides others of inferior
note, were lod, together with the people on board, to
the amount of more than 2000. By this difader the re¬
mainder were obliged to put back to the Havannah. to
repair;
PEN [ i
Feniacola.. repair 3 but as Toon as the fleet was again judged capa-
v ble of putting to fea, an embarkation was made of near
8000 men, with Don Bernardo at their head, together
with five fliips of the line, who arrived at Penfacola on
the plh of March 1781. rids force w'as foon augment¬
ed by ten fhips of the line and fix frigates ; while Gene¬
ral Campbell, the Britifli governor, could oppofe fueh a
formidable armament with few more than 1000 men,
confiding of fome regulars and feamen, with the inhabi¬
tants. The entrance of the harbour, which was the
principal objeft of defence, was guarded by twm fmall
armed veflels, but they were infufficient to fecond the
batteries that had been ere&ed for its protedionj and
thefe, without the afliftance of fome Ihips of force, were
incapable of refifting a vigorous attack. Notwithftand-
ing this prodigious odds, however, the Spaniards met
witli the moft determined oppofition. Every inch of
ground was difputed with the greateft refolution. The
harbour was not forced without the greateft difficulty,
nor could the veflels be taken that defended it 3 the com¬
panies belonging to them, after fetting them on fire, re¬
tired on ffiore.
The Spaniards, now in pofleffion of the harbour, in¬
verted the place in form, and made their approaches in
a cautious and regular manner 3 wdiile, on the other
hand, the befieged were no lefs aftive and vigilant in
their own defence. Sallies were made occafionally with
great fuccefs, at the fame time that an uninterrupted fire
Avas kept up in fuch a manner as not only greatly to an¬
noy, but even to ftrike the befiegers with aftonifhment.
This incenfed the Spaniffi general the more, as he knew
that the garrifon could expett no relief, and therefore
that all their efforts could only prolong the date of their
furrender. I he refiftance was the more mortifying', as
he was perfeftly confcious of the bravery of his troops 3
and he had artillery fit, as his officers expreffed them-
felves, “ to be employed againft Gibraltar.” With all
thefe advantages, however, fo refolute was the defence
ot the garrifon, that after the fiege had continued for
two months, very little hope could be entertained of its
fpeedy termination. . As they defpaired therefore of
making any efteftual impreffion by means of their can-
hon, they erefted a battery of mortars, with which they
bombarded a redoubt that commanded the main avenue
to the place 3 and in this they were favoured by an un¬
expected accident. On the 8th of May a ffiell burft
open the door of the powder magazine under the re¬
doubt, by which it was blown up, with the lofs of near
loo men killed and wounded. Fortunately for the gar-
nfon, however, two flank-works (till remained entire,
irom both which fo heavy a fire was kept up, that
though an affault was immediately given, the affailants
were repulfed with great {laughter. This afforded lei¬
sure to the garnfon to carry off the wounded men, with
iome of the artillery, and to fpike up the reft. As the
enemy, however, foon recovered themfelves, and prepa¬
red for a general ftorm, it Was thought proper to aban¬
don the flank-works, and retire into the body of the
place. The poffeffion of thefe outworks, however Pave
the enemy fuch advantages, that the place was no long¬
er tenable. Their fit nation, on a rifing ground, enabled
them to command the battery oppofite to their chief ap¬
proach with fmall arms, and to fingle out the men at
their guns. A capitulation therefore became abfolutely
neceflary which was obtained on honourable terms.
V OL» XVI, Part I.
21] PEN
The town, with the whole province of Weft Florida, Penfacola
was confirmed to the Spaniards by the treaty of 1785. II
W. Long. 87. I2.N. Lat. 30. 28. Penfilvania.
PKNSANCE, a town of Cornwall, in England, at
the bottom ot Mountfbay, about ten miles from the
Land’s End. It was burnt in 1595 by the Spaniards, *
who, with four galleys, fiirprifed this part of the coaft,
and fet fire to feveral villages and farms: but it was foon
after rebuilt, made one of the coinage towns, and has
now a confiderable trade. It lies in the pariffi of Ma-
dern, noted for its reftorative fpring, very effeilual in
the cure of lamenefs as well as the cholic, &c. It is
well built, and has many {hips belonging to it. The
population in 1801 exceeded 3000 fouls. The ftiore
abounds with lead, tin, and copper ore 3 the veins appear
on the utmoft extent of land at low-water mark.
I ENSILES H-ORiiy Hanging Gardefis, in antiquitv,
See Babylon, N° 5.
PENSILT AN1 A, late one of the principal Britifh
colonies in North America, had its name from the fa¬
mous Quaker William Penn, fon of Sir William, con-
mander of the Englifti fleet in Oliver Cromwell’s time,
and in the beginning of Charles IL’s reign, who ob¬
tained a grant of it in the year 1679; is bounded on
the eaft by Delaware bay and river, and the Atlantic
ocean 3 on the north by the country of the Iroquois, or
five nations; and on the fouth and weft by Maryland.
Its extent from north to fouth is about 200 miles; but
its breadth varies greatly, from 15, and even lefs, to
near 200.
1 he air in Penfilvania is fweet and clear. The fall,
01 autumn, begins about the 20th of OtSlober, andlafts
till the beginning of December, when the winter fets
in, which continues till March, and is fometimes ex¬
tremely cold and fevere 3 but the air is then generally
dry and healthy. The river Delaware, though very
broad, is often frozen over. From March to June, that
is, in the fpring, the weather is more inconftant than in
the other feafons. In the months of July, Auguft, and
September, the heats would be almoft intolerable, if
they were not migitated by frequent cool breezes. The
wind during the fummeris generally fouth-weft; but in
the winter blows for the moft part from the north-weft
over the fnowy frozen mountains and lakes of Canada,
which occafions the exceffive cold during that feafon.
On the whole, the climate of this ftate differs not ma¬
terially from that of Conne&icut, except that on the weft
fide of the mountains the weather is much more regular.
The .nhabitants never feel thofe quick tranfitions from
cold to heat, by a change of the wind from north to
fouth, as thofe fo frequently experience who live eaft-
ward of the mountains and near the fea. The hot fouth-
wardly winds get chilled by paffing over the long chain
of Allegany mountains.
Longevity, when tolerably afeertained, is doubtlels
the trueft mark of the healthinefs of any country; but
this date, which has not been fettled above 100 years,
is not fufficiently old to determine from fafbs the ftate of
longevity. Among the people called Quakers, who are
the oldeft fettlers, there are inftances of longevity, oc-
cafioned by their living in the old cultivated counties,
and the temperance impofed on them by their reliffiorn
1 here are fewer long-lived people among the Germans
than among other nations, occafioned by their excefs of
labour and low diet. They live chiefly upon vegetables
Q. and
PEN [12
PentHvania. an3 watery food, that affords too little nourifhment to
v ' repair the wafte of their ftrength by hard labour. Near¬
ly one half of the children born in Philadelphia die un¬
der two years of age, and chiefly with a difeafe in the
floraach and bowels. Very few die at this age in the
country.
As to the face of this country, towards the coafi, like
the adjacent colonies, it is flat, but rifes gradually to the
Apalachian mountains on^the weft. As much as nearly
one-third of this ftate may be called mountainous ; par¬
ticularly the counties of Bedford, Huntingdon, Cum¬
berland, part of Franklin, Dauphin, and part of Bucks
and Northampton, through which pais, under various
names, the numerous ridges and fpurs, which collective¬
ly form what we choofe to call, for the fake of clear-
nefs, the great range of Allegany mountains. Iheie is
a remarkable difference between the country on the eaft
and weft fide of the range of mountains we have juft
been defcribing. Between thefe mountains and the low¬
er falls of the rivers which run into the Atlantic, not
only in this, but in all the fouthern ftates, are feveral
ranges of ftones, fand, earths, and minerals, which he
in the utmoft confufion. Beds of ftone, of vaft extent,
particularly of limeftone, have their feveral layers bro¬
ken in pieces, and the fragments thrown confufedly in
every direftion. Between thefe lower falls and the
ocean is a very extenfive cofteftion of fand, clay, mud,
and fhells, partly thrown up by the waves of the lea,
partly brought down by floods from the upper county,
and partly produced by the decay of vegetable fubftan-
ces. The country weft ward of the Allegany mountains,
In thefe refpeas, is totally different. It is very irregu¬
lar, broken, and variegated, but there are no moun¬
tains; and when viewed from the moft weftern ridge of
the Allegany, it appears to be a vaft extended plain.
All the various ftrata of ftone appear to have lam undi-
fturbed in the fituation wherein they were firft formed.
The layers of clay, fand, and coal, are nearly horizon¬
tal. Scarcely a Angle inftance is to be found to the
contrary. Every appearance, in fhort, tends to confirm
the opinion, that the original cruft, in which the ftone
was formed, has never been broken up on the weft fide
of the mountains, as it evidently has been eaftward of
The chief rivers are three, Delaware, Sufquehanna,
and Skoolkil. The Delaware, fifing in the country of
the Iroquois, takes its courfe fouthward *, and after di¬
viding this province from that of New Jerfey, falls into
the Atlantic ocean between the promontories or capes
May and Henlopen, forming at its mouth a large bay,
called from the river Delaware Bay. 'I his river is na¬
vigable above 200 miles. The Sufquehanna rifes alfo
the country of the Iroquois, and running
2 ] r ^ .
Jerseys, ffnce what is there faid on thofc heads is Penfav
equally applicable to this province j and if there is any
, A- . • ni-;ivinr'f>. Thev have
fouth
through the middle of the province, falls into the bay
of Chefapeake, being navigable a great way for large
{hips. The Skoolkil has its fource in the fame country
as the other two, and alfo runs iouth, almoft parallel to
them; till at length, turning to the eaftward, it falls
into the Delaware at the city of Philadelphia. It is na¬
vigable for boats above 100 miles.. Thefe rivers, with
the numerous creeks and harbours m Delaware bay, ca¬
pable of containing the largeft fleets, are extremely fa¬
vourable to the trade of this, province. .
As to the foil, produce, and traffic of Peniilvama,
wa refer the reader to the articles NEtY-YoRK. and the
4:
differe'nce^Lt is on the fide"of this province. They have
fume rice here \ but in no great quantities •, and tome,
tobacco, but it is not equal to that of Virginia From
the premiums offered by the fociety of arts in London,
it appears that the foil and climate of this province are
Jooked upon as proper for the cultivation of fome fpecies
of vines. The trade carried on from hence and the
other colonies to the French and Dutch illands and Su¬
rinam, was greatly to the difadvantage of Britain, and
very deftruttive to the fugar-colonies : for they take mo-
laffes, rum, and other fpirits, with a great many Euro¬
pean goods, from thefe foreigners 5 carrying them bodes,
provitions, and lumber in return ; without which the
French could not carry on their fugar-manufaftures to
that advantage they do. . ,.r
New York, the Jtrfeys, and Penfilvama, were dilco-
vered with the reft of the continent of North America,
in the reign of Henry VII. by Sebaftian Cabot, for the
crown of England j but Sir Walter Raleigh was the firft
adventurer that attempted to plant colonies on. thefe
(bores in the reign of Queen Elizabeth } and, in ho¬
nour of that princefs, gave all the eaftern coaft of North
America the name of Virginia. Mr Hudfon, an Eng-
liftrman, failing to that part of the coaft which lies be¬
tween Virginia and New England, in the beginning of
the reDn of James 1. and being about to make a fettle-
ment at the mouth of Hudfon’s river, the Dutch gave
him a fum of money to difpofe of his intereft in this
country to them. In the year 1608 they began to plant
if and, by virtue of this purchafe, .laid claim to all
thofe countries which .are now denominated New York,
New Jerfeii, and Penft/vania ; but there remaining fome
part of this coaft which was not planted by the Holland¬
ers the Swedes fent a fleet of (hips thither, and took
poffeflion of it for that crown *, but the Dutch having a
(uperior force in the neighbourhood, compelled the
Swedes to fubmit to their dominion, allowing them,
however, to enjoy the plantations they had fettled. 1 he
Englilh not admitting that either the Dutch or Swedes
had any right to countries firft difcovered and planted
bv a fubieft of England, and part of them at that time
poffeffed by the fubjeas of Great Britain, under charter
from Queen Elizabeth and King James I. > King
Charles JI. during the firft Dutch war in 1664, granted
the countries of New York, the Jerfcys, and 1 enfilva-
nia of which the Dutch had ufurped the poileflion, to
his’brother James duke of York j and Sir Robert Carr
being fent over with a fquadron of men of war and land
forces, and fummoning the Dutch governor of the city
of New AmtUrdam, now New York, to (urrender,.he
thought fit to obey the fummons, and yield that capital
to the Engliffi : the reft of the places in the poifeffion
of the Dutch and Swedes followed his example ; and
thefe countries were confirmed to the Englifli by the
Dutch at the next treaty of peace between the two na¬
tions. The duke of York afterwards parcelled them
out to under proprietors; felling, in particular toVil-
liam Penn the elder, in 1683, the town of Newcaft e,
alias Delaware, and a diftrift of 12 miles round the
fame; to whom, his heirs, and affigns by another deed
of the fame date, he made over all that tract of land
from 12 miles fouth of Newcaftle to the Whore-hills,
other-wife called Cape Henlopen, now divided into the two
coupties-i
PEN
■V^filvania. courifcies of Kent and Suffex, which, with Newcaftle
’ diftrift, are commonly known by the name of the Three
Lower Counties upon Delaware River. All the rell pf
the under proprietors, fome time after, furrendered their
charters to the crown j -whereby New York and the
Jerfeys became royal governments j but Penn retained
that part of the country which had been fold to him by
the duke of York, together with what had been grant¬
ed to him before in 1680-1, which now conllitutes the
province of Penfilvania. As foon as Penn had got his
patent, he began to plant the country. Thole who
went over from England w’ere generally Dilfenters and
Quakers, whofe religion is eftablilhed by lawr here, but
with a toleration of all other Proteflant fe£ls. The
Dutch and Sw'edes, who were fettled here before Mr
Penn became proprietor, choofing ftill to refide in this
■country, as they did in New York and the Jerleys, ob¬
tained the fame privileges as the reft of his majefty’s fub-
jefls j and their defendants are now in a manner the
fame people with the Englifh, fpeaking their language,
and being governed by their laws and cuftoms. Mr
Penn, however, not fatisfied with the title granted him
by King Charles II. and his brother, bought the lands
alfo of the Indians for a valuable confideration, or what
they efteemed fuch (though 20 miles were purchafed,
at firft, for lefs than an acre about Philadelphia would
pay now), paying them in cloth, tools, and utenfils, to
their entire fatisfadlion : for they had not hands to cul¬
tivate the hundredth part of their lands, and if they
could have railed a producl, there was nobody to buy :
the purchafe, therefore, was all clear gain to them j
and, by the coming of the Englifh, their paltry trade
became fo profitable, that they foon found their condi¬
tion much altered for the better ; and arefnow as well
clothed and led as the European peafantry in many
places.
Penfilvania is one of the moft fiourifhing colonies in
North America, having never had any quarrel with the
natives. Whenever they defire to extend their fettle-
ments, they purchafe new lands of the fachems, never
taking any by force ; but the Indians now fet a very
high price upon their lands, in comparifon of what they
did at firft, and will hardly part with them at any rate.
In an eftimate of the proprietary eftate of the province,
publithed above 40 years ago, we find, that the pro¬
prietaries, who alone can purchafe lands here from the
natives, had bought feven millions of acres for no more
than 750I. fterling, which the proprietaries afterwards
fold at the, rate of 15I. for every 100 acres. The In¬
dian council at Onandago, however, difapproved of their
deputies parting with fo much land j and, in the year
r755> °bliged the proprietaries to reconvey great part
»f the fame to the Indians.
A dupute lublifted a long time between the proprie¬
taries of this province and Lord Baltimore, proprietary
of Maryland, about the right to certain lands ; which
was at laft amicably adjufted, though greatly in favour
of the Penns.
About the year 1704 there happened fome alteration
in the conftitution of the province. The eftabliftiment
that took place, and fubfifted till the American war
broke out, confifted of a governor, council, and aflem-
bly,^ each with much the fame power and privileges as
in the neighbouring colony of New York. The lieute¬
nant-governor and council were appointed by the pro-
P E N
prietors Thomas and Richard Penn, with his majefty’s Fenfilvani-in
approbation j but if the laws enabled here were not re-
pealed within fix months after they had been prefented
to the king for his approbation or diiallowance, they
were not repealable by the crown after that time.
By the prefent conftitution of Penlilvania, which v\as
eftablifhed in September 1776, all legiflative power??
are lodged in a fingle body of men, which is ftyled, The
general ajjembly of reprejentatives of the freemen of Ten-
filvania. The qualification required to render a perfon.
eligible to this aiTembly is, two years refide,nee in the
city or county for which he is chofen. The qualifica¬
tions of the electors are, full age, and one year’s refi-
dence in the ftate, with payment of public taxes during-
that time. But the Tons of freeholders are intitled to
vote for reprefentatives, without any qualification ex¬
cept tull age. No man can be elected as a member of
the affembly more than four years in feven. The repre-
fentatives are chofen annually on the fecond Tuefday in
October, and they meet on the fourth Monday of the
fame month. The fupreme executive power is lodged
in a prefident, and a council confifting of a member
from each county. The prefident is elected annually by
the joint ballot of the afiembly and council, and from
the members of council. A vice-prefident is chofen at
the fame time. The counfellors are choien by the free¬
men every third year ; and having ferved three years*
they are ineligible for the four fucceeding years. The
appointments of one-third only of the members expire
every year ; by which rotation no more than one-third
can be new members.
Manufaiftures of different kinds are numerous in this
ftate, and tapidly on the increafe. There are 16 fur¬
naces and 37 forges, the latter of which it is fuppofed*
will prepare annually 6290 tons of iron. Here allb they
make every implement of hulbandry and kitchen uten¬
fils. Penfilvauia contains 52 mills for the manufadlur-
ing of paper, the annual product of which has been va'1-
lued at 25,000 dollars. About 300,000 hats of wool
and fur are annually made 5 and the mills for making-
gunpowder are 25 in number. Glauber’s falts and fal
ammoniac have alfo begun to be manufactured of late
to a considerable extent} and there are water-works
near the falls of Trenton which grind grain, roll and
Hit iron, and pound gypfum or plafter of Paris. The
number of militia is eitimated at upwards of 90,000.
For people of almoit every religious perfuafion there art*
about 384 places of public W or (hip. The expence of
the government of this ftate amounts to about 3 2,280k
fterling annually.
With refpeCt to population, Morfe informs us, that
in 1787 the inhabitants in Penfilvania were reckoned at
360,000. It is probable they are now more numerous,
perhaps 400,000. If we fix them at this, the popula¬
tion for every fquare mile will be only nine j by which
it appears that Penfilvania is only one-fifth as populous
as Conneflicut. But Connecticut was fettled nearly
half a century before PenfilvSnia ; fo that in order to
do juftice to Penfilvania in the comparifon, we muft an¬
ticipate her probable population 50 years hence. By a
cenfus taken in 1790, the population amounted to
434,000. Thefe inhabitants confift of emigrants from
England, Ireland, Germany, and Scotland. The Friends
and Epifcopalians are chiefly of Engliik extraction, and
compofe about one third of the inhabitants. They live
(ft 2 principally
[ '23 1
PEN [
Penirlrania principally in the city of Philadelphia, and in the counties
  of Chefter, Philadelphia, Bucks, and Montgomery.
The Irith are mbftly Prefbyterians. Their anccllors
came from the north of Ireland, which was originally
fettled from Scotland j hence they have been fometimes
called Scotch Irith, to denote their double defeent. But
they are commonly and more properly called Iriih, or
the defeendants of people from the north of Ireland.
They inhabit the weftern and frontier counties, and are
numerous. The Germans compofe one quarter at k aft,
if not a third, of the inhabitants of Penfilvania. They
inhabit the north parts of the city of Philadelphia, and
the counties of Philadelphia, Montgomery, Bucks, Dau¬
phin, Lancafter, York, and Northampton ; moflly in
the four laft. They confift of Lutherans (who are the
moft numerous fe£l), Calviuifts, Moravians, Menno-
nifts, Tankers (corruptly called Dunkers), and Swing-
felters, who are a fpecies of Quakers. Thefe are all
diftinguifhed for their temperance, induftry, and eco¬
nomy. The Germans have ufually J 5 ^9 TO(-robers
in the affembly j and feme of them have ariien to tlie
firft honours in the ftate, and now fill a number of the
higher offices. Yet the lower clafs are very ignorant
and fuperftitious. It is not uncommon to fee them going
to market with a little bag of fait tied to their horfes
manes, for the purpofe, they fay, of keeping off the
witches.
TheBaptifts (except the Mennonift and Tunker Bap-
tifts, who are Germans) are chiefly the defeendants of
emigrants from Wales, and are not numerous. A pro¬
portionate affemblage of the national prejudices, the
manners, cuftoms, religions, and political fentiments of
all thefe will form the Penfllvania charadter. As the
leading traits in this chara&er, thus conftituted, we may
venture to mention induflry, frugality bordering in forne
inftances on parfimony, enterprife, a tafte and ability
for improvements in mechanics, in manufadlures, in
agriculture, in commerce, and in the liberal feienees j
temperance, plainnefs, and fimplicity in drefs and man¬
ners ; pride and humility in their extremes j inoffenflve-
nefs and intrigue ; in regard to religion, variety and
harmony ; liberality, and its oppofites, fuperftition and
bigotry *, and in politics an unhappy jargon. Such ap¬
pear to be the diftinguilhing traits in the eolleSive Pen-
filvahian charadler.
Of the great variety of religious denominations in
Penfilvania, the Friends or Quakers are the moft nu¬
merous. They were the firft fettlers of Penfilvania in
1682 under William Penn, and have ever fince flou-
riftied in the free enjoyment of their religion. They
neither give titles nor ufe compliments in their conver-
fation or writings, believing that whatfoever is- more
than yea, yea, and nay, nay, cometli of evil. They con-
feientioufly avoid, as unlawful, kneeling, bowing, or un¬
covering the head to any perfon. They difeard all fu-
perfluities in drefs or equipage ; all games, fports, and
plays, as unbecoming the Chriftian. Swear not at all,
is an article of their creed literally obferved in its utmoft
extent. They believe it unlawful to fight in any cafe
whatever •, and think that if their enemy fmite them on
the one cheeh, they ought to turn to him the other alfo.
They are generally honeft, punflual, and even pun<fti-
Hous in their dealings : provident for the neceffities of
-their poor } friends to humanity, and of courfe enemies
24 ] PEN
to flavery 5 ft rid in their difeipline ; careful in the ob- PenCIvariia.
fervance even of the pun&ilios in drefs, fpeech, and v ~ '
manners, which their religion enjoins 5 faithful in the
education of their children 5 induftrious in their fcveral
occupations. In fhort, whatever peculiarities and mi-
ftakes thofe of other denominations have fuppofed they
have fallen into, in point of religious do&rines, they
have proved themfelves to be good citizens. Next to
the Quakers, the Prefbyterians are the moft numerous.
There are upwards of 60 minifttrs of the Lutheran and
Calvinift religion, who are of German extra&ion, now
in this ftate j all of whom have one or more congrega¬
tions under their care 5 and many of them preach in
fplendid and expenfive churches } and yet the firft Lu¬
theran minifter, who arrived in Penfilvania about 40
years ago, was alive in 1787, and probably is ftill, as
was alfo the fecond Calviniiiical minifter. The Lu¬
therans do not differ in any thing effential from the
Epifcopalians, nor do the Calvinifts from the Prefbyte¬
rians.
The Moravians are of German extraction. Of this
religion there are about 1300 fouls in Penfilvania, viz.
between 500 and 6co in Bethlehem, 450 in Nazareth,
and upwards of 300 at Litiz in Lancafter county. They
call themfelves the United Brethren of the Protefant
Epifcopal Church. They are called Moravians, becaufe
the firft fettlers in the Engliftt dominions were chiefly
migrants from Moravia. See Hernhutters, and Uni-
tas Fratrum ; and for the Mennonites, fee Mennon-
ites. They were introduced into America by Count
Zinzendorff, and fettled at Bethlehem, which is their
principal fettlement in America, as early as 1741. For
the Tankers, fee T UNXERS.
There are a great many literary, humane, and other
ufeful focieties in Penfilvania} more it is faid, than in
any of the United Provinces. There are feveral univer-
fities and colleges at Philadelphia and other places : See
Philadelphia. Lancafter, Carlifle, and Pittfburgh,
are the chief towns after Philadelphia.
Penfilvania is divided into feven counties 5 four of
which are called the Upper, and three the Lower. Of
the Upper, viz. Buckingham, Philadelphia, Chefter, and
Lancafter, the three firft are the lands included in King
Charles II.’s grant, and defigned Penflvania ; the low¬
er, viz. thofe of Newcaftle, Kent, and Suffex, were
called Nova Belgia before the duke of York fold them,
as we obferved above, to Mr Penn. The upper counties
end at Marcus Hook, four miles below Chefter town,
where the lower begin, and run along the coaft near
100 miles. Each of thefe counties had a ftieriff, with
a quarterly and monthly feffion, and affizes twice a
year.
In the Philofophical Tran factions for 1757, there is
an account of a fpring in Penfilvania, which rifes from
a copper mine, and yields 800 hogfheads in twenty-four
hours. The water is of a pale green colour, of an acid,
fweet, auftere, inky, and naufeous tafte. I he faline
matter which it holds in folution is probably fulphate of
copper *, for a piece of poliffied iron immerfed in it is
foon covered with a cruft of metallic popper. It con¬
tains alfo, it is faid, copperas or fulphate of iron.
Among the other curiofities of this province may be
reckoned another fpring, about 14 feet deep, and about
ioq fquare in the neighbourhood of Reading. A full
PEN [ i
Pcnfilvama, mill A ream flaws from it. The waters are clear, and
Penfion. 0£ From appearances it is probable that this
fpring is the opening or outlet of a very conliderable ri¬
ver, which, a mile and a half or two miles above this
place, finks into the earth, and is conveyed to this out¬
let in a fubterranean channel. In the northern parts of
Penfilvania there is a creek, called Oil creek, which
empties into^the Alleghany river. It iilues from a
fpring, on the top of which floats an oil fimilar to that
called Barbadoes tar, and from which one man may ga¬
ther feveral gallons in a day. The troops fent to guard
the weftern ports halted at this fpring, colle&ed fome of
the oil, and bathed their joints with it. This gave them
great relief from the rheumatic complaints with which
they were affe&ed. The waters, of which the troops
drank freely, operated as a gentle puroe.
There are three remarkable grottoes or caves in this
ftate ; one near Carlifle in Cumberland county 5 one in
the townihip of Durham, in Bucks county ; and the
other at Swetara in Lancafter county. Of the two for¬
mer there are no particular deferiptions. The latter is
on the eaft bank of Swetara river, about two miles above
its confluence with the Sufquehannah. Its entrance is
fpacious, and defeends fo much as that the furface of the
river is rather higher than the bottom of the cave. The
vault of this cave is of a folid limeftone rock, perhaps
20 feet thick. It contains feveral apartments, fome of
them very high and fpacious. The water is inceffantly
percolating through the roof, and falls in drops to the
bottom of the cave. Thefe drops petrify as they fall,
and have gradually formed folid pillars, which appear as
fupports to the roof. Thirty years ago there were ten
fuch pillars, each fix inches in diameter, and fix feet
high •, all fo ranged that the place they enclofed refem-
bled a fanfluary in a Roman church. No royal throne
ever exhibited more grandeur than this hifns nature?.
The refemblances of feveral monuments are found in¬
dented in the wralls on the fides of the cave, which appear
like the tombs of departed heroes. Sufpended from the
roof is the bell (which is nothing more than a rtone pro-
jefled in an unufual form), fo called from the found that
it occafions when ftruck, which is fimilar to that of a
bell. Some of the ftalaflites are of a colour like fugar-
candy, and others refemble loaf fugar ; but their beauty
is much defaced by the country people. The water,
which percolates through the roof, fo much of it as is
not petrified^ in its courfe, runs down the declivity, and
is both plealant and w k ole fome to drink. There are le-
veral holes in the bottom of the cave, defeending per¬
pendicularly, perhaps into an abyfs below, which ren¬
ders it dangerous to walk without a light. At the end
of the cave, is a pretty brook, which, after a fliort
courfe, lofes itfelf among the rocks. Beyond this brook
is an outlet from the cave by a very narrow aperture.
Through this the vapours continually pafs outwards with
a firong current of air, and afeend, refembling at night
the fmoke of a furnace. Part of thefe vapours and fogs
appear on afeending to be condenfed at the head of tins
great alembic, and the more volatile parts to be carried
off, through the aperture communicating with the exte¬
rior air before mentioned, by the force of the air in its
paffage.
. PENSION, a fum of money paid annually for fer-
vices or confiderations already part. The yearly pay-
25 1 PEN
ment of each member to the houfes of the inns of courts Penfion
are likervife named penjiotis ; and the yearly affembly of II
the fociety of Gray’s Inn, to confult on the affairs of the Penf^onei:-
houfe, is alfo called a penfion.
PENSIONARY, or Pensioner, a perfon who has
an appointment or yearly fum, payable during life, by
way of acknowledgement, charged on the ellate of a
prince, company, or particular perfon.
Grand PEJWS'lONAHT, an appellation formerly given
to the firft miniller of the ftates of Holland. The grand
penfionary wras chairman in the affemblies of the ftates
of that province ; he propofed the matters to be confult-
ed on j collected the votes j formed and pronounced the
refolutions of the flates ; opened letters 5 conferred with
foreign minifters, &c. His bufinefs was alfo to infpecT
the finances, to maintain the authority of the flates, and
to fee that the laws were obferved ; and he was perpe¬
tual deputy of the ftates general of the United Provin¬
ces. His commiflion was, however, only given him for
five years ; after which it was. deliberated whether or
not it ftiould be renewed j but there was no inftance of.
its being revoked ; therefore death only put an end to
the funilions of this important minifter.
Pensionary was alio the firft minifter of the regen¬
cy of each city in Holland. His office was to give his
advice in affairs relating to the government, either of
the ftate in general, or of the city in particular ; and in
aflemblies of the ftates of the province, he was fpeaker
in behalf of his city. The funftion, however, of thefe
penfionaries was not everywhere alike ; in fome cities
they only gave their advice, and were never found in
affemblies of the magiftrates, except when exprefsly
called hither : in others they attended conftantly 5 and
in others they made the propofitions on the part of the
burgomafters, drew up their conclufions, &c. They
were called penjionaries, becaufe they received an ap¬
pointment or penfion.
PENSIONER, in general, denotes a perfon who re¬
ceives a penfion, yearly falary, or allowance. Hence,
The Band of Gentlemen PENSIONERS, the nobleft:
fort of guard to the king’s perfon, confifts of 40 gentle¬
men, who receive a yearly penfion of look
This honourable band was firft inftituted by King
Henry VIII. and their office is to attend the king’s
perfon, with their battle-axes, to and from his chapel
royal, and to receive him in the prefence chamber, or
coming cut of his privy lodgings ; they are allb to at¬
tend at all great folemnities, as coronations, St George’s
feaft, public audiences of ambaffadors, at the fovereign’s
going to parliament, &c.
They are each obliged to keep three double borfes
and a fervant, and fo are properly a troop of horfe*
They wait half at a time quarterly ; but on Chriftmas-
day, Eafter-day, Whitfunday, &c. and on extraordinary
occafions, they are all obliged to give their attendance.
They have likewife the honour to carry up the fo’ve-
reign’s dinner on the coronation-day and St George’s
feaft •, at which times the king or queen ufually confer
the honour of knighthood on two fuch gentlemen of the
band as their captain prefents.
Their arms are gilt battle-axes ; and their weapons,
on horfeback, in time of war, are cuiraffiers arms, with
f'.vord and piftols. Their ftandard in time of wTar is,
argent, a crofs gules. Their captain is always a noble¬
man^
3
p e n r 1
VeriUcneV man, who lias under him a lieutenant:, a flanaard-bear
11 er a clerk of the check, fecretary, pay mailer, and har-
Penta- ’
Por‘£:.-
graph.
graph.
binder.
Pensioner, in the univerfity of Cambridge and in
that of Dublin, has a very peculiar meaning *, ^ tho e
fludents, either under graduates or bachelors of arts, are
called penjioncrs who live wholly at their own expence,
and who 'receive no emolument vvteever from the col¬
lege of which they arc members. 1 hey are divided In
,wo kinds, the greater and the left ; the former of which
are generally called/e//«o-r«M»<™, becaufe they eat
with the fellows of their college ; the latter
called Mmnert, and eat with the tholars, who are
thofe {Indents of the college, either under-graduates or
bachelors who are upon the foundation, who receive
emoluments from the foeiety, and who are capable ot
beimr elected fellows. See SERVITOR and Sizar.
PENSTOCK, a flutce or flood-gate, fervmg to re¬
tain or let go at pleafuve the water of a mill-pond, or
tnepENTACHORD (compound of w«m, five and
fir in?), an ancient mufical inftrument with five
lings. The invention of the pentachord is referred
to the Scythians-, the firings were of bullocks Kathei,
and they were ftruck with a pledlrum made of goats
L°PENT ACROSTIC, in Poetry, * fet of verks to
difpofed, as that there are always five acroflics of the
lame name, in five divifions of each verfe. bee A-
PENT AD ACTYLON, Five Fingers, in Botany,
a name given by feme authors to the nanus or palma
CJirifti, from the figure of its leaf.
P ENT AD A CT Y L O S fisc is, theyfue ji ngeredfijh,
the trivial name of a fifh common in all the leas of the
Eaft Indies, and called by the Dutch there vilf vinger
^PENTAGON, in Geometry, a figure of five fides
and five angles. See Geomei ky. . , ~
In fortification, pentagon denotes a fort with five
PENT'AGRA PH, Pantograph, or Pantocra-
THER, an inftrument defigned for drawing figures in
what proportion you pleafe, without any fkill in t.ie
The inftrument is otherwife called a parallelogram.
Geo,net. The following is the defeription of this inftrument by
and Ort- Air Adams. ^ r
phic EJfays, « an inftrument (fays Mr Adams) as utelul to
P- tbe experienced dvaftfman, as to thofe who have made
but little progrefs in the art. It faves a great deal of
time, either in reducing, enlarging, or copying of the
fame fizc, giving the outlines of any drawing however
crooked or complex, with the.utmoft exaftnefs , nor is
it confined to any particular kind, but may with equal
facility be ufed for copying figures, plans, lea-charts,
mans, profiles, landfcapes, Stc. ? r i
“ Defeription and ufie of the Pantogrupher.—lhwe
not been able to afeertain who was the inventor of this
uCeful inftrument. The earlieR account l find is that
of the Jefuit Scheiner, about the year 1631, m a fmall
trad entitled Pantographice, five ars nova delmeandi.
The principles are felf-evident to every geometrician-,
The mechanical conftrucTion was firft improved and
26 1 p E N
brought to its prefent Hate of perfeamn By my father,
abmrt the year 1750. It is one, among many ether
feientific improvements and inventions completed by
him, that others have inglorioufly, and many years alter,
aflumed to themfelves. s u r.
“ The pantographer is ufually made o. woou, or brat-,
and confifts of four Hat rules, two of them long, and two
{hurt. The two lunge ft: are joined at the end A, by a ^
double pivot, which is fixed to one of the ru.es, and cccuX>
works in two fmall holes placed at the end of the other
Under the joint is an ivory caftor, to fupport this end
of the inftrument. The two fmallei rules are fixed by
pivots at E and H, near the middle of the larger
rules, and are alfo joined together at t.ieir othet
end Gr
^By the conftruclion of this inftrument, the four rules
always form a parallelogram. THere-is a Hiding box on
the longer arm, and another on the (hotter arm. Ihefe
boxes may be fixed at any part of the rules by means of
their milled nuts} each of thefe boxes is furmftied wit a
a cylindrie tube, to carry either the tracing point or
crayon or fulcrum. . , . • ,
The fulcrum or fupport k, is a leaden weight inclo-
fed in a mahogany box, on this the inftrument moves
when in ufe there are two moveable rollers, to iuppoit
and facilitate the motions of the pantographer, their
fituation may be varied as occafion requires.
The graduations are placed on two of the rules, on
each of them are two feales, the fiducial edges of the
boxes are to be fet to thefe, according to the work to
be performed by the inftrument. rt .
‘‘The crayon, the tracer, and fulcrum, muft m all
cafes be in a right line, fo that when they are let, it a
ftrina be ftrttched over them, and they do not coincide
with-it, there is an error either in the felting or gra¬
duations. . ,
“ The long tube which carries the pencil or crayon,
moves eafily up or down another tube j there is a tiring
affixed to the long or inner tube, patfing afterwaids
through the holes in the three fmall knobs to the tra¬
cing point, where it may, if neeeffary, be fattened. By
nulling this firing, the pencil is lifted up occahonaby,
and thus prevented from making falfe or improper marks
upon inpument wlien the copy is to he of the
fame fJas the original.-^ the intlrmrumt upon a
large table, and fet the Aiding boxes B_ and D, to the
divifions marked 12. Put the crayon into the box B,
place the box D upon the fulcrum or leaden foot the
tracing point at C. Then lay a piece of paper under
the crayon, and the original drawing under the tracer
and move the tracing point over the principal ftrokes o
original, and the crayon will form the requned
the
To reduce a drawing, is'e. to half the fize of the
original.—Set the boxes B and D, to the divifions
marked one-half, place the fulcrum at B, the crayon at
D, and tracer at C. , - , i is .1
“ To reduce a drawing, &c. to le/s than one-hathe
original.—Suppofe one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth, &c.
Place the fulcrum at B, crayon at D, and tracer at L,
and Aide the boxes B and D, to the divifions marked
one-third, one-fourth, one-fifth, &c. or/ the longer feales *
It may be proper to obferve here, thaft if the copy bq
PEN
Pe»ta-
graph
II
Pentapo'is
lefs than one-ha’f the original, or when it is required
greater than the original, the longer Icales are to be
ufed.
“ For greater than one half the original drawing.—
Suppofe it be required to make a drawing, two-thirds,
three-fourths, four-fifths, &c. Set the boxes B and D,
to correfponding divifions, as two-thirds, three-fourths,
four-fifths, &c. on thefhorter fca/es, place the fulcrum at
D, the crayon at B, and tracer at C.
“ When the original drawing is to he enlarged.—r~
Suppofe one-eighth, one-fixth, &c. fet the boxes B and
n, to one-eighth, one-fixth, &c. on the longer fcales,
place the fulcrum at D, the crayon at C, and tracer
at B.
“ Where the copy is required of a Ji-ze differing front
the fractional parts laid down on the injlrument.—For
this purpofe there are two fcales laid down, containing
100 unequal parts, one fcale numbered from 10 to So,
the other from 50 to 100.
“ If the copy is to be under one-half the original Jize,
place the boxes B and D, to any two correfponding
divifions under 50, the fulcrum at B, and crayon
at D.
“ If the copy is to be larger than one-half the original,
place the boxes B and D, to correfponding divifions be-
[ 127 ] PE KT
rah, Adamah, and Zeboim, were all confumed by fire Pentapolis,
tween 50 and 100 ; the fulcrum at B, and crayon
at D.
“ To change the Jituation of the pantographer.—Copy
firfl as much as the pantographer will take in ; then
make three points on the original, and as many corre¬
fponding points on the copy. Then remove the fulcrum
to another fituation, but fo, that when the tracing point
is applied to the three points marked on the original,
the crayon may exa&ly coincide with the other three
points on the copy, and proceed as before ; and fo on
for every change in the fituation of your inftrument,
and by this means a pantographer of two feet and a
half in length will copy a drawing of any fize vvhatfo-
ever.
PENTAMETER, in ancient poetry, a kind of
verfe, confiding of five feet, or metres, whence the
name. The two firft feet may be either dacRyis or
fpondees at pleafure ; the third is always a fpondee ;
and the two laft ana pedes : fuch is the following verfe
of Ovid. &
1. . 2 . 3 , 4 5
Carmini\bus vi\ves tem\pus in om\ne meis.
_ A pentameter verfe fubjoined to an hexameter, con-
flitutes what is called elegiac. See Elegiac.
PENTANDRIA (from TSivTt, five, and av/ig, a man
or hujband) j the name of the fifth clafs in Einnteus's
fexual method, confiding of plants which have herma¬
phrodite flowers, with five ftamina or male organs. See
Botany Index.
I Ei\ TAPET ALOUS, an appellation given to
flowers which confid of five petals or leaves.
PEN I APE I ES, a genus of plants belonging to
the monadelphia clafs, and in the natural method rank¬
ing under the 37th order, Columnifera?, See Botany
Index.
_ PEN FAPQLIS. This name is given to the five
cities Sodom, Gomorrah, Adamah, Zeboim, and Zoar
(Wifdom x. 6.). They were all five condemned to
utter dedru dion, but Lot interceded for the preferva-
iion of Zoar, otherwife called Bala. Sodom,'Gomor-
7 ? *-' ^* “* * *TWV^ CIXJ- I11C ‘ v-utajJUiL'.j
from heaven, and in the place where they dood was f-'enrateuch-
made the lake Afphaltites, or the lake of Sodom. ——y——/
Pentapolis (Ptolemy), a didrict of Cy renaica j
fituated on the Mediterranean ; denominated from its
five cities ; namely, Berenice, Arfinoe, Ptolcmais, Gy¬
rene, and Apollonia.
Pentapolis of the Philifines, (Jofephus) j taking
name from five principal cities, Gaza, Gath, Afcalon,
Azotus, and Ekron.
PENTATEUCH. This word, which is derived
from the Greek risvWst^oj, from 7ntT',fve, and rtv-goi,
an injlrument or volume, lignifies tne collection ot the
five indruments or books ot Mofes, which are Genefis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy : each
of which books we have given an account of under
their feveral names.
There are fume modern critics who have difputed
Mofes’s right to the pentateuch. They obferve that the
author fpeaks always in the third perfon. “ Now the
man Mofes was very meek above all the men which
were upon the lace of the earth. The Lord fpake unto
Mofes, faying, &e. Mofes laid to Pharaoh, See.” Thus
they think he would never have fpoken of himfelf j but
would at lead fometimes have mentioned himfelf in the
fird perfon, Befides this, lay they, the author of the
pentateuch fometimes abridges his narration like a wri¬
ter who colleCled Irom fome ancient memoirs. Some¬
times he interrupts the thread of his difeourfe 5 for ex¬
ample, he makes Lamech the bigamid to fay (Gen. iv.
23•)> u Hear my voice, ye yvives ol Lamech, hearken
unto my fpeech ; for I have ilain a man to my wound¬
ing, and a young man to my hurt,,, without informing
us before-hand to whom this is related. Thefe obferva-
tions, for example- (Gen. xii. 6.), “ And the Canaanite
was then in the land,” cannot be reconciled to the age
of Mofes, fince the Canaanites continued to be the ma¬
ilers of Paledine all the time of Mofes. The paffage
out of the book of the wars of the Lord, quoted in the
book of Numbers (xxk 14.) feems to have been clap¬
ped in afterwards, as alfo the firll verfes of Deuterono¬
my. The account of the death of Mofes, which is at
the end of the fame book, cannot certainly belong to
this legidator ; and the fame judgment may be made
of other paflages, wherein it is laid, that the places men¬
tioned lay beyond Jordan j that the bed of Og was at
Ramah to this day : that the havoth of Jair, or the ci¬
ties of Jair, were known to the author, though probably
they had not that name till after Mofes’s time (Numb,
xxxii. 41. Deut. iii. 14.).
It is obferved alfo in the text of the Pentateuch, that
there are fome places that are defeClive j for example,
in Exodus (xii. 8.), we fee Mofes fpeaking to Pharaoh,
where the anthor omits the beginning of Ids difeourfe.
'The Samaritan inferts in the fame place what is wanting
in the Hebrew. In other places, the fame Samaritan
copy adds what is deficient in the Hebrew text ; and
what it contains more than the Hebrew feems fo well
connetted with the red of the difeourfe, that it would
be difficult to feparate them. Ladly, they believe that
they obferve certain drokes in the pentateuch which
can hardly agree with Mofes, who was born and bred
in Egypt 5 as what he fays of the earthly paradife, of
the rivers that watered it, and ran through it j of the
cities of Babylon, Ereeb, Refen, and Calneh } of the
gold
PEN
[ 12
Pentateuch
II
Penthorum.
* Jenkin's
Reafona-
blenefs of
Chri/lia-
tiity.
gold of Pifon, of the bdellium, of the done of Sohem,
or onyx-ftone, which was to be found in that country.
Thefe particulars, obferved with fuch curiofity, feem to
prove, that the author of the pentateuch lived beyond
the Euphrates. Add what he fays concerning the ant
of Noah, of its conftruftion, of the place where it refted,
of the wmod wherewith it was built, of the bitumen ot
Babylon, &c. But in anfwer to all thefe objections,
we may obferve in general, from an eminent writer of
our own country, that thefe books are by the molt an¬
cient writers afcribed to Mofes j and it is confix med by
the authority of heathen writers themfelves, that, they
are of his writing: befides this, we have the unanimous
teftimony of the whole Jewilh nation, ever fince Mofes’s
time, from the firft writing of them. Divers texts of
the pentateuch imply that it was written by Mofes ; and
the book of Jolhua, and other parts of fcripture, import
as much ; and though fome paffages have been thought
to imply the contrary, yet this is but a late opinion, and
has been fufficiently confuted by feyeral learned men.
The Samaritans receive no other fcriptures but the .pen¬
tateuch, rejefting all the other books which are dill in
the Jewidi canon.
PENT A'I'HLON, in antiquity, a general name for
the five exercifes performed at the Grecian games, viz.
wredling, boxing, leaping, running, and playing at the
difcus. . r i T r
PENTECOST, a folemn fedival of the Jews ; lo
called, becaufe it was celebrated on the 5<-dh day after
the 16th of Nifan, which wras the fecond day of the
paffover. The Hebrews called it thefeajl of weeks^ be¬
caufe it was kept feven weeks after the paffover. They
then offered the fird fruits of the wheat harved, which
was then completed : befides which they prefented at
the temple feven lambs of that year, one calf, and two
rams, for a burnt offering ; two lambs for a peace of¬
fering *, and a goat for a fin offering (Levit. xxiii. 15,
16. Exod. xxxiv. 22. and Deut. xvi. 9, 10.). The
fead of the pentecod was indituted among the Ifraelites,
fird to oblige them to repair to the temple of the Lord,
there to acknowledge his abfolute dominion over the
whole country, and to offer him the fird-fruits of their
harved ; and, fecondly, that they might call to mind,
and give thanks to God, for the law which he had given
them from IVTount Sinai, on the jjoth day after tkcii
coming out of Egypt.
The modern Jews celebrate the pentecod for two
days. They deck the fynagogue and their own houfes
with garlands of flowers. They hear a fermon or ora¬
tion in praife of the law, which they fuppofe to have
been delivered on this day. The Jews of Germany
make a very thick cake, confiding of feven layers of
pade, which they call Sinai The feven layers repre-
fent the feven heavens, which they think God was obli¬
ged to reafcend from the top of this mountain. See Leo
of Modena and Buxtorf's fynag. Jud.
It was on the fead of pentecod that the Holy Ghod
miraculouffy defcended on the apodles of our Lord, who
were affembled together after his afcenfion in a houfe at
Jerafalem (A&sii ).
PENTHESILE A, queen of the Amazons,s lucceed-
ed Orythia, and gave proofs of her courage at the fiege
of Troy, where die was killed by Achilles. Pliny fays
that die invented the battle-axe.
PENTHORUM, in Botany, a genus of the penta-
8 ] PEP
gynia order, belonging to the pentandria clafs of plants. PentWua
The calyx is quinquefid j there are either five petals pH.
or none ; the capfule is five-pointed and quinquelo-
cular.
PENTLAND, or Pictland Frith, is a narrow
drait of fix miles between the mainland of Scotland and
the Orkney ides. This drait is the great thoroughfare
of dripping between the eadern and wedern leas, the
terror of mariners, and has been the grave of thoulands.
The navigation of this frith was formerly extremely
dangerous by the idand of Stroma, and two roekscalled
the Skerries, lying near the middle of it) but it is now
greatly improved, and comparatively fafe, in confequence
of a lighthoufe eredled on the Skerries
PENULA, among the ancient Romans, was a coarfe
garment or cloak worn in cold or rainy weather. It
was drorter than the lacerna, and therefore more proper
for travellers. It was generally brown, and fucceeded
the toga after the date became monarchical. Augudus
abolidied the cudom of wearing the penula over the
toga, confidering it as too effeminate for Romans } and
the asdiles had orders to differ none to appear in the
circus or forum tvith the lacerna or penula. Writers
are not agreed as to the precife difference between thefe
two articles of drefs ; but we are told that they were
chiefly worn by the lower orders of people. See La¬
cerna. .
PENULTIMA, or Penultimate Syllable, in
Grammar, denotes the lad fyliable but one of a word j
and hence the antepenultimate fyllable is the lad but
two, or that immediately before the penultima.
PENUMBRA, in AJlronomy, a partial dia.de ob¬
ferved between the perfeft diadow and the full light in
an eclipfe. It arifes from the magnitude of the fun’s
body : for were he only a luminous point, the fhadow
would be all perfeft •, but, by reafon of the diameter of
the fun, it happens, that a place which js not illumina¬
ted by the whole body of the lun, does yet receive rays
from a part thereof.
PEON, in the language of Hindodan, means a foot
foldier, armed with fvvord and target, in common ufe
it is a footman, fo armed, employed to run before a pa¬
lanquin. Piaaah is the proper word} from which peon
is a corruption.
PEOR, a famous mountain beyond Jordan, which
Eufebius places between Hedibon and Livias. 1 he
mountains Nebo, Pifgah, and Peor, were near, one
another, and probably made but the fame chain of
mountains. It is very likely that Peor took its name
from fome deity of the fame name, which was wordiip-
ped there j for Peor, Phegor, or Baal-peor, was known
in this country. See Numb. xxv. 3. Deut. iv. 3. I ial.
cv. 28.
Peor, was a city of the tribe of Judah, which is not
read in the Hebrew, nor in the Vulgate, but only in the
Greek of the Septuagint (Jodi. xv. 60.). Eufebius fays
it ivas near Bethlehem, and Jerome adds, that in his
time it wras called Paora.
PEPIN DE Heristal, or Le Gros, mayor of the
palace under Clovis III. Childebert, and Dagobert.
The power of thefe mayors in France was lo great, that
they left the fovereign only the empty title, and in the
end feized on the throne itfelf.
Pepin le Bref ot le Petit, grandfon to Pepin the
Gros, and firft king of the fecond race of French mo-
PLATE CCCCIA
PERAMBULATOR.
PENTAGRAPH.
PERSEPOLIS.
E?{orave<l b\ Jtr^ iza/'s Edin V
Pepin
II
Pepper-
Water.
P £ P [ i
narchs, was mayor of the palace to Childeric III. a
weak prince : he contrived to confine him and his fon
Thierri in di'Ierent monafteries ; and then, with the
^ affiftance of Pope Stephen III. he ufurped the fovereign
power. He died in 768, aged -54.
PEPLIS, a genus of plants belonging to the hexan-
dria clafs, and in the natural method ranking under
the 17th order, Calycanthefrut. See Botany Index.
PEPLUS, a long robe worn by the women in an¬
cient times, reaching down to the feet, without fleeves,
and fo very fine, that the thape of the body might be
feen through it. The Athenians ufed much ceremony
in making the peplus, and dreffing the ftatue of Miner¬
va with it. Homer makes frequent mention of the pep¬
lus of that goddefs.
PEPPER, Piper, in Natural Hi/lory, an aromatic
Berry of a hot quality, chiefly ufed in feafoning. We
have three kinds of pepper at prefent ufed in the (hops,
the black, the white, and the long pepper.
Black pepper is the fruit of the piper, and is brought
from the Dutch fettlements in the Eaft Indies. See
Piter, Botany Index.
The common white pepper is factitious, being pre¬
pared from the black in the following manner : they
Iteep this in fea-water, expofed to the heat of the fun
for feveral days, till the rind or outer bark loofens; they
then take it out, and, when it is half dry, rub it till the
rind falls off; then they dry the white fruit, and the re¬
mains of the rind blow away like chaff. A great deal
of the heat of the pepper is taken off by this procefs, fo
that the white kind is more fit for many purpofes than
the black. However, there is a fort of native white
pepper produced on a fpecies of the fame plant; which
is much better than the factitious, and indeed little in¬
ferior to the black.
The long pepper is a dried fruit, of an inch or an
inch and a half in length, and about the thicknefs of
a large goofe quill: it is of a brownifh gray colour, cy¬
lindrical in figure, and faid to be produced on a plant
of the fame genus.
Pepper is principally ufed by us in food, to affift di-
geflion : but the people in the Eaft Indies efteem it
as a ftomachic, and drink a ftrong infufion of it in wa¬
ter by way of giving them an appetite : they have al-
fo a way of making a fiery fpirit of fermented freflr
pepper with water, which they ufe for the fame pur¬
pofes. They have alfo a way of preferving the com¬
mon and long pepper in vinegar, and eating them af¬
terwards at meals.
Jamaica PEPPER, or Pimento. See Laurus, Bo¬
tany Index.
Pepper-Mint. See Mentha, Botany and Ma¬
teria Medic a Index.
Pepper-Poi. See Capsicum, Botany Index.
PEPPER-lVater, a liquor prepared in the following
manner, for microfcopical obfervations: Put common
black pepper, grofsly powdered, into an open veffel fo
as to cover the bottom of it half an inch thick, and
put to it rain or river water, till it covers it an inch ;
fhake or ftir the whole well together at the firft mix¬
ing, but never difturb it afterwards: let the veffel be
expofed to the air uncovered ; and in a few days there
w>ll be feen a pellicle or thin ikin fwimming on the fur-^
face of the liquor, prefenting feveral colours.
J his is a congeries of multitudes of fmall animals ;
VOL. XVI. Part I. ?
29 1 PER
and being examined by the microfcope, will be feen all Pepper,
in motion : the animals, at firft fight, are fo fmall as not Waler
to be diftinguifhabfe, unlefs to the greateft magnifiers ; Pf.r
but they grow daily till they arrive at their 'full fize. ' tor.
Their numbers are alfo continually increafing, till the  V—
whole furface of the liquor is full of them, toa confider-
able depth. When diiturbed, they will fometimes all
dart down to the bottom; but they loon after come up
to the furface again. 1 he fkin appears fooneft in warm
weather, and the animals grow- the quickeft : but in the
fevereft cold it will fucceed, unlefs the water freezes.
About the quantity of a pin’s head of this feum,
taken up on the nib of a new pen, or the tip of a hair-
pencil, is to be laid on a plate of clear glafs ; and if
applied firft to the third magnifier, then to the fecund,
and finally to the firft, will (how the different animal*
coles it contains, of feveral kinds and fhapes as well as
fizes.
PEPPERMINT-tree. See Eucalyptus, Botany
Index.
PERA, one of the fuburbs of Conftantinople, where
ambaffadors and Chriftians dually refide. See Constan¬
tinople.
PERAMBULATOR, in furveying, an inftrument
for mtafuring diflances, called alfo odometer, pedometer^
way-wifer, and furveying-wheel.
It confifts of a_ wheel AA, fig. 1. two feet feven piafe
inches and a half in diameter; confequently half a pole, CCCCIX.
or eight feet three inches, in circumference. On one I*
end of the axis is a nut, three quarters of an inch in dia¬
meter, and divided into eight teeth ; which, upon mo¬
ving the wheel round, fall into the eight teeth of an¬
other nut c, fixed on one end of an iron-rod p, and
thus turn the rod once round in the time the wheel
makes one revolution.^ This rod, lying along a groove
in the fide of the carriage of the inftrument, under the
dotted line, has at its other end a fquare hole, into which
is fitted the end £ of a fmall cylinder P. This cylindet
is difpofed under the dial-plate of a movement, at the
end of the carriage B, in fuch a manner as to be move-
able about its axis: its end a is cut into a perpetual
ferew, which falling into the 32 teeth of a wheel per¬
pendicular thereto, upon driving the inftrument forward,
that wheel makes a revolution each 16th pole. On the
axis of this wheel is a pinion with fix teeth, which falling
into the teeth of another wheel of 60 teeth, carries it
round every 160th pole, or half a mile.
This laft wheel, carrying a hand or index round with
it over the divifions of a dial-plate, whofe outer limb is
divided into 160 parts, correfponding to the 160 poles,
points out the number of poles paffed over. Again, on
the axis of this laft wheel is a pinion, containing’ 20
teeth, which falling into the teeth of a third wheel
which hath 40 teeth, drives it once round in 320 poles,
or a mile. On the axis of this wheel is a pinion of 12
teeth, which, falling into the teeth of a fourth wheel
having 72 teeth, drives it once round in 12 miles.
This fourth wheel, carrying another index over the
inner limb of the dial-plate, divided into 12 for miles
and each mile fubdivided into halves, quarters, and fur¬
longs, ferves to regifter the revolutions of the other
hand, and to keep account of the half miles and miles
paffed over as far as 12 miles.
The ufe of this inftrument is obvious from its con-
ftruftion. Its proper office is in the lurveying of roads
^ and
PER PER
1 1 f it Wn fncnofed that the ancient Romans were Peramtula.
F*ramb>U«- and large diltoces, rvhere a great deal of exped.Uon, I‘ ^ ^ » in(lrumeBt of tbis ki„d. The four,- *»
tor- and not much accuracy, is required. It is evident, that acquainted . _ „vnrpfr,nn nf Tlli;us Canitoli
driving it along and o'bferving the hands, has the fame
effedt as dragging the chain and taking account of the
chains and links. _ ...
Its advantages are its hardinefs and expedition } its
contrivance is fuch, that jt may be fitted to the wheel
of a coach, in which ftate it performs its office, and mea-
fures the road without any trouble at all.
The following is a defcription of an inflrument invent¬
ed by Mr Edgeworth for the fame purpofe.
“ This odometer,” fays Mr Edgeworth, “ is more
fituple than any which I have feen, is lefs liable to be
out of order, and may be eafily attached to the axle-tree
bed of a poft-chaife, gig, or any other carriage.
“ One turn and a half of a fcrew is formed round the
nave of one of the hinder wheels by a flip of iron three
quarters of an inch broad and one-eighth of an inch
thick •, this is wound round the nave, and faftened to it
by fcrews palling through five or fix codes, which are
turned up at right angles on the flip of iron. J he helix
fo formed on the nave of the carriage wheel ads as a
.Fig. j, worm or fcrew upon the teeth of the wheel A, fig. 2.
upon the arbor of which another fcrew of brafs B is
formed, which ads upon the brafs wheel C. I his wheel
C ferves alfo as a dial-plate, and is divided into miles,
halves, quarters, and furlongs ; the figures indicating the
miles are nearly three quarters of an inch long, lo as to
be quite diftind *, they are pointed out by the index D,
which is placed as reprefented in the plate, in fuch a
manner as to be eafily feen from the carriage.
“ Thefe two brafs wheels are mounted by the irons
EE upon a block of wood F, eight inches long, two
inches thick and five inches broad. This block may
be fcrewed upon the axle-tree-bed by two ftrong fquare-
headed wood fcrews. If the carriage permits, this block
ihould be fixed obliquely on the axle-tree-bed, fo that
the dial-plate may be raifed up toward the eye of the
perfon looking out from the carriage.
“ H is a ratchet wheel attached to the arbor of the
wheel A, which, by means of the click I, allows the
wheel to be fet with a key or handle fitted to the fqua-
red end of the arbor at K. L is a long fpring fcrewed
©n the block ; it prefles on the wheel A, to prevent it
from ffiaking by the motion of the carnage A fmall
triangular fpring is put under the middle of the dial-
plate wheel for the fame purpofe.
“ If the wheel of the carriage is exaaiy five feet three
inches in circumference, the brafs-toothed wheel which
it turns fhould have twenty teeth, and that which ferves
as a. dial-plate ffiould have eighty ; h will then count
five miles. If the carriage wheel is either larger or
{mailer, a mile ffiould be carefully meafured on a fmooth
road, and the number of turns which the carriage wheel
makes in going this mile may eafily be counted by tying
a piece of fine packthread to one of the fpokes, and let¬
ting- the wheel, as it moves flowly forward, wind up the
packthread on its nave. When the wheel has proceeded
a half or a quarter of a mile, unwind the firing and count
the number of turns which it has made.
« T?y the addition of another wheel of eighty-one
teeth placed under the dial-plate wheel, and moved by
the fcrew C, with a proper hand fitted to it, and proper
* Kicb. figures on the dial-plate, this machine would count four
Jour. hundred miles
8i.
dation of this opinion is an expreffion of Julius Capitoli- p€rception<
nus in his life of the emperor Pertinax. The words are,
“ Et alia (yehicula), iter metientia, et horas monjlran-
tia.” “ Carriages for meafuring the length of the road,
and marking the time of the journey.
PERC A, the Perch j a genus of fifties belonging to
the order of thoracici. See Ichthyology Index.
PERCEPTION, is a word which is fo well under-
flood," that it is difficult for the lexicographer to give
any explanation of it. It has been called the full and
moft fimple aft of the mind by which it is conicious
of its own ideas. This defiiiition, how eyet, is impro¬
per, as it confounds perception with confcioulnefs j al¬
though the objefts of the former faculty are things with¬
out us, thofe of the latter the energies of our own minds.
Perception is that power or faculty by which, through
the medium of the fenfes, we have the cognizance or
obi efts diitinft and apart from ourfelves, and learn that ,
we are but a fmall part in the fyflem of nature. By
what procefs the fenfes give us this information, we have
endeavoured to fhow elfewhere, (fee Metaphysics, Part
I. chap, i.) j and we fliould not again introduce the fub-
ieft but to notice a Angular opinion of a very able wri¬
ter,’whole work has been given to the public fince our
article alluded to had iffued from the prefs.
Dr Sayers has endeavoured to prove that no man can
perceive two objefts, or be confcious of two ideas at the
fame inflant. If this be true, not only our theory of
time (fee Metaphysics, Part II. chap, vu.) is grolsly
abfurd, but even memory itfelf feems to be an imaginary
faculty. If a man be not confcious of his prefent exifl-
ence, at the very inflant when he thinks of a pafl event,
or reviews a feries of pafl tranfaftions, it is difficult, to
us indeed impoffible, to conceive what idea he can have
of time, or what he can mean when he fays that lie re¬
members a thing. But let us examine the reafonmg by
author endeavours to eftablifh his
which the ingenious
°I>u1If ‘we refleft (fays lief) upon the furprifing velocity f Bifqmji-
with which ideas pafs through the mind, and the remark-
able rapidity with which the mind turns itfelf, or is
refted from one objeft of contemplation to another, this^^
might alone give us feme fufpicion that we may probably
be mittaken in fuppofing ideas to be fynchronoufly per¬
ceived. Other arguments may be adduced to ftrenglhen
this fufpicion. It will be granted, I believe, that the
mind, whether immaterial or the refult of organization,
has certainly a wholeness or unity belonging to it, and
that it is either not compofed of parts, or that no one o.
the parts from which it originates is itfelf mind : in this
cafe it is difficult to conceive how two ideas ffiould be
impreffed upon the mind at the fame inflant: for this
would be fuppofing that part of the mind could receive
one idea, and part another, at the fame time •, but if the
parts do not perceive finglv, this is evidently impoffible.
If, on the other hand, this felf-divifion of the mind does
not take place, then if two ideas are neverthelefs to be
perceived at the fame inftant, it would feem that thofe
ideas muft be fo blended with each other, that neither of
them could appear diflinft. If we examine the manner
in which a complex idea is perceived, we ffiall find very
clearly, that the whole of fuch an idea is never preient
to the mind at once. In thinking of a centaur, for in-
flanec.
PER [i
Perception, (lance, can we at the fame moment be thinking of the
'_u" v" parts of a man and the parts of a horfe ? Can we not al-
moft deleft the gliding of the mind from the one to the
other ? In contemplating the complex idea of gold, are
the ideas of its colour, ductility, hardnefs, and weight,
all prefent to the mind at the fame initant ? I think, if
we accurately attended to it, we {hall find a perceptible
time has elapfed before this complex idea has been per¬
fectly formed in our mind: but if all the parts of a com¬
plex idea cannot be recalled at the fame initant, is it not
reafonable to infer that thefe parts are alfo fingly imprefi¬
fed, and not all originally perceived at the fame inftant ?”
This reafoning is plaufible, but perhaps not convin¬
cing. Surely we have all been confcious of bodily pain
or pleafure with our eyes open, and been offended by
difagreeable fmells at the very inftant that we looked at
objefts beautifully coloured. That our ideas pafs through
the mind with great velocity, and that the mind can
rapidly turn itfelf from one fubjeft of contemplation to
another, are truths which cannot be controverted $ but
inftead of leading us to fuppofe that two or more obiefts
cannot be fynchronoufly perceived, or two or more ideas
fynchronoufly apprehended, they appear to furnifh a
complete proof of the reverfe of all this. For we beg
leave to afk how we come to know that ideas pafs with
velocity through the mind, if we be not all the while
confcious of fomething that is permanent r If we can
contemplate but one idea at once, it is plainly impofli-
ble that two or more can be compared together j and
therefore we cannot poffibly fay that any particular train
has palled through the mind with a degree of velocity
greater or lefs than that which we have ufually experi¬
enced ; nay, we cannot fay that we have ever experi-
«nced a train of ideas at all, or even been confcious of a
fingle idea, befides the immediate objeft of prefent ap-
prehenfion. That the mind is an individual, we mod
readily grant j but that it fhould therefore be incapable
of having two ideas fynchronoulfy excited in it, is a pro-
pofition for which the author has brought no evidence.
That it is difficult to conceive /iow this is donej we ac¬
knowledge ; but not that it is more difficult than to con¬
ceive how a Jingle idea is excited in the mind ; for of
the mode in which mind and matter mutually operate
on each other, we can form no conception. We know
that objefts make an impreffion on the organs of fenfe j
that this impreffion is by the nerves communicated to
the brain, and that the agitation of the brain excites
fenfation in the mind : but in what way it excites fen-
fation we know not ; and therefore have no reafon to
fuppofe that two or more different agitations may not
excite two or more fynchronous fenfations, as well as one
agitation excites one fenfation. That the agitation gi¬
ven to the brain operates on the mind, is known by
experience $ but experience gives us no information re-
fpefting the mode of that operation. If the mind be, as
our author and we fuppofe, one individual, it cannot, ^s
mind, be either divifible or extended; and therefore it
is certain that the operation in queftion cannot be, in
The proper fenfe of the word, impreffion. Hence we
have no right to infer, if two objefts be perceived at
once, either that the idea of the one muft be impreffed
on a part of the mind different from that which receives
the impreffion of the other, or that the two impreffions
muft; be fo blended with each other, that neither of
them could appear diftinft ; for this would be to reafon
31 I PER
from one mpde of operation to another j with which, Perception
upon acknowledged principles, it can have nothing in H
common. , Perche' ,
By far the greater part of our ideas are relifts of
vifihle fenfations ; and of every thing which we can ac¬
tually fee at once, we at once contemplate the idea.
That we could at once perceive a centaur, if fuch a be¬
ing were prefented to us, cannot furely be doubted by
any one who has ever looked at a man on horfeback;
and therefore that we can at the fame moment contem¬
plate the whole idea of a centaur, is afaft of which con-
fcioufnefs will not permit us to doubt.—If, indeed, w'e
choofe to analyze this complex idea into its component
parts, it is felf evident that the mind muft glide from the
one to the other, becaufe the very analyfis conlifts in
the feparation of the parts, of which, if after that pro-
cefs we think of them, we muft think in fucceffion :
but that we may have at the fame inftant, either an ac¬
tual or ideal view of all the parts of the centaur united,
is a propofition fo evident as to admit of no other proof
than an appeal to experience. In contemplating what
the author calls the complex idea of gold, it cannot be
denied that the ideas of its colour, duftility, hardnefs,
and weight, are never all prefent to the mind at the
fame inftant: but the reafon is obvious. Thefe are not
all ideas, in the proper fenfe of the wmrd, but fame of
them are ideas, and fome notions, acquired by very dif¬
ferent procefles and very different faculties. Colour is
an idea of fenfation, immediately fuggefted through the
organ of fight $ duftility is a relative notion, acquired
by repeated experiments ; and gold might be made the
objeft of every fenfe, without fuggefting any fuch no¬
tion. The writer of this article never faw an experi¬
ment made on the duftility of gold, and has therefore
a very obfeure and indiftinft notion of that property of
the metal 5 but he is confcious, that he can perceive, at
the fame inftant, the yellow colour and circular figure
of a guinea, and have a very diftinft, though relative
notion, of its hardnefs.
We conclude, therefore, that the mind is capable of
two or more fynchronous perceptions, or fynchronous
ideas j that during every train wffiich paffes through it,
it is confcious of its own permanent exiftence; and that
if it were limited to the apprehenfion of but one idea at
once, it could have no remembrance of the paft, or anti¬
cipation of the future, but would appear to itfelf, could
it make any comparifon, to pafs away like a flafh of
lightning.
PERCH, in land-meafuring, a rod or pole of 164
feet in length, of which 40 in length and 4 in breadth
make an acre of ground. But, by the cuftoms of fe-
veral counties, there is a difference in this meafure. In
Staffordftiire it is 24 feet-, and in theforeftof Sherwood
25 feet, the foot being there 18 inches long; and in
Herefordffiire a perch of ditching is 21 feet, the perch
of walling 16 J feet, and a pole of denftuered ground is
12 feet, &c.
Perch, a fiffi. See Perca, Ichthyology Index.
PERCHE, a territory of Orleanhois in France,
miles long, and 30 broad 5 bounded on the north by
Normandy j on the fouth, by Maine and Dunois ; on
the eaft, by Beauce ; and on the weft, by Maine. It
takes its name from a foreft, and is pretty fertile. Tha
inhabitants carry on a pretty good trade ; and the prin¬
cipal town is Bellefme.
R ? PERCOLATION,
Percolation
II
Pertume.
PER [ 132 ]
PERCOLATION, a chemical operation which is perfume
the fame with Filtration.
, PERCUSSION, in Mechanics, the impreffion a
body makes in falling or ftriking upon another ; or the
(hock of two bodies in motion. See Dynamics and
Mechanics.
PERDIC1UM, a genus of plants, belonging to the
fyngenefia clafs j and in the natural method ranking
under the 49th order, Compojitce. See Botany Index.
PERDIX, the partridge. See Tetrao, Ornitho¬
logy Index.
PEREASLAW, a ftrong populous town of Poland,
in the palatinate of Kiovia, fituated on the river Tribecz;
in E. Long. 32. 44. N. Lat. 49. 46.
PERENNIALS, or Perennial Flowers, in
Botany, a term applied to thofe plants whofe roots
abide many years, whether they retain their leaves in
winter or not. I hofe which retain their leaves are
called cver-greens j but fuch as call their leaves are
named deciduous or perdifols.
PERFECT, fomething to which nothing is want¬
ing, or that has all the requifites of its nature and
kind.
PERFECT Cadence, in Mujic. See CADENCE.
PERFECT Tenfe, in Grammar. See Preterite.
PERFECTION, the Rate or quality of a thing
PERFECT.
Perfection is divided, according to Chauvinus, into
phyfical, moral, and metaphyfical.
Phyjical or natural perfeaion, L that whereby a
thing has all its powers and faculties, and thofe too
in full vigour ; and all its parts both principal and Se¬
condary, and thofe in their due proportion, conftitu-
tion, &c. in which fenfe man is faid to be perfeCt
when he has a found mind in a found body. Xhis
perfection is by the fchools frequently termed £v«gy*)T<xfl,
becaufe a thing is enabled thereby to perform all its
operations.
Moral perfection is an eminent degree of virtue or
moral goodnefs, to which men arrive by repeated aCts
of piety, beneficence, &c. 1 his is ufually fubdivided
into abfolute or inherent, which is aCtually in him to
whom we attribute it; and imputative, which exifts in
fome other, and not in him it is attributed to.
Metaphyfical, tranfcendental, or effential perfection,
is the poffeffion of all the effential attributes, or of all
the parts neceffary to the integrity of a fubftance \ or
it is that whereby a thing has or is provided of every
thing belonging to its nature. Phis is either abfolute,
where all iraperfeCtion is excluded, fuch is the perfec
lion of God ; or fecundum quid, and in its kind.
PERFORANS Manus.
PeRFORANS Pedis
PERFORATES Manus
Perforates Pedis. _
PERFUME, denotes either the volatile effluvia from
any body affe&ing the organ of fmelling, or the fub¬
ftance emitting thofe effluvia j in which laft fenfe the
word is moft commonly ufed. The generality of per¬
fumes are made up of mulk, ambergris, civet, rofe and
cedar woods, orange-flowers, jeffamines, jonquils, tube-
rofes, and other odoriferous flowers. Thofe drugs com¬
monly called aromatics, fuch as ftorax, frankincenfe,
benzoin, cloves, mace, &c. enter the compofition of a
ud, a
See Anatomy, Table
of the Mufcles.
PER
 j fome are alfo compofed of aromatic herbs or Perfume
leaves, as lavender, marjoram, fage, thyme, hyffop, &c. p |niu
The ufe of perfumes was frequent among the He- .,
brews, and among the orientals in general, before it was
known to the Greeks and Romans. In the time of
Mofes perfumes muft have been known in Egypt, fince
he fpeaks of the art of the perfumer, and gives the com¬
pofition of two kinds of perfumes (Exod. xxx. 25.), of
which one was to be offered to the Lord upon the
golden altar which was in the holy place j and the
other was appointed for the anointing of the high
prieft and his fons {ibid. 34, &c.) as alfo of the taber¬
nacle, and all the veffels that were ufed in divine fer-
vice.
The Hebrews had alfo perfumes which they made
ufe of in embalming their dead. The compofition is
not known, but it is certain that they generally made
ufe of myrrh, aloes, and other ftrong and aftringent
drugs, proper to prevent putrefaction (John xix. 49.).
See the article Embalming.
Befides the perfumes for thefe purpofes,the Scripture
mentions other occafions whereon the Hebrews ufed
perfumes. The fpoufe in the Canticles (i. 3.) com¬
mends the fcent of the perfumes of her lover ; and her
lover in return fays, that the fcent of the perfumes of
his fpoufe furpaffes the moft excellent odours {id. iv.
10—14.). He names particularly the fpikenard, the
calamus, the cinnamon, the myrrh, and the aloes, as
making a part of thefe perfumes. The voluptuous wo¬
man defcribed by Solomon (Prov. vii. 17O fays» that
(he had perfumed her bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinna¬
mon. The epicures in the book of Wifdom (ii. 7.)
encourage one another to the luxuriant ufe of odours
and coftly perfumes.
Ifaiah (Ivii. 9.) reproaches Judea, whom he defcribes
as a fpoufe faithlefs to God, with being painted and
perfumed to pleafe ftrangers, “ Thou wenteft to the
king with ointment, and didft increafe thy perfumes.”
Ezekiel (xxiii. 41.) feems to accufe the Jews with
having profaned the odours and perfumes, the ufe of
which was referved to facred things, by applying them
to their own ufe.
They came afterwards to be very common among
the Greeks and Romans, efpecially thofe coropofed of
mulk, ambergris, and civet. The nardus and malo-
bathrum were held in much eftimation, and were im¬
ported from Syria. The unguentum nardinum was va-
rioufly prepared, and contained many ingredients.
Malobathrum was an Indian plant. Perfumes were al¬
fo ufed at facrifices to regale the gods at feafts, to
increafe the pleafures of fenfation •, at funerals, to
overpower cadaverous fmells, and pleafe the manes of
the dead j and in the theatres, to prevent the offen-
five effluvia, proceeding from a crowd, from being per¬
ceived.
Since people are become fenfible of the harm they
do to the head, perfumes are generally difufed among
us however, they are ftill common in Spain and Italy.
PERGAM A, (Virgil), the citadel of Troy 5 which,
beeaufe of its extraordinary height, gave name to all
high buildings (Servius). Others fay the walls of Troy
were called Pergama.
PERGAMUM, (Pliny); called alfo Pergamep,
(Virgil)} Pergamia, (Plutarch} a town of Crete, _
built
PER
Pergamum, built by Agamemnon in memory of his vi&ory, (Vel-
Pergamus,^ Here was the burying-place of Lycui'gus (Ari-
' ftoxenus, quoted by Plutarch). It was fituated near
Cydonia (Servius) j to what point not faid : but Scylax
helps him out, who places the Daclynnean temple of
Diana, which flood near Cydonia (Strabo), to the north
of the territory of Pergamia.—Another Pergamum
(Pliny, Strabo) ; a town of Mylia, fituated on the Cai'-
cus, which runs by it. It w7as the royal refidence of
Eumenes, and of the kings of the Attali (Livy).
There an ancient temple of Aifculapius flood 5 an afy-
lum (Tacitus). The ornament of Pergarnum wras the
royal library, vying with that of Alexandria in Egypt;
the kings of Pergamum and Egypt rivalling each other
in this refpe£t (Pliny). Strabo afcribes this rivalry to
Eumenes. Plutarch reckons up 200,000 volumes in
the library at Pergamum. Here the membrance perga-
merup, whence the name parchment, were invented for
the ufe of books, (Varro, quoted by Pliny). The coun¬
try of Galen, and of Oribafius chief phyfician to Julian
the Apoftate (Eunapius), called by fome the ape of
Galen. Here P. Scipio died (Cicero). Attains fon of
Eumenes dying without iiTue, bequeathed his kingdom
to the Roman people, who reduced it to a province,
(Strabo). Pergameus, the epithet (Martial). Here
was one of the nine conventus juridici, or affemblies of
the AJia Romana, called Pergamenus, and the ninth
in order (Pliny) ; which he alfo calls jurifdiBio Perga-
tnena.
PERGAMUS, an ancient kingdom of Alia, form¬
ed out of the ruins of the empire of Alexander the
Great. It commenced about the year 283 B. C. The
firfl fovereign was one Philetaerus an eunuch, by birth
a Paphlagonian, of a mean defcent, and in his youth a
menial fervant to Antigonus one of Alexander’s cap¬
tains. He afterwards ferved Lyfimachus king of Ma-
cedon and Thrace, who appointed him keeper of his
treafures lodged in Pergamus. While he held this
employment, having fallen under the difpleafure of
Arfinoe wife to Lyfimachus, fhe found means to make
a quarrel between him and his mailer j upon which
Philetaerus feized on the cattle of Pergamus, together
with the treafures entrufied to his care, amounting to
90,000 talents. At firft he offered his fervice, toge¬
ther with his treafure, to Seleucus king of Syria :
but both Seleucus and Lyfimachus dying foon after,
he kept polfeflion of the town and treafure alfo till his
death •, which happened 20 years after his revolt from
Lyfimachus.
Philetaerus left the city of. Pergamus-to his brother,
or, according to fome, to his brother’s fon Eumenes I.
and he, laying hold of the opportunity offered by
the diffenfions among the Seleucidae, poffeffed himfelf
of many ftrong-holds in the province of Alia ; and
having hired a body of Galatians, defeated Antiochus,
as he was returning from a vidtory gained over his bro¬
ther Seleucus Callinicus. By this vidtory he obtained
poffeffxon of the greater part of Afia : however, he
did not long enjoy his acquifitions 5 for he died next
year of immoderate drinking, a vice to which he was
greatly addidted.
Eumenes was fucceeded by Attalus I. nephew of
Philetaerus, and the fir ft who took upon him the title
of king of Pergamus. He defeated the Gauls, who
were defirous of fettling in his territory 3 and, accor-
P E R
ding to Livy, was the firft: of the Afiatic princes who Pergamui.
refufed to pay a contribution to thefe barbarians. * '
When Seleucus Ceraunus was engaged in other wars, he
invaded his territories, and conquered all the provinces
on this fide ot Mount I aurus} but was foon driven
out of his new acquifitions by Seleucus and his grand¬
father Achaeus, who entering into an alliance againft
him, deprived him of all his newly acquired territo¬
ries, and even befieged him in his capital. Upon this
Attalus invited to his afliltance the Gauls who had
fettled in Thrace : and with their help not only obli¬
ged the enemy to raife the liege of Pergamus, but
quickly recovered all the provinces he had loft. Af¬
ter this he invaded Ionia and the neighbouring pro¬
vinces, where feveral cities voluntarily fubmitted to
him. The Teians, Colophonians, with the inhabitants
of Egea and Lemnos, fent deputies declaring themfelves
ready to acknowledge him for their fovereign 5 the Car-
fenes, on the other fide the river Lycus, opened their gates
to him, having firft expelled the governor fet over them
by Achaeus. From thence he advanced to Apia, and
encamping on the banks of the river Megithus, received
homage from the neighbouring nations. But here the
Gauls being frightened by an eclipfe of the moon, re¬
fufed to proceed farther } which obliged Attalus to re¬
turn to the Hellefpont, where he allowed his allies to
fettle, giving them a large and fruitful territory, and
promifing that he would always afiift and protect them
to the utmoft of his power.
Attalus having thus fettled his affairs with equal
honour and advantage to himfelf, entered into an alli¬
ance with Rome, and afterwards joined them in their
war againft Philip king of Macedon. Here he had the
command of the Rhodian fleet; with which he not only
drove the Macedonians quite out of the feas, but having
landed his men, he, in conjunction with the Athenians,
invaded Macedon, and obliged Philip to raife the fiege
of Athens, which he had greatly diftrelfed ; for which
fervices the Athenians not only heaped on him all the
favours tney could, but called one of their tribes by his
name ; an honour they had never beftowed on any fo¬
reigner before.
Attalus, not contented with all he had yet done
againft Philip, attempted to form a general confederacy
of the Greeks againft him. But while he was ha¬
ranguing the Boeotians to this purpofe, and exhorting
them with great vehemence to enter into an alliance
with the Romans againft their common enemy, he fell
down fpeechlefs. However, he came to himfelf again,
and defired to be carried by fea from Thebes to Perga¬
mus, where he died foon after his arrival, in the 7 2d
year of his age and 43d of his reign.
This prince was a man of great generofity, and fuch
an enthufiaft in learning and learned men, that he
caufed a grammarian named Daphidas to be thrown in¬
to the fea from the top of a high rock, becaufe he
fpoke difrefpeClfully of Homer.
Attalus was fucceeded by his eldeft fon Eumenes II.
He was exceedingly attached to the Romans, infomuch
that he refufed the daughter of Antiochus the Great in
marriage, left he Ihould thus have been led into a dif¬
ference with that people. He alfo gave notice to the
Roman fenate of the tranfaCtions of Ariarathes king of
Cappadocia, who was making great preparations both
by fea and land. Nor did Eumenes ftop here; for
' when «
[ 133 1
P E U t 134 1
fergamus. when he faw the avar about to break out between An-
tiochus and the Romans, he fent his brother Attains
to Rome to give information of the proceedings of
Antiochus. The fenate heaped honours both on Eu-
menes and his brother j and in the war which followed,
gave the command of their fleet to the king of Perga-
mus in conjunftion with C. Livius Salinator. I he
victory gained on this occafion was in a great meafure
owing to Eumenes, who boarded feme of the enemy’s
fhips in perfon, and during the whole aftion behaved
with uncommon bravery. Some time afterwards Eu-
tnenes, entering the t-erritories of Antiochus with a
body of 5000 men, ravaged all the country about
Thyatira, and returned with an immenfe booty. . But
in the mean time Antiochus invading Pergamus in his
turn, ravaged the whole country, and even laid fiege
to the capital. Attalus, the king’s brother, held out
with a handful of men till the Achseans, who were
in alliance with Eumenes, fent 1000 foot and 100
horfe to his afliftance. As this fmall body of auxili¬
aries were all chofen men, and commanded by an ex¬
perienced officer, they behaved with fuch bravery that
the Syrians were obliged to raife the fiege. At the
battle" of Magnefia, too, Eumenes behaved with the
greateft bravery : not only fuftaining the firlt attack
of the enemy’s elephants, but driving them bacK again
on their own troops, which put the ranks in dif-
order, and gave the Romans an opportunity of giving
them a total defeat by attacking them opportunely
with their horfe. In confequence of this defeat, Anti-
ochus was obliged to conclude a peace with the Romans
on fuch terms as they pleafed to preferibe j one of
which was, that he ffiould pay Eumenes 400 talents,
and a quantity of corn, in recompenfe ’for the damage
he had done him.
Eumenes now thought of obtaining fome reward
from the Romans equivalent to the fervices he had
done them. Having gone to Rome, he told the fe¬
nate, that he was come to beg of them that the Greek
cities which had belonged to Antiochus before the
commencement of the late war, might now be added
to his dominions •, but his demand was warmly oppofed
by the ambaffadors from Rhodes, as well as by depu¬
ties from all the Greek cities in Afia. The fenate,
however, after hearing both parties, decided the mat¬
ter in favour of Eumenes, adding to his dominions all
the countries on this fide of Mount Taurus which be¬
longed to Antiochus *, the other provinces lying be¬
tween that mountain and the river Maeander, excepting
Lyeia and Caria, were bellowed on the Rhodians. All
the cities, which had paid tribute to Attalus, were or¬
dered to pay the fame to Eumenes but foch as had
been tributary to Antiochus were declared free.
Soon after this Eumenes was engaged in a war with
Prufias king of Bithynia, w'ho made war upon him
by the advice of Hannibal the celebrated Carthaginian
general. But Eumenes, being affifted by the Romans,
defeated Prufias in an engagement by fea, and another
by land ', which fo dilheartened him, that he was ready
to accept of peace on any terms. However, before
the treaty was concluded, Hannibal found means to
draw Philip of Macedon into the confederacy, who
fent Philocles, an old and experienced officer, with a
confiderable body of troops to join Prufias. Hereupon
Eumenes fent his brother Attalus to Rome with a
PER
golden crown, worth 15,000 talents, to complain of Pergamus,
Prufias for making war on the allies of the Roman ’-r—-'
people without any provocation. The fenate accepted
the prefent, and promifed to adjull every thing to the
fatisfadlion of their friend Eumenes, whom they look¬
ed upon to be the moil Heady ally they had in Afia.
But in the mean time Prufias, having ventured another
fea-fight, by a contrivance of Hannibal’s gained a,
complete victory. The Carthaginian commander ad-
vifed him to fill a great many earthen veffels with va¬
rious kinds of ferpents and other poifonous reptiles,
and in the heat of the fight to throw them into the
enemies (hips fo as to break the pots and let the fer¬
pents loofe. All the foldiers and feamen were com¬
manded to attack the Ihip in which Eumenes was,
and only to defend themfelves as well as they could
again It the reft ; and that they might be in no danger
of miftaking the {hip, a herald was lent before the en¬
gagement with a letter to the king. As foon as the
two fteets drew' near, ail the fhip- of Prufias, fingling
out that of Eumenes, dilcharged Inch a quantity of
ferpents into it, that neither ioldicis nor bailors could
do their duty, but were forced to fly to the ftrore, left,
they fhould fall into the enemy’s hands. Ihe other
ftiips, after a faint refiftance, followed the king’s ex¬
ample, and were all driven alhore with great daughter,
the foldiers being no lefs annoyed by the flings of the
ferpents, than by the weapons of the enemy. The
greateft: part of the flrips of Eumenes were burnt, feveral
taken, and the others fo much ffiattered that they be¬
came quite unferviceable. The fame year Prufias gain¬
ed two remarkable vidlories over Eumenes by land,
both of which were entirely owing to ftratagems of
Hannibal. But, while matters were thus going on to
the difadvantage of Eumenes, the Romans interfered,
and by their deputies not only put an end to the difter-
ences between the two kings, but prevailed on Prufias
to betray Hannibal j upon which he poifoned himfelf,
as hath been related under the article Hannibal.
Eumenes being thus freed from fuch a dangerous ene¬
my, engaged in a new wTar with the kings of Cappado¬
cia and Pontus, in which alfo he proved vi&orious. His
friendfhip for the Romans he carried to fuch a degree of
enthufiafm, that he went in perfon to Rome to inform
them of the machinations of Perfes king of Macedon.
He had before quarrelled with the Rhodians, who fent
ambaffadors to Rome to complain of him. But as the
ambaffadors happened to arrive while the king himfelf
was prefent in the city, the Rhodian ambaffadors could
not obtain any hearing, and Eumenes was difmiffed with
new marks of favour. This journey, however, had al-
moft proved fatal to him ; for, on his return, as he was
going to perform a facrifice at Delphi, two affaffins, fent
by Perfes, rolled down two great Hones upon him as he
entered the ftraits of the mountains. With one he was
dangeroufty wounded on the head, and with the other
on the fhoulder. He fell with the blows from a fteep
place, and thus received many other bruifes ; fo that
he was carried on board his Ihip when it could not
well be known whether he was dead or alive. His
people, however, foon finding that he was ftill alive,
conveyed him to Corinth, and from Corinth to Atgina,
having caufed their veffels to be carried over the
ifthmus.
Eumenes remained at Atgina till his wounds were
cured*,
PER [i
Fergamus, cured, which was done with fuch fecrecy, that a report
' J of his death was fpread all over Afia, and even believed
at Rome 5 nay, his brother Attains was fo convinced of
the truth of this report, that he not only alTumed the
government, but even married Stratonice the wife of
Eumenes. But in a fhort time Eumenes convinced
them both of his being alive, by returning to his king¬
dom. On the receipt of this news, Attains refigned
the fovereignty in great hafte, and went to meet his
brother $ carrying a halberd, as one of his guards.
Eumenes received both him and the queen with great
tendernefs, nor did he ever fay any thing which might
tend to make them uneafy j only it is faid he whifpered
in his brother’s ear when he firft faw him, “ Be in no
hafte to marry my wife again till you are fure that I am
dead.”
The king being now more than ever exafperated a-
gainft Perfes, joined the Romans in their war againft
him ; but during the courfe of it he fuddenly cooled in
his affeftion towards thofe allies whom he had hitherto
ferved with fo much zeal, and that to fuch a degree,
that he admitted ambaffadors from Perfes, and offered
to ftand neuter if he would pay him 1000 talents, and
for 1500, to influence the Romans to grant him a fafe
and honourable peace. But thefe negociations were
broke off without effeft, by reafon of the diftruft which
the two kings had of one another. Eumenes could not
truft Perfes unlefs he paid him the money beforehand ;
while, on the other hand, Perfes did not care to part
with the money before Eumenes had performed what he
promifed ; neither could he be induced to pay the fum
in queftion, though the king of Pergamus offered to
give holiages for the performance of his promife. What
the reafon of fuch a hidden change in the difpofition of
Eumenes was, is nowhere told 5 however, the fa£l is
certain. The negociations above mentioned were con¬
cealed from the Romans as long as poflible ; but they
foon came to be known : after which the republic be¬
gan to entertain no fmall jealoufy of their old friend,
and therefore heaped favours on his brother Attalus|
without taking any notice of the king himfelf. Eu¬
menes had fent him to Rome to congratulate the fenate
on the. happy iffue of the wrar with Perfes, not thinking
that his practices had been difcovered. However, the
fenate without taking any notice of their difaffe£lion to
Eumenes at firft, entertained Attains with the greateft
magnificence ; then feveral of the fenators who vilited
him proceeded to acquaint him with their fufpicions of
the king, and defired Attains to treat with them in his
own name, affuring him, that the kingdom of Pergamus
would be granted him, if he demanded it, bv the fe¬
nate. I jiefe fpeeches had at firfl feme effedf ; but At¬
tains, being of an honeft difpofition, and aflifted by the
advice of a phyfician called Siratius, a man of great
probity, refolved not to comply with their defire. When
he was admitted to the fenate, therefore, he firft con¬
gratulated them on the happy iffue of the IVXacedonian
war, then modeftly recounted his own fervices ; and
laftly, acquainted them with the motive of his iourney ;
intreated them to fend ambaffadors to the Gauls, who
by their authority might fecure his brother from any
danger of their hortilities ; and he requefted them alfo,
that the two cities of /Enus and Maronea might be be¬
llowed on himfelf. The fenate, imagining that Atta¬
ins defigned to choofe fome other day to fue for his bro-
35 ] PER
ther’s kingdom, not only grantedall his requefts, but Pergamus.
fent him richer and more magnificent prefents than they v—
had ever done before. Upon this Attains immediately
fet out on his return to Pergamus ; which fo provoked
the fenators, that they declared the cities free which
they had promifed to Attains, thus rendering ineffedual
their promife which they were afhamed openly to re¬
voke 5 and as for the Gauls, who were on all occalions
ready to invade the kingdom of Pergamus, they fent
ambaffadors to them, with inftruttions to behave in fuch
a manner as would rather tend to encourage them in
their defign than diffuade- them from it.
Eumenes, being alarmed at thole proceedings, rt'fol-
ved to go in perfon to Rome, in order to juftify himfelf.
But the lenate having already condemned him in their
ovyn minds, refolved not to hear his vindication. For
this reafon, as loon as they heard of his delign, they
made an a£! that no king Ihould be permitted to enter
the gates .of Rome. Eumenes, however, who knew
nothing ot this a£l, fet forward on his journey, and
landed at Brundufium \ but no fooner did the Roman
fenate get intelligence of his arrival there, than they
fent a quaeftor acquainting him with the decree of the
fenate ; and telling him at the fame time, that if he had
any bulinels to tranfadl with the fenate, he was appoint¬
ed to hear it, and tranfmit it to them; but if not,
that the king mull leave Italy without delay. To
this Eumenes replied, that he had no bufinefs of any
confequence to tranfaft, and that he did not ftand in
need of any of their afliftance 5 and without faying a
word more, went on board his {hip, and returned to
Pergamus.
On his return home, the Gauls, being encouraged by
the cold, reception which he had met with at Rome, in¬
vaded his territories, but were repulfed with great lofs
by the king, who afterwards invaded the dominions of
Prufias, and poffeffed himfelf of feveral cities. This
produced new complaints at Rome 5 and Eumenes was
accufed, not only by the ambaffadors of Prufias, but
alfo by thofe of the Gauls and many cities in Afia, of
keeping a fecret correfpondence with Perfes king of
Macedon. 1 his lalf charge was confirmed by fome let¬
ters which the Romans themfelves had intercepted ^ fo
that Eumenes found it impoffible to keep up his credit
any longer at Rome, though he fent his brothers Athe-
nseus and Attalus thither to intercede for him. The
fenatois, in fhort, had conceived the moll implacable
hatred againft him, and feemed abfolutely bent on his
de.llrudlion, when he died, in the 39th year of his
reign, leaving his kingdom and his wife to his brother
Attains. He left one fon, but he was an infant, and
incapable of governing the kingdom ; for which reafon
Eumenes chofe rather to give the prefent poffeffion of
the crown to his brother, referving the fucceffion to his
fon, than to endanger the whole by committing the
management of affairs to his Ion’s tutors.
Attalus, in the beginning of his reign, found himfelf
greatly dillreffed by Prufias king of Bithynia, who not
only overthrew him in a pitched battle, but advanced
to the very walls of Pergamus, ravaging the eountrv as
he marched along ; and at laft reduced the royal city
itfelt. The king, however, faved himfelf by a timely
flight, and difpatched ambaffadors to Rome, complain¬
ing of the bad ufage of Prufias. The latter endeavour¬
ed to defend jiimfelf, and to throw the blame on Atta¬
ins..
136 ]
PER [
lus! But, after a proper inquiry was made into the
matter, Prufias was found to be entirely in the wrong ;
in confequence of which, he was at laft obliged to con¬
clude a peace with his adverfary on the following terms.
I. That he Ihould immediately deliver up to Attains
20 (hips with decks. 2. That he (hould pay 5°° ta'
lents to Attalus within the fpace of 20 years. 3. i hat
he {hould pay loo talents to fome of the other Afotic
nations by way of reparation for the damages they had
fuitained from him. And, 4. Both parties fhould be
content with what they had before the beginning of the
war. ■ . .
Some time after this, Prufias having made an unna¬
tural attempt on the life of his fon Nicomedes, the lat¬
ter rebelled, and, with the afliftance of Attalus, drove
his father from the throne, and, as is faid, even mur-
deired him in the temple of Jupiter. The Romans took
no notice of thefe tranfa£lions, but {bowed the fame
kindnefs to Attalus as formerly. The laft enterpnfe in
which we find Attalus engaged, was againft Andrifeus
the pretended fon of Perfes king of Macedon, where he
aftifted the Romans •, after which, he gave himlelf up
entirely to eafe and luxury, committing ftate affairs en¬
tirely to his minifters ; and thus continued to his death,
which happened in the 82d year of his age, about 13S
33 C
Attains II. was fucceeded by Attalus III. the fon of
Eumenes ; for the late king, confidering that he only
held the crown as a truft for his nephew, paffed by his
own children in order to give it to him, though he ap¬
pears to have been by no means worthy of it. He is
faid to have been deprived of his fenfes through the vio¬
lence of his grief for his mother’s death ; and indeed,
throughout his whole reign, he behaved more like a
madman than any thing elfe. Many of his fubjefts of
the higheft quality were cut off with their wives and
children, upon the moft groundlefs fufpicions and for
thefe executions he made ufe of mercenaries hired out
from among the moft barbarous nations. Thus he pro¬
ceeded till he had cut off all the beft men in the king¬
dom ; after which he fell into a deep melancholy, ima¬
gining that the ghofts of thofe whom he had murdered
were perpetually haunting him. On this he fhut him-
felf up in his palace, put on a mean apparel, let his hair
and beard grow, and fequeftered himfelf from all man¬
kind. At laft he withdrew from the palace, and retired
into a garden, which he cultivated with his own hands,
and filled with all forts of poifonous herbs. Thefe he
ufed to mix with wholefome pulfe, and fend packets of
them to fuch as he fufpeaed. At laft, being weary of
this amufement, and living in folitude, becaufe nobody
durft approach him, he took it in his head to follow the
trade of a founder, and make a brazen monument. But,
while he laboured at melting, and catling the braft, the
heat of the fun and furnace threw him into a fever,
which in feven days put an end to his tyranny, after he
had fat on the throne five years.
On the death of the king, a will was found, by which
he left the Roman people heirs of all his goods •, upon
which they feized on the kingdom, and reduced it to a
province of their empire by the name of AJia Proper.
But Ariftonicus, a fon of Eumenes by an Ephefian
• courtefan, reckoning himfelf the lawful heir to the
crown, could by no means be fatisfied with this ufurpa-
tion of the Romans, and therefore affembled a confider-
PER
able army to maintain his prettnfions. The people in Pergamus,
general, having been accuftomed to a monarchy, dread- v"
ed a republican form of government •, in coniequence of
which, they aflifted Ariftonicus, and foon put him in a
condition to reduce the. whole kingdom. The news*
however, wTere foon carried to Rome } and Licinius
Craflus, the pomifex maximus, wasTent into the call,
with orders to enforce obedience to the king’s will. Hi-
ftorians take no notice of any forces which were lent
along with this commander •, whence it is fuppofed, that
he depended on affiftance from the Afiatics,. who were
in alliance with Rome, or from the Egyptians. But
when he came thither, he found both the Syrians and
EgyptiansTo reduced, that he could not expedt any af¬
fiftance from them. However, he was foon fupplied
with troops in plenty by the kings of Pontus, Lithynia,
Cappadocia, and Paphlagonia •, but managed matters fo
ill, that he was entirely defeated and taken prifoner.
Thofe who took him, defigned to carry him to Arifto¬
nicus ; but he, not able to endure the difgrace, would
have laid violent hands on himfelf if he had not been
difarmed. However, being allowed to keep a rod for
managing the horie on which he fat, he {truck a I hi.a-
cian foldier who flood near him fo violently with it,
that he beat out one of his eyes *, upon which the other
drew his Tword, and run him through on the fpot.
His head was brought to Ariftonicus, who expofed
it to public view j but the body was honourably bu-
ried. . . _
Ariftonicus had no great time to enjoy the fruits of
his victory. Indeed he behaved very improperly after
it ; for, in Head of preparing to oppofe the next army,
which he might have been affured the Romans would
fend againft him, he fpent his time in feafting and re¬
velling. But he was foon roufed out of his lethargy by
Perpenna the new conful, who having affembled with
incredible expedition the troops of the allies, came un-
expeftedly upon him, obliged him to venture an en¬
gagement at a difadvantage, and entirely defeated him.
Ariftonicus fled to a city called Stratonice, but was fo
clofely purfued by the conqueror, that the garrifon, ha-
vingno method of fupplying themfelves with provifions,
delivered up their leader, as well as a philofopher named
B/ofius, who had been the companion and eounfellor of
Ariftonicus. The philofopher behaved with great refo-
lution after being taken, and openly defended his Tiding
with Ariftonicus, becaufe he thought his caufe juft.
He exhorted the latter to prevent the difgrace and mi-
fery of captivity by a voluntary death j but Ariftoni¬
cus, looking upon death as a greater mifery than any
captivity, fuffered himfelf to be treated as his conquer¬
ors pleafed.
In the mean time, a new conful, named Mumus A-
qui/ius, being arrived from Rome, fcnt a molt haughty
meffage to Perpenna, requiring him immediately to de¬
liver up Ariftonicus, as a captive belonging, to his tri¬
umph when the war fhould be ended. With this de¬
mand Perpenna refufed to comply, and his refufal had
almoft produced a civil war. However, this was pre¬
vented by the death of Perpenna, which happened foon
after the'difpute commenced. The Pergamen.ians, not-
withftanding the defeat and captivity of their leader,
ftill held out with fuch obftinacy, that Aquilius was
obliged to befiege, and take by force, almoft every city
in the kingdom. In doing this, he took a very effec¬
tual
PER [i
'Pergamiis tual, though exceeding cruel method. Mofl of the ci-
T) II ties in the kingdom had no other water than what was
'tlnum. brought from a contiderable diftance in aquedudls.
V— Thefe Aquilius did not demolifli, but poifoned the wTa-
ter, which produced the greateft abhorrence of him
throughout all the eaft. At laft, however, the whole
country being reduced, Aquilius triumphed, the unhap¬
py Ariftonicus was led in chains before his chariot, and
probably ended his miferable life in a dungeon. The
country remained fubjedt to the Romans while their
empire lafted, but is now in the hands of the Turks.
The city is half ruined, and is ftill known by the name
of Pergamus. It is inhabited by about qooo Turks, and
a few families of poor Chriftians. E. Long. 27. 27.
N. Lat. 30. 3.
PERGUNNAH, in the language of Hindoftan,
means the largetl fubdivifion of a province, whereof the
revenues are brought to one particular /lead Cutchery,
from whence the accounts and calh are tranfmitted to
the general Cutchery of the province.
PERI AGOG E, in Rhetoric, is ufed where many
things are accumulated into one period which might
have been divided into feveral.
PERI AG UA, a kind of large canoe made ufe of
in the Leeward iflands, South America, and the gulf
of Mexico. It is compofed of the trunks of two trees
hollowed and united together ; and thus differs from
the canoe, which is formed of one tree.
PERIANDER, tyrant of Corinth and Corcyra,
■was reckoned among the feven wife men of Greece j
though he might rather have been reckoned among
the mofl; wicked men, lince he changed the govern¬
ment of his country, deprived his countrymen of their
liberty, ufurped the fovereignty, and committed the
moft fhocking crimes. In the beginning of his reign
he behaved with mildnefs ; but after his having fent
to the tyrant of Syracufe to confult him on the fafefl:
method of government, he abandoned himfelf to cruel¬
ty. The latter, having heard Periander’s envoys, took
them into a field, and, inflead of anfwering them,
pulled up before them the ears of corn which exceed¬
ed the reft in height. Periander, on being told of
this a61ion, underftood what was meant by it. He
firft fecured himfelf by a good guard, and then put
the moft powerful Corinthians to death. He aban¬
doned himfelf to the moft enormous crimes ; commit¬
ted inceft with his mother, kicked to death his wife
Meliffa, daughter of Procles king of Epidaurus, not-
withftanding her being with child ■, and wasfo enraged
at Lycophron, his fecond fon, for lamenting his mo¬
ther’s death, that he banifhed him into the ifland of
Corcyra. Yet he paffed for one of the greateft poli¬
ticians of his time ; and Heraclides tells us, that he
forbade voluptuoufnefs ; that he impofed no taxes, con¬
tenting himfelf with the cuftom arifing from the fide
and the import and export of commodities ; that, though
wicked himfelf, he hated the wicked, and caufed all
pimps to be drowned ; laftly, that he eftablifhed a fe-
nate, and fettled the expence of its members. He died
585 B. C.
PERIANTHIUM, (from “round,” and
“ the flower,”) the flower cup properly fo called, the
moft common fpecies of calyx, placed immediately un¬
der the flower, which is contained in it as in a cup.
See Botany Index.
Vol. XVL Part I.
37 1 PER
PERICARDIUM, in Anatomy, a membranous bag Pericardl-
filled with water, which contains the heart in man and 11111
many other animals. It is formed by a duplicature ,Jeri J he
of the mediaftinum, or membrane which divides the .SI
thorax into two unequal parts. See Anatomy, N°
121.
PERI CARPI UM, (from wegq “ round,” and x;<zg;refK
“ fruit,”) the feed-veflel j that organ of a plant contain¬
ing ; he feeds, which it difcharges when ripe. The feed-
veffel is in fact the developed feed-bud, and may very
properly be compared to the fecundated ovary in ani¬
mals ; for it does not exift till after the fertilizing of
the feeds by the male-duft, and the confequent fall of
the flower. All plants, however, are not furniihed
with a leed-veffel j in fuch as are deprived of it, the
receptacle or calyx performs its functions by inclofing
the feeds, as in a matrix, and accompanying them to
perfedt maturity.
PERICHORUS, in antiquity, a name given by the
Greeks to their profane games or combats, that is, to
fuch as were not confecrated to any of the gods.
PERICLES, was one of the greateft men that ever
flouriflied in Greece. He was educated with all ima¬
ginable care ; and befide other mailers, he had for his
tutors Zeno, Eleates, and Anaxagoras. He learned
from the laft of thefe to fear the gods without fuperfti-
tion, and to account for an eclipfe from a natural caufe.
Many were unjuft enough to fufpefl him of atheifra,
becaufe he had perfectly ftudied the doftrine of that
philofopher. He w’as a man of undoubted courage j
and of fuch extraordinary eloquence, fupported and im¬
proved by knowledge, that he gained almoft as great
an authority under a republican government as if he
had been a monarch ; but yet he could not efcape the
fatirical ftrokes of the comic poets. His diffolutenefs
with women Avas one of the vices with which he
was chiefly charged. He died the third year of the
Peloponnefian war, after long ficknefs, Avhich had Aveak-
ened his underftanding. Afpafia, Pericles’s favourite,
was a learned woman of Miletus : fhe taught Socrates
rhetoric and politics. As Pericles cared not much for
his Avife, he willingly gave her up to another, and mar¬
ried Afpafia, Avhom he paflionately loved.
PERICRANIUM, in Anatomy, a thick folid coat
or membrane covering the outfide of the cranium or
ikull. See Anatomy, N° 4.
PERIGEE, in AJironomy, that point of the fun
or moon’s orbit wherein they are at the leaft diftance
from the earth ; in Avhich fenfe it Hands oppofed to
apogee.
PERIGORD, a province of France, which makes
part of Guienne, bounded on the north by Angoumois
and a part of Marche, and on the eaft by Quercy and
Limofin *, on the fouth by Agenois and Bazadois ; and
on the weft, by Bourledois, Angumois, and a part of
Saintonge. It is about 83 miles in length, and 60 in
breadth. It abounds in iron mines, and the air is pure
and healthy, Perigueux is the capital town.
PERICORD-Stone, is fuppofed to be an ore of manga-
nefe, of a dark gray colour, like bafalt.
PERIGRAPHE, a Avord ufually underftood to ex-
prefs a carelefs or inaccurate delineation of any thing j
but in Vefalius it is ufed to exprefs the Avhite lines or
impreflions that appear on the mufculus redlus of the
abdomen.
S
PERGIUEUX,
Berigueux
II .
Period.
PER [138
PERIGUEUX, an ancient town of France, capital
of the province of Perigord, feated on the river Ifle,
in E. Long. o. 33. N. Lat. 45. 18. It is remark¬
able for the ruins of the temple of Venus, and an am¬
phitheatre.
PERIHELIUM, in Ajlronomy, that part of a pla¬
net or comet’s orbit wherein it is in its leaft diftance
from the fun; in which fenfe it Hands in oppofition to
apheliurn. . .
PERIMETER, in Geometry, the bounds or limits
of any figure or body. The perimeters of furfaces or
figures are lines ; thofe of bodies are furfaces. . In cir¬
cular figures, inftead of perimeter, we fay circumfe¬
rence, or periphery.
PERINJEUM, or Perineum, in Anatomy, the
fpace between the anus and the parts of generation,
divided into two equal lateral divifions by a very diftinft
line, which is longer in males than in females.
PERIOD, in AJlronomy, the time taken up by a
ftar or planet in making a revolution round the fun *, or
the duration of its courfe till it return to the fame part
of its orbit. See Planet.
The different periods and mean diftances of the feve-
ral planets are as follows :
Herfchel
Saturn
Jupiter
Mars
Earth
Venus
Mercury
Days. h. ' u
3°737 18
10759 1 51 11
4332 14 27 10
686 23 30 35
365 6 9 12
224 16 49 10
87 23 15 43
mean Dili
1908352
954°72
520279
152369
100000
72333
38710
There is a wonderful harmony between the diftances
of the planets from the fun, and their periods round
him *, the great law whereof is, that the fquares of
the periodical times of the primary planet, are to each
other as the cubes of their diftances from the fun :
and likewife, the fquares of the periodical times of the
fecondaries of any planet are to each other as the
cubes of their diftances from that primary. This har¬
mony among the planets is one of the greateft confir¬
mations of the Copernican hypothefis. See ASTRO¬
NOMY, p. 100 and 101.
For tiie periods of the moon, fee Moon, Astronomy
Index.
The periods of feveral comets are now pretty well
afeertained. See Astronomy, N° 306.
Period, in Chronology, denotes a revolution of a
certain number of years, or a feries of years, whereby,
in different nations, and on different occafions, time is
meafured •, fuch are the following.
Cafippic Period, a fyftem of feventy-fix years. See
Calippic, and Astronomy, N° ii, &c.
Dionyjian PERIOD, or ViBorian Period, a fyftem of
532 luiiae-folar and Julian years; which being-elapfed,
the charafters of the moon fall again upon the fame
day and feria, and revolve in the fame order, accord¬
ing to the opinion of the ancients.
This period is otherwife called the great pafchal
cycle, becaufe the Chriftian church firft ufed it to find
the true time of the pafeha or eafter. The fum of thefe
years arifes by multiplying together the cycles of the
fun and moon.
] PER
Hipparchus's PERIOD, is a feries of 304 folar years,
returning in a conftant round, and reftoring the new '
and full moons to the fame day of the folar year, ac¬
cording to the fentiment of Hipparchus. This period
arifes by multiplying the Calippic period by four.—
Hipparchus affumed the quantity of the folar year to
be 365 days 5 hours 55' 12"; and hence concluded,
that in 104 years Calippus’s period would err a whole
day. He therefore multiplied the period by four,
and from the produft call away an entire day. But
even this does not reft ore the new and full moons to
the fame day throughout the whole period ; but they
are fometimes anticipated I day 8 hours 23' 29" 20"'.
See Astronomy, N® 14.
Julian Period. See Julian.
PERIOD, in Grammar, denotes a frnall compafs of
difeourfe, containing a perfect fentence, and diftin-
guiIhed at the end by a point, or full Hop, thus (.) ;
and in members or divifions marked by commas, Co¬
lons, &c.
Father Buffer obferves two difficulties in the ufe of
the period, or point; i. e. in diftingiiifiling it from the
colon, or double point; and in determining juftly the
end of a period, or perfedt fentence. It is remarked
that the fupernumerary members of a period, feparated
from the reft by colons and femicolons, ufually com¬
mence with a conjun&ion: yet it is true thefe fame con-
jun&ions fometimes rather begin new periods than fu¬
pernumerary members of old ones. It is the fenfe of
things, and the author’s own diferetion, that muft make-
the proper diftindfion which of the two in effedf it is.
No rules will be of any fervice, unlefs this be admitted
as one, that when what follows the conjundlion is of aa
much extent as what precedes it, it is ufually a new pe¬
riod ; otherwife not.
The fecond difficulty arifes hence, that the fenfe ap¬
pears perfedl in feveral ftiort detached phrafes, wherein
it does not feem there Ihould be periods; a thing fre¬
quent in free difeourfe: as, Weareallinfufpenfe: make
your propofals immediately: you will be to blame for
detaining us longer. Where it is evident, that fimple
phrafes have perfedl fenfes like periods, and ought to be
marked accordingly ; but that the Ihortnefs of the dif-
courfe making them eafily comprehended, the pointing
is negledled.
De Colonia defines period a Ihort but perfedl fen¬
tence, confiding of certain parts or members, depending
one on another, and connedled together by fome com¬
mon vinculum. The celebrated definition of Ariftotle
is, a period is a difeourfe which has a beginning, a
middle, and an end, all vifible at one view. Rhetori¬
cians confider period, which treats of the ftrudlure of
fentenees, as one of the four parts of compofition. The
periods allowed in oratory are three : A period of two
members, called by the Greeks dicolos, and by the La¬
tins bimembris ; a period of three members, tricolos, tri-
membris ; and a period of four, quadrimembris, tctracolos..
See Punctuation.
Period, in numbers, is a diftindlion made by a point
or comma, after every fixth place, or figure; and is ufed
in numeration, for the readier diftinguiftiing and naming
the feveral figures or places; which fee under Numera-
TION.
Period, in Medicine, is applied to certain difeafes
which have intervals and returns, to denote an entire
ceurfs -
Period.
PER [ i
I'enod courfe or circle of fuch difeafe j or its progrefs from
Peripate any ^ate througl1 the reft till it return to the fame
tics. '
——v—1 Galen defcribes period as a time compofed of an in-
tenfion and remiftion j whence it is ufuallj divided into
two parts, the paroxyfm or exacerbation, and remif-
fton.
In intermitting fevers, the periods are ufually ftated
and regular $ in other difeafes, as the epilepfy, gout, &c.
they are vague or irregular.
Period, in Oratory. See there, N° 47.
PERIODIC, or Periodical, fomething that ter¬
minates and comprehends a period j fuch is a periodic
month } being the fpace of time wherein the moon di-
fpatches her period.
PERIOECI, Trt^etKtt, in Geography, fuch inhabitants
of the earth as have the fame latitudes, but oppofite
longitudes, or live under the fame parallel and the fame
meridian, but in different femicircles of that meridian,
or in oppofite points of the parallel. Thefe have the
fame common feafons throughout the year, and the fame
phenomena of the heavenly bodies ; but when it is noon¬
day with the one, it is midnight with the other, there
being twenty-four hours in an eaft or weft direftion.
Thefe are found on the globe by the hour-index, or by
turning the globe half round, that is, 180 degrees either
way.
PERIOSTEUM, or Periostium, in Anatomy, a
nervous vafcular membrane, endued with a very quick
fenfe, immediately furrounding, in every part, both the
internal and external furfaces of all the bones in the bo¬
dy, excepting only fo much of the teeth as Hand above
the gums, and the peculiar places on the bones in which
the muffles are inftrted. It is hence divided into the
external and internal periofteum ; and where it exter¬
nally furrounds the bones of the fkull, it is generally
called the pericranium. See Anatomy Index.
PERIPATETICS, philofophers, followers of Ari-
ftotle, and maintainers of the peripatetic philofophy j
called alfo Ariftotelians. Cicero fays, that Plato left
two excellent diffiples, Xenocrates and Ariftotle, who
founded two fedls, which only differed in name : the
former took the appellation of Academics, who were
ti)off that continued to hold their conferences in the
Academy, as Plato had done before; the others, who
followed Ariftotle, were called Perv/wm/ffr, from
rua, “ I walkbecauff they difputed "walking in the
Lyceum.
_ Ammonius derives the name Peripatetic from Plato
himfelf, who only taught walking; and adds, that the
diffiples of Ariftotle, and thofe of Xenocrates, were
equally called Peripatetics ; the one Peripatetics of the
Academy, the other Peripatetics of the Lyceum : but
that in time the former quitted the title Peripatetic for
that of Academic, on account of the place where they
affembled; and the latter retained fimply that of Peri¬
patetic. The greateft and beft part of Ariftotle’s phi¬
lofophy was borrowed from Plato. Serranus afferts, and
fays he could demonftrate, that there is nothing exqui-
Hte in any part of Ariftotle’s philofophy, dialectics,
ethics, politics, phyfics, or metaphylics, "but is found
in Plato. And of this opinion are many of the ancient
authors, fuch as Clemens Alexandrinus, &c. Gale at¬
tempts to ftiow, that Ariftotle bommed a good deal of
his philofophy, both phyfical, about the firft matter*
39 ] PER
and metaphyfical about the firft being, his affeCtions, Perlpaff-
truth, unity, goodnefs, &c. from the Scriptures; and tics-
adds from Clearchus, one of Ariftotle’s ffholars, that  
he made uff of a certain Jew, who aftifted him there¬
in.
Ariftotle’s philofophy preffrved itfclf V/z puns natura-
libus for a long time ; in the earlier ages of Chriftianity,
tne Platonic philofophy was generally preferred ; but
this did not prevent the doctrine of Ariftotle from for¬
cing its way into the Chriftian church. Towards the
end of the fifth century, it roff into great credit; the
Platonics interpreting in their fchools fome of the wri¬
tings of Ariftotle, particularly his diakdtics, and re¬
commending them to young perfons. This appears to
have been the firft ftep to that univerfal dominion which
Ariftotle afterwards obtained among the learned, which
was at the lame time much promoted by the controver-
fies which Ongen had occafioned. I his father was
zealoufly attached to the Platonic fyftem ; and there¬
fore, alter his condemnation, many, to avoid the impu¬
tation of his errors, and to prevent their being counted
among the number of his followers, openly adopted the
philofophy of Ariftotle. Nor was any philofophy more
proper for furnifliing thofe weapons of fubtle dniinaions
and captious fophifms, which were ufed in the Neftorian,
Arian, and Eutychian controverfies. About the end
of the fixth century, the Ariitotelian philofophy, as well
as ffience in general, was almoft univerfally "decried ;
and it was chielly owing to Boethius, who explained and
recommended it, that it obtained a higher degree of
credit among the Latins than it had hitherto enjoyed.
Towards the end of the feventh century, the Greeks
abandoned Plato to the monks, and gave themfflves up
entirely to the direction of Ariftotle ; and in the next
century, the Peripatetic philofophy was taught every¬
where in their public fchools, and propagated in all pla¬
ces wuth confiderable fuccefs. John Damafcenus very
much contributed to its credit and influence, by com-
pofing a conciff, plain, and comprehenfive view of the
dodlrines of the Slagirite, for the inftru&ion of the
more ignorant, and in a manner adapted to common ca¬
pacities. Under the patronage of Photius, and the pro-
teftion of Bardas, the ftudy of philofophy for fome
time declined, but was revived again about the end of
the ninth century. About the middle of the j ith cen¬
tury, a revolution in philofophy commenced in France;
when Several famous logicians, who followed Ariflotle
as their guide, took neverthelefs the liberty of illuflra-
tmg and modelling anew his philofophy, and extending
it far beyond its ancient limits. In the 12th century,
three methods of teaching philofophy were in ufe by
the different doftors : the firft was the ancient and plain
method, which confined its reffarches to the philofophi-
cal notions of Porphyry, and the dialedic fyftem, com-
rnmily attributed to St Auguftine, and in which was
laid down this general rule, that philofophical inquiries
were to be limited to a fmall number of fubjefls, left
by their becoming too extenfive, religion might fuffer
by a profane mixture of human fubtilty with its di¬
vine wifdom. The fecond method was called the A-
riftotelian, becauff it confifted in explications of the
works of that philofopher, ftveral of whofe books, bcino-
tranflated into Latin, were almoft everywhere in the
hands of the learned. The third was termed the free
method, employed by fueh as were bold enough to ftardi
S 2 aftetr
(
Peripale.
tics
tion.
PER [ 14° ]
after truth, in the manner the tnoft adapted to render of Rome
their inquiries fuccefsful, without rcjefting the fuccours
of Ariftotle and Plato. A reformed fyflem of the Pe¬
ripatetic philofophy was firit introduced into the fchools
in the univerfity of Paris, from whence it foon Ipread
throughout Europe j and has iublifted in fome univerfi-
ties even to this day, under the name fchoo/philofo-
phu. The foundation thereof is Ariftotle’s doftnne,
often mifunderilood, but oftener mifapplied : whence the
retainers thereto may be denominated Reformed l enpa-
tetics. Out of thefe have fprung, at various times, fe-
veral branches •, the chief are, the Thomists, Scotists,
and Nominalists. See thefe articles. .
The Peripatetic fyftem, after having prevailed with
great and extenfive dominion for many centuries, began,
rapidly to decline towards the clofe of the 17th, when
the difciples of Ramus attacked it on the one hand,
and it had ftill more formidable adverfaries to en¬
counter in Defcartes, Gaffendi, and Newton. See Phi¬
losophy.
PERIP ATON, in antiquity, the name of that walk,
in the Lyceum where Ariftotle taught, and whence the
name of Peripatetics given to his followers.
PERIPETIA, in the drama, that part of a tragedy
wherein the a&ion is turned, the plot unravelled, and
the whole concludes. See Catastrophe.
PERIPHERY, in Geometry, the circumference of a
circle, ellipfis, or any other regular curvilinear figure.
See Geometry.
PERIPHRASIS, circumlocution, formed oF tts^,
“ about,” and 14 I fpeak j” in rhetoric, a circuit
or tour of words, much affe&ed by orators, to avoid
common and trite manners of expreflion. X he P7r^“
phrafis is of great ufe on fome occafions •, and it is often
neceffary to make things be conceived which are not
proper to name. It is fometimes polite to fupprefs the
names, and only intimate or defign them. Thefe turns
of expreflion are alfo particularly ferviceable in oratory *,
„ 1 r  j: ..cl f
PER
The Hebrews alfo had a veflel for purifica- PerinKau*
term™
PERISCII, in Geography, the inhabitants of either perjur)V
frigid zone, between the polar circles and the poles, —
Avhere the fun, when in the furamer figns, moves only
round about them, without fetting; and confequently
their (hadows in the fame day turn to all the points of
the horizon.
PERISTALTIC, a vermicular fpontaneous motion
of the inteftines, performed by the contra&ion of the
circular and longitudinal fibres of which the flefhy coats
of the inteftines are compofed j by means whereof the
chyle is driven into the orifices of the lacfteal veins, and
the fseces are protruded towards the anus.
PERISTYLE, in Ancient ArchiteSiure, -a building
encompafied with a row of columns on the infide.
PERITONAEUM, in Anatomy, is a thin, ftnooth,.
and lubricous membrane, inverting the whole internal
furface of the abdomen, and containing moft of the vif-
cera of that part as it were in a bag. See Anatomy
ifid&x %
PERITROCHIUM, in Mechanics, denotes a wheel,
or circle, concentric with the baie of a cylinder, and
moveable together with it about its axis. See Me¬
chanics. /
PERJURY, in Law, is defined by Sir Edward Coke
to be a crime committed when a lawful oath is admi-
niftered, in fome judicial proceeding, to a perlon who
fwears wilfully, abfolutely, and falfely, in a matter ma¬
terial to the iflue or point in queftion. In ancient times
it was in fome places punifhed with death 5 in others it
made the falfe fvvearer liable to the puniftiment due to
the crime he had charged the innocent perfon with ; in
others a pecuniary multt was impofed. But though it
efcaped human, yet it was thought, amongft the ancients
in general, that the divine vengeance would moft cer¬
tainly overtake it *, and there are many fevere infliftions
from the hand of God upon record, as monuments of
for the fublime admitting of no direA citations, there
muft be a compafs taken to infinuate the authors whofe
authority is borrowed. A periphrafis, by turning round
a proper name to make it underftood, amplifies and
raifes the difcourfe \ but care muft be taken it be not too
much fwelled, nor extended, mala propos ; in which cafe
it becomes fiat and languid. See Circumlocution and
Oratory.
PERIPLOC A, Virginian Silk; a genus of plants
belonging to the pentandria clafs , and in the natural
method ranking under the 30th order, Contorice. See
Botany Index.
PERIPNEUMONY, m^xvivpovut, formed from
Trsgi, “ about,” and •jcnvpuv, “ lungs,'’ in Medicine, an
infiammation of fome part of the thorax, properly of tbe
lungs; attended with an acute fever, and a difficulty of
breathing. See Medicine, N° 184.
PER1RRH ANTERIUM, a veffel of ftone or brafs
which w7as filled with holy water, and with which all
thofe were fprinkled who were admitted by the ancients
to their facrifices. Beyond this veffel no profane perfon
was allowed to pafs. We are told by fome, that it was
placed in the adytum, or inmoft recefs of the temple •,
others fay it w7as placed at the door, which indeed feems
to be the moft likely opinion. It was ufed both by
Greeks and Romans, and has been evidently borrow¬
ed, like many other Pagan ceremonies, by the church
the abhorrence in which this atrocious crime is held by
the Deity. The fouls of the deceafed were fuppofed to
be employed in puniffiing perjured perfons. Even the
inanimate creation w^as thought to take revenge for this
crime. The Greeks fuppofed that no perfon could fwear
falfely by Styx without fome remarkable puniffiment \
and that no perfon guilty of perjury could enter the
cave of Paloemon at Corinth without being made a me¬
morable example of divine juftice. In Sicily, at the
temple of the Palici, there were fountains called Belli,
from which iffued boiling water, with flames and balls
of fire •, and we are told that if any perfon fvyore falfe¬
ly near them, he was inftantly ftruck dumb, blind, lame,
or dead, or was fwallowed up by the waters. But al¬
though perjury was thus held in general abhorrence,
notwithftanding the credit which was given to fuch.ac¬
counts of divine infli&ions, it was fo much prailifed
by the Greeks, that Greeca fdes became a proverb.
Lovers perjuries, however, were fuppofed to pafs unno¬
ticed, or to be very (lightly puniftied with blacknefs of
the nails, a decayed tooth, or fome fmall diminution of
beauty. r c • 1 r
The ancient philofophers, however, were io atraid ol
perjury, that even an oath before a judge was never ad¬
mitted but for want of other proof. Plato’s precept
was, “ Not to adminifter an oath wantonly, but on deep
Ulpian gives
hip
grounds, and with the ftriaeft caution.”
PER [ 141 ] PER
Perjury, his opinion thus : “ Some are forward to take oaths
v from a contempt of religion ; others, from an extraordi¬
nary awe of the Divine Majefty, carry their fear, to an
unreafonable fuperftition *, fo make an equitable decilion
of a judge neceffary.” “ No man will perjure himfelf
(fays Ariftotle) who apprehends vengeance from Hea¬
ven and difgrace among men.” Clinias was fo very
fcrupulous, that rather than take an oath (though law¬
fully), he fuffered the lofs of three talents. Perjury, in
the time of Philo Judeus, was abominated and capitally
punithed among the Jews j though fince they have much
degenerated, having been poifoned with the books of the
Talmud, which fays, “ Pie who breaks his promiflory
oath, or any vows he enters into by the year, if he has
a mind that they fhould be ineffeftual and invalid, let
him rife the laft day of the year, and fay, Whatever
promifes, oaths, and vows I may think fit to make in the
year following, let them be null, void, and of no efifeft.”
Traft. iii. part 3. of the Talmud, in the treatife Nedha-
rim, ch. 4. And the modern Jews ufe the fame artifice,
thinking they may then lawfully deceive the Chriftians.
See Hieron. ex DiBis Talmud, c. 3. and Magijler Jo¬
annes de Concor. Legum, tit. iv. c. 7.
In our law, no notice is taken of any perjury but
fuch as is committed in fome court of juilice having
power to adminilter an oath; or before fome magiftrate
or proper officer invefted with a fimilar authority, in
fome proceedings relative to a civil fuit or a criminal
profecution : for it elteems all other oaths unneceffary
at lead, and therefore will not puniffi the breach of
them. For which reafon it is much to be queftioned,
how far any magiitrate is juftifiable in taking a volun¬
tary affidavit in any extrajudicial matter, as is now too
frequent upon every petty occafion ; fince it is more
than poffible that, by fuch idle oat-bs, a man'may fre¬
quently, inforo confcienticv, incur the guilt, and at the
fame time evade the,temporal penalties of perjury. The
perjury muft alfo be corrupt (that is, committed mala
animo), wilful, pofitive, and abfolutej not upon furprife,
or the like : it alfo muft be in fome point material to
the queftion in difpute ; for if it only be in fome trifling
collateral circumftance, to which no regard is paid, it is
no more penal than in the voluntary extrajudicial oaths
before mentioned. Subornation of perjury is the of¬
fence of procuring another to take fuch a falfe oath as
conftitutes perjury in the principal. The puniffiment of
perjury and fubornation, at common law, has been va¬
rious. It was anciently death \ afterwards baniffiment,
or cutting out the tongue; then forfeiture of goods 5
and now it is fine and imprifonment, and never more to
be capable of bearing teftimony. But the ftatute 5
Eliz. c. 9. (if the offender be profecuted thereon) in-
flifts the penalty of perpetual infamy, and a fine of 40I.
on the fuborner ; and in default of payment, imprifon¬
ment for fix months, and to Hand with both ears'nailed
to the pillory. Perjury itfelf is thereby puniffied with
fix months imprifonment, perpetual infamy, and a fine
of 20I. or to have both ears nailed to the pillory. But
the profecution is ufually carried on for the offence at
common law ; efpecially as, to the penalties before in-
flifled, the ftatute 2 Geo. II. c. 25. fuperadds a,power
for the court to order the offender to be fent to the
houfe of corredtion for a term not exceeding feven
years or to be tranfported for the fame period ; and
makes it felony, without benefit of clergy, to return or
5.
efcape within the time. It has fometimes been wifhed, Perjary-
that perjury, at leaft upon capital accufations, whereby .^jtC5
another’s life has been or might have been deftroyed, , °
was alfo rendered capital, upon a principle of retalia¬
tion ; as it was univerfally by the laws of France,
And certainly the odioufnefs of the crime pleads ftrongiy
in behalf of the French law. But it is to be confider-
ed, that they admitted witneffes to be heard only on
the fide of the profecution, and ufed the rack to extort
a confeffion from the accufed. In fuch a conftitution,
therefore, it was neceffary to throw the-dread of capital
punifhment into the other fcale, in order to keep in
awe the witnefl’es for the crown \ on whom alone the
prifoner’s fate depended : fo naturally does one cruel
law beget another. But corporal and pecuniary pu-
niffiments, exile, and perpetual infamy, are more fuited
to the genius of the Englifti law •, where the fadl is
openly difcuffed between witneffes on both fides, and
the evidence for the crown may be contradidled and
difproved by thofe of the prifoner. Where indeed the
death of an innocent perfon has a&ually been the con-
fequence of fuch wilful perjury, it falls within the guilt
of deliberate murder, and deferves an equal punilhment $
which our ancient law in fadt inflifted. But the mere
attempt to deftroy life by other means not being capital,
there is no reafon that an attempt by perjury fliould j
much lefs that this crime ftiould, in all judicial cafes,
be puniffied with death. For to multiply capital pu-
niftiments leflens their effeft, when applied to crimes
of the deepeft dye ; and, deteftable as perjury is, it
is not by any means to be compared with fome other
offences, for which only death can be inflidled ; and
therefore it feems already (except perhaps in the in-
ftance of deliberate murder by perjury) very properly
puniffied by our prefent law ; which has adopted the
opinion of Cicsro, derived from the law of the twelve
tables, Perjuni pccna divina, exilium; huniana, dedecus.
See Oath.
PERIWIG. See Perruke.
PERIZONIUS, James, a learned and laborious -
writer, was born at Dam in 1651. He became profef-
for of hiftory and eloquence at the univerfity of Frane-
ker, when, by his merit and learning, he made that
univerfity fiourifh. However, in 1693, he went to
Leyden, where he was made profeffor of hiflory, elo¬
quence, and the Greek tongue \ in which employment
he continued til) his death, which happened-in 17x5.
He wrote many Differtations, and other learned and cu¬
rious works, particularly Origines Babylonicce et Egyp-
tiacce, 2 vols. 8vo, &c. But the part of his labours
which is the moft generally known, and perhaps the
moil ufeful, is the notes which he wrote upon SanBii
Minerva. That work, as publiflied by Perizonius,
certainly fuggefted the idea of Harris’s Hermes; and
we hefitate not to fay, that our countryman has made
hardly any improvement on the fyftem of his mafter.
PERIZZLTES, the ancient inhabitants of Paleftine,
mingled with the Canaanites. There is alfo great pro¬
bability that they themfelves were Canaanites; but ha¬
ving no fixed habitations, fometimes difperfed in one
country and fometimes in another, they were for that
reafon called Beri%%ites, which fignifies fcattered or di¬
fperfed. Pherazoth ftands for hamlets or villages. The
Perizzites did not inhabit any certain portion of the
land of Canaan} there yfvt® fome of them on both fides
, the?
PER [i
Perizzites tlift river Jordan, in the mountains, and in the plains.
li In feveral places of Scripture the Canaanites and Periz-
I t-roi.rs. zjj.eg are mentioned as the two chief people of the coun-
~ try. It is faid, for example, that in the time of Abra¬
ham and Lot the Canaanite and Perizzite were in the
land (Gen. xiii. 7.). The Ifraelites of the tribe of Eph¬
raim complained to Jofhua that they were too much pent
up in their poffeflion (Jo(h. xvii. 15.) : he bid them go,
if they pleafed, into the mountains of the Perizzites, and
tlephaims or giants, and there clearing the land, to cul¬
tivate and inhabit it, Solomon fubdued the remains of
the Canaanites and Perizzites which the children of
Ifrael had not rooted out, and made them tributary to
him (1 Kings ix. 20, 21. and 2 Chr. via. 7.). There
is dill mention made of the Perizzites in the time of
Ezra (ix. 1.), after the return from the captivity of Ba¬
bylon 5 and feveral Ifraelites had married wives from
that nation.
PERKIN, a beverage prepared from pears. See Cy-
DERKIN, under Agriculture, N° 656.
PERMEABLE, a term applied to bodies of fo
loofe a texture as to let fomething pafs through
them.
PERMSKI, or Permia, a town of the Ruflian
empire, and capital of a province of the fame name,
feated on the river Kama between the Dwina and the
Oby ; E. Long. 55. 50. N. Lat. 70. 26. The pro¬
vince is bounded on the north by the Samoiedes, on
the weft by Zirania and Ulatka, and on the eaft by Si-
‘ beria.
PERMUTATION, in commerce, the fame with
bartering. In the canon-law, permutation denotes the
a£tual exchange of one benefice for another.
PERNAMBUCO, a province of Brazil, in South
America, bounded on the north by Tamera, on the eaft
by the ocean, on the fouth by Seregippa, and on the
weft by Tapuyers. It is about 200 miles in length and
150 in breadth. The Dutch became matters of it in
1630, but the Portuguefe foon after retook it. It pro¬
duces a great quantity of fugar, cotton, and the belt
Brazil wood.
PERNIO, a kibe or chilblain, is a little ulcer, oc-
cafioned by cold in the hands, feet, heels, nofe, and lips.
It will come on when warm parts are too fuddenly ex-
pofed to cold, or when parts from being too cold are
fuddenly expofed to a confiderable warmth } and has al¬
ways a tendency to gangrene, in which it frequently
terminates. It moft commonly attacks children of a
fanguine habit and delicate conftitution j and may be
prevented or removed by fuch remedies as invigorate the
fyftem, and are capable of removing any tendency to
gangrene in the conftitution.
PERONAiUS, in Anatomy, is an epithet applied to
fome of the mufcles of the perone or fibula. See Ana¬
tomy, Table of the Mufcles.
PERONES, a fort of high fhoes which were worn
not only by country people, but by men of ordinary
rank at Rome. In the early times of the common¬
wealth they were worn even by fenators ; but at laft
they were difufed by perfons of figure, and confined
to ploughmen and labourers. They were very rudely
formed, confifting only of hides undrefled, and reach¬
ing to the middle of the leg. Virgil mentions the pe-
rones as worn by a company of ruftic foldiers on one
Toot only.
42 ] PER
PERONNE, a ftrong town of France, in Picardy, Peretira
capital of Santerre. It is laid never to have been taken, II
though often befieged. It is feated on the river Somme, , ( r^nfe‘
in E. Long. 3. 1. N. Lat. 44. 50.
PERORATION, in Rhetoric, the epilogue or laft
part of an oration, wherein what the orator had infifted
on through his whole difcourfe is urged afrefh with
greater vehemence and paffion. T he peroration con-
fifts of two parts. 1. Recapitulation j wherein the
fubftance of what was diffufed throughout the whole
fpeech is collected briefly and curforily, and fummed
Up with new force and weight. 2. The moving the
paflions ; which is fo peculiar to the peroration, that
the matters of the art call this part fcdes affeBuum. i he
paflions to be raifed are various, according to the va¬
rious kinds of oration. In a panegyric, love, admira¬
tion, emulation, joy, &c. In an inve&ive, hatred,
contempt, &c. In a deliberation, hope, confidence,
or fear. The qualities required in the peroration are,
that it be very vehement and paflionate, and that it be
ftiort *, beeaufe, as Cicero obferves, tears foon dry up.
Thefe qualities were well obferved by Cicero, who
never had an equal in the management of this part of
an orator’s province j for peroration was his mafter-
piece.
“ Concerning peroration (fays Dr Blair), it is need-
lefs to fay much, becaufe it mutt vary fo confiderably,
according to the ftrain of the preceding difcourfe.
Sometimes the whole pathetic part comes in moft pro¬
perly at the peroration. Sometimes, when the difcourfe
has been entirely argumentative, it is fit to concludb
with fumming up the arguments, placing them in one
view, and leaving the impreflion of them full and ftrong
on the mind of the audience. For the great rule of a
conclufion, and what nature obvioufly fuggefts, is, to
place that laft on which we choofe that the ftrength of
our cafe fhould reft.
“ In all difcourfes, it is a matter of importance to hit
the precife time of concluding, fo as to bring our dif¬
courfe juft to a point \ neither ending abruptly and un-
expeftedly, nor difappointing the expeflation of the
hearers when they look for the clofe, and continuing to
hover round and round the conclufion till they become
heartily tired of us. We fhould endeavour to get off
with a good grace ; not to end with a languifhing and
drawling fentence, but to clofe with dignity and Ipirit,
that we may leave the minds of the hearers warm, and
difmifs them with a favourable impreflion of the fubjeft
and of the fpeaker.”
PEROTIS, a genus of plants belonging to the tri-
andria clafs, and in the natural method ranking under
the 4th order, Gramma. See Botany Index.
PERPENDICULAR, in Geometry, a line falling
direftly on another line, fo as to ma.ke equal angles on
each fide. See Geometry.
PERPETUAL, fomething that endures always, or
lafts for ever.
Perpetual Motion. See Movement.
PERPIGNAN, a confiderable town of Roufillon,
in France, with a ftrong citadel, an univerfity, and a
bifhop’s fee. It is feated on the rivet Tet *, over which
there is a handfome bridge. E. Long. o. 43. N. Lat.
45. 18. ^ .
PERQUISITE, in a general fenfe, fomething gam¬
ed by a place over and above fettled wages.
Perquisite,
P E Pt f i
^crquifue Perquisite, in Law, is any thing gotten by a man’s
Perron. °'VI? *n^uftry> or purchafed with his money ; in contra-
l — ^ - ■ diftin6tion to what defeends to him from his father or
other anceftor.
PERRAUL F, Claude, the fon of an advocate in
parliament, was born at Paris in 1613; and was bred a
phyfician, though he never pra&ifed but among his re¬
lations, fi iends, and the poor. He dilcovered early a
particular tafte for the fciences and fine arts; of which
he acquired a confummate knowledge without the af-
liltance of a mailer : he excelled in architecture, paint¬
ing, fculpture, mathematics, phyfics, and all thofe arts
that relate to defigning and mechanics. The entrance
into the Louvre, which was defigned by him, is, ac¬
cording to the judgment of Voltaire, one of the mod
auguit monuments of architecture in the world. M.
Colbert put him upon tranflating Vitruvius into French ;
which he performed, and publiihed it in 1673, folio,
with figures from his own drawings ; which are faid to
have been more exa&ly finifiied than the plates them-
felves. When the academy of fciences was eltablilhed,
he was one of its firlt members, and was chiefly de¬
pended on for mechanics and natural philofophy. His
works are, Memoires pour fervir h I'HiJloire naturelle
des Animaux, folio, 1676, with figures ; Ejjau de P/iy-
4 v°is" 121110, 1688 ; Rccueil des plujieurs ma¬
chines de nouvelle invention, ato, 1 700, &c. He died
in 1688.
I errault, Charles, the brother of Claude, was born
at Paris in 1626, with as great a genius for arts, and a
greater for letters, than his brother. Colbert chofe him
firlt clerk ot the buildings, of which he was fuperinten-
dant, and afterward made him comptroller general of
the finances under him. He was one of the firlt mem¬
bers of the academy of the belles lettres and inferip-
tions, and was received into the French academy in
1671. His poem, La Peinture, printed in i633, was
umverfally admired : that entitled La fiecle de Louis le
Grand, in which he exalted the modern authors above
the ancient, was a prelude to a war with all the learn¬
ed. After he had difengaged himfelffrom thisconteit,
he applied himfelf to draw up elegies of feveral great
men of the l 7th century, with their portraits, of which
he has colle&ed 10 2. There are other efteemed works
of Perrault.—Befides thefe there were two other bro¬
thers, Peter and Nicholas, who made themfelves known
in the literary world.
PERRON, James Davy du, a cardinal, diftinguilh-
ed by his abilities and learning, was born in the canton
of Bern in 1556. He wras educated by Julian Davy,
liis father, a learned Calvinift, who taught him Latin
and the mathematics ; after which, he by himfelf be¬
came acquainted with the Greek and Hebrew, philofo¬
phy, and the poets. Philip Defportes, abbot of Tyron,
made him known to Henry III. king of France, who
conceived a great efteem for him. Some time after,
Du Perron abjured Calvinifm, and afterwards embraced’
the ecclefiaftical funftion; and having given great
proofs of his wit and learning, he was chofen to^pro-
nounce the funeral oration of Mary queen of Scots.
After the murder of Henry III. he retired to the houfe
of Cardinal de Bourbon, and took great pains in bring¬
ing back the Proteftants to the church of Romfe. A-
mong others he gained over Henry Spondanus, after¬
wards bifliop of Pamiers, He alfo chiefly contributed
43 j PER
to engage Henry IV. to change his religion ; and that Perron
prince lent him to negotiate his reconciliation to the II
holy fee, in which he fucceeded. Du Perron was con- . Ferrukc-
fecrated bifhop of Evreaux while he refided at Rome.
On his return to France, he wrote, preached, and dif-
puted againft the reformed ; particularly againft Du
Pleflis Mornay, with whom he had a public conference
in the prefence of the king at Fontainbleau. He was
made cardinal in 1604 by Pope Clement VIII. at the
folicitation of Henry IV. who afterwards nominated
him to the archbifhopric of Sens. The king at length'-
fent him to Rome with Cardinal Joyeufe, in order to
terminate the difputes which had arifen between Paul
V. and the Venetians. It is faid that this pope had
fuch a high opinion of the addrefs of the cardinal Du
Perron, that he ufed to fay, “ Let us pray to God to
infpire the cardinal Du Perron, for he will perfuade us
to do whatever he pleafes.” After the death of Henry
IV. he retired into the country, where he put the laft
hand to his work ; and, fetting up a printing-houfe, cor-
re£ed every (beet himfelf. Pie died at Paris in 1618.
His works were colle6ted after his death, and publiflied
at Paris in 3 vols. folio.
PERROI, Nicholas, Sieur d’Ablancourt, one of
the firft geniufes of his age, was born at Chalons in
1606. After fludying philofophy about three years,
he w7as fent to Paris to follow the law7. At eighteen
years of age he w'as admitted advocate of parliament,
and frequented the bar ; but he foon conceived a dif-
tafle for it, and therefore difeontinued his pradice.
I his difpleafed an uncle, but whofe favour he recovered
by quitting the Proteflant religion. He could not,
however, be prevailed upon to take orders in the’
Romifh church ; and fome years after, he had a de¬
fire to return to the religion he had abjured. But,
that he might not do aay thing rafhly, he refolved to
Rudy philofophy and divinity. For that purpofe he
chofe for his mafter Mr Stuart a Scotfman and Luthe¬
ran, a man of great learning. Almofl three years he
fpent in the mofl affiduous fludy ; and then fet out
fiom Paris to Champagne, where he abjured the Ro¬
man Catholic, and once more embraced the Proteftant
religion. In 1637 was admitted a member of the
Irench academy ; a little after which he undertook a
tianflation of Tacitus. Whilft he was engaged in that
laborious talk, he retired to his fmall eftate of Ablan-
court, and lived there till his death in 1664. He
was a man of fine underflanding, of great piety and
integrity, and of univerfal learning. Moreri has gi¬
ven a catalogue of his works, the greateft part of
which con fill of tranflations, which feemed rather ori¬
ginals.
PERRUKE, Peruke, or Periwig, was anciently
a name for a long head of natural hair ; fuch, particu¬
larly, as there was care taken in the adjufting and trim¬
ming of. Menage derives the word rather fancifully
from the Latin pilus, li hair.” It is derived, according
to this critic, thus, pilus, pelus, pelutus, peluticus, pelu-
tica, perutica, peruca, perruque. The Latins called it
coma; whence part of Gaul took the denomination of
Gallia Comata, from the long hair which the inhabi¬
tants wore as a fign of freedom. An ancient author
fays, that Abfalom’s perruke weighed 200 fhekels.
The word is now ufed for a fet of falfe hair, curled,
buckled, and fewed together oa a frame or cawl; an¬
ciently
F E U I 1
Perfiike, cicntlv called capillafnenttim or “ falfe perruke.” It is
i,erry- doubted whether or not the ufe of perrukes of this kind
^ was known among the ancients. It is true, they uied
falfe hair : Martial and Juvenal make merry with the
women of their time, for making themfelves look young
with their borrowed hair ; with the men who changed
their colours according to the feafons *, and with the
dotards, who hoped to deceive the Deftimes by their
white hair. But thefe feem to have fcarce had any¬
thing in common with our perrukes ; and were at belt
only compofed of hair painted, and glued together.
Nothing can be more ridiculous than the delcnption
Lampridius gives of the emperor Com modus’s Pe5r^k® =
it was powdered with fcrapings of gold, and oiled (it
we may ufe the expreffion) with glutinous perfumes
for the powder to hang by. In effea? the ufe of per¬
rukes, at lead in their prefent mode, is not much more
than 160 years old-, the year 1629 is reckoned the
epocha of long perrukes, at which time they began to
appear in Paris from whence they fpread by degrees
through the reft of Europe. At firft it was reputed
a Tcandal for young people to wear them, becauie the
lofs of their hair at that age was attributed to a dit-
eafe the very name whereof is a reproach j but at
length the mode prevailed over the fcruple, and per-
fons of all ages and conditions have worn them, fore¬
going without any neceflity the conveniences of their
natural hair. It was, however, fome time before the
eccle ft allies came into the faftiion : the firft who al-
fumed the perruke were fome of the French clergy,
in the year 1660 5 nor is the practice yet well autho¬
rized. Cardinal Grimaldi in 1684, and the biftmp of
Lavaur in 1688, prohibited the ufe of the perruke to
all priefts without a difpenfation or neceflity. M. I hiers
has an exprefs treatife, to prove the perruke indecent
in an ecclefiaftic, and direftly contrary to the decrees
and canons of councils. A prieft’s head, embelhlhed
with artificial hair curioufly adjufted, he efteems a mon-
fter in the church -, nor can he conceive any thing io
fcandalous as an abbot with a florid countenance, heig it-
ened with a well-curled perruke.
PERRY, Captain John, was a famous engineer,
who refided long in Ruflia, having been recommended
to the czar Peter while in England, as a perfon ca¬
pable of ferving him on a variety of occafions relating
to his new defign of eftablifhing a fleet, making nis
rivers navigable, &c. His falary in this fervice was
300I. per annum, befides travelling expences and iub-
fiftence money on whatever fervice he fliould be. em¬
ployed, together with a further reward to his fatisfac-
tion at the conclufion of any work he fliould finifli.
After fome converfation with the czar himfelf, parti¬
cularly refpetting a communication between the rivers
Volga and Don, he was employed on that work for
three fummers fucceflively ; but not being well fuP"
plied with men, partly on account of the ill fuccefs or
the czar’s arms againft the Swedes at the battle of
Narva, and partly by the difeouragement of the gover¬
nor of Aftracan, he was ordered at the end of 170 / to
flop, and next year was employed in refitting the ftiips
at Veronife, and 1700 in making the river of that name
navigable -, but after repeated difappointments, and a
variety of fruitlefs applications for his falary, he at
laft quitted the kingdom, under the protection of Mr
Whitworth, the Englifh ambaffador, in 1712: (See
44 1 PEE
his narrative in the Preface to The State of Rufla). In
17 21 he was employed in flopping with fuccefs the
breach at Dagenham, in which feveral other under¬
takers had failed -, and the fame year about the harbour
at Dublin, to-the objections againft; which he then pu-
bliftied an Anfwer. He was author of The State of
Ruflia 1716, 8vo, and an account of the flopping ot
Dagenham Breach, 1721, Svo j and died February 11.
I *7 3 3 •
Perry, the name of a very pleafant and wholefomfc
liquor extracted from pears, in the fame manner as cyder
is from apples. See Cyder, and Agriculture Index.
The belt pears for perry, or at leaft the forts which
have been hitherto deemed the fitteft for making^ this
liquor, are of a tart and harfti quality. Ot thefe the
Bbfhury pear, the Bareland pear, and the horfe pear,
are the moft efteemed fbr perry in Worcefterfture, and
the fquafli pear, as it is called, in Gloucefterftme ; m
both which counties, as well as in fome of the adjacent,
parts, they are planted in the hedge-rows and moft.
common fields. There is this advantage attending pear-
trees that they will thrive on land where apples will
not fo much as live, and that fome of them grow to fuch
a fize, that a Angle pear-tree, particularly of the Bolbury
and the fcmafti kind, has frequently been known to
yield, in one feafon, from one to four hoglheads of perry.
The Bofbury pear is thought to yield the moft lafting
and moft; vinous liquor. The John pear, the Harpary
pear, the Drake pear, the Mary pear, the Lullum pear
and feveral others of the harftieft kinds, are efteemed
the beft for perry, but the redder or more tawney they
are, the more they are preferred. Pears, as well as ap-
rdes- fhould be full ripe before they are ground.
' Dr Beale, in his general advertifements concerning
cyder, fubjoined/to Mr Evelyn’s Pomona, difapproves
Polladins’s favinp. that perry will keep during the
cycler, luujtHncu lu a*-** ~ ^ 3 • 1
of Palladius’s faying, that perry will keep during the
winter, but that it turns four as foon as the .weather
begins to be warm 5 and gives, as his reafonsior being
of a contrary opinion, that he had himfelf tafted at the
end of fummer, a very brifk, lively, and vinous liquor,
made of horfe pears ; that he had often tried the juice
of the Bofbury pear, and found it both pleafanter and
richer the fecond year, and ftill more fo the third,
though kept only in common hogfheads, and in but
indifferent cellars, without being bottled j and that a
very honeft, worthy, and ingenious gentleman m his
neighbourhood, affured him, as of his own experience,
that it will keep a great while, and grow much the
ftronger for keeping, if put into a good cellar and ma-
nao-ed with due care. He imputes Palladius’s error to
fils’poflibly fpeaking of common eatable pears, and to
the perry’s having been made in a very hot country .
but he would have aferibed it to a more real cauie,
perhaps, had he pointed out the want of a thorough
regular fermentation, to which it appears plainly that
the ancients were entire ftrangers ; for all their vinous
liquors were medicated by boiling before they were laid
up in order to be kept.
PERSECUTION, is any pain or affliaion which a
perfon defignedty inflias upon another ; and in a more
reftrained fenfe, the fufferings of Chriftians on account
of their religion.
Hiftorians ufually reckon ten general perfecutions,
the firft of which was under the emperor Nero, 31 years
after our Lord’s afeenfion j when that emperor having
let
PER [ i
P?«2rret toi!,C of Rome, threw the odium of that ex-
ecrable aftion on the Chriftians, who under that pre¬
tence were wrapped up in the fldns of wild beads, and
’worried and devoured by dogs ; others were crucified
and others burnt alive-. The feeond was under J)omi-
tian, in the year 95. In this perfection St John the
apoitle was fent to the ifle of Patmos, in order to be em¬
ployed in digging in the mines. The third began in
the third year oi Trajan, in the year too, and was car¬
ried on with great violence for feveral years. The fourth
was under Antoninus the philofopher, when the Chrift¬
ians were baniftted from their houfes, forbidden to ihow
their heads, reproached, beaten, hurried from place to
place, plundered, imprifoned, and ftoned. The fifth
began in the year 197, under the emperor Severus.
i he fixth began with the reign of the emperor Maxi-
minus in 235. 1 lie feventh, which was the molt dread¬
ful perfecution that had ever been known in the church
began in the year 250, in the reign of the emperor De¬
ems, w hen the Chriftians were in all places driven from
their habitations, ftripped of their eftates, tormented
Twth racks, 8s.c. The eighth began in the year 25^
in the fourth year of the reign of the emperor Valerian!
The ninth was under the emperor Aurelian, A. D.
274; but this was very inconfiderable : and the tenth
began in the 19th year of Dioclefian, A. D. 303. In
this dreadful perfecution, which lafted ten years-, houfes
filled with Chriftians were fet on fire, and whole droves
^vere tied together with ropes and thrown into the fea.
See Toi.eration.
PERSEES, the defeendants of a colony of ancient
Perfians, who took refuge at Bombay, Surat, and in
the vicinity of thofe cities, when their own country
was conquered 1100 years ago by the Mahometan
Arabs. I hey are a gentle, quiet, and induftrioas
people, loved by the Hindoos, and living in great har¬
mony among themfelves. The confequence is, that
they multiply exceedingly, whilft their countrymen in
the province of Keman are vifibly diminifhing under
the yoke of the Mahometan Perfians. Of the manners
and cuftoms of this' amiable race, we have the follow¬
ing account in Heron’s elegant tranflation of Niebuhr’s
Travels.
J he Perfees^fays he) make common contributions
lor the aid of their poor, and fuffer none of their number
to afk alms from people of a different religion. They
are equally ready to employ their money and credit to
icreen a brother of their fraternity from the abufes of
jultice. U hen a Perfee behaves ill, he is expelled from
their communion. They apply to trade, and exercife
all iorts or profeliions.
. 1 he Perfees have as little knowledge of circum-
cilion as the Hindoos. Among them, a man marries
only one wife, nor ever takes a feennd, unlefs when the
*irlt happens to be barren. They give their children in
marriage at fix years of age j but the young couple
continue to live feparate, in the houfes of their parents
till they attain the age of puberty. Thir drefs is the
lame as that of the Hindoos, except that they wear under
each ear a tuft of hair, like the modern Perfians. They
are much addifted to aftrology, although very little
Ikilled in aftronomv.
“ retain the lingular Cuftom of expofing their
dead to be eaten by birds of prey, inftead of interring or
burning them. I faw (continues our author) on a hill
VOL, XVI. Part I.
45 1 PER
at Bombay a round tower, covered with planks of wood, Pcrfecs,
on which the Perfees lay out their dead bodies. When PerfePolfs-
the fltfti is devoured, they remove the bones into two ' ' v **""f
chambers at the bottom of the tower.
1 he I erfees, followers of the religion of Zerduft @r
Zoroafter, adore one God only, eternal and almighty.
1 hey pay, however, a certain worlhip to the fun, the
moon, the liars, and to fire, as vifible images of the
invifible divinity-. Their veneration for the element
of fiie induces them to keep a facred fire conftantly
burning, which they feed with odoriferous wood, both
in the te mples, and in the houfes of private perfons who
are in eafy eircumftances. In one of their temples at
Bombay, I faw a fire which had burnt unextinguiftied
for two centuries. They never blow out a light, left:
their breath ftiould foil the purity of the fire. Ses
Polytheism.
be religion of the Perfees enjoins purifications as
ftnctly as that of the Hindoos. The difciples of Zer-
duft aie not, however, obliged to abftain from animal
food. 1 hey have accuftomed themfelves to refrain
fiom the ftefti of the ox, becaufe their anceftors pro-
mifed the Indian prince who received them into his
dominions never to kill horned cattle. This promife
they continue to obferve under the dominion of Chrift¬
ians and Mahometans. The horfe is by them confider-
ed as the moft impure of all animals, and regarded with
extreme averfion.
ft heir feftivals, denominated Ghumbars, which re¬
turn fiequently, and laft upon each occafion five days,
are all commemorations of fome part of the work of
creation, ft'hey celebrate them not with fplendour, or
with any particular ceremonies, but only drefs better du¬
ring thofe five days, perform fome affs of devotion in
their houfes, and viftt their friends.”
The Perfees were till lately but Very little known :
the ancients fpeak of them but feldom, and what they
fay fee ms to be dictated by prejudice. On this account
Dr Hyde, who thought the fubjeft both curious and
interefting, about the end of the 17th century attempted
a deeper inveftigation of a fubjeeft which till then had
been but very little attended to. Pie applied to the
works of Arabian and Perfian authors, from whom, and
from the relations of travellers, together with a varietv
of letters from perfons in India, he compiled his cele¬
brated work on the religion of the Perfees. Other ac¬
counts have been given by different men, as accident
put information in their way. But the moft diftinguilh-
ed is by M. Anquetil du Perron, who undertook a
voyage to difeover and tranfiate the works attributed
to Zoroafter. Of this voyage he drew up an account
himielf, and read it before the Royal Academy of
Sciences at Paris in May 1761. A ’ tranflation of it
was made and publiftied in the Gentleman’s Magazine
for 1762, to which we refer our readers, ft lie account
begins at page 373> and is concluded at page 614. Re¬
marks were afterwards made on Du Perron’s account
by a Mr Yates. See the fauie Magazine for 1766
p. 329.
PEKSEPOLIS, formerly the capital of Perfia, fitu-
cited in N. Lat. .30. 30. E. Long. 84. o. now in ruins,
but remarkable for the moft magnificent remains of a
palace or temple that are to be found throughout the
world.—Iftns city flood in one of the fineft plains Ift
Perfia, being 18 or 19 leagues in length, and in fome
places
P E U
[ i
places two, in fome four, and in others leagues in
breadth. It is watered by the great river Araxes now
Benderair, and by a multitude ot rivulets befides. VV it i-
in thecompafs of this plain, there are between 1000
and l COO villages, without reckoning thole in the
mountains, all adorned with plealant gardens, and
planted with lhady trees. The entrance of this plain
on the weft fide has received as much grandeur from
nature, as the city it covers could do from induftry or
art. It conlifts of a range of mountains fteep and high,
four leagues in length, and about two miles broad, form¬
ing two Hat banks, with a riling terrace in the middle,
the fummit of which is perfedly plain and even, ad of
native rock. In this there are fuch openings, and the
terraces are fo fine and fo even, that one would be
tempted to think the whole the work of art, if the great
extent, and prodigious elevation thereof, did not con¬
vince one that it is a wonder too great for aught but
nature to produce. Undoubtedly thefe banks were the
very place where the advanced guards from I eiiepolis
took poft, and from which Alexander found it f« diffi¬
cult to diflodge them. One cannot from hence defery
the ruins of the city, becaufe the banks are too high to
be overlooked-, but one can perceive on every hde the
ruins of walls and of edifices, which heretofore adorned
the range of mountains of which we are fpeaking. Un
the weft and on the north this city is defended in the
like manner: fo that confidering the height and even-
nefs of thefe banks, one may fafely fay, that there is not
in the world a place fo fortified by nature.
The mountain Rehumut, in the form of an amphi-
„ theatre, encircles the palace, which is one ot the no-
bleft and moft beautiful pieces of architeffure remaining
of all antiquity. Authors and travellers have been ex¬
ceedingly minute in their defenphons of thole ruins;
and yet fome of them have exprefled themfelves jo dif¬
ferently from others, that, had they not agreed with
refpeft to the latitude and longitude of the place, one
would be tempted to fufpeft that they had vilited dif¬
ferent ruins. Thefe ruins have been defenbed by Gar¬
cias de Silva Figueroa, Pietro de la Valle, Chardin, Le
Brun, and Mr Francklin. We (hail adopt the defenp-
tion of an intelligent traveller. The afeent to the co¬
lumns is by a grand ftaircafe of blue ftone containing
104 Heps. .
“ The fir ft obje£t that ftrikes the beholder on his
entrance, are two portals of ftone, about 50 feet in
height each ; the fides are embellilhed with two fphinxes
of an immenfe fize, dreffed out with a profuiion of
bead-work, and, contrary to the ufual method, they are
reprefented Handing. On the fides above are inferip-
tions in an ancient charader, the meaning of which no
one hitherto has been able to decypher.
“ At a fmall diftance from thefe portals you amend
another flight of fteps, which lead to the grand hall of
columns. The fides of this ftaircafe are ornamented
with a variety of figures in baflo relievo ; moft of thtm
have veffels in their hands : here and there a camel ap¬
pears, and at other times a kind of triumphal car,
made’ after the Roman faffiion ; befides thefe are fe-
veral led horfes, oxen, and rams, that at times inter¬
vene and diverfify the proceflion. At the head of the
ftaircafe is another baffo relievo, reprefenting a lion
feizing a bull and clofe to this are other inferiptions
in ancient charaaers. On getting to the top of this
46 ] ^ E
ftaircafe, you enter what was formerly a moft magm- Perjepoli,,
ficent hall ; the natives have given tlm the name of
chehul minor, or forty pillars ; and though this name is .   ,
often ufed to exprefs the whole ot the building, it is
more particularly appropriated to this part oi it. A - •
though a vaft number of ages have elapfed fmee the-
foundation, 15 of the columns yet remain entire ; they
are from 70 to 80 feet in height, and are mafterly pieces
of mafonry: their pedeftals are cunoufly worked and
appear little injured by the hand of time. Ihe Ihafts
are enfluted up to the top, and the capitals are adorned
with a profufion of fretwork.
“ From this hall you proceed along eailward, until
you arrive at the remains of a large fquare building to
which you enter through a door of granite. Molt o
the doors and windows of this apartment are ftill ftand-
im> ; they are of black marble, and pohftied like a
mirror : on the fides of the doors, at the entrance,
are bas-reliefs of two figures at full length; they re-
prefent a man in the attitude of ftabbmg a goat: with
one hand he feizes hold of the animal by the horn, and
thrufts a dagger into his belly with the other ; one ot
the poat’s feet reits upon the breaft ot the man, and
the other upon his right arm. This device is common
throughout the palace. Over another door of the tame
apartment is a reprefentacion of two men at full length,
behind them Hands a domeftic holding a fpreaff um_
brella: they are fupported by large round ilalis, ap¬
pear to be in years, have long beards, and a profuhon ot
hair upon their heads.
“ At the fouth-weft entrance of this apartment are
two large pillars of Hone, upon which are carved four
figures; they are drefl'ed in long garments, and hold in
their hands fpears 10 feet in length. At this entrance
alfo the remains of a ftaircafe ot blue ftone are itill vi-
fible. Vaft numbers of broken pieces of pillars, fhatts,
and capitals, are fcattered over a confiderable extent ot
ground, fome of them of fuch enormous fize, that it is
wonderful to think how they could have been brought
whole, and fet up together. Indeed, every remains ot
thefe noble ruins indicate their former grandeur and
magnificence, truly worthy of being the refidence ot a
great and powerful monarch.” ., „ ,
Thefe noble ruins are now the ftielter of beafts and
birds of prey. Befides the inferiptions above mention¬
ed thefe are others in Arabic, Perfian, and Greek.
Dr Hyde obferves, that the inferiptions are very rude
and clumfy; and that fome, if not all of them, arc in
praife of Alexander the Great; and therefore are later
than that conqueror. See the article Ruins..
PERSEVERANCE, in Theology, a continuance in
a ftate of grace to a Hate of glory.
About this fubjeft there has been much controveriy
in the Chriftian church. All divines, except Unitari¬
ans, admit, that no man can be ever in a ftate oi grace
without the co-operation of the fpirit of God ; but the
Calvinifts and Arminians differ widely as to the nature
of this co-operation. The former, at leaft fuch as call
themfelves the true dfciples oj Calvin, believe, that thole-
who are once under the influence of divine grace can
never fall totally from it, or die in mortal hn, I he
Arminians, on the other hand, contend, that t ic w 10 e
of this life is a flate of probation; that without the
grace of God we can do nothing that is good; that the
Holy Spirit afiifts, but does not overpower, our natural
Perfeve-
rance
I!
Perlia.
Extent of
Parfia.
Perfia pro¬
perly the
name of
only one
empire.
PER [ i
faculties; and that a man, at any period of his life, may
refift, grieve, and even quench, the fpirit. See Theo¬
logy.
i PERSEUS was the moft ancient of all the Greek
heroes. He founded the city of Myeenaq of which he
became afterwards king, and where he and his pofterity
ireigned for 100 years. He flourifhed, according to molt
chronologifts, 1348 B. C.; but, according to Sir Ilaac
Newton, only 1028.
Perseus. See Astronomy Index.
PERSIA, a molt-ancient and celebrated empire of
Afia, extending in length from the mouth of the river
Araxes to that of the river Indus, about 1840 of our
miles, and in breadth from the river Oxus, to the Per-
fian gulf, about 1080 of the fame miles. It is bounded
on the north by the Cafpian fea, the river Oxus, and
Mount Caueafus ; on the ealt, by the river Indus and
the dominions of the Great Mogul j on the fouth, by
the Perfian gulf and the Indian ocean ; and on the welt,
by the dominions of the Grand Signior.
We learn from Sir William Jones, the illuftrious pre-
fident of the Afiatic Society, that Perfia is the name of
only one province of this extenfive empire, which by
province of the prefent natives, and all the learned Mujju/mans who
this vaft refide in the Britifh territories in India, is called Iran.
It has been a practice not uncommon in all ages to de¬
nominate the whole of a country from that part of it
with which we are bell acquainted j and hence have
the Europeans agreed to call Irhn by the name of that
province of which Shirauz is the capital: See ShIRAUZ.
The fame learned writer is confident that Iran, or Per¬
fia in its large!! extent, comprehended within its out¬
line the lower Afia, which, fays he, was unquellionably
a part of the Perfian, if not of the old Aflyrian empire.
“ Thus may we look on Irhn as the noble!! peninfula
on this habitable globe ; and if M. Bailly had fixed on
it as the Atlantis of Plato, he might have fupported
his opinion with far ftronger arguments than any that
he has adduced in favour of Nova Zemb/a. If, indeed,
the account of the Atlantis be not purely an Egyptian
fable, I Ihould be more inclined, fays Sir William, to
place them in Iran than in any region with which I
am acquainted.”
The mod ancient name, however, of this country was
that of Elam, or, as fome write it, JElam, from Elam
the fon of Shem, from whom its fil l! inhabitants are def-
cended. Herodotus tails its inhabitants Cephenes ; and
in very ancient times the people are faid to have called
tbemfelves Arttei, and the country where they dwelt
Artcea. In the books of Daniel, Efdrr.s, &c. it is call¬
ed by the names of Pars, Pharas, or Ears, whence the
modern name of Perfa ; but whence thofe names have
been derived, is now uncertain.
That Perfia was originally peopled by Elam the fon
of Shem, has been very generally admitted •, but the
truth is, that of the ancient biftory of this diftinguilhed
empire very little is perfeftly known. For this igno¬
rance, which at firl! feems ftrange, fatisfadlory reafons
may eafily be aliigned ; of which the principal are the
fuperficial knowledge of the Greeks and Jews, and the
lofs of Perfian archives or hiftorical compofitions. f‘ That
the Grecian writers before Xenophon had acquaint¬
ance with Perjia, and that their accounts of it are
wholly fabulous, is a paradox too extravagant to be fe-
tioully mentioned j but (fays Sir William Jones) their
.3
Various
names of
the coun¬
try.
Opinions
■etpedting
ts firtt po¬
pulation
47 ] PE R
connection with it hi war or peace had been generally Psrfs-
confined to bordering kingdoms under feudatory princes $
and the firit Perfian emperor, whofe life and ciiaradtcr
they feem to have known with tolerable accuracy, was
the great Cyrus.” Our learned author, however, is
fo far from conlidering Cyrus as the tint Perfian mo¬
narch, that he thinks it evident a powerful monarchy
hid fubfilted in Irha fox ages before the aeceffion of that
hero j that this monarchy was called the MahebediaH
dynalty ; and that it was in faCt the oldelt monarchy in
the world. The evidence upon which the prefident
refts this opinion, is the work of a Mahometan travel¬
ler, compiled from the books of fuch Perfians as fled
from their country upon the innovation in religion made
by Zoroalter : and if thefe books, of which a few Itill
remain, be genuine, and the P.Iahometan a faithtul com¬
piler, faCts of which Sir William has not the fmalleft
doubt, the evidence is certainly fufficient to bear the
fuperitruCture wjiich he Jias raifed upon it. ^
It the Perfian monarchy was thus ancient, it is natu- Perhaps the
ral to fuppofe that Perfia or Iran was the original feat or>ginal
of the human race, whence colonies were fent out or feat of the
emigrated of themfelves to people the reft of the habi-^^”
table globe. This fuppolition is adtually made by our
ingenious author, who ftrongly confirms it by remarks
on the molt ancient language of Perfia, which he Ihovvs
to have been the parent of the >ainfcrit, as well as of the
Greek, Latin, and Gothic (fee Philology). He
therefore holds, as a propofition firmly eliablifhed,
“ that Iran or Perfia, in its largelt fenfe, was the true
centre of population, of knowledge, of languages, and
of arts; which inllead of travelling weftward only, as it
has been fancifully fuppofed, orealtward, as might with
equal reafon have been afferted, were expanded in all
directions to all the regions of the world.” He thinks
it is from good authority that the Saxon Chronicle
brings the firit inhabitants of Britain from Armenia;
that the Goths have been concluded to come from Per¬
fia ; and that both the Irith and old Britons have been
fuppofed to have proceeded from the borders of the Caf¬
pian : for all thefe places were comprehended within
the ancient Irhn. a
Of this firft Ptrfian monarchy we have no hiltorieal 4c(°..ntscf
accounts; and mult therefore, after having thus men-^ ^th*
tinned it, defeend at once to the era of Cyrus. Thb c^nis.
prince is celebrated both by facred and profane hilto-
rians ; but the latter are at no fmall variance concern¬
ing his birth and acceflion to the throne. According
to Herodotus, Aftyages, the lalt king of the Mtdes,
being warned in a dream, that the fon who was to be
born of his daughter Mandane, Ihould one day be lord
of Afia, refidved to marry her, not to a Mede, but to
a Perfian. Accordingly he chofe for her hufband one
Cambyfes, a man of a peaceable difpolition, and of no
very high ftation. However, about a year after they
were married, Aftyages was frightened by another
dream, which made him refolve to difpatch the infant
as foon as it Ihould be born. Hereupon the king fent
for his daughter, and put her under confinement, where
Hie was foon after delivered of a fon. The infant was
committed to the care of one Harpagus, with Itridt or¬
ders to deftroy it in what manner he thought proper.
But he, having acquainted his wife, with the command
he had received, by her advice gave it to a fhepherd,
defiring him to let it perilh by expofing it. But the
I 2 Ihepherd,
I
PER 1!
Per fra. flhepherd, out of compaflion, expofed a flill-born child
1 which his wife happened to be then delivered ot, and
brought up the fon of Mandane as his own, giving him
the name of Cyrus.
When the young prince had attained the age of ten
years, as he Avas one day at play Avith other children of
the fame age, he Avas chofen king by his companions 5
and having, in virtue of that dignity, divided them into
feveral orders and claffes, the ion of Arte mb ares, a loid
of eminent dignity among the Medes, refufed to obey
his orders ; avhereupon Cyrus caufed him to be feized,
and whipped very feverely. The boy ran crying to his
father •, and he immediately haftened to the king’s pa¬
lace, loudly complaining of the affront his fon had re¬
ceived from the fon of a Have, and intreating Aftyages
to revenge, by feme exemplary punifhment, the indig¬
nity offered to him and his family. Aftyages, com¬
manding both the herdfman and his fon to be brought
before him, alked the latter, hoAV he, Avho was the fon
of fo mean a man, had dared to abufe the fon of one of
the chief lords of the kingdom ? Cyrus replied, that he
had done no more than he had a right to do ; for the
boys of the neighbourhood having chofen him king, be-
caufe they thought him moft worthy of that dignity,
and performed Avhat he, veiled Avith that charafter, had
commanded, the fon of Artembares alone had (lighted
his orders, and for his difobedience had fuffered the pu¬
nifhment he deferved. In the courfe of this conAeiia-
tion Aftyages happening to recolledi, that his grandfon,
whom he had ordered to be deftroyed, Avould have been
about the fame age Avith Cyrus, began to queftion the
fhepherd concerning his fuppofed fon, and at laft obtained
from him a confeftion of the Avhole truth.
Aftyages having norv difeovered Cyrus to be his
grandfon, fent for Harpagus, Avho alfo confefled that he
had not feen Mandane’s fon deftroyed, but had given
him to the fhepherd ; at which Aftyages Avas fo much
incenfed, that, having invited Harpagus to an enter¬
tainment, he caufed him to be ferved with the flefh.of
his own fon. When he had done, the king afked him
whether he liked his vicluals 5 and Harpagus anfwer-
ing, that he had never tailed any thing more delicious,
the officers appointed for that purpofe brought in a baf-
fcet, containing the head, hands, and feet of his fon,
defiring him to uncover the bafket, and take what he
liked beft. He did as they defired, and beheld the
mangled remains of his only child Avithout betraying
the lead concern, fo great Avas the command \yhich he
had over his paflions. '1 he king then afked him, Avhe-
ther he knew Avith Avhat kind of meat he had been en¬
tertained. Harpagus replied, that he knew very well,
and Avas always pleafed Avith Avhat his fovereign thought
fit to ordain •, and having thus replied, with a furprifing
temper he collefted the mangled parts of his innocent
fon, and went home.
Aftyages having thus vented his rage on Harpagus,
began next to confult what he fhould do with Cyrus.
The magi, however, eafed him of his fears with regard
to him, by affuring him, that as the bay had been once
chofen king by his companions, the dream had been al¬
ready verified, and that Cyrus never Avould reign in any
other fenfe. The king, being well pleafed with this
anfwer, called Cyrus, and, oAvning hoAv much he had
been av anting in the affe&ion Avhich he ought to have
had towards him, defired him to prepare for a journey
* 3
148 ] PER
into Perfia, where he Avould find his father and mother Perfra.
in circumftances very different from thofe of the poor J
fhepherd and his Avife with Avhom he had hitherto lived.
Cyrus, on his arrival at his father’s houfe, was received
with the greatefl joy. When he greAV up, he foon be¬
came popular on account of his extraordinary parts j
till at laft his friendftup was courted by Harpagus, who
had never forgot the cruel treatment he received from
Aftyages. By his means a confpiracy Avas formed
againfl Aftyages ; Avho being overthroAvn in two fuc-
ceflive engagements, Avas taken prifoner and confined
for life.
The account given by Xenophon of the rife of Cyrus
is much more confonant to Scripture ; for he tells us,
that Babylon was conquered by the united forces of the
Medes and Perfians. According to him, Cyrus Avas the
fon of Cambyfes king of the Medes, and Mandane the
daughter of Aftyages king of Perfia. He AA’as born a
year after his uncle Cyaxares, the brother of Mandane.
He lived till the age of tAvelve with his parents in Per¬
fia, being educated after the manner of the country, and
inured to fatigues and military exercifes. At this age
he was taken to the court of Aftyages, Avhere he re-
fided four years 5 when the revolt of the Medes and
Perfians from the Babylonians happened, and which
ended in the deftruftion of the Babylonifti empire, as
related under the article Babylon. 7
While Cyrus Avas employed in the Babylonifti Avar, His war
before he attacked the metropolis itfelf, he reduced all with tha
the nations of Afia Minor. The moft formidable ofL>‘dians"
thefe were the Lydians, whofe king Croefus affembled
a very numerous army, compofed of all the other na¬
tions in that part of Afia, as well as of Egyptians,
Greeks, and Thracians. Cyrus being informed of thefe
vaft preparations, augmented his forces to rg6,ooo men,
and with them advanced againft the enemy, who Avere
affembled near the river Pa&olus. After long marches,
he came up Avith them at Thymbra, not far from Sar¬
dis, the capital of Lydia. Befides the horfe and foot,
which amounted to 196,000, as already obferved, Cy¬
rus had 300 chariots armed Avith feythes, each chariot
drawn by four horfes abreaft, covered Avith trappings
that Avere proof againft all forts of mifiive weapons : he
had likewife a great number of chariots of a larger fize,
upon each of which Avas placed a tower about 18 or 20
feet high, and in each tower Avere lodged 20 archers.
Thefe toAvers Avere draAvn by 16 oxen yoked abreafL
There Avas moreover a confiderable number of camels,
each mounted by tAVo Arabian archcys, the one looking
toAvards the head, and the other toAvards the hinder
part of the camel. The army of Croefus confifted of
420,000 men. The Egyptians, Avho alone Avere 120,000
in number, being the main (Length of the army, Avere
placed in the centre. Both armies Avere draAvn up in an
immenfe plain, which gaA'e room for the extending of
the Avings on either fide 5 and the defign of Croefus, up¬
on Avhich alone he founded his hopes of victory, Avas to
furround and hem in the enemy’s army. $
When the tAvo armies Avere in fight of each other, The battle
Croefus, obferving hoAv much his front exceeded that ofofThyni-
Cyrus, made the centre halt, but commanded the tAVo1>ra’
Avings to advance, with a defign to inclofe the Perfian
army, and begin the attack on both fides at once.
When the tAvo detached bodies of the Lydian forces
were fuffiqiently extended, Crosfus gave the fignal to the
main
PER
Feriia- main body, which marched up to the front of the Per-
" fian army, while the two wings attacked them in flank j
fo that Cyrus’s army was hemmed in on all fides, and,
as Xenophon expreffes it, was inclofed like a fmall
fquare drawn within a great one. This motion, how¬
ever, did not at all alarm the Perfian commander ; but,
giving his troops the fignal to face about, he attacked
in flank thofe forces that were going to fall upon his
rear fo vigoroufly, that he put them into great diforder.
At the fame time a fquadron of camels was made to ad¬
vance againfl: the enemy’s other wing, which conflfled
moftly of cavalry. The horfes were fo frightened at the
approach of thefe animals, that mofl: of them threw their
riders, and trod them under foot ; which occafioned
great confufion. Then Artagefes, an officer of great va¬
lour and experience, at the head of a fmall body of
horfe, charged them fo brilkly, that they could never
afterwards rally ; and at the fame time the chariots,
armed with feythes, being driven in among them, they
were entirely routed. Both the enemy’s wings being
thus put to flight, Cyrus commanded his chief favourite
Abradates to fall upon the centre with the large cha¬
riots above mentioned. The nrft ranks, confifting moft¬
ly of Lydians, not being able to ftand fo violent a
charge, immediately gave way 5 but the Egyptians, be¬
ing covered with their bucklers, and marching fo clofe
that the chariots had not room to penetrate their ranks,
a great (laughter of the Perfians enfued. Abradates
himfelf was killed, his chariot overturned, and the
greateft part of his men were cut in pieces. Upon his
death, the Egyptians, advancing boldly, obliged the
Perfian infantry to give way, and drove them back
quite to their engines. There they met with a new
fhower of darts and javelins from their machines ; and
at the fame time the Perfian rear advancing fvvord in
hand, obliged their fpearmen and archers to return to
the charge. In the mean time Cyrus, having put to
flight both the horfe and foot on the left of the Egyp¬
tians, pufhed on to the centre, where he had the mis¬
fortune to find his Perfians again giving ground ; and
judging that the only way to flop the Egyptians, who
were purfuing them, would be to attack them in the
rear, he did fo •, and at the fame time the Perfian ca¬
valry coming up to his afliftance, the fight was renewed
with great daughter on both fides. Cyrus himfelf was
in great danger ; for his horfe being killed under him,
he fell among the midft of his enemies : but the Per¬
fians, alarmed at the danger of their general, threw
themfelves headlong on their opponents, refeued him,
and made a terrible (laughter ; till at laft Cyrus, admir¬
ing the valour of the Egyptians, offered them honour¬
able conditions : letting them know at the fame time,
that all their allies had abandoned them. They accept¬
ed the terms offered them 5 and having agreed with Cy¬
rus that they (hould not be obliged to carry arms againft
Croefus, they engaged in the fervice of the conqueror,
p and continued faithful to him ever after,
ardista- The next morniiig Cyrus advanced towards Sardis,
*"> an^ and Croefus marched out to oppofe him at the head of
mpiredian r1'16 only : for his allies had all abandoned him.
ver- Their ftrength confided moftly in cavalry ; which Cy-
arown. rus being well apprifed of, he ordered his camels to ad¬
vance *, by whom the horfes were fo frightened, that
they became quite ungovernable. However, the Ly¬
dians difmounted, and for fome time made a vigorous
PER
refiftance on foot j but were at laft driven into the city,. Perffas
which was taken two days after: and thus the Lydian
empire was totally deftroyed. I0
After the conqueft of Sardis, Cyrus turned his arms Reduces
againft Babylon itfelf, which he reduced in the manner Babylon,
related under that article. Elaving fettled the civil go¬
vernment of the conquered kingdoms, Cyrus took a re¬
view of all his forces, which he found to confift of
600,000 foot, 1 20,000 horfe, and 2000 chariots armed
with feythes. With thefe he extended his dominion all
over the nations to the confines of Ethiopia, and to the
Red fea •, after which he continued to reign peaceably
over his vaft empire till his death, which happened a- Ir
bout 529 before Chriit. According to Xenophon, he His death,
died a natural death ; but others tell us, that, having
engaged in a v'ar with the Scythians, he was by them
overthrown and cut in pieces with his whole army,
amounting to 200,000 men. But this is very impro¬
bable, feeing all authors agree that the tomb of Cyrus
was extant at Pafargada in Perfia in the time of Alex¬
ander the Great ; which it could not have been if his
body had remained in the polTeflion of the Scythians, as
thefe authors affert.
In the time of Cyrus, the Perfian empire extended
from the river Indus to the Aigean fea. On the north
it was bounded by the Euxine and Cafpian feas, and on
the fouth by Ethiopia and Arabia. That monarch
kept his refidence for the feven cold months at Babylon,
by reafon of the warmth of that climate 5 three months
in the fpring he fpent at Sufa, and two at Ecbatan dur¬
ing the heat of fummer. On his deathbed he appointed,
his fon Cambyfes to fucceed him in the empire } and to
his other fon, Smerdis, he gave feveral confiderable go¬
vernments. The new monarch immediately fet about
the conqueft of Egypt 3 which he accomplKhed in the.
manner related in the hiftory of that country. x.
Having reduced Egypt, Cambyfes next refolved toCambyfes-
turn his arms againft the Carthaginians, Hammonians, conquers
and Ethiopians. But he was obliged to drop the firft ^gypt*
of thefe enterprifes, becaufe the Phoenicians refufed to
fupply him with (hips againft the Carthaginians, who
were a Phoenician colony. Howrever, he fent ambaf-
fadors into Ethiopia with a defign to get intelligence of
the (late and ftrength of the country. But the Ethio¬
pian monarch, being wTell apprifed of the errand on
which they came, treated them with great contempts
In return for the prefents fent him by Cambyfes, he
fent his own bow 5 and advifed the Perfians to make
Avar upon the Ethiopians when they could bend fuch a
ftrong boAV as eafily as he did, and to thank the god&
that the Ethiopians had no ambition to extend their do¬
minions beyond their oavii country. Ic
Cambyfes was no fooner informed of this anfwcr by His uaiiuv-
his ambaffadors than he flew into a violent paflion j and ce^s^ulex-
ordered his army immediately to begin their march, P^hion
without confidering that they were neither furnilhed Ethiopia
with provifions nor any other neceffary. When he ar-and bhe
rived at Thebes in Upper Egypt, he detached 50,000 Hammo-
men, with orders to deftroy the temple of Jupiter Am-0^115,
mon : but all thefe perilhed in the defert j not a (ingle
perfon arriving either at 'the oracle, or returning to
Thebes. The reft of the army, led by Cambyfes him¬
felf, experienced incredible hardftiips ; for not being,
provided with any neceffaries, they had not marched a.
fifth part of the way when-they were obliged to kill and .
eat-.
1 149 J
P E 11
[ 15°
]
PEE
Perfia.
14
He mur¬
ders his
brother.
His death
x6
Hei'M' of
cat tlieir beafts of burthen. When thefe failed, the fol-
diers fed on grafs and roots, as long as any could be
found ; and at latt were reduced to the dreadtul necel-
fity of eating one another 5 every tenth man, on whoin
the lot fell, being condemned to ferve as food tor bis
companions. The king, however, oblfinately perhfted
in his deiign •, till, being apprehenfive of the danger he
himfelf was in, he retreated to Thebes, after having loft
the greateft part of his army. . r . .
Cambvfes was a man of a very cruel and fufpicmus
temper, of which he gave many inftances i and the fol¬
lowing proved indiredly the cauie of his death.—V\ e
have already obferved that the king of Ethiopia lent his
bow in return for the prefents brought to him by the
ambaffadors of Cambyfes. The only man m the Fer-
fian army who could bend this bow was bmerdis the
king’s brother 5 and this inftance of his perfonal ftrengtb
-fo alarmed the tyrant, that, without any crime alleged,
he caufed him to be murdered. 1 his gave occanon to
one Smerdis, a magian, who greatly refembled he
other Smerdis in looks, toaffume the name of the de-
ceafed prince, and to raife a rebellion againft Cam bytes,
who was generally hated for his cruelty j and this he
could the more eafily do, as the chief management of
affairs had been committed to this Smerdis during the
king’s abfence. Cambyfes, on receiving the news of
this revolt, immediately ordered his army to march, in
order to fupprefs it •, but as he was mounting his horft,
his fvvord, (lipping out .of its fcabbard, wounded him m
the thigh. On this accident, he alked the name of the
city where he was 5 and being told that it was Ecbatan,
he faid in the prefence of all his attendants, “Fate has
decreed that Cambyfes the fon of Cyrus (hall die m this
nlac'* ” For, having eonfulted the oracle of Butus,
which was very famous in that country, he was told
that he (hould die at Ecbatan. This he had always un-
derftood of Ecbatan in Media, and had therefore relol-
ved to avoid it. Being now, however, convinced that
his end approached, he affembledthe chief Perfian lords
who ferved in the army, and having told them that his
brother was certainly dead, he exhorted them never to
fubmit to the impoftor, or fuffer the fovereignty
again to paff from the Perfians to the Medes^to which
nation Smerdis belonged, but to ufe their utrooft
endeavours to place one of their own blood on the
As the king’s wound mortified, he lived but a few
davs after this ; but the affembly fuppofing that he had
fprEen onlv out of hatred to his brother, quietly (ub-
mitted to the impoftor, who was thus for a time efta-
blifted on the throne. Indeed, from his eondiuft during
the (hort time which he enjoyed the kingdom, he ap¬
pears to have been not at all undeferving of a crown.
Ele began with granting to all hisfubjefts an exemption
his inipofture. He had married all his predeceffor's
among whom was one Phedyma, the daughter
Peifia,
iieign 01 ijlc uexa.11 ^ o . r . 1 j
Smerdis the frnTT1 {axes and military fervice for three years, and
ma^ian. treated all of them in the moft beneficent manner, lo
f cure himfelf on the throne the more effeaually, he
matried Atoffa the daughter of Cyrus *, thinking, that
in cafe of a difeovery lie might hold the empire bv her
t'lth She had before been married to her brother Cam-
bvfe’s on a decifion of the magi that a king of Perfia
mmht do as he pleafed ; and by virtue of this decifion
Srn rdis alfo married her as her brother. I he extreme
•caution of Smerdis, however, promoted the difeovery of
^ Otane7a Perfian nobleman of the firft rank. Oianes, ^ .'1
who fufpected that the king was not Smerdis the fon offture ^
Cyrus, lent a trufty meffenger to liis daughter, defiring vered.
to know whether he was fo or not ^ but Phedyma, hav¬
ing- never feen thi^ Stnerdis, could not give any anfwer.
Her father then detired her to inquire at Atoffa, who
could not but know her own brother. However, ht
was again difappointed ; for Phedyma acquainted him
that all the king’s wives were lodged in diitinft and le-
parate apartments, without being allowed to fee eacn
other. This greatly increafed the fufpicions of Otanes ;
upon which he fent his daughter a third meffage, defir¬
ing her, the next time (he (hould be admitted to the
king’s bed, to take an opportunity of feeling whe¬
ther’ he had ears or not : for Cyrus had formerly eaufed
the ears of Smerdis the magian to be cut off for fome
crime of which he had been guilty ; fo that, if tne king
had ears, (lie might then be affured that he was Smerdis
the fon of Cyrus. The event (bowed that the fufpicions
of Otanes were juft j and Phedyma having acquainted
her father that the king had no ears, a confpiraey was i8
immediately formed againft him. While the confpira-^ confp;.
tors were debating about the proper means of carrying racy formed
their defigns into execution, Darius the fon of Hyftafp'esagamft
happening to arrive at Sufa where his father was gover- ml*
nor, they all agreed to make him privy to their defign.
He told them, at their firft meeting, that he thought
nobody in the empire but himfelf had known that Smer¬
dis the fon of Cyrus was dead, and the throne ufurped
by one of the magi *, that he had come with a defign to
kill the ufurper, without imparting his defign to any¬
one, that the glory of fuch an action might be entirely
his own. But (ince others were apprifed of the impof-
ture, he infifted that the ufurper (hquld be difpatched
without delay. Otanes, on the other hand, was for put¬
ting off the enterprife till fome better opportunity offer¬
ed j but Darius protefted, that if they did not make the
attempt that very day, he would prevent any one from
accufing him, by difclofing the whole matter to the im¬
poftor himfelf.
In the mean time, Smerdis and his brother had by
great promifes prevailed on Prenafpes (the executioner
of the true Smerdis) to bind himfelf by an oath not to
difeover the fraud they had put on the Perfians, and
even to make a public fpeech, declaring that the pre-
fent king of Perfia was really the fon of Cyrus. At the
time appointed, he began his diicourfe with the genea¬
logy of Cyrus, putting his hearers in mind of the great
favours the nation had received from that prince. Af¬
ter having extolled Cyrus and his family, to the great
aftonlfhment of all prefent, he confeffed the whole tranf-
a£lion with regard to the death of Smerdis } telling the
people, that the apprehenfions of the danger he muft in¬
evitably run by publifhing the impofture had conftrain-
ed him to conceal it fo long •, but now', not being able
any longer to a£t fuch a dHhonourable part, he acknow¬
ledged that he had been compelled by Cambyfes to put
his brother to death with his own hand, and that tue
perfon who poffeffed the throne was Smerdis the ma¬
gian. He then begged pardon of the gods and men
for the crime he had committed } and fulminating many
imprecations againft the Perlians if they failed to reco-
PER
Ferfia. ver the fovereignty, he threw himfelf headlong from the
-v ' top of the tower on which he flood, and died on the
19 fpot.
Heiskil- In the mean time the confpirators, who were advan-
k“* cing towards the palace, were informed of what had
happened} and Otanes was again for deferring the exe¬
cution of their enterprife : but Darius infilling upon the
danger of delay, they proceeded boldly to the palace ;
and being admitted by the guards, who did not fufpeft
them, they killed both the ufurper and his brother j af¬
ter which they expofed their heads to the people, and
declared the whole impofture. The Perfians at this
were fo enraged, that they fell on the whole feft, and
killed every one of the magi they could meet with; and
had not the daughter been Hopped by night, not one of
the order would have been left alive. The day on
which this fiaughter happened was afterwards celebrated
by the Perfians with the greateft folemnity, and called
by the name of Magophonia, or the Jlaughter of the
Magi. On that fellival the magi durft not appear
abroad, but were obliged to Ihut themfelves up in
their houfes. Smerdis the magian reigned only eight
months.
When the tumult was a little fubfided, the confpira¬
tors, who were feven in number, met together in order
to ele£l a new king, or to determine what form of go¬
vernment they Ihould next introduce. Otanes was for a
republic ; but being overruled by the reft, he declared,
that as he was determined not to be a king, neither
would he be ruled by one ; and therefore infifted that
he and his family ftiould ever afterwards remain free
from fubjeflion to the royal power. This was not only
granted, but it was further agreed by the other fix, that
whoever was chofen (hould every year prefent Otanes
with a Median veft, a mark of great diftin61ion among
the Perfians, becaufe he had been the chief author of
the enterprife. They further agreed to meet at a cer-
20 tain place next mprning at funrife on horfeback, and
Darius Hy- he vrhofe horfe firft neighed ftiould be king. This
ftafpescho- being overheard by Oebores, who had the care of Da-
fen king, rius’s horfes, he led a mare over-night to the place, and
brought his mafter’s horfe to her. The next morning,
the horfe remembering the place, immediately neighed
for the mare j and the five lords difmounting, fainted
Darius as their king.
Darius Hyftafpes was defied king of Perfia in the
year 522 B. C. Immediately after his acceflion, he pro¬
moted the other fix confpirators to the firft employments
in the kingdom, married the two daughters of Cyrus,
Atofla and Artyftona, Parmys the daughter of the true
Smerdis, and Phedyma the daughter of Otanes, who
had detefled the impofture of the magian. He then di¬
vided the whole empire into 20 fatrapies or govern¬
ments, and appointed a governor over each divifion, or¬
dering them to pay him an annual tribute. The inhabi¬
tants of Colchis, with fome others, were enjoined only
to make annual prefents, and the Arabians to furnifh
every year fuch a quantity of frankincenfe as equalled
the weight of 1000 talents. Thus Darius received the
yearly tribute of 14, $60 Euboeic talents, upwards of
260,000 pounds fieriing.
Under Darius, the building of the temple of Jerufa-
lem, which had been obftrufled bv Cambyfes and Smer¬
dis, went on fuccefsfully, and the Jewifh ftate was en¬
tirely reftored. The moft remarkable of Darius’s other-
PER
tranfaflions were his expeditions againft Babylon ; Perfia.
againft Scythia, India, and Greece. The expedition —■"■'v——
againft Babylon took place in the year 517 B. C. whenRevolt Qf
the people, unable to bear the oppreflion of the Perfians, the Baby-
and like wife difcontented becauie the leat of government lomans.
was removed from their city to Sufa in Perfia, took the
opportunity of the troubles which happened in the reigns
of Cambyfes and Smtrdis, to ftore their city with all
kinds of provifions fufficient to ferve them for many
years ; after which they broke out into an open rebel¬
lion, and this quickly brought upon them Darius with
all his forces. The Babylonians perceiving themfelves
{hut up by fo numerous an army, turned all their
thoughts towards the fupporting of a long fiege, which
they imagined would tire out the king’s troops. To
prevent the confumption of their provifions, they took
the moft barbarous and cruel refolution that ever was
put in execution by any nation. They agreed among
themfelves to get rid of all unneceffary mouths y and
therefore, gathering together all the old men, women,
and children, they ftrangled them without diftindlion ;
every one being allowed only to keep the wife he liked
beft, and a maid-fervant to do the work of the houfe.
The fiege continued for a year and eight months ; nor
was there any likelihood of its being ended, when Zo-
pyrus, one of Darius’s chief commanders, put him in
pofleflion of it by the following llratagem. He cut off
his nofe and ears, and having mangled his body with
ftripes in a moft cruel manner, he fled to the Babylo¬
nians thus disfigured, pretending that he had been fo
treated by Darius for advifing him to raife the fiege.
Being intruded with the command of fome forces, he
cut off feveral parties of the Perfianarmy, whom Darius
thus facrificed in order to raife the character of Zopyrus
the higher among the Babylonians. In this manner he
fo much eftablilhed his credit, that at laft he vTas made
commander in chief of all the Babylonifh forces, and the
guard of the city committed entirely to his care ; and no
fooner vras this done than he delivered it up to Darius,
who, to prevent their rebelling a fecond timevbeat down
the walls of that metropolis to the height of 50 cubits.
Three thoufand of the moft a&ive in the rebellion were
impaled ; the reft pardoned. As they had deftroyed
moft of their women, the neighbouring nations were
commanded to furnifh them with wives, and 50,000
women were fent to that city, by which means it was
prevented from being depopulated. Zopyrus w'as re¬
warded with the higheft honours-, and had the whole re¬
venues of Babylon bellowed on him for life.
After the reduftion of Babylon, Darius undertook aHisuiifucr-
Scythian expedition, diredled againft thofe nations whichcelsfui ex¬
lie between the Danube and the Tanais. His pretextpedition
for this war was, to revenge the calamities which thefejjp1'^
nations had brought upon Afia about 120 years before,
when they invaded and fubducd Media ; keeping it in
fubjeftion for the fpace of 28 years, as we have related
under that article. In this expedition he was attended
with an army of 700,000 men. With thefe he marched
to the Thracian Bofphorus ; which having paffed on a
bridge of boats, he reduced all Thrace. From Thrace
he advanced to the Danube, where he had appointed his
fleet to meet him. This river he paffed on another bridge
of boats, and entered Scythia. His enemies, however,
were too wife to oppofe fuch a formidable power in the
open field ; and therefore retired before him, wafting
* x the
[ 151 1
it'fm
PER , C .15
tlie country as they went along, till at laft the king,
’ fenfible of the danger he was in, refolved to give over
the enterprife and return home. In order to do fo with
fafety, he lighted a great number of fires in the night¬
time, and decamped j leaving behind him the old men
and the tick, who fell into the hands of their enemies.
The Scythians perceiving that Darius was gone, detach¬
ed a confiderable body to the bridge over the Danube 5
and as they were well acquainted with the roads, they
cot thither before the Perfians. The Scythians had
fent expreffes before-hand to perfuade the lomans, whom
Darius had left to guard the bridge, to break it down
and retire to their own country ; and this they preded
the more earneftly, that as the time prefcribed by Da¬
rius was now expired, they were at liberty to return
home, without breaking their word or being wanting in
their duty. Miltiades, prince of the Cherfoneius ot
Thrace, was for embracing fo favourable an opportunity
of cutting off Darius’s retreat, and (baking off the Per-
(ian yoke at once : all the other commanders, agreed
Avith him, except Hydiseus prince of Miletus ; who re-
prefented to the Ionian chiefs, that their power was con-
nefted with that of Darius, fince it was under his pro¬
tection that each of them Avas lord in his oavh city; and
that the cities of Ionia would not fail to depofethem and
recover their liberty, if the Perfian power (hould fink or
decline. This fpeech made a deep impreffion on the
reft, and it Avas at laft determined that they (hould Avait
for Darius ; and in order to deceive the Scythians, they
be^an to break down the bridge, but advifed them to
return back and defeat Darius. They did fo, but mined
him ; and he having thus fafely efcaped fo great a dan¬
ger, immediately repaflfed the Bofphorus, and took up
his winter quarters at Sardis, leaving Megabyzus, one
of his chief generals, to complete the conqueft of
r p hrace.
ne Lu,.- The king having fufficiently refreftied his troops Avho
quers India, bad fuffered extremely in the Scythian expedition, be¬
gan to think of extending his dominions eaftward ; and
in order to facilitate his defign, refolved in the firft place
to difcover thofe countries. With this view, he caufed
a fleet to be built and equipped at Cafpatyrus, a city on
the river Indus. The command of this fleet he gave to
one Scylax, a Grecian of Caryandia, a city of Caria, who
Avas Avell verfed in maritime affairs. Him he ordered to
fail down the current, and make the beft difcoveries he
could of the countries lying on either fide of the river,
till he arrived at the fouthern ocean •, from Avhence he
was to (leer his courfe weft ward, and that way return
to Perfia. Scylax, having exaftly obferved his inftruc-
tions, and failed down the river Indus, entered the Red
fea by the (traits of Babelmandel, and on the thirtieth
month from his firlt fetting out, landed at the fame
place from whence Nechu king of Egypt formerly fent
out the Phoenicians who circumnavigated Africa. From
hence Scylax returned to Sufa, where he gave a full ac¬
count of his difcoveries •, upon which Darius, marching
into India at the head of a powerful army, reduced that
laroe country, and made it a province of the Perfian
empire, drawing from thence an annual tribute of 360
2.4 talents of gold. * a r A’
Revolt of Soon after the expedition of Danus againft India
the lonians, happened the revolt of the lonians, which gave occafioii
to his expedition into Greece ^ an account of which is
oiven under the articles Attica, Greece, Sparta,
l *
Perfia.
23
He con-
25
2 ] PER
See. The ill fuccefs Avhich attended him here, how¬
ever, was fo far from making him drop the enterprife,
that it only made him the more intent on reducing thu
Grecians ^ and he refolved to head his aimy in penon,
having attributed his former bad fuccefs to the inexpe¬
rience of his generals. But while he was employed in
making the neceffary preparations for this purpofe, he
received intelligence that the Egyptians had revolted,
fo that he was obliged to make prepaiations for redu¬
cing them alfo j and before this could be done, the king
died, after having reigned 36 years, leaving the throne
to his fon Xerxes. _ -j
This prince afeended the throne of Perfia in the year Expedition!
485 B. C. ; and his firft enterprife was to reduce the ^ Xerxes
Egyptians ; which he effeaually did, bringing them in-gga“t and
to a worfe (late of (lavery than they ever had experien- Greece,
ced before. , After this he refolved on an expedition
into Greece ; the unfortunate event of which is rdated
under the article Attica. By his misfortunes in the
Grecian expedition, he became at laft fo difpirited, that
he thenceforth abandoned all thoughts of Avar and con-
quefts4 but growing tyrannical, and opprefling his fub-
jedts, he was murdered in his bed, in the year 464 B. C.
and 2ift of his reign ; and was fucceeded by his third 2(J
fon Artaxerxes, furnamed Longimanus on account of Xerxes fuc.
the great length of his arms. > ceeded by
This prince is named Ahafuerus in Scripture, and is£rtaxm«
the fame who married Either, and during the whole of^8
his reign (bowed the greateft kmdnefs to the Jewiftr na¬
tion. In the beginning of his reign he Avas oppofed by
Hyftafpes the fecond fon of Xerxes, Avhom, however, he
Qy£|.(-;jijn(ig though not A\7itbout confideiable difficulty.
After this he applied himfelf to the fettlement of the af¬
fairs of government, and reforming many abufes which
had crept in j and then, being fully eftabliftied on the
throne, he appointed feafts and rejoicings to be made
for 180 days in the city of Sufa •, at one of which he
refolved to divorce his queen for difobedience j and af¬
terwards married Either, as avc find it recorded in the
facred writings.
In the fifth year of the reign of Artaxerxes the Egyp¬
tians revolted anew, and, being aflifted by the Athenians,
held out for fix years*, but were again obliged to fiibmit,
and continued in fubje&ion during the whole of his reign.
Nothing elfe remarkable happened during the life of
Artaxerxes Longimanus, who died in the qLt ycai of
his reign 5 and was fucceeded by Xerxes II. the only Xerxes If
fon he had by his queen, though by his concubines he
had 1 7. Xerxes having drunk immoderately at an en¬
tertainment immediately after his accefiion, retired to a
chamber in order to refrefh himfelf with (leep } but heie
he Avas murdered by Sogdianus, the fon of Artaxerxes
by one of his concubines, after he had reigned 45 days.
Sogdianus was fcarce feated on the throne when hegogdiaiu^
put to death Bagorazus, the mod faithful of all his fa¬
ther’s eunuchs ; by Avhich, and the murder of his fove-
reign, he became generally odious. Upon this, fenfible
of the dangerous fituation in Avhich he was, he fent for
one of his brothers named 0chits, whom he fufpected,
Avith a defign to murder him the moment ne anAed. ^
Ochus, however, underftanding his defign, put off, byQchus.
fe\7eral pretences, his coming, till he had drawTn together
a poAverful army, with xvhich he advanced to the con¬
fines of Perfia. Here he openly declared, that his defign
Avas to revenge his brother’s death 3 Avhich brought ox7er
PER
Perfta.
to him many of the nobility and governors of provinces,
by whom he was immediately proclaimed king. Sog-
dianus, feeing himfelf thus deferted, contrary to the ad¬
vice of all his friends, came to an accommodation with
Ochus ; who no fooner had him in his power than he
caufed him to be fuffocated among allies 5 a punilhment
invented on purpofe for him.
Ochus being firmly fettled on the throne by the death
of Sogdianus, changed his name to Darius j and is by
hiftorians commonly called Darius Nothus, or The Baf-
tard. But Arfites, another of the brothers, feeing in
what manner Sogdianus had got the better of Xerxes,
and been afterwards driven out by Ochus, began to en¬
tertain thoughts of treating him in the fame manner.
He was not, however, fo fuccefsful j for, being defeated
in an engagement, he furrendered himfelf in hopes of
mercy, but was immediately put to death by fuffocation
in allies. Several other perfons were executed •, but
thefe feverities did not procure him the repofe which he
expe&ed; for his whole reign was difturbed with violent
commotions in various parts of the empire. One of the
motf\dangerous was raifed by Pifuthna, governor of
Lydia •, but he being deferted by his Greek mercenaries,
Was at laft overcome, and put to death : however, his fon
Amorgas continued to infeft the maritime provinces of
Alia Minor for two years ; till he alfo was taken pri-
foner by Tiflaphernes, the new governor of Lydia, who
put him to death. Other infurreflions quickly followed
this; but the greateft misfortune' which befel Darius
during the whole courfe of his reign was the revolt of
the Egyptians, who could not be reduced. Before his
death he inverted Cyrus his youngert fon with the fu-
preme government of all the provinces of Alia Minor.
This was done through the perfuafions of his mother
Paryfatis, who had an abfolute fway over her hulband 5
and flie procured this command for him, that he might
thereby be enabled to contend for the kingdom after
his father’s death. She even infilled that the king Ihould
declare him heir to the crown before he died; but this
he could not by any means be induced to do. He died
[ne*^*68 ^Car an{^ was fucceeded by his fon Ar-
nemoB. taxerxes, by the Greeks furnamed Mnemon on account
of his extraordinary memory.
The moll remarkable tranfattion which happened dur¬
ing the reign of this prince was the revolt of his brother
Cyrus. This young prince had been raifed to fo great
power through the interert of his mother, on purpofe
that he might revolt, as we have already feen. He be¬
gan with gaining over the cities under the government
of Tiflaphernes } which quickly produced a war with
that governor. Cyrus then began to aflemble troops,
which he pretended were defigned only againft Tilfar
phernes. As he had given great afliftance to the Lace¬
daemonians in their wars againft the Athenians, he now
in return demanded aftiftance from them; which requeft
they very readily complied witli, ordering their fleet im¬
mediately to join him, and to obey in every thing the
commands of Tamos his admiral. At laft Cyrus, having
collected an army of 13,000 Greek mercenaries and
100,000 regular troops of other nations, fet out from
Sardis, direfling his march towards Upper Afia ; the
army being entirely ignorant of the expedition on which
they were going. When they arrived at Tarfus, the
Greeks, fufpefting that they were marching againft the
king refined to proceed any further; but Cyrus having-
Vol. XVI. Part I. 6
30
3»
evolt of
yrus the
ounger.
[ 153 ] PER
gained them over with prefents and promifes, they foon Perfia..
went on with fatisfaflion. Having arrived at Cunaxa v/_~“
in the province of Babylon, Cyrus found his brother Battfe2of
with 900,000 men ready to engage him. Whereupon, Cunax^
leaping out of his chariot, he commanded his troops to
Hand to their arms and fall into their ranks; which was
done with great expedition, no time being allowed the
foldiers to refrelh themfelves. Clearchus, the commander
of the Peloponnefian troops, advifed Cyrus not to charge
in perfon, but to remain in the rear of the Greek batta¬
lions; but this advice he rejefled with indignation, fay¬
ing, that he Ihould thus render himfelf unworthy of the
crown for which he was fighting. As the king’s army
drew near, the Greeks fell upon them with fueh a fury,
that they routed the wing oppofite to them almoft at the
firft onfet ; upon which Cyrus was with loud ftiouts
proclaimed king by thofe who flood next to him. But
he, in the mean time, perceiving that Artaxerxes was
wheeling about to attack him in flank, advanced againft
him with 600 chofen horfe, killed Artagefes captain of
the king’s guards with his own hand, and put the whole
body to flight. In this encounter, difcovering his bro- *
ther, he fpurred on his horle, and, coming .up to him,
engage(l him with great fury ; which in fome degree
turned the battle into a Angle combat. Cyrus killed his
brother’s horfe, and wounded him on the ground ; but
he immediately mounted another horfe, when Cyrus at¬
tacked him again, gave hiniafecond wound, and had
already lifted up his hand to give him a third, when the
guards, perceiving the danger in which their king was,
difcharged their arrows at once againft his antagonift,
who at the fame time throwing himfelf headlong upon
his brother, was pierced through by his javelin. He
fell dead upon the fpot ; and all the chief lords of his
court, refolving not to furvive him, were flam in the
fame place.
In the mean time, the Greeks having defeated the
enemy’s left wing commanded by Tiflaphernes, and the
king’s right wing having put to flight Cyrus’s left, both
parties, being ignorant of what had parted eftewhere,
imagined that they had gained the viftory. But Tifla¬
phernes acquainting the king that his men had been put
to flight by the Greeks, he immediately rallied his
troops, in order to attack them. The Greeks, under
the command of Clearchus, eafily repulfed them, and
purfued them to. the foot of the neighbouring hills. As
night was drawing near, they halted at the foot of the
hill, much furprifed that neither Cyrus himfelf, nor
any meflenger from him, had appeared ; for as yet they
knew nothing of his death nor the defeat of the reft of
the army. They determined therefore to return to their
camp, which they did accordingly; but found there that
the greateft part of their baggage had been plundered,
and all their provifions taken, which obliged them to
pafs the night in the camp without any fort of refrefti-
ment. The next morning, as they were ftill expedling
to hear from Cyrus, they received the news of his death,
and the defeat of that part of the army. Whereupon
they fent deputies to Ariaeus, who was commander in
chief of all the other forces of Cyrus, offering him, as
conquerors, the crown of Perfia. Arimus rejected the
offer, and acquainting them that he intended to fet outR 33
early in the morning on his return to Ionia, adviftdter^thou-^
them to join him in the night. They followed his ad-fand
vice, and, under the condmft of Clearcbus, began their Greeks.
C march,
f’erfia.
PER [ 154 ] .
march, arriving at his camp about midnight "hence mander, into
1 e* .1 • l    c>c'P* I npv were
PER
Perfia.
34.
War with
the Lace¬
daemonians.
they fet out on their return to Greece. T hey were
at a vaft diftance from their own country, m the very
heart of the Perfaan empire, furrounded by a viftorious
and numerous army, and had no means o retrta
but Uv forcing their way through an immenfe tratt
of the enemy’s country. But their valour and reso¬
lution maftered all thefe difficulties | and in fpite of a
powerful army, which purfued and haraffed them all
the way, they made good their retreat for 2325 miles
through the provinces belonging to the enemy, and
got fafe to the Greek cities on the Eux.ne ea. ihis
retreat fthe longeft that was ever made through an
enemyWintry) was condufted at firft by CleJr^ ’
but he being cut off through the treachery of ifla-
phernes, Xenophon was chofen m his room who at
laft brought his men fafe into Greece : but for » fu
account of that famous retreat, fee the article XENO-
PHThe war with Cyrus was fcarcely ended, when ano¬
ther broke out with the Lacedaemonians, on the follow¬
ing account. Tiffaphernes being appointed to fucceed
Cyrus in all his power, to which was added all which
he himfelf poffeffed formerly, began to opprels the
Greek cities in Afia in a moft cruel manner. On this
they fent ambaffadors to Sparta, defmng the affiftance
of that powerful republic. The Spartans Having em -
ed their long war with the Athenians, willingly laid
hold of the prefent opportunity of breaking again wi
the Perfians, and therefore fent agamft them an army
under the command of Thimbro, who, being ftrength-
ened by the forces which returned ^nder Xenk°lTn’
took the field again ft Tiffaphernes. But Thimbro be¬
ing foon recalled upon fome complaints, Dercyllidas,
a brave officer and experienced engineer, was appoint¬
ed to fucceed him •, and he carried on the war to much
more advantage than his predeceffor. On his arrival
in Afia, finding that Tiffaphernes was at variance with
another governor named Pharnabaxus, he concluded a
truce with the former, and marching agamft Pharna-
bazus, drove him quite out of iEolis, and took fcveral
cities in other parts. The latter, however imme¬
diately repaired to the Perfian court, where he made
loud complaints againft Tiffaphernes, but gave the
king a moft falutary advice, which was to equip a
powerful fleet, and give the command of it to Conon
the Athenian, the beft fea officer of his time, by which
means he would obftrua the paffage of further recruits
from Greece *, and thus foon put an end to the^ power
of the Lacedaemonians in Afia. This advice being ap¬
proved of, the king ordered 500 talents for the equip¬
ment of a fleet, with direaions to give Conon the com-
main the mean time, Dercyllidas, with all his valour
and fkill, fuffered himfelf to be drawn into fuch a dii-
advantageous fituation, that he muft inevitably have
been deftroyed with his whole army, had it not been
through the cowardice of Tiffaphernes who having
experienced the Grecian valour at the battle of Cu-
naxa, could not by any means be induced to attack
them. The Lacedaemonians, however, having heard
that the Perfian monarch was fitting out a great fleet
that tne reman o 0 . r
againft them, refolved to puffi on the war as vigorouf-
]y as poffible *, and for this purpofe fent over Agefi-
laus one of their kings, and a moft experienced com
manaer, into Afia. This expedition was carried on
with fuch fecrecy, that Agefilaus arrived at Lpheius
before the Perfians had the leaft notice of his defigns.
Here he took the field with 10,000 foot and 4000
horfe, and falling upon the enemy while they were to¬
tally unprepared, carried every thing before him. I if-
faphernes deceived him into a truce till he had leilure
to affemble his forces, but gained little by his treach¬
ery 5 for Agefilaus deceived him in his turn, and while
Tiffaphernes. marched his troops into Caria, the Greeks
invaded and plundered Phrygia.
Early in the fpring, Agefilaus gave out that his de-
fign was to invade Lydia-, but liffaphernes, who re¬
membered the laft year’s ftratagem, now taking it for
granted that Agefilaus would really invade Cana,
made his troops again march to the defence of that
province. But Agefilaus now led his army into Ly¬
dia as he had given out, and approached Sardis j upon
which Tiffaphernes recalled his forces from their for¬
mer route, with a defign to relieve the place. But Ca¬
ria being a very mountainous country, and unfit for
horfe, he had marched thither only with the foot,, and
left the horfe behind on the borders of that province.
Whence, on their marching back to the relief of Sar¬
dis the horfe being fome days march before the foot,
Agefilaus took the advantage of fo favourable an op¬
portunity, and fell upon them before the foot could
come to their affiftance. The Perfians were routed at
the very firft onfet •, after which Agefilaus overran the
whole country, enriching both himfelf and his army
with the fpoils of the conquered Perfians.
By this continued ill fortune Artaxerxes wTas fo much
provoked againft Tiffaphernes, that he foon after caufed
him to be put to death.
On the death of Tiffaphernes, 1 ithrauftes, who was
appointed to fucceed him, fent large prefents to Age¬
filaus, in hopes of perfuading him to abandon his con-
quefts -, but finding that commander was not by any
means to be induced to relinquifti the war, he lent li-
mocrates of Rhodes into Greece, with large lums of
money to corrupt the leading men in the cities, and re-
kindle a war againft the Lacedaemonians, ihis itrata-Agefilaus
produced the intended efTeft ; for the clt.es ofobM®
Thebes, Argos, Corinth, and others, entering into a leave A
confederacy, obliged them to recal Agefilaus to the de¬
fence of his own country. 3s
After the departure of Agefilaus, which happened Lacedaemo-
in the year 354 B. C. the Lacedaemonian power re-^de¬
ceived a fevere blow at Cnidos, where their fleet was
entirely defeated by that of Artaxerxes under Conon,
co of their (hips being taken in the engagement 5 after
which, Conon and Pharnabazus being mailers of the
fea, failed round the iflands and coafts of Afia, taking
the cities there which had been reduced by the Lace¬
daemonians. Seftos and Abydos only held out, arAre¬
fitted the utmoft efforts of the enemy, though they had
been befieged both by fea and land.
Next year Conon having affembled a powerful fleet,
again took Pharnabazus on board, and reduced the
ifland of Melos, from whence he made a defcent on
the coafts of Lvcaonia, pillaging all the. maritime pro- .
vinces, and loading his fleet with an immenfe booty.
After this, Conon obtained leave of him to repair to
Athens with 80 Ihips and 30 talents, in order to re¬
build the walls of that city j having firft convinced
P hsirncib&xvis^
Perfia.
Are oblr-
ged to
make peace
with the
Perfians.
Cyprus re¬
duced.
PER
Pharnabazus, that nothing could more effe&ually con¬
tribute to the weakening of the power of Sparta than
putting Athens again in a condition to rival its power.
He no fooner arrived at Piraeus the port of Athens, but
he began to work ; which, as he had a great number of
hands, and was feconded by the zeal of all thofe that
were well inclined to the Athenians, was foon complet¬
ed, and the city not only reftored to its former fplendour,
but rendered more formidable than ever. The Lacedae¬
monians were now reduced to the neeeility of accepting
fuch terms of peace as they could procure. The terms
were, that all the Greek cities in Afia flrould be fubjedl
to the king of Perfia, as alfo the iflands of Cyprus and
Clazomena j that the iflands of Scyros, Lemnos, and
Imbros, fhould be reftored to the Athenians, and all the
cities of Greece, whether finall or great, fhould be de¬
clared free j and by the fame treaty, Artaxerxes en¬
gaged to join thofe who accepted the terms he propofed,
and to aflift them to the utmoft of his power againft fuch
as fhould rejeft them.
Artaxerxes, being now difengaged from the Grecian
war, turned his arms againft Evagoras king of Cyprus.
This man was defcended from the ancient kings of Sa-
latnine the capital city of the ifland of Cyprus. His
anceftors had held that city for many ages in quality of
fovereigns ; but were at laft driven out by the Perfians,
who, making themfelves mailers of the whole ifland, re¬
duced it to a Perfian province. Evagoras, however, be¬
ing a man of an enterprifing genius, foon became weary
of living in fubje&ion to a foreign power, drove out the
Perfian governor, and recovered his paternal kingdom.
Artaxerxes attempted to drive him out of it; but, be¬
ing diverted by the Greek war, was obliged to put off
the enterprize. However, Conon, by means of Ctefias
chief phyfician to Artaxerxes, got all differences accom¬
modated, and Artaxerxes promifed not to moleft him
in the poffeflion of his fmall kingdom. But Evagoras
foon becoming difcontented with fuch a narrow poffef-
fion, gradually reduced under his fubjeflion almoft the
whole of the ifland. Some, however, there were, who
held out againft him, and thefe immediately applied to
Artaxerxes for afliftance ; and he, as foon as the war
with Greece was at an end, bent all his force againft
Evagoras, intending to drive him quite out of the ifland.
The Athenians, however, notwithftanding the favours
lately conferred upon them by the king of Perfia,
could not forbear aflifting their old ally in fuch a dread¬
ful emergency. Accordingly, they fent him ten men
of war under the command of Philocrates ; but the
Lacedaemonian fleet, commanded by Talentias brother
to Agefilaus, falling in with them near the ifle of
Rhodes, furrounded them, fo that not one {hip could
efcape. The Athenians, determined to aflift Evago¬
ras at all events, fent Chabrias with another fleet and
a confiderable body of land forces j and with the af¬
liftance of thefe he quickly reduced the whole ifland.
But in a fhort time, the Athenians being obliged, in
confequence of the treaty concluded with the Perfians,
to recal Chabrias, Artaxerxes attacked the ifland with
an army of 300,000 men, and a fleet of 300 fhips.
Evagoras applied to the Egyptians, Libyans, Arabians,
Tyrians, and other nations, from whom he received
fupplies both of men and money ; and fitted out a fleet,
with which he ventured an engagement with that of
Artaxerxes. But being defeated, and obliged to fhut
PER '
himfelf up in Salamine, he was clofely befieged by fea Perfa,
and land. Here at laft he was obliged to capitulate, and v " ~
abandon to the Perlians the whole of the ifland except Sa¬
lamine, which he held as a king tributary to Artaxerxes.
The Cyprian Avar being ended, Artaxerxes turned
his arms againft the Cadufians, whofe country lay be- ^
tAveen the Euxine and Cafpian feas. But thefe nations Unfuceefs-
Avere too well accuftomed to Avar to be overcome by the ful expe-
Perfians j and therefore the king was obliged to aban- ^
don the proje£t, after having loft a great number of his L;adufians
troops and all the horfes which he took out Avith him. and Egyp-
In his Egyptian expedition, which happened immedi-tmis.
ately after the Cadulian war, he was attended Avith little
better fuccefs ; Avhich, however, was owing to the bad
condudl of his general Pharnabazus. This commander
being entrufted Arith the management of the Egyptian
war, fent an ambaffador to Athens, complaining that
Chabrias had engaged in the fervice of an enemy of
the king of Perfia, with Avhom the ftate of Athens was
in alliance, and threatening the republic with lus ma-
fter’s refentment if proper fatisfaftion was not given :
at the fame time he demanded Iphicrates, another A-
thenian, and the belt general of his time, to command
the Greek mercenaries in the Perfian fervice. This the
Athenians complied Avith j and Iphicrates having mu-
ftered his troops, fo exercifed them in all the arts of
war, that they became aftenvards very famous among
the Greeks under the name of Iphicratejian foldiers.
Indeed he had fufficient time to inftrud them j for the
Perfians were fo flow in their preparations, that two
whole years elapfed before they Avere ready to take the
field. At the fame time Artaxerxes, that he might
draiv the more mercenaries out of Greece, fent ambalfa-
dors to the different ftates in it, declaring it to be his
will and pleafure that they fhould live at peace Avith
each other, on the terms of the treaty lately concluded :
which declaration was received Avith pleaiure by all the
ftates except Thebes, who afpired at the fovereignty of
Greece 5 and accordingly refufed to conform to it. All
things, hoAvever, at laft being ready for the expedition,
the troops were muftered at the city then called Ace,
and fince Ptolemais ; where they were found to confilt
of 200,000 Perfians under the command of Pharnaba¬
zus, and 20,000 Greeks led by Iphicrates. The fleet
confifted of 300 galleys, befides a vaft number of other
veflels which folloAved with provifions. The fleet and
army began to move at the fame time 5 and that they
might a£l in concert, they feparated as little as poflible.
It Avas propofed, that the war fhould begin with the
fiege of Pelufium 5 but Neftanebus, the revolted king
of Egypt, had provided fo well for the defence of the
place, that it was thought expedient to drop the enter¬
prize, and make a defcent at one of the mouths of the
Nile. In this they fucceeded : for the Egyptians not
expefling them at that place, had not taken fuch care
to fortify it as at Pelufium. The fortrefs of confequence
was eafily taken, and all the Egyptians in it put to the
fword. After this, Iphicrates was for embarking the
troops Avithout lofs of time, and attacking Memphis the
capital of Egypt. Had this opinion been followed be¬
fore the Egyptians recovered from the confternation in¬
to which they Avere throAvn, it is highly probable that
the Avhole country might have been reduced at once :
but Pharnabazus would undertake nothing before the
reft of the forces were come up. Iphicrates then, in
U a the
[ 15s 1
Verfia.
4°
Ochus fuc-
ceeds Ar-
-taxcrxes.
4*
Reduces
Egypt.
PER
the utmofl vexation at lofing fo favourable an oppor¬
tunity, preffed Pharnabazus to allow him to attack the
place with the Greek mercenaries only 5 but he refufcd
this alfo, from a mean jealoufy of the honour which
Iphicrates might acquire ; and in the mean time the
Egyptians recovered fufficient courage to put themlclves
in fuch a pofture of defence, that they could not be at¬
tacked with any probability of fuccefs j and at the fame
time, the Nile overflowing as ufual, obliged them to re.
turn to Phoenice. The expedition was again underta¬
ken I % years after, but without fuccefs.
The laft years of the reign of Artaxerxes were great¬
ly difturbed by diffenfions in his family ; which at lafl:
broke his heart, and he died in the 94th year of his
age, and 46th of his reign. He was fucceeded by one
of his fons named Ochus, who behaved with fuch cruel¬
ty, that almoft one half of his dominions revolted as
foon as he came to the throne. But, by reafon of the
diflenflons of the rebels among themfelves, all of them
were reduced, one after another j and among the reft,
the Sidonians, finding themfelves betrayed, burnt them¬
felves to the number of 40,000, together with their
wives and children. . ^
Ochus, having quelled all the infurgents, immedi¬
ately fet himfelf about reducing Egypt, and for this
purpofe procured a reinforcement of other 10,000 mer¬
cenaries from Greece. On his march, he loft a great
number of his men drowned in the lake Serbonis, which
lies between Phoenice and Egypt, extending about 30
miles in length. When the fouth wind blows, the
•whole furface of this lake is covered with fand, in fuch
a manner that no one can diftinguilh it from the firm-
land. Several parties of Ochus’s army were loft in it
for want of proper guides j and it is faid that whole
armies have fometimes perilhed in the fame place.
When he arrived in Egypt, he detached three bodies to
invade the country in different parts \ each being com¬
manded by a Perfian and a Greek general. The firft
was led by Lachares the Theban, and Rofaces governor
of Lydia and Ionia : the fecond by Nicoftratus the
Theban and Ariftazanes j the third by Mentor tlm
Rhodian and Bagoas an eunuch. The main body of
the army he kept with himfelf, and encamped near Pe-
lufium, with a defign to watch the events of the war
there. The event was fuccefsful, as we have related
under the article Egypt *, and Ochus having reduced
the whole country, difmantled their ftrongholds, plun¬
dered the temples, and returned to Babylon loaded with
booty.
The king, having ended this war with fuch fuccefs,
conferred very high rewards on his mercenaries and
others who had diftinguilhed themfelves. To Mentor
the Rhodian he gave too talents, and other prefents
to a great value •, appointing him alfo governor of all
the coafts of Alia, and committing to his care the
whole management of the war which he was ftill carry¬
ing on againft fome provinces that had revolted in the
beginning of his reign j and all thefe either by ftrata-
gems, or by force, he at laft reduced 5 reftoring the
king’s authority in all thefe places.—Ochus then, find¬
ing himfelf free from all troubles, gave his attention to
nothing but his pleafures, leaving the adminiftration
of affairs entirely to Bagoas the eunuch, and to Men¬
tor. Thefe two agreed to {hare the power between
them j in confequence of which the former had the pro-
P E R
vinces of Upper Afia, and the latter all the reft. Ba- Perfia.
goas, being by birth an Egyptian, had a -great zealv -J
for the religion of his country, and endeavoured, on
the conqueft of Egypt, to influence the king in fa¬
vour of the Egyptian ceremonies 5 but, in fpite of all
his endeavours, Ochus not only refufed to comply, but
killed the facred bull, the emblem of the Egyptian god
Apis, plundered the temples, and carried away their ^
faered records. This Bagoas fuppofed to be the higheft Ochus mur..
guilt which a human creature could commit •, and there- ‘*ere(l by
fore poifoned his mafter and benefadtor in the 21ft yearfca&oas*
of his reign. Nor did his revenge flop here ; for he
kept the king’s body, caufing another to be buried in
its Head ; and becaufe the king had caufed his attend¬
ants eat the flefti of Apis, Bagoas cut his body in pieces,
and gave it fo mangled to be devoured by cats, making
handles for fwords of his bones. He then placed Arfes
the youngeft of the deceafed king’s fons on the throne,
that he might the more eafily preferve the whole power
to himfelf.
Arfes did not long enjoy even the fhadow of porver
which Bagoas allowed him, being murdered in the
feeond year of his reign by that treacherous eunuch, ^
who now conferred the crown on Darius Codomannus, Darius Co-
a diftant relation of the royal family. Neither did he ^omannus.
incline to let him enjoy the crown much longer than
his predeceffor j for, finding that he would not fuffer
himfelf to be guided by him in all things, the trea¬
cherous Bagoas brought him a poifonous potion ; but
Darius got rid of him by his own artifice, caufing him
to drink the poifon which he brought. This eftablifli-
ed Darius in the throne as far as fecurity from internal
enemies could do fo ; but in a very little time his do¬
minions were invaded, and, we may fay, the fame mo- ^
ment conquered, by Alexander the Great. The partL Perfia con-
culars of that hero’s conqueft are related under the ar- q«ere(l by
tide Macedon \ we (hall therefore here only take ^lexa™^'
notice of the fate of Darius himfelf, with which the Per- 16
fian empire concluded for many ages. After the battle
of Arbela, which was decifive in favour of Alexander,
the latter took and plundered Perfepolis, from whence
he marched into Media, in order to purfue Darius, who
had fled to Ecbatan the capital of that province. This
unhappy prince had ftill an army of 30,000 foot, among
whom were 4000 Greeks, who continued faithful to
the laft. Befides thefe, he had 4000 (lingers and gooo
horfe, moft of them Ba&rians, and commanded by Bef-
fus governor of Badtria. When Darius heard that
^Alexander was marched to Eebatan, he retired into
Badlria, with a defign to raife another army ; but foon
after, changing his mind, he determined to venture a
battle with the forces he ftill had left. On this Beffus
governor of Badlria, and Nabarzanes a Perfian lord of
great diftindtion, formed a confpiracy againft him, pro-
pofing to feize his perfon, and, if Alexander purfued
them, to gain his friendlhip and protedlion by betraying
their mafter into his hands j but if they efcaped, their
defign was to murder him, and ufurp the crown. The
troops were eafily gained over, by reprefenting to them
the defperate fituation of Darius’s affairs •, but Darius
himfelf, though informed of their proceedings, and fo-
licited to truft his perfon among the Greeks, refufed to
give credit to the report, or follow fuch a falutary coun- par;^ fe;„
fel, The confequence of this was, that he wus in a few zed by his
days feized by the traitors) who, out of refpedt to the pwn fub*
royal je<^s»
[ 156 1
PER [i
• royal dignity, bound him with golden chains, and Ihut-
—' ting him up in a covered cart, fled with him towards
Badria. 'I he cart was covered with fldns, and ftrangers
appointed to drive it without knowing who the prifoner
was. Befllis was proclaimed commander in chief in the
room of Darius by the Baflrian horfe j but Artabazus
and his fons, with the forces they commanded, and the
Greeks, under the command of one Patron, retired from
the body of the army under Beflus, and marched over
the mountains towards Parthiene. In the mean time
Alexander arriving at Ecbatan, was informed that Da¬
rius had left the place live days before. He then dif-
patched orders to Clitus, who had fallen fick at Sufa, to
repair, as foon as he recovered, to Ecbatan, and from
thence to follorv him into Parthia with the cavalry and
6000 Macedonians, who were left in Ecbatan. Alex¬
ander himfelf with the reft of the army purfued Darius ;
and the 11th day arrived at Rhagcs, having marched in
that fpace of time 3300 furlongs. Moft of thofe who
accompanied him died through the fatigue of fo long
a march ; infomuch that, on his arrival at Rhages, he
could fcarcely mufter 60 horfemen. Finding that he
could not come up with Darius, who had already palled
the Cafpian ftraits, he ftaid five days at Rhages, in order
to refrefh his army and fettle the affairs of Media.
From thence he marched into Parthia, and encamped at
a fraall diftance from the Cafpian ftraits, which he
paffed the next day without oppofition. He had fcarce¬
ly entered Parthia, when he was informed that Beffus
and Nabarzanes had confpired againft Darius, and de-
figned to feize him. Hereupon, leaving the main body
of the army behind with Graterus, he advanced with a
fmall troop of horfe lightly armed ; and having march¬
ed day and night without ever halting, except for a few
hours,,he came on the third day to a village where Bef¬
fus with his Ba&rians had encamped the day before.
Here he underftood that Darius had been feized by the
traitors 5 that Beffus had caufed him to be fhut up in a
clofe cart, which he had fent before, that he might be
the more fure of his perfon ; and that the whole*’ army
except Artabazus and the Greeks, who had taken an¬
other route, obeyed Beffus. Alexander therefore taking
■with him a fmall body of light-armed horfe, for the
others could not poflibly proceed further, at laft came
in fight of the barbarians, who were marching in great
confufion. His unexpeded appearance ftruck them,
though far fuperior in number, with fuch terror, that
they immediately betook themfelves to flight ; and be-
caufe Darius refufed to follow them, Befl'us and thofe
who were about him difcharged their darts at the un¬
fortunate^ prince, leaving him wallowing in his blood.
After this they all fled different ways, and were purfued
with great flaughter by the Macedonians. In the mean
time the horfes that drew the cart in which Darius was,
ftopped of their own accord (for the drivers had been
killed by Beffus), near a village about four furlongs from
the highway. Thither Polyftratus a Macedonian, be¬
ing preffed with thirft in the purfuit of the enemy, was
dire&ed by the inhabitants to a fountain to refrelh him¬
felf, not far from the place where they ftopped. As he
was filling his helmet with water, he heard the groans
of a dying man ; and looking round him, difcovered a
cart with a team of horfes, unable to move by reafon of
the many wounds they had received. When he drew
57 ] PER
near, he perceived Darius lying in the cart, and-very IVril.,-
near his end, having feveral darts flicking in his body.
However, he had ftrength enough left to call for fome
water which Polyftratus readily brought him. Darius,-
aRer drinking, turned to the Macedonian, and with a
faint voice told him, that, in the deplorable ftate of
which he was reduced, it was no fmall comfort to him
that his laft words would not be loft : he then charged
him to return his hearty thanks to Alexander for the
kindnefs he had fliown to his wife and family, and to
acquaint him, that, with his laft breath, he befought the
gods to profper him in all his undertakings, and make
him lole monarch of the univerfe. He added, that it did
not lo much concern him as Alexander to purfue and
bring to condign punilhment thofe traitors who had
treated their lawful fovereign with fuch cruelty, that
being the common caufe of all crowned heads. *Then
taking Polyftratus by the hand, “ Give Alexander
your hand, fays he, as I give you mine, and carry him,
in my name, the only pledge I am able to give, in this
condition, of my gratitude and affe&ion.” Having ut¬
tered thefe words, he expired in the arms of Polyftratus.
Alexander coming up a few minutes after, bewailed his
eath, and caufed his body to be interred with the high- 47
e onours. . I he traitor Beffus being at laft reduced R*s mur-
to extreme difficulties, was delivered up by his own mendercrs Pur*"
naked and bound into the hands of the Macedonians j ^l,ed•
on which Alexander gave him up to Oxathres the
brother of Darius, to fuffer what punilhment he fliould
think proper. Plutarch tells us that he was executed
in the following manner : Several trees being by main
force bent down to the ground, and one of the traitor’s
imbs tied to each of them, the trees, as they were fuf-
fered to return to their natural pofition, flew back with
luch violence, that each carried ivitli it the limb that
was tied to it.
Thus ended the empire of Perfia, 209 years after itflevoftof
had been founded by Cyrus. After the death of A-thePar-
lexander the Perlian dominions became fubjedt to Se-*^115*
leucus Nicator, and continued fubjeft to him for 62
years, when the Parthians revolted, and conquered the
greateft part of them. To the Parthians they conti¬
nued fubjedf for 475 years ; when the fovereiguty was
again reltored to the Perfians, as related, under the ar¬
ticle Parthia.
I he reftorer of the Perfian monarchy was Arta-Perfian em-
xerxes, or Artaxares, who was not only a private per-P‘re a£ain
fon, but of fpurious birth. However, he poffeffedreftored by
great abilities, by which means he executed his ambi- ■^^rtaxerxcs•
tious projedls. He was no fooner feated on the throne
than he took the pompous title of king of kings, and
formed a defign of reftoring the empire to its ancient
glory. He therefore gave notice to the Roman gover-
nois of the provinces bordering on his dominions, that
he had a juft right, as the fucceffor of Cyrus, to all
the Leffer Alia 5 which he therefore commanded them
immediately to quit, as well as the provinces on the
pm X '    J-* ■* w * AJjlV'V'O KJXl L iJ
frontiers of the. ancient Parthian kingdom, which were
already his. I he confluence of this was a war with
Alexander Severus the Roman emperor. Concerning
the event of this war there are very different accounts.
It is certain, however, that on account of his exploits
againft Artaxares, Alexander took the titles of Par,
!/liens and Perjicus; though, it would feem, with no
great
P E U t ^
great reafon, as the Perfian monarch loft none of his do¬
minions, and his fucceffors were equally ready with him-
felf to invade the Roman territories.
Artaxares dying after a reign of i2 or 15 7eaJs»
was fucceeded by his fon Sapor *, a prince of great
abilities both of body and mind, but fierce, haughty,
Vatenan untraaable, and cruel. He was no fooner feated on
the Roman j he a new war with the Romans,
emperor tnemruncj _ , * • hpintr obliged.
Pevfla.
Perfia.
6°
Succeeded
by Sapor,
who takes
the throne than ne oegan a . ur ,
prifoner ■ In the beginning he -was unfuccefsful : being obhged,
pnfoner, In the g ^ Gord;an> to withdraw from the
Roman dominions,? and was even invaded m his turn j
but in a fliort time, Gordian being murdered by Philip,
the new emperor made peace with him upon terms very
advantageous to the Perfians. He was no fooner gone
than Sapor renewed his incurfions, and made fuchal -
ing progrefs, that the emperor Valerian at the a
oAo, marched againft him in perfon w^th a numerous
army An engagement enfued, m which the Romans
werl'defeated, and Valerian taken prifoner. Sapor
purfued his advantages with fuch infolence ofcruely,
that the people of the provinces took arms, firft under
Calliftas a Roman general, and then under Odenatus
prince of Palmyrene. Thus they not only protefted
themfelves from the infalts of the Perfians, but even
gained many great viftones over them, and droVe Sa¬
por with difgrace into his own dominions. In his march
he is faid to have made ufe of the bodies of his unfor¬
tunate prifoners to fill up the hollow roads and to fa¬
cilitate the paffage of his carriages over much rivers as
lay in his way. On his return to Perfia, he was foh-
cited by the kings of the Cadufians, Armenians Bac-
„ trians, Lid other nations, to fet Valerian at liberty j
and treats but to no purpofe. hiTfoot
him cruelly. worfe • treated him daily with indignities, f -
upon his neck when he mounted his horfe, and, as is
affirmed by fome, flayed him alive after fome 7^ con¬
finement 5 and caufed his fkin to be tanned which he
kept as a monument of his viftory over the Romans.
This extreme infolence and cruelty was followed by an
uninterrupted courfe of misfortune. Odenatus defeat¬
ed him in every engagement, and even feemed ready to
overthrow his empire ; and after him Aurelian took
ample vengeance for the captivity of Valenan. Sapor
died in the year of Chrift 273, after having reigned
« years •, and was fucceede'd by his fon Hormifdas, and
he bv Varanes I. Concerning both thefe princes we
know nothing more than that the former reigned a
vear and ten days, and the latter three years •, after
which he left the crown to Varanes II. who ffiems to
have been fo much awed by the power of the Romans,
that he durft undertake nothing. The reft of the Per¬
fian hiftory, to the overthrow of the empire by the Sa¬
racens, affords nothing but an account of their conti¬
nued invafions of the Roman empire, which more pro-
nerlv belongs to the hiftory of Rome : and to which
The Perfian therefore we refer. The laft of the Perfian monarchs,
empire of the line of Artaxares, was IHigertes, or Jezdegerd,
overthrown as js called by the Arabian and Perfian hntorians,
l"r ^ ^ w^0 was cotemporary with Omar the fecond caliph af¬
ter Mahomet. He was fcarcely feated on the throne,
when he found himfelf attacked by a powerful army ot
Saracens under the command of one Sad, who invaded
the country through Chaldea. The Perfian general
took all imaginable pains to harafs the Arabs on their
.march*, and having an army fuperior to them in num-
by the Sa¬
racens.
8 ] PER
bers, employed them continually in tkirrmffies ; which |
were fometimes favourable to him and fometimes other-
wife. But Sad, perceiving that this lingering war
would deftroy his army, determined to haften forward,
and force the enemy to a general engagement. I he
Perfians declined this for a long time j but at length,
finding a convenient plain where all their forces might
a£t, they drew up in order of battle, and itfolved to
wait for the Arabs. Sad having difpofed his men m
the beft order he could, attacked the Perfians with the
utmoft fury. The battle lafted three days and three
nights j the Perfians retiring continually from one poft
to another, till at laft they were entirely defeated ; and
thus the capital city, and the greateft part of the do¬
minions of Perfia, fell into the hands of the Arabs. 1 he
conquerors feized the treafures of the king j which
were fo vaft, that according to a Mahometan tradition,
their prophet gave the Saracen army a miraculous view
of thofe treafures before the engagement, in order to
encourage them to fight. ...
After the lofs of this battle, Jezdegerd retired into
Chorafan, where he maintained himfelf as king, having j
under his fubjeaion two other provinces, named Kerman
and Segejlan. But after he had reigned in this limited
manner for 19 years, one of the governors of the few
towns he had left betrayed it, and called in the Turks.
This place was called Merou, feated on the river Gihon
or Oxus. Jezdegerd immediately marched againft the
rebels and their allies. The Perfians were defeated j
and the unfortunate monarch, having with much diffi¬
culty reached the river, found there a little boat, and a
fiffierman to whom it belonged. The king offered him
a bracelet of precious ftones } but the fellow, equally
brutal and ftupid, told him that his fare was five
farthings, and that he would neither take more nor
lefs. While they difputed, a party of the rebel, horfe
came up, and knowing Jezdegerd, killed him, in the
year 652.
Jezdegerd left behind him a fon named Firouv, and a
daughter named Dara. The latter efpoufed Boftenay,
whom the rabbinical writers have dignified with the
title of the head of the captivity ; and who, in faa, was
the prince of the Jews fettled in Chaldea. As for Fi-
rouz, he ftill preferved a little principality *, and when
he died, left a daughter named Mah Afrid, who married
Walid the fon of the caliph Abdalmalek, by whom ffie
had a fon named Ye%id, who became caliph, and confe-
quently fovereign of Perfia; and fo far was this prince
from thinking himfelf above claiming the title derived
from his mother, that he conftantly ftyled himfelf the
fon of Khofrou king of Perfia, the defeendant of the ca¬
liph Maroan, and among whofe ancefiors on the fide oj
the mother were the Roman emperor and the khacan. ^
Perfia continued to be fubjeft to the Arabs till the state of
decline of the Saracen empire, when it was feized by Perfia »n*
various ufurpers, till the time of Jenghis Khan, who
conquered it as well as almoft all the reft of Afia. Af- prjnce$. J
ter his death, which happened in the year I227j Perfia,
together with the neighbouring countries, were govern¬
ed by officers appointed by his fucceffors, who reigned
at Kaerakorom, in the eaftern parts of I artary, till the
year I2i;3, when it became once more the feat of a
mighty empire under Hulaku the Mogul, who in 1256
abolifhed the caliphate, by taking the city of Bagdad,
as related under that article. After the death of Hu¬
laku,
PER [ i59 ] PER
Perfia. laku, liis fon Abaka fucceeded to his extenfive domi-
* ji n;ons . anj his firft care was to fhut up all the avenues
of his empire againft the other princes of the race of
Jenghiz Khan, who reigned in different parts of Tar¬
tary. His precautions, however, were of little avail ;
for in the verv beginning of his reign he was invaded
by Barkan Khan, of the race of Jagatay the fon of
Jenghiz Khan, from Great Bukharia, with an army of
300,000 men. Abaka was but indifferently prepared
to oppofe fuch a formidable power ; but, happily for
him, his antagonifl died before the armies came to an
engagement, upon which the invaders difperfed and re¬
turned to Tartary. In the year 1264, Armenia and A-
natolia were ravaged by the Mamlukes from Egypt, but
they were obliged to fly from Abaka j who thus feemed
to be eftablifhed in the poffeflion of an empire almoft as
extenfive as that of the ancient Perfian kings. His
tranquillity, however, was of fhort duration ; for, in
1268, his dominions were invaded by Borak Khan, a
prince likewifc of the race of Jagatay, with an army of
100,000 men. He quickly reduced the province of
Chorafan, where he met with little oppofition, and in
1269 advanced as far as Aderbijan, where Abaka had
the bulk of his forces. A bloody battle enfued ; in
which Abaka was viftorious, and Borak obliged to fly
into Tartary, with the lofs of all bis baggage and great
part of his army. Abaka died in 1282, after a reign
of 17 years, not rvithout fufpicion of being poifoned 5
and was fucceeded by his brother Ahmed Khan. He
was the firfl of the family of Jenghiz Khan who em¬
braced Mahometanifm ; but neither he nor his fucceflors
appear to have been in the leafl: verfed in the arts of
government ; for the Perfian hiftory, from this period,
24 becomes onlv an account of infurreflions, murders, re~
tinder Ta- bellions, and poifonings, till the year 1335, when it
merlane a]j f.0 p;eces and Was poffefled bv a great number
and his fuc- V t 11 r 1 ' ,
•eflbrs Pett7 Princes 5 aB whom were at perpetual war
W'ith each other till the time of Timur Beg, or Ta¬
merlane, who once more reduced them all under one
jurifdidlion.
After the death of Tamerlane, Perfia continued to
be governed by his fon Shah Rukh, a wife and valiant
prince : but immediately after his death fell into the
fame confufion as before 5 being held by a great num¬
ber of petty tyrants, till the beginning of the 16th cen¬
tury, when it wras conquered by Shah Ifmael Safi, or
^ Sell ; of whofe family we have the following account.
Conquered His father wTas Sheykh Hayder or Playdr, the fon of
hy Ifmael Sultan Juneyd, the fon of Sheykh Ibrahim, the fon of
Sheykh Ali, the fon of Sheykh Mufa, the fon of Sheykh
Sell, who w?as the 13th in a diredl line from Ali thefon-
in-law of the prophet Mahomet. When Tamerlane re¬
turned from the defeat of Bajazet the Turkilh fultan,
he carried with him a great number of captives out of
Caramania and Anatolia, all of whom he intended to
put to death on fome remarkable occafion ; and with
this refolution he entered Ardebil, or Ardevil, a city
of Aderbijan, about 25 miles to the eaft of Taurus,
where he continued for fome days. At this time lived
in that city the Sheykh Safi, or Sefi, above mentioned,
reputed by the inhabitants to be a faint 5 and, as fuch,
much reverenced by them. The fame of Safi’s fanfti-
ty fo much moved Tamerlane, that he paid him fre¬
quent vifits ; and, when he was about to depart, promi-
fed to grant whatever favour he fhould a Ik. Sheykh
Safi, who had been informed of Tamerlane’s defign to
put the captives to death, requefted of the co'nqueror
that he would fpare the lives of thofe unfortunate men.
Tamerlane, defirous of obliging him, not only granted
this requeft, but delivered them up to him to be difpofed
of as he thought fit ; upon which the Sheykh furnilhed
them with clothes and other neceffaries as well as he
could, and lent them home to their refpedlive countries.
This generous action proved very beneficial to the fa¬
mily •, for the people were fo much alfefted with fuch
an extraordinary inftance of virtue, that they repaired
in great numbers to Safi, bringing with them confider-
able prefents ; and this fo frequently, that few days paf-
fed in which he was not vifited by many. Thus the
defcendants of the Sheykh made a confpicuous figure
till the year i486, when they were all dellroyed by
the Turcomans except Ifmael, who fled to Ghilan,
where he lived under the prote&ion of the king of that
country ; after which he became confpicuous on the fol¬
lowing occafion.
Perfia.
There was at that time, among the Mahometans, a
vaft number of people difperfed over Afia ; and among
thefe a particular party who followed that of Haydr
the father of Ifmael, which Sheykh Safi, one of his an-
ceftors, had brought into great reputation. Ifmael, who
had aflumed the furname of Soft, or Sage, finding that
Perfia was all in confufion, and hearing that there was
a great number of the Hayderian fed! in Caramania, re¬
moved thither. There he collected 7000 of his party,
all devoted to the intereft of his family ; and while he
was yet only 14 years of age, conquered Shirwan.
After this he purfued his conquefts *, and as his antago-
nifls never united to oppofe him, had conquered the
greateft part of Perfia, and reduced the city of Bag¬
dad by the year 1510. However, his conquefts on the
iveft fide wrere foon Hopped by the Turks y for, in-1511,.
he received a great defeat from Selim I. who took Tau-
ris ; and would probably have cruflied the empire of If¬
mael in its infancy, had he not thought the conqueft of
Egypt more important than that of Perfia. After his
defeat by Selim, Ifmael never undertook any thing of
confequence. He died in 1523, leaving the crown to
his eldeft fon Thamafp I.
The new fliah w'as a man of very limited abilities,
and was therefore invaded by the Turks almoft inftant-
ly on his acceflion to the throne. However, they were
obliged to retreat by an inundation, which overflowed
their camp, and which frightened them with its red co¬
lour, probably arifing from the nature of the foil over
which it patTed. Thamafp, however, reduced Georgia
to a province of the Perfian empire y that country be¬
ing in his time divided among a number of petty prin¬
ces, who, by reafon of their divifions, were able to make
little oppofition.
The reigns of the fucceeding princes afford nothing Reign of
remarkable till the time of Shah Abbas I. furnamed the Shah Ab-
Great. He afcended the throne in the year 1584 y and bas tbe
his firfl: care was to recover from the Turks and Tartars G‘eat*
the large provinces they had feized which formerly be¬
longed to the Perfian empire. He began with declaring
war againft the latter, who had feized the fineft part of
Chorafan. Accordingly, having raifed a powerful ar¬
my, he entered that province, w’here he w'as met by Ab¬
dallah Khan, the chief of the Ufbeck Tartars. The
two armies lay in fight of each other for fix months j
Perfia.
PER [
but at length Abbas attacked and defeated his enemies,
' forcing them, for that time, to abandon Chorafan.
Here he continued for three years j and on his leaving
that place, fixed the feat of government at Ifpahan,
where it has continued ever fince. His next expedition
was againft the Turks. Underftanding that the garri-
fon ofTauriswas in no expedtation of an enemy, he
formed a defign of furprifing the place*, and having
privately affembled a few forces, he marched with fuch
celerity, that he reached a pafs called Shibh very near
Tauris, in fix days, though it is ufually 18 or 20 days
journey for the caravans. Here the Turks had polled
a few foldiers, rather for the purpofe of collecting the
cuftoms on fuch commodities as were brought that way,
than of defending the pafs againft an enemy. Before
they came in fight of this pafs, Abbas and fome of his
officers left the reft of the army, and rode brifkly up
to the turnpike. Here the fecretary of the cuftom-
houfe, taking them for merchants, demanded the ufual
duties. Abbas-replied, that the perfon who had the
purfe was behind, but at the fame time ordered fome
money to be given him. But while the fecretary was
counting it, he was fuddenly ftabbed by tl]e Shah’s or¬
der *, and the officers who were with him fuddenly fal¬
ling upon the few foldiers who were there, obliged them
to fubmit } after which he entered the pafs with his ar-
Tbe governor of Tauris marched out with all the
PER
Perfi?.,
my.
57
Hiftory of
Khouli
Khan.
* See Pat
Mns.
troops he could colled on foffiort a warning *, but being
inferior to the Perfians, he was utterly defeated, and
himfelf taken prifoner *, after which the city was obliged
to fubmit, as alfo a number of places in the neighbour¬
hood. One city only called Orumi, being very ftrong-
ly fituated, refifted all the efforts of Abbas *, but was at
laft taken by the affiftance of the Curds, whom he gain¬
ed over by promifing to thare the plunder of the place
with them. But inftead of this, he formed a defign to
cut them all off at once *, fearing that they might at
another time do the Turk-s a fervice of the fame nature
that they had done to him juft now. For this reafon
he invited their chiefs to dine with him *, and having
brought them to a tent, the entrance to which had
feveral turnings, he ftationed on the infide two execu¬
tioners, who cut off the heads of the guefts as foon as
they entered.
After-this Shah Abbas confiderably enlarged his do¬
minions, and repelled two dangerous invafions of the
Turks. He attempted alfo to promote commerce, and
civilize his fubjetts *, but ftained all his great actions by
his abominable cruelties, which he praftifed on every
one who gave him the leaft caufe of offence *, nay fre¬
quently without any caufe at all. He took the ifle of
Ormus from the Portuguefe* who had kept it fince
1507, by the affiftance of fome Engliffi (hips in 1622 j
and died fix years after, aged 70.
The princes who fucceeded Shah Abbas the Great,
rvere remarkable only for their cruelties and debauche¬
ries, which occafioned a revolution in 17x6, when the
Shah Huffein was dethroned by the Afghans, a people
inhabiting the country between Perfia and India j who
being opprefled by the minifters, revolted under the
conduct of one Mereweis. The princes of the Afghan
race continued to enjoy the fovefeignty for no more
than 16 years, when Affiraff the reigning (hah was de¬
throned by one of his officers *. On this Thamafp,
otherwife called Prince Thamas, the only furvivor of
l60 ]
the family of Abbas, affembling an army, invited into
his fervice Nadir Khan, who had obtained great reputa- ra¬
tion for his valour and conduct. He was the fon of a
Perfian nobleman, on the frontiers of Ufbeck Tartary *,
and his uncle, who was his guardian, keeping him out
of poffeffion of the caftle and eftate which was his .in¬
heritance, he took to robbing the caravans; and, having
increafed his followers to upwards of 50CO men, be¬
came the terror of that part of the country, and efpe-
cially of his uncle, who had feized his eftate. His uncle
therefore refolvcd to make his peace with him, and with
that view invited him to the caftle, where he entertain¬
ed him in a fplendid manner; but Nadir Khan ordered
his throat to be cut next night, and all his people to be
turned out of the caftle. No fooner had Nadir Khan
got the command of the Perfian army, than he attack¬
ed and defeated the ufurper Efriff, put him to death,
and recovered all the places the I urks and Ruffians
had made themfelves mafters of during the rebellion ;
and then Prince Thamas feemed to be eftabliffied on the
throne : but Nadir Khan, to whom Thamas had given
the name of Thamas Kouh Khan, that is, the Slave of
Thamas, thinking his fervices not fufficiently rewarded,
and pretending that the king had a defign againft his
life, or at leaft to fet him afide, confpired againft his
fovereign, and put him to death, as is fuppofed : after
which, he ufurped the throne, ftyling himfelf Shah Na¬
dir or King Nadir.
He afterwards laid fiege to Candahar, of which a fon
of Mereweis had poffeffed himfelf. During this fiege,
the court of the Great Mogul being diftradted with
fadlions, one of the parties invited Shah Nadir to come
to their affiftance, and betrayed the Mogul into his
hands. He thereupon marched to Delhi, the capital
of India, and fummoned all the viceroys and governors
of provinces to attend him,-and bring with them all the
treafures they could raife ; and thofe that, did not bring
as much as he-expected, he tortured and put to death.
Having thus amaffed the greateft treafure that ever
prince was mafter of, he returned to Perfia, giving the
Mogul his liberty, on condition of his refigning the
provinces on the weft fide of the Indus to the crown of
Perfia. He afterwards made a conqueft of Ufbeck
Tartary, and plundered Bochara the capital city. Then
he marched againft -the Dagheftan Tartars; but loft;
great part of his army in their mountains, without fight¬
ing. He defeated the Turks in feveral engagements;
but laying fiege to Bagdad, was twice compelled to
raife the fiege. He proceeded to change the religion
of Perfia to that of Omar, hanged up the chief priefts,
put his own fon to death, and was guilty of fuch cruel¬
ty, that he was at length affaffinated by his own rela¬
tions, anno 1747. A conteft upon this enfued between
thefe relations for the crown, which has rendered Perfia
a feene of the molt horrible confufion for upwards of
40 years. 58
The reader will form fome notion of the troubles of Different
this unhappy country from the following feries of pre- pretenders
tenders to the throne between the death of Nadir and of
the acceffion of Kerim Khan. We give it from Franck- Perfia,
lin’s Obfervations. ift, Adil Shah.— 2d, Ibraheem
Shah.—3d, Shah Rokh Shah.—4th, Sulceman Shah.—
5th, Ifmaeel Shah.—6th, Azan Khan Afghan.—7th,
Hoffun Khan Kejar.— 8th, Ali Merdan Khan Buklflea-
ri.—oth, Kerim Khan Zund.
* «Their
Perfia.
PER [i
“ Their reigns, or more properly the length of time
J they refpeftively governed with their party, were as
follows: Adil Shah, nine months. Ibraheem Shah, fix
months. Shah Rokb Shah, after a variety of revolu¬
tions, at length regained the city of Mefchid: he is now
alive (1787), and above 80 years of age, reigning in
Chorafan, under the direction of his fon Nuffir Ullah
Meerza. Suleeman Shah, and Ifmaeel Shah, in about
forty days were both cut off, almolt as foon as they
•were elevated. Azad Khan Afghan, one of Kerim
Khan’s moft formidable rivals and competitors, was fub-
dued by him, brought prifoner to Shirauz, and died
there a natural death. Hofiun Khan Kejar, another of
Kerim Khan’s competitors, was befieging Shirauz, when
his army fuddenly mutinied and deferted him. The
mutiny was attributed to their want of pay. A party
fent by Kerim Khan took, him prifoner. His head was
inftantly cut off, and prefented to Kerim Khan. His
family were brought captives to Shirauz. They were
well treated, and had their liberty given them foon after,
under an obligation not to quit the city. Ali Merdan
Khan was killed by a mulket {hot as he was walking on
the ramparts of Mefchid encouraging his men. Kerim
Khan Zund, by birth a Curdiftan, was a moft favourite
officer of Nadir Shah, and at the time of his death wras
in the fouthern provinces. Shirauz and other places
had declared for him. He found means at laft, after
various encounters with doubtful fuccefs, completely to
fubdue all his rivals, and finally to eftablilh himfelf as
ruler of all Perfia. He was in power about 30 years 5
the latter part of which he governed Perfia under the
appellation of vakeel or regent, for he never would re¬
ceive the title of Shah. He made Shirauz the chief
city of his refidence, in gratitude for the affiftance he
had received from its inhabitants and thofe of the fouth¬
ern provinces. He died in the year 1779, regretted by
all his fubje&s, who efteemed and honoured him as the
glory of Perfia.
“ When the death of Kerim Khan wras announced in
two officers the city, much confufion arofe j two and twenty of the
feffion°0f Principal officers of the army, men of high rank and
the citadel, family» took poffeflion of the ark, or citadel, with a
refolution to acknowledge Abul Futtah Khan (the eld-
eft fon of the late vakeel) as their fovereign, and to de¬
fend him againft all other pretenders; whereupon Zikea
Khan, a relation of the late vakeel by the mother’s fide,
who was poffeffed of immenfe wealth, enlifted a great
part of the army into his pay, by giving them very con-
fiderable bounties. Zikea Khan w;as of the tribe of
Zund (or the Lackeries) ; a man remarkably proud,
cruel, and unrelenting. Having affembled a large body
the citadel. troops, he immediately marched them to the citadel,
and laid clofe fiege to it for the fpace of three days; at
63 the expiration of which, finding he could not take it by
Employs force, he had recourfe to treachery. To each of the
treacherous principal khans he fent a written paper, by which he
entire the ^wore uPon ^ K°ran> tl131 ^ they would come out and
officers out Icb01'1 t0 l‘lrn» not a liair °f their heads Ihould be
and was ’ touched, and that they ftiould have their effefls fecured
iuccefsful. to them. Upon this a confultation was held by them ;
and it appearing that they could not fubfift many days
longer, they agreed to furrender themfelves, firmly rely¬
ing on the promifes that had been made them. Zikea
Khan, in the mean time, gave private orders, for the
khans to be feized, and brought feparately before him as
Vgl. XVI. Part I.
S9
Kerim
Khan en¬
joyed a
reign of
near 30
years.
60
Tvventv-
61
2 ike a
Khan.
62
Bcfiegi
61 ] PER
they came out of the citadel. His orders were ftriclly Peifia.
obeyed, and thefe deluded men were all maffacred in his v- "1-1‘
prefence : he was feated the whole time, feafting his
eyes on the cruel fpeflacle.
“ Zikea Khan’s tyranny became foon intolerable, and Murdered*
he was cut off by his own body guard, when Abul Fut¬
tah Khan, who was at the time in the camp, was pro¬
claimed king by the unanimous voice of the troops,
whom he immediately led back to Shirauz. On his
arrival he w?as acknowledged as fovereign by all ranks
of people, and took quiet poffeflion of the govern¬
ment.
^“Mahomed Sadick Khan, only brother of theft ate Mahomed
Kerim Khan, who had during that prince’s life filled .sadick
the high office of beglerbeg of Fars, and had been Kh'n at-
appointed guardian of his fon Abul Futtah Khan, was ^
at this period governor of the city of Baffora, which - overn-^
had been taken by the Perfians, previous to the vakeel’s ment f
death. Upon hearing the news of his brother’s deceafe
he became ambitious of reigning alone, and from that
inftant formed fchemes for the deftru&ion of his ne¬
phew ; but as it was neceffary tor him to be on the
fpot for the advancement of his views, he determined
to withdraw the Perfian garrifon from Baffora, who
were all devoted to his intereft : accordingly he eva¬
cuated that place, and marched immediately for Shi¬
rauz.
“ I he news of Sadick Khan’s approach threw the in¬
habitants of Shirauz into the greateft confternation :
their minds were varioully agitated on the occafion;
fome, from his known public character, expected he
Would honeftly fulfil the commands of his deceafed
brother ; others, who had been witneffes to the con¬
fufion of former times, on fimilar occafions, rightly
imagined that he would fet up for himfelf; and indeed
this proved to be the cafe; for having entered Shirauz
a very few days after, he caufed Abul Futtah Khan to
be feized, deprived of fight, and put into clofe confine¬
ment.
“ After this event, Sadick Khan openly affumed the which he .
government. As foon as the intelligence reached Ali effe<^s‘
Murad Khan, who was at Ifpahan, that lord inftantly
rebelled : deeming himfelf to have an equal right to
the government with Sadick Khan, as in fad he had, he
could ill brook the thought of being obedient to him*
and openly declared himfelf a competitor for the em¬
pire. Perfia was by this means again involved in all
the horrors of a civil war. Ali Murad Khan indeed
took poffeffion of Shirauz, affumed the government, and
gave to the empire the flattering profped of being fet¬
tled under the government of one man ; but this profped:
was foon obfeured by the power and credit acquired by
Akau Mahomed Khan.” ^
On the night following Kerim Khan’s death, this Akau Ma-
man found means to make his efcape from Shirauz, and homecl
fled to the northward, where colle&ing fome troops, he ,K!lan co1"
foon made himfelf mafter of Mazanderan and Ghilan, an'/bpro^
and was proclaimed nearly about the time that Ali Mu-claimed at
rad Khan had taken Shirauz. “ It is remarkable (fays V’azande-
our author), that from his firft entering into competition d
for the government, be has been fuccefsful in every bat U aI‘*
tie which he has fought. He is an eunuch, having been
made fo whilff an infant, by the command of Nadir
Shah, but poffefles great perfonal bravery.
Ali Murad Khan, hearing of the fuccefs of Akau
X Mahomed
Perfia.
6S
Jaafar
Khan af-
ferts his
pretenfions
to the 20-
vernment.
69
Is defeated
by A kan
Mahomed
Khan.
•
Air and
elitnate of
Perfta.
PER [
Mahomed Khan, determined to go againlt him •, but as
he was previouflv proceeding to Ifpahan to fuppreis a
rebellion, he fell fuddenly from his horfe and expired on
the fpot.
“ At this period, Jaafar Khan, the eldeft and only
furviving fon of Sadick Khan, was governor of Khum :
he'deemed this a favourable opportunity to affert his
pretenfions to the government, and immediately march¬
ed with what few troops he had to Itpahan : foon alter
his arrival he Was joined by the greater part of the mal¬
contents, who were then in arms. In this lituation^he
femained fome time t but Akau Mahomed Khan coming
down upon him with his army, he was obliged to nfk
his fate in a battle, and, being defeated, fled with the
fmall remains of his troops, taking the road to Shirauz.
Soon after finding himfelf ftrengthened by an increafe
of his army, he determined to venture a fecond engage¬
ment with his opponent Akau IVIahomed Khan } and
for this purpofe marched with his array towards Ifpa¬
han : the two armies met near Yezdekhaft, when a bat¬
tle enfued, and Akau Mahomed Khan’s fuperior fortune
again prevailing, Jaafar Khan was defeated, and retired
to Shirauz, which he quitted on the 25th of June 1787,
and Ihortly after inarched his army to the northward,
but returned in Oftober without having effe£led any
thing.” Such was the ftate of Perfia in 1788. Mr
Francklin, from whofe excellent Obfervations on a
Tour made in the years 1786 7 thefe particulars are
moftly extrafted, fays that Jaafar Khan is the moft
“likely, in cafe of fuccefs againfl: his opponent, to reftoye
the country to a happy and reputable Hate : but it will
require a long fpace of time to recover it from the cala¬
mities into which the diflferent revolutions have brought
it: a country, if an oriental metaphor may be allowed,
once blooming as the garden of Eden, fair and flourilh-
ing to the eye 5—now, fad reverfe ! defpoiled and leaf¬
lets by the cruel ravages of war, and defolating conten-
tion.”
As to the air and climate of this country, confider-
ing the great extent thereof,' it cannot but be very dif¬
ferent, according to the fituation of its feveral parts ;
fome being frozen with cold, whilft others are burnt
with heat at the fame time of the year.. The air,
wherever it is cold is dry ; but where it is extremely
hot, it is fometimes moift. All along the coaft of the
Perfian gulf, from weft to eaft, to the very mouth
of the river Indus, the heat for four months is fo ex-
ceflive, that even thofe who are born in the country,
unable to bear it, are forced to quit their houfes, and
retire to the mountains •, fo that fuch as travel in thefe
parts, at that feafon, find none in the villages, but
wretched poor creatures, left there to watch the effefts
of the rich, at the expence of their own health. The
extreme heat of the air, as it is unfupportable, fo it
makes it prodigioufiy unwholefome 5 ftrangers frequent¬
ly falling fick there, and feldom efcaping. The eart-
ern provinces of Perfia, from the river Indus to the
borders of Tartary, are fubjeft to great heats, though
not quite fo unwholefome as on the coafts of the In¬
dian ocean and the Perfian gulf ^ but in. the north¬
ern provinces, on the coaft of the Cafpian lea, the heat
is full as great, and, though attended with moifture, as
unwholefome as on the coaft before mentioned. From
O&ober to May, there is no country in the world
more pleafant - than this; but the people carry inde-
4-
62 ] PER
lible marks of the malign iofluence of their fummers,
looking all of them of a faint yellow, and having
neither ftrength nor fpirits •, though, about the end of
April, they abandon their houfes, and retire to the
mountains, which are 25 or 30 leagues from the lea.
But this moiftnefs in the air is only in thele parts } the
reft of Perfia enjoys a dry air, the Iky being perfeaiy
ferene, and hardly fo much as a cloud feen to fly there-
Though it feldom rains, it does not follow that the
Perfia.
in.
•
imate ei
heat admits oi no mitigation : for in the night, not-
withHanding there is not a cloud to be feen, and the
fky is fo clear, that the liars alone afford a light fuf-
ficient to travel by, a brilk wind fprings up, which
lafts until within an hour of the morning, and gives fuch
a coolnefs to the air, that a man can bear a tolerable
warm garment, i he feafons in general, and particular¬
ly in the middle of this kingdom, happen thus : the
winter, beginning in November,and lafting until March,
is very (harp and rude, attended with froft and fnow j
which laft defeends in great flakes on the mountains,
but never in the plains. I he climate of Shirauz, lb*- Ch.ua^
capital of Perfia Proper, is reprefented by a traveller shiraur.
who lately vilited it, as one of the moft agreeable in the
world, the extremes of heat and cold being feldom felt.
“ During the fpring of the year the face of the country
appears uncommonly beautilul. 1 he flowers, of which
they have a great variety, and of the brighteft hues, the
fragrant herbs, ftirubs, and plants, the rofe, the fweet
bafil, and the myrtle, all here contribute to.refrefti and
perfume the natural mildnefs of the air. d he nightin¬
gale of the garden (called by the PerfiansZWW /tezar
dajlaan), the goldfinch, and the linnet, by their melo¬
dious warblings at this delightful feafon of the yearj ferve
to add to the fatisfa&ion of the mind, and to infpire it
with the moft pleafing ideas. I he beauties of nature
are here depicted in their fulleft extent j the natural
hiftorian and the botanift would here meet with ample
fcope for purfuing their favourite inveftigations.. With
fuch advantages, added to the falubrity of the air,, how
can it be wondered at that the inhabitants of Shirauz
fhould fo confidently affert the pre-eminence of their
own city to any other in the world ?—or that fuch beau¬
ties ftiould fail of calling forth the poetical exertions of
a Hafiz, a S&li, or a Jhmi ? The mornings and even¬
ings are cool, but the middle of the day is very pleafant.
Iif fummer the thermometer feldom rifes above 73 in
the day time, and at night it generally finks as low as
62. The autumn is the worft feafon of the year, that
being the time when the rains begin to fall, and during
the autumnal months it is confidered by the natives as the
moft unhealthy *, colds,'fluxes, and fevers being very ge¬
neral. In winter a vaft deal of fnow falls, and very
thick, but ice is rarely to be found, except on the fum-
mits of the mountains, or towards Ifpahan, and the
more northern parts of Perfia. One thing which is moft
to be efteemed in this country, and renders it preferable
to any other part of the world, is their nights,.which
are always clear and bright : and the dew, that in moft
places is of fo pernicious and dangerous a nature, is not
of the leaft ill confequence here : there is none at all in
fummer, and in the other feafons it is of fuch a nature,
that if th^Krighteft feimitar (hould be expofed to it all
the niglff, it would not receive the leaft ruft ; acircum-
ftance I have myfe.lf experienced. ’I his dryriefs in the
air caufes their buildings to laft a great while, and is
undoubtedly
PER [163] PER
Pcvfia. undoubtedly one of the principal reafons that the cele-
brated ruins of Perfepolis have endured for fo many
ages, and, comparatively fpeaking, in fo perfect a ftate.”
The great dryncfs of the air exempts Perfia from thun¬
der and earthquakes. In the fpring, indeed, there fome-
times falls hail ; and, as the harveft is then pretty far
advanced, it does a great deal of mifchief. The rain¬
bow is feldom feen in this country, becaufe there rife
not vapours fufficient to form it; but in the night there
are feen rays of light (hooting through the firmament,
and followed as it were by a train of fmoke. The winds,
however brilk, feldom fwell into ftorms or tempefts ;
but, on the other hand, they are fometimes poifonous and
infectious on the fhore of the Gulf, as all travellers
agree. M. Tavernier fays, that at Gombroon people
often find themfelves (truck by a fouth wind, in fuch a
manner, that they cry, “ I burn !” and immediately fall
down dead. M. le Brim tells us, that he was affured
while he was there, that the weather was fometimes fo
exceflively fultry as to melt the feals of letters. At this
time the people go in their Hurts, and are continually
fprinkled with cold water ; and fome even lie feveral
hours naked in the water. Among the inconveniences
confequent from this malign difpofition of the air, one
of the moft terrible is the engendering, in the arms and
legs, a kind of long fmall worms, which cannot be ex¬
tracted without great danger of breaking them ; upon
^ which a mortification enfues.
Soil The foil of Perfia is in general (tony, Tandy, barren,
and everywhere fodry, that, if it be not watered, it pro¬
duces nothing, not even grafs ; but, where they'can turn
the water into their plains or valleys, it is not unfruit¬
ful. 'There is a great difference in point of fertility in
the different provinces of the empire j and thofe of Me¬
dia, Iberia, Hyrcania, and Baftria, are now in a great
meafure what they were formerly, and furpafs molt of
the others in their produdtions. All along the Perfian
gulf, the foil is (till more barren, cattle lefs plenty,
and every thing' in a worfe condition than anywhere
73 elfe-
Produce. Though there is fcarcely a province in Perfia which
does not produce wine, yet the wine of fome provinces
is much more efteemed than that of others j but Schi-
ras, or, as it is written by Mr Francklin, Shiraux, wine
is univerfally allowed to be the very belt in Perfia; in-
fomuch, that it is a common proverb there? That to live
happily one mult eat the bread of Yezd, and drink the
wine of Schiras.
The grain molt common in Perfia is wheat; which
is wonderfully fair and clean. As for barley, rice, and
millet, they only make bread of them in fome places,
as in Courdeltan, when their wheat bread is exhaulted
before the return of harvelt. They do not cultivate in
this country either oats or rye ; except where the Ar¬
menians arc fettled, who make great ufe of the latter
in Lent. Rice is the univerfal aliment of all forts of
people in Perfia ; for this reafon they are extremely
careful in its cultivation •, for, after they have fown it
in the fame manner as other grain, they in three months
time tranfplant it, root by root, into fields, which are
well watered, otherwife it would never attain that per-
feftion in which we find it there j fince it is fofler,
fooner boiled, and more delicious, than the fame grain
in any other part of the world. Perhaps its talte is,
in fome meafure, heightened by a practice which they
follow to give it a gloffy whitenefs, viz. by cleanfing
it, after it is beaten out of the hulks, with a mixture
of flour and fait. Corn ripens exceedingly in this coun¬
try ; fo that in fome parts they have a threefold crop
in the year. The Perfian bread is generally very thin,
white, and good ; and commonly cheap enough.
Metals of all forts have been found in Perfia. Since
the reign of Shah Abbas the Great, iron, copper, and
lead, have been very common •, but there are no gold
or filver mines open at prefent ; thqugh, as Perfia is a
very mountainous country, fuch might very probably
be found, if pains were taken to fearch them out*
There are filver mines in Kerman and Mazanderan,
and one not far from Spau’hawn ; but they cannot be
worked for want of wood. Minerals are alfo found in
Perfia in abundance ; efpeeially fulphur, faitpetre, fait,
and alum. Nothing is more common in this country
than to meet with plains, fometimes 10 leagues in
length, covered entirely with fait, and others with ful¬
phur or alum. In fome places fait is dug out of mines,
and even ufed in building houfes. Marble, freeltone,
and Hate are found in great plenty about Hamadan.
The marble is of four colours, viz. white, black, red
and black, and white and black. Perfia yields two
forts of petroleum or naphtha j namely, black and
white. In the neighbourhood of Tauris they find
azure ; but it is not fo good as that brought from Tar¬
tary. Among the molt valuable productions of Perfia
are the precious Hones called turquoifes, of which there
are feveral rocks or mines.
The horfes of Perfia are the molt beautiful of the
Ealt, though they are not fo much eltetmtd as thofe
of Arabia ; fo great, however, is the demand for them,
that the fineft ones will fetch from 90I. to 450I. Iter-
ling. They are higher than the Englilh faddle horfes $
ftraight before, with a fmall head, legs wonderfully
flender, and finely proportioned $ they are mighty
gentle, good travellers, very light and fprightly, and
do good fervice till they are 18 or 20 years old. The
great numbers of them fold into Turkey and the Indies,
though none can be carried out of the kingdom with¬
out fpecial licenfe from the king, is what makes them
fo dear. Next to horfes we may reckon mules, which
are much elteemed here, and are very fine j and next
to thefe we may jultly place affes, of which they have
in this country two forts ; the firft bred in Perfia, heavy
and doltilh, as affes in other countries are ; the other
originally of an Arabian breed, the moft docile and
ufeful creature of its kind in the world. They are ufed
wholly for the faddle ; being remarkable for their ealy
manner of going, and are very fure-footed, carrying
their heads lofty, and moving gracefully. Some of
them are valued at 20I. fterling. The mules here are
alfo very fine ; they pace well, never fall, and are fel¬
dom tired. The higbeft price of a mule is about 45L
fterling. Camels are alfo numerous in Perfia, and very
ferviceable ; they call them hcchtij-Wouch-honion, i. e.
“ the (hips of the land becaufe the inland trade is
carried on by them as the foreign is by ftiips. Of thefe
camels there are two forts, the northern and fouthern :
the latter, which is much the fmaller, but fwifter, will
carry a load of about 700 weight, and trot as fall a»
a horfe will gallops the other will travel with a load
of 1 200 or 1300 weight} both are profitable to their
mailers, as ceiling little or nothing to keep. They
X 2 travel
Perfia-
PER [ 164 ] PER
Perfia. travel without halter or reins; grazing on the road
v from time to time, notwithftanding their load. They
are managed entirely by the voice ; thofe who dire£t
them making ufe of a kind of fong, and the camel mo¬
ving brifker, or at its ordinary pace, as they keep a
quicker or flower time. The camels flied their hair fo
clean in the fpring, that they look like fcalded fwine:
but then they are. pitched over, to keep the flies from
flinging them. The camel’s hair is the moft profitable
fleece of all the tame beads : fine fluffs are made of
it; and in Europe, hats, with a mixture of a little
beaver.
As beef is little eaten in Perfia, their oxen are ge¬
nerally employed in ploughing, and other forts of la¬
bour. Hogs are nowhere bred in Perfia, if we except
a province or two on the borders of the Cafpian fea.
Sheep and deer are very common throughout all Per¬
fia.
Of wild hearts, the number is not great in that coun¬
try, becaufe there are few forefts j but where there are
any, as in Hyrcania, now called Tabrijlan, abundance
of lions, bears, tygers, leopards, porcupines, wild boars,
and wolves, are to be found j but the iaft are not fo nu¬
merous as any of the other fpecies.
There are but few infefts in this country; which
may be afcribed to the drynefsof theclimatet In fome
provinces, however, there is an infinite number of lo-
cufts or gralhoppers, which fly about in fuch clouds as
to darken the air. In certain parts of the Perfian do¬
minions they have large black fcorpions, fo venomous,
that fuch as are flung by them die in a few hours. In
others they have lizards frightfully ugly, which are
an ell long, and as thick as a large toad, their Ikins be¬
ing as hard and tough as that of the fea-dog ; they are
faid to attack and kill men {bmetimes ; but that may be
doubted. The fouthern provinces are infefted writh
gnats; fome with long legs, like thofe W'e call midges ;
and fome white, and as fmall as fleas, which make no
buzzing, but fling fuddenly, and fo fmartly, that the
fling is like the prick of a needle. Among the rep¬
tiles is a long fquare worm, called by the inhabitants
.hazaj'-pey, i. e. “ tboufand feet,” becaufe its. whole
body is covered with feet; it runs prodigioufly faft ; and
its bite is dagerous, and even mortal if it gets into the
ear.
There are in Perfia all the feveral forts of fowls
•which we have in Europe, but not in fuch great plenty;
excepting, however, wild and tame pigeons, of which
vaft numbers are kept all over the kingdom, chiefly on
account of their dung; which is the beft manure for
melons. It is a great diverfion among the lower fort
of people in town or country to catch pigeons, though
it be forbidden : for this purpofe they have pigeons fo
taught, that flying in one flock, they furround fuch
wild ones as they find in the field, and bring them back
with them to their mafters. The partridges of this
eountry are the largeft and fineft in the world, being
generally of the fize of our fowls. Geefe, ducks, cranes,
herons, and many other forts of U'ater fowl, are common
here ; as are likewife nightingales, which are heard all
the year, but chiefly in the fpring; martlets, which learn
whatever words are taught them ; and a bird called
noura, which chatters inceffantly, and repeats what¬
ever it hears. Of birds of a larger fize, the moft re¬
markable is the pelican, by the Perfians called tacab,
i. e. “ water-carrier ;” and alfo tnifc, i. e. “ fheep,” be- IVfia*
caufe it is as large as one of thefe animals *. There are *- Pelt
in Perfia various birds of prey. Some of their falcons can2JJ q,/
are the largeft and fineft in the world; the people take NITholo-
great pains to teach them to fly at game ; the Perfian gy Index.
lords being great lovers of falconry, and the king bav-
ing generally 800 of this fort of birds, each of which
has a perfon to attend it. 74
There is perhaps no country in the world which, ge- Mountain!,
nerally fpeaking, is more mountainous than Perfia; “^rs» ant*
but many of them yield neither fprings nor metals,
and but few of them are fhaded with trees. It is true
fome of the chief of them are fituated on the frontiers,
and ferve as a kind of natural ramparts, or bulwarks,
to this vaft empire. Among the latter are the moun¬
tains of Caucafus and Ararat, fometimes called the
mountains of Daghefan, which fill all the fpace between
the Euxine and Cafpian feas : thofe called Taurus, and
the feveral branches thereof, run through Perfia from
Natolia to India, and fill all the middle of the coun¬
try.
As to rivers, except the Araxes, which rifes in the
mountains of Armenia, and falls into the Kur or Cyrus
before it reaches the Cafpian fea, there is not one navi¬
gable ftream in this country. The Oxus divides Perfia
on the north-eaft from Ufbeck Tartary. The Indus alfo
may now be reckoned among the rivers of Perfia, as the
provinces lying to the weft of that river are nowT in pof-
feflion of that crown : this river is faid to run a courfe
of more than 1000 miles, and overflows all the low
grounds in April, May, and June.
The feas on the fouth of Perfia are, the gulf of Perfia
or Baflora, the gulf of Ormus, and the Indian ocean.
The only fea on the north is the Cafpian or Hyrcanian
fea ; which is more properly a lake, having no commu¬
nication with any other fea. Thefe feas, together with
the lakes and rivers, fupply Perfia wdth plenty of fifh.
The Cafpian fea contains very fine fifli on one fide ; and
the Perfian gulf on the other is believed to have more
fifh than any other fea in the world. On the coafts of
this gulf is taken a fort of fifh, for which they have no
particular name ; its flefh is of a red colour, very deli¬
cious, and fome of them weigh 200 or 300 pounds.
The river fifh are chiefly barbels ; but. far from being
good. Thofe of the lakes are carps and fhads. In the
river at Spauhawn are a great number of crabs, rvhich
crawl up the trees, and live night and day under the
leaves, whence they are taken ; and are efteemed very
delicious food. 75
In his voyage from Gombroon up the Perfian gulf, Wards,&
Mr Ives makes mention of feveral itlands, named Kifme, ’n PeI
Polloar, Kyes,Inderabie, Shittewar, and Bufheel. Some*‘ai'
of thefe were quite barren; on others there wTere a few
trees and bufhes, with little fifhing towns, and a few
fmall vcflels lying along ftiore. The date trees wrere
thinly fcattered among the hills; but though a fmall
portion of green might here and there be difeovered, yet
fuch was the barrennefs of thefe iflands in general, that
it was for fome time a matter of furprife how fheep and
goats could poflibly fubfift upon them. On clofer exa¬
mination, how’ever, it was found, that the foil produced
a kind of fmall leaved juicy mallows, on which thefe
animals principally feed. The Perfian coaft, as they
failed along, afforded a moft romantic profpeft, appear¬
ing at firfl to be one continued rock, rent and torn
afunder
PER [ 165 ] PER
Perfu. aiander by earthquakes j but it was afterwards difcover-
ed, that feme part of it was only fand hardened by the
rains and fun.
Narban Point terminates in a long and low piece of
land, which runs off into the gulf from the foot of the
Perfian hills. Between this point and the main land is
a channel, in which a Ihip of 900 tons burden might
eafily ride. The Portuguefe had formerly a fettlement
here, the remains of which are dill to be feen. A large
river empties itfelf into the fea at this place; and Mr
Ives obferves, that “ Providence feerhs here to have al¬
lotted a fpot of ground amidft unhofpitable rocks and
deferts, capable of affording the kind production of ve¬
getables for man and bead.” The adjacent country is
fubjeft to the Arabs.
Through all the Perfian gulf Mr Ives remarks, that
the fpring water on the iflands is much better than that
on the continent; and the water near-eft the fea on the
ifiands has greatly the advantage over that which is
found in the middle parts. This holds good, however,
only in thofe parts which are near the fea; for about 12
miles up the country, both on the Perfian and Arabian
fide of the gulf, the water is very good. At the ifiand
called Bareen or Baharen, divers go down to the bottom
of the fea, at certain known depths, and come up again
with their veffels filled with frelh water. This frefli wa¬
ter is found in holes or little natural wells, fome fathoms
below the furface of the fea. The Arabs have certain
marks on the ifiand to teacli them where to dive for the
frelh water. Mr Ives was affured by an Arabian mer¬
chant, that he himfelf had difeovered a fpring upon the
fhore, by which one of thefe wells is ferved. He put
into this fpring a bit of heavy flick; and in two or three
days an Arabian diver brought it to him again from the
>jS bottom of one of thefe holes.
Trade. The Englifh and other nations, trade with the Per-
fians feveral ways, particularly by the gulf of Ormus at
Gombroon, and by the way of Turkey. A trade alfo
was not many years fince opened by the Englilh with
Perfia through Ruffiaand the Cafpian fea; but that is
now difeontinued, having been prohibited by the court
of Ruflia, who were apprehenfive that the Englifh Avould
teach the Perfians to build (hips, and difpute the navi¬
gation of the Cafpian fea with them. The principal
commodities and manufaClures of Perfia are raw and
wrought filks, mohair camblets, carpets, leather; for
which, and fome others, the European merchants ex¬
change chiefly woollen manufactures; but the trade is
carried on altogether in European (hipping, the Perfians
have fcarce any (hips of their own, and the Ruflians the
foie navigation of the Cafpian fea. There is not a richer
or more profitable trade in the world, than that which is
carried on between Gombroon and Surat in the Eaft
Indies; and the Englifli Eaft India Company frequently
Jet out their (hips to tranfport the merchandife of the
Banians and Armenians from Perfia to India. The (hah
or fovereign of Perfia, is the chief merchant; and he
ufually employs his Armenian fubjeCts to traffic for him
m every part of the world. The king’s agents muft
have the refufal of all merchandife, before his fubj'eCls
are permitted to trade. It is computed that Perfia pro¬
duces yearly upwards of 22,000 bales of (ilk, chiefly
mthe provinces of Ghilan and Mazanderan, each bale
weighing 263 pounds. Vaft quantities of Perfian filk
ufed to be imported into Europe, elpecially by the
3
Dutch, Englifli, and Ruflians, before the civil wars Peril?..
began. The goods exported from Perfia to India are,' T—
tobacco, all forts of fruits, pickled and preferved, efpe-
cially dates, marmalade, wines, diftilled waters, horfes,
Perfian feathers, and Turkey leather of all forts and
colours, a great quantity whereof is alfo exported to
Mufcovy and other European countries. The exports
to Turkey are, tobacco, galls, thread, goats hair, (tuffs,
mats, box-work, and many other things. As there are
no pods in the eaft, and trading by commiflion rvith the
ufe of bills of exchange, is little known, traffic muft
proceed in a very awkward heavy manner, in comparifon
of that Europe. ^
The mod current money of Perfia are the abaffees, Money,
worth about is. qd. fterling; they are of the fined
filver. An abaffee is worth two mahmoudes; a mah-
moude, two ffiaftiees; and a ffiahee, ten (ingle or five
double cafbeghes : thefe laft pieces are of brafs, the
others of filver; for gold is not current in trade. The
(hahees are not very common; but mahmoudes and
catbeghes are current everywhere. Horfes, camels,
houfes, &c. are generally fold by the toman, which is
an imaginary coin, worth 200 (bailees, or 50 abaffees;
and they ufual reckon their eftates that way. Such a
one, they fay, is worth fo many tomans, as we fay
pounds in England. ^g,
Perfia is an abfolute monarchy, the lives and eftates Govern-
of the people being entirely at the difpofal of theirment*
prince. The king has no council eftabliffied, but is
advifed by fuch minifters as are moft in favour; and
the refolutions taken among the women of the haram
frequently defeat the bed laid defigns. The crown is
hereditary, excluding only the females. The fons of
a daughter are allowed to inherit. The laws of Perfia
exclude the blind from the throne; which is the reafon
that the reigning prince ufually orders the eyes of all
the males of the royal family, of whom he has any
jealoufy, to be put out. The king has generally a great
many wives, which it would be death for any one belidcs
the eunuchs, who have the fuperintendance of them, to
look at, or even fee by accident; wherefore, when he
travels, notice is given to all men to quit the road, nay
their very houfes, and to retire to a great diftanee.
The prime minifter is called attemaet dou/et, which
fignifies the diredlor of the empire, and alfo vi%ir a%em7
or the great fupporter of the empire ; as he alone al-
moft fuftains the whole weight of the adminiftration.
This minifter’s chief ftudy is to pleafe his mafter, to fe-
cure to himfelf an afeendant over his mind, and to avoid
whatever may give him any uneafinefs or umbrage.
With this view, he never fails to flatter him, to extol
him above all the princes upon earth, and to throw a
thick veil over every thing that might help to open his
eyes, or difeover to him the weaknefs of the (late. He
even takes particular care to keep the king in utter
ignorance ; to hide from him, or at lead to (often, all
unwelcome news; and, above all, to exalt immoderate¬
ly every the lead advantage he obtains over his ene¬
mies. As he takes thefe methods, which indeed are
and muft be taken, more or lefs, by the minifters of
every defpotic prince, to fecure the favour and confi¬
dence of his mafter; fo the inferior officers and gover¬
nors of provinces are obliged to employ all the means-
in their power to fecure the prime minifter’s, they de¬
pending no lefs upon him than he does upon the king,
j There?
Pcrfia.
PER [
There is a gradation of defpotifna and ilavery, down
' from the prime minifter to the loweft retainer to the
court, or dependent on the government. Children are
fometimes in Perfia required by the king to cut off the
ears and nofe, and even to cut the throats of them pa¬
rents *, and thefe orders cannot be obje£ted to, without
endangering their own lives. Indeed their bafenefs and
mercenarinefs are fuel), that they will perpetrate fuch
atrocious deeds without the leaft fcruple or difficulty,
when they have a promife or expe&ation of poffeffing
their polls. The prime minillers, notwithilanding the
precarious footing on which they Hand, in effedf of their
abilities or good fortune, fometimes continue in their em¬
ployments during life, or, if removed, are only baniffied
to Ibme city, where they are allowed to fpend the re¬
mainder of their days in a private ftation.
Next to the prime minifter are the nadir, or grand-
mafter of the houfehold j the mehter, or groom of the
chambers, who is always a white eunuch ; the mirakbor
bailie, or mailer of the horfe y the mir-ftlikar baflie, or
great hunlfman and falconer y the divanbeggi, or chief
juftice, to whom there lies an appeal from the deroga, or
the lieutenant of police, in every town y the vacka nu-
viez, or recorder of events, or firft fecretary of Hate y
the muflau-lhe-elmenaleck, or mailer of the accounts and
finances of the kingdom y the numes humbalhes, or the
king’s chief phyficians y the ihickada-fibalhe, or infpec-
tor of the palace, and regulator of rank at court; and
the khans, or governors of provinces, under whom are
other governors, called foltans, appointed alfo by the
king.
Civil matters are all determined by the cazi, and ec-
clefiaftical ones (particularly divvtrces) by the Iheick-el-
felleum, or head of the faith ; an officer anfwering to the
mufti among the Turks y under him are the Iheick-el-
felom, and cadi, who decide in all matters of religion,
and make all contra&s, teftaments, and other public
deeds, being appointed by the king in all the principal
towns y and next to thefe are the pichnamas, or direc¬
tors of the prayers y and the moullahs, or doftors of the
law.
Juft ice is carried on in Perfia in a very fum mary man¬
ner y the fentence, whatever it may be, being always
put into execution on the fpot. Theft is generally pu-
nifhed with the lofs of nofe and ears y robbing on the
road, by ripping up the belly of the criminal, in which
fituation he is expofed upon a gibbet in one of the mod
public parts of the city, and there left until he expires
in torment.
There is no nobility in Perfia, or any refpeft ffiown
to a man on account of his family, except to thofc who
are of the blood of their great prophet or patriarchs y
but every man is efteemed according to the poft he pof-
feffes y and when he is difmiffed, he lofes his honour, and
he is no longer diftinguifhed from the vulgar.
With refpeft to the forces of Perfia, their two bodies,
called the Kortjhies and Goulans, that ferve on horfe-
back, are well kept and paid, and may amount, the for¬
mer to about 22,030, and the latter to about 18,000.
The Kortfliies are defeended from an ancient but foreign
race y and the Goulans are either Georgian renegadoes
or flaves, or the children of flaves of all nations. The
infantry, called Tangtchics, are picked out from among
the moft robuft and vigorous of the peafants, and com-
pofe a body of 40,000 or 50,000. The Perfians have
166 ] PER
few fortified towns, and had no (hips of war, till Kouli
Khan built jnroyal navy, and among them had a man of'—
war of 80 guns y but fince the death of that ufurper, we
hear no more of their fleet.
The arms of the king of Perfia arc a lion couchant,
looking at the fun as he rifes over his back. His u!ual
title is Shaw or Patjhuw, the “ difpofer of kingdoms.”
They add alfo to the king’s titles thole oi fuitan, and
chan or chatn, which is the title of the laitar fove-
reigns. To a<fts of ftate the Perfian monarch does not
fubferibe his name y but the grant runs in this manner,
viz. This a ft, of edirt, is given by him whom the univerfe
obeys.
The ancient Perfians are known to have been exceed- Ma,
jngly voluptuous and effeminate. Alter the conqueft of^c,
the empire by Alexander, the Greek difeipline and mar¬
tial fpirit being in part communicated to them, they be¬
came much more formidable y and hence the Parthians
were found to be a match not only for the Syro-Mace-
donian princes, but even for the Romans. Of their
manners we know little or nothing, but that to their
valour and military Ikill they joined in a furprifing de¬
gree all the luxury and diffipation of the ancient Per¬
fians.
The modern Perfians, like the Turks, plundering all
the adjacent nations for beauties to breed by, are men of
a good ftature, fliape, and complexion y but the Gaures,
or ancient Perfians, are homely, ill-draped, and clumfy,
with a rough (kin, and olive complexions. Iri fome
provinces, not only the complexions but the conftitutions
of the inhabitants, fuffef greatly by the extreme heat
and unwholefomenefs of the air. .1 he Perlian women,
too, are generally handfome and well-fliaped, but much
inferior to thofe of Georgia and Circaffia. 1 he men
wear large turbans on their heads, fome of them very
rich, interwoven with gold and filver y a veft, girt with
a faffi; and over it a loofe garment, fomething ftiorter 5
with fandals, or flippers, on their feet. When they
ride, which they do every day, if it be but to a houfe in
the fame town, they wear pliant boots of yellow lea¬
ther y the furniture of their horfes is extremely rich, and
the ftirrups generally of filver : whether on horfeback
or on foot, they wear a broad fword and a dagger in
their faftr. The drefs of the women does not differ
much from that of the men y only their vefts are longer,
and they wear ftiffened caps on their heads, and their
hair down.
With refpeft to outward behaviour, fays an intelli¬
gent traveller, “ The Perfians are certainly the Pari-
fians of the Eaft. Whilft a rude and infolent demeanor
peculiarly marks the character of the Turkilh nation to¬
wards foreigners and Chriftians, the behaviour of the
Perfians would, on the contrary, do honour to the moft
civilized nations: they are kind, courteous, civil, and
obliging, to all ftrangers, without being guided by thofe
religious prejudices fo very prevalent in every other Ma-.
hometan nation y they are fond of inquiring after the
manners and cuftoms of Europe, and in return very rea¬
dily afford any information in refpeft to their own coun¬
try. The pra&ice of hofpitality is with them fo grand
a point, that a man thinks himfelf highly honoured if
you will enter his houfe and partake of what the family
affords y whereas, going out of a houfe without fmoking
a calean, or taking any other refrefhment, is deemed in
Perfia a high affront.”
6 Their
Perfi*,
Perlu
S3
Anecdotes
af their re-
I; yon.
PER [ ,
Their ufua] drink is vater and iherbet, as in other
Mahometan countries, wine being prohibited ; but of
all Mahometan nations they pay the lead regard to this
prohibition. Many of them drink wine publicly, and
almoft all of them in private (excepting thofe who have
performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and ecclefiaftics) :
they alfo are very liable to be quarrelfome when ine¬
briated, which is often attended with fatal confequences.
They eat opium, but in much lefs quantities than the
Turks 5 and indeed in every thing they fay or do, eat
or drink, they make a point to be as different from this
nation as poffible, whom they deteft to a man, beyond
meafure ; efteeming Jews and Chriflians fuperior to
them, and much nearer to falvation.
Every one knows, that the religion of the Perfians is
Mahometan ; and that they are of the fe£t of Ali, for
whom they entertain the molt extravagant veneration.
Mr Francklin heard one of his guides on the road re¬
prove another for the expreflion 0 God ! 0 Ali! “ No,
no (faid his zealous companion), Ali firjl, Godfecond !”
This attachment is the fource of their hatred to the
Turks, and of many ftrange cuftoms among 4hemfelves,
which we have not room to enumerate ; a few, however,
mult be mentioned.
_ “ Their mode of living is as follows : They always
rife at daybreak, in order to perform their devotions.
Their firft prayer is denominated numax foobh, or the
morning prayer ; it is faid before funrife, after which
they eat a flight meal called nd/hta, or breakfaft ; this
confifls of grapes, or any other fruits of the feafon, with
a little bread, and cheefe made wf goats milk ; they af¬
terwards drink a cup of very ftrong coffee without milk
or fugar ; then the calean or pipe is introduced. The
Perflans, from the higheft to the loweft ranks, all fmoke
tobacco.
“ I'heir fecond hour of prayer is called nitmax z-ohur,
or mid-day prayer, and is always repeated when the fun
declines from the meridian. Their dinner, or chajht,
which is foon after this prayer, confifls of curds, bread,
and fruits of various kinds j animal food not being ufual
at this meal,
“ The third hour of prayer is called numa% dfur, or
the afternoon prayer, faid about four o’clock.
“ The fourth hour of prayer is numaz. Jhdm, or even¬
ing prayer, which is faid after funfet ; when this is fi-
nilhed, the Perfians eat their principal meal, called
Jhdmi or fupper. This generally confifls of a pilau,
dreffed with rich meat fauces, and highly feafoned with
various fpices : fometimes they eat hibadb or roafl meat.
When the meal is ready, a fervant brings notice there¬
of, and at the fame time prefents a ewer and water-;
they then wafh their hands, which is an invariable cu-
ftom with the Perfians both before and after eating.
They eat very quick, conveying their food to their
mouths with their fingers ; the ufe of knives and forks
being unknown in Perfia. Sherbets of different forts* are
introduced, and the meal concludes with a defert of de¬
licious fruits. The fupper being finifhed, the family fit
m a circle, and entertain each other by relating plea-
fant ftories (of which they are exceffively fond), and
alfo by repeating paffages from the works of their molt
favourite poet?, and amuftng themfelves at various
kinds of games. The fifth and laft prayer is ftyled
numa% ctkiiir, the laft prayer ; or .fometimes numa% jheb^
Perfia
Perlica.
67 ] PER
or the night prayer, repeated about an hour after fop-
per.”
I he moft remarkable law among the Perfians refpefls
marriage. A man may divorce his wife when he choofes, gj ’
without aligning any other reafon for the divorce than Rcmark-
that it is his pleafure. If he fhould change his mind,abIe la^'
he may again marry her, divorce her a fecond time, and refpe-<fting
a third time marry her; but here this privilege flops. m£rn“8r‘
No man is allowed to marry the Woman whom he has
thrice divorced. A widow is obliged to mourn four
months for her deceafed hufband before fhe can be mar¬
ried to another ; but a concubine may form a new con¬
nexion the inftant that her keeper expires.
At the naming of children in Perfia, Mr Francklin Ceremony
informs us that the following ceremony is obferved : of naming
“ The third or fourth day after the child is born, thetheir cbd'
friends and relations of the woman svha has lain-in af-dre8’
femble at her houfe, attended by mufic and dancing
girls hired for the occafion ; after playing and dancing
fome time, a mullah or prieft is introduced, who, taking
the child in his arms, demands of the mother what name
flie ehoofes the infant fliould be called by ; being told,
he begins praying, and after a-fhort time applies his
mouth clofe to the child’s ear, and tells him diftinXly
three times (calling him by name) to remember and be
obedient to his father and mother, to venerate his Ko¬
ran and his prophet, to abftain from thofe things which
are unlawful, and to praXife thofe things which are
good and virtuous. Having repeated the Mahometan
profeflion of faith, he then redelivers the child to his
mother ; after which the company are entertained w’ith 4
fweetmeats and other refrefhments, a part of which the
females prefent always take care to carry away in their
pockets, believing it to be the infallible means of their
having offspring themfelves.”
1 he Perfians excel more in poetry than any other fort Intelledlurft •
of literature ; and aftrologers are now in as great repu- excellence#
tation in Perfia as the magi were formerly. Their
books are all manuferipts, the art of printing having not
yet been introduced among them : they excel indeed in
writing, and have eight different hands. They write
from the right hand to the left, as the Arabs do. la 4
their fhort hand, they ufe the letters of the alphabet ;
and the fame letters, differently pointed, will have 20
different fignifieations. In fhort, the Perfians are born .
with as good natural parts as any people in the Eail,
but make a bad ufe of them ; being great diffemblers,
cheats, liars, and flatterers, and having a ftrong pro-
penfity to voluptuoufnels, luxury, idlenefs, and indo¬
lence ; vices indeed to which the Afiaticsin general are -
much addiXed.
PERSIAN wheel. See Hydrodynamics.
PERSIC A, the Peach, is by Linnaeus referred to *
the fame clafs and genus with amygdalus. There is a
great variety of peach trees planted in the gardens, fome
of which are preferved only for the beauty of their
flowers, but moft of them for the fake of the fruit. Of
thofe remarkable for the' beauty of their flowers the
principal are; 1. The vulgaris, or common peach-tree,
with double flowers, which is a very great ornament in
gardens, producing very large double flowers of a beau¬
tiful red or purple colour, and growing to a confider-
able fize. 2. The humilis, or dwarf-almond. 3. The
africana, or double-flowering dwarf-almond. .. Thefe
two »
'Feme a
II
Perfimon.
P E 11 [ 168
two reach not above the height of three or fom: feet,
though their flowers are of equal beauty iMti
^Sfthe peach-trees cultivated for the fake of their fruit
there is a great number. They are railed from the flones
of the fruit, which fliould be planted in autumn on a
bed of light, dry earth, about three inches deep and
four inches afunder. In the winter the beds fliould be
covered with mulch to protect them from he troft. In
this bed they fhould remain for a year-, when they are
to be taken up and planted in a nurfery where they are
to remain one or two years-, after which they muft b
removed to the places where they are to continue.
PERSIC ARIA. See Polygonum, Botany
PERSICUS SINUS, in Ancient Geography, (Mela,
Pliny); a part of the fea which the Romans called
Mare Ruhr urn, and the Greeks Mare Erythraum;
walking Arabia Felix on the eaft, between which and
Carmania, entering into the land, it waflies Perfia on
the fouth. Its large mouth confifts of ftraight fides,
like a neck, and then the land retiring equally a vaft
way, and the fea furrounding it in a large com pals of
fhore, there is exhibited the figure of a human head
fMela). Theophraftus calls this bay Sinus Arabicus, a
name it equally claims with Perftcus, only for diftinc-
tion fake Perficus is appropriated to it by others.
PERSIMON. See Diospyros, Botany Index.—
From the perfimon is made a very palatable liquor in the
following manner: As foon as the fruit is ripe, a iufh-
cient quantity is gathered, which is very eafy, as each
tree is well flocked with them. 1 hefe perfimon apples
are put into a dough of wheat or other flour formed in-
to cakes, and put into an oven, in which they continue
till they are quite baked and fufficiently dry, when they
are taken out again: then, in order to brew the liquor,
a pot full of water is put on the fire, and lome of the
cakes are put in: thefe become foft by degrees as the
water grows warm, and crumble in pieces at lalt-, tie
pot is then taken from the fire, and the water m it well
ftirred about, that the cakes may mix with it: _ this is
then poured into another veflel, and they continue to
fleep and break as many cakes as are necefiary for a
brewing: the malt is then infufed, and they proceed as
ufual with the brewing. Beer thus prepared is reckon¬
ed much preferable to other beer. They likewiie make
brandy of this fruit in the following manner : having
collected a fufficient quantity of perfimons m autumn,
they are altogether put into a veffel, where they lie for
a week till they are quite foft: then they pour water on
them, and in that Hate they are left to ferment of them-
felves, without promoting the fermentation by any addi¬
tion ' The brandy is then made in the common way,
and’is faid to be very good, Specially if grapes (in par¬
ticular of the fweet fort), which are wild in the woods,
be mixed with the perfimon fruit. Some perfimons are
rioe at the end of September, but mold of them later,
and fome not before November and December, when
the cold fir ft: overcomes their, acrimony. The wood of
this tree is very good for joiners inftruments, fuch as
planes, handles to chifels, &c. but if after , being cut
down it lies expofed to funftiine and rain, it is the fine
wood which rots, and in a year’s time there is nothing
left but what is ufelefs. When the perfimon trees get
once into a field, they are not eafily got out of it again,
as they fpread much.
] P E 11
PERSI3, a Roman lady, whom St Paul falutes m
his epiftle to the Romans (xvi. I2.), and whom he calls
his beloved filler. He fays ihe has laboured much   
for the Lord, and ftill labours. Nothing elie ot her
life is come to our knowledge, nor. do we know that ftie
is honoured by any church j which is fomet.nng 1m-
§UPERSIUS Flaccus, Aulus, a Latin poet in the
reign of Nero, celebrated for his fatires. He was bom,
according to fome, at Volterra in 1 ufcany j and ac¬
cording to others, at Tigulia, in the gulf Della bpecia,
in the year 34. He was educated till 12 years old at
Volterra-, and afterwards continued hislludies at Rome
under Palsemonthe grammarian, Virginius the rhetori¬
cian, and Cornutus the Stoic philofopher, who contracted
a friendlhip for him. Periiu.s confulted that illuftrious
friend in the compofition of his verfes. Lucian alio ftu-
died with him under Cornutus j and appeared fo charm¬
ed with his verfes, that he was inceffantly breaking out
into acclamations at the beautiful paflages in his latires.
an example rarely feen in poets of equal rank. He was
a fteady friend, a good fon, an affedtionate brother and
parent. He was ehafte, meek, and modeft: which
(hows howT wrong it is to judge of a man’s morals by his
writings; for the fatires of Perfius are not only licen¬
tious, but (harp and full of bitternefs. He wrote but
feldom; and it was fome time before he applied himteli
regularly to it. . . , ,, , . ,
Perfius was of a weak conftitution, and. troubled with
a bad ftomach, which was the caufe of his death in the
30th year of his age. Six of his fatires remain; in their
judgments of which the critics have been much divided,
excepting as to their obfeurity, Perfius being indeed the
moft obfeure of all the Latin poets. As a poet, he is
certainly inferior to Horace and Juvenal; and all the
labours of Ifaac Caufabon, who has written a moft learn¬
ed and elaborate commentary upon him, cannot .make
him equal to either of them as a fatirift, though in vir¬
tue and learning he exceeded them both. He was a
profeffed imitator of Horace; yet had little of Horace s
wit, eafe, and talent at ridicule. His ftyle is.grand, fi¬
gurative, poetical, and fuitable to. the dignity of the
Stoic philofophy: and hence he ihines moft in recom¬
mending virtue and integrity : here it is that fatire be¬
comes him. He was too grave to court the muies with
fuccefs: but he had a great foul, fufceptible of noble
fentiments, which give a grace but to indifferent poetry.
His cotemporaries thought highly of him. Quintilian
allows, that Perfius, although he wrote but one book
of fatires, acquired a great deal of true glory, Multum
et verts glorice quamvis uno hbro Perfius meruit: and
Martial fays much the fame thing, Sapms in hbro me-
moratur Perfius uno, &c. .
PERSON, an individual fubftance of a rational in¬
telligent nature. Thus we fay, an ambaffador reprefents
the perfon of his prince; and that, inlaw, the father
and fon are reputed the fame peifon.
The word perfon, perfona, is thought to be. borrow ed
ii perfon undo, from perlonating or counterfeiting; and
is fuppofed to have ftrft fignified a mafk: bccaufe, as
Boethius informs us, in larva concavafonus volvatur;
and hence the a&ors who appeared malked on the ftage
were fometimes called larvati and fometimes perfonati.
He likewife fays, that as the feveral adors reprefented
each a Angle indvidual perfon, viz. Oedipus, or Chromes,
0 ' or
Perfrt
II
Perion.
PER [ ,
Perfon. or Hecuba, or Medea ; for this reafon, other people,
)JerlQnil!~ who were at the fame time diftinguilhed by fomething
in their form, character, &c whereby they might be
known, came likewife to be called by the Latins y^/o-
rue, and by the Greeks Again, as aditors
rarely reprefented any but great and illuitrious charac¬
ters, the word came at length to import the mind, as
being that whole difpofitions conltitute the charafter.
And thus men, angels, and even God himfelf, were
cant'd perfons. Things merely corporeal, as a ftone, a
plant, or a horfe, were called hypo/iafes or fuppqfita, but
never perfons. Hence t he learned fuppofe, that the fame
name perfon came to be ufed to fignify fome dignity,
whereby * perfon is dillinguifhed from another; as a fa¬
ther, hufband, judge, magiftrate, &c. In this fenfe ive
are to underhand that of Cicero : “ Caefar never fpeaks
of Pompey, but in terms of h.-nour and refpefl : he does
many hard and injurious things, however, againft his
perfon.”
Perfon we have already defined to mean an individual
fubflance of a reafonable nature. Now a thing may be
individual two ways : i. Logically, becaufe it cannot
be predicated of any other ; as Cicero, Plato, &c.
1. Phyfically; in which fenfe a drop of water, feparated
from the ocean, may be called an individual. Perfon
is an individual nature in each of thefe fenfes ; logically,
according to Boethius, becaufe perfon is not fpoken of
univerfals, but only of fingulars and individuals ; we do
not fay the perfon of an animal or a man, but of Cicero
and Plato : and pbyfically, fince Socrates’s hand or foot
are never confidered as perfons. This lall kind of indi¬
vidual is denominated two ways : pofitively, when the
perfon is faid to be the whole principle of afting ; for
to whatever thing attion is attributed, that the philofo-
phers call a perfon : and negatively, as when we fay,
with the Fhomifts, &c. that a perfon confifts in this,
that it does not exifl in another as a more perfefl being.
Thus a man, though he confifls of two different things,
riz. body and fpirit, is not two perfons ; becaufe neither
part of itfelf is a complete principle of adlion, but one
perfon, fince the manner of his confiding of body and
fpirit is fuch as conflitutes one whole principle of a6Hon *,
nor does he exift in any other as a more perfeft being;
as, for example, Socrates’s foot does in Socrates, or a
drop of water in the ocean.
Person, in Grammar, a term applied to fuch nouns
or pronouns as‘, being either prefixed or underftood, are
the nominatives in all inflexions of a verb ; or it is the
agent or patient in all finite or perfonal verbs. See
Grammar.
PERSONAL, any thing that concerns, or is re-
ftrained to, the perfon : thus it is a maxim in ethics,
that all faults are perfonal.
PERSONAL Anion, in Law, is an aXion levied di-
reXly and folelv againft the perfon, in oppofition to a
real or mixed aXion. See Action.
PERSONAL Goods, or Chattels, in Law, fignifies any
moveable thing belonging to a perfon, whether alive or
dead. See Chattels.
Personal Identity See Metaphysics, Part III.
Chap. iii.
PERSONAL Verb, in Grammar, a verb conjugated
in all the three perfons ; thus called in oppofition to an
imperfonal verb, or that which has the third perfon
-only.
Vol. XVI. Part I,
69 ] PER
PERSONALITY, in the fehools, is that which
conftitutes an individual a diftinX perfon.
PERSONA 1 Ai, is the name of the 40th order in
Linnaeus’s Fragments of a Natural Method, confiding
of a number of plants whofe flowers are furnifhed with
an irregular gaping or grinning petal, which in figure
fomewhat refemblcs the fnout of an animal, i he bulk
of the genera of this natural order arrange themfelves
under the clafs and order didynamia angiofpermia of the
Sexual Method.
_ The reft, although they cannot enter into the artifi¬
cial clafs juft mentioned, for want of the claftic charac¬
ter, the inequality of the ftamina ; yet, in a natural me¬
thod, which admits of greater latitude, may be arranged
with thofe plants which they refemble in their habit and
general appearance, and particularly in the circumftan-
ces expreffed in that title.
PERSONIFYING, or Personalizing, the giviiig*
an inanimate being •the figure, fentiments, and language
of a perfon.
Dr Blair, in his LeXures on Rhetoric, gives this ac¬
count of perfonification. “ It is a figure, the ufe o£
which is very extenfive, and its foundation laid deep in
human nature. At firft view, and when confidered ab-
ftraXly, it would appear to be a figure of the utmoft
boldnefs, and to border on the extravagant and ridicu¬
lous. For what can feem more remote from the track
of reafonable thought, than to fpeak of ftones and trees,
and fields and rivers, as if they were living creatures,
and to attribute to them thought and fenfation, affec¬
tions and aXions ? One might imagine this to be no
more than childifti conceit, which no perfon of tafte
could relifh. In faX, however, the cafe is verv differ¬
ent. No fuch ridiculous effeX is produced by perfonifi¬
cation when properly employed ; on the contrary, it is
found to be natural and agreeable, nor is any very un¬
common degree of paflion required in order to make us
relifh it. All poetry, even in its moft gentle and hum¬
ble forms, abounds with it. From profe it F far from
being excluded ; nay, in common converfation, verv
frequent approaches are made to it. When we fay, the
ground thir/ls for rain, or the earth fmiles with plenty;
when we fpeak of ambition’s being reflefs, or a difeafe
being deceitful; fuch expreflions ftiow the facility with
which the mind can accommodate the properties of liv¬
ing creatures to things that are inanimate, or to abftraX
conceptions of its own forming.
“ Indeed, it is very remarkable, that there is a won¬
derful pronenefs in human nature to animate all objeXs.
Whether this arife* from a fort of aftlmilating principle,
from "a propenfion to fpread a refemblance of ourfelves
over all other things, or from whatever other caufe it
arifes, fo it is, that almoft every emotion which in the
leaft agitates the mind beftows upon its objeX a mo¬
mentary idea of life. Let a man, by an unwary fteps
fprain his ankle, or hurt his foot upon a ftone, and in
the ruffled difcompofed moment he will fometimes feel
himfelf difpofed to break the ftone in pieces, or to utter
paflionate expreflions againft it, as if it had done him an
injury. If one has been long accuftomed to a certain
fet of objeXs, which have made a ftrong impreflion on
his imagination ; as to a houfe, where he has paffed ma¬
ny agreeable years ; or to fields, and trees, and moun¬
tains, among which he has often walked with the great-
eft delight; when he is obliged to part with them, efpe-
V cially
Perfotnlitv
II. '
I erfonify-
/
PER
[ 170 J
PER
Perfonify- dally if he has no profped of ever feeing them again,
ing- he can fearce avoid liaving fomewhat of the fame ieel-
inCT as when he is leaving old friends. They feem en¬
dowed with life. They became objects ot his affe&ien j
and, in the moment of his parting, it fcarce feems ab-
furd to him to give vent to his feeling in words, and to
take a formal adieu. .
“ So ftrong is that impreffion of life which is made
upon us, by the more magnificent and ftriking objefts
of nature efpecially, that 1 doubt not in the lead of this
having been one eaufe of the multiplication of divinities
in the heathen world. The belief of dryads and naiads,
of the genius of the wood and the god of the river,
among men of lively imaginations, in the early ages o
the world, eafily arofe from this turn of mind. When
their favourite rural objects had often been animated in
their fancy, it was an eafy tranfition to attribute to them
fome real divinity, fome unfeen power or genius which
inhabited them, or in fome peculiar manner belonged to
them. Imagination was highly gratified, by thusgain-
ino- fomewhat to red upon with more dability j and
when belief coincided fo much with imagination, very
flight caufes would be fuflicient to eflablilh it.
“ From this deduction may be eafily feen how it
comes to pafs that perfonification makes fo great a fi¬
gure in all compofitions where imagination or. paffion
have any concern. On innumerable oecafions it is the
very language of imagination and paflion-, and therefore
deferves to be attended to, and examined with peculiar
care. There are three different degrees of this, figure,
which it is neceffary to remark and diftinguifh, in order
to determine the propriety of its ufe. X he fird is, when
fome of the properties or qualities of living creatures are
afcribed to inanimate objeas •, the fecond, when thofe
inanimate objeas are introduced as aaing like fuch as
have life and the third, when they are reprefented ei¬
ther as fpeaking to us, or as lidening to what we fay
to them.” .
The ingenious profeffor goes on to mvedigate the na¬
ture of perfonification at confiderable length. We fhall Perfonify.
give his caution for the ufe of it in profe compofitions, t in£‘ ,
in which he informs us this figure requires to be ufed
with great moderation and delicacy. “ The lame li¬
berty is not allowed to the imagination there as m
poetry. The fame afliftances cannot be obtained for
raifing paflion to its proper height by the force of num¬
bers and the glow of Ayle. However, addrefles to ina¬
nimate objetls are not excluded from profe j but have
their place only in the higher fpecies of oratory. A
public fpeaker may on fome occafions very properly ad-
drefs religion or virtue ; or his native country, or fome
city or province, which has differed perhaps great cala.
mities, or been the fcene of fome memorable atfion.
But we mud remember, that as fuch addreffes are among
the highed efforts of eloquence, they diould never be. at¬
tempted unlefs by perfons of more than ordinary genius:
for if the orator fails in his defign of moving our paf-
fions by them, he is lure of being laughed at. Of all
frigid things, the mod frigid are the awkward and un-
feafonable attempts lometimes made towards fuch kinds
of perfonification, efpecially if they be long continued.
We fee the writer or fpeaker toiling and labouring to
exprefs the language of fome paffion whieh.he neither
feels himfelf nor can make us feel. We remain not only
cold but frozen } and are at full leifure to criticid on
the ridiculous figure which the perfonified objeft makes,
when we ought to have been tranfported with a glow of
• enthufiafm. Some of the French writers, particularly
Boffuet and Flechier, in their fermon.s and funeral ora¬
tions, have attempted and executed this figure, not with-
out warmth and dignity. Their works are exceedingly
worthy of being confulted for inftances of this and of fe-
veral other ornaments of dyle. Indeed the vivacity and
ardour of the French genius is more Anted to this bold
fpecies of oratory, than the more correct but lefs anima¬
ted genius of the Britiftr, who in their profe works
very rarely attempt any of the high figures of elo¬
quence.”
PER S PE
PERSPECTIVE is the art of drawing on a plane
furface true refemblances or pi&ures of objeas, as
the objeas themfelves appear to the eye from any di-
ftance^and fituation, real or imaginary.
It was in the 16th century that PerJpeSiive was.re-
vived, or rather reinvented. It owes its birth to paint¬
ing, and particularly to that branch of it which was em¬
ployed in the decorations of the theatre, where land-
fcapes were properly introduced, and which would have
looked unnatural and horrid if the fize of the objeas
had not been pretty nearly proportioned to their didance
from the eye. We learn from Vitruvius, that Agathar-
chus, indruaed by jEfchylus, was the fird who wrote
upon this fubjea and that afterwards the principles
of the art were more didinaiy taught by Democritus
and Anaxagoras, the difciples of Agatharchus. Of
the theory of this art, as defcribed by them, we know
nothing; fince none of their writings have efcaped
the general wreck that was made of ancient literature
in the dark ages of Europe. However, the revival of
C T I V E.
painting in Italy was accompanied with a revival of this
art.
The fird perfon who attempted to lay down the rules,
of perfpeflive was Pietro del Borgo, an Italian. He
fuppofed objects to be 'placed beyond a tranfparent ta¬
blet, and endeavoured to trace the images which rays of
light, emitted from them, would make upon it. But
we do not knowr what fuecefs he had in this attempt,
becaufe the book which he wrote upon the fubjedf
not now extant. It is, however, very much commend¬
ed by the famous Egnazio Dante; and, upon the prin¬
ciples of Borgo, Albert Durer condrudled a machine,
by which he could trace the perfpe&ive appearance of
objedls.
Balthazar Perudi dudied the writings of Borgo, and
endeavoured to make them more intelligible. 1 o nirti
we owe the difeovery of points of didance, to which
all lines that make an angle of 4 5'degrees with the
ground-line are drawn. A little time after, Guido U-
balni, another Italian, found that ail the lines that are-
parallel
PERSPECTIVE.
parallel to one another, if they be inclined to the ground¬
line, converge to feme point in the horizontal line *, and
that through this point alfo, a line drawn from the eye,
parallel to them, will pafs. Thefe principles put to¬
gether enabled him to make out a pretty complete theory
of perfpe&ive.
Great improvements were made in the rules of per-
fpe^live by fubfequent geometricians; particularly by
Profeifor Gravefende, and ftili more by Dr Brooke Tay¬
lor, whofe principles are in a great nuafure new, and
far more general than any before him.
In order to underitand the principles of perfpeflive,
it will be proper to confider the plane on which the
reprefentation is to be made as tranfparent, and inter-
pofed between the eye of the fpeftator and the objedl
to be reprefented. Thus, fuppofe a perfon at a win¬
dow looks through an upright pane of glafs at any
obje<51 beyond it, and, keeping his head Heady, draws
the figure of the objeft upon the glafs with a black
lead pencil, as if the point of the pencil touched the
objeft itfelf; he would then have a true reprefenta¬
tion of the objeft in perfpe&ive as it appears to his
eye.
In order to this two things are neceffary : firft, that
the glafs be laid over with Hrong gum water, which,
when dry, will be fit for drawing upon, and will retain
the traces of the pencil : and, fecondly, that he looks
through a fmall hole in a thin plate of metal, fixed about
a foot from the glafs, between it and his eye, and that
he keeps his eye clofe to *he hole ; otherwife he might
Ihift the pofition of his head, and confequently make a
falfe delineation of the obje£t.
Having traced out the figure of the objefl, he may
go over it again with pen and ink ; and when that is
dry, put a (beet of paper upon it, and trace It thereon
with a pencil: then taking away the paper and laying
it on a table, he may finifh the picture by giving it the
colours, lights, and (hades, as he fees them in the obje£I
itfelf; and then he will have a true refemblance of the
objeft.
To every perfon who has a general knowledge of
the principles of optics, this mull be felf-evident: For
as vifion is occafioned by pencils of rays coming in
ftraight lines to the eye from every point of the vilible
object, it is plain that, by joining the points in the
tranfparent plane, through which all thofe pencils re-
fpefiively pafs, an exadl reprefentation muft be formed
of the objeft, as it appears to the eye in that particular
pofition, and at that determined diilance ; and were pic¬
tures of things to be always firft drawn on tranfparent
planes, this fimple operation, with the principle on
which it is founded, would comprife the whole theory
and prafHce of perfpe<flrve» As this, however, is far
from being the cafe, rules muft be deduced from the
fciences of optics and geometry for drawing reprefenta-
tions of vifible objects on opaque planes; and the appli¬
cation of thefe rules conftitutes what is properly called
ihe art of perfpe(ftive.
Previous to our laying down the fundamental prin¬
ciples of this art, it may not be improper to oblerve,
that when a perfon (lands right againfl the middle of
one end of a long avenue or walk, which is ftraight and
equally broad throughout, the fides thereof feem to ap¬
proach nearer and nearer to each other as they are fur¬
ther and further from his eye ; or the angles, under
which their different parts are feen, become lefs and lefs
according as the diftance from his eye increafes; and if
the avenue be very long, the (ides of it at the fartheft
end will feem to meet: and there an object that would
cover the whole breadth of the avenue, and be of a
height equal to that breadth, would appear only to be a
mere point.
Having made thele preliminary obfervations, we now
proceed to the pradlice of perfpeilive, which is built up¬
on the following
{Fundamental} THEOREM I.
Let abed (fig. I.) reprefent the ground-plan of the Plate
figure to be thrown into perfpedlive, and efgh the CTrcX.
tranfparent plane through which it is viewed by the eye I*
at E. Let thefe planes interled in the llraight line
KL. Let B be any point in the ground-plan, and BE
a ftraight line, the path of a ray of light from that
point to the eye. This will pafs through the plane
e f g h in fume point b ; or B will be leen through that
point, and b will be the picture, image, or reprefenta¬
tion of B.
If BA be drawn in the ground-plan, making any
angle BAK with the common infcerleftion, and EV
be drawn parallel to it, meeting the picture-plane or
perfpefiive-plvine in V, and VA be drawn, the point b
is in the line VA fo fituated that BA is to EV as £ A
to £V.
For fince EV and BA are parallel, the figure
B A£VE b B is in one plane, cutting the perfpedtive-
plane in the ftraight line VA ; the triangles B A£, EV
are (imilar, and BA : EV=Z> A : £ V.
Cor. I. If B be beyond the picture, its pi&ure b
is above the interfeftion KL ; but if B be between the
eye and the pi&ure, as at B', its picture b' is below
KL.
2. If two other parallel lines BA7, ES, be drawn,
and A', S, be joined, the pifture of B is in the interfec-
tion of the lines AV and A'S.
3. The fine BA is reprefented by £ A, or £ A is the
pidlure of BA ; and if AB be infinitely extended, it
will be reprefented by AV. V is therefore called the
vanijhing point of the line AB.
4. All lines parallel to AB are reprefented by lines
converging to V from the points where thefe lines in-
terfeft the perfpeftive-plane ; and therefore V is the
vaniOiing point of all fuch partdlel lines.
5. The pictures of all lines parallel to the perfpe&ive- jrjg „
plane are parallel to the lines themfelves.
6 If through V be drawn HVO parallel to KL, the Fig. 1.
angle EVH is equal to BAK.
Remark. The propofition now demonftrated is not
limited to any inclination of the pi£!ure-plane to the
ground-plane ; but it is ufual to confider them as per¬
pendicular to each other, and the ground-plane as ho¬
rizontal. Hence the line KL is called \he ground-line,
and OH the horizon-line; and OK, perpendicular to
both, is called the height of the eye.
If ES be drawn perpendicular to the pi&ure-plane,
it will cut it in a point S of the horizon-line diredlly
oppofite to the eye. This is called the point of fight, ot
principal point.
Y z
7. The-
172
Fig- 3
PERSPECTIVE.
7. The pictures of all vertical lines are vertical,
and the pictures of horizontal lines are horizontal,
becaufe thefe lines are parallel to the perfpeftive
plane- . . . r n
8. The point of fight S is the vanifiling point 01 all
lines perpendicular to the perfpeftive plane.
The above propofition is a fufficient foundation for
the whole practice of perfpedtive, whether on diredl or
inclined piftures, and ferves to fuggeft all the various
practical conftru£tions, each of which has advantages
which fuit particular purpofes. Writers on the fubjeft
have either confined themfeives to one conftrudtion,
from an affiliation of fimplicity or fondnefs for fyfiem *,
or have multiplied precepts, by giving every conftruc-
lion for every example, in order to make a great book,
and give the fubjeft an appearance of importance and
difficulty. An "ingenious practitioner will avoid both
extremes, and avail himfelf of the advantage of each
conftru&ion as it happens to fuit his purpofe. We fiiall
now proceed to the practical rules, which require no
confideration of interfeaing planes, and are all perform¬
ed on the perfpeCtive plane by means of certain fubfti-
tutions for the place of the eye and the original figure.
The general fubftitution is as follows:
Let the plane of the paper be firft fuppofed to be
the ground-plan, and the fpeftator to Hand at i
(fig. 3.). Let it be propofed that the ground-plan is
to be reprefented on a plane furface, Handing perpen¬
dicularly on the line GKL of the plan, and that the
point K is immediately oppofite to the fpeclator,
or that FK is perpendicular to GL : then FK is
equal to the diftance of the fpeftator’s eye from the -
pidure.
Now fuppofe a piece of paper laid on the plan with
its ftraight edge lying on the line GL ; draw on
this paper KS perpendicular to GL, and make it
equal to the height of the eye above the ground-plan.
This may be much greater than the height of a man,
becaufe the fpeClator may be {landing on a place much
raifed above the ground-plan. Obferve alfo that KS
muft be meafured on the fame fcale on which the
ground-plan and the diftance FK were meafured.. Then
draw HSO parallel to GL. I his will be a horizontal
line, and (when the piclure is fet upright on GL) will
be on a level with the fpeClator’s eye, and the point S
will be direClly oppofite to his eye. It is therefore call¬
ed the principal point, or point of fight. The diftance of
his eye from this point will be equal to FK. Therefore
make SP (in the line'SK) equal to FK, and P is the
projecting point or fuhftitute for the place of the eye.
It is fometimes convenient to place P above S, fome-
times to one fide of it on the horizontal line, and in va¬
rious other fituations; and writers, ignorant of,. or in¬
attentive to, the principles of the theory, have given it
different denominations, fuch as point of dijlance, point
of view, &c. It is merely a fubftitute for the point E
in fig. I. and its moft natural fituation is below, as in
th is figure.
The art of perfpeClive is conveniently divided into
Ichnography, which teaches how to make a perfpec-
tive draught of figures on a plane, commonly called the
ground-plan •, and Scenography, which teaches how
to draw fplid figures, or fuch figures as are raifed above
this plan.
Fundamental Pros. I. To put into perfpe&he any given
point of the ground-plan.
Firft general conftruClion.
From B and P (fig. 3.) draw any two parallel lines Fig y
BA, PV, cutting the ground-line and horizon-line in A
and V, and draw BP, AV, cutting each other in £ ,■ 6
is the piClure of B.
For it is evident that BA, PV, of this figure are ana¬
logous to BA and EV of fig. x. and that BA . P\ —
b A-. b V.
If BA' be drawn perpendicular to GL, PV will fall
on PS, and need not be drawn. A'V will be A'S.——
This is the moft eafy conftruCtion, and nearly the fame
with Fergufon’s.
Second general conftruClion.
Draw two lines BA, BA^, and two lines P\ , I D,
parallel to them, and draw AV, A^D, cutting eacu
other m b \ b va the piClure of B by Cor. 2.—I his con¬
ftruClion is the foundation of all the rules of perfpeClive
that are to be found in the books on this fubjeCl. I hey
appear in a variety of forms, owing to the ignorance or
inattention of the authors to the principles. 1 he rule
moft generally adhered to is as follows :
Draw BA (fig. 4-) perpendicular to the ground
line, and AS to the point of fight, and fet off A /3 equal
to BA. Set off SD equal to the diftance of the eye
in the oppofite direClion from S that /3 is from A,
where B and E of fig. I. are on oppofite fides of the
piClure ; otherwife fet them the fame way. D is called
the point of diftance. Draw £ D, cutting AS in b.
This is evidently equivalent to drawing BA' and PS
perpendicular to the ground-line and horizon-line, and
BA" and PD (fig. 3.) making an angle of 450 with
thefe lines, with the additional puzzle about the way of
fetting off A'A" and SD, which is avoided in the con- ^
ftruClion here given.
This ufual conftruClion, however, by a perpendicular
and the point of diftance, is extremely fimple and con¬
venient and two points of diftance, one on each fide of
S, ferve for all points of the ground plan. But the firft
general conftruClion requires ftill fewer lines, if BA be
drawn perpendicular to GL, beesufe PV will then co¬
incide with PS.
Third general conftruClion.
Draw BA (fig. 4.) from the given point B perpen-Fig. 4.
dicular to the ground-line, and AS to the point of fight.
From the point of diftance D fet off D d equal to LA,
on the fame or the contrary fides as S, according as B is
on the fame or the contrary fide of the piClure as the eye.
Join d. A, and draw D b parallel to d A. b is the pic¬
ture of B. For SD, D d, are equal to the diftances of
the eye and given point from the piClure, and SD : D</
—b S : b A.
This conftruClion does not naturally arife from the
original lines, hut is a geometrical confequence from
their pofition and magnitude •, and it is of all others the
moft generally convenient, as the perpendicular dillanoes
of any number of points may be arranged along SD
without confufion, and their direCl fituations transferred
to the ground-line by perpendiculars luch as BA $ and
nothing.
Fig- 5-
Fig. 6.
% 7-
Fig. 8.
PERSPECTIVE.
nothing is eafier than drawing parallels, either by a pa¬
rallel ruler or a bevel fquare, ufed by all who pradtife
drawing. *
Prob. 2. To put anif Jlrnight line BC (fig. j.) of the
ground plan in perfpecHvc.
Find the pictures Z>, c, of its extreme points by any of
the foregoing conifrudlions, and join them by the ftraight
line be.
Perhaps the following conftrudfion will be found very
generally convenient.
Produce CB till it meet the ground-line in A, and
draw PV parallel to it ; join AV, and draw PB, PC,
cutting AV in b, c. V is its vanilhing point, by Cor. 3.
of the fundamental theorem.
It muft be left to the experience and fagacity of the
drawer to feledl: fuch circumftances as are moll fuitable
to the multiplicity of the figures to be drawn.
Prob. 3. To put any re&ilinealfgure of the ground-plan
in perfpeSlive.
Put the bounding lines in perfpedlive, and the pro¬
blem is folved.
The variety of conftrudtions of this problem is very
great, and it would fill a volume to give them all.
The moil generally convenient is to find the vanilhing
points of the bounding lines, and conned! thefe with
the points of their interfedlion with the ground line.
For example, to put the fquare ABCD (fig. 6.) into
perfpedtive.
Draw from the projecting point PV, PW, parallel to
AB, BC, and let AB, BC, CD, DA, meet the ground¬
line, in at, *, 0, (Zy and draw « V, £ V, x W, /3 W, cutting
each other in abed, the pidture of the fquare ABCD.
The demonftration is evident.
This conlfrudlion, however, runs the figure to great
diftances on each fide of the middle line, when any of
the lines of the original figure are nearly parallel to the
ground-line.
The following conftrudlion (fig. 7.) avoids this in¬
convenience.
Let D be the point of di(lance. Draw the perpendi¬
culars A «, B /3, C x, D and the lines A e, Jhf C g,
D h, parallel to PD. Draw S *, 5/3, S S J, and D e,
Df, D^-, D h, cutting the former in a, b, c, d, the angles
of the pidlure.
It is not neceflary that D be the point of diflance,
only the lines A e, ¥>f &c. muft be parallel to PD.
Remark. In all the foregoing conftrudtions the ne¬
ceflary lines (and even the finifhed pidlure) are frequent¬
ly confounded with the original figure. To avoid this
great inconvenience, the writers on perfpedtive diredt us
to tranfpofe the figure-, that is, to transfer it to the other
fide of the ground-line, by producing the perpendiculars
A *, B /3, C x, D till cc A', /3 B', &c. are refpedtively
equal to A «, B /3, &c.; or, inflead of the original fi¬
gure, to ufe only its tranfpofed fubflitute A'B'C'Dh
This is an extremely proper method. But in this cafe
the point P mufl alfo be tranfpofed to P' above S, in
order to retain the firfl or mofl natural and fimple con-
flrudlion, as in fig. 8 ; where it is evident, that when
BA—AB', and SP=SP", and B'P' is drawn, cutting
AS in b, we have b A : b S=B'A : P'S,rrBA : PS,
and b is the pidlure of B : whence follows the truth of
all the fubfequent conftrudtions with the tranfpofed
figure.
Prob. 4. To put any curvilineal fgure on the ground-
plan into perfpeElive.
Put a fufficient number of its points in perfpedtive
by the foregoing rules, and draw a curve line through
them.
It is well known that the conic fedtions and fome
other curves, when viewed obliquely, are conic fedtions
or curves of the fame kind with the originals, with dif¬
ferent pofitions and proportions of their principal lines,
and rules may be given for deferibing their pidtures
founded on this property. But thefe rules are very va¬
rious, unconnedted with the general theory of perfpec-
tive, and more tedious in the execution, without being
more accurate than the general rule now given. It
would be a ufelefs affedtation to infert them in this ele¬
mentary treatife.
We come in the next place to the delineation of
figures not in a horizontal plane, and of folid figures.
For this purpofe it is neceffary to demonftrate the fol¬
lowing
THEOREM II.
The length of any vertical line Handing on the
ground plane is to that of its pidture, as the height of the
eye to the diftance of the horizon line from the pidture
of its foot.
Let BC (fig. 2.) be the vertical line (landing on B,Fig. 2.
and let EF be a vertical line through the eye. Make
BD equal to EF, and draw DE, CE, BE. It is evi¬
dent that DE will cut the horizon line in fome point d,
CE will cut the pidture plane in c, and BE will cut it
in b, and that be will be the pidture of BC, and is ver¬
tical, and that BC is to £ f as BD to b d, or as EF to-
bd.
Cor. The pidture of a vertical line is divided in
the fame ratio as the line itfelf. For BC ; BM=
b c \ b m.
Prob. 5. To put a vertical line of a given length in per-
fpeclroe funding on a given point of the pidure.-
Through the given point b (fig. 9.) of the pidture, Fig. 9.
draw S £ A from the point of fight, and draw the ver¬
tical line AD, and make AE equal to the length or
height of the given line.* Join ES, and draw / r pa¬
rallel to AD, producing b c, when neceflary, till it
cut the horizontal line in d, and we have b c : b */,—
AE : AD, that is, as the length of the given line to
the height of the eye, and b d is the diftance of the
horizon-line from the point b, which is the pidture of
the foot of the line. Therefore (Theor. 2.) b c is the
required pidture of the vertical line.
This problem occurs frequently in views of archi-
tedture $ and a compendious method of folving it would
be peculiarly convenient. For this purpofe, draw a ver¬
tical line XZ at the margin of the pidture, or on a fepa-
rate paper, and through any point V of the horizon-line
draw VX. Set off XY, the height of the vertical-line,
and draw VY. Then from any points b, r, on which it
is required to have the pidtures of lines equal to XY,
draw b s, r tf parallel to the horizon-line, and draw the
verticals
*74*
P E R S P E
verticals su,tv: thefe have the lengths required, which
may be transferred to b and r. This, with the third gene¬
ral conftruaion for the bafe points, will fare all the con-
fufion of lines which would arife from conftrufting each
line apart.
Prob. 6. To put any Jloping line in perfpe&ive.
From the extremities of this line, fuppofe perpendi¬
culars meeting the ground plane in two. points, which
we (hall call the bafe points of the {loping line- ^ut
thefe bafe points in perfpeaive, and draw, by laft pro¬
blem, the perpendiculars from the extremities. Join
thefe by a ftraight line. It will be the pidure re¬
quired.
Prob. 7. To put a fqunre in perfpeBive, as feen by a
perfon not/landing right again]} the middle of either of
its ftdes, but rather nearly even with one of its cor-
Tig. 10.
3”ig. tx.
i'lg- «•
C T I V E.
cf, g h, if tending towards the point of fight S ; and
draw ED for one of the diagonals of the iquare, the
other diagonal AC being already drawn.
Through the points r and s, w here thefe diagonals
cut ef and 1 draw /tn parallel to AD. 1 hrough the
centre-point x, where .the diagonals cut g h, draw n 0
parallel to AD.—Laftly, through the points v and w,
where the diagonals cut ef ^xiA 1 k, draw p q parallel to
AD 5 and the reticulated peripeftive fquare will be
finifhed.
T his fquare is truly reprefented, as if feen by an ob-
ferver {landing at O, and having his eye above the ho¬
rizontal plane ABCD on which it is drawn j as if OS
was the height of his eye above that plane : and tne
lines which form the fmall fquares within it have the
fame letters of reference with thofe in fig. T2. which is
drawn as it would appear to an eye placed perpendicu¬
larly above its centre x.
ners.
In fig. TO. let ABCD be a true fquare, viewed by an
obferver, not Handing at 0, direflly againft the middle
of its fides AD, but at O almoft even with its corner
D, and viewing the fide AD under the angle AOD
the angle A 0 D (under which he would have feen AD
from 0) being 60 degrees.
Make AD in fig. n. equal to AD in fig. 10. and
draw SP and O 0 parallel to AD. Then, in fig. H.
let O be the place of the obferver’s eye, and SO be
perpendicular to SP ; then S {hall be the point or fight
in the horizon SP,
Take SO in your compaffes, and fet that extent from
Sto P then P Ihall be the true point of diftance, taken
according to the foregoing rules.
From A and D draw the ftraight lines AS and
DS ; draw alfo the ftraight line AP, interfering DS
in C.
Laftly, through the point of interfeiTion C draw BC
parallel to AD j and ABCD in fig. 11. will be a true
perfpe(ftive reprefentation of the fquare ABCD in fig.
10. The point M is the centre of each fquare, and
AMC and BMD are the diagonals.
Fig. 13-
Prob. 8. To put a reticulated fquare in perfpeBive, as
feen by a perfon Jlanding oppq/ite to the middle of one
of its jides.
A reticulated fquare is one that is divided into fe-
veral little fquares, like net work, as fig. 12. each fide
of which is divided into four equal parts, and the
whole furface into four times four (or 16) equal
fquares.
Having divided this fquare into the given number
of lefler fquares, draw the two diagonals A * C and
BrD.
Make AD in fig. 13. equal to AD in fig. 12. and di¬
vide it into four equal parts, as A e, eg, g t, and 1 D.
Draw SP for the horizon, parallel to AD, and,
through the middle point g of AD, draw OS perpendi¬
cular to AD and SP.—Make S the point of fight, and
O the place of the obferver’s eve.
Take SP equal to SO, and P {hall be the true point
of diftance.—Draw AS and DS to the point of fight,
and AP to the point of diftance, interfering DS in
C : then draw BC paralle-! to AD, and the outlines of
the reticulated fquare ABCD will be finifhed.
From the divifion points f, g, 1, draw the ftraight lines
Prob. 9. To put a circle in perfpeBive.
If a circle be viewed by an eye placed direaiy over
its centre, it appears perftaiy round, but if it be ob¬
liquely viewed, it appears ui an elliptical ftiape. J bis
is plain by looking at a common wine-glafs fet upright
on a table f i r
Make a true reticulated fquare, a* fig. 1 2. ot the iame Fig. it,
diameter as you would have the circle ; and fetting one
font of your compafies in the centre x, deleribe as large
a circle as the fides ‘of the fquare will contain. 1 hen,
having put this reticulated fquare into perfpeaive, as; in
1^. obferve through what points of the croiS lines
and diagonals of fig. 12. the circle pafieS ; and through
the like points in fig 13. draw the ellipfis, which will
be as true a perfpeflive reprefentation of the circle, as
the fquare in fig. 13* the iquare in fig. .
This is Mr Fergufon’s rule for putting a circle in
perfpeaive j but the following rules by Wolf are per¬
haps more univerfal. , r „ j
If the circle to be put in perfpeaive be Imall, de-
feribe a fquare about it. Draw firft the diagonals of
the fquare, and then the diameters h a and d e (fig. I4.)Flg- *4*
cutting one another at right angles j draw the ftraight
lines jfg and b c parallel to the diameter d e. Through
b and f, and likewife c and g, draw ftraight lines meet¬
ing DE, the ground line of the piaure in the points 3
and 4. To the principal point V draw the ftraight lines
1 V, 3 V, 4 V, 2 V, and to the points of diftance L and
K, 2 L and 1 K. Laftly, join the points of interfeaion,
a' b, d,f h, g, e, c, by the arcs ab.bd, df and abdjh
g e ca will be the circle in perfpeaive.
If the circle be large fo as to make the foregoing
praftice inconvenient, bifeft the ground line AB, de-
feribing, from the point of bifedlion as a centre, the
femicircle AGB (fig. 15.), and from any number of Fig. i*
points in the. circumference C, F, G, H, I, &c. draw to
the ground line the perpendiculars C I, F 2, G 3, H 4,
I 3, &c. From the points A, I, 2, 3» 5’ chaw
ftraight lines to the principal point or point of fight V,
likewife ftraight lines from B and A to the points of di¬
ftance L and K. Through the common interfeaions
drawr ftraight lines as in the preceding cafe 5 and you
will have the points «, c,fg, h, i, b, reprefentatives of
A, C, F, G, H, I, B. Then join the points a, c, f
&c. as formerly direaed, and you have the perfpedivp
circle a cfg h ib 1 h gfc «.
Hervcf.
*75
Eg. ttf.
Fig. 17.
P E R S P ]
Hence it is apparent how we may put not only a cir¬
cle but alfo a pavement laid with {tones of any form in
perfpedtive. It is likewife apparent how ufeful the
fquare is in perfpe6tive; for, as in the fecondcafe, a true
fquare was defcribed round the circle to be put in
perfpeftive, and divided into feveral fmaller fquares,
fo in this third cafe we make ufe of the femicircle
only for the fake of brevity inftead of that fquare and
circle.
ProB. IO. To put a reticulatedfquare in peifpeElive, as
feen by a perfon not funding right againf the middle
of either of its fdes, but rather nearly even with one
of its corners.
In fig. 16. let O be the place of an obferver, viewing
the fquare AECD almoft even with its corner D.—
Draw at pleafure SP for the horizon, parallel to AD,
and make SO perpendicular to SP: then S fhall be the
point of fight, and P the true point of diftance, if SP
be made equal to SO.
Draw AS and DS to the point of fight, and AP to
the point of diflance, interfering DS in the point C ;
then draw BC parallel to AD, and the outlines of the
perfpeftive fquare will be finifhed. This done, draw
the lines which form the lefler fquares, as taught in
Prob. 8. and the work will be completed.—You may
put a perfpedlive circle in this fquare by the fame rule
as it was done in fig. 13.
Prob. 14. To put a cube in perfpe&ive, as if viewed by
a perfon funding almof even with one of its edges,
and feeing three of its fdes.
In fig. 17. let AB be the breadth of either of the fix
equal fquare fides of the cube AG *, O the place of the
obferver, almoft even with the edge CD of the cube, S
the point of fight, SP the horizon parallel to AD, and
P the point of diftance taken as before.
Make ABCD a true fquare \ draw BS and CS to
the point of fight, and BP to the point of diftance, in¬
terfering CS in G.—-Then draw FG parallel to BC,
and the uppermoft perfperive fquare fide BFGC of the
cube will be finifhed.
Draw DS to the point of fight, and AP to the
point of diftance, interfering DS in the point I : then
draw GI parallel to CD j and, if the cube be an o-
paque one, as of wood or metal, all the outlines of it
will be finiftied $ and then it may be (haded as in the
figure.
But if you want a perfperive viewr of a tranfparent
glafs cube, all the fides of which will be feen, draw
AH toward the point of fight, FH parallel to BA,
and HI parallel to AD : then AHID will be the
fquare bafe of the cube, perfperively parallel to the
top BFGC ; ABFH will be the fquare fide of the
cube, parallel to CGID, and FGIH will be the fquare
fide parallel to ABCD.
As to the (hading part of the work, it is fuch mere
children’s play, in comparifon of drawing the lines
which form the (hape of any objer, that no rules need
be given for it. Let a perfim fit with his left fide to¬
ward a window, and he knows full well, that if any
folid body be placed on a table before him, the light
will fall on the left-hand fide of the body, and the
right-hand fide will be in the (hade.
2
ACTIVE.
Prob. 15. To put any fotid in perfpeftiv*.
Put the bafe of the folid, whatever it be, in perfpee-
tive by the preceding rules. From each bounding
point of the bafe, raife lines reprefenting in perfperiv'e
the altitude of the objer j by joining thefe lines and
(hading the figure according to the direrions in the
preceding problem, you will have a feenographic re-
prefentation of the objer. I his rule is general j but
as its application to particular cafes may not be appa¬
rent, it will be proper to give the following example
of it.
PROB. 16. To put a cube in perfpeBive as feen from
one of its angles.
Since the bafe of a cube (landing on a geometrical
plane, and feen from one of its angles, is a fquare feen
fiom one of its angles, draw firft fuch a perlperive
fquare : then raife from any point of the ground-line
DE (fig. 18.) the perpendicular HI equal to the fideofFig- l8*
the fquare, and draw t@ any point V in the horizontal
line HR the ftraight lines VI and VH. From the
angles d, b, and c, draw the dotted lines d 2 and c 1 pa¬
rallel to the ground line DE. Perpendicular to thofe
dotted lines, and from the points 1 and 2, draw the
ftraight lines L 1 and M 2. Laftly, fince HI is the al¬
titude of the intended cube in a, L 1 in c and M 2
in d, draw from tne point a the ftraight line fa perpen¬
dicular to oE, and from the points £ and c, bg and c c,
perpendicular to b c 1, and ab dc being according to
rule, make «/=HI, bg~e c —L 1, and ^=rM 2.
Then, if the points ^ h, e,f be joined, the whole cube
will be in perfpeflive.
Prob. 17. To put a fquare pyramid in perfpeBive, as
funding upright on its bafe, and viewed obliquely.
In fig. 19. let AD be the breadth of either of the Fig.
four fides of the pyramid ATCD at its bafe ABCD ;
and MT its perpendicular height. Let O be the place
of the obferver^ S his point of fight, SE his horizon, pa¬
rallel to AD and perpendicular to OS j and let the
proper point of diftance be taken in SE produced to¬
ward the left hand, as far from S as O is from S.
Draw AS and DS to the point of fight, and DL
to the point of diftance, interfering AS in the point
B. Then, from B. draw BC parallel to AD ; and
ABCD (hall be the perfpeftive fquare bafe of the py¬
ramid.
Draw the diagonal AC, interfering the other dia¬
gonal BD at M, and this point of interferion (hall be
the centre of the fquare bafei
Draw MT perpendicular to AD, and of a length
equal to the intended height of the pyramid : then
draw the ftraight outlines AT, CT, and DT; and the
outlines of the pyramid (as viewed from O) will be fi¬
nifhed ; which being done, the whole may be fo (haded
as to give it the appearance of a folid body.
If the obferver had (food at 0, he could have only
feen the fide ATD of the pyramid ; and two is the
greateft number of fides that he could fee from any
other place of the ground. But if he were at any
height above the pyramid, and had his eye direriy
over its top, it would then appear as in fig. 20. and he Fig. ao.
would fee all its four fides E, F, G, H, with its top t,.
juft over the centre of its fquare bafe ABCD j which
would
76 . • • ' P E R S P E
would be a true geometrical and not a perfpe£tive
fquare.
Prob. 18. To put two equal fquare s in perfpe&ive, one
of which Jhall be direBly over the other, at any given
diftqnce from it, and both of them parallel to the
plane of the horizon.
'ig. u. In fig. 2i. let ABCD be a perfpe&ive fquare on a
horizontal plane, drawn according to the foregoing rules,
S being the point of fight, SP the horizon (parallel to
AD), and P the point of diitance.
Suppofe AD, the breadth of this fquare to be three
feet; and that it is required to place juft fuch another
fquare EFGH direftly above it, parallel to it and two
feet from it.
Make AE and DH perpendicular to AD, and two
thirds of its length: draw EH, which will be equal
and parallel to AD ; then draw ES and HS to the
point of fight S, and EP to the point of diftance P,
interfedting HS in the point G : this done, draw EG
parallel to EH; and you will have two perfipedive
fquares ABCD and EFGH, equal and parallel to one
another, the latter direaiy above the former, and two
feet diftant from it; as was required.
By this method {helves may be drawn parallel to one
another, at any diftance from each other in proportion
to their length.
Prob. 19. To put a truncated pyramid in perfpe&ive.
Let the pyramid to be put in perfipeftive be quin-
quangular. If from each angle of the furface whence
the top is cut off, a perpendicular be fuppofed to fall
upon the bafe, thefe perpendiculars will mark the
bounding points of a pentagon, of which the fides will
be parallel to the {ides of the bafe of the pyramid,
within which it is infcribed. Join thefe points, and the
interior pentagon will be formed with its longeft fide
parallel to the longeft fide of the bafe of the pyramid.
I’ig. a a. From the ground line EH (fig* 2 2.) raifethe perpendi¬
cular IH, and make it equal to the altitude of the in¬
tended pyramid. To any point V draw the ftraight
lines IV and HV, and by.a procefs fimilar to that in
Prob. 16. determine the fcenographical altitudes a,b,c,
d,e. Conneift the upper points h,i, k, by ftraight
lines; and draw lhffm,gn, and the perfpe&ive of the
truncated pyramid will be completed.
Cor. If in a geometrical plane two concentric cir¬
cles be defcribed, a truncated cone may be put in
perfpe&ive in the fame manner as a truncated pyra¬
mid.
Prob. 20. To put in perfpe&ive a hollow priftn lying
on one of its fdes.
Fig. 43. Let ABDEC (fig. 23.) be a fe&ion of fuch a prifm.
Draw HI parallel to AB, and diftant from it the
breadth of the fide on which the prifm refts ; and from
each angle internal and external of the prifm let fall
perpendiculars to HI. The parallelogram will be thus
divided by the ichnographical procefs below the ground¬
line, fo as that the fide AB of the real prifm will be pa¬
rallel to the correfponding fide of the fcenographic
view of it.—To determine the altitude of the internal
and external angles. Fn m H (fig- 24.) raife HI per¬
pendicular to the ground-line, and on it mark off the
true altitudes H 1, H 2, H 3, H 4, and H 5. I hen. if
C T I v E.
from any point V in the horizon be drawn the ftraight
lines VH, V 1, V 2, V 3, V 4, V 5 or VI; by a pro¬
cefs fimilar to that of the preceding problem, will be
determined the height, of the internal angles, viz. 1 —
'a a, 2—b b, \~d d; and of the external angles, 3=c c,
and §—ee; and when thefe angles are formed and put
in their proper places, the fcenograph of the priim is
complete.
Prob. 21. To put a fquare table in perfpe&iye, fund¬
ing on four upright fquare legs of any given length
with refpe& to the breadth of the table.
In fig. 21. let ABCD be the fquare part of the floor Fig. »i.
on which the table is to ftand, and EFGH the furface
of the fquare table, parallel to the floor.
Suppofe the table to be three feet in breadth, and its
height from the floor to be two feet; then two thirds
of AD or EH will be the length of the legs i and h ;
the other two (/.and/c) being of the fame length in
perfpe&ive. r
Having drawn the two equal and parallel Iquares
ABCD and EFGH, as fhown in Prob. 18. let the legs
be fquare in form, and fixed into the table at a diftance
from its edges equal to their thieknefs. Take A a and
D J equal to the intended thicknefs of the legs, and a ^
and dc alfo equal thereto. Draw the diagonals AC
.and BD, and draw ftraight lines from the points a, b, c,
d, towards, the point of fight S, and terminating at the
fide BC. Then, through the points where thefe lines
cut the diagonals, draw the ftraight lines n and o,p
and q, parallel to AD ; and you will have formed
four perfpe&ive fquares (like ABCD in fig. 19.). for Fig. 15.
the bafes of the four legs of the table: and then il is
eafy to draw the four upright legs by parallel lines,
all perpendicular to AD; and to ftiade them as in the
figure.
To reprefent the intended thicknefs of the table-
board, draw e h parallel to EH, and HG toward the
point of fight S : then (hade the fpaces between thefe
lines, and the perfpe&ive figure of the table will be
finiftied.
Prob. 22. To put five fquare pyramids in perfpe&ive,
funding upright on a fquare pavement compofed of
the furfaces of 81 cubes.
In fig. 25. let ABCD be a perfpe&ive fquare drawn Fig. 45.
according to the foregoing rules; S the point of fight,
P the point of diftance in the horizon PS, and AC and
BD the two diagonals of the fquare.
Divide the fide AD into 9 equal parts (becaufe 9
times 9 is 81) as A a, a b, b c, &c. and from thefe
points of divifion, a, b, c, d, &c. draw lines toward the
point of fight S, terminating at the furthermoft fide BC
of the fquare. Then, through the points where thefe
lines cut the diagonals, draw ftraight lines parallel to
AD, and the perfpe&ive fquare ABCD will be fubdi-
vided into 81 leffer fquares, reprefenting the upper fur-
faces of 81 cubes, laid clofe to one another’s fides in a
fquare form.
Draw AK and DL, each equal to A a, and per¬
pendicular to AD; and draw LN toward the point
of fight S: then draw KL parallel to AD, and its di¬
ftance from AD will be equal to Ac. I his done,
draw a l, bm, c n, do, ep,f q, g r, and h s, all paral¬
lel to AK ; and the fpace ADLK will be fubdmded
into
Jig. 44.
Fi". 26.
Into nine equal fquares, which are the outer upright
furfaces of the nine cubes in the fide AD of the iquare
ABCD.
From the points where the lines, which are parallel
to AD in this fquare, meet the fide CD thereof, draw
fiiort lines to LN, all parallel to DL, and they will di¬
vide that fide into the outer upright furfaces of the nine
cubes which compofe it: and then the outfides of all the
cubes that can be vifible to an obferver, placed at a pro¬
per difiance from the corner D of the fquare, will be
fini fired.
_ As taught in Protrt 17. place the pyramid AE up¬
right on its fquare bafe A. t v a, making it as high as
you pleafe ; and the pyramid DH on its fquare bafe
huwT>, of equal height with AE.
Draw EH from the top of one of thele pyramids
to the top of the other j and EH will be parallel to
AD.
Draw ES and HS to the point of fight S, and HP
to the point of difiance P, interfering ES in F.
From the point F, draw FG parallel to EH 5 then
draw EG, and you will have a perfpeflive fquare EFGH
(parallel to ABCD) with its two diagonals EG and
hH, interfering one another in the centre of the fquare
at I. The four corners of this fquare, E, F, G, H,
give the perfperive heights of the four pyramids AE,
BF, CG, and DH 5 and the interferion I of the dia¬
gonals gives the height of the pyramid MI, the centre
of whole bafe is the centre of the perfperive fquare
ABCD. 1 1
Lafily,. place the three pyramids BF, CG, MI, up¬
right on their refperive bafes at B, C, and M ; and the
required perfperive reprefentation will be finifiied as in
~ (1  
perspective.
the figure.
Pros. 23. To put upright pyramids in perfpeflive, on
the fides of an oblong fqua re or parallelogram ; fo
that their di/lances from one another fball be equal to
the breadth of the parallelogram.
In moft of the foregoing operations we have confi-
dered the obferver to be fo placed, as to have an ob¬
lique view of the perfperive objers : in this, we (hall
fuppofe him to have a direr view of fig. 26. that is,
(landing right againfi the middle of the end AD which
is neared to his eye, and viewing AD under an anode
of 60 degrees.
Having cut AD in the middle, by the perpendicular
line S r, take S therein at pleafure for the point of fight,
and draw ES for the horizon, parallel to AD. Here
S j- mull be fuppofed to be produced downward, below
the limits of the plate, to the place of the obferver •, and
SE to be produced towards the left hand beyond E, far
enough to take a proper point of diftance therein, ac¬
cording to the foregoing rules.
Take A d at pleafure, and T>g equal to Ad, for the
breadths of the fquare bafes of the two pyramids AE
and DF next the eye : then draw AS and d S, and like-
wife DS and g S, to the point of fight S •, and DG on
to the point of diftance, interfecling AS in G : then,
from G draw GI parallel to AD, you will have the
firft perfpe£live fquare AG ID of the parallelogram
ABCD. ? °
From I draw IH to (or toward) the point of di¬
fiance, interfering AS in H : then, fram H draw
Vol. XVI. Part I.
HK parallel to AD, and you will have the fecond pet*-
Ipeflive fquare GHKI of the parallelogram.—Go on in
this manner till you have drawn as many perlpedive
iquares up towrard S as you pleafe.
, Through the point c, where DG interfeft g S, draw
of parallel to AD ; and you will have formed the two
perfperive fquare bafes Abed and c/D f of the two
pyramids at A and D.
From the point/ (the upper outward corner of ef
Dg) draw fh toward the point of dirtance, till it meets
AS m h; then, from this point of meeting, draw hm
parallel to GI, and you will have formed the two per-
Iperive Iquares G h ik and lm\ n, for the Iquare bafes
of the two pyramids at G and I.
Proceed in the fame manner to find the bafes of all
the other pyramids, at the corners of the reft of the
perfpedive fquares in the parallelogram ABCD as
(hown by the figure.-—Then,
Having placed the firft two pyramids at A and D
upright on their fquare bafes, as ftiown in Prob. 9.
and made them of any equal heights at pleafure, draw
ES and FS from the tops of thefe pyramids to the
point of fight S : place all the reft of the pyramids
upright on their refperive bafes, making their tops
touch the ftraight lines ES and FS ; and all the work,
except the (hading part, will be finifiied.
I??
Pros. 24. To put a fquare pyramid of equal f%ed
cubes in perfpeel roe.
^ Fig. 27. reprefents a pyramid of this kind 5 con lift-Fur. 22,
ing as it were ot fquare tables of cubes, one table &
above another j 81 in the loweft, 49 in the next, 2C
m the third, 9 in the fourth, and 1 in the fifth or up-
permoft. I hefe are the fquare numbers of 0, 7 r 3
and 1. h •>’ ^
If the artift is already mafter of all the preceding
operations, he will find lefs difficulty in this than in at¬
tending to the following defeription of it: for it cannot
be defenbed in a few words, but may be executed in a
very fiiort time.
In fig. 28. haying drawn PS for the horizon, and td- F,V 2<i
. ken S for the point of fight therein (the obferver being S
at O) draw AD parallel to PS for the fide (next the
eye) of the firft or lowermoft table of cubes. Draw
AS and DS to the point of fight S, and DP to the
point of diftance P, interfering AS in the point B
1 hen from B, draw BC parallel to AD, and you will
have the furface ABCD of the firft table.
Divide AD into nine equal parts, as An, ab be
c d, &c. then make AK and DL equal to A a, and per¬
pendicular to AD. Draw KL parallel to AD and
from the points of equal divifioli at a, b, c, &e. draw
lines to KL, all parallel to AK. Then draw ^ S to
the point of fight S, and from the divifion points a, b, e,
&c. draw lines with a black lead pencil, all tending to!
wards the point of fight, till they meet the diagonal BD
of the fquare.
From thefe points of meeting draw black lead lines
to DC, all parallel to AD ; then draw the partsTf
tncie lines with black ink which are marked 1,2 3 A
&c. between h E and DC.
. Having drawn the firft of thefe lines ft q with black
ink, draw the parts ai, b k, cl, &c. (of the former
lines winch met the diagonal BD) with black ink alfo :
and rub out the reft of the black lead lines, which
^ would
P E U S P E
would otlarwifo confufe the following part of work.
Then, draw LF toward the pomt of fight b ; a-td 1™“
the points where the lines I, 2, 3, 4, &c- ^' _ . d
DC! draw lines down to LF, all parallel to DL , and
all the vilible lines between the cubes in no i
" MaL“ual and perpencicular to ^ f, and ,M
equal and parall to .'g'; tin draw GM, which wdl
be equal and parallel to , From the points f, ,
&c. draw k », /», mp, &c. all parallel to > G, ’nd‘he
outfides of the feven cubes m the fide G? of the lecon
table will be finilbed. . r r ut Q nri4 MP
Draw GS and MS to the point of fight and M
to the point of diftance P, interfeamg GS m H , then,
mmTe point of interfeaion H, d-™ Pardhl to
ad •, and you will have the furface GH1M ot me ie
cond table of cubes. 1 uiack lead
From the points «, 0, p, &c. dra^ *
lines toward fhe point of fight S, till they \
diagonal MH of the perfpeaive fquare furface GHI ,
ancf draw SM, with black ink, toward the point
flSFroin thofe points where the lines drawn from «,
„ \ &c. meet the diagonal MH, draw black lead lines
lo MI, all parallel to AD ', only draw the whole tint
line y I with black ink, and the parts-2, 3, 4> an
,t ou lv &c. of the other lines between yN and
MI and GM and y 1, with the fame ', and rub out all
the reft of the black lead lines, to avoid further confu-
fjon. Then, from the points where the fiiort lines I,
2 c, &c. meet the line MI, draw lines down to ? E,
all parallel to M 7, and the outer furfaces of the feven
cubes in the fide ME will be > and/^in
iaft lines will meet the former parallels 2, 3, 4, &c. m
^MAc^O equal and perpendicular to yt, and y P
equal and parallel to / O •, then draw OP, which vvil! be
„iual and parallel to /y.— Ehis done, draw OS and PS
to the point of fight S, and PP to the point of di-
ftance P in the horizon. LalUy, from the pomt Q
wl.-re PP interfeas OS, draw OR parallel to OP ; and
Tou will have the outlines OQKP of the furfaee of the
third perfpeaive table ot cubes. . , .
From the points », v, m, x, draw uprig 1 un
OP all parallel to t O, and you will have the out
fijrfaces of the five cubes in the fide O y of tins third
tabFrom the points where thefe upright lines meet OP,
draw lines toward the point of fight S, till they meet
diagonal PQ > and from thefe points ot meeting
draw lines m P^ all parallel to OP, making the parts
2 0 4 5, of thefe lines with black ink which be be-
tween ZY and PR. Then, from the points where thele
nes meet PR, draw lines down to y N j which will
bound the outer furfaces of the five cubes m the fide
PN of the third table. , c
Draw the line 3 I with black ink ; and, at a fourth
.,-r of its length between 2 and Z, draw an upright line
Cs eiui in length to that fourth part, and another
equal and parallel thereto from Z to V : then draw SV
narallel to S Z, and draw the two upright and eqmdi-
ftant lines between 3 Z and SV, you wiU have the
outer furfaces of the three cubes m the fide SZ ot tl
f°UDrawbSS and VS to the point of fight S in the ho-
c T I V K.
rizon, and VP to the point of diftance therein, interfca.
ina SS in T 5 then draw TU parallel to SV, and you
have STUV, the furface of the fourth table, which be¬
ing reticulated or divided into 9 perljieftive fma L
fquare?, and the uppermoft cube W placed on the mu -
dlemoft of the fquares, all the outlines will be timlhed ,
and when the whole is properly ftiaded, as in tig. 27. t ie
work will be done.
Pros. 25. To reprefent a double crofs in perfpeaive.
In fig. 20. let ABCD and EFGH be the two per-Fig. ^
fpeftive fquares, equal and parallel to one another, the
uppermoft direftly above the lowermoft, Arawn by the
rules already laid down, and as far alunder as is equal
to the given height of the upright part of the crofs , b
being ti point !f fight, and P the point of d.toce, to
the horizon PS taken parallel to / • AFHD d
Draw AE, DH, and CG *, then AEHD and
DHGC ihall be the two vifible fides of the uprigh
part of the crofs 5 of which, the length AE is here
made equal to three times the breadth EH.
Divide DH into three equal parts HI, IK, and KD.
Through thefe points of dmfion, at I and K, diaw
and PR parallel to AD : and make the parts MN, IO,
PQ, KR, each equal to HI : then draw MP and OK
^FromM^d O, draw MS and OS to tire point of
fight S j and from the point of diftance P ^aw 1
ting MS in T : from T draw T U parallel to MO, and
meeting OS in U j and you will have the uppermoft
furfaceVl'UO of one of the crofs pieces of the figure.
 From R, draw RS to the point of fight S, and
from U draw UV parallel to OR', and OUVR ftiall
be the perfpeftive fquare end next the eye of that crois
PaDraw PMX (as long as you pleafe) from the point
of diftance P, through the corner M ; lay a ruler to N
and S, and draw XN from the line PX bien lay the
ruler to I and S, and draw YZS.-Draw XY parallel
t0 MO, and make XW and YB equal and perpendi¬
cular to XY: then draw WB parallel to XY, and
WXYB {hall be the fquare vifible end of the other
“DrlwBKtwaTtke point of fight S -and from U
draw UP to the point of diftance P, mterfedbing \ S in
Z ' then, from the interfeaion Z, draw Z « parallel to
MO, and Z b parallel to HD, and the whole dehnea-
tion will be finidied# ^
’ This done, {hade the whole, as in fig. 30. and you Vo '
will have a true perfpeaive reprefentation of a double
crofs.
Prob. 26. To put three rows of upright fquare objeRs
in perfpeBive, equal in fize, and at equal dijlances
from each other, on an oblong fquare plane, the
breadth of which Jhall be of any affigned proportion
to the length thereof.
Fig. ai. is a perfpea:ive reprefentation of an oblong Fig. A
fquare plane, three times as long as it is broad, having
a row of nine upright fquare objeas on each fide and
one of the fame number in the middle j all equally high,
and at equal diftances from one another, both long-wile
and crofs-wife, on the fame plane. f r , p c. ..
In fig. 32. PS is the horizon, S the point of fight^PFig-J
PERSPECTIVE.
*79
xlie point of diftance, and AD (parallel to PS) the
breadth of the plane.
Draw AS, NS, and DS, to the point of fight S ; the
point N being in the middle of the line AD: and draw
DP to the point of diftance P, interfefting AS in the
point B : then, from B draw BC parallel to AD, and
you have the perfpeftive fquare ABCD.
Through the point i, where DB interfefls NS, draw
a e parallel to AD ; and you will have fubdivided the
perfpeftive fquare ABCD into four leffer fquares, as A
a i N, N z’<? D, a B £ /, and i kC e.
From the point C (at the top of the perfpe£tive
fquare ABCD) draw CP to the point of diftance P,
interfering AS in E ; then from the point E draw EF
parallel to AD *, and you will have the fecond perfpec-
tive Iquaje BEFC.
Through the point /, where CE interfe<Sls NS, draw
bf parallel to AD 5 and you will have fubdivided the
Iquare BEFC into the four fquares B /£, k/fC,
b¥. m l, and l mY f
From the point F (at the top of the perfperive
fquare BEFC) draw FP to the point of diftance P, in¬
terfering AS in I 5 then from the point I draw IK pa¬
rallel to AD j and you will have the third perfperive
fquare EIKF.
Through the point n, where FI interfers NS, draw
eg parallel to AD *, and you will have fubdivided the
fquare EIKF into four leiTer fquares, E c « m, m n g F,
c I 0 //, and « 0 K g.
From the point K (at the top of the third pe;fperive
fquare EIKF) draw KP to the point of diftance P, in¬
terfering AS in L ; then from the point L draw LM
parallel to AD •, and you will have the fourth perfpec-
tive fquare ILMK.
Through the point p, where KL interfers NS, draw
dh parallel to AD ) and you will have fubdivided the
fquare ILMK into the four lefier fquares I dpoy op h K,
d L q p, and p qNL h.
Thus we have formed an oblong fquare ALMD,
whofe perfperive length is equal to four times its breadth,
and it contains 16 equal perfperive fquares.—If greater
length was ftill wanted, we might proceed further on
toward S.
Take A 3, equal to the intended breadth of the fide
of the upright fquare objer A£) (all the other fides
being of the fame breadth), and AO for the intended
height. Draw O 18 parallel to AD, and make D8
and 4 7 equal to A 3 j then draw 3 S, 4 S, 7 S, and
8 S to the point of fight S ; and among them we (hall
have the perfperive fquare bafes of all the 27 upright
objers on the plane.
Through the point 9, where DB interfers 8 S, draw
I 10 parallel to AD, and you have the three perfpec-
tive fquare bafes A I 2 3, 4 5 6 7, 8 9 10 D, of the
three upright fquare objers at A, N, and D.
Through the point 21, where eb interfers 8 S,
draw 14, 11 parallel to AD ; and you will have the
three perfperive fquares a 14 15161718 19 20, and
21 11 e 22, for the bafes of the fecond crofs row of
objers \ namely, the next beyond the firft three at A,
N, and D.
Through the point fu, where CE interfers 8 S, draw
a line parallel to BC j and you will have three perfpec-
tive fquares, at B, h, and C, for the bafes of the third
tow of objers } one of which is fet up at B.
Through the point .v, whene fc interfers 8 S, draw
a line parallel to bf; and you will have three perfpec-.
tive fquares, at Z>, /, and x, for the bafes of the fourth
' crofs row of obiers.
Go on in this manner, as you fee in the figure, to
find the reft of the fquare bafes, up to LM; and you
will have 27 upon the whole oblong fquare plane, on
which you are to place the like number of objers, as
in fig. 31.
Having aiTumed AO for the perfperive height of
the three objers at A, N, and 1) (fig. 32.) next the
obferver’s eye, and drawn O 18 parallel to AD, in
order to make the objers at N and D of the fame
height as that at O ; and having drawn the upright
lines 4 15, 7 W, 8 X, and D 22, for the heights at N
and D ; draw OS and RS, 15 S and WS, XS and
22 S, all to the point of fight S : and thefe lines will
determine the perfperively equal heights of all the reft
of the upright objers, as fhown by the two placed at.
a and B.
To draw the fquare tops of thefe objers, equal and
parallel to their bafes, we need only give one example,
which will ferve for all.
Draw 3 R and 2 £) parallel to AO, and up to the
line RS ; then draw P£) parallel to OR, and OPQR
ftiall be the top of the objer at A, equal and parallel
to its fquare bafe A 1 2 3.—In the fame eafy way the
tops of all the other objects are formed.
When all the reft of the objers are delineated, fhade
them properly, and the whole perfperive fcheme will
have the appearance of fig. 31.
Pros. 27* To put a fquare box in perfpeBive, containing
a given number of lejfer fquare boxes of a depth equal
to their width.
Let the given number of little fquare boxes or cells Fig. 33*
be 16, then 4 of them make the length of each fide of
the four outer fides a b, b c, cd, da, as in fig. 33. and
the depth ajfis equal to the width a e. Whoever can
draw the reticulated fquare, by the rules laid down to¬
wards the beginning of this article, will be at no lofs
about putting this perfperive fcheme in prarice.
ProB. 28. To put fairs with equal and parallelfeps in
perfpe&ive.
In fig. 34. let « £ be the given breadth of each ftep, p-
and ai the height thereof. Make^c, c d, de, &c. J
each equal to and draw all the upright lines
ai,bl, c n, dp, &.c. perpendicular to ah (to which
the horizon j- 8 is parallel) ; and from the points i, /,
n, p, r, &c. draw the equidiftant lines i B, / C, n Y),
&.c. parallel to a h ; thefe diftances being equal to that
of z’B from ah.
Draw x i touching all the corner-points /, n, p, r, t,
v ; and draw 216 parallel to x i, as far from it as you
want the length of the fteps to be.
Toward the point of fight S draw the lines a 1, z' 2,
£ 3, /q, Stc. and draw 1.6 15, 14 13, 1 2 11, 10 9, 8 7,
65, 43, and 2 1, all parallel to A h, and meeting
the lines au 15, zz 13, s a 1, &e. in the points 15, 13, 11,
9, 7, 5, 3, and 1 : then from thefe points draw 15 14,
1312, 11 a o, 9 8, 76, 54, and 3 2, all parallel to h a ;
and the outlines of the fteps will be finifhed. From
the point 16 draw 16 A parallel to ha] and A* 16
will be part of the flat at the top of the uppermoft ftep.
Z 2 This
PERSPECTIVE.
180
Fig. 35- This done, fliade the work as in fig. 35- and the whole
Vill be finifhed.
PR.OB. 29. To put Jlairs with flats and opening in per-
fpecdive, flatiding on a horizontal pavement of fquares.
v-- 6 In fig. 36. having made S the point of light, and
^ drawn a reticulated pavement AB with black lead
lines, which may be rubbed out again 5 at any diftance
from the fide AB of the pavement which is neareft to
the eye, and at any point where you choofe to begin the
flair at that difiance, as a, draw G a parallel to BA, and
take a b zt pleafure for the height of each ftep.
Take a b in your compaffes, and fet that extent as
many times upward from F to E as is equal to the firft
required number of iteps O, N, M, L, K ; and from
thefe points of divifion in EF draw \b, 'Zd, 3/, 4 A
and E k, all equiuifiant from one another, and. parallel
to F a: then draw the equidiftant upright lines a b,
td, uf vh, wk, and I m, all perpendicular to F«:
then draw mb, touching the outer corners of thefe itepo
at m, k, k,f d, and b; and draw ns parallel to mb,
as far from it as you want the length of the fteps K, L,
M, N, O to be. *
Towards the point of fight S dratv tn n, l ko, 10,
Jip,f q, dr, and bs. Then (parallel to the bottom-
line BA) through the points 0, p, q,r, s, draw n 8 )
5, 14-, 6, 15; 7, 16; 1, 17 5 and which done,
drawr n 3 and 0 6 parallel to /m, and the outlines ox the
fteps K, L, M, N, O will be finifhed.
At equal diftances with that between the lines mark¬
ed 8 and 14, draw the parallel lines above marked 9
10 11 12 and 13; and draw perpendicular lines up¬
wards from the points n, 0, p, q, r, s, as in the figure.
Make Pi T7i equal to the intended breadth of the flat
above the fquare opening at the left hand, and draw
HW toward the point of fight S, equal to the intended
length of the flat j then draw WP parallel to Hr«, and
the outlines of the flat will be finifhed.
Take the width of the opening at pleafure, as fiom
F to C, and draw CD equal and parallel to FE. Draw
GH parallel to CD, and the fhort lines marked 33, 34>
&c. juft even with the parallel lines 1, 2, &c. From
the points where thefe fhort lines meet CD draw lines
toward the point of fight S till they meet DE •, then
from the points where the lines 38, 39’ 4“b '
the pavement meet C y, draw upright lines parallel to
CD ; and the lines which form the opening will be
finifhed. , . _t 1 1
The fieps P, Q, R, S, T, and the flat U above the
arch V, are done in the fame manner with thofe in
fig. 34. as taught in Prob. 28. and the equidiftant paral¬
lel lines marked 18, 19, &c. are direfily even with
thofe on the left-hand fide of the arch vr,. and the up¬
right lines on the right-hand fide are equidiftant with
thofe on the left; ^
From the points where the lines 18, 19, 20, &.c.
meet the right-hand fide of the arch, draw lines toward
the point of fight Sq and from the points where the
v pavement lines 29, 30, 31, 32, meet the line drawn
from A towards the point of fight, draw upright lines
toward the top of the arch.
Having done the top of the arch, as in the figure,
apd the few fteps to the right hand thereof,, fhade the
Fig. 37, whole as in fig. 37* work will be finifhed.
Prob. 30. To put upright conical oljeEls in pcrfpeElive,
as ifflanding on the fldes of an oblong fquare, at di-
flances from one another equal to the breadth oj the
oblong.
In fig. 38. the bafes of the upright cones are per-pig. ^
fpedtive circles inferibed in fquares (ft the fame diameter j
and the cones are fet upright on their bafes by the fame
rules as are given for pyramids, which we need not re¬
peat here.
In moft of the foregoing operations we have confider-
ed the obferver’s eye to be above the level of the tops
of all the objects, as if he viewed them when handing
on high ground. In this figure, and in fig. 41. and
fig. 42. we fhall fuppofe him to be Handing on low
ground, and the tops of the objedls to be above the
level of his eye.
In fig. 38. let AD be the perfpe&ive breadth of the Fig> 3&.
oblong fquare ABCD •, and let A a and.Dr/ (equal to
A a) be taken for the diameters of the circular bales of
the two cones next the eye, whofe intended equal heights
fhall be AE and DF.
Having made 8 the point of fight in the horizon pa¬
rallel to AD, and found the proper point of diftance
therein, draw AS and a S to contain the bafes of the
cones on the left-hand fide, and DS and d S for thoie on
the right.
Having made the two firft cones at A and D of
equal height at pleafure, draw ES and I S from then
tops to the point of fight, for limiting the peripedive
heights of all the reft of the cones. Then divide the
parallelogram ABCD into as many equal perfpedive
fquares as you pleafe j find the bafes of tue cones at the
corners of thefe fquares, and make the cones thereon, as
in the figure.
If you would reprefent a ceiling equal and parallel
to ABCD, fupported on the tops of thefe cones, draw
EF, then EFGH fhall be the ceiling; and by.draw¬
ing ef parallel to EF, you will have the thicknefs
of the floor-boards and beams, which may be what you
pleafe.
This {hows how any number of equidiftant pillars
may be drawn of equal heights to fupport the ceiling
of a long room, and how the walls of fuch a room , may
be reprefented in perfpeclive at the backs of thefe pillars.
It alfo {hows how a ftreet of houfes -may be drawn in
perfpedive.
Prob. 31. To put a fquare hollow in perfpeBive, the
depth of which Jhall bear any afigned proportion to its
width.
Fig. 41. is the reprefentation of a fquare hollow, pjg.
of which the depth AG is equal to three times its
width AD ; and S is the point of fight over which
the obferver’s eye is fuppofed to be placed, looking
perpendicularly down into it, but not dircdly over the
middle.
Draw AS and DS to the point of fight S.; make ST
the horizon parallel to AD, and produce it to fuch a
length beyond T that you may find a point of diftance
therein not nearer 8 than if AD was feen under an
angle of 60 degrees.
Draw DU to the point of diftance, interfe&ing A§ ■.
in B j then from the point B draw BC parallel to AD;
and i.
and you will have the firft perfpe&ive fquare A BCD,
oqual to a third part of the intended depth.
Draw CV to the point of diftance, interfering AS
in E j then from the point E draw EF parallel to AD;
and you will have the ftcond perfpedtive fquare BEFC,
which, added to the former one, makes two thirds of the
intended depth.
Draw FW to the point of diftance, interfering AS
in G ; then from, the point G draw GH parallel to
AD •, and you will have the third perfperive fquare
EGHF, which, with the former two, makes the whole
depth AGHD three times as great as the width AD,
in a perfperive view.
Divide AD into any number of equal parts, as fup-
pofe 8 and from the divifion-points a, b, c, d, &c.
draw lines toward the point of fight S, and ending at
GH ; then through the points where the diagonals BD,
EC, GF, cut thefe lines, draw lines parallel to AD j
and you will have the parallelogram AGHD reticu¬
lated, or divided into 192 fmall and equal perfpedive
Iquares.
Make AI and DM equal and perpendicular to AD •,
then draw IM, which will be equal and parallel to AD;
and drawr IS and MS to the point of fight S.
Divide AI, IM, and MD, into the fame number of
equal parts as AD is divided j and from thefe points of
divifion draw lines toward the point of fight S, ending
refperively at GK, KL, and LH.
From thofe points where the lines parallel to AD
meet AG and DH draw upright lines parallel to AI
and DM •, and from the points where thefe lines meet
IK and LM draw lines parallel to IM 5 then fhade the
W'ork, as in the figure.
Pros. 3 2. To reprefent a femicircular arch inperfpeclive,
as if it were funding on two upright wails, equal in
height to the height of the obferven's ei/e.
' After having gone through the preceding operation,
?ig. 4*. this will be more eafy by a bare view of fig. 42. than it
could be made by any defeription ; the method being
fo much like that of drawing and fliading the fquare
hollow.—We need only mention, that a T b EA and
DFc/r/arethe upright walls on which the femicir¬
cular arch is built $ that S is the point of fight in the
horizon T /, taken in the centre of the arch ; and d in
fig. 41. is the point of dillance *, and that the two per-
fpeftive fquares ABCD and BEFC make the paral¬
lelogram AEFD of a length equal to twice its breadth
AD.
PERSPECTIVE.
‘s- 43-
Pr°B. 33. To reprefent a fquare in perfpeclive, as view¬
ed by an obfenter funding direclly even with one of
its corners.
In fig. 43. let A 9 BC be a true fquare, viewed by an
obferver (landing at fome diflance from the corner C,
and juft even with the diagonal C 9.
Let p SP be the horizon, parallel to the diagonal AB ;
and S the. point of fight, even with the diagonal C 9.
Here it will be proper to have two points of diftance p
and P, equidiftant from the point of fight S.
Draw the ftraight line 1 17 parallel to AB,.and
draw A 8 and Bio parallel to CS. Take the diftance
between 8 and 9 in your compafies, and fet it off all the
w-ay in equal parts from 8 to, I, and from 10 to 17. 
Hie line 1 17 fhould be produced a good way further
both to right and left hand from 9, and divided all the
wray in the fame manner.
from thefe points of equal divifion, 8, 9, 10, &c»
draw lines to the point of fight S, and alfo to the two
points of diftance p and P, as in the figure.
I\ow it is plain, that a c b is the perfpeftive repre-
fentation of A 9 BC, viewed by an obferver even with
the corner C and diagonal C 9.—But if there are other
fuch fquares lying even with this, and having the fame
pofition with refpeft to the line 1 17, it is evident that
the obferver, who ftands dire6ily even with the corner
C of the firft fquare, will not be even wdth the like
corners G and K of the others j but will have an ob¬
lique view of them, over the fides FG and IK, which
are neareft his eye : and their perfpeddive reprefenta-
tions tvill be egf 6 and hki t), drawm among the lines
in the figure : of which the (paces taken up by each
fide lie between three of the lines drawm toward the
point of diftance p, and three drawn to the other point
of diftance P.
Prob. 34. To reprefent a common chair, in an oblique
perfpeSHve view.
T-he original lines to the point of fight S, and points Dg-
of uiftance p and P, being drawn as in the preceding
operation, choofe any part of the plane, as /m n 13, on
which you would have the chair L to (land —There
are juft as many lines (namely two) between /and m
or 13 and n, drawn toward the point of diftance p, at
the left hand, as betvreen / and 13, or m and n, drawn
to the point of diftance P on the right: fo that lmt
m n, n 13, and 13 /, form a perfpeftive fquare.
From the four corners /, m, n, 13, of this fquare
raile the four legs of the chair to the perfpeHive per¬
pendicular height you would have them : then make
the feat of the chair a fquare equal and parallel to lmn
13, as taught in Prob. 18. which will make the two •
fides of the feat in the direction of the lines drawn to¬
ward the point of difiance p, and the fore and back part
of the feat in diredftion of the lines drawn to the other
point of diftance P. '1 his done, draw the back of the
chair leaning a little backward, and the crofs bars there¬
in tending toward the point of diftance P. Then (hade
the work as in the figure ; and the perfpedive chair will
be finiftied.
l8l
Pr°b. 35. To prefent an oblong fquare table in an oblique
pcrfpefhve view.
In fig. 43. M is an oblong fquare table, as feen by F5g. 43,
an obferver (landing diredlly even with G 9 (fee Prob.
33.), the fide next the eye being perfpe&ively parallel
to the fide a cof the fquare abet).—The forementioned
lines drawn from the line 1 17 to the two points of di¬
ftance p and P, form equal perfpe61ive fquares on the
ground plane.
Choofe any part of this plane of fquares for the feet
of the table to (land upon ; as at /?, q, r, and s, in di-
re&ion of the lines op and rs for the two long fides,
and ts and q r for the two ends ; and you will have the
oblong fquare or parallelogram qr s t for the part of the
door or ground-plane whereon the table is to (land :
and the breadth of this plane is here taken in proportion
to the length as 6 to 105 fo that, if the length of the
table be ten feet, its breadth will be fix.
On the four little perfpedftive fquares at q, r, jq and
1-82
F E R S P E
t place the four upright legs of the table, of what
height you pleafe, lb that the height of the two next
the eye, at c and p, ihall be terminated by^a ftraight
line u v drawn to the point of diftance P. This done,
make the leaf M of the table an oblong fquare, per-
fpeftively equal and parallel to the oblong fquare q r s t
on which the feet of the table hands. Then ihade
the whole, as in the figure, and the work will be nnilh-
If the line I 17 were prolonged to the right and left
hand, and equally divided throughout (as it is from 1
to 17), and if the lines which are drawn fromand
P to the right and left hand fides of the plate were
prolonged till they came to the extended line 1 17, they
would meet it in the equal points of divifion. In iorm-
ing large plans of this fort, the ends of flips of paper
may be palled to the right and left edges of the flieet
on which the plan is to be formed.
Of the Anamorphojis, or reformation of dijlorted images.
By this means pi£tures that are fo mifliapen, as to
exhibit no regular appearance of any thing to the naked
eye, ftiall, when viewed by reflexion, prefect a regular
and beautiful image. The inventor of this ingenious
device is not known. Simon Stevinus, who was the lirft
that wrote upon it, does not inform us from whom he
learned it. The principles of it are laid down by
S. Vauzelard in his Perfpeciive Conique et Cylindriquef
and Gafpar Schott profeffes to copy Marius Bettinus in
his defeription of this piece of artificial magic.
It will be fufficient for our purpofe to copy one of
the fimpleft figures of this writer, as by this means the
my fiery of this art will be fufficiently unfolded. Upon the
Fig. 44. cylinder of paper, or pafleboard, ABCD, fig. 44. draw
whatever is intended to be exhibited, as the letteis IHS.
Then ivith a needle make perforations along the whole
outline ; and placing a candle, G, behind this cylinder,
mark upon the ground plane the fhadow of them, which
will be diftorted more or lefs, according to the pofition
of the candle or the plane, &c. This being done, let
the picture be an exa£l copy of this diflorted image, let
a metallic fpeculum be fubftituted in the place of the
cylinder, and let the eye of the fpeftator have the fame
pofition before the cylinder that the candle had behind
it. Then looking upon the fpeculum, he will fee the
diftorted image reftored to its proper fhape. The re¬
formation of the image, he fays, will not eafily be made
exaft in this method, but it will be fufficiently fo to an-
fwer the purpofe.
Other methods, more exadt and geometrical than
this, were found out afterwards : fo that thefe pidlures
could be drawn by certain rules, Avithout the ufe of a
candle. Schott quotes one of thefe methods from Bet¬
tinus, another from Herigonius, and another from Kir-
cher, Avhich may be feen in his Magia, vol. i. p. 162,
&,c. He alfo gives an account of the methods of re¬
forming pidlures by fpeculums of conical and other fi¬
gures.
Inftead of copying any of thefe methods from Schott
or Bettinus, we lhali prefent our readers with that Avhich
Dr Smith hath given us in his Optics, vol. i. p. 250, as,
no doubt, the bell, and from which any perfon may
eafily make a drawing of this kind. "Ihe fame defciip-
Fig- 39- tion anfwers to two mirrors, one of which, fig. 39. is
convex, and the other, fig. t\o. is concave.
5
C T I V E.
In order to paint upon a plane a deformed copy
ABCDEKIFGF of an original picture, which ffiall
appear regular, when feen from a given point O, ele¬
vated above the plane, by rays nffieded from a poliffi-
ed cylinder, placed upon the circle l n p, equal to its
ffiven bafe ; from the point R, which mull be luppo-
fed to lie perpendicularly under O, the place of the eye,
draw two lines R R * ; which ffiall either touch the
bafe of the cylinder, or clfe cut oft two fmall equal
fegments from the fides of it, according as the copy
is intended to be more or lefs deformed. 1 hen, ta¬
king the eye, raifed above R, to the given height hO,
fomewhat greater than that of the cylinder, for a lumi¬
nous point, deferibe the fhadow a ekf {o{ a fquare
fio-. 40. or parallelogram Handing upright upon a eF.g. 3%
a^ a bafe, and containing the pidture required) any¬
where behind the arch I n p. Let the lines drawn
from R to the extremities and divifions of the bale «,
b c d e, cut the remoteft part of the fhadow. in the
points/,^, h, i, k, and the arch of the bale m /, w,
n 0 p ; from which points draw tne lines / Ar,.
m BG, n CH, 0 DI, P EK, as if they were rays or
light that came from the focus R, and were refleaed
from the bafe l n p k h that each couple, I A,. / R,
produced, may cut off equal fegments from the circle.
Laftly, Transfer the lines /af m bg, &c. and all their
parts in the fame order, upon the refpeftive lines / At,
m BG, See. and having drawn regular curves, by eiti-
mation, through the points A, B, C, D, E, through
F G H I K, and through every intermediate order
of points 3 the figure ACEKHF, fo divided rvill be
the deformed copy of the fquare, drawn and divided
upon the original picture, and will appear fimilar to it,
Avhen feen in the poliffied cylinder, placed upon the bale
/np, by the eye in its given place O.
The praaical methods of drawing thefe images feem
to have been carried to the greateft perfeaion by J*
Leopold, who, in the Ada Lipfienfia for the year 1712,
has deferibed two machines, one for the images to. be
viewed with a cylindrical, and the other with a conical
mirror. The perfon poffeffed of this inftrument has no¬
thing to do but to take any print he pleafes, and while
he goes over the outlines of it M’ith one pen, another
traces the anamorphofis.
By methods of this kind, groves of trees may be
cut, fo as to reprefent the appearance of men, hories,
and other objects from fome one point of vieiy, Avhich
are not at all difcernible in any other.. This.might
eafily be effe£led by one perffin placing bimfelf in any
particular fituation, and giving direftions to other per-
fons what trees to lop, and in what manner. In the
fame method it has been contrived, that buildings of
circular and other forms, and alfo Avhole. groups of
buildings confifting* of walls at different diftances and
Avith different pofitions to one another, ffiould be painted
fo as to exhibit the exa£t reprefentation of particular
obi efts, which could only be perceived in one fituation.
Bettinus has illuftrated this method by drawings in his
Apiaria.
and 40.
It may appear a bold affertion to fay, that the very
ffiort Iketch now given of the art of perfpeftive is a
fufficient foundation for the whole praftice, and includes
all the expeditious rules peculiar to the problems which
molt generally occur. It is, however, true, and the m-
183
PERSPECTIVE.
telligent reader will fee, that the two theorems on which
the whole reds, include every poflible cafe, and apply with
equal facility to pictures and originals in any pofition,
although the examples are felefted of perpendicular pic¬
tures, and of originals referred to horizontal planes, as
being the moll; frequent. The fcientific foundation be¬
ing fo fimple, the Itrufture need not be complex, nor
fwell into fueh volumes as have been publifhed on the
fubjefl: volumes which by their lize deter from the
perufal, and give the fimple art the appearance of in¬
tricate myftery ; and by their prices, defeat the defign
of their authors, viz. the diffemination of knowledge
among the practitioners. The treatifes on perfpedive
acquire their bulk by long and tedious difcourfes, mi¬
nute explanations of common things, or by great num¬
bers of examples j which indeed do make fome of thefe
books valuable by the variety of curious cuts, but do not
at all inftruCl the reader by any improvements made in
the art itfelf. For it is evident that moft of thofe who
have treated this fubjeCf have been more converfant in
the praftice of defigning than in the principles of geo¬
metry • and therefore when, in their praftice, the cafes
which have offered have put them on trying particular
expedients, they have thought them worth communicat¬
ing to the public as improvements in the art $ and each
author, fond of his own little expedient, (which a
fcientific perfon would have known for an eafy corol¬
lary from the general theorem), has made it the prin¬
ciple of a practical fyltem—in this manner narrowing
inftead of enlarging the knowledge of the art; and the
praClitioner tired of the bulk of the volume, in which a
Angle maxim is tedioufiy fpread out, and the principle
on which it is founded kept out of his fight, contents
himfelf with a remembrance of the maxim (not under-
flood), and keeps it llightly in his eye to avoid grofs
errors. We can appeal to the whole body of painters
and draughtfmen for the truth of this affertion ; and it
mult not be confidered as an imputation on them of re-
miffnefs or negligence, but as a neceffary confequence
of the ignorance of the authors from whom they have
taken their information. This is a ftrong term, but it
is not the lefs juft. Several mathematicians of emi¬
nence have written on perfpedive, treating it as the fub-
jeCl of pure geometry, as it really is ; and the perform¬
ances of Dr Brook Taylor, Gravefande, Wolf, De la
Caille, Emerfon, are truly valuable, by prefenting the
art in all its perfpicuous fimplicity and umverfality.
I he works of Taylor and Emerfon are more valuable,
on account of the very ingenious and expeditious con-
llruClions w’hich they have given, fuited to every pof-
fible cafe. The merit of the firft author has been uni-
verfally acknowledged by all the Britifh writers on the
fubjeCt, who never fail to declare that their own works
are compofed on the principle of Dr Brook Taylor ;
but any man of fcience will fee that thefe authors have
either not underftood them, or aimed at pleafing the
public by fine cuts and uncommon cafes ; for without
exception, they have omitted his favourite conftruCtions,
which had gained his predileCtion by their univerfalitv,
and attached themfelves to inferior methods, more ufual-
ly expedient perhaps, or inventions (as they thought) of
their own. What has been given in this article is not
Profefled to be according to the principles of Dr Brook
Taylor, becaufe the principles are not peculiar to him,
but the necelfary refults of the theory itfelf, and incul¬
cated by every mathematician who had taken the trouble
to confider the fubjeft. They are fufficient not only
for directing the ordinary practice, but alfo for fuggeil-
ing modes of conftrudlion for every cafe out of the com¬
mon track. And a perfon of ingenuity will have a
laudable enjoyment in this, without much llretch of
thought, inventing rules for himfelf; and will be bet¬
ter pleafed with fuch fruits of his own ingenuity, than
in reading the tedious explanation of examples devifed
by another. And for this purpofe we would, with Dr
Taylor, “ advife all our readers not to be contented
with the fcheme they find here} but, on every occafion,
to draw new ones of their own, in all the variety of cir-
cumftances they can think of. This will take up more
time at firft, but they will find the vaft benefit and plea-
fure of it by the extenfive notions it will give them of
the nature of the principles.”
The art of perfpeftive is neceffary to all arts where
there is any occafion for defigning} as architedlure, for¬
tification, carving, and generally all the mechanical
arts *, but it is more particularly necefiary to the art of
painting, which can do nothing without it. A figure in
a picture, which is not drawn according to the rules of
perfpedlive, does not reprefent what is intended, but
fomething elfe. Indeed we hefitate not to fay, that a
picture which is faulty in this particular, is as blameable,
or more fo, than any compofition in writing which is
faulty in point of orthography or grammar. It is ge¬
nerally thought very ridiculous to pretend to write a
heroic poem, or a fine difeourfe, upon any fubjeft, with¬
out underftanding the propriety of the language in which
we write } and to us it feems no lefs ridiculous for one
to pretend to make a good pifture without underftand¬
ing perfpedlive : Yet how many pictures are there to be
feen, that are highly valuable in other refpefts, and yet
are entirely faulty in this point ? Indeed this fault is fo
very general, that we cannot remember that we ever
have leen a pidture that has been entirely without it }
and what is the more to be lamented, the greateft ma¬
ilers have been the moft guilty of it. Thofe examples
make it to be the lefs regarded} but the fault is not the
lefs, but the more to be lamented, and deferves the more
care in avoiding, it for the future. The great occafion
of this fault, is certainly the wrong method that is ge¬
nerally ufed in educating of perfons in this art : for the
young people are generally put immediately to drawing }
and when they have acquired a facility in that, they are
put to colouring. And thefe things they learn by rote,
and by practice only } but are not at all inftrudfed in
any rules of art. By which means, when they come to
make any defigns of their owm, though they are very
expert at drawing out and colouring every thing that
offers itfelf to their fancy } yet for want of being in-
ftrudled in the ftridf rules of art, they do not know how
to govern their inventions with judgment, and become
guilty of fo many grofs miftakes } which prevent them¬
felves, as well as others, from finding that fatisfadlion
they otherwife would do in their performances. To
correft this for the future, we would recommend it to
the mafters of the art of painting, to confider if it would
not be neceffary to eftablifh a better method for the edu¬
cation of their fcholars, and to begin their inftrudlions
with the technical parts of painting, before they let
them loofe to follow the inventions of their own uncul¬
tivated imaginations.
The
■i 84
P E R S P E
The tot of painting, taken in its full extent, confxfts
of two parts j the inventive, and the executive, i he
inventive part is common with poetry, and belongs more
properly and immediately to the original defign (whie.i
it invents and difpofes in the mod proper and agreeable
manner) than to the pi&ure, which is only a copy ot
that defign already formed in the imagination of the ar-
tift. The perfection of this art of painting depends up¬
on the thorough knowledge the artift has of all the parts
of his fubjeCt; and the beauty of it confifts in the happy
choice and difpofition that he makes of it; And it is m
this that the genius of the artift difcovers and ftiows it-
felf, while he indulges and humours his fancywhich
here is not confined. But the other, the executive part
of painting, is wholly confined and ftriCtly tied to the
rules of art, which cannot be difpenfed with upon any
account ; and therefore in this the artift ought to go¬
vern himfelf entirely by the rules of art, and not to
take any liberties whatfoever. For any thing that is
not truly drawn according to tlie rules of perfpeflive, or
not truly coloured or truly (haded, does not appear to
be what the artift intended, butfomethingelfe. Where¬
fore, if at any time the artift happens to imagine that
his picture would look the better, if he. ftiould fwerve
a little from thefe rules, he may allure himfelf, that the
fault belongs to his original defign, and not to the ftn&:-
nefs of the rules j for what is perfeaiy agreeable and
juft in the real original objefts themfelves, can never
C T I V E.
appear defedive in a pi&ure where thofe obje&s are ex*
aflly copied. , . „ , , .
Therefore to offer a Ihort hint of thoughts we have
fome time had upon the method which ought to be fol¬
lowed in inftructing a fcholar in the executive part ox
painting : we would firft have him learn the muft com¬
mon affedions of pradical geometry, and the firft ele¬
ments of plain geometry and common arithmetic. V\ hen
he is fufficiently perfeft in thefe, we would have him
karn perfpedlive. And when he has. made fome pro-
greis in this, fo as to have prepared bis judgment with
the right notions of the alterations that figures muft un¬
dergo, when they come to be drawn on a flat, he may
then be put to drawing by view, and be exercifed in
this along with perfpective, till he comes to be lufhcient-
ly perfed in both. Nothing ought to. be more familiar
to a painter than perfpedive } for it is the only thing
that can make the judgment corred, and will help the
fancy to invent with ten times the eafe that it could do
without it. r .
We earneftly recommend to our readers the carejul
perufal of Dr Taylor’s Treatife, as publifhed by Colfon
in 1749, and Emerfon’s publifhed along with his Op¬
tics. They will be furprifed and delighted with the in-
ftrudion they will receive ; and will then truly eftimat.e
the fplendid volumes of other authors and fee their fri¬
volity.
PER
erfpee- PERSPECTIVE is alfo ufed for a kind of pidure or
tive. painting, frequently feen in gardens, and at the ends of
o-alleries ; defigned exprefsly to deceive the.fight by re,-
prefenting the continuation of an alley, a building, land-
fcape, or the like. „ . . , .
derial PERSPECTIVE, is fometimes uied as a.general
denomination for that which more reftridedly is called
aerial perfpeBive, or the art of giving a due diminution
or degradation to the ftrength of light, fhade,.and co¬
lours ^of objeds, according to their different diftances,
the quantity of light which falls upon them, and the
medium through which they are feen j the c/iiaro obfeu-
ro, or cl air obfeure, which confifts in exprefling the dif¬
ferent degrees of light, (hade, and colour of bodies,
arifing from their own fhape, and the pofition of their
parts with refped to the eye and neighbouring objeds,
whereby their light or colours are affeded ; and keep¬
ing, which is the obfervance of a due proportion in the
general light and colouring of the whole pidure, fo
that no light or colour in one part may be too bright or
ftrong for another. A painter, who would fucceed in
aerial perfpeBive, ought carefully to ftudy the effeds
which diftance, or different degrees or colours of light,
have on each particular original colour, to know how
its hue or (Irength is changed in the feveral circumftan-
ces that occur, and to reprefent it accordingly. As all
objeds in a piduve take their meafures in proportion to
thofe placed in the front, fo, in aerial perfpeBive, the
ftrength of light, and the brightnefs of the colours of
objeds clofe to the pidure, muft ferve as a meafure,
with refped to which all the fame colours at feveral di-
P E R
fiances muft have a proportional degradation in like cir- Perfpcf.
Cumftances. . 1 • 1 r —y—»s
Bird's eye view in PERSPECTIVE, is that which fup-
pofes the eye to be placed above any building,. &c. as
in the air at a confiderable diftance from it.. 1.1ns is ap¬
plied in drawing the reprefentations of fortifications,
when it is neceffary not only to exhibit one view as leen
from the ground, but fo much of the feveral buildings
as the eye can poflibly take in at one time from any ii-
tuation.' In order tQ this, we muft fuppofe the eye to
be removed a confiderable height above the ground and
to be placed as it were in the air, fo as to look down
into the building like a bird that is flying. In reprefen¬
tations of this kind, the higher the horizontal line is
placed, the more of the fortification will be leen, and
PERSPECTIVE Machine, is an inftrument by which
any perfon, without the help of the rules of art, inay
delineate the true perfpedive figures of objeds. Mr
Fergufon has deferibed a machine of this fort, of which
he aferibes the invention to Dr Bevis. ,
Fig. 4 c. is a plan of this machine, and fig. 49* 15
reprefentation of it when made ufe of in drawing diftantan 4 -
objeds in perfpedive.
In fig. 45. a b e f \s an oblong fquare board, repre-
fented by ABEF in fig. 46. * and y (X and Y) are
two hinges on which the part c /d (CLD) is moveable
This part confifts of two arches or portions of circles cm I
(CML) and dnl (DNL) joined together at the top /
(L), and at bottom to the crofs bar dc (DC), to
which one part of each hinge is fixed, and the ot icr
• ////: ( 3 ().
PERSPECTIVE. C> PZATECCCCJ(/\
' ' /</. Z7f o.
7
Pe rspective.
/’l.iv/; rrrr.xv.
44.
HI .Afolc/ie-M sc/t/fi ?
PER [i
j*#rfpec* part to a flat board, half the length of the board abef
tiva' (ABEF), and glued to its uppermoft fide. The centre
of the arch c /« / is at </, and the centre of the arch d n l
is at c.
On the outer fide of the arch </«/is a Aiding piece
n (much like the nut of the quadrant of altitude belong¬
ing to a common globe), which may be moved to any
part of the arch between r/and /: and there is fuch an¬
other Aider o on the arch c m l, which may be fet to
any part between- c and/.—A thread (CPN) is
flretched tight from the centre c (C) to the Aider n (N),
and fuch another thread is ftretched from the centre d
(D) to the Aider o (O) ; the ends of the thread being
fafiened to thefe centres and Aiders.
Now it is plain, that, by moving thefe Aiders on their
cefpe&ive arches, the interfedtion p (P) of the threads
may be brought to any point of the open fpace within
the arches.—In the groove k (K) is a ftraight Aiding
bar i (I), which may be drawn further out, or puflied
further in at pleafure.
To the outer end of this bar I (fig. 46.) is fixed the
upright piece HZ, in which is a groove for receiving the
Aiding piece Q. In this Aider is a fmall hole r for the
eye to look through, in ufing the machine j and there is
a long Ait in HZ, to let the hole r be feen through
when the eye is placed behind it, at any height of the
hole above the level of the bar I.
How to delineate the perfpeBive figure of any difiant
*bjcci or objeEls, by means of this machine.
Suppofe you wanted to delineate a perfpedive repre-
fentation of the houfe q s rp (which w'e muft imagine to
be a great way off, without the limits of the plate),
place the machine on a fi:eady table, with the end EF
of the horizontal board ABEF, toward the houfe, fo
that when the Gothic-like arch DEC is fet upright,
the middle part of the open fpace (about P) within it
may be even with the houfe when you place your eye
at Z and look at the houfe through the fmall hole r.
Then fix the corners of a fquare piece of paper with four
wafers on the furface of that half of the horizontal
board which is neareft the houfe j and all is ready for
drawing.
Set the arch upright, as in the figure; which it will
be when it comes to the perpendicular fide t of the up¬
right piece s t fixed to the horizontal board behind D.
Then place your eye at Z, and look through the hole
r at any point of the houfe, as y, and move the Aiders
N and O till you bring the interfe£Hon of the threads
at P direftly between your eye and the point q : then
put down the arch flat upon the paper on the board, as
at ST, and the interfetlion of the threads will be at W.
Mark the point W on the paper with the dot of a black
lead pencil, and fet the arch upright again as before ;
then look through the hole r, and move the Aiders N
and O till the interfe#ion of the threads come between
your eye and any other point of the houfe, as p: then
put down the arch again to the paper, and make a pen¬
cil mark thereon at the interfe&ion of the threads, and
draw a line from that mark to the former one at W;
which line will be a true perfpe&ive reprefentation of
the corner p q of the houfe.
Proceed in the fame manner, by bringing the inter-
feclion of the threads fucceflively between your eye and
other points of the outlines of the houfe, as r, r, &,c.
and put down the arch to mark the like points on the
Vol. XVI. Part I.
5 ] PER
paper, at the Interfeflion of the threads : then conned Perfpeo
thefe points by ftraight lines, which will be the perfpec- tive*
tive outlines of the houfe. In like manner find points v
for the corners of the door and windows, top of the
houfe, chimneys, &c, and draw the finiihing lines from
point to point: then Aiade the whole, making the lights
and fliades 'as you fee them on the houfe itfelf, and you
will have a true perfpeftive figure of it.—Great care
nmft be taken, during the whole time, that the pofition
of the machine be not ftiifted on the table ; and to pre¬
vent fuch an inconvenience, the table fhould be very
ftrong and iteady, and the machine fixed to it either by
ferews or clamps.
In the fame way, a landfeape, or any number of ob-
jefts within the field of view through the arch, may be
delineated, by finding a fufticient number of perfpeclive
points on the paper, and conne<fting them by ftraight or
curved lines as they appear to the eye. And as this
makes every thing in perfpe&ive equally eafy, without
taking the trouble to learn any of the rules for drawing,
the operations muft be very pleafing and agreeable.
Yet as fcience is ftill more fo, we would by all means
recommend it to our readers to learn the rules for draw¬
ing particular objects ; and to draw landfcapes by the
eye, for which, we believe, no perfpe&ive rules can be
given. . And although any thing may be very truly
drawn in perfpe&ive by means of this machine, it can¬
not be faid that there is the leaft degree of feience in
going that way to work.
The arch ought to be at leaft a foot wide at bottom,
that the eye at Z may have a large field of view through
it: and the eye ftiould then be, at leaft, io| inches
from the interfe&ion of the threads at P when the arch
is fet upright. For if it be nearer, the boundaries of
view at the fides near the foot of the arch will fubtend
an angle at Z of more than 60 degrees, which will not
only ftrain the eye, but will alfo caufe the outermoft
parts of the drawing to have a difagreeable appearance.
’ J o avoid this, it will be proper to draw back the
Aiding bar I, till Z be iqi inches diftant from P j and
then the whole field of viewq through the foot wide
arch, will not fubtend an angle to the eye at Z of
more than 45 degrees j which will give a more eafy and
pleafant view, not only of all the obje&s themfelves, but
alfo of their reprelentations on the paper whereon they
are delineated.^ So that whatever the width of the
aich be, the diftance of the eye from it ftiould be in
this proportion : as 12 is to the width of the arch, fo
is 14^ the diftance of the eye (at Z) from it.
If a pane of giafs, laid over with gum water, be fixed
into the arch, and fet upright when dry, a perfon who
looks through the hole r may delineate the obje&s upon
the giafs which he fees at a diftance through and be¬
yond it, and then transfer the delineation to a paper
put upon the giafs, as mentioned in the beginning of the
article Perspective.
Mr Peacock likewife invented three Ample inftru-
ments for drawing archite&ure and machinery in per--
fpe&ive, of which the reader will find Iketches and de-
feriptions in the 75th volume of the Philofophical
I ranfa&ions. Thefe deferiptions are not inferted here,
becaufe we do not think the inftruments fuperior to that
deferibed by Fergufon, and becaufe we wilh that our
readers who have occafion to draw may make themfelves
fo much mailers of the art of perfpe&ive, as to be above
A * t&e
PER
Perfpec- the aid of fucti mechanical contrivances. But for the
tive- fake of thofe vvhofe opportunities of improvement in the
art do not enable them to pra&ife it without fuch helps,
we annex the following defcription of an inftrument in¬
vented for this purpofe by Dr Wollafton, and to which
he has given the name of Camera Lucida.
“ Having a Ihort time fince (fays the author) amufed
tnyfelf with attempts to (ketch various intereiling views,
without an adequate knowledge of the art of drawing,
my mind was naturally employed in facilitating the
means of transferring to paper the apparent relative po-
iitions of the ©b}e£ts before me 5 and I am in hopes that
the inftrument, which I contrived for this purpole, may
be acceptable even to thofe who have attained to greater
proficiency in the art, on account of the many advanta¬
ges it poffeffes over the camera obfcura.
“ The principles on which it is eonftru£ted will pro¬
bably be moft diftinftly explained by tracing the fuccef-
five fteps, by which 1 proceeded in its formation.
“ While I look directly down at a (beet of paper on
my table, if I hold between my eye and the paper a
piece of plain glafs, inclined from me downwards at an
angle of 450, I fee by reflection the view that is before
me, in the fame direction that I fee my paper through
the glafs. I might then take a (ketch of it •, but the
pofition of the objeCts would be reverfed.
“ To obtain a diredt view, it is neceffary to have two
reflections. The tranfparent glafs muft for this purpofe
be inclined to the perpendicular line of fight only the
half of 4<;0, that it may refleCt the view a fecund time
from a piece of looking-glafs placed beneath it, and in¬
clined upwards at an equal angle. The objeCts now ap¬
pear as if leen through the paper in the. lame place as
before •, but they are direct inftead of being inverted,
and they may be difcerned in this manner fufficiently
well for determining the principal pofitions.
“ The pencil, however, and any objeCt, which it is to
trace, cannot both be feen dittinCtly in the fame date
ef the eye, on account of the difference of their di-
(tances ; and the efforts of fuceeffive adaption of the eye
to one or to the other would become painful if frequent¬
ly repeated. In order to remedy this inconvenience,
the paper and pencil may be viewed through a convex
lens of fuch a focus, as to require ho more effort than is
neceffary for feeing the diftant objefts diftin&ly. Thefe
will then appear to correfpond with the paper in dijiance
as well as dire&ion, and may be drawn with facility,
and with any defired degree of precifion.
“ This arrangement of glaffes will be beft underftood
from infpe&ing fig. 47. a b in the tranfparent glafs ; be
the lower refle&or \ b d n convex lens (of 1 2 inches fo-
eus) *, e the pofition of the eye ; and f g h e the courfe
of the rays.
“ In fome cafes a different conftruftion will be prefe¬
rable. Thofe eyes, which without afiiftance are adap¬
ted to feeing near obje&s alone, will not admit the ufe
of a convex1 glafs •, but will on the contrary require one
that is concave to be placed in front, to render the di¬
ftant objects diftinft. The frame for a glafs of this
Gonftru&ion is reprefented at i k, (fig. 49.) turning up¬
on the fame hinge at k with a convex glafs in the frame
3 m, and moving in fuch a manner, that either of the
glaffes may be turned alone into its place, as may be
neceffary to fuit an eye that is long or (hort fighted.
PER
Thofe perfons, however, whofe fight is nearly perfeft, Perfpec.
may at pleafure ufe either of the glaffes. t tlve'
“ The inftrument reprefented in that figure differs """ 'r*“
moreover in other refpefts from the foregoing, which I
have chofen to deferibe firfl, becaufe the adtion of the
refledtors there employed would be more generally un¬
derftood. But thofe who are converfant with the fei-
ence of optics will perceive the advantage that may be
derived in this inftance from prifmatic refledtion $ for
when a ray of light has entered a folid piece of glafs,
and falls from within upon any furface, at an inclina¬
tion of only twenty-two or twenty-three degrees, as
above fuppofed, the refradtive powrer of the glafs is fuch
as to fuffer none of that light to pafs out, and the fur-
face becomes in this cafe the moft brilliant refiedtor
that can be employed.
“ Fig. 48. reprefents the fedlxon of a folid prifmatic
piece of glafs, within which both the refledtions requi-
(ite are effedled at the furfaces a Z>, b c, in fuch a man¬
ner that the ray fg, after being refledled firft at^, and
again at //, arrives at the eye in a diredlion /i e at right
angles to fg. _ . .
“ There is another circumftance in this conftrudtxon
neceffary to be attended to, and which remains to be ex¬
plained. Where the refledtion was produced by a piece
of plain glafs, it is obvious that any objedts behind the
glafs (if fufficiently illuminated) might be feen through
the glafs as well as the reflected image. But when the
prifmatic refledtor is employed, fince no light can be
tranfmitted diredtly through it, the eye mult be fo pla¬
ced that only a part of its pupil may be intercepted by
the edge of the prifm, as at e, fig. 48. The diflant ob¬
jedts will then be feen by this portion of the eye, while
the paper and pencil are feen pad the edge of the prifm
by the remainder of the pupil.
“ In order to avoid inconvenience that might arife
from unintentional motion of the eye, the relative quan¬
tities of light to be received from the objedt, and from
the paper, are regulated by a fmall hole in a piece of
brafs, which by moving on a centre at c, fig. 49. is ca¬
pable of adjuftment to every inequality of light that is
likely to occur.
“ Since the fize of the -whole inftrument, from being
fo near the eye, does not require to be large, I have on
many accounts preferred the fmalleft fize that could be
executed with corredtnefs, and have had it conftrudted
on fuch a fcale, that the lenfes are only three-fourths of
an inch in diameter.
“ Though the original defign, and principal ufe of
this inftrument is to facilitate the delineation of objedls
in true perfpedtive, yet this is by no means the foie pur¬
pofe to which it is adapted j for the fame arrangement
of refledtors may be employed with equal advantage for
copying what has been already drawn, and may thus
afliil a leaimer in acquiring at lead a corredt outline of
any fubjedh
“ For this purpofe the drawing to be copied fhould be
placed as nearly as may be at the fame diftance before
the inftrument that the paper is beneath the eye-hole,
for in that cafe the fize will be the fame, and no lens
will be neeeffary either to the objedl, or to the pencil.
“ By a proper ufe of the fame inftrument, every pm>
pofe of the pentagraph may alfo be anfwered •, as a paint¬
ing may be reduced in any proportion required, by pla¬
cing
[ 186 ]
Perfpec-
tive
I!
Perth.
PER [i
cing it at a diftance in due proportion greater than that
of the paper from the inftrument. In this cafe a lens
becomes requifite for enabling the eye to fee at two un-
j equal diitances with equal diftinclnefs, and in order
that one lens may fuit for all thefe purpofes, there is
an advantage in carrying the height of the ftand ac¬
cording to the proportion in which the reduction is to
be effected.
“ The principles on which the height of the ftem is
adjufted will be readily underftood by thofe who are ac-
cuftomed to optical confiderations. For as in taking a
perfpeftive view the rays from the paper are rendered
parallel, by placing a lens at the dillance of xtsprincipal
focus from the paper, becaufe the rays received from the
diftant objeftsare parallel; fo alfo when the objedl feen
by refleftion is at fo fliort a diftance that the rays re¬
ceived from it are in a certain degree divergent, the rays
from the paper Ihould be made to have the fame de¬
gree of divergency in order that the paper may be feen
diftin£tly by the fame eye; and for this purpofe the
lens muft be placed at a diftance lefs than its principal
focus. The ftem of the inftrument is accordingly mark¬
ed at certain diftances to which the conjugate foci are
in the feveral proportions of 2, 3, 4, &c. to t, fo that
diftinft vifion may be obtained in all cafes, by placing
the painting proportionally more diftant.
“ By tranfpofing the convex lens to the front of the
inftrument and i-everfing the proportional diftances, the
artift might alfo enlarge his fmaller Iketches with every
defirable degree of corre£tnefs, and the naturalift might
delineate minute objefts in any degree magnified.”
PERSPECTIVE Glafs, or Graphical Perjpeflive. See
Dioptrics.
PERSPIRATION, in Physiology, the excretion of
u fluid through the pores of the fkin. Perfpiration is
diftinguifhed into fenfible and infenfible 5 and here fenfi-
ble perfpiration is the fame with fweating, and infenfible
perfpiration that which efcapes the notice of the fenfes.
PERSPICUITY, properly fignifies the property
which any thing has of being eafily feen through ; hence
it is generally applied to fuch writings or difcourfes as
are eafily underftood.
Perspicuity, in compofition. See Oratory, Nd
43- . . * .
PERTH, a county of Scotland, including Menteith,
Braidalbin, Athol, Stratherne, part of GoWrie, and
Perth Proper 5 is bounded by Badenoch and Lochaber
on the north and north-weft ; by Marr on the north-
eaft *, by Argyle and Lennox on the weft and fouth-
weft ; having Glackmannanftiire, part of Stirlingftiire,
and the Forth to the fouth •, the (hires of Kinrofs and
Fife to the fouth-eaft, and Angus to the eaft. It ex¬
tends above 70 miles in length, and near 60 at its
greateft breadth, exhibiting a variety of Highlands and
Lowlands 5 mountains, hills, dales, and ftraths, diverfi-
fled with pafture grounds, corn fields, and meadows ;
rivers, lakes, forefts, woods, plantations, inclofures, towns,
villages, and a great number of elegant feats, beautifully
fituated, belonging to noblemen and gentlemen. The
chief rivers of Pertbftiire are the Tay, the Teith, and
the Erne, befides a great number of fubordinate ftreams.
The river Tay is famous for its falmon-filhery. The
river Erne rifes from Loch Erne, a lake feven miles
long, in the mountainous country of Stratherne : this
river, after a courfe of 34 miles from weft to eaft, dur-
87 ] PER
ing which it receives many ftreams and rivulets, falls
into the Tay at Abernethy. T ^
“ The Tay (fays a late traveller), on the foUtherh Heron's
bank of which the city of Perth (lands, is truly a noble
river. It rifes in Braidalbin, on the frontiers of Lome.
Before it has advanced many miles from its fource, its
dream is confiderably augmented by the acceflion of fe¬
veral fmall rills. Soon after, it diffufes its tvaters into
a fmall lake called Loch Dochart J and indeed the river
itfelf there bears rather the name of the Dochart. Con¬
tinuing its courfe from Loch Dochart, it foon again ex¬
pands into another lake. Out of this it proceeds to Kil-
lin, dill bearing, if I remember right, the name of the
Dochart. Here it meets with another river which flows
hither by a more north-eafterly courfe. The waters are
diffufed into the famous Loch Tay, 16 miles in length.
Ifluing from this fpacious lake at Kenmore, the Tay is
foon after increafed by the acceflion of the Lyon. It
proceeds onward in an eaftern direction through Athol,
receiving as it advances all the waters in the country,
till at Logierait it is joined by the large river of Tum-
mel. Here it bends to the foUth, and advancing about
eight miles reaches .Dunkeld 5 whence taking a more
northern direflion, it continues its courfe towards Perth;
being as it advances dill augmented by the acceflion of
variotis tributary ftreams, the mod confiderable of which
is the Almond. At Perth it turns to the fouth-eaft, and
receiving as it proceeds the waters of the Erne, pafles by
Abernethy, once the capital of the Piftifh kingdom.
Soon after this, it expands itfelf to the breadth of three
miles. Contradling its breadth, as it approaches Dundee,
it there opens into the German ocean.
“ Such is the noble river ; on the fouthera bank of
which, where it has increafed into a Vaft body of wa¬
ter, and not a great tiiany miles above where it dif-
charges itfelf into the ocean, Perth is advantageoufly
fituated. A perfon acquainted with the general cha-
rafter of great rivers, and with their influence in deter¬
mining the afpeft and the fertility of the dirtrifls througk
which they pafs, might readily, without farther know¬
ledge of the local circumftances than what is conveyed
in this account of the courfe of the Tay, and of the
fituation of Perth upon it, conclude the city to ftand
amid delightful fcenery, and to enjoy moll of the ad- .
vantages which natural circumftances afford, for the
promotion of trade and induftry.”
Freeftone, lead, iron, and copper ores, with fome lapis
calaminaris, are found in different parts of Perthfhire.
The foil, being generally rich and well manured, pro¬
duces excellent wheat, and all kinds of grain. The hilly
country abounds wdth pafture for the black cattle, horfes,
(heep, goats, and deen The heaths, woods, and forefts,
are (lored with variety of game ; the rivers teem with
falmon and trout; the gardens and orchards are ftored
with all kinds of herbs, roots, apples, pears, cherries,
plums, and almoft every fpecies of fruit found in South
Britain. The houfes and attire, even of the common¬
alty, are neat and decent ; and every peafant can pro¬
duce a good quantity of linen, and great (lore of blan¬
kets, made in his own family. Indeed, this is the cafe
through all the Lowlands of Scotland- Flax is reared
by every hufbandman ; and being dreffed at home, is
fpun by the females of his family into thread for linen }
this is woven by country weavers, of whom there is a
great number through all the low country, and after^
A a 2 wrard?
PER t »88
ffert)). wards bleached or whitened by the good-wife and her
fervants; fo that the whole is made fit for ufe at a very
fmall expencc. They likewife wadi, card, fpin, and
weave their wool into tartan for plaids, kerfies, and
coarfe ruffet-cloth, for common wearing, befides great
part of it which is knit into caps, {lockings, and mitts.
Plaids, made of the fined: worded, are worn either plain
or variegated, as veils, by v/omen of the lower, and even
of the middle rank •, nay fome years ago, ladies of fa-
tliion wore filken plaids with an undrefs : this is a loofe
piece of drapery, gathered about the head, (boulders,
and waid, on which it is crofled, fo as to leave the hands
at liberty, and produces a very good effect to the eye of
the fpcflator. The Lowlanders of Perthdnre are civi¬
lized, hofpitable, and indudrious : the commerce of the
country confids chiefly in corn, linen, and black cattle :
there are, moreover, fome merchants who trade to fo¬
reign countries.—For an account of the different divi-
fions of this county above mentioned, fee the articles as
they occur in the order of the alphabet.
The population of this county in 1801 amounted to
126,366 (a).
The following table {hows the date of the population,
according to its parilhes at two different periods.
r, .n Pooulation
Parijhes. in I755.
I Aberdalgy 3.20
Aberfoil 895
Abernethy 1490
Abernyte 258
5 Alyth 2680
Arngalk 736
Auchterarder 1194
Auchtergavem J677
Balquhidder I592
10 Blackford 1681
Blair Athol 3257
Blairgowrie 159^
Bendothy I293
Callander 175°
15 Caputh 2048
Cargill *897
Clunie 905
Collace 499
Comrie 2546
20 Crieff I4I4
Culrofs- 1^95
Cupar I49I
Dron 598
Dull 5748
25 Dumbarnie 7^4
Dumblane 2728
Dunkeld 1298
Dunkeld, Little 2919
Dunning I49I
30 Errol 2229
Forgandenny 1295
Fortevoit 1164
Fortingal 3^59
Foffaway I7^5
35 Foulis, Weder 1706
Population in
IT90—IT9*.
523
790
I4I5
345
2723
554
1670
1784
1300
1360
3120
1651
878
2100
2Q45
1720
I037
473
300a
2640
1442
2076
450
4676
1250
2750
I773
2705
1600
2685
978
970
39‘4
I5J5
1224
]
Tarifhcs.
Foulis, Eader
Gaik
Glendovan
Inchture
40 Kenmore
Killin
Kilmadock
Kilfpindie
Kincardine
45 Kinclaven
Kinfauns
Kinloch
Kinnaird
Kinnoul
50 Kirkmichael
Lecropt
Lethendy
Logie
Logierait
55 Longforgan
Maderty
Meigle
Methven
Monedie
60 Monivaird
Monzie
Moulin
Muck hart
Muthil
6 C Perth
Port
Rattray
Redgorton
Rhind
70 St Madoes
St Martins
Scone
Tippermuir
Trinity Gaik
75 Tulliallan
76 VVeem
PER
Population
in ‘75S-
586
385
220
893
3067
I968
273O
828.
I25P
993
639
33i
SSI
j 163
2689
577
346
2985
2487
1285
796
1285
1790
1492
1460
1192
2109
535
2902
9OI9
1865
IS1
1074
498
189
1083
889
988
9L3
1321
1295
118,903
Population in
179c—1798.
648
486
240
IOOO
3463
2360
3209
718
2068
1150
628
31*
4°4
M65
2200
420
367
1500
2200
1526
631
1148
1786
1320
1025
H36
1749
526
2948
19,871
i765
500
2123
495
300
1090
1442
1280
795
2430
i364
133»2"4
118,903
Pedk
Increafe, 14,371
PERTH Proper, dretching 20 miles in length, and at
fome places 15 in breadth, is bounded on the north-ead,
by the Carfe of Gowrie y on the ead,by Angus', on the
wed, by Stratherne ; on the north, by Athol j and on
the fouth, by the frith of Tay. This is likewife a fruit¬
ful country, populous and well cultivated, abounding
with gentlemen who poffefs opulent edates *, tvith far¬
mers who underltand agriculture ; and with manufac¬
turers who turn their indudry to great account. North-
eadward from Perth to Brechin lies the vale ot Strath¬
more, one of the mod fertile didricts in Scotland, w hich
gives the title of Ear/ to the noble family of Lyon.
Perth,
(a) It is fuppofed that there is fome error in the datement of the population in 1801, by which it appears
be lef- than in 1790 and I 798. But by the return of the population of the town of Perth, the amount in l8ox
is only 14,878 y and in 1791 it was nearly 20,000, which will account for the difference.
FEE [189] P E K
fertb. Perth., the capital of the county of that name, is an
agreeable, populous town, lituated 20 miles within land,
on the fouth bank of the river Tay. It wa> otherwife
called St Johnjlon's, from a church dedicated to St John,
as the patron of the place. It is a royal borough, fecond
in dignity to the metropolis, the feat of a large prefby-
tery, and gave the title of Ear/to the family of Drum¬
mond, which is now forfeited. James Drummond, 4th
earl, wTas created duke of Perth by James II. for adher¬
ing to whofe interefls he was outlawed. His two grand-
fons were attainted in 1745. No lefs than 14 national
councils have been held at Perth between 1201 and
1459. But the oldelt was at Scone, A. D. 906. Perth,
in the reign of Edward I. of England, was pofleffed by
the Englilh, whofecured it with fortifications: but after
an obftinate refillance, they were expelled by Robert
Bruce. In the year 1715, the rebels made it a place of
arms, and retired to it, after the battle of Dumblanej
but they were in a little time diflodged by the duke of
Argyle, and retreated northwards with the pretender.
They poffelTed it alfo in 1745. The pretender was pro¬
claimed king, new magiftrates were appointed, and an
attempt was made to fortify it. The town is populous
and handfome; the ftreets are well paved, and tolerably
clean at all timesj and the houfes, though not ftately,
make a very decent appearance. Both the llreets and
houfes are, for the greater part, difpofed in a regularity
of plan, which proves them not to be of the molt remote
Heron's antiquity. It is indeed true that the level fituation, be-
Tour. ing Angularly favourable to regularity, might, even from
the firft, give this an advantage over many of our old
boroughs. Several ftreets run in a direction parallel
with the river, as far as a right line can bear this relation
to a curve line, nearly between eaft and w'eft : thefe are
again interfered by others extending between north and
fouth. It fhould feem that anciently particular ftreets
were inhabited, each by a particular clafs of artifans.
The names ftill preferved feem to indicate as much.
The (hop-keepers or merchants occupied one ftreet ; the
hammermen a fecond ; and other crafts occupied, in the
fame manner, each a feparate ftreet. Many of the houfes
in that ftreet called the Water-gate, feem to be very old
buildings. Towards the fouth end of the Water-gate
Hands the famous palace of the Gowrie family. The
boufe, and the very room, where the attempt of the
Hough's Cowries to feize or aflaffinate the king was fuppofed
Camden, to have been made, is now converted into barracks for
a train of artillery 5 but the back-ftair, down which the
Ruthvens were thrown, is pulled down. This ftrange
event, however magnified or attefted by contemporary
writers, is made up of fo many improbabilities, orcir-
cumftances for which no reafon can be aftigned, that Sir
David Dairymple, in republifhing the account printed
by authority, 1600, preparatory to his further obferva-
tions on it, feems iuftified in abfolutely diferediting a
fa<ft which pafied for problematical with fo many perfons
at the very time. Dr Robertfon fuppofes it a plot of
Elizabeth to get James into her power. Mr Cant hav¬
ing difenffed the whole ftory of the confpiracy in his
Mufe’s Threnodie, p. 185—261, concludes, “ that as
this would have been a very impolitic meafure,the heft
way of accounting for it is by James’s known hatred to
the Puritans, and wifhto get rid of two popular charac¬
ters.” The king had been feized and forced from his
favourites by the father of the Ruthvens 12 years before
2
(1582), and though he affe£tefl to forgive him, took
the firft opportunity to condemn and execute him as a
traitor, 15^4* Camden was too good a courtier to
fpeak with impartiality of any part of this weak mo¬
narch’s conduct. Though the name of Gowrie was abo-
liftied, the title of Ruthven was revived in the perfon of
Sir Thomas Ruthven of Freeland, whom Charles II.
1651, created Lord Ruthven: but the honour, on the
death of his fon David in 1704, devolved on Label, fur-
viving daughter of his fecond filler, who married Sir
Francis Ruthven, and was fucceeded, 1732, by his fon
James.
The caftle of Perth ftood near the red bridge, which
terminated the narrow ftreet called Skinner-gate. At
the end of the Caftle ftreet another narrow ftreet leads
weft to the Black-friars, called Couvre feu-row, where
the curfeu bell was. The kings of Scotland before
James II. were crowned at Scone, and refided at Perth
as the metropolis of the nation. James refided and was
educated in the callle of Edinburgh, and was crowned
there 1437- The parliaments and courts of juftice were
removed from Perth to Edinburgh, but Perth kept it#
priority till 22 James III. 1482.
The church in which John Knox harangued is ftill
Handing, and is now divided into three; named the
eajl, the tnidd/e, and the wejl kirks. The eart kirk
was lately very handfomely modernifed within. There
is an old hofpital, a confiderable building, the found¬
ing of which is aferibed to James VI. The town-
houfe fhuts up the eaftern end of the High-ftreet. A
monaftery of Carthufians was here eftablilhed by King
James I. of Scotland, who loft his life on the very fpot,
by the treachery of Athol and his accomplices. The
king was buried in a very ftately monument in this place,
which was called monajlerium vallis virtutis, one of the*
moft magnificent buildings in the kingdom, which with
the reft was deftroyed by the populace. James VI.
created George. Hay commendator of the Carthufian
priory, giving him all its emoluments, with a vote and
feat in parliament; but thefe not being fulhcient tofup-
port the title, he furrendered it back to the king. The
only remains of this magnificent ftruflure is to be feen
in the. carved ftones with which the fouth-eaft porch of
St John’s church is built, now greatly decayed. The
king’s garment full of ftabs was preferved here after the
reformation.
The town was anciently provided with a ftone bridge
over the river, which an inundation fweptaway; but
a new and very fine one has lately been built, the moft
beautiful llrudlure of the kind in North Britain, and was
defigned and executed by Mr Smeaton. Its length is
poo feet; the breadth (the only blemifh) 22 within
the parapets. The piers are founded 10 feet beneath
the bed of the river, upon oaken andbeechen piles, and
the ftones laid in puzzolano, and cramped with iron.
There are nine arches, of which the centre is 75 feet in
diameter. This noble work opens a communication with
all the different great roads of the kingdom, and was
completed at the expence of 26,000!. Of this the rom-
miffioners of forfeited efiates, by his majefty’s permiffion,
gave 11,cool.; Perth 2000I.; private fubferibers 4756I.;
the royal boroughs s’ool. But ftill this great work
would have met with a check for want of money, had
not the earl of Kinnoul, with his charadleriftic public
fpirit, advanced the remaining fum, and taken the fe-
curity
fenh.
—v  
PER
curity of the tolls, with the hazard only to hirafelf. The
whole expence has now been defrayed, and the toll has
ceafed.
This town has but one parifh, which has two churches,
befides meetings for feparatifts, who are very numerous.
One church, which belonged to a monaftery, is very an¬
cient: not a veftige of the laft is now to be feen; for the
difciples of Knox made a general defolation of every edi¬
fice that had given fhelter to the worftiippers of the
church of Rome : it being one of his maxims, to pull
down the nefts, and then the rooks would fly away.
The flourifhing ftate of Perth is owing to two acci¬
dents : the firft, that of numbers of Cromwell’s wound¬
ed officers and foldiers choofing to refide here, after he
left the kingdom, who introduced a fpirit of induftry
among the people ; the other caufe was the long conti¬
nuance of the earl of Marr’s army here in 1715, which
occafioned vaft fums of money being fpent in the place.
But this town, as well as all Scotland, dates its pro-
fperity from the year 1745 J t^e government of this part
of Great Britain having never been fettled till a little
after that time.
That this town does not owe its origin to William I.
1210, as Boethius fays, is evident from its being men¬
tioned as a confiderable place in the foundation charter
of Holyroodhoufe by David I. 1128.
The population of Perth in 1791 is faid to have been
nearly 20,000 : but it is fuppofed that it has fince in-
creafed to 22,000.
The trade of Perth is confiderable. It exports an¬
nually 150,000!. worth of linen, from 24,000 to 30,000
bolls of wheat and barley to London and Edinburgh,
and a very large quantity of cured falmon. That fifli
is taken there in vaft abundance •, 3000 having been
caught in one morning 5 weighing, one with another,
16 pounds ; the whole capture 48,000 pounds. The
fiffiery begins on St Andrew’s day, and ends Auguft
26th old llyle. The rents of the fiffieries amount to
confiderably upwards of 3000I. per annum. Smelts
come up this river in May and June. W. Long. 3. 27.
N. Lat. 56. 22.
Perth Amboy. See New JerSET.
PERTTNAX, was an illuftrious Roman emperor af¬
ter the death of Commodus. He was defcended of a
mean family •, and like his father, who was either a Have
or the fon of a manumitted flave, he for fome time fol¬
lowed the employment of drying wood and making char¬
coal. His poverty did not, however, prevent him from
receiving a liberal education. For fome time he was
employed in teaching a number of pupils the Greek and
the Roman languages in Etruria. He left this laborious
profefiion and became a foldier, and by his valour and
intrepidity gradually rofe to offices of the higheft truft
in the army, and was made conful by M. Aurelius for
his fervices. He was afterwards entrufted with the go¬
vernment of Moefia, and at length he prefided over the
city of Rome as governor. When Commodus Avas mur¬
dered, Pertinax was univerfally chofen to fucceed to the
imperial dignity and his refufal, on the plea of old
age and increafing infirmities, did not prevent his being
fainted emperor and Auguftus. He complied with re-
luflance; but his mildnefs, his economy, and popularity,
convinced the fenate and the people of the prudence and
the iuftice of their choice. Fie forbade his name to be
infcribed on fuch places or eftates as were part of the
PER
imperial domains, and aflerted that they belonged not Pertinat,
to him but to the public. He melted all the filver fta- --■y
tUes which had been raifed to his predeceffbr, and he ex-
pofed to fale all his concubines, horfes, arms, and all the
initruments of his pleafure and extravagance. With the
money raifed from thefe relics he enriched the empire,
and was enabled to abolith all the taxes which Commo-
dus had laid on the rivers, ports, and highways, through
the empire. Thefe patriotic adffions gained him the a£*
fedlion of the worthiefi: and molt difcerning of his fub-
jedts ; but the extravagant, luxurious, and vicious, raif¬
ed their clamours againft him ; and when the emperor
attempted to introduce among the praetorian guards fuch
difcipline as was abfolutely necefi'ary to preferve the
peace and tranquillity of Rome, the flames of rebellion
were kindled, and the minds of the foldiers totally alie¬
nated. Pertinax was apprized of their mutinying, but
he refufed to fly at the hour of danger. He fcorned the
advice of fuch of his friends as wiflied him to withdraw
from the impending ftorm 5 and he unexpectedly appear¬
ed before the feditious troops, and without fear or con¬
cern boldly alked them, whether they who rvere bound
by duty to defend the perfon of their prince and em¬
peror, were come to betray him and to fhed his blood ?
His undaunted courage and intrepidity would have had
the defired effedt, and the foldiers had begun to retire,
when one of the moft feditious of them advanced and
darted his javelin at the emperor’s breaft, exclaiming,
T/ie foldiers fend you this. The reft inftantly followed
the example 5 and Pertinax, muffling up his head, and
calling upon Jupiter to avenge his death, remained un¬
moved, and was immediately difpatched. His head was
cut off and carried upon the point of a fpear in triumph
to the camp. This abominable murder happened in the
103d year of the Chriftian era.
It was no fooner known that Pertinax had been mur¬
dered, than the enraged populace flocked from all quar¬
ters of the city ; and uttering dreadful menaces againft
the authors of his death, ran up and down the ftreets in
queft of them. The fenators were no lefs concerned for
his death than the people ; the more, becaufe they were
now convinced, that the foldiers would fuffer none to
reign but tyrants. However, as they had more to lofe
than the common people, they did not offer to revenge
his death 5 but either ftmt themfelves up in their own
houfes, or in thofe of the foldiers of their acquaintance,
thinking themfelves there more fafe. Such was the un¬
fortunate and much-lamented end of Publius Helvius
Pertinax, after he had lived 66 years 7 months and 26
or 28 days •, and reigned, according to Dio Caflius, 87
days, that is, from the ift of January to the 28th of
March. His body, together with his head, was inter¬
red with great pomp by Didius Julianus, bis fucceffor,
in the burying place of his wife’s family. The emperor
Septimius Severus, with the title of emperor, affumed
the name of Pertinax, which he knew would above any
thing elfe recommend him to the army in Illyricum,
and to the Roman people. He punifhed with great fe-
verity all thofe who had been acceffory to his death, dif-
banded the praetorian guards, honoured his memory
with a moft magnificent funeral, at which was carried
the effigies of the deceafed prince, pronounced his pane¬
gyric, and caufed him to be ranked in the number of the
gods, appointing the fon chief prieft to his father. The
day of his acceffion to the empire was yearly celebrated
[ too ]
Peru.
I
low dif-
overed
PER l i
pertinax with the Circenfian games j and his birthday, for many
years after, with other fports. He performed great
things, fays Herodian, during his fhort adminiftratxon,
and would have reftored the empire to its former luftre,
had he been indulged with a longer reign.
PERTINENT of Lands, in Scots Law. See Law,
N° clxvii. 6. p. 670.
PERU, a country of South America, is bounded on
the north by Popayan, on the eaft by Amazonia, on
the fouth by Chili, and on the weft by the Pacific
ocean *, extending from i° 40' north to 26° lo' fouth
latitude, and between 56° and 8i° weft longitude from
Greenwich $ being about 1800 miles in length, but its
greateft breadth does not much exceed 390.
This country was difcovered by the Spaniards ; and
the firft intelligence they had of it was on the follow-
>y the Spa-ing occafion. Nunez de Balboa having been raifed to
uards. tiie government of the fmall colony at Santa Maria in
Darien by the fuffrages of his companions, was very
defirous of having that authority confirmed by the
court of Spain. For this purpofe he endeavoured to
recommend himfelf to the Spanifh miniftry by fome im¬
portant fervice *, that is, by extorting from the Indians
as much gold and filver as he could. He therefore
made frequent inroads into the adjacent country, fub-
dued feveral of the caciques or petty princes, and col-
ledled a confiderable quantity of gold. In one of thefe
expeditions, the Spaniards contended fo violently about
the divifion of fome gold which they had taken, that
they were on the point of coming to blows with one
another. A young cacique who was prefent, aftoniftied
at fuch contention about a thing of which he knew not
the ufe, tumbled the gold out of the balance with indig¬
nation, and turning to the Spaniards, told them, that
fince they valued gold fo very highly, he would condudl
them to a country where the moft common utenfils were
made of that metal. The Spaniards eagerly catched at
this hint *, and upon further queftioning the cacique,
were informed, that at the diftance of fix days journey,
towards the fouth, from the place where they were at
that time, they fhould difcover another ocean, near
which this defirable country was fituated ; but if they
intended to attack that powerful ftate, they muft aflem-
ble a much greater number of forces than had hitherto
appeared on the continent.
Balboa was tranfported at the news. He immediately
concluded, that the ocean mentioned by the cacique was
that which Columbus had fo long fought for in vain, and
that the rich territory defcribed to him muft be part of
the Eaft Indies. He was therefore impatient till he
ftiould arrive at that happy country, in comparifon with
the difcovery of which all former exploits almoft vanifli-
ed into nothing. In order therefore to procure a force
fufficient to enfure fuccefs in his enterprife, he firft fe-
cured the friendftiip of the neighbouring caciques, and
then difpatched fome of his officers to Hifpaniola, with
a large quantity of gold as a proof of his part fuccefs,
and an earneft of what he expefted. By this means he
fecured the friendftiip of the governor, and procured a
confiderable reinforcement. But though he now ima¬
gined himfelf fufficiently ftrong to attempt the difcovery,
2 there were ftill prodigious difficulties to be furmounted.
diffiadties The ifthmus of Darien, though not above 60 miles in
r>^co^eto breadth, has a chain of lofty mountains running through
its whole extent. Being fituated between two vaft
gr ] PER
oceans, the Atlantic and Pacific, the climate is excef- Peru'
fively moift, infomuch that it rains for two-thirds of the *
year. In confequence of this the valleys are marftiy,
and fo frequently overflowed, that the inhabitants find
it neceffary in fome places to build their houfes upon
trees, in order to be elevated at fome diftance from the
damp foil, and the odious reptiles engendered in the
waters. There are alfo many large rivers very difficult,
to be crofled j and as the country at that time was only
inhabited by a few wandering favages, the enterprife of
Balboa was looked upon as the molt difficult that had
been undertaken by any Spaniffi adventurer.
On this arduous talk Balboa fet out on the iff day
of September 1513, about the time that the periodical
rains began to abate. He had only 190 Spaniards
along with him } but all of them were hardy veterans,
inured to the climate of America, and very much at¬
tached to their leader. A thoufand Indians attended
in order to carry their provifions and other neceffaries j
and they had along with them fome of thofe fierce dogs
fo terrible to the natives of America.
Balboa proceeded by fea, and without difficulty, to
the territories of a cacique whofe friendfhip he had
gained 5 but as foon as he began to advance into the
interior parts of the country, he met with all the dif¬
ficulties above mentioned. Some of the caciques alfo,
at his approach, fled with all their people to the moun¬
tains, carrying off or deftroying whatever could af¬
ford fubfiftence to an army. Others collected their
force in order to oppofe him : however, Balboa conti- ^
nued unmoved in fpite of all difficulties, and at laft, Balboa firff
after a moft painful journey of 25 days, he arrived atfig*1*1
the South fea; when, with the moft extravagant tranf-°o^^a
ports of joy, he went into it up to the middle, and took
poffeffion of the ocean in his mailer’s name, vowing to
defend it again!! all the enemies of Spain.
That part of the South fea which Balboa nowr dif¬
covered, he called the Gu/f of St Michael; which name
it ftill retains, and is fituated to the eaft of Panama.
From fome of the neighbouring caciques he extorted
provifions and gold by force ; others fent him prefents
voluntarily ; and he had the fatisfa&ion to hear, that
the adjacent coafts abounded with pearl-oyfters. The
inhabitants were alfo unanimous in declaring, that
there was to the fouth ward a very rich and populous
country, where the people had tame animals, which
they endeavoured to defcribe to him, meaning the Pe¬
ruvian ffieep. But, however impatient he might be
to vifit this empire, he confidered it as highly im¬
proper to venture thither with a handful of men ex-
haufted by labour and difeafe. He therefore led back
his followers to Santa Maria, in order to refreffi them
after their fatigues ; and from thence he lent an ac¬
count to the court of Spain of the important difcovery
he had made, demanding a reinforcement of 1000 men,
in order to conquer the country he had newly difcover- ^
ed. But here his hopes were all blafted at once. The He is de-
king indeed determined to profecute the difcovery, butprivedof
refilled to continue Balboa in his government, appointing
Pedrarias Davila to fuperfede him, and giving him the'
command of 15 ftout veffels, with 1200 foldiers, to en¬
fure his fuccefs.
Balboa, though much mortified by his difgrace,
fubmitted to the king’s pleafure without repining. It
was not long, however, before he met with an addi¬
tional
PER
Peru.
[ >92
llnnal misfortune ; the new governor tried him for h
' feme pretended irregularities committed before his ar¬
rival, and fined him of almoft all he u?as worth. In
the mean time the Spaniards, paying no regard to the
treaties concluded by Balboa with the Indians, plun¬
dered and deliroyed all indifcriminately, infomuch that
the whole country, from the gulf of Darien to the
lake Nicaragua, was defolated. The new comers had
alfo arrived at the moft unlucky time of the year, name¬
ly, about the middle of the wet feafon, when the excef-
five rains produced the moll violent and fatal difeaies.
To this was joined an extreme fcarcity of provilions j
fo that in the fpace of a month above 600 Spaniards
perilhed in the utmoft mtfery.
Balboa failed not to fend violent retnonftrances to
Pm.
Spain againft the con daft of the new governor *, and
he, on the other hand, accufed his antagonift of ha¬
ving deceived the king by falfe accounts of the coun¬
try, and magnifying his own exploits beyond meafure.
At’ laft the king, fenfible of his error in fuperfeding
Balboa, appointed him adelantado, or lieutenant-go¬
vernor of the countries on the South fea, with very
extenlive privileges and authority } enjoining Pedrarias
to fupport him in all his enterprifes, and to confult
with him in every thing which he himfelf undertook.
It rvas impofTible, however, to extinguifh the envy of
Pedrarias •, and therefore, though a reconciliation took
place in appearance, even fo far, that Pedrarias agreed
to give his daughter in marriage to Balboa, yet he
foon after had him condemned and executed on pre-
o loon alter naa mm    r--
deathPUt t0 tence of difloyalty, and an intention to revolt from the
king.
On the death of Balboa, the thoughts of conquer-
jng Peru were for a time laid afide j however, it dill
remained an objeft of defire to all the Spanifh adven¬
turers in America. Accordingly, feveral armaments
were fitted out with a defign to explore and take
poffeffion of the countries to the eaft of Panama; but,
either through the difficulties which attended the un¬
dertaking itfelf, or the bad conduft of the adventu¬
rers, all of them proved unfuccefsful, until at laft it be¬
came a general opinion, that Balboa’s fcheme had been
entirely vifionary. r i j
G Still, however, there were three _ perfons fettled at
pedition fet Panama, on whom the common opinions made fo little
on foot.. impreflion, that they determined to go in queft ot this
country, looked upon to be chimerical by the genera¬
lity of their neighbours. Their names were Frnncijeo
Przarro, Diego de Almagro, and Hernando Luque. Pi-
zarro and Almagro were foldiersof fortune, and Tuque
was an ecclefiaftic, who afted both as prieft and fchool-
mafter at Panama. Their confederacy was authored
by Pedrarias governor of Panama \ and each engaged
to emplov his whole fortune in the adventure. Pi-
zarro, being the leaft wealthy of the three, engaged
to take upon himfelf the greateft ftiare of the fatigue
and danger, and to command in perfon the armament
which was to go firft upon the difeovery. Almagro
offered to condua the fupplies of provifions and rein¬
forcements of troops which might be neceffary *, and
Luque was to remain at Panama, in order to negociate
with the governor, and to fuperintend whatever was
7 carrying on for the general intereft.
Meets with In 1524, Pizarro fet fail from Panama with a fingle
bad fuccds v?ffel 0£ fman burthen and 112 men j and fo little was
at firft.
] FEB.
_ or his countrymen at that time acquainted with the
climate of America, that the moft: improper feafon of J
the whole year was chofen for his departure : the pe¬
riodical winds, which were then let in, being oiredly
oppofite to the courfe which he propofed to fleer. 1 he
confequence of this was, that, after beating about for
70 days with much danger and fatigue, he had ad¬
vanced fcarce as far to the fouth-eaft as a Ikilful navi¬
gator will now make in three days. He touched at
feveral places of Terra Firma ; but finding that coun¬
try exceedingly inhofpitable and unhealthy, he was
obliged to retire to Chuchama, oppofite to the Pearl
iHands, where he hoped to receive fome reinforcements
from Panama. Here he was found by Almagro, whs
had fet out in queft of him with a reinforcement of 7®
men, and had fuffered diftreffes very much refembling
thofe of Pizarro himfelf. In particular, he had loft
an eye in combat with the Indians. However, he had
advanced as far as the river of St Juan in the province
of Popayan, where the country ftiowing a better afpefl,
and the inhabitants more friendly, our proje&ors again
began to indulge themfelves in hopes, and determined
by no means to abandon their fcheme.
Almagro returned to Panama, in hopes of recruit¬
ing their lhattered troops. But the bad accounts of
the fervice gave his countrymen fuch an unfavourable
idea of it, that Almagro could levy no more than 8^9
men, and thefe with great difficulty. Slender as this
reinforcement was, however, the adventurers did not
hefitate at renewing their enterprife. The difafters
and difappointments they met with in this new at¬
tempt, were fcarcely inferior to thole they had already
experienced, when part of the armament at laft. reached
the bay of St Matthew on the coaft 01 Quito, and
landed at Tacamez to the fouth of the river of Eme¬
ralds, where they met with a more fertile and cham*
paign country than any they had yet feen j the natives
alfo were more civilized, and clothed in garments of
cotton or woollen ftuff, adorned with trinkets of gold
and filver. But notwithHanding thefe favourable ap¬
pearances, Pizarro did not think fit to attack fuch a
powerful empire with a handful of foldiers already ex-
haufted ; and therefore retired to a fmall illand called
Gallo, with part of the troops^ from whence he dil-
patched Almagro to Panama, in hopes of obtaining a
reinforcement.
The reception which Almagro met with was by n®
means agreeable. Some of the adventurers had in¬
formed their friends of the many dangers and Ioffes
which they had fuftained j which not only dilheartened
people from engaging in the fervice, but weighed fo
much with Pedro de los Rios, the fucceffor of Pedra¬
rias, that he prohibited the raifing of new recruits, and
even difpatched a veffel to bring home Pizarro and his
companions from the ifland of Gallo. Almagro and
Luque, though much mortified with this difappointn.ent,
privately advifed Pizarro not to relinquifli an enterprife
on which they had built all their hopes. He therefore
pofitively refufed to obey the orders of the governor, and ^
employed all his addreft in perfuading his men not tOp.^
abandon him. But the calamities to which they bad aijari(jor‘
been expofed had fuch an efft tt upon them, that when by allh
he drew a line upon the fand with his fword, telling mer.bu
fuch as wilhed to return that they might pafs over it,thir ee
only 11 had refolution to remain with him.
J J Pizarrti
Pern.
Soes on
with his
fcheme at
ail adven-
ttu:es.
PER [ i
Pizarro with his little troop now fixed their refidence
on the ifle of Gorgona, which they confidered as a fafer
retreat than Gallo, as being farther removed from the
coaft, and uninhabited, fo that they might with the
greater fecurity wait for fupplies. Here they continued
five months in the molt unwholefome climate imagin¬
able, and at laft had come to a refolution of committing
themfelves to fea on a float, when a veflel arrived from
Panama to their relief. This was the effeft of the conti¬
nued felicitations of Almagro and Luque ; who, though
they could not prevail upon the governor to favour the
undertaking, had fucceeded fo far as to induce him to
fend a fmall veflel to the relief of Pizarro and his unfor¬
tunate affociates. However, the more effectually to
fliow7 his difapprobation of Pizarro’s fcheme, the gover¬
nor refufed to allow one landman to go on board of the fhip
which he fent.—The hopes of the adventurers were now
again revived, and Pizarro eafily induced them to re¬
fume their fcheme. Inftead of returning to Panama,
therefore, they failed to the fouth-eaft, and in 20 days
after the difeovery of Gorgona, they difeovered the
coatt of Peru. Having touched at fome places of lefs
note, they at length arrived at Tumbez, remarkable for
its {lately temple, and a palace of the incasor fovereigns
of the country. Here they found that what had been
told them concerning the riches of the country was
true ; not only ornaments and facred veffels being made
of gold and filver, but even fuch as were for common
ufe. Yet to attempt the conqueft of this opulent em¬
pire with their flender force, would have been madnefsj
they contented themfelves therefore with viewing it,
procuring two of the beafts of burthen called l/atnus,
to which they gave the name of fheep, fome veffels of
gold and filver, and two young men, whom they pro-
pofed to inftruft in the Caftilian language. With thefe
Pizarro arrived at Panama in the year 1527, near three
years after he had fet out from that place on his ex-
I0 pedition.
fliftory of The empire of Peru, thus difeovered, is faid to have
tho Incas of been originally poffeffed by independent tribes, juflly
reckoned among the moft favage even in America 5
living more like wild beafts than men. For feveral ages
they lived in this manner, when fuddenly there appeared
on the banks of a lake called Titiaca, a man and woman
of majeftic form, and clothed in decent garments. They
declared themfelves to be the children of the fun, fent
by their beneficent parent to inftrudt and reclaim man¬
kind.
The names of thefe two extraordinary perfonages
were Manco Capac and Mama Ocla. At their perfua-
fion, feveral of the difperfed favages united, and, re¬
ceiving their commands as heavenly injunftions, follow¬
ed them to Cuzco, where they fettled, and began to
lay the foundations of a city. Manco Capac inftruft-
ed the men in agriculture, and other ufeful arts j while
Mama Ocla taught the women to fpin and weave j af¬
ter which Manco turned his attention towards the in-
troduftion of proper laws and regulations into his new
ftate.
Thus, according to the Indian tradition, was found¬
ed the empire of the Incas, or lords of Peru. At firft
its extent was fmall, the territory of Manco Capac
reaching not above eight leagues from Cuzco his capi¬
tal. Within thefe narrow limits, however, he exer-
cifed the mnft perfect defpotifm, and the fame was
Vol. XVI, Part I.
Persr.
?«u.
93 ] PER
maintained by his fucceffors, all of whom Were not
only obeyed as monarchs, but reverenced as deities. *
Their blood was held to be facred, and, by prohibit*
ing intermarriages with the people, was never conta¬
minated by mixing with that of any other race. The
family, thus feparated from the reft of the nation, was
diftinguilhed by peculiarities in drefs and ornaments,
which it was unlawful for others to affume. Among
the Peruvians, however, it is faid, that this high de¬
gree of veneration was made ufe of by the monarchs
only to promote the good of their fubjefts. If we may
believe the accounts given by their countrymen, the
Peruvian monarchs extended their empire not with a
view to increafe their own power and wealth, but from
a defire of diffufing the bleflings of civilization, and
the knowledge of the arts which they poffeffed, among
the barbarous people wThom they reduced, and, during
a fucceflion of 12 monarchs, not one deviated from
this charadler.
The Peruvians were taught by Manco to adore theGz^w’r
Creator of heaven and earth, whom they denominated Modern
Paca Camac, that intelligence which animated the
world. They feldom built temples or offered facrifices XI
to him, but worfhipped him in their hearts. One Religion of
temple, however, dedicated to The unknown Godr thetheftera-
Spaniards found at their arrival, erected in a valley,''Lani’
thence named the valley of Paca Camac. The facrifi¬
ces inftituted in honour of the fun confifted chiefly of
lambs 5 befides which they offered all forts of cattle,
fowls, and corn, and even burnt their fineft cloths on
the altar by way of incenfe. They had alfo drink of¬
ferings made of maize or Indian corn, fteeped in water.
Nor were thofe oblations the only a£ts of adoration in
general ufe among them. When they firft drank after
their meals, they dipped the tip of their finger into the
cup, and lifting up their eyes with great devotion, gave
the fun thanks for their liquor, before they prefumed t*
take a draught of it.
Befides the worftiip of the fun, they paid fome kind
of veneration to the images of feveral animals and ve¬
getables that had a place in their temples. Thefe were
generally the images brought from the conquered na¬
tions, where the people worfhipped all forts of creatures,
animate or inanimate ; it being the cuftom, when a pro¬
vince was fubdued, to remove all their idols to the
temple of the fun at Cuzco.
Exclufive of the folemnities at every full moon, four
grand feftivals were celebrated annually. The firft of
thofe, called Raymi, was held in the month pf June,
immediately after the fummer folftice, and was kept
not only in honour of the fun, but of their firft Inca,
Manco Capac, and Coya Mama Ocla, his wife and
lifter, whom the Incas confidered as their firft parents,
defeended immediately from the fun, and fent by him
into the world to reform and polifh mankind. At this
feftival, all the viceroys, generals, governors, and nobi¬
lity, were affembled at the capital city of Cuzco ; and
the emperor, or Inca, officiated in perfon as high-prieft ;
though on other occafions the facerdotal function was
difeharged by the regular pontiff, who was ufually either
the uncle or brother of the Inca.
The morning of the feftival being come, the Inca,
accompanied by his near relations, drawn up in order
according to their feniority, went barefoot in proceflion,
at break of day, to the market-place, where they re-
B b mained
P E R
[ '9+ ]
PER
Peru.
12
They were
acquainted
with aftro-
rnamed looking attentively towards the eaft in expecta¬
tion of the riling fun. The luminary no fooner appear¬
ed, than they fell proftraie on their faces in the moil
profound veneration, and univerfally acknowledged it to
be their god and father.
The vaffal princes, and nobility, that were not of
the blood royal, affembled in another fquare, and per¬
formed the like ceremony. Out of a large flock, of
ftieep the prielts then chofe a black lamb, which they
offered in facrilice, firit turning its head towards the
eail. From the entrails of the viCtim, on this occalion,
they fuperftitioufly drew prognofties relating to peace
and war, and other public events.
That the Peruvians believed in the immortality of
the foul, appears from the praftice of the Incas, who
conftantly inculcated to the people, that, on leaving
this world, they fnould enter into a Hate of happinefs
provided for them by their god and father the fun.
Before the arrival of the Spaniards in America, the
Peruvians were acquainted with fome points of aftro-
They had obferved the various motions of
nomy.
14
and were
fore^the ar the P^net Venus, and the different phafes of the moon,
rival of6the" The common people divided the year only by the fea-
Spaniards. fons; but the Incas, who had difeovered the annual re¬
volution of the fun, marked out the fummer and winter
folftices by high towers, which they ereCled on the call
and weft of the city of Cuzco. When the fun same to
rife dire&ly oppofite to four of thofe towers, on the eaft
fide of the city, and to fet againft thofe of the weft, it
was then the fummer folltice j and in like manner, when
it rofe and fet againft the other towers, it was the win¬
ter folftice. They had alfo erefled marble pillars in the
great court before the temple of the fun, by which they
obferved the equinoxes. This obfervation was made
under the equator, when the fun being dire&ly vertical,
the pillars call no lhade. At thofe times they crowned
the pillars with garlands of flowers and odoriferous
' herbs, and celebrating a feftival, offered to their ador¬
ed luminary rich prefents of gold and precious ftones.
They diftinguiihed the months by the moon, and
their weeks were called quarters of the moon ^ but the
days of the week they marked only by the ordinal num¬
bers, as firft, fecond, &c. They were aftonilhed at
the eelipfes of the fun and moon. When the former
hid his face, they concluded it was on account of their
fins, imagining that this phenomenon portended famine,
war, and peftilence, or fome other terrible calamity.
In a fimilar ftate of the moon, they apprehended that
{he was fick, and when totally obfeured, that ftie .was
dying. At this alarming crifis they founded their trum¬
pets, and endeavoured by every kind of noife to roufe
the lunar planet from her fuppofed lethargy 5 teaching
their children to cry out, and call upon mama qui/la, or
14 mother moon,” that (he would not die and leave them
to perifli.
They made no predi&ions from any of the ftars,
but confidered dreams, and the entrails of beafts winch
they offered in facrifice, as inftruaive objefts of divi¬
nation. When they faw the fun fet, they imagined
that he plunged into the ocean, to appear next morning
in the eaft.
Among a people wholly void of letters, the fpecula-
*3 tive effays of the underftanding muft have been very
T-l hrfof rude and imperfea. They had, however, among them
morality • amentas, or philofophers, who delivered moral precepts,
and likewife cultivated poetry. Comedies and tragedies Peru,
compofed by thole bards were aaed on their feftivals v"~v—
before the king and the royal family, the perlor-
mers being the great men of the court, and the prin¬
cipal officers of the army. The amentas alfo compo-
fed fongs and ballads ; but if we may judge from the
rudeneis of the mulic with which they are laid to have
been accompanied, they were far from being agreeable
to a poliffied ear.
That the Peruvians were not unacquainted with paint¬
ing and ftatuary, appears from the furniture and orna- not tmac.
ments of their temples and palaces j but in all the im- quanted
plements of mechanic arts they were extremely defi-^ir,s''
cient. Though many goldfmiths were conftantly em- ft^tuary.
ployed, they had never invented an anvil of any me¬
tal, but in its ftead made ufe of a hard ftone. They
beat their plate with round pieces of copper in place
of hammers 5 neither had they any files or graving
tools. Inftead of bellows for melting their metals, they
ufed copper pipes, of a yard long, almoft of the form
of a trumpet. Having no tongs to take their heated
metal out of the fire, they made ufe of a flick or cop¬
per bar. Their carpenters had no other tools than
hatchets made of copper or flint j nor had they learned
the ufe of iron *, though the country affords mines of
that metal. Inftead of nails, they faftened their timber
with cords or the tough twigs of trees. A thorn, or
a final! bone, ferved them for a needle ; and inftead of
thread, the finews of animals, or the fibres of fome plant.
Their knives wrere made of flint or copper.
When the Spaniards firft vifited this country, they
found it agitated by a civil war. Huana Capac, the pr0gr£fs0{
12th monarch from the founder of the ftate, was feat- the Spa¬
ed on the throne ; who is reprefented as a prince no niards faci-
lefs confpicuous for his abilities in war than for his ’
pacific virtues. By him the kingdom of Quito 'was aniorig tt,e
fubdued, which almoft doubled the extent of the do-natives;
minions and power of the Peruvian empire. Notwith-
ftanding the ancient and fundamental law againft pol¬
luting the blood of the Inca with any foreign alliance,
Huana married the daughter of the conquered mo¬
narch, by whom he had a fon named dtahualpa, com¬
monly written Atabalipa, to whom, at his death in
1529, he left the kingdom of Quito, bellowing the
reft of his dominions upon Huafcar his eldeft fon by a
mother of the royal race. This produced a civil war,
in which Atabalipa proved victorious, and afterwards
attempted to fecure himfelf on the throne by putting to
death all the defeendants of Manco Capac, ttyled the
children of the fun, whom he could feize either by force
or flratagem } however, from a political motive, he
fpared the life of his rival Huafcar, who had the misfor¬
tune to be taken prifoner in an engagement, that, by
iffuing out orders in his name, he might more ealily ef-
tablith his own authority, and cover the illegality of Ids
birth.
This conteft had fo much engaged the attention of
the Peruvians, that they never once attempted to cheek
the progrefs of the Spaniards. It was fome time, how¬
ever, before Pizarro was informed of this conteft, fo
much in his favour. The firft intelligence which he re¬
ceived of it was a meffage from Pluafcar, afking his
affiftanee againft Atabalipa, whom he reprefented as
a rebel and an ufurper. Pizarro perceived the impor¬
tance of the intelligence, and therefore determined
to
PER [ i95 3 PER
Peru, to pufh forward, while inteftine difcord put it out of
the power of the Peruvians to attack him with their
whole force. Being obliged to divide his troops, in
order to leave a garrifon in St Michael, which might
ferve for a place of retreat in cafe of a difafter, he be¬
gan his march with only 62 horfemen and 102 foot-
foldiers, 20 of whom were armed with crofs-bows, and
only three with muflcets. He direfted his courfe to¬
wards Caxamalca, a fmall town at the diftance of 12
days march from St Michael, where Atabalipa was en¬
camped with a conliderable body of troops. Before he
had proceeded far, an officer difpatched by the Inca
met him with a valuable prefent from that prince, ac¬
companied with a proffer of his alliance, and his affu-
rances of a friendly reception at Caxamalca. Pizarro,
according to the ufual artifice of his countrymen in A-
tnerica, pretended to come as the ambaffador of a
powerful monarch, and declared that he was now
advancing with intention to offer Atabalipa his aid
againft thofe enemies •who difputed his title to the
jg throne.
and by As the objeft of the Spaniards in entering their
their igno- country was altogether incomprehenfible to the Peru-
ranee of the vhmSj they had formed various conjedhires concerning
thiTspa ° without being able to decide whether they (hould
niards. confider their new guefts as beings of a fuperior nature,
who had vifited them from fame beneficent motive, or
as formidable avengers of their crimes, and enemies to
their repofe and liberty. The continual profeffions of
the Spaniards, that they came to enlighten them with
the knowledge of truth, and lead them in a way of
happinefs, favoured the former opinion •, the outrages
which they committed, their rapacioufnefs and cruel¬
ty, were awful confirmations of the latter. While in
this flate of uncertainty, Pizarro’s declaration of his
pacific intentions fo far removed all the Inca’s fears,
that he determined to give him a friendly reception.
In confequence of this refolution, the Spaniards were
allowed to march in tranquillity acrofs the fandy defert
between St Michael and Motupe, where the moft
feeble effort of an enemy, added to the unavoidable
diftreffes which they fuffered in palling through that
comfortlefs region, muff have proved fatal to them.
From Motupe they advanced towards the mountains
which encompafs the low country of Peru, and pafs-
ed through a defile fo narrow and inacceffible, that a
few men might have defended it againft a numerous ar¬
my. But here likewife, from the fame inconfiderate
credulity of the Inca, the Spaniards met Avith no op-
pofition, and took quiet poffeffion of a fort erefted fof
the fecurity of that important ftation. As they now
approached near to Caxamalca, Atabalipa renewed
his profeffions of friendlhip } and, as an evidence of
his fincerity, fent them prefents of greater value than
the former.
On entering Caxamalca, Pizarro took poffeffion of a
large court, on one fide of which was a hoOfe which
the Spanilh hiftorians call a palace of the Inca, and on
the other a temple of the fun, the whole furrounded
with a ftrong rampart or wall of earth. WTien he had
polled his troops in this advantageous ftation, he dif¬
patched Hernando Soto, and his brother Ferdinand,
to the camp of Atabalipa, which was about a league
diftant from the town. He inftru&ed them to confirm
the declaration which he had formerly made of his pa¬
cific difpofition, and to defire an interview with the
Inca, that he might explain more fully the intention * "
of the Spaniards in vifiting his country. They were
treated with all the refpt ctful hofpitality ufual among
the Peruvians in the reception of their moft cordial
friends, and Atabalipa promifed to vifit the Spanifh
commander next day in his quarters. The decent de¬
portment of the Peruvian monarch, the order of his
court, and the reverence with which his fubje£ts ap¬
proached his perfon and obeyed his commands, alto*-
niftied thofe Spaniards, who had never met in Ame¬
rica with any thing more dignified than the petty ca¬
cique of a barbarous tribe. But their eyes were (till
more powerfully attracted by the vail profufion of
Avealth Avbich they obferved in the Inca’s camp. The
rich ornaments Avorn by him and his attendants, the
veffels of gold and lilver in which the repaft offered to
them Avas ferved up, the multitude of utenfils of every
kind formed of thofe precious metals, opened profpefts
far exceeding any idea of opulence that a European of
the 16th century could form.
On their return to Caxamalca, Avhile their minds
Avere yet Avarm Avith admiration and defire of the wealth
Avhich they had beheld, they gave fuch a defcription of
it to their countrymen, as confirmed Pizarro in a refolu¬
tion which he had already taken. From his OAvn obfer-
vation of American manners during his long fervice in
the New World, as Avell as from the advantages Avhich
Cortes had derived from feizing Montezuma, he knew
of what confequence it Avas to have the Inca in his x-j
poAver. For this purpofe, he formed a plan as daring Perfidious
as it Avas perfidious. NotAvitbftanding the chara61er heffihemeof
had affumed of an ambaffador from a poAverful monarch,
who courted an alliance Avith the Inca, and in violation inca>
of the repeated offers which he had made to him of his
own friendlhip and affiftanee, he determined to avail
himfelf of the unfufpicious fimplicity with which Ataba¬
lipa relied on his profeflions, and to feize his perfon du¬
ring the intervieAV to Avhich he had invited him. He
prepared for the execution of his fcheme Avith the fame
deliberate arrangement, and Avith as little compundtion,
as if it had reftedled no dilgrace on himfelf or his coun¬
try. He divided his cavalry into three fmall fquadrons,
under the command of his brothers Ferdinand, Soto, and
Benalcazar •, his infantry Avas formed into one body,
except 20 of moft tried courage, tvhom he kept near
his own perfon to fupport him in the dangerous fervice
Avhich he referved for himfelf’, the artillery, confift-
ing of two field-pieces, and the crofs-bow men, Avere
placed oppofite to the avenue by Avhich Atabalipa Avas
to approach. All Avere commanded to keep within the
fquare, and not to move until the fignal for aftion Avas
given.
Early in the morning the Peruvian camp Avas all in
motion. But as Atabalipa Avas felicitous to appear Avith
the greateft fplendour and magnificence in his firft inter-
vieAV with the ftrangers, the preparations for this Avere fo
tedious, that the day Avas far advanced before he began
his march. Even then, left the order of the proceffion
Ihould be deranged, he moved fo lloAvly, that the Spa¬
niards became impatient and apprehenfive that fomefuf-
picion of their intention might be the caufe of this delay.
In order to remove this, Pizarro difpatched one of his
officers Avith frelh affurances of his friendly difpofition.
At length the Inca approached. Firft of all appeared
B b 2 40Q
PER [ 196 ] PER
Peru. ^oo men in an uniform drefs, as harbingers to clear the
  1 ^vay before him. He himfelf, fitting on a throne or
couch, adorned with plumes of various colours, and al-
moft covered with plates of gold and lilver enriched
with precious Hones, was carried on the (boulders of his
principal attendants. Behind him came feme chief of¬
ficers of his court carried in the fame manner. Several
bands of fingers and dancers accompanied this cavalcade j
and the whole plain was covered with troops, amount¬
ing to more than 30,000 men.
As the Inca drew near the Spanifti quarters, Father
Vincent Valverede, chaplain to the expedition, advan¬
ced with a crucifix in one hand, and a breviary in the
other, and in a long difeourfe explained to him the doc¬
trine of the creation, the fall of Adam, the incarnation,
the fufferings and refurreftion of Jeius Chriil, the ap¬
pointment of St Peter as God’s vicegerent on earth, the
tranfmiflion of his apoftolical powTer by fucceffion to the
popes, the donation made to the king of Caflile by tope
Alexander of all the regions in the New World. In
confequence of all this, he required Atabalipa to em¬
brace the Chriftian faith, to acknowledge the fupreme
jurifdiftion of the pope, and to fubmit to the king of
Caftile as his lawful fovereign ; promifing, if he com¬
plied inftantly with this requifition, that the Cadilian
monarch would protect his dominions, and peimit him
to continue in the exercife of his royal authority } but
if he (hould impioufly refufe to obey his fummons, he
denounced war againft him in his mafter’s name, and
threatened him wTith the mod dreadful effects of his
vengeance.
This ftrange harangue, unfolding deep myfteries, and
alluding to unknown fads, of which no power of elo¬
quence could have conveyed at once a diftind idea to
an American, W'as fo lamely tranflated by an unfkilful
interpreter, little acquainted with the idiom of the Spa-
nifh tongue, and incapable of expreffing himfelf with
propriety in the language of the Inca, that its general
tenor was altogether incomprehenfible to Atabalipa.
Some parts in it, of more obvious meaning, filled him
with aftonifliment and indignation. . His reply, how¬
ever, was temperate. He began with obferving, that
he was lord of the dominions over which he reigned by
hereditary fucceibon 5 and added, that he could not con¬
ceive how a foreign pried diould pretend to difpofe of
territories which did not belong to him j that if fuch
a prepoderous grant had been made, he, who was the
rightful poffeffor, refufed to confirm it j that he had no
inclination to renounce the religious inditutions eda-
blidied by his ancedors j nor would he forfake the fer-
vice of the fun, the immortal divinity whom he and his
people revered, in order to wordiip the God of the
Spaniards, who was fubjeft to death 5 that with refipeft
to other matters contained ini his difeourfe, as he had
never heard of them before, and did not now underdand
their meaning, he defired to know7 where he had learned
things fo extraordinary. “ In this book,” anlwered
Valverede, reaching out to him his breviary. The Inca
opened it eagerly ; and turning over the leaves, lifted
it to his ear : “ This (fays he) is filent j it tells me
nothing*,” and threw it with difdain to the ground.
The enraged monk, running towards his countrymen,
«ried out, 44 To arms, Chridians, to arms } the word
of God is infulted j avenge this profanation on thofe
impious dogs.”
Pizzaro, who during this long conference had with Peru,
difficulty redrained his foldiers, eager to feize the rich v—
fpoils of which they had now fo near a view7, imme¬
diately gave the fignal of affault. At once the martial
mufic druck up, the cannon and mulkets began to fire,
the horfe fallied out fiercely to the charge, the infantry
rudied on fword in hand. The Peruvians, adoniftied at
the fuddenefs of an attack which they did not expert,
and difmayed with the deltrudive effefts of the fire¬
arms, and the irrefidible imprefiion of the cavalry, (led
with univerfal condernation on every fide, without at¬
tempting either to annoy the enemy or to defend them-
felves. Pizarro, at the head of his chofen band, advan¬
ced dire&ly towards the Inca ; and though his nobles lg
crowded around him with officious zeal, and fell in Atabalipa
numbers at his feet, while they vied one with another Seized by
in facrificing their own lives, that they might cover theFlzarro*
facred perfon of their fovereign, the Spaniards foon pe¬
netrated to the royal feat: and Pizarro feizing the Inca
by the arm, dragged him to the ground, and carried
him as a prifoner to his quarters. The fate of the mo¬
narch increafed the precipitate flight of his followers.
The Spaniards purfued them towards every quarter, and,
with deliberate and unrelenting barbarity, continued to
daughter wretched fugitives, who never once offered
at refidance. The carnage did not ceafe until the
clofe of day. Above 4000 Peruvians w-ere killed. Not
a fingle Spaniard fell, nor was one wounded but Pi¬
zarro himfelf, whofe hand was dightly hurt by one of
his own foldiers, while druggling eagerly to lay hold on
the Inca. _ ' 19
The plunder taken on this occafion w7as immenfe, but He offers
the Spaniards were dill unfatisfied ; which being obfer-
ved by the Inca, he endeavoured to apply himfelf to for his ^
their ruling paffion, avarice, in order to obtain his liber- berty.
ty : and therefore offered fuch a ranfom as adonifhed
them, even after all they knew concerning the opulence
of the country. The apartment in which he was con¬
fined was 22 feet in length and 16 in breadth •, and all
this fpace he engaged to fill with veffels of gold as high
as he could reach. This propofal was eagerly caught
by Pizarro, and a line rvas drawn upon the walls to
mark the dipulated height.
Atabalipa, charmed with the. thoughts of liberty, im¬
mediately let about performing his part of the agreement,
and defpatched meffengers into all parts of the empire,
in order to colleft the immenfe quantity of gold which
he had promifed ; and though the unfortunate monarch
was now in the hands of his enemies, fuch was the vene¬
ration which his fubjefts had for him, that his orders
were obeyed with as great alacrity as though he had
been at full liberty *, while he, in the mean time, flat¬
tering himfelf with the hopes of being foon releafed,
made no preparations for expelling the invaders from
his dominions.
In a (hort time Pizarro received intelligence that Al-
magro was arrived at St Michael with a reinforcement
equal to the force he had with him. I his wras a matter
of great joy to the Spaniards, and no fmall vexation to
Atabalipa, who now confidered his kingdom as in dan¬
ger of being totally overrun by thefe drangers, whofe
force he neither knew, nor the means they had of tranf-
porting themfelves. For this reafon he determined to
put his brother Huafcar to death, led he diould join the
Grangers againd him. To this he was the rather in-
elinedj
Peru.
PER [197
dined, a? he had got information that the captive
Pent.
and
20
Pizarro re¬
vives to
put the
tnca to
kath.
prince had been making applications to tiiein,
had offered them a much larger fum than what was
flipulated for the Inca’s ranfom •, and in confequence
of this determination the unfortunate prince loit his
life.
In the mean time the Indians daily arrived at Caxa-
malca with vaft quantities of treafure •, the fight of which
fo much inflamed the Spaniards, that they infilled upon
an immediate divifion : and this being complittd with,
there fell to the {hare of each horfeman 8doo pefos, at
that time not inferior to the value of as many pounds
fterling in the prefent century, and half as much to
each foot foldier, Pizarro and his officers receiving
fhares proportionable to their dignity. A fifth part was
referred for the emperor, together with feme veffels of
curious workmanihip as a prelent. In confequence of
this immenfe acquifition of wealth, many of the Spa¬
niards became clamorous for their difeharge ; which was
readily granted by their general, as well knowing that
the difplay of their riches would not fail to allure ad¬
venturers more hardy, though lefs opulent, to his ftan-
dard.
After this divifion of the fpoil, Atabalipa was very
importunate with Pizarro in order to recover his liber¬
ty 5 but the Spaniard, with unparalleled treachery and
cruelty, had now determined to put him to death. To
this he was urged by Almagro’s foldiers, who, though
they had received an equal (bare with the reft, were ftill
tinfatisfied. The Inca’s ranfom had not been completed *,
and they were apprehenfive, that whatever fums might
afterwards be brought in, the troops of Pizarro would
appropriate them to themfelves as part of that ranfom.
They infilled with Pizarro, therefore, to put him to
death, that all the adventurers might for the future be
on an equal footing. Accounts were likewife received
that troops were affembling in the remote provinces of
the empire, which Pizarro fufpe£led to be done by the
Inca’s orders. Thefe accounts were heightened by one
Philipillo an Indian interpreter, who had conceived a
paffion for one of the unhappy monarch’s wives; and
for that reafon widled to have him put to death. Ata¬
balipa himfelf, too, had the misfortune to haften his
own ruin by his conceiving a contemptuous notion of
Pizarro, which he had not the precaution to conceal.
He had, fince they were firft difeovered by him, admir¬
ed the European arts of reading and writing, and wiffied
much to know whether he ffiould regard it as a natural
or acquired talent. In order to determine this, he de-
fired one of the foldiers who guarded him to write the
name of God upon the nail of his thumb. This he (bow¬
ed to feveral Spaniards fucceffively, alking its meaning j
and to his furprife, they all returned the fame anfwer.
At length Pizarro entered ; and, on prefenting it to him,
he blufhed, and was obliged to own his ignorance;
which infpired the Inca with the contemptuous notion
of him above mentioned.
In order, however, to give fome (how of juftice to
rondom ^ a deteftable a&ion, and that be might he exempted
21
Mabalipa
condemn¬
ed,
from Handing fingly as the perpetrator, Pizarro refolved
to accufe the Inca of fome capital crime, and inftitute a
court of judicature for the purpofe of trying him. For
this purpofe, he appointed himfelf and Almagro, with
two affiftants, as judges, with full powers to acquit or
«ondemn; an attorney-general was named to carry on
] PER
the profecution in the king’s name j counfellors were
chofen to affift the prifoner in his defence j and clerks v
were ordained to record the proceedings of court. Be¬
fore this ft range tribunal a charge was exhibited ftill
more amazing. It confifted of various articles : that
Atabalipa, though a baftard, had dilpoffeffed the lawful
owner of the throne, and usurped the regal power *, that
he had put his brother and lawful fovereign to death ;
that he was an idolater, and had not only permitted,
but cornmanded the offering up of human facrifices j
that he had a great number of concubines •, that fince
his imprifonment, he had wafted and embezzled the royal
treafures, which now belonged of right to the conque¬
rors j and that he had excited his fubjedls to take up
arms againft the Spaniards. On thefe heads of accufa-
tion they proceeded to try the fovereign of a great em¬
pire, over whom they had no jurifdidtion. lo all thefe
charges the Inca pleaded not guilty. With refpedl to
the death of his brother, he alleged, that the Spaniards
could take no cognizance of the fa£t. With regard to
the taxes Avhich he had levied, and the Avars he had car¬
ried on, they Avere nothing to the Spaniards j and as to
the confpiracy againft the Spaniards, he utterly denied
it. He called heaven and earth to Avitnefsthe integrity
of his conduft, and how faithfully he had performed his
engagements, and the perfidy of his aecufers. He de-
fired to be fent over to Spain to take his trial before the
emperor j but no regard Avas paid to his intreaties.
He Avas condemned to be burnt ali\re j which cruel 22
fentence was mitigated, as a great favour, to ftrang-and ftiang¬
ling ; and the unhappy monarch Avas executed Avithout och-
mercy.
The death of the Inca Avas folloAved by a revolution
in the Spaniffi affairs, who mnv became generally odious.
Hideous cries Avere fet up by his Avomen as the funeral
proceffion paffed by their apartment; many offered to
bury themfelves alive Avith him ; and on being hindered, 23
ftrangled themfelves out of grief and vexation. The A general
Avhole toAvn of Caxamalca Avas filled with lamentation, ‘
which quickly extended itfelf over the whole kingdom. vians_
Friends and enemies aceufed the Spaniards of inhuma¬
nity and treachery. Loads of gold that Avere coming to
Caxamalca by order of the deceafed Inca Avere now
flopped; and the lofs of the treafure was the firft unfor¬
tunate confequence Avhich the Spaniards felt from their
late iniquitous conduct. T. he two fadlions of Indians
united againft Pizarro } and many of the Spaniards not
only exclaimed againft the cruelty of the judges, but
Avould even have mutinied, had not a fenfe of the im¬
pending danger kept them quiet. At Cuzco the friends
of the emperor Huafcar proclaimed Manco Capac the
legitimate brother of the late Inca, determining to fup-
port him to the laft againft all the machinations of his
enemies. Pizarro, in the mean time, fet up laparpa,
the fon of Atabalipa, caufing him to be treated Avith all
the honours due to an emperor. Immediately he fet out
for Cuzco, the gaining of which Avas abfolutely neceffary
for his defign. An army of Indians occupied the paffes,
and refolved to difpute his progrefs. The conteft, Iioav-
ever, Avas foon decided j the Spanilh cavalry bore down
every thing before them, and great numbers of Indians
Avere (lain. The conquerors gained a confiderable booty j
and Pizarro difpatched Almagro to reduce Cuzco, Avhile
he himfelf founded a new colony in the fruitful val¬
ley of Xauna) which, however, was not permanent,
being,
prru.
24
Chili inva¬
ded by Al¬
varado.
•25
He is obli¬
ged by Pi-
zarro to
abandon
the enter-
prize.
26
Honours
conferred
on Pizarro
by the
court of
Spain.
TER [1
being afterwards removed to the place where Lima now
ftands.
While Pizarro was thus employed, another comman¬
der named Ferdinando Soto, was detached with 60 horfe
to make the belt of his way to Cuzco, and clear the road
for the march of the remainder of the army. He was
oppofed by a formidable colle&ion of Indians, who had
fortified themfelves in order to defend a pafs againlt
him : for which reafon, fearing left his ftrength might
be unequal, he fent a meflage to Pizarro, ■ defiring that
the Inca might join him, thinking that his prelence
would awe the Peruvians, and prevent the further effu-
fion of blood ; but his expectations were fruftrated by
the death of the Inca, which happened about this time^
fo that there was now a neceflity for having recourfe to
arms •, for as the Spaniards fet up no perfon in his
room, the title of Manco Capac was univerfally acknow¬
ledged.
In the mean time, a new fupply of foldiers arriving
from Spain, Benalcazar, governor of St Michael, un¬
dertook an expedition againft Quito, where, accord¬
ing to the report of the natives, Atabalipa had left
the greateft part of his treafure. He accompliftied
his purpofe -with very great difficulty, having a coun¬
try covered with reeks and mountains to pais, and
being oppofed by large bodies of the natives. But
when he got poffeffion of the city, to his extreme mor¬
tification, he found that the inhabitants had carried off
all their gold and filver *, for they being no\v acquaint¬
ed with the ruling paffion of the Spaniards, had
taken care to difappoint it, by removing the treafures
which they knew very well had been the caufe of the
expedition.
About the fame time Alvarado governor of Guati-
mala, invaded the province of Chili. In this expedi¬
tion his troops endured fuch hardfliips, and fuffered
fo much from the cold among the Andes, that a fifth
part of the men and all the horfes died, and at the
fame time the reft were fo much difpirited and ema¬
ciated, that they became quite unfit for fervice. What
was worft of all, when they had arrived at the end of
their journey, they met with a body of Spaniards drawn
up in hoftile array to oppofe them. Thefe had been fent
againft him by Pizarro, who claimed Chili as part of
his jurifdi&ion, and were now joined by Benalcazar,
with the troops under his command. Alvarado, how¬
ever, advanced boldly to the attack •, but on the inter-
pofition of fome moderate men in each party, the dif¬
ference was accommodated. Alvarado engaged to re¬
turn to his government, upon his being paid 100,000
pefos to defray the expence of his armament. How¬
ever, moil of his followers remained in the country,
and enlifted in the fervice of Pizarro.
In the mean time Ferdinand Pizarro, the brother of
the general, had landed in Spain, where he produced
fuch immenfe quantities of gold and filver as aftonifh-
ed the court, even after all they had feen of the wealth
of their new difeovered territories. The general’s au¬
thority was confirmed to him, with new powers and pri¬
vileges, and the addition of 70 leagues extending along
the coaft, to the fouthward of the territory granted in
his former patent. Almagro had the title of adelantado
or governor conferred upon him, with jurifdiaion over
200 leagues of a country lying fouthward from the pro-
5
98 ] PE R.
vince allotted to Pizarro; he himfelf was made a knight 1
of the order of St Jago.
Of thefe tranfa6Hons fome accounts were received at
Peru before the arrival of Ferdinand Pizarro himfelf j
and no fooner did Almagro hear that he had obtained
the royal grant of an independent government, than,
pretending that Cuzco, the capital of all Peru, lay
within his jurifdi&ion, -he attempted to feize it. Pi¬
zarro was no lefs ready to oppofe him ; and a very
dangerous civil war was about to take place, when the
quarrel was made up, on condition that Almagro
ffiould attempt the conquefl: of Chili j and if he did
not find there an eftablilhment equivalent to his ex¬
pectations, Pizarro Humid yield up to him part of
Peru.
By this reconciliation Pizarro was left at liberty
to fettle the internal policy of his province, which-,
though Tittle qualified for a legillator, he attempted,
by dividing the country into various diftricis, ap¬
pointing magiftrates to prefide in each-, and eftablifti-
ing 'fuch regulations concerning the adminiftration of
juftiee, the royal revenue, &c. as occurred to him.
The feat of government he removed from Cuzco to Li¬
ma, which he named Ceudad des los Reyes, and which
name it ftill retains among the Spaniards in all legal
and formal deeds. Its other name, Lima, is a cor*
ruption of Rimuc, the name of the valley in which the
city ftands.
In the mean time Almagro had fet out on his expe¬
dition to Chili, the event of which has been related un¬
der the article CfULI •, and while he was thus employed,
Pizarro encouraged fome of his moil diftinguiffied offi¬
cers to invade thofe provinces of the empire which had
not yet been vifited by the Spaniards. This he did
with a view to keep them employed, and prevent tu¬
mults •, but it was attended with very terrible confe-
quences. No fooner did Manco Capac the Inca per¬
ceive the fecurity of the Spaniards in thus dividing their
forces, than he feized the opportunity of making one
vigorous effort to redrefs the wrongs of himfelf and his
countrymen, and expel the invaders, who had tyrannized
in fuch a cruel manner. Though ftri&ly guarded by
the Spaniards, he found means to communicate his in¬
tentions to the chief men of his nation, whom he joined
in the year 1536, under pretence of celebrating a fefti-
val which he had obtained liberty from Pizarro to at- ^
tend. Upon this the ftandard of war was immediately a dreadful
ere&ed, and a molt formidable army, according to the infurreftioa
Spanifh hiftorians, of 200,000 men colledled. Many Pe'
Spaniards were maffacred in their habitations, and feve-ru'’ianSi
ral detachments entirely cut off 5 and while this vaft
army laid fiege to Cuzco, another formidable body in-
vefted Lima, and kept the governor clofely {hut up.
The greateft effort, however, was made againft Cuzco,
which was defended by Pizarro and his two brothers,
with only 170 men. The fiege lafted nine months j
many of the Spaniards were killed j among whom was
Juan Pizarro, the general’s brother, and the beft beloved
of them all. The reft were reduced to the moft defpe-
rate fituation, when Almagro appeared fuddenly in the
neighbourhood of Cuzco. He had received fuch ac¬
counts of the infurredlion in Peru, as would at any rate
have determined him to return to the affiftanee of Pi¬
zarro } but befides this, he had now received the royal
patent*
PER
[
Paru.
2S
ley are
teated,
ddif.
rfed.
J9
vil war
itween
zarro
.d Ai-
agro.
patent, CMfltlng him governor of Chili, and deemed it
J certain beyond all contradidlion, that Cuzco lay within
his jurifdiclion 5 for which reafon he haftened to prevent
it from falling into the hands of the Peruvians. On his
arrival his afliflance was folicited by both parties. The
Inca made many advantageous propofals; but at length
defpairing of obtaining any cordial union with a Spa¬
niard, he attacked him in the night by furprife with a
great body of chofen troops. But tire Spanilh valour
and difcipline prevailed againlt the numbers of their
enemies; and the Peruvians were repulfed with fuch
daughter, that a great part of the remainder dilperfed,
and Almagro advanced to the gates of Cuzco without
oppofition. Pizarro’s brothers took meafures to oppofe
his entrance; but prudence for the prefent relirained
both parties from entering into a civil war while they
were furrounded with enemies; and.therefore each lead¬
er endeavoured to corrupt the followers of his antagonift.
In this Almagro had the advantage ; and fo many of
Pizarro’s troops deferted in the night, that Almagro was
encouraged to advance towards the city, where he fur-
prifed the centinels, and inverting the houfe where the
two brothers were lodged, he compelled them, after an
obllinate defence, to furrender at difcretion ; and Al-
magro’s authority over Cuzco was immediately recog¬
nized as authentic.
In this fray only two or three perfons were killed;
but matters foon began to wear a more ferious afpeft.
Francis Pizarro, having difperfed the Peruvians who in¬
verted Lima, and received conrtderable reinforcements
from other provinces, ordered 500 men under the com¬
mand of Alonfo de Alvarado to march to Cuzco, in
hopes of relieving his brothers, if they were not already
cut off. They advanced to a fmall diftance from the
capital, before they knew that they had a more formi¬
dable enemy than the Indians to encounter. When
they faw their countrymen drawn up on the banks of a
river to oppofe them, they were greatly furprifed ; how¬
ever, Almagro, who wilhed rather to gain them than to
light, began with attempting to feduce their leader.
Alvarado could not by any means be gained over; but
being inferior in military ikill, Almagro attacked him
by furprife, entirely defeated and difperfed his army,,
taking himfelf and feme of his principal officers pri-
foners.
This victory feemed decilive; and Almagro was ad-
vifed to make it fo by putting to death Gonzalo and
Ferdinand Pizarro, Alvarado, and fome others whom
he could not hope to gain. This advice, however, he
declined from motives of humanity, and a defire of
making his adverfary appear the aggrcffor. For thelh
reafons, inftead of marching direftly againft Pizarro, he
retired quietly to Cuzco ; which gave his adverfary
time to reeolleft himfolf from the diforder into which
the news of fo many difafters had thrown him. He be¬
gan again to praftife upon Almagro thofe arts which
had before proved fuccefsful; and Almagro again fuffer-
ed himfelf to be deceived by pretended offers of pacifica¬
tion. The negotiations for this purpofe were protra&ed
for feveral months ; and while Almagro was employed
in detecting and' eluding the fraudulent intentions of
the governor, Gonzalo Pizarro and Alvarado found
means to corrupt the foldiers who guarded them, and
not only made their own efcape, but penuaded 6c of.
99 ] PE R
Almagro’s men to accompany them. There now re* Peru.
mained only Ferdinand Pizarro in the hands of Alma- »" luf
gro ; and he was delivered by another a£t of treachery.
The general propofed that all points of controveriy
ftiould be fubmitted to the decifion of their fovereign ;
and that Ferdinand Pizarro fhould be inftantly fet at li¬
berty, and return to Spain, together with fome officers
whom the general propofed to fend over to (how the
juilice of his claims. Though the intention of Pizarro
by making this propofal was evident, Almagro was de¬
ceived by it, and releated thofe whom Pizarro wanted ;
which*he had no fooner done, than the latter threw off
all dilguife, and openly declared, that arms alone muft
now decide the matter between them. He therefore im¬
mediately fet out for Cuzco with an army of 700 men,
to which Almagro had only 500 to oppofe. From the
weaknefs of his forces, probably, Almagro did not at¬
tempt to guard fome ftrong paffes, through which Pi¬
zarro had to march, but waited patiently for his adver¬
fary in a plain open country.
In the mean time, Pizarro advanced without any Almagro
obftruftion from his enemy; and an engagement foon <lefeat«d
happened, in which Almagro was defeated and taken an.4 ta^eiL
prifoner. The conquerors behaved with great cruel-^ri one >
ty, maffacring a great number of officers, and treating
Almagro himfelf with great feverity. The Indians had
affembled in great numbers to fee the battle, with an
intention to join the vanquirtied party ; but were fo
much overawed by the Spaniards, that they retired
quietly after the battle was over, and thus loft the only
opportunity they ever had of expelling their tyrants. 
Almagro, after having for fome months languilhed in
prifon, was at length formally tried, and condemned to
die by Pizarro. NotwithHanding his confummate bra¬
very, for which he was remarkable, this hardy veteran,
could not bear the deliberate approach of death, but
condefcended to ufe intreaties to lave his life. The Pi-
zarros, however, continued inflexible ; and he was firfti 31,
ftrangled in prifon, and then publicly beheaded. He*and Urang-
left one fon by an Indian woman, whom he appointed^-
his fueceffor, by virtue of a power granted him by the
emperor.
As during thefe diffenfions all intercourfe with Spain
ceafed, it was fome time before the accounts of the civil
Avar Avere received at court. The firft intelligence Avas
given by fome of Almagro’s foldiers, avIio had leit
America on the ruin of their caufe ; and they did not
fail to reprefent the injuftice and violence of Pizarro
in the rtrongeft colours, Avhich ftrongly prejudiced the
emperor againft him. In a (hurt time, however, Fer¬
dinand Pizarro arrived, and endeavoured to give mat¬
ters a new turn. The emperor Avas uncertain which
of them he ought to believe ; and therefore thought it
neceffary to fend over fome perfon Avith ample powers
to inquire into the merits of the eaufe, and to deter¬
mine certainly Avho Avas in the wrong. If he found the
governor ftiil alive, he was to affume wily the title of
judge, in order to have the appearance of ailing in
concert Avith him ; but if he was dead, the viceroy
might then produce his cominiilion appointing him Pi¬
zarro’s fucceffor in the government. This complaifance
to Pizarro, however, proceeded more from a dread of his
power than from any other thing; for in the mean time,
his brother Ferdinand \tas arrefted at Madrid, and con¬
fined
Peru.
3 ».
Peru di¬
vided by
Pizarro
among he
affbciates.
PER t
fined to a prifon '\vliere he remained above 23 years.
The perfon nominated to this important truft was Chrif-
toval Vaca de Caftro.
While this gentleman ’was preparing for his voyage,
Pizarro, confidering himfell as the unrivalled matter of
Peru, proceeded to parcel out its territories among the
conquerors j and had this divifion been made with any
degree of impartiality, the extent of country which he
had to beftow was fufficient to have gratified his friends,
and to have gained his enemies. But Pizarro conduc¬
ted this tranfafttion, hot with the equity and candour of
a judge attentive to difcover and to reward merit, but
with the illiberal fpirit of a party-leader. Large di-
ftridts, in parts of the country moft cultivated and po¬
pulous, were fet apart as his own property, or granted
to his brothers, his adherehts, and favourites. To
others, lots lefs valuable and inviting tvere attigned.
The followers of Althagro, amongft whom were many
of the original adventurers, to whofe valour and per-
feverance Pizarro was indebted for his fuccefs, were to¬
tally excluded from any portion in thofe lands, to¬
wards the acquifition of which they had contributed
fo largely. As the vanity of every individual fets an
immoderate value upon his own fervices, and the idea
of each, concerning the recotnpenfe due to them, rofe
gradually to a more exorbitant height in proportion
as their conquefts extended, all who were difappointed
in their expeftations exclaimed loudly againft the ru-
onrl nf the povernor. The par-
Percv
33. .
Expedition
mf Gonzales
Eizarro.
pacioufnefs and partiality of the governor. The par
tifans of Almagro murmured in fecret, and meditated
revenge. # .
Rapid as the progrefs of the Spaniards in South
America had been fince Pizarro landed in I eru, their
avidity of dominion was not yet fatisfied. The officers
to whom Ferdinand Pizarro gave^ the command of dif¬
ferent detachments, penetrated into feveral new pro¬
vinces •, and though feme of them were expofed to
great hardthips in the cold and barren regions of the
Andes, and others fuffered diftrefs not inferior amidft
the woods and marfhes of the plains, they made difeo-
veries and conquefts which extended their knowlt dge
©f the country, as well as added to their power. ^ Pe¬
dro de Valdivia re-affumed Almagro’s fcheme of inva¬
ding Chili *, and, notwithflanding the fortitude of the
natives in defending their pofleflions, made fuch pro¬
grefs in the conqueft of the country, that he founded
the city of St Jago, and gave a beginning to the efta-
blifhment of the Spanifh dominion there. But of all
the enterprifes undertaken about this period, that of
Gonzales Pizarro was the moft remarkable. The go¬
vernor, who feems to have refolved that no perfon in
Peru fhould poffefs any ftation of diftinguiftied emi¬
nence or authority but thofe of his own family, had
deprived Benalcazar, the conqueror of Quito, of his
command in that kingdom, and appointed his brother
Gonzales to take the government of it. He mftrudted
him to attempt the difeovery and conqueft of the coun¬
try to the eaft of the Andes j which, according to the
information of the Indians, abounded with cinnamon
and other valuable fpices. Gonzales, not inferior to
any of his brothers in courage, and no lefs ambitious
of acquiring diftinaion, eagerly engaged in this diffi¬
cult fervice. He fet out from Quito at the head of
340 foldiers, near one half of xyhotti were horfemen,
with 4000 Indians to carry their provifions. In for-
200 1 P E U
cing their way through the defiles, or over the ridges
of the Andes, excefs of cold and fatigue, to neither of'-
which they were accuftomed, proved fatal to the greater
part of the wretched attendants. The Spaniards, though
more robuft, and inured to a variety of climates, fuf-
fered confiderably, and loft fome men •, but when they
defeended into the low country, their diftrefs increafed.
During two months it rained inceffantly, without any
interval of fair weather long enough to dry their clothes.
The vaft plains upon which they were now entering,
Cither altogether without inhabitants, or occupied by
therudeft and leaft induftrious tribes in the Neiv World,
yielded little fubfiftence. They could not advance a
ftep but as they cut a road through woods, or made it
through marffies. Such inceflant toil, and continual
fcarcity of food, feem more than fufficient to have ex-
haufted and difpirited any troops. But the fortitude
and perfeverance of the Spaniards in the 16th century
were infuperable. Allured by frequent but falfe ac¬
counts of rich countries before them, they perfuted in
ftruggling on, until they reached the banks of the Coca
or Napo, one of the large rivers whofe waters pour in¬
to the Maragnon, and contribute to its grandeur.
There, with infinite labour, they built, a bark, which
they expedled would prove of great utility, both in con¬
veying them over rivers, in procuring provifions, and in
exploring the country. This was manned with 50
.foldiers, under the command of Francis Orellana, the
officer next in rank to Pizarro. The ftream carried
them down with fuch rapidity, that they were foon far
a-head of their countrymen, who followed flowly and
with difficulty by land. .
At this diftance from his commander, Orellana, a Orellana
young man of an afpiring mind, began to fancy himfelffaih down
independent 5 and, tranfported with the predominant"*^1
paffion of the age, he formed the fcheme of diftinguith non, and
ing bimfelf as a difeoverer, by following the courfe ofdeferts
the Maragnon until it joined the ocean, and by fur-Pizan*
Veying the vaft regions through which it flows. This
fcheme of Orellana’s was as bold as it was treacherous.
For, if he be chargeable with the guilt of having vio¬
lated his duty to his commander, and with having
abandoned his fellow-foldiers in a pathlefs delert, where
they had hardly any hopes of fuccefs, or even of fafety,
but what were founded on the fervice which they ex¬
pected from the bark, his crime is, in fome meafure,
balanced by the glory of having ventured upon a na¬
vigation of near 2000 leagues, through unknown na¬
tions, in a veffel haftily conftru&ed with green timber,
and by very unfkilful hands, without provifions, with¬
out a compafs, or a pilot. But his courage and ala¬
crity fupplied every defeft. Committing himfelf fear-
lefsly to the guidance of the ftream, the Napo bore
him’ along to the fouth, until he reached the great
channel of the Maragnon. Turning with it towards
the coaft, he held on his courfe in that direCIion. He
made frequent defeents on both fides the river, fome-
times feizing by force of arms the provifions of the
fierce favages feated on its barks, and fometimes pro¬
curing a fupply of food by a friendly intercom fe with
more gentle tribes. After a long feries of dangers
which he encountered with amazing fortitude, and of
diftreffes which he fupported with no lefs magnanimi¬
ty, he reached the ocean, where new perils awaited
him. Thefe he likewife furmounted, and got fafe to
34
PER [ 201 ] PER
IVru. the Spanifli fettlement in the ifland Cubagua j from
  thence he failed to Spain. The vanity natural to tra¬
vellers who vilit regions unknown to the reft of man¬
kind, and the art of an adventurer, folicitous to mag¬
nify his own merit, concurred in prompting him to
mingle an extraordinary proportion of the marvellous
in the narrative of his voyage. He pretended to have
difcovered nations fo rich, that the roofs of their temples
were covered with plates of gold j and defcribed a re¬
public of women fo warlike and powerful, as to have
extended their dominion over a confiderable traft of
the fertile plains which he had vilited. Extravagant as
thofe tales were, they gave rife to an opinion, that a
region abounding with gold, diftinguilhed by the name
of E/ Dorado, and a community of Amazons, were to
be found in tins part of the New World ; and fueh is
the propenfity of mankind to believe what is wonder¬
ful, that it has been {lowly, and with difficulty, that
reafon and obfervation have exploded thofe fables. The
voyage, however, even when ftripped of every romantic
embelliffiment, deferves to be recorded, not only as one
of the moft memorable occurrences in that adventurous
age, but as the firft event that led to any certain know¬
ledge of thofe immenfe regions that ftretch eaftward
from the Andes to the ocean.
No words can defcribe the confternation of Pizarro,
when he did not find the bark at the confluence of the
Napo and Maragnon, where he had ordered Orellana
to wait for him. He would not allow himfelf to fuf-
pect that a man, whom he had entrufted with fueh an
important command, could be fo bafe and fo unfeeling
as to defert him at fuch a juncture. But imputing Ids
abfence from the place of rendezvous to fome unknown
accident, he advanced above 50 leagues along the
banks of the Maragnon, expecting every moment to
fee the bark appear with a fupply of provifions. At
length he came up with an officer whom Orellana had
left to perifh in the defert, becaufe he had the courage
to remonftrate againft his perfidy. From him he learn¬
ed the extent of Orellana’s crime •, and his followers
perceived at once their own defperate fituation, when
35 deprived of their only refource. I he fpirit of the ftout-
Extremedi-efl; hearted veteran funk within him ; and all demand-
Gonzales ec^ *° ^ back inftantly. Pizarro, though he af-
Pizarro and famed an appearance of tranquillity, did not oppofe
kismen. their inclination. But he was now 1 200 miles from
Quito ; and in that long march the Spaniards encoun¬
tered hardflnps greater than thofe they had endured in
their progrefs outward, without the alluring hopes
which then foothed and animated them under their fuf-
ferings. Hunger compelled them to feed on roots and
berries, to eat all their dogs and horfes, to devour the
molt loathfome reptiles, and even to gnaw the leather
of their faddles and fword-belts. Four thoufand In¬
dians, and 210 Spaniards, periflied in this wild and dif-
aftrous expedition, which continued near two years : and
as 50 men were aboard the bark with Orellana, only
80 got back to Quito. Thefe were naked like favages,
and fo emaciated with famine, or worn out with fatigue,
that they had more the appearance of fpe&res than'of
men.
But, inftead of returning to enjoy the repofe which
. . bis condition required, Pizarro, on entering Quito, re-
;vvernor 6 cejve^ accounts of a fatal event that threatened cala-
’ mities more dreadful to him than thole through which
Vol. XVI. Part I.
3<*
* confpira-
■y formed
he had palled. From the time that his brother made Pern,
the partial divifion of his conquefts which has been —Y'***"
mentioned, the adherents of Almagro, eonfidering them*
felves as proferibed by the party in power, no longer
entertained any hope of bettering their condition.
Great numbers in defpair reforted to Lima, where the
houfe of young Almagro was always open to them : and
the {lender portion of his father’s fortune, which the
governor allowed him to enjoy, was fpent in affording
them fubfiftence. The warm attachment with which
every perfon who ferved under the elder Almagrd de¬
voted himfelf to his interefts, was quickly transferred to
his fon, who was now grown up to the age of manhood,
and poffeffed all the qualities which captivate the af-
fedlions of foldiers. Of a graceful appearance, dexter¬
ous at all martial exercifes, bold, open, generous, he
feemed to be formed for command } and as his father,
confcious of his own inferiority from the total xvant of
education, had been extremely attentive to have him in-
ftrufted in every fcience becoming a gentleman, the ac-
complifliments which he had acquired heightened the
refpedf of his followers, as they gave him diitinflion and
eminence among illiterate adventurers. In this young-
man the Almagrians found a point of union which they
wanted ; and looking up to him as their head, were
ready to undertake any thing for his advancement. Nor
Avas affedtion for Almagro their only incitement j they
Avere urged on by their own diftreffes. Many of them,
deftitute of common neceffaries, and Avesry of loitering
aAvay life, a burden to their chief, or to fucli of their
affociates as had faved fome remnant of their fortune
from pillage and confifcation, longed impatiently for an
occafion to exert their adlivity and courage, and began
to deliberate boAv they might be avenged on the author
of all their mifery. Their frequent cabals did not pafs
unobferved ; and the governor Avas Avarned to be on his
guard againft men Avho meditated fome defperate deed,
and had refolution to execute it. But, either from the
native intrepidity of his mind, or from contempt of
perfons Avhofe poverty rendered their machinations of
little confequence, he difregarded the admonitions of
his friends. “ Be in no pain (faid he carelefsly) about
my life ; it is perfectly fafe, as long as every man in
Peru knoAVs that I can in a moment put him to death
ay ho dares to harbour a thought againft it.” This fe-
curity gave the Almagrians full leifure to digelt and
ripen every part of their fcheme *, and Juan de Herrada,
an officer of great abilities, avIio had the charge of Al-
magro’s education, took the lead in their confultations,
with all the zeal Avhich that connexion infpired, and
Avith all the authority Avhich the afeendant that he Avas
knoAvn to have over the mind of his pupil gave him.
On Sunday, the 26th of June, at midday, the feafonwho is
of tranquillity and repofe in all fultry climates, Her-mur^ered»
rada, at the head of 18 of the moft determined con-
fpirators, fallied out of Almagro’s houfe in complete
armour j and drawing their fwnrds, as they advanced
haftily toAvards the governor’s palace, cried out, “ Long
live the king, but let the tyrant die.” Their affociates,
Avarned of their motions by a fignal, Avere in arms at
different ftations ready to fupport them. Though Pi¬
zarro Avas ufually furrounded by fuch a numerous train
of attendants as fuited the magnificence ot the moft opu¬
lent fubjefl of the age in Avhich he lived, yet as he Avas
juft rifen from table, and moft of his oAvn domeftics had
C c retired
Pern.
per r
retired to their own apartments, the confpirators paffed
through the two outer courts of the palace unobferved.
They were at the bottom of the ftaircafe, before a page
in waiting eould give the alarm to his mailer, who was
converiing with a few friends in a large hall. 1 he
governor, whofe ileady mind no form of danger could
appal, ilarting up, called for arms, and commanded
Francifco de Chaves to make fail the door. But that
officer, who did not retain fo much prefence of mind as
to obey this prudent order, running to the top of the
ilaircafe, wildly aiked the confpirators what they meant,
and whither they were going ? Inilead of anfwering,
they ftabbed him to the heart, and burft into the hall.
Some of the perfons who were there threw themfelves
from the windows ; others attempted to fly; and a few
drawing their iwords, followed their leader into an in¬
ner anartment. The confpirators, animated with hav¬
ing the object of their vengeance now in viewr, ruflied
forward after them. Pizarro, with no other arms than
his fword and buckler, defended the entry, and, fupport-
ed by his half-brother Alcantara and his little knot of
friends, maintained the unequal context with intrepi¬
dity worthy of his pad exploits, and with the vigour of a
youthful combatant. “ Courage (cried he) companions,
we are yet enow to make thofe traitors repent of their
audacity.” But the armour of the confpirators protect¬
ed them, while every thruft they made took effedt.
Alcantara fell dead at his brother’s feet •, his othei de¬
fendants were mortally wounded. The governor, lo
weary that he could hardly wield his fword, and no
longer able to parry the many weapons furioufly aimed
at him, received a deadly thruil full in his throat, funk
to the ground, and expired.
As foon as he was flain, the aflfaffins ran ouUnto the
ftreets, and waving their bloody fwords, proclaimed the
death of the tyrant. Above 200 of their affociates ha¬
ving joined them, they conducted young Almagro in
folemn proceffion through the city *, and ailembling the
magiftrates and principal citizens, compelled them to
acknowledge him as lawful fucceifor to his father in his
government. The palace of Pizarro, together with the
houfes of feveral of his adherents, were pillaged by the
Young Al- foldiers *, who had the fatisfa&ion at once of being a-
venged on their enemies, and of enriching themfelves
by the fpoils of thofe through whofe hands all the wealth
of Peru had paffed.
The new governor marched into the heart ot the
empire, in order to reduce fuch places as refufed to
acknowledge his authority. A multitude of ruffians
joined him on his march. His army breathed nothing
but vengeance and plunder : every thing gave way be¬
fore it. ’ if the military talents of the general had equal¬
led the ardour of his troops, the Avar had ended here.
Unhappily for Almagro, he had loft his eondudor John
de Herrada. His inexperience made him fall into the
(bares that were laid for him by Pedro Alvares, who
had put himfelf at the head of the oppofite party. He
loft in attempting to unravel his plots, that time that
he ought to have employed in fighting. In thefe cir-
cumftances, an event, which no one could have fore-
feen, happened to change the face of affairs.
The licentiate Vaca di Caftro, who had been fent
from Europe to try the murderers of old AJraagro, ar¬
rived at Peru. As he was appointed to affumc the
Peru,
35
magro
heads the
rebels.
39
202 ] PER
government in cafe Pizarro was no more, all Avho had
not fold themfelves to the tyrant haftened to acknotv-
ledge him. Uncertainty and jealoufy, which had for
too long a time kept them difperfed, were no longer
an obftacle to their re-union. Callro, who was as re-
folute as if he had grown old in the fervice, did not
fuffer their impatience to languifti, but inftantly led them
again ft the enemy. The two armies engaged at Chapas
on the 16th of September 1542, and fought with inex-
preflible obftinacy. Vidory, after having wavered a He is de-
long time, at the clofe of the day decided in favour offeatedby
that party whofe caufe was the moft juft. Thofe among Vaca di
the rebels who were moft guilty, dreading to languifti a r0‘
under difgracefui tortures, provoked the conquerors to
murder them, crying out, like men in defpair, It was l
who killed Pizarro. Their chief was taken prifoner,
and died on the fcaffbld.
While thefe feenes of horror Avere tranfa&ing in A-
merica, the Spaniards in Europe Avere employed in find¬
ing out expedients to terminate them; though no mea-
fures had been taken to prevent them. Peru had only
been made fubjedl to the audience of Panama, Avhieh
was too remote to fuperintend the maintenance of good
order, and had too little influence to make its decrees
refpedted. A fupreme tribunal was then eftabliftied at
Lima for the difpenfation of juftice, which Avas to be
invefted Avith authority fufficient to enforce and to re-
Avard a due obedience to the Iuavs. Blafco Nunez \ela,
who prefided in it as viceroy, arrived in 1544, attended
by his fubordinates in office, and found every thing in
the moft dreadful diforder.
To put an end to thofe tumults Avhich notv fubfift-
ed, would have required a profound genius, and many
other qualities which are feldom united. Nunez had
none of thefe advantages. Nature had only given him
probity, firmnefs, and ardour ; and he had taken no
pains to improve thefe gifts. With thefe virtues, Avhich
Avere almoft defeats in his fituation, he began to fulnl
his commiffion, without regard to places, perlons, or
circumftances. _ 40
Contrary to the opinion of all intelligent per.ons-, Bad con-
who aviftied that he ftiould wait for frefti inftruaionsdudlofthe
from Europe, he publidied ordinances, Avhich declared
that the lands the conquerors had feized ftiould not
pafs to their defeendants, and Avhich difpoffeffed thofe
avIio had taken part in the civil commotions. All the
Peruvians who had been enflaved by monks, biftiops,
and perfons belonging to the government, were de¬
clared free. Thole Avho belonged to other mailers
Avere to be freed from their (hackles at the death of
their oppressors. They could no longer be compelled
to bury themfelves in the mines, nor could any kind of
labour be exacted from them Avithout payment. 1 heir
tribute Avas fixed. The Spaniards Avho travelled on
foot Avere deprived of the right of taking three In¬
dians to carry their baggage j and thofe who travelled
on horfeback, of the right of taking five. I he ca¬
ciques were difeharged from the obligation of furnifli-
ing the traveller and his retinue Avith provifions gratis.
Other tyrannical eftablifliments alfo Avould foon have
been proferibed ’, and the conquered people Avere on
the eve of being (heltered under the proteftion of
laws, Avhich Avould at leaft have tempered the rigours
of the right of conqueft, if even they had not entirely
repaired
PER
[ 203 ]
PER
Pent.
41
He is over¬
come and
killed by
Gonzales
Pizarro.
repaired tlie injuflice of them *, but it tbould feem that
' the Spaniili government was only to be unfortunate In
the good it attempted to eflfeft.
A change fo unexpe&ed filled thofe with confler-
nation who faw their fortunes wrefted from them, or
who loft the flattering hope of tranfmitting them to
their pofterity. Even thofe who were not affected by
thefe interefted views, being accuftomed to look upon
the Indians as the inftruments and victims of their ava¬
rice, had no conception that any other ideas could pre¬
vail concerning them. From aftoniihment they pro¬
ceeded to indignation, murmuring, and fedition. The
viceroy was degraded, put in irons, and baniftied to a
defert ifland, till he could be conveyed to Spain.
Gonzales Pizarro was then returned from his hazar¬
dous expedition, which had employed'him long enough
to prevent him from taking a part in thofe revolutions
which had fo rapidly fucceeded each other. The an¬
archy he found prevailing at his return, infpired him
with the idea of feizing the fupreme authority. His
fame and his forces made it impoflible that this Ihould
be refufed him *, but his ufurpation was marked with
fo many enormities, that Nunez was regretted. Fie was
recalled from exile, and foon colle£Ied a fufficient num¬
ber of forces to enable him to take the field. Civil
commotions were then renewed with extreme fury by
both parties. No quarter was alked or given on either
fide. The Indians took part in this as they had done in
the preceding wars ; fome ranged themfelves under the
ftandard of the viceroy, others under the banners of
Gonzales. Fom 15,000 to 20,000 of thefe unhappy
wretches, who were fcattered about in each army, drag¬
ged up the artillery, levelled the roads, carried the bag¬
gage, and deftroyed one another. Their conquerors
had taught them to be fanguinary. After a variety of
advantages for a long time alternately obtained, fortune
at length favoured the rebellion under the walls of
Quito in the month of January, in the year 1545 ; and
Nunez with the greateft part of his men were maf-
facred.
Pizarro took the road of Lima, where they were de¬
liberating on the ceremonies with which they ftiould re¬
ceive him. Some officers wiflied that a canopy fliould
be carried for him to march under, after the manner of
kings. Others, with adulation ftill more extravagant,
pretended that part of the walls of the town, and even
fome houfes muft be pulled down; as was the cuftom
at Rome, when a general obtained the honours of a
triumph. Gonzales contented himfelf with making his
entrance on horfeback, preceded by his lieutenant, who
marched on foot. Four bifliops accompanied him, and
he was followed by the magiftrates. The ftreets were
ftrewn with flowers, and the air refounded with the noife
of bells and various mufical inftruments. This homage
totally turned the head of a man naturally haughty, and
of confined ideas. He fpoke and a£led in the moft de-
fpotic manner.
Had Gonzales poflefled judgment and the appear¬
ance of moderation, it would have been poffible for
him to render himfelf independent. The principal per-
fons of his party wifhed it. The majority would have
beheld this event with indifference, and the reft would
have been obliged to confent to it. Blind cruelties,
in fa liable avarice, and unbounded pride, altered thefe
difpofitions. Even thofe, whofe interefts were con-
ne£ted with thofe of the tyrant, withed for a deli- Peru,
verer. ' v *
Such a deliverer arrived from Europe in the perfon 4n2] put
of the licentiate Pedro di la Gafca. The fquadron and to the trou-
the provinces of the mountains immediately declared for bles by Pe-
a perfon who was invefted with a lawful authority to^10^ ^
govern them. Thofe who lived concealed in delerts, a‘c *
caverns, and forefts, quitted their retreats to join him.
Gonzales, who faw no refource left to fupport him but
in fome great atchievement, took the road of Cuzco,
with a refolution to give battle. At fome leagues di-
ftance from this place he met the royal army, and at¬
tacked it on the 9th of June 1548. One of his lieute¬
nants, feeing him abandoned at the firft charge by his
bell foldiers, advifed him to throw himfelf into the ene¬
my’s battalions, and perilb like a Roman : but this
weak man chofe rather to furrender, and end his life
on a fcaffold. Carvajal, a more able warrior, and
more ferocious than himfelf, was quartered. This
man, when he was expiring, boafted that he had maf-
facred with his own hand 1400 Spaniards and 20,000
Indian®.
Such was the laft fcene of a tragedy, of which every
a6l has been marked with blood. The government was
moderate* enough not to continue the proferiptions ;
and the remembrance of the horrid calamities they
had fuffered kept the Spaniards in the bounds of fub-
jedftion. What ftill remained of that commotion that
had been raifed in their minds, infenfibly funk into a
calm •, and the country hath remained in quiet ever
fince\ . 43
With regard to the Peruvians, the moft cruel me&- Hard fate
fures wrere taken to render it impoffible for them to re-^hePe-
bel. Tupac Amaru, the heir of their laft king, had ruvian'>*
taken refuge in fome remote mountains, where he lived
in peace. There he was fo clofely furrounded by the
troops which had been fent out againft him, that he was
forced to furrender. The viceroy Francis de Toledo
caufed him to be accufed of feveral crimes that he had
not committed, and for which he was beheaded in I syr.
All the other defcendants of the Incas ffiared the fame
fate, under pretence that they had confpired againft their
conquerors. The horror of thefe enormities excited fo
univerfal an indignation both in the Old and the New
World, that Philip II. thought himfelf obliged to dif-
avow them ; but the infamous policy of this prince was
fo notorious, that no credit was given to this appearance
of his juftice and humanity. 44
The empire of Peru, at the time it was fubdued, ex- Extent of
tended along the South fea, from the river of Emeralds A16 empire*,
to Chili, and on the land fide to Popayan, according to
fome geographers. It contained within its extent that
famous chain of mountains wbich rifes in the Terra Ma-
gellanica, and is gradually loft in Mexico, in order to
unite, as it ffiould feem, the fouthern parts of America
with the northern.
It is now divided into three grand divifions or audi- Payne's
ences j Quito, Lima or Los Reyes, and Los Chareos.aphy.
As to its climate, mines, foil and produce, they differ
greatly in different parts of the country.
The extenfive province of Quito is bounded on the Province of
north bv Popayan, and includes a part of that govern-^aito.
ment, alfo by Santa Fe de Bogota *, on the fouth by
the governments of Piura and Chaehapoyas ; on the
eaft it extends over the whole government of Maynas
C c 2 and
Pent.
46
Climate,
PER [ 2
and the river of the Amazons to the meridian, which
divides the Spaniih from the Portuguefe dominions } and
on the weft it is bounded by the South fea •, extending,
according to Antonio de Ulloa, 600 leagues in length,
and about 200 in its greateft breadth •, but this greatly
exceeds the computation of all other geographers. He
however obferves, that it mult be owned a great pait
of thofe vaft dominions are either inhabited by nations
of Indians, or have not hitherto been fufficiently peopled
by the Spaniards, if indeed they have been thorough¬
ly known ; and that all the part* that can properly be
faid to be peopled, and a£lually fubjeft to the Spanifh
government, are thofe intercepted by the two Cordille¬
ras of the Andes, which, in comparifon to the ex¬
tent of the country, may be termed a ftreet or lane,
15 leagues, or fometimes more, from eaft to weft •,
to this muft be added feveral detached governments,
feparated by the very extenfive tracts inhabited by fiee
Indians.
■omuiiic, The climate of Quito differs from all others In the
feafons, &c. fame parallel, fince even in the centre of the torrid
o) this pro- zone^ or although under the equinoctial, the heat is not
onlv very tolerable, but even in fome places the cold is
painful; while others enjoy all the advantages of a per¬
petual fpring, the fields being conftantly covered with
verdure, and enamelled with flowers of the moft lively
colours. The mildnels of the climate, free from the
extremes of heat and cold, and the conftant equality of
the day and night, render this country, which from its
fituation might be thought to be parched by the con¬
ftant heat of the fun, and fcarcely inhabitable, both plea-
fant and fertile 5 for nature has here difpenfed her blef-
fings with fo liberal a hand, that this country in feveral
refpeefts furpaffes thofe of the temperate zones, where
the viciftitudes of winter and fummer, and the change
from heat to cold, caufe the extremes of both to be
more fenfibly felt. However, in different parts of the
country, the air is very different *, in one part are moun¬
tains of a ftupendous height and magnitude, with their
fummits covered with fnow. I he plains are temperate,
the valleys hot, and, according to the high or low fitua¬
tion of the country, are found all the variety of grada¬
tions in temperature poflible to be conceived between
the extremes of heat and cold. _ o
Quito, the capital, in 13' fouth latitude, and 77
3c/ weft longitude from Greenwich, is fo happily fitua-
ted, that neither heat nor cold are troublefome, though
both may be felt in its neighbourhood } and what ren¬
ders this equality more delightful is, that it is conftant
throughout the whole year, the difference between.the
feafons being fcarce perceptible. Indeed the mornings
are cool, the remainder of the day warm, and the nights
of an agreeable temperature. See Quito.
The winds, which are pure and falubrious, blow for
the moft part from north to fouth, but never writh any
violence, though they fometimes (hift their quarters, but
without any regard to the feafon of the. year. Such fig-
nal advantages refulting from the climate, foil, and
afpeft of this country, would be fufficient to render it
the moft ervviable fpot upon earth, as it is fuppofed to
be the moft elevated, if, whilft enjoying thefe delights,
the inhabitants were not haraffed by terror, and expo-
fed to continual danger •, for here tremendous tempefts
of thunder and lightning prevail, which are fufficient to
appal the ftcuteft heart > whilft earthquakes frequently
Peril,
04 ] PER
fpread univerfal apprehenfions, and fometimes bury cities ^
in ruins. .
The diftin&ion of winter and fummer conftfts in a
very minute difference-, the interval between the month
of September and thofe of April, May, or June, isheie
called the winter feafon, and the other months com.pofe
the fummer. In the former feafon the rain chiefly
prevails, and in the latter the inhabitants fiequently
enjoy w'hole days of fine weather j but whenever the
rains are difeontinued for above a fortnight, the inha¬
bitants are in the utmoft confternation, and public pray¬
ers are offered up for their return. On the other
hand, when they continue a fhort time without intei-
miffion, the like fears prevail, and.the churches are again
crowded with fupplicants to obtain fine weather 5 for a
long drought produces dangerous difeafes, and a conti¬
nual rain, without intervals of funftiine, deftioys the
fruits of the earth. Xhe city of Quito, however, en¬
joys one peculiar advantage, in being free from muike-
toes and other troublefome infefls, fuch as fleas and ve¬
nomous reptiles, except the mgua or pique, which is a
very fmall infefl ftiaped like a flea, but hardly vilible to
the fight. . . ... , r . 47
The fertility of the foil here is incredible, tor the Soil, pm.
fruits and beauties of the feveral feafons are vifible atduce, &.c.
the fame time ; and the curious European obferves with
a pleafing admiration, that while.fome herbs of the field
are fading, others of the fame kind are fpringmg up ;
while fome flowers lofe their beauty, others blow to.con-
tinue the enamelled profpefl : thus, when the fruits of
the trees have attained their maturity, and the leaves
begin to change their colour, frefti leaves bloffom, and
fruits are feen in their proper gradations in fize and npe-
nefs on the fame tree. The fame inceffant fertility is
confpicuous in the corn, both reaping and fowing being
carried on at the fame time : fo that the declivities of
the neighbouring hills exhibit all the beauties of the
four feafons in one affemblage. Though all this is ge¬
nerally feen, vet there is a fettled time for the grand
harveft : yet fometimes the moft favourable fealon tor
fowing in one place is a month or two after that of ano¬
ther though their diftance does not exceed three or four
leagues. Thus in different fpots, and fometimes in one
and the fame, fowing and reaping are performed
throughout the whole year, the forwardnefs or retard¬
ment naturally arifing from the different fituations, iuch
as mountains, riling grounds, plains, and valleys j .ana
the temperature being different in each, the beft times
for performing the feveral operations of huffiandry mult
alfo differ. ,y .
The chirimoya is confidered as one of the moft deli¬
cious fruits in the world. Its dimenfions are various,
being from one to five inches in diameter. Its figure is
imperfecftlv round, flatted towards the ftalk, where it
forms a kind of navel -, but all the other parts are near¬
ly circular. It is covered with a thin foft {hell, which
adheres fo clofely to the pulp as not to be feparated
from it without a knife. The outward coat is green,
variegated with prominent veins, forming all over, it a
kind of net-work. The pulp is. white, and contains a
large quantity of juice refemblmg honey, of a iweet
tafte, mixed with a gentle acid of a moft exquifite fla¬
vour. The feeds are formed in feveral parts oi the
pulp, and are fomewhat flat. T he tree, is ig an
tufted, the ftem large and round, but with fomeine-
’ qualities*,.
PER [20
Pem. qualities, full of elliptic leaves, terminating in a point,
—v--—' The bloifom differs little from the colour of the leaves,
which is a darkifh green ; and though far from being
beautiful, is remarkable for its incomparable fra¬
grance.
The granadilla in its drape refembles an hen’s egg,
but is larger. The outfide of the drell is fmooth,
gloffy, and of a faint carnation colour, and the infide
white and foft. The drell contains a vifeous liquid
fubdance, full of very fmall and delicate ^ grains, lefs
hard than thofe of the pomegranate. This medullary
fubftance is feparated from the drell by a fine and tranf-
parent membrane. Its fruit has a delightful fweetnefs
blended with acidity, very cordial and refredring, and
fo wholefome, that there is no danger of eating to ex¬
cels.
The frutiHa, or Peruvian drawberry, is very different
from that of Europe in frze •, though they are here ge¬
nerally not above an inch in length, they are much
larger in other parts of Peru ; but their tade, though
juicy, and not unpalatable, is not equal to thofe in Eu-
4S roPe-
^habitants. The country is obferved to abound more in women
than in men, which is the more remarkable, as thofe
caufes which induce men to leave their country, as tra¬
velling, commerce, and war, naturally bring over more
men from Europe than women. But there are many
families in which there are a number of daughters,
without one fon among them. The women enjoy a better
date of health than the men, which may be owing in
fame meafure to the climate, and more particularly
to the early intemperance and voluptuoufnefs of the
other fex.
The Creoles are well made, of a proper dature, and
of a lively and agreeable countenance. The Medizos
are alfo in general well made, often taker than the or¬
dinary fize, very robud, and have an agreeable air. The
Indians, both men and women, are commonly low of
flature, though drong and well proportioned; but more
natural defers are to be found among them than in any
of the reft. Some are remarkably fhort, feme idiots,
dumb, or blind. Their hair is generally thick and
long, which they wear loofe on their fhoulders j but the
Indian women plait theirs behind with a ribbon, and cut
that before a little above the eyebrows, from one ear
to the other. The greated: difgrace that can be offered
to an Indian of either fex is to cut off their hair \ for
whatever corporal punidiment their mafters think pro¬
per to inflift on them, they bear with patience •, but
this affront they never forgive •, and accordingly the
government has interpofed, and limitedthis punidtment
to the moft enormous crimes. The colour of the hair
is generally a deep black: it is lank, harfh, and as coarfe
as that of a horfe. On the contrary, the male Medi¬
zos, in order to didinguifh themfelves from the Indians,
cut off their hair j but the females do not adopt that
42 cuftom.
fheirdrefj. The Medizos in general wear a blue cloth, manufac¬
tured in this country •, but though they are the lowed
clafs of Spaniards, they are very ambitious of diftin-
guiddng themfelves as fuch, either by the colour or fa-
ddon of the clothes they wear.
The Medizo women affefl to drefs in the fame man-
aer as the Spanifh, though they cannot equal the ladies
5 PER
in the richnefs of their duffs. The meaner fort wear Petu*
no dices j but like the men of the fame rank go bare- l""r~v
footed.
The drefs of the Indians confids of white cotton
drawers, which hang down to the calf of the leg,
where they are loofe, and edged with a lace fuitable to
the duff. The ufe of a ddrt is fupplied by a black cot¬
ton frock, made in the form of a fack, with three open¬
ings at the top, one in the middle for the head, and
others at the corners for the arms ; thus covering their
naked bodies down to the knees. Over this is a ferge
cloak, with a hole in the middle for putting the head
through, and a hat made by the natives. This is their
general drefs, which they never lay afide, even while
they deep ; and they have no additional clothing for
their legs or feet. The Indians, who have acquired
fome fortune, particularly the barbers and phlebotomids,
didinguifh themfelves from their countrymen by the
finenefs of their drawers, and by wearing a diirt, which,
though without deeves, has a lace four or five fingers in
breadth, fadened round like a kind of ruff or band.
They are fond ef filver or gold buckles to their (hoes,
though they wear no dockings \ and indcad of a mean
ferge cloak, wear one of fine cloth, which is often adorn¬
ed with gold or filver lace.
There are two kinds of dreffes worn by the Indian
women, made in the fame plain manner with thofe worn
by the men in general, the whole confiding of a fhort
petticoat and a veil of American baize. But the drefs
of the lowed clafs of Indian women is only a bag
of the fame make and duff as that of the men, which
they fallen on their fhoulders with two large pins : it
reaches down to the calf of the leg, and is fadened
round the waid with a kind of girdle. Indead of a
veil, they wear about the neck a piece of the fame
coarfe duff dyed black ; but their arms and legs are
naked. _ 50
The people have difhes unknown in Europe ; but are Food and
particularly fond of cheefe •, and have excellent butter drink, Stci
in the neighbourhood of Quito. Sweetmeats are very
much admired.
Bum is commonly drank here by perfons of all ranks,
but their favourite liquor is brandy. 1 he diforders ari-
fing from the exceftive ufe of fpirituous liquors are
chiefly feen among the Medizos ; and the lower clafs of
women, both among the Creoles and Medizos, are alfo
extremely addifted to the fame fpecies of debauchery.
Another liquor much ufed in this country is mate,
which is made of an herb known in all thefe parts of
America by the name of Paraguay, as being the pro¬
duce of that country. Some of it is put into a cala-
bafh tipped with filver, called here mate, with fugar
and fome cold Avater. After it has continued there
fome time, the calabalh is filled with boiling^ water, and
they drink the liquor through a pipe fixed in the cala-
bafli. It is alfo ufual to fqueeze into the liquor a frnall
quantity of the juice of lemons or Seville oranges, mix¬
ed with fome perfumes from odoriferous dowers. Ihis
is their ulual drink in the morning fading, and many ufe
it alfo at their evening regale. The manner of drink¬
ing it appears very indelicate, the whole company taking
it fucceffively through the fame pipe, it being carried
feveral times round the company till all are fatisfied..
This among the Creoles is the highed enjoyment: fo
that;
4
PER [ 206 ] PE R
st
.^Language.
Honour
paid the
dead.
53
Commerce.
that when they travel, they never fall to carry with
them a lufficient quantity of it, and till they have taken
their dofe of mate they never eat.
The vice of gaming is here carried to an extrava¬
gant height, to the ruin of many families, fome lofing
their Hocks in trade, others the very clothes from their
backs, and afterwards tliofe belonging to their wives,
which they hazard, ftimulated by the hope of recover¬
ing their own.
The common people, the Indians, and even the do-
meftics, are greatly addifted to Healing. The Mefti-
zos, though arrant cowards, do not want audacity in
this way •, for though they will not venture to attack
any one in the ftreet, it is a common practice to fnatch
oft' a perfon’s hat, and immediately feek their fafety in
ftight. This acquilition is fometimes of conliderable
value } the hats worn by perfons of rank, and even by
the wealthy citizens when drefled, being of white bea¬
ver, worth fifteen dollars, befide the hatband of gold
or filver lace, fattened with a gold buckle fet with dia¬
monds or emerald?. Robberies on the highway are fel-
dom heard of.
In Quito, and all the towns and villages of its pro¬
vince, different dialefts are fpoken, Spanith being no lefs
common than the Inga, the language of the country.
The Creoles ufe the latter as much as the former, but
both are confiderably adulterated by borrowed words
and expreflions. The firfl: language generally fpoken
by children is the Inga $ for the nurfes being Indians,
many of them do not underftand a word of Spanifh, and
thus they afterward learn a jargon compofed of both
languages.
The fumptuous manner of performing the laft of¬
fices for the dead, demonftrates how far the power of
habit is capable of prevailing over reafon and prudence,
for their oftentation is fo great in this particular, that
many families of credit are ruined by prepofteroufly en¬
deavouring to excel others *, and the people here may be
faid to toil and fcheme to lay up wealth, to enable their
fucceffbrs to laviih honours upon a body infenfible of all
pageantry.
The commerce of the province of Quito is chiefly
carried on by Europeans fettled here, and others who
occafionally arrive. The manufactures of this province
are only cottons, fome white and ftriped baize, and
cloths, which meet with a good market at Lima, for
fupplying the inward provinces of Peru. The returns
are made partly in filver, and partly in fringes made of
gold and filver thread, and wine, brandy, oil, copper,
tin, lead, and quickfilver. On the arrival of the gal¬
leons at Carthagena, thefe traders refort thither to pur-
chafe European goods, which, at their return, they con-
fign to their correfpondents all over the province. The
coafts of New Spain fupply this province with indigo,
of which there is a very large confumption at the ma¬
nufactures, blue being univerfallv the colour which this
people adopt for their apparel. They alfo import, by
way of Guayaquila, iron and fteel both from Europe Peru,
and the coatt of Guatemala. '-—-y—
The difpofition of the Indians-in the province of Djf ^tt;on
Quito is extremely remarkable, and they appear to have 0f the in-
no refemblance to the people found there by thofe who habitants,
firtt difcovered the country. They at prefent poffefs a
tranquillity not to be diffurbed either by fortunate or
unfortunate events. In their mean apparel they are as
contented as a prince clothed in the molt fplendid robes.
They (how the fame difregard to riches 5 and even the
authority and grandeur within their reach is fo little
the objed of their ambition, that to all appearance it
feems to be the fame to an Indian whether he be crea¬
ted an alcalde, or obliged to perform the office of a com*
mon executioner.
Their (loth is fo great that fcarcely any thing can
induce them to work. Whatever therefore is neceffary
to be done is left to the Indian women, who are much
more adtive •, they fpin and make the half (hirts and
drawers which form the only apparel of their hulbands $
they cook the provifions, grind barley, and brew the
beer called chicha ; while the hufband fits fquatting on
his hams, the ufual poffure of the Indians, looking at
his bufy wife. The only domeftic fervice they do is to
plough their little fpot of land, which is fowed by the
wife. When they are once feated on their hams, no
reward can induce them to ftir j fo that if a traveller
has loft his wfay, and happens to come to one of their
cottages, they charge their wives to fay that they are
not at home. Should the paflenger alight and enter
the cottage, the Indian would ftill be fafe j for having
no light but what comes through a hole in the door, he
could not be difcovered j and (hould the ftranger even
fee the Indian, neither entreaties nor rewards would pre¬
vail on him to ftir a ftep with him.
They are lively only in parties of pleafure, rejoicings,
entertainments, and efpecially dancing *, but in all thefe
the liquor muft circulate brilkly, and they continue
drinking till they are entirely deprived both of fenfe
and motion.
It is remarkable that the Indian women, whether
maids or married, and Indian young men before they
are of an age to contract matrimony, are never guilty
of this vice : it being a maxim among them, that drunk-
ennefs is the privilege of none but matters of families,
who, when they are unable to take care of themfelves,
have others to take care of them.
The women prefent the chicha (a) to their hufbands
in calabaftres, till their (pints are raifed ; then one plays
on a pipe and tabor, while others dance. Some of the
belt voices among the Indian women fing fongs in their
own language, and thofe who do not dance, fquat down
in the ufual pofture till it comes to their turn. When
tired with intemperance, they all lie down together,
without regarding whether they be near the wife of an¬
other or their own filter or daughter. I hefe feftivities
fometimes continue three or four days, till the pried
coming
(a'I This is a liquor made from maize by the following procefs. The maize, after being foaked in water till
it begin to grow, is dried in the fun, then parched a little, and at-laft ground. 'The flour, after it has been well
kneaded, is put with water into a large veffel, and left for two or three days to ferment. Its tafte is nearly that
of the mod indifferent kind of cyder. It is a refreftiing, nouridling, and aperitive liquor j but it will not keep
shove eight days without turning four.
Peru.
5J
‘heir man-
er of con-
•afting
urriages.
^ppear-
mce of the
ountry in
his pro-
dnce.
PER [ 207 1 PER
coming among them, throws away all the chicha, and
difperfes the Indians, left they thould procure more.
Their funerals are likewife folemnized with exceflive
drinking. The houfe is filled with jugs of chicha, for
the folace of the mourners and other vifitors •, the latter
even go out into the ftreets, and invite all of their na¬
tion who happen to pafs by to come in and drink to the
honour of the deceafed. This ceremony lafts four or
five days, and fometimes more, ftrong liquor being their
fupreme enjoyment.
The Indians in the audience of Quito are faid to a£l
contrary to all other nations in their marriages ; for they
never make choice of a woman who has not been firft
enjoyed by others, which they confider as a certain in¬
dication of her perfonal attra&ions. After a young
man has made choice of a woman, he aiks her of her
father, and having obtained his confent, they begin to
cohabit together as man and wife, and aflift the father-
in-law in cultivating the land. At the end of three or
four months, and frequently of a year, the huihand
leaves his bride or wife without any ceremony 5 and
perhaps expoftulates with his father-in-law for endea¬
vouring to deceive him, by impofing upon him his
daughter, whom nobody elfe had thought worthy of
making a bedfellow. But if nodifguft arifes in the man
on this account or any other, after palling three or four
months in this commerce, which they call amanai'fe, or
to habituate one’s felf, they then marry. This cuftom
is ftill very common, though the whole body of the
clergy have ufed all their endeavours to put a ftop to it.
Accordingly they always abfolve them of that fin be¬
fore they give them the nuptial benedi&ion.
It has been obferved, that the dependencies of the
jurifdictions of Quito are feated between the two Cor¬
dilleras of the Andes, and that the air is more or lefs
cold, and the ground more or lefs fterile, according to
the height of the mountains. Thefe barren tracts are
called deferts: for though all the Cordilleras are dry,
fome are much more fo than others •, and the continual
fnowr and frofts render fome parts of them incapable of
producing a fingle plant, and confequently they are un¬
inhabitable by man or beaft.
Some of thefe mountains, which appear to have their
bafes refting on other mountains, rife to a moft aftonifh-
ing height, and, reaching far above the clouds, are here,
although in the midft of the torrid zone, covered with
perpetual fnow. From experiments made with a baro¬
meter on the mountain of Cotopaxi, it appeared that its
fummit was elevated 6252 yards above the furface of the
fea, fomething above three geographical miles, which
greatly exceeds the height of any other mountain in the
known world.
Cotopaxi became a volcano about the time when the
Spaniards firft arrived in this country. A new7 erup¬
tion happened in 1743, which had been for fome days
preceded by a continual interior rumbling noife 5 after
which an aperture wTas made in its fummit, as alfo three
others near the middle of its declivity } thefe parts,
"ivhen the eruption commenced, were buried under pro¬
digious maffes of fnow. The ignited fubftances which
were ejected being mingled with a confiderable quantity
of fnow and ice, melting amidft the flames, v7ere car¬
ried down with fuch amazing rapidity, that the plain
from Callo to Latacunga was overflowed, and all the
houfes v7ith their wretched inhabitants were fwept away
3
in one general and inftantaneousdeftru£lion. The river Peru,
of Latacunga was the receptacle of this dreadful flood, 'r“
till becoming fwollen above its banks, the torrent rolled
over the adjacent country, continuing to (weep away
houfes and cattle, and rendered the land near the town
of the fame name as the river one vaft lake. Here,
however, tire inhabitants had fufficient warning to fave
their lives by flight, and retreated to a more elevated
fpot at fome diftance. During three days the volcano
ejedfed cinders, while torrents of lava w ith melted ice
and fnow poured down the fides of the mountain. The
eruption continued for feveraldays longer, accompanied
with terrible roarings of the wind, ruftiing through the
craters which had been opened. At length all wjas
quiet, and neither fmoke nor fire w7ere to be feen j until
in May 1744 the flames forced a pafi'age through feveral
other parts on the fides of the mountain j fo that in clear
nights the flames, being refledted by the tranfparent ice,,
exhibited a very grand and beautiful illumination. On
the 13th of November following, it ejcdled fuch prodi-^
gious quantities of fire and lava, that an inundation
equal to the former loon enfued, and the inhabitants of
the town of Latacunga for fome time gave themfelves
over for loft.
The moft fouthern mountain of the Cordilleras is
that of Mecas or Sangay, which is of a prodigious
height, and the far greateft part of it covered w'ith
fnow7 ; yet from its fummit iflues a continual fire, at¬
tended with explofions which are plainly heard at 40
leagues diftance. The country adjacent to this vol¬
cano is entirely barren, being covered with cinders ejeift-
ed from its mouth. In this mountain riles the river
Sangay, wThich being joined by the Upano, forms the
Payra, a large river which difeharges itfelf into the
Maranon.
Pichincha, though famous for its great height, is
1278 yards lower than the perpendicular height of Co¬
topaxi, and was formerly a volcano, but the mouth or
crater on one of its fides is now7 covered with fand and
calcined matter •, fo that at prefent neither fmoke nor
fire iflue from it. When Don George Juan and Don
Antonio de Ulloa were ftationed on it for the purpofe of
making aftronomical obfervations, they found the cold
on the top of this mountain extremely intenfe, the wind
violent, and they were frequently involved in fo thick a
fog, or, in other words, a cloud, that an objeft at fix
or eight paces diftance was fcarcely difcernible. The
air grew clear, by the clouds moving nearer to the
earth, and on all fides furrounding the mountain to a
vaft diftance, reprefenting the fea with the mountain
Handing like an ifland in the centre. ‘When this hap¬
pened, they heard the dreadful noife of the tempefts
that difeharged themfelves on Quito and the neighbour¬
ing country. They faw the lightning iffue from the
clouds, and heard the thunder roll far beneath them.
While the lower parts were involved in tempefts of
thunder and rain, they enjoyed a delightful ferenity ;
the wind was abated, the fky clear, and the enlivening
rays of the fun moderated the feverity of the cold. But
when the clouds rofe, their thicknefs rendered refpira-
tion difficult 5 fnow and hail fell continually, and the
wind returned with all its violence j fo that it was im~
poffible entirely to overcome the fear of being, together
with their hut, blown down the precipice, on whofe
edge it was built; or of being buried in it by the con-
ftant
PER
Peru. ftant accutfmlations of ice and fnow
likewife increafed by the fall of enormous fragments ot
rocks. Though the fmalleft crevice vifible in their hut
was Hopped, the wind was fo piercing that it penetrated
through } and though the hut was fmall, crowded with
inhabitants, and had feveral lamps conftantly burning,
the cold was fo great, that each individual was obliged
to have a chafing-diih of coals, and feveral men were
conftantly employed every morning to remove the inow
which fell in the night. By the feverities of fuch a cli¬
mate their feet ivere fwelled, and fo tender that walking
attended with extreme pain, their hands covered
?7 r
Province of
lima.
. S3
Climate,
foil, See.
in this pro¬
vince.
was ......   i . , , i
with chilblains, and their lips fo fwelled and chopt that
every motion in (peaking drew blood. .
The next divifion of Peru is the audience of Lima,
which is bounded on the north by Quito, on the eaft
by the Cordilleras of the Andes, on the fouth by the
audience of Los Charcos, and on the weft by the Pacific
ocean, it being about 77O miles in length from north to
fouth, being of an unequal breadth.
The climate and foil of this country is uncommonly
various *, in fome places it is exceedingly hot, in otheis
infupportably cold5 and in the city of Lima, where lain
never falls, it is always temperate. The feafons vary
within the compafs of a few miles, and in certain parts
of the audience all the viciffitudes of weather are expe¬
rienced in 24 hours. It is extremely remarkable that
no rains fall or rivets flow on the fea coafts, though the
country is refrefhed by thick fogs, and the heat abated
by denfe clouds that never condenfe into (bowers. Ibis
phenomenon has drawn the attention of many n.ituia-
lifts, without their being able fatisfaftorily to account
for it.
Spring begins toward the clofe of the year, that is
about the end of November or the beginning of Decem¬
ber, when the vapours which fill the atmolphere during
the winter fubfide, and the fun, to the great joy of the
inhabitants, again appears, and the country then begins
to revive, which, during the abfence of his rays, had
continued in a ftate of languor, ibis is lucceeded by
fummer, which, though hot from the perpendicular di-
reftion of the fun’s rays, is far from being infupport-
able j the heat, which indeed would othetwife be excef-
five, being moderated by the fouth winds, which always
blow at this feafon, though with no great force. .Win¬
ter begins at the latter end of June or the beginning of
July, and continues till November or December, when
the fouth winds begin to blow ftronger, and to produce
a certain degree of cold, not indeed equal to that in
'countries where ice and fnow are known, but fo keen
that the light drefles are laid by, and cloth or other
warm fluffs worn. During the winter the earth is co¬
vered with fo thick a fog, as totally to intercept the
rays of the fun •, and the winds, by blowing under the
(belter of this fog, retain the particles they contra&ed
in the frozen zone. In this feafon only the vapours dif-
folve into a very fmall dew, which everywhere equally
moiftens the earth •, by which means all the. hills, which
during the other parts of the year offer nothing to the
fight but rocks and waftes, are clothed with verdure
and enamelled with flowers of the moft beautiful co¬
lours. Thefe dews never fall in fuch quantities as to
impair the roads or incommode the traveller •, a very
thin fluff will not foon be wet through ; but the conti¬
nuance of the mills during the whole winter, without
[ 208 ] PER
Their fears were being exhaled by the fun, fertilizes every part of the ^
country.
From a table of meteorological obfervations made in
the city of Lima, from the month of March 1791, to
March 1792, it appears that the thermometer was low¬
ed during the month of September, when it defeended
to 62°, and that it was higheft in the month of March,
when it rofe as high as 84°. Thefe temperatures de¬
note the extremes of heat and cold in the winter and
fummer of this climate.
Lima is as free from tempefts as from rain ; fo that
thofe of the inhabitants who have neither vifited the
mountains nor travelled into other parts, are abfolute
ftrangers to thunder and lightning, and are therefore
extremely terrified when they firft hear the former or
fee the latter. But it is very remarkable, that what is
here entirely unknown fhould be fo common 30 leagues
to the eaft of Lima 5 it being no farther to the moun¬
tains, where violent rains and tempefts of thunder and
lightning are as frequent as at Quito.
" But though the capital is freed from the terror of
thefe tempefts, it is fubjeft to what is much more dread¬
ful. Earthquakes happen here fo frequently, that the
inhabitants are under continual apprehenfions of being,
from their fuddennefs and violence, buried in the ruins
of their own houfes: yet thefe earthquakes, though fo
fudden, have their prefages, one of the principal of
which is a rumbling noife in the bowels of the earth
about a minute before the (hocks are felt, that feems to
pervade all the adjacent fubterraneous part j this is fol¬
lowed by difmal bowlings of the dogs, who feem to pre-
fage the approaching danger. The beads of burden
puffing the ftreets flop, and by a natural inftinft fpread
open their legs, the better to fecure themfelves from
falling. On thefe portents the terrified inhabitants fly
from their houfes into the ftre^ts with fuch precipitation,
that if it happens in the night they appear quite naked }
the urgency of the danger at once banifhing all fenfe of
delicacy or fhame. Thus the ftreets exhibit fuch odd
and Angular figures as might afford matter of diverfion,
were it poffible to be diverted in fo terrible a moment.
This fudden concourfe is accompanied with the cries of
children waked out of their deep, blended with the la¬
mentations of the women, whole agonizing prayers to
the faints increafe the common fear and confufion. The
men are alfo too much affe&ed to refrain from giving
vent to their terror j fo that the whole city exhibits a
dreadful feene of confternation and horror.
The earthquakes that have happened at the capital
are very numerous. The firft fince the eflablifhmcnt of
the Spaniards was in 1582 } but the damage was much
fefu.
lefs confiderable than in fome of the fucceeding. Six
years after Lima was again vifited by another earth¬
quake, fo dreadful, that it is dill folemnly commemo¬
rated every year. In 1609 another happened, which
overturned many houfes. On the 27th of November
1630, fuch prodigious damage was done in the city by
an earthquake, that, in acknowledgement of its not ha¬
ving been entirely demolifhed, a feftival on that day is
annually celebrated. Twenty-four years after, on the
3d of November, the moft (lately edifices in the city,
and a great number of houfes, were deftroyed by an
earthquake } but the inhabitants retiring, few of them
perifhed. Another dreadful one happened in 1678 j
but one of the moft terrible was on the 28th of Q&ober
168*7.
per [ 209 ] PE R
Peru. 1687. It began at four in the morning, and deftroyed
many of the fineft public buildings and houfes, in which
a great number of the inhabitants perifhed 5 but this was
little more than a prelude to what followed j for two
hours after, the (hock returned with fuch impetuous con-
cuffions, that all was laid in ruins, and the inhabitants
felt themfelves happy in being only fpedtators of the ge¬
neral devaltation, by having faved their lives, though
with the lofs of all their property. During this fecond
(hock, the fea retiring conhderably, and then returning
in mountainous waves, entirely overwhelmed Callao,
which is at five miles diftance from Lima, and all the
adjacent country, together with the miferable inhabi¬
tants. From that time fix earthquakes have happened
at Lima previous to that of 1746. This laft was on the
28th of Odlober, at half an hour after ten at night, when
the concuflions began with fuch violence, that in little
more than three minutes the greatefi part, if not all the
buildings in the city, were deftroyed, burying under
their ruins thofe Inhabitants who had not made lufficient
hafte into the ftreets and fquares, the only places of
fafety. At length the horrible effedls of the firft (hock
ceafed ; but the tranquillity was of (liort duration, the
concuftions fvviftly fucceeding each other. The fort of
Callao alfo funk into ruins ; but what it fuffered from
the earthquake in its building was inconfiderable, when
compared to the dreadful cataftrophe which followed j
for the fea, as is ufual on fuch occafions, receding to a
confiderable diftance, returned in mountainous waves,
foaming with the violence of the agitation, and fudden-
ly buried Callao and the neighbouring country in its
flood. This, however, was not entirely effe&ed by the
firft fwell of the waves. 5 for the fea retiring farther, re¬
turned with ftill greater impetuofity, and covered both
the walls and other buildings of the place ; fo that what¬
ever had efcaped the firft inundation was totally over¬
whelmed by thofe fucceeding mountainous waves.
Twenty-three (hips and veflels, great and fmall, were
then in the harbour, 19 of which were funk, and the
other four, among which was a frigate named St Fer-
min, were carried by the force of the waves to a confi-
able diftance up the country. This terrible inundation
and earthquake extended to other parts on the coaft, and
feveral towns underwent the fame fate as the city of Li-
, roa j where the number of perfons who periftied within
two days after it began, amounted, according to the bo¬
dies found, to 1300, befide the maimed and wounded,
many of whom lived only a (hort time in great torture.
The prefent population of this city, taken from accurate
fources, amounts to 52,627.
I he country of Lima enjoys great fertility, producing
all kinds of grain and a prodigious variety of fruit.
Here induftry and art fupply that moifture which the
clouds withhold. The ancient incas of Peru caufed
fmall canals to be formed, in order to conduft the wa¬
ters of the rivers to every part of the country. The
Spaniards, finding thefe ufeful works executed to their
hands, had only to keep them in order j and by thefe
• are watered fpacious fields of barley, large meadows,
plantations, vineyards, and gardens, all yielding uncom¬
mon plenty. Lima differs from Quito, where the fruits
of the earth have no determined feafon ; for here the
harveft is gathered in, and the trees drop their leaves in
Ihe proper feafon.
Although the fummer here is hot, yet venomous crea-
VOL, XVI. Part I.
tures are unknown 5 and the fame may be faid of the Peru
territory called Valles, though here axe fome ports, as “
Fumbez and Piura, where the heat is almoft as great as
that of Guayaquil. This fingularity can therefore pro¬
ceed (rom no other caule than the natural di'ought of
the climate. ^
The audience of Lima is divided into four biftioprics, Divifions
Truxillo, Guamanga, Cufco, and Arequipa. The dio-oftlie au'
cefe of Truxillo lies to the north of the archiepifeopaT'.ence of
diocele of Lima, and like all the others is divided into 'una*
feveral jurifdidtions. The city of Truxillo is feated in
8° 6' fouth latitude, in a pleafant fituation, though in a
fandy foil.
In the diocefe of Guamanga is a rich quickfilver
mine, from which the inhabitants of a neighbouring
town procure their whole fubfiftence •, the coldnefs of
the air in that place checking the growth of all kind*
°f grain and fruit, fo that they are obliged to purehafe
them from their neighbours. The quickfilver mines
wrought here fupply all the filver mines in Peru with
that neceflary mineral, and notwithftanding the prodi¬
gious quantities already extracted, no diminution is per¬
ceived.
Cufco, which gives name to another diocefe, is the
moft ancient city of Peru, being of the fame date with
the empire of the incas, and was founded by them as
the capital of the empire. On the mountain contiguous
to the north part of the city are the ruinfi of a famous
fort built by the incas 5 whence it appears that their de-
fign was to inclofe the whole mountain with a prodigi¬
ous wall, of fuch conftrudtion as to render its afcent ab-
folutely impra&icable to an enemy, in order to prevent
all approach to the city. This wall was entirely of free-
ftone, and ftrongly built, fome of the ft ones being of a
prodigious magnitude. The city of Cufco is nearly
equal to that of Lima. See Cusco.
In this biftiopric are feveral mines of gold and filver,
that are extremely rich.
The fourth diocefe of the audience of Lima is Are¬
quipa, which contains the city of the fame name, one
of the largeft in Peru. It is delightfully fituated in
a plain •, the houfes are well built of (lone, and are ge¬
nerally lofty, commodious, finely decorated on the out-
fide, and neatly furniftted within. The temperature of
the air is extremely agreeable, the cold being never ex-
cefiive, or the heat troublefome j fo that the fields are
always clothed with verdure, and enamelled with
flowers, as in a perpetual fpring. But thefe advantages
are allayed by its being frequently expofed to dreadful
earthquakes 5 for by thefe convulfions of nature it has
been four times laid in ruins. The city is, however,
very populous, and among its inhabitants are many no¬
ble families.
In this biftiopric are feveral gold and filver mines,
and in fome parts are large vineyards, from which con¬
fiderable quantities of wine and brandy are made. A-
mong the other produflions is Guinea pepper, in which
the jurifdiftion of Arica in this diocefe carries on a
very advantageous trade, the annual produce of thefe
plantations bringing in no lefs than 60,000 dollars per
annum. The pods of this pepper are about a quarter
of a yard in length, and when gathered are dried in the
fun and packed up in bags of xufties, each bag con¬
taining an aroba or a quarter of a hundred weight, and
thus they are exported to all parts. Other places of
P d this
Peru.
60
The au¬
dience of
Charcas.
61
Xiivifions,
&c. of this
audience.
62
How the
country
was at firft
fettled by
the Spa¬
niards.
PER [
this jurifdi&ion are famous for vaft quantities of large
and excellent olives, far exceeding the fined: produ¬
ced in Europe, being nearly, it is faid, the fize ot a
hen’? egg.
The audience of Charcas, the laft divifion of Peru,
is pqual in extent to that of Lima j but many of its
parts are not fo well inhabited, forne being full of vaft
defects and impenetrable forefts, while others have ex-^
ten five plains intercepted by the ftupendous height of
'the Cordilleras : the country is inhabited only in fuch
parts as are, free from thofe inconveniences. It is bound¬
ed on the north by the diocele of Cufco, and reaches
fouthward to Buenos Ayres } on the eaft it extends to
Brafil 5 and on the weft it reaches to the Pacific ocean,
particularly at Atacama. The remainder of the pro¬
vince borders on the kingdom of Chili.
This audience is divided into the archbifhopric of
Plata, and five bifnoprics. We (hall begin with the
former.
The famous mountain of Potofi is known all over the
commercial world for the immenfe quantity of filver it
has produced. The difcovery of this amazing treafure
happened at the commencement of the year 1545, by a
mere accident, which we (hall mention afterwards. At
a.fmall diftance from it are the hot medicinal baths,
called Don Diego, whither fome refort for health and
others for amufement.
At the time when the firft conquefts were made,
when emigrations were moft frequent, the country of
the Incas had a much greater reputation for riches than
New Spain 5 and, in reality, for a long time much more
confiderable treafures were brought away from it. The
defire ot partaking of them muft neceffarily draw thi¬
ther, as was really the cafe, a greater number of Cafti-
lians. Though almoft all of them went over thither
with the hope of returning to their country to enjoy the
fortune they might acquire, yet the majority fettled in
the colony. They were induced to this by the foftnefs
of the climate, the falubrity of the air, and the goodnefs
of the provifions. Mexico prefented not the fame ad¬
vantages, and did not give them reafon to expeft fo
much’independence as a land infinitely more remote
from the*mother-country.
Cufco attratted the conquerors in multitudes. They
found this capital built on a ground that was very irre¬
gular, and divided irlto as many quarters as there were
provinces in the empire. Each of the inhabitants might
follow the ufages of his native country 5 but every body
was obliged to conform to the worfhip eftablilhed by the
founder of the monarchy. There was no edifice that
had any grandeur, elegance, or convenience ; becaufe
the people were ignorant of the firft elements of archi-
tefture. The magnificence of what they called the pa¬
lace of the fovereign, of the princes of the blood, and of
the great men of his empire, confifted in the profufion of
the metals that were laviftied in decorating them. The
temple of the Sun was diftinguiflied above all other edi¬
fices ; its walls were incrufted or ftieathed with gold
and filver, ornamented rvith divers figures, and loaded
with the idols of all the nations whom the Incas had
enlightened and fubdued.
As it was not a folicitude for their own prefervation
which occupied the Spaniards at firft, they had no Ibon-
er pillaged the immenfe riches which had been amaffed
210 ] PER
at Cmfeo for four centuriesy than they went in great Pen*,
numbers in 1534, under the order of Sebaftian de Ben-
alcazar, to undertake the deftruftion ot Quito. The >
other towns and fettlements of the empire were overrun
with the fame fpirit of rapine ; and the citizens and the
temples were plundered in all parts.
Thofe of the conquerors, who did not take up their
refidence in the fettlements which they found already
formed, built towns on the fea coafts, where before
there were none : for the ftc rility of the foil had not
permitted the Peruvians to multiply much there ; and
they had not been induced to remove thither from the
extremity of their country, becaufe they failed very
little. Paita, Truxillo, Callao, Pifca, and Arica, were
the roads which the Spaniards deemed moft convenient
for the communication they intended to eftablilh among
themfelves and with the mother-country. The different
petitions of thefe new cities determined the degree of
their profperity.
Thofe which were afterwards built in the inland parts
of the country were not erefted in regions which pre¬
fented a fertile foil, copious harvefts, excellent paftures,
a mild and falubrious climate, and all the conveniences
of life. Thefe places, which had hitherto been fo well
cultivated by a numerous and flourithing people, were
now totally difregarded. Very foon they exhibited only
a deplorable picture of a horrid defert j and this wilduels
muft have been more melancholy and hideous than the
dreary afpeft of the earth before the origin of focieties.
The traveller, who was led by accident or curiofity into
thefe defolate plains, could not forbear abhorring the
barbarous and bloody authors ot fuch devaftations, while
he retlefted that it was not owing even to the cruel iilu-
fions of glory, and to the fanaticifm of conqueft, but to
the ftupid and abjeft defire of gold, that they had facri-
ficed fo much more real treaiure, and fo numerous a po¬
pulation.
This infatiable thirft of gold, which neither tended
to fubfiftence, tafety, nor policy, was the only mo¬
tive for eftabliftiing new fettlements, fome of which
have been kept up, while feveral have decayed, and
others have been formed in their ftead. '1 he fate of
them all has correfponded with the difcovery, progrefs,
or declenfion of the mines to which they were iubordi-
nate. 63
Fewer errors have been committed in the means of Manner 0:
procuring provifions. The natives had hitherto lived
hardly on any thing elfe but maize, fruits, and pulfe, lL
for which they had ufed no other feafoning except fait
and pimento. Their liquors, which were made from
different roots, were more diverfified: of thefe the chieha
was the moft ufual } but the conquerors were not fatis-
fied either with the liquors or with the food of the peo¬
ple they had fubdued. They imported vines from the
Old World, which foon multiplied fufticiently in the
fands of the coafts at lea, Pifca, Naica, Moquequa,
and Truxillo, to furnilh the colony willi the wine and
brandy it wanted. Olives fucceeded ftill better ; and
yielded a greater abundance of oil, which was much
fuperior to that of the mother-country. Other fruits
were tranfplanfced with the fame fuecefs. Sugar fuc-
ceeds fo well, that none of any other growth can be
compared to that which is cultivated in thofe parts,
where it never rains. In the inland country wheat and
barley
PER (2
P#u. barley XVere fown ; and at length all the European qua-
drupeds were foon found grazing at the foot of the
mountains.
This was a confiderable ftep; but there ftill remained
much more to be done. After they had provided for a
better and a greater choice of fubfiftence, the next care
ef the Spaniards was to have a drefs more commodious
and more agreeable than that of the Peruvians. Thefe
W'ere, however, better clothed than any other American
nation. They owed this fuperiorky to the advantage
which they alone poflefled, of having the Llama and
Pacos, domeftic animals which ferved them for this
ufe. See Camelus, Mammalia Index.
After the eonqueft, all the Indians were obliged to
wear clothes. As the oppreffion under which they
groaned did not allow them to exercife their former in-
duitry, they contented themfelves with the coarfer cloths
of Europe, for which they were made to pay an exor¬
bitant price. When the gold and filver which had efca-
ped the rapacity of the conquerors were exhaufted, they
thought of re-eftablirtiing their national manufactures.
Thefe were fome time after prohibited, on account of
the deficiency which they occafioned in the exports of
the mother country. The impoflibility which the Pe¬
ruvians found of purchafing foreign fluffs and paying
their taxes, occafioned permiflion to be given at the end
of ten years for their re-eftablithment. They have not
been difeontinued fince that time 5 and have been
brought to as great a degree of perfection as it was pof-
, fible they could be under a continual tyranny.
Manufac- With the wool of the vicuna, a fpecies of wild pacos,
tures, See. they make, at Cuzco, and in its territory, ftockings,
handkerchiefs, and fcarfs. Thefe manufactures would
have been multiplied, if the fpirit of deftruCrion had not
fallen on animals as well as on men. The fame wool,
mixed with that of the fheep imported thither from Eu¬
rope, which have exceedingly degenerated, ferves for
carpets, and makes alfo tolerably fine cloth. Fleeces
of inferior quality are employed in ferges, druggets, and
in all kinds of coarfe fluffs.
The manufactures fubfervient to luxury are eftablilh-
ed at Arequipa, Cufco, and Lima. In Tiefe three
towns is made a prodigious number of gold toys and
plate, for the ufe of private perfons, and alfo for the
churches. All thefe manufactures are but coarfely
wrought, and mixed with a great deal of copper. We
feldora difeover more tafte in their gold and lilver laces
and embroideries which their manufactures alfo pro¬
duce. This is not altogether the cafe in regard to
their lace, which, when mixed with/ that of Europe,
looks very beautiful. Thislafl manufacture is common¬
ly in the hands of the nuns, who employ in it the Peru¬
vian girls, and the young Meflees of the towns, who for
the molt part before marriage pafs fome years in the
convent.
Other hands are employed in painting and gilding
leather for rooms, in making with wood and ivory pieces
of inlaid work and fculpture, and in drawing figures on
the marble that is found at Cucuca, or on linen im¬
ported from Europe-. Thefe different works, which are
almoft all manufactured at Cufco, ferve for ornaments
lor houfes, palaces, and temples : the drawing of them
is not bad, but the colours are neither exaCt nor perma¬
nent. If the Indians, who invent nothing, but are ex¬
cellent imitators, had able makers and excellent models,
11 ] PER
they would at leaft make good copyifts. At the clofe Peru,
of the laff century, fome works of a Peruvian painter, 1
named Michael de St Jacques, were brought to Home }
and the connoifieurs diicovered marks of genius in
them. 6-
T hough the Peruvians were unacquainted with coin,'Of the
they knew the ufe of gold and filver \ for they employ-mmes °f
ed them in different kinds of ornaments. Independent ^
of what the torrents and accident procured them of thefe
metals, fome mines had been opened of little depth.
The Spaniards have not tranfmitted to us the manner
in which thefe rich productions were drawn from the
bofom of the earth. Their pride, which has deprived
us of fo much ufeful know-ledge, undoubtedly made
them think, that, in the inventions of a people whom
they called barbarous, there was nothing that was w'or-
thy to be recorded.
The difference as to-the manner in which the Peru¬
vians worked their mines, did not extend to the mines
themfelves. The conquerors opened them on all tides.
At firft the gold mines tempted the avarice of the
greater number. Fatal experience difeouraged thofe
whom paflion had not blinded. They clearly faw,
that, for fome enormous fortunes raifed in this manner,
great numbers, who had only moderate fortunes, were
totally ruined. Thefe mines funk into fuch diferedit,
that, in order to prevent them from being abandoned,
the government was obliged to take the 20th part of
their produce, inffead of the fifth which it at firff re¬
ceived.
The mines of filver were more common, more equal,
and richer. They even produced filver of a lingular
fpecies, rarely found elfewhere. Towards the fea-
coaft, great lumps of this metal are found in the
fands.
There are a great number of other mines which are
infinitely more important, and are found in the rocks
and on the mountains. Several of them gave falfe
hopes. Such, in particular, wras that of Ucuntaya, dif-
covered in 1713. This was only an incruftation of al-
moft maflive filver, which at firff yielded feveral mil¬
lions, but was foon exhauffed.
Others which were deeper have been alike deferted.
Their produce, though equal to what it was originally,
was not fufficient to fupport the expence of working
them, which augmented every day. The mines of (^ui-
to, Cufco, and Arequipa, have experienced that revolu¬
tion which awaits many of the reff.
There are greater numbers of very rich mines which
the waters have invaded. The difpofition of the ground,
which from the fummit of the Cordilleras goes conti¬
nually fhelving to the South fea, muft neceffarily render
thefe events more common at Peru than in other places.
This inconvenience, which with greater care and' Ikill
might often have been prevented or diminilhed, has
been in fome inflances remedied.
Jofeph Salcedo, about the year 1660, had difeovered,
not far from the town of Puna, the mine of Laycacota.
It was fo rich, that they often cut the filyer with a chi- .
fel. Profperity had fo elevated the mind of the propri¬
etor, that he permitted all the Spaniards who came to
feek their fortune in this part of the New World, to
wrork fome days on their own account, without weigh¬
ing or taking any account of the prefents he made them.
This generofity drew around him an infinite number of
D d 2 people,
P E 11 - [21
Peru. people, whofe avidity made them quarrel with each
other, and the love of money made them take up arms
and fall upon one another j and their benefactor, who
had neglefted no expedient to prevent and extinguifh
their fanguinary contentions, was hanged as being the
author of them. Whilft he was in prifon, the water got
poffeflion of his mine. Superftition foon made it imagi¬
ned that this was a punifhment for the horrid aft they
had perpetrated againft him. This idea of divine ven¬
geance was revered for a long time j but at lalt, in 174°»
Diego de Bacna aflociated with other opulent people to
avert the fprings which had deluged fo much treafure.
The labours which this difficult undertaking required,
were not finiffied till 1754. The mine yields as much
now as it did at firft. But mines ftill richer than this
have been difeovered. Such, for example, is that of
Potofi, which was found in the fame country where the
Incas worked that of Porco.
An Indian, named Hualpa, in 1545, purfuing fome
deer, in order to climb certain deep rocks laid hold of
a buffi, the roots of which loofened from the earth, and
brought to view an ingot of filver. The Indian had re-
courfe to it for his own ufe •, and never failed to return
to his treafure every time that his wants or his defires fo-
licited him to it. The change that had happened in his
fortune was remarked by one of his countrymen, and he
difeovered to him the fecret. The two friends could
not keep their counfel and enjoy their good fortune.
They quarrelled ; on which the indifereet confidant dif¬
eovered the whole to his mafter, Villaroell, a Spaniard
who was fettled in the neighbourhood. Upon this the
mine became known, and was worked j and a great
number of them were found in his vicinity } the princi¬
pal of which are in the northern part of the mountain,
and their direClion is from north to fouth. The molt
intelligent people of Peru have obferved, that this is in
general the direction of the richeft mines.
The fame of what was paffing at Potofi foon fpread
abroad •, and there was quickly built at the foot of the
mountain a town, confifting of 60,coo Indians and
J0,000 Spaniards.-/ The fterility of the foil did not
prevent its being immediately peopled. Corn, fruit,
Hocks, American Huffs, European luxuries, arrived there
from every quarter. Induftry, which everywhere follows
the current of money, could not fearch for it with fo
much fuccefs as at its fource. It evidently appeared that
in 1738 thefe mines produced annually near 978,000!.
without reckoning the filver which was not regiftered,
and what had been carried off by fraud. From that
time the produce has been fo much diminiffied, that no
more than one-eighth part of the coin which was for¬
merly ftruck is now made.
At the mines of Potofi, and all the mines of South
America, the Spaniards, in purifying their gold and
filver, ufed mercury, with which they are fupplied from
Guan^a Velica. The common opinion is, that this
mine was difeovered in 1564. The trade of mercury
' was then ftill free : it became an exclufive trade in
1571. At this period all the mines of mercury were
Ihut j and that of Guan^a Velica alone \vas worked,
the property of which the king referved to himfelf.
It is now found to diminilh. This mine is dug in a
prodigioufly large mountain, 60 leagues from Lima. In
its profound abyfs are feen ftreets, fquares, and a cha¬
pel, where the myfteries of religion on all feftivals are
2 ] PER
celebrated. Millions of flambeaux are continually kept Peru,
to enlighten it. Perugia.
Private people at their oAvn expence work the mine '““"v—
of Guan^a Velica. They are obliged to deliver to
government, at a ffipulated price, all the mercury they
extraft from it. As foon as they have procured the
quantity which the demands of one year require, the
work is fufpended. Part of the mercury is fold on
the fpot, and the reft is fent to the royal magazines
throughout all Peru; from whence it is delivered out
at the fame price it is fold for in Mexico. This ar¬
rangement, which has occafioned many of the mines to
drop, and prevented others from being opened, is in-
excufable in the Spaniffi fyftem. The court of Ma¬
drid, in this refped, merits the fame reproaches as a
miniftry in other countries would incur, that would be
blind enough to lay a duty on the implements of agri¬
culture. /
The mine of Guan^a Velica generally affe&s thofe
who work in it with convulfions: this and the other
mines, which are not lefs unhealthy, are all worked by
the Peruvians. Thefe unfortunate viftims of an infa-
tiable avarice are crowded together and plunged naked
into thefe abyffes, the greateft part of which are deep,
and all exceffively cold. Tyranny has invented this
refinement in cruelty, to render it impoffible for any
thing to efcape its reftlefs vigilance. If there are any
Avretches Avho long furvive fuch barbarity, it is the ufe
of cocoa that preferves them.
In the Cordilleras, hear the city of Paz, is a moun¬
tain of remarkable height, called Illimani, wffiich doubt-
lefs contains immenfe riches j for a crag of it being
fome years ago fevered by a flaffi of lightning, and fal¬
ling on a neighbouring mountain, fuch a quantity of
gold was found in the fragments, that for fome time
that metal Avas fold at Paz for eight pieces of eight per
ounce but its fummit being perpetually covered with
ice and fnoAV, no mine has been opened in the moun¬
tain.
The. city of La Paz is of a middling fize, and from
its fituation among the breaches of the Cordilleras, the
ground on which it Hands is unequal, and it is alfo fur-
rounded by mountains. When the river Titicaca is in-
creafed, either by the rains, or the melting of the fnoAV
on the mountains, its current forces along large maffes
of rocks Avith fome grains of gold, Avhich are found after
the flood has fubfided. Hence fome idea may be formed
of the riches inclofed in the boAvels of thefe mountains j
a remarkable proof of Avhich appeared in the year I730>
Avhen an Indian walking his feet in the river, difeovered
fo large a lump of gold, that the marquis de Caftel Fu-
erte gave twelve thoufand pieces of eight for it, and fent
it as a prefent to the king of Spain.
In a period of ten years, the Peruvian mines, without
including thofe of Quito and Buenos Ayres, yielded
35,359 marks of gold, 22 carats fine, and 3,789»7^3
marks of filver. This has been eftimated at 7<7°3>545^*
fterling. The above period is included between the
years 1780 and 1790,
Balfam of Peru. See Myroxilon, Botany and
Materia Medica Index.
PERUGIA, a town of Italy, in the pope’s terri¬
tories, and capital of Perugino. it is an ancient, hand-
fome, populous, and large city, Avith a ftrong citadel,
an univerfity, and a biffiop’s fee. The churches, and
many
PET [ 213 ] PET
many other buildings, as well public as private, are very
handfome. It is feated on a hill, in E. Long. 12. 20.
N. Lat. 43. 6.
PERUGINO, a province of Italy, in the territory
of the church, bounded on the weft by Tufcany, on the
fouth by Orvietano, on the eaft by the duchies of Spo-
leto and Urbino, and on the north by the county of
Citta Caftellana. It is one of the fmalleft provinces in
the territory of the church. The air is very pure, and
the foil fertile in corn and good wine; befides, the lake
Perugia fupplies them with plenty of filh. The capital
town is Perugia. The lake is eight miles from the city,
and is almoft round, being about five miles in diameter;
in it there are three iflands. This province is about 25
miles in length, and near as much in breadth.
Perugino. See Montanini.
PERUKE. See Perruke.
PERUVIAN bark. See Cinchona, and Jesuits
Bark, Materia Medica Index.
PERUVIANA, a general name given to that vaft
peninfula, extending itfelf from the ifthmus of Darien
to Cape Horn, in the form of a triangle, of which the
Terra Magellanica and the cape form the vertex. It
includes the whole of South America, although, as is
well known, all the countries included within thefe
limits do not acknowledge the dominion of the crown
of Spain. See TERRA Ftrma.
PESARO, a town of Italy, in the territory of the
pope, and duchy of Urbino, with a bifhop’s fee. It is.a
large place, whofe ftreets are paved with bricks. The
cattle is very well fortified, the harbour excellent, and
the cathedral church magnificent. The environs are re¬
markable for producing good figs, of which they fend
large quantities to Venice. It is feated on an eminence
at the mouth of the river Fogha, on the gulf of Ve¬
nice. E. Long. 13. o. N. Lat. 43. 56.
PESCARA, a very ftrong town in the kingdom of
Naples, and in the Hither Abruzzo; feated at the mouth
of a river of the fame name, which falls into the gulf of
Venice. E. Long. 15. 2. N. Lat. 42. 27*
PESCENIUS Niger. See Niger.
PESCHIERA, a fmall but ftrong town of Italy,
in the Veronefe, with a caftle and a ftrong fort; feat¬
ed on the river Mincio or Menzo, which proceeds from
the lake Garda. E. Long. 11. 4. N. Lat. 42. 27.
PESENAS, an ancient town of France, in Langue¬
doc, and in the diocefe of Agde; delightfully feated on
the river Pein, 12 miles north-eaft of Belfeirs, and eight
north of Agde. E. Long. 3. 34. N. Lat. 43. 28.
PESSARY, in Medicine, a folid fubftance compofed
of wool, lint, or linen, mixed with powder, oil, wax, &c.
made round and long like a finger, in order to be intro¬
duced into the exterior neck of the matrix, for the cure
of feveral uterine diforders.
PEST, a town of Upper Hungary, and capital of
a county of the fame name, feated on the Danube, in
a fine plain over-againft Buda, 85 miles fouth eaft of
Prefhurg. E. Long. 18. 25. N. Lat. 47. 24.
PESTILENCE, in Medicine, the fame with the
Plague.
PETAGUEL, a territory of South America, in
Brafil, bounded on the north by Dele; on the eaft by
the fea; on the fouth by the captainftiip of Rio-Grande;
and on the weft by Tupuya. It contains mines of fil-
ver.
PETAL, in Botany, one of the coloured leaves which Petal
compofe the flower. II
PETAL ISM, a mode of deciding on the guilt of ci- , Petau'
tizens, fimilar to the Athenian Ostracism. It was intro¬
duced in Syracufe about the year before Chrift 460, in or¬
der to prevent the tyranny of thericher citizens, who had
often about that time aimed at the diadem. To prevent,
therefore, the evils daily arifingfrom thence, and to bring
down the afpiring minds of the wealthy citizens, the Sy-
racufans were forced to make a law not unlike that of
the Athenian oftracifm; for as at Athens every citizen
was to write on a (hell the name of the perfon whom
they conceived to be the moft likely, on account of his
wealth and adherents, to afpire to the crown; fo at Sy¬
racufe they were to write on a leaf the names of fuch as
they apprehended powerful enough to ufurp the love-
reignty. When the leaves were counted, he who had
the moft fuffrages againft him was, without any further
inquiry, banifhed for five years. This new-contrived
method of impairing the eftates, and weakening the in-
tereft of the overgrown citizens, was called petalifm,
from the Greek vioxA petalon, which fignifies “ a leaf.”
This law was attended with many evil confequences;
for thofe who were moft capable of governing the com¬
monwealth were driven out, and the adminiftration of
public affairs committed to the meaneft of the people ;
nay, many of the chief citizens, who were able to ren¬
der their country great fervice, fearing to fall under pe¬
nalties of this law, withdrew from the city, and lived
private in the country, not concerning themfelves with
public affairs: whence all the employments being filled
with men of no merit or experience, the republic was on
the brink of ruin, and ready to fall into a ftate of anar¬
chy and confufion. The law therefore of petalifm, upon
more mature deliberation, was repealed foon after it had
been firft enafted, and the reins of government were
again put into the hands of men who knew how to man¬
age them.
PETARD, in the art of war. See Gunnery.
PETAU, Denis, or Dionyfius Petavius, a French
Jefuit of great erudition, was born at Orleans in 1583.
His father was a man of literature, and obferving ftrong
parts and an excellent genius for letters in his fon, he
took every means in his power to improve them. He-
ufed to tell his fon, that he ought to qualify himfelf fo,
as to be able to attack and confound “ the giant of the
Allophjdte ;” meaning that moft eminent fcholar Jofeph
Scaliger, whofe abilities and learning were allowed tu
have done great honour and much fervice to the reform¬
ed. Young Petavius feems to have entered readily into
his father’s views; for he ftudied moft intenfely, and af¬
terwards levelled much of his erudition againft Scaliger.
He joined the ftudy of the mathematics to that of the
belles lettres; and afterwards applied himfelf to a courfe
of philofophy, which he began in the college of Orleans,
and finiflied at Paris. He afterwards maintained thefes
in Greek, which was as familiar to him as Latin; and
the Latin, it is faid, he underftood better than he did his
own native language. When he was pretty well advan¬
ced, he had free accefs to the king’s library, which ha
often vifited on account of the Latin and Greek manu-
feripts. Among other advantages which accompanied
his literary purfuits, was the friendftiip of Ifaac Calau-
bon, whom Henry IV. called to Paris in 1600. It was
at Cafaubon’s inftigation, that Petavius, though then
PET
Petstu but very young, undertook an edition of The Works of
P tl 1' Sy116^118- 1° this edition he corredled the Greek from
e ^ e the manufcripts, tranflated that part which yet remained
to be tranflated into Latin, and wrote notes upon the
whole. He was but 19 years of age when he was made
nrofeffor of philofophy in the univerfity of Bourgesj and
he fpent the two following years in iludyingthe ancient
philofophers and mathematicians. In 1604, when Mo¬
rel, prpfelfor of Greek at Paris, publiflied The Works of
Chryfoftom, feme part of Petavius’s labours on Synelius
were added to them : from the title of which we learn,
that he then took the name of Pectus, which he after¬
wards changed into Pctavius. His own edition of The
Works of Synelius did not appear till 1612.
He entered into the foeiety of the Jefuits in 1605,
and did great credit to it by his vaft and profound eru¬
dition. He became a zealous advocate for the church
of Rome j and there was no way of ferving it more
agreeable to him than that of criticifing and abufing
its adverfaries. He was molt bitter againfl Scaliger j
nor did he even fpare his friend Cafaubon whenever he
came in his way.—Petavius excelled particularly in the
dark fcience of chronology; the learned world in gene¬
ral being obliged to him for fome exa£t and nice difqui-
fitions on this fubjeft. His chief work, which is in great
repute to this day, he intitled, Pationarium Temporum.
It is an abridgement of univerfal hiftory, from the ear-
lieft times to 1632, in chronological order, with refer¬
ences to proper authorities. It was improved, and fe-
veral additions made to it, by Perizonius, and others af¬
ter his death. This eminent father, after a very laborious
life, died at Paris in the end of the year 1652, aged 69.
Gaffendus, in his life of Perefchius, fays he was the molt
confummate fcholar the Jefuits ever had; an opinion very
likely to be true, when we conlider that he often con¬
tended fuccefsfully with Scaliger, Salmafius, and others,
w.hofe abilities have been univerfally acknowledged. His
judgment, however, was not equal to his erudition, and
his controverfial writings are full of fournefs and fpleen.
We have the following charadler of a great work of Pe¬
tavius by an author of much celebrity, but who perhaps
is as much biaffed on the fide of infidelity as he thinks
this learned Jefuit was in favour of the church of Rome.
The Dogmata Theologica of Petavius are a' work of in¬
credible labour and compafs: the volumes which relate
folely to the incarnation (two folios, 3th and 6th, of 837
pages) are divided into 16 books—the firll of hishiftory,
the remainder of controverfv and dodlrine. The Jefuit’s
learning is copious and enrreft : his Latinity is pure, his
method clear, his argument profound and well connect¬
ed ; but he is the Have of the fathers, the fcourge of he¬
retics, and the enemv of truth and candour, as often as
they are inimical to the Catholic caufe.
PET AW, an ancient town of Germany, in the cir¬
cle of Auflria, and in Stiria. It is a handfome place,
and is feated on the river D-ave, 33 miles north-eaft of
Cilley, and 109 fouth of Vienna. E. Long. 15. 36.
N. Lat. 46. 40.
PETCHELI, a province of Afia, in China, and
the chief in the whole empire ; bounded on the eaft by
the fea, on the north by the great wrall. on the weft by
Chanfi, and on the fouth by Chantong and Honan.
“ This province contains nine cities of the firft clafs,
which have feveral others under their ]urifdi£lion •, fhefe
are about 40 in number, lefs confiderable indeed, but al
PET
furrounded with walls and ditches. Petcheli has few Petchell.
mountains. Its foil is fandy, and produces very little
rice ; but all other kinds of grain abound there, as well
as the greater part of the fruit-trees we have in Europe.
It pays an annual tribute to the emperor, which, accord¬
ing to Father Martini, confifts of 601,133 bags of rice,
wheat, and millet •, 224 pounds of linfeed 5 45,133 of
fpun filk ; 13,748 of cotton ; 8,737,248 truffes ot llraw
fur the horfes belonging to the court, and 180,8701003-
fures of fait, each containing 1 24 pounds •, which is pro¬
portionally much inferior to that paid by other provin¬
ces. The population of this province is eilimated at
38,000,000.
“ It is remarked that the people of this province
have not the fame aptitude for acquiring the feiences
as thole who inhabit the louthern provinces of the em¬
pire ; but they are more robuit. and warlike 5 and bet¬
ter calculated to endure the hardfhips and fatigue of
war. This is the cafe with the Chinefe of all the other
northern countries.
“ The face of the country here being flat and level,
permits the ufe of a kind of carriage, the conftruc-
tion of "which appears to be rather lingular. Father
Martini, one of the firft mifllonaries in China, thus
deferibes it: ‘ They ufe, in the province of Petcheli,
a kind of chariot with one wheel, and conftruefed in
fuch a manner, that there is room in the middle for
only one perfon, who fits as if on horfebaek ; the
driver pulhes behind, and, by means of wooden levers,
makes the chariot advance with fafety and expedition.’
This has perhaps given rife to the report of chariots
driven in that country by the wind, which the Chi¬
nefe diref! over land with fails, as they do fhips at
fea. A French miflionary, who traverfed this pro¬
vince in 1768, feems to have made ufe of the fame
kind of carriage. ‘ We quitted the canal (fays he)
to travel in carts, which is cuftomary in this part of
China 5 but it is difagreeable beyond defeription. The
cart Is amazingly clumfy, and has a great refemblance
to the carriage of a gun : there is room in it for only
one perfon, who is frequently obliged to fit crofs-leg-
ged, as our taylors do in Europe ; it jolts prodigioufly j
and, while the traveller is expofed to the fcorching rays
of the fun, fuch clouds of dull fometimes arife as almoft
fuffocate him.1
“ The temperature of the air of this province does
not feem to agree with its latitude. Although Pet-
cheli extends no fafther than to the 42d degree of north
latitude, yet all the rivers there are fo much frozen du¬
ring four months in the year, that horfes and waggons
with the heavieft loads may fafely pafs them. It deferves
to be remarked, that the whole body of ice is form¬
ed in one day, and that feveral are neceffary to thaw
only the furface. What may appear no lefs extraordi¬
nary is, that during thefe fevere frofts one does not feel
that {harp and pinching cold which accompanies the pro-
dmftion of ice in Europe. Thefe phenomena cannot be
accounted for, but by attributing them to the great
quantity of nitre which is found difperfed throughout
this province, and to the ferenity of the iky, which, even
during winter, is feldom obfeured by a cloud. The phy-
fical explanation; which we have given of this lingular
temperature, is fully confirmed by experiments lately
made by Father Amiot at Peking, which convinced him,
that in this capital and neighbourhood, as far as feven or
f 214 ]
PET [2i
Petcheli. eight leagues round, the water, air, and earth, equally
- v ' abound with nitre.
“ With regard to the water, the facility with which
k freezes, the folidity of the ice and its duration, evi¬
dently announce the prefence of nitre. A tub filled
with water, placed near one of Reaumur’s thermome¬
ters, had its furface immediately frozen, when the
mercury flood only one degree above the freezing
point *, and when it flood three degrees below freezing,
the water became a folid mafs of ice, if the diameter
of the veffel did not exceed a foot and a half, and the
depth of the water four or five inches. This water,
when the weather was fine,, continued in the fame Hate
of congelation as long as the mercury in the thermo¬
meter did not rife higher than three degrees above o ;
when the mercury role higher, it then began to dif-
folve, but fo flowly, that two or three days were fcarce-
ly fufficient to reflore it to its former fluidity.” Gro-
fier goes on to relate other experiments of Father A-
miot, which rvere made with a view to difcover the
caufe of the water’s freezing fo in this temperate cli¬
mate ; and he then proceeds to tell us, that “ if the
■waters of the province of Petcheli contain much nitre,
it is no lefs certain, that the air which one breathes
there is abundantly impregnated with it. The follow¬
ing are indubitable proofs of it : ill, Notwithflanding
unwholefome food, fuch as the flefli of the greater part
of domeflic animals that have died of old age or dif-
eafe, which the people of this province greedily devour,
notwithflanding filth and all the inconveniences refult-
ing from low, damp, and confined lodgings, where all
the individuals of the fame family are, as it were, heap¬
ed one upon another, the plague never makes its ap¬
pearance in Petcheli ; and the people are feldom attack¬
ed by any of thofe epidemical diftempers which are fo
common in Europe. 2dly, Provifions of every kind
may be kept at Peking a long while, without being
fubje£t to corruption Raifins are eaten there frefli even
in May, apples and pears till midfummer ; wild boars,
Hags, deer, roebucks, rabbits, hares, pheafants, ducks,
geefej and all kinds of game, brought from Tartary to
Peking after the commencement of winter *, fifli of every
fpecies, tranfported from the rivers of Leatong, will
keep without the afliflance of fait, in their Hate of con •
gelation, for two or three months, although they are ex-
pofed every day in the markets, carried from the mar¬
kets to private houfes, and from private houfes brought
back to the market^ until they are all fold, which does
not happen before the end of March. It is certain that
thefe fafts announce an antifeptic quality in the air,
which mull undoubtedly proceed from the great quan¬
tity of nitre contained in it.
“ 3dly, The earth which forms the foil of Petcheli
abounds no lefs with nitre ; whole fields may be feen in
the neighbourhood of Peking which are covered with
it. Every morning at funrife, the country in certain
cantons appears white as if fprinkled'by a gentle fall of
fnow. If a quantity of this fub(lance be fwept together,
a great deal of kien, nitre, and fait, may be extradit'd
from iu The Chinefe pretend that this fait may be
fuhflituted for common fait ; however this may be, it is
certain, that, in the extremity of the province towards
Siuen hoa-fou, poor people, and the greater part of the
peafants, make ufi* of no other. With regard to the
kien procured from the earth, they ufe it for wafliing
5 ] PET
linen as we do foap. Although the land of Petcheli be Petcheli
replete with nitrous particles, it does not, however, form p
dry deferts 5 it is cultivated with care, and becomes
fruitful by inceffant labour. The earth is frozen in
winter to the depth of two or three feet, and does not
become foft before the end of March. This may fuffi-
ciently explain why the froft kills plants in the neigh¬
bourhood of Pekin, which Linnteus railed in Sweden,
although it is 20 degrees farther north than the capital
of the Chinefe empire.
PETECHIAi, in Medicine, a name given to thofe
fpots, whether red or of any other colour, which appear
in malignant fevers.
PETELIA. See Strongoli.
PETER, St, the apoftle, born at Bethfaida, was
fon of John, Jona, or Joana, and brother of St An¬
drew (John i. 42, 43.)* firft name was Simon or
Simeon 5 but w'hen our Saviour called him to the apo-
ftlefhip, he changed his name into Cephas, that is, in
Syriac, a Jlane or a rock ; in Latin petru, whence Peter.
He was a married man ; and had his houfe, his mother-
in-law, and his wife, at Capernaum upon the lake of
Gennefareth (Mark i. 29. Matth. viii. 14. Luke iv. 38.).
St Andrew^ having been firft called by Jefus Chrift, met
his brother Simon, and told him (John i. 41.) we have
found the Mefliah, and then brought him to Jefus.
Jefus beholding him, faid to him, You are Simon fon
of Jona ; henceforth you (hall be called Cephas, that
is, Jione or rock. After having paffed one day with
our Saviour, they returned to their ordinary occupa¬
tion, which was fkhing. Yet it is- thought they were
prefent with him at the marriage of Cana in Galilee.
This happened in the 30th year of the vulgar Chriftian
era.
Towards the end of the fame year, Jefus Chrift be¬
ing on the (hore of the lake of Gennefareth, faw Peter
and Andrew bufy about their filhery, and walhing their
nets, (Luke v. 1, 2, 3.). He entered into their boat,
and bid Peter throw out his nets into the fea, in order
to fifli. Peter obeyed him, though he had already
fiflied the whole night without catching any thing.
They took fo many fiflies at this draught, that their
own veffel, and that of James and John, fons of Zebe-
dee, were filled with them. Then Peter threw himfelf
at the feet of Jefus, and faid to him, Depart from me,
Lord, for I am a finner. Then Jefus faid to them,
Follow me, and I will make you fifliers of men. He
faid the fame thing to James and John ; and immedi¬
ately they quitted their boats and nets, and followed our
Saviour.
Some time after, Jefus coming to Capernaum entered
into the houfe of St Peter, where his mother-in law
lay fick of a fever. He immediately healed her. and
(he began to minifter to him (Luke iv. 38. and Matt,
viii. 14.). A little while before thefeaft of the paffover
of the folloiving year, being the 3 2d of the vulgar era,
after Jefus returned into Galilee, he made choice of
twelve apoftles, among which St Peter has always the
firft place (Matt. x. 2. Luke vi. 13.). One night that
Jefus Chrift walked upon the waters of the lake of
Gennefareth, St Peter alked him leave to come and
meet him (Matt. xiv. 28, 29.). Jefus gave him leave:
but he feeing a great wave coming, was afraid, and
therefore began to fink. 1 hen Jefus held him up, and
faid, O man of little faith, why was you afraid .? Af¬
terwards
PET [21
Peter, terwards landing on the other fide of the lake, and the
—   multitude that he had fed the day before beyond the
lake being come to him at Capernaum, he fpoke to
them of his body and of his-blood which he was to
give to his difciples to eat and drink. This fo offend¬
ed the multitude, that feveral of them quitted him there¬
upon. He therefore afked his apoftles if they alfo would
leave him ; to which Peter replied, To whom ftiall we
go, Lord ; for thou haft the words of eternal life
(John vi. 53, 54, &c.). One day, as our Saviour was
near Caefarea Philippi, he alked his apoftles whom the
world took him for ? they anfwered, that fome faid he
was John the Baptift j others, Elias-, and others Jere¬
miah, or one of the prophets. But whom do you fay I
am ? fays Jefus Chriil. Simon Peter anfwered, I hou
art Chrift, the fon of the living God. Jefus then faid
unto Peter, Bleffed art thou, Simon Barjona j for fleftf
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father
which is in heaven (Mat. xvi. 13, 14, &c.). And I
fay unto thee, that, as thou art Peter, fo upon this rock
will I build my. church, and the gates of hell fh&ll not
prevail againft it and I will give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven,,and whatfoever thou fhalt
bind on earth fhall be bound in heaven, and whatfoever
thou {halt loofe upon earth (hall be loofed in heaven.
About fix or eight days after this, our Saviour taking
Peter, James, and John, up a high mountain, apart from
the other difciples, ftiowed them a glimpfe of his glory,
and was transfigured before them (Mat. xvii. 1, 2, &c.
and Luke ix. 28.). ' Whereupon Peter, feeing Mofes
and Elias together with Jefus, cried out to them in an
ecftacy, Lord, it is good for us to be here! if you pleafe,
we will make three tents 5 one for you, one for Mofes,
and one for Elias.
Jefus returning from thence to Capernaum, thofe who
gathered the tribute-money came to Peter, and faid,
Does not your mafter pay tribute ? Whereupon Jefus
ordered Peter to throw his line into the fea, and that he
ftiould find wherewith to pay the toll for them two
in the mouth of the firft fifti he {hould take. Peter
obeyed j and finding a piece of money in the mouth of
the fifti, he gave it to the tribute-gatherers, as be was
direfled. One day, as Jefus was difeonrfing concerning
the forgivenefs of injuries (Mat. xviii. 21, 22.), St
Peter alked him, how often they muft forgive, and whe¬
ther it was fufficient to pardon an offender feven times ?
Jefus told him, I fay, you muft pardon not only as far
as feven times, but even feventy-times feven. Upon
another occafion (Mat. xix. 27—29.), as our Saviour
was fpeaking of the danger of riches, Peter faid to him,
Lord,. we have left all things to follow thee ; what re¬
ward fhall we have for it ? Jefus anfwered him, I tell
you in truth, that you who have left all things to fol¬
low me (hall receive an hundred fold even in this world,
and in the other eternal life ; and at the laft day, when
' the Son of man (hall come to judge the world, you (hall
fit upon twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of
Ifrael.
On the Tuefday before our Saviour’s paffion, Peter
Ihowed him the fig-tree he had curfed the evening be¬
fore, which was now dried up and withered (Mark xi.
12—2i.)-, and the day-following, as they fat upon
the mountain of Olives, he, with the other apoftles,
alked Jefus when the temple was to be deftroyed (Mat.
xxiv. I, 2, &c. Mark xiii. 1, 2, &c. Luke xxii.). On
5 ] PET
Thuffday he was fent with St John to prepare all things Peter,
fur the pafibver ; and at evening, when Jefus was come ‘-'"“v-"
into the city with his apoftles, and being fat down at
table, began to fpeak of him that (hould betray him,
Peter made figns to John to a(k him who this fliould be
(John xiii. 24.). After {'upper, the difciples entered in¬
to difpute which {hould be the greateft among them :
whereupon Jefus Chrift, laying afide his garments, be¬
took himfelf to wafti their feet, to give them an example
of humility in his own perfon. St Peter at firft made
fp.me difficulty, and would not fuffer his mafter to wafli
his feet : but Jefus telling him, that if he did not walk
his feet, he could have no part in him 5 St Peter replied,
Lord, wafti not only my feet, .but my hands and head
alfo (John xiii. 6—10.).
Some time after, Jefus faid to him (Luke xxii. 31,
32, &c.), Peter, Satan has defired to lift you as men lift
wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may
not fail: and when you are converted, confirm .your
brethren. By this he w-arned St Peter of his fall, that
was juft at hand, and of his.renouncing him; from
which, by the afliftance of God, he was afterwards to
recover. St Peter then alked him, where he was go¬
ing ? and faid, he was ready to follow him everywhere,
not only to prifon, but to death itfelf. But Chrift de¬
clared to him, that he would be fo far from following
him to death that he would abjure him three times that
very night before the cock ftiould crow, or before break
of day. When fupper was ended, he went to the garden
of Olives, where, taking Peter, James, and John, he
went with them apart, that they might be witneffes of
his agony. Peter, though before he had ftiowed fo
much refolution, yet fell afteep with the reft ; which oc-
cafioned Jefus to fay to him, Do you fleep, Simon ?
Could you not watch with me one hour ? (Mark xiv.
37. Mat. xxvi. 40, &c.).
Judas being come with the foldiers to feize Jefus,
Peter drew his fwOrd, and cut off the right ear of one
called Malchus, who was fervant to the high-prieft :
but Jefus bid him put up his fword into the fcabbard,
and told him, that all thofe who fought with the fword
{hould perifti by the fword: and at the fame time healed
Malchus’s ear (John xviii. 10, &c.). Peter followed
Jefus afar off, as far as the houfe of Caiaphas, and was
let in by means of another difciple, who was known, in
the family. The foldiers and fervants that had brought
Jefus, having lighted a fire in the middle of the hall,
Peter mingled among them to warm himfelf alfo; when
a maid-fervant, having looked earneftly upon him, faid,
Surely this man was with Jefus of Nazareth. But Peter
made anfwer, I know not what you fay, for I do not fo
much as know the man. Prefently after he went out
into the porch, when immediately the cock crew. A
little while after another maid faid to thofe that were
prefent, This man was with Jefus of Nazareth. But
Peter denied it with an oath. About an hour after,
one of the company affirmed that Peter was a difciple of
Jefus. Others infilled upon the fame thing ; and faid,
that furely he was one of them, for his very fpeech be¬
trayed him to be a Galilean. Laftly, one of them, be¬
ing a kinfman of Malchus whofe ear Peter had cut off,
affirmed the fame thing; and afleed him, Did not I fee
you with him in the garden ? Peter again denied it with
an oath, protefting that he did not know the man.
And at the fame time the cock crowed the fecond
time.
PET [2i
Peter, time. Then Jefus, being in the fame hall, and not far
— y m‘l from Peter, looked upon him j and Peter then remem¬
bering what Jefus had faid to him, that before cock-crow
he Ihould deny him thrice, he went out of Caiaphas’s
houfe, and wept bitterly (Mat. xxvi. 73, 75. Mark xiv.
34, 72.).
Very probably he remained in fecret, and in Jears,
all the time of our Saviour’s paffion, that is, all Friday
and Saturday following ; but on Sunday morning, Jefus
being rifen, and Mary having been at the tomb, and not
finding the body of Jefus, (he came in hafte into the
city, to tell Peter and John that they had taken away
their matter, and that the could not find where they had
put him. Peter and John made hafte thither, and John
coming firft, did not go into the fepulchre. Peter then
coming up to him, prefently Hooped down, and faw the
linen clothes wherein the body had been wrapt. He
went then into the fepulchre, and John with him *, after
which they returned to Jerufalem, not knowing what
had come to pafs. But foon after Jefus appeared to the
holy women, who had come firft to the fepulchre, and
bid them give his apoftles notice of his refurreftion.
And the fame day our Saviour alfo appeared to Peter,
to comfort him, and affure him that his repentance had
been acceptable to him.
Some days after, St Peter being returned into Galilee
as Jefus had commanded him, and going to fifh in the
fea of Galilee, or in the lake of Gennefareth, with fome
other of the apoftles, Jefus appeared to them on the Ihore,
and bid them throw out their nets on the right fide of
the veflel. They threw them out, and took fuch a mul¬
titude of fifties that they could not draw up their nets
again. Then St John faid to Peter, It is the Lord,
Peter immediately girded up himfelf, for he was naked,
and fwimming to ftiore he came to Jefus : then drawing
their nets t^ ftiore, Jefus dined with them. After dinner,
Jefus, faid to Peter, Simon, fon of Jona, do you love me
more than thefe ? He anfwered, Yea, Lord, yoU know
that I love you. Jefus fays to him, Then feed my
lambs. He put the fame queftion to him again ; and
Peter making the fame anfwer, our Lord faid to him
again, Feed my ftieep. This he repeated a third time j
at which St Peter was troubled, and faid, You know,
Lord, that I love you. Jefus replied to him, “ Feed
my flieep. I tell you for a truth, that when you were
young, you girded yourfelf, and went w,here you pleafed ;
but now you are old, another ftiall gird you, and lead
you w'here you would not go.” This he faid to let
him know what death he was to die. At the fame
time, Peter feeing St John the Evangelift, faid to our
Saviour, Lord, what muft become of him ? Jefus an¬
fwered, “ If I will that he tarry till I come, what does
that concern you ? Do you follow me,” Thus he re-
fufed to declare in what manner St John ftiould end his
HR
After that Jefus Chrift had afcended into heaven,
♦ and that the apoftles had been witneflfes of his afcen-
fion, they returned to Jerufalem, to wait there for the
Holy Ghoft, whom our Saviour had promifed to lend
them 5 and being afiembled together in a houfe, they
continued there in prayer, and in the union of chari¬
ty, till the time that the Holy Ghoft defcended upon
them, in the form of tongues of fire. During this in¬
terval, St Peter propofed to the apoftles, and to the
reft of the alfembly, to fill up the place that the trai-
Vox. XVI. Part L
7 ] PET
tor Judas Fad left vacant in the apoftleftiip. The pro- Peter,
pofal was agreed to by all j and two perfons were pro- '-““'Y-"
pofed, Jofeph Barfabas and Matthias : upon this laft
the lot fell j and from that time lie was admitted one
of the apoftles. The tenth day after the afcenfion of
our Saviour, being the day of Pentecoft, the Holy
Ghoft having defcended upon the apoftles, and upon
all the faithful that were affembled with them, and ha¬
ving repleniIhed them with fupernatural gifts, and
efpccially with the gift of tongues, all thofe who were
witnefles of this miracle exprefled their admiration at
it; and there being upon that day at Jerufalem a great
many Jews from feveral provinces of the eaft, they
could not comprehend by what means thefe men, who
wrere Galileans, fhould fpeak the languages of all thefe
pagan nations (Afts ii, 1, 2, &c.). Some of them faid,
that the apoftles were full of new wine. But St Peter
ftanding up, told them, that what they heard and faw
wras not the effe£t of drunkennefs, but was the comple¬
tion of the promife that the Holy Ghoft had made by
the prophet Joel (ii. 28.), to fend his fpirit upon all
flelh, and to give the fpirit of prophecy to young and
old, to men and women. He afterwards ipoke to them
of Jefus Chrift, and told them that he was the true
Mefliah, that he was rifen from the dead as the ferip-
ture had foretold he ftiould j declaring that himfelf and
the other apoftles were witneffes of his refurredtion, of
his afcenfion into heaven, and of the miflion of the Holy
Ghoft, the vifible effedls of which they faw with their
own eyes in the gifts of languages wherewith they had
been repleniftied.
Then thofe that heard him were touched with com-
pundtion, and alked the apoftles, Brethren, what ftiall
we do ? Peter anfwered them, Repent, and be bap¬
tized, and you ftiall receive the Holy Ghoft. Then he
inftrudted them, baptized them, and that very day
three thoufand perfons were added to the church (Adis
iii. 1, 2, &c.). Some days after, St Peter and John,
going to the temple at the hour of prayers, met at a
gate of the temple a man who had been lame from his
birth, fo that he was carried about. This man feeing
Peter and John, afleed alms of them : upon which Peter
faid to him, Silver or gold I have not •, but fuch as I
have I give thee : In the name of Jefus of Nazareth,
rife up and walk. Prefently the man got up, and w?ent
into the temple along with them, lifting up his voice,
and glorifying God. He held St Peter, telling the
people then aflembled all that had happened unto him.
Then Peter, taking this occafion, told the people, that
it was not by his own power that he had performed the
miracle they fo much wondered at, but that it was
by the power of Jefus Chrift that this man was healed.
He then laid before them the great crime they had
committed, in putting Jefus Chrift to death, who was
the Saviour of the world, and the Mefliah } and after
he had ftiewn them by all the prophecies that Chrift
was to die thus, he exhorted them to repentance, and to
make a proper ufe of the death of Chrift.
He was thus fpeaking to the people, w hen the priefts
and Sadducees coming upon them, laid hold on Peter
and John, and put them in prifon, until the day fol¬
lowing, it being now late (Adds iv. 1, 2, &c.). But
the number of thofe that were converted this day at
the fecond preaching of St Peter was about five thou¬
fand. The day following, the rulers, magiftrates, and
E e chief
PET' [2
Peter, chief priefts being titTembled on this occafion, ordered
* the apodles to be brought before them ; and then aik-
H ed them, by xvhofe authority they performed the mi¬
racle-of healing the lame man? St Peter anfvvered,
that it was in the name of Jefus of Nazareth, whom
they had crucified, and whom God raifed again from
the dead. The affembly were furprifed at the bold-
nefs of the apoftles upon this occafion : but came to a
refolution to difmifs them, charging them at the fame
time to teach no more in the name of Jefus ; and
threatening them if they fhould perfift in difobedience
to thefe orders. The two apoftles returned to their
brethren, and related to them all that had paffed 5
which having heard, the brethren raifed their voices
to heaven, begging God to give them flrength and
courage to declare his word with perfeft liberty ; and
having finiftied their prayers, the place ftiook wherein
they were aflembled, and they were again filled with
the Holy Ghoft.
1 At this time many of the faithful fold their eftates,
*nd brought the money to the apoftles (fr/. v. 1, 2,
&.C.). Of this number ivas a man called Ananias, with
his wife Sapphira, who, by a private agreement between
themfelves, concealed a part of the money for which
they had fold their land, and brought the reft to St
Peter, as if it were the whole fum. Ananias came firft ;
and St Peter faid to him, Ananias, How came Satan to
feduce you, and to prevail with you to lie to the Holy
Ghoft, by concealing part of the price of your land ? It
is not men that you thought to impofe on, but God.
Immediately Ananias fell down dead, and they carried
him out and buried him. About three hours after his
wife Sapphira came in, and St Peter faid to her almoft
the fame things he had before faid to her hufband,
and immediately (lie fell down alfo, and gave up the
ghoft. This affair infufed a great awe in the whole
church, and amongft all thofe that heard of it. (See
A6ts v.).
The number of believers confiderably increafed eve¬
ry day } fo that they even brought out the fick into
the ftreets, and laid them where Peter was to pafs, that
at leaft his ftiadow might cover fome of them, by which
means they were healed of their diftempers. Then the
high-prieft and his affociates, that is, the Pharifees,
caufed the apoftles to be apprehended and put into pri-
fon. But an angel brought them forth, and bid them
go into the temple, and there boldly declare all the
words of life which God bad taught them. This they
performed: upon which the princes and priefts caufed
them to be brought before them; and having demanded
why they had difobeyed their orders in continuing to
fpeak ftill in the name of Jefus Chrift, Peter and the
apoftles anfwered, that it was more neeeffary to obey
God than man. This anfwer provoked them very much,
and they were going to condemn them to death, when
Gamaliel prevailed with them to change their refolu¬
tion, by reprefenting to them, that if this matter pro¬
ceeded from God, it was in vain for them to oppofe it •,
but if otherwife, then it ftiould foon vanifh of itfelf. So
they difmiffed the apoftles, after giving them 39 ftripes
a-piece, and charged them to fpeak no more in the name
of Jefus Chrift.
After the martyrdom of St Stephen, a perfecution
was carried on againft the faithful at Jerufalem, and they
were obliged to .take Ihelter in feveral places. The
4.
8 ] PET
apoftles alone continued at Jerufalem (A6ta viii. T, 2, Peter.
3, &c.). St Philip the deacon going to Samaria, the -y—
Samaritans received the word of the Lord, and feveral
of them w ere baptized. Then St Peter and St John
repaired thither alfo, to give them the Holy Ghoft j
which St Philip, being only a deacon, had not power
to do. Simon the magician was alfo baptized among
others $ and admiring the power that the apoftles had,
of conferring the Holy Ghoft, would have bought the
fame power of the apoftles, and accordingly offered mo¬
ney to St Peter. But Peter with indignation replied
to him. Thy money and thou perifti together, who
thinkeft the gifts of God can be bought with money !
Thou haft no part with us, nor haft any pretenfions to
this miniftry, for thy heart is not right before God.
Repent therefore of this wickednefs, and pray to God if
perhaps he will pardon the wicked thoughts of thy
heart. After this Peter and John returned again to Je¬
rufalem. See A£ls viii.
The fire of perfecution being now pretty well extin-
guiftied, St Peter departed from Jerufalem (A£b ix. 3 2,
&c.), and vifiting the difciples from city to city, he
came alfb to fee the faints that dwelt at Lydda. Here
he found a man called iEneas, who had been paralytic
for eight years. St Peter faid to him, ./Eneas, rife up j
Jefus Chrift the Lord cures you. He prefently got upj
and all that dwelt at Lydda that faw the miracle were
converted, to the Lord. There was alfo at Joppa a cer¬
tain holy woman, named Tabitha, who happening to
die while St Peter was at Lydda, the difeiples fent to
defire him to come to them. Whereupon St Peter
came, and entering into the chamber where Tabitha
lay dead, he caufed every body to go out, and betook
himfelf to prayers. Then turning himfelf towards the
corpfe, he faid, Tabitha, arife. At which inftant ftie
opened her eyes, and feeing St Peter, ftie (at up. This
miracle was much famed at Joppa, and was the occa¬
fion that many were converted. St Peter flayed there
a good while, taking up his lodging with one Simon a
tanner.
Now there was at Caefarea of Paleftine a centurion
called Cornelius, a man that feared God (Afts x. r,
2, 3.), and to whom it was revealed by an angel, that
he fhould fend to Joppa to Peter, who ftiould tell him
what he had to do. Cornelius immediately fent two
of his fervants •, and while they were upon the road, the
Lord fent a vifion to Peter, to prepare him to go to
this man without any fcruple, although he -was not a
Jew 5 for as yet the door of the gofpel had not been
opened to the Gentiles. St Peter, then being at the
top of the houfe, fell into a trance, and faw, as it wrere,
a great ftieet of linen let down from heaven, which was
full of all kinds of animals and reptiles, both clean and
unclean. He had this vifion three times, and heard a
voice, faying, Arife Peter, kill and eat. But Peter
anfwered, Lord, I have never eaten any thing unclean.
The voice replied, Call not that unclean which God
has purified. After which the ftieet was again taken
up into heaven. At the fame time, the men came
in that had been fent by Cornelius. They acquainted
him with what had happened to their mafter, and de-
fired him to go along with them to Caefarea. The
day following St Peter fet out thither, and was ac-
companied by fome of the brethren of Joppa. (See
Afts x.).
When.
P E T [ 2
When Peter was returned to Jerufalem, the faithful
of the eircumcifion faid to him, why have you gone un--
to the uncircumcifed, and why do you eat with them ?
but Peter having related to them all that pafled, they
were fatisfied, and glorified God who had given the gift
of repentance leading to life as well to the Gentiles as
to the Jews. It is thought, that a little after this Peter
went to Antioch, where he founded the Chriftian church
of which he was bifhop (Gal. ii. it*). It is believed
that he continued here feven years, though not conftant-
ly : for during this time, he went to Jerufalem, and to
the provinces of Alia Minor, to Bithynia, Cappadocia,
and Pontus, as is concluded from the epiftle that he
afterwards addreffed to the faithful of thefe provinces..
From thence he went to Rome, in the qld year of the,
Chrillian era 5 and it is thought that at his leaving An¬
tioch he there fixed St Ignatius in his place. Eufebius
thinks, that the chief occafion of his going to Rome was-
to oppofe Simon Magus, who by his deceits had per¬
verted a great number of perfons. However, the pre¬
fence of St Peter, and the true miracles that he oppofed
to the tricks of Simon, ruined, or much diminifhed, the
reputation of this impoftor.
St Peter, leaving Rome, came to Jerufalem at the
paffover, in the 44th year of the Chriftian era, when
Herod Agrippa began to perfecute the church. That
prince put St James the Greater, brother of John, to
the fword (A6ts xii. 1, &c.) j and perceiving that his
death was agreeable to the Jews, he moreover caufed
Peter to be apprehended and put in prifon, with a de-
fign of executing him publicly after the paffover.
But the very night that Herod thought of putting him
to death, as Peter, loaded with chains, was afleep be¬
tween two foldiers, the angel of the Lord awakened
him, broke off his chains,, opened the prifon door, and
brought him out the length of the ftreet, Then the an¬
gel leaving him, he came to the houfe of Mary the mo¬
ther of John, where many of the faithful rvere affem.-
bled at prayers 5 and having knocked at the door, a
damfel named Rhoda came to open it j but when Ihe
heard Peter’s voice, inftead of opening the door, fhe ran
in a tranfport of joy to acquaint the family that Peter
was at the door. Thofe who heard her could not be¬
lieve it, and faid, it was his angel, and not hirnfelf: but
continuing to knock, and being let in, be informed them
©f what had happened to him.
He then left Jerufalem ; but we are not told what
became of him till the time of the council held at Je¬
rufalem in the year 51. It is thought that before this
time he made bis fecond journey to Rome, from whence
be wrote his firft epiftle.
St Peter was obliged to leave Rome in the year 51
by order of the emperor Claudius, who had baniftied all
Jews from thence, beoaufe of the tumults they conti¬
nually raifed there, excited by one Chreftus, as Sueto¬
nius fays, meaning probably by this name Jefus Chrift.
Ihe apoftle then returned into Judea, where was held
the council of Jerufalem 5 in which, after a ftrift exa¬
mination of the matter propofed to Peter and the
apoftles, he fpoke to them with much wifdom, faving
(Acts xv. y, 8, &c.) that God having given his Holy
Ghoft and the gift of faith to the Gentiles as well as
to the Jews, they ought not to impofe the yoke of the
legal obfervances on the new converts, which (as he
fcys) neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear.
19 1 PET
But we believe, that it is through the grace of Jefus
Chrift that both we and they fhall. be faved. St James
the Lefs, bifhop of Jerufalem, feconded this opinion of
St Peter j and the council came to this conclufion,
1 hat no new obligation fhould be impofed on the Gen¬
tiles, but only that they fhould be required to abftain
from fornication, from the ufe of blood, and from meats
offered to idols. .1 he refolution of this council was
written to the faithful of Antioch, becaufe it was there
this queftion was firft ftarted.
Some time after, St Peter coming to Antioch (Gal.
ii. 11. &.C.), he ate and drank with the Gentiles, wdtlt-
out regarding that diftinftion of meats enjoined by the
law. But after that, when fome of the faithful of Je¬
rufalem came to Antioch, being converted Jews, St
Peter, out of fear to offend them, feparated himfelf from
the converted Gentiles, and -would no longer eat with
them as before. St Paul, fearing that what St Peter
did might be interpreted, as if he had a defire to oblige
the Gentiles to judaize, and to fubmit themfelves to the
yoke of the law, and fo to revoke and annul what he
himfelf had determined in the council of Jerufalem, he
withftood Peter to his face, and openly expoftulated
with him, telling him, he was much in the wrong to
endeavour to oblige the Gentiles, at leaft tacitly by
his own manner of a£ting, to live as the Jews do j and
St Peter received this reprehenfion with filence and
humility.
The particulars of St Peter’s life are little known
from the 51ft year of the vulgar era, in which the
Council of Jerufalem was held, till his laft journey to
Rome, which was £bme time before his death. Then
being acquainted by revelation that the time of his
death was not far oft' (2 Pet. i. 14.), he had a mind
to write to the faithful that had been converted by
him, to put them m mind of the truths he had before
taught them. He fent them therefore his fecond
_epiftle.
St Peter and St Paul came to Rome about the fame
time, in the year of Chrift 65, where they performed
many miracles, and made many converts. Simon Ma¬
gus by his tricks continued here to deceive the people,
pretending himfelf to be the Mefliah, and even attempt¬
ing to afeend into heaven ; for having caufed himfelf to
be carried up into the air by his daemons, in a fiery cha¬
riot, St Peter and bt Paul betook themfelves to their
prayers; and then the impoftor, beingforfakenby hisdte-
mons, fell down upon the ground, which fall fome time
afterwards occafioned his death. See Simon Magus.
Soon after this, St Peter was taken up and thrown
into prifon, where it is faid he continued for nine months ;
at laft he was crucified at Rome in the Via Oftia; with
bis head downwards, as he himfelf had defired of his
executioners. This he did out of a fenfe of humility,
for fear it ftiould be thought, as St Ambrofe fays, that
he affe&ed the glory of Jefus Chrift, and the more to
augment the pain of his execution.
It is faid, that the body of St Peter was at firft bu¬
ried in the catacombs, two miles from Rome, from
whence it was afterwards tranfported to the Vatican,
where it has lain ever fince. His feftival is celebrated
with that of St Paul on the 29th of June. St Peter
died in the 66th year of the vulgar era, after having
been bifhop of Rome for about 24 or 25 years. His
age might be about 74 or 75 years. It is generally
£ e 2 agreed,
Peter.
Black-
•wed's Sa¬
cred Claf-
Jics de¬
fended.
PET
agreed, that St Linus was his fucceffor. The
ing is the portraiture that Nicephorus gives us of St
Peter, which he has probably taken from the ancient
pictures that were preferved of this apoftle. He was
not fat, but pretty tall and upright, having a fair and
palilh countenance. The hair of his head and beard
was thick, frizzled, and not long. His eyes were
black, and blood-fhot j his eyebrows protuberant and
lofty ; his nofe fomething long, and rather flat than
lharp.
The two epiftles of St Peter are addrefled to thofe
Jewifli converts who were fcattered throughout Pontus,
Galatia, &c. not only upon the perfecution raifed at
Jerufalem, but upon former difperfions of the Jews into
thofe places on feveral other occafions. J he firft epiftle
is principally defigned to comfort and confirm them un¬
der thofe fiery trials and manifold temptations they were
then fubjedl to, and to direct and inftruct them how to
behave in the feveial nates and relations both of the
civil and the Chriltian life, that they might not be en¬
gaged in thofe rebellions againff Cadar and his officers,
then fomented among the Jews j and that they might
flop the mouths of thofe who ipoke againft them as
evil doers. In the fecond epiftle, he profecutes the
fame fubje<ft, to prevent their apoftafy from the faith,
on account of any perfecutions they were liable to.
He likewife guards them againft the corrupt princi¬
ples of the Gnoftics, and thofe who fcoffed at the pro-
mife of Chrift’s coming, as if it would never be ve¬
rified.
St Peter’s ftyle, fays a modern author, expreflfes the
noble vehemence and fervour of his fpirit, the full
knowledge he had of Chriftianity, and the ftrong aflur-
ance he had of the truth and certainty of his do&rine ;
and he writes with the authority of the firft man in the
college of the apoftles. He writes with that quieknefs
and rapidity of ftyle, with that noble negleft of fome
of the formal confequenccs and niceties of grammar,-
ftill preferving its true reafon and natural analogy
(which are always marks of a fublime genius), that you
can fcarce perceive the paufes of his difcourfe and di-
ftinction of his periods. The great Jofeph Scaliger calls
St Peter’s firft epiftle majeftic 5 and we hope he was
more judicious than to exclude the fecond, though he
did not name it.
A noble majefty, and becoming freedom, is what di-
ftinguilhes St Peter 5 a devout and judicious perfon can¬
not read him without folemn attention and awful con¬
cern. The conflagration of this lower world, and future
judgment of angels and men, in the third chapter of
the fecond, is defcribed in fuch ftrong and terrible terms,
1'uch awful circumftances, that in the defeription we fee
the planetary heavens and this our earth wrapped up
with devouring flames, hear the groans of an expiring
world, and the cralhes of nature tumbling into univerfal
ruin.
The authority of the fecond epiftle of St Peter was
for fome time doubted of, as Origen, Eufebius, St Je¬
rome and others have obferved. What made the an¬
cients call it in queftion, is the difference of its ftyle
from the firft. The third chapter, which defcribes the
cataftrophe of the vifible world, made Grotius think
this epiftle was wrote after the takiqg of Jerufalem ; be-
caufe that was not to happen till after the deftruftion of
that city 3 upon which he conje&ures, that Simeon bi-
3
[ 220 ] PET
follow- fliop of Jerufalem is the author of this epiftle, and that
Peter,
the infcription which carries St Peter’s name is corrupt¬
ed. But the beft critics admit this epiftle to be the ge¬
nuine work of St Peter, who difcovers himfelf, where
he fays, that he was prefent at our Lord’s transfigura¬
tion 3 and where he tells the Jews, this was the fecond
letter he had written to them. The reader may fee this
queftion fully difcuffed, and the authority of this epiftle
eftablifhed beyond all doubt, by the learned Dr Sher¬
lock, in his Differtation on the authority of the Second
Epiftle of St Peter.
St Peter has been made the author of feveral books 3
fuch were, his Adds, his Gofpel, his Revelation, his w^ork
about preaching, and another about judgment. There
is extaiit a large hiftory of St Peter, called the Recogni¬
tions, afcribed to St Clement.
PETEK of Blois, a learned man of the 12th century,
was born about the year 1120, at the city of Blois in
France, from whence he derived his name. His pa¬
rents, being opulent, gave him a learned education. In
his youth, when he ftudied in the univerfity of Paris,
he was exceffively fond of poetry 3 and when he wras a
little further advanced in life, he became no lefs fond of
rhetoric, to the ftudy of which he applied with the
greateft ardour. From Paris he removed to Bononia in
Italy, to acquire the civil and canon law 3 in the know¬
ledge of both which he very much excelled. He ap¬
pears from his writings to have cultivated medicine, and
feveral branches of the mathematics, with no little care
and fuccefs. The ftudy of theology was the ch’ef de¬
light and bufinefs of his life, in which he fpent the
greateft part of his time, and made the greateft progrefs.
But unfortunately it was that fcholaftic theology, which
confifted in vain attempts to prove and explain the ma¬
ny abfurd opinions which then prevailed in the church,
by the fubtleties of Ariftotelian logic. In attempting
to explain in this manner the moft abfurd of all opinions
that ever exifted amongft mankind, he was the very firfl:
perfon who employed the famous word tranfubfantia-
tion, which was foon after adopted by the church of
Rome, and hath ever fince made fo great a noife. Be¬
ing appointed preceptor to William II. king of Sicily
in 1167, he obtained the cuftody of the privy feal 3 and,
next to the archbilhop of Palermo, the prime minifter,
had the greateft influence in all affairs. But his power:
was not of long duration 3 for the archbifhop being ba-
niflied in it68, our author foon after left the court of
Sicily, and returned into France. He was not long,
however, without a royal patron, being invited into
England by Henry II. who employed him as his private
fecretary, made him archdeacon of Bath, and gave him
fome other benefices. When he had fpent a fewr years
at court, he conceived a difguft at that way of life (of
which he hath drawn a very unpleafing pi&ure in one
of his letters), and retired into the family of Richard
archbifhop of Canterbury, who had made him his chan¬
cellor about the year 1176. Inthisftation he continued
to the death of the archbifhop in 1183, enjoying the
higheft degree of favour writh that prelate, though he
ufcd much freedom in reproving him for his remifihefs
in the government of the church. Our author remain¬
ed in the fame ftation in the family of Archbifhop Bald¬
win, who fucceeded Richard, acting both as his fecre¬
tary and chancellor. He was alfo lent by that prelate
on an embaffy to Rome in 1187, to plead his eaufe be¬
fore
PET [ 221 ] PET
fore Pope Urban III. in the famous controverfy betAveen
him and the monks of Canterbury about the church of
Hackington. After the departure of his friend and
patron Baldwin for the Holy Land in 1190, our author
was involved in various troubles in his old age, the cau-
fes of which are not diltin&ly known 5 and died about
the end of the I2th century. He appears from his
works, Avhich may be juftly reckoned among the moll
valuable monuments of the age in which he flourilhed,
to have been a man of great integrity and fincere piety,
as well as of a lively inventive genius and uncommon
erudition. His printed -works confilt of 134 letters,
which he colle£ted together at the defire of Henry II. $
of 65 fermons, delivered on various occafions j and of
17 trails on different fubjeils.
Peter theHennit. See Croisade and Hermit.
Peter I. juftly ftyled Peter the Great, czar, and
aftenvards emperor, of Rufiia, founder of the Ruffian
empire ; for though the country was well known, and
of great antiquity, yet it had no extent of power, of
political influence, or of general commerce, in Europe,
till his time. He was born in 1672 j and was pro¬
claimed czar when but ten years of age, in exclufion
of John his elder brother, who, being of ji fickly con-
ftitution, was at the fame time very weak in his under-
ftanding. The princefs Sophia, his half-fifter, made
an infurreition in favour of John j and to put an end
to the civil war, it was at laft agreed that the two
brothers ffiould jointly {hare the imperial dignity. Pe¬
ter had been very ill brought up, not only through the
general defeats of the Ruffian education, but likewife
through the arts of the princefs Sophia, who furrounded
him with every thing that might ftifle his natural defire
of knowledge, deprave his mind, and enervate it with
pleafures. Notwdthftanding this, his inclination for mi¬
litary exercifes difcovered itfelf in his tendereft years.
He formed a company of 50 men, commanded by foreign
officers, clothed and exercifed after the German manner.
He entered himfelf into the loweft poll, that of a drum¬
mer ) and never rofe otherwife than as a foldier of for¬
tune. Herein his defign was to teach his nobility, that
merit, not birth, was the only title to military employ¬
ments. He reinforced his company with feveral others,
till at laft he had got together a confiderable body of
foldiers. As he then had no war on his hands, he exer¬
cifed them in all forts of mock engagements, and by this
means fecured to himfelf a body of well-difciplined
troops. The fight of a Dutch veffel, which he had met
with on a lake belonging to one of his pleafure-houfes,
made fuch an impreffion on his mind, that he conceiv¬
ed the almoft impra&icable defign of forming a navy.
His firft care was to get fome Hollanders to build fome
fmall veffels at Mofcow; and he paffed two fucceffive
fummers on board Englifh or Dutch fhips, which fet
out from Archangel, that he might inftrudt himfelf in
every branch of naval affairs (a). In 1696 czar John
died, and Peter was now foie mafter of the empire.
In 1698 he fent an embaffy to Holland; and went
incognito in the retinue, and vifited England, as well as
Holland, in order to inform himfelf fully in the art of
ftiip-building. At Amfterdam he worked in the yard
as a private fhip-carpenter, under the name of Peter
Michaelof; but he has been often heard to fay, that if
he had never gone to England, he had ftill remained
ignorant of that art. In 1700 he had got together
a body of ftanding forces, confifting of 30,000 foot j
and now the vaft project he had formed difplayed it¬
felf in all its parts. He opened his dominions, which,
till then had been ffiut up, having firft fent the chief
nobility of his empire into foreign countries to improve
themfelves in knowledge and learning. He invited
into Ruffia all the foreigners he could meet with, who
were capable of inftrufting his fubjedls in any manner,
and offered them great encouragement to fettle in his
dominions. This raifed many difcontents 5 and the
defpotic authority he exerted on that occafion was
fcarcely powerful enough to fupprefs them. In 1700,
being (Lengthened by the alliance of Auguftus king
of Poland, he made war on Charles XII. king of Swe¬
den. His firft ill fuccefs did not deter him j for he
ufed to fay, I know that my armies muff be overcome
for a great while $ but even this will at laft teach them
to conquer. He afterwards gained confiderable ad¬
vantages j and founded Peterfburg in 1703. In 1709
he gained a complete victory over the Swedes at Pul-
towa. In 1712 he was inclofed by the Turks on the
banks of the Pruth; and feemed inevitably loft, had
not the czarina Catherine bribed the grand vifir, and
the czar’s prudence completed his deliverance. In
1716 he made a tour through Germany and Holland,
and vifited the royal academy of fciences at Paris. It
would be endlefs to enumerate all the various eftablifh-
ments for which the Ruffians are obliged to him. Pie
formed an army according to the manner of the poli-
teft and moft experienced nations : he fitted out fleets-
in all the four feas which border upon Ruffia: he
caufed many ftrong fortreffes to be raifed after the bell
plans; and made convenient harbours: he introduced
arts-
(a) The following circumftance, it is faid, in fome meafure determined Peter to attempt thofe reformations
which he afterwards accomplifhed. Great events have been fometimes the effe6l of little cau es$ ant it 1^ at ea
poffible, that without the occurrence Ave are going to relate, Ruffia might ftill have been m a ftate ot barban m.
A young Genevefe, called Le Fort, about 1695, Avent to MofcoAV Avith the Damfti ambaffador. I he czar Peter,
who Avas then 19 years old, met Avith this Genevefe, Avho had foon learnt the Ruffian tongue, an P°'e a mo
all the languages of Europe. Le Fort ingratiated himfelf with the prince, entered into his lervice, and
foon afterAvards into his familiarity. He made him comprehend that there Avas a different manner ot living an
reigning from Avhat had unhappily obtained throughout his Araft and miferable empire. A ™u ,e ,.om
with an uncommon greatnefsof foul toliften readily to a ftranger, and to be able to diveft him tot ic pieju ices
of a throne and of his country. The czar was fenfible that neither himfelf nor his people were yet to be reckoned
among men; and that he had an empire to form, but could have no affiftance at home. From that time he toolc
a refolution to leave his dominions 3 and fet out, like another Prometheus, to borrow celeftial fire for animating his-
countrymen. •
PET [ 222 ] PET
peter, arts and fcienees into his dominions^ and freed religion
from many fupertiitious abufes : he made laws, built
cities, cut canals, &c. ; was generous in rewarding,
impartial in punilhing j faithful, laborious, and humble •,
yet was not free from a certain roughnefs of temper
natural to his nation. He had indeed cured himfelf
of excefs in drinking } but he has been branded with
feveral other vices, particularly cruelty. He publilhed
the unfortunate hiftory of his fon Prince Alexis (b) j
towards whom fome blame his feverity,, while others
think it no more than was neceffary. He perfedtly
knew the honour due to perfons of merit 5 and not
only heaped honours upon them during their life, but
gave them marks of efteem even after their death. He
died of the ftrangury in 1725, and left the world
with the magnanimity of a hero and the piety of a
Chriftian.
Peter was tall of datura, and of a bold and majeftic Peter,
afpedt, though fometimes disfigured by convulfions, ''“—v—
which altered his features. This deformity was afcri-
bed to poifon, givdn him, as it is faid, by his fitter
Sophia j but it was indeed no other than wine and
brandy, which he often drank to excefs, relying too
much on the ftrength of his conftitution. He con-
verfed with perfons in all ftations, from the mechanic
to the general of an army ; and his converfation was
neither like that of a barbarian who makes no dittinm
tion between men, nor of a popular prince who feeks
to pleafe all the world, but that of a perfon who aims
at inftrudlion. He loved women as much as the king
of Sweden, his rival, dreaded them, and all were equal¬
ly agreeable to him 5 he valued himfelf on drinking
large draughts, rather than lipping delicious wine. We
are told that kings and legillators (hould never fuffer
themfelves
(b) Alexis, like his father, is faid to have married a Have, and, like him, quitted Mufcovy fecretly, but had
not the fame fu.ccefs in his undertakings •, and the being but a bad imitator of his father, coil him his life. He
became an example of the moll terrible feverity that ever was given from the tribunal of the throne : but, what
is much to the honour of the emprefs Catherine, Ihe had no hand in the misfortunes of that prince, who was born
of another woman, and loved nothing that his father loved. Catherine was not in the-leaf! fufpe&ed of afting the
cruel fbepmother. The great crime of the unfortunate Alexis -was his being too much a Ruffian, and his difap-
proving every thing that was grand and immortal, and projected by his father for the glory of the nation. One
day, hearing fome Mufcovites lamenting the infupportable fatigues they were to undergo in the building of
Peterlburg, he faid, “ Take courage, this city will not Hand long.” When he was called to attend his father
in a journey of 600 or 700 leagues, which the czar often made, he feigned ficknefs. Pie took violent purges for
a diftemper which he had not •, and fuch quantities of medicines, with exceffive drinking of brandy, impaired his
health and his wits. At firft he had an inclination to learning, was acquainted with geometry and hiftory,
and had learnt the German tongue : but he hated war, and would never learn it ; for which he was moft re¬
proached by his father. They had married him in 1711 to the princefs of Wolfenbuttle, filler of the emprefs
confort to Charles VI. This marriage wras unfortunate ; the princefs was often abandoned for a debauch in
brandy, and for Afrofina, a Finland wench, of a large ftature, well made, and very agreeable. It is reported that
the princefs died of chagrin, if it be poffible for chagrin to prove mortal ; and that afterwards the czarowitz fe¬
cretly efpoufed Afrofina in 1715, when the emprefs Catherine had juft brought him a brother, at which he had
no reafon to be uneafy.
The mifunderftandings between the father and the fan became every day more ferious j till at length the. father,
about the year 1716, threatened the prince to difinherit him j and the prince told him that he intended to go in¬
to a monaftery.
The czar, in I7I7» renewed his journeys, as well with a view to politics as curiofity. He came at laft into
France. If the fon had entertained an inclination to revolt, if he had actually had a party formed in his fa¬
vour, now was the time to declare himfelf; but inftead of remaining in Ruffia, making himfelf popular, and
creating dependents, he took a journey in his turn, having with much difficulty feraped together fome thoufands
of ducats which he had fecretly borrowed. He threw himfelf under the protection of the emperor Charles VI.
brother of his deceafed wife. They kept him for fome time incognito at Venice, from whence he patted to
Naples, where he refided almoft a year, while neither his father nor any perfon in Ruffia knew the place of his
retreat.
While the fon kept himfelf thus concealed, the father was at Paris, where he was received with all the refpedl
paid him in other places, but with a gallantry nowhere to be found but in France. If be went to vifit a manu-
faClory, and one piece of work attrafted his fight more than another, he was prefented with it the next day. He
went to dine at the duke d’Antin’s at Petitbourg, where the firft thing he favV was his. own picture at full length,
in the fame habit that he wore. When he was at the royal mint of medals, they ftruck all kinds before him, and
prefented him with them ; at laft they ftruck one which they let drop on purpofe at his feet, and left him to take
it up. He there faw himfelf perfectly engraven with thefe words, Peter the Great. The reverie was a Fame,
and round her in letters Vires acquint eundo } an allufion no lefs juft than battering to a prince who really acquir¬
ed new merit by travelling.
After be had feen this country, where every thing difpofes men to gentlenefs and indulgence, he returned to
his own, and refumed his feverity. He had engaged his fon to return from Naples to Peterlburg, from whence
that young prince was conduced to Mofeow before the czar his father ; who began with depriving him of his
fucceffion to the throne, by making him fign a fitter.m aft of renunciation at the end of January 1718, in confi-
deration of which aft the father promifed the fon to fpare his life.
It was not altogether improbable that fuch an aft would have been fome time or other annulled. The czar,
therefore,
.
PET [ 223 ] PET
Peter, themfelves to be tranfported by paflion 5 but never was
any man more paflionate than Peter the Great, or more
mercilefs. In a king this is more than an infirmity for
which we make amends by confefling it j but it was
generally remarked of Peter, and he himfelf faid to
a magiftrate of Holland, at his fecond voyage., “ I have
reformed my nation, and have not been able to reform
rnyfelf.” It is true, the cruelties with which he is re¬
proached were not novelties at the court of Mofcow,
any more than at that of Morocco : it was not uncom¬
mon to fee a czar, with his own royal hand, inflift 100
ladies on the naked (boulders of a prime officer of the
crown, or of a lady of the palace, for failing in their
duty, by getting drunk 5 or to try the goodnefs of his
fabre, by ftriking off the head of a criminal. Peter had
himfelf performed fome of thofe ceremonies of his coun¬
try •, Le Fort, however (fee note a), had authority
enough over him at times to (lay his hand even when
lifted up to ftrike, but he had not Le Fort always near
him.
The czar’s firft marriage is thus related in the me¬
moirs of Peter Henry Bruce, Efq. “ It took place in
1690, when he was only 18. He ivas married to Ot-
tokcffa Lapuchin, a boyar’s daughter, by whom he had
Prince Alexis ; fome time after he turned her away and
(hut her up in a monadery, on fufpicion of infidelity.
It was faid, that in one of her jealous fits (lie charged
Prince Menzikoff with carrying the czar to drabs of
his former acquaintance, who had been his cuftomers
for cakes ; upbraiding him with his firft occupation :
and that Menzikoff ever after bore an irreconeileable
enmity to both her and her fon. After the divorce,
one Mifs Mens, a very beautiful young lady, born at
Mofcow, of foreign parents, was much in favour with
the czar ; but when he was abroad, Mr Keyferling,
then redding at Mofcow as envoy from the king of
Pruffia, paid his addreffes to, and married her. When
the czar returned, he was fo much offended at Key¬
ferling, that he ordered him to leave Mofcow, which
occafioned his immediate recal by the king his mafter,
who fent another in his room. It was believed) if his
public ch^ra&er had not protefted him, he would have
feverely felt his majefty’s difpleafure.
“ The czar was fome time after fmitten with the
charms of another beautiful young lady, the daughter
of a foreign merchant in this city : he firft faw her in
her father’s houfe, where he dined one day. He was
fo much taken with her appearance, that he offered
her any terms (he pleafcd, if (lie would live with him 5
which this virtuous young woman modeftly refufed :
but dreading the effects of his authority, (he put on
a refolution, and left Mofcow in the night, without
communicating her defign even to her parents. Having
provided a little money for her fupport, (he travelled
on foot feveral miles into the country, till (he arrived
at a fmall village where her nurfe lived with her huf-
band and their daughter, the young lady’s fofter-fifter,
to whom (he difcovered her intention of concealing
herfelf in the wood near that village : and to prevent
any difcovery, (lie fet out the fame night, accompanied
by the hulband and daughter. The huffiand being
a timber-man by trade, and well acquainted with the
wood, conduced her to a little dry fpot in the mid¬
dle of a morafs, and there he built a hut for her habi¬
tation.
therefore, in order to give it more force, forgetting that he was a father, and only remembering that he was the
founder of an empire, which his fon might overturn, and involve in its ancient barbarity, ordered a public procels
to be drawn up againft that unfortunate prince, for fome concealment, with which he was charged, in the con-
feflion that they had exacted of him.
An affembly was held of the biihops, inferior ecclefiaftics, and profeffors j who found in the Old Teftament,
that thofe who curfed their father or their mother (liould be put to death ; that .David indeed had pardoned
Abfalom, who had rebelled againft him, but that Abfalom wras never pardoned by God. Such ivas their opi¬
nion, without drawing any conclufion 5 but it was in effect figning a warrant for his death. Alexis had not in
fa£t curfed his father, neither had he ever revolted like Abfalom ; he had never lain publicly with the king’s
concubines ; but he had left the kingdom without his father’s permiflion, and had written letters to his friends
m which he only fignified that he hoped they would one day be mindful of him in Ruffia. But whatever might
be his cafe, of 124 lay judges, who were appointed to fit on him, there was not one that judged his offences le(s
than capital; and thofe who could not write, made others fign for them. It is reported in Europe, that the czar
had got trandated from Spaniffi into Ruffian the criminal procefs againft Don Carlos, that unfortunate prince
whom his father Philip I. had confined in a prilbn, where the heir of that great monarchy ended his days. But
there was nothing like a procefs carried on againft Don Carlos, nor was it ever known whether that prince died a
natural or a violent death. Peter, the moft defpotic of princes, wanted not an example. Certain it is that the
prince died the day after the fentence, and that the czar had at Molcow one of the bed apothecary’s (hops in Eu¬
rope. It is probable, however, that the prince Alexis, the heir of the moft extenfive empire in the world, being
condemned unanimoufiy by his father’s fubjefts, which were one day to be his own, might die of the hidden (hock
and change given to the body at the apprehenfion of fo ftrange and difma! a fentence. The father went to fee his
mn in his laft agonies ; and it is faid he died tears. Infelix utcunque ferent ea fata nepotes. Thefe tears, however,
did not prevent the wheels from being covered with the broken limbs of his fon’s friends. He beheaded his own
brother-in-law Count Lapuchin, brother to his wife Ottokeffa Lapuchin whom he had divorced, and uncle to
Prince Alexis. The prince’s confeffor had alfo his head cut off. If Mufcovy has been civilized, (he has, it muft
be confeffed, paid dear for her improvement.
The remainder of the c '.ar’s life was nothing but a feries of grand projedls, labours, and exploits, that
• eemed to efface the memory of his exceffive feverities, which were perhaps neceffary. He made frequent
peeches-to his court and to his council. In one he told them that he had facrificed his fon to the welfare of his
dominions.
Peter.
—Y—<
4
PET
Peter.
[ 224 ]
PET
tation. She had depofited her money with her nurfe to
procure little neceffaries for her fupport, which were
faithfully conveyed to her at night by the nurfe or her
daughter, by one of whom (lie was conilantly attended
in the night time.
“ The next day after her flight, the czar called at
her father’s to fee her, and finding the parents in an¬
xious concern for their daughter, and himfelf disap¬
pointed, fancied it a plan of their own concerting.
He became angry, and began to threaten them with
the effeas of his difpleafure if (he was not produced :
nothing was left to the parents but the molt folemn
proteftations, with tears of real forrow running down
their cheeks, to convince him of their innocence, and
ignorance of what was become of her •, afluring him
of their fears that fome fatal difafter muft have befallen
her, as nothing belonging to her was amifling, except
what flie had on at the time. The czar, fatisfied of
their fincerity, ordered great feareh to be made for her,
with the offer of a confiderable reward to the perfon
who Ihould difcover what was become of her, but to no
purpofe: the parents and relations, apprehending ftie was
no more, went into mourning for her.
“ Above a year after this fhe wTas difcovered by an
accident. A colonel who had come from the army to
fee his friends, going to hunt in that wood, and fol¬
lowing his game through the morafs, he came to the hut,
and looking into it fa\* a pretty young woman in a mean
drefs. After inquiring of her who flic was, and how flie
came to live in fo folitary a place, he found out at laft
that (he was the lady whofe difappearance had made fo
great a noife 5 in the utmofl: confufion, and with the mod
fervent intreaties, flie prayed him on her knees that he
would not betray her 5 to which he replied, that he
thought her danger was now paft, as the czar nas then
otherwife engaged, and that (he might with fafety dif¬
cover herfelf, at leaft to her parents, with whom he
The
would confult how matters fliould be managed,
lady agreed to this propofal} and he fet out imme¬
diately, and overjoyed her parents with the happy did
covery ; the iffue of their deliberation was to^ confult
Madame Catherine (as {he wTas then called) in what
manner the affair fhould be opened to the czar.. 1 he
colonel went alfo upon this bufinefs, and was advifea by
Madame to come next morning and Ihe would introduce
him to his majefty, when he might make the difcovery
and claim the promifed reward. He went according to
appointment j and being introduced, told the accident
by which he had difcovered the lady, and reprefented
the mifcrable fituation in which he found her, and what
flie mufl: have fuffered by being fo long fliut up in fuch
a difmal place, from the delicacy of her fex. The czar
fliowed a great deal of concern that he ftiould have been
the caufe of all her fufferings, declaring that he would
endeavour to make her amends. Here Madame Cathe¬
rine fuggefted, that flie thought the beft amends his ma¬
jefty could make, was to give her a handfome fortune
and the colonel for a hulhand, who had the beft right,
having caught her in purfuit of his game. 1 he czar,
gave the bride to the bridegroom ; faying, that lie pre-
fented him with one of the moft virtuous of women ; and ^
accompanied his declaration with ve«ry valuable prefents,
befides fettling on her and her heirs three thoufand rubles
a-year. This lady lived highly efteemed by the czar,
and every one who knew her. Befides the concurring
reports of other people, I had the ftory from her own
mouth.”
On the whole, that Peter I. was a great man, few
will deny who know what real greatnefs is. A minute •
account of the life of this diftinguiftied emperor would
make a large volume $ we have been- able to give but
the mere outlines of it: the anecdotes, however, at the
end, {how in fome degree the nature of the man ; at all
events they Ihow one important truth, that it is a more
difficult thing to reform one’s felf than to reform a king¬
dom •, to conquer one’s paffions, than to conquer the
world. The Ruffians, however, if there be any good in
civilization, owe to him every thing : and they feem to
be fenfible of it •, for a very pompous oration was de¬
livered to his memory by Michael Lomonoffoff, before
the Academy of Sciences at St Peterfburg, on the 26th
of April 1755. P°r a minuter account of his im¬
provements, &c. fee Russia, Petersburg, and Ca¬
therine I.
Peter the Wild Boy. This extraordinary creature
occafioned great fpeculation among the learned ; but we
do not know that any fatisfa&ory caufes have been af-
figned for the ftriking difference between him and other
human beings.
The following account of him is extracted from the
pariffi-regifter of North-church, in the county of Hert¬
ford. “ Peter, commonly known by the name of Pe-
ter the Wild Boy, lies buried in this churchyard, oppo-
fite to the porch. In the year 1725 he was found in the
woods near Hamelen, a fortified town in the electorate
of Hanover, when his majefty George I. with his at¬
tendants, Avas hunting in the foreft of Hertfwold. He
was funpofed to be then about 12 years of age, and had
fubfifted in thofe Avoods upon the bark of trees, leaves,
berries, &-C. for fome confiderable length of tipne. Hoav
long he had continued in that wild ftate is altogether
uncertain j but that he had formerly been under the care
of fome per fop, Avas evident from the remains of a Hurt
collar about his neck at the time Avhen he Avas found.
As Hamelen Avas a toAvn where criminals Avere confined
to work upon the fortifications, it was then conjectured
at Hanover that Peter might be the iffue of one of thofe
criminals, who had either wandered into the woods and
could not find his Avay back again, or being difcovered
to be an idiot Avas inhumanly turned out by his parents,
and left to pcrifli or ftiift for himfelf. In the following
year, 1726, he was brought over to England, by the
order of Queen Caroline then princefs of Wales, and put
under the care of Dr Arbuthnot with proper mafters to
attend him. But notwithftanding there appeared to be
no natural defeft in his organs of fpeech, after all the
pains that had been taken with him lie could never be
brought diftinftly to articulate a Angle fyllable, and
Peter.
having caugnt ner in punun ui ui* gaiut. ^ - . . 0 •'. n A.• 
agreeme perfeftly Avith Madame Catherine’s fentiments, proved totally incapable of receiving any^ initruc.ion.
ordered one of his favourites to go with the colonel, and He was afterwards intrufted to the care of Mrs 1 itch-
bring the young lady home •, Avhere ftie arrived to the
inexpreffible joy of her family and relations, who had all
been in mourning for her. The marriage Avas under the
dire&ion and at the expence of the czar, tvho himfelf
bourn, one of the queen’s bedchamber Avomen, with a
handfome penfion annexed to the charge. Mrs 1 itch-
bourn ufually fpending a few weeks every fummer at the
houfe of Mr James Eenn, a yeoman farmer at Axter’s
End
PET
End in tins parifh, Peter was left to tlic care of the faid
Mr Fenn, who was allowed 35I. a-year for his fupport
and maintenance. After the death of James Fenn he
was transferred to the care of his brother Thomas Fenn,
at another farm-houfe in this parifh called Broadway,
where he lived with the feveral fucceflive tenants of
that farm, and with the fame provilion allowed by go¬
vernment to the time of his death, Feb. 22. 1785, when
he was fuppofed to be about 72 years of age.
“ Peter was well made, and of the middle fize. His
countenance had not the appearance of an idiot, nor
was there any thing particular in his form, except that
two of the fingers of his left hand -were united by a
web up to the middle joint. He had a natural ear for
mufic, and was fo delighted with it, that if he heard
any mufical inftrument played upon, he -would imme¬
diately dance and caper about till he was almoft quite
exhaufted with fatigue ; and though he could never be
taught the ditlinft utterance of any word, yet he could
ealily learn to hum a tune. All thofe idle tales which
have been publifhed to the world about his climbing up
trees like a fquirrel, running upon all fours like a wild
bead, &e. are entirely without foundation ; for he was
fo exceedingly timid and gentle in his nature, that he
would fufEr himfelf to be governed by a child. There
have been alfo many falfe dories propagated of his in¬
continence *, but from the minuted inquiries among thofe
who condantly lived with him, it does not appear that
he ever difeovered any natural padion for women, though
he was fubjeft to the other paflions of human nature, fuch
as anger, joy, &c. Upon the approach of bad weather
lie always appeared fallen and uneaiy. At particular
feafons of the year he fhowed a drange fondnefs for deal¬
ing away into the woods, where he would feed eagerly
upon leaves, beech-mad, acoiTis, and the green bark of
trees, which proves evidently that he had fubfided in
that manner for a confiderable length of time before he
was fird taken. His keeper therefore at fuch feafons ge¬
nerally kept a drift eye over him, and fometimes even
confined him, bec%ufe if he ever rambled to any didance
from his home he could not find his way back again : and
once in particular, having gone beyond his knowledge,
he wandered as far as Norfolk, where he was taken up,
and being carried before a magidrate, was committed to
the houfe of correftion in Norwich, and punifhed as a
fturdy and obdinate vagrant, who would not (for indeed
he could not) give any account of himfelf : but Mr Fenn
having advertifed him in the public papers, he was re¬
leafed from his confinement, and brought back to his
ufual place of abode.
“ Notwithdanding the extraordinary and favage date
in which Peter was fird found greatly excited the atten*
tion and curiofity of the public ; yet, after all that has
been faid of him, he was certainly nothing more than a
common idiot without the appearance of one. But as
men of fome eminence in the literary world have in their
works publifhed ftrange opinions and ill-founded conjec¬
tures about him, which may feem to damp a credit upon
Vol. XVI. Part I.
PET
what they have advanced ; that poderity maynot through
their authority be hereafter raided upon the fubjeft, this '
fhort and true account of Peter is recorded in the parifh-
regider by one who condantly refided above 30 years in •
his neighbourhood, and had daily opportunities of feeing
and obferving him.”
Perhaps our readers will not be difpleafed if we pre-
fent them with Lord Monboddo’s account of this extra¬
ordinary creature (a). “ It was in the beginning of
June 1782 (fays his lorddiip) that I faw him in a farm-
houfe called Broad way, within about a mile of Berkham-
dead, kept there upon a penlion which the king pays.
He is but low of dature, not exceeding five feet three
inches ; and although he mud now be about 70 years of
age, has a fredi healthy look. He wears his beard ; his
face is not at all ugly or difagreeable j and he has a look
that may be called fenfible and fagacious for a favage.
About 20 years ago he was in ufe to elope, and to be
miffing for feveral days; and once, I was told, he wan¬
dered as far as Norfolk •, but of late he has been quite
tame, and either keeps in the houfe or faunters about
the farm. He has been the 13 lad years where he lives
at prefent; and before that he was 12 years with an¬
other farmer, whom I faw and converfed with. This
farmer told me, that he had been put to fchool fome-
where in Hertforddiire, but had only learned to articu¬
late his own name Peter, and the name of King George,
both which I heard him pronounce very didinftly. But
the woman of the houfe where he now is (for the man
happened not to be at home) told me, that he under-
dood every thing that was faid to him concerning the
common affairs of life j and I faw that he readily under-
ftood feveral things that fire faid to him while I was pre¬
sent. Among other things (he defired him to fing Nancy
Dawfon ; which he did, and another tune which flu*
named. He never was mifebievous, but had always that
gentlenefs of nature which I hold to be cbarafteridical
of our nature, at lead till we became carnivorous, and
hunters or warriors. He feeds at prefent as the farmer
and his wife do; but, as I was told by an old woman
(one Mrs Collqp, living at a village in the neighbour¬
hood called Hempdead, who remembered to have feen
him when he fird came to Hcrtfordfhire, which die com¬
puted to be 55 years before the time I faw her), he then
fed very much upon leaves, and particularly upon the
leaves of cabbage, which he ate raw. He was then, as
fhe thought, about 15 years of age, walked upright, but
could climb trees like a fquirrel. At prefent he not only
eats flefh, but has alfo got the tade of beer, and even of
fpirits, of which he inclines to drink more than he can
get. And the old farmer above mentioned, with whom
he lived twelve years before he came to this lad farmer,
told me, that he had acquired that tade before lie came
to him, which is about 25 years ago. He has alfo be¬
come very fond of fire, but lias not yet acquired a liking
for money *, for though he takes it, he does not keep it,
but gives it to his landlord or landlady, which 1 fuppofe
is a leflcm that they have taught him. He retains fo
F f much
[ 225 ]
(a) This eccentric writer, in fupport of his hypothefis, that man in a date of nature is a mere animal, without
clothes, houfes, the ufe of fire, ©r even fpcech, adduces the oran-outang, or man in the woods, and this Peter the
wild man and others, as examples. He denies the want of the organs of fpeech as an objeftion, and infills they
only want the artificial ufe of them.
PET
much of his natural inftinct, that he has a fore-feeling
of bad weather, growling and howling, and ihowing
great diforder, before it comes.
“ Thefe are the particulars concerning him which I
obferved myfelf, or could learn by information from the
neighbourhood.” From all thefe fa£ts put together his
lordfhip makes the following obfervations :
“ ill, Whatever doubts there may be concerning the
humanity of the oran-outang, it was never made a que-
ition but that Peter was a man.
“ 2dly, That he was, as the Dean [Swift] fays, of a
father and mother like one of us. This, as 1 have laid,
was the cafe of two favages found in the Difmal fwamp
in Virginia, of the one found in the ifiand of Diego Gar¬
cia, and of him that was difcovered by M. le Roy in the
Pyrenees, and in general of ail the favages that have
been found in Europe within thele halt 300 years *, for
I do not believe, that for thefe 2000 years pall there has
been a race of fuch favages in Europe.
“ 3dly, I think there can be no reafon to doubt of
what was written from Hanover, and publilhed in the
newspapers, that he was found going upon all fours, as
well as other folitary favages that have been found in
Europe. It is true that others have been found erefl j
which Avas the cafe of the tAvo found in the Diimal fAvamp
©f Virginia, likewife of the man of the Pyrenees, and of
him in the illand of Diego Garcia ; but thefe I fuppofe
W'ere not expofed till they had learned to Avalk upright \
whereas Peter appears to have been abandoned by his
parents before he had learned that Icflbn, but Avalked as
we know children do at firft.
“ qthly, I think it is evident that he is not an idiot,
not only from his appearance, as I have deferibed it, and
from his actions, but from all the accounts that Ave have
of him, both thofe printed and thofe attefted by perfons
yet living ; for as to the printed accounts, there is not
the lead information of that kind in any of them, except
in one, viz. Wye’s letter, N° 8. wherein is faid, that
fome imputed his not learning to fpeak to want of un-
derftanding j Avhich I Ihould think (bowed rather Avant
of underftanding in thofe who thought fo, rvhen it is
confidered that at this time he had not been a year out
of the Avoods, and I fuppofe but a month or Iavo under
the care of Dr Arbuthnot, who had taken the charge of
his education. The Dean indeed tells us, that he fufpe6led
he Avas a pretender, and no genuine wild man, but not a
Avord of his being an idiot. And as to the perfons living,
not one Avith Avhom I haAre converfed appeared to have
the lead fufpicion of that kind ; though it is natural that
men Avho were not philofophers, and kneAV nothing of
the progrefs of man from the mere animal to the intel-
le£tual creature, nor of the improvement of our under-
danding by focial intercourfe and the arts of life, but
believed that man when he came to a certain age has
from nature all the faculties Avhich Ave fee him exert,
and particularly the faculty of fpeech, (hould think him
•an idiot, and Avantingeven the capacity of acquiring un-
derdanding. I kneAV an officer of dragoons, a man of
very good fenfe, who Avas quartered where Peter then
lived for fome months, and faw him almod every day,
PET
and Avho aflured me that he Avas not an idiot, but Sum- Petfcff
ed common underffanding, which Avas all that could be '
expected from one no better educated than he.
“ Laftly, thofe who have confidered what I have faid
(b) of the difficulty of articulation, will not be furpriftd
that a man W’ho had lived a favage for the firlt 14 or 15
years of his life, Ihould have made fo little progrefs in
that art. I cannot, however, have the lead doubt, that
if he had been under the care of Mr Braidwood of Edin¬
burgh, he Avould have learned to fpeak, though Avith
much more difficulty than a man Avho had been brought
up tame among people who had the ufe of fpeech, and
Avho confequently muff knoAV the advantage of it. And
I can have as little doubt that Mr BraidAvood could
have taught the oran-outang in Sir Aftiton Lever’s col-
leftion, Avho learned to articulate a feAv Avords, fo as to
fpeak plainly enough.”
St PETERy Le Port, a market-toAvn of England, in
the fouth-eaft part of Guernfey, in Hampfhire, in the
Britiffi channel, confiding of only one long and nar-
roAv dreet. The mouth of the harbour is Avell fet with
rocks, and is on each fide defended by a cadle j one call¬
ed the Old cctjlle, and the other Cajlle-coruet. The go¬
vernor of the ifland generally refides here, Avho has the
command of the garrifon in this and all the other cafiles.
The harbour has a good road, from whence (hips may
fail Avith any Avind, and from the road pafs under the
guns of the cadle to the pier, clofe up to the town.
The pier is a noble Avork, formed of vad dones, joined
together Avith great art and regularity ; it is not only a
fecurity to the (hips, but, being contiguous to the tOAvn,
is handfomely paved at the top Avith large fmooth flag-
dones, guarded with parapets, and, being of a great
length and breadth, forms a pleafant Avalk, affording a
free profpeft of the fea a«.d the neighbouring iflands.
Cornet-cadle, which commands both the town and the
harbour, (lands on a rock, feparated from the land by
an arm of the fea, no lefs than 6co yards Avide, and not
fordable but at Ioav Avater in great fpring-tides.
St Peter's ifland, in the lake of Bienne in Switzer¬
land, remarkable for being one of the retreats of Roul-
feau , whence it has alfo got the name of Roujfeau's
ijland. It lies towards the fouth fide of the lake, and
produces a great variety of flirubs and trees, particularly
large oaks, beech, and Spanifh chefnut. The fouthern
fhore (lopes gradually to the lake, and is covered Avith
herbage ; the remaining borders are deep and rocky j
their fummits in a ferv places thinly covered Avith
flirubs ; in others their perpendicular fides are clothed
to the Avater’s edge Avith hanging Avoods. The vieAvs
from the different parts of the ifland are beautiful and
diverfified j that to the north being the mod extenfiA'-e
and pleafing. It commands the profpeft of the lake,
Avhich is of an oval form j its cultivated borders, inter-
fperfed Avith villages and cadles, Avith the toAvns of
Nidau and Bienne danding upon the farther extremity.
Agreeable Avalks are carried through the Avoods, and
terminate in a circular pavilion placed in/ the centre of
the ifland. Before the troubles in France, on Sunday,
and particularly the vintage-time, this ifland was filled
r 226 ]
(b) Lord Monboddo, far from thinking fpeech or articulation natural to man, rather Avonders hoAV he can by
any teaching or imitation attain to the ready performance of fuch various and complicated operations. Add to
this, AA'hen the organs are completely formed to one language, how hard it is to make them anftver another.
PET [ 227 ] PET
Peter, with parties who arpufed themfelves with wandering
Peter- about the woods or dancing in the circular pavilion,
boron id- ^ fbey employ themfelves now it is not fo eafy to
’ fay, as it was overrun and fubje&ed by the forces of
that unhappy nation, and of courfe tainted with their
deftrudive principles. It was retaken by the Spaniards,
and properly belongs to the king of Sardinia. There is
only one farm-houfe on the ifland, in an apartment of
which Rouffeau was lodged.
PETER-Pence, was an annual tribute of one penny,
paid at Rome out of every family at the featl of St Peter.
And this Ina the Saxon king, when he went in pilgrim¬
age to Rome about the year 740, gave to the pope, partly
as alms and partly in recompenfe of a houfe ereded in
Rome for Englifh pilgrims. And this continued to be
paid generally until the time of King Henry VIII.
when it was enaded, that from henceforth no perfon
fhall pay any penfions, Peter-pence, or other impofitions,
to the ufe of the bifhop or fee of Rome.
PETERBOROUGH, a city of Northamptonfliire,
about 82 miles from London. It is the leait city ex¬
cept perhaps Ely, and unqueftionably the pooreft bi-
thopric, though one of the oldetl towns in England. It
had a monaftery dedicated to St Peter, and founded as
early as the year 655, to which the abbot of Croyland
and his monks dying for protedion in the year 870,
they were overtaken and murdered in a court of this
monaftery, called the monks churchyard, becaufe they
were all buried here •, and to this day is to be feen the
tombftone with their effigies, which had been eroded
over their common grave. Soon after this the Danes
deftroyed both the menaftery and friars, fo that it lay
deftitute for above 100 years. The monks were, how¬
ever, reftored, and lived very fumptubufly, with a mit¬
red abbot at their head, till the reformation, when Henry
VIII. converted it into a bifliop’s fee. The cathedral,
which is faid to be more than 1000 years old, though
apparently more modern, is a moft noble Gothic fabric,
and was much more fo before it was defaced in the civil
wars. The weft front, which is 156 feet broad, is very
ftately 5 and befides columns curioufly adorned, is fup-
ported by three of the talleft arches in Britain. The
windows of the cloifters are finely ftained with fcripture
hiftory and the fucceflion of its abbots. There are in
the church monuments of Queen Catherine, wife of
Henry VIII. and of Mary queen of Scots ; and the
figure of one Mr Scarlet the fexton, who buried them,
and lived to 95, after he had buried all the houfekeepers
of the town twice over. There is but one parilh-church
befides the cathedral. The city is governed by a mayor,
recorder, and aldermen, by a charter of Henry VIII.
All its officers are ele&ed by the dean and chapter,
confiding of fix prebendaries, who are all lords of the
manor. Befides the dean and chapter, who are an ex-
. clefiaftical corporation diftinft from the bifliop, there are
eight petty canons, four ftudents in divinity, one epiftler,
one gofpeller, a fubdean, fubtreafurer, and chanter, eight
chorifters, eight finging men, two chancellors, befides a
fteward, organift, &c. a grammar fchool, and two charity
fchools. The river Nen, over which there is here a
wooden bridge, is navigable by barges to Northampton,
50 miles further, which bring coal, corn, &c. and by
which they export in fome years 6000 quarters of malt,
befides other goods, efpecially the woollen manufaflures
either of cloth or flockings, in which the poor are em¬
ployed. The air of Peterborough is faid not to be very Peter-
wholefome, by reafon of the neighbouring fens •, but the
water of the river is frefti and good, the higheft fprir.g- ' '
tide never coming up within five miles of the town •, and
there is plenty of excellent water in their wells. The
ftreets are poor, and the houfes but mean •, there is, how¬
ever, a handfome market-houfe, over which are kept the
affixes and feffions. Its jurifdidtion extends over 3 2 towns
and hamlets, wherein the civil magiftrates appointed by
the royal commiffion are veiled with the fame power as
judges of affize, and hold their quarterly feffions in this
city. The number of inhabitants in 1801 was 3449.
PETERHEAD, a town in Scotland, in the county
of Aberdeen, lies about 30 miles north-eaft of that city.
It Hands on the moll eafterly point in Scotland, and
from thence due weft that kingdom is broadeft.
Peterhead is the neareft land to the northern conti¬
nent of Europe, and lies within 300 miles of the cape,
which is called the Naze of Norway. Through this
channel the grand body of the herrings pafs in their an¬
nual migrations from Shetland and the north feas to the
more fouthern latitudes, attended with the all-devouring
cod and ling •, on which account Peterhead, or, as it is
fomotimes called, Buchannefs, hath always been the fe-
cond ftation of the Dutch buffes after leaving the Shet¬
land illands. Tradition fays, that fome hundred years
ago the Dutch offered Lord Marefchal, then the pro¬
prietor of the coaft, to cover a fmall illand called Inch-
Keith with filver for the property of it to carry ®n then-
filheries, which for obvious reafons could not be ac¬
cepted. Be that as it may, the Dutch, in time of
peace, ftill frequent the coaft in July and Auguft, and
fometimes 100 fail are feen within fight of land, bufily
employed in the herring and white filheries. The na¬
tives, to whom this treafure properly belongs, have
lately made fome attempts towards the white filhery, of
which they cure and vend, chiefly at the London market,
400O barrels of delicate fmall cod and ling annually.
They alfo fit out fome veffels for the Hebride filhery off
Barrahead for the Barcelona market 5 and they claim
the merit of having taught the iflanders how to take and
cure the large fitli which abound on their coafts. They
have often gained the higheft premiums allowed by go¬
vernment for curing white fifties.
Few harbours in Great Britain are of more import¬
ance to navigation than this of Peterhead, as, in cafe of
violent ftorms from the eafterly points, large veffels em¬
bayed betwixt this and the mouth of the Forth have not
a port that they can fafely take at every time of the
tide, that of Aberdeen excepted. If therefore they can¬
not make their way to fea in the teeth of a ftrong eaft¬
erly wind, or double this headlatid that they may gain
the Murray frith, they mull inevitably come on fhore.
This harbour lies on a fpacious bay, where veffels of any
burden may ride in all other w inds, and is therefore the
general rendezvous of the (hipping which frequent the
northern feas, where they call anchor on clean ground,
and ride fafely till the ftorms have abated. But though
nature hath done fo much for the benefit of navigation,
fomething is left for the exercife of human aid. The
harbour can at prefent contain in perfe<St fafety 40 or
fail of veffels drawing 12 feet water, and is capable of
being extended fo as to admit a greater number of ffups
drawing 20 feet; by which means not only cafual mer¬
chantmen but fmall fliips of war with their convoys
F f 2 would
P E t [22
Peterhead, -would find this a molt defirable refuge when purfued by
Peterhofi. fUperior force. The harbour is defended by a good bat-
^ tery. A conliderable trade is carried on from this place
direflly to the Baltic for deals, iron, hemp, tar, and
other articles. There is alfo a manufa&ure of fewing
thread, which employs many young girls. A mineral
w'ell in the fummer-months gires great gaiety to the
place ", its falutary virtues have long, apd we believe
very juftly, been celebrated. The waters of this fpring
are powerfully diuretic, and are thought to be efficaci¬
ous in removing complaints in the bowels.
Twelve pounds avoirdupois of this water were analy¬
sed by Dr Laing, who found it compofed of
Muriate of iron,
Carbonate of iron,
Muriate of lime,
Siliceous earth,
Sulphate of lime,
foda,
30-75 grain*-
3-25
7.00
2.00
2.00
J3-25
7-5
v Muriate of foda,
Carbonic acid gas, 83.5 cubic inches. The ingeni¬
ous author of the above analyfis recommends this water
very much in cafes of fcrofula. Its mold valuable pro¬
perty is tonic, which is no doubt derived from the iron
that enters into its compofition.
There are here many elegant houfes for the accommo¬
dation of ft rangers. There is alfo a ballroom, under
which there are two falt-water baths. Thefe baths are
much frequented in nervous diforders : their effedl in
ftrengthening the conftitution is often furprifing. Owing
to the open peninfulated fttuation, the air of this place
is efteemed peculiarly pure and healthful; even the fogs
riling from the fea are thought to be medicinal: the
town is therefore much enlivened by the concourfe of
company who frequent it on thefe accounts. Upon the
whole, the town is neat and well built, the houfes are
handfome, and the rtreets tolerably fpacious and very
clean ; and it has every appearance of a thriving, plen¬
tiful, and happy'place. In 1793, the population was
4100, being an increafe of 1613, fince 1755 j and in
1801, the numbers had increafed to 4491.
PETERHOFF, in Ruffia, is fituated about 20 miles
from Peterfburg, and is diftinguiftied for its palace and
gardens. The palace was begun by Peter I and finith-
ed by Elizabeth. As it is placed upon an eminence, it
commands a moft fuperb view of Cronftedt, Peterfburg,
the intervening gulf, and the oppoftte coait of Carelia.
The palace is moft magnificently furniffied, and the iuite
of apartments are truly princely. The prefence-cham-
ber is richly ornamented with portraits of the fovereigns
of the houfe of Romanof, who have reigned in Ruffia
fjnee 1613.
Coxe's Trn- “ The gardens of Peterhoff (fays an intelligent tra-
w/x, vo*-1 veller) have been celebrated for their tafte and elegance;
^ and from the number of jet d’eaus, fountains, bafons,
cafeades, parterres, &e. they have been compared to
thofe of Verfailles : and indeed in one refpedt they are
far fuperior ; for the water-works of the latter only play
upon particular occafions, while thofe of Peterhoff are
perennial.. Thefe gardens, which at the time of their
formation were greatly admired in this country, though
not congenial to the tafte of the emprefs, are fuftered to
remain in their prefent ftate ; a-- during fumim 1 her
saajefty principally reiides at Tzarfkoe-Selo, where the
8 ] PET
grounds are difpofed in a more modern and pleafing Pcterhoff
manner.” A vaft number of filver dolphins and gilded li
ftatues are fcattered through them ; but the moft re- feteifl)urg-
markable figures are thofe of two gladiators placed in a
bafon of water. Thefe are reprefented, not with the
fword and buckler, the ancient implements of war, but
with a brace of piftols. Thefe they point to each other
in a threatening pofture, while the water gufhes impe-
tuoully from the barrels. In that part of the garden
which lies between the palace and the gulf, clofe to the
water, is a building which was the favourite retreat of
Peter I. It is preferved together with its furniture en¬
tirely in its original ftate with a kind of religious vene¬
ration. Its plainnefs ftiows the frugal fimplicity in
which that monarch was accuftomed to live. In the
fame celebrated gardens there is a remarkable building
called the mountain for fledges, and often by travellers
the flying mountain. “ It Hands (fays Mr Coxe) in the
middle of an oblong area, inclofed by an open colon¬
nade, with a flat roof, which is railed for the conveni¬
ence of holding fpeftators. The circumference of this
colonnade is at leaft half a mile. In the middle of the
area ftands the flying mountain, ftretching nearly from
one end to the other. It is a wooden building, fup-
ported upon pillars, reprefenting an uneven furface of
ground, or a mountain compofed of three principal af-
cents, gradually diminiffiing in height, with an inter¬
mediate fpace to referable valleys: from top to bottom
is a floored way, in which three parallel grooves are
formed. It is thus ufed : a fmall carriage containing
one perfon being placed in the centre groove upon the
higheft point, goes with great rapidity down one hill;
the velocity which it acquires in its defeent carries it up
a fecond ; and it continues to move in a fimilar manner
until it arrives at the bottom of the area, where it rolls
for a confiderable way on the level furfaee, and flops
before it attains the boundary : it is then placed in one
o£ the fide grooves, and drawn up by means of a cord
fixed to a windlafs. To a perfon unacquainted with the
mtchanifm, this entertainment would appear tremen¬
dous but as the grooves always keep the carriage in its
right direflion, there is not the leaft danger of being'
overturned. At the top of the mountain is a handfome
apartment for the accommodation of the court and prin¬
cipal nobility ; there is alfo room for many thoufand
fpe&ators within the colonnade and upon its roof. Near
the flying mountain is a fpacious amphitheatre, in which
tournaments are ufually exhibited.”
PETERS, Father, a Jcfuit, was confeffor and
counfelior to James II. king of England. This prince
difmilfed him in t 688, becaufe he was confidered as the
author of thofe troubles in which the kingdom was then
involved. “ He was (fays Biffiop Burnet) the moft
violent of the king’s advifers, and the perfon moil lift-
ened to. Though he had the honour of being nobly
defeended, he was a man of no extenfive erudition, and
was eminent only for his bigotry and forwardnefs.”
Though Burnet is not always to be believed, yet certain
it is, from the teftimony of other biftorians, that Father
Peters was by no means a perfon properly qualified to
diredl King James in the critical lituation in which ha
then flood.
PETERSBURG, St, a city of the province of In-
gria in puffia. and capital of the whole empire. It is.
fituated in £sf. Lai. 59. 26. 23. and E. Long. 30. 25*
frosQw
PET [ 229 ] PET
peterfburg.from the firft mendian of Greenwich. It was founded
—~ in the year 1703 by Czar Peter the Great, whole am-
bition it was to have a tieet on the Baltic 5 for which
reafon he determined to found a city which might be¬
come the centre of trade throughout all his dominions.
The foot he pitched upon was alow, fenny, uncultivat¬
ed ifland, formed by the branches of the river Neva,
before they fall into the gulf of Finland. In the fum-
mer this ifland was covered with mud •, and in winter
became a frozen pool, rendered almofl: inacceflible by
dreary forefts and deep morafles, the haunts of bears,
wolves, and other favage animals. Having taken the
fort of Nattebourg, and the town of Neifchanz, in the
year 1 703, this mighty conqueror afl'etnbled in Ingria
above 300,000 men, lluflians, Tartars, Coffacks, Livo¬
nians, and others, even from the moft diftant parts of
his empire, and laid the foundation of the citadel and
forrifications, which were finifhed in four months, al¬
mofl in defpite of nature. He was obliged to open ways
through forerts, drain bogs, raife dykes, and lay caufe-
ways, before he could pretend to found the new city.
The workmen were ill provided with neceffary tools and
implements, fuch as fpades, pick-axes, (hovels, planks,
and vvheel-barrows : they were even obliged to fetch
the earth from a great diftance in the fkirts of their gar¬
ments, or in little bags made of old mats and rags fewed
together. They had neither huts nor houfes to llulter
them from the feverity of the weather : the country,
which had been defolated by war, could not accommo¬
date fuch a multitude with provilions $ and the fupplies
by the lake Ladoga were often retarded by contrary
winds. In confequence of thefe hardihips, above 100,000
men are faid to have perilhed : nevertheleis the work
proceeded with incredible vigour and expedition j while
P.jter, for the fecurity of his workmen, formed a great
camp, in fuch a manner, that his infantry continued in
Finland, and his cavalry were quartered in Ingria.
Some Swedilh cruizers being deferied in the neighbour¬
hood, the czar polled a body of troops in the ifle of Rut-
zari, by whom the Swedes were repulfed, and the work
met with no farther interruption. The buildings of the
city kept pace with the fortrefs, which is the centre of
the town, furrounded on all tides by the Neva ; and in
little more than a year, above 30,000 houfes were erect¬
ed. At prefent there may be about double that num¬
ber in Peterfburg, though many of them are paultry
and inconfiderable. In order to people this city, Peter
invited hither merchants, artificers, mechanics, and tea¬
men, from all the different countries of Europe : he de-
molifhed the town of Nieufchants, and brought hither
not only the materials of the houfes, but the inhabitants
themfelves. A thoufand families were drawn from Pviof-
cow ; he obliged his nobility to quit their palaces and
their villas in and about Mofcow, and take up their re-
iidenee at Peterfburg, in a much more cold and < om-
fortlefs climate. Finally, refolving to remove hither
the trade of Archangel, he iffued an ordonnance, im¬
porting, that all fuch merchandife as had been convey
ed to Archangel, In order to be fold to foreigners,
flioulrl now be lent to Peterfburg, where they fliould
pa' no more than the ufual duties. Thefe endeavours
air! « 'gulafPns have rendered this one of the greateft
and mo; flourKhing cities in Europe. The Ruffian
boyars and nobility have built magnificent palaces, and
4
are now reconciled to their fituation. At firft many Peterfburg..
houfes were built of timber ; but thefe being fubjeft to ■“•"■'V'--’"*''
fudden conflagrations in fpite of all the precautions that
could be taken, the czar, in the year 1714, iffued an
order, that all new houfes fliould be walled with brick
and covered with tiles. The fort is an irregular hexa¬
gon, with oppofite baftions. This, together with all
the reft of the fortifications, was in the beginning form¬
ed of earth only j but in the fequel they were faced with
ftrong walls, and provided with cafemates, which are
bomb-proof. In the curtain of the fort, on the right
hand fide, is a noble difpenfary, well fupplied with ex¬
cellent medicines, and enriched with a great number of
porcelain vafe3 from China and Japan. From one of
the gates of the fort a draw bridge is thrown over an
arm of the river, in which the czar’s galleys and other
fmall veffels are Iheltered in the winter. The moft re¬
markable building within the fort is the ca' iiedral, built
by the direction of an Italian architect. Peterfburg is
partly built on little iflands, fome of which are conneifl-
ed by draw-bridges ; and partly on the continent. In
the higheft part, on the bank of the Neva, the czar fix¬
ed his habitation, or ordinary refidence, built of free-
flone, and fituated fo as to command a profpeft of the
greater part of the city. Here likewife i- a royal foun-
dery j together with the iuperb houles of many noble¬
men. The marfhy ground on which the city is built,
being found extremely llippery, dirty, and incommodi¬
ous, the czar ordered every inhabitant to pave a certain
fpace before his own door. In the year 1716, Peter,
taking a fancy to the ifland Wafili Ofterno, which he
had given as a prefent to Prince Menzikoff, refumed
the grant, and ordered the city to be extended into this
quarter. He even obliged the boyars, or nobles, to
build flone-houfes on this fpot, though they w'ere alrea¬
dy in poffeflion of others on the fide of Ingria : accord¬
ingly this is now the moft magnificent part of the city.
On the other fide of a branch of the Neva Hands the
czar’s country or fummer palace, provided with a fine
garden and orangery. On the bank of the fame river is
the flaboda, or fuburbs, in which the Germans general¬
ly choofe their habitation. Peterlburg is very much
fubjedf to dangerous inundations. In the year 17 1 all
the baftions and draw-bridges were either overwhelmed
or carried away. The breadth, depth, and rapidity of
the Neva, have rendered it extremely difficult, if not
impracticable, to join the iflands and the continent by
bridges. Befides, Peter was averfe to this expedient
for another reafon ; rtfolved to accuftom his fubjeCts to
navigation, he not only rejefted the projeCt of a bridge,
but alfo ordered that no boat fhould pafs between the
iflands and continent, except by the help of fails only.
In confequence of this ftrange regulation, many lives
were loft : but at length he gained his point ; and by
habituating bis fluggiih Mufcovites to the dangers of he
fea, in a little time produced a breed of hardy failors.
The adjacent country is fo barren, that the town muff
be fupplied with provifions from a great diftame ;
confeqm ntiy they are extremely dear. Here are wo- ds
in plenty, confifting of pine, fir, alder, birch, poplar,
and elm ; but the oak and the beech are generally
brought from Cafan. In winter the weather is extreme¬
ly cold, and hot in the fummer. In June the length of
the night does not exceed three hours-, during which the
uatiyes
/
P E T [ 230
Peteifburg. natives enjoy a continued twilight: but in December
the fun is not vifible more than three hours above the
horizon.
The czar Peter, who was indefatigable in his endea¬
vours to improve and civilize his fubje£ls, negle&ed no¬
thing which he thought could contribute to thefe pur-
pofes. He condefcended even to inftitute and regulate
affemblies at Peterlburg : thefe were opened at five in
the afternoon, and the houfe was ihut at ten : between
thefe hours the falhionable people of both fexes met
without ceremony, danced, converfed, or played either
at cards or at chefs, this laft being a favourite diverfion
among the Ruffians. There was likewife an apartment
appointed for drinking brandy and fmoking tobacco.
Plays and operas were likewife introduced for the fame
purpofes ; but as Peter had little reliffi, and lefs tafte,
for thofe entertainments, they were performed in a very
awkward manner in his lifetime: however, fince his
death thefe performances have been brought to a greater
degree of art and decorum.
This great northern legiflator eftablifhed, in the
neighbourhood of Peterfhurg, manufa&ures of linen,
paper, faltpetre, fulphur, gunpowder, and bricks, toge¬
ther with water-mills for fawing timber. He inftituted
a marine academy, and obliged every confiderable fami¬
ly in Ruffia, to fend at lead one fon or kinfman, between
the ages of ten and eighteen, to this feminary, where he
was inftrutled in navigation, learned the languages, was
taught to perform his exercifes, and tolive under the fe¬
vered difeipline. To crown his other plans of reforma¬
tion, he granted letters patent for founding an academy,
upon a very liberal endowment} and though he did not
live to execute this fcheme, his emprefs, who furvived
him, brought it to perfeftion. It was modelled on the
plans of the Royal Society in London, and the academy
of France. Mr Bullfinger opehed it in the year 1726,
with an eloquent fpeech on the defign and utility of an
academy of fciences 5 and the profeflbrs, who have al¬
ways didinguifhed themfelves by their merit and erudi¬
tion, publHhed an annual colleftion of their tranfa&ions j
a talk the more eafy, as they have the benefit of print¬
ing preffes, well managed, at Peterdmrg.
Peter the great has been much cenfured for transfer¬
ring the feat of the empire from Mofcow to St Peterf-
burg •, the former of which lay nearer to the centre of
his dominions. But thefe objections will have but little
w.eight with thofe who confider the confequences of the
removal. The new city is nearer than Mofcow waste
the more civilized parts of Europe •, and from an inter-
courfe with them the manners of the Ruffians have been
improved, and the nobility in particular have loft much
of their feudal importance. Above all, the grand ob-
je£t of Peter, that of having a formidable navy in the
Baltic has certainly been obtained, and the emprefs of
Ruffia is now the arbitrefs of the north, and in feme
degree the mediatrix of all Europe. In Ihort, the erec¬
tion of St Peterlburg was perhaps one of the belt afts of
Peter’s reign, and has in its confequences been the moll
beneficial. Indeed it is at leaft probable, that if through
any revolution the feat of government Ihould be again
transferred to Mofcow, we Ihould nowhere fee the tra¬
ces of thofe memorable improvements, which the palling
century has given birth to, but in the annals of hiftory;
and Ruffia would again, in all probability, relapfe into
lier original barbariftn.
] PET
The eredion of fuch a city as Peterlburg in fe Ihort Peteriburg.
a time is truly wonderful. Mr Coxe fays his mind was—v~—^
filled with aftonilhment, when he reflefted that fe late
as the beginning of the i8lh century the ground on
which it ftands was one vail morafs, occupied by a very
few filhermen’s huts. The prefent divifions of the town,
feme of which we have already mentioned, are called,
I. The Admiralty quarter; 2. The Vaffili Oftrof or
I Hand ; 3. The Fortrefs ; 4. The illand of St Peterf-
burg ; and, 5. The various fuburbs of Livonia, of Mof¬
cow, of Alexander Nevlki, and Wiburg.
The lite emprefs has done fo much for this city,
that the may not improperly be called its fecond foun-
drefs. It is, neverthelefs, ftill an infant place, and, as
Mr Wraxall obferves, “ only an immenfe outline,
which will require future emprefl'es, and almoft future
ages, to complete.”
“ The ftreets in general, fays a late traveller, zxeCoxe'sTrtt*
broad and fpacious; and three of the principal ones,
which meet in a point at the admiralty, and reach to
the extremities of the fuburbs, are at leaft two miles in
length. Moft of them are paved ; but a fewr are ftill
fuffered to remain floored with planks. In feveral parts
of the metropolis, particularly in the Vaffili Oftrof,
wooden houfes and habitations, fcarcely fuperior to com¬
mon cottages, are blended with the public buildings;
but this motley mixture is far lefs common than at Mof¬
cow, where alone can be formed any idea of an ancient
Ruffian city. The brick houfes are ornamented with a
white ftueco, which has led feveral travellers to fay that
they are built with ftone ; whereas, unlefs I am greatly
miftaken, there are only two ftone ftruftures in all Pe-
terlhurg. The one is a palace, building by the em¬
prefs upon the banks of the Neva, called the marble
palace ; it is of hewn granite, with marble columns and
ornaments; the other is the church of St Ifaac, con-
ftrufted with the fame materials, but not yet finiffied.
“ The manfions of the nobility are many of them vaft
piles of building, but are not in general upon fo large
and magnificent a feale as feveral I obferved at Mof¬
cow 1 they are furniffied with great coft, and in the
fame elegant ftyle as at Paris or London. They are
fituated chiefly on the fouth fide of the Neva, either
in the Admiralty quarter, or in the fuburbs of Livonia
and Mofcow, which are the fineft parts of the city.”
See Neva.
“ Peterfburg, although it is more compaft than th6
other Ruffian cities, and has the houfes in many ftreets
contiguous to each other, yet ftill bears a refemblance
to the towns of this country, and is built in a very
ftraggling manner. By an order lately iflued from go¬
vernment, the city has been inclofed within a rampart,
the circumference whereof is 2.1 verfts, or 14 Englilh
miles.”
The fame accurate obferver calculates the number of
inhabitants at Peterffiurg, and makes the medium num¬
ber 130,000.
We have already faid that Peterftmrg is very liable
to be inundated. An inundation of a very alarming
nature took place ivhen Mr Coxe was there in Sep¬
tember 1777, of which the following account was gi¬
ven in Journal St Peterfhurg, September 1777 : U
the evening of the 9th, a violent ftorm of wind blowing
at firft S. W. and afterwards W. raifed the Neva and
its various branches to fo great a height, that at five in
tjtf
5
PET [ 231 ] PET
etfrfbitrg. the morning the waters poured over their banks, and
—Y'-—'1 fuddenly overflowed the town, but more particularly
the Vaflili Oftrof and the ifland of St Peterlburg. The
torrent rofe in feveral ftreets to the depth of four feet
and a half, and. overturned, by its rapidity, various
buildings and bridges. About feven, the wind lliift-
ing to N. W. the flood fell as fuddenly 5 and at mid¬
day moft of the ftreets, which in the morning could
only be palled in boats, became dry. For a fhort time,
the river rofe 10 feet 7 inches above its ordinary level.”
Mr Kraft, profeflbr of experimental philofophy to
the Imperial Academy of Sciences, has written a judi¬
cious treatife upon the inundation of the Neva, from
which the following obfervations were extracted by
Mr Coxe : “ Thefe floods are lefs alarming than for¬
merly, as the fwelling of the river to about fix feet a-
bove its ufual level, which ufed to overflow the whole
town, has no longer any effeft, excepting upon the
lower parts of Peterftmrg •, a circumftance owing to
the gradual railing of the ground by buildings and other
caufes.
“ Upon tracing the principal inundations, the pro-
feJTor informs us that the moft ancient, of which there
is any tradition, happened in 1691, and is mentioned
by Weber, from the account of fome filhermen inhabit¬
ing near Niefchants, a Swedifh redoubt upon the Neva,
about three miles from the prefent fortrefs of Peterftmrg.
At that period the waters ufually rofe every five years ;
and the inhabitants of that diftrift no fooner perceived
the particular {forms which they had been taught from
fatal experience to confider as forerunners of a flood,
than they took their hovels to pieces, and, joining the
timbers together in the form of rafts, faftened them to
the fummits of the higheft trees, and repaired to the
mountain of Duderof, which is diftant fix miles from-
their place of abode, where they waited till the waters
fubfided.
“ The higheft inundations, excepting the laft of
1777, were thofe of the ill of November 1726, when
the ivaters rofe 8 feet 2 inches } and on the 2d of Octo¬
ber 1752, when they rofe 8 feet 5 inches.
“ From a long courfe of obfervations the profeflbr
draws the following conclufion. The higheft Hoods,
namely, thofe which rife about fix feet, have generally
happened in one of the laft four months of the year :
no fenfible effeft is ever produced by rain or fnow j a
fwell is fometimes occafioned by the accumulation of
maffes of ice at the mouth of the Neva 5 but the prin¬
cipal caufes of the overflowing of that river are derived
from violent ftorms and winds blowing fouth-weft or
north-weft, which ufually prevail at the autumnal equi¬
nox ; and the height of the waters is always in pro¬
portion to the violence and duration of thofe winds.
In a word, the circumftances moft liable to promote
the overflowings of the Neva, are when, at the au¬
tumnal equinox, three or four days before or after the
full or new moon, that luminary being near her peri-
gceum, a violent north-weft wind drives the waters
of the northern ocean, during the influx of the tide*
into the Baltic, and is accompanied, or inftantaneoufly
fucceeded by a fouth-weft wind in that fea and the gulf
of Finland. All thefe circumftances concurred at the
inundation of 1777 : it happened two days- before the
autumnal equinox, four before the full moon, two after
her piling through the perigteum, and by a ftorm at
fouth-weft, which was preceded by ftrong weft winds Peterfbui'g,
in the northern ocean, and ftrong north winds at the ' "
mouth of the Baltic.”
See Notices et Remarques fur les debordemens de la
Neva d St Peterjbourg, accompagnees d'une carte repre-
fentant la crue et la diminution des eaux, &c. in Nov.
Aft. Pet. for 1777, Par. II. p. 47. to which excellent
treatife we would refer the curious reader for further
information..
All our readers have unqueftionably heard of the
equeftrian ftatue of Peter 1. in bronze. We lhall give
an account of that extraordinary monument in Mr
Coxe’s own words.- “ It is (fays he) of a coloflal fize,
and is the work of Monfieur Falconet, the celebrated
French ftatuary, call at the expence of Catherine II.
in honour of her great predeceffor, whom Ihe reveres
and imitates. It reprefcnts that monarch in the atti¬
tude of mounting a precipice, the fummit of which he
has nearly attained. He appears crowned with laurel,
in a loofe Afiatic veil, and fitting on a houfing of bear-
fkin : his right hand is ftretclied out as in the aft of
giving bencdiftion to his people ; and his left holds
the reins. The defign is mafterly, and the attitude is
bold and fpirited. If there be any deleft in the figure,. .
it confifts in the flat pofition of the right hand ; and for
this reafon, the view of the left fide is the moft finking,
where the whole appearance is graceful and animated.
The horfe is rearing upon its hind legs,; and its tail,
which is full and flowing, ilightly touches a bronze fer-
pent, artfully contrived to aflift in fupporting the vaft
weight of the ftatue in due equilibrium. The artift has,
in this noble eflay of his genius, reprefented Peter as
the legillator of his country, without any allufion to
conqueil and bloodfhed ; wifely preferring his civil qua¬
lities to his military exploits. The contrail between the
compofed tranquillity of Peter (though perhaps not ab-
folutely charafteriftic) and the fire of the horfe, eager
to prefs forwards, is very linking. The fimplicity of
the infisriptiun correfponds to the fublimity of the de¬
fign, and is far preferable to a pompous detail of exalt¬
ed virtues, which the voice-of flattery applies to every
fovereign without ditlinftion. It is elegantly finilhed in
brafs charafters, on one fide in Latin, and on the oppo-
fite in Ruffian. Petroprimo Catherinafecunda, 1782; i. e.
Catherine II. to Peter I.
“ The ftatue, when I was at Peterftmrg, was not
erefted, but flood under a large wooden Hied near the
Neva, within a few yards of its enormous pedeftal.
When Falconet had conceived the defign of his ftatue,,
the bafe of which was to be formed by a huge rock,
he carefully examined the environs of Peteriburg, if,
among the detached pieces of granite which are {bat¬
tered about thefe parts, one could be found of magni¬
tude correfpondent to the dimenfions of the equeftrian
figure. After confiderable refearch, he difcovered a
Itupendous mafs half buried in the midlt of a morals.
The expence and difficulty of tranfporling it were no
obftacles to Catherine II. By her order the morafs
was immediately drained, a road was cut through a
foreft, and. carried over the marlhy ground ; and the
ftone which, after it had been fomevvhat reduced, weigh¬
ed at leaft 1500 tons, was removed to Peterlburg.
This more than Roman work was, in lefs than fix
months from the time of its firft difeovery, accomplilh-
ed by a windlafs, and by means of large friftion balls
alternately
PER
Pvterfburg. alternately placed and removed in grooves fixed on each
'—-v”*—' fide of the road. In this manner it was drawn, with
40 men feated upon its top, about four miles, to the
banks of the Neva 5 there it was embarked in a veflel
conftru6ted on purpofe to receive it, and thus conveyed
about the fame diltance by water to the fpot where it
now ftands. When landed at Peterfburg, it was 42 feet
long at the bale, 36 at the top, 21 thick, and 17 high ;
a bulk greatly furpaffing in weight the mod. boalted
monuments of Roman grandeur, which, according to the
fond admirers of antiquity, would have baffled the (kill
of modern mechanics, and were alone fufficient to ren¬
der confpicuous the reign of the mod degenerate em¬
perors.
“ The pededal, however, though dill of prodigious
magnitude, is far from retaining its original dimenfions,
as, in order to form a proper dation for the llatue, and
to reprefent an afeent, the fummit whereof the horfe is
endeavouring to attain, its bulk has been neeeiTarily di-
minifhed. But I could not obferve, without regret, that
the artid has been defirous to improve upon nature j
and, in order to produce a refemblanee of an abrupt
broken precipice, has been too laviffl of the chiffel.
Near it was a model in plader, to the drape of which
the workmen were fafliioning the pededal. It appeared
to me, that in this model the art was too confpicuous $
and that the effeft would have been far more fublimc,
if the done had been left as much as podible in its rude
date, a vad unwieldy dupendous mafs. And indeed,
unlefs I am greatly midaken, the pedeftal, when finidi-
^d according to this plan, will have fearcely breadth
fufficient to afford a proper bafe for a datue of fuch co-
lodal fize.
“ The datue was eredled on the ppdedal on the 27th
of Augud 1782. The ceremony was performed with
great folemnity, and was accompanied with a folemn
inauguration. At the fame time the emprefs iffued a
proclamation, in which, among other indances of her
clemency, die pardons all criminals under fentence of
death j all deferters who diould return to their refpec-
tive corps within a limited time $ and releafes all crimi¬
nals condemned to hard labour, provided they had not
been guilty of murder.”
Mr Coxe informs us, that the weather is extremely
changeable in this capital, and the cold is at. times ex¬
treme •, againd which the inhabitants take care to pro¬
vide (fee Peasant)-, though fome of them neverthelefs
unfortunately fall victims to it. “ As I traverfed the
city, (fays Mr Coxe), on the morning of 12th January,
I obferved feveral perfons whofe faces had been bitten
by the frod : their cheeks had large fears, and appeared
as if they had been finged w ith an hot iron. As I was
walking with an Englidi gentleman, who, indead of a
fur cap, had put on a common hat, his ears were fudden-
ly frozen : he felt no pain, and would not have percei¬
ved it for fome time, if a Ruffian, in paffing by, had not
informed him of it, and aflided him in rubbing the part
affefted wuth fnow, by which means it was inftantly re¬
covered. This, or fridtion with dannels, is the ufual re¬
medy j but diould the perfon in that date approach the
fire, or dip the part in warm water, it immediately mor¬
tifies and drops off.—The common people continued at
their work as ufual, and the drivers plied in the dreets
with their fledges feemingly unaffected by the froft}
PER
their beards were incrufled with clotted ice, and the Peterfbufg.
horfes were covered with ificles. ' z—'
“ It fometimes happens that coachmen or fervants,
while they are w aiting for their maders, are frozen to
death. In order to prevent as much as poffible thefe
dreadful accidents, great fires of whole trees, piled one
upon another, are kindled in the court-yard of the pa¬
lace and the mod frequented parts of the town. As
the flames blazed above the tops of the houfes, and cad
a glare to a confiderable didance, I was frequently much
amufed by contemplating the pi&urtfque groups of Ruf¬
fians, with their Afiatic chefs and long beards, affembled
round the fire. The centinels upon duty, having no
beards, which are of great ufe to protect the glands
of the throat, generally tie handkerchiefs under their
chins, and cover their ears with fmall cafes of fian-
nel.”
The police of this city has been much admired.
This edablidiment confids of a police madtr, two pre-
fidents, the one for criminal, the other for civil cafes,
and two confulters, chofen from the burgher clafs. To
this is committed the care to maintain decorum, good
order and morals j the attainment of which is thus ac-
complidied.
The refidence is divided into ten departments, each
of which lias a prefident, who mud poffefs a correct
knowledge of the inhabitants in his own department, of
which he is regarded as the cenfor morum. His houfe
mud be a refuge both night and day for all in didrefs j
and he mud not leave the city for two hours under any
pretext whatever, without appointing a fubditute to aft
in his abfence. The condables and watchmen of his
department are fubjeft to his orders j and in the dif-
charge of his duty, he has twro fergeants to attend
him.
Each department has three, four, or five fubdivifions,
of which there are 42 in the whole refidence. Each of
thefe has a quarter-infpeftor, and under him a quarter-
lieutenant. The duty of all thefe is in unifon with that
of the prefident, but the fphere of their aftivity is more
eircumfcribed. They fettle trivial affairs, and keep a
watchful eye over every thing that paffes.
The night watchmen are 500 in number, who have
dations afligned them, and are to be aided in the feiz-
ing of offenders, or in any fervice their commanders
may require. There is alfo a command of 120 men,
who are fupported by a regiment of huffars, diould the
nature of their duty be at any time fo hazardous as to
render fuch a meafure neceffary.
This piece of political mechanifm is fo harmonioufly
connefted in all its parts, that it becomes the admiration
of every foreigner.
So extraordinary is the vigilance obferved by every
part of this admirable whole, that all fecret inquifitions
are totally fuperduous. The police has a knowdedge of
every perfon in the refidence j travellers are fabjeft to
certain formalities, in confequence of which to hide the
place of their abode, or the time of their departure, are
alike imprafticable. Every houfeholder mud declare
to the police who lodges with him, or what drangers
have put up at his houfe. When travellers leave the
town, they mud publilh in the newfpapers their name,
quality, and place of abode, three different times, and
produce the papers containing fuch advertifement.
The
[ 232 1
PET [ 233 ] PET
fete'fburg The police alfo watches over fecret focieties of every
II. kind, fo that nothing inimical to the exifting govern-
, ^eUt' , ment can either be freely difcufled, or fafely carried into
^ execution. The difturbers of the public peace in this
city muft of confequenee be few in number.
The court called oral, fits every day, and proceeds
orally in all the caufes brought before it ; keeping at
the fame time a day-book, in which the deeifions of the
court are entered, and every week it is laid before the
fitting magiftrate. Every caufe muft be determined in
one day, or in three at moft, if the colledling of exa¬
minations ftiould be intricate and tedious. But fome
travellers have given a more unfavourable account of
the police of the Ruffian metropolis, and have decla¬
red that murder and robbery may fome times be com¬
mitted with impunity, if the guilty have it in their
power to bribe the watchmen.
Petersburgh, in America, is a fea-port town in
Virginia, 25 miles fouthward of Richmond, feated on
the fouth fide of the Appamatox river, about 12 miles
above its junftion with James river, and contained near¬
ly 300 houfes in 1787, in two divifions ; one is upon a
cold clay foil, and is very dirty •, the other upon a plain
of fand or loam. There is no regularity, and very little
elegance in Peterfburgh. It is merely a place of bufi-
nefs. The Free Mafons have a hall tolerably elegant ;
and the feat of the Bowling family is pleafant and well
built. It is very unhealthy. About 2200 hogfheads
of tobacco are infpe£ted here annually. Like Rich¬
mond, Williamfburgh, Alexandria, and Norfolk, it is a
corporation ; and what is lingular, Peterfburgh city
comprehends part of three counties. The celebrated
Indian queen, Pocahonta, from whom defeended the
Randolph and Bowling families, formerly refided at this
place.
PETERSFIELD, a handfome town of Hamplhire
in England, and fends two members to parliament. It
is feated in W. Long. 1. 5. N. Lat. 51. 5.
PETERWAR ADIN, a fortified town in Sclavonia,
and one of the ftrongeft frontier places the houfe of
Auftria has againft the Turks, feated on the Danube
between the Drave and the Save. E. Long. 20. O. N.
Lat. 4 if. 20.
PETIOLE, in Botany, the flender ftalks that fup-
port the leaves of a plant.
PETIT, or Petite, a French word fignifying little
or fmall.
PETITE Guerre, denotes the operations of detached
parties and the war of polls. See War, Part III.
PETIT Sergeanty. See Sergeanty.
Petit Treafon. See Treason.
Petit, John, a doftor of the Sorbonne, very early
gained to himfelf a chara&er by his knowledge, and
thofe eloquent orations which he pronounced before the
univerfity of Paris. He was employed in the famous
embaffy which was fent from France to Rome, for the
purpofe of healing the fchifm in 1407 ; but he foon loft
all the honour which he had acquired. John Sans
Peur, duke of Burgundy, having treacheroufly contri¬
ved to aflaffinate Louis of France, duke of Orleans, on¬
ly brother to Charles VI. John Petit, entirely devoted
to the views of the murderer, maintained in a public
deputation, at Paris, the 8th of March 1408, that the
murder was lawful. Fie had the effrontery to affert,
that “ it is allowable to employ fraud, treafon, and
Voi„ XVI. Part I.
every other method, however bafe, in order to get rid of Pent,
a tyrant; and that no faith ought to be kept with him.”
He dared to add further, that “ the man who ftiould
commit fuch an action, not only deferved to be exempt¬
ed from punilhment, but to receive a reward.” i his
fanguinary do&rine was loudly exclaimed againft ; but
the duke of Burgundy’s powerful influence Iheltered
Petit for fome time. Some eminent writers, however,
of that period, with Gerfon at their head, denounced
the doctrine to John de Montaigu, biftiop of Paris, who
condemned it as heretical the 23d November 1414. It
was likewife condemned by the council of Conftance
the year following at the inftigation of Gerfon 5 but no
notice was taken either of Petit’s name or his writings.
In fine, the king, on the 16th of September 1416, or¬
dered the parliament of Paris to pronounce a fevere de¬
cree againft this dangerous performance ; and it was al¬
fo cenfured by the univerfity. But the duke of Bur¬
gundy, in 1418, had intereft enough to compel the grand
vicars of the biftiop of Paris, who then lay fick at St
Omer’s, to retraiff the fentence which that prelate had
part in 1414. Petit died three years before, i. e. in
1411, at Hefdin ; and his apology in favour of the duke
of Burgundy, with all the particulars of that infamous
tranfaflion, may be feen in the fifth volume of the laft:
edition of Gerfon’s works. Father Pinchinat, of the
order of St Francis, and author of the Di&ionary of
Herefies, in 4to, has endeavoured to vindicate his order
from a charge brought by fome writers, who have called
Petit a Cordelier, or Francifcan friar, “ He proves
very clearly (fays Abbe Prevot) that he was a fecular
prieft ; and adds, that upon the fame evidence, Father
Mercier, a Cordelier, had a warm difpute in 1717 with
M. Dupin, who had given this title to Petit in his Col-
leflion of Cenfures. He reprefented to him (fays he),
before a meeting of the Faculty, the falfity of fuch a
claim, and the injury which he offered to the order of
St Francis. Dupin, convinced of his error, candidly
owned that he was led into it by following fome infidel
writers, and promifed to rttraft it in the new edition of
the Cenfures, which was publifhed in 1720. M. Flou¬
ry, who had committed the fame miftake, promifed alfo
to make amends for it by a folemn recantation ; but dy¬
ing before he had an opportunity of doing that piece of
juftice to the Cordeliers, the continuator of his Ecclefi-
aftical Hiftory, who had not fuch opportunities of in¬
formation, fell into the fame fault.” [Pour (&’ contre,
tom. x. p. 23.). If we take the opinion of L’Advo-
cat’s Dictionary, it would appear no fault was commit¬
ted ; for it gives a lift of the penfioners of the dukes of
Burgundy, in order to prove that John Petit was a
Cordelier. Indeed, it is highly probable that if Dupin,
Fleury, and Father Fabrc, did not alter their opinion, it
was owing to a firm perfuafion that they had committed
no error.
Petit, John Lewis, an eminent furgeon, born at Pa¬
ris in 1674. Fie had fo early an inclination to furgery,
that Mr Littre, a celebrated anatomift, .being in his fa¬
ther’s houfe, he regularly attended that gentleman’s
leCtures, from his being feven years of age. He was
received mafter in furgery in the year 1700 ; and ac¬
quired fuch reputation in the practice of that art, that
in 1726 the king of Poland fent for him to his court,'
and in 1734 the king of Spain prevailed on him to go
into that kingdom. He reftored the health of thofe
G g princes j
PET [ 234 ] PET
Petit princes 5 and they endeavoured to detain him by offer-
1.1 ing him great advantages, but he chofe rather to return
rentot‘ . to^France. He was received into the academy of fcien-
ces in 1715 j became diredlor of the royal academy of
furgery} made feveral important difcoveries j and in¬
vented new inflruments for the improvement of fur¬
gery. He died at Paris in 1750. He wrote an ex¬
cellent Treatife on the Hifeafes of the Bones, the
bed: edition of which is that of 1723 ? ^d many,
learned Differtations in the Memoirs of the Academy
of Sciences, and in the firft volume of the Memoirs of
Surgery.
PETITIO principii, in Logic, the taking a thing
for true, and drawing conclufions from it as fuch, when
it is really falfe $ or at lead wants to be proved before
any inferences can be drawn from it.
PETITION, a fupplication made by an inferior to
a fuperior, and efpecially to one having jurifdi&ion. It
is ufed for that remedy which the fubjeft hath to help
a wrong done by the king, who hath a prerogative not
to be fued by writ: In which fenfe it is either gene¬
ral, That the king do him right 5 whereupon follows a
general indorfement upon the fame, Let right be done
the party: Or it is fpecial, when the conclufion and in¬
dorfement are fpecial, for this or that to be done, &c.
By ftatute, the foliciting, labouring, or procuring the
putting the hands or confent of above twenty perfons to
any petition to the king, or either houfe of parliament,
for alterations in church or date, unlefs by affent of
three or more judices of the peace of the county, or a
majority of the grand jury at the adizes or fedions, &c.
and repairing to the king or parliament to deliver fuch
petition with above the number of ten perfons, is fuo-
jeft to a fine of look and three months imprifontnent,
being proved by two witnefies within fix months, in the
court of B. R. or at the adizes, &c. And if what is
required by this datute be obferved, care mud be taken
that petitions to the king contain nothing which may be
interpreted to reded on the adminidration •, for if they
do, it may come under the denomination of a libel: and
it is remarkable, that the petition of the city of Lon¬
don for the fitting of a parliament was deemed libel¬
lous, becaufe it fuggeded that the king’s, diffolving a
late parliament was an obdrudion of judice alio the
petition of the feven bifhops, fent to the Tower by
James II. was called a libel, &c. To fubfcribe a pe¬
tition to the king, to frighten him into a change of his
men fires, intimating, that if it be denied many thoufands
of his fubjecis will be difcontented, Sec. is included
among the contempts againd the king’s perfon and go¬
vernment, tending to weaken the fame, and is punidi-
able by fine and imprifonment.
PETITORY action, in Scots Law. See Law,
N° clxxxiii. 18. 20,
PETITOT, John, a curious painter in enamel, who
was born at Geneva in 1607, reached a great degree of
perfedion in the art. He wras wonderfully patient in
finilhing his works, but he had the addrefs to conceal his
labour. He only painted the heads and hands of the
figures : the hair, grounds, and drapery, being executed
by Bordier his brother-in-law. Thefe two artids had
the credit of affociating and labouring together for fifty
years, without the lead mifunderdanding between them.
It is aflerted by an ingenious French writer, that Peti-
tot and Bordier derived the knowledge of the mod cu¬
rious and durable colours proper for enamelling, from Petltot,
Sir Theodore Mayerne at London, who recommended | Petlver.
Petitot to Charles I. He had the honour to paint the _ ¥
portraits of that monarch and the whole royal family,
and continued in England until Charles’s unhappy end :
he then went to Paris, where he was highly favoured by
Louis XIV. and acquired an ample fortune. Being a
Protedant, the revocation of the edi£l of Nantz obliged
him to retire to Geneva ; but fettling foon after at Ve-
ray in the canton of Bern, he palled the remainder of
his life in eafe and affluence. Fie died in 1691.
Petitot may be called the inventor of painting por¬
traits in enamel. Though his friend Bordier made fe¬
veral attempts before him, and Sir Theodore Mayerne
had facilitated the means of employing the mod beau¬
tiful colours ; yet Petitot completed the works, which
under his hand acquired a foftnefs and livelinefs of co¬
louring that will never change, and will ever render
his works variable. He made ufe of gold and filver
plates, and feldom enamelled on copper. When he fird
came in vogue, his price wras 20 louis’s a head, which
he foon railed to 40. It was his cudom to take a paint¬
er with him, who painted the picture in oil •, after which
Petitot Iketched out his work, -which he always finilh-
ed after the life. When he painted the king of France,
he took thofe pi&ures for his copies that mod refembled
him 5 and the king afterwards gave him a fitting or two
to finilh his work.
PETIVER, James, a celebrated Englilh botanid,
was contemporary with Plukenet 5 but we are wholly
unacquainted with the precife time of his birth. He
was by profelTion an apothecary, having ferved an ap-
prenticeihip under Mr Feltham, apothecary to Bartholo¬
mew’s hofpital. He fettled in Alderfgate-dreet when
he commenced bufinefs on his own account, where he
continued during the whole of his life. His bufinefs
was extenfive ; and he was afterwards chofen apothecary
to the Charter-houfe. Excepting Sir Hans Sloane, and
Mr Courten, he was the only perfon after the Trade-
fcants, who made any important colle£tions in natural
hidory, previous to thofe of the prefent day. He em¬
ployed the captains and furgeons of different Ihips to
bring him home fpecimens •, and by means of printed '
dire&ions he enabled them to feleft proper objefts. In
this manner his colle&ion foon became fo valuable, that
he was offered 4000I. for it by Sir Hans Sloane, fome
time prior to his deceafe 5 but, after he died, it was
purchafed by that naturalid. His fame was extended
both at home and abroad by his valuable mufeum. He
was chofen a fellow of the Royal Society } and having
become acquainted with Ray, he affided him in arran¬
ging the fecond volume of his Hidory of Plants. He
died on the 20th of April, 1718 ; and his funeral was
honoured by the attendance of Sir Hans Sloane, and
other eminent men, as pall-bearers.
He publidied feveral works, on different fubje£ts of
natural hidory, fuch as Mufci Petiveriam Centurue de¬
cern, 1692—1703, 8vo: Gazophylacii Naturce et Artis,
Decades decern, folio, 1702, with 100 plates: A. cata¬
logue of Mr Ray’s Engiilh Herbal, illudrated with fi¬
gures, folio, 1713, and continued in i715 '• Many fmall
publications, which may be found enumerated in Er
Pultney’s book : Many papers in the Philofophical
Tranfaftions $ and a material article in the third vo¬
lume of Ray’s work, entitled, Plantcc Rariores Chinenfes,
Madras-
PET f 235 ] PET
Petiver Madras-pat ante, et Africaner, a Jacolo Petivero ad opus
II confummandum col/atce, &c. Many of his fmall trails
Petrarch. ^ become fcarce, his works were collefted and pu-
"rrr blilhed, exclufive of his papers in the Tranfaftions, in
2 vols. folio, in the year 1764.
PETIVERIA, a genus of plants belonging to the
hexandria clafs, and in the natural method ranking un¬
der the 12th order, Holoraceec. See Botany Index.
PETRA, (Ctsfar, Lucian), a town of Greece, on
the coaft of Illyricum, near Dyrrhachium, and not far
from the mouth of the river Panyafus.—Another Pe¬
tra, (Livy); a town of Mgedica, a diftricl of Thrace,
lying towards Macedonia ; but in what part of Mace¬
donia, he does not fay.
Petra (Ptolemy), Petreea (Silius Italicus), Petrina
(Italicus), in both which laft ufbs is underftood; an in¬
land town of Sicily, to the fouth-weft of Engyum.
Now Petraglia (Cluverius).
PETRA Jeckael (2 Kings xiv.), a town of the Ama-
lekites; near the Adfcenfus Scorpionis (Judges i.) and
the valley of Salt in the fouth of Judea ; afterwards in
the poffeffion of the Edomites, after deftroying the A-
malekites.
PETRA Recetn, or Rehem, fo called from Rekem
king of the Midianites, flain by the Ifraelites (Num.
xxxi.). Formerly called Arce, now Petra ; the capital
of Arabia Petrsea (Jofephus). Ptolemy places it in
Long. 66. 45. from the Fortunate iflands, and Lat. 30.
20. It declines therefore 80 miles to the fouth of the
parallel of Jerufalem, and 36 miles, more or lefs, from its
meridian to the eaft. Jofephus fays, that the mountain
on which Aaron died flood near Petra ; which Strabo
calls the capital of the Nabataei; at the diftance of three
or four days journey from Jericho. This Petra feems
to be the Sela of Ifaiah xvi. 1. and xlii. 11. the He¬
brew name of Petra, “ a rock:'5 Though fome imagine
Petra to be no older than the time of the Macedonians.
PETRARCH, Francis, a celebrated Italian poet,
was born at Arezzo in 13 04, and was the fon of Pe-
trarco di Parenzo. He ftudied grammar, rhetoric, and
philofophy, for four years at Carpentras; from whence
he went to Montpelier, where he ftudied the law under
John Andreas and Cino of Piftoia, and probably from
the latter received a tafle for Italian poetry. As Pe¬
trarch only ftudied the law out of complaifance to his
father, who on his vifiting him at Bologna had thrown
In the fire all the' Latin poets and orators except Virgil
and Cicero ; he, at 22 years of age, hearing that his fa¬
ther and mother were dead of the plague at Avignon,
returned to that city to fettle his domeftic affairs, and
purehafed a country-houfe in a very folitary but agree¬
able fituation, called Vauclufe; where he firft knew the
beautiful Laura, with whom he fell in love, and whom
he has immortalized in his poems. He at length travel¬
led into France, the Netherlands, and Germany ; and
at his return to Avignon entered into the fervice of Pope
John XXII. who employed him in feveral important
affairs. Petrarch was in hopes of being raifed to fome
confiderable polls : but being difappointed, he applied
himfelf entirely to poetry ; in which he met with fuch
applaufe, that in one and the fame day he received
letters from Rome and the chancellor of the univer-
ftty of Paris, by which they invited him to receive
the poetic crown. By the advice of his friends, he
preferred Rome to Paris, and received that crown from
the fenate and people on the 8th of April 1341. 11 The Petrarch,
ceremony of his coronation (fays Gibbon) was perform-
ed in the Capitol, by his friend and patron the fupreme
magiftrate of the republic. Twelve patrician youths
were arrayed in fcarlet; fix reprefentatives of the moft
illuftrious families, in green robes, with garlands of
flowers, accompanied the proeeffion ; in the midft of
the princes and nobles, the fenator, count of Anguil-
lara, a kinfman of the Colonna, affumed his throne;
and at the voice of a herald Petrarch arofe. After dif-
courfing on a text of Virgil, and thrice repeating his
vows for the profperity of Rome, he knelt before the
throne, and received from the fenator a laurel crown,
with a more precious declaration, ‘ This is the reward
of merit.5 The people Ihouted, ‘ Long life to the Ca¬
pitol and the poet!’ A fonnet in praife of Rome was
accepted as the effufion of genius and gratitude ; and
after the whole procefiion had vifited the Vatican, the
profane wreath was fufpended before the Ihrine of St
Peter. In the a£l or diploma which was prefented to
Petrarch, the title and prerogatives of poet-laureat are
revived in the Capitol after the lapfe of 1300 years;
and he receives the perpetual privilege of wearing, at
his choice, a crown of laurel, ivy, or myrtle ; of affum-
ing the poetic habit ; and of teaching, difputing, inter¬
preting, and compofing, in all places whatfoever, and
on all fubje&s of literature. The grant was ratified by
the authority of the fenate and people; and the charac¬
ter of citizen was the recompenfe of his affection for the
Roman name. They did him honour, but they did
him juftice. In the familiar fociety of Cicero and
Livy, he had imbibed the ideas of an ancient patriot;
and his ardent fancy kindled every idea to a fentiment*
and every fentiment to a paflion.” His love of foli-
tude at length induced him to return to Vauclufe;
but, after the death of the beautiful Laura, Provence
became infupportable to him, and he returned to Italy
in 1352 ; when, being at Milan, Galeas Viceconti
made him counfellor of ftate. Petrarch fpent almoft
all the reft of his life in travelling to and from the
different cities in Italy. He was archdeacon of Par¬
ma, and canon of Padua ; but never received the order
of priefthood. All the princes and great men of his
time gave him public marks of their efteem ; and while
he lived at Arcqua, three miles from Padua, the Flo¬
rentines deputed Boccace to go to him with letters, by
which they invited him to Florence, and informed him,
that they reftored to him all the eftate of which his fa¬
ther and mother had been deprived during the diffen-
fions between the Guelphs and Gibelines. He died a
few years after at Arcqua, in 1374. He wrote many
works that have rendered his memory immortal ; thefe
have been printed in four volumes folio. His life has
been written by feveral authors. Amongft thefe there
■was one by Mrs Sufanna Dobfon, in 2 volumes 8vo,
colle&ed and abridged from tht French. In this work
we have the following elegant and juft character of Pe¬
trarch.
“ Few characters, perhaps, have fet in a ftronger
light the advantages of well-regulated difpofitions than
that of Petrarch, 'from the contrail we behold in
one particular of his life, and the extreme mifery
he fuffered from the indulgence of an affeflion, which,
though noble and delightful when juftly placed, becomes
a reproach and a torment to its poffeffor when once di-
G g 2 reeled
PET [
Petrarch, refled to an improper objefl. For, let us not deceive
v ourfelves or others j though (from the character of
Laura) they are acquitted of all guilt in their perfonal
intercourfe, yet, as fhe was a married woman, it L not
poflible, on the principles of religion and morality, to
clear them from that jull cenfure which is due to every
defection of the mind from thofe laws which are the
foundation of order and peace in civil fociety, and
which are flamped with the facred mark of divine au¬
thority.
“ In this particular of his character, therefore, it
is fincerely hoped that Petrarch will ferve as a warn¬
ing to thofe unhappy minds, who, partaking of the
fame feelings under the like circumftances, but not yet
fuflfering his mifery, may be led, by the contemplation
of it, by a generous regard to the honour of human na¬
ture, and by a view to the approbation of that all-feeing
Judge who penetrates the molt fecret receffes of the
heart, to check every unhappy inclination in its birth,
and deftroy, while yet in their power, the feeds of thofe
paffions which may otherwife deilroy them.
u As to the cavils or cenfures of thofe "who, incapa¬
ble of tendernefs themfelves, can neither enjoy the view
of it when prcfented in its moil perfeft form, nor pity
its fufferings when, as in this work, they appear unhap¬
pily indulged beyond the bounds of judgment and
tranquillity } to fuch minds I make no addrefs, well
convinced, that, as no callous heart can enjoy, neither
will it ever be in danger of being milled, by the example
of Petrarch in this tender but unfortunate circumltance
of his charafter.
“ To fufceptible and feeling minds alone Petrarch
will be ever dear. Such, while they regret his failings,
and conlider them as warnings to themfelves, will love
his virtues ; and, touched by the glowing piety and
heart-felt contrition which often impreffed his foul, will
ardently delire to partake with him in thofe pathetic
and fublime reflexions which are produced in grateful
and aflfeftionate hearts, on reviewing their own lives,
and contemplating the works of God.
“ Petrarch had received from nature a very danger¬
ous prefent. Plis figure was fo dillinguilhed as to at-
traX univerfal admiration. He appears, in his portraits,
with large and manly features, eyes full of fire, a
blooming complexion, and a countenance that befpoke
all the genius and fancy which Ihone forth in his works.
In the flower of his youth, the beauty of his perfon was
fo very ftriking, that wherever he appeared, he was the
objeX of attention. He poffefled an underflanding ac¬
tive and penetrating, a brilliant wit, and a fine imagi¬
nation. His heart was candid and benevolent, fufcep¬
tible of the moft lively affeXions, and infpired with the
noblefl. fentiments of liberty.
“ But his failings mull not be concealed. His tem¬
per was, on fome occafions, violent, and his paflions
headftrong and unruly. A warmth of conftitution hur¬
ried him into irregularities, which were followed with
repentance and remorfe.—No effential reproach, how¬
ever, could be call on his manners, till after the 23d
year of his age. The fear of God, the thoughts of
death, the love of virtue, and thofe principles of reli¬
gion which were inculcated by his mother, preferved
him from the furrounding temptations of his earlier
life.”
A refcmblance has been traced, in feveral inftances,
236 ] PET
between this admired poet and our late famous Yorick, Petrarch
— Both, we know, had great wit and genius, and no
lefs imprudence and eccentricity ; both were canons, or
prebendaries, the Italian of Padua, &c. and the Eng-'
lifliman of York ; they both “ ran over France, with¬
out any bufinefs there.” If the biihop of Lombes pa-
tronifed and correfponded with the one, a prelate* of*DrGil-
the Englifli church, now deceafed, defired, in a letter,bert> Arcfei
to Jhandyife f with the other. In their attachments to^^
Laura and Eliza, both married women, thefe two pre-Craec.s
bendaries were equally warm, and equally innocent.own ex.
And, even after death, a moft remarkable circumflancepreffion.
has attended them both j fome perfons, we are told,
Hole Petrarch’s bones, in order to fell them j and, in
like manner, Yorick’s body, it is confidently affirmed,
was alfo ftolen, and his Ikull has been exhibited at Ox¬
ford.
PETRE, or Saltpetre. See Nitre, Chemistry
and Mineralogy Index.
PETREA, in Botany, a genus of plants belonging to
the didynamia clafs 5 and in the natural method rank¬
ing under the 40th order, Perfonatee. See Botany
Index.
PETREL. See Procellaria, Ornithology
Index.
PETRIFACTION, in Natural Hijlory, denotes
the converfion of wood, bones, and other fubftances,
principally animal or vegetable, into Rone. Thefe
bodies are more or lefs altered from their original ftate,
according to the different fubftances they have lain
buried among in the earth ; fome of them having fuf-
fered very little change, and others being fo highly im¬
pregnated with cryftalline, fparry, pyritical, or other
extraneous matter, as to appear mere maffes of Hone or
lumps of the matter of the common pyrites $ but they
are generally of the external dimenfions, and retain
more or lefs of the internal figure, of the bodies into
the pores of which this matter has made its way. The
animal fubftances thus found petrified are chiefly fea-
ffiells j the teeth, bony palates, and bones of fiffi 5 the
bones of land animals, &c. Thefe are found varioufly
altered, by the infinuation of ftony and mineral mat¬
ter into their pores ; and the fubftance of Ibrne of them
is now wholly gone, there being only ftony, fparry, or
other mineral matter remaining in the ftiape and form.
RefpeXing the manner in which petrifaXion is ac-
compliffied, we know' but little. It has been thought
by many philofophers, that this was one of the rare
procefles of nature ; and accordingly fuch places as
afforded a view of it, have been looked upon as great
curiofities. However, it is now difeovered, that pe¬
trifaXion is exceedingly common : and that every kind
of water carries in it fome earthy particles, which be¬
ing precipitated from it, become ftone of a greater or
leffer degree of hardnefs ; and this quality is moft re¬
markable in tlrofe waters which are much impregnated
with felenitic matter. It has been found by obferva-
tion, that iron contributes greatly to the procefs : and
this it may do by its precipitation of any aluminous
earth which happens to be diffolved in the W'ater by
means of an acid ; for iron has the property of precipi¬
tating this earth. Calcareous earth, however, by being
foluble in water without any acid, mnft contribute very
much to the procefs of petrifaXion, as they are capable
of a great degree of hardnefs by means only of being
joined
PET [ 237 1 PET
Petrifac. joined with fixed air, on which depends the folidity of
tion. J0Ur common cement or mortar ufed in building houfes.
—'V"—1 The namepetrifaBion belongs only, as we have feen,
to bodies of vegetable or animal origin } and in order
to determine their clafs and genus, or even fpecies, it
is neceffary that their texture, their primitive form, and
in fome meafure their organization, be ftill difcernible.
Thus we ought not to place the ftony kernels, moulded
in the cavity of fome (hell, or other organized body, in
the rank of petrifa&ions, properly fo called.
Petrifactions of the vegetable kingdom are dmoft
all either gravelly or filiceous ; and are found in gul
lies, trenches, &c. Thofe which Itrike fire with Heel
are principally found in fandy fiffures •, thofe which ef-
fervefce in acids are generally of animal origin, and are
found in the horizontal beds of calcareous earth, and
fometimes in beds of clay or gravel ; in which cafe the
nature of the petrifaCtion is different. As to the fub-
ftances which are found in gypfum, they feldom undergo
any alteration, either with refpeCt to figure or compofi-
tion, and they are very rare.
Organized bodies, in a ftate of petrifaCtion, gene¬
rally acquire a degree of foliditv of which they were
not poffefled before they were buried in the earth, and
fome of them are often fully as hard as the ftones or
matrices in which they are enveloped. When the
ftones are broken, the fragments of petrifactions are
eafily found, and eafily diftinguiffied. There are fome
organized bodies, however, fo changed by petrifaCtion,
as to render it impoflible to difcover their origin. That
there is a matter more or lefs agitated, and adapted for
penetrating bodies, which crumbles and feparates their
parts, draws them along with it, and difperfes them
here and there in the fluid which furrounds them, is a
faCt of which nobody feems to entertain any doubt. In¬
deed we fee almoft every fubftance, whether foil'd or
liquid, intenfibly confume, diminilh in bulk, and at laft,
in the lapfe of time, vanilh and difappear.
A petrified fubftance, ftriClly fpeaking, is nothing
more than the fkeleton, or perhaps image, of a body
which has once had life, either animal or vegetable,
combined with fome mineral. Thus petrified wood
is not in that ftate wood alone. One part of the com¬
pound or mafs of wood having been deftroyed by local
caufes, has been compenfated by earthy and fandy lub-
ftances, diluted and extremely minute, which the wa¬
ters furrounding them had depofited while they tin m-
lelves evaporated. Thefe earthy fubftances, being then
moulded in the Ikeleton, will be more or lefs indurated,
and will appear to have its figure, its ftruCfure, its fize,
in a word, the fame general charaders, the fame fpe-
cific attributes, and the fame individual differences.
Farther, in petrified wood, no veftige of ligneous mat¬
ter appears to exift. We know that common wood is
a bodv in which the volume of folid parts is greatly ex¬
ceeded by that of the pores. When wood is buried in
certain places, lapidific fluids, extremely divided and
fometimes coloured, infinuate themfelves into its pores
and fill them up. Thefe fluids are afterwards moulded,
and condenfed. The folid part of the wood is decom-
pofed and reduced into powder, which is expelled with¬
out the mafs by aqueous filtrations. In this manner,
the places which were formerly occupied by the wood
are now left emptv in the form of pores. I his opera¬
tion of nature produces no apparent difference either of
2
the fize or of the flrape •, but it occafions, both at the Petrifa*-
furface and in the infide, a change of fubftance, and , tKm’
the ligneous texture is inverted 5 that is to fay, that
which was pore in the natural wood, becomes folid
in that which is petrified *, and that which was fo¬
lid or full in the firft ftate, becomes porous in the
fecond. In this way, fays M. Mufard, petrified wood
is much lefs extended in pores than folid parts, and at
the fame time forms a body much more denfe and heavy
than the firft. As the pores communicate from the cir¬
cumference to the centre, the petrifaction ought to be¬
gin at the centre, and end with the circumference of
the organic body fubjedled to the aft ion of the lapidific
fluids. Such is the origin of petrifaftions. They are
organized bodies which have undergone changes at the
bottom of the fea or the furface of the earth, and which
have been buried by various accidents at different depths
under the ground.
In order to underftand properly the detail of the
formation of petrified bodies, it is neceflary to be well
acquainted with all their conifituent parts. Let us
take wood for an example. Wood is partly folid and
partly porous. The folid parts confift of a fubftance,
hard, ligneous, and compact, which forms the fupport
of the vegetable j the porous parts confift of veffels
or interftices which run vertically and horizontally
acrofs the ligneous fibres* and which ferve for conduc¬
ting air, lymph, and other fluids. Among thefe vef¬
fels, the trachiae wThieh rife in fpiral forms, and which
contain only air, are eafily diftinguiflied. The cylin-
dric vtffels, fome of which contain lymph, and others
the fuccur proprius, are full only during the life of tho
vegetable. After its death they become vacant by
the evaporation and abfence of the fluids with which
they were formerly filled. All thefe veffels, whether
afcending or defcending, unite with one another, and
form great cavities in the wood and in the bark. Ac¬
cording to Malpighi and Duhamel, the ligneous fibres
are themfelves tubular, and afford a paffage to certain
liquors ; in thort, the wood and bark are interfperfed
with utriculi of different fhapes and fizes. The aug¬
mentation of the trunk in thicknefs, according to
Malpighi, is accomplilhed by the annual addition of
a new exterior covering of fibres and of trachi*. O-
thers think that a concentric layer of fap-wood is every
year hardened, whillt a new one is forming from the
bark. But it is on all fides agreed that the concentrio.
layers of wood are diftinft from one another, becaufe at
the point of contaft betwixt any two of them, the new
veffels, as well as new fibres, are more apparent and
perceptible than they are in any other place. Having
made thefe preliminary remarks on the ftrufture of ve¬
getables, we lhall now proceed to give an abridged ac¬
count of the manner in which M. Mongez explains their
petrifaftion.
In proportion to the teudernefs and bad quality of
wood, it imbibes the greater quantity of water ; there¬
fore this fort will unqueftionably petrify more eafily
than that which is hard. It is thought that all the pe¬
trified wood fo often found in Hungary has been origi¬
nally (oft, fuch as firs or poplars. Suppofe a piece of
wood buried in the earth •, if it be very dry, it will fuck
up the moifture which furrounds it like a fponge. This
moifture, by penetrating it, will dilate all the parts of
which it is compofcd. The trachiae, or air-veffels, will
f
PET [ 238 ] PET
Petrifac- be filled firft, and then the lymphatic veflels and thofe
t*on* which contain the fuccus proprius, as they are likewise
empty. 'L'he water which forms this moifture keeps in
diffolution a greater ora lefs quantity of earthj and
this earth, detached, and carried along in its courfe, is
reduced to fuch an attenuated (fate, that it efcapes our
eyes and keeps itfelf lufpended, whether by the medium
of fixed air or by the motion of the water. Such is the
lapidific fluid. Upon evaporation, or the departure of
the menftruum, this earth, fand, or metal, again ap¬
pears in the form of precipitate or fedimentin the cavi¬
ties of the veffels, which by degrees are filled with it.
This earth is there moulded with exadlnefs: The lapfe
of time, the fimultaneous and partial attraflion of tne
particles, make them adhere to one another} the lateral
fusion of the furrounding fibres, the obftru61ion of the
moulds, and the hardening of the moulded earth, be¬
come general j and there confifls nothing but an earthy
fubftance which prevents the finking of the neighbour¬
ing parts. If the depofit is formed of a matter in ge¬
neral pretty pure, it preferves a whiter and clearer co¬
lour than the reft of the wood 5 and as the concentric
layers are only perceptible and diftindl in the wood, be-
caufe the veffels are there more apparent on account of
their fize, the little earthy cylinders, in the ftate of pe¬
trified wood, muft be there a little larger, and confe-
quently muft reprefent exa&ly the turnings and repara¬
tions of thefe layers. At the place of the utriculi, glo¬
bules are obferved, of which the ftiapes are as various as
the moulds wherein they are formed. The anaftomofes
of the proper and lymphatic veffels, form befides points
of fupport or reunion for this ftony fubftance.
With regard to holes formed by worms in any bits of
wood before they had been buried in the earth, the la¬
pidific fluid, in penetrating thele great cavities, depofits
there as eafily the earthy fediment, which is exa&ly
moulded in them. Thefe vermiform cylinders arefome-
what lefs in bulk than the holes in which they are found,
which is owing to the retreat of the more refined earth
and to its drying up.
* Let any one reprefent to himfelf this colledlion of
little cylinders, vertical, horizontal, inclined in differ¬
ent directions, the ftony maffes of utriculi and of anaf¬
tomofes, and he will have an idea of the ftony fubftance
which forms the ground-work of petrifaCiion. Hither¬
to not a Angle ligneous part is deftroyed; they are all
exifting, but furrounded on every fide with earthy de¬
pofits: and that body which, during life, was compofed
ot lolid and of empty parts, is now entirely folid : its
deftruCtkm and decompofition do not take place till
after the formation of thefe little depofits. In propor¬
tion as the water abandons them, it penetrates the ligne¬
ous fubftance, and deftroys it by an infenfible fermenta¬
tion. The woodv fibres being decompofed, form in
their turn voids and interftices, and there remains in the
whole piece nothing but little ftony cylinders. But in
proportion as thefe woody fibres difappear, the furround¬
ing moifture loaded with earth in the ftate of diffolution,
does not fail to penetrate the piece of wood, and to re¬
main in its new cavities. The new depofit affumes ex-
aClly the form of decompofed fibres j it envelopes in its
turn the little cylinders which were formed in their ca¬
vities, and ends by incorporating with them. We may
fuppofe here, that in pn portion as it decompofes, there
is a reaction of the ligneous part againft the lapidific
fluid : from this reaction a colour arifes which ftains Petrifac.
more or lefs the new depofit j and this colour will make bon.
it eafily diftinguifhable from that which has been laid in ’1 v —
the infide of the veffels. In all petrified wood this (hade
is generally perceptible.
We have then, fays M. Mongez, four diftinCt epochs
in the procefs by which nature converts a piece of wood
into ftone, or to (peak more juftly, by which the fub-
ftitutes a ftony depofit in its place: 1. PerfeCt vegetable
wood, that is to fay, wood compofed of folid and of
empty parts, ligneous fibres, and of veffels, 2. Wood
having its veffels obftruCted and choked up by an
earthy depofit, while its folid parts remain unaltered.
3. The folid parts attacked and decompofed, forming
new cavities betwixt the ftony cylinder, which remain
in the fame ftate, and which fupport the whole mafs.
4. Thefe new cavities filled with new depofits, which in¬
corporate with the cylinders, and compofe nothing elfe
but one general earthy mafs reprefenting exaClly the
piece of wood.
Among the petrifactions of vegetables called den drg-
lites, are found parts of ftirubs, ftems, roots, portions of
the trunk, fome fruits, &c. We muft not, however,
confound the impreflions of moffes, ferns, and leaves, or
incruftations, with petrifaftions.
Among the petrifaftions of animals, wre find (hells,
cruftaceous animals, polyparii, fome W'orms, the bony
parts of fifties and of amphibious animals, few or no real
infe£ts, rarely birds and quadrupeds, together with the
bony portions of the human body. The cornu ammonis
are petrified (hell-fiftij and with regard to figured and
accidental bodies, thefe are lufus naturce.
In order, fays M. Bertrand, in his Diffionnatre des
FoJJiles, that a body (hould become petrified, it is ne-
ceffary that it be, 1. Capable of prefervation under
ground: 2. That it be (heltered from the air and run¬
ning water (the ruins of Herculaneum prove that bodies
which have no connexion with free air, preferve them*
felves untouched and entire). 3. That it be fecured
from corrofive exhalations. 4. That it be in a place
where there are vapours or liquids, loaded either with
metallic or ftony particles in a ftate of diffolution, and
which, without deftroying the body, penetrate it, im¬
pregnate it, and unite with it in proportion as its parts
are diflipated by evaporation.
It is a queftion of great importance among naturalifts,
to know the time which Nature employs in petrify¬
ing bodies of an ordinary fize.—It was the wifii of the
emperor, duke of Lorraine, that fome means ftiould
betaken for determining this queftion. M.le Cheva¬
lier de Baillu, dire&or of the cabinet of natural hiftory
of his imperial majefty, and fome other naturalifts, had,
feveral years ago, the idea of making a refearch which
might throw fome light upon it. His imperial majefty
being informed by the unanimous obfervations of mo¬
dern hiftorians and geographers, that certain pillars
which are aftually feen in the Danube in Servia, near
Belgrade, are remains of the bridge which Trajan con-
ftrufted over that river, prefumed that thefe pillars ha¬
ving been preferved for fo many ages behoved to be
petrified, and that they would furnilh fome information,
with regard to the time which nature employs in
changing wood into ftone. The emperor thinking this
hope well founded, and wifhing to fatisfy his curiofity,
ordered his ambaffador at the court of Conftantinople
to
PET [ 239 ] PET
pctrifac- to alk permifTion to take up from the Danube one of
tion. the pillars of Trajan’s bridge. The petition was grant-
and one of the pillars was accordingly taken up ;
from which it appeared that the petrifaftion had only
advanced three fourths of an inch in the fpace of 1500
years. There are, however, certain waters in which
this tranfmutation is more readily accomplilhed.—Pe-
trifa&ions appear to be formed more llowly in earths
that are porous and in a flight degree moift than in wa¬
ter itfelf.
When the foundations of the city of Quebec in Ca¬
nada were dug up, a petrified favage was found among
the lafi: beds to which they proceeded. Although there
was no idea of the time at which this man had been
buried under the ruins, it is however true, that his quiver
and arrows were ftill well preferved. In digging a lead-
mine in Derbyfhire, in 1744, a human fkeleton was
found among flags horns. It is impoflible to fay how
many ages this carcafe had lain there. In 1695 the
entire Ikeleton of an elephant was dug up near Tonna
in Thuringia. Some time before this epoch the petri¬
fied fkeleton of a crocodile was found in the mines of
that country. We might cite another fa£l equally cu¬
rious which happened at the beginning of the laft cen¬
tury. John Munte, curate of Slasgarp in Scania, and
feveral of his pariftuoners, wifhing to procure turf from
a drained marfhy foil, found, fome feet below ground,
an entire cart with the fkeletons of the horfes and car¬
ter. It is prefumed that there had formerly been a
lake in that place, and that the carter attempting to
pafs over on the ice, had by that means probably perifh-
ed. In fine, wood partly foflil and partly coaly, has
been found at a great depth, in the clay of which tile
was made for the abbey of Fontenay. It is but very
lately that foflil wood Avas difeovered at the depth of 75
feet in a well betwixt Ifli and Vauvres near Paris. This
Avood Avas in fand betwixt a bed of clay and pyrites, and
Avater was found four feet loAver than the pyrites. M.
de Laumont, infpedlor general of the mines, fays
(Journal de Physique, Mai 1736), that in the lead-
mine at Pontpean near Rennes, is a fiflure, perhaps the
only one of its kind. In that fiflure, fea-ftiells, round¬
ed pebbles, and an entire beech, have been found 240
feet deep. This beech Avas laid horizontally in the
direfHon of the fiflure. Its bark Avas converted into
pyrites, the fap-Avood into jet, and the centre into
coal.
A great many pieces of petrified Avood are found in
different counties of France and Savoy. In Cobourg
in Saxony, and in the mountains of Mifnia, trees of a
confiderable thicknefs have been taken from the earth,
Avhich Avere entirely changed into a very fine agate, as
alfo their branches and their roots. In faiving them,
the annual circles of their groAvth have been diftin-
guiflied. Pieces have been taken up, on Avhich it Avas
diftindlly feen that they had been gnawed by Avorms ;
others bear vifible marks of the hatchet. In fine, pie¬
ces have been found which Avere petrified at one end,
while the other ftill remained in the ftate of Avood fit
for being burned. It appears then that petrified wood
a great deal lefs rare in nature than is commonly ima¬
gined.
Cronftedt has excluded petrifaftions from any place
m the body of his fyftem of mineralogy, but takes
notice of them in his appendix. He diftinguiflies them
by the name of Mineralia Larvata, and defines them Petrifac-
to be “ mineral bodies in the form of animals or vege- t*on•
tables.” The moft remarkable obfervations concerning v
them, according to Mr Kirwan, Avho differs in fome
particulars from Mongez, are as follow. 1. Thofe of
(hells are found on or near the furface of the earth j
thofe of fifti deeper } and thofe of wood deeper ftill.
Shells in fubftance are found in vart quantities, and at
confiderable depths. 2. The fubftances moit fufeep-
tible of petrifadtion are thofe which moft refift the pu-
trefadlive procefs j of Avhich kind are (hells, the harder
kinds of wood, &c. ; while the fofter parts of animals,
which eafily putrefy, are feldom met Avith in a petri¬
fied ftate. 3. They are moft commonly found in ftrata
of marl, chalk, limeftone, or clay : feldom in fandftone,
ft ill more feldom in gypfum } and never in gneifs, gra¬
nite, bafaltes, or fchoerl. Sometimes they are found
in pyrites, and ores of iron, copper, and filver 5 con¬
fiding almoft ahvays of that kind of earth or other mi¬
neral Avhich furrounds them ; fometimes of (ilex, agate,
or cornelian. 4. They are found in climates Avhere the
animals themfeh'es could not have exifted. 5. Thofe
found in (late or clay are comprefled and flattened.
The different fpecies of petrifadlions, according to
Cronftedt, are,
I. Terrce Larvatce ; extraneous bodies changed into
a limy fubftance, or calcareous changes. Thefe are, r.
Loofe or friable. 2. Indurated. The former are of a
chalky nature in form of vegetables or animals j the
fecond filled Avith folid limeftone in the fame forms.
Some are found entirely changed into a calcareous fpar.
All of them are found in France, Sweden, and other
countries in great plenty.
On thefe petrifactions Cronftedt obfen'es, that (hells
and corals are compofed of limy matter even Avhen ftill
inhabited by their animals, but they are claffed among
the petrifactions as foon as the calcareous particles
have obtained a neAV arrangement j for example, Avhen
they have become fparry ; filled Avith calcareous earth
either hardened or loofe, or when they lie in the ftrata
of the earth. “ Thefe, fays he, form the greateft part
of the foflil collections Avhich are fo induftrioufly made,
often without any regard to the principal and only ufe
they can be of, viz. that of enriching zoology. Minera-
logifts are fatisfied Avith feeing the poflibility of the
changes the limeftone undergoes in regard to its parti¬
cles ; and alfo with receiving fome infight into the alter¬
ation Avhich the earth has been fubjeft to from the ftate
of the ftrata which are norv found in it.” The calcined
(hells, Avhere the petrifactions are of a limy or chalky
nature, anfwer extremely Avell as a manure j but the in¬
durated kind ferve only for making grottoes. Gypfeous
petrifactions are extremely rare ; hoAvever, Chardin in¬
forms us that he had feen a lizard inclofed in a (tone o*
that kind in Perfia.
II. Larvae, or bodies changed into a flinty fubftance.
Thefe are all indurated, and are of the following fpe¬
cies. 1. Cornelians in form of (hells from the river
Tomm in Siberia. 2. Agate in form of Avood j a piece
of Avhich is faid to be in the collection of the Count de
Teflin. 3. Coralloids of Avhite flint (Millepora') found
in Sweden. 4. Wood of yelloAV flint found in Italy, in
Turkey near Adrianople, and produced by the Avaters
of Lough-neagh in Ireland.
III. Lurvce Argillaceee } Avhere the bodies appear to
be
E T [ 240 ] PET
Thefe are found either loofe and calx, which has affumed the place or fhape of extraneous Petrlfac.
Thefe are either loofe or indurated. Of the
be changed into clay
friable, or indurated. Of the former kind is a piece of
porcelain clay met with in a certain colleftion, with all
the marks of the root of a tree upon it. Of the latter
kind is the ofteocolla ; which is faid to be the roots of
the poplar-tree changed, and not to confiil: of any calca¬
reous fubdance. A fort of foflil ivory, with all the
properties of clay, is faid likewife to be found in fome
places.
IV. Larvce infa/itcv ; where the fubftances are im¬
pregnated with great quantities of falts. Human bodies
have been twice found impregnated with vitriol of iron
in the mine of Falun, in tire province of Dalarne in
Sweden. One of them was kept for feveral years in a
glafs cafe, but at laft began to moulder and fall to pieces.
Turf and roots of trees are likewife found in water
Ifrongly impregnated with vitriol. They do not flame,
but look like a coal in a ftrong fire 5 neither do they
decay in the air.
V. Bodies penetrated by mineral inflammable fub-
ftances. 1. By pit-coal, fuch as wood } whence fome
have imagined coal to have been originally produced
from wood. Some of thefe fubftances are fully latu-
rated with the'coaly matter 5 others not. Among the
former Cronftedt reckons jet 5 among the latter the
fubftance called mumia vegetabi/is, which is of a loofe
texture, refembling amber, and may be ufed as fuch.
2. Thofe penetrated by afphaltum or rock-oil. The
only example of thefe given by our author is a kind
of turf in the province of Skone in Sweden. The E-
gyptian mummies, he obferves, cannot have any place
among this fpecies, as they are impregnated artificially
with afphaltum, in a manner fimilar to what happens
naturally with the wood and coaly matter in the laft
fpecies. 3. Thofe impregnated with fulphur which has
dilfolved iron, or with pyrites. Human bodies, bivalve
and univalve ftiells and infedls, have been all found in
this ftate ; and the laft are found in the alum flate at
Andrarum, in the province of Skone in Sweden.
VI. Larvce metallifercewhere the bodies are im¬
pregnated with metals. Thefe are, 1. Covered with
native filver •, which is found on the furface of ftiells
in England. 2. Where the metal is mineralized with
copper and fulphur. Of this kind is the falhertz or
gray fdver ore, in the Ihape of ears of corn, and fup-
pofed to be vegetables, found in argillaceous flate at
Frankenberg and Tahlitteren in Heffe. 3. Larvce cu-
priferce, where the bodies are impregnated with copper.
To this fpecies principally belong the turquoife or Tur¬
key ftones, improperly fo called ; being ivory and bones
of the elephant or other animals impregnated with cop¬
per. At Simore in Languedoc there are bones of ani¬
mals dug up, which, during calcination, a flume a blue
•colour ; but according to Cronftedt it is not probable
that thefe owe their colour to copper. 3. With mine¬
ralized copper. Of thefe our author gives two exam¬
ples. One is where the copper is mineralized with ful¬
phur and iron, forming a yellow marcafitical ore. With
this fome ftiells are impregnated which lie upon a bed of
loadftone in Norway. Other petrifactions of this kind
are found in the form of fith in different parts of Ger¬
many. The other kind is where the copper is impreg¬
nated with fulphur and filver. Of this kind is the gray
filver ore, like ears of corn, found in the flate quarries
at Heffe. 4. Larvce ferriferce, with iron in form of a
bodie
loofe kind are fome roots of trees found at the lake Lan-
gelma in Finland. The indurated kinds are exemplified
in fome wood found at Orbiflan in Bohemia. 5. Where
the iron is mineralized, as in the pyritaceous larvae, al¬
ready defcribed.
VII. Where the bodies are tending to decompofition,
or in a way of deftru&ion. Among thefe, our author
enumerates Mould and Turf. See likewife the ar¬
ticle Fossil.
We ftiall add the following defcription of a very cu¬
rious animal petrifaction. The Abbe de Sauvages, ce¬
lebrated for his refined tafte and knowledge in natural
hiftory, in a tour through Languedoc, between Alais
and Uzes, met with a narrow vein of no more than two
toifes wide, which croffes the road, and is bordered on
one lide by a gray dirty foil, and on the other by a dry
fandy earth, each of a vaft extent, and on a level with
the narrow vein which feparates them. In this narrow
vein only are contained petrified {hells, cemented toge¬
ther by a whitilh marl. They are in prodigious plen¬
ty ; among which there is one fpecies which the abbe
does not remember to have known to have been any¬
where defcribed, and may probably be a new acquifition
to natural hiftory.
This {hell has the ftiape of a horn, fomewhat incur-
vated towards the bafe. It feems compofed of feveral
cups, let into each other, which are fometimes found
feparate. They have all deep channels, which extend,
as in many other {hells, from the bafe to the aperture j
the projedling ribs which form thefe channels are moft-
ly worn away, being rarely to be found entire. Some¬
times feveral are grouped together ; and as a proof that
they are not a fortuitous affemblage caufed by the petri-
fadlion, they are fixed together through their whole
length, in fuch fort, that their bafe and aperture are
regularly turned the fame way. The abbe ihould have
referred this to the genus which Linnaeus and the mar¬
quis d’Argenville named denta/is, had they not been let
into each other. He found fome of them whofe aper¬
ture or hollow was not {topped up by the petrifaction,
and feemed as cones adapted to one another, forming a
row of narrow cells, feparated by a very thin partition :
this row occupied not more than one half of the cavity
of the fhell.
Our article has already extended to fuch a length as
to preclude any further additions j we cannot, however,
finifli it without obferving, that foflil bones are very
common in Dalmatia. They are of various kinds, and
in their nature apparently very extraordinary ; but we
have found no tolerable account or probable conjeClure
of their origin. Vitaliano Donati of Padua, in his Sag-
gio fopra la Jlorie naturale delP Adnatico, was the firft
who took notice of them j and Fortis, in his I ravels into
Dalmatia, has given a copious account of them. 1 hey
are moft common in the iflands of Cherfo and Ofero.
See Fortis’s Travels into Dalmatia; and thofe of our
readers who wifh to profecute this inquiry may confult
with advantage Parkinfon’s Organic Remains of a For¬
mer World, two vols. qto.
PETRIFIED CITY. The ftory of a petrified city
is well known all over Africa, and has been believed
by many confiderable perfons even in Europe. Louis
XIV. was fo fully perfuaded of its reality that he or¬
dered
PET r 241 ] P E T
(Petrified dered his ambalTador to procure the body of a man pe-
City. trified from it at any price. Dr Shaw’s account of this
affair is as follows: “ About 40 years ago (new more
than 70), when M. le Maire was the French conful at
Tripoli, he made great inquiries, by order of the French
court, into the truth of the report concerning a petri¬
fied city at Has Sem } and amongft other very curious
accounts relating to this place, he told me a remark¬
able circumltance, to the great difcredit, and even con¬
futation, of all that had been fo pofitively advanced with
regard to the petrified bodies of men, children, and o-
ther animals.
“ Some of the janizaries, who, in colledting tribute,
traverfed the diftridl of Has Sem, promifed him, that,
as an adult perfon would be too cumberfome, they
would undertake, for a certain number of dollars, to
bring him from thence the body of a little child. Af¬
ter a great many pretended difficulties, delays, and dif-
appointments, they produced at length a little Cupid,
which they had found, as he learned afterwards, among
the ruins of Leptis ; and, to conceal the deceit, they
broke off the quiver, and fome other of the diftinguiffi-
ing charadteriftics of that deity. However, he paid
them for it, according to promlfe, 1000 dollars, which
is about 150I. flerling of our money, as a reward for
their faithful fervice and hazardous undertaking; ha¬
ving run the rifk, as they pretended, of being ftrangled
if they ffiould have been difcovered in thus delivering
up to an infidel, one of thofe unfortunate Mahometans,
as they take them originally to have been.
“ But notwithftanding this cheat and impofition had
made the. conful defift from fearching after the petri¬
fied bodies of men and other animals; yet there was
one matter of fact, as he told me, which dill very
ftrangely embarraffed him, and even ftrongly engaged
him in favour of the current report and tradition. This
was fome little loaves of bread, as he called them,
which had been brought to him from that place. His
reafoning, indeed thereupon, provided the pretended
matter of fa& had been clear and evident, was juft and
fatisfadlory ; for where we find loaves of bread, there,
as he urged, fome perfons muft been employed in ma¬
king them, as well as others for whom they were pre¬
pared. One of thefe loaves he had, among other petri-
fications, very fortunately brought with him to Cairo,
where I faw it, and found it to be an echinites of the
difcoid kind, of the fame faffiion writh one I had lately
found and brought with me from the deferts of Marah.
We may therefore reafonably conclude, that there is
nothing to be found at Ras Sem, unlefs it be the trunks
of trees, echinites, and fuch petrifications as have been
difcovered at other places.
“ M. le Maire’s inquiries, which we find were fup-
ported by the promife and performance of great rewards,
have brought nothing further to light. He could never
learn that any traces of walls, or buildings, or animals,
or utenfils, were ever to be feen within the verge of
thefe pretended petrifications. The like account I had
from a Sicilian renegado, who was the janizary that at¬
tended me whilft I was in Egypt •, and as in his earlier
years he had been a foldier of Tripoli, he affured me
that he had been feveral times at Ras Sem. This-1 had
confirmed again in my return from the Levant by the
interpreter of the Britifti factory at Tunis, who was like-
wife a Sicilian renegado j and being the libertus or freed-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
man of the baftiaw of Tripoli, was preferred by him to I’etniac->
be the bey or viceroy of the province of Darna, where u ,n’
„ „ J , e ... . 7 -u. Fetrobrut-
Kas bem W'as immediately under his junidiction. riis ^,ins
account was likevvife the lame; neither had he ever  •
feen, in his frequent journeys over this diftridt, any
other petrifications than what are above mentioned. So
that the petrified city, with its walls, caftles, ftreets,
(hops, cattle, inhabitants, and utenfils, were all of them at
firft the mere inventions of the Arabs, and afterwards
propagated by fuch perfons, who, like the Tripoli am-
baffador, and his friend above mentioned, were credu¬
lous enough to believe them.
“ However, there is one remarkable circumftance
relating to Ras Sem that deferves well to be recorded.
When the winds have blown away the billows of fand,
which frequently cover and conceal thefe petrifications,
they difcover, in fome of the lower and more deprefled
places of this diftridl, feveral little pools of water,
which is ufually of fo ponderous a nature, that, upon
drinking it, it palfes through the body like quickfilver.
This perhaps may be that petrifying fluid which has
all along contributed to the converfion of the palm trees
and the echini into ftone : for the formation not only of
thefe, but of petrifications of all kinds, may be entirely
owing to their having firft of all lodged in a bed of
loam, clay, fand, or fome other proper nidus or ma¬
trix, and afterwards gradually been a<fted upon and per¬
vaded by fuch a petrifying fluid as we may fuppofe this
to be.”
To this account it may not be amifs to fubjoin the
memorial of Caffem Aga, the Tripoli ambaffador at the
court of Britain. The city, he fays, is fituated two days
journey fouth from Onguela, and 17 days journey from
Tripoli by caravan to the fouth-eaft. “ As one of my
friends (fays the ambaffador) defired me to give him in
writing an account of what I knew touching the petri¬
fied city, I told him what I had heard from different
perfons, and particularly from the mouth of one man of
credit who had been on the fpot : that is to fay, that it
was a very fpacious city, of a round form, having great
and fmall ftreets therein, furnilhed with (hops, with a
vaft caftle magnificently built : that he had feen there
feveral forts of trees, the moft part olives and palms, all
of ftone, and of a blue or rather lead colour : that he
faw alfo figures of men in a pofture of exercifing their
different employments ; fome holding in their hands
fluffs, others bread, every one doing fomething, even
women fuckling their children, and in the embraces of
their hufbands, all of ftone : that he went into the caftle
by three different gates, though there were many more,
where he faw a man lying upon a bed of ftone: that
there were guards at the gates with pikes and javelins,
in their hands : in ffiort, that he faw in this wonderful
city many forts of animals, as camels, oxen, horfes, afies,
flieep, and birds, all of ftone, and of the colour above
mentioned.
We have fubjoined this account, becaufe it (hows in
ftriking colours the amazing credulity of mankind, and
the avidity with which they fw allow the marvellous, and
the difficulty of difcovering the truth refpedling places
or things at a diftance from us.
PE I ROBRUSSIANS, a religious fed, which had
its rife in France and the Netherlands about the year
1110. The name is derived from Peter Bruys, a Pro¬
vencal, who made the moft laudable attempt to reform
H h
PET [ 242 ] PET
Petrobruf- t,l)S aHufes and remove the fuperflition that dii’graced the
beautiful fimplicity of the gofpel. His followers were
Petronius numerous 5 and for 20 years his labour in the miniftry
^—' was exemplary and unremitted. He was, however, burnt
in the year 1x30 by an enraged populace fet on by the
clergy.
The chief of Bruys’s followers was a monk named
/ Henry ; from whom the Petrobruffians were alfo called
Henricians. Peter the Venerable, abbot of Clugny, has
an exprefs treatife againlf the Petrobruffians ; in the pre¬
face to which he reduces their opinions to five heads,
j. They denied that children before the age of reafon
can be juflified by baptifra, in regard it is our own raith
that faves by haptifm. 2. They held that no churches
ihould be built, but that thofe that already are fhould
be pulled down j an inn being as proper tor prayers as a
temple, and a liable as an altar. 3. That the crofs ought
to be pulled down and burnt, becaufe we ought to abhor
the inllruments of our Saviour’s paffion. 4. That the
real body and blood of Chrill are not exhibited in the
tucharift, but merely reprefented by their figures and
fymbols. 5. That facrifices, alms, prayers, &c. do not
avail the dead. F. Langlois objects Manicheifm to the
Petrobruffians ; and fays, they maintained two gods, the
one good, the other evil : but this we rather efteem an
effieft of his zeal for the catholic caufe, which determin¬
ed him to blacken the adverfaries thereof, than any real
fentiment of the Petrobruffians.
PETROJOANNITES, were followers of Peter
John, or Peter Joannis, i.e. Peter the Ion of John, who
flourifhed in the 12th century. His doftrine was not
known till after his death, when his body was taken
out of his grave and burnt. His opinions Avere, that he
alone had the knowledge of the true fenfe wherein the
apoftles preached the gofpel ; that the reafonable foul
is not the form of man ; that there is no grace infufed
by baptifm j and that Jefus Chrift Avas pierced Avith a
lance on the crofs before he expired.
PETROLEUM, or Rock Oil; a thick oily fub-
Rance exuding from the earth, and collected on the fur-
face of Avells in many parts of the Avorld. See Mine¬
ralogy Index.
PETROMYZON, the Lamprey, a genus of fiffies
belonging to the order Cartilcrginei. See Ichthyology
Index.
PETRONIUS Avas a renowned Roman fenator.
When governor of Egypt, he permitted Herod, king of
the Jcaa's, to purchafe in Alexandria any quantity of
corn Avhich he ffiould judge neceffary for the fupply of
his fubjefts, who were afflicted Avith a fevere famine.
WhenTiberius died, Caius Caligula, who fucceeded him,
took from Vitellius the government of Syria, and gave
it to Petronius, Avho difeharged the duties of his office
with dignity and honour. From his inclination to favour
the Jcavs, he run the rifk of lofing the emperor’s friend-
fhip and his oavh life ; for Avhen that prince gave orders
to have his ftatue depofited in the temple of Jerufalem,
Petronius, finding that the Jbavs Avould rather fuffer
death than fee that facred place profaned, was unAvilling
to have recourfe to violent meafures ; and therefore pre¬
ferred a moderation, didlated by humanity, to a cruel
obedience. We muft not confound him Avith another
of the fame name, viz. Petronius Granius, Avha Avas a
centurion in the eighth legion, and ferved under Caefar
In the Gallic war. In his voyage to Africa, of which
5
country he had been appointed quseftor, the flop in Avhich JVtroetoj.
he failed was taken by Scipio, who cauied all the foldiers v—
to be put to the fword, and promifed to fave the quee-
ftor’s life, provided that he would renounce CoefarV
party. To this propofal Petronius replied, that “ Cadar’s
officers Avere accuitomed to grant life to others, and not
to receive it and, at the fame time, he ftabbed him*
felt Avith his own iword.
PETRONIUS Arbiter, Titus, a celebrated critic and.
polite Avriter of antiquity, the favourite of Nero, fup-
pofed to be the fame mentioned by Tacitus in the x6tb.
book of his Annals. He Avas proconful of Bitbynia,
and afterwards conful, and appeared capable of the
greateil employments. He Avas one of Nero’s princi¬
pal confidants, and in a manner the fuperintendant of his
pieafures ; for that prince thought nothing agreeable or
delightful but Avhat Avas approved by Pttronius. The
great favours ffioAvn him dreAv upon him the envy of Ti-
gellinus, another of Nero’s favourites, who accufed him
of being concerned in a confpiracy againll the emperor ;
on Avhich Petronius was feized, and was fentenced to die.
He met death with a ftriking indifference, and feemsto
have tailed it nearly as he had done his pieafures. He
would fometimes open a vein, and lometimes clofe it, eon-
verling with his friends in the meamvhile, not on the im¬
mortality of the foul, which was no part of his creed,
but on topics Avhich plcafed his fancy, as of love-verfes,
agreeable and paffionate airs ; fo that it has been faid
“ his dying Avas barely ceafing to live.” Of this difciple
of Epicurus, Tacitus gives the folloAving character :
“ He Avas (fays he) neither a fpendthrift nor a debau¬
chee, like the generality of thofe who ruin themfelves ;
but a refined voluptuary, Avho devoted the day to fletp,
and the night to the duties of his office, and to pleafure.”
This courtier is much diflinguiffied by a fatire Avhich he
Avrote, and fecretly conveyed to Nero ; in Avhich he in-
genioufly deicribes, under borro\Ared names, the charafter
of this prince. Voltaire is of opinion that Ave have no
more of this performance but an extraft made by fome
obfeure libertine, without either tafle or judgment.
Peter Petit difeovered at TraAV in Dalmatia, in 1665,
a confidcrable fragment containing the fequel of Tri-
malcion’s Feaft. This fragment, which Avas printed the
year after at Padua and at Paris, produced a paper Avar
among the learned. While fome affirmed that it Avas the
work of Petronius, and others denied it to be fo, Petit
continued to affert his right to the difeovery of the ma-
nufeript, and fent it to Rome, where it Avas acknoAV-
ledged to be a production of the 15th century. The
French critics, who had attacked its authenticity, Avere
filent from the moment it Avas depofited in the royal
library. It is noAV generally attributed to Petronius,
and found in every fubfequent edition of the Avorks of
that refined voluptuary. The public did not form the
fame favourable opinion of fome other fragments, which
Avere extracted from a manufeript found at Belgrade in
3688, and printed at Paris by Nodot in 1694, though
they are aferibed by the editor Charpentier, and feA^eral
other learned men, to Petronius ; yet, on account of the
Gallicifms, and other barbarous expreffions with which
they abound, they have generally been confidered as
umvortby of that author. His genuine AVorks are, 1. A
Poem on the civil Avar between Caefar and Pompey,
tranflated into profe by Abbe de Marolles, and into
French verfe by Prefident Bouhier, 1737,40 410. Pe¬
tronius,
PET
[ 243 ]
PET
'Pctreniu* trohius, fall o£ fire and enthufiafm, and diTgufied with
II Lucan’s flowery language, oppofed Pharfalia to Pharfa*
Pettt'ia' , Ha j but his work, though evidently fuperior to the
v " other in fome refpedls, is by no means in the true ftyle
of epic poetry. 2. A Poem on the Education of the
Roman Youth. 3. Two Treatifes; one upon the Cor¬
ruption of Eloquence, and the other on the Caufes of
the Decay of Arts and Sciences. 4. A Poem on the
Vanity of Dreams. 5. The Shipwreck of Licas. 6.
Reflections on the Inconflancy of Human Life. And,
7. Trimalcion’s Banquet. To this lafi: performance
morality is not much indebted. It is a deicription of
the pleafures of a corrupted court •, and the painter is
rather an ingenious courtier than a perfon whofe aim is
to perform abufes* The belt editions of Petronius are
thofe publifhed at Venice, 1499, in 410 ; at Amfterdaru,
1669, in 8vo, cum notis variorum; Ibid, with Bofchius’s
notes, 1677, *n 2 ito j and 1700, two vols. in 2410.
The edition of variorum was reprinted in 1743, in two
Vols. 4to, with the learned Peter Burman’s commen¬
taries. Petronius died in the year 65 or 66.
Petronius Maximawas born in the year 395, of
an illuftrious family, being at firlt a fenator and eonfiil
of Rome. He put on the imperial purple in 455, after
having effected the affaflination of Valentinian III. In
order to eftabliih himfelf upon the throne, he married
Eudoxia the widow of that unfortunate prince; and
as fire was ignorant of his villany, he confefled to her,
in a tranfport of love, that the ttrong denre he had of
being her hufband, had made him commit this atrocious
crime. Whereupon Eudoxia privately applied to Gen-
leric, king of the Vandals, who coming into Italy with
a vory powerful army, entered Rome, where the ufurper
then was. The unhappy wretch endeavoured to make
his efcape ; but the foldiers and people, enraged at his
cowardice, fell upon him, and overwhelmed him with a
lliower of Hones, His body was dragged through the
if reels of the city for three days ; and, after treating it
with every mark of difgrace, they threw it into the
Tiber the r 2th of June the fame year, 45 5. He reign¬
ed only 77 days. He had fome good qualities. He loved
and cultivated the faiences. He was prudent in his
councils, circumfpeft in his atflions, equitable in his
judgments; a facetious companion, and Heady friend.
He had the good fortune to win the affeftions of every
body, while he remained a private character; but as a
prince, he was fo much the more deteHable, in that, af¬
ter he had obtained the throne by villany, he kept pof-
feflion of it only by violence. 'The crown was fcarcely
on his head before it appeared to him an infupportable
burden. “ Happy Democles (exclaimed he in his de-
fpair), thou Avert a king during a fingle entertainment.”
PETROSA ossa, in Anatomy, a name given to the
fourth and fifth bones of the cranium, called alfo ojfa
temporum and q/Jci fqUamofa ; the fubHance Avhereof, as
their firH and laH names exprefs, is fquamele and very
hard. See Anatomy Index.
PETROSELINUM (APiuMFl!:TROSELTNUM,Lin.)
Parjley3 a plant which is commonly cultivated for culi¬
nary purpofes. See Botany and Gardening Index.
PETTEIA, in the ancient mufie, a term to which
we have no one correfponding in our language.
The melopoeia, or the art of arranging founds in fuc-
ceflion fo as to make melodv, is divided into three parts,
which the Greeks call lepjis, mixis, and chrejis; the
Latins*yi//7i/o//<9, mix to, and ufus ; and the Italians prefa,
mefcolamento, and ufo.. The laH of thefe is called by the
Greeks ■xillux, and by the Italians pettia ; which there- ^
fore means the art of making a juH difeernment of all
the manners of ranging or combining founds among
themfelves, fo as they may produce their effeft, i. e.
may exprefs the feveral paffions intended to be raifed.
Thus it fhows what founds are to be ufed, and Avhat
not ; hoAV often they are feverally to be repeated ; with
which to begin, and with which to end ; whether with
a grave found to rife, or an acute one to fall, &c. The
petteia conHitutes the manners of the mufic ; choofes out
this or that paflion, this or that motion of the foul, to
be awakened ; and determines whether it be proper to
excite it on this or that occafion. The petteia, therefore,
is in mufic much Avhat the manners are in poetry.
It is not eafy to dilcover whence the denomination
fiiould have been taken by the Greeks, unlefs from
ttitIux, their game of chefs, the mufical petteia being
a fort of combination and arrangement of founds, as
chefs is of pieces called vn-rho, calculi, or “ chefs-men.”
PETTY, Sir William, fon of Anthony Petty, a
clothier, was born at Rumfey, a fmall town in Hamp-
fhire, in 1623 i ancl while a boy took great delight
in [pending his time among the artificers, whofe trades
he could work at when but twelve years of age*
Then he went to the grammar fchool there : at fif¬
teen he Avas mafler of the Latin, Greek, and French
tongues, and of arithmetic and thofe parts of praclical
geometry and altronomy ufcful to navigation. Soon
alter he went to Caen in Normandy, and Paris, where
he Hudied anatomy, and read Vefalius with Mr Hobbes.
Upon his return to England, he Avas preferred in the
king’s navy. In 1643, "hen the Avar between the king
and parliament grew hot, he Avent into the Netherlands
and France for three years; and having vigoroufly pro-*
fecuted his fiudies, efpecially in phyfic, at Utrecht, Ley¬
den, Amflerdam, and Paris, he returned home to Rum¬
fey. In 1647, ^ie obtained a patent to teach the art of
double writing for feventeen years. In 1648, he pub-
lifiied at London “ AdA'ice to Mr Samuel Hartlib, for
the advancement of fome particular parts of learning.”
At this time lie adhered to the prevailing party of the
kingdom ; and went to Oxford, AVhere he taught ana¬
tomy and obemiflry, and Avas created a dottor of phyfic.
In 1650, he Avas made profeffor of anatomy there ; and
foon after a member of the college of phyficiansin Lon¬
don. The fame year he became phyfician to the army
in Ireland ; where he continued till 1659, and acquired
a great fortune. After the refloration, he was introdu¬
ced to King Charles II. who knighted him in 1661. In
1662, he publifhed “ A Treatife of taxes and contribu¬
tions.” Next year he was greatly applauded in Ireland
for his invention of a double-bottomed Ibip. He died at
London, in 1687, of a gangrene in the foot, occafioned
by the fwelling of the gout.
The charafter of his genius is fufficiently feen in his
Avritings, which Avere much more numerous than thofe
we have mentioned above. Among thefe, it is faid, ho
wrote the biflory of his own life, which unquefiionably
contained a full account of his political and religious
principles, as may be conie£tured from Avhat he has left
us upon thofe fubjefts in his will. In that he lias thefe
remarkable words : “ As for legacies to the poor, I am
at a Hand ; and for beggars by trade and election, I give
H h 2 them
Peitei.i,
Petty.
'Petty
II
Pet worth.
P E T J 244 ] P E Y
as for impotents by the hand of God, the particularly the magnificent feat of the^ Percies, earls of Petworth
them nothing
public ought to maintain them : as for thofe who can get
no work, the magiftrates fhould caule them to be em¬
ployed ) which may be tvell done in Ireland, where are
fifteen acres of improveable land for every head : as for
prifoners for crimes by the king, or for debt by their
profecutors, thofe who compaflionate the fufferings of
any objeft, let them relieve themfelves by relieving fuch
fufferers *, that is, give them alms (a), &c. I am con¬
tented that I have affiiled all my poor relations, and
put many into a way of getting their own bread, and
have laboured in public works and inventions, and have
fought out real objefts of charity } and do hereby con¬
jure all who partake of my eftate, from time to time to
do the fame at their peril. Neverthelefs, to anfwer cuf-
tom, and to take the fure fide, I give twenty pounds to
the moft wanting of the parilh wherein I die.” As for
his religion, he fays, “ I die in the profeffion of that
faith, and in the pra&ice of fuch worlhip, as I find
•eftabliihed by the laws of my country ; not being able
to believe what I myfelf pleafe, nor to -worlhip God bet¬
ter than by doing as I would be done unto, and obferv-
ing the laws of my country, and expreffing my love and
honour to Almighty God, by fuch figns and tokens as
are underftood to be fuch by the people with whom I
live.” He died poffeflfed of a very large fortune, and
his family was afterwards ennobled.
The variety of purfuits in which Sir William Petty
was engaged, {hows him to have had a genius capable
of any thing to which he chofe to apply it •, and it is
very extraordinary, that a man of fo adlive and bufy a
fpirit could find time to write fo many things as it ap¬
pears he did.
Petty, any thing little or diminutive, w'hen compa¬
red with another.
Pf.TTT- Bug, an office in chancery; the three clerks
of which record the return of all inquifitions out of every
county, and make all patents of comptrollers, gaugers,
Guftomers, &.c»
PeTIT-Chaps. See Motacilla, Ornithology
Index*
PeTTT-Fogger, a little tricking folicitor or attorney,
without either (kill or confidence.
PETTY, or Petit, Larceny. See Larceny.
PETTT-Patees, among confe&ioners, a fort of fmall
pies, made of a rich cruft filled with fweetmeats.
P E TIT- Singles, among falconers, are the toes of a ha wk.
PETIT- Tally, in the fea language, a competent al¬
lowance of victuals, according to the number of the
{hip’s company.
Petty, or Petit, Treafon. See Treason.
PETUNSE, in Natural Hijlon/, one of the two fub-
ftances of which porcelain or china-ware is made. The
petunfe is a coarfe kind of flint or pebble, the furface
of which is not fo fmooth when broken as that of our
«ommon flint. See Porcelain.
PETWORTH, in Suffix in England, five miles
from Midhurft and the Suffix Downs, and 49 from
London, is a large and handfome town, with 2664 in¬
habitants. It is adorned with feveral feats of gentlemen,
Northumberland, many of whom lie buried in a fepa-
rate vault of its church. In the duke of Somerfet’s ar-, eyrere’
mory, in this place, there is a fword which, by circum-
ftances, appears to have been the weapon of the famous
Henry Hotfpur, though it is lefs unwieldy than other
ancient fwords.
PEUCEDANUM, or Sulphur-wort, a genus of
plants belonging to the pentandria clafs, and in the na¬
tural method ranking under the 45th order, Unibel/utar.
See Botany Index.
PEUTEMAN, Peter, was born at Rotterdam in
1650, and was a good painter of inanimate objedts; but
the moft memorable particular relative to this artift was
the incident which occafioned his death.
He was requefted to paint an emblematical pifture °/
of mortality, reprefenting human Ikulls and bones, fur- Paintas'
rounded with rich gems and mufical inftruments, to ex-
prefs the vanity of this world’s pleafures, amufements,
or poffiffions ; and that he might imitate nature with
the greater exa&nefs, he went into an anatomy room,
where feveral {keletons hung by wires from the ceiling,
and bones, fkulls, &c. lay fcattered about; and imme¬
diately prepared to make his defigns.
While he was thus employed, either by fatigue, or
by intenfe ftudy, infenfibly he fell afleep ; but was fud-
denly roufed by a ffiock of an earthquake, which hap¬
pened at that inftant, on the 18th of September 1692.
The moment he awoke, he obferved the Ikeletons move
about as they were ffiaken in different directions, and
the loofe fkulls roll from one fide of the room to the
other } and being totally ignorant of the caufe, he was
{truck with fuch a horror, that he threw himfelf down
flairs, and tumbled into the ftreet half dead. His
friends took all poffible pains to efface the impreffion
made on his mind by that unlucky event, and acquaint¬
ed him with the real caufe of the agitation of the {ke¬
letons ; yet the tranfaCHon ftill affeCted his fpirits in fo
violent a manner, that it brought on a diforder, w'hicE
in a ffiort time ended his days. His general fubjeCIs
wrere either allegorical or emblematical allufions to the
ffiortnefs and mifery of human life.
PEWIT, Sea-crow, or Mire-Crow. See Larus,
OrnITHOIOGY Index.
PEW'TER, a fictitious metal ufed in making domef-
tic utenfils, as plates, diffies, &c.—The bafis of the me¬
tal is tin, united to fmall portions of lead, zinc, bifmuth,
and antimony. “ We have (fays Dr Watfon) three
forts of pew'ter in common ufe ; they are diftinguiffied
by the name of Plate, Trifle, and Ley. The plate pew¬
ter is ufed for plates and diffies ; the trifle, chiefly for
pints and quarts 5 and the ley-metal for wine meafures,
&c. Our very beft pewter is laid to confift of 100
parts tin, and 17 of antimony, though others allow
only 10 parts of the latter Befides this compofition, * aim-
there are other kinds, compounded of tin, antimony, bit-Efays,
muth, an4 copper, in feveral proportions* 1V* l61'
PEYRERE, Isaac la, a remarkable charaCler for
verfatility in religious opinions, was born at Bourdeaux,
of Proteftant parents, in 1594. He entered the fervice
of
(a) In the town of Rumfey there is a houfe which was given by him for the maintenance of a charity-fchool >
the rent of which is ftill applied to that ufe.
P E Y f 245 ] P E Y
Peyrere. of the Prince of Conde, who was much pleafed with
■~- t 1 tiie Angularity of his genius. From the perulal of St
Paul’s writings he took into his head to aver, that Adam
was not the firtt of the human race ; and, in order to
prove this extravagant opinion, he publilhed in 1655 a
book, which was printed in Hyland in 410 and in
1 2mo, with this title: Prseadamitre, five exercitatio fuper
verjibus 12, 13, 14. cap. 15. EpiJioU Pau/i ad Roma¬
nos. This work was burnt at Paris, and the author im-
prifoned at Bruffels, through the influence of the arch-
bifliop of Malines’s grand vicar. The Prince of Conde
having obtained his liberty, he travelled to Rome in
1656, and there gave in to Pope Alexander VII. a fo-
lemen renunciation both of Calvinifm and Preadamifm.
His converfion was not thought to be fincere, at lead
with regard to this laft herefy. His delire to be the
head of a new fe£t is evident j and his book difcovers
his ambition ; for he there pays many compliments to
the Jews, and invites them to attend his le&ures. Upon
his return to Paris, notwithftanding the earned felicita¬
tions of his holinefs to remain at Rome, he went again
into the Prince of Conde’s fervice in the quality of
librarian. Some time after he retired to the feminary
des Vertus, where he died the 30th of January 1676, at
the age of 82, after the facraments of the church had
been adminidered to him. Father Simon fays, that when
he was importuned in his lad moments to retradl the
opinion which he had formed refpe£Hng the Preada-
mites, his anfvver was, Hi qiuvcunque ignorant blafphe-
tnant. His having no fixed fentiments of religion is
fuppofed to proceed more from a peculiar turn of mind
than a corruption of the heart; for good nature, fim-
plicity of manners, and humanity, feem to have formed
his chara&er. “ He was (fays Niceron) a man of a
very equal temper, and mod agreeable converfation.
He was a little too fond, however, of indulging his
wit, ’which fometimes bordered on raillery j but he took
care never to hurt nor wound the feelings of his neigh¬
bour. His learning was extremely limited. He knew
nothing either of Greek or Hebrew } and yet he ven¬
tured to give a new interpretation of feveral paffages of
the facred volume. He piqued himfelf on his know¬
ledge of the Latin •, but excepting a few poets which
he had read, he was by no means an adept in that lan¬
guage. His dyle is very unequal •, fometimes fwelling
and pompous, at other times low and grovelling.” Be-
fides the work already mentioned, he has left behind
him, I. A treatife as fingular as it is fcarce, intitled,
Du rappelde Juifs, 1643, in 8vo. d lie recal of the If-
raelites, in the opinion of this writer, will be not only
of a fpiritual nature, but they will be reindated in the
temporal blefiings which they enjoyed before their re-
jeflion. They will again take poffeflion of the holy
land, which will refume its former fertility. God will
then raife up to them a king more jud, and more vi&o-
rious, than any of their former fovereigns had been.
Now, though all this is doubtlefs to be underdood fpi-
ritually of Jefus Chrid, yet our author is of opinion,
that it ought alfo to be underdood of a temporal prince,
who {hall arife for the purpofe of effe&ing the temporal
deliverance of the Jews ; and that this prince (hall be
no other than the king of France, for the following rea-
fons, which, it is believed, will carry convidion to few
minds: 1. Becaufe the two titles of Mojl Chrijiian, and
iif E/deJl Son of the Church, are afcribed to him by way
l
of excellence. 2. Becaufe it is prefumable, if the kings Peyrere.
of France poflefs the virtue of curing the evil or fcrofu- P^yrc,nlu"
la, which can only afflidt the bodies of the Jews j that
they will likewife have the power of curing their obdi-
nate incredulity, and the other inveterate difeafes of
their fouls. 3. Becaufe the kings of France have for
their arms a jleur de luce; and becaufe the beauty of
the church is in fcripture compared to the beauty of
lilies. 4. Becaufe it is probable that France will be the
country whither the Jews {hall fird be invited to come
and embrace the Chridian faith, and whither they fliall
retreat from the perfecution of the nations that have
dominion over them j for France is a land of freedom,
it admits of no flavery, and whoever touches it is free.
Peyrere, after explaining his drange fydem-, propofes a
method of converting the Jews to Chridianity , a me¬
thod, fays Niceron, which will not be acceptable to ma¬
ny. He propofes to reduce the whole of religion to a
bare faith or belief in Jefus Chrid ; taking it for grant¬
ed, without any Ihadow of proof, that “ it is as didicult
to comprehend the articles of our faith, as to obferve
the ceremonies of Mofes.—From this fcheme (fays he)
there would refult a double advantage to the church ;
the reunion of the Jews, and of all thofe Chridians who
are feparated from the body of the church.” Peyrere,
when he wrote this book, was a Calvinid •, but his Cal¬
vinifm too nearly refembled the Deifm of our age. He
confefled himfelf, that his reafon for quitting the Prote-
dants was on account of their being the fird and princi¬
pal oppofers of his book concerning the Preadamites.
II. A curious and entertaining account of Greenland,
printed in 8vo, 1647. When he was alked, on occafion
of this work, why there were fo many witches in the
north ? he replied, “ It is becaufe part of the property
of thefe pretended conjurers, when condemned to fuffer
death, is declared to belong to their judges.” III. An
equally intereding account of Iceland, 1663, 8vo. IV.
A letter to Philotimus, 1658, in 8vo, in which he ex¬
plains the reafons of his recantation, &c. We find in
Moreri the following epitaph of him, written by a poet
of his own times.
La Peyrere ici git, ce bon Lfraelite,
Huguenot, Catholique, enfin Preadamite :•
Quatre religions lui plurent a la fois,
Et fon indifference etoit fi peu commune,
’apres quatre-vingts ans qu’il eut a faire un
choix,
Le bon homme partit, & n’en choifit pas une.
PEYRONIUS, Francis de la, for a long time
pradtifed furgery at Paris with fuch didinguifhed eclat,
that he obtained for himfelf the appointment of fird fur-
geon to Louis XV. He improved this favourable fitu-
ation with his majedy, and procured to his profeflion
thofe honours which had the efftft to quicken its pro-
grefs, and thofe edablifliments which contributed to ex¬
tend its benefits. The Royal College of Surgery at
Paris was founded by his means in 1731, was enlight¬
ened by his knowledge, and encouraged by his munifi¬
cence. At his death, which happened at Verfailles the
24th of April 1747, he bequeathed to the fociety of
furgeons in Paris two thirds of his effedts, his edate of
Marigni, which was fold to the king for 200,000 livres,
and his library. This ufeful citizen alfo left to the fo¬
ciety of furgeons at Montpelier two houfes, fituated in ■
that-
P E Y [ 246 ] FEZ
Fayronius, that town, with 100,000 livres, for the purpofe of
, ^eyl'oule- ^ erefting there a chirurgieal amphitheatre. He appoint-
^~”~v ed the fame lociety univerfal legatee for the third of his
■fcffefts •, and all thefe legacies contain claufes whofe foie
objeft is to promote the public good, the perfection atid
improvement of furgery j for which he always folicited
the protection of the court. At the time of the famous
difpute between the pbyficians and furgeons, he entreat¬
ed the Chancellor d’Aguelfan to build up a brazen wall
between the two bodies. “ I will do fo, replied the mi-
nifter, but on what fide of the wall fhall we place the
tick Peyronius afterwards behaved with more mode-
ration.—He was a philofopher without any ofientation ;
but his philofophy was tempered by a long acquaintance
with the world and with the court. The acutenefs and
delicacy of his underfianding, joined to his natural vi¬
vacity, rendered his converfation agreeable ; and all
thefe advantages were crowned with a quality ftill more
valuable, an uncommon degree of fympathy for thofe in
diftrefs. He was no fooner known to be at his ellate in
the country, than his boufe was filled with fick people,
who came to him from the diftance of 7 or 8 leagues
round about. He had once a plan of eftablififing, on
this fpot, an hofpital, to which he intended to retire,
that he might devote the remainder of his life to the
ferviee of the poor.
PEYROUSE,or Perouse,John Frakcis Gaeoup
DE la, the celebrated but unfortunate French naviga¬
tor, was born at Albi in the year 1741. His fa¬
ther intended to train him up to a maritime life, for
which purpofe he fent him, when very young, to the
marine fchool, where he became enthufiaftically attach¬
ed to his profeffion, and ambitious to emulate the fame
of the moft celebrated navigators.
He was appointed midlhipman on the 19th of No¬
vember 1756) behaving with great bravery in that Ra¬
tion ; and was feverely wounded in the engagement be¬
tween Hawke and Conflans, on the 20th of November
1759. The Formidable, in which he ferved, was ta¬
ken, after a vigorous refiftance •, and it is probable that
Peyroufe reaped fome advantage from his acquaintance
with Britifh officers.
Fie was promoted, on the ift of O&ober 1764, to
the rank of lieutenant; and as he abhorred a life of eafe
and idlenefs, he contrived to be employed in fix differ¬
ent (hips of war during the peace that fubfifled between
Great Britain and France. In 1767 he was promoted
to the rank of mafier and commander. In 1779 he
commanded the Amazone, belonging to.the fquadron
of Vice-admiral Count d’Eftaing ; and when that officer
engaged Admiral Byron, the poft of La Peyroufe was
to carry the orders of the admiral to the whole of the
line, He afterwards took the Hoop Ariel, and contri¬
buted to the capture of the Experiment,
In the year 1782, La Peyroufe was fent with the
Sceptre of 74 guns, and two frigates of 36 guns each,
with fome troops and field-pieces on board, to deftroy
the Englilh fettlements in Hudfon’s Bay, which was ea-
iily accomnliffied, as nothing was found on ftiore to op-
pofe the fmalleft force. Having deftroyed the fettle-
ments, he learned that fome of the Englifh had fled at
his approach into the woods. He generoufly left them
provifions and arms to defend themfelves againft the fa-
yages.
In the year 1785, he was appointed to the command
of fome (hips employed in a voyage round the world,
which unfortunately proved his laR. Of this voyage, as
far as it was aceomplilhed, full accounts have been al¬
ready publiflied, from which it is manifeft that Peyroufe
was admirably qualified to difeharge fuch a trufi. He
was an experienced and ikilful feaman •, a man of ma¬
thematical and phyfical feience, uncorrupted by that
falfe philofophy which difgraced many of his attend¬
ants, and capable of the utmofi perfeverance in every
commendable purfuit. To thefe excellent qualities he
added caution and courage, with a difpofition truly be¬
nevolent towards the favages whom he vilited. Mult
of the calamities attendant on the voyage, with the ex*
ception of the lait, were occafioned by the difobedience
of his officers, or their neglecting to follow his advice.
The lail difpatches of this great and truly excellent
man were dated from Botany Bay, February 7. 1788}
and finee that period, no account of him has been re¬
ceived which is entitled to the fmalleft credit.
PEZAY, N. Masson, marquis of, born at Paris^
very early applied himfelf to the ftudy of letters, and
afterwards went into the army. He was made a captain
of dragoons ; and had the honour of giving fome lef-
fons on taCtics to the ill-fated Louis XVI. Being ap¬
pointed infpe&or general of fome coafting veffels, he re¬
paired to the maritime towns, and executed his commif-
fion with more care and attention than was to have been
expeCted from a votary of the mufes. But as, at tlie
fame time, he (bowed too much baughtinefs, a complaint
was brought againft him to the court, and he was ba-
niftied to his country feat, where he died foon after, in
the beginning of 1778. He was the intimate friend
and companion of Dorat. He hadftudied, and fuccefs-
fully imitated, his manner of writing •, but his peems
have more delicacy, and are lefs disfigured with trifling
converfations of gallantry. He has left behind him, 1.
A tranflation of Catullus, which is not much efteemed.
2. Les SoirCes Helvetiennes, Alfaciennes,et Franc-Com-
toifes, in 8vo, 1770? a work very agreeably diverfified,
full of charming landfcapes, but written with too little
accuracy. 3. Les Soirees Proven9a!es, in manufeript,
which are faid to be nowife inferior in merit to the fore¬
going ones. 4. La Rofiere de Salency j a paftoral in
three aCts, and which has been performed with fuecefs
on the Italian theatres. 5. Les campagnes de Mailc-
bois, in 3 vols 4to, and a volume of maps.
PEZENAS, a place in France about 24 miles from
Montpelier. The foil about it is fandy. The rock is
lirteftone. The fields are open, and produce corn, wine,
and oil. There are to be feen at this place the exten-
five ruins of a caftle, which formerly belonged to the
Montmorency family. This flrong fortrefs was hewn
out of the rock on which it ftands, and appears to have
been complicated and full of art. The wails are lofty,
and above 8 feet in thicknefs. The rock, which is per¬
pendicular, is a mafs of {hells, fuch as turbinites, oyfters,
cockles, with a calcareous cement. From hence the
circumjacent plain, decked with luxuriant verdure, and
fnut in by rugged mountains, affords a moft delightful
profpedh E. Long. 3. 35. N. Lat. 43. 18.
PEZIZA, Cup-mushroom, a genus of plants of the
natural order of fungi, belonging to the cryptogamia
clafs. See Botany Index,
PHACA,
P H A [ 247 ] P H A
Phaca PHAC A, a genus of plants belonging to the diadel-
II phia clafs ; and in the natural method ranking under
Phsdrus. 22cj or(jer> Papilionacea?. See Botany Index.
PH7£A, in Antiquity, a famous fow which infeded
the neighbourhood of Cromyon. Thefeus deltroyed it
as he was travelling from Troezene to Athens to make
himfelf known to his father. Some imagine that the
boar of Calydon fprang from this fowv According to
fome authors, Phcea was a Avoman who proftituted her-
felf to ftrangers, whom, (he murdered, and afterwards
plundered.
PH Ai A CI A, one of the ancient names of the ifland
Corcyra. Pfueaces the people, who were noted for
their indolence and luxury.
PH7EDON, a difciple of Socfates, who had been
feized by pirates in his youth j and the philofopher, who
feemed to difcover fomething uncommon in his counte¬
nance, bought his liberty for a fum of money. Phse-
don, after Socrates’s death, returned to Elis his native
country, where he founded a fe<ft of philofophers who
compofed what was called the Eliacfchool. The name
of Phaedon is affixed to one of Plato’s dialogues.
PH7EDRA, in fabulous hiftory, rvas a daughter of
Minos and Pafiphae ; Ihe married Thefeus, by whom
Are was the mother of Acaraas and Demophoon. They
had already lived for fome time in conjugal felicity,
when Venus, who hated all the defcendants of Apollo,
becaufe he had difcovered her amours with Mars, infpi-
red Phaedra with the ftrongeft paffion for Hippolytus
the fon of Thefeus, by the amazon Hippolyte. This
paffion (he long attempted to (title, but in vain ; and
therefore, in the abfence of Thefeus, (he addreffed Hip¬
polytus with all the impatience of defponding love.
He rejected her with horror and difdain. She, how¬
ever, incenfed by the reception (Ire had met, refolved to
punitli his coldnefs and refufal ; and at the return of
Thefeus (he accufed Hippolytus of attempts upon her
virtue. He liftened to her accufation j and without
hearing Hippolytus’s defence, he baniffied him from his
kingdom, and implored Neptune, who had promifed to
grant three of his requefts, to punilh him in an exem¬
plary manner. As Hippolytus fled from Athens, his
horfes were fuddenly terrified by a fea monfter, which
Neptune had font on, the (liore 5 and he was thus drag¬
ged through precipices and over rocks, trampled under
the feet of his horfes, and crufhed under the wheels of,
his chariot. When his tragical end was known at A-
thens, Phsedra confefled her crime, and hung herfelf in
defpair, unable to furvive one whofe death her extreme
guilt had occafioned- The death of Hippolytus, and the
infamous paffion of Phsedra, is the fubjeft of one of the
tragedies of Euripides and of Seneca. She was buried
at Troezene, where her tomb was dill to be feen in the
lime of the geographer Paufanias, near the temple of
Venus, which (Ire had built to render the goddefs favour¬
able to her inceftuous paffion. Near her tomb was a
myrtle, whofe leaves were full of fmall holes, which, it
was reported, Phaedra had done with a hair pin, when
the vehemence of her paffion had rendered her melan¬
choly and almoft defperate. She was reprefented in a
painting in Apollo’s temple at Delphi, as fufpended in
the air, while her fifter Ariadne flood near to her, and
fixed her eyes upon her.
PH7EDRUS, an ancient Latin writer, who compo-
fcd five books of fables, in iambic verfe. He was a
Thracian j and was born, as there is reafon to conclude, Phsedtor
fome years before Julius Cmfar made himfelf matter of ^ J)ton
the Roman empire. How he came into the fervice of ‘
Augultus is not known : but his being called Augujlus's
freedtnan in the title of the book, (hows that he had
been that emperor’s (lave. The fables of Phaedrus are
valued for their wit and good fenfe, exprcffied in very
pure and elegant language ; and it is remarkable that
they, remained buried in libraries altogether unknown to
the public, until they were difcovered and publiffied by
Peter Pithou, or Pithoeus, a learned French gentleman,,
toward the elofe of the 16th century.
PHTENOMENON, in philofophy, denotes any
remarkable appearance, whether in the heavens or
earth, and whether difcovered by obfervation or expe¬
riment.
PHAETON, in fabulous hiftory, was the fon of the
Sun, or Phoebus and Clymene, one of the Oceanides.
He was fon of Cepbaius and Aurora, according to He-
(iod and Paufanias ; or of Tithonus and Aurora, ac¬
cording to Apollodorus. He is, however, more gene¬
rally acknowledged to be the fon of Phoebus and Cly¬
mene. He was naturally of a lively difpofition, and a
handfome figure. Venus became enamoured of him,
and entrufted him with the care of one of her temples.
This diftinguilliing favour of the goddefs rendered him
vain and afpiring ^ and when Epaphus, the fon of lo,
had told him, to check his pride, that he was not the
fon of Phoebus, Phaeton refolved to know his true ori¬
gin, and at the inftigation of his mother he vifited the
palace of the fun. He begged Phoebus, that if he real¬
ly Avere his father, he Avould give him inconteftable
proofs of his paternal tendernefs, and convince the world
of his legitimacy.. Phoebus received him with great
tendernefs, and fwore by Styx to grant Avhatever he re-
quefted as a proof of his acknoAvledging him for his -
‘fon. The youth boldly alkcd the direction of the cha¬
riot of the fan for one day. His father, grieved and
furprifed at this demand, ufed all his arguments to dif-
fuade him from the raftr attempt ; but all Avas in vain :
and being by his oath reduced to fubmit to his obftina-
cy, entrufted him with the reins, after he had dircHed.
him hoAV to ufe them. The.young adventurer was how¬
ever foon fenfible of his madnefs. He Avas unable to
guide the fiery deeds 5 and loofing the reins, Jupiter, to
prevent his confuming the heavens and earth, (truck
him Avith a thunderbolt, and hurled him from his feat
into the river Eridanus or Po. His filters Phaethufa,
Lambetia, and Phoebe, lamenting hislofs upon its banks,
Avere changed by the gods into black poplar trees •,
and Cycnus king of Liguria, alfo grieving at his fate.,,
Avas transformed into a fwan.
The poets fay, that while Phaeton Avas driving the
chariot of his father, the blood of the Ethiopians Avas
dried up \ and their (kin became black 5 a colour which
is (till preferved among the greateft part of the inhabi¬
tants of the torrid zone. The territories of Libya
were alfo, they-tell us, parched up, on account of their
too great vicinity to the fun \ and ever ftnee, Africa,
unable to recoA'er her original verdure and fruitfulnefs,
has exhibited a Tandy country and uncultivated Avalte,
According to thofe who explain this poetical fable,
Phaeton was a Ligurian prince, Avho fludied aftronomy,
and in Avhofe age the neighbourhood of the Po was vi¬
fited with uncommon heats.
Phaeton,
P ft A r 248 ] PH A
Hi act on Phaeton, a genus of birds belonging to the order
II . of anferes. See ORNITHOLOGY Index.
PHAGEDiENA, in Medicine, denotes a corroding
ulcer.
PHAGEDENIC medicines, thofe ufed to eat olf
proud or fungous ilefh j fuch as are all the cauftics.
PHAGEDENIC Water, in Chemijlry, denotes a water
made from quicklime and fublimate $ and is very effica¬
cious in the cure of phagedenic ulcers. To prepare this
water, put two pounds of freffi quicklime in a large
earthen pan, and pour upon it about ten pounds of rain-
water ; let them ftand together for two days, ftirring
them frequently : at lalt leave the lime to fettle well,
then pour off the v/ater by inclination, filtrate it, and
put it up in a glafs bottle, adding to it an ounce of cor-
rofive fublimate in powder ; which from white becomes
yellow, and finks to the bottom of the veffel. 1 he wra-
ter being fettled, is fit for ufe in the cleanfing of wounds
and ulcers, and to eat off fuperfluous fleffi, and efpeci-
ally in gangrenes } in which cafe may be added to it a
third or fourth part of fpirit of wine.
PHALvENA, the Moth, a genus of infe£ts be¬
longing to the order of lepidoptera. See Entomology
Index.
PHALANGIUM, a genus of infers belonging to
the order of apt^ra. See Entomology Index.
PHALANGOSIS, in Surgery, is a tumor and re¬
laxation of the eyelids, often fo great as to deform the
eye, and confiderably to impede vifion. Sometimes the
eyelid when in tiffs ftate fubfides or finks down, occa-
fioned perhaps either by apalfy of the mufcle which fu-
ftains and elevates the eyelid, or elfe from a relaxation
. of theicutis above, from various caufes. But in the pa¬
ralytic or relaxed cafe, the ufe of cordial and nervous
medicines mull be propofed internally j and outwardly,
balfam of Peru and Hungary water are to be employed.
If all thefe fail, the remaining method of cure is to ex¬
tirpate a fufficient quantity of the relaxed cuffs.
PHALANX, in Grecian antiquity, a fquare batta¬
lion of foldiers, with their fiiields joined and pikes crof-
fing each other ; fo that it was next to impoffible to
break it.
The Macedonian phalanx is fuppofed by fome to have
had the advantage in valour and {Length, over the Ro¬
man legion. Its number was 8000 men. But the word
phalanx is ufed for a party of 28, and feveral other num¬
bers $ and even fometimes for the whole body of foot.
See Legion.
Phalanx is applied, by anatomifts, to the three rows
ef fmall bones which form the fingers. See Anatomy
Index.
PH A LARIS, a remarkable tyrant, born at Crete,
where his ambitious defigns occafioned his baniffiment:
he took refuge in Agrigentum, a free city of Sicily, and
there obtained the fupreme power by ftratagem. The
circumftance which has chiefly contributed to preferve
his name in hiftory is his cruelty ; in one a£t of which
he gave, however, an example of ftrifl juftice. It is
thus related : Perillus, a brafs-founder at Athens, kmnv-
ing the cruel difpofition of Phalaris, contrived a new
fpecies of puniffiment for him to infli£t on his fubjefts.
He caff a brazen bull, bigger than the life, with an
opening in the fide to admit the victims •, who being
{hut up in the body, a fire was kindled under it to roaft
them to death j and the throat was fo contrived, that
their dying groans refembled the roaring of a bull. The Phalaiij
artift brought it to the tyrant, expecting a great reward. II .
Phalaris admired the invention and workmanflup, but. **t1'^
ordered the inventor to be put into it to make the firft
trial. In allufion to which, Ovid fays,
—  Neque enim lex ccquwr ulla,
^uam necis artifices arte per ire fua.
The end of this deteftable tyrant is differently related^
but it is very generally believed, with Cicero, that he
fell by the hands of the Agrigentines } and, as fomt iup-
pofe, at the mitigation of Pythagoras. Ovid tells us, that
his tongue was cut out \ and that he w as then put into
the bull to perifli by the fame flow fire by which mean*
he had murdered fo many before. Others fay that he
was ffoned to death ; and all agree that his end was vio¬
lent. He reigned, Eufebius fays, 28 years •, others fay-
16. After all, there is great uncertainty both as to his
life, death, and hiftory. Many of the circumftances re¬
lated of him, as they are collefted by Mr Boyle, de¬
pend upon the authenticity of thofe epiftles which ge
under the name of the tyrant; and w hich have been
juftly queftioned, and with great probability rejedted, as
the fpurious production of fome modern fophift. See
Bentley, p. 177. col. 2.
Phalaris, oxCanary-grafs, a genus of plants belong¬
ing to the triandria clals. See Botany Index.
PHALERiE, among the ancient Romans, were mi¬
litary rewards beftowed for fome fignal aft of bravery.
Authors do not agree whether the Phalene were a fuit
of rich trappings for a horfe, or golden chains fomething
like the torques, but fo formed as to hang down to the
breaft and difplay a greater profufion of ornament. The
laft opinion appears to have the greater prevalence, but
perhaps both are true.
PHALEREUS (Nepos), a village and port of A-
thens j this laft neither large nor commodious, for
which reafon Themiftocles put the Athenians on build¬
ing the Piraeus ; both joined to Athens by long walls.
The Phalereus lay nearer the city (Paufanias). Deme¬
trius Phalereus, the celebrated fcholar of Theophraftus,
was of this place; to whom the Athenians erefted above
300 ftatues ; which were afterw ards deftroyed by his
enemies, on his flight to Ptolemy king of Egypt (Stra¬
bo). Here Demofthenes wras wont to declaim, to ac-
cuftom his voice to furmount the noife and roaring of
the fea ; a juft and lively emblem of popular aflemblies.
PHALEUCI AN verse, in ancient poetry, a kind
of verfe confifting of five feet; the firft of which is a
fpondee, the fecond a daftyl, and the three laft trochees.
PHALLUS, the Morel, a genus of plants of the
order of fungi, and belonging to the cryptogamia clafs.
See Botany Index.
Phallus, among the Egyptians, was the emblem of
fecundity. It was very fervently worfliipped by wo¬
men, efpecially by thofe who were barren. T his cuf-
tom w as introduced among the Greeks ; andfeftivals in
honour of it were called phaluca. See MYSTERIES,
N° 38, &c. Among the Hindoos a fimilar emblem
called Ungam is ufed, and for fimilar purpofes. See
Hindoos, N° 4.^
PHALTI, or Phaltiel, fon of Laiffi. He mar¬
ried Michal, after Saul had taken her from David ; but
David afterwards took her away from Phalti (1 Sam.
xxv. 44. 2 Sam. iff. 1J.). Some interpreters are of opi¬
nion
P H A [ 249 ] P H A
Phalli nlon Phalti did not meddle with Michai all the time {he
|| continued in his houfe, for fear that both of them Ihould
Phara. incur the penalty of death, to be infli&ed on adulterers
(Xevit. xx. 10.), becaufe Michai had not been legally
divorced j but thefe reafons are frivolous. Saul looked
upon David as a rebel to his king, and an outlaw,
whofe goods and wives belonged to him, and which he
■could abfolutely difpofe of. He would not have given
Michai to Phalti, nor would he have received her, if he
had not thought he might ufe her as his wife. If Mi¬
chai had no children by Phalti, by whom then were
thofe children that the fcripture fays (he had, fince it is
known (he had none by David? fee 2 Sam. xxi. 8. and
vi. 23.
PHANATIC, or Fanatic, a vifionary *, one who
fancies he fees fpeftres, fpirits, apparitions, or other
imaginary objects, even when awake j and takes them
to be real. See Phantasy and Fanatic.
Such are phrenetics, necromancers, hypochondriac
perfons, lycanthropi, &.c. See Phrenetic, Hypochon-
*)riac, Lycanthropi.
Hence the word is alfo applied to enthufiafts, pre¬
tenders to revelation, new lights, prophecies, &c. Sec
Enthusiast, and Second Sigh/.
PHANTASIA wras the daughter of Nicarchus of
Memphis in Egypt. It has been fuppofed that Hie
Wrote a poem on the Trojan war, and another on the
return of Ulyffes to Ithaca, from which compofitions
Homer copied the greateft part of his Iliad and Odyf-
-fey, when,he vifited Memphis, where they were dcpo-
lited.
PHANTASM, a term fometimes ufed in a fynony-
ftious fenfe with idea, or notion retained in the mind, of
an external object.
PHANTASMAGORIA, an optical deception.
See Science, Amufements of.
PHANTASY, or Fancy, the Imagination; one of
the powers of the mind, by which the fpecies of obje&s
received by the external organs of fenfe are retained,
recalled, further examined, and either compounded,
or divided: See Imagination*, and Metaphysics,
Part I. Chap. ii. Or it is that internal fenfe whereby
the ideas of abfent things are formed, and reprefented
to the mind as if they were prefent. In melancholics
and madmen this faculty is very ftrong, reprefenting ma¬
ny extravagant and monftrous things, and framing its
images as lively as thofe of fenfation: whence the vi-
fions and deceptions thofe perfons are liable to.
PHANUEL, of the tribe of Artier, the father of a
holy widow and prophetefs called Anna, who was in the
temple when our Saviour was prefented there by his pa¬
rents (Luke ii. 36, 37, 38.). *
PH AON, a young man of Mytilene, in the ifland of
Lelhos, received from Venus, as fable reports, an ala-
bafter vafe filled with an effence which had the virtue of
conferring beauty. He had no fooner anointed his bo¬
dy with it than he became the moft beautiful of men.
The ladies of Mytilene fell defperately in love with
him*, and the celebrated Sappho threw herfelf down a
precipice becaufe he would not encourage her paflion.
He is faid to have been killed by a hufhand who fur-
prifed him with his wife. We have in Ovid a letter
from Sappho to Phaon, which Mr Pope has tranllated
into Eoglith verfe.
PHARA, in Ancient Geography, a village between
Vol. XVI. Part I.
Egypt and Arabia Petraeaj or, according to Ptolemy,
at a promontory fituated between the Sinus Heroopo-
lites and Elaniticus of the Red feaj where Ifmael is faid
to have dwelt. In Hebrew it is Paran, and in moft
interpreters j Pharan, Septuagint and Vulgate. Phtt-
ranitte, the people (Ptolemy). Paran or Pharan, the
name of the wildernefs in its neighbourhood, adjoining*
to Cadefh.
PHAR/E, in Ancient Geography, a town of Achaia.
in Peloponnefus, on the river Pierus, 70 ftadia from the
fea, and to the fouth of Patrai 150 ftadia. Another, of
Crete (Pliny) $ a colony from the Pharce of Meffenia
(Stephanus). A third Pharce, or Phercc (Strabo, Pto¬
lemy) j Phara, -ee, (Polybius) j a town of Meffenia,
on the river Nedo (Strabo) j on the north fide of the
Sinus Meffenius, and to the north-weft of Abea. An¬
ciently read Pk-aris in Homer (Paufanias, Statius),
though now read Phare. Pharitce is the name of the
people.
PH ARAMOND is the name which is given by the
generality of hiftorians to the firft king of France. He
is faid to have reigned at Treves, and over a part cf
France, about the year 42c 5 and to have been fuc-
ceeded by his fon Clodion : but the account which is gi¬
ven of thefe two princes is very uncertain. It is pro¬
bable Pharamond was properly no more than a general
of an army, the head of a military fociety of Franks,
who were mafters of their perfons and their fortunes.
Gregory of Tours feems to have been of this opinion.
“ It is not generally known (fays he) who was the firft
king of the French. Sulpitius Severus, who mentions
feveral things refpefting that nation, takes no notice of
its firft monarch j he only fays that it had generals.”
Be that as it may, the inftitution of the famous Salique
law (fo named from the Salians the moft illuftrious
of the Franks) is generally attributed to Pharamond.
“ This law fixed the punifhment of crimes, and various
points of police. There is no juft ground for believing
that it exprefsly fettled the right of fucceffion to the
crown: it only fays, that, with relation to the Salic
land, women have no (hare of heritage, without reftri6t-
ing it to the royal family in particular j for all thofe
Were generally called Sa/ic Zands which were held by
right of conqueftj and it is eafy to conceive that a na¬
tion of foldiers, whofe general was their king, would
not fubmit to be governed by a woman. A long
cuftom, fupported by the principles of the nation,
came in time to be the eftablifhed law of the kingdom.”
(See M. Abbe Mil lot, Elcm. de I'Kifloire de France,
tom. i.).
PHARAOH, a common name of the kings of E-
gypt. Jofephus fays, that all the kings of Egypt, from
Minaeus the founder of Memphis, who lived feveral ages
before Abraham, have always had the name of Pha¬
raoh, down to the times of Solomon, for more than
3300 years. He adds, that in the Egyptian language
the word Pharaoh fignifies a king ; and that thofe princes
did not affume this name but when they afcended the
throne, at which time they quitted alfo their former
name. From hence it comes to pafs, fays Jofephus,
that Herodotus names none of the kings of Egypt after
Minaeus the builder of Memphis, though he had 330
kings for his fucceffors, becaufe they had all the name
of Pharaoh; but becaufe this name did not pafs to wo¬
men alfo, he names an Egyptian queen Nicaule who
I i fucceeded
Phara
II
Pharoan.
P H A
[ 25° 1
P H A
Pharaoh, fucceedec!them. Laftly, I find, adds Jofephus,fromthean-
' cient records of our nation, that from the age of Solomon
no king of Egypt had any longer the name of Pharaoh.
But Jofephus is not very accurate in this paflage. T rue
it is, Herodotus fays, that Mines, or Minaeus, was the
hrft king of Egypt, and founder of Memphis 5 that
there were 330 kings after him in Egypt , that alter
them there was a queen called Nicotris, and not Ni-
caule, as Tofephus writes it j but it is not true that thefe
kings had no other name but Pharaoh. Herodotus fays
exprefsly, that in the books of the Egyptian priefts were
read the names and the catalogue of 330 kings ; that in
this number of 330 there were 18 Ethiopians, and a
woman that was a foreigner called Nicotris, and that all
the others were Egyptians. Thefe princes therefore had
every one his proper name mentioned in the catalogue
of the Egyptian kings. So likewife we fee in the frag¬
ments of Manetho, that every king of Egypt had a
name peculiar to him j and we find the name Pharaoh
only in Scripture.
What Jofephus adds concerning Queen Nicaule, or
Nicotris, whom he pretends to be the fame as the queen
of Sheba, of whom mention is made in Scripture
(1 Kings x. I, 2, &c.), >s entirely fabulous; and as to
what he fays, that fince the time of Solomon the kings
of Egypt have no longer had the name of Pharaoh, is
manifeftly falfe, fince we Hill find his name in the fe-
cond book of Kings, under Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii.
21.) ; under Jofiah (xxiii. 29, 30, 33, &c.), where this
name is joined to Necho, which was the proper name
of this prince ; under Jehoiakim (xxiii. 35) ; and in the
prophets Ifainh, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who are much
later than Solomon. It is very probable that the Egyp¬
tians gave the name of Pharaoh to their kings as long
as the Egyptian language was in common ufe, and as long
as their kings were of their own nation : but after the
conqueft of Egypt by Alexander the Great, and that
the Grecians introduced their language with their go¬
vernment, the name of Pharaoh was known no longer
among them. The firft prince known to us by the name
of Pharaoh was he in whofe time Abraham went down
to Egypt, when Sarah, who paffed only for Abraham’s
filler, Avas by the command of Pharaoh brought to his
palace in order to become his Avife. See Abraham.
But the Lord fmote Pharaoh and his family Avith great
infirmities, and gave him to knoAV that Ihe Avas Abra¬
ham’s AA’ife ; whereupon Pharaoh fent for Abraham, re-
flored him his Avife, and at the fame time gave orders
that he ihould be conduced out of Egypt, with every
thing that belonged to him. See Sarah.
The fecond Pharaoh fpoken of in the Scripture is he
Avho reigned Avhen Jofeph arrived there. This prince or
his fucceffor had the myfterious dream of the fat and
lean kine, and the feven full and barren ears of corn,
which Jofeph explained fo much to his fatisfaflion, that
he made him governor of his houfe and of all Egypt,
referving only to himfelf the name of a king. This is
the fame Pharaoh Avho fent for and entertained the pa¬
triarch Jacob and his family in Egypt, and gave them
the land of Golhen for their habitation. See Joseph
and Jacob.
The third Pharaoh knoAvn in holy writ is he whoper-
fecuted the Ifraelites. Mofes tells us that he was a neAv
king, and had no knoAvledge of Jofeph (Exod. i. 8.).
This prince, obferving that the Ifraelites had become
very numerous and powerful, refolved to deprefs them Pharach,
by hardlhip and labour; and fet cruel and pitilefs talk- '■ — v ■—
mailers over them. But the more he opprelfed them,
the faller they multiplied ; infomuch that he gave orders
to the Egyptian midwives, who aflilted the HebreAv wo¬
men in their labour, to put all the male children to
death, and to fave alive the females only. But this
command was not llridlly executed. The midwives
feared the Lord, and preft rved alive not only the female
children, but the males alfo.
Pharaoh, feeing this projeft did not fucceed to his
Avilhes, publilhed a decree (Exod. i. 2 2.) that all the
male children born of Hebre\y Avomen Ihuuld be throAvn
into the Nile, and that only the females Ihould be fpa-
red. This order Avas rigoroufly executed ; yet by the
providence of God Mofes Avaspreferved, and even brought
up in Pharaoh’s own court, by his own daughter, Avho
by chance had found the child, as he Avas expofed upon
the Nile.
Mofes being groAvn up, and having killed an Egyp¬
tian who had abufed an Hebrew, was obliged to fly from
Egypt to avoid that death that Pharaoh had threatened
him Avith.
Several years after, being about 80 years old, he re¬
turned again by an order from God, and performed
mighty miracles before Pharaoh. See Moses. There
is a good deal of probability that this Pharaoh before
Avhom Mofes appeared, and in Avhofe fight he fmote E-
gypt Avith fo many plagues, Avas a different perfon from
him who would have laid hands on him after he had flain
the Egyptian. This fame Pharaoh having at laft been
compelled to fend aAvay the HebreAVS, and to fuffer them
to go out of Egypt, foon repented of the leave he had
given, and purfued them at the head of his army Avith
his chariots. But he was droAvned in the Red fea,
avherein he had raftily entered in the eagernefs of his
purfuit. Some hiftorians pretend to give us the name
of this Pharaoh ; feme, as Apion, call him Amofis or
Amafis ; Eufebius calls him Chenchris ; IHher calls
him Amenophis ; but avc m*y allure ourfelves that there
can be nothing certain in all this.
The fifth Pharaoh knoAvn to us is he Avho gave pro-
tc&ion to Hadad fon of the king of Edom, Avho gav'e
him to Avife the fifter of his own queen, enriched him
Avith lands, and brought up his fon Genubah in his
own court. Hadad returned to Idumea after the death
of David.
The fixth Pharaoh is he Avbo gave his daughter in
marriage to Solomon king of the HebreAvs (i Kings
iii. I.) ; and having taken Gezer, he fet it on fire,
drove the Canaanites out of it, and gave it for a prefent
to Solomon, in lieu of a dowry for his daughter, whom
he had married to this prince (1 Kings ix. 16.).
The feventh is Shilhak, who entertained Jeroboam in
his dominions, a rebellious fubje<ff of Solomon, and of¬
fered him a refuge in oppofition to the king his mailer.
The fame Shilhak declared Avar againfi: Rehoboam the
fon and fucceffor of Solomon, befieged and took Jerufa-
lem, carried away all the king’s treafures, and thofe of
the houfe of God, and particularly the golden bucklers
that Solomon had made. See SHISHAK.
The eighth is that Pharaoh Avith Avhom Hezekiah
made a league againft Sennacherib king of Affyria, in
the year of the Avorld 3290. See SENNACHERIB. Ibis
Pharaoh is probably the fame Avhoni Herodotus names
Sethon^
P H A t 25i ]
P H A
Pkraoh, Setlion, prieft of Vulcan, who came to meet Senna-
Pharaon. before Pelufium, and to whofe afliftance Vulcan
"" T ' fent an army of rats, which gnawed the bowftrings
and the thongs of the bucklers of Sennacherib’s fol-
diers.
The ninth is Pharaoh Necho, or Nechos, fon of
Pfammiticus, who made war with Jofiah, and fubdued
him. Herodotus alfo mentions this prince. See Ne-
cho and Egypt, N° ij.
The tenth is Pharaoh Hophrah, who entered into an
alliance with Zedekiah king of Judah, and attempted to
come to his afliftance again!! Nebuchadnezzar king of
Chaldea. It was again!! this Pharaoh that Ezekiel pro¬
nounced feveral of his prophecies (fee Ezekiel xxix. xxx.
xxxi. xxxii.), He is called Apries in Herodotus, lib. ii.
c. 161. He is alfo mentioned in Habakkuk ii. 15, 16.
See alfo Ifaiah xix. xx. and Jeremiah xlvi. 16, &c. See
Apries, and Egypt, N° 13, &c.
PHARAON is the name of a game of chance, the
principal rules of which are : the banker holds a pack
confiding of 52 cards j he draws all the cards one after
the other, and lays them down alternately at his right
and left hand ; then the ponte may at his pleafure fet
one or more flakes upon one or more cards, either
before the banker has begun to draw the cards, or
after he has drawn any number of couples. The
banker wins- the flake of the ponte when the card of
the ponte comes out in an odd place on his right hand,
but lofes as much to the ponte when it comes out in
an even place on his left hand. The banker wins half
the ponte’s flake when it happens to be twice in one
couple. When the card of the ponte being but once
in the flock happens to be the lad, the ponte neither
wins nor lofes; and the card of the ponte being but
twice in the flock, and the lafl couple containing his
card twice, he then lofes his whole flake. De Moivre
has fhown how to find the gain of the banker in any
circumdance of cards remaining in the dock, and of
the number of times that the ponte’s cards is contained
in it. Of this problem he enumerates four cafes, viz.
when the ponte’s card is once, twice, three, or four
times in the dock. In the fird cafe, the gain of the
banker is -, « being the number of cards in the flock.
n
. . n—~iY.y 1
In the fecond cafe, his gain is —
or ~—  , fuppofing yzz 1. In the third cafe, his
gain is
iy
or
2 _ V Pharaoh
2x»-x- . *xfir7>reorin^=- pJL.
fourth cafe, the gain of the banker, or the lofs of the
. 2 n—5 2fl—5
ponte, is •— y, “
71—1 X n—3
2X«—1 X «—3
fuppofing
y~\. He Moivre has calculated a table, exhibiting
this gain or lofs for any particular circumdance of the
play; and he obferves, that at this play the lead dif-
advantage of the ponte, under the fame circumdances
of cards remaining in the dock, is when the card of the
ponte is but twice in it, the next greater when three
times, the next when once, and the greated when four
times. He has alfo demondrated, that the whole gain
per cent, of the banker, upon all the money that is ad¬
ventured at this game, is 2I. 19s. lod. See He Moivre’s
Ho&rine of Chances, p. 77, &c. p. 105, &c.
PHAREZ, fon of Judah and Tamar (Gen. xxxviii.
27, 28, &c.). Tamar being jud ready to lie in, found
herfelf with child of twins. One of them appeared firll,
and putting his arm out, he immediately drew it back
again. The midwife tied a fcarlet thread upon his arm,
to diftinguiih him for the firfl-born j but having with¬
drawn his hand, his brother got before him into the
world: whereupon he was called by his mother Phare%%
i. e. one breaking forth; as the other, with the thread
on his hand, was called Zarah. The Tons of Pharez
were Hezron and Hamul (Numb. xxvi. 20, 21.). F.
Calmet, upon this article, explains the text as if Pha¬
rez, and not Zarah, had put out his hand, and drew it
in again.
PHARISEES, a famous fed of the Jews, who di-
ftinguidied themfeives by their zeal for the traditions of
the elders, which they derived from the fame fountain
with the written word itfelf •, pretending that both were
delivered to Mofes from Mount Sinai, and were there*
fore both of equal authority. From their rigorous ob-
fervance of thefe traditions, they looked upon them*
felves as more holy than other men $ and therefore fe-
parated themfeives from tliofe whom they thought fin-
ners or profane, fo as not to eat or drink with them $
and hence, from the Hebrew word pharic, which fig-
nifies “ to feparate,” they had the name of Phat'ifees or
Separati/is.
This feel was one of the mod ancient and confider-
abie among the Jews 5 but its original is not very well
known (a) ; however, it was in great repute in the
time of our Saviour; and muft have bad its original at
the fame time with the traditions, and they grew up to-
1 i 25 gethef,
(a) The Jefuit Serrarius places their firft rife about the time of Efdras; becaufe it was then that the Jews firft
began to have interpreters of their traditions. Maldonat, on the other hand, will not have this fe& to have arifen
among the Jews till a little before the time of Chrift. Others, perhaps, with more probability, refer the origin of
the Pharifees to the time of the Maccabees.
Hr Lightfoot thinks, that Pharifaifm rofe up gradually, from a period which he does not aitign, to the maturity
of a ft‘&. It is certain, from the account given by Jofephus, that in the time of John Hyrcanus, the high prieft
and prince of the Afmonean line, about 108 years before Chrift, the fe£t was not only formed, but made a oonfi-
derable figure ; and that it had advanced to a high degree of popularity and power about So years before Chrift.
Jof. Ant. lib. xiii. cap. 10. § 5, 6. cap. 15. f 5. and cap. 16. j 1. According to Bafnage, Hill, of the Jews,
book ii. cap. 9. § 2. one Ariftobulu*, an Alexandrian Jew, and a Peripatetic philofopher, who dourifhed about
I 25 years before* Chrift, and wrote feme allegorical commentaries on the feripture, was the author of tUfe tradi¬
tions' by an adherence to which the Pharifees were principally diftinguiftied from other &£b.
P H A
[ 252 ]
P H A
Kisrifees. gather, till at length they had gained ground fo far,
that the traditional law fwallowed up the written, and
thofe who were the propagators of it the whole bulk of
the Jewilh nation.
The extraordinary pretences of the Pharifees to right-
eoufnefs drew after them the common people, who held
them in the higheft efteem- and veneration. Our Savi¬
our frequently, however, charges them with hypocrify,
and making the law of God of no eflfeft through their
traditions (Matth. ix. 2. xv. I—6. xxiii. 13—33. and
Luke xi. 39—52.). Several of thefe traditions are par¬
ticularly mentioned in the gofpel 5 but they had a vaft
number more, which may be feen in the Talmud, the
whole fubjeft whereof is to di£ate and explain thofe
traditions which this fe£t impofed to be believed and ob-
ferved.
The Pharifees, contrary to the opinion of the Sad-
ducees, held a refurreftion from the dead, and the exift-
ence of angels and fpirits (Adts xxiii. 8.). But accord¬
ing to Jofephus, this refurredtion of theirs was no more
than a Pythagorean refurredtion, that is, of the foul only,
by its tranfmigration into another body, and being born
anew with it. From this refurredtion they excluded all
that were notorioufly wicked, being of opinion that the
fouls of luch perfons were tranfmitted into a date of ever-
lafting woe. As to leffer crimes, they held they were
punithed in the bodies which the fouls of thofe who com¬
mitted them were next fent into.
Jofephus, however, either miftook the faith of his
countrymen, or, which is more probable, wilfully mif-
reprefented it, to render their opinions more refpedt-
ed by the Roman philofophers, whom he appears to
have on every occafion been defirous to pleafe. The
Pharifees had many pagan notions refpedHng the foul j
but Bilhop Bull, in his Harmonia Apojlolica, has clearly
proved, that they held a refurredlion of the body, and
that they fuppofed a certain bone to remain uncor¬
rupted, to furnilh the matter of which the refurredtion
body was to be formed. They did not, however, be¬
lieve that all mankind were to be raifed from the dead.^
A refurredtion was the privilege of the children of
Abraham alone, who were all to rife on Mount Zion j
their incorruptible bones, wherever they might be bu¬
sied, being carried to that mountain below the furface
of the earth. The Rate of future felicity, in which the
Pharifees believed, was very grofs : They imagined,
that men in the next world, as well as in the prefent,
were to eat and drink, and enjoy the pleafures of love,
each being reunited’ to his former wife. Hence the
Sadducee, who believed in no refurredlion, and fuppo¬
fed our Saviour to teach it as a Pharifee, very Ihrewdly
urged the difficulty of difpoling of the woman who had
in this world been the wife of feven hufbands. Had
the refurredlion of Chrittianity been the Pharifaical re¬
furredlion, this difficulty would have been infurmount-
able •, and accordingly we find the people, and even
i’ome of the Pharifees themfelves, ftruck with the man¬
ner in which our Saviour removed it.
This fedl feems to have had fome confufed notions,
probably derived from the Chaldeans and Perfians, re-
fpedling the pre-exiilence of fouls 5 and hence it was
that Chrift’s difeiples alked him concerning the blind
man (John ix. 2.), ‘ Who did fin, this man or his pa¬
rents, that, he was born blind ?’ And when the difciples
Sold Chrift, that fome fald he, was Elias, Jeremias, or
one of the prophets (Matt. xvi. 14.), the meaning can Pharifees
only be, that they thought he was come into the world , li
with the foul of Elias, Jeremias, or fome other of the , pimro3-
old prophets, tranfmigrated into him. With the Ef- *
fenes, they held abfolute predeftination *, and with the
Sadducees free-will : but how they reconciled thefc
feemingly incompatible do61rines is nowhere fufficiently
explained. The fe£t of the Pharifees was not extin-
guilhed by the ruin of the Jewiffi commonwealth. The
greateft part of the modern Jews are ftill of this fe6l j
being as much devoted to traditions or the oral law as
their anceftors were. See the articles Cabbalists, Ca-
RAITES, ESSENES, SaDDUCEES, &C.
PHARMACA, among the ancients, meant medi¬
cated or enchanted compofitions of herbs, minerals, &c.
fome of which, when taken inwardly, were fappofed to
caufe blindnefs, madnefs, love, &c.: others infe&ed by
touch } fuch was the garment fent by Medea to Creufa,
prepared fecundum artem; and others operated upon per¬
fons at a diftance. Pharmaca foteriu were employed as
antidotes againft thefe mifchievous compofitions : Thus
the herb moly preferved Ulyffes from the magical influ¬
ence of Circe. The laurel, the rhamnus, the flea-bane,,
the jafper-ftone, were ufed for fimilar purpofes. See
Potters Greec. Ant.
PHARM ACI, were two perfons who were employed
in the luftration or purification of cities. Some fay
they were both men *, but others maintain, that a man
to reprefent the males, and a woman to reprefent the
females, performed this office. They performed facri-
fice, and wore figs about their necks called oXKxhz j
thofe of the man were blackifh, and thofe of the woman
white. Figs were an emblem of fertility, which they
doubtlefs prayed for on thefe folemn occafions.
PHARMACEUTICAL, any thing conne£ied with
pharmacy, or the operations or proceffes employed in the
preparation of medicines.
PHARM ACOCHEMI A,an old term denoting that
part of the chemical art which treats of the preparation
of medicines ; by way of diftindlion from that ehemiftry,
which is wholly employed about the tranfmutation of
metals by means of the philofopher’s Rone 5 this being
called fpagirico-chemia.
PHARMACOLOGY, is a treatife of medicines, or
the art of preparing, judging of them, &c.
PHARMACOPOEIA (from Qx^ixxev, remedy, and
jraisir, to make), means a difpenfatory, or a treatife de-
fcribing the preparations of the feveral kinds of medi¬
cines, with their ufes, manner of application, 8tc.
We have various pharmacopoeias, as thofe of Bam
deron, Quereetan, Zwelfer, Charas, Bates, Salmon,,
Lemery, Lewis, &c. But the Edinburgh, London,
and Dublin pharmacopoeias, are chiefly confulted and'
followed in Britain in the prefent day.
PHARMACOPOL A,or Pharmacopeics, an apo¬
thecary, or a perfon who prepares and fells medicines y
but this word is rarely ufed but in the way of ridicule.
It is compofed of (pxppxKct, medicine, and Troteiv, to fell.
Hor. Sat. ii. lib. i. ver. I.
PHARMACUM, tpx^xxcy, a medicine or medica*
ment, either of a falutary or deleterious quality,
PHARMACY, the art of preparing, preferving, and
compounding medicines. See Materia Medica. See
alfo Prescriptions, Extemporaneous.
PHAROS, (Homer, Strabo, Sec.), a fmall oblong
ifland.
P H A
[ 253 }
P H A
pharos ifland, adjoining to the continent of Egypt, oyer-againft
|| Alexandria. On this ifland flood a cognominal light-
pharfalia. tovverj 0f foar fides, each fide a ftadium in length; and
^ »  the tower fo high as to be feen 100 miles off. Some af¬
firm each of its four corners refted on a large fea-crab
of glafs or of hard tranfparent ftone of Ethiopia or Mem¬
phis. Others imagine the crabs were only added ex¬
ternally to the bafe by way of ornament, or as emble¬
matical of its fituation and ufe. The architedi was So-
ftrates the Cnidian, as appears by an infcription on the
tower, under Ptolemy Philadelphus, who laid out 800
talents upon it. On account of the port of Alexandria,
the entrance to which was difficult and dangerous, the
Pharos was called the key of the Egyptian fea, or even
of Egypt itfelf (Lucan) : and Pharos, from being a pro¬
per name, became an appellative to denote all light-
houfes.
Pharos, or Phare, a light-houfe ; a pile raifed near
a port, where fire is kept burning in the night, to
guide and diredl veffels near at hand. The pharos of
Alexandria, built in the ifland of Pharos, at the mouth
of the Nile, was anciently very famous, infomuch as to
communicate its name to all the reft, This moft mag¬
nificent tower confifted of feveral ftories and galleries,
with a lantern at top, in which a light being conti¬
nually burning, might be feen for many leagues at fea,
and along the coaft. It was accounted one of the feven
wonders of the world. It was built by the famed archi-
tett Softrates, a native of Cnidos, or, according to fome,
by Deiphanes, the father of Softrates ; and coft Ptolemy
Philadelphus 800 talents. The feveral ftories were
adorned with columns, balluftrades, galleries of the fineft
marble and workmanfhip j to which fome add, that the
architect had contrived to faften fome looking-glaffes fo
artificially againft the higheft galleries, that one could
fee in them all the (hips that failed on the fea for a
great way. Inftead of which noble ftru&ure, one fees
now only a kind of irregular caftle, without ditches or
outworks of any ftrength, the whole being accommodat¬
ed to the inequality of the ground on which it ftands,
and which it feems is no higher than that which it
ftiould command. Out of the midft of this clumfy
building rifes a tower, which ferves for a light-houfe,
but which has nothing’of the beauty and grandeur of the
the old one. The Coloffus of Rhodes alfo ferved as a
pharos.
PHARPAR, or Pharphar, is one of the rivers of
Damafcus, or rather it is an arm of the Barrady or Chry-
forrhoas, which waters the city ©f Damafcus and the
country about it (2 Kings v. 12.). “ Are not Abana
and Pharpar, rivers of Damafcus, better than all the
waters of Ifrael P11 The river of Damalcus has its foun¬
tain in the mountains of Libanus. At its approach to
the city it is divided into three arms, one of which
paffes through Damafcus. The other two water the
gardens round about, and then reuniting, they lofe
themfelves at four or five leagues from the city, to-
Avards the north. See Maundrell's Travels frotfi Alep¬
po to Jerufalem ,■ fee alfo the articles Abana and Da¬
mascus.
PHARSALIA, Pharsalium, Pharfalus, or Phar-
falos, in Ancient Geography, a town of the Phthiotes, a
diftrift of Theffaly, near Pherse and Lariffa, to which
laft place Pompey fled from the plains of Pharfalus j
watered by the river Enipeus, which falls into the Api-
danus, and both together into the Peneus. Between
Pharfalus and Enipeus, Pompey dreAV up his men at the
fatal battle of Pharfalia.
In this battle, the advantage with refpeft to num¬
bers was greatly on the fide of Pompey. That general
himfelf Avas on the left Avith the two legions Avhich Caj-
far had returned to him at the beginning of the Avar.
Scipio, Pompey’s father-in-law, Avas in the centre, with
the legions he had brought from Syria, and the rein¬
forcements fent by feveral kings and ftates of Afia. The-
Cilician legion, and fome cohorts which had ferved in
Spain, were in the right, under the command of Afra-
nius. As Pompey’s right wing was covered by the Eni¬
peus, he ftrengthened the left Avith his {lingers, archers,
and the 7000 Roman horfe, on Avhom chiefly his party
founded their hopes of victory. T he Avhole army Avas
drawn up in three lines, with very little fpaces between
them. In conformity to this difpofition, Caefar’s army
Avas dravvn up in the following order : T he tenth le¬
gion, Avhich had on all occafions fignalized itfelf
above all the reft, was placed in the right wing, and
the ninth in the left; but as the latter had been con-
fiderably weakened in the action at Dyrrhachiuro, the
eighth legion Avas polled fo near as to be able to fup-
port and reinforce it upon occafion. The reft of Cse-
far’s forces filled up the fpace between the two wings.
Mark Antony commanded the left Aving, Sylla the
right, and Cneius Domitius Calvinus the main body..
As for Csefar, he polled himfelf in the right over-
againft Pompey, that he might have him ahvays in his
fight.
Thus was the Avhole plain covered, from Pharfalia to
the Enipeus, Avith Iavo armies, dreffed and armed after
the lame manner, and bearing the fame enfigns, the Ro¬
man eagles. Pompey obferving how Avell the enemy
kept their ranks, expefling quietly the fignal of battle,,
and on the contrary hoAV impatient and unsteady his oAvn
men were, running up and down in great diforder for
Avant of experience, he began to be afraid left his ranks
ftrould be broken upon the firft onfet; and therefore
commanded the foot in the front to keep their ground,
and quietly Avait for the enemy. The two armies, though
Avithin reach of each other, kept a mournful filence j
but at length the trumpets founded the charge, and Cae-
far’s army advanced in good order to begin the attack,
being encouraged by the example of one Caius Crafti-
nus, a centurion, Avho at the head of 120 men, threAV
himfelf upon the enemy’s firft line with incredible fury.
This he did to acquit himfelf of a promife he had fo-
lemnly made to Caefar, Avho, meeting him as he Avas go¬
ing out of his tent in the morning, alked him, after fome
dilcourfe, What his opinion was touching the event of the
battle ? To Avhich he, ftretching out his hand, replied
aloud, Thine is the viBory, Ccefar ; thou Jhalt glorioufly
conquer, and 1 my felf this day will be thefubjeB of thy
praife either dead or alive. In purfuance of this promife
he broke out of his rank as foon as the trumpet found¬
ed j and, at the head of his company, ran in upon the
enemy, and made great {laughter of them. But Avhile^
he Avas {till prefling forward, forcing his way through
the firft line, one of Fompey’s men ran him in at the
mouth Avith fuch violence, that the point of his fivorT
came out at the hind part of his neck. Upon his death
Pompey’s foldiers took courage, and with great bravery-
flood the enemy’s onfet. While the foot Avere thus
fharply
P H A [ 254 ] P H A
Pharfalla. flaarply enaged in the centre, Pompey’s horfe in the
1 left wing marched up confidently} and having firft wi¬
dened their ranks, with a defign to furround Ctefar’s
right wing, charged his cavalry, and forced them to
give ground. Hereupon Ca;far ordered his horfe to re¬
treat a little, and give way to the fix cohorts, which he
had polled in the rear as a body of referve. Thefe, up¬
on a fignal given, coining up, charged the enemy’s horfe
with that refolution and good order which is peculiar to
men who have fpent all their lives in camps. They
remembered their inltru61ions, not linking at the legs
or thighs of the enemy, but aiming only at their faces.
This unexpected and new manner of fighting had the
defired effeCl. For the young patricians, whom Cae-
far contemptuoully calls the pretty young dancers, not
being able to bear the thoughts of having their faces
deformed with fears, turned their backs, and, covering
their faces with their hands, fled in the utmoft con-
fufion, leaving the foot at the mercy of the enemy.
Caefar's men did not purfue the fugitives •, but char¬
ging the foot of that wing, now naked and un¬
guarded, furrounded them, and cut mod of them in
pieces.
Pompey wras fo tranfported with rage, in feeing the
flower of his forces thus put to flight or cut in pieces,
that he left his army, and retired {lowly towards his
camp, looking more like a man diftrafted and befide
himfelf than one who by his exploits had acquired the
name of the Great. When he had reached the camp,
he retired to his tent ivithout fpeaking a word to any ;
and continued there, like one diftrafted and out of his
fenfes, till his whole army w’as defeated. Csefarno foon-
er faw himfelf mailer of the field than he marched to
attack the enemy’s entrenchments, that Pompey might
not have time to recoiled himfelf. When Pompey was
informed that his rival was advancing to attack his en¬
trenchments, he then firlt feemed to have recovered his
fenfes, and cried out, What, into my camp too! He
faid no more j but immediately laying afide the marks
of his dignity, and putting on fuch a garment as might
bell favour his flight, he llole out at the decuman gate,
and took the road to Larifla, which city had hitherto
fhown great attachment to him. In the mean time
Caefar began the attack on the enemy’s camp, which
was vigoroufly defended by the cohorts Pompey had
left to guard it; but they were at length forced to
yield. Caefar was not a little furprifed, when, after
having forced the entrenchments, he found the enemy’s
tents and pavilions richly adorned Avith carpets and
hangings, their couches ftreAved Avith floAvers, their
tables ready fpread, and fideboards fet out with abun¬
dance of plate, bowls, and glaffes, and fome of them
even filled with Avine. So great Avas the confidence of
Pompey’s party, that they made preparations before¬
hand for pleafures to be enjoyed after the vidory, Avhich
they thought certain. In Pompey’s tent, Ctefar found
the box in Avhieh he kept his letters : but, Avith a mo¬
deration and magnanimity worthy of himfelf, he burnt
them all, without reading one \ faying, that he had
rather be ignorant of crimes, than obliged to punilh
them.
The next day, xvhen the dead Avere numbered, it
appeared that Csefar had fcarce loll 200 men j among
whom Avere about 30 centurions, whom Casfar caufed
to be buried with great folemnity. He did particular
4
honours to the body of Craffinus, Avho had begun the Pliarfali'au.
battle ; and ordered his allies to be depofited in a tomb,v——y**—i
Avhich he erected to his memory. On Pompey’s fide,
the number of the dead amounted to 15,000 acoord-
ing to fome, and to 25,000 according to others. Cai-
far took 24,000 prifoners, eight eagles, and 180 en-
figns.
Pharsalia, an epic poem, compofed by Lucan on
the civil Avar between Pompey and Caefar, and parti¬
cularly on the victory of the latter over the former,
of Avhich Ave have given an account in the preceding
article. It is a poem univerfally acknowledged to have
great beauties and great defeats $ but we are the lefs
capable of ellimating its merit as a whole, that either
time has deprived us of the laft books, or its author
has left it incomplete. “ The fubje£t of the Pharfalia
(fays an excellent critic) carries undoubtedly all the LcClurtn
epic grandeur and dignity : neither does it want unity
of object, viz. the triumph of Ccefar over the Roman
liberty. In the choice of that fubjedl, he thinks, Iioav-
ever, that the author was not happy. The civil wars
Avere too recent to admit in the defeription of them the
embellifhments of fidlion and machinery. The fables
of the gods mixed Avith the exploits of Caefar and Pom¬
pey, inllead of railing, Avould have diminilhed, the dig¬
nity of fuch Avell knoAvn fa61s.” Another objection to
the fubjeft, perhaps more forcible than this, arifes from
the fuccefs of the war and the abilities of the generals*
Lucan Avas a friend to liberty, and Avilhed to raifet he
charafter of Pompey and Cato *, but in fpite of his ut-
molt efforts, they are ahvays eclipfed by the fuperior ta¬
lents and confequent fuccefs of Caefar. All his charac¬
ters, hoAvever, are draAvn with fpirit, and with uncom¬
mon regard to truth j and fome of the fpeeches Avhich
he puts into the mouths of his heroes are equal for mo¬
ral fublimity to any thing that is to be found in all an¬
tiquity.
“ There are in the Pharfalia (continues the critic al¬
ready quoted) feveral very poetical and fpirited de-
feriptions. But the author’s chief llrength does not
lie either in narration or defeription. His narration
is often dry and harlh j his deferiptions are often over-
Avrought, and employed too upon difagreeable objedls.
His principal merit confills in his fentiments, Avhich are
generally noble and linking, and expreffed in that glow¬
ing and ardent manner Avhich peculiarly dillinguilhes
him. Lucan is the moll philofophical and the molt
public-fpirited poet of all antiquity. He was the ne-
pheAv of the famous Seneca the) philofopher *, Avas him¬
felf a Stoic 5 and the fpirit of that philofophy breathes
throughout his poem. We mull obferve, too, that he is
the only ancient epic poet whom the fubje£t of his poem
really and deeply interelled. Lucan recounted no fic¬
tion. He was a Roman, and had felt all the direful ef-
fedls of the Roman civil Avars, and of that fevere defpo-
tifm Avhich fucceeded the lofs of liberty. His high
and bold fpirit made him enter deeply into this fub-
je£l, and kindle, on many occafions, into the moll real
Avarmth. Hence, he abounds in exclamations and
apollrophes, which are almoll always Avell-timed, and
fupported with a vivacity and fire that do him no fmall
honour.
“ But it is the fate of this poet, that his beauties can
never be mentioned, Avithout their fuggelling his ble-
milhes alfo, . As his principal excellency is a lively and
glowing
P H A
pharfalia glowing genius, which appears fometimes in his defer!p-
II tions, and very often in his fentiments, his great defeat
Phafis. ^ jn js Want of moderation. He carries every thing
y to an extreme. He knows not where to Hop. From
an eft'ort to aggrandize his objects, he becomes tumid
and unnatural: and it frequently happens, that where
the fecond line of one of his deferiptions is fublime, the
third, in which he meant to rife Hill higher, is per-
fedlly bombafl. Lucan lived in an age when the
fchools of the declaimers had begun to corrupt the
eloquence and taHe of Rome. He was not free from
the infedlion j and too often, in Head of Ihowing the
genius of the poet, betrays the fpirit of the declaimer ;
but he is, on the whole, an author of lively and original
genius.”
PHARUS, a genus of plants belonging to the mo-
noecia clafs ; and in the natural method ranking under
the fourth order, Gramina. See Botany Index.
PHARYNX. See Anatomy, N° 92.
PHASCUM, a genus of plants of the order of mufei,
belonging to the cryptogamia clafs. See Botany
Index.
PHASEOLUS, the Kidney-bean *, a genus of
plants, belonging to the diadelphia clafs. See Botany
Index.
PHASES, in /IJironomij, from the Greek word
“ to appear the feveral appearances or quanti¬
ties of illumination of the moon, Venus, Mercury, and
the other planets. See Astronomy.
PH ASGA, or PlSGAH, (Mofes), a mountain on the
other fide Jordan, joined to Abarim and Nebo, and
running fouth to the mouth of the Arnon : from which
Mofes had a view of the promifed land, and where he
died, having before appointed Jofhua his fuccefior.
Wells takes Pifgah and Nebo to be different names of
one and the fame mountain, a part or branch of the
mountains Abarim (Deut. xxxii. 49. compared with
Deut. xxxiv. 1.). Or that the top of Nebo was pecu¬
liarly called Pifgah ; or fome other part of it, cut out
in Heps, as the primitive word denotes : and thus it is
rendered by Aquila, by a Greek word fignifydng cut out
(Jerome). There was alfo a city of this name, id. ;
and the adjoining country was in like manner called
Pifgah, id.
PH A SI ANUS, a genus of birds belonging to the
order of gallime. See Ornithology Index.
PHASIS, a river which falls into the Euxine fea
about 700 miles from Conflantinople. “ From the
^Iberian Caucafus (fays Gibbon), the moff lofty and
tomn 6 craS&y mountains of Afia, that river defeends with
hnpire. °hlique vehemence, that in a (hort fpace it is tra-
verfed by 120 bridges. Nor does the Hream become
placid and navigable till it reaches the town of Sara-
pana, five days journey from the Cyrus, which Hows
from the fame hills, but in a contrary direHion, to
the Cafpian lake. The proximity of thefe rivers has
fuggefied the practice, or at leafl the idea,- of waft¬
ing the precious merchandife of India down the Oxus,
over the Cafpian, up the Cyrus, and with the current-
of the Phafis into the Euxine and Mediterranean
leas. As it fuccelfively collefts the fireams of the plain
of Colchos, the Phafis moves with dimimfhed fpeed,
though accumulated weight, At the mouth it is-60 fa¬
thoms deep, and half a league broad ; but a fmall woody
ifiand is interpofed in the midfi of tire channel-, the
P H E
water, fo foon as it has depofited an earthy or metallic Pliafis
lediment, Hoats on the lurtace of the waves, and is no II
longer fufccptible of corruption. In a courfe of 100 Phegor' ^
miles, 40 of which are navigable for large veffels,
the Phafis divides the celebrated region of Colchos or
Mingrelia, which, on three fides, is fortified by the
Iberian and Armenian mountains, and whofe maritime
coafl extends about 200 miles, from the neighbourhood
of Trebizond to Diofcurias and the confines of Circaflia.
Both the foil and climate are relaxed by excefiive moif-
ture: 28 rivers, befides the Phafis and his dependent
flreams, convey their waters to the lea ; and the hollow-
nefs of the ground appears to indicate the fubterraneous-
channels between the Euxine and the Cafpian.”
PH ASM AI A, in Phyjiology, certain appearances-
arifing from the various (hades of colour in the clouds
by the light from the heavenly bodies, efpecially the fun
and moon. Thefe are infinitely diverfified by the dif- ✓
ferent figures and fituations of the clouds, and the ap-
pulfes of the rays of light-, and, together with the oc-
cafional fiafhings and ihootings of different meteors,
they have, no doubt, occafioned thofe prodigies of
armies fighting in the air, &c. of which we have
Rich frequent accounts in many writers. See 2 Mac-
cab. xi. 8. Melan&h. Meteor. 2. Shel. de Comet, ann.
1618.
Kircher and Schottus have erroneoufly attempted to-
explain the phenomenon from the reflexion of terreflrial
objeds made on opaque and congealed clouds in the
middle region of the air, which, according to them,
have the effe£I of a mirror. Thus, according to thofe
authors, the armies pretended by feveral hiitorians to
have been feen in the Ikies, were no other than the
refled ion of the like armies placed on fome part of the
earth. See Hi/i. Acad. Roy. Scienc. ann. 1726, p. 405,
et feq.
PHEASANT. See Phasianus, Ornithology
Index.
Pheasant's Eye, or Bird's Eye. See Adonis, .
Botany Index.
PHEBE, a deaconefs of the port of Corinth, call¬
ed Cenchrea. St Paul had a particular effeem for this
holy woman y and Theodoret thinks the apofile lodged
at her houfe for fome time, while he continued in or
near Corinth. It is thought fhe brought to Rome
the epiflle he wrote to the Romans, wherein Hie is
commended and recommended in fo advantageous a
manner. He fays (Rom. xvi. 1, 2.), “ I commend un¬
to you Phebe our fifier, which is a fervant of the church
which is at Cenchrea : that ye receive her in the Lord,
as becomelh faints, and that ye aflifl her in whatfoever
bufinefs Hie hath need of you; for (he hath been a fuc-
courer of many, and of rayielf alfo.” Some moderns
have advanced a notion, that Phebe was wife to St
Paul; but none of the ancients have faid any thing like
it. It is thought, in quality of deaconefs, (he was em¬
ployed by the church in fome miniflrations Ratable
to her fex and condition ; as to vilit and inffrufl the
Chrifi ian women, to attend them in their ficknefs, and
diHribute alms to them.
PHEGOR, or PeoR, a deity worfiiipped at a very
early period by the Midianites and Moabites, and pro¬
bably by all the other tribes which then inhabited Sy¬
ria. Much has been faid concerning the funflions of
this god, and the rank which he held.among the Pa-
[ 25j 1
Phftgor
tl
Pheons.
Hill's Hift
of Fqffils,
p. 4J)0.
P H E [256
gan divinities (fee BAAL-Peor) j and many conjeftures
have been formed concerning the origin of his name.
Moil of thefe feem to have no better foundation than
the fenfelefs dreams of the Jewiih rabbles. Phegor,
or Peor, is undoubtedly the fame with the Hebrew
word pechor, which fignifies apcruil, and probably re¬
fers to the prophetic influence always attributed to the
folar deity, by which he opened or difeovered things to
come. Accordingly we find Phegor or Peor gene¬
rally joined to Baa/, which was the Syrian and Chai-
dean name of the fun after he became an objeft of
worlhip •, hence Baa/-PtlEGOlt mull have been the fun
worlhipped by fome particular rites, or under fome par¬
ticular charafter. What thefe were, a refolution of
Pec/ior into its component parts may perhaps inform
us. As this word, wherever it occurs in Scripture,
lias fome relation to diftending or opening the mouth
wide, it is probably compounded of I’HAH the mouth or
face, and EHAR nahed. In thofe countries we know
that the women wore veils} but it would appear, that
in celebrating the rites of this deity they were unveil¬
ed. It feems even not improbable, that on thefe oc-
cafions the fexes danced promifcuoufly without their
clothes; a pra&ice which would naturally give birth to
the licentious amours mentioned in the 25th chapter of
the book of Numbers. If this be admitted, it will fol¬
low that Phegor was the fun prefiding over the myfteries
of Venus.
PHELLANDRIUM, Water-hemlock ; a genus
of plants belonging to the pentandria clafs. See Bo-
TANY Index.
PHENGITES, among the ancients, the name of a
beautiful fpecies of alabafter. It is a rude irregular
mafs, very fhattery and friable, but of a brightnefs fu-
perior to that of mofl: other marbles, and excelling
them all in tranfparence. The colour is an agreeable
pale, yellowifh white, or honey colour ; the yellowilh
is more intenfe in fome places than in others, and
fometimes makes an obfeure refemblance of veins. It
is very weak and brittle in the mafs \ and when redu¬
ced to fmall pieces, may be eafily crumbled between
the fingers into loofe, but confiderably large angular
pieces, fome perfect, others complex, irregular, or mu¬
tilated, and all approaching to a flat fhape. The an¬
cients were very fond of this fpecies in public build¬
ings ; and the temple of Fortune, built entirely of it,
has long been celebrated. Its great beauty is its tranf¬
parence, from which alone this temple was perfeftly
light when the doors were fliut, though it was built
without a window, and had no other light but what
was tranfmitted through the ftone of which the walls
were built. It was anciently found in Cappadocia, and
is Hill plentiful there : we have it alfo in Germany and
France, and in our own kingdom in Derbyfhire, and
fome other counties. It takes an excellent polifli, and
is very fit for ornamental works, where no great ftrength
is required.
PHENICE, a port of the ifland of Crete, to the
weft of the ifland. St Paul having anchored at Phe-
nice, when he was carried to Rome (Afts xxvii. 12.),
advifed the (hip’s crew to fpend the winter there, be-
caufe the feafon was too far advanced.
PHENICIA, See Phoenicia.
PHEONS, in Hera/dry, the barbed heads of darts,
-arrows, or other weapons.
J
P H £
PHEOS, in Botany, a name which Theophraftus,
Diofcorides, and others, give to a plant ufed by fullers II
in drefling their cloths, and of which there were tww erec* es
kinds, a fmaller called fimply pheos, and a larger call¬
ed hippopheos. This plant is fometimes called phlecs ;
and is thus confounded with a kind of marfli cudweed,
or gnapha/ium, called alfo by that name ; but it may al ¬
ways be difeovered which of the two plants an author
means, by obferving the fenfe in which the word is ufed,
and the ufe to which the plant was put. The phleos,
properly fo called, that is, the cudweed, was ufed to fluff
beds and other fuch things, and to pack up with earthen
velfels to prevent their breaking •, but the pheos, impro¬
perly called phleos, only about cloths ; this was, hoiv-
ever, alfo called Jlcehe and cnaphon.
PHERECRATES, a Greek comic poet, was con¬
temporary with Plato and Ariftophanes. After the
example of the ancient comedians, who never introdu¬
ced upon the theatre imaginary but living charatters,
he a£led his contemporaries. But he did not abufe the
liberty which at that time prevailed upon the ftage \
and laid it down as a rule to himfelf never to deftroy
the reputation of any perfon. Twenty-one comedies
are attributed to him, of which there now only remain
fome fragments collefted by Hertelius and Grotius.
From thefe fragments, however, it is eafy to difeern,
that Pherecrates wrote the pureft Greek, and poffeffed
that ingenious and delicate raillery which is called at¬
tic urbanity. He was author of a kind of verfe called,
from his own name, Pherecratick. The three laft feeb
were in hexameter verfe, and the firft of thofe thred
feet was always a fpondee. This verfe of Horace (for
example, Quamvispontica pinks') is a Pherecratick verfe.
We find in Plutarch a fragment of this poet upon the
mufic of the Greeks, which has been critically exami¬
ned by M. Burette of the academy of infer!ptions. See
the 1 i;th volume of the colle6lion publiihed by that
learned fociety.
PHERECYDES, a native of Scyros, flouriflied
about the year 560 before the Chriftian era, and was
difciple of Pittacus, one of the feven wife men of Greece
(fee PittacUS). He is faid to have been the firft of all
the philofophers who has written on natural fubje&S
and the elfence of the gods. He was alfo the firft, it
is faid, who held the ridiculous opinion, “ that animals
are mere machines.” He was Pythagoras’s mafter, who
loved him as his own father. This grateful fcholar ha¬
ving heard that Pherecydes lay dangeroufly ill in the
ifland of Delos, immediately repaired thither, in order
to give every neceflary afliftance to the old man, and to
take care that no means ftrould be left Untried for the
recovery of his health. His great age, however, and the
violence of his difeafe, having rendered every preferip-
tion ineffeftual, his next care was to fee him decently
buried j and when he had paid the laft duty to his re¬
mains, and eretted a monument to his memory, he fet
out again for Italy. Other caufes have been afligned
for the death of Pherecydes : fome fay he was eaten up
by lice, and others that he fell headlong from the top of
Mount Corycius in his way to Delphos. He lived to
the age of 85 years, and was one of the firft profe writers
among the Greeks. < ,
“ Marvellous circumftances have been related of him, ^
phich only deferve to be mentioned, in order to fhow
that what has been deemed fupernatural by ignorant
fpectators
PHI [ 257 ] PHI
Pherecydes fpe&ators may be ealily conceived to have happened
II. from natural caules. A ihip in full fail was at a dittance
Phidias. ^ approaching its harbour ; Pherecydes predicted that it
would never come into the haven, and it happened ac¬
cordingly ; for a ilorm arofe which funk the veflel. Af¬
ter drinking water from a well, he predicted an earth¬
quake, which happened three days afterwards. It is eafy
to fuppofe that thefe predictions might have been the re¬
fill t of a careful obfervation of thofe phenomena which
commonly precede ftorms or earthquakes in a climate
where they frequently happen.
“ It is difficult to give in any degree an accurate ac¬
count of the dodtrines of Pherecydes ; both becaufe he
delivered them, after the manner of the times, under
the concealment of fymbols *, and becaufe very few me¬
moirs of this philofopher remain. It is molt probable
that he taught thofe opinions concerning the gods and
the origin of the world which the ancient Grecian the-
ogonilts borrowed from Egypt and of which the
reader will find accounts in different articles of this
work. See Egypt, Metaphysics, Mysteries, My¬
thology, and Polytheism.
PHEREXIMA, was the wife of Battus king of
Cyrene, and the mother of Arcefilaus. After her fon’s
death, ffie recovered the kingdom by means of Amafis
king of Egypt, and to avenge the murder of Arce¬
filaus, ffie caufed all his affaffins to be Crucified round
the walls of Cyrene, and (he cut off the breafts of their
wives, and hung them up near the bodies of their
hufbands. It is faid that Hie was devoured alive by
worms ; a puniffiment which, according to fome of the
ancients, was inffiCled by Providence for her unparallel¬
ed cruelties.
PHIAL, a well-known veffel made of glafs, ufed for
various purpofes.
Leyden PHIAL, is a phial of glafs coated on both fides
with tin-foil for a confiderable way up the fides, of
great ufe in eleflrical experiments. The difcovery that
ele&ricity may be accumulated in an apparatus of this
kind, was originally made in the year 1745 by Mr Von
Kleifl, dean of the cathedral in Comin. But this re¬
markable property was firrt fatisfaftorily obferved at
Leyden, with a bottle containing fome water which
ferved for the infide coating, and the accidental applica¬
tion of the hands on the outfide ferved for another coat¬
ing. Hence a bottle coated on both fides for the pur-
pofe of being charged with ele&ricity, has received the
name of Leyden phial, or other wife eleElnc jar. See
Electricity, pajjtm.
PHIDIAS, the mofi famous fculptor of antiquity,
was an Athenian, and a contemporary of the celebra¬
ted Pericles, who flouriffied in the 83d Olympiad. This
wonderful artift was not only confummate in the ufe
of his tools, but accompliffied in thofe fciences and
branches of knowledge which belong to his profeffion,
as hiftory, poetry, fable, geometry, optics, &c. He
firft taught the Greeks to imitate nature perfeftly in
this way ; and all his works were received with admi¬
ration. They were alfo incredibly numerous ; for it
was almofi: peculiar to Phidias, that he united the great-
eft facility with the greateft perfection. His Nemefis
was ranked among his firft pieces : it was carved out
of a block of marble, which was found in the camp of
the Perfians after they were defeated in the plains of
VOL. XVI. Part I.
Marathon. He made an excellent ftatue of Minerva Phidias
for the Piateans; but the ftatue of this goddefs in her ^
magnificent temple at Athens, of which there are ftill p^Va.
fome ruined remains, was an aftonirtiing production ofu—y—
human art. Pericles, who had the care of this pom¬
pous edifice, gave orders to Phidias, whole prodigious
talents he well knew, to make a itatue ol the goddefs j
and Phidias formed a figure of ivory and gold 39 ieet
high. Writers never fpeak of this illuftrious monument
of ikill without raptures } yet what has rendered the
name of the artift immortal, proved at that time his
ruin. He had carved upon the ihield of the goddefs his
own portrait and that of Pericles j and this was, by
thofe that envied them, made a crime in Phidias. Pie
was alfo charged with embezzling part of the materials
which were defigned for the ftatue. Upon this he with¬
drew to Elis, and revenged himfelf upon the ungrateful
Athenians, by making for the Elians the Olympic Ju¬
piter ; a prodigy oi art, and which was afterwards rank¬
ed among the feven wonders of the world, it was of
ivory and gold j 60 feet high, and every way propor¬
tioned. “ The majefty of the work did equal the ma-
jefty of the god (lays Quintilian), and its beauty feems
to have added luftre to the religion of the country.”
Phidias concluded his labours with this mal erpiece :
and the Elians, to do honour to his memory, ereCfed,
and appropriated to his defcendants, an office, which
confiiled in keeping clean this magnificent image.
PHIDITiA, in Grecian antiquity,feafts celebrated
with great frugality at Sparta. They were held in the
public places and in the open air. Rich and poor affift-
ed at them equally, and on the fame footing; their de-
fign being to keep up peace, friendfhip, good under-
ftanding, and equality among the citizens great and
fmall. It is faid that thofe who attended this feaft:
brought each a buftiel of flour, eight meafures of wine
named chorus, five pounds of cheele, and two pounds
and a half of figs, with fome money.
PHIL A, in Mythology, one of the attributes of Venus,
which diftinguifties her as the mother of love, from <fnXnv,
to love.
PHILADELPHIA, in antiquity, were games in-
ftituted at Sardis to celebrate the union of Caracalla
and Geta, the fons of Septimius Severus.
Philadelphia, the capital of the ftate of Penfvl-
vania in North America, fituated in W. Long. 7 5 8.
N. Lat. 39. 57. It is one of the moft beautiful and
regular cities in the world, being of an oblong form,
fituated on the weft bank of the river Delaware, on an
extenfive plain, about 118 miles (fome fay more) from
the fea. The length of the city ealt and weft, that is,
from the Delaware to the Schuylkill, upon the original
plan of Mr Penn, is about three miles, and the breadth,
north and fouth, rather lefs than one mile. Not two
fifths of the plot covered by the city charter is yet built.
The inhabitants, however, have not confined themfelves
within the original limits of the city, but have built
north and fouth along the Delaware two miles in
length. The longed ftreet is Second ftreet, about 700
feet from Delaware river, and parallel to it. The cir¬
cumference of that part of the city which is built, if we
include Kenfington on the north and Southwark on the
fouth, may be about five miles. Market-ftreet is 100
feet wide, and runs the whole length of the city from
K k river
PHI [ 258 ]
philadel- river to river. Near the middle, it is interfered at right
phm. angles by Broad-ftreet, 113 feet wide, running nearly
v north and fouth quite acrofs the city.
Between Delaware river and Broad-ftreet are 14
ftreets, nearly equidiftant, running parallel with Broad-
ftreet acrofs the city-, and.between Broad-ftreet and
the Schuylkill, there are nine ftreets equidiftant from
*ach other. Parallel to Market-ftreet are eight other
ftreets, running eaft and weft from river to river, and
interfering the crofs ftreets at right angles-, all thefe
ftreets are 50 feet wide, except Arch-ftreet, which is
63 feet wide. All the ftreets which run north and
fouth, except Broad-ftreet mentioned above, are 50
feet wide. There were four fquarcs of eight acres
each, one at each corner of the city, originally referved
for public and common ufes. And in the centre of the
eity, where Broad-ftreet andlYIarket-ftreet interfeft each
other, is a fquare of ten acres, referved in like manner,
to be planted with rows of trees for public walks.
This city was founded in 1682 by the celebrated Wil¬
liam Penn, who in October 1701 granted a charter in¬
corporating the town with city privileges In 1749
the dwelling-heufes were computed, and found to be
2076 -, in 1794, they amounted to 9000. ’1 hey are in
general handfomely built of brick } and contain 55,coo
inhabitants, compofed of almoft all nations and reli¬
gions. Their places for religious Avorftiip are as fol¬
lows : The Friends or Quakers have five, the Prelby-
terians fix, the Epifcopalians three, the German Luthe-
ranss two, the German Calvinifts one, the Catholics
three, the Swedifli Lutherans one, the Moravians one,
the Baptifts one, the Univerfal Baptifts one, the Me-,
thodifts two, the Jews one..
The other public buildings in the city, befides the
univerfity, academies, &c. are the following, viz, a ftate-
houfe and offices, a city court-houfe, a county court-
houfe, a carpenter’s hall, a philofophical fociety’s hall,
a difpenfary, an hofpital and offices, an alms-houfe, a
houfe of correction, a public faftory of linen, cotton, and
woollen, a public obfervatory, three brick market-houfes,
a fiftr-market, a public gaol.
In Philadelphia there are 304 fquares, and about 34
ftreets, many of which are very broad, and all of them
neat and elegant, lighted by 662 lamps of two branches
each, and confirming annually about 9000 gallons of
oil. Here is a library which owed its origin to Dr
Franklin, was incorporated in I742? anc^ now contains
upwards of i2,ocq volumes, befides a mufeum and a
valuable philofophical apparatus. I here is a new
theatre in Chefnut-ftreet, which was finiftied in 1793,
The univerfity Hands on the weft fide of Fourth-ftreet,
and was incorporated in the year I79G fun<^s °f
which produce annually a revenue of about 2365I. and
the ftudents on an average amount to 510, of whom 25
are annually admitted to degrees. In the city and
fuburbs are 10 rope-walks, 13 breweries, 6 fugar-houfes,
7 hair-powder manufactories, 2 rum-diftilleries, 1 5 ma¬
nufactories of earthen ware, and the public mint for the
whole United States. In the year 1791, the value of
the exports amounted to 3,436,092 dollars, and in
1795, to 11,518,260. From Auguft 1792 to the
fame month in 1793, the births amounted to 2511, and
the deaths to 1497, which added to the population
rather more than a thoufand. There were 8060 debt¬
ors and criminals confined in the gaol from September
Z
28th, 1780, to September 5. 1790, of which vaft num- PHIadel.
her only twelve died a natural death -, than which no- ^ Pi¬
thing can be a more honourable proof of the great hu- v'~,“
manity with which prifoners are there treated.
The univerfity of Philadelphia was founded during
the war. Its funds were partly given by the ftate, and
partly taken from the old college of Philadelphia. A
medical fcheol, which was founded in 1765, is attached
to the univerfity ; and has profeffors in all the branches
of medicine, who prepare the ftudents (whofe number
yearly is 50 or 60) for degrees in that fcience. Betides
the univerfity and medical fchool, there is theProteftant
Epifcopal academy, a very flouriftiing inftitution 5 the
academy for young ladies ; another for the Friends
or Quakers, and one for the Germans, befides five free
fchools.
In Market-ftreet, between Front and Fourth-ftreets,
is the principal market, built of brick, and is 1500
feet in length. This market, in reipeCt to the quan¬
tity, the variety, and neatnefs of the provifions, is not
equalled in America, and perhaps not exceeded in the
world.
The Philadelphians are not fo focial, nor perhaps fo
h fpitable, as the people in Bofton, Charleftown, and
New York. Various caufes have contributed to this
difference : among which the moft operative has been
the prevalence of party-lpirit, which has been and is
carried to greater lengths in this city than in any other
in America ; yet no city can boaft of fo many ufeful
improvements in manufactures, in the mechanical arts,
in the art of healing, and particularly in the fcience of
humanity. In fhort, whether we confider the convenient
local fituation, the fize, the beauty, the variety and uti¬
lity of the improvements, in mechanics, in agriculture^
and manufactures, or the induftry, the enterprife, the
humanity, and the abilities, of the inhabitants of the
city of Philadelphia, it merits to be viewed as the capi¬
tal not only of the province, but of the flouriftiing em¬
pire of United America.
Several canals are let into the town, which add much
to the beauty and convenience of the place. Its quay
is 200 feet fquare, to which flips of 400 or 500 tons
may come up, and lay their broadfides clofe to it; with
wet and dry docks for building and repairing flips, be¬
fides magazines, warehoufes, and all other conveniences
for exporting and importing merchandize. Scarce any
thing can appear more beautiful than the city and the
adjacent country, which for fome miles may be com¬
pared, to a. fine flourifting garden.
Though all our readers muft unqueftionabiy have
heard of the malignant fever, known by the name of
yellow fever, which fome years raged in Philadelphia,
it will not, we truft, be thought improper if we give a
fhort, account of that dreadful malady in this place.
This account we fliall extraft from a pamphlet written
by Mr Carey.
Of this fever, then, it is obferved, that, generally
fpeaking, the mortality was not fo great among women
as among men, but that corpulent, high-fed, and
drunken men, common proftitutes, and fuch of the poor
as had been debilitated through the want of fufficient
nourifhment, and lived in dirty and confined habita¬
tions, became an eafy prey to it ; whilft thofe who re¬
futed in the fuburbs, enjoying the benefit of country air,
were little affe&ed by it. A fmgular facl is, that the
PHI [2,
Philadel- French refiding in Philadelphia were in a remarkable
plua. degree exempt from it j a circumflance which cannot
be accounted for. The report which prevailed here of
the Africans having wholly efcaped the difeafe, proves
to be not altogether true, feveral of them having been
feized. The fever, however, was found to yield more
readily to medicine in them than in white perfons.
We find the following account of the nature and
fymptoms of the difeafe, as deferibed by Dr Currie, in
the third edition of the pamphlet already mentioned.
“ The fymptoms which chara&erifed the firlt Uage of
the fever were, in the greatelt number of cafes, after
a chilly fit of fome duration, a quick tenfe pulfe 5 hot
£kin; pain in the head, back, and limbs *, fluflied
countenance j inflamed eye ; moil! tongue •, oppreflion
and fenfe of forenefs at the ftomach, efpecially upon
preffure ; frequent fick qualms, and retchings to vomit,
without difeharging any thing, except the contents laft
taken into the Itomach } coftivenefs, &c. And when
flools were procured, the firft generally Ihowed a defect
of bile, or an obftru&ion to its entrance into the in-
teftines. But brifk purges generally altered this ap¬
pearance.
“ Thefe fymptoms generally continued with more or
lefs violence from one to three, four, or even five days j
and then gradually abating, left the patient free from
every complaint, except general debility. On the fe¬
brile fymptoms fuddenly fubliding, they were immedi¬
ately fucceeded by a yellow tinge in the opaque cornea,
or whites of the eyes 5 an increafed oppreflion at the
praecordia, a conftant puking of every thing taken into
the ftomach, with much {training, accompanied with a
hoarfe hollow noife.
“ If thefe fymptoms were not foon relieved, a vomit¬
ing of matter refembling coffee-grounds in colour and
confiftence, commonly called the b/ack vomit, fome times
accompanied with or fucceeded by hemorrhagies from
the nofe, fauces, gums, and other parts of the body ; a
yellowifti purple colour, and putrefeent appearance of the
whole body, hiccup, agitations, deep and diftrefled figh-
ing, comatofe delirium, and finally death, are the con-
fequence. When the difeafe proved fatal, it was gene¬
rally between the fifth and eighth days.
“ This was the moft ufual progrefs of this formidable
difeafe through its fevefal ftages. There were, how¬
ever, very confiderable variations in the fymptoms as
well as in the duration of its different ftages, according
to the conftitution and temperament of the patient, the
ftate of the weather, the manner of treatment, &c.
“In fome cafes, figns of putrefcency appeared at the
beginning or before the end of the third day. In thefe,
the black vomiting, which was generally a mortal fymp-
tom, and univerfal yellownefs, appeared early. In
thefe cafes, alfo, a low delirium, and great proftration of
ftrength, were conftant fymptoms, and coma came on
very fpeedily.
“ In fome, the fymptoms inclined more to the ner¬
vous than the inflammatory type. In thefe, the jaun¬
dice colour of the eye and fkin, and the black vomiting,
were more rare. But in the majority of cafes, particu¬
larly after the nights became fenfibly cooler, all the
fymptoms indicated violent irritation and inflammatory
diathefis. In thefe cafes, the fkin was always dry. and
the remiflions very obfeure.
“ The febrile fymptoms, however, as has been al-
9 ] PHI
ready obferved, either gave way on the third, fourth, Phfiladcf-
or fifth day, and then the patient recovered j or they l^lia'
were loon after lucceeded by a different but much more
dangerous train of fymptoms, by debility, low pulfe,
cold Ikin (which affumed a tawney colour, mixed with
purple), black vomiting, hemorrhagies, hiccup, anxiety,
reftleffnefs, coma, &c. Many whoiurvived the eighth
day, though apparently out of danger, died fuddtnly in
confequenee of a hemorrhagy.”
Purging the patient with calomel and jalap appears
to have proved the moft fuccefsfui treatment \ and the
repeated ufe of the lancet, in cafes where no fymptoms
of putridity exifted. Dr Griffiths, who had been feized
with the difeafe, “ was bled feven times in five days,
and aferibes his recovery principally to that operation.”
Dr Maefe alfo, “ in five days, loft 72 ounces of blood,
by which he was recovered when at the loweft ftage of
the diforder.” It was generally remarked that an ob-
ftinate coftivenefs took place at the commencement of
the difeafe j and when this was removed, by purgatives,
within the firft twelve hours, the patient feldom failed to
do well.
The work concludes with a lift of the committee for
the relief of the fick, of which our author was a mem¬
ber : alfo the names of a large number of the inhabi¬
tants who were cut off, a feries of meteorological tables,
and a general account of burials during the prevalence
of this fatal complaint. From the latter we extradl the
following account:
“ Auguft - - 325
“ September - - I442
“ 061ober - - 1993
“ November - - 118
“ Jews, returned in grofs - 3
“ Baptifts, do. - - 6o
“ Methodifts, do. - 32
“ Free Quakers, do. - "39
“ German part of St Mary’s congregation 30
Total 4042.”
It is not difficult to conceive the general diftrefs
which fuch an evil muft have occafioned to perfons of
every rank and defeription. Some of the moft linking
inftances our author has related in very affedling terms j
but no picture of human calamity perhaps ever exceeded
the following: “ A fervant girl belonging to a family
in this city, in which the fever had prevailed, was ap-
prehenfive of danger, and refolved to remove to a rela¬
tion’s houfe in the country. She was, however, taken
fick on the road, and returned to town, where Ihe could
find no perfon to receive her. One of the guardians of
the poor provided a cart, and took her to the alms-houfe,
into which fhe was refufed admittance. She was brought
back, and the guardian offered five dollars to procure
her a Angle night’s lodging, but in vain. And in fine,
after everv effort made to provide her fhelter, fhe abfo-
lutely expired in the cart.”
We cannot difmifs the prefent article, though it has
already extended to a fufficient length, without giving
our readers an account of a very extraordinary people
who live within 50 miles of Philadelphia j where there
is a little town or colony, particularly remarkable on
account of its origin and the manners of the people by
whom it is inhabited. It was founded by a German,
K k 2 who>,
P H I
[
Ptu'Iadel- wliOj weary of the world, returned into the country
, P^ia- tliat he might be more at liberty to give himfelf up to
contemplation. Curiofity brought feveral of his country¬
men to vifit his retreat j and by degrees his pious, fimple,
and peaceable manners, induced them to fettle near him*,
when they all formed a little colony, which they called
Euphrates, in allufion to the Hebrews, who ufed to ling
pfalms on the borders of that river.
This little town forms a triangle, the outlides of
which are bordered with mulberry and apple trees plant¬
ed with great regularity j and its inhabitants, we know
not for what reafon, are called Dumplers. In the mid¬
dle of the town is a very large orchard, and between
the orchard and thofe ranges of trees are houfes built of
wood, three itories high, where every Dumpier is left
to enjoy the pleafures of his meditation without dillurb-
ance. Thefe contemplative men do not amount to
above 500 ; and the extent of their territory is about
290 acres, bounded by a river, a piece of llagnated w a¬
ter, and a mountain covered with trees.
The men and women live in feparate quarters of the
town, and never fee each other but at places of worlhip*,
for among the Dumplers there are no affemblies of any
kind but for public bulinefs. Their lives are fpent in
labour, prayer, and deep. Twice every day and night
they are called forth from their cells to attend divine
fervice. Like the Methodifts and Quakers, every in¬
dividual among them has the right of preaching when
he thinks himfelf infpired. The favourite fubjeffs on
which they difcourfe in their affemblies, are humility,
temperance, chafiity, and the other Chriftian virtues.
They never violate that day of repofe which all orders
of men, whether idle or luxurious, much delight in.
They admit a hell and a paradife } but rejeft the eter¬
nity of future punifhments. They abhor the dodlrine of
original fin as an impious blafphemy *, and, in general,
every tenet that is fevere to men appears to them inju¬
rious to the Divinity. As they do not allow merit to
any but voluntary works, they adminifter baptifm only
to the adult; at the fame time, they think baptifm fo
effentially neceflTary to falvation, that they imagine the
fouls of Chriftians in another world are employed in
converting thofe who have not died under the law of
the Gofpel. In this ridiculous opinion we have known
Chriftians of other denominations, and w'ho boafted a
higher antiquity, that agreed with them.
Still more difinterefted than the Quakers, they never
enter into anv law fuit. One may cheat, rob, and
abufe them, without being expofed to any retaliation,
or even to any complaint from them. On them reli¬
gion has the fame effeT that philofophy had upon the
Stoics : it makes them infenfible to every kind of in-
fult.
Nothing can be plainer than their drefs. In winter
it is a long white gown, from which there hangs a hood,
which ferves inftead of a hat, a coarfe (hirt, thick fhoes,
and very wide breeches. The women are dreffed very
much like the men, except that they have no breeches.
Their common food con lifts wholly of vegetables ; not
becaufe it is unlawful to eat any other, but becaufe that
kind of abftinence is looked upon as more conformable
to the fpirit of Chriftianity, which has an averfion from
blood.
Each individual follows with cheerfulnefs the branch
•f bufmefs allotted him; and the produce of all their
260 ] PHI
labours is depofited in a common flock, for the ufe of Philadel.
the whole. This union of induftry has not only efta- P^la-
blifhed agriculture, manufailures, and all the arts necef- 'Tm-J
fary for the fupport of this little fociety, but hath alfo
fupplied, for the purpofes of exchange, fuperfluities pro-
portioned to the degree of its population.
Though the two fexes live feparate at Euphrates, the
Dumplers do not on that account foolifhly renounce
matrimony ; but thofe who find themfelves difpofed to
it, leave the town, and form an eftabliftunent in the
country, which is fupported at the public expence.
They repay this by the produce of their labours, which
is all thrown into the public treafury ; and their children
are fent to be educated in Euphrates, which they
confider as their mother-country.—W ithout this wife
privilege, the Dumplers would be no better than monks;
and in procefs of time they would become either favages
or libertines. They are at prefent an innocent, though
perhaps deluded, race.
Philadelphia, an ancient town of Turkey in
Afia, in Natolia. It is feated at the foot of Mount
Tmolus, by the river Cogamus, from whence there is
an exceeding fine view over an extenfive plain, i his
place was founded by Attalus Philadelphus, brother of
Eumenes.
It was very liable to earthquakes, which, perhaps,
arofe from its vicinity to the region called Catakehau-
mene *. So fevere were thofe earthquakes, that even the # signifying’
city walls were not fecure ; and fo frequent were they the Burned
that thefe experienced daily concuffions. The inhabi¬
tants, therefore, who were not numerous, lived in perpe¬
tual apprehenfion, and their conftant employment was
in repairs. In faff, fo great were their fears, that their
chief refidence was in the country, the foil of which
was very fertile. Such is Strabo’s account of this
place. In the year 1097, ^ 'vas ta^en by affault by
John Ducas the Greek general. It was without diffi¬
culty induced alfo in the year 1106, under the fame-
emperor. The Turks marched from the Eaft with a
defign to plunder it and the maritime towns. The
emperor Manuel, in i>75, retired for proteftion from
the Turks to this place. In 1300, it fell by lot to
Karaman. In 1306, it was befieged by Alifaras, and
confiderably haraiTed ; but was not taken. In I39I>
this place alone refufed to admit Bajazet *, but it w as
at length forced to capitulate for want of provifions.
It has been matter of furprife that this town was not
totally abandoned ; and yet it has furvived many cities
lefs liable to inconveniences, and is ftill an extenfive
place, though in its appearance it is poor and mean.
Some remnants of its walls are ftill Handing, but with
large gaps. The materials of the wTall are fmall ftones
ftrongly cemented. It is thick, lofty, and has round
towers. Near this place, between the mountains, there
is a fpring of a purga ive quality *, it is much efteemed,
and many people refort to it in the hot months. It
taftes like ink, is clear, but tinges the earth with the
colour of ochre. The famous wall, which credulity has
afferted to be made of human bones, Hands beyond this
and beyond the town. See the next article.
When Dr Chandler was there, he tells us, “ The ^raJe^ett
biffiop of Philadelphia was abfent *, but the proto-papas
or chief prieft, his fubftitute, w hom we went to vifit, re¬
ceived us at his palace, a title given to a very indiffer¬
ent houfe or rather a cottage of clay. We found him
ignorant
PHI [26
Phlladel- ignorant of the Greek tongue, and were forced to dif-
phia, courfe with him by an interpreter in the Turkidi lan-
philadel- guage. He had no idea that Philadelphia exifted be-
Pder\S°" f°re Chriftianity, but told us it had become a city in
• ^' 1 confequence of the many religious foundations. The
number of churches he reckoned at 24, moftly in ruins,
and mere maffes of wall decorated with painted faints.
Only fix are in a better condition, and have their
priefts. The epifcopal church is large, and ornament¬
ed with gilding, carving, and holy portraits. The
Greeks are about 300 families, and live in a friendly
intercourfe with the Turks, of whom they fpeak well.
We were aflured that the clergy and laity in gene¬
ral knew as little of Greek as the proto-papas j and
yet the liturgies and offices of the church are read as
elfewhere, and have undergone no alteration on that ac¬
count.
“ The Philadelphians are a civil people. One of the
Greeks fent us a fmall earthen veflel full of choice wine.
Some families beneath the trees, by a rill of water, in¬
vited us to alight, and partake of their refrefhments.
They faluted us when we met 5 and the aga or gover¬
nor, on hearing that we were Franks, bade us welcome
by a meflenger.
“ Philadelphia pofieffing waters excellent in dyeing,
and being fituated on one of the moft capital roads to
Smyrna, is much frequented, efpecially by Armenian
merchants. The Greeks ftill call this place by its
ancient name, but the Turks call it Al/ahijur. The
number of inhabitants is about 7000 or 8000 ; of
whom 2000 are fuppofed to be Chriftians. It is about
40 miles E. S. E. of Smyrna. E. Long. 28. 15. N.
Lat. 38. 28.
PHILADELPHIA-Stoner, a name which fome authors
have given to what is other wife called Chrijkan bonesy
found in the walls of that city. It is a vulgar error
that thefe Avails are built of bones •, and the tradition
of the country is, that when the Turks took the place,
they fortified it for themfelves, and built their walls of
the bones of the Chriftians whom they had killed there.
Dr Smyth in one of his epiftles, mentions this wall as
an inftance of Turkiih barbarity. This idle opinion has
gained credit merely from a loofe and porous ftone of
the fparry kind, found in an old aqueduift, which is ftill
in the wall. Sir Paul Rycaut brought home pieces of
thefe ftones, which even he fuppofed to have been bones,
but they proved on examination to be various bodies,
chiefly vegetable, incrufted over and preferved in a
fpar of the nature of that which forms incruftations in
Knarelborough fpring, and other places with us. Thefe
bodies are often cemented together in confiderable num¬
bers by this matter, and their true fhape loft in the con¬
geries, till a diligent and judicious eye traces them re¬
gularly.
PHILADELPHIAN Society, inecclefiaftical hiftory, an
obfcure and inconfiderable fociety of myftics. They
were formed about the end of the laft century by an
Englifh female fanatic, whofe name Avas Jane Leadley.
This Avoman, feduced by her vifions, predictions, and
doctrines, feveral difciples, among Avhom Avere perfons
of learning. She believed that all diflenfions among
Chriftians Avoulft ceafe, and the kingdom of the Re¬
deemer become a fcene of charity and felicity, if Chri¬
ftians, difregarding the forms of doCtrine or difcipline
their feveral communions, would all join in commit-
I;
1 ] PHI
ting their fouls to the care of the internal guide, to be Philadel-
inftrudted, governed, and formed, by his divine impulfe Phlhn So*
and fuggeitions. But ihe Avent farther than this : ftie ||
even pretended a divine commiflion to proclaim the ap- Philaeni.
proach of this glorious communion of faints j and was 1 —■-v"1 ,l
convinced that the fociety eftablifhed by herfelf Avas the
true kingdom of Chrift. One of her leading doCtrines
Avas, that of the final reftoration of all intelligent beings
to perfedion and happinels.
PHIL AD EL PH US, in antiquity, was a title or fur-
name borne by feveral ancient kings ; formed from the
Greek <p<Ao?, “ friend, lover,” and “ brother
q. d. one who loves his brother or brethren. See
Ptolemy and Egypt.
Philadelphus, the Pipe-tree, or Mock-orange i a
genus of plants belonging to the icofandria clafs. See
Botany Index.
The coronarius, white fyringa, or mock-orange, has
been long cultivated in the gardens of this country as a
flowering Ihrub j it is not Avell known in what country
it is to be found native. It rifes feven or eight feet
high ; fending up a great number of flender ftalks from
the root. Thefe have a grey bark, branch out from
their fides, and are garnithed Avith oval fpear-fhaped
leaves. This ftirub by its floAvers makes a fine figure in
May and June ; for they are produced in clufters both
at the end and from the fides of the branches. They
are of a fine white colour, and exceedingly fragrant.
PHIL2E.NI, weretAvo brothers, citizens of Carthage,
who facrificed their lives for the good of their country.
At the time when the Carthaginians ruled over the
greateft part of Africa, the Cyrenians were alfo a great
and wealthy people. The country in the middle betwixt
them Avas all fandy, and of an uniform appearance.
There Avas neither river nor mountain to diftinguifti
their limits •, a circumftance which engaged them in a
terrible and tedious war Avith one another. After their
armies and fleets had been often routed and put to flight
on both fides, and they had weakened one another pret¬
ty much*, and fearing left, by and by, fome third people
ftiould fall upon the conquered and conquerors together,
equally weakened, upon a ceffation of arms they made
an agreement, “ that upon a day appointed deputies
ftiould fet out from their refpeClive homes, and the place
Avhere they met one another ftiould be accounted the
common boundary of both nations.” Accordingly, the
tAvo brothers called Philami, fent from Carthage, made
all difpatch to perform their journey. The Cyrenians
proceeded more floAA'ly. Thefe laft, perceiving them¬
felves a little behind, and becoming apprehenfive of pu-
nifhment at home for mifmanaging the affair, charged
the Carthaginians with felting out before the time j
made a mighty buftle upon it ; and, in ftiort, Avould
rather choofe any thing than go aAA'ay outdone. But
whereas the Carthaginians defired any other terms, pro¬
vided only they were fair, the Cyrenians made this pro-
pofal to the Carthaginians, “ either to be buried alive in
the place Avhich they claimed as the boundary to their
nation, or that they would advance fonvard to what
place they inclined upon the fame condition.3’ The
Philami accepting the offer, made a facrifice of them¬
felves and their lives to their country, and fo Avere buried
alive. The Carthaginians dedicated altars in that place
to the memory of the Iavo brothers. Thefe altars, cal¬
led Arcc Phiiicnorum, ferved as a boundary to the em-
pir^i
p h i r 262 i phi
T'hilgctii, pire'of tlie Carthaginians, which extended from this
Phi! an thro- ulonumeut; Hercules’s Pillars, which is about 2000
1 ^' miles, or, according to the accurate obfervations ol the
moderns, only 1420 geographical miles. It is Salluft
who gives this account in his hiltory of the Jugurthine
war.
PHILANTHROPY iscompounded of two Greek
words which lignify the love of mankind. It is there¬
fore of nearly the fame import with benevolence (a) j
and differs from friendjbip, as this latter affection fub-
fiits only between a few individuals, whilft philcm-
thropy comprehends the whole fpecies.
Whether man has an inftinftive propenfity to love his
fpecies, which makes him incapable of happinefs but in
the midft of fofciety, and impels him to do all the good
that he can to others, feeling their felicity an addition
to his own, is a queftion that has been warmly debated
among philofophers ever fince metaphyfics was Itudied
as a fcience. With the opinions of the ancients we {hall
not, in this detached article, trouble our readers •, but it
would be unpardonable to pafs without notice the dif¬
ferent theories which on fo interefting a fubje£l have
divided the moderns.
Hobbes, who believed, or pretended to believe, that
right refults from power, and that in fociety there is no
■other ftandard of iuftice than the law of the land, or
the will of the fupreme magiftrate, built his opinions
upon a theory of human nature, in which philanthropy
has no place. According to him, mankind, in the ori¬
ginal Hate of nature, were wholly felfifh. Each en¬
deavoured to feize, by fraud or force, whatever he
thought would contribute to his comfort} and as all had
nearly the fame wants, the inevitable confequence of
this felfifhnefs was univerfal war. We are taught in¬
deed by the fame philofopher, that, in a feries of ages,
mankind difcovered the miferies of this date of nature ;
and therefore, upon the fame balls of univerfal felfilh-
nefs, formed focietxes, over which they placed fupreme
governors for the purpofe of protecting the weak againlt
the violence of the ftrong. He does not, however, ex¬
plain how men, whofe angry and felfilh paffions were
thus excited to the utmolt againft each other, could en¬
ter upon this friendly treaty 5 or, fuppofing it formed,
how the ignorant multitude were induced to pay obedi¬
ence to the more enlightened few. Clogged with this
and other infurmountable difficulties, his philofophy of
human nature foon fell into merited contempt •, but
about the origin of philanthropy thofe who united in
oppofition to him dill thought very differently from one
another.
The elegant Shaftelhury, who had imbibed much of
the fpirit of Plato, endeavoured, like his mader, to de
duce all the duties of man, and aimed all his actions,
from a number of internal feelings or indinfts whit’ he
fuppofed to be interwoven with his conditution by the
immediate hand of God. This fydem appeared fo ho¬
nourable to human nature, and at the fame time was fo
eafily comprehended, that the noble lord had foon
many followers, and may indeed be confidered as the
founder of a fehool which has_ produced philofophers Philanthr#.
whofe works do honour to the age and country in which P^-
they douridied. Among thefe we mud reckon Biihop ^ -v""**’'
Butler, Hutchifon, Lord Kames, Dr Beattie, and per¬
haps Dr Reid.
According to the fydem of thefe writers, the whole
duty of man refults from an intuitive principle, to which
they have given the name of the moral fente *, and with
this fenfe they conceive philanthropy to be infeparably
united, or rather perhaps to make an effential part of
it. (See Moral Philosophy). If this theory be car¬
ried to its utmod extent, as it has been by fome of
its patrons, it feems to follow, that peace and harmony
ffiould reign among favages *, and that a man who had
from his infancy growi%np in folitude, would be delight¬
ed with the fird fight of a fellow-creature, and run to
him with eagernefs as to a new fource of enjoyment.
This conclufion, however, is contrary to acknowledged
facts. Savages are generally divided into fmall tribes
or hordes } and though the attachment of individuals to
their own tribe appears indeed to be abundantly drong,
the tribes themfelves are frequently at war, and entertain
a condant jealoufy of each other. Savages, too, are aimed
univerfally afraid of drangers 5 and the few folitary in¬
dividuals, who have been caught in parts w here they
had run wild from their infancy, indead of being delight¬
ed with the appearance of felknv-men, have either fled
from them with their utmod fpeed, or been fixed to the
fpot in terror and adonifliment. Thefe are no indica¬
tions of that indindfive philanthropy for which fome
writers fo drenuoufly plead. They have indeed induced
Others to deny, that in human nature there is any in-
dinftive principles at all ; and to endeavour to account
for our feveral propenfities by the influence of education
producing early and deep-rooted habits.
At the head of this fehool dood Locke and Hartley.
The former, employing himfelf almod wholly on the in-
telledlual powers of man, and combating the abfurd,
though then generally received, belief, that there are in
the human mind innate principles of fpeculative truth,
has touched but incidentally on our principles of action.
It feems, however, to be evident, that he did not confi-
der any one of thefe principles as innate 5 and his opi¬
nion was adopted by Hartley, who dudied the fenfitive
part of human nature with greater indudry and fuccefs
than perhaps any writer who had preceded him in that
department of fcience. This philofopher refufes all
kinds of indinft to man, even the s-ogyvj of a mother to
her new-born infant, and that which has been general¬
ly fuppofed innate—the propenfity of the infant to fuck
the bread. It is therefore needlefs to fay that in his
theory of human nature innate philanthropy can have
no place.
The reader, however, mud not fuppofe that the the¬
ory of Hartley is the theory of Hobbes. Though lie
admits no innate principles of aefion in the human mind,
he is far from dreaming that the original date of man
o o .
was a ftate of Avar and felfifhnefs, or that the acquifitidn
of philanthropic fentiments is not natural. He confiders
fuch
(A) We fay nearly of the fame import 5 becaufe benevolence extends to every being that has life and fenfe,
•and is of courie fufceptible of pain and pleafure ; whereas philanthropy cannot comprehend more than the ha*
•man race.
P H I
[ 263 ]
P H I
philanthro- fuel) acquifitions as even neceffary and unavoidable, and
P)'- founds them on the great law of affociation, which we
have elfewhere endeavoured to explain. (See Meta¬
physics, Part I. chap. v.). Hartley was a Chriftian,
and appears to have been a man of great piety. Con¬
ceiving with Locke that men are born without any
ideas, or any principles either of knowledge or of ac¬
tion, but that they are fubjeft to the law of affociation
as much as to the imprefliofls of fenfe, he feetnS to have
thought, that, the important purpofe for which they are
fent into this world is, that they may acquire habits of
piety and virtue, which, operating like inftinffs, will fit
them for the purer fociety of a future Hate. That this
theory is unfriendly to morals, no man Avho underflands
it will prefume to affirm. It appears, indeed, to be
more confiftent with the neceffity of a revelation from
God than that of Shaftefbury, which has fo many fol¬
lowers : but notwithftanding this, we cannot help think¬
ing that the excellent author has carried his antipathy
to inflinfls by much too far (fee Instinct^, and that
the truth lies in the middle between him and his oppo¬
nents.
Without fome inftimffs to influence before the dawn
of reafon, it is not eafy to be conceived how children
could be induced to that exercife which is abfblutely ne¬
ceffary to life and health 5 nor does it appear with fuf-
ficient evidence that the human race are deferted by
every inftinsff as {bon as their rational powers are evol¬
ved. It feems to be a matter of faft which cannot be
contraverted, that women have an inftindfive attachment
to their new-born infants ; but that thefe, when they
become capable of diftinguiihing ob]e£ts, are inj}inElive-
ty attached to their parents, their brothers, and fillers,
is a pofition which, though it may be true, feems inca¬
pable of proof. That they foon appear to be fo attach¬
ed, is a faft which we believe no man will deny ■, but
the attachment may be accounted for by the affociating
principle operating upon that defire of happinefs which
is neceffarily formed as foon as happinefs is experienced.
(See Passion). An infant becomes earlier attached
to its nurfe than to any other perfon 5 becaufe, feeling
wants which (he fupplies, the idea of enjoyment be¬
comes foon affociated in its mind with the perception of
the )voman. If this woman be its mother, a hally ob-
ferver immediately attributes this attachment to inftinft
diredfing the infant to love its parent ; but that inflindf
has here no place, is evident from the well-known fadls,
that a child is as fond of a tender nurfe, though no re¬
lation, as of the moft affedfionate mother ; and as re-
gardlefs of a mother who feldom fees it, or fees it with
indifference, as of any other perfon. Nay, we have
feen children of the fweeteft difpofitions as fond of the
maid with whom they flept, as of a very aftedlionate
parent by whom they had been tenderly nurfed : and
fure no man will fay that this could be inilindt ; it was
evidently a new affociation of the idea of the maid with
the greateft happinefs which they enjoyed after the pe¬
riod of their fuckling was at an end.
It is much in the fame way that children acquire an
attachment to their brothers and fifters. Brothers and
lifters being conftantly together, contribute to each
other’s amufement : hence arifes that pleafure which
ti)ey have in each other’s company, and the uneafinefs
which they feel when feparated. This generates mu¬
tual love in their minds, which is ftrengthened by the
perpetual injundtions of their parents j for if thefe have
any virtue themfelves, they cannot fail to inculcate the Philanthfo-
duty of loving each other on their tender offspring,
Benevolence, thus generated, foon extends to their daily
companions 5 and takes a wider and a wider range as
thefe companions are multiplied, and as children advance
towards the Hate of manhood. Newr objedts then prei
fent themfelves to the mind. A man foon difeovers,
that, as he is a member of a community, his happinefs
as an individual depends in a great meafure on the pro-
fperity of the whole. Hence arifes patriotifrn, and that
pleafure which we all take in the eminence of our
countrymen. But the principle of benevolence flops
not here. He whofe mind is enlarged by a liberal
education, confiders all particular countries as provinces
of one great country extended over the whole globe j
and all mankind, ©f courfe, as not only fharing the fame
nature with himfelf, but as being in reality his fellow-
citizens and brethren. The principles of religion, if
he be adluated by them, muft aid thefe refledfions, and
make him wifh the happinefs of all who Hand in the
fame relation with himfelf to the Great Governor of
the world. This is philanthropy ; and we fee how it
may fpring, by the great law of affociation, from defires
which, in their original ftate, cannot be confidered as
other than felfilh. It is a calm fentiment, which we be¬
lieve hardly ever rifes to the warmth of affedlion, and
certainly not to the heat of paflion.
Should any of our readers be dlfpofed to controvert
this opinion, or to fancy it degrading to human nature,
we will not enter into controverfy with them ; we only
beg leave to afk, whether they have ever rejoiced in the
good fortune of a ftranger or a foreigner, or regretted
his lofs, with any portion of thofe feelings which they
have frequently experienced on hearing of the profperity
or the death of a friend or a neighbour ? We anfwer
candidly for ourfelves, that we feel no intereft which
can be called pajjion or affetlion in the fortunes of a na¬
tive of China ; and yet we ftiould be forry to think that
our philanthropy is lefs than that of other men. A com¬
mon clown, we are inclined to believe, ieldom extends
his affedlion beyond his friends and neighbours ; and
though, from having often heard his country praifed,
and knowing that he belongs to his country, he would
probably be offended at the man who Ihould prefer
another to it ; yet if no misfortune befal him, or his
friends and neighbours, we imagine that his grief for
public calamities may be borne with patience. In his
mind no fuch affociations have been formed as comprife
the good of a country, far lefs of all countries j and
therefore his philanthropy muff be confined to a very
limited range. We doubt not, however, but that as op¬
portunity offei'S, and as cireumftances permit, fuch a man
is ready to feed the hungry and clothe the naked of all
countries 5 not indeed from fentiments of affeftion either
innate or acquired, but from the obvious reflection that
he is not exempted from thofe calamities which have be¬
fallen them, and from a ftill higher principle—a fenfe of
duty to that God who has made of one blood all nations
upon earth, and commanded them to be mutually aiding
to each other.
PHILEMON, a Greek comic poet, was fon to Da¬
mon, and cotemporary with Menander. Any advantage
he had over this poet, was owing iefs to his own "merit
than to the intrigues of his friends. Plautus has imitat¬
ed his comedy du Marchand. He is reported to have
He was then-
about;
died laughing on feeing his afs eat figs.
phi r 264 ] phi
Philemon about 97 years of age. His fon Philemon the younger,
.11 was alfo the author of 54 comedies, of which there are
Phni -u-- . extant fome confiderable fragments colledfed by
Grotius. Thefe clearly prove that he was not a poet of
the firft rank. He flduriihed about the year 274 before
our Saviour.
Philemon, was a rich citizen of Coloffae in Phrygia.
He was converted to the Chriftian faith, with Appia
his wife, by Epaphras the difciple of St Paul ; for
St Paul himfelf did not preach at Coloffae, Coloff. ii.
I. Perhaps we fhould have known nothing of St Phi¬
lemon, had it not been on the account of his Have O-
nefimus, who having robbed him, and run away from
him, came to Rome, where he found St Paul, and was
very ferviceable to him. St Paul converted him, baptized
him. and fent him back to his mafter Philemon *, to whom
he wrote a letter ftill extant, and which paffes for a ma-
fterpiece of that kind of eloquence, natural, lively, ffrong,
and pathetic, that was peculiar to St Paul. Philemon
(1. 2.) had made a church of his houfe, and all his do-
meftics, as well as himfelf, were of the houfehold of faith.
His charity, liberality, and compaflion, were afure refuge
to all that were in ditirefs. The Apoftolical Conftitutions
fay, that St Paul made him bilhop of Coloffae ; but tire
Menaea infinuate, that he went to Gaza in Paledine, of
which he was the apoftle and firft bifhop. From hence
he returned to Coloffse, where he fuffered martyrdom
with Appia his wife, in the time of Nero. They relate
feveral particulars of his martyrdom, and fay, that his
body remained at Coloffae, where it performed feveral
miracles.
PHILET AS, a Greek poet and grammarian, of the
iftand of Cos, flouriftied under Philip and Alexander the
Great, and was preceptor of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He
was the author of fome Elegies, Epigrams, and other
works, which have not come down to us. He is cele¬
brated in the poems of Ovid and Propertius, as one of
the beft poets of his age. Elian reports a very improba¬
ble ftory of him, namely, “ that his body was fo llender
and feeble, that he was obliged to have fome lead in his
pockets, to prevent him from being carried away by the
wind.”
PHI LETUS. St Paul, writing to Timothy (2 Tim.
ii. 16, 17, 18.) in the 65th vear of Chrift, and a little
while before his own martyrdom, fpeaks thus : “ But
fhun profane and vain babblings, for they will increafe
unto more ungodlinefs. And their word will eat as doth
a canker •, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetas •, who
concerning the truth have erred, faying, that the refur-
redlion is paft already, and overthrow the faith of fome.”
We have nothing very certain concerning Philetus*, for
we make but fmall account of what is read in the falfe
Abdias, in the life of St James major, even fuppofing
this author had not put the name of Philetus inftead of
Phvgellus. This i- the fubftance of what is found in
Abdia'" St James the fon of Zebedee, pafling through
the fynagogues of Judea and Samaria, preached every¬
where the faith of Jefus Chrift. Hermogenes and Phi¬
letus ftrenuoufly oppofed him, affirming, that Jefus Chrift
was not the Meffiah. Hermogenes was a notable magi¬
cian, and Philetus was his difciple, who beings converted,
was defirous to bring his mafter to St James 5 but Her-
snogenes bound him up fo by his magic art, that he could
not come at the apoftle. Philetus found means to make
James acquainted with what had happened to him j
upon which St James m.ui.u mm, and Philetus came Philetus
to him. Ht rmogenes perceiving how im ft'ectual his art II
was a train it the faint, became himfelf a convert as well as , Phi*lP-
Philetus.
PHI LI BEG, is a little plaid, called alfo kilt, and
is a fort of ftiort petticoat reaching nearly to the knees,
worn by the Scotch Highlanders. It is a modern fub-
ftitute for the lower part of the plaid, being found to
be lefs cumberfome, efpeciaily in time of action, when
-the Highlanders ufed to tuck their breehdan into their
girdle. Almoft all of them have a great pouch of bad¬
ger and other (kins, with taffels dangling before, in which
they keep their tobacco and money.
PHILIP, fofter-brother of Antiochus Epiphanes
(1 Macc. vi. 14, 6c 55. 2 Macc. ix. 29.), was a Phry¬
gian by birth, and very much in Antiochus’s favour.
This prince made him governor of Jerufalem (2 Macc.
viii. 8. v. 22.) where he committed many outrages upon
the Jews, to force them to forfake their religion. See¬
ing that Apollonius and Seron were defeated by Judas
Maccabaeus, he fent for new fuccoursto Ptolemy gover¬
nor of Ccelo-Syria, who fent him Gorgias and Nicanor
with a powerful army. Some time after, Antiochus
going beyond the Euphrates, to extort money from the
people, Philip went along with him 5 and Antiochus
finding himfelf near his end (1 Macc. vi. 14.) made him
regent of the kingdom, put his diadem into his hands,
his royal cloak, and his ring, that he might render them
to his {bn the young Antiochus Eupator. But Lyfias
having taken poffeffion of the government in the name
of young Eupator, who was but a child, Philip not be¬
ing able to cope with him, durft not return into Syria :
but he -went into Egypt, carrying the body of Epipha¬
nes along with him, there to implore affiftance from
Ptolemv Philometor againft Lyfias the ufurper of the
government of Syria. The year following, while Lyfias
was bufy in 'the war carrying on againft the Jews, Phi¬
lip got into Syria, and took poffeffion of Antioch: but
Lyfias returning into the country, with great diligence,
retook Antioch, and put Philip to death, who was taken
in the city.
Philip the apoftle was a native of Bethfaidain Gali¬
lee. Jefus Chrift having feen him, faid to him, “ Fol¬
low me,” John i. 43, 44, &c. Philip followed him j
and foon after finding Nathanael, Philip laid to him,
“ We have found the Meffiah, of whom Mofes and the
prophets have fpoken, Jefus of Nazareth, the fon of Jo-
feph.” Nathanael afked him, “ Can any thing good
come outof Nazareth?” To which Philip replied, “Come
and fee.” Then he brought Nathanael to Jefus, and they
went wdth him to the marriage of Cana in Galilee. St
Philip was called at the very beginning of our Saviour’s
miffion ; and when Jefus Chrift was about to feed the
5000 that followed him (Luke vi. 13. Mat. x. 2. John
vi. 5—7.), he afked St Philip, only to prove him, whence
bread might be bought for fueh a multitude of people ?
Philip anfwered, that 200 pennyworth of bread would
not be fufficient for every one to tafte a little. Some
Gentiles, having a curiofity to fee Jefus Chrift, a little
before his paffion, they addreffed themfelves to St Philip
(John xii. 21, 22.), who mentioned it to St Andrew,
and thefe two to Chrift. At the laft fupper, Philip de-
fired our Saviour, that he would be pleafed to fttow them
the Father, being all that they defired (John xiv.8—10.)
But Jefus told them, that feeing the Son they faw the
Father
PHI
Philip. Father alfo. This is all we find concerning Philip in
—v~—' the gofpt l.
The upper Afia fell to this apoftle’s lot, where he
took great pains in planting the gofpel, and by his
preaching and miracles made- many converts. In the
latter part of his life, he came to Hierapolis in Phry¬
gia, a city very much addicted to idolatry, and particu¬
larly to the worfnip of a ferpent of a prodigious bignefs.
St Philip by his prayers procured the death, or at lealt
the difappearing, of this monfter, and convinced its wor-
fhippers of the abfurdity of paying divine honours to fuch
odious creatures. But the magillrates, enraged at Phi¬
lip’s fuccefs, imprifoned him, and ordered him to be fe-
verely fcourged, and then put to death, which fome fay
was by crucifixion j others, by hanging him up again!! a
pillar. St Philip is generally reckoned among the mar¬
ried apoftles •, and it is faid he had three daughters, two
whereof preferved their virginity, and died at Hierapo¬
lis ; the third, having led a very fpiritual life, died at
Ephefus. He left behind him no writings. The gofpel
under his name wras forged by the Gnoilics, to counte¬
nance their bad principles and worfe praftices. The
Chrillian church obferves the feftival of this faint, toge¬
ther with that of St James, on the firft day of May.
Eufeb. lib. iii. c. 30.
Philip, the fecond of the feven deacons, was chofen
by the apoftles after our Saviour’s refurretlion. ( Adds vi.
5.). This deacon, they fay, was of Caefarea in Paleftine.
It is certain that his daughters lived in this fcity (Adds
xxi. 8, 9.). After the death of St Stephen, all the
Chriftians, excepting the apoftles, having left Jerufalem,
and being difperfed in feveral places, St Philip went to
preach at Samaria (zV/. viii. I, 2, &c.), where he per¬
formed feveral miracles, and converted many perions.
He baptized them ; but being only a deacon, he could
not confer on them the Holy Ghoft. Wherefore hav¬
ing made known to the apoftles at Jerulalem, that Sa¬
maria had received the word of God, Peter and John
came thither, and the Samaritans that were converted
received the Holy Ghoft. St Philip was probably at
Samaria when the angel of the Lord ordered him to go
to the fouth part of the country, in the road that leads
from Jerufalem to old Gaza. Philip obeyed, and there
met with an Ethiopian eunuch belonging to Queen Can¬
dace, who had the care of her revenues, and had been at
Jerufalem to worftiip God there (id. viii. 26, 27, &c.).
He was then returning into his own country, and wfts
reading the prophet Ifaiah as he went along in his cha¬
riot. Philip, hearing the eunuch reading the prophet
Ifaiah, faid to him, Do you underftand what you read ?
The eunuch replied, How fhould I underftand, except
fomebody explain it to me ? He defired Philip therefore
to come and fit down by him in the chariot. The paf-
fage the eunuch was reading is this: “ He was led as a
fheep to the daughter, and like a lamb dumb before his
fliearer, fo he opened not his mouth.” The eunuch then
fays to Philip, Pray, whom does the prophet fpeak^of
in this place P Is it of himfelf, or of fome other ? Then
Philip began to inftruft him concerning Jefus Chrift.
And having gone on together, they came to a fountain j
when the eunuch faid to Philip, Here is water, what
hinders me from being baptized ? Philip told him that
he might be fo, if he believed with all his heart. He
replied, I believe that Jefus Chrift is the fon of God. He
then ordered the chariot to ftop, and they both alighted
Vol. XVI. Part I.
t 265 ] P H I
and Went down into the water, where Philip baptized Philip
the eunuch. Being come out of the water, the Spirit of '-““v—-
the Lord took away Philip, and the eunuch faw no more
of hitm But Philip was found again at Azotus, and he
preached the gofpel in all the cities he pafled through,
till he arrived at Ceefarea in Paleftine. After this, the
feripture does not inform us of any particulars relating
to Philip. The modem Greeks fay that he wTent to
Tralles in Afia, where he founded a church, of which
he was the apoftle and bilhop $ and where he refted in
peace, after performing many miracles. The Latins,
on the contrary, fay that he died at Caefarea, and that
three of his daughters were there buried with him.
It is thought, that the eunuch converted by St Phi¬
lip was the firft apoftle of the Ethiopians; and that the
Abyflines boad. of having received the Chriftian faith
from him.
Philip II. was the fourth fon of Amyntas, king of jf,npr^
Macedonia. He was fent to Thebes as an hoftage by ere'!Bibl\-
his father, where he learnt the art of war under otbeca
minondas, and ftudied with the greateft care the man- Olajfica.
ners and the purfuits of the Greeks. He difeovered, from
his earlieft years; that quicknefs.of genius and greatnefs
of courage which afterwards procured him fo great a
name and fuch powerful enemies. He was recalled to
Macedonia; and at the death of his brother Perdiccas he
afeended the throne as guardian and protetftor of the
youthful years of his nephew. His ambition, however,
foon difeovered itfelf, and he made himfelf independent
about the year 360 before Chrift. The valour of a pru¬
dent general, and the policy of an experienced ftatef-
man, feemed requifite to enfure his power. The neigh¬
bouring nations, ridiculing, the youth and inexperience
of the new king of Macedonia, appeared in arms ; but
Philip foon convinced them of their error. Unable to
meet them as yet in the field of battle, he fufpended
their fury by prefents, and foon turned his arms againft *
Amphipolis, a colony tributary to the Athenians. Am-
phipolis wTas conquered, and added to the kingdom of
Macedonia ; and Philip meditated no lefs than the de¬
ft ruftion of a republic which had rendered itfelf fo for¬
midable to the reft of Greece, and had even claimed
fubnaiffion from the princes of Macedonia. His defigns,
however, were as yet immature ; and before he could
make Athens an obje£l of conqueft, the Thracians and
the Illyrians demanded his attention. He made himfelf
mafter of a Thracian colony, to which he gave the name
of Philippi, and from which he received the greateft ad¬
vantages on account of the gold mines in the neigh¬
bourhood. Thefe made it a very important capture.
He fettled in it a number of workmen, and was the firft
who caufed gold to be coined in his own name. He em¬
ployed his wealth in procuring fpies and partifans in all
the great cities of Greece, *nd in making conquefts
without the aid of arms. It was at the fiege of Methone
in Thrace that Philip had the misfortune to receive a
wound in his right eye from the ftroke of an arrow. In
the midft of his political profperity, Philip did not ne-
gleft the honour of his family. He married Olympias
the daughter of Neoptolemus, king of the Molofli ; and
when, feme time after, he became father of Alexander,
the monarch, confcious of the ineftimable advantages
which arife from the leffons, the example, and conver-
fation of a learned and virtuous preceptor, wrote a let¬
ter with his own hand to the philofopher Ariftotle, and
L 1 begged
PHI [ 266 ] PHI
Philip, begged him to retire from his ufual purfuits, and to de-
v"" dicate his whole time to the inftnadtion of the young
prince. Every thing feemed now to confyire to his
aggrandizement; and hiflorians have obferved that Phi¬
lip received in one day the intelligence of three things
which could gratify the moft unbounded ambition, and
flatter the hopes of the moft afpiring monarch : the
birth of a Ion, an honourable crown at the Olympic
games, and a victory over the barbarians of Illyricum.
But all thefe rather increafed than fatiated his ambi¬
tion : he declared his inimical fentiments againft: the
power of Athens, and the independence of all Greece,
by laying fiege to Olynthus, a place which, on ac¬
count of its fituation and confequence, would prove
moft injurious to the interefts of the Athenians, and
mofl: advantageous to the intrigues and military ope¬
rations of every Macedonian prince. The Athenians
roufed by the eloquence of Demofthenes, font 17 vef-
fels and 2000 men to the afliftance of Olynthus ; but
the money of Philip prevailed over all their efforts.
The greateft part of the citizens fuffered themfelves
to be bribed by the Macedonian gold, and Olynthus
furrendered to the enemy, and was inftantly reduced
* to ruins. Philip foon after defeated the Athenians,
and made a great number of them prifoners, whom he
difmiffed without ranfom. Of this viiffory, the fruit
of that excellent difcipline which he had eftabliihed
in his army, the Macedonian phalanx had the princi¬
pal honour. i his was a body of infantry heavily arm¬
ed, confifting commonly of 16,000 men, who had each
of them a fliield fix feet high and a pike 21 feet long.
(See Phalanx). The fuccefs of his arms, and efpe-
ciallv his generofity after viftory, made his alliance
and a peace a defirable objed to the people of Athens ;
and as both parties were inclined to this meafure, it
was concluded without delay. His fucceffes were as
great in every part of Greece : he was declared head
of the Amphidyonic council, and was entruffed with
the care of the facred temple of Apollo at Delphi. If
he was recalled to Macedonia, it was only to add frefh
laurels to his crown, by vidories over his enemies in
Illyricum and l heffaly. By affuming the mafk of
a moderator and peace-maker, he gained confidence }
and in attempting to proted the Peloponnefians againft;
the incroaching power of Sparta, he rendered his
caufe popular ; and by ridiculing the infults that were
offered to his perfon as he paffed through Corinth, he
difplayed to the world his moderation and philofophic
virtues. In his attempts to make himfelf mafter of
Euboea, Philip was unfuccefsful j and Phocion, who
defpifed his gold as well as his meannefs, obliged him
to evacuate an ifland whofe inhabitants were as infen-
fible to the charms of money as they were unmoved
at the horrors of war, and the bold efforts of a vi¬
gilant enemy. From Euboea he turned his arms againft
the Scythians j but the advantages he obtained over
this indigent nation were inconfiderable, and he again
made Greece an objed of plunder and rapine. " He
advanced far in Boeotia, and a general engagement was
fought at Chaeronea. The fight was long and bloody,
but Philip obtained the vidory. His behaviour after
the battle refleds great difgrace upon him as a man and
as a monarch. In the hour of feftivity, and durino- the
entertainment which he had given to celebrate the tro¬
phies he had won, Philip fallied from his camp, and
with the inhumanity of a brute, he infulted the bodies
of the flain, and exulted over the calamities of the pri¬
foners of war. His infolence, however, was checked,
when Demades, one of the Athenian captives, reminded
him of his meannefs, by exclaiming, “ Why do you, O
king, ad the part of a Therfites, when you can repre-
fent with fo much dignity the elevated charader of an
Agamemnon ?” The reproof was felt ; Demades re¬
ceived his liberty ; and Philip learned how to gain po¬
pularity even among his fallen enemies ; by relieving
their wants and eafing their diftreffes. At the battle of
Chaeronea the independence of Greece was extinguifhed,
and Philip, unable to find new enemies in Europe, form¬
ed new enterprifes, and meditated new conquefts. He
was nominated general of the Greeks againft the Per-
fians, and was called upon as well from inclination as
duty to revenge thofe injuries which Greece had fuffer¬
ed from the invafions of Darius and of Xerxes. But he
■was flopped in the midft of his warlike preparations,,
being ftabbed by Paufanias as he entered the theatre
at the celebration of the nuptials of his daughter Cleo¬
patra. This murder has given rife to many retledions
upon the caufes which produced it •, and many who
confider the recent repudiation of Olympias and the
refentment of Alexander, are apt to inveftigate the
caufes of his death in the bofom of his family. The
ridiculous honours which Olympias paid to her huf-
band’s murderer ftrergthened the fufpicion 5 yet iUex-
ander declared that he invaded the kingdom of Perfia
to revenge his father’s death upon the Perfian fatraps
and princes, by whofe immediate intrigues the affaflina-
tion had been committed. The charadler of Philip is
that of a fagacious, artful, prudent, and intriguing
monarch : he -was brave in the field of battle, eloquent
and diflimulating at home, and he poffeffed the wonder¬
ful art of changing his conduft according to the difpofi-
tion and caprice of mankind, without ever altering his
purpofe, or lofing fight of his ambitious aims. He pof¬
feffed much perfeverance, and in the execution of his
plans he was always vigorous. He had that eloquence
which is infpired by ftrong paffions. The hand of an
affaffm prevented him from atchieving the boldeft and
the moft extenfive of his undertakings ; and he might
have acquired as many laurels, and conquered as many
nations, as his fon Alexander did in the fucceeding
reign ; and the kingdom of Perfia might have been
added to the Macedonian empire, perhaps with greater
moderation, with more glory, and with more lafting
advantages. The private charafter of Philip lies open
to cenfure, and raifes indignation. The admirer of his
virtues is difgufted to find him among the moft abandon¬
ed proftitutes, and difgracing himfelf by the moft unna¬
tural crimes and lafeivious indulgencies which can make
even the moft debauched and the moft profligate to
blufh. He was murdered in the 47th year of his age,
and the 24th of his reign, about 336 years before the
Chriftian era. His reign is become uncommonly in-
terefting, and his adminiftration a matter of inftruftion.
He is the fiift monarch whofe life and a61ions are de-
feribed with peculiar accuracy and hiftorical faithful-
nefs. Philip was the father of Alexander the Great and
of Cleopatra, by Olympias ; he had alfo by Audaca an
Illyrian, Cyna, who married Amyntas the fon of Per-
diccas, Philip’s elder brother ; by Nicafipolis a Theffa-
lian, Nicsea, who married Callander j by Phiiaena a
Larifftcai?.
PHI [ 267 ] PHI
LarilTaean dancer, Aridaeus, who reigned forne time af¬
ter Alexander’s death •, by Cleopatra, the niece of At¬
tains, Caranus and Europa, who were both murdered
by Olympias ; and Ptolemy the firft king of Egypt, by
Arlinoe, who in the hrft month of her pregnancy was
married to Lagus. Of the many memorable a&ions
and fayings reported by Plutarch of this prince, the fol¬
lowing are the moft remarkable. Being prefent at the
fale of lome captives, in an indecent pofture, one of
them informed him of it •, “ Set this man at liberty (fays
Philip), I did not know that he was my friend.” Being
folicited to favour a lord of his court, who was like to
lofe his charafter by a juft but fevere fentence, Philip
refufed to hearken to the felicitation, and added, “ I
had rather that he be difgraced than myfelf.” A poor
woman was importuning him to do her juftice; and as
he fent her away from day to day, under the pretence
that he had no time to attendfto her petition, Ihe faid
to him with fome warmth, “ Ceafe then to be a king.”
Philip felt all the force of this reproof, and immediately
gave her fatisfaftion.—Another woman came to alk
juftice of him as he was going out from a great enter¬
tainment, and was condemned. “ I appeal (exclaimed
Ihe) !” “ And to whom do you appeal (faid the king
to her) ?” “ To Philip falling.” This anfwer open¬
ed the eyes of the monarch, who retraced his fen¬
tence. If he poffeffed any virtue, it was principally
that of fuffering injuries with patience. Democharus,
to whom the Greeks gave the furname of Parrhejia/ies,
on account of his exceffive petulance of tongue, was one
of the deputies whom the Athenians fent to this mo¬
narch. Philip, at the conclulion of the audience, beg¬
ged the ambafladors to tell him, “ if he could be of any
ferviee to the Athenians 5” to which Democharus gave
an infolent return, which he forgave. Having learned
that fome Athenian ambafladors charged him, in full af-
fembly, with atrocious calumnies : “ I am under great
obligations (faid he) to thofe gentlemen, for I ftiall
henceforwards be fo circumfpedl in my words and
actions, that I lhall conviift them of falfehood.” One
faying of Philip, which does him lefs honour than thofe
we have before mentioned, was, “ Let us amufe child¬
ren with playthings, and men with oaths.” This abo¬
minable maxim, which was the foul and fpring of his
politics, gave rife to the obfervation, “ That he was in
full length, what Louis XL afterwards was in minia¬
ture.” It is well known that Philip had a perfon about
him, who called out at times, “ Philip, remember that
thou art mortal but whether we Humid place this to
the account of his pride or his humility, it is difficult to
fay.
Philip V. was king of Macedonia, and fon of De¬
metrius. His infancy, at the death of his father, was
protedfed by Antigonus, one of his friends, who afeen-
ded the throne, and reigned for 12 years, with the title
of Independent monarch. When Antigonus died, Phi¬
lip recovered his father’s throne, though only 15 years
of age, and he early diftinguiffied himfelf by his bold-
nefs and his ambitious views. He came to the throne
in the year 220 before our Saviour, and the beginning
of his reign was rendered glorious by the conquefts of
Aratus; a general who was as eminent for his love of
juftice as his {kill in war. But fo virtuous a charadler
■could hardly fail to be difagreeable to a prince who
wanted to indulge himfelf in every fpecies of diflipation
and vice : and indeed his cruelty to him foon dilplayed
his charafter in its true light ; for to the gratification
of every vice, and every extravagant propenfity, he had
the meannefs to facritice this faithful and virtuous Athe¬
nian. Not fatisfied with the kingdom oi Macedonia,
Philip afpired to become the friend of Hannibal, and
wilhed to ffiare with him the fpoils which the ditireflfes
and continual lofs of the Romans feemed foon to pro-
mife. But his expedlations rvere fruftrated j the Ro¬
mans difcovered his intrigues; and though weakened by
the valour and artifice of the Carthaginian, yet they
were foon enabled to meet him in the field of battle.
The conful Laevinus entered without delay his territo¬
ries of Macedonia ; and after he had obtained a vidlory
over him near Apollonia, and reduced his fleet to affies,
he compelled him to fue for peace. This peaceful dif-
pofition was not permanent ; and when the Romans dif¬
covered that he had affifted their formidable enemy Han¬
nibal with men and money, they appointed T. £L Fla-
minius to puniffi his perfidy, and the violation of the trea¬
ty. The Roman conful, with his ufual expedition, invad¬
ed Macedonia ; and in a general engagement, which was
fought near Cynocephale, the hoftile army was totally
defeated, and the monarch laved his life with difficulty
by flying from the field of battle. Deftitute of refour-
ces, without friends either at home or abroad, Philip
was obliged to fubmit to the mercy of the conqueror,
and to demand peace by his ambafladors. It was grant¬
ed wdth difficulty •, the terms were humiliating ; but
the poverty of Philip obliged him to accept the condi¬
tions, however difadvantageous and degrading to his dig¬
nity. In the midft of thefe public calamities, the peace
of his family was difturbed 3 and Perfes, the eldeft of his
fons by a concubine, raifed feditions againft his brother
Demetrius, whofe condefcenfion and humanity had gain¬
ed popularity among the Macedonians, and who from
his refidence at Rome, as an hoftage, had gained the
good graces of the fenate, and by the modefty and in¬
nocence of his manners had obtained forgivenefs from
that venerable body for the hoftilities of his father.
Philip liftened with too much avidity to the falfe accu-
fations of Perfes ; and when he heard it aflerted that
Demetrius wiflied to rob him of his crown, he no long¬
er hefitated to punifti with death fo unworthy and fo
ungrateful a fon. No fooner was Demetrius facrifieed
to credulity, than Philip became convinced of his cruel¬
ty and raffinefs 3 and to punifli the perfidy of Perfes, he
attempted to make Antigonus, another fon, his fuccef-
for on the Macedonian throne. But he w'as prevented
from executing his purpofe by death, in the 42d year of
his reign, 178 years before the Chriftian era. The af-
faffim of Demetrius fucceeded his father, and with the
fame ambition, with the fame raflmefsand oppreffiion, re¬
newed the war againft the Romans, till his empire was
deftroyed, and Macedonia became a Roman province.
Philip has been compared with his great anceftor of the
fame name 3 but though they poflefled the fame virtues,
the fame ambition, and were tainted with the fame
vices, yet the father of Alexander was more fagacious
and more intriguing, and the fon of Demetrius was
more fufpicious, more cruel, and more implacable 3 and,
according to the pretended prophecy of one of the
Sybils, Macedonia was indebted to one Philip for her
L 1 2 rife
P H I [ 268 ] PHI
I liilip. rife and confequence among nations, and under another
‘ -V-—Philij) fire lamented the lot's of her power, her empire,
and her dignity.
Ibid. Philip, M. Julius, a Roman emperor, of an obfeure
family in Arabia, from whence he was furnamed Ara¬
bian. From the lowed: rank in the army he gradually
rofe to the higheft offices ■, and when he was made gene¬
ral of the praetorian guards, he alfaffinated Gordian, to
make himfelf emperor. To fecure himlelf on the impe¬
rial throne, he left Mefopotamia a prey to the continual
invalions of the Perfians, and hurried to Rome, where
his eledlion was univerfally approved by the fenate and
the Roman people. Philip rendered his caufe popular
by his liberality and profulion ; and it added much to
his fplendour and dignity, that the Romans during his
reign commemorated the foundation of their city j a fo-
lemnity which was obferved but once every 100 years,
and which was celebrated with more pomp and more
magnificence than under the preceding reigns. The
people were entertained with games and fpeftacles ; the
theatre of Pompey was fucctffively crowded during three
days and three nights 5 and 2000 gladiators’bled in the
circus at once, for the amufement and pleafure of a ga¬
zing populace. His ufurpation, however, was ffiort.
Philip was defeated by Decius, who had proclaimed
himfelf emperor in Pannonia ■, and he was aflaffinated
by his own foldiers near Verona, in the 415th year of
his age, and the 5th of his reign. Plis fon, who bore
the fame name, and who had {hared with him the im¬
perial dignity, was alfo maflacred in the arms of his
mother. Young Philip was then in the 12th year of
his age, and the Romans lamented in him the lofs of
rifing talents, of natural humanity, and endearing vir¬
tues.
Philip, a native of Acarnania, phyfician to Alexan¬
der the Great. When that monarch had been fuddenly
taken ill, after bathing in the Cydnus, Philip under- *
took to remove the complaint, when the reft of the
phyficians believed that all medical affiftance would be
ineffeftual. But as he was preparing his medicine,
Alexander received a letter from Parmenio, in which
he was advifed to beware of his phyfician Philip, as he
had confpired againft his life. The monarch was alarm¬
ed } and when Philip prefented him the medicine, he
gave him Parmenio’s letter to perufe, and began to
drink the potion. The ferenity and compofure of Phi¬
lip’s countenance, as he read the letter, removed every
fufpicion from Alexander’s breaft, and he purfued the
directions of his phyfician, and in a few days reco¬
vered.
There were, befides, a vaft number of perfons of this
name in antiquity, and many of them were very emi¬
nent.
Philip I. king of France, fucceeded his father Henry
I. in 1060, when but eight years of age, under the re¬
gency and guardianfliip of Baudouin V. count of Flan¬
ders, who difcharged his truft with zeal and fidelity.
He defeated the Gafcons who were inclined to revolt,
and died, leaving his pupil 15 years of age. This young
prince made war in Flanders againft Robert, Baudouin’s
younger fon, who had invaded Flanders, which belong¬
ed to the children of his elder brother. Philip marched
againft him with a numerous army, which was cut to
pieces near Mount Caffel. Peace was the confequence
of the victory, and the conqueror quietly enjoyed his
ufurpation. Philip, after the fatigues of the war, by Philip,
way of relaxation gave himfelf up entirely to pleafure l-T'-
and diffipation. Tired of his wife Bertha, and fond of
Bertrade, fpoufe of Foulques count of Anjou, he carried
her off from her hufband. Having, in 1093, legally
annulled his own marriage under the pretext of barren-
nefs, and Bertrade’s marriage with the count of Anjou
having been fet afide under the fame pretext, Philip and
ftie were afterwards folemnly married by the biihop of
Beauvais. This union was declared void by Pope Ur¬
ban II. a Frenchman by birth, who pronounced the ftn-
tence in the king’s own dominions, to which he had
come for an afylum. Philip, fearing that the anathe¬
mas of the Roman pontiff might be the means of exciting
his lubjefts to rebellion, fent deputies to the pope, who
obtained a delay, during which time he was permitted
to ufe the crown. To know what is meant by this per-
miffion, it is neceffary to recoiled, that at that period
kings appeared on public folemnities in royal habit,
with the crown on their heads, which they received
from the hand of a biffiop. This delay was not of long
duration. Philip was excommunicated anew in a coun¬
cil held at Poidiers in 11005 but in the year 1104,
Lambert biftiop of Arras, legate of Pope Pafcal II. at
laft brought him his abfolution to Paris, after having
made him promife never to fee Bertrade more 5 a pro-
mife which he did not keep. It would appear that the
pope afterwards approved their marriage 5 for Suger in¬
forms us, that their fons rvere declared capable of fuc-
ceeding to the crown. Philip died at Melun the 29th
of July 1108, aged yy years, after having witneffed the
firft crufade, in which he declined taking any part. His
reign, which comprehends a period of 48 years, was the
longeft of any of his predeceffors, excepting that of Clo-
tarius, and of all who came after him, except thofe of
Louis XIV. and Louis XV. It was diftinguifhed by
fevcral great events ; but Philip, though brave in battle,
and wile in counfels, was no very excellent eharader.
He appeared fo much the more contemptible to his fub-
jeds, as that age abounded with heroes. Philip is not
the firft of the French monarchs (as is commonly re¬
ported), who, in order to give the greater authority to
his charters, caufed them to be fubfcribed by the officers
of the crown 5 for Henry I. had fometimes done the
fame before him.
Philip II. furnamed Augujlus, the conqueror and
given of God, fon of Louis VII. "(called the younger),
king of France, and of Alix, his third wife, daughter
of Thibault, count of Champagne, W'as born the 22d of
Auguft 1165. He came to the crown, after his father’s
death in 1180, at the age of 15 years. Plis youth was
not fpent like that of the generality of other princes j
for, by avoiding the rock of pleafure on which fo many
are apt to fplit, his courage thereby became the more
lively and intrepid. The king of England feemed wil¬
ling to take advantage of his minority, and to feize upon
a part of his dominions. But Philip marched againft:
him, and compelled him, fword in hand, to confirm the
ancient treaties between the two kingdoms. As foon as
the war was endt^d, he made his people enjoy the blef-
fings of peace. He gave a check to the oppreffions of
the great lords, baniffied the comedians, puniffied blaf-
phemies, caufed the ftreets and public places of Paris to
be paved, and annexed to that capital a part of the adja¬
cent villages. It was enclofed by walls with towers j
PHI [ 269 ] PHI
Philin. and the inhabitants of other cities were equally proud vi&orious arms into Maine, Anjou, louraine, Poi&ou, L |
^Y—' t0 fortify and embellilh theirs. The Jews having for a and brought thofe provinces, as they anciently were,
loner time praftifed the moft (hameful frauds in France, under the immediate authority of his crown, i he Eng-
Phdip expelled them from his kingdom, and declared Idh had no other part left them in France, but the pio-
his fubiefts quit with them ; an aflion unjuft, contrary vince of Guicnne. 1 o crown his good fortune, John Ins
to the laws of nature, and confequently to religion, enemy was embroiled with the court of Rome, which
The tranquillity of France was fomewhat difturbed by had lately excommunicated him. ^ _ The ecclefiaftical
a difference with the count of Flanders, which was how- thunder was very favourable for Philip. Innocent II.
ever happily terminated in-i 184. Some time after he put into his hands, and transferred to him, a perpetua.
declared war againft Henry II. king of England, and right to the kingdom of England. 1 his king of Fiance,
took from him the towns of Iffoudun, Tours, Mans and when formerly excommunicated by the pope, had de-
other places. The epidemical madnefs of the crufades flared his cenfures void and abufive-, he thought very
then agitated all Europe ; and Philip, as well as other differently, however, when he found himfelf the execu-
princes caught the infedion. He embarked in the tor of a bull invefting him with the Englifb crown, lo
year n’oo, with Richard I. king of England, for the give the greater force to the fentence pronounced by his
relief of the Chriitians in Paleftine, who were opprefled holinefs, he employed a whole year in building 1700
by Saladin. Thofe two monarchs fat down before Hups, and in preparing the fineft army that was ever
Acre, which is the ancient Ptolemais ; as did almoft all feen in France. Europe was in expectation of a deci-
the Chriftians of the eaft, while Saladin was engaged in live battle between the two kings, when the pope laugh-
a civil war on the banks of the Euphrates. When the ed at both, and artfully took to himfelf what he- had
two European monarchs had joined their forces to thofe beftowed upon Philip. A legate of the holy fee per-
of the Afiatic Chriftians, they counted above 300,000 fuaded John Sans-terre to give his crown to the court of
fighting men. Acre furrendered the 13th of July 1191 5 - Rome, which received it with enthufiafm. Then Philip
but the unhappy difagreement which took place between was exprefsly forbid by the pope to make any attempt
Philip and Richard,'rivals of glory and of intereft, did upon England, now become a fee of the Roman church,
more mifehief than could be cempenfated by the fuc- or againft John who was under her protetfion. Mean-
cefsful exertions of thofe 300,000 men. Philip, tired of while, the great preparations which Philip had made,
tiiefe divifions, and difpleafed with the behaviour of Ri- alarmed all Europe; Germany, England, and the Low
chard his vaffal, returned to his own country, which, Countries, were united agamft hirn in the fame manner
perhaps, he ftiould never have left, or at leaft have feen as we have feen them united againft Louis XIV . Fer-
again with more glory. Betides, he was attacked (fay rand, count of Flanders, joined the emperor Otho I \ .
hiftorians) with a languiftiing diforder, the eftVCls of He was Philip’s vaffal; which was the ftrongeft rfeafon
* which were attributed to poifon; but which might have for declaring againft him. The French king was no-
been occafioned merely by the fcorching heat of a cli- wife difconcerted; his fortune and his courage dii-
mate fo different from that of France. He loft his hair, fipated all his enemies. His valour was particularly
his beard, and his nails ; nay, his very fletb came off. confpicuous at the battle of Bouvines which was
The phyficians urged him to return home; and he foon fought on the 27th of July 1214, and lafted from
determined to follow their advice. The year after, he noon till night. Before the engagement, he knew
obliged Baudouin VIII. count of Flanders to leave him well that fume of his nobles followed him with re-
the county of Artois. He next turned his arms againft; luftance. He affembled them together ; and placing
Richard king of England, from whom he took Evreux himfelf in the midft of them, he took a large golden
and Vexin ; though he had promifed upon the holy gof- cup, which he filled with wine, and into which he
pels never to take any advantage of his rival during his put feveral flices of bread. He ate one of them him-
abfence ; fo that the confequences of this war were very felf, and offering the cup to the reft, he laid. My
unfortunate. The French monarch, repulfed from companions, let thofe who would live and die with
Rouen with lofs, made a truce for fix months ; during me follow my example.” The cup was emptied m a
which time he married Ingelburge,princefs of Denmark, moment, and thofe who were the leaft attached to
whofe beauty could only be equalled by her virtue. The him fought with all the bravery that could be expett-
divorcing of this lady, whom he quitted in order to ed from his warmeft friends. It is alfo reported, that
marry Agnes daughter of the duke of Merania, em- after (bowing the army the crown that was worn by
broiled him with the court of Rome. The pope iffued fovereigns upon thefe occafions, he faid, “ If any one
a fentence of excommunication againft him ; but it was thought himfelf more worthy than he was to wear
taken off upon his promifing to take back his former it, he had only to explain himfelf; that he Ihould be
wife. John Sans terre fucceeded to the crown of Eng- content it were the prize of that man who ftiould dii-
land in 1190, to the prejudice of his nephew Arthur, play the greateft valour in battle.” ^ he enemy had
to whom of right i^ belonged. The nephew, fupported an army of 150,000 fighting men ; that of Philip ivas
by Philip, took up arms againft the uncle, but was de- not half fo numerous ; but it was compoled of the
feated in Poiftou, where he was taken prifoner, and af- flower of his nobility. 1 he king run great hazard ot
terwards murdered. The murderer, being fummoned bis life ; for he was thrown down under the hortes feet,
before the court of the peers of France, not having and wounded in the neck. It is faid 30,000 Germans
appeared, was declared guilty of his nephew’s death, were killed ; but the number is probably much exag-
and condemned to lofe his life in 1203. His lands, gerated. The counts of Flanders^ and Boulogne were
fituated in France, were forfeited to the crown. Phi- led to Paris with irons upon t:heir feet and hands ; a
lip foon fet about gathering the fruit of his vaffal’s barbarous cuftom which prevailed at that time. Ihe
crime. He feized upon Normandy, then carried his Trench king made no conqueft on the fide of Germany
PHI
Philip, after this ever memorable a£Hon ; but it gained him an
'v additional power over his vaflfals. Philip, conqueror of
Germany, and poffeffor of almoft all the Engliib domi¬
nions in France, was invited to the crown of England
by the fubjetfts of King John, who were grown weary
of his tyranny. J he king of France, upon this occa
fion, conduced himfelf like an able politician. Fie
perfuaded the Englith to alii his fon Louis for their
king ■, but as he withed at the fame time to manage the
pope, and not lofe the crown of England, he chofe to
ailift the prince his fon, without appearing to a£t him¬
felf. Louis made a defcent upon England, was crown¬
ed at London, and excommunicated at Rome in 1216 ;
but that excommunication made no change upon
John’s fituation, who died of grief. His death extin-
guithed the refentmcnt of the Englilh, who having de¬
clared tbemfelves for his fon Henry III. forced Louis
to leave England. Philip Augudus died a little time
after, at Mantes, the 14th of July 1223, aged 39, after
a reign of 43 years. Of all the kings of the 3d race,
he made the greateft acceffion to the crown-lands, and
tranfmitted the greateft power to his fucceflors. He re¬
united to his dominions Normandy, Anjou, Maine, Tou-
raine, Poitou, &e. After having fubdued John Sans-
terre, he humbled the great lords, and by the overthrow
of foreign and domeftic enemies, took away the counter*
poife which balanced his authority in the kingdom. He
was more than a conqueror ; he was a great king and
an excellent politician ; fond of fplendour on public
occafions, but frugal in private life ; exaft in the ad-
miniftration of juftice j tkilful in employing alternately
flattery and threatenings, rewards and puniftiments;
he was zealous in the defence of religion, and always
difpofed to defend the church j but he knew well how
to procure from her fuccours for fupplying the exigen¬
cies of the ftate. The lords of Coucy, Rhetel, Ro-
fey, and feveral others, feized upon the property of
the clergy. A great many of the prelates applied for
protedtion to the king, who promifed them his good
offices with the depredators. But, notwithftanding
his recommendations, the pillages continued. The
bifhops redoubled their complaints, and intreated Phi¬
lip to march agaiuft their enemies. “ With all my
heart (faid he) j but in order to fight them, it is necef-
fary to have troops, and troops cannot be raiftd without
money.” The clergy underftood his meaning ; they
furniffied fubfidies, and the pillages ceafed. The en-
terprifes of Philip-Auguftus were almoft always fuc-
cefsful ; becaufe he formed his projedts with delibera¬
tion, and executed them without delay. He began by
rendering the French happy, and in the end rendered
them formidable ; though he was more inclined to
anger than to gentlenefs, to puniffi than to pardon, he
, ™as regretted by his fubjedls as a powerful genius and
as the father of his country. It was in his reign that
the marffial of France was feen, for the firft time, at
the head of the army. It was then, alfo, that families
began to have fixed and hereditary furnames : the lords
took them from the lands which they pofieffed j men
of letters from the place of their birth ; the converted
Jews and rich merchants from that of their refidence.
I wo very cruel evils, viz. leprofy and ufury, were pre¬
valent at that time j the one infedfed the body, the
other proved the ruin of the fortunes of families/ The
number of lepers was fo great, that the fmalleft villages
PHI
were obliged to have an hofpital for the cure of that di- Philip,
{temper. It is remarkable-, that when Philip was on the —
point of engaging Richard, the Englilh, who were lying
in ambuth near the Loire, run aw ay with his equipage,
in which he caufed to be carried ail the deeds or writ¬
ings refpedling the rights of the crown ) a cuftom
which is ufed at this day by the grand feignior. Philip
caufed copies of his charters to be colledied wherever
they could be found ; but after all his endeavours, fome
of them were never recovered. The furname of Auguf¬
tus was given to Philip by his cotemporaries. Mezerai
is miftaken, when he afferts that Paulus Emilius was
the firft who rendered the name of conqueror by that of
Auguftus ; a learned critic has proved the contrary by
undoubted authorities.
Philip of Va/ois, firft king of France of the collate¬
ral branch of the Valois, was fon to Charles count of
Valois, brother of Philip the Fair. He mounted the
throne in 1328, on the death of his coufin Charles the
Fair, after having held for fome time the regency of the
kingdom. France was much divided in the beginning
of his reign, by difputes about the fucceffion to the
crown. Edward III. king of England laid claim to it
as grandfon of Philip the Fair, by his mother ; but Phi¬
lip of Valois took poffeffion of it as firft prince of the
blood. The people gave him, upon his acceffion to the
throne, the title offortunate ; to which might have been
added, for fome time, thofe of viBorious 'an& juf. He
marched to the relief of his vaffal the count of Flanders,
whofe fubje&s, on account of bad ufage, had taken up
arms againft him. He engaged the rebels at Caffe],
performed prodigies of valour, and gained a fignal vic¬
tory, the 24th of Auguft 1328. Having made all
quiet, he went home, after faying to the count of Flan¬
ders, “ Be more prudent and more humane, and you
will have fewer dilloyal fubjedls.” The vidorious Phi¬
lip devoted the time of peace to the internal regulations
of his kingdom. The financiers were called to an ac¬
count, and fome of them condemned to death ; among
others Peter Remi, general of the finances, who left be¬
hind him near 20 millions. He afterwards enaded the
law refpeding freeholds, impofing a tax upon churches,
and commoners Avho had acquired the lands of the nobi¬
lity. Then, alfo, began to be introduced the form of
appe/ comme d\tbus, the principles of which are more
ancient than the name. The year 1329 was diftin guiffi-
ed by a folemn homage paid to-Philip, by Edward king
of England, for the duchy of Guienne, upon his knees,
and with his head uncovered. The interior peace of
the kingdom was difturbed by difputes about the diftinc-
tion of the church and ftate. An affembly was fum-
moned for hearing the two parties, in the prefence of
the king : and in this affembly Peter de Cugnieres, his
majefty’s advocate, defended the fecular jurifdidHon with
great ability, as a man well-informed, and an enlighten¬
ed philofopher. Bertrand biftiop of Autun, and Roger
archbiftiop of Sens, pled the caufe of the clergy with
lefs ingenuity and judgment. This did not, however,
prevent the king from fhowing them favours, though
the eontroverfy itfelf laid the foundation of all the dif¬
putes which were afterwards agitated about the autho¬
rity of the two powers ; difputes which contributed not
a little to confine the ecclefiaftical jurifdiftion within
narrower limits. While Philip was employing himfelf
in fome ufeful regulations, he was unhappily interrupted
by
[ 270 ]
PHI [ 271 ] PHI
Philip, by Edward III. declaring war againfi: France. This
—-v’—"* prince immediately recovered thole parts of Guienne of
which Philip ivas in poiTeflion. The Flemifh having
again revolted from France in fpite of oaths and treaties,
joined the ftandard of Edward ; and required that he
•would affume the title of king of France, in confequence
of his pretenfions to the crown ; becaufe then, agree¬
ably to the letter of their treaty, they only followed the
king of France. From this period is dated the union of
the flower-de luce and leopards in the arms of England.
Edward, in order to juftify the change of his arms,
caufed the following manifefto to be publilhed in the
verfe of the times.
Rex fum regnorum, bina ratione, duorum :
Anglorum in regno fum rex ego jure paterno ;
Matris jure quidem Francorum nuncupor idem :
Hinc ejl armorum variatio faff a meorum.
In the way of a parody to thefe lines, Philip made
the following reply :
Free do regnorum qui diceris ejje duorum,
Francorum regno privaberis, atque paterno,
Succedunt mares Jiuic regno, non mulieres :
Hinc ejl armorum variatio fulta tuorum.
In the mean time Philip put himfelf in a poflure of
defence. His arms were at firft attended with fome fuc-
cefs ; but thofe advantages were far from compenfating
the lofs of the battle of Eclufe, in which the French
fleet, confifting of 120 large (hips, and manned by
40 ,000 feamen, was beat by that of England in the
year 1340. This defeat is to be attributed, in part, to
the little attention which had been paid to the navy of
France, notwithftanding her favourable fituation, by be¬
ing walked by two feas. She was obliged to make ufe
of foreign fhips, which obeyed but (lowly, and even
with fome relusance. This war, which had been al¬
ternately difeontinued and renewed, began again with
more heat than ever in 1345. The two armies leaving
come to an engagement the 26th of Augurt 1346, near
Crefly, a village in the county of Ponthieu, the Englifh
there gained a fignal victory. Edward had only 40,000
men, while Philip had nearly twice that number •, but
the army of the former was inured to war, and that of
the latter was ill-difciplined and overcome with fatiguing
marches. France loft from 25,000 to 30,000 men •, of
which numbers were John king of Bohemia (who,
though blind, fought gallantly), and about 1500 gen¬
tlemen, the flower of the French nobility. The lofs of
Calais, and feveral other places, was the fad fruit of this
defeat. Some time before Edward had challenged Phi¬
lip of Valois to a fingle combat ; which he refufed, not
on the fcore of cowardice, but from "the idea that it was
improper for a fovereign prince to accept a challenge
from a king who was his vaflal. At lengih, in 1347, a
truce for fix months was concluded between France and
England, and afterwards prolonged at different times,
Philip died a fhort time after, the 23d of Auguft 1350,
aged 57 years, and far from bearing on his monument
the title of Fortunate. He Rad, however, reunited Dau-
phiny to Fiance. Humbert, the laft prince of that
country, having loft all his children, and wearied with
the wars which he had held out againft Savoy, turned
a Dominican, and gave his province to Philip, in 1349,
on condition that the eldeft fon of the kings of France
fhould bear the title of Dauphin. Philip likewife added Philip,
to his domain Roufillon and a part of Cerdague, by lend-
ing fome money to the king of Majorca, who gave
him thofe provinces as a fecurity ; provinces which
Charles VIII. afterwards reftored without any reim-
burfement. It is furprifing that in fo unfortunate a
reign he (hould have been able to.purchafe thofe pro¬
vinces after having paid a great deal for Dauphiny ; but
the duty on fait, the rife on the other taxes, and efpe-
cially the frauds committed in the coinage of money,
are fuppofed to have enabled him to make thofe acquifi-
tions. The fiftitious and ideal value of the coin was not
only raifed, but a great deal of bad money was iffued
from the mint. The officers of the mint were fworn
upon the gofpels to keep the fecret: but how could Phi¬
lip flatter himfelf that fo grofs a fraud would not be dif-
covered ?
Philip II. fon of Charles V. and of Ifabella of Por¬
tugal, who was born at Valladolid on the 21ft of May
1527, became king of Naples and Sicily by his father’s
abdication in I 554. He afeended the throne of Spain
on the 17th of January 1556 by the fame means. Charles
had made a truce with the French, but'his fon broke it;
and having formed an alliance with England, poured
into Picardy an army of 40,000 men. The French were
cut to pieces at the battle of St Quintin, which was
fought on the 20th of Auguft 1557. That town was
taken by affault, and the day on which the breach was
mounted Philip appeared armefl cap-a-pee, in order to
animate the foldiers. It was the firft and laft. time that
he was obferved to wear this military drefs. It is wTell
known, indeed, that his terror was fo great during the
adfion that he made two vows; one, that he (hould ne¬
ver again be prefent in a battle; and the other, to build
a magnificent monaftery dedicated to St Lawrence, to
whom he attributed the fuccefs of his arms, which he
executed at Efcurial, a village about feven leagues from
Madrid. After the engagement, his general, the duke
of Savoy, wanted to kifs his hand ; but Philip prevent¬
ed him, faying, “ It is rather my duty to kifs your’s,
who have the merit of fo glorious a vidftory and im¬
mediately prefented him with the colours taken during
the adftion. The taking of Catelet, Ham, and Noyon,
were the only advantages which were derived from a bat¬
tle which might have proved the ruin of France. When
Charles V. was informed of this viftory, it is faid he
alked the perfon who brought him the intelligence, “ if
his fon was at Paris ?” and being anfwered in the nega¬
tive, he went away without uttering a fingle word. The
duke of Guife having had time to affemble an army, re¬
paired the difgrace of his country by the taking of Ca-
lat:?* and Thionville. While he was animating the
French, Philip gained a pretty confiderable battle againft
Marftial de Thermes near Gravelines. Hi> army was,
on this occafion, commanded by Count Egmont, whom
he afterwards caufed to be beheaded. The conqueror
made no better ufe of the victory of Gravelines than he
had done of that of St Ouintin ; but he reaped confider¬
able advantage from the glorious peace of Cateau-Cam-
brefis, the mafterpiece of his politics. By that treaty,
concluded the 13th of April 1559, he gained puff ffion
of the ftrong places of Thionville, Marienbourg, Mont-
medi, Hefdin, and the county of Charollois. This war,
fo terrible, and attended with fo much cruelty, was ter¬
minated, like many others, by a marriage. Philip took
? H I t 2 7
Philip, for Ills third wife Elizabeth, daughter ot Henry li. who
had been promiled to Don Carlos.
After thefe glorious achievements, Philip returned in
triumph to Spain, without having drawn a fword. His
firft care, upon his arrival at Valladolid, was to demand
of the grand inquifitor the fpeftacle of an auto-da fe.
This was immediately granted him 5 40 wretches, fome
of whom were priefts or monks, were firangled and
burnt, and one of them was burnt alive. Don Carlos
de Seza, one of thofe unfortunate viaims, ventured to
draw near to the king, and faid to him, “ How, Sn,
can you fuffer fo many wretches to be committed to the
flames ? Can you be witnefs of fuch barbarity without
weeping ?” To this Philip coolly replied, “ If my own
fon were fufpeaed of herefy, I would myielf give him
up to the feventy of the incjuifition. Such is the horror
which I feel when I think of you and your companions,
that if an executioner were wanting, I would fupply his
place rnyfelf.” On other occafions he conduaed himfelf
agreeably to the fpirit which had diaated this anfwer.
In a valley of Piedmont, bordering on the country of
the Milanefe, there were fome heretics •, and the go¬
vernor of Milan had orders to put them all to death by
the gibbet. The new opinions having found their
way into fome of the diftrias of Calabria, he gave or¬
ders that the innovators fliould be put to the fword,
tvith the refervation of 60 of them, of whom 30 were
afterwards ftrangled, and the reft committed to the
flames.
This fpirit of cruelty, and fbameful abufe of his power,
had the effea to weaken that power itfelf. The Fle-
mifli, no longer able to bear fo hard a yoke, revolted.
The revolution began with the fine and large provinces
of the continent ■, but the maritime provinces only ob-
ftained their liberty. In 1579 they formed themfelves
into a republic, under the title of the United Provinces.
Philip fent the duke of Alva to reduce them j but the
cruelty of that general only ferved to exafperate the fpi¬
rit of the rebels. Never did either party fight with
more courage, or with more fury. I he Spaniards, at
the fiege of Haerlem, having thrown into the town the
head of a Dutch officer who had been killed in a fkir-
mifli, the inhabitants threw to them the heads of eleven
Spaniards, with this infcription : “ Ten head,s for the
payment of the tenth penny, and the eleventh for inte-
reft.” Haerlem having furrendered at difcretion, the
conquerors eaufed all the magiftrates, all the pallors,
and above 1500 citizens, to be hanged.
The duke of Alva being at length recalled, the
grand commander of the Requefnes was fent in his place,
and after his death Don John of Auftria ; but neither
of thofe generals could reftore tranquillity in the Low
Countries. To this fon of Charles V. fvcceeded a grand-
fon no lefs illuftrioUs, namely, Alexander Farnefe duke
of Parma, the greateft man of his time ; but he could
neither prevent the independence of the United Pro¬
vinces, nor the progrefs of that republic which arofe un¬
der his own. eye. It was then that Philip, always at his
eafe in Spain, inftead of coming to reduce the rebels in
Flanders, profcribed the prince of Orange, and let
25,000 crowns upon his head. William, fuperior to
Philip, difdained to make ufe of that kind of vengeance,
and trufted to his fword for his prefervation.
In the mean time the king of Spain fucceeded to the
crown of Portugal, to which he had a right by his mo-
1
?
H I
ther Ifabella. This kingdom was fubje£led to him by Ptnlin,
the duke of Alva, in the fpace of three weeks, in the '"“—v—
year 1380. Antony, prior of Crato, being proclaimed
king by the populace of Lifbon, had the refolution to
come to an engagement •, but he was vanquiihed, pur-
fued, and obliged to fly for his life.
A cowardly affaffin, Balthazar Gerard, by a piftol-
ffiot killed the prince of Orange, and thereby delivered
Philip from his moft implacable enemy. Philip was
charged with this crime, it is believed without reafon j
though, when the new’s was communicated to him, lie
was imprudent enough to exclaim, “ If this blow had
been given two years ago, the Catholic religion and I
w'ould have gained a great deal by it.”
This murder had not the effect to reftore to Philip the
Seven United Provinces. That republic, already power¬
ful by fea, affifted England againft him. Philip having
refolved to diftrefs Elizabeth, fitted out, in 1588, a
fleet called the Invincible. It conlifted of 150 large
ftiips, on w'hich were mounted 2650 pieces of cannon,
'8000 feamen, 20,000 foldiers, and all the flower of the
Spaniffi nobility. This fleet, commanded by the duke
of Medina Sidonia, failed from Lifbon when the feafon
was too far advanced ; and, being overtaken by a violent
ftorm, a great part of it was difperfed. L welve (hips,
driven upon the coaft of England, were captured by
the Englilh fleet, which confided of ICO fliips 5 50
were wrecked on the coafts of France, Scotland, Ire¬
land, Holland, and Denmark. Such was the fuccefs of
the Invincible. See ARMADA.
This enterprife, which coft Spain 40 millions of du¬
cats, 20,000 men, and 100 (hips, was produdlive only
of difgrace. Philip fupported this misfortune with a
heroic refolution. When one of his courtiers told him,
with an air of confternation, what had happened, he
coolly replied, “ I fent to fight the Engliffi, and not the
winds. God’s will be done.” The day after Philip or¬
dered the bifhops to return thanks to God for having
preferved fome remains of his fleet *, and he wrote thus
to the pope : “ Holy father, as long as I remain mafter
of the fountain head, I (hall not much regard the lofs of
a rivulet. I will thank the Supreme Difpofcr of em¬
pires, who has given me the power of eafily repairing a
difafter which my enemies muft attribute folely to the
elements which have fought for them.”
At the fame time that Philip attacked England, he
was encouraging in Frafice the Holy League j the ob¬
ject of which w^as to overturn the throne and divide the
ftate. The leaguers conferred upon him the title of
Protellor of their affociation ; which he eagerly accept¬
ed, from a perfuafion that their exertions would foon
condudf him, or one of his family, to the throne of
France. He thought himfelf fo fure of his prey, that
when fpeaking of the principal cities in France, he ufed
to fay, “ My fine city of Paris, my fine city ot Orleans,”
in the fame manner as he would have fpoken of Madrid
ahd Seville. What was the refult of all thofe intrigues ?
Henry IV. embraced the Catholic religion, and by his
abjuration of Proteftantifm made his rival lofe France in
a quarter of an hour.
Philip, at length, worn out by the debaucheries of
his youth, and by the toils of government, drew near
his laft hour. A (low fever, the moft painful gout, and
a complication of other diforders, could not difengage
him from bufinefs, or draw from him the lead com¬
plaint.
PHI [2
Philip, plaint. 11 What!” faid he to the phyficians who hefi-
' fated about letting blood of him ; “ What ! are you
afraid of drawing a few drops of blood from the veins of
a king who has made whole rivers of it flow from here¬
tics ?” At laft, exhaufted by a complication of diftem-
pers, which he bore with a heroic patience, and being-
eaten up of lice, he expired the 13th of September
1598, aged 72 years, after a reign of 43 years and
eight months. During the lafl 50 days of his illnefs he
(bowed a great fenfe of religion, and had his eyes almoft
always fixed towards heaven.
mtfnn's No character was ever drawn by different hiftorians
Philip jn more oppofite colours than that of Philip ; and yet,
confidering the length and activity of his reign, there is
none which it fliould feem would be more eafy to afeer-
tain. From the faffs recorded in hiftory, we cannot
doubt that he poffeffed, in an eminent degree, penetra¬
tion, vigilance, and a capacity for government. His
eyes were continually open upon every part of his exten-
five dominions. He entered into every branch of admi-
niftration j watched over the conduct of his minifters
with unwearied attention ; and in his choice both of
them and of his generals, difcovered a confiderable (hare
of fagacity. He had at all times a compofed and fettled
countenance, and never appeared to be either elated or
depreffed. His temper was the mod imperious, and his
looks and demeanor were haughty and fevere j yet among
his Spanilh fubje&s he was of eafy accefs ; liflened pa¬
tiently to their reprefentations and complaints j and
where his ambition and bigotry did not interfere, was
generally willing to redrefs their grievances. When we
have faid thus much in his praife, we have faid all that
truth requires or truth permits. It is indeed impoflible
to fuppofe that he was infincere in his zeal for religion.
But as his religion was of the moll corrupt kind, it fer-
ved to increafe the natural depravity of his difpofition j
and not only allowed, but even-prompted, him to com¬
mit the molt odious and (hocking crimes. Although a
prince in the bigotted age of Philip might be perfuaded
that the interell of religion would be advanced by falfe-
hood and perfecution } yet it might be expe&ed, that,
in a virtuous prince, the fentiments of honour and hu¬
manity would on fome occafions triumph over the dic¬
tates of fuperftition : but of this triumph there occurs
not a (ingle inftance in the reign of Philip who with¬
out hefitation violated his mod (acred obligations as often
as religion afforded him a pretence, and under that pre¬
tence exercifed for many years the mod unrelenting
cruelty without reluftance or remorfe. His ambition,
which was exorbitant; his refentment, which was im¬
placable 5 his arbitrary temper, which would fubmit to
no controul—concurred with his bigotted zeal for the
Catholic religion, and carried the fanguinary fpirit,
which that religion was calculated to infpire, to a great¬
er height in Philip than it ever attained in any other
prince of that or of any former or fucceeding age.
Though of a fmall fize, he had an agreeable perfon.
His countenance was grave, his air tranquil, and one
could not difcoyer from his looks either joy in prof-
perity or chagrin in adverfity. The wars againd Hol¬
land, France, and England, cod Philip 564 millions of
ducats j but America furnhhed him with more than
the half of that fum. His revenues, after the junc¬
tion of Portugal, are faid to have amounted to 25 mil¬
lions of ducats, of which he only laid out 100,000 for
Vol. XVI. Part I.
7.3 1 PHI
the fupport of his own houfehold. Philip was very
jealous of outward refped! j he was unwilling that any
Ihould fpeak to him but upon theii knees. The duke
of Alva having one day entered this prince’s cabinet
without being introduced, he received the following
harih falutation, accompanied with a dormy counte¬
nance : “ An impudence like this of yours would de-
ferve the hatchet.” If he thought only how to make
himfelf be feared, he fuceeeded in doing fo $ for lew
princes have been more dreaded, more abhorred, or
have caufed more blood to flow, than Philip II. of
Spain. He had fucceflively, if not all at once, war
to maintain againd Turkey, France, England, Hol¬
land, and almod all the Protedants of the empire, with¬
out having a (ingle ally, not even the branch of his
own houfc in Germany. Notwithdanding fo many
millions employed againd the enemies of Spain, Philip
found in his economy and his refources wherewith td
build 30 citadels, 64 fortified places, 9 fea ports, 25
arfenals, and as many palaces, without including the
Efcurial. His debts amounted to 140 millions of du¬
cats, of which after having paid (even millions of in-
tered, the greated part was due to the Genoefe. More¬
over, he had fold or alienated a capital dock of loo
millions of ducats in Italy. He made a law, fixing the
majority of the kings of Spain at 14 years of age. He
affe£led to be more than commonly devout; he ate
often at the refectory with the monks j he never enter¬
ed their churches without kifling all the relics j he
caufed knead his bread with the water of a fountain
which was thought to poffefs a miraculous virtue j he
boaded of never having danced, and of never wearing
breeches after the Grecian fafliion. Grave and folemn
in all his adtions, he drove from his prefence a woman
who had fmiled while he was blowing his nofe. One
great event of his domedic life is the death of his fon
Don Carlos. The manner of this prince’s death is not
certainly known. His body, which lies in the monu¬
ment of the Efcurial, is there feparated from his head 5
but it is pretended that the head is feparated only be-
caufe the leaden coffin which contains the body is too
fmall. The particulars of his crime are as little known
as the manner in which it was committed. There is no
evidence, nor is there any probability, that Philip would
have caufed him to be condemned by the inquifition.
All that we know of the matter is, that in 1568 his fa¬
ther, having difcovered that he had fome correfpondence
with the Hollanders his enemies, arreded him himfelf
in his own room. He wrote at the fame time to Pope
Pius V. in order to give him an account of his fon’s
imprifonment; and in his letter to this pontiff, the 20th
of January 1568, he fays, “ that from his earlied years
the drength of a wicked nature has difled in Don Carlos
every paternal indruftion.” It was Philip II. who
caufed to be printed at Anvers, between 1569 and
1572, in 8 vols folio, the fine Polyglot Bible, which
bears his name ; and it -was he who fubjedled the iflands
afterwards called the Philippines. He married fuccef-
fively, id, Mary daughter of John III. king of Portu¬
gal ; idly, Mary daughter of Henry VIII. and queen
of England ; 3dly, Elizabeth of France, daughter of
Henry II. 5 4thly, Anne daughter of the emjreror Maxi¬
milian II. Don Carlos was the fon of his fird wife,
and Philip III. of the lad.
PHILIPPI, in Ancient Geography, a town of Mace*
M m donia,
Philip,.
Philipp'.
PHI [ 274
PbOippL donla, In the territory of the Edonea, on the confines of
PHI
Thrace (Pliny, Ptolemy), fituated on the fide of a deep
eminence 5 anciently called Datum and Drenides (Ap-
pian), though Strabo feems to diftinguifh them. This
town was famous on feveral accounts •, not only as ta¬
king its name from the celebrated Philip of Macedon,
father to Alexander the Great, who confidered it as a
fit place for carrying on the war againft the Thracians,
but alfo on account of two battles fought in its neigh¬
bourhood between Auguftus and the republican party.
In the firft of thefe battles, Brutus and Caflius had the
command of the republican army ', while Oftavianus,
afterwards Auguftus, and Mark Antony, had the com¬
mand of their adverfaries. The army of Brutus and
Caftius confifted of 19 legions and 20,000 horfe j the
imperial forces of an equal number of legions, but
more complete, and 13,000 horfe ; fo that the numbers
on both fides were pretty equal. The troops of Brutus
were very richly drefled, moft of them having their ar¬
mour adorned with gold and filver; for Brutus, though
very frugal in other refpedfts, was thus extravagant with
refpedl to his men, thinking that the riches that they
had about them would make them exert themfelves the
more, to prevent thefe from falling into the enemy’s
hands. Both the republican generals appear to have
been inferior in {kill to Mark Antony j for as to 0<fta-
vianus, he is allowed never to have conquered but by
the valour of others. A little before the firft engage¬
ment, Oftavianus, who had been indifpofed, was carried
out of the camp, at the perfuafion of Artorius his phy-
fician, who had dreamed that he faw a vifion direfting
him to be removed. Brutus’s men, who oppofed the
wing commanded by Oflavianus, charged without
orders, which caufed great confufion. However, they
were fuccefsfulj for part of them, taking a compafs
about, fell upon the enemy’s rear: after which they
took and plundered the camp, making a great {laughter
of fuch as were in it, and among the reft putting 2000
Lacedaemonians to the fword who wrere newly come to
the affiftance of Oftavianus. The emperor himfelf was
fought for, but in vain, having been conveyed away for
the reafon above mentioned*, and as the foldiers pierced
the litter in which he was ufually carried, it was thence
reported that he had been killed. This threw that
whole part of the army into fuch confternation,that wThen
Brutus attacked them in front, they were moft com- ,
pletely routed 5 three whole legions being cut in pieces,
and a prodigious {laughter made among the fugitives.
But by the imprudence of the general in purfuing too
far, the wing of the republican army commanded by
Caflius was left naked and feparated from the reft of the
army ;.on which they were attacked at once in front
and in flank, and thus they were defeated and their
camp taken, while Brutus imagined that he had gain¬
ed a complete viftory. Caftius himfelf retired to an
eminence at a fmall diftance from Philippi •, v7hence
he fent one of his greateft intimates to procure intelli¬
gence concerning the fate of Brutus. That general
was on his way, and already in view, when the mef-
fenger fet out. He foon met his friends ; but they
furrounding him to inquire the news, Caflius, who be¬
held what pafled, imagined that he was taken prifoner
by the enemy, retired to his tent, and in defpair caufed
one of his freedmen cut off his head. Thus far at leaft
Is certain, that he went into the tent with that freed-
4,
man, and that his head was found feparated from his Philippi,
body when Brutus entered. However, the freedman Philippics;
was never afterwards feen. —v-—
The fecond engagement wTas pretty fimilar to the
firft. Brutus again oppofed Octavianus, and met -with
the fame fuccefs; but in the mean time Antony, to
whom he ought undoubtedly to have oppofed himfelf,
having to do only with the lieutenants of Caflius, gain¬
ed a complete victory over them. What was worft,
the fugitives, inftead of leaving the field of battle al¬
together, fled for proteftion to Brutus’s army ; where
crowding in among the ranks, they carried defpair
and contufion wherever they went, fo that a total de¬
feat enfued, and the republican army was almoft entire¬
ly cut in pieces. After the battle, Brutus put an end
to his own life, as is related more fully under the article
Rome.
The city of Philippi is likewife remarkable on ac¬
count of an epiftle written by St Paul to the church in
that place. It was a Roman colony (Luke, Pliny,
Coin, Infcription). It is alfo remarkable for being he
birth-place of Adrattus, the Peripatetic philofopher,
and difciple of Ariftotle.—The town is ftill in being,
and is an archbilhop’s fee; but greatly decayed and bad¬
ly peopled. However, there is an old amphitheatre,
and feveral other monuments of its ancient grandeur;
E. Long. 44. 55. N. Lat. 41. o.
PHILIPPICS, <bi\i7rTix.oi in literature, is a
name which is given to the orations of Demofthene*
againft Philip king of Macedon. The Philippics are
reckoned the mafter-pieces of that great orator : Longi¬
nus quotes many inftances of the fublime from them ;
and points out a thoufand latent beauties. Indeed that
pathetic in which Demolthenes excelled, the frequent
interrogations and apoftrophes wherewith he attacked
the indolence of the Athenians, where could they be
better employed ? Whatever delicacy there be in the
oration againft Leptines, the. Philippics have the advan¬
tage over it, were it only on account of the fubjeft,
which gives Demofthenes fo fair a field to difplay his
chief talent, Ave mean, with Longinus, that of moving
and aftoniftiing.
Dionyfius Halicarnafieus ranks the oration on the
Halonefe among the Philippics, and places it the eighth
in order : but though his authority be great, yet that
force and majefty wherein Cicero chara£terizes the Phi¬
lippics of Demofthenes, feem to exclude the oration
on the Halonefe out of the number ; and authorize the
almoft univerfal opinion of the learned, who reje.61: it
as fpurious. Libanius, Photius, and others, but above all
the languidnefs of the ftyle, and the lownefs of the ex-
preftions, which reign throughout the whole, father it on
Hegefippus.
Philippics is likew'ife applied to the fourteen ora¬
tions of Cicero againft Mark Antony. Cicero him¬
felf gave them this title in his epiftles to Brutus ; and
pofterity have found it fo juft, that it has been conti¬
nued to our times. Juvenal, Sat. x. calls the fecond
the divine Philippic, and witnefles it to be of great
fame, confpicuce divina P/tiiippica famce. That orator’s
intitling his laft and moft valued orations after the Phi¬
lippics .of Demofthenes fhews the high opinion he had
of them. Cicero’s Philippics coft him his life ; Mark
Antony having been fo irritated with them, that when
he arrived at the triumvirate, he procured Cicero’s mur-
derVr.
PHI l 2
philippics, der, cut off his head, and ftuck it up in the very place
Philippine -whence the orator had delivered the Philippics.
LIlla“ds' , PHILIPPINE Islands, are certain iflands of Afia,
^ which lie between 114 and 126 degrees of eaft longi¬
tude, and between 6 and 20 degrees of north latitude ;
r , about 300 miles fouth-eaff of China. They are faid to
Mil. Mem. a^out in number, of which there are 400 very
confiderable. They form a principal divifion of that
immenfe Indian Archipelago, which confifts of fo many
thoufand iilands, fome of which are the largeft, and
many of them the richeft, in the world. The Philip¬
pines form the northernmoft clufter of thefe idands, and
wrere difcovered in the year 1521 by the famous naviga¬
tor Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguefe gentleman, who
had ferved his native country both in the wars of Africa
end in the Eaft Indies ; particularly under Albuquerque,
the famous Portuguefe general, who reduced Goa and
Malacca to the obedience of that crown. Magellan
having had a confiderable ibare in thofe a&ions, and
finding himfelf negledled by the government of Portu¬
gal, and even denied, as it is faid, the fmall advance of
a ducat a month on his pay, left the court of Portugal
in difguft, and offered his fervices to Charles V. then
emperor of Germany and king of Spain, whom he con¬
vinced of the probability of difeovering a way to the
Spice ifiands, in the Eaft Indies, by the weft: where¬
upon the command of five fmall fhips being given him,
he fet fail from Seville, on the 10th of Auguft 1519,
and ftanding over to the coaft of South America, pro¬
ceeded fouthward to 520, where he fortunately hit up¬
on a ftrait, fince called the Strait of MAGELLAN, which
carried him into the Pacific ocean or South fea ; and
then (leering northward, repaffed the equator: after
which, he ftretched away to the weft, acrofs that vaft
ocean, till he arrived at Guam, one of the Ladrones,
on the 10th of March 1521 ; and foon after failed to
the weftward, and difcovered the Philippines, which
he did on St Lazarus’s day; and, in honour of that
faint, he called them the Archipelago of St Lazarus.
He took poffeflion of them in the name of the king
of Spain, but happened to be killed in a (kirmith
he had with the natives of one of them. His people,
however, arrived afterwards at the Moluccas, or Clove
ifiands, where they left a colony, and returned to
Spain by the w<ay of the Cape of Good Hope j being
the firft perfons that ever failed round the globe.'—But
there was no attempt made by the Spaniards to fubdue
or plant the Philippine ifiands until the year 1:564, in
the reign of Philip II. fon of Charles V. when I)on
Louis de Velafco, viceroy of Mexico, font Michael
Lopez Delagafpes thither with a fteet, and a force fuf-
fieient to make a eonqueft of tbefe iflands, which he
named the Philippines, in honour of Philip II. then op¬
en the throne of Spain ; and they have remained under
the dominion of that crown till taken by Sir William
draper. The Philippines are fcarce inferior to any
other iflands of Afia in all the natural productions of
that happy climate; and they are by far the beft fitu*
ated for an extenfive and advantageous commerce. By
tneir pofition, they form the centre of intercourfe with
China, Japan, and the Spice iflands; and whilft they
are under the dominion of Spain, they connect the Afi-
atic and American commerce, and become a general
magazine for the rich manufactures of the one and for
the Ueafures of the other. Befides, they are well fltua-
75 1 PHI
ted for a fupply of European goods, both from the fide Philippi
of Acapulco and by the way of the Cape of Good Hope. IfliU!ds~ .
In fa6t, they formerly enjoyed a traffic in fome degree " ^
proportioned to the peculiar felicity of their fituation ;
but the Spanifli dominion is too vaft and unconnected
to be improved to the beft advantage.—The fpirit of
commerce is not powerful in that people. The trade of
the Philippines is thought to have declined ; its great
branch is now reduced to two (hips, which annually pafs
between thefe iflands and Acapulco in America, and to
a Angle port of Manilla in the ifland ofJLuconia.
Indeed the Spaniards appear by no means to be ac¬
tuated by the fpirit of induftry ; for, fo far from im¬
proving the fine fituation of thefe iflands to the ut-
moft, it happens, on the contrary, that the trade is
hurtful to the mother-country ; for (to confine ourfelves
to Manilla, with which they have moft to do), inftead
of taking Spanifli manufactures, they trade with the
Chinefe for fpices, filks, (lockings, Indian (luffs, callicoes,
chintz, and many other articles; and with theJapanefe
for cabinets, and all forts of lacquered ware; for all
which they pay in gold or filver. All thefe commodi¬
ties, together with what the iflands produce, and great
quantities of wrought plate by the Chinefe artifans, are
collected at Manilla, and tranfported annually in two
(hips to Acapulco in Mexico. Each of thefe (hips is
eileemed worth 6oo,ocol. fterling; and in the war
which began in 1739, and which was not diftinguifhed
by fuch a feries of wonderful fucceffes as that which
ended in 1 763, the taking of one of the galleons which
carry on the trade between Manilla and America, was
confidered as one of the moft brilliant advantages which
we gained. This trade is not laid open to all the inha¬
bitants of Manilla, but is confined by very particular
regulations, fomewhat analogous to thofe by which the
trade of the regifter (hips from Cadiz to the Weft Indies
is reftrained. The (hips employed are all king’s (hips,
commiffioned and paid by him ; and the tonnage is di¬
vided into a certain number of bales, all of the fame
fize, Thefe are divided among the convents at Manil¬
la, but before tha fuppreflion of the Jefuits principally
among them, as a donation to fupport their millions, for
the. propagation of the Roman Catholic faith. Moft of
the religious are concerned in this trade, and fell to the
merchants at a great price what room in the (hip they
are not to occupy. This trade is by a royal edict limit¬
ed to a certain value, but it always exceeds it, each (hip
being generally worth 3,000,000 of dollars. The re¬
turns made from America are in filver, cochineal, fweet-
meats, together with fome European millinery ware for
tha women, and fome ftrong Spanilh wine. It is obvi¬
ous, that the greateft part of the treafure remitted does
not remain at Manilla, but is difperfed over India fur
goods. Many ftrong remohftrances againft this Indian
trade to Mexico have been made to the court of Spain,
wherein they urge, that the filk manufaflories of Va-
fontia and other parts of Spain, the linens from Cadiz.,
and their other manufaflories, are hurt in their fale in
Mexico and Peru, by the Chiaefc being able to afford
them goods of the fame fort cheaper than they are able;
that were this trade laid open, the whole tn.-afure of the
New World would centre in Spain, or with European
merchants; but now it enrkhts only fome religious or¬
ders and a few private perfons. Wife as thefe argu¬
ments are, the Jefuifis and priefts, verfant in intrigue,
M m t aud
Philippine
Iflands,
PHI [ 276 ] PHI
and the moft felfifh fet of men on earth, had intereft
enough at court to flop the effeft.
At Cavite in this bay are a fort, a town, and a fine
dock-yard, where thefe large galleons are built and re¬
paired, and where they load and unload, together with
all the other large thips that trade to this bay.
The principal of the Philippine iflands are Luconia
or Manilla, Tandago or Samar, Mafbate, Mindora,
Luban, Paragoa, Panay, Leyte, Bohel, Sibu, Sogbu,
Negros, St John, Xolo, and Mindanao. In molt of
thefe, the Spanilh power prevails, and all are under
the governor of Luconia j but there are fome in which
that nation has little authority, or even influence, fueh
.as Mindanao.
The inhabitants of thefe iflands confift of Chinefe,
Ethiopians, Malays, Spaniards, Portuguefe, Pintados or
Painted People, and Meftees, a mixture of all thefe.
Their perfons and habits refemble thofe of the feveral
nations whence they derive their original j only, it is
obfervable, that the features of the blacks of thefe iflands
are as agreeable as thofe of the white people. There is
not a foil in the world that produces greater plenty of
all things for life ; as appears by the multitude of inha¬
bitants to be found in the woods and mountains, who
fubfilt almoft entirely by the fruits of the earth, and the
venifon they take. Nor can any country appear more
beautiful ; for there is a perpetual verdure, and buds,
blofloms, and fruit, are found upon the trees all the
year round, as well on the mountains as in the cultivat¬
ed gardens. Vaft quantities of gold are wafhed down
from the hills by the rains, and found mixed with the
fand of their rivers. There are alfo mines of other me¬
tals, and excellent loadftones, found here j and fuch
numbers of wild buffaloes, that a good huntfman on
horfeback, armed with a fpear, may kill 10 or 20 in a
day. The Spaniards take them for their hides, which
they fell to the Chinefe j and their carcafes ferve the
mountaineers for food. I heir woods alfo abound with
deer, wild hogs, and goats. Of the laft, there is fuch
plenty in one of thefe iflands, that the Spaniards gave it
the name of Cabras. Horfes and cows have been like-
wife imported into thefe iflands, from New Spain, China,
and Japan, which have multiplied eonfiderably } but the
Iheep that were brought over came to nothing. The
trees produce a great variety of gums ; one kind, which
is the commonefl, by the Spaniards called brea, is ufed
ihftead of pitch •, of the others fome are medicinal,
others odoriferous.
In thofe iflands are monkeys and baboons of fueh a
fize, as to defend themfelves if attacked by men.
When they can find no fruit in the mountains, they
go down to the fea to catch crabs and oyllers j and
that the oyfters may not clofe and catch their paws,
they firfl put in a itone to prevent their ftmtting
clofe : they take crabs by putting their tail in the
holes where they lie, and when the crab lays hold of
it, they draw him out. There are alfo great numbers
of civet-cats in fome of the iflands. The bird called
tavan, is a black fea-fowl, fomething lefs than a hen,
and has a long neck ; it lays its eggs in the fand by the
fea-fide, 40 or 50 in a trench, and then covers them,
and they are hatched by the. heat of the fun. They
have like wife the bird faligan, which builds her neft on
the fides of rocks. ThisTs a fpecies of fwaUow the nefts
of which are fo much efteemed in the eaft, being a kind Philippifee
of jelly that diffolves in warm water. Mauds
The Spaniards have introduced feveral of the Ame- p,
rican fruits, which thrive here as well as in America ; 1
the cocoa or chocolate-nut particularly, which increa-
fes fo that they have no occafion now to import it from
Mexico. Here is alfo the FOUNTAIN-Tree, from which
the natives draw water ; and there is likewife a kind of
cane, by the Spaniards called vaxuco, which, if cut,
yields fair water enough for a draught, of which there
is plenty in the mountains, where water is moft want¬
ed.
Thefe iflands being hot and moift, produce abundance
of venomous creatures, as the foil does poifonous herbs
and flowers, which do not kill thofe who touch or tafte
them, but fo infedt the air, that many people die in the
time of their bloffeming.
The orange, lemon, and feveral other trees, bear
twice a-year. A fprig, when planted, becomes a tree
and bears fruit in a year’s time j fo that without any
hyperbole it may be affirmed, that a more luxuriant
verdant foil can fcarcely be conceived. The woods are
filled with old, large, and lofty trees, and fuch as yield
more fuftenance to man than is to be found in almoft.
any other part of the world. Thefe iflands, hoAvever,
befides their other inconveniences, of which they have
many, are very fubjedl to earthquakes, which often
prove very fatal. See Manilla. j
Philippines, a religious fociety of young women at
Rome, fo called from their taking St Philip de Neri
for tneir protestor. The fociety confifts of 100 poor
girls, who are brought up till they are of age to be
married, or become nuns, under the diredtion of fome
religious women, who teach them to read, write, and
work, and inftrudl them in the duties of Chriftianity.
They wear a white veil, and a black crofs on their
breafts. See MACEDONIA.
PHILIPPISTS, a fed! or party among the Luthe¬
rans ; the followers of Philip Melandthon. He had
ftrenuoufly oppofed the Ubiquills, w-ho arofe in his
time j and the difpute growing ftill hotter after his
death, the univerfity of Wirtemberg, who efpoufed Me-
landlhon’s opinion, were called by the Flacians, who at¬
tacked it, Philippics.
PHILIPS, Fabian, was author of feveral books re¬
lating to ancient cuftoms and privileges in England.
He was born at Preftbury in Gloucefterffiire, Sep¬
tember 28. 1601. When very young, he fpent fome
time in one of the Inns of Chancery •, and went from
thence to the Middle-Temple, where he became learned
in the law. In the civil wars, he was a bold affertor of
the king’s prerogative j and was fo ftrongly attached to
Charles I. that, two days before that monarch was be¬
headed, he wrote a proteftation againft the intended
murder, and caufed it to be printed, and affixed to polls
in all public places. He likewife publilhed, in 1649,
4to, a pamphlet entitled, “ Veritas Inconcujfa ; or King
Charles I. no Man of Blood, but a Martyr for his
People which was reprinted in 1660, 8vo. In 1663,
when the courts of juftice at Weftminfter, efpecially the
chancery, were voted down by Oliver’s parliament, he
publiffied, “ Confiderations againft the diffolving and
taking them away for which he received the thanks"
of parliament. He was for fome time filazer for Lon¬
don,
P H I
r 277 ]
PHI
Philips, don, Middlefex, Cambridgefldre, and Huntingdonlhire j
^ v andfpent much money in fearching records, and writing
in favour of the royal prerogative. The only advan¬
tage he received for this attachment to the royal caufe
■was, the place of one of the commifhoners for regulat¬
ing the law, worth 200I. per annum, w'hich only lafled,
two years. After the reiteration of Charles II. when
the bill for taking away the tenures was depending in
parliament, he wrote and publilhed a book to Ihow the
neceffity of preferving them, entitled, “ Tenenda non
tollenda; or, the Neceflity of preferving Tenures in ca~
pile, and by Knight’s-fervice, whichr#ccording to their
firlt iniiitution, were, and are yet, a great part of the fa-
hts populiy &c. 1660,” 4to. In 1663 he publilhed,
“ The Antiquity, Legality, Reafon, Duty, and Necef¬
fity of Pre-emption and Pdurveyance for the King,”.
4to *, and afterwards many other pieces upon fubje&s -
of a fimilar kind. He aflifted Dr Bates in his “ Elen-
chus Motuum ; efpecially in fearching the records and
offices for that work. He died, November 17th, 1690,
in his 89th year. He was a man well acquainted with
records and antiquities ; but his manner of writing is
neither clofe nor well digefted. He puhlilhed a politi¬
cal pamphlet in 1681, entitled, “ Urfa Major et Minor}
Ihowing that there is no fuch Fear, as is fa&itioully pre¬
tended, of Popery and arbitrary Power.”
Philips, Ambrofe, an Englilh poet, was defeended
from a very ancient and sonliderable family of that
name in Leicellerffiire, He received his education at
St John’s college, Cambridge j during his flay at which
univerfity, he wrote his pallorals, which acquired him
at that time fo high a reputation. His next perform¬
ance was, The Life of Archbilhop Williams, written,
according to Mr Cibber, to make known his political
principles, which in the courfe of it he had a free op¬
portunity of doing, as the archbilhop, who is the hero
of his work, was a llrong opponent to the high-church
meafures.
When he quitted the univerfity, and came to- Lon¬
don, he became a conllant attendant at, and one of
the wits of, Button’s coffee-houfe, where he obtained
the friendlhip and intimacy of many of the celebrated
geniufes of that age, more particularly of Sir Richard
Steele, who, in the firft volume of his Tatler, has in-
ferted a little poem of Mr Philips’s, which he calls a
Winter Piece, dated from Copenhagen, and addreffed to
’the earl of Dorfet, on which he bellows the higheft en¬
comiums •, and, indeed, fo much juftice is there in thefe
his commendations, that even Mr Pope himfelf, who
had a fixed averfion to the author, while he affefted to
defpife his other works, ufed always to except this from
the number.
The firft dillike Mr Pope conceived againft Mr Phi¬
lips, proceeded from that jealoufy of fame which was
fo confpicuous in the character of that great poet j for
Sir Richard Steele had taken fo ftrong a liking to the
paftorals of the latter, as to have formed a defign for
a critical companion of them with thoffe of Pope, in the
conclufion of which the preference was to have been
given to Philips. This defign, however, coming to Mr
Pope’s knowledge, that gentleman, who could not bear
a rival near the throne, determined to ward off this
ftroke by a rtratagem of the moft artful kind ; which
was no other than taking the fame talk on himfelf*, and,
in a paper in the Guardian, by drawing the like com-
5
parifon, and giving a like preference, but on principles
of criticifm apparently fallacious, to point out the ab-
furdity of fuch a judgment. However, notwithftanding
the ridicule that wras drawn on him in confequence of
his Handing as it were in competition with fo powerful
an antagonift, it is allowed, that there are, in fome parts
of Philips’s paftorals, certain ftrokes of nature, and a
degree of fimplicity, that are much better fuited to the
pqrpofes of paftoral, than the more corre&ly turned pe¬
riods of Mr Pope’s veriification. Mr Philips and Mr
Pope being of different political principles, was another
caufe of enmity between them j which arofe at length
to fo great a height, that the former, finding his antago¬
nift too hard for him at the weapon of wit, had even
determined on making ufe of a rougher kind of argu¬
ment } for which purpofe he even went fo far as to hang
up a rod at Button’s for the chaftifement of his adver-
fary whenever he ftiould come thither j which, however,.
Mr Pope declining to do, avoided the argumentum ba-
cnlinum, in which he would, no doubt, have found him¬
felf on tire weakeit fide of the queftion. Our author
alfo wrote feveral dramatical pieces j Ihe Briton, Di-
ftreffed Mother, and Humphrey Duke of Gloucefter J .
all of which met with fuceefs, and one of them is at
this time a ftandard of entertainment at the theatres, ,
being generally repeated feveral times in every feafon.
Mr Philips’s circumftances were in general, through his
life, not only eafy, but rather affluent, in confequence of
his being connecled, by his political principles, with
perfons of great rank and confequence. He was con¬
cerned with Dr Hugh Boulter, afterwards archbithop
of Armagh, the right honourable Richard Weft, Ffq.
lord chancellor of Ireland, the reverend Mr Gilbert
Burnet, and the reverend Mr Henry Stevens, in writing
a feries of papers called the Free 1 /tinkery which were
all publilhed together by Mr Philips, in three volumes
in i2mo.
In the latter part of £)ueen Anne’s reign, he was
fecretary to the Hanover club, who were a fet of noble¬
men and gentlemen who had formed an. affociation in
honour of that fucceffion, and for the.fupport of its in-
terefts, and. who ufed particularly to diftinguilh in their
toafts fuch of the fair fex as were moft zealoutly attach¬
ed to the illuftrious Houfe of Brunfuic. Mr Philips’s
ftation in this club, together with the zeal fnewn in his
writings, recommended him to the notice and favour of
the new government. ■ He-was, foon after the accelhon
of King George I. put into the conimiftion of the peace,
and appointed one of the commiffioners of the lottery.
And, on his friend Dr Boulter’s being made primate of
Ireland, he accompanied that prelate acrols St George’s
Channel, where he got confiderable preferments bellow¬
ed on him, and was eledled a member of the Houfe of
Commons there, as reprefentative for the county of Ar¬
magh. At length, having purchafed an annuity for
life of 400I. per annum, he came, over to England
fome time in the year 1748 ; but having a very bad
ftate of health, and being moreover of an advanced
age, he died foon after, at his lodgings near Vauxhall,
in Surrey.
“ Of his perfonal chara&er (fays Dr Johnfon) all I
have heard is, that he was eminent for bravery, and Ikill
in the fword, and that in converfation he was folemn
and pompous.” He is fomewhere called Quaker Phi¬
lips, but, however, appears to have been a man of inte¬
grity >
Philips.
PHI [ 278 ] PHI
grity; for the late Paul Whitehead relates, that when
Mr Addifon was fecretary of date, Philips applied to
him for fome preferment, but was coolly anfvvered,
“ that it was thought that he was already provided for,
by being made a juilice for Weftminfter.” To this ob-
fervation our author, with fome indignation, replied,
“ Though poetry was a trade he could not live by, yet
he fcorned to owe fubfiftence to another which he ought
not to live by.”
1 he following anecdote is told of our author by Dr
Johnfon: “At a coffee-houfe, he (Philips) was dilcour-
hng upon pi&ures, and pitying the painters, who, in
their hiliorical pieces, always draw the fame fort of
fty'' “ I hey Ihould travel (faid he), and then they
would fee that there is a different Jh/ in every country,
in England, France, Italy, and fo forth.” “ Your re¬
mark is juft (faid a grave gentleman who fat by), I
have been a traveller, and can teftify what you obferve
is true; but the greateft variety ofJkies that I found
was in Poland.” “ In Poland, Sir? (fays Philips).”
“ Yes, in Poland; for there is Scbie/£y, and Sabrun-
and JabloryXy, and Podebra/£y, and many more
Jkies y
Philips, Catharine, a very ingenious lady, the daugh¬
ter of Mr John Fowler merchant, was born at London
in January 1631, and educated at a fchool at Hackney.
She married James Philips of the priory of Cardigan,
.Efq. and w'ent with the viicountefs of Dungannon into
Ireland, where Ihe tranflated Corneille’s tragedy of Pom-
pey into Englilh, which was feveral times a<ffed there
with great anplaufe.
She Iran dated alfo the four firft a<ffs of Horace, ano¬
ther tragedy of Corneille, the fifth being done by Sir
John Denham. This excellent and amiable lady, for
fuch it feems die was, died of the fmall pox in London
the 2 2d of June 1664, much and juftly regretted; “ha¬
ving not left (fays Langbaine) any of her fex her equal
in poetry.— She not only equalled (adds he) all that is
reported of the poeteffes of antiquity, the Lefbian
Sappho and the Roman Sulpitia, but juftly found her
admirers among the greateft poets of our age.” Cow¬
ley wrote an ode upon her death. Dr Jeremy Taylor
had addreffed to her his “ Meafures and Offices of
hriendffiip the fecond edition of which was printed
in 1657, 12mo- She affumed the name of Orinda. In
1667, were printed, in folio, “ Poems by the moft de-
fervedly admired Mrs Catharine Philips, the matchlefs
Orinda. To which is added, Monfieur Corneille’s Pom-
pey and Horace, tragedies. With feveral other tranfla-
tions from the French;” and her pidlure before them,
engraven by Faithorne. There was likewife another
edition in 1678, folio; in the preface of which we are
told, that “ Ihe wrote her familiar letters with great fa¬
cility, in a very fair hand, and perfedf orthography; and
if they w'ere eollefled with thofe excellent difcourfes
ihe w rote on feveral fubjedls, they would make a volume
much larger than that of her poems.” In 1705, a
fmall volume of her letters to Sir Charles Cottrel was
printed, under the title of “ Letters from Orinda to Po-
liarchus.” 1 he editor of thefe letters tells us, that
“ they were the effedf of an happy intimacy between
herfelf and the late famous Poliarchus, and are an
admirable pattern for the pleafing correfpondence of a
virtuous friendihip. They will fufficiently inftruft us,
how an intercourfe of writing between perfons of
different fexes ought to be managed with delight and Phil
innocence; and teach the world not to load fuch a
commerce with cenfure and detraction, when it is re¬
moved at fuch a diffance from even the appearance of
guilt,”
Philips, John, an eminent Englifti poet, was born in
1676. He was educated at Wincheiter and Oxford,
where he became acquainted with Milton, whom he ftu-
died with great application, and traced in all his fuccefs-
ful trahllations from the ancients. The firft poem which
diftinguiftied our author, was his Splendid Shilling,
which is in the Taller ftyled the “fineit burlefque poem
in the Englilh language.” His next was entitled Blen¬
heim, which he wrote at the requeft of the earl of Ox¬
ford,, and Mr Henry St John, afterwards Lord Boling-
broke, on the vidtory obtained there by the duke of
Marlborough in 1704. It was publiffied in 1705; and
the year after he finilhed another poem upon cyder, the
firft book of which had been written at Oxford. It is
on the model of Virgil’s Georgies, and is a very excel¬
lent piece. We have no more of Mr Philips but a
Latin ode to Henry St John, Efq. which is efteemed a
mafterpiece. He was contriving greater things; but
illnefs coming on, he was obliged to drop every thing
but the care of his health. Ihis care, however, did not
favehim: for, after lingering a long time, he died at
Hereford, Feb. 15. 1708, of a confumption and afthma,
before he had reached his 33d year. He was interred
in the cathedral of that city, with an infcription over
his grave; and had a monument eredted to his memory
in Weftminfter-abbey by Sir Simon Harcourt, after¬
wards lord-chancellor, with an epitaph upon it written
by Dr Atterbury, though commonly afcribed to Dr
Freind. He was one of thofe few poets whofe mufe
and manners were equally excellent and amiable ; and
both were fo in a very eminent degree.
Dr Johnfon obferves, that “ Philips has been always
praifed, without contradiftion, as a man modeft, blame-
lefs, and pious; who bore a narrow fortune without dif-
content, and tedious and painful maladies without im¬
patience ; beloved by thofe that knew him, but not am¬
bitious to be known. Fie was probably not formed for
a wide circle. His converfation is commended for its
innocent gaiety, which feems to have flowed only among
his intimates; for I have been told, that he was in com¬
pany filent and. barren, and employed only upon the
pleafures of his pipe. His addition to tobacco is men¬
tioned by one of his biographers, who remarks, that in
all his writings except Blenheim he has found an oppor¬
tunity of celebrating the fragrant fume. In common
life, he was probably one of thofe who pleafe by not of¬
fending, and whofe perfon was loved, becaufe his wri¬
tings were admired. Fie died honoured and lamented
before any jiart of his reputation had withered, and be¬
fore his patron St John had difgraced him. His works
are few. 1 he Splendid Shilling has the uncommon
merit of an original defign, unlefs it may be thought
precluded by the ancient Centos. To degrade the found¬
ing works and (lately confirudtion of Milton, by an ap¬
plication to the loweft and moft trivial things, gratifies
the mind with a momentary triumph over that grandeur
which hitherto held its captives in admiration ; the
words and things are prefented with a new appearance,
and novelty is always grateful where it gives no pain.
But the merit of fuch performances begins and ends
with
PHI [ 279 ] P H I
Philips, with the firft author. He that fhould again adapt Mil-
Philipiburg. ton’s phrafe to the grofs incidents of cominon life, and
even adapt it with more art, which would not be diffi¬
cult, mud yet expefl but a fmall part of the praife
which Philips has obtained : he can only hope to be
confidered as the repeater of a jeft.
“There is a Latin ode written to his patron St
John, in return for a prefer.t of wine and tobacco,
which cannot be paffed without notice. It is gay and
elegant, and exhibits feveral artful accommodations of
claffic expreffions to new purpofes. It feems better
turned than the odes of Hannes. "To the poem on
cyder, written in imitation of the Georgies, may be
given this peculiar praife, that it is grounded in truth ■,
that the precepts which it contains are exa<5l: and juft ;
and that it is therefore at once a book of entertainment
and of fcience. This I was told by Miller, the great
gardener and botanift, whofe expreffion was, that ‘ there
were many books written on the fame fubjefi; in profe,
which do not contain fo much truth as that poem.’ In
the difpofition of his matter, fo as to interfperfe pre¬
cept, relating to the culture of trees, with fentiments
more generally pleaimg, and in eafy and graceful tranfi-
tions from one fubjeft to another, he has very diligent¬
ly imitated his matler ; but he unhappily pleafed bim-
felf with blank verfe, and fuppofed that the numbers of
Milton, which imprefs the mind with veneration, com¬
bined as they are with fubjefls of inconceivable gran¬
deur, could be fuftained by images which at molt can
rife only to elegance. Contending angels may (hake
the regions of heaven in blank verfe ; but the How of
equal meafures, and the embellifhment of rhirae, muft
recommend to our attention the art of engrafting, and
decide the merit of the redftreak and pearmain. What
ftudy could confer, Philips had obtained ; but natural
deficiency cannot be fupplied. Pie feems not born to
greatnefs and elevation. He is never lofty, nor does he
often lurprife with unexpefted excellence : but perhaps
to his laft poem may be applied what Tully laid of the
work of Lucretius, that ‘ it is written with much art,
though with few blazes of genius.”
It deferves to be remarked, that there were two poets
of both the names of our author, and who fiourifhed in
his time. One of them was Milton’s nephew, and
wrote feveral things, particularly fome memoirs of his
uncle, and part of Virgil Traveftted. The other was
the author of two political farces, which were both
printed in 1716 *, 1. The Earl of Marr married, with
the Humours of Jocky the Highlander. 2. The Pre¬
tender’s Flight j or a Mock Coronation, with the Hu¬
mours of the facetious Harry St John.
PHILIPSBURG, is an imperial'town of Germany,
in the circle of the Upper Rhine. It is very ftrong,
and looked upon as one of the bulwarks of the empire.
It is feated in a morafs, and fortified with feven baftionsj
and feveral advanced works. The town belongs to the
biffiop of Spire, but all the works and the fortifications
to the empire. It has been leveral times taken and re¬
taken, particularly by the PYench in 1734, when the
duke of Berwick was killed at the liege ; but it was
rendered back the year following, in confequence of the
treaty of Vienna. It is feated on the river Rhine, over
which there is a bridge, feven miles fouth of Spire, 22
fouth-eaft of Worms, and 40 north icaft; of Strafburg.
E, Long. 8. 33. N, LaL 49. 12.
PHILIST/EA, in Ancient Geography, the country rhilUlaen,
of the Phililtines (Bible) ; which lay along the Medi-
terrancan, from Joppa to the boundary of Egypt, and ' ^ ‘
extending to inland places not far from the coalt. Pa~
Lrjlini, the people ; Pa/a/lina, the country (Jofephus) :
Afterwards applied to the whole of the Ploly Land and
its inhabitants. Phiijicci, the people (Septuagint) \
Philijlini (Vulgate) 5 the Caphlorwn and PhilijUm, ori¬
ginally from Egypt, and defeendants of Cham (Mofes).
Expedit'd and deftroyed the Hivites the ancient inhabi¬
tants, and occupied their country •, that is, the region
which retained the name of Phili/Hm, in which that of
Caphtorim was fwallowed up.
PHILISTINES, were the ancient inhabitants of
Palelline, well known in facred hiftory. Thefe people
are fometimes called in Scripture Cherethites and Caph-
torims. The earlier part of their hiftory is, like that of
molt other nations, very obfeure and uncertain. The
authors of the Univerfal Hiftory toll us, that they were
defeended from the Calluhim partly, and partly from
the Caphtorim, both from the loins of Mizraim the fon
of Ham, the fon of Noah. Mofes tells us (Deut. xi.
23.), that they drove out the Avim or Avites even to
Azzah or Gazah, where they fettled , but when this
happened cannot be determined. On the whole, how¬
ever, our learned authors are clearly of opinion, that the
Caduhim and Caphtorim, from whom the Philiftines are
defeended, came originally from Egypt, and called the
country which they had conquered by their own name
(See Palestine). Many interpreters, however, think,
that Caphtor was but another name for Cappadocia,
which they imagine to have been the original country
of the Philiftines. But Father Calmet, in a particular
differtation prefixed to the firft book of Samuel, en¬
deavours to ffiow that they were originally of the
ifle of Crete. The reafons which led him to think
that Caphtor is the ifle of Crete are as follow : The
Philiftines were Itrangers in Paleftine, Ss appears in
various parts of Scripture ; fuch as Gen. x. 14.
Deut. ii. 23. Jer. xlvii. 4. and Amos ix. 7. whence
the Septuagint always tranflate this name Strangers.
Their proper name was Cherethims, for Ezekiel
(xxv. 16.), fpeaking againft the Philiftines, has thefe.
words, “ I will ftretch out mine hand upon the Phi¬
liftines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and de-
ftroy the remnant of the fea coaft.” Zephaniah (ii.v.),
inveighing againft the fame people, fays, “ Woe unto
the inhabitants of the fea-coafts; the nation of the Che¬
rethites.” And Samuel (Book I. xxx. 14.) fays, that
th6 Amalekites made an irruption into the country of
the Cherethites, that is to fay, of the Philiilines, as the
fequel of the difeourfe proves. Arid afterwards the
kings of Judah had foreign guards called the Cherethites
and Pelethites, who were of the number of the Phili¬
ftines (2 Sam. xv. 18.). The Septuagint, under the
name Cherethites, underftood the Cretans ; and by Che-
rith they underftood Crete. Befides the Scripture fays,
that the Philiftines came from the ifle of Caphtqr.
Now we fee no ifland in the Mediterranean wherein
the marks whereby the Scripture deferibes Caphtor and
Cherethim agree better than in the ifle of Crete. The
name Cretim or Cherelhim is the fame with that of Cre-
tenfes. The Cretans are one of the moft ancient and
celebrated people which inhabited the iflands of the
Mediterranean. They pretended to have, been pro¬
duced i
?P HI [
•Philiflities.“duced originally out of their own foil. This ifland was
1 ‘ well peopled in the time of the Trojan war. Homer
calls it the ifland with a hundred cities. The city of
Gaza in Paleftine went by the name of Minoa (Step/i.
Bijxant. in Gu<za), becaufe Minos king of Crete coming
into that country, called this ancient city by his own
name.
Herodotus acknowledges that the Cretans were origi¬
nally all barbarians, and did not come from Greece.
Homer fays, that a different language was fpoken in
the ifle of Crete; that there were Greeks there, true
or ancient Cretans, Pelafgians, &c. The ancient Cre¬
tans are the fame as the Cherethites, the Pelafgians as
the Philiftines or Pelethites of the Scripture : their
language was the fame with that of the Canaanites or
Phoenicians, that is, Hebrew : they were defcended, as
well as Canaan, from Ham, by Mizraim (Gen.x. 6, 13,
14.). The manners, arms, religion, and gods of the
Cretans and Philiftines were the fame. The arms of the
one and the other were bows and arrows. Dagon the
god of the Philiftines was the fame as the Bidlynna of
> the Cretans.
Whether thisfe arguments are convincing, it is not for
us to determine ; but Wells does not think they are, as
he is of the fame opinion with the authors of the Uni-
verfal Pliftory, who fay, that Coptus, the name of an old
city of Egypt, is a corruption of the ancient Caphtor.
It is not, however, of great importance to determine
whether they came from Crete, from Cappadocia, or
from Egypt : they had certainly been a confiderable
time in the land of Canaan, when Abraham arrived
there in the year of the world 2083. They were then
a very powerful people, were governed by kings, and
in poffeflion of feveral confiderable cities. The race of
king* then in power were honoured with the title of
Abimelech. This race, however, was but of ftiort du¬
ration ; for their monarchy became an ariftocracy of five
lords, who were, as far as we can difcover, partly inde¬
pendent of each other, though they a&ed in concert for
the common caufe. This form of government was again
fucceeded by another race of kings, diftinguiftied by the
title of Aclnfh, though they alfo bore that of Abimelech.
The kings were always under great limitations. The
Philiftines appear to have been a very warlike people,
induftrious, and lovers of freedom ; they did not circum-
cife, and in the early periods of their hiftory held adul¬
tery in the greateft abhorrence. “ Their chara&er (fay
the authors of the Univerfal Hiftory) muft be confider-
ed at different periods ; for we may fay they were not
always the fame people. In the days of Abraham and
Ifaac, they were without all doubt a righteous and hof-
pitable nation : but afterwards a revolution in govern¬
ment, religion, and morals, may have enfued. From
thenceforward they became like other idolatrous nations;
the fame enormities crept in and prevailed among them.
Anc. part,
vol. i. p.
408, &c.
280 ] P H I
They are conftantly mentioned in Scripture as ftrangers;
and, though poffeffed of a very confiderable part of the '“■“"Y'—■s*
Land of Promife, yet God would never fuffer them to
be driven out, they being Egyptians by defcent, and not
original natives, whofe land only was promifed to Abra¬
ham and his feed. Their arrogance and ambition Were
great ; and fo irreconcileable was their enmity (a) to
the Ifraelites, that one -would be almoft tempted to
think they were created on purpofe to be a thorn ih
their fides ; for though the hand of God was evidently
againft them feveral times, and particularly when they
detained the ark, yet they hardened their hearts, and
clofed their eyes againft conviction. They feem to have
entertained a very fond veneration for their deities, in
which they perfifted, though theywere-eye witneffes of
the Ihame and ignominy which befel them in the pre¬
fence of the captive ark ; nay, they were fo biaffed in
their favour, as to imagine that their gods might prevail
againft Him who had in fo glaring a manner put them
to ftiame and difgrace.' They were much engaged iu
-trade-.; which, confidering their lituation, they may have
exercifed from the beginning ; but, by the acceflion of
the fugitive Edomites in David’s time, they rofe to fo
great a reputation as merchants, that the Greeks, it
feems, preferred them to all other nations in that refped:,
and from them called all the country bordering on theirs
Palejline. Their language was not fo different from
that fpoken by the Hebrews as to caufe any difficulty
for them to converfe together, as will be perceived by
their intercourfe with Abraham and Ifaac ; fo that, in
all this region, the feveral nations fpoke one and the
fame tongue, perhaps with fome variation of dialed.
They had doubtlefs the arts and fciences in common
with the moft learned and ingenious among their con¬
temporaries, and perhaps fome of them in greater per¬
fection. They had giants among them ; but whether
they were originally of the breed of the Anakims, who
retired hither when they were expelled from Hebron, or
wrere fprung from accidental births, is not eafily deter¬
mined. We muft not forget, that the invention of the
bow and arrow is afcribed to this people.
Their religion was different at different times ; un¬
der their firft race of kings, they ufed the fame rites with
the Hebrews. Abimelech, in the fin he had like to
have committed with Sarah, through Abraham’s timi¬
dity, was favoured with a divine admonition from God j
and, by his fpeech and behaviour at that time, it feems
as if he had been ufed to converfe with the Deity. In
after-times, they fell into endlefs fuperftitions, and dif¬
ferent kinds of idolatry ; each of the principal or five ci¬
ties feemed to have an idol of its own. Marna, Manias,
or Marnafh, was worfhipped at Gaza, and is faid to
have migrated into Crete, and to have become the Cre¬
tan Jupiter. Dagon was worffiipped at Azotus; he
feems to have been the greateft, the moft ancient, and '
moft
(a) “ From a paffage in Chronicles, it is gueffed to have been of very ancient date ; where it is faid, that ‘ the
men of Gath flew the children of Ephraim, who would have taken their cattle from them.’ This incident is no¬
where elfe to be found ; and there are various notions concerning the fenfe in which we muft take this paffage.
As to the time of the tranfaftion, moft people allow it to have been while the children of Ifrael were fojourners in
Egypt. It plainly appears, by the next verfe, that Ephraim himfelf was livingf at that period. The Targumfup-
pofes his children mifcomputed the time they were to ferve in Egypt, and began too early an attempt upon their
Promifed Land.”
PHI
Philiftines. mod favourite god they had •, to which may be added,
that he perhaps fubfifted the longed of any that did not
ftraggle out of the country. To him they afcribed the
invention of bread-corn, or of agriculture, as his name
imports. We cannot enter into the common notion of
his being reprefented as a monller, half man half filh ;
nor consequently into another, almoft as common, that
he is the fame with the Syrian goddefs Derceto, who,
we are told, was reprefented under fome fuch mixed
form. Our opinion is, that this idol was in fliape whol¬
ly like a man •, for we read of his head, his hands, and
his feet. He flood in a temple at Azotus, and had
priefts of his own who paid him a very conftant attend¬
ance. Next to Dagon was Baalzebub the god of Ek-
ron. In the text of the New Teftament he is called
Bee/zebub, and, the prince of devils. His name is ren¬
dered lord of flies ; which by fome is held to be a mock
appellation beftowed on him by the Jews ; but others
think him fo ftyled by his worfhippers, as Hercules
Apomyios and others were, from his driving thofe in¬
fers away •, and urge, that Ahaziah, in his ficknefs,
would fcarcely have applied to him, if his name had
carried in it any reproach. But it muft be remembered,
it is the facred hiftorian that makes ufe of that contemp¬
tuous term in derilion ; wdiereas the idolatrous monarch,
who was one of his votaries, might call him by his com¬
mon name, fuppofed to have been Bnal-'zebaoth, ‘ the
lord of armies,’ or Baal-fhamim, ‘ lord of heaven,’ or
fome other bordering on Baal-zebub. How, or under
what form he was reprefented is uncertain : fome place
him on a throne, and attire him like a king ; others
paint him as a fly. Not to dwell on this obfcurity, it
appears that he became an oracle of the higheft repute
for omnifcience and veracity ; that he had priefts of his
own-, and that he, in the middle times at leaft, was
much fought after by thofe who w7ere anxious about fu¬
turity. Derceto we take certainly to have been the
goddefs of Afcalon but we are fupported by profane
authority, without the leaft countenance from Scripture.
Gath is feemingly the only city of all the five unprovid¬
ed with a deity ; wherefore, as the Scripture declares,
that Athtaroth, or Aftarte, was worlhipped by this peo¬
ple, w'e are ready to place her at Gath, and the rather,
as this of all their cities may have had moft communica¬
tion with Sidon. To fpeak in general concerning their
religious rites and ceremonies, which is all we can do,
they feem to have erefted very large and fpacious tem¬
ples, or very wide halls, for the celebration of their fo-
lemn feafons and feftivals (for fuch they furely had) j
their religious offices were attended with much pomp,
and a great concourfe from all parts -, and they prefent-
ed their gods with the chief part of their fpoil, and car¬
ried them about with them when they went to war. We
do not find in Scripture that they facrificed their chil¬
dren -, and yet the Curetes (b) are faid to be their de-
fcendants.”
With refpefl to the hiftory of this extraordinary peo¬
ple, we find from the above extraift, that they were not
VOL. XVI. Part I.
PHI
comprehended in the number of nations devoted to ex- Phihltifies
termination, and whofe territory the Lord had abandon- p,^
ed to the Hebrews ; nor were they of the curfed feed of < ^ .
Canaan. How-ever, Joftnia did not forbear to give their
lands to the Hebrews, and to fet upon them by com¬
mand from the Lord, becaufe they pofleffed a country
which was promifed to the people of God (Jofti. xv. 45.
—-47. and xiii. 2, 3.). But thefe conquefts of Jolhua
mult have been ill maintained, fince under the Judges,
under Saul, and at the beginning of the reign of David,
the Phililtines oppreffed the Ifraelites. True it is,
Shamgar, Samfon, Samuel, and Saul, made head again!!
them, but did not reduce their power -, and they conti¬
nued independent down to the reign of David, who
fubje&ed them to his government.
They continued in fubjeftion to the kings of Judah
down to the reign of Jehoram, fon of Jehofhaphat -, that
is, for about 246 years. However, Jehoram made war
again!! them, and probably reduced them to his obedi¬
ence again ; becaufe it is obferved in Scripture, that they
revolted again from Uzziah 5 and that this prince kept
them to their duty during the time of his reign (2 Chron.
xxi. 16. and xxvi. 6, 7.). During the unfortunate reign
of Ahaz, the Philiftines made great havock in the terri¬
tories of Judah ; but his fon and fucceffor Hezekiah fub- *
dued them (2 Chron. xxviii. 18. and 2 Kings xviii. 8.)i.
Laftly, they regained their full liberty under the latter
kings of Judah -, and we may fee by the menaces de¬
nounced again!! them by the prophets Ifaiah, Amos,
Zephaniah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, that they brought
a thoufand hardfhips and calamities upon the children of
Ifrael : for which cruelties God threatened to punifh
them. Efarhaddon befieged Afhdod or Azoth, and
took it (Ifa. xx. I.). And according to Herodotus,
Pfammeticus king of Egypt took the fame city, after a
fiege of 29 years. There is great probability, that Ne¬
buchadnezzar, when he fubdued the Ammonites, Moab¬
ites, Egyptians, and other nations bordering upon the
Jews, reduced alfo the Philiftines. After this, they fell
under the dominion of the Perfians ; then under that of
Alexander the Great, who deftroyed the city of Gaza,
the only city of Phoenicia that durft oppofe him. After
the perfecution of Antiochus Epiphanus, the Afmonaa-
ans fubje&ed under their obedience feveral cities of the
Philiftines ; and Tryphon gave to Jonathan Maccabaeus
the government of the whole coaft of the Mediterranean,
from Ty re as far as Egypt, which included all the
country of the Philiftines.
PHILLYREA, Mock privet ; a genus of plants
belonging to the diandria clals. See Botany Index.
PHILO, an ancient Greek writer, was of a noble
family among the Jews, and flourifhed at Alexandria dur¬
ing the reign of Caligula. He was the chief of an em-
bafly fent to Rome about the year 42, to plead the caufe
of the Jews again!! Apion, who was fent by the Alexan¬
drians to charge them with neglefting the honours due
to Caefar. Caligula, however, would not allow him to
fpeak, and behaved to him in fueh a manner that Philo
N n was
[ 281 1
(b) “ The Curetes facrificed their children to Saturn ; and from the fimilitude this name bears to Cherethites
or Philiftines, it has been advanced that they are the fame people ; but as we have no warrant for faying the Phi¬
liftines pradtifed fo barbarous and unnatural a cuftom, we may venture to pronounce, that they learned it not from
them, but borrowed it elfewhere.”
PHI [ 282 ] PHI
Philo. was in confiderable danger of loling his life. Others
again tell us that he was heard j but that his demands
were refufed. He afterwards went to Rome in the reign
of Claudius ; and there, Eufebius and Jerome inform
us, he became acquainted with St Peter, with whom he
was on terms of friendlhip. Photius adds, that he be¬
came a Chrillian, and afterwards, from ibme motive of
refentment, renounced it. Great part of this, however,
is uncertain, for few believe that St Peter was at Rome
fo early as the reign of Claudius, if he ever was there
at all.
Philo was educated at Alexandria, and made very
great progrefs in eloquence and pbilofophy. After the
falhion of the time, he cultivated, like many of his na¬
tion and faith, the philofophy of Plato, whole principles
he fo thoroughly imbibed, and whofe manner he fo well
imitated, that it became a common faying, “ Aut Plato
philonizat, aut Philo platonizat.” Jofephus fays, he
was a man “ eminent on ail accounts and Eufebius
defcribes him, “ copious in fpeech, rich in fentiments,
and fublime in the knowledge of holy writ.” He was,
however, fo much immerfed in philofophy, particularly
the Platonic, that he negledfed the Hebrew language,
and the rites and cuftoms of his own people. Scaliger
* fays, that Philo “ knew no more of Hebrew and Syriac
than a Gaul or a Scythian.” Grotius is of opinion,
that “ he is not fully to be depended on, in what relates
to the manners of the Hebrews:” and Cud worth goes
further ; for “ though a Jew by nation (fays he), he was
yet very ignorant of Jewilh cuftoms.” Fabricius thinks
differently ", for though he allows fome inadvertencies
and errors of Philo with regard to thefe matters, yet he
does not fee a fufficient foundation on which to charge
fo illuftrious a doftor of the law with ignorance. He
allows, however, that Philo’s paflion for philofophy had
made him more than half a Pagan j for it led him to in¬
terpret the whole law and the prophets upon Platonic
ideas j and to admit nothing as truly interpreted which
was not agreeable to the principles of the academy. Be-
iides, this led him farther •, he turned eyery thing into
allegory, and deduced the darkeft meanings from the
plaineft words. This moft pernicious pradlice Origen,
it is known, imitated, and expofed himfelf by it to the
feoffs of Celfus and of Porphyry. Philo’s writings
abound with high and myftical, new and fubtile, far¬
fetched and abftradled, notions ; and indeed the doc¬
trines of Plato and Mofes are fo promifeuoufty blended,
that it is not an eafy matter to aftign to each his princi¬
ples. There are certainly, however, in his works many
excellent things. Though he is continually Platoniling
and allegorifing the Scriptures, he abounds with fine
fentiments and leffons of morality j and his morals are
rather the morals of a Chriftian than of a Jew. Hifto-
ry, together with his own writings, give us every reafon
to believe that he was a man of great prudence, con-
ftancy, and virtue.
His works were firft: publifhed in Greek by Turnebus
at Paris 1552. A Latin tranflation made by Gelenius
was afterwards added, and printed feveral times with it.
The Paris edition of 1640 in folio was the belt for a
whole century j which made Cotelerius fay, that “ Phi- Philocles
lo was an author that deferved to have a better text and II
a better verfion.” In 1742, a handfome edition of his , ^'!ulauSl|
work was publiihed at London by Dr Mangey in two
volumes folio j which is certainly preferable if it were
only for the paper and print, but it is not fo good a one
as Philo deferves.
Many of our readers may be defirous of further details
refpefting this celebrated man 5 we refer fuch therefore
to Jofephus’s Antiquities, Eufebius’s Ecclefiaftieal Hi-
ftory, St Jerome’s work De Scriptoribus EccleJlaJHcis,
Fabricius Bibl. Grcec. Cave Hiji. Liter, and vol. ii. of
Monuments of the Greek Church.
PHILOCLES, an admiral of the Athenian fleet du¬
ring the Peloponnefian war. He recommended to his
countrymen to cut off the right hand of fuch of the ene¬
mies as were taken, that they might be rendered unfit
for fervice. His plan was adopted by all the ten admi¬
rals except one 5 but their expectations were fruftrated,
and inftead of being conquerors they were totally de¬
feated at fEgofpotamos by Lyfander, and Philocles was
put to death with the reft of his colleagues.
PHILOCTETES, in fabulous hiftory, the fon of
Paean, was the faithful companion of Hercules j who at
his death obliged him to fvvear not to difeover the place
where his afhes were interred, and prefented him with
his arrows dipped in the Hydra’s blood. The Greeks
at the fiege of Troy being informed by an oracle that
they could never take that city without thofe fatal ar¬
rows, went to PhiloCletes, and infifted upon his difeo-
vering where he had left his friend ; when PhiloCletes,
to evade the guilt of perjury, let them know where Her¬
cules W’as intombed, by ftamping upon the place : but
he was punifhed for the violation of his oath, by drop¬
ping an arrow upon that foot ; which, after giving him
great agony, was at length cured by Machaon. He was
afterwards taken by Ulyffes to the ftege of Troy, where
he killed Paris w ith one of his arrow's.
PHILOLAUS, of Crotona, was a celebrated philo-
fopher of antiquity, of the Ichool of Pythagoras, to whom
that philofopher’s Golden Verfes have been aferibed. He
made the heavens his principal objedt of contemplation $
and has been idly (a) fuppofed to have been the author
of that true fyftem of the world which Copernicus after¬
wards revived. This made Bullialdus place the name
of Philolaus at the head of two works, written to illuf-
trate and confirm that fyftem.
“ He was (fays Dr Enfield) a difciple of Archytas, nf
and flouriftied in the time of Plato. It was from him Philo/oph
that Plato purchafed the written records of the Pytha¬
gorean fyftem, contrary to an exprefs oath taken by the
fociety of Pythagoreans, pledging themfelves to keep
fecret the myfteries of their fed. It is probable, that
among thefe books were the writings of Timseus, upon
which Plato formed the dialogue that bore his name.
Plutarch relates, that Philolaus was one of the perfons
who efcaped from the houfe which was burned by Cy-
lon, during the life of Pythagoras 5 but this account
cannot be corred. Philolaus was contemporary with
Plato, and therefore certainly not with Pythagoras. In¬
terfering
(a) We fay idly, becaufe there is undoubted evidence that Pythagoras learned that lyitem in Egypt. See PHI¬
LOSOPHY.
PHI F 283 ] PHI
Philolaus. terfering in affairs of ftate, he fell a facrifice to political
k—jealoufy.
“ Philolaus treated the do&rine of nature with great
fubtlety, but at the fame time with great bbfcurity ; re¬
ferring every thing that exifts to mathematical principles.
He taught, that reafon, improved by mathematical
learning, is alone capable of judging concerning the na¬
ture of things ; that the whole world confifts of infinite
and finite *, that number fubfifts by itfelf, and is the
chain which by its power fuflains the eternal frame of
things •, that the Monad is not the foie principle of all
things, but that the Binary is neceffary to furnifii mate¬
rials from which all fubfequent numbers may be produ¬
ced ; that the world is one whole, which has a fiery
centre, about which the ten celeftial fpheres revolve, PliiLlaa?.
heaven, the fun, the planets, the earth, and the moon ; —y~~
that the fun has a vitreous furface, whence the fire dif-
fufed through the world is reflected, rendering the mir¬
ror from which it is reflected vilible ; that all things are
preferved in harmony by the law of neceffity ; and that
the world is liable to deftruftion both by fire and by
water. From this fummary of the dodtrine of Philo¬
laus it appears probable, that, following Timaeus, whofe
writings he potfeffed, he fo far departed from the Pytha¬
gorean fyftem as to conceive two independent principles
in nature, God and Matter, and that it was from the
fame fource that Plato derived his dodtrine upon this
fubjedt.”
PHILOLOGY.
Definition. T)HILOLOGY is compounded of the two Greek
A words and and imports “ the defire of
inveftigating the properties and affedtions of words.
The fages of Greece were, in the moft ancient times,
denominated that is, wife men. Pythagoras re¬
nounced this pompous appellation, and affumed the more
humble title of (pthorocpos, that is, a lover of wife men.
The learned Greeks were afterwards called philofo-
phers ; and in procefs of time, in imitation of this epi¬
thet, the word philologer was adopted, to import “ a
man deeply verfed in languages, etymology, antiquities,
&c.” Hence the term philology, which denotes the
fcience that we propofe briefly to difcufs in the follow¬
ing article.
Though philology, In its original import, denoted on¬
ly the ftudy of words and language, it gradually acqui-
a red a much more extenfive, and at the fame time a much
Objects and more ufeful, as well as more exalted, fignification. It
ufo of phi- comprehended the ftudy of grammar, criticifm, etymo-
00^‘ logy, the interpretation of ancient authors, antiquities 5
and, in a word, every thing relating to ancient manners,
laws, religion, government, language, &c. In this en¬
larged fenfe of the word, philology becomes a fcience of
the greateft utility \ opens a wide field of intellectual in-
veftigation } and indeed calls for a more intenfe exertion
of induftry, and multifarious erudition, than moft of
thofe departments of literature which cuftom hath digni¬
fied with more high-founding name3. It is indeed appa¬
rent, that, without the aid of philological ftudies, it is
impoftible, upon many occafions, to develope the origin
of nations ; to trace their primary frame and conftitu-
tion *, to difcover their manners, cuftoms, laws, religion,
government, language, progrefs in arts and arms j or to
learn by what men and what meafures the moft celebra¬
ted ftates of antiquity rofe into grandeur and confidera-
tion. The ftudy of hiftory, fo eminently ufeful to the
legiftator, the divine, the military man, the lawyer, the
philofopher, and the private gentleman who wifhes to
employ his learned leifure in a manner honourable and
improving to himfelf, and ufeful to his country, will
contribute very little towards enlightening the mind
without the aid of philological refearches. For thefe
reafons we (hall endeavour to explain the various
branches of that ufeful fcience as fully and as intelli¬
gibly as the nature of the prefent undertaking will per¬
mit. s
Moft of the branches of philology have been already Objedt of
canvaffed under the various heads of Criticism, Ety-^11* artlc e"
mology, Grammar, Language, &c. There ftill
remains one part, which has been either llightly touched
upon, or totally omitted, under the foregoing topics:
we mean, the nature and complexion of moft of the ori¬
ental tongues 5 as alfo fome of the radical dialeCls of the
languages of the weft. As we would willingly gratify
our readers of every defeription to the utmoft of our
power, we ftiall endeavour in this place to communicate
to them as much information upon that fubjeCt as the
extent of our reading, and the limits preferibed one
Angle article, will permit.
Before we enter upon this fubjeCt, we mull obferve,
that it is not our intention to fill our pages with a te¬
dious, unintereiling, catalogue of barbarous languages,
fpoken by favage and inconfiderable tribes, of which lit¬
tle, or perhaps nothing, more is known than barely
their names. Such an enumeration would fwell the ar¬
ticle without communicating one Angle new idea to the
reader’s antecedent ftock. We lhall therefore confine
our inquiries to fuch languages as have been ufed by
confiderable ftates and focieties, and which of confe-
quence have acquired a high degree of celebrity in the
regions of the eaft. 4
What was the antediluvian language, or whether it^^y®^
was divided into a variety of dialefls as at this day, can p re tjie
only be determined by the rules of analogy *, and thefe(ieiUge.
will lead us to believe, that whatever might have been
the primitive language of mankind, it human nature was
then conftituted as it is at prefent, a great variety ot dia-
lefls muft of neceflity have fprung up in the fpace of
near 2000 years. If we adopt the Mofaic account of
the antediluvian events, we muft admit that the de¬
fendants of Cain for fome ages lived feparated from
thofe of Seth. Their manner of life, their religious ce¬
remonies, their laws, their form of government, were
probably different, and thefe circumftances would of
courfe produce a variety in their language. 1 he pofte-
rity of Cain were an inventive race. 1 hey found out
the art of metallurgy, mufie, and fome think of weav¬
ing j and in all probability many other articles condu-
N n 2 cive
284
Hiltory of
efpecially
among the
children of
Cain,
PHILOLOGY.
* Nat. Hijl,
lib. vii.
cap. 56.
6
Origin of
writing.
cive to the eafe and accommodation of life were the pro¬
duce of their ingenuity. A people of this charafter muft
have paid no imall regard to their words and modes of
expreffion. Wherever mufic is cultivated, language will
naturally be improved and refined. When new inven¬
tions are introduced, a new race of words and phrafes of
neceffity fpring up, correfpqnding to the recent dock of
ideas to be intimated. Belides, among an inventive race
of people, new vocables would be continually fabricated,
in order to fupply the deficiencies of the primitive lan¬
guage, which was probably fcanty in words, and its
phrafeology unpolifhed. The Cainites, then, among
their other improvements, cannot well be fuppofed to
have neglefted the cultivation of language.
Many conjectures have been hazarded both by an¬
cient and modern authors with refpeft to the origin of
writing *, an art nearly connected with that of fpeaking.
According to Pliny *, “ the Afiyrian letters had al¬
ways exiited ; feme imagined that letters had been in¬
vented by the Egyptian Mercury ; others aferibed the
honour of the invention to the Syrians.” The truth
feems to be, that letters were an antediluvian invention,
preferved among the Chaldeans or Aflyrians, who were
the immediate defeendants of Noah, and inhabited thofe
very regions in the neighbourhood of which the ark
refted, and where that patriarch afterwards fixed his re-
fidence. This circumftance, we think, affords a ftrong
prefumption that the ufe of letters was known before
the deluge, and tranfmitted to the Affyrians and Chal¬
deans by Noal) their progenitor, or at leaft by their im¬
mediate anceftors of his family. If, then, the art of
writing was an antediluvian invention, we think that
in all probability it originated among the pofterity of
Cain.
The defeendants of Seth, according to the oriental
tradition, were chiefly addidled to agriculture and tend¬
ing of cattle. They devoted a great part of their time
to the exercifes of piety and devotion. From this cir¬
cumftance they came to be diftinguilhed by the title of
the (a) Jons of God. According to this defeription, the
Sethites were a fimple (b), unimproved race of people
till they mingled with the race of Cain ; after which
period they at once adopted the improvements and the
vices of that wicked family.
It is not, however, probable, that all the defeendants
of Seth, without exception, mingled with the Cainites.
That family of which Noah was defcended had not in¬
corporated with the race of Cain : it was, according to
the facred hiftorian, lineally defeended from Seth, and
had preferved the worlhip of the true God, when, it is
probable, the greateft part of mankind had apoftatifed
and become idolaters (c). Along with the true reli- Language,
gion, the progenitors of Noah had preferved that fimpli- "
city of manners and equability of character which had
diftinguilhed their remote anceftors. Agriculture and
rearing cattle had been their favourite occupations. Ac¬
cordingly we find, that the patriarch Noah, immediate¬
ly “ after the deluge,” became a hulbandman, and
“ planted a vineyard.” The chofen patriarchs, who
doubtlefs imitated their pious anceftors, were Ihepherds, •
and employed in rearing and tending cattle. Indeed
there are ftrong prefumptions that the Chaldeans, Afly¬
rians, Syrians, Canaanites, and Arabians, in the earlieft
ages followed the fame profeffion.
From this dedudlion, we imagine it is at leaft pro¬
bable, that the anceftors of Noah perfifted in the obfer-
vance of the fame fimplicity of manners which had been
handed down from Adam to Seth, and from him to E-
noeh, Methufelah, Lamech, and from this laft to Noah.
According both to feripture and tradition, innovations
were the province of the Cainites, while the defeendants
of Seth adhered to the primitive and truly patriarchal
inftitutions. 7
If thefe premifes are allowed the merit of probability, The origi.
wre may juftly infer that the language of Noah, what*na^an"
ever it was, differed very little from that of Adam (d) j ferved m'"
and that if it is poflible to afeertain the language of the the family
former, that of the latter will of courfe be dilcovered. from -which
We {hall then proceed to throw together a-few obferva-
tions relating to the language of Noah, and leave our ^ °*
readers to judge for themfelves. We believe it will be
fuperfluous to fuggeft, that our intention in the courfe
of this deduftion, is, if poflible, to trace the origin and
antiquity of the Hebrew tongue 5 and to try to difeover
whether that language, or any of its lifter dialedls, may
claim the honour of beingthe original language of man¬
kind.
Whatever may have been the dialed! of Noah and his
family, that fame dialed!, according to the Mofaic ac¬
count, muft have obtained, without any alteration, till
the era of the building of the tower of Babel.—Upon
this occafion a dreadful convulfion took place : the lan¬
guage of mankind was confounded, and men were fcat-
tered abroad upon the face of all the earth. 8
How far this cataftrophe (e) extended, is not the bu- Confufion
finefs of the prefent inquiry to determine. One thing at t^eo£
is certain beyond all controverfy, namely, that the lan-g^ei,
guages of all the nations which fettled near the centre of
population were but {lightly affedted by its influence.
A very judicious writer has obferved *, that 3000 years* Strabo
after, the inhabitants of thofe countries exhibited a very
ftrong refemblance of cognation, “ in their language,
(a) From this paflfage (Gen. chap. vi. verfe 2.) mifunderftood, originated the abfurd idea of the connedtion be¬
tween angels and mortal women. See Jofeph. Antiq. Jud. lib. i. cap. 4. See Eufeb. Chron. lib. i. All the fathers
of the church, almoft without exception, adopted this foolifti notion. See alfo Philo-Jud. p. 198. edit. Turn*.
Paris 1552.
(b) I he orientals, however, affirm, that Seth, whom they call Edris, was the inventor of aftronomy.
(c) We think it highly probable that idolatry was eftabliflied before the flood 5 becaufe it prevailed almoft im¬
mediately after that cataftrophe. See Polytheism.
(d) For the firft language communicated to Adam, fee the article on Language ; alfo Schuchford's ConneEl.
yol. i. lib. ii. p. ill. etfeq.
(e) Jofephus and the fathers of the church tell us, that the number of languages produced by the confufion of
tongues was 72 j but this is a mere rabbinical legend.
3
Hiltory of manner of living, and the lineaments of their bodies.
’ At the fame time he obferves, that the refemblance in
all thofe particulars was moll remarkable among the in¬
habitants of Mefopotamia.” This obiervation, with re-
fpe& to language, will, we doubt not, be vouched by
every one of our readers who has acquired even a fuper-
ficial knowledge of the languages current in thofe quar¬
ters at a very early period.
It appears, then, that the languages of the Armeni¬
ans, Syrians, AlTyrians, Arabians, and probably of the
Chanaanim, did not fuffer materially by the confufion of
tongues. This obfervation may, we imagine, be ex¬
tended to many of the dialedls (f) fpoken by the people
who fettled in thofe countries not far diilant from the
region where the facred hiilorian has fixed the original
feat of mankind after the deluge. The inference then
is, that if Noah and his family fpoke the original lan¬
guage of Adam, as they moll probably did, the judge¬
ment which effected the confufion of tongues did not
produce any confiderable alteration in the language of
fuch of the defcendants of Noah as fettled near the re¬
gion where that patriarch had fixed his refidence after
he quitted the ark.
But fuppofing the changes of language produced by
the catallrophe at the building of the tower as confider¬
able as has ever been imagined, it does not, after all, ap¬
pear certain, that all mankind, without exception, were
engaged in this impious projedt. If this alfertion Humid
be well founded, the confequence will be, that there
was a chofen race who did not engage in that enter-
prife. If there was fuch a family, fociety, or body of
men, it will follow, that this family, fociety, &c. re¬
tained the language of its great ancellor without change
or variation. That fuch a family did adlually exill, is
highly probable, for the following reafons.
I. We think there is reafon to believe that Ham,
* Gen. upon the heavy curfe denounced upon him by his fa-
ix. 25. ther *, retired from his brethren, and fixed his refidence
elfewhere. Accordingly we find his defcendants {bat¬
tered far and wide, at a very great diilance from the
Gordyaean mountains, where the ark is generally fup-
pofed to have relied immediately after the flood. Some
of them we find in Chaldaea, others in Arabia Felix,
others in Ethiopia (g), others in Canaan, and others in
Egypt; and, finally, multitudes fcattered over all the
coafl of Africa. Between thefe countries were planted
many colonies of Shemites, in Elam, Aflyria, Syria,
Arabia, &c. We find, at the fame time, the defcend¬
ants of Shem and Japhet fettled, in a great degree, con¬
tiguous to each other. This difperfion of the Hamites,
irregular as it is, can fcarce, we think, have been acci-
PHILOLOGY. 285
dental ; it muft have been owing to fome uncommon Language^
9
Only a part
of mankind
engaged in
building
the tower,
caufe, and none feems more probable than that afligned
above. If, then, the defcendants of Ham feparated
early, and took different routes, as from their polterior
fituations it appears they did, they could not all be pre-
fent at the building of the tower. 10
2. It is not probable that the defcendants of Shem and thofe
were engaged in this undertaking, fince'we find tliat
they were not fcattered abroad upon the face of all ^0fshem.
earth. The children of Shem were f Elam, Aflmr, j t hap. x.
Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Elam fettled near theverfeaa.
mouth of the river Tigris, in the country which, by
the Gentile writers, was called Elytnais. Above him,
on the fame river, lay the demefne of Aflrur, on the
weftern fide. In like manner, upon the fame river,
above him, ivas fituated Aram, who poffeffed the coun¬
try of Aramea ; and oppofite to him was Arphaxad, or
Arbaces, or Arbaches, and his country wfas denominat¬
ed Arphachites. Lud, as fome think, fettled in Lydia,
among the fons of Japhet j but this opinion feems to be
without foundation (h). Here, then, there is a dilper-
fion, but fuch as mull have originated from the nature
of the thing. The four, or rather the five brothers, all
fettled contiguous, without being fcattered abroad upon
the face of the whole earth. Befides, there was no con¬
fufion of language among thefe tribes : they continued
to ufe one and the fame lip through many fucceeding
generations. _ n
From thefe circumftances it appears that the pofterity The lan-
of Shem were not involved in the guilt of the builders g^g6 rA^
of the tow'er, and of confequence did not undergo their
punifliment. If then the language of the Shemites was lhe ; ..nily
not confounded upon the ereblion of the tower, the pre-of Shem-
fumption is, that they retained the language of Noah,
which, in all probability, was that of Adam. Some
dialectical differences would in procefs of time creep in,
but the radical fabric of the language would remain un¬
altered.
3. The pofterity of Shem appear in general to have
cultivated the paftoral life. They imitated the flyle of
living adopted by the antediluvian pofterity of Seth.
No fooner had Noah defcended from the ark, than he
became Ijh ha Adamah, a man of the earth j that is, a
hufbandman, and planted a vineyard. We find that
fome ages after, Laban the Syrian had flocks and herds j
and that the chief wealth of the patriarch Abraham and
his children conftfted in their flocks and herds. Even
his Gentile defcendants, the I.fhmaelites and Midianites,
feem to have followed the fame occupation. But people
of this profeflion are feldom given to changes : their
wants are few, and of confequence they are under few
(F) The language of the Medes, Perfians, Phoenicians, and Egyptians, very much refembled each other in their
original complexion ; and all had a ftrong affinity to the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, c. te \ a ton s /j eg..
Gale’s Court of the Gent. vol. i. lib. i. ch. 11. p. 76. etfeq.; Boch. Phalec and Chan aan, p off. lo thefe we may
add the Greek language, as will appear more fully below. _ . •
(g) Jofephus informs us, that all the nations of Afia called the Ethiopians lib. 1. caP* 7*
(h) The ancient name of Lydia was Mcconia. See Strabo Cafaub. lib. xm. p. 586. chap. 7. Rliod. I he
Lydians were celebrated for inventing games •, on which account they were nicknamed by the Julian Greeks
Avooi, Lydi or Ludi, from the Hebrew word lute, luderc, iludere, dendere. We find (Ezek. chap. xxvn. ver. 10.)
the men of Elam and the men of Lud joined in the defence of Tyre j which feems to intimate, that the
Elamites and Ludim were neighbours. If this was adlually the cafe, then Lud lettled in the fame quarter with
his brothers.
PHILOLOGY.
286
Hiftory of or no temptations to deviate from the beaten track.
* vThis circumftance renders it probable, that the language
of Noah, the fame with that of Adam, was prelerved
with little variation among the defcendants of Arphaxad
I2 down to Abraham.
«iown to We have obferved above, that Ham, upon the curfe
Abraham, denounced againft him by his father, very probably left
the fociety of his other brothers, and emigrated elfe-
where, as Cain had done in the antediluvian world.
There is a tradition ftill current in the Eaft, and which
was adopted by many of the Chriltian fathers (l), that
Noah, in the 930th year of his life, by divine appoint¬
ment, did, in the moft formal manner, divide the whole
terraqueous globe among his three fons, obliging them
to take an oath that they would ffand by the decilion.
Upon this happened a migration at the birth of Peleg,
that is, about three centuries after the flood. It is af¬
firmed that Nimrod the arch-rebel difregarded this par¬
tition, and encroached upon the territory of Alhur,
which occafioned the firft war after the flood.
The Greeks had acquired fome idea of this partition,
\CaUimach. which they fuppofed to have been between Jupiter J,
Hym. Neptune, and Pluto. Plato feems to have heard of
(k) : “ For (fays he) the gods of old obtained the
dominion of the whole earth, according to their differ¬
ent allotments. This was effected without any conten¬
tion, for they took poffeflion of their feveral provinces
\Ant. Jud.
in a fair and amicable way, by lot.” Jofephus §, in his
' ‘ c’ 5- account of the difperfion of mankind, plainly infinuates
a divine deftination •, and Philo-Judaeus (l) was of the
fame opinion before him.
In confequence of this arrangement, the fons of Shem
poffeffed themfelves of the countries mentioned in the
preceding pages: the pofterity of Japhet had fpread
themfelves towards the north and Aveft 5 but the Ham-
ites, who had feparated from their brethren in confe¬
quence of the curfe, not choofing to.retire to their quar¬
ters, which were indeed very diftant from the place where
the ark refted, feized upon the land of Canaan (m).
Perhaps, too, it might be fuggefted by fome malicious
fpirits, that the aged patriarch was dealing partially when
he afligned Ham and his pofterity a quarter of the world
to inhabit not only remote from the centre of population,
but likewife fequeftered from the reft of mankind (n).
Be that as it may, the children of Ham removed eart-
ward, and at length defcending from the Carduchean
or Gordyaean mountains, dxrefted their courfe weftward, Language,
and arrived at the plains of Shinar, which had been —-v—'
poffefled by the Athunm ever unee the era of the firft
migration at the birth of Peleg. The facred hiftorian
informs us, that the whole earth “ was of one language
and ot one fpeech j” that in journeying from the eaft,
they lighted upon the plain of Shinar, and dwelt there.
In this paifage we find no particular people fpecified j
but as we find Nimrod, one of the defcendants of Ham,
fettled in that country, we are fure that they were the
offspring of that patriarch. It would not, we think, be
eafy to aflign a reafon how one branch of the family of
Ham came to plant itfelf in the midft of the fons of
Shem by any other means but by violence.
It is indeed generally fuppofed, that Nimrod, at the The tower
head of a body of the children of Ham, made war upon of Babel
Alhur, and drove him out of the country of Shinar 5built by
and there laid the foundation of that kingdom, the be-^®^"
ginning of which was Babel: that this chief, fupported Ham.0
by all the Culhites, and a great number of apoftates
from the families of Shem and Japhet who had joined
him, refufed to fubmit to the divine ordinance by the
mouth of Noah, with refpedt to the partition of the
earth ; and that he and his adherents were the people
who erefted the celebrated tower, in confequence of a
refolution which they had formed to keep together,
Avithout repairing to the quarters afligned them’ by the
determination of heaven. This xvas the crime which
brought doAvn the judgment of the Almighty upon
them, by Avhich they Avere fcattered abroad upon the face
of all the earth. The main body of the children of
Shem and Japhet were not engaged in this impious un¬
dertaking •, their language, therefore, xvas not confound¬
ed, nor xvere they themfelves fcattered abroad. Their
habitations xvere contiguous ; thofe of the Shemites to¬
wards the centre of Afia 5 the dxvellings of Japhet xvere
extended toxvards the north and north-weft ; and the
languages of both thefe families continued for many ages
without the leaft variation, except what time, climate,
laws, religion, nexv inventions, arts, fciences, and com¬
merce, &c. will produce in every tongue in a fuccef-
fion of years.
The general opinion then xvas, that none but the pro¬
geny of Ham and their affociates xvere prefent at the
building of the tower, and that they only fuffered by the
judgment (o) confequent Upon that attempt. There
are
(1) Epiph. vol. i. p. 5. ibid. p. 709. xvhere our learned readers xvill obferve fome palpable errors about Rhino-
corura, &c. Eufeb. Chron. p. 10. Syncellus, p. 89. Cedrenus Chron. Pafch. &c.
(k) Critias, vol. iii. page 109. Serr. Apollodorus mentions a time when the gods refpedlively felefled parti¬
cular cities and regions, which they xvere to take under their peculiar prote&ion.
(l) Lib. x. p. 236. Turn. Paris 1552. We have a plain allufion to this diftribution (Deut. ch. xxxii. ver. 7.).
“ When the moft High divided to the nations their inheritance, xvhen he feparated the fons of Adam, he fet the
bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Ifrael; for the Lord’s portion is his people ; Ja¬
cob is the lot of his inheritance.” From this paffage it appears, that the whole xvas arranged by the appointment
of God, and that the land of Canaan was exprefsly referved for the children of Ifrael. St Paul, Adis ch. xvii.
ver. 16. fpeaks of this divine arrangement, “ God made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
face of the earth } and determined the bounds of their habitation.”
(m) The ark, according to the moft probable accounts, refted upon Mount Ararat in Arjnenla.
(n) We think it by no means improbable that Noah, well knoxving the wickednefs of the family of Ham, and
efpecially their inclination to the idolatry of the antediluvians, might adlually intend to feparate them from the
jeft of mankind.
(o) Some learned men have imagined that this confufion of language, xvhich the Hebrew calls of Lip, was only
a
PHILOLOGY.
* Eufcb
Chron.
| Lufeb.
Prep. Ev.
lib. p.
Hidory of are even among the Pagans fome allufions to the divi-
/ " '* fion of the world among the three fons of Noah. Many
of the learned have imagined that this patriarch was
Saturn 5 and that his three fons were Jupiter, Neptune,
and Pluto, as has been obferved above.
Berofus *, in his hiftory of the Babylonians, informs
us, that Noah, at the foot of Mount Baris or Luban,
where the ark refted, gave his children their laid inldruc-
tions, and then vanifhed out of fight. It is now gene¬
rally believed that the Xifuthrus of Berofus was Noah.
Eupolemusf, another heathen writer, tells us, “ that
the city Babel was firft founded, and afterwards the ce¬
lebrated tower } both which were built by fome of thofe
people who efcaped the deluge. They were the fame
with thofe who in after times were exhibited under the
name of giants. The tower was at length ruined by the
hand of the Almighty, and thofe giants were fcattered
over the whole earth.” This quotation plainly intimates,
that according to the opinion of the author, only the raf-
cally mob of the Hamites, and their apoftate affociates,
were engaged in this daring enterprife.
Indeed it can never be fuppofed that Shem, if he was
alive at that period, as he certainly was, would co-operate
in fuch an abfurd and impious undertaking. 'That devout
patriarch, we think, would rather employ his influence
and authority to divert his defcendants from an attempt
which he knew was undertaken in contradiction to an
exprefs ordinance of Heaven : and it is furely very little
probable that Elam, Alhur, Arphaxad, and Aram, would
join that impious confederacy, in oppofition to the re-
monllrances of their father.
The building of the tower, according to the moft
probable chronology, was undertaken at a period fo
late, that a/l mankind could not poflibly have concur¬
red in the enterprife.
Many of the fathers were of opinion, that Noah fet¬
tled in Armenia, the country where the ark refted ; and
that his defcendants did not leave that region for five ge¬
nerations J, during the fpace of 659 years. By this pe¬
riod the human race muft have been fo amazingly mul¬
tiplied, that the plains of Shinar could not have contain¬
ed them. According to the Samaritan Pentateuch, and
the Septuagint verfion, Peleg was born in the 134th
year of his father Eber. Even admitting the vulgar
opinion, that the tower was begun to be built, and the
difperfion confequent upon that event to have taken
place at this era, the human race would have been by
much too numerous to have univerfally concurred in one
dfcfign.
From thefe circumftances, we hope it appears that
the whole mafs of mankind was not engaged in building
the tower; that the language of all the human race was
287
I Epiph.
Rceref.
lib. x.
not confounded upon that occafion j and that the difper- Language,
lion reached only to a combination of Hamites, and of v
the moft profligate part of the two other families, who
had joined their wicked confederacy.
We have purfued this argument to confiderable length, Therefore
becaufe fome have inferred, from the difference in lan- the original
guages exifting at this day, that mankind cannot have iangua! ®
fprung from two individuals j becaufe from the connec-j^he other1
tion ftill exifting among languages, fome have been bold two fami-
enough to queftion the fa6t, though plainly recorded in lies,
facred hiftory \ and laftly, becaufe we imagine that fome
of our readers, who do not pretend to perufe the writings
of the learned, may be gratified by feeing the various
opinions refpe&ing the confufion of tongues, and the dif¬
perfion of mankind, collefled into one mafs, equally
brief, we hope, and intelligible j and this view of thefe
opinions, with the foundations on which they refpe&ive-
ly reft, we think may fuffice to prove, that the language
of Noah was for fome ages preferved unmixed among the
defcendants of both Shem and Japhet.
To gratify ftill farther fuch of our curious readers as
may not have accefs to more ample information, we (hall
in this place exhibit a brief detail of the circumftances
which attended this fatal attempt. The people engaged
in it have been held up as a profligate race. The Al¬
mighty himfelf denominates them “ the children of menf
which is the very appellation by which the antediluvian
finners were charafierifed ; the fons of God faw the
daughters of men, &c. Their defign in raifing this
edifice was “ to make them a name, and to prevent
their be imp fcattered abroad upon the face of the whole
earth*.” * Gen.
Whatever refolution the reft of mankind might take, c'ia^‘ x’*
they had determined to maintain themfelveson that fpot.
The tower was intended as a centre of union, and per¬
haps as a fortrefs of defence. Such a ftupendous fabric,
they imagined, would immortalize their memory, and
tranfmit the name of their confederacy with eclat (p) to
future ages. This defign plainly intimates, that there
was only a party concerned in the undertaking, fince,
had all mankind been engaged in it, the purpofe would
have been foolifti and futile. Again, they intended, by
making themfelves a name, to prevent their being fcat¬
tered abroad upon the face of the -earth. This was an
aft of rebellion in direft contradiftion to the divine ap¬
pointment, which conftituted their crime, and brought
down the judgment of Heaven upon their guilty heads.
The confequence of the confufion (ft languages was, that
the projeftors left eff to build (Q_), and were aftually
fcattered abroad, contrary to their intention.
Abvdenus, in his Aflyrian Annals, records, that the pao.a*^tra-
(r) “ tower was carried up to heaven; but that the iition con-
gods cerning the
tower of
  Babel.
a temporary failure of pronunciation, which was afterwards removed. This they are led to conclude, from the
agreem. nt of the languages of thefe people in after times.
(p) Many foolifh and abfurd notions have been entertained concerning this ftrufture. Some have imagined that
they meant to take (belter there in cafe of a fecond deluge ; others, that it was intended for idolatrous purpofes ;
others, that it was to be employed as an onfervatory. It» dimenfions have likewife been moft extravagantly mag¬
nified Indeed Strabo, lib. 16. mentions a tower of immenfe fize remain ng at Babylon in his time, the dimen-
fions of which wrere a ftadium every way. This, however, feems to have been the remains of the temple of Bel or
Belus.
(qJ For a defeription of the tower, fee the article Babel.
(r) See the Greek original of this quotation, Eufeb. Chron. lib. 1. page 13,
288
PHILOLOGY.
* Philip.
lib. IS.
cap. 3.
Hiftory of aods ruined it by ft or ms and whirlwinds, and overthrew
 r—1 it upon the heads of thofe who were employed in the
work, and that the ruins of it were called Babylon. Be¬
fore this there was but one language iuhfifting among
men : but now there arofe TrcXvC^peavti, a manifold
fpeech ; and he adds, that a war foon after broke out be¬
tween (s) Titan and Cronus.” (t) The Sybilline ora¬
cles give much the fame account of this early and im¬
portant tran fadtion.
“ Jnftin * informs us, that the Phoenicians who built
Tyre were driven from Affyria by an earthquake. Thefe
Phoenicians were the defeendants of Mizraim the young-
eft fon of Ham 5 and were, wre think, confederates in
building the tower, and were driven away by the ca-
taftrophe that enfued. Many other allufions to the dif-
perfion of this branch of the family occur in Pagan au¬
thors, which the limits to be obferved in an inquiry of
this nature oblige us to omit. Upon the whole, we
think it probable that the country of Shinar lay defolate
for fome time after this revolution ; for the dread of the
judgment inflidled upon the original inhabitants would
deter men from fettling in that inaufpicious region. At
laft, however, a new colony arrived, and Babel, or
Babylon, became the capital of a flouriftiing kingdom.
Our readers, we believe, will expedt that we fliould
fay fomething of Nimrod the mighty hunter, who is ge¬
nerally thought to have been deeply concerned in the
tranfadlions of this period. According to moft authors,
both ancient and modern, this patriarch was the leader
of the confederates who eredted the tow^er, and the chief
inftigator to that enterprife. But if the tow^er w'as built
at the birth of Pheleg, according to the Hebrew com¬
putation, that chief wasf either a child, or rather not
born at that period (u). The Seventy have pronounced
him a giant, as well as a huntfman. They have tranf-
lated the Hebrew word gebur, which generally fignifies
Jlrong, mighty, by the word giant ; an idea which
we imagine thofe tranflators borrowed from the Greeks.
The antediluvian giants are called Nephelim and Re-
phaim, but never Geburim. The Rabbinical writers, who
juftly hated the Babylonians, readily adopted this idea
(x); and the fathers of the church, and the Byzantine
hiftorians, have univerfally followed them. He has been
called Nimrod, Nebrod, Nymbroth, Nebroth, and Nebns.
Not a few have made him the firft Bacchus, and com¬
pounded his name of Bar, a fon, and Cufh, that is, the
fon of Cujh. Some have imagined that he was the Orion
of the Pagans, whofe (hade is fo nobly defcribed by Ho-
f Odyf. 1.1. mer if. But the etymology of this laft name implies
verfe 571.
1' Bochar
Phaleg.
lib. 1.
cap. io.
fomething (y) honourable, and very unfuxtable to the Language,
idea of the tyrant Nimrod. It muft be obferved, however, ’V—*
that we find nothing in Scripture to warrant the fuppo-
fition of his having been a tyrant; fo far from it, that
(z) fome have deemed him a benefaftor to mankind.
See Nimrod.
The beginning of this prince’s kingdom was Babel.
Eufebius gives us firft * a catalogue of fix kings of the * Chron,
Chaldteans, and then another of five kings of Arabian lib. 1.
extraftion, who reigned in Chaldoea after them. This PaSe
might naturally enough happen, fince it appears that the
inhabitants of thofe parts of Arabia which are adjacent
to Chaldea were a&ually Cuftiites, of the f fame family f Gen. x.
with the Babylonians. Ezek. xxvil
The Cuftiites, however, w’ere at laft fubdued, perhaps
partly expelled Chaldea by the Chafidim, who probably
claimed that territory as the patrimony of their progeni¬
tors. That the Chafidim were neither Cujhites, nor in¬
deed Hamites, is obvious from the name. The Hebrews,
and indeed all the Orientals J, denominated both \.\\e\yfph.
people who inhabited the caftern coaft of Arabia Cujhim, u
and alfo the Ethiopians who fprung from the laft-men- P'
tioned people. Had the later inhabitants of Chaldea
been the defeendants of Cufh, the Jewilh writers would
have called them Cujhim. We find they called the
Phoenicians Chanaanim, the Syrians Aramim, the Egyp¬
tians Mi%raim, the Greeks Jonim, &c. The Chafidim,
therefore, or modern inhabitants of Chaldea, wrere pofi-
tively defeended of one Chefed or Chafed but who
this family-chief was, it is not eafy to determine. The
only perfon of that name whom we meet with in early
times is the fourth fon of Nahor §, the brother of Abra- § Gen.’
ham •, and fome have been of opinion that the Chaldeans ^P- xx a
were the progeny of this fame Chefed. This appears
to us highly probable, becaufe both Abram and Nahor
were j] natives of Ur of the Chafidim. The former, we [| Gen.
know, in confequence of the divine command, removed chap. st.
to Haran, afterwards Charrce ; but the latter remained'erie 2 ‘
in Ur, where his family multiplied, and, in procefs of
time, became mafters of the country which they called
the land of the Chafidim, from Chefed or Chafed, the
name of their anceftor. This account is the more pro¬
bable, as wre find the other branches of Nahor’s family
fettled in the fame neighbourhood (a). 16
How the Greeks came to denominate thefe people Origin oi
XaX^iei, Chaldcei, is a queftion rather difficult to be re-
folved; but we know that they always affetfted to diftin-
guiffi people and places by names derived from their
own language. They knew a rugged, erratic nation (b)
(s) This war w7as probably carried on between the leaders of the Hamites and Alhur upon their invafion.
(t) Theoph. ad Antol. lib. ii. page 107. ed. Paris 1636.
(u) Gen. chap. x. verfe 8, 9. “ This man began to be a giant upon the earth j he was the giant hunter be¬
fore the Lord God.—As Nymbrod the giant hunter before the Lord.”
(x) See Mr Bryant’s Analylis, vol. iii. page 38. et feq.
(y) Orion is compounded of the Hebrew Or, “light,” and ion, “ one of the names of the fun j” and Orion was
probably one of the names of that luminary.
(z) See Shuckford’s Conned!, vol. i. lib. 3. page 179, 180. Alfo the authors of the Univer. Hift. vol. i.
(a) Huz gave name to the country of Job; Elihu, one of Job’s friends, was a Buzite of the kindred of Ram or
Aram, another of the fons of Nahor. Aram, whofe pofterity planted Syria cava, was the grandfon of Nahor by
Kemuel. Hence it appears probable that Job himfelf was a defeendant of Nahor by Huz his firft born.
(b) See Euftat. in Dion. Perieg. ver. 768. Strabo, lib. xii. page 543. Cafaub. As the Chalybes wTere famous for
manufadluring iron, fo were they celebrated for making the choiceft pieces of armour. ri hey excelled in making
$ Jufiin.
lib. i. cap. r
PHILO
Hiftory of on the banlcs of the river Thermodoon, in the territory of
■ Pontus, bordering on Armenia the Lefs. Thefe, in an¬
cient times, were called Alybes or Cha/ybes, becaufe they
were much employed in forging and polifhing iron. Their
neighbours, at length, gave them the name of Chald or
Caled, which imports, in the Armenian dialed!:, fierce,
hardy, robufi. This title the Greeks adopted, and out
of it formed the word Xctxdccioi, “ Chaldeans.”
The Mofaic hiftory informs us (c), that Afhur went
out of that land (Shinar), and built Nineveh and feveral
other confiderable cities. One of the fucceflbrs of Alhur
was the celebrated Ninus, who firtt broke the peace of
the world *, made war upon his neighbours, and oblig¬
ed them by force of arms to become his fubjedts, and
pay tribute. Some authors make him the immediate
fucceflbr of Afhur, and the builder of Nineveh. This
we think is not probable ; Eufebius, as we have obferv-
ed above, gives a lift of fix Arabian princes who reign¬
ed in Babylon. Thefe we take to have been the imme¬
diate fucceflbrs of Nimrod,called Arabians; becaufe thefe
people were Cufhites. Ninus might be reputed the firft
king of the Aflyrians, becaufe he figured beyond his pre-
deceiTors ; and he might pafs for the builder of Nineveh,
becaufe he greatlyenlarged and beautified that city. We
therefore imagine, that Ninus was the fifth or fixth in
fucccflion after Aftmr.
Ninus, according to Diodorus Siculus f, made an al¬
liance with Ariaeus king of the Arabians, and conquer¬
ed the Babylonians. This event, in our opinion, put an
end to the empire of the Hamites or Cuftrim in Shinar or
Babylonia. The author obferves, that the Babylon which
figured afterwards did not then exift. This faft is con¬
firmed by the prophet Ifaiah J : “ Behold the land of
the Chafidim •, this people was not till Aftmr founded it
for them that dwell in the wildernefs. They fet up the
toAvers thereof, Stc.” After Babylonia was fubdued by
the Aflyrians under Ninus, the capital was either de-
ftroyed by that conqueror or deferted by the inhabitants.
At length it was re-edified by fome one or other of the
Aflyrian monarchs, who collefted the roving Chafidim,
and obliged them to fettle in the new city. Thefe were
fubjeft to the Aflyrian empire till the reign of Sardana-
palus, when both the Medes and Babylonians rebelled
again ft that effeminate prince.
The Chafidim were celebrated by all antiquity for
their proficiency in aftronomy, aftrology, magic, and
Vol. XVI. Part I.
LOGY.
289
f Lib. ii.
{Ch. xxiii
■’erfe 13.
curious fciences. Ur or Orchoe (d) was a kind of uni- Language.
verfity for thofe branches of learning. Such was their _ *
reputation in thofe ftudies, that over a great part of Afia
and Europe a Chaldean and an aftrologer were fynony -
mous terms. Thefe fciences, according to the tradition
of the Orientals, had been invented by Seth, whom they
call Edris ; and had been cultivated by his defendants
downward to Noah, by whom they were tranfmitted to
Shem, who conveyed them to Arphaxad and his pofte-
rity.
To us it appears probable, that the religious fenli-
ments tranfmitted from Noah through the line of Shem,
were kept alive in the family of Arphaxad, and fo hand¬
ed down to the families of Serug, Nahor, Terah, Abram,
Nahor II. and Haran, &e. The Jewifh rabbis, and all
the Perfian and Mahomedan writers, make Abraham
contemporary with Nimrod j who, fay they, perfecuted
him moft cruelly for adhering to the true religion. That
thefe two patriarchs were contemporary is very improba¬
ble, fince Nimrod was the third generation after Noah,
and Abram the tenth. Abram has been invefted by the
rabbinical writers with every department of learning.
According to them, he tranfported fr4>m Charrae into ■
Chanaan and Egypt, aftronomy, aftrology, mathematics,
geography, magic, alphabetical writing, &c. &c. I-.
After the Babylonilh captivity, when the Jews w'ere Legendary
difperfed over all the eaft, and began to make ter ta*es.con-
of the gate among the Pagans, wonderful things were re- Abraham
ported of Abram with refpeft to his acquirements in hu¬
man erudition, as well as his fupereminence in virtue and
piety. Thefe legendary tales were believed by the pro-
felytes, and by them retailed to their connexions and
acquaintances. But certainly the holy man either was
not deeply verfed in human fciences, or did not deem
them of importance enough to be communicated to his
pofterity \ fince the Jews are, on all hands, acknowledg¬
ed to have made little progrefs in thefe improvements.
To think of raifing the fame of Abraham, by clafling
him with the philofophcrs, betrays an extreme defe£l in
judgment. He is entitled to praife of a higher kind;
for he excelled in piety, was the father of the faithful,
the root of the Mefliah, and the friend of God. Before
thefe, all other titles vanifti away. Such of our readers,
however, as have leifure enough, and at the fame time
learning enough to enable them to confult the rabbini¬
cal legends, will be furnilhed with a full and ample de-
O o tail
or coats of mail, or brigandines ufed by the braveft of the Perfian horfemen. Bochart Phaleg. lib. iii. cap. 12.
and 13, has proved that the word Cheliba fignifies “ feales of brafs or fteel.” From the word Cheliba, the Greeks
formed their X«Av*e$, Chalybes. Xenoph. Cyrop. lib. iii. p. 43. Steph. reprefents the Chaldeans, who inhabited a
mountainous country bordering upon Armenia, as a very fierce warlike people. Ib. page 107. we have an example
«f their rapacious charafter. Id. ib. lib. iv. p. 192. Hen. Steph. we have an account of their bravery and of their
arms. Another inftance of their rapacity occurs in their plundering the cattle of Job.
(c) A difpute has arifen about the fenfe of verfe 10. chap. x. Out of that land Avent forth Aftiur, and builded
Nineveh. Some approve our tranflation, Avhich we think is juft ; others, confidering that the infpired Avriter had
been fpeaking of Nimrod and the beginning of his kingdom, are of opinion that it fhould be tranflated, And out
of this land He (that is Nimrod) Avent into Aftiur and builded Nineveh. This they make a military expedition,
and a violent irruption into the territory of Afhur.
(d) Ur or Orchoe wasfituated between Nifibis and Corduena. See Ammianus Marcel. Expeditio Juliana, lib. xv.
It lay not far from the river Tigris. Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 739, tells us that the Chaldean philofophers Avere divided
into different fe<ffs, the Orcheni, the Borfippeni, and feveral others. Died. Sicul. likeAvife, lib. ii. p. 82. Steph.
gives an exa& detail of the funflions, profeffion, and eftabliftiment of the Chaldeans, to which we muft refer oux
curious readers.
290
Hiftory cf
PHILOLOGY.
IS
The He¬
brew and
Chaldean
originally
the fame,
and the
firft lan¬
guage fpo.
ken on
earth.
tail of his imaginary exploits and adventures. Others,
who are either not willing or not qualified to perufe the
writings of the rabbins, may confult Dr Hyde * de
Relig. vet. Perf. and the authors of the Univerfal Hi¬
ftory -f» where they will find materials fufficient to gra¬
tify their curiofity. We fhall only obferve, in addition
to what we have already faid, that the Perfians, Chal¬
deans, and Arabians, pretended that their religion was
that of Abraham ; that honourable mention is made of
him in the Koran } and that the name of Abraham or
Ibrahim was celebrated over all the eatt. See Abra¬
ham.
In the progrefs of this difquifition, we have feen that
the language of Noah was, in all probability, the fame
or nearly the fame with that of Adam. Additions and
improvements might be introduced^ but ftill the radical
Itamina of the language remained unchanged. It has
Jikewxfe, we hope, appeared, that the confufion of lan¬
guage at the building of the tower of Babel was only
partial, and aflfefted none but the rebellious erew of the
race of Ham, and the apoflate part of the families of
Shem and Japhet. We have concluded, that the main
body of the race of Shem, at leaft, were neither difperf-
ed nor their language confounded; and that confequent-
ly the defcendants of that patriarch continued to fpeak
their paternal dialed or the uncorrupted language of
Noah. To thefe arguments we may take the liberty to
add another, which is, that in all probability the worfhip
of the true God was preferved in the line of Arphaxad,
after the generality of the ether fefls had lapfed into
idolatry. Out of this family Abraham was taken, in
whofe line the true religion was to be preferved. Whe¬
ther Abraham was an idolater when he dwelt in Chal¬
dea, the Scripture does not inform us, though it feems
to be evident that his father was. One thing, however,
is certain, namely, that Jehovah (e) appeared to him,
and pronounced a bltfling upon him before he left Ur
of the Chaldees. This circumftance no doubt indicates,
that this patriarch had made uncommon advances in
piety and virtue, even prior to his emigration. The pro¬
genitors of his family had been diftinguifhed by adhering
to the true religion. About this time, however, they
began to degenerate, and to adopt the Zabiifm of their
apoftate neighbours. It was then that Abraham was
commanded by Heaven to “ leave his kindred and his
father’s houfe, and to travel into a land which was to be
fhown him.” The Almighty intended that the true re¬
ligion Ihould be preferved in his line, and therefore re¬
moved him from a country and kindred, by the influ¬
ence of whofe bad example his religious principles might
be endangered. His family had only of late apoftatized ;
till that period they had preferved both the language and
religion of their venerable anceftors.
But however much Abraham might differ from the
other branches of his family in his religious fentiments,
his language was certainly in unifon with theirs. The
confequence of this unqueflionable pofition is, that the
language which he carried with him into Chanaan was
exactly the fame with that of his family which he relin-
' quifhed when he began his peregrinations. But if this
be true, it will follow', that the language afterwards de- Lafiguag*.
nominated Hebrew, and that of the Chafidim or Chal- -y"—
deans, w’ere originally one and the fame. This pofition,
we think, will not be controverted. There is then an
end of the difpute concerning the original language of
mankind. We have advanced fome prefumptive proofs
in the preceding pages, that the language of Adam was
tranfmiUed to Noah, and that the dialeft of the latter
was preferved in the line of Arphaxad downwards to the
family of Abraham : and it now appears that the He¬
brew and Chaldean were originally fpoken by the fame
family, and of courfe were the fame between themfelves,
and were aftually the firft language upon earth, accord¬
ing to the Mofaic hiftory. Numberlefs additions, alte¬
rations, improvements, we acknowledge, were introdu¬
ced in the courfe of 2000 years j but ftill the original
ftamina of the language were unchanged. Our readers
will pleafe to obferve that the Orientals are not a people
given to change ; and that this charadler, in the earlhft
ages, was ftill more prevalent than at prefent. This af-
fertion, we prefume, needs no proof.
In confirmation of thefe prefumptive arguments, we
may add the popular one which is commonly urged upon
this occafion, viz. that the names of antediluvian perfons
and places mentioned by the facred biitorian, are gene¬
rally of Hebrew original, and fignificant in that lan¬
guage. Some of them, we acknowledge, are not fo •, but
in this cafe it ought to be remembered, that a very fmall
part of that language now exifts, and that probably the
radicals from which thefe words are defcended are among
the number of thofc which have long been loft.
SECT. I. The Hebrew Language.
Having thus proved the priority of the Hebrew
to every other language that has been fpoken by men, rftks of the
we (hall now proceed to confider its nature and genius ; Hebrew
from which it will appear ftill more evidently to be an language,
original language, neither improved nor debafed by fo¬
reign idioms. The words of which it is compofed are
fhort, and admit of very little flexion. The names of
places are defcriptive of their nature, fituation, acciden¬
tal circumftances, &c. Its compounds are few, and in-
artificially joined together. In it we find few of thofe
artificial affixes which diftinguilh the other cognate dia¬
lers ; fuch as the Chaldean, Syrian, Arabian, Phoeni¬
cian, &c. We find in it no traces of improvement
from the age of Mofes to the era of the Babylonifh cap¬
tivity. The age of David and Solomon was the golden
period of the Hebrew tongue; and yet, in our opinion,
it would puzzle a critic of the niceft acumen to difcover
much improvement even during that happy era. In
faft, the Jews were by no means an inventive people.
We hear nothing of their progrefs in literary purfuits ;
nor do they feem to have been induftrious in borrowing
from their neighbours. The laws and ftatutes commu¬
nicated by Mofes wrere the principal objects of their ftu-
dies. Thefe they were commanded to contemplate day
and night; and in them they were to place their chief
delight. The confequence of this command was, that
little or no regard could be paid to tafte, or any other
fubjeft
(e) Compare Gen. chap, xii, ver. 2. with A6Is, chap. vii. ver. 4.
S
Sea. i.
Hebrew fubjeft of philofoplucal inveftigation. Every unimpro-
Language. vec] language abounds in figurative expre(lions borrowed
£rorn fenfible objects. This is in a peculiar manner the
charafterillic of the language in queftion ; of which it
would be fuperfluous to produce inftances, as the fa6t
mull be obvious even to the attentive reader of the Eng-
lilh Bible.
In the courfe of this argument, we think it ought to
be obferved, and we deem it an obfervation of the great-
eft importance, that if we compare the other languages
which have claimed the prize of originality from the
Hebrew with that dialed!, we (hall quickly be convinced
that the latter has a juft title to the preference. The
writers who have treatfd this fubjedt, generally bring
into competition the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syrian, and
Arabian. Some one or other of thefe has commonly
been thought the original language of mankind. The
arguments for the Syrian and Arabian are altogether
futile. The numerous improvements fuperinduced up¬
on thefe languages, evidently prove that they could not
have been the original language. In all cognate dia-
le&s, etymologifts hold it as a maxim, that the lead im¬
proved is likely to be the moft ancient.
We have obferved above, that the language of Abra¬
ham and that of the Chefedim or Chaldeans were origi¬
nally the fame *, and we are perfuaded, that if an able
critic fhould take the pains to examine ftridlly thefe two
languages, and to take from each what may real'onably
be fuppofed to have been improvements or additions
fince the age of Abraham, he will find intrinfic evidence
fufticient to convince him of the truth of this pofition.
There appear ftill in the Chaldean tongue great num¬
bers of (jf) words the fame with the Hebrew, perhaps
as many as mankind had occafion for in the moft early
ages ; and much greater numbers would probably be
10 found if both languages had come down to us entire.
How it was The conftrudlion of the two languages is indeed fomewhat
changed different^ but th is difference arifes chiefly from the fu-
perior improvement of the Chaldean. While the He¬
brew language was in a manner ftationary, the Chaldean
underwent progreffive improvements j was mellowed by
antithefes, rendered fonorous by the difpoiition of vocal
founds, acquired a copioufnefs by compounds, and a ma-
jefty by affixes and prefixes, &c. In procefs of time,
however, the difference became fo great, that the Ifrae-
lites did not underftand the Chaldean language at the
era of the Babylonifh captivity. This much the pro¬
phet* intimates, when he promifes the pious Jews pro-
tefHon “ from a fierce people ; a people of a deeper
fpeech than they could perceive ; of a Hammering
tongue, that they could not underftand.”
The priority of the Chaldean tongue is indeed con¬
tended for by very learned writers. Camden f calls
it the mother of all languages ; and moft of the fathers
Gram Sr Were ^alue opinion. Amira £ has made a col-
PHILOLOGY.
291
into what
is called
the Chal¬
dean.
* Ifaiah,
ch. xxxiii.
verfe 19.
t Bnf.
leflion of arguments, not inconfiderable, in favour of Hebrew
it j and Myriceus j after him, did the fame. Erpe- '
nius ||, in his Oration for the Hebrew tongue, thought^ Prtef.ai
the argument for it and the Chaldean fo equal, that heGVflw;."
did not choofe to take upon him to determine the qnci-Ghnld.
tion. 0ratio
Many circumftances, however, concur to make
aftign the priority to the Hebrew, or rather to make
us believe that it has fuffered feweft of thofe changes
to which every living tongue is more or lefs liable. If
we ftrip this language of every thing obvioufly adven¬
titious, we fhall find it extremely fimple and primitive.
1. Every thing maforetical, fuppofing the vowels and
points (g) effential, was certainly unknown in its ori-Reafons
ginal charatfter. 2. All the prefixed and affixed lettersfbr main-
were added time after time, to give more compafs andtain,n? .
precifion to the language. 3. The various voices,!^0f[hT"
moods, tenfes, numbers, and perfons of verbs, were Hebrew.
pofterior improvements; for in that tongue, nothing
at firft appeared but the indeclinable radix. 4. In the
fame manner, the few adjedlives that occur in the lan¬
guage, and the numbers and regimen of nouns, were not
from the beginning. 5. Moft of the Hebrew nouns are
derived from verbs ; indeed many of them are written
with the very fame letters. This rule, however, i^not
general; for often verbs are derived from nouns, and
even fome from prepofitions. 6. All the verbs of that
language, at leaft all that originally belonged to it, uni¬
formly conlift of three letters, and feem to have been at
firft pronounced as monofyllables. If we anatomize the
Hebrew language in this manner, we fhall reduce it to
very great fimplicity ; we fhall confine it to a few
names of things, perfons, and affions ; we fhall make
all its words monofyllables, and give it the true charac¬
ters of an original language. If at the fame time we
refted! on the fmall number of (it) radical words in that
dialed!, we {hall be more and more convinced of its ori¬
ginality.
It will not be expedled that wre fhould enter into- a
minute difeuffion of the grammatical peculiarities of this
ancient language. For thefe we muft refer our readers
to the numerous and elaborate grammars of that tongue,
which are everywhere eafily to be found. We fhall on¬
ly make a few ftridlures, which naturally prefent them-
felves, before we difmifs the fubjedl.
The generality of writers who have maintained the
fuperior antiquity of the Hebrew language, have at the
fame time contended that all other languages of Alia,
and mol! of thofe of Europe, have been derived from 2
that tongue as their fource and matrix, We,forourAlIlan-
part, are of opinion, that perhaps all the languages inguagesin
the eaftern part of the globe were coeval with it, andt!l.e.eaft
were originally one and the fame ; and that the differ- the fam/
ences which afterwards diftinguifhed them fprung from
climate, caprice, inventions, religions, commerce, con-
O 0 2 quells,
(f) Moft of the Chaldean names mentioned in Scripture are pure Hebrew words compounded ; fuch as Nebu¬
chadnezzar, Nebuzaradan, Rabjhakeh, Rabmav, Beljbazzar, Rabfuris, Nahar, Malahthu, Phrat or Pharad, Baro-
fusi Carchemtjb, Ur, Cut/ia, Heb. Cu/b, &c. All thefe words, and a multitude of others which we could mention,
approach fo near the Hebrew dialeft, that their original is difcernible at firft fight. Moft of thefe are compounds,-
which the limits preferibed us will not allow us to decompound and explain.
(g) The futility of thefe points will be proved in the following part of this feflion,
(h) The radical words in the Hebrew language, as it now Hands, are about 500.
292
Hebrew
Xanguage.
* Clem.
Alex.
Strom.
i'.ujeb.
Chton. lib.
i. Epiphan.
Hceref.
Augvft. &c
f De.ut.
ch^p. xxxii
Ytiip 8.
%Pacanini
Epifcop.
Bercun.
apvd Hier-
on. in Catti-
logo Epijt.
12.
§ 14-page
35. Hoejch
, *3
Origin of
the name
Hebrew.
quefts, and other accidental caufes, which will occur
to our intelligent readers. We have endeavoured to
prove, in the preceding pages, that all mankind were
not concerned in the building of the fatal tower, nor
affected by the punifhment confequent upon that at¬
tempt : and we now add, that even that punifhment
was only temporary ; fince we find, that thofe very
Hamites or Cufhim, who are allowed to have been af-
fefted by it, did certainly afterwards recover the former
organization of their ///j, and differed not more from
the original flandard than the defeendants of Japhet and
Shem.
The Jewifh rabbis have pretended to afeertain the
number of languages generated by the vengeance of
Heaven at the building of Babel. They tell us that
mankind was divided into 70 nations and 70 languages,
and that each of thefe nations had its tutelar or guardian
angel. This fabulous legend is founded on the num¬
ber of the progeny of Jacob at the time when that pa¬
triarch and his family went down into Egypt. Others
attribute its origin to the number of the fons and grand-
fons of Noah, who are enumerated Gen. chap. x.
The fathers * of the church make the languages at
the confufion to amount to 72-, which number they
complete by adding Cainan and Elifhah, according to
the Septuagint, who are not mentioned in the Hebrew
text. This opinion, they think, is fupported by the
words of Mofes, when he faith, that f “ when the Moll
High divided to the nations their inheritance, when
he feparated the fons of Adam, he fet the bounds of
the people according to the number of the tribes of
Ffrael.” That is, fay they, he divided them into 72
nations, which was the number of the children of Ifrael
when they came into Egypt. The Targum of Ben-
Uzziel plainly favours this interpretation •, but the Je-
rufalem Targum intimates that the number of nations
was only 12, according to the number of the tribes of
Ifrael. This paffage, however, feems to refer to the
tribes of the Chanaanim •, and imports, that the Almigh¬
ty affigned to the different fepts of that family fuch a
trafl of land as he knew would make a fufficient inheri¬
tance for the children of Ifrael Others have increaf-
ed the different languages of the difperfion to 120 •, but
the general opinion has fixed them to 70 or 72. Our
readers need fcarce be put in mind that thefe opinions
are ffltile and abfurd ; neither founded in Scripture, pro¬
fane hiftory, or common fenfe. At the fame time, it
mult not be omitted, that according to Horapollo §, the
Egyptians held, that the world was divided into 72 ha¬
bitable regions j qnd that, in confequence of this tradi¬
tion, they made the cynocephalus the emblem of the
Avorld, becaufe that in the fpace of 72 days that animal
pines away and dies.
It has been made a qn eft ion, whether the Hebrew
language was denominated from Heber the progenitor
of Abraham, or from a word which in that tongue im¬
ports over, beyond. Moft of the Chriftian fathers, prior
to St Orisen, believed that both the Gentile name He-
brew, and the name or the language, were derived
from the name of the patriarch; but that learned man
PHILOLOGY. Sea. I.
imagined, that Abraham was called the Hebrew, not Hebrew
becaufe he was a defeendant of Heber, but becaufe he Lang»age.
was a transfluvianus, or from beyond the river Eu-'
phrates. The learned Bochart* has ftrained hard *
to prove the former pofition ; but to us his argumentshh* i. c,
do not appear decifive. We are rather inclined to
believe, that Abraham was called Chibri, (Hebrew),
from the fituation of the country from which he emi¬
grated when he came to the country of Chanaan 5 and
that in procefs of time that word became a Gentile
appellation, and was afterwards applied to his pofte-
rity (1) often by rvay of reproach, much in the fame
manner as w e fay a Northlander, a Norman, a Tramon¬
tane, &c.
Here we may be indulged an obfervation, namely,
that Abraham, a Hebrew, lived among the Chalde¬
ans, travelled among the Chanaanites, fojourned among
the Philiftines, lived fome time in Egypt, and in all
appearance converfed with all thofe nations without
any apparent difficulty. This circumftance plainly
proves, that all thefe nations at that time {poke nearly
the fame language. The nations had not yet begun
to improve their refpe&ive dialects, nor to deviate in
any great meafure from the monofyllabic tongue of
the Hebrews. With refpe61 to the language of Cha-
naan, afterwards the Phoenician, its fimilarity to the
Hebrew is obvious from the names of gods, men, ci¬
ties, mountains, rivers, &c. which are the very fame
in both tongues, as might be thown in numberlefs
cafes, wrere this a proper place for etymological re-
fearches.
Before we difmifs this part of our fubjecJ, we would
Avifti to gratify our unlearned readers with a brief ac¬
count of the Hebrew letters, and of the Maforetical
points which have been in a manner ingrafted on thefe
letters. In the courfe of this deduction, Ave fliall en¬
deavour to folioav fuch authors as are alloAved to have
handled that matter Avith the greateft acutenefs, learn¬
ing, and perfpicuity. If, upon any occafion, avc
fhould be tempted to hazard a conjefture of our own,
it is cheerfully fubmitted to the candour of the pu¬
blic.
Much has been written, and numberlefs hypothefes
propofed, Avith a view to inveftigate the origin of al¬
phabetical writing. To give even an abridged account
of all thefe, would fill many volumes. The moft: plau-
fible, in our opinion, is that Avhich fuppofes that the pri¬
mary characters employed by men Avere the figures of
material objeCls, analogous to thofe of the Mexicans, fo
often mentioned by the authors Avho have Avritten the
hiftory ®f that people at the era of the Spanifti invafion
of their country. As this plan was too much circum-or;?in0f
feribed to be generally ufeful, hieroglyphical figures alphabet^
Avere in procefs of time invented as fubfidiaries to thiswfifinS*
contracted orthography. In this fcheme, Ave imagine,
the procefs Avas fomewhat more extenfive. A lion might
be Iketched, to import fiercenefs or valour ; an ox, to
denote ftrength ; aJlag, to fignify fwiftnefs 5 a hare, to
intimate timoroufnefs, &c.
The next ftep in this procefs would naturally extend
to
, (t) The Egyptians might not eat bread with the HebreAvs, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. The
Whiliftines (Samuel l. paff'd) ahvays call the Ifraelites Hebrews by way of reproach.
Sea. I. PHILOLOGY. 293
Hebrew to the inventing and appropriating of a few arbitrary
Language. cJiaradters, for reprefenting abttradd ideas, and other re-
jationSj which could not be well afcertained by the me¬
thods above mentioned. Thefe arbitrary figns might
readily acquire a currency by compact, as money and
medals do ever a great part of the world.—Upon this
/ plan we imagine the ancient Chinefe formed their lan-
guage.
But neither the picture nor the hieroglyphic, nor the
method of denoting ideas by arbitrary charafters appro¬
priated bycompaft, could ever have arrived at fuch per-
feftion as to anfwer all the purpofes of ideal communi¬
cation. The grand defideratum then would be to fa¬
bricate characters to reprefent fituple founds, and to re¬
duce thefe characters to fo fmall a number as to be eaii-
ly learned and preferved in the memory. In this at¬
tempt the Chinefe have notorioufly failed-, their letters,
or rather their characters, are fo numerous, that few,
if anv, of their molt learned and induftrious authors,
have been able to learn and retain the whole cata¬
logue. Indeed thofe people are not able to conceive
how any combinations of 20 or 30 characters fhould be
competent to anfwer all the purpofes of written lan¬
guage.
Many different nations have claimed the honour of
this invention. The Greeks aferibed it to the Phoe-
* Hefych. niciansand confequently ufed the word (poitvu^ui *,
to cEl the Phoenician, in the fame fenfe with #vtfy<v&><7-x:£<v,
\Lucati. to read; and confequently the poetf afcribes the inven¬
tion to the fame ingenious people. The Greeks bor¬
rowed their letters from the Phoenicians, and of courfe
looked up to them as the inventors.
Others have attributed the invention to the Egyp¬
tians. That people aferibed every ufeful and ingenious
invention to their Thyoth, or Mercury Trifmegiftus.
Plato feems to have believed this tradition (k), and pre¬
tends to record a difpute between the king of Egypt
that then reigned and this perfonage, with refpcCI to the
influence that the art of alphabetic xvriting might pofli-
bly have upon the improvements of mankind in fcience
t Bfi/.Jib i anc* liberal arts. Diodorus the Sicilian J ^ives a fimilar
page 10. hiftory of the fame invention, but carries it back to the
Steph. reign of Ofiris.
{Nat. Hifl. Pliny informs us §, that Gellius attributed letters to
a .vii.c.46. t^e pame £gyptian Mercury, and others to the Sy¬
rians *, but that for “ his part, he thought that the Af-
fyrian letters were eternal.'” That learned Roman then
imagined, that the Affyrian letters had exifted at a pe¬
riod prior to all the records of hiftory; which was in faft
the cafe. By the Affyrian letters, he muft mean the
Chaldaic, and by the Syrian probably the Hebrew.
The earlieft Greek hiftorians generally confound the
Jews with the Syrians. Herodotus, enumerating the
iLib. ii. people who had || learned circumcifion from the Egyp-
c' I04- tians, mentions the Syrians of Paleftine j and elfewhere
* Ibid. he tells us, that Necho * beat the Syrians, and took Ca-
C- dytis, a large and populous city belonging to that people.
Hence it is evident that the Syrian alphabet, or the Sy¬
rian letters, were the fame with the Hebrew. That the Hebrew
Alfyrian or Chaldaic and Hebrew languages were the , -anguag>
fame, has, we hope, bi en fully proved already : that
their letters were the fame in the original ftrufture, can
fearce be controveited. Thefe letters, we think, were AotedUu*
antediluvian j whether, to ufe the expreflion of Plato, vian>
they7 were dictated by fome god, or fabricated by fome
man divinely infpired. As this opinion may admit
fome difpute, we fhall take the liberty to fubjoin our
reafons.
1. It appears that the era of this invention is buried
in impenetrable obfeurity. Had an invention of fuch
capital importance to mankind been made in the poftdi-
luvian ages, we imagine the author would have been
commemorated in the hiftorical annals of the country
where he lived (l).
2. The art of writing in alphabetical chara&ers, ac¬
cording to the facred records, was praftifed at fo early a
period, that there was not a long enough interval be¬
tween that and the deluge to give birth to that noble
invention. If we confider the ftate of the world du¬
ring fome ages after that difaftrous event, we fliall
quickly be convinced that little relpite could be found
from the labour and induftry indifpenfably requifite to
provide the neceffaries, and only a few of the conve¬
niences, of life. Such a ftate of things was certainly
moft unfavourable to the invention of thofe arts and
improvements which contribute nothing towards pro¬
curing the accommodations of life. The confequence hr
obvious.
Mofes has recorded the hiftory of the creation, of
a few of the capital tranfadlions of the antediluvian
world, the birth, the age, the death, of the lineal de-
feendants of Seth. He has preferved the dimenfions of
the ark, the duration of the univerfal deluge, its effefls-
upon man and all terreftria] animals, the population of
the world by the pofterity of Noah, the age, &c. of the
patriarchs of the line of Shem, from which his own an-
ceftors had fprung. To this he has fubjoined the petty
occurrences which diverftfied the lives of Abraham,
Ifaac, and Jacob, and their defeendants. Whence did
the hiftorian derive his information > We believe few of
our readers will be fo enthufiaftic as to imagine that the
author received it from divine infpiration. Tradition is
a fallible guide ; and in many cafes the accounts are fo
minutely precife, as to defy the power of that fpecies of
conveyance. The infpired author muft certainly have
extrafted his abridgement from written memoirs, or hi-
ftories of the tranfattions of his anceftors regularly
tranfmitted from the moft early periods. Thefe annals
he probably abridged, as Ezra did afterwards the hi¬
ftory of the kings of Ifrael. If this was the cafe, as
it moft certainly was, the art of writing in alphabetical
letters muft have been known and pradifed many ages
before Mofes. It has indeed been pretended, that the
Jewifti decalogue, inferibed upon two tables of ftone, was
the very firft fpecimen of alphabetical writing. The ar¬
guments adduced in proof of this fail are lame and incon-
clufive
(k) See PhcedruSy page 1240. See alfo page 374. Phil.
(l) It is true, the Egyptians attribute the invention to their Thoth, and the Phoenicians to their Hercules, or
Melicerta or Baal \ but thefe were only imaginary perfonages.
P H I L O L O G
294.
Hebrew clttfive (M)« 3FIa<i tliat been tbecafe, fonie notice muft
^Language. ])ave 5een taken of fo palpable a circumftance. Mo-
fes wrote out his hiftory, his laws, and his memoirs }
and it appears plainly from the text, that all the
learned among his countrymen could read them. Wri-
O G Y. sefl. I.
ting was then no novel invention in the age of the Hebrew
Jewilb legillator, but current and generally known at Language,
that era.
The patriarch Job lived at an earlier period. In
that book we find many allufions to the art of writing,
and
(m) The mod ingenious and plaufible of thofe arguments which have fallen under our obfervation, is given
by Mr Johnfon vicar of Cranbrook, a writer of great learning and piety, who flourilhed in the beginnino-
of the 18th century, and whofe works deferve to be more generally known than we have reafon to think
they are at prefent. After endeavouring to prove that alphabetical writing was not praftifed before the era
of Mofes, and expatiating upon the difficulty of the invention, this excellent fcholar attempts to (how, that
the original Hebrew alphabet was actually communicated to the Jewifh legillator at the fame time with the
two tables of the law. “ I know not (fays he) any juft caufe why the law Ihould be written by God, or by
an angel at his command, except it were for want of a man that could well perform this part. This could
give no addition of authority to the law, efpecially after it had been publilhed in that aftonilhing and mira¬
culous manner at Mount Sinai. The true writing of the original v'as indeed perfectly adjufted, and precifelv
«fcertained to all future ages, by God’s giving a copy of it under his own hand ; but this, I conceive, had
been done altogether as effe&ually by God’s dictating every word to Mofes, had he been capable of per¬
forming the office of an amanuenfis.” The learned writer goes on to fuppofe, that it W'as for the purpofe of teach¬
ing Mofes the alphabet, that God detained him forty days in the mount j and thence he concludes, that the De¬
calogue was the firft writing in alphabetical charaffers, and that thofe charadlers were a divine, and not a human
invention.
It is always raffi, if not fomething worfe, to conceive reafons not aftigned by God himfelf, for any particular
tranfaflion of his with thofe men whom he from time to time infpired with heavenly wifdom. That it was not for
the purpofe of teaching Mofes the alphabet that God detained him forty days in the mount, when he gave him the
turn tables of the law, feems evident from his detaining him juft as many days when he gave him the fceond tables
after the firft were broken. If the legiflator of the Jews had not been fufficiently inftrufled in the art of reading
during bis firft ftay in the mount, he would have been detained longer j and it is not conceivable, that though in a
fit of pious paffion he was fo far thrown off his guard as to break the two tables, his mind was fo totally unhinged
by the idolatry of his countrymen, as to forget completely an art which, by the fuppofition, the Supreme Being
had forty days in teaching him ! “ But if Mofes could, at his firft afcent into the mount, perform the office
of an amanuenfis, why are the original tables faid to have been written by the finger of God, and not by him who
wrote the fecund ?” We pretend not to fay why they were written by God rather than man ; but we think there
is fufficient evidence, that by whomfoever they were written, the charafrers employed were of human invention.
The Hebrew alphabet, without the Maforetic points, is confeffedly defe&ive •, and every man who is in any degree
acquainted with the language, and is not under the influence of inveterate prejudice, will readily admit that thofe
points are no improvement. But we cannot, without impiety, fuppofe an art invented by infinite wifdom, to fall
fhort of the utmoft perfection of which it is capable : an alphabet communicated to man by God, would undoubted¬
ly have been free botli from defeCts and from redundancies } it w ould have had a diftinCt character for every fimple
lound, and been at leaft as perfedt as the Greek or the Roman.
But we need not fill our pages with reafonings of this kind againft the hypothefis maintained by Mr Johnfon.
We know that “ Mofes wrote all the words of the Lord,” i. e. the fubftanee of all that had been delivered in
Exod. xx, xxi, xxii, xxiii. before he was called up into the mount to receive the tables of ftone j nay, that he had
long before been commanded by God himfelf to “ write in a book” an account of the viClory obtained over Ama-
lek (Exod. xvii. 14.). All this, indeed, the learned writer was aware of; and to reconcile it with his hypothefis,
he frames another, more improbable than even that which it is meant to fupport. “ It is not unreafonable (fays
he) to believe that God had written thefe tables of ftone, and put them in Mount Horeb, from the time that by
his angel he had there firft appeared to Mofes; and that, therefore, all the time after, while he kept Jethro’s flieep
thereabouts, he had free accefe to thofe tables, and perufed them at difcretion. But if belief Ihould reft upon evi¬
dence, we beg lenve to reply, that to believe all this would be in the higheft degree unreafonable; for there is
not a fingle hint in the Scripture of the tables having been written at fo early a period, or upon fuch an occafion, as
God’s firft appearance to Mofes in the burning buffi. We know how reluftant Mofes was to go upon the embaffy
to which he was then appointed ; and it is ftrange, we think paffingftrange, that when he records fo faithfully his
own backwardnefs, and the means made ufe of by God to reconcile him to the arduous undertaking, he ftiould make
no mention of thefe important tables, if at that period he had known any thing of their exiftence. Befides all this,
is it not wonderful, if Mofes had been praClifing the art of writing, as our author fuppofes, from the time of the
burning buffi to the giving of the law, he ffiould then have flood in need of forty days teaching from God, to en¬
able him to read with eafe the firft tables ; and of other forty, to enable him to write the fecond > This gives fuch
a mean view of the natural capacity of the Hebrew legiflator, as renders the hypothefis which' implies it wholly
incredible. See a CollcBion qf Difcourfes, &c. in two volumes. In/ the reverend John Johnfon, A. M. vicar of
Eranbrook in Kent*
f Antiq.
[ib. i. c. 3.
^6
Traditions
to this pur-
pofe.
5ea. I.
Hebrew and fome paffages which plainly prove its exigence.
Language. Xhis fhows that alphabetical characters were not con-
u y ‘ fined to the chofen feed, fince Job was in all probability
*Gen.xxii. a defcendant of Huz, the eldeft fon of Nahor * the
10, brother of Abraham. From this circumftance, we
think we may fairly conclude, that this art was known
and pra£tifed in the faujily of Terah the father of Abra¬
ham.
3. There was certainly a tradition among the Jews
in the age of Jofephus, that writing was an antedilu¬
vian invention f. That hiftorian pretends, that the de-
fcendants of Seth erected two pillars, the one of ftone
and the other of brick, and infcribed upon them their
altronomical obfervations and other improvements.—
This legend (hows that there did exift fuch an opinioa
of the antiquity of the art of writing.
4. There muft have been a tradition to the fame
purpofe among the Chaldeans, fince the writers who
have copied from Berofus, the celebrated Chaldean hi¬
ftorian (o), fpeak of alphabetical writing as an art well
known among the antediluvians. According to them,
Cannes the Chaldean legiflator gave his difciples “ an
infight into letters and feience. This perfon alfo wrote
concerning the generation of mankind, of their diffe¬
rent purfuits, of civil polity, &c. Immediately before
the deluge (fay they) the god Cronus appeared to Si-
futhrus or Xifuthrus, and commanded him.to commit to
writing the beginning, improvement, and conclufion
of all things down to the prefent term, and to bury
thefe accounts fecurely in the temple of the Sun at Sep-
para.” All thefe traditions may be deemed fabulous
in the main j but ftill they evince that fuch an opinion
was current, and that though the ufe of letters was not
indeed eternal (p), it was, however, prior to all the re¬
cords of hiftory ; and of courfe, we think, an antedi¬
luvian difcovery.
This original alphabet, whatever it was, and’however
conftrudled, was, rve think, preferved in the family of
Noah, and from it conveyed down to fucceeding gene¬
rations. If we can then difcover the original Hebrew
alphabet, we fhall be able to inveftigate the primary
fpecies of letters expreftive of 'thofe articulate founds by
which man is in a great meafure diftinguifhed from the
brute creation. Whatever might be the nature of that
alphabet^ we may be convinced that the ancient Jews
deemed it facred, and therefore preferved it pure and
unmixed till the Babylonifh captivity. If, then, any
monuments are ftill extant infcribed with letters prior
to that event, we may reft affured that thefe are the re-
jnains of the original alphabet.
There have, from time to time, been dug up at Jeru-
PHILOLOGY. 295
falem, and other parts of Judea, coins and medals, and Hebrew
medallions, infcribed with letters of a form very differ- Language.,
ent from thofe fquare letters in which the Hebrew *
Scriptures are now written.
, *7 .
The origi-
ial alpha-
jet pre-
erved in
he family
f.Noah.
daic.
When the Samaritan Pentateuch was difcovered (Q_), The fame
it evidently appeared that the infer!ptions on thofe me-with the
dais and coins were drawn in genuine Samaritan cha-Samaritan*
rafters. The learned abbe Barthelemi, in his * differ-* Mem. de
tation “ on the two medals of Antigonus king of Judea,
one of the later Afmonean princes, proves that all the d^lnIcr'i!’
inferiptions on the coins and medals of Jonathan and Si- ‘
mon Maccabeus, and alfo on his, were invariably in the
Samaritan charafter, down to the 40th year before the
Chriftian era.”
It were eafy to prove, from the Midma and Jeru-
falem Talmud, that the Scriptures publicly read in the
lynagogues to the end of the fecond century were writ¬
ten in the Samaritan ebarafter, we mean in the fame
charafter with the Pentateuch in queftion. As the an¬
cient Hebrew, however, ceafed to be the vulgar lan¬
guage of the Jews after their return from the Babylonifh
captivity, the copies of the Bible, especially in private terwards
hands, were accompanied with a Chaldaic paraphrafe j save Piace
and at length the original Hebrew charafter fell into ^ ,tlie Chaii‘
difufe, and the Chaldaic was univerfally adopted.
It now appears that the letters infcribed on tire an¬
cient coins and medals of the Jews were written in the
Samaritan form, and that the Scriptures Avere written
in the very fame charafters : avc fhall therefore leave it
to our readers to judge Avhether (confidering the impla¬
cable hatred Avhich fubfifted between thefe two nations)
it be likely that the one copied from the other 5 or at
leaf! that the Jews preferred to the beautiful letters ufed
by their anceftors, the rude and inelegant charafters of
their moft-detefted rivals. If, then, the inferiptions on
the coins and medals Avere actually in the charafters of
the Samaritan Pentateuch (and it is abfurd to fuppofe
that the JfeAvs borroAved them from the-Samaritans), the
^confequence plainly is, that the letters of the inferiptions
Avere thofe of the original Hebrew alphabet, coeval Avith
that language, Avhich Ave dare to maintain Avas the firft
upon earth.
It may, perhaps, be thought rather fuperfluous to
mention, that the Samaritan colonifts, Avliom the kings
of Affyria planted in the cities of Samaria (r), Avere
natives of countries Avhere Chaldaic letters Avere current,.
and who Avere probably ignorant of the HebreAv lan¬
guage. and charafters. When thofe eolonifts embraced
tile Jewifli religion, they procured a copy of the He¬
brew Pentateuch written in its native charafter, Avhich,
from fuperftition, they preferved inviolate as they re¬
ceived
(o) Aoollodorus, Alexander Polyhiftor, Abydenus. See Syncel/us, cap. 39..^feq. Eitfeb. Chron. lib. i. page 3.
(p) Plin. Nat. Hift. lib. vii. page 413.-——~-Ex- quo apparet ceternus liter arum ufus.
(O.) The celebrated Archbifhop Ufher Avas the firft wlio brought the Samaritan Pentateuch into Europe.
In a letter to Ludovicus Capellus “ he acknowledges, that the frequent mention he had feen made of it by
fome authors, would not fuffer him to be at reft till he. had procured five or fix copies of it from Paleftiue and
Syria.”
(r) 2 Kings, chap. xvii. ver. 24. “ And the king of Affyria brought men from Babylon, and from Cuthah,
and from Avah, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria.” Babylon,
and Cuthab, and Avah, were neighbouring cities, and undoubtedly both fpoke and wrote in the Chaldaic ftyle.
-The natives of Hamath fpoke the Syriac, which at that time differed very little from the Chaldaie.
296
Hebrew
Language.
* Chron. in
anno 4740.
f Prcef 1.
Reg.
30
Which was
introduced
by Ezra.
3i
The He¬
brew
vowels.
PHIL
ceived it) and from it were copied fucceflively the others
which were current in Syria and Paleftine when Arch-
biihop Uiher procured his.
From the reafons above exhibited, we hope it will ap¬
pear, that if the Hebrew alphabet, as it appears in the
Samaritan Pentateuch, wafnot the primitive one, it was
at lead that in which the Holy Scriptures were firft
committed to writing.
Scaliger has inferred, from a paffage in Eufebius
and another in St Jerome f, that Ezra, when he refor¬
med the Jewifti church, tranferibed the Scriptures from
the ancient chara&ers of the Hebrews into the fquare
letters of the Chaldeans. This, he thinks, was done for
the ufe of thofe Jews who, being born during the capti¬
vity, knew no other alphabet than that of the people
among whom they were educated.—This account of the
matter, though probable in itfelf, and fupported by paf-
fages from both Talmuds, has been attacked by Buxtorf
with great learning and no lefs acrimony. Scaliger,
however, has been followed by acrowd of learned men(s),
whofe opinion is now pretty generally efpoufed by the
facred critics.
Having faid fo much concerning the Hebrew alpha¬
bet in the preceding pages, we find ourfelves laid under
a kind of neceflity of hazarding a few ftridlures on the
vowels-and Maforetic points ; theyfry? effential, and the
lajl an appendage, of that ancient language. The
number of the one, and the nature, antiquity, and ne-
ceffity of the other, in order to read the language with
propriety and with diferimination, have been the fubjeft
of much and often illiberal controverfy among philologi¬
cal writers. To enter into a minute detail of the argu¬
ments on either fide, Would require a complete volume :
we (hall, therefore, briefly exhibit the ftate of the con¬
troverfy, and then adduce a few obfervations, which, in
our opinion, ought to determine the queilion.
The.controverfy then is, Whether the Hebrews ufed
any vowels j or whether the points, which are now call¬
ed by that name, were fubftituted inftead of them ? or
if they were, whether they be as old as Mofes, or were
invented by Ezra, or by the Mafforites (t) ? This con¬
troverfy has exercifed the wits of the moft learned cri¬
tics of the two laft centuries, and is ftill far enough
from being determined in the prefent. The Jews main¬
tain, that thefe vowel points (u) were delivered to
Mofes along with the tables of the law $ and confe-
quently hold them as facred as they do the letters them-
felves. Many Chriftian authors who have handled this
lubjeft, though they do not affirm their divine original,
nor their extravagant antiquity, pretend, however, that
they are the only proper vowels in the language, and
regulate and afeertain its true pronunciation. Though
they differ from the Jews with refpedl to the origin of
OLOGiY. • Sea. 1.
thefe points, they yet allow them a pretty high antiqui- Hebrew
ty, aferibing them to Ezra and the members of the great Language,
fynagogue. v—
At length, however, about the middle of the 16th The3\rafo.
century, Elias Levita, a learned German Jew who then retie points
flourifhed at Rome, difeovered the delufion, and madea modem
it appear that thefe appendages had never been in ufeinveutl0n*
till after the writing of the talmuds, about 500 years
after Chrilt. This innovation raifed Elias a multitude
of adverfaries, both of his own country men and Chrift-
ians. Among the latter appeared the two Buxtorfs,
the father and the.fon, who produced fome cabbaliili-
cal books of great antiquity (x), at leaf! in the opinion
of the Jews, in which there wTas exprefs mention of the
points. The Buxtorfs were anfwered by Capellus and
other critics *, till Father Morinusf, having examined * Walton,
all that had been urged on both fides, produced his Dupin, ani
learned diflertation on that fubjeft •, againft which there
has been nothing replied of any confequenee, whilft his ‘
work has been univerfally admired, and his opinion
confirmed by thofe that have beaten the fame field after
him.
According to this learned father, it plainly appears
that neither Origen, nor St Jerome, nor even the
compilers of the talmuds, knew any thing of what has
been called the vowel points 5 and yet thefe books, ac¬
cording to the fame author, vTere not finilhed till the
feventh century. Even the Jewilh rabbis who wrote >
during the eighth and ninth centuries, according to him,
were not in the leaflr acquainted with thefe points. He
adds, that the firft vefliges he could trace of them were
in the writings of Rabbi Ben Aber chief of the weftern,
and of Rabbi Ben Naphtali chief of the eaftern, fchool,
that is, about the middle of the tenth century j fo that
they can hardly be faid to be older than the beginning
of that period.
Some learned men (y) have aferibed the invention
of the vowel points in queftion to the rabbis of the
fchool of Tiberias ; which, according to them, flourilh-
ed about the middle of the fecond century. This opi¬
nion is by no means probable, becaufe it appears plain
from hiftory, that before that period all the Jewifti fe-
minaries in that province were deftroyed, and their heads
forced into exile. Some of thefe retired into Babylonia,
and fettled at Sora, Naherds, and Pombeditha, where
they eftabliftied famous univerfities. After this era,
there remained no more any rabbinical fchools in Judaea,
headed by profeffors capable of undertaking this difficult
operation, nor indeed of fufficient authority to recom¬
mend it to general pradtice, had they been ever fo
thoroughly qualified for executing it.
Capellus and Father Morin, wbo contend for the
late introdudlion of the vowel-points, acknowledge
that
(s) Cafaubon, Grotius, Voffius, Bochart, Morin, Brerewood, Walton, Prideaux, Huet, and Lewis Capel, al¬
ways a fworn enemy to Buxtorf. All thefe have maintained the fame ground with Scaliger: how truly, appears
above.
(t) The term mnfornh or majforeth fignifies tradition j” and imports the unwritten canon by which the read¬
ing and writing of the facred books was fixed.
(u) Thefe points are 14 in number, whofe figures, names, and effedls, may be feen in moft Hebrew grammars.
(x) Thefe books are the Bahir, Zahar, and the Kiwi. As for the Kizri, the Jews make it about 1900 years
old j and the other about a century later. But the fidelity of the Jews in fuch matters cannot be relied upon.
(y) See Buxtorf the father, in Tiber, cap. 5, 6, 7. Buxtorf the fon, de Antiq. Pundt. P. II. 11.
Sett I. J PHILO
Hebrew that there cau certainly be no language without vocal
Language. founclSi which are indeed the foul and eflfence of fpeech j
{jUt they affirm that the Hebrew alphabet actually con¬
tains vowel characters, as well as the Greek and Latin
^ and the alphabets of modern Europe. Thefe are alepk,
Tat mains he, vau,joct. Thefe they call the matres IcBiotiis, or,
llttionis. if you pleafe, the parents of reading. To thefe fome,
we think very properly, add am or oin, ajin. Thefe,
thev conclude, perform exaCtly the fame office in He¬
brew that their defcsndants do in Greek. It is indeed
agreed upon all hands, that the Greek alphabet is de¬
rived from the Phoenician, which is known to be the
fame with- the Samaritan or Hebrew. This pofition
we ffiall prove more fully when we come to trace the
origin of the Greek tongue. Hitherto the analogy is
not only plaunble, but the refemblance precife. The
Hebrews and Samaritans employed thefe vowels exaft-
ly in the fame manner with the Greeks •, and fo all was
eafy and natural.
Objections But the affertors of the Maforetic fyftem maintain
anfwered. that the letters mentioned above are net vowels but
confonants or afpiratiqns, or any thing you pleafe but
vocal letters. This they endeavour to prove from their
ufe among the Arabians, Perfians, and other oriental
nations : But to us it appears abundantly flrange to fup-
pofe that the Greeks pronounced beta, gamma, delta,
&c. exaftly as the Hebrews and the Phoenicians did,
and yet at the fame time did not adopt their mode of
pronunciation with refpeCt to the five letters under confi-
deration. To this argument wre think every objection
siuft undoubtedly yield. The Greeks borrowed their
letters from the Phoenicians ; thefe letters were the
Hebrew or Samaritan. The Greeks wrote and (z)
pronounced all the other letters of their alphabet, ex¬
cept the five in queftion, in the fame manner with their
originals of the eaft : if they did fo, it obvioufiy follows
that the Greek and oriental office of thefe letters was
■the fame.
Another objedion to reading the Hebrew without
the aid of the Maforetic vowel points, arifes from the
eonfideration, that without thefe there will be a great
number of radical Hebrew words, both nouns *md verbs,
without any vowel intervening amongft the confonants,
which is certainly abfurd. Notwithftanding this fup-
pofed abfurdity, it is a well known faCt, that all the
copies of the Hebrew Scripture, ufed in the Jewiffi fyna-
gogues throughout the world, are written .or printed
without points. Thefe copies are deemed facred, and
kept in a coffer with the greatcft care, in allufion to the
ark of the teftimony in the tabernacle and temple. The
prefeCt, however, reads the portions of the law and ha-
giographa without any difficulty. The fatoe is done by
the remains of the Samaritans at this day. Every ori¬
ental fcholar knows that the people of thefe cCuntries
look upon confonants as the {lamina of words. Accord¬
ingly, in writing letters, in difpatches upon bufinefs, and
all affairs of fmall moment, the vowels are generally
•omitted. It is obvious, that in evefy original lan¬
guage the found of the vowels is variable and of little
importance. Such was the cafe with the Hebrew
Vol. XVI. Part I.
(z) This is fo true, that, according to Hefychius and
fread.”
LOG Y. 297
tongue : Nor do we think that the natives of the coun- Hebrew
try w7ould find it a matter of much difficulty to learn kanguage^
to read without the help of the vowels. They knew
the words beforehand, and fo might readily enough
learn by praCtice what vowels were to be inferted.
When the Hebrew became a dead language, as it
certainly was in a great meafure to the vulgar after
the return from the Babyloniffi captivity j fuch fub-
fidiaries might we think, have been ufeful, and of
Courfe might poffibly have been adopted for the ufe
of the vulgar : but the fcribe, the lawyer, and the learn¬
ed rabbi, probably difdained fuch beggarly elements.
We fhall in this place hazard a conjeCture, which, to us
at leait, is altogether new. We imagine that the Phce-
nicians, who were an inventive, ingenious people, had.,
prior to the age of Cadmus, who firit brought their let¬
ters into Greece, adopted the more commodious method
of inferting the vowels in their proper places ; whereas
the Jews, zealoufly attached to the cuftoms of their
ancettors, continued to write and read without them. In
this manner the Gtphuraei *, who were the followers * Her'ti.
of Cadmus, communicated them to the Jones their hb. i.
neighbours. We are convinced that the materials of taP- S6"
the Greek tongue are to be gleaned up in the eaff ; and
upon that ground have often endeavoured to trace the
origin of Greek words in the Hebrew, Phoenician,
Chaldean, and Arabian languages. Reading without
the vowel points we have leldom failed in our fearch $
but when we followed the method of reading by the p 35^
Maforetic points, we feldom fucceeded ; and this, wre ];e v-afQ_
believe, every man of tolerable erudition who will retic points
make a trial will find by experience to be true. This ate mo-
argument appears to us fuperior to every objeftion. dern.
Upon this bafis, the moft learned Bochart has erctffed
his etymological fabric, which will be admired by the
learned and ingenious as long as philology {hall be cul¬
tivated by men.
It has been urged by the zealots for the Maforctic
fyftem, that the Arabians and Perfians employ the vowel
points. That they do fo at prefent is readily granted ;
but whether they did fo from the beginning feems to be
the queftion. That Arabia was overfpread with Jewifti
exiles at a very early period, is abundantly certain. It
was natural for them to retire to a land where they
would not hear of war nor the found of the trumpet.
Accordingly we find that, prior to the age of the Ara¬
bian impoftor, Arabia fwarmed with Jewiffi fettlements.
From thefe Jew's, it is highly probable that their neigh¬
bours learned 'he ufe of the points in queftion ; which
in the courfe of their conquefts the Saracens communi¬
cated to the Perfians.
It has been alleged with great ffiow of reafon, that
without the vowel points, it is often impoffible to de-
velope the genuine fignification of many words which
occur frequently in the language : many words of dif¬
ferent and fometimes1 oppofite fignifications are written
with exaflly the fame confonants. Without the points,
then, how.are we to know the diftinftion ? In anfwer •
to this objection, we beg leave to obferve, that, during
the firft period of a language, it is impoffible that there
P p # (hould
Suidas, tptmxtfyiv, to a& the Phoenician, fignified “ to
298
Hebrew
Language.
* Connect.
part i.
book, i.
3<*
From Ori-
gen’s Hex-
apla,
P HILO
#
fhould nbt occur a number of flmilar founds of differ¬
ent fignifications. This is furely to be attributed to the
poverty of the language. When a few terms have
been once fabricated, men will rather annex new fig¬
nifications to old terms, than be at the expence of
time or thought to invent new ones. This muff have
been the cafe with the Hebrew in particular •, and in¬
deed no language on earth is without inftanees of this
inconveniency, which, however, in a living tongue; is
eafily overcome by a difference of accent, tone, gef-
ture, pronunciation j all which, ive think, might ob¬
viate the difficulty.
From the preceding arguments, we think ourfelves
authorifed to infer that the Mafora is a novel fyftem,
utterly unknown to the moft ancient Jews, and never
admitted into thofe copies of the Scriptures Avhich
Avere deemed moft facred and moft authentic by that
people.
With refpeft to the original introduflion of the
points, we agree Avith the learned and judicious * Dr
Prideaux, Avho imagines that they Avere gradually in¬
troduced after the Hebrew became a dead language,
with a vieiv to facilitate the learning to read that lan¬
guage, more efpecially among the vulgar. By ivhom }
they Avere introduced, Ave think, cannot eafily be de¬
termined 5 nor is it probable that they Avere all intro¬
duced at once, or by one and the fame perfon. They
have been afcribed to Ezra by many, for no other
reafon that Ave can difcover but to enhance their au¬
thenticity, and* becaufe the fentiment is analogous to
the other articles of reformation eftabliffied by that holy
prieft. If our curious reader fliould not be fatisfied
Avith the preceding detail, Ave muff remit him to Ca-
pellus and Morinus on the one fide, and the Iavo Bux-
torfs, Schultens, and Dr James Robertfon late profeffor
of oriental languages in the univerfity of Edinburgh,
on the other. This learned orientaliftr, in his differta-
tion prefixed to his C/avis Pentateuchi, has collefled
and arranged, Avith the true fpirit of criticifm, every
thing that has been advanced in favour of the Maforeti-
cal fyftem.—Si Pergama dcxlra dcfeudi pojjent, etiamhac
defenfa fuijfcnt.
St Origen, who flourifhed about the beginning of
the 3d century, Avas a profound Hebrew fcholar. He
publifhed a moft laborious and learned Avork, Avhich is
generally called the Hexap/a, becaufe it confifted of fix
columns; the firft of Avhich contained the HebreAv text;
the fecond, the fame text, but Avritten in Greek cha-
rafters : the third column exhibited the verfion of A-
quila ; the fourth that of Symmachus; the fifth, the
Septuagint ; and the fixth, the verfion of Theodotan.
In fome fragments of that vaft Avork Avhich are ftill
extant, Ave have a fpecimen of the manner in Avhich
the HebreAv Avas pronounced in the third century, by
Avhich it appears that it Avas very different from that
which refults from obfe.rving the Maforetical points.
The folloAving is an inftance copied from the beginning
©f Genefis.
According to OR1GEN,
Brefith bara Eloeim eth afamaim oueth aares.
Ouaarea aietha Thoau ouboou ouofekh al phne The-
&m ourou6 el&eim maraepheth al phne amaim.
OuiSmer eloeim iei or ouiei or.
4.
LOGY. Sea. I.
Ouiar el6eim eth adr khi t6b ouiabd^l eloeim ben aor Hebrew
ouben abfekh. Language.
According to the MasORITES.
Bereftiith bara Elohim eth alhamajim veeth aaretz.
Veaaretz ajetha thoou vaboou, vekhofliek gnal pene
theom verouakh elohim merakhepheth gnal pene ham-
maim.
Vai'omer elohim jehi or, vajehi or.
Vajare elohim eth aor ki tob vajabedel elohim bein
aor oubein hakhoftiek.
Upon the whole, Ave prefume to give it as our opi¬
nion, that in the moft early periods, the voavcIs, aleph,
he, jod or yod, vaw or waw, and perhaps oin or ajin,
were regularly written Avlieretfer they Avere founded. ^
This td us appears plain from the practice of the an-and the
cient Greeks. It is agreed on all hands that the Sa-pradtice of
maritan and Phoenician alphabets Avere the fame ; and^^611*
that the former was that of the Jcavs originally. The
Phoenicians certainly Avrote the votvels exactly, for fo
did the Greeks who copied their alphabet: If the Phoe¬
nicians Avrote their votvels, fo then did the Jcavs of the
age of Cadmus; but Cadmus Avas contemporary with
fome of the earlieft judges of Ifrael; the confequence is
evident, namely, that the Jews Avrote their voAvels as
late as the arrival of that colony-chief in Greece. We
ought naturally to judge of the HebreAv by the Chal-
daic, Syriac, and Arabian, its lifter dialefts. All thefe
languages in ancient times had their voavcIs regularly
inferted ; and Avhy not the HebreAv in the fame man¬
ner Avith the reft ?
As thefe firft voAvels which were coeval with the 0-
ther letters, often varied in their found and application,
the points, in all appearance, Avere firft invented and
employed to afcertain their different founds in different
connexions. Other marks might be invented to point
out the various tones of voice, like the row, or accents,
Avith Avbich the voAvels were to be enounced, as Avas
done among the later Greeks. In procefs of time, in
order to promote celerity of Avriting, the vowels Avere
omitted, and the points fubftituted in their place.
Before Ave conclude our obfervations on the Hebrew
language, Ave ought, perhaps, to make an apology
for omitting !to interlard our details with quotations-
from the two Talmuds, the Miftma, the Gemara, the
Cabbalas, and a multitude of rabbinical writers who
are commonly cited upon fuch an occafion. We be¬
lieve we could have quoted almoft numberlefs pafla-
ges from the tAvo Buxtorfs, Father Morin, Capellus,
and other HebreAv critics, with no great trouble to
ourfelves, and little emolument to the far greater part,
of our readers. But our opinion is that fuch a pedan¬
tic difplay of philological erudition Avould probably
have excited the mirth of our learned, and roufed the
indignation of our unlearned, readers. Our Aviih is,
to gratify readers of both defcriptions, by contributing
to the edification of one clafs Avithout difgufting the
other.
We cannot, Ave imagine, fairly take leave of the
facred language, without giving a brief detail of thofe
excellencies Avhich, in our opinion, give it a juft claim
to the fuperiority over thofe other tongues Avhich
have fometimes contended Avith it for the prize of anti-
quity s.
Seft. I.
Hebrew quity: and of tliefe the following in our apprehenfion
Language (jeferve particular notice.
'——v——' this language may claim any advantage over its
Excellen- antagonifts, with refpeft to its being rather a mother
cies of the than a daughter to any of them, it is undoubtedly in
Hebrew confequence of its fimplicity, its purity, its energy, its
language. fecun(jity ofexprefhons and fignifications. In all thefe,
notwithftanding its paucity of words, it excels the vaft
variety of other languages which are its cognate dialers.
To thefe we may add the fignifieancy of the names,
both of men and brutes; the nature and properties of
the latter of which are more clearly and more fully ex¬
hibited by their names in this than in any other tongue
hitherto known. Befides, its well authenticated anti¬
quity and the venerable tone of its writings furpafs any
thing left upon record in any other dialed now extant
in the world. Thefe extraordinary qualities excite our
admiration at prefent under every difadvantage ; and
from this circumftahee we may infer its incomparable
beauty in the age of the Jewifh legislator, and what ef¬
fects it would naturally produce, could we know it
now as it was fpcken and written in the days of David
and Solomon.
As far, however, as we underiland it in its prefent
mutilated condition, and are able to judge of its cba-
rafler from thofe few books that have come .down to
our time, we plainly perceive that its genius is fimple,
primitive, natural, and exaclly Conformable to the cha-
ra&er of thofe uncultivated patriarchs whoufed it them-
felves, and tranfmitted it to their defcendants in its
native purity and fimplicity. Its words are compara¬
tively few, yet concife and exprtfiive; derived from a
very fmall number of radicals, without the artificial
compofition of modern languages. No tongue, ancient
or modern, can rival it in the happy and rich fecundity
of its verbs, refulting from the variety and fignificaney
of its conjugations; which are fo admirably arranged
and diverfified, that by changing a letter or two of the
primitive, they exprefs the,various modes of afling,
fullering, motion, reft, $ic. in iuch a precife and figni-
ficant manner,that frequently in one word they convey
an idea which, in anv other language, would require a
tedious paraphrafe. Tliefe pofitions might ealdy be il-
luftrated by numerous examples; but to the Hebrew7
fcholar thefe would be fuperfluous, ami to the illiterate
clafs neither interefting nor entertaining.
To thefe we may add the monofyllabic tone of the
language, which, by a few prefixes and affixes without,
afte&ing the radix, varies the fignificathm aim oft at
pleafure, while the method of aftixine the per fan to
the verb exhibits the gender of the object introduced.
In the nouns of this language there is no flexion except
what is neceffary to point out the difference of gender
and number. Its cafes are diftinguiftied bv articles,
which are ontv {ingle letters at the beginning of the
word: the pronouns are only fingle letters affixed; and
the prepofition* are of the fame charaider prefixed to
words. Its words follow one another m an eafv and
natural arrangement, without intricacy «r tvarsfpofifion,
without fufpending the attention or involving the ftnfc
by intricate and artificial periods. All thefe ftriking
and peculiar excellencies combined, nlainlv demonftrate
the beauty, the ftability, and antiquity of the language
under confideralion.
299
We would not, however, be thought to infinuate Hebrew
that this tongue continued altogether without changes LanSuage'^
and imperfeftions. We admit that many radical words ""
of it were loft in a courfe of ages, and that foreign ones
were fubftituted in their place. The long fojourning of
the Ifraelites in Egypt, and their clofe connexion with
that people, even quoadfucra, muft have introduced a
multitude of Egyptian vocables and phrafes into the
vulgar dialed! at leaft, which muft have gradually in¬
corporated with the written language, and in procefs of
time have become parts of its enence. In Egypt, the
Ifraelites imbibed thofe principles of idolatry which no¬
thing lefs than the final extirpation of their polity coulcl
eradicate. If that people were fo obllinately attached
to the Egyptian idolatry, it is not very probable that
they would be averfe from the Egyptian language.
Befides, the Scripture informs us, that there came up
out of Egypt a mixed multitude; a circumftance which
muft have infedted the Hebrew tongue with the dialed!
of Egypt. As none of the genuine Hebrew radicals
exceed three letters, whatever words exceed that num¬
ber in their radical (late may be juftly deemed of fo¬
reign extradlion.
Some Hebrew critics have thought that verbs confti-
tute the radicals of the whole language; but this opin¬
ion appears to us ill founded: for though many Hebrew
nouns are undoubtedly derived from verbs, we find at
the fame time numbers of the latter deduced from the
former. . . 39
Before we conclude our detail of the Hebrew tongue, Hutchinfo*
a few of our readers may poflibly imagine that weniamim.
ought to give fome account of the Hutchinfoni^n fy-
ftem; a fyftem fo highly in vogue not many years ago.
But as this allegorical fcheme of interpretation is now
in a manner exploded, we fhall beg leave to remit our
curious Hebraift to Mr Holloway’s Originals, a fmall
book in 2 vols 8vo, but rdplete with multifarious erudi¬
tion, efpecially in the Hutchinfonian ftyle and charac-
iat.—Tides Jit penes autorem.
SECT. II. The Arabic Language.
Wf, now proceed to give fome account of the Arabian Arabic lan-
Janguage, which is evidently one of the filter diaie&s jjuage ori-
of the Hebrew7. Both, we imagine, wmre originally Rinall>
the fame; the former highly improved and enlarged;t)rew*
the latter, in appearance, retaining its original fimplici¬
ty and rude afpe<?f, fpoken by a people of a genius by
no means inventive. In this inquiry, too, as in the for- .
mer, we ftmll fpare ourfelves the trouble of defeending
to the grammatical minutii* of the tongue; a method
which, we are perl'uaded, would neither gratify our
learned nor tdify our unlearned readers. To thofe who
are Inclined to acquire thefirrt elements of that various,
copious, and highly miproved tongue, we beg to re¬
commend Erpenii Rudimenta Ling. Arab.; Go/ii Gram.
Afab.; the Differtations of Hariri, tranfiated by the
elder SchuHcns; Mr Hichardfon’s Perfic and Arabic
Gram. &c. _ **
Wt* have pronounced the Hebrew and Arabian fifter
dialers; a relation which, as far as w7e know, has
been feldom controverted: but we think there is au¬
thentic hiftorieal evidence that they were pofitively one
and the fame, at a period when the one as well as the
P p 2 other
PHILOLOGY.
300
Arabic other appeared in its infant unadorned iimplicity. The
Language. f0n0VVjng detail will, we hope, fully authenticate the
v truth of our polition.
* Gen- x‘ “ Unto Eber (fays the Scripture *) were born two
25' fons. The name of one was Peleg, becaufe in his days
the earth was divided ; and his brother’s name was Jok-
tan,” or rather Yoktan. This laft, fays the facred hif-
torian, “ had thirteen fons ", and their dwelling reached
from Media (Mocha) to Sephar (a),” a mount of the
eaft. According to this account, the defeendants of
Yoktan poflefled all the maritime coafts of Arabia from
Media (Mocha) to Mount Sephar towards the eaft of
that peninfula. Mofes, deferibing the rivers of para-
f Gen. 11, te]is that one of the branches of that river f
“ encompafled the whole land of Havilah, where there
was great dore of gold.” Havilah was the twelfth fon
of Yoktan, whom the Arabians call Kobtan •, and con-
fequently his territory was fituated towards the eadern
limit of the podedions of the poderity of the younged
Ion of Eber. Yoktan or Kobtan was too young to be
concerned in the building of the tower ; and confequent-
ly retained the language of his family, which was un¬
doubtedly the Hebrew. His defeendants mud have
carried the fame language into their refpeftive fettle-
ments, where it mud have been tranfmitted to fucceed-
ing generations. The original language of all the tribes
of the Arabians who inhabit a vad tra£t of country
along the fouthern diore, according to this deduction,
was that of their father Kobtan, that is, the Hebrew.
Indeed, the mod learned Arabians of modern times un-
animoufly acknowledge this patriarch as the founder of
their language as well as of their nation.
The other didricts of Arabia -were peopled by the off-
fpring of Abraham. The Ifhmaelites, the poderity of
that patriarch by Hagar, penetrated into the very cen¬
tre of the peninfula ; incorporated, and in procefs of
time became one people with the Kobtanites. Another
region was pofleffed by the children of the fame holy
man by Cheturah his fecond wife. The Moabites, Am¬
monites, Edomites, Amalekites, &c. who fettled in
the various regions of Arabia Petraea, were all branches
of Abraham’s family, and ufed the fame language with
their great progenitor. The Scripture indeed fpeaks of
people who inhabited the country lad mentioned prior
• to the branches of Abraham’s family •, but thefe, accord¬
ing to the fame hidory, were extirpated by the for¬
mer. The conclufion then is, if we credit the Mo-
faic account, that all the inhabitants of the three divi-
fions of Arabia did, in the earlied periods, univerfally
nfe the Hebrew tongue.
There was, we are fendble, a region of Arabia inha¬
bited by the Cudiim, or defeendants of Cufh. This
didrift was fituated on the confines of Babylonia. Our
tranflators have confounded this country with the mo¬
dern Ethiopia*, and have confequently aferibed the ex¬
ploits of the Arabian Cudiim to the Ethiopians. The A-
rabian kings of Babylon were of thofe Culhim. Thefe
were conquered and expelled Babylonia by the Chafi-
dimv Thefe fpoke the Chaldean dialeft, as will appear
when we come to fpeak of that of the Abyflinians.
Sea. II.
Here the candid reader is defired to refleft that the Arabic
Elebrew and Chaldaic are cognate dialefts. Language.
The foregoing proofs, deduced from the Mofaic hi- v~ ^
dory, will be corroborated by a mat’s of internal evi¬
dence in the fucceeding parts of our inquiry.
The Arabic tongue, originally pure Hebrew, was in Gradually
procefs of time greatly transformed and altered from its deviated
dmple unfophidicated date. The Arabians were di-
vided into many different tribes 5 a circumdance which
naturally produced many different dialefts. Thefe,
however, were not of foreign growth. No foreign ene¬
my ever conquered thofe independent hordes. The
Perfians, Greeks, and Romans, fometimes attempted
to invade their territories j but the roughnefs of the
ground, the fcarcity of forage, the penury of water,
and their natural bravery, always protefted them.
They were indeed once invaded by the Abyffmians
or Ethiopians -with fome Ihow of fuccefs j but thefe
invaders were in a diort time expelled the country*.
Their language, of confequence, was never adultera¬
ted with foreign words or exotic phrafes and idioms.
Whatever augmentations or improvements it received
were derived from the genius and induftry of the na¬
tives, and not from adventitious or imported aequiff-
tions. From this circumfiance we may juftly infer,
that the Arabian tongue was a long time frationary,
and of courfe differed in no confiderable” degree from
its Hebrew archetype. The learned Schultens, in his
Commentary on Job, hath fliown, to the conviftion of
every candid inquirer, that it is impoflible to underfiand
that fublime compofition without having recourfe to the
Arabic idioms. That patriarch was a Chuzite. His
country might be reckoned a part of Arabia. His
three friends were aftually Arabians, being the defeend¬
ants of Ifiimael and Efau. His country bordered with
that of.the predatory Chaldeans, who were an Arabian
banditti. When we confider all thefe cireumftances m
cumulo, we are ftrongly inclined to believe that the book
of Job was aftually written in Arabic, as the language
flood at that period j which, according to the moft pro¬
bable opinion, could not have been later than the age of
Mofes. The learned are generally agreed that this
whole book, the three firft chapters excepted, is a poeti¬
cal compofition, replete with the moft brilliant and moft
magnificent imagery, the boldeft, the jufteft, and moft
gorgeous tropes and allufions, and a grandeur of fenti-
ment wholly divine. Whoever has read the poetical
compofitions of the modern Arabians, on divine fubjefts,
with any degree of tafte, will, we flatter ourfelves, dif-
cover a ftriking fimilarity both of diftion and fenti-
ment. Be this as it may, we think there is no reafon to
conclude that the Arabic dialeft deviated much from
the Hebrew ftandard prior to the Chriftian era.
Of thofe different dialefts which prevailed among the
various tribes among which the peninfula of Arabia was principal
divided, the principal w'ere the Hemyaret and the Ko-dialeds cL
reifh. Though fome of thefe were tributary to the Arabia.
Tobbas, or Hemyaret fovereign of Arabia Felix, yet
they took no great pains to cultivate the language of
that province, and of courfe thefe people did not tho¬
roughly
PHILOLOGY.
(a) Sephar, in the Septuagint and in fome editions : hence probably Orig. in Job
tfhap. xxii. ver. 14. ?ut Egpjysi# r»jy uietu
Sect. II.
Arabic rouglily under ft and it. As for the independent tribes,
Language, jiac} uo temptation to cultivate any other language
than their own.
The Koreifh tribe was the nobleft and the moft learn¬
ed of all the weftern Arabs *, and the kaaba, or fquare
temple of Mecca, was before the era of Mohammed
folely under their proteftion. This temple drew an¬
nually a great concourfe of pilgrims from every Ara¬
bian tribe, and indeed from every other country where
the Sabian religion prevailed. The language of the
Koreifh was ftudied with emulation by the neighbouring
tribes. Numbers of the pilgrims were people of the
firft rank, and pofleffed all the fcience peculiar to^heir
country or their age. Great fairs were held during
their refidence at Mecca, and a variety of gay amufe-
ments-filled up the intervals of thair religious duties.
In thefe entertainments literary compofitions bore the
higheft and moft: diftinguilhed rank ; every man of ge¬
nius confidering not his own reputation alone, but even
that of his nation or his tribe, as interefted in his fuc-
cefs. Poetry and rhetoric were chiefly efteemed and
admired 5 the firft being looked upon as highly orna¬
mental, and the other as a neceffary accompliftnnent in
the education of every leading man. An aflembly at
a place called Ocadh, had been in confequence eftabliftr-
ed about the end of the fixth century, where all were
Thetiialetft admitted to a rivalfhip of genius. T he merits of their
oftbeKo- refpeflive prodmftions were impartially determined by
the aflembly at large ; and the moft approved of their
poems, written on filk, in characters of gold, rvere with
much folemnity fufpended in the temple, as the higheft
mark of honour which could be conferred on literary
merit. Thefe poems were called the Moallabat, “ fu¬
fpended,” or Modhabebat, “ golden.” Seven of thefe
are ftill preferved in many European libraries.
From this uncommon attention to promote emulation,
and refine their language, the dialect of the Koreifh be¬
came the pureft, the richeft, and the moft polite, of all
the Arabian idioms. It was ftudied with a kind of pre-
dile£fion *, and about the beginning of the feventh cen¬
tury it was the general language of Arabia, the other-
dialects being either incorporated with it, or Aiding
gradually into difufe. By this lingular idiomatic union
the Arabic has acquired a prodigious fecundity } whilft
the luxuriance of fynonymes, and the equivocal or oppo-
fite fenfes of the fame or fimilar words, hath furnifhed
their writers with a wonderful power of indulging, in
the fulleft range, their favourite paflion for antithefis
and quaint allufion. One inftance of this we have in
the word veli; which fignifies a prince, friend, and alfo
a Jlave. This fame word, with the change of one letter
only, becomes vah ; which, without equivocation, im¬
ports a fovereign. Examples of this kind occur in al-
moft every page of every Arabic dictionary.
But all thefe advantages of this incomparable lan
PHILOLOGY.
reifli be¬
came the
politeft,
and why.
.44
1>is fnpe
kko    ' O 1 1 • 1
>rity mo- guage are merely modern, and do not reach higher
wn.
than the beginning of the fixth century. Prior to that
era, as we have obferved above, a variety of dialects ob¬
tained ; and as the Arabs were by their fituation in a
manner fequeftered from all the reft of mankind, it
. may not perhaps be fuperfluous to inquire briefly into
the caule and origin of this inftantaneous and univerfal
change.
For a courfe of more than 20 centuries, the Arabians
had been ftmt up within the narrow limits of their own
3
301
peninfula, and in a great me&fure feclud^d from the reft Arabic
of the world. Their commerce with India was purely lin^Ut‘gg*,
mercantile, and little calculated to excite or promote
intelledlual improvements. They traded with the
Egyptians from time immemorial 5 but fince the inva-
fion and ufurpation of the paftor kings, every fhepherd,
that is, every Arabian, was an abomination to the
Egyptians. Froip that quarter, therefore, they could
not derive much intelleftual improvement. Befides,
when an extenfive territory is parcelled out among a
number of petty fepts or clans, the feuds and contefts
which originate from interfering interefts and terri¬
torial difputes, leave but little time, andlefs inclination,
for the culture of the mind. In thefe circumftances, the-
military art alone will be cultivated, and the proftftion-
of arms alone will be deemed honourable. Of confe¬
quence, Ave find that, in the general opinion, poetry, rhe¬
toric, and the profeflion of arms, rvere the only iciences
cultivated by the people in queftion. As for the icience
of arms, we are convinced that it Avas both ftudied and
praftifed at a very early period but as to the tAVO former,
Ave imagine they were very late acquifitions, and fprung
from fome circumrtance external and adventitious.
The tribe of the Koreifh were much engaged in
commerce. They exported frankincenfe, myrrh, caflia,
galbanum, and other drugs and fpices, to Duma feus,
Tripoli, Palmyra, and other commercial cities of Syria
and its neighbourhood. Upon thefe occafions the Ara¬
bian traders muft have become acquainted with the..
Greek language, and perhaps with the more amufing
and affe&ing parts of the Grecian literature. They
might hear of the high renoAvn of Homer and De-
mofthenes; and it is not impoflible that fome of them
might be able to read their compofitions. Every body
knows Avith w hat unremitting ardour the learned Arabs,
under the firft caliphs, perufed and tranflated the philo-
fophical AA'orks of the Grecian fages. Ihe very fame
fpirit might animate their predeceflbrs, though they
Avanted learning, and perhaps public encouragement, to
aroufe their exertions. From this quarter, avc think,
the Arabs may have learned to admire, and then to
imitate, the Grecian Avorthies.
The Ptolemies of Egypt Avere the profelfed patrons
of commerce as Avell as of learning. Under thefe prin¬
ces all nations Avere invited to trade Avith that, happy
country. The Arabs, now no longer fettered by E-
gyptian jealonfy, carried their precious commodities to
Alexandria ; Avhere the Grecian literature, though no
longer in its meridian fplendour, (hone however with a %
clear unfaded luftre. The court of the firft Ptolemies
Avas the retreat of all the moft celebrated geniufes of
Greece and of the age; in a Avord, Alexandria Avas the
native land of learning and ingenuity. Here the inge¬
nious Arab muft have heard the praifes of learning in-
ceflantly proclaimed ; muft have been often prefent at
the public exhibitions of the poets and orators *, and
even though he did not underftand them exactly, might
be charmed with the melody of the di&ion, and ftruck
Avith furprife at their effe61s on the audience. Thej^ead-
cr Avill pleafe to refleft, that the Arabian traders Avere
the firft men of the nation, both with refpeft to birth, ^
learning, and fortune. Thefe Avife men, to ufe the lan-jn^itutj0R
guage of Scripture, infpired with the natural curiofity at Mecca
of their race, might hear of the celebrated Olympic ^ar to
games, the public recitations before that aflbmbly, andk® ^1'
:02 PHILO
Arabic t]lc glorious prfcze bellowed upon tbe conquerors. Such
, '“in^uaec- information might animate them to inilitute fomething
parallel at Mecca, with a view to improve their lan¬
guage, and at the fame time to derive honour and emo¬
lument to themfelves. The K ore if] urn might promife
themfelves the like advantages from the eftablifhment
of the bur and aiTembly at Ocaflh, as the natives of Elis
drew from the inflitution of the Olympic games. For
thefe reafons, we conjecture, the literary competitions at
the place juft mentioned were infUtuted at fo late a pe¬
riod, though the nation had exifled more than 2000
vears before the eftablifhment of this anniverfary.
Upon the whole, we are inclined to believe, that the
Arabs, notwithftanding all the fine things recorded of
them by their own poetical hiftorians, and believed per¬
haps too eafily by thofe of other countries, were in the
days of ignorance like the earlieft Romans, latroties et
femibarbari. For our part, we think it by no means
probable, that a people of that charaCler fhould, after
fo long a courfe of years, have ftumbUd upon fo lauda¬
ble and fo beneficial an inftitution, without taking the
hint from fume foreign one of a fimilar complexion.
This we acknowledge is only a conjecture, and as fuch
it is fubmitted to the judgment of the reader.
There were, as has been obferved above, two princi¬
pal dialects "of the original Arabic: The Hamyarite
fpoken by the genuine Arabs, and the Koreifhite or pure
, Arabic, which at laft became the general language of
that people. The former of thefe inclined towards the
Svriac or Chaldean ; the latter being, according to them,
the language of Ifhmael, was deeply tinctured with the
Hebrew.idiom. The oriental writers tell us that Te
rah,‘the grandfather of Hamyar, Was the firft whofe
language deviated from the Svriac to the Arabic.
Hence, fay they, the Hamyaritic dialed muft have ap¬
proached nearer to the purity of the Syriac, and of confe-
quence muft have been more remote from the true ge¬
nius of the Arabic than that of anv of the other tribes.
The faft feems to ftand thus: The Hamyarites were
neighbours to the Chaldeans and Syrians, and confe-
quentlv were connected with thofe people by commerce,
wars, alliances, &c. This circumftance introduced in¬
fo their language many phrafes and idioms from both
thefe nations. That Terah was concerned in adultera¬
ting t*he dialeft of the Hamyarites, is a mere oriental
legend, fabricated by the Mabs after’they began to per-
ufe the Hebrew Scriptures. The Koreifh being fituated
in the centre of Arabia, were lef? expofed to intercourfe
with foreigners, and therefore preferved their language
46 more pure and untainted.
1'he Koran The learned well know, that the Koran was Written
Tr-niin the dialed of the Koreifh*, a circumftance which
dialed! communicated additional fplendour to that branch of 'lie
Arabian tongue. It has been proved, that the language
of the original inhabitants of Arabia was genuine He
brew *, but upon this fuppofition a queftion will arife,
namely, whether the Arabians aftually preferved their
original tongue pure and unfophifticated during a fpace
of ^%)00 years, which elapfed between the deluge and
birth of Mohammed ? or, whether, during that period,
according to the ordinary courfe of human affairs, jt
underwent many changes and deviations from the origi¬
nal ftandard ?
The adrgirers of that language ftrenuouflv maintain
the former pofition j others, who are more moderate in
logy. Sea. II,
their attachment, are difpofed to admit the latter. Arabic
Chardin obferves of the oriental languages in general, language,
that they do not vary and fluctuate with time like the
European tongues*. “ Ce qu’il y a de plus admirable,* Voyage,
dit il, et de plus remarquable, dans ces langues, Celt, V0‘ iii.
qu’elles ne changent point, et n’ont point change du^'^*
tout, foi h Regard de termes, foil a Regard du tour :
lien n’y eft, ni nouveau ni vieux, nulle bonne fa^on
de parler, n’a ceffe d'etre en credit. L’Alcoran, par
cxemple, eft aujourdhui, comme il y a mille annees, le
modele de plus pure, plus courte, et plus eloquente dic¬
tion.” It is not to our purpofe to tranferibe the remain¬
ing part of the author’s reflection upon this fubject ;
From the above it plainly appears that he concludes,
that the Arabian tongue has fuffered no change fince the
publication of the Koran ; and at the fame time infinu-
ates, that it had continued invariable in its original pu¬
rity through all ages, from the days of Kobtan to the
appearance of that book. Whether both or either of
thele fentiments is properly authenticated will appear in
the fequel. ^
The learned Dr Robertfon, late profeffor of oriental Means a-
languages in the univerfity ot Edinburgh, informs us,dopted by
that the Arabians, in order to preferve the purity oft*ie AlAs
their language, ftricftly prohibited tlicir merchants,
were obliged to go abroad for the fake of commerce, all 0f their lari
commerce with ftrange women. We know not whereguage.
this injunction is recorded, but certainly it was a moft
terrible interdict to an amorous Ion of the defert. If
fuch a prohibition actually exifted, we fufpe£t it origin¬
ated from fome other fource than the fear of corrupting
their language. Be that as it may, the Doftof, as well
as the great Schultens, is clearly of opinion, that the
language in queftion, though divided into a great num¬
ber of ftreams and canals, ftill flowed pure and limpid
in its courfe.
< Our readers who are acquainted with the hiftory of
the orientals are already apprized of the fteady attach¬
ment of thofe people to ancient cuftoms and inftitutions,
We-readily allow, that in the article of Language this
fame predileflion is abundantly obvious 5 but every ori¬
ental feholar muft confefs, that the ftyle of the Koran is
at this day in a manner obfolete, and become almoft a0ftheKc- I
dead language. 'I bis fa^t, we believe,, will not be que-ran now
ftioned. If the Arabian has deviated fo very confider-0^°‘ete>!
ably from the ftandard of the Koran in little more than
I coo years, and that too after an archetype is afeer-
tained ; by a parity of reafon we may infer, that much
greater deviations muft have affefted the language in
the fpace of 3000 years.
It is univerfally allowed by fuch as maintain the un-
fullied purity of the Arabian toOgue, that it was origi¬
nally the fame with the Hebrew, or with the ancient
Syriac and Chaldaic. Let any one now compare the
Words, idioms, and phrafeology of the Koran with the-
remains of thofe three languages, and we think we may
venture to affirm that the difference will be palpable.
This circumftanee, one would think, indicates in tho
ft rouge ft terms a remarkable alteration.
The Arabs themfelves are agreed, that, notwithftand¬
ing the amazing fecundity of their language, vaft num¬
bers of its radical terms have been irrecoverably loft.
But this lofs could not be fupplied without either fabri¬
cating new words or borrowing them from foreign lan¬
guages. To the latter method we have feen their aver-
fion 1
Arabic
/jnguage.
49
.nd rc-
embling
he He-
irew in its
ihraieolo-
IT-
ea. II. PHILO
fion ; and tnuft therefore conclude that they adopted the
former.
The Chaldeans, Syrians, and Phoenicians, had made
innovations on their language at a very early period, even
before conquelts were undertaken : We fee no reafon
to fuppofe that the Arabs did not innovate as well as
their neareft neighbours : the Hamyarites did a&ually
innovate.
There are, we think, very Itrong reafons to believe,
that Job was an Arabian, and flour idled prior to Mofes,
perhaps as early as Jacob. The ftyle, the genius, the
figurative tone of the compofition ; the amazing fubli-
mity of the fentirnents, the allufions, the pathos, the
boldnefs, the variety, and irregularity, the poetical en-
thufiafm which pervades the whole poem, flrongly breathe
the Arabian fpirit : indeed the very diction is peculiar
to that fingle book, and differs widely from that of the
Pfalms and every poetical part of the facred canon. If
we compare this book with Mohammed’s Koran, we
{hall fcarce find any refemblanee of words or phrafeolo-
gy"*, but a wonderful fimilarity of figures, enthuiialm,
and elevation of fentiments.
We are then led to conclude, that the Arabic did
actually lofe and gain a multitude of vocables between
the era of its firfit eftablifliment among the clefcend-
ants of Joktan and Iftunael, and the birth of the im-
poftor.
The art of writing was introduced among the Arabs
at a very late period : Without the afliftance of this art,
one would think it altogether impoflible to preferve any
language in its primaeval purity and fimplieity. Our
curious readers may here expeft fome account of the
Arabic characters : the following detail is the molt
probable one we have been able to colleft on that
^ ( fubjeft.
Pocccke s jj. js general]y agreed*, that the art of writing was
Hijl, Arab, kn0''’!1 among the Plamyarites or Homerites at a very
50 early period. Thefe people were fovereigns of Arabia
trt of writ- during a courfe of many ages. Their character was
he Ham * ^omew^at perplexed and confufed. It was called al
Mofnad, from the mutual connexion of the letters.
The alphabet of thefe people refembled that of the He¬
brew's both in the number and order of the letters, and
is called abgad hevi’X, f, from the firft ten letters of the
Hebrew alphabet, artificially thrown together. “ And
this wmrd (fays the learned Chardin J) a, b, g, d, is
formed of the four letters which w'ere heretofore the
firft in the Arabian language, as they are ftill in that of
the Hebrews.” The fame traveller is pofitive that thefe
were the ancient charaflers of the Arabs *, that they
differed from Cuphite letters, which were afterwards in¬
troduced ; and that they were furnifhed with vow'd
points. Thefe, 'vve imagine, were the firft {ketches of
the Chaldean charafler, which probably the Hamyarites
retained In their priftine unpolifhed form, afterthey had
been polifhed and reduced to a more elegant fize by the
original inventors.
Monuments bearing inferiptions in thefe charaflers
are, they tell us, ftill to be feen in fome places of Ara-
antes,
A ibid.
Vol.:
r53‘
LOGY. 503
bia. Some were engraved on rocks } and to tiKde we ^LralMC
think it probable thaf the patriarch Job alludes in ,
thofe paffages where he feems to intimate an inclina¬
tion to have his fufferings recorded in a book, and
graven in the rock for ever. All the Arabians agree,
that the dialeft of the Hamyarites inclined towards
the Svriac or Chaldean. This we have imputed to
the connexion of that people with the Chaldeans, who
lived in their neighbourhood. If the Hamyaritic dia¬
led was infefled with the Syriac or Chaldaic, there can
be no doubt that they derived their letters from the fame
quarter. 51
We conclude then, that the Hamyarites knew the art >n Chaldaic
of writing from the earlieft antiquity, and that the let_ cIiara(^e1''
ters they employed were the rude Chaldaic in their un¬
improved ftate *. Some of the Arabians do indeed *
hold, that Hhmael was the firft author of letters j butOrat.de
that his charafters were rude and indiftindl, without any drab’
interval between letters or words, and that thefe were
adopted by Kedar and his other children : but this tra¬
dition hath met with little credit.
With refpeft to the highly polilbed Koreifhites, it is
agreed on all hands, that they were unacquainted with
the ufe of letters till a few years before the birth of
Mohammed. Two difficulties here prefent themfelves.
The firft is, how the Koreilhite dialed!, without the art ^
of writing, happened to excel all the other dialedls of Art of writ*
the Arabic tongue, affifted by that art, apparently fo ing among
neceflary for preferving a language in its original purity. t^.e -
The fecund is ftill, we think, rather greater, namely,'1 *
how the Koreifti learned that moft ufeiul art at fo late
a period as the fixth century. It is a well-known fadl,
that ever after the Babyloniffi captivity Arabia fwarmed
with Jewifti villages, in which the art of writing was
generally known ; and almuft at the beginning of the
Chriftian era, multitudes of Chriftians retired to the
fame country, in order to rumid the perfecutions which
they fuffered in the Roman empire. In thefe circum-
ftanees, we think it rather ft range, that the Koreiftiites, .
highly poliffied and acute as they were, never thought
of laying hold on the opportunity of learning an art fo
very ufeful. Thefe two problems we leave to be folved
by our more learned readers.
But however they be folved, it is univerfally acknow¬
ledged, that the Koreifti were ignorant of letters till a.
few years before the birth of their prophet. Ebn Cha-
lican (b), one. of their moft celebrated hiftorians, in¬
forms us, that Pvloramer the fon of Morra, an Anbari-
an, a native of Anbaris, a city of Irak (c), firft invent¬
ed alphabetical charadlers, and taught his countrymen
to ufe them, from whom this noble invention was deri¬
ved to the Koreiftiites. Thefe letters, though neither
beautiful nor convenient, were long ufed by the Arabs.
They were denominated Cup/iite, from Ct/pba, a city of
Irak. In this character the original copy of the Ko¬
ran was written. Thefe we think were the original
clumfy charadlers which were retained by the vulgar,
after the beautiful fquare Chaldaic letters were invent¬
ed, and probably ufed by priefts, philofophers, and the
learned
(b) See this whole detail in Dr Pococke’s Specim. Hijl. Arab. p. 250. et feq.
(c) Irach, “ Babylonia,” from Erech, one of the cities built by Nimrod. The Arabians have generally reftored >
the ancient names of places. Thus with them Tyre is Sidon Seyd, Egypt Me%ri, &c.
_ Arabic
Language.
^ Robei tf
Clnv. Pent.
P- 35> 36*
53
Improved
about 300
years after
Moham¬
med.
PHILO
learned in general. Thefe letters are often at this day
ufed by the Arabs for the titles of books and public in-
fcriptions.
Abauli the fon of Mocla *, about 300 years after
the death of Mohammed, found out a more elegant and
more expeditious charadter. This invention of Abauli
was afterwards carried to perfedtion by Ebn Bowla, who
died in the year of the Hegira 4x3, when Kader was
caliph of Bagdad. This charadfer, with little variation,
obtains at this day As we think this article of fume
importance, we fhall, for the fake of our unlearned rea¬
ders, tranfcribe an excellent account of this whole mat¬
ter from the very learned Schixltens.
V The Cuphic charadler, fays he, which had been
brought from the region of the Chaldeans to the pro¬
vince of Hejaz, and to Mecca its capital, in the age of
Mohammed, was employed by the Koreilhites, and in
it the Koran was firft Written. But as this charadler
was rude and clumfy, in confequence of its lize, and ill
calculated for expedition, Abauli Ebn Mocla devifed
a more elegant and expeditious one. This perfon was
vifir to Arradius the 4HI caliph, who began to reign
in the year of the Hegira 322. Accordingly, in the
10th century, under this emperor of the Saracens, the
form of the Arabian alphabet underwent a change ; and
the former clumfy embarraffed charadler was made to
give way to the polilhed, eafy, and expeditious type.
Regarding this expedition alone, the author of the
invention left very few voWel characters *, and as the
Hebrew manner of writing admits five long ones and
five fihort in different fhapes, he taught how to ex-
prefs all the vowels,, both long and fhort, fuitably to
the genius of the language, by three, or rather by two,
fmall points, without any danger of a miftake : an ab¬
breviation truly deferving applaufe and admiration ; for
by placing a very fmall line above he expreffed a
and e; and by placing the fame below ''-j' he meant
to intimate i only. To the other fhort ones, 0 and u, he
uffigned a fmall ivaw above. In order to reprefent
the long ones, he called in the niatres leElionis, the
“ quiefcent letters i, * fo that ■phata with elifmXx^
mated a and 0 long, i. e. kamel% and chelem ; jod placed
after hefram became txeri and chirek long. IVaw an¬
nexed to damitia made fc/iurekd''
In this paffage, the great orientalift acknowledges
that the vifir above mentioned, who carried the Ara ¬
bian alphabet to the pinnacle of perfeClion, invented
and annexed the Vowel points for the fake of eafe and
expedition in writing •, from which We may infer, that
prior to the tenth century the Arabians had no vowel
points ; and confequently either read without vowels, or
contented themfelyes with the mattes Icclionis above
mentioned.
The defign of the author of the invention, in fabri¬
cating thefe points, was confeffedly eafe and expedi¬
tion in Writing *, a circumflance which furntfhes a vio¬
lent prefuraption that the Hebrew vowel-points were de¬
vifed and annexed at fome late period for the very fame
purpofes.
Some, indeed, have gone fo far as to affirm that the
Arabians were the original fabricators of the vowel-
i i)?^ o« points. “ The Arabians-f (fays the learned Dr Gre-
’‘■SLa ^$3' £ory Sharp) were the original authors of the vowel-
an' points. They invented three, called fatha, and damma,
and kcfra: but thefe were not in ufe till feveral years
LOGY. _ ' Seam.
after Mohammed } for it is certain that the firft copies Arabic .
of the Koran were without them. The rabbis hole Laneuajre.
them from the Arabs.” This, however, is carrying the
matter too far, fince it is certain that the Jews were ac¬
quainted with the points in queilion long before the pe¬
riod above mentioned.
Though it is not our intention to enter into a mi¬
nute detail of the peculiarities of this noble language, we
cannot omit oblerving one thing, which indeed belongs
to grammar, but is not generally taken notice of by the
Arabic grammarians. The roots of veibs in this dialed!
are Univerfally triliteral j fo that the compofition of the
28 Arabian letters would give near 22,000 elements
of the language. This circumftance demonflrates the ^
furprifing extent of it : for although great numbers ofSarpriting
its roots are irrecoverably loft, and fome perhaps were extern of
never in ufe $ yet if we fuppofe 10,000 of them, without |lie
reckoning quadriliterals, to exift, and each of them to s £ ‘
admit only five variations, one with another, in forming
derivative nounSj the whole language would then con-
fift of 50,000 words, each of whiclfc may receive a mul¬
titude of changes by the rules of grammar.
Again, the Arabic feeins to abhor the compofition
of words, and invariably expreffes very complex ideas
by circumlocution ■, fo that if a compound word be
found in any dialed! of that language, we may at once
pronounce it of foreign extradlion. This is indeed a
diftinguiftiing feature in the ftrudiure of this tongue,
as well as of fome of its fifter dialedls. This circumftance
has, ih our opinion, contributed not a little to the ama¬
zing fecundity of that language : for as every ingredient
in the compofition of a complex idea requires a word to
exprefs it, as many words became neeeffary to complete
the language as there were fimple ideas to be intimated
by difcourfe. Were all the compounds of the Greek
language to be diflolved, as probably once they were,
the vocables of that tongue would infinitely exceed their
prefent number.
The Arabic authors boaft moft unconfcionably of
the richnefs and variety of their language. No human
underftanding, fay they, is capacious enough to com¬
prehend all its treafures. Inspiration alone can qua-
lify one for exhaufting its fources *. Ebn Chalawalb, * Pococke
a moft renowned grammarian of theirs, has fpent a whole sPecmn'
volume upon the various names of the lion, which
amount to 500 *, another on the names of the ferpent,
which make up 200. Mohammed al Firancabodius
affirms that he wrote a book on the ufefulnefs and dif¬
ferent denominations of honey, in which he enume¬
rates 80 of them } and after all, he affures us that he
was ftill far from having exhaufted his fubjedl. To
excel in a language fo amazingly copious, was certainly
a proof of uncommon capacity, and confidered as no
mean talent even among the Koreilhites. Hence Mo¬
hammed, when fome people were eXpreffing their admi¬
ration of the eloquence of the Koran, told them that he
had been taught by the angel Gabriel the language of
Ifhmael, which had fallen into defuetudei 55
In a language fo richly replenilhed with the choiccft ^t0^tr
and moft energetic terms, both oratory and poetry
were cultivated with eafe. All the difficulty confifted ^rabs.
in making a choice among words and phrafes equally
elegant. We may compare one of thofe poets or orators
to a young gentleman, of a tafte highly refined, walk¬
ing into a repofitory where a profufion of the richeft
and
Sea. II. PHILOLOG Y.
Arabic and mod elegant drefles are piled up in wild confufion.
Language. Qur ^eau is here diftreffed with variety ; but to be able
to choofe the moft handfome and moft becoming, he
muft have received from nature a fuperior good tafte ;
which he muft likewife have cultivated by afliduous
induftry, and by affociating with the moft genteel com¬
pany.
The orations of the Arabs were of two kinds, me¬
trical and profaic. The former they compared to
pearls fet in gold, and the latter to loofe ones. They
were ambitious of excelling in both j and whoever did
fo, was highly diftinguiibed. His fuccefs in either of
thofe departments was thought to confer honour, not
only on his family, but eve© on his tribe. In their
poems were preferved the genealogies of their families,
the privileges of their tribes, the memory of their heroes,
the exploits of their anceftors, the propriety of their lan¬
guage, the magnificence of'banquets, the generofity of
their wealthy chiefs and great men, &c. After all,
we cannot avoid being of thte unpopular opinion, that
this mighty parade of eloquence and poetry did not
reach backward above two centuries before the birth of
Mohammed, as it certainly vanifhed at the era of the
propagation of his religious inftitutions. The two fuc-
ceeding centuries were the reigns of fuperftition and
bloodlhed. The voice of the mufes is feldom heard
amidft the din of arms.
The ancient Arabs, at whatever time poetry began
to be in requeft among them, did not at firft write
poems of confiderable length. They only exprefled
themfelves in metre occafionally, in acute rather than
harmonious ftrains. The Proverbs of Solomon, and the
book of Ecclefiaftes feem to be compofed in this fpecies
of verfification. The profody of the Arabs was never
digefted into rules till fome time after the death of Mo¬
hammed ; and this is faid to have been done by A1
Khalti al Farabidi, who lived in the reign of the caliph
Harun al Rafchid.
After fo many encomiums on the copioufnefs of the
Arabic tongue, one clafs of our readers may poflibly
expedt that we fhould fubjoin a brief detail of its genius
and character; and this we (hall do with all poflible
brevity.
Semusand All the primary or radical words of the language
^the lan are c?mP°^ed different combinations of confonants
plage. ^ triads; fo that the various combinations and con-
junftions of radicals make more than 10,000, even
without including thofe which may arife from the meet-
ing of guttural letters. From this quality of the lan¬
guage has flowed that liability of the dialect which has
preferved it pure and entire for fo many thoufand years,
and fecured it from thofe changes and that fluctuation to
which moft other tongues are fubjeCt.
Perhaps, notwithftanding its copioufnefs and variety,
no other language can vie with the one in queftion in
point of perlpicuity and precifion. It is poffeffed of a
brevity and rotundity vVhich, amidft the greateft va¬
riety, enables it to exprefs with clearnefs and energy
what could not be expreffed in any other tongue with¬
out tedious circumlocutions. To this purpofe we lhall
beg leave to tranfcribe a paffage from Biftiop Pococke’s
•oration on the Arabic language. As we imagine few
of our readers who will have the curiofity to perufe
this article can be unacquainted with the Latin tongue,
Vol. XVI. Part L
we lhall give it as it Hands in the original, without a Arabic
tranllation: Language
“ Neque in nulla certe laudis parte, mira ilia qua,
non folum verborum in fignificando, perfpicuitate, fed
in prolatione, elegantiae et dulcedini caverunt, fedu-
litas ; quoque, non folum accurata, inter literas ex fig-
nificata proportione, fenfus vel intenlioni, vel remif-
fioni, prout res poftulaverit, literarum appolitione,
fubduCtione, vel juxta organorum, rationem profpe-
xerunt: fed et ne quid delicatulis auribus ingratum, ne
quid horridum, aut ccrvutytuvoi, reperiatur, effecerunt.
Hoc in genere eft, quod nufpiam in verbo aliquo, ge-
nuinae apud Arabes originis, concurrunt, non interce-
dente vocalis alicujus motione confonantes, cum vel
tres, vel plures, aliis in linguis frequenter collidantur.
Immo neque,. ft adfint, quae afperitati remedio fint, vo-
cales, quas libet temere tamen committunt confonantes j
fed ita rei natura poftulat, ut concurrere debeant ilia,
quae fe invicem, fine afperitatis induCtione confequi, et
inter fe conneCti non poflint 5 illi vel fitua, vel literarum
mutatione, eas abjiciendo, inferendo, emollieudo, aliifve
quibus poffent modis, remedia quaerunt; adeo ab omni,
quod vel abfonum, vel diffonum eft, abhorrent. kiu°d
ft nobis fecus videntur, et afperius fonare ab Arabibus
prolata, illud auribus noftris, et ufui, non linguae itnpu-
tandum, nec mollius iilis fonare noftra, quam eorum no¬
bis cenfendum. Quin et gutturalium, quae nobis maxi¬
ma afperitatis caufa videntur, abfentiam, ut magnum in
lingua Graeca defectum, arguunt Arabes.”
The learned Dr Hunt, late profeffor of the Hebrew
and Arabic languages at Oxford, is of the fame opinion
with the very learned prelate, part of whofe oration we
have tranfcribed above, with refpeCt to the delicacy and
elegance of the Arabian language :—“ Nufquam, mihi
eredite, (inquit ille) auribus magis parcitur quam in
Arabia j nulla lingua a xetxoQavtct, alienior quam Arabi-
ca. Quamquam enim nonnullae ejus literae minus for-
taffe fuaviter, immo durius etiam fonuerint, ita tamen
Arabes eas temperarunt cum lenibus, duras cum molli-
bus, graves cum acutis mifeendo, voces inde non minus
auribus jucundse, quam pronunciatu faciles confecerint,
totique fermoni miram fonorum tam duleedinem quam
varietatem addiderint. Quod quidem orationis modu-
landaj ftudium in Corano adeo manifeftum eft, ut primi
Iflamifmi oppugnatores eum librum magica ideo arte
fcriptum dixerint. Non auribus tantum gratus eft Ara-
bifmus, fed et animi conceptibus exprimendis aptus, fo-
nos fuos fententiis femper accommodans, et felici verbo¬
rum junftura eorum naturam depingens.”
To thefe we might add quotations from Erpenius’s
oration on the fame fubjeCt, from Golius, Schultens,
Hottinger, Bochart, and Sir William Jones; befides a
whole cloud of oriental witneffes, whofe extravagant en¬
comiums would rather aftonifti than edify the far greater
part of our readers. Thefe panegyrics may perhaps be
in fome meafure hyperbolical; but in general we believe
them pretty well founded. At the fame time we are
convinced that the Arabic, however melodious in the
ears of a native, founds harlli and unharmonious in that
of an European. .
When we confider the richnefs and variety of theDifficuity
Arabic tongue, we are led to conclude, that to ac-of acquiring
quire a tolerable degree of fkill in its idioms, is a more a thorough
difficult talk than is generally imagined ; at leaft fome k?‘)wtecl£e
Qq people0 lt’
3o6 PHILO
Arabic people who have acquired the knowledge of the Greek
.Language. an(j and likewife of the more falhionable modern
"^-v- languages, with faeility enough, have found it fo. Be
that as it may, there are two clafles of men who, in our
opinion, cannot bandfomely difpenfe with the knowledge
of that almoft univerfal tongue : the gentleman, who is
to be employed in the political tranfaftions of the moft
refpeftable mercantile company upon earth, in the eaft-
ern parts of the world-, and the divine, who applies
himfelf to inveftigate the true purport of the facred ora¬
cles : without this, the former will often find himfelf em-
barraffed in both his civil and mercantile negociations ;
and the latter will often grope in the dark, when a mo¬
derate acquaintance with that tongue would make all
funthine around him.
Bochart, Hettinger, Schultens, Pocock, Hunt, and
Robertfon, &c. have taken wonderful pains, and lavifli-
ed a profufion of learning, in proving the affinity and
dialetlical cognation between the Hebrew and Arabic.
Much of this labour, we think, might have been fpared.
We prefume to affirm, that no perkm tolerably verfed
in both languages can read a fingle paragraph ol the A-
rabic verfion of the New Teftament, or indeed of the
Koran itfelf, without being convinced of the truth of
this pofition : it is but {tripping the latter of its adven¬
titious frippery, and the kindred features will immedi¬
ately appear.
The learned profeflfors of the univerfity of Leyden
were the firft who entered upon the career of Arabian
learning. To them the European {Indents are princi¬
pally indebted for what knowledge of that language
they have hitherto been able to attain. Though feve-
ral Italians have contributed their endeavours, yet the
fruit of their labours has been rendered almoft ufelefs
by more commodious and more accurate works printed
in Holland.
The palm of glory, in this branch of literature, is due
to Golius, whofe works are equally profound and ele¬
gant } fo perfpicuous in method, that they may always
be confulted without fatigue, and read without lan¬
guor. Erpenius’s excellent grammar, and his memor¬
able dictionary, will enable the ftudent to explain the
hiltory of Taimur by Ibni Arabjhah. If he has once
mattered that fublime work, he will underltand the
learned Arabic better than moft of the Khatabs of Con-
ftantinople or of Mecca.
The Arabian language, however, notvvithftanding
all its boafted perfeftions, has undoubtedly lhared the
fate of other living languages ; it has gradually under¬
gone fuch confiderable alterations, that the Arabic
fpoke and written in the age of Mohammed may be
now regarded as a dead language : it is indeed fo wide¬
ly different from the modern language of Arabia, that
it is taught and ftudied in the college of Mecca juft as
the Latin is at Rome.
The dialed! of the Highlands of Yemen is faid to
have the neareft analogy to the language of the Koran,
becaufe thefe Highlanders have little intercourfe with
ftrangers. The old Arabic is through all the Eaft, like
the Latin in Europe, a learned tongue, taught in col¬
leges, and only to be acquired by the perufal of the beft
authors.
“ Ut folia in fijlvis pronos mutantur in annas^ fa'cl*
2
LOGY. Sea. II.
Lhaldean
Sect. III. Of the Chaldean, ’Phoenician, ’Ethiopian or language,
AbyJJinian, and Egyptian Languages, , ^c* ^
. . . . . 58
As there is a very ftrif! connexion and dialedlical ConuedUon i
analogy among thefe languages, we have arranged them the
all under one fedlion -, efpecially fince what is obferved p|^fa.n>
relating to one of them may, without the leaft drain-'
ing, be extended to them all. We ffiall begin with theandEgyp.
Chaldaic. tian lan-
The Chaldeans, or Chafidim, as they are always call-S1'^65-
ed in Scripture, were the defendants of Chefed the fon
of Nahor, the brother of Abraham. The defeendants
of this patriarch drove the Culhim or Arabians out of
Babylonia, and poffeffed themfelves of that country at
a very early period. As thefe Chafidim or Chaldeans
were the pofierity of Nahor, the defendant of Heber,
they undoubtedly fpoke the original Hebrew tongue as
well as the other branches of that family. But being
an ingenious inventive people, they fern to have poliffi-
ed their language with much care and delicacy of tafte.
The only genuine remains of the ancient Chaldaie
language are to be found in the Hebrew Scriptures j
and thof are contained in 268 verfs, of which we
have 200 in Daniel, reaching from verfe 4th chapter
2d to chapter 8th exclufive } in Ezra 67, in chapter
4th, 17 verfes •, chapter 5th, the fame number; chap-
tor 6th, 18 verfes j and in chapter 7th, 15 : in Jere¬
miah, chapter 10th, there is extant only one verfe.
From thefe fragments, compared with the Hebrew, it
plainly appears, that the difference between that lan¬
guage and the Chaldaic is farce equal to that between
the Doric and Ionic dialefts of the Greek.
Whatever might have been the form of the moft
ancient Chaldaic letters, it is generally known that the
beautiful fquare characters, in which the Hebrew Scrip,-
tures began to be written after the age of Ezra, were
current among them at an era prior to the Babylonilh
captivity. Thofe elegant charafters were probably
the invention of the Chaldean academies, whieh were
eftabliftied in various parts of that extenfive and fertile
country. „ I
The Chaldean declenfions and conjugations differ fochaldeao
little from the Hebrew modifications, that it would be differs littf'
almoft fuperfluous to dwell upon them in this f (ftion.trom
The moft effectual way to acquire an idea of the an-^e^reW’
cient Chaldaic, is to decompound the names confeffed-
ly of that dialed!, which occur in many places of Scrip¬
ture. By this method of proceeding, its beautiful ftruc-
ture and expreffive energy will be readily cemprehend-
ed even by the moft illiterate claffes of our readers'.
At the fame time, we muft obferve, that the Chaldaic
and ancient Syriac bore fo near a ref mblance to each
other, that they have generally been clafled under one
head.
The firft Chaldaic word that occurs in the Old Tefta¬
ment is burn “ creavitl* This word has all along
been affigned to the language under confideration ; for
wffiat reafon, we confefs we are not able to difover.
The greateft part of the Hebrew tongue is now loft.
The words bar, “ a fon,” and bara “ creavitf (rather
fliavit), may probably be of that number. Another
Scripture word which is often quoted, and always af-
cribed either to the Syriac or Chaldaic, is igar m jegar-
fahadutha.
3e& HI.
PHILOLOGY.
60
Its proper
names pure
Hebrew.
Chaldean fahadutha, winch fignifies l( a monument of witnefles.”
Language, £very body knows, that when Jacob and Laban made
6cc' their compact, the latter denominated the heap of ftones
reared upon that occafion in this manner •, while the
formed called it Galeed, as we now write and pronounce
it. This pronunciation, however, does not appear to
us altogether genuine. The word is probably com¬
pounded of ha, cumulus, “a heap,” and chad, ceter-
nitas,feculum, “eternity, an agefo that “Utba, galchad,
or galaad as it came to be written afterwards, fignified
an “ everlafting heap.” Laban then had refpedt to
the end for which the monument was erefted j but
Jacob alluded to its duration. It appears, however,
upon this and every other occahon, when Chaldaic
words are mentioned, that n, a, was a favourite letter
both with the Syrians and Chaldeans. We may like-
wife obferve, that the fame people always changed the
Hebrew v},Jhin, into n, than, in order to avoid the fer-
pentine found of that confonant.
The Chaldaic names of gods, men, places, &c. which
occur in Scripture, appear to be no other than He¬
brew polifhed and improved. Bel, Belus in Latin, is
evidently bj?a, Baal, or we think rather Bcchcl.
The Phoenicians, and fometimes the Hebrews, ufed it to
lignify the mojl high. The Chaldeans ufed their word
Bel for the fame purpofe •, and becaufe this word ori¬
ginally imported the High One, they dignified their firft
monarch with that name. They denominated their ca¬
pital city Ba-Bel, which imports the temple of Bel, and
afterwards Babylon, which intimates the abode or dwell¬
ing of our lord the fun. Nebo was a name of the moon
among the Babylonians, derived from the Hebrew 103,
nabah, vaticinari, “ to prophecy.” A%er was the pla¬
net Mars, from “irx, A=z,er or Exur, accinxit, “ to gird,”
alluding to the girding on of arms. Ahad was an Af-
* Merol. fyrian name of, the fun *, a word deduced from the
'T'Poco'ck^' I^ebrew ahad, unus, “ one.” Netxar was the name
Sptcim. 6 of an Arabian idol f, which often occurs in the com-
Hift. Arab, pofition of Babylonian names. In Arabic it fignifies
an eagle: we think, however, that the word is the He¬
brew ‘ijn, nat%ar, cufodivit, fervavit, “ to keep, to pre-
ferve.” To thefe names of deities many more might be
added, which the nature of our defign will not allow us
to mention.
■ Almoft all the Chaldean proper names which occur
either in facred or profane hifiory are evidently of
Hebrew original, or cognate Avith that language. We
lhall fubjoin a few examples : Nabonafar is evidently
compounded of Nabo and na'zur, both Hebrew words.
Nabopdlla%ar is made up of Nabo-Pul, the fame with
Bel, and A%er or A%or, above explained. Bel efts is
made up of Bel and Ktyx, E/ha, “ fire.” Nebuchadnez-
zar, Belfhazzar, Beltilhazzar, Nerigliffar, Nebuzaradan,
Rabmag, Rabfaris, Nergal Sharezer, Rablhakeh, Ezar-
haddon, Merodach, Evil Merodach, and numberlefs
others, are fo manifeftly reducible to Hebrew vocables,
when decompounded, that the oriental fcholar will
readily diftinguilh them.
Names of places in the Chaldaic are likewife fo near¬
ly Hebrew, that nothing but the diale&ical tone fepa-
rates them. Thus Ur of the Chaldeans is actually ‘nx,
light, that city being facred to the fun : Sippora is plain¬
ly the Hebrew word Zipporah; Carchemi/h, a city on
the Euphrates, is evidently compounded of Kir or Kar,
M a city,” and Chemojh, a name of the fun. In (hurt,
307
every Chaldean or old Syrian word now extant, without Chaldean
any difficulty, bewray their Hebrew original. As for Langu*ge>
their dialeftical differences, thefe we remit to the Chal- ' .
daic grammars and lexicons.
We now proceed to the confideration of the Phoeni- Phoenicia:*
clan language, which is known to have been that of thelanguag®
ancient Canaanites. That this was one of the original^^^
dialefts, and confequently a cognate of the Hebrew, is Hebrew!
univerfally acknowledged. Inftead therefore of endea¬
vouring to prove this pofition, we may refer our readers
to the works of the learned Mr Bochart, where that au¬
thor has in a manner demonfirated this point, by deriv¬
ing almoft all the names of the Phoenician colonies from
the Hebrew, upon the fuppofition that the dialeft of
thofe people was clofely conne&ed with that tongue.
St Auguftine, de Civitate Dei, has obfervcd, that even
in his time many of the vulgar in the neighbourhood of
Carthage and Hippo fpoke a dialed! of the old Punic
which nearly refembled the Hebrew. Procopius, de hel¬
lo Goth, informs us, that there exifted even in his days
in Africa a pillar with this infcription in Hebrew, “We
flee from the face of Joffiua the robber, the fon of Nun.”
The names of all the ancient cities built by the Car¬
thaginians on the coaft of Africa are eafily reducible to
a Hebrew original. The Carthaginian names of perfons
mentioned in the Greek and Latin hiftory, fuch as Hi-
milco, Hamilcar, Afdrubal, Hannibal, Hanno, Dido,
Anna or Hannah, Sophoniiha, Gifgo, Maharbal, Ad-
herbal, &c, all breathe a Hebrew extraction.
The Greeks borrowed*a great part of their religious
worfhip from the people of vvhofe language we are treat¬
ing ; of confequence, the names of mod of their gods are
Phoenician. Almoft every one of thefe is actually Heb¬
rew, as might eafily be Ihown. The names of perfons
and places mentioned in the fragments of Sanchonia-
thon, preferved by Eufebius, are all of Hebrew com¬
plexion. The names mentioned in the Hebrew fcrip-
tures of places which belonged to the Canaanites prior
to the invafion of the Ifraelites under Jofhua, are as
much Hebrew as thofe which were afterwards fubllitut-
ed in their dead. The Punic fcene in Plautus has been
analyfed by Bochart and feveral other learned men, by
whom the language has been clearly proved to be dedu¬
ced from the Hebrew, with fome dialectical variations.
The idand of Melita (now Malta) was inhabited by
a colony of Phoenicians many ages before the Moors
took pofleffion of it. Among the vulgar*of tha-t idand
many Punic vocables are current to this day, all which
may be readily traced up to the Hebrew fountain. To
thefe we may add many infcriptions on dones, coins,
medals, &c. which are certainly Phoenician, and as cer¬
tainly of Hebrew extraction. We have thrown together
thefe few hints without purfuing them to any great
length, as Ave deemed it unneceflary to dwell long on a
point fo hackneyed and fo generally acknoAvledged.
Before Ave proceed to treat of the ancient lang-uasfe^ • c
of the Ethiopians, Ave find ourfelves obliged to hazard tiie Ethi*-
a feAv driCtures on the origin of that ancient nation, pians.
If Ave can once fettle that fingle point, the difcovery
avIII open an avenue to their primitive dialeCt, the ar¬
ticle about which Ave are chiefly concerned in the pre-
fent difcuffion.
In our SeCtion concerning the Hebrew language, we
Avere led often to mention the patriarch Cufli the elded;
fon of Ham. The pofterity of this family chief, under
4 q 2 his
30 8
Chaldean his ion Nimrod, poiTeffed themfelves of Shinar, after-
Language, warc]s denominated Chaldea. Thefe were probably the
: Arabians Avhofe kings (according to Eufebius, Africa-
~ nus, and other ancient chronologers) reigned in Baby¬
lon during feveral fucceflive generations. Thofe were
the Cuihim or Cuihites, whom the learned Mr Bryant
has conduced over a great part of the world, and to
whofe induftry and ingenuity he has afcribed almoil all
the inventions, arts, fciences, laws, policy, religions, &c.
which diltinguiihed mankind in the earlieft ages.
In procefs of time, the pofterity of Chaiid or Che-
fed, called Chafdim or Chajidim, in the eaft, and Chal¬
deans in the welt, drove out the Cufhim, and feized upon
their country. The Cuiliim retired w^eftward, and fpread
themfelves over that part of Arabia fituated towards the
fouth-eaft. They probably extended themfelves over all
the eaftern part of that peninfula from the fea to the
wildernefs between Arabia and Syria. Thofe were the
Ethiopians mentioned in Scripture by a very unpardon¬
able inadvertency of our tranflators. Thefe, then, we
think, were the primitive Cuihim.
* Ant- Jofephus informs us *, that all the Afiatics called the
Jud.Yib. i. Ethiopians of Africa by the name of Cufoim. This de-
e. 7. nomination was not given them without good reafon : it
imports at leaft, that they deemed them the defcendants
of Culh 5 it being the conftant praftice of the orientals
in the early ages to denominate nations and tribes from
the name of their great patriarch or founder. 1 he name
Cujlnm mull: then have been given to the Ethiopians,
from a perfuafion that they were the progeny of the fon
of Ham who bore that name. By what route foever the
Cufnim penetrated into that region of Africa which was
called by that name, it may be taken for granted that
they were the defcendants of Culh above mentioned.
It has been obferved above, that the pofterity of Culh
poffefied the country of Shinar or Chaldea at a very early
period, but were expelled by the Chalidimpr Chaldeans.
Up on this cataftrophe, or perhaps fomewhat later, a
colony from the fugitive Cuihim tranfported themfelves
from the fouth and fouth-eaft coaft of Arabia over the
lea which lies between that country and Ethiopia.
However imperfect the art of navigation might be in
that age, the diftance was fo fmall that they might eafily
enough make a voyage crofs that narrow fea in open
boats, or perhaps in canoes. ^ However that may have
been, it cannot be doubted that the tribes on both fades
^ of that branch of the fea were kindred nations.
Their lan- If, then, both the northern and fouthern Cuihim
guage ori- fprung from the fame ftock, there can be no doubt that
ginaiiy fp0^e the fame language. The language of the
ubaldean. j^bylonian Cuihim was Chaldaic, and of confequence
that of the Ethiopian Cuihim was the fame. We may
therefore reft allured, that whatever changes the Ethio¬
pian dialedt may have undergone in the courfe of 3000
years, it was originally either Chaldaic, or at leaft a
branch of that language. Scaliger informs us, that the
Ethiopians call themfelves Chaldeans j and that, fays he,
not without reafon, becaufe of thofe many facred and
profane books which are extant among them, the moft
Sea. 111.
elegant and moft beautiful are written in a ftyle near Chaldeatr
that of the Chaldean or Affyrian. Marianus Viclorius, Langl'age,
who was the firft that reduced the Ethiopic tongife to ■ ^ ^
the rules of grammar, tells us, in his Prooemium, “ that ’ ^
the Ethiopians call their tongue Chaldaic; that itfprings
from the Babylonian •, and is very like the Hebrew, Sy¬
riac, and Arabic : At the fame time (he concludes), that
this language may be eafily learned by thofe who are ma-
fters of the Hebrew.” The learned Bochart, and Biftiop
Walton in his Proleg. are clearly of the fame opinion.
The vulgar letters of the Ethiopians, according to
Diodorus Siculus, were the fame with the facred f f Lib. iii
characters of the Egyptians (d). From this account,P;I01-
if the Sicilian may be trufted, the facred letters of thefe ^ ’
people, concerning which fo many wife conjectures have
been formed, were aftually Chaldaic. To carry-on this
inveftigation a little farther, we may obferve, that Sir
William Jones feems to have proved, by very plaufible
arguments, that the Sanfcrit characters were deduced
from the Chaldaic. This circuraftance affords a prefump-
tion that the Ethiopian Cuihim were likewife concerned
with the Egyptians; who, as is remarked in the SeCtion
concerning the Sanfcrit, probably introduced the reli¬
gion of the Brahmans into Hindoftan. This is advanced
as a conjeCture only ; and yet when we conlider the af¬
finity between the Egyptian and Gentoo religions, we
are ftrongly inclined to hope that this furmife may one
day be verified by undeniable faCts.
The original Ethiopians were a people highly civi¬
lized ; their laws, their inftitutions, and efpeeially their
religion, were celebrated far and wide. Homer talks
in raptures of the piety of the Ethiopians, and fends
his gods every now and then to revel 1 2 days with that
devout people. The Sicilian adduces a number of very
fpecious arguments to prove that thete two nations had ,
fprung from the fame ftock. He mentions a fimilarity ^BC:ent;n>
of features, of manners, of cuftoms, of laws, of letters, tercourfe
of the fabrication of ftatues, of religion, as evidences of between
the relation between thofe two neighbouring nations,
There was, every body knows, a communion, as to fa- |gypt;anS,
cred rites, between the two countries. The Egyptians
fent annually a deputation of their priefts, furnilhed with
the portable ftatues of their gods, to vifit the fanes of the
devout Ethiopians. Upon this occafion, a folemn reli¬
gious banquet was prepared, which lafted I 2 days, and
of which the priefts of both nations were partakers. It
was, we imagine, a kind of facramental inftitution, by
which both parties publicly avouched their agreement
in the ceremonies of their religion refpeCHvely. Thefe
obfervations plainly ftiow, that the moft ancient Ethio«
pians were a people highly civilized ; indeed fo much,
that the Egyptians were at one time contented to be
their fcholars. The tone of their language was cer¬
tainly the fame with that of the Chaldeans or Arabian
Cuthim, from whom they are defeended. We know not
whether there are any books in the ancient Ethiopic
now extant; fo that it is not eafy to produce in-
ftances of its coincidence with the Chaldaic. Dioge¬
nes Laertius* informs us, that I hrafyllus, in his ca-# Lib. is*
taleguep. 4*1-
Cafauh’
PHILOLOGY.
(n) We find the fame obfervation confirmed by Heliodorus (F.lliop. lib. x. p. 476.)- “ "rlle ro5'al !i!ters.of
the Ethiopians (fays he) were the facred charafters of the Egyptians.” Cafliodorus likewife affures us, ‘ i hat the.
letters inlcribed upon the Egyptian obelilks were Chaldean.13 See Se£t. Sanfctit,
l
eel. HI*
P HILO
Galilean
anguage,
&c.
talogue of the books compofed by Democritus, men¬
tions one, creg< ruv £V y^a^uxraiv, concerning
the/acred letters in the ifland of Meroe{y/\ and another
concerning the facred letters in Babylon. Had thefe
books furvived the ravages of time, they would in this
aae of refearch and curioiity have determined not only
the point under our confideration, but the affinity of
facred rites among the Chaldeans, Ethiopians, and E-
gyptians. . .
We have now fhown that the Ethiopians were a
colony of Cuffutes-, that the Cufhites were originally
fovereigns of Shinar or Chaldea, and confequently fpoke
either Chaldaic, or a dialed of that tongue ; that their
colonifts muff have ufed the fame language-, that the an¬
cient Ethiopians were a people highly polifhed, and ce¬
lebrated in the moft early ages on account of their vir¬
tue and piety. It has likewife appeared that the com¬
mon letters of that people were the facred charafters of
the Egyptians. Thefe letters, we imagine, were the Cu-
phitej for which fee the fedion on the Arabic. When
they were difearded, and the modern fubftituted in their
room, cannot be determined nor is it, we apprehend,
a matter of much importance. We (hall therefore drop
that p^rt of the fubjed, and refer our curious and inqui-
fitive readers to the very learned Job Ludolf’s (f) excel¬
lent grammar and didionary of the Abyflinian or Geez
tongue, where they will find every thing worth knowing
on that fubjed. We {hall endeavour to gratify our read-
gr ers with a very brief account of the modern Ethiopic or
tlodern Abyffinian tongue *, for which both they and we will be
ithiopic obliged to James Bruce, Efq. that learned, indefati-
on§ues- gable, and adventurous traveller ; who, by his obferva-
tions on that country, which he made in perfon, often
at the hazard of his life, has difeovered, as it were, a
new world both to Europe and Alia.
The moft ancient language of Ethiopia, which we
{hall now call Abif/inia (its modern name), according
to that gentleman, was the Gee%, which was fpoken
by the ancient Cufhite ftiepherds. This, we ftiould
think, approaches neareft to the old Chaldaic. Upon
a revolution in that country, the court refided many
years in the province of Amhara, where the people fpoke
a different language, or at lead a very different dialed
of the fame language. During this interval, the Geez,
or language of the ftiepherds, was dropt, and retained
only in writing, and as a dead language : the {acred
Scriptures being in that tongue only faved it from going
into difufe. This tongue is exceedingly harffi and un-
harmonious. It is full of thefe two letters D and I, in
which an accent is put that nearly refembles Hammer¬
ing. Confidering the fmall extent of fea that divides
this country from Arabia, we need not wonder that it
has great affinity with the Arabic. It is not difficult to
be acquired by thofe who underftand any other of the
oriental languages and as the roots of many Hebrew
words are only to be found here, it feems to. be abso¬
lutely neceffary to all thofe who wifti to obtain a criti-
66 cal {kill in that language.
Ethiopic The Ethiopic alphabet confifts of 26 letters, each of
alphabet, -which, by a virgula or point annexed, varies its found
L O G Y. 309
in fuch a manner as that thofe 26 form as it were 62 Chaldean
diftind letters. At firft they had but 2j of tliefe origi- Latg^ge*
nal letters, the Latin P being wanting : fo that they
were obliged to fubftitute another letter in its place.
Paulas, for example, they call Taulus, Aulus, or Cau¬
las : Petros, they pronounced Ketros. At laid they fub¬
ftituted T, and added this to the end of their alphabet j
giving it the force of P, though it was really a repeti¬
tion of a charader rather than the invention of a new
one. Befides thefe, there are 20 others of the nature of
diphthongs 5 but fome of them are probably not of the
fame antiquity with the letters of the alphabet, but
have been invented in later times by the feribes for con¬
venience.
The Amharic, during the long banilhment of the
royal family in Shoa, became the language of the court,
and feven new characters were of neceffity added to an-
fwer the pronunciation of this new language -, but no
book was ever written in any other language than
Geex. There is an old law in the country, handed
down by tradition, that whoever {hall attempt to tranf-
late the Ploly Scripture into Amharic or any other lan¬
guage, his throat {hall be cut after the manner in which
they kill ftieep, his family fold to flavery, and their
houfes razed to the ground.
Before we leave this fubjeft, we may obferve, that
all the ancients, both poets and hiftorians, talk of a
double race of Ethiopians-, one in India, and another
in Africa. What may have given rife to this opinion
it is not eafy to difeover. Perhaps the fwarthy com¬
plexion of both people may have led them to this fen-
timent. Eufebius indeed informs us *, that “ a nume- * Chron.
rous colony of people emigrated from the banks of theP- ”•
Indus, and, crofting the ocean, fixed their refidence in
the country now called Ethiopia.” For our part, we are
rather inclined to believe, that the original Ethiopians
tranfported themfelves into India, and there perhaps
co-operated with the Egyptians in digging the excava¬
tions and framing the ftatues, fome of which are ftill to
be feen in that country, and which we have mentioned
in another Se&ion. The Greeks called thofe people-
AAtoms, AEthiopes, we believe, from their fun-burnt coun¬
tenance ; but indeed they were very little acquainted
either with the country or its inhabitants. ^
The moft ancient name of Egypt was T/fara/w, of Ancient
confequence the Arabians ftill call it Mefri. It was language
likewife diftinguifhed by other names, fuch as Oceana,a
Aeria, &c. It appears from the facred hiftorian, that itj^ " *
was inhabited by the defeendants of Mizraim the fecond Hebrew,
fon of Ham. Mizraim had feveral fons, who, according
to the Scripture account, fettled refpe&ively in that
country. If we truft to the facred records, there will
be little difficulty in afeertaining the language of the
Mizraim. It will appear to be one of the lifter diale&s
of the Hebrew, Phoenician, Arabic, Chaldaic, &c.-, and
this, to us, appears to be the fa<5E But the origin of
that people, their language, religion, laws, and inftitu-
tions, have been fo warped and confounded, both by
their own hiftorians and thofe of other countries, that
one is fcarce able to determine what to believe or what
to
(e) Where the capital of Ethiopia was fituated. . _ r
(f) A very learned German, who publifhed a grammar and difttonary of the Geez m toho-
310
Chaldean to rejeft. Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Ptole-
my, and molt other ancient geographers and hiftorians,
i are univerfally agreed, that Egypt, at lead: that part of
it called Delta, was overflown by the Tea, and confe-
quently uninhabitable for many centuries after the dif-
perfion of mankind. When we conlider the low fitua-
tion of the Delta, and the violent current of the tide
from the coafl; of Phoenicia and Paleltine towards that
Ihore, avc would be almoft tempted to adopt this hypo-
thefis; but the facred records avouch the contrary. Ac¬
cording to them, we find Egypt a populous, rich, and
tlourifhing kingdom, as early as the age of Abraham.
Had the Eower Egypt been a pool ol ilagnating water
at any time after the general deluge, we think it could
not have been drained, cleared, cultivated, and flocked
with inhabitants, fo early as the days of Abraham.
Diodorus Siculus, however, is pofitive that the Egyp-
* Lib. xiii. tians * were a colony of Ethiopians; and this he endea-
PHILOLOGY.
pqjfim.
68
Egyptian
hierogly¬
phics.
vours to prove by the fimilarity of features, cuftoms, laws,
religious ceremonies, &c. between the two nations. That
there AA'as a conftant intercourfe of good offices between
thefe two branches ol the Hamites, cannot be queftion-
ed; and that they nearly refembled each other in many
refpe&s, is too evident to admit of contradi&ion. The
excavations, originally dug out of the folid rocks of por¬
phyry and marble, in which the natives refided before
the plains Avere drained, have been obferved by a moft
judicious traveller (g) a very fewyears ago. At thefame
time, thp moft accurate and judicious travellers (h) Avho
have vifited that region in modern times, are generally
of opinion that the land has gained nothing on the fea
fince the period Avhen Herodotus Avrote his defeription
of that country; from Avhich circumftances Ave may be
led to conclude, that the idea of the inundation of the
Delta is not founded in faff.
But even admitting that the Egyptian Delta has ac¬
quired nothing from the fea fince the age of Herodotus
to the prefent, it certainly does not follow that the re¬
gion in queftion Avas never overflowm by that element;
fince there are in many parts of the globe, large trafls
of land, certainly once covered with fea, which have
continued to this day in the very fame fituation in Avhich
they Avere 2000 years ago. We leave the decifion of this
point to the judgment of our readers.
We have already hinted our opinion of the nature
of the Egyptian language; but becaufe Egypt is ge¬
nerally thought to have been the native land of hiero¬
glyphics, and becaufe many are of opinion that hiero-
giyphical characters Avere prior to alphabetical, avc (hall
hazard a few conjeffures with refpeff to that fpecies of
writing. r
The end of fpeech, in general, is to enable men to
communicate their thoughts and conceptions one to
another when prefent; the ufe of Avriting is to perform
the fame office when people are at fo great a diftance
that vocal founds cannot mutually reach them. Hiero¬
glyphics are faid to have been invented to fupply this
defeff. i he moft ancient languages were every where
full of tropes and figures borroAved from fenfible ob-
je£ts. As in that flage offociety men have not learned
Sea. in,
to abftraft and generalize, all their ideas are borrowed Chaldean
from fuch objects as moft forcibly ftrike their fenfes. Langtuge,
This circumftance Avould naturally fuggeft to favages ^c-
the idea of conveying their fentiments to each other,
when abfent, by delineations of corporeal objedls. Thus,
if a favage a Iked a loan ol his friend’s horfe, he might
find means to have conveyed to him the figure of that
animal; and fo of others. This Avas the very loAveft
fpecies of ideal communication, and has been ftyled
piBure- writing.
Neceffity Avould foon impel our favage correfpondents
to fabricate a method more extenfively ufeful, Avhich
Avould likeAvife be fuggefted by the conftant ufe of the
metaphorical mode of fpeech. Some favage leader, more
fagacious than the vulgar herd, Avould obferve that cer¬
tain fenfible objedls Avere fitted, according to the rules of
analogy, to reprefent certain human paffions, and even
fome abftrad ideas; and this Avould be readily enough
adopted by the herd as a iicav improvement. In this
cafe a horn might be the emblem of power, a /word of
bravery, a lion of fury, a fox of cunning, a ferpent of
malice. See. By and by artificial figns might be con¬
trived to exprefs fuch ideas as could not readily be de¬
noted by bodily obje&s. This might be called fyniboli-
cal writing. Such Avas the foundation of the Chinefe
characters; and hence that prodigious number of letters
of which the Avritten language of that people is compof-
ed. Farther they could not proceed, notAvithflanding
their boafted inventive poAvers; and farther, avc believe,
no nation ever did proceed, who had once upon a time
no other characters but hieroglyphical. The Mexicans
had arrived at the Arery loAveft ftage of hieroglyphical
Avriting, but had not taken one Hep towards alphabeti¬
cal. The Hurons employ hieroglyphical fymbols, but
never entertained a fingle idea of alphabetical. Hiero¬
glyphical characters are the images of objeCts conveyed
to the mind by the organs of vifion; alphabetic are ar¬
bitrary artificial marks of found, accommodated by com-
paCt to convey to the mind the ideas of objeCts by the
organs of hearing. In a Avord, avc think that there is
not the leaft analogy betAveen thefe tAvo fpecies to con-Wcr^ever
duCt from the one to the other: Ave are therefore of opi-jn yUjgar
nion, that hieroglyphical characters were never the vul-ufe;
gar channels of ideal conveyance among civilized people.
We knoAv that in this point Ave differ from many
learned, judicious, and ingenious writers; fome of A\ hom
have taken much pains to inveftigate the intermediate
ftages through which the fabricators of characters muff
have paffed in their progrefs from hieroglyphical to
alphabetical Avriting. Thefe Avriters have adopted a
plan analogous to Bifftop Wilkins’s projeCt of an artifi¬
cial language. In this theory, we oAvn, av’c are led to
fufpeCt that they fuppofed all mankind Avere once upon
a time favages, and Avere left to hammer out Avords, as
■well as characters, by neceffity, ingenuity, experience,
praCticc, &c. For our part, avc have endeavoured to
prove, in our feCtion on the Hcbre.Av language, that
alphabetical writing Avas an antediluvian invention; and
AATe now lay it doAvn as our opinion, that among all
thofe nations Avhieh fettled near the centre of civiliza¬
tion,
(g) See Mr Bruce’s Travels, vol. i.
£h) Mr Bruce, Dr Shaw, Biftiop Pococke, Savary, Volney, &c.
Stc.
P
ut em-
loyed to
onceal
icred doc-
iated;
e<3. III. PHILO
;haldean tion, hieroglyphics were, comparatively, a modern fabri-
anguagc, cation.
The Orientals are, at this day, extravagantly de¬
voted to allegory and fiftion. Plain unadorned truth
with them has no charms. Hence that extravagant
medley of fables and romance with which all antiquity
is replete, and by which all ancient hiftory is difguifed
and corrupted. Every dodlrine of religion, every pre¬
cept of morality, was tendered to mankind in parables
and proverbs. Hence, fays the Scripture, to under-
ftand a proverb, the words of the wife, and their dark
fayings. The eaftern fages involved their maxims in
this enigmatical drefs for feveral reafons : to fix the
attention of their difciples •, to afiift their memory ;
to gratify their allegorical tafte j to Iharpen their wit
and exercife their judgment; and fometimes perhaps
to difplay their own acutenefs, ingenuity, and inven¬
tion.
It was among the ancients an univerfal opinion, that
the moll; facred arcana of religion, morality, and the fu-
blime fciences, were not to be communicated to i/ie un¬
initiated rabble. For this reafon every thing facred was
involved in allegorical darknefs.
Here, then, we ought to look for the origin of
hieroglyphical or picture writing among the civilized
nations of the eaft. They did not employ that fpe-
cies of writing becaufe they were ignorant of alphabe-
uoc tical chara£ters, but becaufe they thought fit to con-
rines from ceal the moft important heads of their doctrines under
heunioi- hieroglyphical figures. The Egyptian priefts were
raoft celebrated for their {kill in devifing thofe emble¬
matical reprefentations \ but other nations likewife
employed them. We learn from the fragments of
Berofus the Chaldean hiftorian, preferved by Syncellus
and Alexander Polyhiftor, that the walls of the temple
of Bel us at Babylon were covered all over with thofe
emblematical paintings. Thefe charafters were called
r'sgaq becaufe they were chiefly employed to reprefent
facred obje£fs ”, and yXvptKx, becaufe they were origi¬
nally carved or engraved. Their name points to their
original ufe. Inltead of purfuing thefe obfervations,
which the nature of our defign will not permit, we
mull refer our readers to Herodotus, lib. ii. Diodorus
Sic. lib. i. Strabo, lib. xvii. Plut. Ifis et Ofiris ; and
among the Chriiiian fathers, to Clem. Alex. Eufeb.
Pi Eep. Evang. 5 but chiefly to Horapollo’s Hierogly-
phica.
From this deduftion we would conclude, that this
fpecies of writing was an adventitious mode in Egypt,
peculiar to the priefts, and employed chiefly to exhi¬
bit things facred ; and that among all civilized people
it did not fuperfede the ufe of alphabetical characters,
nor did the ufe of the latter originate from the former.
When alphabetical letters were invented, if indeed they
were a human invention, they were antecedent to the
other in ufe and extent. The Egyptian priefts alone
hara&ers. knew the true import of thofe facred fymbols ; and com¬
municated that knowledge firft to their own children
from generation to generation, then to the initiated, and
laft of all to the grandees of the nation, all of whom
were indeed initiated. The bieroglvphics of Egypt
were not then the fymbols of any facred occult lan¬
guage } but figns invented by the priefts and prophets
or wife men, in order to reprefent their deities, the at-
L O G Y.
311
, 7i
nd pofte-
ior in
une to al
habetical
tributes and perfections of their deities, and the myfte- Chaldean
rious arcana of their religion, and many other circum- Ca!^^age»
fiances relating to objefts of importance, which were . — f^'- j
deemed either too facrtd or too important to be impart¬
ed to the vulgar.
The Egyptians afcribed the invention of letters to a
perfon whom they called Thoth *, T/ieuth, or Thijoth ^* Eufeb.
the Greeks j and the Romans Mercurius. Plato f
calls him a god, or a godlike man 5 Diodorus J makes J
him privy counfellor to Oftris ; Sanchoniathon ap.
Eufeb. § connefts him with the Phoenician Cronus or § Prep- Ev.
Saturn. To this Mercury the Egyptians afcribe the
invention of all the arts and fciences. He was pro¬
bably fome very eminent inventive genius, who flourifli-
ed during the firft ages of the Egyptian monarchy,
and who perhaps taught the rude favages the art of wri¬
ting. yz
According to Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians had Two kinds
two kinds of letters* j the one facred, the other com-°/a|P^e"
mon : the former the priefts taught their own children, ra(g.ers ^
the latter all learned promifcuoufly. In the facred cha- Egypt,
rafters the rites and ceremonies of their religion were * Lib. i.
couched j the other was accommodated to the ordinary
bufinefs of life. Clem. Alexand. mentions three dif¬
ferent ftyles of Avriting employed by the Egyptians f. t Strom.
“ The pupils, who were inftrufted by the Egyptians, v*
firft learned the order and arrangement of the Egyptian
letters, which is called epijlo/ography, that is, the man¬
ner of writing letters j next, the facred charafter, which
the facred fcribes employed ; laftly, the hieroglyphic
charafter, one part of which is expreffed by the firft ele¬
ments, and is called Cyrio/ogic, that is, capital, and the
other fymbolic. Of the fymbolic kind, one part explains
properly by imitation j and the other is written tropical¬
ly, that is, in tropes and figures ; and a third by certain
enigmatical expreftions. Accordingly, when we intend
to write the word fun, wre defcribe a circle , and when
the moon, the figure of that planet appearing horned,
conformable to the appearance of that luminary after
the change.” In this paflage we have an excellent de-
fcription of the three different modes of writing ufed
by the Egyptians j the common, the facred, and the
hieroglyphic. The laft he defcribes according to its
three divifions, in exaft conformity to our preceding ob¬
fervations. ^
By the defcription above tranflated, it plainly ap-The facreci
pears, that the facred charafter of the Egyptians -wasletters and
entirely different from the hieroglyphic 5 and by this languagft
confideration we are in a good meafure juftified, in
fuppofing, as we have done all along, that the facred
letters of the Egyptians were aftually the Chaldaic.
The inforiptions on the obelifks mentioned by Caffio-
dorus, fo often quoted, were certainly engraved in the
facred charafter 5 and the charafter in which they were
drawn was that above mentioned. If the {acred let¬
ters were Chaldaic, the facred language was probably
the fame.
The Egyptians pretended, that the Babylonians de¬
rived the knowledge of the arts and fciences from them;
while, on the other hand, the Babylonians maintained,
that the former had been tutored by them. 1 he laft
is, they both fpoke the fame language ; ufed the fame
religious rites •, had applied with equal fuccefs to aftro-
logy, aftronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and the cthes
fciences j
3 5 2
fhalde-m
Language,
&.C.
74
The Egyp¬
tian and
Phoenician
languages
the fame.
’S.
The vulgar
letters of
Egypt
nearly the
fame with
the He¬
brew or
Phoenician.
P H I L O
fuences; of coiirfe a rivalHiip had arifen between the
two nations, which laid the foundation of thole oppofite
pretenfions.
The moft faithful fpecimen of the vulgar language of
the Egyptians, is, we believe, dill preferved in the Cop¬
tic, which, however, is fo replete with Grecilms, that it
muft be difficult to trace it out.
Under the Ptolemies, the Greek was the language
of the court, and confequently muft have diftufed it-
felf over all the country. Hence, we believe, two-
thirds of the Coptic are Greek words, diverfified by
their terminations, declenfions, and conjugations only.
To be convinced of the truth of this, our learned and
curious readers need only confult Chriftian Scholtz’s
Egyptian and Coptic grammar and diftionary, cor¬
rected and publiffied by Godfred Woide, Oxford,
1788.
The Egyptians and Phrenicians were in a manner
coufin-germans, and confequently muft have fpoken
the fame language $ that is, one of the lifter dialeCls
of the Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabian, Culhite, &.c.—-
This is not a mere conjedture ; it may be realized by
almoft numberlefs examples. It is true, that when
Jofeph’s brethren went down to Egypt, and that ruler
deigned to converfe with them, they could not un-
derftand the Egyptian idiom which he fpoke; nor
would he, had he been actually an Egyptian, have
underftood them without an interpreter. The only
conclulion from this circumftance is, that by this time
the Egyptian had deviated confiderably from the ori¬
ginal language of mankind. The Iriffi and Welch,
every body knows, are only different dialects or the
Celtic tongue *, and yet experience proves, that a native
of Ireland and another of Wales cannot well compre¬
hend each other’s language, nor converfe intelligibly
without an interpreter. The Erfe, fpoken in the
Highlands of Scotland, and the Iriffi, are known to be
both branches of the old Celtic *, yet a Scotch High¬
lander and an Iriftiman can hardly underftand each
other’s fpeech. By a parity of reafon, a Hebrew and
an Egyptian might, in the age of Jofeph, fpeak only
different dialefts of the fame original tongue, and yet
find it difficult to underftand one another. The faft
icems to be, the Hebrew dialedft had been in a manner
llationary, from the migration of Abraham to that pe¬
riod ; whereas the Egyptian, being fpoken by a power¬
ful, civilized, and highly cultivated people, muft have
received many improvements, perhaps additions, in the
courfe of near two centuries.
The defendants of Canaan and of Mizraim were
ftri&ly connected in their religious ceremonies : they
worshipped the fame objedls, namely, the Ho/7 of Hea¬
ven ; they mourned Of ns and Adonis in concert •, they
carried on a joint commerce, and, we think, fpoke the
fame language: we may, therefore conclude, that their
vulgar letters were nearly the fame, both in form, difpo-
fition, and number. Their original number was proba¬
bly 16, viz. five vowels, fix mutes, fimple and middle,
four liquids, and the folitary a*.—With thefe, it is like¬
ly, was joined a mark of afpiration, or an h, fuch as we
have in the Roman alphabet, and find on Some Greek
monuments. Cadmus was originally an Egyptian ; that
leader brought a new fet of letters into Greece. Thefe
are generally deemed to be Phoenician. They were
nearly the fame with the ancient Pelafgic, as will be
LOGY. Sea. HI.
ftiown in the feflion of the Greek language. The latter, Chaldean
we think, were from Egypt, and confequently the for- language,
mer muft have been from the fame quarter. Danaus, ,
Perleus, Lelex, &c. were of Egyptian extraftion : they ’
too adopted the Cadmean charadlers, without fubftituting
any of their own.
The Jonim, or lonians, emigrated from Gaza, a
colony of Egyptians \ and their letters are known to
have differed very little from thofe of Cadmus and the
Pelafgi. The conclufion, therefore, is, that the vul¬
gar Egyptian letters were the fame with the Phoeni¬
cian.
We are abundantly fenfible that there are found upon
Egyptian monuments chara&ers altogether different
from thofe we have been defcribing. At what time,
by what people, and to what language, thefe letters
belonged, we will not pretend to determine. The
Ethiopians, the Chaldeans, the Perfians, the Greeks,
the Romans, the Saracens, have, at different times, been
fovereigns of that unhappy country. Perhaps other
nations, whofe memory is'now buried in oblivion, may
have erefted monuments, and covered them with in-
fcriptions compofed of words taken from different lan¬
guages, perhaps, upon fome occafions, whimfically de-
vifed, with a view to perplex the curious antiquaries
of future ages. Some of thefe are compofed of hie¬
roglyphics, intermingled with alphabetical characters,
artificially deranged, in order to render them unin¬
telligible. Thefe we do not pretend to develope j be-
caufe the moft inquifitive and fagacious antiquaries
are not yet agreed as to their purport and fignifica-
tion. 16
We ffiall now go on to ffiow, that moft part of the Egyptian
names of perfons and places, &c. which have been
conveyed down to us, may, in general, be reduced toorj
a Hebrew, Phoenician, Syrian, or Chaldean original.
As the firft of thefe languages is moft generally
known, we ftiall employ it as our arch-type or ftand-
ard, beginning with thofe terms which occur in Scrip¬
ture.
The word Pharaoh, the title of the melech or king of
Egypt, is, we think, compounded of two terms, which
plainly difcover a Hebrew original. According to an
oriental tradition, the firft who affumed this title was
the fovereign of the royal Jhepherds ; a race of people
from Arabia and Phoenicia. They conquered Egypt
at an early period, and kept poffeffion of it for feveral
centuries. They gloried in the title vko-oi, or vxxrei,
which according to Jofephus contra Apion. fignifies
“ royal Ihepherds.” The word Pharaoh feems to be
compounded of *19 Phar, “ a bullock,” and njn, Rachah,
“ to feed $” hence nsns, Pharachah, as we think it ought
to be written. The name given to Jofeph is evidently
of kin with the Hebrew 5 for %aphnath differs very
little from the Hebrew verb tzaphan, which fignifies
“ to hide, to keep fecret 5” Paneah or Phaneah, figni¬
fies much the fame with the Hebrew Phanah, afpexit:
fo that the name aftually intimates one who fees hidden
things; which was certainly the very idea the prince
intended to convey by giving him that name.
Potiphar, or Potipherah, the name of Jofeph’s father-
in-law, lias likewife a diale&ical affinity with the He¬
brew idiom. In that language Patah fignifies “ to open,
to explain,” which was one part of the facerdotal of¬
fice 5 and Phar imports “ a bullock.” Potiphar was
then
tea. in. PHILO
Chaldean then pneft of the bullock, that is, the ox, apis, facred
.anguage, to This perfon was prieft ox prince of On,
Scc' which, according to Cyrillus on Hofea, was an Egyp¬
tian name of that luminary. The Hebrew word hon or
chon fignifies “ power, wealth, fufficiency a very pro¬
per epithet for the fun, who was thought to beftow
thofe bleflings. The name of Jofeph’s wife was Afenath
oxAfnath, compounded of IJbah, “ a vroman,” and Naith
or Neit, an Egyptian name of Minerva, “ a votary of
Minerva.”
Almoft all the names of cities belonging to Egypt
which are mentioned in Scripture are evidently Hebrew.
To be fatisfied as to this pofition, our curious readers
77 may confult Jamiefon’s Spicilegia, an excellent book ve¬
nd lignifi- ry little known. The names of molt of the Egyptian
ant in that jgjj-jgg are fignificant in the Hebrew tongue-, and in that
»<'Su‘-ou cljale£t the names appear to have been impofed with great
judgment and propriety, plainly indicating fome office .
affigned them, or pointing to fome peculiar attribute.
We ihall produce a few7 inftances.
Ofiris was the great divinity of Egypt he was cer¬
tainly the fun. The Egyptians gave their deities a va¬
riety of names in allufion to their various offices and at¬
tributes. Jablonfki has in a manner wearied himfelf
with tracing the fignification of this name. In Hebrew
we have Ojhir, “ to grow rich, to be enriched.” jl'he
fun may be called the great enricher of nature, and
therefore might properly be called by a name alluding
to that quality. Ifis wTas both the moon and the earth.
Ifhah is the Hebrew word for woman, and Horapollo
affigns this very derivation. Anubis was one of the
names of Mercury among the Egyptians : He was al¬
ways figured with the head of a dog. He accompanied
Ifis in her peregrinations in queft of Ofiris, and frighted
away the w7ild beads from attacking the princefs. In
Hebrew, Nubah fignifies “ to bark.” Here the analo¬
gy, we think, is evident. Many Egyptian names be¬
gin with Can, fuch as Canobus, Canopus, &c. The
Hebrew7 word Cohen or Cohen, Syr. Con or CJron, inti¬
mates both a prince and a prieft. Ob or Plub, in He¬
brew7, imports “ a bottle, a flaggon,” any thing round
and prominent like the human belly. In the language
of Egypt it w7as often applied to the fun, in allufion to
his rotundity. In the temple of Jupiter Ammon or Amon,
in the defert of Libya, there was a ftatue of the godre-
prefenting the navel of the human body, which was pro¬
bably framed in allufion to this fancy. Hence the Py-
thonefs, or people who, according to the Scripture, had
familiar fpirits, were faid to prophecy by the infpiration
of Ob, as the Delphic prieftefs did by that of Apollo.
Again, many Egyptian names end with fris, as Calafi-
ris, Termofiris. This termination is no doubt a cog¬
nate of the Hebrew and Chaldean far or %ar, fignifying
u a prince, or grandee, &c.” The river Nile in the
Ethiopic dialect is called Siris; that is, we believe, the
fang of rivers. The fame flood feems to derive the name
by which it is generally known, from the Hebrew nehel,
“ a valley, or torrent running down a valley.” The
fame river was often called Oceanus, a word compofed
of og, or oc, or och, which fignifies “ a king, a leader,”
Vol. XVI. Part I.
LOGY. 313
and the Hebrew oin, “ a fountain fo that the w7ord Chaldean
imports Choking of fountains. The Hebrews always de- Language,
nominated the land of Egypt the land of Mizraim ; the , ^ 1
Egyptians themfelves, in later times, feemed to have
called it A<yi/7rrof, JEgyptus, “ Egypt,” which fome
think is compounded of Ai, Hebrew, “ an ifland, a
country, a province,” and Copt or Cupt, “ a famous ci¬
ty in that country.”
From this fpecimen, wre hope it will appear that the
Egyptian language in the more early ages was one of
thofe dialedfts into which that of the defcendants of the
poftdiluvian patriarchs was divided, and perhaps fubdi-
vided, a few centuries after the deluge. Among all
thofe, we believe, fuch an affinity will be found, as
plainly demonftrates that they originally fprung from
one common flock. Here wre might eafily follow the
Egyptian language into Greece; and there we are per-
fuaded we might trace a vaft number of Egyptian terms
into that tongue, which, however, the nature of this in¬
quiry will not permit. If our learned readers fhould in¬
cline to know more of the affinity of the Egyptian
tongue with the others fo often mentioned, they may
confult Bochart’s C^oncra/?, Walton’s Pro/eg. Gebelin’s
Monde Prim. Jamiefon’s Spicilegia, &c.
Sect. IV. Of the P erf an Language.
The Perfian language is divided into the ancient and
modern ; the former of which is at this day very imper¬
fectly known, the latter is at prefent one of the moft ex-
preffive, and at the fame time one of the moft highly
polifhed, in the world. We (hall, in treating of this
language, in compliance with the plan we have all along
followed, begin with the ancient.
When Mohammed was born, and Anu'shi'rava'n, tj,e
whom he calls Cntjuf king, fat on the throne of Perfia, birth of
two languages were generally prevalent in that em-Moharo-
pire (k). The one was called Deri, and was the dia- jTie^ two (
left of the court, being only a refined and elegant branch prevaieiit
of the Parf, fo called from the province of which Shi- 'm perfia.
ra% is now the capital j and that of the learned, in
which moft books were compofed, and which had the
name of Pahlavi, either from the heroes who fpoke it
in former times, or from pahlu, a traft of land which
included fome confiderable cities of Iran : The ruder
dialefts of both were fpoken by the nifties of feveral ,
provinces ; and many of thefe diftinft idioms were ver¬
nacular, as happens in every kingdom of confiderable
extent. Befides the Parf and Pahlavi, a very ancient And a
and abftrufe tongue was known to the priefts and philo-more an-
fophers, called the language of the Zend, becaufe a bookcient
on religious and moral duties which they held facred, a*
and which bore that name, had been written in it jknt)wnonly
while the Pa%end or comment on that work was com-to the
pofed in Pahlavi, as a more popular dialeft. The let-P116^8,
ters of this book w’ere called %end, and the language
avefa.
The Zend and the old Pahlavi are now almoft extinft
in Iran, and very few even of the Guebres can read it j
while the Parf remaining almort pure in Shabnameh, *
11 r has
(1) The Septuagint (Gen. xli. v. 45. and 50.) tranflate On by ’HXtoTxcXif.
(k) The moderns call the empire of Perfia Iran ; a name unknown to the ancients.
•4
P HILO
Perfian has, hy the intermixture of Arabic words, and many
Language, imperceptible changes, now become a new language, ex-
~v quidtely poliihed by a feries of fine writers both in profe
and verfe, analogous to the different idioms gradually
formed in Europe after the iubverfion of the Roman em-
80
'Parfi lan-
pire.
The very learned and laborious Sir William Jones is
guage, and confident that the Pnrji abounds with words from the
Sanfcrit, with no other change than fueh as may be ob-
ferved in'the numerous dialects of India *, that very ma¬
ny Perfian imperatives are the roots of Sanfcrit verbs ;
and that even the moods and tenfes of the Perfian verb
fubftantive, which is the model of all the reft, are dedu-
ciblc from the Sanfcrit by an eafy and clear analogy.
From this he infers that the Parfi, like the various idiom
dialects, is derived from the language of the Bramins.
This conclufton, we imagine, is not altogether juft, finee
by the fame train of reafoning we may infer that the
Sanfcrit is derived from the Parji.
The fame learned gentleman adds, that the multitude
of compounds in the Perfian language proves that it is
not of Arabic but Indian original. This is undoubtedly
true j but though the Parfi is not of Arabic original, it
does not neceffarily follow that it is of Sanfcrit. We
might with the fame propriety, and with an equal fhow
of reafon, conclude, that the Greek language is de-
fcended of the Sanferit, becaufe it too abounds with
compounds. We may then reft, affured, that neither the
one nor the other argument adduced by the ingenious
prefident proves that the Parji tongue is a defcendant of
the Sanfcrit.
The gentleman fo often mentioned, affures us, that
the Zend bears a ftrong refemblance to the Sanfcrit $
which, however, it might do without being actually de¬
rived from it, fince we believe every oriental fcholar will
find that all the languages from the Mediterranean to
the utmoft coaft of Hindoftan exhibit very ftrong figna-
tures of a common original. The Parfi, however, not
being the original dialed of Iran or Perfia, we fliall pur-
fue it no farther at prefent, but return to give fome ac-
gj count of the Pahlavi, which was probably the primitive
the Pahla. language of the country. We have obferved above,
''d* that the Pazend or comment on the Zend was com-
pofed in the Pahlavi for the ufe of the vulgar. This,
according to Sir William, was a dialeft of the Chal-
daic 5 and of this affertion he exhibits the following
proof.
By the nature of the Chaldean tongue, moft words
ended in the firft lung vowel, like Jhemaid, “ heaven $”
and that very word, unaltered in a fingle letter, we find
in the Pazend, together with lailid, “ night,” meyd,
“ water,” nird, “ fire,” matrd, “ rain,” and a multi¬
tude of others, all Arabic or Hebrew, with a Chaldean
termination j fo •zafnar, by a beautiful metaphor from
pruning trees, means in Hebrew to compofe verfes, and
thence, by an eafy tranlition, to jing them ; now in
Pahlavi we fee the verb zamaruniten, “ to fing,” with
its forms zamaraunemi, “ I fing,” and znmzunid, “ he
fang j” the verbal terminations of the Perfian being
added to the Chaldaic root. All thefe words are in¬
tegral parts of the language ; not adventitious like
the Arabic nouns and verbals engrafted on the modern
Perfian.
From this reafoning it plainly appears, I ft, That Pah¬
lavi was the ancient language of Perfia j and, 2d, That
LOG Y. Sed. IV
the ancient Perfian was a cognate dialeiff of the Chal- Perfuo
dean, Hebrew, Arabic, Phoenician, &c. M. Anquetil Lai>guaga
has annexed to his tranflation of the Zendavejla two vo-
cabularies in Zend and Pahlavi, which he found in an
approved colle&ion of Rawayat or Traditional Pieces in
modern Petfian. His vocabulary of the Pahlavi ftrong-
ly confirms this opinion concerning the Chaldaic origin
of that language. But with refpect to the Zend, it
abounded with vaft numbers of pure Sanfcrit words, to
fuch a degree, that fix or fevcn words in ten belonged
to that language.
From this deduction it would appear, that the oldeft derived
languages of Perfia were Chaldaic and Sanfcrit: and from chat
that when they had ceafed to be vernacular, the Pahlavi
and Zend were deduced from them refpedively, and the ^ u’
Parfi either from the Zend, or immediately from the
dialeft of the Brahmans : but all had perhaps a mixture
of Tartarian *, for the belt lexicographers affert, that
numberlefs words in ancient Perfian are taken from the
Cimmerians. With refpeft to the laft of thefe, we can¬
not help being of opinion, that colonies of people from
the neighbourhood of Perlia did tranfport themfelves in¬
to Crim Tartary, and perhaps into Europe. Thefe co-
lonifts brought along with them thofe vocables which ftill
occur in their dialeft. Emigrants from thofe quarters
muft have found their way into Scandinavia, fince num¬
berlefs Perfian words are ftill current in thofe regions.
Perhaps Odin and his followers emigrated from the
neighbourhood of Media and Perfia, and brought with
them the dialeft of the nations from whole country they
had taken their departure.
With refpeft to the Zend, it might well be a dialeft The Zend
of the Sanfcrit, and was probably a facred language ; from the
and if fo, concealed from the vulgar, and referved for1.11111®
the offices of religion. If Zoroaftres, or Zaratuffit as ou
the orientals call him, travelled into Egypt, and was
initiated in the myfteries of the Egyptian religion, as
fome pretend he was, he might be inftrufted in the fa¬
cred dialeft of that people by the prxefts under whom he
ftudied. When that philofopher returned into Perfia,
and became the apoftle of a new religion, he might
compofe the volume, of his laws and religious inftitu-
tions in the facred language of his Egyptian tutors.
This language then became that of the Magi, who con¬
cealed it carefully from the knowledge of the uninitiat¬
ed, as the priefts did in Egypt and the Brahmans in
Hindoftan.
In our Seftion on the Sanfcrit language, we ftiall give
a detail of a number of particulars, which to us feem to
furnxffi a prefumption that the language in queftion was
imported from Egypt into Hindoftan. We confefs there
are not fufficient data to improve thefe prefumptions in¬
to abfolute certainty ; but we hope the time is at hand
when the worthy members of the Afiatic Society will
difeover abundant materials to afeertain the truth of this
pofition. We are the rather inclined to adopt this hy-
pothefis, when we confider the charafter of Zoroaftres
in conneftion with that of the Egyptian Cohens and of
the Indian Brahmans.
If this opinion ftxould one day appear to be well-
founded, we believe the coincidence between the lan¬
guage of the Zend and the Sanfcrit will be eafily ac¬
counted for, without making the Hindoos mafters of
Iran or Perfia, and then driving them back to the fhores
of the Ganges/ That the nations of Turan or Scythia
did
Sea. IV. PHILO
Perfian did actually overrun that ccwmtry, and make themfelves
Language. mafters of a confiderable part of it at different times, is
vouched by the records and traditions of the Perfians
themfelves. Upon thofe occafions a number of Tarta¬
rian words might be introduced into the country, and
acquire a currency among the inhabitants. As the an¬
nals of ancient Perfia have been long fince deflroyed and
configned to eternal oblivion, it is impofTible to afcer-
tain either the extent or duration of thefe irruptions.
Indeed the nature of our defign does not call for that
S4 inveftigation.
Proofs from In order to corroborate the cognation between the
Scripture Chaldean and Pahlavi languages, we (hall fubjoin a few
oftheori- ar„uments derived from the Mofaic hiftory, and the
lahkvi.6 other writings of the Old Teftament. Thefe we believe
will be admitted as irrefragable proofs of the pofition
above advanced by fuch as admit the authenticity of
thofe records.
Elam is always allowed to have been the progenitor
of the Perfians. This patriarch was the eldelf f'on of
Shem the fon of Noah ; and according to the Mofaic
account, his pofterity fettled in the neighbourhood of
the defcendants of Afliur, Arpha.xad, Lud, and Aram,
the other fons of Shem. The country where they fet-
* Strabo, tled was denominated Elymais *, as late as the begin-
lib- ”• ning of the Chriftian era. This name was retained till
the Saracens conquered and took pofTeflion of that coun¬
try. If this was the cafe, as it certainly was, the Ela¬
mites or Perfians fpoke a dialect of the primary lan¬
guage, which, in the firft Section, we have proved to
have been the Hebrew.
When the four eaflern monarchs invaded the five ci-
f Gen. ties of the plain in Canaan -f-, Chedorlaomer king of
tbp.xiv. Elam was at the head of the confederacy. Amraphel
king of Shinar, that is Babylon or Chaldea, was one of
the allies j Arioch king of Elafar was another ; and Ti¬
dal, king of fome fcattered nations in the fame neigh¬
bourhood, was the fourth. Ihat Chedorlaomer was
principal in this expedition, is obvious from the hiflo-
jian’s detail of the fecond, where that prince is placed
firft, and the reft are named t/ie tings that were with
him. This paftage likewife demonftrates, that Elam,
Shinar, and Elafar, lay contiguous, and w'ere engaged
in the fame caufe. Wherever the country in queftion is
mentioned in Scripture prior to the era of Daniel and
Ezra, it is always under the name of Elam, lo go
about to prove this would be fuperfluous.
\ Cyrop. According to Xenophon J, the Perfians knew no-
1‘ thing of horfemanfhip before the age of Cyrus: but that
hiftorian informs us, that after that monarch had intro¬
duced the practice of fighting on horfeback, they be¬
came fo fond of it, that, no man of rank would deign to
fight on foot. Here it ought to be confidered, that the
hiftorian above mentioned was now writing a moral, mi¬
litary, and political romance ; and therefore introduces
this anecdote, in order to exalt the charadter of his he¬
ro : fo that we are not to fuppofe that the people under
confideration were unacquainted with the art of horfe¬
manfhip till that period.
The very name Phars or Pharos is certainly of He¬
brew origin, and alludes to the fkill that people profef-
fed in horfemanfhip. The original feems to be Pharfah,
ungnla, “ a hoof and in the Arabic Pharos intimates
a horfe, and Pharis a horfeman. Confequently the peo¬
ple were denominated Parfat} and the country Pars, be-
L O G Y.
caufe they were trained from their infancy to ride the ^ Perfian
great horfe, which indeed they deemed their greateft ho- jau.-u‘^g\
nour. This name was perhaps firft impofed upon them
by the neighbouring nations, and in procefs of time be¬
came their gentile appellation. Mithras is generally
known to have been the chief divinity of the Perfians ;
a name which is plainly derived from Mither, “ great.”
We find in Strabo the Perfian god Amanus, which is
plainly a cognate of Hamah, the “ fun or fire.” Hence
we believe comes Hamarim, the “ hearths or chapels,”
where the. fire facred to the fun was kept burning} which,
we believe, the Greeks called Ilv^ecitix, or “ fire-tem¬
ples.” Herodotus * mentions a cuftom among the Per- * Lib.
fians, according to which, when they came to engagecaP* 8s‘
an enemy, they caft a rope with a kind of gin at the
end of it on their enemy, and by thofe means endea¬
voured to entangle and draw him into their power. The
people of Perfia who employed this net or gin were
called Sargates, from farags, jharag, or ferig, a word
■which in Hebrew, Arabic, and Chaldaic, fignifies to
“ hamper or entangle hence perhaps the Greek word
Scsgyatvu, a “ bafket or net.” d’«r or ssor in Hebrew,
Phoenician, Syriac, &c. fignifies “ a lord, a prince 5”
and hence we have the initial fyllable of the far-famed
•zar-tuffit, Zoroajires. In a word, moll of the Perfian
names* that occur in the Grecian hiftories, notwithftand-
ing the fcandalous manner in which they have been dif-
guifed and metamorphofed by the Greeks, may ftill with
a little fkill and induftry be traced back to a Hebrew,
Chaldaic, Syriac, or Phoenician origin. In the books
of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Efther, we find a
number of Perfian names which are all of a Hebrew or
Chaldaic complexion: to inveftigate thefe at much great¬
er length would be foreign to the defign of the prefent
article. If our curious reader fhould incline to be more
fully fatisfied as to this point, he may confult Bo-
chart’s Chanaan, D’Herbelot’s Bib. Orient. Walton’s
Proleg. &c.
It now appears, we hope, to the entire fatisfa&ion of
our readers, that the Pahlavi is a remnant of the old
Perfian, and that the latter is a cognate branch of the
Hebrew, Chaldaic, Syriac, &c. We have likewife ad¬
duced fome prefumptive proofs that the Zend was copied
from the facred language of the Egyptians : we fhall
now endeavour to explain by what changes and revolu¬
tions the language firft mentioned arrived at its prefent
fummit of beauty and perfeftion. _ 85
We have obferved above, that the Scythians, whom Progrefs of
the old Perfians called 'Zxx.xi, Sacce, and whom the moAllf> r®‘^aa
dern call Turan, often invaded and overran Perfia at alanguage*
very early period. The consequence was, an infufion of
Scythian or Tartarian terms, with which that language
was early impregnated. 1 his in all probability occa-
fioned the firft deviation from the original ftandard. The
conquefts of Alexander, and the dominion of his fuccef-
fors, muft, one would imagine, introduce an inundation
of Greek words. That event, however, feems to have
affefted the language in no confiderable degree, at
leaft very few Grecian terms occur in the modern Per¬
fian.
The empire of the Arfacidce or Parthians, we appre¬
hend, produced a very important alteration upon the an¬
cient Perfian. They were a demi-Scythian tribe } and
as they conquered the Perfians, retained the dominion of
thofe parts for feveral centuries, and adually incorpo-
R r 2 rated
3'6 PHILO
La^ua'e ratec^ t^ie natives, their language muft neceflarily
y have given a deep tindure to the original dialed of the
Perfians. Sir William Jones has obferved, that the let¬
ters of the infcriptions at IJIahhr or Perfepolis bear fome
refemblance to the old Runic letters of the Scandinavi¬
ans. ihofe? infcriptions we take to have been Parthian j
and we hope, as the Parthians were a Tartarian clan,
this conjedure may be admitted till another more plau¬
sible is difcovered. The Perfians, it is true, did once
more recover the empire •, and under them began the
reign of the Deri and Parfi tongues : the former con-
fifting of the old Perfian and Parthian highly polifhed j
the latter of the fame languages in their uncultivated
vernacular drefs. In this fituation the Perfian lan¬
guage remained till the invafion of the Saracens in 636 ;
when thefe barbarians overran and fettled in that fine
country ; demolifhed every monument of antiquity, re¬
cords, temples, palaces, every remain of ancient fuper-
flition ; maffacred or expelled the minifters of the Ma-
gian idolatry ; and introduced a language, though not
entirely new, yet widely differing from the old exem¬
plar.
But before we proceed to give fome brief account of
the modern Perfian, we muft take the liberty to hazard
one conje&ure, which perhaps our adepts in modern
Perfian may not find themfelves difpofed to admit. In
modern Perfian we find the ancient Perfian names won¬
derfully diftorted and defiecied from that form under
which they appear in the Scripture, in Ctefias, Mega-
fthenes, and the other Greek authors. From this it has
been inferred, that not only the Greeks, but even the
facred biftorians of the Jews, have changed and meta-
morphofed them moft unmercifully, in order to accom¬
modate them to the ftandard of their own language.
As to the Greeks, we know it was their conftant prac¬
tice, but we cannot believe fo much, of the Hebrews.
We make no doubt of their writing and pronouncing
the names of the Perfian monarchs and governors of that
nation nearly in the fame manner with the native Per-
fians. It is manifeft, beyond all poftibility of contra-
diflion, that they neither altered the Tyrian and Phoe¬
nician names of perfons and places when they had oe-
cafion to mention them, nor. thofe of the Egyptians
when they occurred in their writings. The Babylo¬
nian and Chaldaic names which are mentioned in the
» Old Teftament vary nothing from the Chaldean origi¬
nal. No reafon can be afligned why they ftiould have
transformed the Perfian names more than the others.
On the contrary, in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Efther,
we find the Perfian names faithfully preferved through¬
out.
The fa<ft, we imagine, is this : Our modern admirers
in - in Per ^ ^>er^lc ^ave borrowed their names of the ancient
lkS exceut" kings and heroes of that country from romances and fa¬
bulous legends of more modern date and compofition.
The archives of Perfia were deftroyed by the Saracens :
the acen nothing of importance was written in that country till
vonqueft. two centuries after the era of Mohammed. What fuc-
ceeded was all fiflion and romance. The authors of
thofe entertaining compofitions either forged names of
heroes to anfwer their purpofe, or laid hold on fuch as
were celebrated in the ballads of their country, or pre¬
ferved by vulgar tradition. The names were no doubt
very different from thofe of the ancient kings and he¬
roes of Perfia y. and probably many of them had under-
86
Nothing
now exift-
fic, except
the Zend,
older than
L o G Sea. iv
gone confiderable changes during the continuance of the Persian
Parthian empire. Upon this foundation has the learned LanRtiag»
Mr Richardfon erected a very irregular fabric, new, and ''T—
to ufe his own expreffion, we think built upon pillars of
tee. He has taken much pains to invalidate the credit
of the Grecian hiftories of the Perfian empire, by draw¬
ing up in battle array againft their records legipns of ro¬
mantic writers, who were not born till near loco years
after the events had taken place 5 and to complete the
probability, who lived 200 years after all the chronicles
of the Medes and Perfians had been finally deftroyed by
the fury of the Saracens.
After the decifive viftory obtained over the Perfians
at Kadeffa, their ancient government was overturned,
their religion proferibed, their laws trampled under
foot, and their civil tranfaiftions difturbed by the forci¬
ble introduftion of the lunar for the folar kalendar j
while, at the fame time, their language became almoft
overwhelmed by an inundation of Arabic words j which
from that period, religion, authority, and fafhion, irfeor-
porated with their idiom.
From the feventh till the tenth century the Perfian
tongue, now impregnated with Arabic words, appears
to have laboured under much difeouragement and ne-
gle£t. Bagdad, built by Almanfor, became foon after ..
the year 762 the chief refidence of the caliphs, and
the general refort of the learned and the ambitious from
every quarter of the empire. At length theacceflion of
the Buyah princes to the Perfian throne marked in the
tenth century the great epoch of the revival of Perfian
learning. About the year 977 the throne of Perfia was
filled by the great Azaduddawla 5 who firft aflumed the
title of Sultan, afterwards generally adopted by taftern
princes. He was born in Ifpahan, and had a ftrong at¬
tachment to his native kingdom. His court, whether
at Bagdad or in the capital of Perfia, was the ftandard
of tafte and the favourite refidence of genius. The na¬
tive dialed of the prince was particularly diftinguifhed,
and became foon the general language of eompofition in
almoft every branch of polite learning. From the end j}iem70^
of the tenth till the 15th century may be confidered asflourifhing
the moft flourifhing period of Perfian literature. The period of
epic poet Firdaufi, in his romantic hiftoryof the Perfian Per*'an
kings and heroes, difplays an imagination and fmooth-ter"tUre'
nefs of numbers' hardly inferior to Homer. The whole
fanciful range of Perfinn enchantment he has interwo¬
ven in his poems, which abound with the nobleft efforts
of genius. This bard has ftamped a dignity on the mon-
fters and fidions of the eaft, equal to that which the
prince of epic poetry has given to the mythology of an¬
cient Greece. Plis language may at the fame time be
confidered as the moft refined dialed of the ancient Per¬
fian, the Arabic being introduced with a very fparing
hand : whilft Sadi, Jami, Hafiz, and other fucceeding
writers, in profe as well as verfe, have blended in their
works the Arabic without referve j gaining perhaps in
the nervous luxuriance of the one language what may
feem to have been loft in the fofter delicacy of the other.
Hence Ebn Fekreddin Anju, in the preface to the dic¬
tionary called Farhang Jehanguiri, fays, that the Deri
and the Arabic idioms were the languages of. heaven, j
God communicating to the angels his milder mandates
in the delicate accents of the firft, while his ftern com¬
mands were delivered in the rapid accents of the laft.
For near 300 years the literary fire of the Perfians
feems
Sea. IV. PHILO
Perfian feems indeed to have been aim oft extinguiftied ; fince,
Language. dUnng that time, hardly any thing of that people which
*" r'“"/ deferves attention has appeared in Europe: enough, how¬
ever, has already been produced, to infpire us with a
very high opinion of the genius of the eaft. In tafte,
the orientals are undoubtedly inferior to the beft writers
of modern Europe-, but in invention and fublimity, they
are excelled, perhaps equalled, by none. The Perfians
afteft a rhetorical luxuriance, which to a European
wears the air of unneceffary redundance. If to thefe
leading diftindftions we add a peculiar tone of imagery,
of metaphor, of allufion, derived from the difference of
government, of manners, of temperament, and of fuch
natural objects as charadterife Alia from Europe ; we
fliall fte, at one view, the great points of variation be¬
tween the writers of the eaft and weft. Amongft the
oriental hiftorians, philofophers, rhetoricians, and poets,
many will be found who would do honour to any age or
people ; whilft their rotnances, their tales, and their fa¬
bles, ftand upon a ground which Europeans have not
yet found powers to reach. We might here quote the
Arabian Nights Entertainments, Perftan Tales, Pilpay’s
S3 Fables, &e.
'The genius We ftiall now annex a few- ftri&ures on the genius of
of the mo- noble language ; though it is our opinion that the
ern Perfic. province 0£ the philologift is to inveftigate the origin,
progrefs, and final improvement of a language, without
defcending to its grammatical minutiae or peculiar
idiomatic diftinftions. We have already obferved,
that the tongue under confideration is partly Arabic
and partly Perfian, though the latter generally has
the afcendant. The former is nervous, impetuous,
and mafculine -, the latter is flowing, loft, and luxu¬
riant. Wherever the Arabic letters do not readily in¬
corporate with the Perfian, they are either changed in¬
to others or thrown away. Their letters are the Arabic
with little variation thefe being found more commodi¬
ous and expeditious than the old letters of the Deri and
Parfi. Their alphabet confifts of 32 letters, which, like
the Arabic, are read from right to left ; their form and
order will be learned from any grammar of that lan¬
guage. The letters are divided into vowels and confo-
nants as ufual. The Arabic characters, like thofe of
the Europeans, are written in a variety of different
hands but the Perfians write their poetical works in
the Talick, which anfwers to the molt elegant of our
Italic hands.
There is a great refemblance between the Perfian and
Englifh languages in the facility and fimplicity of their
Can and61”" ^orm an<^ conftruCtion : the former, as well as the latter,
has no difference of terminations to mark the gender ei¬
ther in fubftantives or adjeCHves all inanimate things
are neuter and animals of different fexes have either
different names, or are diftinguiffied by the words ;?er,
male, and made, female. Sometimes indeed a word is
made feminine, after the manner of the Arabians, by
having 5* added to it.
The Perfian fubftantives have but one variation of
cate, which is formed by adding a fyllable to the nomi¬
native in both numbers ; and anfwers often to the da¬
tive, but generally to the accufative, cafe in other lan¬
guages. The other cafes are expreffed for the mnft part
by particles placed before the nominative. The Per¬
fians have two numbers, fingular and plural j the latter
is formed by adding a fyllable to the former..
' 89
JVfem-
blanee be-
hnslifli.
L O G Y. 317
The Perftan adjeCUves admit of no variation but in Perfian
the degrees of comparifon. The comparative is formed ^an£uage-
by adding ter, and the fuperlative by adding terin to the
poll live.
The Perfians have aCtive and neuter verbs like other
nations 5 but many of their verbs have both an aftive
and neuter fenfe, which can be determined only by the
conftruction. Thofe verbs have properly but one con¬
jugation, and but three changes of tenfe : the impera¬
tive, the aorift, and the preterite ; all the other tenfes
being formed by the help of particles or of auxiliary
verbs. The paflive voice is formed by adding the
tenfes of the lubftantive verb to the participle of the
aftive.
In the ancient language of Perfia there were very
few or no irregularities ; the imperative, which is often
irregular in the modern Perfian, was anciently formed
from the infinitive, by reje&ing the termination eeden :
for originally all infinitives ended in de/i, till the Arabs
introduced their harfh confonants before that fyllable,
which obliged the Perfians, who always affefted a
fweetnefs of pronunciation, to change the old termina¬
tion of fome verbs into ten, and by degrees the original
infinitive grew quite obfolete yet they ftill retain the
ancient imperative, and the aorifts which are formed from
it. This little irregularity is the only anomalous part of
the Perflan language which neverthelefs far furpaffes
in fimplicity all other languages ancient or modern.
With refpeft to the more minute and intricate parts
of this language, as well as its derivations, compofitions,
conftruflions, Sec. we muft remit our readers to Minin-
fkie’s Injfitutiones Lin^iue Turcicce, cum rudimentis pa-
rallelis linguarum Arab, et Pcrf.; Sir William Jones’s
Perfian Grammar Mr Richardfon’s Arabian and Per¬
fian Dictionary ; D’Herbelot’s Bibl. Orient. ; Dr Hyde
de Re/ig. vet. Ph~f. &c. Our readers, who would pene¬
trate into the innermoft receffes of the Perfian hiftory,
colonies, antiquities, connexions, dialeCis, may confult
the laft mentioned author, efpecially chap. xxxv. De
Perfia et P erf arum nominibus, et de moderna atque veteri
lingua Perfca, ejufque dialeclis. In the preceding in¬
quiry we have followed other authors, whofe accounts
appeared to us more natural, and much lefs embarraf-
finF; . r
To conclude this feChon, which might cafily have Utility of
been extended into a large volume^ we fliall only take the Ara-
the liberty to put our readers in mind of the vaft utility anc|
of the Arabian and Perfian languages. Numberlefs ^
events are preferved in the writings of the orientals which
were never heard of in Europe, and muft have for ever
lain concealed from the knowledge of its inhabitants,
had not thefe two tongues been ftudied and underftood
by the natives of this quarter of the globe. Many of
thofe events have been tranfmitted to pofterity in poems
and legendary tales like the Runic fragments of the
north, the romances of Spain, or the heroic ballads of
our own country. Such materials as thefe; we imagine,
may have fuggefted to Firdaufi, the celebrated heroic
poet of Perfia, many of the adventures of his Shahname$
which, like Homer when ftript of the machinery of fu-
pernatural beings, is fuppofed to contain much true hi¬
ftory, and a moft undoubted piXure of the fuperftition
and manners of the times. The knotvledge of thefe two
languages has laid open to Europe all the treafures of
oriental learning, and has enriched the minds of Britons -
with 4
318
P HI L O L 0 G Y.
Sea. V
Perfian
Language.
PI
Perfian
paetry.
Yfith Indian fctence as mucK as the produce of thefe re¬
gions has increafcd their wealth and enervated their con-
ftitution.
Before we conclude this feflion, we fliall fubjoin a
few tinctures on the nature of Perfian poetry, in order
to render our inquiry the more complete. The modern
Perfians borrowed their poetical meafures from the
Arabs : they are exceedingly various and complicated 5
they confitt of 19 different kinds; but the moft common
of them are the lambic or Trochaic meafure, and a
metre that chiefly eonfifts of thofe compounded feet
which the ancients called Emrg<rs#?, which are compofed
of iambics and fpondees alternately. In lyric''poetry
their verfes generally confift of 12 or 16 fyllables : they
fometimes, but feldom, confift of 14. Some of their ly¬
ric verfes contain 13 fyllables j but the moft common
Perfian verfe is made up of 11 j and in this meafure are
written all their great poems, whether upon heroic or
moral fubjefls, as the works of Firdaufi and Jami, the
Boftar of Sadi, and the Mefnavi of Gelaleddin. This
fort of verfe anfwers to our common heroic rhyme,
which was brought to fo high a degree of perfection by
Pope. The fludy of the Perfian poetry is fo much the
more neceffary, as there are few books or even letters
written in that language, which are not interfperfed with
fragments of poetry. As to their profody, nothing can
be more eafy and fimple. When the fludent can read
profe eafily, he will with a little attention read poetry
with equal facility.
92
The San-
ferit one
of the moft
ancient
languages
in the
world.
93
Traces of
Sanfcrit in
every di-
Itriiil of
Alia and
elfewher#.
Sect. V. Sanscrit and Bengalefe Languages.
The Sanfcrit, though one of the mofl: ancient lan¬
guages in the world, was little known even in Afia till
about the middle of the prefent century. 'Since that pe¬
riod, by the indefatigable indsftry of the very learned
and ingenious Sir William Jones and the other worthy
members of that fociety of which he has the honour to
be prefident, that noble and ancient language has at
length been brought to light; and from it vaft treafures
of oriental knowledge will be communicated both to
Europe and Afia ; knowledge which, without the exer¬
tions of that happy eftablifliment, muff have lain con¬
cealed from the refearches of mankind to the end of the
world. In this feCtion we propofe to give to our readers
fuch an account of that language as the limits of the pre¬
fent article, and the helps we have been able to procure,
Ihall permit.
The Sanfcrit language has for many centuries lain
concealed in the hands of the bramins of Hindoftan. It
is by them deemed facred, and is of confequence con¬
fined folely to the offices of religion. Its name imports
the pcrfefd language, or, according to the eaftern ftyle,
the language of psrfeBion ; and we believe no language
ever fpoken by man is more juftly intitled to that high
epithetr
The grand fource of Indian literature, and the parent
of almoft every dialed from the Perfian gulf to the
China feas, is the Sanfcrit; a language of the moft vene¬
rable and mofl: remote antiquity, which, though at pre¬
fent (hut up in the libraries of the bramins, and appro¬
priated folely to the records of their religion, appears to
have been current over mofl: of the oriental world. Ac¬
cordingly traces of its original extent may be difeovered
in almoft every diftrift of Afia. Xlivfe who are ac¬
5
quainted with that language have often found the fimi- Sunfcrit
litude of Sanfcrit words to thofe of Perfian and Ara-am* B,,nga
bic, and even of Latin and Greek j and that not in tech- *efe Lan'
nical and metaphorical terms, which refined arts and ^ViaScs-^
improved manners might have occafionally introduced,
but in the main ground-work of language, in monofyl-
lables, the names of numbers, and appellations of fuch
things as would be firft diferiminated on the immediate
dawn of civilization.
The ancient coins of many different and diftant king¬
doms of Afia" are ftamped with Sanfcrit characters,
and moftly contain allufions to the old Sanfcrit my¬
thology. Befides, in the names of perfons and places,
of titles and dignities, which are open to general no¬
tice, even to the farthelt limits of Afia, may be found
manifeft traces of the Sanfcrit. The fcanty remains
of Coptic antiquities afford little fcope for comparifon
between that idiom and this primitive tongue j but
there ftill exifts fufficient ground to conjeCture, that,
at a very early period, a correfpondence did fubfift be¬
tween thefe two nations. The Hindoos pretend, that
the Egyptians frequented their country as difciples,
not as inftruCtors j that they came to feek that liberal
education and thofe feiences in Hindoftan, which none
of their own countrymen had fu'flicient knowledge lo
impart. Perhaps we may examine the validity of this
claim hereafter.
But though numberlefs changes and revolutions have
from time to time convulfed Hindoftan, that part of k
which lies between the Indus and the Ganges ftill pre- 9*
ferves that language whole and inviolate. Here they Number d
ftill offer a thoufand books to the perufal of the curious •')0°ks in
many of which have been religioufly handed down fromtliat lau‘
the earlieft periods of human exiftence.
The fundamental part of the Sanfcrit language is
divided into three claffes : Dhaat, or roots of verbs,
which fume call primitive elements j Shubd, or original
nouns -y and Evya, or particles. The latter are ever
indeclinable, as in other languages •, but the words
comprehended in the two former claffes muft be pre¬
pared by certain additions and inflexions to fit them pg
for a place in corapofition. And here it is that the Charadter-
art of the grammarian has found room to expand it-i^cs
felf, and to employ all the powers of refinement. Not
a fyllable, not a letter, can be added or altered but by
regimen 5 not the moft trifling variation of the fenfe,
in the minuteft fubdivifion of declenfion or conjugation,
can be effedted without the application of feveral rules :
all the different forms for every change of gender, num¬
ber, cafe, perfon, tenfe, mood, or degree, are methodi¬
cally arranged for the afliftance of the memory, ac¬
cording to an unerring feale. The number of the ra¬
dical or elementary parts is about 700 j and to thefe,
as to the verbs of other languages, a very plentiful
ftock of verbal nouns owes its origin 5 but thefe are not
thought to exceed thofe of the Greek either in quantity
or variety.
To the triple fource of words mentioned above, every
terra of truly Indian original may be traced by a labo¬
rious and critical analyfis. All fuch terms as are tho¬
roughly proved to bear no relation to any one of the
Sahferit roots, are confidered as the produftion of
feme remote and foreign idiom, fubfequently ingrafted
upon the main ftock j and it is conjectured, that a ju¬
dicious inveftigation of this principle would throw a new
light
Sed. V.
lefe Lan-
guages.
and ner¬
vous.
Sanfcrit light upon the firft invention of many arts and fciences,
BTenSa'find open a freth mine of philological difcoveries. We
(hall now proceed to give as exa£t an account of the
conftituent parts of this language as the nature of our
96 defign will permit.
It is copious Xhe Sanfcrit language is very copious and nervous.
The firft of thefe qualities arrfes- in a great meafure
from the vaft number of compound words with which
it is almoft overftocked.. “ The Sanfcrit (fays Sir
William Jones) like the Greek, Perfian, and German,
delights-in compounds ; but to a much higher degree,
and indeed to fuch excefs, that I could produce words
of more than 20 fyllables; not formed ludicroufly like
that by which the buffoon in Ariftophanes defcribes a
feaft, but with perfe^l ferioufnefs, on the molt folemn
occalions, and in the mod elegant works.” But the
flyle of its bed authors is wonderfully coneife. In the
regularity of its etymology it far exceeds the Greek
and Arabic; and, like them, has a prodigious number
of derivatives from each primary root. The gramma¬
tical rules alfo are numerous and difficult, though there
are not many anomalies. As one indance of the truth
of this aflertion, it may be obferved, that there are
feven declenfions of nouns, all ufed in the lingular, the
dual, and the plural numbers, and all of them different¬
ly formed, according as they terminate with a eon-
fonant, with a long or a diort vowel; and again, dif¬
ferent alfo as they are of different genders: not a no¬
minative cafe can be formed to any one of thefe nouns
without the application of at lead’ four rules, which
vary like wife with each particular difference of the
nouns, as above dated: add to this, that every word
in the language may be ufed through all the feven de-
clenfions, which is a full proof of the difficulty of the
idiom.
The Sanfcrit grammars are called Beeakerun, of which
there are many compofed by different authors j forae too
abdrufe even for the comprehenfion of mod bramins,
and others too prolix to be ever ufed as references. One
of the Ihorted, named the Sarafootee, contains between
two and three hundred pages, and was compiled by
Anobbhootee Seroopenam Acharige, with a concife-
nefs that can fcarcely be paralleled in any other lan-
guage.
The Sanfcrit alphabet contains-50 letters j and it
is one boad of the bramins, that it exceeds all other
alphabets in this refpe£t: but it mud be obferved, that
as of their 34 confonants, near half carry combined
founds, and that fix of their vowels are merely the cor-
relpondent long ones to as many which are diort, the
advantage feems to be little more than fanciful. Be-
fides thefe, they have a number of charadters which Mr
Halhed calls connedted vowels, but which have not
been explained by the learned prefident of the Afiatic
Society.
The Sanfcrit charadter ufed in Upper Hindodan *
PHILOLOGY.' 319
fully, perhaps whimfically, modified and diverfified ; to Sanfcrit
Saafcrit
alphabet.
* Plate
^V^is faid to be the fame originaf letter that was fird de¬
livered to the people by Brahma, and is now called
Diewnagur, or the language of angels, which fhows the
high opinion that the bramins have entertained of that
character. Their confonants and vowels are wonder-
enumerate which, in this place, would contribute very ajKj. ^n£a’*~
little either to the entertainment or indrudtion of our
readers. All thefe didindtions are marked in the Beids L I ■ ^ ■■
(l), and mud be modulated accordingly j fo,that they
produce all the effedt of a laboured recitative : but by
an attention to the mufic of the chant, the fenfe of the
paffage recited equally efcapes the reader and the audi¬
ence. It is remarkable, that the Jews in their fyna-
gogues chant the Pentateuch in the fame kind of melo¬
dy ; and it is fuppofed that this ufage has defcended to
them from the remoted ages.
The Sanfcrit poetry comprehends a very great va- Poeffv-,
riety of different metres, of which the mod common are
thefe :
The munnee hurreneh chhund, or line of 12 or IQ
fyllables, which is fcanned by three fyllables in a foot, _
and the mod approved foot is the anapoed.
The cdbee chhund) or line of eleven fyllables'.
The anujhtofe chhund, or line of eight fyllables.
The poems are generally compofed in danzas of
four lines, called ajhlogues, which are regular or irre¬
gular.
The mod common affiflogne is that of the anufhtofe
chhund, or regular danza of eight fyllables in each line.
In this meafure the greated part of the" Mahal dret is
compofed. The rhyme-in this kind of danza fliould bs'
alternate; but the poets do not feem to be very nice in
the obfervance of a drift correfpondence in the founds
of the terminating fyllables, provided the feet of the
verfe ate accurately kept.
This ffiort anujhlofe ajhlogue is generally written bys'
two verfes in one line, with a paufe between ; fo the
whole then aflumes the form of a long didich.
The irregular danza is condantly called anydchhund,
of whatever kind of irregularity it may happen to con-
fid. It is mod commonly compounded of the long line
cdbee chhund and the diort anujhtofe chhund alternately 5
in which form it bears fome refemblance to the mod
common lyric meafure of the Engliffi.
Perhaps our readers may feel a curiofity to be inform¬
ed of the origin of this oriental tongue. If we believe
the bramins themfelves, it was coeval with the race of
man, as was obferved towards the beginning of this fee-
tion. The bramins, however, are not the only people
who aferibe a kind of eternity to their own particular
dialeft. We find that the Sanfcrit rn its primitive de- ^
dination-was appropriated to the offices of religion. It Origin of
is indeed pretended, that all the other dialefts fpoken in this tongue*
Hindodan were emanations from that fountain, to which
they might be traced back by a ikilful etymologid.
This, we think, is an argument of no great confequence,
fince we believe that all the languages of Europe, by
the fame procefs, may be deduced from any one of thole
current in that quarter of the globe. By a parity of
reafon, all the different dialcfts of Hindodangmay be
referred to the language in quedion. Indeed, if we
admit the authority of the Mofaic hidory, all languages
whatfoever are derived from that of the fird man. It
is allowed that the language under confideration is im¬
pregnated with Perfian, Chaldaic, Phoenician, Greek,
and
(l) The books which contain the religion of the bramins.
o 'PHILO
mfcrit and even Latin idioms. This, Ave think, affords a pre-
BTei’^a‘fumption that the Sanfcrit Avas one of thofe original dia-
Ua^es. which were gradually produced among the defcend-
—Y—■. ants of Noah, in proportion as they gradually receded
from the centre of population. What branch or
branches of that family emigrated to Hindoftan, it is
not eafy to determine. That they, were a party of the
defeendants of Shem is mofl probable, becaufe the other
fepts of his pofterity fettled in that neighbourhood.
The fum then is, that the Hindoos Avere a colony con¬
fining of the defeendants of the patriarch Shem.
It appears, hoAvever, by almoft numberlefs monuments
of antiquity flill exiiling, that at a very early period a
different race of men had obtained fettlements- in that
country. It is now generally admitted, that colonies of
Egyptians had peopled a confiderable part of Hindo¬
ftan. Numberlefs traces of their religion occur eve¬
rywhere in thofe regions. The very learned prefi-
dent himfelf is pofitive, that veftiges of thofe facerdotal
Avanderers are found in India, China, Japan, Tibet, and
many parts of Tartary. Thofe colonifts, it is Avell
knoAvn, Avere zealous in propagating their religious cere¬
monies wherever they relided, and Avherever they travel¬
led. There is at the fame time even at this day a link¬
ing refemblance between the facred rites of the vulgar
Hindoos and thofe of the ancient Egyptians. The
prodigious ftatues of Salfette and Elephanta fabricated
in the Egyptian ftyle ; the vaft excavations heAvn out
of the rock in the former ; the Avoolly hair of the fta¬
tues, their diftorted attitudes, their grotefque appearan¬
ces, their triple heads, and various other configurations
—plainly indicate a foreign original. Thefe phenome¬
na fuit no other people on earth fo exadlly as the fons
of Mizraim. The Egyptian priefts ufed a facred cha-
radler, Avhich none knew but themfelvesj none Avere al-
loAved to learn except their children and the choice of
the initiated. All thefe features mark an exafl parallel
with the bramins of the Hindoos. Add to this, that
the drefs, diet, luftrations, and other rites of both fe6Is,
bore an exaft refemblance to each other. Sir William
Jones has juftly obferved, that the letters of the Sanfcrit,
ftript of all adventitious appendages, are really the fquare
,ib. in. Chaldaic chara£ters. We learn from Cafliodorus * the
2l et folloAving particulars : “ The height of the obelifks is
equal to that of the circus; noAV the higher is dedicated
to the fun, and the lower to the moon, where the facred
rites of the ancients are intimated by Chaldaic figna-
tures by Avay of letters.” Here then it is plain that
the facred letters of the Egyptians Avere Chaldaic, and
it is alloAved that thofe of the bramins Avere of the
fame complexion ; which affords a neAV prefumption
of the identity of the Sanfcrit Avith thofe juft men¬
tioned.
That the Egyptians had at a very early period pene¬
trated into Elindoftan, is univerfally admitted. Ofiris,
their celebrated monarch and deity, according to their
mythology, conduced an army into that country ; taught
the natives agriculture, laevs, religion, and the culture
of the vine, &c. He is faid at the fame time to have
left colonies of priefts, as a kind of miffionaries, to in-
ftruft the people in the ceremonies of religion. Sefo-
LOGY. Sefl. V
ftris, another Egyptian potentate, likewife overran Sanfcrit
Hindoftan Avith an army, and taught the natives many Beng*
ufeful arts and fciences. When the paftor-kings invad- ^an-
ed and conquered Egypt, it is probable that numbers of, Sua?es-
the priefts, in order to avoid the fury of the mercilefs 'r*~*
invaders, Avho demolifhed the temples and perfecuted the\
minifters of religion, left their native country, and
tranfported themfelves into India. Thefe, we fliould
think, Avere the authors both of the language and reli¬
gion of the bramins. This dialed!, as imported by the
Egyptians, was probably of the fame contexture Avith
the lacred language of that people, as it appeared many
ages after. The Indians, who have always been an in¬
ventive and induftrious race of men, in procefs of time
cultivated, improved, drverfified, and conftrudled that
language Avith fuch care and afliduity, that it gradually
arrived at that high degree of perfedlion in which at
prefent it appears.
Had the learned prefident of the Afiatic Society (m),
Avhen he inftituted a comparifon betAveen the deities of
Hindoftan on the one fide and of Greece and Italy on
the other, examined the analogy betAveen the gods of
Hindoftan and thofe of Egypt, Ave think he would have
performed a piece of fervice ftill more eminent. Having
firft demonftrated the fimilarity betAveen the divinities
of India and Egypt, he might then have proceeded to
inveftigate the refemblance of the Egyptian and Phoe¬
nician with thofe of Greece and Rome. By this pro¬
cefs a chain Avould have been formed which Avould
have conduced his reader to comprehend at one view
the identity of the Zabian Avorfhip almoft throughout
the world.
We forefee that it will be objedled to this hypothe-
fis, that all the dialefts of Hindoftan being clearly re¬
ducible to the Sanfcrit, it is altogether impoflible that it
could have been a foreign language. To this we an-
fwer, that at the early period when this event is fuppo-
fed to have taken place, the language of the pofterity
of the fons of Noah had not deviated confiderably from
the primitive ftandard, and confequently the language
of the Egyptians and the Hindoos Avas nearly the fame.
The Sanfcrit Avas gradually improved : the language of
the vulgar, as is always the cafe, became more and
more different from the original archetype ; but ftill re¬
tained fuch a near refemblance to the mother-tongue as
proved the verity of its extradiion. Icd
To the preceding account of the Sanfcrit language EengaKe
Ave (hall annex a feAv ftriciures on the language of Ben-language
gal, Avhich Ave believe is derived from the other, and^^e
is in mofl: common ufe in the fouthern parts of Hin- ganfcrit.
doftan.
Though mod of the ancient oriental tongues are
read from right to left, like the HebreAV, Chaldaic, A-
rabic, &c. yet fuch as properly belong to the whole con¬
tinent of India proceed from left to right like thofe of
Europe. The Arabic, Perfian, Sic. are the grand
fources Avhence the former method has been derived ;
but with thefe, the numerous original dialedls of Hindo¬
ftan haAre not the fmalleft connexion or refemblance.
The great number of letters, the complex mode of
combination, and the difficulty of pronunciation, are
confiderable
(m) See that gentleman’s difeourfe, Refearches, vol. i.
Sea. V. PHILO
SanfcKt confiderable impediments to tlie fludy of the Bengal
and Benga- iangUage j and the careleffnefs and ignorance of the
lcfe aes"* People> an(^ inaccuracy of their chara&ers, aggra-
l B ■' 1 vate thefe inconveniences. Many of their charafters
are fpurious j and thefe, by long ufe and the hurry of
I0I bufinefs, are now almoft naturalized into the language.
Bengal The Bengal alphabet, like that of the Sanfcrit, from
alphabet, which it is derived, confilts of 50 letters, whofe form,
order, and found, may be learned from Mr Halhed’s
grammar of the Bengal language. The vow.els are di¬
vided into long and Ihort, the latter of which are often
omitted in writing. Moft of the oriental languages are
conftru&ed upon the fame principle, with refpedt to the
omiffion of the fhort vowel. The Hebrews had no
lign to exprefs it before the invention of the Maforetic
points y in Arabic it is rarely inferted unlefs upon very
folemn occafions, as in the Koran 5 in the modern Per-
fian it is univerfally omitted : fo to all the confonants
in the Sanfcrit, the ihort vowel is an invariable appen¬
dage, and is never fignified by any diacritical mark j
but where the conilruftion requires that the vowel
fhould be dropped, a particular itroke is fet under the
fetter. It is in vain to pretend, in a iketch like this,
to detail the found and pronunciation of thefe letters :
1Cl2 this muft be acquired by the ear and by practice,
fcenaers, In the Bengal language there are three genders, as
^c. of this in Greek, Arabic, &c. The authors of this threefold
language. jjyifiQjj 0£ gen(ierSj with refpeft to their precedence, ap¬
pear to have confidered the neuter as a kind of relidu-
um refulting from the two others, and as lefs worthy or
lefs comprehenfive than either (fee feiition of the Greek).
The terminations ufually applied upon this occafion are
aa for the mafculine, and ee for the feminine. In San¬
fcrit, as in Greek and Latin, the names of all things in¬
animate have different genders, founded on vague and
incomprehenlible diftindtions : the fame is the cafe with
pe the Bengal.
tiesofa " Sanfcrit noun, on its firft formation from the ge-
Sanfcrit neral root, exifts equally independent of cafe as of gen-
*nd Ben- der. It is neither nominative, nor genitive, nor accufa-
galefe ^ve . nor js impreffed with any of thofe modifications
which mark the relation and connedtion between the
feveral members of a fentence. In this ftate it is called
an vnperfeB or crude noun. To make a nominative of
a word, the termination muft be changed and a new
form fupplied. Thus we fee, that, in the Sanfcrit at
leaft, the nominative has an equal right with any other
inflection to be called a cafe. Every Sanfcrit noun has
feven cafes, exclufive of the vocative ; and therefore
comprehends two more than even thofe of the Latin.
Mr Halhed above mentioned details all the varieties of
thefe with great accuracy, to whofe grammar we muft
refer our readers. The Bengal has only four cafes be-
fide the vocative j in which refpedt it is much inferior
to the other.
It would be difficult to account for the variety of
words which have been allotted to the clafs of pronouns
by European grammarians. The firft and fecond per-
fon are chiefly worthy of obfervation ; thefe two ftiould
feem to be confined to rational and converfable beings
only : the third fupplies the place of every objedt in na¬
ture j wherefore it muft neceffarily be endued with a
capacity of ftiifting its gender refpedtively as it ffiifts the
fubjedt j and hence it is in Sanfcrit frequently denomi¬
nated an adjective. One of the demonftratives hie or
V«L. XVI. Part I.
LOGY.
321
lefe Lan¬
guages.
•Jiouns.
ille ufually ferves for this "purpofe 5 and generally the Sanfcrit
latter, which in Arabic has no other name than dhemeer^^^
elghaatjb, “ the pronoun of the abfentee,” for whofe
name it is a fubftitute.
In moft languages where the verb has a feparate in- 104
fledtion to each perfon, that inflexion is fufficient to Bengalefe
afeertain the perfonality j but in Bengal compofitions,I>ronoun?'
though the firft and fecond perfons occur very frequent¬
ly, nothing is more rare than the ufage of the pronoun
of the third 5 and names of perfons are inferted with a
conftant and difgufting repetition, to avoid, as it fhould
feem, the application of the words he and she. The
fecond perfon is always ranked before the firft, and the
third before the fecond. The perfonal pronouns have
feven cafes, which are varied in a very irregular manner.
Leaving thefe to the Bengalian grammar, we ftiall pro¬
ceed to the verb.
The Sanfcrit, the Arabic, the Greek and Latin verbs,
are furniffied with a fet of infledtions and terminations
fo comprehenfive and fo complete, that by their form
alone they can exprefs all the different diftindtions both,
of perfons and time. Three feparate qualities in them
are perfedtly blended and united. Thus by their root,
they denote a particular adt, and by their infledtion both
point out the time when it takes place and the number
of the agents. In Perfian, as in Englifh, the verb ad¬
mits but of twro forms, one for the prefent tenfe and one
for the aorift j and it is obfervable, that while the paft
tenfe is provided for by a peculiar inflection, the future
is generally lupplied by an additional word conveying
only the idea of time, without any other influence on
the adt implied by the principal verb. It is alfo fre¬
quently neceffar'y that the different ftate of the adtion,
as perfedt or imperfedt, be further afeertained in each
of the tenfes, paft, prefent, and future. This alfo, in
the learned languages, is performed by other variations
of infledtions, for Which other verbs and other particles
are applied m the modern tongues of Europe and
Perfia. . _ 105
Every Sanfcrit verb has a form equivalent to the Middle
middle voice of the Greek, ufed through all the tenfes V01ce of
with a refledtive fenfe, and the former is even the moft
extenfive of the two in its ufe and office : for in Greek
the refledtive can only be adopted intranfitively when
the adtion of the verb defeends to no extraneous fub-
jedt; but in Sanfcrit, the verb is both reciprocal and
tranfitive at the fame time.
Neither the Sanfcrit, nor the Bengalefe, hor the Hin-
doftanic, have any word precifely anfweringto the fenfe
of the verb / have, and eonfequently the idea is always
expreffed by ejl mihi; and of courfe there is no auxilia¬
ry form in the Bengal verb correfpondent to / have
written, but the fenfe is conveyed by another mode.
The very fubftantive, in all languages, is defedtive and
irregular, and therefore the Sanfcrit calls it a femi-verb.
It is curious to obferve that the prefent tenfe of this
verb, both in Greek and Latin, and alfo in the Perfian,
appears plainly to be derived from the Sanfcrit. In the
Bengalefe, this verb has but two diftindlions of time,
the prefent and the paft ; the terminations of the feveral
perfons of which ferve as a model for thofe of the fame ^ ^
tenfe in all other verbs refpedtively. _ . _ Charac-
Verbs of the Bengal language may be divided into teriftics oM,
three claffes, which are diftinguiftied by their penulti- the Ben-
mate letter. The Ample and moft common form has gal®fe
Si an
Jefe Lan¬
guages.
322 PHIL
Sanfcrit an open confonant immediately preceding the final let-
ancl^ Benga- jer 0£ ^]ie infinitive. The fecond is compofed of thofe
words whofe final letter is preceded by another vowel or
open confonant going before it. The third confifts en¬
tirely of caulals derived from verbs of the firft and fe¬
cond conjugations. The reader will eafily guefs at the
impoffibility of profecuting this fubjedt to any greater
length : we (hall therefore conclude with a few remarks
colledled from the grammar fo often mentioned, which
we apprehend may be more amufing, if not more in-
flrudting.
The Greek verbs in y.i are formed exadlly upon the
fame principle with the Sanfcrit conjugations, even in
the minuteft particulars. Inftances of this are produced
in many verbs, which from a root form a new verb by
adding the fyllable mi, and doubling the firft confonant.
This mode furnifhes another prefumption of the Egyp¬
tian origin of the -Sanfcrit. Many Greeks travelled in¬
to Egypt; many Egyptian colonies fettled in Greece.
By one or other of thofe channels the foregoing inno¬
vation might have been introduced into the Greek lan¬
guage.
To form the part tenfe, the Sanfcrxt applies a fyllabic
augment, as is done in the Greek : the future has for its
charadleriftic a letter analogous to that of the fame tenfe
in the Greek, and it omits the reduplication of the firft
confonant. It may be added, that the reduplication of
the firft confonant is not conftantly applied to the pre-
fent tenfe of the Sanfcrit more than to thofe of the
Greek.
The natural fimplicity and elegance of many of the
Afiatic languages are greatly debafed and corrupted by
the continual abufe of auxiliary verbs ; and this incon¬
venience has evidently affefled the Perfian, the Hindo-
ftan, and the Bengal idioms.
The infinitives of verbs in the Sanfcrit and Benga-
lefe are always ufed as fubftantive nouns. Every body
knows that the fame mode of arrangement very often
occurs in the Greek.
In the Sanfcrit language, as in the Greek, there
are forms of infinitives gnd of participles comprehen-
five of time j there are alfo other branches of the verb
that feem to refemble the gerunds and fupines of the
Latin.
All the terms which ferve to qualify, to diftinguilh,
or to augment, either fubjiance or a&ion, are clalfed by
the Sanfcrit grammarians under one head; and the
word ufed to exprefs it literally fignifies increafe or ad¬
dition. According to their arrangement, a fimple fen-
tence confifts of three members; the agent, the aSlion,
the fubjefi ; which, in a grammatical fenfe, are reduced
to two ; the noun and the verb. They have a particu¬
lar word to fpecify fuch words as amplify the noun
which imports quality, and anfwers to our adjeBives or
epithets: Such as are applied to denote relation or con¬
nexion, are intimated by another term which we may
Iran Hate prepojition.
The adjeXives in Bengalefe have no diftinXion of
and 3enga- gender or number; but in Sanfcrit thefe words pre-
lete adjec- fej-ve tfie diftinXion of gender, as in the Greek and
^ Latin.
Prepofitions are fubfiitutes for cafes, which could not
% have been extended to the number neceffary for expref-
fing all the feveral relations and predicaments in which
3 noun may be found, without caufing too much em-
107
Sanfcrit
O L O G Y. Sea. t
barraffment in the form of a deedenfion. Thofe are too Sanfcrii
few in the Greek language, which occafions much in-an<* ®eni
convenience. See feX. Greek. ***Lai
The Latin is lefs polilhed than the Greek, and of con-
fequence bears a much nearer refemblance to the San¬
fcrit, both in words, inflexions, and terminations.
The learned are now convinced that the ufe of nu¬
merical figures was firft derived from India. Indeed
the antiquity of their application in that country far
exceeds the powers of invelligation. All the nume¬
rals in Sanfcrit have different forms for the different
genders, as in Arabic. There appears a ftrong proba¬
bility that the European method of computation was de¬
rived from India, as it is much the fame with the San¬
fcrit, though we think the Europeans learned it from
the Arabians. The Bengalefe merchants compute the
largeft lums by fours ; a cuftom evidently derived from
the original mode of computing by the fingers.
The Saufcrit language, among other advantages, has
a great variety in the mode of arrangement; and the
words are fo knit and compaXed together, that every
fentence appears like one complete word. When
two or more words come together in regimine, the laft
of them only has the termination of a cafe ; the others
are known by their pofition; and the whole fentence fo
conneXed, forms but one compound word, which is call¬
ed a. foot.
Sect. VI. Of the Chinefe Language.
108
The Chinefe, according to the moft authentic ac-Antiqulq
counts, are a people of great antiquity. Their fitua-0^0^
tion was fuch, as, in the earlieft ages of the world,11
in a great mcafure fecured them from hoilile invafion.
Their little commerce with the reft of mankind pre¬
cluded them the knowledge of thofe improvements
which a mutual emulation had often generated among
other nations, who were fituated in fuch a manner, with
relation to each other, as ferved to promote a mutual
intercourfe and correfpondence. As China is a large
and fertile country, producing all the neeeffaries, con-
veniencies, and even the luxuries of life, its inhabitants
were not under the neceflity of looking abroad for the
two former, nor expofed to the temptation of engaging
in foreign commerce, in order to procure the latter.
PerfeXly fathfied with the articles which their own
country produced, they applied themfelves entirely to
the praXice of agriculture and other arts conneXed
with that profeffion ; and their frugality, which they re¬
tain even to this day, taught them the leffon of being
contented with little ; of confequence, though their po¬
pulation was almoft incredible, the produce of their foil
was abundantly fufficient to yield them a fubfiftence.
Their inventions were their own ; and as they bor¬
rowed nothing from other people, they gradually be¬
gan to defpife the reft of mankind, and, like the an¬
cient Egyptians, branded them with the epithet of ^or-
barians.
Thofe people had at an early period made amazing
proficiency in the mechanical arts. Their progrefs
in the liberal fciences, according to the lateft and in¬
deed the moft probable accounts, was by no means pro¬
portioned. In mathematics, geometry, and aftronomy,
their knowledge was contemptible ; and in ethics, or
moral philofophy, the complexion of their law’s and
euftoms
top
Their lan-
guage an
original
tongue.
Seft. VI. PHILO
chmefe cuftoms proves tlaeir fkill to have been truly fuperficial.
Language. They value themfelves very highly at prelent upun their
^ * oratorial talents j and yet of all languages fpoken by
any civilized people, theirs is confeffedly the leaft im¬
proved. To what this untowardly defeat is owing, the
learned have not yet been able to determine.
The language of the Cliinefe is totally different
from thofe of ail other nations, and bears very ftrong
marks of an original tongue. All its words'are mo-
nofyllabic, and compofitions and derivations are al¬
together unknown. Their nouns and verbs admit of
no flexions j in fhort, every thing relating to their idi¬
oms is peculiar, and incapable of being compared with
any other dialect fpoken by any civilized people. Moft
barbarous languages exhibit fomething that refembles an
attempt towards thofe diacritical modifications of fpeech ;
whereas the Chinefe, after a fpace of 4000 years, have
not advanced one ftep beyond the very firft elements of
ideal communication. This circumftance, we think, is
a plain demonftration that they did not emigrate from
that region where the primitive race of mankind is
thought to have fixed its refidence. Some have im¬
agined, we believe with good reafon, that they are a
Tartarian race, which, breaking off from the main
body of that numerous and widely extended people, di¬
rected their march towards the fouth-eaft. There, fall¬
ing in with delightful and fertile plains which their po-
fterity now inhabit, they found themfelves accommodat¬
ed fo much to their liking, that they dropped all defire
of changing their habitations. The country of China
is, indeed, .fo environed with mountains, deferts, and Teas,
that it would have been difficult for men in their primi¬
tive date to have emigrated into any of the neighbour¬
ing regions. Thus fecluded from the reft of mankind,
the Chinefe, in all probability, were left to the ftrength
of their own inventive powers to fabricate a language,
as well as thfe other arts and improvements neceflary for
the fupport and convenience of life.
It is indeed obvious that their flock of vocables,
when they emigrated from Tartary, was neither ample
nor properly accommodated to anfwer the purpofes
of the mutual conveyance of ideas. With this {len¬
der flock, however, they feem to have been fatisfied ;
for it does not appear that any additions were after¬
wards made to that which was originally imported.
Inftead of framing a new race of terms by compound¬
ing their primitive ones ; inftead of diverfifying them
by inflections, or multiplyitig them by derivatives, as
is done in every other language ; they rather chofe to
retain their primitive words, and by a variety of mo¬
difications introduced upon their orthography or pro¬
nunciation, to accommodate them to a variety of fig-
nifications. Were it poffible to fcrutinize all the Tar¬
tarian dialeCts, and to reduce them to their primitive
monofyllabic chara&er, perhaps the original language of
the Chinefe might be inveftigated and afcertaincd. We
know that attempts have been made to compare It with
fome of the other Afiatic languages, efpecially the He¬
brew : This labotir has, however, proved unluccefsful,
and no primeval identity has been difcovered. Before
tnis eomparifon could be inftituted with the moft di-
ftant profpeCl of fuccefs, the language laft mentioned
niuft be ftripped of all its adventitious qualities ; and
Rot only fo, but it muft be reduced to the monofyllabic
LOGY. 323
tone, and then contrafted with the Chinefe monofyl- Chinefe
lables ; an undertaking which we are perfuaded would CanguB.ge,^
not be readily executed. After all, we are convinced *
that no refemblance of any importance would be dilco-
vered.
I he Chinefe language muft then, in our opinion, Procefs of
have been a J. artarian dialed, as the people them- fefidcs.-
felves were colonifts from Tartary. We have obferved UOn‘
above, that thofe people have not hitherto found out the
art of compofition of words. This is the more furpri-
fing, when we confider that, in the charaders which
form^their written language, they employ many com¬
pofitions. For example, the charader by which they
reprefent misfortune, is computed of one hieroglyphic
which reprefents a houfe, and another which denotes
Jire; beciule the greateft misfortune that can befal a
man is to have his houfe on fire. With refped to the
language which they ufe in fpeech, though they very
often employ many words to exprefs one thing, yet
they never run them together into one word, making
certain changes upon them that they may Incorporate
the more conveniently, but always preferve them entire
and unaltered. xrr
1 he whole number of words in the Cbinefe language Paucity of
does not exceed 1200: the nouns are but 326. Itits worils*
muft certainly appear furprifing, that a people whofe
manners are fo highly poliftied and refined, ftiould be
able to exprefs fo many things as muft of neceflity
attend fuch a courfe of life by fo fmall a number of
words, and thofe too monofyllables. The difficulties
which attend this Angular mode muft be felt almoft:
every inftant ; circumftances which, according to the
ordinary courfe of things, fhould have induced them
to attempt both an augmentation of the number of
their words and an extenfion of thofe which they had
by compofition and derivation. We learn from Du
Halde * that the Chinefe have two different dialetts : * Hift. of
the one vulgar, which is fpoken by the vulgar, and^"^
   • >* ■ «•««• • • • vol. ii.
varies according to the different provinces; the other
is called the Mandarin language, and is current only
among the learned. The latter is properly that which
was formerly fpoken at court in the province of Kiang-
nan, and gradually fpread among the polite people in
the other provinces. Accordingly, this language is
fpoken with more, elegance in the provinces adjoining
to Kiang-nun than in any other part of the kingdom.
By flow degrees it iVas introduced into all parts of the
empire, and confequently became the univerfal lan-
guage.
It then appears that the modern language of Chi¬
na Was originally the court dialect, and utterly un¬
known to the bulk of the people. From this circum¬
ftance wc think it may fairly be concluded that this
dialed! was deemed the royal tongue, and had been
fabricated on purpofe to diftinguiih it from the vul¬
gar dialedts. We learn from Heliodorus, that the f HL-\Ethio},
tbiopians had a royal language which was the fame fib. vi.
with the facred idiom of the Egyptians. This Man¬
darin tongtie was originally an artificial dialed! fabri¬
cated with a view to enhance the majefty of the court,
and to raife its very ftyle and did!ion above that of the
reft of mankind. The Chinefe, a wonderfully inventive
people, might adlually contrive a language of that
complexion, with an intention to render it obfeure
S f 2 find
324 PHILO
Chinefe and enigmatical (n). Such a plan would excite their
Language., admiration, and would at the fame time greatly ex-
^ 1 ' * ceed their comprehenlion. In procefs of time, when
the Chinefe empire was extended, the Mandarins who
had been brought up at court, and underftood no¬
thing of the provincial dialects, found it convenient to
have the moil: eminent perfons in every province taught
the language employed by themfelves, in order to qualify
them for tranfa&ing the affairs of government with
them in a language which both underftood. By this
means the royal dialedi defcended to the vulgar, and
in procefs of time became univerfal. The Tartar dia¬
led!: formerly in ufe vaniihed 5 only a few veftiges of it
remained j which gradually incorporating with the royal
language, occafioned the variation of provincial tongues
above mentioned.
We are therefore clearly of opinion, that the mo¬
dern language of the Chinefe was deduced from the
original Mandarin, or court dialed!:, and that this laft
was an artificial fpeech fabricated by the Ikill and inge¬
nuity of that wonderful people. The learned have long
held it up as the primary dialed!, becaufe, fay they, it
bears all the fignatures of an original unimproved lan¬
guage. In our opinion, nothing appears more inge-
nioufly artificial. It is univerfally allowed that, in
its ftrudture, arrangement, idioms, and phrafeology,
it refembles no other language. Is not every learned
man now convinced that all the Afiatic languages yet
known, difcover unequivocal fymptoms of their cog¬
nation and family refemblance ? The Ethiopians, Chal¬
deans, Arabians, Perfians, Egyptians, Hebrews, Phoe¬
nicians, the Brahmans, Bengalefe, the Hindoos border¬
ing upon China, all fpeak only different dialedts of one
language, varying from the original in dialedl only,
fome in a greater fome in a leffer degree: why fhould
the Chinefe alone ftand altogether infulated and unal¬
lied ?
The languages of the North all wear congenial fea¬
tures. The Tartar or Tatar dialedfs of every clan,
of every canton, of ever denomination, exhibit the
moft palpable proofs of a near affinity : the Gothic and
Sclavonian dialedts, which pervade a great part of Eu¬
rope and fome parts of Afia, are obvioufly brethren,
and may eafily be traced up to an Afiatic original.
Even fome of the American jargon dialedts contain vo¬
cables which indicate an Afiatic or European original.
Our readers, we flatter ourfelves, will agree with us,
that had the language of the Chinefe been the original
» language, a refemblance muft have ftill exifted between
it and its defcendants. If it had originated from any
ether language, it would have retained fome charadter-
iftic features of its parent archetype. As neither of
thefe is to be found in the fabric of the language under
sonfideration, the conclufion muft be, that it is a lan¬
guage entirely different from all other tongues 5 that it
is conftrudted upon different principles, defcended from
different parents, and framed by different artifts.
The Chinefe themfelves have a common and imme¬
morial tradition, that their language wras framed by Tao
LOGY. Seft. VI.
their firft emperor, to whom they attribute the inven- Chinefe
tion of every thing curious, ufeful, and ornamental. Language.
Traditional hiftory, when it is ancient, uniform, and ^ *
univerfal, is generally well founded: upon this occafion
we think the tradition above mentioned may be fairly
admitted as a collateral evidence. ^
The paucity of vocables contained in this fingular A. proof0£
language, w^e think another prefumption of its artificial its artificial
contexture. The Chinefe Onomathetce would find it an^ru(^ur®*
arduous talk to devife a great number of new terms, and
would therefore reft fatisfied with the fmalleft number
poffible. In other languages w^e find the like economy
w'as obferved. Rather than fabricate new words, men
chofe fometimes to adapt old words to new, and, upon
fome occafions, even to contrary fignifications. To
fpare themfelves the trouble of coining new terms, they
contrived to join feveral old ones into one ; whence
arofe a numerous race of compounds. Derivatives too
were fabricated to anfwer the fame purpofe. By this
procefs, inftead of creating new vocables, old ones
were compounded, diverfified, defledted, ramified, me-
tamorphofed, and tortured into a thoufand different
lhapes.
The Greek is defervedly efteemed a rich and copious
language •, its radical words have been curioufly traced
by feveral learned men, who, after the moft laborious
and exadt fcrutiny, have found that they do not amount
to more than 300. The Sanfcrit language is highly
compounded j its radical terms, however, are very few
in number. Upon the whole, we think we may con¬
clude, that the more any language abounds in com¬
pounds and derivatives, the fmaller will be the number
of its radical terms. The Arabic admits of no compo-
fition, and of confequence its words have been multi¬
plied almoft in infinitum ; the Sanfcrit, the Perfian, and
the Greek, abound with compounds, and we find their
radicals are few in propsrtion. TI^
There are, we think, three different methods which Three dif-
may be employed in order to enrich and extend thefeientme-
rangeof a language. 1 ft, By fabricating a multitudetho-ish°L
of words j the plan which has been purfued by the aTanguage.
Arabs. 2d, By framing a multitude of compounds and S
derivatives*, the artifice employed by the Greeks and the
authors of the Sanfcrit. 3d, By varying the fignifica-
tion of words without enlarging their number *, the me¬
thod pradtifed by the Chinefe and their colonifts. The
Arabians, we think, have ffiown the moft fertile and
inventive genius, fince they have enriched their lan¬
guage by actually creating a new and a moft numerous
race of words. The fabricators of the Sanfcrit and the
colledtors of the Greek have exhibited art, but compa¬
ratively little fertility of genius. Leaving, therefore,
the Arabians, as in juftice we ought, mafters of the
field in the conteft relating to the formation of language,
we may range the Greek and Sanfcrit on the one fide,
and the Chinefe on the other j and having made this
arrangement, we may attempt to difcover on which fide
the largeft proportion of genius and invention feems to
reft.
The
(n) An attempt of this nature, among a people like the Chinefe, is by no means improbable 5 nor is its fuccefs
lefs probable. ■^or>a pr0°f °f this, we need only have recourfe to Bilhop Wilkinsrs Artificial Language, and
Pfalmanazar’s Di&ionary of the language of Forraofa.
5e& VI. PHILOLOGY. 325
Chinefe The Greek and Sanfcrit (for we have fele&ed them
Language. as moft highly compounded) exhibit a great deal of art
v in modifying, arranging, and diverfifying their com¬
pounds and derivatives, in fuch a manner as to qualify
t^em ^or jntimat’ng complex ideas j but the Chinefe
opted by have performed the fame office by the help of a race of
de Chi- monofyllabic notes, fimple, inflexible, invariable, and at
efe< the fame time few in number. The queftion then comes
to be, whether more art is difplayed in new-modelling
old words by means of declenfions, compounds, and de¬
rivatives $ or by devifing a plan according to which mo¬
nofyllabic radical terms, abfolutely invariable, fhould,
by a particular modification of found, anfwer all the
purpofes performed by the other. The latter appears
to us much more ingenioufly artificial. The former re-
fembles a complicated machine compofed of a vaft num¬
ber of parts, congenial indeed, but loofely connefted j
the latter may be compared to a fimple, uniform engine,
eafily managed, and all its parts properly adjufted. Let
us now fee in what manner the people in queftion ma¬
naged their monofyllabic notes, fo as to qualify them for
anfvvering all the purpofes of fpeech.
Though the number of words in the Chinefe lan¬
guage does not amount to above 1200 j yet that fmall
number of vocables, by their artificial management,
is fufficient to enable them to exprefs themfelves with
eafe and perfpicuity upon every fubjeft. Without mul¬
tiplying words, the fenfe is varied almofl; in infinitum
by the variety of the accents, inflexions, tones, afpi-
rations, and other changes of the voice and enuncia¬
tion } circumftances which make thofe who do not
thoroughly underftand the language frequently miftake
one word for another. This will appear obvious by an
example.
The word teov pronounced flowly, drawing out the
and raifing the voice, fignifies a lord or tnajler. If
it is pronounced with an even tone, lengthening the v1
it fignifies a hog. When it is pronounced quick and
lightly, it imports a kitchen. If it be pronounced in a
ftrong and mafculine tone, growing weaker towards the
end, it fignifies a column.
By the fame economy, the fyllable joo, according to
the various accents, and the different modes of pronun¬
ciation, has eleven different fignifications. It fignifies
glnfs, to boil, to winnow rice, wife or liberal, to prepare,
an old woman, to break or cleave, inclined, a very little,
to water, a Jlave or captive. From thefe examples, and
from almoft numberlefs others which might be adduced,
it is abundantly evident that this language, which at firft
fight appears fo poor and confined, in confequence of
the fmall number of the monofyllables of which it is
compofed, is notwithftanding very copious, rich, and
expreffive.
Again, the fame word joined to various others, im¬
ports a great many different things $ for example mou,
when alone, fignifies a tree, wood; but when joined with
another word, it has many other fignifications. Mou
leoo, imports “ wood prepared for building j” mou lan
is “ bars, or wooden grates $” mou hia, “ a box 5” mou
fang, “ a cheft of drawers mou tfiang, “ a carpenter
mou eul, “ a mufhroom mou nu, “ a fort of fmall
orange j” mou Jing, “ the planet Jupiter mou mien,
“ cotton,” &c. This word may be joined to feveral
others, and has as many different fignifications as it has
different combinations.
3
Thus the Chinefe, by a different arrangement of Chinefe
their monofyllables, can compofe a regular and ele- .LanSuage>j
gant difcourfe, and communicate their ideas with ener¬
gy and precifion j nay even with gracefulnefs and pro¬
priety. In thefe qualities they are not excelled either
by the Europeans or Afiatics, who ufe alphabetical
letters. In fine, the Chinefe fo naturally diitinguifli
the tones of the fame monofyllable, that they com¬
prehend the fenfe of it, without making the leafl: re-
fleXion on the various accents by which it is deter¬
mined. _
We muff not, however, imagine, as fome authors have Confequen*
related, that thofe people cant in fpeaking, and make acesofthis
fort of mufic wdiich is very difagreeable to the ear ; mel^0<^ .on
thefe different tones are pronounced fo curioufly, that [,jr(^UnCia
even ftrangers find it difficult to perceive their difference
even in the province of Kiang.nan, where the accent is
more perfeX than in any other. The nature of it may
be conceived by the guttural pronunciation in the Spa-
nifli language, and by the different tones that are ufed
in the French and Italian : thefe tones are almoft imper¬
ceptible ; they have, however, different meanings, a
circumftance which gave rife to the proverb, that the
tone is all.
If the finenefs and delicacy of their tones are fuch
as to be fcarce perceptible to a ftranger, we muft fup-
pofe that they do not rife high, but only by fmall in¬
tervals 3 fo that the mufic of their language muft fome-
what referable the mufic of the birds, which is within a
fmall compafs, but neverthelefs of great variety of notes.
Hence it will follow, that ftrangers will find it very dif¬
ficult, if not impoffible, to learn this language 3 more
efpecially if they have not a delicate ear and a flexible
voice, and alfo much praXice. The great difference
then between the Chinefe and Greek accents confifts in
this, that the Greeks had but two accents, the grave and
acute, diftinguiffied by a large interval, and that not
very exaXly marked : for the acute, though it never rifes
above a fifth higher than the grave, did not always rife
fo high, but was fometimes pitched loWer according to
the voice of the fpeaker. The Chinefe muft have many
more accents, and the intervals between them muft be
much fmaller, and much more carefully marked 3 for
otherwife it Avould be impoffible to diftinguilh them.
At the fame time, their language muft be much more
mufical than the Greek, and perhaps more fo than any
language ought to be 3 but this becomes neceffary for
the purpofes above mentioned^ Du Halde is pofitive,
that notwithftanding the perpetual variation of accents
in the Chinefe tongue, and the almofl: imperceptible in¬
tervals between thefe tones, their enunciation does not
referable finging: many people, however, who have re-
fided in China, are equally pofitrve that the tone with
which they utter their words does aXually referable
canting ; and this, when we confider the almoft imper¬
ceptible intervals by which they are perpetually raifing
and lowering the tone of their voice, appears to us high¬
ly probable.
As the people of whofe language we are treating at
prefent communicate a variety of different fignifications
to their monofyllabic words by their different accentua¬
tion, fo they employ quantity for the very fame purpofe.
By lengthening or ffiortening the vowels of their words,
they employ them to fignify very different things. The
fame they perform by giving their words different afpi-
rations,.
26
Chinefe
Language
ti6
Grammar
of the Chi-
nefe.
”7
Chinefe
letters or
characters
PHILO
rations, as likewife by founding them with different de¬
grees of roughnefs and fmootlmefs and even fometimes
by the different motion, pofture, or attitude, with which
their enunciation is accompanied. By thele methods of
diverhfying their monofyllabies (fays Du Halde), they
make 330 of them ferve all the purpofes of language,
and thefe too not much varied in their termination; lince
all the words in that language either terminate with a
vowel or with the confonant n, fometimes with the con-
fonant g annexed.
From this account, w'e think it is evident that the
Chinefe, by a wonderful exertion of ingenuity, do, by
different tones and profodical modifications, by means of
a very inconfiderable number of words, all invariable
radicals, a&ually perform all that the moll polifhed na¬
tions have been able to atchieve by their compounds,
derivatives, &c. diverfified by declenfions, conjugations,
and flexions of every kind; circumftances which, in our
opinion, refledt the greateft honour on their inventive
powers.
With refpedl to the grammar of this language, as it
admits of no flexions, all their words being indeclinable,
their cafes and tenfes are all formed by particles. They
have no idea of genders; and even the diltinffion of
numbers, which in almoft all other languages, even the
moil unimproved, is marked by a particular word, is in
the Chinefe only indicated by a particle. They have
only the three Ample tenfes, namely, the pad, prefent,
and future; and for want of different terminations, the
fame word Hands either for the verb or the verbal fub-
ftantive, the adjedtive or the fubftantive derived from it,
acording to its pofition in the fentence.
The Chinefe language being compofed of monofyl-
lables, and thefe indeclinable, can fcarce be reduced to
grammatical rules : we {hall, however, attempt to lay
before our readers as much of the texture of that An¬
gular dialed! as may enable them to form fome vague
idea of its genius and contlitution. We {hall begin
with the letters, and proceed regularly to the remaining
parts as they naturally fucceed each other.
The art of joining the Chinefe monofyllables toge¬
ther is extremely difficult, and requires a very long and
laborious courfe of ftudy. As they have only figures
by which they can exprefs their thoughts, and have no
accents in writing to vary the pronunciation, they are
obliged to employ as many different 'figures or charac¬
ters as there are different tones, which give fo many
different fignifications to the fame word. Befides, fome
Angle charadlers fignify two or three words, and fome¬
times even a whole period. For example, to write
thefe words, good morroiO, Sir, inftead of joining the
charadlers which fignify good and morrow with that
of Sir, a different character muff; be ufed, and this cha-
radler alone expreffes thefe three words. This circum-
ffance greatly contributes to multiply the Chinefe cha¬
radlers.
This method of joining the monofyllables is indeed
fufficicnt for writing fo as to be underffood; but it is
deemed trifling, and is ufed only by the vulgar. The
fiyle that is employed, in order to ffrine in compofi-
tion, is quite different from that which is ufed in con-
verfation, though the words are in reality the fame.
In writings of that fpecies, a man of letters muff ufe
more elegant phrafes, more lofty expreffions, and the
whole muff be dignified with tropes and figures which
2
Chinefe
Language,
11S
LOGY. Se&. Vi
are not in general ufe, but in a peculiar manner adapt¬
ed to the nature of the fubjedl in queftion. The cha¬
radlers of Cochin-china, of Tong-king, of Japan, are
the fame with thofe of the Chinele, and figniiy the
fame things; though, in fpeaking, thefe nations do not
exprefs themfelves in the fame manner : of confequence
the language of converfation is very different, and they
are not able to underftand each other ; while, at the
fame time, they underlland each other’s written lan¬
guage, and ufe all their books in common.
The learned mult not only be acquainted with the
charadlers that are employed in the common affairs of
life, but mull alfo underftand their various combinations,
and the numerous and multiform difpofitions and ar¬
rangements which of feverai Ample ftrokes make the
compound charadlers. The number of their charadlers exceeding,
amounts to 80,000 ; and the man who knows the great-nume-
etl number of them is of courfe the molt learned. Fromrous»
this circumltance we may conclude, that many years
muft be employed to acquire the knowledge of fuch a
prodigious number of charadlers, to diftinguifti them
when they are compounded, and to remember their ftiape
and import. After all, a perfon who underltancls 10,coo
charadlers may expreis himfelf with tolerable propriety
in this language, and may be able to read and under¬
ftand a great number of books. The generality of their
learned men do not underftand above 15,000 or 20,000,
and few or their dodtors have attained to the knowledge
of above 40,000. This prodigious number of charadlers
is colledled in their great vocabulary called Hai-pien.
They have radical letters, which ftiow the origin of
words, and enable them to find out thofe which are
derived from them: for inftance, the charadlers of
mountains, trees, man, the earth, of a horfe, under
which muft be fought all that belongs to mountains,
trees, man, &c. In this fearch one muft learn to di¬
ftinguifti in every word thofe ftrokes or figures wfficli
are above, beneath, on the Tides, or in the body of the
radical figure.
Clemens Alexandrinus (fee Sedlion Chaldean, &c.)
informs us, that the Egyptians employed three forts of
charadlers: The firft was called the epijlolary, which
was ufed in writing letters; the fecond was denomi¬
nated yi/tyw/, and peculiar to the facerdotal order ; the
laft hieroglyphical, which was appropriated to monumen¬
tal inferiptions and other public memorials. This mode
of reprefentation was twofold: one, and the moft fimple,
was performed by describing the pidlure of the ob-
jedt which they intended to reprefent, or at lead one
that refembled it pretty nearly; as when they exhi¬
bited the fun by a circle and the moon by a crefcent:
the other was properly fymbolic; as when they mark¬
ed eternity by a ferpent with his tail in his mouth, the
air by a man clothed in an azure robe ftudded with
liars, &c.
I he Chinefe, in all pro'bability,had the fame variety
of charadlers. In the beginning of their monarchy,
they communicated their ideas by drawing on paper
the images of the objedls they intended to exprefs; that
is, they drew the figure of a bird, a mountain, a tree,
waving lines, to indicate birds, mountains, forefts, ri¬
vers, &c.
There were, however, an infinite number of ideas to
be communicated, whofe objedls do not fall under the
cognizance of the fenfes; fuch as the foul, the thoughts,
. ■ *_ the
H9
md truly
lierogly-
thiraL
5ea. VI. PHILO
thinefe the paffions, beauty, defiormity^ virtues, vices, the ac-
ianguage. tions 0f nien and other animals, &c. This inconveni-
’’V"""' ence obliged them to alter their original mode of wri¬
ting, which was too confined to anfwer that purpofe,
and to introduce chara&ers of a more fimple nature,
and to invent others to exprefs thofe things which are
the objects of our fenfes.
Thefe modern charaders are, however, truly hiero-
glyphical, fince they are compofed of fimple letters
which retain the fignincation of the primitive charac¬
ters. The original charader for the fun was a circle,
thus © } this they called ga : They now reprefent that
luminary by the figure Q, to which they ftill give the
original name. But human inftitutions having annexed
to thefe laft framed charaders the very fame ideas indi¬
cated by the original ones, the confequence is, that
every Chinefe letter is a6tually fignificant, and that it
ftill retains its fignificancy,though conneded with others.
Accordingly the word tfai, which imports “misfortune,
calamity,” is compofed of the letter mien, “ a houfe,”
and the letter /io, “ fire •>” fo that the fymbolical charac¬
ter for misfortune is the figure of a houfe on fire. The
Chinefe charaders, then, are not fimple letters without
any fignification, like thofe of the Europeans and other
Afiaticsj but when they are joined together, they are
fo many hieroglyphics, which form images and exprefs
thoughts.
Upon the whole, the original charaders of the Chi¬
nefe were real pidures (fee Sedion of the Egyptian lan-
guage) ; the next improvement was the fymbolical cha-
rader •, the third and laft ftage is the prefent mode, in
which artificial figns have been fabricated, in order to
reprefent fuch thoughts or ideas as could not be repre-
fented by one or other of the methods above defcribed.
Du Halde, vol. ii. p. 400, et feq. has furnifhed us with
rules for pronouncing the Chinefe vowels and confo-
nants ; a piece of information which, we apprehend,
would be of little confequence to our readers, and which
we fhall therefore pafs over, and proceed to give a brief
account of their grammar. As the whole language
is compofed of monofyllables, and thefe indeclinable, its
grammatical ftrudure muft be fimple and obvious : we
lhall only mention what to us appears fingular and im¬
portant.
In the Chinefe language there is no diverfity of gen-
iii’tfe*16 ^erS °r ca^es> anc^ confequence no declenfions. Very
rtsof °ften the noun is not diftingriifhed from the verb;
and the fame word which in one fituation is a fubftan-
tive, in another may become an adjedtive, and even a
verb.
The adjedlive always goes before the fubftantive ; but
if it follow it. it becomes a fubftantive.
The cafes and numbers are known only by the com-
pofition. 1 he plural number is diftinguifhed by the
particle men, which is common to all nouns; but when
the noun is preceded by forne word that fignifies num¬
ber, the particle men is not annexed.
the Chinefe genitive, both fingular and plural, when
it comes after nouns, is often made by ti; and there is
no other cafe in that language. The fame particle is
fometimes placed after pronouns, as if they were deri¬
vatives.
1 he comparative degree is formed by adding the par¬
ticle keng, which is always fet before the noun, and fig-
L O G Y.
nifies much. The particle to is fometimes ufed, which
327
Chinefe
Language.
X20
BCuliari
eech
likewife imports much.
1 he Chinefe have only three perfonal pronouns, nqo,
I,” ni, “ thou,” and ta, “ he :” thefe become plu¬
ral by adding the fyllable men. They are made pof-
feffive by adding the fyllable ti, as nqo ti, “ mine,” niti^
thine,” ta ti, “ his.” lire patronymics are formed
by putting the name of the city, country, &c. after
the pronoun : chon is the pronoun relative who, what,
which.
Chinefe verbs have only three tenfes, the preter-
perfedf, the prefent, and the future. When there is
no particle added to the verb, it is the prefent: the
preterperfeft is made by adding the particle leao:
to diftinguilh the future tenfe they ufe the particle
tjiang or hoei; and thefe are all the varieties incident
to their verbs.
The Chinefe language has no words that are proper¬
ly adverbs; they only become fo by cuftom, or by the
place they poffefs in dilcourfe. They are often obliged
to employ feveral words to exprefs the adverbs of other
languages : they have none that are demonftrative, or
proper for calling or exhorting; but in their ftead they
are obliged to ufe nouns and verbs. 121
Perhaps our readers may wilh to know the Chinefe Their nu»
numerals; and may imagine that they bear a refem-mer»d**
blance to thofe of the European or other Afiatic dia¬
lers. In this, however, they will be difappointed.
They Hand as follows :
r One
Eut T wo
Three
Sace Four
Ou Five
Lou Six
Tji Seven
Fo Eight
Kieou Nine
Che Ten
Che y Eleven
Eut che T welve
San che Thirteen
Pc One hundred
Eut pe Two hundred
Ttjicn One thoufand
Y ouan Ten thoufand
Che ouan Twenty thoufand
Eut ouan One hundred thoufand
Che ouan Two hundred thoufand
Ype ouan One million
There are a great many particles proper to numbers
in the Chinefe language : they are frequently ufed, and
in a way peculiar to it; for every numeral has a particle
importing the objeft to which it is attached. Thus co
is ufed for man, and y co for a woman-, &c.; hoei is ufed
for illuftrious men ; tche or tchi is ufed for (hips, dogs,
hens ; mey is ufed for pearls and precious things ; pen
is ufed for books ; teng is appropriated to oxen and
cows ; too is ufed for letters and little bundles of paper ;
00 is employed for corn and pulfe. Thofe diftiinftions
indicate a language manufactured on purpofe to be em¬
ployed
PHILOLOGY. Sect. V]
Chinefe ployed by people who were too high and too haughty
Language. j-0 converfe with the vulgar.
ftyie 0f the Chinefe', in their elaborate compofl-
Style of the tions, is myfterious, concife, and allegorical, after the
Chinefe eaftern manner. It is often obfcure to thofe who do not
writers. underftand the language thoroughly ; and it requires a
confiderable degree of Ikill to avoid miftakes in reading
an author of elegance and fublimity. Their writers ex-
prefs a great deal in few words ; and their expreffions
are lively, full of fpirit, intermingled with bold compa-
rifons and lofty metaphors. They affedt to infert in
their compofitions many fentences borrowed from their
five canonical books j and as they compare their books
to pictures, fo they liken thefe quotations to the five
principal colours employed in painting 5 and in this their
eloquence chiefly confifts.
They prefer a beautiful charadter to the molt finifh-
ed pidture ; and nothing is more common than to fee
a Angle page covered with old charadters, if they hap¬
pen to be fair and elegant, fold at a very high price.
They honour their charadters in the moft common
books ; and when they happen to light by chance upon
a printed leaf, they gather it up with the greateft care
and refpedt.
In China there are three varieties of language; that
of the common people, that of the people of laihion,
and that employed in writing books. Though the
firft is not fo elegant as either of the other two, it is
not however inferior to our European languages ;
though thofe who are but fuperficially acquainted with
the Chinefe may, in fadt, imagine it uncouth and bar-
4 barous. This low and rude language is pronounced
and written many different ways, as is generally the
cafe in other countries.
But a more polifhed, and at the fame time a much
more energetic, language, is employed in an ahnoft in¬
finite number of novels ; fome perhaps true, but many
more the vehicles of fidlion. Thefe are replete with
lively defcriptions, charadters highly finifhed, morality,
variety, wit, and vivacity, in fuch a degree as to equal
in purity and politenefs the moft celebrated authors of
Europe. This was the language of the Mandarins ;
and though exquifitely beautiful in its kind, was ftill
inferior to the language of books. This laft might be
ityled the hyperfublime; and of this there are feveral
degrees and intervals before an author can arrive at
what they call the language of the king. This mode
of writing cannot be well underftood without looking
upon the letters •, but when underftood, it appears eafy
, and flowing. Each thought is generally exprefled in
four or fix characters : nothing occurs that can offend
the niceft ear ; and the variety of the accents with
which it is pronounced produces a foft and harmonious
found.
The difference between the king and their other books
confifts in the difference of the fubjedls upon which they
are written. Thofe of the former are always grand and
fublime, and of courfe the ftyle is noble and elevated :
thofe of the latter approach nearer to the common af¬
fairs and events of life, and are of confequence detailed
in the Mandarin tongue. In writing on fublime fub-
}e6ts no punftuations are ufed. As thefe compofitions
are intended for the learned only, the author leaves to
the reader to determine where the fenfe is complete j
and thofe who are well ikilled in the language readily Chinefe
find it out. Languag(
The copioufnefs of the Chinefe language is in a great
meafure owing to the multitude of its charafters. It is
likewife occafioned, in fome degree, by the difference of
their fignification, as alfo by the artificial method of
their conjundlion, which is pertormed moft commonly
by uniting them two and two, frequently three and
three, and fometimes four and four.
Their books are very numerous and bulky, and ofTheir
courfe exceedingly cumbrous. A dictionary of their boo^s 1,u-j
language was compiled in the 18th century. It con-™^us:m
filled of 95 large volumes. An appendix was annexed
of 25 volumes. Their other books are voluminous in
proportion. The Chinefe, one may fay, are a na¬
tion of learned men. Few people of rank negle6t
the belles lettres ; for ignorance in a man of any de¬
gree of eminence is deemed an indelible ftain on his
charafter.
For their manner of writing, the implements with
which they write, and the materials upon which they
draw their charailers, we mull refer our readers to
the article Writing. It would, we believe, afford our
readers fome pleafure, could we difcover and explain the
reafons which have hitherto prevented the Chinefe from
adopting the letters employed from time immemorial by
the other nations of Europe and Alia.
The Chinefe have ever looked upon themfelves as
greatly fuperior to the reft of mankind. In ancient to their
times they entertained fuch contemptible notions of fo-improve-
reigners, that they fcorned to have any further commerce m.ent in
with them than to receive their homage. T hey were ^terature,
indeed, at a very early period, highly revered by the
Indians, Perfians, and Tartars. In confequence of this
veneration, they looked upon themfelves as the favourites
of heaven. They imagined they were fituated in the
middle of the earth, in a kind of paradife, in order to
give laws to the reft of mankind. Other men they
looked upon with contempt and difdain, and deemed
them deformed in body and defeftive in mind, call out
into the remote corners of the world as the drofs and
refufe of nature. They boafted that themfelves only
had received from God rational fouls and beautiful bo¬
dies, in order to qualify them for being fovereigns of the
fpecies.
Such are the fentiments of the Chinefe } and with
fuch fentiments it is by no means furprifing that their
improvements in language, in writing, and other appen¬
dages of the belles lettres, have not been proportioned
to their progrefs in mechanics. When people are once
fully perfuaded that they have already arrived at the
fummit of perfeftion, it is natural for them to fit down
contented, and folace themfelves with the idea of their
own fuperior attainments. The Chinefe had early en¬
tertained an exalted opinion of their own fuperiority to
the reft of mankind ; and therefore imagined that they
had already carried their inventions to the ne plus ultra
of perfection ; the confequence was, that they could
make no exertions to carry them higher.
The Chinefe, for the fpace of 3000 years, had almoft
no intercourfe with the reft of mankind. This was
the confequence of their infulated fituation.—They
of courfe, compared themfelves with then/elves ; and
finding that they excelled all their barbarian neigh¬
bours,,
Sea
Chinefe
language.
.ns
Chinele
words
found in
various o-
ther lan¬
guages.
VI. PHILO
hours, they readily entertained an opinion that they
excelled all the reft of mankind in an equal propor-
“ tion. This conceit at once ftifled the emotions of
ambition, and deprived them of all opportunities of
learning rvhat was going forward in other parts of the
world.
They defpifed every other nation. People are little
difpofed to imitate thofe whom they defpife ; and
this perhaps may be one reafon why they are at
this day fo averfe from adopting the European inven¬
tions.
A fuperftitious attachment to the cuftoms of the
ancients, is the general chara&er of the Afiatic nations.
This is evidently a kind of diacritical feature among
the Chinefe. The inftitutions of Foln are looked up
to among them with equal veneration as thofe of Thoth
were among the Egyptians. Among the latter, there
was a law which made it capital to introduce any inno¬
vation into the mufie, painting, or ftatuary art, inftituted
by that legiflator. We hear of no fuch law among the
former ; but cuftom eftablithed, and that invariably, for
a fpace of 3000 years, might operate as forcibly among
them as a pofitive law did among the people firft men¬
tioned. An attachment to ancient cuftoms is often
more powerful and more coercive than any law that
can he promulgated and enforced by mere human au¬
thority. Thefe reafons, w'e think, may be afligned as
the impediments to the progrefs of the Chinefe in the
belles lettres, and perhaps in the cultivation of the other
feiences.
Though the language of the Chinefe is confefledly
different from all the other known languages in its cha¬
racter and conftruCtion, it contains, however, a great
number of words evidently of the fame origin with thofe
which occur in other dialeCts, ufed by people, who, ac¬
cording to the natural courfe of things, could never
have been connected with that remote country. A
few of thofe we fhall produce before we conclude this
feCtion. We fhall begin with the import of the name
China.
China, or, as the orientals write it, Sin, is perhaps the
Latin Jinus, “ the bofom, the heart, the middle.” The
Chinefe actually imagine that their country is fituated
in the very middle of the earth, and of confequence call
it Cham, “ the middle, the heart j” a denomination
which exaClly fuits their opinion.
Tu, in Chinefe, intimates every thing that falls under
the cognizance of the fenfes, every thing that ftrikes the
fight 5 in Latin, tueor,
Ta, a table, a plank, a figure that renders every thing
fenfible : 2. To fee, to look upon, to appear j Greek
T«y tcivu, w'hence ruvu, tench.
Tue, to examine attentively, to infpeCl carefully.
Tm, the moft apparent,chief, principal,firft; 2. Light¬
ning, thunder.
Teu, a fign by which we know one, letter of acknow¬
ledgment. All thefe ideas are contained in the He¬
brew in, thu, Jignum, which we believe has produced
the Egyptian theuth, the god or godlike man who in¬
vented letters, geometry, mufic, aftronomy, &e.
Tat, a dye, a theatre ; Greek of old Qixu, then
H'lxopcu, “ to fee, to look.”
Tam, Latin tantum, “ fo much.”
Tan, land, country, region, a fyllable annexed to the
Vol. XVI. Part I.
LOG Y. ,
end of a great number of words. Aqui tan, Aquitania, Chinete
“ a land of water 5” Maun tan, Mauritania, “ the land Language.^
of the Moors.” The orientals prefix j, whence Farfi v '"
fan, Farffan, “ the land or country of the Periians :”
Chuff an. Chuff an, “ the country of Chuz $” Turque
fan, Turquefan, u the land of the Turks.”
'll, "A chief, an emperor, a title of dignity ; whence
the Greek nu, “ to honour hence, too, the word di,
“ bright, glorious ;” whence A<5, “ Jupiter,” “ di¬
vine 5” the Latin Dius, now Deus, “ God,” and Divus,
with the digamma TFolicum inferted *, the Celtic Dhia,
&c. It fignified originally “ bright, glorious,” and
was an epithet of the Sun.
Turn, Latin tumeo, “ to fwell.”
Liven, “ to love ;” Hebrew ib, leh, “ the heart
Latin, /ihet. This Avord pervades all the dialedls of the
Gothic tongue, ftill retaining either the fame or a near¬
ly analogous fignification.
Li, “ letters j” Latin, /ino, “ to daub,” as the Chi¬
nefe actually do in forming their letters.
Lo, “ to contain, that which contains j” Celtic, /og ;
French, ioge, iogis, loger.
Lim, “ a rule hence Latin, iineu, “ a line.”
Su, “ with j” Greek, <rvi, “ with 3” Celtic, cyn, ajm i
whence Latin, cum, con, &c.
Xim, “ very high, elevated, facred, perfe£l 3” Latin,
eximius.
Sin, “ the heart 3” Perfian, Sin, “ the heart.”
Sien, “ chief, firft 3” Celtic, can, cean, fan, “ the
head 3” metaphorically, the chief, the firft, the princi¬
pal ; Thibet, fn, or hen, “ great, elevated 3” Arabic,
fame, “ to be elevated or raifed.”
Sim, or Sing, “ a conftellation, a ftar, an element 3”
Hebrew,: Greek, crYig.iuv, a-^g-x 3 Tntm, fgnum.
Sie, “ a man of learning 3” Goth. Sax. Engl. “ fee 3
to lee, feer.”
Cem, “ a prieft :” Flebr. cohen ; Syr. con ; Egypt.
can, cun.
^uin, “ a king 3” Celtic, hen, hend, “ head, chief 3”
Gothic, hoanig ; Germ. Flem. Engl, king, alfo queen.
Hu, “ a door 3” Goth. Germ. Engl, hus, haufen,
houfe.
Min, “ a river 3’
ver 3” Latin, mano
“ pleafant.”
Hen, “ hatred 3” Greek, uiveg,
ous.”
Kiven, “ a dog 3” Greek xvm, id.
Ven, “ beauty 3” Latin, Venus, venufas; Iceland.
Swed. wen, “ pleafant 3” Scotch, winfome.
Han, “ the foul, breath 3” Greek, 3 Latin, ani-
ma, animus.
To thefe inftances of the analogy between the Chi¬
nefe language and thofe of the other people of Afia and
Europe many more might be added 3 but the preced¬
ing, it is hoped, will ferve as a fpecimen, which is all
that can be expefted from an inquiry of the nature of
the prefent.
Welch, men, “ the water of a ri-
“ to flow,” and perhaps amoenus,
cruel, horrible, odi-
SECT. VII. Of the Greeh Language.
126
Before we enter upon the confideration of the ef- Origin of
fential and conftituent parts of this noble language, we^16 Greeks,
muft beg leave to fettle a few preliminaries, which, we
T t truft,
330 PHILO
Greek trull, will ferve to throw form: light upon many points
Language, may come under conlideration in the eourfe of
v_1’1"' the following difquiiition.
'i'he Greeks, according to the moft authentic ac¬
counts, were defcendcd of Javan or jon, the fourth
fun of Japhet, the eldeft fon of the patriarch Noah.
The Scriptures of old, and all the orientals to this
day, call the Greeks Jonim, or Jaim am, or Javenoth.
We have already obferved, in the beginning of the ar¬
ticle concerning the Hebrew language, that only a
few of the defeendants of Ham, and the moil profli¬
gate of the poftcrity of Shem and Japhet, were con¬
cerned in building the tower of Babel. We ihall not
now refume the arguments then collected in fupport of
that pofition ; but proceed to invefligate the charafter
of that branch of the poilerity of Javan which inhabited
Greece and the neighbouring regions.
At what period the colonifts arrived in thefe parts
cannot be certainly determined 5 nor is it of great im¬
portance in the queltion before us. That they carried
along with them into their new fettlements the lan¬
guage of Noah and his family, is, we think, a point that
cannot be controverted. We have endeavoured to prove
that the Hebrew, or at leaft one or other of its filler-
dialedls, was the primaeval language of mankind. The
Hebrew, then, or one of its cognate branches, was the
original dialect of the Jonim or Greeks.
Be that as it may, before thefe people make their
appearance in profane hiftory, their language deviates
very widely from this original archetype. By what
means, at what period, and in what length of time
this change was introduced, is, we believe, a matter
not eafy to be elucidated. That it was progrefftve, is
abundantly certain both from the rules of analogy and
reafon.
The colonies, which traverfed a large tra6l of.coun¬
try before they arrived at their deftined fettlements,
mull have Struggled with numberlefs difficulties in the
courfe of their peregrinations. The earth, during the
period which immediately fucceeded the univerfal de¬
luge, mutt have been covered with forefls, interfered
with fwamps, lakes, rivers, and numberlefs other im¬
pediments. A1- the neceffaries, and a few of the con¬
veniences of life, will always engrofs the firit cares of
mankind, the procuring of thefe comforts will, of
neceffity, exclude all concern about arts and fciences
which are unconnected with thefe purfuits. Hence
we think it probable, that molt of thofe colonies which
migrated to a very great diftance from the plains of
Shinar, which we believe to have been the original feat
of mankind, in a great mcafure neglected the praClice
of the polite but unneceffary modes of civilization
which their anceftors were acquainted with, and prac-
tifed before the era of their migration. Certain it is,
that thofe nations which continued to refide in the
neighbourhood of that centre of civilization, always ap¬
pear in a cultivated Hate 5 while, at the fame time, the
colonifts who removed to a conliderable diftance appear
. ( v j. to have funk into barbarifm, at a period more early than
barous annals of profane hiftory can reach.—This appears
•people. to have beerf the fituation of the primary inhabitants of
\
127
who were
L O G Y. Sed. Vf.
Greece. Their own hiftorians, the molt partial to their Greek
own courrtryirtcn that can well be imagined, exhibit a Linauag°.
very unpromifmg picture of their earlieft progenitors. 'r~mJ
Diodorus Siculus, in delineating the character of the
original mi n, we believe Iketches his draught from the
firft inhabitants of Greece*. He reprefen ts them as * bib i.
abfolute favages, going out in frnall parties to make
war upon the wild beafts of the field, which (according
to him) kept them in continual alarm. “ Neceffity
obliged them to band together for their mutual ftcuri-
ty ; they had not fagacity enough to diftinguifti be¬
tween the wholefome and poifonous vegetables; nor
had they ikill enough to lay up and preierve the fruits
of autumn for their fubfiftence during the winter.” The
feholiaft on Pindar deferibes the fituation of the inhabi¬
tants of Peloponnefus in the following mannerf. “ Now f P\thsai
fome have affirmed that the nymphs, who officiated in 0^4,
performing the facred rites, were called Mclijjce. Of
thefe Mnafeas of Patara gives the following account.
They prevailed upon men to relinquifh the abominable
practice of eating raw flefh torn from living animals, and
perfuaded them to life the fruits of trees for food.— ,
Melifla, one of them, having difeovered bee-hives, ate Progrefsof
of the honey-combs, mingled the honey with water theft civi-
for drink, and taught the other nymphs to ufe the hzation.
fame beverage. She called bees MsAicm**, Me liff a-, from
her own name, and bellowed much care on the manage¬
ment of them.
“ Thefe things (fays he) happened in Peloponnefus;
nor is the temple of Ceres honoured without nymphs,
becaufe they firft pointed out the mode of living on the '
fruits of the earth, and put an end to the barbarous
practice of feeding on human fiefh. The fame ladies,
too, from a fenfe of decency, invented garments made of
the bark of trees.”
Hecatseus the Milefian, treating of the Peloponne-
fians, affirms*, “ that before the arrival of the Hellenes, * stmlo,
a race of barbarians inhabited that region ; and that al-lib. vii.
moft all Greet was, in ancient times, inhabited by bar¬
barians f. In the earlieft times (fays Paufanias) (o) f jy. lib. i.
barbarians inhabited moil part of the country called
Hellas.'1'* 1 he original Greeks, if we may believe an
author of deep refearch and fuperior ingenuity J, were j pi;n.Nst
ftrangers to all the moft ufeful inventions of life. Even Hiji.
the ufe of fire was unknown till it was found out and
communicated by Prometheus, who is thought to have
been one of the firft civilizers of mankind. Hence
z£fchylus§, introduces Prometheus commemorating the § Prrmethi
benefits which he had conferred upon mankind by his verfe441‘
inventions, in a ftrain that indicates the uncultivated
ftate of the world prior to the age in which ho flouriffi-
ed. For the. entertainment of our readers, we fliall
tranflate as much of that paffage as fuits ourprefent pur-
pofe.
   “ Of the human race
Now hear the tale, how fooliffi erft they were :
I taught them thought and exercife of reafon j
If aught they faw before, they faw in vain.
Hearing, they heard not; all was fhapelefs dreams
For a long fpace of time, at random mixt.
In
(o) 1 he Greeks borrowed this contemptuous epithet from the Egyptians. See Herod, lib. ii. cap. 158.
PHILOLOGY.
Sect- \ !!•
In wild confufion : for tliey neitlier knew
Tile-cover’d houfes (landing in the fun,
Nor timber wwk ; but, like the earth-bred ant,
They lodg’d in funlefs caves dug under ground :
No certain (ign had they of winter cold,
Nor of the flow’ry fpring, or fuminer (lore,
But blindly manag’d all j till I them taught
"What time the (lars appear, what time they fet,
Hard to be fcan’d : then arithmetic rare,
That queen of arts, by dint of patient thought
Defcry’d, I taught them \ and how vocal founds
From letters join’d arofe.”
This charadler, though applied to mankind in gene¬
ral, was in reality that of the mod ancient Greeks.
Thefe forbidding features had been tranfmitted to the
poet by tradition as thofe of his anceftors : he was a
Greek, and of confequence imputes them to all mankind
without didimflion.
* Plato. Phoroneus, the fon and fuccelfor of Inachus *, is faid
to have civilized the Argiyes, and to have taught them
the ufe of fome new inventions. This circumdance rail¬
ed his character fo high among the favage aborigines of
l Paufan. the country, that fucceeding ages f deemed him the firft
hb. viii. ‘of men. Pelafgus obtained the like charadler, becaufe
he taught the Arcadians to live upon the fruit of the
fagust to build (beds to (belter them from the cold, and
to make garments of the (kihs of fwine.
But what clearly demonftrates the unpolifhed cha-
rafler of the mod ancient Greeks is, the extravagant
honours lavidied by them upon the inventors of ufeful
and ingenious arts. Mod of thefe were advanced to
divine honours, and became the objedls of religious
worfhip to fucceeding generations. The family of the
Titans affords a mod (Iriking indance of this fpecies of
adulation. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Dia¬
na, &c. were fprung of this family. By the ufeful in¬
ventions which thefe perfonages communicated to the
uncultivated nations of Greece, they obtained fuch lad¬
ing and fuch extravagant honours, that they judled out
the (idereal divinities of the country, and poffeffed their
high rank as long as Paganifm prevailed in thofe regi¬
ons. To thefe tedimonies of the favagifm of the origi¬
nal Greeks, others aimed without number might be ad¬
ded } but thofe adduced in the preceding part of this in¬
quiry will, wre hope, fatisfy every candid reader as to
l29 the truth of the pofition advanced.
Anew co- While matters were in this fituation with refpedl to
lony ar- the primitive Jonim or Greeks, a new colony arrived in
Greece cal P31*8* "which in a few years condderably changed
led peiajgi the face of affairs. The people who compofed this colony
were called Pelafgi; concerning whofe origin, country,
character, and adventures, much has been written, and
many different opinions exhibited by the learned. It is
not our province to enter into a detail of their arguments
and fydems •, we diall only inform our readers, that the
general opinion is, that they were natives either of Egypt
or Phoenicia. We have feen a differtation in manufeript
upon this fubje£l, from which we are allowed to extract
the following particulars.
The author, we think, has proved by very plaufible
arguments, that thefe people could not be defeendants
of the Egyptians nor Phoenicians. He maintains, that
the Pelafgi were a great and numerous tribe •, that they
overfpread all the coalt of Alia Minor from Mount My-
cale to Proas; that they were mailers at one time of
all the Afiatic and Grecian idands ; that they overran
Greece and many of the neighbouring countries ; and
all this in It fs than half a century.—Thefe fads he feems
to have proved from Homer, Plerodotus, Diodorus Sicu¬
lus, Paufanias, and other Greek authors of approvofd au¬
thenticity. He (hows, that they were a civilized gene¬
ration ; that they were well acquainted with military
affairs, legiflation, agriculture, navigation, architedure*
letters, &c. He infills, that Phoenicia could not at anyr
given period have furnifhed fuch a numerous body of
emigrants, even fuppofing the w! >le nation had emi¬
grated, and left their native country a defert. He be¬
lieves that this event took place before the invafion of
Canaan by the Ifraelites ; that confequently the Pelafgic
migration was not occafioned by that cataftrophe. He
lias fhown, we think by very probable arguments, that
the Egyptians in the earlieft ages were averfe to foreign
expeditions, efpecially by fea ; becaufe that people hated
this element, and befides could be under no temptation
to emigrate : add to this, they were accuftomed to live
on fmall matters, and their country was exceedingly fer¬
tile and eafiiy cultivated. It appears (fays he) from He¬
rodotus, that the Pelafgi were not acquainted with the
religion of the Zabians, which could not have been the
cafe had they emigrated from either of thefe countries.
He makes it appear, at lead to our fatisfadlion, that He¬
rodotus is miftaken when he fuppofes that the deities of
Greece ivere derived from Egypt. He demonftrates,
that the names of the greateft part of thofe deities are of
Phoenician extradlion ; and this opinion he ellablifhes by
a very plaufible etymological dedudlion. He afferts, that
had the Pelafgi been natives of either of the countries
above mentioned, it would be abfurd to fuppofe them
ignorant of the names and religious rites of their re-
fpeclive nations. Pie finds, that the Egyptian and Phoe¬
nician colonies, which afterwards fettled in Greece, were
enemies to the Pelafgi, and either fubdued or expelled
them the country, which, he imagines, would fearce
have been the cafe had both parties fprung from the fame
anceftors. After fettling thefe points, he concludes, that
the people in queftion were the progeny of the Arabian
(hepherds, who, at a very early period, invaded and fub¬
dued both the Lower and Upper Egypt. After poffef-
fing that country about a century and a half, they were
conquered by Amenophiskingof the Upper Egypt, who
drove them out of the country. Upon this the fugitives
retired to Paleiline, where Manetho the Egyptian hifto-
rian lofes fight of them, and either through malice or
ignorance confounds them with the Ifraelites. This
writer fuppofes that thofe fugitives gradually dire£led
their courfe for the weft and north-weft coafts of Afia Mi¬
nor, whence they conveyed themfelves over to Greece.
Such are the arguments by which the author of the
differtation above mentioned fupports his hypothefis, It
is, for aught we know, altogether new, and to us it ap¬
pears by no means improbable. If our curious readers
(hould wi(h to know more of this fubjedl, they may eon-
full Gebelin’s preliminary Difcourfe to his Greek Dic¬
tionary, Lord Monboddo’s Inquiry into the Oiigin and
Progrefs of Language, vol. i. towards the end, and Mr
Bryant’s Analyfis of Ancient Mythology,
Be this as it may, nothing is more certain than that
the Pelafgi were the firft people who in fome degree
civilized the favages of ancient Greece. It is not our
T t 2 * bufinefs
Greek
Language.
331
Greek
Language.
33 2
Greek
Language.
* Lib. i.
ap. 59.
f Lib. iii.
* Ibid.
P PI I L O
bufmefs at prefent to enumerate the many ufeful inven¬
tions which they communicated to the Greeks, at that
time worfe than barbarians. We deem it, however, ab-
folutely necefiary, as an introduction to our fubjcft, to
hazard a few conjectures on the language and letters of
thofe adventurers ; a point ItriCtly connected with the
fubjeCt foon to fall under confideration.
Whether we fuppofe the Pelafgi to have been the oflf-
fpring of the Phoenicians, Egyptians, or Arabian fhep-
herds, it will make little difference as to their language ;
every man of learning and refearch is convinced that
thofe three nations, efpecially at that early period, fpoke
a dialed of the Hebrew. The Pelafgi, then, mult have
fpoken a dialed of that language when they arrived in
Greece. Perhaps it might have undergone feveral
changes, and acquired fome new modifications, during
fo many years as had paffed fince they began to be a fe-
parate nation, and in the courfe of fo many peregrina¬
tions. Some monuments of theirs ftill extant prove this
fad beyond all contradidion. As thefe people incorpo¬
rated with the aborigines of Greece, the remains of the
original language of mankind, or at lead fo much of it
as had been retained by them, gradually coalefced with
that of the new fettlers. From this, we think, it is ob¬
vious, that prior to the arrival of the new colonifts from
the Fall, the language now current among the trvo
united tribes muft have been a dialed of the Phoeni¬
cian, Arabian, Hebrew, &c. Be that as it may, He¬
rodotus * affirms that the Pelafgi in his time fpoke a
barbarous language, quite unintelligible to the modern
Greeks.
The reafon of this difference between the language
of the Plellenes or Greeks in the age of Herodotus,
and that of the remains of the Pelafgi at that period,
feems to be this : Prior to the time of that hiftorian,
the Greek language had, from time to time, undergone
many changes, and received vaft improvements ; whereas,
on the contrary, that of the remnant of the Pelafgi, who
were now reduced to a very low Hate, had remained fta-
tionary, and was then juft in the fame predicament in
which it had been perhaps a century after their arrival
in the country.
As the Pelafgi, as was obferved above, were a people
highly civilized and well inftruded in the various arts at
that time known in the eaftern world, they were Ikilled
in agriculture, architedure, mufic, &c. (p). The pre-
fumption then is that they could not be unacquainted
with alphabetical writing. This moft ufeful art was
well known in the countries from which they emigrat¬
ed ; and of courfe it is impoffible to imagine that they
did not export this art as well as the others above-men¬
tioned. Diodorus Siculus imagines that -f- the Pelafgi
knew not the ufe of alphabetical letters, but that they
received them from Cadmus and his Phoenician fol¬
lowers } that thofe letters were afterwards called Pelaf-
gic, becaufe the Pelafgi Avere the firft people af Greece
who adopted them. This account muft go to the fcore
of national vanity, fince very foon after he acknow¬
ledges * that Linus wrote the exploits of the firft Bac-
L O G Y. Sea. VII.
chus and feveral other romantic fables in Pelafgic cha- Greek
raders } and that Orpheus, and Pronapides the mafter Language,
of Plomer, employed the fame kind of letters. Zeno- 'r^J
bius likewife informs us f that Cadmus flew Linus for f- j)r
teaching charaders different from his. Thefe letters
could be none other than the Pelafgic J. Sharp’s
Paufanius, in his Attics, relates ||, that he himfelf faw
an infeription upon the tomb of Coraffius, who lived at
the time when Crotopus, wffio was contemporary with| See Plats
Deucalion, was king of the Argives. This infeription XVI.
then was prior to the arrival of Cadmus ; and confe- ^
quently letters were known in Greece before they were^
introduced by this chief. It likewife appears from He¬
rodotus himfelf, that the lonians were in poffeffion of
alphabetical charaders before the coming of the Phoeni¬
cians. “ For (fays he) § the lonians having received ^ ^ j
letters from the Phoenicians, changing the figure andc. 5S.
found of fome of them, rangeddhem with their own, and
in this manner continued to ufe them afterwards.” If,
then, the lonians (q_) ranged the Phoenician charaders
with their own, it is obvious that they had alphabetical
charaders of their own.
Befides thefe hiftorical proofs of the exiftence of Pe¬
lafgic charaders, monuments bearing inferiptions in the
fame letters have been difeovered in feveral parts of
Greece and Italy, which place this point beyond the
reach of controverfy. What charaders thefe were may
be eafily determined. As the Pelafgi emigrated from
Arabia, the prefumption is that their letters wTere Phoe¬
nician. They are faid by Dr Swinton to have been 13
in number, whereas the Phoenician alphabet confifts of
16. The three additional letters were probably invent¬
ed by the latter people after the Pelafgi had left the
eaftern quarters. The Phoenician letters imported by
the Pelafgi were, no doubt, of a coarfe and clumfy con ¬
texture, unfavourable to expedition in writing, and un-
pleafant to the fight. Befides, the Phoenician charaders
had not as yet received their names •, and accordingly
the Romans, who derived their letters from the Arca¬
dian Pelafgi *, had no names for theirs. The probabi- * Lmi,
lity is, that prior to this era the Pelafgic letters had noth'3-1-c- 7’
Plate XV.
been diftinguilhed by names. Thefe were of courfe no
other than the original letters of the Phoenicians in their
firft uncouth and irregular form : and for this reafon
they eafily gave way to the Cadmean, which were more
beautiful, more regular, and better adapted to expedi¬
tion.
Hitherto we have feen the Pelafgi and the lonim in¬
corporated, living under the fame law's, fpeaking the
fame language, and ufing the fame letters. But another
nation, and one too of vaft extent and populoufnefs, had
at an early period taken poffeffion of a confiderable part
of the country afterwards.diftinguifhed by the name of
He/las or Greece. The Thracians were a great and
mighty nationinferior to none except the Indians f, 1
fays the father of Grecian hiftory. Thefe people at a lib. v. c. 3.
verjr early period, had extended their quarters over all
the northern parts of that country. They were, in an-^ ® a
cient times, a learned and polifhed nation. From them, p()Werfu]
in nation at a
very early
  ■' ■   ■■ ■       ■   —   period.
(p) The Arcadians, who were a Pclafgic tribe, were highly celebrated for their Ikill in mufic. They introdu¬
ced this a’-t into Italy. S> e Dion. Hulicar. lib. i.
(o ) The Athenians were originally called lonians.
ea. VII. PHILO
Greek in fucceeding ages, the Greeks learned many ufeful and
anguage. ornamental fciences. Orpheus (r) the mufician, the
v—; leoiflator, the poet, the philofopher, and the divine, is
known to have been of Thracian extraftion. Thamyris
and Linus were his difciples, and highly refpefted among
the Greeks for their learning and ingenuity. That thefe
people fpoke the fame language with the Greeks, is a-
bundantly evident from the connexion between them
and thefe Thracian bards. The Thracian language,
then, whatever it was, contributed in a great propor¬
tion towards forming that of the Greeks. From the re¬
mains of the Thracian dialedt there appears to have
been a very ftrong refemblance between it and the
Chaldean. This pofition we could readily fupport by
the mofl: plaufible etymological deduflion, did the limits
preferibed us in this article admit fuch an inquiry. It
Strabo aPPears> however, that the * Thracians, Getae, and
b. i! & vii. Daci or Davi, fpoke nearly the fame language. The
Goths, fo much celebrated in the annals of the lower
empire, were the defeendants of the Getse and Daci,
and confequently retained the dialed of their anceftors.
The reader, therefore, muft not be furprifed, if in tra¬
cing the materials of which the Greek language is com-
pofed, we (hould fometimes have recourfe to the re-
m mains of the Gothic.
'he Greek We have now found out three branches of the Greek
>«guage language ; that of the lonim or Aborigines, that of the
o in poled pelafgiC tribe, and that of the Thracians. Thefe three,
‘“'we imagine, were only different dialecb of the very fame
idl 1 original tongue. This affertion we could readily prove
by the comparifon of a great number of words taken
from the two laft, were this a proper place for fuch a
132 difeufiion.
urivalof Some centuries after the arrival of the Pelafgi, Cad-
ladmus in rnuS} an Egyptian (s) by birth, and a fojourner in Phoe-
jreecc. arrive(j ;n Bceotia with a multitude of followers.
This colony-chief and his countrymen introduced letters
and feveral other ufeful improvements into the country
in queftion. As thefe people were natives of Phoenicia
and its environs, their alphabet was that of their native
country, confiding of 16 letters. That the Phoenician
alphabet was nearly the fame with the Samaritan and
Hebrew, has been fo often and fo clearly demonftrated
by the learned of this and the former century, that it
would be altogether fuperfluous to infill upon it in this
Ihort inquiry. The Phoenicians, as is generally known,
wrote from right to left, and the old Grecian characters,
inverted, exaCtly referable the other.
■ Scaliger- The names of the Cadmean characters are Syrian -f-,
which (hows the near refemblance between that lan¬
guage and the Phoenician. 1 hey (tand thus : alpha, be-
*33 ta, gatnla, delta, &.c. The Syrians ufed to add a
ntrodT t0 the Hebrew vocables j hence alph becomes alpha,
'yhim. beth, betha or beta, &e. In the Cadmean alphabet
we find the vowel letters, which is an infallible proof
that this was the praftice of the Phoenicians in the
age of Cadmus } and this very circumltance furmfiies
a prefumption that the Jews did the fame at the fame
period.
LOGY. 333
After all, it is evident that the oldeft Greek letters," Greek
which are written from right to left, differ very little angunSe-
from thofe of the Pelafgi. The four double letters
<p, I, £, are laid to have been added by Palamedes
about 20 years before the war of Troy. Simonides
is generally fuppofed to have added the letters £, «, ip,
though it appears by fome ancient inferiptions that fome
of thefe letters were ufed before the days of Palamedes
and Simonides.
In the year of our Lord 1456 feven brazen tables
were difeovered at Engubium, a city of Umbria in the
Apennines, of which five were written in Pelafgic or
Etrufcan charaCiers and two in Latin. The firlt of
thefe tables is thought to have been compofed about 168
years after the taking of Troy, or 1206 years before
Chrift. By comparing the infeription on thefe tables
with the old Ionic charaCiers, the curious have been
enabled to difeover the refemblance.
The old Ionic charaCIer wrote from right to left con- The old
tinued in general ufe for feveral centuries : It was com-Ionic cha-
pofed of the Cadmean and Pelafgic charaCiers, with fomera(^er*
variations of form, pofition, and found. 1 he Athenians
continued to ufe this charaCIer till the year of Rome
350. The old Ionic was gradually improved into the
new, and this quickly became the reigning mode. After
the old Ionic was laid afide, the * (Bovrr^atpcc^or) Bullro-* paufan
phodon came into culfom, which goes backwards andjib. viii.
forwards as the ox does with the plough. They carried cap. 17.
the line forward from the left, and then back to the
right. The words were all placed clofe together, and
few fmall letters were ufed before the fourth century.
If our curious readers would wi(h to know more of let¬
ters and alphabets, w’e muft remit them to Chifhul, Mor¬
ton, Poftellus, the great Montfaucon, Gebelin, Aftle,
&c. For our part we are chiefly concerned at prefent
with the Phoenician and Cadmean fyftems; and on thefe 135
perhaps we may have dwelt too long. Having nowr, we Ue Greek
hope, fufficiently proved that the Greek alphabet was^abet
derived from the Phoenician, in order to convince ourfrom the
curious but illiterate readers of the certainty of our Phoenician,
pofition, as it were by ocular demonftration, we (hall
annex a fcheme of both alphabets, to which we (hall
fubjoin fome ftriftures upon fuch letters of the Greek
alphabet as admit any ambiguity in their nature and
application.
1 A, alpha, had two founds, the one broad like a in
the Englilh Avord all; the other (lender, as e in end,
fpend, "defend. The HebreAVS certainly ufed it fo, be-
caufe they had no other letter to exprefs that found j the
Arabs aftually call the firft letter of their alphabet elf;
and they as well as the Phoenicians employ that letter
to exprefs both the found of A and E promifeuoufly.
The Greeks call their letter E s-Tpi*ov, that is E (len¬
der, which feems to have been introduced to fupply the
place of A (lender.
H, eta, Avas originally the mark of the Jpinlus afper,
and no doubt aiftwered to the HebreAv n. It Is ftill re¬
tained in that capacity in the Avord Hexaroy, and in Avords
Avith the fpiritus afper beginning books, chapters, fec-
tions,
  .      
    —   
(r) Orpheus feems to be compounded of two oriental words, or, “ light,” and ph, “ the mouth.
fome deduce it from the Arabian arf, a learned man.”. t ru rt
(s) Jofeph Scaliger’s account of the origin of the Ionic letters. ljt • non*
Though
334- PHILO
Laimiao-c t*ons’ ^cc‘ E origina^y marked both the found of
t—'« EtJ/iXov and Hrx j that is, it was fometimes founded ihort
as at prefent, and fometiraes long, where it is now fup-
plied by H. As it was found convenient to diftinguifh
thefe two different quantities of found by different let¬
ters, they adopted H, the former fpiritus afper, to de¬
note the long found of E, and fubifituted the prefent
fpiritus ctfper [*J in its place.
I, iota, is the Hebrew or Phoenician jod or yod. We
imagine it originally ferved the purpofe of both iota and
ypfilon. It had two different founds ; the one broad
and full, the other weak and (lender. The latter had
the found of the modern v^aov. That this was aftually
the cafe, appears in fevend monumental inferiptions :
And upon this depends the variation of fome cafes
of the demonftrative pronoun and of the fecond deelen-
fion.
O, omicron, or fmall o, in the original Greek had
three different founds. It founded o fliort, as at pre¬
fent ; and likewife o long, now denoted by fit or large
O. It likewife marked the found of the improper diph¬
thong 6v, founded like the Englifh diphthong oo. The
n was taken from the Phoenician wau or V.
T, ypflon, we have obferved before, -was adopted to
fupply a mark for the found of I (lender.
Z, %eta, is compounded of Dion. Halic. how¬
ever, informs us, that this letter fhould be pronounced
. erj, according to the Doric plan.
0, theta, w;as not known in the old Greek. It is
compounded of r and the fpiritus afper, both which were
of old w'ritten feparately thus TH.
H, xi, is compounded of y5, Thefe letters,
too, were originally written feparately.
<t>, phi. This letter is compounded of /3, and the
fpiritus afper; thus BH, PH.
X, chi, like the foregoing, is compounded of y, y,, and
X\\e fpiritus afper as above.
Sr, pfi, like fome of the reft, is made up of /3?, w$,
which, too, were originally written in feparate charac¬
ters.
Thefe obfervations are thrown together purely for
the ufe of {indents who may not choofe to inquire into
the minutice. We are forry that the nature of the work
will not permit us to extend our refearches to greater
length. The reader will find an ancient infeription on
Plate CCCCXVI. in which the powers of the letters are
exemplified as they were in the firfl fiage of the Greek
language. Every language, we believe, was originally
compofed of inflexible words 5 the variations which now
diftinguifh nouns and verbs were the effefls of progref-
five improvements. What might have been the flate of
the Greek language with refpeff to thefe variations in
its original form, it is not now poflible to difeover.
That it was rude and irregular, will not, we imagine,
be controverted. One of the firft attempts towards
forming the variations, now denominated declenfions
and conjugations, would probably be made upon the de-
monf native article and the fubjlantive verb. This ob-
fervation will be found to hold good in moft polifhed
languages. In the Greek tongue, this was evidently
the method.
ucaiuu UJ. The. original Greek article was imported from the
the article, eaft. It was the Hebrew or Phoenician rr ha. This par¬
ticle fometimes fignifies one, and fometimes it anfwers to
our demonftrative the i both in its adverbial and demon-
Sed. V
136
Origin and
flexion of
LOGY.
ftrative capacity it imports demonftration. In the ear- Greek
lieft ftages of the two oriental languages, it was proba- Languad
bly written apart, as ha-melech, “ the king.” In pro- ' 
cefs of time it came to be joined with the following
word, as Hammelech. From this we think the Greek
article was deduced. It is ftill retained in the Doric
dialect in its priftine chara&er. The difference be¬
tween ho and ha in the eaftern language is nothing.
Here then we have the articles 0 mafeuiine and « femi¬
nine. Upon thefe feveral changes were fuperinduced
in order to render them more ufeful for the purpofes
of language. For thofe changes we know of no arehe-
type.
The Greeks then having adopted the Hebrew, or
Phoenician, or Chaldean article ha, and changed it into
ho for the mafeuiine, feem to have arranged its varia¬
tions in the following manner :
Sing.
Norn.
Gen.
Dat.
Acc.
P/u.
eii
ov<;
U7
In the earlieft ftages of the Greek language, < and
were founded in the fame manner, or nearly fo, as wastheflex‘01
obferved above. The aceufative wTas at firft like the the fird °
nominative ; for diftindtion’s fake it was made to termi- and fecomj
nate in v, which letter was likewife adopted to charac- dccknfioB
terize the genitive plural ; 5 was annexed to the dative
plural, to diftinguilh it from the dative Angular. The
radical word was ftill without inflexion.
When the article was inftedfed in this manner, the
procefs flood as follows ; we take Aoysj for an ex¬
ample.
Sing.
Nom. 0 Xoy fpeech
Gen. cv Acy of fpeech
Dat. «< Aey to fpeech
Acc. «v Aay fpeech
P/u
oi Aoy fpeeches
oov Aey of fpeeches
ini Aey to fpeeches
evs fay fpeeches
In this arrangement our readers will obferve, that in
the time under confideration, *> was not yet introduced ;
and therefore cpiygov or little e was the fame letter in
the genitive plural as in the accufative fingular; but in
the latter cafe it was founded long by way of diftinc-
tion.
The article ha, which is ftill retained in the Doric
dialed!, was varied as follows :
Sing.'
Nom. «
Gen. tij
Dat. ch
Acc. cev
P/u.
Lit
av
ott$
us
Thefe variations differ a little from thofe of the maf-
culine ; and they were no doubt made for the fake of
diftindlion, as is ufual in fuch cafes. We fliall now
give an example of the feminine as it muft have flood
before variations were introduced We fhall employ
itpn.
Sing.
Nom. a, rip. honour
Gen. us Tip of honour
Dat. at rip to honour
Acc. u.'t Tip honour
P/u.
ui Tip honours
uv Tip of honours
uis Tip to honours
us Tip honours
Afterwards,
Greek
inguage
cl. VII. P H I L O
Aftenvards, when the Chaldean article da was adopt¬
ed for the neuter gender, the letter 1 or d was chano-ed
into r, and prefixed to it; and then the Greeks, who,
in their deelenfion of adjedlives, always followed the
neuter gender, began to prefix it to the oblique^
cafes.
In this manner we think the Greek nouns tlood ori¬
ginally ; the only change being made upon the article.
At length, inftead of prefixing that word, and expref-
fing it by itfelf, they found it convenient to affix a frag¬
ment of it to the noun, and fo to pronounce both with
more expedition. T hus dj-Aoy, e. g. became Aay-af, av'
My became Aay-oy, and of courfe Myos and Myov, &c.
The fpiritus afper, or rough breathing, was thrown a-
way, in order to facilitate the coalition. Nouns of the
neuter gender, as was neceffary, were diflinguiffied by
ufing v -inftead of 5. In Oriental words the Greeks of¬
ten change ; into », and vice verfa.
In this cale the Greeks feem to have copied from an
eaftern archetype. In Hebrew we find an arrangement
LOGY.
335
Greek
Language.
139
■mation
:he thin
lenfion,
1 of its
13s
this
de of
eeksco- exa^^Y ffinilar. to fupply the place of the pronouns
d from poffeffive, they affix fragments of the perfonals : Thus,
1 Orion- they write ben-i, “ my Ion,” inftead of ben-atii, and de-
r bir-nu, “ our words,” inftead of dtbir-cwu, &c. The
perfons of their verbs are formed in the fame manner.
In this way, in our opinion, the variations of the firft
and fecond declenfions wrere produced.
After that a confiderable number of their nouns were
tnfion arran?ed unc^er tliek two Gaffes, there remained an al-
moft infinite number of others which could not conveni¬
ently be brought into thefe arrangements; becaufe their
terminations did not readily coalefce with the articles
above mentioned. Thefe, like nouns of the neuter gen¬
der, were in a manner fecluded from the foeiety of the
two other claffifications. It is probable that thefe for a
long time continued indeclinable. At laft, however,
an effort was made to reduce them into a clafs as well
as the others. All thefe excluded nouns originally ter¬
minated with ?, which appears from their genitives as
they ftand at prefent. By obferving this eafe, we are
readily conduced to the termination of the priftine vo¬
cable. The genitive always ends in which ending is
formed by inferting a between the radical word and 5.
By throwing out « we have the ancient nominative :
’Ihus, Tmev, genitive TiTacvaj ; taking out a we have Ti-
vjcyj, the original indexible termination. Ar^eo, genitive
Ajjraes ; throw out a and you have A^roq. UxlAxg, ge¬
nitive take away a and there remains TrxXhetds.
genitive OgviSag ; by throwing out a we have
O^nSq. Avx%. genitive Avcturoq, Amxrs. K^xroq, geni¬
tive K^careoj, K^xr^q ; originally K^xnq, becaufe origi¬
nally s had the found of as was obferved above. MsA<,
genitive MiXtroq, MsA/rj. Eidoq, genitive Ei^ioq, EiSej,
the old noun. In fhort, the genitive is always formed
by inferting a immedialely before q, which is always the
termination of the nominative ; and by this rule, we
eafily difeover the noun fuch as it was in its original
form. 6
The dative of this declenfion wTas clofed with t afcrip-
tum ; the fame with that of the fecond, namely, 1 fub-
fcriptum. The accufative commonly terminates with «;
but was originally ended with *. The Romans imitated
the AEolian dialeft, and they commonly ended it with
cm or im. The Greeks, perhaps in this imitated their
progenitors, for a was their favourite vowel. The no-
140
minative plural ended in *j, which nearly relembles the
Engliffi plural, and was poffibly borrowed from the
1 hracians. I he genitive plural in all the declenfions
ends in »» ; the dative ends iri o-<, the a* being inlerted to
dillinguifti it from the dative fingular. When a ftrong
confonant, which would not eafily coalefce with f, comes
immediately beiore it, that confonant is thrown out to
avoid a harlh or difficult found. Thefum then is ; the
cafes of nouns of the firft and fecond declenfions confift of
the radical word with fragments of the articles annexed,
and thefe were the firft claffifications of nouns. The
othei nouns were left out for fume time, and might be
denominated neuters ; at length they too were claffified,
and their variations formed as above. In this procefs
the Greeks deviated from the oriental plan ; for thefe
people always declined their nouns by particles prefixed.
Whether the Greeks were gainers by this new procefs,
we will not pretend pofitively to determine. We are,
however, inclined to imagine that they loft as much in
perfpicuity as they gained by variety.
^ It is generally believed that the Greeks have nof;reekab-
aolative ; to this opinion, however, we cannot affent.lative.
It is true, that the dative, and what we would call the
ablative, are always the fame: yet we think there is
no more reafon to believe that the latter is wanting in
Greek, than that the ablative plural is wanting in
Latin, becaufe in that language both thefe cafes are al¬
ways alike.
In the e aft era languages there are only two genders,
analogous to the eftabliihed order of nature, where all
animals are either male or female. But as the people of
the eaft are, to this-day, ftrongly addifted to perionifi-
cation, they ranged all obje&s of which they had occa-
fion to {peak, whether animate or inanimate, under one
or other of thefe two claffes. Hence arofe what is now
called the mafeuhne and feminine genders. The orien¬
tals knew nothing of a neuter gender, becaufe, indeed,
ail objefts were comprehended under the foregoing claf¬
fes. The Phoenician feminine was formed from the malV
culine, by adding nx, ah. In this the Greeks in many I4r
cafes imitated them. The Greeks and Latins left a vail Genders,
number of fubftantives, like a kind of outcafts, without
reducing them to any gender; this procefs gave rife to
the neuter gender, which imports, that fuch fubftantives
were of neither gender. This lias the appearance of a
defect, or rather a blemiih, in both. Sometimes, too,
they make ivords neuter, which, according to the ana¬
logy of grammar, ought to be either malculiue or femi¬
nine. And again, they range words under the mafeu-
line or feminine, which by the fame rule ought to have
been neuter. In fliort, the dodtrine of generical diitiL
bution feems to have been very little regarded by the
fabricators of both tongues, The beauty which arifes
from variety feems to have been their only objeft. x
The ufe of the article in the Greek language is, we Farther ob
think, rather indeterminate; it is often prefixed to pro-Nervations
per names, where there js no need of demonitration nor°.n the al>
generic?! diftinftion. On the contrary, it is often onfft-tIcIe*
ted in cafes where both the one and the other feem to
require its afliitance. In fhort, in feme cafes it feems to
be a mere expletive. Though both Lord Monboddo
and Mr Harris have treated of this part of fpeecb, nei¬
ther the one nor the other has afeertained its proper ufe.
(See Origin and Progrefs of Language, vol. ii. p. 53.
Hermes, p. 214. et feqi).—We know net any objection
to
3 6
P H I L O L O G Y,
M3 *
Adjectives.
Greek to the early ufe of articles amohgthe Greeks fo plaufible
Language. as tjie to(.a]i negleft of them among the Romans. But
Wi v"“‘_ it ought to be confidered, that after the flexions were
introduced, the ufe of the article was in a great meafure
neglected. Accordingly, Lord Monboddo obferves that
it is very feldom ufed as fuch by Homer,But commonly
in place of the relative pronoun 05, *i, a.—Thus it would
appear, that at the time when the Roman language was
reduced to the Grecian ftandard, the article was not
commonly ufed by the Greeks j and of coune the La¬
tins never employed it. There can be no doubt but the
pronoun w/10, in the northern languages, is the fame
with the Greek a, and the Hebrew /iuu. This among
the northern people is always a relative, which affords a
prefumption that the Greeks originally ufed the article
in the fame manner as we do at prefent. The faft is,
that the articles having once got into vogue, were often
pofitively ufed as mere expletives to fill up a gap; and
that, on the other hand, when there was no occafion for
pointing out an objeft, it being fully determined by the
tenor of the difeourfe, it was often omitted.
In forming adjeftives, they follow'ed the fame plan
that they had done with fubftantives. Their great effort
was to make their adjeftives agree with their fubftan¬
tives in gender, number, and cafe. This arrangement
improved the harmony of fpeech; and nothing could
be more natural than to make the word expreffing the
quality correfpond with the fubjeft to which it be¬
longed.
As adje£Hves denote qualities, and thus are fufcep-
tible of degrees, nature taught them to invent marks
for expreflmg the difference of thefe degrees. The
qualities may exceed or fall below each other by al-
moft numberlefs proportions; it was, however, found
convenient to reftrift thefe increafes and decreafes to
two denominations. The pofitive is, properly fpeaking,
no degree of comparifon at all; therefore wre need only
point out the formation of the comparative and fuper-
lative.
The former is generally thought to be fabricated, by
firft adding the Hebrew word 'in'', excellent, to the po¬
fitive, and then affixing the Greek termination 05 ; and
the latter, by affixing the Syrian word tath and the fyl-
lable «$, in the fame manner.
Every nation, even the moft uncivilized, have early
acquired the notion of number. Numerical chara&ers
and names are the fame in many different languages.
Thefe terms were difcovered, and in ufe, long before
grammar came to any perfection ; and therefore re¬
main either inflexible or irregular. The firft way of
computing among the Greeks was by the letters of
the alphabet; fo that A fignified one and £2 twenty-
four : in this manner the rhapfodies of Homer are
numbered ; and fo are the divifions of fome of the
Pfalms, as is generally known. But a more artificial
plan of computation was obvioufly neceffary. They
divided the letters of the alphabet into decades or tens,
from A to I mo. To exprefs the number 6, they in-
ferted baw—6’, fo that by this means the firft de¬
cade amounted to 10. In the next decade every letter
increafed by tens, and fo P denoted 100. In this de¬
cade they inferted 4 xovn01—90. In the third, every
letter rofe by 100; fo that ^ ) crascTnrrpoo. By in¬
verting thefe three Phoenician chara&ers they made
M4
Greek nu¬
merals.
Sed. VI
their alphabet amount to 90^. To exprefs chiliads Greek
or thoufands, they began with the letters of the al- kanguagj
phabet as before ; and to make the diftinCtion, they V"*
placed a dot under each charader, as the units, tens,
hundreds, were diftinguifhed by an acute accent over
them.
But in monumental infcriptions, and in public in-
ftruments, a larger and more lafting numerical charac¬
ter was fabricated. They began with I, and repeat¬
ed that letter till they arrived atn —5. This is the firft
letter of min, five. Then they proceeded, by repeat¬
ing I till they came to 10 A, the firft letter of 10.
Then they repeated A over and over, fo that four A=
40. To exprefs 50, they ufed this method ; they in-
clofed A in the belly of jA|=50, |h|=:5O0, |m|=50,000,
&c. Often, however, X fignifies 1000, and then we
have ns 2000 ; XtXiti, 3000 ; and fo of the
reft.
The word pronoun fignifies a word placed inftead °fpron^Si
a noun or name ; and indeed the perfonal pronouns are
really fuch : this needs no explication. The pronoun
of the firft perfon is one of thofe words which have
continued invariable in all languages ; and the other
perfonals are of the fame character. The relatives,
poffeflives, demonftratives, and gentiles, are generally
derived from thefe, as may be difcerned by a very mo¬
derate adept in the language. Our readers will there¬
fore, we hope, eafily difpenfe with our dwelling upon
;this part of fpeech. ^
Verb. In moft ancient languages, verbs, according Greek
to the order of nature, have only three tenfes or times, verbs, ho
namely, the joq/', future. The intermedi-forrae^
ate tenfes were the invention of more refined ages.—-
The Greek, in the moft early periods, had no other
tenfes but thofe above mentioned. The manner of
forming thefe we (hall endeavour to point out, with¬
out touching upon the nature of the reft, fince an idea
of them may be acquired from any common gram¬
mar.
We have obferved above, that the flexion of nouns
of the firft and fecond declenfions are formed by an¬
nexing fragments of the articles to the radical words;
and that the variation of the tenfes was produced by
joining the fubftantive verb, according to the fame ana¬
logy. Every Greek verb was originally an inflexible
biliteral, triliteral, quadriliteral or diffyllabic radix. The
variations were formed a long while after in the manner
above intimated.
The Greeks had their fubftantive or auxiliary verb,
from the Phoenician or Chaldean verb vcn^uit. This
verb, taking away the gentle afpirate from both begin¬
ning and end, actually becomes sn This vocable the
Greeks brought along with them from the Eaft, and
manufaftured after their own manner, which appears to
have been thus :
Pref. fa, ft?, u, topiv, lire, too-i,
Cont. a, ug, u, tvy.fv, tiTt, ovirt,
Fut. s<ra, tff-ug, £«;, ftropiv, &c.
We place otri in the third perfon plural, becaufe for
many centuries ofUK^ov fupplied the found of the diph¬
thong ov. By thefe variations it will appear that the
radical verb was rendered capable of inflexion. We
have obferved that Greek verbs were a colleftion of bi¬
literal,
PHILOLOGY
PLATE CCCCXV7.
0
(0.7xm/////m
'O
(/.;
^///c/(//'///ft ro///fti //// ’ ////(V /// r/<r
/ * //////sr yr/te/'fa, /tojfoi as//m ■fod
*__Xirn{-0ano;)-/rtzd/efa /‘-jf.
ODEYIOOLIIITOX. .HETJKINE S^LEKTO. THOpIO. HO
ESTW. ErI.TO.TMTO.ELm HODOI TEI^LILELTOI
HEBODO. ^T/IBOI. O/HB.LOIOL. TOLKILESALTI. JMABHS
IULB OX ELHODIA. KOI. HOT El OLE S.DEME TBO S
KJI.KOBES. .1A AOOE-IM. KAI+OOO.V1()A'. <8>E0L. KAl.
vJa/t'XV// o/T/Z/faf/r/.
/at vcIt. ^
C 3 3 ^ ^ 3 ^ X-% % % $
a ere cl lc er_ cc oc vn t'U hi h'u
Cs?
o cm urv ah,cT;eh
0
ec cc oc Oi
A’/it/c/Zct/ /JonKc/.
C/A
(faa/taona //fa.
Is S' UT 'T ^
fiL t/lCL c/c (the Tl£L fc tt tlC ctt
^ ^ S’ X ^ 3T fT ^ 5 P’
tee the cjnt c/hu h erm/e otiz cft/ia jci r/ ta n.1/'’ 11
E 5 3/J % £ D- P -rh C/ ^ J/ dha r-J, ha a-jaya^a
V //' /tr t'A/£a7<7 jVz//p *
r the ffi'
md fu-
Se&VII. PHIL
Greek literal, triliteral, or quadriliteral, radical words.—The
language, following may ferve for examples : r<, My, Mx%, tvtt,
r«£», Actfi, A>)A, Auk.
Thefe radicals are taken at random •, and we believe
our Grecian ftudent, by adding the terminations, will
readily find them all fignificant verbs. With thefe ra¬
dicals, then, and the fubftantive verb, we fuppofe the
prefent and future tenfes were formed,
ricrjnal But it is now generally admitted that the modern
•efent that prefent was not the original one of the verb. The fe-
hich is -oon^ or Attic future, appears plainly to have been the
moll ancient prefent. When the language was im¬
proved, or rather in the courfe of being improved, a new
prefent was invented, derived indeed from the former,
but differing widely from it in its appearance and com¬
plexion. Upon this occafion, the old prefent was de¬
graded, and infiead of intimating what was doing at pre¬
fent, was made to import what was immediately to be
done hereafter. By this means, y^ottyw, eontrafled in¬
to ygas<pd>, I am writing, came to intimate I am jujlgo-
in% to write. This change was probably made for the
fake of enriching the language, for variety, for energy.
Thus, tu7t£&) contracted tvttS) became tv'tttv, tiktu,
&c. According to this theory, we find, that fuch verbs
as now have no fecond future retain their original form,
only the circumflex has been removed in order to ac¬
commodate them to the general ftandard. Gramma¬
rians have now chofen the three charadteriltic letters of
a£tive verbs from the prefent, firlt future, and perfect.
The true charafteriitic of the original verb was that of
the prefent fecond future. Many verbs are now delti-
tute of that tenfe, becaufe fince the invention of the new
prefent, thofe have fallen into difufe.
Let us now take the verb teyv, dico, in order to
make a trial $ and let us write the radix and the
auxiliary, firft feparately, and then in conjun&ion:
Thus,
My-ita. Aoc-kj, tey-ts, My icp.iv, My-im, My-letnr:. Then
we will have contracted My&>, My sis, Mysi, Myovpsv,
My tin, Myva-t. Here, w'e believe, every thing is felf-
evidcnt.
The Englifh would run thus: Saying / faying
thou art, faying he is, &c. At firft the radix and the
auxiliary were pronounced feparately, as wTe do oUr
helping verbs in Englifh, and would have been written
in the fame manner had words been then diftinguilhed
in writing.
The prefent firft future occupied the fame place that
it now does, and concurred in its turn to complete the
future in coniunClion with the radix. That the fub¬
ftantive verb was infleCled in the manner above laid
down, is obvious from its future’ middle sa-opxt, and
from the future of the Latin verb fum, winch was of
old efo, ejis, &c. Verbs in Xa>, pu vu, often take
fk in the firft future. See Feed. Cret. up. Murm. Oxon.
lib 87. Verbs in Aw and gw affume <r by analogy, as
xsAAw, ks’Kvu, Ettrip. Hecuh. v. lory y-sXo-xt. Horn. Od.
X. v. 511. rsAAw, T«A<rw, unde rsAo-ev, II. X. v. egw.
eg<r«|ti£v, Find. Nem Od. 9. Duodec. 2- T£<gw ts^fu. Theoc.
Idyll. 22. v. 63. In fine, the iEolic dialed after the
liquids often inferts v.
It muft be obferved, that the Greeks, in order to ac¬
celerate the pronunciation, always throw out the s and
a, except in verbsending in «w, ew, ew; where they gene¬
rally change them into tj and w. When the laft letter
Vol. XVI. Part I.
sanation
' the mo¬
an pre¬
fit.
149
rft future,
d
O L O G Y. 337
of the radix can coalefce with r after * is thrown out, Greek
they transform it, fo as to anfwer that purpofe ; if not, hanguage.^
they fometimes throw it out. We ftiall once more take ’
Asyw for an example :
Asy-serw, My-icrus, My-tru, &c.
Throwing out g, it would Hand My-tru, My-crus, &c,
by changing ys into $ it becomes Ag|w. A 6 and <r can¬
not coalefce with c, therefore they throw them out :
thus, A^w, future firft ae-w ; future firft wAije-w 5
Anirw, Avvfm, &c.
Thefe are the general rules with refped to the for¬
mation of the prefent and future of active verbs in the
earlieft ftages of the Greek language. The limits pre¬
ferred will not allow us to purfue thefe conjectures )
but the reader may, if he thinks proper, carry them a
great way. , _ 15*
The preterite tenfe falls next under confideration. preterit*
If we may truft analogy, this, as well as the other two, tenfe.
muft have owed its conformation to the radix of the
verb, and fome othpr word .fitted to eke out its termina¬
tions. It has been thought by fome critics, that this
addition was taken from the Hebrew word ren • and we
ftiould be of the fame opinion did not another auxiliary
prefent itfelf nearer home, which appears to us much xsi
more congruous to fuch a purpofe. Perhaps, indeed> Origin of
the people from whom we fuppofe it borrowed, derived ,!ie auX1'
it from the eaftern quarters. We have already obfer-^ar^cr *
ved, that the Thracians were matters of a great part of
Greece in the very earlieft ages. At that time they
were a polite and learned people. From them a confi-
derable part of the Greek language was derived. If,
therefore, we fliould find a Word in their language em¬
ployed for the fame purpofe, and accommodated to coa¬
lefce with the radical verb, we feel ourfelves very much
inclined to prefer fuch a word,
The word ha pervades many different languages as
an auxiliary verb. From it we have the Italian ho,
the Spanifti he, the French ai; and in one fhape or
other it appears in all the German and Scandinavian
diale£ts. It is the Gothic auxiliary } and, we believe,
it forms the termination of the perfeft active of the firft
conjugation in the Latin tongue : For there am is the
radix of amo ; in the preterite am-avi, amavi: and the
preterperfe£t am-hav-eram, i. e. amaveram, compounded
of am, hav, and eram, the imperfect of the indicative of
the fubftantive verb. This procefs, in the formation of
the preterite of Latin verbs, will fearce be queftioned,
and forms certainly a prefumptive proof that the Greeks
purfued the fame line. From this verb is likewife de¬
rived the Latin habeo, by changing p into b, which are
indeed the fame letter. Our readers, after this detail,
will not be furprifed if we fhould now hazard a conjec¬
ture, and declare it as our opinion, that this fame Gothic
auxiliary ha is a6tually the additional part of the pre¬
terite of Greek verbs, and that part upon which the
conjugation depends.
In forming this combination between the radix and
the auxiliary, the Greeks were obliged to fabricate
feveral devices. As often as the laft letter of the ra¬
dix could not unite with the afpirate in ha, they me-
tamorphofed it into one of the double letters, which
are capable of coalefcing with it. In the veri Mya,
y was changed into ^5 thus, Asy /iflbecanu M^x. tv*™
preterite tvjt ha, was combined into In verbs
A TT '
U u
which
338
PHILOLOGY.
Se&. Vn,
Greek
Language.
which had a radix that Avould not admit this conjunc¬
tion, they hardened the h into k, as in preterite
ri-x.et, Ax.ov-x.oi. Many other ways were contrived to
facilitate this re-union. Thefe aye detailed in every
Greek grammar, and fo need not be mentioned.-—
What has been faid with refpeft to this configuration,
we offer as a pure conje&ure, without the moft remote
intention of obtruding it upon our readers.
If it is admitted, that the auxiliary ha formed the
conjugating termination of the adlive verb among the
Greeks, it will likewife be admitted, that the radical
verb and the other made originally two diftinft words:
that, according to this fcheme, the preterite would pro¬
ceed thus, Ajy ha, faid / have ; My has, faid thou haft ;
My he, faid he hath, &c. This procefs to us appears ra¬
tional, elegant, and advantageous. The pluperfect was
not then invented, and therefore it does not come under
our confideration. The other tenfes were all deduced
from thofe defcribed ; and in forming thefe intermediate
diltimflive tenfes, we believe that both critics and gram¬
marians, and perhaps philofophers too, were employed.
See Grammar.
The eaftern nations have diverfified their verbs, by
affixing fragments of the perfonal pronouns to the ra¬
dix, by which they gained only the advantage of ex¬
hibiting the genders of the perfons engaged in being,
afling, and fuffering ; but a perpetual repetition of
thefe was unavoidable. The Greeks, by their artifi¬
cial combination of the radix with the two auxiliaries,
avoided the neceffity of repeating their perfonal pro¬
nouns, as we and the other modern inhabitants of Eu¬
rope are obliged to do 5 and at the fame time, by diver-
fifying the terminations of their nouns and verbs, won¬
derfully improved the beauty and harmony of their
language. The arrangement above infilled on is fo
very different from that of the orientals, and fo entirely
Gothic, that we think there can be no doubt that the
Greeks borrowed this manoeuvre from the Thracians.
Every perfon moderately acquainted with the Greek
language will, upon examination, difcover a wonderful
coincidence between the llruflure, idioms, and pbrafeo-
logy, of the Englilh and Greek languages 5 fo many
congenial features mull engender a llrong fufpicion that
there once fubfilled a pretty intimate relation between
them.
In the preceding deduction, we find ourfelves obli¬
ged once more to differ from the very learned author
of the Origin and Progrefs of Language. As we took
the liberty to queltion his originality of the Greek
language, and at the fame time prefumed to attack
the goodly flruflure raifed by philofophers, critics,
and grammarians ; fo we now totally differ from that
learned writer as to his theory of the creation of
verbs out of the inhabile matter of «<v, iu, &c. This
whole fabric, in our opinion, leans on a feeble foun¬
dation.
The apparatus of intermediate tenfes, of augments,
derivation of tenfes, with their formation, participles,
and idiomatical con(lru61ions, and other effentials or
appendages, we omit, as not coming within the verge
of the difquifition.
The derivation and formation of the middle and Greek
paffive voices, would certainly afford matter of curious Language
fpeculation ; but the labour necelfary to inveftigate '—
this connection would greatly overbalance the benefits
expefied. Xl*
However, to complete our plan, we {hall fubjoin a tion 0f the
few llriClures with refpeCt to the formation of the middle
middle voice, which vTas, in our opinion, immediately V0lce>
formed from the aClive.
We have feen already, that the aClive voice in its
original Hate was formed by annexing fragments of
the fubltantive or auxiliary verb to the radix. The
fame economy was obferved in fabricating the flexible
parts of the verb of the middle voice. To demon-
ftrate this, we fhall firft conjugate the prefent tenfe of
the auxiliary paffive upon the principles above laid
down.
Prefent, Eopxi, iircti, urett, io/xiCa, tio-fa, «ora». Such
was the paffive-prefent of the auxiliary. We {hall now
take our example from the verb tvttto) 5 fecond future
Tvor-tofix, Jiruck I am, Tvx-is<rxi. Jiruck thou art, rvx-
HTtii, ftruch he is, &c. contracted TVTrov/nxt, tuttjj, tv ru¬
ral. The conjunction and formation here is obvious.
Perhaps, in the fecond perfon, er was inferted, which,
however, is thrown out in the procefs of the perfons.
The future middle is clearly formed, by affixing the
future-paffive of the verb ia, only as n was introduced
into the language for s long, it was generally (t) fubfli-
tuted inftead of that vowel in verbs ending in and at,
and u for 0 in verbs ending in oa> ; the two vowels £ and
0 being originally long as well as ffiort, till jj was
adopted to denote the long found of the former, and
at that of the latter. In many verbs, before the con¬
junction of the radix and auxiliary, e vTas thrown out:cc^xVl
thus, rvTr-ttrofaxi became rv^o/aett, My-urofacet, M\ofixi,
&c.
The preterite w'as deduced from that of the aCHve by
a very flight variation, fo trifling, indeed, that it need
not be mentioned 5 only we may obferve, that the afpi-
rate h is never retained in this tenfe, which originally
feems to have been the only diftinguifhing character by
which that tenfe of the middle voice differed from the
fame tenfe of the aCtive.
From the ftriCt analogy betvreen the. mode of form¬
ing the three primary tenfes of the aCtive and middle
voice, we are led to fufpeCt that what is now the middle
was originally the paffive voice*
The immediate formation of the former, by annexing
the paffive auxiliary, is obvious. The middle voice {till
partakes of the paffive fignification, fince it has fome-
times a paffive, though more frequently an aClive.
There are feveral parts of the prefent paffive quite ana¬
logous to the fame tenfes in the middle : and, laftly, it
is the common progrefs, in the courfe of improvement,
to proceed ftep by ftep, and by approximation. What
is moft fimple and eafy is the firfl: objed, then fucceeds
wrhat is only a little more difficult, and fo on till we ar¬
rive at the laft ftage, when human ingenuity can go
no farther. Now, it will readily be admitted, that
the paffive voice is much more embarraffed' and in¬
tricate in its texture than the middle ; and, therefore, *
the
(t) We fay generally, becaufe in verbs ending in t«r} the s is fometimes retained, as nMit, reMrai, <egx.ga-srt#.
*53
nd of the
affive.
ea. VII. . PHILO
Greek the former fliould have been pofterio'r in point of time
anguage. to tjie latter.
—^ 1 We are well aware, that the very learned Kufter, and
moft other moderns, deeply Ikilled in the origin, pro-
grefs, and.ftruaure, of the Greek, language, have thought
othervvife. The general opinion has been, that the
Greek middle voice anfwered exadly to the Hebrew
conjugation hithpachal, and in its priftine fignification
imported a reciprocality, or when the agent afls upon it-
[elf. For our part, we only intended a few hints upon
the fubjeft, which our learned readers may purfue, ap¬
prove, or rejea, at pleafure.
If we might pretend to inveftigate the formation of
the paflive voice, we (hould imagine that the modern
prefent was formed from the ancient one, by inferting
inch letters as were found necefiary for beauty, variety,
energy, &c. *, the firft future from the fecond future
middle of the verb once Shu. 1 his future is
$A7tu.ou ; and, joined to the radix, always occupies that
place, n-Snropxt, TitefaTofMi, ytefthroftM, Tuffartpca, and
fo of the reit : whether funi, trtii, rut, which occur fo
frequently as the terminations of the middle and padive
voices, are fragments of fome obfolete verb, we will not
pretend to determine.
From verbs in <*«, tiw, ov, vw, are formed verbs in f
which in the prefent, imperfeft, and fecond aorift, as it
is called, only have a different form, by affuming
with a long vowel preceding it, in the prelent active j
which vorvel is preferved in each perfon lingular. I his
colleffion of irregular verbs feems to be formed from
the verb tifu, which in fome dialeds might be *fu. In¬
deed the imperfeft »j», jj;, u, feems to imply as much : in
this, however, we dare not be pofftive.
In the whole of this analyfis of the formation of
verbs, we have laid down what to us appears mote plau-
fibk. That metaphyfical critics may difeover inaccu¬
racies in the preceding detail we make no doubt ; but
our candid readers will doubtlefs refleft, that no lan¬
guage was ever fabricated by philolophers, and that
the elements of language were hammered out by pea-
fants, perhaps by favages. Critics have created a philo-
fophy of language we admit, and have a thoufand times
difeovered wonderful acutenefs and ingenuity in the
mechanifm of words and fentences, where the original
onomathetae never apprehended any, and which pnffibly
never exilled but in their own heated imagination. If
our more enlightened readers ffiouid find any thing m
the preceding detail worthy their attention, fo much tne
better ; if the contrary fliould happen, we prefume they
will take up with the hackneyed fyftem. We have all
along neglefted the dual number, becaufe it regularly
follows the type of the other numbers. ,
Be that as it may, before we drop this fubjea we
muft take the liberty to fubjoin an obfervation or two
with refpefl: to the confequences of the practice of new
modelling the prefent, and of courfe tne xmperfec ,
tenfes of verbs, ift, After this arrangement they com-
fhonly retained all the other tenfes exactly as a
flood conneaed with the primitive verb: this needs no
example. 2d, They often colleaed the tenfes of verbs,
whofe prefent and imperfea were now oblolete, in order
LOGY. 339
to fupply this defea. Thus we have (ptgti-Otrw, my**, Greek
wok*. 3d, They often formed prefent and imperfea Fanguage.,
tenfes without any other tenfes annexed : The poets in
particular feem to have fabricated thefe two tenfes at
pleafure.
If this procedure was convenient for the poets, it
was certainly moil incommodious with refpe<9: to the
vulgar, as well as to foreigners who had an inclination
to learn the language. The vulgar, fome ages after
Homer and Hefiod, muft have %>und it as difficult to
underftand their poems as our people do to compre¬
hend thofe of Chaucer and Spenfer. By this difpofi-
tion, too, the etymology of verbs was almoft entirely-
confounded. The prefent fecond future being, as has
been obferved, the ancient prefent, the attention of the
curious etymologift was naturally diverted to the modern
prefent, where it was utterly impoflible to difeover the
radical word. A few examples will elucidate this point:
ruvot, to Jlretch, to extend, old prefent rewt* ; is the ra¬
dix, which at once appears to be a Perfian word figni-
fying a large traB of country. Hence Mauritania “ the
land of the Mauri,1’ Aquitania, Bretania ; and with r
prefixed Hindo-ftan, Chufi-ftan, Turque-ftan. The ob¬
folete verb ottm, whence is evidently derived
from op, an Egyptian name of the moon : (paivu, fecond
future tytcyci, to /low, from the Egyptian word phan or
pan, a name of the fun : a-vxru, future fec*nd roiru \ rvie
if obvioufly the offspring of an, thaph, “ a drum or tim¬
brel,” from beating or ftriking, &c. In fuch etymo¬
logical refearches, the ftudent muff be careful to turn
the Ionic »i into the Doric et •, becaufe the Dores were
lateft from the coaft of Paleftine, and confequently re¬
tained the large ft (hare of the Phoenician dialed : thus
r/r,6iu, to rejoice, turning >) into « becomes yudsu. This
word, throwing away the termination, becomes gath,
plainly iignifying a wine prefs (u). It is like wife to be
obferved, that the iEolians often change * into v, as trvfc
inftead of &c.
It is not our intention to enter into the arrange¬
ment and peculiar conftru6bions ot the Greek language.
There is, however, one, which we cannot well pafs over 154
in filence. As that tongue is deftitute of thofe words Greek itv
which the Latins call gerunds, to fupply this defeft they finitives
employ the infinitive with the article prefixed : thus,
Eh T9 ityxt avris in order to their being friends ;
tcTrc T8 'iter6ui uvTovt Botritect, from their liming eleBed a
kinSf j Ex tb cctto (pivyut uoxia sx Tethtos, from their
faying out of the city. In thefe phrafes the infinitive is
faid to affutne the. nature of a fubftantive noun j agree¬
ing with the article before it, exactly as if it were a noun
of the neuter gender. Idioms of this kind occur in our
own tongue ; only with us the verb, inftead of being
expreffed in the infinitive, is turned into the participle.
According to this arrangement, the firft of the preced¬
ing phrafes, which, according to the Greek, would
ft and toward to be friends, in Englifh is, in order to
their being friends. This anomaly, then, if indeed it be
fuch, is of no manner of confequence. The French, if
we are not miftaken, would ex prefs it in the very fame
manner with the Greek, that is, pour etre amis.
From treating of verbs, we fliould naturally proceed
U u 2 to
(H) Hence it came to fignify rejoicing, from the mirth and revelry attending the treading of the vine-prefs.
155
©reek par¬
ticle- of
oriental-
sxtradlion.
34®
Greek to the confideration of adverbs, which are fo denomina-
> •,:tn^uaSe'i ted, becaufe they are generally the concomitants of verbs.
Every thing relating to that part of fpeech, in the
Greek tongue, may be feen in the Port Royal or any
other Greek grammar. Inftead therefore of dwelling
upon this beaten topic, we fhall hazard a conje£ture up¬
on a point to which the critics in the Greek tongue, as
far as we know, have not hitherto adverted.
I he molt elegant and moft admired writers of
Greece, and efpecially Homer, and after him Hefiod,
abound rvith fmall particles, which appear to us pure
expletives, created as it Were to promote harmony, or
fill up a blank without lenfe or fignification. How
'thofe expletive particles Ihould abound in that language
beyond any other, we think, is a matter not eafy to be
accounted for. It has been faid by the Zoili, that if you
extraft thefe nonentities from the poems of that bard,
qui folus meruit diet poeta, a magnum mane, a mighty
blank, would be left behind. We would willingly do
juftice to that pigmy race of words, and at the fame time
vindicate the prince of poets from that groundlefs im¬
putation. Plato likewife, the prince of philofophers,
has been often accufed of too frequently employing
thefe fuperfluous auxiliaries.
Thofe particles were no doubt imported from the
eaft. It would be ridiculous to imagine that any de-
feription of men, however enthufiaftically fond they
might be of harmonious numbers, would lit down dh
purpofe to fabricate that race of monofyllables purely
to eke out their verfes; mere founds without lignifican-
cy. In the firft place, it may be obferved, that there
is a very drift conneftion among the particles of all
cognate languages. To this we may add, that the not
underltanding the nature, relations, fignification, and
original import of thofe feemingly unimportant terms,
has occafioned not only great uncertainty, but num-
berlefs errors in tranllating the,ancient languages into
the modern. The Greek language in particular lofes
a confiderable part of its beauty, elegance, variety, and
energy, when thefe adverbial particles with which it is
replete are not thoroughly comprehended. An exaft
tranflation of thefe fmall words, in appearance infig-
nificant, would throw new light not only on Homer
and Hefiod, but even upon poets of a much pofterior
date. . Particles^ which are generally treated as mere
expletives, would often be found energetically fignifi-
cant. It is however, altogether impoffible to fucceed
in this attempt without a competent fkill in the He¬
brew, Chaldaic, Arabian, Perfian, and old Gothic lan¬
guages. We lhall here take the liberty to mention a
few of thefe particles which are moft familiar, one or
other of which occur in almoft every lin-e of Homer,
and which we believe are either not underftood or mif-
underflood. . Such are Ax, ac, fx.iv, »jvre<, (x.xv, ye, xqx,
?x, yxv. A<* is nothing elfe but the Chaldaic particle
the parent of the Englilh t/ie. It likewife fignifies %
turns, in your turn ; is the fame word in the Ionic
'dialeft 5 fx.iv is a particle of the Hebrew affirmative
omen, Jides, veritas. Mxv, a kind of oath by the moon,
called mana, almoft over all the eaft ; hence Dor. fxxvx 5
ye, an oath by yix, that is, tde earth ; et^x, another oath
by the fame element, probably from the oriental word
of the fame import j g* is a fragment of a^x mentioned
before; ysv, of y{<* the earth, and ov or m, an Egyp¬
tian name of the lun j as, a particle which per-
.3
PHILOLOGY.
Sea. VII,
vades all the dialefts of the Gothic language. In this Greek '
manner we believe all thefe fmall words that occur f0 Language,
frequently in the Greek tongue, and which have hither-""V*—
to been held inexplicable, may be eafily rendered in
fignificant terms: and were this done, we believe they
would add both beauty and energy to the claufes in
which they ftand. But this difeuffion muft be left to
more accompli ftied adepts.
We ffiall not explain the nature of prepofitions, be- p H17
caufe we are convinced that few people will take thetionsT*
trouble to perufe this difquifition who are not already
acquainted with their import in language. The Greek
prepofitions are eighteen in number, which need not
be enumerated here. Moft of thefe might be eafily
flrown to be particles, or fragments deduced from ori¬
ental or Gothic words. The ufe of thefe words is to
conneft together terms in difeourfe, and to ffiow the
relation between them. In languages where, as in
Engliffi, all thefe relations are expreffed without any
change on the termination of the nouns to which they
are prefixed, the procefs is natural and eafy. The whole
is performed by juxtapofition. But in the Greek and
Latin tongues, this effeft is produced, partly by prefix¬
ing prepofitions and partly varying the terminations of
nouns. Had the Greeks been able to intimate all thofe
relations by varying the terminations, or had they mul¬
tiplied their prepofitions to fuch a number as w ould have
enabled them to exprefs thefe relations without the
cafual variations, as the northern languages have done j
in either cafe their language would have been lefs em-
barraffing than it is in its prefent ftate. According to
the prefent arrangement both prepofitions and the cafual
variations are ufed promifeuoufly to anftver that purpofe
a method which appears to us not altogether uniform.
I hough this plan might occafion little embarraffment
to natives, it muft, in our opinion, have proved fome-
vffiat perplexing to foreigners. The difficulty would
be, as to the latter, when to adopt the one and when,
the other expedient.
Another inconveniency arifes from the exceeding
fmall number of prepofitions in that language, which
bear too fmall a proportion to the great variety of re¬
lations which they are appropriated to exprefs. This
deficiency obliged them often to employ the fame pre-
pofition to denote different relations: For inftance, Em
inimates, ift, upon; as ^ ra upon the Jl one ; and
then it takes the genitive. 2d, It denotes near upon ;
as im t ® A/0ft), and then it governs the dative. 3d, The
fame prepofition fignifies motion towards; as eVscsv m
rev-Kdov, he fell upon the fone. In thefe ijiftances the
fame prepofition intimates three different relations j and,
which is ftill more embarraffing, each of thefe requires a
different cafe. The difficulty in this inftance is fo con¬
fiderable, that even the moft accurate of the Greek
writers themfelves often either forget or negleft the true
application. Many examples of this might be adduced,
did the limits affigrred us admit fuch illuftrations. Every
man who has carefully perufed the Grecian authors will
readily furnifh himfelf with examples.
Again, fome prepofitions, which indicate different re-irregularly
lations, are prefixed to the fame cafe. Thus, fignifies
from ; as, Ek Aioc x^x,ofx.i6x, from Jupiter we begin ; utc
iftrCv &10V, from my life, or my courfe of life ; ruv
6vquv, before the doors ; kxjjj iyx.ufx.itv, an encomium
before the vibiory ; xvn xyxiw XTrod^ovxi xxxx, to render
evil
Sea. VII.
PHILOLOGY.
Greek evil for4 good; «m srau, againjl you. In thefe examples,
Language. ancJ indeed every where, thofe prepofitions intimate dif-
ferent relations, and yet are prefixed to the fame cafes.
Sometimes the fame prepofition feems to affume two op-
pofite fignifications : this appears from the prepofition
«vr< jail mentioned, which intimates both for, injlead of,
and againjl or oppofte to.
What has been obferved with refpedl to the prepofi¬
tions above mentioned, the reader will readily enough
apply to kxtx, piToL, Tn^i. Thefe incongruities
certainly imply fomething irregular •, and feem to intfc
mate that thofe anomalies were fo deeply incorporated
with the conftitution of the language, that the fubfe-
quent improvers found it impoflible. to correct them.
Indeed to prefix a prepofition to a cafe already diltin-
guifhed by the affixed termination, appears to us a fu-
perfluity at leaft, if not an abfurdity 5 for certainly it
would have been more natural to have faid vc Zivf <*§£«-
pziet, than ix. Lit<; a^opiScc. Some very learned men, who
have inquired into the origin of language, have been of
opinion that prepofitions were the laft invented fpecies
of words. If this opinion be well founded, we may fup-
pofe (and we think that this fuppofition is not alto¬
gether improbable) that the cafual terminations of the
Greek language were firft affixed to the radix, in the
* manner above exhibited ; and that prepofitions were
afterwards fabricated and prefixed to the cafes already
in ufe.
The fyntax or conftruftion of the Greek language
does not, according to our plan, come within the com-
pafs of our prefent inquiry. This the curious Greek
ftudent will eafily acquire, by applying to the grammars
compofed for that purpofe. We have already hazarded
a few conjectures with refpeCt to the formation of the
molt important and molt diftinguiffied claffes of words
into which it has been divided by the molt able gram¬
marians, without, however, defeending to the minutiae
of the language. As prepofitions are the chief materials
with which its other words, efpecially verbs are com¬
pounded, we fhall briefly confider the order in which
they probably advanced in this procefs.
Complex ideas are compounded of a certain number
or colleftion of Ample ones. Of thofe complex no¬
tions, fome contain a greater and fome a fmaller num¬
ber of fimple conceptions. In language, then, there
are two ways of expreffing thofe complex ideas, either
by coining a word to exprefs every fimple idea fepa-
rately, according to the order in which they Hand in
the mind ; or by trying to combine two or more
fimple terms into one, and by that method to intimate
one complex idea by one fingle word. T. he Arabians,
notwithftanding all the boafted excellencies of their
language, have never arrived at the art of compound¬
ing their words, in order to anfwer this noble purpofe ;
and the After dialeCts are but flenderly provided with
this fpecies of vocables. The Greeks, of all other
nations (except perhaps thofe who fpake the Sanfcrit
language), are unrivalled in the number, variety, pro¬
priety, elegance, energy, and expreffion of their com¬
pound terms. The Greeks, like the Arabians, in the
earlieft ftages of their language, had only a colleClion
of radical disjointed words, confifting of the jargons
of the aboriginal Greeks, of the Pelafgi, 'Ihracians,
&c. How thefe words were arranged and conftrufted,
we have no data remaining upon which we can found
*S8
ufed in
cotnpofi-
tion.
34J
a critical inveftigation. We muft therefore remain Greek
fatisfied with fuch probable conjectures as the nature of Languag<!.
the cafe, and the analogy of the language, feem to fuggeft.' ' ^
The prepofitions were originally placed before the
nouns, whole relations they pointed out. For example,
let us take the Zvi/xTriDv/io-xiTo rots eiXXois, he died along
with the ref, or he died out of hand along with the others.
Thefe words were arranged thus : etTnQvnrxflo trvv rots-
ecXXots } and cctto-IIvvib-xov <rvv rots xXXots. In this manner
the parts of every compound word were placed fepa-
rately, at leaft as much as other words which had no
connection.
The firft compound words of the Greek language The firft
were the radical nouns with the article, and the radical compound
part of the fubftantive or auxiliary verb. The fuccefs
of this experiment encouraged them to attempt the fame°
in other words. By this noble invention they found
themfelves able to exprefs, in one word, with eafe and
fignificancy, what in other languages, and formerly in
their own, required a tedious ambages or circumlocution.
In procefs of time, as their language was gradually mel¬
lowed, they increafed the number of their compounds,
till their language, in that refpeCl:, infinitely excelled
all its parent dialeCts. In this procefs they were care~
ful to unite fuch letters as not only prevented afperity
and difficulty of pronunciation, but even promoted har¬
mony and elegance. But this was the labour of pofte-
rior ages.
The Greeks were entirely ignorant of the derivation
or etymology of their language : for this we need only
confult Plato’s Cratylus, Ariftotle’s Rhetoric, Demetri¬
us Phalereus, Longinus, &c. In deducing patrony¬
mics, abftraCts, pofleffives, gentiles, diminutives; ver¬
bals, &c. from radicals of every kind, they have ffiown
the greateft art and dexterity. Examples of this occur
almoft in every page of every Greek author. But tins
extended no farther than their own language ; every
foreign language was an abomination to the Greeks.
But more of this in the fequel. I(j0
The original materials of the Greek tongue were un- Original
doubtedly rough and difeordant, as we have deferibed materials
them above. They had been collected from different
quarters, were the produce of different countries, and guage;
had been imported at very diftant periods. It would
therefore be an entertaining, if not an inftruCting, fpe-
culation, if it were poffible to difeover by what men
and by what means, this wonderful fabric was found¬
ed, ereCted, and carried to perfection. The writers of
Greece afford us no light. Foreigners were unacquain¬
ted with that originally infignificant canton. Every
thing beyond Homer is buried in eternal oblivion. Or¬
pheus is indeed reported to have compofed poems ; but
thefe were foon obliterated by the hand of time. The
verfes now aferibed to that philofophical hero are none
of his *. Linus wrote, in the Pelafgic dialed, the at- # Paufan,
chievements of the firft Bacchus ; Thamyris the Thra-hh- 1-
cian wrote.; and Pronapides the mafter of Homer wascaP- 22‘
a celebrated poet. The works of all thefe bards did
not long furvive ; and it is a certain fad that the Greek
tongue was highly polilhed even more early than the
age in which thefe worthies flouriftred. Homer, no
doubt, imitated their produdions, and fome are of opin¬
ion that he borrowed liberally from them. The Greeks
knew no more of the original charader of their lan¬
guage, than of the original charader and complexion.
oL
/I >
^>4-5
Greek 0f their progenitors. They allowed, indeed, that their
X.,Mguage.^ iangUage was originally barbarous and uncouth j but
by what means or by what perfons it was polithed, en¬
riched, and finally arranged, was to them an impenetra¬
ble fecret.
We have already demonftrated that the lonim or
aborigines of Greece were a race of barbarians 5 that
confequently their language, or rather their jargon,
was of the fame contexture. The Pelafgi found both
the people and their fpeech in this uncultivated Hate.
Thefe people arrived in Greece about the year before
1S1 Chrift 1760. It was then that the language of Greece
which was began to be cultivated. Before the age of Homer the
itTunnoft Work kerns to have been completed. Nothing of con-
perfe<£Hon kquence was afterwards added to the original (lock j
at a very on the contrary, not a few moities were deducted from
early pe- the Homeric treafure. The Pelalgi, as was faid before,
nod. arrived in Greece an. ant. Chr. 1760. Horner is thought
to have been born an. ant. Chr. 104T ; confequently
the cultivation of the Greek tongue was completed in a
period of about 700 years. But upon the fuppofition
that Orpheus, Linus, Thamyris, &c. wrote long before
Homer, as they certainly did, that language had arrived
nearly at the ftandard of perfeflion two centuries be¬
fore *, by which computation the period of its progrefs
towards its ftationary point is reduced to 500 years.
Byt as the i^elafgi were a colony of foreigners, we
ought to allow them one century at lead to fettle and
incorporate with the natives, and to communicate their
language, laws, manners, and habits, to the aborignes
of the country. By this deduflion we iball reduce the
term of cultivation to lefs than four centuries.
During this period Greece was furioufly agitated by
tumults and infurreflions. That country was divided into
a number of independent dates, which were perpetually
engaged in quarrels and competitions. The profeflion
of arms was abfolutely necefiary for the protection and
prefervation of the date j and the man of conduct and
prowefs was honoured as a demi-god, and his exploits
•tranfmitted witli eclat to poderity. The Greek tongue
was then rough and unpolidied ; becaufe, like the an¬
cient Romans, the braved men were more difpofed to
aCl than to fpeak. Every language will take its colour
from the temper and charafter of thofe who employ it •,
and had it not been owing to one clafs of men, the
Greek tongue would have continued equally rough to
tRe era of Homer as it had been a century after the ar¬
rival of the Pelafgi.
There has appeared among barbarous or half-civilized
people a defeription of men whofe profeflion it has been
to frequent the houfes or palaces of the great, in order
to celebrate their achievements, or thofe of their ancef-
tors, in the fublimed drains of heroic poetry. Accord-
ingly, we find that the Germans had their hards, the
Gauls their fads, the Scandinavians their fealds or fcai-
dres, the Irifh their fleas, all retained for that very
purpofe. They lived with their chieftains or patrons •,
attended them to battle j were witneffes of their heroic
deeds *, animated them with martial drains ; and cele¬
brated their prowefs, if they proved vidorious j or, if
they fell, raifed the fong of woe, and chanted the
mournful dirge over their fepulchres. Thefe bards
^vere always both poets and muficians. Their perfons
were held facred and inviolable. They attended pu¬
blic entertainments, and appeared in all national c®n-
Sea. VII,
ventions. The chief of them were employed in the Greek
temples of the gods ; and the lefs illudrious, like our Latlguage.
mindrels of old, drolled about from place to place, and '■"“V'—^
exercifed their functions wherever they found employ¬
ment.
Among the ancient Greeks there was a numerous by the^o.
tribe of men of the very fame defeription, who were t'tv, wbo
at once poets and muficians, and whofe office it wasma^e*
to celebrate the praifes of the great, and to tranfmit
their^ exploits to poderity in the mod exaggerated en¬
comiums. Thefe poetical vagrants were ityled Ae.^*
or fongflers. Some of thefe lived in the houfes of great
men j while others, lefs ikilful or lefs fortunate, drolled
about the country in the manner above deferibed. The
more illudrious of thefe who were retained in the
temples of the gods, were certainly the fird improvers
of the language of the Greeks. Among the Hebrews
we find the fird poetical compolitions were hymns in ho¬
nour of Jehovah, and among the Pagans the fame prac¬
tice was edablidied. In Greece, when all was confu¬
sion and devadation, the temples of the gods were held
facred and inviolable. There the improved their
talents, and formed religious anthems on thofe very mo¬
dels which their progenitors had chanted in the ead.
The language of the Greeks was yet rugged and un¬
mellowed : their fird care was to render it rhore foft
and more dexible. They enriched it with vocables
fLiited to the offices of religion ; and thefe, we imagine,
were chiefly imported from the ead. Homer every
where mentions a didinClion between the language of ^
gods and men. The language of gods imports the diffindiop
oriental terms retained in the temples, and ufed in between
treating of the ceremonies of religion j the languagetlie lan'
of men intimates the ordinary civil dialed which fprung^^*°^
from the mixed dialeds of the country. The priedsmen>
no doubt concurred in promoting this noble and impor¬
tant purpofe. From this fource the drolling drew
the rudiments of their art ; and from thefe lad the vul¬
gar deduced the elements of a poll fluid ftyle.
To thefe Atlooi of the fuperior order we would aferibe
thofe changes mentioned in the preceding part of this
inquiry, by which the Greek tongue acquired that va¬
riety and flexibility, from which two qualities it has de¬
rived a great {hare of that eafe, beauty, and verfatility,
by which it now furpaffes mod other languages. The
diverfity of its terminations furniffies a mod charming
variety, while at the fame time the fenfe is communi¬
cated to the reader or hearer by the relation between
them. By this economy the poet and orator are left at
liberty to arrange their vocables in that order which
may be mod foothing1 to the ear, and bed adapted to
make a lading impreflion on the mind.
Few colonies have emigrated from any civilized coun¬
try without a detachment of prieds in their train. The
fupreme powers, whoever they were, have always been
worfhipped Avith mufic and dancing. The Hebrews,
Phoenicians, and Egyptians, delighted in thefe mufical
and jocund fedivals. The prieds who attended the lones,
Dores, /Eolians, Thebans, Athenians, &c. from the ead,
introduced into Greece that exquifite tade, thofe delicate '
mufical feelings, which diftinguidi the Greeks from all
the neighbouring nations. Hence that numerous race of
onomatapoeas, by which the Greek language is inveded
with the power of exprefling almod every paflion of the
human foul, in fuch terms as oblige it to feel and a&ually
to
PHILOLOGY.
P II I L O L O G Y.
5ea. VII.
Greek to aflirailate to tlie pafiion it ivouid excite. Nuraberlefs
Language. jnfiances of this occur in every page of Homer,’Hefiod,
pindar, Sophocles, Euripides, and even of Arittopha-
nes : to quote inftances would be to infult the Greek
ftudent.
Every body knows that the praflice of writing in
verfe was antecedent to the date of profaic compofition.
Here, then, the Ae^o« and the rninifters of religion
chieriy difplayed their Ikill and difcernment. By a ju¬
dicious mixture of fhort and long fyllables ; by a junc¬
tion of confonants which naturally Aide into each other ;
by a careful attention to the rhythm, or harmony refult-
ing from the combination of the fyllables of the whole
line—they completed the metrical tone of the verfe,
guided by that delicacy of mufical feeling of which they
were poffeffed before rules of profody were known among
men.
Much liberty was certainly ufed in tranfpoling let¬
ters, in varying terminations, in annexing prefixes and
affixes, both to nouns and other kinds of words where
fuch adjuncts were poflible : and upon this occafion we
think it probable, that thofe particles of which we have
fpoken above were inferted like filling ftones thruft in to
flop the gaps or chinks of a building. Verfes were then
clumfy and irregular, as the quantity of vowels was not
duly afcertained, and the collifion of heterogeneous con¬
fonants not always avoided. Probably thefe primitive
verfes differed as widely from the finilhed drains of
Homer and his fucceffors, as thofe of Chaucer and
Spencer do from the fmooth polilhed lines of Dryden
164 an<J P°Pe-
Eprlieft The poetical compofitions of the earlieft Greeks were
poets of notj -we think, in the hexameter ftyle. As they w'ere
Gieece. chiefly calculated for religious fervices, we imagine they
refembled the Hebrew iambics preferved in the fong of
Aaron and Miriam, Deborah and Barak, Pfalms, Pro¬
verbs,'&c. which were indeed calculated for the fame
purpofe. Archilochus perhaps imitated thefe, though
the model upon which he formed his iambics was not
generally known. The later dramatic poets feem to
have copied from the fame archetypes. Hexameters, it
is probable, were invented by Orpheus, Linus, Thamyris,
Mufaeus, &c. The firft of thefe travelled into Egypt,
where he might learn the hexameter meafure from that
people, who ufed to bewail Maneros and OJtris in ele¬
giac ftrains. This fpecies of metre was firft confecrated
to theology, and the moft profound fciences of moral
and natural philofophy ; at length it was brought down
to celebrate the exploits of kings and heroes.
Res gejlas regumque. ducumque, et fortia bel/a,
^uo feribipojffent numero monjlravit Homerus.
#
We have hazarded a conjecture above, importing that
the earliefl poetical compofitions of the Greeks were con¬
fecrated to the fervice of the gods. We {hall now pro¬
duce a few fa6ts, which will furnifii at leaf! a prefump-
|C. live evidence of the probability of that conjecture.
Orpheus. Orpheus begins his poem with ancient chaos, its tranf-
formations and changes, and purfues it through its va¬
rious revolutions. He then goes on to deferibe the off-
fpring of Saturn, that is time, the sether, love, and light.
In (hort, his whole poem is Laid to have been an oriental
allegory, calculated to infpire mankind with the fear of
the gods, and to deter them from murder, rapine, unna¬
tural lufts, &c.
4
Mufasus was the favourite fcholar of Orpheus, or per- Greek
haps his fon. He compofed prophecies and hymns, and La»guage;
wrote faertd inftruaions, which he addreffed to his fon. ‘ TJ  
lie preferibed atonements and luflrations j but his great jviui*us.
work was a Theogony, or Hiftory of the Creation, &c. 167’
Melampus brought the myfteries of Proferpine fromMelarnpu5»
Egypt into Greece. He wrote the whole biflory of the
difaflers of the gods. This fter is mentioned by Homer
himfelf. ^
Olen came from Lycia, and compofed the firft hymnOlen.
that was fung in Delos at their folemnities; be probably
emigrated from Patara a city of Lycia, where Apollo
had a celebrated temple and oracle.
The Hyperborean damfels ufed to vilit Delos, where
they chaunted facred hymns in honour of the Delian god.
lo thefe we add the great Homer hirofelf, if indeed Hower and-
the hymns commonly annexed to the Od\ffey are his Hefiod.
compofition. Plefiod’s Theogony is too well known to
need to be mentioned.
From thefe inftances we hope it appears, that the
origin of the poetry of Greece is to be found in the
temples ; and that there, its meafure, numbers, rhythm,
and other appendages, were originally fabricated.
The Grecian poets, however, enjoyed another ad¬
vantage which that clafs of writers have feldom pof¬
feffed, which arofe from the difftrent dialects into which
their language was divided. All thole diale&s were Diffwent
adopted indifferently by the prince of poets 5 acircutn Uialeifb,
Itance which enabled him to take advantage of any word w|th their-
from any dialed!, provided it luited his purpofe. This, atonsuw
the fame time that it rendered verfification eafy, diffufed
an agreeable variety over his compofition. He even ac¬
commodated words from Macedonia, Epirus, and Illy-
ricuiu, to the purpofes of his verfification : Befides, the
laws of quantity were not then clearly afeertained ; acir-
cumllance which afforded him another eonveniency.
Succeeding poets did not enjoy thefe advantages, and
confequently have been more circumfcribed both in their-
did!ion and numbers.
The Greek language, as is generally known, was di~ ,
vided into many different dialedls. Every fept, or petty
canton, had fome peculiar forms of fpeech which diftin-
guiftied it from the others. There were, however, four
different dialedfical variations which carried it over all
the others. Thefe were the Attic, Ionic, Aeolic, and
Doric. Thefe' four dialedlical diftindlions originated
from the different countries in the eaft from which the
tribes refpedlively emigrated. The Attics confifted, ill,
of the barbarous'aborigines ; 2d, of an adventitious colony
of Egyptian Saites 3 3d, a branch of lonians from the
coal! of Paleftine. Thefe laft formed the old Ionian
dialed!, from which fprung the Attic and modern Ionic.
The ALolians emigrated from a different quarter of the
fame toall ; the inhabitants of which were a remnant of
the old Canaanites, and confequently different in dialed!
from the two firft-mentioned colonies.v The Dorea
fprang from an unpolifhed race of purple fifliers on the
fame coal!, and confequently fpuke a dialed! morecoarfe
and ruftic than any of the reft. Thefe four nations emi¬
grated from different regions ; a circumftance which, irv
our opinion, laid the foundation of the different dialedls
by which tht^ were afterAvards diflinguiftied.
It is impoffible in this fhort {kettleto exhibit an exadf
vieAv qf the diftinguifhing features of each dialed!. Such
an analyfis would carry us far beyond the limits of the
article
344 _ .
Greik article in quefhon. For entire fatisfadHon on this head,
^Language. vve niuit refer the Grecian ftudent to Mattaire’s Greece
Linguce DialeEti, where he will find every thing necef-
farv to qualify him for underftanding that fubjeft. We
fliall content ourfelves with the few obfervations follow-
ing-
T he Athenians being an aflive, brilk, volatile race,
delighted in contractions. Their flyle was molt exqui-
litely polifhed. The molt celebrated authors who wrote
in that dialeft were the following: Plato, Thucydides,
Xenophon, Demofthenes, and the other orators j ALf-
chylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Ariltophanes, Menander,
Diphilus, with the other comic and tragic poets. That
dialed was either ancient or modern. The ancient Attic
was the fame with the Ionic.
The Ionic, as wras faid, was the ancient Attic ; but
when that nation emigrated from Attica and fettled on
the coaft of Afia Minor, they mingled with the Carians
and Pelafgi, and of courfe adopted a number of their vo¬
cables. T hey were an indolent, luxurious, and diffolute
people j of courfe their ftyle was indeed eafy and flow¬
ing, but verbofe, redundant, and without nerves. This,
however, is the leading rtyle in Homer; and after him
a prodigious number of writers' on every fubjeft have
ufed the fame dialed, fuch as Plerodotus of Halicarnaf-
fus the celebrated hiftorian ; Ctefias of Cnidus the hifto-
riah of Perfia and India ; Hecataeus of Miletus •, Me-
gafthenes the hiftorian, who lived under Seleucus Nica-
tor ; Hippocrates the celebrated phyfician of Coos \ Hel-
lanicus the hiftorian often mentioned with honour by Po¬
lybius ; Anacreon of Teia, Alcaeus, Sappho of Lefbos,
excellent poets ; Pherecydes Syrus the philofopher, and
a multitude of other perfons of the fame profeflion,whom
it would be fuperfluous to mention upon the prefent oc-
cafion.
The iEolic and Doric were originally cognate dia-
le£ls. When the Dorians invaded Peloponnefus and fet¬
tled in that peninfula, they incorporated with the ALo-
llans, and their two dialeds blended into one produced
the new Doric. The original Dores inhabited a rugged
•mountainous region about Ofia and Pindus, and fpoke a
rough unpolifhed language fimilar to the foil which they
inhabited. Andreas Schottus, in his obfervations on poetry,
lib. ii. cap. 50. proves from an old manufeript of “ Theo¬
critus, that there were two diale&s of the Doric tongue,
the one ancient and the other modern 5 that this poet
employed Ionic and the modern Doric ; that the old
Doric dialed! was rough and cumbrous ; but that Theo¬
critus has adopted the new as being more foft and mel¬
low.” A prodigious number of poets and philpfophers
wrote in this dialed!, fuch as Epicharmus the poet; Iby-
cus the1 poet of fthegium; Corinna the poetefs of Thefpis,
or Thebes, or Corinth, who bore away the prize of poetry
from Pindar ; Erynba a poetefs of Lefbos ; Mofchus the
poet of Syracufe •, Sappho the poetefs of Mitylene ; Pin-
darus of Thebes, the prince of lyric poets j Archimedes
of Syracufe, the renowned mathematician; and almoft all
the Pythagorean philofophers. Few hiftorians wrote in
that dialed! j or if they did, their works have not fallen
into our hands. Moft of the hymns fung in temples of
the gods were compofed in Doric •, acircumftance which
■evinces the antiquity of that dialed!, and which, at the
fame time, proves its affinity to the oriental ftandard.
After that the Greek tongue was thoroughly polifhed
-by the fteps which we have endeavoured to trace in the
Sea. VII;
preceding pages, confcious of the fuperior excellency of Greek
their own language, the Greeks, in the pride of their ^anguage.
heart, ftigmatized every nation which did not employ
their language with the contemptuous title of barbarians. The^ani-
Such was the delicacy of their pampered ears, that they aiity of the
could not endure the untutored voice of the people whom Greek1, to
they called T his extreme delicacy produ-
ced three very pernicious effedls j for, ift, It induced
them to metamorphofe and fometimes even to mangle, fequences,
foreign names, in order to reduce their found to the
Grecian ftandard *, and, 2d, It prevented their learning
the languages of the eati, the knowledge of which would
have opened to them an avenue to the records, annals,
antiquities, laws, cuftoms, &.c. of the people of thofe
countries, in comparifon of whom the Greeks themfelves
were of yefterday, and knew nothing. By this unlucky *
bias, not only they,But even we who derive all'the lit¬
tle knowledge of antiquity we poflefs through the chan¬
nel of their writings, have fufifered an irreparable injury.
By their transformation of oriental names they have in a
manner flopped the channel of communication between
the hiftories of Europe and Afia. This appears evident
from the fragments of Ctefias’s Perfian hiftory, from He¬
rodotus, Xenophon, and all the other Grecian writers
who have occafion to mention the intercourfe between
the Greeks and Perfians. 3d, It deprived them of all
knowledge of the etymology of their own language, with¬
out which it was impoffible for them to underltand its
words, phrafeology, and idioms, to the bottom. We
mentioned Plato’s Cratylus above. In that dialogue,
the divine philofopher endeavours to inveftigate the ety¬
mology of only a few Greek words. His deductions are
abfolutely childiffi, and little fuperior to the random con¬
jectures of a fchool-boy. • Varro, the moft learned of all
the Romans, has not been more fuccefsful. Both Humb¬
led on the very threffiold of that ufeful fcience j and a
fcholar of very moderate proficiency in our days knows
more of the origin of thefe tw7o noble languages, than
the greateft adepts among the natives did in theirs. By
prefixes, affixes, tranfpofitions of letters, newr conjunctions
of vowels and confonants for the fake of the mufic and
rhythm, they have fo difguifed their words, that it is al¬
moft impoffible to develope their original. As a proof
of this, wTe remember to have feen a manufeript in the
hands of a private perfon where the firft twelve verfes of
the Iliad are carefully analyfed ; and it appears to our
fatisfaCtion that almoft every word may be, and actually
is, traced back to a Hebrew’, Phoenician, Chaldean, or
./Egyptian original : And we are convinced that the
fame procefs will hold good in the like number of verfes
taken from any of the moft celebrated poets of Greece.
This inveftigation we found was chit fly conduCIed by
-reducing the words to their original invariable Hate,
which was done by ftripping them of prefixes, affixes,
&c. T hefe ftriCtures are, we think, w'ell founded $ and
confequently need no apology to proteC! them.
Thefe imperfeClions, however, are counterbalanced beauty 0!
by numberlefs excellencies: and we are certainly much the Greet
more indebted to that incomparable people for the in-^ariSuaSe'’
formation they have tranfmitted to u^ through the me¬
dium of their writings, than injured by them in not con¬
veying to us and to themfelves more authentic and more
ample communications of ancient events and occurrences.
W i thout fa'iguingour readers with fuperfluous encomiums
on a language which has long ago been extolled perhaps
to
PHILOLOGY.
Sea. VII
Greek to an extravagant degree by the labours of men of the
Language, enlarged capacity and the moft refined tafte, we
(hall now proceed to make a few obfervations on fpirits
and accents ; which being rather appendages than eifen-
tials of the language, we have on purpoie referved for
the laft place.
TheVoi- Every word in the Greek language beginning with
tus afper a vowel is marked with a fpirit of breathing : This afpi-
and lenis. ration is double, namely lenis et afper, “ the gentle, and
rough or afpirated.” The gentle accent, though always
marked, is not now pronounced, though in the earlieft
periods of the language it .was undoubtedly enounced,
though very foftly. Both thefe afpirations were import¬
ed from the ea'l. They were adlually the Hebrew rt he
and n heth. The former denoted the fpiritus lenis, and
the latter the fpiritus afper. The Hebrew prefixed ha
or he to words beginning with a vowel, and of courfe
the Greeks followed their example. Thefe people feem
to have delighted in afpirates ; and of confequence the
letter ; is, fome think, rather too often affixed to the
terminations of their words. Every word beginning with
g had the afpirate joined to g, probably with a defign to
render the afpiration ftill more rough.
The ac- The Greek accents are three in number ; the acute,
cents. the grave, and the circumflex. 1 he acute raifes and
fharpens the voice ; the grave depreffes and flattens it j
the circumflex firft raifes and ffiarpens the voice, and
then deprefles and flattens it. It is obvioufly compofed
of the other two. The learned author of the Origin and
Progrefs of Language has taken much pains to prove
that thefe accents were a&ually mufical notes, invented
and accommodated to raife, deprefs, and fufpend the
Voice, according to a fcale of mufical proportions. It is
fcarce poffible, we think, for a modern Greek fcholar
to comprehend diftin&ly the ancient theory of accents.
Thefe the native Greeks learned from their infancy, and
that with fuch accuracy, that even the vulgar among the
Athenians would have hided an aftor or aftrefs off the
* See Pul~ flagje or an orator off the pulpitum*, on account of a few
fitiim. miftakes in the enunciation of thofe notes.
The elevations, depreffions, and fufpenfions of the
voice upon certain fyllables, muff have made their lan¬
guage found in the ears of foreigners fomewhat like re¬
citative, or fomething nearly refeffibling cant. But the
little variety of thole fyllabic tones, and the voice not
telling upon them, but running them on without inter¬
ruption, fufficiently dillinguilhed them from mufic or
cant. Be that as it may, we think it highly probable,
that the wonderful effe&s produced by the harangues of
the orators of Greece on the enraptured minds of their
hearers, were owing in a good meafure to thole artificial
mufical tones by which their fyllables were fo happily
diverfified.
To this purpofe we lhall take the liberty to tran-
feribe a paffage from Dion. Halic. De Struilura Ora-
tionis, which we find tranflated by the author of the
Origin and Progrefs of Language, vol. ii. book 3d,
part ii. chap. *7. page 381. “ Rhetorical compofition is
a kind of mufic, differing only from fong or inftrumen-
tal mufic, in the degree, not in the kind j for in this
compofition the words have melody, rythm, variety, or
’change, and avhat is proper or becoming : So that the
ear in it, as well as in mufic, is delighted with the me¬
lody, moved by the rythm, is fond of variety, and de-
Vol. XVI.'Part I.
345
fires with all thefe what is proper and fuitable. The Greek
difference, therefore, is only of greater and lefs.” Language.^
With refpedt to accents, it may be obferved that
only one fyllable of a word is capable of receiving
the acute accent, however many there be in the word.
It was thought that the railing the tone upon more than
one fyllable of the word, would have made the pro¬
nunciation too various' and complicated, and too like
chanting.
The grave accent always takes place when the acute
is wanting. It accords with the level of the difeourfe }
whereas the aente raifes the voice above it.
The circumflex accent being compofed of the other
two is always placed over a long fyllable, becaufe it is
impoffible firil to elevate the voice and then to deprefs
it on a fliort one. Indeed among the Greeks a long
fyllable was pronounced like two ihort ones ; and we
apprehend it was fometimes written fo, efpecially in
later times. It is altogether obvious from two learned
Greek authors, Dion. Halic. and Arittoxenus, that the
Greek accents were actually mufical notes, and that thefe
tones did not confift of loud and low, or Amply elevating
and depreffing the voice •, but that they were uttered in
fuch a manner as to produce a melodious rythm in dif¬
eourfe.
In a word, the acute accent might be placed upon any
fyllable before the antepenult, and rofe to a flfth in the
diatonical fcale of mufic } the grave fell to the third be¬
low it. The circumflex w7as regulated according to the
meafure of both, the acute always preceding. The grave
accent is never marked except over the laft fyllable..
When no accent is marked, there the grave always takes
place. Some words are called enclitics. Thefe have no
accent expreffed, but throw it back upon the preceding
word. The circumflex, when the laft fyllable is ffiort,
is often found over the penult, but never-over any other
fyllable but the laft or the laft but one. 175
The ancient Greeks had no accentual marks. They The anci-
learned thofe modifications of voice by pradlice from ^
their infancy •, and we are affured by good authority,c^t”a^a
that in pronunciation they obferve them to this day.margSt
The accentual marks are faid to have been invented
by a famous grammarian, Ariftophanes of Byzantium,
keeper of the Alexandrian library under Ptolemy Phi-
lopater, and Epiphanes, who was the firft likewife who
is fuppofed to have invented pundluation. Accentual
marks, howrever, were not in common ufe till about the
feventh century 5 at which time they are found in manu-
feripts. If our curious readers would wifh to enter more
deeply into the theory of accents, we muft remit them
to Origin of Language, vol. ii. lib. 2. pajjim ; and to
Mr Fofter’s Effay on the different Nature of Accent
and Quantity.
Such, in general, are the obfervations which we
thought the nature of our defign obliged us to make on
the origin and progrefs of the Greek language. Some
of our more learned readers may perhaps blame us for
not interfperfing the whole difquifition with quotations
from the moft celebrated writers in the language which
has been the object of our refearches. We are well aware
that this is the general practice in fuch cafes. 1 he books
were before us, and we might have tranferibed from them
more quotations than the nature of an article of this kind
would permit. In the firft part there were no books in
X x . that
PHILOLOGY.
PHILO
that language to quote from, becaufe the Greeks knew
nothing of their own origin, nor of that of their lan¬
guage, and confequently have recorded nothing but
dreams and fi&ions relating to that fubjedh Even
when we had made confiderable progrefs in our inquiry,
the nature of the plan we have adopted excluded in a
great meafure the ufe of quotations. When we drew
near the conclufion, we imagined that our learned read¬
ers would naturally have recourfe to the paffages Elud¬
ed to without our information, jand that the unlearned
would not trouble themfelves about the matter. The
Greek ftudent who intends to penetrate into the depths
of this excellent language, will endeavour to be thorough-
ly acquainted with the books after mentioned.
Books robe Ariftotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics, his book De Inter-
itudied by prctatlone, efpecially with Ammonius’s Commentary,
every one Ammonius was a native of Alexandria, and by far the
to be a ma-raoit acute 01 a“ the ancient grammarians.
Iter of this Dion. Halic. De StruBura Oral ion is, wrhere, amidft
language, abundance of curious and interefting obfervations, will
be found the true pronunciation of the Greek letters.
Demetrius Phalereus De Klocutione ; a Ihort effay in¬
deed, but replete with inftrudtion concerning the proper
arrangement of words and members in fentcnces.
Longinus, the prince of critics, whofe remains are
J See Gaz-ff..above commendation. Theodoras Gaza J and the other
refugees from Condantinople, who found an hofpitable
reception from the munificent family of the Medici,
and whofe learned labours in their native language
once more revived learning and good tafte in Europe.
Thefe, with fome other critics of lefs celebrity, but
equal utility, will unlock all the treafures of Grecian
erudition, without however difclofitng the fource from
which they flowed. To thefe one might add a few
celebrated moderns, fuch as Monf. Fourmont the Elder,
Monf. Gebelin, Abbe Pezron, Salmafius, and efpecially
the learned and induftrious Lord Monboddo.
We (hall,now give a very brief account of the vail
extent of the Greek language even before the Macedo¬
nian empire was ere£!ed ; at which period, indeed, it
became in a manner univerfal, much more than ever
the Latin language could accomplifli notwithftanding
the vail extent of the Roman empire.
Greece, originally Hellas, was a region of fmall ex¬
tent, and yet lent out many numerous colonies into diffe¬
rent parts of the world. Thefe colonies carried their
native language along with them, and induftrioufly dif-
fufed it wherever they formed a fettlement. The lones,
ASoles, and Dores, poffeffed themfelves of all the wTeft
and north-weft coaft of the Leffer Alia and the adja¬
cent illands j and there even the barbarians learned that
pohftied language. The Greek colonies extended them-
felves along the fouth coaft of the Euxine fea as far as
Sinope, now Trebizund, and all the way from the weft
coaft of Alia Minor : though many cities of barbarians
lay between, the Greek tongue was underftood and ge¬
nerally fpoken by people of rank and falhion.
There were Greek cities on the north coaft of the
Euxine fea to the very eaftern point, and perhaps be¬
yond even thole limits \ likewife in the Taurica Cherfo-
nefus, or Grim Tartary *, and even to the mouth of the
Danube, the ftraits of Caffa, &c. In the neighbour¬
hood of all thefe colonies, the Greek language was care¬
fully propagated among the barbarians, who earned on
commerce with the Greeks.
177
Vaft extent
of the
Greek lan¬
guage.
LOGY' Se6l. VII.
A great part of the fouth of Italy was planted with Greek
Greek cities on both coafts \ fo that the country was Language,
denominated Magna Grcecia. Here the Greek tongue ‘““■“v—J
univerfally prevailed. In Sicily it was in a manner ver¬
nacular. The lonians had fent a colony into Egypt in
the reign of Pfammitiehus •, and a Greek fettlement had
been formed in Cyrenia many ages before. The Pho-
cians had built Maflilia or Marfeilles as early as the reign
of Cyrus the Great,, where fome remains of the Greek
language are ft ill to be difeovered. Coe far tells us, that
in the camp of the Helvetii regifters were found in
Greek letters. Perhaps no language ever had fo exten-
five a fpread, where it was not propagated by the law
of conqueft. g
The Greek tongue, at this day, is confined within Greek fp0„
very narrow limits. It is fpoken in Greece itfelf, ex-kenatpre*
cept in Epirus, and the weftern parts of Macedonia. Itfent*
is likewife fpoken in the Grecian and Afiatic iflands, in
Candia or Crete, in fome parts of the coaft of Alia Mi¬
nor, and in Cyprus : but in all thefe regions, it is much
corrupted and degenerated.
As a fpecimen, we lhall infert a modern Greek fong,
and the advertifement of a quack medicine, which with
other plunder, was brought by the Ruffians from Choc-
fim or Chotzim in 1772.
Song in modern Greek.
MI ^wrutitus yroXif-iS y.i (idtroivot, a1; to Xiuo
Etyxi, xett xsuTfvtv#, xui vd. zovTiv#
'KiXci'/OS T61V (rv/Z$0£a> yi iTTlKiV^VVOV
M* u/iyx? oXt/B^ms c-tyocioxs za.i sreem*?.
Ms zvuxtx ttoXXw zou yav rxQctvi xyci^xo-yuv.
QxXxenrx (pxozoytvn, ttoXXx xy^eywi),
’'OttS x-xi cpverx yi trxyxvxzix Tri^arra.
’Evviipx crzoTiirybx x-xt zxrxtrvy^aryivx,
Kxi vx (pxvij yix c-uTYjgtx. vu tx yxTix yvsioLx.
TXt'gx vi(>x vx xxo-%x zxi sjleygai,
N’ X£e&tr) zxi ojtt'Togxy ytxTt Xtyivx
M’ XTiXTTKrixv crx ci^yiva ttS £g&.
JlS yi xirx ztzv vx Tcvvyu n mXxyiTivx ivya,
Kxi tutx civ (Zxs-xfyv, \y%ctuv vx y\ <pvXx%av.
Tranjlation.
With dire misfortunes, pains, and woes,
O’erwhelm’d, ingulph’d, I ftruggling light j
O’er my frail bark proud billows dole,
To plunge her deep in lafting night.
Rough feas of ills inceffant roar,
Fierce winds adverfe, with howling blaft,
Heave furge on furge. Ah ! far from Ibore
My found’ring fluff lhall fink at laft.
Involv’d in low’ring darkfome clouds,
’Mid fultry fogs, I pant for breath •,
Huge foaming billows rend my Ihrouds,
While yawning gulfs extend beneath.
From burfting clouds loud thunders roll,
And deaf’ning peals terrific fpread $
Red lightnings dart from pole to pole,
And burll o’er my devoted head.
When lhall the friendly dawning rays
Guide me to pleafures once poffell j
And breezy gales, o’er peaceful feasr
Waft to fome port of endlefs reft ?
In:
Sea. VII.
P H I L O L O G Y.
jt /
Greek In dark delpalr, with tempefts toil,
Lai guage. j veer niy from fide to fide.
Conduit me, Heav’n ! to yond’ fair coaft,
Or plunge me in the ’whelming tide.
The ^uack Bill.
BAASAMON THS ’lEPOrZAAHM, ADO
TATS, KAI NOYPIAIS. KAI
IIAAEAI2 PETZETAIS.
TOYTO to (ttoroo/irattoov uty&it «? to ouivvctroi
xxi /Zovihl T>)y %ovivnv tj* xttgdtxv. e-vxMiH oXctg
•ra? tjjs xeiXtct? atptXti tig r^y rh»s-<y xxt vct-
hxiov. ’ic&Tgzvei rcif zrUT’.^xxg TrXvyxs tzs rite?, xxi rS ttihv-
ftovo; ijytvv TrM^Bvta. xivii rx xxrx/xifvix tcov yvvxixay. Eif
TXf zt,<»TZ^ixxs TrXYiyuf ix /Sco^stoc* fxl to |«y0o too-ov
hi Trxhxius. Orov xxi hoytxs, xx6ai<; iivxt « 67rx@txts, xxi
ftx%xi(>txif xxi xXXx xtr^ifxxrx Ixt^zuh xxhXoyiji 'bifaXx,
xxi oXxg rxi fi£0{Xt(>xs TrXnyxs ottS z$6x<rxv hi to xoxxXm
B-xv/xcitriMi aittXu'ii? rx xvTix ottS T£Z%bvv ipirvov vx sx-
?irxi §t)o % T^iti xo/xtho; %%»vv rxXxyfxxrixi; yAoxy-Trclxi
PgifXUiVOV iis XVTO fixviTXl Zlf TX? TTXYiytofXZVXi ClOVTOXOtXlxii
xxi SzXbvv <*t^5h0^. xxi xxofxi SvvxfxdvH tx o^ovtix inS xi-
yoyy txi S-sAotiy vx orsTowy. fieviSx xxi xtto T^y irxviixXxv.
'H SoV<? lrMTi£iKcZs Xi zhxt ¥zxx ij xxt haihixx xojXTnis *k
oXiyev x^i ij xxt ysgev, to xxh rxftv xxt H^xtv. xi to ,046-
txx)&(i>i£z'txi, xxi ihx B-xvfxxa-toy /xirliv daxiftyv fitexiupivov.
’A.Xt)8lz fixXtrxfiav tS B*o-<Atta.
Inftead of giving a literal and bald tranflation of
this advertifement, which runs exadlly in the llyle of
other quack bills, it may be fufficient to obferve, that
the medicine recommended is faid, when taken inward¬
ly, to raife the fpirits, remove coftivenefs and inveterate
coughs', to cure pains of the bread and bellyaches j
to afiilt refpiration, and remove certain female ob-
ftru&ions. When applied externally, it cures wounds
and fores, whether old or frelh, removes ringing of
the ears, fallens the teeth when loofe, and llrengthens
the gums.
All this, and much more, it is faid to do in a won¬
derful manner j and is declared to be the true royal bal-
fam of Jerufalem, and an univerfal fpecific.
It is indeed next to a miracle that fo many monu¬
ments of Grecian literature are Hill to be found among
men. Notwithllanding the burning of the famous li¬
brary of Alexandria, and the almoft numberlefs wars,
maffacres, and devaftations, which have from time to
time in a manner defolated thofe countries where the
Greek language once flourilhed j we are told that
there Hill remain about 3000 books written in that
language.
Diftinguilh- We lhall now conclude this fedlion with a brief de¬
ed ftages of tail of the moll dillinguilhed llages and variations
■die Greek through which this noble tongue made its progrefs
SUdgp- from the age of Homer to the taking of Conllanti-
nople, an. ant. Chr. 1453 j a period of more than 2000
years. #
Homer gave the Greek poetry its colour and confilt-
ency, and enriched, as well as harmonized, the lan¬
guage. It feems, from the coincidence of epithets and
cadence in Homer and Hefiod, that the Greek heroic
verfe was formed fpontaneoufly, by the old Aci^oi, a fort
of improvifatari; and that Homer and his firlt followers
adopted their verlification. The Iliad and Odyffey have
much of the air of extempore competitions ; an epithet t Crte .
is never wanting to fill up a verfe ; and a fet of expref- ,J"an^ua^c'.
lions are mechanically annexed to fuch ideas as were of
frequent recurrence. Hence that copioufnefs and walte
of words in the old Greek bard, which forms fuch a
contrail to the condenfed and laboured compofition of
Virgil.
The Greek profe Avas of a more difficult llrufture j
and it may be dillributed into different llyles or degrees
of purity. Of the profe authors now extant, the firlt
and bell llyle is that of Herodotus, and of Plato in
the florid or mixed kind, of Xenophon in the pure and
Ample, of Thucydides and Demolihenes in the aullere.
Nothing, perhaps, is fo conducive to form a good tafte
in compofition as the lludy of thefe writers.
The ilyle of Polybius forms a new epoch in the hi-
Itory of the Greek language : it was the idiotic or po¬
pular manner of exprelfion, especially among military
men, in his time, about the 150th Olympiad. It be¬
came the model of fucceeding writers, by introducing
a Ample unltudied expreflion, and by emancipating them
from the anxious labour of the old Greeks rdpefting
the cadence and choice of words. The llyle of the
New Teftament, being plain and popular, frequently re-
fembles that of Polybius, as has been Ihown by Raphe-
lius, and by Kirchmaier, de parallelifmo N. I. ct Poly-
bii, 1725.
Before this hillorian, the Alexandrian Jews had
formed a new or Helleniltic llyle, refulting from the
expreflion of oriental ideas and idioms in Greek words,
after that language had loft of its purity, as it gained
in general ufe, by the conquelts of Alexander. 1 he
Hellenillic is the language of the Septuagint, the A-
pocrypha, the New Tellament, and partly of Philo and
Jofephus. This mixture in the llyle of the evangelills
and apoftles, is one credential of the authenticity of the
bell of all books, a book which could not have been
Avritten but by JevAulh authors in the firll century. See
the fine remarks of Bilhop Warburton, Dodtrine of
Grace, book i. ch. 8—10. Critics lofe their labour in
attempting to adjull the Scripture-Greek to the lland-
ard of Atticifm.
The didlion of the Greek hillorians, and geographers
of the Augultan age, is formed on that of Polybius ;
but improved and modernized, like the Englilh of the
prefent age, if compared Avith that of Clarendon or Ba¬
con. More perfpicuous than refined, it Avas Avell fuited
to fuch compilations as Avere thew. Avritten by men of
letters, fuch as Dionyfius, Diodorus, and Strabo, Avith-
out much experience or rank in public life.
The ecclefiallical llyle Avas cultivated in the Chriflian
fchools of Alexandria, Antioch, and Conllantinople ;
rank and luxuriant, full of oriental idioms, and formed
in a great meafure on the Septuagint verfion. Such is,
for inftance, the llyle of Eufebius. After him, the bell
Chrillian writers polilhed their compofitions in the fchools
ef rhetoric under the later fophills. Hence the po¬
pular and flowing purity of St Chryfoftome, who has
more good fenfe than Plato, and perhaps as many good
words.
On the Greek of the Byzantine empire, there is a
good differtation by Ducange, de caufis corruptee Grae-
citatis, prefixed to his Gloffary, together with Portius’s
Grammar of the modern Greek. I his lall llage of the
Greek language is a miferable pi&ure of Turkilh bar-
X x 2 barifm.
348
Greek
Language,
180
No perfect
tranflation
of any
Greek au¬
thor.
PHILO
barifm. And, which is xnoft furprifing, there is no city
of Greece where the language is more different from
the ancient than at Athens. The reafon of that is, be-
caufe it has been long inhabited by a mixed multitude
of different nations.
To conclude, the Greeks have left the moft durable
monuments of human wifdom, fortitude, magnificence,
and ingenuity, in their improvement of every art and
fcience, and in the fineft writings upon every fubjeft
neceffary, profitable, elegant, or entertaining.
The Greeks have furnifhed the brighteft examples of
every virtue and accomplilhment, natural or acquired,
political, moral, or military : they excelled in mathema¬
tics and philofophy ; in all the forms of government, in
architecture, navigation, commerce, war : as orators,
poets, and hiftorians, they Hand as yet unrivalled, and
are like to Hand fo for ever j nor are they lefs to be ad¬
mired for the exercifes and amufements they invented,
and brought to perfection, in the inftitution of their
public games, their theatres, and fports.
Let us further obferve, that in vain our readers will
look for thefe admired excellencies in any of the belt
tranflations from the Greek : they may indeed commu¬
nicate fome knowledge of what the originals contain $
they may prefent you with propofitions, charafters, and
events : but allowing them to be more faithful and more
accurate than they really are, or can well be, Hill they
are no better than copies, in which the fpirit and luftre
of the originals are almoft totally loft. The mind may
be inftrufted, but will not be enchanted : The picture
may bear fome faint refemblance, and if painted by a
mafterly hand give pleafure; but who would be fatisfied
with the canvas, when he may poffefs the real objeCt ?
who would prefer a piece of coloured glafs to a dia¬
mond ? It is not poflible to preferve the beauties of the
original in a tranllation.—The powers of the Greek are
vaftly beyond thofe of any other tongue. Whatever
the Greeks defcribe is always felt, and almoft feen ; mo¬
tion and mufic are in every tone, and enthufiafm and in-
chantment poffefs the mind :
Origin of
the Ro¬
mans, and
of their
language.
^ lit. Liv.
lib i. cap. 1,
See.
f Antiq
Rom lib i
f Vita Ro¬
ma/.
Grans mgenium, Graiis dedit ore rotunda,
Mufa loqui. HORACE.
Sect. VIII. Of the Latin Language.
This language, like every other fpoken by barbari¬
ans, was in its beginning rough and uncultivated.—
What people the Romans were, is a point in which an¬
tiquarians are not yet agreed. In their own opinion
they were fprung from the Trojans * ; Dion. Halicar.
derives them from the Greeks f 5 and Plutarch informs
us | that fome people imagined that they were fprung
from the Pelafgi. The fad is, they were a mixture of
people colleCled out of Latium and the adjacent parts,
LOGY. Sedt, Vn^
which a variety of accidents had drawn together, to Latin
eftablifh themfelves on that mountainous region, in order Language,
to fecure their own property, and plunder that of their ' “ v —'
neighbours. They were in all probability compofed of
Arcadians, Sabines, Latins, Hetrufcans, Umbrians, Of-
cans, Pelafgi, Stc.; and if fo, their language mull have
been a mixture of the difterent dialeCts peculiar to all
thefe difeordant tribes.
The Latin language ought then to be a mingled mafs
of the Arcadian, that is, the Aiolian || Greek, the Pe-|) Straho
lafgic, Ketrulcan, and Celtic dialeCfs. Thefe jarring lib. v.
elements, like the people to whom they belonged re-#3-
fpedively, gradually incorporated, and produced what ^
was afterwaids called the Latin tongue.
The Arcadians were a Pelalgic § tribe, and confe- § Strabo et
quently fpoke a dialed of that ancient Greek produced Herodotus.
by the coalition ol this tribe with the favage aborigines
of Greece. This dialed was the ground-work of the
Latin. Every feholar allows, that the Aiolian Greek,
which was ftrongly tindured with the Pelalgic, was the
model upon which the Latin language was fuimed.
From this deduUion it appears, that the Latin tongue,
is much more ancient than the modern Greek ; and of
courfe we may add, that the Greek, as it ftood before it
wTas thoroughly polifhed, bore a very near rtitmblance
to that language. Hence we think we may conclude,
that the knowledge of the Latin language is nectliary
in order to underftand the Greek. Let us not then
exped to find the real ingredients of the Greek tongue
in the academic groves of Athens, or in Smyrna, or in
Rhodope, or in Haemos j but on the banks of the Tiber
and on the fields of Lauientum.
A very confiderable part of the Latin tongue was
derived from the Hetrufean. 1 hat people were the
mailers of the Romans in every thing facred. From
them they learned the ceremonies of religion, the me¬
thod of arranging games and public feftivals, the art of
divination, the interpretation of omens, the method of
luftrations, expiations, &e. It would, we believe, be
eafy to prove, that the Pelalgi * and Hetrufci (x) were.
the fame race of people j and if this was the cafe, their ^ g.
languages muft have differed in their dialed only.
'I he Umbrian or Celtic enters deeply into the com-
pofitron of the Latin tongue. For proof of this, we
need only appeal to Peiioutier, Bullet's Metnoires de la
Langue Celtique, partie premiere, Abbe Perron's Origin
of Ancient Nations, &c. W hether the old Celtic dif¬
fered effentially from the Pelalgic and Hetrufean, would
be a matter of curious inveftigation, were this a proper
fubjed for the prefent article.
1 he Latin abounds with oriental words, efpecially
Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Perfian. Thefe are certainly
remains of the Pelalgic and Hetrufean tongues, fpoken
originally by people who emigrated from regions where
thofe were parts of the vernacular language.—The
Greeks,
(x) I he Hetrufci were varioufly denominated by the Greeks and Romans. The former called them ;
which was the r true name, for they aflually emigrated from Tarfhifh, or the weftern coaft of Afia JVlinor, and
confequently Herod< tus everywhere calls them to^oyivoi. 1 he Aiolians changed a into v } hence in that dialed
they were called from Tarfus. i he Romans ftyled them Tufci, probably from the Greek verb fa-
crifco, alluding to the fkill which that people proteffed in the ceremonies of religion. They called their country
Hetruria, we think from the Chaldaic word here turn, “ a magician or forcerer j” a name deduced from their fkill
in divination.
iSt. VIII.
Latin Greeks, in policing their language, gradually diftorted
inguag#. an(j disfigured vaft numbers of the rough eaftern voca-
ties, which made a very great part of it. (See the
preceding fedlion).
The Romans, of lefs delicate organs, left them in
their natural Rate, and their natural air readily bewrays
their original. We had collected a large lift of Latin
lloflary. words ftill current in the eaft •, but find that Thomaflinf
and Ogerius (y), and efpecially Monf. Gebelin, in his
moft excellent Latin Dittionary, have rendered that la¬
bour fuperfluous.
In this language, too, there are not a few Gothic
terms. How thefe found their way into the Latin, it
is not eafy to difcover, unlefs, as Pelloutier fuppofes, the
Celtic and Gothic languages were originally the fame :
or perhaps we may conjefture, that fuch words were
parts of a primitive language, which was at one time
jjt univerfal.
3w far There are, befides, in the Latin a great number of
e Latin 0bfolete Greek words, which were in procefs of time ob-
f^Greek l‘teratec^ anc^ others fubftituted in their room; fo that,
£ r * upon the whole, we are perfuaded, that the moft effec¬
tual method to diftinguilh the difference between the
early and modern Greek, would be to compare the an¬
cient Latin with the latter; there being, we imagine,
very little difference between the ancient Greek and
Latin in the earlieft periods.
However that may be, it is certain that the Roman
letters were the fame with the ancient Greek. — Form#
Tacitus, Uteris Latinis quce veterrimis Gr a corum, fays Tacitus |;
and Pliny § fays the lame thing, and for the truth of his
Vaf. Hijl, affertion he appeals to a monument extant in his own
'• vii. times.
P'S1** Thefe old Greek letters were no other than the Pe-
lafgic, which we have Ihown from Diodorus Siculus
(fee preceding Section) to have been prior to the Cad-
mean. For the figure of thefe letters, fee Aftle, Po-
ftellus, Montfaucon, Palsegraphia Grseca, Monf. Gebe¬
lin, and our Plates XV. and XVI.
That the Latins borrowed the plan of their declen-
fions from the Greeks, is evident from the exact refem-
blance of the terminations of the cafes throughout the
three fimilar declenlions. In nouns of the firlt declen-
fion, the refemblance is too palpable to Hand in need of
illuftration. In the fecond, the Greek genitive is 01.
In Latin the o is thrown out, and the termination be¬
comes i. In the Greek fe£tion, we have obferved, that
the founds of < and v differed very little; therefore^ the
Latins ufed i inftead of v. The Latin dative ends in 0,
which is the Greek dative, throw ing away t fubfcrip-
tum, which was but faintly founded in that language.
No genuine Greek word ended in y. or m.
The Hellenes feemed to have abhorred that bellowing
liquid ; it is, however, certain that they imported it
from the eaft, as well as the other letters, and that they
employed it in every other capacity, except in that of
doling words. In the termination of flexions, they
changed it into v.
The Latins retained m, which had been imported to
them as a terminating letter at an era before the Greek
349
language had undergone its laft refinement.—-Hence the Latin
Latin accufative in urn, inftead of the Greek ey. The Language.
vocative cafe, we imagine, was in this declenfion origi-
nally like the nominative. The Latins have no dual
number, becaufe, in our opinion, the ^Eolian dialed, .
from which they copied, had none. It would be, we
think, a violent ftretch of etymological exertion, to de¬
rive either the Latin genitive plural of the fecond de¬
clenfion from the fame cafe of the Greek, or that of the
latter from the former ; we therefore leave this anoma¬
ly, without pretending to account for its original forma¬
tion. The third declenfions in both languages are fo
exa&ly parallel, that it would be fuperfluous to compare
them. The dative plural here is another anomaly, and
we think a very difagreeable one, which we leave to the
conjedures of more profound etymologifts.
For the other peculiarities of Latin nouns, as they
are nearly fimilar to thofe of the Grc=ek, we muft beg
leave to remit our readers to that fedion for information. 183
The Latins have no articles, which is certainly a de-Deficiency
fed in their language. The Pelafgic, from which theyof articles.
copied, had not adopted that word in the demonftrative
fenfe. Homer indeed feldom ufes it; and the probabi¬
lity is, that the more early Greek ufed it lefs frequently,
at leaft in the fenfe above mentioned. Thus in Latin,
when I fay, video hominem, it is impoflible to find out
bv the bare words whether the word hominem intimates
“ a man,” or “ the man whereas in Greek it would
be BAeorw ^y^^Trev, I fee a man, B’Knctu t«v xvfyMTrtv, I
fee the man. Hence the firft expreflion is indefinite, and
the fecond definite. 184
The fubftantive verb fum in Latin feems to be partly Origin of
formed from the Greek and partly not. Some of the ft16 fubftan“
perfons of the prefent tenfe have a hear refemblance totlve verb»
the Greek verb \u or uyi, while others vary widely
from that archetype. The imperfed praeterite and
praeterperfed have nothing common with the Greek
verb, and cannot, we think, be forced into an alliance
with it. The future ero, was of old efo, and is indeed
genuine Greek. Upon the whole, in our apprehenfion
the Latin fubftantive verb more nearly refembles the
Perfian verb hefen than that of any other language we
are acquainted with. _
From what exemplar the Latin verbs were derived, and ofo-
is not, we think, eafily afcertained. We know that at-ther verbs,
tempts have been made to deduce them all from the ,/E-
olic Greek, and that the Romans themfelves were ex¬
tremely fond of this chimera; but the almoft number-
lefs irregularities, both in the formation and conjugation
of their verbs, induce us to believe that only a part of
them were formed upon that model. We art apt to
think that the terminations in bam, has, bat, batnus.
See. are produced by their union with a fragment of
fome obfolete verb, which is now wholly loft. In the
amo. e. g* we are fure that the radix am is the He¬
brew word mother ; but how am-abam, am-abo, nm-arem
were fabricated, and eonneded with the radical am. is
not fo eafily determined That Latin verbs are com-
pofed of an inflexible radix and another flexible verb,
as well as the Greek, cannot be doubted ; but what this
flexible
PHILOLOGY.
. (Y) Greeca et Latina lingua Hebrai*anM, Venice 1763- If ll>efe books ^ "ot al ha”d’ L‘Uleton’s Dk'
tionary will, in a good meafure, fupply their place.
2
i85
Deficien¬
cies in La
tin verbs.
187 _
Irregulari¬
ties in the
conjuga¬
tions;
PHILO
tfexible auxiliary vvas, We think, cannot now be clearly
aicertained. It is not altogether improbable that fuch
parts of the verbs as deviate from the Greek archetype
were fupplied by fragments of the verb //«, which per¬
vades all the branches of the Gothic language, and has,
we think, produced the Latin verb habeo. When the
Greeks began to etymologize, they feldom overpafled
the verge of their own language : the Latins purfued
nearly the fame courfe. If their own language prefented
a plaufible etymology, they embraced it •, if not, they
immediately had recourfe to the Greek •, and this was
the ne plus ultra of their etymological refearches. Ci¬
cero, Quintilian, Felt us, &c. and even Varro, the moft
learned of all the Romans, flop here 5 all beyond is ei¬
ther doubt or impenetrable darknefs. The opinion
above mentioned we offer only as a conjecture j the de-
ciiion w'e leave to more able critics.
The want of aorifts or indefinite tenfes feems to us a
palpable defeCt in the Latin language. The ufe of
thefe among the Greeks enabled the writer to exprefs
the fpecific variations of time with more accuracy and
precifion than the Latins, who never attempted to fpe-
cify them by any other tenfes but the imperfeft and plu-
perfeCL Indeed we fhould imagine, that both the
Greeks and Latins were much inferior to the Englifh
in this refpeCl. The Latin word lego, for example, may
be tranflated into Englilh three different ways; iff, /
read; 2d, I do read; 3d, I am reading.
The Latins, in reducing verbs to their four conjuga¬
tions, formed their inflexions in a very irregular manner.
Many verbs of the firft clafs infleCt their praeterite and
lupine like thofe of the fecond : thus domo, inftead of
giving fl^z'and alum, has wz’and itum, like monui and
monitum. Again, not a few verbs of the third conju¬
gation have wi and itum, as if they belonged to the
fourth ; e. g. pc to, petivi, petitum. Then, fome verbs
have io in the prefent, ivi in the praeterite, and itum in
the fupine, while, contrary to the rules of analogy, they
in reality belong to the third : fuch are cupio, cupivi,
cupitum, cupere, &.c. Some verbs of the fecond conju¬
gation have their practerite and fupine as if they belong¬
ed to the third •, thus, jubeo, jujji, jujfum, jubere ; au-
geo, auxi, auBum, augere. Some verbs, which are
aClually of the fourth conjugation, have their praeterite
and fupine as if they were of the third thus fentio,
fenji, fenfum, /entire; haurio, hauji, haujlum, haurire,
&c.- If thefe are not manifeft irregularities, we cannot
fay what deferves the name. The faCI feems to Hand
thus : The Romans were originally a banditti of rob¬
bers, bankrupts, runaway Haves, fhepherds, hufhandmen,
and peafants of the moft unpolifhed charaCler. They
were engaged in perpetual broils and quarrels at home,
and feldom enjoyed repofe abroad. Their profeflion
was robbery and plunder. Like old Ifhmael, their
hands were againft every man, and every man’s hand
againft them. In fuch a ftate of fociety no time was
left for cultivating the fciences. Accordingly the arts
of war and government were their foie profeflion. This
is fo true, that their own poet characterizes them in the
following manner :
Excudunt aliifpirantia mol/ius cera, &c.
Another blemifh in the Latin tongue is occafioned
deficient in by its wanting a participle of the praeterite tenfe in the
participles. aCUve voice. This defeCt is perpetually felt, and is the
,188
The Latin
L 0 G Y. Sed. vi:
caufe of an awkward circumlocution wherever it happens Latii i
to prefent itfelf. Thus, “ The general having croffi.d kangual
the river, drew up his army Imperator, cum tran/ijjet'~~~r'
/lumen, aciem in/ruxit. Here cum tranjii/ftt /lumen is a
manileft circumlocution, which is at once avoided in
the Greek 0 yiyiuup yrtgucroig rev TscTxptv, &.c. This muff
always prove an incumbrance in the cafe of aCtive in-
tranfitive verbs. When aClive deponent verbs occur,
it is eafily avoided. Thus, “ Ctefar having encouraged
the foldiers, gave the fignal for joining battle j” Ctefar
cohortatus milites, preclii committendi/gnum dedit.
Another palpable defeCt in this language arifes from
the want of a participle of the prefent paflive. This
again muft produce an inconveniency upon many occa-
fions, as will be obvious to every Latin ffudent almoft
every moment.
The two lupines are univerfally allowed to be fub-Supines
flantive nouns of the fourth declenfion. How thefe af-gerunds,
fumed the nature of verbs it is not eafy to determine.
When they are placed after verbs or nouns, the matter
is attended with no difficulty ; but how they thould ac¬
quire an aClive fignification, and take the cafe of the
verb with which they are conneCled, implies, we Ihould
think, a flretch of prerogative.
The Latin gerunds form another unnatural anomaly.
Every Latin fcholar knows that thofe words are nothing
but the neuters of the participles of the future paffive.
The fabricators of the Latin tongue, however, elevated
them from their primary condition, giving them upon
many occafions an aftive fignification. In this cafe we
mult have recourfe to
■SV volet ufus.
^uem penes arbitrium e/l et jus et norma loquendi.
Another inconveniency, perhaps more feverely felt
than any of the preceding, arifes from the want of the
ufe of the prefent participle of the verb futn. Every
body knows what a conveniency is derived from the
frequent ufe of the participle m in Greek •, and indeed
it appears to us fomewhat furprifing that the Latins ne-
glefted to introduce the participle ens into their lan¬
guage. In this we believe they are fingular. Here
again a circumlocution becomes neceffary in fuch a cafe
as the following : “ The fenate being at Rome, palled
a decree.” Inflead of faying fenatus ens Romce, legem
tulit, we are obliged to fay cum fenatus Romce e/fet, &c.
If the words ens or exi/lens had been adopted, as in
the Greek, this odious circumlocution would have been
avoided.
Many other defedls of the like kind will occur to eve¬
ry perfon who lhall choofe to fearch for them, and thofe
in the moft approved claflical authors. Perhaps our
mentioning fo many may be deemed invidious by the
admirers of that language ; but we write from convic¬
tion, and that muft be our apology. 190
If one take the trouble to compare the ftru&ure of theD'fl:eren1
Greek and Latin languages, he will, we think, quickly
be convinced that their chara&eriltic features are ex-ami ore.
tremely different. The genius of the former feems eafy language
and natural j whereas that of the latter, notwithftanding
the united efforts of poets, orators, and philofophers,
ftill bears the marks of violence and reftraint. Hence
it appears that the Latin tongue was preffed into the
fervice, and compelled almoft againft its will to bend to
the laws of the Grecian model. Take a fentence of
Hebrew,
a. viii.
/tt'm Hebrew, Chaldean, Arabian, &c. and try to tranflate
igaa^e. jt Jnt0 Greek without regarding the arrangement of the
"V-"' words, and you will find it no difficult attempt j but
make the fame trial with refpedl to the Latin, and you
will probably find the labour attended with confiderable
difficulty. To tranflate Greek into Engliffi is no labo¬
rious talk •, the texture of the two languages is fo con¬
genial, that the words and phrafes, and even the idio¬
matic expreffions, naturally Hide into each other. With
the Latin the cafe is quite otherwife •, and before elegant
Englilh can be produced, one mull deviate confiderably
from the original. Should we attempt to tranllate a piece
of Engliffi into Greek, and at the lame time into Latin,
the tranllation of the former would be attended with
much lefs difficulty than that of the latter, fuppofing
the tranllator equally Ikilled in both languages.
This incongruity feems to fpring from the following
differ- caufe. Before any man of confiderable abilities, either
in the capacity of a poet, grammarian, or rhetorician,
appeared at Rome, the language had acquired a ftrong
and indexible tone, too ftubborn to be exactly moulded
according to the Grecian ftandard. After a language
has continued feveral centuries without receiving a new
poliffi, it becomes like a full grown tree, incapable of
being bent to the purpofes of the mechanic. For this
reafon, it is highly probable, that the tongue in queftion
could not be forced into a complete affimilation with
the Greek. Notwdthftanding all thefe obftrutlions, in
procefs of time it arrived at fuch an exalted pitch of per¬
fection, as to rival, perhaps to excel, all the other Eu¬
ropean languages, the Greek only excepted. Had men
of the tafte, judgment, and induftry of Ennius, Plau¬
tus, Terence, Cicero, and the worthies of the -Auguftan
age, appeared in the early Rages of the Roman com¬
monwealth, we may believe that their language would
have been thoroughly reduced to the Grecian archetype,
and that the two dialedts might have improved each
other by a rivalffiip between the nations who employed
them.
Without pretending to entertain our readers with a
pompous and elaborate account of the beauties of that
imperial language which have been detailed by writers
almoft without number, we (hall endeavour to lay be¬
fore them as briefly as poffible its priftine charadter, the
fteps and ftages by which it gradually role to perfection,
the period when it arrived at the fummit of its excel¬
lence, and by what means it degenerated with a rapid
career till it was loft among thofe very people to whom
^ it owed its birth.
Latin We have obferved already, that the Latin tongue
ue was a colluvies of all the languages fpoken by the va-
Mfed grant people who compofed the firft elements of that re-.
public. The prevailing dialedls were the Pelafgic or
Celtic; Hetrufcan, which we think were the fame j and the
Is. Celtic, which was the aboriginal tongue of Italy.
Hence the primary dialed of the Romans was compofed
of difeordant materials, which in our opinion never ac¬
quired a natural and congenial union. Be that as it
znay, this motley mixture was certainly the original dia-
351
led of the Romans. The Pelafgic or Hetrufcan part of Latin
it retained a ftrong tindure of the oriental ityle. The Language,^
Celtic part ieems to have been prevalent, fince we find v~""'J
that moft of the names of places (z), efpecially in the
middle and northern parts of Italy, are adually of Cel¬
tic original. It is therefore .clear that the ftyle of the
firft Romans was compoled ot the languages above men¬
tioned. \Vffio thole firft Romans were, we believe it is
impoflible to determine with _any degree of certainty.
The Roman hiftorians afford us as little information up¬
on that iubjed, as their etymologifts do upon the origin
of their language. Their moft celebrated writers upon
this point were /Elius Gallus, Quintus Cornificius, No¬
nius Marcellus, Feftus, and fome others of lefs note.
At the head of thefe we ought to place Terentius
Varro, whom Cicero ftyles the moft learned of all the
Romans. From thefe writers we are to exped no
light. Their etymologies are generally cbildilh and fu¬
tile. Of the language of the moft ancient Romans we
can only reafon by analogy ; and by that rule we can
difeover nothing more than what we have advanced
above.
In the firft place we may reft affured that the dual
number, the articles, the participle above mentioned, the
aorifts, and the whole middle voice, never appeared in
the Latin tongue j and accordingly were not current in
thofe languages from which it was copied, atleaft at the
time when it was firft fabricated.
Beftdes all this, many circumftances concur to make
it highly probable that, in the earlieft period of the lan¬
guage, very few inflexions were introduced, ift, When
the Pelafgi left Greece, the Greek language itfelf was
not fully poliflied. 2d, The Arcadians were never tho¬
roughly cultivated. They were a ruftic paftoral people,
and little minded the refinements of a civilized ftate j
confequently the language they brought into Italy at
that era muft have been of a coarfe and irregular con¬
texture. 3d, When the Theffaliaq * Pelafgi arrived in * Monyf.
Italy about the time of Deucalion, the Greek itfelf was Halicarn.
rude and barbarous*, and, which is ftill of more confe-lib.i.
quence, if we may credit Herodotus quoted in the for¬
mer feHion, that people had never adopted the Hellenic
tongue. Hence it appears, that the part of the Latin
language derived from the Pelafgic or Hetrufean (for
thofe we believe to have been the fame) muft have ta¬
ken a deep tindlure from the oriental tongue. (See pre¬
ceding Sedlion). If we may judge of the Celtic of that
age by that of the prefent, the fame chara£ter muft like-
wife have diftinguiflied its ftrudlure. 193
From thefe circumftances, we think it appears that Hence Jittk
the earlieft language of the Romans was very little di-
verfified with inflexions. It nearly refembled the orien- ftate?21"8
tal exemplar, and confequently differed widely from the
modern Latin. The effeX of this was, that the modern
Romans could not underftand the language of their early
progenitors. Polybius f, fpeaking of the earlieft treaty t Lib. 3.
between the Romans and Carthaginians, makes the {o\-fub lnltl0>
lowing obfervation : “ Believe me (fays he), the Roman
language has undergone fo many changes fince that
time
P H 1 L o L o G Y.
(z) For proof of this our readers may
Lat. and many others.
confult Abbe Pezron, Pelloutier, Bullet’s Mem. Gebelin, Pref.
55 2
Latin
Language.
194
Bent after¬
wards into
the Gre¬
cian model
195
The prin¬
cipal au¬
thors by
whom it
was gra¬
dually po-
lilhed.
PHILO
time (a) to the prefent, that even thofe who are moft
deeply flulled in the fcience of antiquities cannot under-
Hand the words of that treaty but with the greateft dif¬
ficulty.”
From this fource we make no doubt has flowed that
vaft number of oriental wTcrds with which the Latin
language is impregnated. Thefe were originally in¬
flexible, like their brethren of the eaft. They were not
difguifed as they now are with prefixes, affixes, meta-
thefes, fyncopas, antithefes, &c. but plain and unadorned
in their natural drefs.
After the Romans became acquainted with the AEo-
lian Greeks, who gradually feized upon both coafts of
Italy towards the fouth, which they called Magna Grce-
cia, they began to affedt a Grecian air, and to torture
their language into that foreign contexture. It appears,
however, that at firfl the Grecian garb fat rather awk-
Avardly, and feveral marks of violence were eafily dif-
cerned. The moft ancient fpecimen of this kind that
•we can recolledt confifts of the remains of the twe/ve
tables. Here every thing is rude and of a clumfy call 5
for though by this time confiderable progrefs had been
made in refinement, and the language of Rome had be¬
gun to appear in a Grecian uniform, dill thofe changes
were not altogether natural. Soon after appeared Mar¬
cus Fabius Pidlor and Sifenna; hiftorians often quoted
by Livy, but whofe works are long fince irrecoverably
loft. The Fafti Capitolini are often mentioned j but
they too periffied in the burning of the Capitol during
the civil wars between Marius and Sylla. Had thofe
monuments elcaped the ravages of time, we fhould have
been able to mark the progrefs of the Latin tongue
from ftage to ftage, and to afcertain with the greateft
accuracy its gradual configuration in the courfe of its
progrefs towards the Grecian ftandard. We muft there¬
fore leave the Latin tongue during thofe periods rude
and barbarous, and defcend to others better known and
more charafteriftically marked. Thofe commenced af¬
ter that
Grcecia capta ferum viBorem cepit, et antes
Intulit agrejli Latio.
In this period we find Ennius, who wrote a Roman
hiftory in hexameter verfe in 18 books, which he called
Anna/s ; moft part of which is now loft. He likewife
tranflated Euhemerus de Origine Deorum; a work often
mentioned by the Chriflan fathers in their difputes u'ith
the Pagans. It is fometimes quoted by Cicero. Then
followed Caius Lucilius the famous fatirift, and a num¬
ber of other writers, fuch as Accius, Valerius, yEdituus,
Alpinus, &e. whofe fragments were publiffied by the
Stephens, Paris, 1564. All thefe imitated the writers
of Greece or tranflated from them. By their perfeve-
rance and adflive exertions the fpirit of thefe authors.w'as
tranffiuft-d into the Latin tongue, and its ftrudture ac¬
commodated to the Grecian plan.
Plautus and Terence, by tranflating the comedies of
Menander and D’philus into their own language, taught
the Latin mufe* to fpeak AtRc Greek. To fpeak that
language was then the ton of the times, as it is now with
logy. Sea. VII
us to chatter French. Greek tutors were retained in Latin
every reputable family and many Romans of the firft Gnguaj
rank were equally qualified to fpeak or write both in
Greek and Latin. The original jargon of Latium was
now become obfolete and unintelligible ; and Cato the
Ancient condefcended to learn the Greek languao©
at 80. . ° r9*
lo pretend to enumerate the various, and we may The gold |
add inimitable, examples of the Auguflan or golden age™ age°f j
of the Roman tongue, would be an infult to the under-*iome*
handing of our readers: we thall only take the liberty
to tranfiate a few lines from a moft excellent hiftorian *, * Velleh
who, had his honefty been equal to his judgment, Patercuh
might have rivalled the moft celebrated writers of hisil15, caE
country. Having obferved, that the Greek authors,
who excelled in every province of literature, had all
made their appearance nearly about the fame fpace of
time, confined within very narrow limits, he adds,
“ Nor was this circumftance more confpicuous among
the Greeks than among the Romans j for unlefs we go
back to the rough and unpoliftied times, which deferve
commendation only on account of their invention, the
Roman tragedy is confined to Accius and the period
when he flouriffied. The charming wit of Latin ele¬
gance was brought to light by Cecilius, Terentius, and
Afranius, nearly in the fame age. As for our hiftorians
(to add Livy alfo to the age of the former), if we ex¬
cept Cato and fome old obfcure ones, they were all con¬
fined to a period of 80 years ; fo neither has our flock of
poets extended to a fpace much backward or forward.
But the energy of the bar, and the finiihed beauty of
profe eloquence, fetting afide the fame Cato (by leave
of P. Craffus, Scipio, Ltelius, the Gracchi, Fannius,
and Ser. Galba, be it fpoken), broke out all at once
under Tully the prince of his profeffion j fo that one
can be delighted with none before him, and admire none
except fuch as have either feen or were feen by that
orator.”
From this quotation it plainly appears, that the Ro¬
mans themfelves were convinced (ft the flrort duration of
the golden age of their language. According to the
moft judicious critics, it commenced with the era of Ci¬
cero’s oratorical produ6tions, and terminated with the
reign of Tiberius, or perhaps it did not reach beyond ^
the middle of that prince’s reign. It is generally be-Cauiesof
lieved that eloquence, and with it every tiling liberal, fte(leSen
elevated, and manly, was baniflied Rome by the defpo-ratT0^'
tifm of the Caefars. We imagine that the tranfition was tongUe,
too inftantaneous to have been entirely produced by that
unhappy caufe. .Defpotifm was firmly eftabliffied among
the Romans about the middle of the reign of Auguftusj
and yet that period produced fuch a group of learned
men as never adorned any other nation in fo Ihort a
fpace of time. Defpotifm, we acknowledge, might have
affedfed the eloquence of the bar ; the noble and im¬
portant objcdts which had animated the republican ora¬
tors being now no more : but this circumftance could
not affcdt poetry, hiftory, philofophy, &c. The ftyle
employed upon thefe fubjedts did not feel the fetters of
defpotifm. The age of Louis XIV. tvas the golden pe¬
riod
(a) This treaty, according to the fame hiftoriafi, was concluded in the confullhip of Lucius Junius Brutus and
Marcus Valerius, 28 years before Xerxes made his defcent upon Greece.
Se&. VIII. PHILOLOGY.
Latin riodof the Frenfcli tongue; and we think that age pro¬
language. (Pxced a race oflearned men, in every department fupe-
rior in number and equal in genius to the literati who
flourifhed under the rjoble and envied conftitution of
Britain during the fame age, though the latter is uni-
verfally allowed to have been the golden period of this
country. The Britiih ifles, we hope, enjoy {till as much
liberty as ever ; yet we believe few people will aver,
that the writers of the prefent age are equal either in
ftyle or in genius to that noble group who flourifhed from
the middle of the reign of Charles I. to the middle of
the reign of George II.; and here defpotifm is quite un¬
concerned.
In the eaft the fame obfervation is confirmed. The
Perfians have long groaned under the Mohammedan
yoke; and yet every oriental fcholar will allow, that in
that country, and under the moll galling tyranny, the
molt amazing productions of tafte, genius, and indultry,
that ever dignified human nature, have been exhibited.
Under the Arabian caliphs, the fucceffors of Moham¬
med, appeared writers of a molt lublime genius, though
never was defpotifm more cruelly exereifed than under
thofe fanatics. The revival of letters at the era of the
Reformation was chiefly promoted and cherifhed by petty
defpotical princes.
We cannot therefore be perfuaded, that the defpo-
tifm of the Crefars banifhed eloquence and learning
from Rome. Longinus indeed has attributed this mis¬
fortune to that caufe, and tells us, 0gs\l/xi rs Ucc»n rx
^■^ar/iuxTx TCdv Mt'yxXopgevMv v EAET0EPIA, &e. “ It
is liberty that is formed to nurfe the lentiments of great
geniufes, to pufh forward the p'ropenfity of conteft, to
infpire them with hopes, and the generous ambition of
being the firft in rank.” When Longinus wrote this,
he did not refleft.that he bimfelf was a ftriking inttanee
I9S of the unfoundnefs of his obfervation.
Biewriters As to fcience,'the faCf is undoubtedly on the other
ef the fit- fide. That Seneca was fuperior to Cicero in philofophy,
Yer age cannot be reafonably contradifted. The latter had read,
Rafters of anc^ ^ually abridged, the whole extent of Grecian phi-
fciencethanh'fophy: this difplayed his reading rather thart his
theirprede-learning, d’he former had addicted himfelt to the lloic
eelTors. fe^q. ancj though he does not write with the fame Row
of eloquenee as Tully, he thinks more deeply and rea-
fons more clofely. Pliny’s Natural Hiflory is a won¬
derful col!e6tion, and contains more ufeful knowledge
than all the writings of the Ariguflan age cm denied in¬
to one mafs. We think the hiftorical annals of Tacitus,
if inferior to Livy in ftyle and majefty of diction, much
fuperior in arrangement and vigour of compofition. In
fhort, we difcover in thefe productions a deep infight in¬
to human nature, an extenfive knowledge of the fcience
of government, a penetration which no diflimulatjon
could efeape, together with a (incere attachment to
truth both with refpe£t to events and characters; nor is
he inferior in the majefty, energy, and propriety of his
harangues, wherever an equal opportunity prefents it-
felf. Quintilian, Pliny the younger, Suetonius, Petro-
nius Arbiter, and Juvenal, deferve high efteetn; nor
are they inferior to their immediate predeoeftbrs. We
think there is good reafon to conclude, that the lofs of
liberty among the Romans did not produce the extinc¬
tion of eloquence, fcience, elevation of fentiment, or re¬
finement of tafte. There were, we believe, other cir-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
cumflances which chiefly contributed to produce that re- R^tin
volution. Lrvuagfe
J he lame Velleius Paterculus whom we have quoted *
afligns fome plaufible and very judicious realons for this
cataftrophe. “ Emulation (fays he) is the nurfe ofge-
nius; and one while envy, and another admiration, fires
imitation. According to the laws of nature, that which
is purlued with the greateft ardour mounts to the top :
but to be ftationary in perfection is a difficult matter;
and by the fame analogy, that which cannot go forward
goes backward. As at the outlet we are animated to
overtake thofe whom we deem before us, fo when wo
delpair of being able to overtake or to pafs by them, our
ardour languifhes together with our hope, and what it
cannot overtake it Geafes to purfue; and leaving the (ub-
je£t as already engrofled by another, it looks out for a
new one upon which to exert itfelf. That by which we
find we are not able to acquire eminence we reKnquilh,
and try to find out fome object elfewhere upon which to
employ our intelleClual powers. The coniequence is,
that frequent and variable transitions from fubjeCt to fub»
jeCt proves a very great obftacle to perfection in any pro-
feflion.”
This perhaps was the cafe with the Romans. The
heroes of the Auguftan age had borne away the prize
of eloquence, of hiftory, of poetry, &c, 1 heir fuecef-
fors defpaired of being able to equal, much lefs to fur-
pafs them, in any of thefe walks. They were therefore
laid under the neceffity of ftriking out a new path by
which they might arrive at eminence. Conftquently
Seneca introduced the JHle coupe, as .the French call it;
that is, a fhort, (parkling, figurative diClion, abounding
with antithefes, quaintntfles, witticifms, embelliQied with
flowers and meretricious ornaments; whereas the ftyle of
the Auguftan age was natural, fitnple, {olid, unaffeCled,
and properly adapted to the nature of the fubjeCl and the
fentiments of the author.
The hiftorian Salluil laid the foundation of the unna¬
tural ftyle above mentioned. Notwithuanding all the
excellencies of that celebrated author, he everywhere
exhibits an afftClation of antiquity, an.antithetical caft,
an air of aufterity, an accuracy, exadnefs, and regula¬
rity, contrary to that air degage which nature difplays
in her molt elaborate efforts. His words, his claufes,
feem to be adjlifted exaCtly according to number, weight,
and meafure, without excefsor defeCl. Velleius Pater-,
cuius imitated this writer; and, as is generally the cafe
with imitators, fucceeded heft in thofe points where his
archetype had failed moft egregioufly. Tacitus, how¬
ever excellent in other refpeCls, deviated from the Au¬
guftan exemplars, and is thought to have imitated Sal*
luff; but affeCfing brevity to excefs, he often fails into
obfeurity. The other contemporary writers employ a
cognate ftyle; and becaufe they have deviated from the
Auguftan ftandard, their works are held in left eftima-
tion, and are thought to bear about them marks of de¬
generacy.
That degeneracy, however, did not fprihg from the
defpotic government under which thefe authors lived,
but from that affeftation of Angularity into which they
were led by an eager but fruitlefs defire of fignalizing
themfelves in their mode, as their predeceffors had done
in theirs. But the mifehiefs of this rage for innova¬
tion did net reach their fentiments, as it had done their
Y y ' ftyle;
354
Latin
Language.
199
Writers of
great ta¬
lents dur¬
ing the
filver and
brazen
ages.
PHIL
ftyie; for in that point we think, they were fo far from
falling below the meafure of the writers of the former
age, that in many inllances they feem to have furpafled
them.
With refpedl to fentiment and mental exertions, the
authors in queftion preferved their vigour, till luxury and
effeminacy, in confequence of power and opulence, ener¬
vated both the bodies and minds of the Romans. The
contagion foon became univerfal j and a liffleffnefs, or
intelledlual torpor, the ufual concomitant of luxury,
fpread indolence over the mental faculties^ which ren¬
dered them not only averfe to, but even incapable of,
induftry and perfeverance. This lethargic difpofftion of
mind feems to have commenced towards the conclufion
of the filver age j that is, about the end of the reign of
Adrian. It was then that the Roman eagle began to
Hoop, and the genius of Rome, as well in arts as in
arms, began to decline. Once more, the decl<*nfion of
the intelledlual powers of the writers of that nation did
not arife from the form of the government, but from the
caufes above fpecified.
As the Roman genius, about that period, began to
decline, fo the (lyle of the filver age was gradually viti-
• ated with barbarifms and exotic forms of fpeech. The
multitudes of barbarians who Hocked to Rome from all
parts of the empire ; the ambafladors of foreign princes,
and often the princes themfelves, with their attendants ;
the prodigious numbers of Haves Avho were entertained
ih all the confiderable families of the capital, and over
all Italy ; the frequent commerce which the'Roman ar¬
mies upon the frontiers carried on with the barbarians 5
all concurred to vitiate the Latin tongue, and to inter¬
lard it with foreign words and idioms. In fuch circum-
Rances, it was impoflible for that or any other language
to have continued pure and untainted.
This vitiated charafter both of ftyle and fentiment
became more and more prevalent, in proportion as it
defcended from the reign of Adrian towards the era of
the removal o,*' the imperial feat from Rome to Con-
Ilantinople. Then fucceeded the iron age, when the
Roman language became abfolutely rude and barba¬
rous.
Towards the clofe of the filver, and during the whole
courfe ef the brazen age, there appeared, however, many
writers of no contemptible talents. The moft remark¬
able was Seneca the ftoic, the mailer of Nero, whofe
character both as a man and a writer is difcufled with
great accuracy by the noble author of the CharuEierif-
iictf, to whom wg refer our readers.
About the fame time lived Perfius the fatirift, the
friend and difeiple of the ftoic Cornutus ; to wbofe pre¬
cepts he did honour by his virtuous life j and by his
works, though final], he fhowed an early proficiency in
the fcience of morals.
Under the mild government of Adrian and the Anto-
nines lived Aulus Gellius, or (as feme call him) Agel-
Jius: an entertaining writer in the mifcellaneous way,
well fidlled in criticifm and antiquity. His works con¬
tain feveral valuable fragments of philofephy, which are
indeed the moft curious part of them.
With Aulus Gellius we may rank Macrobius j not be-
taufe he was a contemporary (for he is fuppofed to have
lived under Honorius and Theodofius), but from his
near refemblance in the charadter of a writer. His
o L O G Y. Sea. VIII.
works, like thofe of the other, are mifcellaneous \ filled Latin
with mythology and ancient literature, with feme philo- Language*
fephy intermixed. y—w
_ In the fame age with Aulus Gellius flourilhed Apu.
leius of PTadaura in Africa ; a Platonic writer, whofe
matter in general far exceeds his perplexed and affeftrd
ftyle, too conformable to the falfe rhetoric of the age in
which he lived.
Boethius was defcended from one of the nobleft of the
Roman families, and was conful in the beginning of the
fixth century. He wrote many philofephieal works ;
but his ethic piece on the Confelation of Philofephy de-
ferves great encomiums, both for the matter and the
ftyle *, in which latter he approaches the purity of a far
better age than his own. By command of Theodoric
king of the Goths this great and good man fuft'ered
death ^ and with him the Latin tongue, and the laft re¬
mains of Roman dignity, may be faid to have funk in
the weftern world.
There were befides a goodly number both of poets
and hiftorians who flouriftied during this period } iuch
as Silius Italieus, Claudian, Aufenius, &.c. poets and
hiftorians to a very great number, for whom our readers
may confult Joh. Alberti Fabricii Bib/. Lat.
I here flouriftied, too, a number of ecclefiaftical writ-ec
ers, feme of whom deferve great commendation. Thedefiaftical"
chief of thefe is Laclantius, ivho has been defervedly writers in
dignified with the title of the Chrijiian Cicero. Latitl-
The Roman authors amount to a very fmall number
in comparifon of the Greek. At the fame time, when
we confider the extent and duration of the Roman em¬
pire, we are juftly furprifed to find fo few writers of cha-
radler and reputation in fo vaft a field. We think we
have good reafon to agree with the prince of Roman
poets in the fentiment already quoted.
Upon the whole, the Latin tongue deferves our atten-£xc^nc„
tion beyond any other ancient one now extant. The and uMut-
grandeur of the people by whom it was fpoken •, the nets of the
luftre of its writers •, the empire which it ft ill maintains Latin
among ourfelvesj the neceflity we are under ofTearningt0I18Ue'
it in order to obtain accefs to almoft all the fciences,
nay even to the knowledge of our own laws, of our ju¬
dicial proceedings, of our charters j all thofe circum-
ftances, and many others too numerous to be detailed,
render the acquifition of that imperial language in a pe¬
culiar manner at once improving and highly interelling.
Spoken by the conquerors of the ancient nations, it par¬
takes of all their revolutions, and bears continually their
impreffion. Strong and nervous while they were em¬
ployed in nothing but battles and carnage, it thundered
in the camps, and made the proudeft people to tremble,
and the moft defpotic monarchs to bend their ftubborn
necks to the yoke. Copious and majeftic, when, weary
of battles, the Romans inclined to vie with the Greeks
in fcience and the graces, it became the learned lan¬
guage of Europe, and by its luftre made the jargon of
lavages difappear who difputed with it the poffeffion of
that quarter of the globe. After having controuled by
its eloquence, and humanized by its laws, all thofe peo¬
ple, it became the language of religion. In fhort,
the Latin language will be ftudied and efteemed as
long as good fenfe and fine tafte remain in the
world.
Sect,
Sect. IX.
Celtic
Language-. g£C-j-> IX. Celtic, Gothic, and Sclavonian Languages.
j l. Of the Celtic Language.
In treating of the origin of the Latin tongue (fee
Sect. VIII.), we obferved that a great part of it is de¬
rived from the Celtic. We (hall now endeavour to give
fome account of the origin and extent of that ancient
language ; Hill leaving the minutiae to grammars and
dictionaries, as we have done with refpeCt to the other
dialeCts which have fallen under our confideration. Our
candid readers, it is hoped, will remember, that we are
aCting in the character of philologers, not in that of
grammarians and lexicographers,
ft '^in of ^lt: ^e^cen^ants Japhet having peopled the weft-
rhe Celts ern parts of Alia, at length entered Europe. Some
broke into that quarter of the globe by the north, others
found means to crofs the Danube near its mouth. Their
pofterity gradually afcended towards the fource of that
river j afterwards they advanced to the banks of the
Rhine, which they palled, and thence fpread themfelves
as far as the Alps and the Pyrenees.
Thefe people, in all probability, were compofed of
different families $ all, however, fpoke the fame lan¬
guage ; their manners and cuftoms bore a near refem-
blance j there was no variety among them but that dif¬
ference which climate always introduces. Accordingly
they were all known, in the more early times, by the
general name of Celto-fcythee. In procefs of time, be¬
coming exceedingly numerous, they were divided into
feveral nations, which were dittinguilhed by different
names and territorial appellations. Thofe who inhabited
that large country bounded by the ocean, the Mediter-
a0^ ranean, the Rhine, the Alps, and the Pyrenees, Avere
part of denominated Gauls or Celts. Thefe people multiplied
whom werefo prodigioully in the fpaee of a few centuries, that the
fertile regions which they then occupied could not af-
au S' ford them the means of fubfiftence. Some of them now
paffed over into Britain •, others croffed the Pyrenees,
and formed fettlements in the northern parts of Spain.
Even the formidable barriers of the Alps could not im¬
pede the progrefs of the Gauls : they made their way
into Italy, and colonized thofe parts which lie at the
foot of the mountains; whence they extended themfelves
towards the centre of that rich country.
By this time the Greeks had landed on the eaflern
coaft of Italy, and founded numerous colonies in thofe
parts. The two nations vying as it were with each other
in populoufnefs, and always planting colonies in the
courfe of their progrefs, at length rencountered about
the middle of the country. This central region was at
that time called Latium. Here the two nations formed
one fociety, which was called the Latin 'people. The
languages of the two nations were blended together ;
and hence, according to fome, the Latin is a mixture of
Greek and Gaelic.
As the Gauls were a brave and numerous people, they
certainly maintained themfelves in their priftine poffef-
fions, uninvaded, unconquered, till their civil animofi-
ties and domeftic quarrels expofed them as a prey to thofe
very Romans whom they had fo often defeated, and
fometimes driven to the brink of deftru&ion. They
were not a people addifted to commerce ; and, upon the
whole, coniidering their lituation both in their primary
355
feats and afterwards in Italy, they had little temptation Celtic
or opportunity to mingle with foreigners. Their lan- Langua5tt t
guage, therefore, mult have remained unmixed with fo¬
reign idioms. Such as it was when they fettled in Gaul,
fuch it mull have continued till the Roman conqucfts.
If therefore there is one primitive language now exift-
ing, it muft be found in the remains of the Gaelic or
Celtic. It is not, then, furprifing, that foine very
learned men, upon difcovering the coincidence of very
great numbers of words in fome of the Greek diale&s
with other words in the Celtic, have been inclined to
eftablilh a llriit affinity between thofe languages. The gefenL
ancient Pelalgic and the Celtic at leal! mult have nearly bbnce b*-
refembled each other, admitting a diale&ical difference tween their
only, and that diferimination which climate and a
period of time mult always produce. Qf the
Some have thought that the Gauls loft the ufe of their iafgi.
native language foon after their country was conquered
by the Romans ; but Monfeur Bullet, in his Memoires
de la Langue Celtique, has proved almoft to a demonftra-
tion, that the vulgar among thofe people continued to
fpeak it feveral centuries after that period. When a
great and populous nation has for many ages employed
a vernacular tongue, nothing can ever make them en¬
tirely relinquifh the ufe of it, and adopt unmixed that of
their conquerors.
Many learned men, among whom is the lexicogra¬
pher above mentioned, have fliown that all the local
names in the north of Italy are actually of Celtic ex¬
traction. Thefe names generally point out or deferibe
fome circumftances relating to the nature of their fitua-
tion : fuch as expofure, eminence, lownefs, moiftnefs,
drynefs, coldnefs, heat, &c. This is a very charaCter-
iftic feature of an original language ; and in the Celtic
it is fo prominent, that the Erfe names of places all
over Scotland are, even to this day, peculiarly diftin-
guithed by this quality. We have heard a gentleman,
who was well Ikilled in the dialect of the Celtic ftill
fpoken in the Highlands of Scotland, propofe to lay a
bet, at very great odds, that if one ffiould pronounce
the name of any village, mountain, river, gentleman’s
feat, &c. in the old Scottifh dialed, he fliould be able,
by its very name, to give a pretty exa£t defeription of
its local fituation.
To difeover the fources from which the Celtic tongue
is derived, wre muft have recourfe to the following expe¬
dients.
1. We muft confult the Greek and Latin authors,
who have preferved fome Gaelic or Celtic terms in their
writings.
2. We muft have recourfe to the Welfti and Baffe
Bretagne dialers; in which, indeed, there are many new
words, but thefe are eafily diftinguiftied ftom the primi¬
tive ftock.
3. If one would trace another fource of the Celtic,
he muft converfe with the country people and peafants,
who live at a diftance from cities, in thofe countries
where it was once the vernacular tongue. We have
been credibly informed, that a Highland gentleman
crofting the Alps for Italy, accidentally fell in with an
old woman, a native of thofe parts, who fpoke a lan¬
guage fo near akin to his native Erfe, that he could un-
derftand her with little difficulty ; and that ftie, on the
other hand, underftood moft of his words. That an
event of this nature ffiould actually take place is by n»
' Y y 2 means
PHILOLOGY.
205
The moll
genuine re¬
mains of
the eltic
in the
Highlands
ef Scot¬
land.
20 <5
The Welfli
dr 'ect not
pure, ror
\he Irilh.
means furprifing, tvhen we confider that the Erfe fpo-
ken in the Highlands of Scotland is perhaps the tnoft
genuine remnant of the Celtic now exifting, and at.the
lame tune redeft that there may be feme remote can¬
tons among thofe wild and inaeceffible mountains, the
Alps, where fome remains of that tongue may itill be
preferved.
4. vVe have kiid that the rrioft genuine remains of
the Gaelic tongue are. to be found in the Highlands of
Scotland •, and the reafon is obvious. The Seottilh
Highlanders are the unmixed unconquered pofterity of
the ancient Britons, into whole barren domains the
Romans never penetrated j not, we imagine, becaufe
they were not able, fince they fubdued both North and
South Wales, equally inacceffible, but becaufe they
found no feenes here either to tire their ambition or al¬
lure their avarice. Amidll all the revolutions that
from time to time iliook and eonvulfed Albion, thofe
mountainous regions were left to their primit ve lords,
who, like their fouthern progenitors, hofpitable in the
extreme, did not, however, fuffer ftrangers to reiide
long among them. Their language, accordingly, re¬
mained unmixed, and continues fo even unto this day,
efpecially in the mofl remote parts and unfrequented
iflands.
The Norwegians fubdued the weflern iflands of Scot¬
land, at a time when the Scottifh monarchy was ftill in
its minority. They credited a kind of principality over
them, of which the ifk of Man was the capital. Though
they maintained the fovereignty of thofe iflands for fome
centums, built many forts, and llrengthened them with
garrifons, and in fine were the lawgivers and adminiilra-
tors of juftice among the natives ; yet we have been in¬
formed by the molt refpexftable authority, that there is
not at this day a fingle vocable of the Norfe or Danifh
tongue to be found among thefe iilanders. This faff
affords a demonftration of that fuperlfitious attachment
with which they were devoted to their vernacular dia-
lefls.
The Welfndialeff tannot, we think, be pure and un-
fophiiticated. The Silures were conquered by the Ro¬
mans, to whom they were afluallv fubjeff for the fpace
of three centuries. During this period a multitude of
Italian exotics muft have been tranfplanted into their
language ; and indeed m'any of them are difcernible at
this day. Their long commerce with their Englifh
neighbours and conquerors hath adulterated their lan¬
guage, fo. that a great part of it is now of an Englifh
complexion. The Irifh is now fpoken by a race of
people wbofe morality and ingenuity is nearly upon a
level. Their latefl hiftorians have brought them from
the confines of ATa, through a variety of adventures, to
people ari iiland esct?'a annifolifque vias. However this
genealogical tale may pleafe the people for whom it was
fabricated, we miiif (fill fufpeff that the Irifh are of
Celtic extrafHon, and that their forefathers emigrated
fro n the weftern coaft of Britain at a period prior to all
hillorical or even traditional annals. Ireland was once
the native land of faints The chief aflors on this fa-
ered ftage were Romanifts, and deeply tinffiired with
the fuperftition of the times.- They pretended to im¬
prove the language of the natives 5 and whatever their
fuccefs was, they improved it in fuch a manner as to
make it deviate very confiderably from the original
Celtic y fo that it is not in Ireland that we are to look
PHILOLOGY. Sed. IX
for the genuine chara&ers of the dialed! under'eonfide
' eitic
aiguage.
ration. L
Though the Hibernian tongue, in our opinion, dif- v*—1
fers confiderably from the original Celtic, fome very in¬
genious eflays have been lately publifhed by the learned
and laborious members ot the Antiquarian Society ofCoAu
Dublin ; in which the coincidence of that tongue with le-
lome or the oriental dialedts, has been lupported byUveen ihu
very plaufible arguments. In a differtation publilhed in ghanidf-
the year 1772, they have exhibited a colledtion of Pu-
mco-Ma/teJe words compared with words of the fame im¬
port in irilh, where it muft be allowed the refemblance
is palpable. In the fame diflertation they have compa¬
red the celebrated Punic Icene in Plautus with itstranf-
lation into the Iriih •, in which the words in the two lan¬
guages are furprifingly fimilar. If thofe criticifms are
well founded, they will prove that the Celtic is coeval
and congenial with the moil ancient languages of the
eaft ; which we think highly probable. Be that as it
may, the Danes and Norwegians formed fettlements in
Ireland j and the Englifh have long been fovereigns of
that iftand. Thefe circumftances muft have affefted the
vernacular idiom of the natives ; not to mention the ne-
dellity of adopting the language of the conquerors in
law, in fciences, in the offices of religion.
The inhabitants of the highlands and iflands of Scot¬
land are the defeendants of thofe Britons who fled from
the power of the Romans, and Ifieltered themfelves among
the fens, rocks, and faftneffes of thofe rugged mountains
and fequeftered glens. /They preferred thofe waftes and
wilds, with liberty and independence, to the plealant
and fertile valleys of the fouth, with plenty embittered
by flavery. T hey no doubt carried their-language along
with them ; that language was a branch of the Celtic.
With them, no doubt, fled a number of the druidical
prieits, who unqueftionably knew their native dialed! in
all its beauties and varieties. Thefe fugitives in procefs
of time formed a regular government, eledted a king,
and became a confiderable ftate. They were feqbu-fler-
ed by their fituation from the reft of the world. With¬
out commerce, without agriculture, without the mecha¬
nical arts, and without objedfs of ambition or emulation,
they addidted themfelves wholely to the paftoral life as
their bufinefs, and to hunting and fifhing as their diver-
lion. Thofe people were not diftinguifhed bv an inno¬
vating genius ; and confequently their language muft;
have remained in the fame ftate in which they received
it from their anceftors. They received it genuine Cel¬
tic, and fuch they pn krved it.
When the Scots became mailers of the low country,
and their kings and a great part of the nobility embra¬
ced the Saxon manners, and adopted the Saxon lan¬
guage, the genuine Caledonians tenacioufly retained
their native tongue, drefs, manners, clanlhips, and feu¬
dal cuftoms, and could never cordially affimilate with
their fouthern neighbours. Their language, therefore,
could not be polluted with words or idioms borrowed
from a people whom they hated and defpifed. Indeed
it is plain-from the whole tenor of the Scottiffi hiftdry,
that neither Caledonian chieftans, nor their vaflals, were
ever fteadily attached to the royal family after they fixed
their refidence in the low country, and became Saxe ns,
as the Highlanders called them by way of teproach. In¬
deed the commerce between them and thole of the fouth,
till about a century and a half ago, was only tranfient
and
A IX. PH! LG
['eltic and accidental; nor ivas their native dialed in the leaft
”guaSe’ affefled by it.
Their language, however, did not degenerate, be-
eaufe there exifted among them a defcription of men
whole profeflion obliged them to guard again!! that mif-
fortune. Every chieftain retained in his family a bard
' or poet laureat, whofe province it was to compoie poems
honour of his lord, to commemorate the glorious ex¬
ploits of his anceltors, to record the genealogy and con¬
nections of the family •, in a word, to amufe and enter¬
tain the chief and his gueftsat all public'entertainments
and upon all folemn occafions.- Thofe profeflbrs of the
Parnaflian art ufed to vie with each other; and the'
chiefs of families often affembled their refpefHve bards,
and encouraged them by confiderable premiums to exert
their poetic talents. The victor was rewarded and ho¬
noured; and the chieftain deemed it an honour to him-
felf to entertain a bard who excelled his peers. The an¬
cient Gauls, as we learn from Diodorus Siculus, Strabo,
Tacitus, Lucan, Sec. entertained perfons of-that profef-
fion ; and certainly the ancient Britons, did the fame.
Thofe bards were highly revered ; their perfons were
deemed facred ; and they were always rewarded with
falaries in lands or cattle (fee Secfion Greek). Thofe
poetic geniufes muft have watched oyer their vernacular
diale&^vith the greale!! care and anxiety ; becaufe in
their compofitians no word was to be loft, but as many
gained as poflible.
The ufe of letters xvas-not known among the ancient
Ce/tce ; their druidical clergy forbade the ufe of them.
All their religious rites, their philofophical dogmas,,their
moral precepts, and their political maxims, were com-
pofed in verles which their pupils were,obliged to com¬
mit to memory. Accordingly letters were unknown to
the Caledonian Scots, till they learned them either from
their fouthern neighbours or from the Romans. 1 no
Irifh, indeed, pretend to have letters of a very ancient
date; the Highlanders of the country in queftion make
no claim to the ufe of that invention. I heir bards,
therefore, committed every thing to memory ; and of
courfe the words of their language,muft have been faith¬
fully preferved. We-find that the celebrated poems of
Oflian, and others of an inferior charadler, or at leaft
fragments of fuch poems (fee. Ossian), have thus been
prelerved from father to fon for,- more than 1000 years.
The beauty, fignificancy, harmony, variety, and energy
of thefe verfes, ftrike us even in a profe translation . how
infinitely more charming muft they appear in their na¬
tive form and poetical attire !
In order to exhibit the genius of the Celtic in as
linking a light as the nature of our prefent defign will
permit, we (hall lay before our readers a very contraft-
ed iketch of the Gaelic or Caledonian dialecl as it now
Hands; which we hope will go a great way to convince
them that this is the genuine offspring of the other. In
doing this we {hall borrow many hints from a gentle-
" man* whofe learning feems to equal his zea^ for his na¬
tive language ; which, in compliance with the modern
nra^ice, we Ihall for the future diftinguifti by the name
Wiain, c /•
Efq. advo- ^oeIiC• , ,
$ate. The Gaelic is not derived from any other language
as far as we know, being obvioufly reducible to its own
roots. Its combinations are formed of fimple words of
a knbwn fignification ; and thofe words are r< fi\'vable
into the limp‘eft combinations of vowels and confonants,
* E/frvs
Sic. by
James
Grant,
LOGY. ' 357
and even into fimple founds. In luch a language we
may expert that fume traces will be found of the ideas , ^ >
and notions of mankind living in a ftate of primeval fim-
plicity ; and if fo, a monument is ftill prelerved of the
primitive-manners of the Celtic race while as yet under
the guidance of fimple nature, without any artificial re-
ftraint or controul.
The fudden fenfations of heat arid cold, and bodily
pain, are expreffed by articulate founds, which, how¬
ever, are not ufed in this language to denote heat, cold,
or rodilv pain. ■ A fudden fenfation of heat is denoted
by an articulate exclamation halt; of cold, by id; pi
bodily pain, bv oich. All thefe founds may .be called
interje£iioniy being parts of fpeech which dilcover the
mind to be feized with fome paftion. Few of the im¬
proved languages of Europe prefent lo great a variety
of founds which inftantaneoully convey notice of a par¬
ticular paflion, bodily or mental feeling.
The pronouns he and Jhe are exprtfied by the fimple
founds e and z, and thefe are the marks of the mafeulino
and feminine genders; for a neuter gender is unknown
in the Gaelic. The compofitions of rude and barbarous
ages are univerfally found to approach to the ftvle and
numbers of poetry ; and this too is a diftinguiftiing cha-
ra£ter of the Gaelic. Bodily lubfitfence will always be ^
the principal concern of an uncultivated people- Hence
ed or eid is ufed upon difeovery of any animal of prey
or game : it is meant to give notice to the hunting com¬
panion to be in readinefs to feize the animal: and hence
we believe edo “ to eat” in Latin, and ed in Irilh, fig-
nifies 44 cattle ;” likewife in bcotch edal cattle-, lite¬
rally fignifies 44 the offspring or generation of cattle.”
Coed or cued, <4 {hare or portion of any fubjedf of pro¬
perty,” literally “common food.” Faced 44 hunting,’
literally 44 gathering of food.” Edra 44 the time of the
morning when cattle are brought home from paituit to
give milk,” literally 44 meal-time.” Thefe are words
importing the fimplicity of a primitive ftate, and arc
common in the Gaelic idiom..
Traces of imitative language remain in all countries.
The word ufed for cow in the Gaelic language is be,
plainly in imitation of the lowing of that animal.
In joining together original roots in the progrefs of
improving language and rendering it more copious, its
combinations difeover an admirable juftnefs and preci-
fion of thought, which one would fcarce expedl to find
' in an uncultivated dialed!. It will, however,, be found, Excellency
upon examination, that the Gaelic language, in its com - ct Gi-eiic
bLti-m of words, fpedfie. with accuracy the known
qualities, and exprefles with precifion the nature and
properties which were attributed to the objedl denomi¬
nated. .
An appears to have been a word of frequent uie in
this language, and feems to have been originally a name
applied indefinitely to any objedl. According to Bullet,
it was ufed to fignify “ a planet ;” hence the fun had
the name of grtan, which is a compound of “ hot,”
and an 44 a planet.” Re fignifies originally and radical¬
ly 44 divifion.” The changes of the moon and the va¬
riety of her phafes were early employed to point out the
divifions of time. The prefent name for \he moon is
<rei//ach ; a word derived fr« m her whitenefs of colour.
To thefe we might add a vaft number more whofe figni¬
fication preeifelv indicates their drape, colour, eftedls,
&c Many of thefe would be found exadtly fimilar to
' Greek
35'8
Celtic
Language,
210
Copioufnefs
and anti¬
quity of the
Celtic.
PHILO
Greek and Latin words of the fame found and fignifica-
„ tion. In order to fatisfy our curious readers, we fliall
annex a few, though fome of them may perhaps be
queflionable.
1 he Venus of the Latins is faid to be a compound of
ben z\\A.jus, which literally lignify “ the firfl: woman,”
the letter b in Gaelic being foftened into v. E$sig and
ttdxg fignify “ food.” Thefe words are compounded of
the Gaelic words ed or eiW and ar ; the former denotes
food limply, and the latter ploughed land. Thefe are the
roots of the Greek and Latin words s^*), edo ; ago*, aro.
]S^*, which fignifies “ a feat,” has an evident reference
to tood. It is compounded of two Gaelic word? ed and
ira, which literally lignifies “ meal-time.” which
lignifies “ the prefents which a bridegroom made to his
bride,” is a compound of two Gaelic words ed and na
or nuah, literally fignifying “ raw food.” From ar
there are many Greek derivatives. fignifies
“ ploughed land,” alfo “ crop of corn ;” Agre?, “ bread.”
In Gaelic a crop of corn and bread are exprefled by arb-
har, commonly pronounced arar and aran; all being
equally derivatives of the root ar. So the Greek and
Latin words etgorof, urabi/is, “ arable $” agor^ov, ara-
trum, “ a plough j” arator, “ a ploughman j”
and mairy others, are evidently derived from the fame
fource. We would not, however, fugged, in confe-
quence of this coincidence, that either the Greek or La¬
tin languages was derived from the Gaelic j we rather
believe that thefe are remains of a primeval tongue,
which are dill retained in all the three *, and we produce
them upon the prefent occafion as prefumptions that the
Gaelic is an original, underived language, and ofcourfe
the mod pure and unadulterated relick of the Celtic now
exiding. If our readers diould incline to know more of
this fubjeft, they may confult Pezron’s Origin of Ancient
Nations, Uullet’s Mem. de la Langue Celtique. Parfon’s
Rem. ofJaphet, Gebelin’s Monde prim. &c.
When the Celtic language was generally fpoken over
Europe, it feems to have been amazingly copious. By
confulting Bullet’s Memoires, it appears that its names
for the common and various obje&s of nature w'ere very
numerous. The words denoting water, river, wood, fo-
red, mountain, lake, &.c. were mod precifely accom¬
modated to fpecify each modification and variety, with
fuch peculiar exaftnefs as even the Greek, with all its
boaded idiomatical precifion and copioufnefs, has not
been able to equal. The appearances which diverfify
the vifible face of inanimate nature, arred the attention
of men in an uncultivated date. Unaccudomed to
thought and abdraft reafoning, their minds expand and
exercife their powers upon fenfible obje&s, and of courfe
mark every minuiia and almod imperceptible didin&ion
with an accuracy to us feemingly impeflible.
We hope it now' appears to every reader, that the Cel¬
tic was one of the dialers of the primitive language 5
that it once overfpread by far the greated part of Eu¬
rope •, that the Gaelic now fpoken in the northern parts
of Scotland and the adjacent ifiands is the mod pure and
unmixed relick of that tongue now anywhere exiding.
We would willingly refer our readers to fome well com-
pofed grammar of that language ; but indeed we know
of none that deferves our recommendation. Some years
ago we were flattered with the profpett of feeing one
publiihed by a gentleman whofe deep flcill in that lan¬
guage is univerfally acknowledged. We have likewife
LOGY.
, Sea. ix.
heard of an intended di&ionary of the fame tongue; but Celtic
hitherto our hopes have been difappointed. language.
We are, however, happy to find that there is now
publifhing an excellent tranflation of both the Old and
New Tedaments into Gaelic, which has hitherto been a
defideratum among thofe who fpeak this language. Such
a tranfkition will at once contribute to preferve that an¬
cient tongue, and difieminate the knowledge of the truth
among the natives of that country.
Every aflidance towards acquiring the knowledge of
a tongue which was once univerfal over a great part of
Europe, will certainly be an acceptable prefent to the
public. The antiquary, who is defirous of tracing the
affinity of languages, and whiles to mark the migrations
of people, ought certainly to apply himfelf to the dudy
of its remaining branches 5 and, if u'e midake not, he
will foon be convinced, that they all breathe a fpirit con¬
genial to the manners and fentiments of a people who
are jud entering upon the fird dage of improvement and
civilization.
Perhaps it may be expe&ed, that, before we con- origin^f
elude this diort fketch of the Celtic tongue, we diould the words
give fome account of the origin of the words Ga&/and and
Gal, the two names by which this people was diflin-Ga/‘
guidied by the Greeks and Romans. Mr M‘Pherfon
imagines, that the appellation of Celt is an adjedlive
derived from Gael, the aboriginal name of the inhabi¬
tants of ancient Gaul. For our part, we can fee no
connexion between Gael and Kelt, nor do we think
that the latter is an adjeftive. We believe that thofe
people called themfelves Cael and not Gael. We are
fure that Caledonia, or Cal-don or dun, was an ancient
name of the mountainous parts of Scotland.
I hough many diflerent opinions have been advanced
with relation to the etymology of this word, we ima¬
gine that none is fo probable as that which fuppofes
that it is compounded of the tw-o Celtic words Cal or
Kal, that is, “ Gal or Gaul,” and dun, which figni¬
fies “ a hill or mountain.” Upon this ground, the
Caledonii will import the Gauls of the mountains, or,
which is the fame, the Highland Gauls. The Irifli
and Highlanders reciprocally denominate themfelves
by the general title of Gael, Gael, or Gauls. They
alfo diftinguiffi themfelves, as the Welch originally
did, and as the Welch diftinguiffi them both at pre¬
fent, by the appellation of Guidhill, Guethel, and Ga-
thel. The intermediate th, they fay, is left quiefeent
in the pronunciation, as it is in many words of the>
Britifh language 5 in which cafe Gathel would imme¬
diately be formed into Gael; and Gathel is actually
founded like Gael by both the Iriffi and Highlanders at
prefent. I he appellation of Gathel, therefore, fay they,
was originally the fame with Gael, awd the parent of it.
The quiefeent letters in Britifti are frequently transfer¬
red from the middle to the conclufion of the word j by
which manoeuvre, Gathel is changed into Galath, Galat,
Galt, and Celt. It is true, that Gael of the continent is
univerfally denominated Galatce and Celtce by the Gre¬
cians, and Gallt and Gallta by the Iriffi. The appella¬
tions, therefore, of Gathel-i, Gall-i, Gallat-ce, Calet-es,
An-calit-es, and Celt-ee, are all one and the fame deno¬
mination, only varied by the aftonifhing du&ility of the
Celtic, and difguiftd by the alterations ever incident to
a language that has been merely oral for ages.
It may perhaps appear prefumptuous in us to dif¬
fer
;a. IX. PHILO
Celtic fer from two fuch refpe&able authorities as 'M‘Pber-
nguigc, anci Whitaker : we muft, however, acknowledge,
that neithei* the one nor the other appears to us well
founded. Befides, they convey no idea of the fignifi-
cation of the words, though in. the Celtic language
they muft have been fignificant. The name Cael, the
fame with Gal, was probably given them in the Eaft
from the Greek which in many oriental languages
denotes fair; and yxXetnct, may be eafily derived from
r/xX or '/xXxi, Gal or Galath.—This denomination might
be given them by.their neighbours, in allufion to their
fair complexion.
§ 2. Of the Gothic Language.
The Celtic and Gothic tongues at one time divided
Europe between them. Both w’ere of equal antique
ty, both originated in Alia, both were dialects of the
m original language of mankind. The Celtic, however,
icient was firft imported into Europe. The Gauls or Celts
'tliie. had penetrated fartheft towards the weft 5 a circum-
ftanee which plainly intimates the priority of their ar¬
rival. In the population of countries, we believe it
may be held as a maxim, that the colonies who emir-
grated firft were generally impelled by fucceeding emi¬
grants ; and that of confequence the molt early were
pulhed forward to the parts moft diftant. The Celts,
then, having overfpread the moft weftern parts of
Europe, muft have arrived more early in thofe re¬
gions.
The Goths and Getae were the fame race of people,
Lb. i. according to Procopius de hello Goth.; and Strabof-
Lib! ii. us> ^iat they fpoke the fame language with
3.2.j. the Thracians, from whofe confines they had fpread
themfelves northvvard as far as the weftern banks of the
ie fame Daniibe. Vopifcus, in the Hiftory of Probus, tells us,
th the that this emperor J obliged “ the Thracians, and all t he
J-ge Getic tribes, either to furrender or accept of his friend-
iracians ^P'” ^is expreflion indicates, that the Thracians
-ib. ' and the Geticr tribes were deemed the fame race of
people. From this deduflion it is clear, that the Ge-
tag and Thracians were brethren ; that they fpoke the
fame language : and that their laws, manners, cuftonis,
and religious tenets, were the fame, might eafily be
fhown, were this a proper place for an inquiry of that
nature.
The Thracian language, as might be demonftrated
from names of perfons, offices, places, and cuftoms,
among that people, was nearly related to the Chaldean
and other oriental languages.
I hey are thought to have been the defendants of
Tiras, one of the Tons of Japhet, and confequently
214 muft have preferved the fpeech of the Noachic fami-
‘ginof ly. The Gothic language abounds with Pahlavi, or
- Goths, old Perfic words, which are no doubt remains of the
primeval dialeft of mankind. The Thracians peo¬
pled a confiderable part of the northern Coaft of Alia
Minor j and confequently we meet with many names
«f cities, mountains, rivers, &c. in thofe parts, exa&ly
LOGY. 359
correfponding with many names in Europe, evidently Gothic
impofed by our Gothic progenitors. Any perfon to- Languagev
lerably acquainted with the remains of the Gothic
tongue, will be able to trace thefe with little diffi¬
culty.
We learn from Herodotus *, that Darius in his * Lib. iv*
expedition againft the wandering Scythians who lived/'^"7*
on the other fide of the Ifter or Danube, in his pro-
grefs fubdued the Getse; and in the fame pafiage the
hiftorian informs us, that thefe people held the im¬
mortality, of the human foul, and that they were the
bra veil: and moft juft of all the Thracians. After this
period, we find them mentioned by almoft every Greek
writer, even familiarly ; for Geta, in the comedies of
that nation, is a common name for a Have. The Getae
then occupied all that large traft of country which ex¬
tended from the confines of Thrace to the banks of the
Danube j were a brave and virtuous people ; and fpoke
the fame language with the Thracians, with whom they
are often confounded both by Greek and Roman hifto-
rians.
But the name of Goths is by no means fo ancient.
It was utterly unknown both to the ancient Greeks
and Romans. The firft time that the name Goth is
mentioned is in the reign of the emperor Decius, about
the year of Chrift 250. About that time they burft
out of Getia, and, rulhing like a torrent into the empire,
laid wafte every thing with fire and fword. The name
of their leader or king was Cneva. Decius, endea¬
vouring to expel them from Thrace, was vanquilhed and ;
Ilain.
After this irruption, we find them frequently in the •
Latin authors under the name .of or Go/viz'; though «
the Greeks generally denominate them Sci/thce. Tor-
ficus tells us, that get f «nd got are actually the fame.j. ff,gery
word, which anciently, according to him, denoted a Norway,
foldier.” Got in Icelandic fignifies a “ horfe or lib. i.
horfeman,” and gata a “ wanderer $” and this laft was
perhaps the import of the term Geta, they being origi¬
nally an unfettled vagrant people. As nations general¬
ly affume to themfelves fome high aufpicious denomina¬
tion, we may believe the Goths did the fame. We may
therefore reft fatisfied, that the Getaavaffumed the Ice¬
landic name above mentioned as their national one:
or perhaps, notwithftanding their Greek denomination, .
they called themfelves Gots or Goths from the begin¬
ning.
The original feat of the Goths was the country Their'pri-
now called Little Tartarg, into which they had ex-tnary fear.-
tended themfelves from the frontiers of Thrace. This
country was called Little Scythia by the Greek wri¬
ters 5 and it was the ftation whence thofe innumerable
fwarms advanced, which, in conjuntlion with the A-
lanr and other barbarous tribes, at length overran
and fubverted the weftern empire. One part of the
Gothic nation was allowed by Conftantine to fettle in
Moefia. Before the year 420 moft of the Gothic na¬
tions who had fettled within the limits of the Roman
empire had been converted to the Chriftian faith 5
but,
(b) Lib. vii. page 295, B. *, ibid, page 305. G. (Cafaubon). From this paffage it appears, that the Greeks
■were of opinion that the Getas were Thracians. Plin. Nat. Hijl. lib. iv. cap. n..mentions a tribe of the Getsn
called Gaudce.
a 16
Remains
of genuine
Gothic.
217
Gothic al¬
phabet.
. nS
Gothic lan
gusge de¬
rived from
the Cha!-
•dean, &c.
PHILO
but, unbappily, tbe greater part of the apoftles by
whom they had been profelyted, were Ariaris, which
proved fatal to many of the orthodox Chriltians j for
the Arian Goths perfecuted them with unrelenting
cruelty.
About the year 367, Ulphilas bifltop of the Moe-
fian Goths, tranilated the New Tellament into the
Gothic language. The remaiiis of this trandatiun
furnilh a genuine, and at the fame time venerable, mo¬
nument of the ancient Gothic dialedt* No more is
now extant of that valuable translation than the four
Gofpels, and another fragment containing part of
the epiftle to the Romans. The Gofpels have been
repeatedly publilhed fince the fir it edition by Junius
j66^, down to that of Mr Lye. Other fragments of
the Gothic language have alfo been found, which our
curious readers may fee in Lye’s Notes to his Edition
of the Gothic Gofpels, The fragment of the Epiftle
to the Romans was lately difeovered in the library at
Wolfenbuttle, and publilhed by Knitel archdeacon of
Wolfenbuttle.
The Goths, prior to the age of Ulphilas, were ig¬
norant of the ufc of alphabetical chara£ters. The bi-
fhop fabricated an alphabet for them, which is a medley
of Greek and Roman letters, but rather inclining to the
former.
This alphabet confifts of 25 letters (fee Plate XV.).
Junius has carefully analyzed thofe letters, and pointed
out their powers and founds in his Gothic alphabet, pro-
fixed to his Glofjtirium Gothicum. They Were long
retained in all the European languages derived from
the Gothic fource, which will be enumerated in the
fequel.
What kind of language the ancient Gothic was, is
plain from the fragments above mentioned *, but in what
refpects it agrees with the oriental tongues, or differs
from them, is not eafy to afeertain with precifton. We
have'obferved in our feftion on the Greek, that a con-
fiderable part of that language muft have been derived
from the Thracian ; which, according to Strabo there
quoted, was the fame with the Getic or Gothic. The
Thracian tongue will, we are convinced upon compari-
fon, be found analogous to the Chaldean or Syrian. The
German, which is a genuine defeendant of the Gothic,
is full of Perfian words : the old Perfian or Pahlavi ap¬
pears to be a dialed of the Chaldean. The learned
Junius, near the beginning of Ids Gothic alphabet,
remarks, that a very confiderable part of the lan¬
guage in queftion is borrowed from the moft ancient
Greek.
Roth the Lamed Ihre in his Glqffarium Suio-Gothi-
cutn, and Wachter in his excellent German and La¬
tin Diftionary, often remark the coincidence of Go¬
thic and German words with oriental vocables of the
like found and of the fame Ggnifieation. In the old
Saxon, which is another ramification of the Gothic
tongue, numberlefs terms of the very fame complexion
appear. From this dedu&ion we hope it will follow,
that the Gothic tongue, in its original Unmixed ftate
as it was fpoken by the ancient Getae, was a dialect
of the primeval language j that language which the
fons of Tiras brought with them from the plains
of Shinar or from Armenia, or from any other re¬
gion where the primitive mortals had fixed their reft-
L 0 G Y. _ Sefl. ix.
dence. To confirm this pofiUon, we ftiall annex a few Gothic
in fiances. Language.
The Thracian tribes,'in all probability, firft took 'r"“-
poffeftion of thofe tribes of Afia Minor which ftretch
towards the eaft. Thence they crofted the Hellefpont,
and fpread themfelvcs far and wide northward. Strabo
fuppofes that they firft fettled in the regions to the
north of thofe ftraits, and thence tranfported numerous
colonies into Afia Minor. The reverie was probably
the cafe : but be that as it may, it is univevfally agreed,
that both Tides of the- Hellefpont were peopled with
Thracians.
In Afia Minor we meet with the city Perga, which,
throwing away the a, is Perg. In every tongue de-
feended from the Gothic, the word Berg fignifie?
“a rock,” and metaphorically a “town or burgh j”
becaufe towns were originally built on rocks for the
fake of defence. Hence likewife Pergamos, the fort or
citadel of Troy. Beira in Thracian fignified a “ city
the Chaldaic and Hebrew Word Beer imports a “ well,”
and is poflibly the original of the Gothic word beer,
et!e. In ancient times, efpecially in the Eaft, it was
cuftomary to build cities iu the neighbourhood of foun¬
tains. The ancients called the Phrygians Bgwyet, Bnj-
ges, or Bruges ; the Gothic word coinciding is ob¬
vious. Dt/rxlymus, the name of a city facred to Cy-
bele, is compounded of two Gothic words Pun and dum,
both fignifying “ a height, an eminence j” and hence
a town, an inclofure. The word tros feems to be the
very Gothic trofh, “ brave, valiant.” The wordsyit-
der, inader, dochter, bruder, are fo obvioufly Perfian,
that every etymologift has aftigned them to that lan¬
guage. ,v
Many futile etymologies have been given of the fa¬
cred name GW, which is in reality the Perfian word Cho~
da, commonly applied by them to their Hormaxd or Oro-
marzes. The Perfian bad or bod figrtifies a “ city
the fame word in Gothic imports a “ houfe, a manfion,
an abode..” Band, in Perfic, a “ ftrait place in Go¬
thic, “ to bend.” Heim or ham, “ a houfe,” is gene¬
rally known to be of Perfian original. Much critical
{kill has been difplayed in tracing the etymology of the
Scotch and old Englifh word Yule, “ Chriftmas.”
Yu/e, derived from ml, was a feftival in honour of the
fun, which was originally celebrated at the winter fol-
ftice. Wick or tvich is a Gothic term {till preferved in ,
many names of towns 5 it fignifies “ a harrow corner,
or fmall ftrip of land jutting into the fea, or into a lake
or river hence the Latin vietts, and Greek <poix.c(.
In Spanifh, we have many old Gothic words ; among
others hi/o a “ fon,” the fame with the Greek v/ej. In
feme places of Scotland, we call any thing that is little,
fmall, wee; originally fpelt wi, if we miftake not, from
the very fame word.
Thefe few examples we have thrown together, with*
out any regard to order, perfuaded that almoft every
word of the language, truly Gothic, may with a little
pains and judgment be traced to feme oriental root or
cognate. We may obferve in pafling, that many Go¬
thic nouns end in a, like the Chaldaic and Syriac ; that
their fubftantive verb very much refembles that.of the
Perfian, Greek, and Latin } and that their aflive and
auxiliary verb lias furnifhed the common preterperfeft
tenfe of Greek verbs in the a&ive voice : that verb is
liabarit
left. IX. PHILO
Gothic haban, but originally ha, as the common people pro-
.antua e. nounee it at this day, efpecially in the north of Scot-
land, and among the Swedes, Danes, Norwegians, and
Icelanders.
[odem now ^eave t^ie °ther inferior arrangements
mgues of this ancient language to grammarians and lexico-
jduced graphers, and proceed to inquire what modern tongues
ora the are deiced from it as their flock, and which of them
•makes the neareit approaches to its fimplicity and ruf-
ticity.
YVTe have already obferved that the Goths, formerly
Getce, were pofieffed of a vafl extent of country,
-reaching from the frontiers of Thrace to the banks of
the lifer or Danube. We have feen that a colony of
them fettled in Mcefia under Conflantine II. They
then fpread themfelves into Dacia, and from thence in¬
to Germany. AH thefe countries were fituated in fuch
a manner, that the progrefs of population was forward,
and according to the natural courfe of emigration.
From Germany thev extended themfelves into Scandi¬
navia, that is, Sweden. Denmark, and Norway. Their
whole ancient Edda, Sagas, “ Chronicles,” {how that
the Goths arrived in Scandinavia by this route, without,
however, fixing the era of that event with any tolerable
degree of accuracy. Bv the Germans, we believe the
ancients underflood all tlm nations eaflward, weftward,
and northward, reaching from the Danube on the fouth
up to the extremity of Scandinavia on the Northern
ocean ; and from the Rhine and German ocean on the
well, to'the river Chronus or Niemen on the eaff. All
thofe nations fpoke one or other of the Gothic dialedls,
fome approaching nearer, and others deviating farther
from, the parent language.
The Francic is a dialect of the Teutonic, Tudefque,
or old German 5 and the Gofpels of Ulphilas bear fuch
a refemblance to the Francic, fragments of which are
preferved in the early French hiftorians, that fome
learned men have pronounced thofe gofpels to be part
of an old Francic verfion *, but others, of equal refpec-
tability have refuted this opinion, both from hiftory
and comparifon of the dialefts. Schiller has given us
large monuments of the Tudefque or old German from
the feventh century, which evidently prove that the
Gothic of Ulphilas is the fame language. Wachter’s
learned Gloffary of the ancient German likewife con¬
firms this pofition. Mr Hire, after hefitating whether
the Gofpels of Ulphilas bear moff refemblawce to the
German or Scandinavian dialeft of the Gothic, declares
at lafl in favour of the former. The Anglo-Saxon is
alfo known to be a venerable dialeft of the Tudefque ;
and is fo intimately connefted with the gofpels, that
fome valuable works on this fubjeft are wholly built
upon that fuppofition.
The Icelandic is the oldefl relick of the Scandina¬
vian. It begins with Arius Frode in the eleventh
century, and is a dialeff of the German. The re¬
mains we have of it are more modern bv four centuries
than thofe of the German : they are more polifhed
than the other. The words are fhortened, not only
becaufe they are more modern than the German, but
becaufe the Icelandic was polifhed by a long fucceflion
of poets and hiftorians almoft equal to thnfe of Greece
and Rome. Hence the Icelandic, being a more po¬
lifhed language than the German, has lefs affinity with
the parent Gothic. The Swedifh is more nearly related
Vol. XVI. Part I.
LOGY. $61
to the Icelandic than either the Daniili or Norwegian. Gothic
That the Swedifh is the daughter of the Gothic, is fully f-ai'£u-'^r
fhown by Mr Hire above mentioned, in his Gloffariwn
Suio-Gothicum. There is, therefore, no manner of doubt
as to the identity of the Gothic, preferved in Ulphilas
and other ancient remains, with the German and Scan¬
dinavian tongue.
The modern German, a language fpoken in a far
greater extent than any other of modern Europe, re-
fembles the G-othic Gofpels more than the prefent Da-
nifh, Norwegian, or Swedifh •, and has certainly more
ancientJiatTiina. Its likeneis to the Afiatic tongues, in
harfhnefs and inflexible thicknefs of found, is very ap¬
parent.
Bufbequius fhows, that the clowns of Crim Tartary,
remains of the ancient Goths, fpeak a language almoft
German. Thefe clowns were no doubt defeendants of
the ancient 'Goths, who remained in their native coun¬
try after the others had emigrated. It is therefore ap¬
parent from the whole of this invefligation, that the
Gothic was introduced into Europe from the Eaft, and
is probably a dialed of the language originally fpoken
by men.
§ 3. Of the Sclavoniun Language.
There is another language which pervades a con-
fiderable part of Europe, and this, like the Gothic, 220
fe£ms to have originated in the eaft. The language Salavonic
we mean is the Sclavonic or rather Slavonic, which pre-^anSuaSei>
vails far and wide in the eaftern parts of this divifion
of the globe. It is fpoken by the Dalmatians, by the
inhabitants of the Danubian provinces, by the Poles,
Bohemians, and Ruffians. The wmrd fab, that is,
“ Have,” (whence the French word efclave, and our
word fave'), fignifies “ noble, illuftrious j” but becauf’e
in the lower ages of the Roman empire, vaft multitudes
of thefe people were fpread over all Europe in the qua¬
lity-of (laves, that word came to denote the fervile tribe
by w;ay of diftindion in the fame manner as the words
Geta, Daws, and Syrus, did among the Greeks at a
more early period. 221
The Slavi dwelt originally on the banks of the Bo- fpoken by
ryfthenes, now the Dnieper or Nieper. They were one A®
of the tribes of the European Sarmatians who in ancient trq,PSOf the
times inhabited an immenfe tra6t of country, bounded Sarmatians*
on the weft by the Viftula, now the Weifel ; on the
fouth-eaft by the Euxine fea, the Bofphorus Cimmerius,
the Palus Mceotis, and the Tanais or Don, which divides
Europe from Afia.
In this vaft trad of country, which at prefent com¬
prehends Poland, Ruffia, and a great part of Tartary,
there dwelt in ancient times many confiderabie tribes.
To enumerate thefe, we believe, would not much edify
our readers : we (hall only inform them, that among
thefe Sarmatian clans were the Roxolani, now the Ruf¬
fians, and likewife the Slavi, who dwelt near tire Bory-
fthenes, as was obferved above.
The Slavi gradually advanced towards the Danube ;
and in the reign of Juttinian having paffed that river,
they made themfelves matters of that part of lllyricum
which lies between the Drave and the Save, and is to
this day from them called Seiavoma. Thefe barba¬
rians by degrees overran Dalmatia, Liburnia, the
weftern parts of Macedonia, Epirus ; and on the eaft
they extende-d their quarters all along to the weftern
Z r banfe
222
the Poles,
223
Silefians,
and
224
Ituffiar.s,
defcended
from the
Slavi.
362 P H
Slavonian bank of the Danube, where that river falls into the
Language.. Euxine. In all thefe countries, the Sclavonian was
deeply impregnated with the Greek, which was a thing
of courfe, fince the barbarian invaders fettled in thole
regions, and mingled with the aborigines, who fpoke a
corrupt dialeft of that language.
The Poles are the genuine defcendants of the ancient
Sarmatae (c), and confequently fpeak a dialeft of their
language, but much adulterated with Latin words, in
confequence of the attachment the Polanders have long
profelfed to the Roman tongue.
The Silefians and Bohemians have corrupted their di¬
alers in the very fame manner. In thole countries,
then, we are not to fearch for the genuine remains of the
ancient Sarmatian.
The modern Ruffians, formerly the Rhoxani or
Roxolani, are the pofterity of the Sarmatae, and are a
branch of the Slavi : they inhabit a part of the coun¬
try which that people poffefled before they fell into
the Roman provinces ; they fpeak the fame language,
and wear the very fame drefs •, for, on the hiftorical
pillar at Conffantinople, the Sclavonians are dreffed
like the Ruffian boors. If then the Slavi are Sarma¬
tae, the Ruffians muff of courfe be the defcendants of
the fame people. They were long a lequeftered people,
and confequently altogether unconnected with the other
nations of Europe. They were ftrangers to commerce,
inhofpitable to ftrangers, tenacious of ancient ufages,
averfe to improvements of every kind, w’onderfully
proud of their imaginary importance •, and, in a word,
a race of people juft one degree above abfolute favagifm.
A people of this character are, for the moll part, ene¬
mies to innovations ; and if we may believe the Ruffian
hiftorians, no nation was ever more averfe to innovations
than the one in queftion. From the ninth century, at
which era they embraced Chriftianity, it does not ap¬
pear that they moved one ftep forward towards civiliza¬
tion, till Peter the Great, not a century ago, in confe¬
quence of his defpotic authority, compelled them to
adopt the manners and cuftoms of their more polilhed
neighbours.
We may then conclude, that the Ruffians made as
little change in their language during that period, as
they did in their drefs, habits, and manner of living.
Whatever language they fpoke in the ninth century,
the fame they employed at the beginning of the 18th.
They were, indeed, according to Appian de bel. Mi-
(hrid. once conquered by Diophantus,one of Mithridates’s
generals, but that conqueft was for a moment only :
they were Irkewife invaded, and their country overrun,
by the great Timor or Tamerlane ; but this invafion
was like a torrent from the mountains, which fpreads
devaftation far and wide while it rages, but makes little
alteration on the face of the country.
We find likewife, that upon fome occafions they
made incurfions upon the frontiers of the Roman em¬
pire ; but we hear of no permanent fettlements formed
by them in thefe quarters. Upon the whole, we take
the Ruffians to have been, with refpefl to their lan¬
guage, in the very fame predicament with the high-
I L O L O G Y.
SedL IX.
landers and iflanders of Scotland, who, according to Sclavonian
the general opinion, have preferved the Celtic dialed Language.
pure and entire, in confequence of their having never
mingled with foreigners.
From this dedudion we may infer two things; firft, The^uf
that the Ruffian language is the genuine Sclavonian 5 fian Ian."
and, fecondly, that the latter is the fame, or nearly the§ua£ege-
fame, with the ancient Sarmatian. nuine Scia.
In the Ruffian, there are found a great number of'^’
words refembling the old fimple roots of the Greek
both in found and fignification •, its grammatical ge¬
nius is nearly the fame 5 and we are informed by the^
very beft authority, that there is in this language a
tranflation of Epictetus, in whifh there are cvliole-
pages, in both original and tranllation, without one
tingle tranfpofition. Monf. Leveque, who has puhlifh-
ed a tranffation of a hiftory of Ruffia, is fo entirely con¬
vinced of the ftrid analogy between the ancient Greek
and the modern Ruffe, that he is pofitive that the form¬
er is derived from the latter. Monf. Freret, a very
learned French academician, is clearly of the fame opi¬
nion. We are, however, perfuaded that this opinion is
ill founded. We rather imagine, that thofe coinci¬
dences arife from the relicks of the primitive language
of mankind j veftiges of which, we believe, are to be
found almoft in every tongue now exifting.
It is, however, we allow, uncommonly difficult to
render a reafon for the fyntaxical analogy of the two
languages, without admitting the truth of the one or
the other hypothefis. We have examined with fome
care a good number of Ruffian vocables, and compared
them with Greek ones of the fame fignification. We
have not, however, found fuch a refemblance as we
think neceffary to fupport the pofition advanced above.
We have indeed found a very ftrong refemblance be- Refem-
tween the former and many oriental words, efpecially bLmce be-
Hebrew, Chaldean, and old Perfian, of which we could t.ween Eui*
produce feveral inftances, did the nature of our prefent
inquiry admit fuch a deviation. Every body knowsword5,
that the Sarmata; were divided into two great nations,
the Afiatic and European } the former extended very
far eaft ward, behind the mountain Caueafus, the northern
ffrore of the Euxine fea, and fo forth. Thefe, we may
believe, derived their language from the original tongue
long before the Greek language exifted. This, in com-
parifonof the Hebrew, Phoenician, Egyptian, Arabian,
Chaldean, &c. was but of yefterday. The Greek, moft
learned men are now convinced, was a late compofition
of many different dialers, incorporated with the jargon
of the aboriginal lonim or Greeks. The Sarmatian, on
the contrary, was the tongue of a great and populous
nation, civilized, in all appearance, long before the
Greeks began to emerge from a ftate of favagifm. We
are, therefore, by no means difpofed to allow, either that
the Greek is derived from the Ruffian, or the Ruffian
Irom the Greek. We believe there is juft the fame
reafon for this conclufion, that the Abbe Pezron and
Monf. Gebelin pretend to have difeovered, in order to
fupport their pofition that the Greek is derived from the,
Celtic. Certain it is, that the refemblance among the
oriental
(c) This.appears by their chara&er, their laws, their manners, their form of government, their military equi¬
page, their impetuofity, their ariftocratie Iplendour.
iguage
d the
reek.
IX. PHILO
[avonian oriental languages, of which we take the Sarmatian to
nguage-j have been one, is fo palpable, that any perfon of a mo-
derate capacity who is perfectly mafter of one, will find
little difficulty in acquiring any other. If, therefore,
the coincidence between the Greek and Ruffian ffiould
a&ually exift, we think this circuraftance will not au¬
thenticate the fuppofidon, that either of the two is de¬
rived from the other.
In the courfe of this argument, our readers will be
pleafed to obferve, that vie all along fuppofe, that the
Sclavonian, of which we think the Ruffian is the moft.
genuine remain, is the fame with the old Sarmatian.
We ffiall now take the liberty to hazard a conje&ure
with refpedl to the fyntaxical coincidence of that lan¬
guage with the Greek v for we acknowledge that we
are not fo profoundly verfed in the Ruffian dialedd of
the Sclavonian as to pretend to pronounce a definitive
fentence.
As the Ruffians were a generation of favages, there
is no probability that they were acquainted with the ufe
siy of letters and alphabetical writing till they acquired
iginof that art by intercourfe with their neighbours. It is cer-
UmnT't3”1’ bey°nd aRcontridi&ion, that few nations had made
nee be-" Pr°ficiency in the fine arts than that under cohfider-
reen this ation : and we think there is little appearance of their
having learned this art prior to their converfion to
Chritfianity. Certain it is, that the Slavi, who fettled
in Dalmatia, Illyria, and Liburnia, bad no alphabetical
charafters till they were furniffied with them by St Je¬
rome. The Servian charafler, which very nearly re-
fetnbles the Greek, was invented by St Cyril; on which
account the language written in that charadler is de¬
nominated Chiurili%%a. Thefe Sclavonic tribes knew
nothing of alphabetic writing prior to the era of their
eonverfion. The Mceiian Goths were in the fame con¬
dition till their biffiop Ulphilas fabricated them a fet of
letters.
If the Slavi and Goths, who refided in the neighbour¬
hood of the Greeks and Romans, had not learned alpha¬
betical writing prior to the era of their converfion to
Chriftianity, it muft hold, di fortiori, that the Ruffians,
who lived at a very great diftance from thofe nations,
knew nothing of this ufeful art antecedent to the period
©f their embracing the Cbriftian faith.
The Ruffians pfeterd that they were converted by
St Andrew; but this is known to be a fable. Chrifti-
amty was firfi: introduced among them in the reign of
the grand duke Wolodimar, who marrying the daugh¬
ter of the Grecian emperor Bafilius, became her con¬
vert about the year 989. About this period, we ima¬
gine, they were taught the knowledge of letters by the
Grecian miffionaries, who were employed in teaching
them the elements of the Chriftian doftrines. Their
alphabet confifts of 31 letters, with a few obfolete ad¬
ditional ones *, and thefe characters refemble thofe of
the Greeks fo exactly, that there can be no doubt of
their being copied from them. It is true, the ffiape of
forne has been fomewhat altered, and a few barbarian
ones have been intermingled. The Ruffian liturgy, eve¬
ry body knows, was copied from that of the Greeks j
and the belt fpecimen of the old Ruffian is the church
offices for Eafter, in the very words of Chryfoftom, who
called by his name Z/ato uflii, “ golden-mouthed ”
Ihe power of the clergy in Ruffia was exceffive ; and
r>o doubt their influence was proportioned to their
LOG Y. 36
power. The fir ft race ©f clergy in that country were Sclavcniaa
undoubtedly Greeks. We know how aClive and ir.du- .G.n^i-age..
ftrious thofe people were in propagating their language
as well as their religion. The offices of religion might
be at firft w-ritten and pronounced in the Greek tongue,
but it would foon be found expedient to have them
tranflated into Ruffian. The perl'ons employed in this
work nmft have been Greeks, w ho underttood both lan¬
guages.
As it is confefftdly impoffible that a people fo dull
and unattentive as the Ruffians originally were, could
ever have fabricated a language fo artificially conftruCl;-
ed as their prefent dialed ; and as it is obvious, that, till
Chriftianity was introduced among them by the Greeks,
they could have no correfpondence with that people—
it muft appear furprifing by what means their language
came to be faftnoned fo exadly according to the Greek,
model. We have obferved above, that the Ruffian let¬
ters muft have been invented and introduced into that
country by the Greek miffionaties. We think it pro¬
bable, that thofe apoftles, at the fame time that they
taught them a new religion, likewife introduced a change,
into the idiom of their language. The influence of
thofe ghoftly teachers over a nation of favages muft
have been almoft boundlefs ^ the force of their precepts
and example almoft inconttollable. If the favage con¬
verts accepted a new religion from the hands of thofe
Grecian apoftles, they might with equal fubmiffion adopt
improvements in their language. Such of the natives
as were admitted to the facerdotal fund ion muft have
learned the Greek language, in order to qualify them,
for performing the offices of their religion. A predi-
ledion for that language would be the immediate con-
fequence. Hence the natives, who had been admitted
into holy orders, would co-operate with their Grecian
mafters in improving the dialed of the country; which,
prior to the period above mentioned, muft have great¬
ly deviated from the original ftandard of the Sarmatian
tongue.
Unon this occafion, we imagine the Greek apoftles,
in conjundion with their Ruffian difciples, reduced the
language of the country to a refemblance with the
Greek idiom. They retained the radical vocables as
they found them ; but by a variety of fledions, conju¬
gations, derivations, compofitions, and other modifica¬
tions, transformed them into the Grecian air and appa¬
rel. They muft have begun with the offices of the
church ; and among a nation of favages newdy con¬
verted, the language of the new religion would quickly
obtain a very etetenfive circulation. When the Grecian
garniture was introduced into the church, the laity
would in procefs of time aflume a fimilar drefs. The
fabric of the Grecian declenfions, conjugations, &c.
might be grafted upon Ruffian ftocks without afteding
the radical parts of the language. If the dialed in
queftion, like moft others of a very ancient date, labour¬
ed under a penury of vocables, this manoeuvre would
contribute exceedingly to fupply that defed. By this
expedient the Greek language itfelf had been enlarged
from about 300 radical terms to the prodigious number
of words of which it now confifts.
The Latin tongue we have feen above in its original
conftitution differed widely from the Greek ; and not-
withftanding this incongruity, the improvers of the for¬
mer havepreffed it into a very ftrid agreement with the
Z z 2 latter
1 G*
364 PHILO
ScUvonian latter. This, we think, was flill a more difficult tafk j
Language.^ as^ -n our Opjn;on) the genius of the Latin differs in a
v _ much greater degree than that of the Ruffian does from
the Greek. We know, that the genius of the Gothic
tongue and thofe of all its defcendants are much more
in unifon with the Greek than with that of the Latin.
The Spanifh, Italian, and French, have cudgelled many
of their Gothic, Teutonic, and Celtic verbs, into a kind
of conjugations, imitating or rather aping thofe of the
Latin. The Perfians have formed molt elegant and
energetic declenfions and conjugations, upon inflexible
roots, borrowed from the Pahlavi and Deri, and even
from Tartar originals.
Upon the grounds above mentioned we have taken
the liberty to hazard the following conjectures, which
we cheerfully fubmit to the cognizance of our moreen-
lightened readers.
1. That the Sarmatian was a dialect of the original
language of mankind.
2. That the Sclavanian was a dialeft of the Sarma¬
tian.
3. That the Ruffe is the mod genuine unfophifticated
relick of the Sclavonian and Sarmatian.
4. That the Ruffians had no alphabetic characters
prior to the era of the introduction of Chriftianity, that
is, towards the end of the tenth century.
5. That they were converted by Grecian miffionaries.
6. That thofe miffionaries copied their prefent letters
from thofe of Greece j and in conjunction with the
more enlightened natives, reduced the original unim¬
proved Ruffe to its prefeht refemblance to the Greek
aaS flandard.
Buffian The Ruffian language, like molt others, contains eight
nouns. parts of fpeech, noun, pronoun, &c. Its nouns have
three genders, mafculine, feminine, and neuter 5 it has
alfo a common gender for nouns, intimating both fexes.
It has only two numbers, Angular and plural. Its cafes
are feven, nominative, genitive, dative, accufative, voca¬
tive, inftrumental, and prepofitive. Thefe cafes are not
formed by varying the termination, as in Greek and
Latin •, but generally by placing a vowel alter the
word, as, we imagine, was the original praClice of the
Greeks (See Greek SeCIion). Thus in Ruffe, §vx, rz/C,
“ the hand nominative, “ the hand genitive,
£UX.-N' “ of the hand,” &c. See Les Klein, de la
>j(2p Langue Ruffe par Charpentier. Nouns fubftantive are
Adjectives reduced to four declenfions, and adjeClives make a fifth.
Thefe agree with their fubilantives in cafe, gender, and
number. They have three degrees of comparifon, as is
common in other languages j the pofitive, comparative,
and fuperlative. The comparative is formed from the
feminine of the nominative lingular of the pofitive, by
changing a into te, that is, ale in Englilh ; the fuperla-
tive is made by prefixing irp, pre, before the pofitive.
Thefe rules are general •, for the exceptions, recourfe
mull be had to the Ruffian grammar above mentioned.
The numeral adjeClives in Ruffe have three genders
like the roll, and are declined accordingly. Their pro¬
nouns have nothing peculiar, and are divided and ar¬
ranged in the fame manner as in other languages. Verbs
Vo in the Ruffian language are comprehended under two
‘ <its' conjugations. The moods are only three •, the indica¬
tive, the imperative, and the infinitive : the fubjunClive
is formed by placing a particle before the indicative,
its tenfes are eight in number j the prefent, the imper-
L O G Y. Sea. IX.
feCI, the preterite Ample, the preterite compound, the S«lavo»iaa
pluperfed, the future indeterminate, the future Ample, Language
the future compound. The verbs have their numbers »• J
and perfons as in other languages. To enter into a de¬
tail of their manner of conjugating their verbs would
neither be confiftent with our plan, nor, we are perfua-
ded, of much confequence to our readers. Their other
parts of fpeech differ nothing from thofe of other Ian-
guages. Their fyntax nearly refembles that of the
Greek and Latin. All thefe articles muil be learned
from a grammar of the language. Whether there is
any grammar of the Ruffian language compofeu in F.ng-
lifh we know not. That of Monf. Charpentier in
French, printed at Peterfburgh in 1768, is the only one-
we have feen, and which appears to us a very excellent
one. We could wifli to be able to gratify our readers
with a more authentic account of the origin of the Scla¬
vonian language j but this we find impoffible, in confe¬
quence of the want of memorials relating to the flate
of the ancient Sarmatae. Towards the era of the fub-
verfion of the weftern empire, the nations who inhabited
the countries in queftion were lo blended and confound¬
ed with each other, and with Huns and other Scythian
or Tartar emigrants, that we believe the moft acute an¬
tiquarian would find it impoffible to inveftigate their re-
fpedlive tongues, or even their original refidence or ex-
tra&ion. We have felefced the Rufl’e as the moft ge¬
nuine branch of the old Sclavonian, and to this predi-
ledlion we were determined by the reafons above men¬
tioned. We are furry that we are not fo well acquaint¬
ed with the idiom of the Ruffian language as to be able
to compare it with thofe of the e.aft but upon fuch a
comparifon, we are perfuaded that the radical materials
of which it is compofed would be found to have origi¬
nated in the oriental regions. The word Tfar, for ex- pj^idan
ample, is probably the Phoenician and Chaldean Sar, or aiKj chal-
Z«r, “ a prince, a grandee.” Diodorus Siculus calls dean word
the queen of the Maffagetae, who, according to Ctefias, in Ruffe* ]
cut off Cyrus’s head, Tsarina; which was not many
years ago the general title of the emprefs of all the
Ruffias. Herodotus calls the fame pnneefs Tomijriss
which is the very name of the famous Timor or Tamur,
the conqueror of Afia. The former feems to have been
the title, and the latter the proper name, of the queen
of the Maffagetae. In the old Perfian or Pahlavi, the
word Card fignifies “ a city in Ruffian, Gorad or
Grad intimates the very fame idea : hence Conjluntinoplc-
in old Ruffe is called Tfargrad or Tfargorad. Thefe
are adduced as a fpecimen only ; and able etymologifts
might, we believe, difeover a great number.
The Sclavonian language is fpoken in Epirus, the
weftern part of Macedonia, in Bofnia, Servia, Bulga¬
ria, in part of Thrace, in Dalmatia, Croatia, in Poland,
Bohemia, Ruffia, and Mingrelia, in Afia, whence it is
frequently ufed in the feraglio at Conftantinople. Ma¬
ny of the great men of Turkey nnderftand it, and fre¬
quently ufe it ; and moft of the janizaries having been
ilationed in garrifons on the Turkifti frontiers in Europe,
ufe it as their vulgar tongue. The Hungarians, how¬
ever, and the natives of Wallachia, fpeak a different
language : and this language bears evident fig nature1- of
the Tartarian dialefl, which was the tongue ot the origi¬
nal Huns. Upon the whole, the Sclavonian is by much
the moft extenfive language in. Europe, and extends fer
into Afia.
SfCT,
s, a. X.
idem
1 guages.
PHILO
Sect. X. Modern Languages,
^ Ip We call all the different dialefls of the various na¬
tions that now inhabit the known earth, languages, the
number is truly great ; and vain would be his ambition
who fliould attempt to learn them, though but imper-
feftly. We will begin with naming the principal of
them : There are four, which may be called original or
mother-languages, and which feem to have given birth
23a to all that are now fpoken in Europe. Thefe are the
; ent dia- Latin, Celtic, Gothic, and Slavonian. It will not, how-
t5of£f ever, be imagined, from the term original given to thefe
?’ languages, that we believe them to have come down to
• ftive off-us, without any alteration, from the confufion of tongues
ng. at the building of the tower of Babel. We have re¬
peatedly declared our opinion, that there is but one tru¬
ly original language, from which all others are deriva¬
tives varioufly modified. The four languages juft mention¬
ed are original only as being the immediate parents of
thofe which are now fpoken in Europe.
I. From the Latin came,
I. The Portuguefe.
2 Spanifh.
3. French.
4. Italian.
From the Celtic,
3. The Erfe, or Gaelic of the Highlands of Scotland.
6. The Welfh.
7. The Irifh.
8. Baffe-Bretagne.
From the Gothic,
9. The German.
10. The Low Saxon or Low German.
II. The Dutch.
12. The Engliih •, in which almoft all the noun-fub-
ftantives are German, and many of the verbs
French, Latin, &c. and which is enriched with
the fpoils of all other languages.
13. The Danilh.
14. The Norwegian.
15. Swedifh.
16. Icelandic.
From the Sclavoman,
17* The Polonefe.
18. The Lithuanian..
19. Bohemian.
20. Tranfylvanian.
21. Moravian.
22. The modern Vandaltan, as it is ftill fpoken in Lu-
fatia, Pruffian Vandalia, Sic.
23. The Croatian.
24. The Ruffian or Mufcovite 5 which, as we have
feen, is the pureft dialecl of this language.
25. The language of the Calmucs and Coffacs.
26. Thirty-two different dialedls of nations who Inha¬
bit the north-eaftern parts of Europe and Afia, and
who are defeended from the Tartars and Huno-
Scythians. There are polyglott tables which con¬
tain not only the alphabets, but alfo the principal
diftinft charadlers of all thefe languages.
LOGY.
II. The languages at prefent generally fpoken in
Afia are,
27. The Turkilh and Tartarian, with their different ^3
dialefts. Afiatic
-3U:>
Modern
Languages.
2B.
29.
3°-
31*
32.
33-
34-
35-
36.
37-
38.
39-
40.
41.
42.
43-
44
1. 1
Thefe languages are languages,
fpoken by the Greek
Chriftians in Afia under
1
1 m
The Danilh milfionaries
who go to 1'ranquebar,
print books at Hail in
thefe languages.
The Perfian.
The Georgian or Iberian. „,a „„„„
The Albanian or Lircailian. ( the patriarch of Conftan-
The Armenian. J tinople.
The modern Indian.
The Formofan.
The Indoftanic.
The Malabarian.
The Warugian.
The Talmulic or Damulic.-
The modern Arabic.
The Tanguiian.
The Mungalic.
The language of the Nigarian or Akar Nigarian.
The Grufinic or Grufinian.
The Chinefe.
The Japanefe.
We have enumerated here thofe Afiatic languages
only of which we have fome knowledge in Europe, and
even alphabets, grammars, or other books that can give
us information concerning them. There are doubtlefs
other tongues and dialefts in thofe vail regions and ad¬
jacent iflands } but of thefe we are not able to give any
account.
III. The principal languages of Africa are, African
45. The modern Egyptian. _ language?.
46. The Fetuitic, or the language of the kingdem of
Fetu.
47. The Moroccan ; and,
48. The jargons of thofe favage nations who inhabit the
defert and burning regions. The people on the
coaft of Barbary {peak a corrupt dialed! of the
Arabic. To thefe may be added the ChPhic
language, otherwife called Tama%eght; the Ne-
gritian, and that of Guinea j the Abyffmian j and
the language of the Hottentots. 2.
IV. The languages of the American nations are but American
little known in _Europe. Every one of thefe, though languages,
diftant but a few days journey from each other, have
their particular language or rather jargon. The lan¬
guages of the Mexicans and Peruvians feem to be the
moft regular and poliflied. There is alfo one called
Poconchi or Pocotnana, that is ufed in the bay of Hon¬
duras and towards Guatimal, the W'ords and rules of
which are moft known to us. The languages of North
America are in general the Algonhic, Apalachian, Mo-
hogic, Savanahamic, Virginic, and Mexican : and in
South America, the Peruvian, Caribic, the language of
Chili, the Cairic, the Tucumanian, and the languages
ufed in Paraguay, Brafil, and Guiana. 236
V. We have already faid, that it would be a vain and Gcmuifi re-
fenfelefs undertaking for a man of letters to attempt the °a
ftudy of all thefe languages, and to make his head an languages*,
univerfal dictionary •, but it would be ftill more abfurd
in us to attempt the analyfis of them in this place :
fome general reflections therefore muft here fuftice.
Among the modern languages of Europe, the French
feems to merit great attention *, as it is elegant and
pleating in itfelf; as it is become fo general, that with
it we may travel from one end of Europe to the other
without
366 PHILO
Modern without fcarce having any occafion for an interpreter j
■ an^ua£es' and as in it are to be found excellent works of every
kind, both in verfe and profe, ufeful and agreeable.
1 here are, befides, grammars and diftionaries of this
language which give us every information concerning it,
and very able mailers who teach it; efpecially fuch as
come from thofe parts of France where it is fpoken cor-
reftly; for with all its advantages, the French language
has this inconvenience, that it is pronounced fcarce any¬
where purely but at Paris and on the banks of the Loire.
The language of the court, of the great world, and of
men of letters, is moreover very different from that of
the common people; and the French tongue, in general,
is fubjedf to great alteration and novelty. What pity it
is, that the ftyle of the great Corneille, and that of Mo-
liere, Ihould already begin to be obfolete, and that it
will be but a little time before the inimitable chefs
d'ceuvres of thofe men of fublime genius will be no
longer feen on the ftage: The moft modern ftyle of
the French, moreover, does not feem to be the beft.
We are inclined to think, that too much concifenefs,
the epigrammatic point, the antithefis, the paradox, the
fententiousexpreflions, &c. diminilh its force; and that,
by becoming more polifhed and refined, it lofes much of
its energy.
VI. The German and Italian languages merit like-
wife a particular application; as does the Englith, per¬
haps above all, for its many and great excellencies (See
Language). Authors of great ability daily labour in
improving them; and what language would not become
excellent, were men of exalted talents to make conftant
life of it in their works! If we had in Iroquois books
like thofe which we have in Englifh, Italian, French,
and German, fhould we not be tempted to learn that
LOGY. Seai x
language ? How glad fhould we be to umierftand the Modem
Spanifh tongue, though it were only to read the Arau-L "g^ges.
cana of Don Alonzo D’Ercilia, Don Quixote, fome
dramatic pieces, and a fmall number of other Spanith
works, in the original; or the poem of Camoens in Por-
tuguefe.
VII. The other languages of Europe have each their
beauties and excellencies. But the greateft difficulty in
all living languages conftantly confifts in the pronuncia¬
tion, which it is fcarce poflible for any one to attain un-
lefs he be born or educated in the country where it is
fpoken: and this is the only article for which a mailer
is neceffary, as it cannot be learned but by teaching or
by converlation: all the reft may be acquired by a good
grammar and other books. In all languages whatever,
the poetic ftyle is more difficult than the profaic : in
every language we ftiould endeavour to enrich our me¬
mories with great ftore of words (copia verbonm), and
to have them ready to produce on all occafions: in all
languages it is difficult to extend our knowledge fo far
as to be able to form a critical judgment of them. All
living languages are pronounced rapidly, and without
dwelling on the long fyllables (which the grammarians
call moram): almoft all of them have articles which di-
ftinguifti the genders.
VIII. Thofe languages that are derived from the
Latin have this further advantage, that they adopt
without reftraint, and without offending the ear, La¬
tin and Greek words and expreffions, and which by
the aid of a new termination appear to be natives of
the language. This privilege is forbidden the Germans,
who in their beft tranflations dare not ufe any foreign
word, unlefs it be fome technical terms in cafe of great
neceffity.
PHI
^ theT " PHILOMATHES, a lover of learning or fcience.
Philomela. PHILOMELA, in fabulous hiftory, was a daugh-
-v—. ter of Pandion king of Athens, and filler to Procne,
who had married Tereus king of Thrace. Procne fe-
parated from Philomela, to whom (he was much attach¬
ed, fpent her time in great melancholy till fhe prevailed
upon her hulband to go to Athens and bring her filler
to Thrace. Tereus obeyed; but he had no fooner ob¬
tained Pandion’s permiffion to condufl Philomela to
Thrace, than he fell in love with her, and refolved to
gratify his paffion. He difmiffed the guards whom the
fufpicions of Pandion had appointed to watch him ; of¬
fered violence to Philomela; and afterwards cut out her
tongue, that fhe might not difcover his barbarity, and
the indignities {he had fuffered. He confined her in a
lonely caftle; and having taken every precaution to pre¬
vent a difcovery, he returned to Thrace, and told Proc¬
ne that Philomela had died by the way, and that he had
paid the laft offices to her remains. At this fad intelli¬
gence Procne put on mourning for the lofs of Philome¬
la ; but a year had fcarcely elapfed before fhe was fe-
cretly informed that her filler was not dead. Philomela,
in her captivity, defcribed on a piece of tapeftry her mis¬
fortunes and the brutality of Tereus, and privately con¬
veyed it to Procne. She was going to celebrate the or-
3
PHI
gies of Bacchus when flie received it, but fhe difguifed Philom^a*
her refentment; and as during thofe feftivals fhe was ~
permitted to rove about the country, Ihe haftened to de¬
liver her filler Philomela from her confinement, and con¬
certed with her on the beft meafures of punilhing the
cruelty of Tereus. She murdered her fon Itylus, then
in the fixth year of his age, and ferved him up as food
before her hufband during the feftival. Tereus, in the
midft of his repaft, called for Itylus; but Procne im¬
mediately informed him that he was then feaftingon his
flefh, when Philomela, by throwing on the table the
head of Itylus, convinced the monarch of the cruelty of
the fcene. He drew his fword to punifh Procne and
Philomela; but as he was going to ftab them to the
heart, he was changed into a hoopoe, Philomela into a
nightingale, Procne into a fwallow, and Itylus into a
pheafant. This tragedy happened at Daulis in Phocis;
but Paufanias and Strabo, ivho mention the whole of the
ftory, are filent about the transformation; and the former
obferves, that Tereus, after this bloody repaft, fled to
Megara, where he laid violent hands on himfelf. The
inhabitants of the place railed a monument to his me¬
mory, where they offered yearly facrifices, and placed
fmall pebbles inftead of barley. It was on this monu¬
ment that the birds called hoopoes were firft feen; hence
the
P H I [ 3
ilomela the fable of his metamorphofis. Procne and Philomela
II died through excefllve grief and melancholy ; and as the
ilcpce- nightingale’s and the fwallow’s voice is peculiarly plain-
, tive and mournful, the poets have embellithed the fable
by fuppofing that the two unfortunate fillers were chan¬
ged into birds.
PHILONIUM, in Pharmacy, a kind of anodyne
opiate, taking its name from Philo the inventor.
_ ■lent PHILOPOEMEN, a celebrated general of the A-
1 wrfal chaean league, was born in Megalopolis, a city of Ar-
‘ cadia, in Peloponnefus j and from his very infancy dif-
covered a ftrong inclination to the profeflion of arms.
He was nobly educated by Cafiander of Mantinca 5 a
man of great probity, and uncommon abilities. He was
no fooner able to bear arms than he entered among the
troops which the city of Megalopolis fent to make in-
curfions into Laconia, and in thefe inroads never failed
to give fome remarkable inftance of his prudence and
valour. When there were no troops in the field, he
ufedto employ hisleifure time in hunting and fuch other
manly exercifes. When Cleomenes king of Sparta at¬
tacked Megalopolis, Philopoemen difplayed much cou¬
rage and greatnefs of foul. He fignalized himfelf no
lefs fome time after, in the battle of Sellafia, where An-
tigonus gained a complete vidfory over Cleomenes. An-
tigonus, who had been an eye-witnefs of his prudent and
intrepid behaviour, made very advantageous offers to
gain him over to his interell 5 but he rejected them, hav¬
ing an utter averfion to a court life, which he compared
to that of a Have, faying, that a courtier was but a Have
of a better condition. As he could not live idle and in-
adtive, he went to the ifle of Crete, which was then en¬
gaged in w ar, and ferved there as a volunteer till he ac¬
quired a complete knoivledge of the military art; for the
inhabitants of that ifiand were in thofe days accounted
excellent warriors, being fcarce ever at peace among
themfelves. Philopoemen, having ferved fome years
among the troops of that ifland, returned home, and was
upon his arrival appointed general of the horfe 5 in which
command he behaved fo well, that the Achsean horfe,
heretofore of no reputation, became in a Ihort time fa¬
mous all over Greece. He was foon after appointed ge¬
neral of all the Achaean forces, when he applied himfelf
to the re-eftablifliing of military difcipline among the
troops of the republic, which he found in a very low
condition, and univerfally defpifed by their neighbours.
Aratus, indeed, was the firft that raifed the Achaean
ftate to that pitch of power and glory to which it arriv¬
ed $ but the fuccefs of his enterprifes was not fo much
owing to his courage and intrepidity as to his prudence
and politics. As he depended on the friendfhip of fo¬
reign princes, and their powerful fuccours, he neglefted
the military difcipline at home; but the inftant Philo¬
poemen was created praetor, or commander in chief, he
roufed the courage of his countrymen, in order to put
them into a condition to defend themfelves without the
affiftance of foreign allies. With this view he made
great improvements in the Achaean difcipline ; changing
the manner of their exercife and their arms, which were
both very defeftive. He had thus, for the fpaee of eight
months, exercifed his troops every day, making them
perform all the motions and evolutions, and accufloming
them to manage with dexterity their arms, when news
was brought him that Machanidas was advancing, at
the head of a numerous army, to invade Achaia. He
67 3 PHI
Avas glad of this opportunity to try how the troops had Philopte-
profited by his difcipline ; and accordingly, taking the , rrfen' ,
field, met the enemy in the territories of Mantinea,
where a battle was fought. Philopoemen, having killed
Machanidas with his own hand, ftruck ©ff his head, and
carried it from rank to rank, to encourage his vi&orious
Achaeans, who continued the purfuit, with great daugh¬
ter, and incredible ardour, to the city of Tegea, which
they entered together with the fugitives. The Lacedae¬
monians loft on this occafion above 8000 men, of tv hick
4000 were killed on the fpot, and as many taken pri-
foners. The lofs of the Achaeans was very inconfiderable,
and thofe that fell were moftly mercenaries. This hap¬
pened about the year before Chrift 204.
But what moft of all raifed the fame and reputation
of Philopcemen was his joining the powerful city of La¬
cedaemon to the Achaean commonwealth ; by which
means the Achaeans came to eclipfe all the other ftates
of Greece. This memorable event happened in the year
191. In this tranfadtion we cannot help taking notice
of one circumftance, which, in our opinion, refledts great¬
er luftre on Philopcemen than all his warlike exploits.
The Lacedaemonians, overjoyed to fee themfelves de¬
livered from the oppreflions they had long groaned under,
ordered the palace and furniture of Nabis to be fold ; and
the fum accruing from thence, to the amount of 1 20
talents, to be prefented to Philopcemen, as a token of
their gratitude. Deputies therefore were to be appoint- /
ed, who ftiould carry the money, and defire Philopae-
men, in the name of the fenate, to accept of the prefent0
On this occafion it was that the virtue of the generous
Achaean appeared in its greateft luftre ; for fo great was
the opinion which the Spartans had of his probity and
difintereftednefs, that no one could be found who would
take upon him to offer the prefent 1. ftruck with venera¬
tion, and fear of difpleafing him, they all begged to be
excufed. At laft they obliged, by a public decree, one
Timolaus, who had formerly been his gueft, to goto
Megalapolis, where Philopoemen lived, and offer him
this teftimony of their regard. Timolaus, with great re¬
luctance, fet out for Megalopolis, where he was kindly
received and entertained by Philopoemen. Here he had
an opportunity of obferving the ftriClnefs of his whole
conduCt, the greatnefs of his mind, the frugality of his
life, and the regularity of his manners ; which ftruck
him with fuch awe, that he did not dare once to men¬
tion the prefent he was come to offer; infomuch that,
giving fome other pretence to his journey, he returned
home with the. money. The Lacedaemonians fent him
again ; but he could no more prevail upon himfelf now
than the firft time to mention the true caufe of his jour¬
ney. At laft, going a third time he ventured, with
the utmoft reluClance, to acquaint Philopoemen with the
offer he had to make in the name of the Lacedemonians..
Philopceipen heard him with great calmnefs ; but the in¬
ftant he had done fpeaking, he fet out with him. for
Sparta, where, after having acknowledged his obliga¬
tion to the Spartans, he advifed them to lay out their
money in reforming or purchafing thofe mifereants who
divided the citizens, and fet them at variance by means
of their feditious difeourfes ; to the end that, being paid
for their filence, they might not occafion fo many di-
ftraClions in the government: “ for it is much more ad-
vifable (faid he) to flop an enemy’s mouth than a>
friend’s ; as for me, I ftiall always be your friend, and
you
PHI [ 368 ] PHI
Pmlopce- you fliall reap the benefit of my friendfhip without ex-
m*n pence.” Such was the difmtereftednefs of this noble
Philofo- Achaean!
pher’s About two years after this, the city of Meffene with-
Stone. drew itfelf from the Achaean league. Philopoemen at-
   ' tacked them ; but was wounded, taken prifoner, and
poifoned by the magiftrates. Thus died one of the
greateft heroes that Greece or any other country ever
produced. He was no way inferior in valour, military
knowledge, and virtue, to any of the boalled heroes of
Rome. Had Achaia been nearer to an equality with
Rome, he would have preferved his country from the
yoke which the Roman republic forced it to bear. Both
the Greek and Roman writers put him upon the level
with Hannibal and Scipio, who were his contemporaries,
and happened to die the fame year. They allow him to
have been not only one of the greateft commanders, but
alfo one of the greateft ftatefman of his age. To hh va¬
lour and prudence Achaia owed her glory, which upon
Ins death began to decline, there being none after him
in that republic able to oppofe her enemies with the like
fteadinefs and prudence : whence Pbilopcemen was called
the laft of the Greeks, as Brutus wras afterwards ftyled
the laft of the Romans.
PHILOSOPHER, a perfon verfed in philofophy j
cr one who makes profeflion of, or applies himfelf to,
the ftudy of nature.
Philosopher's Stonegreateft objeft of alchemy,
is a long fought for preparation, which, when found, is
to convert all the true mercurial part of metal into pure
gold, better than any that is dug out of mines or perfedl-
ed by the refiner’s art,
Some Greek writers in the fourth and fifth centuries
fpeak of this art as being then known } and towards the
end of the 13th century, when the learning of the Eaft
had been brought hither by the Arabians, the fame.pre-
tenfions began to fpread through Europe. It is fuppofed
that this art, called alchemy, was of Egyptian origin ;
and that when the ancient - Greek philofophers travelled
into Egypt, they brought hack fome of the allegoric lan¬
guage of this Egyptian art, ill underftood, which after-
v/ards paflfed into their mythology. Alchemy was the
carlieft branch of chemiftry, confidered as a phxlofophi-
cal fcience : in the other parts of chemical knowledge,
facts preceded reafoning or fpeculation ; but alchemy
was originally Speculative.
The alchemifts fuppofed the general principles of
metals to be chiefly two fubftances, which they called
mercury and fulphur j they apprehended alfo, that the
pure mercurial, fulphureous, or other principles of
which they imagined gold to be compofed, were con¬
tained feparately in other bodies : and thefe principles,
therefore, they endeavoured to colleft, and to concoft
and incorporate by long digeftions •, and by thus con¬
joining the principles of gold, if they could be fo pro¬
duced and conjoined, it might be expedted that gold
would be produced. But the alchemifts pretend to a
product of a higher order, called the elixir, the medicine
for metals, the thiBure, the phi/ofopher'sJione ; which by
being projected on a large quantity of any of the in¬
ferior metals in fufion, thould change them into fine
gold ; which being laid on a plate of filver, copper, or
iron, and moderately heated, thould fink into the me¬
tal, and change into gold all the parts to which it was
applied ; which, on being properly heated with pure
gold, Ihould change the gold into a fubftance of the Philofo.
fame nature and virtue with itfelf, fo as thus to be phei’s
fufeeptible of perpetual multiplication j and which, by Stonei
continued codiion, Ihould have its power more and
more exalted, fo as to be able to tranfmute greater
and greater quantities of the inferior metals, according
to its different degrees of perfedlion.
Alchemiils have attempted to arrive at the making
of gold by three methods : the firft by feparation ; for
every metal yet known, it is affirmed, contains fome
quantity of gold ; only, in moft, the quantity is fo little
as not to defray the expence of getting it out.
The fecond is by maturation j for the alchtmiftg
think mercury is the bafis and matter of all metals 5
that quickfilver purged from all -heterogeneous bodies
would be much heavier, denfer, and Ampler, than the
native quickfilver ; and that by fubtilizing, purifying,
and digeiting it with much labour, and long operations,
it is poffible to convert it into pure gold.
This method is only for mercury. With refpeft to
ihe other metals, it is ineffedlual, 1. Becaufe their mat¬
ter is not pure mercury, but has other heterogeneous
bodies adhering to it ; and, 2. Becaufe the digeftion,
whereby mercury is turned into gold, would not fucceed
in other metals, becaufe they had not been long enough
in. the mines.
Weight is the inimitable character of gold, &c. Now
mercury, they fay, has always fome impurities in it, and
thefe are lighter than mercury. Could they be purged
away, which they think is not impoffible, mercury would
be as heavy as gold, and what is as heavy as gold is
gold, or at leaft might very eafily be made gold.
The third method is by tranfmutation, or by turning
all metals readily into pure gold, by melting them in
the fire, and calling a little quantity of a certain pre¬
paration into the fufed mattery upon which the faeces
retire, are volatilized and burnt, and carried off, and
the reft of the mafs is turned into pure gold. That
which works this change in the metals is called the
philofopher's ft one.
Whether this third method be poffible or not, it is
difficult to fay. We have fo many teftimonies of it
from perfons who on all other occafions fpeak truth,
that it is hard to fay they are-guilty of direft falfe-
hood, even when they fay that they have been mailers
of the fecret. We are told, that it is only doing that
by art which nature does in many years and ages.
For as lead and gold differ but little in weight, there¬
fore there is not much in lead befide mercury and
gold. Now, if we had any body which would fo agi¬
tate all the parts of lead as to burn all that is not mer¬
cury therein, and had alfo fome fulphur to fix the
mercury, would not the mafs remaining be converted
into gold ? There is nothing in nature fo heavy as
lead except gold, mercury, and platina, which was
not-known to thefe reafoners ; it is evident, therefore,
there is fomethingin lead that comes very near to gold.
But in lead there is likewife foroe heterogeneous mat¬
ter different both from mercury and gold. If therefore
19 ounces of lead be diffolved by the fire, and 8 ounces
be deftroyed by thefe means, it is argued that we lhall
have the reft good gold 5 the ratio of lead to gold be¬
ing as 11 to 19, If then the philofopher’s ftone can
purify the mercurial matter in lead, fo as that nothing
(hall remain but the pure mercurial body, and you can
P H I
nilofo- fix and coagulate this by means of fulphur, out of 19
jher’i ounces of lead you will have 11 of gold : or, if you
kone. redace the lead from 18 to 14, you will then have
^ converted it into mercury *, and if you farther purify
this mercury to the proper ftandard, you will have
gold; provided you have but a fulphur with which to
fix and coagulate it. Such is the foundation of the
opinion of the philofopher’s ftone ; which the alche-
niifts contend to be a mofl fubtile, fixed, concentrated
fire, which, as foon as it melts with any metal, does,
by a magnetic virtue, immediately unite itfelf to the
mercurial body of the metal, volatilize and cleanfe off
all that is impure therein, and leave nothing but a
mafs of pure gold. Many frauds and artifices have
unqueitionably been pradlifed in this operation, and
there might be political reafons why princes and others
iliould encourage thofe who pretended to a power of
furnifhing this inexhauftible fource of wealth ; but it
would be wrong to cenfuve as importers all thofe who
have declared themfelves convinced, from their own
experiments, of the tranfmutability of bale metals in¬
to gold. There are ftrong reafons, however, to be¬
lieve that the authors have been deceived themfelves by
fallacious appearances. Mr Boyle gives an account of
a procefs by which he imagines part of the fubftance
of gold to have been tranfrauted into filver. He alfo
relates a very extraordinary experiment, under the title
of the degradation of gold by an anti-elixir, which was
publithed in his own life-time, and fince reprinted in
1739. Hence many have been led to conclude in
favour of the alchemical dodlrine of the tranfmutability
of metals. See an account of this experiment, with
remarks upon it by Dr Lewis, in his Commerce of s$rlst
feft. 1 2. p. 297, ,&c.
matters “ The opinion (fays Holt) that one metallic or
the Kings other foreign fubftance might be changed into another,
!was, it feetns, at this time (reign of Henry VI. of
S n ' England) propagated by certain chemifts, whofe ob-
fervations on the furprifing effects and alterations pro-
P H I
duced in certain fubftances by the force of heat carried Ihilofo-
their imaginations beyond what found judgment might
warrant. The firft initance of which on record is
in vol. xi. p. 68. of the Ycedera ; wherein Henry Vh philofophU
grants a licence to John Cobbe, freely to work in me- zing,
tals 5 he having, by philofophical art, found out a me- ■*
thud of transferring imperfect metals into perfeft gold
and filver.
“ This pretended fecret, known afterwards by the
name of the Philcfopher's Jlone or powder, was encou¬
raged by four licences, granted to different projeftors
during this reign, and at fundry times after, during this
century particularly, and in fucceeding times, all over
Europe. The frenzy has not entirely ceafed even to
this day, although it meets with neither public encou¬
ragement nor countenance from men of fober reafon \
the projectors having yet found nothing from their airy
fchemes in this mode of fearch but certain ruin to their
property.” See CHEMISTRY.
The fame author, when fpeaking of the commerce
of the kingdom, and the wonderful increafe and riches
of commercial cities, fpeaks thus: “ This is the true
philofopher’s ftone, fo much fought after in former
ages, the difeovery of which has been referved to ge¬
nius, when ftudying to improve the mechanic arts.
Hence a pound of raw materials is converted into fluffs
of fifty times its original value. And the metals too
are not, indeed, tranimuted into gold—they are more :
for the labour of man has been able to work the bafer
metals, by the ingenuity of art, fo as to become worth
more than many times its weight in gold.”
PHILOSOPHIC, or Philosophical, fomething
belonging to PHILOSOPHY.
PHILOSOPHICAL EC;g, among chemifts, a thin
glafs body or bubble, of the (hape of an egg, with a long
neck or ftem, ufed in digeftions.
PHILOSOPHIZING, rules of. See NEWTONIAN
Vhilofophj, N° 16. and the following article-
[ 369 3
PHILOSOPHY
r
efinitions
philofo-
>y-
TS a word derived from the Greek, and literally
fignifies the love of wifdom (a). In its ufual ac¬
ceptation, however, it denotes a faience, or collec¬
tion of faiences, of which the univerfe is the object}
and of the term thus employed many definitions have
been given, differing from one another according to
the different views of their feveral authors. By Py¬
thagoras, philofophy is defined t*» ov\m*, “ the
knowledge of things exifting j” by Cicero, after Plato,
feientia rerum divinarum et hunianarum cum CAUSIS;
and by the illuftrious Bacon, interpretatio natunr.
Whether any of thefe definitions be fufficiently pre-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
cife, and at the fame time fufficiently comprehenfive, jjiftotyof1
may be queftioned j but if philofophy in its utmoft philofophy.
extent be capable of being adequately defined, it is ——v—
not here that the definition fhould be given. “ Ex¬
planation (fays an acute writer*), is the firft of- * Xatham's
fice of a teaehfer ; definition, if it be good, is the chart and
laft of the inquirer after truth ; but explanation is one Scale of
thing, and definition quite another.” It may be pro- v- ^
per, however, to obferve, that the definition given by3"
Cicero is better than that of Pythagoras, becaufe the
chief object of the philofopher is to afeertain the caufes
of tilings; and in this confifts the difference between
3 A his
(a) The origin ufually attributed to the term philofophy has been already afligned in the article Philology.
M. Chauvin gives it a turn fomewhat different. According to him, the term is derived frotn tysh.u, defie ovfudyt
and wifdom; and therefore he underftands the word to mean the defire ofjludy of wifdom; for (fays he) Py¬
thagoras, conceiving that the application of the human mind ought rather to be caWt&fudy \\vw\ fcience, fet afide
the appellation of wife as too affuming, and took that of pJnhfopher.
37°
Hiftoi y of
Philoibphy.
Its objedls.
PHILO
his ftudies and tliofe of the natural hiftorian, who mere¬
ly enumerates phenomena, and arranges them into fepa-
rate dalles.
The principal obje£ts of philofophy are, God, nature,
and man. That part of it which treats of God is called
theology ; that which treats of nature, 'physics and meta¬
physics ; and that which treats of man, logic and ethics.
That thefe are not feparate and independent fciences,
but, as Bacon exprefles it (b), branches from the fame
trunk, we fliall endeavour to Ihow7, after we have given,
agreeably to our ufual plan, a fhort hiftory of philofophy
from the earlieft ages to the prefent day.
To attempt to aflign an origin to philofophy, would
be ridiculous; for every man endeavours to afcertain the
caufes of thofe changes which he obferves in nature ;
and even children themfelves are inquifitive after that
which produces the found of their drums and their rat¬
tles. Children, therefore, and the molt illiterate vul¬
gar, have in all ages been philofophers. But the firft
people among whom philofophy was cultivated as a pro-
fefiion, was probably the Chaldeans. We certainly read
of none earlier ; for though we have more authentic ac¬
counts of the Hebrews than of any other nation of re¬
mote antiquity, and have reafon to believe that no peo¬
ple was civilized before them, yet the peculiar cireum-
flances in which they were placed, rendered all philofo-
pbical invefligation to them ufelefs, and even tended to
fupprefs the very fpirit of inquiry. The Egyptians in¬
deed pretended to be the firft of nations, and to have
fpread the bleflings of religion and the light of fcience
among every other people j but, from the earlieft re¬
cords now extant, there is reafon to believe that the
Chaldeans were a civilized and powerful nation before
the Egyptian monarchy was founded.
Phllcfophy Of the Chaldean philofophy much has been faid, but
of the Chat-very little is known. Aftronomy feems to have been
deans. tlieir favourite ftudy •, and at the era of Alexander’s con-
queft of their country, they boafted that their anceftors
had continued their aftronomical obfervations through a
period of 470,000 years. Extravagant claims to anti¬
quity have been common in all nations (c). Califthenes,
who attended the Macedonian conqueror, was requefted
by Ariftotle to inform himfelf concerning the origin of
fcience in Chaldea ; and upon examining into the
grounds of this report, he found that their obfervations
reached no farther backwards than 1903 years, or 2234
years before the Chriftian era. Even this is a remoter
antiquity than Ptolemy allows to their fcience } for he
mentions no Chaldean obfervations prior to the era of
NabonaflTar, or 747 years before Chrift. That they cul¬
tivated fomething which they called philofophy at a
much earlier period than this, cannot be queftioned \ for
f Apuil Ariftotle+, on the credit of the moft ancient records,
l-aeit-’ 17
lib. i. § S.
SOPHY.
fpeaks of the Chaldean magi as prior to the Egyptian Hiftory of
priefts, who were certainly men of learning before the ['hilofophy,
time of Mofes. For any other fcience than that of the
ftars, we do not read that the Chaldeans were famous 5
and this feems to have been cultivated by them merely
as the foundation of judicial aftrology. Perfuading the
multitude that all human affairs are influenced by the
ftars, and profefling to be acquainted with the nature
and laws of this influence, their wife men pretended to
calculate nativities, and to predict good and bad for¬
tune *. This was the fource of idolatry and various fu-* ^
perftitions ; and whilft the Chaldeans were given up ^Emp 'ad
fuch dotages, true fcience could not be much indebted Math.
to their labours. If any credit be due to Plutarch andlib- 4' §
Vitruvius, who quote Berofus, (fee Berosus), it was
the opinion of the Chaldean wife men that an eclipfe ofc,>.* j)/J
the moon happens when that part of its body which is lib. 1. § 1.
deftitute of fire is turned towards the earth. “ Their
cofmogony, as given by Berofus, and preferved by Syn-
cellus, feems to be this, that all things in the begin¬
ning confifted of darknefs and water 5 that a divine
power dividing this humid mafs, formed the world; and
that the human mind is an emanation from the Divine
nature f. _ \vfpifir
The large tradl of country which comprehended the (j t n‘:
empires of Affyria and Chaldea, was the firft peopled
region on earth. From that country, therefore, the ru¬
diments of fcience muft have been propagated in every
direction through the reft of the world ; but what parti¬
cular people made the earlieft figure, after the Chalde¬
ans, in the hiftory of philofophy, cannot be certainly
known. The claim of the Egyptians is probably belt
founded ; but as their fcience was the immediate fource
of that of the Greeks, we {ball defer what we have to
fay of it on account of the connexion between the pa¬
rent and the offspring, and turn our attention from
Chaldean to Indian philofophy, as it has been cultivated
from a very early period by the Brachmans and Gym-
nofpphifts. We pafs over Perfia, becaufe we know not
of any fcience peculiar to that kingdom, except the
dodtrines of the magi, which were religious rather than
philofophical; and of them the reader will find fome
account under the words Magi, Polytheism, and
Zoroaster. 4
From whatever quarter India received its wifdom, we Indian pU
are certain that its philofophers were held in high repute lotopty*
at a period of very remote antiquity, fince they were vi-
fited by Pythagoras and other fages of ancient Greece,
who travelled in purfuit of knowledge. Yet they feem
to have been in that early age, as well as at prefent,
more diftinguifhed for the feverity of their manners than
for the acquifition of fcience ; and, as Dr Enfield ob¬
ferves, to have more refembled modern monks than an¬
cient
( b) Convenit igitur partiri philofophiam in do&rinas tres •, doBrinam de numine, doBnnam de natura, doBrmam
de hiomine. Quoniam autem partitiones feientiarum non funt lineis diverfis fimiles, quae coeunt ad unum angulum ;
fed potius ramis arbormn, qui conjunguntur in uno trunco, qui etiam truncus ad fpatium nonnullum integer eft et
continuus, antequam fe partiatur in ramos. De aug. Scient. lib. iii. cap, 1. '
(c) This claim of the Babylonians is thus rejefted with contempt by Cicero 5 “ Contemnamus Babylonios, et
cos, qui e Caucafe cceli figna fervantes, numeris, et motibus, ftellarum curfus perfequuntur; Condemnemus, in-
quam, hos aut Jhiltitice, aut vanitatis, aut imprudentice% qui 470 millia annorum, ut ipfi dieunt, monumentis com-
prehenfa continent, et mentiri judicemus, nec feculorum rcliquorum judicium, quod de ipfis futurumfit, pertimefeerc*
De Divination*, lib. i. § 19.
P H I L O S O P H Y.
371
liftoryof cient phllofoplicrs. The brachmans or bramins, it is
lilofophy- Well known, are all of one tribe; and the raoft learned
—y 0f t]-,eni are in their own language called Pundits or
Pandits. The Greek writers, however, mention a fo-
cietv called Samanceans, who, voluntarily devoting
tbemfelves to the ftudy of divine wifdom, gave up all
private property, committed their children to the care
of the (late, and their wives to the protection of their
relations. This fociety was fupported at the public ex¬
pence ; and its members fpent their time in contempla¬
tion, in converfation on divine fubjeCts, or in a6ts of re¬
ligion.
grafted The philofophy of the Indians has indeed from the
a religion, beginning been engrafted on their religious dogmas,
and feems to be a compound of fanatic metaphyfics
and extravagant fuperftition, without the fmalleft fea-
foning of rational phyfics. Very unlike the philofo-
phers of modern Europe, of whom a great part labour
to exclude the agency of mind from the univerfe, the
Pandits of Hindoftan allow no powers whatever to mat¬
ter, but introduce the Supreme Being as the immedi¬
ate caufe of every effeft, however trivial. “ Brehm,
the Spirit of God, (fays one of their moft revered Bra¬
mins), is abforbed in felf-contemplation. The fame
is the mighty Lord, who is prefent in every part of
fpace, whofe omniprefence, as expreffed in the Reig Beid
or Rigveda, I (hall now explain. Brehm is one, and to
him there is no fecond •, fuch is truly Brehm. His om-
nifcience is felf-infpired or felf-intelligent, and its com-
prehenfion includes every poflible fpecies. To illuftrate
this as far as I am able ; the moft comprehenfive of all
comprehenfive faculties is omnifcience ; and being felf-
infpired, it is fubjeft to none of the accidents of mortali¬
ty, conception, birth, growth, decay, or death ; neither is
it fubjeCt to paflion or vice. To it the three diftinftions
of time, paji, prefent, and future, are not. I o it the
three modes of being (d) are not. It is feparated from
the univerfe, and independent of all. I his omnifcience
is named Brehm. By this omnifeient Spirit the ope¬
rations of God are enlivened. By this Spirit alfo the
24 powers (e) of nature are animated. How is this ?
As the eye by the fun, as th» pot by the fire, as iron
by the magnet (f), as variety of imitations by the mi¬
mic, as fire by the fuel, as the ftiadow by the man, as
dull by the wind, as the arrow by the fpring of the
bow, and as the flrade by the tree j fo by this Spirit
the world is endued with the posvers of intellect, the
powers of the will, and the powers of aCtion : fo that
if it emanates from the heart by the channel of the
ear, it caufes the perception of founds } if it emanates
from the heart by the channel of the Ikin, it caufes
the perception of touch \ if it emanates from the heart
by the channel of the eye, it caufes the perception of
vifible objeCls ; if it emanates from the heart by the
channel of the tongue, it caufes the perception of
tafte j if it emanates from the heart by the channel ot
the nofe, it caufes the perception of fmell. This alfo
invigorating the five members of aflion, and invigo¬
rating the five members of perception, and invigora¬
ting the five elements, and invigorating the five fenfes,
and invigorating the three difpofitions of the mind,
&c. caufes the creation or the annihilation of the uni-
Hi ft ory of
Philofophy.
verfe, while itfelf beholds every thing as an indifferent
fpeftator * Prelimi-
From this paffage it is plain that all the motions nary Dijc.,
in the univerfe, and all the perceptions of man, are, s
according to the Bramins, caufed by the immediate
agency of the Spirit of God, which feems to be here 5
confidered as the foul of the world. But it appears admits not
from fome papers in the Afiatic Refearches, that the^hefepara^
moft profound of thefe oriental philofophers, and even
the authors of their facred books, believe not in the ‘
exiftence of matter as a feparate fubftance, but hold an
opinion refpefting it very fimilar to that of the celebra¬
ted Berkeley. The Vedantis (fays Sir William Jones),
unable to form a diftinCl idea of brute matter indepen¬
dent of mind, or to conceive that the work of Supreme
Goodnefs was left a moment to itfelf, imagine that the
Deity is ever prefent to his work, and conftantly fup-
ports a feries of perceptions, which in one fenfe they call
illufory, though they cannot but admit the reality of all
created forms, as far as the happinefs of creatures can be
affefled by them.
This is the very immaterialifm of Berkeley 5 and in
proof that it is the genuine do&rine of the Bramins,
the learned prefident quotes the Bhdgavat, which is
believed to have been pronounced by the Supreme Be¬
ing, and in which is the following fentence.
“ Except the frjl caufe, whatever may appear, and
may not appear, in the mind, know that to be the
mind’s Maya, or ‘ delufion,’ as light, as darknefs.” ^
We have fhown elfewhere (fee Metaphysics, N° Teaches the
269.) that the metaphyfical do&rines of the Bramins, nietempfy-
refpe&ing the human foul, differ not from thofe of Py-c 0 1S'
thagoras and Plato; and that they believe it to be an
emanation from the great foul of the world, which, af¬
ter many tranfmigrations, will be finally abforbed in
its parent fubftance. In proof of their believing in the
metempfyehofis, Mr Halhed gives us the following tran-
flation of what (he fays) is a beautiful ftanza in the
Geeta : “ As throwing afide his old clothes, a man puts
on others that are new ; fo our lives, quitting the old,
go to other newer animals.” g
From the Bramihs believing in the foul of the world Phyfics of
not only as the foie agent, but as the immediate caufe of th.e Bra-
every motion in nature, we can hardly fuppofe themnuns*
3 A 2 to
(d) To be awake, to fleep, and to be abforbed in a ftate of unconfcioufnefs—a kind of trance.
(E) The 24 powers of nature, according to the Bramins, are the five elements,/re, air, earth, wate? and
ahajh (a kind of fubtile tether) 5 the five members of adlion, the hand foot, tongue, anus, and male organ of gene¬
ration; the five organs of perception, the ear, eye, nofe, mouth, zn& fkm ; the five fenfes, which they di mguift,
from the organs of fenfation ; the three difpofitions of the mind, define, pajion, and tranquillity, and the power
^ (Fflffhfwork from which this extraa is quoted be of as great antiquity as Mr Halhed fuppofes, the Bramins
muft have been acquainted with the phenomena of magnetifm at a much earlier pertod than an, other phtlofophers
of whom hiftory makes mention.
372
PHILO
Hiftory of {.o have made any great progrefs in that fcience which
Philofophy. jn jrurcpf> js cultivated under the name of physics.
Xhey have no inducement to inveltigale the laws of
nature ; becaufe, according to the ftrti principles of
their philofophy, which, together with their religion,
they believe to have been revealed from heaven, every
phenomenon, however regular, or however anomalous,
is produced by the voluntary a£l of an intelligent
mind. Yet if they were acquainted with the ufe of
fire-arms 4000 years ago, as Mr Halhed feems to be¬
lieve, he who made that difeovery muft have had a
very confiderable knowledge of the powers of nature $
tor though gunpowder may have been difeovered by
accident in the Eaft, as it certainly was in the Welt
jnany ages afterwards, it is difficult to conceive how
^ . mere accident could have led any man to the inven-
Their aftro-tion of a gun. In aftronomy, geometry, and chrono-
nomy. - logy too, they appear to have made fome proficiency
at a very early period. (See Astronomy, N° 4.).
Their chronology and aftronomy are indeed full of
thofe extravagant fidtions which feem to be efl'ential to
all their fyftems ; but their calculation of eclipfes, and
their computations oi time, are conducted upon feienti-
fic principles.
* Afiatic “ It is fufficiently known (fays Mr Davis *) that
ReJcarches,\\\Q Hindoo divifion of the ecliptic into figns, degrees,
voi. ii. js farne as ours . their aftronomical year is
ftdereal, or containing that fpace of time in which the
fun, departing from a ftar, returns to the fame ; that
it commences on the inftant of his entering the fign
Aries, or rather the Hindoo conftellation Mefha j that
each aftronomical month contains as many even days
and fraftional parts as he ftays in each fign ; and
that the civil differs from the aftronomical account of
time only in rcjedling thofe fractions, and beginning
the year and month at funrife, inftead of the interme¬
diate inftant of the artificial day or night. Hence
arifes the unequal portion of time aftigned to each
month dependent on the fituation of the fun’s apfis,
and the diftance of the vernal equinodlial colure from
the beginning of Melha in the Hindoo fphere ; and
by thefe means they avoid thofe errors which Euro¬
peans, from a different method of adjufting their ka-
lendar by intercalary days, have been fubjedi to.”
Mr Davis obferves, that an explanation of thefe mat¬
ters would have led him beyond his purpofe, which was
only to give a general account of the method by which
the Hindoos compute eclipfes, and to fhow that the fei-
ence of aftronomy is as well known among them now as
ever it was among their anceftors. This he does very
completely ^ but in the prefent Ihort hiftorical Iketch,
we can neither copy nor abridge his memoir. Suffice it
to fay, that he has ftiown the practical part of the Hin¬
doo aftronomy to be founded on mathematical principles5
and that the learned Pandits appear to have truer no¬
tions of the form of the earth, and the economy of the
univerfe, than thofe which are aferibed to their country¬
men in general.
The fame writer ftiows likewife, that the prodigious
duration which the Hindoos attribute to the world, is
the refult of a fcientific calculation, founded indeed on
very whimfical principles. “ It has been common with
aftronomers to fix on fome epoch, from which, as from a
radix, to compute the planetary motions j and the an-
SOPHY.
cient Hindoos chofe that point of time counted back, Hiftoryof
when, according to their motions as they had determin-^ilQkphj-,
ed them, they muft have been in conjun&ion in the be- “T—
ginning of Mefha or Aries, and coeval with which cir-
cumftance they fuppofed the creation. This, as it con¬
cerned the planets only, would have produced a mode¬
rate term of years compared with the enormous antiqui¬
ty that will be hereafter ftated : but having difeovered
a flow motion of the nodes and apfides alfo, and taken
it into computation, they found it would require a
length of time correfponding with 195.5884890 years
now expired, when they w'ereiofituated,and 2364115110
years more before they would return to the fame fituation
again, forming together the grand anomaliftiek period
denominated a Caipa, and fancifully affigned as the day
of Brahma.”
But though the mathematical part of the aftronomy
of the Pandits is undoubtedly refpedfable, their phyfieal
notions of the univerfe are in the higheft degree ridicu¬
lous and extravagant. In the Vedas and Purartas, wri¬
tings of which no devout Hindoo can diipute the divine
authority, eclipfes are faid to be occafioned by the in¬
tervention of the monfter Rahu ; and the earth to be j,0
fupported by a feries of animals. “ They fuppofe (faysStrangemo.
Mr Halhed) that there are 14 fpheres, feven below and t'ons t^le
and fix above the earth. The feven inferior worlds areuniverfe‘
faid to be altogether inhabited by an infinite variety of
ferpents, deferibed in every monftrous figure that the
imagination can fuggeft. The firft fphere above the
earth is the immediate vault of the vifible heavens, in
which the fun, moon, and ftars, are placed. The fe-
cond is the firft paradife, and general receptacle of thofe
who merit a removal from the lower earth. The third
and fourth are inhabited by the fouls of thofe men who,
by the pra&ice of virtue and dint of prayer, have ac¬
quired an extraordinary degree of fanclity. The fifth
is the reward of thofe who have all their lives performed
fome wonderful a£! of penance and mortification, or who
have,died martyrs for their religion. The higheft; fphere
is the refidence of Brahma and his particular favourites,
fuch as thofe men who have never uttered a falfehood
during their whole lives, and thofe women who have vo¬
luntarily burned themfelves with their huffiands. All
thefe are abforbed in the divine eflence.” j,
On ethics, the Hindoos have nothing that can be Ethics of
called philofophy. Their duties, moral, civil, and re-,lie Hin*
ligious, are all laid down in their Vedas and Shq/iers ;^oos'
and enjoined by what they believe to be divine autho¬
rity, which fuperfedes all reafoning concerning their
fitnefs or utility. The bufinefs of their Pandits is to
interpret thofe books, which are extremely ancient, and
written in a language that has long been unintelligible
to every other order of men ; but no Pandit will alter
the text, however impoflible to be reconciled to princi¬
ples eftabliftied in his own pra£lice of aftronomy. On
fuch occafions, the ufual apology for their facred books
is, that “ fueh things may have been fo formerly, and
may be fo ftillj but that for aftronomical purpofes, aftro- M
nomical rules muft be followed*.” The great duties of* totWi
morality have been preferibed in every religious code j
and they are not overlooked in that of the Hindoos,y^rfi(?i,
though the higheft; merit that a Bramin can have confiftsvol. ii.
in voluntary a&s of abftinence and mortification, and in
contempt of death.
Of
' lory of
f pfophy.
12
I oinphy
q ie Arft-
l IS and
1 lefe.
] ly fci-
i e of the
] eni-
i is.
Prep. Ev
PHILOSOPHY.
373
Of the ancient philofophy of the Arabians and Chi-
nefe nothing certain can be faid; and the narrow limits
of fuch an abftrad as this, do not admit of our mention¬
ing the conjeftures of the learned, which contradidt each
other, and are all equally groundlefs.
There is indeed fufficient evidence that both nations
were at a very early period oblervers of the ftars; and
that the Chinefe had even a theory by which they fore¬
told eclipfes (fee Astrokomy, N° 2, 3.) ; but there is
reafon to believe that the Arabians, like other people in
their cireumftances, were nothing more than judicial
aftrologers, who poffeffed not the fmalleft portion of
aftronomical fcience.
Pliny makes mention of their magi, whilft later wri¬
ters tell us, that they were famous for their ingenuity
in folving enigmatical queftions, and for their Ikill in
the arts of divination : but the authors of Greece are
filent concerning their philofophy } and there is not an
Arabian book of greater antiquity than the Koran ex¬
tant (See Philology, Section II.).
Leaving therefore regions fo barren of infoimation,
let us pafs to the Phoenicians, whofe commercial ce¬
lebrity has induced many learned men to allow them
great credit for early Icience. If it be true, as fttms
highly probable, that the fhips of this nation had
doubled the Cape and almoft encompafied the penin-
fula of Africa long before the era of Solomon (See
Ophik, N° 10.), we cannot doubt that the Phoenicians
had made great proficiency in the art of navigation,
and in the fcience of aftronoray, at a period of very re¬
mote antiquity. Nor were thefe the only fciences culti¬
vated by that ancient people : the learned Gudworth
has, in our opinion, fufficiently proved that Mofchus or
Mochus a Phoenician, who, according to Strabo, tlou-
rilhed before the Trojan war, was the author of the
atomic philofophy afterwards adopted by Leucippus,
Democritus, and others among the Greeks } and that it
was with Come of the fncceffors of this fage that Pytha¬
goras, as Jamblichus tells us, converfed at Sidon, and
from them received his dodtrine of MotuhIs (See Pr-
THAGORAS). Another proof of the early progrefs of
the Phoenicians in philofop'ny may be found in the frag¬
ments of their hiftorian Sanchoniatho which have been
_ preferved by Eufebius We are indeed awaie that
men of great, celebrity have called in queftion the au¬
thenticity of ihofe fragments, and even the very exift-
ence of fuch a waiter as Sanchoniatho; but lor this
fcepticifm we can difcover no foundation (See Sancho¬
niatho). His hiltory may have been interpolated in
fome places by the tranfiator Philo-Byblius j but Por¬
phyry, Eufebius, and Theodoret, fpeak of it as a work
of undoubted credit, and affirm that its author ffouriffied
before the Trojan war. Now this ancient writer teaches
that, according to the wife men of his country, all things
arofe at firft from the neceffary agency of an aftive
principle upon a paffive chaotic mafs which he calls mot.
This chaos Cud worth thinks was the fame with the ele¬
mentary water of Thales, who was alfo 01 Phoenician
♦xtradlion $ but Moffieim juftly obferves that it was ra¬
ther dark air^ fince Philo tranflates it ZpQuH. Be
this as it may, nothing can be more evident than that
the Phoenicians mull have made fome progrefs in '.hat
muft furely be confidered as philofophy, however falie,
fo early as the era of Sanchoniatho j for fpecuratipns
about the origin of the world never occur to untaught
5
barbarians. Befides Mochus and Sanchoniatho, Cad- Hiftoryof
mus, who introduced letters into Greece, may undoubt-1 oluP >•
edly be reckoned among the Phoenician philofophers j
for though it is not pretended that the alphabet was of
his invention, and though it is by no means certain that
the Greeks, at the time of his arrival among them, were
wholly deltitute of alphabetic characters (See Philo¬
logy, N° 130.) y yet the man who could prevail with
illiterate lavages to adopt the ufe of iirange characters,
muft have been a great mafter of the fcience of human
nature. Several other Phoenician philofophers are
mentioned by Strabo ; but as they fiouriffied at a la¬
ter period, and philofophized after the fj hematic mode
of the Greeks, they fall not properly under our no¬
tice. We pafs on therefore to tile philofophy of E-
gypt. # j.
* It has been already obferved that the EgyptiansE?yptiaa,
boailed of being tbe firft of nations, and the authors phllofophy*
of all the fcience which in feparate rays illuminated
the reft of the world. But though this claim was
undoubtedly ill-founded, their high antiquity and early
progrefs in the arts of civil life cannot be controverted.
The Greeks with one voice confefs that all their learn¬
ing and wifdom came from Egypt, either imported im¬
mediately by their own philofophers, or brought through
Phoenicia by the fages of the eaft ; and we know from
higher authority than.the hiltories of Greece, that at a
period fo remote as the birth of Mofes, the wifdom of
the Egyptians was proverbially famous. Yet the hi-
ftory of Egyptian learning and philofophy, though men
of the firft eminence both ancient and modern have be¬
llowed much pains in attempts to elucidate it, Hill re¬
mains involved in clouds of uncertainty. That they had
forae knowledge of phyfiology, arithmetic, geometry,
and aftronomy, are frnfts which cannot be queftioned;
but there is realon to believe that even thole fciences
were in Egypt pulhed no farther than to the ufes of life.
That they believed in tbe exiftence of incorporeal fub-
ftanees is certain > becaufe Herodotus allures us that
they Avere the firit affertors of the immortality, pre-ex-
iftenee, and tranfmigration of human fouls, which they
could not have been without holding thofe fouls to be
atleaft iruorporsaJ, if not immaterial.:
The author of Egyptian learning is generally ac^
knowledged to have been Thoth, Theut, or Taaut, call-
led by the Greeks Hermes, and by the Romans Mer ■
cury ; but of this perfonage very little is knoAvn. Dio¬
dorus Siculus fays that he was chief minifter to Oliris,
and that he improved language, invented letters, jnfti-
tuted religious rites, and taught aftronorny, mufic, and
other arts. The fame thing is affirmed by SancJionia-
iho, Avhofe antiquity has been already mentioned ; by
Manetho an Egyptian pneft, Avho flouriffied during the
reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus ^ and by Plato, whofe
authority, as he refided long in Egypt, and Avas him-
felf an eminent philofopher, is perhaps more to be de-
pended upon than that of the other two. In the Phi-
lebus we are told that Thoth Avag the inventor of let¬
ters •, and left we ftiould fuppofe that by thofe letters
nothing more is meant than pi&ure writing or Symboli¬
cal hieroglyphics, it is added, that he cliftinguiihed be^
tween vowels and confonants, determining the number
of each. The fame philofopher, in his Phmdrus, at¬
tributes to Thoth the invention oi arithmetic, geometry,
ajivenomu, and hieroglyphic learning) and fubjoins a
difputatfoa '
374 P H 1 L O
Hiitory of djrputation faid to liave been litld between him and Tha-
l hil()lophy. mus t]ien j^jng 0f Egypt5 concerning the advantage and
difadvantage of his newly invented letters. Thoth
boafted that the invention, by aiding memory, would
greatly contribute to the progrefs of fcience; whilft the
monarch contended, that it would enervate men’s natu¬
ral faculties by making them truft to written charac¬
ters without exerting the powers of their own minds.
All this, if real, mult have happened before the era
of Mofes; and fince it is almotl certain that alphabeti¬
cal charadters were in ufe prior to the exod of the Ifrae-
lites from Egypt (fee Philology, N° 24, 25.) we
may as well allow the invention to Thoth, as give it to
an earlier author of unknown name. That arithmetic,
geometry, and aftronomy, were cultivated in Egypt
from the moft remote antiquity, is affirmed by all the
ancients, and made in the highfll degree probable by
the lituation of the country. The firft elements of af¬
tronomy have certainly been difcovered by various na¬
tions, whofe habits of life led them to the frequent ob-
fervation of the heavens*, and it is obferved by Cicero*
that the Egyptians and Babylonians, dwelling in open
plains where nothing intercepted the viewr of the hea¬
venly bodies, naturally devoted themfelves to the ftudy
of that fcience. The annual overflowing of the Nile,
which broke up the boundaries of their land, 'would lay
the Egyptians under the neceffity of adopting fome me¬
thod of fettling thofe boundaries anew 5 and neceffity we
know to be the parent of invention. Hence their early
acquaintance with practical geometry cannot well be
doubted. Their cuftom of embalming their dead, and
the perfection to which they carried that art (g), fhows
infallibly their knowledge of the properties of natural
fubftances, and gives fome reafon to believe that they
■were not altogether ftrangers to anatomy : but if we al¬
low them to have been at this early period anatomifts
acquainted with the power of drugs, we can hardly re-
fufe them fome fkill in the art of phyfic, which they
themfelves traced up to their gods and demigods, to St-
rapis, IJis, and her fon Horus or Apollo.
The art of alchymy has been faid to have been knowh
by the ancient Egyptians ; and from the author of the
Egyptian philofophy it has been called the Hermetic art.
But though this is unqueftionably a fiCtion, there is evi-
S O P H Y.
deuce that they were poliefled of one art which is even Hiftorv of
yet a deft der a turn in the practice of chemiftry. “ Mo- Philofophy.
fes (rve are told *) took the golden calf, which his t
brother had made for idolatrous purpofes, and burnt it
in the fire, and ground it to powder, and fire wed it onA 20’
the water, and made the children of Ifrael drink of it.”
Had this fa£t been related by Herodotus or Diodorus
Siculus, it would have been deemed fufficient evidence
that the Egyptians were even at that early period no
ftrangers to the art of chemiftry : and furely the evi¬
dence ftiould not be the Avorfe for coming from the pen
of the HebreT,v lawgiver, who was himfelf educated in
the court of Egypt.
But though it is thus evident that the rudiments of Not carried
almoft every ufeful fcience Avere known in Egypt fromt0 high per.
the remoteft antiquity, it does not appear that any oP6^011-
them Avas carried to a great degree of perfe&ion, unlefs
perhaps chemiftry alone muft be excepted. One tvould
think that no fcience could have been more indifpenfably
requifite to therfi than geometry. And yet though Py¬
thagoras is faid to have fpent 22 years in Egypt ftudy-
ing that fcienee and aftronomy, he himfelf dxfcovered
(H) the famous 47th Prop, of Euclid’s firft book after
his return to Samos. This, though a very ufeful, is yet
a fimple theorem ; and fince it Avas not reached by the
Egyptian geometry, we cannot fuppofe that thofe peo¬
ple had then advanced far in fuch fpeculations. The
fame conclufion muft be drawn Avith refpe£t to aftrono¬
my ; for Thales is faid to have been the firft that calcu¬
lated an eclipfe of the fun \ and Ave noAvhere read that
the Egyptians pretended to difpute that honour Avith l6
him. To this it may be replied, that Pythagoras was Their
in Egypt undoubtedly taught the true conftitution ofknowleJge
the folar fyftem, and what is more extraordinary, the”f the folat
do&rine of comets in particular, and of their revolutions,' em’
like the other planets, round the fun (1). We grant
that he Avas taught all this; but it tvas not fcientifically,
but dogmatically, as faffs Avhich the priefts had received
by tradition from their early anceftors, and of Avhich
they had never queftioned the truth nor enquired into
the reafons. Of this Ave need no better proof than that
the Pythagorean fyftem of the fun Avas totally negleffed
by the Greeks as foon as they began to frame hypothefes
and to fpeculate in philofophy (k).
But
(g) It is true that the difleflion of fome mummies has leffened the high opinion long entertained of the Ikill of
the ancient Egyptians in the art of embalming; yet it muft be granted that their knoAvledge of antifeptic drugs
was great, fince it is noAV certainly knoAvn, even from thefe diffeffions, that by means of fuch drugs they contrived
to preferve rags of cloth from corruption for upwards of 3000 years. ,
(h) This dilcovery he claimed ; and his claim was admitted by the Greek Avriters without having been direBh)
controverted fince. An excellent mathematician, however, has fhoAvn that the equality between the fquare of
the hypothenufe of a right-angled triangle, and the fum of the fquares on the other tAvo fides, Avas known to the
aftronomers of India at a period long prior to that of Pythagoras. NotAvithftanding this, it is certainly poffible
that the fage of Samos may have made the difcovery himfelf, though Ave think the contrary much more probable;
for avc agTee Avith the able writer already mentioned, that Pythagoras, Avho is generally believed to have converfed
Avith Indian brahmans as Avell as Egyptian priefts, may have derived from them “ fome of the folid as well as the
vifionary fpeculations Avith. which he delighted to inftruft or amufe his difciples.” See TranfaBions of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, vol. ii. Memoir xiii. Phyfic Clafs.
(0 Ihis is recorded by Ariftotle and Plutarch ; and thus expreffed by Ammianus Marcellinus.—“ Stellas
quafdam, ceteris finales, quarum ortus orbit iifique, quibus fint temporibus prafiituti humanis mentibus ignorari, lib.
xxAr. cap. 10.
(k) Fixas in fupremis mundi partibus immotas perfiftere, et planetas his inferiores circa folem revolvi, terram
pariter moveri curfu annuo, diurno vero circa axem propriam, et folem ceu-focum univerfi iti omnium centro quief-
cere,
] lory of
p ofopliy-
P It I L O
But it may feem llrange, and certainly is fo, tliat the
Egyptian priefts, in the days of Pythagoras, Ihould
have preferved fo great a difcovery of their anceftors,
and at the fame time have totally forgotten the prineE
pies and reafoning which led to a conclufion apparently
contrary to the evidence of fenfe. This is a difficulty
vhicb we pretend not to remove, though the fad which
involves it feems to be beyond the reach of controverfy.
Perhaps the following obfervations may throw upon it
a feeble light. According to Manetho, the written
monuments of the firft Thoth were loft or negleded in
certain civil revolutions or natural calamities which be-
fel the kingdom of Egypt. After many ages great part
of them were recovered by an ingenious interpretation
of the fymbols which he had infcribed upon ancient co¬
lumns : and the man who made this interpretation was
called the fecond Thoth or Hermes Trifmegijlus. But
thrice iUuJlrious as this perfonage was, it is at leaft pof-
fible that he may have been much inferior to the former
Hermes, and have read his writings and tranfcribed his
cnnclufions without being able to comprehend the prin¬
ciples or reafoning which led to thofe conclufions. Any
man who underftands Latin might tranflate into his own
tongue the conclufions of New'ton } but much more
would be requifite to make him comprehend the demon-
ftrations of his fublime geometry. By what mode of
reafoning the firft Hermes (l) was led to the true idea
of the folar fyftem, or whether it was by reafonmg at
all, cannot now be known •, but it feems very evident,
that when the intercourfe between the Egyptians and
Greeks firft commenced, the wifdom of the former peo¬
ple confifted chiefly in the fcience of legiflation and civil
policy, and that the philofopher, the divine, the legifla-
tor and the poet, were,all united in the fame perfon.
Their cofmogony (for all the ancients who pretended
to fcience framed cofmogonies) differed little from that
of the Phoenicians already mentioned. They held that
the world was produced from chaos by the energy of an
intelligent principle ; and they Kkewife conceived that
there is in nature a continual tendency towards diflolu-
tion. In Plato’s Timaeus, an Egyptian prieft is intro¬
duced defcribing the deftru&ion of the world, and af-
ferting that it will be effe&ed by means of water and
SOPHY. 375
fire. They conceived that the univerfe undergoes a pe- f
riodical conflagration 5 after which all things are reftor-1 11 H^p V)\
ed to their original form, to pafs again through a iimi-
lar fucceffion of changes. }"]
“Of preceptive do&rine the Egyptians had two Thy1*.m0"
kinds, the one facred, the other vulgar. The former,
which refpe&ed the ceremonies of religion and the fa- Hijlory of
ties of the priefts, was doubtlefs written in the facred Philofophy*
books of Hermes, but was too carefully concealed to
pafs down to pofterity. The latter confifted of maxims
and rules of virtue, prudence, or policy. Diodorus Si¬
culus relates many particulars concerning the laws, cul-
toms, and manners of the Egyptians ; whence it appears
that fuperftition mingled with and corrupted their no¬
tions of morals. It is in vain to look for accurate prin¬
ciples of ethics among an ignorant and fuperftitious peo¬
ple. And that the ancient Egyptians merited this cha-
rafter is fufficiently evident from this Angle circum-
ftance, that they fuffered themfelves to be deceived by
impoftors, particularly by the profeffors of the fanciful
art of aftrology •, concerning whom Sextus Empiricus
juftly remarks, that they have done much mifchief in '
the world, by enflaving men to fuperftition, which will
not fuffer them to follow the diftates of right reafon.”
See Egypt, Mysteries, Mythology, &c. .
From Egypt and Phoenicia philofophy paffcd into Grecian
Greece-, where it was long taught without fyftem, as plulofophjc
in the countries from which it was derived. Phoroneus,
Cecrops, Cadmus, and Orpheus, were among the ear-
lieft inftruftors of the Greeks-, and they inculcated
Egyptian and Phoenician doftrines in detached maxims,
and enforced them, not by ftrength of argument, but
by the authority of tradition. Their cofmogonies were
wholly Phoenician or Egyptian, difguifed under Grecian
names -, and they taught a future ftate of rewards and
punifhments. The planets and the moon Orpheus con¬
ceived to be habitable worlds, and the ftars to be fiery
bodies like the fun : but he taught that they are all ani¬
mated by divinities j an opinion which prevailed both
in Egypt and the eaft : and it does not appear that he
gave any other proof of his doftrines than a confident
affertion that they were derived from fome god. See
Orpheus.
Hitherto
cere antiquiffima fuit philofophantium fententia. Ab iEgyptiis autem aftrorum antiqmffimis obfervatiombus pro-
pagatam effe hanc fententiam verifimile eft. Et etiam ab illis et a gentibus contermims ad Graecos, gentem magis
phfloWicam quam philofophicam, philofophia omnis antiquior juxta et femor manafle videtur. Subinde docuerunt
Anaxagoras Democritus, et alii nonnulli, terram in centro mundi imnmtam flare, et aftra omnia m occafum, ah-
qua celerius’ alia tardius moveri, idque in fpatiis liberrimis. Namque orbis fohdi poftea ab Eudoxo, Cauppo, An-
ftotele introdufti funt j declinante indies philofophia primitus introdufta et novis Graecorum commentis paulatim
prtvaknUbut. Quibus’Wfr antiqui planetas in fpatiis Hberis retinen, deque curfu reftftineo perpetuo retrafta,
in orbem revulariter agi docuere, non conftat. Newton de Mundi Syjiemate. r .n r
fi ) Some authors, deeply {killed in the Hebrew language, have thought that the true fyftem of the fun an p a-
nets may be percei ved in the Scriptures of the Old Teftament, and that ft is only from the ignorance or careleffnefs
nets may be perceivea p the En i;{ll b;ble and other verfions. 1 he writer of this article con-
feffesVaThfs knowledge of the Hebrew is very limited, which is probably the reafon that to him the arguments
of thefe men appear weak and their criticifms fanciful. No man, however, has a higher veneration than he for
tl f a i 1 ^ Trblr-h Vip believes to have been given for nobler purpofes than to teach its readers the fcience of
the lacred volume, which ne Deiieves 10 nave uccn g , . . / ft ij i‘r.r.ftnpd tn think that the
aftronomy ; but could the principles of that fcience be found in it, he (houH be ftrong^y inchned to^hm^that^
firft Thoth was Jofeph, and that the monarch to whom he was imn.fter was the fa - f ; ' Wlnd how the
folid foundation for this fuppofition, it would be eafy to concave how Th0th acquired ^
Egyptian priefts might retain juft notions of the Mar fyftem m general, long after they had forgotten the eviden-e.
upon which lie communicated thofe notions to their ancel org.
37s
Hillory of
.Mulofophy.
PHILOSOPHY.
'S’.
The Ionic
•fchool.
40
The Italic
fchool.
Hitherto we have feen 'pliilofophy in its ftate of in¬
fancy and childhood, confiding only of a collection of
fententious maxims and traditionary opinions j but among
-the Greeks, an ingenious and penetrating people, it toon
affumed the form of profound [peculation and iydematic
realoning. Two eminent phUofopbers arofe nearly at
the fame period, who may be eonfidered as the patents
not only of Grecian fcience, but of aimed all the fei-
ence which was cultivated in Europe prior to the era of
the great Lord Bacon : Thefe were Thales and Pytha¬
goras ; of whom the former founded the Ionic fchool
and the latter the Italic j from which two fprung the
various fe6fs into which the "Greek .philofophers were
afterwards divided. A bare enumeration of thefe fedls
is all that our limits will admit of; and we (hall give it
in the perfpieuous language and juft arrangement of Dr
Enfield, referring our readers for a fuller account than
we can give of their refpe<ftive merits to his abridged
tranflation of Brucker’s hiltory.
Of the Ionic School were, i. The Ionic fe<ft pro¬
per, whofc founder Thales had as his fucceffors Anaxi¬
menes, Anaxagoras, Diogenes Apolloniates, and Ar-
chelaus. a. The Socratic fchool, founded by Socrates,
the principal of whofe difeiples were Xenophon, Aii-
cbines, Si*»en, Cebes, A-riftippus, Pheedo, Euclid, Pla¬
to, Antifthenes, Critias, and Alcibiades, 3. The Cy-
renaic feft, of which Ariftippus was the autlior : his
followers were* his daughter Arete, Hegifias, Aiftccr-
ris, Theodorus, and Bion. 4. The Megaric or Eriftic
fe<ft, formed by Euclid of Megara *, to whom fuccfeeded
Eubulides, Diodorus, and Stilpo, famous for their logi¬
cal fubtlety. 5. The Eliac or Eretriac fchool, railed
by Phcedo of Elis, who, though he clofely adhered to
the doctrine of Socrates, gave name to his fchool. His
fucceifors were Pliftanus and Alenedemus ; the latter of
whom, being a native of Eretria, transferred the fchool
and name to his own country. 6, The Academic to61,
of which Plato was the founder. After his death, ma¬
ny of his difciples deviating from his doftrine, the fchool
was divided into the old, nev/, and middle academies.
7. The Peripatetic fe6t, founded by Ariftotle, whofe
fucceffors in the Lyceum were Theopbraftus, Strato,
Lycon, Arifto, Critolaus, and Diodorus. Among the
Peripatetics, befides thofe who occupied the chair, were
alfo Dicrearchus, Eudemus, and Demetrius Phalereus.
8. The Cynic fe<ft, of which the author was Anti-
fthenes, whom Diogenes, Oneficritus, Crates, Metro-
cles, Menipus, and Menedemus, fucceeded. In the lift
of Cynic philofophers muft alfo be reckoned Hipparchia,
the wife of Crates. 9. The Stoic fe<ft, of which Zeno
was the founder. His fucceffors in the porch were Pcr-
fieus, Arifto of Chios, Herillus, Sphasrus, Cleanthus,
Chryfippus, Zeno of Tarfas, Diogenes the Babylonian,
Antipater, Pannetius, and Pofidonius.
Of the Italic School were, 1. The Italic feel
proper : it was founded by Pythagoras, a difciple of
Pherecydes. The followers of Pythagoras were Ari-
ftseus, Mnefarchus, Alcmseon, Ecphantus, Hippo, Em¬
pedocles, Epicharmus, Ocellus, Timaeus, Archytas,
Hippafus, Pliilolaus, and Eudoxus. 2. The Eleatic
feft, of which Xenophanes was the author : his fuccef¬
fors, Parmenides, Meliffus, Zeno, belonged to the me-
taphyfical clafs of this feft ; Leucippus, Democritus,
Protagoras, Diagoras, and Anaxarchus, to the phyfi-
cal, 3. The Heraclitean fedft, which was founded by
Heraclitus, and foon afterwards expired : Zeno and
Hippocrates philofophifed after the manner of Heracli- t'l.iloiophy,
tus, and other philofophers borrowed freely from his’T'—^
lyltem. 4. The Epicurean feci, a branch of the Elea¬
tic, had Epicurus for its author ; among whofe follow¬
ers were Metrodorus, Polymnus, Hermachus, Polyfira-
tus, Bafilides, and Protarchus. 5. The Pyrrhonic or
Sceptic fetft, the parent of which was Pyrrho : his doc¬
trine was taught by Timon the Phliafian ; and after
fome interval was continued by Ptolemy a Cyrenean
and at Alexandria by yEnefidemus,
Of the peculiar, doctrines of thefe fedls, the reader will
in this work find a ftiort account either in the lives of
their refpedtive founders, or under the names of the
fc£ts themfelves. W e, lhall only obferve at prefent,
that though many of them were undoubtedly abfurd,
and many wicked, it would yet perhaps be going too
far to fay with lome, that the philofophy of Greece be¬
came impious under Diagoras, vicious under Epicurus,
HYPOCRITICAL under Zeno, impudent under Dio¬
genes, covetous under Deraochares, voluptuous under
Metrodorus, fantaftieal under Crates, feunilous under
Menippus, licentious under Pyrrho, and quarrelfome
under Cleacthes. Of the truth of this heavy charge
every reader muft judge for himfelf. We are ftrongly
inclined to think, that there were virtues and vices pe¬
culiar to each fe£t “ and that the feds themfelves hadpan<w^
an affinity more or lefs direct with the different tempe- PhilofophU
rametits of man j 'whence the choice of fedators oftencnl^ij/'er-
depended on phyfical influence, or a peculiar difpofition
of their organs. Nothing appears more natural than
that thofe men w ho were born w ith great force of mind
and ftrong nerves fliould difeover a prediledion for ftoi-
cifm ; while mortals, endowed by nature with more de¬
licacy of fibres and keener fenfibility, fled for refuge to
the myrtles of Epicurus. People whofe temperaments
partook of no extremes, were always inclined either for
the Lyceum or the Academy. Such as poffeffed foli-
dity of underftanding ranged tbemftlves with Ariftotle ;
and thofe who had only genius, or even pretenfions to
that endowment, wrent to augment the crowd of Plato-
nifts.” ^ _ sr
All the fyftematical philofophers, however, purfuedGrecian
their inquiries into nature by nearly the fame method.m0<ie 0I"
Of their philofophy, as well as of ours, the univerfe,^1^ ^
with all that it contains, was the varft objed 5 but the2"12’
individual things which compofe the univerfe are in¬
finite in number and ever changing ; and therefore,
according to an eftabliflied maxim of theirs, incapable
of being the fubjeds of human fcience*. To reduce # $^1 in
this infinitude, and to fix thofe fleeting beings, they Pradic. et
eftabliflied certain definite arrangements or claffes, to Ariji-Pty"
fome of which every thing paft, prefent, or to come/f'lib'''
might be referred j and having afeertained, as they
thought, all that could be affirmed or denied of thefe
claffes, they proved, by a very ftiort procefs of fyllo-
giftic reafoning, that what is true of the clafs muft be
true of every individual comprehended under it. The
moft celebrated of thefe arrangements is that which is
known by the name of categories ; which Mr Harris
thinks at lead as old as the era of Pythagoras, and to
the forming of which mankind would, in his opinion,
be neceffarily led by the following confiderations 1 a*
Every fubjed of human thought is either fubflance orTl>e c^*
attribute i but fuliftance and attribute may each of them gorie5*
be
PHILOSOPHY,
I ory of be modified under tbe different characters of univerfal
PI fophy. or •particular. Hence there arifes a quadruple arrange-
u ment of things into fubjlance univerfal and fubjlance par¬
ticular ; into attribute univerfal and attribute particular ;
to fome one of which four not only our words and
ideas, but every individual of that immenfe multitude
of things which compofe the univerfe, may be deduced.
This arrangement, however, the learned author thinks
too limited ; and he is of opinion, that, by attending
to the fubftances with which they were furrounded,
the Grecian fchools muft foon have diftinguifhed be¬
tween the attributes effential to all fubftances and thofe
which are only circumfantial; between the attributes
proper to natural fubftances or bodies, and thofe which
are peculiar to intelligible fubftances or minds. He
likewife thinks, that the time and place of the exiftence
of fubftances not prefent, muft foon have attrafted
their attention j and that in confidering the place of
this or that fubftance, they could hardly avoid think¬
ing of its poftion or fituation. He is of opinion, that
the fuperinduCtion of one fubftance upon another would
inevitably fuggeft the idea of clothing or habity and
that the variety of co-exifing fuhfiances and attributes
would difcover to them another attribute, viz. that of
relation. Inftead therefore of confining themfelves to
the fimple divifion of fubfance and attribute, they di¬
vided attribute itfelf into nine diftinct forts, fome effen-
tial and others circumfantial; and thus by fetting fub¬
ftance at their head, made ten comprehenfve univer¬
fal genera, called, with reference to their Greek name,
categories, and with reference to their Latin name pre¬
dicaments. Thefe categories are, SUBSTANCE, QUALI¬
TY, QUANTITY, RELATION, ACTION, PASSION, WHEN,
WHERE, POSITION, and haBit ; which, according to
the fyftematic philofophy of the Greeks, comprehend
every human fcience and every fubjeft of human
thought. Hifory, natural and civil, fprings, fays Mr
Harris, out of substance ; mathematics out of quan¬
tity *, optics out of QUALITY and QUANTITY medicine
out of the fame ; afronomy out of QUANTITY and MO¬
TION j mufc and mechanics out of the fame ; painting
out ef QUALITY and SITE j ethics out of RELATION $
chronology out of WHEN j geography out of WHERE ;
ele&ricity, magnetifn, and attraction, out of action and
Passion ; and fo in other inftances.
To thefe categories, confidered as a mere arrange¬
ment of fcience, we are not inclined to make many ob¬
jections. The arrangement is certainly not complete :
but this is a matter of comparatively fmall importance j
23 for a complete arrangement of fcience cannot, we be-
)redi- lieve, be formed. The greateft objection to the cate¬
gories arifes from the ufe that was made of them by
almoft every philofopher of the Grecian fchools ; for
thofe fages having reduced the objects of all human
fcience to ten general heads or general terms, inftead of
fetting themfelves to inquire by a painful induction in¬
to the nature and properties of the real objefts before
them,'employed their time in conceiving what could
be predicated o f fubjlance in general, of this or that
Vol. XVI. Part I.
. ^
quality, quantity, relation, &c. in the abftra&: and they Hiftory of
foon found, that of fuch general conceptions as the ca- Pfiftokpfiy-
tegories there are but five predicables or claffes of predi¬
cates in nature. The firft clafs is that in which the
predicate is the genus of the fubjeft ; the fecond, that in
which it is the fpecies of the fubjett; the third, is when
the predicate is the fpecifc difference of the fubjeB ; the
fourth, when it is a property of the fubjeB ; and the
fifth, when it is fomething accidental to the fubjeB (fee
Logic, Part II. chap. ii. and iii.). Having proceeded
thus far in their fyftem, they had nothing to do with
individuals but to arrange them under their proper
categories, which was commonly done in a very arbi¬
trary manner ; and then, with the formality of a fyl-
logifm, to predicate of each the predicable of the ge¬
nus or fpecies to which it belonged. But by this me¬
thod of proceeding, it is obvious that no progrefs what¬
ever could be made in phyfical, metaphyfical, or ethi¬
cal fcience j for if the individual truly belongs to the 54
category under which it is arranged, we add nothing toare r‘° h1-
our ftock of knowledge by affirming or denying
it what we had before affirmed or denied of the whole01
genus : and if it belong not to the category under which
We arrange it, our fyllogifing ^ill only give the appear¬
ance of proof to what muft, from the nature of things,
be an abfolute falfehood. It is only by experiments
made on various fubftances apparently of the fame kind
that they can be certainly known to belong to the fame
category 5 and, when this is done, all fyllogiftic reafon-
ing from the genus to the fpecies, and from the fpecies
to the individual, is but folemn trifling, as every pro-
pofition in this retrograde courfe takes for granted the
thing to be proved. 2tj
Yet this mode of philofophizing fpread from Greece'This phi-
almoft over the xvhole world. It was carried by Alex-
ander into Afia, by his fucceffors into Egypt j and it ^cough
found its way to Rome after Greece became a provincethe whole
of the empire. It was adopted by the Jews, by the world;
fathers of the Chriftian church, by the Mahommedan
Arabs during the caliphate, and continued to be cul¬
tivated by the fchoolmen through all Europe, till its
futility was expofed by Lord Bacon (m). The pro-
feffors of this philofophy often difplayed great acute-
niefs j but their fyftems were built on mere hypothefes,
and fupported by fyllogiftic wrangling. Now and
then indeed a fuperior genius, fuch as Alhazen and
our countryman Roger Bacon, broke through the
trammels of the fchools, and, regardlefs of the authority
of the Stagyrite and his categories, made real difcoveries
in phyfical fcience by experiments judicioufly conduct¬
ed on individual fubftances (fee Bacon, Roger; and
Optics, N° 6.) ; but the fcience in repute ftill con¬
tinued to be that of Generals.
It was indeed a combination of abfurd metaphyftes
with more abfurd theology j and that which is proper¬
ly called phyfcs, had in Europe no place in a liberal
education from the end of the eighth century to the
end of the fourteenth. Towards the beginning of this
period of darknefs, the whole circle of inftruClion, or
3 B the
(m) Scientice, quas habemus, fere a Graecis fluxerunt. Ouse enim fcriptores Romani, aut Arabes, aut recentiores
addiderunt, non multa, aut magni momenti fuHt: et qualiacunque lint, fundata funt fuper bafin eorum quae invents
?unt \ Graecis. Bacon.
PHILOSOPHY.
378
Hiftory of tlie liberal arts as they were called, confided of two
Phtlofophy. branches, the trivium and the qiuuinvium ; of which the
' former comprehended grammar, rhetoric, and dialcciics ;
the latter mufic, arithmetic, geometry, and ajlronomy, to
which was added about the end of the eleventh century
the ftudy of a number of metaphyjicu/fubtlelies equally
ufelefs and unintelligible.
Hitherto the works of the ancient Greek philofo-
phers had been read only in imperfeft Latin tranfla-
tions •, and before the fcholadic fyfiem was completely
eifablilhed, Plato and Arifiotle had been, alternately
looked up to as the oracle in fcience. I he rigid
fchoolmen, however, univerfally gave the preference to
the Stagyrite \ becaufe his analyfis of body into mat¬
ter and form is peculiarly calculated to keep in coun¬
tenance the moft incredible doclrinc or the Romilh
church (fee Transubstantiation) : and upon the
revival of Greek learning, this preference was conti¬
nued after the fchool philofophy had begun to fall in¬
to contempt, on account of much ufetul information
contained in feme of his writings on fubje&s of natu¬
ral hiftory, and his fuppofed merit as a natural philo-
fopher. At laft the intrepid fpirit of Luther and his
affociates fet the minds of men free from the tyranny
of ancient names, as well in human fcience as in theo¬
logy } and many philofophers fprung up in different
countries of Europe, who profeffed either to be eclec¬
tics, or to ftudy nature, regardlefs of every authority
but that of reafon. Of thefe the moft eminent be¬
yond all comparifon wTas Francis Bacon Lord Veru-
tS lam.
expoftd as This illuftrious man having read with attention the
futile by writings of the moft celebrated ancients, and made
ILonl Ba- bjmfelf mafter of the fciences which were then eulti-
* vated, foon difcovered the abfurdity of pretending to
account for the phenomena of nature by fyllogiftic
reafoning from hypothetical principles •, and with a
boldnefs becoming a genius of the firft order, under¬
took to give a new chart of human knowledge. 1 his
he did in his two admirable works, intitled, 1. De dig-
nitate et au^mentis fcientiarum ; and, 2. Novum organutn
fcientiarum, five Judicia vera de interpretutione Nature.
In the former of thefe works, he takes a very minute
furvey of the whole circle of human fcience, which he
divides into three great branches, hijlory, poetry, and
pkilofopJiy, correfponding to the three faculties of the
mind, memory, imagination, and reafon. Each ot thefe
general heads is fubdivided into minuter branches, and
reflexions are made upon the whole, which, though
we can neither copy nor abridge them, will amply re-
who "efta- vvard the perufal of the attentive reader. 1 he purpofe
blifhes a of the Novum Organum is to point out the proper me-
better me- tb0q nf interpreting nature } which the author fliows
thod °f Gan never be done by the logic which was then in fa-
mcjiury. {bion) but only by a painful and fair induXiort. “ Ho¬
mo naturae minifter (fays he) et interpres tantum facit
et intelligit, quantum de naturae ordine re, vel mente
obfervaverit', nec amplius fcit aut poteft. Syllogif-
mus ad principia fcientiarum non adhibetur, ad media
axioma'a fruftra adhibetur, cum fit fuhtilitati naturae
1'onge impar. Affenfum itaque conftringit, non res.
Syllogifmus ex propofitionibus eonftat, propofitiones
©x verbis, verba notionum tefferce funt. Itaque fi no-
tiones ipfie (id quod bafis rei eft) confufie (int et te¬
rn ere ^ rebus abftraXse, nihil in iis quae fuperftruuntur,.
4
eft firmitudinis, Itaque fpts ell una in induElione View of
veraN Bacon’s
To hypothefes and preconcived opinions, which he
calls idola theatri, this great man was not lefs inimical
than to fyllogifms; and fince his days almoft every phi-
lofopher of eminence, except Defcartes and his followers
(fee Descartes and Cartesians), has profeffed to
ftudy nature according to the method of induXion fo
accurately laid down in the Novum Organum. On this
method a few improvements h?ve perhaps been made p
but notwithftanding thefe, Lord Bacon muft undoubted¬
ly be confidered as the author of that philofophy which is
now cultivated in Europe, and which will continue to
be cultivated as long as men (hall have more regard for
matters of faX than for hypothetical opinions. Of this
mode of philofophifing we {hall now give a ftiort, though
we hope not inaccurate, view, by ftating its objeXs,
comparing it with that which it fuperfeded, explaining
its rules, and pointing out its ufes ; and from this view
it will appear, that its author ftiares with Ariftotle the
empire of fcience.
23
The univerfe, that unbounded objeX of the contem-Viewofhs
plation, the curiofity and the refearches of man, may beP^klcpbr,
confidered in two different points ot view.
In the firft place, it may be confidered merely as a
colleXion of exiftences, related to each other by means
of refemblances and diftinXion, fituation, fucceflion,
and derivation, as making parts of a whole. In this
view it is the fubjeX of pure defeription.
To acquire an acquaintance with, or a knowledge of,
the univerfe in this point of view, we muft enumerate*
all the beings in it, mention all their fenfible qualities,
and mark all thefe relations for each. But this would
be labour immenle 5 and when done, an undiftinguifh-
able chaos. A book containing every word of a lan¬
guage would only give us the materials, fo to fpeak, of
this language. To make it comprehenfible, it muft
be put into fome form, which will comprehend the
whole in a fmall compafs, and enable the mind to pafs
eafily from one word to another related to it. Of all
relations among words, the moft obvious are thofe of re-
femblance and derivation. An etymological diXionary,
therefore, in which words are claffed in confequence of
their refemblances, and arranged by means of their de¬
rivative diftinXions, will greatly facilitate the acquifi-
tion of the language.
Juft fo in nature: The objeXs around us may be
grouped by means of their refemblance, and then ar¬
ranged in thofe groups by means of their diftinXions
and other relations. In this claffification we are. en¬
abled to proceed by means of our faculty of abftraX-
ing our attention from the circumflances in which
things differ, and turning it to thofe only in which
they agree. By the judicious employment of this fa¬
culty we are able not only to diftribute the individuals
into claffes, but alfo to diftribute thofe claffes into
others ftill more comprehenfive, by difeovering eircum-
ftanees of refemblance among them : for the fewer the
cireumftances are which concur to form that refemblance
which has engaged our attention, the greater is the
number of diflimilar cireumftances which are negleX-
ed •, and the more extenfive will be the clafs oi indi- 19
viduals in which the refemblance is obferved. rhusNator
a number of individuals refembling each other in the 11
fingl©
PHILO
’iswof fingle circiinnftance oi' life, conrpofcs the raoft extenfive
•aeon’s kingdom of ANIMALS. If it be required, that they
.lofopny^ further referable in the circumltance of having
' feathers, a prodigious number of animals are excluded,
and we form the inferior tlafs of BIRDS. We exclude
a great number of birds, by requiring a further limila-
rity of web feet, and have the order of ANSERES. If we
add lingua ciliata, we confine the attention to the genus
of ANATES. In this manner may the whole objects of
the univerfe be grouped, and arranged into kingdoms,
elalfes, orders, genera, and fpccies.
Such a claffification and arrangement is called Na¬
tural History j and muft be confidered as the only
foundation of any extenfive knowledge of nature. To
the natural hilforian, therefore, the world is a colleflion
of exiffences, the fubject of deferiptive arrangement.
His aim is threefold.
1. To obfe rve with care, and deferibe with accuracy,
the various objefts of the univerfe.
2. To determine and enumerate all the great clafies
of objects ■, to diftribute and arrange them into all their
fubordinate clatTes, through all degrees of fubordination,
till he arrive at what are only accidental varieties,
which are fufceptible of no farther diftribution ; and to
mark with precifion the principles of this diftribution
and arrangement, and the chara&eriflics of the various
affemblages.
3. To determine with certainty the particular group
to which any propofed Individual belongs.
Description, therefore, arrangement, and refe¬
rence, conflitute the whole of his employment; and in
13 this confifls all his fcience.
tinguifh- Did the univerfe continue unchanged, this would con-
[™U1 llltute the whole of our knowledge of nature : but we
are wJtnefTes of an uninterrupted fucceffion of changes,
and our attention is continually called to the EVENTS
which are inceffantly happening around us. Thefe
form a fet of obje&s vaftly more intend!ing to us than
the former *, being the fources of almoft all the pleafures
or pains we receive from external obje6!s.
\Ye are therefore much interefted in the ftudy of the
events which happen around us, and ftrongly incited to
profecute it: but they are fo numerous and fo multifa¬
rious, that the ftudy would be immenfe, without fome
contrivance for abbreviating and facilitating the talk.
The fame help offers itfelf here as in the ftudy of what
may be called quiefeent nature. Events, like exiftences,
are fufceptible of claffification, in confequence of re fern
fiances and diftimffion •, and by attention to thefe, we
«an acquire a very extenfive acquaintance with atftive
mature. Our attention muft be chiefly dire£led to thofe
circumftances in which many events referable each
other, while they differ perhaps in a thoufand others.
Then we muft attend to their moft general diftimftions^
then to diftinflions of fmaller extent, and lo on.
It is in this way accordingly that we have advanced
in our knowledge of aclive nature, and are gradually,
and by no means flowly, forming afferablages of events
more and more extenfive, and'diftributing thefe with
greater and greater precifion into their different claffes.
In the zealous and attentive profeeution of this talk
a very remarkable and interefting obfervation occurs :
In deferibing thofe circumftances of funilaritv among
events, and particularly in diftriburing them according
to thofe fimilarities, it is impoffibl© for us to overlook
SOPHY. 379
that conftancy which is obferved in the changes of na- View of
ture in the events which are the objebls of our contem-
plation. Events which have once been obferved to ac- ‘^ ‘''
company each other are obferved always to do fo. 31
The rifing of the fun is always accompanied by the Conftancy
light of day, and his fetting by the darknefs of night.^
Sound argument is accompanied by convidlion, impulfe
by motion, kindnefs by a feeling of gratitude, and the
perception of good by defire. The unexcepted experi¬
ence of mankind informs us, that the events of nature
go on in certain regular trains ; and if fometimes ex¬
ceptions feem to contradift this general affirmation,
more attentive obfervation never fails to remove the ex¬
ception. Moft of the fpontaneous events of' nature are
very complicated } and it frequently requires great at- ,
tention and penetration to difeover the fimple event
amidft a crowd of uneffential circumfiances which are
at once exhibited to our view. But when we fucceed
in this difeovery, we never fail to acknowledge the per-
feft uniformity of the event to what has been formerly
obferved. 32
But this is not all : We firmly believe that this uni- univerfallf
formity willJHU continue ; that fire will melt wax, vYiH exPe^e^
burn paper, will haiVten clay, as we have formerly ob¬
ferved it to do ; and whenever we have undoubted,
proofs that the circumftances of fituation are precifely
the* fame as in fome former cafe, though but once ob¬
ferved, we expeft with irrefiftible and unftiaken confi¬
dence that the event will alfo be the fame.
It is not finely neceffary to adduce many proofs of
the univerfality of this law of human thought. The
whole language and aftions of men are inftances of
the fa£l. In all languages there is a mode of conftruc-
tion which is ufid to exprefs this relation as diftinft
from all others, and the converfation of the moft illite¬
rate never confounds them, except when the concep¬
tions themfelves are confounded. The gtneral em¬
ployment of the aclive and paffive verb is regulated by
it. Turris everfa ejl d militiius ; turris everfa ejl terree
motu, exprefs two relations, and no fchoolboy will con¬
found them. The diiiinflion therefore is perceived or
felt by all who can fpeak grammatically. Nor is any
language without general terms to exprefs this relation,
caufe—effect—to occafion. Nay, it is a fa£t in the
mind of brutes, who hourly fhow that they expert the
fame ufes of every fubjefl which they formerly made
of it 5 and without this, animals would be incapable
of fubfitlence, and man incapable of all improvement.
From this alone memory derives all its value •, and even
the conftancy of natural operation would be ufeltfs if
not matched or adapted to our purpofes by this expe61a-
tion of any eonfidenee in that conftancy.
After all the labours of ingenious men to difeover the
foundation of this irrefiftible expe&ation", we muft be
contented with faying that fuch is the conftitution of the
human mind. It is an utiiverfalfail in human thought;
*md for any thing thaf has been yet difeovered, it is an
ultimate fa£l, not included in any other ftill more gene¬
ral. We fhall foon fee that this is fufficient for making
it the foundation of true human knowledge j all of
which muft in like manner be reduced to ultimate fafts
in human thought.
We draft confider this undoubted feeling, this per-
fuafion of the conftancy of nature, as an inf.m£Uv<*
anticipation of events fimilar to thofe which we have
3 B Z already
A
380 PHILO
View of already experienced. Tlie general analogy of nature
Bacon’s fhould have difpofed philofophers to acquiefce in this,
, 11 0 013 y' however unwelcome to their vanity. In ho inftance
of effential confequenee to our fafety or well-being
are we left to the guidance of our boalted reafon j God
has given us the furer condudl of natural inftindts. No
cafe is fo important as this : In none do we fo much
Hand in need of a guide which fhall be powerful, infalli¬
ble, and rapid in its decifions. Without it we muft re¬
main incapable of all inftrudlion from experience, and
therefore of all improvement.
Our fenfations are undoubtedly feelings of our mind.
But all thofe feelings are accompanied by an intlinc-
tive reference of them to fomething diitinCt from the
feelings themfelves. Hence arifes our perception of
external objefts and our very notions of this externeity
(pardon the term). In like manner, this anticipation
of events, this irrefiftible connexion of the idea of fire
with the idea of burning, is alfo a feeling of the mind :
and this feeling is by a law of human nature referred,
without reafoning, to fomething external as its caufe j
and, like our fenfation, it is confidered as a Jign of that
external fomething. It is like the conviiflion of the
truth of a mathematical propofition. This is referred
by us to fomething exifting in nature, to a neceflary and
eternal relation fubfifting between the ideas which are
the fubjefts of the propofition. The conviction is the
fign or indication of this relation by which it is brought
to our view. In precifely the fame manner, the irre-
fiftible connexion of id'eas is interpreted as the fenfation
or fign of a neceffary conneElion of external things or
events. Thtfe are fuppofed to include fomething in
their nature which renders them infeparable companions.
^ To this bond of connection between external things we
Gur know- give the name of Causation. All our knowledge of
ledge of this relation of caufe and effeCt, is the knowledge or
caufation. e0nfcioufnefs of what pafles in our own minds during the
contemplation of the phenomena of nature. If we ad¬
here to this view of it, and put this branch of know¬
ledge on the fame footing with thofe called the abJfraB
fciences, confidering only the relations of ideas, we lhall
acquire demonjlrative fcience. If we take any other
view of the matter, we fhall be led into inextricable
mazes of uncertainty and error.
We fee then that the natural procedure of our fa¬
culty of abflraClion and arrangement, in order to ac¬
quire a more fpeedy and comprehenfive knowledge of
natural events, prefents them to our view in another
form. We not only fee them as /imilar events, but as
events naturally and neceflarily conjoined. And the ex-
preffion of refemblance among events is alfo an expref-
fion of concomitancy ; and this arrangement of events in
eonfequenee of their refemblance is in faCt the difcovery
of thofe accompaniments. The trains of natural ap¬
pearance being eonfidered as the appointments of the
Author of Nature, has occafioned them to be confi¬
dered alfo as confequences of laws impcfed on his
works by their great author, and every thing is faid
34 to be regulated by fixed laws. But this is the lan-
laws of guage of analogy. When a fovereign determines on
nature ex- eertajn trains of conduCt for his fubje&s, he iflues his
* ’ orders. Thefe orders are laws. He inforces the ob-
fervance of them by his authority 5 and thus a cer¬
tain regularity and conftancy of conduCI is produced.
But ihould a flranger, ignorant of the promulgation
SOPHY.
of thefe laws, and of the exerted authority of the View of
magiftrate, obferve this uniformity of conduCt, he would Bacon’s
afcribe it to the genius and difpofition of the people j‘
and his obfervation would be as ufeful to him for direft- > ^
ing the tenor of his own conduCt, as the knowledge of
the fubjeCt himfelf of the real fource of this conftancy
is for directing his.
Juft fo in nature, while the theologian pretends, from
his difcoveries concerning the exiftence and fuperintend-
ance of God, to know that the^conftant accompani¬
ment of events is the confequence of laws which the
great Author and Governor of the univerfe has impofed
on his w'orks, the ordinary philofopher, a ftranger to
this fcene, and to the unfearchable operations of the
supreme mind, muft afcribe this conftancy to the na¬
ture of the things. There is a great refemblance' be¬
tween the expreffion natural law and grammatical rule.
Rule in ftriCt language implies command ; but in gram¬
mar it expreffes merely a generality of fadl, whether of
flexion or conftruClion. In like manner, a law of na¬
ture is to the philofopher nothing but the expreffion of
a generality of faCt. A natural or phyfical law is a ge¬
nerally obferved faCt ; and whenever we treat any fub-
jeCl as a generally obferved faCt, -we treat it phyfieally.
It is a phyfical law of the underftanding that argument
is accompanied by conviction ; it is a phyfical law of
the affeCtion that diftrefs is accompanied by pity j it is a
phyfical law of the material world that impulfe is ac¬
companied by motion.
And thus we fee that the-arrangement of events, or
the difcovery of thofe general points of refemblance, is
in faCt the difcovery of the laws of nature j and one of
the greateft and molt important is, that the laws of na¬
ture are conftant.
There is no queftion that this view of the univerfe
is incomparably more interefting and important than
that which is taken by the natural hiftorian ; contem¬
plating every thing that is of value to us, and, in fhort, 35
the whole life and movement of the univerfe. ThisObjedof
ftudy, therefore, has been dignified with the name ofP^0^^*
philosophy and of science ; and natural hiftory has
been confidered as of importance only in fo far as it was
conducive to the fuccefsful profecution of philofophy.
But the philofopher claims a fuperiority on another
account: he confiders himfelf as employed in the dif¬
covery of caufes, faying that philofophy is the fludy of
the objeCts of the univerfe as related by caufation, and
that it is by the difcovery of thefe relations that he com¬
municates to the world fuch important knowledge.
Philofophy, he fays, is the fcience of caufes. The
vulgar are contented to confider the prior of two infe-
parably conjoined events as the caufe of the other \ the
flroke on a bell, for inftance, as the caufe of found.
But it has been clearly fliown by the philofopher, .that
between the blow on the bell and the fenfation of found
there are interpofed a long train of events. The blow
fets the bell a trembling 3 this agitates the air in contaft
with the bell 3 this agitates the air immediately beyond
it 3 and thus between the bell and the ear may be in- ^
terpofed a numberlefs feries of events, and as many (;aufes.
more between the firft impreffion on the ear and that
laft impreftion on the nerve by which the mind is af-
feCled. He can no longer therefore follow’ the nomen¬
clature of the vulgar. Which of the events of this
train therefore is the caufe of the fenfation ? None of
them 1
PHILO
^iew of them : It is that fomething which infeparably conne&s
iacon’s any tvvo 0f them, and conftitutes their bond of union,
ulofopby- xhefe bonds of union or caufes he confiders as refiding
in one or both of the connected objefts : diverfities in
this refpeft muft therefore conftitute the mod important
diftinftions between them. They are therefore with
great propriety called the qualities, the properties of
thefe refpe&ive fubjefts.
As the events from which we infer the exiftence of
thefe qualities of things referable in many refpe&s fuch
events as are the confequences of the exertion of our
own powers, thefe qualities are frequently denominated
POWERS, forces, energies. Thus, in the inftance juft
now given of the found of a bell, we infer the powers
of impulfe, elafticity, nervous irritability, and animal
fenfibility.
In confequence of this inference of a necelfary con¬
nexion between the objeXs around us, we not only in¬
fer the pofterior event from the prior, or, in common
language, the effeX from the caufe, but we alfo infer
the prior from the pofterior, the caufe from the effeX.
We not only expeX that the prefence of a magnet will
be followed by certain motions in iron-filings, but when
„ we obferve fuch motions, we infer the prefence and
ferred agency of a magnet. Joy is inferred from merriment,
am ef- poifon from death, fire from fmoke, and impulfe from
motion. And thus the appearances of the univerfe are
the indications of the powers of the objeXs in it. Ap¬
pearances are the language of nature, informing us of
their caufes. And as all our knowledge of the fenti-
ments of others is derived from our qonfidence in their
veracity ; fo all our knowledge of nature is derived
from our confidence in the conftancy of natural opera¬
tions. A veracity and credulity neceffarily refulting
from that law of our mental conftitution by which we
are capable of fpeech, conduX us in the one cafe } and
the conftancy of nature, and the principle o.f induXion,
by which wre infer general laws from particular faXs,
conduX us in the other. As human fentiment is infer¬
red from language, and the exiftence of external things
from fenfation } fo are the laws of nature, and the
powers of natural objeXs, inferred from the phenomena.
It is by the fuccefsful ftudy of this language of nature
that we derive ufeful knowledge. Ihe knowledge of
the influence of motives on the mind of man enables
the ftatefman to govern kingdoms, and the knowledge
of the powers of magnetifm enables the mariner to pi¬
lot a fhip through the pathlefs ocean.
Such are the lofty pretenfions of philofophy. It is
to be wilhed that they be well founded •, for we may be
perfuaded that a miftake in this particular will be fatal
to the advancement of knowledge. An author ©f great
Ancient reputation j- gives us an opportunity of deciding this
Aetaphy- queftjon jn (_be way of experiment. He fays that the
3g ancients were philofopbers, employed in the difcovery
Wcoveries of caufes, and that the moderns are only natural hifto-
fAriftotle rians, contenting themfelves with obferving the laws of
ndlvew- nature? trat paving no attention to the caufes of things.
ared.m' If he fpeak of their profejjed aim, we apprehend that
the affertion is pretty juft in general. With very few
exceptions indeed it may be affirmed of his favourite
Ariftotle, the philolbpher r.mr and of Sir Ifaac
Newton. We feleX thefe two inftances, both becaufe
they are fet in continual oppofition by this author, and
becaufe it will be allowed that they were the moft. emi¬
nent Undents of nature (for we muft not yet call
3
SOPHY.
them philofophers) in ancient and modern times. Ari- View of
ftotle’s profeffed aim, in his moft celebrated writings, is .
the inveftigation of caufes *, and in the opinion of this
author, he has been fo fuccefsful, that he has hardly left
any employment for his fucceflbrs befide that of com¬
menting upoa his works. We muft on the other hand
acknowledge that Newton makes no fuch pretenfions,
at lead in that work which has immortalized his name,
and that his profeffed aim is merely to inveftigate the
general laws of the planetary motions, and to apply
thefe to the explanation of particular phenomena. Nor
will we fay that he has left no employment for fucceed-
ing inquirers ; but, on the contrary, confefs that he has
only begun the ftudy, has difcovered but one larv, and
has enabled us to explain only the phenomena compre¬
hended in it alone. But he has not been unfuccefsful j
his inveftigation has been complete 5 and he has difco¬
vered, beyond all poflibility of contradiXion, a fail
which is obferved through the whole extent of the folaf
fyftem ; namely, that every body, nay, that every parti¬
cle in it, is continually DEFLECTED toward every other
body j and that this defleXion is, in every inftance, pro¬
portional to the quantity of matter in that body toward
which the defleXion is direXed, and to the reciprocal of
the fquare of the dirtance from it. He has therefore
difcovered a phyfical law of immenfe extent. Nor has
he been lefs fuccefsful in the explanation of particular
phenomena. Of this there cannot be given a better in¬
ftance than the explanation of the lunar motions from
the theory of gravity begun by Newton “ Mathefi fua
facem prceferente and now brought to fuch a degree
of perfeXion, that if the moon’s place be computed
from it for any moment within the period of two tliou-
fand years back, it will not be found to differ from the
place on which ftie was aXually obferved by one hun¬
dredth part of her own breadth.
Difcimus June tandem qua caufa argentea Phoebe
Paffibus haud cequis eat, et cur,fubdita nulii
Ha&enus ajlronomo, numerorum fre'na recufat*
^uce toties animos veterum torfere fophorum,
Sfueeque fcholas hodie rauco cert amine vex ant,
Obvia confpicimus, nuhe pellente matheji ;
^ua fuperos penetrare domos, et ardua cceh
Newtoni aufpiciis jam dat contingere templa.
We may now defire the champions of the fcience of
caufes to name any one caufe which has really been dif¬
covered by their great mafter, whether in the operations
of mind or of body. But they muft not on this occa-
fion adduce the inveftigation of avy natural law in which
he has fometimes fueceeded. With ftill greater confi¬
dence may we challenge them to produce any remark¬
able inftance of the explanation of natural phenomena
either of mind or body. By explanation we mean an
account of the produXion, and an appreciation of all
the circumftances, fufceptible of a fcrupulous compari-
fon with faX, and perfeXly confiftent with it. It is
here that the. weaknefs of this philofopher’s pretenfions
is moft confpicuous •, and his followers candidly acknow¬
ledge, that in the inquiries which proceed by experiment,
we have not derived great affiftance from Ariftotle’s
philofophy. But this, fay they, does not derogate from
the pre-eminence of his philofophy, becaufe. he has
ftiown that the particular fields of obfervation are to be
cultivated only by means of experiment. But furely
every field of obfervation is particular. There is no
ab/lrail
3 S 2
PHILOSOPHY.
View of uhjirntf object of philofophical refearch, the ftudy of
Pluiofo^h terminate in the philofophy of univerfals.
i In every kind of inquiry, that caufe akmp mart be fup-
pofed to a6f which we underftand fo far as to be able to
appreciate- its effects in particular circumfiances, and
compare them with fad, and fee their perfeft coinci¬
dence. It we have dileovered caufes, they arc known
as far as they arc discovered. Tljeir genuine effedls are
known, and therefore the phenomena which relult from
their agency are underftood. When therefore it is ac-
knqwledged, as it muft be acknowledged, that mankind
have made but little advances in the knowledge of na¬
ture, notwithftanding the pretended difeovery of caufes
by Ariftotle, and the conducting clue of his philofophy,
till of late years j and when it is alfo allowed that now,
while we are every day making great additions to this
fubordinate knowledge, the caufes which Aritlolle has
difeovered are forgotten, and his philofophy is neglect¬
ed ; there is great room for fufpefting (to fay the leaft),
that either the eaufes which philofophy pretends to have
difeovered are not real, or that Ariftotle and his follow¬
ers have not aimed at the difeovery of caufes, but only
at the difeovery of natural laws, and have failed in the
^ attempt.
Philofophi- here
eal caui'es fible to (
Uncovered which is
immediately adjoining events, but their bond of union,
and this diftind from the union itfelf ? It is evident
that this is an inquiry purely experimental. It is of
human knowledge we fpeak. This muft depend on the
nature of the human mind. This is a matter of con¬
tingency, known to us only by experiment and obferva-
tion. By obferving all the feelings and operations of
the mind, and clafllng and arranging them like any
other objeift of fcience, we difeover the general laws of
human thought and human reafoning ; and this is all
the knowledge we can ever acquire of it, or of any
thing elfe.
Much has been written on this fubjefh The moft
acute obfervation and found judgment have been em-
, ployed in the ftudy •, and we may venture to fay, that
eonfiderable progrefs has been made in pneumatology.
Many laws of human thought have been obferve.d, and
very diftinfUy marked ; and philofopbers are bufily em¬
ployed, fome of them with confiderable fuccefs, in the
diftribution of them into fubordinate claffcs, fo as to
know their comparative extent, and to mark their di-
ftinguifiling chara&ers with a precifion fimilar to what
has been attained in botany and other parts of natural
hiftory j fo that we mav hope that this ftudv will ad¬
vance like others. But in all thefe refearches, no phe¬
nomena have occurred which look like the perception
or contemplation of thefe feparate objefts of thought,
thefe philofophical caufes, this POWER in abftrafto. No
philofopher has ever pretended to ftate fuch an objeft of
the wind s obfervation, or attempted to group them in-
to clafits.
m the e- e may fay at once, without entering into any de-
Vents. tail, that thofe caufes, thofe bonds of neceffary union
between the naturally conjoined events or objefls, are
not only perceived by means of the events alone, but
are perceived folely in the events, and cannot be d'iftin-
guifhed from the conjundions themfelves. They are
neither the objedls of feparate obfervation, nor the pro*
du&ions of memory, nor inferences drawn from reflec-
feems here to be a previous queftion : Is it pof-
hfcover a phi In Jop hie a l caujc, that fomething
neither the prior nor the pofterior of the two
tion on-the laws by which the operation of our own View*!1
minds are regulated j nor can they be derived from Bacon’s
Other perceptions in the way of argumentative inference,
We cannot infer the paroxyfm of terror from the appear- ’ ’^
ance of impending deftruilion, or the fall of a ftone when
not fupported, a> we infer the incommenfurability of the
diagonal and iide of a fquare. This laft is implied m the
very conception or notion of a fquare; not as a confe-
quence of its olhcr properties, but as one of its eflential
attributes : and the contrary propofition is not only falfe,
but incapable of being diftimftly conceived. This is not
the cafe with the other phenomenon, or any matter of
fa£i. The proofs which are brought of a mathematical
propofition, are not the reafon of its being true, but the
fteps by which this truth is brought into our view; and
frequently, as in the inftance now given, this truth is
perceived, not diredfly, but confequentially, by the in-
cpnceivablenefs of the contrary propofition.
Mr Hume derives this irrefiftible expectation ofevents Mr Hums'*
from the known efFedi of cuftom, the affociation of ideas, theory a
The corelated event is brought into the mind by this^f^'°
Well known power of cuftom, with that vivacity of con-^™^0'
ception which conftitutes belief or expectation. But
without infilling on the futility of his theory of belief,
it is fufficient to obferve, that this explanation begs the
Very thing to be proved, when it aferibes to euftom a
power of any kind. It is the origin of this very power
which is the fubjedl in difpute. Belides, on the genuine
principles of fcepticifm, this cuftom involves an acknow¬
ledgement of pad; events, of a fomething different from
prefent inipreftions, which, in this doCfrine (if doCtrine
it can be called), are the only certain exiftences in na¬
ture : and, laftly, it is known that one clear experience
is a fufficient foundation for this unftiaken confidence
and anticipation. General cuftom can never, on Mr
Hume’s principles, give fuperior vivacity to any parti¬
cular idea.
This certain nonentity of it as a feparate objeCt of Another
obfe rvation, and this impoffibilily to derive this notionhypothefe
of neceflary and caufal connection between the eventsre*P?^iI!S
of the univerfe from any fource, have induced two
the molt acute philofophers of Europe, Mr Leibnitz
and Father Malebranehe, to deny that there is any fuch
connection, and to alfert that the events of the univerfe^
go on in correfpondisag trains, but without any caufal
connection, juft as a well-regulated clock will keep
time with the motions of the heavens without any
kind of dependence on them. This harmony of events
was pre-eftablifhed by the Author of the Univerfe, in
fubferviency to the purpofes he had in view in its for¬
mation.
All thofe purpofes which are cognifable by us, may
Certainly be aceomplilhed by this perfeCt adiuftment.
But without infilling on the fantaftic wildnefs of this
ingenious whim, it is quite enough to obferve, that it
alfo is A begging of the queftion, becaufe it fuppofes
caufation when it aferibes all to the agency of the Deity.
Thus have we fearched every quarter, without being
able to find a fource from which to derive this percep¬
tion of a necelfary connedion among the events of the
univerfe, or ol this confident expectation of the conti¬
nuance of phyfical laws; and yet we are certain of the
feeling, ai d of tha perfuaficn, be its origin what it may :
for we fpeak intelligibly on this fubjeCt ; we fpeak fa¬
miliarly of caufe, effi Ct, power, energy, neceflary con-
peC^ofy motives and their influence, argument and con-
vi£U#n,
PHILO
/icwof viciidn, rcafons and perfuaiion, allurements and emo-
3acon’s tlons, of gravity, magnetifm, irritability, &zc. ■, and we
ilofoptiy. carry on converfations on theft* fubjefts with much en-
^ tertaimnent and Teeming inlfrudfion. Language is the
expreffion of thought, and every word expreflts fome
notion or conception of the mind •, therefore it muft be
allowed, that we have fuch notions as are expreffed by
caufe, power, energy. But it is here, as in many cafes,
we perceive a dillindion without being able to exprefs
it by a definition ; and that we do perceive the relation
of caufation as diitinci from all others, and in particular
as diftinft from the relation of contiguity in time and
place ; or the relation of agent, aftion, and patient,
muft be concluded from the uniformity of language,
which never confounds them except on purpofe, and
when it is perceived. But even here we {ball find, that
none of the terms ufed for exprefiing thofe powers of
fubftance which are conceived as the caufes of their cha-
ra&eriftic phenomena, really exprflfs any thing different
from the phenomena themfelves. Let any perfon try
to define the terms gravity, elallicity, fenfibility, and the
like, and he will find that the definition is nothing but
a defcription of the phenomenon itfelf. The words are
all derivatives, moft of them verbal derivatives, imply¬
ing aftion, gravitation, &c. As the general refemblan-
ces in fliape, colour, &c; are expreffed by the natural
hiftorian by generic terms, fo the general refemblances
in event are exprelfed by the philofopher in generic pro-_
pofitions, which, in the progrefs of cultivation, are alfo
abbreviated into generic terms.
This abundantly explains the confiflency of our lan¬
guage on this fubjeft, both with itfelf and with the ope¬
rations of nature, without however affording any argu¬
ment for the truth of the affumption, that caufes are the
obje&s of philofophic refearch as feparate exiftences •,
or that this fuppofed neceffary connection is a necejfanj
he per- truth, whether fupreme or fubordinate. But fince the
ption of perception of it has its foundation in the conflitution of
liscon- the human mind, it feems intitled to the name of ayfr/?
i0,1 a ’principle. We are hardlv allowed to doubt of this,
it pnn- r , 1 r . ,, r
pie. when we conuder the importance of it, and tne care ot
nature to fecure us in all things effential to our fafety
and well-being, from all danger, from inattention, igno¬
rance, or indolence, by an infUncf infallible in its in
formation, and inftantaneous in its decifions. “ It would
not be like her ufual care (fays Hume), if this opera¬
tion of the mind, by which we infer like effefts from
like caufes, and vice verfa, were entrufled to the falla¬
cious deduCHon of our reafon, which is flow' in its ope¬
rations, appears not in any degree during the firfl years
of infancy, and in every age and period of human life
is extremely liable to error. It is more conformable to
her ordinary caution (mark the acknowledgment) ?o
fecure fo neceflary an act of the mind by fome inftina,
or blind tendency, which mav be infallible and rapid in
all its operations, may difcover itfelf at the firft appear¬
ance of life, and may be independent of all the labour¬
ed dedu£Hons of reafon. As (he has taught us the ufe
of our limbs, without giving us any knowledge of
the nerves and mufcles by which they are aftuaH d ;
fo fhe has implanted in us an inftinCI, which carries
forward the thought in a courfe conformable to that
eftablifhed among external objeCls, though we he igno¬
rant of the powers and forces on which this regularity
depends.”
S q P H Y. 383
Such a knowledge is quite unnee'cfiary, and therefore
caufes are no more cognofcible by our intelle&ual^.^^.
powers than colours by a man born blind j nay, who- / .
ever will be at the pains to confider this matter agree¬
ably to the received rules and maxims of logic, will find
that neceffary connexion, or the bond of caulation, can
no more be the fubjefl of philofophical dilcuflion by-
man, than the ultimate nature of truth- It is precifely
the fame abfurdity or incongruity, as to propofe to exa¬
mine light with a microfcopt . Other rational creatures
may perceive them as eafily as we hear founds. All
that we can fay is, that their exiftence is probable, but
by no means certain. Nay, it may be (and we may
never know it) that we are not the efficient caufes of
our own aflions, which may beeffefted by the Deity or
by miniflering fpirits ; and this may even be true in the
material world. But all this is indifferent to the real
occupation of the philofopher, and does not effect either
the certainty, the extent, or the utility of the knowledge
which he may acquire. 44
We are now able to appreciate the high pretenfions Mieobjeft
of the philofopher, and his claim to fcientific fuperiority.tl1?
We now fee that this can neither be founded on any ft:i-tj,e 4,^^
entific fuperiority of his objedt, nor of his emploMnent. very of
His objedt is not caufes ; and his difcoveries are nothing physical
but the difeovery of general fadts, the difcov< ry of phy-^aws'
fieal laws : and his employment is the iatne with that of
the deferiptive hiftorian. He obferves and deferibes
with care and accuracy the events of nature j and then
he groups them into claffes, in confequence of refem-
bling circumftances, detedled in the midft of many
others which are diffiimilar and occafional. Bv gradual¬
ly throwing out more circumftances of refemblance, he
renders his claffes more extenfive ; and, by carefully
marking thofe circumftances in which the refemblance
is obferved, he charadlerifes all the different clafics: and,
by a comparifon of thefe with each other, in reipedf to
the number of refembling circumftances, he diftributes
his clafles according to their generality and fubordina-
tion ; thus exhaufting the whole aflemblage, and leaving
nothing unarranged but accidental varieties. In this
procedure it is to be remarked, that every grouping of
fimilar events is, ipfo faiio, diffiovering a general fad!,
a phyfical law j and the expreftion of this affemblage is
the expreftion of the phyfical law. And as every obfer-
vation of this conftancy of fad! affords an opportunity
for exerting the inftindiive inference of natural connec¬
tion between the related fubjedls, every fuch obfervatiorv
is the difeovery of a power, property, or quality, of na¬
tural fubftance. And from what has been faid, this ob-
fervation of event is all we know of the connedlion, alt
we know of the natural power. And when the philofo-
pher proceeds farther to the arrangement of events, ac¬
cording to their various degrees of complication, he is,
ipfo faBo, making an arrangement of all natural powers
according to their various degrees of fubordinate in¬
fluence. And thus his occupation is perfedfly fimilar to
that of the deferiptive hiftorian, claflification and ar¬
rangement ; and this conftitutes all the fcience attain¬
able by both. -
< 45
Philosophy may therefore be defined, the ftudy ofPhilofophy*
the phenomena of the univerfe, with a view to difcover defined,
the general laws which indicate the powers of natural
fubftances, to explain fubordinate phemsmena, and to
improve
384 PHILO
View of improve art: Or, in compliance with that natural in-
ftinft fo much fjjoken of, Philofophy is the ftudy of the
phenomena of the univerfe, with a view to difcover their
caufes, to explain fubordinate phenomena, and to im¬
prove art.
The talk is undoubtedly difficult, and will exercife
our noblelt powers. The employment is manly in it-
felf, and the refult of it important. It therefore juftly
merits the appellation of philofophy, although its objedfs
are nowife different from what occupy the attention of
other men.
The employment of the philofopher, like that of the
natural hilforian, is threefold1, description, arrange¬
ment, and REFERENCE j while the objedts are not things
but events.
The defcription, when employed about events, may
be more properly termed hi/lory. A philofophical hi-
ffory of nature coniifts in a complete or copious enume¬
ration and narration of fadls, properly feledled, cleared
of all unneceffary or extraneous circumftances, and ac¬
curately narrated. This conftitutes the materials of
philofophy. We cannot give a better example of this
branch of philofophical occupation than affronomy.
From the beginning of the Alexandrian fchool to this
day, aftronomers have been at immenfe pains in obferv-
ing the heavenly bodies, in order to detedl their true
motions. This has been a work of prodigious difficulty;
for the appearances are fuch as might have been exhibit¬
ed although the real motions had been extremely differ¬
ent. Not that our fenfes give us falfe information ; but
we form hafty, and frequently falfe judgments, from
thefe informations ; and call thofe things deceptions of
Tenfe, which are in fadl errors of judgment. But the
true motions have at laft been difcovered, and have been
defcribed with fuch accuracy, that the hiftory may be
confidered as nearly complete. This is to be found in
the ufual fyftems of aftronomy, where the tables contain
a moft accurate and fynoptical account of the motian $
fo that we can tell with precifion in what point of the
heavens a planet has been feen at any inftant that can
be named.
Sir Ifaac Newton’s Optics is fuch another perfeft
model of philofophical hiftory, as far as it goes. This
47 part of philofophy may be called Phenomenology. .
Phenomc- Having in this manner obtained the materials of phi-
nology. lofophical defcription, w-e muft put them into a compen¬
dious and perfpicuous form, fo that a general knowledge
of the univerfe may be eafily acquired and firmly retain¬
ed. This is to be done by claffification and arrange¬
ment, and this claffification muft proceed on refemblan-
ces obferued in the events •, and the fubfequent arrange¬
ment muft be regulated by the diftin&ions of which
thofe refemblances are ftill fufceptible. This affemblage
of events into groups muft be expreffed. They are fa£ls j
therefore the expreffion mu4 be propofitions. Thefe pro-
pofitions muft be what the logicians call general or ab-
• ftraB propof lions ; for they exprefs, not any individual
fa£t of the afft mblage, but that circumftanee in which
they all referable. Such propofitions are the following:
Proof is accompanied by belief-, kindnefs is accompa¬
nied by gratitude; impulfe is accompanied by motion.
4S Thefe are ufually called general fa&s ; but there are
Inveitiga- none fuch *, every fait is individual, his language,
tion. however inaccurate, is very fafe from mifconftrudion,
and we may ufe it without fcruple. Thefe propofi-
±Sacon s
Philofophy.
4*
The em¬
ployment
of the phi-
iofopher.
SOPHY.
tions are natural or PHYSICAL LAWS j and then the Viewof
deleting and marking thofe refemblances in event, is p,B)a<?,n’s
the inveftigation of phyfical laws *, and we may deno-. 10
minate this employment of the philofopher Investiga¬
tion.
In the profecution of this talk, it will be found that
the fimilarities of fadft are of various extent: and thus
we (hall form phyfical laws of various extent j and we
(hall alfo find that fome are fubordinate to others; for
the refemblance of a number of fa£ts in one circumftance
does not hinder a part of them from alfo refembling in
another circumftance : and thus we (hall find fubordina-
tions of fatt in the fame way as of quiefcent qualities.
And it is found here, as in natural hiftory, that our af-
femblage of refembling events will be the more extenfive
as the number of refembling circumftances is fmaller j
and thus wc ftiall have kingdoms, claffes, orders, genera,
and fpecies of phenomena, which are expreffed by phy¬
fical laws of all thofe different ranks.
It has been already obferved, that this obfervation of
phyfical laws is always accompanied by a reference of
that uniformity of event to a natural bond of union be¬
tween the concomitant fa£ts which is conceived by us as
the caufe of this concomitancy *, and therefore this pro¬
cedure of the philofopher is confidered as the difcovery
of thofe caufes, that is, the difcovery of thofe powers of
natural fubftances which conftitute their phyfical rela¬
tions, and may juftly be called their diftinguiffiing^/z/fl-
lities or properties. This view of the matter gives rife to
a new nomenclature and language. We give to thofe
powers generic names, fuch as fenjibihty, intelligence, ir¬
ritability, gravity, elajhcity, fluidity, magnetifm, &c.
Thefe terms, without exception, mark refembling cir¬
cumftances of event j and no other definition can be gi¬
ven of them but a defcription of thefe circumftances.
In a few cafes which have been the fubjefts of more
painful or refined difcuffion, we have proceeded farther
in this abbreviation of language.
We have framed the verb “ to gravitate,” and the
verbal noun “ gravitation,” which purely expreffes the
fa£i, the phenomenon ; but is conceived to exprefs the
operation or energy of the cauls or natural power. It is
of importance to keep in mind this metaphyiical remark 49
on thefe terms-, for a want of attention to the pureAmologj
meaning of the words has frequently occafioned very
great miftakes in philofophical fcience.
We may with propriety call this part of the philofo-
pher’s employment Aitiology.
We (hall give an inftance of its moft fuccefsful appli¬
cation to the clafs of events already adduced as an ex¬
ample of philofophic hiftory or phenomenology..
Kepler, a celebrated Pruffian aftronomer, having ma¬
turely confidered the phenomena recorded in the tables
and obfervations of his predeceffors, difcovered, amidft ^ 5^
all the varieties of the planetary motions, three circum-K^P^^
fiances of refemblance, which are now known by the^^
name of Kepler's laws.
1. All the planets defcribe ellipfes, having the fun in
one focus.
2. The elliptic areas defcribed by a planet in the dif¬
ferent parts of its orbit, are proportional to the times of
defcription.
3. The fquares of the periodic times are propor¬
tional to the cubes of the mean diftances from the
fun.
' By
PHILO
lew of By this obfervation or difcovery, the ftudy of the pla-
[mb hv netary.raot.ions was greatly promoted, and the calcula-
I Q..p v. tjon 0£ t[,eir appearances was'noiv made with a facility
and an accuracy which furpaffed all hopes : for the cal¬
culation of the place of a planet at any propofed inflant
was reduced to the geometrical problem of cutting off
an area from an ellipfe of known dimenlions, which
fliould bear the fame proportion to the whole area, as
the time for whole duration the motion is required, has
to the kfiown time of a complete revolution.
Long alter this difcovery of Kepler, Sir Ilaac Newton
t found that thefe laws of Kepler were only particular
I npre- cafes l,i a taft or law ftill more general. He found that
1 ided un-the deHecf ions of the planets from uniform reftilineal
• one motion were all directed to the fun ; and that the fimul-
1 lawei'e"taneous detledions were inverfely proportional to the
1 ftur’ fquares of the distances from that body.
Thus was eftablifhed a phyfical law of vaft extent:
but further obfervation Ihowed him, that the motion of
every body of the folar fyitem was compounded of an
original motion of projection, combined with a deflection
towards every other body; and that the fimultaneous
deflections were proportional to the quantity of matter
in the body towards which they were directed, and to
the reciprocal of the fquare of the diftance from it. Thus
was the law made flill more general. He did not flop
here. He compared the deflection of the moon in her
orbit with the fimultaneous deflection of a ftone thrown
from the hand, and defcribing a parabola ; and he found
that they followed the fame law, that is, that the de¬
flection of the moon in a fecond, was to that of the ftone
in the fame time, as the fquare of the ftone’s diftance
from the centre of the earth, to the fquare of the moon’s
diftance from it. Hence he concluded, that the deflec¬
tion of a ftone from a ftraight line was juft a particular
inflance of the deflections which took place through the
whole folar fyftem.
c f he deflection of a ftone is one of the indications it
: twn. gives of its being gravis or heavy •, whence he calls it
gravitation. He therefore expreffes the phyfical law
■which obtains through the whole folar fyftem, by faying
that “ every body gravitates to every other body ; and
the gravitations are proportional to the quantity of mat¬
ter in that other body, and inverfely proportional to the
fquare of the diftance from it.”
Thus we fee how the arrangement of the celeftial
phenomena terminated in the difcovery of phyfical laws ;
and that the expreftion of this arrangement is the law
Since the fall of a heavy body is one inftance of the
phyfical law, and fince this fall is confidered by all as
the effecft of its weight, and this weight is* confidered as
the caufe of the fall, the fame caufe is afligned for all
the deflections obferved in the folar fyftem \ and all the
matter in it is found to be under the influence of this
Caufe, or to be heavy : and thus his doctrine has been
denominated the fijjlem oj univerfa!gravitation.
Philofophers have gone farther, and have fuppofed
that gravity is a power, property, or quality, refiding
in all the bodies of the folar fyftem. Sir Ifaac Newton
does not exprefsly fay fo, at leaft in that work where he
gives an account of thefe difcoveries. He contents him-
jelf with the immediate confequence of the firft axiom
in natural philofophy, viz. that every body remains in a
'late re^5 or of uniform redilineal motion, unlefs af-
Vol. XVI. Part I.
SOPHY. 38S
feded by feme moving force. Sihce the bodies of the View of
folar fyftem are neither in a ftate of reft, nor of uniform ,?a(Cl i8
redilineal motion, they muft be confidti d as io afted- P:i1 <‘i.
ed ; that is, that there operates on every me of them a
rr.oving force, drreded towards ail the other.-, ana hav¬
ing the proportions obferVed in the defied ion.
Other philofophers Lave endeavoured to fnow, that Attempts
this general fad, detecLd by Sir Ilaac Newton, is in-to n.dude
eluded in afiother ftiii more general, viz. that every bo th'siaw
dy moves which is impelled by another body in motion. U1 ^ im‘
J hey aftert,^ that all the bodies of the folar fyfttm are^
continually impelled by a fluid which they call ether,
which is moving in all places, and in all diredions, or
in circular vortices, and hurries along with it the planets
and all heavy bodies. It would feem that the familiari¬
ty of motion produced by impulfe, at Itaft in thofe in-
ftances in which our own exertions are moft employed,
has induced philofophers to adopt fuch notions j per¬
haps, too, they are influenced by an obfeure and indi-
ftind notion affixed to the term aeftion, as applied to
changes in the material world, and which has given rife to
an axiom, “ that a body cannot a£t at a diftance, or
where it is notand thus'have thought themfelves ob¬
liged to look out for an immediate and contiguous agent
in all thofe phenomena.
But the philofophers who profefs to be moft ferupu-
lous in their adherence to the rules of philofophic difeuf-
fion, deny the legitimacy of this pretended inveftigation
of caufes, faying that this do6f rine is in direift oppofition
to the procedure of the mind in acquiring the knowledge
of caufes. Since thejfofi? of impulfe is not really obfer- whiift1m
ved in the celeftial defle&ions, nor in the motions ofpulfe itfelf
heavy bodies, the law cannot be inferred. They fay is never ob-
that it is not even neceflary to ffiow that the phenomena ferved*
of the celeftial motions are unlike the phenomena of im-
pulfe, although this can be done in the completeft man¬
ner. It is enough that neither the fluid nor the impulfe
are obferved •, and therefore they are in the right when
they aflert, that there is inherent in, or accompanies all
the bodies of the fyftem, a power by which they deflttft
to one another. See Optics.
The debate is foreign to our prefent purpofe, which
is only to ffiow how the obfervation and arrangement of
phenomena terminates in the difcovery of their caules,
or the difcovery of the powers or properties of natural
fubftances. v
This is a talk of great difficulty, as it is of great
importance. There are two chief caufes of this diffi¬
culty.
i. In moft of the fpontaneous phenomena of nature
there is a complication of many events, and fbme of them
efcape our obfervation. Attending only to the moft ob¬
vious or remarkable, we conjoin thefe only in our ima¬
gination, and are apt to think thefe the concomitant 55
events in nature, the proper indication of the caufe, and the'd^fficul-
the fubjefls of this philofophical relation, and to fiippofe tytf philo-”
that they are always conjoined by nature. Thus it wasfophical in-
thought that there refided in a vibrating chord a power vtffigatiom
by which theJenfation of found was excited, or that a
chord had a founding quality. But it appears clearly
from obfervation that there is an inconceivable number
of events interpofed between the vibration of the chord
and the fenfitive affe&ion of our ear-, and therefore, that
found is not the effeft of the vibration of the chord, but
of the very laft event of this feries : and this is com-
3 C pletely
♦
386
View of
Bacon’s
Philofophy.
PHILOSOPHY.
5«
Means of
itifuring
fuccefs.
57 .
A feemmg
anomaly
explained.
58
Theory or
explanation
of fubordi-
nate pheno-
aaena.
pletely demonflrated by fhotving that the vibration and
the found are not necejfarily connected, becaufe they are
not always connefted, but require the interpolition of
air or of fotne other elaftic body.
Thefe obfervations Ibovv the neceility of the mod ac¬
curate and minute obfervation of the phenomena, that
none of thofe intermediate events may efcape us, and we
be thus expofed to the chance of imaginary connexions
between events which are really far afunder in the pro¬
cedure of nature. As the ftudy has improved, miftakes
of this kind have been correXed} and philofophers are
careful to make their trains of events under one name as
{hurt as poflible. Thus, in medicine, a drug is no long¬
er confidered as a fpeci-fic remedy for the difeafe which
is fometimes cured when it has been ufed, but is deno¬
minated by its mod immediate operation on the ani¬
mal frame: it is no longer called a febrifuge, but a fu-
dorific.
2. When many natural powers combine their in¬
fluence in a fpontaneous phenomenon of nature, it is fre¬
quently very difficult to difeover what part of the com¬
plicated effeX is the effeX of each j and to date thofe
circumdances of flmilarity which are the foundation of a
phydeal law, or intitle us to infer the agency of any na¬
tural power. The mod likely method for infuring fuc¬
cefs in fuch cafes is to get rid of this complication of
event, by putting the fubjeX into fuch a fituation that
the operation of all the known powers of nature ffiall be
fufpended, or fo modified as we may perfeXly underdand
their effeXs. We can thus appreciate the effeXs of
fuch as we could neither modify nor fufpend, or we can
diicover the exidence of a new law, the operation of a
new power.
This is called making an experiment; and is, of all,
the mod effeXual way of advancing in the knowledge
of nature, and has been called EXPERIMENTAL PHILO¬
SOPHY.
It feems, however, at fird fight, in direX oppofition
to the procedure of nature in forming general laws.
Thefe are formed by induXion from multitudes of indi¬
vidual faXs, and mud be affirmed to no greater extent
than the induXion on which they are founded. Yet it
is a matter of faX, a phyfical law of human thought,
that one Ample, clear, and unequivocal experiment,
gives us the mod complete confidence in the truth of a
general conclufion from it to every fimilar cafe. Whence
this anomaly ? It is not an anomaly or contradiXion of
the general maxim of philofophical invedigation, but the
mod refined application of it. There is no law more
general than this, that “ Nature is condant in all her
operations.” The judicious and fimple form of our ex¬
periment infures us (we imagine) in the complete know¬
ledge of all the circumdances of the event. Upon this
fuppofition, and this alone, w7e confider the experiment
as the faithful reprefentative of every poffible cafe of the
conjunXion. This will be more minutely confidered af¬
terwards.
The lad branch of philofophic occupation is the ex¬
planation of fubordinate phenomena. This is nothing
more than the referring any particular phenomenon to
that clafs in which it is included ; or, in the language
of philofophy, it is the pointing out the general law, or
that general faX of which the phenomenon is a particu¬
lar indance. Thus the feeling of the obligations ef vir¬
tue is thought to be explained, when it is fliown to be a
particular cafe of that regard which every perfon has for View of
his deared intereds. The rife of water in pumps is ex- Bacon’s
plained, when we ffiow it to be a particular cafe of the
preflure of fluids, or of the air. The general law un- ^ "
der which we ffiow it to be properly arranged is called
the PRINCIPLE of the explanation, and the explanation
itfelf is called the theory of the phenomenon. Thus
Euler’s explanation of the lunar irregularities is called a
theory of the lunar motions on the principle of gravita¬
tion.
This may be done either in order to advance our own
knowledge of nature, or to communicate it to others.
If done with the fird view, we mud examine the pheno¬
menon minutely, and endeavour to deteX every circum-
dance in it, and thus difeover all the known laws of na¬
ture which concur in its produXion j we then appreciate
the operation of each according to the circumdances of
its exertion $ we then combine all thefe, and compare
the refult with the phenomenon. If they are fimilar,
we have explained the phenomenon. We cannot give a
better example than Franklin’s explanation of the phe¬
nomena of thunder and lightning. See Lightning, and
Electricity Index.
If we explain a phenomenon from known principles,
we proceed fynthetically from the general law already
edabliffied and known to exert its influence in the pre-
fent indance. We date this influence both in kind and
degree according to the circumdances of the cafe ; and
having combined them, we compare the refult with the
phenomenon, and ffiow their agreement, and thus it is
explained. Thus, becaufe all the bodies of the folar fyf-
tem mutually gravitate, the moon gravitates to the fun
as well as to the earth, and is continually, and in a cer¬
tain determinate manner, defleXed from that part which
die would deferibe did ffie gravitate only to the earth.
Her motion round the earth will be retarded during the
fird and third quarters of her orbit, and accelerated du¬
ring the fecond and fourth. Her orbit and her period
will be increafed during our winter, and diminiffied du¬
ring our fummer. Her apogee will advance, and her
nodes will recede ; and the inclination of her orbit will
be greated when the nodes are in fyzigee, and lead when
they are in quadrature. And all thefe variations will be
in certain precife degrees. Then we flrow that all thefe
things aXually obtain in the lunar motions, and they are
confidered as explained.
This fummary account of the objeX and employment
in all philofophical difeuflion is fufficient for pointing out
its place in the circle of the fciences, and will ferve to
direX us to the proper methods of profecuting it with
fuccefs. Events are its objeX •, and they are confidered
as conneXed with each other by caufation, which may
therefore be called the philofophical relation of things.
The following may be adopted as the fundamental pro-
pofition on which all philofophical difeuffion proceeds,
and under which every philofophical difeuffion or difeo-
very may be arranged : 55
“ Every change that we obferve in the fate or condi- Fundamtn*
tion of things IS CONSIDERED BT US as an ejfeB, indi-
eating the agency, chara&erifing the kind, and deter min- ]0f0phical
ing the degree of its INFERRED caufe.” difeuffie®-
As thus enounced, this propofition is evidently a phy¬
fical law of human thought. It may be enounced as a
neceflary and independent truth, by faying, ever?/ change
in the fate and condition of things IS AN EFFECT, &c.
And
PHILOSOPHY. - 387
L 0f And accordingly it has been To enounced by Ur Reid *5
| coti’s anci its title to this denomination has been abundantly
Fhfophy. fu,ported by him. But we have no occafion to confi-
^ T~^n der it as poffefling this quality. We are fpeaking of phi-
* S//^-lofophy, which is fomething contingent, depending on
£2 Power/the exiftence and conftitution of an intelleftual being
a lun. as man-, and, in conformity to the view which we
have endeavoured to give of human knowledge in the
fubjefts of philofophical relation, it is quite fufficientfor
our purpofe that we maintain its title to the rank of an
univerfal law of human thought. This will make it a
firft principle^ even although it may not be a neceffary
truth. ’ .
All the proof neceffary for this purpole is umveriality
of fatf ; and we believe this to be without exception.
We are not to expeft that all mankind have made, or
will ever make, a formal declaration of their opinion }
but we may venture to fay that all have made it, and
continually do make it, virtually. What have the phi-
lofophers of all ages been employed about but the difeo-
very of the caufes of thofe changes that are inceffantly
going on ? Nil tiirpius physico (fays Cicero) quam fieri
fine %aufd quidquam dicere. Human curiofity has been
directed to nothing fo powerfully and fo conftantly as to
this. Many abfurd caufes have been affigned for the
phenomena of the univerfe ; but no fet of men have ever
faid that they happened without a caufe. This is fo re¬
pugnant to all our propenfities and inftindts, that even
the atheiftical feft, who, of all others, would have pro¬
fited moft by the do&rine, have never thought of ad¬
vancing it. To avoid fo (hocking an abfurdity, they
have rather allowed that chance, that the concourfe of
atoms, are the caufes of the beautiful arrangements of
nature. The thoughtlefs vulgar are no lefs felicitous
than the philofophers to difeover the caufe of things ;
and the poet exprelfes the natural and inltindtive paffion
of all men, when he fays,
Felix qui potuit rerum cognofcere caufas*
And this anxiety is not to nourilh, but to get rid of fu-
perftitious fears : for thus
—— metus omneSy et inexorabile fatum
Subjecit pedibus, firepitumque Acherontis avari.
Had men never fpeculated, their conduft alone gives
fufficient evidence of the univerfalityof the opinion. The
whole conduft of man is regulated by it, nay, almoft
wholly proceeds upon it, in the moft important matters,
and where experience feems to leave us in doubt. an
to aft otherwife, as if any thing whatever happened
without a caufe, would be a declaration of infanity. Dr
Reid has beautifully illuftrated this truth, by obferving,
that even a child will laugh at you if you try to per-
fuade him that the top, which he miffes from the place
where he left it, was taken away by nobody. You may
perfuade him that it was taken away by a fairy or a Ipi-
ritj but he believes no more about this nobody, than the
mafter of the houfe when he is told that nobody was the
author of any piece of theft or mifehief. . What opinion
would be formed, fays Dr Reid, of the intellects of the
juryman, on a trial for murder by perfons unknown,
who Ihould fay that the fractured {kull, the watch and
money gone, and other like circumftances, mig it po 1-
bly have no caufe ? he would be pronounced inlane or
corrupted.
We believe that Mr Hume is the firft author who has View^of
ventured to call the truth of this opinion in queftion ; phli0fophy„
and even he does it only in the way of mere poflibility.  '
He acknowledges the generality of the opinion ; and he 60
only objects to the foundation of this generality: andContro-^
he objects to it merely becaufe it does not quadrate with
his theory of belief •, and therefore it may happen that
fome men may have no fuch opinion. But it muft be
obferved on this occafion, that the opinion of a philofo-
pher is of no greater weight in a cafe like this than that
of a ploughboy. If it be a firft principle, direfting the
opinions and aftions of all, it muft operate en the minds
of all. The philofopher is the only perfon who may
chance to be without it : for it requires much labour,
and long habits refolutely maintained, to warp our natu¬
ral fentiments \ and experience (hows us that they may
be warped if We are at fufficient pains. It is alfo worthy
of remark, that this philofopher feems as much under
the influence of this law as ordinary mortals. It is on¬
ly when he is aware of its not tallying with his other ^
doctrines that his fcruples appear. Obferve how he with Rieat
fpeaks when off his guard: “ As to thofe imprefiionsinconfift-
w'hich arife from the fenfes, their ultimate caufe. is, in crX.vr-
my opinion, perfectly inexplicable by human reafon •,
and it will always be impoflible to decide with certainty
whether they arife immediately from the objeft, are pro¬
duced by the creative power of the mind, or are derived
from the Author of our being.”
Among thefe alternatives he never thought of their
not being derived from any caufe.
But it is not enough to (how that this is a phyfical
law of the human mind : we have affumed it as a firft
principle, the foundation of a whole fcience ; therefore
not included in or derived from any thing more general.
Mr Hume’s endeavours to prove that it is not a necef¬
fary truth, (how with fufficient evidence that moft at¬
tempts to derive it in the way of argument are
principu ; a thing very commonly met with in all at-
tempts to prove firft principles. It cannot be proved This pro*
by induftion of fa£ls that every event has a caufe, be-pofition a
caufe indu£lion always fuppofes an obferved faB ortir!tpnn-
event. Now in by far the greateft number of events
the caufes are unknown. Perhaps in no event what- proof,
ever do we know the real caufe, or that pon er or
energy which, without any intervention, produces the
effeft. No man can fay, that in the fimpleft event
which he ever obferved, he was fully apprifed of every
circumftance which concurred to its produdlion. We
fuppofe that no event in nature can be adduced more
fimple than the motion of a fufpended glafs ball when
gently {truck by another glafs ball j and we imagine
that moft of our readers will fay that he perfedtly fees
every thing which happens in this phenomenon. We
believe, too, that moft of our readers are of opinion
that a body is never put in motion but by the impulfe
of another, except in the cafes of animal motion 5 and
that they are difpofed to imagine that-magnets put iron
in motion, and that an ele&rified body moves another
by means of an interpofed though invifible fluid lome-
how circulating round them. Now we muft inform fuch
readers, that unlefs the ftroke has been very fmart, fo
fmart indeed as to (hatter the glafs balls, the motion of
the fufpended ball was produced without impulfe : that
is, the two balls were not in contadt during the ftroke j
and the diftance between them was not lefs than the
2 C 2 9000th
388
PHILO
5.!!^ >°f ?000t'11 of an inch, and probably much greater.
Phil^ibphy V^e iay farther, that it is not certain that even the
1 , ■ mo if violent ilroke, inch as would lhatter them to pieces,
is enough to bring them into real contact. The proofs
of this lingular polition are too long for this place ; but
the evidence will be fufficiently feen by confulting the
article Optics.
Unlefs, therefore, our readers are willing to allow
that the fufpended ball was put in motion by a repul-
live force inherent in one or both balls, they mult ac¬
knowledge that they do not fully know all the circum-
Itances of this fo limple phenomenon, or all the train
of events which happen in it \ and therefore they are
reduced to the neceflity offupppjirig, although they do not
lee it, an intervening fluid or matter, by the immediate
aftionot whofe adjoining particles the motion is produced.
This being the cafe in the limpleft phenomenon that
we chn pitch upon, what fhall we fay of the numberlefs
multitudes which are incomparably more complex : Mull
we not acknowledge that the efficient caufes, even in the
vulgar fenfe of the rvord, the immediately preceding
events, are unknown, becaufe the conjunctions are not
obferved r and therefore it cannot be faid that it is from
experimental induction that this truth gains univerfal be¬
lief. Experience, fo far from fupporting it as a direCl
proof, feems rather the Itrongelt argument againlt it ;
for we have no experiment of unqueitionable authority
but the narrow cnole of our own power exerted on our
thoughts and aCtions. And even here there are perhaps
cafes of change where we cannot fay with certainty that
Ave perceive the efficient caufe.
Nothing feems to remain, therefore, but to allow that
this phyfical law of human judgment is inftinCtiye, a con-
llituent of the human foul, a firlt principle ; and inca¬
pable of any other proof than the appeal to the feelings
of every man.
Simply to fay, that every change is conlidered as an
effeCt, is not giving the whole characters of this phylical
Caufes not laAV. I he caufe is not always, perhaps never, obferved,
LutTmerred kUt *S ^nfei re^ ^rom ^ phenomena. The inference is
fronTthe6 tljerefore in every inltance dependant on the phenomenon,
phenomena ^ phenomenon is to us the language of nature : It is
which are therefore the foie indication of the caufe and of its agen-
1 ua^'f Cy : 11 1S there^ore tlie indication of the very caufe, and
jjauire.0 no olhcr-, The obferved change therefore charaCter-
ifes the caufe, and marks its kind. I his is confirmed by
every Avord of philofophical language, where, as has al¬
ready been obferved,. the names of the inferred poAvers
of nature are nothing but either abbreviated defcriptions
of the phenomena, or terms which are defined folely by
fuch defcriptions. In like manner, the phenomenon''de¬
termines the caufe in a particular degree, and in no other*
and we have no immediate meafure of the degree of the
caufe but the phenomenon itfelf. We take many mea-
lures of, the caufe, it is true *, but on examination they
will be found not to be immediate meafures of the caufe
but of the effeCt. Affumjng gravitation as the caufe of
the planetary deviations from uniform reCtilineal motion,
we fay that the gravitation of the moon is but 7^L._th
part of the gravitation of a (tone thrown from the hand:
but we fay this only from obferving that the defied ion
of the (tone is 3600 times greater than the iimuUaneous
defied ion of the moon. In ffiort, our whole knowledge
of the caufe is not only founded on our ho judge ot she
phenomenon, but it is the fume. This will be found a
SOPHY.
remark of immenfe conference in tin; profecution of View ot
philofophical researches 5 and a ItriCt attention to it will Bacon’s
not only guard us againlt a thoufand millakes into which FhilofoP!ly.
the reafoning pride of man Avould continually lead us ' 
but av ill alio enable us fully to deteCt many egregious
and fatal blunders made in confequence of this philofo-
phical vanity. Nothing can be more evident than that
whenever we are puzzled, it would be folly to continue
groping among thofe obfeure beings called caufes, when
we have their prototypes, the phenomena themfelves in
our hands.
Such is the account which may be given of philo-
fopby, the itudy of the works of God, as related by
caulation. It is oi vait extent, reaching from an atom
to the glorious Author of the Univerfe, and contem¬
plating the Avhole conneded chain of intelligent, fenfi-
tive, and inanimate beings. The philolopher makes ufe
oi the defcriptions and arrangements of the natural hifio-
rian as of mighty ufe to himfelf in the beginning of his
career, confiding in the uniformity of nature, and ex-
peCting that fimilarity in the quiefeent properties of
things Avill be accompanied by fome reiemblances in
thofe more important properties Avliich conftitute their
mutual dependencies, linking them together in a great
and endleivly ramified chain of events.
We have endeavoured to afeertain with precifion the
peculiar province of philofophy, both by means of its
objed and its mode of procedure, . After this it Avill
not require many words to point out the methods for
profecuting the ftudy with expedition and with fuccefs.
The rules of philofophizing, which Newton premifes
to his account of the planetary motions, which he fo
fcrupuloufly followed, and with a fuccefs which gives
them great authority, are all in firid conformity to the
view we have now given of the fubjed.
The chief rule is, that fimilar caufes are to be affian-™ 6{. .
ed to fimilar phenomena. This is indeed the fource of^f l*.
all our knowledge of conneded nature ; and without itlofophifing
the univerfe would only prefent to us an incomprehen-evPlaineti‘
fible chaos. It is by no means, however, neceflary to
enjoin this as a maxim for our procedure : it is an in-
Itindive propenfity of the human mind. It is abfolutely
neceffary, on the contrary, to caution us in the applica¬
tion of this propenfity. We muff be extremely confident
in the certainty of the refemblance before Ave venture to
make.any inference. We are prone to reafon from ana¬
logy : the very employment is agreeable j and we are
eyei diipofed to embrace opportunities ot engaging in it.
For this reafon we are fatisfied Avith very flight refemb-
lances, and eagerly run over the confequences, as if the
resemblance were complete j and our refearches fre¬
quently terminate in falfehood.
I his propenfity to analogical reafoning is aided by
another equally itrong, and .equally ufeful, when pro¬
perly direded ; avc mean the propenfity to form oe-
neral laws : it is in fad a propenfity to difeover caufes,
which is equivalent to the eitahlilhing of general laws.
It appears m another form, and is called a love of or
tatte ior fimplicity 5 and this is encouraged or jufiified as
agreeable to the uniformity and fimplicity of nature.
‘‘ Natura Temper fibi umilis et confona,” fays Newton 5
‘‘ Fr:-ftnj rit per plura, quod fieri potett per pauciora,”
fays another. The beautiful, the wife economy of na¬
ture, are phvafes in every body’s mouth ; and Newton
enjoins us to adopt no more caufes than are fufficient to
explain
5S
A ae
ci j ex-
pl ed.
ew of explain the phenomena. All this is very well, and is
con’s true in its own degree ; but it is too frequently the lub-
l 0fop y-‘ terfuge of human vanity and felf-love. This inordinate
^ admiration of the economy and fimplicity of nature is
generally conjoined with a manifeft love of fyftem, and
with the a<frual produftion of fome new fyftem, where
from one general principle fome extenfive theory or ex¬
planation is deduced and offered to the world. The au¬
thor fees a fort of refemblance between a certain feries
of phenomena and the confequences of fome principle,
and thinks the principle adequate to their explanation.
Then, on the authority of the acknowledged fimplicity
of nature, he roundly excludes all other principles of
explanation; becaufe, fays he, this principle is fufheient
“ et fruftra fit per plura,” &c. We could point out
many inftances of this kind in-the writings of perhaps
the fir ft mathematician and the pooreft philofopher of
this century ; where extenfive theories are thus cava¬
lierly exhibited, which a few years examination have
fhown to be nothing but analogies, indiftin&ly obferved,
and, what is worfe, inaccurately applied.
To regulate thefe hazardous propenfities, and keep
philofophers in the right path, Newton inculcates an¬
other rule, or rather gives a modification of this injunc¬
tion of fimplicity. He'enjoins that no caufe fhall be
admitted but what is real. His words are, that no caufes
Jha/l be admitted but fuck as are true, and fufficient to ac¬
count for the phenomena. We apprehend that the mean¬
ing of this rule has been miftaken by many philofophers,
who imagine that by true he means caufes which really
exift in nature, and are not mere creatures of the imagi¬
nation. We have met with fome who would boggle at
the dofrrines of Ariftotle refpedting the planetary mo¬
tions, viz. that they are carried along by conducing in¬
telligent minds, becaufe we know of none fuch in the
univerfe; and who would neverthelefs think the doftrine
of the Cartefian vortices defervlng of at leaf! an exami¬
nation, becaufe we fee fuch vortices exift, and produce
effects which have fune refemblance to ,the planetary
motions, and have juftly rejected them, foleiy becaufe
this refemblance has been very imperfect. We appre¬
hend Newton’s meaning by thefe words is, that no caufe
of any event fhall be admitted, or even confidered,
■which we do not knoxv to be adlually concurring or ex¬
erting fome influence in that very event. If this be his
meaning, he would rejefl the Cartefian vortices, and
the conducing fpirits of Ariftotle, for one and the fame
reafon ; not becaufe they were not adequate to the ex¬
planation, nor becaufe fuch caufes do not exift in nature,
but beeaufe we did not fee them anyhow concerned in
the phenomenon under confideration. We neither fee
a fpirit nor a vortex, and therefore need not trouble
ourfelves with enquiring what effbdls they would pro¬
duce. Now we know that this was his very condmfr,
and what has diftinguifhed him from all philofophers
who preceded him, though many, by following his
example, have alfo been rewarded by fimilar fuccefs.
This has procured to Newton the chara&er of the modejl
philofopher; and model! his procedure may, fordiftinc-
tion s fake, be called, becaufe the contrary procedure of
others did not originate fo much from ignorance as from
vanity. Newton’s conduefor in this was not modefty,
nut fagacity, prudence, caution, and to fay it purely, it
WTas found judgment.
Tor the bonds of nature, the fuppofed philofophical
PHILOSOPHY.
389
caufes are not obferved; they are inferred from the phe- ’View of
nomena. When two fubftances are obferved, and on- Bacon,s
ly when they are obferved, to be conneded in any fe- phlIofoljh>'-.
ries of events, we infer that they are conneded by a
natural power : but when one of the fubftances is not
feen,^ but fancied, no law of human thought produces
any inference whatever. For this reafon alone New¬
ton Hopped fhort at the laft fact which he could dif-
cover in the folar fyftem, that all bodies were defleded
to all other bodies, according to certain regulations of
diftancc and quantity of matter. When told that he
had done nothing in philofophy, that he had difeovered
no caufe, and that to merit any praife he muft fhow how
this deftedion was produced ;—he faid that he knew
no more than he had told them ; that he faw nothing
caufing this defledion ; and wras contented with having
difeovered it fo exadly, that a good mathematician could
now make tables of the planetary motions as accurate as
he pleafed, and with hoping in a few years to have every
purpofe of navigation and of philofophical curiofity com¬
pletely anfwered ; and he was not difappointed. And
when plnlofophers on all fides were contriving hypothe¬
tical ftuids and vortices which would produce thefe de-
fledions, he contented himfelf with fhowing the total
inconfiftency of thefe explanations with the mechanical
principles acknowledged by their authors; fhowing that
they had tranfgrefied both parts of his rule, their caufes
neither being real nor fufficient for explaining the phe¬
nomena. A caufe is fufficient for explaining a phenome¬
non only when its legitimate confequences are perfedly
agreeable to thefe phenomena.
Newton’s difeoveries remain without any diminution
or change : no philofopher has yet advanced a ftep fur¬
ther. r
But let not the authority, or even the fuccefs, ofThisdoc-
Newton be our guide. Is his rule founded in reafon ? trine found-
It furely is. For if philofophy be the only interpreta-ed in rea-
tion of nature’s language, the inference of caufes from10n‘
the phenomena, a fancied or hypothetical phenomenon
can produce nothing but a fanciful caufe, and can make'
no addition to our knowledge of real nature.
All hypothefes therefore muft be banifhed from phi¬
lofophical difeuffion as frivolous and ufelefs, adminifter-
ing to vanity alone. As the explanation of any appear¬
ance is nothing but the pointing out the general faft, of
which this is a particular inftance, a hypothefis can give Danfjr of
no explanation : knowing nothing of caufe and effeff hypothefo.
but the conjunction of two events, we fee nothing of
caufation where one of the events is hypothetical. Al¬
though all the legitimate confequences of a hypothetical
principle ihould be perfc6fly fimilar to the phenomenon,
it is extremely dangerous to afiume this principle as the
real caufe. It is illogical to make ufe of the economy
of nature as an argument for the truth of any hypothe¬
fis : for if true, it is a phyfical truth, a matter of facf,
and true only to the extent in which it is obferved, and
we are not entitled to fay that it is fo one ftep farther ;
therefore not in this cafe tiU it be obferved. But the
propofitjon that nature is fo economical is falfe ; and it
is aftoniftiing that it has been fo lazily acquiefced in by
the readers of hypolhefes : for it is not the authors who
are deceived by it, they are gene-rally led by their own
vanity. Nothing is more obfervable than the prodigious
variety of nature. That the fame phenomena may be
produced by different means is well known to the aftro-
nomers.
jgo PHILO
View of nomets, wlio tnufl: all grant, tiiat the appearances of
pi TTtiniiS mo^on be precifely the fame whether the earth
. ')’ y‘ moves round the fun like the other planets, or whether
the fun with his attendant planets moves round the
earth ; and that the demon 11 rat ion of the firlt opinion is
had from a fa£l totally unconne£led with all the deflec¬
tions or even with their caufes: for it may be afferted,
that Dr Bradley’s difcovery of the aberration of the
fixed liars, in confequence of the progreflive motion of
light, was the firlt thing which put the Copernican fy-
ftem beyond queftion; and even this is Itill capable of
being explained in another way. I he Author of Nature
feems to delight in variety j and there cannot be named
a fingle purpofe on which the moll inconceivable fertili¬
ty in refource is not obferved. It is the moll delightful
occupation of the curious mind and the fenfible heart to
contemplate the various contrivances of nature in accom-
plilhing fimilar ends.
As a principle therefore on which to found any maxim
of philofophical procedure, this is not only injudicious,
becaufe^imprudent and apt to miflead, but as falfe, and
almoll fute to m411ead. In conformity to this obfervation,
it mull be added, that nothing has done fo much harm
in philofophy as the introdudlion of hypothefes.
Authors have commonly been fatisfied with very
flight refemblances, and readers are eafily milled by the
appearances of reafoning which thefe refemblances have
countenanced. The ancients, and above all Arillotle,
were much given to this mode of explanation, and have
filled philofophy with abfurdities. The llightell refem¬
blances wTere with them fufficient foundations of theories.
It has been by very flow degrees that men have learned
caution in this refpeft 5 and we are forry to fay that we
are not yet cured of the difeafe of hypothetical fyllema-
tizing, and to fee attempts made by ingenious men to
bring, the frivolous theories of antiquity again into
credit. ‘Nay, modern philofophers even of the greateft
name are by no means exempted from the reproach ,of
hypothetical theories. Their writings abound in ethers,
nervous fluids, animal fpirits, vortices, vibrations, and
other invifible agents. We may affirm that all thefe at¬
tempts may be Ihown to be either unintelligible, fruit-
lefs, or falfe. Either the hypothefis has been fuch that
no confequence can be dillindlly drawn from it, on ac¬
count of its obfcurity and total want of refemblance to
any thing we know •, or the juft and legitimate confe-
. quences of the hypothefis are incqnfiftent with the phe-
SOPH Y.
nomena (n). This is remarkably the cafe in the hypo- View of
thefes which have been introduced for the explanation of Bacon’s
the mechanical phenomena of the univerfe. Thefe can Philofophy,
be examined by accurate fcience, and the confequences
compared without any miftake-, and nothing elfe but a
perfect agreement lliould induce us even to liften to any
hypothefis whatever.
It may here be alked, Whether, in the cafe of the
moll perfedt agreement, after the moll extenfive com-
parifon, the hypothefis Ihould be admitted ? We believe
that this mull be left to the feelirjgs of the mind. When
the belief is irrefiftible, we can reafon no more. But
as there is no impoffibility of as.perfedl an agreement
with fome other hypothefis, it is evident that it does not
convey an irrefragable title to our hypothefis.. It is
faid, that fuch an agreement authorifes the reception of
the hypothetical theory in the fame manner as we mujl
admit that to be the true cypher of a letter which will
make per fed! fenfe of it. But this is not true: in decy¬
phering a letter we know the founds which mujt be re-
prefented by the charadters, and that they are really the
conftituents of fpeech: but in hypothetical explanations
the firft principle is not known to exift ; nay, it is pof-
fible to make two cyphers, each of which ffiall give a
meaning to the letter. Inftances of this are to be feen
in treatifes on the art of decyphering j and there has
been lately difeovered a national eharadler (the ogam
difeovered in Ireland) which has this property.
We conclude our criticifm on hypothetical explana¬
tions with this obfervation, that it himpojfible that they
can give any addition of knowledge. In every hypothe¬
fis we thruft in an intermediate event between the phe¬
nomenon ami fome general law j and this event is not
feen, but fuppofed.^ Therefore, according to the true
maxims of philofophical inveftigation, we give no ex¬
planation j for we are not by this means enabled to af-
fign the general law in which this particular phenome¬
non is included: nay, the hypothefis makes no addition
to our lift of general laws; for our hypothefes mull be
felefted, in order to tally with all the phenomena. The
hypothefis therefore is underftood only by and m the
phenomena; and it mull not be made more general than
the phenomena themfelves. The hypothefis gives no
generalifation of fa£ls. Its very application is founded
on a great coincidence of fadls; and the hypothetical
fad is thruft in between two which we really obferve to
be united by nature. The applicability therefore of the
hypothefis
(n) It has often been matter of amufement to us to examine the hypothetical theories of ingenious men, and to
obferve the power of nature even when we are tranfgrefling her commands, Naturam expellat furca, tamen ufque
revertitur. The hypothefis of an ingenious man is framed in perfefl conformity to nature’s didlates? for you will
find that the hypothetical caufe is touched and retouched, like the firft fitting of a picture, till it is made to refem-
ble the phenomena, and the caufe is ftill inferred, nay explained, in fpite of all his ingenuity, from the phenome¬
non; Vnd then, inftead of defiring the fpedlators to pay him his due praife, by faying that the piflure is like the
man, he infifts that they ffiall fay, what gives him no credit, that the man is like the pidlure. But alas ! this is
feldom the cafe: The piflure is generally an anamorphofis, unlike any thing extant in nature, and having parts
totally incongruous. We have feen fuch piftures, where a wood is (landing on the fea, and an eye is on the end or
an elephant’s trunk; and yet when this was viewed through a proper glafs, the wood became an eyebrow to the
eye, and the probofeis was a very pretty ringlet of hair. We beg indulgence for this piece of levity, becaufe it is
a mod appofite illuftration of a hypothetical theory. The refemblance between the principle and phenomenon is
true only in detached unconnected feraps, and the principle itfelf is an incongruous patchwork. But by a perver-
fion of the rules of logic, all thefe inconfiftencies are put out of view, and the explanation is fomething like the
phenomenon.
ilofophy
(53
what
afiotis
:y may
ufeful.
PHILO
riew of hypotliefis is not more exfenfive than the fimilarity of
Jacon’s fa£ts which we obferve, and the hypothetical law is not
more general than the obferved law. Let us then throw
away entirely the hypothetical law, and infert the ob¬
ferved one in our lift of general laws : it will be in dif¬
ferent language from the hypothetical law, but it will
exprels the fame fafts in nature.
It is in experimental philofophy alone that hypothefes
can have any juft claim to admiftion ; and here they are
not admitted as explanations, but as conjeftures ferving
to direct our line of experiments.
Effects only appear j and by their appearance, and
the previous information of experience, caufes are im¬
mediately afcertained by the perfeft fimilarity of the
whole train of events to other trains formerly obferved :
Or they are fuggefted by more imperfedt refemblances
of the phenomena ; and thefe fuggeftions are made with
ftronger or fainter evidence, according as the refem-
blance is more or lefs perfedt, Thefe fuggeftions do
not amount to a confidential inference, and only raife a
conjedture. Wiftiing to verify or overturn this conjec¬
ture, we have recourfe to experiment ; and we put the
fubjedt under confideration in fuch a fituation, that we
can fay what will be the effect of the conjedtural caufe
if real. If this tallies with the appearance, our conjec¬
ture has more probability of truth, and we vary the fi¬
tuation, which will produce a new fet of effedts of the
conjectured caufe, and fo on. It is evident that the
probability of our conjedture will increafe with the in-
creafe of the conformity of the legitimate effedts of the
fuppofed caufe with the phenomena, and that it will be
entirely deftroyed by one difagreement. In this way
conjedtures have their great ufe, and are the ordinary
means by which experimental philofophy is improved.
But conjedtural fyftems are worfe than nonfenfe, filling
the mind with falfe notions of nature, and generally
leading us into a courfe of improper condudt when they
become principles of adtion. This is acknowledged even
by the abettors of hypothetical fyftems themfelves, when
employed in overturning thofe of their predeceffors, and
eftabliihing their own : witnefs the fucceftive maintain-
ers of the many hypothetical fyftems in medicine, which
have had their Ihort-lived courfe within thefe two laft
centuries.
Let every perfon therefore who calls himfelf a philo-
fopher refolutely determine to rejedl all temptations to
this kind of fyftem-making, and let him never confider
any compofition of this kind as any thing better than
the amufement of an idle hour.
After thefe obfervations, it cannot require much dif-
cuffion to mark the mode of procedure which will infure
Pro' progrefs in all philofbphical invefiigations.
The fphere of our intuitive knowledge is very limited $
and we muft be indebted for the greateft part of our
intelledlual attainments to our rational powers, and it
muft be dedudtive. In the fpontaneous phenomena of
nature, whether of mind or body, it feldom happens
that the energy of that natural power, which is the
principle of explanation, is fo immediately connedted
■with the phenomenon that we fee the connedtion at
once. Its exertions are frequently concealed, and in all
cafes modified, by the joint exertions of other natural
powers: the particular exertion of each muft be confi- -
dered apart, and their mutual connedtion traced out. It
« only in this way that we can difcover the perhaps long
SOPHY.
391
<?9
ue mode
philofo-
cal
ure,
CP
E
D
H G
train of intermediate operations, and alfo fee in what View of
manner and degree the real principle of explanation ®a^.on 8
concurs in the oftenfible procefs of nature.
In all fuch cafes it is evident that our inveftigation
(and inveftigation it moft ftridtly is) muft proceed by
fieps, condudted by the fure hand of logical method.
To take an inftance from the material world, let us
liften to Galileo while he is teaching his friends the
caufe of the rife of water in a pump. He fays that it
is owing to the preffure of the air. This is his princi¬
ple ; and he announces it in all its extent. All matter,
fays he, is heavy, and in particular air is heavy. He
then points out the connedtion of this general principle
with the phenomenon. Air be¬
ing heavy, it muft be fupported j
it muft lie and prefs on what fup-
ports it 5 it muft prefs on the fur-
face AB of the water in the cif-
tern furrounding the pipe CD of
the pump j and alfo on the water
C within this pipe. He then
takes notice of another general
principle which exerts its fubor-
dinate influence in this procefs.
Water is a fluid ; a fluid is a bo¬
dy whole parts yield to the fmal-
left impreflion *, and, by yielding,
are eafily moved among them¬
felves •, and no little parcel of the
fluid can remain at reft unlefs it
be equally preffed in every direc¬
tion, but will recede from that
fide where it fuftains the greateft
preffure. In confequence of this
fluidity, known to be a property
of water, if any part of it is pref¬
fed, the preffure is propagated
through the whole j and if not
refifted on every fide, the water
will move to that fide where the
propagated preffure is not refifted.
All thefe fubordinate or collate¬
ral propofitions are fuppofed to be
previoufly demonftrated or allow¬
ed. Water therefore muft yield
to the preffure of the air unlefs
preffed by it on every fide, and
muft move to that fide where it
is not withheld by fome oppofite
preffure. He then proceeds to
fhow, from the ftru£lure of the
pump, that there is no oppofing preffure on the water
in the infide of the pump. “ For (fays he) fuppofe the
pifton thruft down till it touches the furface of the water
in the pipe ; fuppofe the pifton now drawn up by a
power fufficient to lift it, and all the air incumbent on
it *, and fuppofe it drawn up a foot or a fathom—there
remains nothing now (fays he) that I know of, to prelii
on the furface of the water. In (hort (fays he), gen¬
tlemen, it appears to me, that the water in the pump is
in the fame fituation that it would be in were there no
air at all, but water poured into the ciftern to a height
AF : fuch, that the column of water FABG preffea
on the furface AB as much as the air does. Now in
this cafe we know that the water at C is preffed up-
warfla
392
PHILO
View of
Baron’s
Philofophy
70
The (yn-
thetic me¬
thod.
wards with a force equal to the weight of a column of
water, having the feftion of the pipe for its bafe and
CH for its height. The water below C therefore will
be preffed up into the pipe CD, and will rife to G, fo that
it is on a level with the external v’ater FG j that is, it
will rife to H. J'his is a neceflary conlequence of the
weight and preflure of the incumbent column FABG,
and the "fluidity of the water in the cittern. Confe-
quences perfectly fimilar mutt neceflarily follow from
the weight and. preffure of . the air j and therefore on
drawing up the pitton from the furface C of the water,
with which it was in contact, the water muft follow it
till it attain that height which will make its own weight
a balance for the preflure of the circumambient air.
Accordingly, gentlemen, the Italian plumbers inform
me, that a pump will not raife water quite fifty palms;
and from their information I conclude, that a pillar of
wTater fifty palms high is fomewhat heavier than a pillar
of air of the fame bafe, and reaching to the top of the
atmofphere.”
Thus is the phenomenon explained. The rife of the
water in the pump is Ihown to be a particular cafe of the
general faft in hydroftatics, that fluids in communicating
veflels will Hand at heights which are inverfely as their
denfities, or that columns of equal weights are in equi-
librio.
This way of proceeding is called arguing a priori,
the fynthetic method. It is founded on juft principles ;
and the great progrefs which we have made in the ma¬
thematical fciences by this mode of reafoning (hows to
what length it may be carried with irrefiftible evidence.
It has long been confidered as the only inlet to true
knowledge ; and nothing was allowed to be known with
certainty which could not be demonftrated in this way
to be true. Accordingly logic, or the art of reafoning,
which was alfo called the art of difcovering truth, was
nothing but a fet of rules for fuccefsfully condufting
this mode of argument.
Under the direction of this infallible guide, it is not
furely unreafonable to expedl that philofophy has made
fure progrefs towards perfection ; and as we know that
the brighteft geniufes of Athens and of Rome were for
ages folely occupied in philofophical refearches in every
path of human knowledge, it is equally reafonable to
fuppofe that the progrefs has not only been fure but
great. We have feen that the explanation of an appear¬
ance in nature is nothing but the arrangement of it into
that general clafs in which it is comprehended. The
clafs has its diftinguifliing mark, which, when it is found
in the phenomenon under confideration, fixes it in its
clafs, there to remain for ever an addition to our ftock
of knowledge. Nothing can be loft any other way but
by forgetting it •, and the doClrines of philofophers muft
be ftable like the laws of nature.
We have feen, however, that the very reverfe of all
this is the cafe ; that philofophy has but very lately
emerged from worfe than total darknefs and ignorance \
that what paffed under the name of philofophy was no¬
thing but fyftems of errors (if fyftems they could be
called), which were termed doClrines, delivered with
the moft impofing apparatus of logical demonftration,
but belied in almoft every inftance by experience, and
affording us no aftiftance in the application of the powers
-of nature to the purpofes of life. Nor will this excite
much wonder in the mind of the enlightened reader of
SOPHY.
the prefent day, who refledls on the ufe that in this dia- View of
leftic procefs was made of the categories, and the me- Bacon’s
thod in which thofe categories were formed. From firft ,Philofol%
principles fo vague in themfelves, and fo gratuitoufty ‘-“■"V'*"*-'
aflumed, ingenious men might deduce many different
•conclufions all equally erroneous: and that this was ac¬
tually done, no furer evidence can be given, than that
hardly a lifetime elapfed in which the whole fyftem of
dodlrines which had captivated the minds of the moft
penetrating, have been oftener than once exploded and
overturned by another fyftem, which flourifhed for a
while, and then was fupplanted by a third which fhared
the fame fate. Here was an infallible proof of their er¬
ror, for inftability is incompatible with truth.
It is allowed by all that this has been the cafe in thofe
branches of ftudy at lead: which contemplate the 'philo¬
fophical relations of the material world, in aftronomy,
in mechanical philofophy, in chemiftry, in phyfiology,
in medicine, in agriculture. It is alfo acknowledged,
that in the courfe of lefs than twro centuries back we
have acquired much knowledge on thefe very fubje&s,
call it philofophy, or by what name you will, fo much
more conformable to the natural courfe of things, that
the dedudlions made from it by the fame rules of the
fynthetic method are more conformable to faft, and
therefore better fitted to direft ourcondufl and improve
our powers. It is alfo certain that thefe bodies of doc¬
trine which go by the name of philofophical fyftems,
have much more liability than in ancient times ; and
though fometimes in part fuperfeded, are feldom or ne¬
ver wholly exploded.
This cannot perhaps be affirmed with equal confidence
with refpeft to thefe fpeculations which have our intel-
le£t or propenfities for their objeft : and we have not
perhaps attained fuch a reprefentation of human nature
as will bear comparifon with the original; nor will the
legitimate deductions from fuch dodtrines -be of much
more fervice to us for diredting our condudt than thofe
of ancient times : and while we obferve this difference
between thefe two general claffes of fpeculations, we
may remark, that it is conjoined with a difference in
the manner of condudting the ftudy. We have pro¬
ceeded in the old Ariftotelian method when inveftigat-
ing the nature of mind ; but we fee the material philo¬
fophers running about, paffing much of their time away .
from' books in the ftiop of the artizan, or in the open
fields engaged in obfervation, labouring with their
hands, and bufy with experiments. But the fpeculatift
on the intelledl and the adfive powers of the human foul
feems unwilling to be indebted to any thing but his own
ingenuity, and his labours are confined to the clofet. In
the firft clafs, we have met with fomething like fuccefs,
and we have improved many arts : in the other, it is to ^ ^jet t0
be feared that we are not much wifer, or better, or hap-trut}1<
pier, for all our philofophic attainments.
Here, therefore, muft lurely have been fome great,
feme fatal miftake. There has indeed been a material
defedl in our mode of procedure, in the employment of
this method of reafoning as an inlet to truth. The fa£t
is, that philofophers have totally miftaken the road of
difeovery, and have pretended to let out in their invefti-
'gation from the very point where this journey ftiould
have terminated.
I he Ariftotelian logic, the fyllogiftic art, that art fo
much boafted of as the only inlet to true knowledge,
the
PHILO
/iew of the only means of discovery, is in direft oppofilion to
3acon’s t]ie ordinary procedure of nature, by which we every
ilofopby- (jay anj \n every a£tion of our lives, acquire know-
’’ ledge and difcover truth. It is not the art of difcover-
tthe ing^truth, it is the art of communicating knowledge,
■ofcom- and of detefling error: it is nothing more than the ap-
[inicating piication of this maxim, ‘ whatever is true of a whole
owledge. ^ ^jefts, is true of each individual of that clafs.’
This is not a juft account of the art of difcovering truth,
nor is it a complete account of the art of reaioning.
Reafoning is the producing belief •, and whatever mode
of argumentation invariably and irrefiftibly produces be¬
lief, is reafoning. The ancient logic fuppofes that all
the firft principles are already known, and that nothing
is wanted but the application of them to particular fadfs.
But were this true, the application of them, as we have
already obferved, can hardly be called a difcovery •, but
it is not true •, and the fa& is4 that the firft principles
are generally the chief objefts of our refearch, and that
they have come into view only now and then as it were
by accident, and never by the labour of the logician,
lie indeed can tell us whether we have been miftaken,
for if our general principle be true, it muft influence
every particular cafe. If, therefore, it be falle in any
one of thefe, it is not a true principle. And it is here
that we difcover the fource of that fludfuation which is
fo much complained of in philofophy. 1 he authors of
fyfltms give a fet of confccutive propofitions logically
deduced from a firft principle, which has been haftily
adopted, and has no foundation in nature. i Ins does
not hinder the amulcment of framing a fyftem from it,
nor this fyftem from pleafing by its fymmetry ; and it
takes a run : but when lome officious folloiver thinks of
making fome ufe of it, which requires the comparifon
with experience and obfervation, they are found totally
unlike, and the whole fabric muft be abandoned a$ un¬
found : and thus the fucceflive fyftems were continually
pufhing out their predeceffors, and prelently met with
the fame treatment. ....
How was this to be remedied ? The ratiocination was
feldom egregioufly wrong ; the fyllogiftic art had. ere
now attained a degree of perfedlion which left little
room for improvement, and was fo familiarly underftood
by the philofophical practitioners, that they ieldom com¬
mitted any great blunders. Muft we examine the firft
principles ? This was a talk quite new in fcience •, and
there were hardly any rules in the received fyftems of
logic to direCt us to the fuccefsful performance of it.
Ariftotle, the fagacious inventor of thofe rules, had not
totally omitted it} but in the fervour of philofophic fpe-
culation he had made little ufe of them. His fertile ge¬
nius never was at a lofs for firft principles, which an-
fwered the purpofe of verbal difquifition without much
rilk of being belied on accoupt of itsdiflimilitude to na¬
ture ; for there was frequently no prototype with which
his fyftematic dodrine could be compared. . His enthu-
fiaftic followers found abundant amufement in following
his example j and philofophy, no longer in the hands
of men acquainted with the world, converfant in the
great book of nature, was now confined almoft entirely
to reclufe monks, equally ignorant of men and of things.
But curiofity was awakened, and the men of genius
were fretted as well as difgufted with the difquilitions
of the fchools, which one moment railed expectations by
Vol. XVI. Part I.
SOPHY.
the fymmetry of compofition, and the next moment
39
View ot
Bacon’s
Philofophy.
blafted them by their inconfiftency with experience.
They faw that the belt way was to begin c/e novo, to  
throw away the firft principles altogether, without ex¬
ception or examination, and endeavour to find out new
ones, which fhould Hand the teft of logic 5 that is, ftiould
in every cafe be agreeable to fad. 73
Philofophers began to refleCl, that under the unno-Therae-
ticed tuition of kind nature we have acquired much
ufeful knowledge. It is therefore highly probable, that out
her method is the moft proper for acquiring knowledge, v,y nature,
and that by imitating her manner we ihall have the like
fuccefs. We are too apt to flight the occupations of
children, whom we may obferve continually bufy turn¬
ing every thing over and over, putting them into every
fituation, and at every diftance. We excufe it, fayni”
that it is an innocent amufement} but we (hould fay
with an ingenious philofopher ^Tr Reid), that they aie
moft ferioufly and rationally employed : they are ac¬
quiring the habits of obfervation ; and by merely indulg¬
ing an undetermined curiofity, they are making them-
felves acquainted with furrounding objecls : they are
ftruck by fimilitudes, and amufed with mere claflifica-
tion. If fome new effcCt occurs from any of their little
plays, they are cager to repeat it. When a child has
for the firft time tumbled a fpoon from the table, and is
pleafed with its jingling noife on the floor, if another
lie within its reach, it is fure to ftiare the fame fate.
If the child be indulged in this diverfion, it will repeat
it with greedinefs that deferves our attention. J he very
firft eaeer repetition {hows a confidence in the conftancy
of natural operations, which we can hardly afenbe whol¬
ly to experience j and its keennefs to repeat the experi¬
ment, (hows the intereft which it takes in the exercife
of this moft ufeful propenfity. . It is beginning the ftudy
of nature j and its occupation is the fame with that of a
Newton computing the motions of the moon by his fub-
Ume theory, and comparing his calculus with obferva¬
tion. The child and the philofopher are equally .employ¬
ed in the contemplation of a fimilarity of event, and
are anxious that this fimilarity {hall return. T he child,
it is true, thinks not of this abftraft obje£t of contem¬
plation, but throws down the fpoon again to have the
pleafure of hearing it jingle. The philofopher fufpeas
that the conjuniftion of events is the confequence of a
general law of nature, and tries an experiment where
this conjunction recurs. The child is happy, and eager
to enjoy a pleafure which to us appears highly frivolous j
but it has the fame foundation with the plealure of the
philofopher, who rejoices in the fuecefs of his experi¬
ment: and the fa6t, formerly a trifle to both, now ac¬
quires importance. Both go on repeating the experi¬
ment, till the fa ft ceafes to be a novelty to either : the
child is fathfied, and the philofopher has now eftablifhed
a new law of nature.
Such (fays this amiable philofopher) is the education
of kind nature, who from the beginning to the end of
our lives makes the play of her fcholars their moft in-
ftruaive leffons,’ and has implanted in our mind the cu¬
riofity and the induaive propenfity by which we are en¬
abled and difpofed to learn them. The exercife of this
induaive principle, by which nature prompts us to in- •
for general laws from the obfervation of particular faas,
trives us a fpecies of logic new in the fchools, but old
g 3 D
394-
View of
Bacon’s
PHILO
^ as human nature. It is certainly a method of difcovery ;
Philofophy. ^or thefe means general principles, formerly unknown,
J have come into view.
It is a juft and rational logic j for it is founded on,
and indeed is only the habitual application of, this max¬
im, “ That whatever is true with refpeft to every indi¬
vidual of a clafs of events, is true of the whole clafs.”
This is juft the inverfe of the maxim on which the Ari-
ftotelian logic wholly proceeds, and is of equal authority
in the court of reafon. Indeed the expreftion of the ge¬
neral law is only the abbreviated expreflion of every
particular inftance.
This new logic, therefore, or the logic of indu£lion.
muft not be confidered as fubordinate to the old, or
founded on it. See Logic, Part III. chap. if. In fa£l,
the ufe and legitimacy of the Ariftotelian logic is found¬
ed on the induftive,
All animals are mortal •,
All men are animals therefore
All men are mortal.
This is no argument to any perfon who choofes to
deny the mortality of man ; even although he acknow¬
ledges his animal nature, he will deny the major pro-
pofition.
It is befide our purpofe to ftiow, how a point fo ge¬
neral, fo congenial to man, and fo familiar, remained
fo long unnoticed, although the difquifition is curious
and fatisfaftory. It was not till within thefe two cen¬
turies that the increafing demand for practical knowr-
ledge, particularly in the arts, made inquifitive men fee
how ufelefs and infufficient was the learning of the fchools
in any road of inveftigation which was conne&ed with
life and bufinefs j and obferve, thatfociety had received
ufeful information chiefly from perfons actually engaged
in the arts which the fpeculatifts were endeavouring to
illuftrate j and that this knowledge confifted chiefly of
experiments and obfervations, the only contributions
which their authors could make to foience.
The Novum Organum of Bacon, which points out the
true method of forming a body of real and ufeful know¬
ledge, namely, the ftudy of nature in the way of de-
fcription, obfervation, and experiment, is undoubtedly
the nobleft prefent that fcience ever received. It may
be confidered as the grammar of nature’s language, and
is a counter-part to the logic of Ariftotle ; not explod¬
ing it, but making it effectual.
As the logic of Ariftotle had its rules, fo has the Ba¬
conian or indu&ive *, and this work, the Novum Orga¬
num Scientiarum, contains them all. The chief rule,
and indeed the rule from which all the reft are but de¬
rivations, is, that “ the indu&ion of particulars muft
be carried as far as the general affirmation which is de¬
duced from them.” If this be not attended to, the
oeral^ nr* rnni^ maib which: from his earlieft years ffiows great
dples,Pnn* eagernefs in fearching for firft principles, will frequently
afcrihe to the oneration of a erenera 1 nrlnrir.le errentB
SOPHY.
. 75
Its chief
rule
76
for cliico
aferibe to the operation of a general principle events
which are merely accidental. Hence the popular belief
in omens, palmiftry, and all kinds of fortune-telling.
This rule muft evidently give a new turn to the whole
track of philofophical inveftigation. In order to difeo-
ver firft principles, we muft make extenfive and accu¬
rate obfervations, fo as to have copious inductions of
fads, that we may not be deceived as to the extent of
the principle inferred from them. We muft extend our
acquaintance with the phenomena, paying a minute at¬
tention to what is going on all around us; and we muft V;eW of
ftudy nature, not ffiut up in our clofet drawing the pic- bacon’s
ture from our own fancy, but in the world, copying our
lines from her own features. '-“—y'W
To delineate human nature, we muft fee how men aCf.
To give the philofophy of the material world, we muft
notice its phenomena.
This method of ftudying nature has been profecuted
during thefe two laft centuries with great eagernels
and fuccefs. Philofophers have been bufy in making
accurate obfervations of fads, and copious collections
of them. Men of genius have difeovered points of
refemblance, from which they have been able to infer
many general powers both of mind and body ; and re-
femblances among thefe have fuggefted powers ftiil more
general.
By thefe efforts inveftigation became familiar ; phi¬
lofophers ftudied the rules of the art, and became more
expert j hypothefes were baniftied, and nothing was
admitted as a principle which was not inferred from
the moft copious induction. Conclufions from fuch
principles became every day more conformable to ex¬
perience. Miftakes fometimes happened j but recourfe
being had to more accurate obfervation or more copi¬
ous induction, the miflakes were corrected. In the 77
prefent ftudy of nature, our fteps are more flow, and aml re^;
hefitating and painful; our conclufions are more limited
and modeft, but our difeoveries are more certain and
progreffive, and the refults are more applicable to the
purpofes of life. This pre-eminence of modern philo¬
fophy over the ancient is feen in every path of inquiry.
It was firft remarkable in the ftudy of the material
world \ and there it ftiil continues to be moft confpicu-
ous. But it is no lefs to be feen in the later perfor¬
mances of philofophers in metaphyfics, pneumatology,
and ethics, where the mode of inveftigation by analyfis
and experiment has been greatly adopted ; and we may
add, that it is this jufter view of the employment which
has reftored philofophers to the world, to fociety.
They are no longer to be found only in the acade¬
mies of the fophifts and the cloifters of a convent, but
in the difeharge of public and private duty. A phi-
lofophic genius is a genius for obfervation as w-ell as
reflection, and he fays, Homo Juw, humani a me nihil
a/ienum puto. ^5
After faying fo much on the nature of the employ-Eftimate ot
ment, and the mode of procedure, it requires no deep A’* P^o10“
penetration to perceive the value of the philofophicala'
eharaCler.. If there is a propenfity in the human mind
which diftinguiflies us from the inferior orders of fentient
beings, without the 1'eaft circumftance of interference,a
propenfity which alone maybe taken for the eharafter-
iftie of the fpecies, and of which no trace is to he found
in any oilier, it is difinterefted intelleClual curiofity, ,a
love of difcovery for its own fake, indep.end.ent of all its
advantages.
We think highly (and with great juftice do we think
fo) of our rational powers ; but ive may. carry this too
far, as-we do every ground ofTtlf-eftimation. To every
man who enjoys the cheering thought of living under
the care of a wife Creator, this boafted prerogative will
be viewed with more modefty and diffidence ; and He
has given us evident marks of the rank in which He
efteems the rational powers of man. In no cafe that i
of effential importance, of indifpenfable neceffity, not on¬
ly
PHILO
awof ly to our wellbeing but to our very exiftence, has He
con’s igft man to the care of his reafon alone $ for in the firft
PI lfoPhy' inftance, He has given us reafon
V. ^ '
79 To suide the helm, while paflion blows the eale.
\\ lioulcl
i mo- God has not trufted either the prefervation of the in-
dly dividual or the continuance of the race to man’s no-
01 ®tj10na tions of the importance of the talk, but has committed
^ ’ them to the furer guards of hunger and of fexual de¬
fire. In like manner, He has not left the improvement
of his nobleft work, the intelleftual powers of the foul
of man, to his own notions how important it is to his
comfort that he be thoroughly acquainted with the
So obje&s around him. No: He has committed this alfo
!•; jrunce to the fare hand of curiofity : and He has made this fo
o ir in- ftrong in a few fuperior fouls, whom He has appointed
d :^'!e to give light and knowledge to the whole fpecies, as to
pjpcs. them from all other perfuits, and to engage
them in intellectual refearch with an ardour which no
attainment can ever quench, but, on the contrary7, in¬
flames it the more by every draught of knowledge.
  But what need words
To paint its power ? For this the daring youth
Breaks from Lis weeping mother’s folding arms
In foreign climes to rove. The penfive fage,
Heedlefs of fleep, or midnight’s hurtful vapour
Hangs o’er the fickly taper.—Hence the fcorn
Of all familiar profpects, though beheld
With tranfport once. Hence the attentive gaze
Of young atlonifhment.
Such is the bounteous providence of Heaven,
In every bread implanting the defire
Of objeCls new and itrange, to urge us on
With unremitting labour to attain
The facred (lores that wait the rip’ning foul
In Truth’s exhaultlefs bofom, Aikenjtde.
But human life is not a lituation of continual necef-
fity j this would ill fuit the plans of its beneficent Au¬
thor : and it is from induClion of phenomena totally
oppofite to this, and from fuch induction alone, that
sve have ever thought of a wife Creator. His wifdom
appears only in His beneficence. Human life is a fcene
filled with enjoyment *, and the foul of man is Itored
with propenfities and powers which have pleafure, in
direci terms, for their objeCt. Another linking di-
ItinCtion of our nature is a continual difpofition to re¬
finement, of which few traces are to be found in the
St actions of other animals. There is hardly a gift of
r difpo- nature fo grateful in itfelf as to pleafe the freakilh
3nt0 mind of man till he has moulded it to his fancy. Not
netnent. con^en^e(j food, with raiment, and with Ihelter,
he mud have nice cookery, ornamental drefs, and ele¬
gant houfes. He hunts when he is not hungry, and
he refines fexual appetite into a mod elegant pallion.
In like manner he has improved this anxious defire of
the knowledge of the objedls around him, fo as to derive
Irom them the means of fubfidence and comfort, into
the mod elegant and pleafing of all gratifications, the
accumulation of intellectual knowledge, independent ot
all eonfideration of its advantages. And as every man
has a title to the enjoyment of fuch pleafe res as he
can attain without injuring his neighbour ; fo it is al¬
lowable to fuch as have got the means of intelleflual
improvement, without relinquidiing the inddjpenfabie
SOPHY. 395
focial duties, to pulh this advantage as far as it will go : View of
and, in all ages and countries, it has been confidered
as forming the greated didinftion between men of eafy ■ : j
fortune and the poor, who mud earn their fubfidence by
the fweat of their brow. The plebeian mud learn to
work, the gentleman mud learn to think } and nothing
can be a furer mark of a groveling foul than for a man
of fortune to have an uncultivated mind. gi
Let us then cherilh to the utmod this didinguidung Ought to
propenfity of the human foul: but let us do even this b<j Cj f^"s
like philofophers. Let us cultivate it as it is : as the
handmaid to the arts and duties of life } as the guide vient t0
to fomething yet more excellent. A character is not to duties of
be edimated from what the perfon knows, but from Lfo»
what he can perform. The accumulation of intelle&ual
knowledge is too apt to create an inordinate appetite
for it : and the man habituated to (peculation is, like
the mifer, too apt to place that pleafure in the mere
pojfejjion, which he ought to look for only or chiefly in
the judicious ufe of his favourite object. Like the
mifer, too, his habits of hoarding up generally unfit
him for the very enjoyment which at felting out he
propofed to himfelf. Seldom do we find the man, who
has devoted his life to feientific purfuits for their own
fake, poflefied of that fuperiority of mind which the ac¬
tive employ to good purpofe in times of perplexity ; and
much feldomer do we find him poflefled of that promp¬
titude of apprehenfion, and that decifion of purpofe,
which are neceffary for palling through the difficult
feenes of human life.
But we may ufe the good things of this life without
abufing them *, and by moderation here, as in all other
purfuits, derive thofe folid advantages which philofo-
phy is able to bellow. And thefe advantages are great.
To enumerate and deferibe them W’ould be to write a
great volume. We may juft take notice of one, which
is an obvious confequence of that ftridt and fimple view
which we have given of the fubjeft; and this is a mo- 83
deft opinion of our attainments. Appearances are all Limits of
that we know ; caufes are for ever bid from our view j
the powers of our nature do not lead us fo far. Let us
therefore, without hefitation, relinquiffi all purfuits
which have fuch things as ultimate principles for objcBs
of examination. Let us attend .to the fubordinations of
things which it is our gre-at bufinefs to explore. Among
thefe there is fuch a fubordination as that of means to
ends, and of inftruments to an operation. All will ac¬
knowledge the abfurdity of the project of viewing light
with a microfcrope.. It is equally abfurd for us to ex¬
amine the nature of knowledge, of truth, of infinite ■'
dom, by our intellectual powers. We have a wide field
of acceffible knowledge in the works of God ; and one
of the greateft advantages, and of the molt fublime plea-
fures, which vve can derive from the contemplation, is
the view which a judicious philofophical refearch will
molt infallibly give us of a world, not confifting of a
number of detached objects, connected only by the fleet¬
ing tie of coexiftence, but an univerfe, n f/jlcrn of beings,
all connected together by caufation, with innumerable
degrees of fubordination and fubferviency, and all co¬
operating in the production of one great and glorious
purpofe. The heart which has but a fpark of fenfibi-
lity muft be warmed by fuch a prolpeCt, mult be pleafed
to find itfelf an important part of this ftupendous ma¬
chine ; and cannot but adore the incomprehcnfible Ar-
3. D 2 tift
396 P H 1 1. O
View of tifl wlio contrived, created, and directs the whole. Let
prffrV lls not ^^en> then, to the timid admonitions of tbeologi-
^ 1 cal ignorance, which Ihrinks with fuperditious horror
84 from the thoughts of accounting for every thing by the
Philofophi- powers of nature, and confiders thefe attempts as an ap-
<al difquifi- proac}1 to atheifm. Philofophical difquifition will, on
juft notions ^ie contrar}% exhibit thefe general laws of the univerfe,
of God and that wonderful concatenation and adjuftment of every
of our own thing both material and intellectual, as the molt flri-
louls. king inltance of incomprehenlible wifdom ; which, by
means fo few and fo limple, can produce effeCts which
by their grandeur dazzle our imagination, and by their
multiplicity elude all poflibility of enumeration. Of all
the obftacles which the weaknefs, the folly, or the fin-
ful vanity of men, has thrown in the way of the theolo¬
gian, there is none fo fatal, fo hollile to all his endea¬
vours, as a cold and comfortlefs fyltem of materialifm,
which the reafoning pride of man firft engendered,
which made a figure among a few fpeculatifts in the laft
century, but was foon forgotten by the philofophers
really bufy with the obfervation, of nature and of na¬
ture’s God. It has of late reared up its head, being
now cheriflied by all who with to get rid of the flings
/
SOPH Y.
of remorfe, as the only opinion compatible with the View of
peace of the licentious and the fenfual: for tve may fay Bacon’s
to them as Henry IV. faid to the prince of Wales, fkilofophy.
“ Thy wilh W'as father, Harry, to that thought.” In 'rm~>
vain will the divine attempt to lay this devil with the
metaphyfical exorcifms of the fchools 5 it is philofophy
alone that can deteCf the cheat. Philofophy fingles
out the charaClerillic phenomena which dillinguilh every
fubftance ; and philofophy never will hefitate in laying
that there is a fet of phenomena which characlerife
mind and another which charafterife body, and that^
thefe are toto coelo different. Continually appealing to
faCt, to the phenomena, for our knowledge of every caufe,
we {hall have no difficulty in deciding that thought,
memory, volition, joy, hope, are not compatible attri¬
butes with bulk, weight, elafticity, fluidity. Tula fub
ergide Pallas; philofophy will maintain the dignity of
human nature, will doted the fophifms of the material-
ifts, confute their arguments j and fhe alone will reftore
to the countenance of nature that ineffable beauty, of
which thofe would deprive her, who would take away
the fupreme Mind which fhines from within, and gives
life and expreffion to every feature..
P H I
Philofophy
Natural PmLOSOPHr. See NATURAL Philofophy,
Philosophy, and Physics.
Experimental PHILOSOPHI'. Sec EXPERIMENTAL
PhilofopJnj.
Moral PHILOSOPHT. See MORAL Philofophy.
PHILOSTORGIUS, an ecclefiaflical hiftorian of
the 4th century, was born in Cappadocia, and wrote
an abridgement of ecclefiaftical hiftory, in which he
treats Athanafius with fome feverity. This work con¬
tains many curious and interefting particulars. The
bell edition is that of Henry de Valois in Greek and
Latin. There is alfo attributed to him a book againft
Porphyry.
PHILOSTR ATUS, Flavius, was an ancient Greek
author. He wrote the Life of Apollonius Tyanenfis,
and fome other things which have come down to our
time. Eufebius againft Hierocles calls him an Atheni¬
an, beeaufe he taught at Athens ; but Eunapius and
Suidas always fpeak of him as a Lemnian : and he hints,
in his Life of Apollonius, that he ufed to be at Lemnos
when be was young. He frequented the fchools of the
fophifts •, and he mentions his having heard Damianus
of Ephefus, Proelus Naucratitas, and Plippodromus of
Lariffa. This feems to prove that he lived in the reign
of the emperor Sowerus, from 193 to 212, when thofe
fophifts flourifhed. He became known afterwards to
Severus’s wife Julia Augufta, and was one of thofe
learned men whom this philofophic emprefs had conti¬
nually about her. It was by her command that he
wrote the Life of Apollonius Tyanenfls, as he relates
himfelf in the fame place where he informs us of his
connections w!ith that learned lady. Suidas and Hefy-
chius fay that he was a teacher of rhetoric, firft at A-
thens and then at Rome, from the reign of Severus to
that of Philippus, who obtained the empire in 244.
Philoftratus’s celebrated work is his Life of Apol-
5
P H I
loniusq which has erroneoufly been attributed to Lu- Philoftra-
cian, becaufe it has been printed with fome of that, tus‘ ,
author’s pieces. Philoftratus endeavours, as Cyril ob- ’
ferves, to reprefent Apollonius as a wonderful and ex¬
traordinary perfon } rather to be admired and adored
as a god than to be confidered as a mere man. Hence
Eunapius, in the preface to his Lives of the Sophifts,
fays that the proper title of that work would have been,
The Coming of a God, to Men ; and Hierocles, in his
book againft the Chriftians which was called Philaicther,
and which was refuted by Eufebius in a work ftill ex¬
tant, among other things drew a comparifon between
Apollonius and Jefus Chrift. It has always been fup-
pofed that Philoftratus compofed his work with a view
to diferedit the miracles and doClrines of our Lord,
by fetting up other miracles and other doftrines againft
them, and this fuppofition may be true \ but that Apol¬
lonius was really an impoftor and magician may not be
fo certain. He may, for what we know, have been a
wife and excellent perfon ; and it is remarkable, that
Eufebius, though he had the worft opinion of Philo¬
ftratus’s hiftory, fays nothing ill of Apollonius. He
concluded that that hiftory was written to oppofe the
hiftory of Jefus *, and the ufe which the ancient infidels
made of it juftifies his opinion 5 but lie draws no in¬
formation from it with regard to Apollonius. It would
have been improper to have done fo ; fince the fophifii-
cal and affeCled ftyle of Philoftratus, the fources from
whence he owns his materials to have been drawn, and,
above all, the abfurdities and contradictions with which
he abounds, plainly ftiow his hiftory to be nothing but a
collection of fables, either invented or at leaft embellfth-
ed by himfelf.
The works of Philoftratus, however, have engaged
the attention of critics of the firft clafs. Grsevius had
intended to have given a correCt edition of them, as
appears
Philotis
PHI
[ 397 1
P H I
] )DNT
{ larks).
loftra- appears from the preface of Meric Cafaubon to a difler-
tation upon an intended edition of Homer, printed at
London in 1658, Bvo. So had Bentley, who defigned
to add a new Latin verfion of his notes j and Fabricius
fays that he faw the firlt iheet of Bentley’s edition
printed at Leipfie in 1691. Both thefe defigns were
dropped. A very exadl and beautiful edition was
publifhed at length at Leipfic, 1709, in folio, by Ole-
arius, profeffor of the Greek and Latin tongues in that
univerfity; who has proved himfelf perfe&ly qualified
for the work he undertook, and fhown all the judge¬
ment, learning, and induftry, that are required in an ex¬
cellent editor.
At the end of Apollonius’s Life there are 95 letters
•!us°an"d which go under his name. They are not, however,
IJ,’ believed to be his-, the ftyle of them being very afteft-
ed, and like that of a fophift, while they bear in other
refpe&s all the marks of a forgery. Philoftratus fays
that he faw a collection of Apollonius’s Letters in Ha¬
drian’s library at Antium, but had not infected them
all among thefe. I hey are fhort, and have in them
little elfe than moral fentences. The Lives of the So-
phifts contain many things which are to be met with no¬
where elle. 1 he Heroics of Philoftratus aie only a
dialogue between a vintner of Thracian Cherfonefus and
a Phoenician, in which the former draws characters of
Homer’s heroes, and reprefents feveral things difterenU
ly from that poet} and this upon the faith of Prote-
filaus’s ghoft, who had lately viftted his farm, which
was not far from the tomb of this hero. Olearius con¬
jectures, with much probability, that Phi loft ratus’s de-
fign in this dialogue was fecretly to criticife fome things
in Hamer, which he durft not do openly on account of
the great veneration then paid to him, and for fear of
the odium which Zoilus and others had incurred by cen-
furing him too freely. 1 he images are elegant delerip-
tions and illuftrations of fome ancient paintings and other
particulars relating to the fine arts; to which Olearius has
fubjoined the defcription of fome ftatues by Calliftratus
tor the fame reafon that lie fubjoined .mifebius’s book
againft Hierocles to the Life and Letters of Apollonius,
namely, becaufe the fubjeCts of thefe refpeCtive works
are related to each other. rJ he laft piece is a collection
of Philoftratus’s Letters; but fome of thefe, though it
is not eafy to determine which, were written by a ne¬
phew to our Philoftratus, of the fame name, as were al-
fo the laft eighteen in the book of images. I his is the
reafon why the title runs not ¥hilojlrati, but PJulo/lra-
torum quae fiiperfunt onima.
There were many perfons of the name of Philoftratus
among the ancients; and there were many other works
of the Philoftratus here recorded, but no others are ex¬
tant befides thofe we have mentioned.
PHILOTIS, a fervant maid at Rome, faved her
countrymen from deftruftion. After the fiege of Rome
by the Gauls, the Fidenates affembled an army, and
marched againft the capital, demanding all the wives
and daughters in the city as the only conditions of
peace. This demand aftonifhed the fenators; and when
they refufed to comply, Philotis advifed them to fend
all the female Haves difguifed in matrons clothes, and
(he offered to march herfelf at the head. Her advice
was followed; and when the Fidenates had feafted late
in the evening, and were quite intoxicated and fallen
afleep, Philotis lighted a torch as a fignal for her coun¬
trymen to attack the enemy. The whole was fuccels-
ful; the Fidenates were conquered; and the fenate, to
reward the fidelity of the female flaves, permitted them
to appear in the drefs of the Roman matrons
PHILOXENUS, an officer of Alexander, who re¬
ceived Cilicia at the general divifion of the provinces.
 A fon of Ptolemy, who was given to Pelopidas as
an hoftage.— A dithyrambic poet of Cythera. He
enjoyed the favour of Dionyfius tyrant of Sicily for
forae time, till he offended him by feducing one of his
female .fingers. During his confinement Philoxenus
compofed an allegorical poem called Cyclops; in which
he had delineated the character of the tyrant under the
name of Polyphemus, and reprefented his miftreis under
the name of Galattea, and himfelf under that of Ulyfles.
The tyrant, who was fond of writing poetry, and of be¬
ing applauded, removed Philoxenus from his dungeon-,
but the poet refufed to purchaie his liberty by faying
things unworthy of himfelf, and applauding the wretch¬
ed verfes of Dionyfius, and therefore he was fent to the
quarries. Being let at liberty, he fome time after was
a Iked his opinion at a feaft about fome verfes which Di¬
onyfius had juft repeated, and which the courtiers had
received with the greateft applaufe. Philoxenus gave
no anfwer, but he ordered the guards that iurrounded
the tyrant’s table to take him back to the quarries.
Dionyfius was pleafed with his pleafantry and with his
firmnefs, and immediately forgave him. Philoxenus
died at Ephefus about 380 years before Chrift.
PHILTER, or Philtre, {Philtrum), in Pharmacy^
See. a ftrainer.
Philter, is alfo ufed for a drug or preparation,
which itis pretended will excitelove.—The word isform-
ed from the Greek <p<Xs*, “ I love,” or <?<>.«?, “ lover.”
Philters are diftinguilhed into true fpurious, and
■were given by the Greeks and Romans to excite lo\e.
The fpurious are fpells or charms, fuppofed to have an
effeiR beyond the ordinary laws of nature by fome ma¬
gic virtue; fuch are thofe laid to be given by old wo¬
men, witches, &c.—The true philters are thofe fup¬
pofed to work their eff'uft by fome natural and magne-
tical power. There are many grave authors who be¬
lieve the reality of thefe philters, and allege matter of
fact in confirmatum of their fentirnents: among the reft.
Van Hclmont, who fays, that upon holding a certain
herb in his hand for fome time, and taking afterwards a
little dog by the foot with the fame hand, the dog fol¬
lowed him wherever he went, and quite deferted his
former matter ; which he pretends to account tor thus :
The heat communicated to the herb, not coming alone,
but animated by the emanations of the natural fpirits,
determines the herb towards the man, and identifies it
to him: having then received this ferment, it attracts
the fpirit of the other objeeft magnetically, and gives it
an amorous motion. But this is mere cant; and all
philters, whatever-fafts may be alleged, are mere chi¬
meras.
PHILYCA. See Phylica, Botany Index.
PHI LYRA, in fabulous hiftory, was one of the O-
ceanides, whom Saturn met in Thrace. 1 he god, to
efcape from the vigilance of Rhea,-changed himfelf into
a horfe, to enjoy the company of Philyra, by whom he
had a fon half a man and half a horfe, called Chiron.
Philyra
Phiiyra.
Philyra
. II
Phinehas.
PHI [ 398
Philyra was io afhamed of giving birth to fuch a mon-
fter, that file entreated the gods to change her nature.
, She was accordingly metamorphofed into a tree, called
by her name among the Greeks.
PHIMOSIS, in Medicine, a diforder of the penis, in
avhich the prepuce is fo drift or tenfe, that it cannot be
drawn back over the glans. See SURGERY.
PHINEHAS, or, as the Jews pronounce it PiNEHAS,
was the fon of Eleazar, and grandfon of Aaron. He was
the third high-prielt of the Jews, and difeharged this
office from the year of the wmrld 2571, till towards
the year 2590. He is particularly commended in
Scripture for the zeal he ffiowed in vindicating the
glory of God, when the Midianites had lent their
daughters into the camp of Ifrael, to tempt the He¬
brew's to fornication and idolatry. For Zimri having
publicly entered into the tent of a Midianitilh woman
named Co'zbi, Phinehas arofe up from among the people
(Numb. xxv. 7, &e.), took a javelin in his hand, en¬
tered after Zimri into that infamous place, and dabbed
both man and woman at one blow, in thofe parts that
were chiefly concerned in this criminal commerce. Upon
which the plague or didemper ceafed with which the
Lord had already begun to punifli the Ifraelites. This
happened in the year of the world 2553.
Then the Lord faid to Mofes, Phinehas the fon of
Eleazar the high-pried has turned away my wrath from
the children of Ifrael, becaufe he has been zealous in
my caufe, and has hindered me from dedroying them :
wherefore acquaint him, that I give him my covenant
of peace, and the priedhood fliall be given to his po-
derity by a perpetual covenant, becaufc he has been
zealous for his God, and has made atonement for the
crime of the children of Ifrael. This promife that the
I.ord made to Phinehas, to give him the priedhood by
a perpetual covenant, interpreters obferve, evidently in¬
cluded this tacit condition, that his children fliould con¬
tinue faithful and obedient; fince we know that the pried¬
hood paffed out of the family of Eleazar and Phinehas
to that of Ithamar, and that it returned not to the po-
derity of Eleazar till after about 150 years.
this is what we find concerning the tranflation of
the high-priedhood from one family to the other. This
dignity continued in the race of Phinehas, from Aaron
down to the high-pried Eli, for about 335 years. See
Aaron.
The manner and caufes of this change are unknown.
It re-entered again into the family of Eleazar, under
the reign of Saul, when this prince having put to
death Abimelech, and the other prieds of Nob, he
gave the high-priedhood to Zadok, who was of the race
of Phinehas. At the fame time, David had Abiathar
with him, of the race of Eli, who performed the func¬
tions of high-pried. So that after the death of Saul,
David continued the priedhood to Zadok and Abiathar
conjointly. But towards the end of David’s reign
Abiathar having efpoufed the intered of Adonijah, to
the prejudice of Solomon, he was in difgrace, and Zadok
only was acknowledged as high-pried. The priedhood
continued in his family till after the captivity of Baby¬
lon, and even to the dedruftion of the temple. But
from the beginning of Zadok’s priedhood alone, and
the exclufion of Abiathar, to the ruin of the temple, is
1084 years.
We read of another memorable action of Phinehas,
] PHI
in which he dill fliow'ed his zeal for the Lord. This PLinehis
was when the Ifraelites that were beyond Jordan had PWneiW
railed upon the banks of this river a vad heap of earth 
(Jojh. xxii. 30, 31.). I hole on the other fide fearino-
they were going to forfake the Lord, and fet up another
religion, deputed Phinehas and other chief men among
them, to go and inform themfelves of the reafon of ereft.
ing this monument. But when they had found that it
was in commemoration of their union and common ori¬
ginal, Phinehas took occafion from thence to praife the
Lord, faying, “ We know that the Lord is with us,
fince you are not guilty of that prevarication we fufpeft-
ed you were.”
We do not exaftly know the time of the death of
Phinehas. But as he lived after the death of Joihua,
and before the fird fervitude under Chufhan-rifliathaim,
during the time that there were neither kings nor judges
in the land, and every one did what vras right in his
own eyes (Judges xvii. 6. xviii. 1. xxi. 24.); his death
is put about the year of the world 2590. It was under
his pontificate that the dory of Micah happened, as alfo
that of the tribe of Dan, when they made a conqueft of
Laifhand the enormity that was committed upon the
wife of the Levite of the mountain of Ephraim (Judges
xx. 28.). Phinehas’s fucceflor in the high-prieflhood
was Abiezar, or Abifliuah.
The Rabbins allow a very long life to Phinehas.
T here are fome who believe he lived to the time of
the high-pried Eli, or even to the time of Samfon.
Others will have it, that he was the fame as Eli, or
rather as the prophet Elias, which wmuld ftill prolong
his life for feveral ages.
PHINEUS, in fabulous hiflory, was a fon of Age-
nor, king of Phoenicia, or according to fome of Nep¬
tune. He became king of Thrace, or, according to the
greater part of mythologids, of Bithynia. He married
Cleopatra the daughter of Boreas, called by fome C/eo-
bula, by whom he had Plexippus and Pandion. After
her death, he married Idaea the daughter of Dardanus.
Idma, jealous of his former wdfe’s children, accufed
them of attempts upon their father’s life and crown, or,
as others aflert, of attempts upon her virtue •, on which
they were condemned by Phineus to be deprived of
their eyes. This cruelty w-as foon after puniffied by the
gods; for Phineus fuddenly became blind, and the Har¬
pies were fent by Jupiter to keep him in continual
alarm, and to fpoil the meats which were placed on his
table. He was afterwards delivered from thefe danger¬
ous monflers by his brothers-in law Zetes and Calais,
who purfued them as far as the Strophades. He like-
wife recovered his fight by means of the Argonauts,
whom he had received with great hofpitality, and whom
he inftrufted in the eafieft and fpeediefl way of arriving
in Colchis. The caules of the blindnefs of Phineus are
a matter of dilpute among the ancients; fome fuppofing
that this w'as inflifted by Boreas for his cruelty to his
grandfons j while others attribute it to the anger of Nep¬
tune, becaufe he had direfted the fons of Phryxus how
to efcape from Colchis to Greece. Many, however,
imagine that it proceeded from his having raflily at¬
tempted to develope futurity j w’hile others aifert that
Zetes and Calais put out his eyes on account of his Cruel¬
ty to their nephews. The fecond wife of Phineus is
called by fome Dm, Eunjtia, Danae, and Idothea.—He
was killed by Hercules.
PHLEBOTOMY,
P H L [ 399 ] PH L
j fcboto- PHLEBOTOMY, the opening of a vein with a
my proper (harp-edged and pointed inlhument, in order
II to let out a certain quantity of blood either for the
L prefervation or recovery of a perfon’s health. See
Surgery.
PHLEGM, in the animal economy, one of the four
humours whereof the ancients fuppofed the blood to be
compofed. The chemills make phlegm or water an ele¬
mentary body y the characters of which are fluidity, inii-
pidity, and volatility.
PHLEGMAGOGUES, in Medicine, a term an¬
ciently made ufe of for fuch medicines as were fup¬
pofed to be endowed with the property of purging
off phlegm; fuch as hermodaflyls, agaric, turbith, ja¬
lap, &c.
PHLEGMATIC, among pbyficians, an appellation
given to that habit or temperament of body wherein
phlegm is predominant; which gives rife to catarrhs,
coughs, &c.
PHLEGMON, denotes an external inflammation
and tumor, attended with a burning heat.
PHLEGON, who was furnamed Trallianus, was
born in Trallis a city of Lydia. He was the empe¬
ror Hadrian’s freed man, and lived to the 18th year
of Antoninus Pius; as is evident from his mentioning
the confuls of that year. He wrote ft-veral works of
great erudition, of which we have nothing left but
fragments. Among thefe was a Hiflory of the Olym¬
piads, A Treatife of Long-lived Perfons, and another
of Wonderful Things; the fliort and broken remains
of which Xylander tranflated into Latin, and publifhed
at Bafll in 1568, with the Greek and with notes. Mcur-
fms publifhed a new edition of them with his notes at
Leyden, in 1622. The titles of part of the reft of
Phlegon’s writings are preferved by Suidas. It is fup¬
pofed that the Hiftory of Hadrian, publifhed under
Phlegon’s name, was written by Hadrian himfelf, from
this paffage of Spartianus: “ Hadrian thirfted fo much
after fame (fays he), that he gave the books of his
own life, drawn up by himfelf, to his freedmen, com¬
manding them to publilh thofe books under their own
names; for we are told that Hadrian wrote Phlegon’s
books.”
Phlegon’s name has been more familiar among the
moderns, and his fragments have had a greater degree
of regard paid to them than perhaps they deferve,
merely becaufe he has been fuppofed to fpeak of the
darknefs which prevailed during our Lord’s paflion.
The book in which the words are contained is loft ;
but Eufebius has preferved them in his Chronicon. They
are thefe: “ In the 4th year of the 202d Olympiad,
there was a greater and more remarkable eclipfe of the
iun than any that had ever happened before: for at
the fixth hour the day was fo turned into the darknefs
of night, that the very ftars in the firmament were
vifible ; and there was an earthquake in Bithynia
which threw down many houfes in the city of Niccca.”
Eufebius thinks that thefe words of Phlegon related
to the prodigies which accompanied Chrift’s crucifixion;
and many other fathers of the church have thought the
tame: but this opinion is liable to many difficulties; for
no man had ever a ftronger defire than Phlegon to com¬
pile marvellous events, and to obferve the lupernatural
eircumftances in them. How was it then poffible that a
this turn of mind ftiould not have taken notice-of
the moft furprifing eircumftance in the eclipfe which it Phlegon,-
is imagined he hints at, viz. its happening on the day
when the moon was at the full? But had Phlegon done
this, Eufebius would not have omitted it; and Origen
would not have faid that Phlegon had omitted this par¬
ticular.
It was a matter of controverfy fome time ago, whe¬
ther Phlegon really fpoke of the darknefs at the time of
our Lord’s paffion ; and many differtatiuns were written
on both fides of the queftion. This difpute was ocea-
fioned by the above paffage from Phlegon being left out
in an edition of Clarke’s Boyle’s Lectures, publiffied af¬
ter his death, at the inftance of Sykes, who had fuggeft-
ed to Clarke, that an undue ftrefs had been laid upon it.
Whilton, who informs us of this affair, expreffes great
difpleafure againft Sykes, and calls “ the fuggeftion
groundlefi.” Upon this, Sykes publifhed “ A Differta-
tion on the Eclipfe mentioned by Phlegon : or, “ An
Inquiry whether that Eclipfe had any relation to the
darknefs which happened at our Saviour’s Paflion ;
1732,” 8vo. Sykes concludes it to be moft probable
that Phlegon had in view a natural eelipfe which hap¬
pened November 24, in the firtt year of the 202d
Olympiad, and not in the 4lh year of the Olympiad in.
which Chrift was crucified. Many pieces were written
againft him, and to fome of them he replied ; but per¬
haps it is a controverfy which concerns the learned
world merely, fince the caufe of religion is but little af-
fe&ed by it.
Photius blames Phlegon for expatiating too much on
trifles, and for colle<fting too great a number of anfwers
pronounced by the oracles. “ His ftyle (he tells us) is
not altogether flat and mean, nor does it everywhere
imitate the attic manner of writing. But otherwife, the
over nice accuracy and care with which he computes
the Olympiads, and relates the names of the contefts,
•the tranfaefions, and even oracles, is not only very tire-
fome to the reader, whereby a cloud is thrown over all
other particulars in that book, but the dhftion is thereby'
rendered unpleafant and ungrateful ; and indeed he is
every moment bringing in the anfwers pronounced by
all kinds of deities.”
PHLOGISTON, a term ufed by chemifts to denote
a principle which was fuppofed to enter into the compw-
fition of various bodies.
The bodies which were thought to contain it in the
largeft quantity are fuch as are inflammable ; and the
property which thefe fubftances poffefs of being fufeep-
tible of inflammation was thought to depend on this
principle ;.and hence it was fometimes called the Prin¬
ciple of Inflammability. Inflammation, according to
this do&rine, was the feparation ol this principle or
ph'ogijlon from the other matter which compofed the
combuftible body. As its feparation was always at¬
tended with the emiffion of light and heat, fome che-
mifis concluded that it was light and heat combin¬
ed with other matter in a peculiar manner, or that
it was fome highly elaftic and very fubtile matter,
on certain modifications- of which heat and light de¬
pended.
Another clafs of bodies which were fuppofed to con¬
tain phlogifton are the metals; and the ehemifts fuppofed
that the peculiar luftre of the metals depended on this
principle. Of this they thought themfelves convinced
by the evidence of their fenfes in two ways; viz. firft,
becauf«
P H L [ 400 ] P II L
yhlogifton. becaufe by cxpofing a metal to the a£lion of a long cnn-
ww-y—tinned heat, it loft its metallic luflre, and was converted
into an earthy-like fubllance called calx jnetalhcus, or
oxide; and fecondly, becaufe by mixing this oxide with
any inflammable fubftance whatever, and fubjefting the
mixture to certain operations, the inflammable matter
difappeared, and the metal was reftored to its former
Hate and luftre, without fuffering much diminution in
quantity, efpecially if the procefles had been conduced
with care and attention.
This fa£l relative to the metals was thought to be a
full demonftration of itfelf, independent of other proofs
which were brought to fupport the doftrine. Thefe
were, that a combuftible body, by the a<ft of inflamma-
'tion (i. e. by the diflipation of its phlogifton in the form
of heat and light), was converted into a body that ivas
no longer combuflible, but which might have its proper¬
ty of combuflibility reftored to it again by mixing the
incombuftible remains with any kind of inflammable
matter, and fubmitting the mixture to certain proceffes.
In this way the body Avas reftored to its former ftate of
inflammability.
They Avere alfo at fome pains to prove that the
gifton or the principle of inflammability was the fame in
all inflammable bodies and in the metals. This identity
of phlogifton they thought to be evident from the fa£t,
that the calx of a metal might be reftored to its metallic
ftate, or that the remains after the combuftion of a
combuftible body might be reftored to its original
ftate of combuftibility by the addition of any inflamma¬
ble body whatever, taken either from the animal, \rege-
table, or mineral kingdoms.
Thefe and feveral other fabts Avere brought to prove,
not only the exirtence of phlogifton, but its effebts in
mixture with other fubftances *, and the objeblions Avhich
Avere made againft the doblrine were removed Avith won¬
derful ingenuity. The chief objection againft it was,
that if the inflammation of a combuftible body, or the
converfion of a metal into calx, depends on the diflipa¬
tion or extrication of phlogifton 5 then it muft folloAv,
that the remains of a combuftible body after inflamma¬
tion, and the calx of the metal, muft be lefs than the
matter from Avhich they were produced : but this is
contrary to fabt *, for Avhen Ave collebk with care all the
vapour into Avhich the pureft inflammable bodies are
converted by combuftion, thefe incombuftible remains
are much heavier than the inflammable body Avas from
which they were produced, and the calx into Avhich a
metal is converted by long expofure to the ablion of
heat is heavier than the metal from which it Avas pro¬
duced. This conftderation made feveral people doubt
of the truth of the dobtrine; but the objeblion was re¬
moved by faying, that phlogifton was fo fubtle, as not
only to have no Aveight, but to poflefs an abfolute levi¬
ty; and that when it Avas taken from ah abfolutely heavy
body, that body muft;, by7 lofing fo much abfolute levity,
become heavier, in the fame manner as the algebraifts
fay, that a pofitwe quantity is augmented by the fub-
ftradlion of a negative quantity. This fophifm fatisfied
the minds of moft of the chemifts, efpecially thofe who
were algebraifts.
The opinion that phlogifton was heat and light fome-
hoAv combined Avith other matter, Avas proved, not only
by the faff, that heat and light were emitted from a
combuftible body during its combuftion, but from the
sreduftion of certain metallic calces to the original me¬
tallic ftate again, at ieaft in fome degree, by Ample ex¬
pofure to heat and light. The Avhite calx of fih'er, for
inftance, Avhen expofed in clofe fealed glafs veffels to
the light and heat of the fun, refumes a black tinge,
and is in part reftored to its metallic, luftre Avithout
any addition Avhatever ; but then this reftoration, like
the others above mentioned, is attended Avith a lofs of
weight.
Befides conftituting the principal part of inflamma¬
ble bodies and metals, phlogifton was thought to be tire
caufe of colour in all vegetable and animal fubftances.
This Avas concluded from the faff of plants groAving
Avhite Avhen defended from the adtion of the fun’s rays,
and in having their green colour reftored by expofure
to his rays again ; and fo far did the ehemifts fuffer
themfclves to be deceived, that they aflually thought
the green colouring matter, AvhichThey extraffed from
frefh plants by certain chemical proceflfes, to be an in¬
flammable fubftance. A very material objtftion was
made to this argument, viz. if plants oAve their colour
to phlogifton imparted by the fun’s rays, Avhy do the
fun’s rays deftroy vegetable colours that are expofed to
them ? for Ave knoAV that the fun’s rays are very effec¬
tual in diminiftiing the luftre of cloth dyed with ve¬
getable colours, and in bleaching or taking out various
ftains from linen and other fubftances. All this Avas
removed by faying, that the fun’s rays poffeffed different
powers on living and on dead vegetable matter, and
that the living vegetables had the poAver of abforbing
phlogifton from the fun’s rays, Avhich dead vegetable
matter had not.
Since the exiftence of phlogifton, as a chemical prin¬
ciple in the compofition of certain bodies, is noAV fully
proved to be falfe, Ave ftiall not trouble our readers Avith
any farther obfervations on it, except adding, that al¬
though the chemifts AArere fatisfied Avith the proofs they
gave of its reality, they were never able to exhibit it in
a feparate ftate, or ftioAv it in a pure form, unmixed Avith
other matter.
Phlogifton feems to have been admitted as a princi¬
ple in the compofition of certain bodies, and to have
been fuppofed the caufe of certain modifications of mat¬
ter, merely with a vieAV to explain fome of thofe natural
phenomena Avhich the authors of it Avere unable to ex¬
plain on other principles. Subfequent difeoveries in na¬
tural philofophy and in ehemiftry have reprefented things
in a very different light from that in w hich the old che¬
mifts viewed them. The old chemifts kneAV nothing
but cheraiftry; tliey feldom extended their views to the
©bfervation of objedfts beyond their laboratories, and
it Avas not till philofophers became chemifts, and che¬
mifts philofophers, that chemiftry began to Avear the
garb of fcience. The epoch in Avhich this change be¬
gan Avas in the time of Lord Verulam, Avho firft remov¬
ed the dimnefs from the chemift’s eyes, and to him fuc-
ceeded the honourable Mr Boyle. Sir Ifaac NeAVton,
with the little afliftance which his predecefiors in this
branch of fcience afforded him, is in reality the firft
Avho eftablilhed chemiftry on fcientific ground. It muft,
however, be' acknoAvledged, that although he made a
great progrefs, he left much undone ; and fubfequent
chemifts, who Avere lefs accurate obfervers of nature, ad¬
mitted principles umvarrantably. From the time of Sir
Ifaac Newton till the middle of the 18th century, no
real improvement Avas made in fcientific chemiftry ; and
the progress this fcience has made flnee that period is
cAving
P H O [ 401 ] P H O
ogifton owing to the important difcovery of the exigence of
il heat in a ftate of compofition with other matter. Heat
I(]1US combined lofeS" its aftivity or becomes infenfible,
H juft in the fame way as any other aftive fubftance lofes
its apparent qualities in compohtion. Acids, for ex¬
ample, when combined in a certain proportion with fub-
ftances for which they have ftrong attraftion, as alkalies
or abforbent earths, lofe all their obvious acid qualities,
and the compound turns out mild, and totally conceals
the acid which it contains. In a fimilar manner, heat,
•when combined in certain proportions with other mat¬
ter, lofes its fenfible qualities, and the compound con¬
ceals the heat wrhich it contains. Heat, in this com¬
bined date, was called by its ingenious difeoverer, Dr
Black, latent heat, and it was found to be very abundant
in the atmofphere, which owes its exiftence as an elaftic
fluid to the quantity of latent heat that it contains. Af¬
ter this difeovery was made, Dr Crawford, confidering
that air was abforbed by a burning body, concluded
that the heat which appears in the combuflion of a com-
buftible body, is the heat that had before exifted in the
air which was confumed by the burning body. M.
Lavoilier and others, profecuting this inquiry, found
that the combuftible body, while it is burning, unites
with the bafis of the air, and that the heat which the
air contained, and which was the caufe of the air exift-
ing in the date of air, is expelled. This abforption of
the balls of the air by the burning body, and the reduc¬
tion of this bafis to a folid form, accounts for the in-
creafe of weight which a body acquires by burning 5 or,
in other words, gives a reafon why the matter into
which a combultible body is converted by combultion,
is heavier than the body from which it was produced.
The fame abforption of air is obfervable, when a metal
is converted into a calx, and the additional weight of the
calx is found to be precifely equal to the weight of the
air abforbed during the calcination. On thefe prin¬
ciples, therefore, we now explain the phenomena in a
much more fatisfa&ory manner than by the fuppofition
of phlogifton, or a principle of inflammability. See
Chemistry.
PHLOMIS, the Sage-tree, or Jerufalem Sage ; a
genus of plants belonging to the didynamia clafs. See
Botany Index.
PHLOX, Lychnidea, or Bajlard Lychnis ; a genus
of plants belonging to the pentandria clafs. See Bo¬
tany Index.
PHLYCTEN7E, in Medicine, fmall eruptions on
the Ikin.
PHOC A, a genus of quadrupeds of the order of ferae.
See Mammalia Index.
PHOC/EA, the laft town of Ionia, (Mela, Pliny) j
of iEolis, (Ptolemy), becaufe fituated on the right or
north fide of the river Hermus, which he makes the
boundary of uEolis to the fouth. It flood far in the
land, on a bay or arm of the fea ; had two very fafe har¬
bours, the one called Lampler, the other Naujlathmos,
(Livy). It was a colony of lonians, fituated in the ter¬
ritory of /Eolis, (Plerodotus). Maflilia in Gaul was
again a colony from it. Phocceeufes, the people, (Livy) ;
Phocaicus, the epithet, (Lucan) ; applied to Marfeilles.
It was one of the 12 cities which affembled in the pan-
ntitnt ionium or general council of Ionia.
nk.Hiji. Some writers tell us, that while the foundations of
1' v** 4his city were layiner, there appeared near the fhore a
Vol. XVI. Part II.
great flioal of fea-calves *, whence it was called Phoc&a, t Ptiocga.
the wortd phoca fignifying in Greek a fea-calf. Ptole-
my, who makes the river Hermus the boundary be¬
tween ALolia and Ionia, places Phoctea in iEolis ; but
all other geographers reckon it among the cities of Io¬
nia. It flood on the fea-coaft, between Cuma to the
north, and Smyrna to the fouth, not far from the Her¬
mus 5 and was, in former times, one of the moft wealthy
and powerful cities of all Afia j but is now a poor beg¬
garly village, though the fee of a biftiop. I he Phocae-
ans were expert mariners, and the firft among the Greeks
that undertook long voyages j which they performed in
galleys of fifty oars. As they applied themfelves to
trade and navigation, they became acquainted pretty
early with the coafts and iflands of Europe, where they
are faid to have founded feveral cities, namely, Velia in
Italy ; Alalia, or rather Aleria, in Corfica ; and Mar¬
feilles in Gaul. Neither were they unacquainted with
Spain j for Herodotus tells us, that in the time of Cyrus
the Great, the Phocseans arriving at Sarteffus, a city in
the bay of Cadiz, were treated with extraordinary kind-
nefs by Arganthonius king of that country ; who, hear¬
ing that they were under no fmall apprehenfion of the
growing power of Cyrus, invited them to leave Ionia,
and fettle in what part of his kingdom they pleafed.
The Phocasans could not be prevailed upon to for-
fake their country ; but accepted a large fum of money,
which that prince generoufly prefented them with, to de¬
fray the expence of building a ftrong wall round their m
city. The Avail they built on their return ; but it was
unable to refift the mighty power of Cyrus, whofe ge¬
neral Harpagus, invefting the city with a numerous ar¬
my, foon reduced it to the utmoft extremities. The
Phocaeans, having no hopes of any fuccour, offered to
capitulate j but the conditions offered by Harpagus
feeming'fevere, they begged he would alloAV them three
days to deliberate j and in the mean time, withdraw his
forces. Harpagus, though not ignorant of their defign,
complied with their requeft. The Phocaeans, taking
advantage of this condefcenfion, put their wives, chil¬
dren, and all their moft valuable effe&s, on board feve¬
ral veffels which they had ready equipped, and convey¬
ed them fafe to the ifland of Chios, leaving the Perfians
in poffeflion of empty houfes. Their defign was to pur-
chafe the Oeneflian iflands, which belonged to the,
Chians, and fettle there. But the Chians not caring to
have them fo near, left they Ihould engrofs all the trade
to themfelves, as they Avere a feafaring people, they put
to fea again ; and, having taken Phoccea, their native
country, by furprife, put all the Perfians they found in
it to the fAvord. They Avent to Corfica j great part of
them hoAvever returned very foon, as did the reft alfo
in a ferv years. They then lived in fubjeftion either to
the Perfians, or tyrants of their oAvn. Among the lat¬
ter Ave find mention made of Laodamus, who attended
Darius Hyftafpis in his expedition againft the Scythians;
and of Dionyfius, who, joining Ariftagoras, tyrant of
Miletus, and chief author of the Ionian rebellion, re¬
tired, after the defeat of his countrymen, to Phoenicia,
Avhere he made an immenfe booty, feizing on all the
{hips he met Avith trading to that country. From Phoe¬
nicia he failed to Sicily, Avhere he committed great de¬
predations on the Carthaginians and lufeans ; but is
laid never to ha\’e molefted the Greeks.
In the Roman times the city of Phocsea fided Avith
3 E Antiochus
PRO [ 402 ] PRO
Phocxa, Antiochus the Great j whereupon it was befieged, ta-
Phocae. ]jenj ancj plundered by the Roman general 5 but allow-
 v ed to be governed by its own laws. In the war which
Ariftonicus brother to Attains, king of Pergamus, rail¬
ed againft the Romans, they aflifled the former to the
utmoft of their power 5 a circumltance which fo difpleaf-
ed the fenate, that they commanded the town to be de-
molithed, and the whole race of the Phoceeans to be ut¬
terly rooted out. This fevere fentence wrould have been
put in execution, had not the Maflilienfes, a Phocaean
colony, interpofed, and, with much difficulty, affuaged
the anger of the fenate. Pompey declared Phocaea a
free city, and reftored the inhabitants to all the privile¬
ges they had ever enjoyed 5 whence, under the firft em¬
perors, it was reckoned one of the moll flouriffiing cities
of all Aha Minor. This is all we have been able to
collefl from the ancients touching the particular hiftory
of Phoccea.
PHOCAS, a Roman centurion, was raifed to the
dignity pf emperor by the army, and was crowned at
Conftantinople about the year 603. The emperor
Mauritius, who w7as thus deferted both by the army
and the people, fled to Chalcedon with his five children,
whom Phocas caufed to be inhumanly murdered before
•4 his eyes, and then he murdered Mauritius himfelf, his
brother, and feveral other perfons who were attached
to that family.
Ancient Phocas, thus proclaimed and acknowledged at Con-
Umv. Hijl. ftantinople, fent, according to cuflom, his own image
’*ol. xv. an(j tjjat q£ hig wjfe Lecmria to Rome, where they were
received with, loud acclamations, the people there being
incenfed againft Mauritius on account of the cruel ejc-
adlions of the exarchs, and his other minifters in Italy.
Gregory, furnamed the Great, then biffiop of Rome,
caufed the images to be lodged in the oratory of the
martyr .Caefarius, and wrote letters to the new emperor,
congratulating him upon his advancement to the throne,
which he faid was effedled by a particular providence,
to deliver the people from the innumerable calamities
and heavy oppreffions under which they had long groan¬
ed. Had we no other character of Phocas and Leontia
but that which has been conveyed to us in Gregory’s
letters, we ffiould rank him amongft the beft princes
mentioned i* hiftory *, but all other writers paint him
in quite different colours; and his aftions, tranfmitted
to us by feveral hiftorians, evidently fpeak him a moft
cruel and blood-thirfty tyrant. He Avas of middling
ftature, fays Cedrenus, deformed, and of a terrible af-
peft : his hair wAs red, his eye-brows met, and one of
his cheeks was marked with a fear, which, when he
was in a paffion, grew black and frightful: he was
greatly addi&ed to wine and women, blood-thirfty,
inexorable, bold in fpeech, a ftranger to compaffion,
in his principles a heretic. He endeavoured, in the
beginning of his reign, to gain the afitftions of the
people by celebrating the Circenfian games with extra¬
ordinary pomp, and diftributing on that occafion large
fums among the people ; but finding that inftead of
' applauding they reviled him as a drunkard, he order¬
ed his guards to fall upon them. Some were killed,
many wmunded, and great numbers were dragged to
prifon : but the populace rifing, fet them at liberty, and
thenceforth conceived an irreconcileable averfion to the
tyrant.
As foon as the death of Mauritius was known,
3.
Narfes, who then commanded the troops quartered on PRoca
the frontiers of Perfia, revolted. Phocas, however, ma- II
naged matters fo as to gain him over to his intereft, and Phoc‘cn*
then treacheroufly and cruelly burnt him alive. He
endeavoured to ftrengthen his caufe by refpe&able
alliances *, but his cruelty was fuch as to render him
generally hated, for he fpared neither fex nor age, and
amongft others he murdered Conftantina the widow of
Mauritius, and her daughters. Thefe cruelties were
at length the caufe of his downfall. He became uni-
verfally hateful 5 and perfons in great authority near his
perfon confpired againft him. This confpiracy, how¬
ever, was difeovered, and the perfons concerned in it
were all put to death. The following year, however.
610, he was overtaken by the fate he had fo long de-
ferved.
Heraclius, the fon of the governor of Africa, who^
bore the fame name, taking upon him the title of em¬
peror, and l^eing acknowledged as fuch by the people of
Africa, failed from thence with a formidable fleet, and
a powerful army on board, for Conftantinople, while
Nicetas marched thither by way of Alexandria and the
Pentapolis. Heraclius fleered his courfe to Abydus,
where he was received with great demonftrations of joy
by feveral perfons of rank, who had been banifhed by
Phocas. From Abydus he failed to Conftantinople,
where he engaged and utterly defeated the tyrant’s
fleet. Phocas took refuge in the palace j but one
Photinus, whofe wife he had formerly debauched, pur-
fuing him with a party of foldiers, forced the gates,
dragged the cowardly emperor from the throne, and
having ftripped him of the imperial robes, and clothed
him with a black veft, carried him in chains to Hera¬
clius, who commanded firft his hands and feet, then his
arms, and at laft his head, to be cut off: the remaining
part of his body was delivered up to the foldiers, who
burnt it in the forum. We are told, that Heraclius
having reproached him with his evil adminiftration, he
anfwered, with great calmnefs, “ It is incumbent upon
you to govern better.” Such was the end of this cruel
tyrant, after he had reigned feven years and fome
months.
PHOC1LIDES, a Greek poet and'philofopher of
Miletus, flourifhed about 540 years before the Chriftian
era. The poetical piece now7 extant, attributed to him,
is not of his compofition, but of another poet who lived
in the reign of Adrian.
PHOCION was a diftinguifhed Athenian general
and orator in the time of Philip II. of Macedon, His
character is thus deferibed in (the Ancient Univerfal
Hiftory. “ He was too model! to folicit command, nor jndent ^
did he promote wars that he might raife his authority by Univ-Hfi
them y though, taken either as a foldier, orator, ftates-vo*,v’
man, or general, he was by far the moft eminent Athe¬
nian of his time. As he was a moft difinterefted patri¬
ot, he could entertain no great affeftion for Philip: but
as he perfedly well knew the difpofition of his country¬
men, and how unlikely they were long to fupport fuch
meafures as were neceffary to humble the Macedonian
power, he did not exprefs himfelf vehemently, but chofe
rather to cultivate the efteem which on all occafionfi
Philip ftiowed for the ftate of Athens, as a mean or
preferving her, when ffie ffiould be reduced to that fitu-
ation which he conceived they wanted virtue to prevent.
From this chara&er the reader will eafily difeern that
Demofthenc?
P H O [40
Demofthenes and he could not well agree. The former
was always warm, his language copious, and his defigns
extenfive 5 and Phocion, on the other hand, was of a
mild temper, delivered his opinion in Very few words,
and propofed fchemes at once neceffary and eafy to be
effected. Yet he feldom or never concurred with the
people, but fpoke as poignantly againft their vices as
Demofthenes himfelf*, infumuch, that this orator once
told him, ‘ The Athenians, Phocion, in fome of their
mad fits, will murder thee.’ ‘ The fame (anfwered he)
may fall to thee, Demofthenes, if ever they come to be
fober.’
He was afterwards appointed to command the army
'which was fent to aflift the Byzantines againft Philip,
whom he obliged to return to his own dominions.
This truly great man, whom (though extremely poor)
no fum could bribe to betray his country, and who at
every rilk on all occafions gave them found advice, was
at length accufed by his ungrateful countrymen. This
event happened in the year before Chrift 318. He
was fent to Athens by Polyperchon head of-a fa&ion in
Macedonia, together with his friends, chained in carts,
with this meflage, “ That though he was convinced
they were traitors, yet he left them to be judged by the
Athenians as a free people.” Phocion demanded whe¬
ther they intended to proceed againft him by forin of
law ; and fome crying out that they would, Phocion
demanded how that could be if they were not allowed
a fair hearing : but perceiving, by the clamour of the
people, that no fuch thing was to be expe&ed, he ex¬
claimed, “ As for myfclf, I confefs the crime objeaed
to me, and fiibmit to the judgment of the law ; btit
confider, O ye Athenians, what have thefe poor inno¬
cent men done that they fliould be involved in the fame
calamity with me ?” The people replied with great
vociferation, “ They are your accomplices, and that is
enough.” Then the decree was read, adjudging them
all to death, viz. Phocion, Nicocles, Aheudippus, Aga-
mon, and Pythocles 5 thefe were prefent: Demetrius
Phalereus, Callimedon, Charicles, and others, were con¬
demned in their abfence. Some moved that Phocion
might be tortured before he was put to death ; nay,
they were for bringing the rack into the aflembiy, and
torturing him there. The majority, however* thought
it enough if he was put to death, for which the decxee
was carried unanimoufly } fome putting on garlands of
flowers when they gave their votes. As he was going
to execution, a perfon who was his intimate friend afked
him if he had any mtffage for his fon ? “ ^ es,” re¬
plied Phocion } “ tell him it is my laft command that
he forget how ill the Athenians treated his father.
The fpleen of his enemies was not eXtinguifhed with
his life : they pafied a decree whereby his corpfe was
banifhed the Athenian territories ; they likewife forbade
any Athenians to furnifh fire for his funeral pile. One
Conopian took up the corpfe, and carried it beyond
Eleufina, where he borrowed fome fire of a Meganan
woman and burned it. A Megarian matron, who at¬
tended with her maid, raifed on the place an honorary
monument } and having gathered up the bonefe, carried
them home, and buried them under her own hearth ;
praying at the fame time thus to the Penates : “ To
you, O ye gods, guardians of this place, I commit the
precious remains of the moft excellent Phocion. Pro-
teft them, I befeech you, from all infults j and deliver
3 ] P II o
them one day to be repofited in the fepufehre of his an- Pliouan,
ceftors, when the Athenians (hall "become wifer.” It. * .
was'not long before^this opportunity occurred. When
the Athenians began to cool a little, and remember the
many fervices they had received from Phocion, they de¬
creed him a ftatue of brafs ; ordered his bones to be
brought back at the public expence j and decreed that
his accufers ftiould be put to death. Agnonides, w ho
was principally concerned in that tragedy, fuffered ; but
Epicurus and Demophilus, who were alfo accomplices
in it, tied. However, Phocion’s fon met with them,*'
and executed his revenge upon them , which wasalmoft
the only good aflion he ever performed, as he had a
very fmall lhare of his father’s abilities, and not any of
his virtues. Such is the ficklenefs and fuch the injuftice
of popular governments 5 failings which, if We are to
judge from univerlal experience, are abfolutely infepa-
rable from them.
PHOCIS, (Demofthenes, Strabo, Paufanias) j a
country of Greece, contained between Bceotia to the
eaft and Locris to the weft, but extending formerly
from the Sinus Corinthiacus on the fouth to the fea of
Euboea on the north, and, according to Dionyfius, as
far as Thermopylae •, but reduced afterwards to narrower
bounds. Phocenfts, the people 5 P/iocicus, the epithet,
(Juftin) ) Helium Phocicuvi, the facred war which the
Thebans and Philip of Macedon carrieckon againft
them for plundering the temple at Delphi} and by
which Philip paved the way to the fovereignty of all
Greece, (Juftin). Its greateft length was from north
to fouth, that is, from 38° 45' to 390 20', or about 35
miles ; but very narrow from eaft to weft, not extending
to 30 miles, that is, from*23° io' to 230 40' at the wi-
deft, but about 23 miles towards the Corinthian bay, Anc{ent
and much narrower ftill towards the north. 1 his coun- Uhiv. ffifta
try is generally allowed to have taken its name fromvoLv.
Phocus the fon of Ornytion, a native of Corinth j but
having been foon after invaded by the Eginetae, under
the conduft of another Phocus, who was the fon of Ea-
ctis king of Enopia, the memory of the firft inlenfibly
gave Way to that of the fecond. >
In Phocis there were many celebrated mountains,
fuch as Cythaeron, PIelicon, and Parnassus. I he
laft two we have already noticed in the order of the al¬
phabet. Cythseron was confecrated to the mufes as
well as the other two, and was cor.fefjuently much cele¬
brated by the poets. Both it and Helicon contend with
Mount Parnaffus for'height arid magnitude. There were
no remarkable rivers in Phocis except Cephifus, which
runs from the foot of Parnaffus northward, and empties
itfelf in the Pindus, which was near the boundary of
that kingdom. It had feveral very confiderable cities >
fuch as Cyrra, Criffa, and Antecyra, which, accord¬
ing to Ptolemy, were on the fea coafts 5 and Pythia,
Delphi, Daulis, Elatia, Ergofthenia, and Baulia,. which
were inland towns. Elatia wras the largeft and richeft
after Delphi. .
Deucalion was king of that part of Phocis which lies
about Parnaffu’s, at the time that Cecrops flourifhed
in Attica 5 but the Pbocians afterwards, formed them-
felves into a commomvealth, to be governed by their
general affemblies, the members of which were chofen
from among themfelves, and were changed as often
occafion required. Of the hiftory of the Phocians but
little is known till the time of the holy war, of which
2 E S We
P H O [ 404 ] P H O
Phocis we have the following account in the Ancient Univer-
II.. fal Hiftory.
. 1(X“lC‘a', “ Xhe Phocians having prefumed to plough the ter¬
ritories of the city of Cyrra, confecrated to the Delphic
god, were fummoned by the other Grecian dates before
the court of the Amphictyons, where a confiderable fine
was impofed upon them for their facrilege. They re-
fufed to pay it, on pretence that it was too large •, and
at the next affembly their dominions were adjudged con-
fifcated to the ufe of the temple. This fecond fentence
exafperated the Phocians dill more j who, at the indi-
gation of one Philotnelus, or, as he is called by Plu¬
tarch, Philomedes, feized upon the temple, plundered it
of its treafure, and held the facred depofitum for a eon-
fiderable time. This fecond crime occafioned another
aflembly of the Amphiftyons, the refult of which was
a formal declaration of war againd the Phocians. The
quarrel being become more general, the feveral dates
took part in it according to their inclinations or intered.
Athens, Sparta, and fome others of the Peloponnefians,
declared for the Phocians ; and the Thebans, Thefiali-
ans, Locrians, and other neighbouring dates, againd
them. A war was commenced with great fury on both
fides, and dyled the holy war, which laded ten years 5
during which the Phocians, having hired a number of
foreign troops, made an obdinate defence, and would in
all probability have held out much longer had not Phi¬
lip of Macedon given the finilhing droke to their total
defeat and punithment. The war being ended, the
grand council affembled again, and impofed an annual
fine of 60 talents upon the Phocians, to be paid to the
temple, and continued till they had fully repaired the
damage it had fudained from them •, and, till this repa¬
ration diould be made, they were excluded from dwell¬
ing in walled towns, and from having any vote in the
grand alfembly. They did not, however, continue long
under this heavy fentence : their known bravery made
their adidance fo necedary to the red, that they were
glad to remit it; after which remiflaon they continued
to behave with their ufual courage and refolution, and
foon obliterated their former guilt.”
We cannot finith this article without mentioning
more particularly Daulis, rendered famous, not fo much
for its extent or richnefs, as for the dature and prowefs
of its inhabitants ; but dill more for the inhuman repad
which was ferved up to Tereus king of Thrace by the
women of this city, by whom he was foon after murder¬
ed for the double injury he had done to his fider-in-law
Philomela, daughter of Pandion king of Athens. See
Philomela.
PHOEBUS, one of the names given by ancient my-
thologid? to the Sun, Sol, or Apollo. See Apollo.
PHOENICIA, or more properly Phoenice, the an¬
cient name of a country lying between the 34th and
36th degrees of north latitude ; bounded by Syria on Phoenicia,
the north and ead, by Judaea on the fouth, and by the "“v—^
Mediterranean on the wed. Whence it borrowed its
name is not abfolutely certain. Some derive it from Ancient
one Phoenix j others from the Greek word phoenix, fig- Univ. Hifl,
nifying a pa/m or date, as that tree remarkably abound-'01, “•
ed in this country. Some again fuppofe that Phcenice
is originally a tranflation of the Hebrew word Edom,
from the Edomites who ded thither in the days of Da¬
vid. By the contraftion of Canaan it was alfo called
China, and anciently Rhabbothin and Colpitis (a). The
Jews commonly named it Canaan; though fome part of
it, at lead, they knew by the name of Syrophcenice (b).
Bochart tells us that the mod probable etymology is
Phene Anab, i. e. “ the defcendants of Anak.” Such
were the names peculiar to this fmall country j though
Phcenice was fometimes extended to all the maritime y
countries of Syria and Judea, and Canaan to the Phili-
dines, and even to the Amalekites. On the contrary,
thefe two names, and the red, were mod generally fvval-
lowed up by thofe of Paledine and Syria (c).
There is fome difagreement among authors with re-
fpe£t to the northern limits of this country. Ptolemy
makes the river Eleutherus the boundary of Phcenice
to the north ; but Pliny, Mela, and Stephanus, place it
in the idand of Aradus, lying north of that river.
Strabo obferves, that fome will have the river Eleuthe¬
rus to be the boundary of Seleucis, on the fide of Phoe¬
nice and Ccelefyria. On the coad of Phoenice, and
fouth of the river Eleutherus, dood the following cities:
Simyra, Orthofia, Tripolis, Botrys, Byblus, Palaeby-
blus, Berytus, Sidon, Sarepta, Tyrus, Palaetyrus.
Phoenice extended, according to Ptolemy, even be¬
yond Mount Carmel ; for that geographer places in
Phoenice not only Ecdippa and Ptolemais, but Sycami-
num and Daera, which dand fouth of that mountain.
Thefe, however, properly fpeaking, belonged to Pale¬
dine. We will not take upon us to mark out the
bounds op the midland Phoenice. Ptolemy reckons in
it the following towms ; Area, Palasbyblus (Old Byb¬
lus), Gabala, and Csefaria Paniae. This province was
confiderably extended in the times of Chridianity j
when, being confidered as a province of Syria, it inclu¬
ded not only Damafcus but Palmyra alfo.
The foil of this country is good, and productive of
many neceffaries for food and clothing. The air is
wholefome, and the climate agreeable. It is plentifully
watered by fmall rivers ; which, running down from
Mount Libanus, fometimes fwell to an immoderate de¬
gree, either increafed by the melting of the fnows on
that mountain, or by heavy rains. Upon thefe occa-
fions they overdow, to the great danger and hinderance
of the traveller and damage of the country. Among
thefe rivers is that of Adonis.
It
(a) This lad name is a tranflation of the fird. Rabhotfen is in Hebrew a great gulf or bay. From rabhotfen,
by changing the Hebrew //"into the Greek t, comes rabboten ; and, with a little variation, rhabbothin.
colpos, is Greek alfo for a bay or gulf; whence it appears that colpitis or colpites is a tranllation of rabbothin.
(b) Bochart fuppofes that the borderers, both upon the Phoenician and Syrian fide, were called by the common
name of Syrophoenicians, as partaking equally of both nations.
(c) Or rather Phoenice, Paledine, and Syria, wrere promifeuoufly ufed for each other, and particularly the two
former. Phoenice and Paledine, fays Stephanus Byzantinus, were the fame. As for Syria, we have already ob-
ferved, that in its larged extent it fometimes comprehended Phoenice andrCoelefyria. Herodotus plainly confounds
thefe three names; we mean, ufes one for the other indifferently.
PRO
I ;nicia. It is univerfally allowed that the Phoenicians were
*■ v'—Canaanites (d) by defcent : nothing is plainer or lefs
contefted, and therefore it were time loft to prove it.
We lhall only add, that their blood muft have been
mixed with that of foreigners in procefs of time, as it
happens in all trading places ; and that many ftrange
families muft have fettled among them, who could
eor.fequently lay no claim to this remote origin, how
much foever they may have been called Phoenicians,
and reckoned of the fame defeent with the ancient
proprietors.
The Phoenicians were governed by kings; and their
territory, as fmall a flip as it was, included feveral king¬
doms •, namely, thofe of Sidon, Tyre, Aradus, Berytus,
and Byblus. In this particular they imitated and ad¬
hered to the primitive government of their forefathers 5
who, like the other Canaanites, were under many petty
princes, to whom they allowed the fovereign dignity,
referving to themfelves the natural rights and liberties
of mankind. Of their civil laws we have no particu¬
lar fyftem.
With regard to religion, the Phoenicians were the
moft grofs and abominable idolaters. The Baal-berith,
Baalzebub, Baalfamen, &c. mentioned in Scripture,
were fome of the Phoenician gods j as were alfo the
Moloch, Afhtaroth, and Thammuz, mentioned in the
facred writings.—The word Baa/, in itfelf an appella¬
tive, was no doubt applied to the true God, until he
rejected it on account of its being fo much profaned by
the idolaters. The name was not appropriated to any
particular deity among the idolatrous nations, but was
common to many •, however, it was generally imagined
that one great God prefided over all the reft. Among
the Phoenicians this deity was named Baal-famen; whom
the Hebrews would have called Baal-Jhemim, or the
God of heaven. In all probability this was alfo the
principal Carthaginian deity, though his Punic name is
unknown. We have many religious rites of the Car¬
thaginians handed down to us by the Greek and Roman
writers •, but they all beftowed names of their own gods
upon thofe of the Carthaginians, which leads us to a
knowledge of the correfpondence between the charafters
of the Phoenician and European deities. The principal
deity of Carthage, according to Diodorus Siculus, was
Chronus or Saturn. The facrifices offered up to him
were children of the beft families. Our author alfo tells
us, that the Carthaginians had a brazen ftatue or colof-
fus of this god, the hands of which were extended in
aft to receive, and bent downwards in fuch a manner,
that the child laid thereon immediately fell down into
a hollow where there was a fiery furnace. He adds
alfo, that this inhuman praftice feemed to confirm a
tradition, handed down to the Greeks from very ear¬
ly antiquity, viz. that Saturn devoured his own chil¬
dren.
The goddefs Coeleftis, or Urania, was held in the
P H O
higheft veneration by the Carthaginians. She is Phoenicia,
thought to have been the fame with the queen of hea- v
ven mentioned in Jeremiah, the Juno Olympia of the
Greeks. According to Hel’ychius, the fame word ap¬
plied in the Punic language both to Juno and Venus :
Nay, the ancient Greeks frequently confound Juno,
Venus, and Diana or the moon, all together, which is
to be attributed to the Egyptians and Phoenicians, from
whom they received their fyftem of religion ; who feem
in the molt ancient times to have had but one name for
them all. Befides thefe there were feveral other deities
of later date, who were w or (hipped among the Phoeni¬
cians, particularly thofe of Tyre, and confequently
among the Carthaginians alfo. Thefe were Jupiter,
Apollo, Mars, and Bacchus. Jupiter was worfhipped
under the name of Be/us or Baa/. To him they addref-
fed their oaths j and placed him for the moft part, as
there is reafon to believe, at the head of their treaties.
The fame name was alfo given to the other two, whence
they were frequently miftaken for one another. Apollo
or the fun, went either by this name Amply, or by others
of which this made a part.
The Carthaginian fuperftition, however, was not con¬
fined to thefe deities alone. They worlhipped alfo the
fire, air, and other elements j and had gods of rivers,
meads, &c. Nay, they paid divine honours to the fpi-
rits of their heroes, and even to men and women them¬
felves Avhile yet in life ; and in this adoration Hannibal
the Great had for fome time a {hare, notwithftanding
the infamous conduft of his countrymen towards him
at laft. In order to worfhip thofe gods with more con-
veniency on all occafions, the Carthaginians had a kind
of portable temples. Thefe were only covered chariots*
in which were fome fmall images reprefenting their fa¬
vourite deities ; and which were drawn by oxen. They
were alfo a kind of oracle 5 and their refponfes were un-
derftood by the motion impreffed upon the vehicle.
This was likewife an Egyptian or Libyan cuftom ; and
Tacitus informs us that the ancient Germans had fome-
thing of tire fame kind. The tabernacle of Moloch is
thought to have been a machine of this kind $ and it is
not improbable that the whole was derived from the ta¬
bernacle of the Jews in the wildernefs.
Befides all the deities above mentioned, we (till find
another, named the D&mon or Genius of Carthage,
mentioned in the treaty made by Philip of Macedon
and Hannibal. What this deity might be, we know
not j however, it may be obferved, that the pagan world
in general believed in the exiftence of daemons, or intel¬
ligences who had a kind of middle nature between gods
and men, and to whom the adminiftration of the world
was in a great meafure committed. Hence it is no
rvonder that they (hould have received religious honours.
For when once mankind were poffeffed Avith the opinion
that they Avere the minifters of the gods, and trufted
with the difpenfation of their favours, as well as the in-
fliftion
[ 4°5 1
(d) Bochart infinuates that the Canaanites were afhamed of their name, on account of the curfe denounced on
their progenitor, and terrified by the Avars fo vigoroufly and fuccefsfully waged on them by the Ifraelites, purely be-
caufe they Avere Canaanites ; and that therefore, to avoid the ignominy of the one and the danger of the other,
they abjured their old name, and changed it for Phoenicians, Syrians, Syrophoenicians, and Affyrians. Heidegger
conjeftures alfo that they Avere aftiamed of their anceftor Canaan.
I
P H O [ 406 ] P H O
Phoenicia, fli&ion of their punifhmenta, it is natural to fuppofe that ful commodities brought from the eaft.
'they would be defirous of making their addreffes to
them. See Astarte and POLYTHEISM.
Herodotus fuppofes the Phoenicians to have been cir-
cumcifed; but Jofephus afferts, that none of the nations
included under the vague name of Paleftine and Syria
ufed that rite, the Jews excepted; fo that if the Phoe¬
nicians had anciently that cuftom, they came in time to
negleft it, and at length wholly laid it afide. They
abftained however from the Helh of fwine.
Much is faid of their arts, fciences, and manufa£lures;
but as what we find concerning them is couched in ge¬
neral terms only, we 'cannot defcant on particulars.
The Sidonians, under which denomination we compre¬
hend the Phoenicians in general, were of a moft happy
genius. They were from the beginning addi&ed to
philofophical exercifes of the mind; infomuch that a
Sidonian, by name Mofchus, taught the do&rine of
Atoms before the Trojan war: and Abomenus of 'lyre
puzzled Solomon by the fubtility of his queftions.
Phoenice continued to be one of the feats of learning,
and both Tyre and Sidon produced their philofophers
of later ages; namely, Boethus and Hiodatus of Sidon,
-Antipater of Tyre, and Apollonius of the fame, place;
who gave an account of the writings and difciples of
Zeno. For their language, fee PHILOLOGY, N°6r.
As to their manufa&ures, the glafs of Sidon, the purple
of Tyre, and the exceeding fine linen they wove, were
the produft of their own country, and their own in¬
vention: and for their extraordinary Ikill in working
metals, in hewing timber and ftone ; in a word, for
their perfeft knowledge of what was fplid, great, and
ornamental in architefture—we need only put the read¬
er in mind of the large (hare they had in erefting and
decorating the temple at Jerufalem under their king
Hiram. Their fame for tafte, defign, and ingenious
invention, was fuch, that whatever was elegant, great, __
or pleafing, whether in apparel, veffels, or toys, was
dillinguifhed by way of excellence with the epithet of
Sidonian.
The Phoenicians were likewife celebrated merchants,
navigators, and planters of colonies in foreign parts. As
merchants, they may be faid to have engroffed all the
commerce of the weftern world: as navigators, they
were the boldeft, the moft experienced, and greateft drf-
coverers, of the ancient times: they had for many ages
no rivals. In planting colonies they exerted themfelves
fo much, that confidering their habitation was little
more than the flip of ground between Mount Libanus
and the fea, it is furprifing how they could furnifh fuch
fupplies of people, and not wholly depopulate their na¬
tive country.
It is generally fuppofed that the Phoenicians were in¬
duced to deal in foreign commodities by their neigh¬
bourhood with the Syrians, who w'ere perhaps the
moft ancient of thofe who carried on a confiderable
and regular trade with the more eaftern regions: and
this conje&ure appears probable at leaft ; for their
own territory was but fmall and little able to aftord
any confiderablq exports, if we except manufa£tures:
but that their manufactures were anyways confiderable
till they began to turn all the channels of trade into the ir
own country, it is hard to believe. In Syria, which was
a large country, they found ftore of productions of the
natural growth of that foil, and many choice and ufe-
   - # . T^us» having phcejy,
a fafe coaft, with convenient harbours, on one fide, and -y
excellent materials for (hip-building on the other ; per¬
ceiving how acceptable many commodities that Syria
furniftied would be in foreign parts, and being at the
fame time, perhaps, fhown the way by the Syrians them¬
felves, who may have navigated the Mediterranean—
they turned all their thoughts to trade and navigation,
and by an uncommon application foon eclipfed their ma¬
ilers in that art.
It were in vain to talk of the Edomites, who fled hi¬
ther in David’s time ; or to inquire why Herodotusfup-
pofes the Phoenicians came from the Red lea : their ori¬
gin we have already feen. That fome of the Edomites
fled into this country in the. days of David, and that
they were a trading people, is very evident: what im¬
provements they brought with them into Phoenice, it is
hard to fay; and by the way, it is as difficult to afeer-
tain their numbers. In all probability they brought
with them a knowledge of the Red fea, and of the fouth
parts of Arabia, Egypt, and Ethiopia; and by their
information made the Phoenicians acquainted with thofe
coafts ; by which means they were enabled to under¬
take voyages to thofe parts, for Solomon, and Pharaoh
Necho, king of Egypt.
Their whole thoughts Were employed on fchemes to
advance their commerce. They affeCled no empire but
that of the fea ; and feemed to aim at nothing but the
peaceable enjoyment of their trade. 1 his they extend¬
ed to all the known parts they could reach ; to the
Britifh ifles, commonly underftood by the Caffiterides 5
to Spain, and other places in the ocean, both within
and without the ftraits of Gibraltar ; and, in gene¬
ral, to all the ports of the Mediterranean, the Black
fea, and the lake Maeotis. In all tjiefe parts they had
fettlements and correfpondents, from which they drew
what was ufeful to themfelves, or might be fo to others;
and thus they exercifed the three great branches of
trade, as it is commonly divided into importation, expor¬
tation, and tranfportation, in full latitude. Such was
their fea-trade ; and for that which they carried on by
land in Syria, Mefopotamia, Aflyria, Babylonia, Per-
fia, Arabia, and even in India, it was of no lefs extent,
and may give us an idea of what this people once was,
how rich and how defervedly their merchants are men¬
tioned in Scripture as equal to princes. Their coun¬
try was, at that time, the great warehoufe, where every
thing that might either adminifter to the neceflitics or
luxury of mankind was to be found ; which they diftri-
buted as they judged would be the beft for their own
intereft. The purple of Tyre, the glafs of Sidon, and
the exceeding fine linen made in this country, together
with other curious pieces of art in metals and wood, al¬
ready mentioned, appear to have been the chief and al-
moft only commodities of Phoenice itfelf. Indeed their
territery was fo fmall, that it is not to be imagined they
could afford to export any of their own growth ; it. is
more likely that they rather wrant<;d than abounded with
the fruits of the earth.
Having thus fpoken in general terms of their trade,
we (hall now touch upon their (hipping and fome things
remarkable in their navigation. 1 heir larger embar¬
kations Were of two forts ; they divided them into round
(hips or gauli ; and long (hips, galleys, or. triremes*
When they drew up in line of battle, the gauli were dif-
pofeft
I
P H O [ 407 ] P H O
aenicia pofed at a fmall diftance fretn each other in the wings,
U. or in the van and the rear : their triremes were con-
omx' , trailed together in the centre. If, at any time, they
’y" obferved that a ftranger kept them cotnpany in their
voyage, or followed in their track, they avere fure to get
rid of him if they could, or deceive him if poflible ; in
which policy they went fo far, as to venture the lofs of
their (hips, and even their lives; fo jealous were they of
foreigners, and fo tenacioufly bent on keeping the whole
trade to themfelves. In order to difcourage other na¬
tions from engaging in commerce, they praflifed pi¬
racy, or pretended to be at war with fuch as they met
when they thought themfelves ftrongeft. This was but
a natural ftroke of policy in people who grafped at the
whole commerce of the then known world. We mull
not forget here the famous filhery of Tyre, which fo re¬
markably enriched that city. See Astronomy, N° 7.
Ophir, and Tyre.
PHOENICOPTERUS, or Flamingo, a genus of
birds belonging to the order of grallse. See OrnitHO*-
NO GY Index.
PHOENIX, in AJlrortomy. See Astronomy Index.
Phoenix, the Great Pa/m, or Date tree, a genus of
plants belonging to the order of palmae. See Botany
Index. As the account of this valuable plant already
given in its proper place, under Botany, is rather (hort
to be fatisfa£lory, we (hall here enter a little more into
the detail of its natural hiftory. There is only one
fpecies, viz. the dadlvlifera, or common date-tree, a na¬
tive of Africa and eaftem countries, where it grows to 50,
60, and 100 feet high. The trunk is round, upright,
and (tudded with protuberances, which are the veftiges
of the decayed leaves. From the top ilfues forth a
cluiler of leaves or branches eight or nine feet long, ex¬
tending all around like an umbrella, and bending a lit¬
tle towards the earth. The bottom part produces a
number of (talks like thofe of the middle, but feldom
(hooting fo high as four or five feet. Thefe (talks, fays
Adanfon, diffufe the tree very confiderably ; fo that,
wherever it naturally grows in forefts, it is extremely
difficult to open a paflage through its prickly leaves.
The date-tree was introduced into Jamaica foon after
the conqueft of the illand by the Spaniards. There are,
however, but few of them in Jamaica at this time. The
fruit is fomewhat in the (hape of an acorn. It is com-
pofed of a thin, light, and glofiy membrane, fomewhat
pellucid and yellowHh; which contains a fine, foft, and
pulpy fruit, which Is firm, fweet, and fomewhat vinous
to the tafte, efculent, and wholefome ; and within this
is inclofed a folid, tough, and hard kernel, of a»pale gray
colour on the outfide, and finely marbled within like the
nutmeg. For medicinal ufe dates are to be chofen large,
full, frefh, yellow on the furface, foft and tender, not
too much wrinkled ; fuch as have a vinous tafte, and
do not rattle when (haken. They are produced in
many parts of Europe, but never ripen perfeflly there^
I he bed are brought from Tunis ; they are alfo very
fine and good in Egypt and in many parts of the eaft.
1 hofe of Spain and France look well ; but are never
perfectly ripe, and very fubjedt to decay. They are
preferved three different ways ; fome preffed and dry ;
others preffed more moderately, and again moiftened
tvith their own juice ; and others not preffed at all, but
moiftened with the juice of other dates, as they are
packed up, which is done in bafkets or (kins. Thofe
preferved in this laft way are much the beft. Dates
have always beenefteemed moderately ftrengthening and
aftringent.
Though the date tree grows everywhere indiferrmi-
nately on the northern coafts of Africa, it is not cul¬
tivated with care, except beyond Mount Atlas ; be-
caufe the heat is not fufiiciently powerful along the
coafts to bring the fruits to proper maturity. We (hall
here extrafl fome obfervations from Mr Des Fontaines
refpe&ing the manner of cultivating it in Barbary,
and on the different ufes to which it is applied. All
that part of the Zaara which is near Mount Atlas,
and the only part of this vaft defert which is inhabi¬
ted, produces very little corn ; the foil being fandy-,
and burnt up by the fun, is almoft entirely unfit for
the cultivation of grain, its only produiSlions of that
kind being a little barley, maize, and forgo. The
date-tree, however, fupplies the deficiency of corn to
the inhabitants of thefe countries, and furnifties them
with almoft: the whole of their fubfiftence. They have
flocks of (heep ; but as they are not numerous, they
preferve them for the fake of their wool ; befides, the
fleih of thefe animals is very unwholefome food in
countries that are exceflively warm ; and thefe people,
though ignorant, have probably been enabled by ex¬
perience to know that it was falutary for them to ab-
ftain from it. The date trees are planted without any
order, at the diftance of 12 feet one from the other,
in the neighbourhood of rivulets and dreams which
iffue from the fand. Forefts of them may be feen here
and there, fome of which are feveral leagues in cir¬
cumference. The extent of thefe plantations depends
upon the quantity of water which can be procured to
water them : for they require much moifture. All
thefe forefts are intermixed with orange, almond, and
pomegranate trees, and with vines which twill round
the trunks of the date trees ; and the heat is ftrong
enough to ripen the fruit, though they are never expofed
to the fun..
Along the rivulets and ftreams, dykes are erefled
to flop the courfe of their w'aters, in order that they
may be diftributed amongft the date trees by means of
fmall canals. The number of canals is fixed for each
individual ; and in feveral cantons, to have a right to
them, the proprietors are obliged to pay an annual fum
proportionable to the number and extent of their planta¬
tions. Care is taken to till the earth well, and to raife
a circular border around the root of each tree, that the
water may remain longer and in larger quantity. The
date trees are watered in every feafon, but more particu¬
larly during the great heats of fummer.
It is generally in winter that new plantations of this
tree are formed. For this purpofe thofe who cultivate
them take (hoots of thofe which produce the beft dates,,
and plant them at a fmall diftance one from the other.
At the end of three or four years thefe (hoots, if they
have been properly taken care of, begin to bear fruit;
but this fruit is as yet dry, without fweetnefs, and even
without kernels; they never reach the higbeft degree of
perfection of which they are fufceptible till they are
about 15 or 20 years old.
Thefe plants are however produced from the-feeds ta¬
ken out of the fruit; provided th«y are frefli. They
(hould be fown in pots filled with light rich earth, and
plunged into a moderate hotbed of tanners bark, which
(hould
Phoenix.
#
P H O
Phoenix. (Kould be kept in a moderate temperature of heat, and
t]ie garth frequently refrelhed with Water. When the
plants are come up to a proper fize, they fhould be each
planted in a feparate fmall pot, filled with the fame
light earth, and plunged into a hotbed again, obferving
to refrelh them with water, as alfo to let them have air
in proportion to the warmth of the feafon and the bed
in which they are placed. During the fummer time
they Ihould remain in the fame hotbed ; but in the be¬
ginning of Auguft, they fhould have a great fhare of
air to harden them againft the approach of winter ; for
if they are too much forced, they will be fo tender as
not to be preferved through the winter without much
difficulty, efpecially if you have not the conveniency of
a bark ftove to keep them in. The foil in which thefe
plants ftiould be placed, muft be compofed in the fol¬
lowing manner, viz. half of light frefh earth taken from
a paflure-ground, the other half fea fand and rotten
dung or tanners bark in equal proportion •, thefe fhould
be carefully mixed, and laid in a heap three or four
months at leaft before it is ufed, but fhould be often
turned over to prevent the growth of weeds, and to
fweeten the earth. \
.The trees, however, which fpring from feed never
produce fo good dates as thofe that are raifed from
fhoots } they being always poor and ill tailed. It is un¬
doubtedly by force of cultivation, and after feveral ge¬
nerations, that they acquire a good quality.
The date trees which have been originally fown, grow
rapidly, and we have been affured that they bear fruit
in the fourth or fifth year. Care is taken to cut the in¬
ferior branches of the date tree in proportion as they
rife j and a piece of the root is always left of fome inches
in length, which affords the eafy means of climbing to
the fummit. Thefe trees live a long time, according
to the account of the Arabs ; and in order to prove it,
they fay that when they have attained to their full
growth, no change is obferved in them for the fpace of
three generations.
The number of females which are cultivated is much
fuperior to that of the males, becaufe they are much
more profitable. The fexual organs of the date tree
grow, as is well known, upon different ftalks, and thefe
trees flower in the months of April and May, at which
time the Arabs cut the male branches to impregnate the
female. For this purpofe, they make an incifion in the
trunk of each branch which they with to produce fruit,
and place in it a flalk of male flowers •, without this
precaution the date tree would produce only abortive
fruit (a). In fome cantons the male branches are only
fliaken over the female. The praftice of impregnating
the date tree in this manner is very ancient. Pliny de-
P H O
fcribes it very accurately in that part of his work where PWnis.
he treats of the palm tree.
There is fcarcely any part of the date tree which is
not ufeful. The wood, though of a fpongy texture,
lafts fuch a number of years, that the inhabitants of the
country fay it is incorruptible. They employ it for mak¬
ing beams and inftruments of hufbandry j it burns flow-
ly, but the coals wly>ch refult from its combuftion are
very flrong, and produce a great heat.
The Arabs ftrip the bark and fibrous parts from the
young date trees, and eat the fubftance which is in the
centre ; it is very nourifhing, and has a fweet tafle : it
is known by the name of the marrow of the date tree.
They eat alfo the leaves, when they are young and ten¬
der, with lemon juice ; the old ones are laid out to dry,
and are employed for making mats and other works of
the fame kind, which are much ufed, and with which
they carry on a confiderable trade in the interior parts
of the country. From the fides of the flumps of the
branches which have been left arife a great number of
delicate filaments, of which they make ropes, and which
might ferve to fabricate cloth.
Of the frefh dates and fugar, fays Haffelquift, the
Egyptians make a conferve, which has a very pleafant
tafte. In Egypt they ufe the leaves as fly-flaps, for
driving away the numerous infects which prove fo
troublefome in hot countries. The hard boughs are
ufed for fences and other purpofes of hufbandry j the
principal flem for building. The fruit, before it is
ripe, is fomewdiat aftringent} but when thoroughly
mature, is of the nature of the fig. The Senegal
dates are fhorter than thofe of Egypt, but much thick¬
er in the pulp, which is faid to have a fugary agree¬
able tafte, fuperior to that of the beft dates of the Le¬
vant.
A white liquor, known by the name of mi/k, is drawn
alfo from the date tree. To obtain it, all the branches
are cut from the fummit of one of thefe trees, and after
feveral incifions have been made in it, they are covered
with leaves, in order that the heat of the fun may not
dry it.
The fap drops down into a vefiel placed to receive
it, at the bottom of a circular groove, made below the
incifions. The milk of the date tree has a fweet and
agreeable tafte when it is new ; it is very refrefhing,
and it is even given to fick people to drink, but it ge¬
nerally turns four at the end of 24 hours. Old trees
are chofen for this operation, becaufe the cutting of the
branches, and the large quantity of fap which flows
from them, greatly exhauft them, and often caufe them
to decay.
The male flowers of the date tree are alfo ufeful.
They
[ 408 ]
(a) The celebrated Linnaeus, in his Diflertation on the Sexes of Plants, fpeaking of the date tree, fays, “ A
female date-bearing palm flowered many years at Berlin without producing any feeds •, but the Berlin people taking
care to have fome of the bloflbms of the male tree, which was then flowering at Leipfic, fent to them by the poll,
they obtained fruit by thefe means; and fome dates, the offspring of this impregnation, being planted in my gar¬
den, fprung up, and to this day continue to grow vigoroufly. Koempfer formerly told us, how necelfary ft was
found by the oriental people, who live upon the produce of palm-trees, and are the true Lotophagi, to plant fome
male trees among the females, if they hoped for any fruit •, hence it is the practice of thofe who make war in that
part of the world to cut down all the male palms, that a famine may afflifl their proprietors •, fometimes even the
inhabitants themfelves deftroy the male trees when they dread an invafion, that their enemies may find no tulle-
nance in the country.”
P H O
1 enix. They are eaten when ftill tender, mixed up with a little
u y“”,J lemon juice. They are reckoned to be very provoca¬
tive : the odour which they exhale is probably the caufe
of this property being afcribed to them.
Thefe date trees are very lucrative to the inhabi¬
tants of the defert. Some of them produce 20 bunches
of dates j but care is always taken to lop off a part
of them, that thofe which remain may become larger ;
10 or 12 bunches only are left on the moft vigorous
trees.
It is reckoned that a good tree produces, one year
with another, about the value of 10 or 12 fhillings to
the proprietor, A pretty confiderable trade is carried
on with dates in the interior part of the country, and
large quantities of them are exported to France and Ita¬
ly. The crop is gathered towards the end of November.
When the bunches are taken from the tree, they are
hung up in fome very dry place where they may be
fheltered and fecure from infers.
Dates afford wholefome nourifhment, and have a very
agreeable tafte when they are frefh. The Arabs eat
them without feafoning. They dry and harden them in
the fun, to reduce them to a kind of meal, which they
lay up in ilore to fupply themfelves with food during
the long journeys which they often undertake acrofs their
deferts. This fun pie food is fufficient to nourifh them
for a long time.—The inhabitants of the Zaara procure
alfo from their dates a kind of honey which is exceed¬
ingly fweet. For this purpofe they choofe thofe which
have the fofteft pulp and having put them into a
large jar with a hole in the bottom, they fqueeze them
' by placing over them a weight of eight or ten pounds.
.—The rooft fluid part of the fubftance, which drops
through the hole, is what they call the honey of the
date.
Even the ftones, though very hard, are not thrown
away. They give them to their camels and fheep as
food, after they have bruifed them or laid them to foften
in water.
The date, as well as other trees which-are cultivated,
exhibits great variety in its fruit, with refpedl to fhape,
fize, quality, and even colour. There are reckoned to
be at lead twenty different kinds. Dates are very liable
to be pierced by worms, and they foon corrupt in mold
or rainy weather.
From what has been faid, it may eafily be perceived,
that there is, perhaps, no tree whatever ufed for fo ma¬
ny and fi) valuable purpofes as the date tree.
Phoenix, in antiquity, a famous bird, which is ge-
nerally looked upon by the moderns as fabulous. The
ancients fpeak of this bird as fingle, or the only one of
its kind ; they defcribe it as of the fize of an eagle ; its
head finely crefted with a beautiful plumage, its neck
covered with feathers of a gold colour, and the red of
its body purple, only the tail white, and the eyes fpark-
ling like dars: they hold, that it lives 500 or 600
years in the wlldernefs; that when thus advanced in
age, it builds itfelf a pile of fweet wood and aromatic
gums, and fires it with the. wafting of its wings, and
thus burns itfelf \ and that from its allies arifes a worm,
which in time grows up to be a phoenix, Hence the
Phoenicians gave the name of phoenix to the palm-tree j
becaufe w hen burnt down to the root it riles again fairer
than ever.
In the fixth book of the Annals of Tacitus, ft£f. 28,
Vol. XVI. Part II. ‘
P H O
it is obferved that, in the year of Rome the phee- Fhcenix,
nix revifited Egypty which occafioned among the learn- * >u+-ts-
ed much {peculation. This being is facred to the fun.
Of its longevity the accounts are various. The common
perluafion is, as we have mentioned above, that it lives
500 years ; though by fomeAhe date is extended to
1461. The feveral eras when the phosnix has been feeu
are fixed by tradition. The firlt, we" are told, was in
the reign of Sefodris ; the fecond is that of Amafis ;
and, in the period when Ptolemy the third of the Ma¬
cedonian race was feated on the throne of Egypt, an¬
other phoenix directed its flight towards Heliopolis.
When to thefe circumflances are added the brilliant ap¬
pearance of the phoenix, and the tale that it makes fre¬
quent excurfions with a load on its back, and that when,
by having made the experiment through a long trad! of
air, it gains fuflicient confidence in its own vigour, it
takes up the body of its father and flics with it to
the altar of the fun to be there confumed •, it cannot
but appear probable, that the learned of Egypt had
enveloped under this allegory the philofophy of co¬
mets.
Phoenix, fon of Amyntor king of Argos by Cleo-
bule or Hippodamia, was preceptor to young Achilles.
His father having proved faithlefs to his wife, through
fondnefs for a concubine called Chjtia, Cleobule, who
was jealous of him, perfuaded her Ion Phoenix to ingra¬
tiate himfelf with his father’s miftrefs. Phoenix ealily
fucceeded ; but Amyntor difeovering his intrigues, he
drew a curfe upon him, and the fon was foon after de¬
prived of his fight by divine vengeance. Some fay that
Amyntor himfelf put out his Ton’s eyes, which fo cruelly
provoked him that he meditated the death of his father.
Reafon and piety, however, prevailed over paflion ; and
that he might not become a parricide, Phcenix fled from
Argos to the court of Peleus king of Phthia. Here he
■was treated with tendernefs •, Peleus carried him to
Chiron, who reflored his eyefight j foon after which he
■was made preceptor to Achilles, his benefactor’s fon.
He was alfo prefented with the government of many ci¬
ties, and made king of the Dolopes. Fie went with his
pupil to the Trojan war ; and Achilles was ever grate¬
ful for the inftruCtions and precepts which he had re¬
ceived from him. After the death of Achilles, Phoenix,
with others, was commiffioned by the Greeks to return
into Greece, to bring to the war young Pyrrhus. This
commiflion he fuecefsfully performed ; and after the fall
of Troy, he returned with Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace.
He was buried, according to Strabo, near Tracbinia,
where a froall river in the neighbourhood received the
name of Phcenix, There, was another Phoenix, fon of
Agenqr, by a nymph who was called Telephujj'a, ac¬
cording to Apollodorus and Mofchus, or, according to
others, Epimedufu, Pcrimcclu, or Aeriope, He was, like
his brother Cadmus, and CilJ.v, tent by his father in
purfuit of his filler Europa, whom Jupiter had carried
away under the form of a bull ; and when his inquiries
proved unfuccefsful, he fettled in a country, which, ac¬
cording to feme, was from him called Phoenicia. From
him, as fome fuppofe, the Carthaginians were called
Pan:.
PHOLAS, a genus of (hcll-fifh belonging to the or¬
der of vermes tetlacea. See Concholcgy Inrhx,
The word pholas is derived from the Greek, and fig-
nifies fomething which lies hid. This name they derive
3 F from
[ 409 1
P H Q • [ 41
Pholas. from their property of making themfelves holes in the
“~“v earth, land, wood, or Hone, and living in them. The
means of their getting there, however, are as yet en¬
tirely unknown. All that we can know with certainty
is, that they muft have penetrated thefe fubftances when
very fmall; becaufe the entrance of the hole in which
the pholas lodges is always much lefs than the inner part
of it, and indeed than the fhell of the pholas itfelf.
'Hence fome have fuppofed that they were hatched in
holes accidentally formed in Hones, and that they natu¬
rally grew of fuch a fliape as was neceffary to fill the ca¬
vity.
The holes in which the pholades lodge are ufually
twice as deep, at leaft, as the Ihells themfelves are long ;
the figure of the hides is that of a truncated cone, ex¬
cepting that they are terminated at the bottom by a
rounded cavity, and their pofition is ufually fomewhat
oblique to the horizon. The openings of thefe holes are
what betray the pholas being in the Hone •, but they are
always very fmall in proportion to the fize of the filh.
There feems to be no progreflive motion of any animal
in nature fo flow as that of the pholas j it is immerfed in
the hole, and has no movement except a fmall one to¬
wards the centre of the earth 5 and this is only propor-'
tinned to the growth of the animal. Its work is very
difficult in its motion •, but it has great time to perform
it in, as it only moves downward, finking itfelf deeper
in the ftone as it increafes itfelf in bulk. That part by
means of which it performs this, is a flefliy fubflance
placed near the lower extremity of the (hell j it is of the
fhape of a lozenge, and is confiderably large in propor¬
tion to the fize of the animal ; and though it be of a
foft fubflance, it is not to be wondered at that in fo
long a time it is able, by conflant work, to burrow into
a hard flone. The manner of their performing this may
be feen by taking one of them out of the ftone, and pla¬
cing it upon fome foft clay ; for they will immediately
get to work in bending and extending that part allotted
to dig for them, and in a few hours they will bury them¬
felves in the mud in as large a hole as they had taken
many years to make in the ftone. They find little re-
fiftance in fo foft a fubflance } and the neceffity of their
hiding themfelves evidently makes them haften their
work. The animal is lodged in the lower half of the
hole in the ftone, and the upper half is filled up by a
pipe of a flefliy fubftance and conic figure, truncated at
the end : this they ufually extend to the orifice of the
hole, and place on a level with the furface of the ftone ;
but they feldom extend it any farther than this. The
pipe, though it appears Angle, is in reality compofed of
two pipe!*, or at leal! it is compofed of two parts fepara-
ted by a membrane. 'The ufe of this pipe or probofcis
is the fame with that of the probofcis of other ffiell-fifh,
to take in fea water into their bodies, and afterwards to
throw it out again. In the middle of their bodies they
have a fmall green veffel, the ufe of which has not yet
been difcovered. This, when plunged in fpirit-of-wine,
becomes of a purple colour } but its colour on linen
does not become purple in the fun like that of the
murex.
The pholas is remarkable for its luminous quality,
which was noticed by Pliny, who obferves that it fliines
in the mouth of the perfon who eats it: and if it touch
his hands or clothes, it makes them luminous. He alfo
fays that the light depends upon its moifture. The light
5
o ] P H O
of this fiih has furni(lied matter for various obfervaiions Phohw
and experiments to M. Reaumur and the Bolognian acaA
demieians, efpecially Beccarius, who took fo much pains
with the fubje£t of phofphoreal light.
M. Reaumur obferves, that whereas other fifties give
light when they tend to putrefcence, this is more lu¬
minous in proportion to its being frefti ; that when
they are dried, their light will revive if they be mcift-
ened either with frefti or fait water, but that brandy
immediately extinguifhes it. He endeavoured to make
this light permanent, but none of his fchemes fue-
ceeded.
The attention of the Bolognian academicians was en¬
gaged to this fubjecl by M. F. Marfilius in 1744, who
brought a number of thefe fifties, and the ftones in which,
they were inclofed, to Bologna, on p'urpofe for their
examination.
Beccarius obferved, that though this fiffi ceafed to-
ftiine when it became putrid, yet that in its moil putrid
ftate it would ftiine, and make the water in which it was
immerfed luminous when it was agitated. Galeatius
and Montius found that wine or vinegar extinguiftied
this light ; that in common oil it continued fome days,
but in reftified fpirit of wine or urine hardly a minute.
In order to obferve in what manner this light wasaf-
fe£ted by different degrees of heat, they made ufe of a
Reaumur’s thermometer, and found that water rendered
luminous by thofe fifties increafed in light till the heat
arrived to 450, but that it then became fuddenly extimft,
and could not be revived again.
In the experiments of Beccarius, a folutiort of fea-falt
increafed the light of the luminous water ^ a folution of
nitre did not increafe it quite fo much. Sal ammoniac
diminifned it a little, oil of tartar r/i?//y?//«OT nearly
extinguiftied it, and the acids entirely. This water,
poured upon frefti calcined gypfum, rock-cryftal, ce-
rufe, or fugar, became more luminous. He alfo tried
the effeds of it when poured upon various other fub¬
ftances, but there was nothing very remarkable in them.
Afterwards, ufing luminous milk, he found that oil of
vitriol extinguiftied the light, but that of tartar in¬
creafed it.
, This gentleman had the curiofity to try how differ¬
ently coloured fubftances were affeded by this kind of
light j and having, for this purpofe, dipped feveral rib¬
bons in it, the white came out the brighteft, next to this
was the yellow, and then the green : the other colours
could hardly be perceived. It W’as not, however, any
particular colour, but only light, that was perceived in
this'cafe. He then dipped boards painted with the dif¬
ferent colours, and alfoglafs tubes filled with fubftanees
of different colours, in water rendered luminous by the
fiffies. In both thefe cafes, the red was hardly viiible,
the yellow was the brighteft, and the violet the dulleft.
But on the boards, the blue was nearly equal to the yel¬
low, and the green more languid 5 whereas in the glaf-
fes, the blue was inferior to the green.
Of all the liquors to which he put the pholades, milk
was rendered the moft luminous. A Angle pholas made
feven ounces of milk fo luminous, that the faces of perfons
might be diftinguiftied by it, and it looked as if it were
tranfparent.
Air appeared to be neceffary to this light: for when
Beccarius put the luminous milk into glafs tubes, no agi¬
tation would make it Ihint unlefs bubbles of air were mix¬
ed
P H O [41
olas, e<3 with it. Alfo Montius and Galeatius found, that, in
)leys. an exhaufted receiver, the pholas loft its light, but the
v—""' water was fometimes made more luminous : which they
afcribed to the rifing of bubbles of air through it.
Beccarius, as well as Reaumur, had many fchemes to
render the light of thefe pholades peripanent. For this
purpofe he kneaded the juice into a kind of pafte with
flour, and found that it would give light when it was
immerfed in warm water ; but it anfwered beft to pre-
ferve the fifti in honey. In any other method of prefer-
vation, the property of becoming luminous would not
continue longer than fix months, but in honey it had
laited above a year •, and then it would, when plunged
in warm water, give as much light as ever it had done.
See Barbut’s Genera Verminm, p. 14. &c.
PHOLEYS, or Foulies, are a people of Africa,
of very peculiar manners. Some authors tell us, that
the kingdom of Pholey, from whence they derive their
name, is divided from that of Jaloff by a lake called in
the language of the Mundingoes Gayar; and that it
ft retches from eaft to weft about 180 miles •, but that,
though it extends a great way fouth, its limits in that
diretftion are not exadlly afcertained.
Mr Moore, however, gives a very different account,
and fays, that the Pholeys live in clans, build towns,
and are in every kingdom and country on each fide of
the river 5 yet are not fubjedt to any of the kings of
the country, though they live in their territories 5 for
if they are ufed ill in one nation, they break up their
towns, and remove to another. They have chiefs of
their own, who rule with fuch moderation, that every
aft of government ieems rather an aft of the people
than of one man. This form of government is eafily
adminiftered, becaufe the people are of a good and
- quiet difpofition, and fo well inftrufted in what is juft
and right, that a man who does ill expofes himfelf to
univerfal contempt.
The natives of all thefe countries, not being avari¬
cious of land, defire no more than they can ufe } and
as they do not plough with horfes or other cattle, they
can ufe but very little; and hence the kings willingly
allow the Pholeys to live in their dominions, and cul¬
tivate the earth.
The Pholeys have in general a tawney complexion,
though many of them are of as deep a black as the
Mundingoes •, and it is fuppofed that their alliances
with the Moors ha^e given them the mixed colour be¬
tween the true olive and the black. I hey are rather
of a low ftature, but have a genteel and eafy ftiape,
with an air peculiarly delicate and agreeable.
Though they are ftrangers in the country, they are
the greateft planters in it. They are extremely indu-
ftrious and frugal, and raife much more corn and cot¬
ton than they confume, which they fell at reafonable
rates j and are fo remarkable for their holpitality, that
the natives efteem it a bleffing to have a Pholey town
in their neighbourhood j and their behaviour has gain¬
ed them fuch reputation, that it is efteemed infamous
for any one to treat them in an unhofpitable manner.
Their humanity extends to all, but they are doubly
kind to people of their race ; and if they know of any
one of their body being made a Have, they will rea¬
dily redeem him. As they have plenty of food, they
never fuffer any of their own people to want j but fup-
1 ] P H O
port the old, the blind, and the lame, equally with the riiokjr.-
others. " ,
Thefe people are feldom angry } and Mr Moore ob-
ferves that he never heard them abufe each other 5 yet
this raildnefs is far from proceeding from want of cou¬
rage, they being as brave as any people of Africa, and
very expert in the ufe of their arms, which are javelins,
cutlaffes, bows and arrows, and upon occalion guns.
They ufually fettle near fome Mundingo town, there
being fcarce any of note up the river that has not a
Pholey town near it. Moft of them fpeak Arabic,
which is taught in their fchools ; and they are able to
read the Koran in that language, though they have a
vulgar tongue called Pholey. 1 hey are ftridt Maho¬
metans, and fcarce any of them will drink brandy, or
any thing ftronger than fugar and water.
They are fo fiulful in the management of cattle, that
the Mundingoes leave theirs to their care. 1 he whole
herd belonging to a town feed all day in the favannahs,
and after the crop is off, in the rice-grounds. They
have a place without each town for their cattle, fur-
rounded by a circular hedge, and within this enclofure
they raife a ftage about eight feet high, and eight or ten
feet wide, covered with a thatched roof 5 all the lides
are open, and they afeend to it by a ladder. Round this
ftage they fix a number of flakes, and when the cattle
are brought up at night, each beaft is tied to a leparate
flake with a ftrong rope made of the bark of trees. 1 he
cows are then milked, and four or five men nay upon the
ftage all night with their arms to guard them from the
lions, tygers, and other wild beads. 1 heir houfes are
built in a very regular manner, they being round ftruc-
tures, placed in rows at a diftance from each other to
avoid fire, and each of them has a thatched roof fome-
what refembiing a high-crowned hat.
They are alfo great huntfmen, and not only kill lions,
tygers, and other wild bealts, but frequently go 20 or
30 in a company to hunt elephants 5 whole teeth they
fell, and whofe flefh thty fmoke-dry and eat, keeping it
for feveral months together. As the elephants here ge¬
nerally go in droves of 100 or 200, they do great mifehief
by pulling up the trees by the roots, and trampling Gown
the corn } to prevent which, when the natives have any
fufpicion of their coming, they matie fires round their
corn to keep them out.
'I'hey are almoft the only people who make butter,
and fell cattle at fome diftance up the river. They are
very particular in their drefs, and never wear any other
clothes but long robes of white cotton, which they make
themfelves. They are always very clean, efpecially the
women, who keep their houfes exceedingly neat. They
are, however, in fome particulars very fuperfiitious: for
if they chance to know that any perfon who buys milk
of them boils it, they will from thenceforth on no con-
fideration fell that perfon any more, from their imagin¬
ing that boiling the milk makes the cows dry.
PHOLIS, in Natural Hijlory, is an old name for
gypfums or plafter-ftones. The name is derived from
(poXts, a fcale or fmallflake, becaufe they are compofed
of particles of that form.
Pholis, in Ichthyology, is the name of a fmall an-
guilliform filh. The back is brown, the belly is white,
the whole back and fides are fpotted, and the {kin is
foft, free of feales, but with a tough mucilaginous mat-
3 F 2 ter
P H O [ 412 ] P H O
Bholevs
II.
Phromium.
ter like the eel. This fpeeies moll of all approaches to
the alauda; and though ufually larger, yet Mr Ray
doubts whether it really differs from it in any thing ef-
fential; the diftinflion is its colour, which though a
very obvious is certainly a very precarious one.
PHONICS, the doftrine or fcience of found, other-
wife called Acoustics, which fee.
PHORMIUM, Flax-PLANT, (Phormium tenax,
Ford.) is a name which we may give to a plant that
ferves the inhabitants of New Zealand inftead of hemp
and flax. Of this plant there are two forts 5 the leaves
of both referable thofe of Hags, but the flowers are
imaller, and their clufters more numerous j in one kind
they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the
leaves of thefe plants, with very little preparation, they
make all their common apparel, and alfo their firings,
lines, and cordage, for every purpofe j which are fo
much flronger than any thing we can make with hemp,
that they will not bear a comparifon.—From the fame
plant, by another preparation, they draw long flender
fibres, which fhine like filk, and are as white as fnow:
of thefe, which are very ftrong, they make their fineff
clothes*, and of the leaves, without any other preparation
than fplitting them into proper breadths, and tying the
ftrips together, they make their fifliing-nets, fume of
which are of an enormous fize.
The feeds of this valuable plant were brought over
into England j but, upon the firft trial, appeared to
have loft their vegetating power. We underftand how¬
ever that it has fince fucceeded with the aid of artificial
heat.
The filamentous parts of different vegetables have
been employed in different countries for the fame me¬
chanic ufes as hemp and flax among us. Putrefaction,
and in fome degree alkaline lixivia, deftroy the pulpy
or flediy matter, and leave the tough filaments entire.
By curioufly putrefying the leaf of a plant in water, we
obtain the fine flexible fibres which conftituted the bafis
of the ribs and minute veins, and which form as it were
a fkeleton of the leaf. In Madagafcar, different kinds
of cloth are prepared from the filaments of the bark of
certain trees boiled in ftrong ley; and fome of thefe
cloths are very fine, and approach to the foftnefs of filk,
but in durability come fhort of cotton: others are coarfer
and ftronger, and laft thrice as long as cotton; and of
thefe filaments they make fails and cordage to their vef-
fels. The ftalks of nettles are fometimes ufed for like
purpofes, even in France; and Sir Hans Sloane relates,
in one of his letters to Mr Ray, that he has been inform¬
ed by feveral, that muflin and callico, and moft of the
Indian linens, are made of nettles. A ftrong kind of
cloth is faid to be prepared in fome of the provinces of
Sweden of hop-ftalks; and in the Tranfaftions of the
Swedifh Academy for 1750, we have an account of an
experiment relating to this fubjeH: A quantity of ftalks
was gathered in autumn, which was equal in bulk to a
quantity of ftax fufficient to yield a pound after prepara¬
tion. The ftalks were put into water, and kept covered
with it during the winter. In March, they were taken
out, dried in a ftove, and dreffed as flax. The prepared
filaments weighed nearly a pound, and proved fine, foft,
and white; they were fpun and wove into fix ells of fine
ftrong cloth. Unlefs the ftalks are fully rotted, which
Will take much longer time than flax, the woody part
will not feparate, and the cloth will prove neither white Phormiua
nor fine.
PFIOSPHATE is a faline body compofed of phof- Photius-
phoric acid united to fome bafe, as for inftance, lime '
which, is called phofphate of lime. For an account of
the different phofphates, fee Chemistry and Minera¬
logy Index.
PHOSPHORUS, a name given to certain fubftan-
ces which ftnne in the dark without emitting heat. By
this circumftance they are diftinguilhed from the pijro-
phori, which though they take fire on being expofed to
the air, are yet entirely deftitute of light before this ex-
pofure.
Phofphori are divided into feveral kinds, known by
the names of Bolognian phofphorus, Mr Canton's phof.
phorus, Baldwin's phofphorus, phofphorus of urine, &c.
of which the laft is by far the moft remarkable both
with refpeft to the quantity of light which it emits, and
its property of taking fire and burning very fiercely upon
being llightly heated or rubbed. For the method of pre¬
paring thefe, and for an account of their properties and
combinations, fee Chemistry Index.
PHO 1TNIANS, in ecclefiaftical hiftory, were a fe<ft
of heretics in the fourth century who denied the divinity
of our Lord. They derive their name from Photinus
their founder, who was bilhop of Sirmium, and a dif-
ciple of Marcellus. Photinus publilhed in the year 343
his notions refpefting the Deity, which were repugnant
both to the orthodox and Arian fyftems. He afferted,
that Jefus Chrift was born of the Holy Ghoft and the
Virgin Mary: that a certain divine emanation, which
he called the Word, defeended upon Him ; and that be-
caufe of the union of the divine word with his human
nature, He was called the fun of God and even God
himfelf; and that the Holy Ghoft was not a perfon, but
merely a celeftial virtue proceeding from the Deity.
Both parties condemned the biftiop in the councils of
Antioch and Milan, held in the years 345 and 347.
He was condemned alfo by the council at Sirmium in
351, and w*as afterwards degraded from the epifcopal
dignity, and at laft died in exile in the year 372 or
375. His opinions were afterwards revived by Soci-
nus.
PHO ITUS, patriarch of Conftantinople, v7as one of
the fineft geniufes of his time, and his merit raifed him
to the patriarchate; for Bardas having driven Ignatius
from the fee, Photius was confecrated by Afbeftus in
859. He condemned Ignatius in a fynod, whereupon
the pope excommunicated him, and he, to balance the
account, anathematized the pope. Balilius of Macedon,
the emperor whom Photius had reproved for the murder
of Michael the late emperor, expelled him, and reftored
Ignatius; but afterwards re-eftablilhed Pholius, upon
Ignatius’s death, in 878. At laft, being wrongfully
accufed of a confpiracy againft the perfon of Leo the
philofopher, fon and fucceffor to Bafilius, he was expel¬
led by him in 886, and is fuppofed to have died feion
after. He wrote a Bibliotheca, which contains an exa-
men of 280 authors: we have alfo 253 epiftles of his;
the Nomacanon under 14 titles; an abridgement of the
a61s of feveral councils, &c. This great man wras born
in Conftantinople, and was defeended from a very iilu-
ftrious and noble family. His natural abilities were
very great, and he cultivated them with the greateft af-
liduitv,..
4
P H R [41
fiduity. There was no branch of literature, whether
facred and profane, and fcareely any art or fcienee, in
which he was not deeply verfed. Indeed he appears to
have been by far the greateft rnan of the age in which
he lived ; and was fo intimately concerned in the chief
tranfadtions of it, that ecclefiaftical writers have on that
account called it Seculum Photianum. He was firll
railed to the chief dignities of the empire, being made
principal fecretary of ilate^ captain of the guards, and a
fenator. In all thefe Rations he acquitted himfelf with
a diftindlion fuitable to his great abilities for he was a
refined llatebnan, as well as a profound fcholar. His
rife to the patriarchate was very quick ; for W'hen he was
chofen to that office he was only a layman *, but that he
might be as it were gradually raifed to that dignity, he
was made monk the firft day, reader the next, and the
following days fub-deacon, deacon, and prieft. So that
in the fpace of fix days he attained to the higheft office
in the church. On the whole, however, his ardent love
of glory and unbounded ambition made him commit ex-
ceffes which rendered him a fcourge to thofe about him.
Fabricius calls his Bibliotheca or library, non liber,
fed infgnis thefaurus, “ not a book, but an illuftrious
treafure,” in which are contained many curious things,
relating to authors, and many fragments of works which
are no where elfe to be found. It was brought to light
by Andreas Schottus, and communicated by him to
David Hoefchelius, who caufed it to be printed in 1601.
Schottus, confidering the great utility of this work, tranf-
lated it into Latin, and printed his tranilation alone in
1606. The Greek text, together with the tranilation,
was afterwards printed at Geneva in 1611.
PHOTOMETER, an inftrument for afeertaining
the inteniity of light. See Optics Index.
PHRAATES, or Phrahates. There were four
kings of this name in Parthia. See Parthia.
PHR ASE, in Grammar, an elegant turn or manner
of fpeech, peculiarly belonging to this or that occafion,
this or that art, or this or that language. Thus we fay,
an Italianan eailern plirafe, a poetical y>//rr//e, a
rhetorical phrcife.
Phrase is fometimes alfo ufed for a ffiort fentence or
fmall fet or circuit of ivords conilrufted together. In
this fenfe, Father Buffier divides phrafes into complete
and incomplete.
Phrafes are complete where there is a noun and a
verb, each in its proper function ; i. e. where the noun
expreffes a fubjecl, and the verb the thing affirmed of it.
Incomplete phrafes are thofe where the noun and the
verb together only do the office of a noun ; confiding
of feveral words without affirming any thing, and which
might be exprefled in a fingle word. Thus, that which
is true, is an incomplete phrafe, which might be ex¬
prefled in one word, truth ; as, that which is true futif-
fes the mind, i. e. truth fatisjies the mind.
PHRASEOLOGY, a collection of the phrafes or
elegant expreffions in any language. See Phrase.
PHREATIS, or Phreattium, in Grecian anti¬
quity, was a court belonging to the civil government of
Athens, fituated upon the fea-ffiore, in the Piraeus.
I he name is derived from cnro ris becaufe it
Rood in 3. pit; or, as others fuppoie, from the hero
P hr eat us. This court heard fuch caufes as concerned
perfons who had fled out of their own country for mur¬
der, or thofe that fled for involuntary murder, and who
3 3 P H R
had afterwards committed a deliberate and wilful .mur- Plvn.fe
der. The firfl who was tried in this place was ieucer, pj,ry0;a>
on a groundlefs fufpicion that he had been acceflbry to > f-—a
the death of Ajax. The accufed was not allowed to
come to land, or fo much as to cafl anchor, but pleaded
his caufe in his bark } and if found guilty, was commit¬
ted to the mercy of the winds and waves, or, as fome
fome fay, fuR'ered there condign puniffiment; if inno¬
cent, he was only cleared of the fecund fail, and, accord¬
ing to cuRom, underwent a twelvemonth’s baniffiment
for the former. See Potter’s Gr. Antiq. vol. i. p. ill.
PHRENITIC, a term ufed to denote thofe who,
without being abfolutely mad, are fubjeft to fuch Rrong
fallies of imagination as in fome meafure pervert their
judgment, and caufe them to aft in a way different
from the more rational part of mankind.
PHRENITIS, the fame with Phrensy ; an in¬
flammation of the meninges of the brain, attended with
an acute fever and delirium. See Medicine, N° 176}
alfo an account of a flrange degree of phrenfy which
attacked Charles VI. of France, in the article France,
N° 88, 90.
PHRYGANEA, a genus of infefts, belonging to
the order neuroptera. See Entomology Index.
PHRYGIA, a country in Afia. From whence it
derived its name is not certain : fome fay it was from
the river Phryx (now Sarabat), which divides Phry¬
gia from Caria, and empties itfelf into the Hermus j
others from Phrygia, the daughter of Afopus and Eu-
ropa. The Greek writers tell us, that the country took voj j".’
its name from the inhabitants, and thefe from the town p. 441, &c.
of Brygium in Macedonia, from whence they firfl paffed
into Afia, and gave the name of Phrygia or Br\jgia to
the country where they fettled. Bochart is of opinion
that this traft was called Phrygia from the Greek verb
(psuys,,, “ to burn or parch which, according to him,
is a tranflation of its Hebrew name, derived from a verb
of the fame fignification.
No lefs various are the opinions of authors as to the
exaft boundaries of this country ; an uncertainty which
gave rife to an obfervation made by Strabo, viz. that
the Phrygians and Myfians had diflinft boundaries \ but
that, it was fcarce poffible to afeertain them. The fame
writer adds, that' the Trojans, Myfians, and Lydians,
are, by the poets, all blended under the common name
of Phrygians, which Claudian extends to the Pifidians,
Bithynians, and lonians. Phrygia Proper, according
to Ptolemy, whom we choofe to follow, was bounded
on the north by Pontus and Bithynia ; on the wefl by
Myfia, Troas, the /Egean fea, Lydia, Maeonia, and
Caria ; on the fouth by Lycia j on the eafl by Pamphy-
lia and Galatia. It lies between the 37th and 41A de¬
grees of north latitude, extending in longitude from 56
to 62 degrees. The inhabitants of this country, men¬
tioned by Ptolemy, are the Lycaones and Anthemifenii,
towards Lycia ; and Moccadelis or Moccadine, the
Cyddefes or Cydiffes towards Bithynia ) and between
thefe the Peltini or Speltini, the Moxiani, Phylacenfes,
and Hierapolitae. To thefe we may add the Berecyn-
tes mentioned by Strabo.
Phrygia is commonly divided into the Greater and
Leffer Phrygia, called alfo Troas. But this divifion
did not take place till Troas was fubdued by the Phry¬
gians ; and hence it is more confidered by fome Roman
writers as a part of Phrygia, than Bithynia, Cappado-
P H K [ 414 ] P H E.
Phrygia.
cia, nr any oilier of tlie adjacent provinces. In after
ages, the Greater Phrygia was divided into two didrifts
or governmentsj one called Phrygia Pacatiana, from
Pacatianus, who, under Conflantine, bore the great of¬
fice of the praefectus prastorio of the Eaft-, the other
Phrygia Salutaris, from feme miraculous cures luppof-
ed to have been performed there by the archangel Mi¬
chael.
This country, and indeed all Afia Minor, as lying
in the fifth and fixth northern climates, was in ancient
times greatly celebrated for its fertility. It abounded
in all forts of grain 5 being, for the mofr part, a plain
country covered with a deep rich foil, and plentifully
watered by fmall rivers. It was in fome parts produc¬
tive of bitumen and other combuftible fubftances. It
was well flocked with cattle, having large plains and
pallure grounds. The air was anciently deemed moft
pure and wholefome, though it is now in fome parts
thought extremely grofs, great part of the country ly¬
ing uncultivated.
In Phrygia Major were anciently feveral cities of
great celebrity j fuch as Apanea, Laodicea, Hiera-
POLIS, Gordium, &c.—There were alfo fome famous
rivers; fuch as Marfyas, Mseander, &c. The Maean-
der is now called Madre or Mindre, and was much ce¬
lebrated by the ancients for its windings and turn¬
ings; from whence all fuch windings and turnings have
been denominated mccanders.
The Phrygians accounted themfelves the moft an¬
cient people in the world. Their origin, however, is ex¬
tremely dark and uncertain. Jofephus and St Jerome fay,
they were defeended, from Togarmah, one of Comer’s
funs: and that they were known to the Hebrews under
the name of Tigrammanes. The Heathen authors derive
them from the Brygians, a people of Macedonia. But
this is but mere conjecture; and it is a conjecture to¬
tally unfupported, except by the fimilarity of names.
Bochart thinks that the Phrygians were the offspring
of Gomer the eldeft fon of Japhet: the word Phrygia
being the Greek tranflation of his name. Jofephus
makes Gomer the father of the Galatians; but he, by
the Galatian*, muft neceffarily mean the Phrygians in¬
habiting that part of Phrygia which the Galatians had
made themfelves mailers of; the defeendants of Gomer
being placed by Ezekiel northward of Judaea, near
Togarmah (which Bochart takes to be Cappadocia),
long before the Gauls paffed over into Afia. We are
willing to let Gomer enjoy the fine country which Bo¬
chart is pleafed to give him, and allow him the honour
of being the progenitor of the Phrygians, fince we know
no other perfon on whom it can be conferred "with any
degree of probability.
The ancient Phrygians are deferibed as fuperftitious,
voluptuous, and effeminate, without any prudence or
forefight, and of fuch a fervile temper, that nothing
but ftripes and ill ufage could make them comply with
their duty; which gave rife to feveral trite and well
known proverbs (a). They are faid to have been the P!
firft inventors of divination by the finging, flying, and
feeding of birds. Their mufic, commonly called the
Phrygian mood, is alleged by fome as an argument of
their effeminacy.
This government was certainly monarchical; for all
Phrygia was, during the reigns of fome kings, fubjeft to
one prince. Ninnacus, Midas, Manis, Gordius, and his
defeendants, were undoubtedly fovereigns of all Phry¬
gia. But fome time before the Trojan war, we find
this country divided into feveral petty kingdoms, and
read of divers princes reigning at the fame time. Apol-
lodorus mentions a king of Phrygia contemporary with
Hus king of Troy. Cedrenus and others fpeak of one
Teuthrans, king of a fmall country in Phrygia, whofe
territories were ravaged by Ajax, himfelf flam in Angle
combat, his royal feat laid in allies, and his daughter,
by name Tecmeffa, carried away captive by the con¬
queror. Homer makes mention of Phoreys and Afcani-
us, both princes and leaders of the Phrygian auxiliaries
that came to the relief of Troy. Tantalus was king of
Sipylus only, and its dillridl; a prince no lefs famous
for his great wealth, than infamous for his covetoufnefs
and other deteftable vices. That Phrygia was fubdued
either by Ninus, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, or by
the Amazons, as we read in Suidas, is not fufficiently
warranted. Moft authors that fpeak of Gordius tell
us, that the Phrygians having fent to confult an oracle
in order to know how they might put an end to the
inteftine broils which rent their country into many fac¬
tions and parties, received for anfwer, that the moft
effedlual means to deliver themfelves and their coun¬
try from the calamities they groaned under, was to
commit the government to a king. This advice they
followed accordingly, and placed Gordius on the throne.
Apamea was the chief emporium of all Afia Minor.
—Thither re for ted merchants and traders from all parts
of Greece, Italy, and the neighbouring iflands. Be-
fides, we know from Syncellus, that the Phrygians
were for fome time mailers of the fea; and none but
trading nations ever prevailed on that element. The
country produced many choice and ufeful commodi¬
ties, which afforded confiderable exports. They had
a fafe coaft, convenient harbours, and whatever may in¬
cline us to think that they carried on a confiderable
trade. But as moft of the Phrygian records are loft,
ive will not dwell on conjedfures fo difficult to be afeer-
tained.
We have no fet form of their laws; and as to their
learning, fince we are told that for fome time they
enjoyed the fovereignty of the fea, we may at leaf!
allow them a competent Ikill in geography, geome¬
try, and aftronomy; and add to thefe, from what we
have faid above, a more than ordinary knowledge of
mufic.
Some have been of opinion that the Phrygian lan¬
guage bore a great refemblance to the Greek; but
the
(a) “ Phryges fero fapiunt, Phryx verberatus melior, Phryx non minus quam Spyntharus, &c.which pro¬
verbs intimate their fervile temper; and fliow that they were more fit to bewail misfortunes in an unmanly manner,
than to prevent them by proper meafures. Their mufic, too, was fuited to their effeminate temper. The Doric
mood was a kind of grave and folid mufic; the Lydian a doleful and lamentable harmony ; but the Phrygian chiefly
calculated to effeminate and enervate the mind. But this charadler is contradidled by others.
P H R [415] P H R
the contrary is manifeft from the few Phrygian words
which have been tranfmitted to us, and carefully col-
lefted by Bochart and Rudbeehius. To thefe we may
add the authority of Strabo, who, after attempting to
derive the name of a Phrygian city from the Greek,
concludes, that it is a difficult matter to difcover any
fimilitude between the barbarous words of the Phrygian
language and the Greek. The Phrygian tongue, after
the experiment made by Pfammetichus king of Egypt,
was looked upon by the Egyptians as the moft ancient
language of the world. But other nations, particular¬
ly the Scythians, refuted to fubmit to their opinion, as
founded on an argument of rto real weight. “ As the
two children (fay they) had never heard the voice of
any human creature, the word bee, or bekkos, the firft
they uttered, was only an imitation of the goats that had
fuckled them, and happened to be a Phrygian word
fignifying bread (b).
We have already faid, that the Phrygians were fuper-r
ftitious; their idols were confequently very numerous.
The chief of thefe was Cybele, who went by a variety
of names. (See Cyrele). They alfo worffiipped Bac¬
chus under the name of Sabwzios ; and his priefls they
called Saboi,
The hiftory of their kings is dark and uncertain, and_
the dates of their feveral reigns and aftions cannot now
be fixed; we ffiall refer fuch of our readers, therefore,
as with to know what is certain refpedting them, to the
Ancient Univerfal Hiftory, already quoted more than
once in the prefent article. See alfo Gordius, Midas,
&c. For Phrygia Minor, fee Troy.
PHRYGIAN stone, in Natural Hijlory, is the
name of a ftone deferibed by the ancients, and ufed by
them in dyeing; perhaps from fome vitriolic or alumi¬
nous fait contained in it, which ferved to enliven or fix
the colours ufed by the dyers. It wras light and fpungy,
refembling a pumice ; and the whiteft and lighteft were
reckoned the beft. Pliny gives an account of the me¬
thod of preparing it for the purpofe of dyeing, which
was by moiftening it ivith urine, and then heating it
red hot, and fuffering it to cool.—This calcination was
repeated three times, and the ftone was then fit for ufe.
Diofcorides recommended it in medicine afterburnings
he fays it was drving and aftringent.
PHRYGIx\NS, a Chriftian fe£t. See Cataphry-
gians and Montanists.
PHRYNE, was a famous proftitute, who flourifhed
at Athens about 328 years before the Chriftian era.
She was miftrefs of Praxiteles, who drew her pi<fture,
which was one of his beft pieces, and was placed in the
temple of Apollo at Delphi. We are told that Apelles
painted his Venus Anadyomene after he had feen
Phryne on the fea-ftiore naked, and with difhevelled
hair. Phryne became fo very rich by the liberality of
her lovers, that ftie offered to rebuild Thebes at her
own expence, which Alexander had deftroyed, provided
this infeription was placed on the w7alls : Alexander di-
ruit, fed meretrix Phryne refecit; which was refufed.
See P/z«. 34. c. 8. There was another of, the fame
name who was accufed of impiety. When ftie found
that Ihe was going to be condemned, (he unveiled her PHy
bofom, which fo influenced her judges, that (he was im¬
mediately acquitted. ^
PHRYNICUS, a general of Samos, who endeavour¬
ed to betray his country, &.c.' A flatterer at Athens.
——A tragic poet of Athens, difciple to Thefpis. Fie '
Avas the firfl: who introduced a female character on the
ft age.
PHRYNIS Avas a mufician of Mitylene. He Avas
the firft; who obtained a mufical prize at the Panathensea
at Athens. He added turn firings to the lyre, Avhich
had always been ufed with feven by all his predeceffors.
He flouriftied about 438 years before the Chriftian era.
We are told that he Avas originally a cook at the houfe
of Hiero king of Sicily. There Avas another of the
fame name, a writer in the reign of Commodus, Avho
made a colleftion, in 36 books, of phrafes and fentences
from the beft Greek authors, &c.
PHRYXUS, in fabulous hiftory, was a fon of Atha-
mas king of Thebes, by Nephele. When his mother
Avas repudiated, he Avas perfecuted Avith the moft; inve¬
terate fury by his ftep-mother Ino, becaufe he Avas to fft
on the throne of Athamas, in preference to the children
of a fecond wife. His mother apprized him of Ino’s
intentions upon his life } or, according to others, his
preceptor 5 and the better to make his efcape, he fe-
cured part of his father’s treafures, and privately left
Boeotia Avith his fifter Helle, to go to their friend and
relation iEetes king of Colchis. They embarked on
board a {hip, or, as avc are informed by the fabulous
account of the poets and mythologifts, they mounted
on the back of a ram, whofe fleece Avas of gold-, and
proceeded on their journey through the air. The
height to which they Avere carried made Hclle giddy,
and {he fell into the fea. Phryxus ga\re his fifter a
decent burial on the fea-ftiore, and after he had called
the place Hellefpont from her name, he continued his
flight, and arrived fafe in the kingdom of Aietes,
where he offered the ram on the altar of Mars. The
king received him Avitli great tendemefs, and gave him
Chalciope his daughter in marriage. She had by him
Phrontis Melas, Argos Cylindrus, whom fome call
Ci/torus. He Avas afterrvards murdered by his father-
in-law, Avho envied him the poffeffion of the golden
fleece , and Chalciope, to prevent her children from
(haring their father’s fate, fent them privately from
Colchis to Boeotia, as nothing Avas to be dreaded there
from the jealoufy or refentment of Ino, Avho was then
dead. The fable of the flight of Phryxus to Colchis
on a ram has been explained by fome, Avho obferve,
that the ftiip on Avhich he embarked Avas either called
by that name, or carried on her proAV a figure of that
animal. The fleece of gold is accounted for, by ob-
ferving that Phryxus carried aAvay innnenfe treafures
from Thebes. Phryxits was placed among the conftel-
lations of heaven after death. The ram which carried
him to Afia is faid to have been the fruit of Neptune’s
amour Avith Theophane the daughter of Altis. This
ram the gods had given to Athamas in order to reward
his piety and religious life} and Nephele procured it for
(b) Goropius Becanus makes ufe of the fame argment,to prove that the High Dutch is the original or mother-
tongue of the Avorld, becaufe the Avord beker in that language fignifics “ a baker.”
PHY t 4i
•xus her children, juft as they were going to be lacrificed to
11 the jealoufy of Ino. Phryxus’s murder was fome time
, after amply revenged by the Greeks ; it having occa-
lioned the famous expedition atchieved under Jafon
and many of the princes of Greece, which had for its
objefl the recovery of the gulden fleece, and the punifli-
ment of the king of Colchis for his cruelty to the fon of
Atharhas.
PHTHIRIASIS, the Lousy Evil, from “a
loufe.” Children are frequently its fubjefts, but adults
are fometimes troubled with it. The increafe of lice,
when in a warm moift fituation, is very great; but a
cold and dry one Toon deftroys them. On the human
body four kinds of lice are diftinguiftred : 1. The pcdi-
culi, fo called becaufe they are more troublefome with
their feet than by their bite. Thefe are in the heads of
children, efpecially if fore or fcabby 5 and often in thofe
of adults, if they are flothful and nafiy. 2. Crab-lice.
3. Body lice ; thefe infeft the body, and breed in the
clothes of the nafty and flothful. 4. A fort which breed
under the cuticle, and are found in the hands and feet :
they are of a round form, and fo minute as often to
efeape the fight: by creeping under the fcarf-fkin they
caufe an intolerable itching *, and when the fkin burfts
where they lodge, clufters of them are found there. See
Acarus.
A good diet and cleanlinefs conduce much to the de-
flrudtion of lice. When they are in the head, comb it
every day ; and, after each combing, fprinkle the pulv.
fem. ftaph. agr. or coccul. Ind. among the hairs every
night, and confine it with a tight cap.
Codrochius, in his treatife on lice, fays, that the
powdered coc. Ind. exceeds all other means j and that
it may be mixed in the pulp of apple, or in lard, and ap¬
plied every night to the hair. Some writers afl’ert, that
if the pulv. cort. rad. faflafr. be fprinkled on the head,
and confined with a handkerchief, it deftroys the lice in
cue night.
The body-lice are deftroyed by any bitter, four, fait,
or mercurial medicine, if applied to the fkin.
Black foap, and the flowers called cardamine or lady's
fmock, are faid to be fpecifics in all cafes of lice on the
human body.
PHTHISIS, a fpecies of confumption, occafioned by
an ulcer in the lungs. See Medicine Index.
PHUL, or Pul, king of Affyria, is by fome hiftori-
ans faid to be Ninus under another name, and the firft
founder of that monarchy : A renovmed warrior. He
invaded Ifrael in the reign of Menahem, who became
tributary to him, and paid him IOOO talents of filver for
a peace. Flourifhed 771 B. C.
PHUT, or Phuth, the third fon of Ham (Gen. x.
6.). Calmet is of opinion, that Phut peopled either the
canton of Phtemphu, Phtemphuti, or Phtembuti, fet
down in Pliny and Ptolemy, whofe capital was Thara in
Lower Egypt, inclining towards Libya; or the canton
called Phtenotes, of-which Buthus was the capital. The
prophets often fpeak of Phut. In the time of Jeremiah,
Phut was under the obedience of Nechoking of Egypt.
Nahum (Hi. 9.) reckons up his people in the number of
thofe who ought to have come to the affiftance of No¬
am mon or Diofpolis.
PHYLACTERY, in the general, was a name given
Jby the ancients to all kinds of charms, fpells, or cha-
6 ]
PHY
rafters, which they wore about them, as amulets, to pre- Ptylafter'
ferve them from dangers or difeafes.
Phylactery particularly denoted a flip of parch- f'1Tlcaf
ment, wherein was written fome text of Holy Scripture,
particularly of the decalogue, which the more devout
people among the Jew's wore on the forehead, the breaft,
or the neck, as a mark of their religion.
The primitive Chriftians alfo gave the name phylac¬
teries to the cafes wherein they inclcfed the relicks of
their dead.
Phylafteries are often mentioned in the New Tefla-
ment, and appear to have been very common among the
Pharifees in our Lord’s time.
PHYLICA, Bastard Alaternus ; a genus of
plants belonging to the pentandria clafs. See Botany
Index.
PHYI>LANTHUS, Sea side Laurel; a genusof
plants belonging to the moncecia clafs. See Botany
Index.
PHYLLIS, in fabulous hiftory, was a daughter of
Sithon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus king of
Thrace, who received Demophoon the fon of Thefeus;
who, at his return from the Trojan war, had flopped on
her coafts. She became enamoured of him, and did not
find him infenfible to her paffion. After fome months
of mutual tendernefs and affeftion, Demophoon fet fail
for Athens, where his domeftic affairs recalled him.
He promifed faithfully to return as foon as a month
was expired ; but either his diflike for Phyllis, or the
irreparable fituation of his affairs, obliged him to vio¬
late his engagement : and the queen, grown defperate
on account of his abfence, hanged herfelf, or, accord¬
ing to others, threw herfelf down a precipice into the
fea and perifhed. Her friends raifed a tomb over her
body, where there grew up certain trees, w hofe leaves,
at a particular feafon of the year, fuddenly became wet
as if thedding tears for the death of Phyllis. Accord¬
ing to an old tradition mentioned by Servius, Virgil’s
commentator, Phyllis u'as changed by the gods into
an almond tree, which is called phylla by the Greeks.
Some days after this metamorphofis, Demophoon re-
vifited Thrace ; and when he heard of the fate of .Phyl¬
lis, he ran and clafped the tree, which, though at that
time ftripped of its leaves, fuddenly (hot forth, and
bloffomed as if ftill fenfible of tendernefs and love. The
abfence of Demophoon from the hi ufe of Phyllis has
given rife to a beautiful epiftle of Ovid, fuppofed to
have been written by the Thracian queen about the
fourth month after her lover’s departure.—A country
woman introduced in Virgil’s eclogues.—The nurfe of
the emperor Domitian.—-A country of Thrace near
Mount Pangaeus.
PHYSALIS, the Winter Cherry ; a genus of
plants belonging the pentandria clafs. See Botany
Index.
PHYSETER, or Spermaceti Whale, a genus
belonging to the order of cete. See CetologY
Index.
PHYSIC, or PhySick, the art of healing; properly
called Medicine. The word is formed from the Greek
<pvir(j, “ nature ;” in regard medicine confifts princi¬
pally in the obfervation of nature. See Physics and
Medicine.
PHYSICAL, fomething belonging to,, or really
exifting
lyfifal,
yfician.
P H Y
exifling in, nature. In this fenfe we fay a phyfical point,
in oppofition to a mathematical one, which only exifts
in the imagination •, a phyiical fubftance or body, in op¬
pofition to fpirit, or metaphyfical fubftance, &c.
PHYSICIAN, a perfon who profefies medicine, or
the art of healing difeafes. See Medicine.
V H Y
PllYSIClAKS, College of, in London, Edinburgh, and
Dublin. See COLLEGE of Physicians.
PHYSICO-MATHEMATICS, includes thofe branches
of phylics which, uniting obfervation and experiment to
mathematical calculation, undertake to explain the phe¬
nomena of nature.
[ 4'7 1
Pliyli-ianr,
Phyfico-1
mathema¬
tics.
PHYSICS
1 neralde-r"pAKEN in its moft enlarged fenfe, comprehends
i non of 1 ‘ the ^vhole ftudy of nature •, and Natural Philo-
: lics' SOPHY is a term of the fame extent : but ordinary
language, and efpecially in this country, employs both
of thefe terms in a much narrower fenfe, which it is pro-
2 per in this place to determine with feme precifion.
more Under the article Philosophy, we gave a particu-
■ ticular lar account of that view of nature in which the ob-
)lanauorje(^s 0f our attention are contidered as. connected by
he terin-caufation . anci we were at forae pains to point out
the manner in which This ftudy may be fuccefsfully
cultivated. By a judicious employment of the means
--pointed out in that article, we difeover that the ob¬
jects of our contemplation compofe an UNIVERSE,
which confifts, not of a number of independent ex-
iftences folitary and detached from each other, but
of a number of fubftances conneffed by a variety of
relations and dependencies, fo as to form a whole which
may with great propriety be called the System of Na¬
ture.
This affembling of the individual obje&s which com¬
pofe the univerfe into one fyftem is by no means the
work of a hafty and warm fancy, but is the refult of
fober contemplation. 1 he natural hiftorian attempts
in vain to deferibe objedls, by only informing us of
their drape, colour, and other fenfible qualities. He
finds himfelf obliged, in deferibing a piece of marble,
for inftance, to tell us that it takes a fine poliih j that
it ftrikes fire with fteel •, that it burns to quicklime 5 that
it diffolv'es in aquafortis, and is precipitated by alkalies-j
that with vitriolic acid it makes gypfum, &c. &c. &c.
and thus it appears that even the defcription of any
thing, with the view of afeertaining its fpecific nature,
and with the tole purpofe of diferimination, cannot be
accomplidied without taking notice of its various rela¬
tions to other things. But what do we mean by the
nature of any thing ? We are ignorant of its eflence, or
what makes it that thing and no other thing. We
muft content ourfelves with the difeovery of its qualities
or properties; and it is the aflemblage of thefe which
we call its nature. But this is very inaccurate. Thefe
do not conftitute its effence, but are the confequences
of it. Yet this is all we ftiall ever know of its nature.
Now the term property is nothing but a name expref-
fing fome relation which the fubftance under confidera-
tion has to other things. This is true of all fuch terms.
Gravity, elafticity, fenfibility, gratitude, and the like,
exprefs nothing but certain matters of fuel, which may
be obferved refpefting the objeft of our contempla¬
tion in different circumftances of fituation with regard
to other things. Our diftimT notions of individuals,
therefore, imply their relations to other things.
The dighteft obfervation of the univerfe diows an
evident conneflion between all its parts in their va-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
rious properties. All things on this earth are conned-All parts of
ed with each other by the laws of motion and of mind.1*16 un‘-_
We are connected with the whole of the folar fyftem e^'0*n
by gravitation. If we extend our obfervations to the^^gj jn
fixed ftars, the connection feems to fail ; but even here their va-
it may be obferved. Their inconceivable diftance, itcouspro-
is true, renders it impodible for us to obtain any exten-V^^*"
Jive information as to their nature. But thefe bodies
are conne&ed with the folar fyftem by the famenefs of
the light which they emit wTith that emitted by our fun
or any diining body. It moves with the fame velocity,
it confifts (in moft; of them at lead) of the fame colours,
and it is reduced, refrafled, and indexed, according to
the fame laws. 4
In this unbounded feene of contemplation, our at-9ur att®n“
tention will be direCled to the different claffes of ob-^’^11^11*
jecls nearly in proportion to the intereft we take in re(qe(j ;n
them. There is nothing in which we are fo much the fiift in-
interefted as our fellow men ; and one of the firft fteps^an e t0
that we make in our knowledge of nature, is an ac_our fellow
quaintance with them. We learn their diflin&ive na¬
ture by attending to their charaElenflic appearances ;
that is, by obferving their actions. We obferve them,
continually producing, like ourfelves, certain changes
in the fituation or condition of furrounding objedls j
and thefe changes are evidently direfled to certain ends
which refpcR themfelves. Obferving this fubferviency
of the effedls which they produce to their own accom¬
modation, we confider this adjuftment of means to ends
as the effedl of an intention, as we experience it to
be in our own cafe, where w-e are confcious of this in¬
tention, and of thefe its efftdls. We therefore inter- 5
pret thofe adlions of other men, where we obferve this Nature of
adjuftment of means to ends, as marks or figns of in.intention,
tention in them fimilar to our own. And thus a qua¬
lity, or power, or faculty, is fuppofed in them by means
of its fign, although the quality itfelf is not immedi¬
ately cognifable by our fenfes. And as this intention
in ourfelves is accompanied by perception of external
objedls, knowledge of their properties, defire of good,
averfion from evil, volition, and exertion, without all
of which we could not or would not perform the adlions
which we daily perform, weyfyi/io/e the fame perception,
knowledge, defire, averfion, volition, and exertion in them.
Thus, by the conftitution of our mind, we confider
the employment of means, by which ends terminating in
the agent are gained, as the natural figns of defign or
intention. Art, therefore, or the employment of means,
is the natural fign of intention •, and wherever we ob¬
ferve this adjuftment of means to ends, we infer the a-
gency of defign.
A fmall acquaintance with the objefts around us,
obliges us to extend this inference to a great number
of beings befides our fellow men, namely, to the whole
3 G animal
and un¬
thinking
beings.
7
How we
PHY
animal creation : for in all we obferve the fame fub-
ferviency to the ends of the agent, in the changes which
we find them continually producing in the cbjedts around
them. Tliefe changes are all adjuiled to their own
well-being. In all inch cafes, therefore, we are forced,
by ^he conflitution of our own minds, to infer the ex-
iftence of defign or intention in theie beings alfo.
.But in numberlefs changes produced by external ob-
jedls on each other, we oblerve no fuch fitnefs in the
effedts, no fuch fubferviency to the well-being of the
agent. In fuch cafes, therefore, tve make no fuch in-
6 ference of thought or defign.
Allobje&s Thus, then, there is prefented to our obfervation an
divided m- important diftindfion, by which we arrange all exter-
*jh^kln& nal objedfs into two claffes. The firit refembles our-
felves, in giving external marks of that thought or in¬
tention of which we are confcious 5 and we fuppofe in
them the other properties which we difcover in our-
felves, but cannot immediately obferve in them, viz.
thought, perception, memory, forefight, and all that
colledlion of faculties which we feel in ourfelves, and
which conftitute the animal. The other clafs of objedls
exhibits no fuch appearances, and we make no fueh in¬
ference. And thus we divide the whole of external nature
into the clafies of THINKING and UNTHINKING beings.
Our firft judgments about thefe claffes will be very
come tu the inaccurate ; and we will naturally afcribe the differ-
ef °Tnd^^e €nceS’ we n!i-; very we^ underftand, to the
o min . differences in organical ftrudhire, which we clearly ob¬
ferve. But when we have knocked down or perhaps
fmothered an animal, we find that it no longer gives
the former mark of thought and intention, and that it
now refembles the clafs of unthinking beings : And yet
it Hill retains all that ntnefs of organical flrudlure which
it had before it feems only to want the intention and
the will. This obliges us to conclude that the diftinc-
tion does not arife from a difference in organical ftruc-
ture, but from a dilfindl fubflance common to all think¬
ing beings, but feparable from their organical frame.
To this fubilance we afcribe thought, intention, contriv¬
ance, and all that colle&ion of faculties which we feel
in ourfelves. To this fubftance in ourfelves we refer all
fenfations, pleafures, pains, remembrances, defires, pur-
pofes ; and to this aggregate, however imperfeftly un-
derflood, we give the name mind. Our organical
frame, which feems to be only the inftrument of infor¬
mation and operation to the mind, we call our body.
As the animating principle is not, like our body, the
immediate objefl of the fenfes, we naturally conceive
hyUmankina it to be a fubftance effentially different from thofe which
are the objects of our fenfes. The rudeft people have
fhovvn a difpofition to form this conclufion. Obferving
that animal life was connefted with breathing, it was
natural to imagine that breathing was living, and that
breath was life. It is a remarkable fa61, that in moft
languages the term for exprefling breath is at leaft one
of the terms for exprefling the foul ; rrp, Trnv^st^fpiri-
tus, in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, exprefs both ;
Sr/iei/i, or ghoji, in the Teutonic, comes from gheifen, to
“ breath or figh ducha or duha, “ the foul,” in Scla¬
vonic, comes from duichat, “ to breathe fo in the
Gaelic does anal come from anam ; and the fame rela¬
tion is found between the two words in the Malay and
other eaftern languages. We believe that moft perfons
can recollefl fome trac.es of this notion in their early
The nature
of mind as
underftood
in rude
ages.
SICS.
conceptions of things; and many who do not confider Introdue.
themicives as uncultivated, believe that the foul quits don. ''
the body along with the laji breath. Among the Tar- '"“V--.
tar nations hanging is confidered with particular horror,
on account of the ungraceful and filthy exit which the
foul is obliged to make from the body.
But the obfervation of the fame appearances ofxheif •
thought and intention in fifties and other animalsnionnof*
which do not breathe, would foon fhovv that this wasjufh
but a rude conception. Very little refinement indeed
is neceffary to convince us that air or breath cannot
be the fubftance which thinks, wifhes, and defigns;
and that the properties of this fubftance, whatever it
is, muft be totally different from, and incompatible
with, any thing that we know of the immediate objeds
of our fenfes.
Hence we are led to conclude that there are two 10
kinds of fubftanees in nature : One, which is the prin- kinds of'^
ciple of fenfation ; and therefore be the objed fubftances
of our fenfes, any more than light can be the obje6t ofin nature,
the microfcope. This fubftance alone can feel, think,one is the
defire, and propofe, and is the objed of reJle£iio?i a/o/re.
The objeds of our fenfes compofe the other clafs, and alone the
therefore can have none of the other properties which other of th
are not eognofcible by the fenfes. Thefe have all thefenfes*
properties which our fenfes can difcover 5 and we can
have no evidence of their having any other, nor indeed
any conception of their having them. This clafs is
not confined to the unorganized maffes of matter ; for
we fee that the bodies of animals lofe after death that
organical form, and are aflimilated to all the reft of
unthinking beings. It has arifen from fuch views as
this, that while all nations have agreed to call this
clafs of objeds by the name BODY, which originally
expreffes our organical frame, fome nations, farther ad¬
vanced in cultivation or refinement, have contrived an
abftrad term to exprefs this general fubftance of which
all inanimate beings are compofed. Such a term we
have in the words mdleries, vAy.
Matter, then, is that fubftance which is immediate- ”
ly cognofcible by our fenfes. Whatever, therefore,
is not thus immediately cognofeible by our fenfes is tween ma-
not material, and is expreffed by a negative term, and terial and
called immaterial: hence it is that mind is faid to beimmater'^
immaterial. It is of importance to keep in mind this^^”^,
diftindion, merely grammatical. Little more is ne-p0rtant,
ceffary for deteding the fophifms of Helvetius, Mira-
beau, and other fages of the Gallic fchool, who have
been anxious to remove the ties of moral and religious
obligation by lowering our conceptions of our intel-
kdual nature. It will alfo ferve to (how how haftily
they have formed their opinions who have afcribed to
the immediate agency of mind all thofe relations which
are obferved in the adions of bodies on each other at
a diftance. The con»eding principles of fuch rela¬
tions e dijiante (if there be any fuch), are not the im¬
mediate objeds of our fenfes : they are therefore im¬
material. But it does not follow, that they are minds.
There may be many immaterial fubftances which are
not minds. We know nothing of any objed what¬
ever but by the obfervation of certain appearances,
which fuggeft to our minds the exiftence and agency
of its qualities or powers. Such phenomena are the
natural figns of thefe qualities, and it is to thofe figns
that \vs luufl. always have recourfe when we wilh to
conceive
PHY
conceive without ambiguity concerning them. What
is the characteriitic phenomenon of mind, or what is
'the dijlinguifbing quality which brings it into view ? It
is INTENTION : and it may be afferted with the utmoit
confidence, that we have no other mark by which
mind is immediately fuggefted to us, or that would
ever have made us fuppofe that there exifted another
mind betides our own. I'he phenomenon by which this
quality is fuggefted to us is art, or the employment of
means to gain ends ; and the mark of art is the fup-
pofed conducivenefs of thefe ends to the well-being of
the agent. Where this train is not obferved, defign
or intention is never thought of; and therefore where
intention is not perceived in any immaterial fubftance,
if any fuch has ever been obferved, it is an abufe of
language to call it mind. We do not think that even
perception and intelligence entitle us to give the name
Inind to the fubftance in which they are inherent, be-
caufe it is from marks of intention alone that we infer
the exiftence of mind *, and although thefe rnuft be
Accompanied with perception and intelligence, it does
not follow that the'fubftance which can perceive and
undevftand muft alfo defire and propofe. However
difficult we may find it to feparate them, they are evi¬
dently feparable in imagination. And let not this afler-
tion be too haftily obje6led to •, for the feparation has
been made byperfons moft eminent for their knowledge
and difcernment. When Leibnitz afcribed to his MO-
NADES, or what we call the ultimate atoms of matter,
a perception of their fituation in the univerfe, and a mo¬
tion precifely fuited to this perception, he was the far-
theft in the world from fuppofing them animated or en¬
dowed with minds. It is true indeed, that others, who
think and call themfelves philofophers, are much more
liberal in their application of this term. A modern au¬
thor of great metaphyfical eminence fays, “ I call that
mind which moves, and that body which is moved.7’
This clafs of philofophers affett that no motion whatever
is begun except by the agency of ah animating princi¬
ple, which (after Ariftotle) they csd\* Nature, and
which has in thefe days been exalted to the rank of a
god. All this jargon (for it is nothing elfe) has arifen
from the puzzle in which naturalifts think themfelves
involved in attempting to explain the produ&ion of mo¬
tion in a body at a diftance from that body which is
conceived as the caufe of this motion. After having
been reluCtantly obliged, by the reafonings of Newton,
to abandon their methods of explaining fuch phenomena
by the impulfes of an intervening fluid, nothing feem-
cd left but the aflertion that thefe motions were pro¬
duced by minds, as in the cafe of our own exertions.
Thefe explanations (if they deferVe the name) cannot
be objected to in any other way than as an abufe of
language, and as the introduction of an unmeaning jar¬
gon. We have, and .can have, no notion of mind differ¬
ent from thofe of our own minds*, and we difcover the
exiftence of other minds as we difcover the exiftence of
bodies, by means of phenomena which ate charaCteriftic
of minds, that is, which referable thofe phenomena that
follow the exertion of our own mental faculties, that is,
by the employment of means to attain felfilh ends j
and where fuch appearances are not obferved, no exift¬
ence of a mind is inferred. WThen we fee a man fall from
the top of a houfe, and dafti out his brains on the pave¬
ment, we never afcribe this motion to his mind. AL*
SICS.
though the fitnefs of many of the celcftial motions for
moft important purpofes makes us fuppofe defign and
contrivance fomewhere, and therefore a Supreme Mind,
we no more think of inferring a mind in the earth from
the fitnefs of its motions for purpofes moft beneficial to
its inhabitants, than of inferring a mind in a bit of
bread from its fitnefs for nouriftnng our bodies. It is
not from the mere motions of animals that their minds
are inferred, but from the conciucivenefs of thefe mo¬
tions to the well-being of the Animal. iz
The term mind therefore, in the ordinary language Jbe mind
of all men, is applied to what defires and wills at the
fame time that it perceives and underftands. If 've dl,ces ^
call that mind which produces motion, we muft derive tion, but
our notions of its qualities or attributes from obferving that which
their effeCls. We muft therefore difcover the general an
laws by which they aCl, that is, the general laws ob¬
ferved in thofe motions which we conlider as their ef¬
feCls. Now thefe are the general laws of motion *, and
in none of thefe can we find the lead coincidence with
what we are accuftomed to call the laws of mind. Nay,
it has been the total want of fimilarity which has given
rife to the diftinCtion which all men, in all ages and
countries, have made between mind and matter. This
diftinClion is found in all languages ; and it is an unpar¬
donable liberty which men take with language when
they ufe a term of di/hn£lion, afpecifc term, to exprefs
things of a different fpecies. What thefe authors have
been pleafed to call mind, the whole world befides have
called by another name, FORCE*, which, though borrow¬
ed from our own exertions, is yet fufficiently diftmClive,
and never leads us to confound things that are differ¬
ent, except in the language of fnme modern philofo¬
phers, who apply it to the laws of the agency of mind ;
and, when fpeaking of the force of motives, &c. com¬
mit the fame miftakes which the followers of Ariftotle
commit in the ufe of the term mind. Force, in the lan¬
guage of thefe philofophers, means what conneCL the
operations of mind j as mind, in the language of Lord
Monboddo, is that which conneCts the operations of
body. 13
Thofe are not lefs to blame who confider this- Nature The prin-
of Ariftotle, this principle of motion, as an exiftence of
or fubftance different both from matter and from the ^
minds of intelligent creatures. Ariftotle calls it in fome-from matter
places He might with equal propriety, and and mind,
equal confiftency with his other 'loflrines, have called
mind, aa-Tri^ rsAe?, or an arvrif) Befides, we
have no evidence for the feparabiiity of this
from body as we have for the feparabiiity of Inch minds
as our own, the genuine Nay, his whole doc¬
trines, when maturely confidered, affume their abfolute
infeparability. 14
This doftrine of elemental minds, therefore, as the Elemental
immediate caufes of the phenomena of the material min(b are
world, is an abufe of language. It is a jargon ; and itj1"/^® 0
is a frivolous abufe, for it offers no explanation what¬
ever. The phenomena are totally unlike the phenome¬
na of ordinary minds, and therefore receive no explana¬
tion from them *, and fince our knowledge of thefe yua/t
minds muft be derived entirely from the phenomena, it
will be precifely the fame, although we exprefs it in
common language. We ftiall not indeed raife the won¬
der of our hearers, as thofe do who fill the world with
minds which they never fufpe&ed toexift 5 but we ftiali
3 G 2 not
P H Y S I C S.
>5
The dread¬
ful confe-
,quences of
niateria-
lifra.
16
The extent
•d philofc-
|)hical
ilud}'.
not bewilder their imaginations, confound their ideas,
and millead their judgments.
We ilatter ourfelves that our readers will not think,
thefe obfervations unfeafonable or mifplaced. Of all
miftakes that the naturalift can fall into, there is none
more fatal to his progrefs in knowledge than the con¬
founding things which are effentially different $ and of
all the diltinftions which can be made among the ob-
je£ts of our contemplation, there is none of equal phi-
lofophical importance with this between mind and mat¬
ter : And when we confider the confequences which na¬
turally follow from this confufion of ideas, and particu¬
larly thofe which follow from Unking the mental facul¬
ties of man to a level with the operations of mechanics
or chemiftry, confequences which the experience of the
prefent eventful day fhows to be deftrudtive of all that
is noble or defirable in human nature, and of all that is
comfortable in this life, and which blafts every hope of
future excellence—w’e cannot be too anxious to have
this capital diftinflion put in the plaineft point of view,
and exprelfed in the moft familiar characters, “ fo that
lie who runneth may read.” When we fee the frenzy
which the reafoning pride of man has raifed in our
neighbourhood, and hear the dictates of philofophy in-
ceffantly appealed to in defence of whatever our hearts
Ihudder at as (hocking and abominable *, and when we
fee a man (a), of great reputation as a naturalift, and
of profeffed humanity and political moderation, congra¬
tulating his countrymen on the rapid improvement and
almoft perfection of philofophy 5 and after giving a (hort
(ketch of the conftitution of the vifible univerfe, fum-
inmg up all with a table of eleCtive attractions, and that
particular combination and mode of cry ftallization which
conftitutes God (//orrefco referens!)—is it not full
time for us to (top ftiort, and to afk our own hearts
“ whither are you wandering ?”—But found philofophy,
reafoning from efteCts to their caufes, will here liften to
the words of our faered oracles : “ By their fruits ye
(hall know them. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or
figs of thiftles ?” The abfurd confequences of the fcep-
tical philofophy of Berkeley and Hume have been
thought, by men of undoubted difcernment, fufficient
reafons for rejecting it without examination. The no
lefs abfurd and the (hocking confequences of the mecha¬
nical philofophy now in vogue (hould give us the fame
abhorrence j and ftiould make us abandon its blood-ftain-
ed road, and return to the delightful paths of nature, to
furvey the works of God, and feaft our eyes with the
difplays of mind, which offer themfelves on every hand
in defigns of the moft ex ten five influence and the mod
beautiful contrivance. Following the guidance of hea¬
venly wifdom, we (hall indeed find, that “ all her
ways are ways of pleafantnefs, and all her paths are
peace.”
Such is the fcene of our obfervation, the fubjeCt of
philofophical ftudy. Its extent is almoft unbounded,
reaching from an atom to God himfelf. It is abfolute-
ly neceffary for the j’uccefsful cultivation of this immenfe
field of knowledge, that it be committed to the care of
different cultivators, and that its various portions be
treated in different ways : and, accordingly, the various Introduc.
taftes of men have given this curiofity different dircc- fic¬
tions ; and the ftudy, like all other talks, has been pro-
moted by this divifion of labour.
Some philofophers have attended only to the appear¬
ances of fitnefs which are exhibited in every quarter of
the univerfe •, and by arranging thefe into different claf- '
fes, and interpreting them as indications of thought and
intention, have acquired the knowledge of many claffes
of fentient and intelligent beings, actuated by propen-
fities, and direfted by reafon.
While the contemplation of thefe appearances4ndi-Thenatun
cates thought and defign in any individual of one ofar)tl ufes oi
thefe claffes, and brings its propenfities and purpofes m*
of aftion, and the ends gained by thefe addons, into
view, the contemplation of thtife propenfities, purpofes,
and ends, occafions an inference of a much more gene¬
ral kind. All thefe intelligent beings give indications
of knowledge and of power j but their knowledge
bears, in general, no proportion to their power of pro¬
ducing changes in nature, and of attaining important
ends; and their power is neither always, nor in the
moft important cafes, the confequence of their know¬
ledge. Where the effedl of their adtiorus is moft emi¬
nently conducive to their important interefts, the power
of attaining thefe valuable ends is generally independent
on any attention to the fitnefs of the means, and the ex¬
ertion is frequently made without even thinking of the
important end. The well-being of the individual is fe-
cured againft any danger from its ignorance, Indolence,
or inattention, by an inftindlive propenfity, which leads
it to the performance of the neceffary adlion, which is
thus made immediately and ultimately defirable, with¬
out any regard to its ultimate and important end. Thus,
in our own nature, the fupport of animal life, and the
improvement of the means of fubfiflence by a knowledge
of the objedls which furround us, are not entrufted to
our apprehenfions of the importance of thefe ends, but
are committed to the furer guides of hunger and curio-
%• ,s
The fame obfervers difeover a connexion between js a
the individuals of a clafs, different from that which conne(fti0i
arifes from the mere refemblance of their external ap-between
pearance, or even of their propenfities and purfuits Ahe nidm
the very circumftances which produced the claftifica-^1’3^an
tion. They obferve, that thefe propenfities are fuch,majs jiftei
that while each individual feeks only its own enjoy-en»from
ment, thefe enjoyments are in general fuch as contri-thatofre
bute to the fupport of the fpecies and the enjoyment “11C
of other individuals. _ Thus, in the claffes of animals,
and in human nature, the continuance of the race, and
the enjoyment of the whole, are not entrufted to the
apprehenfion we entertain of the importance of thefe
ends, but are produced by the operation of fexual love
and the love of fociety. ^ jp
The fame obfervers find that even the different clafles y^e is;
of fentient beings are conneiBed together : and while fo alinj11
the whole of each clafs aim only at their own enjoy-
ment, they contribute, in fome way or other, (° t^iefentientt
well-being of the other claffes. Even man, the felfithjn{rsof d'1
lordferent da
fes.
(a) M. de la Metherie, editor of the Journalde Physique. See his prefaces to the volumes for 1792 anC^ I793’
January and July.
PHY
wine- lord of this fublanary world, Is not the unconneaed
on- inhabitant of it. He cannot, in every inftance, reap
i. Y—' a|i the fruits of his fituation, without contributing to
the enjoyment of thoufands of the brute creation. Nay,
it may be proved to the fatisfaaion of every intelligent
man "that while one race of animals, in confequence of
its peculiar propenfities, fublifb by the deftru&ion of
another, the fum total of animal life and enjoyment is
prodigioufly increafed. See a very judicious differtation
on tins curious and puzzling fubjett, entitled Phi/o-
fophical Survey of the Animal Creation ; where it appears
‘that the increafe of animal life and enjoyment which is
produced by this means, beyond what could poflibly
obtain without it, is beyond all conception. See like-
wife the laft edition of King's Origin of Evil, by Dr Law
20 late bilhop of Carlifle.
' end of Thus the whole affemblage feems connefted, and
i connec-• jntiy employed in increafing the fum total of poftible
’ happinefs. This fitnefs of the various propenfities of
i Thap-fentient and intelligent beings, this fubferviency to a
lis. general purpofe, ftrikes thefe obfervers as a mark of
intention, evidently diftinft from, and independent of,
all the particular intentions, and fuperior to them all 5
and thus it irrefiftibly leads them to infer the exiftence
of a SUPREME MIND, diredling the whole of this IN¬
TELLECTUAL system, while the individuals of which
it confifts appear the unconfcious inftruments in the hand
of a great Artifl, with which he executes his grand and
ji beneficent purpofes.
nature, gut obfervation goes yet further. The bodies
,mate. of the inanimate creation are not only connected with
hnam- ^ otiier a mutual dependence of properties, and
nking, the relation of caufation, but they are alfo conneaed
L™- with the fentient beings by a fubferviency to their
nkinS- purpofes of enjoyment. The philofopher obferves
that this connexion is admirably kept up by the con-
flancy of natural operations and the expedlations of
intelligent beings. Had either of thefe circumftances
been wanting, had either the operations of nature been
without rule, or had fentient beings no perception or
expeaation of their uniformity ; the fubferviency would
be totally at an end. This adjuftment, this fitnefs, of
which the effba is the enjoyment of the fentient inha¬
bitants of the univerfe, appear to be the effea of an
intention of which this enjoyment is the final caufe.
This conftancy, therefore, in the operations of nature,
both in the intelle&ual and material world, and the
concomitant expectation of fentient beings, appear
the effefts of laws impofed on the different parts of
the univerfe by the Supreme Mind, who has formed
both thefe claffes of beings fo admirably fuited to each
other.
^naturT kich obfervers the world appears a WORK OF ART,
Xr a fyftem of means employed for gaining certain pro¬
posed ends, and it carries the thoughts forward to an
artist •, and we infer a degree of fkill, power, and
good intention in this Artift, proportioned to the in¬
genuity, extent, and happy effeCl which we are able
to difeern in his works. Such a contemplation of na¬
ture therefore, terminates in Natural Iheology,
ut mode °r ^ie difeovery of the exiftence and attributes of
UeafonLGoD. _
!1 the ope- Our notions of this Supreme Mind are formed irom
|ttion$of the indications of defign which we obferve, and which
we interpret in the fame way as in the aClions of men,
3
SICS. 421
Thefe notions, therefore, will differ from our notions Introduc-
of other minds only in the degrees which we are able to , 1 t
obferve, and which we affign to thefe faculties; for the
phenomenon or the efifedl is not only the mark, but alfo
the meafure of its fuppofed caufe. Thefe degrees mull
be afeertained by our own capacity of appreciating the
extent, the multiplicity, and the variety of the contri¬
vance. Accordingly, the attributes of the Supreme.
Mind, in the theological creed of a rude Indian, are
much more limited than in that of a European philofo¬
pher. In proportion as our underfiandings are enlar¬
ged, and as our acquaintance with the operations of na¬
ture- around m is extended, we (hall perceive higher de¬
grees of power, of fkill, and of kind intention : and fince
we find that the feene of obfervation Is unbounded, wfe
cannot affix any boundaries to thefe attributes in our
own imagination, and we are ready to fuppofe that they
are infinite or unbounded in their own nature. When
our attentive furvey of this univerfe, and a careful com- #
parifon of all its parts, as far as we can underfland or
appreciate them, have made us conclude that it is
one defign, the work of one Artift; sve are under the
neceffity of inferring, that, with refped to this univerfe,
his power, wifdom, and benevolence, are indeed infi¬
nite. _ H
When men have been led to draw this conclufion from 'lfynetn
the appearances of fitnefs which are obferved every-?
1 1    X- L. w — y—%. f — j~\ »* 4 l-v . 1T xt % %* 1^4 it —
where around them, they confider that conftancy which edSby ge-
they obferve in natural operations, whether in the ma-IieraHaws.
terial or the intelledual fyftem, and that expeftation of,
and confidence in, this conftancy, which renders the
univerfe a fource of enjoyment to its fentient inhabitants,
as the confequences of laws impofed by the Almighty
Artift on his works, in the fame manner as they would
confider the conftancy in the conduft of any people as
the confequences of laws promulgated and enforced by
the fupreme magiftrate. _ 25
There can be no doubt of this view of nature being Tlie nature
extremely captivating, and likely to engage the curio- ^fsPJJ'he
fity of fpeculative men ; and it is not furprifing thatfhulyof
the phenomena of mind have been keenly ftudied in mind,
all ages. This part of the ftudy of nature, like all
others, was firft cultivated in fubferviency to the wants
of focial life ; and the general laws of moral fentiment
were the firft phenomena which were confidered with
attention. This gradually ripened into a regular fyf- The rife of
tem of moral duty, accompanied by its congenial ftudy,
the inveftigation or determination of the fitmtnum bo-
num, or the conftituents of human felicity ; and thefe daty.
two branches of intelledlual fcience were always kept in
a ftate of affociation by the philofophers of antiquity.
Jurifprudence, the fcience of government, legifiationy
and police, were alfo firft: cultivated as arts, or at leart
in immediate fubferviency to the demands of cultivated
fociety ; and all thefe fo nearly related parts of the
ftudy of human nature, had made a very eonfiderable
progrefs, in the form of maxims or precepts for direft-
ing the conduiT, before fpeculative men, out of mere
curiofity, treated them as fubje&s of philofophical
ftudy. Our moral fentiments, always involving a feel¬
ing of obligation, are expreffed in a language con-
fiderably different from the ufual language of pure'
philofophy, fpeaking of things which ought to be, rather
than of things which are ; and this diftindlion of lan¬
guage was increafed by the very aim of the writers,
which.
tellecluaf
'Ycipnees.
P H T
winch was generally to influence the condutf. as well
as the opinions of their fcholars. It was referved for
modern times to bring this ftudy into .the pure form
of philofophy, by a careful attention to the phenome¬
na of moral fentiment, and elafling thefe according to
their generality, and afeertaining their refpeftive ranks
by an appeal to experiment, that is, to the general
conduft of mankind : and thus it happens that in the
modern treatifes on ethics, jurifprudence, &c. there is
lefs frequent reference made to the cjficia or duties, or
to the conftituents of the fummum bonum, than among
the ancients, and a more accurate defeription of the
human mind, and diferimmation of its various moral
27 feelings.
The origin^ Jj. was hardly poflible to proceed far in thefe dif-
other in *' quifitions without attending to the powers of the un-
derflanding. Differences of opinion wrere fupported
by reafonings, or attempts to reafoning. Both fides
could not be in the right, and there muft be folne
court of appeals. Rules of argumentation behoved to
be acquiefced in by both'parties •, and it-could hardly
efcapc the notice of foma curious minds, that there
were rules of truth and falfehood as well as of right
and wrong. Thus the human undetjlanding became an
objeft of ftudy, firfl: in fubferviency to the demands of
the moralifts, but afterwards for its oWn fake ; and it
gradually grew up into the fcience of logic. Still
further refinement produced the fcience of metaphyfics,
or the philofophy of univerfals. But all thefe w'ere
in fd£i pofterior to the doftrines of morals 5 and dif-
quifitions on beauty, the principles of tafte, the pre¬
cepts of rhetoric and criticifm, were the laft additions
to the ftudy of the phenomena of mind. And now,
fince the world feems to have acquiefced in the mode
of inveftigation of general laws by experiment and
obfervation, and to agree that this is all the know¬
ledge that we can acquire of any fubjeft whatever, it
Is to be expe&ed that this branch of philofophical dif-
cuflion will attain the fame degree of improvement
(eftimated by the coincidence of the doctrines with
fa6t and experience) that has been attained by fome
others.
The occupations, however, of ordinary life have
oftener direfted our efforts towards material objedls,
lice of na- and engaged our attention on their properties and re-
tural phi- lations 5 and as all fciences have arifen from arts, and
were originally implied in the maxims and precepts of
thofe arts, till feparated from them by the curious
fpeculatift, the knowledge of fhe material fyftem of
nature was poflefled in detached fcrSps by the practi¬
tioners in the various arts of life long before the natu-
ral philofopher thought of collefting them into a body
of feientific doCtrines. But there have not been want¬
ing in all ages men of curiofity who have been ftruck
by the uniformity of the operations of nature in the
material world, and were eager to difeover their
caufes.
Accordingly, while the moralifts and metaphyficians
turned their whole attention to the phenomena of
mind, and have produced the fciences of pneumatolo-
gy, logic, ethics, jurifprudence, and natural theology,
fhefe obfervers of nature have found fufficient employ¬
ment in confidering the phenomena of the material
world.
The bodies of which it con-fifts are evidently con-
2
28
The par¬
tial prac-
lefophy
preceded
its ftudy
as a fcL-
S ’ I c s.
netf ed by means of thofe properties by which we Introt.
obferve that they produce changes in each other’s fi- t‘or
tnation. i his aflemblage ot objeCls may therefore be ^ J
juftiy called a fyftem. We may call it the material The nL
SYSTEM. It is frequently termed Nature ; and the of the
terms NATURAL APPEARANCES, NATURAL CAUSES, NA-ter‘ali
TURAL LAWS, have been generally reftridled to thofe
which tahe place in the material fyftem. This re-nidon
ftrjaion, however, is improper, becaufe there is no dif-thatai
ference in the manner in which we form our nolions0ther
of thofe laws, and reafon from them, both with re-terms‘
fpeft to mind and body. Or if there is to be any
reftriction, and if any part of the ftudy 01 the univerfe
is to be excluded in the application of thefe terms, it
is that part only which confiders moral obligation, and
rather treats of what ought to be than of what is. As
has been already obferved, there is a confiderable dif¬
ference in the language which muft be employed •, but
ftill there is none in the principles of inveftigation.
We have no proof for the extent of any moral law
but an appeal to the feelings of the hearts of men, indi¬
cated by the general laws or fails which are obferved
in their aitions. 3(
But this is only a queftion of the propriety of lan-Theu,l*
guage. And no great inconvenience would arife from?"?®1
the reftriaion now mentioned if it were fcrupuloufly
adhered to j bat unfortunately this is not always theofthef
cafe. Some authors ufe the term natural law to ex-termsi
prefs every coincidence of fad ; and this is certainly a
the proper ufe of the term. The French writers ge-^fj^jf’
nerally ufe the term lot phyjique in this enlarged fenfe. ^
But many authors, milled by, or taking-advantage of,
the ambiguity of language, after having eftablifhed a
law founded on a copious and perhaps unexcepted in-
dudfion of the phenomena of the material fyftem (in
which cafe it muft be confidered in its reftridled fenfe),
have, in their explanation of phenomena, extended
their principle much farther than the induction on
which they had founded the exiftence of the phyfical
law.^ They have extended it to the phenomena of
mind, and have led their follow'ers into great and dan¬
gerous miftakes. Languages, like every other pro¬
duction of human ikill, are imperfeCt. They are de¬
ficient in terms, and are therefore figurative. The
moft obvious, the molt frequent, and the moft inte-
refting ufes of language, have always produced the
appropriated terms, and the progrefs of cultivation has
never completely fupplied new ones. There are cer¬
tain analogies or refemblances, or certain affociations
of ideas, fo plain, that a term appropriated to one
very familiar objeCt will ferve to fuggeft another ana¬
logous to it, when aided by the concomitant circuni-
ftances of the difeourfe j and this with fufficient pre«
cifion for the ordinary purpofes of foeial communica¬
tion, and without leading us into any confiderable
miftakes . and it is only the rare and refined difquifi-
tions of the curious fpeculatift that bring the poverty
and imperfeCHon of language into view, and make us
wifti for words as numerous as our thoughts. There
is hardly a fentence, even of common difeourfe, in
which there are not feveral figures either of Angle
W'ords or of phrafes ; and when very accurate diferimi-
nation is required, it is almoft impoffible to find words
or phrafes to exprefs diftinClions which ive clearly feel.
We believe it impoffible to exprefs, by the fcanty vo¬
cabulary
PHYSICS.
423
oduc- cabutary of the Hebrews, the nice diftindions of
on. thought which are now familiar to the European phi-
v   lofopher. In nothing does this imperfeclion of lan
guage appear fo remarkably as in what relates to mind.
Being a late fubjed ot feparate dilculfion, and intereft-
ing only to a few fpeculatifts, we have no appropriated
vocabulary for it; and all our diiquifitions concerning
its operations are in continual metaphor or figure, de¬
pending on very flight analogies or refemblances to
the phenomena of the material world. This makes
the utmoft caution neceffary •, and it juftifies the Bri-
tiih philofophers, who have been the mofl: fuccefsful
in profecuting the ftudy of the intelleftual fyftem, for
having, almoft without exception, reftrifted the terms
natural laws, natural caufes, natural philofophy, and
fuch like, to the material fyflem. With us pneuma-
tology makes no part of phyfics. And we may ven¬
ture to affirm, that the fciences have fared better by
the reftri&ion of the terms. In no country has the
fpirit of liberal difcuffion been more encouraged and
indulged than in Britain j and her philofophers have
been equally eminent in both branches of fcience.
Their performances in ethics, jurifprudence, and na¬
tural theology, are confidered by all our neighbours as
the fountains of knowledge on thefe fubje&s ; and
Locke and Clarke are names no lefs familiar on the
continent than Newton. The licentious and degrading
doftrines of the Gallican fchool have as yet made little
impreffion here ; and man is ftill confidered among us as
a glorious creature, born to, and fitted for, the nobleft
profpedds.
terra Phyfics, then, is with us the ftudy of the material
rarde- fyftein, including both natural hiftory and philofophy.
Jas ‘j. The term is not indeed very familiar in our language ;
Moo/ an<l in place of phijsicus and difciphna physica, we more
ritain. generally ufe the terms naturalijl and natural knowledge.
The term natural philofophy, in its common acceptation,
is of lefs extent. The field of phyfical inveftigation is
ftill of prodigious extent j and its different quarters re¬
quire very different treatments, make very different re¬
turns, and accordingly have engaged in their particular
cultivation perfons of very different talents and taftes.
It is of fome importance to perceive the diftinftions,
and to fee how the wants and propenfities of men have
led them into the different paths of inveftigation 5,
for, as Has been more than once obferved, all fciences
have fprung from the humble arts of life, and both
go on improving by means of a elofe and conftant cor-
refpondence.
i phe- All the phenomena of the material fyftem may
ienaof be arranged into two claffes, diftinguiffied both by
ftftem ^e*r 04e<^s anc^ by the proper mapner of treating
mged thorn. >
1 two The firft clafs comprehends all the appearances which
ks- are exhibited in the fenjible motions of bodies, and their
aftions on each other fenjible motion.
The fecond clafs comprehends the appearances which
are exhibited in the infenfible motions and aftions of the
!33 mvifible particles of matter.
tuples ‘ Of the phenomena of the firft clafs we have examples
tirft0^ Planetai7 rnotions, the motions of heavy bodies,
fs, *he phenomena of impulfe, the motions and actions of
machines, the preliure and motions of fluids, the fenlible
aftions of magnetical and ele&rical bodies, and the mo¬
tions of light.
We have examples of the fecond clafs in the pheno- Intrpdue-
mena of heat and mixture, and thofe exhibited in the , t‘ul,~ .
growth of animals and vegetables, and many pheno- ,4
mena of folid, fluid, magnetical, electrical, and lumi-and of thofe
nous bodies, in which no change of place can be ob-ofthele-
ferved. cona.
Thus it appears that there is a diftinCtion in the phe- > his^r-
nomena lufficiently great to warrant a divifioi ot ilu ja ^u ent
ftudy, and to make us expeCt a more rapid improve-is appa
ment by this divifion. Nay, the divition has been'‘‘- b re¬
made by nature itfelf, in the acquaintance which men tlua ’
have attained with her operations without ituay, be¬
fore fcience appeared, and while art conftituted all our
knowledge. 36
Before man had recourfc to agriculture as the moft th* P™-
certain means of procuring fubfiftence, our.acquaintance ^
with external fubftances was principally that of the na-jvnru(.e
tural hiftorian ; confiding of a knowledge of their fitnefs ages.
for food, medicine, or accommodation, their places of
growth or habitation, and the means of procuring them, 37
depending on their manner of life or exiftence. It re-The origin
quired a ftudied attention to thefe circumftancesto give01 agricul-
rife to agriculture, which therefore generally made its
appearance after men had been in the praClice of kef p- anj ch|_
ing flocks j by which means they were more at their nnttry.
eafe, and had fome leifure to attend to the objefts
around them, and in particular to thofe circumftances of
foil and weather which affeded the growth of their
pafture.
When agriculture and a rude medicine were thus efta-
bliffied, they were the firft arts which had their founda¬
tion in a fyjlem of laws, by which the operations of na¬
ture were obferved to be regulated j and with thefe arts
we may begin the general Jludy of nature, which ivas
thus divided into two different branches.
The rude phyfician would be at firft a colleflor of
fpecifcs ; but by degrees he would obferve refemblances
among the operations of his drugs, and would clafs them
according to thefe refemblances. He would thus come
to attend lefs to the drug than to its mode of operation •,
and would naturally fpeculate concerning the connexion
between the operation and the economy of animal life.
His art now becomes a feientific fyftem, conne&ed by
principle and theory, all proceeding on the obfervation
of changes produced by one kind of matter on another,
but all out of fight. The frequent recourfe to the vege¬
table kingdom for medicines w'ould caufe him to attend
much more minutely to the few plants which he has oc-
cafion to ftudy than the hufbandman can do to the mul¬
titude he is obliged to rear. The phyfician muft learn
to think, the hufbandman to work. An analogy be¬
tween the economy of animal and vegetable life could
hardly fail to engage the attention of the phyfician, and
would make him a botanift, both as a claftifier of plants
and as a philofopher.
He would naturally expeift to unite the fervices of his
drugs by combining them in his recipes, and would be
furprifed at his difappointments. Curious and unexpeft-
ed changes would frequently occur in his manipulations :
the fenfible qualities, and even the external appearances
of his fimples, would be often changed, and even invert¬
ed by their, mixture •, and their medicinal properties
Avould frequently vanifli from the compound, and new
ones be induced. Thefe are curious, and to him inte-
refting fa61s y and he would naturally be inquifitive af¬
ter
424
Introduc¬
tion.
3s
The origin
of the
knowledge
of the me¬
chanical
powers.
39 .
The origin
of mathe¬
matics.
P H Y S
ter the principles which regulate thefe changes. His
tkill in this would by degrees extend beyond the imme¬
diate ufe for the knowledge 5 and the more curious fpe-
culatiit would lay the foundations of a molt extenfive
and important fcience, comprehending all the pheno¬
mena of heat and mixture.
Along with this, and fpringing from the fame fource,
another fcience mult arife, contemplating the appear¬
ances of animal and vegetable life, and founded on a
careful obfervation and accurate defeription of the won¬
derful machine. The molt incurious of men have in all
ages been affedted by the difplays of wifdom and contri¬
vance in the bodies of animals, and immediately enga¬
ged in inveftigation into the ufes and fun£tions of their
various parts and organs. The phenamena have been
gradually diferiminated and arranged under the various
heads of nutrition, concoftion, fecretion, abforption, af-
fimilation, rejeftion, growth, life, decay, difeafe, and
death ; and, in conformity to the do&rines which have
with greater or lefs evidence been eftablifhed on thefe
fubjefts, the adlion of medicines, and the whole praftice
of phyfic and furgery, has been elfablifhed in the form
of a liberal or fcientific art.
The hufbandman in the mean time muft labour the
ground which lies before him. He, too, is greatly in-
terefted in the knowledge of the vegetable economy, and
forms fome fyftems on the fubjeft by which he regulates
his labours : but he fees, that whatever is the nature of
vegetable life, he muft work hard, and he fearches a-
bout for every thing which can tend to diminifh his la¬
bour. The properties of the lever, the wedge, and the
inclined plane, foon become familiar to him ; and with¬
out being able to tell on what their efficacy depends, he
ufes them with a certain fagacity and effeft. The
ffrength of timber, the preffure and force of water, are
daily feen and employed by him and other artifans who
labour for their mutual accommodation j and fome rude
principles on thefe fubje&s are committed to memory.
Many tools and fimple machines are by this time fami¬
liar •, and thus the general properties of matter, and the
general laws of the actions of bodies on each other, be¬
come gradually matter of obfervation and refledtion j
and the praftical mechanic will be frequently improving
his tools and machines. The general aim is to produce
a greater quantity of work by the fame exertion. The
attempts to improvement will be awkward, and frequent¬
ly unfuccefsful. When a man finds, that by increafing
the length of his lever he increafes his power of over¬
coming a refiftance, a fmall degree of curiofity is fuffi-
cient to make him inquire in what proportion his advan¬
tage increafes. When he finds that a double length
gives him a double energy, he will be furprifed and mor¬
tified to find, that at the end of the day he has not per¬
formed twice the quantity of work : but, after much ex¬
perience, he will learn that every increafe of energy, by
means of a machine, is nearly compenfated by an in¬
creafe of time in the performance of his talk ; and thus
one of the great and leading principles of pradlical me¬
chanics was inculcated in a manner not to be forgotten,
and the pradlical mechanic was brought to {peculate
about motion and force, and by gradual and eafy fteps
the general laws of fimple motions were eftabliftied.
It is evident that thefe {peculations cannot be carried
on, nor any confiderable knowledge acquired, without
fome acquaintance with the art of meafurement: and
I c s.
the very queftions which the mechanic willies to folve,
prefuppofe fome advances in this art, which in procefs of tion,
time refined itfelf into mathematics, the moft perfeft of
all the fciences. All the phenomena of fenfible motion
afford employment-to the mathematician. It is perform¬
ed in a double or triple time, through a double or triple
{pace, by a double or triple body, by the exertion of a
double or triple force, produces a double or triple cffe6t,
is more to the right or to the left, upwards or down¬
wards, &c. In (hort, every affeftion of motion is an
object of mathematical difeuflion. Such a fcience muft
have appeared ere now in the form of an art, in confe-
quence of the mutual tranfaftions of men. Thefe amonrr
an uncultivated people are chiefly in the way of barter.
If I want corn from a peafant,and have nothing to give
for it but the cloth which I have made, we muft fall on
fome way of adjufting our terms in refpeft of the quan¬
tity. We ftiould foon difeover that the length, and
breadth, and depth, of the box or bag, were equally
important; and it was not difficult to fee, that if any of
them were doubled or tripled, the quantity of grain
would be fo too j if two of them were doubled, the grain
would be quadrupled ; and if all the three were doubled
the quantity of grain would be increafed eight times:
the fame thing would be obferved with refpeft to my
cloth. By fuch tranfaclions as thefe, a few of the pro¬
perties of plane and folid numbers and figures would be¬
come known, and the operations of multiplication and
divifion, where arithmetic is combined with geometry :
and daily obfervation fhows us, that the more abftrufe
properties of number and figure, which to the generality
of mankind are fo infignificant, lay hold on the fancy of
fome individuals with fuch force, as to abftraft them
from every other intelle&ual entertainment, and are ftu-
died with a keennefs and perfeverance almoft unequalled
in any other walk of fcience. To moft men the per¬
formance of a machine is a more attraflive object than
the properties of a figurej and the property of a figure
more entertaining than that of a number ; but the faft
feems to have been otherwife. Before Pythagoras had
invented the theorem that bears his name (fee Philoso¬
phy, N° 15. and note h), and which is among the firft
elements of geometry, he had reformed the Grecian ma¬
fic by the addition of a note to their fcale, and this addi¬
tion proceeds on a very refined {peculation on the pro¬
perties of numbers j fo that among the Greeks arithme¬
tic muft have made confiderable progrefs, while geome¬
try was.yet in its cradle j and we know to what altonilh-
ing length they profecuted the fcience of pure geometry,
while their knowledge of mechanical principles was al¬
moft nothing. Alfo the Arabs hardly made any addi¬
tion to the geometry of the Greeks, if they did not ra¬
ther almoft completely forget it j whilft they improved
their arithmetic into algebra, the moft refined and ab-
ftra&ed branch of human knowledge. There is fuch a
diftance, in point of fimplicity, between pure mathema¬
tics and the moft elementary mechanics, that the former
continued to make rapid fteps to improvement in more
modern times, while the latter languiftied in its infancy,
and hardly deferved the name of fcience till very lately,
when the great demand for it, by the increafe and im¬
provement in manufa&ures, both interefted many in the
ftudy, and facilitated its progrefs, by the multitude of
machines which were contriving on all hands by the
manufadlurers and artifans : and even at prefent it muft
PHYSICS.
425
Iritroduc- be acknowledged, that it is to them that we are indebted
tion. for alnioft every new invention in mechanics, and that
t]ie fpeculatift feldom has done more than improve the
invention, by exhibiting its principles, and thus enabling
the artift to correct its imperfect ions *, and now fcience
and art go hand in hand, mutually giving and receiving
affiftance. The demands of the navigator for mathema-
ticaf and aftronomical knowledge have dignified thefe
fciences * and they are no longer the means of elegant
amufement alone, but merit the munificence of princes,
who have erefted obfervatories, and furnifhed voyages
of difcovery, where the mathematical fciences are at the
fame time cheriihed and applied to the moft important
purpofes.
This Ihort fketch of what may be called t/ie natural
hiftory of phyjical/deuces will not, we hope, be thought
improper or unprofitable. It tends to confirm an affer-
tion often alluded to, that the profecution of the fludy
of nature will be more fuccefsful, if we imitate her mode
of proceeding, and divide the labour. It will be ftill
further confirmed by attending to the fcientific differ¬
ence of the phenomena, which marks out a different
mode of proceeding, and a difference in the knowledge
which we flxall ultimately acquire, after our moft fuc¬
cefsful refearches.
In both claffes of phenomena already difiinguifhed
(N° 6.) we muff grant, that the principle which con-
principle ofnP£s fhg pair8 0f concomitant events, rendering the one
the infeparable companion of the other, is totally un¬
known to us, becaufe it is not the immediate objeft of
our perception.
But in the phenomena of the firft clafs, we fee the
immediate exertion of this principle, whatever it may be;
we can obferve the exertion with accuracy \ we can de¬
exertion of termine its kind and degree, which are the figns and
thisprin- nieafures of the kind and degree of the unperceived
caufe. This exertion, being always fume modification
of motion, allows us to call in the aid of mathematical
knowledge, and thus to afcertain with the precifion pe¬
culiar to that fcience the energy of the caufe, judging of
the tendency and quantity by the tendency and the
quantity of the obferved effect.
But in the fecond clafs of phenomena the cafe is very
the fecond: different. In the operations of chemiftry, for inftance,
the immediate exertion of the caufe is not perceived : all
that we obferve is the affemblage of particles which ob¬
tains before mixture, and that which takes place when
it is completed, and which we confider as its refult.
The procedure of nature in producing the change is un-
feen and unknown. The fteps are hid from our obfer-
vation. We are not only ignorant of the caufe which
determines one particle of our food to become a part of
our body while others are reje&ed, but we do not fee
the operation. We are not only ignorant of the caufe
which determines a particle of vitriolic acid to quit the
foffil alkali with which it is united in Glauber fait, and
to attach itfelf to a particle of magnefia already united
with the muriatic acid, which alfo quits it to unite with
the alkali, but we do not fee the operation. The par¬
ticles and their motions are not the objefts of our fenfes ;
and all that we fee is the Epfom fait and common fait
feparated from the water in which we had formerly dif-
folved the fal nairabile and the muriated magnefia. The
motions, which are the immediateof the changing
caufes, and therefore their only indications^ charaElerif-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
40
The con¬
necting
concomi¬
tant events
is totally
unknown.
4'
In the firft
clafs, how¬
ever, the
ciple may
be accu¬
rately ob¬
ferved,
hut not in
tics and meafures, fitted to (how their nature, are hid ntnxluc-
- non.
rrom our view. .
Our knowledge therefore of thefe phenomena muft be
lefs perfect than that of the phenomena ot the tormer And there-
clafs ) and we muft here content ourfelves with the dif-fore the
covery of more remote relations and remote cauies, and
with our ignorance of the very powers ot nature by fecolui citfs
which theft changes are brought about, and which areare lefs un-
cognofcible only by their immediate effects, viz. the mo derltood.
tions which they produce unfeen. The knowledge
which we do really acquire is fomewhat fimilar to what
the mechanical philofopher has acquired when he has
difeovered, by many experiments and inveftigations, that
magnets attratft each other by their diilimilar poles,
and repel each other by their fimilar poles, and do not
atft at all on any bodies but loadftones and iron. Here
we leave undifeovered all that is moft curious in the phe¬
nomenon, viz. how thefe attractions and repullions are
produced ; and even here the magnetical philofopher
has the advantage of feeing the agents and the opera-
tion. 44
But philofophers attending to this circumftance, Though
that, even in thefe cafes, the changes are produced by ‘)me philo-
motions, or confift in motions, however unperceived
thefe may be, have concluded, that the laws according tempted
to which nature operates in producing thefe changes to explain
are fimilar to the laws which regulate her operations in them by
the fenfible aftions of bodies, or are included in them
and that the motions, though unfeen, and the moving uioti(jn.
forces, are perfectly fimilar. They have therefore em¬
ployed fimilar modes of inveftigation, applying the laws
of impulfe, and calling in the aid of mathematical know¬
ledge.
Of this we have many examples in the writings of
Dr Freind, Keil, Bernouilli, Helftiam, Boerhaave, Hart¬
ley, and others, who have delivered theories of fermen¬
tation, folution, precipitation, cryftallization, nutrition,
fecretion, mufcular adtion, nay even of fenfation and
intelligence, founded, as they think, on the laws of mo¬
tion, and illuftrated and fupported by mathematical rea-
foning. Lord Bacon himfelf, that careful and fagaei-
ous diftinguiftier of intelledlual operations, has gone in¬
to the fame track in his explanation of the phenomena
of fire and, .combuftion : and Sir Ifaac Newton has'
made feveral attempts of the fame kind, although with
peculiarities Avhich always chara&trife his difcufiions,
and make them very different from thofe of an inferior
clafs. 43
But the fuccefs of thefe philofophers has hitherto been but their
very difeouraging : indeed they had no title to expedl attempts
any } for their whole trains of reafoning have proceeded ^fucceh™
on analogies which were not obferved, but affumed or ^
fuppofed without any authority. There is not that fimi-
larity in the phenomenon, or in the vifible effedl, which
is abfolutely neceffary for a fuccefsful reafoning by ana¬
logy. We do not obferve any local motion, any change
of place, which alone enables us to reafon mathemati¬
cally on the fubjedl. And to make the cafe defperate,
this ill-founded analogy has been mixed with hypothefes
completely gratuitous. Certain forms have been aflign-
ed to the particles, and certain modes of adtion have
been laid down for them, for whofe reality we have not
the leaft argument or indication : and to complete the
matter, thefe fancied forms and laws of adlion have been
fuch as are either felf-contradidlory and inconfiftent, or
3 H they
426
PHY
Introduc¬
tion.
46
The advan¬
tage de¬
rived in
thefe fpe-
c illations
from ma¬
thematical
philofophy.
they have been fuch as, if-allo wed to aft in a way ana¬
logous to what we obferve in the fenfible motions of bo¬
dies, would produce effefts totally different from thofe
■which are obferved. Thefe atomical theories, as they
are called, tranfgrefs every rule of philofophical difcuf-
lion, and even the bell of them are little better than
trifling amufements. By far the greatefl part of them
only ferve to raife a fmile of pity and contempt in every
perfon at all acquainted with mechanical philofophy.
Whenever we fee an author attempting to explain thefe
hidden operations of nature by invifible fluids, by aethers,
by colliflons, and vibrations, and particularly if we fee
him introducing mathematical reafonings into fuch ex¬
planations—the beft thing we can do is to (hut the book,
and take to fume other fubjeft. That we may not be
thought to fpeak prefumptuoufly on this occafion, we
only beg leave to remind our readers, that the united
knowledge of the mod eminent mathematicians of Eu¬
rope has not yet been able to give any thing more than
an approximation to the folution of the problem of three
bodies ; that is, to determine with accuracy the motions
of three particles of matter afting on each other in the
fimpleft of all polfible manners, viz. by forces varying
as the fquares of the diftances inverfely : and the vibra¬
tions of elaftic bodies, of any but the very fimpleft pof-
fible forms, are to this day beyond the read) of invefli-
gation. What then (liould be our expeftations in cafes
where millions of particles are afting at once, of forms
unobferved, and with forces unknown, and where the
objeft is not a determination of an average refult of ma¬
ny, where the precife ftate of an individual particle need
not be known, but where it is this very precife ftate of
each fingle particle that we want to know ? What can
it be but uncertainty and miftake ?
Notwithftanding thefe difcouraging circumftances, we
rauft obferve that this kind of inquiry has greatly im¬
proved of late years, along with the improvement and
extenfion of mathematical philofophy, and fince philo-
fophers have given over their incelfant attempts to ex¬
plain every thing by impulfe •, and we need not defpair
of making ftill farther advances, if we will content our-
felves with going no farther than Newton has done in
his explanation of the planetary motions. He has im¬
mortalized his own name, and has added immenfely to
our (lock of ufeful knowledge : yet he has flopped (hort
at the difcovery of the faft of univerfal gravitation ; and
all who have endeavoured to explain or account for this
faft have only expofed themfelves to pity. We may per¬
haps be one day able to demonftrate from the phenome¬
na that the particles of matter have certain mutual ten¬
dencies to or from each other, exerted according to fix¬
ed or invaried rules ; and from thefe tendencies we may
be able to explain many other phenomena, and predift
the confequences, with as much certainty and evidence
as an aftronomer calculates a future eclipfe. This would
be a great acquifition, and perhaps more is impoffible :
and the road to this has been hinted by Sir Ifaac New¬
ton, who has expreffed his fufpicion, that as the great
movements of the folar fyftem are regulated by univerfal
gravitation, fo the mutual aftions of the particles of mat¬
ter are produced and regulated by tendencies of a fimilar
kind, equally but not more inexplicable, and of which
the laws of aftion are to be difeovered by as careful an
attention to the phenomena, and by the fame patient
thinking, which he has employed on the planetary mo-
s 1 e s.
tions. And a beautiful introduftion to this- new and al- Introduc-
moft unbounded field of inquiry has been given us by t‘otl‘
the celebrated Abbe Bofcovich, in his Theory of Natu-1 » —'
ral Philofophy, where he has drown how fuch mutual
tendencies, fimilar in every ultimate particle of matter,
and modified by conditions that are highly probable,
nay almoft demonftrable, will not only produce the fen¬
fible forms of folidity, hardnefs, elaftieity, duftility, flui¬
dity, and vapour, under an inconceivable variety of fub-
ordinate appearances, and the obferved laws of fenfible
motion, but will go far to explain the phenomena of fu-
fion, congelation, folution, cryftallization, &c. &c. &c.
both in chemiftry and phyfiology. We earneftly recom¬
mend this work to the perufal of all who wi(h to obtain
a diftinft notion of the internal conftitution of natural
bodies, and of the way in which the uniting forces pro¬
duce their ultimate and fenfible eftefts. Any perfon,
pofieffed of a moderate ftiare of mathematical knowledge,
will be convinced that the procefs of nature is not very
different from what he deferibes j and that much of what
we obferve mult happen as he fays, even although the
ultimate atoms of matter are not inextended mathema¬
tical points, accompanied with attrafting and repelling
forces. ^
But we have many fteps to make before vte begin this Our igno-
ftudy : Nature opens to us an immenfe volume ; and werance ftil!
doubt not that our pofterity will long find employment
in the perufal, even though advancing with the eager-t,ie increa(-0
nefs and fuccefs of the laft century. We have not yetofknow-
arrived at the threftiold in many parts of this refearch : a-
In many ports of chemiftry, for inftance, we are as
uncertain with refpeft to the phenomena themfelves, lCUty'
which are to be the fubjefts of this difeuflion. The
compofition of bodies muft be fully underftood before we
begin to fpeak of the forces which unite their particles,
or fpeculate about their modes of aftion. As long as
water was confidered as an element, we were ignorant
of the forces inherent in its particles ; we are, perhaps,
ftill ignorant of this ; but we now know that they are
extremely different from what weformerly fuppofed them
to be. It is but in a very few, if in any, cafes of che¬
mical combination, that wje even know what are the in¬
gredients : till we know this, it is too foon to fpeculate
about their mode of union. Our ignorance in the real
events in the animal and vegetable economy is ftill
greater. Our firft talk therefore is to proceed, as we
are now doing, in the accurate examination and claffm-
cadon of the phenomena themfelves ; and, without at¬
tempting to bring them within the pale of mathematical
philofophy, by attempting what are called mechanical
explanations, let us give up the confideration of thefe
hidden operations, and augment to the utmoft our lift
of fecondary laws of vifible but remote conneftions. All
the mechanical fpeculations of the honourable Robert
Boyle about the fenfible qualities of things are now for¬
gotten ; but his chemical experiments preferve all their
value, and are frequently referred to. The fame may
be faid of the fagacious Dr Hales, whofc fanciful notions
of internal conflifts, and collifions, and vibrations, de¬
rogate nothing from the value of the curious fafts which 48
he has eftablilbed both in the animal and vegetable eco-The part*-
many. _ _
This diftinftion in the nature of the phenomena, and ^ hyfual
this difference in the nature of the knowledge which feience in
is to be acquired, and the means which are to be em-Britain.
P H Y S
[ntroduc- ployed for the fuccefsful profecution of thefe two branch-
tion. es of general phyfics, has occafioned a ftill farther re-
'—v ' ftridion (at leail; in Britain) of the term natural phi¬
losophy. It is particularly applied to the ftudy of the
phenomena of the firft clafs, while thofe of the feeond
have produced the faiences of chemistry and PHYSIO¬
LOGY.
Natural philofophy and chemidry have generally
been made particular inftitutions in our feminaries of
learning, but phyfiology has more commonly been
taught in conjundlion with anatomy, medicine, and bo¬
tany.
The phenomena of the firft clafs have been ufually
called MECHANICAL, in order to diftinguifti them from
thofe obferved in the operations of chemiftry, and in
the animal and vegetable economy j and the explanations
which have been attempted of feme of the laft, by ap¬
plying the laws obferved in the phenomena of the firft;
clafs, have been called mechanical explanations.
As this firft clafs is evidently but a part of gene¬
ral phyfics, there is feme impropriety in giving the
name natural philofophy to a courfe of do&rines which
is confined to thefe alone. Indeed at the firft inftitu-
tion of univerfities, the ledtures given in the Schola
Phyfca were much more extenfive, comprehending al-
moft all the phenomena of the material world : but as
all arts and fciences have improved moft where the la¬
bour has been moft divided, it was found more condu¬
cive to the advancement of knowledge that feparate
inftitutions ftiould be founded for the ftudies of natu¬
ral hiftory, chemiftry, phyfiology, &c. ; and thus the
phenomena, purely mechanical, and a few others in
magnetifm, electricity, and optics, which either were
fufceptible of mathematical * treatment, or had little
connexion with the ftudies of chemiftry and phyfiology,
were left to the care of the profeffor of natural philo¬
fophy.
As the terms chemiftry and phyfology have been ap¬
plied to two very important branches of general phy¬
fics, we think that a more fpecific or charadleriftic
name might be appropriated to the other, and that
it might very properly be termed mechanical philo¬
sophy.
It only remains to make a few obfervations on the
diftindlive means of profecuting thefe ftudies with fuc-
cefs, and to point out feme of the advantages which
may reafonably be expected from a careful profecution
of them : and as the fecond branch has been fully treated
under the feveral articles of Chemistry, Physiology,
&c. we fhall confine ourfelves to what is ufually called
natural philosophy.
49 .....
Mechanical Mechanical Philosophy may, in conformity with
defioe'd^^ foreg°ing °bfervations? be defined, “ the ftudy of the
and its’ fenfible motions of the bodies of the univerfe, and of their
principles a&ions producing fenfible motions, with the view to dif-
explained. cover their caufes, to explain fubordinate phenomena,
and to improve art.”
The principle upon which all philofophical difeuflion
proceeds is, that every change which we ohferve in the
condition of things is confdered by us as an ejfeEl, indi¬
cating the agency, characlcriftng the kind, and meafuring
the degree, of its caufe.
In the language of mechanical philofophy, the caufe
I C S. 427
of any change of motion Is called a moving or changing Met ban ice. i
J 0 Phxlofopnv.
FORCE. _ ~ .
The difquifitions of natural philofophy muft therefore
begin with the conlideration of motion, carefully noti¬
cing every affeftion or quality of it, fo as to eftablifti
marks and meafures of every change of which it is fuf¬
ceptible ; for thefe are the only marks and meafures of
the changing forces. This being done, it only remains
to apply them to the motions which we obferve in the
univerfe. _
From the general principle of philofophical difeuflion The laws
already mentioned, there flow direcfly two axioms. of motion
1. Every body perfeveres in afate of ref, or of uniform
reBilineal motion, unlefs affeBed by fame moving force. ‘1 iK!
2. Every change of motion is in the direBion and in the
degree of the force impref'ed.
Thefe are ufually called the laws of motion. They
are more properly laws of human judgment, with refpefr
to motion. Perhaps they are ne^eflary truths, unlefs it
be alleged that the general principle, of which they are
neceflary confequences, is itfelf a contingent though uni-
verfal truth.
By thefe two axioms, applied in abfraBo to every
variety of motion, we eftablilh a fyftem of general doc¬
trines concerning motions, according as they are fimple
or compounded, accelerated, retarded, reflilineal, cur-
vilineal, in Angle bodies, or in fyftems of connected bo¬
dies j and we obtain correfponding charafteriftics and
meafures of accelerating or retarding forces, centripetal
or centrifugal, fimple or compound.
We have an illuftrious example of this abftra£I fyflem
of motion and moving forces in the frrft book of Sir Ifaac
Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philo¬
fophy. Euler’s Mechanica Jive Scientia Motus, Herman’s
Phoronomiaftve de Viribus Corporum, and D’Alembert’s
Traite de Dynamique, are alfo excellent works of the
fame kind. In this abftratt fyftem no regard is paid to
the cafual differences of moving forces, or the fources
from which they arife. It is enough to charadfterife a
double accelerating force, for inftance, that it produces
a double acceleration. It may be a weight, a ftream of
water, the preffure of a man •, and the force, of which it
is faid to be double, may be the attraftion of a magnet,
a current of air, or the aftion of a fpring.
Having eftablifhed thefe general dodtrines, the pbi-
lofopher now applies them to the general phenomena of
the univerfe, in order to difeover the nature of the forces
which really exift, and the laws by which their opera¬
tions are regulated, and to explain interefting but fubor¬
dinate phenomena. This is the chief bufinefs of the me¬
chanical philofopher •, and it may with fome propriety
be called the mechanical hifory of nature. 51
Some method muft be followed in this hiftory of me- Of the at-
chanical nature. The phenomena muft be claffed by rangemetifc
means of their refemblances, which infer a refemblance °iianfc”[e"
in their caufes, and thefe claffes muft be arranged ac-phenonie-
cording to fome principle. We have feen no method na of the
which appears to us lefs exceptionable than the follow- univerfe.
ing- . . . 53
The principle of arrangement is the generality of the The gene-
phenomena $ and the propriety of adopting this princi-^^^
pie, arifes from the probability which it gives us of more ^ ^
readily difeovering the moft general aftuating forces, principle
ivhofe agency is implicated in all other phenomena ofarrangc .
3 H a lefsraent*
42 8
Mechanical lefs extent) and therefore fliould be previoufly difcufl'ed,
rhilofophy. we May the difcriminating circumftances
which ferve to charafterife the fubordinate phenomena,
and are thus the marks of the diltinguithing and inferior
^3 natural powers.
The laws of The molt general of all phenomena is the curvilinear
motion are motion of bodies in free fpace : it is obferved through
“si '*»; extenl of the folar fyflem.
mical phe The mechanical hiftory of nature begins therefore
nomena. with aftronomy. Here, from the general phenomena
of the planetary motions, is evinced the faff of the mu¬
tual defleflion of every body towards every other body,
and tins in the inverfe proportion of the fquares of the
diilance, and the direft proportion of the quantity of
matter. This is the fadl of universal gravitation,
indicating the agency, and meafuring the intenfity, of
the univerfal force of mutual gravity.
Having ellablidied this as an univerfal fa61, the na¬
tural philofopher proceeds to point out all the particular
fadls which are compithended under it, and whofe pecu¬
liarities charafterife the different movements of the folar
fyflem. That is, in the language of philofophy, he gives
a theory or explanation of the fubordinate phenomena $
the elliptical motions of the planets and comets, their
mutual difturbances •, the lunar irregularities j the oblate
figure of the planets *, the nutation of the earth’s axis ;
the preceflion of the equinoxes ; and the phenomena of
the tides and trade winds : and he concludes with the
theory of the parabolic motion of bodies proje£ted on
the furface of this globe, and the motion of pendu¬
lums.
As he goes along, he takes notice of the applications
which may be made to the arts of life of the various
doctrines which are fucceffively eflablifhed ^ fuch as
chronology, aftronomical calculation, dialling, naviga¬
tion, gunnery, and the meafuring of time.
If a fquare parcel of fand be lying on the table, and
t^>e finSer ke applied to any part of it to pufh it along
the table, that part is removed where you will, but the
reft remains in its places but if it is a piece of fand-ftone
of the fame materials and (hape, and the finger is applied
as before, the whole is moved ; the other parts accom¬
pany the part impelled by the finger in ail its motions.
From the moon’s accompanying the earth in all its
motions round the fun, we infer a moving force which
connefls the moon and earth. In like manner, we muft
conclude that a moving force connefls the particles of
the ftone ; for we give the name force to every thing
which produces motion : We call it the force of COHE¬
SION *, a term which, like gravitation, exprefles merely
a faff.
T his feems to be the next phenomenon of the univerfe
in point of extent.
Having, from the general phenomenon, eftabliftied
the exiftence of this force, the philofopher proceeds to
afcertain the laws bjr which its exertions are regulated j
which is the afcertaining its dirtinflive nature and pro¬
perties. This he does in the fame way that he afcer-
tained the nature of planetary gravitation, viz. by ob-
ferving more particularly the various phenomena.
Here is opened a moft extenfive and varied field of
obfervation, in which it muft be acknowledged that very
little regular and marked progrefs has been made. The
variety in the phenomena, and the confequent variety in
the nature of the connefting forces, appear as yet in¬
5
PHYSICS.
54
The appli¬
cation of
this fci-
ence to the
arts of
life.
55
of gravita.
tion,
5«
and of co-
hefion.
57
Mode of
inveftiga-
ting the
laws of co¬
ll elion.
conceivably great; and there feems little probability of Mechanical
our being able to detect in them all any famenefs, com- ^hilofophy,
bined with the. other diftinguilhing circumtlances, as we
have done in the cafe of gravity. Yet we fliould not
defpair. Bofcovich has Ihown, in the moft unexcep¬
tionable manner,, that although we (hall fuppofe that
every atom of matter is endued with a perfectly fimilar
force, afting in a certain determined ratio of the fmall
and imperceptible diftances at which the particles of
matter are arranged with refpeft to each other, the ex¬
ternal or fenfible appearances may, and muft, have all
that variety which we obferve. He alfo ftiows very dif-
tin&ly how, from the operation of this force, muft arife
fome of the moft general and important phenomena
which charafterife the different forms of tangible bodies.
We obferve the chief varieties of the adlion of this
CORPUSCULAR force on the bodies which we denomi¬
nate hard, foft, folid, fluid, vaporous, brittle, duffile,
elaflic. We fee inftances where the parts of bodies
avoid each other, and require external force to keep
them together, or at certain fmall diftances from each
other. This is familiar in air, vapours, and all com-
preflible and elaftic bodies.
This is evidently a moft curious and interefting fub-
je£t of inveftigation. On the nature and a<ftion of thefe
corpufcular forces depends the ftrength or firmnefs of
folids, their elafticity, their power of communicating
motion, the preffure, and motion, and impulfe of fluids;
nay, on the fame adtions depend all the chemical and
phyfiological phenomena of expanfion, fufion, congela¬
tion, vaporifation, condenfation, folution, precipitation,
abforption, fecretion, fermentation, and animal and ve¬
getable concodlion and affimilation.
Out of this immenfe (lore of phenomena, this inex.-
hauftible fund of employment for our powers of invef¬
tigation, the natural philofopher feledls thofe which lead
diredlly to the produdlion or modification of fenfible mo¬
tion.
He will therefore confider, ^
f. The communication of motion among detached and The prs-
free bodies, eftablilhing the laws of impulfe orcollifion.dudionof
This has always been confidcred as the elementary doc-!™1'®" ^
trine of mechanical philofophy, and as the moft familiar 6 35
fadt obferved in the material world; and in all ages thought tk
philofophers have been anxious to reduce all adtions ofmoftfami-
bodies on each other to impulfe, and have never thoughtliar fa<a “
a phenomenon completely explained or accounted fori atuTe'
till it has been (hown to be a cafe of impulfe. This it
is which has given rife to the hypothefes of vortices,
ethers, magnetic and eledtric fluids, animal fpirits, and
a multitude of fancied intermediums between the fenfible
maiTes of matter, which are faid in common language
to adl on each other. A heavy body is fuppofed to fall,
becaufe it is impelled by a ftream of an invifible fluid
moving according to certain conditions fuited to the cafe.,
The filings of iron are fuppofed to be arranged round a
magnet, by means of a ftream of magnetic fluid ifliiing
from one pole, circulating perpetually round the magnet,
and entering at the other pole, in the fame manner as
we obferve the flote-grafs arranged by the current of a
brook.
But the philofopher who has begun the mechanical gut this
ftudy of nature by the abftradl dodlrines of dynamics, opinion is
and'made its firft application to the celeftial phenome-v.*r!^"
na, and who has attended carefully to the many ana-tl0na
logics
PHYSIOS.
429
y
f
1
R
f,
P
f
e
a
p
hanical logics between the phenomena of gravitation and cohe-
,fophy. fion, will be at leaft ready to entertain very different
notions of this matter. He will be fo far from think¬
ing that the produ&ion of motion by impulfe is the
mod familiar faft in nature, that he will acknowledge
it to be comparatively very rare •, nay, there are fome
appearances in the fadfs, which are ufually confidered
as inftances of impulfion, which will lead him to doubt,
and almoft to deny, that there has ever been obferved an
inftance of one body putting another in motion by com¬
ing into abfofute contadt with it, and ftriking it •, and
he will be difpofed to think that the produdtion of mo¬
tion in this cafe is precifely fimilar to what we obferve
to when we gently pufh one floating magnet towards ano-
lon be ther, with their fimilar poles fronting each other. There
uced 8 ke the fame produdiion of motion in the one and di-
the minution of it in the other, and the fame uniform mo-
lityof tion of the common centre of gravity : and, in this cafe
in ^ of the magnets, he fees completely the neceflity of a law
:ion' of motion, which is not an axiom, but is obferved through
the whole of nature, and which receives no explanation
from any hypothefis of an intervening fluid, but is even
totally incojififtent with them. We mean, “ that every
adtion of one body on another is accompanied by an
equal and oppofite adtion of that other on the firft.”
This is ufually called the equality of aRion and rea&ion:
it is not intuitive, but it is univerfal 5 and it is a necef-
fary confequence of the perfedt fimilarity of the corpuf-
cular forces of the fame kinds of matter. This general
fadt, unaccountable on the hypothefis of impelling fluids,
is confidered in the planetary motions as the unequivocal
indication of the famenefs of that gravity which regulates
them all. The rules of good reafoning ftiould make us
draw the fame conclufion here, that the particles of tan¬
gible matter are connedted by equal and mutual forces,
which are the immediate caufes of all their fenfible ac¬
tions, and that thefe forces, like gravitation, vary with
every change of di fiance and fituation.
The laws of collifion and impulfion being now efta-
blifhed, either as original fadls or as confequences of the
agency of equal and mutual forces which connedt the
particles of matter, the philofopher confiders,
motion 2. The produdtion of motion by the intervention of
fulid bodies, where, by reafon of the cohefion of mat-
’rj, of ter, fome of the motions are neceflarily confined to
:hines certain determinate paths or diredtions. This is the
cafe in all motions round fixed points or axes, or along
planes or curves which are oblique to the adtion of the
forces.
cha. This part of the ftudy contains the theory of machines,
Sl pointing out the principles on which their energy de¬
pends, and confequently furniflving maxims for their con-
flrudtion and improvement. But thefe obfervations do,
not complete the difcuflion of the mechanifm of folid bo¬
dies : they are not only folid and inert, but they are al-
fo heavy •, therefore the adtion of gravity muft be com¬
bined with the confequences of folidity. This will lead
to difcuflions about the centre of gravity, the theory and
conftrudtion of arches and roofs, the principles of liabili¬
ty and equilibrium, the attitudes of animals, and many
<3 particulars of this kind.
e nature 3* * he philofopher will now turn his attention to
Uefini. another form, in which tangible matter exhibits many
\ uu interefting phenomena, viz. FLUIDITY. The firft thing
to be attended to here is, W/iat is that particular form of
exijlence? What is the precifc phenomenon which cha- Mechanical
radterifes fluidity ? What is the definition of a fluid ? 1 •1 0 °P >,i
This is by no means an eafy queftion, and confiderable
objedtions may be ftated againtl any definition that has
been given of it. Sir Ifaac Newton fays, that a fluid
is a body whofe particles yield to the finallefl imprefjion^
and by fo yielding are eaflly moved among themfeives. It
mav be doubted whether this be fufficiently precife j
what is meant by the fmallefl imprejjion ? and what is
eafl/y moving ? Is there any precife degree of impreflion
to which they do not yield j and do they oppofe any re¬
finance to motion ? And a ftronger objedtion may be
made : It is not clear that a body fo conftituted will a
exhibit all the appearances which a body acknowledged
to be fluid does really exhibit. Euler offers fome very *
plaufible reafons for doubting whether it will account for
the horizontal furface, and the complete propagation of
preffure through the fluid in every diredtion j and there¬
fore prefers feledting this lafl phenomenon, the propaga¬
tion of preffure qudqua verjum, as the charadteriftic of
fluidity, becaufe a body having this conftitution (on
whatever circumftances it may depend) will have every
other obferved property of a fluid. But this definition,
is hardly fimple or perfpicuous enough $ and we think
that the objedtions againft Newton’s more fimple and in¬
telligible definition are not unanfwerable. BolcovicV
defines a fluid to be, a body whofe particles exert the
fame mutualforces in alldireRions; and (hows, that fuch
particles muft be indifferent, as to any pofition, with
refpedt to each other. If no external force adt on them,
they will remain in every pofition, and will have no ten¬
dency to arrange themfeives in one pofition rather than
another •, differing in this refpedt from the particles of .
folid, or foft, or vifeid bodies j which require fome force
to change their refpedtive pofitions, and which recover
thefe pofitions again when but gently difturbed. He il-
luftrates this diftindtion very beautifully, by comparing a
parcel of balls thrown on quickfilver, and attradling each
other, with a parcel of magnets in the fame fituation. The
balls will flick together, but in any poftion ; whereas the-
magnets will always affedt a particular arrangement. ^
When the charadteriftic phenomenon of fluidity has of the pre(-
been feledled, the philofopher proceeds to combine this Cure and
property* with gravity, and eftabliflies the dodlrines 0feqi'>lbnum
HYDROSTATICS, or ot the prellure and equilibrium <»hydrofta-
heavy fluids, the propagation of this preffure in every tks.
diredlion j and demonftrates the horizontality of furface
affumed by all perfedt fluids.
Thefe dodtrines and principles enable us to determine
feveral very interefting circurnftances refpedting the mu¬
tual preffure offolids and fluids on each other; the pref-
fures exerted on the bottoms and fides of veffels ; the fup-
port and whole mechanifm of floating bodies, &c.
He then confiders how fluids will move when their Of the mo-
equilibrium of preffure is deftroyed ; and eftablifties tlietion
dodtrines of hydraulics, containing all the modifica-!^1^’?.r
tions of this motion, arifingfrom the form of the veffels, ^
or from the intenfity or diredtion of the preffure which
occafions it. And this fubjedt is completed by the con-
fideration of the refiftance which fluids oppofe to the
motion of folid bodies through them, and their impulfe
on bodies oppofed to their adtion.
Thefe are very important matters, being the founda¬
tions of many mechanical arts, and furnilhing us with
fome of our moft convenient and efficacious powers -for
impelling
/
43°
P II Y
The im¬
portance
and difficul-
_ 57
The nature
and defini¬
tion of va¬
pour.
68
The doc¬
trine of air
or pneuma¬
tics.
Mechanical Impelling machines. They are alfo of very difficult dif-
rhiloiouiy. cu(i'lonj an j are by no means completely inveiiigated or
66 eftabliffied. Much remains yet to be done both for
perfecting the theories and for improving the arts which
depend on them.
t ofthefe ^ ev^ent5 that on thefe doCtrines depend the
branches of knowledge of the motions of rivers and of waves 5 the
fcjence. buoyancy, equilibrium, and {lability of {hips j the mo¬
tion of {hips through the waters j the aCtion of the winds
on the fails *, and the whole arts of marine conftruftion
and feamanffiip.
There is another general form of tangible matter
which exhibits very different phenomena, which are alfo
extremely interefting ; we mean that of vapour. A
vapour is a fluid ; and all the vapours that we know arc
heavy fluids : they are therefore fubjedt to all the laws
of preffure and impulfe, which have been confidered
under the article Hydrodynamics. But they are
fufceptible of great compreflion by the adtion of ex¬
ternal forces, and expand again when thefe forces are
removed. In confequence of this compreffion and ex-
panfion, the general phenomena of fluidity receive great
and important modifications j and this clafs of fluids re¬
quires a particular confideration. As air is a familiar
inftance, this branch of mechanical philofophy has been
called PNEUMATICS.
Under this head rye confider the preffure of the at-
mofphere, and its effedts, both on folid and fluid bodies.
It produces the rife of waters or other fluids in pumps
and fyphons, and gives us the theory of their conftruc-
tion : it explains many curious phenomena of nature,
fuch as the motions in the atmofpherc, and their con¬
ned! ion with the preffure of the air, and its effedt on the
barometer or weather-glafs. Air, when in motion, is
called wind; and it may be employed to impel bodies.
The theory of its adtion, and of its refiftance to moving
bodies, are therefore to be confidered in this place.
But befides their motions of progreflion, &c. fuch as
we obferve in winds, compreflible or elaftic fluids are fuf¬
ceptible of what may be termed internal motion ; a kind
of undulation, where the contiguous parts are thrown
into tremulous vibrations, in which they are alternately
condenfed and rarefied 5 and thefe undulations are propa¬
gated along the mafs of elaftic fluid, much in the fame
way in which we obferve waves to fpread on the furface
of water. What makes this an interefting fubjedt of
confideration is, that thefe undulations are the more or¬
dinary caufes of found. A trembling chord, or fpring,
or bell, agitates the air adjoining to it : thefe agita¬
tions are propagated along the air, and by its interven¬
tion agitate the organ of hearing. The mechanifm of
thefe undulations has been much ftudied, and furnithes
a very beautiful theory of mufical harmony.
The philofopher examines the law of comprejfibility
compreffi- nf a;r an(j other elaftic fluids 5 and thus gets the know¬
ledge of the conftitution of the atmofphere, and of the
adtion of thofe fluids when employed to impel folid bo¬
dies. Gunpowder contains an immenfe quantity of per¬
manently elaftic air, which may be fet at liberty by in¬
flammation. When this is done at the bottom of apiece
of ordnance, it will impel a ball along the barrel, and
difeharge it from the muzzle, in the fame way that an
arrow is impelled by a bow. And thus having difeovered
in what degree this air preffes in proportion to its expan-
fton, we difeover its adtion on the ball through the whole
69
Of the
bility of
elaftic
fluids, and
its confe-
quences.
S I c s.
length of the piece, and the velocity which it will fi.Mcdu;
naliy communicate to it. Here then is contained a ]
theory of artillery and of mines.
Chemiilry teaches us, that moft bodies can be con-ofth°
verted by fire into elaftic fluids, which can be employed verfion 0 i
to adt on other bodies in the way of preffure or impulfe. botiies in!
Thus they come under the review of the mechanical phi- elaflicfli
lofopher; and they have become interefting by being em-by fire‘
ployed as moving forces in fome very powerful machines.
Thefe difeuffions will nearly exhauft all the general
mechanical phenomena. There remain fome which are
much more limited, but furnifli very curious and im¬
portant fubjedts of inveftigation.
The phenomena exhibited bettveen loadftones or mag- Of the P
nets and iron have long attradted attention ; and the ufeDOmena<
to which the polarity of the loadftone has been applied,loa(lftoM
namely, the diredting the courfe of a fhip through the
pathlefs ocean, has rendered thefe phenomena extremely
interefting. They are fpecified by the term magnetism.
Confiderable progrefs has been made in the arrangement
and generalization of them ; but we have by no means
been able hitherto to bring them all under one Ample
fadt. The attention has been too much turned to the
difeovery of the ultimate caufe of magnetifm 5 whereas
wefliouldhave rather employed our ingenuity in difeover-
ing all the general laws, in the fame manner as Kepler
and Newton did with refpedt to the celeftial phenomena,
without troubling themfelves with the caufe' of gravita¬
tion. Dr Gilbert of Colchefter was the firft who con¬
fidered the magnetical phenomena in the truly philo-
fophical manner; and his treatife Be Mugnete may be
confidered as the firft and one of the moft perfedt fpeci-
mens of the Baconian or indudtive logic. It is indeed
an excellent performance j and when we confider its date,
1580, it is a wonder. Alpinus’s Tentamen Theorue
Magnetifmi is a moft; valuable work, and contains all the
knowledge which we have as yet of the fubjedt. ^
There is another clafs of mechanical phenomena which Of eledr
have a confiderable affinity with the magnetical; wecalPlltn<
mean the phenomena called electrical. Certain bo-raena’
dies, when rubbed or otherwife treated, attradl and repel
other bodies, and occafion a great variety of fenfible mo¬
tions in the neighbouring bodies. Philofophers have paid
much attention to thefe appearances of late years, and
•eftablilhed many general laws concerning them. But
we have not been more fuccefsful in bringing them all
under one fadt, and thus eftablifhing a complete theory
of them, than in the cafe of magnetifm. Franklin and
iEpinus are the authors who have been moft fuccefsful
in this refpedt. Dr Franklin in particular has acquired
great celebrity by his moft fagacious com pari fon of the
phenomena j which has enabled him to eftablilh a few
general laws, almoft as precife as thofe of Kepler, and
of equally extenfive influence. His difeovery too of the
identity of thunder and eledtricity has given an import¬
ance and dignity to the whole fubjedt. 73
There are many phenomena of eledtricity which can- Thefe ai
not be called mechanical, and are of the moft curious not all n
and interefting kind. As thefe have little connedtion chan*c*
with any of -the other great branches of phyfical fcience,
they have generally been confidered in treatifes of na¬
tural philofophy ; and, along with inquiries into the ori¬
ginal caufe of eledtricity in general, continue to engage
much of our attention.
The appearances which are prefented to us by our
fenfe
PHYSIC S.
43
r ena
v I).
7°
.v optics
j hmical fenfe of feeing form another clafs, which' have always
i jibpliy- been confidered as making a branch of natural philofo-
‘ pby in all feminaries of learning. It does not, how-
^ ^e. ever, obvioufly appear, that they are mechanical phe-
116 P0f nomena. The intimate nature of light is llill a fecret.
Fortunately it is not neceffary to be known to give us
a very perfeft theory of the chief phenomena. The
general laws of optics arc fo few, fo fimple, and fo
precife, that our theories are perhaps more perfeff here
than in any other branch of phyfics •, but thcfe theories
are as yet far removed from the rank of primary faffs.
Many unknown events happen before the phenomen ni
comes under the hands of the ordinary optician, fo as to
become the fubjefts of the fimple laws of refleffion and
1 as been refraffion. It may even be doubted, and has been doubt-
( bted e(i5 whether the phenomena of optics are cafes of body
’ '^er in motion •, whether all the lines which the optician draws
! ioreal are an.v thing t*111 ^ie direff ions along which certain qua-
litles are exerted. The fide of a ball which is next the
candle may be bright and the other fide dark, juft as the
fide of a ball which is next the eleflrical globe is minus
and the other fide plus ; and all this without any inter¬
vening medium. Apparition or vifibility may be a qua¬
lity of a body, depending on the proximity and pofition
of another body, without any thing between them, juft
as weight is •, and this quality may be cognizable by our
faculty of feeing alone, juft as the prcfiure of a heavy
body is by our feeling alone.
The firft thing which made it probable that mechani-
ie to be cal philofophy had any thing to do with the phenomena
iidered 0pt|CS} was the difcovery of Mr Roemer, “ that ap-
"hanical Par^i°n was not inftantaneous j” that fome time elapfed
lofophy. between the illumination of a body and its being feen at
a diftance. He difcovered, that it was not till 40 mi¬
nutes after the fun illuminated one of Jupiter’s fatelliies
that it was feen by the inhabitants of this globe. If there¬
fore a fun were juft created, it would be 40 minutes be¬
fore Jupiter would be illuminated by him, and 200 be¬
fore the Georgian planet would be illuminated. Here
77 then is motion. It is therefore highly probable that
i"kfi* ^ere Something moved 5 but it is ftill doubted whe-
iun(je_ ther this fomething, which we call LIGHT, is a matter
Mined, emitted from the ftiining body, and moving with great
velocity, and acfting on and affefted by other bodies, in
the various phenomena of optics, or whether it is a certain
Jlate of a medium which is thus propagated, as we fee
that waves are propagated along the furface of water, or
fonorous undulations through the mafs of air, while the
water or air itfelf is hardly moved out of its place. Ei¬
ther of thefe fuppofitions makes optics a legitimate branch
of mechanical philofophy ; and it is the philofopber’s bu-
finefs to examine both by the received laws of motion,
and fee which of them gives confequences which tally
with the phenomena. This has been done ; and ive ima¬
gine that a complete incompatibility has been demon-
ftrated between the confequences of the undulations of
an elaftic medium, and the phenomena of optics ; while
the confequences of the other or vulgar notion on this
fubjeft are perfeftly confiftent with mechanical laws.
There are fome things in this hypothefis very far beyond
our power to conceive diftinftly ; but they are all fimi-
lar in this refpeft to many fa6Is acknowledged by all ;
and there is no phenemenon that is inconfiftent vrith the
legitimate confequences of the hypothefis. This gives it
great probability ; and this probability is confirmed by
many chemical fa&s, and by fa£ls in the vegetable eco-Mechanical
nomy, which give ftrong and almoft undeniable indica- i'hiiofaphy.^
tions of light being a body capable of a chemical union l
with the other ingredients of fublunary bodies, and of
being afterwards let at liberty under its own form, as
the caufe or medium of vifion.
But thefe are queftions fimilar to thofe about the But this
caufe of gravity, and totally unneceftary for eftablilhing does not af~
a complete theory of the optical phenomena, for ex-
plaining the nature of vifion, the effects of optical in-0pt;cs>
liniments, the caufe of colours, the phenomena of the
rainbow, halos and parhelia, &c. &c. &c. Only
all this theory is unconnected with the principles called
mechanical. ^
Such is the field of obfervation to the mechanical phi- The pro-
lofopher of the prefent day. We may hope to extend kabk>. >n-
it, and bv degrees apply its doftrines even to the unfeen crea^® ot
1 • 1. j 9 # the shove
motions which take place in chemiftry and phyfiology. exterij-lve
But we muft, in the firft place, perfeft our knowledge field of ob-
and deferiprion of the fenfible motions and actions offervation.
bodies. Thofe of fluids ftill demand much inveftigation •,
and till thefe are thoroughly underftood, it is not time
to attempt penetrating further into the recefles of na-
ture. go
In the profecution of this ftudy, it is found that every inveftiga.
change which can be obferved in the ftate of a body,tionof the
with refpeft to motion by the adfion of another body, is kw that
accompanied by an equal and oppofite change in the^^°nsI:>
ftate of that other body. Thus, in the phenomena of^qua^aml
gravitation, it is obferved that the defleclions of the fun oppofite to
and planets are mutual. The fame thing is obferved inteadlion.
the actions of magnets on each other and on iron 5 it is
alfo obferved in the attradlions and repulfions of eleflri¬
cal bodies; and it alfo obtains in all the phenomena of
impulfe and of corporeal preflure. It is therefore an uni-
verfal law of motion, that aBion is always equal and op-
pojite to reaBion: but this muft be confidered merely as
a matter of fafl, a contingent law of nature, like that
of gravitation. The contrary is perfectly conceivable,
and involves no contradiflion. That this is fo, is evident
from the proceedings of philofophers, ■who in every new
cafe make it their bufinefs to difeover by experiment
whether this law' wras obferved or not. It w'as among
the laft difeoveries made by Sir Ifaac New’ton in his
examination of the celeftial motions. This being the
cafe, it fhould never be affumed as a principle of reafon-
ing till its operation has been afeertained by obfervation. g
It has been owing to this improper procedure that much q-fie term
falfe reafoning has been introduced into mechanical phi- inertia has
lofophy, and particularly into the theory of impulfion oroccafi°ned
the communication of motion by impulfe. In confider-muc^
ing this fubjeft, a term has been introduced which has an4
occafioned much w'rangling and mifconception; w’e mean ception on
the term inertia. It ferves indeed to abbreviate lan-this fub-
guage, but it has often milled the judgment. Whenie<^-
ufed with cautious attention to every circumftance, it
expreffes nothing but the neceflity of a caufe to the pro-
duflion of any eftefl : but it is generally ufed as expref-
fing a quality inherent in matter, by which it reji/ls any
change of ftate, or by which it maintains its prefent ftate.
Matter is faid to be inert j and as every thing which
changes the motion of a body is called a force, and as
this inertia of A is fuppofed to change the motion of B,
it is called vis inertier ; and yet matter is faid to be indif¬
ferent as to motion or reft, and to be inadtive. Thefe
43 2 PHY
Mechanical are furely very incongruous expreffions. This obfcure
■ " 0'^J -v, difcourfe has arifen from tlie poverty of all languages,
which are deficient in original terms, and therefore em-
ploy figurative ones. Force, a6lion, refiftance, are all
appropriated terms related to our own exertions j and
fome refemblance between the external effefts of thefe
exertions and the effefts of the connefting qualities of
natural bodies, has made us ufe them in our difquifitions
on thefe fubjedls. And as we are confcious that, in or¬
der to prevent our being puflred by another from our
place, we muft refill, exerting force j and that our re¬
fiftance is the realon why this other man has not ac-
compliftied his purpofe, rve fay, that the quiefeent body
refills being put in motion, and that its inertia is dif-
covered by the diminution made in the motion of the
impelling body : and upon the authority of this vis in-
ertice as a firft principle, the phenomena of impulfion
are explained, and the law of equal action and rea£lion
is eftabliftied.
But all this procedure is in contradiction to the rules
of induftive logic •, and the obfeurity and confufion
which has arifen from this original mifconception, the
confequent incongruity of language, and the awkward
attempts that have been made to botch and accommo¬
date it to the real Hate of things, have occafioned a
difpute, and the only difpute, in natural philofophy
which has not yet been fettled, and never can be fet¬
tled, while fuch mifconceptions are allowed to re¬
main.
If the word inertia be taken as exprefling not a qua¬
lity of matter, but a law of human judgment refpeCl-
ing matter, as exprefling our neceflity of inferring the
agency of a moving force whenever we obferve a change
of motiop, all difficulties will vanifh, and the equality
of aftion and reaflion will be inferred, as it ftiould be,
from the phenomena of collifion. There will be infer¬
red a vis mfita corpori impellenti, not qua moventi, But
qua corpori ; and this inference will carry us through all
the myfteries of corporeal aftion, as It condu&ed Sir
Ifaac Newton in his grand refearches. A B
Let us juft confider how we reafon l i | f-* i
in a new cafe. Let A and B be two
magnets faftened on the ends of two
long wooden laths AE, BF, which
turn horizontally on pivots C, D, like
compafs needles, with their north poles
fronting each other, 12 inches apart;
and let A be pufiied towards B, fo
that it would move uniformly with the C - - D
velocity of two inches in a fecond.
The phenomena which have been ob~
ferved are as follow : A will gradually
diminifh its velocity ; and when it has
advanced about nine inches, will flop
completely. B, in the mean time
will gradually acquire motion ; and E F
when it has advanced about nine inches, will have a
velocity of about two inches per fecond, with which it
will continue to move uniformly. Now what is infer¬
red from thefe phenomena ? Becaufe the motion of A is
gradually retarded, we infer that a retarding force, that
is, a force in the direftion BA, has a£ted on it. And
fince this would not have happened if B had not been
there, and always happens when B is there, wre infer
that B is either its caufe or the occafiou of its a&ion.
Sa
Its proper
meaning,
with an ex¬
ample.
SICS.
The vulgar fay that E repels A ; fo fay the dynatmfts. Meduhi
The abettors of invifible fluids fay, that a ftream of fluid 1>hilofopl
ilfuing from B impels A in the oppofite diredtion. All
naturalifts agree in faying, that an adlive force connedt-
ed with B has deftroyed the motion of A, and confider
this curious phenomenon as the indication and charadter-
iltic of a difeovery. The fame inference is made from
the motion produced in B : it is confidered by all as ef-
fedted by a force exerted or occafioned by the prefence
of A ; and the dynamifts and the vulgar fay that A re-
pels B. And both parties conclude, from the equal
changes made on both bodies, that the changing forces
are equal j here acknowledging, that they obferve an
equality of adlion and readlion j and they add this to the
other inftances of the extent of this law of motion.
All this while no one thinks of the inertia or inadti-
vity of B, but, on the contrary, conclude this to be a
curious inftance of its adlivity j and moft people con¬
clude that both bodies carry about with them a vis in-
j^ffl'both when at reft and when in motion.
If ether phenomena give unqueftionable evidence it is doui
that, in ordinary collifions, there is the fame changes ful whei
of motion, produced without mathematical contadl, the aftual c<
fame inferences muft: be drawn •, and a fcrupulous natu-
ralift will doubt whether contadt ftiould make any change 0bfcrvei]
in our reafonings on the fubjedt, and whether actual
contadt ever has been or can be obferved. He will alfo
be convinced, that while this is the general, or perhaps
univerfal, procefs of nature in producing motion by im-
pulfe, all explanations of the adtion of bodies e difanti, The foil]
by the intervention of ethers and other invifible fluids,ot fuPP°
are nothing but multiplying the difficulties ; for in place fing.lnte
of one fadt, the approach of one magnet (for inftance)
to another, they fubflitute millions of unfeen impulfes,
each of which equally needs an explanation. And if
this fluid be fuppofed to produce its effedls by any pecu¬
liarity in its conftitution, as in the cafe of Newton’s ela-
ftic ether propofed by him to explain gravitation, the
hypothefis fubftitutes, in the moft unqualified manner,
millions of fimilar phenomena for the one to be explain¬
ed v for there is the fame want of a fecond fluid in order
to produce that mutual recefs of the particles of the ether
which eonftitutes its elafticity.
And this feems to be the limit to our inquiries into The qua r
all the claffes of natural phenomena. We find the maf-efbodic
fes or the particles of matter endued in fadt with quali- vyher®^
ties which affedl the ftate of other particles or mafles, at^rbo!)
fmaller or at greater diftances from each other according is inferu
( to certain general rules or laws. This ultimate ftep in table by <
the conftitution of things is infcrutable by us. It is ar¬
rogance in the higheft degree for us to fay, that becaufe
we do not comprehend how there is inherent in a body
any quality by which another body may be affedled at any
diftance from it, therefore no fuch quality ispojjible. It
is no lefs fo to fay, that matter has no adlive property
but that of moving other matter by impulfe $ and that
becaufe it may be fo moved, and alfo by the agency of
our own minds, therefore, when it is not moved by im¬
pulfe, it is moved by minds. The fame almighty fiat
which brought a particle of matter into exiftence could
bring thofe qualities equally into exiftence j and the how
in both is equally beyond our comprehenfion. xhisftc 1
But, on the other1 hand, we muft guard againft the^ !iuv
incurious refting on this confideration as a flop to fur-eVer,
ther inquiry. There may be fpecies of matter poffef-further
{•enquiries.
S7
i'hele ob-
fcrvations
are rot
phyfical,
but meta-
phybcal.
P H Y S
jerUnical fed of the nJechanical powers, and which notwithftand-
’iiiloibphy. jng is not cognifable by our ienfes. All the properties
^ of matter are not known to a perfon who is both deaf
and blind ; and beings polTeffed of more fenfes may per-
' ceive matter where we do not; and many phenomena
may really be produced by the aftion of intervening
matter, which we, from indolence or from hafte, aferibe
to the agency of inherent forces. The induftry of phi-
lofophers has already difeovered intermedia in fume
cafes. It is now certain that air is the conveyor of found,
and it is almoft certain that there is fuch a thing as
light. Let us therefore indulge eonjedtures of this kind,
and examine the conjeftures by the received laws of
motion, and rejedt them when we find the fmallefl in-
confitlency ; and always keep in mind that even the
moll coincident with the phenomena is ftill but a pof-
fibility.
We may conclude the whole of thefe obfervations
with the remark, that thefe queftions about the adlivity
or inadlivity of matter are not phyfical, but metaphy-
fical. Natural philofophy, it is true, commonly takes
it for granted that matter is wholly inadlive 5 but it is
not of any moment .in phyfies whether this opinion be
true or falfe; w hether matter be adled on according to
certain laws, or whether it add of itfelf according to
the fame laws, makes no difference to the natural phi*
lofopher. It is his bufinefs to difeover the laws which
really obtain, and to apply thefe to the folution of
fubordinate phenomena : but w’hether thefe laws arife
from the nature of fome agent external to matter, or
whether matter itfelf is the agent, are queftions which
may be above his comprehenfton, and do not imme¬
diately concern his proper bufinefs.
The account We have now given of natural philofo¬
phy points out to us in the plained: manner the way in
which the ftudy muft be profecuted, and the helps
which muft be taken from other branches of human
knowledge.
The caufcs, powers, forces, or by whatever name we
choofe to exprefs them, which produce the mechanical
phenomena of the univerfe, are not obferved, and are
plained and known to us only in the phenomena themfelves. Our
exempli- knowledge of the mechanical powers of nature muft
therefore keep pace with our knowledge of the motions,
and indeed is nothing different from it. In order to
difeover and determine the fofees by which the moon
is retained in her orbit round the earth, we muft know
her motions. To a terreftrial fpeclator (lie appears to
deferibe an ellipfe, having the earth in one focus-, but,
in the mean time, the earth is carried round the fun, and
the moon’s real path, in abfolute fpace, is a much more
complicated figure. Till we know this figure, and fhe
variations in the velocity with which it is deferibed, ve
know nothintr of the forces which actuate the moon in
O
90 her orbit.
Tne mean- When Newton fays that the forces by which fhe is
iermfufT r'e';a^ne^ *n t^s fdliptical orbit are directed to the earth,
in fpeakin u^at does he mean p Only this, that the deflections from
ofthecelef. Aat uniform n ctilineal motion which file would other-
tial mo- wife have performed are always in this direction. In like
manner, when he fays that thefe forces are inverfely pro¬
portionate to the fquares of her diftances from the earth,
he only means that the defleCtions made in equal times
in different parts of her motion are in this proportion.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
S3
The above
account '
points out
the beft
method of
itudy.
89
This me¬
thod fur¬
ther ex-
tiens,
ICS. . . 433
Thefe defleCtions are confidefed as the charaCterifticS Mechanical
and meafures of the forces. We imagine that we have
made all plain when we call this indicated caufe a ten¬
dency to the earth j but we have no notion of this ten¬
dency to the earth different from the approach itfelf.
ThL word tendency, fo falhionable among the followers
of Sir Ifaae Newton, is perverted from its pure and ori¬
ginal fenfe. Tendcre verfus foktn, is, in the language
of Rome and alfo ot Newton, t® go towards the iun \
but we now ufe the words tend, tendency, to fignify, not
the approach, but the c ufe of this approach. And when
called upon to fpcak ftill plainer, we defert the fate paths
of plain language, and we exprefs ourfelves by meta*
phor *, fpeaking of nifus, conatus fefe mutua accedtnde,
vis centripeta, &c. When thele expreffionS have be¬
come fpmiliar, the original fenfe of the word is forgotten ,
and we take it for granted that the words never had ano¬
ther meaning 5 and this metaphor, fprung from the po¬
verty of language, becomes a iruitful fource of mifeon-
ception and miftake. The onl; way to fecure ourfelves
againft fuch myftical notions as are introduced by thefe
means into philofophy, is to have recourle to the way
in which we acquire the knwledge of thefe fancied
powers; and then we fee that their names are only
names for phenomena, and that univerlal gravitation is
only an univerfal mutual approach among the parts of
the folar fyftem. _ 91
There is one cafe in which we fondly imagine that The abfur-
we know the caufe independent of the efteCt, and that d'ty of rea¬
we could have predicted the phenomenon d priori; we*0™’?*
mean'the cafe of impulfe : and hence it is that we are
'fo prone to reduce everything to cafes of impullion,
and that we have fallen upon all theie fubtertuges of
ethers and other fubtile fluids. Rut we might have
faved ourfelves all this trouble -, for after having, by
much falfe reafoning and gratuitous affumptions, fliown
that the phenomenon in qvteftion might have been produ¬
ced by impulfe, we are no nearer our purpofe, becaufe
that property by which matter in motion puts other
matter in motion, is known to us only by and in the
effeCL <j2
The fair and logical deduClion from all this is, that We know *
we muft not expeCt any knowledge of the powers ofnoth‘ng *
nature, the immediate caufes of the motions of bodies,
but by means 01 a knowledge 01 the motions them-0f m^t;ons
felvesand that every miftakc in the motions is ac-exceptbya
companied by a fimiiar miftake in the caufes. It is knowledge
itnpoffible to demonftrate or explain the gravitation
the planets to him who is ignorant of the properties of^ejves<
the ellipfe, or the theory of gunnery to him who does
not know the parabola. ^ 9.3
. A notion has of late gained ground, that a man may A n>an can*
become a natural philefopher without mathematical know- ^tu-
ledge -, but this is entertained by none who have any Ina- rai phitofo-
thematics themfelves -, and furely thofe who are ignorant pher with-
of mathematics fliould hot be fuftained as judges in this nut being *
matter. We need only appeal to fa Cl. It is only in ^ emati-
thofe parts of natural 'philofophy which have been ma¬
thematically treated, that the inveftigations have been
carried on with certainty, fuecefs, and utility. Without
this guide* we muft expeCl nothing but a fehool-boy’s
knowledge, refembling that of the man who takes up
his religious creed on the authority of his prieft, and can
neither give a reafon for what he imagines that he be-
3 I lieves,
94
The mo¬
tions of bo¬
dies, the
434 ; . PHY
Mechanical Heves, nor apply it with confidence to any valuable
Fhiloiophy. pUrp0fe We may read and be amufed with the
trifling or vague writings of a Nollet, a Fergufon, or
a Prieftley j but we fliall not underftand, or profit by
the truths communicated by a Newton, a D’Alembert,
or De la Grange.
Thefe obfervations, on the other hand, Ihow us the
nature of the knowledge which may be acquired, and
the rank which natural philofophy holds among the
fciences.
Motions are the real and only objects of our obfer-
vation, the only fubjedts of our difcuflibn. In motion
enly objectsare included no ideas but thofe of fpace and time, the
of obferva- fubjebts of pure mathematical difquifition. As foon,
tion, are therefore, as we have difcovered the fadl, the motion,
iubjefbof aj| our fu{-ure reafonines about this motion are purely
thematical mathematical, depending only on the atrecnons or
difquilition; figure, number, and proportion, and muft carry along
with them that demonftration and irrefiftible evidence
which is the boall of that fcience. To this are we
indebted for that accuracy which is attained, and the
progrefs which lias been made in fome branches of me¬
chanical philofophy; for when the motions are diftindlly
and minutely underftood, and then confidered only as ma¬
thematical quantities, independent of all phyfical confi-
derations, and we proceed according to the juft rules of
mathematical reafoning, we need not fear any intricacy
of combination or multiplicity of fteps ; we are certain
that truth will accompany us, even though wre do not
always attend to it, and will emerge in our final propo-
fition, in the fame manner as we fee happen in a long
95 intricate algebraic analyfis.
“cal Mechanical philofophy, therefore^ which is cultivated
thus°cuiti- thi8 way> is not a fyftem of probable opinions, but
vated is a a difciplina accurata, a demonftrative fcience. To pof-
tiemonftra- fefs it, however, in this form, requires confiderable
tivefcience.preparation. The mere elements of geometry and al¬
gebra are by no means fufficient. Newton could not
have proceeded fine 11 fua mntheji facem prcferente
and, in creating a new fcience of phyfics, he was obliged
The lamen-to Search for and difcover anew fource of mathematical
table decay knowledge. It is to be lamented that the tafte for the
of mathe- mathematical fciences has fo prodigioufly declined in
this country of late years j and that Britain, which
formerly took the lead in natural philofophy, fhould
now be the country where they are leaf! cultivated.
Few among us know more than a few elementary doc¬
trines of equilibrium : while, on the continent, we find
an any authors who cultivate the Newtonian philofophy
with great afliduity and fuccefs, and whofe writings
are confulted as the fountains of knowledge by all our
countrymen who have occafion to employ the difco-
veries in natural philofophy in the arts of life. It is
to the' foreign writers that we have recourfe in our
feminaries, even for elementary treatifes $ and while
the continent has fupplied us with moft elaborate and
ufeful treatifes on various articles, in phyfical aftrono-
nomy, praftical mechanics, hydraulics, and optics, there
has not appeared in Britain half a dozen treatifes worth
confulting for thefe laft forty years *, and this notavith-
tha”a^left ftanding the unparalleled munificence of our prefent
encourage- fovereign, who has given more liberal patronage to the
ment from cultivators of mathematical philofophy, and indeed of
the crown, fcience in general, than any prince in Europe. The
3-
mattes in
Britain,
97
notwith
SICS.
magnificent eftabiilhments of Louis XIV. originated Mechanic;
from his infatiable ambition and defire of univerfal in- Mofophy
fluence, direfted by the fagacious Colbert. And his
patronage being exerted according to a regular plan in
the eftablifiiment of penfioned academics, and in procur¬
ing the combined efforts of the mqft eminent of all coun¬
tries, his exertions made a confpicuous figure, and filled
all Europe with his eulogifts. But all this was done
without the fmalleft: felf-denial, or retrenchment of his
own pleafures, the expences being furniftied out of the
public revenues of a great and oppreffed nation $ where-
as the voyages of difeovery, the expenfive obfervations -
and geodetical operations in Britain, and the number-
lefs unheard-of penfions and encouragements given to
men of fcience and aftivity, were all furniftied out of
the private eftate of our excellent fovereign, wha feems
to delight in repaying, by every fervice in his power,
the attachment of a loyal and happy nation. It is
therefore devoutly to be wifhed that his patriotic efforts
were properly feconded by thofe whom they are intend¬
ed to ferve, and that the tafte for the mathematical
fciences may again turn the eyes of Europe to this coun¬
try for inftunftion and improvement. The prefent feems
a moft favourable era, while the amazing advances in
manufa&ures of every kind feem to call aloud for the
afliftance of the philofopher. What pleafure would it
have given to Newton or Halley to have feconded the
ingenious efforts of a Watt, a Boulton, a Sraeaton, an
Arkwright, a Dollond ? and how mortifying is it to fee
them indebted to the fervices of a Belidor, a Boffut, a
Clairaut, a Bofcovieh ?
We hope to be pardoned for this digreflion, and re¬
turn to our fubjeft.
It appears from what has been faid, that mechani- Mechanical
cal philofophy is almoft wholly a mathematical ftudy, philofophy
and that it is to be fuccefsfully profecuted only under IS,aln°ft
this form : but in our,endeavours to initiate the young mathema-
beginner, it will be often found to require more fteadi- tical ftudy.
nefs of thought than can generally be expe&ed for
keeping the mind engaged in fuch abftrad fpecula-
tions. The objed prefented to the mind is not readi¬
ly apprehended with that vivacity which is neceffary
for enabling us to reafon upon it with clearnefs and
fteadinefs, and it would be very defirable to have fome
means of rendering the conception more eafy, and the 99
attention more lively. This may be done by exhibit- ExPen'
ing to the eye an experiment, which, though but a
fingle fa iff, gives us a fenfible objedt of perception, neceffary to
which we can contemplate and remember with much infure the
more fteadinefs than any mere creature of the imagi- attention of
nation. We could, by an accurate delcription, give^j,
fuch a conception of a room that the hearer ftiould
perfedtly comprehend our narration of any occurrence
in it: but one moment’s glance at the room would be-
infinitely better. It is ufual therefore to employ ex¬
periments to aflift the imagination of the beginner j and
moft; courfes of natural philofophy are accompanied by
a feries of fuch experiments. Such experiments, con¬
nected by a flight train of argumentative difeourfe, may
even ferve to give a notion of the general dodlrines,
fufficient for an elegant amufement, and even tending
to excite curiofity and engage in a ferious profecution
of the ftudy. Such are the ufual courfes which go
by the name of experimental philofophy: but this
P H Y .
ixpcrimen- is a great mifapplication of the term ; fuch courfes are
tal Philo- more than illujlrations of known doftrines by ex-
J~°Phy- , periments.
Upedmen- EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY is the inveftigation of
ll philo 10- general laws, as yet unknown, by experiment j and it
,hy defined ^ i)een 0l)ferve(l) under the article Philosophy,
lalned that this is the moft infallible (and indeed the foie)
ial way of arriving at the knowledge of them. This is
the Novum Organum Scientiarum ftrongly recommended
by Lord Bacon. It was new in his time, though not
altogether without example } for it is the procedure
of nature, and is followed whenfcver curiofity is excited.
There was even extant in his time a very beautiful ex¬
ample of this method, viz. the Treatife of the Load-
ftone, by Dr Gilbert of Colchefler •, a work which has
hardly been excelled by any, and which, when we con-
fider its date, about the year 1580, is really a wonderful
performance.
The moft perfect model of this method is the Optics
of Sir Ifaac Newton. Dr Black’s Effay on Magnefia
is another very perfefl example. Dr Franklin’s Theory
of Electricity is another example of great merit. That
the inveftigation is not complete, nor the conclufions
certain, is not an objection. The method is without
fault; and a proper dire&irm is given to the mind for
the experiments which are ftill neceffary for eftablilhing
101 th® general laws.
A good It were much to be wifhed that fome perfon of
treatife on talents and of extenfive knowledge would give a trea-
the method Qn tjie 0f ;nquiry by experiment. Although
by experi- many beautiful and fuccefsful examples have been given
ment very as particular branches of inquiry, we have but too
neceffary. many inftances of very inaccurate and incortclufive in-
veftigations. Experiments made at random, almoft
without a view, ferve but little to advance our know¬
ledge. They are like ftiapelefs lumps of ftone merely
detached from the rock, but ftill wanting the Ikill of
the builder to feleft them for the different purpofes
which they may chance to ferve *, while wrell contrived
experiments are blocks cut out by a Ikilful workman,
according as the quarry could furnifh them, and of
forms fuited to certain determined ufes in the future
edifice. Every little feries of experiments by Margraaf
terminates in a general law, while hardly any general
conclufion can be drawn from the numberlefs experi¬
ments of Pott. Lord Bacon has written much on this
fubjeft, and with great judgment and acutenefs of di-
ftinftion ; but he has exceeded in this, and has fatigued
his readers by his numerous rules ; and there is in all
his philofophical works, and particularly in this, a
quaintnefs and affefftation that greatly obfeure his mean¬
ing, fo that this moft valuable part of his writings is very
toi little read.
An objec- A formidable objeftion has been made to this me-
perimental *nflu^ry' Since a phyfical law is only the
inquiry. expreffion of a general faff, and is eftablilhed only in
confequence of our having obferved a limilarity in a
great number of particular fafts ; and fince the great
rule of inductive logic is to give the law no greater ex¬
tent than the induction on which it is founded—how
comes it that a few experiments muft be received as the
foundation of a general inference ? This has been an-
Iwered in very general terms in the article Philosophy.
■But It will be of ufe to confider the fubject a little more
SICS. 43S
particularly. Our obfervations on this fobjeft are taken
from the differtation on evidence by Dr Campbell in his taf0pj1y°
Philofophy of Rhetoric. v 1...>
An attentive conlideration of the objects around us, 103
will inform us that they are generally of a complicated The objec-
nature, not only as confifting of a complication of thofe
qualities of things called accidents, fuch as gravity» wjth ex¬
mobility, colour, figure, folidity, which are common amples
to all bodies; but alfo as confifting of a mixture of afhowmgthe
variety of fubftances, very different in their nature and tan^.
properties ;-and each of thefe is perhaps compounded of mode.0
ingredients more fimple. 0f inquiry.
Moreover, the farther we advance in the knowledge
of nature, we find the more reafon to be convinced of
her conftancy in all her operations. Like caufes have
always produced like effects, and like effects have always
been preceded by like caufes. Inconftancy fometimes
appears in Nature’s works at firjl fight; but a more re¬
fined experience (hows us that this is but an appearance,
and that there is no inconftancy : and we explain it to
our fatisfaftion in this way.
Moft of the obje£ts being of a complicated nature,
we find, on an accurate ferutiny, that the effe£ts aferi-
bed to them ought ofteh to be folely aferibed to one
or more of thefe component parts, while the others
either do not contribute to them* or hinder their pro-
du&ion ; and the variety of nature is fo great, that hard¬
ly any two individuals of the fame fpecies are in every
refpett like any other. On all thefe accounts we ex¬
pert diftimilitudes in the phenomena accompanying per-
fe6tly fimilar treatment of different fubje£ls of the fame
kind ; but we find, that whenever we can be affured
that the two fubftances are perfeftly alike, the pheno¬
mena arifing from fimilar treatment are the fame : and
long and extenfive obfervation teaches us, that there
are certain circumftances which infure us in the perfedt
fimilarity of conftitution of fome things. Whenever we
obferve the effect of any natural agent on one, and but
one, of thefe, We invariably expeft that the fame will
be produced on any other.
Should a botanift meet with a plant new to him, and
obferve that it has feven monopetalous flowers, he will
conclude with the utmoft confidence that every plant of
this Fpecies will have monopetalous flowers; but he will
not fuppofe that it will have feven, and no more than
feven, flowers. Now thefe two fafts feem to have no
difference to warrant fuch a difference in the conclufion;
which may therefore feem capricious, fince there is but
one example of both.
But it is not from this example only that he draws
the conclufion. Had he never before taken notice of
any plant, he would not have reafoned at all from
thefe remarks. But his mind runs immediately from
this unknown fpecies to all the known fpecies of this
genus, and to all the genera of the fame order ; and
having experienced in the fgure of the flower an uni¬
formity in every fpecies, genus, and order, which admits
of no exception, but, in the number of flowers, a variety
as boundlefs as are the circumftances of foil, climatey age,
and culture, he learns to mark the difference, and draws
the above-mentioned conclufions. Thus we learn, that
perfeB uniformity is not to be expected in any inftance
whatever, becaufe in no inftance is the fimplicity of con¬
ftitution fufficiently great to give us affurance of perfeft
Uniformity in the circumftances of the cafe; and the ut-
3 I i moft
it
43 6
Experimen
tal Philo-
fophy.
PHYSICS.
104
Mathema¬
tics do not
fuperfede
the ufe of
experi¬
ment.
- moft that our experience can teach us is a quick difcri-
mination of thofe circumftances which produce the oc-
. cafional varieties.
The nearer that our invefligations carry us to the
knowledge of elementary natures, the more are we con¬
vinced by general experience of the uniformity of the
operations of real elements •, and although it may per¬
haps be impoffible for us ever to arrive at the know¬
ledge of the fimpleft elements of any body, yet when
any thing appears limple, or rather fo exadlly uniform,
as that we have invariably obferved it to produce fimir
lar effedts, on difcovering any new effect of this fub-
flance, we conclude, from a general experience of the
efficient, a like conftancy in the energy as to the reft.
Fire confumes wood, melts lead, and hardens clay. In
thefe inftances it adts uniformly, but not in thefe only.
We have ahvays found, that whatever of any fpecies is
eonfumed by it in one inftance, has been confumed by
it on trial at any time. If therefore a trial be made
for the firft time of its influence on any particular fub-
ftance, he who makes it is warranted to conclude that
the effedt, whatever it may be, is a faithful reprefenta-
tive of its effedts on this fubftance in all paft and future
ages. This conclufion is not founded on this fingle
inftance, but upon this inftance combined with the ge¬
neral experience of the regularity of this element in its
©perations.
This general conclufion, therefore, drawn from one
experiment, is by no means in oppofition to the great
rule of indudlive logic, but, on the contrary, it is the
moft general and refined application of it. General
laws are here the real fubjedt of confideration ; and a
law ftill more general, viz. that nature is conjlant in all
its operations, is the inference which is here applied as
a principle of explanation of a phenomenon which is
itfelf a general law, viz. that nature is conjlant in this
operation.
The foundation wf this general inference from one
experiment being fo firmly eftabliffied, it is evident
that experiments muft be an infallible method of attain¬
ing to the knowledge of nature ; and we need only be
felicitous that we proceed in a way agreeable to the
great rule of indudlive logic ; that is, the fubjedl muft
be cleared of every accidental and unknown circum-
ftance, and put into a fituation that will reduce the
interefting circumftance to a ftate of the greateft pof-
fible fimplicity. Thus we may be certain that the event
will be a faithful reprefentative of everv fimilar cafe :
and unlefs this be done in the preparation, nothing can
refult from the moft numerous experiments but uncer¬
tainty and miftakes.
The account which has been given of mechanical
philofophy would feem to indicate that experiment rvas
not of much ufe in the farther profecution of it. The
two laws of motion, with the affiftance of mathematics,
feem fully adequate to the explanation of every pheno¬
menon •, and fo they are to a certain degree. But this
degree is as yet very limited. Our mathematical know¬
ledge, great as it is in comparifon with that of former
times, is ftill infufficient for giving accurate folutions
even of very fimple (comparatively fpeaking) queftions.
We can tell, with the utmoft precifibn, what will be the
motions of two particles of matter, or two bodies, which
adl on each other with forces proportioned to the fquares
ftf the diftances inverfely j but if we add a third par¬
ticle, or a third body, adting by the fame law, the uni- Experlmen.
ted fcience of all Europe can only give an approxima- tai Ehtlo-"
tion to the folution. , %%■
What is to be done then in the cafes which come
continually before us, where millions of particles are Experimer.
adting at once on each other in every variety of fitu-is often th£
ation and diftance ? How (hall we determine, for in-rn*yre'
ftance, the motion of water through a pipe or lluice ourc:e'
when urged by a pifton or by its own weight ? what will
be its velocity and diredlion ? It is impoffible, in the
prefent ftate of mathematical knowledge, to tell with
any precifion or certainty. And here wm muft have
recourfe to experiment. But if this be the cafe, muft
the experiment be made in every poffible variety of fi¬
tuation, depth, figure, preffure ? or is it poffible to find
out any general rules, founded on the general laws of
motion, and rationally deduced from them i* Or, if this
cannot be accompliffied, wull experiment itfelf furnilh
any general coincidences which ffiow fueh mutual de¬
pendences, that we may confider them as indications of
general principles, though fubordinate, complicated, and
perhaps infcrutable ? This can be difcovered by experi¬
ment alone. lc6
The attention of philofophers has been directed to Accurate
each of thefe three chances, and confiderable progrefs ^F^-
has been made in them all. Numerous experiments ment|can'
have been made, almoft fufficient to direct the prablicema(]e.
in many important cafes, without the help of any rule
or principle whatever. But there are many cafes, and
thefe of by far the greateft importance, fuch as the-
motion of a (hip impelled by the winds, refifted by the
W'ater, and toffed by the waves, where diftindt experi¬
ments cannot be made. 10j
Newton, Bernouilli, d’Alembert, and others, have Example ol
laboured hard to deduce from the laws of motion rules the neceffi.
for determining- what may be called the average mo-1? °^exPe=
0 ^ 43 n merit*
tion of water in thefe circumftances, without attempt¬
ing to define the path or motion of any individual par¬
ticle ; and they have actually deduced many rules which
have a great degree of probability. It may here be
alked, why do you fay probability ? the rules, as far as
they go, fliould be certain. So they are : they are Uriel
deductions from their premiffes. But the premifles are
only fuppojitions, of various degrees of probability, af-
fumed in order to fimplify the circumftances of the Cafe,
and to give room for mathematical reafoning; therefore
thefe dedudlions, thefe rules, muft be examined by ex¬
periment. Some of the fuppofitions are fuch as can
hardly be refufed, and the rules deduced from them are
found to tally precifely writh the phenomena. Such is
this, “ that the velocities of iffuing water in fimilar cir¬
cumftances are in the fub-duplicate ratio of the pref-
fures.” And this rule gives a moft important and ex-
tenfive information to the engineer. Other fuppofitions
are more gratuitous, and the rules deduced from them
are lefs coincident with the phenomena. The patient
and fagacious Newton has repeatedly failed in his at¬
tempts to determine what is the abfolute velocity of wa¬
ter iffuing from a hole in the bottom of a vefiel when
urged by its weight alone, and the attempts of the others
have hardly fucceeded better. Experiment is therefore
abfolutely neceffary on this head.
Thofe who have aimed at the difeovery of rules pure¬
ly experimental bn this fubjeft, have alfo been pretty
fuccefsfulj and the Chevalier Buat lias, from a comparl-
£311
perimcn-
1 Philo-
108
he advan-
ges de-
ved from
le ftudy *
' philofo-
ay
109
n naviga-
no
in architec
'-ure,
m
in gunnery
and other
engines,
PHY
fon of an itnmenfe variety of experiments made by him-
felf and various authors, deduced an empirical rule,
which will not be found to deviate from truth above one
part in ten in any cafe which has yet come to our know¬
ledge.
This inftance may ferve to Ihow the ufe of experi¬
ments in mechanical philofophy. It is proper in all
cafes by way of illuftration } and it is abfolutely necef-
fary in moll, either as the foundation of a cbara&eriftic
of a particular clafs of phenomena, or as argument in
fupport of a particular doarine. Hydroftatics, hydrau¬
lics, pneumatics, magnetifm, ekaricity, and optics, can
hardly be ftudied in any other way ; and they are at
prefent in an imperfea Hate, and receiving continual
improvement by the labours of experimental philofophers
in all quarters of the world.
Having in the preceding paragraphs given a pretty
full enumeration of the different fubjeas which are to
be confidered in the ftudy of natural philofophy, it
will not be neceflavy to fpend much time in a detail of
the advantages which may reafonably be expeaed from
a fuccefsful profecution of this ftudy. It Hands in no
need of panegyric : its intimate conneaion with the
arts gives it a fufficient recommendation to tire atten¬
tion of every perfon. It is the foundation of many
arts, and it gives liberal afliftance to all. Indebted to
them for its origin and birth, it has ever retained its
filial attachment, and repaid all their favours with the
moft partial affe61ion.
To this fcience the navigator muft have recourfe
for that aftronomical knowledge which enables him
to find his place in the traeklefs ocean ; and although
very fmall fcraps 6f this knowledge are fufficient for the
mere pilot, it is neceffary that the ftudy be profecuted
to the utmoft by fome perfons, that the unlearned pilot
may get that fcanty pittance which muft direft his
routine. The few pages of tables of the fun’s decli¬
nation, which he ufes every day to find his latitude,
required the fucceffive and united labours of all the
aftronomers of Europe to make them tolerably exafl .
and in order to afcertain his longitude with precifion,
it required all the genius of a Newton to deteft the
lunar irregularities, and bring them within the power
of the calculator ; and, till this was done, the refpeftive
pofition of the different parts of the earth could not be
afcertained. Vain would have been the attempt to. do
this by geodsetical furveys independent of aftronomical
obfervation. It is only from the rnoft refined mecha¬
nics that we can hope for fure principles to di.refl us
in the conftruftion and management of a ftiip, the
boaft of human art, and the great means of union and
communication between the different quarters of the
globe. ...
A knowledge of mechanics not much inferior to
this is neceffary for enabling the architedt to execute
fome of his greateft works, fuch as the ereflum of domes
and arches, which depend on the niceft adjuftment of
equilibrium. Without this he cannot unite economy
with ftrength ; and his wmrks muft: either be clumfy maf-
fes or flimfy (hells.
The effVas of artillery cannot be underftood or le-
cured without the fame knowledge. _ _
The whole employment of the engineer, civil or mi¬
litary, is a continual application of annoft every branch
of mechanical knowledge } and while the proxnifes oi
SICS. . 437
a Smeaton, a Watt, a Belidor, may be confided in as Expevinien-
if already performed, the numberlels failures and difap- ^
pointments in the moft important and coftly projeds
Ihow us daily the ignoranco of the pretending crowd
of engineers.
The microfcope, the fleam engine, the thunder-rod,
are prefents which the world has received from the na¬
tural philofopher } and although the cnmpafs and tele-
fcope were the produdions of chance, they would have
been of little fervice had they not been ftudied and im¬
proved by Gilbert, Halley, and Dollond.
But it is not in the arts alone that the influence of
natural philofophy is perceived : it lends its aid to every
fcience, and in every ftudy. # II2
It is often neceffary to have recourfe to the philo * in law',
fopher in difputes concerning property *, and many ex¬
amples might be given where great injuftiee has been
the confequence of the ignorance of the judges. Know¬
ledge of nature might have prevented many difgraceful
condemnations for forcery. 113
The hiftorian who is ignorant of natural philofophy in hiftery,
eafily admits the miraculous into his narrations, accom¬
panies thefe with his refkdions, draws confequences
from them, and fills his pages with prodigies, fables, and
abfurdity. 1T4
It is almoft needlefs to fpeak of the advantages in medi.
which will accrue to the phyfician from this ftudy. So clIie’
clofe is the connedion between it and medicine, that
our language has given but one name to the naturalift
and to the medical philofopher. Indeed, the whole
of his ftudy is a clofe obfervation of the laws of mate¬
rial nature, in order to draw from them precepts to
dired his pradice in the noble art of healing. Du¬
ring the immaturity of general knowledge, while na¬
tural philofophy was the only ftudy which had acquired
any juft pretenfion to certitude either in its principles
or method of inveftigation, the phyficians endeavoured
to bring the objeds of their ftudy within its province,
hoping by this means to get a more diftind view of it j
and they endeavoured to explain the abftrufe pheno¬
mena of the animal fundions by reducing them all to
motions, vibrations, collifions, impulfes, hydroftatic
and hydraulic preflures and adions, with which the
mechanical philofophers were fo ardently occupied, at
that time. But unfortunately their acquaintance with
nature was then very limited, and they were but little
habituated to the rules of juft reafoning} and their
attempts to'explain the economy of animal life by the
laws of mechanics did them but little fervice either for
the knowledge of difeafes or of the methods of cure.
The mechanical theories of medicine, which had eonfi-
derable reputation about the end of the 17th century,
were many of them very ingenious, and had an impofing
appearance of fymmetry and connedion •, but are now
forgotten, having all been formed on the narrow fup-
pofition that matter was fubjed only to mechanical
laws.
But the difcovery of error diminifhes the chance of
again going wrong, efpecially when the eaufe of error
has been difeovered, and the means pointed out of de-
teding the miftakes ; and the vital principle muft com¬
bine its influence with, or operate on, the properties of
rude matter. It appears therefore evident that a know¬
ledge of the mechanical laws of the material world is
not only a convenient, but a neceffary, accomplifhment
to
438
fophy.
. ”5
in religion,
PHY
Experimen-to the phyfician. We are fully juflified in this opinion,
tal Philo- jjy. obfgfving medical authors of the prefent day intro¬
ducing into medicine theories borrowed from mechani¬
cal philofophy, which they do not underftand, and which
they continually mifapply. Appearance of reafoning
frequently conceals the errors in principle, and feldom
fails to millead.
But there is no clafs of men to whom this fcience
is of more fervice than to thofe who hold the honour¬
able office of the teachers of religion. Their know¬
ledge in their own fcience, and their public utility,
are prodigioully hurt by ignorance of the general frame
and conititution of nature; and it is much to be la¬
mented that this fcience is fo generally neglected by
them, or confidcred only as an elegant accompliffiment:
nay, it is too frequently ffiunned as a dangerous attain¬
ment, as likely to unhinge their own faith, and taint
the minds of their hearers. We hope, however, that
few are either fo feebly rooted in the belief of the great
doftrines of religion as to fear this, or of minds fo bafe
and corrupted as to adopt and inculcate a belief which
they have any fufpieion of being ill-founded. But
many have a fort of horror at all attempts to account
for the events of nature by the intervention of general
caufes, and think this procedure derogatory to the
Divine nature, and inconfiftent with the doctrine of
his particular providence 5 believing, that a fparrow
does not fall to the ground without the knowledge of
our heavenly Father.” Their limited conceptions can¬
not perceive, that, in forming the general law, the
Great Artift did at one glance fee it in its remotefl: and
molt minute confequence, and adjult the valt affemblage
fo as completely to anfwer every purpofe of His pro¬
vidence. There never was a more eager enquirer into
the laws of nature, or more ardent admirer of its glo¬
rious Author, that the Hon. Robert Boyle. This gen¬
tleman fays, that he will always think more highly of
the Ikill and power of that artift who ffiould conltru£t
a machine, which, being once fet a going, would of it-
felf continue its motion for ages, and from its inherent
principles continue to anfwer all the purpofes for which
it was lirlt contrived, than of him whofe machine re¬
quired the continual aid of the hand which firft con-
itrufted it. It is ow'ing to great inattention that this
averlion to the operation of fecondary caufes has any
influence on our mind. What do we mean by the in¬
troduction of fecondary caufes ? How do we infer the
agency of any caufe whatever ? Would we ever have
fuppofed any caufe of the operations of nature, had they
gone on without any order or regularity ? Or would
fuch a chaos of events, any more than a chaos of exift-
ences, have given us any notion of a forming and direct¬
ing hand ? No furely. We fee the hand of God in the
regular and unvaried courfe of nature, only becaufe it is
regular and unvaried. The philofopher exprefles this
by faying, that the phenomena proceed by unalter¬
able laws. Greatly miltaken therefore are they who
think that we fuperfede the exiltence of mind and of
providence when we trace things to their caufes. A
phylical law being an unvaried faCt, is an indication,
and the ftrongeft poffible indication, of an unerring
mind, who is incapable of change, and muft do to day
what He always did : for to change is to deviate from
what is belt *. The operations of unerring mind will
therefore be regular and invariable. Phyfical laws,
* Yergu-
foiCs Lec¬
tures on
Ethics•
S I c s.
therefore, or fecondary caufes, are the bell proofs of Expend
unerring wifdom. Such regularity of conduCt is univer- tal Philo
fally confidered as an indication of wifdom among men. f°phy.
The wife man is known by the conftancy of his con- ^
duCl, while no man can depend on the futufe conduCt of
a fool. .
And what aftoniffiing evidences of wifdom do we
not obferve in the general laws of the material world ?
They will ever be confidered by the intelligent philo¬
fopher as the moft glorious difplay of inconceivable
wifdom, which has been able, by means fo few and fo
Ample, to produce effeCts which by their grandeur afto-
niffi our feeble underftandings, and by their inexhauftible
variety elude all poffibility of enumeration.
While the teachers of religion remain ignorant of
the beautiful laws of nature, the great charaCleriflics
of the wifdom and goodnefs of the Almighty Creator,
their hearers are deprived of much fublime pleafure 5
God is robbed of that praife which he would have re¬
ceived from an enlightened people j and the only wor-
ffiip he receives is tainted with mean notions of his at¬
tributes, and groundlefs fears of his power.
But befldes thefe advantages which accrue to diffe¬
rent claffes of men from this ftudy, there are fome ef¬
fects which are general, and are too important to be
paffed over unnoticed. n0
That fpirit of difpaffionate experimental enquiry and in 0.
which has fo greatly promoted this ftudy, will carry ther ici-
with it, into every fubjeft of enquiry, that precifionence5,
and that conftant appeal to fadl and experience which
chara£terize it. And we may venture* to affert, that
the fuperior good order and method which diftinguifli
fome of the later productions in other fciences, have
been in a great meafure owdng to this mathematical
fpirit, the fuccefs of which in natural philofophy has
gained it credit, and thus given it an unperceived
influence even over thofe who have not made it their
. . . ”7
The truths alfo which the naturalift difeovers are Moregr-
fuch as do not in general affeCt the paffions of men, nenda('-
and have therefore a good chance of meeting wflth a
candid reception. Thole whofe intereft it is to keep men ^ 1 ^
in political or religious ignorance, cannot eafily fufpeft
bad confequences from improvements in this fcience;
and if they did, have hardly any pretext for checking
its progrefs. And difeoveries accuftom the mind to no¬
velty *, and it will no longer be ftartled by any confe¬
quences, however contrary to common opinion. Thus
the way is paved for a rational and difereet fcepticifm,
and a free enquiry on other fubjeCls. Experiment,
not authority, will be confidered as the teft of truth *,
and under the guidance of fair experience we need
fear no ill as long as the laws of nature remain as they
are.
Laftly, fince it is the bufinefs of philofophy to de-
feribe the phenomena of nature, to difeover their cau¬
fes, to trace the connexion and fubordination of thefe
caufes, and thus obtain a view of the whole conftitu-
tion of nature ; it is plain that it affords the fureft path
for arriving at the knowledge of the great caufe of all,
of God himfelf, and for forming proper conceptions
of him and of our relations to him notions infinitely
more juft than can ever be entertained by the carelefs
fpeftator of his works. Things which to this man ap¬
pear folitary and detached, having no other connec¬
tion
PHY
crimen- (Ion with the reft of the univerfe but the lhadowy and
1 Philo- fleeting relation of co-exiftence, will, to the diligent
uphj- philofopher, declare themfelves to be parts of a great
anfl harmonious whole, connefted by the general laws
of nature, and tending to one grand and beneficent
purpofe. Such a contemplation is in the higheft degree
pleafant and cheering, and cannot fail of impreffing us
with the wifh to co-operate in this glorious plan, by a<ft-
ing worthy of the place we hold among the works of
SICS. 439
God, and with the hopes of one day enjoying all the fa- ExPe^®n“
tisfaftion that can arife from confcious worth and con-
fummate knowledge j and this is the wrorlhip which God ■ ^ *
will approve. “ This univerfe (fays Boyle) is the mag¬
nificent temple of its great Author $ and man is ordain¬
ed, by his powers and qualifications, the high prieft of
nature, to celebrate divine fervice in this temple of the
univerfe.”
PHYSIOGNOMONICS, among phyficians, denote
fuch figns as, being taken from the countenance, ferve
to indicate the ftate, difpofition, &c. both of the body
and mind : and hence the art of reducing thefe figns to
pra£tice is termed physiognomy.
PHYSIOGNOMY
riousde-TS a word formed from the Greek <pvcn$, nature, and
dons of 1 I know. It is the name of a fcience which
,fl0?n0' occupied much of the attention of ancient philofo-
lrno-ent phers, and which, fince the revival of learning, has in
n. a great degree been difregarded. Till of late it has
feldom in modern times been mentioned, except in
conjun&ion with the exploded arts of magic, alchemy,
and judicial aftrology. Within the laft two centuries,
no doubt, the bounds of human knowledge have been
greatly extended by means of the patient purfuit of
faft and experiment, inftead of the hafty adoption of
conjecture and hypothefis. We have certainly difeo-
vered many of the ancient fyftems to be merely crea¬
tures of imagination. Perhaps, however, in fome in-
ftances, we have decided too rapidly, and rejedted real
knowledge, which we would have found it tedious and
troublefome to acquire. Such has been the fate of the
fcience of phyfiognomy ; which certainly merits to be
eonfidered in a light very different from alchemy and
tbofe other fanciful ftudies with which it had acciden¬
tally been coupled. The -work lately publithed by
M. Lavater on the fubjeCt has indeed excited attention,
and may perhaps tend to replace phyfiognomy in that
rank in the circle of the fciences to which it feems to be
intitled.
It does not appear that the ancients extended the
compafs of phyfiognomy beyond man, or at leaf! ani¬
mated nature : But the ftudy of that art was revived
in the middle ages, when, milled probably by the com-
prehenfivenefs of the etymological meaning of the
word, or incited by the prevalent tafte for the mar¬
vellous, thofe who treated of the fubject ftretched the
range of their fpeculation far beyond the ancient li¬
mits. The extenfion of the fignification of the term
was adopted univerfally by thofe naturalifts who ad¬
mitted the theory of fignatures (fee Signature) } and
phyfiognomy came thus to mean, the knowledge of the
internal properties of any corporeal exiftence from the
external appearances. Joannes Baptifta Porta, for in-
ftance, who was a phyfiognomift and philofopher of con-
fiderable eminence, wrote a treatife on the phyfiognomy
of plants (philognomonica), in which he employs phy¬
fiognomy as the generic term. There is a treatife like-
wife De Physiognomia Avium, written, we believe, by
the fame perfon. In the Magia Physiognomica of Gaf-
par Schottus, physiognomia humana is made a fubdivijion
of the fcience.
Boyle too adopts the extenfive fignification men¬
tioned, which indeed feems to have been at one time
the ufual acceptation of the word (a). At prefent
phyfiognomy feems to mean no more than “ a know¬
ledge of the moral charafler and extent of intelle&ual
powers of human beings, from their external appear¬
ance and manners.” In the Berlin Tranfadlions for
the years 1769 and 1770 there appears a long contro-
verfial difeuflion on the fubjeft of the definition of .phy¬
fiognomy between M. Pernetty and M. Le Cat, two
modern authors of fome note. Pernetty contends that
all knowledge whatever is phyfiognomy Le Cat con¬
fines the fubjeft to the human face. Neither feems to
have hit the medium of truth. Soon after the cele¬
brated book of Lavater appeared. He indeed defines
phyliognomy to be “ the art of difeovering the interior
of man by means of his exterior ; but in different paf-
fages of his work he evidently favours the extended
fignification of Pernetty. This work gave occafion
to M. Formey’s attack upon the fcience itfelf in the
fame Berlin Tranfadlions for 1775. Formey ftrenuoufly
controverts the extent afligned by Lavater to his favour¬
ite fcience. 2
Before the era of Pythagoras the Greeks had little or Pythagoras
no fcience, and of courfe could not be fcientifical phyfi-probably
ognomifts. Phyfiognomy, however, was much cultiva- ^u^nce
ted in Egypt and India } and from thefe countries thet“Qree"e
fage
(a) They’ll find i’ the phyfiognomies
O’ tld planets all men’s deftinies.
Hudibras..
44©
PHYSIO G N O M Y.
3
It was a
profeffion
in the time
of Socrates.
4
©eneral
outline of
Ariftotle’s
opinions on
this fub-
jedt.
fage of Samos probably introduced the rudiments of this
fcience, as he did thofe of many others, generally deem¬
ed more important, into Greece. N
In the time of Socrates it appears even to have been
adopted as a profefl'ion. Of this the well-known anec¬
dote of the decilion of Zopyrus, on the real charadler
of Socrates himfelf, judging from his -countenance, is
fufficient evidence. Plato mentions the iubjedl *, and
by Ariftotle it is formally treated of in a book allotted
to the purpofe.
It may be worth while to give a brief outline of Ari¬
ftotle’s fentiments on the fubjeft.
Phyftognomy, be in fubftance obferves, had been
treated of in three ways : Some philofophers claffed
animals into genera, and afcribed to each genus a cer¬
tain mental difpofition correfponding to their corpo¬
real appearance. Others made a farther dillindlion of
dividing the genera into fpecies. Among men, for
inftance, they dillinguiilied the Thracians, the Scy¬
thians, the Egyptians, and whatever nations were ftri-
kingly different in manners and habits, to whom ac¬
cordingly they affigned the diftindlive phyfiognomical
charafteriftics. A third fet of phyfiognomiits judged
of the aftions and manners of the individual, and pre¬
fumed that certain manners proceeded from certain
difpofitions. But the method of treating the fubjedl
adopted by Ariftotle himfelf was this: A peculiar
form of body is invariably accompanied by a peculiar
difpofttion of mind •, a human intelledf is never found in
the corporeal form of a beaft. The mind and body re¬
ciprocally affedf each other ; thus in intoxication and
mania the mind exhibits the affedlions of the body ; and
in fear, joy, &c. the body difplays the affections of the
mind.
From fuch fadls he argues, that when in man a par¬
ticular bodily character appears, which by prior experi¬
ence and obfervation has been' found uniformly accom¬
panied by a certain mental difpofition, with which there¬
fore it muft have been neceffarily conne£!ed *, we are
intitled in all fuch cafes to infer the difpofition from
the appearance. Our obfervations, he conceives, may
be drawn from other animals as well as from men : for
as a lion polieffes one bodily form and mental eharafter,
a hare another, the corporeal chara&eriftics of the lion,
fuch as ftrong hair, deep voice, large extremities, dif-
cernible in a human creature, denote the ftrength and
courage of that noble animal ; while the flender extre¬
mities, foft down, and other features of the hare, vifible
in a man, betray the mental charadter of that pufillani-
mous creature.
Upon this principle Ariftotle treats of the corporeal
features of man, and the correfpondent difpofitions, fo far
as obferved : he illuftrates them by the analogy juft men¬
tioned, and in fome inftances attempts to account for
them by phyfiological reafoning.
At the early period in which Ariftotle wrote, his the¬
ory, plaufible certainly, and even probable, difplays his
ufual penetration and a confiderable degree of know¬
ledge. He diftindtly notices individual phyfiognomy,
national phyfiognomy, and comparative phyfiognomy.
The ftate of knowledge in his time did not admit of a
complete elucidation of his general principles; on that
account his enumeration of particular obfervations and
precepts is by no means fo well founded or fo accurate as
his method of ftudy. Even his ftyle, concife and energe¬
tic, was inimical to the fubjedl; which, to be made, clear*,
ly comprehenfible, muft require frequent paraphrafes.
Ariftotle’s performance, however, fuch as it is, has been
taken as the groundwork and model of every phyfiogno¬
mical treatife.that has fince appeared.
The imitators of this great man in the i6th and I'yth
centuries have even copied his language and manner,
which are fententious, indiferimmate, and obfeure. His
comparative phyfiognomy ol men with beafts has been
frequently though not univerfally adopted. Befides his
treatife exprefsly on the fubjeci, many incidental obfer¬
vations on phyfiognomy will be found interlperfed
through his other works, particularly in his hiftory of
animals.
Next after Ariftotle, his difciplc and fucceffor The-xheophr
ophraitus would deferve to be particularly mentionedtus’s ethi
as a writer on the lubjedt in queftion. His ethic cha-charade
rafters, a fingular and entertaining performance, com-. rm an
pofed at the age of 99, form a diltinft treatife on a{ir'Port:n
branch 0
moft important branch of phyfiognomy, the physiognomy phyfiogi,
of manners ; but the tranflations and imitations of La my.
Bruyere are fo excellent, that by referring to them we
do greater juftice than would otherwife be in our
power, both to Theophraftus and to our readers. We
cannot, however, omit obferving, that the accuracy of
obfervation and livelinefs of deicription dilplayed in the
work of Theophraftus will preferve it high in claffi-
eal rank, while the fcience of man and the prominent
charafterifiics of human fociety continue to be objefts
of attention, . ^
Polemon of Athens, Adamantius the fophift, and fe-oti,er
Veral others, wrote on the fubjeft about the fame peri-Greek a
od. Lately there was publiflied a colleftion of all thethorson
Greek authors on phyfiognomy : the book is entitled,^kb-
Physiognomies veteris feriptores Gt ceci, Gr. et Lut. ff
Franxio Altenb. 1780, Svo. From the number of thefe .
authors, it appears that the fcience was much cultivatedwasqA
in Greece; but the profeffors feem foon to have conneft-coupled
ed with it fomething of the marvellous. This we have with vr ■
caufe to fufpeft from the ftory told by Apion of Apel-^^6
les : Imaginem adeo fmilitudinis indiferetee pinxit, ut
(" incredibile dicin') Apion Grammaticus Script urn reliquerit
quemdam ex facie homtnum ad divinantem (quos melapof-
copos vacant) ex iis dixijfe aut futures mortis annas, aut
presterites *. The noviciates of the Pythagorean fchool * Pliny
were fubjefted to the phyfiognomic obfervation of their
teachers, and it is probable the firll pbyfiognomifts by|ll},35-
profeflion among the Greeks were of this left. They,
too, to whom, from the nature of their doftrines and
difeipline, myftery was familiar, were the firft, it is.
likely, who expofed the fcience of phyfiognomy in
Greece to difgrace, by blending with it the art of divi¬
nation. <}
From the period of which we have been treating tOffljeol)*
the clofe of the Romaa republic, nothing worthy ofvations
remark occurs in the literary hiftory of phyfiognottiy. ^°^ranv
About the laft-mentioned era, however, and from thence®^
to the decline of the empire under the later emperors,
the fcience appears to have been cultivated as an im¬
portant branch of erudition, and affumed as a profefiion
by perfons who had acquired a fuperior knowledge
in it.
In the works of Hippocrates and Galen, many phy¬
fiognomical obfervalions occur. Cicero appears to have
been peculiarly attached to the fcience. In his ora¬
tion
441
PHYSIOGNOMY,
lion again ft Pifo, and In that in favour of Rofcius, the
reader will at the fame time perceive in what manner
the orator employs phyfiognomy to his purpofes, and
find a curious inftance of the ancient manner of oratori¬
cal abitfe.
Many phyfiognomical remarks are to be found like-
wife in the writings of Salluft, Suetonius, Seneca, Pliny,
Aulus Gellius, Petronius, Plutarch, and others.
That in the Roman empire the fcience was pradlifed
as a profeffion, ample evidence appears in the writings
of feveral of the authors juft mentioned. Suetonius,
for inftance, in his Life of Titus, mentions that Nar-
ciflus employed a physiognomiji to examine the features
of Britannicus, who predidled that Britannicus would
not fucceed, but that the empire would devolve on
Titus.
his fcience The fcience of phyfiognomy Ihared the fame fate with
11 with all others, when the Roman empire was overthrown by
is Homan the northern barbarians. About the beginning of the
“P*16, 16th century it began again to be noticed.—From that
time till the clofe of the 17th, it was one of the moft
fafhionable ftudies. Within that fpace" have appear¬
ed almoft all the approved modern authors on the fub-
jedf (b).
It has been unfortunate for phyfiognomy, that by ma¬
ny of thefe writers it was held to be connedted with
dodlrines of which the philofophy of the prefent day
would be afhamed. With thefe dodlrines it had almoft
funk into oblivion.
.I0 In every period of the hiftory of literature there may
udiwhavemarked a prevalence of particular ftudies. In
ecu!farlyVe the early period, for inftance, of Grecian literature, tmj-
revailed iXthologicalmorality claimed the chief attention of the phi-
articular lofophers. In the more advanced ftate of learning in
mes’ Greece and in Rome, poetry, hi/lory, and oratory, held
the pre-eminence. Under the latter emperors, and for
fome time afterwards, the hiftory of theological cmtro-
verfes occupied the greateft part of works of the learn¬
ed. Next fucceeded metaphysics, and metaphysical theo¬
logy. Thefe gave place to alchemy, magic, judicial
ajlrology, the dodtrine of fignatures and fympathies, the
mystic, theofophic, and Roficrucian theology, with phy¬
fiognomy. Such w'ere the purfuits contemporary with
the fcience which is the object of our prefent inquiry.
It is no matter of furprife, that, fo aflbciated, it ftiould
have fallen into contempt. It is not unufual for man¬
kind haftily to rejedt valuable opinions, when acciden¬
tally or artificially connedled with others which are ab-
furd and untenable. Of the truth of this remark, the
hiftory of theology, and the prefent tone of theological
opinions in Europe, furnilh a pregnant example.
To phyfiognomy, and the exploded fciences laft men¬
tioned, fucceeded clajjicphilology ; which gave place to
modern poetry and natural philofophy ; to which recent¬
ly have been added the ftudies of rational theology, che-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
miflry, the philofophy of hi/lory, the hiflory of man, and
the fcience of politics. 11
About the commencement of the 18th century, and The obfer-
thence forward, the occult fciences, as they are termed,
had declined very confiderably in the eftimation of the^^ ^re_
learned ; and thofe who treated of phyfiognomy forbore fent centu-
to difgrace it by a connedlion with thofe branches ofry on this
ideal learning with which formerly it had been invari-fubje<ft*
ably conjoined. In Britain, Dr Gwither noticed it with
approbation.—His remarks are publifhed in the Philo-
fophical Tranfadlions, vol. xviii. 5 and Dr Parfons chofe
it for the fubjedt of the Croonean ledlures, publifhed at
firft in the fecond fupplement to the 44th volume of the
Philofophical Tranfadtions, and afterwards (1747) in
a feparate treatife, entitled Human Physiognomy ex*
plained.
The obfervations, however, of thefe writers, as well
as of Laneifius, Haller, and Buffon, relate rather to the
tranfient expreflion of the paflions than to the permanent
features of the face and body. The well-known charac¬
ters of Le Brun likewife are illuftrative of the tranfient
phyfiognomy, or (as it is termed) pathognomy.—See
Passions in Painting. 12
During the prefent century, although phyfiognomy We find
has been now and then attended to, nothing of import-not^?S
ance appeared on the fubjedi till the difcuffion already
mentioned between Pernetty and Le Cat, in the Berlin till the
Tranfadtions. The fentiments of thefe authors, in fo farcontrover-
as relates to the definition of phyfiognomy, have been fybetween
above noticed. Their efiays are, befides, employed in Cat
difcufling the following queftions : ift, Whether it would
or would not be advantageous to fociety, were the cha-
radter, difpofition, and abilities, of each individual fo
marked in his appearance as to be difcovered with cer¬
tainty ?
2dly, Whether, on the fuppofition that by the high-
eft pofiible proficiency in phyfiognomy, we could attain
a knowledge in part only of the internal charadler, it
would be advantageous to fociety to cultivate the ftu-
dy, mankind being in general imperfedt phyfiogno-
mifts ?
No reafoning a priori can poflibly determine thefe
queftions. Time and experience alone muft afcertain
the degree of influence which any particular acquifition
of knowledge would have on the manners and charac¬
ters of mankind •, but it is difficult to conceive how the
refult of any portion of knowledge, formerly unknown,
and which mankind would be jOrnW/W to difcover, could
be any thing but beneficial. ^
Soon after this controverfy in the Berlin Tranfadlions, Lavau-r’s
appeared the great work of M. Lavater, dean of Zurich, celebrated
which has excited no inconfiderable portion of attention W01*'
in the literary world. The work itfelf is magnificent: •
That circumftance, as well as the nature of the fubjedi,
which was fuppofed to be fanciful, have contributed to
3 & extend
(b) They are, Bartholem. Codes, Baptifta Porta, Honoratus Nuquetius, Jacobus de Indagine, Alftedius, Mi¬
chael Schottus, Gafpar Schottus, Cardan, Taifnierus, Eludd, Behmen, Barclay, Claromontius, Conringius,
the commentaries of Auguftin Niphus, and Camillus Balbus, on the Phyfiognoraica of Ariftolle,—-Spuntanus,
Andreas Henricus, Joannes Digander, Rud. Goclenius, Alex. Achillinus, Job. Praetorius, Jo. Belot, Guliel. Gra-
talorus, &c. They are noticed in the Polyhifbr of Morhoff, vol. i. lib. i. cap. 15. § 4. and vol. ii. lib, iii
cap. 1. § 4.
442
His opi¬
nions the
refult of
obferva-
tion.
.15
His ima¬
gination
lias, how¬
ever, often
outtlript
his judge¬
ment.
* Volv i.
P-33-—3 s-
voh ii.
jj. 8y.
French
tranfla-
tion.
f Vol. i-
p. 126.
16
Other
weaknefles
of this
great phy-
libgnomift.
PHYSIOGNOMY.
extend its fame j and certainly, if we may judge, the
book, though many faults may be detefted in it, is the
moft important of any that has appeared on the fub-
jeft fince the days of Ariftotle. Lavater profefles not
to give a complete fynthetical treatife on phyfiognomy,
but, aware that the fcienee is yet in its infancy, he ex¬
hibits fragments only, illuftrative of its different parts.
His performance is no doubt defultory and unconnect¬
ed. It contains, however, many particulars much fupe-
rior to any thing that had ever before appeared on the
fubjeCi.
With the fcholafiic and fyftematic method adopted by
the phyfiognomifts of the laft and preceding centuries,
Lavater lias rejeCted their manner of writing, which was
dry, concife, indeterminate, and general : His remarks,
on the contrary, are, for the moft part, precife and par¬
ticular, frequently founded on diltinCfions extremely
acute. He has omitted entirely (as was to be expefled
from a writer of the prelent day) the aftrological reve¬
ries, and fuch like, which deform the writings of former
phyfiognomifts *, and he has with much propriety dedu¬
ced his pbyfiognomical obfervations but feldom from
anatomical or phyfiological reafoning. Such reafoning
may perhaps at fome future period become important $
but at prefent our knowledge of faCts, although exten-
five, is not fo univerfal, as to become the ftable founda¬
tion of particular deductions. Lavater has illnitrated
his remarks by engravings ; a method firft adopted by
Baptifta Porta.—Lavater’s engravings are very nume¬
rous, often expreffive, and tolerably executed.
I he opinions of this celebrated phyfiognomift are evi¬
dently the refult of aCtual obfervation. He appears in¬
deed to have made the fcience his peculiar ftudy, and
the grand purfuit of his life. His performance exhibits
an extended comprehenfion of the fubjeCt, by a particu¬
lar attention to qfea/ phyfiognomy, and the effeCt of
profiles and contours. His ftyle in general is forcible and
lively, although fomewhat declamatory and digreflive.
His expreffions are frequently precife, and flrikingly eha-
raCleriftic ; and the fpirit of piety and benevolence which
pervades the whole performance renders it highly in-
tere fling.
The defeCls of the work, however, detraCl much from
the weight which Lavater’s opinions might otherwife.
challenge. His imagination has frequently fo far out-
flript his judgment, that an ordinary reader would of¬
ten be apt to rejeCt the whole fyflem as the extravagant
reverie of an ingenious theorill. He has clothed his fa¬
vourite fcience in that affeCted myfterious air of import¬
ance, which was fo ufual with his predecefTors, and de-
feribes the whole material world to be objeCls of the
univerfal dominion of phyfiognomy *. He whimfically
conceives it neceffary for a phyfiognomift to be a well-
fhaped handfome man f. He employs a language which
is often much too peremptory and decifive, difpropor-
tioned to the real fubftance of his remarks, or to the
occafion of making them. The remarks themfelves
are frequently oppofite in appearance to common ob¬
fervation, and yet unfupported by any illuftrations of
his.
Lavater certainly errs in placing too great a reli¬
ance on fingle features, as the foundation of decifion on
character. His opinions on the phyfiognomy of the
ears, hands, nails, and feet of the human fpecies, on
hand-writing, on the phyfiognomy «f birds, infedls, rep¬
tiles, and fifties, are obvioufty premature, as hitherto ho
fufficientnumber of accurate obfervations has been made,
in regard to either of thefe particulars, to authorife any
conclufion. He has erred in the oppofite extreme, when
treating of the important topic of national phyfiognomy,
where he has by no means profecuted the fubjedt fo far
as fads might have warranted. We mull farther take
the liberty to objed to the frequent introdudion of the
author’s own phyfiognomy throughout the courfe of his
work. His lingular remarks on his own face do not
ferve to prejudice the reader in favour of his judgment,
however much his charader mayjuftify the truth of
them. We mult regret likewife, for the credit of the
fcience, that the author’s Angularly fanciful theory of
apparitions fliould fo nearly refemble a revival of the an¬
tiquated opinions of the fympathifts.
To thefe blemifhes, which we have reludantly enu¬
merated, perhaps may be added that high impaflioned
tone of enthufiafm in favour of his fcience everywhere
difplayed throughout the work of this author, which is
certainly very oppofite to the cool patient inveftigation
befitting philofophy. To that enthufiafm, however, it
is probable that in thisinllance (as is, indeed, no unfre¬
quent effed of enthufiafm) we are indebted for the ex¬
cellency which the author has attained in his purfuit $
and it pofleffes the falutary tendency of putting us on our
guard againft a too implicit acquiefcence in his phyfiog-
nomical decifions.
In the Berlin Tranfadions for 1775, there appears a His work
formal attack upon Lavater’s work by M. Formey. was atfaclj
This efiay we have already mentioned. After difputing e(1 m.the
the propriety of the extenfive fignification applied by ^anfac.
Lavater and Pernetty to the term phyfiognomy, M.tjonsbyI^
Formey adopts nearly the fame definition which we con-Fonney.
ceive to be the moft proper, and which we have put
down as fuch near the beginning of this article. He al¬
lows that the mental charader is intimately conneded
with, and fenfibly influenced by, every fibre of the bo¬
dy ; but his principal argument againfl phyfiognomy is,
that the human frame is liable to innumerable accidents,
by which it may be changed in its external appearance,
without any correfpondent change of the difpofition; fo-
that it furpaffes the extent of the fkill of mortals to di-
ftinguifh the modifications of feature that are natural,
from thofe which may be accidental. Although, there¬
fore, the fcience of phyfiognomy may be founded in
truth, he infers that the Deity only can exercife it.
M. Formey further contends, that education, diet,
climate, and hidden emotions, nay even the tempera¬
ments of anceftors, affed the caft of human features j
fo that the influence of mental charader on thefe fea¬
tures may be fo involved with, or hidden by, accidental
circumflances, that the ftudy of phyfiognomy muft ever
be attended by hopelefs uncertainty. Thefe objedions
are worthy of notice, but they are by no means conclu-
fivc. _ l8
We fliall give a fpecimen of M. Lavater’s manner of Lavaters
treating the fubjed on the oppofite fide of the queftion: mode of
A fpecimen, not in Lavater’s precife words, but convey-tr.eat‘n?
ing morejhortly an idea at once of his fentiments, and^1!,lu ^
of his manner of exprefling them. ^
No ftudy, fays he, excepting mathematics, more juft- Phyfiog-
ly deferves to be termed a fcience than phyfiognomy. n0111! 15
It is a department of phyfies, including theology and
belles lettres, and in the fame manner with thefe fciences ence>
may
443
PHYSIO
niay be reduced to rule. It may acquire a fixed and
appropriate charafter : It may be communicated and
taught.
Truth or knowledge, explained by fixed principles,
becomes fcience. Words, lines, rules, definitions, are
the medium of communication. The queftion, then, with
refpeft to phyfiognomy, will thus be fairly ftated. Can
the ftriking and marked difterences which are vifible be¬
tween one human face, one human form, and another,
be explained, not by obfcure and confufed conceptions,
but by certain chara&ers, figns, and expreffions ? Are
thefe figns capable of communicating the vigour or im¬
becility, the ficknefs or health, of the body •, the wif-
dom, the folly, the magnanimity, the meannefs, the vir-
w tue, or the vice, of the mind ?
Experiment It is only to a certain extent that even the experimen-
s limited tai philofopher can purfue his refearches. The active
n extent. ancj v;g0rous mind, employed in fuch ftudies, will often
form conceptions which he fhall be incapable of expref-
fing in words, fo as to communicate his ideas to the
feebler mind, which was itfelf unable to make the dif-
covery : But the lofty, the exalted mind, which foars
beyond all written rule, which poffefies feelings and
energies reducible to no law, mull be pronounced unfci-
xx entific.
“hyfiogno- It will be admitted, then, that to a certain degree
nical truth physiognomical truth may as a fcience be defined and
ined and6' communicated. Of the truth of the fcience there can-
:ommuni- not exift a doubt. Every countenance, every form, eve¬
nted to a ry created exiftence, is individually diftinft, as well as
rertain different, in refpeft of clafs, race, and kind. No . one
ength' being in nature is precifely fimilar to another. This pro-
pofition, in fo far as regards man, is the foundation-
ilone of phyfiognomy. There may exift an intimate
analogy, a ftriking fimilarity, between two men, who
yet being brought together, and accurately compared,
will appear to be remarkably different. No two minds
perfectly referable each other. Now, is it poflible to
doubt that there muft be a certain native analogy be¬
tween the external varieties of countenance and form and
the internal varieties of the mind ? By anger the mufcles
are rendered protuberant : Are not, then, the angry
mind, and the protuberant mufcles, as caufe and effeeft ?
The man of acute wit has frequently a quick and lively
eye. Is it poflible to refift the conclufion, that between
fuch a mind and fuch a countenance there is a determi¬
nate relation ? .
Every thing in nature is eftimated by its phyfiogno-
my ; that is, its external appearance. The trader judges
by tfie colour, the finenefs, the exterior, the physiogno¬
my of every article of traffic ; and he at once decides
that the buyer “ has an honeft look,” or “ a pleafing
^ 21 or forbidding countenance.”
ied'^how ^'^at knowledge and fcience are detrimental to man,
ever i’mpro tf33* a ftate rudenefs and ignorance are preferable and
vsd, would produftive of more happinefs, are tenets now defervedly
rot be de- exploded. They do not merit ferious oppofition. The
trimental extenfion and increafe of knowledge, then, is an objeft
of importance to man : And what objeft can be fo im¬
portant as the knowledge of man himfelf ? If know¬
ledge can influence his happinefs, the knowledge of
himfelf muft influence it the moft. This ufeful know¬
ledge is the peculiar province of the. fcience of phyfiog¬
nomy. To conceive a juft idea of the advantages of
phyfiognemy, let us for a moment fuppofe that all phy-
G N o M Y.
fiognomical knowledge were totally forgotten among
men $ what confufion, what uncertainty, what number-
lefs miftakes, would be the eonfequence ? Men dettined
to live in fociety muft hold mutual intercourfe. The
knowledge of man imparts to this intercourfe its fpirit,
its pleafures, its advantages. ■ ^)
Phyfiognomy is a fource of pure and exalted mental j,. afr0‘rds
gratification. It affords a new view of the perfection of great men-
Deity •, it difplays a new feene of harmony and beauty tal gratiti-
in bis works; it reveals internal motives, which withoutc‘‘Uon’
it would only have been difeovered in the world to come.
The phyfiognomift diftinguifhes accurately the perma¬
nent from the habitual, the habitual from the accidental,
in character. Difficulties, no doubt, attend the ftudy
of this fcience. The moft minute fhades, fcarcely dif- D;f£culties
cernible to the unexperienced eye, denote often total op- jn the ftu-
pofition of character. A fmall inflexion, diminution, dy.
lengthening or fharpening, even though but of a hair s-
breadth, may alter in an aftonifhing degree the expref-
fion of countenance and character. How difficult then,
how impoffible indeed, muft this variety of the fame
countenance render precifion ? The feat of character is
often fo hidden, fo mafked, that it can only be deteCted
in certain, perhaps uncommon, pofitions of countenance.
Thefe pofitions may be fo quickly changed, the figns
may fo inftantaneoufly difappear, and their impreffion on
the mind of the obferver may be fo flight, or thefe di-
ftinguifhing traits themfeives fo difficult to feize, that it
fhall be impoffible to paint them or deferibe them in lan¬
guage. Innumerable great and fmall accidents, whe¬
ther phyfical or moral, various incidents and paffions,
the diverfity of drefs, of pofition, of light or fliade, tend
to difplay the countenance often in fo difadvantageous a
point of view, that the phyfiognomift is betrayed into
an erroneous judgment of the true qualities of the
countenance and charader. Such caufes often occafion
him to overlook the effential traits of charafter, and to
form a decifion on what is purely accidental.—How fur-
prifingly, for inftance, may the fmallpox disfigure thu
countenance, and deftroy or confound, or render imper¬
ceptible, traits otherwife the moft decifive ? 2.
We fhall, then, continues Lavater, grant to the op- May one
pofer of phyfiognomy all he can afk ; and yet we do not day beob-
live without hopes that many of the difficulties ffiall be Vlatec*"
refolved which at firft appeared inexplicable. ^
He then proceeds to a fpecific illuftration of his fub-nature
je£l under a great variety of titles, in which he treats of 0f Lavater’s
human nature in general, and of each particular feature work,
feparately.
To enumerate the different divifions of his book would
not be more fatisfa&ory to our readers than the perufal
of the contents of the book itfelf ; and an attempt to
epitomize even the effential fubftance of the vaft multi¬
plicity of matter contained in his effays, (which are yet
only fragments, and to which indeed he himfelf does not
pretend to give any higher appellation), would extend
this article to a difproportionate length. Such an
abridgement, after all, would convey no folid informa¬
tion on a fubjeft which merits all the time and ftudy
that an attentive perufal of Lavater’s works at large ^
would require. Hobable
From the hiftorical deduffion of the literary progrefs caufes of
of phyfiognomy which wt; have thus attempted to lay die difre-
before our readers, it appears, that although the fcience
has fallen into difrepute, there can fcarcely be mention-fcience has
3 K 2 ed fallea.
444
PHYSIOGNOMY.
ed a period in which any cultivation of fcience took
place when phyfiognomy was notlikewife the ftudy, nay
fometiines even the profeffion, of men of the moft emi¬
nent abilities and the greateft learning.
The reafons why at prefent lb little attention is paid
to the fubje6t probably are,
id, That it has been treated in conjunction with fub-
jects now with propriety exploded: And,
2dly, That it has been injured by the injudicious af-
fertions and arguments of thofe who have undertaken, its
defence. .
Sometimes, however, the wife and the learned may
err. The ufe of any thing mutt not be rejected for no
better reafon than that it is capable of abufe. Perhaps
the era is not diftant when phyfiognomy lhall be rein-
ftated in the rank which (lie merits among the valuable
branches of human knowledge, and be ftudied ’with
that degree of attention and perfeverance which a fub-
ject delerves fo effentially connected with the fcience of
23 man:
There is a That there is an intimate relation between the difpo-
relatio . be-litions of the mind and the features of the countenance
tv^ee" ^ie is a fact which cannot be queftioned. He who isfink-
c!f th^mind unc^er a ^uac^ grief for the death of an affectionate
and the fea- w^e or a dutiful child, has a very different caff of fea¬
tures of the tures from the man who is happy in the profpebt of
face. meeting his miftrefs. A perlon boiling with anger has
a threatening air in his countenance, which the molt
heedlefs obferver never miftakes; and if any particular
difpolition be indulged till it become habitual, there
cannot be a doubt but that the correfponding traces
will be fo fixed in the face as to be difcernible by the
Ikilful phyfiognomilt, under every effort made to dif-
guife them. But when we attempt to decide on a man’s
intellectual powers by the rules of this fcience, we are
often deceived; and in this refpect we have reafon to
believe that Lavater himfelf has fallen into the groffeft
2() miftakes.
Craniogno- Connected with phyfiognomy, we may confider the
mic lyitem craniognomie fyftem of Dr Gall of Vienna, which is fo
oi Dr Gall, called bee*.ufe, from the exterior form of the cranium,
he infers the powers and difpofitions of the mind. The
brain, he obferves, is the material organ of the action of
the mind} and as it increafes in direct proportion to the
faculties of animals, he has endeavoured to prove, that
the faculties are diftinct and independent on each other}
that each has its proper material organ, and that the
expanfion of the organ is in proportion to the ftrength
of the faculty. This fyftem is attempted to be eftablifti-
ed by the following reafoning.
“ The internal faculties, (fays Dr Bojanus, the author
of a view of this fyftem), do not always exift in the fame
proportion to each other. There are fome men who have
a great deal of genius without having a memory, who
have courage without circumfpeeftion, and who poffefs a
metaphyfical fpirit without being good obfervers.
“ Befides, the phenomena of dreaming, of fomnambu-
lifm, of delirium, &c. prove to us that the internal
faculties do not always acl together} that there is of¬
ten a very great activity of one, while the reft are not
fenfible.
“ Thus, in old age, and fometimes in difeafe, fuch,
for example as madnefs, feveral faculties are loft, while
others fubiift } befides a continued employment of the
fame faculty fenlibly diminifties its energy: If we em-
4
ploy another, we find it has all the force of which itria
fuleeptible} and if we return to the former faculty, it is
obferved that it has refumed itsufual vigour. It is thu»
that, when fatigued with reading an abitracft philofophi-
cal work, we proceed with pleafure to a poetical one,
and then refume with the fame attention our former oc¬
cupation.”
“ All thefe phenomena prove that the faculties are
diftindf and independent of each other, and we are in¬
clined to believe that the cafe is the fame with their ma¬
teria] organs.”
“ [We do not entirely agree with this idea of Dr
Gall, and we believe, on the contrary, that the fepara-
tion of the material organs ought to be confidered as the
caufe of the diftindftion of the internal faculties. It ap¬
pears, to us at leaft, that by fuppofing the faculties
themfelves as originally feparated, vve cannot fave our-
felves from falling into materialifm, which exifts when
the mind is no longer confidered as unity.]
“ The expanjion of the organs contained in the cranium
is in the dire61 ratio of the force of their correfponding
faculties."
“ This principle, di£lated by analogy, refts on this
axiom, that throughout all nature the faculties are al¬
ways found to be proportioned to their relative organs}
and the truth of it is proved in a fpecial manner by the
particular obfervations of Dr Gall.
“ It is however to be remarked, that exercife has a
great influence on the force of the faculties, and that an
organ moderately expanded, but often exercifed, can
give a faculty fuperior to that which accompanies a ve¬
ry extenfive organ never put in aftion} as we fee that a
man of a weak conformation acquires, by continued ex¬
ercife, ftrength fuperior to another of a more athletic
ftrufture.
“ [We muft here mention an opinion which feems to
refult immediately from this principle, and which, how¬
ever, is falfe: It is, that the volume of the brain, in ge¬
neral, is in the diredl ratio of the energy of its facuities.
Obfervation lias proved to Dr Gall, that we cannot
judge of the ftrength of the faculties but by the deve-
lopement of the feparate organs which form diflinft emi¬
nences in the cranium } and that a cranium perfedtly
round, of whatever fize it may be, is never a proof of
many or of great faculties.]
“ We do not recoiled!; to have heard the reafon afligned
by Dr Gall} but, in our opinion, thefe brains may be
confidered as in a ftate analogous to obelity ; and as wre
do not judge of the mufcular force of a man or an ani¬
mal by the volume of their members, but by the deve-
lopement of the mufcles in particular, one W'ould think
we ought, in like manner, to judge of the ftrength of the
faculties by the developement of the relative organs.
“ In the laft place, the qth principle, the moft im¬
portant for practice in regard to the fyftem of Dr Gall,
is :
“ We may judge of thefe different organs and of their
faculties by the exterior form of the cranium.
“ The truth of this principle is founded upon another,
viz. that the conformation of the cranium depends on
that of the brain } a truth generally acknowledged, and
proved by the anterior part of the brain, by the impref-
lions in the anterior part of the cranium, and by other
fadts.
[There are Ikulls, it is true, in which an external
protuberance
445
PHYSIOGNOMY.
protuberance of the bone correfponds to an interior one •,
and this irregularity, which is found fometimes as a dif-
eafe, and moft commonly at an advanced age, when the
cerebral organs do not oppofe the fame refiftance to the
cranium, renders the praclice of Dr Gall’s fyftem, in
fome meafure, uncertain.]
“ Guided by thefe principles, Dr Gall examines the
nature of the fkull, compares the crania of animals and
thofe of men analogous and different in faculties. His
refearches have proved to him, in a manner almoft in-
conteftable, not only the above truths, but that the fa¬
culties of animals are analogous to thofe of man •, that
what we call inftincf in animals is found alfo in the lat¬
ter, fuch as attachment, cunning, circumfpedKon, cou¬
rage, &c. } that the quantity of the organs fixes the
difference of the genus of animals, their reciprocal pro¬
portion that of individuals 5 that the difpofition original¬
ly given to each faculty by nature may be called forth
by exercife and favourable circumftances, and fometimes
by difeafe, but that it never can be created in the cafe
where it has not been given by nature (c) ; that the ac¬
cumulation of the organs takes place in a conftant man¬
ner from the hind part forwards, from the bottom to
the top, in fuch a manner, that animals in proportipn
as they approach man in the quantity of their faculties
have the fuperior and anterior part ot the brain more ex¬
panded ; and, in the laft place, that in the moft perfeft
animal, man, there are organs in the anterior and iupe-
rior parts of the frontal bone, and of the parietals, def-
tined for faculties which belong to them exclufively.
It is under the latter point of view that the difcoveries
of Dr Gall agree perfedly with the theory of the facial
angle, which feems ftill further to eftablifti the truth of
them.” ,
Moft of our readers will probably be fatisfied with the
ftiort view which we have now given of this fanciful and
vifionary fyftem 5 but fuch as wifh for a fuller expofition
of it, may confult the Philofophical Magazine, vol. xiv.
p. yy. from which the above is extracted. We ftiall
only add the names of a few of the organs, which the
author of the fyftem thinks he has difcovered. Organ
of the tenacity of life. Organ of mujic. Organ of fight¬
ing. Organ of murder. Organ of cunning. Organ of
arithmetic. Organ of thieving, &c.
PHYSIOLOGY.
Jefiritm
nd objedts
f phyflolo-
^ivifions.
... 3
Morical
Ayfiotogy.
. 4
Philofoplu-
;al pbyfio-
m-
INTRODUCTION.
I. PHYSIOLOGY is that part of phyfical fcience
which treats of the nature, properties, and func¬
tions of living bodies j comprehending under this term,
animals and vegetables. The word is derived from
(pvrii, “ nature,” and “ a difcourfe 5 and figni-
fied originally what we may call natural knowledge.
The objedl of this fcience is to examine and compare
the phenomena of life 5 to difcover the properties,
powers, and operations of the bodies that are aftuated
by this principle, and to purfue the developement, pro-
grefs, and decay of vital energy, from brute matter,
which poffeffes no portion of vitality, to the moft perfedl
animal, which feems to have it in the greateft perfec¬
tion.
2. Phyfiology may be confidered under three heads ;
hifiorical, philofophical or rational, and praElical phyft-
ology.
3. Hifioricalphyfiology is occupied in giving a fimple
relation of the fadhs and phenomena that take place in
living bodies; in bringing them together, and com¬
paring thofe which fucceed each other without inter¬
ruption during the exiftence of vitality.
4. It is the bufinefs of philofophical phyfology to
confider the nature of thefe phenomena, and endeavour
to deduce from them fome general conclulions, by which
they may be explained or elucidated ■, to draw from
them natural confequences, and unfold fucceflively their
analogies and relations^ to arrange, diftribute, and claf-
fify them, and thus acquire lufficient data by which to
difcover the caufes which produce them. . 5
The pra&ical part of phyfiology is intended to point
out the application of the principles of the fcience to the^ J 10 °sy'
ufeful purpofes of life, efpecially to medicine and agri¬
culture. Of thefe divifions the firft is the moft import¬
ant, as, until we have acquired a pretty complete know¬
ledge of the fafts relating to living beings, and arranged
thefe in a natural manner, it cannot be expeCled that
we ftiould make any great progrefs in explaining them,
or inveftigating their caufes. From the multitude,
variety, and complex nature of thefe phenomena, a
complete view of them is extremely difficult, and re¬
quires the united efforts of genius, dexterity, patience,
and difcernment. ^
Phyfiology is intimately related to feveral other de- Relations to
partments of natural knowledge. Its relation to ana-anatomy*
tomy is the moft ftrift and natural 5 and indeed the
knowledge of the ftrudlure of living bodies is a neceffary
introduction to that of their properties and functions.. So
clofe is the union between thefe two fciences, that it is
generally thought that the ftudy of them ftiould go hand
in hand. Certain it is, that, without phyfiology, ana¬
tomy is a dry and uninterefting ftudy 5 while, on the
other hand, phyfiology, unaided by anatomy, is obfcure
and uncertain. It is by means of anatomy that we learn
the ftruClure and organization of the animal machine j
the difpofition and form of its feveral members 5 the
parts that concur in the compofition of them 5 the ar¬
rangement and the connection of thefe : it is by means
of anatomy that we know how to eftimate the advanta¬
ges
(c) The germ of every organ muft exift in embryo, if the expanfion of that organ is to be afterwards called
forth.
PHYSIOLOGY.
diemiftry,
mechanical
philofophy,
9
metaphy-
iics,
ges of any particular conformation ; that we eftimate
the proportion between the folid and fluid parts of the
body, and the adaptation of the organs to the various
ufes for which they are deftined. But we muft remem¬
ber, that the aid of anatomy in phyfiological refearches,
extends no farther than to the mechanical arrangement
and relation of the feveral parts of the body ; it teaches
us nothing of its intimate compofition, and much lefs
does it inform us refpefting the vital powers and mental
energies difplayed hy the living body. The moft accu¬
rate infpeftion of the brain will afford us no light re-
fpeffing the obfcure funftion of fenfation, and the hid¬
den operation of thought and judgment 5 nor will the
niceft diffeflion of the eye, or of the tongue, (hew us
Iioav the former is enabled to convey to us the ideas of
external objects, or how the latter imparts to us the
thoufand varied flavours of fapid bodies. In fhort, we
may conclude, that the more the exercife of any func¬
tion depends on the ftrudlure and organization of the or¬
gans that perform it, the more capable is it of illuflra-
tion from anatomy.
The fcience of chemiftry has proved of eminent ufe
in explaining feveral funftions of the animal economy,
which, without its afliftance, would have been very im¬
perfectly underftood. The aCtion of the air on the
blood during refpiration, and the digeftion of food in the
llomach, are found to depend chiefly on chemical opera¬
tions ; while this fcience has explained to us, in a moft
fatisfaftory manner, the nature, compofition, and reci¬
procal aftion of the component principles of organized
beings, and the nature of feveral changes which they
undergo, both in the living and the dead ftate. But if
we extend the application of chemiftry too far, and ima¬
gine, as fome of our modern chemical phyfiologifts have
done, that it is capable of explaining life, motion, and
even fenfation, we (hall only betray our own prefumption
and our ignorance of vital phenomena. When the per¬
formance of any funftion depends on the intimate com¬
pofition of its organs, or the combinations and decom-
pofitions that take place among their component prin¬
ciples ; then, and then only, is it fufceptible of chemical
illuftratian.
Mechanical philofophy is employed with advantage
in explaining fome of the phenomena that take place in
living beings. The ftrength and folidity of the bony
compages 5 the force and direction of the mufcular mo¬
tions ; the propagation, direction, and mechanical effeft
of light, found, odours; the effe&s of the gravity and
elafticity of atmofpheric air, and a few other circum-
ftances, may be fubmitted to calculation, and illuftrated
on phyfical principles : but the laws of mechanical and
of vital adlion are, in general, fo different, and even
the moft mechanical phenomena of living beings are of¬
ten fo modified and counteradfed by the agency of the
vital powers, that, on the whole, we muft confider ge¬
neral phyfics as one of the leaft ufeful auxiliaries of phy¬
fiological refearches.
Of all the branches of phyfical fcience, phyfiology
certainly makes the neareft approach to the region of
metaphyfics; but yet there is a difference between thefe,
though it may not be very eafy to point out the precife
line of termination. Phyfiology, as already defined, be¬
ing that fcience which has for its objedl the organical
economy of living bodies, the word organical, we think,
here ftiould mark the diftindlion.
. 3
Whenever the economy of living bodies indicates de- Introduc
fign, and cannot refult from any combination or ftruc- don.
ture of organs, it muft be fuppofed the effedt of fome-
thing different from matter, and whofe explanation be¬
longs to that fcience w hich is called metaphysics, or which
we might term the philofophy of the mind. By aferibing,
indeed, to the glandular contents within the cranium,
and to that fidtion animal fpirits, the motives of adtion,
the fuperficial and ill-informed may have been led to
an opinion that perception, memory, and imagina¬
tion, are the fundrions of the cerebrum, the medulla ob¬
longata, and cerebellum ; that the foul is a confequence
of organization j and the fcience which treats of it only
a particular branch of phyfiology. But mind and its
faculties are now fo well underftood and inveftigated,
that this opinion can feldom prevail but where penetra¬
tion is not remarkable for its acutenefs, or where re-
fledtion, reading, and refearch, have long been confined
Avithin the limits of a narroAV circle.
Some metaphyfical phyfiologifts contend, that every
living fyflem of organs fuppofes mind, and indeed in the
ftudy of fuch fyftems the phyfiologift muft often meet
with many phenomena that are lefs fingular than fimple
perception, and yet for which he cannot account by any
knoAvledge he poffeffes of organic poAvers. This truth
avc partly acknorvledge, when, like ancient Athens eredl-
ing her altars to unknoAvn gods, Ave retreat to thofe
afylums of ignorance, the vis infta, the vis nervea, the
vis vitalis, the vis medicatrix, and a number of others of
the fame kind. > lo
Phyfiology, in the general fenfe in Avhich we have and natur
defined it, is a fcience that inveftigates the nature andhiftory.
the fundlions of all living beings. It is, therefore, rea-
fonable to fuppofe that it muft have an intimate connec¬
tion with natural hiftory, and in fadl, it is to this branch
of phyfics that it ha? been perhaps more indebted than
to any other. A comparative view of the various gra¬
dations among organized beings has taught us to apore-
ciate the value of the feveral fundrions that charadlerife
vitality, and has fheAvn us, that in proportion as the
ftrudture is more complex, the fundrions are more nu¬
merous, and more complete. Repeated obfervations,
and multiplied experiments on various tribes of anima¬
ted nature have cleared up many doubtful and obfcure
phenomena in the economy of man, and a continuation
of this truly philofophical method of refearch promifes
to place phyfiology on the folid bafis of experience, and
enable us to reafon, Avhere only we can reafon with fafe-
ty, by a dedudrion from fadls. The more numerous
thefe fadts, and the more complete their arrangement,
the more extenfive, and the more fecure Avill- be the
foundation Avhich they afford for phyfiological conclu- ,
fions. In fliort (to ufe the language of Dumas, who
has illuftrated this relation at great length), “ the phy¬
fiologift who is converfant Avith natural hiftory, is fo
much the better fortified againft uncertain opinions, in-
afmuch as he has more fully obferved the operations of
nature in connedrion and in detail. An hypothefis
Avhich to others appears perfedlly adequate to the objeri:
in view, is not convincing to him. He rifes above the
particular objedl to Avhich it is accommodated, in order to
appreciate its value ; and it is often among eircumftances
Avhich are foreign to the original fubjedt, that he feeks
for exceptions or contradidrions that overturn the hy¬
pothefis. Every thing that may ferve to complete the
knowledge
1
PHYSIOLOGY.
447
niroduc- knowledge of the animal economy enters into his plan •,
tion. and as the nature of man is fo much the lefs incompre-
 henfible as we employ a greater number of compara-
Dmas live ideas in its expofition, it is doubtlefs in the power of
'pbyfio- natural hiftory to elucidate that fubjeft, by revealing a
tie,tom.i- multitude of unknown relations between man and thofe
’231• beings which referable or which differ from him*.”
11 The importance and utility of phyfiology will fcarce-
dudlity6 ly be queftioned, and need therefore but little illuftra-
phyliolo- tion. To all who defire to become acquainted with
the operations that take place in the animal economy,
or to trace the progrefs of vegetation, and examine the
various changes produced on the feed or bud from the
a&ion of air, heat, and moifture, (and wrhat ftudies can
be more deferving of a rational and an enlightened
mind ?) phyliology mull afford the moft interefling fub-
je£ts of contemplation. To the anatomift and the bo-
tanift, it relieves the tedium of dry defcription and fevere
claffification; to the phyfician it holds out the fureft lights
to direct his refearches into the circumftances that are
favourable to life and health, into the nature and pheno¬
mena of death, and of courfe, the means of avoiding or
delaying its attack j to the agriculturift it furnifhes fome
of the moft certain principles to direft him (with the
aid of chemiftry) in the choice of foils, and the applica¬
tion of manures ; while to the genuine naturalift, no
fubjedl prefents fuch a field of amufement and inftruc-
tion. When it fhall have been rendered as complete
as the ftate of contemporary fcience will allow, it will
exhibit the general refult of all thofe experiments and
obfervations that have purpofely been made to illuftrate
the phenomena of animated matter, or have accidentally
contributed to that illuftration ; and when it fhall reach
that fummit of perfection to which the efforts of genius
may carry it, it may diffufe a light, of which at the pre-
fent day we can form no juft or adequate conception.
On many occaftons it may introduce order for confu-
fion, certainty for doubt; and may eftablifh fcience, in
various departments that are now occupied by fancy and
conjecture.
After having pointed out the naturey divijions, rela¬
tions^ and utility of phyfiology, it may not be improper
to make a few remarks on the beft methods of purfuing
the ftudy of it, and the works that are moft worthy of
u a perufal.
[ethods of From what has been faid of the relations between
udying phyfiology and other fciences, it will be inferred that
lyfiology. the ftudent of our prefent fubjeCt fhould come prepared
with a moderate fhare of knowledge in anatomy, both
human and comparative, of chemiftry, of mechanical
philofophy, efpecially dynamics, optics, pneumatics, and
acouftics; and natural hiftory, efpecially zoology and
botany. At leaft the rudiments of thefe branches fhould
be well underftood, and the ftudent will then have laid
a foundation on which to raife a firm and durable fu-
perftru&ure.
He has now to make himfelf acquainted with what is
already known j and in this inquiry it is of much confe-
quence that he fhould feleCt thofe works that embrace
the whole fubjeCt, without being too diffufe on the one
hand or too brief and general on the other. The JUe-
menta Phyjtologice of Haller contains a mafs of informa¬
tion that will ever render it valuable as a book of re¬
ference, though it will fcarcely at the prefent day be
ftudied as a fyftem of phyfiology. His Primer Lin esc
a com- Introduc¬
tion.
Phyjio/ogite, though firft written, is chiefly
pendium of the larger work, and is better adapted
to the general ftudent, though, from its not containing
the later difcoveries in the fcience, it is far from com¬
plete. The Injlitutiones Phyjiologice of Blumenbach is
a ufeful work, though it has now given place to the later
and more accurate publications of Cuvier and Dumas.
The Anatomie Comparee of the former writer contains an
excellent digeft of comparative phyfiology, and the pre¬
liminary obfervations prefixed to the anatomical details
contained in this work, may be read with confiderable
advantage. Probably, however, the Pnncipes do Phy-
Jiologie of Dumas.is the moft perfect and fcientific mo¬
dern production that has appeared on the fubjeCt. We
cannot fay fo much of the Elements of Phyjioiogy late¬
ly publifhed by Richerand, and tranilated into Dnglifh
by Mr Kerrifon 3 for although it contains confiderable
information, and a great difplay of reading, and even of
original obfervation and experiment, it is neither icien-
tific nor always very accurate. The works of Bichat,
efpecially his Anatomie Gencrale, Anatomie Defer ip live,
and his Recherches Phyfiologiques Jur la Vie et la Mort,
abound with excellent phyfiological remarks, and, al¬
lowing for the great extent to which he has carried fbme
peculiar doCfrines, are among the beft that have appear¬
ed on the animal economy.
In our own country, we have many valuable treatifes
and papers on different parts of phyfiology, and the
names of Hunter, Monro, Home, Cooper, Abernethy,-
Carlifle, Sanders, Barclay, Jones, and many others, will
ever refleCt honour on the country and on the age in
which they lived. We can fcarcely, however, point
out a complete work in our language on the general
fubjeCl of phyfiology, though we doubt not that many
will be difpofed to confider the Zoonomia of Dr Darwin
as entitled to that appellation. Vve allow that this is a
ftupendous monument of the genius and induftry of its
author, and it contains an ample ftore of valuable fads,
which, if they could be divefted of the hypothefis with
which they are fo much blended, would be extremely
ufeful to the caufe of phyfiological fcience. At prefent
many of them tend to miftead, by a thew of metaphyfi-
cal acutenefs, and by the new fenfe in which feveral
terms are employed. Another of Dr Darwin’s works-,
not lefe valuable, in a phyfiological point of view, is his
Pfiytologia, in which he treats of the economy of vege¬
tation with ability and fuccefs. '
He who is defirous of advancing and improving the Means of
fcience of phyfiology, muft, in the firft place, have re-advancing
courfe to a patient, and, as far as may be, an accurate an<* !m~
obfervation of the phenomena that take place in or" phyfiology,
ganized beings 3 but the multitude, the variety, and
complicated nature of thefe phenomena, place in his way
obftacles that it is difficult to furmount. It is only
through time, and patience, and afliduity, that he can
attain his objedt 3 and it requires confiderable dexterity
and acutenefs to detedf the appearances under which
thefe phenomena fometimes prefent themfelves, to pierce
through the obfeurity in which they are often involved,
and to avoid, in a route fo uncertain, both the illufions
of fenfe and the errors of genius. The living body has
properties peculiar to itfelf, while it alfo poffeffes others
that are common to it with brute matter. The pheno¬
mena by which it manifefts thefe two orders of proper¬
ties, are therefore of two kinds, as they relate particu¬
larly
PHYSIOLOGY.
>4
Obferva-
Experi¬
ment.
16
Cautions.
'1
Modern
arrange¬
ments.
18
Two modes
of arrange¬
ment.
ip
Arrange*
ment of
Dumas.
larly to the ftate of vitality, and as they are found in
every objeft that exifts. . Thefe latter are fubjeft to
the general laws of matter, are confounded with the
phenomena of univerfal nature, and may be denominated
phyjicalphenomena. Among the former, feme are con¬
fined to the arrangement or difpofition of the parts in
organs, and depend on the firudlure or form of thefe
organs. Thefe may be called organic phenomena.
Others depend on the particular laws that govern vital
beings, and are not the refult of any peculiar organiza¬
tion •, thefe are vital phenomena.
Obfervation alone is fufficient to indicate the prefence
or the exiftence of thefe phenomena •, but to unveil
them fully there is required an unceafing attention,
that is refolved to purfue them through the changes pro¬
duced by age, fex, climate, fituation, and all thofe cir-
cumftances that can affeft the living fyftem.
To obfervation, he muft add, wherever this can be
done with a chance of accuracy, a patient inveftigation
of nature by experiment. From the experiments of
Spallanzani and Stevens on digeftion 5 of Goodwin,
Menzies, Spallanzani, and Davy on refpiration ; of
Monro, Galvani, Volta, and a hundred others on ani¬
mal irritability, with many other experiments made botli
at home and abroad, more light has been thrown on
the economy of living bodies, than by all the hypothefes
and theories that the mod ingenious fpeculatift's have
contrived fince the firft dawn of infant fcience.
In following out Bacon’s great plan of obfervation
and experiment, we muft, however, take care in phyfi-
ological, as in all other phyfical inquiries, not to be too
hafty in our conclufions, and not to fuppofe that we
have reached the bottom of the well of truth, when we
have barely got within its verge. Further obfervations
on this fubiefl are unneceffary here, as we have already
treated it at fome length in the articles Philosophy and
Physics.
We ftiall conclude thefe introdudlory remarks with
a brief {ketch of the principal arrangements of modern
phyfiologifts, and a tabular outline of the fubjeft as we
propofe to treat it in the following pages.
There are two modes of arrangement that have ufual-
ly been adopted in treating phyfiology; one according to
the order of the functions, and another according to that
of the organs bv which thefe are performed. The latter
of thefe was adopted by Haller ; the former is that of
Dumas, Cuvier, and moft of our later phyfiologifts.
D umas, after a long introduftory difcourfe, in which
he treats of the beft method of purfuing the ftudy of
anatomy and phyfiology, divides his fubjeft into fix
parts. In the firft of thefe he offers fome general views
refpeiffing anatomy, phyfiology, and all the branches of
phyfics winch are employed in illuftrating the nature
and properties of organized and living beings. In this
part he gives a compendious hiftory of the progrefiive
improvements in anatomy and phyfiology, points out
the relations that take place between thefe fciences, and
the auxiliary branches of mathematics, mechanical phi-
lofophv, chenriftry, and natural hiftory •, he confiders
the principal differences that diftinguifti organized from
inorganic matter •, the nature, effedls, and duration 'of
life, and of the general and particular powers or facul¬
ties of nature, both in living and brute matter.
In the fecond part he lays down the fundamental
principles on which the phyfical cenftitution and par-
cular economy of man depend *, treats of man confider- Introduc
ed individually $ of his formation, llrudlure, and varie- don-
ties 'y of the modifications produced in the nature of man '"“"“v—
by age, fex, habit, and temperament j of the relations
between man and external objetls j of the a&ion and re¬
action of the organic fyftems on each other j of the or¬
ganic ftrudure of man, and of its feveral varieties in the
different parts and organs j of the natural compofition
of the different fluids and folids of the human body : and
gives a methodical divifion of the funftions, with a cri¬
tical examination of the modes of claflification common¬
ly received.
In the third part he treats of the phenomena of the
animal economy, in the relation which they bear to the
perpetual commerce eftablifhed between man and the
organs that furround him, or of fenfation and motion.
Here he confiders the a&ion of external objefts upon
man, whence refult the phenomena of fenfation, and the
aCtion of man on external objects, from which arife the
phenomena of motion.
In the fourth part he treats of the phenomena of the
animal economy, in the relation which they bear to the
confiftence of the fluids, the cohefion of its folids, and
the temperature of the whole fyftem. Here he con¬
fiders the mutual adion between the veffels and the
blood, from which refult, both in the folids and fluids,
that degree of cohefion and pliability that favours the
neceffary expan Ability of the living body, or the func¬
tion of circulation^ the aCtion of the air, and of caloric,
on the folids and fluids, from which refults the degree of
expanfion neceffary to life, or the funftion of refpiration.
In the fifth part he treats of the phenomena of the
animal economy in the relation which they bear to the
healthy and entire ftate of the material fubftance and
compofition of the body. Here he confiders the a<ftion
of alimentary fubllances on the human body, in repair¬
ing its lofs, and preferving its fubftance, from which
refult the phenomena of digettion, abforption, and
nutrition ; and of the aftion of certain organs on the
fluids of the body, in feparating thofe which do not ferve
the purpofes of nutrition, from which refult the pheno¬
mena of fecretion and excretion.
In the fixth and laft part, he treats of the phenomena
of the animal economy in the relation which they bear
to the commerce eftablifhed between the individual and
the fpecies. Here he confiders the mutual phyfical ac¬
tion of the two fexes, from which arife the phenomena
of generation ; and the mutual moral aftion of feveral
individuals, from which refult the phenomena of fpeech,
and mutual intelligence.
From this {ketch of the arrangement of Dumas it
will be feen, that although he takes a very extenfive
view of the fubjedft, his obfervations are chiefly confined
to the human body. 20
Though the ledlures of Cuvier do not contain aArrang*
complete fyftem of phyfiology, the anatomical matter in
them is, however, fo much blended with obfervations on
the animal economy, that it will be of importance for
the phyfiological ftudent to be acquainted with his ar¬
rangement.
The whole work is divided into 30 leflures: the firft
of which is occupied with preliminary obfervations on
the animal economy, comprehending a general view of
the functions of animal bodies ; a general idea of the
organs of which the animal body is compofed j a view
of
PHYSIOLOGY. 449
Introduc- of the principal differences exhibited by thefe organs,
tion. and of the relations which exiit among thofe variations,
v ' together with a divifion of animals founded on their or¬
ganization. The fecond lecture treats of the organs of
motion in general j the third, fourth, fifth, and fixth
lectures are merely anatomical, exhibiting a comparative
view of thefe organs in the feveral claffes of animals.
The feventh left ore is ftriftly phyfiological, and treats
of the organs of motion confidered in the feveral aftions
of Handing, walking, feizing and climbing, leaping,
fwitnming, and flying.
The eighth, ninth, tenth,eleventh, twelfih,thirteenth,
fourteenth, and fifteenth lectures, are occupied in con-
fidering the anatomy and phyfiology of the fun&ion of
fenfation. Of thefe, part of the ninth treats of the
nervous fyftem in general, and of its a£tion j part of the
twelfth gives the phyfiology of vifion ; part of the
thirteenth, that of hearing*, part of the fourteenth, that of
touch ; and part of the fifteenth, that of fmell and tafte.
The fixteenth, feventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth,
twentieth, and twenty-firft le6lures treat of the organs
and phenomena of digeftion, maftication, infalivation,
and deglutition. The twenty-fecond lecture treats of
what have been called the afliftant chylopoietic vifcera,
namely, the liver, the pancreas, the fpleen, and their
offices. The twenty-fourth treats of the organs and
phenomena of circulation in general; the twenty-fixth
of thofe of refpiration in general j the twenty-eighth of
the organs of voice.
The twenty-ninth treats of the organs and phenome¬
na of generation, and the thirtieth, of thofe of excretion,
comprehending a general view, both of fecretion and ex-
aI cretion.
€fBichat. Subjoined to Bichat’s introdu&ion to his Anatomie
Generale, there is a tabular view of phyfiology, in which,
after fome preliminary outline of the general ftrufture of
the organs and of the phenomena of vitality, he divides
the fun&ions into claffes, orders, and genera.
The firft clafs confifls of the fun&ions that relate to
the individual ; the Grft order of which, comprifing the
funflions of animal life, comprehends five genera, viz.
fenfations, cerebralfunttions, locomotion, voice, and ner¬
vous tranfmiffion, befides Jleep. The fecond order of this
clafs contains the functions of organic life, and compre-
hend« eight genera, viz. digejlion, refpiration, circulation,
exhalation, abforption, fecretion, nutrition, and color ifca*
lion.
The fecond clafs contains the fun&ions that relate to
the fpecies in general, and is divided into three orders.
The firfl: of thefe, comprifing the funflions peculiar to
the male, comprehends only one genus, viz. the produc¬
tion of the feminal fluid. The fecond comprifes the
funflions peculiar to the female, and contains three ge¬
nera, viz. menftruntion, the production of milk, and of the
female generative fluids. The third order comprifes the
funflions that relate to the union of the two fexes, and
the produft of that union j and it comprehends alfo
three genera, viz. generation, geflation, and delivery.
Refpefling the peculiar doflrines of this writer we
fliall fpeak hereafter.
Zoological There is Hill another mode of arranging the pheno-
arrange- mena of living bodies, that deferves to be noticed, name-
rnent' ly, that in which they are arranged according to the ar¬
tificial fyftems of natural hiftorv. J his mode of ar-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
rangernent, though of infinite advantage to the zoolo- lutroduc-
gilt, by Ihewing him at once the extent of his lubjefl, , 1<^u‘ ,
and giving to his memory a power of recolleflion which
it could not otherwife poffefs, is yet not fuch as the
phyfiologift would with to be obferved. Zoological ar¬
rangements are ufeful chiefly as they facilitate the itudy
of the manners, difpofitions, and habits of differexit ani¬
mals ; and all that part of the outward economy which
indicates fomething of the wifdom and defign difplayed
by the Creator, in their Itrufture and adaptation to the
modes of life which they are intended to purfue •, but
they do not fufficiently illuftrate the internal ftrufture
on which this outward economy depends, nor do they
fufficiently explain the more fecret funflions, which be¬
ing independent of the will of the creature, only dif-
play the power and omnifcience of him who made it.
This will be readily Conceived from confidering the dif¬
ference between zoology and phyfiology, as we have de¬
fined it. Zoology is chiefly led to examine the animal
kingdom as it uiually prefents itfelf to the eye, includ¬
ing a great variety of objefts •, phyfiology examines on¬
ly that part of the animal economy which is principally
made known by anatomy and chemiltry. Zoology has
been accuftomed to divide its kingdom into fo many
claffes or orders of animals •, phyfiology would naturally
divide its economy into fo many functions. Zoology
has ufually fubdivided its claffes by certain obvious ex¬
ternal marks, as the teeth and claws $ phyfiology would
naturally fubdivide its funflions by the varieties of thofe
organs which are deftined to perform them, as the fe¬
veral kinds of lungs and ftomachs. Zoology mentions
the funflions only in a curfory manner, as forming a
part of the hiltory of animals ; phyfiology takes notice
of animals, only when they are of ufe to illuffrate the
funCtions. To thefe differences we may add another •,
that phyfiology, in the extended fenfe which we have
given it, goes beyond zoology in comprehending the
economy of the vegetable creation. From this compari-
fon it will be admitted, that things which are primary
in a zoological method, will often be fecondary in a
phyfiological arrangement, and vice verfa. dliis is very
confpicuoufly the cafe in one of the grand divifions oi
Linnaeus, viz. mammalia, where the important feeretory
organs of the milky fluid are noticed only like the
colour of the hair, or the length of the tail, as a good
outward mark of diftinflion, and likev'ife in the excel¬
lent table by D’Aubenton in his introductory view
of natural hi (lory, in the Encyclopedic Methodiquc, in
which the funflion of digeftion is not even mentioned. 23
It is, however, extremely ufeful, both to the naturalift Utility
and phyfiologift, that the arrangements of both fciences
ftiould be, as far as poflible, adapted to each other, by
marking the relative importance of the feveral funflions ea[ tozoolu-
in the various claffes of living beings. This has been gical ar-
very ably performed by Vicq d’Azyr, a modification of rangement‘-
whofe table has been given in the comparative part of
our Anatomy. See Vol. II. p. 280.
With refpefl to all phyfiological arrangements we 24
may obferve, that as the phenomena of living beings ai'e
fo intimately dependent on each other, as to form the
links of one continued chain, it is of little confequence
which of the funflions or phenomena we make the point
from which we let out in our examination. But as the
organs of fenfation in moft animals, and thofe of digel-
g L tion
450
PHYSIOLOGY.
Introduc- tion in almofl: all living creatures, are among tlie firfl
, tl”n' . that are evolved, it appears moft convenient to begin
with one of thefe. The following is the arrangement
25 that we {hall adopt in the prefent article.
Arrange- After giving a {ketch of the progrefs of phyfiolpgical
ment ot th® difcoveries and opinions, we {hall divide the remaining
I'cie, * part of the article into 16 chapters. In the firil of
thefe we fhall treat of the charafteriilic marks, general
phenomena, duration, and principle of life. In the
fecond we {hall confider the phenomena of fenfation, the
a£tion of the nervous fyftem, and the external fenfes of
feeling, tailing, fmelling, hearing, and fight. In the
third and fourth chapters we {hall treat of irritability,
and the phenomena of motion. In the fifth we {hall
treat of digeftion 5 in the fixth of abforption •, in the
fevehth of circulation ; in the eighth of refpiration and
voice •, and in the ninth of nutrition, as completed by
the fucceffive performance of the four preceding func¬
tions. In the tenth chapter we {hall treat of the phe¬
2<S
Tabular
.outline.
nomena of fecretion •, and in the eleventh, of thofe of Introdue-
excretion. In the twelfth we {hall confider the vari- tion.
ous means by which living beings defend themfelves "T—«
from external injury, or the phenomena that attend the
evolution and change of the integuments, to which func¬
tion we {hall give the name of integumation. In the
thirteenth chapter we fhall confider the transformations
that take place in feme tribes of living beings, efpecial-
ly infefts and reptiles. In the fourteenth we {hall
briefly examine the phenomena of reproduction, and
the hypothefes to which they have given birth. In the
fifteenth we {hall confider the nature of deep, and the
phenomena of dreams ; and in the fixteenth we {hall
terminate our inquiries by a few obfervations on the
nature and phenomena of death.
The following table is intended to exhibit an out¬
line of the principal circumftances attending the pheno¬
mena of life, in the order in which we have enumerated
them.
I. Life—is either -
2. Sensibility-
Appears to
3. Irritability-
AffeCled by
4. Motion—Per¬
formed by
Univerfally diffufed through the body. Polypi, &c.
Moft concentrated in certain organs.
Continued for only a few hours. Ephemera;, andfame other infeEis.
  about a year. Annual plants.
 two years. Biennial plants.
 feveral years. Perennial plants, and mojl animals.
—: about a century. Elephants, pikes, &c.
 feveral centuries. Oaks, chefnuts, &c.
Exift in a very low degree in plants. Senjitivity.
Exifts in a greater or lefs degree in all animals.
Confined to the fenfes of feeling and tafte. Mojl zoophytes.
Extended befides thefe to the fenfes of fmelling, fight, and hearing.
__ Appears farther extended by an additional fenfe. Bats,
' Stimulants invifible.
 unknown.
 — unthought of.
The nervous influence.
Light.
Heat.
Moifture.
Eleftricity.
Salts.
Gafes.
_ Bodies that aCt mechanically.
Legs.
Wings.
Fins.
< The tail. ;
I Organs which fall not properly under thefe deferiptions, bats, flying opofliims, &c.
I The fpringinefs of the body or of feme part of it, maggots, fleas, &c.
b Contrivances which fit living bodies for being moved by foreign agents.
5. Digestion-
Introduc¬
tion.
5. Digestion—
Performed by an ali¬
mentary canal.
PHYSIOLOGY.
Without teeth.
With teeth in the mouth.
 in the ftomach.
—— ftones or artificial teeth in the flomach.
 glands in the mouth for fecreting a liquor to be mixed with the food.
   pouches in the mouth Avhere the food is kept and moiftened.
 — a fac or bag where the food is kept and moiftened.
- a membranous ftomach.
 a mufcular ftomach.
 an intermediate ftomach.
’ 451
Introduc¬
tion.
Thefe parts, as well as ruminating ftomachs and their oefophagus,
have antiperiftaltic motions.
Without a coecum or blind gut.
With a coecum.
 two coeca.
  three coeca.
 four coeca.
 one entrance or mouth.
 many entrances by abforbents.
Plants have many alimentary canals.
Some polypes have alimentary canals that branch through the body.
The alimentary canals of plants and worms diftribute the fluids without the aid of acir
culating fyftem.
Absorption-*-
Performed by
t
Veffels beginning from the alimentary canal.
       —■ the cavities.
  the furface.
Veins in the penis and placenta.
Re-abforbents originating from all the parts of the fyftem.
Circulation—
Performed by a fy¬
ftem with
'One heart.
A heart for diftributing the blood through the refpiratory organs, and an artery fot
diftributing it through the fyftem.
One heart for the refpiratory organs, and one for the fyftem, both in one capfule.
Two hearts for the refpiratory organs, and one for the fyftem.
<i A pulmonary heart, or a heart for the refpiratory organs in the courfe of circulation.
A pulmonary heart within or without the courfe of circulation at pleafure.
A heart fituated in the breaft.
- '     near to the head.
   . .- in the oppofite extremity.
_ Some animals and all plants have no circulating fyftem.
' Diffufed through the fyftem.
Confined to one place.
Situated externally.
  internally.
In the courfe of the circulation.
Not in the courfe of the circulation.
Within or without the courfe of circulation at pledfure.
Without tracheae.
With tracheae ramified through the fyftem where the refpiratory organs are generally
diffufed.
Respiration— ,
Performed by organs.
— not ramified through the fyftem where the refpiratory organs are confined.
— formed by rings.
 by fegments of rings on one fide, and a membrane on the other.
—  by continuous rings running fpirally like a fcrew.
— admitting air by one entrance.
 by feveral entrances.
— wholly concealed in the body.
— partly projefting from the body.
 — opening at the head.
  at the oppofite extremity.
1  upon one fide.
.i .1). . ■■  both fides.
3 L 2
Nutrition-
9. Nutrition—
Food prepared by
io. Secretion-
Performed by
ii. Excretion—
Excrementitious
matters thrown
out by
13. Transforma¬
tion—Takes place
14. Generation-
Performed by
15. Sleep
ral deep is
cafioned by
•Natu-
{
12. Integumation—
Some living bodies
have integuments
■which are
PHYSIOLOGY.
The alimentary canal.
The lafteals. ^
The refpiratory organs.
The circulating fyftem.
The cellular membrane.
The glands.
_ And by the feveral parts in which it becomes finally aflimilated.
' Veffels.
Exhaling veffels.
Excretory organs.
Organic pores.
Glands.
And by all the parts of which the fyftem is compofed.-;
The integuments chiefly.
The common opening of the alimentary canal.
Two openings of this tube.
By the lungs and other emunftories.
' Scaly.
Shelly.
Membranous.
Corneous.
Cretaceous.
Ligneous.
Covered with down.
 hair.
    prickles.
   feathers.
  — a vifcid matter.
Change their colour.
  their covering.
__ Changed themfelves.
' By a change of proportion among the parts.
   of their form.
— throwing off old parts.
— an addition of new ones of a different ufe, ftru&ure, and forro^
— a change of the whole form together.
  -—of qualities, propenlities, manners.
•'The temporary union of two fexes.
The fpontaneous feparation of parts.
Organs lituated in the breaft.
    . in the fide.
    near to the head.
  ■ in the oppofite extremity.
An intrant organ of the male, and a recipient organ of the female.
An intrant organ of the female, and a recipient organ of the male.
The ftamina and piftils of flowers.
The feminal fecretion of the male thrown into the organs of the female.
 fprinkled at the entrance of the female organs.
■ .    thrown upon them from a diftance.
—     tranfported to them by the winds.
...   fprinkled on the embryo after emiflion.
  diffolved in a fluid fecreted by the female before it can rightly
perform its office.
 —    —diffolved perhaps fometimes in air, as in the cafe of dioicous plants,.
where it probably a£ts like an aroma.
r Quietnefs.
•The abfence of ftimuli.
The famenefs of ftimuli when long continued.
] Deficient affimilation.
J Deficient irritability, which is owing fometimes to the weaknefs, inattention, or confined
Introduc
tion.
powers of the mental principle.
16. Death, See Life.
The
ffiftonr.
i hiftory
phyfioJo-
i8
)inions of
thagoras
petting
in.
. *9
f Alcmse-
a.
30
)fEmpedo
les and A-
'MagOfaS.
PHYSIOLOGY.
453-
HISTORY.
The early hiftory of phyfiology can be little more
than an account of the opinions of the ancient philofo-
phers refpe&ing the nature and functions of the human
body ; but as their opinions refleft confiderable light on
the progreffive improvement of the philofophy of man,
the hiftory of phyfiology, even in its early ftages, is cu¬
rious and interefting.
Of the origin of phyfiology as a fcience we know no¬
thing. On examining the writings of the earlieft philofo-
phers, we meet with little more than a collection of ab-
ftraCt principles and hypothetical reafonings, efpecially
previous to Pythagoras. He confidered man as a mi-
crocofm, or an epitome of the univerfe, in which were
produced the fame phenomena as in the larger world,
only to a lefs extent. He admitted more than one
intelligent principle, conducing all the operations of
the human body. He fuppofed that the human foul,
nourilhed by the blood, fixed by the veins, the arteries,
and the nerves, as fo many vifible fituations, became
obedient to the general laws of univerfal harmony- He
did not pretend that the eternal power of numbers had
preferibed all the phenomena of nature, and that the
force of numerical harmonies regulated the motions of
the bodies which filled the univerfe, though he has been
made fo to exprefs himfelf by his difciples. He was
qontented with after ting, that every thing in nature was
brought about according to the qualities and proportions
of numbers, without attributing to them an intrinfic vir¬
tue and a pofitive exiftence. He perceived that the
phenomena of the animal economy fucceeded each other
•with a ftriCl regularity, by w'hich they concurred in
maintaining order 5 and in this order he found the prin¬
ciple of the exiftence and prefervation of all beings •, a
principle without which they could not exift. He con¬
fidered the fouls of men as emanations from the general
foul of the univerfe, or anitna tnundi.
Alcmaeon confidered the brain as the feat of the foul.
He fuppofed found to be produced by the reverberation
of the air within the cavity of the ear ; and he thought
that tafte was owing to the moifture of the tongue. He
compared the body of a foetus to a fponge, which obtain¬
ed its nonrilhment by the fuftion eftabliflied over every
part of its fubftance. According to him, the motion of
the blood was the effential principle of life } and he fup¬
pofed that the ftagnation of this fluid in the veins pro¬
duced fleep, and its active expanfion brought back the
waking ftate of the body. Health confided in the equi¬
librium and well proportioned mixture of certain pri¬
mary qualities ; and that whenever any of thefe became
too predominant, difeafe was the confequence.
Empedocles involved himfelf in a multitude of ab-
furd hypotheles, in order to explain the formation of
man, and the combination of the elements from which
he was produced. He too, like the difciples of Pytha¬
goras, fought among the properties of numbers, for the
general principles both of phyfical and moral fcience.
In uniformity with this fyftem it was, that he reckoned
the four elements, and admitted among the particles of
thefe material principles a kind of affeftion and aver-
fion, of defire and antipathy, capable of feparating and
reuniting them, as occafion might require. Pie be¬
lieved that refpiratxon commenced within the uterus,
where the infant was provided from each parent with
A-
certain organic particles, which tended to unite into one i Hiftory.
uniform whole. Anaxagoras, convinced that we muft v
attribute the arrangement of matter to the intelligence
of a fuperintending being, imagined that the body of
every animal was formed of homogeneous particles,-
which were brought together by a fott of affinity. It
appeared to him, that bodies which were endowed with
thought, were compofed of fenlible elements ; that thefe
elements remained unalterable, and that no power in
nature could exert any aftion on them. 31
Democritus dedicated his life to repeated experiments Democri
on plants and animals. He explained the principal phe-tuE*
uomena of organized bodies by the aftion and reaftion
of atoms, which he fuppofed to be endowed with powers
effentially a£Hve, and fufceptible of repelling and at-
trafting each other. According to him, generation con -
fifted in the cohefion of homogeneous atoms. He con¬
ceived the heat inherent in the elements of the body to
be the foie a£Hve principle with which man was anima¬
ted \ and that by increafe of this he became capable of
life and motion. He compared the organs of the fenfes
to mirrors, on which were painted the images of things,
and he reduced all fenfations to the fenle of feeling,
which he fuppofed to be more or lefs delicate according
to circumftances.
Thefe philofophers, who lived before the time of Hip-Hipj,ocF«i=
pocrates, had, as we fee, but very rude and indiftinft tes.
notions of the animal economy; nor were thofe of the
great father of phyfic much fuperior. Excellent as was
his praflice, and acute his knowledge of the fymptoms
and progrefs of difeafes, the phyfiology of Hippocrates
was very lame and defe&ive. He feems, indeed, to
have underftood the fun&ion of nutrition better than
'moft others *, he traces the aliment into the ftomach,
feems aware of the proceffes it has to undergo there, and
hazards a conjedfture that part of the chyle is taken up
immediately by the pores of the cellular texture j and
that the juices admitted into this membrane, ferved for
the prodiiflion of milk, the matter of which is after¬
wards tranfported, and laid up within the breafts. He
attributes to each vital part an attra£live force, which
it exerts on the nutritious particles, in order to incorpo¬
rate and appropriate to itfelf thofe which bear to it a
certain analogy. He thought that the heat generated
in a living body was kept up entirely by the powers of
vitality •, and that the external air introduced by refpi-
ration, ferved rather to check it, by exerting a cooling
effeft on the pulmonary organs. He reprefents the hu¬
man body as agitated in all its parts by an alternate flux
and reflux, which carried the matters from within out¬
wards, or brought them from without inwards. From
this fome have fuppofed that he underftood the circula¬
tion of the blood, a fuppofition made two hundred years
ago, and lately again brought forward by the French
phyfiologifts. We ffiall not at prefent ftay to canv;afs
this opinion, which, however, we conceive to be found¬
ed on very unfatisfaflory arguments.
After Hippocrates, the fcier.ee of man was again leftpiatoi
to the fchools of philofophy, from which he had firft fe-
parated it. Plato is the firft philofopher whofe opinions
merit particular notice. He -wrote on the phyfiolpgy
of man with his accuftomed elegance and fplendour of
di6Hon ; and he affirmed the tone of an infpired prophet
in deferibing, with the force of enlhufiafm, the grand
images that fuggefted themfelves to his mind. Ac¬
cording
PHYSIOLOGY.
34
Ajiftotle.
Cording to nim, the human' body does not contain with¬
in itfelf the caufe of the phenomena which are the con-
fcquencc or the attendants of life. It is only a paffive
fubjeft, on which the foul expreffes the feries of its func¬
tions, like the canvas on which the painter traces the
conceptions of his inventions. He diftinguilhes two
principles of aftion in man, a rational foul, on which de¬
pend refledlion and intelligence, and an irrational foul,
on which depend life and motion. The latter is dif-
fufed through every part of the body ; and it is by
means of thefe parts that it feels, fuffers pain, or enjoys
pleafure. Thus it is by means of the heart it is fufcepti-
ble of courage and of paflion 5 by the liver of defire. 1 he
head is the feat of reafon ; the, chell, and efpecially the
heart, the feat of ftrength and anger *, the lungs, the
general coolers of the body. One divifion of the irra¬
tional foul,., which poffeffes an appetite for food, and all
the neceffary refrelhments of the body, refides in the
epigaftric region 5 which, in the language of Plato, is a
fort of liable, in which refides a voracious animal. Du¬
ring nutrition, the vital parts affimilafe to their fubllance
the aliments which are prefented to them ; and this afli-
milation is the confequence of an affinity that takes place
between thefe parts and the nutritious juices. He thus
feems to regard nutrition as the effedl of a combat be¬
tween the aliments and the parts of thp animal. A
young animal will receive more nouriffiment than one
which is old, becaufe the force of its body has more
effeft in overcoming the force of the nutritious fub-
ftances.
As the reciprocal aftion of the foul and the body on
each other did not appear to him capable of being ex¬
plained on the fuppofition of immateriality, he propofed
the idea of a p/ctjlic nature, which he fuppofed to be
an intermediate principle connebling the foul and the
body.
The human body, which is entirely fpongy, is expo-
fed through every part to oppolite currents of air and
fire, which traverfe and penetrate it, being introduced
alternately by the lungs and by the Ikin. Hot, cold,
denfe, rare, and the other fenfible properties of bodies,
are only the caufes of the phenomena which we per¬
ceive, and are, as it were, the occafions or accidents
that are required to keep in play the intelligent force
difieminated through nature.
Ariftotle, the difciple of Plato, for a long time dif-
puted with him the palm of genius and celebrity 5 but,
as his phyfiological doctrines differed very little from
thofe of his mafter, it is unneceffary to detail them, ex¬
cept to remark, that he attributed to the foul three fa¬
culties, a nutritive, a fenfitive, and a rational faculty \ in
the firft of which life is the only principle 5 in the fe-
cond, feeling is produced ; and the third is peculiar to
man, and is that part of him which knows or judges.
This part is either an a£live or a paffive intelledl, of which
the firft may be feparated from the body, and is immor¬
tal ; whereas the fecond periffies together with the body.
Life, according to this philofopher, is a permanence of
the foul, retained by the natural heat, the principle of
which refides in the heart.
About the period which we are now confidering, phi-
lofophy was divided into two fe£ls j the materialifts, who
attributed the formation of all beings to the fortuitous
concourfc of atoms 5 and the fpiritualifts, who held that
the foul enjoyed an exiltence anterior to that of the bo¬
dy, which ivas no other than a paffive organ, in which Hiltory
the phenomena that previoufiy exifted in the foul, in an '—v-''
abftradl, latent manner, became evident and fenfible.
To the former feft belonged Democritus and Epicurus;
to the latter, Zeno and Plato.
The profeffors of the Alexandrian fchool, though they Herophik
did much for the improvement of anatomy, added little
to phyfiology. Of thefc Herophilus brought to fome
degree of perfeftion the dodtrine of the pulfe, and feems
to have underftood the adlion of the pulmonary organs
more corredlly than his predeceffors, attributing to them
a fort of natural appetite, by which they attradled and
rejedled the matter of refpiration. He confidered the
nerves, the mufcles, and the arteries, as the moving
powers of the body. ^
In Galen, alfo a difciple of this fchool, we find the Galen,
moll fcientific phyfiologift that has yet come under our
notice. He feems firft to have afeertained by experi¬
ment, that the arteries contain blood, and not air, as
had been the opinion of Herophilus and his predecef¬
fors j and that they poffeffed a moving force, indepen¬
dent of that which the heart exercifes on the mafs of
blood, and he found that the contradlion of the heart al-
Avays alternated with a proportional dilatation. He even
tried fome delicate experiments, in order to afeertain the
influence of the nervous fyftem upon the fenfitive and
motive powers of the body, by which he found, that
when a nerve was intercepted with a ligature, the part
to wtiich it led became deprived of fenfe and motion.
He believed that the ftomach, in a Hate of contrac¬
tion, applied itfelf to the aliment that had been taken
in ; that the mefenteric veins abforbed a portion of the
chyle prepared in the inteftines 5 that the duBus chole-
dochus carried the bile from the gall bladder into the
duodenum j that the kidneys feparated a part of the
urine ; and he fuppofed, that another part of this fluid
paffed immediately from the ftomach to the bladder,
through fome unknown paffage. He believed that the
lungs tranfmitted to the blood contained within them,
an aerial principle, deftined to free them from fuliginous
vapours, and to temper the excefs of heat generated
Avithin the body. The obfeure fun6lion of generation
did not entirely efcape his refearches ; and he made fome
curious attempts to find out how the fexual organs pre¬
pared the feminal fluid, and how this adled in reproduc¬
tion.
For more refpe&ing the doctrines of Galen, fee the
Hiftory of Medicine. ^
The commencement of the 13 th century is the epoch The che«
of a material revolution in phyfiology. Chemiftry hav- nuft*
ing penetrated into Europe, foon exerted its influence
on moft of the fciences, and efpecially on thofe connedl-
ed Avith medicine, the dodtrines of which Avere totally
changed from their ancient fimplicity, and became a far¬
rago of the moft Avild and fanciful opinions. The Peri¬
patetics and the-Galenifts funk into oblivion ; and the pri¬
mitive qualities and occult faculties of the ancient fchool
gave Avay to the fermentations and effervefcences of the
chemifts. Alberfus Magnus and Roger Bacon, when
they introduced the fcience of chemiftry, fcarcely dream¬
ed of applying it to medicine 5 but Arnoldus de Villa
Nova undertook this application, and fought for the
foundation of medical theory amid the proceffes of his
laboratory. Paracelfus folloAved, and furpaffed him in
this chemical delirium. An enlightened chemift and a
credulous
)
PHYSIOLOGY.
lory, credulous aftrologer, his head burning with the fire of
v ' his furnaces, and his imagination filled with magical re¬
veries, he believed himfelf capable of conltrudfing a new
fyftem of philofophy, from examining the courfe of the
liars, and the produ&s of his alembics. With the
daring affurance of infpiration, he declared roan to be
compofed of fulphur, mercury, and fait} and, having
traced the origin of all difeafes to certain chemical ope¬
rations, he flattered himfelf, that by means of his arca¬
na he could preferve health, and prolong, to an in¬
definite extent, the natural duration of human exilt-
ence.
\ Hel- Van Helmont, the difciple of Paracelfus, notlefs fan-
In;ciful, but more fcientific than his mailer, faw the n*cef-
fity of fomething more than chemical principles to ex¬
plain the fundlions of the animal machine. He there¬
fore introduced his arclueus, an intelligent being who
eftablifhed his throne in the epigaftric region, having fe~
veral fubaltern minillers under him, who prefided over
the feveral funftions of the body, and whole chief feats
were, the head, the chell, and the belly.
I cartes. 1° the philofophy of Des Cai-tes, the feparate exifl-
ence of the vital principle is entirely reje6led. He avail¬
ed hirofelf of the progrefs that had been made by Willis,
and feme other anatomifts, in the invelligation of the
nervous fyllem, to form an hypothefis of the vital func¬
tions, founded on the fuppofition of the nervous fluid,
or what was then called the animalfpirits; and this ner¬
vous fluid was aflumed independently of the fenfitive
foul, to explain the appearances of fenfation and volun¬
tary motion.
The difeovery of the valves in the veins by Fabri-
ciusj of the lymphatics by Rudbeck and Bartholin j
of the lafleals by Afellius, and of the circulation of the
blood by Harvey, all of which took place during the
17th century, gave to phyfiology an interefl and a
clearnefs which it never poffefled before that period.
Some account of the difeoveries in the circulating and
abforbing fyllems, hath been already given under Ana¬
tomy; but as thefe difeoveries have been produflive of
great advantages, both in general phyfiology, and in
medicine, it will be worth while briefly to trace their
origin and progrefs.
I 3very begin with the circulation of the blood. Hippo-
0! e cir- crates fpeaks of the ufual and conflant motion of the
tl 10n* blood, of,the veins and arteries as the fountains of hu¬
man nature, as the rivers that water the whole body,
and which if they be dried up man dies. He fays, that
the blood-velfels are, for this reafon, everywhere dif-
perfed through the whole body; that they give fpirits,
moiflure, and motion; that they all fpring from one;
and that this one has no beginning and no end, for
where there is a circle there is no beginning. In fueh
language was the prince of phyficians accuftomed to ex-
prefs his vague ideas of a circulation; for fo far was he
from having acquired accurate conceptions on this fub-
jedl, that when he faw the motions of the heart, he be¬
lieved that the auricles were two bellows to draw in air,
and to ventilate the blood.
When after his time anatomy canje to be more ftu-
died, the notions of the ancients refpedling the blood
Were better defined; and. however chimerical they may
feem to us, they were partly derived from diifedlion and
experiment. On opening dead bodies, they found that
the arteries were almolt empty, and that very nearly the
I ,
455
whole, of the blood was collected in tlxe veins, and in Hiftory.
the right auricle and ventricle of the heart. They there-
fore concluded that the right ventricle vras a fort of la¬
boratory ; that it attrafted the blood from the eavae ;
by fome operatiefh rendered it fit for the purpofe of nu¬
trition, and then returned it by the way that it came.
From the almofl: empty ftate of the arteries, they were
led to fuppofe that the right ventricle prepared air, and
that this air was conveyed by the arteries to temper the
heat of the feveral parts to which the branches of the
veins were diilributed.
To this laft notion, entertained by Erafiflratus, Ga¬
len added an important difeovery. By certain experi¬
ments, he proved, that the arteries contained blood as
well as the veins. But this difeovery was the occafion
of fome embarralfment. How was the blood to get
from the right to the left ventricle ? To folve the diffi¬
culty in which his new difeovery had involved him, he
fuppofed that the branches of the veins and arteries ana-
ftomofed; that when the blood was carried to the lungs
by the pulmonary vein, it was partly prevented by the
valves from returning; that therefore during the con-
tradlion of the thorax it pafled through the fmall inofeu-
lating branches to the pulmonary vein, and was thence
conveyed along with the air to the left ventricle to flow
in the aorta. This opinion, fo agreeable to fa£t, unfor¬
tunately afterwards gave place to another that was the
refult of mere fpeculation. This notion was, that the
left ventricle received air by the pulmonary vein ; and
that all its blood was derived through pores in the fep-
tum of the heart.
The paflage through the feptum being once fuggell-
cd, and happening to be moreeafily conceived than one
through the lungs, it -was generally fuppofed the only
one for a number of centuries; and fupported likewife,
as it was thought, by Galen’s authority, it was deemed
blafphemy in the fehools of medicine to talk of another.
In 1543, however, Vefalius having publilhed his immor¬
tal work upon the ftrudlure of the human body, and gi¬
ven his reafons in the fixth book why he ventured to
diflfent from Galen, he particularly (hewed how it was
impoffible that the blood could pafs through the feptum
of the heart. His reafoning roufed the attention of ana¬
tomifts; and every one grew eager to difeover the real
paflage which the blood muft take in going from the
right to the left ventricle. The difeovery of this was
firft made by Michael Servede, a Spanifti phyfician,
who publilhed his opinion in 1553. He exprefsly fays,
that the blood does not pafs through the feptum of the
hearty as is commonly believed, but is conveyed by an
admirable contrivance from the right ventricle of the
heart; by a long paflage through the lungs. This opi¬
nion was deemed heretic, and Servede’s book was fup-
prefled by public authority. Soon after, however, the
fame difeovery was made by Realdus Columbus, an Ita¬
lian profefibr, who publiftred his account in 1559. It
farther appears, that Andreas Caefalpinus, who publifli-
ed in 1571, and again in 1593, was acquainted, not
only with the lefler circulation, but obferved, that the
blood fometimes flowed from the branches of the veins
towards their trunks; and that when a vein was tied *
with a ligature, it fwelled between the ligaiture and the
diftant extremity of the vein, and not between the liga¬
ture and the heart. He thence inferred, that the veins
and arteries opened into each other, and ventured to af-
fert
PHYSIOLOGY.
fert that the blood could not return by the arteries to
the left ventricle of the heart. He did not, however,
difcover the true circulation, but moft unaccountably
maintained with Ariftotle, of whom he was a zealous
difciple, that the blood flowed like the tides of Euripus,
backward and forward in the fame channel, and fiippo-
fed that it flowed from the arteries into the veins during
fleep, and back again from the veins into the arteries
•till the waking flate.
In 1574, Hieronymus Fabricius ab Aquapendente,
while he was feeking for a caufe by which to explain the
various fwellings of fome veins, wThich had arilen from
friction and ligature, he, to his great joy and aftonilh-
ment, difcovered their valves in one of his diffedtions ;
and here again the true theory of circulation feemed al-
moft unavoidable. Yet whoever reads the fmall treatife
De Venarum Oftiolis, firft printed by Fabricius in 1603,
will foon perceive that he was as far from entertaining
a juft notion of the circulation as his predeceffors. Not-
withftanding all that he faw, he ftill was of opinion that
the blood flowed from the heart to the extremities even
in the veins. He thought that the valves were intended
by nature only to check and moderate its force. He calls
them an inftance of admirable wifdom, and miftakes his
own awkward conjedture for one of the defigns oi infi¬
nite intelligence. In another refpedt, it mult be confef-
fed that he bore no inconfiderable lhare in promoting the
difcovery of the circulation. By writing on the valves,
the formation of the foetus, and chick in ovo, he diredt-
ed the attention of his pupil Harvey to thofe fubjedts
where it was likely that the motion of the blood would
frequently occur.
Harvey, who was born in ijyS* anc^ graduated at
Padua in 1602, examined the valves with more accu¬
racy than Fabricius, and explained their ufe in a trea¬
tife which he publilhed foon after his graduation. In
i6t6, he taught the true dodtrine of the circulation in
his ledtures, and publilhed on the fubjedt in 1628. He
was the firft author who fpoke confiftently of the motion
of the blood, and who, unbiased by the dodtrine of the
ancients, drew rational conclufions from his experiments
and obfervations. His books prefent us with many in¬
dications of a great mind, acute difcernment, unwearied
application, original remark, bold inquiry, and a clear,
forcible, and manly reafoning •, and every one who con-
fiders the furprife which his dodtrine occafioned among
the anatomifts of thofe days, the flrong oppofition that
it met with from fome, and the numerous and powerful
prejudices which it had to encounter from the fandtion
of time and of great names, mult allow.it was new; and
that the author has from its importance, a title to rank
in the firft clafs of eminent difcoverers, ancient or mo¬
dern.
We have been the more particular in tracing the pro-
grefllve difcovery of the circulation, and in attempting
to fhew that the real merit of the difcovery is due to
Harvey, becaufe both the abilities and the originality
of this eminent man have been called in queftion by his
countrvman Dr William Hunter ; and many hints are
given in the writings of fome foreign phyliologifts, that
the circulation was at leaft guefied at by Hippocrates and
other ancient writers.
We (hall be lefs minute in tracing the difcovery of the
lymphatic fvftem, becaufe this has been related more at
large in the article Anatomy.
We learn from Galen, that certain vcffels had been Hifton
feen in kids by Erafiftratus, which appear to have been
ladteals, though he called them arteries. Thefe ladteals Dif 41
were, however, firft accurately diftinguilhed in 1622,05^'
by Afellius, who printed his account in 1627. Intorbent
16^1, Peoquet publifhed his account of the thoracic
dudt, which appears, however, to have been feen be¬
fore by Eultachius. In 1653, Bartholin publilhed on
the lymphatics, which had been fome time before dif¬
covered by Rudbeck. In 1654, Glifibn afcribed to
thefe veficis the office of carrying back the lubricating
lymph from the arteries into the blood, or confidered
them as abforbents. In 1664, the valves of thefe vef-
fels were ditcovered by Swammerdam, and a year after,
an account of them was given by Ruyfch. The farther
difcoveries- of Nuck, Nouges, Warton, Steno, Hunter,
Monro, Hewfon, Cruiklhank, Sheldon, Mafcagni, &c.
have nearly completed our knowledge of the abforbent
fyftem, and its ufes.
In the latter end of the 17th century, fome important
difcoveries were made on the fubjedt of refpiration, by
our countryman Mayow ; and thefe were fupported by
the obfervations of Lower, A' erheyen, and Borelli.
Thefe difcoveries, however, lay dormant till they were
brought into recollection a hundred years after in con-
fequence of the experiments of Prieltley and Lavoifier.^
During the x 7th century, confiderable progrefs was
made in completing the knowledge of the internal or¬
gans of generation, Much was done in this way by De
Graaff and Malpighi, and Leuwenhoeck, the two latter
of whom made feveral difcoveries with the affiftance of
their microfcopes, though Leuwenhoeck founded on his
obfervations a theory of generation which at this day ap¬
pears not a little ridiculous. ^
The beginning of the 18th century is remarkable for Syften
the promulgation of a new phyfiological dodtrine, found-Boerh s-
ed on a miftaken application of the circulation of the
blood. We allude to the fyftem of Boerhaave. This
great phyfician fuppofed that all the fundtions of the liv¬
ing body, excepting the will, are carried on by mecha¬
nical movements, fufceptible of rigid calculation, which
neceflarily fucceed each other in the organs, from the
time that life commences. Thefe movements are brought
into adtion as foon as the animal begins to refpire, and
are the confequence of an impulfive power in the heart,
renewed by means of the influence of the nervous fluid
brought from the brain. He conceived the living body
to be merely a hydraulic machine, in which the heart
performs the office of a pifton, and that the alternate
contradlions and dilatations that take place without in-
termiflion in that organ, are owing to the alternately
increafed and diminiffied compreflion of the nerves that
are diftributed to the heart. When a contradlion takes
place, the blood fills the large arteries, and thus diltends
and compreffes them ; when the principal nerves of the
heart, which pafs between thefe arteries, muft of courfe
become comprefled, and thus their influence being ffi-
minilhed, a relaxation takes place. But in proportion
as the heart is relaxed, the large arteries become empty,
and confequently ceafe to comprefk the nerves, which
thus recovering their influence, reanimate the heart to
a new contradtion. Thus fucceed each other without
interruption the movements which form the mechanical
principle of all the fenftble motions that we obforve in
the animal machine.
Proceeding
PHYSIOLOGY.
457
3iftory. Proceeding on thefe principles, Boerhaave conceived
—V—' Tome very ftrange notions refpefting the conftituent
properties of the living fluids, in which he faw no other
mark of vitality than the globular form of their particles.
He confined all the funftions of the feveral organs to
the operation of rounding into fpheres the particles of
the fluids which were prefented to them, or of preferv-
ing that form in thofe which they already contained.
He thought that the lungs were chiefly of advantage,
becaufe they contained within them a complete feries of
veffels, in which the particles of the blood can receive
all thofe dimenfions which may fit them to circulate
through the reft of the body. The greater or lefs ve¬
locity with which the fluids circulate through the fecre-
tory organs, conftitutes the principal difference in the
nature of the fecretions. Various orders of veffels re¬
ceive the blood and other fluids which pafs through
thefe divifions, fubjeft to the laws of hydraulics ; and
when a fluid got by chance into an order of veffels that
was not fitted to receive it, fome difeafe was the confe-
quence. Every thing in the animal machine was redu¬
ced to an affemblage of conduits, canals, cords, levers,
pulleys, and other mechanical contrivances, put into
43 action by mechanical means.
echauifts. Thus was completed the fyftem of mechanical phyfio-
logy, which was begun fome time before by Bellini
and Borelli ; and this fyftem maintained its ground in
defiance of obfervation and common fenfe, till about
the middle of the 18th century. In the mean time,
however, there arofe two men, whofe enlarged ideas
and acute genius induced them to diffent from the re¬
ceived opinions of the day, and to think for themfelves.
Thefe were Hoffman and Stahl, who, though they did
not, any more than Boerhaave, form complete or un-
obje&ionable theories, contributed much to improve our
44 ideas of the animal economy.
/item of Hoffman faw, that in the living body we ought not
offman. to feparate the principle of vitality from the general
properties of matter. He believed that that principle,
fufceptible in itfelf of a6Hvity and motion, was fuffieient
for all the occafions and all the functions of the body
which it animated. The animal body was not, in his
eyes, an hydraulical elaftic machine, formed of folids
and canals, differing only in fize, form, elafticity and
force. He faw, that if the folids acft upon the fluids,
thefe muft, in their turn, reaft upon the folids; and
that life could fubfift only by thefe mutual actions and
rea£Hons. The effential caufe of life, according to
Hoffman, is the progreflive motion of the blood, occa^
fioned by the impulfe of the heart, and kept up by the
alternate contraftions and dilatations of the veffels.
Thefe contraftions and dilatations are the confequence
of the force of an elafticity inherent in the vafcular
fibres, and this force is ftill farther promoted by the
different ftruchire of thefe elaflic fibres, which is fuch
that they can be penetrated by the blood and the ner¬
vous fluid. This laft fluid he imagined to be compofed
of aerial and etherial particles enveloped in a certain
portion of a very pure fubtile lymph, that ferved them
as a vehicle. By this fluid the cavities of the nerves
are filled, and it conftitutes the fenfitive foul, in which
refides the feat of the paflions. Now, all the funflions,
even thofe which we attribute to a fentient principle,
are the effect of phyfical powers, whofe mechanifm has,
however, fomething more fublime and more exalted
Vol. XVI. Part II.
with refpeft to the animal operations than to others. Hiftory.
If all the nervous, vafcular, and membranous parts, “" v
preferve a moderate degree of aftion, and a moderate
ftate of tenfion and 1‘elaxation, the folids are fubje6ted
to ofcillatory motions which balance each other, and
produce a proper equilibrium in the fyftem. In this
ftate, all the operations of the body and the mind take
place with proper regularity j and this happy harmony,
by affuring to the animal the entire plenitude of its ex-
iftence, becomes the foundation of health. This degree
of moderate tenfion is always more or lefs altered in a
ftate of difeafe. . j
Little fatisfied with all the theories founded on a grofs Of Stahl,
mechanifm, and convinced of their infufficiency to ex¬
plain the phenomena of vitality, Stahl admitted forces
that were fomething more than mechanical, and that
were directed by an intelligent principle which applies
them to their deftined ufes, and which, by diftributing
them with a wife economy, proportions or accommo¬
dates them to the different occafions of the individual.
His difciples confider Stahl as the firft modern writer
who has treated the fcience of man on a general plan,
and according to a philofophical arrangement j and as
his do&rine has ftill numerous advocates in the medical
fchools of France, we fliall be fomewhat more particu¬
lar on it than on that of Hoffman.
In determining the limits between medicine and the
other phyfical fciences, Stahl commences with feparat-
ing from the former all thofe principles which* though
true in themfelves, have no relation to the nature of that
fcience, which he confiders as originating in obfervation
alone. The knowledge of the phyfical ftate of the ani¬
mal body cannot, he thinks, throw any light, either on
the injuries to whieh it is expofed, or on the means of
preventing or removing them. Confequently it is of
little ufe in medicine, and has no right to govern an art,
the object of which is, to remedy thofe injuries that
threaten the human body. He proves that living bodies
are freed from the neceffary laws of mechanics, becaufe
all their a<ftions tend to one common end j—an end which
embraces the whole chain of the movements effential to
life, and the means eftablilhed for its prefervation. The
human body, by means of this mixture of mechanical
and vital powers* tends naturally to felf-deftru<ftion ; but,
on the other hand, the organic ftruclure to which is at-'
tached the exercife of the aftiohs peculiar to the human
fpecies, is founded on this mixture. It is therefore ne¬
ceffary that the body fliould be in a ftate of refilling this
tendency, in order that it may be fuflained ; and as the
corruptibility inherent in its nature, purfues it through
every period of its exiftence, the oppofing aftion necef¬
fary to prevent the corruption from taking place, muft
alfo be exercifed without intermiflion. It is this pre-
ferving a£lion that confticutes the effence of life.
The prefervation of the body is indeed effected by a
fort of mechanical aflion ; it requires the corporeal or¬
gans as its inftruments, and it depends on different co-
exiftent and fucceflive a£1 ions. Health is the refult of
that juft conformation of the organs which enables them
to perform their fun£Hons with eafe.
The exaet conformity which fubfifls between the
ftruclure of each organ, and the funclions it is deftined
to perform, demonftrates to the philoibpbical eye an in¬
telligent and wife principle, that in the formation of
organized bodies direcls and prefcribes every thing in
3 M the
45^
PHYSIOLOGY.
Hiftory. tlie manner moft favourable to the end which it pro-
pofes. A fpeculative metaphyfician, aceuftomed to
wander over the field of abllraction, to enlarge the.
fphere of his intellectual notions, to. transform lenfible
•objeCts into ideas, this author could never perfuade him-
felf that a being could not proportion and adapt its or¬
gans to the operations they are to perform, without pof-
feffing a knowledge of thefe operations, and having al¬
ready exercifed a judgment with refpeft to them. It is
from this that he confounds the principle of life with the
thinking foul, which being incelfantly prefent in every
part of the body, directs and difpofes them according to
its own views, and to the end that it propofes in the con¬
tinual developement of the aftions it is to coriduft.
The formation, the ftrufture, duration and move¬
ments of the body, do not belong peculiarly to it, as it
is only a paffive fubjeCl on which the foul imprefl'es and
icalifes the idea of the phenomena that fhe has con¬
ceived. Every thing is derived from the union of the
body with the aftive forefeeing principle, which governs,
according to fpecial laws, thole phenomena which are
more particularly vital, and which are moll indepen¬
dent of the will. The immediate action of this latter
faculty does not require the affiltance of any other fub-
itance. The intervention of an intermediate principle
would be there fuperfluous 5 and Stahl rejects that of the
animal fpirits, which had been introduced to explain the
mechanifm of vitality, and which, by overcharging the
fcience, embarraffcs it with a ufelefs hypothefis.
T wo faculties are fuffieient for the foul to aft upon
the body, and to preferve it in a living Hate, viz. thofe
of fenfe and motion. Ey the former the animal learns
to know the properties of the objefts by which he is fur-
rounded, or in which he is interefted, and to eftimate
the relations that fubfift between thefe objefts and him-
{elf $ the latter produces the motion of the whole ma¬
chine, and determines all the changes of fituation which
it has to undergo in its whole, and in its parts.
The faculty of fenfation has two modifications, rela¬
tive to the two kinds of knowledge which the foul may
receive by means of that funftion. The firft of thefe
refides in the organs of fenfe, and is adapted to external
objefts y the fecond eftablifhes its feat in the interior or¬
gans, and refers to objefts that are within, or ideas.
Sometimes the moving power enveloped in the mufcular
fyflem is difplayed by the fenfible aftions that regulate
the pofition of the body with refpeft to the objefts of the
univerfe, of which it makes a part ; fqmetimes concen¬
trated within thefe organs, it excites inteftinal motions,
which maintain among their conftituent parts, thofe re¬
lations, and that equilibrium, which are neceffary to pre¬
ferve the healthy (late, confidence, and tone of each or¬
gan. The mufcular apparatus is fybfervient to the ex-
ercife of the fenfes ; and the different motions which it
impreffes on the body, for the purpofe of tranfporting it
towards, or to a didance from, certain objefts, are al¬
ways determined by the convenience or inconvenience
which the body, by means of the fenfes, experiences
from thofe objefts. The tonic motion, determined by
the confufed ideas of the principle of life, is difplayed
in the mod bidden organic parts, in the mod perfeft re-
pofe and profound filence of the voluntary movements.
The foul gives to its organs the difpofition that is fa¬
vourable to the fenfations it wifhes to receive, by virtue
of the judgment that it exerts refpefting thefe fenfations,
before it has experienced them. This judgment is ex¬
erted on the relations between the objefts that excite
thefe impreffions, and the aftual date of the body ; and
it is the intuitive knowledge of thefe relations that deter¬
mines, in all their infinitely diverfified (hades, the plea-
fure or the pain which the animal experiences from the
objefts that furround it.
Stahl regards the excretions as the means employed
by nature to counteraft the natural tendency of the body
towards putrefaftion. He believes that the animal hu¬
mours are exceedingly difpofed to thicken, and that the
circulation of the blood is the means made ufe of by na¬
ture to keep up their original Huidity. One of the caufes
that mod favour the tendency of the humours to putre¬
faftion, is plethora, to which nature oppofes, fometimes
the motion of the folids that didribute the blood 5 fome¬
times the hemorrhagic fluxes which unload the vaftular
fydem. Thefe latter opinions are the principal founda¬
tions of what has been called the humoral pathology,
which prevailed fo long in mod of our medical fchools,
and which, with certain modifications, is dill maintain¬
ed in many parts of the continent.
The favourable impulfe given to phyfical fcience in
general, by the philofophic^l writings of Bacon and
Newton, extended itfelf at length to pbyfiology ; and
phydological writers, became convinced that it was bet-
ier to colleft and arrange the fafts that related to the
economy of living beings, than to frame hypothetical fy-
dems concerning them. The honour of forming a ra¬
tional diged of the phenomena of the animal economy
was referved for Haller, who perceived the importance
of affembling under one view, the experiments, fafts, and
obfervations of preceding writers, and of fubdituting
them in the place of hypothetical reafonings. He traced
the plan of the immenfe edifice that he deligned to con-
druft in his Firjl Lines of Physiology, and executed it on
a grand and extenfive feale, in his Elements, in which he
has brought together into a body of doftrine, as complete
as could be expefted in his time, all the materials of the
fcience. He perceived the inconvenience of a too drift
application of the laws of mechanical philofophy to the
living fydem. He admitted an aftive force, winch he
confidered as peculiar to the animal body, viz. irritabili¬
ty, which contains the reafon or the experimental caufe of
mufcular motion. He maintained that irritability (hould
never be confounded with fenfibility, and that the irri¬
table fibre differs as much from the fenfible fibre, as the
funftion of motion from that of fenfation. Ladly, in his
Opera Minora, he lays down many new and important
points of doftrine refpefting the drufture of our organs,
and the mechanifm of our funftions; and he relates a
number of experiments made on living animals, for the
purpofe of drawing from nature the fecret of thofe phe¬
nomena which (he appears mod defirous to conceal. We
owe to Haller fome curious refearches refpefting the for¬
mation of bone, and the produftion of callus, as well as
fome important elucidations of the manner in which the
embryo contained in the egg is developed, and paffes
through the fucceflive dages of its organization. He
has left us many experiments and details refpefting the
drufture of the heart, the circulation of the blood, and
the pulfation of the arteries y on the mechanifm of the
ribs, and the aftion of the intercodal mufcles during re-
fpiration 5 on the differences between the fenfible and ir¬
ritable organs; on the aftion of the brain and nerves, &c.
The
4«
Of Haller.
PHYSIOLOGY. 459
iftory. The latter half of the 18th century is remarkable for
many able phyliologifts, who will be admired by pofte-
rity, either for the acutenefs of their genius, or the im¬
portant improvements that they have made in the fcience.
We may mention the names of Bordeu, La Gaze, Bon¬
net, Vicq d’Azyr, Bichat, Dumas, and Cuvier in
France; of Fontana and Spallanzani in Italy, and of
Whytt, Cullen, Brown, and Darwin in Britain. We
cannot pretend to enumerate ail the opinions and difco-
veries of thefe celebrated men, but muft content our-
lelves with giving a Iketch of the three rival fyftems of
Cullen, Brown, and Darwin, and a brief outline of the
^ opinions of Bichat.
Cullen. The phyfiological fyftemof Cullen was founded chiefly
on that of Hoffman. He placed the principle of the
whole animal economy in the movement of the vital
folids, regulated by the fundamental laws of the ner¬
vous fyftem. This notion of the vital folids, according
to him, originates in the nerves, and being almoft always
united in the fenforium, is eafily tranfmitted from one
nervous part to another, as long as the medullary fub-
ftance of the nerves continues in its natural ftate of life
and continuity. The contraction of the moving fibres
connedted with the fenfible organs through the medium
of the brain, is the diredt effedt of a movement that
commences with thofe objedts. It is on the contradlility
inherent in the moving fibres, excited by their own ex-
tenfion, by the application of various ftimuli, and often
by the immediate influence of the animal or nervous
powers, that all the phyfical adtions of a living being
depend. He regards this contradlile force as diftindl
from all thofe which are poffefled by the Ample folid,
and the inorganic elaftic parts of the body.
Of the theory of Brown, we have given a fuflicient
4? detail under his life, and need not repeat it here.
Darwin, Js not eafy to give a compendious view of the fy-
flem of Dr Darwin, that flrall be intelligible to thofe
who have not examined his celebrated work, the Zoo-
nsmia •, but we fliall endeavour to give as brief and per-
fpieuous an account of it as poflible. It is neceflary firft
to notice the defcriptions given of the terms, to be em¬
ployed, which are as follows.
The immediate organs of fenfe are, by Dr Darwin,
afferted to confift, like the mufcles, of moving fibres.
The contradlions of the mufcles and of the organs of
fenfe, are comprehended under what are called fibrous
motions, in contradiftindlion to the fenforial motions, or
the changes which occafionally take place in the fienfio-
rium. By this latter term is underftbod, not only the
medulla of the brain and nerves, but alfo at the fame
time that living principle or fpirit of animation, which
refides throughout the body, and which we perceive
only in its effe&s. An idea is defined to be a motion
of the fibres of fome immediate organ of fenfe; and
hence is frequently termed alfo a fenfual motion. Per¬
ception comprehends both the fibrous motion or idea,
and the attention to it. When the pain or pleafure arif-
ing from this motion and this attention produces other
fibrous motion, it is termed fertfation ; thus limiting this
term to an aftive fenfe. Ideas, not immediately excited
by external obje£!s, but which recur without them, are
termed either, I. Ideas of recolleBion, as when we will
to repeat the alphabet backwards ; or 2. Ideas offiuggef-
tion, as when we repeat it forwards, A fuggefting B, B
fuggefting C, &c, from habit.
After mentioning a number of experiments to prove
the fibrous motions of the organs of fenfe, Dr Darwin
proceeds to lay down the following laws of animal cau-
fation.
1. The fibres which conftitute the mufcles, and or¬
gans of fenfe, poffefs a power of contradlion. The cir-
cumftances attending the exertion of this power of con-
tra&ion conftitute the laws of animal motion, as the cir-
cumftanees attending the exertion of the power of at-
tra£tion conftitute the laws of inanimate matter.
2. The fpirit of animation is the immediate caufe of
the contraction of animal fibres. It refides in the brain
and nerves, and is liable to general or partial diminu¬
tion or accumulation.
3. The ftimulus of bodies external to the moving or¬
gan is the remote caufe of the original contractions of
animal fibres.
4. A certain quantity of itimulus produces irritationr
which is an exertion of the fpirit of animation exciting
the fibres to contraction.
5. A certain quantity of contraction of animal fibres,
if it be perceived at all, produces a greater or
lefs quantity of contraction, if it be perceived at all, pro¬
duces^///. Thefe conftitute fenfation.
6. A certain quantity of fenfation produces defre or
averfion. Thefe conftitute volition.
7. All animal motions which have occurred at the
fame time or in immediate fucceffion, become fo con¬
nected, that when one of them is reproduced, others have
a tendency to acctompany or fucceed it. When fibrous
contractions fucceed or accompany other fibrous contrac¬
tions, the connection is termed ajfociation ; when fibrous
contractions lucceed fenforial motions, the connection is
termed caufation ; when fibrous and fenforial motions re¬
ciprocally introduce each other, it is termed catenation
of animal motions. All thefe connections are faid to be
produced by habit; that is, by frequent repetition.
Thefe laws of animal caufation are, according to our
author, evinced by numerous faCts, which occur in our
daily exertions, and are employed by him to explain the
difeafes and decay of the animal fyftem.
The ianx fenforial powers, u^oxi which all the aCtions
or motions depend, are thus characterized :
Irritation is an exertion or change of fome extreme
part of the fenforium, prfefiding in the mufcles or organs
of fenfe, in confequence of the appulfes of external
bodies.
Senfation, is an exertion or change of the central parts
of the fenforium, or the whole of it, beginning in fame
of thofe extreme parts of it which refide in the mufcles
or organs of fenfe.
Volition is an exertion or change of the central parts
of the fenforium, or of the whole of it, terminating in
fome of thofe extreme parts of it which refide in the
mufeles or organs of fenfe.
Ajfociation is an exertion or change of fome extreme
part of the fenforium, refiding in the mufcles or organs
of fenfe, in confequence of fome antecedent or attendant
fibrous contractions.
To thefe four faculties correfpond fo many clafles of
fibrous contractions, named irritative, fenfitive, volunta¬
ry, and ajfociate. But all mufcular motions, and all
ideas, are originally irritative, and become caufable by
fenfation and volition from habit, i. e. becaufe pleafure
or pain, or defre or averfion, have accompanied them ;
3 M 2 thofe
Hiftory.
460
PHYSIOLOGY.
Hiftory. t£0fe Jdeas or mufcular motions which have been fre~
v~' quently excited together, ever afterwards have a tenden¬
cy to accompany each other.
Of tbefe motions the q/fociate feem moft to have ex¬
cited Dr Darwin’s attention. He divides them into
three kinds j irritative affociations, as when any part of
the extracted heart of a frog is irritated by puncture,
the whole heart contrails regularly j fenjitive ajjocia-
tionsy or the trains or tribes of motions eftablifhed by
pain or pleafure ; and the voluntary ajfociations, or thofe
produced by volition.
The aflivity of this power of volition is fuppofed to
form the great difference between man and the brute
creation •, the means of producing pleafure and avoiding
pain given to man by this power being denied to
brutes.
Correfponding to thefe four claffes of motions, there
are four claffes of ideas ; irritative, preceded by irrita¬
tion •, fenjitive, preceded by the fenfation of pleafure
or pain •, voluntary, preceded by voluntary exertion ;
and ajfociate, preceded by other ideas or mufcular mo¬
tions.
It has been obferved in Hudibras that
“ A rhetorician’s rules
. 49
Opinions
and ar¬
rangement
of Bichat.
Serve nothing but to name his tools.”
So wre find that a confiderable part of Darwin’s works is
taken up in eftabliihing the new meaning which he at¬
taches to terms well underflood and long adopted.
We cannot enter more fully at prefent into the opi¬
nions of the Zoonomia, but we {hall have occafion to
notice fome of them in the fucceeding part of this ar¬
ticle.
Bichat’s fyftem, which has made fo much noife on the
continent, is chiefly founded on the divifion of life into
two kinds, organic and animal; the former of which is
common to all organized beings, while the latter, as its
name imports, is peculiar to animals. Each of thefe
two kinds of life may be confidered as compofed of two
orders of fun£tions, which fucceed each other in an
inverfe order. The firfl of thefe feries in animal life
commences with external objefls, and proceeds towards
the brain j the fecond begins in the brain, and is thence
propagated to the organs of motion and voice. In the
firft order of fumftions, the animal is paflive 5 in the fe-
cond he is aflive. External obje&s aft on the body
through the medium of the firft j by the fecond, the body
reafts on the external objefts.
Two kinds of motion take place in organic life. In
the firft the formation of the body is conftantly going
on ^ in the fecond there is a conftant decompofition :
hence the elements of the body are continually chang¬
ing, while the organization continues the fame. Orga¬
nic life is accommodated to the continual circulation of
matter. The one order of funftions aflimilates to the
nature of the animal, the nutritious particles received
into the fyftem 5 the other rejefts what is ufelefs, or is
fo much altered as to become noxious. The affimilat-
ing order of funftions confifts of digeftion, circulation,
refpiration, and nutrition ; all of which proceffes the
matter received into the body muft undergo, before it
can become a part of the animal fubftance. When it
has for fome time conftituted a part of the body, it is
taken up by abforption, conveyed into the circulation,
and thrown out thence, by cutaneous or pulmonary ex¬
halation, or by fome other emunftories. Hence, the
fecond order of organic funftions, or difaffimilating
funftions, confift of abforption, circulation, exhalation,
fecx-etion, and excretion. The brain is the centre of
animal life ; the heart of organic life.
Bichat confiders the proper balance of life to be pre-
ferved by the proportion which exifts between the ac¬
tion of furrounding bodies, and the reaftion of the fy¬
ftem. This reaftion is greateft in youth, hence the
principle of life is at that time in excefs. It is leaft in
old age, and then the vital principle is defeftive. The
meafure of life is therefore the difference which exifts
between the efforts of external powers to overturn life,
and the internal refiftance to fupport it. The excefs of
the former (hows the weaknefs of life ; that of the latter
indicates its ftrength.
The following table exhibits Bichat’s diftribution of
the organs, or, as he calls them, appareils, belonging to
animal and organic life, and to generation, which is
common to both.
Hiftorv.
I. Organs of Animal Life.
55
O
vi
o
T . T I. The bones and their dependances.
1. ocomotive, ^-mc u ing ^ 2. The mufcles and their dependances.
2. Vocal, including the larynx and its dependances.
’ 1. The eye.
2. The ear.
3. The noftrils.
4. The tongue.
_ 5. The (kin and its dependances.
. Internal fenji- 1. , Cl. The brain and its membranes.
live, ^ ^ 2. The fpinal marrow and its membranes.
. Conducing fen-'
fation and mo¬
tion
External fenfi-^ . ,
■s J Y mcludinsf
live, j °
■ | including ^ ^
The cerebral nerves.
The nerves of the ganglia,.
II. Organs
i: »7-
Ri jitu-
lai .
PHYSIOLOGY.
II. Organs of Organic Life.
4.61
Hiftory.
£<!
o
1. Digejlive, |> including <|
] li
2. Refpiratory, including 2‘
3. Circulatory,
> including < ^
J L4
4. Abforbent, ^ including ^ ^
5. Secretory,
:luding -
The mouth.
The pharynx and cefophagus.
The llomaeh.
The fmall inteftines.
The large inteftines.
The pcritojuzum and epiploon.
The trachea.
The lungs and their membraneff.
The heart and its membranes.
The arteries.
The veins of the general fyftem.
The veins of the abdominal fyftem.
The abforbent glands.
The abforbent veffels.
The lachrymal duels.
The falivary and pancreatic dufls.
The biliary and fplenic du£ls.
The urinary paffages.
fi
2.
3-
L4-
. III. Organs of Gf.neration.
*1. Male.
2. Female.
3. Produced by thisl
union, j
... C" 1. The membranes and placenta,
eluding j 2 T -
The foetus.
We have now taken fuch a view of the progreflive
ftate of phyfiological fcience, as we deemed confident
with the nature and extent of this article. It has taught
us that the prevailing fpirit of every age has had a mark¬
ed influence on the produftions both of art and fcience
that have appeared during that period j and that phyfio-
logy has always been impreffed with thecharafler of the
fcience that was moft prevalent at any particular period.
While the do&rines of Ariftotle prevailed in the fchools,
phyfiology never extended beyond the bounds that had
been fet to it by Galen 5 and the belief in occult quali¬
ties univerfally prevailed. When a tafte for metaphyfi-
cal fpeculations began to gain ground, this fcience ivas
given over to the moft abftrafl fubtilities and abfurd fic¬
tions. When Des Cartes had reformed the principles of
the ancient philofophy, the ftudy of the animal economy,
like all the other branches of phyfics, was fettered by
the trammels of the Cartefian doiftrines. After the ge¬
nius of philofophers was diredted to chemiftry, phyfiolo¬
gy alfo took a chemical turn, which it quitted only to
take a new diredlion pointed out to it by the tafte for
mathematics and mechanical philofophy, which prevail¬
ed among all the literary at the end of the 17th and be¬
ginning of the 18th century j and now that the ftudy of
chemiftry is become fo general, we fee that phyfiologifts
are for reducing the fundlions of the animal economy to
the analytical and fynthetical operations of the labora¬
tory, and converting the living body into a furnace where
a conftant combuftion is going on while life remains.
living creatures; it being our objeft rather to give a
comparative view of phyfiology in general, than to con¬
fine our remarks to the human economy in particular.
Indeed much of the phyfiology of man has already been
given under Anatomy and Medicine; and of that of
the inferior animals, we have treated of the phyfiology
of the order Cete under Cetology ; of that of Reptiles
under Erpetology ; of that of Fijhes under ICHTHYO¬
LOGY ; of that of Serpents under Ophiolog y.
Chap. I. Of the General Phenomena of Life.
51
We are now to enter on the phenomena of life, and
the funftions of organized beings ; and here we mull
premife, that in our illuftration of thefe phenomena and
functions we (hall occafionally refer to every clafs of
4
When we take a general view of the objects of na-General
ture, we fee that they differ from each other in many idea of life;
important particulars, and we foon find that they may
be conveniently divided into two great clafles ; one
capable of growth, nourifhment, and reproduction ; the
other not fufceptible of thefe changes. We perceive
that all thofe fubftances which are found in the bowels
of the earth, and many of thofe which appear upon its
furface, continue for an indefinite time in the fame cir-
cumftances, until they are a£ted on by each other, when
they undergo certain changes which entirely alter their
nature and former properties.
Sulphur, in its natural ftate, is a folid fubftance info-
luble in water, and poffefling little aftivity when ap¬
plied to the human fkin ; but if it be fubjedled to the
aftion of heat, in contaft with atmofpheric air, or any
other gas containing oxygen, it becomes a fluid, very
mifcible with water, and of a moft corrofive quality, ,
namely fulphuric acid. The hydrogenous gas found in
the upper part of mines, would remain for ever uncom¬
bined with the oxygenous gas which forms part of the
atmofphere in which it floats, were it not fubjedled to
the action of caloric, or eledlricity in a very concentrat¬
ed
4^2
General
Phenomena
of Life.
.5*,
Diftimflion
between
organized
and inor¬
ganic mat¬
ter.
PHYSIOLOGY.
ed flate j but as foon as either of thefe agents comes in
contaft with the mechanical mixture of gafes, a com¬
bination takes place, attended with a tremendous ex-
plofion, and the hydrogenous gas difappears.
We find that all the bodies to whidh we give the
name of minerals, poflefs no power in themfelves which
can enable them to refill the operation of external a-
gents ; each individual of them is compofed of a fmall
number of principles, and their texture appears to be
made up of independent particles. Every other body
in nature, comprehending the almolt infinite variety of
plants and animals, though under certain circumftances
fubjeft to the fame changes which take place among
minerals, have, when thefe circumftances do not exift,
an innate property by which they are enabled to refill
the produflion of thefe changes. They do indeed
undergo certain alterations, but by thefe their original
habit and effential properties are not changed. From
the time that a plant fprings from the feed, till it ceafes
to vegetate, it is perpetually receiving an acceflion of
new matter, and giving out a part of its former compo-
fition : but the new matter is afiunilated to it, and be¬
comes a part of the plant $ the identity of the plant is
preferved, though its component parts are perpetually
changing. The fame in a Hill higher degree takes place
in animals. The individuals of this latter clafs, com¬
prehending plants and animals, poiTefs peculiar ItruCture,
very different from that of the former. Their texture
is fibrous, and the fibres arranged and interwoven. To as
to form parts called organs, by means of which they
carry on certain operations or funftions neceffary for
their prefervation, or for the reproduftiop of the fpecies.
Hence thefe have been called organized bodies, while
the others have been denominated brute or inorganic
matter. See NATURAL Hijlory, N° 7.
The component principles of organized beings are
much more numerous in each individual than thofe of
inorganic matter, though their abfolute number in the
former clafs is fmaller than in the latter. In order to
prefent, under a compendious point of view, the di-
itinguiftiing chara&eriilies of thefe two claffes of beings,
we {ball give the following table.
•2 -
4->
<D
s a
§ .a
IS
a)
2 c
S S
bQ
cjO ®
1*
O , IU
^ £
fS
i!
O 'E!
c aj
<u _c
-a
o
-a
H
o
Mobility,
Repofe,
Aggregation,
Cohefion,
Gravitation,
Condenfation,
Dilatation,
Combination,
Diffolution.
" Impreflion,
Senfation,
Perception,
Affedlion,
Sympathy,
A(5lion,
Locomotion,
Digeftion,
Circulation,
Refpiration,
A.flimilation,
Accretion,
Reproduction.,,
r
o
.a
<0
>
CL>
cd
a
w
bo
a
o
Inertia,
Impulfion,
Attraction,
Affinity.
\ -
a
3
>
Senfitive,
Motive,
Affimilative, and
Vital refiftance.
bo
J
<U to
P-< cd
2 S
0-1 o
<U 'c
H
<u g
fN g
rt '-m
bo o
Cl; »-*
V H
cu w
§- J- S
.a
a a &
Extenfion,
Gravity,
Hardnefs,
Elafticity,
Fluidity,
Impenetrability,
Divifibility,
Expanfibility,
Permeability,
Figurability.
Regularity,
Individuality,
Spontaneity,
Seniibility,
ContraClility,
Irritability,
Expanfibility,
Corruptibility.
<u
be£
-o '3
bo
u a
o
(S) ^
§
si
bO
D
"O
j- d
°-3
C/l
c .a
•z 3
.2 ^
*•-' ri
> .2
-c
Cryftals,
Salts,
Metals,
Stones,
Fulfils,
' Man,
Mammalia,
Birds,
Reptiles,
Serpents,
Filhes,
Mollufca,
Cruftaeea,
InfeCts,
Worms,
Zoophytes,
_ Plants.
Chap. I.
General
Phenomena
of Life,
The differences that are found to prevail betweenEffedsof
organized beings and inorganic matter, have always^e*
been attributed to fomething ol a fuperior nature, called
vitality or life. This term life forms one of thofe fim-
ple ideas which it is difficult to define, and as all un-
derltand the meaning of the expreffion, a definition is
the lefs neceffary ; but if it be required, it cannot be ex-
prefftd more accurately than in the language of Bichat,
who calls life the fum of thofe functions which ref/i
death. In ftiort, life is belt defcrjbed by the effeCts pro¬
duced on a body while it refides in it, contrafted with
thefe appearances which take place in the fame body
when life is no longer prefent.
One of the molt general effects of the prefence of life Befitlasce
is, as we have faid, the refitlance which living beingst0 dwmicaj
are by-it enabled to oppofe to the operation of external''^ianSe‘
agents •, and this is molt remarkably feen with refpeft to
temperature. Every living being poffeffes, in a greater
or lefs degree, the power of preferving nearly an uni¬
form temperature, which is always a few degrees great¬
er than that of the medium in which it lives. In
plants, this power feems to exift but in a low degree.
Some of the lower animals which inhabit the air, parti¬
cularly infefts, poffefs it much more completely. The
great heat generated in a hive of bees is a familiar il-
luftratioh of this. In birds this property is very re¬
markable, the heat of their bodies being greater than
that of any other fpeeies of animals. The heat of fillies,
worms, and of molt reptiles, very little exceeds the
temperature of the medium in which they refide ; but
when the water in which filhes live is frozen, they are
capable of refifting, for a long time, the confequences
of the dirniniffied temperature. The power which ma¬
ny animals poffefs of refifting high degrees of heat with¬
out any confiderable increafe of their own temperature,
feems {till more remarkable, and probably led to the
fable of the falamander, which was fuppofed able to en¬
dure the heat of fire, and even extiqguilh it, when
thrown in for that purpofe. 55
Life feems to pervade almoft every part of a living Degrees 0!
being. In animals, every part, except the cuticle,
and nails, exhibits marks of vitality; but it Teems to be dif-
tnbuted
hp. I. PHYSI
( eral trlbuted through thofe parts in a different manner in
ph waenathe various tribes of organized beings. In plants, and
r*- in a few of the inferior animals, as the zoophyta, it
u 1 fee ms to exift independently in almoft every part. A
bud, flip, or fucker, torn from the parent plant, and
inferted within the bark of another plant, or placed
■within the earth, in favourable circumftances, vegetates,
increafes, and in due time becomes a perfeiff plant, in
all refpefts fimilar to the parent flock. If a polypus be
cut in pieces, each piece lives and grows, till it be¬
comes itfelf a complete polypus. If a worm be cut in
two, fo as to leave one part with the head, and the other
with the tail, each part becomes a perfeft worm, pof-
fefling both head and tail. As we afcend, however, in
the fcale of beings, we find life lefs equally and inde¬
pendently diffufed. A part cut or torn from the body
of moft animals quickly lofes its vitality j but this is loft
fooner in fome animals than in others. The head of a
turtle or a fnake is able to bite many hours er even
days, after'it is fevered from the body *, and in the for¬
mer inflance, the animal feems for a long time to ex¬
perience little inconvenience from its lofs. The heart
5 of a frog is feen to move many hours after it is cut out.
Fa ions The principal effeifts of the prefence of life appear in
0^.: nS the exercife of thofe functions or atffions by which living
61 ‘ beings preferve their exiflence, or reproduce their like.
Me a. One of the moft general properties of organized be¬
ings is that fufceptibility to motion, which is called ir¬
ritability, which appears effential to life, and is poffef-
fed, in a greater or lefs degree, by every clafs of orga¬
nized beings. The motions of plants are fometimes
very remarkable, and approach very nearly to thofe
which take place in animals. The ftamina of the
cijlus Jielianthemum. are feen to move''in various direc¬
tions when the fun ftiines on them *, the leaves of the
mimofa pudica (fenfitive plant), when touched by the
hand, or when irritated by the alighting of an infedl
on them, immediately contrail •, the Hioruea mufcipula
(Venus’s fly-trap), when a fly touches its leaves, clofes
the thorny fringes with which they are befet, on the pre-
fumptuous infeil, and crufhes it to death ; but the mo¬
tions of the hedijfarum gyrans are the moft remark¬
able of all thofe that take place in plants. The leaves
of this extraordinary vegetable are feen in conftant mo¬
tion through the greateil part of the day, without the
intervention of any apparent external impulfe ; and even
when a branch is cut off and kept in water, the motion
of the leaves continues for many hours together. All
the plants which grow above the earth, expofe their
leaves and flowers to the wmrm funfhine, and when fitu-
ated in a place which is fupplied by light only from
one quarter, they gradually direil their branches to¬
wards that part by which the light enters. In ftormy
weather they retrafl their leaves, and fold up their
flowers, and when confined in the dark, their branches
retain the polition which they had when laft expofed to
the light.
The motions of many of the Itiwer animals, though
fufficiently apparent, are more obfeure than thofe of
plants. A mufcle or an oyfter feems to poffefs little
more motion than is neceffary to open and clofe the
valves of its Ihell, and, no more than plants, has the fa¬
culty of conveying itfelf from place to place. This fa¬
culty of locomotion, which in all the higher claffes of
5
O L O G Y.
4<53
animals is dependent on the will, will be fully confider- General
ed in the fecond chapter. ^ otTsfe ^
The function which appears to be moft univerfaliy ■ ' »
diffufed in living beings, is digeftion, (including nutri- ^8
tion) or that by which the fubftances intended for their Digeltioa.
nourifliment are aflimilated to ttie nature of the body
which they enter. This function varies conliderably in
.the different claffes. Plants merely attradl wafer from
the earth in which they grow, by means of the fibrous
parts of their roots, whence it is conveyed by innumera¬
ble capillary veffels throughout the whole plant, in which
it appears partly to be decompofed, and partly to remain
in the ftate of water, diluting fome of the vegetable
principles, and thus forming the juices of the plant. In
fome of the inferior animals, digeftion feems to be al¬
moft the only function which they are capable of per¬
forming. Thus, many of the zoophytes, as the polypi,
appear to be almoft entirely compofed of a ftomach, re-
fembling the finger of a glove, into which the aliment
is received, the nutritive part extracted, and the excre-
mentitious part throwm out by the fame opening. In
moft other animals, the alimentary canal has two diftinft
openings, one for the reception of the food, and the
other for the ejeftion of the excrement.
By fome animals the food is fvvallovved entire, and
digeftion is performed by a fimple folution or trituration
in the ftomach 5 while in others the mouth is furniihed
with teeth, or other hard parts, capable of reducing the
aliment to a pulpy ftate, in order to render its further
digeftion more eafy and expeditious. In moll animals,
the food having undergone fome change in the digeftive
organs, is taken up from them by certain very minute
veffels, and carried to every part of the body j but in
fome it appears rather to exude through pores in the
fides of the alimentary canal. ^
The function of circulation, by which the fluids are Circulation,
conftantly moved through every part of the body, is not ,
fo general as either of the former funftions. In planta-
there is no proper circulation ; for although there are
numerous veffels by which water enters into the fub-
ftance of the plant, and in which the peculiar juices of
the vegetable move, the motions of thefe fluids are not
uniform, and do not tend towards one centre. The
fame defeftive circulation appears in many of the infe¬
rior animals, as in zoophytes and infefls. As we rife,
however, to the higher claffes, we find a perfebl circu-
lati-on. In thefe there is always a peculiar organ from i
which the fluids are-conveyed to the reft of the body,
and to which they again return ia a perpetual round. ,
In fome animals this central organ is Angle, while in .
others it confills of two fimilar.organs joined together,
from one of which the whole of the fluids proceed
through one particular organ in a leffer circulation, and
thence return to the other part, before they are diftri-.
buted to the general fyftem. g0
All organized beings require more or lefs'thfe prefence Refyiratiop^
of atmofpheric air for their fubfillence, or at leaft for
the due performance of the vital fi»i£lions. In fome,
the agency of this fluid is conveyed merely by pores up¬
on the furface j as in plants, in which the leaves abforb
the air; and in feveral of the inferior animals, as infers
and worms, over the furface rif whofe bodies are diltri*
buted numerous openings, by which the air enters. In
animals of the higher orders there are peculiar organs
called ,
464
General
Phenomena
of Life.
61
Reproduc¬
tion.
PHYSIOLOGY.
called lungs or gills, through which air, or water con¬
taining air, enters, and from which its beneficial influ¬
ence is imparted to the fluids which are circulating
through them. In general, thefe beings exift for a very
ftiort time, when deprived of atmofpheric air, or when
the element in which they live is deprived of oxygen :
but in fome of the lower clafles of animals the abfence
of oxygen is much lefs injurious •, and there are inftances
of reptiles in particular having been preferved in a ftate
fufceptible of life and motion, while buried for many
years in the heart of a tree, or in the middle of a block
of ftone. Refpiration, then, though in general necef-
fary to the continuance of vitality, may, in many tribes
of organized beings, be fufpended for a confiderable
time, without the principle of life being entirely de-
ftroyed.
A fun£Hon equally general, and equally indifpenfible
with that of digeftion, and one which forms another
charafteriftic of living beings, is the function of regene¬
ration, a funflion more peculiarly neceflary, as all orga¬
nized beings, though capable of r- fifting for a confider¬
able time the operation of external agents, tend ulti¬
mately to corruption and decay ; and as they cannot,
like inorganic matter, be regenerated by a reunion of
their component principles, it was necefiary that they
fliould poflefs the capacity of producing, while in exif-
tence, a creature fimilar to themfelves, to fupply their
place in the fcale of being.
It has been a very general opinion among naturalifts,
that all living beings, both plants and animals, originate
from feeds or eggs produced by the parent. This, al¬
though very generally true, is not a univerfal faft.
Moft plants, indeed, with which wre are acquainted, ap¬
pear capable, in their natural ftate, of producing feeds,
which form the embryo of a future plant. But in a
great many of them new plants are obtained from buds,
flips, or fuckers, furnilhed by the parent. In fome ani¬
mals too, as the polypi, reproduction may be effected
by dividing the parent into feveral pieces ; and even the
natural generation of thefe animals is performed by
protuberances which grow' from the body of the parent,
and feem to drop off fpontaneoufly, when capable of an
independent exiftence.
There are two ftriking differences in the manner
by which living beings are generated. In fome, two
diflinft fets of organs are neceffary, and by the mutual
aftion of thefe generation is effeCted •, while in others,
as in the inftances we have mentioned of the polypus,
this aCl of copulation appears to be unneceffary. Almoft
all plants poffefs diflinff fexual organs, and in moft both
male and female organs are fituated in the fame indivi¬
dual. In thefe plants the female ovum is impregnated
by a very fine powder, which is contained in part of
the male organs, and is applied to thofe of the female.
We are fully convinced of the neceflity of the vegetable
copulation, by obferving that the females of thofe plants
which have the fexual organs fituated in diftinCI indivi¬
duals are not capable of producing fruit, or at leaft do
not produce this in perfection, if they are excluded from
the influence of the male •, and that an artificial im¬
pregnation may be brought about by bringing the male
and female organs in contaff. Many animals are her¬
maphrodite ; and among thefe the individuals of fome
fpecies generate without the afliftance of another indi¬
vidual of the fame fpecies. This appears to be the cafe
Chap, j
with the bivalve ftiell-fifti. Others again, as fnails, and Genera]
moft of the mollufca, which crawl upon the earth, copu-r,llen‘™ei
late reciprocally, or each individual performs the dou- of^fe-
ble office of male and female. In moft animals, how- ^
ever, the fexes are diftin6t, and probably a real herma¬
phrodite in the fuperior claffes never exifted. Another
ftriking difference with refpedl to generation in animals
is the more or lefs perfedl ftate in which they bring
forth their young. A large proportion' of animals,
among which are the infedft tribe, fifties and birds, pro¬
duce eggs, which are afterwards hatched by the heat
of the parent, or by that of the fun. Other claffes
again, as fome of the amphibiar and the whole of the
mammalia, carry their young for a certain time within
an organ deftined for that purpofe, from which they are
excluded in the ftate of perfedl animals. ^
The laft funftion which we ftiall here notice, is fen-Senfatitm
fation. This-appears to be lefs general than any which
we have hitherto mentioned. It has indeed been fup-
pofed by many philofophers and naturalifts, that plants
poffefs a degree of fenfibility ; and this opinion has been
lately avowed and ftrenuoully fupported by the elegant,
but enthufiaftic author of the Botanic Garden, and the
Loves of the Plants. That plants poffefs a fufceptibility
of receiving impreflions, and in confequence of that of
being roufed into a6tion by external ftimuli, we ftiall
readily admit, and fliall hereafter aflign to this fufcep¬
tibility its due importance ; but as there is no reafon to
believe that it ever produces fenfation, we muft not con¬
found it with the fenfibility of animals 5 nor is the diffi¬
culty of explaining fome of the fumftions of vegetables,
without reforting to the hypothefis of a vegetable fenfo-
rium, a fufficient reafon for invefting them with this fa¬
culty. It has even been doubted whether fome of the
inferior animals, as the zoophytes, poffefs this fumftion,
as nervous fibres have not yet been detected in their or¬
ganization. It is probable, that there is a regular gra¬
dation in the tribes of organized beings with refpeft to
fenfation, as well as the other fundtions; and though we
have not been able ~to difcover all the links of this
chain, thefe will probably, as our knowledge of nature
increafes, come more into view, and we {hall then be
able to reconcile many circumftances which we cannot
at prefent comprehend.
With refpeft to the varieties that take place in the
number and degree of the external fenfes, as poffeffed
by the various claffes of animals, we may refer the
reader to what has been faid on that fubjeft in the
firft chapter of the comparative part of the article Ana¬
tomy. 63.
The duration of life is exceedingly various. WeDuratiof
know that there are animals which live but a few hours,hk-
as the infefts called ephemerce ; and that others, as the
elephant, the raven, and the pike, may exift for a cen¬
tury. The term of life allotted to plants is alfo vari¬
ous ; fome live only for a year, and are hence called an¬
nual plants ; others exift for two years, and are called
plants •, while a few furpafs in longevity any
thing with which we are acquainted in animated na¬
ture. Thus, the oak is faid to require 100 years, in
order to acquire its full maturity ; to retain its perfect
vigour for the like term, and to complete at leaft a third
century before it entirely decays. The chefnut is a ftill
more remarkable inftance of vegetable longevity. The
account of the gigantic chefnut on Mount iEtna, given
hap.
I. PHYSIO
'jer.tral by Brydtme and other travellers, which has exifted for
enomena raany centuries, muft be familiar to molt of our readers.
3fLijt^ ^ye jiave hitherto conlidered life as difplayed in theex-
ercife of fun£tions j but it may exift independently of
this exercife, or it may lie dormant for a confiderablc
time, till called into aftion by particular circumftances.
Every one knows how long a feed or an egg, when ex¬
cluded from heat, air, and moifture, will retain the fa¬
culty of producing a plant or an animal. The only
proof we have, that this faculty Hill exiits, is, that when
we place the feed or the egg in circumftances favour¬
able to the developement of the embryo which it con¬
tains, the procefs of generation goes on, till the plant or
the animal is excluded. We know alfo, that after an
organized being has commenced the exercife of its func¬
tions, this exercife may ceafe for a time, or at leaft be¬
come almoft imperceptible, while yet the vital power
lhall remain fufceptible of reviving its adftivity at a fu¬
ture period. We then fay that the animal or vegetable
is in a torpid ftate. On this part of the hiftory of life
we (hall not enter at prefent, but (liall defer the confi-
deration of it till we come to treat of deep and death.
The above is a hafty comparative (ketch of the func¬
tions exercifed by the various tribes of organized beings.
It is fufficient to (how, that there is in thefe beings a
vital power which completely diftinguifties them from
64 brute or inorganic matter.
!aufe of A queftion which naturally arifes in every thinking
le‘ mind is, What is the effence of liie, or on what does it
depend ? Though avc profefs ourfelves unable to anfwer
this queftion in a fatisfaftory manner, and believe that
all who have hitherto attempted to do fo, have failed in
their attempts, it may be acceptable to moft of our
readers to know7 the opinions of the moft refpedlable
writers on this abftrufe fubjeft. Thefe, therefore, we
6- (hall briefly ftate.
)pinions Thefe opinions have chiefly refted on the qceftion,
efpedHng whether life be an independent, immaterial principle, or
'incHe merely a phyfical or chemical modification of matter.
We have already, in the hiftorjcal view which we have
given of the progrefs of phyfiology, mentioned foxne of
the more remarkable doftrines refpefling the principle
of life that have been delivered prior to the 18th cen¬
tury, we (hall here, therefore, only mention thofe which
have been maintained fince that time.
Mr John Hunter, in his valuable treatife on the blood,"
fuppofes the principle of vitality to exift in that fluid, or
that the blood has life ; and has founded this doeftrine
chiefly on the following proofs. Firft, It unites living
parts, when it is effufed between them. Secondly, It
becomes vafcular like other living parts •, its tempera-
rature as it flows from the veiTel, is always equal in the
moft oppofite temperature in which the body can bear
expofure. Thirdly, It is capable of being afted upon
by a ftimulus, as is the cafe when it coagulates. Fourth,
Paralytic limbs, though deprived of motion and fenfa-
tion, are yet nourifhed and preferved alive by the blood
circulating through them.
Mr Hunter’s idea of the vitality of the blood is merely
the revival of one of the oldeft phyfiological dodlrines
on record •, namely, that delivered to the Ifraelites by
Mofes, that in the blood is the life of an animal.
Dr Goodwin, in his work on the connection of life
with refpiration, is of opinion, that the heart is the great
feat of the principle of life in all the more perfeft ani-
Yol. XVI. Part II.
66
ohn Hun-
er.
N 67
j oodwin.
LOG Y. 46^
mals and that the contractions of the heart with the j General
ordinary ftimulus is the only mark of the prefence of this1 ‘ic,! ^1.‘^ria
principle*, that when the heart contracts under fuch  ^ 1
circumftances, the body is alive ; when not, it is dead.
Life he therefore defines to be the faculty of propelling
the fluids through the circulatory fyftcm. According
to him, the external concomitant circumftances which
operate upon the body in health are heat and refpiration,
which excite the vital principle to aftion ; and when¬
ever the funClions of an animal are fuddenly fufpended,.
and the body puts on the appearance of death, it is al¬
ways in our power to determine whether it be really
dead, by reftoring the temperature, and by inflating the.
lungs with proper air. He is of opinion, with fome
others, that there are no means of determining the ah-
folute deprivation of the vital principle but by the pre¬
fence of putrefaftion.
It has lately become fafhionable to confider life as the
confequence of certain chemical changes, which are go¬
ing on in the body *, an opinion which is chiefly fup-
ported by Hufeland, Girtanner, and Humboldt. 6S
According to Hufeland, life is a chemico-anima! Hufehnd.
flame, to the production of which oxygen is abfolutely
neceflary, and the vital power is the moft general and
poAverful of all the poAvers of nature. He confiders it as
the caufe of organization, and as poffefling the folloAV-
ing properties.
1. It has a greater affinity to fome organized bodies
than to others ; thus, the polypus may be cut in pieces
Avithout being divefted of it, and a decapitated tortoife
or a frog deprived of its heart Avill live a long time af¬
ter 5 whilft to the human body, or a quadruped, it
Avould be inftant death. According to this phyfiologift,
it is a general rule, that the ftronger the affinity be-
tAveen life and an organized being, the more imperfeCfc
is the animal; hence the zoophytes, Avhofe Avhole orga¬
nization confifts in a mouth, a ftomach, and a gut, have
a life exceedingly tenacioiw, and difficult to be deftroy-
ed. 2. It is in greater quantity in fome organized bo¬
dies than in others. In general, cold-blooded animals
live longer than thofe with warm blood. 3. It frees
bodies from the chemical laAvs of inanimate matter, and
transfers the component parts of a body from the phyfi¬
cal or chemical to the organic or living Avorld. 4. It
prevents. putrefaClion, for no organized body can putre¬
fy unlefs deprived of life. ^
Humboldt is of opinion, that the degree of vitality Humboklt.
depends upon the reciprocal balance of the chemical af¬
finities of all the elementary parts of which the aisimal
body is compofed. y0
Some phyfiologifts of the prefent day deny the exift- Cuvier,
ence of the vital principle altogether, “ The idea of
life (fays Cuvier), is one of thofe general and obfeure
ideas produced in us by obferving a certain feries of phe¬
nomena, pofifeffing mutual relations, and fucceeding
each other in a conftant order. We knoAV not indeed
the nature of the link that unites thefe phenomena, but
Ave are fenfible that a connexion muft exift ; and this
conviction is fufficient to induce us to give it a name,
which the vulgar are apt to regard as the fign of a par¬
ticular principle, though in faCt that name can only in¬
dicate the totality of the phenomena which have occa-
fioned its formation.”
Dr Ferriar, in his obfervations concerning the vital Ferriar.
principle, thinks, that fome direft arguments may be
3 N brought
466
Genera! brought againft the general fuppofition of an independ-
ent prinoiple. Thefe arguments he divides into
i two kinds, viz. refutations of the general proofs offered
in fupport of the vital principle j and inllancesof the di-
refl influence, of the mind and brain over what is term¬
ed the independent living principle. The great proofs
for the fupport of a vital principle, are the contraftion
of mufcles feparated from the body on the application of
flimulants; the performance of the vital and involun¬
tary motions without any exertion or even confcioufnefs
of the mind, and the birth of full grown foetufes defti-
tute of a brain. In all thefe cafes, fomething is alleged
to operate, independently of the mind, in producing
mufcular motion.
Dr Ferriar, in anfwer to the firft argument drawn
from the contraftion of feparated mufcles, affirms, it
may be faid, ift, That the power of contradfion, in a
feparate mufcle, is loft before putrefaction takes place,
i. e. before the deltruCtion of its texturej but if its vita¬
lity depended on its texture, this ought not to happen,
idly, The power of contraction, in a feparated mufcle,
is ftrongeft upon its firft feparation, and becomes weak¬
er by degreesj therefore, the contracting power feems
to have been derived from fome fource from which it is
detached by the excifion of the part. 3dly, Irritation
of the medulla oblongata, or of the nerves fupplying par¬
ticular mufcles, occafions fironger contractions than irri¬
tation of*the mufcles themfelvesj and Dr Whytt fm>
nifhes an experiment on a frog, direCtly proving, that
the aCtion of feparated mufcles depends upon the ner¬
vous energy, 4thly, Dr Haller himfelf isobliged to make
on this fubjeCt a concefTion fufficient to deftroy his favou¬
rite hypothefis oft he vis inftta. Jthly, When a paralytic
limb is convulfed by the eleCtric fhock, the motion ne¬
ver takes place without the patient’s confcioufnefs. In
this cafe there is no diflinClion between the vital princi¬
ple, and that exertion which in voluntary motion is al¬
ways attributed to the mind. See Chap. iii.
fin anfwer to the fecond argument, in favour of a vi¬
tal principle, drawn from the performances of the vital
and other involuntary motions, Dr Ferriar contents him¬
felf with only obferving* that, allowing the organs of
thofe motions to be fupplied with nervous energy, their
motions may be very well accounted for by the ilimulus
cf their contained fluids.
The force of the third argument, drawn from the
want of a brain in full-grown foetufes, is taken off by
Dr Whytt, who remarks, that as the heart is fometimes
wanting in-full-grown foetufes, the argument would
equally prove, that the heart is not neceffary for the
continuance of circulation, as that the brain is not ne-
ceffary to the fupport of the fyflem. Accordingly,
.foetufes born without a brain do not, in general, furvive
birth.
Befides the general fuppofition of an independent liv¬
ing principle, an inference has been drawn from faCts,
ofa nervous energy independent of the brain. By this
term is meant, that condition derived from the brain to
different parts of the body, by means of which they be¬
come capable of motion. To fhow, by direft proof,
that there is no independent vital principle, Dr Ferriar
obferves, I. That it isjuftly urged by Dr Monro againft
the dodtrine of the vis injit a, that there is too much de-
£gn in the actions ef different mufcles, affedted by. dif-
Chap.I
ferent Jiimuli, to be the effedt of mere mechanifm. General
Thus, when the hand or foot is burnt, or otherwife fud-fi^enomeni
denly injured, the mufcleson the part immediately fti-, ()t'hife.
mulated are not throw,n into adtion, nor the mufcles on.
the fide irritated, but their antagonilts contradt immedi¬
ately and ftrongly. Now, if the inltanlaneous adfion
be in this cafe chiefly produced by an effort of the mind,
the fuppofition of a diftindt vital principle is fuperfluous:
if it be faid to be produced by a living power independ¬
ent of the mind, then there muft be a rational power in
the body independent of the mind, which is abfurd.
2. The itate of the vital and involuntary motions is con-
fiderably affedled by the flate of the mind, which equal¬
ly difproves the exiftence of a feparate vital principle,
and proves the dependence of the nervous energy upon
the brain. 3. Madnefs, it is well known, is frequently
produced by eaufes purely mental, and in perfons appa¬
rently in good health j and, as the patient’s fenfibility
to very powerful ftimuli is much diminifhed in maniacal
cafes, they afford another proof of the fubordination of
the nervous energy. 4. It has been obferved, that in
paralytic cafes, motion is frequently deftroyed, while
fenfe remains. As the caufe of palfy almoft always re-
fides in the brain, this faff appears equally inexplicable
on the opinion of a diftinft living principle, or of a ner¬
vous energy, independent of the brain. 5. When nerves
are regenerated, after being cut through, fenfation and
voluntary motion are not always reftored to the parts be¬
neath the divifion: the reftoration was never made in
Dr Monro’s experiments. But, on the fuppofition of a
diftinft nervous power, the nerve, after its re-union
ought to refume all its offices. 6. Dr Whytt afferts,
that when the fpinal marrow of a frog is deftroyed,
after decollation, no contraftion can be excited in the
limbs, by cutting or tearing the mufcles. Such are
the fafts and arguments which Dr Ferriar brings a-
gainft the opinion of a diftinft living principle j and
he thinks, that their invefligation appears to lead us
back to the brain as the fouree of fenfibility and irri¬
tability. 7 :., |
In the life of Dr John Brown, we have given an ac-Ruib.
count of the do&rine, of life being a forced ftate. This
dodlrine appears to have been firft delivered by Dr Cul¬
len, though he afterwards retraced it. Of late Dr
Rulh of Philadelphia, in his LeBuTes on Animal Life,
has advanced many arguments in favour of this doftrine.
He includes, in animal life, three properties as applied
to the human body, viz. motion, fenfation, and thought;
and thefe, when united, compofe perfett life. It may
exift without thought or fenfation j but neither fenfation
nor thought can exift without motion. He affirms, that
the loweft degree of life exifts even, in the abfence of
motion. He firft confiders animal life as it appears in
the waking and fleeping ftate, in a healthy adult; and
afterwards inquires into the modification of its caufes in
the foetal, infant, youthful and middle ftates of life, in
certain difeafes, in different ftates of fociety, and in dif¬
ferent animals, and lays down the following propofi-
tions:
1. Every part of the human body, the nails and hair
excepted, is endued with fenfibility or excitability, or
with both.
2. The whole body is fo formed and conr.e&ed,
that impreffions made in the healthy ftate upon one part
excite
PHYSIOLOGY
i
top. I. , . p H
General excite motion, or fenfation, or both, in every other part
enomena 0f the body.
af Life. ^ Ljfe is the effeft of certain ftimuli a&ing upon the
(enfibility and excitability, which are extended in dif¬
ferent degrees to every external and internal part of the
body j and thefe ftimuli are as neceffary to its exiftence
as air is to flame.
He continues to obferve, that the a&ioh of the brain,
the dial!ole and fyftole of the heart, the pulfation of the
arteries, the contraction of the mufcles, the periftaltic
motion of the bowels, the abforbing power of the lym¬
phatics, fecretion, excretion, hearing, feeing, fmelling,
tafte, and the fenfe of touch, even thought itfelf, are all
the eifeCts of ftimuli aCting upon the organs of fenfe and
motion.
Thefe have been divided into external and internal.
1. The external are light, found, colours, air, heat,
exercife, and the pleafures of the fenfes.
2. The internal ftimuli are food, drinks, chyle, blood,
tenflon of the glands which contain fecreted liquors, and
the exercife of the faculties of the mind.
Life, therefore (accox'ding to the hypothefis of Rufh),
even thought itfelf, is merely a quality refiding in the
component parts of a material fyftem, dependent upon a
peculiar organization, by which it is enabled to aCt, or
in fome ways to move on being ftimulated or excited.
Hence life can never be inherent in a Ample uncom¬
pounded fubftance, nor in a particle of animal matter ;
and if the ftiraulas be withheld from a living fyftem be¬
yond a given time, all motion, fenfation, and thought,
muft neceffarily be extinguiihed.
rital7prin- Inftead of one vital principle, fome phyflologifts have
pie fuppo-fuppofed the exiftence of feveral in the fame body ; and
d by tome from the phenomena that take place in fome organized
> be diviii-ag ^ reunion 0f parts that had been feparated,
the reproduction of others that have been loft, and the
feparate exiftence of the divided parts of fome worms
and zoophytes, it was formerly the opinion of a celebra¬
ted leCturer on anatomy, that the vital principle was
really divided. From more conflderate and extenflve
inquiry, however, he is now of opinion, that the irrita¬
bility on which thefe phenomena depend, is never the
direCt or immediate operation of the vital principle,
but only the confequence of its operation j and in no
cafe excluflvely the confequence, but the confequence
likewife of other operations proceeding from a number
«f different caufes ; and hence it is that a vital princi¬
ple may often exift where it cannot operate in a fenflble
manner, from the want of auxiliaries j and hence it is,
likewife, that its effeCfs may often be continued, at leaft
for a while after its departure.
With regard to the portions of plants and polypi that
continue to live in a feparate ftate, affume the form of
their refpeClive fpecies, and propagate their kind, they
will be found, on a clofe examination, to have been ori¬
ginally complete fyftems ; many of the plants and many
of the polypi that -were ufually conAdered as Ample in¬
dividuals, not conftituting one animated fyftem, but ra¬
ther a congeries of animated fyftems,—a congeries, too,
which after all is nothing more than a fpecies of fociety,
^\r^rV "’here animated beings are aflbciated together for mu-
Mo-1' tual proteClion fucft ns we fee among men in a city j
ons, p. among bees in their: cells, which, in point of form, are
flmilar to plants f.
Y S I O L O G Y.
4-Cf
Chap. II. Of Senfation.
of
Sen! alien.
< ^ *
74
As all living beings are fo related to each other, 3nd 0f
to the inanimate objects of nature, as to be capable of iVnfibmty
deriving beneAt, or receiving injuries, from the one or t° or.^niz-
from th» other j it feems neceffary that they fliould pol-LU DeiI,£5’
fefs the faculty of perceiving the proximity of the be-
neAcial or injurious objeft, that they may avail them-
felves of the beneAt which it holds out, or avoid the
danger which it threatens. Accordingly, we And that
all organized beings enjoy m fome degree the capacity
of receiving imprefjions, which we think is proved by
the motions which take place in them when affefted by
external agents. When a plant expands its flowers to
the fun, or turns, as it were, its back to the blaft 5 when
it ftretebes out the Abres of its roots to imbibe the di-
ftant moifture, or direfts its branches to the only chink
by which it can receive the light of day ; we think
thefe motions are the confequence of that capacity or
receiving imprejjions, or of being roufed to action by
Jlimuh ; we think that this may be conceded, without
having recourfe to the indue nee of mind, or even the
medium of a nervous fyAem j we do not believe that the
grafs we cruAx beneath our feet is fenfxble of pain, nor
do we fuppofe with the poet, that
 “ E’en the poor beetle that we tread on
In mortal fufferance feels a pang as great
As when a giant dies.”-——•
but we are of opinion, that even in the loweft tribes 3enC^,lfj;-
there is a degree of that faculty, which in the higher
orders of animals we call fenftbihty, and which we (hall
here, after a le&urer on the animal economy in Lon¬
don, denominate fenjitivity. This inferior degree of
the fenAtive faculty we (hall fuppofe to be noffeAed by
plants, zoophytes, and animalcules, or thole organized
beings in which we can perceive no marks of a nervous
fyftem ; while we (hall conAne the term fenfibiiity to all
other claffes of animals.
Thefe faculties we conAder as qualities'of livingi'orfo.r,
while we regard fenfation, like perception, as a quality
of mind. We leave it to the metaphylician to mark the
line of diftin&ion between fenAbility and fenfation, and
to Axow how the one arifes from the other. See ME¬
TAPHYSICS, Part I. chap. I. , 6
The organs of fenfation cofcAft of the brain proper-Nerv7ous
ly fo called, the cerebellum, the medulla oblongata, the fyftem.
fpinal marrow, the nerves, and ganglia ; together form¬
ing what is called the nervous fyste/n. Thefe parts in
the human body have been deferibed under Anatomy.
For an account of thefe organs in the inferior animals,
we muft refer to the leftures of Cuvier, vol. ii. or the
Comparative Anatomy of Blumenbach.
In refpedt of fenfibiiity the animal is only paflivej but
when fenfation is produced, he becomes aflive, in as
much as the organs of the external fenfes are then
brought into aftion. It is by means of thefe fenfes
that the animal receives intelligence from without. We
ftiall therefore examine thefe before we mention the
phenomena of fenfation in general.
I. Of Feeling.
The moft general of all the fenfes, and the moil wide- Feelire.
3 N 2 ly
77
468
Of
Senfation.
Ufe.
7S
19
Organs.
So
Nature of
touch,.
PHYSIOLOGY.
ly diffufed over the body of an animal is that of touch
or feeling. Animals that poiTefs fcarcely any other
fenfe feem always to have that of touch. It is doubtlefs
by this that polypi, aclinic, and other water animals,
perceive the approach of their prey, or are warned of
impending danger, from the agitation of the water that
is-communicated to their bodies. Indeed fo general is
this fenfe, that fome phyfiologifls think we may reduce
all others to it as a genus 5 and fuppofe that fme/ling,
tajiing, hearing, and feeing, are" only fpecies of feeling.
This reference is not uncommon in ordinary fpeecb,
as it is not unufual to talk of feeling a fmell.
By touch, taken in its ordinary limited fenfe, we per¬
ceive the more ftriking external qualities of bodies, as
figure, hardnefs,foftnefs, roughnefs,fmoothnefs, moifiure,
drunefs, heat, cold; of all which, except figure, we
could fcarcely form any idea by the other fenfes. There
is probably no fenfe that can fo well fupply the place of
others as that of touch ; and it is particularly acute in
thofe who have loft their light or hearing. See the ar¬
ticle Blind, especially the Appendix.
The organs of touch are the fkin and its produ&ions,
or rather the nervous papillae (fee Anatomy, N° 76.)
that form fo large a part of the true fkin. As many
animals, however, have the body fo enveloped in a fca-
ly, fhelly, or hairy covering, as to prevent the aftual
contadl of the body by external objects, there are other
organs that feem deftined to fulfil this office. In man,
the points of the fingers and the lips are the moft deli¬
cate feeling organs ; in many quadrupeds too, the lips
feem to poffefs an exquifite fenfibility, and in fome, as the
rhinoceros, the upper lip is lengthened out as if to ferve
the purpofe of a hand. The prolonged fnouts of the tapir,
i\\e. Jhrew, the mole, and the hog, feem to anfwer the
fame purpofe ; and the exquifite fenfibility and flexibi¬
lity of the trunk of the elephant is well known to fit
that organ for almoft all the purpofes to which the hu¬
man hand can be applied. The tail, in fome fpecies of
monhey, oppofum and ant-eater, and in fome reptiles,
feems to poffefs a high degree of fenfibility. In fome
animals, as the cat, the whifkers are employed as or¬
gans of feeling, as we know that thefe are eredled when
the animal is paffing through a narrow hole. Several
ipecies of fifties have cirri and tentacula, which they
ieem to ufe as fingers in afcertaining the approach of
their prey *, and in infers, the antetince and the palpi
are evidently organs of feeling, as are the arms, the tufts,
and tentacula of fea-fiars, fea-urchins, aciiniee, medufce,
and many zoophytes.
Moft of the actions of external bodies on the furfaqe
of the animal body, are merely mechanical, though the
fenfations which they communicate may often be the
effects of a chemical change in fome of the feeling or¬
gans, and this change can be produced only in confe-
quepce of the power of fimple preffure, to form or de-
ftroy fome of the combinations that take place in the
animal fyrtem. The fenfations which appear moft evi¬
dently to arife from a chemical change in the organs,
are thofe that give notice of a change of temperature.
When a body that has a temperature below that of the
animal, comes in contaft with the furface of this latter,
we know that it abftra&s from that furface a part of its
caloric, as by the conladt it gradually acquires the
temperature of the animal \ unlefs, indeed, it be fo large
*nd fo cold as altogether to deftroy life. As, however,
3-
Chap. II,
the refiftance which the animal body gives to a too Of
great change of temperature, generally confines this Senraticm,
change to the furface of the body j there muft be fome-
thing more than a mechanical or a chemical a£Hon, or
the fenfe of feeling muft depend chiefly on the vital
principle. - 8r
As the fenfe of feeling, from its general diffufion,Univerfali,
may be confidered as the moft effential of all the fenfes ; T offeel-
its degrees of perfection have confiderable influence on11’2'
the nature of different animals.
Of all vertebral animals, man feems to poffefs this
fenfe in the moft perfeCt degree 5 but among the inver-
tebral animals, the touch leems to improve as the
other fenfes degenerate ; and thofe animals which ap¬
pear to have no other fenfe, poffefs this in fo exquifite a
degree that they feem to feel even the light.
Dr Darwin thinks it probable, that the animal body
is furniftied with a diftinCI fet of nerves for the fenfation
of heat and cold. We do not fee the neceffity of this,
as Ave think that this fenfation is very naturally reduci¬
ble to that of feeling.
I o this head naturally belongs the confideration ofSenfibility
what parts of the human body poffefs fenlibility, ariCl0f ani-
what are infenfible. This difcuffion is curious, andmalbod5‘
fome time ago exercifed the ingenuity of tAVo very able
pbyfiologifts, Haller and Whytt; betAveen Avhom it
gave rife to a long and Avarm difpute. We cannot pre¬
tend to enter into the merits of this controverfy, for an
account of Avhich avc refer our readers to Dr Whytt’s
PhystologicalEfiays, and to the Principes de Physiologic
of Dumas, tom. ii. part iii. fuff. 1. chap. 1.
The general refult feems to be, that many parts Avill
appear fenfible or infenfible, according to the nature of
the ftimuli applied to them, and that many of thofe parts
Avhich in their natural and healthy ftate appear infufcep-
tible of pain, are when inflamed or othenvife altered by
difeafes, highly lenfible ; and that the brain, Avhich is
confidered as the centre of all fenfation, and the punc¬
ture or laceration of Avhieh is attended with moft dif-
treffing fymptoms in other parts, is to ordinary ftimuli
as infenfible as the cuticle or the nails. See alio on this
fubjeCl, Bichat “ Anatomic Generale,” tom. i. p, 161.
—167.
The principal morbid affeCHons of this fenfe, are pain,
itching, and want of feeling; for an account of Avhich
fee Medicine, N° 77. The funftions of the Ikin, in¬
dependently of its ufe as an organ of touch, Avill be con¬
fidered in tAAro of our fucceeding chapters.
2. Of Tafiing.
This fenfe is the moft nearly allied to feeling of anyTafting.
of the other fenfes, and therefore very properly comes
under our confideration after that fenfe.
The principal organ of tafte is the tongue, efpecially organs,
at its upper furface, point, and edges ; but it alfo extends
to the lips, the palate, and the velum pendulum palati.
The tongue is not abfolutely neceffary to tafte, as ap¬
pears from a cafe mentioned by Juffieu, of a perfon who
had only a flefhy tubercle in place of a tongue, and yet
poffeffed the fenfe fufficiently perfeCt. St;
The feveral parts of the organs of tafte are not equally Different
fenfible to every fapid body 5 the tongue feems to be moreor?an W
particularly affeCled by faline and faccharine fubftanees,^
chiefly, hoAvever, at its upper furface j the lips are faid to
be
(ap.
of
IL PHYSIO
be mo ft fuiceptlble of the taile of hellebore, the palate of
‘ fation. belladonna, and the gullet of wormwood. The momor-
*■ 'v—*'' ,i;ca elateriunt is faid chiefly to affect the back of the
tongue, and colocynth its middle.
rhat The greater or lefs perfection of this fenfe depends
tl jerfec- much on the foftnefs, flexibility, and moittnefs of thefe
tJyftaftCpjjj.j.g. feems to poffc fs thefe qualifications in a
more eminent degree than molt other animals, fo, in the
natural unfophillicated ftate of the tongue, he probably
enjoys the benefit of tafte much more highly than they.
Such is the cafe with all young children, and with the
peafant, whofe Ample fare appears to be eaten with a
much greater relifh than all the delicacies of the volup¬
tuary, who muff have recourfe to various ftimuli to
enable him to derive gratification from even the daintiefi:
J tills.
viands (a).
Tafte feems to be more exquifite when the fapid body
is ftrongly preffed between the tongue and the palate.
T^fte is alfo rendered more acute when the tongue is
ftimulated by various condiments, as pepper, mujlard,
which even, when not taken in fuch quantity as to be
very perceptible themfelves, evidently increafe the relifti
of the difties which they feafon. Much alfo depends on
the nature and ftate of the bodies that are applied to the
organs of tafte. Thefe muft, in the firft place, be ei¬
ther fluid, or capable of folution in the faliva. They
muft alfo poffefs fome faline or acrid quality, to render
them capable of afting on the nervous papillee. It was
formerly fuppofed, that faline bodies alone poiTefled the
power of affedling the organs of tafte ; and it was con¬
ceived by Bellini, that the different flavours of faline
bodies depended on the figure of their cryftalline par¬
ticles. M. Dumas has taken conuderable pains, and has
advanced feveral arguments, to Ihow the abfurdity of this
hypothefis j and we think has treated it with more feri-
oufnefs than it deferves. That the different fenfations
which fapid bodies excite in our organs of tafte, depend
chiefly on a difference in their chemical nature, muft,
we think, be allowed, and fome have gone fo far as to
fuppofe, that the fenfation depends on fome chemical
$7 affinity between the fapid body and the nervous fluid.
I lifica- The impreflion which fapid bodies make on the or-
j gans of tafte is modified by age, fex, temperament, and
habit. We know that children are particularly pleafed
with fweet things, while high feafoned difties and vinous
liquors are more palatable to people of a more advanced
age. Women, from various caufes, efpecially during
pregnancy, and when labouring under hyfteric affec¬
tions, have often very Angular taftes. People of a warm
and a mobile conftitution are often affefted by flavours
that are almoft infenfible to others ; and cuftom will
render palatable many fubftances, which, when firft taft-
, 8S ed, are rejected with difguft.
Befides the gratification afforded to animals by the
fenfe of tafte, this is fuppofed to afford one of the prin¬
cipal means of diftinguiffiing between wholefome and
deleterious fubftances. Indeed, with refpeef to the infe-
LOGY. 4^9
rior animals, this diferiminating fenfe is feldom known
to fail, and in this inftance, they are fuperior to man, Senbition^
who is often deceived. There are many poifonous herbs,
the fruits or roots of which have a tafte not unpleafant,
but which cannot be eaten with impunity.
On the morbid affections of tafte, fee Medicine,
N° 78.
3. Of Smelling.
S9
The fenfe of fmelling, like that of tafte, is nearly al- Smelling,
lied to feeling, and is one of thofe by which we become
acquainted with the mechanical and chemical properties
of external bodies. It is caufed by volatile particles
flying off from odorous bodies, and diffufed or diffolved
in the atmofphere, in union with which they enter the
noftrils and affeft the nerves of the fmelling organs.
It is difficult to afceitain what are the effential organs Organ?,
of fmelling. We know that in moft animals which
breathe through lungs or gills, there is either a nofe, or
there are certain holes that ferve the purpofe of noftrils j
but in many animals there is nothing fimilar to thefe,
and yet there is every reafon to believe that they poffefs
the fenfe of fmelling in an exquifite degree,
InfeCls difeover their food at a diftance. Butterflies
feek their females, even when inclofed in boxes •, and as
they are liable to be deceived by refemblance of colour,
it is evident that thefe infeCIs are guided in many cir-
cuvnftances by the fenfe of fmell. Thus the flefh-fly
Qmufca vomitoriaj lays its eggs on plants that have a
foetid fmell, imagining that it places them on corrupted
fleffi, and the larvae which are thus produced perifti for
want of their neceffary food.
As the organ of fmell, in all animals which refpire
air, is fituated at the entrance of the organs of refpira-
tion, the moft probable conjeClure that has been propof-
ed refpefting its feat in infeCls, is that of Barter, fince
revived by feveral naturalifts, who placed it in the
mouths of the tracheae or air tubes. Btfide many other
reafons that might be ftated in fupport of this opinion,
we may obferve, that the internal membrane of the
tracheae appears very well calculated to perform this
office, being foft and moiftened, and that the infers in
which the tracheae enlarge, and form numerous or con-
fiderable veficles, are thofe which feem to poffefs the
moft perfetrt fenfe of fmelling. Such are all the fcara-
bcei, the bees, flies, &c.
The antennae, which other anatomifls have fuppofed
to be the feat of fmelling in infefls, do not appear to
Cuvier to poffefs any of the requifites for that organ.
The mollufca, which refpire air, may alfo poffefs this
fenfation at the entrance of their pulmonary veffels; but
it is not neceffary to fearch for a particular organ of this
fenfe in them, as their whole Ikln appears to refemble a
pituitary membrane. It is everywhere foft, fungous,
and is always moiftened by a great quantity of mucous
matter. Finally, it is fupplied with numerous nerves,
which animate every point of its furfacc.
The
(a) It is generally fuppofed, that the fenfe of tailing is more acute in fome of the inferior animals than in
man ; an opinion which is founded chiefly on the greater fize and number of the papilla of the tongue in thofe
animals. It is fcarcely poffible to decide this point j but we Ihould conceive, from the infinite variety of fubftances
that are occafionally fubjefled to the human palate, and from the extreme delicacy of tafte difplayed by fome in ¬
dividuals, that man has the advantage of his brute neighbours in this fenfe.
47° P H Y S I
Of The worms and fbft zoophytes, and all the polypes,
■ ^ ^tlon* are probably in the lame fituation. It cannot be doubt¬
ed but that thefe animals enjoy the fenfe of fmell. It is
chiefly by it that they difcover their food, particularly
the fpecies that have no eyes. Ariftotle remarked, that
certain herbs, which have a flrong odour, were avoided
91 by cutt/e-jijhes and the off opus.
"odour^litfle ad the fubftances which affeft our organs of fenfa-
umlerftood. °dours are the leaf! underftood, though the im-
preffions which they make on the animal body appear
to be moll powerful and extenfive. Some bodies are al¬
ways odorous, becaufe the whole or a part of their fub-
ftance, being volatile, it is conftantly-flying off: others
become odorous, only under certain circumftances; as
when a body containing a volatile principle in its com-
pofition is decompofed by another that has a lefs affinity
for that principle, e. gr. when muriate of ammonia is de¬
compofed by quicklime.
Odours feem to be propagated in the air, much in
the fame manner as one fluid is diffufed through another.
Their motion is not direft like that of light, nor is it
rapid or fufceptible of reflection and refraClion like light
and caloric. The odorous particles of volatile bodies
may enter into combination with different fubftances, by
.chemical affinity, and thus lofe their original properties.
In this way the effluvia of putrid meat are deftroyed by
freft^ burnt charcoal, and the noxious exhalations from
peftilential apartments are .removed by the vapours of
nitric or muriatic acid.
Thefe circumftances feem to prove that each fmell is
occafioned by a particular fubftance floating in the atmo-
fphere. There are others, however, which appear to
indicate that odour is not always produced in this man¬
ner.
Several bodies yield a ftrong fmell for a great length
of time, without fuftaining any fenfible lofs of fubftance j
fuch, for example, is mufk. Some odours are per¬
ceived when no evaporation can be obferved, as the
fmell which arifes from the friClion of copper, that pro¬
duced by the fufion of a great number of bodies, and
even by the melting of common ice. In other cafes,
real evaporations produce no fenfible odour ; this may
be remarked on the difengagement of feveral gafes, and
even on the ordinary evaporation of water. Perlraps
thefe phenomena prove only that the force of fenfation
is not proportional to the quantity of the fubftance by
which it is excited, but that it depends on the nature
and degree of the affinity of that fubftance with the ner-
* Cuvier. Vous fluid *. The aflion of the greater part of odorous
fubftances on the nervous fyftero, is rendered manifeft
by a number of other effects befides the fenfation of
fmell ; fome produce faintings, others giddinefs, or even
convulljons. Some, on the contrary, ferve to remove
thefe diforders : indeed the greater part of medicines
a£I in general rather by their volatile and odorous parts,
than by their other principles; andafford new proofs of
the influence exercifed in the animal economy by the
gafe ous and impalpable fubftances, the greater part of
which are doubtlefs ft ill unknown to us.
We know not ■whether odours have a peculiar ve¬
hicle, befides the matter of heat, which is common to
them all in their quality of vapours or elaftic fluids.
We cannot explain why odours are agreeable or dif-
agreeable to u^, nor why thofe that are difgufting to us
appear pleafing to other animals, and vice verfa. Though
2
O L O G Y. Chap. I'
man and other animals are generally pleafed with the Of
odour of thofe fubftances which ferve them as food j yet Senfatio:
when their appetite is fatisfied, this odour often be-'*’^^
comes difpleafing to them. On the contrary, force
animals appear to have a paffionate fondnefs for ftrong
fmelling fubftances which feem altogether ufelefs to
them. Thus cats are extremely fond of and
the freih roots of valerian. In general, thofe odours
which are moft difagreeable indicate that the fubftances
from which they proceed are injurious. Thus veno¬
mous plants, putrid fleih, and poifonous minerals, have
commonly an unpleafant odour. This rule, however, is
not univerfal j and the fenfe of fmell, like that of tafte,
is not an unerring guide to man, whatever it may be to
-ether animals.
It appears that the effluvia of odorous bodies are ca¬
pable of diffufing themfelves through water as well as
air ; for when thefe fubftances are thrown into water
as bait for fifti, Ave find that thefe animals are attra&ed
by the fmell from a confiderable diftance.
The comparative phyfiology of this fenfe is very euri- c0Itf^ra
ous, though we cannot explain the reafon of the differ- tWe phy£
ences that we find to take place in the various tribes of logy of
animals. Man in a ftate of civilized fociety, where he^^S'
may have recourfe to a great variety of means by which
to diftinguiffi the properties of bodies, has lefs occafion for
acutenefs of fmell; but we know that favages are in
that refpedt greatly his fuperiors. Their fmell is fo
acute, that like a blood-hound, they can feent their
enemy to a great diftance, and purfue his track with al-
moft certain fuccefs. Among birds and beafts of prey
we alfo find that acutenefs of fmell is a very general
property. Hyaenas, wolves, vultures, and ravens, can di-
ftinguiffi the putrid carcafes on which they feed many
miles off; and it is afferted by naturalifts, that jackalls
hunt in packs, and follow their game like hounds by the
feent. There is a curious diverfity in this refpefl among
birds, fome having this fenfe very acute, others very
blunt. We are told by Gattoni*, that the cock is fearce- * ^arpt.
ly affefted with the fmell of ammonia or hartlhorn, <
while the duck is faid to avoid all powerful odoursOlfa£Ui<
whether agreeable or otherwife. We are not fuffici-
ently acquainted with the nature of the olfaflory mem¬
brane, nor with that of the nerves diftributed to it, to
enable us to form an opinion refpetfting the degree and
the kind of fenfations they procure to different animals.
It may, however, be at firft fight prefumed, that all
things in other refpe£ls being equal, the animals in
which the olfaflory membrane is moft extenfive, enjoy
the fenfation of fmell moft exquifitely ; and experience
confirms this conjeflure. It would be curious to learn
why the animals which peffels the fenfe of fmell in the
higheft degree, are preeifely thofe which feed on the
moft fetid fubftances, as we obferve in dogs which eat
carrion.
Of Hearing.
The fenfe of hearing is more important than any Hearing
which we have yet noticed, but it appears to be lefs
generally diffufed.
Bv means of it we become acquainted with thofe pro¬
perties of bodies which fit them for making fenfible im-
preffions on the air,as hardnefs,elafticity, &c.; and thefe
Impreffions on the air, when communicated to the or-
.gans of hearing, convey to our mind the ideas of found*
•
\ • ,
Of By this fenfe we derive two of the higheft gratifications
S ation; We are capable of enjoying, viz. the pleatures of
t converfation and of mufic $ and in this way mofl: animals
hold intercourfe with each other.
94 The organs of hearing differ exceedingly in the vari-
0 ous clafles of animals. The human ear and its appen¬
dages have been defcribed in Anatomy, Part I.
chap. vi. fe£t. 4.; and for an account of thefe organs in
other animals, we muft refer to Cuvier's Lectures, vol. ii.
or the Comparative Anatomy of Blumenbach, chap. xx.
Red-blooded animals without exception have evident
auditory organs; and analogous parts are found in
many of the white-blooded. In a great number of the
inferior clalfes, however, no fuch parts have been afcer-
tained, though it is certain that many of them do really
hear. In all thofe in which thefe organs have been de¬
leted, there is always found a gelatinous pulp, covered
with a fine, elaftic membrane, and in this pulp the rami¬
fications of the auditory nerve are loft. It is therefore,
highly probable that the feat of hearing refides in the
minute nervous fibres that are diftributed through the
pulp, and that this latter is the medium by which founds
are communicated from the percuffed air. We may
form a tolerably juft idea of the manner in which this
pulpy fubftance is connected with the external move¬
ments that are the caufe of found 5 for this quivering
jelly will readily receive the concuflions of the air or
water that are tranfmitted tq it from the vibrations of
fonorous bodies, and communicate them to the nervous
filaments. Thus far only can we trace the motion of
found ; but the fteps by which this motion is carried on
till the perception of found is produced in the mind, are
equally unknown to the anatomift and the metaphyfi-
cian.
' ieties of The philofophy of found has already been treated of
* id. under Acoustics. It is neceflary here to remark only,
that the qualities of found may be diftinguilhed into
force, depending on the extent of the vibrations of the
ibody from which the found proceeds 5 tone, depending
on the velocity of the vibrations •, refonance, arifing
from the intimate compofition of the fonorous body ;
95 Jimple modulation of voice, and articulations.
npara- The human ear can diftinguiftr all thefe different qua-
1 phyfio-lities with relation to one found’, this diftinftion is made
. ' with wonderful accuracy, by perfons who frequently ex-
,mg’ ercife that faculty, and particularly by profeflional mu-
ficians. The other mammalia exhibit proofs that they
are capable of diftinguiflhing the qualities of found which
relate to fpeech, that is to fay, fimple vocal modulations
and articulations: for we may obferve daily, that they
remember the found and fignification of feveral words.
Some are ftrongly affe£led by certain founds. Acute
tones produce a painful fenfation in dogs, and we alfo
obferve that thefe animals are terrified by violent noifes;
they therefore diftinguilh thefe two properties. Birds
have a feeling, no lefs exquifite, of voice, tone, articula¬
tion, and even refonance, fince they learn to fing with
great correftnefs *, and when their vocal organs permit
them, can completely counterfeit the human fpeech,
■with all the modifications pra£lifed by the individuals
they imitate.
As to cold-blooded animals, it is well known that fe-
veral of them call each other by certain founds, and that
others, which are incapable of producing founds, can at
leaft underftand them,, as carps, which appear when the
noife of a bell indicates to them that they are to be fed, Ser^-on .
&c. 5 but we know not what qualities of found they r‘ ^ ‘
diftinguiih, and how far, in this relpeft, the delicacy ^ Cu^f„
of their fenfe of hearing extends *.. Q(jmp Ar,aU
For the morbid affettions of hearing, fee Medicine, voi h. fe:t.
N° 80. 13-
5. Of Seeing. . ^
As we afcend from the fimpler to the more complex Seeing,
fenfes, we find a greater fcope for defeription and ob-
fervation •, but we alfo find our phyfiological difficulties
increafed. The fenfe of touch being the moft fimpie of
all the fenfes, requires but a fimple organization, and
is the moft widely diffufed 5 that of vifion, on the other
hand, is the moft complex, and requires for its mecha-
nifm, a more elaborate fet of organs. There is not, in
the whole animal ftrmElure, a more curious and admir¬
able organ than the eye, whether we contemplate it in
its moft perfeft ftate in the human body, or in its moft
fimple conformation, as it appears in the horn of a fnail. 98
The anatomy of the human eye has been fuffieiently Organs,
defcribed in the article Anatomy, Part I. chap. vi.
fe£t. 5. ; and if our readers defire a fuller account of
this organ, we may refer them to the elegant work of
Profeffor Soemmering. The ftru&ure of the eye in the
inferior animals is well defcribed in Cuvier’s twelfth
lefture, and in Blumenbach’s Comparative Anatomy,
chap. xvi. We ffiall extra# from the former a deferip¬
tion of the eyes of infefts and cruftaceous animals, as
being among the moft curious and leaft known fubjedls
of comparative anatomy.
“ The ftruflure of the eye of infefls is fo very dif¬
ferent from that of other animals, even the mollufca,
that it would be difficult to believe it an organ of fight,
had not experiments, purpofely made, demonftrated its
ufe. If we cut out, or cover with opaque matter, the
eye of the dragon fly, it will ftrike againft walls in its
flight. If we cover the compound eyes of the wafp, it
afeends perpendicularly in the air, until it completely
difappears j if we cover its fimple eyes only, it will not
attempt to fly, but will remain perfeftly immoveable.
“ The furface of a compound eye, when viewed by
the microfcope, exhibits an innumerable multitude of
hexagonal facets, flightly convex, and feparated from
one another by fmall furrows, which frequently contain
fine hairs, more or lefs long.
“ Thefe facets form altogether a hard and elaflic
membrane, which, when freed of the fubftances that
adhere to it pofteriorly, is very tranfparent.
“ Each of thefe fmall furfaces may be confidered
either as a cornea, or a cryftalline j for it is convex ex¬
ternally, and concave internally, but thicker in the
middle than at-the edges, it is alfo the only tranfparent
part in this fingular eye.
“ Immediately behind this tranfyarent membrane
there is an opaque fubftance, which varies greatly as to
colour in different fpecies, and which fometimes forms,
even in the fame eye, fpots or bands of different colours.
Its confiftence is the fame as that of the pigment of the
clioroides ; it entirely covers the pofterior part of the
tranfparent facets, without leaving any aperture for the
paffage of the light.
“ Behind this pigment we find fume very ftiort white
filaments, in the form of hexagonal prifms, fituated
clofe to each other, like the ftones of a pavement, and
precifely
47 2
of
Senfation
Cuvier's
Leisures,
vol. iL
99
Immediate
feat of vi-
fion proba¬
bly the re¬
tina.
P H Y S I
precifely equal 5n number to the facets of the cornea j
each penetrates into the hollow part of one of thefe fa¬
cets, and is feparated from it only by the pigment men¬
tioned above. If thefe filaments are nervous, as in my
opinion they appear to be, we may confider each as the
retina of the furface behind which it is placed : but it
will always remain, to be explained, how the light can
a£f on this retina, through a coat of opaque pig¬
ment.
“ This multitude of filaments, perpendicular to the
cornea, have behind them a membrane which ferves
them ail as a bafe, and which is confequently nearly
parallel to the cornea; this membrane is very fine, and
of a blackifh colour, which is not caufed by a pigment,
but extends to its molt intimate texture; we obferve
in it very fine whitifh lines, which are tracheae, and
and will produce ftill finer branches, that penetrate be¬
tween the hexagonal filaments, as far as the cornea.
By analogy, we may name this membrane the cho-
roides.
“ A thin expanfion of the optic nerve is applied to
the pofterior part of the choroides. This is a real ner¬
vous membrane, perfectly fimilar to the retina of red-
blooded animals; it appears that the white filaments,
which form the particular retinse of the different ocular
furfaces, are productions of this general retina, which
perforates the membrane I have named choroides, by a
multitude of fmall and almoit imperceptible holes.
“ To obtain a diftinct view of all thefe parts, it is
neceffary to cut off the head of an infeCt that has the
eyes large, and diffeCt it pofteriorly; each part will
then be removed in an order the reverfe of that in which
I have defcribed them.
“ In the cray fillies, in general, the eye is fituated on
a moveable tubercle. The extremity, which is rounded
on every fide, and fometimes elongated into a cone,
when viewed by a glafs, prefents the fame furfaces as
the eyes of infedfs. When we cut this tubercle longi¬
tudinally, we obferve that the optic nerve paffes through
it in a cylindrical canal, which occupies the place of its
axis. Arrived at the centre of the concavity of the
eye, it forms a fmall button, which detaches very fine
filaments in every diredfion; at a certain diftance thefe
filaments meet the choroides, which is nearly concentri-
cal with the cornea, and covers the fpherical brufh of
the extremity of the nerve, like a hood. All the di¬
ftance between the choroides and the cornea is occu¬
pied, as in infedts, by white filaments, clofely arranged
in a perpendicular diredtion to each other, and which
have the extremity next the cornea alfo coated with a
black pigment.
“ Thefe filaments perforate the choroides, and are
continuations of thofe produced by the button, which
terminates the optic nerve.”
The immediate feat of vifion is Hill in difpute ; but
it appears to be the expanfion of the optic nerve upon
the inner coat of the eye. The other parts of that or¬
gan ferve to colled!, ’refradt, abforb, and fometimes even
refledl, the rays of light, according as thefe operations
are required for the diftindt vifion of any particular ani¬
mal. Thofe animals that feek for their prey during
O L O G Y, Cliap, ]
night, have a pupil that is very dilatable, and have ,,f i
very little of that dark fubftance called pigmentum ni- Senfatioi]
grum, that lies between the retina and the choroid coat
in diurnal animals. Thus, the former have their e)es
better adapted to receive and to retain the feeble rays
of light, and thus poffefs a great advantage over the
animals which they purfue, whole eyes are calculated
for feeing bell; in a Itrong light.
The fubjedt of vifion has been fo fully confidered un¬
der Optics, Part I. fedt. 5. that it is unneceffary for
us to give any detailed account of it here. We ftiall
therefore merely enumerate the principal phenomena. I0C
1. The rays of light proceeding from luminous bo-thenomel
dies, are colledted by the cornea ; varioufly refradfed by ot fifion. i;
the aqueous, cryftalline, and vitreous humours, till they
meet in a point (in perfedt vifion) in the retina, from
which the fenfation conveyed to the brain, excites there
the ideas of light, colour, and other qualities of extreme
objedts, of which the eye is capable of judging.
2. The image of the objedt thus pidtured on the reti¬
na, is inverted, though the mind is habituated to perceive
it as if it were eredl.
3. There is a certain point within the eye where the
retina is deficient, and here the luminous rays make no
impreflion.
4. The eye is calculated to fee objedfs moft diftindily
at certain diftances or foci, though thefe diftances vary
cbnfiderably in different fpecies, and different individu¬
als. A perfon of ordinary fight can read a middle-fized
print moff diftindily at the diftance of about eight inches.
Thofe who require a lefs diftance are near-fighted, or
myopes, and in them the point of divergence of rays is
before the retina. Thofe who require a greater diftance
are long-lighted, ov prefby opes; and in thefe the point of
divergence is behind the retina. "
5. In thofe animals that have two eyes, an image of .
a luminous objedt is formed in each, though the mind
is accuftomed to unite both images into one. In ftra-
bifmus or fquinting, the two eyes not being fimilarly di-
redted, do not concur in producing a fingie objedt.
6. Though the images of many objedts are impreffed
on the retina at the fame time, the mind can attend di-
ftindtly to only one of them.
7. In perfedt vifion, the pupil contradts or dilates ac¬
cording to the greater or lefs quantity of light that is
prefent. ' •
8. When the eye has looked fteadily for fome time
on a circumfcribed fpace, of a particular colour, as a
piece of red paper placed on a white ground, it perceives
a border of a different colour furrounding the original
fpot. This furrounding colour is called the accidental
colour of the former, and differs according to the colour
of the original fpot. In the prefent inftance it is green,
or bluilh-green. The other natural colours are attend¬
ed by the following accidental colours, viz. orange, by
blue, with nearly an equal proportion of indigo; YEL¬
LOW by indigo, with a mixture of violet; GREEN by
violet, with a mixture of red; blue by red, with a
mixture of orange; INDIGO by yellow, with a confider-
able mixture of orange; and violet by ^mv?, with a
confiderable mixture ef blue (b).
The
Tb) Dr Darwin, in his Zoonomia, vol. i. fedt. 2. employs the phenomena of accidental colours to prove that the
fibres
IT. F H Y S I
The exercife of dlftlnct vifion depends chiefly on the
following circumftances : I. The perfect tranfparency of
the cornea, and the feveral humours of the eye ; 2. on
the juft proportional diflance between the cornea and
iiftiud the cryftalline lens, and on their degree of convexity 5
1 an. 3. on the fenfibility of the retina 5 4. on the degree of
illumination of the vifible objedt ; 5. on the colour of
the pigmentum between the choroid and the retina 5
i and, 6. on the contraction and dilatation of the pupil..
Sion of aCtion of light on living beings is not confined
it on the to its eflfeCts in producing vifion. It feems to a£t on the
fyftem in general as a moderate but conftant ftimulus.
When the light of day is vivid, as in bright funlhine,
the body is more aCtive, and the mind more vigorous,
than under a cloudy Iky. Thofe climates which are
frequently obfcured by clouds and vapours, are notori-
oufly the birthplaces of ferioufnefs and gloom ; and
Boeotian dulnefs and Englilh melancholy have long be¬
come proverbial ; while on the contrary, the ferene
brightnefs of an eaftern Iky has been confidered as ne-
euliarly favourable to the exertions of imagination, and
the flights of fancy. Mr Stuart, a famous pedeftrian
traveller, told Dr Rulh, that during a fummer which
he pafled in a high northern latitude, where the fun is
vifible for feveral months together, he enjoyed an un¬
common (hare of health and fpirits, which he attributed
to the long continuance of the light of the fun. In a
ftate of nature moft animals retire to reft when the light
fails, and few people xian fleep foundly, unlefs light be
excluded.
The ftimulating effects of light are peculiarly evident
on perions whofe nervous fyftem is unufually fenfible ;
they cannot bear ftrong light, which not only hurts
their eyes, but produces confiderable agitation on their
whole frame. The fame effeCIs are produced on thofe
who have been confined in a dark prifon. The counte¬
nance of thefe unfortunates is pale and fallow. This
latter effe£t of the abfence of light is fimilar to what
takes place in vegetables, as we know that the colour,
tafte, and fmell of plants depend on their being expofed
i0, to a due degree of light.
(fence of It has been remarked, that thofe animals which have
k0611 k)n& coniineci in a dark fituation, are univerfally
irobe a"difpofed to grow fat j and this has been found to take
place even in condemned criminals, in whom we would
lead expecft it. This obefity has been attributed chiefly
to the abfence of light. We are difpofed to think that
the abfence of this ftimulus can have no immediate ef-
fe6f, but that the difpofition to obefity depends rather
on the indolence of the confined animals, which is fa¬
voured by the abfence of light.
For an account of the principal morbid afte&ions of
vifion, fee MEDICINE, N° 81.
6. Is there in fame animals a Jixth fenfe ?
tsfup- From the experiments of Jurin and Spallanzani on
the flight of bats that have been deprived of fight, (fee
^a lxt Mammalia, N° 38.) it has been fuppofed by fome
that the accuracy with which thefe animals in their
flight avoided the obftacles that wrere placed in their
Vol. XVI. Part II.
ia$
O L O G Y.
way, is owing to fome additional fenfe which they poflefs.
Others have conceived that the fenfe of hearing, which
appears to be very acute in the Ipecies on which thefe
experiments were made, is fufficient to fupply their want
of fight. It is fearcely poflible to afcertain which of
thefe two opinions is the more probable 5 but the writer
of this article is rather inclined to adopt the latter, from
having obferved that when he was walking in an unfre¬
quented ftreet, when it was very dark, he was enabled
to avoid running againft the common flairs that pro-
je&ed into the ftreet, from a certain fenfation that he
perceived, when he approached the wall of the flair,
which he cannot better defcribe than by faying that the
air at thefe points appeared to be unufually ftill.
With refpeft to fenfation in general, we may lay
down the following laws, which are confidered by Du¬
mas as fundamental principles of this function.
1. As activity is an eflential charadter of fenfation, Laws pi
this cannot exift without a certain adtion of the organs,
and muft be proportioned to the degree of attention be¬
llowed on the external objedls, or ideas by which it is
produced.
2. A repetition of the fame fenfations tends to render
the fenfibility lefs acute, and lefs capable of receiving
new impreflions. By repofe its energy is reftored.
3. As fenfibility cannot be employed on two impref-
fions at the fame time, it muft hold a certain balance
throughout all the organs, and it cannot be acutely ex¬
cited in one part, without being proportionably dimi-
nilhed in another.
4. Senfibility is a relative faculty, which is not equal¬
ly obedient to all kinds of excitations, but only to thofe
which have fome relation to it in the different parts of
the living body.
5. It is increafed and accumulated in the direct pro¬
portion to the deleft or weaknefs of ftimulus.
6. It is not proportioned to the number,, arrangement,
or diftribution of the nerves, and its changes of increafe
or diminution are not fufceptible of calculation.
7. It is inconftant, variable in its progrefs, and un-
eonfinable *. * Tiuma r.
To thefe we may add the following fafts refpefting
this funftion and its organs. /t"
1. The nerves which are principally diftributed toii. j,. '
the organs of the external fenfes, arife from that part of
the fenforium that is within the head.
2. The fenfations produced in any part by the con-
taft of external bodies, are more perfeft, according as
the nerves which terminate in that part arife more im¬
mediately from the common fenforium.
3. When a ligature is faftened on a nerve, the parts
on which the nerve is diftributed are deprived of fenfa¬
tion as far as depends on that nerve.
4. Compreflion of the brain diminifties general fenfa¬
tion in proportion to its intenfity. Slight compreflion
produces numbnefs.
5. Though fenfation probably takes place only in the
central parts of the fenforium, it is commonly referred
to the extremities of the nerves. Thus, a gouty perfon
who has loft his leg,, will fuppofe that he fometimes
3 O feels
fibres of the retina are thrown into contraftion, like thofe of mufcles, and that fome of them aft as antagonifts t«
others j as he confiders the accidental as the reverfe of the natural colours.
474
Of
Senfation.
106
Internal
fenfes be¬
long to me
taphyfics.
107
Compara¬
tive phyfio.
logy of fen.
fation.
P H Y S I
feels the pain of the gout in the toe of the amputated
limb.
6. A fympathy takes place between thofe parts which
are fupplied by branches of the fame nerve. Thus, a
violent fcratching of the head often produces fneezing ;
powerful odours in tiffed at the nofe produce a flow of
tears j the bead fympathifes with the ftomach j the
mammae with the uterus, &c.
Thefe are all the phenomena refpedting fenfation
which we can at prefent notice j we (hall mention others
when we come to confider the relation between this
function and thofe of motion, digeflion, circulation, &c.
What have been called the internal fenfes, as memo¬
ry, imagination, and judgment, are rather qualities of
the mind, than operations of the brain •, and the confi-
deration of them belongs rather to metaphyfics than
phyfiology. To that article, therefore, we refer the
reader j and we fliall conclude this account of the phe¬
nomena of fenfation with the following comparative view
of that function in the inferior animals.
In all animals that have nerves, voluntary motions
-and direft fenfations take place by the lame means as
"in man. The differences in their motions depend partly
on the intrinfic mobility of their fibres, and partly on
the difpofition of their mufcles, and the parts to which
they are attached.
The differences in their fenfations depend on the num¬
ber of their fenfes, and the perfection of the organs be¬
longing to each fenfe. The animals that approach near-
eft to man have their fenfes equal in number to his. In
certain fpecies, fome of thefe fenfes are even more per-
fe£t in the ftrmfture of their organs, and fufceptible of
more lively and delicate impreftions than ours •, on the
contrary, in proportion as animals are removed from us,
the number of their fenfes and the perfection ol certain
organs are diminifhed ; but perhaps fome animals, at
the fame time, poffefs fenfes of which we can form no
idea.
We know not whether there are differences in the in¬
trinfic fenfibility of the nervous fyftem of different ani¬
mals, i. e. whether an equal impreflion made on an or¬
gan equally perfect, would affetff every animal with the
fame force.
The animals next in order to man have, like him,
fpontaneous, or what we call internal, fenfations. Images
are excited in them at times, when they receive no im¬
mediate impreflion from external objects. Thus, dogs
and parrots dream. We are not certain, indeed, that
the more inferior animals experience fimilar fenfations.
The paflions produce effects in animals fimilar to thofe
which they excite in man. Love is manifefted in the
fame manner in all claffes ; fear occafions a difeharge
of excrements in quadrupeds and birds •, it makes them
tremble, and even'renders infects immoveable ; but the
other animals afford fewer examples of thefe kind of
phenomena than man, becaufe they are not matters of
their imagination, cannot direft it towards certain ob¬
jects, and create for themfelves factitious paflions. We
are even ignorant whether their imaginations can, like
ours, be wrought up to fuch a pitch as to make them
experience emotions of anger, defire, or fear, from Am¬
ple ideas or fimple recollections ; and whether the real
prefence of the objeCts which caufe thefe paflions, is not
always neceffarv to excite them in Hie inferior animals;
Vie know, however, that thofe which approach neareit
O L O G Y. Chap. II
to us, the mammalia and the birds, have their forrows. Of
The affliction they feel on the abfence or lofs of a com- ^^btion
panion, friend, or benefaCtor, is manifefted by evident '
figns, in the fame manner as they teftify their attach¬
ment without any temporary inducement.
The fame animals exhibit frequent proofs of a very
perfeCt memory j fome even appear to poffefs a certain
degree of judgment. But does any thing fimilar exift
in the inferior claffes, and particularly in the loweft ?
Of this we fhall probably remain always ignorant.
With fo much refemblance in the ftruCture of the
nervous fyftem, in its mode of aCtion, and in the num¬
ber and ftruCture of the principal external organs, why
is there fo vaft a difference, as to the total refult, be¬
tween man and the moft perfeCt animal ?
Is this owing to a more accurate proportion in the re¬
lative perfection of the external organs, fo that one does
not fo much furpafs another ? Or has the internal organ,
in which are performed all the intermediate operations
between the fenfation received and the movement exe¬
cuted, that is to fay, the organ of perception, memory
and judgment, greater differences than we have yet
obferved ? Or, finally, is the fubftance by which thefe
procefles are effefted of a different nature ? T. hefe, how¬
ever, are not anatomical queftions.
The fympathies or effeCls reiulting from the eonnee-^
tions of nerves with each other, and the influence of the j^e^ures
nerves on vegetative funClions, are lubjeCt to the famevol. ii.
laws in man and the other animals*. 16S
The theory of fenfation is perhaps more' imperfeCl
than that of any other funClion. On this fubjeCt we can
derive little light from the ftruCture of the brain and
nerves, accurately as this has been examined. Anatomy
has taught us, that the principal part of thefe organs
confifts of very delicate fibres, intermixed with a medul-
larv pulp, and ineafed in membranes; and that they are
furniihed with a great proportion of blood-veflels •, but
whether the feat of {dilation refides in the fibrous or me¬
dullary part, we cannot afcerlain. 109
It rvas formerly the opinion, that the nervous powerVibratic
was propagated between the brain and the external or¬
gans, by vibrations of the nerves 5 but as the ftruCture
of thefe chords, and their connection with furrounding
parts, muft wholly difqualify them for fuch vibrations,
this theory has long been abandoned. uoj
Another hypothefis that has been very generally re-Nervou;
eeived is,, that the nervous fibres are the conductors o{ imid.
a very fubtile fluid, called the nervous fluid, the motions
of which are the caufe of fenfation. This Avas the opi¬
nion of Dr Haller, (Fhjf Lines, chap, x.) and AAras ftre-
nuoufly maintained by Dr Cullen. We fliall prefent our
readers with the following modification of it, as given
by an able difciple of Cullen.
“ It is probable, (fays this writer), that in each ner¬
vous fibril, an elaltic fluid is inherent, forming, from the
moment of animation, a part of it •, differing, lioAvever,
according to the flate of the conflitution, in poAver, mo¬
bility, and, perhaps, in other qualities. Of this fluid
the uerves are conductors, and are furrounded in their
courfe by non-condufting membranes, Avliile the fame
membrane lines every part of the brain, and is carried
into the deeped cavities, guarding Avith particular atten¬
tion the flighteft aperture. In this-view fanguiferous
veffels are chiefly ufeful in nouriftiing this medullary fub¬
ftance, and they appear to be neceffary alfo in adapting
the.
If New
London
Medical
;hap. IT- . P H Y S I
of the nerves to their office $ for, when the circulation is
ienfation. grcatly increafed, the fenfibility is more acute $ and
"■'■V—'' when it latiguiffies, or is deftroyed, the nervous energy
foon (hates the fame fate.
“ This duid muft neceffarily be an elaftic one 5 and
impreffions are apparently conveyed through it by vi¬
brations. It does not follow from hence, that the nerves
vibrate like mufcular cords •, or that, in every the flight-
eft motion, a portion is conveyed from the brain. The
elafticity of the fluid is proved from the momentary con¬
tinuance of the impreffion after the caufe is removed ;
and vibration is a term employed in many branches of
philofophy as a means of communicating motion, with¬
out any diftin£t application. If we touch an object with
a (tick, or with a metallic rod, we perceive through it
the impreffion, and, in a general way, the nature of the
fubftance. The impreffion muft be conveyed by fome-
thing *, and whatever that fomething is, it may as well
convey impreffions through the nerves as through the
rod. But through the nerves only can it affedt the
brain, and produce an idea, or fome change in the
brain, or its fluid connedted with the nature of the ob-
jedt, and which conveys to the mind fome peculiar and
difcriminated impreffion which it afterwards retains*.’*
A third hypothefis, which is at prefent very faftiion-
able, is, that fenfation is produced by a change in the
Diftionary, fobftance of the brain and nerves. M. Cuvier is an ad-
MS8* vocate for this dodtrine, which he illuftrates in the fol¬
lowing manner.
The nervous fyftem is fufceptible of two kinds of ac¬
tion ; one which is confined to our fenfitive faculty, and
another which affedls our vital and vegetative fundtions
only. External fenfations are produced by the impref¬
fions of external bodies, on our fenfes ; internal fenfa¬
tions, by changes which take place, in the ftate of the
internal parts of the body, to which the nerves are di-
ftributed 5 and fpontaneous fenfations are caufed by a
change in the nerves, or in the brain itfelf* without any
external excitement.
Thefe circumftances, added to the phenomena arifing
from the cutting or tying of nerves, fliow, that fenfation
does not refide in the external organs, but nearly in the
centre of the nervous fyftem, and that the external or¬
gans ferve only to receive the adlion of the external bo¬
dies, and to convey it to the nerves, by which it is pro¬
pagated to a greater diftance. they alfo demonftrate,
that this propagation is not produced by any matter or
concuffion, but by a change in the ftate of the nervous
fubftance. This change may arife from internal caufes,
or it may be produced by external caufes, different from
thofe which ufually oceafion it. The nerves are not
merely paffive agents, nor the conductors or refervoirs of
any particular matter ", but it appears, that the fubftance
which produces fenfation, is liable to be confumed, or
to lofe its adfivity by exertion.
There are phenomena which fhew that the general
fufeeptibility of the nerves, for receiving fenfations, may
vary in confequence of caufes external to the nerves
themfelves, and which can operate only by altering
their fubftance. Certain medicines weaken or revive
that fufeeptibility,—inflammation frequently increafes
it to an exceffive degree. Does this take place in confe-
quence of an increafed fecretion of the nervous matter ?
The moft remarkable change that occurs in the fufeep-
trbility of nerves, is fleep. It is not unnatural to fuppofe
O L O G Y.
that this change may be occafioned by the temporary
lofs of the fubftance which is efientially fenfitive. But
how does it happen that fleep depends, in a certain de¬
gree, on the will ? Why do we awake fuddenly, or
from caufes which do not appear calculated to reftore
that fubftance ? Why does cold produce fleep ? From
thefe obfervations, may it not rather be fuppofed that
this ftate is the effeCt of a change in the chemical na¬
ture of the nervous fubftance ?
But whether the fubftance contained in the nerves is
exhaufted by fenfations, or whether it merely undergoes
an alteration in its chemical compofition, and becomes,
as it were, neutralized, it muft remain in the nerve,
throughout the whole of its courfe, and leave it only at
one of its extremities. It does not, however, referable
the blood in the veffels, either as to the manner in which
it is retained, or in which it moves in the nerve. There
is no evidence of the nerves being tubular. No pheno¬
mena indicate that any matter efcapes from them when
they are divided. Befides, what veffels could have pa-
rietes fufficiently Compa6f to retain fo fubtile a fluid as
that of the nerves muft be. It is far more probable that
it is retained in the nerves, in the fame manner as the
eleftric matter is in ele&ric bodies, by communication
and inhalation j and that the nervous fyftem is its only
condu£tor, while all the other parts of the animal body _ t
are, w'ith refpedft to it, cohibent fubiiances *. \ellures ?
The theory of fenforial power, brought forward by vq1 ” *
Dr Darwin, has already been noticed.
Chap. III. Of Irritability.
nr
1. When any part of a living animal body that con-Generai
tains mufcular fibres, as a part of its compofition, is phenomena
touched with a (harp inftrument, with a hot iron, or 0/irritabl''
with a corrofive liquor, or when a ftiock of ele&ricity lty‘
or galvanifm is made to pafs through it, a contraction
takes place in the part; and this contraction is difeonti-
nued when the ftimulus is removed, but is renewed on
repeating the application.
2. The fame contractions take place in certain parts
of a living animal body, from an exertion of the will.
3. Many parts in which the prefence of mufcular
fibres has not been afeertained, poffefs the fame capacity
of being excited to motion by ftimuli. Such are the
ureters, the biliary duCts, the fmall blood-veffels, and
probably the lymphatics', all of which, though not evi-
den'ly mufcular, have, a fibrous ftiuCture.
4. Some parts of the living animal body Which ap¬
pear rather nervous than mufcular, poffefs a contractile
power, as the retina.
5. When the nerves which form a communication be-
twecH a contractile part and the brain, in the higher or¬
ders of animals, are divided or compreffed, thofe parts
which before contracted in obedience to the will, lofe
this power ; but,
6. Thefe parts, as well as every mufcular part, ftill
eontradft on the application of ftimuli, particularly elec¬
tricity and galvanifm.
7i Such parts of an animal body as have mufcular
fibres, are thrown into contraftion on the application of
ftitnuli, for fome time after having been feparated front
the living body, provided that nervous filaments remain
connected with tlae mufcular fibres.
8. It has been found, that the fibrine of the blood is
a O 2 fufceptible
IT2
Definition
of irritabili¬
ty-
. ”3
DifFerent
applications
of this
term.
fufceptible of coniraftion on the application of the gal¬
vanic ftimulus, after having been feparated from the liv¬
ing body.
9. In fome animals in which a nervous fyftem has
not been detected, as polypes, this contractile power
feems to pervade every part of the animal.
10. Plants, in a greater or lefs degree, poiTefs the
power of moving on the application of itimuli $ and
in fome fpecies this motion is very remarkable. See
NOri7.
I he above are fome of the principal phenomena
wnich take place in organized beings with refpeCt to
irritability. I hey are fo analogous, that we may attri¬
bute them to the fame caufe or the fame vital power.
I his fufceptibility of being thrown into contraction on
the application of Itimuli is called irritability ; and it is
poffelfed in a greater or lefs degree by every organized
being with which we are acquainted.
We have reltriCted the term irritability to denote the
fufceptibility of the fibrous ItruCture to contraction on
the application of ftimuli but it is proper to remark
that this term has not always been ufed in the fame
fenfe.
Irritability has long been employed in medicine, as
in common language, in reference to the paffions, efpe-
cially that of anger ; and this appears to have been the
original meaning of the term.
Malta fera ut placcm genus vritabile vatum. Hor.
_ ft is perhaps Hill more common to apply it to a mor¬
bid feniibility of the fyftem ; and we fpeak of a perfon
being of a very irritable habit, or poffefting a great de¬
gree of irritability, when we mean to fay that he pof-
lefles a more than ordinary fhare of fenfibility, liable to
a more Keen fenfation of the fame impreflions.
“ Or are your nerves too irritably ftrung.”
Armstrong.
Even the accurate Dr Whytt, to whom the proper
diftinCtion between irritability and fenfibility muft have
been familiar, and by whom it is in general ftridly re¬
garded, fometimes falls into this inaccuracy. He fpeaks,
in his work on nervous difeafes, of “ a delicate or eafily
irritable nervous fyftem.” In faCt, this confufion of irri¬
tability with fenfibility, appears to be a ftumbling block
to moft phyfiological writers. We (hall prefently in¬
quire how fin- they are independent of each other.
_ The term irritability, in its moft received accepta¬
tion, as a property of the mufcular fibre, feems to have
been firft employed by Gliffon, about the middle of the
r,r 17th century. He diftinguilbes two kinds of irritabi-
dev'entri- PriraaiT or direCt, and fecondary or fympathetic *.
ruio rtl'n- wasi however, the firft, who treated of irritabi-
tc/linis. Hty with any degree of accuracy. He confines it to the
mufcular fibre 5 though at the fame time he will not al¬
low it to many parts, the mufcularity of which has ne¬
ver been queftioned, and which, fince his time, have,
by decifive experiments, been proved to poflefs a confi-
derable degree of contraClile power. He completely di-
PHYSIOLOGY. Chap. II
ftinguifties irritability from fenfibility, with which he Of
will have it to be totally unconneded 5 and he attempts Irrhabii|
to make a diftindion between the irritability of the liv-  v~~
ing, and that of the dead fibre f. f HtdkA
Dr Wbytt, whofe controverfy with Haller refpeding Aj
e nature of irritability and fenfibility is famous in the, ^¥‘1
the nature of irritability iaillwu5 m me;
annals of medical warfare, admits three kinds of irrita- x°ff’Cha
bility : 1. That power of alternate eontradion and dila¬
tation which is peculiar to thofe organs we call mufcles;
2. That uniform contradion which takes place in the
dartos (one of the coats of the fcrotum) and the pores
of the Ikin ; and, 3. 'I hat rednefs and inflammation,
which is excited in every fenfible part of the body, as
often as acrid things are applied to it ^ although thislaft
is allowed by him to be only an effed of the firfl: kind
of irritability taking place in the fmall veflels of the
part J. Thus, he reduces the three kinds to two, and*
we may perhaps confider his fecond kind only as a mo-
dification of the firft.
Among thofe who feem to have a fufficiently juft part 2.
idea of the nature of irritability, the word itfelf is not
unfrequently mifapplied. Thus, Vicq d’Azyr ||, and ^
Dumas §, in enumerating the fundions of the animal
body, called thofe of motion and fenfation, irritability Comparei
and fenfibility. Thefe latter are powers or capacities of ^ pr—
living beings, and as fuch fhould be diftinguiftied from de Pbyfu
the fundions that depend on them. logit,toi
In confidering the phenomena of irritability, it is ne-1-
cefifary to take notice of the feveral kinds of ftimuli 114
which excite it. J hefe have been reduced by Cuvier to e
five orders, viz. volition ; external aEiions operating on"”"^
nerves; external atlions operating on Xhrjibre itfelf j
mixed actions operating on both the nerves and fibres,
and certain difeafes or violent emotions. jr
When the animal body is in a itate of health, and Volition,
awake, the will exercifes a prompt and conftant influ¬
ence over the greater part of the mufcles, which, on
that account, are denominated voluntary mufcles. A
fmall number of mufcles, viz. thofe which produce the
internal movements neceffary to life, and which cannot
be interrupted, fuch as the heart and the alimentary ca¬
nal, are not fubjed to the will. It muft be obferved,
however, that fome of the mufcles, that in man and
moft other animals ate involuntary, are fubjed to the
will in others. This is the cafe with the ftomach in ru¬
minating animals, the movements of which may be ex¬
erted at pleafure in two different diredions. In fome
mufcles, as in thofe of refpiration, there feems to be a
mixed adion with refped to the will, as this faculty can
interrupt their motion for a time, though, in general,
this is continued from habit, without the will, or even
confcioufnefs of the animal. Thofe mufcles that are
abfolutely involuntary, are continually excited by an
extraneous irritating caufe for the blood which is
brought to the heart on every dilatation, determines that
organ to contradion, and the alimentary canal is affed-
ed in the fame manner by its contents. It feems, there¬
fore, that the will is not effential to the adion of thefe
mufcles, and that it cannot interrupt their motion (c).
A
- .!-C 1 ^r.e are which ffew that the will has often confiderable influence even on mufcles that are univer-
-al y j Viet involuntary. The abbe Fontana, when making experiments with wheel polypes, was led to believe
Gu, t ie ht-urt, m thefe animalcules, is a voluntary mufcle, and from this belief he learned, in fome degree, to ac¬
celerate
n6
] vous
t gy-
117
] crnal
{ uli.
11S
{ vanifm.
n9
enfion.
uo
lent
ions.
1ST
•IV of ir.
bility.
nr. P H Y S I
A mufcle laid bare, and expofed to an irritating caufe,
will contrafl itielf, even in the living fubjefl, without
being influenced by the will. It fljould feem, therefore,
that though the mufcles which we call voluntary, are
ufually put in motion by the will, they may yet be ex¬
cited to aiftion in oppolition to that faculty.
The will itfelf feems l^o act only through the medium
of the nerves; and it is found that thofe nerves which
fupply the voluntary mufcles, are generally the largeft.
The external itimuli that adt on the mufcular fibre
through the medium of the nerves, and on the fibre it¬
felf, are chiefly of a mechanical and chemical nature, as
concuffions, punctures, lacerations, all of which are ca¬
pable of producing convulfive motions in all the mufcu¬
lar parts to which the nerves extend.
One of the moft remarkable of thefe ftimuli is the
galvanic influence. It is well known that the experi¬
ments by which this influence is made to aft on the
mufcular fibre, confift in eitablifhing between a mufcle
and the trunk of the nerves which extend to it, an ex¬
ternal communication with one, or a feries of fubitances
placed clofe to each other. Metals are not the only
means that may be employed in this operation ; and in
general, the conduftors are not the fame as thofe of elec¬
tricity. Experiments have fometimes been fuccefsfully
performed, when an interval was left in the feries of ex-
citators : this circumftance, in the opinion of Cuvier,
proves the existence of an atmofpherc.
The moment the contaft takes place, the mufcle fuf-
fers violent convulnons. Thefe experiments fucceed on
the living body, or animals recently dead, and even
on parts leparated from the body, precifely in the man¬
ner of thofe which Haller accounts for on the principle
of irritability. Neither pointed inftruments nor acrid
liquors are neceflary ; and the galvanic experiments
even fucceed when thefe means have failed.
Diftenfion has been obferved to have a powerful ef-
feft in exciting irritability.
Violent paflions may, to a certain degree, be confi-
dered as the afts of the will ftrongly excited. Thefe,
in fome cafes, have an influence even on the involuntary
mufcles ; for it is no unufual thing for palpitation of
the heart, and fometimes even a fufpenfion of its mo¬
tion, to be the confequence of ftrong paflions. Thefe
aftions, however, are to be prevented by moderating the
excefs of fenfibility by which they are occafioned. Even
in nervous difeafes, which appear to be the leaf!; con-
nefted with thofe paflions whole influence is more im¬
mediately felt, the will is often capable of preventing
or retarding the approach of nervous fymptoms, when
the patient is determined to refill the paroxyfm.
From what has been faid, it appears that, in the fu-
perior clafles of animals, all the orders of llimuli, either
aft through the medium of the nerves, or that they are
capable of being modified or controuled by the will, the
exertion of which depends on nervous influence.
With refpeft to the immediate caufe of irritability,
O L O G Y. 477
there have been feveral opinions. One of thofe which .
has been moll generally received is, that irritabilitylrrit;lblllty-
is intimately connefted with fenfibility ; or, that it is
an immediate effeft of the nervous power. This was
the opinion of Whytt and Cullen, the former of
whom endeavours to prove it by the following argu¬
ments.
J. We almoft always obferve the irritability of the whytt’s ar-
mufcuiar organs of the human body to bear a proper-guments
tion to their fenfibility. Thus, children, and people oHn fuPPort
delicate nerves and very quick feelings, are moft fub-^fluence5
jecl to convulfive and fpafmodie difeai’es, while on the
other hand old people, and thofe of lefs delicate fenli-
bility, have a mufcular fyftem that is not fo irri¬
table.
2. Whatever increafes the fenfibility of the mufcles,
alfo increafes their irritability.
3. Whatever leflens or deftroys the fenfibility of the
mulcles, alfo leflens or deftroys their irritability or
power of motion.
4. That the motions of irritated mufcles are owing to
the lenfation excited by the ftimulus applied to them.
Dr Whytt thinks highly probable, if it be confidered
that we are in faft confcious of many involuntary mo¬
tions in our own bodies, proceeding from a particular
fenfation, either in the organs moved, or in the neigh¬
bouring parts *. * Phyjiolo-
Dr Cullen was fo fully convinced of the neceftity of^'^ ^7"
nervous influence to produce mufcular contraftion, that^’
he confidered the mufcular fibre to be only a continua¬
tion of the nervous fibre. See Medicine, N° 73. 123
Haller, as we have faid, ftrenuoufly maintained, that'Haller’s
irritability was quite independent of the nerves, and was0P‘n’°p °f
an inherent power or vis wjita of the mufcular fibre.^ Vl~
Indeed there are feveral circumftances which would in¬
duce us to believe that irritability is at leaft, in fome
cafes, independent of nervous influence. We have feCn
(N° ill.) that it takes place in thofe animals in which
there is no appearance of nerves ; and that it is very re¬
markable in fome fpecies of vegetables, in which none
but the moft fanciful phyfiologifts have dreamed of
finding a nervous fyftem. Nay, it appears that the
fibrine of the blood, which we can fcarcely fuppofe to
be aftefted by the nervous power, when taken out of the
body, is ftiil fufceptible of irritation. 12^
Prom a comparifon of all thefe circumftances, we General
mult either conclude, that the irritability of living rnuf-to',clllfion
cles, and of the fuperior animals, is difterent from that of^Yhls fub*
the fibrine, of polypes and plants ; or, if we admit thatJe
nervous influence is effdntial to irritability, we muft al¬
fo allow that this influence defeends to the latter clafs
of organized bodies. ^
Before we quit the fubjeft of irritability, we muft no-Chemical
tice the chemical hypothefes that have been lately pro-doft™16*
pofed, to explain the immediate caufe of this faculty. of imtabili-
The firft of thefe is that of Girtanner, who con-tJ* 12(S
fidered oxygen as the principle of irritability. The Girtanner’s
arguments opinions.
celerate and retard the motion of his own heart. We have even heard of a perfon who had fuch a command over
both heart and lungs, that he could, at pleafure, arreft the motion of both, and aflume all the appearance of a
utelefs corpfe. Many of thofe mufcles, which, in ordinary fubjefts, are not obedient to the will, as thofe of
the no/e and external ear, may, however, become fo by habit or patient afliduity in cultivating their aftion.
478 ' P H Y S I
Of arguments on which he founded this opinion are the fol-
Irritability.
1 v ^'jie irritability of organized bodies is always in a
dire£t ratio to the quantity of oxygen they contain.
2. Every thing that augments the quantity of oxygen
in organized bodies augments at the fame time their ir¬
ritability.
3. Every thing that diminilhes the quantity of oxy¬
gen diminilhes likewife their irritability.
He diftinguilhes the organized fibre by three differ¬
ent dates :
1. A date of health, or the tone of the fibre, in which
the oxygen exids in its proper quantity.
2. A date of accumulation, in which the fibre is over¬
charged with the oxygen or irritable principle.
3. A date of exhaujhon, in which the fibre is more or
lefs deprived of it.
He likewife arranges the fubdances, that are capable
of coming into contaft with the irritable fibre, into
three claffes.
The fird comprehends thofe fubdances that have the
fame degree of affinity for the irritable principle or oxy¬
gen, as the organized fibre itfelf; hence the fubdances
produce no effeft upon it.
The fecond comprehends thofe fubdances that have
a lefs degree of affinity for oxygen than the organized fi¬
bre has: hence thefe, when they come into contad with
it, furcharge it with oxygen, and produce a date of ac¬
cumulation. They are called negative dimuli.
The third comprehends fubdances for which oxygen
has a greater affinity than it has for the organized fi¬
bre. Thefe, therefore, deprive the fibre of its oxygen,
and produce a date of exhaudion. They are called po-
fitive dimuli.
By way of anfwer to this fanciful do&rine, we may
obferve, that if oxygen were fo eflential to irritability
as is fuppofed in Girtanner’s pofitions, thofe animals
which refpire mod oxygen diould poflefs mod irritabi¬
lity, and thofe which are capable of living for a long
time in deoxygenated air, drould have their irritability
very low. Now, the reverfe of this is found to take
place. The mufcular fibres of birds which refpire more
^ John/on's oxygen than mod other animals, poffefs but little irri-
Amma/ tability, while reptiles and worms, which can live for a
long time without oxygen, are univerfally and drongly
irritable *.
The other opinion is that of Humboldt, who confi-
ders the galvanic Huid as the fource of nervous power,
and the primary caufe of irritability. He lays down
three principles as neceffary to excite irritability ; viz.
I. Oxygen, which forms combinations with different
acidifiable bafes. 2. The acidifiable bafes (carbone,
hydrogen, azote, and phofphorus), of the fibre, with
which the oxygen may combine. And, 3. The galvanic
fluid.
The galvanic fluid produces, according to Humboldt,
the jame effedt in the animal economy, as the ele&ric
fluid in the mixture of azote and oxygen. It is this gal¬
vanic fluid that, being conveyed by the nerves, brings
about the combinations of the oxygen with the different
acidifiable bafes of the fibres *, but when the nerve of a
part is tied, it prevents the fluid from pafling, which ex¬
plains the reafon of the irritability being deftroyed.
The oxygen neceffary for thefe unions is carried by
the arterial blood in the courfe of circulation ; and the
ChemiHry,
vol. iii.
127
Hypotheiis
of Hum¬
boldt.
O L O G li7. Chap. Hj
acidifiable bafes, which are to unite with it, are found of
to be already prefent in the fibre. Irritabilit
He found that every thing that augments too much T*“'
the quantity of the acidifiable bafes diminifties the irri¬
tability 5 and that every thing that increafes too much
the quantity of oxygen, likewife diminifhes it ; and he
thinks it very probable, that the fame takes place with
refpedt to the proportion of the galvanic fluid.
It is therefore only in a juft equilibrium of thefe prin¬
ciples that the neceffary irritability of the parts cofififts.
Upon thefe principles this philofopher thus explains
the produdlion of mufcular motion. “ In a ftate of re-
pofe, the nerve being inferted in the mufeles, the gal¬
vanic fluid is put into equilibrium in organs that touch
each other. The fpontaneous motion is made by a fur-
charge of galvanic fluid into the nerve. It appears
that the inilant we with to make a motion, the gal¬
vanic fluid produced in the brain, is carried en majfe to¬
wards the part that ought to move, and furcharges the
nervous fibres. A difcharge from the nerve is then
made into the mufcles. 1 he particles of thefe laft, ani¬
mated by increaled affinities, approach each other, and *
it is this that conftitutes the phenomena of mufcular mo- Animal
tion Cbemi/lr)
Dumas lays down the following fundamental laws re-p01^11-
fpedling animal irritability. 1,5
1. The eflential charadferiffic of irritability con fills Law; «fi
in a feries of contradlions and dilatations, determinednta*3lllty
either by the impreffion of an external ftimulus, or by
the fimple exertion of the will.
2. Irritability is independent of the adlion of the
nerves; and though generally diffufed throughout the
animal organization, it belongs rather to the mufcular
fibre than to any other ftrudture. Its aftion is in pro¬
portion to the number of fibres upon which the irritating
caufes can exert their influence.
3. Irritability is a relative faculty which is not indif-
criminately obedient to every fpecies of excitation, but
only to thofe which have fome relation to it in the dif¬
ferent parts of the living body.
4. There belongs to each organ a fpecific irritability
which requires a peculiar ftimulus, accommodated to
its nature, and to the kind of fundlions which it exer-
cifes.
5. Irritability has certain viciflitudes of diminution
andTncreafe, which vary in the different fpecies of ani¬
mals, in the different organs of the fame animals, and
under the different circutnfiances that fucceffively occur
in the life of an individual.
6. Irritability is developed with moft energy at the
moment of death, and immediately after this has taken
place.
7. It is multiplied and revived in proportion as the
organ which has loft it is divided into a greater number
of pieces.
§. It diffufes itfelf in each part with a velocity pro¬
portioned to the adlivity, number, and duration, of the
irritations by which it is excited.
9. There exift mutual relations with refpedl to influ¬
ence between fenfibility and irritability, though each of
them is effentially diftindl from the other.
10. The exercife of this faculty fuppofes in the organs ^ L
a moderate degree of cohefton, above or below which
the adlion of this force is enfeebled, obftrudltd, or op- i0gie, tj’
pofed P’ ‘
1 Chap.
lap
Animal
lotion.
. IV.
P H Y S I
Chap. IV. Of Animal Motion.
I290f The organs of motion vary confiderably in their na-
1 fon, ture and connexion in the ditferent claiies of animals.
In foirife tribes, as in the animalcules and polypes, no
. diftinfi; organs can be oblerved. In all above thefe,
however, there are evident mulcular fibres, and in many
there are hard parts or itrong membranes, which ferve
as points of attachment and fulcra of motion to thefe
fibres. The mufcular fiores are to be eonlidered as the
effential moving organs, while the parts to which they
are attached are merely the paffive functions of this or¬
gan. It would be out of place here to enter on a com¬
parative account of the organs of motion j and there is the
lefs occafion for it, as rhey have been more or lefs fully
defcribed in the former part of the work. The bones, liga¬
ments, mufcles, and tendons, with their appendages, as
they appear in man, have been amply defcribed in the
firit and fecond chapters of the Firft Part of Anatomy ;
and thofe of other animals have been briefly noticed in
the Second Parr of that article. Such of our readers as
wifli for a more particular account, may confult Cuvier’s
Lectures, vol. i. or Blumenbaeh’s Comparative Anato-
I30 my, chap, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 22.
ncipies Many of the phenomena of mufcular motion, as they
nufcular place in man, have alio been related under Anato-
lon' MY, N° 85 and 86. We ihall here therefore only enu¬
merate and briefly illuftrate thel’e phenomena, and (hall
then proceed to confider a moft interefting part of the
phyfiology of motion, the progreflion of different ani¬
mals.
Dr Barclay, in his late excellent work on the muf¬
cular motions of the human body, has confldered the
general fubjeff of mufcular aftion under the following
heads, which may be confiderecl as fundamental prin¬
ciples.
I. Fiefhy fibres that are continued into tendon by a
ftraight line, (horten the mufde which they compofe, in
the fame degree in which they {horten themfelves* thofe
fibres which enter the tendon obliquely, ihorten it more,
and fliil more in proportion to their degree of contrac¬
tion, as they deviate more from the line of the tendon,
and approach nearer to the perpendicular, in which lait
direction they would {horten the mufcle moil with the
lead contraction.
This may be illuftrated in the following manner.
^ate Let AB (fig. 1.) reprefent a tendon, and CD a flefny
fibre j and let us fuppofe that AB is the diameter, and
CD the radius of the fame circle ADB. It is evident
that if the fibre CD {hould contract fo as to bring the
point C of the tendon to the point G in the ftraight
line, the extremities of the tendon A, B, (which are
fuppofed to be moveable) would come refpeCfively to E
and F; and the fituation of the tendon itfelf would be
reprefented by the angle EGF. If the fibre could be
fuppofed to contraCl: fo as to bring the point C to D, the
two parts of the tendon CA and CB, would come in
contaCl. If, on the other hand, the fibre CH, which
enters the tendon obliquely, were to contraCt to H-, fo
O L O G Y. 479
as to bring the point C to H, the point A would be Of Animal
drawn but a little beyond the middle point C, fo that ^oy°n‘ ,
although this latter fibre is contracted to as great an
extent as the former, it has not brought the extremities
of the tendon fo near together.
2. When two fibres enter a tendon on oppofite Tides
and contraCt at the fame time, they will draw the ten¬
don in the diagonal, and the more nearly the angles
which they form with the tendon approach to right
angles, the more will the length of the mulcle be fhort-
ened in proportion to the degree of contraction of the
fibres.
Let the fibres BC, BD, BE, BE, EG, (fig. 2.) be Fig. a.
flelhy fibres, inierted into the tendon AB, at the point
B, and let us fuppofe that all thefe fibres co-operate in
bringing the point B to the point G, in the ftraight
line BG. Now the ftraight fibre BG will be lo much
ftiortened when B comes to G, as to be obliterated,
while the oblique fibres EB and FB will be Ihoriened
only to E a and F£, and the more oblique fibres CB
and DB will remain of the length of C c and D d.
3. All mufcles that are infer ted into bones, are there¬
by furniihed with levers, and as in the aftion of all
levers there are alfo a fulcrum, a power, and a refin¬
ance, thefe in different cafes will be differently fituated
with refpeCl to one another.
a. In the motions of the head backward and forward
on the atlas, the fulcrum is fituated between the power
and the refiftanee; or the lever is of what is called in
mechanics, the firft kind.. See Mechanics, N° 33.
b. When the tibia reftS upon the aftragalus, and the
heel is raifed by the mufcles of the calf of the leg a&ing
on the tendo achillis, the refiitance (which in this cafe,
is the preffure of the tibia) is lituated between the
power and the fulcrum, which are here refpeCtively at
the heel and at the toes j or the lever is of the fecond
kind.
c. In railing a weight at the palm of the hand, and
bending the arm at the joint of the elbow, the pou'er
of aftion in this joint is iituated between the refiftance
and the fulcrum, which are here refpeftively at the
palm of the hand and the dijlul extremity of the hu¬
merus (d), or the lever is of the third kind.
The Ihortnefs of the lever, and the confequemly great
force of the mufcular power required to overcome the
refiftance in this laft cafe, may be thus illuftrated. Let
AB (fig. 3.) reprefent the radius articulated at B with Fig. 3.
the humerus BCy let DEE reprefent the biceps flexor
mufele running along the humerus, and attached to the
radius at E ; and fuppofe a weight W hung to the dif-
tal extremity A of the radius. Now, BH will repre¬
fent the lever of refiftance, and BG perpendicular to it
the lever of the mufcle, which is in this cafe extremely
fhort,
4. As, other things being equal, all mufcles pro¬
duce a greater extent of motion by a lefs proportion¬
al degree ofcontraftion, and confequently a lefs propor¬
tional change in their fibres, than if they were (horter j
thofe mufcles which follow a direft courfe are feldom
attached at the neareft points of the two bones with
which
(d) In Dr Baiclav’s nomenclature, that extremity of a bone which is towards the trunk is called proximal, and
that extremity which looks from the trunk is called diflal.
480
PHYSIO L O G Y.
CitaionUl W''!c*1 l,iey are connefUd. Hence, befide tlie advan-
< tages already mentioned, relations are thus formed be¬
tween parts at a diftance, and the mutual dependence of
the functions and their organs is extended and ftrength-
ened. On the contrary, thofe mufcles that are not ex¬
tended along the furface of the bones to which they are
attached, are obferved to follow an oblique direction, by
which they acquire not only contraflibility and length,
but at the fame time a fhorter lever than if they had
been inferted at the fame place with a lefs obliquity.
5. Of mufcles attached to ribs that are parallel,
equally moveable, and at right angles to the vertebral
column, thofe that follow a direct courfe from one to
the other, will a61 on each by equal levers, and make
them approach with the fame velocity; while thofe that
obferve an oblique courfe will a£l: on each by different
levers, and make them approach with different veloci¬
ties.
Fig. 4. Let AB and CD (fig. 4.) reprefent two parallel
ribs, articulated with the vertebral column at A and C,
where they are equally moveable ; and let DB and DE
be two mufcles, the former obferving a direft, and the
latter an oblique courfe. The levers of DB will be
AB and CD, which, as AC is parallel to BD, are evi¬
dently equal 5 but the levers of DE will be CF and
AG, which being of different lengths, the inufcle muff
aft with different degrees of force on the different ribs,
fo that it will make CD, on which it afts with the
longeft lever, approach AB, fafter than it will make
, this latter approach the former.
Corollary.-r-Vfhcn bones are not parallel, the mufcles
that crofs in the interval between them, mud fall o-
bliquely on both, as it is impoffible for a draight line to
be at the fame time perpendicular to two other lines,
unlefs thefe be parallel.
6. As all bones move on a centre or axis of motion,
while the mufcular attachments move in a circum¬
ference, the mufcles, in changing the relative pofition
of any two bones, mud, at the lame time, be changing
the direftion of their own aftion, and varying their le¬
ver.
fig- 5* Let AB and CD (fig. 5.) reprefent parts of two pa¬
rallel ribs, and let AB be moveable on the centre A,
and let CF and GE be two mufcles inferted obliquely
into AB at F and E. Now fuppofe that by the aftion
of thefe mufcles, AB is brought into the pofition A b.
The points of attachment of the two mufcles to AB,
will now be^/ and e, and the mufcles will be Cy and
G e, having changed their length, fituation, obliquity,
and lever.
7. All mufcles w'here the points of attachment move
in a circle, draw either towards the centre, or towards
the circumference.
8. If any twro bones , could, by the aftion of their
mufcles, be made to approach in a parallel direftion, the
oblique mufcles attached to their parallel and approach¬
ing furfaces, would perform a greater extent of motion
Chap. IV
with a lefs ftiortening of their fibres, than any draight wfAmniii
mufcles attached to the fame parallel furfaces. Motion.
Let AB and CD (fig. 6. and 7.) be parts of two
ribs that are parallel, and that will continue parallel tillJ Ig'6‘81:
they are brought in contaft by the aftion of the draight
mufcles AC, EF, and BD, or by the aftion of the
oblique mufcles CE and DE (fig. 7.) and FA and FB
(fig. 6.). It is evident, that when the point E comes
in contaft with F, the length of the draight mufcles
mud be obliterated, while that of the oblique mufcles
will only be fhortened by c E and d E in fig. 7. and/A
and g B in fig. 6.
9. As, however, no two bones can approach one an¬
other in a parallel direftion, at lead by the aftion of a
fingle mufcle, and as no mufcle can continue to aft in a
direftion perpendicular to their two approximating fur¬
faces ; a mufcle entering them at right angles, when
they are parallel, may be placed fo near to the centre of
motion as to carry the bones through a given fpace,
with a lefs ftiortening of fibres than any oblique mufcle
that has the fame origin, but is inferted at a diftance,
and afts through the medium of a longer lever.
Further, a mufcle with a lefs obliquity may be fo fitu-
ated as to carry the bones through a given fpace, with
a lefs fliortening of fibres than any other mufcle of the
fame origin, but of a much greater obliquity.
Let AB and CD (fig. 8.) be two ribs, of which AB Fig. 8.
is moveable about the centre A 5 and fuppofe that by
the fliortening of the ftraight mufcle EF, and of the two
oblique mufcles, EG and EH, AB is brought into the
pofition Ab. The points of attachment, after moving in
the fegments Ef, Gg, and H/q will now be refpeftively
aty g, and h. Now, on the centre E, with the radii
E/, Eg-, and Eh, defcribe three different circular feg¬
ments. The difference between the prefent and former
lengths of the mod oblique mufcle EH, will be eH,
while the differences between the prefent and former
lengths of the mufcles EG and EF, will be only i G
and 7i F refpeftively.
10. The ftiortenings which any mufcle differs in car¬
rying round the point of its attachment through a given
fpace, will partly depend on the length of its lever,
partly upon its degree of obliquity, partly on its draw¬
ing peripherad or centrad, and partly on its afting with¬
out or with a pulley (e).
11. The lever of a mufcle, which is varied with every
degree of obliquity, is alfo varied by every change in
the centre of motion. Where bones are connefted by
large furfaces, the centre of motion frequently ftiifts
from one part to another j but in general it approaches
towards that afpeft whither the bone is moving at the
time j and as it advances, the mufcles recede, to increafe
their force.
a. The lever of refiftance, as well as of the power, is
varied by the feveral changes of pofition ; is fometimes
fhortened at the time that the lever of the power is
lengthened j and vice verfa.
If
(e) l he terms peripheral and central, are employed by Dr Barclay, to denote the afpefts of any organ, accord¬
ing as they refpeft the circumference or the centre of the organ ; and when the termination of thefe words is chan¬
ged from l into d, they denote, like the other terms of his nomenclature, the direftion in which the aftion of thefe
parts is exerted. See Barclay’s Anatomical Nomenclature.
’hap. IV. - P H Y S I
)f Animal If AB (fig. 9.) reprefent the radius, BC the humerus,
Motion. j)E the biceps flexor mufcle, and R the' retiftance hung
—* to the diltal extremity of the radius, it will be evident
that, when BA is, by the action of the flexor mufcle,
brought into the pofition B 17, the lever of refiftance will
no longer be BA, but RH, equal to a perpendicular
llraight line drawn from B, the centre of motion, to the
plane of refiftance; and, as the lever of refiftance has
been ftiortened, the lever of the mufcle has been pro-
portionably lengthened. Were the radius to refume its
former pofition, the reverfe of thefe circumftances would
take place.
b. Sometimes again, the lever of the power and of the
refiftance are lengthened or ftiortened at the fame time.
Let AB (fig. 10.) reprefent the tibia, BC the femur,
and DEF the crureus mufcle; and that the femur, with
the weight of the body, is to be raifed to the fituation
Be; the centre of motion will, during extenfion, ap¬
proach towards the mufcle at the rotular afpedl, while
the plane of refiftance, as is evident from the figure, will
be approaching to the centre of motion.
c. In the changes of attitude, while a bone is turning
on its centre of motion, the centre itfelf is often at the
fame time deferibing, either the fegment of a circle, or a
line compofed of circular fegments.
Let AB (fig. 11.) reprefentthe foot, BCthe tibia,CD
the thigh bone, and DE the trunk*, and let m fuppofe
that it is required to bring the th 'ee laft, by the a61 ion of
their mufcles, to the perpendicular BF, fo that BC ftiall
occupy the fituation of BG, CD the fituation ofGI, and
I>E the fituation of IF*, the point C on the centre B will
move in the fegment CG, and as C is changing its pofi¬
tion in CG, the point D, which moves round the point
C as its centre, will, if the e.xtenfionsbe regularly per¬
formed in the fame time, deferihe fuch a curve as DIj
for as the point Dmuft neceftarily move atlanlad and fter-
nad, (f) in order to preferve the centre of gravity, the
general dire&ion of its courfe muft be known; and if CG
be divided into equal parts, and at each of the divifions a
cir led. feribed with the radius CD, the points in Dlcor-
refpQndiny in oumbe’* with the points inCG, and at equal
diftanees in the I1 err ! dire6lion, will each be found in
the circumference of one of f he circles deferibed fuccef-
fively round the point C as it paffes along the fegment
CG.
In like manner, if the extenfions of CD and DF be
regutarlv performed in the hnn lime., th«. p . ! F will
deferihe fuch a curve as EF, the points in FF being in
the circumferences of the fgveral circles facet flm lv de-
feribed round the point D as it moves along the cum
DL
12. When we examine the ftruflure of the anlm d
fyftem, we ftiall generally find ’hat the motions of the
bones, as produced by the rmftcles, are the combined
effects of different forces, and hence that a fnmll num¬
ber of mufcles is enabled to produce, with fteadinefs and
* Barclay accuracy, amalmoft infinite variety of changes
on Mujcu- For more on the general fubjefl of mufcular aflion,
Part fur an account of the principal motions of the hu
man body, we muff refer to Dr Barclay’s publication.
One of the moft interefting enquiries refpedfting ani¬
mal motion, is that of the progreffion of different ani^
tnals, or of the powers of loco-motion.
Thofe animals which poffefs the faculty of changing
their place, exercife this faculty by very different or-
• Vol. XVI, Part II.
eh;
ap. 3.
I3I
Progrtffiv
actions.
O L O G Y.
gans. Some can only creep, as worms, and many mol-
lufcaj others can only fwim, as all fifties, many ot the (
mollufca, and fome of the teftacea. Moft birds can
both fly, walk, and run, while a few do not poffefs the
power of exercifiiig the firft of thefe motions. All the
mammalia, and moft reptiles, properly fo called, can
walk, run, climb, leap, and perform a variety of other
motions5 and a few of the former clafs can imitate the
flying of birds. WTe (hall briefly examine the mecha-
nifm of thefe different actions, but by way of introduc¬
tion, we fliall rirft confider how the action of {landing
is performed. X32
Standing, in moft animals, is folely the effect of the standing,
continued action of the extenfor mufcles of all the joints,
as is evident from the circumftance, that it an animal,
while ftanding, fuddenly dies, or in confequence of lome
powerful caufe, as a ftrong electric ftiuck, ceafcs to
make the neceftary efforts for preferving the upright po¬
fition, all the articulations of the legs yield to the weight
of the body, and bend under it. In fonie animals, how¬
ever, the extenfion of the mufcles is fo much a flirted by
powerful ligaments attached to the articulations of the
leg«, that they are enabled to continue ftanding for 3
much longer time, and with muchlefs fatigue than moft
others. This is the cafe with birds that perch, and it
is particularly remarkable in the ftork, which by means
of this peculiar meebanifm is able to ftand on one foot
for fcveral days together.
’['he aftion of .ftanding is fome what different, accord¬
ing as the animal Hands on two feet or on four. T „ ^
That a body may be fupporled in a vertical pofition, ctan(iii,g o»
it is neceffary that it be fo difpofed as to be in a ftate of two feet,
equilibrium, or that it be fu balanced that a perpendi--
cular line from the centre of gravity ftiall fall within its
bafe. See Mechanics, N° 193, et feq. It is evident
that the more extenfive the bafe is on which the body
ftands, the lefs is the danger of its lofing its balance.
Man can very eafily preferve himfelf in the vertical po¬
fition, from the broad bafis formed by his feet, and
from the great power he pofftffesof feparating thefe to a
confiderable diftance. This latter depends chiefly on
the greater weight of his pelvis, and the length and ob- 7
liquity of the neck of the thigh bone, by which this
bone is carried more outward, and removed farther in
its articulation, than in any other animal. In man, too,
the foot is peculiarly adapted to ftand firmly on the
ground, from the flatnefs of its inferior furface, and trom
having the heel bone fo formed as to roine in perfect
contact with the ground. The mufcles that move the
fo t are^alfo very advantageoufly inferted, and t he ex¬
tenfor mufcles of the heel are proport ion ably thicker
than in moft of the mammalia.
The thigh of man, when in the erect pofture, is in a
ftraighf line with the trunk and the leg, whereas in
quadrupeds, it is fituated clofe upon the flank, and forms
an acute angle with the fpine. On this account, the
thigh bone of quadrupeds is flat, and proportionally
weaker than that of man. The extenfor mufcles of the
thigh are proportionally ftronger in man than in the
other animals r'and &s the thigh bone moves upon the
pelvis in every direction, theft* extenfors are in man fo
confidfeeablee that he F the' only animal that pofftffes
what are properly called hips.
In eonfequt nee of this ftru&ure, the human facral
extremities are furmftied with a fuftident bafe, and form
3 P ’ very
482
Of Animal very folid bodies for fupporting (lie trunk. Man alfo
, ^/'ot:ion- poffeffes feveral advantages for maintaining the general
equilibrium of the body, efpecially the facility with
which he holds his head in the ere ft pofture, owing to
the pofition of the occipital bone, and the horizontal di~
reftion of the eyes and mouth. See the article Man,
N° 5. and 6.
The quadrupeds that fometimes try to Hand on their
hind feet only in order that they may either employ
their fore feet in taking hold of fome objeft, or avoid
keeping their head too low, feem rather to fit than to
Hand. Their trunk refts at the fame time on their hind
feet, as far as the heel, and on the buttocks ; it is Hill
neceffary, however, that their head and neck fiiould be
proportionally fmall, as in monkeys, fquirrels, oppojfums,
fcs’e. otherwife the weight of thofe parts would be too
great for the force employed in their elevation ; but
even when feated, the animal is generally obliged to reft
on the fore feet, as may be obferved in (fogs, cats, is’e.
Some quadrupeds ufe their tail as a third foot, to en¬
large the bafe of the body : and when it is ftrong, it is
capable of contributing to their fupport for fome time.
We find examples of this in the kangaroos and jerboas.
We have already noticed the mechanifm in the feet
of birds, which enables thefe animals to fupport them-
felves bn two legs, though they do not ftand in a verti¬
cal pofition, and though the atlantal part of their bodies
is advanced more beyond the centre of gravity than the
facral part. Other advantages poffefied by birds in this
refpeft are, the great tleftion of the thigh bone and tar-
fus; the length of the anterior toes, and the length and
flexibility of the neck.
Standing on An animal which ftands on four feet is fupported on
four feet, a very confiderable bafe.; but from the great weight of
the head and neck in thefe animals, their centre of gra¬
vity is nearer to the atlantal than to the facral extremi¬
ties (f). It is evident from this, that in quadrupeds,
the former muft fulfain almoft the whole weight of the
body 3 and we find, accordingly, that they are furnilh-
ed with very ftrong mufcles. In fhort, all that the fa¬
cral extremities feem to want in mufcular force, appears
to be transferred to the atlantal.
As in moft quadrupeds the head inclines towards the
horizon, and the neck is often very long, very powerful
means are required to fuftain the former. Thefe means
are furnilhed by the great fize, and extenfive attach¬
ments of the mufcles of the neck, and efpecially in ma¬
ny quadrupeds by the cervical ligament. In the mole,
which employs its head to raife confiderable burdens of
earth, the cervical mufcles are peculiarly ftrong, and
the ligament is converted into bone,
y The body of a quadruped hangs between the four legs,
and by its weight tends to draw the fpine downwards.
This is counterafted by the abdominal mufcles, efpe¬
cially by the ftraight mufcles, which produce a curva¬
ture in the oppofite direftion. The abdominal mufcles
aft with peculiar force in arching the fpine upwards in
thofe mammalia that are covered with feales or fpines,
and are accuftomed to roll themfelves upon the ap-
Cliap. IV
proach of danger, as the hedgehog, the armadillos, and Of Anima
the pangolins. Marion.
Oviparous quadrupeds or reptiles, have their thighs
direfted outward, and the infleftions of the limbs take
place in planes that are perpendicular to the fpine. In
thefe, therefore, the weight of the body muft act with
a much longer lever, in oppofing the extenfion of the
knee-joints 3 and accordingly they have (he knees al¬
ways bent, and the belly dragging on the ground be¬
tween their legs, whence the name of reptiles.
In walking on a fixed furface, the centre of gravity Walkm*
is alternately moved by one part of the extremities, and
fuftained by the other, the body never being at any time
completely fufpended over the ground. I36
Animals whic h can ftand ereft on two legs, fueh as Walking0
man and birds, walk alfo on two legs. But feveralUvo teet‘
quadrupeds that cannot ftand on two feet but with great
difficulty, may yet move in that pofture for fome time
with fufficient eafe. This arifes from it.- being in gene¬
ral lefs painful to walk than to ftand, the fame mufcles
not being continued lo long in aftion. And alfu it is
lefs difficult to correft the unfteady motions by con¬
trary and alternate vacillations (a thing eafy in walk¬
ing), than it is to prevent them altogether.
When man intends to walk on even ground, he firft
advances one foot 3 his body then refts equally on both
legs, the advanced leg making an obtufe angle with the
tarfus, and the other an acute one. The ground
not yielding to the point of the foot, the heel and the
reft of the leg muft of neceffity be raifed, otherwife the
heel could not be extended. The pelvis and trunk are
confequently thrown upward, forward, and fomewhat
in a lateral direftion. In this manner tiny move round
the fixed foot as a centre, with a radius confifting of a
leg belonging to that foot, which, during this opera¬
tion, continually diminilhes the angle formed with the
tarfus. The leg which communicated this impulfe is
then thrown forward, and refts its foot upon the ground 3
while the other, which now forms an acute angle with
its foot, has the heel extended in its turn, and in like
manner makes the pefvis and trunk turn round upon the
former leg.
As each leg fupports the body in its turn, as in Hand¬
ing on one foot, the extenfor mufcles of the thigh and
knee are brought into aftion, to prevent thefe articula-
lations from yielding •, and the flexors aft immediately
after, when the leg having thrown the weight of the
body on its fellow muft be raifed before it can again be
carried forward. As the undulatory motion that necef-
farily attends a man’s walking, cannot be perfeftly regu¬
lated on both fides, he cannot walk in a perfeft ftraight
line, nor can he walk in a direft courfe with his eyes
Ihut.
In walking down an inclined plane, or defeending a
ftaircafe, as the advanced leg is placed lower than that
which remains behind, the extenfors of the leg muft aft
more powerfully to prevent the body from falling back¬
wards. Again, on afeending fuch fituations it is requir-
fite at each ftep, not only to tranfport the body hori¬
zontally,
PHYSIOLOGY.
(f) Thefe terms fignify the fame as Juperior and inferior in man, anterior and pojlerior in quadrupeds j but are
more convenient, as applying indiferiminately to both. Atlantal denotes what is next the atlas; facral what is next
the facrujn. See Barclay's Nomenclature*
"hap. IV.
if Animal zontally, as on walking on level ground, but to bear it
Motion. Up againft its own weight, by means of the extenlbrs of
the knee of the advanced leg, and tbofe of the heel of
that which is behind ; this is the reafon of the knee and
calf of the leg being fatigued, in afcending $ and the fa¬
tigue is relieved by inclining the body forward, becaufe
then the lever by which its weight a£!s on the knee is
fliortened.
Running is only a fucceflion of (hort leaps, and it
will be underftood from what we {hall prefently fay of
leaping.
talking on When a quadruped walks, he firfl: {lightly bends the
ur feet, articulations of the hind legs, and then extends them, in
order to carry forward the body, which motion is con-
fiderably aided by the extenfors of the knee and the
heel. The breaft being thus thrown forward, the fore
legs incline backward, and the animal would fall, did
it not inftantly throw them forward in order to fupport
itfelf. It then draws up the trunk upon the fore legs,
and renews its former efforts.
In this walking, each itep is performed by two legs,
one belonging to the fore, and the other to the hind
pair. Sometimes thefe are of the fame fide, and fome-
times thofe of oppofite fides. The motion of a horfe
who Heps forward in the latter way, is termed a pace.
In the animals that have the fore feet longer than the
hind, and have their flrength chiefly in the anterior
part of the body, the principal impulfe is given by ex¬
tending the fore foot. The hind foot then rifes to fol-
low it, and it is not until the moment that the latter
extends itfelf in its turn, that the fore foot is raifed.
This is the manner in which the giraffe is laid to move.
But when the fore legs are confiderably difpropor-
tioned to the others, and particularly when the pofterior
extremities are feebly and badly articulated, as in the
floths, the animal is obliged to drag itfelf forward, by
firft extending the fore legs, and then bending them fo
as to draw the body after them. Hence the progreflion
of the floth is fo laborious.
Thofe animals which have their fore legs very {hort
in proportion to their hind legs, would be incapable of
fufficiently fupporting their bodies, and muft fall for¬
ward on each impulfe of the latter, had they not the
precaution to make a prancing movement *, that is, to
raife the anterior extremities entirely off the ground,
previoufly to their being impelled onward by means of
the hind feet. Accordingly, fuch animals cannot in
propriety of language be faid to walk j they only move
forward by leaps. This is the cafe with hares, rats,
and particularly jerboas. Indeed, thefe animals cannet
be faid to walk at all, except in the a&ion of afcending.
When they attempt to walk flowly on level ground,
they are obliged to move themfelves by the fore feet,
and merely to drag after them the hind pair. This
may be obferved in rabbits, and ftill more diftinftly in
138 frogs.
taping. In leaping, the body rifes completely from the earth,
and remains without any fupport for a fhort period, the
duration of which depends on the force with which the
leap has been made. This aflion is performed by a hid¬
den extenfion of all the mufcles belonging to the faeral
articulations, immediately after they have undergone an
unufual degree of flection. By this general extenfion
thefe articulations receive a violent motion, the impulfe
of which is communicated to the centre of gravity of
483
the body, and it is thus proje&ed with a determined ve- Of Animal
locity, which is more or kfs in oppofition to its weight. , lMu*lon' .
The projectile force and extent of the leap depend on
the proportional length of the bones, and ftrength of
the mulcles. Thofe animals, therefore, leap belt that
have the facral extremities longer and thicker than the
atlantal •, as the kangaroos, jerboas, frogs, alticcc,grylli,
feas, &c.
Small animals leap proportionally much farther than
the larger fpecies; and we know of none whofe mufeu-
lar ftrength, in this way, can be put in competition with
that of a flea, which in a moderate computation is known
to leap to a diftance of at leaft 200 times its own length.
The diredion of a leap depends on the fituation of the
centre of gravity with refpeCt to the member by which
the impulfe is given. Hence, only man and birds can
leap vertically, becaufe they alone have the trunk fitua-
ted above the members by which the leap is effected.
Quadrupeds, and moft infeCts, can only leap forward j
but fpiders, which have feveral long feet on ea.ch fide of
their body, can alfo leap fideways.
Running eonfifts of a feries of low leaps performed al- Running,
ternately by each leg. It differs from walking, in the
body being projected forward at each ftep, and in the
hind foot being raifed before the anterior touches the
ground. It is more rapid than the quickeft walk, be¬
caufe the acquired velocity is prelerved, and increafed
at each bound by a new velocity. Running, therefore,
cannot be inftantaneoufiy fufpended, though a ftop may
be put to walking at each ftep.
In running, the animal inclines its body forward,
that the centre of gravity may be in a proper pofition
for receiving an impulfe in that direClion from the hind
leg 3 and it is obliged to move the fore leg rapidly for¬
ward, to guard againft falling.
Man varies his manner of running, only by taking
longer or ftiorter fteps, or giving to this motion a great¬
er or lets degree of rapidity j but quadrupeds vary this
motion by the different order in which they raife each
foot, or bring it to the ground. T40
Trotting is a mode of running in w hich the feet di-TroWin8*
agonally oppofite rife at once, and fall at once, each
pair alternately, but in fuch a manner, that for a mo¬
ment all the four feet are off the ground. This pro¬
duces a regular motion, and the found of the animal’s
fteps are heard two and two in fucceflion. 14I
Galloping is a running motion in which the animal Galloping,
raifes the anterior feet at each ftep, and throws the body
forward by the extenfion of the pofterior feet. When
the two fore-feet defeend at the fame time, and are fol¬
lowed by the two hind feet alfw defeending together,
the motion is called a full gallop, which is the moft
rapid a horfe can perform, and the only mode of running
in dogs, hares, &c. In this kind of gallop the fteps of
the horfe are likewife heard by two beats at a time.
The common gallop is when the two fore-feet are lifted
unequally, and fall one after another. This may be
divided into gallops in which the horfes footfteps are
heard by a feries if three or four beats, becaufe the po¬
fterior feet may fall to the ground either both together,
or one after the other.
There are leveral kinds of animals which leap by the
means ol organs different from feet, but always by a
liuiden extenfion of feveral articulations.
Serpents leap by folding their bodies into feveral un-
3 P 2 dulations, .
PHYSIOLOGY.
484
PHYSIOLOGY.
142
Climbing.
Of Animal, dulatxors, which they unbend all at once, according as
Motion thty vrilh to give more or lefs velocity to their motion }
”v feme may be adifted by the fcales of their belly, which
they can elevate and deprefs, but only a few genera are
capable of employing this means.
Some tithes alfo leap to the tops of catarafts by bend¬
ing their bodies ftrongly, and afterwards unbending
them with an elaftic fpndg.
' The long-taildd craij-JiJhes, particularly the Jhrimps,
leap by extending the tail after it has been previoufly
bent under the body.
The larva of the fly, vulgarly called the maggot,
forms itfelf into a circle, contrails itfelf as much as pof-
fible, then fuddenly unbending, darts forward to a con-
fiderable ditlance.
The motion of climbing, fo ufeful to many of the in¬
ferior animals, confifts, in hanging from, and ftrongly
grafping any objeft fufceptible of being feized by the
fingers, toes, or tail, and thus rifing, by fucceflive efforts,
in a direction oppofite to the animal’s weight. From
this explanation, it is evident that thofe animals which
have the divifions of their extremities moft diftinft and
flexible, will be the beft climbers ; and accordingly we
find that the animals called quadrumanous, as the apes,
lemurs, and a few others, perform this a£lion in the
moft per fed! manner. Man is but an indifferent climb¬
er, as he can only grafp with his hands. In oppojfums,
ant-eaters, and Jloths, one of the toes is diftindt, like the
thumb in man, apes, and lemurs j or elfe they have a
coniiderable protuberance on the heel, which has the
fame effedl. Many animals, as fume of the monieys,
fome fpeeies of oppojjum and ant-eater, the tnanis, See.
have a very flexible prehenfile tail, which aflifts them
in climbing. The animals of the cat genus have very
fharp talons, by which they are materially aflitled in
this kind of progreffion, as they enable them to adhere
firmly to the bark of trees, &c. Creepers, nut-hatches,
woodpeckers, and other climbing birds, fupport them-
felves in a fimilar manner.
The motion of flying, by which an animal can fup¬
port itfelf for fome confiderable time in the air, can pro¬
perly be faid to be performed only by birds : for though
bats can imitate this motion with tolerable fuccefs, and
the galiopithecus, flying-fquirrels, and flying-oppoffums,
appear to fly from one tree to another, the motion of
the former cannot be fupported for fo long a time as
that of birds \ and the motion of the latter animals can
be confidered only as a leap, aflifted and prolonged by
the oppofition given to the air, by the membranous ex-
panfion between their limbs.
When a bird defigns to fly, it firft darts into the air,
either by leaping from the ground, or by throwing it¬
felf from fome height. In the mean time it raifes the
'whole of the wings which had till then remained folded.,
and which it unfolds in a horizontal dire£lion by extend¬
ing the bones. When the wings have thus acquired all
the fuperficial extent of which they are fufceptible, they
are fuddenly depreffed. till they form, with the vertical
plane of the body, an angle that is obtufe upward, and
acute downward. The refiftance which the air gives
to this motion fuddenly performed in it, produces a re¬
action on the body of the bird, and thus moves it for¬
ward as in ordinary leaps. This impulfe once given,
the bird refolds the wings by bending the joints, and
T
i43
Flying.
Chap. IV
repeats its efforts by another ftrokc. As the velocity Ot Anima
thus acquired in afeending is gradually diminifhed by Motion,
the effeCt of gravitation, a moment occurs in which it *■—■>”—»*
ceafei, and in which the bird tends neither to afeend
nor defeend. If at this moment it gives a new ftroke
with the wings, it acquires a new atcending velocity,
by which it will be carried as far as before, and by re¬
peating thefe efforts, it will afeend in a uniform man¬
ner. If this fecund ftroke be made before the velocity
firft acquired is loft, an additional impulfe will be re¬
ceived j and by a continuance of this adtion the bird
will afeend with an accelerated motion. If the wings
(jo not vibrate when the afeending velocity is loft, the
bird will begin to deicend •, and if it allow itfelf to fall
down to the point from which it fet out, it cannot af¬
eend as high as at firft, but by a much ftronger exer¬
tion of the wings ; but if it feizes in the fall a point fo
fituated that the acquired defeending velocity, and the
fmall fpace which it has to fall down reciprocally ba¬
lance each other, it may, by a feries of equal vibrations,
keep itfelf at the fame height.
When a bird wilhes to defeend rapidly, as when it
darts upon its prey, it altogether fuppreffes the vibra¬
tion of its wings, and thus falls by its own gravity.
While defeending, however, it may fuddenly break its
fall by extending its wings, and this fufpenfion is called
a recover.
We have as yet eonfidered only the vertical flight of
a bird. To fly horizontally, it muft rife in an oblique
diredtion, and make a newr movement of its wings,
when it is ready to defeend below the point from which
it departed ; but in this way it will not fly in a flraight
line, but will deferibe a feries of curves fo very much
depreffed, that the horizontal will overcome the vertical
motion. In order to afeend obliquely, the bird muft
make quicker vibrations of its wings, and to afeend in
a iimilar diredtion, the vibrations muft be flower.
The deviations of flight to the right or left are chiefly
produced by the unequal vibrations of the oppofite
wing •, thofe of the left wing carrying the bird to the
right, and vice verfa. The more rapid the flight is
forward, the greater is the difficulty of one wing fur-
pafling the other in the velocity of its vibrations, and of
courfe the deviation fidewaysis the more difficult. Hence
birds which fly with the greateft velocity make large
circles in turning.
The tail, when fpread out, contributes to fuflain the
pofterior part of the body. If it is depreffed when the
bird has acquired a progreflive velocity, it prefents an
obftacle which elevates the pofterior part of the body,
and depreffes the anterior. If it is turned up, the con¬
trary effedt is produced. Some birds incline to one
fide, to aflift them like a rudder, when they wifh to
change their horizontal diredlion.
The ftrudture of moft birds peculiarly adapts them
for rapid motion through the air, and for fuftaining
themfelves in this element with the greateft facility.
See Ornithology, N° 37.
The adtion of fwimming, like that of flying, nearly
refembles leaping, except that, like flying, the leap does
not take place on a fixed furface. A great variety of
animals, befides fifh, and moft of the other inhabitants
of the waters, are capable of fwimming. This adlion is
performed with confiderable eafe by feveral of the mam¬
malia'.
( ap. IV. P H Y S I
( Jmil malxa, even by the bulky elephant, and the unwieldly
ition. hippopotamus 5 by many tribes of birds 5 by ieveral rep-
M v ' tiles and ferpents, and by foroe infefts.
The organs employed by tribes, in making their way
through the water, are their fins, tail, and air-bladder;
the two former exerting the neceffary motions like the
wings of birds, while the latter, by being com probed or
expanded, caufes the necefiary changes in the fpeeific
oravity of the body, and thereby renders the animal
more or lefs buoyant. The fvvimming of fifties has been
treated of with fufficient minutenefs under Ichthyo¬
logy, chap. Hi. fe£I. 3. to which we refer the reader.
The cetacea employ much the fame means as fifties;
but in them the principal efforts of the tail are made
in a vertical direction, and the ufe of the air-bag is fup-
plied byffungs, which they can comprefs and dilate at
pleafure, by the addion of the diaphragm, or the inter-
coftal mufcles. See Cetology.
The fwimming of mammalia, and of water birds,
is performed by means of the legs and feet, which are
ufed like oars, to propel the body forward by the refin¬
ance which they make to the water in the contrary di-
reftion. Hence thofe quadrupeds and birds that have
flat or webbed feet, fvvim moil eafily, as the refifting
furface is the greateft. Of all the mammalia, man has
the moil occafion to ufe his.hands in fwimming, on ac¬
count of the greater proportional weight of his head.
Serpents, and the larvae of fueh infefts as fometimes
inhabit the waters, perform the aftion of fvvimming by
rapid inflexions of the body like an eel or a leech.
The larvae that are mod commonly found in the waters
are thofe of the water beetles, the hydrophilus, the day
files, the aquatic tipulce, and gnats.
145 No animal walks without legs, or flies without wings
(if we except the flying fifti, whofe fins enable it rather
to fpring than fly) ; but there are many thatfwim with¬
out fins, and that leap and creep without any legs. The
rapidity of movement is not proportioned to the number
of inftruments that are employed: if the fpout-fifti be ob-
ferved to move (lowly with one leg, the fea-urchin moves
ftill more (lowly with many thoufands; the oyfter moves
by fquirting out water ; the feallop by the jerk of its
(hell, and when in the water it rifes to the furiace and
fails before the wind.
Many animals are formed by nature tody, walk, leap,
and fwitn : the fate of thofe is rather uncommon whofe
mufcles or feet are by nature attached to their integu¬
ments; the lobfter is obliged to throw oft its (hell, and
the caterpillar all its feet, with the (kins, and in that
fituation to remain ftationary till it receive new inffrii-
ments of motion.
146 Whoever has read the celebrated work De Motu Ani-
maltum, needs not to be told that, befid.es the organs
which are here mentioned, the form, the ftructure, and
even the fpecific gravity of the body, as depending on
the nature of the bones and mufeles, or as varied by air-
veficles and bubbles, with a great variety of other cir-
cumftances, are neceffary to explain the different pheno-
147 mena of locomotion.
-getable As to vegetable motions, they evidently depend on
itions, external agents : the wings of feeds only fit them to be
carried by the wind, their fpecific gravity to float in the
water, and their legs or tentacula to adhere to bodies
that are in motion; the Angular motions which have
O L O G Y. 485
been aferibed to (leeping, to waking, to fenfation, and Of Animal
volition, in the vegetable kingdom, feera only the con- ^iot!<)n- ,
fequence of light, beat, moifture, and fueh iiimulants, v
aXing invifibly or with fecret influence : the opening
and doling of the meteoric flowers are always corre-
fpondent to the (fates of the atmofphere ; and the open¬
ing and doling of the'equinoXial and tropic flowers, to
the light, the length or ihortnefs of the day.
The principal intentions of locomotion are to'get ufes 0f l0.
food, to thun danger, to promote intercourfe and di-comotion.
fperfe the fpecies.
There is perhaps no part of pbyfiology which is more
important than the relations which fubfift between the
different funXions of the living body; but it is a part of
the fubjeX which is as yet but little underftood. We
regret that our limits will not permit us to pay all the
attention to it which we could with. We (hall, how¬
ever, briefly notice under each funXion, the principal
relations that are found to take place between it and
thole which "have been pfevioufly confidered. ^
Befides the dependence which animal motion has, in _\jutual re-
moft inftances, on the nervous fyttem, (fee N° in.) we latiqns be-
find an evident fympathy between thefe two funXionstwet:I1 iL*n-
in a variety of phenomena. A violent emotion or im-iat‘onan
„ ,r r 1 , . motion.
preflion on the nerves otten throws the limbs into con-
vulfive agitations ; fpafmodic afteXions are relieved, or
fometimes removed, by the coming on of delirium; and
thefe fymptions will alternate with each other : a com-
preffion of the brain, or of fome large nervous trunk,
produces general or partial want of motion, and when
this eompreflion is removed, the mufcles for the moft
part recover their ufual aXion ; an attack of epilepfy is
often preceded by the fenfation of a dream of vapour
commencing in fome external part, and riling to the
brain. Thefe, and many other phenomena that might
be mentioned, fully prove the fympathy between the
nervous and mufcular fyftems ; and with this enumera¬
tion we muff difmifs the fubjeX.
Chaf. V. Of Digejlien.
.15°
The neceflity of repairing the wade of the body is Appetite
announced in all animals by the feelings'of hunger andtor fo0(J* -
third ; the former of which intimates the occafion for
folid, the latter for liquid food. This imperious necef-
dty overrules all the other affeXions of the vital prin¬
ciple, and every other appetite often remains fufpended
till that neceffity be fatisfied. It is difficult to affign
the final caufe of thefe lingular fenfations, but probably
our refearches on that fubjeX are rather curious than ufe-
ful. Whatever be the ultimate end of thefe appetites, we
readily perceive how much they are induenced by habit.
We find that when we are accudomed to take food at
particular times, the appetite, under ordinary circum-
dances, always reminds us at thefe times, of the occafion,
whether real or apparent, for receiving a new fupply.
By this influence of habit fome animals, efpecially man,,
are accudomed to take feveral meals in a day, while
others can fad for days, or even weeks, together. "The
appetite for food alfo varies confiderably at different ages.
It is more lively and more imperious in infancy and early
childhood, and in general in thofe animals who have not
yet acquired their full growth ; it is on the contrary
weaker in advanced age, and when the body ceafes to
, " ' • • . inergafe
*5l
153 ,
Plants and
fome ani¬
mals live on
water and
air alone.
486 ' P H Y S I
increafe in fixe. It is more frequently renewed in the
.Digefhon flrong an^ healthy, and thofe who are accuflomed to la¬
borious occupations or adtive exercifes.
We know that in the natural ftate of the animal body,
the appetite for food is influenced by the nature of the
aliment on which the animal is accuftomed to fubfift.
Many animals live entirely on vegetable food, and thefe
have no appetite for animal fubitances, and even rejedt
thefe when offered to them. On the other hand, many
tribes live entirely on animal food, and either refufe ve¬
getable, or, if obliged by neceflity to employ it as food,
do not appear to derive nourifhment from it. We find,
however, that it is in the power of habit to remove thefe
appetites ; that a horfe or a fheep may be taught to live
on animal food, while a dog or a cat may be fupported
entirely on vegetable fubflances. A few animals are
capable of lublifting on almofl: every kind of animal or
vegetable fubflances, or are omnivorous.
Many animals are capable of being fupported by wa¬
ter and air alone. We know that feveral fiflies, as the
minow, the gold and filver fifh, &c. will live for a long
time in a veffel containing pure water, and freely expof-
fed to the air. Rondelet (a celebrated writer on fiflies in
the 16th century) relates a remarkable inftance of this.
He kept a fifh during three years in a veffel that was
conflantly full of very pure water. It grew to fuch a
fize, that at the end of that time the veflel could no
longer contain it. Leeches are often kept for feveral
years with no other nutriment but water, and that not
very often changed. There is good reafon to believe
that the foie food of plants confifts of water and air, and
that the foil in which they grow anfwers fearcely any
other purpofe than that of preferving and conducing
thofe necefiary aliments.
It has been fuppofed that feme animals are capable of
fubfifting on matters that appear to contain no nutritious
principles, fuch as fand, hair, and wool. Borelli long ago
conceived this opinion, from obferving that in many te-
ftaceous animals which he difiected, the alimentary tube
contained nothing but fand. It has often been remark¬
ed, that horfes, cows, and fheep, when deprived of their
ufual nourifhment, will lick their bodies, and fwallow
down the hair, or, in the cafe of fheep, will tear off and
fwallow each others wool. If we cotifider the nature of
thefe fubflances, we think there is no reafon to fuppofe
that they anfwer any other purpofe than diftending the
alimentary canal or ftomach, and thus in fome meafure
countera£Hng the effe<ff of hunger.
The fubjeft of food in general has been already treat¬
ed of, under Aliment, and in Materia Medica,
Part I. N° 17 ; and the fun&ion of digeflion, as far as
it relates to man, has been eonfidered under Anatomy,
N° 106, 107, and under Chemistry, N° 2548. It re¬
mains for us here only to make a few obfervations on the
comparative phyfiology of this function.
Digeftion differs confiderably in the various claffes of
tfdigeftion. animals, both as to the organs by which it is performed,
and as to the fimplicity or complex nature of the opera¬
tion itfelf. The general variations that take place in
the organs of digeftion, have been mentioned under the
comparative part of Anatomy, N° 152, and are fully
treated of by Cuvier, in his Lepons d'Anatomic Com-
pardc, tom iii. and JBlumbenbach, in his Comparative
Anatomy, cha^ 6, and 7.
In Ute more perfect animals, digeftion fuppofes «
S,
*53
TV<r,S4
Differences
O L 0 G Y. v Chap.V
feries of operations, from the time that the food enters Of
the mouth, till the nutritious parts of it are taken into Digeftii
the circulating fyftem, Thefe operations are, mafticu-
tion, infa/ivatioriy deglutition^ chymification, and c/iylifica¬
tion.
Majlication is performed by means of teeth, and there-MafUti
fore can fcarcely be faid to take place in thofe animals tion.
that are not furnilhed with thefe organs. We know that
all mammalia, except thofe which Cuvier calls edentata.
as the ant-eaters, pangolins, and platypus, have teeth,
fitted both for dividing and chewing their food; but
here an important difference takes place. Thofe ani¬
mals which live chiefly on animal food, have moft of
their teeth fharp and pointed, for the purpofe of feizing
and tearing their prey, while the graminivorous and gra-
nivorous animals have very large and flrong grinders,
in which the hard fubftance commonly called enamel
(or what Blake calls corpusJlnaturn, *) forms alternate*
layers with the bony part. Such are alfo found in moft the Stn<
reptiles and lerpents, and in many fifties ; but in fome ofruream
thefe they feem lefs to ferve the purpofe of dividing the F°mati
food, than to feize and re'tain it till fwallowed. Birds
have no teeth, though fome of them have the mandibles
of the bill lo formed as to divide and'cut in pieces their
food. 15$
During maftication the food is mixed with the faliva,
and is thus better fitted for eafy folution in the ftomach.tl0n'
This infalivation of the food may, however, take place,
without previous maftication. It is common for fer-
pents to fwallow their food whole ; but in order to faci¬
litate its paffage down the throat, they firft b elm ear it
all over with their mucous faliva. In many animals, a
procefs fimilar to infalivation takes place, while the
food remains in the mouth. In feveral fpecies of the
ape tribe there is a pouch fituated on each fide of the
jaw, and in thefe pouches the greater part of the food is
retained, not merely as fome fuppofe, to ferve as a fu¬
ture meal, but to undergo a dilution by the fluids that
are there fecreted. In granivorous birds, the food is
firft received into a membranous bag, formed by a dila¬
tation of the gullet, and commonly called the crop,
where it is macerated by the fluids that are there fepa-
rated by means of glands or exhaling vtffels, and paffes
down, as the animal requires, to be further prepared by
the ftomach. 1 he buftard, indeed, though a granivo¬
rous bird, has no proper crojr, but the gullet is furniftied
with numerous and large glands.
For an account of the chemical nature and properties
of faliva, fee Chemistry, N° 2723. 157
The operation of deglutition depends chiefly on the1?6^
aftion of the tongue, and on that of the muffles whichtwn*
furround the pharynx and gullet. It is more or lefs.
fpeedy in proportion as thefe are mure or lefs a&ive and
vigorous. Moft animals, after having once fwallowed
their food, do not receive it again into the mouth ; but
this takes place in feveral trijes, and is called rumina¬
tion, or chewing the cud. ijS
Rumination takes place chiefly in thofe animals thatRumim
feed on herbage, and have not a mufculai ftomacb-, fech’108,
as all the tribes that Linnaeus has ranked under the or¬
der pecora. In thefe the food, after being {lightly
chewed, is received into the firft ftomach, and after re¬
maining there for a ftiort time, it is gradually brought
by a retrograde adtion of the gullet into the mouth,
where it undergoes a complete trituration and infaliva-
tion,
op.v.
tion, and is then conveyed into the 2d, 3d, and 4th
l iftion. ftomachs, to be mixed with the gaftric juice.
^ Some of thofe birds which have a diluting lac or in-
gluvies, feem likewife to ruminate. This in the parrot
was obferved by the gentlemen of the French academy.
It has fince been obferved in rooks, macaws, cockatoos,
and others : and Mr Hunter, to whom phyfiology is fo
much indebted, difcovered that the male and the female
pigeon fecrete in their ingluvies a certain liquor for
feeding their young ", and that moft kinds of what have
been thought ruminating birds do vei-y often in expreffing
their fondnefs regurgitate their food. Yet both this
and another fpecies of regurgitation which is very com¬
mon with thofe animals that fwalloAV indigeftible fub-
ftances with their food, fhould be carefully diftinguilhed
from rumination. For a farther account of rumination,
and of the digeftive organs of ruminating animals, fee
Comparative Anatomy, N° 228—234. and Phil. Tranf.
1807, Part ii.
€i iitka- The food having entered the ftomach, undergoes in
tit that organ proceiies that are partly mechanical, or ra¬
ther organic, and partly chemical, depending on the
flrufture of the ftornach, and the nature of the juices
fecreted into its cavity. By thefe actions it is reduced
^ into a pulpy fubflsnce commonly called chyme.
q, 1jc The organic adtion of the ttomach is greater or lefs,
a|iof according as this organ is moreorlef^ mufeular. There
A 0- are many animals, chiefly birds of the granivorous
m tribes, that have a very mufeuiar ftomach, commonly
called gizzard, capable of grinding, not only the grains
received into it, but even of reducing to powder fmall
pieces of ylafs, and of blunting the points of needles
and lancets. Thefe fadls were firfl: proved by Borelli,
tvho introduced into the gizzards of fowls, nuts, filberts,
hollow fpheres of glafs, hollow cubes of lead, fmall py¬
ramids of wood, and feveral other fubftances, which he
found were either crulhed together, or broken to pieces.
He computes the power exerted by the ftomach of the
Indian cock as equal to the preflure of 1350 pounds
weight. Thefe experiments were repeated and verified
by Spallanzani.
Some animals that ara not pofieffed of a mufcular
ftomaeh have, within that organ, teeth, or other hard
bodies, for the purpofe of breaking or grinding their
food. This is the cafe with many of the cruftaeea, as-
crabs and lobflers.
A great many animals have what Spallanzani calls
iritermediate ftomachs, i. e. not fo mufcular a? the gizzard
of fowls, nor fo membranous as the ftomachs of rumi¬
nating animals 5 this is the cafe with many birds, as ra¬
vens, crows, herons, Scm The ftomachs of thefe animals
are pofleffed of confiderable force, though this is not
nearly equal to that exerted by the gizzard. Thefe ani¬
mals poflefs the power of reje&ing by the mouth the
fubftances that are incapable of digeftion in the ftomach,
every nine, or fometimes every three hours.
The animals Avith membranous ftomachs are very
numerous, comprehending man, moft beafts and birds of
prey j many reptiles, fnakes, fifti, &c. The ftomachs
of thefe animals are fufceptible of but little muicular
aflion, though in many fpecies they both eontradl.uprtn
the food, and rejeft it through the gullet, on various
occafions. Birds of prey, like the ravens, croAvs, &c.
poffefiihe poAver of rejedling, in the form of pellets, the
PHYSIOLOGY.
indigeftible parts of their food, which ufually lakes place Of
every 24 hours. Digeftion.
A moft interefting paper by Mr Everard Home is
publilhed in the Philofophical Tranfa&ions for 1807, j)ifCOveri9S
part ii. on the ftrudture and fundtions of the ftomachs of of Mr
various animals. We regret that Ave can here give Home,
little more than the refults of his inquiries.
From previous inveftigations refpedling the ftomachs
of ruminating animals, Mr Home Avas led to believe
that the fourth ftomach in thefe tribes Avas either always,,
or during digeftton, divided into tAvo portions, each
performing a different office in the digeftive procefs ;
and he even conjedlured, that a fimilar divifion might
take place in other animals.
Mr Home has examined the ftomachs of a great va¬
riety of animals, and inveftigatecl the prog refs of di¬
geftion in ruminants, the hare tribe, which occafionallv
ruminate, the beaver, dormoufe, water-rat, corn n rat,
moufe, horfe, and afs, kangaroo, ft care', hippopotamus,
elephant, the cetacea, fowls, and iaftiy in man.
The human ftomach appears to be the uniting link Human ft<i-
betAveen thofe that are fitted only to digert vegetable ,'nark the
fubftances, and thofe of animals that are entirely can ft- "nlc ,ie'
vorous 5 and yet avc find, that in its internal ftr 1161 ure nhwous^”
it is in every material refpcdl fimilar both to thofe of the and pfcvti-
monkey and fquirrel, Avhieh ufually digeft only vege- vorons fto-
table food, and to thofe of carnivorous animals. machs.
The human ftomach is occafionallv divided into a into*
cardiac and a pyloric portion, by a mufcular contraction date and
fimilar to thofe of other animals j and as this circum- ]■)hric p<ut~
ftance has not before been noticed, it is proper to bet!0Ii*
more particular in deferibing it.
The firft inftance in Avhich Mr Home obferved
this mufcular contra6Hon in the human ftomach, avus
in a Avoman Avho died in confequence of being burnt,,
and Avho had been unable to take much nourilhment
for feveral days before her death. The ftomach Avas
found empty, and Avas taken out of the body at a very
early period after death. It Avas carefully iiwerted
to expofe its internal furface, and gently diftended
Avith aic. The contraftion Avas fo permanent, that,
after the ftomach had bi en kept in Avater, in an iiwert-
ed ftate, for feveral days, and at different times diftended:
Avith air, the appearance AA'as not altogether, deftroyed.
Since that time, Mr Home has taken every opportu¬
nity of examining the human ftomaeh fiiortly after
death ; and he finds that this contraction, in a greater
or lefs degree, is very generally met Avith. He is of.
opinion that this effe6t is not produced by a peculiar
band of mufcular fibres, but that it arifes from the muf¬
cular coat, in the middle part of the ftomach, being
tb rovvn into aflion to a greater or lefs extent according
to circumftanees. When this part of the ftomach is ex¬
amined by diffeftion, its mufcular fibres are not to be
diftinguiftied from the reft. If the body be examined
fo late as 24 hours after death, this appearance is rarely*
met Avith *, a circumftance which accounts for its not
having before been particularly noticed.
That the food is diffolved in the cardiac portion of Food firft
the human ftomach, is proved by this part only being diflblved in
found digefted after death ; the inftances of Avhich aret,?e car“
fufficiently numerous to require no addition being made*^.^or“
to them. This could not take place unlefs the folvent *
liquor was depofited there. Mr Hunter goes fo far as
to
438
PHYSIOLO
bti
the
i<56
Solvent
liquor fe-
creted by
glands near
the gullet.
\6j
Curvature
of the Ho¬
rn ash ac¬
counted for.
Of to fay !n Ills paper on this fubjeft, “ there are few dead
Dignition. b0(i;es which the ihntiach at its great end is not in
feme degree digefted.”
That the chyle is not formed there, and that it is
chyle form-commonly formed before the food paffes through the pi/-
ed in the lorus, is proved by th,e refult of fome experiments made
bg? L ^ * by Mr Hunter upon dogs, in the year 1760. 1 he dogs
were killed while digeilion was going on ; and in all,
the food was lea It diiTolved, or even mixed, towards the
great end of the llomach, but became more, and more
fo towards the pylorus, jut! within which it wras mixed
with a whitilh fluid like cream.
From the refult of thefe experiments, as well as from
the analogy of other animals, it is reafonable to believe,
that the glands lituated at the termination of the cuticu-
lar lining of the osfophagus, which are deferibed by Pvlr
Home, fecrete the folvent liquor, which is occafionally
poured on the food, fo as to be intimately mixed with it
before it is removed from the cardiac portion •, and the
mufeular contraction retains it there, till this takes place.
Such eontraflion being occafionally required in the
ftomach, accounts for its being more or lefs bent upon
itfelf, as by this llrubture it is more readily divided into
two portions, by the action of the mufcular fibres at that
part where the angle is formed.
This contract ion alfo explains why the contents of
the ftomach are not completely difeharged from the firft
efl’eft of an emetic ; and by it Mr Home thinks we may
explain the cramp of the ftomach, and fome kinds of in-
digeftion.
After comparing the ftomnehs of feveral carnivorous
animals with that of man •, in tracing the gradation from
carnivorous beafts through the bat tribe to birds of prey,
quadrupeds Mr Horqe remarks that “ the only real link between
and birds. |],e ftomachs of quadrupeds and birds is that of the orni-
thorinchus (or platypus), which, however, is more an
approach to the gizzard, being lined with a cuticle con¬
taining fand, and having the fame relative lituation to
the osfophagus and duodenum. The food of this animal
is nof .known ; it is probably of both kinds •, the papilla?
at the pylorus, which appear to be the fecretory duds
of glands, are peculiar to it.
From the fads and obfervations brought forward in
foncluiions. t}fis va}ua5-qe paper, Mr Florae deduces the following
general conclufions. “ That the folvent liquor is fe-'
crcted from glands of a fomewhat fimilar ftrudure in all
animals, but much larger and more confpicuous in fome
than in others.
That thefe glands are always fituated near the ori¬
fice of the cavity, the contents of which are expofed to
their fecretion.
“ That the vifeid fubftance found on the internal
membrane of all the ftomachs that were examined re¬
cently after death, is reduced to this ftate by a fecreti m
from the whole furface of the ftomach, which coagulates
albumen. This appears to be proved, by every part of
the fourth cavity of the calf’s ftomach having the pro¬
perty of coagulating milk.
This property in the general fecretion of the fto¬
mach leads to an opinion, that the coagulation of fluid
fubftances is neceflary for their being aded on by the
folvent liquor; and a pradical obfervation of the late
Mr Hunter, that weak ftomaehs can digeft only folid
.food,, is. in confirmation of it.
“ That in converting animal and vegetable fubftances
165
Ornitho-
rinchus the
Teal link
between
169
General
G Y. Chap, ^
into chyle, the food is firft intimately mixed with the Of
general fecretions of the ftomach, and after it has been dgeftl
aded on by them, the folvent liquor is poured upon it, ’’T”
by which the nutritious part is diflblved. This folution
is afterwards conveyed into the pyloric portion, where
it is mixed with the fecretions peculiar to that cavity,
and converted into chyle.
“ The great ftrength of the mufcles of the pyloric
portion of fome ftomaehs will, by their adion, comptefs
the contents, and feparate the chyle from the indigeitible
part of the food.
“ In animals whofe food is eafy of digeftion, the fio-
mach confifts of a cardiac and pyloric portion only ; but
in thole whofe food is dilncult of digeftion, other parts
are fuperadded, in which it undergoes a preparation be¬
fore it is fubmitted to that procels.” ^
The adion of the juices of the ftomach, or of what 1
we call the gnjlric juice, appears to have much more ef-the gall
fed in the procefs of chymification, than the mufcular jAe.
adion of the ftomacb, though the diffolving power of
this fluid feems to be proportionally lefs in thofe ani¬
mals that have the molt mufcular ftomachs. The ga-,
itric juice of granivorous birds is capable of diffolving
flelh ; but when this is entire, it requires four or five
days for folution ; whereas when broiled, half that time
is fufficient. Even grain is not diffolvcd in it except
when bruifed. The gaftric juice of animals with inter¬
mediate ttomaejis diffolves flefti and cartilage, but not
bone. It is incapable of diffolving entire feeds. In
animals with membranous ftomachs, the gaftric juice is
extremely adive, and feems to be almoft the only agent
in the digeftive procefs. In fome of thefe animals,
however, as the ruminating tribes, this fluid has no ef-
fed on the food, unlefs it be bruifed, or thoroughly
mafticated. Spallanzani found, that owls digeft flefh
and bones, but not grain ;—that the gaftric juice of the
eagle diffolves bread and bone, and even animal and
vegetable matters, when it is taken out of the body ;-r-
that a wood pigeon may be gradually brought to live
on flefh ;—that the owl and falcon do not digeft bread ;
—that, the gaftric juice of the dog diffolves even the
enamel of the teeth.
Hence, in every order of animals, the gaftric juice is
the principal caufe of digeftion, and it agrees in all in
many-properties, and differs in others. In the frog, the
newt, fealy fifties, and other cold-blooded animals, it pro¬
duces digeftion in a temperature nearly equal to that of
the atmoiphere. In warm-blooded animals it is capable
of diffolving the aliment in a degree of heat lower than
that of thefe animals. In them too the food is digefteef
in a few hours, whereas in the oppofite kind it requires
feveral days, and even weeks, particularly in ferpents;
likewife, the gaftric juice of the gallinaceous clafs can
diffolve only bodies of a fofi and yielding texture, and
previoufly triturated : whilft in others, as ferpents, the
heron, birds of prey, and the dog, it decompofes fub¬
ftances of great tenacity, as ligaments and tendons;
and even of confiderable hardnefs, as the moft compaft
bone, Man belongs to this clafs, but his gaftric juice
feems to have no action on the hardeft kinds of bones.
Some fpecies, likewife, are incapable of digefting vege¬
tables, as birds of prey ; but man, the dog, cat, crows,
&c. diffolve the individuals of both kingdoms alike, and
are omnivorous, and in general their gaftric juices pro¬
duce thefe effedls out of the body.
* For'
I7I
jlubility
' foods.
Starh't
rorks-
V. P H Y S I
For an account of the chemical nature and properties
of the gaftric juice, fee Chemistry, N° 2551.
The procefs of chymification depends alfo, in a great
meafure, on the nature of the fubftances employed as
food, as fome of thefe are much more foluble than
others. On this fubje£t much information may be de¬
rived by confulting the experiments of Dr Stark *, and
thofe of IYL Goffe of Geneva, an abftra6t of which is
given in Johnfon’s Animal Chemiftry, vol. i. p. 207.
From the latter experiments it appears, ijl. That the fol¬
lowing fubftances are either infoluble, or are not digeft-
ed in the ufual time in the ftomach.
Animal fubjlances. I. Tendinous parts. 2. Bones.
.3. Oily or fatty parts. 4. Indurated white of egg.
Vegetable fubjlances. 1. Oily or emulfive feeds. 2.
Expreffed oils of different nuts and kernels. 3. Dried
grapes. 4. Rind of farinaceous fubftances. 5. Pods of
beans and peafe. 6. Skins of ftone fruits. 7. Hulks of
fruits, with grains or feeds. 8. Capfules of fruit, with
grains. 9. Ligneous ftones of fruits. 10. The gaftric
juice does not deftroy the life of fome feeds; hence bit-
ter-fweet, hemp, mifletoe, and other plants which fome-
times grow upon trees, are produced by the means of
the excrements of birds, the kernels of feeds being de¬
fended from the menftruum by their exterior covering.
id. That the following are partly foluble, viz.
Animalfubjlances. 1. Pork dreffed various ways. 2.
Black puddings. 3. Fritters of eggs, fried eggs and
bacon.
Vegetable Subfances.—I. Salads of different kinds,
rendered more fo when dreffed. 2. White of cabbage
lefs foluble than red. 3, Beet, cardoons, onions, and
leeks. 4. Root of fcurvy-grafs, red and yellow carrots,
fuccory, are more infoluble in the form of falad than
any other way. 5. Pulp of fruit with acids, -when not
fluid. 6. Warm bread and fweet paltry, from their pro¬
ducing acidity. 7. Frelh and dry figs. By frying all
thefe fubftances in butter or oil they become ftill lefs
foluble. If they are not diffolved in the ftomach, they
are, however, in the courfe of their paffage through the
inteftines.
That the following are foluble, or eafy of dige-
ftion, being generally reduced to chyme in an hour, or
an hour and a half.
Animal Subfances.—1. Veal, lamb, and in general
the flefh of young animals, are fooner diffolved than that
of old. 2. Frefh eggs. 3. Cowrs milk. 4. Perch boil¬
ed with a little fait and parfley. When fried or fea-
foned with oil, wine, and white fauce, it is not fo
foluble.
Vegetable Suhfiances.—1. Herbs, as fpinach, mixed
with forrel, are lefs foluble. Celery. Tops of afpara-
gus, hops, and the ornithogalus of the Pyrenees. 2. Bot¬
tom of artichokes. 3. Boiled pulp of fruits, feafoned
with fugar. 4. Pulp or meal of farinaceous feeds.
5. Different forts of wheaten bread, without butter, the
fecond dav after baking ; the cruft more fo than the
crumb. Salted bread of Geneva more fo than that of
Paris without fait; brown bread in proportion as it
contains more bran is lefs foluble. 6. Rapes, turnips,
potatoes, parfnips, not too old. 7. Gum arable, but its
acid is foon felt. The Arabians ufe it as food's
The folvent power of the gaftric juice is increafed by
various ftimulants, efpecially by thofe called condiments^
as fe.a fait, fpices, muftard, vinegar, as well as by vi-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
17s
O L O G Y*
nous and fpirituous liquors and old cheefe in fmall quan¬
tities, and by various bitters. It is retarded by large
quantities of diluting liquors, efpecially when taken
hot $ by acids and aftringents taken a fhort time after
eating $ by undtuous fubftances ; by mental employ¬
ment, or fevere bodily exercife, too foon after a meal j
and by leaning with the breaft againft a table.
It may be proper here to notice the various opinions varj0us
that have been entertained refpefting the immediate theories of
caufe of digeftion. The principal of thefe opinions are, digeftlon*
that it is produced by co£lion or heat j by trituration
in the ftomach •, by fermentation, or by putrefaction.
That it is not brought about by heat alone, will ap- Heat,
pear from the circumftance, that many cold-blooded
animals digeft their food as completely, though not fo
expeditiouily, as warm-blooded animals.
That it is not effeCled by trituration in the ftomach Trituration,
alone, is evident from the experiments that have been
made by Spallanzani, Stevens, and others, of giving to
animals food enclofed in hollow perforated balls, fuffi-
ciently ftrong to refill the mufcular power of the fto¬
mach •, as the balls have been found empty, and not
compreffed.
That it is not owing to fermentation is proved by the Fermenta-
circumftance, that the more perfectly digeftion proceeds, tion.
the lefs is the evolution of gafes in the ftomach ; the
contrary of which would be the cafe, if digeftion con-
lifted in a fermentation of the aliment. x >,
That it does not depend on putridity, is evidenced by Putriditv
the obfervations that have been made on putrid food
given to dogs, and examined fome time after, when it
was found perfeClly fweet.
On the whole it appears, that in moft animals the di¬
geftion of food in the ftomaeh depends partly on a due
degree of heat, partly on the vital aftion of the ftomach,
but chiefly on the aClion of the gaftric juice. J
When the aliments have been converted in the fto- Chylifica^
macb to the crude pulp called chyme, they are gradually tion.
propelled through the pylorus into the duodenum, where
they are mixed with the bile, the pancreatic juice, and
the fluids that are feparated by the mucous coat of that
inteftine, and are thus reduced to a ftill finer pulp, con¬
taining, as one of its principal ingredients, the nutritious
fluid called chyle, the nature and properties of which,
as they have been but flightly mentioned in the former
parts of this work, fall to be noticed here.
The properties of chyle have not been minutely in- Propertied
veftigated ; but according to Fordyce, as far as experi-of chyle,
ment has been carried, the chyle of quadrupeds is fo
fimilar to that of man, and of each other, as hardly to
be diftinguilhed, even in tribes the moft oppofite to each
other in their ftrudlure, food, and habits of life. As far
as we can perceive, the chyle of a dog or a wolf differs
in nothing from that of a Iheep or an ox. ’ ‘
The chyle confifts of three parts ; one part which is
fluid, and contained in the la&eals, but coagulates on
extravafation.
The fecond part confifts of a fluid, which is coagu-
lable by heat, and in all its properties hitherto obferved,
it is fimilar to the ferum of the blood.
The third part confifts of globules, which render the
whole white and opake, Thefe globules have been fup-
pofed by many to be an expreffed oil ; but this has not
been proved. Neither has it been perfeiftly demonflrated
that fugar is contained in the chyle, although it has
3 Q. been
* Tordyce
on Dige-
Jiicn
179
Prog refs of
the chyle.
180
PalTige
of food
P H Y S I
been made very probable. The difficulty of determin¬
ing th< fe points arifes from the (mail quantity that can
be collected, the largeft animals not fupplying more than
one ounce or two, at the molt. However, the part co¬
agulating on extravafation ; the part agreeing with fe-
rum in its qualities; the globular part, which in fome
animals, but not in quadrupeds, exilts without giving
whitenefs to the chyle—alone, or along with fugar, form
the effential parts of the chyle *.
The compound pulpy matter containing the chyle is
carried forward from the duodenum through the whole
courfe of the inteftines, where it is fubjedted to the con¬
tinual action of the internal wrinkled membrane of the
bowels, and its nutritious particles, or chyle, feie6ted
and abforbed by the lafteals that are abundantly diilri-
buted there, and open their mouths direftly within the
cavity.
As to the movements of the alimentary canal, the
through the direction of hairs found in the ftomaeh, and the balls
inteftines. of hairs which are thrown up, would appear to indicate
a circular motion. The inteilinal part has a motion
limilar to that of a worm, and is called the vermicular
or peri/laltic. Here every portion retains its own mo¬
tion, although it he feparated from the reft by liga¬
tures. The ftomach of the polype, the gullets of the
ruminating kinds, and the caeca, have the motion in
different direflions at different times ; and that obferved
in the alimentary canal of a loufe is, when viewed
through a microfcope in the time of action, amazingly
rapid ; the ftimulating caufes employed are the food,
the different liquors with which it is mixed, the air, the
nerves where they exift, and a portion of heat. Some
degree of heat is neceffary to every procefs of digeftion,
both in the animal and vegetable kingdom ; what that
degree is depends on the nature of the living body ;
■and is various according to its age, its health, its em¬
ployments, and habits.
With refpecl to the fun&ion of digeftion in the lower
elaffes of animals, we can fav but little. We know that
their food is diffolved in the ftomachs of the cruftacea,
of mollufca, and of polypes ; but whether this procefs
in moft infeft'. and worms is any thing more than im¬
bibition, or taking in aliment, which is to undergo lit¬
tle change, we are uncertain. We know, indeed, that
many infects live on fubftancts which muft be diffolved
before they enter into the pores of their bodies, and
that many of them abound in acrid juices, which are
well fitted for this folution. It does not appear that
plants poffefs what may be called the faculty of di¬
geftion.
The relations between digeftion and the funfHons we
O L O G Y. Chap. V
ringing in the ears, confufion or depravation of fight,
181
"Relations
between di-
fti n and~^ave airea^y con^^ere(l» e^Pt‘c'll^y fenfation, are various
Wation. and important. The fympathies that
pathies that exift between the
head and the ftomach, have been long acknowledged.
Several affeftions of the brain are accompanied with
ficknefs at the ftomach, lofs of appetite, and indigeftion;
while, on the other hand, the deranged ftate of the di-
geftive organs feldom fails to produce giddinefs, headach,
_ ^3  1 - ■ l     —, tjf
&.c. ; and if the former iy mptoms arife to a great height, Dl&elll0«-
as in the cafe of overloaded ftomaeh or forfeit, coma,
or even apoplexy, is frequently produced. In many
nervous affections, particularly hylteria and hypochon-
driafis, in which there frequently takes place aftonilhing
accumulations of air in the ftomach and bowels, the
affections of the head, fuch as ftupor, confufion of
thought, partial blindnefs, &c. fometimes proceed to
fuch a height, as to threaten, or even fometimes to pro¬
duce, an apoplectic paroxyfm. In many cafes thefe affec¬
tions are referred immediately to the head ; but are pro¬
ved, in moft inftances, to depend on the diibrdered ftate
of the alimentary canal, from the immediate relief pro¬
cured by thofe remedies which promote the difcharge of
air, or produce copious evacuation from the bowels. On
the other hand, in fome dileafes, where the head is pri¬
marily affeCted, as in phrenitis hydrocephalica (water in
the head), the complaint is referred to the bowels, from
the coftivenefs or other difordered ftate of thefe. The
daily experience of literary men fhowshow much intenfe
thought diminitbes the digeftive powers, and how im¬
perfectly ftudious occupations can be carried on after a
full meal. The aCtion of the digeftive organs is alfo
confiderably influenced by the mind, or the paffions.
We know how readily the appetite may be diminithed
or deftroyed by fudden anger or affliction.
The aCtion of the ftomaeh may even be influenced by
the will. We have known a perfon who could vomit
whenever he pleafed ; and Dr Darwin fpeaksof another
who had acquired this voluntary command over the in¬
verted motions of the ftomach and throat, to fuch a de¬
gree, as to gain a fabfiftence by exhibiting thefe unna¬
tural powers to the public. At thefe exhibitions he was
accultomed to fwallow a pint of red rough goofeberries,
and a pint of white fmooth ones ; to bring them up in
fmall parcels into his mouth, and reftore them feparately
to the fpeClators, who called for red or white, as they
pleafed, till the whole were redelivered *. « Zom~
The fympathies that take place between the brain and mia, vol.\
the digeftive organs, are eafily explained, from confider-P* 27(5<
ing the diftribution of the great fympathetic nerve, to
illuftrate which we have given a figure (ffig. 1.) fflow-^^^,
ing its courfe and diftribution from the head through
the cheft, as far as the ftomaeh. ^
The relations between the digeftive and the locomo-Relations
tive funfiions, are not lefs obvious. Experience ftiewsbetween
how much digeftion depends on regular exercife, anddlgde^I00t,)),
how imperfectly it is carried on in the ftomach of the™ m01
indolent and fedentary ; while, on the other hand, when
the ftomach is overloaded, voluntary motion becomes
difficult and fatiguing. Spafmodic contractions of the
mufcles, twitching* of the limbs, and fimilar affeCHons,
are the common attendants of indigeftion, though thefe
may perhaps be referred equally to the nervous as to the
mufcalar fyrtem. ,j<j
The principal morbid affeCtions of digeftion are, nau- Morbid ai
fea, flatulence, eruCtation, rumination (g), vomiting,k#10®0
heartburn, dlkeill°*’
(g) That ruminating power which is natural to the quadrupeds of the order Pecora, is fometimes nu t with in
man. We have heard of perfons who regularly brought up their food into the mouth foon after eating, ch wed it
®ver again, fwallowed tire juices with the faliva, and fpat out the more folid parts* In thefe cafes, the rumination
'w
'hap. VI. P H Y S I
Of heartburn, water-bf&fih or pyrojts, lofs of appetite, and
bforption. inordinate appetite > for an account of which, fee the
—Y~-> article Medicine.
i$4
bforption
**S
(rgans.
iS(5
Sy kiftaais
nd lym-
hatics.
Chap. VI. Of Abforption.
We have faid that the chyle is taken up from the
compound pulpy matter eompofed of the food and the
animal juices, as it paffes through the inteftines, by the
la&eals. This, however, is not the only abforption that
takes place in the animal body. The fluids poured out
into cavities by the exhalant arteries, as well as all the
fecreted or exuding fluids, and even the folid materials of
the fyftem, are taken up by the lymphatics, and carried
into the circulation •, the blood poured out into cells in
fome parts, is evidently abforbed by Veins ; and, as we
(hall endeavour to prove, an abforption t^kes place over
the external furface of the body.
What is called the abforbent fyftem, is compofed, in
the fuperior animals, of the laBectls, the mefehteric
glands, the thoracic duB, the lymphatics, and the lym¬
phatic glands. For an account of thefe in man, fee
Anatomy, Part I. Seft. 14. This fyftem, in a great¬
er or lefs degree, is found in all animals, except fome
mollufca, inledls, worms, and zoophytes. See Cuvier’s
Lepons, tom. iv. le<j. xxiii. and Blumenbach’s Compara¬
tive Anatomy, chap. xiii.
The a&ion of the lafteals and lymphatics is probably
much the fame, and is exerted in a fimilar manner.
That of the la&eals is to convey the nourilhing parts of
the food into the circulating fyftem *, that of the lym¬
phatics to carry to the fame fyftem watery fluids, for the
purpofe of diluting the blood, and fueh fluid or folid
materials as are ufelefs, or may prove noxious to the fy¬
ftem. The aftion of the lafteals may be readily feen on
opening an animal killed two or three hours after eating •,
and in this way they were firft feen by Afellius. They
are then found filled with a milky fluid, while, at other
times, they are invifible. That the lymphatics are the
principal organs of abforption, is now the general opi¬
nion of all phyfiologifts, though their aftion in this way
can feldom be demonftrated. As, however, it has be^n
fatisfa&orily proved, that the veins do not in general Ab-
forb, and as the lymphatics that proceed from parts that
contain irritating matters, are often feen inflamed, pro¬
ving that they have imbibed a part of the irritating mat¬
ter, there is little doubt that the office of abforption be¬
longs almoft exelufively to the aftion of the lympha¬
tics.
49s
Of
A-bforptian,
1S7
O L O G Y.
Mr John Hunter made feveral experiments to (hew
that the veins do not abforb. He conveyed milk, co¬
loured with various dyeing fubftances, or perfumed with f
mulk, into the fmali inteftines of an a(s, which was loon tj the.
after killed. On opening the veins of the inteftines, and vems.
allowing the blood to feparate into ferum and craflatnen-
tum, the ferum was found neither to be tinged with tire
colouring matters, nor fcented by the perfume, w hile
the coloured milk was evident in the laOteals. i hat the
veins, however, do in fome cafes perform the office of
abforbents, is evident from the fpeedy depletion of the
torpora'Cavernofa penis, after having been diitended with
arterious blood ; and from a fimilar depletion that takes
place in the nipple of the female breaft. 188
The principal objed in difpute refpeding the fundion By the ikmr
of abforption in man and the higher claffes of animals, is,
whether the ikin poffeffes the power of abforption. This
queftion, as it is both curious and important, we lhall
examine pretty much at large *, and for this purpofe we
(hall avail ourfelves of an able paper on the fubjed, by
Dr George Kellie.
It had long been received as an eftabliftied truth, that
the (kin was an inhaling or an abforbing organ, and
that fometimes the inhalation balanced, or even furpaf-
fed, the exhalation of the cutaneous furfece but of late
this dodrine of inhalation has been called in queftion,
and, in the opinion of many, entirely overthrown. It
has been faid, that this abforption neither does nor can
take place on the outfide of the cuticle •, that in every
cafe of apparent abforption, the epidermis had been in¬
jured, or that the matter abforbed had been mechanical¬
ly forced through it, and brought into immediate con-
tad: with the ikin.
Haller had aflerted *, on the authority of Deffault, * E’ementa
that the body acquired an increafe of weight in the Phyfiolo- ^
warm bath *, and this augmentation of weight was^^om'
efteemed an experimentum crucis in favour of cutaneous
abforption.
Experiments, however, have fince been made with
every neceifary care, which feem to contradid the pofi-
tion, and to prove, that the body acquires no additional
Weight in the warm bath.
Seguin, from a great many experiments of this de-
fcriptioti, concludes, that there is no inhalation, becaufe
the body, fo far frorg,gaining, always loft fome part of
its weight during immerfion, although much lefs than
in the air in equal times f. f La Med.
In other experiments again, as in thbfe of Gerard and Eilairee.
Cutrie, there was no increafe of weight; but the body
3 Q. 2 was
is to be confidered as a difeafe, depending on the inability of the ftomaeh to propel the folid food into the
Mr Home in the paper we haVe already quoted, (N° 161—*-169), relates a curious inftanee of habitual ru¬
mination in a man 19 years of age, who is blind, and has been an idiot from his birth-. He has a very ravenous
appetite, and it is neceflary to reftrid him in the quantity of his food, fince, if he eats too^ much, it disorders his
bowels. Fluid food does not remain on his ftomach, but comes up again. He fwallows his dinner, which confifts
of a pound and a half of meat and vegetables in two minutes, and in about 15 minutes he begins to chew the cud.
Mr Home was once prefent on this occafion. The tnorfel is brought up from the ftomach with apparently a very
flight effort, and the mufcles of the throat are feen in adioh when it comes into the mouth *, he chews it three or
four times, and fwallows it ; there is then a paufe, and another riiorfel is brought up. This procefs is continued for
about half an hour, and he appears to be more quiet at that time than at any other. Whether the regurgitation of
the food is voluntary or involuntary, cannot be afcertained, the man being too deficient m Undemanding, to give
any information on the fubjed.
492
of
Abforption
Medical
Report,
full edit.
P- 237.
f Cruick-
Jhank on
. the Abfor-
ic/.ts.
P H Y S I
was not obferved to have loft any thing during immer-
j fion in the warm bath.
Now, during thefe experiments, the body was doubt-
lefs wafting, by the pulmonary and cutaneous difcharges,
and yet the weight of the body either continued un¬
changed; or where a lofs of weight was obferved, this
was conftantly lefs, greatly lefs, than is experienced du¬
ring the fame interval in air. And we might be incli¬
ned to infer, from a truth fo general, and fo well afcer-
tained, an argument in favour of abforption.
It might be argued, that the lofs of weight amounts
to little or nothing, becaufe, during immerfion, the bo¬
dy acquires more by inhalation than it does or can do in
the air ; that the lofs by the pulmonary and cutaneous
difcharges is counterbalanced, or nearly counterbalan¬
ced, by the increafed abforplion.
I hofe, however, who deny abforption, will not allow
us the advantage of this argument. They tell us, that
the exhalation by the Ikin and lungs is diminifhed,
which fufficiently explains why the body lofes lefs in the
warm bath than in air. But that the accuftomed dif¬
charges are fupprefled or diminiflied in the warm or te¬
pid bath, is, we apprehend, far from being proved ;
and, till this propofition is made good, the argument
againft cutaneous inhalation cannot be fecurely main¬
tained.
One of Dr Currie’s cafes deferves farther confidera-
tion. We allude to the cafe of dyfphagia, publifhed by
this gentleman *, in which Mr M. the fubjefl of the
cafe, was feveral times immerfed in a warm bath of
milk and wrater, and was weighed w'hen taken out.
Mr M. it is true, gained no weight while in the warm
bath ; but the lofs continually going on in the air was,
as in other trials, fufpended during the immerfions. Be-
fides, he always expreffed great comfort from the bath,
with abatement of third ; and, fubfequent to the daily
ufe of it, the urine flowed more plentifully, and became
lefs pungent. An obfervation, precifely fimilar, is made
by Mr Cruickfhank. “ A patient of mine (fays Mr
Cruickfhank), with a ftridlure of the oefophagus, re¬
ceived nothing, either folid or liquid, into the ftomach
for two months; he was exceedingly thirfty, and com¬
plained of making no water. I ordered him the warm
bath for an hour, evening and morning, for a month ;
his third vaniftied, and he made wgter in the fame man¬
ner as Avhen he ufed to drink by tne mouth (h) f.
But to return to the cafe of Mr M . Dr Currie
himfelf remarks, that the difcharge by urine alone ex¬
ceeded much in weight the wafte of his whole body ;
and it cannot be doubted that the difcharge by ftool and
pcrfpiration exceeded the weight of the clyfters.—Thus
it appears, that the ege/ia exceeded the ingejla in a pro¬
portion much greater than the wafte of his body will ex¬
plain. How is this accounted for, Dr Currie alks, un-
lefs by cutaneous abforption ?
That the excefs of thefe difcharges above the ingejla
and total wafte, can be accounted for by abforption
only, was indeed an irrefiftible conclufion. Still, how-
o L O G Y. Chap. V]
ever, cutaneous abforption is denied ; and, when forced of
to confefs, that there are cafes where the egejla exceed Abforptioi
the ingejla in a much greater proportion than the wafte V’—
of the body will explain, and which can only be ac¬
counted for by abforption, they refufe this function to
the Ikin, and beftow it moft liberally, and, in fo far as
W'e know, moft gratuitoully, on the lungs. We are
not entitled, in return, to deny the reality of pulmonary
abforption, but we may furely be allowed to urge, that
there is no proof that the only inhaling organ is in the
lungs ; and there is none againft the poflibility of cuta¬
neous abfoiption.
Is it not, on the other hand, proved, by the experi¬
ments of Seguin and Lavoifier, that the exhalation
greatly exceeds the abforption by the pulmonary fyftem ?
And if this is always the cafe, we cannot explain by
pulmonary inhalation alone, why the egejla ftiould, in
fome cafes, exceed the ingejla in a much greater propor¬
tion than the wafte of body will account for.
We now proceed to examine another clafs of experi¬
ments, much infilled on by thofe who deny cutaneous
abforption ; we mean thofe experiments performed by
immerfing a part of the body in folutions of adlive drugs,
the abforption of which fhould be indicated by their u-
fual eflfedf on the fyftem.
Seguin made numerous experiments of this kind with
folutions of muriate of mercury (corrofive fublimate), on
fyphilitic patients. And we are informed, that in cafes
where the epidermis was perfedlly found, neither the
known effedts of mercury on the body, nor any amelio¬
ration of the venereal fymptoms, was ever obferved.
He alfo immerfed his own arm in a folution of two
drams of the mercurial muriate in ten pounds of water.
At the temperature of lo° and 28° Reaumur, no part of
the fait ivas miffing at the end of the experiment ; but
when the bath was at 180 of the fame fcale there was a
lofs of one or two grains of the muriate in the hour,
though the quantity of fluid was not diminifhed.
The explanation given by Seguin of this unexpe&ed
refult is curioufly ingenious, but embarrafled, and incon-
fiftent.
At the temperature of 120, he obferves, theexhalants
are in a ftate of contradfion, and their orifices nearly
clofed. When the heat again is raifed to 26°, the exha¬
lation is fo rapid, that nothing can enter the veflelsfrom
without; but at 180 of temperature, the orifices of the
exhalants are fufficiently relaxed, and the exhalation at
the fame time fo conveniently languid, that the folution
refts quietly in contadf with the matter of perfpiration
in the mouths of the exhalants, where it is fomehow or
other decompofed ; a part of the fait leaving the water
of folution, and combining with the perfpirative matter,
with which it is carried into the fyftem *. Carried into * u Me$,
the circulation by the exhalants ! Is not this a plain ac- Eolairee,
knowledgment of the reality of inhalation ? But if in tom. iii.
one cafe fubftances may thus be carried into the circula-P*
tion, why not in many others ?
Surely if the weight continues undiminifhed, in cir-
cumftances
(H) 1liat kf ailayed k? immerfion in water, is fully proved by the experience of fhipwrecked mari-
nets who, when obliged to take to their boats with very little freflt water, frequently have recourfe to bathing
!f .w’. C.m'TrS iemrelves "lll‘ 3 wetted in fait water, and thus quench their thirft, nearly as well
as if they had drunk frefh water. • 1 5 J
hap- VI.
Of cumftances where the body is continually loiing, we may
"orption. jnfer, that fomething has been gained by abforption.
And where the egelia exceed the ingefta in a proportion
much greater than the wafte of the body will explain,
there abforption mult have been going on.
The cafe of Mr M—, publifhed by Dr Currie,
is not lingular. The writings of phyficians abound in
fimilar examples. They had often occurred to that
excellent clinical practitioner De Haen, who was there¬
'll® fore perfuaded that water was imbibed f. Haller too,
d'-ndi, ufuai induftry, has collected a great many ob-
fervations of the fame kind
lem. Again, when phylicians were engaged in their ex-
jjiol. tenlive ftatical experiments, weighing themfelves, their
’ l- v' ingejta and egejla, for many months, nay for years to-
gether ; they fometimes obferved, that fo far from loling,
they had gained weight, efpecially during cold and moilt
weather. Thus, Rye, under a cold and humid atmo-
fphere, gained 13 ounces. Linnings, during two hours
expofed to cold, acquired 8^ ounces. The abbe Fon¬
tana, after two hours expofure to a moift atmofphere, re¬
turned home fome ounces heavier than he went out. De
Gorter gained 6 ounces in one night 5 and on other
occalions, two ounces and four ounces. Thefe obferva-
tions are confirmed alfo by thy experience of Dr Francis
Home, profeffor of Materia Medica in the univerfity of
Edinburgh. ‘ Having fatigued myfelf pretty much
(fays he) in the afternoon, I went to bed without fupper,
and was fo hungry that I could not fall afleep for fome
time. Betwixt eleven at night and feven next morning
ledical I had gained two ounces J.’
'ft*and Here then are examples of the body gaining conlider-
1 ably more than the ingejla will account for, acquiring
^ ’ weight when neither food nor drink had been fwallow-
ed. And we have the concurring teftimony of the molt
refpeCtable writers fupporting the fame truth..
How can this increafe of weight be accounted for,
unlefs by abforption ? In fuch experiments, the lofs of
weight, which cannot be accounted for by the fenfible
egejla, is attributed to the exhalation ; the increafed
weight fometimes obferved, and which cannot be ex¬
plained by the fenfible ingejla, mull in like manner be
referred to the inhalation.
That the fytlem may be affe£ted by a£live medicines
introduced and abforbed by the Ikin, cannot be denied..
And were proof> Hill wanting to eftablilh the dodtrine
of cutaneous abforption, this argument might be infilled
on. It is true, that friction is commonly employed
when we wifh to introduce medicines by the Ikin, by
which, it is faid, the fubllance is mechanically forced
through the cuticle, and brought into contact with the
abforbents of the true Ikin. The fyllem, however, may
, be affefted without friction, for example, by wearing a
mercurial plalter, and more certainly by mercurial
* dinl. fumigation, as pradlifed by Lalonette and others *.
- d.and It might even be concluded from an examination of
| ^°"r the ltru6ture of the Ikin, that abforption mull take place
15,1 1 at its furface. We know that the cuticle is porous, and
is penetrated by exhaling veffels ; we know that lymph¬
atics commence immediately below it •, and we know
that when certain fubllances are applied to the cuticle,
efpecially when this application is aided by moderate
fridlion, as in the cafe of applying garlic poultices to the
feet, and the more familiar inllanceof mercurial inunftion,
493
that thefe fubllauces are taken up by the abforbents, and Of
conveyed into the circulation. Abforption.
From a conlideration of all thefe circumltanees, we * ' *
think it fully proved, that the Ikin is an abforbing or
inhaling organ. For further proofs we may refer our
readers to Bichat’s Anat.Gener. tom. iv. p. 691. ^
Mr Charles Darwin, fon of the late Dr Darwin, pub-sUppofed
lilhed in 1780, a Latin thefis, which is tranllated in the retrograde
29th fedl. ol his father’s Zoonomia, vol. i. in which hea&Ion°f
attempts to prove, that the valves of the lymphatics are1^®1/™"
fo formed as in particular cafes to admit of the regurgi-^
tation of the abforbed fluids. The arguments on which
he founds this opinion (befide the difficulty of accounting
for the phenomena of feveral dileafes on any other prin¬
ciple), are chiefly the following :
Firft, The mouths of the lymphatics feem to allow
water to pafs through them after death, the inverted
w’ay, more eafily than in the natural diredlion.
Secondly, In fome difeafes, as diabetes and fcrofula,
it is probable the valves themfelves are difeafed, and are
thence incapable of preventing the return of the fluids
they thould fupport.
Thirdly, There are valves in other parts of the body,
analogous to thofe of the abforbent fyltem, which are
liable, when difeafed, to regurgitate their contents.
Fourthly, The capillary veffels, which mull be con-
fidered as analogous to abforbents, may be feen, in ani¬
mals fubmitted to the microfcope, to regurgitate their
contents into the arteries, during the Itruggles of the
dying animal.
By means of this hypothefis (for notwithftanding the
arguments adduced in its favour, we can call it no bet¬
ter) Mr Darwin explained the fpeedy pafi'age of wa¬
tery fluids from the llomach to the urinary bladder ; the
phenomena of diabetes ; diarrhoea, dropfy, cold fweats j,
tranflations of matter, chyle, milk, and urine j the ope¬
ration of external remedies, &c. [^Q
In all thofe clafles of animals that poffefs a complete Abforptiotv
abforbent fyllem, the phenomena of abforption feem to in the low-
proceed much in the fame manner as in man ; but in cla1^
fome of the inferior animals, efpecially in mollufca and 1
worms,this function feems to be performed by the veins*. * Cuvier
In the echinodermata, however, efpecially in the fea-
urchin {echinus efculentus'), lymphatics have been de-p. LCi.
monllrated by the fecond Monro. In infedls and po¬
lypes there is no proper abforption. r^r
The abforbing veffels of plants are chiefly the fibrils Abforption
of the roots, which evidently imbibe moiflure, and per-of plants,
haps gafeous fluids, from the earth •, but there have alfo
been demonftrated veflels opening beneath the outer
bark, wdiich botanical phyfiologifts conlider as lympha¬
tics. “ Lymphatic veffels (fays Wildenow), are found in
the epidermis of plants, and are of great minutenefs, ana-
flomofing in various ways through fmall intermediate
branches.” They furround the apertures of the cuticle,
by which the inhalation and exhalation of vegetables are
carried on ; but they are fo minute as not to have yet
been filled with coloured liquids. Round each opening,
which is commonly ffiut by a moveable valve, they form
a circle, rarely a rhombus, as in the %eamays. In the
lilium calcedonicum, thofe veffels run obliquely, and fome- Plate
what in an irregular undulating manner, fig. 2. In the CCGCS-vnr.
common onion {allium cepa), they run in a llraight,
though oblique and regular form, fig. 3. In the pink,
{dianthus
PHYSIOLOGY.
494 P H Y S I
Of (dianthm caryophylltts'), they are very firaight, with
Abforption. flraigjjt an(j [j urizontally tranfverfe branches, tig. 4. In
* TVUde alrno^ every plant they have their certain and peculiar
new's direction, which in each remains conltantly the fame*.
Brine, of The theory of ablorption is Itill but imperfedtly un-
Bot. ted. derftood. We lhall briefly notice the principal hypo-
thefes that have been brought forward to account for the
Theory of entrance of fubftances into the mouths of the abforbing
abierptjon. veffels ; for this part of the procefs alone feems to be
dilputed.
It was long the opinion of phyiiologifts, that fluids
enter the mouths of the abforbents on the principle of
capillary attraftion^ but as the abforbing veflelsare not
circumllanced like rigid capillary tubes, immerfed in a
fluid j and as, were this hypothefisjuft, ahforption ftiould
go on with regularity, and all fluids ftiould be abforbed
indilcriminately, neither of which circumftances is true;
this hypothefis is now generally abandoned.
Mr John Hunter accounted for the entrance of fub¬
ftances into the mouths of the abforbents, by attributing
to the mouths of thefe veffels a power of nibbling, fimi-
lar to that exerted by a caterpillar when feeding on a
leaf This opinion may be called ingenious, but is cer¬
tainly very wild and fanciful.
Dr Fullarton, in a thefis on abforption, publifhed at
Glafgow in 1800, attributes to the abforbing orifices, a
power of fudlion fimilar to that of the probofeis of but¬
terflies, and the tentacula of fome marine animals.
The firft and third of thefe hypothefes fuppofe the ab¬
forbents incapable of taking up any but fluid fubftances ;
but we well know that even the hardeft bones are fome-
how abforbed, and conveyed to the circulation. We
muft therefore add another hypothefis, which fuppofes
that there is fecreted in the animal body, a fluid capable
■^Duncan’s °f diffolving flefti and bonesf. The hypothefis, however,
Med. Com is without foundation. It is contrary to the fimplicity
vol. x. 0f the animal economy, that there Ihould take place, firft,
P- 354- a fecretion of folid matters to comnofe the ftru&ure of
the body, and then a fecond fecretion to diffolve them.
We muft therefore confider this part of phyfiology as a
fubjefl of future inveftigation.
When the abforbed fubftances have once paffed the
barrier of the firft valve, it is not difficult to account for
their further progrefs through the lymphatics. A con¬
tinual fuectflion of freffi abforbed matter muft drive for¬
ward what is already in the veffels, while the valves muft
in general prevent its reflux. The impelling force from
behind is alfo probably affifted by the irritability of the
veffels. It is not fo eafy to decide how the abforbed
matters pafs through the glands, if, as is generally be¬
lieved, they do not in thefe form continuous tubes, there
muft be a frelh abforption by the mouths of the veffels
that pafs out of the gland, which is as difficult to account
for as the firft reception at the origin of the veffels.
Relations of The relations that take place between abforption and
abforption the preceding funftions, are perhaps the leaft underftood
'Wlth of any that occur in the animal economy. We know
functions’ t^iat t^e ()f the abforbents is greatly affifted by
mufcular motion, and that it is in general moft defective
in indolent and fedentary perfons. An evident fympa-
thy is alfo obferved between the ftomach and the ab¬
forbents. Naufea, and efpecially vomiting, are power¬
ful promoters of abforption, and fome remarkable in-
ftances are related of the fpeedy abforption of a large
O L O G Y. Chap. VI]
quantity of purulent matter from an abfeefs, in conle- Of
quence of violent vomiting.
Chap. VII. Of Circulation.
1'irculatioi
*94
We have traced the nutritious particles of the food Ckcnhtio
from the inteftines through the laileals, the menfenteric
glands, and the thoracic duft, into the left fulclavian
vein, where we find the chyle is mixed with the venous
blood, and carried to the right auricle of the heart. We
muft now confider how the fluids are conveyed to every
part of the body, or we muft examine the funftion of
circulation.
This function takes place in all the vertebral animals, Orgaw,
and in mollufca, worms,andcruftacea; but there appears
to be no real circulation in infefts, zoophytes, and plants.
The organs by which circulation is performed differ
effentially in the feveral claffes of animals. Thofe of
the human fyftem have been deferibed in the firft part of
Anatomy, fe£l. x. and xi. and a brief comparative
view of thefe organs in the inferior animals, has been
given in the fecond part of that article, N° 154, 201—
204, 300, Stc. and in the articles Cetology, Erpeto-
logy, Ichthyology, and Ornithology. For a fuller
account of thefe latter, we may refer to Cuvier’s Lepons,
le^. xxiv and xxv. and to the Comparative Anatomy of
Blumenbach, chap. xii.
It is well known that, in the red-blooded animals, the
blood is not of the fame ftiade of red in every part of the and fyfte.
body; but that what has paffed through the lungs, and^^P^
is circulating through the arteries that proceed from the
aorta, is of a florid red colour, while that which is fent
to the lungs by the pulmonary artery, as well as that f
which is returning from the extremities of the arteries
through the veins, is of a purple or crimfon colour. As
one fet of organs always contains florid, and another fet
always crimfon blood, it is convenient to diftinguifh each
fet by an appropriate name. Dr Barclay has done this,
and he calls that fet of organs which are employed to
convey the blood from the arteries, and diftributed to
the lungs, pulmonic, comprifing the pulmonic veins, viz.
the vena cava and its branches, pulmonic auricle, pul¬
monic ventricle, and pulmonic arteries: while he denomi¬
nates that fet of organs which return the blood from the
lungs, and diftribute it to the fyft.em,fystemic, compre¬
hending the fyftemic veins (pulmonary veins), fyflemic
auricle, fyftemic ventricle, and fyftemic arteries, (the
aorta and its ramifications). One great advantage of
this nomenclature, is that it prevents the ambiguity of
the exprtffions right and left, anterior and pnferior, ap¬
plied to the auricles and ventricles of the heart. We
ffiall therefore employ them in the fubfequent part of this
chapter*. * Set Bit
For an account of the nature and properties of theWay on
blood, fee ANAlOMY,Part I. feift. 14. and CHEMISTRY,
n° 2642, u. . ,., . , fsr
It may not be improper, m this chapter, to notice the
principal arguments that have been ufed to prove the proofs of
circulation of the blood. They are as follow :
I. W7hen an artery is tied, the part of the artery that
is betwixt the ligament and the heart, fwells ; but that
part of it which is betwixt the ligature and the remote
tranche's, becomes more flaccid than before. On the
other hand, when a vein is tied, the part between the li¬
gature
the circa
tion of th
< lap. VTI.
Of gature and the remote branches, fwells, while the part
I •ulation. between the ligature and the heart becomes flaccid,
t 'V*^ 2. The valves placed at the mouths of the aorta and
pulmonary artery, muft prevent the blood from regur¬
gitating into the ventricles, while they permit it to flow
forward through the arteries, into the capillary branches
of the veins. Again, the valves fituated in the courfe
of the veins prevent the blood from flowing back into
the arteries, while they permit it to proceed forward
through the venous trunks into the heart.
3. By the afliitance of a microfcope, the blood may
be feen in the pellucid parts of animals, as the feet of
frogs, flowing from the arteries into the veins.
4. When an artery of moderate fize is wounded, and
not fecured by ligature or compreflion in proper time,
the blood flows out till the animal be dead.
5. Any thin liquid, when injefted into an artery, does
not pafs backwards into the heart, but flows forward in¬
to the inofculating veins. On the other hand, fuch a
liquid thrown into a vein, flows towards the heart, and
not into the fmaller branches of the vein.
The phenomena of circulation in the human body
have been already mentioned under Anatomy, fed. xii.
and xiii. and under Medicine, N° 95. We (hall here
only offer a compendious view of the courfe of the blood
in the adult and in the foetal Bate,
cuktion After birth, the blood coming from every part of
.he adulttbe body through the numerous ramifications of the ve¬
il. na cava, is poured into the right or pulmonic auricle of
the heart, by the contraction of which it is thrown into
the right or pulmonic ventricle, which contracting,
throws it into the pulmonary artery, being prevented
from regurgitating into the auricle by the aCtion of the
tricufpid valves. It is now, by means of the ramifications
of the pulmonary artery, diftributed through the lungs,
from which it is brought back by four principal pulmon¬
ary veins, and poured into the left or fyftemic ventricle,
which contracting with great force, propels it into the
aorta, it being prevented from regurgitating into the au¬
ricle by the aCtion of the mitral valves. The blood
being propelled into the aorta, is by its trunks and
branches, diltributed to every part of the body, and
brought back as before by the ramifications and trunks
of the vena cava.
tidation ^osta^ ^ate> t^ie blood being brought back
the hu- from every part of the body by the ramifications and
a foetus, trunks of the vena cava, is p>ured into the pulmonic
auricle of the heart, where it is mixed with the blood
brought from the placenta. A part of this blood is con¬
veyed from the finus of the auricle while in a ftate of di¬
latation, through the oval hole, into the fyftemic auricle;
while another part, by the contradion of the aoricle, is
thrown into the pulmonic ventricle, which contraCling,
propels it into the root of the pulmonary artery. From
this the greate*- part of the blood pafles through the ar-
terious canal, that in the foetus joins the pulmonary ar-
terv to the aorta, into this latter ; while the remainder is
diftributed by the ramifications of the pulmonary artery
to the lungs, and brought back by the pulmonary veins
to the fyftemic auricle of the heart. By the contraction
of this auricle, the blood is thrown into the fyftemic ven¬
tricle, which contracting, propels it into the aorta. Now,
while one part of the blood is diftributed by the numer¬
ous ramifications of the aorta to every part of the body
PHYSIOLOGY.
495
of the foetus, another part is carried from the internal u* .
iliac arteries, through the two umbilical arteries, into ( |rcu^aU0P'
the placenta, from which it is conveyed through the
umbilical vein to the finus of the liver. Hence, one part
of the blood, without entering the liver, is tranfmitted
by a branch of the umbilical vein, called venous du£t, in¬
to the left branch of the vena cava hepatica ; thence in¬
to the inferior great vena c^ava ; while another part, by
another branch of the umbilical vein, flows into the left
branch of the vena porta, by the numerous ramifications
of which it is diflributed to the liver. From the liver
it is carried by the vence cavee hepaticce into the inferior
great vena cava, whence it is conveyed with the reft of
the blood, to the pulmonic auricle of the heart, to be
diftributed as before. 200
We muft now briefly confider the powers by which Powers car-
tbe blood is made to circulate through fuch a multitude ryingon ft1®
of veffels, fo infinitely ramified, and differing fo much Clrcu atlon*
in their diameter. It feems generally allowed at the
prefent day, that thefe powers are chiefly the immediate
mufcular a&ion of the heart, the action of the arteries,
the valves of the veins, and the preffure produced on
fome of the veins by the adlion of the mufcles that lie
contiguous to them. 20J
1. That the heart muft poffefs very confiderable force 0f
in propelling the blood through the arteries, may be the heart,
fuppofed from the great mufcularity of its ventricles ;
and this force has been proved by experiment and ob-
fervation. From experiments made by Hales, viz. that
of inferting a glafs tube into a large artery, and meafur-
ing the height to which the blood afeends at each pul-
fation, it has been calculated, that the human carotid
artery is capable of projecting its blood to a perpendicu¬
lar height of feven feet and a half; and if we eftimate
the furface of the fyftemic ventricle at 15 fquare inches,
we fhall find that it fuftains a preffure of 1350 cubic
inches, equal to 51 pounds weight, which it has to
overcome by its contracting force *. This is a moderate * Hales's
computation of the force of the heart, for Borelli e,§\-Statical
mates it at 180,000 pounds, while Keill diminifhes it
to eight ounces. Senac again, from having obferved,
that if a weight of 50 pounds be attached to the foot,
with the knee of that fide placed over the oppofite
knee, the weight will be railed at each pulfation, and
allowing for the diftance at which the weight is placed
from the centre of motion, computes the force of the
heart at 400 pounds f. Blumenbach has feen the blood f Traiti
projeCIed from the carotid of an adult more than five du Cceur.
feet J. On a medium calculation, eftimating the quan- f Injtitu-
tity of blood contained in the body at 30 pounds, the^0'^-* Phy*
number of pulfatinns in each minute at 75, and
quantity of blood ejeCted from the fyftemic ventricle at
each contraction at two ounces and a half, we lhall find
that the whole 30 pounds of blood will be carried
through the whole body no lefs than 23 times in an
hour, or the circulation will be completed in lefs than
three minutes. From thefe circumfiances we muft infer
that the impelling power of the heart is very great, and
fully adequate to the office which it has to perform.
Various hypothefes have been formed to explain how
the heart and arteries are excited to motion, but our li¬
mits will not permit us to detail tin m. Our readers
will find them related at confiderable length, and iuily
examined in the Principes de pInjfiologie of Dumas, tom.
iiiw
^ Hunter
on the
'Blood,
p. H4.
203
V alvular
495 P H Y S I
Of In. p. 332—364. The general opinion at prefent en-
€irciilation. terta;ned on this fubjedl is, that the heart is excited to
2Q2 a&ion by the ftimulus of the blood.
Adtion of 2. Although it is more than probable that the aftion
the arteries, of the heart is the principal inftrument in carrying on
the circulation, there can be no doubt that the arteries
contribute effentially to this office. They are evidently
mufcular, and are poffeffed of confiderable irritability j
are fupplied with numerous nervous filaments, and are
nouriffied by fmall arterial branches, commonly called
’vafa vaforum. Nay, we know that they are fufceptible
of contraftion \ for when we divide an artery in the liv¬
ing body, the divided extremities gradually contraft,
till, if the animal is not killed by the experiment, the
aperture is at length obliterated *. Laftly, there have
been inftances of foetufes without a heart *, and as we
mull fuppofe that, during the life of the foetus, the cir¬
culation was going on, it is a natural inference that this
was chiefly effected by the contraction of the arteries,
and not entirely by the impelling power of the circulat¬
ing fyftem of the mother.
3. It cannot be fuppofed that the veins have any im-
ftrudture of mediate aftion on the blood, as they exhibit no circular
the veins. £bres like the arteries, except in the immediate vicinity
of the heart; but their valvular ftruCIure muil: contri¬
bute to the carrying on of the circulation, from the op-
pofition it gives to the return of the blood, fo that what
is called the vis a tergo, or impelling power from be¬
hind, aided by the conical form of the veins, may have
304 its full effeCt.
ACtion of 4, That the aCHon of the mufcles has confiderable in-
tlie mufcles. flUence in propelling the blood towards the heart, in
thofe veins that lie in their neighbourhood, is evident
from the effeCt that bodily exercife produces in accele¬
rating the circulation, and from the efficacy of friCtion
in removing congeftions of blood in the veins of the ex¬
tremities, and in the more familiar inftance of promot¬
ing the fwelling of the veins of the arm by the fame
205 means in the operation of bleeding.
Circulation The circulation in thofe animals whofe ftruCIure ap-
of the mfe- proaches to that of man, differs little from what is above
delcnbed. I here are indeed fome peculiarities, a few
of which we fhall prefently notice. An account of the
circulation in the cetacea will be found in the article
Cetology, N° 140—145’ of the reptiles is de-
fcribed under Erpetology, p. 309.
The mollufca poffefs an evident and powerful circu-
Moft of them have a Ample heart, confiding of
one. auricle and one ventricle ; and in thefe the vena cava
performs the office of an artery, carrying the returning
blood to the gills, whence it paffes to the auricle, and
is afterwards thrown into the aorta. There is a pecu¬
liarity in the cuttle fiffi, which has a heart confifting of
three ventricles, without any part that can properly be
called an auricle. Two of the ventricles are placed at
the roots of the two bronchiae, and have each a branch
of the vena cava, by which they receive the blood from
the body, and propel it into the bronchiae. The re¬
turning veins open into the middle ventricle, and from
this the aorta proceeds.
Some of the vermes, as the leech, and the tribes of
the naias, nereis, and aphrodita-, and fome fpecies of
lumbricus, have no heart, but they have circulating vef-
fels with evident contra&ion and dilatation. "
In the crujlacect, the circulation is performed by a
nor am
trials.
206
Circulation
of the mol- latJun
lufca ;
207
in the
"vermes;
20S
in crufta-
cea.
O L O G ¥. _ Chap. VI
Angle ventricle, expelling the blood into the arteries of Of
the body, and receiving it again after it has paffed
through the gills, in a manner very fimilar to the circu- '‘““v"
lation of filhcs.
There is no circulation in infers j but thefe animals Contnf
have running along the back a membranous tube, iningand l
which alternate contractions and dilatations are percep-latjng u|
tible. This tube, however, is clofed at both ends, andm^e^|
and has no veffels proceeding from it.
From the refearches which evince circulation to be aNocim
fundiion fo general among animals, fome are difpofed totionin
think it takes place in all living bodies. But notwith-Plants, j
Handing the faftiionable language of circulating fluids,
of veins, arteries, and even of valves, in the vegetable
ftrufture 5 yet nothing performing the office of a heart,
and nothing that feems to conduit fluids in a circular
courfe, has been found in plants. In the vegetable
kingdom, the chyle is diftributed to all the parts, from
the numerous veffels which convey the fap j and thefe
veffels, being fitted by their ftruiture to carry the fap
either downwards or upwards, from the branches to the
roots, or from the roots to the branches, is the reafon
why plants inverted in the ground wall fend forth roots
from the place of their branches, and fend forth branches
from the place of their roots. Even a fimilar diftribu- 2n
tion of the chyle takes place in fome animals. In thenorinfoi
human taenia, in the fafciola hepatica (fluke) of Iheep, animals,
and in molt polypes, the chyle, without a circulating
fyftem, is conveye.d direitly to the different parts from
the alimentary canal.
For an account of the motion of fap in plants, fee
Darwin’s Phytologia, a paper by Mr Knight in the
Philofophical Tranfa&ions for 1801, Wildenow’s Prin¬
ciples of Botamj, feft. 276, and the article Plant in
this Encyclopaedia. m
The relations that fubfift between the funftion of cir-Relation!!
culation, and thofe which we have already confidered,between
are very important. We ftiall begin with thofe of cir-
culation and fenfation. That the funftions of the ner-tion<
vous fyftem muft be confiderably influenced by the cir¬
culation of the blood, may be fuppofed a priori, from
the large quantity of blood fent to the head, this being,
on a moderate calculation, about one-tenth of the whole.
A certain quantity of blood in the veffels of the brain
feems effential to the due performance of the funflions
of that organ *, and thofe animals, which, like man,
have the blood fent in greateft quantity, and with great-
eft impulfe, feem to poffefs the faculties of the brain in
the greateft perfeftion, while thofe in whom the mo¬
tions of the blood towards the head is much retarded,
as in the ffieep and cow, are remarkable for mildnels
and ftapidity. When, however, the quantity of blood
becomes too great, or its impetus too violent, the facul¬
ties of the brain are impaired, or altogether deftroyed.
No man, and very few other animals, can remain fuf-
pended with the head downwards for any long time,
without dangerous, and commonly fatal confequeirces.
The bat, indeed, is a remarkable exception to this rule,
for this animal can hang by its hinder feet for days or
weeks together, with perfect fafety, a circumftance that
may be accounted for from the very imall quantity of
blood contained in its circulating veffels. Again, the
brain exerts an evident influence on the circulation. It
is well known how much the a<ftion of the heart and ar¬
teries is quickened, impeded, or rendered irregular, by
the
hap. VH. PHY SI
the paflions of the mind. Cafes are recorded in which
thefe paffions, carried to excefs, have altogether Hopped
the circulation, and produced inllant death. Fainting
is often brought on by the fight of a difguftingor terri¬
fying obje£t, or by the odour of perfumes, or of fub-
tfances to which the perfon has a particular antipathy.
The fympathy between the heart and the nervous fy-
ftem is farther (hown by the violent pain below the
Jlernum, and fometimes in the arm, in cafes of organic
difeafe of the heart.
The circulation is even affe&ed by intenfe thought;
and we have heard of a bleeding from the nofe being
brought on by long and deep ftudy, while the body was
in a reclining pofture, namely in bed.
elations The functions of circulation and motion are intimate-
itween ly related. It is fcarcely neceffary to notice the accele-
rculation ration of the pulfe, in confequence of exercife and la-
id motion* hour, or to remark that in indolent and fedentary people
the circulation is generally flow and languid. In gene¬
ral, too, the blood circulates with moft: rapidity in thofe
animals who are formed for quick motion, though the
inftance above quoted, of the bat, fliows that the quick-
nefs of motion does not depend on the quantity of blood.
Several curious anatomical fafts have rendered it proba¬
ble, that the production of quick or flow motion depends
in a great meafure on the mode in which the arterial
branches are diftributed to the moving organs. The
arterial branches that fupply the organs of voluntary
motion, are divided in fuch a manner as to impede the
motion of the blood towards thefe organs as little as pof-
fible : their ramifications are therefore few, and they go
off from the trunk at very acute angles; whereas thofe
that fupply the vifcera are at nearly right angles, are
often tortuous, and are otherwife fo conftruCled as fre¬
quently to impede the flow of blood. Phyfiologifts have
even explained the greater power that is generally found
in the right arm, and the greater readinefs with which
moft people ufe that arm, by the manner in which the
right fubclavian artery comes off from the aorta. This
indeed we are difpofed to confider as fanciful, and to
attribute the more ready ufe of the right arm folely to
habit and early inftruClion not to employ the left.
In fome animals that are remarkable for flownefs of
motion, as the lemur tardigradusi or flow lemur, and
I. «4
'iftribu-
on of the
'teries in
w'm^5°fcuri°us conftruClion of the arteries that are diftributed
^ig ani- " to the limbs of thefe flow-moving animals, which muft
ials. have the effeCl of breaking the force, and impeding the
velocity of the blood towards thefe limbs. In the lemur
tardigradus, a fpecimen of which was differed by Mr
Carlifle, it was found that the fubclavian artery and the
external iliac were, foon after rifing from the general
trunk, divided into a great number of equal-fized cylin¬
ders furrounding the principal artery, now diminilhed
to a very fmall fize, and that each of thefe branches
was fent to each of the principal mufcles of the limbs,
while the other arteries that fupplied the other parts of
the limbs were divided in the ufual arborefcent form.
Struck with this appearance, Dr Shaw and Mr Carlifle
afterwards examined feveral fpecimens of the floth, and
found a fimilar conformation, while in other fpecies of
bradypus, not remarkable for flow motion, no fuch ap-
* Shaw's pearance took place*. Fig. 5 & 6. Plate CCCCXVIII.
general reprefent the divifion of the arteries in the flow lemur
;or^ above defcribed.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
G L O G Y. . 497
The relations between the circulating and digeftive ^;r .
organs are proved by the hidden acceleration of the pulfe (
from ftimuli received into the ftomach ; from the dimi- 2I^
niftied circulation or fudden ceffation of the heart’s mo- Relations
tion from powerful fedatives received into the fame or-of circula-
gan, efpecially the prunus lauro-cerafus ; from the irre- ^on 'vltl1
gularity produced in the circulation in confequence ofc' ^
dyspepjia, and many other conliderations. 21<j
That there is an intimate relation between circulation Relation of
and abforption, cannot be doubted, though the nature circulation,
and effects of this relation are not yet well underftood. ab or^“
We. know that the veffels fympathize with the abfor-
bents in their activity or languor j that when the abfor-
bents are languid in their adtion, the blood-veffels, el-
pecially the exhalants, are in a feeble or relaxed ftate,
and that the abforbents are often roufed to greater ac¬
tion by remedies that firft a£t on the circulation. 21^
Numerous experiments have fliown how much the Adlion of
colour and confiftence of the blood are altered by the the veilehs
mere aftion of the veffels j and this difcovery has ena-
bled us to conjedlure with more probability than we did
formerly, why in infants and phlegmatic perfons the
blood is paler, in the choleric more yellow, and in the
fanguine of vermilion red. It explains likewife in fome
meafure, why the blood varies in the fame individual,
not only with regard to the ftate of health, but likewife
at the fame inftant j and why the blood which circulates
through the veins has not the fame intenfity of colour,
nor the fame confiftence, as that of the arteries 5 and why
the blood which flows through the organs of the brealt
differs from that which paffes languidly through the vif¬
cera of the lower belly. This power of the veffels over
the blood will bring us alfo to the true caufe why the
veffels vary in the denfity of their coats and in their dia¬
meters ; why they are fometimes convoluted in a gland,
and why they fometimes depofit their contents in a fol¬
licle *, why they are fometimes of a fpiral form ; why
the branches ftrike off at various angles j why they are
varioufly anaftomofed j why they fometimes carry the
blood with difpatch, and fometimes flowly through a
thoufand windings. By thefe means their adtion is va¬
ried, and the blood prepared numerous ways to anfwer
the ends of nutrition and fecretion.
On the varieties of the pulfe, and the morbid affec-
the bradypus tndaEtylus, or common floth, there is a tions of circulation, fee Medicine, N 96 ic>4»
Chap. VIII. Of Refpiration.
^ i s
While the fluids are palling through the body, by JSTec'effity
what is called the greater circulation, they give out cer- of refpira-
tain parts or principles, partly for the purpofe of nutri- tion.
tion, and partly to free the fyftem from noxious mat¬
ters. In order to regain fome of the principles which
they have loft, it is neceffary that they Ihould be expof-
ed to the influence of atmofpheric air •, for which pur¬
pofe they are made to pafs through appropriate organs,
which, as we have already obferved, are in general ei¬
ther lungs or gills. The adtion by which the fluids and
the air are made to adl on each other, is called refpira¬
tion, and confifts of two kinds, infpiration, by which the
air is received into the body, and expiration, by which
it is again thrown out.
So effential is refpiration to the fyftem, that fnails,
chameleons, and fome other animals, can live for years,
without any apparent nourifhment, provided they be not
3 R excluded
493
Of
Refpiration.
PHYSIOLOGY.
219
Organs.
2 21
Mechanifm
of refpira-
tion in
man.
excluded from air. We Lave feen a chameleon that
lived, and was vigorous, for 22 months, without any
food, and which might have continued to live much
longer, but for an unfortunate bruife by a fall.
Other phenomena equally demonftrate the importance
of air to the living body. The frog leaps away wanting
its heart; it furvives the lofs of the greateft part of its
fpinal marrow; without its head, it lives for fome
days, and its heart continues to circulate its blood. Bo-
relli found, that eels and ferpents, though their bodies
be opened, and the whole of their bowels be taken out,
are able to move for a day after, and yet, in all thefe
animals, the life is obferved to be fuddenly extinguifhed
when the all-vivifying air is excluded. Even the fmall-
eft infedl has died, and the plant loft its vegetative
power, when retained for any confiderable time in a
vacuum. Fifties themfelves, when placed under an ex-
haufted receiver, have ftarted anxioufly to the furface
of the water in queft of frefti air; and finding none,
have funk to the bottom and expired in eonvulfions.
It will prefently appear that this neceflity of air to life
is general in all the elaffes of organized beings (k).
The organs of refpiration belonging to the human fy-
ftem, viz. the, /arynx, windpipe, lungs, diaphragm, ribs,
and numerous mufcles, have been fuffieiently deferibed
in various parts of the article Anatomy ; and fome
account of thefe organs in the inferior animals has been
given in the fecond part of that article, N° 155, 156,
206, 208, 271—274, and in the articles Cetology,
Erpetology, and Ichthyology. For a more con-
plete account of the refpiratory organs in the inferior
animals, the reader is referred to Cuvier’s Lepons d"1 Ana¬
tomic Compared, Leq. xxvi. et xxvii. and to Blumen-
bach’s Comparative Anatomy, chap. xiv. and xv.
In examining the function of refpiration in warm¬
blooded animals, two circumftances are principally to
beconfidered; the mechanifm of refpiration, or the me¬
chanical means by which the organs are enabled to re¬
ceive and expel the air, and the effedls produced by re¬
fpiration on the circulating fluids, and on the fyftem at
large. Our principal objeft in this article is briefly to
explain the mechanifm of refpiration; to notice the ef-
fedts produced on the air by the refpiration of different
animals, with the effefts produced on them, and the re¬
lations that take place between refpiration and the pre¬
ceding fundlions of fenfation, motion, digeftion, and
circulation.
In order to make an infpiration, the intercoftal muf¬
cles, and the mufcular fibres of the diaphragm, are
thrown into contradftion, while at the fame time the ab¬
dominal mufcles, and the mufcular fibres of the wind¬
pipe, are relaxed. By thefe means the diaphragm being
drawn towards the faernm, and rendered lefs convex
towards the cheft, and the ribs being drawn upwards
(or forwards in quadrupeds), the cavity of the cheft is
enlarged, and the air remaining in the lungs being ra-
Chap. VIII.
refied, the external air ruflies in through the windpipe Of
by its own gravity, and diftendsthe lungs. In making Re(piration,
what is called a very deep infpiration, other mufcles
that are connected with the atlantal ribs, viz. thofe
called fealeni, trape%ii, cervicales defesndentes, ferrati
fuperiores, and pedloral mufcles, aflift to elevate the
ribs more than in an ordinary infpiration. By the ac¬
tion of the intercoftal mufcles the ribs are drawn atlan-
tad (upwards in man, and forwards in quadrupeds), be-
caufe the moft atlantal rib on each fide of the thorax is
fixed, and therefore all the other ribs are drawn towards
it; and they are alfo drawn peripherad (outwards), be-
caufe their greater curvature is in the diredlion of the
facrum, and becaufe they turn on their vertebral extre¬
mities as on a fulcrum.
In order to make an expiration, the abdominal muf¬
cles, and the mufcular fibres of the windpipe, are con-
trafted, while the intercoftal mufcles, and the mufealar
fibres of the diaphragm are at the fame time relaxed.
By thefe means, aided by the elafticity of the cartilages
of the ribs, and perhaps of the mediaftinum, the ribs are
drawn facrad (towards the facrum), while the dia¬
phragm, partly by its own mufcular adlion, and partly
in confequence of the preffure of the bowels, is rendered
convex towards the cheft. Thus, this cavity is confi-
derably diminiftied, the lungs are compreffed, and part
of the air is expelled through the windpipe. In making
a ftrong expiration, little more is neceffary than a more
powerful contradlion of the abdominal mufcles. m
The mechanifm of refpiration in mammalia is fo fi-In other
milar to that of man, that we need not enter into itja11™3^-
that oicetacea has been fufficiently explained under Fe¬
tology, N° 146—151; that of birds may be gather¬
ed from what has been faid on their ftrudlure, in the
comparative part of Anatomy, Ng 271, and in Orni¬
thology, N° 37; that of reptiles has been fully ex¬
plained under Erfetology, page 311 ; and that of
fifties under Ichthyology, page 73. The meehanifm
of this fundfion in the claffes of animals below thefe is
fo Ample, that a confideration of it is unneceffary. In
infedls the air enters the numerous ramifications of the
trachea; is carried by them into every part of the bo¬
dy, and is then returned by the fame paffages. In fome
of the mollufca, refpiration proceeds in a fimilar man¬
ner, by the ramifications of the pulmonary veffels that
enter by the neck; but in moft of thefe, and in all the
loweft tribes, fuch as worms and zoophytes, refpiration
feems to be carried on entirely by the pores of the
Ikin. 213
Many attempts have been made to afeertain the quan- Quantity 0
tity of air received and emitted in a Angle infpiration or a'r receive!
expiration. See Chemistry, N° 2535. This point^emit"
is not yet fully afeertained, but we may probably efti-
mate the quantity expelled by each ordinary exfpiration
at one-feventh part of the whole contents of the lungs,
and that of the moft violent expiration at about four-
fevenths
(k) It was long ago obferved by Pliny, that if the bodies of infedts are befmeared with oil, they foon perilh:
oleo illito wfeffa omnia exanimantur?'1 I he fame obfervation wTas afterwards made by Ray, who explained it by
Ihowing that in this way the pores through which the animals breathe are flopped. Mayow^alfo found, that if the
oil be applied only to fome of thefe pores, the neighbouring parts become paralytic, while the reft of the body con-
tinned found. See Ray’s Wifdom of God, and Mayow’s Tr a flat as.
hap. VIII. PHYSIOLOGY.
Of fevenths of that quantity ; or that the medium quantity
fpiration. 0f air confumed during a common infpiration or expira¬
tion is about 40 inches. *.
Another circumftance refpefting the mechanifm of
refpiration merits notice, viz. the ordinary number of
refpirations made in a minute by a healthy perfon. This
varies confiderably in different fubje£b, being in gene-
mbe7of ra^ greateft children, and lead in old peri'ons. Dr
fpirations Hales eftimated the number of ao in a minute •, the
ami- fubje£t of Dr Menzies’ experiments refpired only 14
lte> times in the fame period, while Mr Davy reckons his
refpirations at between 26 and 27 ; the fubjeft of the
experiments made by Meffrs Allen and Pepys, breathed
about 19 times in a minute, and with this Dr Thom-
fon’s experience agrees. The average of all thefe is
about 20, which we may probably conlider as a tolera¬
bly juft eftimate. Much, however, will depend on the
circutnftances in which the perfon is placed j on his
habits of a&ivity or idolence, of temperance or in-
temperance ; on the ftate of the atmofphere, &c.
xperimen- The chemical changes produced on the air by the
tl writers refpiration of animals have been defcribed, fo far as
i refpira- tjiey were tjien ^no^n, under CHEMISTRY, N° 2536.
Since that article was written, however, feveral valu¬
able obfervations have been publiftied, and the moft im¬
portant of thefe muft be here noticed 5 but as we can¬
not, in this place, give any thing more than a fummary
Iketch of thefe obfervations, we lhall here enumerate
the principal works that have appeared on this experi¬
mental part of our fubje6l. The chemical phyfiologifts
who have been moft confpicuous in thefe refearches are,
Mayow (in his Traciatus de Refpiratione, or the Ana/y-
Jts of his works by Beddoes) 5 Prieftley (Experiments
and Obfervations on Air) ; Lavoifier (Traite Etemen-
taire de CJiimie, Pimp cal and Chemical E/fuys, and a
work on Atmofpheric Air') ; Goodwyn (On the Connec¬
tion of Life with Refpiration) ; Coleman (On Sufpend¬
ed Refpiration') ; Menzies (On Refpiration); Spallanza¬
ni (Memoires fur la Refpiration), tranflated into French
by Senebier, and fince into Englifh, and Rapports de
PAir avec les Etres Organyes, &c. alfo collected by Se¬
nebier) } Davy (Refearches Philofophical and Chemical,
into the Nature of Nitrous Oxide; Ellb (Inquiry into
the EjfeBs produced on Atmofpheric Air by Refpiration),
and Allen and Pepys (Philofophical TranfaBions, 1808,
Part II. or Phil. Mag. vol. xxxii.). Moft of the faifts
obferved by thefe experimentalifts, except thofe of the
three laft: mentioned, have been colleHed by Dr Bo-
ftock, in his Effay on Refpiration, by Dr Thomfon in
his Syfem of Chemiflry, vol. v. third edition, and by
Mr johnfon in his Animal Chemijlry, vol. iii.
fcertained The following changes produced on air that has been
ranges on refpired by warm-blooded animals, feem to have been
Spired air. fully afeertained •, viz. 1. That the refpired air general¬
ly fuffers a fenfible diminution of bulk •, 2. That it lofes
a part of its oxygenous portion ; 3. That it acquires an
additional quantity of carbonic acid gas ; 4. That it is
charged with watery vapour. We fliall refume thefe
fafts, and confider the additional information which has
been acquired refpe<Bing them fince the publication of
our article Chemistry.
S volume I, Atmofpheric air generally fuffers, by the refpiration
(ii- of warm blooded animals, a fenfible diminution in its
m lea> bulk The refults of the experiments made by different
cheraifts on the diminilhed volume of refpired air, are
499
exceedingly various. Mr Davy makes the diminution pf _
amount to one-eighteenth f of the whole air infpired \ ^eri)liatl0l7
Lavoifier and Goodwyn eftimate it at no more than | rearci„
one-fixtieth J, and Dr Boftock fo low as one-eightieth ||, p.
while Crawford and fome later experimentalifts could | Boftock
perceive no diminution. Dr Thomfon ftates the re-0;/
fults of his experiments upon this fubjeft to be, that \n>nt‘on'
fome cafes he could perceive no diminution at all, while n //,' p, ^
in others it was perceptible. It was greateft when the
animal wras taken out repeatedly during the experiment,
or when he employed air purer than that of the atmo¬
fphere. He is difpofed to confider the diminution as
accidental, and as owing to fome abforption of air, al¬
together independent of refpiration, and exceedingly
various in different circumftances §. In the ex peri - ^ Syflem of
ments of Meflieurs Allen and Pepys, the general ave- Ch 'em, third
rage of the deficiency in the total amount of common v°h Y*
air infpired, appeared to be very fmall, amounting tol>' 735*
about fix parts in 1000, and they are inclined to attri- * pjppp
bute it, in a great meafure, to the difficulty of exhauft- Mag. '
ing the lungs fo completely after an experiment as be-vol. xxxib
fore it *. 228
2. Atmofpheric air, by the re fpiration of warm-blooded Part of its
animals, lofes a part of its oxygen.—From a com parifon °xyg«i ab-
of the experiments of Mr Davy, with thofe made byltr:u^c^'
Lavoifier juft before his death, Dr Thomfon eftimates
the quantity of oxygen confumed in a minute, by refpi¬
ration, at 31.6 cubie inches, making in 24 hours
45,504 cubic inches j and he concludes that in a day a
man confumes rather more than 25 cubic feet of oxy¬
gen, and that he renders unfit in the fame time for
fupporting combuftion and refpiration, no lefs than 125 V0I. v
cubic feet of air f. p. 736.
3. Atmofpheric air acquires, by refpiration, an addi- 229
tional quantity of carbonic acid gas.—The opinion of^a.*,bomc
Dr Menzies, that the bulk of carbonic acid gas pro-quhet!^ * "
duced by refpiration, is precifely equal to that of the 1
oxygen loft, appears now to be fully confirmed. In Mr
Davy’s experiments they correfponded very nearly J, f
and in thofe of Mr Dalton and Dr Thomfon, they cor-". P- 431-
refponded exactly. The latter chemift found, on the
whole, that the bulk of oxygen which difappeared was
fomew'hat greater than that of the carbonic acid gene¬
rated ; but the difference varied confiderably, and kept
pace with the diminution of the bulk of air refpired.
Hence he confiders it as owing to the abftradlion of
part of the air by fome other way than refpiration, and
allowing for this abftraflion, he has no doubt that the
bulk of the carbonic acid formed is precifely equal to
that of the oxygen that has difappeared. He is difpof¬
ed to confider the abfolute quantity of carbonic acid ge-
nex-ated in 24 hours, as fometbing lefs than 40,000 cu¬
bic inches on an average §. The following refults Syflem
the experiments made by Meffieurs Allen and Pepys,
thefe were made on a large fcale, may be confidered as
quite fatisfa&ory on this head. 1. It appears that the
quantity of carbonic acid gas emitted is exaflly equal,
bulk for bulk, to the oxygen confumed. 2. Atmo¬
fpheric air once entering the lungs, returns charged
with from 8 to 8.5 per cent, carbonic acid gas, and
when the conta&s are repeated almoft as frequently as
poffible, only 10 per cent is emitted. When the in-
fpirations and expirations are more rapid than ufual, a
larger quantity of carbonic acid is emitted in a given
time } but the proportion is nearly the fame, or about
3 R 2 eight'
vol. V.
P- 737-
5 c°
Of _ eight per Cent. The proportions of carbonic acid gas,
Refpiration. ju anj jap. portions of a deep infpiration, differ
as widely as from 3.5 to 9.5 per cent. 3. It appears
that a middle-fized man, aged about 38 years, and
whofe pulfe is 70 on an average, gives off 302 cubic
inches of carbonic acid gas from his lungs in 11 mi¬
nutes ; and fuppofing the produftion uniform for 24
hours, the total quantity in that period would be 39534
cubic inches {agreeing almojl exactly with Dr Thom-
Jon's ejiimate), weighing 18,683 grains, the carbone in
which is 5363 grains, or rather more than 11 ounces
troy 5 the oxygen confumed in the fame time will be
equal in volume to the carbonic acid gas j but it is evi¬
dent, that the quantity of carbonic acid gas emitted in
a given time, muff: depend very much upon the circum-
fiances under which refpiration is performed 5 and here
it may be proper to notice, that all thefe experiments
were made between breakfaft and dinner. 4. A larger
proportion of carbonic acid gas is formed by the hu¬
man fubjedf, from oxygen than from atmofpheric
air *.
4. Atmofpheric air returns from the lungs charged
PHYSIOLOGY. Chap. VIII.
may be fuch as to induce abforbents to a6f, and
* VhU.
Mag.
voi. xxxii.
p. 165.
230
Watery va¬
pour re
quired.
f Vhil.
Mag. xxxii
p. 269.
231
Is azote
loft ?
with aqueous vapour.—Of this circumilance there is no
doubt, but the quantity of water contained in the expired
air, and the fources from which it is derived, are {till in
difpute. Dr Thomfon eftimates the former at about 19
ounces per day 5 but he does not lay much flrefs on the
refults of his own experiments, as they were not fuffi-
ciently varied to give a fair average. As to the fources
of this watery vapour, it has been generally fuppofed,
that the water is formed in the lungs by a combination
of part of the oxygen confumed with hydrogen evolved
from the venous blood. This, however, is mere hypo¬
thecs. It has not been proved that hydrogen is evolved
from the blood j and as the quantity of oxygen con¬
fumed appears to be taken up in forming the carbonic
acid gas that is expired, there is none left to form wa¬
ter. No hydrogen, or any other gas, except carbonic
acid and azotic gas, appear to be evolved during the
procefs of refpiration f.
There is another change fuppoled by mod chemical
phyfiologifts, to be produced on the air by refpiration,
namely the lofs of part of its azote ; but this is dill dif-
puted. Dr Bodock concludes it to be probable, that
a ftnall portion of azote is lod, which he edimates on
an average at of the air refpired, making in 24
I E/piys on }j0Ur^ about 4.5 ounces, or four cubic feet J. Mr
r/o/pToo.Davy f°und th6 eonfumption of azote to amount to
j| Rejearch- about one feventh of that of oxygen |j ; and fome late
es, p. 433. experiments of Dr Henderfon afford a fimilar refult,
though in thefe the proportion is rather lefs f. Dr
Thomfon alfo found a lofs of azote, but it was extreme¬
ly incondant, fometimes being fcarcely perceptible, at
others confiderable. It kept pace with the diminution
of the bulk of the air refpired, and with the difference
between the bulk of the oxygen confumed, and the car¬
bonic acid formed. He conceives that a portion of the
air refpired difappears without undergoing any change,
and that this portion occafions the diminution of the
azote, and the difference between the bulk of the car¬
bonic acid formed, and that of the oxygen confumed.
He thinks it conceivable, that the difappearing of fuch
a portion may be confined to the unnatural circumdan-
ces occafioned by the experiment j that the difficulty of
throwing out the air from the lungs in thefe circumdan-
§ Nicholf.
your. Svo.
vol. viii.
p. 44.
ces, may oe men as to induce ablorbents to adt, and Of
remove a portion which in the ordinary date of the KefPiratl’o^
lungs would have been thrown out by expiration *.
Experiments on the changes produced on atnmfphe-
ric air and oxygenous gas, by the refpiration of the in-vol. v.
ferior animals, have been made chiefly by Vauquelin,P- 738.
Spallanzani, and Mr Davy, and fome of them have been ,, 2t>2
repeated and varied by Mr D. Ellis. From all thefe the1 afrb0*
experiments we find, that by the refpiration of amphi- the refpira.
bia, of fifhes, of infedls, of mollufca, and of worms, thehonofthe
air in which they have been confined differs changes lnfer“r 4n!i
analogous to thofe produced in it by the refpiration 0fmals•
the warm-blooded animals ; that the oxygenous part is
diminifhed, and that this diminution is mod complete
when infefts and worms have been confined in it j that
carbonic acid gas is in all cafes produced, but that the
quantity produced varies in different animals ; that fidies
live for the fhorted time, and amphibia and worms for
the longed, when confined in a certain quantity.
From the lated experiments made by Spallanzani,
on the effe&s both of living and dead animals, on at¬
mofpheric air, as colle&ed by Senebier, that experimen-
talid has drawn the following conclufions. 1. In begin¬
ning with worms, and riling up to man, there is no fpe-
cies of animal which does not dedroy the oxygen of the
atmofphere after death, and dedroy it entirely if it be
kept inclofed in it, provided the quantity be not too
great in proportion to the fize of the animal ; becaufe a
confiderable time is required when the volume of air is
large, and a lefs time when the quantity is fmall.
2. This dedruflion of oxygen by dead animals, is un¬
der fimilar circumdances flower than that effected by-
living animals if we regard merely the effeids produced
by the cutaneous organ, independent of the action of
the lungs.
3. Fie thought he had legitimately proved, that the
dedru&ion of oxygen by the cutaneous organ, is not
occafioned by the combination of this gas with the car-
bone of the animal; but that it is a true abforption of
that element, by the body of the animal deprived of
life. It does not give out carbone, but carbonic acid,
as he believed he had proved by unanfwerable experi¬
ments.
4. The abforption of oxygen by animals cut into finall
pieces, is greater than that occafioned by animals entire
in fimilar circumdances.
5. A cold-blooded animal of the fame bulk, and in
the fame circumdances as a W'arm-blooded animal, ab-
forbs more oxygen than the latter after death.
6. The {kin is not the only part of an animal which
abforbs oxygen 5 all the parts, folid, fluid, and foft, not| ^din.
excepting the dried horny parts, as the nails of qua- Med.
druneds, the bill and feet of birds, produce the fame ef- vo . v.
fed f. P iop-
It has long been known that plants would not vege- Effect:, of
tate, if excluded from atmofpheric air. Papin confined vegetaoon
an entire plant in the exhauded receiver of an air-pump, on the air.
and it foon periflied ; but on keeping a fimilar plant in
this vacuum, with only its leaves expofed to the air, it
continued to live for a long time J. When the leaves! Darwins
of a plant are dript off, or blighted by infedls ; when
they have the upper furface fmeared with oil, with var-P' ^
nifh, or laid upon wTater §, the plant dies in a few days. ^ Dtlas
Hence it is evident that the leaves of a plant are necef-
fary organs, and that there is produced on the air in1
which
Sf is'i
In ry,
P-
tt •
tl; 'food.
clip. vrn. PHYSI
)f which the plant vegetates, feme change effential to the
Be ation.healthy aftion of the plant. What this change is, has
u r—' not been fully afeertained. It is the general opinion,
that the leaves abforb a portion of the atmofphere, and
give out certain gafeous produ&s ; and it is generally
believed, that moft plants have the property of giving
out oxygenous gas during their expofure to the light,
and azotic gas or fome other irrefpirable air in the
dark. That oxygenous gas is neceffary to vegetation,
is fully proved *, and it feems certain, efpecially from the
experiments of Mr Ellis, that under the ordinary cir-
cumftances, carbonic acid gas is generated during their
vegetation *. Mr Ellis, who is not fatisfied with the
accuracy of the experiments of Scheele and Prieftley,
feems to doubt whether plants at any time give out oxy¬
genous gas *, and thinks that the principal ufe of oxygen
to them, is to combine with the fuperfluous carbone
produced by vegetation, and thus form the carbonic acid
evolved.
E) |s4of Having confidered the effe&s produced on the air by
re ation the refpiration of animals, and the vegetation of plants,
or e ani- we now notice the effe&s produced by the exercife
m yftetn. o£ tjie pame fon&ion on the animal body, as the compa-
rifon of thefe eflfe&s with the changes produced on the
air itfelf, affords us the only clue to a rational theory of
refpiration.
C geson We have already ftated (Chemistry, 2540), that
during refpiration, the blood changes from the dark co¬
lour which it has in the veins, to the bright fcarlet of
arterial blood. It has been found, that a clot of venous
blood, when out of the body, affumes the bright tinge,
when expofed to the a61 ion of oxygenous gas j and that
venous blood confined within a bladder, undergoes a fi-
milar change, when the bladder is immerfed in oxygenous
gas. It has been alfo found, that when arterial blood
out of the body is expofed to the a61ion of irrefpirable
gafes, it lofes its bright colour, and affumes the purple
hue of venous blood.
It is fully afeertained, that the heat of the body is
chiefly kept up by refpiration. See Chemistry, N°
2545.
- Let us now confider the moft probable theories of re-
11 ration, fpiration, chiefly as they are applicable to the human
fyftem. Without flaying to notice the older hypothefes
that have been advanced to explain this fun6fion, we
fliall only ftate the prefent moft received do61rine, and
mention the obje6fions that have been lately made to it.
This dodlrine is ftated in the following manner by Dr
Boftock, one of its moft ftrenuous defenders. “ The
blood arifes at the right fide of the heart, in a venalized
ftate, loaded with a quantity of the oxvde of carbone; as it
paffes through the pulmonary veflels, it becomes fubjedled
to the a61ion of the air contained in the bronchial cells ;
a portion of the oxygen is removed from the air, part of
which, forming an intimate union with the oxyde of car¬
bone, is expelled in the form of carbonic acid gas, while
the remainder is diflblved in the blood.” It is here
neceffary to remark, that it is not oxygenous gas. but
oxi/^en, which is fuppofed to be mixed with the blood.
The caloric thus fet at liberty is employed, part of it in
maintaining the temperature of the lungs, which would
otherwife be cooled by the admiflion of the external air }
part of it in carrying off the aqueous vapour, and another
portion in converting the carbonic acid into carbonic
acid gasj but the greateft part of it is united, in the
O L O G Y.
3«
It rate of
ti lera-
I T
„ !37
7 try of
-
"■try of
} n and
I ock.
501
form of fpecific heat, to the arterial blood, which, by 9^.^
becoming arterialized, has its capacity for heat increal- P“a 10n*
ed. The arterial blood is poured into the left cavity of
the heart, and propelled through the arteries into the
extreme parts of the body. The oxygen which was dif-
folved in the whole mafs of blood, during the circula¬
tion, gradually unites itfelf more intimately to a portion
of the carbone in it, which it converts into the oxide of
carbone, and thus the blood acquires the venous ftate.
By this change, its capacity for caloric is diminilhcd j
the fpecific heat which it obtained in the lungs, is given
out in the capillary veffels, to keep up the temperature
of the body, and the blood returns to the right fide of
the heart completely venalized. This hypothefis is near¬
ly fimilar to the one which was propofed by M. M. La
Grange and Haffenfratz ; it received Ibme modifications
from Mr Allen of Edinburgh, and was delivered by him
nearly in the form which I have ftated above, in his ad¬
mirable courfe of phyfiological le6tures. It was, I be¬
lieve, firft publilhed in my Effay on Refpiration . * Edin.
This do£trine, if fufficiently eftablilhed, would explain
the manner in which the blood becomes arterialized in
the courfe of the leffer circulation. It would alfo ftiew F
how, under particular circumftances, the arterial blood
may be venalized without leaving the arteries, and the
venous blood arterialized without leaving the veins. It
accounts for the gradual evolution of caloric in the ca¬
pillary veffels, during the courfe of the circulation, by
the union which takes place between the oxygen and the
carbone; whereas in the other hypothefis, (fee N° 241.3)
this union is entirely completed in the lungs. It would
allow a confiderable time in which this union might be
accomplifhed, and would likewife fuppofe the conftitu-
ent parts to remain in perfe6t contaft for an indefinite
period. This hypothefis would alfo explain how the
oxygen is difpofed of, which is fuppofed not to be con¬
cerned in the formation of carbonic acid, and -would
likewife poffefs the advantage of fuppofing the exiftence
of a furplus quantity of oxygen, which being carried
along the circulation, might be expended in a variety
of ufeful purpofes in the different parts of the animal
economy. It would ftiew how the fupply of matter
which is poured into the blood by the abforbents, is gra¬
dually incorporated with the mals 3 ®nd after the fepa-
ration of that portion, which is neceffary for repairing
the wafte of the different organs, the remainder is united
to oxygen, and keeps up the temperature of the body j
and, having afterwards no farther ufeful purpofe to ferve,
it is difeharged by the lungs f. f iS. p. 167.
Several obje6tions, however, may be made to this 439
theory. It is not proved that there is in natural refpi- ObjeAions.
ration any abforption of oxygen by the blood 3 for though
much of the oxygenous portion of the atmofphere is loft,
the quantity of carbonic acid generated is fufficient to
account for it. Mr Ellis has lately made very ftrong
objeftions to this fuppofed abibrption of oxygen, drawn
chiefly from the anatomical ftru61ure of the blood vef¬
fels, and of the bronchial cells. He contends that the
coats of the former, and the membranes bounding the
latter, can fcarcely admit the paffage of air through
them, much lefs that of the folid bafis of oxygenous gas,
which bafis Dr Boftock fuppofes to be the principle ab-
forbed. It is ft ill more improbable, according to Mr Ellis,
that two folid bafes, namely thofe of oxygenous gas, and
of oxide of oarbone, fhould be at the fame time pafling
through
PHYSIOLOGY.
f Ellis's]
Inquiry,
p. 1x7:—
123.
240
aufwered.
* Edin.
Med. Jour.
vol. iv.
p. 161.
etfeq.
241
Mr Ellis’s
opinion.
f Edin.
Med, Jour,
vol. iv.
P- 327
242
Objections
t Edin.
Jour.
vol. iv.
p. 163.
243
snfwered.
through thefe refifting membranes; a fuppofition that is
neceffary in the hypothecs juft ftated. Again, fuppofing
that this abforption of oxygen (hould take place, from
the affinity of the blood for this principle, it is not eafy
to conceive why this affinity fhould fo foon ceafe, and
why the blood fhould again part with the oxygen, to the
bafe of carbonic oxide Thefe objections are certain¬
ly very forcible ; let us fee how they have been anfwer-
ed.
Dr Boftock, in an ingenious reply to Mr Ellis’s ob¬
jections, in invalidation of the firft objection, quotes the
well-known experiment of Dr Prieftley, mentioned in
N° 235. that venous blood becomes changed when ex-
pofed to oxygenous gas, even though a bladder be in-
terpofed between them ; and in controverting of the reft,
lie feems chiefly to rely on the fuppofition that a greater
quantity of oxygen is confumed than is taken up in the
formation of the carbonic acid. He alfo does not confi-
der it as neceffanj to fuppofe that either the oxygenous
gas, or the oxygen itfelf, fhould enter the blood veflels,
and fhould afterwards be expelled from them ; but on¬
ly that a part of the oxygen fhould be attruBcd by the
blood, and after entering into a variety of new combina¬
tions, {hould be difcharged as a conftituent of fome of
thefe new compounds. Without inquiring in what way
the aCtion between the blood and oxygen takes place ;
whether it be in confequence of the mechanical ftruCture
of the membranes, which permits the oxygen to pafs
through their pores, or whether it be owing to the affinity
of the blood for oxygen, which caufes it as it were to be¬
come faturated with this fubftance before ittranfmits it;
it appears to him fufficient to ftate, that oxygen and
blood can aCt on each other, through a membrane which
is very much thicker, and probably much denfer, than
that which feparates the blood in the lungs from the air
in the bronchial cells *.
From a confideration of the principal experiments on
refpiration that have been made by the ableft chemical
phyfiologifts, and a comparifon of thefe with what he has
himfelf made, Mr Ellis contends that no part of the air
enters into the blood, but all the oxygen which difappears
is to be found in the carbonic acid produced ; and that
this carbonic acid is formed by the union of carbone
emitted by the exhalant veflels of the lungs, uniting
with part of the oxygenous portion of the infpired air f.
To this opinion Dr Boftock, in the paper already re¬
ferred to, makes the following objedlions ; that this opi¬
nion does not explain how the regular fupply of carbone
is, at each fucceffive circulation, brought to the lungs in
a ftate proper to be difcharged; and that it does not ex¬
plain in what way the oxygen is employed, which is con-
fumed in refpiration j:.
To the firft of thefe objeftions (which, if it be prov¬
ed that the whole of the oxygen is taken up in forming
carbonic acid, is the only obje&ion that can properly lie
againft his opinmn'), Mr Ellis replies, that the fupply of
carbone is derived from the digeftive organs ; but he
does not conceive, is Dr Boftock feems to imagine, that
this is no fooner received into the blood than excreted,
or that the firft operation which takes place in the fan-
guiferous fyftem after it has received the fubftance which
is to afford nutriment to the body, is to difcharge the
greateft part of it He regards carbone as a conftituent
part of the animal fluids, and he has endeavoured to
flhew, that it is emitted by the exhalants of the {kin and
Chap. VI]
inteftines, as well as by thofe of the lungs, producing in Of
all cafes fimil'ar changes on the air. Digeftion he holds RelPirati|
to be in no other way the fource of the carbone in thefe
fluids, than as it is the fource of all the other principles
which they contain. We know that all the phenomena
of refpiration are often exhibited for long periods where
no digeftive procefs is carried on ; but the fun&ions of
life muft fooner or later come to an end, if the various
means of exhauftion be not recruited by fupplies through
the digeftive organs. It is only in this diftant view that
he confiders digeftion as the fource of carbone ; its im¬
mediate fources are the exhalant functions of the body,
which will afford carbone as long as they are fupported
by the motion of the blood, and will no longer yield it
when the motion of the blood has ceafed. But whether*^,
the exhalant funftions continue or ceafe, he confiders,3W.I
that carbone exifts abundantly, if not equally, in the fe-vo1,1Vi
rum and craffamentum, in arterial and venal blood *. V'W’
On the whole, though the final caufes of refpiration,Theoryoi
or the ufes to which it is fubfervient in the animal eco-refpiratioj
nomy, are now pretty well underftood, we muft acknow-“Wf1
ledge that the mode in which thefe beneficial effefts are1)lete‘
produced, has not yet been fatisfa&orily explained. ^
The principal ufes of refpiration appear to be, 1. To Ufes of r<
bring about fome beneficial change in the fluids of the
body, and through them on the folids ; 2. To preferve
the equable temperature of the body; and, 3. In all thofe
animals that breathe by lungs to produce thofe founds
which arife from what we call voice. ^
That animal heat is kept up chiefly by refpiration, Animal
requires we think, no particular proof. It is well known,
that thofe animals which confume moft air during refpi¬
ration, have the higheft temperature. Birds in particu¬
lar have the moft extenfive breathing organs, and the
temperature of thefe animals is higher than that of any
other clafs. The refpiration of reptiles, fifties, and moft
of the loiver claffes, is flow and languid, and the tempe¬
rature of thefe animals is proportionally loiv. The heat
of each fpecics is, however, pretty uniform under ordi¬
nary circumftances. That of the human body is gene¬
rally about 98° of Fahrenheit. This however depends
on the circumftances in which it is placed. When much
chilled by the a£Hon of cold, the temperature of the hu¬
man body falls a degree or two below the ordinary
height; and under the influence of violent fever, it rifes
feveral degrees above it. The temperature is generally
higheft in children; and inftances are recorded of thefe
having furvived, while their mothers, to whofe breads
they clung, have perifhed from the feverity of cold. 547
One of the moft interefting fadls relating to the fub-Preferva
je£l of animal heat, is the capacity of preferving thetlon
equable temperature of their bodies, poflefledby moft ani-
mals. Man himfelf can live with little inconvenience turei
in^the frozen regions of Spitzbergen, and under the equa'-
torial heats of Africa. He can even fupport a greater
degree of heat than is perhaps ever known to take place
from the rays of the fun, as is proved by the experiment
of Drs Blagden and Fordyce in heated rooms; thefe
gentlemen having remained for 15 minutes together in
a heat exceeding 130°. The heat fupported by fome of
the inferior animals is ftill more extraordinary. A dog
has been known to live for a confiderable time in air
heated to 260°, and ftill the heat of his body was not
raifed more than 2° above its natural ftandard. A frog
has lived for more than 25 minutes when laid on flan¬
nel,
Cl p. VIII.. P H Y S 1
I f nel, heated from 95* to ic6°. Fithes live very well at
jjef ition. y2° ; and Lucas, in his hiitory of mineral waters, fpeaks
of carp that were living in a hot bath, whofe tempera¬
ture was at lead; equal to that of the human body.
How this equable temperature is preferved, cannot
be completely explained. We know that the heat of
the human body is commonly moderated by perfpiration $
but in fome cafes, as in that of Dr Fordyce alluded to
above, where the heated atmofphere was filled with
watery vapour, this could have little effe£t. We can
s afcribe it only to the adion of the living principle.
, It was long ago obferved by Ariftotle, that thofe ani¬
mals only who polfefs lungs, have a true voice, and this
opinion is confirmed by the experience of modern na-
turalifls. We find, that only mammalia, cetacea, birds,
reptiles and ferpents, can utter vocal founds. Several
tribes below thefe do indeed emit certain founds, efpe-
cially infeds j but thefe are owing to vibrations of the
air in confequence of the agitation of their external or¬
gans. It is only in mammalia and birds that the voice
becomes an interefting objed of enquiry 5 for that of the
cetacea is little more than blowing and grunting, and
that of the other two clafles is either hilling or croak-
9 ing.
Ar mg Nothing can exceed, in variety and execution, the
thi iman ^uman vo^ce i as readily be allowed, if we confider
vo' ' the complicated llrudure of the human vocal organs, and
the almolt infinite variety of changes of which they are
fufceptible. Dr Barclay has calculated thefe with great
accuracy, proceeding on the principle, that where a num¬
ber of moveable parts conftitutes an organ deftined to
fome particular fundion, and where this fundion is va¬
ried and modified by every change in the relative fitua-
tion of the moveable parts, the number of changes pror
duceable on the organ muft at lead equal the number of
mufeles employed, together with all the combinations
into which they* can enter. Now, the mufcles proper to
the five cartilages of the larynx, are at lead feven pairs;
and fourteen mufcles that can ad feparately or in pairs,
in combination with the whole, or with any two or
more of the red, are capable of producing 16,383 dif¬
ferent movements ; not reckoning as changes the vari¬
ous degrees of force and velocity^ nor the infinitely va¬
ried order of fuccedion by which they may occafionally
be brought into adion. The number appears almod
incredible; but to leffen the furprife, it mud be recol-
leded that rve fpeak not here of the powers poffeded by
any individual, which will depend on habits and circum-
dances, but of the porvers of the vocal organs, confider-
ed in the abdrad, free from all the influence of cudom,
equally indiffertent, and equally difpofed to ad in any
order of fucceflion, in any combination, and with any
degree of force and velocity of which their original
powers were fufceptible.
If the powers we have mentioned appear adonifliing,
and able to account for many thoufands of thefe varieties
obferved among the voices of the human fpecies, we have
further to add, that the mufcles alluded to are only the
proper mufdes of the larynx, or the mufcles redrided in
their attachments to its five cartilages. Thefe are but a
few of the mufcles of voice. In fpeaking we ufe a great
many more. Fifteen pairs of different mufcles, attached
to the cartilages, or os hijoides, and ading as agents, an-
tagonids, or diredors, are condantly employed in pre-
ferving the cartilages of the larynx deady, in regulating
..5
O L O G Y. 503
the place of their fituation, or moving them as ocoafion pf t
requires, upwards and downwards, backwards and for- [tefpnation.
wards, and in every way, diredly and obliquely, accord- y~""
ing to the courfe of the mufcular fibres, or in the diago¬
nal between different forces. Thefe mufcles, independ¬
ent of the former, are fufceptible of 1,073,741,823 dif¬
ferent combinations; and co-operating with the feven
pairs of the larynx, of 17,592,186,044,415, excluliveof
the changes which mud arife from the different degrees
of force and velocity, and the infinitely varied order of
fucceflion in which they may be brought into adion.
But thefe are not all that co-operate with the larynx,
either in forming or changing the voice ; the diaphragm,
the abdominal mufcles, the intercodals, and all that
diredly or indiredly ad on the air, or on the parts to
which the chondral and hyoidal mufcles are attached,
contribute their (hare. The os hyoides could not be raif-
ed unlefs the inferior jaw-bone were previoufly fixed by
the temporals, majjitcrs, and internal pterygoids ; and a
fimilar aflidance is likewife furnilhed by feveral other
auxiliary mufcles that fix the head,y?er«K/w, and fcapula ;
to thefe we mud add fome pairs belonging to the pharynx
and ijllmius fuucium, and fome alfo belonging to the
tongue, which, combining with others, give to that or¬
gan an inconceivable variety of movement; and fo quick¬
ly, that, in rapid utterance, they change its date 3000 f Barclay'a
times in a minute. Thus Haller could articulate
letters in a minute, which required 1500 contradions,
and as many relaxations of the lingual mufcles f. P'
The principal organ of voice is the larynx, which is Mechanifm
proved by the circumdance that, when this is injured, of voice
the voice is either lod, or rendered very, indidind. In and
ordinary refpiration the chink of the glottis feems to be
in a relaxed date, and when thus chink is contraded,
voice is produced, and the found of the. voice is more or
lefs flirill, according as the^ glottis is more or lefs con-
traded. By this contradion of the glottis alone v'e can
produce only inarticulate founds, varied indeed aimed
infinitely with refped to intenfity and tone, by the ac¬
tion of the mufcles. The produdion of fpeech requires
the adion of the tongue, the lips, the palate, and the
teeth ; and the articulations are mod complete, when all
thefe parts are mod perfed in their drudure, and in the
mod healthy condition. Too great length or fhortnefs
of the tongue, .{welling of this organ in confequence of.
inflammation, &c. imperftdion of the palate, lofs of
the teeth, fwelling of the lips, all ferve to render fpeech
imperfed and inarticulate. . The flrength of the voice
depends on the quantity of air expired, and on the con¬
tradion of the glottis; and confequently thofe animals
who have the mod capacious and mod dilatable lungs,
together with an ample cartilaginous and eladic larynx,
will, other things being equal, have the dronged voice. ^ ^
Among the various effeds of the human voice, there vent2/ii0.
is none more calculated to produce furprife in the htar-quifm.
ers, than that extraordinary talent which fome men pof-
fefs of deceiving their hearers into a belief, that the
founds which they utter do not proceed from the real
fpeaker, but from fituations at a diflance. This talent
has been termed ventriloquifm, from an idea that the
voice of the fpeaker. proceeded not from the mouth, but
from the belly. The mod remarkable inflance of this
rare talent of which we have heard, is that of M. Fitz-
James, who was formerly at Paris, and exhibited in
London in the year 1803.. Mr Nicholfonhas given an
amufing,
5°4
Of amufmg account of the performance of this ventriloquift,
Refyiration. an(j we prefent part of it to our readers.
After fome remarks on the nature of ventriloquifm,
which we fhall notice prefently, and on the difficulty of
afcertaining the dire&ion of the found, Mr Nicholfon
thus proceeds :—“ We flrould fcarcely be difpofed to a-
fcribe any definite diredtion to it ; and eonfequently are
readily led to fuppofe it to come from the place belt
adapted to what was faid. So that when he went
to the door, and afked in French (in which the whole
performance was carried on), ‘ are you there ‘ to a per-
fon fuppofed to be in the paffage, the anfwer in the un-
ufual voice was immediately afcribed by the audience to
a perfon actually in the paflage; and upon {hutting the
door and withdrawing from it, when he turned round,
diredting his voice to the door, and faid, ‘ ftay there till
I call you,’ the anfwer which was lower, and well adapt¬
ed to the fuppofed diftance, and obflacle interpofed, ap¬
peared ftill more ftrikingly to be out of the room. He
then looked up to the ceiling and called out in his own
voice, ‘ what are you doing above ?’ ‘ do.you intend to
come down ?’ to which an immediate anfwer was given,
which feemed to be in the room above, ‘ I am coming
down diredtly.’ The fame deception was pradtifed on
the fuppofition of a perfon being under the floor, who
anfwered in the unufual, but a very different voice from
the other, that he was down in the cellar putting away
fome wine. An excellent deception of the watchman
crying the hour in the ftreet, and approaching nearer the
houfe, till he came oppofite the window7, was pradlifed.
Our attention was diredfed to the ftreet by the marked
attention which Fitz-James himfelf appeared to pay to
the found. He threw up the fafh and afked the hour,
which was immediately anfwered in the fame tone, but
clearer and louder*, but on his (hutting the window down
again, the vmtchraan proceeded lefs audibly, and all at
once the voice became very faint, and Fitz-James in his
natural voice faid, ‘ he has turned the corner.’ In all
thefe inftances as well as others which were exhibited to
* the very great entertainment and furprife of the audience,
the acute obferver will perceive that the diredfion of the
found was imaginary, and arofe entirely from the well-
ftudied and fkilful combinations of the performer. Other
fcenes w7hich were to follow required the imagination to
be too completely mifled to admit of the adtor being
feen. He went behind a folding fcreen in one corner
of the room, when he counterfeited the knocking at a
door. One perfon called from within, and was anfwer¬
ed by a different perfon from without, who was admit¬
ted, and we found from the converfation of the parties,
that the latter was in pain, and defirous of having a tooth
extradled. The dialogue, and all the particulars of the
operation that followed, would require a long difcourfe
if I were to attempt to defcribe them to the reader. The
imitation of the natural and modulated voice of the ope¬
rator, encouraging, foothing, and talking with the pa¬
tient *, the confufion, terror, and apprehenfion of the fuf-
ferer *, the inarticulate noifes produced by the chairs and
apparatus, upon the whole, conftituted a mafs of found
which produced a ftrange but comic effeft. Some ob-
fervers would not have hefitated to alfert, that they
heard more than one voice at a time ; and though this
certainly could not be the cafe, and it did not appear
fo to me, yet the tranfitions were fo inftantaneous, with¬
out the leaf! paufe between them, that the notion might
PHYSIOLOGY.
Chap, VI
very eafily be generated. The removal of the fcreen Of
fatisfied the audience that one performer had effededKefpi™
the whole. '""""’V'*
“ His principal performance, however, confifted in the
debates at the meeting of Nauterre, in which there were
twenty different fpeakers, and certainly the number of
different voices was very great. Much entertainment
was afforded by the fubjeft, which was taken from the
late times of anarchy and convulfion in France j when
the loweft, the moft ignorant part of fociety, was called
upon to decide the fate of a whole people by the ener¬
gies of folly and brute violence. The fame remark may
be applied to this debate, as to the other fcene refpefting
tooth-drawing *, namely, that the quick and fudden tranfi
itions, and the great differences in the voices, gave; the *PW/Sy
audience various notions, as well with regard to the num-^0^- S
ber of fpeakers, as to their pofitions and the direction ofvu1'IV' i
their voices ^
Various explanations of this peculiar modification of How ex.
voice have been given. From the report of Fitz-James plained,
himfelf, it appeared to Mr Nicholfon, that by long prac¬
tice he had acquired the faculty of fpeaking during the
infpiration of the breath, with nearly the fame articula¬
tion, though not fo loud, nor fo variouily modulated, as
the ordinary voice, formed by expiration of the air. M.
Richerand, who heard Fitz-James at Paris, gives a dif¬
ferent account of the matter. He fays that every time
the ventriloquift: exerted this unufual peculiarity, he fuf-
fered diftention in the epigaftric region 5 that fometimes
he perceived the wind rolling even lower, and that he
could not long continue the exertion without fatigue.
Richerand believes that the whole mechanifm of this art
confifts in a flow, gradual expiration, drawn in fuch a
way, that the artift either makes ufe of the influence ex¬
erted by volition over the mufcles of the parietes of the
thorax, or that he keeps the epiglottis down by the bafe
of the tongue, the apex of which is not carried beyond
the dental arches.
He always made a ftrong infpiration juft before this
long expiration, and thus conveyed into the lungs a
confiderable mafs of air, the exit of which he afterwards
managed with fuch addrefs. Therefore repletion of the
ftomach greatly incommoded the talent of M. Fitz-
James, by preventing the diaphragm from defcending
fufficiently to admit of a dilatation of the thorax, in pro¬
portion to the quantity of air that the lungs fhould re¬
ceive. By accelerating or retarding the exit of the air, he
can imitate different voices, and induce his auditors to a
belief, that the interlocutors of a dialogue kept up by
himfelf alone, are placed at different diftancesf. \Riclt
Mr Gough in an ingenious paper, containing an in-q^’;
veftigation of the method whereby men judge, by theA^
ear, of the pofition of fonorous bodies, relative to their pt
own perfons, explains the phenomena of ventriloquifm,
on the principles of reverberated found, and confiders it
as confiding in the talent of making the voice iffue on¬
ly from the mouth ; whereas he thinks that in ordinary
cafes the different vibrations which are excited by the
joint fun&ions of the feveral vocal organs in a£tion, pafs
along the bones and cartilages from the parts in motion,
to the external teguments of the head, face, neck, and
cheft, from which a fucceflion of fimilar vibrations is im¬
parted to the contiguous air, thereby converting the up¬
per half of the fpeaker’s body into an extenfive feat of
found. He thinks that the founds proceeding from the
mouth
urt ii
)22
2<3
of
Imp. VIII. PHY SI
Of mouth of a ventiiloquift are uttered in fuch a direction
'piration. the hearers may receive the impreffion of fome
—echo with much more force than they can receive the
. /.original founds *. It may be doubted whether fuch
' tie- echoes can take place in an ordinary room filled with a
r, vol. large alfembly *, and on the whole we are inclined to
confider this phenomenon as being effedled partly by the
gradual emiflion and a ikilful management of a large
quantity of air taken in by a full infpiration, and partly
by the influence which the performer is capable of ex¬
erting over the imagination of his hearers.
Several of the mammalia have a charadleriftic voice,
which is formed by particular organs. Thefe are in
fome animals tenfe membranes ; in others peculiar cavi¬
ties opening into the larynx, and fometimes appearing
like continuations of the laryngeal ventricles. Thus
the neighing of the horfe is effefted by a delicate, and
nearly falciform, membrane, which is attached by its
middle to the thyroid cartilage, and has its extremities
running along the outer margins of the opening of the
glottis. The braying of the afs is produced by means
of a fimilar membrane, under which there is an excava¬
tion in the thyroid cartilage. In this animal there are
alfo two large membranous facs opening into the larynx.
The purring of the cat. feems to be owing to two deli¬
cate membranes that lie below the ligaments of the
glottis. Some of the monkey tribe, efpecially the /?-
m/a feniculus and beelzebul, have the middle and fore
part of the os hijoides formed into a fpherical bony cavi¬
ty, by which thefe animals are enabled to produce thofe
,„i,. horrible and penetrating tones, which can be heard at
lai. chap. vaft diftances, and have gained them the name of howl¬
ing apes-J-. See Mammalia, N° 33.
The fimpleft vocal organ feems to be that of birds.
Thefe animals have, on the fides of the windpipe next
the lungs, and at the opening of the bronchiae, two
membranous folds which partly dole the pulmonary
aperture of the windpipe, and the aperture next the
head is fufceptible of great contradlion and dilatation.
In lliort, the vocal organ of birds may be confidered as
one of the moft perfi ff wind inftruments, very much
refembling, both in its ftru&ure and effedt, a clarinet or
hautboy, the opening next the lungs being fimilar to
the reed of thefe inftruments. For fome remarks on
the fong of birds, fee ORNITHOLOGY, N6 42 and for
farther obfervations on the voice, fee Anatomy, Part
I. N° 122.
In tracing the relations of refpiration with the pre¬
ceding funftions, we muft deviate a little from our ufual
order, and begin with thofe between refpiration and
circulation, as it feems to be through the medium of the
circulating fyftem that refpiration principally afls on the
other fundlions. The relations between refpiration and
circulation are the moft immediate and the moft obvi-
__ When the breathing is moft free and rapid, the
circulation is moft vigorous and aftive ; while in. labo¬
rious or interrupted refpiration, the aflion of the heart
and arteries becomes flow, feeble, irregular; and where
the lungs are deprived of oxygenous gas, the arteries
gradually ceafe to pulfale, and foon after the motion of
the heart ceafes. If the ftimulus of oxygen be not too
long withheld, fo that the lungs can again be excited to
a&ion, firft the heart, and then the arteries, gradually
renew the exercife of their functions, and the circulation
proceeds as before. On the application of thefe princi-
VOL. XVI. Part II.
Klurhen
ch's
mp
,2S4
sice of
rds.
255
elations
refpira-
)n with
her func-
ms.
256
hth circu- Otis,
tion.
O L O G Y. ic.5
pies depends the recovery of thole apparently dead from ()f .
afphyxia (fuffocation, drowning, &c.). When the cir- P1^atlon.»
culation becomes languid from indolence, from depref-
fing pafllons, or the want of accuftomed ftimuli, we feel
about the bread: a peculiar fenlation, which phyficians
call anxiety, and which is relieved by a deep infpira¬
tion ; by fighing, yawning, &c. Violent exertions of
the refpiratory organs, fuch as laughing, coughing,
finging, talking unulually long or loudly, quicken the
circulation, fometimes to an alarming degree, fo as to
oecafion haemorrhage in fuch as are prediipofed to that
affedlion. Breathing in an atmofphere that is much ra¬
refied, as on the top of a high mountain, has often the
effedt of,producing plethora and haemorrhage; though
this, perhaps, is imputable rather to a want ot the ordi¬
nary preffure on the furiace of the body. 257
When the circulation through the lungs is impeded ^ hh fenfo*
or obftrudted, a determination of blood takes place to1100,
other parts, efpecially to the head. The efftdfs produced
on the brain and other organs of fenfation, by tire
breathing of impure air, are dreadful. When the fame
quantity of air is repeatedly refpired, there is experien¬
ced, firit, great anxiety about the bread, and this foon be¬
comes intolerable ; the face fwells, becomes livid, or
even black, and feels exceflively hot; fparks of fire
feem to dance before the eyes ; the fight becomes de¬
praved ; giddinefs, ringing in the ears, and confufion of
thought fucceed ; and if frefti air be not foon fupplied,
the fubje<ft of the experiment lofes both fenfation and
motion, and falls into a ftate refembling apoplexy f. f Kite's
When rarefied air is breathed, the nervous fyftem expe- Ejfay on
riences a kind of excitement; agreeable fenfations are ^fe^c^ent
produced, with a difpofition to mirth and cheerfulnefs ;
but if the perfon continue for fome time in luch a fitua-
tion, an unufual languor, heavinefs, and diipofition to
deep, come on J. We need not here defcribe the plea- f Sauffuri
furable fenfations excited by the refpiration of nitrous
oxide, as thefe have been already related under CHEMI-pf ^5.
STRY, N° 366. The exhilarating effects which a pure
and ferene atmofphere produce on the general fyftem,
and the uneafy fenfations experienced under a thick and
clouded fky, are partly referable to this head. 'I he
nervous fyftem alfo adls on the organs of refpiration. In
fome affections of the brain, refpiration is much quick¬
ened, while in others, efpecially the comatofe affec¬
tions, it is flow, laborious, and often attended with that
peculiar noife called Jlertor. It is well known what ef-
fe£t anxiety, eagernefs, hope, or defire, have on the
refpiration. According as one or other of thefe paffions
is predominant, the breathing becomes hurried, irregu¬
lar, or fufpended.
An evident relation takes place between refpiration with mcs.
and motion. The breathing is quickened by exercife ; tion ;
and when there is a confiderable debility of the mufcu-
lar fyftem, the flighteft exertion produces hurried refpi¬
ration, panting, &c. In thofe animals that poffefs the
greateft powers of motion, refpiration is moft free, and
the air moft extenfively diffufed over the body. In
birds, not only the lungs are very extenfive, but the air
is conveyed into the bones of the Ikull, and into the
htdlows of the larger cylindrical bones ; and in infedls
which have the moft rapid motions, the air penetrates to
every part of the body. Motion, as well as fenfation,
becomes unufually free and vigorous in rarefied air, and
during the refpiration of nitrous oxide 3 while in cafes
3 S of
506
Of of impeded or obftrufled rtTpiration, the aftion of the
Ilefpiration mufdes is languid and feeble. Indeed, if we may irn-
v plicitly rely on the experiments that have been made on
the refpiration of de-oxygenated gafes, the mufcular
fibres are among the firil organs that are injured. We
are told that by the admifliun of black blood, or blood
that has not undergone the neeeffary changes by heal¬
thy refpiration, the mufcles lofe their power of contrac-
PHYSIOLOGY. Chap. IX.
into chyle ; but if chyle, or what is very iimilar to it, ofNutri-
2 59
tion, and even their irritability.
turn.
Withdigef- The organs and function of refpiration fympathife
with thofe of digeftion. When the former fundtion is
moft free, the latter is generally moll healthy ; the re¬
fpiration of pure or rarefied air, or of the nitrous oxide,
is attended with an increafe of appetite, and of the di-
geftive powers, as was experienced by M. Sauffiire while
wandering among the Alps, and by Davy while refpir-
ing the gas of Paradife. Again, when digeftion is im
paired, or when the ftomach is overloaded, the breath¬
ing is rendered difficult, laborious, or irregular, and in
many cafes of affedtion of the ftomach, cough is a very
common fymptom. Thefe effedts produced on the re-
fpiratory organs in confeqnence of impaired digeftion,
are afcribable chiefly to the preffure on the diaphragm
by the diftended ftomach.
Many other relations might be pointed out between
refpiration and the other fundlions of the animal econo¬
my, but our limits do not permit us to enlarge further
on the fubjedl *.
For an account of the morbid afftdlions of refpira-
tion, fuch as fnec%ing, hi-cup, coughing, anxiety, dyf-
% See Bi¬
chat Re-
ch etches
1 c{*‘laPncea> or difficulty of breathing, fee the article Medi-
Alort.
CINE.
260
Nature of
nutrition.
Chap. IX. Of Nutrition and AJffimilation.
The fundfion by which the nutritious particles re¬
ceived by a living being are afiimilated to the nature-of
that being, or become part of its fubftance, is properly
called nutrition. This is the completion of the procefs
which, in moft animals, is the combined refult of feve-
ral other operations. Thus, in the fuperior animals,
from man to the mollufea, the whole procefs of nutrition
confifts of dig eft ion, abforption, circulation, and refpira¬
tion ; by the two latt of which the nourilhment received
is changed into perfedl blood, and fitted for the fupport
and renewal of the feveral parts of the fyftem. From
the account of the conftituent parts of the blood given
under Chemistry, N° 2660, it will appear, that this
fluid contains within itfelf the principles of which every
part of the body is compofed. Thus it contains fbrine,
which is the chief principle of the mufeular parts 5 phof-
phate of lime, which forms the bafts of the bones ; albu¬
men and gelatine, the chief contlifuents of cartilages,
ligaments and tendons, &c. Thefe principles are con¬
veyed by the arterial blood, during its circulation, to
thofe parts of the fyftem where they are required, for
renewing wafte, or fupplying deficiencies, and thus they
2^! are aflimilated to the nature of the body.
Each.iffimi- ' The power of affimilation, fo remarkable in living
iating organ bodies, is not the fame in every affimilating organ;
produces
peculiar
changes.
but each has the property of converting the materials it
receives (provided they be fufceptible of this converfion)
into a peculiar fubftanee. Thus, the ftomach always
converts the food into chyme > the inteftines change it
freth milk, be received into the ftomach, this organ{ion
exerts on it the ufual change, and does not pafs it for- ^ra‘,ati'>n.
ward into the inteftines unaltered, though we know by 'r *
experiment, that frefti milk is capable of being taken
up unchanged by the abl'orbents of the bowels *. A- * Fcrdyce
gain, blood is always perfected within the circulatingo;2 D'gef~
veffels ; and if chyle or frefti milk be injected into
arteries, it produces dangerous effedts, while the frefh
blood of another living animal may be transfufed into
thefe veffels without injury. In like manner, if a piece
of frefh mufcular flelh be cut from a living animal, and
applied to the mufcles of another living animal, alfo
newly divided, the two parts unite, and are immedi¬
ately aflimilated ; and even frefti bone may, in the lame
manner be ingrafted on the living bones of the fame, or
of a different fpecies of animal f ; while iubftances j-
that are foreign to the nature of the animal body, when Mug- vi.
introduced into the blood-veffels, prove fatal, and when^08-
inferted into a wounded mufcular or bony part, prevent
the wound from healing.
Thefe circumftances Ihow that affimilation is a che- A
mical procefs, though modified and regulated by the tion a ch«-
atftion of the living principle. The chemical nature ofwicalpro.
affimilation is moft diftimftly proved by the well-knownce^'
experiment of colouring the bones of an animal, by
feeding it on madder. The particles of the madder,
which we know to have a ftrong affinity for phofphate
of lime, are carried unchanged from the ftomach into
the blood-veffels, and are thence conveyed, probably in
combination with the phofphate of lime there contained,
into the fubftance of the bones, where they are depo-
fited, and remain for a confiderable time.
We have confidered nutrition as performed by the Nutrition
circulating veffels. It has been fuppofed that the nerves not per-
are the organs of nutrition ; but this ftrange hypothtlisIorme^',y
is completely overturned by an experiment of the fecondr!ems'
Monro, which proves that the limb of a frog may be
preferved alive and nourifhed by the blood-velfels, after
its communication with the brain has been cut off by
dividing the nerves.
In infedts and zoophytes, where there are no circula-Nutrition
ting veffels, nutrition muft be a very fimple operation.in iufeds
According to Cuvier, it is performed by imbibition ; the ^ z00'
pores of the animal’s body receiving immediately thelJ^te5'
nutritious fluids on which it feeds. 265
In plants and animals, the affimilating power has al-Affimilat-
ways certain limits preferibed to it ; its influence is very iri§P^'er'
generally confined to the fort of food congenial to thelim‘te '
fpecies, and its ftrength is varied according to circum¬
ftances, as the age, the habits, and the ftate of health.
Thofe which are young aftimilate fafter than thofe
which are old ; and one fpecies, which may partly be
owing to the nature of their food, will afllmilate much
fafter than another. Certain worms that feed on ani¬
mal and vegetable fubftances will, in twenty-four hours
after their efcape from the egg, become not only double
their former fize, but will weigh, according to Redi,
from 155 to 210 times more than before. Moft oils
are of very difficult affimilation ; and thofe which are
’oolatile will often refift the long-continued and the
varied aftion of the living organs ; will mingle with the
parts, and, undecompofed, communicate their flavour.
Other cireumftanees refpe&ing nutrition have been
noticed
Imp. X. P H Y S I
ot noticed in the firft part of Anatomy, N° 130-, and
cretion. t]ie chemical doftrine of affimilation is more fully con-
^ ' fidered under Chemistry, N° 2567—2571.
Chap. X. Of Secretion.
266
retion.
267
jans.
26S
'nds of
:retion.
That fun£lion by which any organ, or fet of organs,
feparates from the general mafs of blood certain prin¬
ciples intended to perform fome important office in the
animal economy, is called fecretion ; and the fubftances
fo feparated, are called fecretions.
The fecretory organs in the more perfect animals are
very numerous, and ibme of them very complex. The
moft fimple of them feem to be the cellular texture, and
the mucous membranes. The next in fimplicity are the
conglobate glands, and perhaps the fpleen, while the more
complex organs are the liver, the tejlicles, the atrabihary
capfules, &c. An account of all thefe organs, as they
occur in the human body, has been given in the firft
part of the article Anatomy *, and the correfponding
organs of the inferior animab, with others not found in
man, are deferibed by writers on comparative anatomy,
efpecially Cuvier and Blumenbach.
Secretion appears to be of three kinds : 1. Tranfuda-
tion, in which the fecreted matters merely ooze through
the pores of the fecreting organ. This takes place in
the loweft claffes of animals, as in zoophytes, infers,
and fome worms, but rarely in the human fubjeft.
2. Exhalation, in which the fecreted fluids are poured
out into cavities by certain branches of the arteries with
open mouths, called exhalants. This appears to take
place in many organs of the moft perfefl animals, efpe¬
cially from the mucous membranes, the fynovial glands,
&c. 3. Secretion, properly fo called, in which the
blood pafifes through glandular bodies, where a part of
it is decompofed, and carried out in another form by
particular tubes called excretory dulls. 1 his is the
cafe with moft of the fecreting organs, as the falivary
glands, the lachrymal glands, the liver, the pancreas,
the tefticles, and a few others.
The fecreted fluids are chiefly the following: lymph,
ferum, tears, mucus, faliva, pancreatic juice, gajlnc juice,
enteric juice, bile, femen, fynovia, fat, marrow, cerumen
or ear-wax, and in the female, milk. The other mat¬
ters fecreted, which may rather be termed folid than
fluid, are albumen, gelatine, f brine, and phofphate of
lime. On the nature and properties of all thefe fub¬
ftances, fee the article Chemistry, Chap. xix. fe£t. 3.
With refpeft to the fecretions in general, we may re¬
mark, that they are confiderably influenced by age, fex,
various aflfeftions of the mind, and various bodily dif-
eafes. They are formed by organs which are fometimes
ansoffe- caPable of fupplying the deficiencies of each other *,
eiion. they are fubjeiled to the influence of the atmofphere,
and to the temperaments of the body ; they are fome¬
times mixed together, and by this combination their na¬
ture is changed.
We fhall now briefly examine the action of three of
the feereting organs, viz. the cellular membrane, the
271 liver, and the fpleen.
ftion of From the extenfive diftribution of the cellular mom-
brane it is reafonable to conclude, that it is intended to
Wne’ perform feveral important offices in the animal economy.
One of its moft obvious ufes is to form a general con-
nefting medium between every part of the ftruCture,
269
icreted
alters.
270
eneral
odifica-
O L O G Y.
while it at the fame time feparates and diftxnguiihes
every organ. From its elaftieity, and the lubricating
fluid which it holds within its cells, it facilitates motion,
and thus affifts the action of all the mufcular parts and
organs. That it is fufceptible of great dilatation is
proved by the phenomena of anafarcous dropfy 5 and the
gradual evacuation of the wa*3r when anafarcous limbs
are punftured, as well as the paffage of extraneous
bodies below the (kin from one part to another, feem to
fhow that it poffeffes confiderable contractile powers.
It is chiefly, however, as a fecreting organ that we are
here to confider the cellular membrane ; and in this way
its funCtion is of the utmoft importance. The fatty
matter, that is fo copious in moft of the fuperior ani¬
mals, is contained within particular cells or bags of the
cellular membrane, and is found in greateft quantities
below the fkin, efpecially on the Jlernal part of the
belly, and about the kidneys. In fome animals, as the
hog, the Jsal, the walrus and the cetaceous tribes, it
forms a layer feveral inches in thicknefs, and in all the
water animals above mentioned it is nearly fluid. To
thefe animals it not only ferves the purpofes of a warm
covering by the flownefs with which it condufts heat j
but, by dirninifliing their fpecific gravity, renders their
motions on the furface of the water much more eafy
and expeditious. One of the moll important ufes of the
fat feems to be to fupply nourifhment to the body, when ■
the ordinary channel is obftruCted, or the fyftem render¬
ed incapable, from torpor or difeafe, of receiving food.
When fat perfons are attacked by fever, or fimilar acute,
difeafes, they become emaciated, fometimes to fo great
a degree, as to appear a mere fkeleton •, and thofe ani¬
mals who fleep during winter, though very fat when
they retire to their dormitories, are extremely lank and
lean when they quit thefe on the return of fpring. In
all thefe cafes the fat alone is abforbed, and fupplies the
wafte that takes place in the body, and would other-
wife prove fatal.
On the aCfions of the cellular membrane, fee Bichat,
Anatomic Generale, tom. i.
Some phyfiologifts have fuppofed that the bile fecret-A&ion of
ed by the liver is not formed entirely from the blood of the liver,
the vena portarum, but partly from the hepatic artery.
Dr Saunders, who has examined the Arguments in fa¬
vour of this fuppofition, decides againft it, and confiders ,
the ufual opinion of the bile being folely fecreted from
the blood of the vena portarum, as quite fatisfaCfory.
It has alfo been fuppofed, that the whole of the bile is
not fecreted by the liver, but that the gall bladder has
a ftiare in this office, and b not merely a refexvoir, like
the urinary bladder. This fuppofition is highly improba¬
ble, although we think there can be little doubt that
the bile undergoes, within the gall bladder, feme pecu¬
liar changes, which render it better fitted for the func¬
tions it has to perform. We know that the gall blad¬
der is very mufcnlar, and that there is an appearance of
follicles within it. It is therefore probable that fome
matter is fecreted from its internal furface, which pro¬
duces a neceffary change in the bile.
The principal ufe of the bile feems to be to ftimulate Ufes of tk*;
the inteftines, and thus keep up their energy and peri-kde.
ftaltic motion, though it is probable that, befides this
office, it performs feveral others of importance in the
animal economy, fuch as affifting in the decompofition
of the food, and thus forming chyle j and afting as a
3 S 2 general
27a
der- on toe
Liver.
274
Ufes of the
fpleen.
275
P H Y S I
general ftimulus to tlie fyftem. That it has this laft
elFeft is probable from the torpor, ina&ivity, and de-
jeftion that attend hypochondriacal and chlorotic affec¬
tions, in which this fecretion is defective. Too great
a fecretion, or rather excretion of bile, is attended with
* See Saun- violent purging *.
On the nature of the bile, and biliary concretions,
fee Chemistry, N° 2664.
Few fubjedds in phyfiology have given rife to more
difcuflion, and few have been confidered with fo little
fuccefs, as the ufe of the fpleen in the animal economy.
That an organ fo large, and fo well fupplied with blood,
fliould be intended for fome important fun6tion, is fcarce-
ly to be doubted •, and yet the inftances of animals that
have lived, feemingly with little inconvenience, after the
fpleen had been cut out, feem to prove that this organ
is not of fuch great importance as it appears to be. The
conjectures refpedting its ufes are various, and fome of
them not a little ludicrous. Some have fuppofed that
it added by its weight and preffure on the ftomach, and
thus promoted digeftion at one time, and counteracted
hunger at another ; fome, that it was intended to dilute
and attenuate the blood ; others, to deprive that fluid of
its fuperabundant oil •, another party, that it contributed
to form the red globules of the blood; and fome of the
older phyfiologifts fuppofed that it fecreted that fluid to
Opinion of which they gave the name of black bile. Dumas is of
Dumas. opinion that it is a fort of fupplementary organ, both to
the liver and the kidneys, feparating from the blood part
of its ferolity, and then delivering it over to the liver in
a proper ftate for the formation of bile •, and furnifliing
to the kidneys another portion of ferofity to form the
* Prindpe^watery part of the urine *. That at lead a part of thefe
phyfloL opinions of Dumas has fome foundation, will appear from
the following fummary of the late experiments of Mr
Everard Home.
Profecuting the inquiry refpeCting the ftate of the
ftomach during digeftion, which we have formerly al¬
luded to (fee N° 161), Mr Home found that during di¬
geftion, the fluids taken into the ftomaeh are principally
contained in the cardiac portion j and he inferred, from
the uniform conftftence of the chyme in the pyloric por¬
tion, that a great part of the fluids are carried out of the
ftomach without ever reaching the pylorus. As, he con¬
ceived very naturally, that the lymphatics of the fto¬
mach were inadequate to this office, he conjedured that
the fluids might pafs off by the fpleen. He proved, by
a decifive experiment, that liquors might pafs through
the ftomach without going through the pylorus, and he
alfo found at the fame time, that the fpleen was turgid,
unufually large, and its external furface very irregular 5
and when cut into, fmall cells were every where met
with, containing a watery fluid, and occupying a confi-
derable portion of its fubftanee. Rudiments of thefe
cells had been feen before by Malpighi, who confidered
them to be glands, and by Cuvier, who calls them c«r-
pufcles ; but the cells in a diftended ftate feem not to
have been examined till Mr Home was led to look for
them, in confequence of the above experiment. Mr
Home varied this experiment, by giving animals a de-
coftion of madder, and an infuflon of rhubarb, and obtain¬
ed fimilar refults. Part of the fluid fwallowed was again
rejefted by vomiting } but of that which remained it was
always found that a part had efcr.ped, without any pof-
ftbility of paffmg by the pylorus, as this was fecured by
3
tom. 111. p
276
Experi¬
ments of
Mr Home.
OL O GY. Chap. X,
ligature. It did not probably efcape by the abforbents Of
as thefe were not fo much diftended by fluid as to be Secretion.
vifible ; and it certainly did enter the fpleen, as there '
was there found a quantity of liquor, which was proved
by an alkaline teft, to contain rhubarb. A large quan- *
tity of urine was found in the bladder, alfo impregnated
with rhubarb *. lSob P* 2*l
From thefe experiments it appears, that the fpleen isSplelncar.
capable of carrying off from the ftomach, a part of itsnesofTfluid
fluid contents, thus affording a much nearer paffage tofr0intlle
the bladder than through the abforbents. If this invef-^omac*1‘
tigation, on further trials, ftiall prove equally fatisfadtory,
it vdll explain why the bladder is often diftended with
urine in a ftiort time after drinking ; and will do away
the neceflity of having recourfe to the difputed hypo-
thefis of the retrograde adlion of the abforbents.
In the inferior dalles of animals there are a number pec^r
of peculiar fecretions, which, from their utility in me'di-animal
cine or the arts, or from their noxious or unpleafant ef-cretions,
feds, are deferving the attention of phyliologifts. We
can here only mention a few of the more important.
The nature and properties of moft of them are explain¬
ed under Chemistry.
Some of the mammalia fecrete matters that have a
very ftrong fmell, as tnujk, civet, cajlor, and in particu¬
lar the fluid emitted from the hide of feveral of the
weazel tribe, befide the civet cat. Ambergris is fecret¬
ed by fome fpecies of whales. Birds, efpecially water
fowls, fecrete a large quantity of oily matter, which they
ufe in dreffing their feathers. Some reptiles, efpecially
the toad, fecrete an acrimonious fluid, which leems to
ferve them as a weapon of defence. Many ferpents, as
is well known, produce a moft virulent poifon, which
they infert into the wounds inflided by their fangs.
Some fifties fecrete fluids of a fimilar tendency. Few
animals, howTever, form fecretions fo various and fo ufe-
ful, as the infed tribes, from whom we procure cochi¬
neal, iermes, lac,/ilk, &c. Some of the mollufca, as the
mufcle, and the fpinning flug, alfo fecrete a matter fimi¬
lar to filk, by means of which they either fecure them-
felves firmly in their fituations, or facilitate their pro-
greflive motion. The ink of the cuttle jijh, fuppofed
with no fmall probability, to be the bafis of Indian or
Chinefe ink, is alfo a remarkable animal fecretion, which
feems intended by nature to fereen the animal, and af-
fift it in eluding the vigilance of its purfuers. ^
There are alfo many important vegetable fecretions, Vegetable
conftituting what are ca\\e&gums, and fecretions.
as gum-arabic, gum-dragant ; guaiac, dragon's blood;
ajfafoetida, gamboge, myrrh, aloes, and many others 5 for
an account of which fee CHEMISTRY and Materia
Medica.
Chap. XI. Of Excretion.
2 So
The fundion of excretion differs but little in its na- Excretion,
ture from that of fecretion already confidered. As the
organs of fecretion feparate from the blood thofe fub-
flances which are ufeful in the animal economy, fo the
excretory organs feparate from the blood, or from the
food taken into the ftomach, thofe fubflances which are
to be conveyed out of the body as excrementitious, viz.
the folid excrement, the urine, and perfpiration. jgJ
The organs of excretion, then, are chiefly the bow'els, QrgaKf,
efpecially the larger inteftines, the kidneys, with their
appendages^
XL
P H Y S I
;8l
E etion
intef-
^3
p .tions.
(tap
Of appendages, the ureters and urinary bladder, and the
] retion. ^tjn> por an account of thefe in the human body, fee
L -v ' ANATOMY, Part I. j and for the varieties of thefe or¬
gans in fuch of the inferior animals as poffefs them, and
for the means by -which their abfence is fupplied in
others, fee the works of Cuvier and Blumenbach already
quoted.
The phyfiologyof inteftinal excretion requires littleex-
planation. The remains of the food, after the nutritious
chyle has been extra&ed from it by the ladteals, are car¬
ried onward through the colon and reftum by the pe-
riftaltic motion of the inteftinal canal, excited to a&ion
by the ftimulus of their contents, and of the bile, and
affifted by the preffure of the abdominal mufcles, till
they reach the extremity of the re&um, when becoming
more ftimulant, partly by their bulk, and partly by their
increafed acrimony, they roufe the mufcular fibres of that
inteftine to greater aftion, fo as, with the afliftance of
the abdominal mufcles, to overcome the refiftance of the
fphinElcr, and are thus expelled.
Inteftinal excretion is influenced by moft of the pre¬
ceding funclions. I. By the nervous power ; as we find
that in cafes of paralyfis, the excrements are not paffed
without artificial means, or they are voided involuntari¬
ly. 2. By motion. Thus we find that the adlion of
the bowels is increafed by exercife, and leflened by in¬
dolence and a fedentary life; though the quantity of
excrement paffed is greater in the latter cafe than in the
former, {hewing that the ftimulus of the excrementitious
matter is not fufficient without mufcular aftion, to pro¬
duce the regular performance of this function. 3* -By
digeftion. It is well known that the ftronger the digef-
tive powers of the ftomach, the more active are the
bowels, and again, when thefe latter are overloaded with
excrement, the funftions of the ftomach are difordered.
4. By fecretion. The adtion of the inteftines is increaf¬
ed, when that of the fecretory organs which pour their
contents into the alimentary canal, becomes unufually
great, viz. in unufual fecretions of bile or mucus, as in
cholera and diarrhoea ; while, when thofe fecretions are
defedtive, as in cafes of jaundice^ the inteftines become
unufually torpid.
The morbid affedlions of inteftinal fecretion have been
confidered under Medicine, N°io9—11 2, and 114,115.
The organs deftined for the excretion of urine afford
the moft complete apparatus for this fundtion of any that
we (hall have occafion to notice, confiding of an affem-
blage of glands, colledled within one membrane j an ex¬
cretory dudl; a refervoir for colledling the excreted
fluid, and a canal for conveying it out of the body. In¬
deed we may confider the kidneys rather as fecreting
than excreting organs, as the urine there formed differs
fo much in its nature and properties from the circulating
fluids. We know, by a decifive experiment, that the
kidneys perform the whole of this office, and that the
other organs are intended for the excretion of the urine j
for when the ureters are tied or obftrudled next the blad¬
der, we find that the fecretion of urine ftill goes on, and
that the ureters above the obftrudtion foon become filled
and prodigioufty diftended.
The nature and properties of urine, in its natural ftate,
and as altered in certain difeafes, have been confidered
under Chemistry, N® 2670.
As the urine contains two fubftances that are not
Sound in the blood, viz. urea and uriq acid, Dr Thom-
'etion
he kid-.
O L O G Y. 509
fon concludes, on very probable grounds, that the office O*
of the kidneys is not merely to feparate trom the blood, Excretion. ^
a quantity of water and faits, but that they exert on this ^ xhom-
fluid fome peculiar adl.ion, decompofing fome part of theybw’j tbe-
blood, and forming fome new fubftance or fubftances f. miftty, yol.
The mutual relations between this excretion and the v- 3d edit,
preceding functions, are not many, or very important.7^s*5
During certain affedtions of the nervous fyftem there is a Relations,
hidden and copious excretion of limpid urine, and fome
mental emotions produce an involuntary flow of it J. f Mer-
And in cafes of palfy, an incontinence, or a total fup-
preflion of urine, is very common. This excretion isy fceBe ^
confiderably influenced by motion, being lefs copious in
thofe who ufe much exercife, or lead a laborious life.
The morbid affedlions referable to this excretion, are
noticed under Medicine, N° 118—122. 2s<J
The excretion by the Ikin, or perfpiration, has exer-Excretion
clfed the ingenuity of many phyfieians and phyliologilts,hy th® dtini
ever fince the time of Sandlorius j and though it is not
now confidered as fo effential to life and health as it was
in the beginning of the 18th century, is certainly of
great importance. The quantity of watery fluid occa-
lionally thrown out by the {kin in the form of fweat,
jiroves that, by means of this organ, the blood is freed
from a great deal of ufelefs or perhaps injurious matter,
which could not fo conveniently, or fo perfedlly, be ex¬
pelled by other outlets. The nature of the matter per-
fpired, and the quantity of ordinary perfpiration, have
been inveftigated by many able experimentalifts, the re-
fult of whofe labours is given in the firlt volume of John-
fon’s AnimalChemijlry; the fifth volume (third edition)
of Dr Thomfon’s Syjlem of Chemijfry; in a paper by Dr
Kellie in the fecond number of the Edinburgh Medical
and Surgical Journal, and in our article Chemistry.
The principal fadts that have been afeertained with
refpedl to the perfpirable matter thrown out by the ffdn,
relate either to its quantity, or its chemical compolition.
I. The experiments on the quantity perfpired, on Quantity o£
which we can the moft rely, are thofe of Lavoifier, Se-
guin, and Mr Abernethy. From thefe experiments ^veratlon‘
may deduce the following conclufions : 1. The greateft
quantity of matter perfpired in a minute, amounts to
about 26 grains troy, the leaft to about 9 grains j giv¬
ing an average of about 17 grains in the minute, or
about 32 ounces in 24 hours. Dr Kellie ellimates the
quantity at about 30 ounces, which feems too fmall. 2.
The quantity of perfpiration is increafed by drink, but
not perceptibly by folid food. 3. Perfpiration is the
leaft in quantity immediately after a meal, and reaches
its higheft proportion during digeftion. 2Sg
II. The perfpirable matter is chiefly compofed of aitscompofii
large quantity of water, fome carbon or carbonic acid,tion.
a fmall quantity of another acid, fuppofed to be the
phofphoric, and a peculiar oily matter of an odorous
quality, differing in different animals, and, as it ftiould
feem, in different individuals. The perfpiration of qua¬
drupeds is frequently found to contain phofphate of lime,
and fometimes urea. See Chemistry, N® 2532. agp
As to the relations of perfpiration with the preceding Relations,
functions, we may remark that this excretion is in¬
creafed by various paflions of the mind, by exercife, by
healthy and rapid digeftion ; that it is generally in pro¬
portion to the vigour and quicknefs of the circulation
and refpiration, and that it is capable of fupplying the
defeat of the two former excretions. On the contrary,
it.
5io P H Y S I
Oflntegu- Jt is leffened by ina&ivity ; by the impaired ftate of the
mation. jigeftjve organs ; by languid circulation and refpiration,
and by violent purging, or evacuation of urine.
Chap. XII. Of Integumation.
2(10
Ufesofinte- All living bodies are furnifhed with integuments,
gqments as which are intended to afford them a defence againfl:
dstence. thofe injuries to which their fituation is commonly ex-
pofed. Of the integuments fome are ufeful in prevent¬
ing the diflipation of the fluids ; fome in refilling acrid
and corrolive fubftances ; fome of them are indigeftible
in the ftomach of animals, and fome appear to be incor¬
ruptible in the earth. By thefe properties, feeds and
the ova of infedffs are preferved for a confiderable time,
waiting the changes of foil or of feafon that are favour¬
able to their evolution. They are protected from the
aftion of weak membranous ftomachs, and thus the ani¬
mals who may fwallow them contribute to their propa¬
gation. It is thus the feeds of the m'fletoe are difperfed,
and depoilted on the bark of the oak or the affi. There
is a gelatinous fubftance frequently ejected by birds,
and commonly called tremella, noftoc, or ftar-fall, which
Dr Barclay has proved to be nothing elfe than the ovi-
dudls of frogs, which, as the embryo in form of an egg,
moves along their winding canal, fecrete that tranfpa-
rent and vifcid matter which conffitutes the albumin¬
ous part of the ovum, and feeds and protefts the embryo
while in water.
The moll important circumfiances with refpedl to in¬
tegumation relate to the varieties of the integuments
themfelves, and to the changes or renovation of thefe
in different animal*.
Integu- I. Some integuments are ufeful, chiefly from their
ments ufe- ftrength and hardnefs. The elytra or flielly coverings
ful by their 0p (.jic p,ce^]e tribes afford an excellent defence for their
ar ntl ’ membranous wings, when folded up ■, the (hell of the
fnail lodges the inteffines, when the animal comes forth
to fearch for food, and affords a fafe retreat to the ani¬
mal, when it is threatened with any danger from with¬
out. The (hells of fome animals can be opened and
clofed by a mufcular power ; and fome of them, as in
the tail of the lobffer, are fo difpofed in plates or feales,
as to be no hindrance, to the animal’s motion. Several
infers which pafs a part of their time in the water, al¬
ways compofe for themfelves a (hell, where it is need-
292
by their ex- Some integuments are covered with feathers, fome
teraal co- with hair or thick down. Befides many other obvious
venn£ ’ ufes of thefe coverings, they generally ferve to repel in-
fedls •, and being bad conduftors of heat, tend to pre-
ferve an equal and neceffary temperature. Some inte¬
guments are covered with prickles, which oppofe the at¬
tacks of an enemy by the ftrength of their points, or by
the venom which they infufe, as in the flings of nettles,
and the down of fome other plants, and fome infects.
Others again are moiftened by a vifcid fecretion, which
preferves the neceffary foftnefs of the parts, prevents
evaporation, refills acrimony, enables fome beings to
deftroy their enemies, and affifts others in performing
their progreffive motions.
h^u- ef Both plants and animals, but particularly the former,
fiuvia^ 6 are °^ten Pr°te<51ed by odorous effluvia from their inte¬
guments. Thefe effluvia are the finer parts of their vo¬
latile oil, always inflammable, and fo fubtile, that the
4
O L O G Y. Chap. Xt
continual emiflion of it from wood or flowers does not Oflntegi
fenfibly diminifti their weight. To this fragrance it is mation.
owing that the deadly nightftiade (atropa belladorma)H
the henbane, hounds-tongue, and many others, are feen
on almoft every high road untouched by animals. The
manchinelle-tree ot the Weft Indies emits fo very dan¬
gerous vapours, that the natives poifon their arrows with
its juices, and thofe have died who have ventured to deep
under its (hade. The lobelia Irngijlora of America pro¬
duces a fuffbeating oppreftion in the bread of thofe who
refpirc in its vicinity. The return of a periodical difor-
der has bgen attributed to the exhalation of the rhus
toxicodendron. Of all the vegetable effluvia, however,
that afford defence to the plant from which they pro¬
ceed, or annoyance to the animals that approach it,
none are equal to thofe of the celebrated bokun-upas, or
poifon tree of Java, whofe exhalations have been faid to
extend to the diftance of feveral miles, preventing all
accefs of animals, or punifhing the intruders with cer- * See P/
tain death. It is rather unfortunate for the botanical^0"*
poets, that the effects of this poifon have been greatly un^r ^
exaggerated, if indeed lueh a marvellous tree really
exiits *.
Various colours of the integuments afford a fpecies of by their 1
defence. Caterpillars which feed on leaves are general-lour,
ly green •, and earth worms the colour of the earth
which they inhabit. Butterflies which frequent flowers
are coloured like them. Small birds which frequent
hedges have greenifh backs like the leaves, and light-
coloured bellies like the iky, and are hence lefs vifible
to the hawk who paffes under them or over them.
Thofe birds which are much amongtt flowers, as the
goldfinch, are furnithed with vivid colours. The lark,
partridge, and hare, are of the colour of dry vegetables
or earth on which they reft j and frogs vary their colour
with the mud of the ftreams which they frequent, and
thofe which live on trees are green. Fith which are
generally fufpended in the water, and fwallows which
are generally fufpended in the air, have their backs the
colour of the diftant ground, and their bellies of the
fky. The fphinx convolvuli, or unicorn moth, refembles
in colour the flower on which it refts 5 and among
plants, the nedtary and petals of the ophrys, and of
fome kinds of the delphinium, referable both in form
and colour the infects which plunder them, and thus
fometimes efcape from their enemies by having the ap¬
pearance of being pre-occupied. From colour being
thus employed as a defence, many animals vary their
colours with the feafons and circumftances j and thofe
which are of different colours in fummer according to
the places which they inhabit, in winter affume in com¬
mon the colour of the fnow. - 295
II. The changes that take place on the integuments Change
confift: either of a partial, or complete, renewal ofinte8u‘
them. As the more fuperficial integuments are com-mentS‘
monly infenfible to ftimuli, and poffefs little or nothing
of the vital principle ■, in all cafes where they cannot be
enlarged to admit of an additional increafe of growth,
or, where they are not furnifhed with organs for re¬
pairing thofe injuries which they may fuffer from acci¬
dent or difeafe, the body is endowed by nature with
a power of throwing them off, and of producing others
in their (lead. Thus, ferpents and toads dough their
fkins ; the cruftacea call their fhells *, the larvae of in¬
fers change their cuticle j and feveral trees, efpccially
the
tpf)
*1 istbr
gs »n.
297
1 isfor-
*
XIII. • P H Y S I
the cork tree, throw off their outer bark. Even man
himfelf generally changes the cuticle, which peels off
in the form of fcales. Moft animals once a year change
their hair, wool, or feathers, and have thefe renewed
by a frefh covering*, a procefs well known by the name
of moulting. Some animals who do not ufually calt
their external covering, have the power of repairing this
when injured. This is the cafe with moll of the teiiacea,
efpecially ihails.
Chap. XIII. Of Transformation.
The alterations which organized beings undergo from
metamorphofs or transformation, are more linking than
thofe which we have defcribed in the preceding chap¬
ter. It has indeed been affertcd, that thefc alterations
confilt in throwing off certain temporary coverings; but
this exprehion is inaccurate, and arifes from a want of
precifion of ideas. Transformation and change of in¬
teguments are really different •, the truth is, transforma¬
tion often takes place without any change of integu¬
ments, and there is often a change of integuments with¬
out any change of form. This new form is fometimes
ocealioned by a change of fhape, confiltency, and colour,
as when tire lobes of a feed are converted into feminal
leaves. It is at other times ocealioned by a change of
proportion among the parts, and at others by the addi¬
tion of new organs, as when the emmet receives wings,
and the plume of the feed is fed by new roots linking
into the ground : or, laltly, it is occafumed by a change
in the form and organs, and in their mode of operation,
as happens in a remarkable degree to fome infedls. In¬
deed, though all living bodies, both plants and animals,
undergo fome degree of transformation in the courfe of
their exiftence, thefe changes are moft remarkable in in-
fecls.
Many reptiles undergo very curious changes, but thefe
n onof are moft remarkable in the frog tribe. The larva or
1 ^es> tadpole, as it is called, of the frog, is an animal with a
large head, a long tail, no limbs, and commonly poffef-
fed of gills, all obvioufly very different, both in form,
proportion, and ufes, from the parts of the perfect ani¬
mal. The curious appearance of what has been confi-
dered as the tadpole of the rana paradoxa, has led fome
naturalifts to deferibe it as an animal of a different ge¬
nus, either a fifh or a lizard ; fee Erpetology, p. 284.
Many infe&s appear to confift of two diftindt animal
bodies, one within the other; the exterior, a creature of
an ugly form, refiding in the water, or under the earth,
breathing by gills, or fometimes by trachete projecting
from the tail, poffeffing a voracious and grovelling ap¬
petite, and having a fyftem of fanguiferous veffels that
circulates the blood towards the head. When all its
parts decay and fall off, the creature inclofed fucceeds
m its {lead : this often is an animal of a different form,
generally lives in a different element, feeds-on a differ¬
ent {pecies of food, has different inftruments of motion,
different organs of fenfe, different organs of refpiration
and differently fituated ; and being endowed with the
parts of generation, inclines to gratify the fenfual pro-
penfity, and produces an embryo, which becomes like
the firft, and from which, in procefs of time, a creature
is evolved fimilar to the former.
If the embryo or egg be deposited on a leaf, the leaf
is frequently obferved to bend, to wrap it in folds, in-
298
feds.
O L O G Y. 511
tended for the purpofe of protedling it from injuries irans-
and danger. If depofited in the body of an animal or ioini^tlon’.
plant, they accommodate themfelves to its wants and
neeeftities, and furnifli a tumor which ferves it for a
nidus, and befides, like an uterus, {applies it with nou-
rilhment j and if depoliled in the body of an in foil, the
creature provides for the future deftination of its young
charge with all the tender care of a parent, and then
dies. jpp
Thefe circumftances, added to the great variety of Parents of
forms which infedls affume, render it fometimts difficult *nfe^SC)ften
to know Avho is the parent. We cannot, for inftance,
pronounce with certainty who is the true parent of thee(ji
gordius, known by the name of the feta equina, or hair
eel. A fet of experiments which Dr Barclay once be¬
gan with a view to throw fome light on the fubjedl, .
were unfortunately interrupted by an accident. He
learned only, from a number of obfervations, that certain
black beetles, at the end of fummer, have the ftrongeft
propenfity to run into the water, where they foon die j
and that one or two, and fometimes three or four of
thofe e'tls gradually drop from the beetle by the anus.
Whether other infe&s provide for the gordius in this
manner, we have not yet been able to determine. 300 .
In all living bodies poffeffed of a fenforium, the changes Transfor-
of form, as well as the changes of habit and of age, are'nation ac-
ufually accompanied, with new propenfities, appetites, f°mPamed
and pafliqns. _ > _ of propenfi-
Microfcopic obfervations having demonftrated, that ties,
all the forms of the plant and animal exifted previoufly 301
in the feed or embryo; transformation muft be owing
entirely to the evolution of the different parts by means kon oI
of nutrition. parts.
What nature intends by transformation, we cannot 302
determine; but by means of it different elements are lts ules*
peopled, the different feafons variuully adorned, and ani¬
mated nature wonderfully diverfified without a multipli¬
cation of beings. ,
Chap. XIV. Of ReproduBion.
3c ?
In the prefent chapter we ftiall notice, firft, the par- Reproduc-
tial reprodtnftions that take place in lome elaffes of ani-tionof
mals, and then take a general comparative view of theParts*
principal phenomena of generation, in the various clafles
of living beings.
Experiments have proved, that even in the fuperior jn
claffes of animals, many parts of the body, when Ac-mammalia.
ftroyed or removed, may be reproduced. A bone may
be broken in fuch a manner, that part of it muft be
taken away, but in a few weeks the feparated ends are
brought together by the fecretion of new bony matter,
called callus. Little more than 24 hours have elapfed
after a fracture, before nature begins her operations. The
foft parts indame ; the periofteum becomes fu elled ; the
veffels pour out coagulable lymph, and a pellucid, gela¬
tinous fubftance appears about the broken extremities of
the bone. Into this minute blood-veffels are gradually
fent off from the arteries, and in no very long time phof- -
phate of lime begins to be fecreted, for rendering the
w hole firm and compaeft. In cafes of necrofis, where the
old bone entirely lofts its vitality, new bony matter is fe- '
creted into the furrounding periofteum, which thickens
and enlarges, and in time fupplies the place of the old bone.
When a mufcular part is cut away, as in removing deftr
thak
512
Of Pepro-
d«(fHon.
Phil.
Trans.
'TVS,
P- l77‘
"f yones's
Tie’tije on
Hcetnorrha-
ges, &c.
3^5
Reproduc¬
tion of parts
in the iiife-
rior ani¬
mals ;
306
in reptiles;
307
in crufta-
eea:
tliatlias become gangrenous, if the healthy function of
the furrounding parts can be reftored, and the lofs of
flefli has not been too great, the wound gradually fills
up, not indeed with llefhy fibres, but with granulations
very much refembling the ordinary cellular Jubilance.
It is well known, that the hair, nails, and ikin, are oc-
eafionally renewed } but it will appear extraordinary
that blood-veffels, and even nerves, have been reprodu¬
ced. In cafes of aneurifm, where the trunk of the dif-
eafed artery is divided, fo as to cut off the uiual channel
for the blood, the anaftomofing branches become gra¬
dually enlarged, and even new branches appear to be
formed for carrying on the circulation. What has been
faid above refpeCting the formation of callus, alfo proves
the formation of new blood-veffels} and the obfervations
of Mr John Hunter put this beyond a doubt. Till with¬
in thefe fetv years, it was thought impoffible that a di¬
vided nerve fhould re-unite ; but fome late experiments
of Mr Cruickihank have proved that this re-union may
take place*.
Under this head we may mention fome curious ex¬
periments that have been lately made by Dr Jones, on
the means by which nature fuppreffes the haemorrhage
from divided arteries. Thefe experiments were made
on dogs, and the refults of them lead us to con¬
clude, that the following is nearly the procefs by which
the haemorrhage is fuppreffed. Firft, the divided artery
contrails, and is drawn within the neighbouring parts j
blood is gradually effufed into the {heath of the artery
and the adjoining cellular fubftance, where it is entang¬
led, and affords a bafis for the formation of a coagulura or
clot, which furrounds the extremity of the divided ar¬
tery, and prevents the farther effufion of blood, till ano¬
ther clot is formed within the mouth of the artery, plug¬
ging it completely up. Soon after there oozes out "be¬
tween the external and internal clot, a quantity of co-
agulable lymph, which cements all the parts together,
and thus in time, if the artery divided be not very large,
and the force of the circulation very great, the cavity of
■the veffel and the divided extremity, is obliterated, and
all further lofs of blood effe£fua1ly prevented f.
It is, however, in the lower claffes that we are to look
, for the moll remarkable inftances of this provifion of na¬
ture, particularly among the reptiles, cruftacea, molluf-
ca, worms, and polypes.
In many reptiles, the legs and tail, when cut off, are
foon renewed, and even the eyes have been re-produced.
Some interefting experiments on this fubjefl by Spallan¬
zani have been related under ErpetoLOGY, p. 316, to
which we refer ihe reader.
In the eruftacea, the legs and claws are very often
torn away, either by accident, or by fome voracious ani¬
mal ; but thefe never fail to be renewed in a {horttime,
provided the animal is in good health. This is moft re¬
markable in the craw-fifh (cancer aftacu% Lin.). It
has been obferved that when the claw of this animal is
broken, the moft diftant part is gradually caft off, and
about a day or two after, a red membrane, no^ unlike
a bit of red cloth clofes up the aperture. This is at
firft plain but in the courfe of four or five days it af-
fumes a convexity, which gradually augments till it
takes the appearance of a fmall cone, which exceeds not
a line in height. It continues, however, to ftretch out,
and in ten days it is fometimes more than three lines, or
about one-fourth of an inch high. It is not hollow, but
dufti
PHYSIOLOGY. Chap. XIV
filled with flefti, and this flefti is the bafis or rudiment of Of R«pro
a new claw. The membrane that covers the flefh per¬
forms the fame office to the young claw as the mem¬
branes do to the foetus of the larger animals. It ex¬
tends in proportion as the animal grows $ and as it is
pretty thick, wTe can perceive nothing but a lengthened
When 15 days are elapfed, this cone inclines to¬
wards the head of the animal. In a few days more its
curvature increafes, and it begins to affume the appear¬
ance of a dead claw. This claw, though at the end of
a month or five weeks it has acquired the length of fix
or feven lines, which is more than half an inch, is ftiil
incapable of adlion. The membrane in which it is en-
clofed becoming gradually thinner, in proportion as it
extends, gives an opportunity of obferving the parts of
the claw, and we now perceive that this conical fub¬
ftance is not a fimple congeries of flefti. The moment
is now arrived when the claw begins to be brought
forth. The membrane at laft burfts, and the new claw,
though ftiil foft, appears without incumbrance or inveft-
ment. In a few days more it is covered with a flit,11 $
and though ftill delicate, and not the half of its former
length, it is able to perform all the natural fun&ions,
It has likewife been difeovered, that, whether the claw
has been lopped off at the fourth articulation, or any¬
where elfe, the animal in a ftiort time recovers all that *
it had loft. The fame reproduction takes place alfo mammal
the horns •, but, if the tail is cut off, the animal furvives ^vo'
a few days only *. 30S
Many of the mollufca exhibit curious inflanceS ofinmoM
reproduction, efpecialiy the aCtinia, the ftar-fifti, andca;
fnails. The abbe Dicquemaire made feveral experi¬
ments to afeertain the reproductive power of the aElinia
rufa (purple fea anemony). He firft cut off all its ten-
tacula, which grew again in lefs than a month 5 and on
repeating this a fecond and third time, he had equal
fuccefs. He cut off the upper part of one, and a few days
after, the bafe of the animal was found to have fallen
from its place \ but it foon entirely recovered its limbs. *
But if the bafe of thefe animals is injured by the inci-
fion, the wound commonly proves mortal. The arms
of the ftar-fifti are often torn off, but appear always to
be reproduced. The power of fnails in this refpeCt
is very great j for Spallanzani has afeertained, that even
if their heads ate cut off, thefe are regenerated in no
very long time. There can fcarcely be a more furpri-
fing inftance of animal reproduction than this, as we
{hall readily allow, if we confider the complicated
ftruCture of the head of a fnail ; that it contains a brain
divided into two parts \ that the horns attached to it
are furnifhed with mufcles, and that on the tops of the
larger horns there are eyes, tompofed of two coats
and three humours •, that the head contains a mouth,
lips, teeth, and a palate •, and yet all thefe parts, when
cut away, have been reproduced in the courfe of a few
weeks. 309
On the reproductive power of polypes we have been ;n polyp
fufficiently minute under Helminthology, N0 84. 310
As this fubjeCt of partial reproduction is extremely Writers1
curious, and as we cannot here enter upon any particu*
lar detail on the experiments and obfervations that have
been made on the fubjeCt, we {hall conclude this part
of the prefent chapter by enumerating the principal
works to which the reader may refer for a more fatif-
faCtory account of the fubjeCt. Thefe are chiefly Irem*
bier,
parts.
(lap.
iiepro-
idtion.
3”
] irodac-
t of the
1 les by
i eration,
31a
;ans.
3i3
ture of
314
inmipa-
s gene-.
on.
3’S
:wida-
XIV.
bley, Memoires fur les Polypes ; Bonnet, Traite' iPIn-
fectologie, Pclirigenejie, and Confideratiotis fur les Corps
Organifes, vol. ii. ; Reaumur, fur les InfeEls; Spallan¬
zani, Tracis on Animals and Vegetables, and EJfay on
-Reproduction; Hunter’s Treatife on the Blood, &c. 3
RuiTel’s ? radii cal EJfay on Necrojis. Moore on the
Healing Procefs ; Murray, de Redintegratione Partiutn;
and the publications of Dr Jones and Mr Cruicklhank
already referred to. There is alfo a neat vie\T of the
principal fafts relating to this fubjeft in a thelis De
Vulnere Na twee Sanctndo, publithed at Edinburgh in.
1805, by Dr John Gordon.
We have alredy dated it as our opinion, that plants,
as well as animals, reproduce their like by generation^
We lhall not now enter on a difeudion of the controver¬
ted point of the fexual fyftem 3 and as the parts that
appear fubfervient to this funftion in plants, and their
various modes of propagation, have been fufficiently ex¬
plained under the articles Botany and Plant, we {hall
in this chapter confine our attention to the generation
of animals.
The human organs of generation are deferibed in the
article Anatomy, fe£l. xv. thofe of the cetacea under
Cetology, N° 161. j thofe of birds under Compara¬
tive Anatomy, 277 : thofe of fifhes have been noticed
under Ichthyology. For a .more full comparative
view of thefe organs, we refer to Cuvier and Blumen-
bach.
The nature of generation which is the greateft my-
ftery in the economy of living bodies, is dill involved in
impenetrable obfeurity. The only circumdance com¬
mon to all generation, and confequently the only effen-
tial part of the procefs, is, that every living body is at¬
tached at fird to a larger body of the fame fpecies with
itfelf. It conditutes a part of this larger body, and de¬
rives nourilhment, for a certain time, from its juices.
The fubfequent feparation conditutes birth, and may
be the fimple refult of the life of the larger body, and
of the confequent developement of the fmaller, without
the addition of any occafional aflion.
Thus the offence of generation confids in the appear¬
ance of a fmall organized body in or upon fome part of
a larger one 5 from which it is fepa'rated at a certain
period, in order to alnime an independent exidence.
All the proceflfes and organs, which co-operate in the
bufinefs of generation in certain claffes, are only accef-
fory to this primary funftion.
When the fundi ion is thus reduced to the mod fimple
date, it conditutes the gemmiparous, or generation by
dioots. In this way the buds of trees are developed into
branches, from which other trees may be formed. The
polypes (hydra) fee HELMINTHOLOGY, N° 84. and
the fea anemones (adlinise), multiply in this manner 3
fome worms are propagated by a divifion of their body,
and mud, therefore, be arranged in the fame divifion.
Inis mode of generation requires no didindtion of fex,
no copulation, nor any particular organ.
Other modes of generation are accomplifhed in ap¬
propriate organs; the germs appear in a definite fitua-
tion in the body, and the aflidance of certain operations
is required for their further developement. Thefe ope¬
rations conditute fecundation, and fuppofe the exidence
of fexual parts; which may either be feparate, or united
in the fame individual.
In mod animals the embryo of the future young is
Vol. XVL Part II.
PHYSIOLOGY.
513
fecundated within the peculiar organs of one individual, ^ k- pro¬
while another of the fame fpecies is provided with Hie dm non. f
means of giving a£Uvity to the embryo by a fecundating
fluid. In fome animals, however, both theie oflices are
performed by the Erne individual, which is then laid to
be androgynous, or hermaphrodite. ^
The office of the male fex is that of furnidiing the ] nftindtiem
fecundating or fethi'nalfluid ; but the manner in which of faxes,
that contributes to the developement of the germ is not
yet fettled by phyfiologids. In feveral inftances, par¬
ticularly in the frog, the germ may be clearly recogni¬
zed in the ovum before fecundation 5 its pre-exiflence
may be inferred in other cafes from the manner in
\vhich it is connefted to the ovum when it fird becomes
vifible 3 for it is agreed on all hands, that the ovum
exids in the female before fecundation, fince virgin hens
lay eggs, &c. ,
The combination of the fexes and the mode of fecun- Herma-
dation are filbjeft to great variety. In fome in dances phrodites*
they are united in the fame individual, and the animal
impregnates itfelf. The acephalous mollufca and the
echini exemplify this dru&ure. In others, although
the fexes are united in each* individual, an aft of copu¬
lation is required, in which they both fecundate, and are
fecundated 3 this is the cafe with the gaderopodous
mollufca and feveral worms. In the remainder of
the animal kingdom the fexes belong to different in¬
dividuals.
The fecundating liquor is always applied upon or Mode^ of
about the germs. In many cafes the ova are extruded mipregna-
before they are touched by the femen, as in fome Bonytlon*
fiffies and the cephalopodous mollufca. Here, therefore,
impregnation is effefted out of the body, as it is alfo in
the frog and toad. But in the latter indances the male
embraces the female, and discharges hi' femen in propor¬
tion as die voids the eggs. In mod animals the fi rninal
liquor is introduced into the body of the female, and
the ova are fecundated before they are difeharged.
This is the cafe in the mammalia, birds, mod repiiles,
and fome fidies ; in the hermaphrodite gaderopodous
mollufca, in the crudacea, and infefts. In all the lad-
mentioned orders ova may be difeharged without pre¬
vious copulation, as in the preceding. But they re¬
ceive no further developement *, nor can they be fecun¬
dated when voided*. We diall not gratify the pruri- * Cuv-cr
ent imagination of the philofophic fenfualid, by any pecons
tails of the mode in which thefe operations are carried .4
on in the various claffes of animals, except in one m-Cemp. tom,
dance, which is fo curious that we dial 1 be excufedv-P l2‘
for deferibing it. We allude to the copulation of the
fnail. . _.
Thefe animals meet in pairs, and datiomng them-Copulation
felves an inch or two apart, launch feveral little darts, of i'nails.
not quite half an inch long, at each other. Thefe are
of a horny fubdance, and iharply pointed at one end.
The animals, during the breeding feafon, are provided
with a little refervoir for them, fituated within the
neck, and opening on the right fide. On the dif-
'charge of the fird dart, the wounded fnail immediately
retaliates on its aggreffor by ejefting at it a fimilar dart;
the other again renews the battle, and in turn is again
wounded. Thus are the darts of Cupid, metaphorical
with all the red of the creation, completely realifed
in fnails. After the combat they come together. Each
of them lays its eggs in fome ffieltered and moid fitua-
3 T tion.
514
Of Repro¬
duction.
■}■ Shaw's
Natura-
lijl's Mif-
cellany,
vol. i.
320
321
Oviparous
generation,
PHYSIOLOGY.
322
Ovo-vivipa.
rous ani¬
mals.
. 323
Viviparous
generation.
* Cuvierf
lee. xxix.
tion, generally under a little clod of earth, or in fome
cool cavity f.
I he effeft of a tingle copulation varies in its degree :
it ufually fecundates one generation only \ but fome-
times, as in poultry, feveral eggs are fecundated ; tlill,
however, they only form one generation. In a very
few intlances one aft of copulation fecundates feveral
generations, which can propagate their fpecies without
the aid of the male. In the plant-loufe {aphis') this has
been repeated eight times j and in fome monoculi 12 or
15 times.
When the germ is detached from the ovary, its mode
of exiftence may be more or lefs complete. In moft
animals it is connefted, by means of velfels, to an orga¬
nized mafs, and the abforption of which nourifhes and
developes it until the period of its birth. It derives
nothing, therefore, from the body of the mother, from
which it is feparated by coverings varying in number
and folidity. The germ, together with its mafs of nou-
rilhment, and the furrounding membranes, conllitutes
an egg, or ovum; and the animals which produce their
young in this date, are denominated oviparous.
In mod of thefe the germ contained in the egg is not
developed until that part has quitted the body of the
mother, or has been /aid; whether it be neceffary that
it diould be afterwards fecundated, as in many fidies j
or require only the application of artificial heat for its
incubation, as in birds j or that the natural heat of the
climate is fufficient, as in reptiles, infefts, &c. Thefe
are driftly oviparous animals.
The ovum, after being fecundated and detached from
the ovarium, remains in fome animals within the body
of the mother, until the contained germ be developed
and hatched. Thefe are falfe viviparous animals, or
ovo-viviparous. The viper, and fome fidies, afford in¬
dances of this procefs. Mammalia alone are truly vivi¬
parous animals. Their germ poffeffes no provifion of
nouridiment, but grows by what it derives from the
juices of the mother. For this purpofe it is attached to
the internal furface of the uterus, and fometimes, by ac¬
cident, to other parts, by a kind of root, or infinite ra¬
mification of veffels, called placenta. It is not, there¬
fore, completely feparated from the mother by its co¬
verings. It does not come into the world until it can
enjoy an independent organic exidence. The mamma¬
lia cannot, therefore, be faid to poffefs an ovum in the
fenfe which we have afligned to that term.
From this view7 of the fubjeft, generation may be faid
to confid of four funftions, differing in their importance,
and in the number of animals to which they belong.
1. The production of the germ, which is a condant
eircumdance ; 2. Fecundation, which belongs only to
the fexual generation *, 3. Copulation, which is confined
to thofe fexual generations, in which fecundation is ac-
complithed within the body ; 4. Uterogcfation, which be¬
longs exclufively to viviparous generation *.
There is a general rule obfervable among all quadru¬
peds, that thofe which are large and formidable pro-
Chap. XIV.
duce but few at a time ; while fuch as are mean and OfRepro.*
contemptible are extremely prolific. The lion, or tiger, duftiun."
have feldom above twm cubs at a litter ; while the cat V~v—
that is of a fimilar nature, is ufually feen to have five orc 324
fix. In this manner, the low tribes become extreme-Sfecun.
ly numerous; and, but for this furprifing fecundity,dityofani'.
from their natural weaknefs, they would quickly be ex-mah-
tirpated. The breed of mice, for indance, would have
long fince been blotted from the earth, were the moufe
as flow in produftion as the elephant. But it has been
wifely provided, that fuch animals as can make but lit¬
tle refidance, fhould have at lead a means of repairing
the dedruftion which they mud often fuffer, by their
quick reproduftion ; that they fhould increafe even
among enemies, and multiply under the hand of the de-
droyer. On the other hand, it has as wifely been or¬
dered by Providence, that the larger kinds fhould pro¬
duce but flowly ; otherwife, as they require proportion¬
al fupplies from nature, they would quickly confume
their own dore ; and, of confequence, many of them
would foon perifh through want; fo that life would thus
be given without the neceffary means of fubfidence. In
a word, Providence has mod wifely balanced the drength
of the great againd the weaknefs of the little. Since
it was neceffary that fome fliould be great and others
mean, fince it was expedient that fome fhould live upon
others, it has affided the weaknefs of one by granting it
fruitfulnefs, and diminilhed the number of the other by
infecundity.
In confequence of this provifion, the larger creatures,
which bring forth few at a time, feldom begin to gene¬
rate till they have nearly acquired their full growth.
On the contrary, thofe which bring many reproduce
before they have arrived at half their natural fize. Thus
the horfe and the bull are at their bed before they begin
to breed : the hog and the rabbit fcarce leave the teat
before they become parents in turn. Almofl all animals
likewife continue the time of their pregnancy in propor¬
tion to their fize (l).
For an account of the principal phenomena attending
the reproduftion of the human fpecies, viz. the requi-
fites for conception and its figns ; the efiefts of impreg¬
nation ; the gradual evolution of the foetus, and the
fuceeflive changes that take place in the uterine fydem
during uterogedation, fee the article Midwifery,
chap. i. and ii. The phenomena of reproduftion in other
viviparous animals are fo analogous to thofe in the hu¬
man fpecies, that we need not enter on an examination
of them. We {hall here only give a view of the fuccef-
five changes that take place in the egg of birds during
incubation, taken from the obfervations of thex:elebrated
Blumenbach. '
The following obfervations refer to the egg of theProgrefliw
common hen, as affording the mod familiar example of changes of
incubation.
A fmall fhining fpot, of an elongated form, with
rounded extremities, but narrowed in the middle, is
perceived at the end of the firfl day, not in nor upon
the
3J5
3^
(l) In the following table are noted the time of gedation, incubation, and the number of young produced in
feveral fpecies of quadrupeds and birds, as far as thefe have been afeertained*; and the fecond column flieivs the
period to which the life of each is ufually extended.
hap.
XIV.
Repro- the cicatricula (m), but very near that part on the yolk-
udion. ba(r. This may be faid to appear before-hand, as the
; abode of the chick which is to follow.
•ond7 trace t^ie latter can ^^covere<i before the
PHYSIOLOGY. 5i5
beginning of the fecond day } and then it has an incur- Of ^e.P^0'
vated form, refembling a gelatinous filament with large, c u 0 '
extremities, very clofely furrounded by the amnion,
which at firft can fcarcely be diftinguifhed from it.
3 T 2 About
SpecieSi
«
W
Ph
o
O
<
Apes.
Bats.
Sloth.
Rl)inoceros.
Elephant.
Ar6tic walrus.
Seal.
Bitch.
Wolf.
Fox.
Jackall.
Lionefs.
Tigrefs.
Cat.
Ferret.
Otter.
Virginian opoffum.
Kanguroo.
Mole.
Porcupine.
Guinea pig.
Common rat.
Moufe.
Common fquirrel.
Hare.
Rabbit.
Camel.
Rein deer.
Stag.
Goat.
Ewe.
Cow.
Mare.
Sow.
* Eagle.
Raven.
Cuckoo.
Humming bird.
Blackbird.
Canary bird,
p j Wren.
^ ' Pigeon.
Turkey.
Hen.
Oftrich.
Swan.
Goofe.
Duck.
pq
Period of Life.
Time of Geftation.
70 or 80 years.
Above 100 years.
12 or 16 years.
About 14 years.
Above 70 years.
From 10 to 18 years
6 or 7 years.
From 2 to 3 years.
40 or 50 years.
15 or 16 years.
Near 50 years.
15 years.
30 or 40 years.
Nearly 20 years.
Above 100 years.
Near 100 ditto.
10 or 20 years.
About 13 years.
Above 100 years.
Near 100 years.
21 months.
9 months.
9 weeks.
34 months.
6 weeks.
8 weeks.
6 weeks.
9 weeks.
3 weeks.
5 or 6 weeks.
6 weeks.
A month.
Ditto.
12 months.
8 months.
5 months.
5 months.
Ditto.
9 months.
11 months.
4 ditto.
Time of Incubation.
30 days.
20 ditto.
12 days.
14 ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
Ditto.
A month.
3 weeks.
6 weeks.
Ditto.
A month.
Ditto.
Number of Young.
About 2.
From 2 to c.
One.
One.
One.
One.
About 2.
From 4 to 10.
5 or 6.
From 3 to 6.
From 6 to 8.
4 or 5.
Ditto.
From 4 to 6.
6 or 7.
4 ?r 5-
Ditto.
One.
4 or 5-
Two.
From 5 to 12,
From 12 to 18.
From 6 to 10.
From 4 to c.
3 or 4-
About 8.
One.
Two.
One.
About 2 or 3.
From 1 to 3.
1 to 3.
1 or 2.
From 10 to 20.
2 or 3.
5 or 6.
1 or 2.
Two.
4 or 5.
Ditto.
From 10 to 18.
Two.
18 or 20.
About 20.
One or two each.
6 or 8.
9 to 12.
12 to i4> 
The ftrufture of an egg has already been defcribed under the article Egg j but for the better undetdland-
ing of Blumenbach’s obfervations, it may be neceffary to enumerate the feveral parts, with the names given to
them by that author. The membrane lining the Ihell is called membrana albuminis, and includes the two whites
of the egg, the inner of which furrounds the yolk, which is contained within a peculiar, very delicate membrane,
called yolk-bag. From two oppofite fides of this bag proceeds a white knotty body, terminating in the white
of the egg, by a flocculent extremity. Thefe bodies are called the chala%<z or gran dines /the cicatricula, tread,
or traddle, is furrounded by one or more whitilh concentric circles called halones^ or circuity the ufe of which is
not known.
5i6
Of Repro-
dudlion.
328
Third day.
329
Fourth day.
. 330
Sixth day.
. 33i
Ninth day.
^ 332
Fourteenth
day*
• 333
.Nineteenth
day.
P H Y S I
About this time the halones enlarge their circles ;
but they foon after diihppear entirely, as well as the ci-
catricuia.
The nrft appearance of red blood is difcerned on the
furlace ot the yolk-bag, towards the end of the fecond
day. A feries ot points is obferved, which form grooves j
and thefe doling, conftitute veffels, the trunks of which
become connected to the chick. The vafcular furface
itfelf is caWed jigura venofa, or area vafculofa ; and the
veffel by which its margin is defined, vena tenninalis.
1 he trunk ot all the veins joins the vena portae ; while
the arteries, which ramify on the yolk-bag, arife from
the mefenteric artery of the chick.
On the commencement of the third day,, the newly
formed heart is difcerned by means of its triple pulfa-
tion, and conllitutes a threefold pun Bum /aliens. Some
parts of the incubated chicken are deflined to undergo
fucceffive alterations in their form ; and this holds good
of the heart in particular. In its firlt formation it re-
fembles a tortuous canal, and confifls of three dilations
lying clofe together, and arranged in a triangle. One
of thefe, which is properly the right, is then the com¬
mon auricle ; the other is the only ventricle, but after¬
wards the left; and the- third is the dilated part of the
aorta.
About the fame time, the fpine, which was originally
extended in a ftraight line, becomes incurvated; and
the diftinftion of the vertebrae is very plain. The eyes
rnay be diftinguilhed by their black pigment-, and com¬
paratively immenfe lize ; and they are afterwards re¬
markable in confequence of a peculiar flit in the lower
part of the iris.
From the fourth day, when the chicken has attained
the length of four lines, and its moft important abdomi¬
nal vifeera, as the ftoraach, inteftines, and liver, are
vitible, (the gall-bladder, however, does not appear till
the fixth day), a vafcular membrane begins to form
about the navel ; and increafes in the following days
with fuch rapidity, that it covers nearly the whole inner
furface of the fliell, within the membrana albuminis. du¬
ring the latter half of incubation. This feems to fupply
the place of the lungs, and to carry on the refpiratory
procefs intlead of thofe organs. The lungs themfelves
begin indeed to be formed on the fifth day ; but, as in
the foetus of the mammalia, they muft be quite incapa¬
ble of performing their fun&ions while the chick is con¬
tained in the amnion.
Voluntary motion is firfi: obferved on the fixth day,
when the chick is about feven lines in length.
Oflificatjon commences on the ninth day, when the
oflific juice is firfl fecreted, and hardened into bony
points. Thefe form the rudiments of the bony ring of
the fclerotica, which refembles at that time a circular
row of the moft: delicate pearls.
At the fame period, tlve marks of the elegant yellow
veffels on the yolk-bag, begin to be vifible.
On the fourteenth day the feathers appear ■; and the
animal is able to open its mouth for air, if taken out of
the egg.
On the nineteenth day it is able to utter founds ; and
on the twenty-fir ft to break through its prifon, and com¬
mence a new life.
Blumenbach concludes his obfervations with a few
remarks on thofe very Angular membranes, the yolk-bag
2
O L O G Y. Chap
and the chorion, which are fo effential to the life and OfRepro'
prefervation of the animal. dudion.'
The chorion, that moft Ample yet moft perfect teas.
porary fubftitute for the lungs, if examined in the lat-R^t
ter half of incubation in an egg very cautioufly opened,on the ch«
prefents, without any artificial injedtion, one of the moftri°n*
fplendid fpedtacles that occurs in the whole organic cre¬
ation. It exhibits a furface covered with numberlefs
ramifications of arterial and venous veffels. The latter
are of a bright fcarlet colour, as they are carrying oxy¬
genated blood to the chick ; the arteries, on the con¬
trary, are of a deep or livid red, and bring the carbonat¬
ed blood from the body of the animal. Their trunks
are conne&ed with the iliac veffels ; and, on account of
the thinnefs of their coats, they afford the belt micro-
fcopica! objedl for demonftrating the circulation in a
warm-blooded animal..
The other membrane is alfo connedled to the bodyOiuhe
of the chick ; but by a two-fold uniton, and in a very yolk-bag,
different manner from the former. It is joined to the
fmall inteftine, by means of the duBus vittflo-intejlina-
lis, and alfo by the blood-veffels, with the mefenteric
artery and vena portae. ,
In the courfe of the incubation the yolk becomes con-
ftantly thinner and paler, by the admixture of the inner
white. At the fame time innumerable fringe-like vcf-
fels with flocculent extremities, of a moft Angular ftrue-
ture, form on the inner furface of the yolk-bag, oppo-
fite to the yellow ramified marks, and hang into the
yolk. There can be no doubt that they have the office
of abforbing the yolk, and conveying it into the veins
of the yolk-bag, where it is aftimilated to the blood, and
applied to the nutrition of the chick. Thus in the chick
which has juft quitted the egg, there is only a remain¬
der of the yolk and its bag to be difeovered in the abdo¬
men. Thefe are completely removed in the following
weeks, fo that the only remaining trace is a kind of ci¬
catrix on the furface of the inteftine 's‘. * Blumn-
Many of the caufos which contribute to the forma-^2^*
tion of a living body have hitherto eluded human re-^’ehar
fearch ; may in all probability never be difeovered j andxxvii.
perhaps are beyond human comprehenfion. ^
, Some philofophers, difeovering the extreme divifibili-Theurieso
ty of matter, and learning from tha microfcope thatgeneration
transformation is but the developement of certain parts 337
that previoufly exifted, have thence imagined that ge-HypothefiS;
neration is fomewhat analogous.; that all organifed bo-of 1“cc.eff"
dies received their form at the beginning ; that the firfteV0UU°E
of every genus and fpecies contained by involution the
numberlefs millions of fuceeeding generations ; and that
the union of the two foxes gives only a ftimulus, and
brings into view forms that had exifted fince the world
began. _ ^
By this hypothefis they have attempted to explain aObjectioft
thing that is unknown by what- muft remain for ever in-
comprehenfible to the human mind in its prefent ftate.
Thev abfurdly appeal from obfervation to conjefture ;
and foppofethat bodies which are originally brought into
view, which are daily augmented, frequently repaired,
and fometimes renewed by organic action, do neverthe-
lefs in their firft formation require an effort fuperior to
what omnipotence is able to perform by fecondary
agents. Had the fupporters of this hyporhefis confid r-
ed that many herbaceous plants produce new flowers
when
«
S39
i othelis
c pige-
i
XIV. P H Y S I
when the firll fet are untimely cut off; that lobfters and
many other animals renew their limbs, and that certain
polypes can raife a ftrudure fo perfe&ly refembling a
vegetable form as to puzzle the naturalill whether or
not he ihould clafs them under plants, they would fure-
]y not have prefcribed fuch bounds to omnifeient wif-
dom and almighty power, or declared with fuch confi¬
dence what the Author of nature, to fpeak with the vul¬
gar, muft neceffariiy perform by his own hands, or
what he may intruft to fecondary caufes regulated by his
laws.
Thefe philofophers will find it difficult to account in
a very fatisfaflory manner for monftrous produftions,
and for thofe changes of llrufture and of form which for
a while continue hereditary from the influence of habit.
They object to others, that all the parts of a living
body are mutually dependent on one another, and that
they mufl neceffariiy have been coeval, or have exifted
at once. But though every attempt, that has yet been
made to afcertain which of the vital organs are prior
and which poiterior in a living body has proved unfuc-
cefsful, it has not be j demonftrated that either them-
felves or their fundlions are coeval. It may, on the
contrary, be plainly demonftrated from obfervation,
that the lungs and the ftomacb do not begin to perform
their fundlions fo early as the' heart and the vafcular
fyftem ; that even the heart and its fyftem perform their
fundlions with fome confiderable changes, immediately
after birth; that the vegetable tribes are without nerves;
and that the brain and nerves in the animal king¬
dom perform more and more of their fundlions, accord¬
ing as the fyftem approaches towards maturity. It has
even been Ihewn, that bones will unite ; that the limbs
of an animal continue to be nourilhed without the
nerves; that there is a principle of life in the blood ;
that the heart will adl under other ftimuli befide that
of nervous influence ; and found logic does by no means
require us to fuppofe, that the firft aclion of the foetal
heart, or the pwiclum fa/iens, is owing to the influ¬
ence of ftimuli from the brain, or that the brain muft
have exifted when the heart firft moved. Although the
minutenefs and tranfparency of the parts may prevent
us from feeing the firft gradual formation of the embryo,
yet every obfervation corroborates the opinion, that it
is formed by fecondary caufes, and through the medium
of organic powers.
Moft phyfiologifts have believed, the certain inorga¬
nic particles are contained in the fyftem of one fex or of
the other, and that by the union of the fexes thefe par¬
ticles have become organifed. It has, however, been
afked whether or not is the embryo formed by the joint
operation of the two fexes ? or is it formed entirely by
one, and brought into adlion by a ftimulus from the
other ? The former of thefe queftions fuppofes that each
of the fexes has a feminal fluid ; that fome mixture takes
place in the uterus, and produces an embryo, in the
fame manner that a neutral fait affumes a certain and de¬
terminate form. The notion implies fome general and
confufed ideas of chemical combination ; but does not
befpeak a very clear underftanding, profound reflec¬
tion, or much acquaintance with the nature and pro¬
perties of living bodies.
For a long time pnft the moft rational phyfiologifts
We generally thought that the embryo is formed gra-
O L O G Y. 5?7
dually and flowly in one or other of the two fexes, not Of Hrpro-
by chemical combination, but a fyftem of organs, di- , ( t ‘ ■
re&ed by laws and prompted by ftimuli, with many of
which we are yet unacquainted. From the great Hip¬
pocrates to Fabricius ar ’.Harvey, the credit of furnifti-
ing the foetal embryo was almoft univerfally given to
the females of oviparous animals. Among the vivipar¬
ous, the appearances were fuch, that the female was 340
left to conteft it with the male. At laft the eclat of
Leeuwenhoek’s difcoveries feemed to put an end to all keder<ived)
doubts entertained upon the fubjeft. He very plainly from thB
faw through his microfcope that very great profufion of male,
particles that move to and fro with amazing rapidity in
the male femen. Upon this he embraced the doftrine
of Hamme, who had feen them before, and fuppofed
from their motions that there particles were not only
animalcules, but the principles or rudiments of that
animal in whom they were formed, and that they were
depofited in the uterus of the female only to be nouriftr-
ed and augmented in flze. ^41
What railed objections againft this theory was, that Objecftiona.
numerous animalcules were difcoverable by the micro¬
fcope in other fluids, and that a vaft profufion of young
embryos appeared in cafes where never more than one
or two arrive at maturity. It was an objection to it,
that fome females had been impregnated, where the hy¬
men remained unbroken, fo that the impregnating fluid
could have reached only the mouth of the uterus.
Again, in frogs, fifties, and many other animals, the
ova are not impregnated till after extrufion ; and laftly,
Haller had obferved the chick completely formed in
eggs that had not been fecundated.
It is now, we believe, pretty generally known, that
the embryo does not commence its exiftence in the ca¬
vity of the uterus. De Graaf obferved it on its paffage
down the fallopian tube ; he faw the place where it firft
began in the ovarium of the female, and cafes have oc¬
curred where it has miffed the fallopian tube, where it
has fallen into the abdomen, in which the placenta has
been formed, and the foetus has grown among the
bowels. 342
From thefe faCts it has been concluded, notwithftand- j5™"
mg fome feeble objedions, that the female ovaria con-t}ie embryo
tain the embryos in the form of eggs ; that thefe eggs exifts in the
are brought into aCIion by the ftimulating power of the female,
male femen, 4 hich is fometimes thrown into the cavity
of the uterus, fometimes applied only to its mouth, and
fometimes fprinkled on the eggs after they are extruded.
For n ore on this fubjeCl fee the article Midwifery. 343
A view of the relations between the preft nt funftion Relations,
and thofe which we have before examined, is a fubjeft
of fo delicate a nature, that we muft not enlarge on it.
7'he fympathy between the reproduBive and the ner¬
vous lyftems is well known. The effeft which defire
has occafionally produced on the brain is very great,
madnefs being not unfrequently the confequence, either
of too much indulgence, or of total continence. We
are of opinion that the influence of the fancy or imagi¬
nation on the uterine fyftem has been overrated, though
the accounts given of monfters or deformed births, in
confequence of terror experienced by the mother, ap¬
pear to be too well authenticated to warrant our total
dilhelief in this influence. Too much indulgence in
this appetite produces a debilitated ftate, both of
the
5i 8 PH Y S I
()f S!eeP tlic mental and bodily fundlions, and deprives the fyf-
an jirpor. tem 0f t[iat natura} ftj'mulus which feems effential to the
aftivity and vigour of the body in the male.
Chap. XV. Of Sleep and Torpor.
344
Necefiity of have already conlidered the adtive means by
fleep. ' which the wafte of the body is repaired 5 but all thefe
would have little effect, and could not indeed be carried
on for any confiderable time, without fome general re¬
laxation of the fyftem. This relaxation is brought
about by deep, in which the a£Hve functions find a re-
pofe from the labours which they have undergone during
the day ; and in this way the fyftem is recruited more
completely than by any other means.
Sleep, an Sleep may be confidered as an affe&ion of mind, and
affetflion of therefore more properly a fubjeft of metaphyfical, than
mind. 0f phyfiological fpeculation. It is, however, generally
treated of in fyftems 6f phyfiology 5 and it will be ne-
ceffary to take notice of fome circumftances refpe£ling
it. We (hall chiefly confider the ftate of the body and
mind during deep, and fome of the principal theories
.346 that have been contrived to account for it.
Phenomena Natural fleep returns at certain intervals, which are,
of fleep. however, different in different animals. Moft animals,
and efpecially man, fleep only during the night, but
moft of the predacious fpecies, as beafts and birds of
prey, choofe this time for their predatory excurfions,
and repofe during the day. Sleep comes on with an un-
ufual languor and laflitude ; an averfion to motion j the
mind becomes unfit for its ufual exertions ; and the de¬
fire of reft pervades the whole fyftem. In particular,
the extenfor mufcles lofe their power of preferving the
body in an ere& pofture; the eyelids involuntarily fall;
the head bows forward ; the joints bend, and the body
links. During fleep, all the voluntary motions are in
general fufpended ; but the involuntary actions of the
heart and lungs proceed, though not fo vigoroufly as in
the waking ftate $ the circulation and refpiration being
flower than ufual. Moft of the fenfes are alfo in a ftate
of repofe, efpecially thofe of feeling, fmell, and pro¬
bably of tafte. Hearing is, in- fome animals, very acute
during fleep, and they are thus enabled to efcape any
danger that threatens them. Some animals, as the hare,
alfo fleep with their eyes open ; and in moft the impref-
fion of light, when the eyelids are railed, is very evi¬
dent. I he functions of digeftion, abforption, and fe-
cretion, feem to proceed with greater eafe and adlivity
during fleep ; and aflimilation and nutrition are much
promoted by this ftate of repofe. Some of the faculties
of the mind, dfpecially the imagination, are, however,
in full vigour, as appears from the dreams that take
place during fleep. The duration of fleep is exceeding¬
ly various. Among the human fpecies, young chil¬
dren, and very old perfons, pafs the greateft half of
their time in fleep, while middle-aged and adlive people
feldom fleep fo much as one third of the 24 hours.
Though the returns of fleeping and waking depend
much on cuftom, they may, however, be changed by
various circumftances; and though the commencement
of one of thefe periods happen to be altered, that of the
other may remain as before. If a perfon is accuftomed
to go to fleep exadtly at nine in the evening, and to rife
again at fix in the morning, though the time of fleep
may be occafionally protradled till twelve, he will yet
I
O L O G Y. Chap. XV
awaken at his ufual hour of fix : or if his fleep be con- Ofsiee
tinued by darknefs, quietnefs, or fimilar caufes, till the311(1'Torpo
day be farther advanced, the defire of fleep will return ' 
in the evening at nine.
Moft of the caufes that produce or prevent fleep, have-
been mentioned in the article Medicine, N° 94. Asileep/ °l
to the immediate caufe, the opinions of phyfiologifts are
much at variance, and the theory of fleep is as little un-
derftood as that of any fundtion of the animal eco¬
nomy.
According to Haller, fleep arifes, either from a fim- H 'H8.
pie abfence, deficiency and immobility of the fpirits, or o/Hdler!
from compreflion of the nerves, and always from the
motion of the fpirits through the brain being impeded *. *
That fleep is, fome how or other, connedted with a com-Lines of
preffion of the brain, appears very probable, from the Ph)ftotyy
heavinefs and coma that take place in cafes where fuch^ ^
a compreflion has evidently been produced ; but how
this compreflion adls has never yet been fatisfadlorily ex¬
plained ; and the obftrudtion that Haller fuppofes in
the motion of the animal fpirits, or nervous fluid, is gra¬
tuitous.
One of the fafliionable dodtrines of the prefent day
refpedting the immediate caufe of fleep is, that this ftate
is produced by an exhauftion of irritability or excitabili¬
ty. According to Brown, fleep fucceeds a diminution
of excitement, during which the excitability is either
only fo far diminiftied that it can be accumulated again,
or fo abundant, that the excefe can be wrafted, and in
each cafe the excitement reftored f. f E/ern,
Similar to this is the dodtrine of Zoonomia, that fieep AM.
depends on an exhauftion of fenforial power. Dr Dar-$ 337-
win thus charadlerizes perfedl fleep : 1. The power of
volition is totally fufpended. 2. The trains of ideas
caufed by fenfation proceed with greater facility and
vivacity ; but become inconfiftent with the ufual order
of nature. The mufcular motions caufed by fenfation
continue ; as thofe concerned in our evacuations during
infancy, and afterwards in digeftion, and in priapifmus.
3. The irritative mufcular motions continue, as thofe
concerned in the circulation, in fecretion, and refpira¬
tion. But the irritative fenfual motions, or ideas, are
not excited ; as the immediate organs of fenfe are not
ftimulated into adtion by external objedfs, which are
excluded by the external organs of fenfe ; which are not
in fleep adapted to their reception by the power of vo¬
lition, as in our waking hours. 4. The aflociate mo¬
tions continue, but their firft link is not excited into ac¬
tion by volition, or by external ftimuli. In all refpedts,
except thofe above mentioned, the three laft fenforial
powers are fomewhat increafed in energy during the fuf-
penfion of volition, owing to the confequent accumula¬
tion of the fpirit of animation j Dawn
Thus, the immediate caufe of fleep confifts in the fuf- Zoonomh
penfion of volition produced by the exhauftion of fenfo- v°f 51
rial power ; and hence, whatever diminifties the gene¬
ral quantity of fenforial power, adls as a remote caufe of
fleep.
Befide the infufficiency of thefe hypothefes to account
for many circumftances that take place during fleep, we
may remark, that this ftate is often produced when no
exhauftion of irritability, excitability, or fenforial power,
can be fuppofed to have taken place. Thus, the pro-
penfity to fleep often becomes irrefiftible from the effedts
of monotonous fpeaking, from ftillnefs, darknefs, or
c
f
am
Su[
fief
,ia:
Dr
s.
lifi
ip. XV.
ilcep from the famenefs of the fcenery around us ; and when
lorpor-one ftimulus, after long application, can aroufe no
more, another ftimulus that in ordinary cafes is lefs
powerful, produces excitement, and keeps off deep j an
evident proof that excitability or fenforial power have
t not been very far exhaufted.
fed Plants have been faid to deep. At the approach of
af night, many of them are obferved to change their ap¬
pearances very condderably, and fometirnes even to fuch
a degree as fcarcely to be known for what they are.
Thefe changes happen principally to the leaves and the
flowers. During the night, many leaves, according to
the nature and genus of the plant, are feen to rife up,
to hang down, or to fold themfelves in various ways,
for the protection of the flowers, the buds, the fruits,
the young ftems 5 and many flowers, to efcape a fupera-
bundance of moifture, to hang down their mouths to¬
wards the earth, or to wrap themfelves up in their ca-
lices. Thefe phenomena are owing to ftimuli adling
from without j we may add, that moft of the motions
are performed at the joints where the leaves and petals
articulate with the Item. A period of reft is as necef-
fary to plants as deep is to animals. The irritable prin¬
ciple cannot a£l long under the influence of the fame
ftimulus, except at intervals, and the rapid growth ob-
fervable in plants during the night, is a ftrong proof
that the organs employed in affimilation had been dif-
turbed in difcharging their fundlions during the day,
when expofed to the adtion of heat and light and of
,j other ftimuli.
aing. In our general outline, we had propofed introducing
here an account of the phenomena of dreams, but we
find that this fubjedl has been fo fully difcufled under
the article Dream, that any additional remarks would
be unnecelfary. To this article therefore we refer the
reader.
Rules for the management of the body with refpedl to
deep, fcarcely come within our prefent provincq 5 but as
we pafs fo much of our time in this ftate, during which
we are fometimes occupied in a very agreeable manner,
while at others we are fubjedl to moft uneafy fenfations,
it is a matter of confiderable confequence to take thofe
meafures which may fecure to us the former, and enable
us to avoid the latter. We have feen few rules better
adapted to thofe purpofes than thofe of Dr Franklin 5
but as more important matter preffes for infertion within
the circumfcribed limits to which we are reftridled, we
tnuft refer our readers to the original paper, which is
publilhed in the late 8vo edition of Franklin's Works,
i3 vol. iii. p.437.
ambu- In a few cafes, not only the imagination has a full
range during lleep, but the voluntary motions of the
body, and even the exercife of fome of the external
fenfes, are carried on with apparentlv as much perfec¬
tion as when the perfon is awake. This ftate is called
fomnambulifm, or deep-walking, and is commonly con-
fidered as a variety of dreaming. Many furprifing ac¬
counts have been given of fleep-walkers. They have
been known to rife, drefs themfelves, go out of doors,
and fometimes out of a window, from which they have
elimbed upon the roof of a houfe, dig in a garden, draw
water from a well, faddle a horfe and ride feveral miles ;
maintain a rational and interefting converfation, and even
go through a laborious and difficult literary talk; and af-
519
ter having performed thefe exploits, they have returned Of Sleep
to their bed without being confcious of what they had and Torpor.
been doing. This want of confcioufnefs appears from ^
their remembering nothing when they awake, of what
pafled during their fleep. It is difputed whether fom-
nambulifts incur as much danger in the adlions which
they perform, as thofe who are awake, in fimilar cir-
cumftances. We are inclined to think that the danger
is much lefs in the former cafe, as fleep-walkers feem en¬
tirely free from the terror which commonly attends the at¬
tempting of any hazardous enterprife when awake j fuch
as mounting to the roof of a houfe, climbing a fteeple, &c.
If fuddenly awaked, however, while engaged in any of
their hazardous aftions, the danger is very great.
Dr Darwin confiders fomnambuiifm, not as a ftate of Reverie,
lleep or dreaming, but as a variety of reverie, carried to
a morbid extent, fo as to become a fort of epileptic or ca¬
taleptic paroxyfm. In the ftate of reverie, according to
Dr Darwin, the irritative motions occafioned by internal
ftimuli continue, thofe from the ftimuli of external ob-
jefts are either not produced at all, or are never fucceed-
ed by fenfation or attention, unlefs they are at the fame
time excited by volition ; the fenfitive motions continue,
and are kept confiftent by the power of volition 5 the vo¬
luntary and aflociate motions continue undifturbed. He
confiders reverie as an eflFort of the mind to relieve fome * Zotno-
painful fenfation, whence it is allied to convulfion and V°1
infanity *. §
The torpor that takes place in many animals during Torpor of
winter, appears to be fo nearly allied to fleep, that we animals,
(hall conlider it in this chapter.
A great variety of animals of almoft every clafs, re¬
tire during the cold of winter, to the recefles of ca¬
verns, holes in old walls, hollow trees, or below the
earth, where they remain in apparently a lifelefs ftate
till the return of fpring roufes them from their trance.
We fhall here enumerate the different animals that have
been known to undergo this ftate of hibernation. ^55
Bats, efpecially the vefpertilio murinus, auritus, and Hibernate
v. uoRula (fee Mammalia, N° 39.) ; /'eanr, elpecially ing mam-
the brown and the polar bear, and the badger ; the hedge-
hog, {erinaceus Furopeus') ; feveral fpecies of the moufe
and rat tribe, but more efpecially the hamjier {mus cri-
cetus'), the marmots, efpecially the arBomys marmota,
(fee Mammalia, N° i 24.) \ the dormoufe [myoxus muf-
cardinus'). Sheep appear capable of living for a confider¬
able time in a torpid ftate, as they have been known to
remain alive for feveral weeks, buried under the fftow. 357
It does not appear that birds in general are capable ofHibernatioft
undergoing this ftate of exiftence ; but the inftances of9* *>ir(*s >
fwallows that have been found in this ftate in old walls
and hollow trees, and even, as fome affirm, below water,
and have recovered life and a£!ivity on being expofed to
gradual warmth, are too wTell authenticated to admit a
doubt, that thefe at leaft fometimes hibernate. „
Moft reptiles and ferpents pafs the winter in a ftate ofbf reptiles
hibernation 5 but this is more particularly the cafe with and fer¬
tile land tortoife {tejiudo grtvca), fee ERPETOLOGY,Pencs?
p. 271.; frogs, and thofe lizards which inhabit cold cli¬
mates.
It is not certainly known whether many fpecies of fi(h 0f fifliis •
become torpid in winter; but there is no doubt that fe- * Reeve
veral of them are fufceptible of this ftate * $ and we areBif Inaug.
told that in North America, efpecially about Hudfon’s^,
' 4 ' libui Hie-
> mefopitisy
p. 10.
PHYSIOLOGY.
/
520
Of Sleep
and Torpor
360
Of infedts.
361
Of man.
362
Principal
phenomena
of hiberna¬
tion.
363
Sufpended
animation
of fome ani¬
mals.
P H Y S I
bay, fillies are not infrequently found included within a
body of ice, and when expofed to gentle heat, have re¬
covered life and motion.
Almoil all infefts remain, during the winter, in a tor¬
pid Hate. This happens principally to the chryialids,
and fuch grubs as cannot, in that feafon, procure their
food.
It will appear extraordinary that we fhould place man
among the hibernating animals } and yet there feems lit¬
tle doubt, that even he is capable of having his life fu-
fpended for a confiderable time, when expofed to thole
caufes which bring about the torpidity of tbofe animals
that we have already mentioned. We are told of a wo¬
man, who, in February 1789, remained eight days
buried in the fnow, and Hill recovered ; and the cafe of
the three women who remained for 37 days in a liable
at Bergamoletto, that had been overwhelmed by an
avalanche, or fnow heap, with no other fullenance than
the milk of a half-ftarved fhe goat, is well known.
Thefe inftances, added to others of perfons who have
paiTed feveral weeks in a Hate of almoft uninterrupted
lleep, tend to prove that man himfelf may, under certain
circumftances, continue in a torpid date.
During this Hate of torpidity, the animals fcarcely ap¬
pear to live 5 fenfation feems altogether loft j their irrita¬
bility is fo much diminilhed, that they may be cut, torn,
or even broken to pieces, without exprefling any mark
of feeling, or giving any fign of motion \ digeftion feems
entirely fufpended ; the fecretions and excretions are dif-
continued. Some of the fun&ions, however, are carried
on. Refpiration and circulation, though very languid,
and fometimes fcarcely perceptible, appear to go on in
a degree fufHcient to preferve the exiftence of the animal \
and the aftion of the abforbents feems to be very little
diminilhed, as appears fre?n the gradual abforption of the
fat. If the animal is taken from its place of confinement,
and expofed to a gentle heat, it gradually recovers all
its faculties \ but if carried back to its cell, it relapfes
into the ftate of torpidity.
The long fufpenfion of animation, of which feveral
animals are fufceptible, appears Hill more extraordinary
than the torpidity above'defcribed. The common hair
worm {gordius aquaticus') may, when dried, be pre-
ferved for an indefinite length of time, and when put
into -water, gradually recovers its ufual activity of mo¬
tion. See Helminthology, N® 32. One of the moft
remarkable cafes of this fufpended animation is that re¬
lated of the garden fnail, of which the following curious
account has been given in the Philofophical Tranfaftions
for 1774* Mr Stuckey Simon, a merchant in Dublin,
whofe father, a fellow of the Royal Society, and a lover
of natural hiftory, left to him a fmall colledtion of fof-
fils and other curiofities, had amongft them the fliells
of fome fnails. About 15 years after his father’s death
(in whofe poffeflion they were many years), he by
chance gave to his fon, a child about 10 years old,
fome of thefe ftiells to play with. The boy put them
into a flower-pot, -which he filled with water, and the
next day into a bafon. Having occafion to ufe this,
Mr Simon obferved that the animals had come out of
their (hells. He examined the child, who allured him
that they ivere the fame he had given him, and faid he
had alfo a few more, which he brought. Mr Simon
put one of them into water, and in an hour and a half
after obferved that it had put out its horns and body,
O L O G Y. Chap. XV
which it moved but {lowly, probably from weaknefs. Of Sleep
Major Valiancy and Dr Span were afterwards prefent, an<l T°rpi
and faw one of thefe inails crawl out, the others beino- tT—
dead, moll probably from their having remained feme
days in the water. Dr Quin and Dr Rutty alfo exa¬
mined the living fnail feveral times, and were greatly
pieafed to fee him come out of his folitary habitation
after fo many years confinement. Dr Macbride, and a
party of gentlemen at his houfe, were alfo witnefl’es of
this furprifing phenomenon. Dr Macbride has thus
mentioned the circumftance : “ After the {hell had lain
about ten minutes in a glafs of water that had the cold
barely taken off, the fnail began to appear ; and in five
minutes more we perceived half the body pufhed out
from the cavity of the {hell. We then removed it into
a bafon, that the fnail might have more fcope than it
had in the glafs *, and here, in a very {hurt time, we
faw it get above the furface of the water, and crawl up
towards the edge of the bafon. While it was thus mo¬
ving about, with its horns ereft, a fly chanced to be
hovering near, and, perceiving the fnail, darted down
upon it. The little animal inftantly withdrew itfelf
into the {hell, but as quickly came forth again, when it
found the enemy was gone off. We allowed it to wan¬
der about the bafon for upwards of an hour, when we
returned it into a wide-mouthed phial, wherein Mr
Simon had lately been ufed to keep it. He was fo
obliging as to prefent me with this remarkable fliell j
and I obferved, at twelve o’clock, as I was going to
bed, that the fnail was ftill in motion, but next morn-
inw I found it in a torpid ftate, flicking to the fide of
the glafs.”
The ftill more extraordinary inftances that have been
related, on w'hat many have confidered authentic tefti-
mony, of toads having been found inclofed in the trunk
of a large tree, or within a folid block of ft one, appear
almoft incredible •, and yet if we confider that M. He-
riffant preferved toads in a ftate of fufpended animation
for 18 months, in boxes covered with a thick coating
of mortar (fee ERPETOLOGy, p. 286.) ; that the fnails
mentioned in the above quotation, muft have lain for at
leaft 20 years ; and that flies have been recovered after
being immerfed for many months in Madeira wine, it is
difficult to fay how long this fufpended animation may
not be continued. ^
Similar phenomena take place in the vegetable crea-
tion. Moft of thofe plants which furvive one year,tionof
ftied their leaves on the approach of winter ; and, dur-plants-
ing this feafon, the motion of the fap ceafes, and they
have all the appearance of dead fhrubs. The herba¬
ceous tribes even die down to the roots, which, being
moftly of the bulbous kind, afford (belter to the furviv-
ing germ ; and are hence called, by botanifts, the hyher-
nacula of plants. On return of fpring, the plant (hoots
anew from its winter’s retreat, and flouriftres with its
former ftrength and beauty.
Some plants are even capable of having their vitality,
or rather the exercife of all their fundlions, fufpended,
as in the gordius and the fnail, for an indefinite length
of time. MoJJes have been kept in a dried ftate in
a hortusJiccus for many years, and have fhown no fign
of life, till they were moiftened and expofod to air,
light, and a moderate heat, when they have recovered
all their powers, have ere£led their Hems, (hot forth
neiv branches, and ftourilhed as at firft.
It
i,ap. XV. PHYSI
f Sleep It is almoft impoffrble, in the prefent ftate of our
s Torpor phyfiological knowledge, to give any rational theory of
thefe phenomena. The torpor of animals has been at¬
tributed to exhaufted excitability, or exhaufted fenforial
power j to the effe&s of habit, and to the effefl: produ¬
ced on the brain by fufpended or diminifhed refpiration.
The laft of thefe, though not quite fatisfa&ory, appears
to us the inoft probable hypothelis. It has been ably de¬
fended and illuftrated by Dr George Kellie, in a paper in
which he relates a remarkable cafe of torpor from cold.
“ The powers of voluntary motion and of fenfation
(fays Dr Kellie), are known to depend immediately up¬
on the conditions of the brain and nerves; if, therefore,
we could difcover in what manner thefe organs are af-
fe&ed by any of the preceding events, we (hould advance
conliderably towards the folution of the queftions above
dated. {Namely^ What is the order of fucceffion be¬
tween the dimintfhed irritability of the heart, in confe-
quence of the abftraEtion of caloric, and the complete tor¬
por of the voluntary mufcles and of the organs of fenfe,
and how are the intervening ejfeBs conne&cd?- ) Were the
inaftivity of thefe organs the dire# effefl of their dimx-
nidied temperature; did the torpor in no cafe happen, till
the heat of the brain and nerves was reduced beneath
the natural ftandard, there could be hardly ground for
any farther inquiry. But, as it is not fo, fome other
change, lefs direfl, muff have occurred, in confequence
of the connexion of the brain with, and its dependence
upon, fome other of the funftions antecedently and more
immediately affefledy and this funflion I apprehend to
be refpiration, between which and the energies of the
nervous fyftem a very intimate connection is maintained,
through the changes produced on the blood during the
pulmonary circulation. This dependence of the brain
upon the properties of the blood, maintained by refpira¬
tion, is evinced by a great variety of obfervations.
Whatever impedes the refpiratory changes of the circu¬
lating fluid debilitates or deftroys the powers of mufcu-
lar motion, as the refpiration of noxious gafes, of reduced
or rarefied atmofphere; while greater exertions of muf-
bular powers call for, and give occafion to more fre¬
quent refpiration, more rapid confumption of air, and
greater changes of the blood; and the breathing of
more effeflive gafes, as of the nitrous oxide, increafes
the motive and fenfitive powers of animals. That thefe
effefls depend immediately upon the properties of the
Iflyod, as modified by refpiration, afling on the brain,
has, J think, been proved by the experiments of Bi¬
chat, who, in a mafterly manner, has traced the mu¬
tual connexion and dependencies of the vital funflions
in his admirable Recherches Phyjiologiques fur la Vie et
la Mart. The transfufisn or injeflion of venous blood
into the carotids induced afphyxia or death, the inftant
it reached the brain; an effefl which did not follow the
fimilar transfufion of arterial blood from the carotid of
another *. By thefe experiments, and by feveral other
obfervations, he has (hewn, that the afphyxia which fo
r'Partli inftantly follows impeded or fufpended refpiration is oc-
' '' cafioned by the impreflion of dark, venous, unchanged
blood upon the brain, and not, as has commonly been
fuppofed, froln this blood being incapable of ftimulating
the left fide of the heart, which, on the contrary, con¬
tinues to contrafl and to circulate the blood for fome
time after the voluntary funftions are fufpended; an ob-
fervation confirmed alfo by Coleman and others.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
lichaty
cber-
O L O G Y. S2i
“ Such then appears to be the conneflion between the Of Sleep
funflions of reipiration and thofe of the brain. Now, a'H‘ ic'P°“,
in animals rendered torpid from cold, there are many
obfervations which lead us to believe, that the immobi¬
lity of the nervous fyllem depends much, and very di-
re£lly too, on the Hate of refpiration.
“ In the perfect torpor of the hibernating amplubice,
refpiration is completely fufpended, and the conlequent
changes produced on the blood by that function totally
prevented. This, which appeared from a variety of ob¬
fervations on the winter quarters of fuch animals found
imbedded in mud, incafed in ice, or clofed up in oper-
cula of their own conftru£tion, for the occalion of ex¬
cluding the air, has been amply confirmed by the pointed
experimentsofSpallanzanijlately publilhedby Senebier-f. | Mem- *:i
“ In every cafe of torpor from cold, where the refpira- Refpira-
tion falls (hort of this-complete fufpenfion, it is at leaft^0'1*
more or lefs impaired. How much the torpid Hate de¬
pends on this condition of the refpiratory fun&ions,
farther appears from obferving, that hibernating ani¬
mals, even thofe not of the amphibious order, warned
by the approach of winter, in(lin£lively or induftrioufly
feek fituations unfavourable to perfect refpiration, where
this function may be either inadequately or not at all
performed, as by premature and involuntary interment
under ground, in old walls, in mud, at the bottom of
lakes, &c. The inltinft of thefe animals, too, has.
been finely imitated by experiment, illufirating at once
the objefl of this inftindt, and confirming the opinion
here advanced of its tendency. Thus the dormant
hamfter was found to regain and preferve its aflivity,
when freely expofed to a pure atmofphere, the. tempera¬
ture, at the fame time, not exceeding that at which it
had formerly become torpid, or at which it returned to
that Hate when again fecluded under ground "f. Thefe t *
obfervations feem conclufive on this point, and, with
thofe already brought forward confirming the general Voi. vi^.
connexion eftabliflied between the properties of the p. 193.
blood, as modified by refpiration, and the fun£lions of
the brain, render it, I think, highly probable, that the
torpor of the voluntary powers, in the cafes now under
confideration, is the confequence of a limited and im-
perfeft refpiration, antecedently induced by diminiflied
temperature.
“ Obfervation, indeed, is more deficient on this point
with regard to the higher orders of animals, and to men,
who only occafionally become torpid from cold. Yet
more than analogy, which is here very ftrong, leads me
to believe that, even in thefe, the fun&ions of refpira¬
tion are much and neceffarily afiecled. T he examples
of cattle and of men remaining long torpid, deeply buried
under fnow, arepretty diredl and convincing proofs of this.
“ If our indu&ion from all thefe obfervations be admit¬
ted, we have the rudiments of a theory adequate to the
explanation of the phenomena, in fo far, at leaft, as the
torpor of the voluntary powers is concerned.
“ From the fufpended or imperfedl refpiration, thofe
changes, by which the blood is fitted for maintaining,
the adlivity of the fenforial fyftem, are interrupted ;
this imperfedl blood circulating llowly through the brain
diredlly impedes its fundlions, and fo debilitates the ex¬
citability of the motive and fenfitive organs, that they
become torpid. This enunciation may feem hypotheti¬
cal ; but let the proofs of the intimate connedlion be¬
tween the refpirable and fenforial fundlions be weighed j
3 U confide?
* Edin.
Med. and
\€6
522 PH
Of Sleep conlider alfo the interrupted refpiratxon of hibernating
and 1 o'por. an(| torpjj animals, their inftinfts with regard to this,
”~v and the greater facility with which torpor is induced in
a confined fituation, which they naturally feek *, and
compare all thefe with the obfervations and experiments
of Bichat on the eflfe&s of the immediate, impreffion of
venous blood upon the brain, and you will perceive a
conne&ed fyflem, not entirely fanciful, a theory not
without foundation and ftrengtb, and which appears to
me at lead to merit fome attention
For further particulars refpedfing the torpidity or hi-
J^-bernation of animals, we refer the reader to Spallan-
I 308. zani’s Trails on Animals and Vegetables ; White’s Natu¬
ral Hif} or if of Selborne; Barton’s Fragments of the Natu¬
ral Hi/lory of Pcnnfylvania ; Pennant’s ArEiic Zoology ;
La Cepede on Oviparous Quadrupeds, as tranflated by
Kerr ; Townfon’s TraEis on Natural Hi/lory and Phy-
fology, and the Inaugural DiJJertation qf'Dx Reeve deAni-
malibus llieme Sopitis, publilhed at Edinburgh in 1803.
Chap. XVI. Of Death.
In the article Man, (N0 33. to the end') we have
traced the progrels of human life, from the cradle to
the grave ; and have briefly confidered the phenomena
and the confequences of natural death. In that article,
and Longevity, we have alfo dated the natural dura*
tion of human life, and the circumftances that tend to
prolong our exiftence beyond the ordinary period. We
(hall not here enter again on any of thefe topics, except
to give a more ample account of the gradual approaches
of natural death, and lhall then enumerate the caufes
which ufually produce violent or accidental death, and
mention the opinions of fome of the bed writers on the
nature of death.
Gradual Natural death is, in the prefent date of civilized fo-
approach of ciety, by no means a common occurrence. When it
natural floes take place, its approach is flow and gradual. He
whofe life terminates in confequence of advanced age,
(to nfe the language of a celebrated French phyfiolo-
gift), dies in detail. His external fumdions fucceflively
ceafe to exert their a<dion j all his fenfes are fucceflively
lofl, or the ordinary caufes of fenfation pafs over them
without leaving their ufual impreflions. The fght be¬
comes obfcure, and at length the humours of the eye
no longer tranfmit the rays of light 5 the ear receives
only confufed founds, and frequently before death, is
altogether infenfible; the fenfe of touch, in confequence
©f the hardnefs and calloufnefs of the cuticle, and the
obliteration of many of the fubcutaneous veflels, grows
dull and uncertain ; and all the parts depending on the
fkin fhow marks of weaknefs ; the hair and the beard
grow white, and a greater or lefs degree of baldnefs
takes place ; odours are no longer perceived, or they
are perceived but faintly. The tade ufually furvives
the red of the fenfes j but that too, at lad, grows equally
obfcure. The fumdions of the brain partake of the
imbecility of the external fenfes. The imagination in
particular becomes dull and often depraved; the memory
no longer retains thofe occurrences which are every day
taking place, though it recalls with inereafed relifli and
delight thofe of pad times ; the judgment becomes weak
and wavering.
From the univerfal agency exerted by the nervous
%flcm on all the animal fun<dions, we mud expeid that
4
Y S I O L O G Y.
death.
Chap, xvi
when the former is impaired, the latter will be proper- Of Death
tionally enfeebled. The faculties of locomotion and ofv™' y —<
fpeech are commonly the fird of thefe that fail j the
body totters at every dep, the voice grows weak, and
the tongue faulters. The motion of the limbs is diffi¬
cult and painful, and hence is but feldom willingly ex¬
erted. Not fo with the vocal organs, though the im¬
pediments to utterance are evident and painful to his
hearers, the old man himfelf feems fcarcely to attend to
them, but talks with proverbial garulity, and efpecially
delights in recounting the feenes and actions of his youth.
While the external funftions, and thofe of the brain, are
thus gradually impaired ; the internal, or ivhat are com¬
monly called the vital and natural fundUens, as digedion,
abforption, circulation, refpiration, and fecretion, proceed
with but little derangement. The circulation and re¬
fpiration are indeed flower than before, and the appetite
is in general lefs. keen and returns lefs frequently 5 but
the digedive powers of the gaftric fluids remain in full
vigour, and even after death has taken place, are ex¬
erted on the coats of the domach j abforption is alfo
very aftive, and nutrition, at lead in many parts of the
body, is fufhciently evident. At length, however, all
thefe fundlions lofe their powers $ digedion languiflies \
the fecretions no longer take place j the circulation,
efpecially in the minute veflels, becomes obfcure, and
being deprived of the tonic powers by which it was
carried on, gradually ceafes altogether j the heart not See
longer propels the blood from its ventricles 5 and the
circulation through the lungs being thus arrefled, thefe p^/,
organs ceafe to take in air, make their lad expiration, part i.
and thus the natural life of man is terminated f. art-I0>
Accidental death takes place in one of the two fol- Acc^rtf
lowing ways 5 either fuddenly, in confequence of fome or vi0ieui
great didurbance produced in the animal economy, as death,
when a man is cut off by a hidden drake of apoplexy,
violent haemorrhage, afphyxia, &c. or by flow and
gradual fleps, in confequence of fome lefs violent but
dill fatal difeafe. In the former cafe, it is fudden or
violent death 5 in the latter lingering death.
Violent death may take place fird, either in the brainr
the lungs, or the heart; but when the action of one of
thefe organs ceafes, that of the others foon terminates.
The entire ceflation of life feems, however, to be more
fudden in the two latter cafes, and mod of all in the
lad ; when the heart is W’ounded or ruptured, the ani¬
mal dies infiantly •, vffien the lungs are rendered inac¬
tive in confequence of fuffocation, the animal may live
for feveral minutes, or for an hour or two ; but when
the brain is overwhelmed, he. may furvive for hours or
even days. Thus it fometimes happens, in cafes of
apoplexy, that the patient lies motionlels, fpeeehlefs, and
quite infenfible to external dimuli, while the circulation
and refpiration continue, impeded indeed, but not de-
droyed, for a confiderable time, though life, as appears
from the event, be in a date of irrecoverable declenfion.
We (hall prefently fliow' how thefe cireumdanees have
been explained. 3^
The ufual figns of approaching death are, a very Signs0/
quick and fmall pulfe, fcarcely diflinguifhable, and com- F^'111,
monly intermitting ; coldnefs, and generally clammy ea
fweats about the extremities ; a “ lack luflre” eye,
funk in features, want of expreflion about the counte¬
nance, and a prominence of the bones of the face, with a
correfponding hollownefs. in the cheeks, orbits, and
efpecially.
^ J
a il
^ h,
C ap. XVI.
)eath. efpecially at t!ie temples. Thefe laft appearances con-
V”~ ftitute the marks of what has been called facies Hippo-
cratica. They are all figns of a lofs of activity and
power in the circulating and nervous fyftems. Under
thefe bodily circumftances, the powers of the mind
feem to decline, generally with an equal pace with
thofe of the body j and when the medium through
which the activity of the foul is manifefted can no long¬
er aft, we cannot expeft to find any further traces even
of its exiftence. Yet at the period of its feparation,
we are told of brilliant mental exertions of powers of
intelleft, not equalled in the belt portion of exiflence.
It has not been our fortune to fee fuoh intellectual
animation. At the moment of death, anxiety for thofe
we have loved will fometimes occafion apparently dif-
proportioned exertions $ and as they were unexpected,
they have been exaggerated. But in no inftance could
we ever deteft the activity of mind independent of the
« eu> body. To this temporary pdfon the foul is confined,
X l.Med. till, by the deltruftion of the machine, its animating
X . v°l' c pnnciple is emancipated, fearing probably in higher,
'jq and, we truft, in more blifsful, regions *.
S s or A few cafes have occurred, in which perfons, who
c rionof were thought dead, have recovered from what was real¬
ly a itatc offufpended uni,'notion ; and there is reafon to
believe, that feme unhappy beings have been buried
while in this feemingly lifelefs fiate. It becomes, there¬
fore, a matter of the higheft importance to afcertain,
with certainty, whether or not death has aftually taken
place. The ordinary figns of death, as enumerated by
•ne of the latefi writers on this fubjeft, are as follows :
i. The fufpenfion of refpiration. 2. The rigidity of the
limbs. 3. The lofs offenfation and motion. 4. The want
of pulfation in the heart and arteries. 5. Thefpontaneous
difcharge of feces. 6. The ccllapfe, opacity, m& want of
lufre in the eyes. 7. The cotdnefs of the body. 8. The
palenefs or lividity of the countenance. 9. The relaxation
ef the lower jaw. 10. The regurgitation of liquids to
the mouth. 11. The infenfebifity of the pituitary mem-
brane of the nofe. 12. The collapfe, foftnef, and wrink¬
ling of the lips. 13. The hollownefs of the temples, and
*1 ivh thinnefs and contraction of the nofe, 14. PutrefaBion J.
2 kment Moll of thefe figns fingly have been ihown to be falla-
< ci°us j and none of them, except the laft, are to be de-
j ii, * pended on with implicit confidence. Dr Davis recom¬
mends the following mode of procedure. “ As foon as
the evident figns of life ceafe, let us place the body in
a warm or dry bed, give a proper temperature to the air
of the apartment, and employ every means for re-
ftoring it to life. If we judge, from the nature of the
difeafe which preceded the death, that thefe means are
nftlefi, we may content ourfelves with keeping the bo¬
dy, until its decompofition become manifeft ; but let us
never abandon an unfortunate perfon, who, perhaps
by perfeverance in the proper means, may be reftored to
life: fhould he recover, he will be a living monument
of unexpefted refurreftion, and of the unceafing efforts
pf humanity. If a perfon die of malignant fever, feur-
vy, internal inflammation, or any other difeafe which
PHYSIOLOGY.
523
corrupts the fluids, foon after death the belly becomes Of Death,
black and fwelled j black or livid fpots appear on the v——v-—"
limbs and back, the eyes become hollow and foft, and
difeharge a puriform fluid •, the eyelids grow yellow ;
the mouth opens,' becaufe the lower jaw is relaxed j the
{kin gets foft, the mufcles flaccid ; and, laftly, the
•whole body exhales a putrid odour. All thefe phenomena
united, conftitute an infallible proof of real death * (n).” * Ibi&
The changes which the animal body undergoes in
confequence of death, and during putrefaftion, have
been amply detailed and explained under Chemistry,
chap. xix. feft. 2. 371
In treating of the general phenomena of life in the Compara-
firft chapter of this article, we made a few obfervations
on the degree of vitality that appears in various tribes °
of organized beings. There is fcarcely a more curious
part of the phyfiology of death than the confideration of
the greater or lefs difficulty with which it is produced
in different animals. Some, as the herring and the
whiting, die almoft inftantly on being removed from the
fituation in which they ufually live. Some are killed
by a flight blow on the nofe or the neck} this is the cafe
wdth the feal, the rat, ihe hare, and the rabbit. Others
again retain life with great pertinacity. Among the
mammalia, the cat is proverbial for being difficult to
kill} the floth has been known to live for above 40
days clinging to a pole, and entirely without food} and
Dr Sparrman aflures us, that the rate!, or honey weazel
(viverra meldvora), is fo hardy that it is aknoft im-
poffible to kill it 5 the colonifts and Hottentots both
aflert, fays he, that it is almoft impoffible to kill this
creature, without giving it a great number of violent
blows on the nofe } and it is remarkable that fuch a
number of hounds as are able colleftively to tear in
pieces a lion of moderate fize, are fometimes obliged to
leave the ratel only apparently deadf. Some fifties f
live for a long time after being removed from the wa- man's Voj*
ter, and even after being gutted and cut in pieces, as the a8e'
carp, \\\o founder, and theft*/. It is among the reptiles,
mollufca, and zoophytes, however, that ive find the
moft remarkable inftances of pertinacity of life. Re¬
ferring the reader to the article Erpetology for thefe
inftances in reptiles, and to Helminthology for thofe
in zoophytes, we fliall here only mention two among
mollufca. The fea marigold (aBinia calendula') is de-
ftroyed with fuch difficulty, that after drilling the holes
of the rock from which they appear, with an iron in-
ftrument, they have been known to rife again in the
fame places, and become as numerous as before in the
courfe pf *a few weeks Snails whole remarkable} Tingle Is
fufpended animation we have already recorded, may be Nat. Hip.
cruftied beneath the foot, and will yet furvive, and re- °J Kaibfr*
pair the breaches in their flielly covering *, nay, they^0^*
are capable of paffing the ordeal of boiling water, as
we learn from the relation of a lady who, wanting feme
fnail {hells for a piece of grotto work, attempted to kill
the animals by repeatedly pouring over them boiling-
water} but to her horror and aftonifhment, fhe obferved
them next day crawling about the edges of the Yelfel
3 U 2 ^ in
(n) The work of M. Bruhier, fur PIncertitude des Signes Je la Mart, from which thefe remarks of Dr Davijl
appear chiefly to be taken, created fo much alarm in France, that every body dreaded being buried alive. To
combat thefe terrors, M. Louis, in 1752, publifhed his Lcttres fur la Certitude des Signes de la Mart ; in which W
has very happily, and we think fuccefsfully, refuted the arguments of Brubier, and has thereby relieved the minds’
«£his readers from one of the m»ft dreadful apprebenlions that can appal us on this fide the grave.
524
Of Death.
* Annual
Rcqifler,
yoI. xvii.
p. 86.
372
Caufes of
tieath.
* Ontyi
on Mortal
Difeafes.
373
How thefe
operate.
P H Y S I
in which fhe had fcalded them *. It is in vain for us
to attempt any explanation of thefe extraordinary phe¬
nomena. We muft refer them to fome principle in the
animal economy which is at prefent unknown.
The remote caufes of death have been, by Dr Ontyd,
arranged under 12 general heads, to which he gives the
name of chi/fes. Thefe we fhall enumerate, with their
principal fubdivifions.
I. Death arifing from the mechanifm of the body.
II. Death from the paffions of the mind.
I . Exciting pq/fions ; 2. DepreJJing pajjions.
III. Death from iuperabundance or deficiency of
heat.
I. From fupernbundant heat; 2. From dejicient heat.
IV. Death from electricity.
V. Death from noxious gafes.
1. From hyperoxijgeni%ed gafes ; 2. From deoxyge-
ni%ed ga fes ; 3. From peculiarly Jlimulating gafes.
VI. Death from poifons.
1. Animal poifons ; 2. Vegetable poifons ; 3. Mine¬
ral poifons.
VII. Death from univerfal dif:afe.
I. Fevers ; 2. Febrile difeafes (exanthemata).
Thefe feven clafleS1 are fuppofed to produce death by
the immediate extinction of the vital principle ; the five
following are fuppofed to eflfeCt this by fuppreffing the
aClion of fome vital organ, or by difordering the chain
of the vital powers by deftroying the aftion of fome of
the intermediate links.
VIII. Death from inflammations.
I. Inflammations of the head; 2. Of the breafl;
3. Of the belly.
IX. Death from fluxes.
1. Alvine fluxes ; 2. Hemorrhages.
X. Death from cachexies.
I. Ulcers ; 2. Atrophies ; 3. Debilities and Priva¬
tions.
XI. Death from difeafes of the nervous fyftem.
1. Atony ; 2. Spafm.
XII. Death from difeafes of the fecretory organs.
I. Frot?t altered aBion ; 2. From altered flruc-
ture *.
The manner in which thefe caufes operate in termina¬
ting life, is thusftated by the fame author.
The caufes of the flr/I clafs aft by inducing too great
a rigidity of the folids, and by rendering them infenfible
to Jlimuli; the necefiary effefts of the continued aftion
of the powers of life. In death from caufes of the fecond
clafs, the perfon dies in confequence of apoplexy, fyn-
cope, or fujfocation, the brain, the heart, or the lungs
being overwhelmed by accumulated blood. The caufes
of the third clafs aft in a fimilar manner with thofe of
the fecond; that of the fourth by fuddenly extinguiflh-
ing the vital principle ; thofe of the fifth always aft by
‘wvFaoxvig fuffocation. The caufes of the flxth clafs aft
in four ways : 1. By abolilhing the vital principle by
the violence of their flimulus } 2. By deftroying the ac¬
tion of the brain, the heart, or the lungs 5 3. By pro¬
ducing mortification of the inteftinal canal; 4. By fe-
cretly and infenlibly deftroying life. Thofe of the fe-
venth clafs aft in flx ways : 1. and 2. As in the laft j
3. By local inflammation ; 4. By mortification of fome
vital organ ; 5. By a change in the organic ftrufture of
the inteftinal canal inducing a colliquative diarrhoea ;
6- By colliquative fweats wafting the body.
O L O G Y. Chap. XVI.
The caufes of the eighth clafs aft in four ways: j. By Of Death,
inducing violent convulfions *, 2. As in the two laft; 3.'— i -w
By fupprefling the aftion of fome vital funftion from the
violence of the inflammation 5 4. By mortification. Tho
ninth clafs may aft in fve modes : i_ By fpafm ; 2. By
fatalfyncope; 3. By impeded aftion of fome vital organ ^
4. By mortification or fphacelus; 5. By wafting the
ftrength in fruitlefs exertions. The tenth clafs may aft
in no lefs than nine ways: 1. By the confumption of
fome vital organ, or deftroying the tone of the whole
body j 2. By the violence of the noxious ftimulus $
3. By fuffocation ; 4. By apoplexy j 5. By fyncope ;
6. By hemorrhage: 7. By colliquative t/farr/za’a ,• 8. By
mortification of fome organ ; 9. By malignant fever
from abforbed ichorous matter. The caufes of the
eleventh clafs aft only in two ways : 1. By violent
fpafm j 2. By apoplexy. Thofe of the twelfth clafs, pro¬
duce death in three modes : I. By the flow eflfefts of the
noxious ftimulus j 2. By the continually ftimulating noxi¬
ous power alone, or by this and the continual wafting of
the blood, to form fome peculiar fecretion y 3. By im¬
peding or deftroying the funftion of a vital organ *.
Many of thefe modes of operation are very ill defin-
ed, and they may all be reduced to about eight or ten,
or perhaps even fewer. t
Death has been defined the feparation of the foulMature of
the body f : the extin&ion of the vital principle ; the fflf-death.
tinBion of the faculty of anfwering a flimuius%, &c. &c. 1
Perhaps we cannot defcribe it better than by calling it t
the irrecoverable ceffation of all the bodily funBions. By
this charafter we diftinguifh it from fufpended anima¬
tion and lethargy, in which fotne of the funftions conti¬
nue $ while we acknowledge the furvival of the imma¬
terial part of our frame.
It has been the general opinion among philofophers,
both of ancient and modern times, that death produces
only a change of the elements or principles of the or¬
ganized body j and does not effeft the annihilation of
any part. Modern chemiftry has fully confirmed this
opinion, and has fhown that by putrefaftion the body is
diflblved into a few earthy, faline, and gafeous produfts,
all capable of entering into new combinations, and thus
conftituting a part of future bodies. See Chemistry,
N° 2572, and Man, N° 44.
Of all the writers on the nature and phenomena of
death, with wdiom we are acquainted, none has treated .
the fubjeft with fuch accuracy and pbilofophic method,
as Bichat. With afummary of fome of the leading prin¬
ciples of this able phyfiologift we ftiall clofe the pre¬
fent chapter, and thus terminate our phyfiological en¬
quiries.
We have already mentioned Bichat’s divifion of life Opinions d
into animal and organic: fee N° 49. Proceeding on Bichat,
the principle of this divifion, he conceives that the two
lives terminate in different ways, and that one often ter¬
minates while the other remains aftive. In the natural
death that happens from old age, the animal life gra-.
dually ceafes in the order we have defcribed, N° 367,
while the organic life remains. The fame happens in
thofe cafes of violent death where life firft ceafes in the
brain, this organ being the centre of animal life. In
other cafes of violent or accidental death, the organic
life firft ceafes in its central organs, the heart or the
lungs ; but in thefe cafes, the animal life alfo is fpeedily
fuppreffed.
[To face page 525. Vol. xvL]
1. ORGANS.
2. FLUIDS.
3. PHENOMENA.
4. POWERS.
5. RELATIVE PREDO¬
MINANCE.
6. PRINCIPAL MORBID
AFFECTIONS.
I. SENSATf
Cerebrum, Cerebellffiei
la Oblongata, Sp"
row, Nerves,
Senfe.
Lymphatic and
fluids, Nervous
Seni'ation, Aflion116"
bodies on ManPa^
ception of thefe^"
VII. SECRETION.
Salivary glands, Liver, Pan¬
creas, Kidneys, Tejles,
Mucous glands, Mem¬
branes, &c. Miliary glands,
Brain ?
VIII. REPRODUCTION
Tears, Mucus, Saliva, Gaf-
tric j uice. Pancreatic j uice,
Bile, Lymph, Synovia,
Fat, Marrow, Cerumen, Se¬
men, Urine, Milk, Ner
vous fluid ?
Separation of fluids ufeful in
the economy, and Expul¬
sion of noxious or ufelefs
parts.
Senfibility and ^
Moft predominant1’
cy; female fex
he temperamem
driac, hysteric
nervous affedli
warm climates
Various.
In middle age j various as to
fex and temperament j in
warm climates.
Vertigo, Coma, n§V
Infanity.—Pa£
Want of feelF^>
tia ; Tinnitus a{<~
/ nefs j Intolerai
Dysopia; Cat
rojis.
Penis, lefticles, Vefcuhe
Semin ales, Proftate gland
Spermatic veflels in Man j
Vulva, Vagina, Uterus, and
the Mamma:, in Woman.
Increafedfecretion, Diminilh-
ed fecretion, Depraved fe-
cretion, Jaundice, Calcu¬
lus, &c.
Semen, Mucous fluid, Profta-
tic fluid, Liquor amnii. and
Milk.
Copulation, Conception, Par¬
turition, Laftation.
Generative power.
In youth ; in thofe of a fan-
guine temperament, and
lively imagination.
Priapifmus, Satyriajis, Nijm-
phomania. Menorrhagia,
Amenorrhcea, Impotence,
Sterility.
[To face page 525. Vol. xvi,]
T ABLE
OF THE MOST IMPORTANT CIRCUMSTANCES
respecting the
ORGANIC FUNCTIONS
OF THE
HUMAN BOD Y.
1. ORGANS.
2. FLUIDS.
I. SENSATION.
Cerebrum, Cerebellum, Medul¬
la Oblongata, Spinal mar¬
row, Nerves, Organs of
Senfe.
Lymphatic and Gelatinous
fluids, Nervous fluid ?
II. MOTION.
Mufcles, Tendons, Bones,
Cartilages,Ligaments, and
Mucous bags.
Gelatinous fluid, Synovia,
Marrow, Lymph, and
Blood.
III. DIGESTION.
Salivary glands, Mouth,
Teeth, Gullet, Stomach
and Inteftines, Liver, Pan¬
creas, and Spleen.
Saliva, Gaftric juice, Pan¬
creatic juice, Bile, Mu¬
cus.
IV. ABSORPTION.
Lafteals, Lymphatics, Tho¬
racic du£t, Mefenteric
glands, Lymphatic glands,
Skin.
Chyle, Lymph, Serous fluid.
V. CIRCULATION.
Heart, Arteries, Veins, and
Exhalants.
Blood, Lymph, and various
exhaled and fecreted fluids.
VI. RESPIRATION.
Noftrils, Larynx, Windpipe,
Lungs, and Diaphragrti.
Blood and Mucus.
VII. SECRETION.
VIII. REPRODUCTION.
Salivary glands, Liver, Pan¬
creas, Kidneys, Tejles,
Mucous glands, Mem¬
branes,&c. Miliaryglands,
Brain ?
Tears, Mucus, Saliva, Gaf¬
tric juice, Pancreatic juice,
Bile, Lymph, Synovia,
Fat, Marrow, Cerumen, Se-
men. Urine, Milk, Ner¬
vous fluid ?
Penis, Tefticles, Vejiculce
Seminales, Pr oft ate gland,
Spermatic veffels in Man j
Vulva, Vagina, Uterus, and
the Mamma, in Woman.
Semen, Mucous fluid, Profta-
tic fluid, Liquor amnii, and
Milk.
3. PHENOMENA.
Senfation, Adlion of external
bodies on Man, and Per¬
ception of thefe Actions.
Contraction, Dilatation, Lo¬
co-motion, Progreflion.
ACtion of Man on exter¬
nal objeCts.
4. POWERS.
Senfibility and Vital refift-
Irritability, Contractility, and
Vital refiftance.
Maftication, Deglutition, Di-
geftion in the ftomach and
inteftines. Mutual Ac¬
tion of Alimentary fub-
ftances and the Digeftive
organs.
Imbibition, ACtion of the
Lymphatic veffels and
glands on the fluids, Sepa¬
ration of noxious or ufelefs
matters, and Selection of
ufeful fubftances.
Contraction, Dilatation, Pul-
fation, Exhalation, Nutri¬
tion.—Mutual aCtion be¬
tween the Blood and Cir¬
culating fluids.
Purification of the fluids, Re¬
newal of aCtion, Animal
heat, Mutual aCtion be¬
tween the air and the
animal folids and fluids.
Separation of fluids ufeful in
the economy, and Ex pul-
lion of noxious or ufelefs
parts.
Copulation, Conception, Par¬
turition, LaCtation.
Diffolutipn, Aflimilation,and
Vital refiftance.
Irritability, ContraCiility, Af-
fimilation, and Vital refift-
Elafticity, Irritability, Con¬
tractility, Dilatability, and
Vital refiftance.
As in Circulation.
Various.
Generative power.
5. RELATIVE PREDO¬
MINANCE.
Moft predominant in infan¬
cy; female fex; melancho¬
lic temperament; hypochon¬
driac, hysteric, and other
nervous affeCtions, and in
warm climates.
In manhood; in the male
fex ; the fahguine tempe¬
rament, and in mountain¬
ous countries.
In infancy; in the, female
fex $ in the fanguine tem¬
perament ; in cold wea¬
ther and cold climates.
In childhood; in the fanguine
temperament $ in warm
climates 5 and duringy?^.
In childhood; in the female
fex j in the fanguine tem¬
perament ; in warm coun¬
tries 5 and in febrile and
inflammatory affeClions.
Much as in Circulation.
In middle age j various as to
fex and temperament j in
warm climates.
In youth ; in thofe of a fan¬
guine temperament, and
lively imagination.
6. PRINCIPAL MORBID
AFFECTIONS. *
Vertigo, Coma, Delirium,
Infanity.—Pain, Itching,
Want of feeling j Ageuf-
tia; Tinnitusaurium, Deaf-
/ nefs $ Intolerance of light,
Dysopia; Caligo, Amau-
rqfis.
Spalm, Convulfion, Twitch¬
ing, Paralysis.
Bulimia, Pica, Naufea, Fla¬
tus, Eruftation, Rumina¬
tion,Vomiting, Heartburn,
Pyrexia, Anorexia.
Glandular obftruCtion, Ato¬
ny of lymphatics.
General fever, Palpitation,
Plethora, Inanition, De¬
bility, Syncope.
Yawning, Sighing, Sobbing,-
Hiccup, Sneezing, Cough¬
ing, Anxiety, Dyfpncea,
Stertor, Afphyxia, Dumb-
nefs.
Increafedfecretion, Diminifh-
ed fecretion, Depraved fe-
cretion, Jaundice, Calcu¬
lus, &c.
Priapifmus, Satynafls, Nym¬
phomania, Menorrhagia,
Amenorrhcea, Impotence,
Sterility.
■
/
I
'
.
efs of
,p.xvr. PH Y SI
eath. It is to violent or accidental death that Bichat prin-
r—^cipally confines his difcuffions, and in order to deter¬
mine with precifion the phenomena that take place in
the three fpecies, he examines at great length the rela¬
tions that fubfift among the three fun&ions of circula¬
tion, refpiration and fenfation, as they are affe&ed by
the death of the heart, the lungs, or the brain. He firft
confiders thofe cafes o£ hidden death that commence
with the death of the heart; then thofe originating in
the lungs; and laftly thofe originating in the brain.
He {hows how, one of thefc funftions ceafing, the others
fuccefiiveiy flop; he points out the mechanifm, by which
the death of all the parts follows that of the organ firft
affedled ; and he determines, according to his own prin¬
ciples, the nature of the feveral difeafes by which the life
•Ur- of the heart, the lungs, or the brain, is extinguiflied *.
?art ii. We confider this as the moft interefting part of his
valuable work, and it well deferves the attentive peru-
fal of every medical man. We regret that we cannot
do more than extra£l from it the view given by the au¬
thor of the fucceflive phenomena produced by the in-
fluenee which the death of each of the vital organs ex¬
erts on the general death of the body.
Whenever the heart ceafes to aft, fays Bichat, gene-
com- ral death comes on in the following manner. The ac-
ing in tion of the brain ceafes for want of excitation ; and from
Bart- the fame defeft, the fenfation, locomotion and fpeeeh,
which immediately depend on the general fenforium, are
interrupted. Befides, for want of the excitation of part
of the blood, the organs of thefe funflions would ceafe
to aft, even though the brain were fuppofed capable of
exerting on them its ufual influence. The whole of
the animal life, then, is fuddenly arrefted. The manr
from the moment that his heart dies, ceafes to exift with
refpeft to furrounding objefts.
The interruption of organic life, which has commen¬
ced through the circulation, operates at the fame time
through the refpiration. The mechanical aflions of the
lungs no longer proceed when the brain ceafes to afl,
fince on this organ depends the aftion of the diaphragm
and intercoftal mufcles. The chemical changes can no
longer take place, when the heart can neither receive
nor convey the materials neceflary for their developement.
Inlhort; general death continues to proceed in a gradual
manner, by the interruption offecretion, exhalation, and
nutrition. Thefe are the effefls produced when death is
the confequence of a wound of the heart or large blood-
5. veffels, a rupture of the heart, or fimilar accidents f.
refs of ^ feries of phenomena that take place in death, as
icom- commencing in the lungs, is different according as the
:lng in mechanical or the chemical aflion of thefe organs is firft
un2Si arrefted. I. In the former cafe, as when death is pro¬
duced by an extenfive wound or laceration of the dia¬
phragm, by the fracture of a great many ribs at the
fame time, &c. they proceed as follows: 1. Ceflation
of the mechanical action ; 2. Ceflation of the chemical
phenomena, for want of the air which fupported them;
o L o G Y. 523
3. Ceflation of the brain’s action for want of the red Of Death-
blood by which it was excited ; 4. Interruption of ani- 1
mal life, of fenfation, locomotion, and fpeech, from the
lofs of the exciting powers of the brain and the red
blood on the organs of thofe fundlions; 5. Stoppage of
the general circulation ; 6. Stoppage of the circulation
in the capillaries, of fecretion, abfsrption, exhalation,
for want of the excitation exerted on their organs by
the red blood ; 7. Ceffation of digeftion, for want of
fecretion, and of excitation of the digeftive organs.
II. When the chemical aftion of the lungs is interrupt¬
ed, as when an animal is confined in a vacuum ; in cafes
of Jlrangulalion, fuffocation, drowning, &c. the pheno¬
mena of death proceed in the following order : 1. In-
terruptien of the chemical phenomena ; 2. Confequent
fufpenfion of a£lion in the brain ; 3. Ceflation of fenfa¬
tion, voluntary motion, voice, and the mechanical func¬
tions of refpiration ; 4. Stoppage of the heart’s atftion,
and of the general circulation ; 5. Termination of the
capillary circulation, of fecretion, exhalation, abforption,
and, by confequence, of digeftion ; 6. Ceflation of ani¬
mal heat, which, being the refult of all the furuftions, - ^ art
xnuft; ceafe when all thefe are terminated jf. 378 *
The phenomena of general death commencing in the Progrefs of
brain come on in the following feries : 1. Cefiation of^eatk.COIft"
the brain’s adtion ; 2. Sudden interruption of fenfation
and voluntary motion ; 3.- Simultaneous paralyfis of the
diaphragm, and intercoftal mufcles ; 4. Interruption of
the mechanical phenomena of refpiration, and, by con¬
fequence of voice ; 5. Ceflation of the chemical pheno¬
mena ; 6. Paflage of the black blood into the fyftem of
red blood’, 7. Impeded circulation, from the adlion of
the black blood on the heart and arteries, and from the
immobility of all the parts, efpecially the organs of the
cheft ; 8. Death of the heart, and ftoppage of the ge¬
neral circulation ; 9. Simultaneous interruption of orga¬
nic life, efpecially in the parts that are ufually penetrat-
ed by red blood ; 10. Abolition of animal heat § Id. art. rj.
We have now gone through the feries of phyfiologi- Conclufien*
cal enquiries, into which we propofed to enter in this
article. In forming an eftimate of the merit due to our
labours, we requeft that our readers will confider the
article as in a great meafure fupplemental to many that
have preceded it in the courfe of the pre-fent work. It
has been our principal objeft to fill up blanks and fup-
ply deficiencies, efpecially with refpedf to Comparative
Phyjiology; and to form, with thofe preceding articles
which have a reference to the animal economy, particu-.
larly Anatomy, Medicine, Midwifery, Chemis¬
try, Man, one connected, if not uniform whole. The
difficulty of the talk we had undertaken will probably
be admitted as fome apology for the imperfed! execution
of it ; while the variety and interefting nat ire of the
fubjefts which we have treated, with the numerous re¬
ferences to the moft refpeftable fources of information,
will, we truft, render this article acceptable both to the
general and the fcientific reader.
EXPLANATION
436 P H Y S I
EXPLANATION of
Fig. t. Exhibits a vieiv of the exit from the head,
and difrihution in the chef, of the great fympathetic nerve,
intended to Ulufrate the mutual relations between the
head and the principal organs of the chef and belly.
A. The right parotid gland laid bare,
B. The fubmaxillary gland.
C. D, E, The digafric mufcle, partly covered by
the fubmaxillary gland.
F, Part of the thyroid gland.
G, G. The cefophagus or gullet.
H, H. The wind-pipe or trachea.
II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. The bodies of the fix lower
vertebrae of the neck } VIII. IX. the two firE vertebrae
•f the back.
I, K, L. The heart, with part of the pericardium at¬
tached,
p, p. The arch of the aorta, drawn afide.
q. The common trunk of the right fubclavian (sj)
v^nd right carotid (») arteries.
P. The vena cava from the fuperior parts j £). That
from below.
R, S, T. The right lobe of the lungs.
U, V. Pail of the left lobe.
W, X, Z. Mufcular parts of the diaphragm.
a. The firft cervical or great ganglion, from which
proceed, b. The trunk of the great fympathetic nerve,
and c. The eighth pair of nerves, or par vagum.
d. The lower cervical ganglion, oppofite the fifth
cervical vertebra.
e. The upper thoracic ganglion, oppofite the firft
vertebra of the back.
f The third dorfalganglion, between the fecond and
third rib. ,
O L O G Y.
PLATE CCCCXVIIL
g. The acceffory nei~ve of Willis.
h, i, k, l. Trunks of fome of the cervical nerves,.
m, The cardiac plexus formed by branches from the
fympathetic nerve.
n, n. The par vagum running down to the diaphragm,
through which it paffes, unites with the intercofal,
forms various ganglia, and gives branches to molt of the-
abdominal vifeera.
o, o. The phrenic nerves diftributed to the dia*
phragm.
Fig. 2. A feftion of the cuticle of the lilium choice*
donicum, to fnew the lymphatic vejfcls, much magnified.
Fig. 3. A fimilar magnified view in the onion.
Fig, 4. Ditto in the pink.
Fig. 5. Reprefents the atlantal extremity of the flow
lemur (lemur tardigradusf to (how the curious divi-
fion of the fubclavian artery.
a. The lubelavian artery, lying upon the fubfeapu-
laris mufcle,
b. The divifion of the artery into equal-fized cylin¬
ders.
c. The ulnar artery proceeding to divide in the hfual
manner.
Fig. 6. Reprefents the facral extremities of the fame
animal, ihowing a fimilar divifion of the inguinal artery.
a. The diaphragm.
b. The defeending aorta.
c. c. The iliac arteries.
d. The trunk of the inguinal artery, fituated among
the cylinders.
e. The femoral artery under fimilar circuroftances.
Tbe annexed Table fuffieiently explains itfelf.
Absorbent fk cm, difeoveryof, N°4i
'sAbforption, 26, 184
organs of, 185
by latfteals, See. 186
by the veins, 387
by the fkin, 188
©f the loweft clafies of ani¬
mals, 190
ef the ants, 191
theory of, 192
relations of, 203
Accidental colours, principal phenome¬
na of, IOO
Air, quantity of, received and emitted
during refpiration, 223
afeertained clianges on, 226
volume of, fenfibly diminiftied, 227
changes on, by the refpiration
of inferior animals, 232
by vegetation, 233
Alcmceotfs opinions refpefting man, 29
Anatomy, relation of, to phyfiology, 6
Anaxagoras's phyfiological opinions, 30
/Animation, fufpended, of fome animals, 363
INDEX.
Appetite for food, N° iyo
Arifotle's phyfiological opinions, 34
Arrangements in phyfiology, 17—22
remarks on, 24
Arteries, aftion of, 202
diflribution of, in the limbs of
flow'-moving animals, 214
AJJimilation a chemical procefs, 262
power of, limited, 264
Azote, doubts refpefting its lofs by re¬
fpiration, 231
Barclay's ideas of vitality, 73
principles of mufcular mo¬
tion, 130
Bats fuppofed to polfefs a fixth fenfe, 104
phyfiological arrangement, 21, 49
divifion of life, 49
obfervations on death, 375
Bile, ufes of, 273
Blood, how a<fted on by the veffels, 217
changes on by refpiration, 235
Boerhaave's fyftem, 42
Bqfiock's explanation of the modern
theory of refpiration, 238
Bqjlock's defence cl N®
objedlions to Mr Ellis’s opinions, 24
G.
Carbonic acid gas generated during
refpiration, 22
Cellular membrane, aftion of,
Chemifs, phyfiology of, 3
Chemifry, relation of, to phyfiology,
Chyle, properties of, k
firft formed in the pyloric por¬
tion of the ftomach,
Chylif cation explained,
Chymif cation explained,
Circulation,
eh. vii. 26, N
difeovery of,
organs of,
proofs of,
in the human adult,
in the human foetus,
how carried on,
of the inferior animals,
of the mollufca,
in the vermes,
in cruft acea,
jjone in plants,
4
15
1 cl
1C
JC
2C
2C
2C
2C
2<
%
Circuit
I lex.
C illation, none In fome animals, _N° 211
relations of, with fenfation, 2x2
With motion, 213
digeftion, 215
abforption, 216
1 thing, nature and mechanifm of,
explained, 142
c Ws phyliological fyllem, 47
(, ier's arrangement, 20
idea of life, 70
D.
2 'will's fyftem, 48
hypothefis of the retrograde
aflion of lymphatics, 189
2 ith, ch. xvi.
natural, gradual approach of, 367
violent or accidental,
ligns of,
criterions of,
caufes of,
nature of,
2 \lutition explained,
l nocritus, opinions of,
1 ■ Cartes's phyfiological opinions,
J ejlion, ch. v. N° 26, 58
differences of, 154
Heps of, 155—160
various theories of, 172
relations between it and fen¬
fation,
relations of, with motion,
morbid affefHons of,
j tyenjion an exciting caufe of irrita¬
bility,
j earning,
t ms"'s arrangement,
opinion of the ufes of the
fplcen,
E.
j progreffive changes of during in¬
cubation,
i is's objeftions to the modern theory
of refpiration, 239
opinion refpefting refpiration, 241
defence of ditto, 243
ipedocles, opinions of, 30
cretion, ch. xi. N° 26
organs of, . 281
by the inteftines, 282
by the kidneys, 284
by the Ikin, 286
penment, a mean of improving phy-
fiology, 16
■ es of cruft acea and infects deferibed, 98
F.
• 'undahon, 3*5
unditij of animals, comparative,.
Note (l) 324
1%. See Touch*
univerfality of, 81
mentation not the caufe of digef-
: . tion, 175
mar's arguments againlt the vital
principle^ 71
368
369
37°
372
374
I57
31
39
181
182
183
1x9
352
*9
275
326
PHYSIOLOGY.
F/ying explained, N° 143
Food firfl: diflblved in the cardiac por¬
tion of the ftomach, 164
comparative folubility of, 171
paflage of, through the inteftines, 180
Functions of living beings, 37
G.
Galen’s phyfiological opinions, 36
Galloping explained, 141
Galvanifm an exciting caufe of irrita¬
bility, 118
Gtf/SWc juice, adtion of, 170
Generation 311
eflence of, 313
gemmiparous, 314
oviparous, 3 21
viviparous, 3 23
theories of, 336
relations of, 343
GirtanneFs hypothefis refpefting irri¬
tability. 126
Goodwin's opinions refpefling life, 67
Gough's explanation of ventriloquifm, 252
H.
Haller, opinions and difeoveries of,
opinion of the caufe of irrita¬
bility,
Harvey's merits difeuffed,
Hearing, fenfe of,
organs of,
comparative phyfiology of,
Heart, action of,
Heat not the foie caufe of digeftion,
animal,
Herophilus, opinions of,
Hibernation of mammalia,
of birds,
of reptiles,
of fifties,
of infe£ts,.
of man,
of plants,,
phenomena of,
Hippocrates', phyfiology of,
Hoffman's phyfiological. opinions,
Home's difeoveries relpefling the aflion
of the ftomach,
experiments on the ufe of the
fpleen,
Hufeland's idea of life,
Humboldt's idea of life,
hypothefis refpefting irri¬
tability,^
Hunter's, John, opinions on the life of
the blood,.
46
123
4P
93
94
96
201
*73
246
35
356
357
358
359
36°
361
364
362
32
44
161
276
68
69
127
66
h
Impregnation, mode of, 318
//z/a/zhfl/fy/z. explained, 15
Infe&s, want of circulation in, how
fupplied, 209
Integurmtion, ch. xii. N° 16
ufes of, as defence, 290
527
Integuments ufeful by their hardnefs, N°29*
by their external co¬
vering, 292
by their effluvia, 293
by their colour, 29J.
change of, 295
Irritability, ch. iii. N° 26
general phenomena of, 111
definition of, 11Z
different acceptation of the
term, 11$
ftimuli exciting, 114
caufes of, opinions refpe&ing, 121
chemical dodtrines of, 12$
laws of, I2&
K.
Kidneys, aftion of, 284s
Leaping, nature and mechanifm of,
explained, 138
Life, general idea of, 26, 51
effedts of, 53
caufe of, 64,
duration of,
comparative pertinacity of, 371
Light, effedl of, on the fyftem, 102
abfence of, fuppofed to favour
obefity, 10$
Liver, action of, 272
Locomotion, ufes of, 148
Lymphatics, retrograde adtion of, 189
M.
Majlication explained, 155
Mechanics, opinions of, 4$
Motion, ch. iv. N° 26, 57
organs of, 129
principles of, 130
progreflive, of animals, 131
relations of, with fenfation, 149
vegetable, 147
Mufcles, motion of, aftifts circulation, 204
N.
Nervous fyftem, 7&
fluid, theory of, II©
energy and exciting caufe of
irritability, Il6
Nicholfan's account of a ventriloquift, 231
Nutrition, ch. ix, N° 26
nature of, 260
not performed by nerves, 263
of infedls and zoophytes, 264
O;
Obfervation a mean of improving phy-
fiology, 14
Odours, nature of, little underftood, 91
Organised beings compared with in¬
organic matter, 52
Qrnithorinchus,the connedlinglink be¬
tween quadrupeds
and birds,. 168
Oxygen of the air diminifhed during
refpiration, 328
52*
p.
PaJJions, violent, exciting caufes of ir¬
ritability, N° 120
Per/piration, quantity of, 287
compofition of, 288
relations of, 289
Physiology, definition and object of, 1
divifions of, 2
hiftorical, 3
philofophical, 4
praftical, 5
relations of, to anatomy, 6
v to chemiftry, 7
to mechanical philofophy, 8
to rnetaphyfics, 9
to natural hiftory, 10
importance and utility of, 11
methods of fludying, 12
means of improving, 13—16
application of, to zoology, 23
tabular outline of, 26
hiftory of, its utility, 27
Plato's phyfiological opinions, 33
Pulmonic organs of circulation, 196
Putridity not the caufe of digeftion, 176
Pythagoras's opinions refpefting man, 28
R.
Relations of fenfation, 149, 181, 2X 2, 257
of motion, 149, 182, 213, 258,
283
of digeftion, 181, 215, 2.59, 277,
283
of abforption, 193, 216
of circulation, 212, 256
of refpiration, 255
of inteftinal excretion, 283
-of urinary excretion, 285
of perfpiration, 289
Reproduction, ch. xiv. N° 26, 61
of parts in man and mam¬
malia, 304
in reptiles, 306
in cruftacea, 307
in mollufca, 308
in polypes, 309
"writers on, 310
Rejijlance to chemical change, a pro¬
minent efteft of life, 54
Refpiration, ch. viii. N° 26, 60
neceflity of, 218
organs of, 219
mechanifpi of, in man, 221
in other ani¬
mals, 222
experimental writers on, 225
effe&s of, on the animal
fyftem, 234
theory of, 237
4ftill incomplete, 244
ufes of, 245
;relation of, with circulation^ 158
PHYSIOLOGY.
Refpiration, relations of, with fenfation,
N° 257
motion, 258
digeftion, 259
Refpirations, ordinary number of, in a
minute, 224
Reverie, . . ,354
i?2c/ieran</’j'explanationofventriloquifm,252
Rumination explained, 158
in man, cafes of, Note G,
page 490.
Running explained, 139
Ruffs ideas of vitality, 72
T.
Index
s.
Secretion,
ch. x. N° 26
organs of, 267
kinds of, 268
matters furnilhed by, 269
modifications of, 270
Secretions, peculiar animal, 278
vegetable, 280
Senfation, ch. ii. N° 26, 62
organs of, 76
laws of, T05
comparative phyfiology of, 107
theory of, 108
relations of, 149, 181, 212
Senfbility, neceflity of, to organized
beings, 74
of the animal body, 82
Senftivity, . 75
Sight, fenfe of, 97
organs of, 98
Sleep, neceflity of, 344
phenomena of, 346
theory of, 347
of plants, 351
Sleep-walking, 353
Smelling, fenfe of, 89
organs of, 90
theory of, 91
comparative phyfiology of, 92
Snails, copulation of, 319
Somnambulifm, 353
Sound, varieties of, 95
Speech, meohanifm of, 250
Spleen, ufes of, 274
carries off fluid from the
ftomach, 277
Stahl's fyftem, 45
Standing on two feet explained, 133
on four feet, 134
Stomach, organic aflion of, 160
human, the link between
carnivorous and phytiv»r-
ous ftomachs, 162
divided into a cardiac and
pyloric portion, 163
curvature of, accounted for, 167
Swimming explained, 144
Stjfemic organs of circulation, 196
Tafing, fenfe of, jqo g,
organs of, ^
varioufly afle&ed, %
perfection of, gj
modifications of,, g,
ufes of, gj
Temperature, animal,
equable, prefervation of, 24
Torpor of animals, ^
theory of, og-
Touch, fenfe of, -I
ufe of,
organs of, y(
nature of, gj
Transformation, ch. xiii. N° 2(
of reptiles, 29*
of infeCts, 29!
accompanied by change
of propenfities, 30c
confifts in the evolu¬
tion of parts, 30!
Trituration not the foie caufe of di¬
geftion, ijt
Trotting explained, 14
V.
Van He/monl's phyfiological opinions, 3!
Veins, valvular ftructure of, affifts cir¬
culation, 20;
Ventriloquifm, account of, 2j
how explained, 25
Vibration, a theory of fenfation, lO;
Vis infita, of Haller, 12
Vifon, immediate feat of, probably the
retina, 9
phenomena of, 10
diftinCt, requifites for, 10
Vital principle, opinions refpeCHng, 65—)
exiftence of, denied by
fome, 7°) 1
fuppofed to be divisible, 7
Vitality, degrees of, j
Voice peculiar to thofe animals that
have lungs, 24
human, amazing variety ef, 24
mechanifm of, 2i
of brutes, 2i
of birds, > 2i
Volition, an exciting caufe of irritabi-
lity,
w.
Walking oft two feet explained,
four feet, I>
Whytt'i arguments in fupport of ner¬
vous influence, as5- exciting
irritability,
Z.
Zoological arrangement of phyfiology,
PHYTOLACC
PHYSIOLOGY.
PLATE CrCEAW
«r i
/Yf' //.
PLATE CCCCXVm.
via
PHYSIOLOGY.
/.
11
111
IV
Vll
IX H
P 1 A E 529 ] P I A
r tolaeca PHYTOLACCA, PoKEVVEED, oi* American Night-
II Jhade, a genus of plants belonging to the decandria clafs.
d :e 'ziL‘. See Botany Index.
* ^ PHYTOLOGY, a difeourfe concerning the growth,
kind, and virtues of plants. See Botany, and Mate¬
ria Medica.
PHYTON, a general ofthe people of Rhegiumagainft
Dionyfius, the tyrant of Sicily. He was taken by the
enemy, and tortured, and his fon was thrown into the
fea. See Syracuse.
PI A mater, a thin membrane which covers the brain
andisinimmediatecontaft with it. See Anatomy Index.
PI ABA, in Ichthyology, is a fmall freili-water fifh
caught in all the rivers and brooks in the Brafils, and
in fome other parts in America. It is about the lize of
the common minow.
PI ABUCU, in Ichthyology, is an American filh, eaten
in many places by the natives. It is faid to be fo ravenous,
and greedy of blood, that if a perfon go into the water
with a wound in any part of his body, the piabucu will
make up to it to fuck the blood. It feldom exceeds four
inches in length.
PIACENZA is a city of Italy, in the duchy of
Parma, in E. Long. 10. 25. N. Lat. 45. It is a large
handfome city, Avhofe name is derived by fome from its
pleafant lituation, in a fruitful plain, on the Via /Emi¬
lia, about half a mile from the Po. It is the fee of a
bilhop fulfragan of Bologna, and has a univerfity, but
of no great fame. It is defended by a wall and a
iilrong citadel, and is reckoned about three miles in cir¬
cumference, fo that it is fomewhat bigger than Parma.
The houfes are low, but well built; the great ftreet,
called the Stradone, is in a direft line and of equal
breadth, with a foot-way fenced with polls on each fide
like London, and is about 3000 feet long. The houfes
are generally built of brick, and fome of them are pret¬
tily painted. The cathedral is an old llru&ure, but
well adorned within. The duke of Parma, who is fo-
vereign of Piacenza, has a palace in the city built by
Vignola. There are many excellent paintings in this
place. There are two chapels painted, one with the
hilfory of St Catharine, and the other with a pifilure of
Chrill, as alfo the altar ofthe church of St Auguftine, all
by Pordenone. In the fame church there is a fine pi61 ure
of the bleffed virgin, St Peter, and St Paul, by Paolo Ve-
ronefe. At the Capuchins there is a Francis by Guer-
cino. There is a fountain faid to have been eredled
here by Julius Caefar, and the equeltrian tlatues of the
famous general Alexander I. duke of Parma and Pla¬
centia, and of his fon Ranuccio, both in the great
fquare. In the palace of Scotti, there are a great many
fine pi6tures by Lanfranco, who had been a page in
their family, and among the reft the rape of Helen, the
takmgof Troy, the bleffed virgin, and St Francis. The
trade of this city confifts chiefly in their cheefe, as at
Parma, thefe cities being furrounded with the richeft
pafture grounds in Italy $ though the greateft part of
what is called Parmefan cheefe is made in the duchy
of Milan, and particularly at Lodi. See Parmefan
C/rEESf:.—Without the walls, which are wallied by the
rivers Trebbia and Po, there is a large feminary or
college, magnificently erefled bv Cardinal Alberoni, a
native of this city, but confiderably hurt by the modern
Goths in the laft war. Towards the north of the citv
Vol. XVI, Part II.
is the mouth of the river Trebbia, famous for the viclory
which Hannibal obtained over the Romans.
PIANO Forte, or Forte Piano, is a mufical in*
ftrument, which is too well known to require any de¬
tailed defeription. We (hall here, however, notice
fome of its peculiarities. The voice, it has been ob-
ferved, is the original mufical inftrument \ of this aM
other inftruments are to be confidered but as imitations^
and it is remarkable with what promptitude, as well as
accuracy, the voice of man obeys the impulfe of the
heart. Even a coarfe ear is hurt by an error in its
tone, amounting to what is called a comma ; and a li¬
mited voice can execute melodies which include i£-
notes, or an o6!ave and a fifth. Between thefe extremes
the motion of the glottis does not amount to one-twelfth
of an inch, which muft therefore be divided by the moft
ordinary finger into more than 1000 parts. All this
too, without any feeming effort of thought, is done in
an inftant, and repeated with rapidity, without miftak*
ing one of the divifions.
The great objeft in the conftrudlion of mufical in
ftruments is, to bring them as near as poffible to exprefs
the founds produced by the human voice: the violin,
however, and a few of the fimple wind inftruments, arc,
the only ones found fully to exprefs thofe momentary
gradations of fentiment, and thofe tender and delicate
emotions with which the heart is agitated. For the
purpofe of removing this defe6t of harmonic inftruments,
the fwell was added to the organ, Similar improve¬
ments wrere alfo attempted on other inftruments of the
fame kind, and in the fame way. The harpfichord was
fhut up like the fwell organ, and was opened by means
of pedals, when the performer withed to enforce the
found. But as this was found not to fucceed well,
other methods were tried, and in particular unifons
were added to each note, which were brought on, ei¬
ther by means of pedals, or by another fet of keys 5
and in this way the power of the harpfichord uras great¬
ly improved. Among all the keyed inftruments, the
Englifh piano forte feems to merit the preference, on
account of the fuperior force of tone, adequate fweet-
nefs, and great variety of voice, of which, by the inge¬
nuity of Britilh artifts, it has now become fufceptible.
It has been called a national inftrument, becaufe it is
faid to be an Englifti contrivance, tlie invention of the
celebrated poet, Mafon. Mr Mafon had feen fome at¬
tempts that were made by the Germans to make keyed
dulcimers, which were in fome meafure fufceptible of
the forte and piano; but as they v/ere all conftru61ed on
one principle, and required a particular touch of the
finger, which was of difficult acquifition, and which
fpoiled it for harpfichord pra61ice; as they were alfo
deficient in delicacy and juftnefs) and as the performer
Was by no means certain of producing the very ftrength
of found intended, Mr Mafon removed all thofe imper-
Tedtions, by detaching the mallet entirely from the key,
and giving them only a momentary connexion. It is
by this improvement that the Englifh piano forte is di-
ftinguiftied from all others. Mr Mafon’s general prin¬
ciple may be fully underftood by the following deferip¬
tion. In the figure on Plate CCCCXVIII. the parts
are reprefented in their ftate of inaflion. The key
ABK turns, as ufual, on the round edge of the bar B,
and a pin b} driven into the bar, keeps it in its place.
3 X The
Pi a cenz a
PianoForto
P I A [ S30 1 P I A
Piano Forte. The dot F reprefents a fection of the firing. ED is
the mallet, having a hinge of vellum, by which it is at¬
tached to the upper iurface of the bar E. At the other
end is the head I), of wood, covered with fume folds of
prepared leather. The mallet lies in the pofition repre-
fented in the figure, its lower end refling on a cufhion-
bar K, which lies horizontally under the whole row of
mallets. The key AH has a pin C, tipt with a bit of
the fofteft cork or buckfkin. This reaches to within
•^th of an inch of the thank of the mallet, but muft not
touch it. The diitance E e is about Id or ^tb of the
length of the fhank. When the end A of the key is
prefled down on the fluffing (two or three thicknefies
of the mod elaftic woollen lift) it ratfes the mallet, by
means of the pin C, to the horizontal pofition E rf, with¬
in |th or Toth of an inch of the wire F ; but it cannot
be fo much prefled down as to make the mallet touch
the wire. At the fame time that the key raiies the
mallet bv means of the pin C, it alfo lifts off the clamper
G (a bit of fpunge) from the wire. This damper is
fixed on the end of a little wooden pin G g, connected
with the lever g H, which has a vellum hinge at H.
This motion of the damper is caufed by the pin I, which
is fixed into the key near to E. Thefe pieces are fo ad-
iuited, that the firft touch of the key lifts the damper,
and, immediately after, the pin C a£ls on the fhank of
the mallet. As it afls fo near to its centre of motion,
it caufes the head D to move briikly through a coniider-
alfle arch D d. Being made extremely moveable, and
very light, it is thus tojfrd beyond the horizontal pofi¬
tion E </, and it flrikcs the wire F, which is now at li¬
berty to vibrate up and down, by the previous removal
of the damper G. Having made its ilroke, the mallet
falls down again, and refls on the foft fubilanee on the
pin C. It is of effential importance that this mallet be
extremely light. Were it heavy, it would have fo
much force, after rebounding from the wire, that it
■would rebound from the pin C, and again flrike the
wire. For it will be recolkAed, that the kev is, at this
time, down, and the pin C railed as high as poffible, fo
that, there is very little room for this rebound. Lefl'en
ing the momentum of the mallet by making it very
light, making the cufluon at the top of the pin C very
foft, and great precifion in the fhape and figure of all
the parts, are the only feeurities agamft the difagreeable
rattling which thefe rebounds would occafion. In re-
fpect to the folidity and precifion of workmanfliip, the
Britiffi inftruments are unrivalled, and vail numbers of
them have been fent to all parts of the continent.
As the blow of fo light a mallet cannot bring much
found from a wire, it has always been found neceffary
to have two firings for each note. Another circum-
ilance contributes to enfeeble the ibund. The mecha-
nifm neceflary for producing it makes it almoft impoffible
to give any considerable extent to the belly or found
board of the inftrument. There is feldom any more of
it than what occupies the fpace between the tuning pins
and the bridge. This is the more to be regretted, be-
caufe the baffes are commonly covered firings, that they
mav be of a moderate length. The bafs notes are alfo
of brafs, which ha; a conliderably lower tone than a
Heel wire of the fame diameter and tenfion. Yet even
this fubftitution for fled in the bafs firings is not enough.
The higheft of them are much too flack, and the loweft
anes mull be loaded, to compenfate for want of length.
This greatly diminifhes the fulnefs, and Hill more the Piano F ■
mellownels and diftindtnels of the tone, and frequently Piaftus.*'
makes the very loweft notes hardly appreciable. This•v**-1
inequality of tone about the midole of the inilrument is
fomewhat di mini fined by confiruding the infinunent
with two bridges; one for the Heel, and the other for
the brafs wires. But itiil the bals notes are very much
inferior to the treble.
PIASTUS, a native of Poland, was originally a
wheelwright, and the fon of Coffifco, a citizen of Gruf-
witz. He riourilhed in the year 830, when on the
extinction of the family of Popiel great difputes an.fe
about his fucceflor, and Cracow was alHicfed with a fe-
vere famine. During this extremity, when the people
were dropping down in the fireets, two angels in human Mod. Vnr-
forms, as the llory is told, took up their refidence with Mi/lory, ■
Piaftus, who was celebrated for his piety and extenfivevo^ xxx
charity. He had nothing left bet a fmall calk of the^’^^’
common liquor of the country, and this he prefented to
his new guefts, who, charmed with his hofpitality,
promiled him the crown of Poland. The faith of Pia-
llus was equal to his other virtues : he implicitly be¬
lieved the word of his guefis, and pioufly followed their
directions in every particular. He was ordered to dif-
tribute the liquor out of his little cafk to the multitude
he did fo, and found that it was inexhauftible. The
people were afioniffied ; all cried out, “ A miracle!”
and the electors determined to choole a perlon in vvhoftr
favour Heaven had lo vifibiy declared : Piafius was-
accordingly taken from his ffiop, and railed to the ducal
dignity.
Such is the relation of the canon of Cracow, which
differs in many particulars from the account given by
Guagnini, and ieveral other biftorians. According to
them, Piafius had prepared a fmall collation, to enter¬
tain feme friends who were aflembled at the birth ot a
child. Two pilgrims, Paul and John, afterwards mur¬
dered at Rome, came about this time to Cracow. They*
begged charity a1- the door of the eledlicn-hall, and were
rudely repulfed; upon which thev Humbled on the houfe
of Piaftus, and were kindly received. The miracle we
have mentioned was wrought by them ; and the two
pilgiims, and not angels, were the inftruments of the
elevation of the hotpitable wheelwright. Though we
pay but little regard to the marvellous means by which
Piafius afeended the ducal throne of Poland, it would
be prefumptuous entirely to omit a fact, attefted by all
the writers upon this fubjedl : it was proper, therefore,
to take notice of it, and we leave the reft to the reader’s-
judgment.
Being now raifed to the fupreoie dignity, he was not
intoxicated with his profperity. His natural charity,
benevolence, and fweetnefs of difpofition, remained :
nothing was altered but his power of doing good. He-
was truly called the father of his people : the injured
never returned unredreffed, nor merit unrewarded.
Piaftus wiped the tear from the eyes of the widow y
and was himfelf the guardian of the orphan, and the
general patron of the poor and diftrefll d. His excel¬
lent inclinations ferved him in the room of great abi¬
lities ; and the happinefs that his people enjoyed made
them forget that their prince was not born a ilatefnian
and a warrior. Several inteftine commotions arofe du¬
ring his adminiftration, ail which lie quelled by the
mildnefs and clemency of his nature : his nobility were
alhamcd*
PIC [ 531 ] PI C
fh» afiiaffied of Rebelling againit a fovereign who devoted
J his whole life to render his people happy. He remo-
ved the court from Crufwitz, a city which he deteft-
r~~' becaule it was the fcene of Popiel’s crimes and tra¬
gical end, and fixed his refidence at Gnefna, where he
died beloved, efteemed, and even adored by his fubjects.
It is in memory of this excellent prince, that all the
natives of Poland, who have been lince promoted to die
ducal or regal dignity, were called Piaftes, in contradi-
fiin&ion to the foreigners.
Piallus aflbciated his fon Ziemovitus with him in the
government before his death ; a circumftance of much
beneiit to the people.
PIAZZA, in building, popularly called piuche, an
Italian name for a portico, or covered walk, lupported
by arches.
The word literally fignifies a broad open place or
fquare 5 whence it alfo became applied to the walks or
porticoes around them.
ft zyly PIBROCH, fays Dr Beattie *, Is a fpecies of tuns
jD’ attie, peculiar, I think, to the Highland', and We Hern ities
8v dit. of Scotland, it is performed on a bagpipe, and differs
P 1‘ totally from all other mufic. Its rythm is fo irregular,
and its notes, efpecially in the quick movement, io mix¬
ed and huddled together, that a itranger finds it almoft
impeffible to reconcile his ear to it, fo as to perceive
its modulation. Some of theie pibrochs, being intend¬
ed to reprefent a battle, begin with a grave motion re-
fembling a march, then gradually quicken into the on-
fet •, run off with noify confufion and turbulent rapidity,
to imitate the conflift and purfuit; then fwcll into a
few fiourifhes of triumphant joy •, and perhaps clofe with
the wild and flow wailings of a funeral proceffion.
PICA. See Corvus, Ornithology Index.
Pica Marina. See HiEMATOFus, and Alca, Orni¬
thology Index.
Pica, in Medicine, a depravation of appetite, which
makes the patient long for what is unfit for food, or
incapable of nouriflring j as chalk, allies, coals, plaller-
lime, &c. See MEDICINE IndeX\
Pica, or Pi/e, had formerly the fame lenfe as ordi¬
nal, meaning a table or directory, pointing out the
order in which the devotional fervices appointed for
different occafions were to be performed. According¬
ly we are told it is derived from a contraction of
a table; and by others from litera picata, a great
black letter at the beginning of feme new order in the
prayer. The term was ufed in a fimilar fenfe by ^offi¬
cers of civil courts, who called their kalendars or al¬
phabetical catalogues directing to the names and things
contained in the rolls and records of their courts the
pipes.
Pica, or PAttr,/©///;, prince of MiranciolaandConcofdia,
was born in the year 1463, under thepontificate of Pius IL
H e was the youngeft fon of John Francis of Mirandola,
and Julia, a ladv of the noble family of Boiard. Some
of the credulous hiftorians of the time have related, that
Rt his birth a globe of fire was feen to relt upon his mo¬
ther’s bed, portending, fay they, by its ftiape the per¬
fection of his genius, and by its element, the celeftial
turn of his mind. As foon as he was capable of receiv¬
ing inftruClion, he was placed by his mother’s care
under the moft able mailers, and very early diftinguilh-
Td himfelf by the vigour of his application, and the
ffrength of his memory j of which fucb prodigies are
related as'would be very difficult to credit, were we not
allured by feme modern inliances, of the perfeClion to "v
which that faculty may be carried. At the age of
fourteen he was lent by his mother’s direction, who was
defirous that he Ihould affume the clerical functions, tfo
Bologna, at that time the principal refort of thole who
Itudied the pontifical law. After fpending two years
there, he became difgutled with this purfuit, although
fuch was his indultry, even at that early age, that he com¬
piled an epitome of the pontifical epillles or decretal?-.
His difpofition, however, ilrongly led him to the purfuit
of philofophy, with an eager curiofity to penetrate the
feerets of nature and fcience : with this view he travel¬
led over Italy and France, vifited the moll celebrated
fchools of each, and ftudied under the moll famous
teachers of both countries. After feven years fpent in
this courfe of inltruCtion, and at the age of twenty-
three, he went to Rome, and, after the falhion of the
fcholars of that time, brought himtelf into notice by
publicly propofing literary queltions for diiputation.
This fort of challenge was very common in that age,
and, when printing was learcely praCliled, and the name
of a man of learning lefs rapidly extended than it is
now, was almoft the only method that a pexlon of fu-
perior attainments had to make himlelf known. Mi¬
randola propofed 900 queilions, or as they were called
conclufiones, in dialeClics, mathematics, natural philofo-
phy, and divinity, drawn not only from the ftores of the
Latin and Greek, but from the mylteries of the He¬
brews and the arcana of the Chaldeans and Arabians,
In addition to the endlefs topics of metaphyfics, theo¬
logy, and the ordinary fubjeCls of difputation, into
which he entered very profoundly, the conclufiones in¬
volved the ancient and obfeure philofophy of Pythago¬
ras, Trifmegiftus, and Orpheus ; the doClrines of the
Cabala, or my Hit- interpretation of the facred writings,
according to the Hebrews, taught by Origen and lii-
larius *, the extent, ufes, and learning of natural magic,
which was vindicated from the vulgar reproach of im¬
piety and necromancy. Seventy-two new phyfieal and
metaphylical dogmata of the author’s invention were
likewife propofed and defended. Thtfe propofitions,
according to the oftentatious praftibe on thefe occafions,
were fixed in the moft public places in Rome, and the
propofer engaged to defray the expenses of any one
who ihould come from a diftance for the purpofe of dif-
puting with him. This challenge did not bring for¬
ward any difputants, but expofed Mirandola to much
envy and iealoufy, particularly from the profeffors of
fcience at Rome, who felt the reflexion that would be
caff upon their credit by their declining a competition
which they ditrft not encounter. Unable to injure his
fame as a fcholar, they made a much more dangerous at¬
tack upon the foundnefs of his faith •, thirteen qut (lions
were fekflcd, which were charged with the terrible
fufpicion of herefy and contempt of the ordinances of
the church ; a fufpicion very readily liitened to by the
church when directed againft great learning, which the
increafing influence of philofophy and letters began to
make her watch with extreme jealoufy. Mirandola re¬
pelled this attack by publiftiing his Apologia, or De¬
fence of the aecufed Propofitions •, which if he did not
effedlually clear away the fufpicions he had incurred,
tended to confirm his enemies in their dread of his learn¬
ing and powers j and it muff; be owned that, overlook-
3X2 ing
111—
PIG [5
ing the miiapplication of talents to fach fubjefts, the
Apologia exhibits a command of profound and well di-
gefted learning and keen argument, truly aftonithing at
the age of twenty-three. This work, and the difcuf-
fions it contained of certain delicate points, added to
fome hints of the limit of pontifical controul in matters
of faith, were fo difagreeable to Pope Innocent VIII.
that he interdicted the reading both of the Apology and
the difputed queitions. The love of glory, however,
was not Mirandola’s only paflion : his youth, fplendid
accomplilhments, and the graces of his perfon, for which
he is faid to have been remarkable, attrafted the admi¬
ration and carefles of many diftinguilhed Roman ladies,
who united the love of letters to that of pleafure, a tafte
very common amongft the Italian ladies of that age.
The young philofopher yielded to the force of thefe al¬
lurements, or rather, according to the account of his
nephew, and biographer, Francifco of Mirandola, eager¬
ly followed the bent of his difpofition, naturally inclin¬
ed to obey the attractions of beauty.
But this life of pleafure, however fuitable to his con¬
dition and inclinations, wras of a fhort continuance. Ir¬
ritated by the reftlefs perfecutions of his enemies, and
obliged perpetually to defend himfelf againft the impu¬
tation of herefy, the moil formidable calumny which in
that age any man could have to contend with, he de¬
tached himfelf from vicious pleafures, and regulated his
manner of life by rigidly obferving the laws of abfti-
nence impofed by Chriftianity 5 for being a firm adher¬
ent to the Chriftian doftrines, the charge of infidelity
and the vigilance of his enemies made him the more fo-
licitous to guard againft the appearance of difobeying
them. Becoming from this time wholly devoted to
learning, he foon acquired fuch celebrity that the moft
eminent fcholars from all parts of Italy came to vifit
him for converfation or inftruftion. As a proof of the
lincerity of his reformation, he committed to the flames
five books of elegiac poetry which he had compofed on
the fubject of his amours, together with numerous pieces
in Tufcan verfe, which had been addrefled to his various
mifireffes. There is perhaps reafon to lament that the zeal
of a new convert would not be fatisfied without this facri-
fice. It muft, howrever, be confidered that the fpirit of re¬
ligion at that period exacted many facrifices from the pro-
fefibrs of Chriftianity, which the lenient temper of thefe
times does not call for. An example of this feverity is to
be met with amongft the works that ftill remain of Miran¬
dola ; at the end of which, in the folio edition publiftied
by his nephew, we find a learned and entertaining com¬
ment, in the Italian language, upon a compolition of his
friend Girolamo Benivieni, entitled Una Canzona de
Amove fecundo la mente et openione de' Platonici, “ A
poetical treatife upon love, explaining the doftrines of
the Platonifts.” The author, Girolamo, informs the rea¬
der, in a ftiort preface, that he had determined to fup-
prefsthis poem and comment out of regard to his friend’s
character and his own j deeming it unbecoming a pro-
feffor of Chriftianity, in treating of celeftial and divine
love, “ to treat of it as a Platonift and not as a Chrift¬
ian j” but that having lent it to fome of his friends for
their perufal, an imperfect and erroneous copy was
printed, which obliged him, but not till after the death
of Mirandola, to publiftr it corre&ly ; and he takes care
to allege, in excufe for himfelf, that he has apprized the
reader of his plan by the title of the poem, and warned
3
32 1 PIC
him in all places where Plato’s opinions depart from Pien
thofe of Chrift, that the do&rines of a gentile and
heathen are not entitled to the leaft weight compared
with the reafonings of the Chriftian theologifts, “ and
particularly the irrefragable arguments of the angelic
dodtor St Thomas of Aquino.”
The firft fruit of Mirandola’s devotion to facred lite-r
rature was the Heptaplus, or Comment upon the Six
Days of the firft Chapter of Genefis, which was written
in 1491. Two years afterwards he publiftied a treatife
in ten chapters, de Ente et Uno ; the objedt of which
was to reconcile the dodtrines of Plato and Ariftotle,
and to demonftrate that the difputes of their refpedlive
followers originated in a mifconception of the opinions
of thefe philofophers relative to the Ens and Unum, at
that time a fubjedl of mighty ftrife among the learned.
This treatife was held in high efteem by both fides. It
was the laft work of confequence that the author lived
to complete; but he had laid the plan of a vaft and
comprehenfive work, which his early death prevented
the execution of. This was no lefs than to confound
the feven enemies of the Chriftian church, by examining
and refuting all their errors. In the profecution of this
defign, he had compofed and perfedled before his death
twelve books againft aftrology, the moft popular and
the moft pernicious fuperftition which then infefted the
world. Paulus Jovius, bifhop of Nocera, has left a
teftimony to the merits of this work, which is above all
other encomiums:—“ In this excellent though unfinifti-
ed work, Mirandola attacked the aftrologers with fuch
erudition and keennefs, and fo ably expofed the abfur-
dity and vanity of the whole art of divination, that he
feems to have deterred the profeflbrs of the occult fci-
ences from writing •' * Paul
This great defign, as well as many others which Mi- J0^
randola had formed, particularly that of a more com-f^
plete effay towards reconciling the opinions of Plato and^'
Ariftotle, was fruftrated by his death. From the time
that he left Rome, which was foon after the publica¬
tion of the Apologia, Mirandola generally refided ei¬
ther at Ferrara or at Florence. The friendfliip of the
prince of Ferrara and its vicinity to his paternal feat
attracted him to the former place j but Florence was
the moft agreeable to him, on account of the fociety of
literary men which it afforded, and particularly of Poll-
tian and Loren%o de Medici, with whom he entertained
a clofe friendfnip. Befides thefe two illuftrious men, his
focicty was cultivated by other eminent fcholars, among
whom was the learned and unfortunate Hieronymus Sa-
vanarola, and Hermolaus Barbaras : Petrus Crinitus,
the pupil of Politianf, mentions him as excelling all hisf P. Crk,
companions In the erudition and eloquence of his con- ^ j
verfation. The fame author has left us an account ofj;.^ £
Pica’s laborious ftudies ; for when Politian had expreffedi;^ v. c. 1;
in his prefence high admiration of his great genius and Si lib. ii-
learning, Mirandola with Angular modefty anfwered,c-a’
that he deferved no praife but for his afliduous applica¬
tion—“ Gratulandum potius, intelligite, afliduis vigiliis
atque lucubrationibus, quam noftro ingenio plauden-
dum 1 P3, kJ'
His library likewife is celebrated by the fame writer, c‘ z‘
and is faid by Francifco de Mirandola to have coft 7000
pieces of gold* His acccvmpliftiments were not confined
to fubjefts of abftrufe literature ; in his youth he was
much attached to mufic, in which he acquired fuch fkill,
that
PIC [ 533 } PIC
'i'ca. that Tome of his melodies were publicly received, and
V"*' held in great efteem. It might alfo be concluded, from
an anecdote related by Petrus Crinitus, that he was not
unacquainted with phyiic •, for according to that author,
when Hermolaus Barbarus was feized at Rome with a
dangerous fever, Mirandola fent him from Florence a
medicine prepared by himfelf. No man ever teftified a
more fincere devotion for learning and philofophy, to
the contempt of all other qualifications, than the Prince
of Mirandola. He poffeffed a very large eftate, which
he bellowed almoft entirely upon works of charity, ex¬
cept what was fpent in colle£ting books, and entertain¬
ing and providing for literary men. At length, how¬
ever, about three years before his death, he made over
to his nephew Francifco his principality and poffefiions
in Mirandola, and obtained a confirmation of the grant
from Maximilian, the Roman emperor, to whom that
principality was fubjeft. He referved to himfelf only
enough to purchafe a fmall eftate near Ferrara, where
he fpent the remainder of his life, except when he re¬
futed at Florence, in elegant and learned retirement.
His mother, under whofe care he received his education,
had deftined him for the church ; and he was often
urged by his friends to embrace the facred profeftion,
with the certainty of the higheft honours and emolu¬
ments : but nothing could induce him to quit the life
that he had chofen. He died of a fever at Florence, in
the year 1494, in the 31ft year of his age, on the fame
day that Charles IX. of France entered that city on his
famous expedition into Italy. That monarch, hearing
of Mirandola’s illnefs, as he approached the city, fent
two of his own phyfieians to his afliftance 5 but in fpite
of their aid, the violence of his diforder put an end to
his exiftence in 13 days.
With refpedl to the works of this author, fomething
has already been faid, and little more remains to be ob-
ferved. The Conclufiones afford a very complete fpeci-
men of the learning of the age, and of what were deem¬
ed the moft valuable purpofes to which learning could
be applied. However ufelefs and unprofitable thefe pur¬
pofes may appear to us, it will not be denied by any
one, who has the curiofity to look through the Conclu-
fiones, that the mafs of learning, which muft have been
poflefled by the propofer of them, is prodigious j when
it is recollected that, at the time he propofed them, he
was no more than 23 years of age. For there is not the
leaft reafon to fuppofe, that a perfon whofe works prove
him to have been a man of profound learning, and w'ho,
in an age and nation diftinguiftied by fome of the bright-
eft fcholars that ever appeared, was ranked by their own
judgment amongft the firft, ftiould have challenged the
difcuffion of any of the propofed fubjeCls, without being
well provided with the knowledge neceflary for fuch a
debate. The manner in which the queftions were pro¬
pounded leave little room to doubt that the author was
deeply verfed in the refpeClive fubjefts of them j and
the Apology for the accufed propofitions, particularly
thofe de Salute Origenis and de Magia atque Cabala, dif-
cover familiarity with the writings of the Fathers, as
■well as with the Greek and Hebrew claflics, and a lacT - Pica,
lity of language and argument that could not be acquired » *
at that age without extraordinary powers of mind. It
would be worth while to tranfcribe the whole of this
curious piece for the amufement of fuch of our readers
as may not have accefs to the original, but our limits do
not admit of it.
It is curious to obferve how greatly the fudden growth*
of learning outftripped that of folid fcience. No age,
perhaps, was ever lo remarkable for the learning which
it produced as the period from the middle of the 15th
century to the beginning of the 16th $ yet, except the
ineftimable obligations we owe to the learned men of
that time for their editions of the dallies, later ages have
been little benefited by their works, which are either
loft or negleCted, and even the fciences they treated of
exploded and ridiculed. School-divinity and metaphy-
fics, though the moft attended to, were not the only
ftudies in which the vaft erudition of that age was
wafted. The myfterious doCtrines of the Cabala formed
a favourite ftudy of fome of the moft learned fcholars.
The propofition which laid Pica open to the indignation
of the church, was that in which he afferted the ortho¬
doxy of Origen ; for Origen, notwithftanding his meri¬
torious labours in the caufe of Chriftianity, his daring
zeal and felf-martyrdom, and notwithftanding the de¬
fence of Eufebius, wras configned by the fentence of tho
church to inevitable damnation, on account of his errors
in the myfteries of the faith. Toqueftion his perdition,
therefore, rvas to deny that the church was the interpre¬
ter of the divine intentions. The defence of this part of
the Conclujiones is written with a boldnefs that could
hardly be expeCled from an Italian of the 15th century.
But the hardieft of thefe propofitions was that in which
it is aflerted, that faith is not in a man’s own power.
In defending this and the other propofitions, which were
taxed with herefy, Pica probably relied lefs on the fpi-
rit and ability of his juftification, than on his own high
rank and ftation, together with the countenance and
proteClion of his powerful friends, particularly the Me¬
dici, whofe liberality of fentiment in regard to religious
points was fo notorious, that even Leo. X. has been di-
reCtly charged, not only with herefy, but infidelity *. ^
By the Cabala, a term at this time generally mifap-^, '
prehended, was underftood fometimesa fpecies of divine
magic operating by the agency of good fpirits, as magic vol. iv.
commonly fo called was fuppofed to do by that of evil
beings j but the true definition of it, as received by the
beft of its profeflbrs, is given by Reuchlinus (a), in his
treatife addreffed to Lorenzo de Medici, Divitue Revela-
tionis ad falutiferam Dei et formarum feparatarum con-
templationem traditcefymbolica receptio,—a fymbolic ac¬
ceptation of the Mofaic hiftory (for that is meant by di-
vina revelatio') which produced a pure and perfeCl ac¬
quaintance with the nature of the divinity and of fpirits j
and according to the opinions of fome, which feem to be
revived by the modern Swedenborgians, this knowledge,
when fublimed to the higheft perfection it was capable
of, and accompanied with perfeCl purity, was believed
to?
(a) This treatife, which contains the whole learning upon a fubjeCl once held in the higheft veneration by men.
of learning, is very curious, and is to be found in the folio edition of Mirandola’s works, publiftied at Bafil in
M57-
P I c
Pica. t^raife the mind to an abfolute familiarity with good
'""'"“v 11 ' angels, by whofe affiftance the poffeffors of the cabalie
feerets were enabled to do miraculous things. This art
was derived from the rabbinical doctors, who were at
firfl called Thai mud ids 5 and, about the middle of the
* Reuchli- 15th century, according to Pica de Mirandola *, its
ma de Arte pi-ofclfors were denominated Cabalici, Cabahei, or Ca-
Rabalijl. balillse, according to their different degrees of perfec¬
tion : they afterwards, however, departed from their
mailers the Thalmudifts*, the latter, according to Reuch-
linus, being chiefly intent upon the law and the expla¬
nation of it, while the former, paying lefs regard to
what concerned human affairs, aimed chiefly at^levation
of mind and thought. The ideas and doctrines of the
Cabalilts feem to have been well known to Milton, and
perhaps fug gelled fume paffages in Paradife Loft. In
Rtuchlinus’s Expoiition of their myfteries there is a cu¬
rious paffage deferibing the fpeech of the Deity, to the
heavenly fpirits after the fall of Adam, with the future
profpeft of redemption by the incarnation of the. Mt l-
ftah, whom the Cabalifts recogniled in the character of
a celeftial Adam (u); and, among the books relating
to thefe doctrines, which are faid to be loft, mention is
made of Liber Bellorum Domini* The myfteries of the
Pythagorean philofophy, which, according to Philolaus
apud Reuchlinum, fprung from the fame fource, were
alfo ftudied and taught with great fervency during this
period. Mirandola and Paulus Riccius were the firft
who explained the Cabaliftic myfteries in Latin, and the
former, in his Apology, has employed much labour and
learning in defending them, as well as the fcience of na¬
tural magic, from the vulgar idea that necromancy was
at the bottom of them. Plis writings, however, upon
that fubjeft were few, and we do not know whether they
flill exift ; but it may be colledled from the following
propofition in his Conc/ufiones, and feme others of a fimi-
lar nature, that he, like all the fcholars of his time, had
bellowed much attention upon this ufelefs learning :
“ Qui feierit quid fit denarius in Arithmetica formal!,
et cognorerit natura primi numeri fpbaerici, fciet fecre-
tum quinquaginta portarum intelligentiae et magni jo-
belaei, et mi lie dm ye generationis, etregnum omnium fe-
0111071™.” Thofe who are well acquainted with the
tenets of the modern mitlenanans will be able to tell
whether there be any connexion between them and the
allufions in the concluding part of this propofition.
Magic alfo entered deeply into the learning of this
era. This comprifes two diftinif fciences, that of natu¬
ral magic, and rlrit of dsemonology : the firft was con¬
cerned only in the properties of numbers and figures,
and fome of the more hidden properties of nature. This
knowledge enabled its poffeffors to produce many effedfs
from natural caufes, which, when fcience was lefs diffu-
fed than at prefent, appeared to be the effcdl of fome-
thing fuperior to the common limits of human power.
Albertus, commonly called Magnus, the friend and tu¬
tor of Roger Bacon, was the moft celebrated of thofe
■who eKcefltd in this fort of knowledge. This fcience
bas been pmdudlive of many admirable difcoven-es in ma-
P I c
thematics and chemiftry. Magic, in its common figni- Pia.
fication, or necromancy, was abb eagerly ftudied at this
time, as appears from Cornelius Agrippa’s ftrange work
iqion that fubjeft •, and we may judge of the eftimation
in which it was held, by the confefiion that writer
makes in his book De vanitate omnium Scientiarum, that
while he profeffed that fcience, he derived more credit
and profit from it, than from any other ufe he ever
could make of his learning. Tire firft; matter in this
way was laid to be * Solomon, whole magic ring and * p c • •
glafs are Hill famous in eattern dtemonology. tu
But the mult dangerous, the molt popular, and the nejiabifap
moft pernicious delulion which the darknefs of the pre-L). h, c.^
ceding ages had entailed upon mankind, was aftrology,
whicli will perhaps never be utterly exterminated from
the minds ot the vulgar, but which then poffefled all
ranks. When theie confiderations are taken into the
account, it uiuft be looked upon as no despicable appli¬
cation of learning and talents, to have txpofed the fal¬
lacy and abiurdity of this delufion ; and when we recoi¬
led! the great learning and credit of fame of its uphold¬
ers, among whom our countryman Roger Bacon was the
moft eiteemed ; the almolt univerfal belief entertained
of it, and the few lights which mankind then polieffed,
as to the real and conftant laws obeyed by the celefiial
bodies ; it cannot be denied that the twelve books writ¬
ten by Mirandola again!! aftrology, the effect of which,
in opening men’s eyes upon that fubjt d! is teftified by a
refpebtable cotemporary author, were the work of a ve¬
ry fuperior and enlightened mind. When we congratu¬
late ourfelves upon our freedom from thefe fuperftitions,
we ought not to forget, that we owe fomething to thofe
who gave the firft blow to them. Proud of the lights
of the age we live in, when aftrology and fuch like
cheats are no longer in vogue, we are too apt to over¬
look the merit of thofe exertions which firft expofed and
refuted them •, and to perfuade ourfelves, that in thefe
davs of genius and phiiofophy, fuch exertions would
have been unneceffary; not recollvding that if we enjoy
many fuperiorities of this kind, we are lefs indebted for
them to our own genius than to the labours of thofe who
firft paved the way for the detection of fuperftitious er¬
rors ; our merit is, that we do not ftmt our eyes to the
light of fcience •, but while we enjoy its blaze, we
ought to be grateful to thofe who flvuck the firft:
fparks.
John Pica of Mirandola has been reprefented by writ¬
ers, whole ideas are taken from the encomiums of his
cotemporaries, as a mighty prodigy of learning and ge¬
nius, The hi It a lie which the prefent times entertain to¬
wards thofe fubjedts upon which he wrote, renders it ve¬
ry difficult, upon a review of his works, to think thofe
encomiums iuttified. But making allowance for this
change of opinion, and weighing the impartial teftimor.y
of his equals, and the early age at which he obtained
their admiration, it may be fairly concluded, he was in
reality, a man of very extraordinary powers. 1 hefe
memoirs are principally colle<5ted from his letfers, and
the account given of him by his nephew Francifco, him-
felt
[ 534 1
(c) Comtcimus fane, alterum effe Adam caeleftem angelis in ecelo demonftratum, unum ex Deo, quern verbo
fecerat, et alterum effe Adam terrenum, repulfum a Deo, quern ex luto manibus fuis finxeiat. Rcucbii-
nus, p. 750.
2.
PIC [ 535 ] PIC
Pica, felf an eminent fcholar. Such a biographer might na-
icard. turally be fufpeded of partiality ; but the evidence of
' other writers fully confirms his account. Paulus Jovius,
in his E/ogia Do&orum Virorum, gives the following
jI charafter of him *. “John Pica of Mirandola, has
been jufily ftyled t’ne phoenix j for in him, the immortal
gods, befides the fplendour of his family, aflembled all
the rareit gifts of body and mind.”
Petrus Riccius, commonly called Petrus Crinitus, who
was the pupil of Politian and the companion of Miran¬
dola, laments the death of him and Polilian, which hap¬
pened in the fame year, as a public misfortune, more fe-
verely felt at that particular time, when learning, ob-
ftruffed by the incurfion of the French into Italy, want-
■j (t.Crin.td the fupport and adi(lance of fuch men J. To thefe
a onejla may be added the tellimony of Hieronymus Savanarola,
■I who, though afterwards put to death by Pope Alexan¬
der for a heretic, was a man of great confideration on
account of his learning and talents. In a difpute which
took place between him and Mirandola, concerning the
philofophy of the ancients ; the former, yielding to the
fuperiority of his opponent, rofe up and embracing him
laid, “ Unus tu es, Pice, tetate noltra qui omnium vete-
rum philofophiam ac religionis Chriftianae praecepta et
| iii.c.t.leges percalleas jj. The following epitaph, written by
Hercules Strozza, is preferved by Paulus Jovius :
Joannes jacet hie Mirandola ; cistern norunt
Et Tagus et Ganges, for fan et Antipodes.
Dr John Ion in bis liiTay on Epitaphs, lias taken no¬
tice of this pompous dittich, as a warning to epitaph
writers. “ Thus, lays he, have their expectations been
difippointed, who honoured Picus of Mirandola with
this pompous epitaph. His name, then celebrated in
the remoteft corners of the earth, is now almoft forgot¬
ten 5 and his works, then lludied, admired, and applaud¬
ed, are now mouldering in obfeurity.” Monthly Mag.
PICARD, a native of the Netherlands, who found¬
ed a feCl the profeflbrs of which were called Picards.
See Picards.
Picard, John, an able mathematician, and one of
the moll learned ailronomers of the 17th century, was
born at Fleche, and became priell and prior of Rillie in
Anjou. Going to Paris, he was in 1666 received into
the Academy of Sciences in quality of aitronomer. In
1671, he was fent by order of the king, to the caltle
of Uraniburg, built by Tycho Brahe in Denmark, to
make aflronomical oblervations there and from thence
he brought the original manuferipts wrote by Tycho
Brahe, which are the more valuable as they differ in
many places from the printed copies, and contain a
book more than has yet appeared He made impor¬
tant difeoveries in aftronomy ; and was the firft who
travelled through feveral parts of France, to meafure
a degree of the meridian. His work' are, 1. A trea
tifi3 on levelling. 2. Fragments of dioptrics. 3. Ex¬
periment a circa aquas effluent es. 4. Dc men funs. 5. Ue
menfura liqmdorum l.f aridorum. 6. A voyage to U-
raniburg, or ailronomical obfervations made in Den¬
mark, 7. Agronomical obfervations made in feveral
parts of France, Stc. Thefe, and fome other of his
works, which arc much efleemed, are in the fixth and
feven volumes of the Memoirs of the Academy of
Sciences.
PICARDS, a religious Ie£l which arofe in Bohemia Ficawts.
in the 15th century. v -1
Picard, the author of this fe£f, from whom it derived
its name, drew after him, as has been generally faid, a
number of men and women, pretending he would reltore
them to the primitive Rate of innocence wherein man
was created : and accordingly he affumed the title of
the New Adam. With this pretence he taught his fol¬
lowers to give themfelves up to all impurity; faying
that therein confifted the liberty of the fons of God;
and that all thofe not of their fetft were in bondage.
He firft publiftied his notions in Germany and the Low
Countries, and perfuaded many people to go naked,
and gave them the name of Adamites. After this
he feized on an ifland in the river Laufnecz, fome
leagues from Thabor, the head quarters of Zifca,
where he fixed himfelf and his followers. His women
were common, but none were allowed to enjoy them
without his permiflion : fo that when any man defired
a particular woman, he carried her to Picard, who gave
him leave in thefe words, Go, incrcafe, multiply, andfil
the earth.
At length, however, Zifca, general of the Huftites,
(famous for his vidlories over the emperor Sigifmund),
hurt at their abominations, marched againft them, made
himfelf mafter of their illand, and put them all to death
except two; whom he fpartd, that he might learn their
doilrine.
Such is the account which various writers, relying*
on the authorities of ZEneas Sylvius and Varillas, have
given of the Picards, who appear to have been a party
of the Vaudois, that fled from perfecution in their own
country, and fought refuge in Bohemia. It is indeed
doubtful whether a fett of this denomination,, charge¬
able with fuch wild principles and fuch licentious con-
duff, ever exifted ; and it is certainly aftonilhing that
Mr Bayle, in his art. Picards, ftiould adopt the re¬
proachful reprefentations of the writers juft mentioned :
for it appears probable at lealt that the whole is a ca¬
lumny invented and propagated in order to difgrace the
Picards, merely becaufe they deferted the communion
and protefted againft the errors of the church of Rome.
Lafitius informs us, that Picard, together with 40 other
perfons, befides women and children, fettled in Bohemia
in the year 1418. Balbinus the Jefuit, in his Epitome
Rerum Bohemicarum, lib. ii. gives a fimilar account, and
charges on the Picards none of the extravagancies or
crimes aferibed to them by Sylvius. Schlefla, fecretary
of Ladiflaus, king of Bohemia, in his letters to Erafmus
in which lie gives a particular account of the Picards,
favs that they confidered the pope, cardinals, and bilhops
of Rome, as the true Antichrifts, and the adorers of the
confecrated elements in the eucharift as downright
idolaters; that they denied the corporal prefence of
Chrift in this ordinance ; that they condemned the wor-
fliio of faints, prayers for the dead, auricular confeflion,
the penance impoled by priefts, the feafts and vigils ob-
ferved in the Romifh church ; and that they confined
themfelves to the obfervance of the fabbath, and of the
two great feafts of Chriftmas and Pentecoft. From this
account it would appear that they were no other than
the Vaudois; and M. de Beaufobre has fhown that they
were both of the fame fc-ft, though under different de¬
nominations. Betides, it is certain that the Vaudois
were
Pic [ 536 ] PIC
Plettid were fettled in Bohemia in the year 1178, where fome
. II . of them adopted the rites of the Greek, and others thofe
nj J of the Latin church. The former were pretty general-
> — t - - ly adhered to till the middle of the 14th century, when
the eftablifhment of the Latin rites caufed great diflur-
bance. On the commencement of the national troubles
in Bohemia, on account of the oppofition to the papal
power (fee Moravians), the Picards more publicly
avowed and defended their religious opinions 5 and they
formed a confiderable body in an ifland by the river
Launitz or Laufnecz, in the diftridt of Bechin, and re¬
curring to arms, were defeated by Zifca. Encyclop. art.
Picards.
PICARDY, a province in France, is bounded on
the north by Hainault, Artois, and the ftraits of Ca¬
lais ; on the eaft by Champagne 5 on the fouth by the
Lie of France 5 and on the weft by Normandy and the
Englifti channel (a). This province is long and nar¬
row, being ufually compared to a bent arm ; and in this
figure is nearly 150 miles in length, but not above 40
in breadth, and in many places not above 20. It is ge¬
nerally a level country; and produces wine, fruit of all
kinds, plenty of corn, and great quantities of hay : but
wood being fcarce, moft of the inhabitants burn turf.
They have, however, fome pit-coal, but it is not fo good
as that of England. It was united to the crown of
Trance in the year 1643 5 and is fuppofed to contain
533,000 inhabitants.
Its principal rivers are the Somme, the Oife, the
Canche, the Lanthie, the Lys, the Aa, the Scarpe, and
the Deule.
The fituation of this province on the fea, its many
navigable rivers and canals, with the induftry of the
inhabitants, render it the feat of a flouriftiing trade.
In it are many beautiful filk fluffs, woollen fluffs, coarfe
linen, lawn, and foap $ it alfo carries on a large trade
in corn and pit-coal. In the diftrifts of Calais and
Boulogne are annually bred 5000 or 6000 colts, which
being afterwards turned loofe in the paftures of Nor¬
mandy, are fold for Norman horfes. The filheries on
this coaft are alfo very advantageous. This province
was formerly divided into Upper, Middle, and Lower
Picardy, and again fubdivided into four deputy govern¬
ments. The principal town is Amiens.
PICCOLOMINI, Alexander, archbifhopof Pa¬
tras, and a native of Sienna, where he was born about
the year 1508, was of an illuflrious and ancient family,
which came originally from Rome, but afterwards fet¬
tled at Sienna. He compofed with fuccefs for the
theatre j but he was not more diflinguiftied by his ge¬
nius, than by the purity of his manners, and his regard
to virtue. His charity was very great; and was chiefly
exerted in relieving the neceflities of men of letters.
He has left behind him a number of works in Italian ;
the moft remarkable of which are, 1. Various Drama¬
tic pieces, which laid the firft foundation of his charac¬
ter as a writer. 2. A Treatife on the Sphere. 3. A
Theory of the Planets. 4. A Tranflation of Ariftotle’s
Art of Rhetoric and Poetry, in 4to. 5. A Syftem of Piccolomi.
Morality publilhed at Venice, 1575, in 410 j tranflated 11‘-
intp French by Peter de Larivey in 410 j and printed
at Paris, 1581. Thefe, with a variety of other works,
prove his extenfive knowledge in natural philofophy,
mathematics, and theology. He was the firft who
made ufe of the Italian language in writing upon phi-
lofophical fubjefls. He died at Sienna the 12th of
March 1578, aged 70. A particular catalogue of his
works may be feen in the Typographical Diflionary.
There is one performance aferibed to this author, en¬
titled Dia/ogo della bel/a Creanta delle Donne, (printed
at Milan, 1558, and at Venice, 1574, in 8vo.)j which
but ill fuits the dignity of a prelate. It is filled with
maxims which have an evident tendency to hurt the
morals of young women. Piccolomini’s name, indeed,
is not in the title page ; and it has all the appearance
of being a juvenile production. It is very fcarce j and
the public would luftain no lofs by its being entirely
out of print. It was tranflated into French by F.
d’Amboife, and publifhed at Lyons, in i6mo, under the
title of Injlrudlion des jeunes dames. It was afterwards
reprinted in 1583, under that of Dialogue et Devis des
Demoifelles.
Piccolomini, "Francis, of the fame family with the
foregoing, was born in 1520, and taught philofophy
with fuccefs for the fpace of 22 years, in the moft ce¬
lebrated univerfities of Italy, and afterwards retired to
Sienna, -where he died, in 1604, at the age of 84.
This city went into mourning on his death. His works
are, 1. Some Commentaries upon Ariftotle, printed at
Mayence, 1608, in 410. 2. Univerfa Philofophia de
Moribus, printed at Venice, 1583, in folio. He la¬
boured to revive the doClrine of Plato, and endeavoured
alfo to imitate the manners of that philofopher. He had
for his rival the famous James Zabarella, whom he ex¬
celled in facility of expreflion and neatnefs of difeourfe;
but to whom he was much inferior in point of argu¬
ment, becaufe he did not examine matters to the bottom
as the other did, but paffed too rapidly from one propo-
lition to another.
Piccolomini of Arragon, OElavius, duke of Amalfi,
prince of the empire, a general of the emperor’s army,
and knight of the order of the Golden Fleece, was
born in 1599. He firft bore arms among the Spanifti
troops in Italy. He afterwards ferved in the army of
Ferdinand II. who fent him to the relief of Bohe¬
mia, and entrufted him with the command of the im¬
perial troops in 1634. After having fignalized himfelf
at the battle of Nortlingue, he made Marfhal de Cha-
tillon raife the fiege of St Omer. He had the good
fortune to gain a vidlory over Marquis de Feuquieres
in 1639 : nor did the lofs of the battle of Wolfenbut-
tle, in 1651, impair his glory. He died on the 10th
of Auguft 1656, being five years after, aged 57, with¬
out iffue 5 and with the chara&er of an able negotiator
and an aCtive general. The celebrated Caprara was hrs
nephew.
Piccolimini,
(a) The origin of the name of this province does not date earlier than A. D. 1200. It -was an academical
joke 5 an epithet firft applied to the quarrelfome humour of thofe ftudents in the univerfity of Paris who came
from the frontier of France and Flanders, and hence to their country. Valejii Notitia Gcdlumim, p. 447* Lorgut-
me, Defcription de la France, p. 52.
PIC [S37] PIC
liccolo- PicGOLOMlNl, James^ whofe proper name -was Am~
mini manati, took that of Piccolomini in honour of his patron
II. Pius II. He was born in a village near Lucca in 1422.
pie became bilhop of Maffa, afterwards of Frefcati j a
cardinal in 1461, under the name of Cardinal de Pavie ;
and died in 1479, at the age of 57, of an indigeftion of
figs. He left 8000 pi Holes in the bankers hands, which
Pope Sixtus IV. claimed j and of which he gave a part
to the Hofpital of the Holy Ghoft. His works, which
confift of fome Letters, and a hiftory of his own time,
were printed at Milan, in 1521, in folio. His hiftory,
entitled Commentaries, commences the 18th of June
1464, and ends the 6th of December 1469. They
may very properly be confidered as a Sequel of Pope
Pius II.’s Commentaries, which end with the year
1463.
Piccolomini, jEneas Sylvius. See Pius II.
PICENTIA, (Strabo, Pliny), the capital of the
Picentini, whofe territory, called Ager Picentinus, a
fmall diftrift, lay on the Tufcan fea, from the Promon-
lorium Minerva, the fouth boundary of Campania on
the coaft, to the river Silarus, the north boundary of
Lucania, extending within-land as far as the Samnites
and Hirpini, though the exa£t termination cannot be
afiigned. The Greeks commonly confound the Picen¬
tini and Picentes, but the Romans carefully diftinguifti
them. The former, with no more than two towns that
can be named, Silernuin and Picentia ; the fituation of
both doubtful: only Pliny fays the latter flood within-
land, at fome diftance from the fea. Nowr thought to
be Bicenxa, (Holftenius), in the Principato Citra of
Naples.
PICENUM, (CaTar, Pliny, Florus) ; PlCENUS
Acer, (Cicero, Salluft, Livy, Tacitus) ; Ager Picen-
tium, (Varro) : a territory of Italy, lying to the eaft of
Umbria, from the Apennine to the Adriatic ; on the
coaft extending from the river Aelis on the north, as far
as the Pratutiani to the fouth. In the upper or northern
part of their territory the Umbri excluded them from
the Apennine, as far as Camerinum, (Strabo) j but in
the lower or fouthern part they extended from the A-
driatic to the Apennine. A very fruitful territory, and
very populous. Picentes, the people, (Cicero) j from the
fingular Picens, (Livy) : different from the Picentini
on the Tufcan fea, though called fo by the Greeks ; but
Ptolemy calls them Piceni, as does alfo Pliny. Their
territory at this day is fuppofed to form the greateft part
of the March of Ancona, (Cluverius).
PICHFORD, in the county of Salop in England ;
on the fouth-eaft fide of Shrewfbury, near Condover.
It is noted for a fpring of pitchy water (from whence
fome derive its name), on the top of which there al¬
ways flows a fort of liquid bitumen. Over moft of the
coal pits in this neighbourhood there lies a ftratum
of blackilh rock j of which, by boiling and grind¬
ing, they make pitch and tar, and alfo diftil an oil
from it.
PICHINCH A, or Pinchinca, a mountain in Peru.
See Peru, N® 56.
PICKERING, in the north riding of Yorklhire in
England, 13 miles from Scarborough, and 125 from
London, is a pretty large town belonging to the du¬
chy of Lancafter, on a hill among the wild mountains
of Blakemore *, having the foreft of Pickering on the
north, and Pickering-common on the fouth. It is faid
Vol. XVI. Part II.
to have been built 270 years before Chrift by Peridurus, Pickering
a king of the Britons, who was buried here. It had ^ H
once a caftle, the ruins of which are ftill to be feen ; to . 'c
whofe jurifdidlion many of the neighbouring villages
were fubjedt : and the adjacent territory, commonly
called Pickering-Lath, or the liberty or foreft of Picker¬
ing, wras given by Henry III. to his fon Edmund earl
of Laneafter. A court is kept here for all adtions un¬
der 40s. arifing within the honour of Pickering.
PICKERY, in Scots Law, petty theft, or Healing
things of fmall value.
PICKETS, in fortification, {lakes {harp at one end,
and foraetimes fliod with iron, ufed in laying out the
ground, of about three feet long j but, when ufed for
pinning the fafcines of a battery, they are from three
to five feet long.
Pickets, in artillery, are about five or fix feet long,
fhod with iron, to pin the park lines, in laying out the
boundaries of the park.
Pickets, in the camp, are alfo flakes of about fix
or eight inches long, to fallen the tent cords, in pitch¬
ing the tents j alio of about four or five feet long, dri¬
ven into the ground near the tents of the horfemen, t®
tie their horfes to.
Picket, an out-guard polled before an army, to give
notice of an enemy approaching.
Picket, a kind of punifhment fo called, where a fol-
dier Hands with one foot upon a lharp-pointed Hake j
the time of his Handing is limited according to the of¬
fence.
PICKLE, a brine or liquor, commonly compofed of
fait, vinegar, &c. fometimes with the addition of fpices,
wherein meat, fruit, and other things, are preferved and
feafoned.
PICO, one of the Azores illands, is fo called from
fome lofty mountains on it; or rather from one very
high mountain, terminating like Teneriffe in a peak,
and reputed by fome writers equal to it in height. This
illand lies about four leagues fouth-weft from St George,
twelve from Tercera, and about three leagues fouth-eaft
of Fayal; in W. Long. 28. 21. and N. Lat. 38. 29.
The mountain Pico, which gives name to the illand, is
filled with difmal dark caverns or volcanoes, which fre¬
quently vomit out flames, fmoke, and allies, to a great
diftance. At the foot of this mountain towards the eaft
is a fpring of frelh water, generally cold, but fometimes
fo heated with the fubterraneous fire, as to rufti forth in
torrents with a kind of ebullition like boiling water j
equalling that in heat, and fending forth a fleam of ful-
phureous fetid vapours, liquefied ftones, minerals, and
flakes of earth, all on fire, in fuch quantities, and w ith
fuch a violence, as to have formed a kind of promontory
vulgarly called Mysterios, on the declivity of the coaft,
and at the diftance of 1200 paces from the fountain.
Such at leaft is the account of Ortelius ; though we do
not find this laft circumftance of the promontory con¬
firmed by later obfervations. The circumference of
Pico is computed at about 15 leagues : and its moft re¬
markable places are Pico, Lagoas, Santa Cruce or Cruz,
San Sebaftian, Pefquin, San Roko, Playa, and Magda¬
lena ; the inhabitants of which live wholly on the pro¬
duce of the ifland, in great plenty and felicity. The
cattle are various, numerous, and excellent in their feve-
ral kinds : it is the fame with the vine ■, and its juice,
prepared into different wines, the belt in the Azores.
3 Y Befides
PIC [ 538 ] PIC
Pk-o Refidos cedar and other timber, they have a kind of
^ wood which they call teixo, folid and hard as iron-, and
. t^ct' , ^Mnprl, when finely polifhed, like a rieh fcarlet tabby j
which colour it has in great perfe&ion. The longer it
is kept, the more beautiful it grows: hence it is, that the
teixo tree is felled only for the king’s ufe or by his or¬
der •, and is prohibited from being exported as a common
article of trade. _
PlCO Marina, a fea fifh common at Kongo in Africa,
derives its name from the refemblance of its mouth to
Mod. Unix, the beak of a woodpecker. It is of a large fize, and
Hi/lory, prodigious ftrength, has four fins on its back, three un-
Vul der *ts belly, and one on each fide of its head j its tail
4 5S large and forked, by which it cuts the waves with
furprifing force and velocity. It is at war with every
fifh that fwims, and with every thing it meets m its
way, without being intimidated by the largeft veffels;
a furprifing inftance of which intrepidity, we are told by
fome miflionaries, whofe {hip was attacked by one of
them, near thefe coafts, in the dead of night. The vio¬
lence of the fhock which it gave to the vefTel quickly
awakened the captain and the reft of the people 5 avIio
immediately ran to the (hip’s fide, where they perceived,
by moon light, this huge monfter faftened by its fore¬
head to the veffel, and making the ftrongeft efforts to
difengage itfelfj upon which fome of them tried to pierce
him with their pikes, but he got off before they could
accomplifh their aim. On the next morning, upon vi-
fiting that fide of the veffel, they found a piece of the
bony fnout ftuck faft into the wood, and two or three
inches of it projefting outwards. In the infide of the
(hip, there was difcovered about five or fix inches more
of the point of the horn, which had penetrated through
the plank. But we muft obferve, that the credulity of
the times probably rendered this animal thus formidable.
PICQUERING, a fly ing war, or fkirmifh, made by
foldiers detached from two armies for pillage, or before
a main battle begins.
PICQUET, or Picket. See Piquet.
PICK AMNIA, a genus of plants belonging to the
dioecia clafs •, and in the natural method ranking with
thole that are doubtful. See Botany Index.
PICRANIA amara, or Bitter Wood, is a tall and
beautiful timber tree, common in the woods of Jamaica,
belonging to the pentandria clafs of plants. The name
is expreflive of its fenfible qualities.
Every part of this tree is intenfely bitter ; and even
after the tree has been laid for floors many years, who¬
ever rubs or fcrapes the wood, feels a great degree of
bitternels in their mouth or throat. Cabinet-work
made of this wood is very ufeful, as no infedl will live
near it.
This tree has a great affinity to the ^uajjia Amara
of Linnaeus ; in lieu of which it is ufed as an antifeptic
in putrid fevers. When ufed, lefs of it will do than of
the Qua/Jia Amara of Surinam. See Quassia, Bota¬
ny and Materia Medic a Index.
PICRIS, Ox-tongue •, a genus of plants, belonging
to the fyngenefia clafs. See Botany Index.
PICRIUM, a genus of plants, belonging to the te-
trandria clafs j and in the natural method ranking with
thofe that are doubtful. See Botany Index.
PICTET, Benedict, a celebrated divine, was born
at Geneva, in 1655, a diftinguifhed family, and profe-
euted his ftudies with great fuccefs. After having travel^
£
led into Holland and England, he taught theology in his Piflet
own country with an extraordinary reputation. The .H
univerfity of Lyden, after the death of Spantreina, fo-. I lt^s-
licited him to come and fill his place; but he thought ^
that his own country had the beft right to his fervices;
and for that generofity he received its thanks by the
mouth of the members of council. A languifhing dif-
order, occafioned by too much fatigue, haftened his
death: which happened on the 9th of June 1724, at
the age of 69 years. This minifter had much fweetnefs
and affability in his manner. The poor found in him a
comforter and a father. He publifhed a great number
of works in Latin and French, which are much efteem-
ed in Proteftant countries. The principal of thefe are,
I. A Syftem of Cbriftian Theology in Latin, 3 vols. in
4to; the beft edition of which is that of 1721. 2. Chrif-
tian Morality, printed at Geneva, 17I0, 8 vols, in
l2mo. 3. The Hiftory of the nth and I2th centu¬
ries ; intended as a fequel to that of Sueur, printed in
1713, 2 vols. in 4to. The Continuator is held in higher
eftimation than the firft author. 4. Several Controver-
fial Treatifes. 5. A great number of tra61s on morali¬
ty and piety ; among which we muft diftinguifh “ the
Art of Living and Dying wellpublifhed at Geneva,
1705, in i2mo. 6. Some Letters. 7. Some Ser¬
mons, from 1697 to 1721; 4 vols. in 8vo. With a
vaft number of other books, the names of which it
would be tedious to mention ; but which, as Mr Sen-
nebier fays, “ all fhow evident marks of piety and good
fenfe.u
Pictet, John-Louis, a counfellor of Geneva, born
in 1739, was of the fame family. He was member of
the Council of Two Hundred ; counfellor of State and
Syndic ; and died in 1781. He applied himfelf to the
ftudy of aftronomy, and made feveral voyages into France
and England for his improvement. Few men were ever
bleffed with a clearer or more enlightened underftand-
ing. He has left in manufcript the “ Journal of a
Voyage which he made to Ruffia and Siberia in 1768
and 1769, in order to obferve the tranfit of Venus over
the fun’s difk:” A work very interefting, from the
lively defcriptions which it gives both of men and of
nature.
PICTLAND. See Pentland. ,
PICTS, the name of one of thofe nations who an-Name^
ciently poffeffed the north of Britain. It is generally
believed that they were fo called from their cuftom of
painting their bodies; an opinion which Camden fop-
ports with great erudition. (See Gough’s edition, Vol.
I. p. xci. of the preface). It is certainly liable, howe¬
ver, to confiderable objeiftions; for as this cuftom pre¬
vailed among the other ancient inhabitants of Britain,
who ufed the glajium of Pliny and the vitrum of Mela
for the like purpofe, it may be afked, Why the name
of BiEli was confined by the Romans to only one tribe,
when it was equally applicable to many others ? Why
fhould they defign them only by an epithet, without ever
annexing their proper name ?• Or why fhould they im-
pofe a new name on this people only, when they give
their proper name to every other tribe which they have
occafion to fpeak of ? As thefe queftions cannot be an-
fwered in any fatisfa£lory manner, it is plain we muft
look for fome other derivation of the name.
The Highlanders of Scotland, who fpeak the ancient
language of Caledonia, exprefs the name of this once fa¬
mous
PleU
p 1 C [ 539 ] PI
mails nation by the term Piflich ; a name familiar to publilhed by the fame author.
c
1
■‘gin.
the ears of the moil illiterate, who could never have de¬
rived it from the Roman authors. The word PiSlich
means ■pilferers or plunderers. The appellation was pro¬
bably impofed upon this people by their neighbours, or
alfumed by themfelves, fome time after the reign of Ca-
racalla, when the unguarded Rate of the Roman pro¬
vince, on which this people bordered, gave them fre¬
quent opportunities of making incurfions thither, and
committing depredations. Accordingly this name feems
to have been unknown till the end of the 3d century.
Eumenius the panegyrift is the firft Roman author who
mentions this people under their new name of Pifiich,
or, with a Latin termination, Picli. When we fay that
this name may have been probably affumed for the rea-
fon juft now mentioned, we muft obferve, that, in thofe
days of violence, the chara&er of a robber was attended
with no difgrace. If he had the addrefs to form his
fchemes well, and to execute them fuccefsfully, he was
rather praifed than blamed for his condudl; providing
he made no encroachments on the property of his own
tribe or any of its allies. We mean this as no peculiar
ftigma upon the PiiRs ; for other nations of antiquity, in
the like rude Rate, thought and a£ted as they did. See
Thucydides, lib. iii. p. 3. and Virg. i£n. vii. 745 et 749.
Concerning the origin of the Pi£!s, authors are much
divided. Boethius derives them from the Agathyrfi,
Pomponius Laetus from the Germans, Bede from the
Scythians, Camden (a) and Father Innes from the
ancient Britons, Stillingfleet from a people inhabiting
the Cimbrica Cherfonefus, and Keating and O'Flaherty,
on the authority of the Calhel Pfalter, derive them
from the Thracians. But the moft probable opinion
is, that they were the defcendants of the old Caledo¬
nians. Several reafons are urged in fupport of this opi¬
nion by Dr Macpherfon ; and the words of Eumencs,
“ Caledonum, aliorumque Pi&orum, filvas,” &c. plain¬
ly imply that the Pifts and Caledonians were one and
the fame people.
As there has been much difpute about the origin of
the Pifls, fo there has been likewife about their language.
There are many reafons which make it plain that their
tongue was the Gaelic or Celtic ; and thefe reafons are
a further confirmation of their having been of Caledo¬
nian extrafh Through the eaft and north-eaft coafts of
Scotland (which were poffeffed by the Piifts) we meet
3 with an innumerable lift of names of places, rivers, moun-
“guage. ta‘ns> &-c- which are manifeftly Gaelic. From a very
old regifter of the priory of St Andrew’s (Dalrymple’s
Collections, p. 122.) it appears, that in the days of
Hungus, the laft Pi&ifh king of that name, St An¬
drew’s was called Mukrofs ; and that the town now cal¬
led ^ueensferry had the name of Ardchinneachan. Both
thefe words are plain Gaelic. The firft fignifies “ the
heath or promontory of boars j” and the latter, “ the
height or peninfula of Kenneth.” In the lift of PiClifti
kings publilhed by Father Innes, moft of the names are
obvioufly Gaelic, and in many inftances the fame with
the names in the lift of Scottilh or Caledonian kings
Had Innes underftood Pufts.
any thing ot this language, he would not have fuppofed
with Camden that the PiCts fpoke the Britilh tongue.
It was unlucky that the two words on which they built,
their conjeCture (Strath and Aber) are as common in
the Gaelic as they could have been in the Britilh, and
at this day make a part of the names of places in coun¬
tries to which the Pidlilh empire never extended. The
names of Strathfllan and Lochaber may ferve as in¬
ftances.
The venerable Bede, as much a ftranger to the Cel¬
tic as either of the antiquaries juft now mentioned, is.
equally unhappy in the fpecimen which he gives of the
PiCtifh language in the word penuahel, “ the head of
the wall.” Allowing the commutation of the initial
p into c, as in fome other cafes, this word has ftill the
fame meaning in Gaelic which Bede gives it in the
PiCtilh. It is true, there might have been then, as well
as now, a eonfiderable difference between various dia-,
lefts of the Celtic •, and thus, perhaps, that pious author
was led to difcover five languages in Britain agreeably
to the five books of Mofes : A conceit from which the
good man derived a great deal of harmlefs fatisfaftion.
The Pifts of the earlieft ages, as appears, from the Territory,
joint teftimony of all writers who have examined the
fubjeft, poflefied only the eaft and north-eaft coaft of
Scotland. On one fide, the ancient Drumalbin, or that
ridge of mountains reaching from Lochlomond near
Dumbarton to the frith of Tain, which feparates the
county of Sutherland from a part of Rnfs, was the
boundary of the Piftifh dominions. Accordingly we
find in the life of Columba, that, in travelling to the
palace of Brudius, king of the Pifts, he travelled over
Drumalbin, the Dorfutn Britannia; of Adamnan. On
the other fide, the territory of the Pifts was bounded
by the Roman province. After Britain was relinquiffi-
ed by the emperor Honorius, they and the Saxons by
turns were mafters of thofe countries which He between
the frith of Edinburgh and the river Tweed. We learn
from Bede, that the Saxons were mafters of Galloway
vhen he finiflied his Ecclefiaftical Hiftory. The Pifts,
however, made a conqueft of that country foon after j
fo that, before the extinftion of their monarchy, all the
territories bounded on the one fide by the Forth and
Clyde, and on the other by the Tweed and Solway, fell
into their hands.
The hiftory of the Pifts, as well as of all the other j^A.
ancient inhabitants of Britain, is involved in obfeurity.
The Irilh hiftorians give us a long lift of Piftifti kings,
who reigned over Piftavia for the fpace of 11 or 13
centuries before the Chriftian era. After them Innes,
in his Critical Effay, gives us a lift of above fifty, of
whom no lefs than five held the feeptre, each for a whole
century. It is probable that thefe writers had confound¬
ed the hiftory of the Pifts with that of their anceftors
the old Caledonians. In any other view, their accounts
of them are highly fabulous 3 and have been long ago
confuted by Dr Macpherfon of Slate, an antiquary of
much learning and refearch. The Pifts, as has been
3 Y 2 already
(a) See Gough's edition of Camden, Vol. I. Preface, p. xc. and the Ancient Univerfal Hifiory, Vol. XVIL
> 39>
PIC [ 54° ] PIC
already obferved, were probably not known by that
name before the 2d or 3d century. Adamnan, abbot
of Iona, is the firfl: author that exprefsly mentions any
Pi£ti(h king •, and the oldelt after him is Bede, We
are informed by thefe two writers, that St Columba
converted Brudius king of the Pi£ts to the Chriftian
faith. Columba came into Britain in the year of the
vulgar era 565. Before that period we have no gene¬
ral record to afcertain fo much as the name of any Pic-
tifh king. The hittory of Drujl or Z)r<?/7, who is faid
to have reigned over the Pi£ts in the beginning of the
fifth century, when St Ninian firft preached the gofpel
to that nation, has all the appearance of fiction (b).
His having reigned a hundred years, and his putting an
end to a hundred wars, are ftories which exceed all the
bounds of probability.
Brudius, the contemporary of Columba, is the firft:
Piftifh king mentioned by any writer of authority.
What figure his anceftors made, or who were his fuc-
ceffbrs on the throne of Pi&avia, cannot be afcertained.
Bede informs us, that, during the reign of one of them,
the Pitfts killed Egfred king of Northumberland in bat¬
tle, and deftroyed the greateft part of his army. The
fame author mentions another of their kings called Nai-
tan, for whom he had a particular regard. It was to
this Naitan that Ceolfrid, abbot of Wiremouth, wrote
his famous letter concerning Eafter and the Tonfure
(c) '■) a letter in which Bede himfelf is fuppofed to have
had a principal hand. Roger Hoveden and Simon of
Durham mention two other Pi61ifh kings Onnujl and
Kinolh, the firft of whom died in 761, and the latter
flourilhed about the 774, and gave an afylum to Alfred
of Northumberland, who was much about that time ex¬
pelled his kingdom. The accounts given by the Scots
hiftorians of feveral other Piftifli kings cannot be de¬
pended on ; nor are the ftories told by the Britilh hif¬
torians, Geoffrey of Monmouth and the author of the
Eulogium Britannia) worthy of much greater credit.
In the ninth century the Pi&ifti nation was totally
fubdued by the Scots in the reign of Kenneth Macalpin.
Since that time their name has been loft in that of the
conquerors, with whom they were incorporated after
this conqueft ; however, they feem to have been treated
by the Scottifh kings with great lenity, fo that for fome
ages after they commanded a great deal of refpeft. The
prior of Hogulftead, an old Englifh hiftorian, relates,
that they made a confiderable figure in the army of Da¬
vid the Saint, in his difputes with Stephen king of Eng¬
land. In a battle fought in the year 1136, by the Eng-
Tith on one fide, and the Scots and Pifts on the other,
the latter infilled on their hereditary right of leading the
van of the Scots army, and were indulged in that re-
queft by the king.
The principal feat of the Pidlilh kings was at Aber-
nethy. Brudius, however, as appears from the accounts p-^ ^
given by Adamnan, in his life of Columba, had a pa- Beauty^
lace at Invernefs, which was probably near the extre-t"" v i-u
mity of his territory in that quarter 5 for there is no good
reafon for believing, with Camden, that this king had
any property in the Weftern Ifles, or that he had made
a gift of Iona to St Columba when he vifited him in that
place. 5
With refpe£l to the manners and cuftoms of theMann^ry
Pidls, there is no reafon to fuppofe they were any
other than thofe of the old Caledonians and Scots, of
which many particulars are related in the Greek and
Roman writers who have occafion to fpeak of thofe na¬
tions.
Upon the decline of the Roman empire, cohorts of
barbarians were raifed, and Pidls were invited into the
fervice, by Honorius, when peace was every where re-
ftored, and were named Honoriaci. Thofe under Con»
ftantine opened the paffes of the Pyrenean mountains,
and let the barbarous nations into Spain. From this pe¬
riod we date the civilization of their manners, which
happened after they had by themfelves, and then with
the Scots, ravaged this Roman province.
PlCTS Wa//, in antiquity, a wall begun by the em¬
peror Adrian, on the northern bounds of England, to
prevent the incurfions of the Pidts and Scots. It was
firft made only of turf ftrengthened with palifadoes,
till the emperor Severus, coming into Britain in per-
fon, built it with folid ftone. This wall, part of which
ftill remains, began at the entrance of the Solway frith
in Cumberland, and running north-eaft extended to the
German ocean. See Adrian and Sev^rus,.
PICTURE, a piece of painting, or a fubjedl repre-
fented in colours, on wood, canvas, paper, or the like.
See Painting.
PICTURESQUE BEAUTY, fays a late writer on that
fubjedt, refers to “ fuch beautiful objedls as are fuited
to the pencil.” This epithet is chiefly applied to the
works of nature, though it will often apply to works of
art alfo. Thofe objedts are moft properly denominated
pidturefque, which are difpofed by the hand of nature
with a mixture of varied rudenefs, Jimplicity, and gran¬
deur. A plain neat garden, with little variation in its
plan, and no ftriking grandeur in its pofition, difplays
too much of art, defign, and uniformity, to be called
pidlurefque. “ The ideas of neat and fmooth (fays
Mr Gilpin), inftead of being pidlurefque, in fadl dif-
qualify the objedl in which they refide from any preten-
fions to pidlurefque beauty. Nay, farther, we do not
fcruple to affert, that roughnefs forms the xnoft effential
point of difference between the beautiful and the pidlu¬
refque } as it feems to be that particular quality which
makes
(b) According to Camden, this converfion happened about the year 630, in the fouthern Pidlifh provinces 5
while the northern, which were feparated by fruitful mountains, were converted by Columba.
(c) We are told by fome authors that Columba taught the Pidls to celebrate Eafter always on a Sunday between
the 14th and 20th of March, and to obferve a different method of tonfure from the Romans, leaving an imperft dt
appearance of a crown. This occafioned much difpute till Naitan brought his fubjedls at length to the Roman rule.
In that age many of the Pidls went on a pilgrimage to Rome, according to the cuftom of the times; and amongft
the reft we find two per Gins mentioned in the antiquities of St Peter’s church. Jljlerim count of the Pidls, and
Syra with his countrymen, performed their vow.
PIC [ 541 ] PIC
irefque makes obje£b chiefly pleafing in painting. I ufe the ge-
iuiy. neral term rouqhnefs ; but properly fpeaking roughnefs
^relates only to the furfaces of bodies : when we fpeak
of their delineation, we ufe the word ruggednefs. Both
ideas, however, equally enter into the pifturefque, and
both are obfervable in the fmalfer as well as in the
larger parts of nature ; in the outline and bark of a
tree, as in the rude fummit and craggy Tides of a moun¬
tain.
Let us then examine our theory by an appeal to
experience, and try how far thefe qualities enter into
the idea of pi&urefque beauty, and how far they mark
that difference among objects which is the ground of
our inquiry.
“ A piece of Palladian architecture may be elegant
in the laft degree 5 the proportion of its parts, the pro¬
priety of its ornaments, and the fymmetry of the whole,
may be highly pleafing •, but if we introduce it in a pic¬
ture, it immediately becomes a formal objeCt, and ceafes
to pleafe. Should we wilh to give it piCturefque beau¬
ty, we muff ufe the mallet inftead of the chiffel; we mult
beat down one half of it, deface the other, and throw
the mutilated members around in heaps; in fhort, from
a fmooth building we mult turn it into a rough ruin.
No painter who had the choice of the two objeCts
would befftate a moment.
“ Again, why does an elegant piece .of garden-
ground make no figure on canvas ? the fhape is plea¬
fing, the combination of the objefts harmonious, and
the winding of the walk in the very line of beauty. All
this is true *, but the fmoothnefs of the whole, though
right and as it fhould be in nature, offends in picture.
Turn the lawn into a piece of broken ground, plant rug¬
ged oaks inftead of flowering ftirubs, break the edges of
the walk, give it the rudenefs of a road, mark it with
wheel tracks, and fcatter around a few ftones and brulh-
wood ■, in a word, inftead of making the whole fmooth,
make it rough, and you make it alfo pi&urefque. All
the other ingredients of beauty it already poffeffed.”
On the whole, pi&urefqae compofition confifts in uni¬
ting in one whole, a variety of parts, and thefe parts
can only be obtained from rough objeCts.
It is poftible, therefore, to find pidfurefque obje&s
among ivorks of art, and it is poffible to make objeCts
fo $ but the grand fcene of pidlurefque beauty is na¬
ture in all its original variety, and in all its irregular
grandeur: “We feek it (fays our author) among all the
ingredients of landfeape, trees, rocks, broken grounds,
woods, rivers, lakes, plains, valleys, mountains, and di-
ftances. Thefe objects in themfelves produce infinite
variety ; no two rocks or trees are exaftly the fame •,
they are varied a fecond time by combination ; and al-
moft as much a third time by different lights and (hades
and other aerial effeCls. Sometimes we find among
them the exhibition of a whole, but oftener we find only
beautiful parts.”
Sublimity or grandeur alone cannot make an objeCt
piftarefque : for, as our author remarks, “ however
grand the mountain or the rock may be, it has no
<4a:-u to this epithet, unlefs its form, its colour, or its
accompaniments, have fome degree of beauty. No¬
thing can be more fublime than the ocean ; but wholly
unaccompanied, it has little of the pifturefque. When
we talk therefore of a fublime objeff, we always under¬
hand that it is alfo beautiful j and we call it fublime or
X
beautiful only as the ideas of fublimity or Ample beauty Pi<ftufefque
prevail. But it is not only the form and the compoti-
tion of the objedts of landfcape which the pifturefque '
eye examines j it connects them with the atmofphere,
and feeks for all thole various effefts which are produ¬
ced from that vail and wonderful ftorehoufe of nature.
Nor is there in travelling a greater pleafure than when
a fcene of grandeur burfts unexpectedly upon the eye,
accompanied with fome accidental circumltance of the
atmofphere which harmonizes with it, and gives it
double value.”
There are few places fo barren as to afford no pic-
turefque fcene.
* Believe the mufe,
She does not know that inaufpicious fpot
Where beauty is thus niggard of her ft ore.
Believe the mufe, through this terreftrial wafle
The feeds of grace are fown, profufely fown,
Even where we leaft may hope. 
Mr Gilpin mentions the great military road between
Newcaftle and Carlifle as the moft barren traft of
country in England •, and yet there, he fays, there is
“ always fomething to amufe the eye. The inter¬
changeable patches of heath and green-fward make an
agreeable variety. Often too on thefe vaft trails of
interfering grounds we fee beautiful lights, foftening
off along the fides of hills *, and often we fee them
adorned with cattle, flocks of (beep, heath-cocks, grous,
plover, and flights of other wild fowl. A group of cat¬
tle {landing in the thade on the edge of a dark hill, and
relieved by a lighter diftance beyond them, will often
make a complete picture without any other accompani¬
ment. In many other fituations alfo we find them won¬
derfully pleafing, and capable of making pictures amidtl
all the deficiencies of landfcape. Even a winding road
itfelf is an object of beauty ; while the richnefs of the
heath on each fide, with the little hillocks and crum¬
bling earth, give many an excellent leffon for a fore¬
ground. When we have no opportunity of examining
the grand feenery of nature, we have everywhere at leaft
the means of obferving with what a multiplicity of parts,
and yet with what general fimplicity, the covers every
furface.
“ But if we let the imagination loofe, even feenes
like thefe adminifter great amufement. The imagi¬
nation can plant hills; can form rivers and lakes in
valleys ; can build cattles and abbeys j and, if it find
no other amufement, can dilate itfelf in vaft ideas of
fpace.”
Mr Gilpin, after deferibing fucb objects as may bfe
called piiturefque, proceeds to confider their fources of
amufement. We cannot follow our ingenious author
through the whole of this confideration, and tliall there¬
fore finith our article with a fhort quotation from the be¬
ginning of it. “ We might begin (fays he) in moral
ftyle, and confider the objects of nature in a higher light
than merely as amufement. We might obferve, that a
fearch after beauty tbould naturally lead the mind to
the great origin of all beauty j to the
1 ■ ■ firft good, firft perfect, and firft fair.
But though in theory this feems a natural climax-, we
infift the lefs upon it, as in fa61 we have fcarce ground
to hope that every admirer of pi£turefque beauty is an
admirer
PIE [ 542 1 PIE
Bi<*urefque admirer alfo of the beauty of virtue j and that every
beauty iQvel. 0f nature refle&s, that
Piece. Nature is but a name for an ejfeEl,
» Whofe caufe is God.—  
If, however, the admirer of nature can turn his amufe-
juents to a higher purpofe 5 if its great fcenes can in-
fpire him with religious awe, or its tranquil fcenes
with that complacency of mind which is fo nearly al¬
lied to benevolence, it is certainly the better. Apponat
lucro. It is fo much into the bargain 5 for we dare not
promife him more from pi&urefque travel than a ra¬
tional and agreeable amufement. Yet even this may
be of fome ufe in an age teeming with licentious plea-
fure ; and may in this light at leaf! be confidered as
having a moral tendency.
PICUIPINIMA, is the Brafilian name of a fpecies
of pigeon, which is fo very fmall as fcarcely to exceed
the lark in fixe.
PICUMNUS and Pilumnos, were two Roman
deities, who prefided over the aufpices required before
the celebration of nuptials. Pilumnus was fuppofed to
patronize children, as his name feems in fome manner to
indicate quod pel/at mala infnntice. The manuring of
land was firll invented by Picumnus, from which reafon
lie is called Sterquilinius. Pilumnus is alfo invoked as
the god of bakers and millers, as he is faid to have firft
invented the art of grinding corn.
PICUS, the Woodpecker, a genus of birds be¬
longing to the .order of picse. See Ornithology
Index.
Picus, in fabulous hifiory, a king of Latium, fon of
Saturn. He married Venilia, alfo called Canens, by
whom he had Faunas. He was tenderly loved by the
goddefs Pomona, and he returned her affeftion. As he
was one .day hunting in tiie woods, he was met by Circe,
who became deeply enamoured of him, and who changed
him into a woodpecker, called by the name of picus
among the Latins. His wife Venilia was fo difconfo-
late when (he was informed of his death, that Ihe pined
away. Some fuppofe that Picus was the fon of Pilum¬
nus, and that he gave out prophecies to his fubje&s by
means of a favourite woodpecker ; from which circutn-
flance originated the fable of his being metamorphofed
into a bird.
Picus, John Francis, prince of Mirandola, nephew of
John Pica or Picus, mentioned above, was born about the
year 1469. He cultivated learning and the fciences af¬
ter the example of his uncle ; but he had a principality
and dominions to fuperintend, which involved him in
great troubles, and at laft coft him his life. He was
twice driven from his principality, and twice reftored ;
and at laft, in 1533, ^vas, together with his eldeft fon
Albert, afiaffinated in his own caftle by his nephew Ga-
leoti. He was a great lover of letters ; and fuch of his
works as were then compofed were inferted in the Straf-
burg edition of his uncle’s in 1504, and continued in
future impreftions, befides fome others which were never
collected.
PIECE, in matters of money, fignifies fometimes
the fame thing with fpecies; and fometimes, by adding
the value of the pieces, it is ufed to exprefs fuch as have
no other particular name. For the piece of eight, or pi-
aftre, fee MONE T Table.
Piece, is alfo a kind of money of account, or rather
manner of accounting, ufed among the negroes on the Piece,
coaft of Angola in Africa. See MONE Y Table. Piedmoin
Piece, in Heraldry, denotes an ordinary or charge. ^
The honourable pieces of the Ihield are the chief, fefs,
bend, pale, bar, crofs, faltier, chevron, and in gene¬
ral all thofe which may take up one-third of the field,
when alone, and in what manner foever it be. See
Heraldry.
Pieces, in the military art, include all forts of great
guns and mortars. Battering pieces are the larger
fort of guns ufed at fieges for making the breaches ;
fuch are the 24-pounder and culverine, the one carry¬
ing a 24 and the other an 18 pound ball. Field-pieces
are 1 2-pounds, demiculverines, 6-pounders, fackers, mi¬
nions, and 3-pounders, which march with the army, and
encamp always behind the fecond line, but in day of
battle are in the front. A foldier’s firelock is likewife
called his piece.
PIEDMONT, a country ©f Italy, having formerly
the title of a principality, is bounded on the north by
Savoy and Italy ; on the weft by France; on the fouth
by the Mediterranean and the republic of Genoa ; and
on the eaft by the duchies of Montferrat and Milan ;
extending about 150 miles from north to fouth, but
much lefs from eaft to weft. It is called Piedmont, and
ia Latin Piedmonlium, fr»m its fituation at the foot of
the mountains, or Alps, which feparate France from
Italy. This country is in fome parts mountainous, but
is everywhere very fruitful. The plains produce fine
.corn, and Montferrat and the Milanefe yield great quan¬
tities of Turkey Avheat, which commonly ferves for
bread, and with which the people of the middle rank
mix rye ; the pods are ufed for fuel, and the ftalks be¬
ing thick ferve to mend the roads. The hills produce
plenty of wine, which, like the Italian wines, is very
lufeious when new, efpecially the white. There is
alfo a tartifti red wine called vino brufco, faid to be very
wholefome for fat people, and, on the other hand, the
fweet wine is recommended as a ftomachic. The
neighbourhood of Turin is famous for its fine fruits,
and many long walks of chefnut and mulberry trees,
which produce both pleafure and profit. Marons, or
large chefnuts, are a favourite dainty among the com¬
mon people. Theft- are put into an oven, and, when
thoroughly hot, and cooled in red wine, are dried a
fecond time in the oven, and afterwards eaten cold.
Truffles grow here in fuch abundance, that Piedmont
has obtained the name of the truffle country. Some are
black, others white marbled with red. Their price is
rated according to their fize. Sometimes they are
found of 12 or 14 pounds weight; and many country
people earn from 60 to 70 dollars a-year merely by dig¬
ging for them. The trade in cattle is faid to bring
into Piedmont no lefs than three millions of livyes per
annum. The cultivation of filk is alfo a profitable arti¬
cle, the Piedmontefe filk being, on account of its fine-
nefs and ftrengtb, efteemed the bell in Italy. The Pied¬
montefe gentry breed vaft numbers of filk-worms un¬
der the care of their tenants, who have the eggs and
mulberry leaves delivered to them, and in return they
give half the filk to their mailers. This principality
comprehends eleven fmall provinces: Piedmont proper,
the valleys between France and Italy, the valley of
Saluza, the county of Nice, the marquifate of Sufa,
the duchy of Adft, the Canavefe, the lordftup of Vet-
PIE l 543 1 PIE
sdmoiit. fail, the county of Aft, and the Langes. It was for-
'■v—"'' merly a part of Lombardy, but now belongs to the
king of Sardinia, and lies at the foot of the Alps,
which feparate France from Italy. It contains many
high mountains, among which there are rich and fruit¬
ful valleys, as pleafant and populous as any part of Italy.
In the mountains are mines of feveral kinds, and the
forefts afford a great deal of curious game, among which
the tumor is an ufeful animal. “ The mules (fays Mr
Watkins) are very fine in this country •, but the inhabi¬
tants have other beafts, or rather monfters, which they
find very ferviceable,. though vicious and obftinate.
Thefe are produced by a cow and an afs, or mare and
bull, and called jumurres or gimerri (a). I cannot fay
that I have ever feen any of them, but I am told they
are very common.”
The Piedmontefe are faid to be more intelligent
than the Savoyards, but lefs fincere. Some authors
reprefent them as lively, artful, and witty, the inhabi¬
tants of the mountain of Aofta excepted, who are far¬
ther diftinguilhed by large wens, as even their horfes,
dogs, and other animals. Mr Baretti, however, in his
Account of Italy, vol. ii. p. 116. gives the following ac¬
count of them. “ One of the chief qualities (fays he),
which diftinguifti the Piedmontefe from all other Ita¬
lians, is their want of cheerfulnefs. Piedmont never
produced a fingle good poet, as far as the records of
the country can go, whereas there is no other province
of Italy but what can boaft of fome poet ancient or
modern *, and yet the Piedmontefe are not deficient in
feveral branches of learning, and fome of them have
fucceeded tolerably well in civil law, phyfic, and the
mathematics. It is likewife obferved of this people,
that none of them ever attained to any degree of ex¬
cellence in the polite arts, and it is but lately that they
can boaft of a painter, Cavaliero Bomente •, a ftatuary,
Signor Lodetto ; and fome archite&s, Conte Alfieri,
Signor Borra, and others, who yet, to fay the truth,
are far inferior to numberlefs artifts produced by the
other provinces of Italy. They have, on the other
hand, greatly advanced when confidered as foldiers ;
though their troops have never been very numerous,
every body converfant in hiftory knows the brave Hand
they made for fome centuries paft againft the French,
Spaniards, and Germans, whenever they have been in¬
vaded by thefe nations. The Ikill of the Piedmontefe
in fortification is likewife very great, and their Berto-
las and Pintos have ftiown as much genius as the Vau-
bans and Cohorns, in rendering impregnable feveral
places which inferior engineers would only have made
fecure.”
tie's Fhe chief trade of this principality confifts in hemp
and filk. Indeed, fo great is their trade in raw filk,
that the Englifh alone have purchafed to the value of
2oo,ooo lib. in a year. The filk worm thrives fo well,
that many peafants make above (b) ioo lib. of filk an¬
nually ; and it is not only abundant, but univerfally Piedms*^
known to be ftronger and finer than any in Italy. The , Picftes- ,
land owners divide the profit with their tenants. The ^
Piedmontefe workmen, however, are faid to want ex-
pertnefs, though they finifti their tvork equally well
with thofe of other nations. The high duty and land-
carriage on mules likewife tend to leffen the value of
this trade. They have befides corn, rice, wine, fruits,
flax, and cattle.
In the valleys of Lucerne, Peyroufe, and St Martin,
which have always belonged to Piedmont, live the cele¬
brated Waldenfes or Vaudois, a name which fignifies
people of the valleys. Thefe have rendered themfelves
famous in hiftory for their diffent from the Romifti
church long before the time of Luther and Calvin, and
for the perfecutions they have fuffered on that account j
but fince the year 1730 they have not been openly mo-
lefted for their religion, but, in order to fupprefs them
by degrees, a popilh church has been built in every pa-
ri(h. 1 hey are heavily taxed, and labour under great
oppreflions. The number of people in thefe valleys
fcarce at prefent exceeds 10,000, of which 1000 are
Catholics. The chief river of Piedmont is the Po, which
flows out of Mount Vifo. The river Sefia, the Doria,
Baltea, the ancient Druria, the Tenaro, and feveral
others, run into it. The Var, anciently called the Va¬
rus, rifes in the county of Nice, and after watering it
empties itfelf into the Mediterranean. The language of
the Piedmontefe is a mixture of French and Italian. In
this country are about 50 earldoms, 15 marquifates, a
multitude of lordfhips, and 20 abbeys. Though the
country be entirely popilh, except fome valleys inhabit¬
ed by the Waldenfes, the king referves to himfelf the
greateft part of the power in church affairs, which in
many other places is given up to the pope, and the con-
ftitution is here univerfally oppofed. Towards
the end of the 17th century, the French king perfuaded
the duke of Savoy to drive them out of the country ; in
confequence of which 200,000 of them retired to Ger¬
many, England, and Holland, and yet they are not all
extirpated, though, as v'e have obferved, they are obliged
to have a Roman Catholic church in every parilh.
Turin, formerly the refidence of the king of Sardinia
to whom this principality belonged, is the chief city.
See Turin. The number of inhabitants, Mr Watkins
fays, in Piedmont and Savoy, amount to 2,69727
fouls, of which Turin contains about 77,000; Pied»
mont, as well as the reft of Italy, few of our readers
need be informed, isnow fubjeS to the overgrown power
of France.
PIENES, a fmall ifland-of Japan, oppofite-to the
harbour of Saccai, is famed not only for the beauty of
its walks, to which crowds of people refort from the
city, but for a deity worlhipped there, to which vaft
numbers of perfons devote themfelves. They go from
his temple to .the fea fide, where, they enter into a boat
provided
00 Thefe equivocal animals, however, if we may fo term them, are fo generally mentioned by travellers in
this part of Europe, that we have no doubt of their exiftence, or of their being found hardy and ferviceable as
labourers.
(b) Each pound is valued in Piedmont at 18s. The little village of La Tour, in the valley of Lucerne, makes
above 50,000 lb* annually, and the exports every year to the fingle city of Lyons amount 4o more than i6o,oooJh
fterling.
PIE [ 544 ] PIE
Pienes provided for thepurpofe; then, launching into the deep,
. I! they throw themfelves overhead, loaded with ftones, and
Pici.ues. to tjie bottom. The temple of that deity, which is
called Canon, is very large and lofty, and fo are many
others in the city itfelf; one in particular, dedicated to
the gods of other countries, is thought the fineft in the
whole empire.
PIEPOUDRE, Court of, the loweft, and at the
fame time the moll expeditious, court of jultice known
to the law of England. It is called PIEPOUDRE, {curia
pedis puivcri%ati), from thedufty feet of the fuitors; or,
according to Sir Edward Coke, becaufe juftice is there
done as fpeedily as dull can fall from the foot: Upon
the fame principle that juftice among the Jews w as ad-
miniftered in the gate of the city, that the proceedings
might be the more fpeedy, as well as public. But the
etymology given us by a learned modern writer is
much more ingenious and fatisfadlory •, it being de¬
rived, according to him, from pied puldreaux, “ a ped¬
lar,” in old French, and therefore fignifying the court
of fuch petty chapmen as refort to fairs or markets. It
is a court of record incident to every fair and market;
of which the fteward of him who owns or has the toll of
the market is the judge. It was inftituted to adminifter
juftice for all commercial injuries done in that very fair
or market, and not in any preceding one. So that the
injury mult be done, complained of, heard, and deter¬
mined, within the compafs of one and the fame day, un-
, lefs the fair continues longer. The court hath cogniz¬
ance of all matters of contraft that can poflibly arife
within the precinft of that fair or market •, and the plain¬
tiff muft make oath that the caufe of an aflion arofe
there. From this court a writ of error lies, in the na¬
ture of an appeal, to the courts at Weftminfter. The
reafon of its inftitution feems to have been, to do juftice
expeditioufly among the variety of perfons that refort
from diftant places to a fair or market; ftnce it is pro¬
bable, that no other inferior court might be able to
ferve its procefs, or execute its judgments, on both or
perhaps either of the parties ; and therefore, unlefs this
court had been eredled, the complaint muft neceffarily
have reforted even in the fir ft inftance to fome fuperior
judicature.
PIER, in building, denotes a mafs of ftone, &c.
oppofed by way of fortrefs to the force of the fea, or
a great river, for the fecurity of (hips that lie at harbour
in any haven.
Piers of a Bridge. See Bridge.
PIERCEA. See Rivinia.
FIERI A, in Ancient Geography, a diftricl of Mace¬
donia, contained between the mouths of the rivers Lu-
dias and’Peneusj extended by Strabo beyond the Lu-
dias, to the river Axios on the north, and on the fouth
no farther than the Aliacmon, along the weft fide of
the Sinus Thermaicus.—Another Pieria of Syria, the
north part of Seleucia, or the Antiochena, fituated on
the Sinus Iflieus, and lying next Cilicia to the north-
weft.
PIERIDES, in fabulous hiftory, the daughters of
Pierus a Macedonian prince, prefuming to difpute with
the mufes for the prize of poetry, were turned into mag¬
pies. The name of Pierides was alfo given to the mufes,
from Mount Pieris in Theffaly, which was confecrated
to them j or, according to others, from Pieris, a Thef-
falian poet, who was the firft who facrificed to them. Pierkj
See Pieris. II
PIERINO DEL Vaga, an eminent Italian painter,, Fierj
born of poor parents in Tufcany, about the year 1500.
He was placed apprentice with a grocer in Florence,
and got fome inftruttions from the painters to whom
he was fent with colours and pencils } but a painter
named Vaga taking him to Rome, he was called Del
Vaga, from living vfith him, his real name being Bua-
nacorji. He ftudied anatomy with the fciences necef-
fary for his profeflion ; and had fomewhat of every
thing that was good in his compofitions. After Ra¬
phael’s death, he joined with Julio Romano and Fran-
cifco Penni to finifh the works in the Vatican which
were left imperfeft by their common mafter ; and to
confirm their friendlhip married Penni’s fifter. He gain¬
ed the higheft reputation by his performances in the pa¬
lace of Prince Doria at Genoa : but the multiplicity of
his bufinefs, and the vivacity of his imagination, drained
his fpirits in the flower of his age ; for he died in the
year 1547. Of all Raphael’s difciples, Pierino kept
the charadter of his mafter longeft, i. e. his exterior
charafter and manner of defigning; for he fell very fhort
of the finenefs of Raphael’s thinking. He had a parti¬
cular genius for the decoration of places according to
their cuftoms. His invention in that kind of painting
was fully of ingenuity •, grace and order are everywhere
to be met with, and his difpofitions, which are ordinary
in his piftures, are wonderful in his ornaments : fome of
thefe he has made little, and fome great, and placed them
both with fo much art, that they fet off one another by
comparifon and contraft. His figures are difpofed and
defigned according to Raphael’s gufto j and if Raphael
gave him at firft fome flight Iketches of ornaments, as
he did to Giovanni d’Udine, he executed them to admi¬
ration. The tapeftries of the feven planets, in feven
pieces, w’hich Pierino defigned for Diana de Poitiers,
and which were, when De Piles wrote, with Monfieur
the firft prefident at Paris, Ihow fufficiently what he
was, and that the above charadler does not exceed the
truth.
PIERIS, in Ancient Geography, a mountain which
is thought to have given name to Pieria of Macedonia 5
taking its name from Pierus a poet, w7ho was the firft
that facrificed to the Mufes, thence called Pierides,
if credit may be given to an ancient fcholiaft on Juve¬
nal.
PIERRE d’automne is a French name, tranflated
from the Chinefe, of a medicinal ftone, celebrated in
the eaft for curing all diforders of the lungs. Many
imagine it had its name of the autumn-ftone from its
being only to be made at that feafon of the year j but
it may certainly be made equally at all times. 1 he
Chinefe chemifts refer the various parts of the body to
the feveral feafons of the year, and thus they refer the
lungs to autumn. This is evident in their writings, and
thus the ftone for difeafes of the lungs came to be called
autumn-Jlone. It is prepared as follows : They put 30
pints of the urine of a ftrong and healthy young man
into a large iron pot, and fet it over a gentle fire.
When it begins to boil, they add to it, drop by drop,
about a large tea-cup-full of rape oil. They then leave
it on the fire till the v’hole is evaporated to a thick fub-
ftance like black mud. It is then taken out of the poR
F f E [ 545 J FIE
Pierre, anci laid on a flat iron to dry, fo that it may be povvder-
'ietifts- ed very fine. This powder js moiftened with frelh oil,
and the mafs is put into a double crucible, i’urrounded
with coals, where it ftands till it be thoroughly dried
again. This is again powdered, and put into a china*
veffel, which being covered with filk cloth and a double
paper, they pour on it boiling water, which makes its
way, drop by drop, through thefe coverings, till fo much
is got in as is fufficient to reduce it to a palte. This
pafte is well mixed together in the veflel it is kept in,
and this is put into a veflel of water, and the whole fet
over the fire. The matter thus becomes again dried in
balnea mar ice, and is then finifhed. Obferv. fur les
Cout. del'Afe, p. 258.
Pierre, St, is a large river in North America,
fcarcely inferior to the Rhine of the Danube, and navi¬
gable almoft to its fource. Together with many other
large flreams, it falls into the great river Miffiflippi.
Pierre, St, or St Peter's, the capital of Martinico,
was built in 1665, in order to overawe the mutineers of
the ifland who rebelled againft its proprietors, the fecond
Welt India Company, who were at the fame time the
proprietors of all the French Antilles. It is fituated on
the weltern fide of the ifland. The town extends along
the Ihore, and a battery that commands the road is ere6t
ed on the weft fide, which is walked by the river Royo-
lan, or St Peter. The town is divided into three wards ;
the middle, which is properly St Peter’s, begins at the
fort, and runs weftward to the battery of St Nicholas.
Under the walls of the fecond ward fhips at anchor ride
more fecurely than under the fort, on which account
this ward is called the Anchorage. The third ward, cal¬
led the Gallery, extends along the fea fide from Fort St
Peter to the Jefuits River, and is the moft populous part
of the city. The houfes of St Peter’s ward are neat,
commodious, and elegant, particularly thofe of the go¬
vernor of the ifland, the intendant, and the other olfi
cers. The parilh church of St Peter is a magnificent
ftone building which belonged to the Jefuits, with a
noble front of the Doric order. The church of the An¬
chorage, which belongs to the Jacobine friars, is like-
wife of ftone. It is a place of confiderable trade, and
is built with tolerable regularity. The houfes are moftly
eonftru&ed of a gray pumiee-ftone or lava, which is
found on the ftrand ; and the high-ftreet is, according
to Dr Ifert, above an Englifh mile in length. It is
funpofed to contain about 2000 houfes, and 30,000 in¬
habitants, including negroes. St Pierre, with the whole
of the flourifhing ifland of Martinicio, was taken from
the French in the month of March 1794, by the Britiflr
troops: 12 f veffels loaded with the produce of the ifiand,
and of great value, were captured, 71 of which were in
the harbour of St Pierre.
PIETISTS, a religious feft, fprung up among the
Proteftants of Germany, feeming to be a kind of mean
between the Quakers of England and the Quietifts of
the Romifti church. They defpife all forts*of ecclefi
aftical polity, all fchool theology, and all forms and
ceremonies, and give themfelves up to contemplation
and the my flic theology. ' Many grofs errors are charged
on the Pietifts, in a book entitled Manipu/us Obferva-
tionum Antipieti/licarwn ; but they have much of the air
of polemical exaggeration, and are certainly not at all
juft. Indeed there are Pietifts of various kinds • Some
running into grofs illufions, and carrying their errors to
Vol. XVI. Part II.
the overturning of a great part of the Chriftian doctrine,
while others are only vifionaries j and others are very
honeft and good, though perhaps miiguided, people.
I hey have been diiguited with the coldnefs and forma¬
lity of other churches, and have thence become charm¬
ed with the fervent piety of the Pietifts, and attached
to their party, without giving into the groffeft of theit
errors. See Moffjeim's Eccl. Hijlory, vol. iv. p. 454.
Pietists, otherwife called the Brethren and Sfieri
of the Pious and Chriflian Schools, a fociety formed in
the year 1678 by Nicholas Barre, and obliged by their
engagements to devote themfelves to the education of
poor children of both fexes.
PIETOL A, anciently called Andes, is a place with*-
in two Italian miles of Mantua, famous for being the
birthplace of Virgil.
PIETY, is a virtue which denotes veneration for the
Deity, and love and tendernefs to our friends. This di-
ftinguiftred virtue, like many others, received among the
Romans divine honours, and was made one of their gods.
Acilius Glabrio firit eredted a temple to this divinity,
which he did upon the fpot on which a woman had fed
with her own milk her aged father, who had been im-
prifoned by order of the fenate, and deprived of all ali¬
ments. The ftory is well known, and is given at length
in authors which are in the hands of every fchoolboy.
See Cicero de div. 1. and Valerius Maximus, v. c. 4. and
our article FILIAL Piety.
If piety was thus praclifed and thus honoured in
Heathen antiquity, it furely ought not to be lefs fo,
among Chriftians, to whom its nature is better defined^
and to the practice of which they have motives of great¬
er cogency. A learned and elegant writer has faid that
the want of piety arifes from the want of fenfibilitv •, and
his obfervations and arguments are fo juft and fo well ex-
prefled. that we cannot do better than tranferibe them.
“ It appears to me (fays Dr Knox), that the mind
of man, when it is free from natural defedts and acquir¬
ed corruption, feels no lefs a tendency to the indulgence
of devotion than to virtuous love, or to any other of the
more refined and elevated affections. But debauchery
and excefs contribute greatly to deftroy all the fufeep-
tible delicacy with which nature ufually furniflies the
heart; and, in the general extinction of our better qua¬
lities, it is no wonder that fo pure a fentiment as that of
piety fhould be one of the firft to expire.
“ It is certain that the underftanding may be improv¬
ed in a knowledge of the world, and in the arts of fuc-
ceeding in it, while the heart, or whatever eonftitutes
the feat of the moral and fentimental feelings, is gra¬
dually receding from its proper and original perfection.
Indeed experience feems to evince, that it is hardly pof-
fihle to arrive at the character of a complete man of the
world, wu’thout lofing manv of th<- moft valuable fenti-
ments of uncorrupted nature. A complete man of tire
w'orld is an artificial being ; he has difearded many of
the native and laudable tendencies of hi? mind, and
adopted a new fyftem of objeCts and propenfities of his
own creation. Thefe are commonly grofs, coarfe, fordid,
felfifh, and fenfiial. All, or either of thefe attributes,
tend din Ctly to blunt the fenfe of every thing liberal,
enlarged, difinterefted ; of every thing which partici¬
pates more of an intelleflual than of a fenfual nature.
V hen the heart is tied down to the earth by luft and
avarice, it is not extraordinary that the eye Ihould be
3 Z feklom
A
PIE [ 546 1 P I 0
To the man who fpends his ferve them, it will be neceffary to preferveourfenfibility;
Piety, feldom lifted up to heaven
""-Y-—^ Sunday (becaufe he thinks the day fit for little elfe) in
the counting-houfe, in travelling, in the tavern, or in the
brothel, thole who go to church appear as fools, and the
bufinefs they go upon as nonlenfe. He is callous to the
feelings of devotion ; but he is tremblingly alive to all
that gratifies his fenfes or promotes his intereft.
“ It has been remarked of thofe writers who have at¬
tacked Chriftianity, and reprefented all religions merely
as diverfified modes of fuperftition, that they were in¬
deed, for the moft part, men of a metaphyfical and a
difputatious turn of mind, butufually little diftinguiflied
for benignity and generofity. I here was, amidft all
their pretenlions to logical fagacity, a cloudinefs of
ideas, and a coldnefs of heart, which rendered them
very unfit judges on a queftion in which the heart is
chietlv interefted } in which the language of nature is
more exprelTive and convincing, than all the dreary fub-
tleties of the difmal metaphyficians. Even the reafon-
ing faculty, on which we fo greatly value ourfelves, may
be perverted by exceflive refinement *, and there is an ab-
ftrufe, but vain and foolilh philofophy, which philofo-
phizes us out of the nobleft parts of our noble nature.
One of thofe parts of us is our inilin&ive fenfe of reli¬
gion, of which not one of thofe brutes which the philo-
fophers moft admire, and to whofe rank they wifh to re¬
duce us, is found in the flighteft degree to participate.
“ Such philofophers may be called, in a double fenfe,
the enemies of mankind. They not only endeavour to
entice man from his duty, but to rob him of a moft ex¬
alted and natural pleafure. Such, furely, is the plea-
fure of devotion. For when the foul rifes above this little
orb, and pours its adoration at the throne of celeftial
inajefty,the holy fervour which it feels is itfelf a rapturous
delight. Neither is this a declamatory reprefentation,but
a truth felt and acknowledged by all the fons of men •,
except thofe who have been defective in fenfibility, or
who hoped to gratify the pride or the malignity of their
hearts by Angular and pernicious fpeculation.
“ Indeed all difputatious, controverfial, and metaphy¬
fical writings on the fubjedft of religion, are unfavourable
to genuine piety. We do not find that the moft renown¬
ed polemics in the church militant were at all more at¬
tentive than others to the common offices of religion, or
that they were a&uated by any peculiar degree of devo¬
tion. The truth is, their religion centered in their heads,
whereas its natural region is the heart. The heart! con¬
fined, alas ! in colleges or libraries, unacquainted with all
the tender charities of hufband, father, brother, friend ;
fome of them have almoft forgotten that they pofiefs a
heart. It has long ceafed to beat with the pulfations of
love and fympathy, and has been engrofled by pride on
conquering an adverfary in the fyllogiftic combat, or by
impotent anger on a defeat. With fuch habits, and fo
defeftive a fyftem of feelings, can we expeft that a doc¬
tor of the Sorbonne, or the difputing profeffor of divinity,
fhould ever feel the pure flame of piety that glowed in
the bofoms of Mrs Rowe, Mrs Talbot, or Mr Nelfon ?
i- It is however certain, that a devotional tafte and
habit are very defirable in themfelves, exclufive of their
effects in meliorating the morals and difpofition, and
promoting prefent and future felicity. They add dig¬
nity, pleafure, and feeurity to any age: but to old age
they are the moft becoming grace, the moft fubftan-
tial fupport, and the fweeteft comfort. In order to pre-
4,
and nothing will contribute jfo much to this purpofe as
a life of temperance, inncence, and fimplicity.”
Of piety, as it denotes love and tendernefs to our
friends, there have been many diftinguiflied inftances
both in ancient and modern times. See FILIAL Piety,
Fraternal and Parental AffeEUon, &c.
The following example of filial piety in China, taken
from P. Du Halde’s defcription of that country, will
not we truft be difagreeable to our readers. “ In the
commencement of the dynafty of the Tang, Lou-tao-
tfong, who was difaffefted to the government, being
accufed of a fault, which touched his life, obtained
leave from thofe wrho had him in cuftody, to perform
the duties of the Tao to one of his deceafed friends.
He managed matters fo well, that giving his keepers
the flip, he fled to the houfe of Lou Nan-kin, with
whom he had a friendffiip, and there hid himfelf. Lou-
Nan-kin, notwithftanding the ftrict fearch that was
made, and the feverity of the court againft thofe who
conceal prifoners that have efcaped, W'ould not betray
his friend. However, the thing coming to be difco-
vered, Lou Nan-kin was imprisoned ; and they were
juft on the point of proceeding againft him, when his
younger brother prefenting himfelf before the judge,
It is /, Sir, faid he, who have hidden the prifoner ; it is
I who ought to die, and not my elder brother. The eldeft
maintained on the contrary, that his younger brother
accufed himfelf wrongfully, and was not at all culpable.
The judge, who was a perfon of great fagacity, lifted
both parties fo effectually, that he not only discovered
that the younger brother was innocent, but even made
him confefs it himfelf: It is true, Sir, faid the younger
all in tears, I have accufed mijfelf falfely ; but I have
very Jlrong reafons for fo doing. My mother has been
dead for fame tune, and her corpfe is not yet buried ; I
have a fijler alfo who is marriageable, but is not yet dif
pofed of: thefe things which my brother is capable of ma¬
naging, I am not, and therefore def re to die in his Jlead,
Vouchfafe to admit my tejlimony. The commiffioner gave
an account of the whole affair to the court, and the em¬
peror at his felicitation pardoned the criminal.”
PIG, fee Sus, | Mammalia Index.
Guinea-Pig, fee Mus, )
PlG of lead, the eighth part of a fother, amounting
to 2150 pounds weight.
PIGANIOL de la Force, John Aymar de, a
native of Auvergne, of a noble family, applied himfelf
with ardour to the fludy of geography and of the hi-
ftory of France. With the view of improving himfelf
in this ftudy, he travelled into different provinces 5 and,
in the courfe of his travels, made fome important obfer-
vations on the natural hiftory, the commerce, the civil
and ecclefiaftical government of each province. Thefe ob-
fervations were of great ufe to him in compiling the works
he has left behind him, of which the chief are, 1. An
Hiftorical and Geographical Defcription of France ; the
largeft edition of which is that of 1753> ‘m 1S v0!5*12in0,
It is the beft work which has hitherto appeared upon that
fubjeft, though it contains a great number of inaccura¬
cies and even errors. 2. A Defcription of Paris, in 10
vols. i2mo; a work equally entertaining and inftruiftive,
and much more complete than the defcription given by
Germain Brice : befides, it is written with an elegant
fimplicity. He publiftied aaabridgement of it in 2 vols.
12010’
PIG [ 547 J PIG
n;0j 12010. 3. A Defcription of the Caftle and Park of Ver-
pigeon.’ failles, Marly, &c. in 2 vols. l2mo: it is very amufing,
-v ' and pretty well executed. Piganiol had alfo a concern
with Abbe Nadal in the journal of Trevoux. He died
at Paris in February 1753, at the age of 80 years. This
learned man was as much to be refpefted for his manners
as for his talents. To a profound and varied knowledge
he united great probity and honour, and all the polite-
nefs of a courtier.
PIGEON, fee Columba, Ornithology Index.
PlGEON-Houfe is a houfe eredled full of holes within,
for the keeping, breeding, &c. of pigeons, otherwife cal¬
led a dove-cot.
Any lord of manor may build a pigeon-houfe on
his land, but a tenant cannot do it without the lord’s
licence. When perfons (hoot at or kill pigeons within
a certain diftance of the pigeon-houfe, they are liable
to pay a forfeiture.
In order to ereft a pigeon-houfe to advantage, it
will be neceffary, in the firft place, to pitch upon a
convenient fituation *, of which none is more proper
than the middle of a fpacious court-yard, becaufe pi¬
geons are naturally of a timorous difpofition, and the
lead noife they hear frightens them. With regard to
the fize of the pigeon-houfe, it mull depend entirely
upon the number of birds intended to be kept •, but it
is better to have it too large than too little ; and as to
its form, the round Ihould be preferred to the fquare
ones j becaufe rats cannot fo eafily come at them in
the former as in the latter. It is alfo much more
commodious j becaufe you may, by means of a lad¬
der turning upon an axis, eafily vifit all the nefts in
the houfe, without the lead difficulty 5 which can¬
not fo eafily be done in a fquare houfe. In order to
hinder rats from climbing up the outfide of the pi-
geon-houfe, the wall ffiould be covered with tin
plates to a certain height, about a foot and a half
will be fufficient ; but they ffiould projeft out three or
four inches at the top, to prevent their clambering any
higher.
The pigeon-houfe ffiould be placed at no great di¬
dance from water, that the pigeons may carry it to
their young ones; and their carrying it in their bills
will warm it, and render it more wholefome in cold
iveather. The boards that cover the pigeon-houfe
fliould be well joined together, fo that no rain may
penetrate through it: and the whole building diould
be covered with hard plader, and white-waffied within
and without, white being the mod pleafing colour to
pigeons. There mud be no window, or other open¬
ing in the pigeon-houfe to the eadward j thefe fiiould
always face the fouth, for pigeons are very fond of the
fun, efpecially in winter.
The neds or covers in a pigeon-houfe diould confid of
fquare holes made in the walls, of a fize fufficient to ad¬
mit the cock and hen to dand in them. I he fird range
of thefe neds ffiould not be lefs than four feet from the
ground, that the wall underneath being fmooth, the rats
may not be able to reach them. Thefe neds diould be
placed in quincunx order, and not direffly over one an¬
other. Nor mud they be continued any higher than
within three feet of the top of the wall: and the upper
row diould be covered with a board projefting a confi-
derable difiance fr©m the wall, for fear the rats fhould
find means tc climb the outfide of the houfe.
M. Duhamel thinks that pigeons neither feed upon Pigeon,
the green corn, nor have bills drong enough to fearch v
for its feeds in the earth j but only pick up the grains
that are not covered, which would infallibly become
the prey of other animals, or be dried up by the fun.
“ From the time of the fprouting of the corn, fays he,
pigeons live chiefly upon the feeds of wild uncultivated
plants, and therefore leffen confiderably the quantity of
iveeds that would otherwife fpring up ; as will appear
from a jud edimate of the quantity of grain neceflary to
feed all the pigeons of a well-docked dove-houfe.” But
Mr Worlidge and Mr Lifle allege fafts in fupport of the
contrary opinion. The latter relates, that a farmer in
his neighbourhood affured him he had known an acre
lowed with peafe, and rain coming on fo that they could
not be harrowed in, every pea was fetched away in half
a day’s time by pigeons: and the former lays, “It is to
be obferved, that where the flight of pigeons falls, there
they fill themfelves and away, and return again where
they fird rofe, and fo proceed over a whole piece of
ground, if they like it. Although you cannot perceive
any grain above the ground, they know how to find it.
I have feen them lie fo much upon a piece of about two
or three acres Town with peafe, that they devoured at
lead three parts in four of the feed, which, I am fure,
could not be all above the furface of the ground. That
their fmelling is their principal dire&or, I have obfer¬
ved j having town a fmall plat of peafe in my garden,
near a pigeon-houfe, and covered them fo well that not
a pea appeared above ground. In a few days, a parcel
of pigeons were hard at work in difeovering this hidden
treafure *, and in a few days more I had not above two
or three peas left out of about two quarts that were
planted ; for what they could not find before, they found
when the buds appeared, notwithdanding they were hoed
in, and well covered. Their fmelling alone dire&ed
them, as I fuppofed, becaufe they followed the ranges
exactly. The injury they do at harved on the peafe,
vetches, &c. is fuch that we may rank them among the
greated enemies the poor hudiandman meets withal; and
the greater, becaufe he may not eretl a pigeon-hunfe,
whereby to have a diare of his own fpoils j none but the
rich being allowed this privilege, and fo fevere a law
being alfo made to protett thefe winged thieves, that a
man cannot encounter them, even in defence of his own
property. You have therefore no remedy againd them,
but to affright them away by noifes or fuch like. You
may, indeed, ffioot at them ; but you mud not kill «
them *, or you may, if you can, take them in a net, tut
off their tails, and let them go •, by which means you
will impound them : for when they are in their houfes,
they cannot bolt or fly out of the tops of them, but by
the firength of their tails •, after the thus weakening of
which, they remain prifoners at home.”
Mr Worlidge’s impounding the pigeons reminds us of
a humorous dory of a gentleman, who, upon a neigh¬
bouring farmer’s complaining to him, that his pigeons
were a great nuifance to his land, and did fad mifebief
to his corn, replied jokingly. Pound them, if you catch
them trefpafling. The farmer, improving the hint,
deeped a parcel of peafe in an infufion of cocu/us v>dicus^
or fome other intoxicating drug, and drewed them upon
his grounds. The pigeons fwallowed them, and foon
remained motionlefs on the field : upon which the farm¬
er threw a net over them, inclofed them in it, and car-
3 Z 2 tied
pig r 548 1 pig
PigesH. necl them to an empty barn, from ■whence he fent the
v gentleman word that he had followed his directions with
regard to the pounding of his pigeons, and delired him
to come and releafe them.
Carrier-PlGEON. See CARRIER-Pigeon and Colum-
ba, Ornithology Index.
Pigeon, Peter Charles Francis, curate of St Peter
du Regard, in the diocefe of Bayeux, was one of the
priefts lately belonging to the king’s houfe at Winche-
fter. He was born in Lower Normandy, of honeit and
virtuous parents, and of a decent fortune. His inclina¬
tions early led him to embrace the ecclelialtical Hate,
from which neither the folicitations of his friends, nor
the profpeft of a more arnple fortune on the death of his
elder brother, could withdraw him. Several of his
fchoolfellows and mailers, who are now refident in the
king’s houfe at Wincheiter, bear the moil ample teili-
mony to his affiduity, regularity, piety, and the fweet-
nefs of his difpoiition, during the whole courfe of his
education. The fweetnefsof temper, in particular, was
fo remarkable, and fo clearly depicted on his counte¬
nance, as to have gained him the eileem and affe&ion of
fuch of the inhabitants of Wincheiler as by any means
had become acquainted with him. He was feven years
employed in quality of vicar, or, as we ihould call it,
curate, of a large pariih in the diocefe of Seez, where
his virtues and talents had ample fcope for exertion. Plis
praftice was to rife at five o’clock every morning, and
to fnend the whole time till noon (the ufual time of din¬
ing for perfons in hisftation) in prayer andliudy. The
rell of the day, till evening, he devoted to vifiting the
Jick, and other exterior duties of his funClion. In 1789,
the year of the French revolution, M. Pigeon was pro¬
moted to a curacy, or rather a reftory, in the diocefe of
Bayeux, called the parifh of St Peter du Regard, near
the town of Conde fur Noereau. It waseafy for him to
gain the good-will and the proteftion of his parifhion-
ers; but a Jacobin club in the above-mentioned town
feemed to have no other fubje£t to deliberate upon than
the various ways of harafling and perfecuting M. Pigeon
and certain other priefts in the neighbourhood, who had
from motives of confcience refufed the famous civic oath.
It would be tedious to relate the many cruelties which
were at different times exercifed upon him, and the im¬
minent danger of lofing his life to which he was expo-
fed, by the blows that were inflicted on him, by his be¬
ing thrown into water, and being obliged to wander in
woods and other folitary places, without any food or
place to lay his head, in order to avoid his perfecutors.
We may form fome judgment of the fpirit of his perfe
cutors from the following circumftance. Being difap-
pointed on a particular occafion in the fearch they were
making after M. Pigeon, with the view of amufing
themfelves with his fufferings, they made themfelves a-
mends by feizing his mother, a rejpe&able lady of 74
years of age, and his two fillers, whom they placed up-
onaffes with their faces turned backwards, obliging them
in derifion to hold the tails of thefe animals. Thus they
were conduced in pain and ignominy throughout the
whole town of Conde, for no other alleged crime ex¬
cept being the neareft relations of M. Pigeon. At
length the decree for tranfporting all the ecclefiaftics ar¬
rived 5 and this gentleman, with feveral others, after
having been ftripped of all their money, was (hipped
from Port Beflin, and landed at Portfmouth, where he.
3 '
was fhortly after received into the eftablilhment at Fox- PIge&n
ton, and, upon that being diflblved in order to make II
room for prifoners of war, into the king’s houfe at Win- PlS1,ut-
chefter. Being of a ftudious turn, he was accuftomed, 'r*‘
as many of his brethren alfo were, to betake himfelf to
the neighbouring lanes and thickets for the fake of
greater folitude. With this view having, about ten
o’clock in the morning, Aug. 28. 1793, retired to a
certain little valley, on the north-eaft fide of a place
called Oram's Arbour, the lame place where the county
eledlions for Hampfhire are held, he was there found,
between three and four o’clock in the afternoon, mur¬
dered, with the upper part of his ikull abfolutely broken
from the lower part, and a large hedge-itake, covered
with blood, lying by him, as were the papers on which
he had been tranferibing a manufeript fermon, with the
hearing of which he had been much edified, and the fer¬
mon itfelf which he was copying, together with his pen,
imbrued in blood. His watch was carried away, though
part of the chain, which had by fome means been bro¬
ken, was left behind. He was writing the word para-
dife, the laft letters of which remained unwritten when
the fatal blow was given him, which appears evidently
to have been difeharged upon him from a gap in a
hedge which w'as immediately behind him. Atfirft the
fufpicion of this cruel muider fell upon the French de¬
mocrats, who, to the number of 200, are prifoners of
war, at the neighbouring town of Alresford, as one of
that number, who had broken his parole, had, about
three weeks before, been taken up in Winchefter, and
both there and at Alresford had repeatedly threatened
to murder his uncle, a prieft, whom he underftood to be
then at Winchefter, not without fervent wiflies of hav¬
ing it in his power to murder the v'hole eftabliftiment,
confifting of more than 600 perfons. However, as no
French prifoner was feen that day in the neighbourhood
ol Winchefter, as none of them wrere known to have
left Alresford, it is evidently reafonable to acquielce in
the verdi£t of the coroner} namely, that the murder
was committed by a perfon or perfons unknown. The
moft noble marquis of Buckingham, whofe munificence
and kindnefs to thofe confcientious exiles, the emigrant
French clergy, can only be conceived by thofe who
have been witneffes of the fame, with the truly refpeft-
able corps of the Buckinghamlhire militia then quar¬
tered at Winchefter, joined in paying the laft mark of
refpedl to the unfortunate deceafrd, by attending his fu¬
neral, which was performed at the Roman Catholic bu-
rying-ground, called St James's, near the faid city, on
Saturday, Aug. 29. He was juft 38 years of age when
he was murdered.
PIGMENTS, preparations ufed by painters, dyers,
&c. to impart colours to bodies, or to imitate particular
colours. See COLOUR~Making, and Dyeing.
PIGNEROL is a town of Italy in the province of
Piedmont, in E. Long. 7. 15. N. Lat. 44. 45. fituated
on the river Chizon, 10 miles fonth weft of Turin, at
the foot of the Alps, and the confines of Dauphiny.
The town is fmall, but populous, and extremely well
fortified by the king of Sardinia, fince the treaty of U-
trecht. It is defended by a citadel, on the top of the
mountain near which is the caftle of Peroufe, which
was built at the entrance of the valley of that name.
PIGNUT, or Earthnut. See Bunium, Botany
Index,
PIGUS,
P 1 ^ [ 549 ] P I K
■igus PIG US, in Ichthyology, is the name o£ a fpecies of
II leather-mouthed Mi, very much refembling the nature
>lke- of the common carp ; being of the fame lhape and fize,
^ “J and its eyes, fins, and fleftiy palate, exaftiy the fame j
from the gills to the tail there is a crooked dotted line}
the back and fides are bluifh, and the belly reddifh. It
is covered ivith large fcales} from the middle of each of
which there rifes a fine pellucid prickle, which is very
fharp. It is an excellent filh for the table, being per¬
haps preferable to the carp } and it is in feafon in the
months of March and April. It is caught in lakes in
fome parts of Italy, and is mentioned by Pliny, though
without a name. Artedi fays it is a fpecies of cyprinus,
and he calls it the cyprinus, called piclo and pigus.
PI-HAHIROTH, (Mofes) 5 underflood to be a
mouth or narrow pafs between two mountains, called
Chiroth or Eiroth, and lying not far from the bottom
of the weftern coaft of the Arabian gulf} before which
mouth the children of Ifrael encamped, juft before their
entering the Red fea, (Wells).
PIISKER, in Ichthyology, is a fifli of the muftela
kind, commonly called the fojjile mujlela, or fojjile-fijl).
This filh is generally found as long as an ordinary man’s
hand is broad, and as thick as the finger } but it
fometimesgrows much longer: the back is of gray, with
a number of fpots and tranfverfe ftreaks, partly black
and partly blue } the belly is yellow, and fpotted with
red, white, and black } the white are the larger, the
others look as if they were .made with the point of a
needle 5 and there is on each of the fides a longitudinal
black and white line. There are fome flefhy excrefcen-
ces at the mouth, which are expanded in fwimming;
and when out of the water, they are contradled. Thefe
fifties run into caverns of the earth, in the fides of ri¬
vers, in marlhy places, and penetrate a great way, and
are often dug up at a diftance from wTaters. Often,
when the waters of brooks and rivers fwell beyond
their banks, and again cover them, they make their
way out of the earth into the water } and when it de-
ferts them, they are often left in vaft numbers upon the
ground, and become a prey to fwine. It is thought to
be much of the fame kind with the fifgum fifh } and it
is indeed poflible that the paecilia of Schonefeldt is the
fame.
PIKE. See Esox, Ichthyology Index.
The pike never fwims in fhoals as moft other filh do,
but always lies alone } and is fo bold and ravenous, that
he will feize upon almoft any thing lefs than himfelf. Of
the ravenous nature of this filh we ftiall give the follow¬
ing inftances. At Rycott in Oxfordlhire, in the year
1749, in a moat furrounding the earl of Abingdon’s
feat, there was a jack or pike of fuch a monftrous fize,
that it had deftroyed young fwans feathers and all. An
old cobb fwan having hatched five young, one after an¬
other was loft till four were gone. At length an under
gardener faw the fifti feize the fifth. The old one
fought him with their beak, and with the affiftance of
the gardener, releafed it although he had got it under
water. In the year 1765 a large pike was caught in
the river Ouze, which weighed upwards of 28 pounds,
and was fold for a guinea. On gutting the fifti, a
watch with a black ribbon and two fteel feals were found
ln lts ftomach, which, by the maker’s name, &c. was
found to belong to a perfon who had been drowned a-
bout fix weeks before. This fifti breeds but once in a
year, which is in March. It is found in almoft all'frefti
waters } but is very different in goodnefs, according to
the nature of the places where it lives. The fineft pike
are thole which feed in clear rivers j thole in ponds and
meres are inferior, and the world of all are thofe of
the fen ditches. They are very plentiful in thefe laft.
places, where the water is foul and coloured, and their
food, fuch as frogs and the like, very plentiful, but ve¬
ry coarfe j fo that they grow large, but are yellowilh
and high bellied, and differ greatly from thofe which
live in the clearer waters.
The filhermen have two principal ways of catching
the pike •, by the ledger, and by the walking-bait.
T he ledger-bait is fixed in one certain place, and may
continue while the angler is abfent. This muft be a
live bait, a fifti or frog : and among filh, the dace,
roach, and gudgeon, are the belt } of frogs, the only
caution is to choofe the largeft and yellowed that can be
met with. If the bait be a filh, the hook is to be Ituck
through the upper lip, and the line muft be 14 yards at
leaft in length } the other end of this is to be tied to a
bough of a tree, or to a ftick driven into the ground
near the pike’s haunt, and ail the line wound round a
forked ftick, except about half a yard. The bait will
by this means keep playing fo much under water, and
the pike will foon lay hold of it.
If the bait be a frog, then the arming wire of the
hook fliouid be put in at the mouth, and out at the fide j
and with a needle and fome ftrong iilk, the hinder leg of
one fide is to be faftened by one ftitch to the wire-arm¬
ing of the hook. The pike will foon feize this, and muft
have line enough to give him leave to get to his haunt
and poach the bait.
The trolling for pike is a pleafant method alfo of tak¬
ing them : in this a dead bait ferves, and none isfo pro¬
per as a gudgeon.
This is to be pulled about in the water till the pike
feizes it} and then it is to have line enough, and time
to fvvallow it: the hook is fmall for this Iport, and has
a fmooth piece of lead fixed at its end to fink the bait}
and the line is very long, and runs through a ring at
the end of the rod, which muft not be too flender at
top.
The art of feeding pike, fo as to make them very fat,
is the giving them eels } and without this it is not to be
done under a very long time } otherwife perch, while
fmall, and their prickly fins tender, are the beft food for
them. Bream put into a pike-pond are a very proper
food : they will breed freely, and their young ones make
excellent food for the pike, who will take care that they
Ihall not increafe over much. T he numerous ftioals of
roaches and ruds, which are continually changing place,
and often in floods get into the pike’s quarters, are food
for them for a long time.
Pike, when ufed to be fed by hand, will come up to
the very fhore, and take the food that is given them out
of the fingers of the feeder. It is wonderful to fee with
what courage they will do this, after a while pradfifing }
and it is a very diverting fight when there are feveral of
them nearly of the fame fize, to fee what ftriving and
fighting there will be for the beft bits when they are
thrown in. The moft convenient place is near the
mouth of the pond, and where there is about half a yard
depth of water} for, by that means, the offal of the
feedings will all lie in one place, and the deep water
will
P I L
will ferve for a place to retire into and reft in, and will
be always clean and in order.
Carp may be fed in the lame manner as pike j and
though by nature a filh as remarkably fhy and timorous
as the pike is bold and fearlefs, yet by cuftom they will
come to take their food out of the perfon’s hand j and
will, like the pike, quarrel among one another for the
nicelt bits.
PiKE, in PVar, an offenfive weapon, confiding of a
wooden lhaft, 12 or 14 feet long, with a flat fteel head,
pointed, called the /pear. This weapon was long in
ufe among the infantry ; but now the bayonet, which is
fixed on the muzzle of the firelock, is fubftituted in its
Head. It is ftill ufed by fome of the officers of infantry,
under the name of /ponton. The Macedonian phalanx
was a battalion of pikemen. See Phalanx.
PIL A MARINA, or the/ea-ba//, in Natural Hijlory,
is the name of a fubftance very common on the {bores of
the Mediterranean, and elfewhere. It is generally found
in the form of a ball about the fize of the balls of horfe
dung, and compofed of a variety of fibrillae irregularly
complicated. Various conjeclures have been given of
its drigin by different authors. John Bauhine tells us,
that it confifts of fmall hairy fibres and ftraws, fuch as
are found about the fea plant called alga vitriariorum;
but he does not afcertain what plant it owes its origin
to. Imperatus imagined it confifted of the exuviae both
of vegetable and animal bodies. Mercatus is doubtful
whether it be a congeries of the fibrillae of plants, wound
up into a ball by the motion of the fea water, or whe¬
ther it be not the workman (hip of fome fort of beetle
living about the fea ffiore, and analogous to our common
dung beetle’s ball, which it elaborates from dung for
the reception of its progeny. Schreckius fays it is com¬
pofed of the filaments of fome plant of the reed kind :
and Welchius fuppofes it is compofed of the pappous
part of the flowers of the reed. Maurice Hoffman
thinks it the excrement of the hippopotamus ; and others
think it that of the phoca or fea calf. Klein, who had
thoroughly and minutely examined the bodies them-
felves, and alfo what authors had conje&ured concern¬
ing them, thinks that they are wholly owing to, and
entirely compofed of, the capillaraents w'hich the leaves,
growing to the woody ftalk of the a/ga vitriariorwn,
have when they wither and decay. Thefe leaves, in
their natural ftate, are as thick as a wheat draw, and
they are placed fo thick about the tops and extremities
of the (talks, that they enfold, embrace, and lie over
one another j and from the middle of thefe clufters of
leaves, and indeed from the woody fubftance of the
plant itfelf, there arife feveral other very long, flat,
fmooth, and brittle leaves. Thefe are ufually four from
each tuft of the other leaves •, and they have ever a
common vagina, which is membranaceous and very thin.
This is the ftyle of the plant, and the pila marina ap¬
pears to be a clufter of the fibres of the leaves of this
plant, which cover the whole ftalk, divided into their
eonftituent fibres $ and by the motion of the waves firft
broken and worn into ftiort fhreds, and afterwards
wound up together into a roundiffi or longiffi ball.
Pi LA, was a ball made in a different manner accord¬
ing to the different games in which it was to be ufed.
Playing at ball was very common amongft the Homans
of the firft diftinftion, and was looked upon as a manly
exercife, which contributed both to amufement and
P I L
health. The pila was of four forts : ift, Tollis or bal~ p;|a
loon ; 2d, Pila Trigonahs; 3d, Pila Paganica ; 4th, (1
Harpa/utn. Ail thefe come under the general name of ^ate
pila. For the manner of playing with each of them, fee ^
the articles Follis, Triconalis.
PILASTER, in Architetiure. See there, N° 50,
&c.
PILATE, or Pontius Pilate, was governor of
Judea w'hen our Lord was crucified. Of his family or
country we know but little, though it is believed that
he was of Rome, or at leaft of Italy. He wasr fent to
govern Judea in the room of Gratus, in the year 26 or
27 of the vulgar era, and governed this province for
ten years, from the 12th or 13th year of l iberius to the
22d or 23d. He is reprefented both by Philo and Jofe-
phus as a man of an impetuous and obftinate temper, and
as a judge who ufed to fell juftice, and to pronounce any
fentence that was defired, provided he was paid for it.
The fame authors make mention of his rapines, his inju¬
ries, his murders, the torments that be infli&ed upon
the innocent, and the perfons he put to death without
any form of procefs. Philo, in particular, deicribes him
as a man that exercifed an exceffive cruelty during the
whole time of his government, who difturbed the repofc
of Judea, and gave occafion to the troubles and revolt
that followed after. St Luke (xiii. 1, 2, &c.) acquaints
us, that Pilate had mingled the blood of the Galileans
with their facrifices ; and that the matter having been
related to Jefus Chrift, he (aid, “ Think you that thefe
Galileans were greater finners than other Galileans, be-
caufe they fuffered this calamity. I tell you nay •, and
if you do not repent, you ftrall all perifli in like manner.”
It is unknown! upon what occafion Pilate caufed thefe
Galileans to be (lain in the temple while they were f&cri-
ficing ; for this is the meaning of that expreffion of
mingling their blood with their facrifices. Some think
they were difciples of Judas the Gaulonite, who taught
that the Jew's ought not to pay tribute to foreign princes j
and that Pilate had put fome of them to death even in
the temple ; but there is no proof of this faff. Others
think that thefe Galileans were Samaritans, whom Pilate
cut to pieces in the village of Tiratabaf, as they were f
preparing to go up to Mount Gerizim, where a certainyfew.
impoftor had promifed to difcover treafures to them ; but™'1, c
this event did not happen before the year 350! the com¬
mon era, and confequently two years after the death of
Jefus Chrift. At the time of our Saviour’s paffion, Pi¬
late made fome endeavours to deliver him out of the
hands of the Jews. He knew they had delivered him
up, and purfued his life with fo much violence, only out
of malice and envy (Matt, xxvii. 18.). His wife, alfo,
who had been difturbed the night before with frightful
dreams, fent to tell him flic defired him not to meddle
in the affair of that juft perfon (ib. 19.). He attempted
to appeafe the wrath of the Jews, and to give them fome
fatisfaffion, by whipping Jefus Chrift (John xix. I.
Matt, xxvii. 26.). He tried to take him out of their
hands, by propofing to deliver him or Barabbas, on the
day of the feftival of the paffover. Laftly, he had a
mind to difeharge himfelf from pronouncing judgment
againft him, by fending him to Herod king of Galilee
(Luke xxiii. 7. 8.). When he faw all this would not
fatisfy the Jews, and that they even threatened him in
fome manner, faying he could be ao friend to the em¬
peror if he let him go (John xix. 12, I5.)> caufed
water
[ 55° 3
p 1 L. [ S
water to be brought,' waftifed his hands before all the
' people, and publicly declared himfelf innocent of the
blood of that juft perfon (Matt, xxvii. 23, 24.) •, yet at
the fame time he delivered him up to his foldiers, that
they might crucify him. This was enough to juftify Je-
fus thrift, as Calmet obferves, and to.(how that he held
him as innocent; but it was not enough to vindicate the
confcience and integrity of a judge, whofe duty it was
as well to affert the caufe of opprefled innocence as to
punifli the guilty and criminal. He ordered to be put
over our Saviour’s crofs, as it were, an abftraft of his
fentence, and the motive of his condemnation (John
xix. 9.), Jefus of Nazareth, king of the Jews, which
was written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Some of
the Jews found fault with it, and remonftrated to Pilate
that he ought to have written Jefus of Ncrzareth, who
pretended to be king of the Jews. But Pilate could
not be prevailed with to alter it, and gave them this
peremptory anfwer, That what he had written he had
written.
Towards evening, he was applied to for leave to take
down the bodies from the crofs, that they might not
continue there the following day, which was the paflb-
ver and the fabbath-day (John xix. 31.). This he al¬
lowed, and granted the body of Jefus to Jofeph of Ari-
mathea, that he might pay his laft duties to it, (ib. 33.).
Laftly, when the priefts, who had folicited the death of
our Saviour, came to defire him to fet a watch about
the fepulchre, for fear his difciples fhould fteal him away
by night, he anfwered them, that they had a guard, and
jnight place them there themfelves (Matt, xxvii. 65.).
This is the fubftance of what the gofpel tells us con¬
cerning Pilate.
Juftin Martyr, Tertullian, Eufebius, and after them
feveral others both ancient and modern, affure us, that
it was formerly the cuftom for Roman magiftrates to
prepare copies of all verbal procefles and judicial adls
which they palled in their feveral provinces, and to
fend them to the emperor. And Pilate, in compliance
to this cuftom, having fent word to Tiberius of what
had paffed relating to Jefus Chrift, the emperor wrote
an account of it to the fenate, in a manner that gave
reafon to judge that he thought favourably of the re¬
ligion of Jefus Chrift, and (hewed that he thould be wil¬
ling they would decree divine honours to him. But the
fenate was not of the fame opinion, and fo the matter
was dropped. It appears by what Juftin fays of thefe
a£ls, that the miracles of Jefus Chrift were mentioned
there, and even that the foldiers had divided his garments
among them. Eufebius infinuates that they fpoke of his
refurre&ion and afeenfinn. Tertullian and Juftin refer
to thefe a£ls with fo much confidence as would make
one believe they had them in their hands. However,
neither Eufebius nor St Jerome, who were both inqui-
fitive, underftanding perfons, nor any other author that
wrote afterwards, feem to have feen them, at leaft not
the true and original a6ts •, for as to what we have
now in great number, they are not authentic, being nei¬
ther ancient nor uniform. There are alfo fome pretend¬
ed letters of Pilate to Tiberius, giving a hiftory of our
Saviour, but they are univerfally allowed to be fpurious.
Pilate being a man that, by his exceflive cruelties
and rapine, had difturbed the peace of Judea during
the whole time of his government, was at length de-
gpfed by Vitellius the proconful of Syria, in the 36th
Pilate
II
Pilchard,
51 1 P I L
year of Jefus Chrift, and fent to Rome to give an ac¬
count of his conduct to the emperor. But though Ti¬
berius died before Pilate arrived at Rome, yet his fuc-
ceflbr Caligula baniflied him to Vienne in Gaul, where
he was reduced to fuch extremity that he killed himfelf
rvith his own hands. The evangelifts call him governor,
though in reality he was no more than procurator of
Judea, not only becaufe governor was a name of gene¬
ral ufe, but becaufe Pilate in effeft adled as one, by
taking upon him to judge in criminal matters •, as his
predeceffors had done, and other procurators in the
fmall provinces of the empire where there was no pro¬
conful, conftantly did. See Calmed1 s DiJlionary, Ec-
hard's Ecclejiafical Dictionary, and Beaufobre',s An not.
With regard to Pilate’s wife, the general tradition
is, that (he was named Claudia Procula or Profcula j
and in relation to her dream, fome are of opinion that
as (lie had intelligence of our Lord’s apprehenfion, and
knew by his chara&er that he was a righteous perfon,
her imagination, being ftruck with thefe ideas, did na¬
turally produce the dream we read of; but others think
that this dream was fent providentially upon her, for
the clearer manifeftation of our Lord’s innocence.
PILATRE DU Rozier, Francis, was born at Metz
the 30th of March I7<;6. He was firft apprentice to
an apothecary there, and afterwards went to Paris in
queft of farther improvement. He applied himfelf to
the ftudy of natural hiftory and of natural philofophy,
and had already acquired fome reputation, when the dif-
covery of M. de Montgolfier had juft aftonilhed the
learned world. On the 25th of October l/83» he at¬
tempted an aerial voyage with the marquis of Arlande.
He performed feveral other excurfions in this way with
brilliant fuccefs, in the prefence of the royal family of
France, of the king of Sweden, and of Prince Henry of
Pruftia. He then refolved to pafs into England by
means of his aerial vehicle, and for that purpofe he re¬
paired to Boulogne, w’hence he rofe about 7 o’clock in
the morning of the 15th June 1785 *, but in half an hour
after he fet out, the balloon took fire, and the aero¬
naut, with his companion M. Romaine, were crufhed to
death by the fall of that machine, which was more in¬
genious, perhaps, than ufeful *. Pilatre’s focial virtues * See
and courage, which were very diftinguifhed, heightened/?^!"*/*,
the regret of his friends for his lofs. His merit as a 34*
chemift, and his experiments as an aeronaut, procured
him fome pecuniary reward, and fome public appoint¬
ments. He had a penfion from the king, was intendant
of Monfieur’s cabinets of natural philofophy, chemiftry,
and natural hiftory, profeffor of natural philofophy, a
member of feveral academies, and principal direftor of
Monfieur’s mufeum.
PILCHARD, in Ichthyology, a fifh which has a gene¬
ral refemblance to the herring, but differs in fome effential
particulars. The body of the pilchard is lefs compreffed
than that of the herring, being thicker and rounder : the
nofe is ftrorter in proportion, and turns up *, the under
jaw is ftiorter. The back is more elevated ; the belly
lefs (harp. The dorfal fin of the pilchard is placed
exaftly in the centre of gravity, fo that when taken up
by it, the body preferves an equilibrium, whereas that
of the herring dips at the head. The feales of the pil¬
chard adhere very clofely, whereas thofe of the herring
very eafily drop off. The pilchard is in general lefs
than the herring ; but it is fatter, or more full of oil.
Thee
P I L [ 552 ] P X L
Crlchafd, Xlie pilchard appears in vafl; ftioals off the Cornifh
, Pl‘e‘ coa s about the middle of July, difappearing the be¬
ginning of winter, yet fometimes a few return again
after Chriitmas. Their winter retreat is the fame with
that of the herring, and their motives for migrating
t<5ee ClU~ fame f. They affedf, during fummer, a warmer la-
^ ’ titude j for they are not found in any quantities on
anv of our coafts except thofe of Cornwall, that is to
fay, from Fowey harbour to the Scilly ifles, between
which places the ihoals keep {Lifting for fome weeks.
The approach of the pilchard is known by much the
fame tigns as thofe that indicate the arrival of the her¬
ring. Perfons, called in Cornwall huers, are placed on
the cliffs, to point to the boats ftationed off the land
the eourfe of the fiffi. By the iff of James I. c. 23.
fdhermen are empowered to go on the grounds of others
to hue, without being liable to actions of trefspafs,
which before occalioned frequent lawT-fuits.
The emoluments that accrue to the inhabitants of
that country are great, and are belt expreffed in the
words of Dr W. Borlafe, in his Account of the Pil¬
chard Fi/hery. “ It employs a great number of men
on the fea, training them thereby to naval affairs; em¬
ploys men, women, and children, at land, in falting,
prefling, walking, and cleaning, in making boats, nets,
ropes, calks, and all the trades depending on their con-
ftru&ion and fale. The poor is fed with the offals of
the captures ; the land with the refufe of the filh and
fait ; the merchant finds the gains of commiflion and
honeft commerce ; the filherman, the gains of the filh.
Ships are often freighted hither with fait, and into fo¬
reign countries with the filh, carrying off at the fame
time part of our tin. The ufual number of hoglheads
of filh exported each year, for 10 years, from 1747 to
1756 inclufive, from the four ports of FoAvey, Falmouth,
Penzance, and St Ives, in all amounts to 29,794; ^nce
it appears that Fowey has exported yearly 1732 hogf-
heads ; Falmouth, 14,631 hoglheads and two-thirds;
Penzance and Mounts-Bay, 12,149 hoglheads and one-
third ; St Ives, 1282 hogfheads. Every hoglhead for
ten vears laft pail, together with the bounty allowed
for each when exported, and the oil made out of each,
has amounted, one year with another at an average,
to the price of il. 13s. 3d. ; fo that the cafh paid for
pilchards exported has, at a medium, annually amount¬
ed to the fum of 49, ;32l. IDs.” The numbers
that are taken at one Ihooting out of the nets is ama¬
zingly great, Mr Pennant fays, that Dr Borlafe af-
fured him, that, on the 5th of Odlober 1767, there
were at one time intlofed in St Ives’s bay 7000 hogf-
Lcads, each hoglhead containing 35,000 fifn, in all
245,000,000.
PILE, in Heraldry, an ordinary in form of a wedge,
eontrafting'from the chief, and terminating in a point
towards the bottom of the fiiield.
Pile, among the Greeks and Romans, was a pyra¬
mid built of wood, whereon were laid the bodies of
the deceafed to be burnt. It was partly in the form
of an altar, and differed in height according to the
quality of the nerfon to be confumed. Probably it
might originally be confidered as an altar, on which
the dead were confumed as a burnt- offering to the in
fernal deities. The trees made ufe of in the ere61ion of
a funeral pile were fucK as abounded in pitch or rofin,
«s being moll combullible; if they ufed any other wood,
it was fplit that it might the more eafily catch fire.
Round the pile were placed cyprefs boughs to hinder the
noifome frnell. See Funeral.
Pile, in Building, is ufed for a large flake rammed
into the ground in the bottom of rivers, or in marfliy
land, for a foundation to build upon
Pile is alfo ufed among architefts for a mafs of
building.
Pile, in Coinage, denotes a kind of puncheon, which,
in the old way of coining with the hammer, contained
the arms or other figure and infeription to be ftruck on
the coin. See Coinage.
Accordingly we Hill call the arms fide of a piece of
money the pile, and the head the crofs ; becaufe in an¬
cient coin, a crofs ufually took the place of the head in
ours.
PlLE-Fngine, a very curious machine invented by
Mr Vauloue for driving the piles of Weftminfter-bridge.
A is a great upright fliaft or axle, on which are the
great wheel B, and the drum C, turned by horfes joined
to the bars S, S. The wheel B turns the trundle X, on
the top of whole axis is the fly O, which ferves to regu¬
late the motion, and alfo to act againft the horfes, and
to keep them from falling when the heavy ram QJs dif-
charged to drive the pile P down into the mud in the
bottom of the river. The drum C is loofe upon the
lhaft A, but is locked to the wheel B by the bolt Y.
On this drum the great rope HH is wound ; one end of
the rope being fixed to the drum, and the other to the
follower G, to which it is conveyed over the pulleys I
and K. In the follower G is contained the tongs F,
that takes hold of the ram £) by the flaple R, for draw¬
ing it up. D is a fpiral or fufy fixed to the drum, on
which is wound the fmall rope T that goes over the
pulley U, under the pulley V, and is faftened to the
top of the frame at 7. To the pulley block V is hung
the counterpoife W, which hinders the follower T from
accelerating as it goes down to take hold of the ram ;
for as the follower tends to acquire velocity in its defeent,
the line T winds downwards upon the fufy, on a larger
and larger radius, by which means the counterpoife W
afts ftronger and ftronger againfl: it ; and fo allows it
to come down with only a moderate and uniform velo¬
city. The bolt Y locks the drum to the great wheel,
being pulhed upward by the fmall lever 2, which goes
through a mortife in the lhaft A, turns upon a pin in
the bar 3, fixed to the great wheel B, and has a weight
4, which always tends to pufh up the bolt Y through
the wheel into the drum. L is the great lever turning
on the axis m, and refting upon the forcing bar 5, 5,
which goes through a hollow in the fliaft A, and bears
up the little lever 2.
By the horfes going round, the great rope H is
wound about the drum C, and the ram Q is drawn up
by the tongs F in the follower G, until the tongs come
between the inclined planes E ; which, by Ihutting the
tongs at the top, opens it at the foot, and difeharges
the ram, which falls down between the guides bb upon
the pile P, and drives it by a few flrokes as far into the
mud as it will go ; after which, the top part is fawed
off clofe to the mud by an engine for that purpofe.
Immediately after the ram is difeharged, the piece 6
upon the follower G takes hold of the ropes aa, which
raife the end of the lever L, and caufes its end N to de-
feend and prtfs down the forcing bar 5 upon the little
lever
Plate
ccccx t
V \ L [ 553 ] TIL
Pile, lever 2, which, by pulling down the bolt Y, unlocks the
'‘'V’--'' drum C from the great wheel B 5 and then the follow¬
er being at liberty, comes down by its own weight to
the ram , and the lower ends of the tongs flip over the
ftaple R, and the weight of their heads eaufes them to
fall outward, and fhut upon it. Then the weight 4
pulhes up the bolt Y into the drum, which locks it
to the great wheel, and fo the ram is drawn up as be¬
fore.
As the follower comes down, it caufes the drum to
turn backward, and unwinds the rope from it, whilft
the horfes, great wheel, trundle, and fly, go on with
an uninterrupted motion ; and as the drum is turning
backward, the counterpoife W is drawn up, and its rope
T wound upon the fpiral fufy D.
There are feveral holes in the under fide of the drum,
and the bolt Y always takes the firft one that it finds
when the drum flops by the falling of the follower upon
the ram *, until which ftoppage the bolt has not time to
flip into any of the holes.
This engine was placed upon a barge on the water,
and fo was eafily conveyed to any place defired. The
ram was a ton weight; and the guides b b, by which it
was let fall, were 30 feet high.
A new machine for driving piles has been invented
by Mr Bunce of Kirby ftreet, Hatton ftreet, London.
It will drive a greater number of piles in a given time
than any other *, and can be conftrufted more Amply to
work by horfes than Mr Vauloue’s engine above de-
fcribed.
Plate Fig. I and 2 reprefrnt a fide and front fe&ion of the
iJCCXIX. machine. The chief parts are A, fig. I, which are two
endlefs ropes, or chains, connefted by crofs pieces of iron
B (fee fig. 2), correfponding with two crofs grooves cut
diametrically oppofite in the wheel C (fig. 1.), into
which they are received ; and by which means the rope
or chain A is carried round. FHK is a fide-view of a
ftrong wooden frame moveable on the axis H. D is a
wheel, over which the chain pafles and turns within at
the top of the frame. It moves occafionally from F
to G upon the centre H, and is kept in the pofition F
by the weight I fixed to the end K. Fig. 3. L is the
iron ram, which is connefted with the crofs pieces by
the hook M. N is a cylindrical piece of wood fufpended
at the hook at O, which by Aiding freely upon the bar
that connedts the hook to the ram, always brings the
hook upright upon the chain when at the bottom of the
machine, in the pofition of GP. See fig. 1.
When the man at S turns the ufual crane work, the
ram being connedled to the chain, and palling between
the guides, is drawn up in a perpendicular diredtion $
and when it is near the top of the machine, the pro-
jedting bar £) of the hook ftrikes againft a crofs piece of
wood at R (fig. 1.); and confequently difcharges the
ram, whilft the weight I of the moveable frame inftant-
ly draws the upper wheel into the pofition fliown at F,
and keeps the chain free of the ram in its defcent. The
hook, while defcending, is prevented from catching the
chain by the wooden piece N. For that piece being
Vol. XVI. Part II.
fpeeifically lighter than the iron weight below, and
moving with a lefs degree of velocity, cannot come in
contadt with the iron till it is at the bottom and the ram
flops. It then falls and again connedts the hook with
the chain, which draws up the ram, as before.
Mr Bunce has made a model of this machine, which
performs perfedtly well 5 and he obferves, that, as the
motion of the wheel C is uninterrupted, there appears to
be the leaft poflible time loft in the operation.
PlLE-Worms, are a kind of worms found in the piles
of the fea-dikes in Holland. They are of very various
fizes ; for fome of the young ones are not above an inch
or two in length, while others have been found thirteea
or fourteen inches long. The heads of thefe crea¬
tures are covered with two hard (hells or hemicrania ;
which together form a figure refembiing an augre;
and with which they bore the wood. The belt reme¬
dy againft them is, to perforate the pile with many
fmall holes about an inch afunder ; then it mult be
done over with a varnifh in the hotteft lun •, and, while
the varnifh is hot, brick duft mult be ftrewed over it:
and this being feveral times repeated, the pile will be
covered with a ftrong cruft abfolutely impenetrable to
all infedts.
PILES, in Medicine, the fame with haemorrhoid*..
See Medicine, N° 240, &c.
PILEUS, in Roman antiquity, was the ordinary cap
or hat worn at public (hows and facrifices, and by the
freedmen. It was one of the common rewards affigned
to fuch gladiators as were flaves, in token of their ob¬
taining freedom.
P1LEWORT, (Ranunculus jicaria, Lin.), the root,.
This is a very fmall plant, found in moift meadows and
by hedge fides. The roots confift of (lender fibres with
fome little tubercles among them, which are fuppofed to
refemble the haemorrhoids. From thence it has been
concluded, that this root muft needs be of wonderful
efficacy for the cure of that diftemper : to the tafte, it
is little other than mucilaginous j and although (till re¬
tained in feveral of the foreign pharmacopoeias, it is
hardly in ufe in this country.
PI LGRIM, one who travels through foreign coun¬
tries to vifit holy places, and to pay his devotion to the
relicks of dead faints. See Pilgrimage.
The word is formed from the Flemifli pelgrim, or
Italian pelegrino, which fignifies the fame ; and thofe
originally from the Latin percgrinus, a “ ftranger or
traveller.”
Fife
Pilgrimage
PILGRIMAGE, a kind of religious difcipline,
which confifts in taking a journey to fome holy place
in order to adore the relicks of fome deceafed faint.
Pilgrimages began to be made about the middle ages
of the church \ but they were mod in vogue after the
end of the 1 ith century, when every one was for vifit-
ing places of devotion, not excepting kings and princes
themfelves ; and even bilhops made no difficulty of be¬
ing abfent from their churches on the fame account.
The places mod vifited were Jerufalem, Rome, Com-
poftella (a), and Tours $ but the greateft numbers now
4 A refort
(a) It deferves to be remarked here, that in the year 1428, under the reign of Henry VI. abundance of licences
Were granted from the crown of England to captains of Englifti (hips, for carrying numbers of devout perfons to
the (hrine of St James of Compoftella in Spain 3 provided, however, that thofe pilgrims (hould firft take an oath
net
P I L [ 5S4 1 P I L
Piigrimage. refort to Loretto, in order to vifit the chamber of the
Y-—' bleffed virgin, in which Hie was born, and brought up
her fon Jeius till he was 12 years of age. For the pil¬
grimage of the followers of Mahomet, fee Mahome¬
tanism.
In every country where popery was eftablifhed, pil¬
grimages were common ; and in tkofe countries which
are ilill popilh, they continue. In England, the ihnne
of St Thomas & Becket was the chief refort of the
pious ■, and in Scotland, St Andrews *, where, as tradi¬
tion informs us, was depofited a leg of the holy apoftle.
In Ireland they Hill continue-, for, from the beginning
of May till the middle of Augutt every year, crowds
of popith penitents from all parts of that country re-
fort to an ifland near the centre of Lough-jin, or White
Lake, in the county of Donnegal, to the amount of
3000 or 4000. Thefe are moftly of the poorer fort,
and manv of them are proxies for thofe who are richer :
feme of which, however, together with fome of the
prieits and bithops on occafion, make their appearance
there. When the pilgrim comes within fight of the
holy lake, he mull uncover his hands and feet, and thus
walk to the water fide, and is taken to the ifiand for
fixpence. Here there are two chapels and 15 other
houfes ; to which are added confeffionals, fo contrived,
that the prieft cannot fee the perfon confefling. The
penance varies according to the circumilances of the
penitent 5 during the continuance of which (which is
fometimes three, fix, or nine days) he fubfills on oat¬
meal, fometimes made into bread. He traverfes (harp
Hones on his bare knees or feet, and goes through a va¬
riety of other forms, paying fixpence at every different
confeflion. When all is over1, the priefi bores a gimblet-
hole through the pilgrim’s fiaff near the top, in which
he faflens a crofs peg j gives him as many holy pebbles
out of the lake as he cares to carry away, for amulets
to be prefented to his friends, and fo difmifles him, an
object of veneration to all other papifis not thus initiated,
who no fooner fee the pilgrim’s crofs in his hands, than
they kneel down to get his bleffmg.
There are, however, other parts of Ireland faered to
extraordinary worftiip and pilgrimage ; and the number
of holy wells, and miraculous cures, &c. produced by
them, is very great. That fucb things fliould exift in
this enlightened age, and in a ProteHant couniry, is in¬
deed firange 5 but our wonder ceafes, when we refleft
that it is among the loweff, and perhaps the worfi of the
people. They who carry external religion to an ex¬
treme, and place that confidence > ceremony which be¬
longs only to the fpirit of it, are feldom diflinguiflted ei¬
ther for their wifdom or their virtue. We do not deny,
however, that they who carry matters to the other ex¬
treme, may be equally deflitute of real knowledge and
genuine morality.
Dr Johnfon, in his Raffelas, gives us fome obferva-
tions on pilgrimage, which are fo much to the purpofe,
that we think we cannot do better than lay them before
our readers. “ Pilgrimage (faid Imlae, into whofe Pilgrimaue
mouth the obfervations are put), like many other afts II
of piety, may be reafonable or fuperfiitious according to, ^
the principles upon which it is performed. Long jour¬
neys in fearch of truth are not commanded. Truth, fuch
as is neceffary to the regulation of life, is always found
where it is honeffly fought: change of place is no natu¬
ral caufe of the increafe of piety, for it inevitably pro¬
duces difiipation of mind. Yet fince men go every day
to view the fields where great aftions have been perfor¬
med, and return with Hronger impreflions of the event,
euriofity of the fame kind may naturally difpofe us to
view that country whence our religion had its begin¬
ning : and I believe no man furveys thofe awful feenes
without fome confirmation of holy refolutions. That the
Supreme Being may be more eafily propitiated in one
place than in another, is the dream of idle fuperfiition j
but that fome places may operate upon our own minds in
an uncommon manner, is an opinion which hourly ex¬
perience will jullify. He who fuppofes that his vice*
may be more fueeefsfuliy combated in Paleltine, will,
perhaps, find himfelf mifiaken ; yet he may go thither
without folly : he who thinks they will be more freely,
pardoned, difhonours at once his reafon and religion.”
PILKINGTON, LiETlTlA, a famous poetical ge¬
nius, the daughter of Dr Van Lewki, a phyfician of
Dublin, where Hie was born in 1712. She was married
very young to the Rev. Matthew Pilkington, a poet
alfo of no ineonfiderable merit and the two wits, as is
often the cafe, lived very unhappily together. They
were at length totally feparated, on the hufband acci¬
dentally difeovering a gentleman in her bedchamber at
two o’clock in the morning a circumfiance which Hie
accounted for in a very unfatisfaftory manner. The
ffory is told at large in her Memoirs ; where (he fays,
“ Lovers of learning, I am (ure, will pardon me, as I
folemnly declare it was the attradlive charms of a new
book, which the gentleman would not lend me, but
confented to Hay till I read it through, that was the foie
motive of my detaining him.” As there are not want¬
ing fome who form objections to marrying learned
wives, the chance of fuch literary aflignations may per¬
haps be added to the lilt of them. After this unlucky
adventure, Mrs Pilkington came to London ; and ha¬
ving recourfe to her pen for fuhHHence, through the
means of Colley Cibber. Hie lived for fome time on tho
contributions of the great. She was however thrown into
the Marlhalfea for debtand being fet at liberty, opened
a pamphlet (hop. She railed at length a handfome fub-
feription for her Memoirs ; which are written with great
fprightlinefs and wit, containing feveral entertaining
anecdotes of Dean Swift, with whom Hie was intimate,
as well as many pretty little pieces of her own poetry..
This ingenious woman is faid at lall to have killed her-
felf with drinking. She died at Dublin, in i75°*
PILL,fin Pharmacy, a form of medicine refembling
a little ball, to be fwallowed whole ; invented for (iich
as
not to take any thing prejudicial to England, not to reveal any of its fecrets, nor to carry out with them any more
gold or filver than what would be fufficient for their reafonable expences. In this year there went out thither from
England, on the faid pilgrimage, the following number of perfons. From London 280, BriHol 200, Wey¬
mouth 122, Dartmouth 90, Yarmouth 60, Jerfey 60, Plymouth 40, Exeter 30, Poole 24, Iplwich 20, in all
f 26 perfons.
p 1 L [ 555 ] P I L
>ill: as cannot take bitter and ill-tafted medicinal draughts :
II as aifo to keep in readintfs for occafional ufe without
lory decaying. See Materia Medica Index.
y PILLAR, in Arckitetture. See Architecture.
Pillar, in the manege, is the centre of the ring, or
manege-ground, round which a horfe turns, whether
there be a pillar in it or not. Befides this, there are
pillars on the circumference or fides of the manege-
ground, placed at certain diftances, by two and two,
from whence they are called the two piliors, to diftin-
guifh them from that of the centre. The ufe of the pil¬
lar in the centre is for regulating the extent of ground,
that the manege upon the volts may be performed with
method and juilnefs, and that they may work in a
fquare, by rule and meal'ure, upon the four lines of the
volts ; and alfo to break unruly high-mettled horfes,
without endangering the rider. The two pillars are
placed at the didance of two or three paces one from the
other \ and the horfe is put between thofe, to teach him
to rife before andyerk out behind, and put himfelf upon
raifed airs, &c. either by the aids or ehatfifements.
Pompeif's Pillar. See Alexandria*
PILLARS, in antiquarian topography, are large
fingle ftones fet up perpendicularly. Thofe of them
which are found in this country have been the work of
the Druids •, but as they are the naoft firuple of all mo¬
numents, they are unquefl ion ably more ancient than
drnidifm itfelf. They were placed as memorials record¬
ing ditferent events •, fuch as remarkable inftances of
God’s mercies, contraffs, Angular victories, boundaries,
and fometimes fepulchres. Various inftances of thefe
monuments ere<Red by the patriarchs occur in the Old
Teftament: fuch was that raifed by Jacob at Luz, af¬
terwards by him named Bethel; fuch alfo was the pillar
placed by him over the grave of Rachel. They were
likewife marks of execrations and magical talifmans.
Thefe ftones, from having long been confidered as
objects of veneration, at length were by the ignorant
and fuperftitious idolatroufty worftu’pped ; wherefore, af¬
ter the introduction of Chriftianity, fome had croffes cut
on them, which was confidered as thatching them from
the fervice of the devil. Vulgar fuperftition of a later
date has led the common people to confider them as per-
fons transformed into (tone for the puniftiment of fome
crime, generally that of fabbath-breaking •, but this tale
is not confined to fingle ftones, but is told alfo of whole
circles: witnefs the monuments called the hurlers in
Cornwall, and Ro/lonckJlones in Warwickftiire. The
firft are by the vulgar fuppofed to have been once men,
and thus transformed as a puniftiment for playing on the
Lord’s day at a game called hurling; the latter, a pa¬
gan king and his army.
At Wilton, where the earl of Pembroke has a very
magnificent houfe, there is a pillar of one piece of white
Egyptian granite, which was brought from the temple
of Venus Genetrix at Rome, near 14 feet high and 22
inches diameter, with an infeription to Aftarte or Ve¬
nus.
PILLORY (colli/lrtgium, “ collum ftringens;” pil-
loria, from the French pilleur, i. e. depeculator ; or pe-
lon, derived from the Greek wXri, janua, a “ door,”
hecaufe one ftanding on the pillory puts his head as it
■were through a door, and video'), is an engine
made of wood to punifli offenders, by expofing them to
public view, and rendering them infamous. There is a Pillory,
Jlatute of the pillory, 51 Hen. III.* And by ftatute it is i,llot‘
appointed for bakers, foreftallers, and thofe who ufe y
falfe weights, perjury, forgery, &c. 3 Injl. 219. Lords
of leets are to have a pillory and tumbrel, or it will be
the caule of tor feature of the leetj and a village tnav be
bound by preftription to provide a pillory, &c. 2 Hawk.
P.C. 73.
PiLOT, the officer who fuperintend> the navigation,
either upon the lea-coaft or on the main ocean. L is,
however, more particularly applied by our mariners to
the perfon charged with the direction of a Ihip’s courfe
on or near the lea-coaft, and into the roads, bays, rivers,
havens, &c. within his refpeCtive diftriCL
Pilots of (hips, taking upon them to conduct any ftiip
from Dover, &.c. to any place up the river Thames, are
to be firft examined and approved bv the matter and
Wardens of the fociety of Trinity Houfe, &c. or fhall
forfeit lol. for the firft offence, 20I. for the fecond, and
40I. for every other offence; one moiety to the infor¬
mer, the other to the matter and wardens 5 but any
matter or mate of a fliip may pilot his own vd el up the
river : and if any ftiip be loft through the negligence of
any pilot, he ftiall be for ever after difabled to a£t as a
pilot. 3 Geo. I. c. 13. Alfo the lord-warden of the
cinque ports may make rules for the government of pi¬
lots, and order a fufficient number to ply at fea to con¬
duct fhips up to the Thames: 7 Geo. I. c. 21. No
perfon tball aft as a pilot on the Thames, &e. (except
in collier ftiips) without a licence from the mafter and
wardens of Trinity Houfe at Deptford, on pain of for¬
feiting 20I. And pilots are to be fubjeft to the go¬
vernment of that corporation ; and pay ancient dues,
not exceeding is. in the pound, out of wages, for the
ufe of the poor thereof. Stat. 5 Geo. II. c. 20.
By the former laws of France, no perfon could be re¬
ceived as pilot till he had made feveral voyages and paf-
fed a ftrifl examination j and after that, on his return
in long voyages, he was obliged to lodge a copy of his
journal in the- admiralty 5 and if a pilot occafioned the
lofs of a ftiip, he had to pay 100 livres fine, and to be
for ever deprived of the exercife of pilotage •, and if h'e
did it defignedly, be punilhed with death. Lex Mercat.
The laws of Oleron ordain, That if any pilot defign¬
edly mifguide a ftiip, that it may be call away, he fhall
be put to a rigorous death, and hung in chains: and if
the lord of a place, where a ftiip be thus loft, abet fuch
villains in order to have a ftiare of the xvreck, he ftiall
be apprehended, and all his goods forfeited for the fa-
tisfaflion of the perfons fuffering; and his perfon (hall
be faftened to a ftake in the midft of his own manfion,
which, being fired on the four corners, (hall be burned
to the ground, and he with it. Leg. 01. c. 25. And
if the fault of a pilot be fo notorious that the ftiip’serew
fee an apparent wreck, they may lead him to the hatches,
and ftrike off his head ; but the common law denies this
hafty execution : an ignorant pilot is fentenced to pafs
thrice under the ftiip’s keel by the laws of Denmark.
hex Mercat. 70.
The regulations with regard to pilots in the royal na-
Vy are as follow : “ The commanders of the king’s (hips,
in order to give all reafonable encouragement to fo ufe-
ful a body of men as pilots, and to remove all their ob
4 A 2 jefHonT
p I L [ 55<> 1 P I M
Pilot, je&xons to his majefty’s fervice, are ftri^ly charged to
•—v' treat them with good ufage, and an equal refpedt with
warrant-officers.
“ The purfer of the fhip is always to have a fet of
bedding provided on board for the pilots j and the cap¬
tain is to order the boatfwain to fupply them with ham¬
mocks, and a convenient place to lie in, near their du¬
ty, and apart from the common men j which bedding
and hammocks are to be returned when the pilots leave
the fhip.
“ A pilot, when conducing one of his majefty’s
fliips in pilot water, fhall have the foie charge and com¬
mand of the fhip, and may give orders for fleering, fet-
ting, trimming, or furling the fails ; tacking the ftiip }
or whatever concerns the navigation •, and the captain
is to take care that all the officers and crew obey his
orders. But the captain is diligently to obferve the con¬
duct of the pilot j and if he judges him to behave fo ill
as to bring the fhip into danger, he may remove him
from the command and charge of the fhip, and take fuch
methods for her prefervation as fhall be judged necef-
fary ; remarking upon the log book, the exact hour and
time when the pilot was removed from his office, and the
reafons affigned for it.
“ Captains of the king’s fhips, employing pilots in
foreign parts of his majefty’s dominions, fhall, after per¬
formance of the fervice, give a certificate thereof to the
pilot, which being produced to the proper naval officer,
he fhall caufe the fame to be immediately paid *, but if
there be no naval officer there, the captain of his ma¬
jefty’s fhip fhall pay him, and fend the proper vouchers,
with his bill, to the navy-board, in order to be paid as
bills of exchange.
“ Captains of his majefty’s (hips, employing foreign
pilots to carry the fhips they command into or out of
foreign ports, fhall pay them the rates due by the efta-
blilhment or cuftom of the country, before they difeharge
them : whofe receipts being duly vouched, and lent,
with a certificate of the fervice performed, to the navy-
board, they fhall caufe them to be paid with the fame
exa6tnefs as they do bills of exchange.” Regulations
and Injlru&ions of the Sea-fervice, &c.
PILOT-Fij}}. See Gasterosteus, Ichthyology
Index.
Ofbec tells us, that they are (haped like thofe mack¬
erels which have a tranfverfe line upon the body.
4< Sailors (continues he) give them the name of pilots,
becaufe they clofely follow the dog-fifh, fwimming in
great fhoals round it on all fides. It is thought that
they point out fome prey to the dog-fifh. They are not
only not touched, but alfo preferved by it againft all
their enemies.
It likewife follows the fhark, apparently for the pur-
pofe of devouring the remains of its prey. It is pre¬
tended that it afts as its pilot. The manner in which it
attends the fhark, according to M. Daubenton, may
have given rife to this name. It is faid to fwim at the
height of a foot and a half from the fnout of this vora¬
cious animal, to follow and imitate all its movements,
and to feize with addrefs every part of its prey which
the fhark allows to efcape, and which is light enough to
buoy up towards the furface of the watei. When the
Lhark, which has its mouth below, turns to f< izt any
fifti, the pilot-fifh ftarts away j but as foon a^ the fhark
r.efumes his ordinary pofition, it returns to its former
place. It is faid, that in the gulf of Guinea thofe Pilot i
fifties follow fhips for the fake of the offals and human , II
excrements j and hence the Dutch give them the name ,Pimento- '
of dung-fijh. It is remarkable, that though fo fmall they * k
can keep pace with fhips in their fwifteft courfe.
PILTEN, a divifion of Courland, which lies in
Courland properly fo called, derives its name from the
ancient caftle or palace of Pilten, built by Valdemar II.
king of Denmark about the year 1220, when he found¬
ed a bifhop’s fee in this country for the more effeftual
converfion of its Pagan inhabitants. This diftrift af¬
terwards fucceflively belonged to the Germans, then
again to the king of Denmark, the duke of Courland,
and to Poland 5 and by virtue of the inftrument of re¬
gency drawn up for this diftridt in the year 1717, the
government is lodged in feven Polifh fenators or coun-
fellors, from whom an appeal lies to the king. The bx~
fhop of Samogitia alfo ftyles himfelf bilhop of Pilten.
The moft remarkable part of this diftridt is the pro*
montoxy of Domefnefs, which projefts northward into
the gulf of Livonia. From this cape, a fand-bank runs
four German miles farther into the fea, half of which
lies under water, and cannot be difeerned. To the eaft;
of this promontory is an unfathomable abyfs, which is
never obferved to be agitated. For the fafety of veffels
bound to Livonia, two fquare beacons have been erected
on the coatt, near Domefnefs church, oppofite to the
fand bank, and facing each other. One of thefe is twelve
fathoms high, and the other eight ; and a large fire is
kept burning on them from the firft of Auguft to the
firft of January. When the mariners fee thefe fires ap¬
pear as one in a direct line, they may conclude that
they are clear of the extremity of the fand bank, and
eonfequently out of danger j but if they fee both bea-1
cons, they are in dangel- of running upon it. The dif-
tri£t of Pilten contains feven parifhes, but no towns
worthy of notice. The inhabitants are chiefly of the
Lutheran perfuafion.
PILUM, a milfive weapon ufed by the Roman fol*
diers, and in a charge darted upon the enemy. Its
point, we are told by Polybius, was fo long and fmall,
that after the firft difeharge it was generally fo bent as *
to be rendered ufelefs. The legionary foldiers made ufe
of the pilum, and each man carried two. The pilum
underwent many alterations and improvements, infomuch
that it is impoflible with any precilion to deferibe it.
Julius Scaliger laboured much to give an accurate ac¬
count of it, and Avould have efteemed fuccefs on this
head amongft the greateft bleflings of his life. This
weapon appears, however, to have been fometimes round*
but moft commonly fquare, to have been two cubits long
in the ftaff, and to have had an iron point of the fame
length hooked and jagged at the end. Marius made a
material improvement in it 5 for during the Cimbrian
war, he fo contrived it. that when it ftuck in the ene¬
mies {hield it ftxould bend down in an angle in the part
where the wood was connected with the iron, and thus
become ufelefs to the perfon who received it.
PIMENTO, Piemento, Jamaica Pepper, or J//-
fpice, a ipecies of myrtus. See Myrtus, Botany In¬
dex.
“ The pimento trees grow fpontaneoufly, and in
great abundance, in many parts of Jamaica, but more
particularly on hilly fituations near the fea, on the
northern fide of that ifland 3 where they form the
moft'
P I M
f 557 ]
PIN
■ento
II
nple.
moft delicious groves that can poflibly be imagined j
filling the air with fragrance, and giving reality, though
in a very diftant part of the globe, to our great poet’s
defcription of thole balmy gales which convey to the
delighted voyager
‘ Sabean odours from the fpicy Ihore
‘ Of Araby the bleft.
‘ Cheer’d with the grateful fmell, old ocean fmiles.’
« This tree is purely a child of nature, and feems to
mock all the labours of man in his endeavours to extend
or improve its growth: not one attempt in fifty to pro¬
pagate the young plants, or to raife them from the feeds,
in parts of the country where it is not found growing
fpontaneoufly, having fucceeded. The ufual method of
forming a new pimento plantation (in Jamaica it is cal¬
led a walk) is nothing more than to appropriate a piece
of woodland, in the neighbourhood of a plantation al¬
ready exifting, or in a country where the fcattered trees
are found in a native ftate, the woods of which being
fallen, the trees are fuffered to remain on the ground
till they become rotten and perilh. In the courfe of
twelve months after the firit feafon, abundance of young
pimento plants will be found growing vigoroufly in all
parts of the land, being without doubt produced from
ripe berries fcattered there by the birds, while the fallen
trees, &c. afford them both Ihelter and (hade. At the
end of two years it will be proper to give the land a
thorough cleanfing, leaving fuch only of the pimento
trees as have a good appearance, which will then foon
form fuch groves as thofe I have defcribed, and except
perhaps for the firft four or five years, require very little
attention afterwards.
“ Soon after the. trees are in bloffom, the berries be¬
come fit for gathering •, the fruit not being fuffered to
ripen on the tree, as the pulp in that ftate, being moift
and glutinous, is difficult to cure, and when dry be¬
comes black and taftelefs. It is impoffible, however, to
prevent fome of the ripe berries from mixing with the
reft *, but if the proportion of them be great, the price
of the commodity is confiderably injured.
“ It is gathered by the hand ; one labourer on the
tree, employed in gathering the fmall branches, will
give employment to three below (who are generally
women and children) in picking the berries ; and an
induftrious picker will fill a bag of yolbs. in the day.
The returns from a pimento walk in a favourable
feafon are prodigious. A fingle tree has been known
to yield l5olbs. of the raw fruit, or one cwt. of the
dried fpice *, there being commonly a lofs in weight of
one third in curing •, but this, like many other of the
minor prodmftions, is exceedingly uncertain, and per¬
haps a very plenteous crop occurs but once in five
years.”
PIMPINELL A, Burnet Saxifrage 5 a genus of
plants belonging to the pentandria clafs. See Botany
Index.
PIMPLE, in Medicine, a fmall puftule arifing on
the face. Bv mixing equal quantities of the juice of
houfe-leek (fedum minus), paffed through paper, and of
fpirit of wine retlified by itfelf, a white coagulum of a
very volatile nature is formed, which Dr Bughart com¬
mends for curing pimples of the face j and fays, that
the thin liquor feparated from it with fugar-candy is
m in
the
an excellent remedy for thick vifcid phleg
breaft.
PIN, in commerce, a little neceffary inftrument made
of brafs-wire, chiefly ufed by women in faftening and
adjufting their drefs.
In the year 1543, by ftatute 34 and 35 of Henry
VIII. cap. 6. it was enabled, “ That no perfon ftiall
put to fale any pinnes but only fuch as fliall be double¬
headed, and have the heads foldered fall to the (hank
of the pins, well fmoothed, the (hank well-fhapen, the
points well and round filed, cauted, and Iharpened.”
From the above extraft it Humid appear that the art of
pin-making was but of late invention, probably intro¬
duced from France j and that our manufactories fince
that period have wonderfully improved.
Though pins are apparently fimple, their manufacture
is, however, not a little curious and complex. We lhall
therefore give our readers an account ef it from Ellis’s
Campagna of London.
“ When the brafs-wire, of which the pins are form¬
ed, is firft received at the manufactory, it is generally
too thick for the purpofe of being cut into pins. 1 he
firft operation therefore is that of winding it off from,
one wheel to another with great velocity, and caufing
it to pafs between the two, through a circle in a piece
of iron of fmaller diameter: the wire being thus redu¬
ced to its proper dimenfions, is ftraitened by drawing
it between iron pins, fixed on a board in a zig-zag
manner, but fo as to leave a ftraight line between them:
afterwards it is cut into lengths of three or four yards?
and then into fmaller ones, every length being fufficient
to make fix pins *, each end ot thele is ground to a
point, which was performed when I viewed the manu¬
factory by boys who fat each with two fmall grinding
(tones before him, turned by a wheel. Taking up a
handful, he applies the ends to the coarfeft of the two
ft ones, being careful at the fame time to keep each
piece moving round between his fingers, fo that the
points may not become flat: he then gives them a
fmoother and (harper point, by applying them to the
other (tone, and by that means a lad of 1 2 or 14 years-
of age is enabled to point about 16.000 pins in an
hour. When the wire is thus pointed, a pin is taken
off from each end, and this is repeated till it is cut in¬
to fix pieces. The next operation is that of forming
the heads, or, as they term it, headfpinning which is
done by means of a fpinning-wheel, one piece of wire
being thus with aftoniftiing rapidity wound round an¬
other, and the interior one being drawn out, leaves a
hollow tube between the circumvolutions: it is then
cut with (heers j every two circumvolutions or turns
of the w ire forming one head •, thefe are foftened by
throwing them into iron pans, and placing them in a
furnace till they are red hot. As foon as they are
cold, they are diftributed to children, who fit with
anvils and hammers before them, which they work
with their feet, by means of a lathe, and taking
up one of the lengths, they thrurt the blunt end
into a quantity of the heads w'hich lie before them,
and catching one at the extremity, they apply them
immediately to the anvil and hammer, and by a
motion or two of the foot, the point and the head
are fixed togther in much lefs time than can it be
defcribed, and with a dexterity only to be acquired
by practice 5 the fpe&ator being in continual apprehen-
fi«m
Pimple,-
Pin.
PIN [ 558 ] PIN
Fin fion for the fafety of their fingers ends. The pin is
Jj ^ now finifhed as to its form, but ftill it is merely brafs j
  . it is therefore thrown into a copper, containing a folu-
tion of tin and the leys of wine. Here it remains for
fome time ; and when taken out affumes a white though
dull appearance : in order therefore to give it a polifh,
it is put into a tub containing a quantity of bran, which
is fet in motion by turning a fhaft that runs through its
centre, and thus by means of friction it becomes per¬
fectly bright. The pin being complete, nothing re¬
mains but to feparate it from the bran, which is perfor¬
med by a mode exactly fimilar to the winnowing of
corn ; the bran flying oif and leaving the pin behind fit
for immediate fale. I was the more pleafed with this
manufactory, as it appeared to afford employment to a
number of children of both fexes, who are thus not only
prevented from acquiring the habits of idlenefs and vice,
but are on the contrary initiated in their early years in
thofe of a beneficial and virtuous induftry .” See Nee¬
dles.
PINACIA, among the Athenians, were tablets of
brafs inferibed with the names of all thofe citizens in
each tribe who were duly qualified and willing to be
judges of the court of Areopagus. Thefe tablets were
call into a velfel provided for the purpofe, and the fame
number of beans, a hundred being white and all the reft
black, were thrown into another. Then the names of
the candidates and the beans were drawn out one by one,
and they whofe names were drawn out together with the
white beans were eleCted judges or fenators. In So¬
lon’s time there were only four tribes, each of which
chofe 100 fenators *, but the number of tribes afterwards
increafing, the number of fenators and judges increafed
to fo many hundreds more.
PINANG, the Chinefe name of the Areca Catechu
Lin. See Arf.ca, Botany Index.
PINCHBECK, a factitious metallic fubftanee, or an
alloy of zinc three parts, and of copper, four. See Che¬
mistry Index.
PINDAR, the prince of lyric poets, was born at
Thebes, about 520 years B. C. He received his firft
mufical inftruftions from his father, who was a flute-
player by profeffion ; after which, according to Sui-
. das, he was placed under Myrtis, a lady of diftrnguifh-
ed abilities in lyric poetry. It was during this period
that he became acquainted with the poetefs Corinna,
who was likewife a ftudent under Myitis. Plutarch
tells us, that Pindar profited from the lelfons which
Corinna, more advanced in her fludies, gave him at
this fchool. It is very natural to fuppofe, that the
firft poetical effufions of a genius fo full of fire and
imagination as that of Pindar would be wild and luxu¬
riant *, and Lucian has preferved fix verfes, faid to
have been the exordium of his firft eflay 5 in which he
crowded almoft all the fubjefts for long which ancient
hiftory and mythology then furnifhed. Upon commu¬
nicating this attempt to Corinna, ftie told him fmilmg,
that he fhould fow with the band, and not empty his
whole Tack at once. Pindar, however, foon quitted Pindar
the leading firings of thefe ladies, his poetical nurfes
and became the difeiple oi Simonides, now arrived at
extreme old age : after which he foon furpaffed all his
mafters, and acquired gieat reputation over all Greece ;
but, like a true prophet, he was lefs honoured in his
own country than elfewhere ; for at Thebes he was fre¬
quently pronounced to be vanquilhed, in the mufical and
poetical contefts, by candidates of inferior merit.
The cuftom of having thefe public trials of fkill in
all the great cities of Greece was now fo prevalent,
that but little fame was to be acquired by a mufician
or poet any other way than by entering the lifts :
and. we find, that both Myrtis and Corinna publicly
difputed the prize with him at Thebes. He obtained
a vidh.ry over Myrtis, but was vanquifhed five dif¬
ferent times by Corinna. The judges, upon occafions
like thefe, have been frequently aeeufed of partiality or
ignorance, not only by the vanquifhed, but by pofte-
rity ; and if the merit of Pindar was pronounced in¬
ferior to that of Corinna five feveral times, it was,
fays Paufanias, becaufe the judges were more ftniible
to the charms of beauty than to thofe of mafic and poe¬
try (a). Was it not ftrange, faid the Scythian Ana-
charfis, that the Grecian artifts were never judged by
artifts, their peers ?
Pindar, before he quitted Thebes, had the vexa¬
tion to fee his Dithyrambics traduced, abufed, and
turned into ridicule, by the comic poets of his time:
and Athenaeus tells us, that he was feverely cenfured
by bis brother lyrics, for being a lipogrammatifl, and
compofing an ode from which he had excommunicated
the letter S. Whether thefe cenfures proceeded from
envy or contempt cannot now be determined ; but
they were certainly ufeful to Pindar, and it was necef-
fary that he fhould be lafhed for fuch puerilities.
Thebes feems to have been the purgatory of our
young bard : when he quitted that city, as his judge¬
ment was matured, he avoided moft of the errors for
which he had been chaftifed, and fuddenly became the
wonder and delight of all Greece. Every hero, prince,
and potentate, defirous of lafting fame, courted the mufe
of Pindar.
He feems frequently to have been prefent at the
four great fellivals, of the Olympian, Pythian, Netnean,
and Ifthmian games, as may be inferred from ftveral ch-
cumftances and expreflions in the odes which he eom-
pofed for the viftors in them all. Thofe at Olympia,
who were ambitious of having their achievements cele¬
brated by Pindar, applied to him for an ode, which was
firft fung in the Prytaneum or town-hall of Olympia,
where there was a banqueting room, fet apart for the
entertainment of the conquerors. Here the ode was re-
hearfed by a chorus, accompanied by inftruments. It
was afterwards performed in the fame manner at the
triumphal entry of the viftor into his own country, in
proceflions, or at the facrifices that were made with great
pomp and folemnity on the occafion.
Pindar,
(a! aulanias .ays, that Corinna was one of the moft beautiful women of her time, as he judged by a pic<
tun. id icr w uch he aw a. 1 anagris at the place where the public exercifes were performed. She was re-
pniente with her ncad ornamented by a riband, as a memorial of the vi£lories ftie had obtained over Pindar at
I hebes.
P I N
Jar. Pindar, in his fecond Ifthmian ode, has apologized for
r—' the mercenary cuftom among poets, of receiving money
for their compofitions. “ The world (fays he) is grown
interefted, and thinks in general with the Spartan
philofopher Ariftodemus, that money only makes the
man; a truth which this fage himfelf experienced, ha¬
ving with his riches loft all his friends.” It is fuppofed
that Pindar here alludes to the avarice of Simonides,
who firft allowed his mufe to fell her favours to the
higheft bidder. v.
There is no great poet in antiquity whofe moral
charafter has been lei's cenfured than that of Pindar.
Plutarch has preferved a fingle verfe of his Epicedium
or Dirge that was fung at his funeral ; which, ihort
and fimple as it is, implies great praife : This man was
pleafing to Jlrangers, and dear to his fellow-citizens.
His works abound with precepts of the pureft morality:
and it does not appear that he ever traduced even his
enemies; comforting himfelf, for their malignity, by a
maxim which he inferted in his firft Pythic, and which
afterwards became proverbial, That it is better to be en¬
vied than pitied.
Paufanias fays, that the character of poet was truly
confecrated, in the perfon of Pindar, by the god of
verfe himfelf; who w'as pleafed, by an exprefs oracle,
to order the inhabitants of Delphos to fet apart for
Pindar one half of the firft-fruit offerings brought by
the religious to his (brine, and to allow him a confpi-
cuous place in his temple, where, in an iron chair, he
ufed to fit and fing his hymns in honour of that god.
This chair was remaining in the time of Paufanias,
feveral centuries after, and (liown to him as a relick
not unworthy of the fan&ity and magnificence of that
place.
But though Pindar’s mufe was penfioned at Delphos,
and well paid by princes and potentates elfewhere, (Ire
feems, however, fometimes to have fung the fponta-
neous drains of pure friendftrip. Of this kind were,
probably, the verfes bellowed upon the mufieian Mi¬
das, of Agrigentum in Sicilv, who had twice obtained
the palm of victory by his performance on the flute
at the Pythic games (b). It is in his 12th Pythic ode
that Pindar celebrates the v lift or y of Midas over all
Greece, upon that inf rumen t which Minerva herfelf had
invented (c).
Fabricius tells us, that Pindar lived to the age of
90; and, according to the chronology of Dr Blair, he
died 43 5 years B. C. aged 86. His fellow citizens
eredfted a monument to him in the Hippodrome at
Thebes, which was ftill fubfifting in the time of Pau¬
fanias; and his renown was fo great after his death,
that his pofterity derived very confiderable honours and
privileges from it. When Alexander the Great at-
P I N
tacked the city of Thebes, he gave exprefs orders to Piwtar
his foldiers to fpare the houfe and family of Pindar. p-^s
I he Lacedaemonians had done the fame before this pe- ■
riod; for when they ravaged Boeotia and burned the
capital, the following words were written upon the
door of the poet : Eorbear to burn this houfe ; it was
the dwelling of Pindar. Reipedl for the memory of
this great poet continued fo long, that, even in Plu¬
tarch’s time, the beft part of the facred vidlim at the
Theoxenian feftival was appropriated to his defeend-
ants.
PINDARIC ode, in Poetry, an ode formed in
imitation of the manner of Pindar. See Poetry, N°
136, &c.
PINDUS, in Ancient Geography, not a fingle moun¬
tain, but a chain of mountains, inhabited by different
people of Epirus and Theffaly ; feparating Macedonia,
Theffaly, and Epirus : An extenfive chain, having Ma¬
cedonia to the north, the Perrhoebi to the weft, the Do-
lopes to the fouth, and the mountain itfelf of Theffaly
(Strabo).
PlNDUS, a Doric city of ^Etolia, fituated on the
cognominal river, which fells into the Cephiffus (Stra^
bo).
PINE, in Botany. See Pinus, Botany Index.
PlNE-Apple. See BromELIA, Botany Index ; and
for an account of the mode of cultivating the pine-apple,
fee Gardening.
PINEA, or PiGNE, in commerce, is a term ufed in
Peru and Chili, for a kind of light, porous maffes, or
lumps, for med of a mixture of mercury and filver-duft
from the mines. The ore, or mineral,, of filver, when
dug out of the veins of the mine, is firft broken and then
ground in mills for the purpofe, driven by water with
iron peftles, each of 200 pounds weight. 'The mineral,
when thus pulverized, is next lifted, and then worked
up with water into a pafte ; which, when half dry, is
cut into pieces, called cuerpos. a foot long, weighing
each about 2500 pounds.
Each piece or cuerpo is again kneaded up with fea-
falt, which, diffolving, incorporates with it. They
then add mercury, from 10 to 20 pounds for each
cuerpo, kneading the pafte afrefh until the mercury
be incorporated therewith. This office, which is ex¬
ceedingly dangerous on account of the noxious quali¬
ties of the mercury, is always made the lot of the poor
Indians. This amalgamation is continued for eight or
nine days ; and fome add lime, lead, or tin ore, &c. to
forward it; and, in fume mines, they are obliged to
ufe fire. To try whether or no the mixture and a-
malgamation be fufficient, they wadi a piece in water ;
and if the mercury be white, it is a proof that it has
had its effed : if black, it muft be ftill farther work¬
ed.
I 5S9 ]
(r) I his Midas is a very different perfonage from his long-eared majefty of Phrygia, whofe decifion in fa¬
vour of Pan had given fueh offence to Apollo; as is manifeft, indeed, from his having been cotemporary with
Pmdar.
(c) Fhe moft extraordinary part of this mufician’s performance that can be gathered from the feboliaft
upon Pindar, wTas his finifhing the folo, without a reed or mouth piece, which broke accidentally while he was
playing. The legendary account given by the poet in this ode, of the occafion upon which the flute was in¬
vented by Minerva, is diverting : “ It was (fay*- be) to imitate the howling of the Gorgons, and the biffing
of their fnakes, w hich the goddefs had heard when the head of Medufa (one of thefe three anti-graces) was cut
@ff by Perfeus.”
2
PIN [ 560 ] PIN
'Pinea ed. When finiflied, it is fent to the lavatories, -which
p 11^ are large bafons that empty lacce(lively into one ano-
lut 1' . ther. The paile, &c. being laid in the uppermoft of
thefe, the earth is then waihed from it into the reft by
a rivulet turned upon it ; an Indian, all the while, ftir-
ring it with his feet, and two other Indians doing the
like in the other bafons. When the water runs quite
clear out of the bafons, the mercury and filverare found
at bottom incorporated. This matter they call pclla,
and of this they form the pineas, by exprefling as much
of the mercury as they can j firft, by putting it in
woollen bags, and prefling and beating it ftrongly j
then, by-ftamping it in a kind of wooden mould, of
an odiagonal form, at bottom whereof is a brafs plate
pierced full of little holes. The matter, when taken out
of the mould, is laid on a trivet, under which is a large
vefiel full of Avater •, and the Avhole being covered with
an earthen head, a fire is made round it.
The mercury dill remains in the mafs, and is thus
reduced into fumes, and, at length, condenling, it is
precipitated into the water, leaving behind it a mafs
of filver grains of different figures, Avhich, only joining
or touching at the extremes, render the matter very
porous and light. This, therefore, is the pinea, or
pigne, which the Avorkmen endeavour to fell fecretly
to veffels trading to the South fea j and from which
ihofe, who have ventured to engage in fo dangerous a
commerce, have made fuch vaft gains. Indeed the
traders herein muft be very careful ; for the Spanifli
miners are arrant knaves, and to make the pignes
weigh the more, they often fill the middle with fand
or iron.
PINEAL gland. See Brain, Anatomy Index,
PINE AU, Gabriel du, a diftinguifhed lawyer, Avas
born at Angers in 1573. He Avent aftenvards to
Paris, and pled Avith eclat before the parliament and
great council. Upon his return to Angers, he became
-a counfellor in the prefidial court. He Avas confulted
by all the neighbouring provinces, and had an active
hand in all the great affairs of his time. Mary de Me-
dicis conferred upon him the office of matter of re-
quefts, and in her difgrace Avifhed to fupport herfelf
by his credit and cpunfels ; fyut Du Pineau, ahvays at¬
tentive tp what he orved on the one hand to the mo¬
ther of his king, and on the other to the king himfelf,
never ceafed to infpire that princefs with fentiments of
peace.
In 1632 Louis XIII. by Avay of reward, appointed
him mayor and captain-general of the city of Angers j
a fituation in Avhich he merited the flattering title of
"Father of the People. He had no refpedt of perfons j
for he Avas equally acceflible to the poor and the great.
This Avorthy citizen died the 15th of O&ober 1-644,
at the age of 71. His houfe was a kind of academy,
where regular conferences Avere held, and attended by
young officers, advocates, and other literary charafters.
In thofe conferences every one freely ftated the diffi¬
culties Avhich occurred to him upon fubie&s either of
larv or hiftory ; and when Pineau fpbke, all Avas made
clear ; but he was always the laff in delivering hisfenti-
ments, becaufe he perceived that too much deference
was paid to his opinion. His writings are, 1, Latin
notes, in addition to thofe of Du Moulin, upon the ca¬
pon law, and printed along with the works of that
eminent laAvyer by the care of Francis Pinfon. 2. Com¬
mentaries, obfervations, and confultations, upon feveral Plmn
important queftions refpefting- the laAvs both of Anjou II
and of France, with fome differtations upon different Pine^
fubje<fts, &c. reprinted in 1725, in 2 vols folio, by the
care of Livoniere, Avho has enriched them Avith very
ufeful remarks. The editor fays, that “ Du Pineau
is a little inferior to the celebrated Du Moulin on the
civil law, but that he is more accurate than the other
upon the canon law.”—Menage made thefe tAvo verfes
upon his death :
Pinellus periit, Themidis plus i!!e facerdosy
In propria judex limine perpetuus.
PINEDA, John, a Avriter of hiflory, Avas born at Se¬
ville of a noble family, and entered into the fociety of
Jefuits in 1572. He taught philofophy and divinity in
feveral colleges } and devoted his time to the ftudy of
the Holy Scriptures. That he might render that ftudy
the eafier, he made himfelf mafter of the oriental lan¬
guages. We have of his Avritings, 1. Two volumes of
Commentaries upon the book of Job, in folio. 2. Tavo
upon Ecclefiaftes. 3. A General Hiftory of the Church,
ip Spanifli, 4 vol. in folio. 4. A Hiftory of Ferdi¬
nand III. in the fame language, in folio. He died in
1637, much regretted by the members of his fociety,
and by the public in general.
PINELLI, John Vincent, a diftinguiftied literary
charafler, Avas born at Naples, and was fon of Count
Pinelli, a noble Genoefe, who had fettled in that city,
and had acquired a handfome fortune in the way of
trade. After receiving a liberal education, he quitted
the place of his nativity, and repaired to Padua, where
he took up his refidence at the age of 24. Being a
great lover of fcience, he gave a preference to that city
on account of its famous univerfity, which brought to it
a number of learned men. He had an excellent library,
Avhich conjifted of a choice colleftion of books and ma-
nuferipts, and which he continued to enrich till the
hour of his death. His literary correfpondence, not on¬
ly in Italy, but through the moft of Europe, procured
him all the new works Avhidh were worthy of a place in
his colleftion. The authors themfelves Avere often for¬
ward to pay their refpe&s to him. In many cities of
Italy he had perfons employed to fearch, at lead once a
month, the ft alls of thofe artificers who make ufe of old
parchments, fuch as lute-makers, fieveAvrights, and
others \ and by this means he had the good fortune
often to fave from deftruflion fome valuable fragments.
His paflion for knoAvledge embraced all the fciences
but hiftory, medals, antiquities, natural hiftory, and par¬
ticularly botany, were his favourite ftudies. He was
confulted from all quarters, and the extent of his ac¬
quaintance Avith the learned Avorld was very great. He
correfponded with Juftus Lipfius, Jofeph Scaliger, Si-
gonius, Puffevin, Peter Pithou, and a great many
others, who have all paid the higheft compliments to
his erudition. Infenfible to all the pleafures of life, and
acquainted only with thofe of the mind, he had a great
diflike to plays, entertainments, fhows, and every thing
which moft excites the curiofity of ether men. During
the fpace of 43 years that he lived at Padua, he Avas
never known to be out of the city but twice; once on
occafion of a plague Avhich infefted it ; and afterwards
on a voyage to Naples, which he made at the earned
felicitation of his friends. In Ihort, Pinelli Avas gener¬
ous
PIN [ 561 ] PIN
inelli ous, fympathizing, and compaflionate, particularly to
II men of letters, whofe wants he often anticipated. His
I 3 |’^an**zeal for the progrefs and advancement of fcience render-
» v j ed him very communicative of his knowledge and of his
books $ but this was always done with judgment and
difcretion. He died in 1601, aged 63, without having
publifhed any work. Paul Gualdo, who has written
Pinelli’s life, does not fpecify the number of volumes
of which his rich library confided : he only informs us,
that when it was tranfported by fea to Naples, it was
packed up in 130 chefts, of which 14 contained manu¬
scripts j but it did not go wholly to his heirs. The
Senate ot Venice caufed their Seal to be Set upon the
manufcripts, and took away whatever concerned the
affairs of the republic, to the number of 200 pieces.—
“ I compare (fays Prefident de Thou) Pinelli to Titus
Pomponius j for, as that illuftrious Roman was called
Attick, Pinelli alfo bore the title of Venetian, on account
of the great affection which the republic of Venice had
for him.
- PINET, Antony du, lord of Noroy, an ecclefiafti-
cal writer, who lived in the 16th century, and was a na¬
tive of Befan^on in France. He was flrongly attached
to the Proteftant religion, and a bitter enemy to the
church of Rome. His book, entitled La Conformite dcs
Eglifes Reformes de France, et de P Eg life primitive,
printed at Lyons, 1564, in 8vo ; and the notes which he
added to the French tranilation of the Fees of the Pope’s
Chancery, which was printed at Lyons, in Svo, 1564,
and reprinted at Amiferdam in 1700, in l2mo, plainly
difcover his Sentiments. He publifhed the laft-mention-
ed performance under this title: Taxs des parties ca-
fue/les de la boutique du Pape, in Latin and French, with
fome notes taken from decrees, councils, and canons, in
order to afcertain the difcipline anciently obferved in
the church. In the epiftle dedicatory, he affumes the
tone of a declared enemy to the court of Rome. He
apologizes for having prefented this book “ to a fociety
fo holy as yours (the Proteftants), in which are hegrd
only hymns, pfalms, and praifes, to the Lord our God :
but it is proper to (how to the villain his villany, and
the fool his folly, left one Should be thought to re-
femble them.” We fee by this Specimen, that Pinet
had no more politenefs in his ftyle than in his manners.
His tranflation of Pliny’s Natural Hiftory, printed at
Lyons in 2 vol. folio, 1566, and at Paris, 1608, was
formerly much read. Though there are many errors
in it, it is yet very ufeful, efpecially for tbofe who do
not underftand Pliny’s Latin, on account of the tranf-
lators refearches, and a great number of marginal notes.
Pinet alfo publifhed “ Plans of the principal fortreffes
' tfieds in the world,” at Lyons, 1564, in folio,
1 'leral. PING-leang-fou, a city of China in the pro-
kription vince 0f Chen-fi. It is one of the moft confiderable
Tj p ’ eities of the weftern part of the province, and is Si¬
tuated on the river Kin-ho. The air here is mild 5
and the agreeable views which the furrounding moun¬
tains prefent, added to the Streams which water the
country, render it a very delightful refidence. It has
under its jurifdi£tion three cities of the fecond clafs
and feven of the third. In this diftri£t is a valley fo
deep and narrow, that it is almoft impervious to the
light : a large highway, paved with fquare Stones, runs
through it.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
PINGUICULA, ButterWort; a genus of plants PinguicuL
belonging to the diandria clafs. See Botanyp. “
PINGUIN, or Penguin, in Ornithology, a genus of! Inm'^u'riis;
birds of the order anleres. See Aptenodytes, Orni¬
thology Index, or page 507.
PINION, in Mechanics, an arbor, or fpindle, in the
body whereof are feveral notches, which catch the teeth
of a wheel that ferves to turn it round •, or it is a leffer
wheel that plays in the teeth of a larger.
PINK, a name given to a Ship with a very narrow
ftern ; whence all veffels, however fmall, whofe Sterns
are fafhioned in this manner, are called pink-Jlerned.
Pink. See Dianthus, Botany Index.
PINNA, in Zoology, a genus of Shell-fifti belonging
to the order of vermes teftacea. See Conchology In¬
dex.—Pliny, who gives fome account, perhaps not very
correft, of the hiftory of fome of the fpecies of this ge¬
nus (lib. ix. 51.) fays, the fmalieft of all the kinds is
called the pinnoteres, and therefore liable to injury j
this has the prudence to hide itfelf in the Shells of oy-
fters. Again, lib. ix. 66. he Says, the pinna is of the
genus of ihell-iiih ; it is produced in muddy waters, al¬
ways ere£t, nor ever without a companion, which fome
call the pinnoteres, others the pinnophylax. This fome-
times is a fmall fquill, fometimes a crab, that follows
the pinna for the fake of food. The pinna, upon open¬
ing its Shell, expofes itfelf as a prey to the Smallest
kind of fiihes •, for they immediately ailault her, and,
growing bolder upon finding no refiftance, venture in.
The guard, watching its time, gives notice by a bite 5
upon which the pinna, clofing its Shell, Shuts in, kills,
and gives part of whatever happens to be there to its-
companion.
The pinna and the crab together dwell,
For mutual fuccour, in one common Shell.
They both to gain a livelihood combine j
That takes the prey, when this has given the Sign.
From hence this crab, above his fellows fam’d,
By ancient Greeks was pinnoteres nam’d.—Oppian.
PINNACE, a fmall veffel navigated with oars and
fails, and having generally two malts, which are rigged
like thofe of a fchooner.
Pinnace is alfo a boat ufually rowed with eight oars.
See the article Boat.
PINNACLE, in ArchiteSlure, the top or roof of
a houfe, terminating in a point. This kind of roof
among the ancients was appropriated to temples ; their
ordinary roofs were all flat, or made in the platform
way.
PINNATED leaves. See Botany Index.
PINNATIFID leaves. See Botany Index.
PINNOTERUS, or Pinnophylax, is a kind of
crab-fiSh, furnished with very good eyes. It is faid to
be the companion of the pinna marina. They live
and lodge together in the fame Shell, which belongs to
the latter. When it has occafion to eat, it opens its
valves, and fends out its faithful purveyor to procure
food. If during their labour the pinnoterus perceives
the polypus, it immediately returns to warn its blind
friend of the danger, when, by Shutting its valves, it
efcapes the rage of its enemy ; but when the pinnoterua
loads itfelf with booty without moleftation, it makes a
gentle noife at the opening of the Shell, and when ad-
4 B milted
p 1 n r 5
■pimo(^rus niitted the two friends feaft on the fruits of its indullry.
Piims ^ee ^INNA’ ^cc*
i i PIN!' (pmta'), a veffel or rneafure, ufed in eftima-
ting the quantity of liquids, and even fometimes of dry
things.—Budaeus derives the word from the Greek TnvSrc;
others from the German pint, a little meafure of wine j
Nicod from the Greek iuvuv, “ to drink.”
The Englijh pint is twofold •, the one for wine mea¬
fure, the other for beer and ale meafure. See Mea¬
sure.
PINT AD A, a fpccies of Procellaria.
PIN I LES, certain points or hooks faftened upon
the back part of the rudder, with their points down-
wards, in order to enter into, and reft upon, the goo-
gings, fixed in the ftern-poft, to hang the rudder. See
Helm.
PINTOR, Peter, phyfician, was born at Valentia
in Spain, in the year 1420, and was phyfician to Alex¬
ander VI. whom he followed to Rome, where he prac-
tifed with great fuccefs. He has left behind him two
performances of confiderable merit, 1. Aggregator Sen-
tentiarum DoElorum de Curatione in Pejiiientia, printed
at Rome 1499? 2. De Morbo Feedo et Occulta
his Temponbus AjRigenti, &c. printed at Rome, 1500,
in 4to, black letter : a book extremely fcarce, unknown
to Luifini and Aftruc, and which traces the venereal
difeafe to the year 1496. Pintor died at Rome in 1503,
aged 83 years.
PINTUR1CCIO, Bernardino, a celebrated Ita¬
lian painter, was born at Perufia in 1454. He was the
difciple of Peter Perugino, under whom he became fo
good an artift, that he employed him on many occa-
fions as his afififtant. He principally painted hiftory
and grotefque ; but he alfo excelled in portraits, among
which thofe of Pope Pius II. and Innocent VIII. of
Giulia Farnefe, Csefar Borgia, and Queen Ifabella of
Spain, are particularly diftinguifhed. The moft me¬
morable performance of Pinturiccio is the hiftory of
Pius II. painted in ten compartments in the monaftery
of Sienna; in which undertaking, Raphael, then a young
man, and bred under the fame mafter, afiifted him fo
far as to Ikelch out cartoons of many parts of the com¬
petition. The ftory of his death is wrorth relating,
cfpecially as it illuftrates his character. The laft work
be was engaged in was a Na-tivity for the monaftery
of St Francis at Sienna : the monks accommodated him
with a chamber to work in, which they cleared of all
the furniture, except one old trunk or cheft that ap¬
peared too rotten to move ; but Pinturiccio, naturally
pofitive and peevifh, infilled on its being taken away, and
the monks, willing to gratify him, complied. It was
no fooner ftirred than one of the planks burfling, out
tumbled 500 pieces of gold, which had been fecreted
there for many years. The monks were overjoyed at
finding this treafure, and the painter propertionably
mortified at lofing his chance of the difeovery by his
indifereet obftinacy : it affedled his fpirits fo much that
he furvived but a few months, and it was generally con-
fidered as the caufe of his death.
PIN US, the Pine-tree'; a genus of plants belong¬
ing to the monoecia clafs. See Botany Index. The
pine-tree was well known to the ancients, and has been
deferibed and celebrated both by their philofophers and
poets. Pliny enumerates no lefs than fix fpecies of trees
< this genus; and it is mentioned by Virgil both in his
62 ) PIN
Eclogues, his Georgies, and his AEneid ; by Horace Pfeus.
in his Odes ; by Ovid in his Metamorphofes; by Sta- lT-—
tins ; and by Catullus, &c. Macrobius relates an anec¬
dote concerning the cones of pine-trees, which in com-
mon language W'ere called poma pinea, “ pine-apples.”
There lived in the Auguftan age one Vatinius, who by
fome means had irritated the Roman people fo muck
that they pelted him with ftones. When he entertain¬
ed them with gladiators, to fave himfelf from fuch
treatment for the future, he procured an edict, from the
ediles, that no perfon fhould throw any thing but apples
in the amphitheatre. It accidentally happened that at
this time Cafcellius, eminent for his wit as well as know¬
ledge of the law, was confulted on the queftion, whether
a pine-apple (the cone of the pine) was legally included
in the term pomutn, “ an apple ?” It is an apple (faid
he) if you intend to fling it at Vatinius*. A decifion* Saturn,
by which the edi£l in his favour did not much mend his^b' “•
fituation : for Martial reprefents it dangerous to come ^ ^
under this tree, becaufe the cones in his time were of
fo great a fize and weight, probably enlarged by culti¬
vation for ages.
Nuces Pinea’.
Poma fumus Cybe/es : procul June difeede, viator,
Ne cadat in miferum nojira ruina caput f. f Lib. xiS
Ep. 25,
There are generally reckoned 14 fpecies of this genus;
of which the moft remarkable are thefe following :
1. ’]ih& pinea, pineajier, or wild pine, grows naturally
on the mountains in Italy and the fouth of France. It
grows to the fize of a large tree ; the branches extend
to a confiderable diftance ; and while the trees are young,
they are fully garnifhed with leaves, efpecially where
they are not fo clofe as to exclude the air from thofe
within ; but as they advance in age, the branches ap¬
pear naked, and all thofe which are fituated below be¬
come unfightly in a few years ; for which reafon they
are now much lefs in efteem than formerly.
1. The pinus pinea, or ftone pine, is a tall evergreen
tree, native of Italy and Spain. It delights in a fandy
loam, though like moft others it will grow Well in al-
moft any land. Refpecfting the ufes of this fpecies,
Hanbury tells us that “ the kernels are eatable, and by
many preferred to almonds. In Italy they are ferved
up at table in their defferts.—They are exceeding w hole-
fome, being good for coughs, colds, confumptions, &c.
on which account only this tree deferves to be propa¬
gated.” Hanbury continues : “ It may be very proper
here to take notice of a very great and dangerous mif-
take Mr Miller has committed, by faying, under his
article of ftone-pine, that feeds kept in the cones will be
good, and grow if they are fown ten or twelve years
after the cones have been gathered from the trees;
whereas the feeds of this fort, whether kept in the cones
or taken out, are never good after the firft year ; and
though fometimes a few plants will come up from the
feeds that are kept in the cones for two years before, yet
this is but feldom ; neither muft a tenth part of a crop
be expected. This caution is the more neceffary, as
feveral gentlemen who had cones, upon reading Mr
Miller’s book, and finding the feeds would take no
damage when kept there, deferred the work for a fea-
fon or two, when they thought they fhould have more
conveniency either of men or ground for their purpofe ;
and were afterwards wholly difappointed, no plants ap¬
pearing.
PIN [ 563 ] PIN
feus, pearlng, the feeds being by that time fpoiled and worth
’■V'”'' nothing.”
3. The rubra, commonly called the Scots fir or pine.
It is common throughout Scotland, whence its name j
though it is alfo found in moft of the other countries
of Europe. M. du Hamel, of the Royal Academy of
Sciences, mentions his having received fome feeds of it
from St Domingo in the Weft Indies; and thence con¬
cludes, that it grows indifferently in the temperate,
frigid, and torrid zones. The wood of this tree is
the red or yellow deal, which is the moft durable of
any of the kinds yet known. The leaves of this tree
are much (horter and broader than thole of the former
fort, of a grayifh colour, growing two out of one
fheath; the cones are fmall, pyramidal, and end in nar¬
row points; they are of a light colour, and the feeds are
fmall.
4. The pinus picea, or yew-leaved fir, is a tall ever¬
green, and a native of Scotland, Sweden, and Germany.
This fpecies includes the filver fir and the balm of Gi¬
lead fir. The firft of thefe is a noble upright tree.
Mr Marfham fays, “ The talleft trees I have feen were
fpruce and filver firs in the valleys in Switzerland. I
favv feveral firs in the dockyards in Venice 40 yards
long; and one of 39 yards was 18 inches diameter at
the fmall end. I was told they came from Switzer¬
land.”
! itife on
1 iting
Oma¬
ri tal
6 itning.
The branches arc not very numerous, and the bark
is fmooth and delicate. The leaves grow fingly on the
branches, and their ends are {lightly indented. Their
upper furface is of a fine ftrong green colour, and their
under has an ornament of two white lines running
length wife, on each fide the midrib ; on account of
which filvery look this fort is called l\\efiver fir. The
cones are large, and grow ere<5t; and, when the warm
weather comes on, they foon fired their feeds; which
flrould be a caution to all who with to raife this plant,
to gather the cones before that happens.
The balm of Gilead fir has of all the forts been moft
coveted, on account of the great fragrance of its leaves;
though this is not its only good property : for it is a
very beautiful tree, naturally of an upright growth,
and the branches a^e fo ornamented with their balmy
leaves, as to exceed any of the other forts in beauty.
The leaves, which are very clofely fet on the branches,
are broad ; and their ends are indented. Their upper
furface, when healthy, is of a fine dark-green colour,
and their under has white lines on each fide the mid¬
rib length wife, nearly like thofe of the filver fir. Thefe
leaves when bruifed are very finely feented; and the
buds, which fwell in the autumn for the next year’s
ftioot, are very ornamental all winter, being turgid,
and of a fine brown colour : and from thefe alfo exudes
a kind of fine turpentine, of the fame kind of (though
heightened) fragrancy. The tree being wounded in
any part, emits plenty of this turpentine; and Hanbury
fays, “ it is fuppofed by many to be the fort from whence
the balm of Gilead is taken, which occafions this tree
being fo called. But this is a miftake; for the true
balm of Gilead is taken from a kind of terebinthus :
though I am informed, that what has been collefted
from this tree has been fent over to England from A-
merica (where it grows naturally), and often fold in the
fiaops for the true fort.”
The filver fir is very hardy, and will grow in any
foil or fituation, but always makes the grealeft progreis
in rich loamy earth. The balm of Gilead fir muft be
planted in deep, rich, good earth; nor will it live long
in any other. The foil may be a black mould, or of a
fandy nature, if it be deep enough, and if the roots have
room enough to ftrike freely.
5. The ptnus abies, or European fpruce fir, a native
of the northern parts of Europe and of Afia, includes
the Norway fpruce and long-coned Cornifti fir. The
former of thefe is a tree of as much beauty while grow¬
ing as its timber is valuable when propagated on that
account. Its growth is naturally like the filver, up¬
right: and the height it will afpire to may be eafily
conceived, when we fay that the white deal, fo much
coveted by the joiners, &c. is the wood of this tree ;
and it may perhaps fatisfy the curious reader to know,
that from this fir pitch is drawn. The leaves are of a
dark-green colour; they ftand fingly on the branches,
but the younger (hoots are very clofely garniftied with
them. They are very narrow; their ends are pointed;
and they are poffeffed of fuch beauties as to excite admi¬
ration. The cones are eight or ten inches long, and
hang downwards.
The better the foil is, the fafter will the fpruce fir
grow, though it will thrive very well in moft of ous
Englilh lands. In ftrong loamy earth it makes a fnr-
prifing progrefs; and it delights in frefti land of all forts,
which never has been worn out by ploughing, &c.
though it be ever fo poor. The long-coned Cornifh fir
differs fcarcely in any refpeft from the Norway fpruce,
except that the leaves and the cones are larger.
6. The pinus Canadenfis, American or Newfoundland
fpruce fir, a native of Canada, Pennfylvania, and other
parts of North America, includes three varieties. The
white Newfoundland fpruce, the red Newfoundland
fpruce, and the black Newfoundland fpruce. Thefe,
however, differ fo little, that one defeription is common
to them all. They are of a genteel upright growth,
though they do not (hoot fo freely or grow fo faft with
us as the Norway fpruce. The leaves are of the fame
green, and garnilh the branches in the fame beautiful
manner as thofe of that fpecies; only they are narrower,
(horter, and ftand clofer. The greateft difference is ob-
fervable in the cones; for thefe are no more than about
an inch in length, and the feales are clofely placed. In
the cones, indeed, confifts the difference of thefe three
forts: thofe of the white fpecies are of a very light brown
colour ; thofe of the red fpecies more of a nut-brown or
reddifti colour; and thofe of the black fpecies of a dark
or blackifh colour. Befides this, there is fcarcely any
material difference; though it is obfervable, that this
trifling variation feems to be pretty conftant in the plants
raifed from the like feeds. Thefe forts will often flower,
and produce cones when only about five or fix feet high;
and indeed look then very beautiful : but this is a fign
of weaknefs in the plant, which it does not often fairly
get over.
y. The pinus bnlfamea, or hemlock fir, a native of
Virginia and Canada, poffeffes as little beauty as any of
the fir tribe; though, being rather fcarce in proportion,
it is deemed valuable. It is called by fome the yevc-
leaVedfir, from the refemblance of the haves to thofe
of the yew-tree. It is a tree of low growth, with but
few branches; and thefe are long and {lender, and fpread
abroad without order. The leaves do not garnifh t^*s
4 B 2 branches
Pinusv
IbiJ
fin r 564 1 PIN
Plnu". brandies fo plentifully as thofe of any other fort of fir.
The cones are very fmall and rounded ; they are about
half an inch long 5 and the fcales are loofely arranged.
We receive thefe cones from America, by which we
raife the plants; though this caution fliould be given to
the planter, that this tree is fond of moirt rich ground,
and in fuch a kind of foil will make the greateft pro-
grefs.
8. The pinus orientalis, or oriental fir, a native of the
Eaft, is a low but elegant tree. The leaves are very
fhort, and nearly fquare. The fruit is exceeding fmall,
and hangs downward ; and the whole tree makes an
agreeable variety "with the other kinds.
' 9. The Jlrobus, Lord Weymouth’s pine, or North
American white pine. X his grows fometimes to the
height of 100 feet and upwards, and is highly valued
on account of its beauty. T he bark of the tree is very
fmooth and delicate, efpecially when young; the leaves
are long and (lender, five growing out of one (heath ;
the branches are pretty clofely garnifhed with them,
and thus make a fine appearance. Ihe cones are long,
llender, and very loofe, opening with the firft warmth
of the fpring ; fo that if they are not gathered in win¬
ter, the fcales open and let out the feeds. I he wood
of this fort is efteemed for making marts for (hips. In
Queen Anne’s time there was a law made for the pre-
fervation of thefe trees, and for the encouragement of
their growth in America. Within thefe laft 50 years
they have been propagated in Britain in confiderable
plenty.
With refpect to the culture of this fpecies, Mr Xlan-
bury, after fome more general direftions, continues thus,
“ I have known gentlemen, who, in attempting to raife
thefe trees, have feen the young plants go off without
perceiving the caufe •, and the more watering and pains
they have taken, have found the plants perfift in this
way moi-e and more, to their great mortification and.
aftonifhment. In the fpring following thefe plants ftiould
be pricked out in beds half a foot afunder each way -, and
here they may (land two years, when they may be either
finally planted out, or removed into the nurfery, at the
diftance of one foot afunder, and two feet in the rows.
If care has been taken of them in the nurfery, they may
be removed at a confiderable height with great affurance
’ of fuccefs : for it is much eafier to make this pine grow
than any of the other forts : fo that where they are want¬
ed for ornament in parks, open places, &c. a (how of them
may be made in a little time.
“ The foil the Weymouth pine delights in moft is a
fandy loam ; but it likes other foils of an inferior nature :
and although it is not generally to be planted on all lands
like the Scotch fir, yet I have feen it luxuriant and
healthy, making ftrong (hoots, on blue and red clays,
and other forts of flrong ground. On ftony and flaty
ground, likewife, I have feen fome very fine trees ; fo
that I believe whoever is defirous of having plantations
of this pine, need not be curious in the choice of his
ground.”
10. XTe pinus tarda, or fwamp-pine, is a tall evergreen
tree, a native of the fwatnps of Virginia and Canada.
There are feveral varieties of this genus which Han-
btiry enumerates and deferibes: fuch as, irt, The three-
leaVed American fwamp-pine. 2d, The two-leaved
American pine. 3d, The yellow American pine, the
yellow tough pine, and the tough pine of the plains;
5
among which there is but little variety. 4th, The
baftard pine. 5th, The frankincenfe pine. And 6th, ,'t~
the dwarf pine.
“ 'There are (continues our author) many other
forts of American pines, which we receive from thence
with the like cant names of thofe of the above,
which I have chofen to retain, as they will probably be
continued to be fent over ; and that the gardener re¬
ceiving them as fuch may belt know what to do with
them. In many of thofe forts I fee at prefent no ma¬
terial difference ; fo am induced to tliink they are the
fame, fent over with different names. Some of the
forts above mentioned differ in very few refpects; but
I have chofen to mention them, as a perfon may be
fupplied with the feeds from Pennfylvania, Jerfey, Vir¬
ginia, Carolina, &c. where they all grow naturally :
and having once obtained the feeds, and from them
plants, they will become pleafing objects of his nieeff
obfervations.”
11. The pinus cedrus, ranked by Tournefort and
others under larix, famous for its duration, is that po¬
pularly called by us the cedar of Lebanon, by the an¬
cients cedrus magna or the great cedar ; alfo cedrelate,
; and fometimes the Phoenician or Syrian ce¬
dar, from the country where it grows in its greateft per-
fedlion. It is a coniferous evergreen, of the bigger fort,
bearing large roundifti cones of fmooth fcales, (landing
ereft, the leaves being fmall, narrow, and thick fet.—
'They fometimes counterfeit cedar, by dyeing wood of a
reddifti hue r but the fmell difeovers the cheat, that of
true cedar being very aromatic. In fome places, the
wood of the cajou-tree partes under the name of cedar,,
on account of its reddifti colour and its aromatic fmell,
which fomewhat referable that of fantal. Cedar-wood
is reputed almoft immortal and incorruptible ; a prero¬
gative which it owes chiefly to its bitter tafte, which the
worms cannot endure. For this reafon it was that the
ancients ufed cedar tablets to write upon, efpecially for
things of importance, as appears from that expreflion of
Perfius, Et ccdra digna locutus. A juice was alfo drawn
from cedar, with which they fmeared their books and
yvritings, or other matters, to preferve them from rot¬
ting; which is alluded to by Horace: by means of which
it was, that Numa’s books, written on papyrus, were
preferved entire to the year 535, as we are informed by
Pliny.
Solomon’s temple, as well as his palace, were both of
this wood. That prince gave King Hiram feveral cities
for the cedars he had furniflied him on thefe occafions.
Cortes is faid to have eredted a palace at Mexico, in
which were 7000 beams of cedar, moft of them 120
feet long, and 12 in circumference, as we are informed
by Herrera. Some tell us of a cedar (elled in Cyprus
130 feet long, and 18 in diameter. It was ufed for the
main-maft in the galley of King Demetrius. Le Bruyn
aflures us, that the turn biggeft he faw on Mount Leba¬
non, meafured, one of them 57 palms, and the other
47, in circumference. In the temple of Apollo at Uti¬
ca, there were cedar trees near 2000 years old ; which
yet were nothing to that beam in an oratory of Diana at
Seguntum in Spain, faid to have been brought thither
200 years before the deftrudlion of Troy. Cedar is of
fo dry a nature, that it will not endure to be faftened
with iron nails, from which it ufually (brinks; fo that
they commonly fallen it with pins of the fame wood.
P I N
m. “ The ftatue (fays Hanbury) of the great goddefs
—^ at Ephefus was made of this material; and, if this tree
abounded with us in great plenty, it might have a
principal lhare in our moft fuperb edifices. The efflu¬
via conftantly emitted from its wood are faid to purify
the air, and make rooms wholefome. Chapels and
places fet apart for religious duties, being wainfcotted
with this wood, infpire the worfhippers with a more
folemn awe. It is not obnoxious to worms ; and emits
an oil which will preferve cloth or books from worms
or corruption. The faw-duft will preferve human bo¬
dies from putrefaction ; and is therefore faid to be
plentifully ufed in the rites of embalming, where prac-
tifed.”
It is remarkable that this tree is not to be found as a
native in any other part of the world than Mount Li-
banus, as far as hath yet been difcovered. What we find
mentioned in Scripture of the lofty cedars can be nowife
applicable to the common growth of this tree; fince,
from the experience we have of thofe now growing in
England, as alfo from the teftimony of feveral travellers
who have vilited thofe few remaining trees on Mount
Libanus, they are not inclined to grow very lofty, but
on the contrary extend their branches very far ; to
which the alluiion made by the Pfalmifl agrees very
well, when he is defcribing the flourilhing Hate of a
people, and fays, “ They ihall fpread their branches
like the cedar-tree.”
Rauwolf, in his Travels, fays, there were not at that
time (i. e. anno 1574) upon Mount Libanus more than
26 trees remaining, 24 of which Rood in a circle ; and
the other two, which Rood at aTmall diftance, had their
branches almofi: confumed with age ; nor could he find
any younger tree coming up to fucceed them, though he
looked about diligently for fome. Thefe trees (he lays)
were growing at the foot of a fmall hill on the top of
the mountains, and amongft the fnow. Thefe having
very large branches, commonly bend the tree to one fide,
but are extended to a great length, and in fo delicate and
pleai'ant order, as if they were trimmed and made even
with great diligence, by which they are eafily diftin-
guiflied, at a great diftance, from fir-trees. The leaves
(continues be) are very like to thofe of the larch-tree,
growing dole together in little branches upon fmall
brown {hoots.
Maundrel, in his Travels, fays, there were but 16
large trees remaining when he vifited the inountain,
fome of which were of a prodigious bulk, but that there
were maay more young ones of a fmaller fize : he mea-
fured one of the largeft, and found it to be 12 yards fix
inches in girth, and yet found, and 37 yards in the
fpread of its boughs. At about five or fix yards from
the ground it ’was divided into five limbs, each of which
was equal to a great tree. What Maundrel hath related
P l 1ST
was confirmed by a gentleman who was there in the year Pina!*.
1720, with this difference only, viz. in the dimenfions
of the branches of the largeft tree, which he meafured,
and found to be 22 yards diameter. Now, whether Mr
Maundrel meant 37 yards in circumference of the fpread-
ing branches, or the diameter of them, cannot be deter¬
mined by his words j yet either of them well agrees with
this laft account.
12. There is another fpecies, viz. the /arc/i tree, whicht
the old botanifts ranked under larix, with deciduous
leaves, and oval obtufe cones. It grows naturally upon
the Alps and Apennines, and of late has been very
much propagated in Britain. It is of quick growth,
and the trunk rifes to 50 feet or more } the branches
are {lender, their ends are generally hanging downward,
and are garniihed with long narrow leaves which arife
in clufters from one point, fpreading open above like
the hairs of a painter’s brufti : they are of a light green,
and fall away in autumn. In the month of April the
male flowers appear, which are difpofed in form of fmall
cones *, the female flowers are collefred into oval obtufii
cones, which in fome fpecies have bright purple tops,
and in- others they are white : thefe differences are ac¬
cidental *, the cones are about an inch long, obtufe at
their points 5 the feales are fmooth, and lie over each
other : under each fcale there are generally lodged two
feeds, which have wings. There are other two varie¬
ties of this tree, one of which is a native of America,
and the other of Siberia. The cones of the American
kind which have been brought to Britain feem in gene¬
ral to be larger than thofe of the common fort.
“ Many encomiums (fays Hanbury when fpeaking
of this fpecies) have been beftowed on the timber of the
larch : and we find fuch a favourable account of it in
ancient authors, as ffiould induce us to think it would
be proper for almoft any ufe. Evelyn recites a ftory of
Witfen, a Hutch writer, that a {hip built of this timber
and cyprefs had been found in the Numidian fea, twelve
fathoms under water, found and entire, and reduced to
fuch a hardnefs as to refift the ftiarpeft tool, after it had
lain fubmerged above 1400 years. Certain it is this is
an excellent wood for Ihip and houfe-building. At Ve¬
nice this wood is frequently uled in building their houfes,
as well as in Switzerland, where thefe trees abound : fo
that, without all doubt, the larch excels for nafts for
{hips, or beams for houfes, doors, windows, Stc. parti¬
cularly as it is faid to refift the worm.
“ In Switzerland (a) their houfes are covered with
boards of this wood cut out a foot fquare ; and, as it
emits a refinoits fubftance, it fo diffufes itfelf into every
joint and crevice, and becomes fo compadft and clofe, as
well as fo hardened by the air, as to render the covering
proof againft all weather. But as fuch covering for
houfes would caufe great devaftation in cafe of fire, the
buildings
[ 565 1
(a) “ Between Bex and Bevieux (fays Coxe in his Travels in Switzerland'), I obferved the larch in great
plenty. Painters, from the time of Pliny to that of Raphael, truiled their works to this wood, which the
Roman naturalift ftiles immortale lignum. rIhe wood is reckoned excellent for all works which are to lie un¬
der water : and the borderers on the lake of Geneva prefer it for building their veffels.^ In thefe parts I faw
moll beautiful woods of ehefnut. Haller fays that they extend fome leagues : he alfo informs us, that they are
found in other parts of Switzerland, and even in defert places in fome of the tranfalpine parts^. Accident muft
have brought them thither, as it appears from Pliny that thefe trees were firft introduced into Europe from
Sardis.”
pin r 566 ] pin
buildings are confined to a limited diftance by an order
of police from the magiftrates. The wood, when fir it
laid on the houfes, is faid to be very white ; but this co¬
lour, in two or three, years is changed, by means of the
fun and rciin, to a black, which appears like a fmoolh
fldning varnilh.”
Ox the common larch there are feveral varieties. The
flowers which the commoneft fort exhibits early in the
fpring are of a delicate red colour ; another fort produ-
ees white flowers at the fame feafon, and thefe have a
delightful effedt among thofe of the red fort •, whilft ano¬
ther, called the Black Newfoundland la> ix, increafes the
variety, though by an afpeft little differing from the
others. There are alfo larches with greenifh flowers,
pale red, &c. all of which are accidental varieties from
feeds. Thefe varieties are. eafily diflinguifhed, even when
out of blow : the young- (hoots of the white-flowering-
larch are of the lighted green, and the cones when ripe
are nearly white-. The red flowering larch has its fhoots
of a reddifh call, and the cones are of a brown colour 5
whilft the cones and fhoots of the black Newfoundland
larch are in the fame manner proportionally tinged.
The cones, which are a very great ornament to feveral
forts of the pines, are very little to thefe. 'Their chief
beauty confifts in the manner of their growth, the na¬
ture and beauty of their pencilled leaves and fair
flowers; for the cones that fucceed them are fmall, of
a whitifh, a reddifh, or a blackifh-brown colour, and
make no figure.
The pinus cedrus and pinus larix are propagated by
fowing in March on a bed of light earth expofed to the
morning fun. The feed muft be covered half an inch
thick with fine light earth, and the beds watered at
times when the weather is dry. In about fix weeks the
plants will appear ; they muff at this time be carefully
•guarded from the birds, fhaded from the fun and winds,
and kept very clear of w'eeds. In the latter end of
April the following year, they may be removed into
beds of frefh earth, placing them at ten inches diffance
every way. They are to be kept here two years, and
fuch of them as feem to bend muff be tied up to a flake
to keep them upright. They may afterwards be plant¬
ed in the places where they are to remain. They thrive
well on the fides of barren hills, and make a very pretty
figure there.
Refpeffing the ufes of this tree, Dr Pallas, in his
Flora Rofica, informs us, that if it is burnt, and the
wood confumed, the internal part of the wood difills
eopioufly a drying reddifh gum, a little lefs glutinous
than gum arabic, fomewhatof a refinous tafie, but whol¬
ly foluble in water. At the infligation of M, Kinder,
this gum has lately been fold in the Ruffian fhops under
the name of gummiOrenburgenfs, but which our author
thinks ffiould be calledgutn/ni Uralienfe or laricis. It is
eaten by the Woguli as a dainty, and is faid to be nutri¬
tious and antifcovbutic. Some manna was gathered from
the green leaves, but it could never be condenfed. The
Ruffians ufe the boletus laricinus as an emetic in inter-
mittents, and to check the leuconheea. At Bafchir and
Siberia the inhabitants fprinkle the dry powder on the
wounds of oxen and horfes, as a detergent and anthel¬
mintic. The nuts of the pinus cembra, the fame author
afferts, are eaten as luxuries in Ruffia, and are even ex¬
ported with the fame view. The unripe cones give a
very fragrant oil, termed balfamic. The inhabitants of
Siberia ufe the tender tops, and even the bark rubbed off
in the fpring, as an antifcorbutic. The kernels of the
nuts of the amygdalus nana give a Very pleafing flavour
to brandy j and, when prefled, afford a bitter oil in large
quantities. The way of deilroying the bitter is bj di-
gefling it in the fun with {pint of wine, and it then be¬
comes f weet and extremely agreeable.
From the larch-tree; is ext rafted what is erroneoufly
called Venice turpentine. This fubfiance, or natural bal-
fam, flows at tirti without incifion 5 when it has done
dropping, the poor people who wait in the fir woods
make incifions at about tvvo or three feet from the
ground into the trunks of the trees, into which they fix
narrow troughs about 20 inches long. The end of thefe
troughs is hollowed like a ladle ; and in the middle is a
fmall hole bored for the turpentine to run into the re¬
ceiver which is placed below it. As the gummy jub¬
ilance runs from the trees, it^paffes along the fioping-
gutter or trough to the ladle, and from thence runs
through the holes into the receiver. The people who
gather it vifit the trees morning and evening from the
end of May to September, to collect the turpentine out
of the receivers. When it flows out of the tree, Venice-
turpentine is clear like water, and of a yellow ifh white j
but as it grows older, it thickens and becomes of a ci¬
tron colour. It is procured in the greateft abundance in
the neighbourhood of Lyons, and in the valley of St
Martin near St Lucern in Switzerland.
Though we have already noticed the manner of cul¬
tivating fume of the particular fpecies of thi-s genus, and
have alfo remarked the ufes of fome of them, we fhall
finiffi the article with a few general obfervations on the
culture and ufes of the whole.
Culture. All the forts of pines are propagated by
feeds produced in hard woody cones. 'I he way to get
the feeds out of thefe cones is to lay them before a gentle
fire, which will eaufe the cells to open, and then the
feeds may be e.afily taken out. If the cones are kept en¬
tire, the feeds will remain good for fome years j fo that
the fureft way of preferving them is to let them remain
in the cones till the time for fowing the feeds. If the
cones are kept in a warm place in fummer, they will
open and emit the feeds ; but if they are not expofed to
the heat, they will remain clofe for a long time. The
beft feafon for fowing the pines is about the end of
March. When the feeds are fown, the place fhould be
covered with nets to keep off the birds} otherwife,
when the plants begin to appear with the bulk of the
feed on the top of them, the birds will peck off the tops,
and thus deflroy them.
Vfes. From the firft fpecies is extrafted the com¬
mon turpentine, much ufed by farriers, and from which
is drawn the oil of that name. The procef* of making
pitch, tar, refin, and turpentine, from thefe trees is very
familiar. In the fpring time, when the fap is mod free
in running, they pare off the bark of the pine tree, to
make the fap run down into a hole which they cut at
the bottom to receive it. In the way, as it runs down,
it leaves a white matter like cream, but a little thicker.
This is very different from all the kinds of refin and tur¬
pentine in ufe, and it is generally fold to be ufed in the
making of flambeaux inftead of white bees wax. The
matter that is received in the hole at the bottom is taken
up with ladles, and put in a large bafket. A great part
of this immediately runs through, and this is the com¬
mon
[ 567 ] PIP
s. raon turpentine. This is received into done or earthen
—^ pots, and is ready for fale. The thicker matter, which
remains in the baiket, they put into a common alembic,
adding a large quantity of water. They diltil this as
long as any oil is feen fwimming upon the water. This
oil they feparate from the furface in large quantities, and
this is the common oil or Ipirit of turpentine, The re¬
maining matter at the bottom of the Itili is common yel¬
low redn. When they have thus obtained all that they
can from the fap of the tree, they cut it down, and hew¬
ing the wood into billets, they fill a pit dug in the earth
with thefe billets, and felting them on fire, there runs
from them, while they are burning, a black thick mat¬
ter. This naturally falls to the bottom of the pit, and
this is the tar. The top of the pit is covered with tiles,
to keep in the heat; and there is at the bottom a little
hole, out at which the tar runs like oil. If this hole be
made too large, it fets the whole quantity of the tar on
fire; but, if Imall enough, it runs quietly out.
The tar, being thus made, is put up in barrels ; and
if it be to be made into pitch, they put it into large boil¬
ing veffels, without adding any thing to it. It is then
fullered to boil a while, and being then let out, is found
when cold to be what we call pitch.
A decoftion of the nuts or feeds of the firft fpecies in
milk, or of the extremities of the branches pulled in
fpring, is faid, with a proper regimen, to cure the molt
inveterate leurvy. The wood of this fpecies is not va¬
lued ; but that of the Scots pine is fuperior to any of
the rell. It is obfervable of the Scots pine, that when
planted in bogs, or in a moitt foil, though the plants
make great progrefs, yet the wood is white, foft, and
little edeemed ; but when planted in a dry foil, though
the growth of the trees is there very flow, yet the wood
is proportianably better. Few trees have been applied
to more ufes than this. The tailed and firaighteft are
lurmed by nature for mads to our navy. The timber is
refinous, durable, and applicable to numberlefs domedic
purpoles, luch as dooring and wainfeotting of rooms,
making of beds, chefts, tables, boxes, &c. From the
trunk and branches of this, as well as molt others of the
pine tribe, tar and pitch is obtained. By incifion, bar-
ras, Burgundy pitch, and turpentine, are acquired and
prepared. Ihe refinous roots are dug out of the ground
in many parts of the Flighlands, and, being divided into
fmall fplinters, are ufed by the inhabitants to burn,
indead of candles.— At Loch-Broom, in Rofs-fhire,
the fishermen make ropes of the inner bark ; but hard
neceffity has taught the inhabitants of Sweden, Lapland,
and Kamtfchatka, to convert the fame into bread. To
effeft this, they, in the fpring feafon, make choice of
the tailed and faired: trees ; then dripping oft’ carefully
the outer bark, they colletft the foft, white, fucculent
interior bark, and dry it in the lhade. When they have
occafion to ufe it, they fird toad it at the fire, then
gnnd, and after fteeping the flour in warm water to take
off the refinous tade, they make it into thin cakes, which
are baked for ufe. On this drange food the poor inha¬
bitants are fometimes condrained to live for a whole
year; and, we are told, through cudom, become at lad
oven iond of it. Linnaeus remarks, that this fame bark-
bread will fatten fwine; and humanity obliges us to wilh,
t iat men might never be reduced to the neceflity of rob¬
ing them of luch a food. The interior bark, of which
-1ft above-mentioned bread is made, the Swedidt boys
frequently peel oft the trees in the fpring, and eat raw Fini.s
with greedy appetite. From the cones of this tree is j!
prepared a diuretic oil, like the oil of turpentine, and a , *‘ljC- t
refinous extratf, which has fimilar virtues with the bal-
fatti of Peru. An intuiion or tea of the buds is highly
commended as an antifeorbutie. The farina, or yellow
powder, of the male-flowers, is fometimes in the fpring
carried away by the winds, in fuch quantities, where
the trees abound, as to alarm the ignorant with the no¬
tion of its raining brimdone. The tree lives to a great
age ; Linnaeus affirms to 400 years.
PIONEERS, in the art of war, are fuch as are com¬
manded in from the country, to march with an army
for mending the ways, tor working on intrenciiments
and fortifications, and for making mines and ap¬
proaches. The ioldiers are likewife employed for all
thefe purpofts. Moll of ihe foreign regiments of artil¬
lery have half a company of pioneers, Well mil rubied in
that important branch of duty. Our regiments of in¬
fantry and cavalry have three or four pioneers each,
provided with aprons, hatchets, favvs, fpades, and pick-
axes. Each pioneer mutt have an axe, a faw, and an
apron ; a cap with a leather crown, and a black bears-
fkin front, on which is to be the king’s crelt in white,
on a red ground ; and the number of the regiment is to
be on the back part of it.
PIP, or Pltr, a difeafe among poultry, confifting of
a white thin fkin, or film, that grows under the tip of
the tongue, and hinders their feeding. It ulually arifes
from want of w'ater, or from the drinking puddle-water,
or eating filthy meat. It is cured by pulling off the film
with the fingers, and rubbing the tongue with fait.
Hawks are particularly liable to this difeafe, efpecially
from feeding on {linking fieffi.
PIPE, in building, &.c. a canal, or conduit, for the
conveyance of water and other liquids. Pipes for water,
water engines, &e. are ufually of lead, iron, earth, or
wood : the latter are ufually made of oak or elder.
Thofe of iron are call in forges ; their ufual length is a-
bout two feet and a half: feveral of thefe are commonly
fattened together by means of four ferews at each end,
with leather or old hat between them, to flop the wa¬
ter. Thofe of earth are made by the potters ; thefe are
fitted into one another, one end being always made
wider than the other. To join them the clofer, and pre¬
vent their breaking, they are covered with tow and
pitch : their length is ufually about that of the iron pipes.
The wooden pipes are trees bored with large iron au-
gres, of different fizes, beginning with a lei's, and then
proceeding with a larger fucceffively ; the firft being
pointed, the rett being formed like fpoons, increafing
in diameter, from one to fix inches and more : they are
fitted into the extremities of each other (as reprefented pjate
fig. 2.), and are fold by the foot. ^ CLCCXDL.
Wooden pipes are bored as follows. The machine fig. a.
reprefented fig. 1. is put in motion by the wheel A, pjgt
which is moved by a current of water; upon the axle
of this wheel is a cog wheel B, which caufes the lan¬
terns C, D, to turn horizontally, whofe common axis
is confequently in a perpendicular dire&ion. The lan¬
tern D turns at the fame time two cog-wheels, E and
F : the firfl, E, which is vertical, turns the augre which
bores the wood ; and the fecund F, which is horizon¬
tal, caufes the carriage bearing the piece to advance by
means of the arms H, I, which take hold of the not¬
ches'-’
P i p r 568 ] PIP
clies in the wheel K. The firft, H, by means of the
notches, draws the wheel towards F ; and the other, I,
pufhes the under-poft of the wheel in an oppofite direc¬
tion ; both which motions tend to draw the carriage to¬
wards F, and confequently caufe the augre to pierce the
wood. The augre being from 9 to 1 2 feet in length,
and of a proportionable bignefs, it will be neceflary to
have two pieces, as L, L, to fupport its weight, and
caufe it to enter the piece to be bored with the fame
uniformity.
For the conftru&ion of leaden pipes, fee the article
Plumbery.
Air-Pipes. See Air-Pipes.
Pipes of an Organ. See ORGAN.
Bag-Pipe. See BAO-Pipe.
Horn-PlPE. See Hornpipe.
Tobacco-PlPE, a machine ufed in the fmoking of to¬
bacco, confiding of a long tube, made of earth or clay,
having at one end a little cafe, or furnace, called the
bow/, for the reception of the tobacco, the fumes where¬
of are drawn by the mouth through the other end.
Tobacco pipes are made of various falhions ; long, (hort,
plain, worked, white, varnilhed, unvarnifiied, and of
various colours, &e. The Turks ufe pipes three or
four feet long, made of ruflies, or of wood bored, at the
end whereof they fix a kind of a pot of baked earth,
which ferves as a bowl, and which they take off after
fmoking.
Pipe, alfo denotes a veffel or meafure for wine, and
things meafured by wine-meafure. See Barrel and
Measure.
Pipe, in Mining, is where the ore runs forwards end-
wife in a hole, and doth not fink downwards or in a vein.
Pipe, Pipa, in Law, is a roll in the exchequer, call¬
ed alfo the great roll. See the next article.
PlPE-Ofce, is an office wherein a perfon called the
clerk o f the pipe, makes out leafes of crown-lands, by
warrant from the lord-treafurer, or commiffioners of the
treafury, or chancellor of the exchequer. The clerk of
the pipe makes out alfo all accounts of ffieriffs, &c.
and gives the accountants their quietus ejl. To this of¬
fice are brought all accounts which pafs the remembran¬
cer’s office, and remain there, that if any Hated debt be
due from any perfon, the fame may be drawn down in¬
to the great roll of the pipe : upon which the comptrol¬
ler iffues out a writ, called the fummons of the pipe, for
recovery thereof •, and if there be no goods or Chattels,
the clerk then draws down the debts to the lord treafur-
er’s remembrancer, to write eftreats againft their lands.
All tallies which vouch the payment of any fum contain¬
ed in fuch accounts are examined and allowed by the
chief fecondary of the pipe. Befides the chief clerk in
this office, there are eight attorneys or fworn clerks,
and a comptroller.
PiPE-Fifh. See Syngnathus, Ichthyology Index.
Sea PIPES, the trivial name of univalve ffiells belong¬
ing to the genus dentalis. See CoNCHOLOGY Index.
"PIPER, a fpecies of fiffi. See Trigla, Ichthyolo¬
gy Index.
Piper, Pepper; a genus of plants belonging to the Pipe?,
diandria clafs. See Botany Index. There are 20 wv-
fpecies, of which the moft remarkable is the firiboa,
with oval, heart-fhaped, nerved leaves, and reflexed
fpikes. This is the plant which produces the pepper fo
much ufed in food. It is a ffirub whofe root is fmall,
fibrous, and flexible; it rifes into a Item,-which re¬
quires a tree or prop to fupport it. Its wood has the
fame fort of knots as the vine; and when it is dry, it
exaclly refembles the vine-branch. The leaves, which
have a ftrong fmell and a pungent tafle, are of an oval
fhape ; but they diminiili towards the extremity, and
terminate in a point. From the flower-buds, which
are white, and are femetimes placed in the middle and
fometimes at the extremity of the branches, are produ¬
ced fmall berries refembling thofe of the currant tree.
Each of thefe contains between 20 and 30 corns of pep¬
per ; they are commonly gathered in October, and ex-
pofed to the fun feven or eight days. The fruit which
was green at firft, and afterwards red, when ftripped
of its covering affumes the appearance it has when we
fee it. The largeft, heavieft, and leaf! ffirivelled, is the
beft.
The pepper plant flourifnes in the iflands of Java, Su¬
matra (a), and Ceylon, and more particularly on the
Malabar coaft. It is not fown, but planted ; and great
nicety is required in the choice of the (boots. It pro¬
duces no fruit till the end of three years; but bears fo
plentifully the three fucceeding years, that fome plants
yield between fix and feven pounds of pepper. The bark
then begins to (brink ; and the flirub declines fo fall,
that in 12 years time it ceafes bearing.
The culture of pepper is not difficult: it is fufficient
to plant it in a rich foil, and carefully to pull up tha
weeds that grow in great abundance round its roots,
efpecially the three firft years. As the fun is highly ne-
cefiary to the growth of the pepper plant, when it is
ready to bear, the trees that fupport it muft be lopped
to prevent their (hade from injuring the fruit. When
the feafon is over, it is proper to crop the head of the
plant. Without this precaution, there would be too
much wood, and little iruit.
The pepper exported from Malabar, which was for¬
merly entirely in the hands of the Portuguefe, and was
afterwards divided between the Dutch, Britifli, and
French, amounted to about 10,000,000 weight. Betel,
or betle, is a fpecies of this genus. See Betel. It is
a creeping and climbing plant like the ivy ; and its
leaves a good deal refemble thofe of the citron, though
they are longer and narrower at the extremity. It
grows in all parts of India, but thrives beft in moift
places. The natives cultivate It as we do the vine, pla¬
cing props for it to run and climb upon ; and it is a
common praftice to plant it againft the tree which bears
the areca-nut.
At all times of the day, and even in the night, the
Indians chew the leaves of the betel, the bitternefs of
which is corredled by the areca that is wrapped up in
them. There is conftantly mixed with it the chinam,
a
(a) See a copious account of the mode of cultivating pepper in Sumatra, in Mr Marfden’s PUJlory cf Sumatra
•oj i$ the Hew Annual Regijlcr for 1783^. 147.
f'
i&an
•dical
anal,
viii.
t iii.
P 1 Q, [5
a kind of burnt lime made of (hells. The rich frequent¬
ly add perfumes, either to gratify their vanity or their
fenfuality.
It would be thought a breach of politenefs among the
Indians to take leave for any longtime, without prtient-
ing each other with a purfe of betel. It is a pledge of
friendfhip that relieves the pain of abfonce. No one
dares to (peak to a fuperior unlefs his mouth is perfumed
with betel; it would even be rude to negleft this pre¬
caution with an equal. The women of gallantry are
the moft lavifh in the ufe of betel, as being a powerful
incentive to love. Betel is taken after meals j it is
chewed during a vi(it } it is offered when you meet, and
when you feparate } in (hort, nothing is to be done with¬
out betel. If it is prejudicial to the teeth, it affifts and
ftrengthens the ftomach. At lead, it is a general fafliion
that prevails throughout India.
The piper amalago, or black pepper, and the piper
inequaie, or long pepper of Jamaica, with fome other
fpecies, are indigenous, and known by the names of
joint wood, or peppery elders. The firft bears a fmall
176* &.c. fpike, on which are attached a number of fmall feeds
of the fize of muftard. ^ The whole of the plant has the
exafl tafte of the Eaft India black pepper. The long
pepper bu(h grows taller than the amalago. The leaves
are broad, fmooth, and (liining. The fruit is (imilar to
the long pepper of the (Imps, but fmaller. The com¬
mon people in Jamaica feafon their meffes with the
black pepper. To preferve both, the fruit may be
(lightly fcalded when green, then dried, and wrapped in
paper. Perhaps hereafter they may be deemed worthy
of attention.
PIPRA, a genus of birds, of the order of pafferes.
See Ornithology Index.
PIQUET, or Picket, a celebrated game at cards,
much in ufe throughout the polite world.
It is played between two perfons, with only 32 cards ;
all the deuces, threes, fours, fives, and fixes, being fet
afide.
In reckoning at this game, every card goes for the
number it bears, as a ten for ten $ only all court cards
go for ten, and the ace for eleven : and the ufual game
is one hundred up. In playing, the ace wins the king,
the king the queen, and fo down.
Twelve cards are dealt round, ufually by two and
two j which done, the remainder are laid in the middle:
if one of the gamefters finds he has not a court card in
his hand, he is to declare he has carte-blanche, and tell
how many cards he will lay out, and defire the other
to difeard, that he may (how his game, and fatisfy his
antagonift that the carte-blanche is real j for which he
reckons ten.
Each perfon difeards, i. e. lays afide a certain num¬
ber of his cards, and takes in a like number from the
(lock. The firft of the eight cards may take three,
four, or five; the dealer all the remainder, if he
pleafes.
After difearding, the eldeft hand examines what fuit
he has moft cards of; and reckoning how many points
he has in that fuit, if the other have not fo many in
that or any other fuit, he tells one for every ten of
that fuit. He who thus reckons moft is faid to win the
point.
The point being over, each examines what fequences
he has of the fame fuit, viz. how many tierces, or fe-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
69 ]
P I Q
quences of threes, quartes or fours, quintes or fives, fis-
iemes, or fixes, &c. For a tierce they reckon three
points, for a quarte four, for a quinte 15, for a fixieme
16, &c. And the feveral iequences are diftinguiihed
in dignity by the cards they Degin from : thus ace?
king, and queen, are called tierce major ; king, queen,
and knave, tierce to a king; knave, ten, and nine,
tierce to a knave, &c. and the belt tierce, quarte, or
quinte, i. e. that which takes its defeent from the belt
card, prevails, fo as to make all the others in that
hand good, and deftroy all thole in the other hand»
In like manner, a quarte in one hand fets afide a tierce
in the other.
The fequences over, they proceed to examine how
many aces, .kings, queens, knaves, and tens, each,
holds; reckoning for-every three of any (ort, three:
but here too, as in fequences, he that with the fame
number of threes has one that is higher than any the
other has, e. gr. three aces, has all his others made
good hereby, and his adverfary’s all let afide. But four
of any fort, which is called a quatortue, always fets
afide three.
All the game in hand being thus reckoned, the eldcft
proceeds to play, reckoning one for every card he plays
above a nine, and the other follows him in the fuit ; and
the higheft card of the fuit wins the trick. Note, un¬
lefs a trick be won with a card above a nine (except the
laft trick), nothing is reckoned for it, though the trick
ferves afterwards towards winning the cards ; and that
he who plays laft does not reckon for his cards unlefs he
wins the trick.
The cards being played out, he that has moft tricks
reckons ten for winning the cards. If they have tricks
alike, neither reckons any thing. 1 he deal being fi-
niftied, and each having marked up his game, they pro¬
ceed to deal again as before, cutting afrefti each time for
the deal.
If both parties be within a fe\v points of being up, the
carte-blanche is the firft thing that reckons, then the
point, then the fequences, then the quatorzes or threes,
then the tenth cards.
He that can reckon 30 in hand by carte-blanche^
points, quintes, &c. without playing, before the other
has reckoned any thing, reckons po for them ; and
this is called a repique. If he reckons above 30, he
reckons fo many above 90. If he can make up 30,
part in hand and part play, ere the other has told ai.y
thing, he reckons for them 60. And this f called
a pique. Whence the name of the game. He that
wins all the tricks, inftead of ten, which is his right
for winning the cards, reckons 40. And this is called
a capot.
Mr de Moivre, who has made this game the objeft
of mathematical inveftigation, has propofed and lolved
the following problems : I. To find at piquet the pro¬
bability which the dealer has for taking one ace or more
in three cards, he having none in his hand. He con¬
cludes from his computation, that it is 29 to 28 that
the dealer takes one ace or more. 2. To find at piquet
the probability which the eldeft has of taking an ace
or more in five cards, he having no ace in his hand.
Anfwer : 2321091, or 5 to 2, nearly. 3. To find
at piquet the probability which the eldeft hand has of
taking an ace and a king in five cards, h? having nontj
in his hand. Anfwer : the odds againft the eldeft hand
4 C taking
Piquet*,
P I II t 57° J P I II
Piquet, taking an ace and a king are 331 to 315, or 21 to 20
nearl)'. 4. To find at piquet the probability of having
v 12 cards dealt to, without king, queen, or knaves,
which cafe is commonly called cartes-blanches. An-
fwer ; the odds againft cartes-blanches are 1791 1
nearly. 5. To find how many different fets, effential-
ly different from one another, one may have at piquet
before taking in. Anfwer ; 28,967,278. This num¬
ber falls fliort of the fum of all the diftimff combina¬
tions, whereby 12 cards may be taken out of 32, this
number being 225,792,840 \ but it muff be confidered
that in that number feveral fets of the fame import,
but differing in fuit, might he taken, which would not
introduce an effential difterence among the fets. I he
fame author gives alfo fome obfervations on this game,
which he had from an experienced player. See Doc¬
trine of Chances, p. 179, &c.. M. de Monmort has
treated of piquet in his Analyse des Jcux de Hazard,
p. 162.
PIRA, is a name by which a variety of foreign
fifiies are ditiinguifhed. The pira aca is a little horned
fifh of the Weft Indies, called by Clufius and others
the monoccros or unicorn-fjh. The pira acangata is the
name of a Brafilian fifh, which refembles the perch'
both in fize and fhape. It feldom exceeds four or five
inches in length •, its mouth is fmall ; its tail fork¬
ed. On the back it has only one long fin, which is
fupported by rigid and prickly fpines. This fin it can
deprefs at pleafure, and fink within a cavity made for
it in the back.. Its fcales are of a filvery white colour ;
it is wholefome and well tailed. Pira bebe is the name
of the milvus, or kite-fifh. Pira coaba is an American
fifh of the truttaceous kind, of a very delicate flavour.
It grows to the length of 12 inches j its nofe is point¬
ed, and its mouth large,, but without teeth j the up¬
per jaw is longer than the under one, and hangs over
like a cartilaginous prominence •, its eyes are very
large, and its tail is forked ; under each of the gill fins
there is a beard made of fix white filaments, and covered
with filvery fcales. Pira junimenbeca is a Brafilian fifh,
otherwife called bocca molle. It lives in the muddy bot¬
tom of the American feas, and is a long-bodied not flat¬
ted fifh. It grows to a great fize, being found nine, and
fometimes even ten or eleven, feet long, and two feet
and a half thick. It has one long fin on the back, the
anterior part of which is thin and pellucid. There is
alfo a cavity on the back, as in the pira acangata, into
which the fin can be depreffed at pleafure \ the tail
is not forked, and the fcales are all of a filvery co¬
lour and brightnefs. The fifli is very well tafted 5
the pira pixanga is another Brafilian fiflr of the turdus
©r wraffe kind, and called by fbme the gutvifch. It
is generally about four or five inches long \ its mouth
is pretty large, and furnifhed with very fmall and very
fharp teeth its head is fmall, but its eyes are large and
prominent, the pupil being of a fine turquoife colour,
and the iris yellow and red in a variety of fbades. The
coverings of the gills end in a triangular figure, and are
terminated by a fhort fpine or prickle j its fcales are
very fmall, and fo evenly arranged, and clofely laid on
the flefti, that it is very fmooth to the touch j its tail is
rounded at the end ; its whole body, head, tail, and fins,
are of a pale yellow colour, variegated all over with
very beautPuft blood-coloured fpots j thefe are round,
and of the bignefs of hemp-feed on the back and fides,. Ifya,
and fomething larger on the belly ; the fins are all fpot- piraus,
ted in the fame manner, and are all marked with an edge
of red. It is caught among the rocks, and about the
ftiores, and is a very well tafted fiih. Piranha is am
American fifti, more generally known by the name 7;/-
raya. Pirayuiba, or ipiraquiba, is the name of a fiih
originally Brafilian, which feme writers apply to the
remora or fucking fjb.
PIRAEUS foriu$, in Hncient Geography, a celebra¬
ted port to the weft of Athens, confifting naturally of
three harbours or bafons, (Thucydides) ; which lay ne¬
glected, till Themiftocles put the Athenians on ruaking
it a commodious port, (Nepos) j the Phalerus, a Imall
port, and not far from the city, being what they ufed
before that time, (Paufanias, Nepos). Piraeus wa$ ori¬
ginally a village of Attica, (Paufanias) j an ifland
(Strabo) ; and though diftant 40 ftadia from Athens,
was joined to it by two long walls, (Thucydides), and
itfelf locked or walled round, (Nepos) ; A very com¬
modious and fale harbour. The whole of its compafs
was 60 ftadia, including the Munichia. Not far from
the Piraeus flood the fepulchre of Themiftocles j whither
his friends conveyed his bones from Magnefia, into the
Hither Alia, (Cicero, Plutarch, Paufanias). The ti\-Chandler \
trance of the Piraeus is narrow’, and formed by two rocky Travels; |
points, one belonging to the promontory of Eetion, the
other to that of Alcimus. Within were three ftations1’' ^
for thipping; Kantharus, fo named from a hero j Aphro-
difium, from a temple of Venus ; and Zea, the reiort of
veffels laden with grain. By it was a demos or bojough
town of the fame name before the time of Themiftocles,
who recommended the exchanging its triple harbour for
the fingle one of Phalerum, both as more capacious and
as better fituated for navigators. The wall was begun-
by him when archpn, in the fecond year of the 75th
Olympiad, 477 years before Chrift •, and afterwards he
urged the Athenians to complete it as the importance of
the place deferved. This whole fortification was of
hewn ftone, without cement or other material, except
lead and iron, which w'ere ufed to hold together the ex¬
terior ranges or facings. It was fo wide that loaded
carts could pafs on it in different diredliorvs, and it was
40 cubits high, which was about half what he had de¬
li gned.
The Piraeus, as Athens flourilhed, became the com¬
mon emporium of all Greece. Hippodamus an architeft,
celebrated, befides other monuments of his genius, as the
inventor of many improvements in houle-building, w'as
employed to lay out the ground. Five porticoes, which
uniting formed the Long Portico, were ereiffed by the
ports. Here was an agora, or market-place, and farther
from the fea, another called Hippodamia. By the vef¬
fels were dwellings for the mariners. A theatre was-
opened, temples were raifed, and the Piraeus, which
furpaffed the city in utility, began to equal it in dignity.
The cavities and windings of Municia, natural and ar¬
tificial, were filled with houfes 5 and the whole iettie-
ment, comprehending Phalerum and the ports of the
Piraeus, with the arfenals, the ftoreboufes, the famous
armoury of which Philo was the architect, and the ILeds
for 300, and afterwards 400, triremes, refembled the
city of Rhodes, which had been planned by the fame
Hippodamus. The ports, on the commencement of ths
Peloponnefian
P I R.
txut, Peloponnefiaft war, were feeured with chains.
Iracy’ tinels were ftationed, and the Pirteus was carefully
' guarded.
The Pirxus was reduced with great difficulty by Syl-
la who demoliihed the walls, and fet fire to the ar¬
moury and arfenals. In the civil war it was in a de-
fencelefs condition. Calenus, lieutenant to Caefar, fei-
zed it, inverted Athens, and ravaged the territory.
Strabo, who lived under the emperors Auguftus and Ti¬
berius, obferves, that the many wars had deftroyed the
long walls, with the fortrefs of Munychia, and had con-
trafled the Piraeus into a fmall fettlement by the ports
and the temple of Jupiter Saviour. This fabric was then
adorned with wonderful pictures, the works of illuftrious
artirts, and on the outfide with ftatues. In the fecond
century, befides houfes for triremes, the temple of Jupi¬
ter and Minerva remained, with their images in brafs,
and a temple of Venus, a portico, and the tomb of The-
miftocles.
The port of the Piraeus has been named Porto Lione,
from the marble lion feen in the chart, and alfo Porto
Dracco. The lion has been deferibed as a piece of ad¬
mirable fculpture, xo feet high, and as repofing on its
hinder parts. It was pierced, and, as fome have conjec¬
tured, had belonged to a fountain. Near Athens, in
the way to Eleufis, was another, the pofture couchant;
probably its companion. Both thefe were removed to
Venice by the famous general Morofini, and are to be
feen there before the arfenal. At the mouth of the port
are two ruined piers. A few veffels, modly fmall craft,
frequent it. Some low land at the head feeras an in-
croachraent on the water. The buildings are a mean
euftomhoufe, with a few flxeds ; and by the (bore on
the eaft fide, a warehoufe belonging to the French, and
a Greek monaftery dedicated to St Spiridion. On the
oppofite fide is a rocky ridge, on which are remnants of
the ancient wall, and of a gateway towards Athens.
By the water edge are veftiges of building ; and going
from the cuftomhoufe to the city on the right hand*
traces of a fmall theatre in the fide of the hill of Muny¬
chia.
PIRACY, the crime of robbery and depredation up-
*>n the high feas.
By the ancient common law, piracy, if committed by
a fubjeft, was held to be a fpecies of treafon, being con¬
trary to his natural allegiance ; and by an alien, to be
felony only : but now, fince the ftatute of treafons,
25 Edw. III. c. 2. it is held to be only felony in a fub-
je«rt. Formerly it was only cognizable by the admiralty
courts, which proceed by the rules of the civil law.
But, it being inconfiftent with the liberties of the na¬
tion, that anv man’s life fliould be taken away, unlefs
by the judgment of his peers, or the common law of the
land,the ftatute 28 Hen. VIII. c. 15. eftabliffied anew
jurifdiflion for this purpofe ; which proceeds according
to the courfe of the common law.
The offence of piracy, by common law, confifts in
committing thofe a61s of robbery and depredation upon
the high feas, which, if committed upon land, would
have amounted to felony there. But, by ftatute, fome
other offences are made piracy alfo t as, by ftatute II
and 12 W. III. c. 7. if any natural-born fubjeft com¬
mits any a£l of hoftilitv upon the high feas, againft others
of his majefty’s fubjefts, under colour of a commiffion
from any foreign power $ this* though it would only be
r 571 1 p 1 K
Cen- an aft of war in an alien, ftiall be conftrued piracy in a
fubjeft. And farther, any commander, or other feafar- ^
ing perfon, betraying his truft, and running away with
any (hip, boat, ordnance, ammunition, or goods j or
yielding them up voluntarily to a pirate ; or confpiring
to do thefe afts 5 or any perfon affaulting the command¬
er of a veffel, to hinder him from fighting in defence of
his (hip ; or confining him, or caufing or endeavouring
to caufe a revolt on board *, ftiall, for each of thefe of¬
fences, be adjudged a pirate, felon, and robber, and
{ball fuffer death, whether he be principal, or merely
acceffory by fetting forth fuch pirates, or abetting them
before the faft, or receiving or concealing them or their
goods after it. And the ttatute 4 Geo. I. c. 11. ex-
prefsly excludes the principals from the benefit of cler¬
gy. By the ftatute 8 Geo. I. c. 24. the trading with
known pirates, or furnifhing them with ammunition, or
fitting out any veffel for that purpofe, or in any wife con-
fulting, combining, confederating, or correfponding with
them ; or the forcibly boarding any merchant veffel,
though without feizing or carrying her off, and deftroy-
ing or throwing any of the goods overboard j lhall bo
deemed piracy : and fuch acct {Tories to piracy as are de-
fciibed by the ftatute of King William are declared to
be principal pirates j and ali pirates convifted by virtue
of this aft are made felons without benefit of clergy.
By the fame ftatutes alfo, (to encourage the defence of
merchant-veffels againft pirates), the commanders or Tea¬
men wounded, and the widows of fuch feamen as are
flaifi, in any piratical engagement, ftiall be entitled to
a bounty to be divided among them, not exceeding one-
fiftieth part of the value of the cargo on board : and
fuch wounded feamen fhall be entitled to the penfion of
Greenwich hofpital j which no other feamen are, except
only fuch as have ferved in a ftiip of War. And if the
commander ffiall behave cowardly, by not defending the
fhip, if ftie carry guns or arms j or (hall difeharge the
mariners from fighting, fo that the fhip falls into the
hands of pirates *, fuch commander Ihall forfeit all his
wages, and fuffer fix months imprifonment. Lartly, by
ftatute 18 Geo. II. C. 30. any natural-born fubjeft or
denizen, who in time of war ftiall commit hoflilities at
fea againft any of his fellow-fubjefts, or ftiall aflift an
enemy on that element, is liable to be tried and convift¬
ed as a pirate.
PIRATE, (rugxlfc, Gr.) ; a fea-robber, or an arm¬
ed ftiip that roams the feas without any legal commif-
fion, and feizes or plunders every veffel flie meets indif-
criminately, whether friends or enemies.
The colours ufually difplayed by pirates are faid to be
a black field, with a death’s head, a battle-axe, and
hour-glafs. The laft inftrument is generally fuppofed to
determine the time allowed to the prifoners, whom they
take, to confider whether they will join the pirates in
their felonious combination, or be put to death, which
is often perpetrated in the moft cruel manner.
Among the moft celebrated pirates of the north is re¬
corded Alvilda, daughter of a king of the Goths named
Si/paraus. She embraced this occupation to deliver her-
felf from the violence irdpofed on her inclination, by a
marriage with Alf, fon of Sigarus king of Denmark.
She dreffed herfelf as a man j and compofed her band of
rowers, and the reft of her crew, of a number of young
women attired in the fame manner. Amongft the firft
of her cruizes, ftie touched at a place where a company
4 C * of
Piracy
Pirate.
P X K [ 572 ] P I Pi
Pirate of pirates bewailed the death of their captain. The
piJlon ftrangers were captivated with the agreeable manners of
 —' , Alvilda, and chofe her for their chief. By this rein¬
forcement Are became fo formidable upon the fea, that
Prince Alf came to engage her. She fuftained his at¬
tacks for a confiderable time: but, in a vigorous aftion,
Alf boarded her veffel, and having killed the greateft
part of her crew, feized the captain, namely herfelf;
whom neverthelefs he knew not, becaufe the princefs
had a cafque which covered her vifage. Being mafter
of her perfon, he removed the cafque j and in fpite of
her difguife, inftantly recognized her, and offered her
his hand in wedlock.
PI RENE, (Pliny) ; a fountain facred to the mufes,
fpringing below the top of the Acrocorinthus, a high
and fteep mountain which hangs over Corinth. Its wa¬
ters were agreeable to drink, (Paufanias) j extremely
clear, (Strabo) ; very light, (Athenaeus) ; and pale,
(Perfius): having relation either to the grief of Pirene,
mother of Cenchrea, from whofe tears this fountain
arofe, (Paufanias) j or to the palenefs brought on by the
too eager purfuits of the mufes.
PIROMALLI, Paul, a dominicanof Calabria, was
fent a miffionary into the eaft. He remained a long
time in Armenia, where he had the happinefs to bring
back to the church many fchifmatics and Eutycheans,
and the patriarch himfelf, who had before thrown every
obftacle in his way. He afterwards paired into Georgia
and Perfia, then into Poland, in quality of Pope Ur-,
ban VIII.’s nuncio, in order to appeafe the difturbances
which had been occafioned there by the difputes of the
Armenians, who were very numerous in that country.
Piromalli united them in the profeflion of the fame
faith, and obfervance of the fame ceremonies. In his
return to Italy he was taken by fome corfairs, who car¬
ried him prifoner to Tunis. As foon as he was ranfomed
ke went to Rome, and gave an account of his million to
the pope, who conferred upon him fome fignal marks of
his efteem. His holinefs entrufted him with the revifal
ef an Armenian bible, and fent him again into the eaft,
where he was promoted, in 1655, to the bifhopric of
Naflivan. After having governed that church for nine
years, he returned to Italy, and took the charge of the
ehurch of Baflignano, where he died three years after
in 1667. His charity, his zeal, and other virtues, did
honour to the epifcopal office. There are extant of his
writings, 1. Some works of Controverfy and Theology.
2. Two Didlionaries •, the one a Latin-Perfian, and the
other an Armenian-Latin. 3. An Armenian Grammar.
4. A Directory, which is of great ufe in correcting Ar¬
menian books. All thefe works equally diftinguifh him
for virtue and for learning.
P1RON, Alexis, a French poet, was born at Dijon
in July 1689, where his father was an apothecary, and
where he palled more than 30 years in idle and deftruc-
feve diflipation. He was at length obliged to quit the
place of his nativity, in order to avoid the reproaches of
his fellow-citizens, on account of an ode which he had
written, and which gave great offence. His relations
not being able to give him much afliftance, he fupport-
ed himfelf at Paris by means of his pen, the ftrokes of
which were as beautiful and fair as thofe of an engraver.
He lived in the houfe of M. de Belleifle as his fecretary,
and afterwards with a fxnancierj who did not know that
he had a man of genius under his roof. His reputation IW
as a writer commenced with fome pieces which he pub-'**V^
lifhed for the entertainment of the populace, and which
fhowed ftrong marks of original invention 5 but what
fully eftablifhed his character in this way was his come*
dy intitled Metromany, which &as the beft that had ap¬
peared in France fince Regnard’s Gametter. This per¬
formance, in five ads, well conduced, replete with ge»
nius, wit, and humour, was aCled with the greateft fuc-
cefs upon the French ftage in 1738. The author met
with every attention in the capital which was due to a
man of real genius, and whofe flafhes of wit were inex-
bauftible. We lhall infert a few anecdotes of him,
which will ferve to (how his character and turn of mind.
In Burgundy the inhabitants of Beaune are called the
Ajfes of Beaune. Piron often indulged his fatirical dif-
pofition at their expence. One day as he was taking a
walk in the neighbourhood of that city, he diverted him¬
felf with cutting down all the thiftles which he met with.
When a friend aiked him his reafon for doing fo, he re¬
plied, J'ai a me plaindre des Beaunois ; je leur coupe les
vivres, i. e. “ I am forry indeed for the Beauniansj for
I am cutting down their food.” Being told again that
thefe people would certainly be revenged of him,
Alle%, (fays he) Alle% : je tie crains point feur impuif-
fant couroux ;
Et quand je ferois fcul, je les batterois tous.
“ Get you gone, get you gone : I fear not their feeble
revenge ; for though alone, I fhould beat them all.”
Going into a theatre one time where a play wTas afting,
he aiked what it was ? The Cheats of Scapin, gravely
replied a young Beaunian. “ Ah ! Sir, (fays Piron,
after thanking him), I took it t« be the Cheats of
Oreftes.” In the time of the play, fome body addreffes
the company with “ Silence there, gentlemen, we don’t
hear.” “ It is not at leaft (cried Piron) for want of
ears.” A bifhop one day aiked Piron, during the dif¬
putes about Janfenifm, “ Did you read my mandate, Mr
Piron ?” No, my lord 5 and you- The converfation
turning very warm, the bilhop reminded him of the di-
ftance which birth and rank had put between them.
“ Sir (fays Piron), I have plainly the fuperiority over
you at this moment j for I am in the right, and you are
in the wrong.”—Voltaire’s Semiramis did not meet with
a very favourable reception the firft time it was a&cd.
The author finding Piron behind the fcenes, aiked him
what he thought of his performance ? “ I think (replied
he) you wrould have been pleafed that I had been the
author of it.” The performer of the character Ferdi¬
nand Cortez (the title of one of Piron’s tragedies) hav¬
ing requefted fome correftions to be made on the play
the firft time it was a61ed, Piron fired at the word cor-
reElions. The player, who was deputed to wait upon
the author with this requeft, cited the example of Vol¬
taire, who corrected fome of his pieces in order to gra¬
tify the tafte of the public. “ The cafes are widely dif¬
ferent (replied Piron); Voltaire works in chequer-wTork,
and I caft in brafs.” If this anfwer be not very modeft,
we muft allow that it does not want wit. He thought
himfelf, if not fuperior, at leaft equal to Voltaire.
Some perfon congratulating him on having compofed
the beft comedy of this age, he anfwered, with more
franknefs than modefty, “ Add too, and tlje beft tra-
gedy ”
iroa, gedy.” Tlie following verfes are well known, in which
>ifa- he fays:
ymmmj
En deux mots tooule%-vous djfinguer et connoitre
Le rimeur Dijonnois et le Parijien ?
Le premier ne fut rien, et tie voulut rien etre ;
Vautre voulut tout etre, et ne fut prefque rien.
We fee by thefe different traits that Piron had a fuf-
ficient ftock of felf-conceit. What helped to increafe
it, and make him fancy himfelf fuperior to the moft ce¬
lebrated of his contemporaries, was, that his company,
on account of his original humour, of which he had an
uncommon (hare, was more courted than that of Vol¬
taire, who was otherwife too lively, too captious, and
crabbed. But thofe who have favoured us with an ac¬
count of his many witticifms in converfation, would have
done more honour to his memory if they had paffed over
fuch as were either indecent or inlipid. A thing often
pleafes over a glafs of wine, which will not give the
fame fatisfa&ion when it is repeated, efpecially if, in re¬
peating it, you want to make it appear of fome import¬
ance. Be that as it may, Piron’s mifchievous ingenuity
was partly the caufe which excluded him from the
French Academy.—“ I could not (faid he) make thirty-
nine people think as I do, and I could lefs think as
thirty-nine do.” He called that celebrated fociety very
unjuftly les invalides du bel efprit, “ the invalids of wit
and yet he often endeavoured to be one of thofe inva¬
lids. His death was haftened by a fall which he got a
little before. He died the 2iff of January 1773, at the
age of 83. He had prepared for himfelf the following
epitaph, in the way of an epigram :
Ci git Piron, qui ne fut rien,
Pas me me acaddmicien.
“ Here lies Piron, who was nothing, not even an aca¬
demician.”
His wife Maria Therefa Quenandon, who died in
1751, he defcribes as a fweet and moft agreeable com¬
panion. They lived together for feveral years $ and no
hulband ever difcharged his duty with more fidelity and
attention.
A colle&ion of his works appeared in 1776, in 7 vols.
Bvo, and 9 vols. i2mo. The principal pieces are, The
School of Fathers ; a comedy a£ted in 1728 under the
title of Ungrateful Sons. Callifthenes ; a tragedy, the
fubjedl of which is taken from Juftin. The Myfterious
Lover, a comedy. Guftavus and Ferdinand Cortez, two
tragedies j fome fcenes of which difcover an original ge¬
nius, but the verfification neither pleafes the ear nor af-
fefts the heart. Metromany, a comedy. The Courfes
of Tempe, an ingenious paftoral, in which the manners
both of the town and country are pleafantly drawn.
Some odes, poems, fables, and epigrams. In this laft
kind of poetry he was very fuccefsful, and he may be
placed after Marot and Rouffeau. There was no occa-
fion for loading the public with 7 vols. of his works*, the
half of that number might have fufficed. For, excepting
Metromany, Guftavus, the Courfes of Tempe, fome
odes, about 20 epigrams, three or four fables, and fome
epifiles, the reft are but indifferent, and have no claim
to any extraordinary merit.
PISA, a large town of Tufcany in Italy, fituated on
tne river Arno, 52 miles from Florence. It was a fa¬
mous republic, till fubdued, firft by the duke of Milan,
3
and then by the Florentines in the year 1406. Before Kfe-
it loft its freedom, it is faid to have contained near —■—v*""
150,000 inhabitants, but now it has not above 16,000
or 17,000. It was founded we are told by the Pifans
of Peloponnefus, and afterwards became one of the 12
municipia of I ufcany. Its neighbourhood to Leghorn^
which is now the chief port in the Mediterranean,
though formerly of little or no note for trade, has con¬
tributed greatly to the decay of Pifa, which, however,
begins to lift up its head again, under the aufpices of the
prefent grand duke, who has made it his winter refi-
dence. Between Pifa and Leghorn is a canal 16 Ita¬
lian miles in length.—Its territory is very fruitful*, a-
bounding in corn, wine, and fruit, and fine cattle. The
houfes are well built, and the ftreets even, broad, and
well paved ; but in many places overrun with grafs>
1 he univerfity is well endowed, and has able profeffors.
but is not in aVery flourithing condition. The exchange
is a (lately ftrufture, but little frequented. The grand
duke’s galleys are built, and commonly ftationed here.
I his city is alfo the principal refidence of the order of
St Stephen, and the fee of an archbithop. The cathe¬
dral, a large Gothic pile, contains a great number of
excellent paintings and other curiofities. This church
is dedicated to St Mary j is very advantageoufly fituated
in the middle of a large piazza, and built out of a great
heap of wrought marble, fuch as pillars, pedeftals, capi¬
tals, cornices, and architraves, part of the fpoils which
the Pifans took in their eaftern expeditions, when the
republic was in a flouriihing condition. The roof is fup-
ported by 76 high marble pillars of different colours, and
finely gilt. Both the church and the cupola are covered
with lead. The choir is painted by good hands, and
the floor is mofaic work. The brazen doors are cu-
rioufly wrought with the hiftory of the Old and New
leftament, by Bonanno, an ancient ftatuary. The.
chapel of St Rainerius is richly adorned with gilt me¬
tals, columns of porphyry, and fine paintings. In the
middle of the nave of the church you fee two brazen
tombs, raifed upon pillars. The marble pulpit was car¬
ved by John Pifano, and the choir by Julian da Ma-
jana. Joining thereto is the altar, over which is prefer-
ved a hollow globe or veffel of marble, wherein they
kept the facrament for the new baptized, according to
the opinion of Father Mabillon. In the fquare before,
the church, you fee a pillar upon which is the meafure
of the ancient Roman talent. In the fame fquare wfith
the dome, ftands the baptiftery, a round fabric fupported,
by (lately pillars, and remarkable for a very extraordi--
nary echo.
On the north fide of the cathedral is the burying—
place, called Campo Santo, being covered with earth
brought from the Holy Land. This burying-place is
inclofed with a broad portico, rvell painted, and paved
with grave (tones. Here are a great many ancient tombs,
among the reft that of Beatrix, mother of the countefs
Mathilda, with marble baffo-relievos, which the Pifans
brought from Greece, where you fee the hunt of Mele¬
ager, which aflifted Nicholas of Pifa in the reftoration
of fculpture. The walls of the Gampo Santo are paint¬
ed by the beft mailers of their times. Giotto has drawn
fix hiftorical pieces of Job; and Andrea Orgagna has
given a fine piece of the laft judgment. Under the
portico there is a decree of the city, ordering the inha-s
bitants to wear mourning a year for the death of Ctefar.
Near.
PIS [ 574 1 P I S
Vnz Near tlie ctnircli you fee a fteeple in the form of a cylin-
U der, to which you afcend by 153 iteps ; it inclines 15
Pifcidia. ^ £eet on one fome afcribe to art, but others
***"*' 11 to the finking of the foundation. Its inclination is fo
great that a plumb-line let fall from the top touches the
ground at the diftance of almoft 15 feet from the bot¬
tom. It was built by John of Inipruck and Bonanno
of Pifa, in 1174. Near this fteeple is a fine hofpital,
dependent on that of St Maria Nuova in Florence.
The fteeple of the church of the Auguftinians is alfo
very fine, being an oftagon, adorned with pillars, and
built by Nicholas of Pifa. In the great market-place
there is a ftatue of Plenty, by Pierino da Vinci. In the
church of St Matthew, the painting of the ceiling by
the brothers Melani, natives of this city, is an admired
performance. The church of the knights of St Stephen,
decorated with the trophies taken from the Saracens, is
all of marble, with marble fteps, and a front adorned
with marble ftatues. In the fquare there is a ftatue of
-Cufmo I. upon a very fine pedefial. Contiguous to the
church is the convent or palace of the knights, which
is worth feeing, as alfo the churches Della Madonna and
Della Spina j the laft of which was built by a Beggar,
whofe figure you may fee on the outfide of the wall. It
is pretended that one of the thorns of the crown which
was placed on our Saviour’s head is preferved here. Be¬
longing to the univerfity there is a great number of col¬
leges, the chief of which is the Sapienza, where the pro-
feffors read their public le&ures •, next to which are the
colleges Puteano, Ferdinando, Ricci, and others. Be-
fides the public palace, and that of the grand duke,
there are feveral others with marble fronts, the fineft of
which is that of Lanfranchi, which, with the reft along
the banks of the Arno, makes a very fine appearance.
There is here a good dock, where they build the galleys,
which are conveyed by the Arno to Leghorn. I hey
have a famous aqueduft in this town, confiding of 5000
arches, which conveys the water from the hills at five
miles diftance. This water is efteemed the beft in Italy,
and is carried in flafks to Florence and Leghorn. The
neighbouring country produces great ftofe of corn and
wine, but the latter is not much efteemed. They have
very good butter in this neighbourhood, which is a
fcarce commodity in Italy. The city for its defence has
a moat, walls, a caftle, fort, and citadel ■, the laft of
which is a modern work. The Arno is of a confiderable
breadth here, and has three bridges over it, one of them
of marble : two leagues below the town it falls into the
fea. The phyfic-garden is very fpacious, contains a
great number of plants, and is decorated with water¬
works : over the door leading into it are thefe words,
Hie Argus fed non Briareus ejio : i. e. “ Employ the
eyes of Argus, but not the hands of Briareus. The air
is faid to be unwholefome here in fummer, on account
of the. neighbouring morafles. Many buffaloes are bred
in the neighbouring country, and tireir flefh is common¬
ly eaten. Between Pifa and Lucca are hot baths. E.
Long. 10. 17. N. Lat. 43. 43.
PISCARY, in our ancient ftatutes, the liberty of
fflhing in another man’s waters.
PISCES, in AJlronomj, the I2th fign or conftella-
iion of the zodiac.
PISCIDIA, a genus of plants belonging to the dia-
delphia clafs. See Botany Index.
PTSCIDIA Eryt/irina, or Dogwood-tree, is employed to
3
intoxicate fifh. For this purpofe, the bark is pounded Pifuidu
fmall, put into bags, and ioaked in fait waterf The juice, l|
which is of a red colour, makes the fith ftupid, fo that |^ratl
they are eafily taken. ^
PISCINA, in antiquity, a large bafon in a public
place or fquare, where the Roman youth learned to
fwim ; and which was furrounded with a high wall, to
prevent filth from being thrown into it.—This word is
alfo ufed for a lavatory among the Turks, placed m
the middle court of a mofque or temple, where the
Muffulmans wafh themfelves before they offer their
prayers.
PI3ISTRATUS, an Athenian who early diftin-Bibliotht
guiihed himfelf by his valour in the field, and by hisf«
addrefs and eloquence at home. After he had render-b Lem!:
ed himfelf the favourite of the populace by his libera¬
lity and by the intrepidity with which he had fought
their battles, particularly near Salamis, he refolved to
make himfelf mafter of bis country. Every thing feem-
ed favourable to his ambitious views •, but Solon alone,
who was then at the head of affairs, and who had late,
ly enforced his celebrated laws, oppofed him, and dif-
covered his duplicity and artful behaviour before the
public affembly. Pififtratus was not diftieartened by
the meafures of his relation Solon, but he had recOurfe
to artifice. In returning from his country-houfe, he
cut himfelf in various places j and after he had expofed
his mangled body to the eyes of the populace, deplo¬
red his misfortunes, and accufed his enemies of at¬
tempts upon his life, becaufe he was the friend of the
people, the guardian of the poor, and the reliever of
the oppreffed, he claimed a chofen body of 50 men
from the populace to defend his perfon in future from
the malevolence and the cruelty of his enemies. The
unfufpe&ing people unanimoufty granted his requeft,
though Solon oppofed it with all his influence \ and
Pififtratus had no fooner received an armed band on
whofe fidelity and attachment he could rely, than he
feized the citadel of Athens, and made himfelf abfo-
lute. The people too late perceived their credulity j
yet, though the tyrant was popular, two of the citi¬
zens, Megacles and L^curgus, confpired together a-
gainft him, and by their means he was forcibly eject¬
ed from the city. His houfe and all his effedls were
expofed to fale ; but there was found in Athens only
one man who would buy them. The private diffen-
fions of the friends of liberty proved favourable to the
expelled tyrant •, and Megacles, who was jealous of Ly-
curgus, fecretly promifed to reftore Pififtratus to all his
rights and privileges in Athens, if he would marry his
daughter. Pififtratus confented ; and by the aftiftance
of his father-in-law, he was foon enabled to expel Ly-
curgus, and to re-eftablifh himfelf. By means of a wo¬
man called PInjn, whofe fliape was tall, whofe features
were noble and commanding, he impofed upon the
people, and created himfelf adherents even among his
enemies. Phya Avas conduced through the ftreets of
the citv, and {bowing herfelf iubfervient to the arti¬
fice of Pififtratus, (he was announced as Minerva, the
goddefs of wifdoro, and the patrontfs of Athens, who
was come down from Pleaven to re-eft ablifti her favou¬
rite Pififtratus in a power which was fanflxoned by the
will of Heaven, and favoured by the affection of the
people. In the midft of his triumph, however, Pifi¬
ftratus found himfelf unfupported ; and fome time after,
when
P I s
. when he repudiated the daughter of Megacles, he found
that not only the citizens, but even his very troops,
•were alienated from him by the influence, the intrigues,
and the bribery of his father-in-law. He fled from
Athens where he no longer could maintain his power,
and retired to Euboea. Eleven years after he was
drawn from his obfcure retreat, by means of his fon
Hippias, and be was a third time received by the
people of Athens as their mafter and fovereign. Upon
this he facrificed to his refentment the friends of Me¬
gacles, but he did not lofe fight of the public good, and
while he fought the aggrandizement of his family, he did
not neglfcft the dignity and the honour of the Athenian
name. He died about 528 years before the Chriftian
era, after he had enjoyed the fovereign power at Athens
for 33 years, and he was fucceeded by his fon Hippar¬
chus. Piliftratus claims our admiration for his juftice,
his liberality, and his moderation. If he was dreaded
and detefted as a tyrant, the Athenians loved and refpcdt-
ed his private virtues and his patriotifm as a fellow-
citizen : and the opprobrium which generally falls on
his head may be attributed not to the feverity of his
adminiflration, but to the republican principles of the
Athenians, who hated and exclaimed againft the mo¬
deration and equity of the mildeft fovereign, while
they flattered the pride and gratified the guilty defires
of the molt tyrannical of their fellow fubjcdK Pifi-
flratus often refufed to punifh the infolence of his ene¬
mies ; and when he had one day been virulently accu-
fed of murder, rather than inflidt immediate punifli-
ment upon the man who had criminated him, he went
to the areopagus, and there convinced the Athenians
that the accufations of his enemies were groundlefs,
and that his life was irreproachable. It is to his la¬
bours that we are indebted for the prefervation of the
poems of Homer •, and he was the firft, according to
Cicero, who introduced them at Athens in the order
in which they now (land. He alfo eflabliflied a public
library at Athens; and the valuable books which he
had diligently collecled were carried into Perfia when
Xerxes made himfelf mafter of the capital of Attica.
Hipparchus and Hippias the fons of Pififtratus, who
had received the name of Pi/iJIratuIce, rendered tbem-
felves as illuftrious as their father ; but the flames of li¬
berty were too powerful to be extinguifhed. 1 he Pi-
fiftratidae governed with great moderation, but the
name of tyrant or fovereign was infupportable to the
Athenians. Two of the moft refpeftable of the citi¬
zens, called Harmodius and Arijlogiton, eonfpired againft
them, and Hipparchus was diipatchcd in a public af-
ferobly. This murder was not, however, attended
with anv advantages ; and though the two leaders of
the confpiracy, who have been celebrated through eve¬
ry age for their patriotifm, were fupported by the
people, yet Hinpias quelled the tumult by his uncom¬
mon firmmfs and prudence, and for a while preferved
that peace in Athens which his father hud often been
unable to command. This was not long to continue.
Hippias was at laft expelled by the united efforts of
the Athenians and of their allies, and he left Attica,
when he found himfelf unable to maintain his power
and independence. The reft of the family of Pififtra¬
tus followed him in his banilhment} and after they had
refufed to accept the liberal offers of the princes of
Theffaly, and the king of Macedonia, who wiftied them
[ 575 3'
P I S
Fila
to fettle in their refpeflive territories, the Pififtratidie PrUttrafua:
retired to Sigmum, which their father had in the fum-
mit of his power conquered and bequeathed to his ^
pofterity. After the banifhment of the Pififtratidae,
the Athenians became more than commonly jealous of
their liberty, and often facrificed the moft powerful of
their citizens, apprehenfive of the influence which po¬
pularity and a weil-diredled liberality might gain among
a fickle and unfettled populace. The Piiiftratidas were
baniftred from Athens about 18 years after the death of
Pififtratus.
PISMIRES, or Ants, are a kind of infefls very
common in x^frica ; of which there is fo great avariety,-
and fuch innumerable fwarms, that they deftroy not on¬
ly the fruits of the ground butfometimes even men and
beafts in fo little time as one fingle night; and would,
without all doubt, prove more fataby deftru61ive to the
inhabitants, were they not fo happily deftroyedf by a
proportionable number of monkeys and other animals,
who greedily devour them. The far greater part of the
vaft continent of Africa is affiiUed with thefe and fome
other grievous plagues, and particularly with the horrid
vifitation of locufts, which feldom fail a year of laying
wafte fome of the provinces.
PISO, Lucius Calpurnius, furnamed Frugiaw ac¬
count of his frugality, was defcended of the illuftnouS-
family of the Pifos, which gave lo many great men to
the Roman republic. He was tribune of the people in
the year 149 before Chrift, and afterwards confuL
During his tribunefhip, he pnbliftied a law againft the
crime of concuflion or extortion, intitled Lex Calpurnia
de pecuniis repetundis. He happily ended the war in
Sicily. To reward the ferviees of one of his fons, who
had diftinguifhed himfelfin that expedition, he left him
by his will a golden crown, weighing 20 pounds. Pifo
joined to the qualities of a good citizen the talents of a-
lawyer, an orator, and biftorian.
Piso, Caius Caipurmus, a Roman conful in the
year 67 before Chrift, was author of the law which
forbade canvafling for public offices, intitled Lex Cal¬
purnia de atnbitu. He difplayed all the firmnefs worthy
of a conful in one of the molt ftormy periods of the
republic. The Roman people,, deceived by the flat¬
tery of Marcus Palicanus, a turbulent and feditious fel¬
low, were on the eve of loading themfelves with the
greateft difgrace, by putting the fupreme authority in¬
to the hands of this man, who deferved punifliment
rather than honours. The tribunes of the people, by
their harangues, inflamed the blind fury of the multi¬
tude, already fuffieiently mutinous of themfelves. In
this fituation, Pifo mounted the roftrum, and being
alked if he would declare Palicanus conful, in cafe the
fuffrages of the people ffiould concur in the nomina¬
tion, he inftantly replied, that “ he did net think the
republic was yet involved in fuch darknefs and defpair
as to be capable of committing fo infamous an acfion.”
Being afterwards ftrongly and repeatedly called upon,
to fay, “ what he would do, if the thing fhould hap¬
pen ?” his anfwer was, “ No, I would not name him.”
By this firm and laconic anfw’er he deprived Palieanus
of the dignity to which he afpired. Pifo, according to
Cicero, was not poffeffed of a quick conception, but
he thought maturely, and with judgment, and, by a pro¬
per firmnefs, he appeared to be an abler man than hs:
really was.
Piso,
Wo,
PifTafphal-
tum.
PIS [ 576 ] PIS
Piso, Cneius Calpurnius, was.conful in the reign of
Auguftus, and governor of Syria under Tiberius,
whofe confidant he was. It is faid, that by the order
of this etnperor he caufed Germanicus to be poifoned.
Being accufed of that crime, and feeing himfelf aban¬
doned by every body, he laid violent hands on himfelf
in the 20th year of our X^ord. He was a man of infup-
portable pride and exceffive violence. Some inftances
of his wicked cruelty have been handed down to us.
Having given orders in the heat of his paflion to con¬
duct to punifhment a foldier, as guilty of the death of
one of his companions, becaufe he had gone out of the
Camp with him and returned without him, no prayers or
intreaty could prevail with Pifo to fufpend the execution
of this fentence until the affair fhould be properly in-
veftigated. The foldier was led without the entrench¬
ments, and had already prefented his head to receive
the fatal ftroke, when his companion whom he was
accufed of having killed made his appearance again.
Whereupon the centurion, whofe office it was to fee
the fentence executed, ordered the executioner to put
tiph is fword into the fcabbard. Thofe two companions,
after embracing each other, are conducted to Pifo,
amidft the acclamations .of the whole army, and a pro¬
digious crowd of people. Pifo, foaming with rage,
afeends his tribune, and pronounces the fame fentence
of death againfl the whole three, without excepting the
centurion who had brought back the condemned fol¬
dier, in thefe terms : “ You I order to be put to death
becaufe you have been already condemned : you, be-
£aufe you have been the caufe of the condemnation
of your comrade •, and you, becaufe having got orders
to put that foldier to death, you have not obeyed your
prince.”
PISSASPHALTUM, or Asphaltum, Earth-
pitch $ a fluid, opaque, mineral body, of a thick con¬
fidence, ftrong fmell, readily inflammable, but leaving
a refiduum of grayiffi affies after burning. It arifes out
Of the cracks of the rocks, in feveral places in the illand
of Sumatra, and fome other places in the Eaft Indies,
'ivhere it is much efteemed in paralytic diforders. There
is a remarkable mine of it in the ifland of Bua, (fee
Bua), of which the following curious defeription is gi¬
ven by the abbe Fortis. “ The ifland is divided in¬
to two promontories between the north and weft. Crof-
fing over fhe top of the latter, which is not half a mile
“broad, and defeending in a right line toivards the fea,
one is conduced to a hole Avell known to the inhabi¬
tants. This hole extends not much above 12 feet, and
from its bottom above 25 feet perpendicular, arife the
marble flrata which fuflain the irregular raaiTes that fur- Piflafpn;
round the top of the mountain. tum
This piffafphaltum is of the moft perfect quality,black • N
and ffiining, very pure, odorous, and cohefive; and it
comes out almoft liquid, but hardens in large drops
when the fun fetSi On breaking many of thefe drops on
the fpot, I found that almoft every one of them had an
inner cavity full of very clear water.
“ The greateft breadth of the tears that I faAV Avas
Iavo inches, and the common breadth is half an inch.
The chinks and fiffures of the marble, from whence this
bituminous pitch tranfudes, are not more than thethick-
nefs of a thread } and for the moft part are fo imper¬
ceptible, that were it not for the pitch itfelf, whereby
they are blackened, they could not by any means be
diftinguifhed by the naked eye. To the narrOAvnefs of
thefe paflages is, no doubt, in part owing the fmall quan¬
tity of piffafphaltum that tranf’pires.”
After fome conjedures about the origin of this mine,
our author proceeds to inform us that the piffalphaltum
of Bua is correfpondent to that foffil produdion Avhich by
Haffelquift, in his Travels, is called mumia tninerale, and
mumia nutiva Pcrjiana by Kempfer, Avhich the Egyp.
tians made ufe of to embalm their kings (a). It i»
found in a cave of Mount Caucafus, Avhich is kept (hut,
and carefully guarded by order of the king of Perfia.-
One of the qualities affigned by Linnaeus to the
fineft bitumen is to fmoke when laid on the fire, as ours
does, emitting a fmell of pitch not difagreeable. He
believes it Avould be very good for Avounds, as the oriental
mumia is, and like the pitch of Caftro, Avhich is fre¬
quently ufed by the Roman chirurgeons for fradures,
contufions, and in many external applications. See As-
phaltum, Mineralogy Itufex.
PISSELAIUM indicum, Barbadoes Tar; a mine¬
ral fluid of the nature of the thicker bitumens, and of all
others the moft approaching, in appearance, colour, and
confiftenee, to the true piffafphaltum, but differing from
it in other refpeds. It is very frequent in many parts
of America, where it is found trickling down the fides
of mountains in large quantities, and fbmetimes floating
on the furface of the Avaters. It has been greatly re¬
commended internally in coughs and other diforders of
the breaft and lungs.
PISTACI A, Turpentine-tree, Pijlachia nut and
Majiich-tree; a genus of plants belonging to the dU
oecia clafs. The moft remarkable fpeeies are, 1. The
terebinthus, or piftachia-tree, Avhich grows naturally in
Arabia, Perfia, and Syria, whence the nuts are annually
brought to Europe. In thofe countries it grows to the
height
(A) « Mumiahi, or native Perfian mummy. It proceeds from a hard rock in very fmall quantity. It is a bi¬
tuminous juice, that tranfudes from the ftony fuperficies of the hill, refembling in appearance coarfe fhoema-
kers Avax, as well in its colour as in its denfity and dudility. While adherent to the rock it is lefs folid, but
is formed by the warmth of the hands. It is eafily united with oil, but repels Avater j it is quite void of fmell,
and very like in fubflance to the Egyptian mummy. When laid on burning coals, it has the fmell of fulphur
tempered a little Ayith that of naphtha, not difagreeable. There are tAvo kinds of this mummy 5 the one is va¬
luable for its fcarcity and great adivity. The native place of the belt mummy is far from the accefs of men, from
habitations, and from fprings of water, in the province of Daraab. It is found in a narrotv cave, not above two
pitlmms deep, cut like a Avell out of the mafs, at the foot of the rugged mountain Caucafus.”—Kempfer. Atneen.
I his defeription agrees perfedly with the piffafphaltum or foffil mummy of Bua, differing only in the privation
of fmell, which it is difficult to imagine is totally tvanting in the Perfian mummy.
[ 577 ] PIS
itachia. height of 25 or 30 feet : the bark of the ftem and old
branches is of a dark ruffet colour, but that of the young
branches is of a light brown. Thefe are garnifhed with
winged leaves, oompofed fotnetimes of two, at other
times of three, pair of lobes, terminated by an odd one ;
thefe lobes approach toivards an oval iliape, and their
edges are turned backward } and thefe, when bruifed,
emit a fmell finailar to that of the Ihell of the nut.
Some of thefe trees produce male and others female
flowers, and fome have both male and female on the
fame tree. The male flowers come out from the fides
of the branches in loofe bunches or catkins. They have
no petals, but five finall {lamina crowned by large four-
cornered fummits filled with farina; and when this is
difcharged, the flowers fall off. The female flowers
come out in clufters from the fides of the branches :
they have no petals, but a large oval germen fupport-
ing three reflexed ityles, and are fucceeded by oval
nuts. 2. The lentifcus, or common maftich tree, grows
naturally in Portugal, Spain, and Italy. Being an
evergreen, it has been preferved in this country in or¬
der to adorn the green-houfes. In the countries where
it is a native, it rifes to the height of 18 or 20 feet,
covered with a gray bark on the ftem ; but the bran¬
ches, which are very numerous, are covered with a red-
dilh brown bark, and are garnilhed with winged leaves,
compofed of three or four pair of fmall fpear-fhaped
lobes, without an odd one at the end. 3. The orienta¬
ls, or,.true maftich tree of the Levant, from which the
maftieh is gathered, has been confounded by molt bota¬
nical writers with the lentifcus, or common maftich tree,
above defcribed, though there are confiderable differ¬
ences between them. The bark of the tree is brown ;
the leaves are compofed of two or three pair of fpcaf*
fhaped lobes, terminated by an odd one : the outer lobes
are the largeft ; the others gradually diminifti, the in-
nermolt being the leait. Thefe turn of a brownish co¬
lour towards the autumn, when the plants are expofed
to the open air; but if they are under glaffes, they keep
green. The leaves continue all the year, but are not fo
thick as tbofe of the common fort, nor are the plants fo
hardy.
Culture. The firft fpecies is propagated by its nuts,
which fhould be planted in pots filled with light kitchen-
garden earth, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed to
bring up the plants*, when thefe appear, they fhould
have a large ftiare of air admitted to them, and by de¬
grees they fhould be expofed to the open air, which at
laft they will bear in all feafons, though not without
great danger of being deftroyed in fevere winters. The
fecond lort is commonly propagated by laying down the
branches, though it may alfo be raifed from the feed in
the manner already direfled for the piftachia-nut tree :
and in this manner alfo may the true maftich-tree be rai¬
led. But this being more tender than any of the other
forts, requires to be conftantly fheltered in winter, and
to have a warm fituation in fummer.
Piftachia nuts are moderately large, containing a ker¬
nel of a pale greenifh colour, covered with a reddifh ikin.
Phey have a pleafant, fweet, unftuous tafte, refembling
that of almonds j and they abound with a fweet and
well-tafted oil, which they yield in great abundance on
being prefled after bruifing them : they are reckoned
amongft the analeptics, and are wholefome and nutri¬
tive, and are by fome efteemed very proper to be pre-
Vol. XVI.'Part II.
feribed by way of reftoratives, eaten in fmall quantity, Piftachta
to people emaciated by long illnefs. . h
PIS IIL, among botanills, the little upright co- < * •^un"
lumn which is generally found in the centre ot every
flower. According to the Linnaean fyftem, it is the
female part of generation, whofe office is to receive and
iecrete the pollen, and produce the fruit. It confifts of
tnree parts, viz. germen, ftylus, and fligma. See Bo¬
tany Index.
PIS I 01A is a city of Italy, in the duchy of Tuf-
cany, fituated on the river Stella, in a beautiful plain
near the foot of the Apennine mountains. By Pliny
it is called Pi/lorium, and is faid to have been once *a
Roman colony. At prefent it is a biihop’s fee, fuffra-
gan of I lorence. I he ftreets are broad and regular,
the houfes tolerably well built, but poorly inhabited
for want of trade. Formerly it was an independent re¬
public, but fince it was fubdued by the Florentines in
1200, it has been in a declining condition. The ca¬
thedral has a very handfome cupola, and a magnificent
ftaircaie to aleend to it. In the chapel dedicated to St
James, where his relies are preferved, the walls are al-
moft covered with plates of filver. Here are four mar¬
ble ftatues of very good workmanffiip. The marble pul¬
pit, the baffo-relievos, the veffel that holds the holy wa¬
ter, and the fquare fteeple, are the work of John Pifano.
The Jefuits have a very fine college, and the Francif-
cans, Dominicans, and Auguffinians, good churches.
In the church of Madonna dell’ Umilta there are two
ftatues, one of Leo X. and the other of Clement VII.
The public palace, fituated in a large fquare, is a hand¬
fome building; feveral of the nobility have alfo very-
good houfes. In the neighbouring mountains, called by
the name of Piftoia, there are many large villages, the
chief of which is that of S. Marcello, belonging to the
family of Cartel}. Thefe mountains are a part of the
Apennines, and border on the territory of Bologna and
the county of Vernio; higher up is the fource of the ri¬
ver Reno. The country about Piftoia, efpecially to¬
wards Florence, Is exceeding fertile and delightful, co¬
vered with all forts of fruits, corn, wine, &c. and con¬
taining a vaft number of little towns, wealthy villages,
and country feats, fo as to be reckoned the richeft and
moil beautiful in all Tufcany. It is about 20 miles N.
W. of Florence, and 30 N. E. of Pifa. E. Long. 11. 20.
N. Lat. 43. 55* .
PIS POL, the fmalleft piece of fire-arms, borne at the
faddle-bow, on the girdle, and in the pocket.
PISTOLE, a gold coin, ftruck in Spain and in fe¬
veral parts of Italy, Switzerland, &e.—The piftole has
its augmentations and diminutions, which are quadruple
piftoles, double piftoles, and half piftoles. See M0NE2~-
Tnble.
PISTON, in pump-work, is a fhort cylinder of me¬
tal or other folid fubftance, fitted exactly to the cavity
of the barrel or body of the pump. See Hydrodyna¬
mics.
PISUM, Pease; a genus of plants belonging to the
diadelphia clafs. See Botany Index. The fpecies are,
I. The fativum, or greater garden-pea, whofe lower fti-
pulse are roundiffi, indented, with taper foot-ftalks, and
many flowers on a foot-ftalk. 2. The humile, or dwarf
pea, with an eredt branching ftalk, and leaves having
two pair of round lobes. 3. The umbellatum, rofe or
crown-pea, with four pointed acute flipuli, and foot-
4 D {talks
PIS [5
Pifum. ftalks bearing many flowers, which terminate the ftallcs.
“—The maritimum, or fea-pea, with foot-ftalks which
are plain on their upper fide, an angular (talk, arrow-
pointed flipulse, and foot-ftalks bearing many flowers.
‘ 5. The Americanum, commonly called Cape-Horn pea,
with an angular trailing ftalk, whofe lower leaves are
fpear-fhaped, fharply indented, and thofe at the top ar¬
row-pointed. 6. The ochrus, with membranaceous
running foot-ftalks, having two leaves and one flower
upon a foot-ftalk.
1 There is a great variety of garden-peafe now culti¬
vated in Britain, which are diftinguiftied by gardeners
and feedimen, and have their different titles , but as
great part of thefe have been feminal variations, lo if
they are not very carefully managed, by taking away
all thofe plants which have a tendency to alter before
the feeds are formed, they will degenerate into their
original ftate : therefore all thofe perfons who aic cu¬
rious in the choice of their feeds, look carefully over
thofe which they defign for feeds at the time when they
begin to flower, and draw out all the plants which they
diflike from the other. I his is what they call roguing
their peafe 1 meaning hereby the taking out all the bad
plants from the good, that the farina of the former may
not impregnate the latter } to prevent which, they al¬
ways do it before the flowers open. By thus diligently
drawing out the bad, referving thofe which come ear-
lieft to flower, they have greatly improved their peafe
of late years, and are conftantly endeavouring to get
forwarder varieties 5 fo that it would be to little pur-
pofe in this place to attempt giving a particular account
of all the varieties now cultivated : we (hall therefore
only mention the names by which they are commonly
known, placing them according to their time of coining
to the table, or gathering for ufe.
The golden hotfpur.
The Charlton.
The Reading hotfpur.
Mafter’s hotfpur.
Effex hotfpur.
The dwarf pea.
The fugar pea.
Spaniih Morotto.
Nonpareil.
Sugar dwarf.
Sickle pea.
Marrowfat.
Rofe or crown pea.
Rouncival pea.
Gray pea.
Pig pea *, with fome others.
The Englifh fea-pea is found wild upon the fhore in
Suffex and feveral other counties in England, and is un-
doubtedlv a different fpecies from the common pea.
The fifth fpecies hath a biennial root, which conti¬
nues two years. This was brought from Cape Horn by
Lord Anfon’s cook, when he paffed that cape, where
thefe peafe were a great relief to the failors. It is kept
here as a curiofity, but the peafe are not fo good for
eating as the worft fort now cultivated in Britain. It
is a low trailing plant *, the leaves have two lobes on
each foot-ftalk : thofe below are fpear-ftiaped, and
fharply indented on their edges ; but the upper leaves
are fmall, and arrow-pointed. The flowers are blue,
each foot-ftalk fuftaining four or five flowers 5 the pods
are taper, near three inches long 5 and the feeds are
round, about the fize of tares.
The fixth fort is annual. This grows naturally
among the corn in Sicily and fome parts of Italy, but
is here preferved in botanic gardens for the fake of va¬
riety. It hath an angular ftalk, rifing near three feet
high ; the leaves Hand upon winged foot-ftalks, each
78 ] PIS
fuftaining two oblong lobes. The flowers are of a pale
yellow colour, ftiaped like thofe of the other fort of''
pea, but are fmall, each foot-ftalk fuftaining one
flower *, thefe are fucceeded by pods about two inches
long, containing five or fix roundilh feeds, which are a
little comprtffed on their fides. Thefe are by fome
perfons eaten green ; but unlefs they are gathered very
young, they are coarfe, and at beft not fo good as the
common pea. It may be fown and managed in the
fame way as the garden pea.
For an account of the method of cultivating the feve¬
ral forts of garden peafe, fo as to continue them through^
out the feafon, fee Gardening.
The gray and other large winter peafe are feldom
cultivated in gardens, becaufe they require a great deal
of room 5 they are therefore ufually fown in fields. For
the proper method of managing them, fee AGRICUL¬
TURE.
In the Mufeum Rujlicum, vol i. p. 109. we find the
following method of preparing peafe for hog-meat,
which we lhall give in the words of the ingenious far¬
mer who communicated it.
“ A few years ago (fays he), I had a plentiful crop
of peafe on a ten acre piece, which lies near my houfe:
when they were full poded and nearly ripe, I had
them hooked in the ufual manner ; but before I could
get them in, there came a heavy (bower of rain which
wetted them through and through j and the dull heavy
weather, with frequent (bowers which followed, pre¬
vented their drying for a confiderable time.^
t4 I caufed the wads to be from time to time turned,
to prevent the haulm from rotting ", and at length a few
days fun (bine dried them enough to be inned } for as
they lay hollow, the wind was greatly afliftant to the
operation.
“ Before I got them in, on examining fome of the
pods, I found that the peafe were all fprouted to a
confiderable length : this was what I had expefted, as
I gave my crop over for loft, till after a little recol-
leftion, as the weather dill continued fine, I determin¬
ed to threfti them in the field.
“ This was accordingly done j and the corn, after
it was caft and riddled to feparate it from the rubbifh,
was dried on my malt kiln.
“ When this operation was over, I began to reflect
in what manner I (hould difpofe of my peafe, being
fenfible that they could not be proper for feed, and
(landing no chance of difpofing of them to any advan¬
tage in the market.
“ At length, as it was then a time of war, and ot
courfe there was a great demand for pork for the ufe
of the navy, I determined to buy a confiderable num¬
ber of lean hogs, that I might by their means confume
this crop on my own premites, and in that manner make
the moil of it.
41 My expectations were more than anfwered 5 for I
found, by repeated experience, that three buftiels of
the peafe I have mentioned went nearly as far in fat¬
tening the hogs I bought as four buftiels got in dry
and hard in the manner ufually praClifed. _
“ This difeovery I made feveral years ago, and it
has turned out to my advantage ; for fince that time
I have been quite indifferent as to the weather m
which my peafe are hooked, being rather better plea -
ed, as far as relates to them, with wet than dry wea-
1 ther 5
Pi&lft.
pifuffi
tcairne
PIT t 579
trier ; but if the weather happens to be dry at the
time they are ripe, I always caufe as many as I want
' for feeding my hogs, which are not a few in a year,
^ to be regularly malted in the fame manner nearly as
my barley : this management has of late fucceeded
very well with me, and I therefore intend to conti¬
nue it.
“ Befides feeding my hogs with thefe malted pleafe,
I have often given them to my horfes, with which they
agree very well, and are heartening food.
“ Turkeys will fatten apace on them alfo, and be
fine meat.
“ I have applied my malted peafe to many other
ufes, which I have not at prefent time to enumerate :
but were they only ufed for feeding hogs and horfes,
it is (till worth while to prepare fome in this manner
every year.”
PIT-coal, or Stone-coal. See Coal, Minera¬
logy Index, and CoalER Y.
The coal-trade is of infinite importance to Great Bri¬
tain, which never could have arrived at its prefent com¬
mercial eminence without it •, and this eminence it will
be impoffible to retain if coal (hould ever become fcarce.
This we truft is not likely to be the cafe, though Mr
Williams expreffes great fears for it, and informs us that
at Newcaftle and in many parts of Scotland, the mines
near the fea are already wafted, the firft eonfequence of
which muft be an enormous rife in the price. See
his obfervations on this fubjeft in his Natural HiJlortj
of the Mineral Kingdom. This author fays, that coal
was not difcovered till between the middle of the I2th
and beginning of the 131b centuries : it is, therefore, ac¬
cording to him, 400 years fince it was firft difcovered
in Britain, but they have not been in common ufe for
more than 200 years. The fame author makes many
excellent obfervations on the appearances and indications
of coal, inftruftions about fearching for it, remarks on
falfe and doubtful fymptoms of coal; for all which, to¬
gether with his obfervations on the different kinds of
Scots coal, we (hall refer our readers to the work itfelf 5
the firft part of which, occupying a large proportion of
it, is upon the flrata of coal, and on the concomitant
frata. See Geology and Strata of the earth.
PITAHAYA (Callus Pitajaya. Lin. Syf. Vegeta-
bilium. Jacquin. Amer. 151. ed. 2d. p. 75* ^• K. Car-
thagend), a fhrub peculiar to California, the fruit of
which forms the greateft part of the harveft of the na¬
tives. Its branches are finely fluted, and rife vertical¬
ly from the ftem, fo as to form a very beautiful top.
The fruit is like a horfe-chefnut in fome white, in
others yellow, and in others red, but always exquifitely
delicious, being a rich fweet, tempered with a grateful
acid. See Cactus, Botany Index.
PITC AIRNE, Dr Archibald, an eminent phyfi-
cian and ingenious poet, wasdefcended from the ancient
family of the Pitcairnes of Pitcairne in FifePnire, and
was born at Edinburgh on the 25th of December 1652.
He commenced his ftudies at the fchool of Dalkeith ;
and from thence he was removed to the univerfity of
Edinburgh, where he improved himfelf in claffical learn¬
ing, and completed a regular courfe of philofophy. His
friends, according to the authors of the Biogrnphia I$r!-
tannica, were defirous that he (hould follow the profcf-
fion of theology. The unpleafant gloom, however,
] PIT
which at that time hung over religion and its profeffors
in Scotland, could not but very ili fuit with that native
cheerfulnefs of temper and liberality of mind which
made him, long after, a mark for the arrows of precife-
nefs and grimace. The law feems to have been his own
choice, and to this fcience he .turned his attention. With
an ardour peculiar to himfelf, and an ambition to excel
in whatever he undertook, he purfued it with fo much
intenfenefs, that his health began to be impaired. On
this account, his phyficians advifed him to fet out for the
fouth of France. By the time he reached Paris, he was
happily fo far recovered, that he determined to renew
his ftudies •, but being informed that there was no able
profeffor of law in that city, and finding feveral gentle¬
men of his acquaintance engaged in the ftudy of phyfic,
he went with them to the le&ures and hofpitals, and
employed himfelf in this manner for feveral months till
his affairs called him home.
On his return, he applied himfelf chiefly to the ma¬
thematics. It is not ufual to fee the briars of this
fcience and the flowers of poetry growing in the fame
foil. Here, however, they were happily united ; and
to this union perhaps was owing that Angular command
of judgment, over one of the livelieft of fancies, which
appears in every part of his works. His intimacy with
Dr David Gregory, the celebrated mathematical profef¬
for, began about the fame time ; and probably conduced
to cherifti his natural aptitude for this ftudy. It was
then in a great meafure, new to him ; it foon became
his principal delight j his progrefs in it was rapid, and
correfpondent to Ids progrefs in other purfuits. His im¬
provements on the method of infinite feries then adopt¬
ed, which Dr Wallis of Oxford afterwards publifhed,
were a confpicuous and early proof ol his abilities in this
fcience.
Had Dr Pitcairne continued to profecute the ftudy of
the law, and could he have moulded his principles to
the times, the firft offices and honours of the (late might
have been looked for without prefumption as the pro¬
bable reward of fuch talents as he poffeffed. Struck,
however, with the charms of mathematical truth which
had been lately introduced into the philofophy of medi¬
cine, and hoping to reduce the healing art to geometri¬
cal method, he unalterably determined on this lefs af-
piring profeflion. At the period when he formed this
refolution, the ideas of the medical world, already fuf-
ficiently confufed, were (fill farther jumbled by the dif-
covery of the circulation of the blood, which had as yet
produced nothing but doubt, uncertainty, and aftonhh-
ment. In Edinburgh at that time there was no fchool,
no hofpital, no opportunity of improvement but the
chamber and the (hop. He therefore foon after re¬
turned to Paris. Genius and induftry are unhappily
not often united in the fame chara&er : of fuch an
union, however, Dr Pitcairne is a celebrated inftance.
During his refidence in France, he cultivated the object
of his purfuit with his natural enthufiafm, and with a
fteadinefs from which he could not be diverted by the
allurements of that joy which, in his hours of focial and
feftive intercourfe, he always felt and always gave.
Among his various occupations, the ftudy of the ancient
phyficians feems to have had a principal (hare. This
appears from a treatife which he publiflied fome time
after his return ; and it (hows, that he wifely determined
4 D 2 t©
PIT [ 58° ] PIT
Pitcairne.
to know the progrefs of medicine from its earlieft pe¬
riods, before he attempted to reform and improve that
fcienee.
On the 13th of Auguft 1680, he received, from the
faculty of Rheims. the degree of Do&or ; which, on
the 7th of Auguft 1699, was likewife conferred on him
by the univerlity of Aberdeen ; both being attended with
marks of peculiar diftinclion. Other medical honours
are faid to have been conferred on him in France and
elfewhere ; but nothing affords a more unequivocal telii-
inony to his abilities than that which the furgeons of
Edinburgh gave, in admitting him, freely and unfolicit-
ed, a member of their college. None had fuch opportu¬
nities of judging of his merit as a practitioner, and on
no phyfician did they ever beftow the fame public mark
of refpett. Soon after his graduation at Rheims, he re¬
turned to Edinburgh ; where, on the 29th of November
1681, the Royal College of Phyfieians -was inftituted 5
and his name, among others, graced the original patent
from the crown.
In his Solutio Prob/ematis de Inventor thus, the treatife
above alluded to, he d’fcovers a wonderful degree of
medical literature, and makes ufe of it in a manner that
does great honour both to his head and his heart. His
objedl is to vindicate Dr Harvey’s claim to the difco-
very of the circulation of the blood. The difcovery
was, at firft, controverted by envy, and reprobated by
ignorance. When at length its truth was fully efta-
blhhed, many invidioufly attempted to tear the laurels
from the illuftrious Englifhman, and to plant them on
the brows of Hippocrates and others. Had the attempt
been directed againft himfelf, the generous foul of Pit¬
cairne could not have exerted more zeal in a defence ;
and his arguments remain unanfwered.
During his refidence in Scotland, his reputation be¬
came fo confiderable, that, in the year 1691, the univer-
fity of Leyden folieited him to fill the medical chair, at
that time vacant. Such an honourable teftimony of
refpeft, from a foreign nation, and from fuch an univer-
fity, cannot perhaps be produced in the medical biogra¬
phy of Great Britain. The lultre of fuch chata6Iers re-
flefls honour on their profeffion, and on the country
which has the good fortune of giving them birth ; and
ferves to give the individuals of that country not only
a ufeful eftimation in their own eyes, but in thofe alfo
of the reft of the world. Dr Pitcairne’s well-known
political principles excluded him from public honours
and promotion at home : he therefore accepted the invi¬
tation from abroad 5 and, on the 26th of April 1692,
delivered, at Leyden, his elegant and mafterly inaugural
oration : Oratio qua ojiendiiur medicinam ah omni philo-
fophorum feBa ejfe liberam. In this he clears medicine Pitcairn?,
from the rubbifh of the old pbilofophy ; feparates it from
the influence of the dift'erent feds ; places it on the
broad and only fure foundation of experience 5 Ihows how
little good inquiries into the manner how medicines ope¬
rate have done to the art ; and demonftrates the necef-
fity of a fedulous attention to their effeds, and to the va¬
rious appearances of difeafe.
Nothing (fays an elegant panegyrift * of our author) * DrCha?
marks a fuperiority of intelled fo much as the eou-Webfter, ii
rage requifite to ftem a torrent of obftinately prevailingtlle Har-
and groundlefs opinions. For this the genius and ta-
lents of Piteairne were admirably adapted ; and, in bis dinburgh"
oration, he difplays them to the utmoft. It was received for the yea
with the higheft commendations j and the adminiftrators, I7?1!frori
to teftify their fenfe of fuch an acquifition to their urii-f^j^1-
verfity, greatly augmented the ordinary appointment of the present
his chair. article is
He difeharged the duties of his office at Leyden fo^hiefly ex-
as to anfwer the moft fanguine expedations. Hetraci;e^
taught with a perfpicuity and eloquence which met
with univerfal applaufe. Independently of the enco¬
miums of Boerhaave and Mead, who were his pupils,
the numerous manufcript copies of his ledures, and
the mutilated fpecimen of them f which found its way ^Element!
into the world without his knowledge, (how how juft- Medicina
ly it was bellowed. At the fame time, he was not
more celebrated as a profeffor than as a pradical phy-
fieian 5 and notwithftanding the multiplicity of his
bufinefs in both thefe charaders, he found leifure to
publilh feveral treatifes on the circulation, and feme
other of the moft important parts of the animal econo¬
my (a).
At the clofe of the feffion he fet out for Scotland,
with an intention of returning in time for the fucceed-
ing one. On his marrying (b) the daughter of Sir Ar¬
chibald Stevenfon, the objed of his journey, her rela¬
tions would on no account confe-nt to part with him
again. He was therefore reludantly obliged to remain',
and he wrote the univerfity a polite apology, which was
received with the utmoft regret. He even declined the
moft flattering folicitations and tempting offers to fettle
in London. Indeed he foon came into that extenfive
pradice to which his abilities entitled him, and was alfo
appointed titular profeffor of medicine in the univerfity
of Edinburgh.
The uniformity of a profeffional life is feldom inter¬
rupted by incidents worthy of record. Specimens, how¬
ever, of that brilliant wit with which he delighted his
friends in the hours of his leifure, continue to entertain
us (c) : and the effeds of that eminent Ikill which he
exerted
(a) Dr Boeihaave gives the following charader of thefe and feme other of Dr Pitcairne’s differtations, which
vei-e colleded and publifhed at Rotterdam, anno 1701 : “ Haec feripta optima funt et perfeda, five legas Differ-
tationem de Motu Sanguinis per Pulmones, five alia opufcula, five ultimum tradatum de Opio.” Methcdus (iudii.
ab Hallero edit a, p. 569.
(B) He had been married before to a daughter of Colonel James Hay of Pitfour, by whom he had a fon and
daughter, who both died young.
.. ^ Pitcarmi Poemata. Several of his poems, however, are oblcure, and fome of them totally unintel¬
ligible without a key. In thofe of them which are of a political kind, he wiffied not to exprefs himfelf too
c ear y , and in others, he alludes to private occurrences which were not known beyond the circle of his com-
panions. ls poem (Ad Ltndejtumi), addreffed to his friend Lindfey, is commented on by the authors of the Bio-
g> ap na t itanmca ; and it is to be regretted that it is the only one on which they have been folicitous to throw
5 ^ light,.
aime. exerted in the cure ef difeafe, ftill operate to the good
-r—' of pofterity.
The difcovery of the circulation, while in feme mea-
fure it exploded the chemical and Galenical do&rines,
tended to introduce mathematical and mechanical rea-
foning in their head. Of this^heory (d) Dr Pitcairne
was the principal fupport, and the firfl who introduced
it into Britain. A mathematical turn of mind, and a
wifli for mathematical certainty in medicine, biaffed him
in its favour, and he puthed it to its utmoft extent. One
is at a lofs whether moft to admire or regret fuch a
wafte of talents in propping a theory which, though
fubverfive of former ones, was to fall before others but
a little more fatisfactory than itfelf. Mechanical phy-
ficians expefted more from geometry than that fcience
could grant. They made it the foundation inftead of
an auxiliary to their inquiries, and applied it to parts of
nature not admitting mathematical calculations. By
paying more attention afterwards to the fupreme influ¬
ence of the living principle, the fource of all the mo¬
tions and functions of the body, it was found that thefe
could not be explained by any laws of chemiftry orme-
chanifm. 1 hey are ftill, however, involved in obfouri-
ty ; and notwithstanding the numberlefs improvements
which have taken place in the feienees connedled with
medicine, will perhaps remain infcrutable while man
continues in his preient ftage of exiftence.
] PIT
In a fcience fo flowly progreflive as that of medi¬
cine, Dr Pitcairne did a great deal. By labouring in
vain for truth in one road, he faved many the fame
drudgery, and thereby fhowed the neceffity of an¬
other. He not only exploded many falfe notions of
the chemifts and Galenifts which prevailed in his time,
but many of thofe too of his own fed. In particu¬
lar, he ftiowed the abfurdity of referring all difeafes
and their cures to an alkali or an acid (e). He refuted
the idea ol fecretion being performed by pores differ¬
ently fliaped (f), Bellini’s opinion of effervefcences in
the animal fpirits with the blood, and Borelli’s of air
entering the blood by refpiration (g). He proved the
continuity of the arteries and veins (h) ; and feems to
have been the firft who ftiowed that the blood floivs
from a fmaller capacity into a larger ; that the aorta,
with refpeft to the arterial fyftem, is the apex of a
cone (i). In this therefore he may be confidered as
the latent fpring of the difeoveries refpecling the powers
moving the blood. He introduced a fimplicity of pre-
feription unknown in pharmacy before his time (k) j
and fueh was the ftate of medicine in this country, that
fcarcely have the ivorks of any cotemporary or preced¬
ing author been thought Avorthy e\ren of prefervation (l).
As to the errors of his philofophy, let it be remember¬
ed, that no theory has as yet flood the teft of many
years in an enlightened period. His own hung very
loofely
parts (fay they) of this poem, are hardly intelligible, without knowing a circumftance in the doc¬
tor s lite, which he often told, and never without fome emotion. It is a well known ftory of the two Platonic nhi-
lotophers, who promifed one another, that whichever died firft fhould make a vifit to his furviving companion. This
ftory being read by Mr Lindfey and our author together, they being both then very young, entered into the fame
engagement. Soon after, Pitcairne, at his father’s houfe in Fife, dreamed one morning that Lindfey, Avho Avas then
at Pans, came to him, and told him he was not dead, as Avas commonly reported, but ftill alive, and lived in a very
agreeable place, to which he could not yet carry him. By the courfe of the poft news came of Lindfey’s death
which happened very iuddenly the morning of the dream. When this is known, the poem is eafily underftood
and mines Avith no common degree of beauty.
“ Lyndefi ! Stygias jamdudum re&e per undas,
“ Stagnaque Cocyti non adeunda mihi j
“ Excute paulifper Lethaei vincula fomni,
“ Ut feriant animum carmina noftra tuum.
“ Te nobis, te redde tuis, promiffa datums
“ Gaudia ; fed proavo fis comitante redux :
“ Namque novos viros mutataque regna videbis,
“ Paflaque Teutonicas feeptra Britanna manus *. y
“He then proceeds to exclaim againft the principles and pra&ices Avhich produced this Teutonic violence 1
upon the Bntifh feeptre ; and concludes with a Avifh, that Lindfey might bring Rhadaroanthus with him to nu-
mfh them. " 1'
“ Unus abeft fcelerum vindex Rhadamanthus j amice,
“ Dii faciant reditus fit comes ille tui.
“ Every one fees hoAV much keener an edge is given to the fatire upon the Revolution, by making it an addition¬
al reafon for his friend’s keeping his promife to return him a vifit after his death.”
(d) See the article Physiology.
(e) Pitcarnii Differtationes, Edin. edit. 1713. De opera quam prseftant corpora acida vel alkalica in curatione
Morborum.
(f) De circulatione fanguinis per vafa minima.
(g) De diverfa mole qua fanguis fluit per pulmones.
(h) De cireulatione fanguinis per vafa minima.
(l) De circulatione fanguinis in animalibus genitis et non genitis.
(k) E/ementa Aledicince, lib. i. cap. 21. et paflim.
h xyr1 mec^ical publication which diftinguiflied this country, after Dr Pitcairne’s, Avas that of the Editi*
urgn Medical Effays, in the year 1732, Vide the article Monro,
PIT t 5?
rPjicairrte loofely about him (m) 5 and the prefent generally re-
tl. ceived pra&ice differs from his very little in reality.
Pitching. jje treatej inflammatory and hemorrhagic difeafes by
bleeding, purging, and bliftering, as has been done uni¬
formly and folely on the different theories fince.. His
method of adminiftering mercury and the bark is ob-
ferved at this day j and with refpeft to febrile, ner¬
vous, glandular, and dropfical affeaions, they feem to
be as often the opprobriums of the art now as they were
then.
Dr Pitcairne was univerfally confidered as the nrft
phyfician of his time. No one appears ever to have
had fo much practice in this country, or fo many con-
fultations from abroad 5 and no one, from all accounts,
ever pra&ifed with greater fagacity and fuccefs. The
higheft thought themfelves honoured by his acquaint¬
ance, and the loweft were never denied his affiftance
and advice. The emoluments of his profeffion muft
have been great ) but his charities are known to have
been correfpondent. The pofTeflion of money he ^poft-
poned to more liberal objefts 5 he collected one or the
finefl private libraries in the world j which was pur-
ghafed, after his death, by the Czar of Mufcovy. Not-
withftanding the fatigues he underwent in the exercife
©f his profeffion, his conflitution was naturally deli¬
cate. About the beginning of Oftober 1713, he be-
eame affe&ed with his lafl: illnefs *, and on the 23d he
died, regretted by fcience as its ornament, by his coun¬
try as its boaft, and by humanity as its friend. He
left a fon and four daughters : of whom only one of the
latter now furvives. The prefent noble family of Kelly
are his grandchildren.
Some anonymous publications are attributed to Dr
Pitcairne, particularly a treatife De Legibus Hijiorice
Naturalise &c. ; but the only ones he thought proper
to legitimate are his Dijjertationes Mediae^ and a fhort
effay De Salute.
PITC AITHLY. See Pitkeathly.
PITCH, a tenacious oily fubftance, drawn chiefly
•from pines and firs, and ufed in fhipping, medicine, and
various arts: or it is more properly tar infpiffated by
boiling it over a flow fire. See Tar.
Fo/jil Pitch. See Petroleum, Mineralogy In¬
dex.
PITCHING, in fea-affairs, may be defined the ver¬
tical vibration which the length of a fhip makes about
her centre of gravity *, or the movement by which fhe
plunges her head and after-part alternately into the hol¬
low of the fea. This motion may proceed from two
caufes : the waves which agitate the veffel; and the
wind upon the fails, which makes her Hoop to every
blaft thereof. The firft abfolutely depends upon the
agitation of the fea, and is not fufcepti'ble of inquiry *,
and the fecond is occafioned by the inclination of the
mall5!, and may be fubmitted to certain eflabliffied
jnaxims.
When the wind a£ls upon the fails, the mail yields to
its effort, with an inclination which increafes in propor¬
tion to the length of the mafl, to the augmentation of
2 ] ' PI T
the wind, and to the comparative weight and diftribu- Pitcliin
tion of the ffiip’s lading. , I!
The repulfion of the water, to the effort of gravity,, Flt‘10u
oppofes itfelf to this inclination, or at leaft fuftains it,
by as much as the repulfion exceeds the momentum,
or abfolute effort of the mail, upon which the wind
operates. At the end of each blaff, when the wind
fufpends its aftion, this repulfion lifts the veffel; and
thefe fucceffive inclinations and repulfions produce the
movement of pitching, which is very inconvenient;
and, when it is confiderable, will greatly retard the
courfe, as well as endanger the mafl, and ftrain the vef¬
fel.
PITH, in vegetation, the foft fpongy fubftance con¬
tained in the central parts of plants and trees *. f Sgef/a
PITHO, in fabulous hiftory, the goddefs of per-
fuafion among the Romans. She was fuppofed to be
the daughter of Mercury and Venus, and was reprefent-
ed with a diadem on her head, to intimate her influence
over the hearts of man. One of her arms appeared
raifed as in the attitude of an orator haranguing in a
public affembly } and with the other (he holds a thun¬
derbolt and fetters, made with flowers, to fignify the
powers of reafoning and the attraftions of eloquence.
A caduceus, as a fymbol of perfuafion, appears at her
feet, with the writings of Demofthenes and Cicero, the
two moft celebrated among the ancients, who under-
flood how to command the attention of their audience,
and to roufe and animate their various paffions.—A Ro¬
man courtezan. She received this name on account of
the allurements which her charms poffeffed, and of her
winning expreffions.
PITHOM, one of the cities that the children of
Ifrael built for Pharaoh in Egypt (Exod. i. it.) du¬
ring the time of their fervitude. This is probably the
fame city with Pathumos mentioned by Herodotus,
which he places upon the canal made by the kings Ne-
cho and Darius to join the Red fea with the Nile, and
by that means with the Mediterranean. We find alfo
in the ancient geographers, that there was an arm of
the Nile called Pathmeticus, Phatmicus, Phatnicus, or
Phatniticus. Bochart fays, that Pithom and Raamfes
are about five leagues above the divifion of the Nile,
and beyond this river ; but this affertion has no proof
from antiquity. This author contents himfelf with re¬
lating what was faid of Egypt in his own time. Mar-
fham will have Pithom to be the fame as Pelufium or
Damietta.
PITHO U, or Pithoeus, Peter, a Frenchman of
great literary eminence, was defcended from an ancient
and noble family in Normandy, and born at Troyes in
1539. His tafte for literature appeared very early, and
his father cultivated it to the utmoft. He firft ftudied
at Troyes, and was afterwards fent to Paris, where he
became firft the fcholar, and then the friend, of Tur-
nebus. Having finiffied his purfuits in languages and
the belles lettres, he was removed to Bourges, and
placed under Cuiacius in order to ftudy civil law. His
father was well fkilled in his profeffion, and has left no
inconfiderable
(m) Patet {fays he') medicinam effe memoriam eorum quae cuilibet morbo ufus oftendit fuiffe utilia. Nam no-
tas non effe corporum intra venas fluentium aut confiftentium naturas, adeoque fola oblervatione innotelcere qai
.euique morbo conveniat poftquam fcepius eadem eidem morbo profuifle comperimus. De Div. Morb.
1
P 1 T. .• [ 5
thou, inconfiderable fpeciinen of his judgment in the advice
tii'cus. he gave his fon with regard to acquiring a knowledge
"v of it; which was, not to fuend his time and pains upon
voluminous and barren commentators, but to confine
his reading chieHy to original writers. He made fo
rapid a progrefs, that at feventeen he was able to fpeak
extempore upon the moft difficult queftions; and his
matter was not afhamed to own, that even bimfelf had
learned fome things of him. Cujacius afterwards re¬
moved to Valence j and Pithoeus followed him, and con¬
tinued to profit by his ledlures till the year I 560. He
then returned to Paris, and frequented the bar of the
parliament there, in order to join practical forms and
ufages to his theoretic knowledge.
In 1563, being then 24, he publifhed ddverfaria
Subeejiva, a work highly applauded by Turnebus, Lip-
fius, and other learned men $ and which laid the foun¬
dation of that great and extenfive fame he afterwards
acquired. Soon after this, Henry III. advanced him
to fome confiderable polls 5 in which, as well as at the
bar, he acquitted himfelf moll honourably. Pithoeus
Joeing a Proteftant, it was next to a miracle that he
was not involved in the terrible maflacre of St Bartho¬
lomew in 1572 } for he was at Paris where it was com¬
mitted, and in the fame lodgings with feveral Hugue¬
nots, who were all killed. It feems indeed to have
frightened him out of his religion ; which having, ac¬
cording to the cuttom of converts, examined and found
to be erroneous, he foon abjured, and openly embraced
the Catholic faith. He afterwards attended the duke
of Montmorency into England j and on his return,
from his great wifdom, good nature, and amiable man¬
ners, he became a kind of oracle to his countrymen,
and even to foreigners, who confulted him on all im¬
portant occafions ; an inftance of which we have in
Ferdinand the grand duke of Tufcany, who not only
confulted him, but even fubmitted to his determination
in a point contrary to his interefts. Henry III. and IV.
were greatly obliged to him for combating the League
in the moft intrepid manner, and for many other fer-
vices, in which he had recourfe to his pen as well as
to other means.
Pithoeus died upon his birth-day in 1 ^6, leaving
behind him a wife whom he had married in 1579, and
fome children. Thuanus fays he was the moft excellent
and accomplifhed man of the age in which he lived j
and all the learned have agreed to fpeak well of him.
He colle&ed a very valuable library, containing a va¬
riety of rare manufcripts, as well as printed books;
and he took many precautions to hinder its being dif-
perfed after his death, but in vain. He publiffied a
great number of works upon law, hiftory, and claffical
literature ; and he gave feveral new and correct edi¬
tions of ancient writers. He w7as the firft who made
the world acquainted with the Fables of Phaffirus:
which, together with the name of their author, were ut¬
terly unknown and unheard of, till publiffied from a
Wanufcript of his.
PITISCUS, Samuel, a learned antiquary, was born
at Zutphen, and was reftor of the college of that city,
and afterwards of St Jerome at Utrecht, where he died
on the firft of February 1717, aged 90. He wrote,
l. Lexicon Antiquitatum Romanarum, in two volumes
folio; a work which is efteemed. 2. Editions of many
Juatin authors, with notes j and other works.
83 ] PIT
PITKEATHLY, or Pitcaithly, is the name ofPftkeathly,
an eftate in Strathern in Scotland, famous for its mine- ^tot* ,
ral waters. An intelligent traveller * gives the follow - * Heron’s
ing account of it. “ The fituation of the mineral Journey
fpring at Pitcaithly, the efficacy with which its waters through the
are faid to operate in the cure of the difeafes for which Weftcrn
they are ufed, and the accommodations which the neigh- ^tfland
bourhood affords, are all of a nature to invite equal¬
ly the lick and the healthy. Two or three houfes are
kept in the ftyle of hotels for the reception of ftrangers.
There is no long-room at the well; but there are plea-
fing walks through the adjoining fields. Good roads
afford eafy accefs to all the circumjacent country. This
delightful trait of Lower Strathern is filled with houfes
and gardens, and ftations from which w ide and delight¬
ful profpeits may be enjoyed: all of which offer agree¬
able points to which the company at the well may dL
reit their forenoon excurfions ; converfation, mufic,
dances, whiff, and that belt friend to elegant, lively,
and focial converfe, the tea-table, are fufficient to pre¬
vent the afternoons from becoming languid: and in the
evenings nothing can be fo delightful as a walk when
the fetting-fun ffieds a foft flanting light, and the dew
has juft not begun to moiften the grafs.—Thus is Pit¬
caithly truly a rural w7atering-place. The company
cannot be at any one time more in number than two or
three families. The amufements of the place are limply
fuch as a fingle family might enjoy in an agreeable fitua-
ation in the country: only the foeiety is more diverfifi-
ed by the continual change and fiu&uation of the com¬
pany.” The waters of this place are of a fulphureous
nature.
PITOT, Henry, of a noble family in Languedoc,
was born at Aramont in the diocefe of Ufez, on the
29th of May 1695, and died there on the 27th of De¬
cember 1771, aged 76. He learned the mathematics
without a mailer, and went to Paris in 1718, where he
formed a clofe friendffiip with the illuftrious Reaumur.
In J724, he was admitted a member of the Royal Aca¬
demy of Sciences at Paris, and in a few years rofe to
the degree of a penfioner. Befides a vaft number of
Memoirs printed in the collection of that fociety, he
publiffied in 1731 the Theory of the Working of Ships,
in one volume 410 ; a work of confiderable merit, w hich-
was tranllated into Englilh, and made the author be ad¬
mitted into the Royal Society of London. In 1740,
the ftates-general of Languedoc made choice of him for
their chief engineer, and gave him at the fame time the
appointment of infpeftor general of the canal which
unites the two feas. That province is indebted to him
for feveral monuments of his genius, which will trans¬
mit his name with luftre to pofterity. The city of
Montpellier being in want of water, Pitot brought from*
the dittance of three leagues the water of two fprings
which furnilh a plentiful fupply of that neceflary article. -
They are brought to the magnificent Place du Peyron,
and thence are diftributed through the city. This afto-
nifhing work is the admiration of all ftrangers. The il¬
luftrious marlhal de Saxe w as the great patron and friend
of Pitot, who had taught this hero the mathematics. In
1754 he was honoured with the order of St Michael.
In 1735, he had married Maria LeoninaPharambier de
Sabballoua, defcended of a ve ry ancient noble family of
Navarre. By this marriage he had only one fon, who
was firft advocate-general of the court of accounts,
aids.
PIT [ 584 ,] P I T
Pstot aids, and finances of Montpellier. Pitot was a pra6heal
.11 philofopher, and a man of uncommon probity and can-
Pirt dour. He was alfo a member of tbe Royal Society of
Sciences of Montpellier j and his eulogiura was pro¬
nounced in 1772 by M. de Ratte perpetual fecretary, in
prefence of the dates of Languedoc ; as it like wife was
at the Royal Academy of Sciences of Paris by Abbe de
Fouchr, who was then fecretary.
PITS, John, the biographer, was born in 1560, at
Aulton in Hampfhire, and educated at Wykeham’s
fchodi, near Winchefter, till he was about 18 years of
age •, when he was fent to New-college in Oxford, and
admitted probationer fellow. Having continued in that
univerlity not quite two years, he left the kingdom as a
voluntary Rotnilh exile, and retired to Douay j thence
he went to the Englifh college at Rheims, where he re¬
mained about a year 5 and then proceeded to Rome,
where he continued a member of the Englifh college
near feven years, and was made a prieft. In 1 589 he
returned to Rheims; and there, during two years,
taught rhetoric and the Greek language. He now
quitted Rheims on account of the civil war in France 5
and retired to Pont a Mouffon in Lorrain, where he
took the degrees of mafter of arts and bachelor in divi¬
nity. Hence he travelled into Germany, and refided a
year and a half at Triers, where he commenced licen¬
tiate in his faculty. From Triers he vifited feveral of
the principal cities in Germany ; and continuing three
years at Ingoldftadt in Bavaria, took the degree of doc¬
tor in divinity. Thence having made the tour of Italy,
he returned once more to Lorrain ; where be was pa-
tronifed by the cardinal of that duchy, who preferred
him to a eanonry of Verdun 5 and about two years after
he became eonfeffor to the duehefs of Cleves, daughter
to the duke of Lorrain. During the leifure he enjoyed
in this employment, he wrote in Latin the lives of the
kings, bilhops, apoflolical men, and writers of Eng¬
land. The laft of thefe, commonly known and quoted
by this title, De illujiribu* /hjgl'ue fcriptoribus, was
publiilied after his death. The three firit remain Hill
in manufcript among the archives of the collegiate
church of Liverdun. The duke of Cleves dying after
Pits had be£n about twelve years confellor to the dueh-
efs, fee returned to Lorrain, attended by our author,
who was promoted to the deanery of Liverdun, which,
with a canonry and offieialfeip, he enjoyed to the end
of his life. He died in 1616, and was buried in the
collegiate church. Pits was undoubtedly a fcholar,
and not an inelegant writer ; but he is juftly accufed
of ingratitude to Bale, from whom he borrowed his
materials, without aufcnowledgeroent. He quotes Le-
land with great familiaiity, without ever haying feen
his book : his errors are innumerable, and his par¬
tiality to the Romife writers raoft obvious *, neverthe-
lefs we are obliged to him for his account of feveral po-
piih authors, who lived abroad at the beginning of the
Reformation.
PITT, Christopher, an eminent Englife poet, ce¬
lebrated for his excellent tranllation of Virgil’s iEneid,
was born in the year 1699. Having ftudied four years
at New-coliege, Oxford, he was prefented to the living
of Pimperne in Dorfetfeire, which he held during the
remainder of his life. He had fo poetical a turn, that
while he was a fchool-boy he wrote two large folios
of manufcript poems, one of which contained an en¬
tire tranflation of Lucan. He was much efteemed p;tt
while at the univerfity-j particularly by the celebrated l~v*
Dr Young, who uled familiarly to call him his fort.
Next to his fine tranflation of Virgil, Mr Pitt gained
the greatefl: reputation by his excellent Englife tranfla¬
tion of Vida’s Art of Poetry. This amiable poet died
in the year 1748, without leaving, it is laid, one enemy
behind him.
Pitt, William^ earl of Chatham, a mofl: celebrated
Britife fiatefman and patriot, was born in November
1708; Pie was the youngeft fon of Robert Pitt, Efq.
of Boconnock in Cornwall \ and grandfon of Thomas
Pitt, Efq. governor of Fort St George in the Eaft In¬
dies, in the reign of Queen Anne, who fold an extraor¬
dinary diamond to the king of Prance for 135,000!. and
thus obtained the name of Diamond Pitt. His intel¬
lectual faculties and powers of elocution very foon made
a diflinguilhed appearance; but at the age of 16 he
felt the attacks of an hereditary and incurable gout, by
which he was tormented at times during the reft of his
life.
His lordfeip entered early into the army, and ferved
in a regiment of dragoons. Through the intereft of
the duchefs of Marlborough he obtained a feat in
parliament before he was 21 years of age. His firft
appearance in the houfe was as reprefentative of the
borough of Old Sarum, in the ninth parliament of
Great Britain. In the 10th he reprefented Seaford,
Aldborough in the iitb, and the city of Bath in the
^ 2th ; where he continued till he was called up to the
houfe of peers in 1766. The intention of the duehefs
in bringing him thus early into parliament was to op-
pofe Sir Robert Walpole, whom he kept in awe by the
force of his eloquence. At her death the duchefs left
him 10,cool, on condition, as was then reported, that
he never flrould receive a place in adminiftration. How¬
ever, if any fuch condition was made, it certainly was
not kept on his lordfeip’s part. In 1746, he was ap¬
pointed viee-treafurer of Ireland, and feon after pay-
mafter general of the forces, and fworn a privy-counfel-
lor. He difcharged the office of paymafter with fuch
honour and inflexible integrity, refuting even many of
the perquifites of his office, that his bitterefl: enemies
could lay nothing to his charge, and he foon became
the darling of the people. In 1755 he refigned the of¬
fice of paymafter, on feeing Mr Fox preferred to him.
The people were alarmed at this refignation ; and being
dilgufled with the unfuccefsful beginning of the war,
complained fo loudly, that, on the 4th December 1756,
Mr Pitt was appointed fecretary of ftate in the room of
Mr Fox afterwards Lord Holland ; and other promo¬
tions were made in order to fecond his plans. He then
took fuch meafures as were neceflary for the honour and
intereft of the nation ; but in the month of February
1757, having refufed to alfent to the carrying on a war
in Germany for the fake of his majefty’s dominions on
the continent, lie was deprived of the feals on the 5th
of April following. Upon this the complaints of the
people again became fo violent, that on the 29th of June
he was again appointed fecretary, and his friends filed
other important offices. The fuecefs with which the
war was now conducted is univerfally known ; yet on
the 5th of October 1761, Mr Pitt, to the aftonifhment
of almoft the whole kingdom, refigned the feals into his
majefty’s own hands. The reafon of this was, that Mr
Pitt,
P I T
t 5^5 5
P I T
Pitt, having received certain intelligence that the fa-
mily-coinpa£t was figned between France and Spain,
and that the latter was about to join France againft us,
thought it neceffary to prevent her by commencing hof-
tilities firft. Having communicated this opinion in the
privy-council, the other minifters urged that they would
think twice before they declared war again!! that king¬
dom. “ I will not give them leave to think (replied
Mr Pitt) *, this is the time, let us crulh the whole houfe
of Bourbon. But if the members of this board are of a
different opinion, this is the laft timed (hall ever mix in
its councils. I was called into the miniftry by the voice
of the people, and to them I hold myfclf anfwerable for
my conduct. I am to thank the miniiters of the late
king for their fupport *, I have ferved my country with
fuecefs 5 but I will not be refponfible for the conduct
of the war any longer than while I have the direction
of it.” To this bold declaration, the lord who then
prefided in council made the following reply. “ I find
the gentleman is determined to leave us *, nor can I fay
that I am forry for it, fince he would otherwife have
certainly compelled us to leave him. But if be is re-
fblved to a flume the right of advifing his majetty, and
diresfting the operations of the war, to what purpofe are
we called to this council ? When he talks of being
refponfible to the people, he talks the language of the
houfe of commons, and forgets that at this board he is
refponfible only to the king. However, though he
may potfibly have convinced himfelf of his infallibility,
itill it remains that we thould be equally convinced be¬
fore we can refign our underitandings to his direction,
er join with him in the meafure he propofes,”
This converfation, which was followed by Mr Pitt’s
refignation, isfufficient to fhow the haughtinefs and im¬
perious temper of our minitter. However, thefe very
qualities were fometimes productive of great and good
eonfequences, as appears from the following anecdote.
—Preparatory to one of the fecret expeditions during
the war which ended in 1763 the minitter had given
orders to the different prefiding officers in the military,
navy, and ordnance departments, to prepare a large
body of forces, a certain number of ffiips, and a pro¬
portionable quantity of ftores, &c. and to have them
all ready againtt a certain day. To thefe orders he re¬
ceived an anfwer from each of the officers, declaring
the total impoffibility of a compliance with them.
Notwithftanding it was then at a very late hour, he
lent immediately for his fecretary ; and after expreffing
his refentment at the ignorance or negligence of his
majetty’s fervants, he gave the following commands :
—“ I defire, Mr Wood, that you will immediately go
to Lord Anfon; you need not trouble yourfelf to fearch
the admiralty, he is not to be found there; you mutt pur¬
sue him to the gaming-houfe, and tell him from me, that
if he does not obey the orders of government which he
has received at my hands, that I will molt affuredly im¬
peach him. Proceed from him to Lord Ligonier; and
though he thould be bolttered with harlots, undraw his
curtains, and repeat the tame meffage. Then direct your
eourfe to Sir Charles Frederick, and affure him that if
his majefty’s orders are not obeyed, thev (hall be the laft
which he thall receive from me.” In confequence of
thefe commands, Mr Wood proceeded to White’s, and
told his errand to the firft lord of the admiralty ; who
infilled that the fecretary of ftate was out of his fenfes,
Vol. XVI. Part II.
Ft m
and it was itnpofTible to comply with his wuffies: “ how¬
ever, (added he), as madmen mult beanfwered, tell him ■v*w
that I will do my utmott to fatisfy him.” From thence
he went to the commander in chiet of the forces, and
delivered the fame meffage. He alfo laid that it was
an impoffible bufinefs; “ and the. fecretary knows it,
(added the old lord) : neverthelefs, he is in the right to
make us do what we can ; and what it is poffible to do,
inform him, thall be done.” The furveyor general of
the ordnance was next informed of Mr Pitt’s refohition;
and, after fome little confideration, he began to think
that the orders might he completed within the time pre«
feribed. The coniequence at lait was, that every thing,
in fpite of impoffibilities themfelves, was ready at the
time appointed.
After his refignation in 1761, Mr Pitt never had any
ffiare in adminiftration. He received a ptnfion of 3000I.
a-year, to be continued alter his deceafe, during the fur-
vivancy of his lady and ton ; and this gratuity w’as dig¬
nified with the title of Buronefs of Chatham to his lady,
and that of Baron to her heirs male. Mr Pitt at that
time declined the title of nobility ; but in 1 766 accepted
of a peerage under the title of Baron Pijnfent and Karl
of Chatham, and at the fame time he was appointed lord
privy-feah
This acceptance of a peerage proved very prejudicial
to his lordthip’s charafter. However, he continued Ited-
faft in his oppqfition to the ineaiures of adminiftration.
His laft appearance in the houfe of lords was on the 2d
of April 1778. He was then very ill and much debili¬
tated : but the queftion was important, being a motion
of the duke of Richmond to addrefs his majefty to remove
the minifters, and make peace with America on any
terms. His lordftiip made a long fpeech, which had cer¬
tainly overcome his fpirits: for attempting to rife a fe-
cond time, he fell down in a convulfive fit; and though
he recovered for that time, his diforder continued to in-
creafe till the 1 ith of May, when he died at his feat at
Hayes His death was lamented as a national lofs. As
foon as the news reached the houfe of commons, which
was then fitting, Colonel Ba:r£ made a motion, that an
addrefs ftiould be prefented to his majefty, requefting
that the earl of Chatham ftiould be buried at the public
expence. But Mr Rigby having propofed the erecting
of a ftatue to his memory, as more likely to perpetuate
the fenfe of his great merits entertained by the public,
this was unanimoufly carried. A bill was foon after
paffed, by which 4000I. a-year was fettled upon John
now earl of Chatham, and the heirs of the late earl
to whom that title may defeend.-—His lordftiip was
married in 1754 to Lady Hetter, fitter to the earl
of Temple ; by whom he had three fons and two
daughters.
Ne ver perhaps was any life fo multifarious as that of
Lord Chatham ; never did any comprife fuch a number
of interefting fituations. To bring the fcattered fea¬
tures of fuch a charafter into one point of view, is an
arduous talk. The author of the hiltory * of his life * Hi/lory of
has attempted to do it ; and with the outlines of whattf}e Ltfe °f
he has faid in fumming up his ehara6ter, we (hall finith ^ ! la,n
our biographical Ikctch of this wonderful man.
“ One of the firft things that {trikes u«, in the re-
collcftion of Chatham’s life, is the fuperior figure he
makes among his cotemporaries. Men of genius and
attraction, a Carteret, a Townftiend, and 1 had alrcolt
4 £ feid
P.tt, Farl
of Chatham*
PIT [ 586 ] PIT
faid a Mansfield, however pleafing in a limited view, ap¬
pear evidently in this companion to Ihrink into narrow¬
er dimenfions, and walk a humbler circle. All that de-
ferves to arreft the attention, in taking a general furvey
of the age in which he lived, is comprifed in the hiltory
of Chatham. No character ever bore the more undifput-
ed itamp of originality. Unrefembled and himfelf, he
was not born to accommodate to the genius of his age.
While all around him were depreffed by the uniformity
of falhion, or tbe contagion of venality, he ilood aloof.
He confulted no judgment but his own and he adted
from the untainted dictates of a comprehenfive foul.
“ The native royalty of his mind is eminently con-
fpieuous. He felt himfelf born to command 5 and the
free fons of Britain implieitly obeyed him. In him was
realifod the fable of Orpheus 5 and his genius, his fpirit,
his eloquence, led millions in his train, fubdued the rug¬
ged favage, and difarmed the fangs of malignity and
envy. Nothing is in its nature fo inconliftent as the
breath of popular applaufe : and yet that breath was
eminently his during the greater part of hislite. Want
of fuccefs could not divert it j inconfiftency of condudl
could not change its tenor. The aftonifhing extent of
his views, and the myfterious comprehenfion of his plans,
did not in one refpect fet him above little things : no¬
thing that was neceffary to the execution of his defigns
was beneath him. In another refpeft, however, he was
infinitely eftrangod to little things : fwallowed up in the
bufinefs of his country, he did not think of the derange¬
ment of his own private affairs 5 for, though indifpofed to
all the modes of diflipated expence, his affairs, even when
his circumftances were much improved, were always de¬
ranged. But the features that ieem moft eminently to
have charadterifed him, were fpirit and intrepidity : they
are confpicuous in every aftion and in every turn of his
life ; nor did this fpirit and intrepidity leave him even
at the laft.
“ The manners of Lord Chatham wereeafy and bland,
his converfation was fpirited and gay, and he readily
adapted himfelf to the complexion of thofe with whom
he affociated. That artificial referve, which is the never-
failing refuge of felf-diffidence and cowardice, was not
made for him. He was uneonftrained as artlefs infancy,
and generous as the noon-day fun i yet had he fomething
impenetrable that hung about him. By an irrefiftiblc
energy of foul, he was haughty and imperious. He was
incapable of affociating councils, and he was not formed
for the fweeteft bands of fociety. He was a pleafing
companion, but an unpliant friend.
“ The ambition of our hero, however generous in its
ftrain, was the fouree of repeated errors in his conduct.
To the refignation of Lord Carteret, and again, from the
commencement of the year 1770, his proceedings were
bold and uniform. In the intermediate period they were
marked with a verfatility, incident only in general to the
moft flexible minds. We may occafionally trace in them
the indecifion of a candidate, and the fupplenefs of a cour¬
tier. In a word, he aimed at the impoffible talk of flat¬
tering at once the prejudices of a monarch, and purfuing
unremittedly the interefts of the people.
“ A feature, too, fufficiently prominent in his cha¬
racter, was vanity, or perhaps pride and confcious fu-
periority. He dealt furely fomewbat too freely with
inve&ive. He did not pretend to an ignorance of his
talents, or to manage the difplay of his important fer-
4
vices. Himfelf was too often the hero of his tale j and Pitt,
the fucceffes of the laft war the burden of his long *. v-
“ Patriotifm was alfo the fource of fome of his im-} gril^nf
perfections. He loved his country too well; or, if that ^
may found abfurd, the benevolence at leaft, that em¬
braces the fpecies, had not fufficient icope in his mind.
He once fly led himfelf a /over of honourable war ; and
in fo doing he let us into one trait of his character.
The friend of human kind will be an enemy to ail war.
He indulged too much a puerile antipathy to the houfe of
Bourbon : and it was furely the want of expanfive affec¬
tions that led him to fo unqualified a condemnation of
American independency.
“ But the eloquence of Lord Chatham was one of his
moft itriking charaCteriftics. He far outftripped his
competitors, and flood alone the rival of antiquity.
“ His eloquence was of every kind. No man excelled
him in dole argument and methodical deduction: but
this was not the ityle into which he naturally fell. His
oratory was unlaboured and fpontaneous : he rufhed at
once upon the fubjeCt; and ufually illultrated it rather
by glowing language and original conception, than by
cool reafoning. His perfen was tall and dignified *, his
face was the face of an eagle ; his piercing eye withered
the nerves, and looked through the fouls of his oppon--
entsj his countenance was ftern, and the voice of thundei
fat upon his lips: anon, however, he could defeend to
the eafy and the playful. His voice feemed fcarcelymore
adapted to energy and to terror, than it did to the me¬
lodious, the infinuating, and the fportive. If, however,
in the enthufiafm of admiration, we can find room for
the frigidity of criticifm, his aCtion feemed the moft open
to objection. It was forcible, uniform, and ungraceful.
In a word, the moft celebrated orators of antiquity were
in a great meafure the children of labour and cultivation.
Lord Chatham was always natural and himfelf.”
To the misfortune of letters, and of pofterity, it has
been faid, his lordfliip never publiftied any thing. Lord
Chefterfitld fays, “ that he had a moft happy turn for
poetry : but it is more than probable that Cheflerfitld
was deceived ; for we are told by his biographer that
his verfes to Garrick were very meagre, and Lord Cha¬
tham himfelf faid that he feldom indulged and feldom
avowed it. It fhould feem, then, that he himfelf fet
no great value upon it. Perhaps a proper confidence
of one’s felf is effential to all extraordinary merit.
Why fhould we ambitioufly aferibe to one mind every
fpecies of human excellence ? But though he was no
poet, it is more than probable, that he would have ex¬
celled as much in waiting profe as he did in fpeaking
it.
Pitt, the Right Honourable William, was the fourth
child of that illuftrious orator and confummate ftatefman,
William Pitt, the firft earl of Chatham, and was born
on the 28th of May 1759. Nicholas Pitt, who lived
in the reign of Henry VI. was the common anceftor of.
the noble families of Chatham, Camelford, and Rivers..
Thomas Pitt, the firft of tbe name who attained any
confiderable eminence, was governor of Fort St George
in the Eaft Indies, w here he purchafed, as noticed in the
preceding life, for 20,400!. fterling, the extraordinary
diamond called the regent, weighing 127 carats, and
which was fold to the king of France for the enormous
fum of 135,000!. fterling. This diamond it is faid, nor/
occupies a confpicuous place in the imperial diadem of
^ " Bonaparte
Pitt.
PIT [ 587 ] PIT
Bonaparte. By means of this vaft fum he rvas enabled
to purchafe a confiderable eftate in Cornwall ; yet his
grand-children were poorly provided for, particularly
the great earl of Chatham, but what he wanted in opu¬
lence was abundantly fupplied by the uncommon talents
and abilities, which nature conferred upon him in the
profufeit manner. Although he betook himfelf for fup-
port to the profeffion of arms, he never rofe higher than
to the rank of a cornet of horfe, of which Sir Robert
Walpole, with unexampled meannefs, deprived him, be-
caufe he had the boldnefs and integrity to oppofe his ad-
miniftration. This, however, proved no real obftacle
to his preferment in the Hate, for in the year 1756 he
became prime miniiler.
As the prefent earl of Chatham was deftined for the
army, and another fon James-Charles for the navy, lord
Chatham refolved to train up William to the profeflion
of a ftatefman. Having therefore confided the care of
his other two fons to others, he took William under his
own immediate infpe£tion, whofe rapid progrefs cheered
the folitude, and illumed the declining days of this ex¬
traordinary man, who already began to prefage his fu¬
ture greatnefs. His fchool exercifes were performed
under the care of a private tutor, a Mr, afterwards Dr
Wilfon, while his noble father embraced every oppor¬
tunity of converfing with him on every interefting topic
with the utmoft freedom, in order to expand his mind,
and mature his judgment. He alfo made him declaim
from a chair or a table, well knowing that the gift of
eloquence is a valuable acquifition for a young man who
wiihes to arrive at eminence, and that it had fupplied the
deficiencies of fortune in his own perfon.
It was refolved on, at a proper period, to fend Wil¬
liam to one of the univerfities, and on this occafion Cam¬
bridge was preferred to Oxford, from a decided opinion
entertained by many, that the political doflrines incul¬
cated at the former were more liberal than thofe ufuaily
propagated at the latter. He was .accordingly placed
under the tuition of Dr Turner of Pembroke Hall. Dr
Prettyman, afterwards bfthop of Lincoln, alfo partici-
jpated in the care of bis education, and was his private
mftru&or. During his refidence at Cambridge, it ap¬
pears certain that the morals and condiift of Mr Pitt
were unimpeachable, not in the fmalleft degree contami¬
nated by the powerful example of the young nobility.
Here he took his bachelor’s degree, and alfo that of
A. M. and acquired fuch reputation in the univerfity for
talents, induftry, and propriety of deportment, as proved
«f great advantage to him in his fubfequent purfuits
through life.
When Mr Pitt left the univerfity, he was entered at
Lincoln’s Inn, much about the fame time with Mr Ad¬
dington, whofe father had been both the phyfician and
friend of his family, and was enabled to be called to the
bar in the fpace of three years, having received fotne
marks of favour on account of his degree. He made
choice of the weftern circuit as the feene of bis firft ef¬
forts ; but having little practice as a lawyer, he had of
confequence but little celebrity ; and it is probable that
he was ill qualified, on the fcore of patient and labo¬
rious inveftigation, for a purfuit in which nothing great
can be accomplifhed, without the perfevering induftry
«f a whole life.
Fortune at this time feemed eager to heap favours
fcpon him of another kirxi. Being bred a ftatefman, the
houfe of commons was of courfe ..he place where he
was to begin his political career. He was advifed by
numerous friends to propofe himfelf a candidate for the
univerfity of Cambridge, but he failed of fuccefs from
the want of fufficient influence. Accident, however,
brought about what the defigns of his friends could not
accomplish. The duke of Rutland alked Sir James Low-
ther (afterwards earl of Lonfdale), if he could poflibly
make room in any of his boroughs, to bring in his young
friend Mr Pitt, who had thus loft his election for Cam¬
bridge. He was chofen member for the borough of Ap¬
pleby. About this time the American war was raging
with unabated violence, which Mr Pitt, following the
example and advice of his father, reprobated as one of
the moft fhameful and ruinous conflifts of modern times.
Having efpoufed the conftitutional and popular fide of
this important queftion, his opening talents were difplay-
ed to no common advantage, and he was not only re¬
garded as a promifing fpeaker, but as deitined at fome
future period to rank high in the councils of his native
country. This was truly honourable to fo young a man,
when it is remembered that one houfe could then boaft:
of a Rockingham, a Richmond, and a Shelburne, and
the other of a Saville, a Dunning, a Burke, a Barr£,
and a Fox. Yet there was ftill room for our juvenile
orator, and the recolleftion of the eloquence, the talents,
and the meritorious fervices of his father, contributed
greatly to fix the attention of mankind on the deport¬
ment of a favourite fon.
About this time the extent of the royal prerogative
engaged the attention both of the parliament and the
public, and a vote of the commons, “ that the influence
of the crown had increafed, was inereafing, and ought
to be diminifhed,” plainly pointed to an object, whether
real or imaginary, which occafioned a confiderable de¬
gree of difeontent. Mr Burke, then in the zenith of his
popularity, encouraged by numerous fymptoms of jea-
loufy, once more brought forward his plan of economy,
which being founded on a progreflive retrenchment, ap¬
peared admirably calculated to diminilb the influence of
the crown. It is needlefs to add that it was oppofed by
the minifter (Lord North), but it was ably fupported by
Mr Pitt, whoforcibly ridiculed every objeftion that could
be brought againft it. The bill was rejected after a
long debate, but afterwards introduced at a more aufpi-
tious period, and to a certain extent carried into effe<R.
Mr Fox having moved that minifters fliould imme¬
diately take every poflible meafure for concluding a
peace with our American colonies, he was powerfully
fupported by Mr Pitt, whofe commanding eloquence en¬
gaged the whole attention of the houfe, while he re¬
probated the cruelty and impolicy of the conteft with
our colonies. He declared that it was conceived in in-
juftice, nurtured and brought forth in folly, and its foot-
fteps were marked with blood, daughter, perfection,
and devaftation. Many handfome compliments were
paid him by turn eminent judges of real merit, we mean
the lord advocate of Scotland (now Vifcount Melville),
and Mr Wilkes. The former, in particular, declared that
his powerful abilities and brilliant eloquence were uni-
verfallv acknowledged proofs, that the aftoniiliing extent
and force of an exalted underftanding had defeended, in
an hereditary line, from the late illuftrious pofiefior of
them, to a fon equally endowed with all the fire, and
Rrength, and grace of oratory.
FIT [ 588 ] P I T
Pitt. A more equal reprefentation of the people in parlia-
—v ’ ment was one of the principal obje&s to which the na¬
tion directed its attention, next to the American war.
It was admitted to be the undoubted prerogative of the
crown to declare war 5 but as the fupplies were entrufted
to t he management of the reprefentatxves of the people,
it was affirmed by fome that minifters could not have
carried on a contefl accompanied with the wafte of fo
much blood and treafure, had it not being owing to the
corruption and venality of parliament. To derive ad¬
vantage from pad experience ; to confer on the people
their due importance in fuch a mixed government as
that of Britain, and reflore the conftitution to its origi¬
nal purity, became by this time the grand object of Mr
Pitt’s exertions. He was as yet untainted by the fafci-
nating charms of power and authority, and confidtred a
well-earned fame as the beft, the only reward of his
laudable endeavours. He accordingly brought the prin¬
ciples and conduid of his opponents to fuch a ted as they
fuccefsfully employed againti himfelf, in order to wound
his feelings, and convitd him of inconfidency, by turn¬
ing his back on his once favourite fentiments. When
many cities and counties endeavoured to obtain a reform
in parliament, Mr Pitt a&ually fat in a convention of
delegates, met together in the neighbourhood of the
place where the legiflature held its fittings.
The American war in the mean time was drawing to
a termination, and the fpoils of the office of the former
minider became the rew'ard of thofe who oppofed him.
During the ffiort exidenee of the Rockingham admini-
dration, contractors were excluded from the houie of
commons j officers belonging to the cudoms and excife
■were declared unqualified to vote at eleClions •, the pro¬
ceedings refpe&ing the Middlefex eleftion were refeind-
ed : and while a more liberal policy was adopted with
regard to Ireland, many fuperfiuous offices were abolidr-
ed in England by means of a reform bill, which tended
powerfully to dedroy corruption. Many more import¬
ant reforms would have been accomplilhtd, had not the
death of the didinguidied Rockingham brought about
great and fudden changes.
Mr Fox retired in confequence of new arrangements,
and Lord Shelburne, as fird lord of the treafury, made
choice of Mr Pitt as chancellor of the exchequer, who
declared, although only 23 years of age, that he would
accept of no inferior office. Peace now' feemed to be an
objeCt generally defirable at any rate, and without much
regarding what faerifices might be made in order to
procure it; but the terms met with powerful oppofition
from two men formerly eonfidered as mortal enemies,
viz. Lord North and Mr Fox, the latter of whom retired
from office. Soon after the difmiffion of Mr Fox, Mr
Pitt again brought forward the quedion refpeCling a re¬
form in parliament, which he fondly hoped would be
the means of redoring him to his wonted popularity, and
pave the way to the inereafe of his power. He therefore
fubmitted three different motions to the confideration of
the houfe ; but although in thefe motions he was ably
fupported, be was left in a minority.
The coalition minidry, as it was called, had dill a
eoofiderable majority in parliament, notwithdanding the
popularity belonging to the name and talents of Mr Pitt,
but the celebrated India bill w?as produ&ive of a change.
This bill owed its origin to Mr Burke, but it received
3 regular and fvdematical oppolition from the. ex-chan-
» ?*
cellor of the exchequer. It was carried, however, in the p-tj.
houfe of commons by a great majority, but in the houfe y-
of lords it was oppofed by the duke of Richmond, Lord
Thurlow, and Earl Temple (afterwards marquis of
Buckingham) ; and on the 17th of December 1783, it
was finally rejected by a majority of 19.
The king in the mean time determined on an entire
change of adminidration, and the two fecretaries were
informed on the 18th of December 1783, about 12 o’
clock at night, that his majedy had no further occafion
for their fervices. In confequence of this change, the
important offices of nrd lord of the treafury and cham-
cellor of’the exchequer were bed owed on Mr Pitt, who
thus became prime minider before he was full 24 years
of age. Thurlow was created lord chancellor, the duke
of Richmond keeper of the privy feal ; the marquis of
Caermarthen and Lord Sidney were chofen fecretaries
of date, and Mr Dundas, treafurer of the navy.
Much about this time Mr Pitt brought forward a
new bill for the better government of India. He pro-
pofed that a board of controul diould be indituted, the
nomination of whofe members was to be veded in the
crown, and to them the difpatches of the company were
to be fubmitted. Pie alfo propofed that the appointment
of the commander in chief diould belong to his majedy,
and having thus fecured the political intereds of the
company, he left thofe of a commercial nature entirely
to the court of direclors. This bill, after a diort debate,
was reje&ed by a majority of eight. Such was the pre-
fent temper of the houfe of commons, that a coalition or
immediate diffolution became abfolutely neceffary ; and
the former having been unfuccefsfully attempted, the
latter was fuddenly adopted, on the 25th of March 1784*
Mr Pitt having been returned for theuniverfity of Cam¬
bridge, again brought forward his bill in an amended
date for the regulation of India, and carried it in tri¬
umph through both houfes of parliament. The remain¬
ing part of the feffion gave birth to an aft for the better
prevention of fmuggling, and the commutation aft, by
virtue of which certain duties were transferred from tea
to windows.
When Mr Alderman Sawbridge (June 16th 17^4)
made a motion for inquiring into the prefent date of the
commons of Great Britain in parliament, Mr Pitt, w hole
political fentiments had undeigone a revolution, felt him¬
felf confiderably embarraffed, as be was reminded that
he had brought forward quedions on the fame lubjeft'
upon a former occafion. Mr Pitt, however, declined it,
on aecount of the. preffure of public bufinefs, and obfer-
ved that, in his opinion, the prelent wms not the proper
time for bringing forward the quedion, and that it might
be urged with greater probability of fuceefs on fome fu¬
ture occafion. He did not wilh it to be difeuffed in a
precipitate manner, yet the bufinefs itfelf Ihould have
every fupport he w as able to afford it.
Having now attained the fummit of power and influ¬
ence as prime minider, Mr Pitt exercifed every funftion
of his important office, without any cheek or controul.
Poffefftd of a great majority in both houfes of parlia¬
ment, as well as in the cabinet, his whole deportment
in the language of his opponents, feems to have become
lofty in the extreme •, and he paid little or no regard to
that popularity which he had formerly courted.
A commercial treaty about this time was entered into
with France, the terms which have been generally
acknowledged
PIT [ 589 ] PIT
%t. acknowledged to be advantageous to Britain. Mr Pitt,
who deferves great credit for giving the plan his coun¬
tenance, adopted, much about the fame time, another
refpedting the finances, from which he derived a high
degree of reputation ; and, as he pointed at a period
when the national debt might, in all probability, be ex-
tinguilhed, the country, if it was not altogether fatis-
fied, appeared to be at lead: contented under his admini-
ftration : and it is not a little to the credit of his finan¬
cial fyftem, that his opponents, when in power, not only
approved, but adopted and extended it.
In this manner a commercial country began again to
flourith, by turning its attention to the arts of peace j
but, during his adminitlration, its profperity was threat¬
ened to be interrupted by the preparations for an attack
upon Ruffia at one time, and by an open rupture with
Spain at another, relative to Nootka Sound, In both
cafes the blow was warded off by negociation, and a
good underftanding reftored. The reiloration of the
liadtholder, by the intervention of a Pruffian army, and
his ftrenuous oppofition of the prince of Wales’s appoint¬
ment to the regency during the king’s indifpofition,
were alfo two important meafures purfued and difeuffed
in the courfe of his miniftry.
Soon after the commencement of the French revolu¬
tion, Mr Pitt deemed a war with that country inevi¬
table. But for a full detail of the events of this war,
fee Britain'. Having held the reins of government
during 18 years, Mr Pitt, and all the members of the
cabinet, fuddenly retired from office in 1801. On this
occafion all parties appeared to rejoice at the appoint¬
ment of Mr Addington ; and France, from that mo¬
ment, as fome aflert, feemed to have neither friends nor
advocates in this illand. When the articles of the treaty
of Amiens were debated in the houfe of commons, Mr
Pitt defended the new minifter with the whole force of
his abilities and influence.
On the 15th of March 1804, wiade a direft
attack on the adminiffration ; and the admiralty board
was accufed by him of imbecility. He zealoufly fup-
ported Mr Fox’s propofition relative to the Irith militia
bill for the national defence, which was loft on a divi-
fion. The minifter’s majority having dwindled to 37,
on the army of referve fufpenfion bill, Mr Addington
and fome of his friends retired, and the ex-minifter re¬
fumed his former feat. When parliament met on the
15th of January 1805, warmly defended the
war with Spain ; and, on the motion for an addrefs, he
had a majority of 207.
But, in the mean time, a gouty habit, the predifpo*
fing caufes of which appear to have been hereditary,
9nd which, perhaps, was increafed by his own manner
of living, feized on a eonftitution never verv ftrong. It
is alleged, by his opponents, that this, combined with
the mifearriage of his fchemes, and the afpefr of affairs
on the continent, preyed fo much upon his mind, that
he isfaid to have died of a broken heart, at his houfe
near Putney, between four and five on Wednefday
morning, January 23. 1806, in the 47th year of his
age.
As a financier, no man has obtained more praife,
who ever prefided at the board of exchequer. During
his miniftry fome of our manufa&ures languilhed, but
many flourilhed, and our exports were greatly increafed.
-As a fpeaker.he was unrivalled, and his generous fcorn
3
of wealth muft be admired. In 20 years his debts a- Pitt
mounted only to 40,000!. They were paid out of the . il
public purfe. The houfe of commons alfo paffed a vote,
that the expences of his funeral, and a monument to his > —
memory, Ihould be defrayed by the nation.
P1TTACUS, a native of Mitylene in Lelhos, was
one of the feven wife men of Greece : his father’s name
was Hyrradius. With the alfiftance of the fons of Al-
cseus, he delivered his country from the oppreflion of
the tyrant Melanchrus ; and in the war which the
Athenians waged againft Lefbos, he appeared at the
head of his countrymen, and challenged to fingle com¬
bat Phrynon the enemy’s general. As the event of the
war feemed to depend upon this combat, Pittacus had
recourfe to artifice j and when he engaged, he entangled
his adverfary in a net which he had concealed under his
Afield, and eafily difpatched him. He was amply re¬
warded for this victory 5 and his countrymen, fenfible of
his merit, unanimouily appointed him governor of their
city with unlimited authority. In this capacity Pittacus
behaved with great moderation and prudence ; and after
he had governed his fellow-citizens with the ftridleft
juftice, and after he had etlablilhed and enforced the
moft falutary laws, he voluntarily refigned the fovereign
power after having enjoyed it for 10 years, obferving
that the virtues and innocence of private life were in¬
compatible with the power Rnd influence of a fovereign.
His difinterettednefs gained him many admirers} and
when the Mitylcneans wifhed to reward his public fer-
vices by prefenting him with an immenfe trafl of terri¬
tory, he refufed to accept more land than what ftiould
be contained in the diftance to which he could throw a
javelin. He died in the 70th year of his age, about
579 years before Chrift, after he had fpent the laft
10 years of his life in literary eafe and peaceful retire¬
ment.
The following maxims and precepts are aferibed to •
Pittacus : The firft office of prudence is to forefee threat¬
ening misfortunes, and prevent them. Power difeovers
the man. Never talk of your fchemes before they are
executed ; left, if you fail to accomplifh them, you be
expofed to the double mortification of difappointment
and ridicule. Whatever you do, do it well. Do not
that to your neighbour which you would take ill from
him. Be watchful for opportunities.
Many of his maxims were inferibed on the walls of
Apollo’s temple at Delphi, to ftiow to the world how
great an opinion the Mityleneans entertained of his
abilities as a philofopher, a moralift, and a man. By
one of his laws, every fault committed by a man when
intoxicated deferved double punifhment.
PITTENWEEM, afmall town fituated on the frith
of Forth, towards the eaftern extremity of the county of
Fife in North Britain. It takes its name from a fmall
cave in the middle of it, anciently called a weem ; and is
remarkable for nothing but the ruins of a religious houfe,
which is fome'times called an abbey and fometimes a
prioi'ij. Which of thefe is the proper denomination it is
hardly worth while to inquire ; but it appears from the
arms of the monaftery, ftill preferved over the principal
gate, that the fuperior, by whatever title he wascalled-^
had the privilege of wearing a mitre. This edifice,
which feems never to have been large, was, with other
monuments of nfiftaken piety, alienated from the church
at the Reformation j and what parts of it now remain
are
PIT f 590 ] P I IT
f!tf.cn- are put to very different ufes. Some of the cells of the
, we<-'in- monks furnifli habitations tolerably convenient for the
fervants of him who, in the ceafelefs change of property,
has got poffeilion of the lands which formerly belonged
to them. That which feenss to have been the granary
is a decent parifli church. The porch of the chapel,
the only part of that building which exifts, has been al¬
ternately employed as a {table and a {laughter-houfe $
and the meat killed there has been commonly expofed to
fale in the lower part of the fteeple of that edifice which
is now dedicated to the offices of parochial devotion.
* 'Tolin‘t-n' Had the moralizing traveller*, who compofed the beau¬
tiful and pathetic meditation on the ruins of Jona, con-
defcended to vifit Pittenweem, he would not have view¬
ed the abbey without eniotion. Infignificant as the
place at prefent is, it fee ms to have been of fome confe-
quence in the laft century 5 and we are led to infer,
from the following extraft from the records, that the
inhabitants were opulent, and that the town was for¬
tified.
“ Pittenweem, decimo quarto Feb. 165I. The bai¬
lies and council being convened, and having received in¬
formation that his majefty is to be in progrefs with his
court along the coaft to-morrow, and to (lay at Anftru-
ther houfe that night, have thought it expedient, ac¬
cording to their bounden duty, with all reverence and
due refpeft, and with all the fame folemnity they can,
to Wait upon his majefly, as he comes through this his
majefty’s burgh, and invite his majefly to eat and drink
as he pafics j and for that efteft hath ordained, that the
morn afternoon the town's colours be put upon the ber-
tifene of the fteeple, and that at three o’clock the bells
begin to ring, and ring on ftill till his majt fly comes hi¬
ther, and pafies to Anftruther: And ficklike, that the
minifter be fpoken to, to be with the bailies and coun¬
cil, who are to be in their beft apparel, and with them
a guard of 24 of the ableft men, with partizans, and
other 24 with mufkets, all in their beft; apparel, Wil¬
liam Sutherland commanding as captain of the guard }
and to wait upon his majefty, and to receive his high-
nefs at the Weft Port, bringing his majefty and court
through the town, until they come to Robert Smith’s
} The Earl yeet, where an table is to be covered with my Lord’s-f
of Kelly, beft carpet : and that George Hetherwick have in rea-
dinefs, of fine flour, fome great bunns, and other wheat-
bread of the beft order, baken with fugar, cannell, and
other fpices fitting ; and that James Richardfon and
Walter Airth have care to have ready eight or ten gal-
/ Jons of good ftrong ale, with Canary, lack, Rbenifh
wine, tent, white and claret wines, that his majefty and
his court may eat and drink ; and that in the mean
time, when his majefty is prefent, the guard do dili¬
gently attend about the court; and fo foon as his ma¬
jefty is to go away, that a fign be made to Andrew Tod,
who is appointed to attend the colours on the fteeple
head, to the effeft he may give fign to thofe who attend
the cannon of his majefty’s departure, and then the haill
thirty-fix cannons to be all [hot at once. It is alfo thought
fitting, that the minifter, and James Richardfon the old-
eft bailie, when his majefty comes to the table, (how
the great joy and fenfe this burgh has of his majefty’s
condefcendence to vifit the fame, with fome other ex-
preflions of loyalty. All which was a£Ied.” The po¬
pulation of this town, in 1 790, was computed at 11 c?.
N. Lat. 56. 11. W. Long. 2. 49.
PITTOSPORUM, a genus of plants belonging to Pittofp*
the pentandria clafs. See EoTANV Index. rum
PITUITARY gland. See Anatomy Index. II
PITYOC AMPASIS, in Entomology,iht caterpillar
of the pine-tree, received its compound name from that
fubftanee. It was confidtred as a poifon, and as a re¬
medy, according to its different mode of application.
Our chief information, concerning this caterpillar, is de¬
rived from M. Reaumur, who has attentively obferved
its manner of life. The animal cannot bear much cold,
and is therefore never found in the higher latitudes. It
is ftyled proceffionary, becaufe it never leaves its hold,
where many families refide, till the evening, when it
feeds in trains, led on by two or three, and this train
leaves a ribband of filk in its way ; for thofe behind fol¬
low exaflly the Heps of thofe which preceded, and each
leaves its fibre of f>lk. Their nefts are found in au¬
tumn •, they are produced in the middle of September,
become torpid in December, and recover their ftrength
again in fpring. They then defcend from the trees,
plunge into the earth, and undergo their laft change.
It is the bombix pityocampa of Fabricius, {Mantifa In¬
ferior. tom. ii. p. 114. N° 66.), and greatly refembled
the proceffionary caterpillar of the oak. The ancients
ufed it as a veficatory, and the acrimony feems to refide
chiefly in a duft which is concealed in receptacles on its-
back. This is its offenfive weapon, for it is thrown out
at will, and produces very troublefome effects, though
the hair of the animal and every part of its body feem
to have a fimilar, but weaker power. The tffeft is alfo
Aveaker in winter ; but this may depend on the diminifli-
ed irritability of the human body, as well as on the tor¬
pid ftate of the infedi. Their filk is not fufficiently
ftrong for the loom, and in hot water melts almoft to a
pafte. In the earth it forms nefts of ftronger filk, but
it is then found with difficulty : in boxes its filk is ex¬
tremely tender. Adding to ail thefe inconveniences,
handling the cones produces all the bad effedls of the
duft. Matthiolus recommends them as a ftyptic, and
perhaps they may ferve for burning on the {kin inftead
of moxa, the downy filk of a fpecies of artemifia. The
ancients, afraid of its hurtful qualities, ufed them with
caution, and enabled laws againlt their being fold pro-
mifcuoufly : the modern planter is chiefly afraid of them,
becaufe they deftroy the beauty of his trees, and be en¬
deavours to colleft the eggs by cutting off the branches,
■tvhich are burnt immediately.
PI VAT, or Pivot, a foot or fhoe of iron or other
metal, ufually conical or terminating in a point, where¬
by a body, intended to turn round, bears on another
fixed at reft, and performs its revolutions. The pivot
ufually bears or turns round in a foie, or piece of iron
or brafs hollowed to receive it.
PIUSII.(iENKAS-SYLVIUsPlCCOLOMlNO,wasborn
on the 18th of Oflober 1405, at Corfigni in the Sienefe,
the name of which he afterwards changed into, that of
Tiennsa. His mother Vnftoria Forteguerra, when fhe
was with child of him, dreamed that {he {hould be deli¬
vered of a mitred infant *, and as the way of degrading
clergymen at that time was by crowning them with a
paper mitre, {he believed that ASneas would be a dif-
graee to his family. But what to her had the appear¬
ance of being a difgraee, was a prefage of the greateft
honours. Aineas was carefully educated, and mad*
confiderable proficiency in the belles lettres. After ha-
p i u [ 591 ] F I u
ving finifhed Ins ftudies at Sienna, be went in 1431 to
' the council of Bale with Cardinal Capranica, furnamed
De Fermo, becaufe lie was entrufted with the govern¬
ment of that church. /Eneas was his fecretary, and
was then only 26 years of age. He afterwards afted in
the fame capacity to fume other prelates, and to Cardi¬
nal Albergati. The council of Bale honoured him with
different commiffions, in order to recompenfe him for
the zeal with which he defended that affembly againft
Pope Eugene IV. He was afterwards fecretary to Fre¬
deric III. who decreed to him the poetic crown, and
fent him ambaffador to Rome, Milan, Naples, Bohe¬
mia, and other places. Nicholas V. advanced him to
the bifhopric of Triefte, which he quitted feme time
after for that of Sienna. At Jaft, after having diilin-
guiihed himfelf in various nunciatures, he was inverted
with the Roman purple by Calixtus III. whom he fuc-
ceeded two years after, on the 27th of Auguft 1458.
Pius II. now advanced to the holy fee, made good the
proverb, Honores mutant ?7iores. From the commence¬
ment of his pontificate, he appeared jealous of the papal
prerogatives. In 1460 he iffued a bull, “declaring ap¬
peals from the pope to a council to be null, erroneous,
deteftable, and contrary to the facred canons.” That
bull, however, did not prevent the procurator-general
of the parliament of Paris from appealing to a council in
defence of the Pragmatic Sanction, which the pope had
ftrenuoufiy oppofed. Pius was then at Mantua, whither
he had gone in order to engage the Catholic princes to
unite in a war againft the Turks. The greater part of
them had agreed to furniih troops or money ; others re-
fufed both, particularly France, who from that moment
incurred his holinefs’s averfion. That averfion abated
under Louis XL whom he perfuaded in 1461 to abolilh
the Pragmatic Sanction, which the parliament of Paris
had fupported with fo much vigour.
The following year, 1462, was rendered famous by
a controverfy which took place between the Cordeliers
and Dominicans, whether or not the blood of Jefus
Chrift was feparated from his body while he lay in the
grave. It was alfo made a queftion whether it was fe¬
parated from his divinity. The Cordeliers affirmed that
it was, but the Dominicans were of an oppofite opinion.
They called each oilier heretic* ; which obliged the
pope to iffue a bull, forbidding them under pain of cen-
fiire to brand one another with fuch odious epithets.
The bull which his holinefs publifhed on the 26th of.
April, retracting what he had written to the council of
Bale when he was its fecretary, did not redound much
to his honour. “ I am a man (fays he), and as a man
I have erred. I am far from denying that a great ma¬
ny things which I have faid and written may deferve
condemnation. Like Paul, I have preached through
deception, and I have perfecuted the church of God
through ignorance. 1 imitate the blefled Auguftin, who
having fuffered fume erroneous fentiments to creep into
his works, retraced them. I do the fame thing ; I
frankly acknowledge my ignorance, from a fear left
■what I have written in my younger years ftiould be the
occafion of any error that might afterwards be prejudi¬
cial to the interefts of the holy fee* For if it be proper ’
for any one to defend and fupport the eminence andglo-
*y of the firft throne of the church, it is in a peculiar
banner my duty, whom God. out of his mercy and
gyodnefs alone, without any merit on my part, has raf¬
fed to the dignity of vicar of Jefus Ckrfji. For all tuefe
reafons, we exhort and admoniih you in the Lord, not
to give credit to thofe writings of ours which tend in any
degree to hurt the authority of the apoftolic fee, and
which eftablith opinions that are not received by the Ro¬
man church. If you find, then, any thing contrary to
her doftrine, either in our dialogues, in our letters, or in
other of our works, defpife thefe. opinions, rejeft them,,
and adopt our prefent fentiments. Believe me rather
now that I am an old man, than when I addreffed you
in my earlier days. Efteem a fovereign pontiff more
than a private perfon j except againft /Eneas Sylvius,
but receive Pius II.” It might be objected to his holi¬
nefs, that it was his dignity alone which had made him
alter his opinion. He anticipates that objeftion, by giv¬
ing a (hort account of his life and a£Hons, with the whole
hiltory of the council of Bale, to which he went with
Cardinal Capranica in 1431 ; “ but (fays he) I w as then
a young roan, and without any experience, like a bird
juft come from its neti.” In the mean time, the Turks
were threatening Chriftendom. Pius, ever zealous in
the defence of religion againft the infidels, forms the re-
folution of fitting out a fleet at the expence of the church,
and of paffing over into Afia himfelf, in order to ani¬
mate the Chriftian princes by his example. He repaired
to Ancona with a defign to embark ; but lie there fell
fick with the fatigue of the journey, and died on the
16th of Auguft 1464, aged 59 years. Pius was one
of the molt learned men of his time, and one of the moft
zealous pontiffs ; but being of an ambitious and pliant
difpofition, he fometimes facrificed to that ambition.
His principal works are, 1. Memoirs of the council of
Bale, from the fufpenfion of Eugenius to the eleflion of
Felix. 2. The hiftory of the Bohemians, from their
origin to the year 1458. 3. Two books on cofraogra-
phy. 4* The hiftory of Frederic III. whofe vice-chan¬
cellor he had been. 1 his performance w’as publifhed in
1785 in folio, and is believed to be pretty accurate and
very particular. 5. A tre^tife pn the education of chil¬
dren. 6. A poem upon the paftion of Jefus Chrift,
7. A colle&ion of 432 letters, printed at Milan, 1473,
in folio, in which are found fome curious anecdotes.
8. The memoirs of his own life, publifhed by John Go-
belin Perfonne his fecretary, and printed at Rome in 410
in 1384. There is no doubt of this being the genuine
production of that pontiff. 9. Hi/iona rerum ubicumque
gejlarum, of which only the firft part was publifhed at
Venice in 1477 in folio. His works vrere printed at
Helmftadt in 1790, in folio, at the beginning of which
we find his life. That verfe of Virgil’s /Eneid (lib. i. ,
382.) which begins thus, ,
Sum Pius JEneas,    ■
and the end of the following verfe,
   fama fuper ccthera noius,
have been applied to him. .
Pius IV. {John Angel, Cardinal de Med ids'), of a dif¬
ferent family from that of Florence, was born at Milan
in 1409. He w-as fon to Bernardin de Medechini, and
brother of the famous Marquis de Marignan, Charles .
V.’s general. He raifed himfelf by his own merit,
and filled feveral important offices under Popes Clement
VII. and Paul III. Julius III. who had entrufted him
with feveral legations, henoured him with a cardinal’s
, ha%
P I u
r 59
Pius. Latin 1549. After the death of Paul IV. he was ad-
vanced to St Peter’s chair on the 25th of December
I $59. His predeceffbr had rendered himfelf deteitable
to the Romans, who treated his memory with every
mark of indignity, and Pius IV. commenced his pontifi¬
cate by pardoning them. He did not, however, extend
the fame clemency to the nephews of Pope Paul IV. ;
for he caufed Cardinal Caraffe to be ftrangled in the
caftle of St Ahgelo, and bis brother, the prince de Pal-
liano, to be beheaded. His zeal was afterwards diredt-
cd againft the Turks and heretics. In order to Hop, if
jpoffible, the prpgrefs of thefe laft. he renewed the Coun¬
cil of Trent, which had been fufpended. He knew
well (fays abbd de Choify), that that council might
make feme regulations which would have the effedt to
leffen his authority; but, on the other hand, he perceiv¬
ed that great inconveniences might refult from its not
being affembled \ and “ in the main (faid he to his con¬
fidants) it is better to feel evil for once than to be always,
in dread of it.'1'* In 1561 he difpatched nuncios to all
the Catholic and Proteftant princes, toprefent them with
the bull for calling that important afiembly. Art end
was, however, put to it by the induftry of his nephew,
S. Charles Borromeus, in 1563 ; and, on the 26th of
January the year following, he iffued a bull for confirm¬
ing its decrees. In 1565 a confpiracy was formed
againft his life by Benedidt Acolti, and fome other vi-
fionaries. Thofe madmen had taken it into their head
that Pius IV. was not a lawful pope, and that after his
death they would place another in St Peter’s chair, with
the title of Pope Angelicas^ under whom errors might be
reformed, and peace reftored to the church. The con¬
fpiracy was difeovered, and the fanatic Benedidl put to
death. This pontiff died a little time after, on the 9th
of December 1565, aged 66 years, carrying to the
grave with him the hatred of the Romans, "whom his
feverities had exafperated. He was a man of great ad-
drefs, and very fruitful in his refources. He adorned
Rome with feveral public edifices *, but thefe ornaments
tended greatly to impoverilh it. If he vras the inftru-
ment of raifing his relations in the world, it muft be al¬
lowed, at leaft, that the greater part of them did him
honour.
Pius V. {S. MichaelGhifleri), born at Bofchi or Bof-
-eo, in the dioeefe of Fortona, on the 17th of January
1504, was, according to Abbe de Choify, fon to a fena-
tor of Milan. He turned a Dominican friar. Paul IV.
Informed of his merit and virtue, gave him the bifhopric
of Sutri, created him cardinal in 1557, and made him
inquifitor-general of the faith among the Milanefe and
in Lombardy ; but the feverity. with which he exercifed
his office obliged him to quit that country. He was
fent to Venice, where the ardour of his zeal met with
Hill greater obftacles. Pius IV. added to the cardinal’s
• hat the bifhopric of Mondovi. After the death of that
pontiff, he was advanced to St Peter’s chair in 1566.
• The Romans expreffed but little joy at his coronation :
he was very fenfible of It, and faid, “ I hope they will
be as forry at my death as they are at my eleEhon but
he w'as miftaken. Raifed by his merit to the firfteccle-
fiaftieal preferment in Chriftendom, he could not diveft
himfelf of the feverity of his character*, and the fituation
in which he found himfelf rendered, perhaps, that feve¬
rity neceffary. One of his firft objedfs was to reprefs
t.he luxury of the clergy, the pride of the cardinals, and
2 ] P I U
the licentiofts manners of the Romans. He caufed the
decrees of reformation enabled by the Council ot Trent
to be put in execution , he prohibited bull-baiting in
the Circus ; he expelled from Rome the women of the
town 5 and allowed the cardinals to be profecuted for
their debts. The errors which overflowed the Chriftian
■world gave him great uncafinefs. After having em¬
ployed gentle and lenient meafures in the reclaiming of
heretics, he had recourfe to feverity, and fome of them
ended their days in the flames of the inquifition. He
particularly displayed his zeal for the grandeur of the
holy fee in 1568, by ordaining that the bull In ccena
dominiy which was publiftied at Rome every year on
Maunday Thirfdayy and which Clement XIV. fup-
preffed, fhould be publifhed likewife throughout the
whole church. That bull, the work of feveral fove-
reign pontift's, principally regards the jurifdidlion of the
ecclefiaftieal and civil power. It anathematizes thofe
w ho appeal from the decrees of popes to a general coun¬
cil \ thofe who favour the appellants $ the univerfities
which teach that the pope is fubjeft to a general coun¬
cil ; the princes who would reftrain the ecelefiaftical ju-
rifdidfion, or who exaft contributions from the clergy.
It was rejected by all the fovereign ftates, excepting a
very few. In 1580, fome bifhops having endeavoured
to introduce it into their diocefes, the parliament caufed
their temporalities to be feized upon, and declared thofe
guiitv of high trealon who Ihould imitate the fanati-
cifm of thofe prelates. Pius V. for fome time medi¬
tated an expedition againft the Turks. He had the
courage to make war on the Ottoman empire, by
forming a league with the Venetians and Philip II.
king of Spain. This was the firft time that the flan-
dard of the two keys v^as feen difplayed againft the
crefcent. The naval armies came to an engagement,
on the 7th of Oftober 1571, in Lepanto bay, in which
the confederate Chriftian princes obtained a fignal vic¬
tory over the Turks, who loft above 30,000 men, and
near 200 galleys. This fuccefs was principally owing
to the pope, who exhaufted both his purfe and perfon
in fitting out that armament. He died of the gravel
fix months after, on the 30th of April 1572, aged 68.
He repeated often, in the midft of his fufft rings, “ Q
Lord! increafe my pains and my patience.'1’1 His name
will for ever adorn the lift of Roman pontiffs. It is
true, that his bull againft Queen Elizabeth, and his
other bull in favour of the inquifition, with his rigorous
profeeution of heretics both in France and Ireland,
prove (hat he had more zeal than fweetnefs in his teni-
per $ but in other refpedls he poffeffed the virtues of a
faint and the qualities of a king. He w!as the model of
the famous Sixtus Quintus, to whom he gave an example
of amaffing in a few years fuch favings as were fufficient
to make the holy fee be regarded as a formidable power.
Sultan Selim, who had no greater enemy than this pope,
caufed public rejoicings to be made at Conftantinople
for his death during the fpace of three days. The pon¬
tificate of Pius is alfo celebrated for the condemnation
of Baius, the extindlion of the order of Humilies, and
the reformation of that of the Ciftercians. He was ca¬
nonized bv Clement XT. in 1712. There are extant
feveral of his letters, printed at Anvers in 1640, in 4(0.
Feliblan, in 1672, publifhed his Z^/e, tranflated from
the Italian of Agatio di Somma ; but we cannot vouch
for the fidelity of the tranflation.
FIX.
u
P L A T 59.3 3 P L A
Pix PIX. See MlNT-Marks.
!1 PIZARRO, Francis, a celebrated Spanifli general,
[acenta. tjie Jjfeoverer and conqueror of Peru, in conjunftion
with Diego Ahnagro, a Snanifh navigator. They are
both charged with horrid cruelties to the inhabitants j
and they fell victims to their own ambition, jealoufy,
and avarice. Almagro revolting, was defeated and be¬
headed by Pizarro, who was alfaffinated by Almagro’s
friends in 1541. See Peru.
PLACE, Locus, in Philofophy, a mode of fpace or
that part of immoveable fpace which any body poffefTes*
See Metaphysics, N° 185.
Place, in AJlronomy. The place of the fun, a (tar,
&tc. denotes the fign and degree of the zodiac which
the luminary is in ; or the degree of the ecliptic, reck
oning from the beginning of Aries, which the planet’s or
(tar’s circle of longitude cuts : and therefore coincides
with the longitude of the fun, planet, or (tar. As the
fine of the fun’s greateft declination 23° 30' : to the fine
of any prefent declination given or obferved, for inftance,
53° 15':: fo is the radius 10 : to the fine of his longL
tude 8i° 52'•, which, if the declination were north,
would give 20° 52' of Gemini ; if fouth, 20° 52' of
Capricorn, for the fun’s place. See Declination, &c.
The place of the moon being that part of her orbit
wherein (lie is found at any time, is of various kinds,
by reafon of the great inequalities of the lunar motions,
which render a number of equations and reductions ne-
eeffary before the juft point be found. The moon’s fic¬
titious place is her place once equated *, her place nearly
true, is her place twice equated *, and her true place
thrice equated. See ASTRONOMY, pqjjim.
Place, in tVar, a general name for all kinds of fot:-
treffes where a party may defend themfelves. Thus, 1.
A ftrong or fortified place is one flanked, and covered
with baflions. 2. A regular place, one wbofe angles,
fides, baflions, and other parts, are equal j and this is
ufually denominated from the number of its angles, as a
pentagon, hexagon, &c. 3. Irregular place is one
whofe fides and angles are unequal.—4. Place of arms is
a ftrong city or town pitched upon for the chief maga¬
zine of an army ; or, in a city or garrifon, it is a large
open fpot of ground, ufually near the centre of the place
where the grand guard is commonly kept, and the gar¬
rifon holds its rendezvous at reviews, and in cafes of alarm
to receive orders from the governor. $. Places of arms
of an attack, in a fiege, is a fpacious place covered from
the enemy by a parapet or epaulement, where the fol-
diers are pofted ready to fuftain tbofe at work in the
trenches againft: the fbldiers of the garrifon. 6. Place of
arms particular, in a garrifon, a place near every baf-
tion, where the foldiers fent from the grand place to the
quarters aftigned them relieve thoTe that are either upon
the guard or in fight. J. Place of arms without, is a
place allowed to the covert way for the planting of can¬
non, to oblige thole who advance in their approaches to
retire. 8. Place of arms in a camp, a large place at the
head of the camp for the armv to be ranged in and drawn
up in battalia. There is alfo a place for each particular
body, troop, or company, to aflemble in.
Common-PLACE. See COMMON-PIace.
PLACENTA, in Anatomi/ and Midwifery, a foft
toundifh mafs, found in the womb of pregnant women ;
which, from its refemblance to the. liver, was called by
the ancients hepar uterinum, uterine liver.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
PLACENTIA, called by the natives Piaterr'z/r, is Placentlai.
a town of Italy, and capital of a duchy of the fame Plagiary. ^
name, with a bi(hop’s (ee. It is feated about 100 paces
from the river Po, in a very fertile pleafant plain, wa¬
tered by a great number of rivulets, and furrounded
Avith hills, abounding in all forts of fruits. In its terri¬
tory there are falt*-fprings, from which they make a very
white fait •, and there are alfo mines of iron, woods, and
warrens. It contains a great number of merchants, and
is reckoned three miles in circumference. Its fortifica¬
tions are inconfiderable, but the citadel is pretty ftrong.
The (treets are (iraight, and the principal ftreet called
Stradone, is 25 common paces broad and 3000 feet
long, in a direft line, with 600 done polls, for fepara-
ting the foot from the carriage-way, and on both fides
are 1 1 fpacious convents. The other buildings of the
city are not very remarkable, though it contains 45
churches, 28 convents, and two alms-houfes. The ca¬
thedral is pretty much in the Gothic tafte 5 but the
church of the Auguftines is reckoned the mod beauti¬
ful, and efteemed worthy of its architeft, the celebra¬
ted Vignoli. The ducal palace, though large, makes
no great appearance externally 5 but within there are fome
good apartments. In the area before the town-houfe
(land two admirable brafs ftatues of Alexander and Re-
natus IV. both of the houfe of Farnefe, and dukes of
Parma and Placentia. The biftiop is fufffagan to the
archbiftrop of'Milan. At this city begins the Via JE-
milia, which extends as far as Rimini on the Adriatic.
The number of the inhabitants is about 30,060, among
whom there are 2000 ecclefiaftics. This city has been
taken feveral times in the wars of Italy. The king of
Sardinia took pofleflion of it in 1744, it being ceded to
him by the queen of Hungary ; but it was taken from
him in 1746, after a bloody battle. The French got
poflefiion of it in 1796. It has a famous univerfity,
and the inhabitants are much elleemed for their polite-
nefs. There is a great fair here every year on the 15th
of April, which is much frequented. Placentia is about
32 miles north-weft of Parma and 83 eaft of Turin. E-.
Long. 10. 24. N. Lat. 45. 5.
PLAGIARY, in Pfri/o/cgy, the purloining ano¬
ther man’s works, and putting them off as our own.
Among the Romans, plagiarius was properly a perfon
who bought, fold, or retained a freema’n for a (lave •, and
was fo called, becaufe, by the Flavian law, fuel) perfons
were condemned ad pfagas, “ to be whipped.”
Thomafius has an exprefs treatife De pldgio literario;
wherein be lavs down the law's and meafures of the
right which authors have to one another’s writings.*—
“ Difftionary writers, at lead fuch as meddle with arts
and faiences (as is pertinently obferved by Mr Chambers),
feem exempted from the common laws of nteum and
tuum t thpy do not pretend to fet up on their own bot¬
tom, nor to treat you at their own cod. Their works
are fuppofed, in great meafure, compofitions of other peo¬
ples •, and what they take from others, they do it avow¬
edly, and in the open fun.—Ineffcft, their quality gives
them a title to every thing that may be for their pur-
pofe, wherever they find it 5 and if they rob, they do not
do it any otherwife than as the bee does, for the public
fervice. Their occupation is not pillaging, but collefl-
ing contributions ; and, if you ?(k them their authority,
they will produce you the pra£Hce of their predeceffors
of all aces and nations.”
4F . PLAGIUM,
p L A [ 594 3 P L A
giuna, PLAGIUM, in Law. See Kidnapping.
PLAGUE, Pestilence, or Pe/iilential Fever, is a
very acute, malignant, and contagious difeafe ; being a
putrid fever of the word kind, and feldom failing to
prove mortal. I hough it is generally defined a malig¬
nant fever, Diemerbrock thinks they ought tobediftin-
guithed, fince the fever is not the effence of the difeafe,
but merely a fymptom or effeft of it. See Medicine,
N° 221.
I he plague, as is generally agreed, is never bred or
propagated in Britain, but always imported from abroad,
efpecially from the Levant, Leffer Afia, Egypt, &c.
where it is very common. Sydenham has remarked
that it rarely inteits this country oftener than once in 40
years, and happily we have been free of it for a much
longer period.
Authors are not as yet agreed concerning the nature
of this dreadful difteraper. Some think that inlefts
are the caufe of it, in the fame way that they are the
caufe of blights, being brought in fwarms from other
climates by the wind, when they are taken into the
lungs in refpiration ; the confequence of which is, that
they mix with the blood and juices, and attack and cor¬
rode the vifcera. Mr Boyle, on the other hand, thinks
it originates from the effluvia or exhalations breathed
into the atmofphere from noxious minerals, to which
may be added ilagnant waters and putrid bodiesof every
kind.
Mr Gibbon thinks that the plague is derived from
damp, hot, and ftagnating air, and the putrefaftion of
animal fubftances, efpecially locufts. See Gibbon's Ro¬
man Hijiory, 4toedit. vol. iv. p. 327—332, where there
is alfo a very particular account of the plague which
depopulated the earth in the time of the emperor Jufti-
nian.
I he Mahometans believe that the plague proceeds
from certain fpirits, or goblins, armed with bows and
arrows, fent by God to punilh men for their fins 5 and
that when the wounds are given by fpeftres of a black
colour, they certainly prove fatal, but not fo when the
arrows are Ihot by thofe that appear white. They there¬
fore take no precaution to guard themfelves againft it.
I he wifer profeflbrs of this religion, however, at prefent
aft otherwife ; for we find a receipt recommended by
Sidy Mohammed Zerroke, one of the moft celebrated
Marabouts, prefaced with thefe remarkable words :
J he lives of us all are in the hands of God, when it
is we mull die. However, it hath pleafed him to fave
many perfons from the plague, by taking every morn¬
ing while the infeftion rages, one pill or two of the fol¬
lowing compofition; viz. of myrrh two parts, faffron
one part, of aloes two parts, of fyrup of myrtle berries,
?•/'” But this remedy is confined to the more enlighten¬
ed ; for the bigotry of the lower fort is fo extreme as
to make them defpife all precautions which people of
other nations ufe. Of this extreme and foolith preju¬
dice Dr Chandler gives an intereftingaccount when fpeak-
ing of the plague at Smyrna. This learned author is of
©pinion that the dileafe arifes from animalcules, which
he fuppofes to be invifible. See Chandler's Travels in
AJia Minor, p. 279, &c.
It is a remarkable faft, that plagues are fometimes
partial, and that they only attack particular animals, or
a particular defcription of perfons, avoiding others alto¬
gether, or attacking them but flightly. Thus Ferne-
lius informs us of ^ plague, or murrain, in 1514, which
invaded only cats. Dionyfius Halicarnaffeus mentions
a plague which attacked none but maids ; and that
which raged in the time of Gentilis, killed fcarcely
any women, and very few but lufty men. Boterus men¬
tions another plague, which aflaulted none but the
younger fort; and we have inftanees of the fame kind
°f a Hter handing (a). Cardan fpeaks ef a plague at
Bafil, with which the Switzers were infefted, and the
I alians, Germans, or French, exempted: and John
Utenhovius takes notice of a dreadful one at Copenha¬
gen, which, though it raged among the Danes, fpared
the Germans, Dutch, and Englifh, who went with all
freedom, and without the leafl: danger, to the houfes of
the infefted. During the plague which ravaged Syria
in 1760, it was obferved that people of the founded:
conftitutions were the moft liable to it, and that the
weak and delicate were either fpared or eafily cured. It
was moft fatal to the Moors ; and, when it attacked
them, it was generally incurable.
_ When the plague raged in Holland in 1636, a young
girl was feized with it, had three carbuncles, and was
removed to a garden, where her lover, who was be¬
trothed to her, attended her as a nurfe, and flept with
her as his wife. He remained uninfefted, and fhe re¬
covered, and was married to him. The ftory is related
by Vine. Fabricius in the Mifc. Cur. Ann. 11. Obf.
188.
Many methods have been adopted in different coun¬
tries to prevent the importation of this dreadful fcourge
of the human race, and to flop the progrefs of infec¬
tion after it has been imported. In England, mayors,
bailiffs, head officers of corporations, and juftices of
peace,. have power to tax inhabitants, houfes, and lands,
&c. within their precinfts, for the relief of perfons in¬
fefted with the plague ; and mftices of the county may
tax perfons within five miles round, on a parifh’s ina¬
bility ; the tax to be levied by diftrefs and lale of goods,
or in default thereof by imprifonment. Infefted per¬
fons going abroad, after being commanded to keep
houfe for avoiding farther infeftions, may be refifted by
rvatchmen, &c. and punifhed as vagrants, if they hav'e
no fores upon them ; and if they have infeftious fores
on them it is felony. Juftices of the peace, &c. are to
appoint fearchers, examiners, and buriers of the dead,
in places infefted, and adminifter oaths to them for the
performance of their duties, &.c.Jlat. 1 Jac. I. cap. 31.
See Quarantine.
The commiffion at Mofcow having, in the year
I77°» invented a fumigation-powder, which, from fe-
veral leffer experiments, had proved efficacious in pre¬
venting the infeftion of the plague j in order more
fully to afcerlain its virtue in that relpeft, it was de¬
termined,
(a) See account of the yellow fever under the
lefs fatal to fome forts of perlons than to others.
article Philadelphia,
where it appears that the difeafe rvas
P L A f >
!ague. termined, towards the end of the year, that ten male-
^ factors under fentence of death thould, without under¬
going any other precautions than the fumigations, be
confined three veeeks in a lazaretto, be laid upon the
beds, and dreffed in the clothes, which had been ufed
by perfons lick, dying, and even dead, of the plague in
the hofpital. The experiment was accordingly'tried,
and none of the ten malefa&ors were then infeded, or
have been lince ill. The fumigation powder is prepared
as follows.
powder of the JrrJJlreng th.~\ Take leaves of juniper,
juniper-berries pounded, ears of wheat, guaiacum wood
pounded, of each fix pounds; common faltpetre pound¬
ed, eight pounds •, fulphur pounded, fix pounds 5 Smyrna
tar, or myrrh, two pounds : mix all the above ingredi¬
ents together, which will produce a pood of the powder
of fumigation of the firft ftrength. [A^. B. A pood is
40 pounds Ruffian, which are equal to 35 pounds and a
half or 36 pounds Englifh avoirdupoife.j
Powder of the fecond Jlrength.'] Take fouthern-
wood cut into fmall pieces, four pounds j juniper-ber¬
ries pounded, three pounds ; common faltpetre pound¬
ed, four pounds •, fulphur pounded, two pounds and a
half; Smyrna tar, or myrrh, one pound and a half:
mix the above together, which will produce half a
pood of the powder of fumigation of the fecond
flrength.
Odoriferous powder.'] Take the root called halmus
cut into fmall pieces, three pounds ; leaves of juniper
cut into fmall pieces, four pounds; frankincenfe pound¬
ed grofsly, one pound ; ftorax pounded, and rofe flowers,
half a pound ; yellow amber pounded, one pound ; com¬
mon faltpetre pounded, one pound and a half; fulphur,
a quarter of a pound : mix all the above together, which
will produce nine pounds and three quarters of the odo¬
riferous powder.
Remark on the poxvder of fumigation.] If guaiacum
cannot be bad, the cones of pines or firs may be ufed in
its ftead ; likewife common tar of pines and firs may be
ufed inftead of the Smyrna tar, or myrrh, and mugwort
may fupply the place of fouthernwood.
Umcydides, who was himfelf infe£ted, lib ii. gives
us an account of a dreadful plague which happened at
Athens, about the year before Cbrift 430, while the
Peloponnefians under the command of Archidamus
wafted all their territory abroad ; but of thefe two ene¬
mies the plague was by far the moll dreadful and
ievere.
The moft dreadful plague that ever raged at Rome
vas in the reign of Titus, A. D. 80. The emperor left
no remedy unattempted “to abate the malignity of the di-
ftemper, adling during its continuance like a father to
. People- R he fame fatal difeafe raged in all the pro¬
vinces of the Roman empire in the reign of M. Aurelius,
A. D. 167, and was followed by a dreadful famine, by
earthquakes, inundations, and other calamities. The
Romans believed that Atfculapius fometimes entered in¬
to a ferpent, and cured the plague.
About the year 430 the plague vifited Britain, juft
a ter the Pi<fts and Scots had made a formidable invafion
0 _ t ie fouthern part of the ifland. The plague raged
Wit uncommon fury, and fwept away moft of thofe whom
e word and famine had Ipared, fo that the living were
-carcely fufficient to bury the dead.
bout the year 1348 the plague became almoft ge-
55 ] P L A
neral over Europe. A great many authors give an ac- Phgu*-.
count of this plague, which is faid to have appeared firft '   
in the kingdom ot Kathay in the year 1346, and to
have proceeded gradually weftward to Conftantinople
and Egypt. From Conftantinople it paffed into Greece,
taly, France, and Africa, and by degrees along the
coarts of the ocean into Britain and Ireland, and‘after¬
wards into Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark and
the other northern kingdoms. According to Antoninus
archbifhop of Florence the diftemper carried off 60,000
people m that city, among whom was the hiftorian John
Viliam.
In the year 1656 the plague was brought from Sar¬
dinia to Naples, being introduced into the city by a
tranfport with foldiers on board. It raged with excef-
five violence, carrying off in lefs than fix months
400,000 of the inhabitants. The diftemper was at firft
called by the phyfieians a malignant fever ; but one of
them affirming it to be peftilential, the viceroy, who
was apprehenfive left fuch a report would occafion all
communication with Naples to be broke off, was offend¬
ed with this declaration, and ordered him to be impri-
foned.. As a favour, however, he allowed him to return
and die in his own houfe. By this proceeding of the
viceroy, the diftemper being negledled, made a moft ra¬
pid and furious progrefs, and filled the whole city with
confternation. 1 he ftreets were crowded with confufed
proceffions, which ferved to fpread the infedion through
all the quarters. The terror of the people increaled
their fuperllition ; and it being reported that a certain
nun had prophefied that the peftilence would ceafe upon
building a hermitage for her fifter nuns upon the hill of
St Martin’s, the edifice was immediately begun with
the moft ardent zeal. Perfons of the higheft quality
ftrove who fhould perform the meaneft offices ; fome
loading themfelves with beams, and others carrying baf-
ket:s full of lime and nails, while perfons of all ranks
ftnpped themfelves of their moft valuable effeds, which
they threw into empty hogffieads placed in the ftreets
to receive the charitable contributions. Their violent
agitation, however, and the increafing heats, diffufed
the malady through the whole city, and the ftreels and
the flairs of the churches were filled with the dead ; the
number of whom, for fome time of the month of Julv
amounted daily to 15,000. /
The viceroy now ufed all poffible precautions to abate
the fury of the diftemper, and to prevent its fpreadino- to
the provinces. The infedion, however, defolated "the
whole kingdom, excepting the provinces of Otranto and
the Farther Calabria, and the cities of Gaeta, Sorrento,
Paolo, and Belvidere. The general calamity was in-
creafed in Naples by malecontents, who infinuated that
the diftemper had been defignedly introduced by the
Spaniards, and that there were people in difguife who
went through the city fowing poifoned dull. This idle
rumour enraged the populace, who began to infult the
Spanilh foldiers, and threaten a fedition ; fo that the
viceroy, to pacify the mob, caufed a criminal to be broke
upon the wheel,, under pretence that he was a difperfer
of the dull. A violent and plentiful rain falling about
the middle of Auguft, the diftemper began to abate ^
and on the eighth of December the phyficians made a
folemn declaration that the city was entirely free from
infedtion.
Of the dreadful plague which raged at London in
4^2 the
P L A [ 596 3 V LA
VUgu*, the year 166$, the reader will find an account in the
article London, N° 21. In 1720 the city of Marfeilles
was viiited with this deftruilive difeafe, brought in a
(hip from the Levant; and in feven months, during
which time it continued, it carried off not lefs than
6o,oco people. This defolation is not yet obliterated
from the minds of the inhabitants; fome furvivors re¬
mained alive but a few years ago to tranfmit a tradi¬
tional account of it to after ages. There are two fine
pictures, painted by Puget, reprefenting fome of the
horrid fcenes of that lime. “ They are (fays Lady
Craven) only too well executed. I law feveral dying
figures taking leave of their friends, and looking their
lad anxious, kind, and wilhful prayers on their fick in¬
fants, that made the tears flow down my cheeks. I
was told the phyficians and noblemen who were afiiff-
ing the fick and dying, were all portraits: I can eafily
conceive it; for in fome faces there is a look of reflec¬
tion and concern which could only be drawn from the
life.” Letters, p. 34, 35. This fatal event has caufed
the laws of quarantine to be very ftriflly enforced in
the lazaretto here, which is an extenfive infulated
building.
The ravages of this difeafe have been dreadful wherever
it has made its appearance. On the firft arrival of the
^Europeans at the ifland of Gran Canaria, it contained
34,000 fighting men, foon after which, two thirds of
the whole inhabitants fell a facrifice to the plague, which
had doubtlefs been introduced by their new vifitors*
The deftruftion it has made in Turkey in Europe, and
particularly in Conflantinople, muft be known to every
reader ; and its fatal eflcdls have been particularly
heightened there by that firm belief which prevails
among the people of predeflination, &c. as has been al¬
ready mentioned. It is generally brought into Euro¬
pean Turkey from Egypt; where it is very frequent,
efpecially at Grand CAIRO. To give even a lit! of all
the plagues which have defolated many flourithing coun¬
tries, would extend this article beyond all bounds; and
minutely to deferibe them all, would be impoflible. For
the plague at Smyrna, we refer to Chandler’s Travels
as above. Refpeiffing that which raged in Syria in
1760, we refer to the Abbe Mariti’s Travels through
Cyprus, Syria, and Paleftine, vol. i. p. 278—296. This
plague was one of the molt malignant and fatal that
Syria ever experienced ; for it fcarcely made its ap¬
pearance in any part of the body when it carried off
the patient.
In addition to what the reader will find upon this
fubje£l in the article MEDICINE, and the obfervations
which have now been offered, we beg leave to ftate the
fentiments of Berthier on this fubjeft, in his account of
Bonaparte’s expedition into Syria.
“ At the time of our entry into Syria (fays he), all
the towns were infefted by the plague; a malady which
ignorance and barbarity render lo fatal in the eaft.
Thofe who are affected by it give themfelves up for
dead; they are immediately abandoned by every body,
and are left to die, when they might have been faved by
medicine and attention.
“ Citizen Degenettes, principal phyfician to the ar¬
my, difplayed a courage and character which entitle
him to the national gratitude. When our fokliers were
attacked by the leal! fever, it was funpofed that they
had caught the plague, and thefe maladies were con-
2
founded. The fever hofpilals were abandoned by the Plagu*,
officers of health and their attendants. Citizen Dege-
nettes repaired in perfon to the holpitals, vifited all the
patients, felt the glandular fwellings, dreffed them, de¬
clared and maintained that the diflemper was not the
plague, but a malignant fever with glandular fwellings,
which might ealily be cured by attention, and keeping
the patient’s mind eafy.”
The views of Degenettes in making this diftinflkm
were worthy of the higheft commendation ; but Dr
Mofeley maintains that this fever was actually the
plague. The phyfician, however, carried his courage
io far, as to make two incifions, and to inoculate the
fuppurated matter from one of thefe buboes above his
breatt, and under his armpits, but was not affected with
the malady. He thus eafed the minds of the foldiers,
the firft ftep to a cure; and, by his afliduity and eon-
flant attendance in the hofpilals, a number of men at¬
tacked with the piague were cured. His example was
followed by other officers of health. “ There are, fays
Dr Mofeley, annual or feafonal diforders, more or lefs
fevere, in all countries; but the plague, and other
g eat depopulating epidemics, do not always obey the
feafons ot the year. Like comets, their courfe is ec¬
centric. They have their revolutions; but from whence
they come, or whither they go after they have made
their revolution, no mortal can tell.
“ Difeales originating in the atmofphere feize fome,
and pafs by others; and a£I exclulively on bodies gra¬
duated to receive their impreffions; otherwife whole na¬
tions would be deliroyed. In fome conftitutions of the
body the accefs is ealy, in fome difficult, and in others
impoffible.
“ The air of confined places may be fo vitiated as to
be unfit for the purpofes of the healthy exiflenee of any
perfon. Hence gaol, hofpital, and fliip fevers. But, as
thefe diftempers are the offspring of a local caufe, that
local caufe, and not the diftempered people, communi¬
cate the difeaie.
“ The infection, were it not in the atmofphere, would
be confined within very narrow limits; have a determi¬
nate fphere of action ; and none but phyficians and at¬
tendants on the fick would fuffer; and thefe muft fuf-
fer; and the caufe and the effedfs would be palpable to
our fenfes. Upon this ground, the precaution of quaran¬
tine would be rational. But who then would vitit and
attend the fick, or could live in holpitals, prilons, and
lazarettos?”
The author is convinced from thefe reafonings, that
the bubo and carbuncle, of which we hear fo much in
Turkey, and read fo much in our-own hiftory of plagues,
arife from heating food and improper treatment ; that
they contain no infection; and confequently that they
are not the natural depofit of the morbific virus feparated
from the contagion.
Speaking of the plague, Mr Brown fays, “ the firft
fymptoms are faid to be thirft ; 2. Cephalalgia ; 3. A
ftiff and uneafy fenfation, with rednefs and tumour about
the eyes; 4. Watering of the eyes; 5. White puftules
on the tongue. Not uncommonly, all thefe have fuc-
ceflively ffiown themfelves, yet the patient lias recover¬
ed; in which cafe, where fuppuration has had place,
the fkin always remains dilcoloured, commonly of a
purple hue. Many who have been bled in an early
ftage of the diforder, have recovered without any fatal
fymptonis j
P L A [ 597 3 P L A
fymptoms; but whether from that or any other caufe,
does not appear certain.”
Oil rubbed into the (kin a&s as a preventive, as
well as a cure of the plague. When the operation is
performed to prevent infection,, it is fuccefsfully per¬
formed with that view at Smyrna, as often as the plague
makes its appearance in the city. As it is not done for
the purpofe of promoting perfpiration, it is not requifite
that it fliould be performed with the fame fpeed as
when for curing the diforder; nor is it neceffary to ab-
ftain from flefh, and to ufe foups; but it will be proper
to ufe only fowls or veal for fome days, without any
feafoning. It will in fine be neceffary to guard againft
indigeftible food, and fuch liquors as might put in mo¬
tion or inflame the mafs of the blood.
This krterefting difcovery merits the attention of all
medical men; for if olive oil has been found efficacious
in curing or preferving againft one fpecies of infection,
it is not abfurd to fuppofe that the fame or other kinds
of oil might be produdtive of much benefit in other ma¬
lignant infectious difeafes. We hope foon to hear of
fome trial being made with it in this country. Would
it be of any fervice in the yellow fever, fo prevalent in
the weftern world ?
PLAIN, or Plane, in general, an appellation given
to whatever is fmooth and even, or fimple, obvious, and
eafy to be underftood ; and, confequently, Hands oppo-
fed to rough, enriched, or laboured.
A plain figure, in geometry, is an uniform furface ;
from every point of whofe perimeter right lines may
be drawn to every other point in the fame.
A plain angle is one contained under two lines, or
furfaces, in contradiftinction to a folid angle. See An¬
gle under Geometry.
The doClrine of plain triangles, as thole included un¬
der three right lines, is termed plain trigonometry. See
the article Trigonometry.
Plain Chart. See the article CHART.
PLAIN-Sailing. See Navigation.
PLAISE, the Engliffi name of a fpecies of pleuro-
ne&es. See Pleuronectes, Ichthyology Index.
PLAN, in general, denotes the reprefentation of
fomething drawn on a plane ; fuch are maps, charts,
ichnographies, &c. See Map, Chart, &c.
The term plan, however, is particularly ufed for a
draught of a building, fuch as it appears, or is intended
to appear, on the ground, ffiowing the extent, divifion,
and diftribution of its area or ground-plot into apart¬
ments, rooms, .paffages, &c.
A geometrical plan is that wherein the folid and
vacant parts are reprefented in their natural propor¬
tions.
The raifed plan of a building is the fame with what
is otherwife called an elevation or orthography. See Or¬
thography.
A perfpeftive plan is that exhibited by degradations
or diminutions, according to the rules of*perfpe6tive.
See Perspective.
To render plans intelligible, it is ufual to diflinguifli
the maffives with a black wadi 5 the projeftures on the
ground are drawn in full lines, and thofe fuppofed over
them in dotted lines. The Augmentations or alterations
to he made are diftinguilhi d by a colour different from
what is alreadv built} and the tints of each plan made
lighter as the ftories are raifed.
In large buildings it is ufual to have three feveral
plans for the three firft ftories.
PL ANGUS, Francis, dodlor of phyfic, was born v
at Amiens in 1696, and died on the 19th of September
1765, aged 69 years. He is the author of fome works
which have had confiderable reputation. 1. A complete
Syftem of Surgery, in 2 vols in 1 2mo ; a treatife much
recommended by furgeons to their pupils. 2. A choice
Library of Medicine, taken from periodical publications,
both French and others : this curious collection, con¬
tinued and completed by M. Goulin, makes 9 vols in
4to, or 18 vols in i2mo. 3. A Tranflation of Vander
WiePs Obfervations on Medicine and Surgery, 1758,
2 vols in 12mo. Plancus was alfo the editor of various
editions of works on medicine and furgery, which he
enriched with notes.
PLANE, in Geometry, denotes a plain furface, or
one that lies evenly between its bounding lines: and as
a right line is the ftiortert extenfion from one point to
another, fo a plane furface is the ftiorteft extenfion
from one line to another.
In aftronomy, conics, &c. the term plane is frequent¬
ly ufed for an imaginary furface, fuppofed to cut and
pafs through folid bodies ; and on this foundation is
the whole doftrine of conic feftions built. See Astro¬
nomy, Conic Seliions, &c.
In mechanics, planes are either horizontal, that is,
parallel to the horizon, or inclined thereto. See Me¬
chanics.
The determining how far any given plane deviates
from an horizontal line, makes the whole bufinefs of
levelling. See the article Levelling.
In optics, the planes of reflection and refraCtion are
thofe drawn through the incident and reflected or re-
frafted rays. See Optics.
In perfpeCtive we meet with the perfpeClive plane,
which is fuppofed to be pellucid, and perpendicular to
the horizon j the horizontal plane, fuppofed to pafs
through the fpeftator’s eye, parallel to the horizon ;
the geometrical plane, likewife parallel to the horizon,
wherein the objeCt to be reprefented is fuppofed to be
placed, &c. See Perspective.
The plane of projection in the ftereographic projec¬
tion of the fphere, is that on which the projection is
made, correfpondmg to the perfpeCtive plane. See Pro¬
jection.
Plane, in joinery, an edged tool or inftrument for
paring and (having of wood fmooth. It conlifts of a
piece of wood very fmooth at bottom, as a flock or
ftiaft •, in the midit of which is an aperture, through
which a fteel edge, or chiflel, placed obliquely, paffes ;
which, being very (harp, takes off the inequalities of
the wood along which it Hides.
PLANE-Tree, in Botany. See Platanus.
PLANET, a celeftial body, revolving round the fun
as a centre, and continually changing its pofition with
refpeCt to the fixed ftars ; whence the name planet,
which is a Greek word, fignifying “ wanderer.” .
The planets are ufually diftinguiffied into primary
and fecondary. The primary ones, called by way of
eminence planets, are thofe which revolve round the
fun as a centre ; and the fecondary planets, more ufually
called fate Hites or moons, are thofe which revolve round
a primary planet as a centre, and conftantly attend it
in its revolution round the fun.
The
Planet
I
P -L A [ 598 ] P L A
Tlie primary planets are again diflinguiilied into fu-
• perior and inferior. The fuperior planets are tbofe far-
« ther from the fan than our earth ; as Mars, Jupiter, Sa¬
turn, and the Georgium Sidus ; and the inferior planets
are thofe nearer the fun than our earth, as Venus and
Mercury. For an account of the planets lately difcover-
ed, fee Vesta.
That the planets are opaque bodies, like our earth,
is thought probable for the following reafons. 1. Since
in Venus, Mercury, and Mars, only that part of the
dilk illuminated by the fun is found to Ihine ; and
again, Venus and Mercury, when between the earth
and the fun, appear like dark fpots or maculae on the
fun’s dilk ; it is evident, that Mars, Venus, and Mer¬
cury, are opaque bodies, illuminated with the borrowed
light of the fun. And the fame appears of Jupiter,
from its being void of light in that part to which the
fhadow of the fatellites reaches, as well as in that part
turned from the fun ; and that his fatellites are opaque,
and refiedl: the fun’s light,.is abundantly fhown. Again,
lince Saturn, with his ring and fatellites, only yield a
faint light, fainter conliderably than that of the fixed
liars, though thefe be vallly more remote, and than that
ef the rell of the planets j it is pall doubt that he too
with his attendants are opaque bodies. 2. Since the
fun’s light is not tranfmitted through Mercury and Ve¬
nus, when placed againll him, it is plain they are denfe
opaque bodies •, which is like wife evident of Jupiter,
from his hiding the fatellites in his fiiadow ; and there¬
fore, by analogy, the fame may be concluded of Sa¬
turn. 3. From the variable fpots of Venus, Mars, and
Jupiter, it is evident thefe planets have a changeable
atmofphere ; which changeable atmofphere may, by a
like argument, be inferred of the fatellites of Jupiter ;
and therefore, by fimilitude, the fame may be concluded
of the other planets. 4. In like manner, from the moun¬
tains obferved in Venus, the fame may be fuppofed in
the other planets. 5. Since, then, Saturn, Jupiter, and
the fatellites of both, Mars, Venus, and Mercury, are
opaque bodies fliining with the fun’s borrowed light,
are furnilhed with mountains, and encompaffed with a
changeable atmofphere ; they have, it is concluded, wa¬
ters, Teas, &c. as well as dry land, and are bodies like
the moon, and therefore like the earth. And hence it
feems.alfo highly probable, that the other planets have
-their animal inhabitants as well as our earth.
PLANETARIUM, an afironomical machine, fo
called from its reprefenting the motions, orbits, &c. of
the planets, agreeable to the Copernican fyftem. See
Astronomy.
PLANE FARY, fomething that relates to the pla¬
nets. Hence we fay, planetary worlds, planetary inha¬
bitants, &c. See Planet.
PLANETARY Syjiem, is the fyllem or afierriblage of
the planets, primary and fecondary, moving in their re-
fpe&ive orbits, round their common centre the fun. See
Astronomy.
PLANETARY Days.—Among the ancients, the week
was (hared among the feven planets, each planet having
its day. This we learn from Dion Caflius and Plutarch,
Sympof. 1. 4. q. 7. Herodotus adds, that it was the'
Egyptians who tirft difcovered what god, that is, what
planet, prefides over each day 5 for that among this peo¬
ple the planets were directors. And hence it is, that in
I
mod European languages the days of the week are ftill Planet?
denominated from the planets j Sunday, Monday, &c. if
See Week. * * Plant,
PLANETARY Years, the periods of time in which
the feveral planets make their revolutions round the fun
or earth.—As from the proper revolution of the fun, the
folar year takes its original j fo from the proper revolu¬
tions of the reft of the planets about the earth, fo many
forts of years do arife, viz. the Saturnian year, which is
defined by 29 Egyptian years, 174 hours, 58 minutes,
equivalent in a round number to 30 folar years. The
Jovial year, containing 3x7 days, 14 hours, 59 minutes.
—The Martial year, containing 321 days, 23 hours
31 minutes. For Venus and Mercury, as their years,*
when judged of with regard to the earth, are almoft
equal to the folar year ; they are more ufually eftimated
from the fun, the true centre of their motions : in
which cafe, the former is equal to 224 days, 16 hours
40 minutes ; the latter to 87 days, 23 hours, 14 mi¬
nutes.
PLANIMETRY, that part of geometry which con-
fiders lines and plain figures, without confidering their
height or depth. See Geometry.
PLANISPHERE, fignifies a projedlion of the
fphere, and its various circles, on a plane ; in which
fenfe, maps, whereon are exhibited the meridians and
other circles of the fphere, are planifpheres. See Map.
PLANT is defined to be an organical body, defti-
tute of fenfe and fpontaneous motion, adhering to an¬
other body in fuch a manner as to draw from it its nou-
riftnnent, and having a power of propagating itfelf by
feeds.
The vegetation and economy of plants is one of thofe
fubjefls in which our knowledge is extremely circum-
fcribed. A total inattention to the ftrudture and eco¬
nomy of plants is the chief reafon of the fmall progrefs
that has been made in the principles of vegetation,* and
of the inftability and fluftuation of our theories con¬
cerning it; for which reafon we (hall give a (liort de-
fcription of the ftrudlure of plants, beginning with the
feed, and tracing its progrefs and evolution to a flate of
maturity.
I. Of Seeds.'] The feeds of plants are of various fi¬
gures and fizes. Mod of them are divided into two
lobes j though fome, as thofe of the crefs-kind, have fix ;
and others, as the grains of corn, are not divided, but
entire.
But as the elfential properties of all feeds are the fame,
when confidered with regard to the principles of vege¬
tation, our particular defcriptions (hall be limited to one
feed, viz. the great garden-bean. Neither is the choice
of this feed altogether arbitrary ; for, after it begins
to vegetate, its parts are more confpicuous than many
others, and confequently better calculated for inveftiga-
tion.
R his feed is covered rvith Iavo coats or membranes.
The outer c<sit is extremely thin, and full of pores ; but
may be eafily feparated from the inner one (which is
much thicker), after the bean has been boiled, or lain a
few days in the foil. At the thick end of the bean there
is a fmall hole vifible to the naked eye, immediately
over the radicle or future rant, that it may have a free
pafiage into the foil (fig. 1. A). When thefe coats are
taken off, the body of the feed appeals, which is dlvid- piate
cd CCGCX]
lant.
TLA
edl into two fmooth portions or lobes.      _
of the lobes is owing to a thin film or cuticle with which
they are covered.
At the bafis of the bean is placed the radicle or future
root (fig. 3. A). The trunk of the radicle, jutf as it
enters into the body of the leed, divides into two capi¬
tal branches, one of which is inferted into each lobe,
and fends off fmaller ones in all directions through the
whole fubftance of the lobes (fig. 4. AA). Thtfe ra¬
mifications become fo extremely minute towards the
edges of the lobes, that they require the fineff glaffes to
render them vifible. To thefe ramifications Grew and
Malpighi have given the name of'feminal root; becaufe,
by means of it, the radicle and plume, before they are
expanded, derive their principal nourifhment.
The plume, bud, or germ (fig. 3 ), is inclofed in two
fmall correfponding cavities in each lobe. Its colour
and confiftence is much the fame with thofe of the ra¬
dicle, of which it is only a continuation, but having a
quite contrary dire&ion ; for the radicle defcends into
the earth, and divides into a great number of fmaller
branches or filaments j but the plume afcends into the
open air, and unfolds itfelf into all the beautiful variety
of item, branches, leaves, flower, fruit, &c. The plume
in corn Ihoots from the fmaller end of the grain, and
amongft maltfters goes by the name of acrofpire.
The next thing to be taken notice of is the fubftance
or parenchymatous part of the lobes. This is not a mere
concreted juice, but is curioufly organized, and confifts
of a vaft number of fmall bladders refembling thofe in
the pith of trees (fig. 5.).
Befides the coats, cuticle, and parenchymatous parts,
there is a fubftance perfedlly dirtinff from thefe, diftri-
buted in different proportions through the radicle, plume,
and lobes. I his inner fubftance appears very plainly in
a tranfverfe feflion of the radicle or plume. Towards
the extremity of the radicle it is one entire trunk j but
higher up it divides into three branches ; the middle
one runs dire&ly up to the plume, and the other two
pafs into the lobes on each fide, and fpread out into a
great variety of fmall branches through the whole bo¬
dy of the lobes (fig. 4.). I his fubftance is very properly
termed the feminal root: for when the feed is fown, the
moifture is firft abforbed by the outer coats, which are
everywhere furniihed with fap and air-veffels; from thefe
it is conveyed to the cuticle 5 from the cuticle it pro¬
ceeds to the pulpy part of the lobes ; when it has got
thus far, it is taken up by the mouths of the fmall bran¬
ches of the femihal root, and paffes from one branch in¬
to ^nother, till it is all collefled into the main trunk,
which communicates,both with the plume and radicle,
the two principal involved organs of the future plant.
After this the fap or vegetable food runs in two oppo-
fite diredtions : part of it afcends into the plume, and
promotes the growth and expanfion of that organ ; and
part of it defcends into the radicle, for nouriftiing and
•volving the root and its various filaments. Thus the
plume, and radicle continue their progrefs in oppofite
direffions till the plant arrives at maturity.
It is here worth remarking, that every plant is really
polTeffed of two roots, both of which are contained in
the feed. I he plume and radicle, when the feed is firft
depofited in the earth, derive their nourifhtnent from the
leminal root *, but, afterwards, when the radicle begins
to ftioot out its filaments, and to abforb feme moifture,
[ 599 ] P L A
The fmoothnefs not, however, in a fufficient quantity to fupply the ex¬
igencies of the plume, the two lobes, or main body of
the feed, rife along with the plume, affume the appear¬
ance of two leaves, refembling the lobes of the feed in
fize and ftiape, but having no refemblance to thole of the
plume, for which reafen they have got the name of dtf-
funilar leaves.
Thefe diflimilar leaves defend the young plume from
the injuries of the weather, and at the fame time, by
abferbing dew, air, &c. aflift the tender radicle in nou-
rifhing the plume, with which they have ftili a connec¬
tion by means of the feminal root above delcribf-d. But
when the radicle or fecond root has defeended deep
enough into the earth, and ha^ acquired a fufficient num¬
ber of filaments or branches for abforbing as much ali¬
ment as is proper for the growth of the plume j then,
the feminal or diffimilar leaves, their utility being en¬
tirely fuperfeded, begin to decay and fall off.
Fig. 1. A, the foramen or hole in the bean through
which the radicle (hoots into the foil.
Fig. 2. A tranfverfe fe&ion of the bean ; the dots
being the branches of the feminal root.
Fig. 3. A, the radicle. B, the plume or bud.
Fig. 4. A view oi the feminal root branched out up¬
on the lobes.
Fig. 5. A longitudinal fedftion of one of the lobes
of the bean a little magnified, to (how the fmall bladders
of which the pulpy or parenchymatous part is compo-
fed.
Figs. 6. 7. A, a tranfverfe fe&ion of the radicle. B,
a tranfverfe fedftion of the plume, (bowing the organs or
veffels of the feminal root.
Fig. 8. The appearance of the radicle, plume, and fe¬
minal root, when a little further advanced in growth.
Having thus briefly deferibed the feed, and traced its
evolution into three principal organic parts, viz. the
plume, radicle, and feminal leaves, we (hall next take
an anatomical view of the root, trunk, leaves, &c.
2. Of the root.~\ In examining the root of plants,
the firft thing that prefents itfelf is the fkin, which is of
various colours in different plants. Every root, after
it has arrived at a certain age, has a double fkin. The
firft is coeval with the other parts, and exifts in the feed:
but afterwards there is a ring fent off from the bark,
and forms a fecond (kin ; e. g. in the root of the dande¬
lion, towards the end of May, the original or outer (kin
appears (lirivelled, and is eafily feparated from the new
one, which is frefher, and adheres more firmly to the
bark. Perennial plants are fupplied in this manner
with a new (kin every year ; the outer one always falls
off in the autumn and winter, and a new one is formed
from the bark in the fucceeding fpring, The (kin has
numerous cells or veffels, and is a continuation of the
parenchymatous part of the radicle. However, it does
not confift folely of parenchyma •, for the microfcope
(hows that there are many tubular ligneous veffels inter-
fperfed through it.
When the (kin is removed, the true cortical fubftance
or bark appears, which is alfo a continuation of the pa¬
renchymatous part of the radicle, but greatly augment¬
ed. The bark is of very different fizes. In moil trees
it is exceeding thin in proportion to the wood and pith.
On the other hand, in carrots, it is almoft one-half of
the femidiameter of the root; and, in dandelion, it is
nearly twice as thick as the woody part.
Plant.
Plate
CCCCXXi
fig. I,
Fig. 2.
F{g- 3-
Fig. 4.
Fig- 5-
Fig. 6. 7,
Fig. t.
The
p L A [ 600 ] P L A
Hant. The bark is compofed of two fubftances ; the paren-
” v chytna or pulp, which is the principal part, and a few
woody fibres. The parenchyma is exceedingly porous,
and has a great refemblance to a fponge *, for it Ihrivels
considerably when dried, and dilates to its former di-
menfions when infufed in water. Thefe pores or vef-
fels are not pervious, fo as to communicate with each
other ; but confift of difiina little cells or bladders,
fcarcely vifible without the afliftance of the microfcope.
In all roots, thefe cells are conftantly filled with a thm
watery liquor. They are generally of a fpherical figure 5
though in fome roots, as the buglofs and dandelion, they
are oblong. In many roots, as the horle-radifh, peony,
afparagus, potato, &cc. the parenchyma is of one uni¬
form ftrufture. But in others it is more diverfified,
and puts on the fiiape of rays, running from the centre
towards the circumference of the bark. Ihefe rays
fome times run quite through the bark, as in lovage *,
and fometimes advance towards the middle of it, as in
melilot and moil of the leguminous and umbelliferous
plants. Thefe rays generally Hand at an equal difianee
from each other in the fam* plant 5 but the diflance va¬
ries greatly in different plants. Neither are they of
equal fizes : in carrot they are exceedingly fmall, and
fcarcely difcernible ; in melilot and chervil, they are
thicker. They are like wife more numerous in fome
plants than in others. Sometimes they are of the fame
thicknefs from one edge of the bark to the other *, and
fome grow wider as they approach to the ikin. I he
veffels with which thefe rays are amply furnifhed, are
fuppofed to be air-veffels, becaufe they are always found
to be dry, and not fo tranfparent as the veffels which
evidently contain the fap.
In all roots there are ligneous veffels difperfed in dif¬
ferent proportions through the parenchyma of the bark.
Thefe ligneous veffels run longitudinally through the
bark in the form of fmall threads, which are tubular, as
is evident from the rifing of the fap in them when a root
is cut tranfverfely. Thefe ligneous fap-veffels do not
run in direft lines through the . bark, but at fmall dif-
tances incline towards one another, in fuch a manner that
they appear to the naked eye to be inofculated ; but the
microfcope difeovers them to be only contiguous, and
braced together by the parenchvma. Thefe braces or
coarflations are very various both in fize and number in
different roots ; but in all plants they are moft numerous
towards the inner edge of the bark. Neither are thefe
veffels fingle tubes ; but, like the nerves in animals, are
bundles of 20 or 30 fmall contiguous cylindrical tubes,
which uniformly run from the extremity of the root,
without fending off any branches or fuffering any change
in their fize or fiiape.
In fome roots, as parfnep, efpecially in the ring next
the inner extremity of the bark, thefe veffels contain a
kind of Ivmph, which is fweeter than the fap contained
in the bladders of the parenchyma. From this circum-
fiance thev have got the name of Iijmpli-tluBs.
Thefe lymph-duffs fometimes yield a mucilaginous
lymph, as in the comfrev ; and fometimes a white
milky glutinous lymph, as in the angelica, fowchus. bur¬
dock. fcorzonera, dandelion, &c The lymph-duffs are
funnofed to be the veffels from which the gums and bal-
fams are fecerned. The lymph of fennel, wbenexpofed
to the air, becomes a clear tranfparent balfam ; and
that of the fcorzonera, dandelion, 8tc. condenfes into a Rant
gum. -v—■*
The fituation of the veffels is various. In fome plants
they Hand in a ring or circle at the inner edge of the
bark, as in afparagus 5 in others, they appear in lines or
ravs, as in borage ; in the parfnep, and feveral other
plants, they are molt confpicuous towards the outer edge
of the bark 5 and in the dandelion, they are difpofed in
the form of concentric circles.
The wood of roots is that part which' appears after the
bark is taken off, and is firmer and lefs porous than the
bark or pith. It confifis of two diftinft fubftances, viz.
the pulpy or parenchymatous, and the ligneous. The
wood is connefted to the bark by large portions of the
bark inferted into it. Thefe infertions are moftly in the
form of rays, tending to the centre of the pith, which
are eafily difcernible by the eye in a tranfverfe feflioa
of moft roots. Thefe infertions, like the bark, confift
of many veffels, moftly of a round or oval figure.
The ligneous veffels are generally difpofed in collate¬
ral rows running longitudinally through the root. Some
of thefe contain air, and others fap. The air-vejfels are
fo called, becaufe they contain no liquor. Thefe air-
veffels are diftinguiihed by being whiter than the others*
The pith is the •centrical part of the root. Some roots
have no pith, as the ftramonium, nicotiana, &.c.; others
have little or none at the extremities of the roots, hue
have a conftderable quantity of it near the top. The
pith, like every other part of a plant, is derived from
the feed *, but in fome it is more immediately derived
from the bark : for the infertions of the bark running in
betwixt the rays of the wood, meet in the centre, and
conftitute the pith. It is owing to this circumftance,
that, among roots which have no pith in their lower
parts, they are amply provided with it towards the top^
as in columbine, lovage, &c.
The bladders of the pith are of very different fizes, and
generally of a circular figure. Their pofition is more
uniform than in the bark. Their lides are not mere
films, but a compofition of fmall fibres or threads 5 which
gives the pith, when viewed with a microfcope, the ap¬
pearance of a piece of fine gauze or net-work.
We {hall conclude the defeription of roots with ob-
ferving, that their whole fubftance is nothing but a con¬
geries of tubes and fibres, adapted by nature for the ab-
forption of nourifiiment, and of courfe the extenfion and p]a{e
augmentation of their parts. CCCCX
Fig. 9. A tranfverfe feflion of tire root of worm* fig. 9.
wood as it appears to the naked^eye.
Fig. 10. A feftion of fig. 9. magnified. AA, thefig.
{kin, with its veffels. BBBB, the bark. The round
holes CCC, &c. are the lymph-dufts of the bark : All
the other holes are little cells and fap-veffels. DDD,
parenchymatous infertions from the bark, with the cells,
&c. EEEE, the ray« of the wood, in which the holes
are the air-veffels. N. B. "I bis root has no pith.
3. Of the Trunk, Stalk, or Stem.'] In deferibing the
trunks of plants, it is neceffary to premife, that what¬
ever is faid with regard to them applies equally to the
branches.
The trunk, like the root, confifts of three parts, viz.
the bark, wood, and pith. T hefe parts, though fub-
ftantially the fame in the trunk as in the root, are ill
many cafes very different in their texture and appearance.
^ The
A NAT O MY or PLAN T S. PLATE CCCCXX.
A
W. /h 'ahj/’ftZt'? Sctxifp -r
VXATOMYov plants
PLATE CCCCXXI.
P L A [ 601
The ikin of the bark is compofed of very minute
; bladders, interfperfed with longitudinal woody fibres,
as in the nettle, thiille, and moft herbs. The outfide
of the Ikin is vifibly porous in fome plants, particularly
the cane.
The principal body of the bark is compofed of pulp
or parenchyma, and innumerable veffels much larger
than thofe of the {kin. The texture of the pulpy part,
though the fame iubftance with the parenchyma in
roots, yet feldom appears in the form of rays running to¬
wards the pith and when thefe rays do appear, they
do not extend above half-way to the circumference.
The veffels of the bark are very differently fituated, and
deflined for various purpofes in different plants. For
example, in the bar!: of the pine, the innermoft are
lymph-duffs, and exceedingly fmall; the outermoft are
gum or refiniferous veffels, deftined for the fecretion of
turpentine ; and arc fo large as to be diftinffly vifible
to the naked eye.
The wood lies between the bark and pith, and confifts
of two parts, viz. a parenchymatous and a ligneous. In
all trees, the parenchymatous part of the wood, though
much diverfificd as to fize and confiftence, is uniformly
difpofed in diametrical rays, or infertions running be¬
twixt fimilar rays of the ligneous part.
The true wood is nothing but a congeries of old dried
lymph-duffs. Between the bark and the wood a new
ring of thefe duffs is formed every year, which gradu¬
ally lofts its foftnefs as the cold feafon approaches, and
towards the middle of winter is condenfed into a folid
ring of wood. Thefe annual rings, which are diltinffly
vifible in moft trees when cut through, ferve as natural
tnarks to diftinguifti their age (fig. it, 12.). 'I'he rings
of one year are fometimes larger, fometimes lefs, than
thofe of another, probably owing to the favourablenefs
or unfavourablenefs of the feafon.
The pith, though of a different texture, is exaffly of
the fame fubftance with the parenchyma of the bark, and
the infertions of the wood. The quantity of pith is va¬
rious in different plants. Inftead of being increafed
every year like the wood, it is annually diminilhed, its
veffels drying up, and affuming the appearance and
ftruffure of wood} infomuch that in old trees there is
fearce fuch a thing as pith to be difcerned.
A ring of fap-vefftb is ufually placed at the outer
edge of the pith, next the wood. In the pine, fig, and
walnut, they are very large. 1 he parenchyma of the
pith is compofed of fmall cells or bladders, of the fame
kind with tho(e of the bark, only of a larger fize. The
general figure of thefe bladders is circular ; though in
fome plants, as the tlfiftle and borage, they are angu¬
lar. Though the pith is originally one eonnedled chain
of bladders, yet as the plant grows old they ftirivel, and
open in different direflions. In the walnut, after acer
1
P L A
Plant*
’late
2CXXI
g. 11.
12.
tain age, it appears in the form of a regular tranfverfe
hollow divifion. In fome plants it is altogether want¬
ing ; in others, as the fondius. nettle, &c. there is only
a tranfverfe partition of it at every joint. Many other
varieties might be mentioned 5 but thefe muft be left to
the obfervation of the reader.
Fig. 11. A tranfverfe fediion of a branch of afh, as it
appears to the eye.
Fig. 12. The fame fedlion magnified. A A, the
bark. BBB, an arched ring of fap-veffels next the
{kin. CCC, the parenchyma of the bark with its cells,
Vol. XVI. Part II.
and another arched ring of fap-veffels. DD, a circular
line of lymph-dudts immediately below the above arched "
ring. EE, the wood. F, the firft year’s growth. G,
the fecond. H, the third year’s growth. Ill, the true
wood. KK, the great air-veffels. LL, the leffer ones.
MMM, the parenchymatous infertions of the bark re-
prefented by the white rays. NO, the pith, with its
bladders or cells.
4. Of the Leaves. ~] The leaves of plants confift of
the fame fubftance with that of the trunk. They are
full of nerves or woody portions, running in all direc¬
tions, and branching out into innumerable fmall threads,
interwoven with the parenchyma like fine lace or
gauze.
The {kin of the leaf, like that of an animal, is full
of pores, which both ferve for perfpiration and for the
abforption of dews, air, &.c. Thefe pores or orifices
differ both in ibape and magnitude in different plants,
which is the caufe of that variety of texture or grain
peculiar to every plant*
The pulpy or parenchymatous part confifts of very
minute fibres, wound up into {mail cells or bladders.
Thefe cells are of various fizes in the fame leaf.
All leaves, of whatever figure, have a marginal fibre,
by which all the reft are bounded. The particular ftiape
of this fibre determines the figure of the leaf.
The veffels of leaves have the appearance of inofcu-
lating; but, when examined by the microfcope, they
are found only to be interwoven or laid along each
other.
What are called air-veffels, or thofe which carry no.
fap, are vifible even to the naked eye in fome leaves.
When a leaf is {lowly broken, they appear like fmall
woolly fibres, connected to both ends of the broken p, ^
piece* . CCCCXXCk
Fig. 13* I he appearance of the air-veffels to the eye, fig. ,3.
in a vine leaf drawn gently afunder.
Fig. 14. A fmall piece cut off that leaf. pig. r4.
Fig. 15. The fame piece magnified, in which the Fig. 15.
veffels have the appearance of a fere w.
Fig. 16. The appearance of thefe veffels as they ex-Fig. 16.
ift in the leaf before they are ftretched out.
3. Of the Elower.~\ It is needlefs here to mention any
thing of the texture, or of the veffels, &c. of flowers,
as they are pretty fimilar to thole of the leaf. It would
be foreign to our prefent purpofe to take any notice of
the characters and diftinCtions of flowers. Thefe be¬
long to the feience of BotANY, to which the reader is
referred*
There is one curious fad, however, which muft not
be omitted, viz. That every flower is perfectly formed
in its parts many months before it appears outwardly ;
that is. the flowers which appear this year are not pro-
ptrly {peaking the flowers of this year, but of the laft.
For example, mezereon generally flowers in January ;
but thefe flowers were completely formed in the. month
of Auguft preceding. Of this faCI any one may fatisfy
himfelf by feparating the coats of a tulip-root about the
beginning of September; and he will find that the two
innermoft form a kind of cell, in the centre of which
{lands the voung flower* which is not to make its ap¬
pearance till the following April ot May. Fig. I'Jr. ex-■
hibits a view of the tulip-root when differed in Septem¬
ber, with the young flower towards the bottom.
6. Of the Fruit.~\ In deferibing the ftruCture of fruits,
4G a
Plant*
Fig. 18.
Fig. 19.
Fig. ao.
Fig. 21.
P L A
a few examples (hall be taken from faeh as are mod ge¬
nerally known.
A ptar, befides the (kin, which is a produ&ion of the
(kin of the bark, confilts of a double parenchyma or
pulp, fap, and air-vcffels, calculary and acetary.
The outer parenchyma is the fame fubftance continu¬
ed from the bark, only its bladders are larger and more
fucculent.
It is everywhere interfperfed with fmall globules or
grains, and the bladders refpeft thefe grains as a kind of
centres, every grain being the centre of a number of
bladders. The fap and air-veffels in this pulp are ex¬
tremely fmall.
Next the core is the inner pulp or parenchyma, which
confiftsof bladders of the fame kind with the outer, only
larger and more oblong, correfponding to thofe of the
pulp, from which it feems to be derived. This inner
pulp is much fourer than the other, and has none of the
fmall grains interfperfed through it} and hence it has
got the name of ncetary.
Between the acetary and outer pulp, the globules or
grains begin to grow larger, and gradually unite into a
hard donv body, efpecially towards the corculum or ilool
of the fruit ; and from this circumflance it has been call¬
ed the caiculary.
Thefe grains are not derived from any of the organi-
eal parts of the tree 5 but feem rather to be a kind of
concretions precipitated from the fap, fimilar to the pre¬
cipitation from wine, urine, and other liquors.
The core is a roumlifh cavity in the centre of the pear,
lined with a hard woody membrane, in which the feed
is inclofed. At the bottom of the core there is a fmall
du£l or canal, which runs up to the top of the pear ;
this canal allows the air to get into the core, for the
purpofe of drying and ripening the feeds.
Fig. 18. a tranfverfe feftion of a pear, as it appears
to the naked eye. A, the (kin, and a ring of fap-vef-
fels. B, the outer parenchyma, or pulp, with its vef-
fels, and ligneous fibres interfperfed. C, the inner pa¬
renchyma, or acetary, with its veffels, which are larger
than the outer one. D, the core and feeds.
Fig. 19. a piece cut off, fig. 19.
Fig. 20. is fig. 19. magnified. AAA, the fmall
grains, or globules, with the veffels radiated from them.
Fig. 21. a longitudinal feftion of the pear, (bowing
a different view of the fame parts with thofe of fig. 18.
A the channel, or duft, which runs from the top of the
pear to the bottom of the core.
In a lemon, the parenchyma appears in three different
forms. The parenchyma of the rind is of a coarfe tex¬
ture, being compofed of thick fibres, woven into large
bladders. Thofe neared the furface contain the effen-
tial oil of the fruit, which burds into a dame when the
fkin is fqueezed over a candle. From this outmod pa¬
renchyma nine or ten infertions or lamellae are produ¬
ced, which run between as many portions of the pulp,
and unite into one body in the centre of the fruit, which
correfponds to the pith in trunks or roots. At the bot¬
tom and top of the lemon, this pith evidently joins with
the rind, without the intervention of any lamellae. This
circmndanee (hows, that the pith and bark are aftually
connected in the trunk and roots of plants, though it is
difficult to demondrate the connexion, on account of the
clofenefs of their texture, and the minutenefs of their
fibres. Many veffels are difperfed through the whole of
P L A
this parenchyma ; but the larged ones dand on the in- Ptanh
ner edge of the rind, and the outer edge of the pith, jud ' 'r * —
at the two extremities of each lamella.
The fecond kind of parenchyma is placed between
the rind and the pith ; is divided into didindf bodies
by the lamellae 5 and each of thefe bodies forms a large
bag.
Thefe bags contain a third parenchyma, which is
a cluder of (’mailer bags, didindf and unconne£!ed with
each other, having a fmall dalk by which they are fixed
to the large bag. Within each of thefe fmall bags are
many hundreds of bladders, compofed of extremely mi¬
nute fibres. Thefe bladders contain the acid juice of the
lemon. #
Fig. 22. a longitudinal feflion of a lemon. A A A, Fig.
the rind with the veffels which contain the effential oil.
B B, the fubdance correfponding to the pith, formed
by the union of the lamellse or infertions. C C, its
continuation and connexion with the rind, independent
of the infertions.
Fig. 23. a tranfverfe feflion of the lemon. B B B, Fig. 2$
&c. the nine pulpy bags, or fecond parenchyma, placed
between the rind and the pith •, and the cluder of fmall
bags, which contain the acid juice, inclofed in the large
ones. C C, the large veffels that furround the pith.
D D, tw’o of the large bags laid open, diowing the
feeds, and their connexion with the lamtllse or mem¬
branes which form the large bags.
Of the Perfpiration of PLANTS, and. the quantity of
moijiure daily imbibed by them.—Thefe curious particulars
have been determined with great accuracy by Dr Hales.
The method he took to accomplidr his purpofe was as
follows.—In the month of July, commonly the warmed
feafon of the year, he took a large fun-flower three feet
and a half high, which had been purpofely planted in
a flo^ver-pot when young. He covered the pot with
thin milled lead, leaving only a fmall hole to preferve a
communication with the external air, and another by
which he might occafionally fupply the plant with wa¬
ter. Into the former he inferted a glafs tube nine inches
long, and another (hotter tube into the hole by which h?
poured in the water •, and the latter was kept clofe flop¬
ped with a cork, except when there was occafion to ufe
it. The holes in the bottom of the pot were alfo flopped
up with corks, and all the crevices (but w ith cement.—
Things being thus prepared, the pot and plant were
weighed for 15 feveral days j after which the plant was
cut off clofe to the leaden plate, and the dump well co¬
vered with cement. By weighing, he found that there,
perfpired through the unglazed porous pot two ounces
every 12 hours *, which being allowed for in the daily
weighing of the plant and pot, the greated perfpiration,
in a warm day, was found to be one pound 14 ounces 5
the middle rate of perfpiration, one pound four ounces 5.
the perfpiration of a dry w'arm night, without any fen-
fible dew, was about three ounces; but when there was
any fenfible though fmall dewy the perfpiration was no¬
thing ; and when there was a large dew, or fome little
rain in the night, the plant and pot was increafed in
weight two or three ounces.
In order to know what quantity Avas perfpired from a
fquare inch of furface, our author cut off all the leaves
of the plant, and laid them in five feveral parcels, ac¬
cording to their feveral fizes ; and then meafured the fur¬
face of a leaf of ea^b parcel, by laying over it a large
lattice
r 602 ]
Plant.
P L A [ 603 ] P L A
plant, lattice made with threads, in which each of the little
'fquares was of an inch*, by numbering of which, he
had the furface of the leaves in fquare inches ■, which,
multiplied by the number of leaves in the eorrefponding
parcels, gave the area of all the leaves. By this method
he found the furface of the whole plant above ground to
be 5616 fquare inches, or 39 fquare feet. He dug up
another fun-dower of nearly the fame fize, which had
eight main roots, reaching 15 inches deep and fidewife,
from the ftem. It had befides a very thick bulb of la¬
teral roots from the eight main roots, extending every
way in a hemifphere about nine inches from the ftem
and main roots. In order to eftimate the length of all
the roots, he took one of the main roots with its laterals,
and meafured and weighed them ; and then weighed
the other feven with their laterals; by which means he
found the fum of all their lengths to be 1448 feet.
Suppofing then the periphery of thefe roots at a medium
to be 0.131 of an inch, then their furface will be 2276
fquare inches, or 15.8 fquare feet j that is, equal to 0.4
of the furface of the plant above ground. From calcula¬
tions drawn from thefe obfervations, it appears, that a
fquare inch of the upper furface of this plant perfpires
T^T Part an a day and a night j and that a
fquare inch of the furface underground imbibed of
an inch in the fame time.
The quantity perfpired by different plants, however,
is by no means equal. A vine-leaf perfpires only T-g-T
of an inch in 12 hours j a cabbage perfpires ^ of an
inch in the fame time ; an apple-tree xlnr in 12 hours j
and a lemon in I 2 hours.
Of the circulation of the Sup in PLANTS.—Concerning
this there have been great difputes; fome maintaining,
that the vegetable fap has a circulation analogous to the
blood of animals j while others affirm* that it only af-
cends in the day-time, and defcends again in the night.
In favour of the doftrine of circulation it has been urged,
that upon making a tranfverfe incifton into the trunk of
a tree, the juice which runs out proceeds in greater
quantity from the upper than the lower part j and the
fwelling in the upper lip is alfo much greater than in
the lower. It appears, however, that when two fimilar
incifions are made, one near the top and the other near
the root, the latter expends much more fap than the
former. Hence it Is concluded, that the juice afcends
by one fet of veffels and defcends by another. But, in
order to ftiow this clearly, it would be neceflary firft to
prove that there is in plants, as in animals, fome kind
of centre fr,om which the circulation begins, and to
which it returns; but no fueh centre has been difcovered
by any naturalift ; neither is there the leaft provifion ap¬
parently made by nature whereby the fap might be pre¬
vented from defcending in the very fame veffels through
which it afcends. In the ladleal veffels of animals,
which we may fuppofe to be analogous to the roots of
vegetables, there are valves which effe&ually prevent
the chyle when once abforbed from returning into the
inteftines; but no fueh thing is obferved in the veffels
of vegetables; whence it muft be very probable, that
when the propelling force ceafes, the juice defcends by
the very fame veffels through which it afcended.-^-This
matter, however, has been cleared up almoft as well as
Vegetnble ^ nature °f the fubjedl ’will admit of by the experiments
tatics, vol. Hales f. Thefe experiments are fo numerous,
p. 142. that for a particular account of them we muft refer to
the work itfelf; however, his reafoning againft the cir¬
culation of the fap will be fufHciently intelligible with¬
out them. “ We fee (fays he), in many of the forego¬
ing experiments, what quantities of moifture trees daily
imbibe and perfpire : now the celerity of the fap muft
be very great, if that quantity of moifture muft, moft
of it, afcend to the top of the tree, then defcend, and
afcend again, before it is carried off by perfpiration.
“ The defedl of a circulation in Vegetables feems in
fome meafure to be fiapplied by the much greater quan¬
tity of liquor, which the vegetable takes in, than the
animal, whereby its motion is accelerated; for w'e find
the funflower, bulk fur bulk, imbibes and perfpires 17
times more frefh liquor than a man, every 24 hours.
“ Befides, Nature’s great aim in vegetables being
only that the vegetable life be carried on and maintain¬
ed, there was no occafion to give its fap the rapid mo¬
tion which was neceffary for the blood of animals.
“ In animals, it is the heart which fets the blood in.
motion, and makes it continually circulate ; but in ve¬
getables we can difcover no other caufe of the fap’s
motion but the ftrong attradlion of the capillary fap-
veffels, aflifted by the brilk undulations and vibrations
caufed by the fun’s warmth, whereby the fap is carried
up to the top of the talleft trees, and is there perfpired
off through the leaves : but when the furface of the tree
is greatly diminiftied by the lofs of its leaves, then alfo
the perfpiration and motion of the fap is proportionably
diminiftied, as is plain from many of the foregoing ex¬
periments : fo that the afcending velocity of the fap is
principally accelerated by the plentiful perfpiration of
the leaves, thereby making room for the fine capillary
Veffels to exert their vaftly attrafting power, which
perfpiration is effe&ed by the brifk rarefying vibrations
of warmth ; a powder that does not feem to be any ways
well adapted to make the fap defcend from the tops of
vegetables by different veffels to the root.
“ If the fap circulated, it muft needs have been feen de¬
fcending from the upper part of large gaftres cut in bran¬
ches fet in water, and with columns of water prefling on
their bottoms in long glafs tubes. In both which cafes
it is certain that great quantities of water paffed through
the ftem, fo that it muft needs have been feen defcending,
if the return of the fap downwards were by trufion or pul-
fion, whereby the blood in animals is returned through the
veins to the heart; and that pulfion if there were any,muft
ncceffarily be exerted with prodigious force, to be able to
drive the fap through the finer capillaries. So that, if
there be a return of the lap downwards, it muft be by at¬
traction, and that a very powerful one, as we may fee by
many of thefe experiments. But it is hard to conceive
what and where that power is which can be equivalent
to that provifion nature has made for the afcent ef the fap
in confequence of the great perfpiration of the leaves.
“ The inftanoes of the jeffanune-tree, and of the paf-
fion-tree, have been looked upon as ftrong proofs of the
circulation of the fap, becaufe their branches, which
were far below the inoculated bud, were gilded : but we
have many vifible proofs in the vine, and other bleeding
trees, of the fap’s receding back, and puftiing forwards
alternately, at different times of the day and night. And
there is great reafon to think that tiie fap of all other
trees, has fuch an alternate, receding, and progreflive
motion, occafioned by the alternacies of day and night,
warm and cool, moift and dry.
" Fo?
■Plant.
P L A [ 604 ] P L A
** For the fap in all vegetables does probably recede
in fome meafure from the tops of the branches, as the
fun leaves them •, becaufe its rarefying power then
eeafing, the greatly rarefied fap, and air mixed with it,
will condenfe, and take up lefs room than they did, and
the dew and rain will then be llrongly imbibed by the
leaves j whereby the body and branches of the vegetable
■which have been much exhaulled by the great evapora¬
tion of the day, may at night imbibe fap and dew
from the leaves; for by feveral experiments, plants were
found to increafe confiderably in weight, in dewy and
moift nights. And by other experiments on the vine,
it was found that the trunk and branches of vines were
always in an imbibing date, caufed by the great perfpi-
ration of the leaves, except in the bleeding feafon 5 but
when at night that perfpiring power ceafes, then the con¬
trary imbibing power will prevail, and draw the fap and
dew from the leaves, as well as moiflure from the roots.
“ And we have a farther proof of this by fixing mer¬
curial gages to the ftems of feveral trees which do not
bleed, whereby it is found that they are always in a
ftrongly imbibing date, by drawing up the mercury fe¬
veral inches : whence it is eafy to conceive, how fome
of the particles of the gilded bud in the inoculated jef-
famine may be abforbed by it, and thereby communicate
their gilding miafmatothe fap of other branches •, efpe-
•ially when, fome months after the inoculation, the dock
•f the inoculated jeflamine is cut off a little above the
bud •, whereby the dock, which was the counteracting
part to the dem, being taken away, the dem attraCls
jeiore vigoroufly from the bud.
“ Another argument for the circulation of the fap is,
that fome forts of the graffs will infeCt and canker the
docks they are grafted on: but by mercurial, gages
fixed to frefh-cut dems of trees, it is evident that thofe
ftems were in a drongly imbibing date 5 and confe-
quently the cankered docks might very likely draw fap
from the graff, as well as the graff alternately from
the dock *, ]ud in the fame manner as leaves and
branches do from each other, in the viciffitudes of day
and night. And this imbibing power of the dock is
fo great, where only fome of the branches of a tree
are grafted, that the remaining branches of the dock
will, by their drong attraction, darve thofe graffs*, for
which reafon it is ufual to cut off the greated part of
the branches of the dock, leaving only a few fmall ones
to draw up the fapv
“ The indance of the ilex grafted upon the Englifh
©ak, feems to afford a very confiderable argument
againd a circulation. For, if there were a free uni¬
form circulation of the fap through the oak and ilex,
why dwuld the leaves of the oak fall in winter, and not
thofe of the ilex ?
“ Another argument againd an uniform circulation
of the fap in trees, as in animals, may be drawn from an
experiment, where it was found by the three mercurial
gages fixed to the fame vine, that while fome of its
branches changed their date of protruding fap into a
ftate of imbibing, others continued protruding fap ; one
nine, and the other thirteen days longer.”
To this reafoning of Dr Hales we lhall fubjoin an ex¬
periment made by Mr Mudel of the Academy of Scien¬
ces at Rouen, which feems decifive againd the doctrine
©f circulation. His account of it is as follows.—“ On
(he 12th of January I placed feveral ftirubs in pots
4
againd the windows of my hot-houfe, fome within the Plant
houfe and others without it. Through holes made for ''‘"“Y*-*'
this purpofe in the panes of glafs, I paffed a branch of
each of the dirubs, fo that thofe in the infide had a
branch without, and thofe on the outfide one within ;
after this, I took care that the holes diould be exa&ly
elofed and luted. This inverfe experiment, I thought,
if followed clofely, could not fail affording fuffieient
points of comparifon, to trace out the differences, by the
obfervation of the effefts..
“ The 20th of January, a week after this difpofition,
all the branches that were in the hot-houfe began to dif-
clofe their buds. In the beginning of February there ap¬
peared leaves *, and towards the end of it, (hoots of a
confiderable length, which prefented the young flowers.
A dwarf apple-tree, and feveral rofe-trees, being iubmit-
ted to the fame experiment, (howed the fame appearance
then as they commonly put on in May 5 in (hort, all the
branches which were within the hot-houfe, and confe-
quently kept in the warm air, were greeh at the end of
February, and had their (hoots in great forwardnefs. Very
different were thofe parts of the fame tree which were
without and expofed to the cold. None of thefe gave
the lead fign of vegetation j and the froft, which was in-
tenfe at that time, broke a rofe-pot placed on the outfide,
and killed fome of the branches of that very tree which,
on the infide, was every day putting forth more and more
(hoots, leaves, and buds, fo that it was in full vegetation
on one fide, whilft frozen on the other.
“ The continuance of the froft oecafioned no change
in any of the internal branches. They all continued in
a very bri(k and verdant ftate, as if they did not belong
to the tree which, on the outfide, appeared in the ftate
of the greateft fuffering. On the 15th of March, not-
withftanding the feverity of the fealon, all was in full
bloom. The apple-tree had its root, its ftem, and part
of its branches, in the hot-houfe. Thefe branches were
covered with leaves and flowers ; but the branches of
the fame tree, which were carried on the outfide, and
expofed to the cold air, did not in the lead partake of
the aftivity of the reft, but were abfolutely in the fame
ftate which all trees are in during winter. A rofe-tree,
in the fame pofition, (howed long (hoots with leaves and
buds •, it had even (hot a vigorous branch upon its
ftalk *, whilft a branch which paffed through to the
outfide had not begun to produce any thing, but was
in the fame ftate with other rofe-trees left in the
ground. .This branch is four lines in diameter, and
18 inches high.
“ The rofe-tree on the outfide was in the fame ftate;
but one of its branches drawn through to the infide of
the hot-houfe was covered with leaves and rofe-buds.
It was not without aftonifhment that I faw this branch
(hoot as brilkly as the rofe-tree which was in the hot-
houfe, whofe roots and ftalk, expofed as they were, to
the warm air, ought, it fhould feem, to have made it
get forwarder than a branch belonging to a tree, whofe
roots, trunk, and all its other branches, were at the very
time froft->nipped. Notwithftanding this, the branch
did not feem affected by the ftate of its trunk ; but the
aftion of the heat upon it produced the fame effect as
if the whole tree had been in the hot-houfe.” Memoir
Of the Perpendicularity of PLANTS.—This is a curi- de t'N^
ous phenomenon in natural biftory, which was firft
ferved by M. Dodart, and publilhed in an effay on the an> I7oS
affectation
P L A [ 605 ] P L A
'lant. affeclation of perpendicularity obfervcd in the ftems or
ftalks of all plants, in the roots of many, and even in
their branches, as much as poffible. Though almoft all
plants rife a little crooked, yet the fkuns fhoot up per¬
pendicularly, and the roots link down perpendicularly :
even thofe, which by the declivity of the foil come out
inclined, or thofe which are diverted out of the perpen¬
dicular by any violent means, again redrefs and llraight-
en themfelves and recover their perpendicularity, by
making a fecond and contrary bend or elbow w ithout
redlifying the firlf. We commonly look upon this af¬
fectation without any furprife *, but the naturalift who
knows what a plant is, and how it is formed, finds it a
fubjedi of afionjthment.
Each feed we know contains in it a little plant, al¬
ready formed, and needing nothing but to be unfolded ;
the little plant has its root 5 and the pulp, which is ufu-
ally feparated into two lobes, is the foundation of the
firit food it draws by its root w hen it begins to germi¬
nate. If a feed in the earth, therefore, be difpofed fo as
that the root of the little plant be turned downwards,
and the Hem upwards, and even perpendicularly up¬
wards, it is eafy to conceive that the little plant coming
to unfold itfelf, its llalk and root need only follow the
diredlion they have to grow perpendicularly. But we
know that the feeds of plants, whether Town of them¬
felves or by man, fall in the ground at random ; and
among the great variety of fituations with regard to the
flalk of their plant, the perpendicular one upwards is
but one. In all the reft, therefore, it is neceffary that
the ftalk redtify itfelf, fo as to get out of the ground :
but what force effedts this change, which is unqueftion-
ably a violent adiion ? Does the ftalk find a lefs load of
earth above it, and therefore go naturally that way
where it finds the leaft obftacle ? Were this fo, the lit¬
tle root, when it happens to be uppermoft, muft alfo fol¬
low that diredlion, and mount up.
To account for two fuch different adlions, M. Dodart
fuppofes that the fibres of the ftalks are of fuch a nature
as to be contradled and (hortened by the heat of the fun,
and.lengthened out by the moifture of the earth •, and,
on the contrary, that the fibres of the roots are contradl¬
ed by the moitlure of the earth, and lengthened by the
heat of the fun. When the plantule therefore is invert¬
ed, and the root at the top, the fibres w’hich eompofe
one of the branches of the root are not alike expofed to
the moifture of the earth, the lower part being more ex¬
pofed than the upper. The lower muft of courfe con-
tradl the moft 4 and this contradlion is again promoted
by the lengthening of the upper, whereon the fun adls
with, the greateft force. This branch of the root muft
therefore recoil towards the earth, and, iafinuating
through the pores thereof, muft get underneath the bulb,
&.c. By inverting this reafoning we difcover how the
ftalk comes to get uppermoft.
We fuppofe then that the earth attradls the root to it-
felf, and that the fun contributes to its defcent; and, on
the other hand, that the fun attradls the ftcm, and the
earth contributes to fend it towards the fame. With re-
ipedl to the ftraighfening of the ftalks in the open air,
our author imagines that it arifes from the imprefiion of
external caufes, particularly the fun and rain. For the
upper part of a ftalk that is bent is more expofed to the
rain, dew, and even the fun, &c. than the under •, and
t&efe caufesi, in a certain ftrudture of the fibres, both
equally tend to ftraighten the part moft expofed by the
fhortening they fucceffively occafion in it; for moifture
ftiortens by fwelling and heat by difiipating. What that
ftrudlure is which gives the fibres fuch different qualities,
or whereon it depends, is a myftery as yet beyond our
depth.
M. de la Hire accounts for the perpendicularity of the
Items or ftalks of plants in this manner : he fuppofes that
the root of plants draws a coarfer and heavier juice, and
the Item and branches a finer and more volatile one.
Moft naturalifts indeed conceive the root to be the Ito-
mach of the plant, where the juices of the earth are fub-
tilized fo as to become able to rife through the Item to
the extremity of the branches. This difference of juices
fuppofes larger pores in the-roots than the ftalk, &e.
and, in a rvord, a different contexture. This difference
muft be found even in the little ipvifible plant inclofed
in the feed : in it, therefore, wTe may conceive a point
of feparation ; luch as, that all on one fide, for example
the root, Ihall be unfolded by the gruffer juices, and all
on the other fide by the more fubtile ones. Suppofe the
plantule, when its parts begin to unfold, to be entirely
inverted, the root at the top, and the ftalk below : the
juices entering the root will be coarfeft,and when they
have opened and enlarged the pores fo as to admit juices
of a determinate weight, thofe juices prefling the root
more and more will drive it downwards ; and this will
increafe as the root is more extended or enlarged : for
the point of feparation being conceived as the fixed point
of a lever, they will a£l by the longer arm. The vola¬
tile juices at the fame time having penetrated the ftalk,
will give- it a direftion from below upwards; and, by
reafon of the lever, will give it more and more every
day. The little plant b thus turned on its fixed point
of feparation till it become perfedlly eredl.
When the plant is thus eredled, the ftalk fhould ftill
rife perpendicularly, in order to give it the more firm
biding, and enable it to withftand the effort of wind and
weather. M. Parent thus accounts for this effedl : If
the nutritious juice which arrived at the extremity of a
rifing ftalk evaporate, the weight of the air which en-
compafles it on all fides will make it afeend vertically :
but if, inftead of evaporating, it congeal, and remain
fixed to that extremity whence it was ready to go oft,
the weight of the air will give it the fame diredlion ; fo
that the ilalk will have acquired a fmallnew part verti¬
cally laid over it, juft as the flame in a candle held in
any way obliquely to the horizon ftill continues verti¬
cal by the preffure of the atmofphere. The new drops
of juice that fucceed will follow the fame diredlion ; and
as all together form the ftalk, that muft of courfe be
vertical, Unlefs fome particular circumftance intervene.
The branches, which are at firft fuppofed to proceed
laterally out of the ftalk in the firft embryo of the plant,
though they fhould even come out in an horizontal di¬
redlion, muft alfo raife themfelves upwards by the con-
flant diredlion of the nutritious juice, which at firft
fcarcely meets any refiftance in a tender fupple branch ;
and afterwards, even though the branch grow more
firm,, it will adt with the more advantage; fince the
branch, being become longer, furnifhes it with a longer
arm or lever. The flender adiion of even a little drop
becomes very eonfiderable by its continuity, and by the
afliftance of fuch circumftances. Hence may we ac¬
count for that regular, fituation and diredlion . of the
branches,v,
P L A I 606 ] P L A
Plant, branches, fmce they all make nearly the fame conftant
angle of 450 with the ftera, and with one another.
M. Aftruc accounts for the perpendicularity of the
ftems, and their redrelTing themfelves, thus : 1. He
thinks the nutritious juice arifes from the circumference
of the plant, and terminates in the pith : And, 2.1 hat
fluids, contained in tubes either parallel or oblique to
the horizon, gravitate on the lower part of the tubes,
and not at all on the upper. Hence it follows, that, in a
plant placed either obliquely or parallel to the horizon,
■the nutritious juice will aft more on the lower part ol
the canals than on the upper ; and by this means they
will infinuate more into the canals communicating there¬
with, and be collefted more copioufly therein : thus
the parts on the lower fide will receive more accretion
and be more nourifhed than thofe on the upper, the ex¬
tremity of the plant will therefore be obliged to bend
upwards.
This principle brings the feed into its due fituation
at firft. In a bean planted upfide down, the plume and
radicle may be feen with the naked eye (hooting at firlt
direftly for about an inch *, after which they begin to
bend, the one downward, and the other upward. The
fame is the cafe in a heap of barley to be made into
malt, or in a quantity of acorns laid to fprout in a moift
place, &c. Each grain of barley and each acorn has a
different fituation ; and yet every fprout tends direftly
upward, and every root downward, and the curvity cr
bend they make is greater or lefs as their fituation ap¬
proaches more or lefs to thedireftion wherein no curva¬
ture at all would be neceffary. But two fuch oppofite
motions cannot poflibly arife without fuppofing fome dif¬
ference between the two parts: the only one we know
of is, that the plume is fed by a juice imported to it by
tubes parallel to its fides, whereas the radicle imbibes
its nourifhment at every pore in its furface. When the
plume therefore is either parallel or inclined to the hori¬
zon, the nutritious iuice, feeding the lower parts more
than the upper, wfill determine its extremes to turn up¬
ward, for the reafons before given. On the contrary,
when the radicle is in the like fituation, the nutritious
juice penetrating through the upper part more copioufly
than through the under, there will be a greater accre¬
tion of the former than of the latter •, and the radicle
will therefore be bent downwards, and this mutual cur¬
vity of the plume and radicle muff continue till fuch
time as their fides are nouriflied alike, which cannot be
till they are perpendicular.
Of the Food of Plants.—This hath been fo fully
difeuffed under the article Agriculture, that little
remains to be faid upon the fubjeft in this place. The
method of making dephlogifticated or vital air de novo,
is now fo much improved, that numberlefs experiments
may be made with it both on animals and vegetables.
It appears, indeed, that thefe two parts of the creation
are a kind of counterbalance to one another ; and the
noxious parts or excrements of the one prove falutary
food to the other. Thus, from the animal body conti¬
nually pafs off certain efRuvia, which vitiate or phlogif
ticate the air. Nothing can be more prejudicial to ani¬
mal life than an accumulation of thefe effluvia : on the
other hand, nothing is more favourable to vegetables
than thofe excrementitious effluvia of animals j and ac¬
cordingly they greedily abforb them from the earth, or
from the air. With refpeft to the excrementitious parts
*
of living vegetables, the cafe is reverfed. The pureft Plant,
air is the common effluvium which paffes off from vege-l”—‘v
tables 5 and this, however favourable to animal life, is
by no means fo to vegetable ; whence we have an addi¬
tional proof of the dodfrine concerning the food of plants
delivered under the article Agriculture.
With regard to the eftefts of other kinds of air on
vegetation, a difference of fome confequence took place
between Dr Prieftley and Dr Percival. The former, in
the firfl: volume of his Experiments and Obfervations on
Air, had afferted that fixed air is fatal to vegetable as
well as to animal life. This opinion, however, was op-
pofed by Dr Percival, and the contrary one adopted by
Dr Hunter of York in the Georgical Effays, vol. v.
The experiments related by thefe two gentlemen would
indeed have been decifive, had they been made with fuf-
ficient accuracy. That this was the cafe, however, Dr
Prieftley denies j and in the 3d volume of his Treatife
on Air has fully detefted the miftakes in Dr Percival’s
Experiments *, which proceeded in faft from his having
ufed, not fixed air, but common air mixed with a fmall
quantity of fixed air. His experiments, when repeated
with the pureft fixed air, and in the moft careful man¬
ner, were always attended with the fame effeft, name¬
ly, the killing of the plant.
It had alfo been afferted by Drs Percival and Hunter,
that v'ater impregnated with fixed air was more favour¬
able to vegetation than fimple water. This opinion was
likewfife examined by Dr Prieftley ; however, his expe¬
riments were indecilive 5 but feem rather unfavourable
to the ufe of fixed air than otherwife.
Another very remarkable faft with regard to the food
of plants has been difcovered by Dr Prieftley •, namely,
that fome of them, fuch as the willow, cotnfrey, and
duckweed, are nouriflied by inflammable air. The firft,
he fays, flourifhes in this fpeeies of air fo remarkably,
that, “ it may be faid to feed upon it with great avidity.
This procefs terminates in the change of what remains Air, vol. v.
of the inflammable air into phlogifticated air, and forr-e-P’
times into a fpecies of air as good as fcommon air, or even
better •, fo that, it muft be the inflammable principle in
the air that the plant takes, converting it, no doubt, in¬
to its proper nourifhment.”
What the followers of Stahl call phlogifticated air
and inflammable air, are fo clofely allied to each other,
that it is no wonder they (hould ferve promifcuoufly for
the food of plants. The ceafon why both are not agree*
able to all kinds of plants, moft probably is the difterent
quantity of phlogiftic matter contained in theta, and the
different aftioh of the latent fire they contain \ for all
plants do not require an equal quantity of nourifliment 1
and fuch as require but little, will be deftroyed by hav¬
ing too much. The aftion of heat alfo is effentially ne*
ceflary to vegetation } and it is probable that very much
of this principle is abforbed from the air by vegetable#.
But if the air by which plants are partly nouriihed con¬
tains too much of that principle, it is very probable that
they may be deftroyed from this calife as well as the
other j and thus inflammable air, which contains a vaft
quantity of that aftive principle, may deftroy fuch plants
as grow in a dry fail, though it preferves thofe which
grow in a wet one. See VEGETATION.
Diffemination &/Plants.—So great are the prolific
pow'ers of the vegetable kingdom, that a fingle plant ai-
raoft of any kind, if left to itfelf, would, in# fhort time,
ovesrua
P L A [ 607 ] P L A
'iant everrun the whole world. Indeed, fuppofing the plant
to have been only a Tingle annual, with two feeds, it
would, in 20 years, produce more than a million of its
. own fpecies j what numbers then mult have been pro¬
duced by a plant whofe feeds are fo numerous as many
of thofe with which we are acquainted ? In that part of
our work we have given particular examples of the very
prolific nature of plants, which we need net repeat here j
and we have made feme obfervations on the means by
which they are carried to dillant places. This is a very
curious matter of faft, and as fuch we lhall now give a
fuller account of it.
If nature had appointed no means for the {battering
of thefe numerous feeds, but allowed them to fall down
in the place where they grew, the young vegetables
muft of neceffity have choked one another as they grew
up, and not a fingle plant could have arrived at perfec¬
tion. But fo many ways are there appointed for the
diffemination of plants, that we fee they not only do not
hinder each others growth, but a fingle plant will in a
fhort time fpread through different countries. The moft
evident means for this purpofe are,
1. The force of the air.—That the efficacy of this
may be the greater, nature has raifed the feeds of vege¬
tables upon ffalks, fo that the wind has thus an oppor¬
tunity of a (fling upon them with the greater advantage.
The feed-capfules alfo open at the apex, left the ripe
feeds ftiould drop out without being widely difperfed by
the wind. Others are furnifhed with wings, and a pap-
pous down, by which after they come to maturity, they
are carried up into the air, and have been known to fly
the diftance of 50 miles : 138 genera are found to have
winged feeds.
2. In fome plants the feed-veffels open with violence
when the feeds are ripe, and thus throw them to a con-
fiderable diftance ; and we have an-enumeration of 50
genera whofe feeds are thus difperfed,
3. Other feeds are furnifhed with hooks, by which,
when ripe, they adhere to the coats of animals, and are
carried by them to their lodging places. Linnaeus rec¬
kons 50 genera armed in this manner.
4. Many feeds are difperfed by means of birds' and
other animals ; who pick up the berries, and afterwards
ejebt the feeds uninjured. Thus the fox diffeminates the
privet, and man many fpecies of fruit. The plants found
growing upon walls and houfes, on the tops of high
rocks, &c. are moftly brought there by birds; and it is
univerfally known, that by manuring a field with new
dung, innumerable weeds will fpring up which did not
exift there befhre : 193 fpecies are reckoned up which
may be diffeminated in this manner.
5. The growth of other feeds is promoted by animals
in a different way. While fome are eaten, others are
fcattered and trodden into the ground by them. The
fquirrel gnaws the cones of the pine, and many of the
feeds fall out. When the loxia eats off their bark, al-
moft his only food, many of their feeds are committed
to the earth, or mixed in the morafs with mofs, where
he had retired. The glandularia, when fhe hides up
her nuts, often forgets them, and they ftrike root. The
fame is obfervable of the walnut 5 mice collect and bury
great quantities of them, and being afterwards killed
by different animals, the nuts germinate.
6. We are aftonifhed to find moffes, fungi, byffus,
and mucor,t growing everywhere j but it is for want of
refle£fing that their feeds are fo minute that they are Planh
almoft invifible to the naked eye. They float in the air ^
like atoms, and are dropped everywhere, but grow only
in thofe places where there was no vegetation before }
and hence we find the fame moffes in North America
and in Europe.
7. Seeds are alfo difperfed by the ocean, and by ri¬
vers. “ In Lapland (fays Linnaeus), we fee the moft
evident proofs how far rivers contribute to depofite the
feeds of plants. I have feen Alpine plants growing up¬
on their ftiores frequently 36 miles diftant from the Alps}
for their feeds falling into the rivers, and being carried
along and left by the ftream, take root there.—We may
gather like wife from many circumftances how much the
fea furthers this bufinefs.— In Roflagia, the ifland of
Groefoea, Oeland, Gothland, and the ftiores of Scania,
there are many foreign and German plants not yet na¬
turalized in Sweden. The centaury is a German plant,
wbofe feeds being carried by the wind into the fea, the
waves landed this foreigner upon the coafts of Sweden.-
I was aftoniftied to fee the veronica maritima, a German
plant, growing at Tornea, which hitherto had been found
only in Grsefcea : the fea was the vehicle by which this
plant was tranfported thither from Germany; or poflibly
it was brought from Germany to Graefcea, and from
thence to Tornea. Many have imagined, but erroneouf-
ly, that feed corrupts in water, and lofes its principle of
vegetation. Water at the bottom of the fea is feldom-
warm enough to deftroy feeds ; we have feen water cover
the furface of a field for a whole winter, while the feed
which it contained remained unhurt, unlefs at the be¬
ginning of fpring the waters were let down fo low by
drains, that the warmth of the fun-beams reached to the
bottom. Then the feeds germinate, but prefently be¬
come putrefeent; fo that for the reft of the year the
earth remains naked and barren. Rain and ftiowers
carry feeds into the cracks of the earth, ftreams, and
rivers ; which laft, conveying them to a diftance from
their native places, plant them in a foreign foil.”’
8. Laftly, fome feeds aflift their projection to a di¬
ftance in a very furprifing manner. The erupina, a fpe¬
cies of centaury, has its feeds covered over with ereCt
briftles, by whofe afliftance it creeps and moves about in
fuch a manner, that it is by no means to be kept in the
hand. If you confine one of them between the flock¬
ing and the foot, it creeps out either at the fleeve or
neck-band, travelling over the whole body. If the
boarded oat, after harveft, be left with other grain in
the barn, it extricates itfelf from the glume ; nor does
it flop in its progrefs till it gets to the walls of the build¬
ing. Hence, fays Linnaeus, the Dalecarlian, after lie has
cut and carried it into the barn, in a few days finds all
the glumes empty, and the oats feparate from them; for
every oat has a fpiral arifta or beard annexed to it, which
is contracted in wet, and extended in dry weather.
When the fpiral is contracted, it drags the oat along
with it : the arifta being bearded with minute hairs
punting downward, the grain neceffarily follows it; but
when it expands again, the oat does not go back to its
former place, the roughnefs of the beard the contrary
way preventing its return. If you take the feeds of equi-
fetum, or fern, thefe being laid upon paper, and viewed
in a microfcope, will be feen to leap over any obftaele as
if they had feet ; by which they are feparated and dif¬
perfed one from another ; fo that a perfon ignorant of
■ tins
P L A [ 608 ] TLA
Plant, this property would pronounce thefe feeds to be fo many
■"“v Tl"' mites or fmall infects.
We cannot finith this article without remarking, that
many ingenious men believe that plants have a powei of
perception. Of this opinion we (hall now give an ac¬
count from the fecond Volume of the Manchefter Iranf-
adtions, where we find feme fpeculations on the percep¬
tive power of vegetables by Dr Percival, who attempts
to (how, by the feveral analogies of organization, life,
inflindt, fpontaneity, and felf-motioil, that plants, like
animals, are endued with the powers both of perception
and enjoyment. The attempt is ingenious, and is in-
genioufly fupported, but in our opinion fails to con¬
vince. That there is an analogy between animals and
vegetables is certain but we cannot from thence con¬
clude that they either perceive or enjoy. Botaniits have,
it is true, derived from anatomy and physio logy, almoft
all the terms employed in the defeription of plants. But
we cannot from thence conclude, that their organization,
though it bears an analogy to that of animals, is the fign
of a living principle, if to this principle we annex the idea
of perception ; yet fo fully is our author convinced of the
truth of it, thpt he does not think it extravagant to
fuppofe, that, in fome future period, perceptivity may
be difeovered to extend even beyond the limits now af-
figned to vegetable life. Corallines, madrepores, mille-
pores, and fponges, were formerly confidered as foffil bo¬
dies : but the experiments of Count Marfigli evinced,
that they are endued with life, and led him to clafs them
with the maritime plants. And the obfervations of El¬
lis, Juffieu, and Peyfonel, have fince raifed them to the
rank of animals. The dete&ion of error, in long efta-
bliihed opinions concerning one branch of natural know¬
ledge, juftifies the fufpieion of its exiftence in others,
which are nearly allied to it. And it will appear from
the profecution of our inquiry into the indinfts, fpon¬
taneity, and felf-moving power of vegetables, that the
fufpicion is not without foundation.
He then goes on to draw a comparifon between the
inftin&s of animals and tbofe of vegetables ; the calf, as
loan as it comes into the world, applies to the teats of
the cow ; and the duckling, though hatched under a
hen, runs to the water.
“ Inftinfts analogous to thefe (fays our author), ope- Plane,
rate with equal energy on the vegetable tribe. A feed
contains a germ, or plant in miniature, and a radicle,
or little root, intended by nature to fupply it with nou-
rifhment. If the feed be fown in an inverted pofition, '
Hill each part purfues its proper direiSlion. The plumula
turns upward, and the radicle tirikes downward into
the ground. A hop-plant, turning round a pole, follows
the courfe of the lun, from fouth to weft, and foon dies,
when forced into an oppofite line of motion : but re--
move the obftacle, and the plant will quickly return to
its ordinary pofition. The branches of a honeyfuckle
{hoot out longitudinally, till they become unable to bear
their own weight •, and then ftrengthen themfelves, by-
changing their form into a fpiral : when they meet with
other living branches, of the fame kind, they coalefce,
for mutual fupport, and one fpiral turns to the right and
the other to the left ; thusfeeking, by an inftin&ive im-.
pulfe, fome body on which to climb, and increafing the
probability of finding one by thediverfity of their courfe:
for if the auxiliary branch be dead, the other uniformly
Avinds it fell round from the right to the left.
“ Thefe examples of the inftin&ive economy of .vege¬
tables have been pUrpofely taken from iubjeeb familiar
to our daily obfervation. But the plants of Avarmer cli¬
mates, Avere vve fufficiently acquainted with them, would
probably furnith better illuftrations of this ackmnvledged
poAver of animality : and I (hall briefly recite the hiftory
of a very curious exotic, which has been delivered to us
from good authority ; and confirmed by the ©bfervations
of feveral European botanifts.”
The doftor then goes on to give a defeription of the
dioncea mufcipula (b), for Avhich fee vo). vi. p. 32.; and-
concludes, that if he has furnithed any prefumptive
proof of the inftinclive poAver of vegetables, it will ne-
ceffarily folloAV that they are endued with fome degree
of fpontaneity. More fully to evince this, however, the
doftor points out a few of thofe phenomena in the vege¬
table kingdom Avhich feem to indicate fpontaneity.—
“ SeA'eral years ago (fays he), Avhilu engaged in a courfe
of experiments to afeertain the influence of fixed air on
A'egetation, the folloAving fadl repeatedly occurred to me.
A fprig of mint, fufpended by the root,, with the head
doAV award-,
(b) Dr Watfon, the bithop of Landaff, Avho has cfpoufed the fame fide of the queftion Avilh Dr Percival (fee
the 5th vol. of his Chemical Eflfays), reafons thu$ on the motions of vegetables. “ Whatever can produce any.
effeft (fays he) upon an animal organ, as the impact of external bodies, heat and cold, the vapour of burning
fulphur, of volatile alkali, Avant of air, &c. are found to ad alfo upon the plants called fenjitlve. But not to infill
upon any more inftances, the mufcular motions of thedionaea mufcipula, lately brought into Europe from America,
feem far fuperior in quicknefs to thofe of a variety of animals. Noav to refer the mufcular motions of fliell-fith
and zoophytes to an internal principle of volition, to make thetn indicative of the perceptivity of the being, and
to attribute the more notable ones of vegetables to certain mechanical dilatations and Contractions of parts ocoa-
fioned by external impulfe, is to err againft that rule of philofophizing which afligns the fame caufes for effefts of
the fame kind. The motions in both cafes are equally accommodated to the prefervation of the being to Avhich
they belong, are equally diftind and uniform, and ftiould be equally derived from mechanifm, or equally admitted
as criterions of perception.
“ I am fenfible that thefe and other fimilar motions of vegetables may by fome be confidered as analogous to
the automatic or involuntary motions of animals •, but as it is not yet determined amongft the phyfiologifts, whe¬
ther the motion of the heart, the periftaltic motion of the bowels, the contradions obtervable upon external im¬
pulfe in the mufcles of animals deprived of their heads and hearts, be attributable to an irritability unaccompanied
Avith perceptivity, or to an uneafy fenfation, there feems to be no reafon for entering into foobfeure a difquifition j
efpecially fince irritability, if admitted as the caufe of the motions of vegetables, muft d fortiori be admitted asths-
caule of the lefs exquifite and difcernible motions of being univerfally referred to the animal kingdom.”
P L A [ 609 ] P L A
L jrtants. downwards, in the middle glafs vefiel of Dr Nooth’s
machine, continued to thrive vigoroufly, without any
other pabulum than what was fupplied by the ftream of
mephitic gas to wdiich it was expofed. In 24 hours the
item formed into a curve, the head became eredt, and
gradually afcended tow’ards the mouth of the veffel; thus
producing, by fucceflive efforts, a new and unufual con¬
figuration of its parts. Such exertions in the fprig of
mint, to reftify its inverted pofition, and to remove from
a foreign to its natural element, feems to evince a voli¬
tion to avoid what was evil, and to recover what had
been experienced to be good. If a plant, in a garden-
pot, be plaped in a room which has no light except from
a hole in the wall, it will fhoot towards the hole, pafs
through it into the open air, and then vegetate upwards
in its proper direftion. Lord Kames relates, that,
‘ amongft the ruins of New Abbey, formerly a mona-
ftery in Galloway, there grows on the top of a wall a
plane tree, 20 feet high. Straitened for nourifhment
in that barren fituation, it feveral years ago direfted
roots down the fide of the wall till they reached the
ground ten feet below : and now the nourifhment it
afforded to thefe roots, during the time of defeending,
is amply repaid; having ev.ery year fince that time made
vigorous flioots. From the top of the w;all to the fur-
face of the earth, thefe roots have not thrown out a
fingle fibre, but are now united into a pretty thick
hard root.’
“ The regular movements by which the fun-flower
prefents its fplendid difk to the fun have been known to
nafuralifls, and celebrated by poets, both of ancient and
modern times. Ovid founds upon it a beautiful llory ;
and Thomfon deferibes it as an attachment of love to
the celeftial luminary.
‘ But one, the lofty follower of the fun,
‘ Sad when he fets, flints up her yellow leaves,
‘ Drooping all night; and when he warm returns,
‘ Points her enamour’d bofom to his ray.’
Summer, line 216.
Dr Percival next touches on motion; he mentions co¬
ke ?en- rallines, fea-pens *, oyfters, &c. as endued with the power
tula, Of- °f motion in a very fmall degree, and then he fpeaks in
•a, Afyrf-the following manner. “ Mr Miller (fays he), in his
> ^ late account of the ifland of Sumatra, mentions a fpe-
cies of coral, which the inhabitants have miflaken for a
plant, and have denominated it lalati-cout, or fea-grafs.
It is found in fliallont bays, where it appears like a
ftraight flick, but when touched withdraws itfelf into
the fand. Now if felf-moving faculties like thefe indi¬
cate animality, can fuch a diftin£Hon be denied to vege¬
tables poffeffed of them in an equal or fuperior degree ?
The water-lily, be the pond deep or (hallow in which it
grows, puflies up its flower-ftems till they reach the open
air, that the farina fecundans may perform without inju¬
ry its proper office. About 7 in the morning the ftalk
erecls itfelf, and the flowers rife above the furface of the
water : in this (late they continue till four in the after¬
noon, when the ffalk becomes relaxed, and the flowers
fink and clofe. The motions of the fenfitive plant have
been long noticed with admiration, as exhibiting the
mod obvious figns of perceptivity. And if we admit
iuch motions as criteria of a like powrer in other be¬
ings, to attribute them in this inftance to mere mecha-
Vol. XVI. Part II.
nifm, a&nated folely by external impulfe, is to deviate Plants,
from the founded rule of philofophizing, which directs
us not to multiply caufes when the effects appear to be
the fame. Neither will the laws of electricity better
folve the phenomena of this animated vegetable: for its
leaves are equally affeCted by the contaft of eleCtric and
non-eleCtric bodies; (how no change in their fenfibility
whether the atmofphere be dry or moifl; and inttantly
clofe when the vapour of volatile alkali or the fumes of
burning fulphur are applied to them. The powers of
chemical Itimuli to produce contractions in the fibres of
this plant, may perhaps lead fome philofophers to refer
them to the vis injita, or irritability, which they aflign
to certain parts of organized matter, totally didinCt from, ,
and independent of, any fentient energy. But the hy-
pothefis is evidently a folecifm, and refutes itfelf. For
the prefence of irritability can only be proved by the
experience of irritations, and the idea of irritation in¬
volves in it that of feeling.
“ But there is a fpecies of the order of decandria,
which condantly and uniformly exerts a felf-moving
power, uninfluenced either by chemical flimuli, or by
any external impulfe whatfoever. This curious (hrub,
which was unknown to Linnaeus, is a native of the Ead
Indies, but has been cultivated in feveral botanical gar¬
dens here. I had an opportunity of examining it in the
colleftion of the late Dr Brown. See Hedysarum.—
I cannot better comment on this wonderful degree of
vegetable animation than in the words of Cicero. Ina-
nimwn ejl omne quodpulfu agitatur externo ; quod autem
ejl animal, id motu cietur interiore et fuo.
“ I have thus attempted, with the brevity preferibed
by the laws of this fociety, to extend our views of ani¬
mated nature ; to gratify the mind with the contempla¬
tion of multiplied acceflions to the general aggregate of
felicity; and to exalt our conceptions of the wifdom,
power, and beneficence of God. In an undertaking ne¬
ver yet accompliflied, difappointment can be no difgrace :
in one directed to fuch noble objefts, the motives are a
juftification, independently of fuccefs. Truth, indeed,
obliges me to acknowledge, that I review my {pecula¬
tions with much diffidence ; and that I dare not pre¬
fume to expeft they will produce any permanent con-
vidlion in others, becaufe I experience an inftability of
opinion in myfelf. For, to ufe the language of Tully,
Nefcio quomodo, dum lego, affentior; cum pofui librum,
ajjenjio omnis ilia elabitur.— But this fcepticifm is per¬
haps to be aferibed to the influence of habitual precon¬
ceptions, rather than to a deficiency of reafonable proof.
For befides the various arguments which have been ad¬
vanced in favour of vegetable perceptivity, it may be
further urged, that the hypothefis recommends itfelf by
its confonance to thofe higher analogies of nature, which
lead us to conclude, that the greateft poflible fum of
happinefs exifts in the univerfe. The bottom of the
ocean is overfpread with plants of the mod luxuriant
magnitude. Immenfe regions of the earth are covered
with perennial forefts. Nor are the Alps, or the An¬
des deftitute of herbage, though buried in deeps of
fnow. And can it be imagined that fuch profufion oi
life fubfifts without the lead fenfation or enjoyment ?
Let us rather, with humble reverence, fuppofe, that ve¬
getables participate, in fome low degree, of the common
allotment of vitality ; and that our great Creator hath
4 H apportioned
P L A [ 610 ] P L A
Plants.
apportioned good to all living things, ‘ in number,
weight, and meafure.” See SENSITIVE P/ant, Mimo¬
sa, Mufcipula, Vegetable MOTION, is’c.
To thefe ingenious and fpirited obfervations, we lhall
fubjoin nothing of our own, but leave our readers to
determine for themfelves (c). Speculations of this kind,
when carried on by fober men, will never be productive
of bad confequences ; but by the fubtle fceptic, or the
more unwary inquirer, they may be made the engine of
very dangerous errors. By this we do not mean to in-
finuate that the fpirit of inquiry fhould be fuppreffed,
becaufe that fpirit, in the hands of weak or of wicked
men, may be abuied. By thofe, however, who know
the bad confequences that may be drawn, and indeed
that have been drawn, from the opinions we have now
given an account of, our caution will not be deemed
impertinent.
PLANTS growing on Animals. See INSECTS giving
root to Plants.
Sexes of Plants. See Sexes and Botany.
Colours of Plants. See Colour of Plants.
Colours extracted from PLANTS. See COLOUR-mak-
ins- . .
Method of Drying and Prcferving PLANTS for Bota-
nifts.—Many methods have been devifed for the prefer-
vation of plants : we (hall relate only thofe that have
been found mod fuccefsful.
Wither- Firft prepare a prefs, which a workman will make by
ing's Bota- the following direClions. Take two planks of wood not
nical Ar- bable to warp. The planks mud be two inches thick,
rintroTent' 1 ^ inches long, and 12 inches broad. Get four male
p. 48. and four female fcrews, fuch as are commonly ufed for
fecuring fafli windows. Let the four female (crews be
let into the four corners of one of the planks, and cor-
refponding holes made through the four corners of the
other plank for the male fcrews to pafs through, fo as to
allow the two planks to be ferewed tightly together. It
will not be amifs to face the bearing of the male fcrews
upon the wood with iron plates •, and if the iron plates
went acrofs from corner to corner of the wood, it would
be a good fecurity againd the warping.
Secondly, get half a dozen quires of large foft fpongy
paper (fuch as the dationers call blojfom blotting paper
is the bed), and a few dieets of drong padeboard.
The plants you with to preferve fhould be gathered
in a dry day, after the fun hath exhalqd the dew *, ta¬
king particular care to colled them imthat date where¬
in their generic and fpecifie charaders are mod confpi-
cuous. Carry them home in a tin box nine inches
long, four inches and a half wide, and one inch and a
half deep. Get the box made of the thinned tinned
iron that can be procured 5 and let the lid open upon
hinges. If any thing happen to prevent the immediate
ufe of the fpecimens you have eolleded, they will be
kept frefh two or three days in this box much better
than by putting them in water. When you are going
to preferve them, differ them to lie upon a table until
they become limber j and then they (hould be laid upon
a padeboard, as much as podible in their natural form,
but at the fame time with a particular view to their ge¬
neric and fpecific charaders. For this purpofe it will
be advifeable to feparate one of the flowers, and to dif-
play the generic charader. If the fpcciflc charader de¬
pend upon the flower or upon the root, a particular
difplay of that will be likewife neceffary. Wdien the
plant is thus difpofed upon the padeboard, covfer it with
eight or ten layers of fpongy paper, and put it into the
prefs. Exert only a (mall degree of preffure for the
(ird two or three days •, then examine it, unfold any un¬
natural plaits, redify any midakes, and, after putting
frefh paper over it, ferew’ the prefs harder. In about
three days more feparate the plant from the padeboard,
if it is fufticiently firm to allow of a change of place ; put
it upon a frefh padeboard, and, covering it wdth frefh
bloffom paper, let it remain in the prefs a few days lon¬
ger. The prefs (hould dand in the funfhine, or within
the influence of a fire.
When it is perfedly dry, the ufual method is to fa-
den it down, wfith palle or gum w'ater, on the right-
hand inner page of a flicet of large drong writing-
paper. It requires fome dexterity to glue the plant
neatly down, fo that none of the gum or pade may
appear to defile the paper. Prefs it gently again for
a day or two, with a half flieet of bloffom-paper be-
twixt the folds of the writing paper. When it is quite
dry, write upon the left-hand inner page of the paper
the name of the plant 5 the fpecifie character 5 the.
place where, and the time when, it wTas found ; and
any other remarks you may think proper. Upon the
back of the fame page, near the fold of the paper,
write the name of the plant, and then place it in your
cabinet. A fmall quantity of finely powdered arfenic,
or corrofive fublimate, is ufually mixed wfith the pade
or gum-water, to prevent the devallations of infeds j
but the feeds of (taves-acre finely poAvdered will an-
fwer the fame purpofe, without being liable to cor¬
rode or to change the colour of the more delicate
plants. Some people put the dried plants into the
fheets of writing paper, Avithout fadening them doAvn at
all 5 and others only faden them by means of fmall flips
of paper, paded aerofs the dem or branches. Where
the fpecies of any genus are numerous, and the fpecimens
are fmall, feveral of them may be put into one (beet of
paper.
Another more expeditious method is to take the plants
out of the prefs after the fird or fecond day ; let them
remain upon the padeboard ; cover them with five os-
fix leaves of bloffom paper, and iron them with a hot
fmeothing
) n ^16 v‘flume °f Tranfaclions of the Linncean Society, avc find Dr Percival’s reafoning very ably com-
atc , as far as he draAvs his confequences from the external motions of plants 5 avhere it is argued, that thefe mo¬
tions, t oug 1 m fome refpeds fimilar to thofe of animals, can and ought to be explained, without concluding that
t icy are en oAved eitbei Avith perception or volition. Mr ToAVnfon concludes his paper in thefe Avords: “When
a ,lsAon ^ e5e ( ays ^ think Ave (hall place this opinion among the many ingenious flights of the imagination,
an o er v o oav that bund impulfe Avhich leads us naturally to give fenfation add perceptivity to animal life, and
o eny it to vegetables ; and fo dill fay with Ariflotle, and our great mader Linnaeus, Vegetabilia crefcunt b' w-
vunt} animal la crefcunt, vivunt, & fentiunt.'n
P L A [ 6u ] P L A
’lants. fmoothxng iron until they are perfe&ly dry. If the iron
—\r—“/ be too hot, it will change the colours ; but feme people,
taught by long praflice, will fucceed very happily. This
is quite the belt method to treat the orchis and other
ilimy mucilaginous plants.
Another method is to take the plants when frefh ga¬
thered, and, inilead of putting them into the prels, im¬
mediately to faften them down to the paper with ftrong
gum-water; then dip a camel-hair pencil into fpirit-var-
nhh, and varnifh the whole furface of the plant two or
three times over. This method fucceeds very well with
plants that are readily Laid fiat, and it preferves their co¬
lours better than any other. T he fpirit varnifh is made
thus. To a quart of highly reidified fpirit of wine put
five ounces of gum fandaracb j two ounces of maftich in
drops 5 one ounce of pale gum elemi, and one ounce of oil
of fpike-lavender. Let it Hand in a warm place, and
ftiake it frequently to expedite the folution of the gums.
. <) Where no better convenience can be had, the fpeci-
mens may be difpofed fyftematically in a large folio
book ; but a vegefable cabinet is upon all accounts more
eligible. With the afiiftance of the following deferip-
tion a workman may readily make one. The drawers
muft have backs and fides, but no other front than a
fmall ledge. Each drawer will be 14 inches wide, and
10 inches from the back to the front, after allowing half
an inch for the thicknefs of the two fides, and a quarter of
an inch for the thicknefs of the back. The fides of the
drawers, in the part next the front, muft be doped off
in a ferpentine line, fomething like what the workmen
call an ogee. The bottoms of the drawers muft be made
to Hide in grooves cut in the uprights, fo that no fpace
may be loft betwixt drawer and drawer. After allow¬
ing a quarter of an inch for the thicknefs of the bottom
of each drawer, the clear perpendicular fpace in each
muft be as in the following table.
I. Two-tenths of an inch.
II. One inch and two-tenths.
III. Four inch, and £x-tenths.
IV. Two inches and three-
tenths.
V. Seven inches and eight-
tenth'.
VI. Two inches and two-
tenths.
VII. Two-tenths of an inch.
VIII. One inch and four-tenths.
IX. Two-tenths of an inch.
X. Two inches and eight-
tenths.
XL One inch and two-tenths.
XII. Three inches and five-
tenths.
XIII. Two inches and four-
tenths.
XIV. Three inches and eight-
tenths.
XV. Three inches and four-
tenths.
XVI. One inch and three-
tenths.
XVII. Two inches and eight-
tenths.
XVIII. Six-tenths of an inch.
XIX. Ten inches.
XX. One inch and nine-
tenths.
XXI. Four inches and four-
tenths.
XXII. Two inches and fix-
tenths.
XXIII. One inch and two-
tenths
XXIV Seventeen inches.
This cabinet flints up with two doors in front 5 and
the whole may Hand upon a bafe, containing a few
drawers for the reception of duplicates and papers.
FojJU Plants. Many fpecies of tender and herba¬
ceous plants are found at this day, in great abundance,
buried at conftderable depths in the earth, and converted,
as it were, into the nature of the matter they lie among j
foffil wood is often found very little altered, and often
impregnated with fubftances of almoft all the different
foffil kinds, and lodged in all the feveral ftrata, fome-
times firmly imbedded in hard matter j fometimes loofe:
fout this is by no means the cafe with the tenderer and
more delicate fubjefts of the vegetable world. Thefe
are ufually immerfed either in a blackfill flaty fubftance,
found lying over the ftrata of coal, elfe in loofe nodules
of ferruginous matter of a pebble-like form, and they are
always altered into the nature of the fubftance.they lie
among : what we meet with of thefe are principally of
the fern kind4 and what is very Angular, though a verv
certain truth, is, that thefe are principally the ferns of
American growth, not thofe of our own climate. The
moft frequent fulfil plants are the polypody, fpleenwort,
ofmund, trichomaoes, and the feveral larger and fmaller
ferns •, but befides thefe there are alfo found pieces of the
equifetum or horfe-tail, and joints of the ftellated plants,
as the clivers, madder, and the like-, and thefe have been
too often miftaken for flowers; fometimes there are alio
found complete graffes, or parts of them, as alfo reeds,
and other watery plants ; fometimes the ears of corn,
and not unfrequently the twigs or bark, and impreffions
of the bark and fruit of the pine or fir kind, which have
been, from their fcaly appearance, miflaken for the Ikins
of fithes ; and fometimes, but that very rarely, we meet
with moffes and fea-plants.
Many of the ferns not unfrequently found, are of
very Angular kinds, and fume fpecies yet unknown to
us ; and the leaves of fome appear fet at regular diftan-
ces, with round protuberances and cavities. The ftones
which contain thefe plants fplit readily, and are often
found to contain, on one fide, the impreflion of the
plant, and on the other the prominent plant itfelf5
and, befide all that have been mentioned, there have
been frequently fuppofed to have been found with us
ears of common wheat, and of the maize or Indian corn ;
the firft being in reality no other than the common end-
moft branched of the firs, and the other the thicker
boughs of various fpecies of that and of the pine kind,
with their leaves fallen off j fuch branches in fuch a
ftate cannot but afford many irregular tubercles and pa¬
pillae, and, in fome fpecies, fuch as are more regularly
difpofed.
Thefe are the kinds moft obvious in England ; and
thefe are either immerfed in the flaty ftone which confti-
tutes whole ftrata, or in flatted nodules ufually of about
three inches broad, which readily fplit into two pieces
on being ftruck.
They are moft common in Kent, in coal-pits near
Newcaftle, and the foreft of Dean in Gloucefterfhire j
but are more or lefs found about almoft all our coal-pits,
and many of our iron mines. Though thefe feem the
only fpecies of plants found with us, yet in Germany
there are many others, and thofe found in different fub¬
ftances. A whitfih ftone, a little harder than chalk,
frequently contains them : they are found alfo often in
a gray fiaty ftone of a firmer texture, not unfrequently
in a blackfill one, and at times in many others. Nor
are the bodies themfelves lefs various here than the mat¬
ter in which they are contained : the leaves of trees are
found in great abundance, among which thofe of the
willow, poplar, white thorn, and pear trees, are the
moft common fmall branches of box, leaves of the
olive tree, and ftalks of garden thyme, are alfo found
there j and fometimes ears of the various fpecies of
corn, and the larger as well as the finallfer moffes in
great abundance.
Thefe feem the tender vegetables, or herbaceous
plants, certainly found thus immerfed in hard ftone, and
4 H 2 buried
Plant'.
P L A
Plants buried at great depths in the earth : others of many kinds
II there are alfo named by authors *, but as in bodies lo im-
nintag°- perfect errors are eafily fallen into, thefe feem all that
v can be afcertained beyond mere conje£tuie. ^ /
PLANTS, method of preferving them in their original
fhape and colour. Walk a fufficient quantity of fine land,
fo as perfeftly to feparate it from all other fubftances j
dry it ; pafs it through a fieve to clear it from any grois
particles which would not rife in the walking : take an
earthen veffel of a proper fize and form, for every plant
and flower which you intend to preferve 5 gather your
plants and flowers when they are in a Hate of perfeaion,
and in dry weather, and always with a convenient por¬
tion of the ftalk : heat a little of the dry fand prepared
as above, and lay it in the bottom of the veffel, lo as
equally to cover it j lay the plant or flower upon it lo
as that no part of it may touch the fides of the vellel :
fift or fhake in more of the fame fand by little upon it,
fo that the leaves may be extended by degrees, and with¬
out injury, till the plant or flower is covered about two
inches thick : put the veffel into a Hove, or hot-houfe,
heated by little and little to the 50th degree 5 let it
Hand there a day or two, or perhaps more, according to
the thicknefs and fucculence of the flower or plant ;
then gently (hake the fand out upon a Iheet of paper,
and take out the plant, which you will find in. all its
beauty, the Ihape as elegant, and the colour as vivid, as
when it grew.
Some flowers require certain little operations to pre¬
ferve the adherence of their petals, particularly the. tu¬
lip 5 with refpedf to wdiich it is neceffary, before it.is
buried in the fand, to cut the triangular fruit which riles
in the middle of the flower j for the petals will then ic-
main more firmly attached to the ftalk.
A hortus iiccus prepared in this manner would be
one of the moft beautiful and ufeful curiofities that
. can be.
Moving Plant. See Hedysarum, Botany Index.
Sea Plants. See Sea Plants.
Senfitive PLANT. See Mimosa, Botany Index.
PLANT-Lice, Vine fretters, or Pucerons. See Aphis,
Entomology Index.
PLANTA, a Plant. See Plant.
Plant A Foeminea, a female plant, is one which bears
female flowers only. It is oppofed to a male plant,
which bears only male flowTers ; and to an androgynous
one, which bears flowers of both fexes. Female plants
are produced from the fame feed with the male, and ar¬
range themfelves under the clafs of dioeeia in the fexual
method.
PLANTAGENET, the furname of the kings of
England from Henry II. to Richard III. inclufive. An¬
tiquarians are much at a lofs to account for the origin
of this name j and the beft derivation they can find for
it is, that Fulk, the firft earl of Anjou of that name,
being flung with remorfe for fome wicked adlion, went
in pilgrimage to Jerufalem as a work of atonement j
where, being foundly fcourged with broom twigs, which
grew plentifully on the fpot, he ever after took the fur-
name of Plantagenet or broomftalk, which was retained
by his noble pbfterity.
PL ANT AGO, Plantain •, a genus of plants be¬
longing to the tetrandria clafs. See Botany Index.—
Of the plantain there are the following fpecies : The
common broad-leaved, plantain, called waybred or way-
l
P L A
born ; becaufe it commonly grows by the wayfide ; the Plantain
great hoary plantain, or lambf-tongue ; the narrow-lea- II
ved plantain, or ribwort. “t®r’
PLANTAIN. See Plantago, Botany Index. l__ j _
Plantain Tree. See Musa, Botany Index.
PLANTATION, in the Weft Indies, denotes a
fpot of ground which a planter, or perfon arrived in a
new colony, pitches on to cultivate for his own ufe, or
is afligned for that purpofe. However, the term plan¬
tation is often ufed in a term fynonymous with colony.
See Colony..
PLANTERSHIP, in a general fenfe, the bufinefs
of a planter.
Plantership, in the Weft Indies, denotes the ma¬
nagement of a lugar plantation, including not only the
cultivation of the cane, but the various proceffes for the
extraftion of the fugar, together with the making of fu-
gar-fpirits. See Rum, Saccharum, and Sugar.
To effeft a defign fo comprehenfive, it is neceffary for
a planter to underftand every branch of the art precifely,
and to ufe the utmoft attention and caution both in the
laying down and executing of his plans. It is there¬
fore the duty of a good planter to infpett every part of
his plantation with his own eyes; to place his provifions,
ftores, and utenfils, in regular order, and in fafe repofi-
tories ; that by preferving them in perfeftion, all kinds
of wafte may be prevented.
But as negroes, cattle, mules, and horfes, are as it
were the nerves of a fugar-plantation, it is expedient to
treat that fubjedt with fome accuracy.
Of Negroes, Cattle, &c. j In the firft place, then, as
it is the intereft of every planter to preferve his negroes
in health and ftrength ; fo every adt of cruelty is not lefs
repugnant to the matter’s real profit, than it is contrary
to the laws of humanity : and if a manager confiders his
own eafe and his employer’s intereft, he will treat all
negroes under his care with due benevolence ; for good
difcipline is by no means inconfiftent with humanity : on
the contrary, it is evident from experience, that he who
feeds his negroes well, proportions their labour to their
age, fex, and ftrength, and treats them with kindnefs
and good nature, will reap a much larger produdl, and
with infinitely more eafe and felf-latisfadlion, than the .
moft cruel talkmafter, who ftarves his negroes, or cha-
ftifes them with undue feverity. Every planter then who Martin «|
willies to grow rich with eafe, muft be a good economift ; Planter-
mull feed his negroes with the moft wholefome food, fof-fity.
ficient to preferve them in health and vigour. Common
experience points out the methods by which a planter
mav preferve his people in health and ftrength. Some
of his moft fruitful land Ihould be allotted to each negro
in proportion to his family, and a fufficient portion of
time allowed for the cultivation of it ; but becaufe fuck
allotment cannot in long droughts produce enough for
his comfortable fupport, it is the incumbent duty of a
o-ood planter to have always his ftores well filled with
Guinea corn, yams, or eddoes, befides potatoes growing
in regular fucceffion : for plenty begets cheerfulnefs of
heart, as well as ftrength of body ; by which more work
is effected in a day by the fame hands than in a week
when enervated by want and feverity. Scanty meals
may fuftain life ; but it. is evident, that more is requifite
to enable a negro or any other perfon to go through the
neceffary labours. He, therefore, who will reap plenti¬
fully, muft plant great abundance of provifions as well
[ 612 ]
P L A
as fugar-canes j and it is nature’s economy fo to fruftify
the foil by the growth of yams, plantains, and potatoes,
as to yield better harvefts of fugar, by that very means,
than can be produced by many other arts of cultivation.
Plantains are the principal fupport of all the negroes in
Jamaica ; and are alfo much cultivated, at great expence
of manure, in Barbadoes; but ought not to be folely de¬
pended upon in climates fubjedl to hurricanes. A cele¬
brated planter and eeonomift of the lail-mentioned ifland,
who raifed an hnmenfe fortune from very fmall begin¬
nings only by planting, affirmed, that he fed conftantly
at leaft 300 negroes out of I 2 acres of plantains. HoW
that excellent produce came to be fo long neglefted in
fome of the iilands it is hard to guefs •, but at prefent the
negleft feems to be founded upon a vulgar error, that
plantains cannot thrive in any other than low moiit foils.
In fuch places, no doubt, they flouriffi molt luxuriantly ;
but yet they thrive and bear fruit abundantly on moun¬
tains and in marffies, and in the drieit black mould upon
marie or rocks, and even in lharp gravelly foils, as may
be evinced by numberlefs inftances.
However plenty of wholefome food may be condu¬
cive to health, there are alfo other means, equally necef-
fary to the ftrength and longevity of negroes, well worth
the planter’s attention ; and thofe are, to choofe airy
dry fituations for their houfesj and to obferve frequently
that they be kept clean, in good repair, and perfectly
\vater-tight j for naftinefs, and the inclemencies of wea¬
ther, generate the moll malignant difeafes. If thefe
houfes are lituated alfo in regular order, and at due
didances, the fpaces may at once prevent general deva-
ftations by fire, and furnilh plenty of fruits and pot¬
herbs, to pleafe an unvitiated palate, and to purify the
blood. Thus then ought every planter to treat his ne¬
groes with tendernefs and generofity, that they may be
induced to love and obey him out of mere gratitude, and
become real good beings by the imitation of his beha¬
viour y and therefore a good planter, for his own cafe
and happinefs, will be careful of felting a good ex¬
ample.
Having thus hinted the duties of a planter to his ne¬
groes, let the next care be of cattle, mules, and horfes.
The planters of Barbadoes (who are perhaps the mod
Ikilful of all others, and exaft to a nicety in calculations
of profit and lofs), are, with reTpeft to their caitle, the
mod remifs of any in all the idands ; as if the carriage of
canes to the mill, and of plantation produce to the mar¬
ket, was not as effential as any other branch of planter-
fhip. At Barbadoes, in particular, the care of thefe
animals is of mor.e importance: becaufe the foil, worn
out by long culture, cannot yield any produce without
plenty of dung. Some planters are neverthelefs fo in-
genioudy thrifty, as to carry their canes upon negroes
heads} afting in that refpeft diametrically oppofite to
their own apparent inlered, which cannot be ferved
more effe£lually than by faving the labour of human
hands, in all cafes where the labour of brutes can be
fubdituted , and for that end, no means of preferving
thofe creatures in health and drength ought to be ne-
glefted.
The fird care therefore is to provide plenty and va¬
riety of food. In crop-time, profufion of cane-tops may
be had for the labour of carriage , but they will be more
wholefome and nutritious if tedded like hay by the fun’s
heat, and fweated by laying them in heaps a few days
P L A
before they are eaten. In this feafoh of abundance,
great ricks of cane-tops (the butt ends turned inw’ards)
diould be made in the mod convenient corner of each
field, to fupply the want of padurage and other food :
and thefe are very wholefome if chopped into fmall parts,
and mixed fometimes with common fait or fprinkled
with melaffes mixed with water j but yet the cattle re¬
quire change of food to preferve them in drengt-h ; fuch
as Guinea-corn, and a variety of grafs, which every foil
produces with a little care in moiit weather $ and indeed
this variety is found neced'ary in all climes.
But fince that variety is not to be had during thofe
fevere droughts to which hot climates are liable, and
much lefs in thofe fmall idands which cannot furnifh
large tracts of meadow-lands for hay, the only relburce
is the fodder of cane-iops or tedded Guinea-corn leaves’,
which are very nutritious, and may be prelerved in per¬
fection for more than a whole year, provided the tops
or Guinea-corn are well tedded tor three or four hot
days as they lie fpread in the field ; and then, being tied
into bundles or (heaves, mult lie in the hot fun for three or
four days more, when they may be fit to be put up into
ricks. The belt method of making them is in an ob¬
long figure, about 30 feet in length, and 16 or 18 feet
wide 5 (even feet high at the fides, and from thence dop¬
ing like the roof of an houfe, the ridge of tfhich mult
be thatched very carefully 5 for the fides may be fecured
from wet by placing the bundles with the butts upwards
towards the ridge, in courfes, and lapping the upper
over the lower courfe.
The belt method of forming thofe ricks is to place
the firlt courfe of bundles all over the bafe one way v
the fecond courfe reverfely ; and fo alternately till the
rick be finilhed.
When cattle are to be fed with this fodder, it mud be
obferved to take down the bundles from the top, at the
wed end of the rick, to the bottom ; for all thefe ricks
mud dand call and welt length wife, as well to fecure
them from being overturned by high winds, as for
the convenience of preferving them from wet, which
cannot be done when ricks are made round. By this
hulbandry, an herd of cattle may be kept in drength,
either in fevere droughts, or in wet feafons when grafs
is purgative; and thus the necedity or expence of
large padures may be totally faved. The hay-knife
ufed in England for cutting hay, anfwers for cutting
ricks of tops.
The method of tedding Guinea-corn to make a kind
of hay, will require a little explanation here. When
Guinea-corn is planted in May, and to be cut down in
July, in order to bear feed that year, that cutting, ted¬
ded properly, will make an excellent hay, which cattle
prefer to meadow hay. In like manner, after Guinea-
corn has done bearing feed, the after crop will furnilh a
great abundance of that kind of fodder which w ill keep
well in ricks for two or three years.
The next care of a planter is to provide (hade for his
.cattle ; either by trees where they are fed in the heat
of the day, if his foil requires not dung 5 or by building
a flat (tied over the pen where cattle are confined for
making it. That fuch (beds are effentially neceflary
to the well-being of all animals in hot weather, is-appa-
rent to every common obferver, who cannot fail ol fee¬
ing each creature forfaking the moll luxuriant paftures
in the heat of the day for the fake of lhade $ thus con-
' vincing
[ 613 ]
P L A f f>i
Planter- vlncing the ownets, by inftinftive argument, that ihade
is almoft as neceflary to the-well-being of the brute
”“"A ' creatures as food. Yet, notwithtlan-ding that demon-
ftration from the unerring courfe of nature, throughout
all our iflands (except in a very few inftances), thefe
poor creatures are expofed to the fcorching fun-beams
without mercy. Such inhuman negledt is not always
fo much the effeiit of inattention as of a miftaken no¬
tion that fheds are impedimental to the making of
much dung ; but a Hat thcd, covered witli cane-trafti,
may be fo made as to let rain pafs through it without
admifiion of fun-beams. This will do for cattle •, but
mules, which are fpirited creatures, and work them-
felves by draught into a foaming heat, ihould be put in¬
to a warm liable, until quite cool : for turning them
loofe to paiture when fo hot, is probably the caufe of
their deftruftion by the glanders.
If the care of providing fhade for brute creatures is
fo much the duty and intereft of their owners, how
much more is it agreeable to the laws of humanity to
provide Ihade for human creatures travelling upon the
high-roads in this hot climate ? Nothing finely of fo
much beauty cofts fo little expence as planting cocoa-
nut or fpreading timber trees in avenues along the high¬
ways, if each proprietor of the lands adjoining hath any
tafte of elegance, or feeling for other men : but both
thofe kinds of trees will yield alfo great profit to the
proprietor, by furnifiiing him with timber, when per¬
haps not otherwife to be had •, or with a delicious milk,
fitted by nature to cool the effervefcence of the blood
in this hot region; and alfo to improve the fpirits made
from fugar to the delicacy and foftnefs of arrack. Co¬
coa-nut and cabbage trees are both very beautiful and
ihady, bearing round heads of great expanfion, upon
natural trunks or pillars of elegant proportion, and of
fuch a height as to furnilh a large fhade, with a free
circulation of air equally refrelhing to man and beaft.
The common objection of injury to canes by the
roots of fuch trees growing on their borders, may be
eafily removed by digging a fmall trench between the
canes and trees, which may intercept their roots, and
oblige them to feek fuftenance in the common road.
Let it alfo be confidered, befides the benefits above fug-
gefted, that the planter will thus beautify his eftate to
the refemblance of a moft fumptuous garden. And
probably that very beauty might not only render the
iflands more healthful to the inhabitants, by preferving
them from fevers kindled by the burning fun-beams,
but alfo much more fruitful, by making the weather more
feafonable : for as, by cutting down all its woods, a hot
country becomes more fubjeft to exeeffive droughts ; fo,
by replanting it in the manner above defcribed, this in¬
convenience would probably be prevented.
Let then the planter be kind not only to his fellow-
creatures, but merciful to his hearts; giving them plenty
and variety of wholefome food, clear water, cool rtiade,
and a clean bed, bleeding them after a long courfe of
4 ] " P X A
hard labour, currying their hides from filth and ticks (a) ; Planter-
affording them fait and other phyfic when neceffary; fliip.
protecting them from the flaying rope-lafhes of a cruel ''■""■v—
driver (who needs no other inltrument than a goad)}
proportioning their labour to their rtrength ; and by
every art rendering their work as eafy as poflible. The
general management of planters is not, perhaps, more
defective in any other refpeel than in this : for, by
pairing the cattle unequally, and by the drivers ill con-
dtnff in writhing to the right and left, the poor creatures
are fatigued by much needlefs labour. A horfe ought
therefore to be harneffed before them as a leader. This
docile creature, by being led in a ftraight line, will foon
learn to be an unerring guide, and the cattle will fol¬
low in the fame direction with united ftrength, and con-
fequently with more effedl and lefs fatigue to each indi¬
vidual.
The Portuguefe of Madeira, by their poverty and
fcantinefs of pafture, breed the fmalleft kind of cattle j
and yet one yoke of them will draw a much greater
weight than a pair of our large!! oxen, folely by an
equal exertion of their joint ftrength. That equality
or evennefs of draught is preferved by boring gimblet
holes through their horns, within two inches of the
points, and running a thong of leather, through thofe
holes, fo as to tie the horns of each pair at fix inches
diftance from each other. By this ligature the pair of
cattle are abfolutely hindered from turning different
rvays, and draw in an even dire£lion with united force.
Thus it appears evidently from reafon, as well as from
experience, that the labour of our beafts may, by a little
contrivance, be rendered more eafy and effeftual.
Of the Culture of various Soils.In the Britiih fugar-
colonies there is as great a variety of foils as in any
country of Europe ; fome naturally very rich or fruit¬
ful, yielding a luxuriant produft with little labour or
culture. This fruitful foil is of three kinds : a loofe
hazel mould mixed with fand, like that of St Chrifto-
pher’s, and is the be!! in the known world for produ¬
cing fugar in great quantity, and of the beft quality.
The brick mould of Jamaica is fomewhat of the fame
nature, and next in value ; and then the various mix¬
tures of mould and gravel, to be found in veins or plats
over all the other iilands. When any of thefe foils are
exbaufted of their fertility by long and injudicious cul¬
ture, they may be reftored by any kind of dung well
rotted ; for thefe (b) warm foils cannot bear hot un-
rotten dung, without being laid fallow for a confider-
able time after it. Another improvement is by fea-
fand or lea-weed ; or by digging in the cane-trafti into
fteep lands, and by letting it lie to rot for fome months.
A third method is, by ploughing and laying it fallow j
and the fourth method (the belt of all), is by folding
the fallows by Iheep. But this can be praflifed only
where there are extenfive paliures 5 nor can the plough
be employed where the foil abounds with large Hones.
In that cafe, however, the former method of digging in
tralh
(a) One pound of native/ulphur, a quart of lamp-oil, and the like Quantity of hog’s-lard, intimately mixed and
made into an ointment, is a cure for the mange, lice, &c.
(b) ’Ihefe foils, which are naturally loofe and upon marie, Mr Martin calls hot foils ; and thefe, he fays, have
^ een muc i injured in lome of the iflands by dung haftily made with marie : but if the fediment of lees were thrown
wto tie e pens, after being turned over, it would much improve the dung.
P L A [ 61
anter- trafn will be nearly as effectual, though more expenlive,
(h*P by hand-labour or hoe-ploughing.
The next bed foil for producing good fugar is a
mould upon clay, which if lhallow requires much cul¬
ture and good labour, or its produce will be fmall in
quantity, though of a ftrong grain and bright colour,
fo as to yield mod profit to the refiner of any fugar,
except that produced from an hazel or gravelly foil, as
before mentioned. All the black mould foils upon marie
are generally fruitful, and will take any kind of dung;
but yield not fo drong or large-grained fugar. Marie,
however, of a white, yellow, or blue colour, or rich
mould from w'adies, or afhes of every kind, are excellent
for every drong foil, as the chief ingredient in the corn-
pod of dung : either of them will do alone for diff
lands; but the yellow and chocolate marie are the mod
foapy, and the riched kind of manure (except fine
mould) for all did' lands. If thefe are well opened,
pulverized by culture, and mixed with hot dung, or any
kind of loofe earth or marie, they will produce as plen*
tirully as lighter foils: and all kinds of clay-foils, except
that of a white colour, have thefe two advantages above
the fined gravel foils, that they do not feorch foon by
dry weather, and never grow weary of the fame manure,
as mod other foils do.
The extraordinary hand-labour bedowed in making
dung, may be faved by the art of caving, now in gene¬
ral ufe in England. Ten mules or horfes, and two light
tumbrels with broad wheels, and ten able negroes, may,
by the common ufe of fpades, diovels, and light mat¬
tocks or grubbing hoes, make more dung than 60 able
negroes can do in the prefent methods.
If marie lies upon rifing grounds, or in hillocks, as it
often does, the pit is to be opened at the foot of the
declivity; which being dug inwards, till the bank is
three feet high, then it is to be caved thus. Dig an
hollow fpace of 12 or 18 inches deep under the foot of
the bank; then dig into each fide of it another perpen¬
dicular cut of the fame depth, and 18 inches wide from
the top of the bank to the bottom : that being finilhed,
make a fmall trench a foot or two from the brink of
the bank ; pour into it w’ater till full ; and w'hen that
is done, fill it again, till the water foaking downward
makes the marie feparate and fall down all at once.
This may be repeated till the pit rifes to 50 feet high;
and then many hundreds of cart-loads of marie may be
thrown down by four negroes in two hours ; from
whence it may be carted into cattle pens, or laid out up¬
on lands, as occafion requires. Five or fix negroes with
fpades or {hovels will keep two or three tumbrels em¬
ployed according to die difiance of cartage : and thus
as much dung may be made by ten negro men as will
dung richly at leaf! 70 or 80 acres of land every year,
and laid out alfo with the afliftance of cattle-carts: An
improvement highly worthy every planter’s confideration,
when negroes and feeding them are fo expenfive ; and
this is no fpeculation, but has been confirmed by prac¬
tice. In level lands, the fame operation may be as ef-
fefinal, provided the mouth of the pit be opened by
gradual defcent to any depth : but when marie is to be
found on the fides of hills, the operation is lefs laborious
for the horfes. But if the furface of the marle-pits
(as it often happens) be covered with clay or flifF foil,
fo that the water cannot quickly foak from the trench
above; in that cafe, pieces of hard wood, made like
5 ] P L A
piles, four feet long, and four inches fquare, pointed at Planter-
one end, and fecured at the other fquare head by an iron , ^11P‘
clamp, may be driven by heavy mauls into the trench,
as fo many wedges, which will make the caved part
tumble down: but a fkilful eye muft watch the lall ope¬
ration, or the labourers may be buried or hurt.
But then clay foils that are level, and fubjefi to be
drowned, or to retain W’ater in ilagnated pools, can ne¬
ver be made fruitful by any kind of manure, without
being firil well drained : for water lying upon any foil
will molt certainly transform it to a fiiffunfruitful clay;
as appears evidently by the bogs of Ireland, the fens of
Lincoln and Cambridgefhire, and even by the ponds of
Barbadoes fituated in the deepeft and lighted: black
mould ; for that fine foil being waflied into thofe ponds,
becomes the ftiffell black clay, not fit even for an ingre¬
dient in dung, until it has been laid dry, and expofed to
the fun for a whole year : but when thefe bogs and fens
are well drained, they become the moil fruitful foils.
Natural clay the celebrated Boerhaave thinks the fatteft
of all foils ; but then it muft be opened by culture,
marie, or fandy manures. It is hard to conjedlure how
the opinion prevailed in the Britifh plantations, that
fandy gut-mould wTas moft unfit for clay-foils, as being
the means of binding them to the compa&nefs of brick ;
whereas it is proved, from long experience, to be one of
the beft means of opening clay foils, and rendering them
abundantly fruitful. Brick is made of clay alone $ no
fand being ufed in it, farther than to fprinkle the
board, on which it is moulded into fhape. From re¬
peated experience it appears, that a mixture of fand in
gut-mould is the beft of all manure for ftiff and barren
clay-lands; provided they be well drained, by throwing
the whole foil into round ridges of 12 feet wide, with
furrows of three feet wide between each ridge. And
this is done with little more hand-labour than that of
hoe-ploughing w’ell in the common way. For if a piece
of land be marked in lines at feven feet and a half di-
ftance from each other, and the labourers are fet in to
hoe-plough at the fecond line, hauling back each clod 12
inches; half the ridge, and near half the furrow', is made
at the fame time : and thus a piece of land may be
round-ridged, and the furrows all made at once, by the
common operation of hoe-ploughing, provided the dig¬
ger drives his hoe up to the eye at every ftroke. Hoe-
ploughing in clay foils that have lain long under water,
is indeed hard labour; but it will every year grow the
lighter by being wrell drained by round-ridging: and in
the meanwhile the labour may be rendered much more
eafy by the plough conducted by the lines above de-
fcribed. As therefore fandy mould is the beft manure
for ftiff clay, fo, by parity of reafcn, confirmed by long
experience, ftiff clay is the belt manure for fandy or
chaffy foils.
The method of round-ridging before defcribed, is, by
feveral years experience, found the moft effential im •
provement. of flat clayey foils: and yet there are fome
who will prefer fpeculation to ocular demonftration, fan¬
cying that all kinds of ridges will carry off the mould
in heavy rains. The faft is other wife in clay foils: and
plain reafon, without experience, vouches, that where
great confluxes of water are divided into many fmall rills,
the force is broken ; and therefore, lefs mould carried
off the land. Another objedlion made to round ridge-
ing is, that by digging much clay to form the Tides of
the
P L A [ 616 ]
Planter- the ridge, the foil is impoverilhed : but this objedhon
lhiP- Hands good only againft thofe ridges which are railed
“—V—too high, and made too broad ; but if land is ridged in
the manner before direfted, that is, 12 feet broad, and
not above fix or eight inches higher in the middle than
at the fides, the objeftion vanilhes. Ridges were never
propofed for light foils or fteep lands ; and even in flat
foils upon loam they ihould be made with great-cau¬
tion, becaufe loam melts away by water. But there are
poachy lands of a white clay, even upon fmall defcents,
too retentive of water 5 thefe may certainly be impro¬
ved much by ridges of 12 feet wide, as above defcribed,
without fear of walhes.
But fuppofing, as the objeftiort urges, that a little
clay Ihould be turned up at the' Tides of fuch ridges, can
- it not be manured fomewhat more than the other parts
with marie or fandy rtiould, fo as to become equally
good with any other part of the foil ? And is not this
ivell worth the labour, fince round-ridging not only im¬
proves the foil by draining it to a furprifing degree, but
adds one-fifth part to the depth of the ftaple ? And will
not a ridge made a little rounding, throw off- the water
much better than a flat ridge ?
The general maxim of not burning cane-tra(h (which
may be called the Jhibble of cane-lands') upon any kind
of foil, is furely a great miftake •, as may be evinced by
obferving the contrary pra&ice of the bell hufbandmen
in England, where burn baiting or baflard burn-baiting
is found by experience an admirable method of fertili¬
zing cold, ftiff, or clayey lands. It muft indeed be a
conftant practice, not only for the fake of contributing
to warm and divide the foil, but as the only effe&ual
means of deftroying pernicious infefts, and w'eeds of va¬
rious kinds, fuch as, French weed, wild peafe, and wild
vines.
Soon after the difufe of burning tralh upon our land
in the iflands, the blaft made its firit appearance with in-
/ credible devaitation : to revive that pradlice therefore
feems to be the moft obvious means of expelling it. It
may be prefumed that the difufe of burning trafti was
founded upon the miltaken notion of burn-baiting,
which is turning up a thick fod of very dry, light, and
lhallow foils, and burning the whole fuperficies or llaple
to allies. This practice the writers upon hulbandry
condemn univerfally, and very juftly: for .though by this
practice the land will produce two or three crops more
plentifully than ever, yet the foil is blown away by the
wind, and the fubftratum being generally a hungry
gravel or chalk, can never be reftored to fertility by the
common arts of hufbandry. But furely this has no re-
femblance to our fuperficial burning of the little trafli
we can fpare from dung : and though this method of
burn-baiting light and (hallow foils be juftly condemned,
yet the belt writers recommend that very praftice in
cold, moift, and heavy foils, as is obferved above $ and
long experience juftifies it.
Deep mould upon clay or loam being fubjefl to the
grub-worm (c), will not take any kind of dung, till
perfectly rotten, except that of the fheep-fold \ which
P L A
is the beft manure for all kinds of light foils, and is of Planter,
all others the leaft expenfive, as not requiring hand-la-, %■
bour. But the ufe of the fold is impradicable in any
ifland not abounding with large favannas or (keep pa-
ftures, as in Jamaica.
Thole foils therefore which are fubjecf to the grub,
and muft be fertilized by common dung, which is a
proper neft for the mother-beetle to depoiite its eggs,
muft be well impregnated with the brine of diffolved
fait, after the dung is firft cut up j two large hogfceads
of fait will make brine enough for a dung-pen of 50 feet
fquare.
This cure for the grub is a late difcovery} and which
has been attended with fuccefs, fo far as the experi¬
ment is made. But though it proves effedual to de-
ftroy that pernicious infedt in plant-canes, it probably
will not be fufficient to fave rattoons, without a new
application of fait in powder*, becaufe the firft brine
muft be walked away by the time when rattoons fpring
up.
Xhe planter who would fave his rattoons from the
grub ought therefore to cut off the heads of his ftools
wTith {harp hoes three inches below the furface of the
foil, and then ftrew an handful of fait round each ftool,
and cover it up to a level with fine mould taken from the
edges*
In foils where there is no grub, and the planter wmi-
es to have very good rattoons, let him, as foon as his
canes are cut, draw all the trafti from the ftools into the
alternate fpaces, it planted in that manner •, or into the
furrows, if his land be round-ridged ; and then . cut oft
the head of his ftools with lharp hoes, as above direfted.
Experience has fhown the advantage of this pradtice,
and reafon demonftrates the great benefit of the rattoon-
fprouts rifing from three inches below the lurface, in-
ftead of fuperficial (hoots which come to nothing, and
only ftarve the ftrong iprouts. Befides, the ftubs which
are left upon the ftools after the canes are cut, canker,
and rot the ftools *, which is one reafon why good rat¬
toons are uncommon in foils long cultivated. et it is
the opinion of fome, that by hoe-ploughing and even
dunging rattoons, the produce might be as good plant-
canes, which would fave the labour of holing and plant¬
ing fo often as planters commonly do.
Fallowing is of incredible advantage to every foil, not
onlv by being divided into the minuteft parts, but alfo
by imbibing thofe vegetative powers with which the air
is impregnated by the bountiful hand of Piovidence,
whenever rain falls. What thofe powers are has been
explained under the articles AGRICULTURE and I lakt ,
and experience evinces, that the tender vegetaoles Ox the
earth are invigorated more by the fmalleft ftiower of
rain, than by all the water which human art can beftow.
Let it therefore be a conftant maxim of the planter, ne¬
ver to plant his ground until the foil is well mellowed
by fallowing, even though he beftows upon it a due pro¬
portion of dung : we fay a due proportion 1 for too much
will force up rank canes, which never yield good fugar j
and though fome advantage may be reaped from the rat-
(c) This pernicious infeft is moft apt to engender in dung made from mill-traftr, which therefore never ought
to be put into dung-compoit or {fill ponds ; but after being burnt, the aftres will be as good as any other kind
•Round-ridging, with manure of unwet allies, fea-fand, or lime, or dry marie, kills the grub.
P L A £ 617 ] PLA
Akfiter* toons, yet it ivill be found by experience hot to com-
fliip* penfate the lofs by the plants. In ftony or deep foils,
-1 * ram' where the plough cannot be ufed, or where a fufficient
flrength of cattle cannot be fupported for that purpofe,
hand-labour or hoe-ploughing muft be fubftituted : but
even in that cafe, much labour may be faved by fpread-
ing the dung according to the Englifh hufbandry, and
digging it into the foil. To evince this truth, let any
planter compute his negroes labour of diflributing dung
by balkets, and by fpreading it with dung-forks j and
then judge for himfelf by one Angle experiment which
is the molt profitable.
But if fome planters are fo devoted to the old cuftom
of diftributing dung by balkets inftead of wheel-barrows
in level ground, or hand-barrows in uneven land, by
which three times the labour may be accomplilhed in
the fame time and by the fame hands 5 let them at lead
fave much of their hand-labour, by the following me¬
thod of laying out dung, before the diftribution by
baikets.
In holing a piece of land, let a fpace be left after 80
holes from the firlt interval, and then the like fpace af¬
ter 80 holes throughout the whole plat, which fpaces
mud run exaflly parallel to the intervals on the right
and left of the holes. Into thefe fpaces the dung may
be carted, even before it be rotten (d), at the mod lei-
fure times, and covered with mould or cane-trafh, to pre¬
vent exhalation ; and in fuch quantity as will fuffice on¬
ly to dung a row of 40 holes, from the point oppofite to
each fide of it. In the intervals at each fide of the cane-
piece, which are parallel to thofe fpaces,‘ there mud be
dung enough carted to manure a row of 40 holes, and
covered in like manner.
By thus placing the dung or gut-mould, it is evident
at the fird fight, that the farthed didance cannot be
above 40 holes in didributing the dung : and in cafe it
be not fufficiently rotten for prefent ufe, it may be dif-
tributed even in dry weather, and covered by the bank;
which will both prevent its fpirit from exhalation, and
occafion it to rot foonetj which is no fmall advantage.
Moreover, by being thus laid out at the mod leifure
times, and covered with the banks, the dung will be
more intimately mixed with the foil, and therefore con¬
tinue to nourifh the plant for a longer time than if laid
as ufual at the bottom of the holes. A farther advan¬
tage of thus didributing the dung, and covering it, re-
fults from the more expeditious planting the land after
a (hort or fudden (bower : for the labour of covering the
dung, and uncovering it when the land is planted, how¬
ever it may appear in fpeculation, is in practice a trifle ;
4nd befides all the other advantages arifing by the diflri-
bution of dung from the fpaces above defcribed, this is
not the lead, that not a bank is trodden under foot.
But it is evident, that bv didributing the dung with
bafkets in the prefent method, the foil is much trampled
Vol. XVI. Part II.
under foot; and by that means, the very end of hoe-
ploughing, or loofening the foil, is much defeated. In
like manner, by the prefent method of hoe-ploughing,
the fame ill effect is produced ; for as the negroes hoe-
plough or dig the foil diredlly forward, fo they mud
necelfarily tread the ground as fad as they dig it J
w'hereas by putting the labourers to dig fidewife, no
one puts a foot upon the foil after it is dug ; and by lin¬
ing the land before it is hoe-ploughed, each negro may
have an equal fliare to dig. The only difficulty of hoe-
ploughing fidewife is in fird fetting the negroes to that
Work ; but it may be done without lofs of time when
working in a contiguous field. Whether hoe-ploughing
before or after the land be holed for canes is mod eli¬
gible, experience mud determine ; but certainly both
operations will be mod effectual : and therefore it will
be advifable (e), fird to plough the foil where the land
will admit the plough ; and where it wdll not, to hoe-
plough it with or without dung, as requifite ; then let
it lie fallow till perfeiflly mellowed ; then hole and plant
it ; and indead of weeding in the ufual manner, let the
W'eeds in all the fpaces be dug into the foil : but as this
is not to be done fo well with the hoe, it is fubmitted to
future experience, whether the dexterous ufe of fpades,
as in England, will not anfwer the purpofe much bet¬
ter, and with equal difpateh. But whatever method is
preferred, mod certain it is, that by loofening the foil
in all the fpaces between the young canes after being
come up, their fibres will more eafily expand on every
fide, and acquire more nutrition to invigorate their
growth. But where the planter grudges this labour, by
thinking it needlefs in a rich loofe foil, he may difpatck
more weeding-work by the Dutch hoe than by any
other ; which being fadened upon the end of a dick, is
pufhed forward under the roots of the fmall weeds, in
fuch a manner as to cut them up a little below the fur-
face of the foil, and will do more execution at one diove
than can be done at three drokes of the common hoe :
but there is yet another prafHce of the horfe-hoe plough.
Whereby all weeds growing in rows between beans and
peafe, are extirpated with incredible eafe and expedi¬
tion. It is a very fimple machine, drawn by one or two
horfes, confiding of a pair of low wheels turning upon
a common axis ; from whence two fquare irons are let
down at equal didances, and triangular hoes made at
the ends, the points of the triangles being placed for¬
ward, and fo fixed as to cut all weeds an inch below the
furface, in the fame manner as the Dutch garden-hoe
above-mentioned. By this machine a man and a boy,
with two horfes or mules, will clear perfeftly all the
fpaces of a field of ten acres in two days, and may be of
admirable ufe in all loofe and dry foils in the fugar-
iflands : for while two horfes or mules draw in the fpace
before each other, the wheels pafs on the outfide of each
row of canes, without doing the lead injury, while the
4 I plough-
(d) In order to make dung rot the fooner, much labour is bellowed in digging and turning it over by
iioes : but two-thirds of that labour may be faved by the ufe of hay-knives ; fix of which, ufed dexteroufly, will
cut up a pen in lefs time than 60 negroes can do by hoes : but hay-knives cannot be ufed where gritty mould is
employed in pens.
(e) Deep and loofe foils may be ploughed with a frhall firength of cattle or mules: but diff lands in hot cli¬
mates require more drength of cattle than can be maintained in the fmall padures of the planters j for if thofe
Ilrong foils are either too wet or too dry (as is generally the cafe), ploughing is impraflicable.
Planter-
Clip.
 ,  
P L A r . 618 _ K p L A
Pknter- plough-holder attends to his bufinefs. In flift foils which
^‘P* require draining, neither the horfe-hoe plough nor the
Dutch hoe can be proper j or any other inftrument fo
effectual as the fpade ufed in the manner above hinted,
where the ftaple is deep.
But where the ftaple of land is (hallow, care muft be
taken not to dig much below it, according to the uni-
verfal opinion of all the beft writers, fupported by the
experience of 100 years. Yet fome good planters are
fallen into the contrary praftice, and dig up ftiff clay far
below the ftaple. This, Mr Martin fays, was done in
his own lands, during his abfence, by injudicioufty
ploughing below the ftaple j and fo injured the foil, that
all the arts of culture for many years hardly retrieved its
former fertility. Indeed, where the ftaple is (hallow,
upon a fat clay, the turning up a little of it at a time,
from the bottom of the cane-holes, and mixing it with
rich hot dung, made of marie, or fandy mould, which
may take off its cohefive quality, will in due time, and
by long fallow, convert it into good foil; but if ftiff clay
be turned up, without any fuch mixture, in large quan¬
tities, it will infallibly difappoint the operator’s hopes :
for though folid clay will moulder, by expofure, to a
feeming fine earth, yet it will return to its primitive ftate
very foon after being wet, and covered from the exter¬
nal air, if not divided, as above fuggefted.
After all, the common horfe-hoeing plough drawn by
two mules in a line before each other, or the hand-hoe
in common ufe, will anfwer the purpofe very well, where
the lands are planted in Mr Tull’s method ; that is,
where the fpaces are equal to the land planted, in the
following manner.
Suppofe fix feet planted in two rows of canes, and fix
feet of land left as a fpace unplanted 5 and fo a whole
piece of land, planted in alternate double rows (f), with
equal fpaces, may be hoe-ploughed with eafe, as before
hinted ; and that at any time during the growth of canes,
when it is moft convenient to the planter, which is a
confiderable advantage ; and yet it is the leaft of all at¬
tending this method of culture : for, by leaving thefe
fpaces, the canes will have both more air and fun : by
hoe-ploughing them, the roots of each double row will
have large room for expanfion, and confequently, by
gaining more nutriment, will grow more luxuriantly :
by thefe fpaces the canes may be cleaned from the blaft
with much more eafe and convenience ; and will ferve
as proper beds to plant great corn, without the leaft in¬
jury to the canes ; as well as to contain the trafh taken
off the land, where, by rotting, and being hoe-ploughed
into the foil, it will wonderfully enrich it, and will fit
it to be planted immediately after the canes in the neigh¬
bouring double rows are cut down. Befides all thefe
admirable advantages of planting the land in alternate
double rows with equal fpaces, the canes, when at full
age, may be eafily dripped of their traftr, and by that
means the juice rendered fo mature as to yield double
the produce, and much better fugars than unftripped
canes. This method of culture may be recommended {,'iante&.
for all kinds of foil: for as by this pra&ice the rank
luxuriant canes will be more matured, fo the poor foils T ~
will be rendered more fruitful j and as the roots of tho
canes which expand into thefe fpaces will be kept moift
by being covered with rotten tralh, fo they muft bear
dry weather much longer in the burning foils. In thofe
low lands which require draining by furrows, the alter¬
nate double rows and fpaces muft: be made crofs the
ridges j by which means thofe fpaces, being hoe-plough¬
ed from the centre to the fides, will be always preferved
in a proper ftate of roundnefs. By this method of plant¬
ing, the canes may be fo well ripened as to yield double
the quantity of fugar of canes planted in the clofe man¬
ner 5 which faves half the labour of cartage, half the
time of grinding and boiling, and half the fuel, befides
yielding finer fugar.
Yet, how well foever the method of planting in fingle
or double alternate rows has fucceeded in the loofe and
ftiff foils, experience has Ihown that it is a wrong prac¬
tice in ftiff lands that are thrown into round or fiat
ridges : for thefe being moft apt to crack, the fun-beams
penetrate foon to the cane-roots, ftop their growth, and
have an ill influence upon the fugar. It is therefore ad-
vifable to plant fuch lands full, but in large holes, of
four feet, by five feet towards the banks: after the
plant-canes are cut, to dig out one, and leave twro rows
(landing, hoe-ploughing the fpaces after turning all the
tralh into furrows till almoft rotten j for if the trarti is
drawn upon the hoe-ploughed fpaces, they will hardly
ever moulder, at leaft not till the trafli is quite rotten.
This is an infallible proof from experience of how little
advantage tralh is to the foil, unlefs it be in great
droughts, to keep out the intenfe fun-beams : for, in all
other refpefls, it prevents that joint operation of the
fun and air, in mouldering and frudlifying the foil, as
has been proved by repeated experiments.
But in fiat ftiff foils that are piOperly drained by
round-ridging, no culture prevents cracking fo effeflually
as hoe-ploughing into them a quantity of loofe marie, of
which that of a chocolate or of a yellow colour is beft j
and it will be (till much better, by lying upon the land,
in fraall heaps, or in cane-holes, for fome time, to im¬
bibe the vegetative powers of the air before it is inti¬
mately mixed with the foil.
As to the manner of planting canes, the general prac¬
tice of allowing four feet by five to a hole, and two
fre(h (g) plants, is found by common experience to be
right and good in alternate rows. But the following
precautions are neceffary to be obferved. Firft, let all
the cane-rows run eaft and weft, that the trade-wind
may pafs freely through them ; becaufe air and funlhine
are as conducive to the growth and maturation of fugar-
canes as of any other vegetable. Secondly, let not any
acceffion of mould be drawn into hills round the young
canes, except where water ftagnates (h) ; beeaufe the
fibres which run horizontally, and near the furface, are
much
(t) In ftiff lands, the fingle alternate rows of four feet diftance, as preventive of much labour in weeding, are
found beft 5 and alfo yield more fugar by the acre } and are lefs apt to be affedled by drought.
(o') It is an odd fancy that dale plants grow beft, when both reafon and experience vouch that the moft fuc-
salent plants are beft : one good plant in the centre of a large hole is fufficient when the land is full holed.
(.h) The ((agnation of water in pools fufual in ftiff level lands) is the moft injurious circumftance attending it j
fox
V L A l 619 ] FLA
Plaster- tnuch broken and fpoiled by that practice. Thirdly, let
^'P* . the fugar-canes be cut at their full maturity : which, in
a dry loofe foil, is generally at the end of 14 or 15
months after being planted ; but in cold clay-foils, not
till 16 or 17 months. Fourthly, as the cane-rows run
eait and welt in as proper a direftion as poflible for cart¬
age to the fugar work, fo canes muft be cut the con¬
trary way if the planter expefts any great produce from
his rattoons : for by beginning to cut canes at the part
of his field moft remote from the works, the carts can¬
not often pafs over the fame traft, and cotifequently the
cane-ftools cannot be injured, more efpecially if he takes
due care to cut the canes very clofe to their roots; for,
by leaving a long ftub (which muft perifh) the cane-
ftools are much injured. It may be objected to the prac¬
tice of cutting canes tranfverfely to the rows, that
the negroes labour will not be fo equally divided : but
let every man eonfider both fides of the queftion, and
be determined by his own experience j and then he will
be convinced, that it matters very little which way he
suts ftraight Handing canes ; but in cafes where the fu¬
gar-canes lean, or are lodged by preceding high winds,
it is a point of great importance to place the labourers
fo as to cut the canes firft at the roots, and then, draw¬
ing them, cut off the tops : for thus by two ftrokes
each cane will be cut; and twice the quantity cut in the
fame time, and by the fame hands, more than by cutting
in any other direction. In round-ridged land, it is pro¬
per to cut canes in the fame direction of the ridges,
throwing the tops and traili into the furrows to render
the cartage eafy, and to preferve the ridges in their
proper form.
It is almoft needlefs to fuggeft the expediency of plan¬
ning the cane-pieces of a plantation in exadf fquares, fo
that the intervals may interfedl at right angles ; fince
fuch regularity is not only more beautiful, more fafe in
cafe of -accidental fires, and a better difpofition of the
whole for dividing and planting one third or fourth part
«f a plantation every year, but alfo much eafier guarded
by a few watchmen : for one of thefe walking in a line
from eaft to weft, and the other from north to fouth,
look through every avenue, where the moft fubtle thief
cannot efcape the watchful eye. And if the intervals
furrounding the boundary of a regular plantation be
made 24 feet wide, the proprietor will receive ample re-
compenfe for fo much land, by the fecurity of his canes
from fires kindled in the neighbourhood, and by plant¬
ing all that land in plantain-trees, which may at once
yield food and (hade to the watchmen, who by that
means can have no excufe for abfence from th'fir proper
ft itions. But as fuel grows very fcarce in moft of our
ifiands, it is alfo expedient to plant a logwood or flower-
fence in all the boundaries of every plantation, which,
being cut every year, will furnifh good (lore of faggots.
Logwood makes the ftrongeft andquickeft of all fences,
and agrees with every foil: the cuttings make excellent
bven-fuel.
So much for the general operations of planterfliip. ac¬
cording to the approved directions of Mr Martin. For
the particular cultivation of the fugar-canes, the extrac- Pianler
tion of the fugar, and the diftilladon of rum, fee the ar-
tides SuGARfand Rum. FI“tlnE;,
PLANTING, in Agriculture and Gardening, is fel¬
ting a tree or plant, taken from its proper place, in a
new hole or pit} throwing frelh earth over its root, and
filling up the hole to the level of the furface of the
ground.
The firft thing in planting is to prepare the ground
before the trees or plants are taken out of the earth,
that they may remain out of the ground as thort a time
as poflible ; and the next is, to take up the trees or
plants, in order to their being tranlplanted. In taking
up the trees, carefully dig away the earth round the
roots, fo as to come at their feveral parts to cut them,
off 5 for if they are torn out of the ground without care,
the roots will be broken and bruifed, to the great injury
of the trees. When you have taken them up, the next
thing is to prepare them for planting by pruning the
roots and heads. And firft, as to the roots } all the
fmall fibres are to be cut oft, as near to the place trom
whence they are produced as may be, except they are
to be replanted immediately after they are taken up.
Then prune oft’ all the bruifed or broken roots, all inch
as are irtegular and crofs each other, and all downright
roots, efpecially in fruit-trees : fhorten the larger routs
in proportion to the age, the ftrength, and nature of
the tree } obferving that the walnut, mulberry, and
fome other tender-rooted kinds fhould not be pruned fo
clofe as the more hardy forts of fruit and forelt trees :
in young fruit-trees, fuch as pears, apples, plums, peach¬
es, &c. that are one year old from the time of their
budding or grafting, the roots may be left only about
eight or nine inches long ; but in older trees, they muft;
be left of a much greater length : but this is only to be
underftood of the larger roots } for the fmall ones muft
be chiefly cut quite out, or pruned very ftiort. The
next thing is the pruning of their heads, which muft be
differently performed in different trees ; and the defigit
of the trees muft alfo be eonfidered. Thus, if they are
defigned for walls or efpaliers, it is belt to plant them
with the greateft part of their heads, which (hould re¬
main on till they begin to (hoot in the fpring, when they
muft be cut down to five or fix eyes, at the fame time
taking care not to difturb the roots. But if the trees
are defigned for ftandards, you fhould prune off all the
fmall branches clofe to the place where they are produ¬
ced, as alfo the irregular ones which crofs each other;
and after having difplaced thefe branches, you (hould
alfo cut off all fuch parts of branche> as have by any ac¬
cident been broken or wounded ; but by no means cut
off the main leading flioots which are neceffary to attract
the fap from the root, and thereby promote the grow th
of the tree. Having thus prepared the trees for plant¬
ing, vou muft now proceed to place them in the earth:
but firft, if the trees have been long out of the ground,
fo that the fibres of the roots are dried, place them eight
or ten hours in water, before they are planted, with
their heads ereft, and the roots only immerftd therein;
4 I 2 which
for that, by long duration, will convert the fineft mould into ftiff clav. The proprietor of fuch a foil muft therefore
grudge no labour to drain it well ; and yet by fuch eafy gradation as to prevent the mould from being walked away
by great floods, in cafe the under ftratum be a loans.
P L A [
Pianting. which will fwell the dried veffels of the roots, and pre-
pare them to imbibe nouriftiment from the earth. In
planting them, great regard fliould be had to the nature
of the foil: for if that be cold and moift, the trees
thould be planted very (hallow 5 and if it be a bal'd rock
or gravel, it will be better to raife a hill of earth where
each tree is to be planted, than to dig into the rock or
gravel, and fill it up with earth, as is too often praftifed,
by which means the trees are planted as it were in a tub,
and have but little room to extend their roots. The
next thing to be obferved is, to place the trees in the
hole in fuch a manner that the roots may be about the
fame depth in the ground as before they were taken up 5
then break the earth fine with a fpade, and fcatter it in¬
to the hole, fo that it may fall in between every root,
that there may be no hollownefs in the earth : then ha¬
ving filled up the hole, gently tread down the earth
with your feet, but do not make it too hard *, which is
a great fault, efpecially if the ground be ftrong or wet.
Having thus planted the trees, they (hould be fattened
to (lakes driven into the ground to prevent their being
difplaced by the wind, and fome mulch laid upon the
furface of the ground about their roots \ as to fuch as
are planted againlt walls, their roots (hould be placed
about five or fix inches from the wall, to which their
heads (hould be nailed to prevent their being blown
up by the wind. The feafons for planting are various,
according to the different forts of trees, or the foil in
which they are planted. For the trees whofe leaves fall
off in winter, the bed time is the beginning of 0£lo-
her, provided the foil be dry ; but if it be a very wet
fail, it is better to defer it till the latter end of Febru¬
ary, or the beginning of March : and for many kinds
of evergreens, the beginning of April is by far the
bed feafon j though they may be fafely removed' at
midfummer, provided they are not to be carried very
far; but fliould always make choice of a cloudy wet
.feafon.
In the fecond volume of the papers, &c. of the Bath
Society there is a letter on planting wade grounds. The
gentleman who writes it informs us, that in the county
of Norfolk, where he refldes, there were about 60 or 70
years ago vafl trafls of uncultivated ground, which were
then thought totally barren. “ The weflern parts of it
(fays he) abounded with fand of fo light a texture, that
they were carried about by every wind ; and in many
places the fands were fo loofe that no grafs could grow
upon them. Art and indudry, however, have now fo
altered the face of this once Arabian defert, that it
wears a very different appearance. Mod of thefe trails
are either planted or rendered very good corn-land and
fheep-walks.
“ About 30 years finee, the fides of many of our little
fand-hills were fown with the feeds of French furze, and
when a wet feafon followed, they fucceeded very well,
and grewT fo fad, that once in three or four years they
are cut for fuel, and fell at a good price at Thetford,
Brandon, Marling, Swaffham, and places adjacent.
This excited fome public-fpirited gentlemen, among
whom was the late Mr Buxton of Shadwell-Lodge, near
Thetford, to attempt the planting of Scotch and fpruce
firs, and other hardy forefl-trees. At firfl they found
(ome difficulty from the extreme loofenefs of the fand.
But as there is in all this part of the country fine white
and yellow marie, at about three feet depth below the
3
620 ] P L A
fand, they very judicioufly thought that incorporating it Pkntkg.
with the fand in the holes where their young trees were ‘"T^
planted, would infure fuccefs ; nor w’ere they difappoint-
ed. The method (ucceeded beyond expe&ation $ the
plantations throve exceedingly, and the roots foon reach¬
ed below the fand, after which they were out of danger.
This excited them to further attempts.
“ On the fpots where they intended to raife new plan¬
tations from feeds and acorns, they laid on a thick coat
of marie and clay, which after being rough fpread, and
lying a winter in that date, was made fine, and plough¬
ed in jud before planting. By thefe means the foil be¬
came fixed, and in a little time covered with grafs and
herbage} fo that there are now vafl plantations of firs,
oak, and forefl-trees, in the mod healthy and vigorous
date, where within my memory ten acres of land would
not maintain a fingle (heep three months.
“ But the benefit of plantations, whether of dmibs,
copfe, or trees, is not confined to the immediate advan¬
tage, or even the future value of the wood. By annual¬
ly fliedding a great number of leaves, which the winds
difperfe, and the rains wadi into the foil, it is confider-
ably improved j and whenever fuch copfes have been
flubbed up, the ground (however unfruitful before plant¬
ing) has thereby been fo enriched as to bear excellent
crops for many years, without the additional help ol ma-
nure. How much land-owners are interefled in planting
wade or barren fpots I need not mention j and nothing
but a degree of indolence or. ignorance unpardonable in
this enlightened age could induce them to negleft it.
“ Nature has furnhhed us with plants, trees, and
fhrubs, adapted to almofl every foil and fituation •, and
as the laws of vegetation are now much better underflood
than formerly, it is a reproach to thole whofe practice
does not keep pace writh their knowledge in making the
bed ufe of her bounty. Let no man repine and fay the
land is barren ; for thofe fpots which appear to be (o, ,
owe that appearance to human negligence. Indudry
and art might foon render an eighth part of this king¬
dom nearly as valuable as the red, which now remains
in a date unprofitable to the owners, and difgraceful to
the community.”
Reverfe PLANTING, a method of planting in which
the natural pofition of the plant or (hoot is inverted ;
the branches being fet into the earth, and the root rear¬
ed into the air. Dr Agricola mentions this monflrous
method of planting, which he found to fucceed very
well in mod or all forts of fruit-trees, timber-trees, &.c.
Bradley affirms, that he has feen a lime-tree in Holland
growing with its firfl roots in the air, which had (liofc
out branches in great plenty, at the fame time that its
firfl branches produced roots and fed the tree. Mr Fair-
child of Hoxton has pradfliied the fame with us, and:
gives the following directions for performing it : Make
choice of a young tree of one (hoot, of alder, elm, wil¬
low, or any other tree that eafily takes root by laying v
bend the dioot gently down into the earth, and (o let it
remain until it has taken root. Then dig about the firfl
root, and raife it gently out of the ground, till the flem
be nearly upright, and flake it up. Then prune the
roots, now erefted in the air, from the bruifes and
wounds they received in being dug up ; and anoint the
pruned parts with a compofition of two ounces of tur¬
pentine, four ounces of tallow, and four ounces of bees
■yvax, melted together, and applied pretty warm. Af¬
terwards
P L A r 621 ] P L A
mting terwards prune off all the buds or fhoots that are upon
It the ftera, and drefs the wounds with the fame compofi-
' tion, to prevent any collateral fhootings, that might
^ fpoil the beauty of the Item..
PLANUDES, Maximus, a Greek monk of Con-
ftantinople, towards the end of the 14th century, who
publifhed a collection of epigrams intitled Anthologia; a
Greek tranflation of Ovid’s Metamorphofes; a Life of
jEfop, which is rather a romance than a hiftory •, and
fome other works* We know nothing more of him,
than that he fuffered fome perfecution on account of his
attachment to the Latin church.
PLASHING 0/Hedges, is an operation thought
by fome perfons to promote the growth and continuance
of old hedges j but whether the faCf be fo or not will
admit of fome difpute. See Hedges.
It is performed in this manner: The old dubs muft be
Cut off, &c. within two or three inches of the ground ;
and the bed; and longeft of the middle-fized fhoots mull
be left to lay down. Some of the ftrongefl of thefe muff
alfo be left to anfwer the purpofe of liakes. Thefe are
to be cut off to the height at which the hedge is intend¬
ed to be leftj and they are to ftand at ten feet diflance
one from another: when there are not proper fhoots for
thefe at the due distances, their places mult befupplied
with common flakes of dead wood. The hedge is to be
firft thinned, by cutting away all but thofe fhoots which
are intended to be ufed either as flakes, or the other
work of the plafhing: the ditch is to be cleaned out
with the fpade; and it mult be now dug as at firft, with
Hoping fides each way •, and when there is any cavity on
the bank on which the hedge grows, or the earth has
been wathed away from the roots of the fhrubs, it is to
be made good by facing it, as they exprefs it, with the
mould dug from the upper part of the ditch: all the reft
of the earth dug out of the ditch is to be laid upon the
top of the bank: and the owner ffiould look carefully
into it that this be donej for the workmen, to fpare
themfelves trouble, are apt to throw as much as they
can upon the face of the bank; which being by this
means overloaded, is foon wafhed off into the ditch
again, and a very great part of the work undone ;
whereas what is laid on the top of the bank always re¬
mains there, and makes a good fence of an indifferent
hedge.
In the plafhing the quick, two extremes are to be
avoided; thefe are the laving it too low, and the lay¬
ing it too thick. The latter makes the fap run all into
the fhoots, and leaves the plafhes without fufficient nou-
riftiment; which, with the thicknefs of the hedge, fi¬
nally kills them. The other extreme of laying them too
high, is equally to be avoided; for this carries up all
the nourifhment into the plafhes, and fo makes the fhoots
fmall and weak at the bottom, and confequently the
hedge thin. This is a common error in the north of
England. The bell hedges made anywhere in England
are thofe in Hertfordfhire; for they are plafhed in a
middle way betwen the two extremes, and the cattle
are by that prevented both from cropping the young
fhoots, and from going through; and a new and vigo¬
rous hedge foon forms itfelf.
When the fhoot is bent down that is intended to be
plafhed, it muft be cut half way through with the bill:
the cut muft be given Hoping, fomewhat downwards.
and then it is to be wound about the flakes, and after Plafhing
this its fuperfluous branches are to be cut off as they II
ftand out at the fides of the hedge. If for the firft year ■ K er*
or two, the field where a new hedge is made can be
ploughed, it will thrive the better for it; but if the flubs
are very old, it is belt to cut them quite down, and to
fecure them with good dead hedges on both fides, till
the fhoots are grown up from them ftrong enough to
plafh; and wherever void Ipaces are feen, new lets are
to be planted to fill them up. A new hedge railed from
lets in the common way, generally requires plafhing in
about eight or nine years after.
PLASSEY, is a grove near the city of Muxadab in
India, famous for a battle fought bet ween the Engiifh,
under Lord Clive, and the native Hindoos under the
nabob Surajah Dowlah. The Britifh army conlifted of
about 3200 men, of whom the Europeans did noi ex^
ceed 900; while that of the nabob confided of 50,000
foot, and 18,coo horfe. Notwithftanding this great
difproportion, however, Lord Clive effectually routed
the nabob and his forces, with the lols of three Euro¬
peans and 26 Seapoys killed, and five Europeans and 40
Seapoys wounded. The nabob’s lofs was eitimatea at.
about 200 men, betides oxen and elephants. See
Clive.
PLASTER, or Emplaster, in Pharmacy, an ex¬
ternal application of a harder coniiftence than an oint¬
ment; to be fpread, according to the different circum-
flances of the wound, place, or patient, either upon li¬
nen or leather.
Plaster, or PlaiJIer, in building, a compofition of
lime, fometimes with land, &c. to parget, or cover
the nudities of a building. See Pargeting and
Stucco.
PLASTER of Paris, a preparation of feveral fpecies of
gypfum dug near Mount Martre, a village in the neigh¬
bourhood of Paris; whence the name. See Alabas¬
ter, Gypsum, and Sulphate of Lime, under Che¬
mistry.
The beft fort is hard, white, finning, and marbly:
known by the name of plafer-fone or parget of Mount
Martre. It will neither give fire with fteel, nor fer¬
ment with aquafortis; but very freely and readily cal¬
cines in the fire into a fine plafter, the ufe of which in
building and calling ftatues is well known.
The method of reprefenting a face truly in plafter of
Paris is this: The perfon, whofe figure is defigntd, is
laid on his back, with any convenient thing to keep off.
the hair. Into each noftril is conveyed a conical piece
of (lift' paper, open at both ends, to allow of refpiration.
Thefe tubes being anointed with oil, are fupported by
the hand of an affiftant; then the face is lightly oiled
over, and the eyes being kept fhut, alabafter frefh cal¬
cined, and tempered to a thinnifh confidence with wa¬
ter, is by fpoontuls nimbly thrown all over the face, till
it lies near the thic knefs of an inch. This matter grows
fenfibly hot, and in about a quarter of an hour hardens
into a kind of fiony concretion; which being gently
taken off, reprefents, on its concave furface, the minu¬
ted part of the original face. In this a head of good
clay may be moulded; and therein the eyes are to be
opened, and other neceffary amendments made. This
fecond face being anointed with oil, a feeond mould of
calcined alabafter is made, confifting of two parts joined
length wife
P L A [ 622 ] P L A
length wife along the ridge of the nofe 5 and herein may
be caft, 'with the fame matter, a face extremely like the
original.
If finely powdered alabafter, or plafter of Paris, be
put into a bafon over a lire, it will, when hot, afiume
the appearance of a fluid, by rolling in waves, yielding
to the touch, iteaming, &c. all w hich properties it again
lofes on the departure of the heat y and being thrown
upon paper, will not at all wet it, but immediately dil-
cover itfelf to be as motionlefs as before it was fet over
the fire *, whereby it appears, that a heap of fuch little
bodies, as are neither fpherical nor otherwife regularly
fhaped, nor fmall enough to be below the difcernment
of the eye, may, without fufion, be made fluid, barely
by a fuffieiently ftrong and various agitation of the par¬
ticles which compofe it; and moreover lofe its fluidity
immediately upon the ceffation thereof.
Two or three fpoonfuls of burnt alabafter, mixed up
thin with water, in a fhort time coagulate, at the bot¬
tom of a veflel full of water, into a hard lump, notwith-
llanding the water that furrounded it. Artificers ob-
ferve, that the coagulating property of burnt alabafler
will be very much impaired or loft, if the powder be
kept too long, efpecially if in the open air, before it is
made ufe of*, and when it hath been once tempered with
water, and fuffered to grow hard, they cannot, by any
burning or powdering of it again, make it ferviceable for
their purpofe as before.
This matter, when wrought into veffels, &.Ci is ftill
of fo loofe and fpongy a texture, that the air has eafy
pafiage through it. Mr Boyle gives an account, among
his experiments with the air-pump, of his preparing a
tube of this plafter, clofed at one end and open at the
other 5 and on applying the open end to the cement, as
is ufually done with the receivers, it was found utterly
impoflible to exhauft all the air out of it ; for frefh air
from without preffed in as faft as the other, or internal
air, was exhaufted, though the fides of the tube were of
a confiderable thieknefs. A tube of iron was then put
on the engine ; fo that being filled with water, the tube
of plafter of Paris w'as covered with it j and on ufing
the pump, it was immediately feen, that the water paf-
fed through into it as eafily as the air had done, when
that was the ambient fluid. After this, trying it with
Venice turpentine inftead of water, the thing fucceeded
very well 5 and the tube might be perfectly exhaufted,
and would remain in that ftate feveral hours. After
this, on pouring fome. hot oil upon the turpentine, the
cafe was much altered ; for the turpentine melting with
this, that became a thinner ftuid, and in this ftate capa¬
ble of palling like water into the pores of the plafter.
On taking away the tube after this, it was remarkable
that the turpentine, which had pervaded and filled its
pores, rendered it tranfparent, in the manner that water
gives tranfparency to that Angular ftone called
mundi. In this manner, the weight of air, under pro¬
per management, will be capable of making feveral forts
*>f glues penetrate plafter of Paris j and not only this,
but baked earth, Wood, and all other bodies, porous
enough to admit water on this occafion.
Plafter of Paris is ufed^as a manure in Pennfvlvania, as
we find mentioned in a letter from a gentleman in that
country inferted in the 5th volume of the Bath Society
Papers, and which we fhall infett here for the fatisfac-
tion and information of our agricultral readers. “ The
3
befit kind is imported from hills in the vicinity of Paris:
it is brought down the Seine, and exported from Havre
de Grace. I am informed there are large beds of it in
the bay of Fundy, fome of which I have feen nearly as
good as that from France ; neverthelefs feveral cargoes
brought from thence to Philadelphia have been ufed
without effe<ft. It is probable this was taken from the
top of the ground, and by the influence of the fun and
atmofphere difpoffefl'ed of the qualities neceffary for the
purpofes of vegetation. The lumps compofrd of flat
Ihining fpecula are preferred to thofie which are formed
of round particles like fand : the fimple method of find¬
ing out the quality is to pulverize fome, and put it dry
into an iron pot over the fire, when that which is good
will foon boil, and great quantities of the fixed air ef-
cape by ebullition. It is pulverized by firft putting it
in a ftamping-mill. The finer its pulverization the bet¬
ter, as it will thereby be more generally diffufed.
“ It is beft to fow it in a wet day. The meft appro¬
ved quantity for grafs is fix buftiels per acre. No art is
required in fowing it more than making the diftribution
as equal as poflible on the fward of grafs. It operates
altogether as a top manure, and therefore (hould not be
put on in the fpring until the principal frofts are over
and vegetation hath begun. The general time for fow¬
ing with us is in April, May, June, July, Auguft, and
even as late as September. Its effedts will generally ap¬
pear in 10 or 15 days } after which the growth of the
grafs will be fo great as to produce a large burden at the
end of fix weeks after fowing.
“ It muft be fown on dry land, not fubjedl to be over¬
flown. I have fown it on fand, loam, and clay, and i!
is difficult to fay on which it has beft anfwered, although
the effedl is fooner vifible on fand. It has been ufed as
a manure in this ftate for upwards of 12 years. Its du¬
ration may, from the beft information I can colledl, be
eftimated from 7 to 12 years ; for, like other manure,
its continuance very much depends on the nature of the
foil on which it is placed.
“ One of my neighbours fowed fome of his grafs
ground fix years ago, another four years ago *, a great
part of my own farm was fown in May 1788. We re-
gularl/'mow twro crops, and pafture in autumn *, no ap¬
pearance of failure, the prefent crop being full as good
as any preceding. I have this feafon mowed 50 acres of
red clover, timothy grafs, white clover, &c. which was
plaftered laft May, July, and September : many who
faw the grafs eftimated the produce at two tons per acre,
but I calculate the two crops at three tons. Several
ftripes were left in the different fields without plafter ;
thefe were in a meafure unproductive, being fcarcely
worth mowing. In April 1788, I covered a piece of
grafs land upwards of two inches thick with barn ma¬
nure 5 in the fame worn-out field I fowed plafter, to
contrail it with the dung. I mowed the dunged and
plaftered land twice laft year and once this j in every
crop the plafter has produced the molt. You will re¬
member, in all experiments with clover, to mix about
one-third timothy grafs feed 5 it is of great advantage in
ferving as a fupport for the clover •, it very much facili¬
tates the curing of clover, and when cured is a fuperior
fodder. The plafter operates equally as well on the
other graffes as on clover. Its effeCt is faid to be good
on wheat, if fown in the fpring } but I cannot fay this
from experience* On Indian corn I know its operation
tp
' Natt/'
'enrum
■ cap,
nd.
?.lib.
iP- 3S.
P L A [ 62
to be great; we ufe it at the rate of a table fpoonful for
a hill, put in immediately after dreffing.
“ From fome accurate experiments lad year made
and reported to our Agricultural Society, it appears
that nine bulhels of additional corn per acre were pro¬
duced by this method of ufing plader.”
PLASTERING. See Pargetting.
PLASTIC, denotes a thing endowed with a forma¬
tive power, or a faculty of forming or fafhioning a mafs
of matter after the likenefs of a living being.
PLASTIC Nature, a certain power, by which, as an
inftrument, many philofophers, both ancient and modern,
have fuppofed the great motions in the corporeal world,
and the various proceffes of generation and corruption,
to be perpetually carried on.
Among the philofophers of Greece, fuch a power
was almoft univerfally admitted. It feems, indeed, to
have been rejefled only by the followers of Democritus
and Epicurus, who talk as if they had thought gravity
eflential to matter, and the fortuitous motion of atoms,
which they held to have been from eternity, the fource
not only of all the regular motions in the univerfe, but
alfo of the organisation of all corporeal fyilems, and
even offenfation and intelleEHon, in brutes and in men.
It is needlefs to fay, that thofe men, whatever they
might profefs, were in reality atheifts ; and Democritus,
it is univerfally known, avowed his atheifm.
The greater part of the philofophers who held the
exigence of a plaftic nature, confidered it not as an
agent in the drift fenfe of the word, but merely as an in¬
ftrument in the hand of the Deity ; though even among
them there were fome who held no fuperior power, and
were of courfe as grofs atheifts as Democritus himfelf.
Such was Strata of Lampfacus. This man was origi¬
nally of the peripatetic fchool, over which he prefided
many years, with no fmall degree of reputation for
learning and eloquence. He was the firft and chief af-
fertor of what has been termed Hylosoic atheifm ; a fy-
ftem which admits of no power fuperior to a certain na^
tural or plaflic life, ejfential, ingenerable, and incorrupti¬
ble, inherent in matter, but without fenfe and confciouf-
nefs. That fuch was his doftrine we learn from Cicero,
who makes Velleius the Epicurean fay, “ Nec audiendus
Strata qui Physicut appellatur, qui omnem vim divinam
in Natura fitam efte cenfet, quae caufas gignendi, augen-
di, minuendive habeat, fed careat omni fenfu*.” That
.Strato in admitting this plaftic principle, differed wide¬
ly from Democritus, is apparent from the following ac¬
count of him by the fame author : Strato Lampfacemts
negat opera deorum fe uti ad fabricandum mundum,
qutecunque fint docet omnia effe effefta naturce, nec ut
die, qui afperis, et levibus, et hamatis unqinatifque cor-
poribus concreta haee effe dicat, interjefta inani ; fom-
nia cenfet haec effe Democriti, non docentis fed optan-
tis f.”
That the rough and fmooth, and hooked and crook¬
ed, atoms of Democritus, were indeed dreams and do¬
tages, is a pofition which no man will controvert j but
finely Strato was himfelf as great a dreamer when he
made fenfation and intelligence refult from a certain pla-
ftic or fpermatic life in matter, which is itfelf devoid of
fenfe and confcioufnefs. It is, indeed, inconceivable, to
ufe the emphatic language of Cudworth, “ how any
°ne m his fenfes ftiould admit fuch a monftrous paradox
as this, that every atom of duft has in itfelf as much
3 1 P L A
wifdom as tne greateft politician and moft profound phi-
lofopher, and yet is neither confcious nor intelligent I’’ ^
It is to be obferved of Strato likewife, that though
he attributed a certain kind of life to matter, he by
no means allowed of one common life as ruling over
the whole material tiniverfe. He fuppofed the feveral
p^rts of matter to have fo many feveral plaftic lives of
Phil*c.
» ^ ••mmi
their own, and feems ^ to have attributed fomething to\ C-ad. Int.
chance in the produftion and prefervation of the mun- syJu ed;
dane fyftem. McJJjewi,
In denying the exiftence of a God, perpetually di- 'ucaF‘
refting his plaftic principle, and in fuppofing as many
of thele principles as there are atoms of matter, Strato
deviated far from the doftrine of Ariftotle. The great
founder of the peripatetic fchool, as well as his apoftate
difciple, taught that mundane things are not efftfted by
fortuitous mechanifm, but by fuch a nature as afts regu¬
larly and artificially for ends ; yet he never confiders this
nature as the higheft principle, or fupreme Numen, but
as fubordinate to a perfect mind or intelleft 5 and he
exprefsly affirms, that “ mind, together with nature,
formed or falhioned this univerfe.” He evidently con¬
fiders mind as the principal and intelligent agent, and
nature as the fubfervient and executive inftrument. In¬
deed, we are ftrongly inclined to adopt the opinion of
the learned Moftieim, who thinks that by nature Ari¬
ftotle meant nothing more than that SigpoTtis or
animal heat, to which he attributes immortality, and of
which he exprefsly fays § that all things are full. Be § £>e Gette-
this as it may, he always joins God and nature toge-ratione A—
ther, and affirms that they do nothing in vain. The1”-'”W‘ ^
fame doftrine was taught before him by Plato, who af- U’ CaP’
firms that “ nature, together with reafon, and accord-
ing to it, orders all things.” It muft not, however, be
concealed, that Plato feems to have attributed intelli¬
gence to the principle by which he fuppofed the world
to be animated *, for Chalcidius, commenting, on the
Timseus J, thus expreffes himfelf: “ Hsec eft ilia ration a- I Seft. 53*
Bilis anima mundi, quae gemina juxta meliorem naturam
veneratione tutelam praebet inferioribus, divinis difpoli-
tionibusobfequens, providentiam nativis impertiens,Eeter-
norum fimilitudine propter cognationem beata.” Apu-
lems too, tells us||, “ Illam coeleftem animam, fontem || 2V D0ir-
animarum omnium, optimam virtutem effe gene\victxn,mateFlatv*.
fubferviri etiam Fabricatori Deo, et praefto effe ad omnia”"*
inventa ejus.” Plato pronunciat.
1 he doftrine of Plato has been adopted by many
moderns of great eminence both for genius and for learn¬
ing. The celebrated Berkeley bifhop of Cloyne, after
giving the view of Plato’s anima mundi, which the rea¬
der will find in our article Motion, N° 10, thus recom¬
mends the ftudy of his philofophy * : “ If that philofo- * Sir it,.
pher himfelf was not read only, but ftudied ailb with33^
care, and made his own interpreter, I believe the pre¬
judice that now lies againft him would foon wear off,
or be even converted into high efteem, for thole exaltl
ed notions, and fine hints, that fparkle and Ihine
throughout his writings; which feem to contain not on¬
ly the moft valuable learning of Athens and Greece, but
allb a treafure of the moft remote traditions and early
fcience of the eaft.” Cudworfh, and the learned author
of Ancient Metaplnjfcs, are likewife ftrenuous advocates
for the Ariftotelian doftrine of a plaftic nature diffufed
through the material world; (See Metaphysics, N°
200, 201, 202.) : and a notion very fimilar has lately
occurred..
P L A
P!aftic, occurred to a writer who does not appear to have bor-
' V'““J rowed it either from the Lyceum ox the Academy.
This writer is Mr Young, of whofe active fubjlance,
and its agenc-y in moving bodies, fome account has been
given elfewhere, (fee Motion). As a mere unconfci-
ous agent, immaterial, and, as he expreffes himfelf, im-
tnental, it bears a ttriking refemblance to the pldflic na¬
ture or vegetable life of Cudworth : but the author holds
it to be not only the principle of motion, but alfo the
bajis or fubjlralum of matter itfelf j in the produ&ion of
which, bv certain motions, it may be faid to be more
flriclly plaJHc than the hylarcliical principle, or vis ge¬
nii fix, of any other philofopher with whofe writings we
have any acquaintance. Though this opinion be Angu¬
lar, yet as its author is evidently a man who thinks for
himfelf, unawed by the authority of celebrated names,
and as one great part of the utility of fuch works as ours
confilts in their ferving as indexes to faience and litera¬
ture, we (hall lay before our readers a (hurt abdraff of
the reafonings by which Mr Young endeavours to fup-
port his hypothecs, and we lhall take the liberty of re¬
marking upon thofe reafonings as we proceed.
The author, after a fhort introduction, enters upon
$ An E[fay his work in a chapter intitled, Analyjis of Matter in
on the poio-ggneraL In that chapter there is little novelty. He
Y1 me~ treats, as others have done, of primary and fecondary
nature1* ^ qualities, and adheres too clofely to the language of
Locke, when he fays, that “ the nature of bodies figni-
fies the aggregate of all thofe ideas with which they
furnifh us, and by which they are made known.” To
fay the beft of it, this fentence is inaccurately exprefled.
An aggregate of ideas may be occafioned by the impulfe
of bodies on the organs of fenfe, but the eflfeft of impulfe
cannot be that which impels. We Ihould not have made
this remark, which may perhaps be deemed captious,
v were we not perfuaded that the vague and inaccurate
ufe of terms is the fource of thofe miftakes into which,
we cannot help thinking, that the very ingenious author
has fometiraes fallen. Having juftly obferved, that we
know nothing direClly of bodies but their qualities, he
proceeds to inveftigate the nature of folidity.
“ Solidity (he favs) is the quality of body which prin¬
cipally requires our notice. It is that which fills ex-
tenfion, and which refills other folids, occupying the
place which it occupies; thus making extenfion and
figure real, and different from mere fpace and vacuity.
P L A
If the fecondary qualities of bodies, or their powers va- Plaftk
rioully to affedl our fenfes, depend on their primary
qualities, it is chiefly on this of lolidity ; which is there¬
fore the molt important of the primary qualities, and
that in which the effence of body is by fome conceived
to confiit. This idea of folidity has been judged to b<S
incapable of any analyfis ; but it appears evident to me
(continues our author), that the idea of folidity may be
refolved into another idea, which is that of the power
of refilling within the extenfion of body. Hence it be¬
comes unneceffary, and even inadmifiible, to fuppofe
that folidity in the body is at all a pattern or archetype
of our fenfation.”
That folidity in the body, and we know nothing of
folidity any where elfe, is no pattern of any fenfation of
ours, is indeed molt true, as we have (hown at large in.
another place, (fee Metaphysics, N° 44 and 171);.
but to reconcile this with what our author afferts imme¬
diately afterwards, that “ folidity is no more in bodies
than colours and flavours are, and that it is equally with
them a fenfation and an ideaf would be a ialk to which
our ingenuity is by no means equal. He affirms, in¬
deed, that folidity, as it is faid to be in bodies, is ut¬
terly incomprehenfible; that we can perfectly compre¬
hend it as a fenfation in ourfelves, but that in bodie#
nothing more is required than a power of adlive refillance
to make upon our fenfes thofe impreflions from which
we infer the reality of primary and fecondary qualities*
This power of refiftanee, whether it ought to be called
adlive or paflive, we apprehend to be that which all
other philofophers have meant by the word folidityi
and though Locke, who ufes the words idea and notion
indiferiminately, often talks of the idea of folidity, we
believe our author to be the fit ft of human beings who
has thought of treating folidity as a fenfation in the
mind.
Though it is wrong to innovate in language, when
writing on fubjedls which require much attention, we
muft, however, acknowledge it to be unworthy of in¬
quirers after truth to difpute about the proper or impro*
per ufe of terms, fo long as the meaning of him who
employs them can be eafily difeovered. We lhall, there¬
fore, follow our author in his endeavours to afeertain
what this power of refiftance is which is commonly
known by the name of folidity. All power he juftly
holds to be adlive j and having, by an argument (a) of
which
f 624 ]
u (a) We can only conceive of folidity as being a refiftance of the parts of any body, to a power which endea¬
vours tothem, or to bring them nearer together. Now that which refills any power, and prevents its effedl,
is alfo a power. By refiftance, I mean here an adlive refiftance, fuch as an animal can employ againft an animal,
if a hoTe pulls againft a load, he draws it along •, but if he draws againft another horfe, he is put to a Hand, and
his endeavour is defeated. When any endeavour to change the fituation of the parts of any folid is in like manner
prevented from taking effedt, and the parts retain their fituation, the fituation has plainly been preferved by an
adlive refiftance or power, equivalent to that which was fruitlefsly exerted on them.”
Such is our author’s reaf< ning to prove that matter is effentially adlive, and that from this adlivity refults our
notion of its lolidity : but does he not here confound folidity with hardnefs, and impenetrability with cohefion ?
He certainly does ; for water is as folid, in the proper ft nfe of the word, as adamant, and the particles of air as the
particles of iron. I he pa t1- of water are, indeed, feparated with eafe, and thofe of adamant with difficulty \ but
it is not becaufe the latter have more folidity than the former, but becaufe the power of cohefion, whatever it may
be, operates upon them with greater force. Solidity is an attribute of a whole ; hardnefs and foftnefs refult
from the cohefion of parts. Ye do not at all percedve the propriety of the fimile of the horfe pulling a load, and
afterwards pulling againft another horfe. Is it becaufe both horfes are adlive that one of them cannot prevail againft
tae other, and becaufe the load is inafhve that either of them may drag along a mafs of iron of half a ton weight?
P L A [ 625 ] P L A
plafUc. whicli we do not perceive the force, attempted to prove
•my—*** that it is by an inward power, and not by its inertia,
that one body prevents another from occupying the fame
place with itfelf, he naturally enough infers matter to be
elfentially aftive. “ But the a£tivity of matter is to be
Confidered in a certain limited fenfe, and its inertnefs is
to be regarded in another limited fenfe ; fo that thefe are
compatible within their refpeftive limits. The activity
of body may be confidered as belonging to the parts of
a compound ; its inertia as the inertia formed of thofe
parts. The actions of the parts are everywhere oppofed
to each other, and equal •, and hence refults the inacti¬
vity of the whole.”
Solidity alone of the primary qualities being po-
fitive, and peculiar to bodies, and our author having re-
folved this into ACTION or POWER, it follows, by his
analyfis, that the essence of body is reduced to power
likewife. But, as he properly obferves, power is an
idea of refle&ion, not acquired by the fenfes, but fug-
gefted by thought. Hence our knowledge of real ex-
iitence in body mult be fuch as is fuggefted to us by our
thoughts exercifed about our fenfations. “ We are
capable of aCting and producing changes in appearances ;
and this faculty, which we experience to exift in our-
felves, we call power. We are confcious of the exer¬
tion of our own power 5 and, therefore, -when we fee
ACTION or CHANGE happen without any exertion of '
ours, we refer this to other powers without us, and ne-
ceflarily conclude the POWER to exift where the change
begins or the aCtion is exerted. This power, then,
referred to bodies, muft exifl: in them, or it can exitt no
where.”
In two chapters, which might eafily have been com-
prefled into one not fo long as the fhorteft of them, our
author analyzes atoms or the primary particles of matter,
and ftrenuouily oppofes their impenetrability. He allows
that there are atoms of matter not diviflble by any known
force ; but as thefe, however fmall, mud ftill be concei¬
ved as having extenlion, each of them muft be compo-
fed of parts held together by the fame power which
binds together many atoms in the fame body. This
power, indeed, he acknowledges to operate much more
forcibly when it cements the parts of a primary atom
than when it makes many atoms cohere in one mafs ;
but ftill it operates in the fame manner : and as the ideal
analyfis may be carried on ad infinitum, the only pofitive
idea which is fuggefted by atoms, or the parts of atoms,
is the idea of a refilling power. That this power of re¬
finance, which conftitutes what is vulgarly called the
folidity of bodies, may not be abfolutely impenetrable,
he attempts to prove, by fhowing that refiftance does in
fa£l take place in cafes where impenetrability, and even
folidity, are not fuppofed by any man.
“ Let us endeavour (fays he) to bring together two
like poles of a magnet, and we lhall experience a re¬
fiftance to their approximation. Why, then, may not
a piece of iron, which between our fingers refills their
coming together, refill by an efficacy perfectly fimilar,
though more ftrongly exerted ? If magnetifm were to aft
upon our bodies as upon iron, we ffiould feel it j or were
Vol. XVI. Part II.
magnets endowed with fenfation, they would feel that
which refills their nearer approach. The refilling ex-
tenfion between the two magnets is permeable to all the
rays of light, and reflefting none is therefore unfeen •,
but it is eafy to conceive that the fame power which re¬
fills the approach of the iron might refill and refleft feme
rays of light. We Ihould then have a vifible objeft in-
terpofed between the two magnets, as we have before
fuppofed it might be a tangible one. It is likewife eafy
to conceive that which is tangible and vifible fo applied
to our organs of tailing, of fmelling, and of hearing, as
to excite ideas of flavours, odours, and founds. Thus
we fee that an aftion, in which no fuppofition of folidity
or impenetrability is involved, may be conceived to af-
fume all the qualities of matter, by only fuppofing a fa¬
miliar eflfeft extended in its operation.”
Th is reafoning is exceedingly ingenious, though per¬
haps not original 5 but what is of more importance,
it doeg not approach fo near to demonftration as the au¬
thor feems to imagine. If magnets operate by means
of a fluid ifluing from them (fee Magnetism), thofe
who hold the folidity or impenetrability of matter will
maintain, that each atom of the magnetic fluid is
folid and impenetrable. That we do not fee nor feel
thefe atoms, will be confidered as no argument that
they do not exift *, for we do not fee, nor in a clofe room
feel, the atoms of the furrounding atmofphere j which
yet Mr Young will acknowledge to have a real exiftence,
and to be capable of operating upon our fenfes of hear¬
ing and fmelling. Let us, however, fuppofe, that by this
reafoning he has eftablifhed the non-exiftence of every
thing in the primary atoms of matter but aftive powers
of refiftance, and let us fee how he conceives the aftions
of thefe powers to conftitute what gives us the notion of
inert and folid body $ for that we have fuch a notion
cannot be denied.
To act he allow's to be an attribute, and juftly ob¬
ferves, that we cannot conceive an attribute to exift
without a fubftance. “ But (fays he) we have traced
all phenomena to aftion as to a generic idea, compre¬
hending under it all forms of matter and motion as fpe-
cies of that genus. By this analyfis, that complex idea
we have ufually denominated matter, and confidered as
the fubftance or fubftratum to which motion appertained
as an attribute, is found to change its charafter, and to
be itfelf an attribute of a fubftance effentially aftive, of
which one modification of motion produces matter and
another generates motion.” The aftion of this fubftance
Mr Young determines to be motion, (fee Motion,
N° 16.) ; and he proceeds to inquire by what kind
of motion it produces matter, or inert and refilling
atoms.
“ Whatever portion of the ACTIVE SUBSTANCE is
given to form an atom, the following things are necef-
fary to be united in fuch portion of aftive fubftance :
\fi, It muft in feme refpeft continually move; for
otherwife it would lofe its nature, and ceafe to be ac¬
tive. 'idly, It muft alfo in fome other refneft be at
reft, for otherwife it could not form an inaftive atom.
$dly. It muft preferve unity within itfelf.” The author’s
4 K proof
If fo, double or triple the mafs, and a very ftrange phenomenon will be the refult; for we lhall have an aftive
whole compounded of twro or three iuaftive parts, even though tbofe parts Ihould not be in contaft !
P L A [ 626 ] P L ' A
Pkftic. proof of the firfi: of thefe pofitions AVe have given elfe-
vvhere. The fecond he holds to be felf-evident j and the
third he thinks eftabliftied by the folloAving reafoning :
“ Solidity is the refu*t of thofe adtions among the parts
of any whole, Avhereby the unity of the whole is pre-
ferved within itfelf. Several uncohering things may be
united by an external bond : this does not conftitute
thefe one folid ; it may be one bundle : but if feveral
things cohere, and have an unity preferved within them-
felves, they become one folid. An atom is the leafl.
and moft Ample folid.”
Having thus proved the neceflity of thefe three re-
quilites to the formation of an atom, he obferves, that
“ the tAvo firft can only be united in a rotation of the
portion of adtive fubftance about a centre or axis at reft.
By fuch a motion, a// the parts fucceffively occupy dif¬
ferent places in the orbit of rotation, and therefore move;
the centre round which they revolve being at reft, the
whole portion is alfo at reft ; and thus the portion is at
once moving and quiefcent, as is required. The fame
kind of motion will alfo fulfil the terms of the third re-
quifite; for a fubftance having a revolving motion a-
round its own centre, preferves its unity by reafon of
all the parts preferving the fame relation to the centre:
and further, a motion of the adlive fubftance about a
centre or axis rvill be an adlivity in the fame orbit, which
Avill add upon and refill whatever lhall interfere to op-
pofe its adlivity, or deftroy the unity of the fphere, by
diverting the courfe of the revolving motions. The ac¬
tivity or motion of a portion of active substance a-
bout a centre will, therefore, give folidity to fuch por¬
tion ; for it Avill give it unity and refiftance, and in a
manner tie together all the parts, forming them into one
mats about their common centre: for they move or are
adlive not towards the centre, in which cafe they would
be loft in non-extenfion; nor from the centre, where
they Avould diffipate in boundlefs fpace; but about the
centre, preferving the fame limits of extenfion: and be¬
ing in this Avay adlive, they in this way refill any other
adlivity opppfed to them, that is, they refill any adlion
which tends to penetrate or divide this fphere of revol¬
ving adlivity. Therefore, fince any portion of adlive
fubllance does, by revolving about a centre, become an
united, refilling, and quiefcent Avhole, the fmalleft por¬
tions of the active substance which have fuch mo¬
tions will become atoms, or make the fmalleft portions
of matter.”
Having thus Ihown to his own fatisfadlion how atoms
of matter are formed, he next explains what at firft he
eonfefifes may have appeared a paradox, “ hoiv the ac¬
tive substance, retaining its own nature and elfential
properties, continuing immaterial, unfolid, and adlive,
puts on at the fame time the form of matter, and becomes
material, folid, and inert. A. fphere of re\Tolving adlive
fubllance, as it revolves continually about a centre, and
as parts of the fubftance, ai-e confidered as fucceffively
palling through every point in the orbit; confidered
thus in its parts, and in its motions, it is active sub¬
stance, immaterial, and unfolid; but the whole fphere,
confidered unitieally, colkaively, and as quiefcent, is in
this point of view a folid atom, material, and inert.”
Such is the adlive fubftance of Mr Young, and fuch
his theory of the formation of matter. That he has
not. with fervility copied from the ancients, every reader
*t his book, who is not an abfolute ftranger to Greek
and Roman literature, will readily acknoivledge ; and Plaftic
yet if his theory be well founded, lie has difcovered a u—V-*
middle fubftance between mind and matter, more pro¬
perly plajlic than Ariftotle or Plato, Cudworth or Ber¬
keley, ever conceived. But truth compels us to add,
that to us his theory appears to labour under infuperable
objedlions. That there may be in the univerfe a fub¬
ftance effentially adlive, and at the fame time not intel¬
ligent, is a propofition which we are by no means in¬
clined to controvert. Various phenomena, both in ve¬
getable and animal life, lead us to fufpedt that there is
fuch a fubftance ; but it does not folloiv that we are in¬
clined to adopt our author’s dodlrine refpedling the for¬
mation of matter. He conceives his proof, indeed, to
be “ in its nature not at all imperfedt, or to fall fhortof
demonftration; and if any one refufe it, he thinks it
will be neceflary for him to ftiow, either that the expla¬
nation offered is not fufficient, or that fome other expla¬
nation will ferve equally well.”
To (how that the explanation offered is not fufficient,
will not, we apprehend, be a very arduous talk ; but we
have no inclination to attempt ourfelves another expla¬
nation, becaufe we believe that of the formation of mat¬
ter no other account can be given than that which re-
folves it into the fiat of the Creator. That it cannot be
formed by the motion of an immaterial fubftance in the
manner which our author has very clearly defcribed,
feems to be a truth fo evident as not to admit of proof j
for if motion be, as he defines it, a change of place,,
every thing that is moved mull have the quality of ex¬
tenfion. But all the parts of this adlive fubftance Avhich
are given to form an atom, move round a centre, and are
exprefsly faid to occupy fucceffively different in
the orbit of rotation. Every one of thefe parts, there¬
fore, is an extended being: and fince, according to our
author, folidity is nothing but an adlive power of reffl-
ance, and the parts of this adlive fubftance, in their ro¬
tation round their centre, all upon and reff Avhatever
interferes to oppofe their adlivity, it follows that each of
thefe parts is likewife a fohd being. But, in the opinion
of Mr Young bimfelf, and of all mankind, whatever is
extended and folid is material. This theory, therefore,
exhibits a procefs in which atoms are formed of a fub¬
ftance, which, though it is faid to be adlive, immaterial,
and unfolid, appears, when narrowly infpedled, to be
nothing elfe than a colledlion of thofe very atoms of
which the author pretends to explain the formation.
Mr Young, Avho examines and very, freely cenfures fome
of the dodtrines of Newton and others, is too much a
man of fcience to be offended at us for ftating objedlions
to a theory which is quite new, to a transformation
which he himfelf acknowledges may to many “ appear
not only problematical and difficult to conceive, but
wholly impoflible, and implying contradidlions abfo-
lutely and for ever irreconcileable.” Whether this be a-
juft charadter of it our readers muft determine ; but if
we did not believe the author to be a man of ingenuity,,
we ffiould not have introduced him or his work to their
acquaintance.
PLASTIC Art, the art of reprefenting all forts of fi¬
gures by the means of moulds. This term is derived
from the Greek word n-hm-ucn, which fignifies the “ art
of forming, modelling, or calling, in a mould.” A mould
in general is a body that is made hollow for that pur-
pofe. 1 he artift makes ufe of it to form figures in
bronze,
P L A C 627 ] P L A
Piaftie. bronze, lead, gold, filver, or any other metal or fulible
—v  fubftanee. The mould is made of clay, ftucco, or other
compofidon, and is hollowed into the form of the figure
that is to be produced 5 they then apply the jet, which
is a fort of funnel, through which the metal is poured
that is to form the figures, and that is called running the
metal into the mould.
It is in this manner, but with much practice and at¬
tention, that the artift forms, 1. Equeftrian and pedef-
trian ftatues of every kind 5 2. Groups j 3. Pedeftals j
4. Bafs-reliefs j 5. Medallions ; 6. Cannons, mortars, and
other pieces of artillery 5 7. Ornaments of archite&ure,
as capitals, bafes, &c. j 8. Various forts of furniture, as
luftres, branches, &c. in every kind of metal: and in
the fame manner figures are call; in ftucco, plafter, or
any other fulible matter. See PLASTER of Paris.
Wax being a fubftance that is very eafily put in fu-
fion, plaftics make much ufe of it. There are impref-
fions which are highly pleafing in coloured wax, of me¬
dallions, baffo and alto relievos, and of detached figures ;
which, however, are fomewhat brittle. But this mat¬
ter has been carried too far : they have not only formed
moulds to reprefent the likenefs and the bull of a living
perfon, by applying the plafter to the face itfelf, and
afterwards calling melted wax into the mould j but
they have alfo painted that waxen bull with the natural
colours of the face, and have then applied glafs eyes and
natural hair ; to which they have joined a Huffed body
and limbs, with hands of wax *, and have, laftly, dreffed
their figure in a real habit; and by thefe means have
produced an objedf the moft (hocking and deteftable
that it is poflible to conceive. It is not a ftatue, a bull,
a natural refemblance that they form ; but a dead body,
a lifelefs countenance, a mere carcafe. The ftiff air,
the indexible mufcles, the haggard eyes of glafs, all
contribute to produce an obje£l that is hideous and dif-
guftful to every man of tafte. Figures like thefe offend
by affording too exa£f an imitation of nature. In no one
of the polite arts ought imitation ever to approach fo
near the truth as to be taken for nature herfelf. Illu-
fion mull have its bounds j without which it becomes
ridiculous.
There is another invention far more ingenious and
pleafing, which is that wherein M. Lippart, antiquary
and artift: at Drefden, has fo much excelled. He has
found the means of refembling, by indefatigable labour,
great expence, and infinite tafte, that immenfe number
of Hones, engraved and in camaieu, which are to be
feen in the moft celebrated cabinets. He has made
choice of thofe that are the moft beautiful ; and, with a
pafte of his own invention, he takes from thefe ftones an
impreflion that is furprifingly accurate, and which after¬
wards become as marble: thefe impreflions he calls pajh.
He then gives them a proper colour, and inelofes each
with a gold rim 5 and by ranging them in a judicious
order, forms of them an admirable fyftem. They are
fixed on pafteboards, which form fo many drawers, and
ire then enclofed in cafes, which reprefent folio volumes,
and have titles wrote on their backs $ fo that thefe fic¬
titious books may conveniently occupy a place in a li¬
brary. Nothing can be more ingenious than this in¬
vention •, and, by means of it, perfons of moderate for¬
tune are enabled to make a complete colledlion of all
antiquity has left that is excellent of this kind} and the
copies are very little inferior to the originals.
There is alfo another method of taking the impref- Haftic,
fions of camaieus, medals, and coins, which is as fol- , ' 1‘~ta'
lows : They walh or properly clean the piece whofe im-
preflion is to be taken, and furround it with a border of
wax. They then diflblve ifinglafs in water, and make
a decoftion of it, mixing with it fome vermilion, to give
it an agreeable red colour. They pour this pafte, when
hot, on the ftone or medal, to the thicknefs of about the
tenth part of an inch ; they then leave it expofed to the
fun, in a place free from duft. After a few days thfe
pafte becomes hard, and offers to the eye the moft ad¬
mirable and faithful reprefentation of the medal that it
is poflible to conceive : they are then carefully placed
in drawers j and thoufands of thefe impreflions, which
comprehend many ages, may be included in a froall
compafs.
The proficients in plaftics have likewife invented the
art of calling in a mould papier mache or diffolved paper,
and forming it into figures in imitation of fculpture, of
ornaments and decorations for ceilings, furniture, &c.
and which they afterwards paint or gild. There are,
however, fome inconveniences attending this art \ as, for
example, the imperfedlions in the moulds, w'hich render
the contours of the figures inelegant, and give them a
heavy air : thefe ornaments, moreover, are not fo dur¬
able as thofe of bronze or wood, feeing that in a few
years they are preyed on by the worm.
The figures that are given to porcelain, Delft ware,
&c. belong alfo to plaftics ; for they are formed by
moulds, as well as by the art of the fculptor, and turner;
and by all thefe arts united are made vafes of every
kind, figures, groups, and other defigns, either for ufe
or ornament.
From this general article the reader is referred to
Foundery, Cast, Glazing, Porcelain, Papier-
Mache', Pottery, Delft Ware.
PLATA, the name of a very great river of South
America, running through the province of Paraguay :
whence the whole country is fometimes called Plata;
though this name is ufually beftowed only upon a part
of Paraguay. In the latter fenfe it comprehends all
that country bounded on the eaft and fouth-eaft by the
Atlantic ocean ; on the fouth by Terra Magellanica ;
on the weft, by Tucuman ; and on the north, by the
provinces of Paraguay Proper and Parana. The great
river La Plata, from which the country has its name,
was firft difcovered, in 1515, by Juan Diaz de Solis ;
but denominated La Plata by Sebaftian Gabato, from
the great quantity of the precious metals he procured
from the adjacent inhabitants, imagining it w;as the pro¬
duce of the country, though in fa£t they brought it from
Peru.
The country lies between 3 2° and 370 of fouth la¬
titude. The climate is pleafant and healthy. Their
winter is in May, June, and July, when the nights are
indeed very cold, but the days moderately warm ; the
froft is neither violent nor lading, and the fnows arc
very inconfiderable.
The country confifts moftly of plains of a vaft ex¬
tent, and exceeding rich foil, producing all lorts of Eu¬
ropean and American fruits, wheat, maize, cotton, fu-
gar, honey, &c. and abounding with fuch excellent pa-
ftures, that the beafts brought hither from Spain are
multiplied to fuch a degree, that they are all in com¬
mon, no man claiming any property in them, but every
4 K 2 man
P L A [ 628 ] ' P L A
Plata, man takes what he hath occation for. The number of
Plataeee. black cattle, efpecially, is fo prodigious, that many thou-
fancis 0f tliem are killed merely for their hides, every
time the fhips go for Spain, and their carcafes left to
be devoured by wild beads and birds of prey, which are
alfo very numerous. Sometimes, when they cannot
vend their hides, they will kill them for their tongues ;
and thofe who care not to be at the trouble to fetch
them from the plains, may buy them for a trifle. There
is a curious account in Lord Anfon’s voyage of the
manner of hunting them on horfeback ; and of catching
and killing them, by throwing a noofe on their horns at
full gallop, the horfes being trained to the fport. Horfes
are no lefs numerous, and in common like the other
cattle: fo that a man may have as many as he pleafes
for the catching ; and of thofe that are already broke,
one may buy fome of the bed, and of the true Spanilh
breed, for a piece-of-eigh; per head. Wild-fowl alfo is
in great plenty here ; partridges in particular are more
numerous, and as large and tame as our hens, fo that
one may kill them with a dick. Their wheat makes
the fined and whited of bread j and, in a word, they
feem to want for nothing here, efpecially the natives,
but fait and fuel. The former the Spaniards have
brought to them from other parts; and the latter they
fupply themfelves with, by planting vad numbers of al¬
mond, peach, and other trees, which require no other
trouble than putting the kernels into the ground, and
by the next year, we are told, they begin to bear fruit.
The return for European commodities is fo great here,
that it almod exceeds belief 5 an ordinary two-penny
knife fetching a crown, and a gun of the value of 10 or
12 fhillings 20 or 30 crowns, and fo of the red.
The river Plata rifes in Peru, and receives a great
many others in its courfe ; the chief of which is the
Paraguay. The water of it is faid to be very clear and
fweet, and to petrify wood ; and contains fuch plenty
and variety of fifh, that the people catch great quan¬
tities of them without any other indrument than their
hands. It runs modly to the fouth and fouth-ead; and
is navigable the greater part of its courfe by the larged
veflels, and full of delightful idands. All along its
banks are feen the mod beautiful birds of all kinds • but
it fometimes overflows the adjacent country to a great
extent, and is infeded by ferpents of a prodigious big-
nefs. From its jun&ion with the Paraguay to its mouth
it is above 200 leagues. We may form fome judgment
of its largenefs by the width of its mouth, which is faid
to be about 70 leagues. Before it falls into the Para¬
guay it is called Panama. See Panama.
PL AT /E/E, in Ancient Geography, a very drong
town of Boeotia, in its fituation expofed to the north
wind (Theophradus) ; burnt to the ground by Xerxes
(Herodotus, Judinus) j mentioned much in the eourfe
fcf the Perdan war : Famous for the defeat of Mardoni-
us, the Perfian general j and for the mod fignal victory
of the Lacedaemonians and other Greeks under Paufanias
the Lacedaemonian, and Aridides an Athenian general
(Nepos, Diodorus, Plutarch) ; in memory of which the
Greeks eredted a temple to Jupiter Eleutherius, and in-
dituted games which thev called Eleuthena ; and there
they (how the tombs of thofe who fell in that battle
(Strabo). It dood at the foot of Mount Cithaeron, be¬
tween that and Thebes to the north, on the road to A-
5
thens and Megara, and on the confines of Attica and Plata*
Megaris. Now in ruins. ||
PLATALEA, the Spoonbill, a genus of birds be-, Plate'
longing to the order of grallte. See Ornithology
PL AT ANUS, the Plane-tree 5 a genus of plants
belonging to the monoecia clafs. See Botany Index.
PLATBAND, in Gardening, a border or bed of
flowers, along a wall, or the fide of a parterre, frequent¬
ly edged with box, &c.
Platband of a door or window, is ufed for the lin¬
tel, where that is made fquare, or not much marked.
PLATE, a term which denotes a piece of wrought
filver, fuch as the (hallow veffel off which meat is eaten.
It is likewife ufed by fportfmen to exprefs the reward
given to the bed horfe at our races.
The winning a plate is not the work of a few days p.
to the owner of the horfe j but great care and prepasa- Liftimi
tion is to be made for it, if there is any great depen¬
dence on the fuccefs. A month is the lead time that
can be allowed to draw the horfe’s body clear, and to
refine his wind to that degree of perfection that is at¬
tainable by art.
It is fird neceflary to take an exadt view of his body,
whether he be low or high in fledi; and it is alfo necef-
fary to confider whether he be dull and heavy, or brilk
and lively when abroad. If he appear dull and heavy,
and there is reafon to fuppofe it is owing to too hard
riding, or, as the jockeys exprefs it, to fome greafe that
has been diffolved in hunting, and has not been removed
by feouring, then the proper remedy is half an ounce of
diapente given in a pint of good fack • this will at once
remove the caufe, and revive the creature’s fpirits.
After this, for the fird week of the month, he is to be
fed with oats, bread, and fplit beans j giving him fome¬
times the one and fometimes the other as he likes bed j
and always leaving fome in the locker, that he may
feed at leifure when he is left alone. When the groom
returns at the feeding time, whatever is left of this mud
be removed, and fredi given ; by this means the crea¬
ture will foon become high-fpirited, wanton, and full of
play. Every day he mud be rode out an airing, and
every other day it will be proper to give him a little
more exercife ; but not fo much as to make him fweat
too much. The beans and oats in this cafe are to be
put into a bag, and beaten till the hulls are all off, and
then winnowed clean j and the bread, indead of being
chipped in the common way, is to have the crud clean
cut off. If the horfe be in good flelh and fpirits when
taken up for its month’s preparation, the diapente mud
be omitted ; and the chief budnefs will be to give him
good food, and fo much exercife as will keep him
in wind, without overfweating him or tiring his fpirits.
When he takes larger exercifes afterwards, towards the
end of the month, it will be proper to have fome horfes
in the place to run againd him. This will put him
upon his mettle, and the beating them will give him
fpirits. This, however, is to be cautioufly obferved,
that he has not a bloody heat given him for ten days or
a fortnight before the plate is to be run for $ and that
the lad heat that is given him the day before the race,
mud be in his clothes : this will make him run with
greatly more vigour, when dripped for the race, and
feeling the cold wind on every part.
In the fecund week, the horfe fliould have the fame
foods
P L A [ 629 ] P L A
Plate food, and more exercife. In the laft fortnight, he muft
|j have dried oats, that have been hulled by beating. Af-
“latina. ter t.jiey are to wet;te(l ;n a quantity of whites of
eggs beaten up, and then laid out in the fun to dry
and when as dry as before, the horfe is to have them.
This fort of food is very light of digeftion, and very
good for the creature’s wind. The beans in this time
fhould be given more fparingly, and the bread fhould
be made of three parts wheat and one part beans. If
he (hould become coftive under this courfe, he muft then
have fome ale and whites of eggs beaten together; this
will cool him, and keep his body moift.
In the laft week the mafh is to be omitted, and bar¬
ley-water given him in its place, every day, till the day
before the race : he ftiould have his fill of hay ; then he
muft have it given him more fparingly, that he may
have time to digeft it 5 and in the morning of the race
day he muft have a toaft or two of white bread foaked
in fack, and the fame juft before he is let out to the
field. This is an excellent method, becaufe the two
extremes of fullnefs and fading are at this time to be
equally avoided : the one hurting his wind, and the
other occafioning faintnefs that may make him lofe.
After he has had his food, the litter is to be {hook up,
and the ftable kept quiet, that he may be difturbed by
nothing till he is taken out to run.
PLATFORM, in the military art, an elevation of
earth, on which cannon is placed to fire on the enemy 5
fuch are the mounts in the middle of curtains. On the
ramparts there is always a platform, where the cannon
are mounted. It is made by the heaping up of earth
on the rampart, or by an arrangement of madriers, rifing
infenfibly, for the cannon to roll on, either in a cafemate
or on attack in the outworks. All praftitioners are
agreed, that no {hot can be depended on, unlefs the
piece can be placed on a folid platform ; for if the plat¬
form {hakes with the firft impulfe of the powder, the
piece muft like wife ftiake, which will alter its diredlion,
and render the ftiot uncertain.
Platform, in Architecture, is a row of beams which
fupport the timber-work of a roof, and lie on the top of
a wall where the entablature ought to be raifed.
This term is alfo ufed for a kind of terrace or broad
fmooth open walk at the top of a building, from whence
a fair profpeft may be taken of the adjacent country.
Hence an edifice is faid to be covered with a platform,
when it is flat at top, and has no ridge. Moft of the
oriental buildings are thus covered, as were all thofe of
the ancients.
Platform, or Orlop, in a man of war, a place on
the lower deck, abaft the main-maft, between it and
the cockpit, and round about the main capftan, where
provifion is made for the wounded men in time of action.
PLATINA is a metallic fubftance, the name of
which has an allufion to its colour. It is a diminutive
of p/ata, and fignifies “ little filver.” From its great
fpecific gravity, and other refemblances which it has to
gold, it has been called or hlanc, ox white gold; from
its refractory nature, didbolus metallorum; from fome
doubts entertained of its charaCter as a metal, juan
bianco, white jack, white rogue, or white mock metal.
It has alfo received the appellation of the eighth metal:
and, probably from fome diftriCt which affords it, has
gotten the name of platina del Pw(a. For an ac¬
count of its properties, and for its natural hiftory, fee Plating
Chemistry-, Mineralogy; and Ores, Reduction of. 1>lat,nS-
PLATING is the art of covering bafer metals with
a thin plate of filver either for ufe or for ornament. It
is faid to have been invented by a fpur-maker, not for
fhow but for real utility. Till then the more elegant
fpurs in common ufe were made of folid filver, and from
the flexibility of that metal they were liable to be bent
into inconvenient forms by the flighteft accident. To
remedy this defeCl, a workman at Birmingham contri¬
ved to make the branches of a pair of fpurs hollow, and
to fill that hollow with a {lender rod of fteel or iron.
Finding this a great improvement, and being defirous
to add cheapnefs to utility, he continued to make the
hollow larger, and of courfe the iron thicker and
thicker, till at laft he difcovered the means of coating
an iron fpur with filver in fuch a manner as to make it
equally elegant with thofe which were made wholly of
that metal. The invention was quickly applied to¬
other purpofes ; and to numberlefs utenfils which were
formerly made of brafs or iron are now given the ftrength
of thefe metals, and the elegance of filver, forafmall ad¬
ditional expence.
The filver plate is generally made to adhere to the
bafer metal by means of folder ; which is of two kinds,
the foft and the hard, or the tin •&x\6. Jilver folders. The
former of thefe confifts of tin alone, the latter ge¬
nerally of three parts of filver and one of brafs. When
a buckle, for inftance, is to be plated by means of the
foft folder, the ring, before it is bent, is firft tinned,
and then the filver-plate is gently hammered upon it,
the hammer employed being always covered with a
piece of cloth. The filver now forms, as it were, a
mould to the ring, and whatever of it is not intended
to be ufed is cut off. This mould is faftened to the
ring of the buckle by two or^hree cramps of fmall iron-
wire ; after which the bu&cle, with the plated fide
undermoft, is laid upon a plate of iron fufficiently hot
to melt the tin, but not the filver. The buckle is then
covered with powdered refin or anointed with turpen¬
tine ; and left there fhould be a deficiency of tin, a
fmall portion of rolled tin is like wife melted on it. The
buckle is now taken off with a tongs, and commonly
laid on a bed of fand, where the plate and the ring,
while the folder is yet in a ftate of fufion, are more
clofely compreffed' by a fmart ftroke with a block of
wood. The buckle is afterwards bent and finifhed.
Sometimes the melted tin is poured into the filver
mould, which has been previoufly rubbed over with
fome flux. The buckle ring is then put among the
melted tin, and the plating finiftied. This is called by
the workmen filling up.
When the hard folder is employed, the procefs is in
many refpefts different. Before the plate is fitted to
the iron or other metal, it is rubbed over with a folu-
tion of borax. Stripes of filver are placed along the
joinings of the plate ; and inftead of two or three
cramps, as in the former cafe, the whole is wrapped
round with fmall wire ; the folder and joinings are again
rubbed with the borax, and the whole put into a char¬
coal fire till the folder be in fufion. When taken out,
the wire is inftantly removed, the plate is cleaned by
the application of fome acid, and afterwards made
fmooth by the ftrokes of a hammer.
Metal
P L A [6
plating, Metal plating is when a bar of filvei* and copper are
' taken of at leaft one equal fide. The equal iides are
made fmooth, and the two bars faftened together by
wire wrapped round them. Thefe bars are then fvveated
in a charcoal fire, and after fweating, they adhere as
clofely together as if they were foldered. After this
they are flattened into a plate between two rollers, when
the copper appears on one fide and the filver on the
other. This fort of plate is named plated metal.
French plating is when filver-leaf is burnilhed on a
piece of metal in a certain degree of heat.
When filver is diffolved in aquafortis, and precipitat¬
ed upon another metal, the procefs is called Ji/vering.
See Soldering.
PLATO, an illuflrious philofopher of antiquity, was
by defcent an Athenian, though the place of his birth
was the ifland of Egina. His lineage through his fa¬
ther is traced back to Codrus the lalt king of Athens,
and through his mother to Solon the celebrated legifla-
tor. The time of his birth is commonly placed in the
beginning of the 88th Olympiad ; but Dr Enfield thinks
it may be more accurately fixed in the third year of the
87th Olympiad, or 430 years before the Chriftian era.
He gave early indications of an extenfive and original
genius, and had an education fuitable to his high rank,
being inftru&ed in the rudiments of letters by the gram¬
marian Dionyfius, and trained in athletic exercifes by
Arifto of Argos, He applied with great diligence to
the fludy of the arts of painting and poetry j and made
fuch proficiency in the latter, as to produce an epic poem,
which, upon comparing it with the poems of Homer,
he committed to the flames. At the age of 20 he com-
pofed a dramatic piece ; but after he had given it to the
performers, happening to attend upon a difcourfe of
Socrates, he was fo captivated by his eloquence, that he
reclaimed his tragedy, without fuffering it to be afled,
renounced the mufes, burnt all his poems, and applied
himfelf wholly to the ftudy of wifdom.
It is thought that Plato’s firft mailers in philofophy
were Cratylus and Hermogenes, who taught the fyflems
of Heraclitus and Parmenides \ but when he was 20
years old, he attached himfelf wholly to Socrates, with
whom he remained eight years in the relation of a fcho-
lar. During this period, he frequently difpleafed his
companions, and fometimes even his mafler, by grafting
upon the Socratic fyftem opinions which ivere taken
from feme other flock. It AVas the practice of the fcho-
dars of Socrates to commit to Avriting the fubftance of
their mafter’s difcourfes. Plato Avrote them in the form
of dialogues ; but with fo great additions of his own,
that Socrates, hearing him recite his Lyfis, cried out,
O Hercules ! how many things does this younsr man
feign of me !” &
^ . Plato, however, retained the Warmeft attachment to
Ills mailer. When that great ahd good man Aras fum-
moned before the fenate, his illuflrious fcholar under¬
took to plead his caufe, and began a fpeech in his de¬
fence ; but the partiality and violence of the judges
would not permit him.to proceed. After the condem¬
nation, he prefented his mailer with money fufReient to
redeem hb life •, Avhich, however, Socrates refufed to
accept. During his imurifonment, Plato attended him,
and was prefent at a converfation which he held with
.As friends concerning the immortality of the foul $ the
30 ] P L A
fubftance of Avhich he afterwards committed to writing Phu,
in the beautiful dialogue intitled Plueclo, not, however, —-v-
without interweaving his orvn opinions and language.
The philofophers who Avere at Athens Avere fo alarm¬
ed at the death of Socrates, that moll of them fled from
the city to avoid the injuftice and cruelty of the govern¬
ment. Plato, whole grief upon this occafion is faid by
Plutarch to have been exceflive, retired toMegara, Avhere
he Avas kindly entertained by Euclid, who had been one
of Socrates’s firfl fcholars, till the rtorm Avas over. Af¬
terwards he determined to travel in purfuit of knowledge 5
and from Megara he Avent to Italy, where he conferred
with Eurytus, Philolaus, and Archytas. Thefe were
the moll celebrated of the folloAvers of Pythagoras,
AVhofe doflrine Avas then become famous in Greece j and
from thefe the Pythagoreans have affirmed that he had
all his natural philofophy. He dived into the moll pro¬
found and myilerious fecrets of the Pythagoric doftrinesj
and perceiving other knoAvledge to be connected with
them, he went to Gyrene, Avhere he learned geometry
of Theodorus the mathematician. From thence he paf-
fed into Egypt, to acquaint himfelf Avith the theology of
their priefts, to lludy more nicely the proportions of
geometry, and to inftruft himfelf in altronomical obfer-
vations; and having taken a full furvey of all th° coun¬
try, he fettled for fome time in the province of Sais, learn¬
ing of the wife men there, Avhat they held concerning
the univerfe, whether it had a beginning, whether it
moved Avholly or in part, &c. •, and Paufanias affirms,
that he learned from thefe the immortality, and alfo the
tranfmigration, of fouls. Some of the fathers will have
it, that he had communication Avith the books of Mofes,
and that he ftudied under a learned Jcav of Heliopolis ;
but there is nothing that can be called evidence for thefe
affertions. St Auftin once believed that Plato had fome
conference Avith Jeremiah $ but afterAvards difeovered,
that that prophet mull have been dead at leaft: 60 years
before Plato’s voyage to Egypt.
Plato’s curiofity was not yet fatisfied. He travelled
into Perfia to confult the magi about the religion of that
country : and he defigned to have penetrated even to the
Indies, and to have learned of the Brachmans their man¬
ners and cuftoms ; but the wars in Afia prevented him.
“ He then returned into Italy, to the Pythagorean
fchool at I arentum, Avhere he endeavoured to improve
his oAvn fyftem, by incorporating Avith it the do&rine of
Pythagoras, as it was then taught by Archytas, Timeeus,
and others. And afterwards, when he vifited Sicily, he
retained fuch an attachment to the Italic fchool, that,
through the bounty of Dionyfius, he purchafed at a vaft
price feveral books which contained the dodlrine of Py¬
thagoras, from Philolaus, one of his followers.
“ Returning home richly ftored Avith knowledge of
various kinds, Plato fettled in Athens, and executed the
defign, Avhich he had doubtlefs long had in contempla¬
tion, of forming a neAV fchool for the inftru&ion of youth
in the principles of philofophy. The place which he
made choice of for this purpofe wras a public grove,
called the Academy, from Hecademus, who left it to the
citizens for the purpofe of gymnaftic exercifes. Adorned
Avith ftatues, temples, and fepulehres, planted Avith lofty
plane-trees, and interfe&ed by a gentle ftream, it afforded
a delightful retreat for philofophy and the mufes. Of
this retreat Horace fpeaks :
Atqu'e
P L A
l 631 1 P L A
Plato.
yftque inter fylvas Academi qucerere vernm.
“ ’Midft Academic groves to fearch for truth.”
Within this inclofure he poflfefled, as a part of his humble
patrimony, purchas'd at the price of three thoufand
drachmas, a fmall garden, in which he opened a fchool
for the reception of thofe who might be inclined to at¬
tend his inftru&ions. How much Plato valued mathe-
aiatical iludies, and how neceffary a preparation he
thought them for higher fpeculations, appears from the
infcription which he placed over the door of his fchool:
«y£<v lrg))T#5 urnu. “ Let no one who is unac¬
quainted with geometry enter here.”
“ This new fchool foon became famous, and its mafter
was ranked among the moft eminent philofophers. His
travels into diftant countries, where learning and wifdom
flourifhed, gave him celebrity among his brethren of the
Socratic fed. None of thefe had ventured to inftitute
a fchool in Athens except Ariftippus; and he had con¬
fined his inftrudions almoil: entirely to ethical fubje&s,
and had brought himfelf into fome difcredit by the free¬
dom of his manners. Plato alone remained to inherit
the patrimony of public efteem which Socrates had
left his difciples *, and he poffeffed talents and learning
adequate to his defign of extending the ftudy of philo-
fophy beyond the limits within which it had been in-
elofed by his mailer. The confequence was, not only
that young men crowded to his fchool from every quar¬
ter, but that people of the firft diftindion in every de¬
partment frequented the academy. Even females', dif-
guifed in men’s clothes, often attended his ledures. A-
mong the illuftrious names which appear in the cata¬
logue of his followers are Dion the Syracufan prince,
and the orators Hyperides, Lycurgus, Demofthenes, and
Ifocrates.
“ Greatnefs was never yet exempted from envy. The
diftinguifhed reputation of Plato brought upon him the
hatred of his former companions in the fchool of So¬
crates, and they loaded him with detradion and oblo¬
quy. It can only be afcribed to mutual jealoufy, that
Xenophon and he, though they relate the difcourfes of
their common mailer, ftudioufiy avoid mentioning one
another. Diogenes the Cynic ridiculed Plato’s doc¬
trine of ideas and other abftrad fpeculations. In the
midfl of thefe private cenfures, however, the public fame
of Plato daily increafed; and feveral Hates, among which
were the Arcadians and Thebans, fent ambaffadors with
earneft requefts that he would come over, not only to in-
flrud the young men in philofophy, but alfo to preferibe
them laws of government. The Cyrenians, Syracufans,
Cretans, and Eleans, fent alfo to him : he did not go to
any of them, but gave laws and rules of governing to all.
He lived fingle, yet foberly and chaflely. He was a man
of great virtues, and exceedingly affable 5 of which we
need no greater proof, than his civil manner of converfing
With the philofophers of his own times, when pride and
envy were at their height. His behaviour to Diogenes is
always mentioned in his hiftory. The Cynic was vailly
offended, it feems, at the politenefs and fine tafle of Plato,
and ufed to catch all opportunities of fnarling at him. He
dined one day at his table with other company, and tram¬
pling upon the tapeflry with his dirty feet, uttered this
brutilh farcafm, “ I trample upon the pride of Plato
to which Plato wifely reparteed, “ With greater pride.”
1*
The fame of Plato drew difciples to him from all Plate,
parts ; among whom were Speufippus an Athenian, his 'Jl'"1 'r'~
lifter’s fon, whom he appointed his fucceffor in the aca¬
demy, and the great Ariftotle.
I he admiration of tin’s illuftrious man was not con¬
fined to the breafts of a few philofophers. He was in
high efteem with feveral princes, particularly Archelaus
king of Macedon, and Dionylius tyrant of Sicily. At
three different periods he vilited the court of this latter
prince, and made feveral bold but unfuccefsful attempts
to fubdue his haughty and tyrannical fpirit. A brief
relation of the particulars of thefe vifits to Sicily may
ferve to call: fome light upon the charaffer of our phi-
lofopher ; and w^e lhall give it in the words of Dr En¬
field, from whole elegant hiftory of philofophy we have
extracted by much the moft valuable parts of this ar¬
ticle.
“ 1 he profeffed obje<ft of Plato’s firft vifit to Sicily*
which happened in the 40th year of his age, during the
reign of the elder Dionylius the fon of Hermocrates,
was, to take a furvey of the illand, and particularly to
obferve the wonders of Mount ./Etna. Whilft he was
refident at Syracufe, he was employed in the inliru&ion
of Dion, the king’s brother-in-law, who poffefted ex¬
cellent abilities, though hitherto reftrained by the ter¬
rors of a tyrannical government, and relaxed by the lux¬
uries of a licentious court. Difgufted by the debauch¬
ed manners of the Syracufans, he endeavoured to refcue
his pupil from the general depravity. Nor did Dion
difappoint his preceptor’s expectations. No fooner had
he received a tafte of that philofophy which leads to
virtue, than he was fired with an ardent love of wifdom.
Entertaining an hope that philofophy might produce
the fame effect upon Dionyfius, he. took great pains to
procure an interview between Plato and the tyrant. In
the courfe of the conference, w’hilft Plato was difcourfing
on the fecurity and happinefs of virtue, and the miferies
attending injuftice and opprefflon, Dionyfius, perceiving
that the philofopher’s difcourfe was levelled againft the
vices and cruelties of his reign, difmiffed him with high
difpleafure from his prefence, and conceived a defign
againft his life. It was not without great difficulty that
Plato, by the affiftance of Dion, made his efcape. A
veffel w'hich had brought over Pollis, a delegate from
Sparta, was fortunately at that time returning to Greece.
Dion engaged Pollis to take the charge of the philofo-
pher, and land him fafely in his native country ; but
Dionyfius difcovered the defign, and obtained a promife
from Pollis, that he would either put him to death or
fell him as a Have upon the paffage. Pollis according¬
ly fold him in the ifiand of iEgina 5 the inhabitants of
which were then at war with the Athenians. Plato'
could not long remain unnoticed : Anicerris, a Cyrenaic
philofopher, who happened to be at that time in the
ifland, difcovered the ftranger, and thought himfelf hap¬
py in an opportunity of fhowing his refpeCf for fo illuf¬
trious a philofopher •, he purchafed his freedom for 30
minae, or 84b 10s. fterling money, and fent him home
to Athens. Repayment being afterwards offered to
Anicerris by Plato’s relations, he refufed the money,
faying, with that generous fpirit which true philofophy
always infpires, that he faw no reafon why the relations
of Plato fliould engrofs to themfelves the honour of fer-
ving him.”
After a ftiort interval, Dionyfius repented of his ill-
placed
P L A [ 632 ] PL A
placed refentment, and wrote to Plato, earneftly requeft-
ing him to repair his credit by returning to Syracufe ;
to which Plato gave this high-fpirited anfwer, that phi-
lofophy would not allow him leifure to think of Diony-
lius. He was, however, prevailed upon by his friend
Dion to accept of the tyrant’s invitation to return to
Syracufe, and take upon him the education of Dionyfius
the younger, who was heir apparent to the monarchy.
He was received by Dionyfius the reigning fovereign
with every poffible appearance of refpedd 5 but after fee¬
ing his friend banifiied, and being himfelf kept as a pri-
foner at large in the palace, he was by the tyrant lent
back into his own country, with a promife that both he
and Dion fhould be recalled at the end of the war in
which the Sicilians were then engaged. This promife
was not fulfilled. The tyrant wifhed for the return of
Plato, but could not refolve to recal Dion. At laft,
however, having probably promifed that the philofopher
fhould meet his friend at the court of Syracufe, he pre¬
vailed upon Plato to vifit that capital a third time.
When he arrived, the king met him in a magnificent
chariot, and conducted him to his palace. The Sicilians
too rejoiced in his return *, for they hoped that the wif-
dom of Plato would at length triumph over the tyranni¬
cal fpirit of the prince. Dionyfius feemed wholly di-
vefted of his former refentments, liftened with apparent
pleafure to the philofopher’s dodtrine, and, among other
expreffions of regard, prefented him with eighty talents
of gold. In the midft of a numerous train of philofo-
phers, Plato now pofleffed the chief influence and autho¬
rity in the court of Syracufe. Whilft Ariftippus was
enjoying himfelf in fplendid luxury ; whilfl: Diogenes
was freely indulging his acrimonious humour j and whilft
TEfehines was gratifying his tbirft after riches;—Plato
fupported the credit of philofophy with an air of digni¬
ty, which his friends regarded as an indication of fupe-
rior wifdom, but which his enemies imputed to pride.
After all, it was not in the power of Plato to prevail
upon Dionyfius to adopt his fyftem of policy, or to re¬
cal Dion from his exile. Mutual diftruft, after a fhort
interval, arofe between the tyrant and the philofopher ;
each fufpefted the other of evil defigns, and each en¬
deavoured to conceal his fufpicion under the difguife of
refpeft. Dionyfius attempted to impofe upon Plato by
condefcending attentions, and Plato to deceive Dionyfius
by an appearance of confidence. At length, the phi¬
lofopher became fo much diflatisfied with his fitua-
tion, that he earneftly requefted permiflion to return to
Greece, which was at laft granted him, and he was fent
home loaded with rich prefents. On his way to A-
thens, pafling through Elis during the celebration of
the Olympic games, he was prefent at this general
affembly of the Greeks, and engaged univerfal atten¬
tion.
From this narrative it appears, that if Plato vifited
the courts of princes, it was chiefly from the hope of
feeing his ideal plan of a republic realized *, and that his
talents and attainments rather qualified him to Ihine in
the academy than in the council or the fenate.
Plato, now reftored to his country and his fchool, de¬
voted himfelf to fcience, and fpent the laft years of a
long life in the inftru&ion of youth. Having enjoyed
the advantage of an athletic conftitution, and lived all
his days temperately, he arrived at the 81 ft, or accord¬
ing to fame writers the 79th', year of his age*, and died.
through the mere decay of nature, in the firft year of Platts
the hundred and eighth Olympiad. He palled his whole '""“V-
life in a ftate of celibacy, and therefore left no natural
heirs, but transferred his effefts by will to his friend
Adiamantus. The grove and garden, which had been
the fcene of his philofophical labours, at laft afforded
him a fepulehre. Statues and altars were eredted to his
memory ; the day of his birth long continued to be ce¬
lebrated as a feftival by his followers ; and his portrait
is to this day preferved in gems : but the moft lafting
monuments of his genius are his w ritings, which have
been tranfmitted, without material injury, to the prefent
times.
The charafter of this philofopher has always been
high. Befides the advantages of a noble birth, he had
a large and eomprehenfive underftanding, a vaft fund of
wit and good tafte, great evennefs and fweetnefs of tem¬
per, all cultivated and refined by education and travel;
fo that it is no wonder if he was honoured by his coun¬
trymen, efteemed by ftrangers, and adored by his fcho-
lars. The ancients thought more highly of Plato than
of all their philofophers : they always called him the Z)/-
vine Plato ; and they feemed refolved that his defeent
ffiould be more than human. “ There are (fays Apu-
leius) who aflert Plato to have fprung from a more fub-
lime conception ; and that his mother Peritlione, who
was a very beautiful woman, was impregnated by Apol¬
lo in the lhape of a fpeflre.” Plutarch, Suidas, and
others, affirm this to have been the common report at
Athens. When he was an infant, his father Arifto
went to Hymettus, with his wife and child, to facrifice
to the mufes ; and while they were buffed in the divine
rites, a fwarrn of bees came and difttlled their honey up¬
on his lips. This, fays Tully, was confidered as a pre-
fage of his future eloquence. Apuleius relates, that So¬
crates, the night before Plato was recommended to him,
dreamed that a young Iwan fled from Cupid’s altar in
the academy, and fettled in his lap ; thence feared to
heaven, and delighted the gods with its mufic : and when
Arifto the next day prefented Plato to him, “ Friends
(fays Socrates), this is the fwan of Cupid’s academy.”
The Greeks loved fables : they fhow however in the pre¬
fent cafe, what exceeding refpefl was paid to the me¬
mory of Plato. Tully perfeftly adored him ; tells us,
how he rvas juftly called by Panmtius the divine, the
mojl wife, the tnojl facred, the Homer of Philofophers ;
entitled him to Atticus, Deusil/e nofler ; thinks, that if
Jupiter had fpoken Greek, he would have fpoken in
Plato’s language, and made him fo implicitly his guide in
wifdom and philofophy, as to declare, that he had rather
err with Plato than be right with any one elfe. But,
panegyric afide, Plato was certainly a very wonderful
man, of a large and comprehenfive mind, an imagination
infinitely fertile, and of a moft flowing and copious elo¬
quence. Neverthelefs, the ftvength and heat of fancy
prevailing in his compofition over judgment, he was too
apt to foar beyond the limits of earthly things, to range
in the imaginary regions of general and abftrafted ideas Jr
and on which account, though there is always a great-
nefs and fublimity in his manner, he did not philofo-
phize fo much according to truth and nature as Ari-
ftotle, though Cicero did not fcrnple to give him the
preference.
The writings of Plato are all in the way of dialogue 5
where he feems to deliver nothing from himfelf, but every
thing
P L A
[ 633 ]
P L A
tiling as the fentiments and opinions of others, of So¬
crates chierty, of Timseus, &c. He does not mention
himfelf anywhere, except once in his Phaedo, and an¬
other time in his Apology for Socrates. His ftyle, as
Ariftotle obferved, is betwixt profe and verfe : on which
account, fome have not fcrupled to rank him with the
poets. There is a better reafon for fo doing than the
elevation and grandeur of his ftyle: his matter is often¬
times the offspring of imagination, inftead of dodlrines
er truths deduced from nature. The firft edition of
Plato’s works in Greek was put out by Aldus at Ve¬
nice in 1513 j but a Latin verfion of him by Marftlius
Ficinus had been printed there in 1491. 'They were
reprinted together at Lyons in 1588, and at Francfort
in 1602. Tlie famous printer Henry Stephens, in 1578,
gave a moft beautiful and correct edition of Plato’s
works at Paris, with a new Latin verfion by Scrranus,
in three volumes folio j and this defervedly paffes for the
belt edition of Plato: yet Serranus’s edition is verv ex¬
ceptionable, and in many refpedts, if not in all, inferior
to that of Ficinus.
PLATONIC, fomething that relates to Plato, his
fehool-philofophy, opinions, or the like. Thus, plato¬
nic love denotes a pure fpiritual affe&ion, for which
Plato was a great advocate, fubfifting between the dif¬
ferent fexes, abftradled from all carnal appetites, and re¬
garding no other objedft but the mind and its beauties j
©r it is even a ftneere difinterefted friendlhip fubfifting
between perfons of the fame fex, abftrafted from any
felfifh views, and regarding no other objeft than the
perfbn, if any fuch love or ffiendfhip has aught of a
foundation in nature.
PLATONIC Tear, or the Great 7ear, is a period of
time determined by the revolution of the equinoxes, or
the fpace wherein the ftars and conftellations return to
their former places in refpe<ft of the equinoxes. 1 he
platonic year, according to Tycho Brahe, is 25816, ac-
<x)rding to Ricciolus 25910, and according to Caffini
24800 years.
This period once accompli filed, it was an opinion
among the ancients that the world was to begin anew,
and the fame feries of things to turn over again.
PLATONISM, the philofophy of Plato, which was
divided into three branches, theology, phyjics, and ma¬
thematics. Under theology were comprehended meta-
phyfics and ethics, or that which in modern language is
ualkd moral philofophy. Plato wrote likewife on dia-
leBics, but with fuch inferiority to his pupil Ariftotle,
that his works in that department of fcience are feldom
mentioned.
The ancient philofophers always began their theologi¬
cal fyftems with fome difquilition on the nature of the
gods, and the formation of the world } and it was a
fundamental doiflrine with them, that^rc/w nothing no¬
thing can proceed. We are not to fuppofe that this ge¬
neral axiom implied nothing more than that for every
effeft there muft be a caule j for this is a propofition
which no man will controvert who underftands the terms
in which it is expreffed : but the ancients believed that a
proper creation is impoflible even to omnipotence, and
that to the produflion of any thing a material is not lefs
necejjhry than an efficient caufe, (fee Metaphysics, N°
264—304.). That with refpeft to this important quef-
tion, Plato agreed with his predeceffors and contempo¬
raries, appears evident to tts from the whole tenor of his
VOL. XVI. Part II.
Timceus. We agree with Dr Enfield* in thinking, that Platonifm.
in this dialogue, which comprehends his whole dodrine # ^
on the fubjedl of the formation of the univerfe, matter phUofopiy,
is fo manifeftly fpoken of as eternally co-exifting with
God, that this part of his doflrine could not have been
miftaken by fo many learned and able writers, had they
not been feduced by the defire of eftabllftiing a coinci¬
dence of doftrine between the writings of Plato and
Moles. It is certain that neither Cicero f, nor Apu- f -Ac-
leius|, nor Alcinous §, nor even the later commentator *11^ c:
Chalcidius, underftood their matter in any other fenfe * ^
than as admitting two primary and incorruptible princi¬
ples, God and matter; to which we (hall afterwards fee
reafon to add a third, namely ideas. The paffages
quoted by thofe who maintain the contrary opinion are
by no means fufficient for their purpofe. Plato, it is true,
in his Timseus, calls God the parent of the univerfet
and in his Sophift* fpeaks of him as “ forming animate
and inanimate beinga, which did not before exift but
thefe expreftions de not neceffarily imply that this off-
fpring of Deity was produced from nothing, or that no
prior matter exifted from which thefe new beings were
formed. Through the whole dialogue of the Timteus,
Plato fuppofes two eternal and independent caufes of all
things ; one, that by which all things are made, which
is God j the other, that from which all things are made,
which is matter. He diftinguifhes between God, mat¬
ter, and the univerfe, and fuppofes the architect of the
world to have formed it out of a mafs of pre-exiftent
matter. Matter, according to Plato, is an eternal and
infinite principle. His doctrine on this head is thus ex¬
plained by Cicero }j. “ Matter, from which all things !| Ac ght.
are produced and formed, is a fubttance without form or >• c* 8-
quality, but capable of receiving all forms, and under¬
going every kind of change •, in which, however, it
never fuffers annihilation, but merely a folution of its
parts, which are in their nature infinitely divifiblc, and
move in portions of fpace which are alfo infinitely divi-
fible. When that principle which we call quality is
moved, and afts upon matter, it undergoes an entire
change, and thofe forms are produced, from which arifes
the diverfified and coherent fyftem of the univtrfe.”
This doftrine Plato unfolds at large in his Timaeus, and
particularly infifts upon the notion, that matter lias ori¬
ginally no form, but is capable ef receiving any. He
calls it. tlie mother and receptacle of forms, by the union
of which with matter the univerfe becomes perceptible
to the fenfies •, and maintains, that the vifible world
owes its forms to the energy of the divine intelleftual
nature.
Our author is fupported in drawing this inference by
the teftimony of Diogenes Laertius, who furely un¬
derftood the language and dogmas of Plato better than
the mod accomplished modern fcholar can pretend to
do ; yet a learned writer * has lately expreffed great * j^r
furprife that any one ftiould confider matter as having vie.
been, in Plato’s opinion, uncreated •, and he boldly af¬
firms, that Laertius, inftead of afferting that fpirit and
matter were the principles of all things, ought to have
faid that God alone, in Plato’s eftimation, was their ori¬
ginal.;—To prove this, he gives from the Timaeus a quo¬
tation, in which the founder of the academy declares
that God framed heaven and earth, and the inferior dei¬
ties ; and that as he fafhioned, fo he pervades all na¬
ture. He obferves, that Cicero denominates the god of
4 L Fla^o
? L A
[ <5j4 I
P L A
PlatmiiiiM, Plato the metier, and the god of Anftotle only the go-
vernar, 0f the world. And, to fatisfy thofe who may
demand a particular proof of Plato’s having taught, a
real creation, he affirms that his writings abound with
declarations on the fubjefl, of which the meaning cannot
theology o/be mifapprehended. “ With thisTpttrpofe (fays he) Pla-
fluto, to denominates at one time the principles or fubflance of
all things, £hov the. productions of
the efficient Deity, and at others enters more particular¬
ly into the quell ion. Thus, he obferves, that many per-
fons are ignorant of the nature and power of mind or in¬
tellect, ‘ as having exifted at the beginning, antecedent
to all bodies.’ Of this mind, he obferves, that it is
without exception Tlwrvv 7r%i<&vTciTt, of all things the
mojl ancient; and he fubjoins, in order to remove all
doubt of his purpofe, that it is alfo Ag^sj xotfst*?, the
caitfe or principle of motion.'1''
With all poffible refpeCl for Dr Ogilvie, of whofe
piety and erudition we are thoroughly convinced, we
tnuft take the liberty to fay, that to us the declarations
»f Plato on this fubjeCt appear much lefs precife and
explicit than they appear to him ; and that the inference
which he would draw from the •words of Cicero feems
not to flow neceffarily from the fenfe of thofe words.
That Plato believed God to have jfowW the heaven and
the earth, and to have fafhioned all nature, is a pofition
which as far as we know, has never been controverted •,
but between framing or fijhioning the chaos or vAsj
zr^soTm, and calling the univerfe into exiftence from non¬
entity, there is an infinite and an obvious difference.
The diftinCtion made by Cicero between the God of
Plato and the God of Ariftotle is a juft diftinClion, but
it will not bear the fuperflruClure wffiich the learned
doClor builds upon it. Ariftotle maintained the eter¬
nity of the world in its prefent form. Plato certainly
taught that the firft matter was in time reduced from a
chaotic ftate into form by the power of the Demiurgus j
but we have feen nothing in his writings which explicitly
declares his belief that the frf matter was itfelf created.
The learned Cudworth, who wifhed, like Dr Ogilvie,
to find a coincidence of do&rine between the theology
«f Plato and that of the Gofpel, drained all his facul¬
ties to prove that his favourite philofopher taught a
proper creation : but he laboured in vain. He gives a
number of quotations in fupport of his pofttion •, of
which we fhall here infert only thofe two upon which
Dr Ogilvie feems to lay the greateft ftrefs. Plato, fays
the author of the Intelleflual Syftem, calls the one
God (a) (?; yiiv 6V(>ctyov Kott Hat ttoutx •rat iv ovqxv&i
xxt -rx s» ahov. xxt vtto y«$ x -. x-»rx t^yxa-irxi—He that
makes earth, and heaven, and the gods, and doth all
things both in heaven, and hell, and under the earth.
And, agaffi, “ he by whofe efficiency the things of the
World (v<mgei> lyinro, jrgarEgoy tux. o^rx) were afterwards
made when they were not before*.'" Both Cud worth Platosife,
and Ogilvie think this laft fentence an explicit declara-
tion of Plato’s belief in the creative power of God : but * ty’hifla,
that they are miftaken has been evinced by Molheim l)‘163
with a force of argument which will admit of no reply.
In that part of the Sophijl from which the quotation is
taken, Plato confiders the 'bvixpi't w*(ijT»aj;y, of which lie
is treating, as belonging both to God and to man ; and
he defines it in general to be “ a certain power which is
the caufe that things may afterwards be which were not
before.” Cudworth wifhes to confine this definition to
the divine power j and adds from himfelf to the text
which he quotes the following vrords, which are not
in Plato, or FROM AN ANTECEDF.NT NON-EXISTENCE
BROUGHT FORTH INTO BEING ! That the incomparable
author intended to deceive his reader, we are far from
imagining : his zeal for Platonifm had deceived himfelf.
Plato’s definition comprehends the ^vvxpiv oroivTixv? f aS| ^yr,
well of man as of God j and therefore cannot infer aed.Cud.
creative power anywhere, unlefs the father of the aeade- Syft. Intel
my was fo very abfurd as to fuppofe human artifts thec:iP'4-$ ^
creators of thofe machines which they have invented U’
and made ! Mofheim thinks that Cudworth was milled
by too implicit a confidence in Ficinus; and it is not
impoflible that Dr Ogilvie may have been fwayed by
the authority, great indeed, of the author of the Intel-
leftual Syftem.
That intelleff exifted antecedent to all bodies is in¬
deed a Platonic dogma, from which Dr Ogilvie, after
Cudworth, wifhes to infer that the do&rine of the crea¬
tion was taught in the academy •, but Dr Ogilvie knows,
and no man knew better than Cudworth, that Plato,
with every other Greek philofopher, diftinguifhed be¬
tween body and matter; and that though he held the
priority of intellect to the former, it by no means fob
lows that he believed it to have exifted antecedent to
the latter. That he believed mind, or rather foul (for
he diftinguifhes between the two), to be the caufe or
principle of motion, cannot be denied ; but we are not
therefore authorifed ta conclude, that he likewife be¬
lieved it to be the caufe of the exiftence of matter. That
he believed mind to be the moft ancient of all things,
taking the word things in the moft abfolute fenfe, can¬
not be true, fince by Dr Ogilvie’s own acknowledgement
he held the exiftence and eternity of ideas, not. to add
that he believed to iv or r’xyxfot—the firft hvpoftafis in
his trinity, to be luperior to mind and prior to it, though
not in time, yet in the order of nature. When there¬
fore he calls mind the moft ancient of all things, he muft
be fuppofed to mean only, that it is more ancient than
all bodies and inferior fouls. It is no reflexion on the
chara&er of Plato that he could not, by the efforts of his
own reafon, acquire any notion of a proper creation }
ftnee we, who have the advantage of his writings, and of
writings
<r /A2Mo{he;m a®rrns this quotation is nowhere to be found in the writings of Plato. He therefore at firft
Tu pteted that the learned author, in looking haftily over Plato’s loth book De Legibus, had transferred to God
wiat is there faid qf the anima mundi, leading by its own motions every thing in the heaven, the earth, and the
ea, and that he had added ffimething of his owm. He dropped that opinion, however, when he found Plato, in
e 1 i'- r0^. Bepnhlic, declaring it to be as “ eafy for God to produce the fun, moon, ftars, and earth,
j. c' M1”1! ^umhelf, as it is for us to produce the image of ourfelves, and whatever elfe we pleafe, only by interpe
.mg a ooking glafs.” In all this power, however, there is nothing fimilar to that of creation,.
P L A
Jatonifm. writings infinitely more valuable, to inftrucl us, find it
extremely difficult, if not impoflible, to conceive how
any thing can begin to be. We believe the faft on the
authority of revelation •, but ffiould certainly have never
agitated fuch a queftion, had it not been ftated to us by
writers infpired with celeftial wifdom.
In the Platonic cofmogony we cannot therefore doubt
but that the eternity of the vAjj 7r^u% was taken for grant¬
ed. Whether it was an eternal and neceffary emana¬
tion from an eternal mind, is not perhaps quite fo evi¬
dent, though our own opinion is, that it was believed
to be felf-exiftent* But be this as it may, which is not
worth difputing, one thing is certain, that Plato did
nut believe it to have a fingle form or quality which it
did not receive either from the Demiurgus or the Pfyche
— the fecond or third perfon of this trinity. Except
Ariftotle, all the Greek pbilofophers, who were not
materialifts, held nearly the fame opinions refpe&ing the
origin of the world ; fo that in examining their fyitems
we (hall be greatly mified if we undertland the terms
incorporeal and immaterial as at all fynonymous. It
was alfo a doctrine of Plato, that there is in matter a ne-
ceffary but blind and refra&ory force j and that hence
arifes a propenfity in matter to diforder and deformity,
which is the caufe of all the imperfection which appears
in the works of God, and the origin of evil. On this
fubjeft Plato writes with wonderful obfcurity : but, as
far as wTe are able to trace his conceptions, he appears to
have thought, that matter, from its nature, refills the
will of the Supreme Artificer, fo that he cannot per¬
fectly execute his defigns ; and that this is the caufe of
the mixture of good and evil which is found in the ma¬
terial world.
Plato, however, was no materialift. He taught, that
there is an intelligent caufe, which is the origin of all
fpiritual being, and the former of the material world.
The nature of this great being he pronounced it difficult
to difcover, and when difcovered, impoffible to divulge.
The exiflence of God he inferred from the marks of in¬
telligence, which appear in the form and arrangement of
bodies in the vifible world : and from the unity of the
material fyltem he concluded, that the mind by which
it was formed mult be one. God, according to Plato,
is the fupreme intelligence, incorporeal, without be¬
ginning, end, or change, and capable of being perceived
only by the mind. He certainly diftinguiffied the Dei¬
ty not only from body, and whatever has corporeal
qualities, but from matter itfelf, from which all things
are made. He alfo afcribed to him all thofe qualities
which modern philolophefs afcribe to immaterial fub-
ilance : and conceived him to be in his nature Ample,
unerreurafcribed in fpace, the author of all regulated
motion, and, in fine, pofifefled of intelligence in the high-
eft perfection.
His notions of God are indeed exceedingly refined,
and fuch as it is difficult to fuppofe lhat he could ever
have acquired but from fome obfeure remains of prime¬
val tradition, gleaned perhaps from the prieflsof Egypt
or from the philofonhers of the Eaft. In the Divine
Nature he certainly believed that there are two, and
P L A
probably that there are three, hypojlafex, whom he called Platonfi'j*.
t» vt and re l», vet/f and The firft he confidered '““'’V*""''*
as fa If exiitent, and elevated far above all mind and all
knowledge ; calling him, by way of eminence, the beings
or the one. The only attribute which he acknowledged
in this perfon was goodnefs j and therefore he frequent¬
ly ftyl es him re eey#0e*—the good, or ejjential goodt.ejs.
The fecond he conudered as mind, the wifdom or reefon
of the firft, and the maker of the vjorld i and therefore
he ftyles him veuf, Aoyot, and The third
he always fpeaks of as due foul of the world; and hence
calls him or rev Karpov. He taught that
the fecond is a necefiary emanation from the frf, and
the third from the fecond, or perhaps from the frjl and.
fecond.
Some have indeed pretended, that the Trinity, which
is commonly called Platonic, was a fiCtion of the later
Platonifts, unknown to the founder of the fchool: but
any perfon who {hall take the trouble to ftudy the wri¬
tings of Plato, will find abundant evidence that he really
afferted a triad of divine hypoftafes, all concerned in the.
formation and government of the world. Thus in his
10th book of Laws, where he undertakes to prove the
exillence of a Deity in oppofition to atheifls, he afeends
no higher in the demonftration than to the i^v^ai or mun¬
dane foul, which he held to be the immediate and pro¬
per caufe of all the motion that is in the world. But in
other parts of his writings he frequently afierts, as fu-
perior to the felf-moving principle, an immoveable taus’
or intellect,, which was properly the demiurgus or fra¬
mer of the world ; and above this hypojlafs one moft
fimple and abfolutely perfeft being, who is confidered iu
his Theology as uvlcfcof, the original deity, in contradi-
ftinCIion from the others, who are onlv (hoi sx (hey. Thefe
dodlrines are to be gathered from his works at large,
particularly from the Tima us, Pi He bus, Sop lift a and E-
pinomis: but there is a paffage in his fecond epiftle to
Dionyfius, apparently written in anfwer to a letter, in
which that monarch had required him to give a more,
explicit account than he had formerly done of the na¬
ture of God, in which the doftrine of a Trinity feems
to be direClly afierted. “ After having faid that he
meant to wrap up his meaning in fuch obfcurity, as
that an adept only fhould fully comprehend it, he adds
expreffions to the following import : ‘ The Lord of
Nature is furrounded on all fides by his works : what¬
ever is exifts by his permiffion : he is the fountain and
fource of excellence : around the fecond perfon are placed
things of the fecond order ; and around the third thofe
of the third degree (b).” Of this obfeure paffage a very
fatisfaftory explanation is given in Dr Ogilvie’s Theo-
logy of Plato, to which the narrow’ limits preferibed to
fuch articles as this compel us to refer the reader. We
[hall only fay, that the account which we have given of
the Platonic trinity is ably fupported by the doftor.
In treating of the eternal emanation of the fecond
and third hypoftafes from the firft, the philofophers of
the academy compare them to light and heat proceed¬
ing from the fun. Plato hiinfelf, as quoted by Dr Cud-
worth, illuftrates his dotlrine by the fame comparifon.
4 L 2 For
[ 635 ]
fpA “ n-tfi rm rxnai warr’ff* r-ai ’Extnov tmsc. irccna. Exitvo; cemet vctrrm ren xi/d.m. Aevr^a* oi
7tc KfU Tj*m» TTfei T06 TgtTX. OpCf. p. I 26t).
P L A
L 6.
Ffetonifm. JV)r 'r^&yetdttf or the firft hypoftafisj is in tue mteliec-
J tuai worid the fame (he fays) to intelleft and intelli-
gibles that the fun is in the corporeal world to vifion
and vifibles j for as the fun is not vifion itfelf but the
caufe of vifion, and as that light by which we fee is not
the fun but only a thing like the fun ; fo neither is the
Supreme or Higheft Good properly knowledge, but the
caufe of knowledge j nor is intelleft, confidered as fuch,
the beft and xnoft perfeft being, but only a being hav¬
ing the form of perfeaion.” Again,as the fins eaufes
other things not only to become vifible but alfo to be
generated , fo the Supreme Good gives to things not only
their capability of being known, but alfo their very ef-
fences by which they fubfill , for this fountain of the
Deity, this higheft good, is not itfelf properly effence,
but above eftence, tranfcending it in refpeft both of
dignity and of power.”
The refemblance which this trinity of Plato bears to
that revealed in the gofpel muft be obferved by every
attentive reader j but the two doctrines are likewifc in
fome refpefts exceedingly diflimilar. The third hypo-
ftafis in the Platonic fyftem appears in no point of view
co-ordinate with the firft or fecond. Indeed the firft is
elevated far above the fecond, and the third funk ftill
farther beneath it, being confidered as a mere foul im-
merfed in matter, and forming with the corporeal world,
to which it is united, one compound animal. Nay, it
does not appear perfeftly clear, that Plato confidtrei
his rov x.otrp.6v as a pure fpirit, or as having fublift-
ed from eternity as a diftinft Hypoftafis. “ This go¬
verning fpirit, of whom the earth, properly fo called, is
the body, confided, according to our author’s philofo-
phy, of the fame and the other ; that is, of the firft;
^natter, and of pure intelligence, framed to adluate the
machinery of nature. The Supreme Being placed him
in the middle of the earth j which, in the vivid idea of
Plato, feemed itfelf to live, in confequence of an influ¬
ence that was felt in every part of it. From this feat
his power is reprefented as being extended on all fides to
the utmoft limit of the heavens 5 conferring life, and
preferving harmony in the various and complicated parts
of the univerfe. Upon this being God is faid to have
looked with peculiar complacency after having formed
him as an image of himfelf, and to have given beauty
and perfedt proportion to the manfion which he was de-
ftined to occupy. According to the dodtrine of Timae-
us, the Supreme Being ftruck out from this original
mind innumerable fpirits of inferior order, endowed with
principles of reafon ; and he committed to divinities of
lecondary rank the talk of invefting thefe in material
forms, and of difperfing them as inhabitants of the fun,
moon, and other celeftial bodies. He taught alfo, that
at death the human foul is reunited to the rov xotr-
fiov, as to the fource from which it originally came.”
Such is the third perfon of the Platonie triad, as rve
find his nature and attributes very accurately ftated by
Dr Ogilvie 5 and the Chriftian philofopher, who has no
particular fyftem to fupport, will not require another
proof that the triad of Plato differs exceedingly from the
Trinity of the Scriptures. Indeed the third hypoftafis
in this triad has fo much the appearance of all that the
ancients could mean by that which we call a creature,
that the learned Cudworth, who wiftied, it is difficult
tp conceive fur what reafon, to find the fublimeft my-
ftery of th* Chriftian faith explicitly taught in the writ-
!<? I P L A
ings of a pagan philofopher, was forced to fuppofe that Platonifm.
Plato held a double or foul, one lyxoo-pM, incor- " v —
porated with the material world, and the other vtci^cot-
(aim or fupramandane, which is not the foul but the go¬
vernor of the univerfe. We call this a mere hypothe-
fis; for though the author difplays vaft erudition, and
adduces many quotations in which this double pfyche is
plainly mentioned, yet all thofe quotations are taken
from Platonifts w bo lived after the propagation of the
gofpel, and who, calling themfelves ecleElics, freely
ftole from every feft fuch dog mas-as they could incor¬
porate with their own fyftem, and then attributed thofe
dogmas to their matter. In the writings of Plato him¬
felf, there is not fo much as an allulion to this fupra-
mundane pfyche* \ and it is for this reafon (the * Mofch,
of which he treats being fe very inferior to the ^fuov^/os, ed. Cud,
and ctyxiot) that we have expreffed with hefitation his
belief of three hypoftafes in the divine nature. Yet that^' ^ 3
he did admit fo many, feems more than probable both
from the paffage illuftrated by Dr Ogilvie, and from
the attempt of Plotinus, one of his followers, to demon-
ftrate that the number can be neither greater nor lefs.
That his doftrine on this fubjeft fliould be inaccurate
and erroneous, can excite no wonder 5 whilft it muft be
confeffed to have fuch a refemblance to the truth, and
to be fo incapable of being proved by reafoning from
effe&s to caufes, that we could not doubt of his having
inherited it by tradition, even though we had not com¬
plete evidence that fomething very fimilar to it was
taught long before him, not only by Pythagoras and
Parmenides, but by the philofophers of the eaft.
We have faid that the Demiurgus was the maker of
the world from the firft matter which had exifted from
eternity ; but in Plato’s cofmogony there is another
principle, more myfterious, if poffible, than any thing
which we have yet mentioned. This is his intellectual
fyftem of ideas, which it is not eafy to colleCt from his
writings, whether he confidered as zW^We/z/exiftences,
or only as archetypal forms, which had lubfifted from
eternity in the A«y«j or divine intellect. On thisfubjeCh
he writes with fuch exceeding obfeurity, that men of
the firft; eminence, both among the ancients and the mo¬
derns, have differed about his real meaning. Some have
fuppofed, that by ideas he meant real beings fubfifting
from eternity, independent of all minds, and feparate
from all matter j and that of thefe ideas he conceived
fome to be living and others to be without life. In this
manner his doClrine is interpreted by Tertullian * among * pn. d
the ancients, and by the celebrated Brucker f among Jnma.
the moderns •, and not by them only, but by many
others equally learned, candid, and acute. Cudworth,
on the other hand, with his annotator Mofheim, con¬
tend, that by his ideal world Plato meant nothing more
than that there exifted from eternity in the Aeye? or mind
of God a notion or conception of every thing w hich was
in time to be made. This is certainly much more pro¬
bable in itfelf, than that a man of enlarged underftand-
ing fhould have fuppofed, that there are fomewhere in
extramundane fpace real living incorporeal beings eat¬
ing and drinking, which are the tdeas of all the animals
which ever have been or ever will be eating and drink¬
ing in this world. Yet Moffieim candidly acknow'-
ledges, that if the controverfy were to be decided by the
votes of the learned, he is doubtful whether it would be
given for or againft him) and Cudwoith, though he
pleads
P L A
[ 637 ]
P t A
,f0nith). pleads the caufe of his mafter with much ingenuity,
^V-—owns, that on this fubjeft his language cannot be vindi¬
cated. This indeed is moft true ; for Plato contends,
that his ideas are not only the objects of fcience, but
alfo the proper or phyfical caufes of all things here be¬
low ; that the idea of fnnilitude is the caufe of the re-
femblance between two globes ; and the idea of diflimi-
litude the caufe that a globe does not referable a pyra¬
mid : he likewife calls them ejfences or fubjlances,
and many of his followers have pronounced them to be
animals.
Thefe wonderful expreflions incline us to adopt with
fome hefitation the opinion Hated by Dr Enfield. This
hiftorian of philofopby having obferved, that fome of
the admirers of Plato contend, that by ideas exifting in
the reafon of God, nothing more is meant than concep¬
tions formed in the Divine mind, controverts this opinion
with much effedt. “ By ideas, Plato (fays he) appears
to have meant fomething much more myfterious •, name¬
ly, patterns or archetypes fubfifting by themfelves, as
real beings, mtms evlx in the Divine reafon, as in their
original and eternal region, and iffuing thence to give
form to fenfible things, and to become^ obje&s of con¬
templation and fcience to rational beings. It is the
dodlrine of the Timseus, that 0 ra ©ea, the rea¬
fon of God, comprehends exemplars of all things, and
that this reafon is one of the primary caufes of things.
Plutarch fays, that Plato fuppofes three principles, God,
Matter, and Idea. Juftin Martyr, Pfeudo-Origen, and
others, aflert the fame thing.
“ That this is the true Platonic dodlrine of ideas will
appear probable, if we attend to the manner in which
Plato framed his fyftem of opinions concerning the ori¬
gin of things. 4 Having been from his youth (fays A-
riftotle) converfant with Cratylus, a difciple of Heracli¬
tus, and inftrudled in the dodlrine of that fchool, that
all fenfible things are variable, and cannot be proper ob-
jedts of fcience, he reafonably concluded, that if there
be any fuch thing as fcience, there muft exift, befides
fenfible objedts, certain permanent natures, perceptible
only by the intelledl.’ Such natures, divine in their
origin, and eternal and immutable in their exiftence, he
admitted into his fyftem, and called them ideas. Vifible
things were regarded by Plato as fleeting (hades, and
ideas as the only permanent fubftances. Ihefe he con¬
ceived to be the proper objedts of fcience to a mind rai¬
led by divine contemplation above the perpetually vary¬
ing fcenes of the material world.”
It was a fundamental dodtrine in the fyftem of Plato,
that the Deity formed the material world after a perfedt
model, confifting of thofe ideas which had eternally fub-
fifted in his own reafon , and yet, with fome appearance
of contradidtion, he calls this model “ /f//^exiftent, in-
divifible, and eternally generated?'1 Nay, he talks of
it as being intelligent as well as eternal, and wholly
different from the tranfcripts, which are fubjecfed to oui
infpedlion. There is fo much myftery, confufion, and
apparent abfurdity, in the whole of this fyftem, as it has
come down to us, that we muft fuppofe the friends of
Plata to have been entrufted with a key to his efotenc
doctrines, which has long been loft, otherwife it would
be difficult to conceive how that philofopher could have
had fo many admirers.
With aim oft every ancient theift of Greece the found-
ct of the academy believed in an order of beings called
dcemons, which were fuperior to the fouls of men, and ^latonit'uu
ftruck off by the Demiurgus from the foul of the world. 1 '
Of thefe the reader will find fome account elfewhere :
(fee Daemon and Polytheism). We mention them
at prefent becaufe they make an important appearance
in Plato’s fyftem of phyfics, which was built upon them
and upon the dodtrine which has been dated concerning
God, matter, and ideas. He taught, that the vifible
world was formed by the Supreme Architeft, uniting
eternal and immutable ideas to the firft matter ; that the
univerfe is one animated being*, including within its li- * Timms >
mils all animated natures ; that, in the formation of the
vifible and tangible world, fire and earth were firft form¬
ed, and were afterwards united by means of air and wa¬
ter j and from perfedt parts one perfedt whole was pro¬
duced, of a fpherical figure, as moft beautiful in itfelf,
and belt fuited to contain all other figures f ; that the 17^
elementary parts of the world are of regular geometrical
forms, the particles of earth being cubical, thofe of fire
pyramidical, thofe of air in the form of an odlohedron,
and thofe of water in that of an icofohedron 5 that thefe
are adjufted in number, meafure, and power, in perfedt
conformity to the geometrical laws of proportion } that
the foul which pervades this fphere is the caufe of its
revolution round its centre ; and, laftly, that the world
will remain for ever, but that by the adtion of its ani¬
mating principle, it accomplifhes certain periods, within
which every thing returns to its ancient place and date.
This periodical revolution of nature is called the Tluto-
nic or great year. See the preceding article.
The metaphyfical dodlrines of Plato, which treat of
the human foul, and the principles of his fyftem o£
ethics, have been detailed in other articles (See Meta¬
physics, Part III. chap. iv. } and Moral Philofophy,
N° 6.) : but it is worthy of obfervation in this place,
that, preparatory to the ftudy of all philofophy, he re¬
quired from his difciples a knowledge of the elements of
mathematics. In his Republic, he makes Glaucus, one
of the fpeakers, recommend them for their ufefulnefs in
human life. “ Arithmetic for accounts and diftribu-
tions; geometry for encampments and njenfurationsj mu-
fic for folemn feftivals in honour of the gods ; and aftro-
nomy for agriculture, for navigation, and the like. So¬
crates, on his part, denies not the truth of all this, but
ftill infinuates that they were capable of anfwering an.
end more fublime. ‘ You are pleafant (fays he) in-
your feeming to fear the multitude, left you fhould be
thought to enjoin certain fciences that are ufelefs. ’Tis
indeed no contemptible matter, though a difficult one,
to believe, that through thefe particular fciences the foul
has an organ purified and enlightened, which is deftroyed
and blinded by ftudies of other kinds $ an organ better
worth faving than a thoufand eyes, in as much as truth
becomes vifible through this alone.”
“ Concerning policy, Plato has written at large in his
Republic and in his Dialogue on Laws. He was fo much
enamoured with his own conceptions on this fubjedl, that
it was chiefly the hope of having an opportunity to rea-
life his plan of a republic which induced him to vifit the
court of Dionyfius. But they who are converfant with
mankind,, and capable of calmly inveftigating the fprings
of human aftions, will eafily perceive that his prejefts
were chimerical, and could only have originated in a
mind replete with philofophical enthufiafm. Of thii>.
nothing can be a clearer proof than the defign of admitv
ting-
Pidtonifm
-!)
flayhoufe.
P L A [ 638 1 P L A
ting in lus republic a community of women, in order to
give realbn an entire contfoul over defire. The main
, objeft of his political inftitutions appears to have been,
the fubjugation of the paflions and appetites, by means
of the abftraft contemplation of ideas. A fyftem of po¬
licy, raifed upon fiich fanciful grounds, cannot merit a
more diftintfl confideration.”
Such is genuine Platonifm as it was taught in the old
academy by the founder of the Ichool and his immediate
followers; but when Arcefilaus was placed at the head
of the academics, great innovations were introduced both
into their doflrines and into their mode of teaching
(fee Arcesilaus). This man was therefore confidered
as the founder of what was afterwards called the middle
academy. Being a profeffed fceptic, he carried his
maxim of uncertainty to fuch a height, as to alarm the
general body of philofophers, offend the governors of the
flate, and bring juft odium upon the very name of the
academy. At length Carveades, one of the difciples of
this fchool, relinquifhing fome of the more obnoxious te¬
nets of Arcefilaus, founded what has been called the
new academy with very little improvement on the prin¬
ciples of the middle. See Carneades.
Under one or other of thefe forms Pktnnifm found its
way into the Homan republic. Cicero was a Platonift,
and one of the greateft ornaments of the fchool. A
fchool of Platonifls was likewife founded in Alexandria
in the fecond century of the Chriftian era; but their
dodtrines differed in many particulars from thofe taught
in the three academies. They profefled to feek truth
wherever they could find it, and to colledf their dogmas
from every fchool. They endeavoured to bend fome of
the principles of Plato into a conformity with the doc¬
trines of the gofpel; and they incorporated with the
whole many of the maxims of Ariffotle and Zeno, and
uot a few of the fidlions of the eaft. Their fyftem was
therefore extremely heterogeneous, and feldom fo ration¬
al as that of the philofopher after whofe name they were
called, and of whofe dodlrines we have given fo copious
a detail. See Awmon’IUS, Ecclectics, and Ploti-
¥US.
PLAUTUS, Marcus Accius, a comic writer of
ancient Rome, born in Umbria, a province of Italy.
His proper name was Marcus Accius, and he is fuppofed
to have acquired the furname of Plautus from having
fplay feet. His parentage appears to have been mean;
S> that fume have thought he was the fon of a Have.
Aulus Gellius fays that Plautus was diftinguifhed for his
poetry on the theatre, and Cato for his eloquence in the
forum, at the fame time ; and obferves elfewhere from
Varro, that he was fo 'well paid for his plays as to dou¬
ble his ftock in trading, in which he loft all he gained
by the mufes. He is faid to have been reduced to work
at. a mill for his fubfiftence-, but Varro adds, that his
wit was his beft fupport, as he compofed three of his
plays during this drudgery. He died in the firft
year of the elder Cato’s cenforfhip, about the year of
Rome 569, and 184 before Chrift. We have 20 of his
plays extant, though not all of them entire. Five of
them comedies, have been elegantly tranflated into Emr.
hfh by Mr B. Thornton, and publilhed in 2 vols 8vo
1767.
PLAYS. See the following article.
PLAYHOUSE. See Theatre, Amphitheatre,
otc. The moll ancient Englifh playhoufee were the
4
Curtain in Shoreditch and the Theatre. In the time of Pkyfiou
Shakefpeare, who commenced a dramatic writer in 1592, '""“y*
there were no lefs than 10 theatres open. Fourofthefe
Were private houfes, viz. that in Blackfriars, the Cock¬
pit or Phoenix in Drury-Lane, a theatre in Whitefriars,
and one in Salifbury court. The other fix were called
public theatres, viz. the Globe, the Swan, the Rofe,
and the Hope, on the Bank-iide the Red Bull, at the
upper end of St John’s ftreet, mid the Fortune in
White-crofs ftreet. The two laft were chiefty fre¬
quented by citizens. Mr Malone gives us a pretty co¬
pious account of thefe playhoufes, in a fupplement to
his laft edition of Shakefpeare, which we ihall here in¬
fer t.
“ Moft, if not all (fays he) of Shakefpeare’s play»-
were performed either at the Globe or at the Theatre in
Blackfriars. It appears that they both belonged to the
fame company of comedians, viz. his majefty’s fervants,
which title they affumed, after a licence had been
granted to them by King James in 1603, having be¬
fore that time been called the fervants of the lord cham¬
berlain.
“ The theatre in Blackfriars was a private houfej
but the peculiar and diftinguifhing marks of a private
playhouie it is not eafy to afeertain. It was very fmall,
and plays were there ufually reprefented by candle light.
The Globe, fituated on the fouthern fide of the river
Thames, was a hexagonal building, partly open to the
■weather, partly covered with reeds. It was a public
theatre, and of confiderable fize, and there they always
afled by daylight. On the roof of the Globe, and the
other public theatres, a pole was eredled, to which a
flag was affixed. Thefe flags were probably difplayed
only during the hours of exhibition; and it ftiould feem
from a paffage in one of the old comedies that they were
taking down during Lent, in which feafon no plays were
prefented. The Globe, though hexagonal at the out-
fide, was probably a rotunda within, and perhaps had
its name from its circular form. It might, however,
have been denominated only from its fign, which was a
figure of Hercules fupporting the Globe. This theatre
was burnt down in 1613, but it was rebuilt in the fol¬
lowing year, and decorated avith more ornament than
had been originally beftou edupon it. The exhibitions
at the Globe feem to have been calculated chiefly for
the lower clafs of people; thofe at Blackfriars for a
more feleft and judicious audience.
“ A writer informs us, that one of thefe theatres was
a winter and the other a fummer houfe. As the Globe
was partly expofed to the weather, and they afted there
ufually by daylight, it Avas probably the fummer thea¬
tre. The exhibitions here feem to haA'e been more fre¬
quent than at Blackfriars, at haft till the year 1604 or
1605, Avben the Bank-fide appears to have become left
faftiionable and lefs frequented than it formerly had
been. Many of our ancient dramatic pieces were per¬
formed in the yards of carriers inns; in which, in the
beginning of Queen Elizabeth’s reign, the comedians,
who then firft united themfeIves in companies, erefled
an occafional ftage. The form of thefe temporary play¬
houfes feems to be preferved in our modern theatre.
The galleries are in both ranged over each other on
three tides of the building. The fmall rooms under the.
lowefi of thefe galleries anfwer to our prefent boxes;
and it is obfervable that thefe, eyen in theatres which
wer^
P L A [r 63
ylioufe. were built in a fubfequent period exprefsly for dramatic
' -V—^ exhibitions, ftill retained their old name, and are fre¬
quently called rooms by our ancient writers. The yard
bears a Tufncient refemblance to the pit as at prefent in
ufe. We may fuppofe the llage to have been raifed in
this area, on the fourth fide, with its back to the gate¬
way of the inn, at which the money for admiflicm was
taken. Hence, in the middle of the Globe, and I
fuppofe of the other public theatres, in the time of
Shakefpeare, there was an open yard or area, where the
common people flood to fee the exhibition j from which
circumftance they are called by our author groundlings,
and by Ben Jonfon ‘ the underftanding gentlemen of
the ground.’
“ In the ancient playhoufes there appears to have
been a private box, of which it is not eafy to afcertain
the fituation. It feems to have been placed at the fide
of the ft age towards the rear, and to have been at a
lower price : in this fume people fat, either from econo¬
my or fingularity. The galleries, or fcaffolds as they
are fometimes called, and that part of the houfe which
in private theatres was named the pit, feem to have been
at the fame price j and probably in houfes of reputation,
fuch as the Globe, and that in Blackfriars, the price of
admiffion into thofe parts of the theatre was 6d. while
in fome meaner playhoufes it was only id. in others on¬
ly 2d. The price of admiflion into the bed rooms or
boxes was, I believe, in our author’s time, is.; though
afterwards it appears to have rifen to 2s. and halt-a-
erown.
“ From feveral paflages in our old plays, wre learn,
that fpeftators were admitted on the ilage, and that the
critics and wits of the time ufually fat there. Some
were placed on the ground •, others fat on ftools, of which
the price was either 6d. or is. according, I fuppofe, to
the commodioufnefs of the fituation} and they were at¬
tended by pages, who furnifhed them with pipes and
tobacco, which was fmoked here as well as in other
parts of the houfe: yet it fliould feem that perfons were
fuffered to fit on the llage only in the private playhoufes,
fuch as Blackfriars, &c. where the audience was more
feleft, and of a higher clafs; and that in the Globe and
other public theatres no fuch licence was permitted.
“ The ftage was ftrewed with rufhes, which, as we
learn from Hentzner and Caius de Ephemera, was, in
the time of Shakefpeare, the ufual covering of floors in
England. The curtain which hangs in the front of the
prefent ftage, drawn up by lines and pulleys, though not
a modern invention, for it wasufedby Inigo Jones in the
mafques at court, was yet an apparatus to which the
Ample mechanifm of our ancient theatres had not arrived,
for in them the curtains opened in the middle, and were
drawn backwards and forwards on an iron rod. In fome
playhoufes they were woollen, in others made of filk.—
Towards the rear of the ffage there appears to have been
a balcony, the platform of which was probably eight or
ten feet from the ground. I fuppofe it to have been
fupported by pillars. From hence, in many of our old
plays, part of the dialogue was fpoken } and in the front
of this balconv curtains likewife were hung.
“ A doubt has been entertained whether in our an¬
cient theatres there were fide and other fcenes. I he
quell ion is involved in fo much obfcurity, that it is very
difficult to form any decided opinion uj>on it. It is
9 ] p L .A,
certain, that'in the year 1695 Inigo Jones exhibited an Playlioufk
entertainment at Oxford, in which moveable fcenes
were ufed j but he appears to have introduced feveral
pieces of machinery in the mafques at court, with which
undoubtedly the public theatres were unacquainted. A
pafiage which has been produced from one of the old co¬
medies, proves, it nruft be owned, that even thefe were
furnifhed with fome pieces of machinery, which were
ufed when it was requifite to exhibit the defeent of fome
god or faint ; but from all the contemporary accounts,
I am inclined to believe that the mechanifm of our an¬
cient ftage feldom went beyond a painted chair or a
trap-door, and that few, if any of them, had any move-
able fcenes. When King Henry VIII. is to be difeo-
vered by the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk, reading in
his ftudy, the fcenical direction in the firft folio, 1623,
which was printed apparently from play houfe copies, is,
‘ the king draws the curtain, (he. draws it open), and
fits reading penfively j’ for, befides the principal curtains
that hung in the front of the ftage, they ufed others as
fubftitutes for fcenes. If a bed-chamber is to be exhi¬
bited, no change of feene is mentioned $ but the property-
man is Amply ordered to thruft forth a bed. When the
fable requires the Roman capitol to be exhibited, we find
two officers enter, ‘ to lay cufhions, as it were, in the ca¬
pitol,’ &c. On the whole, it appears, that our ancient
theatres, in general, were only furnilhed with curtains,
and a fingle feene compofed of tapeftry, which were fome¬
times, perhaps, ornamented with piflures j and fome paf-
fages in our old dramas incline one to think, that when
tragedies were performed the ftage was hung with black.
“ In the early part, at leaf!, of our author’s * ac-* Shale*:
quaintance with the theatre, the want of feenery feem$.//)farf''
to have been fupplied by the fimple expedient of writ¬
ing the names of the different places where the feene
was laid in the progrefs of the play, which were difpo-
fed in fuch a manner as to be vifible to the audience.
The invention of trap-doors, however, appears not to be
modern ; for in an old morality, intitled Allfor Money,
we find a marginal dire6tion which implies that they
were very early in ufe. The covering, or internal roof
of the ftage, was anciently termed the heavens. It was
probably painted of a fky-blue colour, or perhaps pieces
of drapery tinged with blue were fufpended acrofs the
ftage to reprefent the heavens.
“ It is probable that the ftage was formerly lighted by
two large branches, of a form fimilar to thofe now hung
in churches. They gave place in a fubfequent period to
fraall circular wooden frames, furnifhed with candles,
eight of which were hung on theftage, four at either fide,
and thefe within a few years were wholly removed by Mr .
Garrick, who, on his return from France, firft introdu¬
ced the prefent commodious method of illuminating the
ftage by lights not vifible to the audience. Many of the
companies of players were formerly fo thin, that one per-
fon played two or three parts j and a battle on which the
fate of an empire was fuppoftd to depend was decided by
half a dozen combatants. It appears to have been a com¬
mon pradlice in their mock engagements to difeharge
fmall pieces of ordnance on the ftage. Before the exhi¬
bition began, three flourifties or pieces of mufic were
played, or, in the ancient language, there were three
foundings. Mufic was likewife played between the a6ts.
The inftruments chiefly ufed were trumpets, cornets, and i
hautboys* .
i 640 J P L A
vaulting, tumbling, flight of hand, and morris-dancing, Playhwi,
a mixture not much more heterogeneous than that with't—
P L A
‘^la-yhftufe* hautboys. The band, which did not conflfl of more than
'h—^ five or performers, fat in an upper balcony, over
what is now called the ftage-box.
“ The perfon who fpoke the prologue wTas ufhered in
by trumpets, and ufually wore a long black velvet cloak,
which, I fuppofe, was confidered as beft Anted to a flip-
plieatory addrefs. Of this cuftom, whatever might have
been its" origin, fome traces remained till very lately, a
black coat having been, if I miftake not, within thefe
few years, the conftant ftage-habiliment of our modern
prologue-fpeakers. The drefs of the ancient prologue-
fpeaker is Hill retained in the play that is exhibited in
Hamlet before the king and court of Denmark. . The
performers of male characters generally wore periwigs,
which in the age of Shakefpeare were not in common
ufe. It appears from a paffage in Puttenham’s Art of
Englijh Poefy, 1589, that vizards were on fome occa-
fions ufed by the aCtors of thofe days j and it may be in¬
ferred, from a fcene in one of our author’s comedies,
that they were fometimes worn in his time by thofe who
performed female characters 5 but this I imagine was
very rare. Some of the female part of the audience
likewife appeared in mafks. The ftage.drefles, it is
reafonable to fuppofe, were much more coftly at fome
theatres than at others •, yet the wardrobe of even the
king’s fervants at the. Globe and Blackfriars, was, we
And, but fcantily furniftied ; and our author’s dramas
derived very little aid from the fplendour of exhibition.
“ It is well known, that in the time of Shakefpeare,
and for many years afterwards, female charaClers were
reprefented by boys or young men. Sir William d’Ave-
nant, in imitation of the foreign theatres, firft introduced
females in the fcene, and Mrs Betterton is faid to have
been the firft woman that appeared on the Englifti ftage.
Andrew Pennycuike played the part of Matilda in a tra¬
gedy of Davenport’s, in 1655; and Mr Kynafton afted
ieveral female parts after the Reftoration. Downes, a
contemporary of his, aflures us, ‘ that being then very
young he made a complete ftage beauty, performing bis
parts fo well, particularly Arthiope and Aglaura, that it
has fince been difputable among the judicious whether
any woman that fucceeded him touched the audience fo
fenfibly as he.’
“ Both the prompter, or book-holder, as he was fome¬
times called, and the property-man, appear to have been
regular appendages ©f our ancient theatres. No writer
that I have met with intimates, that in the time of Shake¬
fpeare it was cuftomary to exhibit more than a Angle dra¬
matic piece in one day. The York (hire tragedy, or All's
One, indeed, appears to have been one of four pieces that
were reprefented on the fame day ; and Fletcher has
alfo a piece called Four Plays in One ; but probably thefe
were either exhibited on fome particular occafion, or
were ineffectual efforts to introduce a new fpecies of
amufement 5 for we do not find any other inftances of
the fame kind. Had any Ihorter pieces been exhibited
after the principal performance, fome of them probably
would have been printed: but there are none extant of
an earlier date than the time of the Reftoration. The
praCtiee, therefore, of exhibiting two dramas fucceflively
in the fame evening, we may be affured was not eftablifh-
ed before that period. But though the audiences in the
time of our author were not gratified by the reprefenta-
tion of more than one drama in the fame day, the enter¬
tainment was diverlified, and the populace diverted, by
which we are daily prefented, a tragedy and a farce.
“ The amufements of our anceftors, before the com¬
mencement of the play, were of various kinds, fuck as
reading, playing cards, drinking ale, or fmoking to¬
bacco. It was a common praCtice to carry table-books
to the theatre, and either from curiofity or enmity to
the author, or fome other motive, to write down paffages
of the play that was reprefented : and there is reafon to
believe that the imperfeCt and mutilated copies of fome
of Shakefpeare’s dramas, which are yet extant, were
taken down in ftiort-hand during the exhibition. At
the end of the piece, the aftors, in noblemen’s houfes
and in taverns, where plays were frequently performed,
prayed for the health and profperity of their patrons j
and in the public theatres for the king and queen. This
prayer fometimes made part of the epilogue. Hence,
probably, as Mr Steevens has obferved, the addition of
Vivant rex et regina to the modern play-bills.
“ Plays, in the time of our author, began at one o’clock
in the afternoon ; and the exhibition was ufually finifti-
ed in two hours. Even in 1667 they commenced at
three. When Goffon wrote his School of Abufe, in 1579,
it feems the dramatic entertainments were ufually exhi¬
bited on Sundays. Afterwards they were performed on
that and other days indifcriminately. It appears from a
contemporary writer, that exhibiting plays on Sunday had
not been aboliftied in the third year of King Charles I.
“ The modes of conveyance to the theatre, anciently
as at prefent, feem to have been various j fome going in
coaches, others on horfeback, and many by water.—
To the Globe playhoufe the company probably were
conveyed by water 5 to that in Blackfriars the gentry
-went either in coaches or on horfeback, and the common
people on foot. In an epigram to Sir John Davis, the
praftice of riding to the theatre is ridiculed as a piece
of affetftation or vanity, and therefore we may prefume
it was not very general.
“ The long and whimfical titles that are prefixed to
the quarto copies of our author’s plays, I fuppofe to have
been tranfcribed from the play-bills of the time. A
contemporary writer has preferved fomething like a
play-bill of thofe days, which feems to corroborate
this obfervation , for if it were diverted of rhime, it
would bear no very diftantrefemblance to the title pages
that ftand before fome of our author’s dramas ;
“ ———Prithee, what’s the play ?
“ (The firft I vifited this twelvemonth day)
“ They fay “ A new invented play of Purle,
“ That jeoparded his neck to fteal a girl
“ Of twelve j and lying fail impounded for’t,
“ Has hither fent his beard to aft his part j
“ Againft all thofe in open malice bent,
“ That would not freely to the theft confent:
“ Feigns all to’s wifti, and in the epilogue
“ Goes out applauded for a famous regue.”
“ —Now hang me if I did not look at firft
“ For fome fuch fluff, by the fond people’s thruft.”
“ It is uncertain at what time the ufage of giving au¬
thors a benefit on the third day of the exhibition of their
pieces commenced. Mr Oldys, in one of his manuferipts,
intimates that dramatic poets had anciently their benefit
on the firft day that a new play was reprefented ) a regu¬
lation.
P L A
[ 641 ]
P L E
layhoufe. lation which would have been very favourable to fome of
—the ephemeral produftions of modern times. But for this
there is not, I believe, any fufficient authority. From
D’Avenant, indeed, we learn, that in the latter part of
the reign of Oueen Elizabeth the poet had his bene¬
fit on the fecond day. As it was a general practice in
the time of Shakefpeare to fell the copy of the play to the
theatre, I imagine in fuch cafes an author derived no
other advantage from his piece than what arofe from the
fale of it. Sometimes, however, he found it more be¬
neficial to retain the copyright in his own hands j and
when he did fo, I fuppofe he had a benefit. It is cer¬
tain that the giving authors the profit of the third ex¬
hibition of their play, which feems to have been the
ufual mode, during almoft the whole of the laft century,
was an ettablifhed cuftom in the year 1612, for Deck¬
er, in the prologue to one of his comedies printed in
that year, fpeaks of the poet’s third day. The unfor¬
tunate Otway had no more than one benefit on the
produftion of a new play ; and this too, it feems, he
was fometimes forced to mortgage before the piece was
a£led. Southerne was the firft dramatic writer who
obtained the emoluments arifing from two reprefenta-
tions ; and to Farquhar, in the year 1700, the bene¬
fit of a third was granted. When an author fold his
piece to the Iharers or proprietors of a theatre, it re¬
mained for feveral years unpublilhed ; but when that
was not the cafe, he printed it for fale, to which many
feem to have been induced, from an apprehenfion that
an imperfefl copy might be iffued from the prefs with¬
out their confent. The cuftomary price of the copy of
a play in the time of Shakefpeare appears to have been
twenty nobles, or fix pounds thirteen (hillings and four
pence. The play when printed was fold for fixpence;
and the ufual prefent from a patron in return for a de¬
dication was forty (hillings. On the firft day of exhi¬
biting a new play, the prices of admiflion appear to
have been railed ; and this feems to have been occa-
fionally praflifed on the benefit-nights of authors to
the end of the laft century. The cuftom of paffing
a final cenfure on plays at their firft exhibition is as
ancient as the time of our author ; for no lefs than
three plays of his rival Ben Jonfon appear to have been
damned ; and Fletcher’s Faithful Shepherdefs, and The
Knight of the Burning Peftle, written by him and Beau¬
mont, underwent the fame fate.
“ It is not eafy to afeertain what wTere the emolu¬
ments of a fuccefsful a£for in the time of Shakefpeare.
They had not then annual benefits as at prefent. The
performers at each theatre feem to have (hared the pro¬
fits arifing either from each day’s exhibition or from
the whole feafon among them. From Ben Jonfon’s
Poetafter we learn, that one of either the performers
or proprietors had feven (hares and a half*, but of what
integral fum is not mentioned. From the prices of ad¬
miflion into our ancient theatres, which have been al¬
ready mentioned, I imagine the utmoft that the (harers
of the Globe playhoufe could have received on any one
day was about 35I. So lately as the year 1685, Shad-
Well received by his third day on the reprefentation of
the Squire of Alfatia, 130I.; which Dowmes the prompt¬
er fays was the greateft receipt that had been ever taken
at Drury-Lane playhoufe at (ingle prices. It appears
from the MSS. of Lord Stanhope, treafurer of the cham¬
bers to King James I. that the cuftomary fum naid to
Vol. XVI. Part II.
John Heminge and his company for the performance of Playfioofe
a play at court was twenty nobles, or fix pounds thir-. >1<v'
teen (hillings and four pence. And Edward Alleyn
mentions in his Diary, that he once had fo (lender an
audience in his theatre called the Fortune, that the whole
receipts of the houfe amounted to no more than three
pounds and fome odd (hillings.
“ Thus fcanty and meagre were the apparatus and
accommodations of our ancient theatres, on which thofe
dramas were firft exhibited, that have fince engaged the
attention of fo many learned men, and delighted fo many
thoufand fpeflators. Yet even then, we are told bv a
writer of that age, ‘ that dramatic poefy was fo lively
exprefledandreprefented on the public ftages and theatres
of this city, as Rome in the age of her pomp and glory
never faw it better performed $ in refpeft of the aftion
and art, not of the coft and fumptuoufnefs.”
PLEA, in Law, is what either party alleges for him-
felf in court, in a caufe there depending ; and in a more
reftrained fenfe, it is the defendant’s anfwer to the plain¬
tiff’s declaration.
Pleas are ufually divided into thofe of the crown and
common pleas. Pleas of the crown are all fuits in the
king’s name, or in the name of the attorney-general in
behalf of the king, for offences committed againft his
crown and dignity, and againft his peace ; as treafon,
murder, felony, &c. See Arraignment.
Common pleas are fuch fuits as are carried on be-^c^-
tween common perfons in civil cafes. Thefe pleas are Ccmme,Jt'
of two forts ; dilatory pleas, and pleas to the aflion. Di¬
latory pleas are fuch as tend merely to delay or put off
the fuit, by queftioning the propriety of the remedy, ra¬
ther than by denying the injury : pleas to the adion are
fuch as difpute the very caufe of fuit.
I. Dilatory pleas are, 1. To the jurifdiftion of the
court : alleging, that it ought not to hold plea of this
injury, it arifing in Wales or beyond fea: or becaufe
the land in queftion is of ancient demefne, and ought
only to be demanded in the lord’s court, &c. 2. To
the difability of the plaintiff, by reafon whereof he is in¬
capable to commence or continue the fuit ; as, that
he is an alien enemy, outlawed, excommunicated, at¬
tainted of treafon or felony, under a praemunire, not in
rerum natura (being only a fiditious perfon), an infant,
a feme-covert, or a monk profeffed. 3. In abatement :
which abatement is either of the writ, or the count, for
fome defied in one of them ; as by mifnaming the de¬
fendant, which is called a mifnomer; giving him a wrong
addition, as efquire inftead of knight ; or other want of
form in any material refped. Or, it may be that the
plaintiff is dead ; for the death of either party is at once
an abatement of the fuit.
Thefe pleas to the jurifdidion, to the difability, or in
abatement, were formerly very often ufed as mere dila¬
tory pleas, without any foundation in truth, and calcu¬
lated only for delay, but now by flat. 4 & 5 Ann. c. 16.
no dilatory plea is to be admitted without affidavit made
of the trutli thereof, or fome probable matter (hown to
the court to induce them to believe it true. And with
refped to the pleas themfelves, it is a rule, that no ex¬
ception (hall be admitted againft a declaration or writ,
unlefs the defendant will in the fame plea give the plain¬
tiff a better *, that is, (how him how it might be amend¬
ed, that there may not be two objedions upon the fame
account.
4 M AH
P L E [ 642 ] P L E
All pleas to the jurifdi&ion conclude to the cogni¬
zance of the court ; praying “ judgment whether the
court will have farther cognizance of the fuit.” Pleas
to the difability conclude to the perfon ; by praying
“ judgment, if the find A the plaintiff ought to be an-
fwered.'” And pleas in abatement (when the fuit is by
original) conclude to the writ, or declaration ; by pray-
ing “ judgment of the writ, or declaration, and that the
fame may be quafhed,” caflelur, made void, or abated :
but if the a&ion be by bill, the plea muff pray “ judge¬
ment of the bill,” and not of the declaration *, the bill
being here the original, and the declaration only a copy
of the bill.
When thefe dilatory pleas are allowed, the caufe is
either diimiffed from that jurifdiction, or the plaintiff is
frayed till his difabiiity be removed •, or he is obliged to
fue out a new writ, by leave obtained from the court,
or to amend and new-frame his declaration. But when,
on the other hand, they are overruled as frivolous, the
defendant has judgment of refponJent oujler, or to an-
fvver over in fome better manner. It is then incumbent
on him to plead,
2. A plea to the aflion ; that is, to anfwer to the me¬
rits of the complaint. This is done by confeffing or de¬
nying it.
A confeffion of the whole complaint is not very ufmal 5
for then the defendant would probably end the matter
fooner, or not plead at all, but fuffer judgment to go
by default. Yet fometimes, after tender and refufal of
a debt, if the creditor harafles his debtor with an adfion,
it then becomes neceffary for the defendant to acknow¬
ledge the debt, and plead the tender ; adding, that he
has always been ready, tout temps prijl, and b frill ready,
uncore prijl, to difeharge it : for a tender by the debtor
and refufal by the creditor will in all cafes difeharge the
cofts, but not the debt itfelf; though in fome particular
cafes the creditor will totally lofe his money. But fre¬
quently the defendant confeffes one part of t he complaint
(by a cognovit aElionem in refpefl thereof), and traverfes
or denies the refr 5 in order to avoid the expenee of car¬
rying that part to a formal trial, which he has no ground
to litigate. A fpecies of this fort of confeflion is the
payment of money into court: which is for the molt part
neceffary upon pleading a tender, and is itfelf a kind of
tender to the plaintiff; by paying into the hands of the
proper officer of the court as much as the defendant ac¬
knowledges to be due, together with the cofts hitherto
incurred, in order to prevent the expence of any farther
proceedings. This may be done upon what is called a
motion ; which is an occafional application to the court
by the parties or their counfel, in order to obtain fome
rule or order of court, which becomes neceffary in the
progrefs of a caufe : and it is ufually grounded upon an
ajf ’ivit (the perfecl tenfe of the verb affido), being a
voluntary oath before fome iudge or officer of the court,
to evince the truth of certain fafls, upon which the mo¬
tion is grounded : though no fuch affidavit is neceffary
for payment of money into court. If, after the money is
paid in, the plaintiff proceeds in his fuit, it is at his own
peril: for if he does not prove more due than is fo paid
into court, he friall be nonfuited and pay the defendant’s
cofts; but he (hall frill have the money fo paid in,' for
that the defendant has acknowledged to be his due. To
this head may alfo be referred the praftice iff what is
called a fet off; whereby the defendant acknowledges
the juftice of the plaintiff’s demand on the one handj
but on the other, fets up a demand of his own, to coun¬
terbalance that of the plaintiff, either in the whole or in
part; as, if the plaintiff fries for ten pounds due on a
note of hand, the defendant may fet off nine pounds due
to himfelf for merchandife fold to the plaintiff; and, in
cafe he plead fuch fet-off, muft pay the remaining ba¬
lance into court.
Pleas that totally deny the caufe of complaint are ei¬
ther the general ilfue, or a fpecial plea in bar.
1. The general i/fue, or general plea, is what traverfes,
thwarts, and denies at once, the whole declaration, with¬
out offering any fpecial matter whereby to evade it. As
in trefpafs either vi et armis, or on the cafe, “ non cul-
pabi/is, not guilty,” in debt upon contract, “ nihil debet y
he owes nothing in debt on bond, “ non ejl fu£lum%
it is not bis deedon an affumpft, “ non ajfwnpfit, he
made no fuch promife.” Or in real aftions, “ nul torty
no wrong done ; nul diffeifn, no difi’eifrn and in a
writ of right, the mife or iffue is, that “ the tenant has
more right to hold than the demandant has to demand.”
Thefe pleas are called the general ifue, becaufe, by im¬
porting an abfolute and general denial of what b alleged
in the declaration, they amoant at once to an iffue ; by
which we mean a fasft affirmed on one fide and denied
on the other.
2. Special pleas in bar of the plaintiff’s demands are
very various, according to the cireunsftances oi the de¬
fendant’s cafe. As, in real actions, a general releafe
or a fine} both of which may deftroy and bar the plain¬
tiff’s title. Or, in perfonal actions, an accord, arbitra¬
tion, conditions performed, nonage of the defendant,
or fome other fa6l which precludes the plaintiff from his
aflion. A jujiification is likewife a fpecial plea in bar ;
as in a£1 ions of afl'ault and battery, fon uJJ'ault dcmefney
that it was the plantiff’s own original alfault } in tref¬
pafs, that the defendant did the thing complained of in
right of fome office which warranted him fo to do; or,
in an aclion of Hander, that the plaintiff is really as bad
a man as the defendant faid he was.
- Alfo a man may plead the ftatutes of limitation in
bar } or the time limited by certain a<frs of parliament,
beyond winch no plaintiff can lay his caufe of aftion..
This, by the ftatute of 32 Hen. VIII. c. 2. in a writ
of right is 60 years : in affizes, writs of entry, or other
poffeffory aftions real, of the feifin of one’s anceftors
in lands; and either of their feifin, or one’s own, in
rents, ftiits, and fervices, 50 years : and in aftion? real
for lands grounded upon one’s own feifin or poffeffion,
fuch poffeffion muft have been within 30 years. By
ftatute 1 Mar. ft. 2. c» :. this limitation does not extend
to any fuit for avowfons. But by the ftatute 21 Jac. I.
c. 2. a time of limitation was extended to the cafe of
the king} viz. 60 years pvec: dent to 19th Feb. 16.3 }
but, this becoming ineffedfual by efflux of tin the fame
date of limitation was fixed by ftatute. 9 Geo. III. c. J6.
to commence and be reckoned .backwards, from the
time of bringing any fuit or other procefs to recover the
thing in queftion } fo that a poffeifion for 60 years is
now a bar even againft the prerogative, in derogation*
of the ancient maxim, Nullum tempus occurrit regi. By
another ftatute, 21 .lac. I. c. 16, 20 years is the time
of limitation in any writ of formedun : and, by a confe-
quence, 20 years is alfo the limitation in every action
of eje&ment} for no ejeftment can be brought, unlefs
P L E [ 643 1 P L E
Plea, where the leflor of the plaintiff is entitled to enter on
—y—•' the lands, and by the ftatute 21 Jac. I. c. 16. no entry
can be made by any man, unlels within 20 years af¬
ter his right (hall accrue. Alfo all actions of trefpafs
Square claufiim fregit, or otherwife), detinue, trover, re¬
plevin, account, and cafe (except upon accounts be¬
tween merchants), debt on Ample contraft, or for ar¬
rears of rent, are limited by the llatute lait mentioned
to fix years after the caufe of adtion commenced : and
actions of affault, menace, battery, mayhem, and impri-
fonmeat, mu ft be brought within four years, and a 61 ions
for words two years, after the injury committed. And
by the ftatute 31 Eliz. c. 5. all fuits, indidlments, and
informations, upon any penal ftatutes, where any for¬
feiture is to the crown, fhall be fued within two years,
and where the forfeiture is to a fubje6t , within one
year, after the offence committed, unlefs where any
other time is fpecially limited by the ftatute. Laftly,
by ftatute 10 W. III. c. 14. no writ of error, fare fa¬
cias, or other fuit, (hall be brought to reverfe any judge¬
ment, fine, or recovery, for error, unlefs it be profecut-
ed within 20 years. The uie of thefe ftatutes of limi¬
tation is to preferve the peace of the kingdom, and to
prevent thole innumerable perjuries which might enfue
if a man were allowed to bring an a61i<m for any injury
committed at any distance ot time. Upon both thefe
accounts the law therefore holds, that interejl feipublicce
ut fitfnis litium: and upon the tame principle the A-
thenian law’s in general prohibited all a6trons where the
injury was committed five years before the complaint
was made. If, therefore, in any fuit, the injury, or
caufe of adlion, happened earlier than the period ex-
prefsly limited by law, the defendant may plead the
ftatutes of limitations in bar: as upon an affumpfit, ?r
promife to pay money to the plaintiff, the defendant
may plead, 'Non ajfumpfit infra fex annos. He, made no
fuch promife within fix years ^ w’hich is an effe6lual bar
to the complaint.
An eftoppel is likewife a fpecial plea in bar $ which
happens where a man hath done, lome a6t, or executed
fome deed, which eftops or precludes him from averring
any thing to the contrary. As if a tenant for years
(who hath no freehold) levies a fine to another perfon.
Though this is void as to ftrangers, yet it (hall work as
an eftoppel to the cognizor ; for, if he afterwards brings
an aflion to recover thefe lands, and his fine is pleaded
againft him, he lhall thereby be eftopped from faying,
that he had no freehold at the time, and therefore was
incapable of levying it.
The conditions and qualities of a plea (which, as well
as the doflrine of eftoppels, will alfo hold equally, ma-
tatis mutandis, with regard to other parts of pleading),
are, 1. That it be Jingle and containing only one mat¬
ter 5 for duplicity begets confufion. But by ftatute 4
and 5 Ann. c. 16. a man, with leave of the court, may
plead two or more diftin6t matters or fingle pleas •, as in
tin aftion of affault and battery, thefe three, Not guilty,
fon a fault demefne, and the ftatute of limitations.
2. That it be dire6t and pofitive, and not argumenta¬
tive. 3. That it have convenient certainty of time-,
place, and perfons. 4. 1 Hat it aniwer the plaintift s
allegations in everv material point. 5* ^
pleaded as to be capable of trial.
Special pleas are ufuaily in the affirmative, fometimes
in the negative, but they always advance fome new faft
not mentioned in the declaration j and then they muff P‘ea'
be averred to be true in the common form :■—4' And v
this he is ready to verify.”—-This is not neceffary in
pleas of the general iffue, thofe always containing a to¬
tal denial of the fa£ls before advanced by the other par¬
ty, and therefore putting him upon the proof of them.
See Pleadings.
PLEA to Indictment, the defensive matter alleged by a Blackjt.
criminal on his indidtment; (fee ARRAIGNMENT). "I \\\?,GonmienL
is either, I. A plea to the jilrifdhftion ; 2. A demurrer ;
3. A plea in abatement; 4. A fpecial plea in bar ; or,
5. The general iffue.
I. A plea to the jurifdiBion, is where an indi6hnent
is taken before a court that hath no cognizance of the
offence ; as if a man be indi6ltd for a rape at the fheriff’s
tourn, or for treafon at the quarter-ieffions : in thele of
fimilar cafes, he may except to the ju.ifdi61ion of the
court, without anfwering at all to the crime alleged.
II. A demurrer to the indi6tmem, is incident to cri¬
minal cafes, as well as civil, when th< fa61 as alleged is
allowed to be true, but the prifoner joins iffue upon
fome p int of law in the indiclmi nt, by which he infirts,
that the faft, as ftated, h no felony, treafon, or what¬
ever the crime is alleged to be. Thus, tor inftance, if
a man be indided for ftlonioufiy ftealing a greyhound 5
which is an animal in which no valuable property can
be had, and therefore it is not felony, but only a civil
trefpafs to fteal it ; in this cafe the party indided may
demur to the indidment) denying it to be felony,
though he confeffes the ad of taking it. Some have
held, that if, on demurrer, the point of law be adjudged
againft the prifoner, he (ball have judgment and exe¬
cution, as if convided by verdid. But this is denied
by others, who hold) that in fuch cafe he (hall be di-
reded and received to plead the general iffue, Not guil¬
ty, after a demurrer determined againft him. Which
appears the more reafonable, becatife it is clear, that if
the prifoner freely difeovers the fad in court, and refers
it to the opinion of the court whether it be felony or
no ; and upon the fad thus ffiown, it appears to be
felony, the court will not record the confeffion, but ad¬
mit him afterwards to plead not guilty. And this feems
to be a cafe of the fame nature, being for the moft part
a miftake in point of law, and in the condud of his
pleading •, and, though a man by mifpleading may in
fome cafes lofe his property, yet the law will not fuffer
him by fueh niceties to lofe his life. However, upon
this doubt, demurrers to indidments are feldom ufed :
fince the fame advantages may be taken upon a plea of
not guilty •, or afterwards, in arreft of judgment, when
the verdid has eftablithed the fad.
III. A plea in abatement is principally for a mifnomer,
a wrong name, or a falfe addition to the priioner. As,
if James Allen, gentleman, is indidfd by the name of
John Alien, efquire, he may plead that he has the name
of James, and not of John ; and that he is a gentleman,
and not an efquire. And, if either fad is found by a
jury, then the indidment fhall be abated, as writs or
declarations may be in civil adions. But, in the end,
there is little advantage accruing to the prifoner by
means of thefe dilatory pleas ; beeaufe, if the exception
be allowed, a new bill of indidment may be framed, ac¬
cording to what the prifoner in his plea avers to be his
true name and addition. For it is a rule, upon all pleas
in abatement, that he who takes advantage of a flaw,
4 M 2 muff
P L E [ 644 ] P L E
muft at the fame time {how how it may be amended.
Let us, therefore, next confider a more fubftantial kind
of plea, &-c.
IV. Special pleas in bar ; which go to the merits of
the indi&ment, and give a reafon why the prilbner ought
not to anfwer it at all, nor put himfelf upon his trial for
the crime alleged. Thefe are of four kinds : a former
acquittal, a former convi&ion, a former attainder, or a
pardon. • There are many other pleas which may be
pleaded in bar of an appeal: but thefe are applicable to
both appeals and indiftments.
1. Firft, the plea of auterfoits acquit, or a former ac¬
quittal, is grounded on this univerfal maxim of the com¬
mon law of England, that no man is to be brought in¬
to jeopardy of his life, more than once, for the fame of¬
fence. And hence it is allowed as a confequence, that
when a man is once fairly found not guilty upon any in-
didtment, or other profecution, before any court having
competent jurifdiftion of the offence, he may plead fuch
acquittal in bar of any fubfequent accufation for the fame
crime.
2. Secondly, the plea of auterfoits convici, or a former
convi&ion for the fame identical crime, though no
judgment was ever given, or perhaps will be (being
fufpended by the benefit of clergy or other caufes), is a
good plea in bar to an indi&ment. And this depends
upon the fame principle as the former, that no man
ought to be twice brought in danger of his life for one
and the. fame crime.
3. Thirdly, the plea of auterfoits attaint, or a former
attainder, is a good plea in bar, whether it be for the
fame or any other felony. For wherever a man is at¬
tainted of felony, by judgment of death either upon a
verdift or confeffion, by outlawry, or heretofore by ab¬
juration, and whether upon an appeal or an indi61ment;
he may plead fuch attainder in bar to any fubfequent
indidlment or appeal, for the fame or for any other fe
lony. And this becaufe, generally, fuch proceeding on
a fecond profecution cannot be to any purpofe \ for the
prifoner is dead in law by the firft attainder-, his blood
is already corrupted, and he hath forfeited all that he
had : fo that it is abfurd and fuperfluous to endeavour
to attaint him a fecond time. Though to this general
rule, as to all others, there are fome exceptions $ where¬
in, cejfante ratione, ceffat et ipfu lex.
4. Laftly, a pardon may be pleaded in bar ; as at once
deftroying the end and purpofe of the indictment, by re¬
mitting that punifhment, which the profecution is cal¬
culated to infliCt. There is one advantage that attends
pleading a pardon in bar, or in the arreft of judgment
before {entente is paft ; which gives it by much the pre¬
ference to pleading it after fentence or attainder. This
is, that by flopping the judgment it flops the attainder,
and prevents the corruption of the blood : which, when
once corrupted by attainder, cannot afterwards be re-
ftored otherwife than by aCt of parliament.
V .The general ijfue, or plea of not guilty, upon which
plea alone the prifoner can receive his final judgment of
death. In cafe of an indiftment of felony or treafon,
there can be no fpecial juftification put in by way of
plea. As, on an indiOment for murder, a man cannot
plead that it was in his own defence againft a robber on
the highway, or a burglar ; but he muft plead the ge¬
neral iffue, Not guilty, and give this fpecial matter in
evidence. For (befides that thefe pleas do in eflcCt
amount to the general iffue ; fince, if true, the prifoner
is moft clearly not guilty) as the fads in treafon are laid
to be done proditorie et contra ligeantice fuce debitum ;
and, in felony, that the killing was done fe Ionic e ; thefe-
charges, of a traitorous or felonious intent, are the points
and very gift of the indiCfment, and muft be anfwered
direCtly, by the general negative, Not guilty •, and the
jury upon the evidence will take notice of any defenfive
matter, and give their verdiCl accordingly as effeClually
as if it were or could be fpecially pleaded. So that this
is, upon all accounts, the moft advantageous plea for the
prifoner.
When the prifoner hath thus pleaded not guilty, non
culpabi/is, or nient culpable: which was formerly ufed to
be abbreviated upon the minutes, thus, Non (or nient)
cul. the clerk of the aflize, or clerk of arraigns, on be¬
half of the crown, replies, that the prifoner is guilty, and
that he is ready to prove him fo. This is done by twro
monofyllables in the fame fpirit of abbreviation, (cW.
prill) : which fignifies firft that the prifoner is guilty,
(cul. culpable, or culpabilis) •, and then that the king is
ready to prove him fo, (prit, graft0 fum, or paratus, ve-
rificare). By this replication the king and the prifoner
are therefore at iffue : for when the parties come to a
fa<ff which is affirmed on one fide and denied on the
other, then they are faid to be at iffue in point of faft :
which is evidently the cafe here, in the plea of non cul.
by the prifoner 5 and the replication of cul. by the clerk.
How the courts came to exprefs a matter of this im¬
portance in fo odd and obfeure a manner, can hardly be
pronounced with certainty. It may perhaps, however,
be accounted for by fuppofing, that thefe were at firft
fhort notes, to help the memory of the clerk, and re¬
mind him what he was to reply ; or elfe it was the fhort
method of taking down in court, upon the minutes, the
replication and averment j cul. prit.: which afterwards
the ignorance of fucceeding clerks adopted for the very
words to be by them fpoken (a).
But however it may have arifen, the joining of iffue
feems to be clearly the meaning of this obfeure exnref-
fion ; which has puzzled our moft ingtmious etymolo-
gifts, and is commonly underftood as if the clerk of the
arraigns, immediately on plea pleaded, had fixed an op¬
probrious name on the prifoner, by afldng him, “ culprit,
how wilt thou be tried ?” for immediately upon iffue
joined it is inquired of the prifoner, by what trial he will
make his innocence appear. This form has at prefent
reference to appeals and approvements only, wherein the
appellee has his choice, either to try the accufation by
Battle
a) Of this ignorance we may fee daily inftances, in the abufe of two legal terms of ancient French : one the
pin ogue to all proclamations, u Oye^,, or Hear ye,” which is generally pronounced, moft unmeaningly, “ O yes :v
* e ie*"i a more pardonable miftake, viz. when a jury are all fworn, the officer bids the crier number them, foj
'h'r ”tie V'01C* ^ ^aw ^renc^ *s’ 44 Counter f* but we now hear it pronounced in very good Englifti, “ Count
[ 645 ] P L E
sjea, Battle or by Jury. But upon indi&ments, fince the
adings. abolition of Ordeal, there can be no other trial but
-Y“~r by jury, per pais, or by the country : and therefore, if
the prifoner refufes to put himfelf upon the inqueft in
the ufual form, that is, to anfwer that he tvill be tried
by God and the country, if a commoner •, and, if a peer,
by God and his peers 5 the indi&ment, if in treafon, is
taken pro confeffo ; and the prifoner, in cafes of felony,
is judged to ftand mute, and, if he perfeveres in his ob-
llinacy, fhall now be convicted of the felony.
When the prifoner has thus put himfelf upon his trial,
the clerk anfwers in the humane language of the law,
which always hopes that the party’s innocence rather
than his guilt may appear, “ God fend thee a good de¬
liverance.” And then they proceed, as foon as conve¬
niently may be, to the trial. See the article Trial.
PLEADINGS, in Law, are the mutual altercations
between the plaintiff and defendant, (fee Suit, Writ,
and Process). They form the third part or ftage of
a fad 5 and at prefent are fet down and delivered into
the proper office in writing, though formerly they were
ufually put in by their counfel ore tenus, or viva voce,
in court, and then minuted down by the chief clerks or
prothonotaries j whence, in our old law-French, the
pleadings are frequently denominated the paro/.
1 he fir ft of thefe is the declaration, narratio, or count,
anciently called the tale; in which the plaintiff fets
forth his caufe of complaint at length : being indeed
only an amplification or expofition of the original writ
upon which his adlion is founded, with the additional
circumftances of time and place, when and where, the
injury was committed.
In local a&ions, where poffeffion of land is to be re¬
covered, or damages for an actual trefpafs, or for wafte,
&c. affe£ting land, the plaintiff muft lay his declara¬
tion, or declare his injury to have happened in the very
county and place that it really did happen ; but in tranf-
itory aftions, for injuries that might have happened
anywhere, as debt, detinue, Hander, and the like, the
plaintiff may declare in what county he pleafes, and
then the trial muft be in that county in which the de¬
claration is laid. Though, if the defendant will make
affidavit that the caufe of aftion, if any, arofe not in
that but another county, the court will direft a change
of the venue or vifne (that is, the vicinia or neighbour¬
hood in which the injury is declared to be done), and
will oblige the plaintiff to declare in the proper county.
For the flatute 6 Ric. II. c. 2. having ordered all writs
to be laid in their proper counties, this, as the judges
conceived, impowered them to change the venue, if re¬
quired, and not to infill rigidly on abating the writ:
which praftice began in the reign of James I. And
this power is difcretionally exercifed, fo as not to caufe
but prevent a defeft of juftice. Therefore the court
wdl not change the venue to any of the four northern
counties previous to the fpring circuit j becaufe there
the affifes are holden only once a-year, at the time of
fummer circuit. And it will fometimes remove the
'oenue from the proper jurifdiflion (efpecially of the
narrow and limited kind), upon a fuggeftion, duly
fupported, that a fair and impartial tidal cannot be had
therein.
It is generally ufual, in aflions upon the cafe, to fet
forth feveral cafes, by different counts in the fame de¬
claration j fo that if the plaintiff fails in the proofs of
t}
one, be may fucceed in another. As in an action on Pleadings,
the cafe upon an assumpsit for goods fold and deliver- '“T—-1
ed, the plaintiff uliially counts or declares, firft, upon
a fettled and agreed price between him and the defend¬
ant ; as, that they bargained for 20I. : and left he
ftiould fail in the proof of this, he counts likewife upon
quantum valebant; that the defendant bought other
goods, and agreed to pay him fo much as they were
reafonably w'ortb : and then avers that they were
worth other 20I. and fo on in three or four different
ffiapes ; and at laft concludes with declaring, that the
defendant had refufed to fulfil any of thefe agreements,
whereby he is endamaged to fuch a value. And if he
proves the cafe laid in any one of his counts, though he
fails in the reft, he ffiall recover proportionable da¬
mages. This declaration always concludes with thefe
words, “ and thereupon he brings fuit,” &c. inde pro-
duett feBam, &c. By which words, fuit or fe&a (a fe-
quendd), were anciently underftood the witneffes or fol-
low'ers of the plaintiff. For in former times, the law
would not put the defendant to the trouble of anfwering
the charge till the plaintiff had made out at leaft a pro¬
bable cafe. But the aCtual production of the fuit, feBa,
or followers, is now antiquated, and hath been totally
difufed, at leaft ever fince the reign of Edward III.
though the form of it ftill continues.
At the end of the declaration are added alfo the
plaintiff’s common pledges, of profecution, John Doe
and Richard Roe 5 which, as we elfewhere cbferve,-
(fee Writ), are now mere names of form j though
formerly they were of ufe to anfwer to the king for the
amercement of the plaintiff, in cafe he were nonfuited,
barred of his aCtion, or had a verdiCt and judgment
againft him. For if the plaintiff negleCts to deliver a
declaration for two terms after the defendant appears, or
is guilty of other delays or defaults againft: the rules of
law' in any fubfequent ftage of the aCtion, he is adjudged
not to follow or purfue his remedy as he ought to do j
and thereupon a nonfuit, or non profequitur, is entered,
and he is faid to be non-pros'1 d. And for thus deferting
his complaint, after making a falfe claim or complaint
(pro falfo clamore fuo), he ffiall not only pay cofts to
the defendant, but is liable to be amerced to the king.
A retraxit differs from a nonfuit, in that the one is ne¬
gative and the other pofitive : the nonfuit is a default
and negleCt of the plaintiff, and therefore he is allowed
to begin his fuit again upon payment of cofts ; but a re¬
traxit is- an open and voluntary renunciation of his fuit
in court; and by this he for ever lofes his aClion. A
difcontinuance is fomewhat fimilar to a nonfuit5 for when
a plaintiff leaves a chafm in the proceedings of his caufe,
as by not continuing the procefs regularly from day to
day, and time to tirfle, as he ought to do, the fuit is -
difeontinued, and the defendant is no longer bound to
attend j but the plaintiff muft begin again, by fuingout-
a new original, ufually paying cofts to his antagonift.
When the plaintiff hath ftated his cafe in the declara¬
tion, it is incumbent on the defendant, within a reafon-
able time, to make his defence, and put in a plea 5 or
elfe the plaintiff will at once recover judgment by de¬
fault, or nihil dicit, of the defendant.
Defence, in its true legal fenfe, fignifies not a jufti-
fication, proteflion, or guard, which is now its popular
fignification ; but merely an oppqfing or denial (from the
French verb defendre) of the truth or validity of the
complaint..
P L E [ } P L E
Mjsadlngs. complaint. It is the contejlatio litis of the civilians : a
1     general affertion that the plaintiff hath no ground of
aft ion j which affertion is afterwards extended and main¬
tained in his plea.
Before defence made, if at all, cognizance of the
fuit mutt be claimed or demanded *, when any perfon
or body-corporate hath the franehife, not only of hold¬
ing pleas within a particular limited juritdiftion, but
ulfo of the cognizance of pleas j and that either without
any words exclufive of other courts, which intitles the
lord of the franchife, whenever any fuit that belongs to
Bis jurifdiftion is commenced in the courts at Weftmin-
fter, to demand the cognizance thereof; or with fuch
exclufive words, which alfo intitle the defendant to plead
to the jurifdiftion of the court. Upon this claim of
cognizance, if allowed, all proceedings (hall ceafe in the
fuperior court, and the plaintiff is left at liberty to
purfue his remedy in the fpecial jurifdiftion. As, when
a fcholar or other privileged perion of the uniyerfities
of Oxford or Cambridge is impleaded in the courts at
Weffminffer, for any caufe of aftion whatfoever, unlefs
upon a queftion of freehold. In thefe cafes, by the
charter of thofe learned bodies, confirmed by aft of par¬
liament, the chancellor, or vice-chancellor, may put in
a claim of cognizance 5 which, if made in due lime and
form, and with due proof of the fafts alleged, is regu¬
larly allowed by the courts. It muff be demanded be¬
fore full defence is made or imparlance prayed ; for thefe
are a fubmiffion to the jurifdiftion of the fuperior court,
and the delay is a laches in the lord of the franchife
and it will not be allowed if it occafions a failure of juf-
tice, or if an aftion be brought againft the perfon him-
felf who claims the franchife, unlefs he hath alfo a power
in fuch cafe of making another judge.
After defence made, the defendant muff put in his
plea. But before he defends, if the fuit h commenced
by capias or latitat, without any fpecial original, he is
intitled to demand one imparlance, or licentia loquendi;
and may, before he pleads, have more granted by confent
of the court, to fee if he can end the matter amicably
without farther fuit, by talking with the plaintiff: a
praftice which isfuppofed to have arifen from a principle
of religion, in obedience to that precept of the gofpel,
“ agree with thine adverfary quickly, whilff thou art in
the way with him.” And it may beobferved, that this
gofpel-precept has a plain reference to the Roman law of
the twelve tables, which exprefsly direfted the plaintiff
and defendant to make up the matter while they were
in the wav, or going to the praetor p—in via, rem uti
pacent orato. There are alfo many other previous tleps
which may be taken by a defendant before he puts in
his plea. He may, in real aftions, demand a view of
the thing in queftion, in order to afcertain its identity
and other circumftanees. He may crave oyer of the
writ, or of the bond, or other fpec altv upon which the
aftinn is brought ; that is, to hear it read to him • the
generality of defendants in the times of ancient fimpli-
eity being fuppofcd incapable to read it themfelves':
whereupon the whole is entered verbatim upon the re¬
cord; and the defendant may take advantage of any
condition, or other part of it, not. dated in the plaintiff’s
declaration. In real aftions alfo the tenant may pray in
aid, or call for the affi-iance of another, to help him
to p.ead, becaufe of the feebleneis or imbecility of his
own eftate. Thus a tenant for life may pray in aid of
2
him that hath the inheritance in remainder or rever-'Ple-afe
lion ; and an incumbent may pray in aid of the patron '"‘■‘“Y-
and ordinary ; that is, that they diall be joined in the
aftl< n, and help to defend the title. Voucher alfo is the
calling in of fome perfon to anfwer the aftion, that hath
warranted the title to the tenant or defendant. This
We dill make ufe of in the form of common recoveries,
which are grounded on a writ of entry ; a fpecies of ac¬
tion that ri lits chiefly on the weaknefs of the tenant’s
title, who therefore vouches another perfon to warrant
it. If the voucher appear, he is made defendant in¬
dead of the voucher; but if he afterwards makes de¬
fault, recover) diall be had againd the original defen¬
dant ; and he tt,allr< cover ah equivalent in value againd
the deficient vouchee. In flizes, indeed, where the
principal quedion U, whether the demandant or his an-
cedors were or w« re not in poffedion till the ouder hap¬
pened. and the title of the -enant is little (if at all) dif-
euffed, there no voucher is allowed ; but the tenant may
bring a writ of warrantia chance againd the warrantor,
to compel him to adih him with a good plea or defence,
or elfe. to render dan ages and the value of the land, if
recovered agamd the tenant. In many real aftions al¬
fo, brought by or againd an infant under the age of 21
years, and ailo in aftions of debt brought againlt him,
as heir to any deceafed ancedor, either party may fug¬
ged the nonage of the infant, and pray that the proceed¬
ings may be deferred till his full age, or, in our legal
phrafe, that the infant may have his age, and that the
parol may demur, that is, that the pleadings may be
daid ; and then they diall not proceed till his full age,
unlefs it be.apparent that he c annot be prejudiced there¬
by. But by the datutes of Wedm. 1. 3 Edw. I. c. 46.
and of Gloceder, 6 Edw. I. c. 2. in writs of entry,yztf*
dijfeijin in f me particular cafes, and in aftions aunce-
drel brought by an infant, the parol {hall not demur ;
otherwife he might be deforced of his whole property,
and even want a maintenance, till he came of age. So
likewife in a writ of dower the heir lhall not have his
age ; for it is neceffary that the widow’s claim be im¬
mediately determined, elfe die may want a prefent fub-
ddence. Nor diall an infant patron have it in a quare
impedit, dnee the law holds it neceffary and expedient
that the church be immediately filled.
When thefe proceedings are over, the defendant mud
then put in his excufe or plea. See Plea.
It is a rule in pleading, that no man be allowed to
plead fpecially fuch a plea as amounts only to the gene¬
ral iffue, or a total denial of the charge ; but in fuch
cafe he diall be driven to plead the general iffue in terms,
whereby the whole quedion is referred to a jury. But
if the defendant, in an affize or aftioh of trefpafs, be
defirous to refer the validity of his title to the court
rather than the jury, he may date his title fpecially ;
and at the fame time give colour to the plaintiff, or fup-
pofe him to have an appearance or colour of title, bad
indeed in point of law, but of which the jury are not
competent judges. As if his own true title is, that he
claims by feoffment with livery from A, by force of
-which he entered on the lands in quedion, he cannot
plead this by itfelf, as it amounts to no more than the
general idue, nul tort, nuldijfeijin, in affize, or not guilty
in an aftion of trefpafs. But he may allege this fpe¬
cially, provided he goes farther, and fays, that the plain¬
tiff claiming by colour of a prior deed of feoffment, with-
- out
P L E [ 647 ] P L E
sailings, out livery, entered ; upon whom lie entered ; and may
nr—' then refer himfelf to the judgment of the court which
of thefe two titles is the belt in point of Jaw.
When the pita of the defendant is thus put in, if it
does not amount to an iiTue or total contradiction of
the declaration, but only evades it, the plaintiff may
plead again, and reply to the defendant’s plea : Either
traverfing it, that is, totally denying it ; as if, on an
aCtion of debt upon bond, the defendant pleads folvit
ad diem, that he paid the money when due j here the
plaintiff in his replication may totally traverfe this plea,
by denying that the defendant paid it : Or he may al¬
lege new matter in contradiction to the defendant’s plea j
as when the defendant pleads no award made, the plain¬
tiff may reply, and fet forth an aClual award, and affign
a breach : Or the replication mayconfefs and avoid the
plea, by fome new matter or diftinCtion, confident with
the plaintiff’s former declaration •, as in an action for
trefpaffing upon land whereof the plaintiff is ieized, if
the defendant ihows a title to the land by defcent, and
that therefore he had a right to enter, and gives colour
to the plaintiff, the plaintiff may either traverfe and
totally deny the faCt of the defcent ; or he may confefs
and avoid it, by replying, that true it is that fuch de¬
fcent happened, but that fince the defcent the defendant
himfelf demifed the lands to the plaintiff for term of life.
To the replication the defendant may rejoin, or put in
an anfwer called a rejoinder. The plaintiff may anfwer
the rejoinder by a fur-rejoinder; upon which the de¬
fendant may rebut, and the plaintiff anfwer him by a
fur-rebutter. Which pleas, replications, rejoinders, fur-
rejoinders, rebutters, and fur-rebutters, anfwer to the
exceptio, replicatio, dupJicutio, triplicatio, and quadruplica-
tio, of the Roman laws.
The whole of this procefs is denominated the plead¬
ing ; in the feveral ft ages of which it muft be carefully
obferved, not to depart or vary from the title or defence
which the party has once infilled on. For this (which
is called a departure in pleading) might occafion endlefs
altercation. Therefore the replication muft fupport the
declaration, and the rejoinder mutt fupport the plea,
without departing out of it. As in tb«- cafe of pleading
no award made in consequence of a bond of arbitration,
to which the plainbff replies, letting forth an a6lual
award 5 now the defendant cannot rejoin that he hath
performed this award, for fuch rejoinder would be an en¬
tire departure from his original plea, which alleged that
no fuch award was made : therefore he has now no other
choice, but to traverfe the faff of the replication, or elfe
to demur upon the law of it.
Again, all duplicity in pleading muft be avoided.
Every plea muft be Ample, entire, connefted, and con¬
fined to one fingle point : it muft never be entangled
With a variety of diftinT independent aufwers to the
fame matter; which muft require as many different re¬
plies, and introduce a multitude of iffue< upon one and
the lame difpute. For this would often embarraft the
jury, and fometimes the court itfelf, and at all events
would greatly enhance the expence of the parties. Yet
it frequently is expedient to plead in fi.ch a manner as
to avoid any implied admiftion of a faff, which cannot
with propriety or fafety be pofitively affrrm d or denied.
And this may be done by what i.i called a protefation ;
wh reby the party interpofes an oblique allegarien or
denial of fome fact, protefting (by the gerund, prottfan-
do) that fuch a matter does or does not exift ; and at Pleadinji.
the fame time avoiding a direct affirmation or denial.
Sir Edward Coke hath defined a proteftation (in the
pithy dialect of that age) to be, “ an exclufion of a
conclufion.” For the ufe of it is, to fave the party
from being concluded with refpedt to fome fa£t or cir-
cumitance which cannot be directly affirmed or denied
without falling into duplicity of pleading ; and which
yet, it he did not thus enter his proteft, he might be
deemed to have tacitly wavtd or admitted. Thus, while
tenure in vihainage fublifttd, it a villain had brought an
a&ion againft his lord, and the lord was inclined to try
the merits of the demand, and at the fame time to pre¬
vent any conclufion againft himfeli that he had waved
his figniory ; he could not in this cafe both plead affir¬
matively that the plaintiff was his villain, and allb take
iffue upon the demand ; for then his plea would have
been double, as the former alone would have been a good
bar to the action : but he might have alleged the villai¬
nage of the plaintiff by way of proteftation, and then
have denied the demand. By this means the future vaf-
lalage of the plaintiff was faved to the defendant, in cafe
the iiTue was found in his (the defendant’s) favour ; for
the proteftation prevented that conclufion which would
Other wife have refiilted from the reft of his defence,
that he had enfranchifed the plaintiff, fince no villain
could maintain a civil aclion againft his lord. So alfo
if a defendant, by way of inducement to the point of his
defence, alleges (among other matters) a particular mode
of feifin or tenure which the plaintiff is unwilling to
admit, and yet defires to take iffue on the principal
point of the defence, he nmft deny the feifin or tenure
by wray of proteftation, and then traverfe the deienfive
matter. So, laitly, if an award be fet forth by the
plaintiff, and he can aflign a breach in one part of it
(viz. the non-payment of a lum of money), and yet is
afraid to admit the performance of the reft of the award,
or to aver in general a non-performance of any part of
it, left fomething fhould appear to have been performed^
he may fave to himfelf any advantage he might hereafter
make of the general non-performance, by alleging that
by proteftation, he can plead only the non-payment of
the money.
In any ftage of the pleadings, when either fide advan¬
ces or affirms any new matter, he ufually (as was faid)
avers it to be true ; “ and this he is ready to verify.”
On the other hand, when either fide traverfes or denies
the faifts pleaded by his antagonift, he ufually tenders an
i/jne, as it is called ; the language of which is different
according to the party by whom it is tendered : for if
the traverfe or denial comes from the defendant, the if¬
fue is tendered in this manner, “ And of this he puts
himfelf upon the country,” thereby fubmitting himfelf
to the judgment of hR liters : but if tire traverfe lies
upon the plaintiff, he tenders the iffue or prays the
judgment of the peers again!! the defendant in another
form ; thus, “ and this he prays may be inquired of by
the country.”
But if either fide (as, for inftance, the defendant)
pleads a fpecial negative plea, not traverfing or denying
any thing that was before alleged, but difclofing fome
new negative matter ; as where the fuit is on a bond
conditioned to perform an award, and the defendant
pleads, negatively, that no award was made ; he tenders
no iffue upon this plea, becaufe it does net yet appear
whether
Pleadings
II
Pleafure.
P L E [ 648 3 P
whether the fact will be difputed, the plaintiff not bav- not neceffary to human life
ing yet afferted the exiflence of any award : but when
the plaintiff replies, and fets forth an actual fpecific
award, if then the defendant traverfes the replication,
and denies the making of any fuch award, he then, and
not before, tenders an iiTue to the plaintiff. For when
in the courfe of pleading they come to a point which is
affirmed on one fide and denied on the other, they are
L E
* Encyclo¬
pedic Me-
thodique,
Logique,
JMetaphy-
Jiquc, et
JVIorale,
.torn. iv.
then faid to be at iffue ; all their debates being at laft
contracted into a {ingle point, which muft now be de¬
termined either in favour of the plaintiff or of the de¬
fendant. See Issue.
PLEASING, art of. See Politeness.
PLEASURE is a word fo univerfally underftood as
to need no explanation. Lexicographers, however, who
mufi: attempt to explain every word, call it “ the grati¬
fication of the mind or fenfes.” It is direftly oppofite
to Pain, and conftitutes the whole of pofitive happinefs,
as that does of mifery.
The Author of Nature has furniffied us with many
pleafures, as well as made us liable to many pains j and
we are fufcqptible of both in fome degree as foon as we
have life and are endowed with the faculty of fenfation.
A French writer, in a work * which once railed high
expectations, contends, that a child in the womb of its
mother feels neither pleafure nor pain. “ Thefe fen-
fations (fays he) are not innate ; they have their origin
from without j and it is at the moment of our birth that
the foal receives the firft impreffions j impreffions flight
and fuperficial at the beginning, but which by time and
repeated aCls leave deeper traces in the fenforium, and
become more extenfive and more lafting. It is when
the child fends forth its firft cries that fenfibility or the
faculty of fenfation is produced, which in a fhort time
gathers ftrength and liability by the impreffion of exte¬
rior objeCls. Pkafure and pain not being innate, and
being only acquired in the fame manner as the qualities
which we derive from inilruCtion, education, and fociety,
it follows that we learn to fuffer and enjoy as we learn
any other fcience.”
This is ftrange reafoning and ftrange language. That
fenfations are not innate is univerfally acknowledged j
but it does not therefore follow that the foul receives its
firft impreffions and firft fenfations at the moment of
birth,. 1 he child has life, the power of locomotion,
and the fenfe of touch, long before it is born; and
every mother will tell this philofopher, that an infant
unborn exhibits fymptoms both of pain and of plea¬
fure. That many of our organs of fenfe are improved
by ufe is incontrovertible ; but it is fo far from being
true that our fenfible pleafures become more exquifite
by being often repeated, that the dired contrary is ex¬
perienced of far the greater part of them 5 and though
external objeCls, by making repeated impreffions on the
fenfes, certainly leave deeper traces on the memory
than an objeft once perceived can do, it by no means
follows that thefe impreffions become the more delight¬
ful the more familiar that they are to us. That" we
learn to fuffer and enjoy as we learn any other fcience
is a moft extravagant paradox ; for it is felf-evident that
we cannot live without being capable in fome degree
both fuffering and enjoyment, though a man may
certainly live to old age in profound ignorance of all the
iciences.
'1 he fame writer affures us, indeed, that fenfation is
Philofophers (fays he)
make mention of a man who had loft every kind of feel-v
ing in every member of his body : he was pinched or
pricked to no purpofe. Meanwhile this man made ufe
of all his members 5 he walked without pain, he drank,
ate, and ftept, without perceiving that he did fo. Sen-
fible neither to pleafure nor plain, he was a true natural
machine.”
To the tale of thefe anonymous philofophers our au¬
thor gives implicit credit, whilft he favours us at the
fame inftant with the following argumentation, which
completely proves its falfehood. “ It is true that fen¬
fation is a relative quality, fufceptible of increafe and
diminution; that it is not neceflary to exiftence ; and
that one might live without it: but in this cafe he would
live as an automaton, without feeling pleafure or pain j
and he would poffefs neither idea, nor refleCfion, nor
defire, nor paffion, nor will, nor fentiment; his exiftence
would be merely paffive, he would live without know¬
ing it, and die without apprehenfion.”
But if this man of the philofophers, ■whom our author
calls an automaton, and a true natural machine, had nei¬
ther idea, nor dejire, nor pajjiun, nor will, nor fentiment
(and without fenfation he certainly could have none of
them), what induced him to walk, eat, or drink, or to
ceafe from any of thefe operations after they were ac¬
cidentally begun ? The inftances of the automata which
played on the flute and at chefs are not to the purpofe
for which they are adduced 5 for there is no parallel
between them and this natural machine, unlefs the phi¬
lofophers wound up their man to eat, drink, walk, or
fit, as Vacanfon and Kempeler wound up their automa¬
ta to play or ceafe from playing on the German flute
and at chefs. See AndROIDES.
Our author having for a wffiile {ported with thefe
karmlefs paradoxes, proceeds to put the credulity of his
reader to the teft with others of a very contrary ten¬
dency. He inftitutes an inquiry concerning the fupe-
riority, in number and degree, of the pleafures enjoyed
by the different orders of men in fociety 5 and labours,
not indeed by argument, but by loofe declamation, to
propagate the belief that happinefs is very unequally
diftributed. The pleafures of the rich, he fays, muft
be more numerous and exquifite than thofe of the poor j
the nobleman muft have more enjoyments than the ple¬
beian of equal wealth ; and the king, according to him,
muft be the happieft of all men. He owns, indeed, that
although “ birth, rank, honours, and dignity, add to
happinefs, a man is not to be confidered as miferable
becaufe he is born in the lower conditions of life. A man
may be happy as a mechanic, a merchant, or a labourer,
provided he enters into the fpirit of his profeffion, and
has not imbibed by a mifplaced education thofe fenti-
ments which make his condition infupportable. Hap¬
pinefs is of eafy acquifition in the middling Rations of
life ; and though perhaps we are unable to know or to
rate exa£ily the pleafure which arifes from contentment
and mediocrity, yet happinefs being a kind of aggre¬
gate of delights, of riches, and of advantages more or
lefs great, every perfon muft have a (hare of it *, the di-
vifion is not exactly made, but all other things equal,
there will be more in the elevated than in the inferior
conditions of fociety 5 the enjoyment will be more felt,
the means of enjoying more multiplied, and the plea-
Pleafur
fures more varied. Birth, rank,
fortune, talents, wit,
genius,
V L E l 649 ] F L E
'Fieafure genius, and virtue, are then the great fources of happi-
ne& : thofe advantages are fo considerable, that we fee
men contented with any one of them 3 but their union
forms fupreme felicity.
“ There is fo vaft a difference, fays Voltaire, between
a man who has made his fortune and one who has to
make it, that they are fcarcely to be confidered as crea¬
tures of the fame kind. The fame thing may be faid
of birth, the greatcft of all advantages in a large fo-
ciety 3 of rank, of honours, and of great abilities. How
great a difference is made between a perfon of high
birth and a tradefman 3 between a Newton or Defear-
tes and a Ample mathematician ? Ten thoufand foldiers
are killed on the field of battle, and it is fcarcely men¬
tioned 3 but if the general fall, and efpecially if he
be a man of courage and abilities, the court and city
are filled with the news of his death, and the mourning
is univerfal.
“ Frederick the Great, king of PrufTia, felt in a
more lively manner than perhaps any other man the
value of great talents. I would willingly renounce,
faid he to Voltaire, every thing which is an objebt of
dtfire and ambition to man; but I am certain if I were
not a prince I Ihould be nothing. Your merit alone,
would gain you the efleem, and envy, and admiration of
the world 3 but to fecure refpedt for me, titles, and ar¬
mies, and revenues, are abfolutely neceffary.”
For what purpofe this account of human happinefs
was publilhed, it becomes not us to fay. Its obvious
tendency is to make the lower orders of fociety difcon-
tented with their Hate, and envious of their fuperiors 3
and it is not unreafonable to fuppofe, that it contributed
infome degree to excite the ignorant part of the author’s
countrymen to the commiffionof thofe atrocities of which
they have fince been guilty. That fuch was his inten¬
tion, the following extrabl will not permit us to believe 3
for though in it the author attempts to fupport the fame
falfe theory of human happin'efs, he mentions virtuous
kings with the refpeft becoming a loyal fubjeft of the
unfortunate Louis, whofe charabler he feems to have in¬
tentionally drawn, and whofe death by the authority of
a lavage tadlion he has in effect foretold.
“ Happinefs, in a ftate of fociety, takes the moft va¬
riable forms: it is a Proteus fufceptible of every kind of
metamorphofis ; it is different in different men, in differ¬
ent ages, and in different conditions, &c. The pleafures
of youth are very different from thofe of old age : what
affords eniovment to a mechanic would be fupreme mi
fery to a nobleman : and the amufements of the country
would appear infipid in the capital. Is there then no
thing fixed with regard to happinefs ? Is it of all things
the moft variable and the moft arbitrary ? Or, in judg¬
ing of it, is it impoflibleto find a ftandard by which we
can determine the limits of the greateft good to which
man can arrive in the prefent ftate? It is evident that
men form the fame ideas of the beautiful and fublime in
nature, and of right and wrong in morality, provided
they have arrived at that degree of improvement and ci¬
vilization of which human nature is fufceptible 3 and that
different opinions on thefe fubjetffs depend on different
degrees of culture, of education, and of improvement.
The fame thing may be advanced with regard to happi¬
nefs : all men, if equal with refpeft to their organs,
Would form the very fame ideas on this fubjeH if they
reached the degree of improvement of which jve are pre-
Vol. XVI.1 Part II.
fently fpeaking 3 and in fad, do we not fee in the great Pleafure.
circles at Rome, at Vienna, at London, and at Paris, that
thofe who are called people of falhion, who have received
the fame education, have nearly the fametafte, the famo
defires, and the fame fpiritfor enjoyment? there is doubt-
lei's a certain degree of happinefs to be enjoyed in every
condition of life 3 but as there are fume conditions pre¬
ferable to others, fo are there degrees of happinefs greater
and lefs 3 and if we were to form an idea of the greateft:
poffible in the prefent ftate, it perhaps would be that of
a fovereign, mailer of a great empire, enjoying good
health and a moderate fpirit 3 endowed with piety and
virtue 3 whofe whole life was employed in a£ls of ju-
ftice and mercy, and who governed by fixed and im¬
moveable laws. Such a king is the image of the di¬
vinity on earth, and he muff be the idol of a wife-
people. His whole life thould prefent a picture of the
moil auguft felicity. Although fuch fovereigns ar6
rare, yet we are not without examples of them. An¬
cient hiitory affords us Titus and Marcus Aurelius, and
the prefent age can boait of piety and munificence in.
the character of fomc of its kings. This ftate of the
greateft happinefs to which man can reach not being-
ideal, it will ferve as a ftandard of comparifon by which
happinefs and mifery can be eftimated in all civilized
countries. He is as happy as a king, is a proverbial ex-
preflion, becaufe we believe with juftiee that ™yalty is
the extreme limit of the greateft enjoyments; and in.
finff, happinefs being the work of man, that condition
which comprehends all t!:«, degrees of power and of
glory, which is the fource of honour and of dignity,
and which fuppofes in the perfon inverted with it all
means of enjoyment either for himfelf or others, leaves
nothing on this earth to which any reafonable man
would give the preference.
“ We can find alfo in this high rank the extreme of
the greateft evils to which the condition of nature is ex-
pofed. A king condemned to death and perifhing on a
feaffold, by the authority of a fatftion, while at the
fame time he had endeavoured by every means in hie
power to promote the general happinefs of his fub-
jetls, is the moft terrible and ftriking example of human
mifery 3 for if it be true that a crown is the greateft of
all bleffings, then the lofs of it, and at the fame time
the lofs of life by an ignominious and unjuft: fentence,
are of all calamities the moft dreadful.
“ It is alfu in the courts of kings that we find the
moft: amiable and perfetl characters 3 and it is there
where true grandeur, true politenefs, the beft tone of
manners, the moft amiable graces, and the moft emi¬
nent virtues, are completely eftablilhed. It is in courts
tiiat men feem to have acquired their greateft improve¬
ment : WhofoeVer lias feen a court, fays La Bruyere,
has feen the world in the moft beautiful, the molt en¬
chanting, and attractive colours. The prejudices of
mankind in behalf of the great are fo exceflive, that if
they inclined to be good they would be almoft the ob¬
jects of adoration.”
In this paffage there are doubtlefs many juft obferva-
tions ; but there is at leaft an equal number of others
both falfe and dangerous. That a crown is the greateft:
of earthly bleftings, and that it is in the courts of kings
that wre meet with the moft amiable and perfeff: charac¬
ters, are pofitions which a true philofopher will not ad¬
mit but with great limitations. The falfehood of th©
4 N author’s
P L E [ 650 ] P L E
Pleafure. author’s general theory refpefHng the unequal diftribu-
tion of happinefs In fociety, ave need not wafte time in
expofing. It is fufficiently expofed in other articles of
this work, and in one of them by a writer of a very fu-
perior order (fee Happiness ; and MORAL FJiilofophy,
Part'll, chap. ii.). He enters upon other {peculations
refpeciting the pleafures and pains of favages, which are
ingenious and worthy of attention ; but before we pro¬
ceed to notice them, it will be proper to confider the
connection which fubfifls between pleafure and pain.
“ That the ceffation of pain is accompanied by plea-
r Dr Say- fure^ js a (fays a philofopher of the firft rank f)
which has been repeatedly obferved, but perhaps not
fufficiently accounted for. Let us fuppofe a perfon in a
ftate of indifference as to heat. Upon coming near a
fire, he will experience at firit an agreeable warmth, i. e.
pleafure. If the heat be increafed, this ftate of pleafure
will, after a time, be converted into one of pain, from
the increafed aftion upon the nerves and brain, the un¬
doubted organs of all bodily fenfations. Let the heat
now be gradually withdrawn, the nervous fyftem muft
acquire again, during this removal, the ftate of agree¬
able warmth or pleafure; and after palling through that
ftate it will arrive at. indifference. From this faff then
we may conclude, that a Hate of pleafure may be pufh-
ed on till it is converted into one of pain ; and, on the
other hand, that an affion which produces pain will, if
it go off gradually, induce at a certain period of its de-
ereafe a ftate of pleafure. The fame reafoning which
has thus been applied to the; body may be extended alfo
to the mind. Total languor of mind is not fo pleafant
as a certain degree of affion or emotion ; and emotions
pleafant at one period may be increafed till they become
painful at another \ whilft painful emotions, as they
gradually expire, will, at a certain period of their de-
creafe, induce a ftate of pleafure. Hence then we are
able to explain why pleafure Ihould arife in all cafes
from the gradual eeflation of any affion or emotion
which produces pain.”
The fame author maintains, that from the mere re¬
moval of pain, whether by degrees or inftantaneoufly,
we always experience pleafure *, and if the pain remo¬
ved was exquifite, what he maintains is certainly true.
To account for this phenomenon he lays down the fol¬
lowing law of, nature, which experience abundantly
confirms, viz. “ that the temporary withdrawing of any
affion from the body or mind invariably renders them
more fufceptible of that affion when again produced.”
Thus, after long failing, the body is more fufceptible of
the effeffs of food than if the ftomach had been lately
Satisfied 5 the affion of ftrong liquors is found to be
greater on thofe who ufe them feldom than on fuch as
are in the habit of drinking them. Thus, too, with re-
fpeff to the mind j if a perfon be deprived for a time of
his fiiend s fociety, or of a favourite amulement, the
next vifit of his friend, or the next renewal of his amufe-
ment, is attended with much more pleafure than if they
had never been withheld from him.
“ To apply this law to the cafe of a perfon fuddenly
relieved from acute pain. While he labours with fueh
pain, his mind is fo totally occupied by it, that he is
unable to attend to his euftomary purfuits or amufe-
ments._ He becomes therefore fo much more fufceptible
of their affion, that when they are again prefented to
ram, he is raifed above his ufual indifference to pofitive
pleafure. But all pains do not proceed from an excefs Pleahr jl
of affion. Many of them arile from reducing the body
or the mind to a ftate below indifference. Thus, if a
perfon have juft fufficient warmth in his1 body to keep
him barely at eafe or in a ftate of indifference, by with¬
drawing this heat, a ftate of uneafinefs or pain is pro¬
duced ; and if in a calm ftate of mind one be made ac¬
quainted with a melancholy event, his quiet is inter¬
rupted, and he finks below indifference,into a painful
ftate of mind. If now, without communicating any
new fource e>f pofttive pleafure, we remove in the former
cafe the cold, and in the latter the gnef, the perfons
from whom they are removed will experience real plea¬
fure. Thus, then, whether pain ariles from excefs or
deficiency of affion, the gradual or the fudden removal
of it muft be in all cafes attended with pleafure .It *
is equally true that the gradual or fudden removal of Oons J1
pleafure is attended with pain. tai^yfc\
We are now prepared to examine our French author’s^ 'q;|
account of the pleafures and pains of lavages. “ Every^’
age (fays he) has its different pleafures j but if we were
to imagine that thofe of childhood are equal to thofe of
confirmed age, we fhould be much miftaken in our efti-
mation of happinefs. The pleafures of philofophy, ei¬
ther natural or moral, are not unfolded to the infant ;
the moft perfeff mufic is a vain noii'e j the moft exqui¬
fite perfumes and difties highly feafoned offend his
young organs inftead of affording delight ; his touch is
imperfeff ; forty days elapfe before the child gives any
fign of laughter or of weeping j his cries and groans
before that period are not accompanied with tears ; his
countenance expreffes no paflion ^ the parts of his face
bear no relation to the fentiments of the foul, and are
moreover without confiftency. Children are but little
affeffed with cold; whether it be that they feel lefs, or
that the interior heat is greater than in adults. In them
all the impreflions of pleafure and pain are tranfitory y
their memory has fcarcely begun to unfold its powers 5.
they enjoy nothing but the prefent moment; they weep,
laugh, and give tones of fatisfaffion without confciouf-
nefs, or at leaft without refleffion •, their joy is confined
to the indulgence of their little whims, and conftraint is
the greateft of their misfortunes ; few things amufe, and
nothing fatisfies them. In this happy condition of early
infancy nature is at the whole expence of happinefs y
and the only point is not to contradiff her. What de-.
fires have children ? Give them liberty in all their
movements, and they have a plenitude of exiftence, an.
abundance of that kind of happinefs which is confined in
fome fort to all the objeffs which furround them : but if
all beings were happy on the fame conditions, fociety
would be at no expence in procuring the happinefs of
the different individuals who compofe it. Senfation is
the foundation of refleffion y it is the principal attribute
of the foul; it is by this that man is elevated to fublime
fpeculations, and fecures his dominion over nature and
himfelf. This quality is not ftationary, but fufeeptible^
like all other relative qualities, of increafe and decay,
of different degrees of ftrength and intenfenefs : it is
different in different men j and in the fame man it in-
creafes from infancy to youth, from youth to confirmed
manhood : at this period it flops, and gradually declines
as we proceed to old age and to fecond ehildifhnefs.
Confidered phyfically, it varies according to age, con-
ftitution, climate, and food y confidered in a moral point
- of
lea fur?.
PL E [ 65
of view, It takes its different appearances from indivi¬
dual education, and from the habits of fociety j for man
in a Hate of nature and fociety, with regard to fenfation
and the unfolding of his powers, may be confidex-ed as
two diftinft beings : and if one were to make a calcu¬
lation of pleafure in the courfe of human life, a man of
fortune and capacity enjoys more than ten thoufand fa-
vages.
“ Pieafure and pain being relative qualities, they may
be almoft annihilated in the mo'..* nt of vehement paf-
fion. In the heat of battle, for example, ardent and
animated fpirits have not felt the pain of their wounds j
and minds ftrongly penetrated with fentiments of reli¬
gion, enthufiafm, and humanity, have fupported the
moil cruel torments with courage and fortitude. The
fenfibility of fome perfons is fo exquifitely alive, that
one can fcarcely approach them without throwing them
into convullions. Many difeafes fhow the effect of fen-
fibility pufhed to an extreme*, fueh as hyfterie affections,
certain kinds of madnefs, and fome of thofe which pro¬
ceed from poifon, and from the bite or fling of certain
animals, as the viper and the tarantula. Exceffive joy
or grief, fear and terror, have been known to deflroy all
fenfation, and occafion death (a).”
Having made thefe preliminary obfervations on plea¬
fure and pain in infancy, and as they are increafed or
diminiihed by education, and the different conditions of
body and mind, our author proceeds to confider the ca¬
pability of favages to feel pleafure and pain. “By fa-
vages he underltands all the tribes of men who live by
hunting and fithing, and on thofe things which the
earth yields without cultivation. Thofe tribes who pof-
fefs herds of cattle, and who derive their fubfiitence
from fueh poffeffions, are not to beconfidered as favages,
as they have fome idea of property. Some favages are
naturally compaffionate and humane, others are cruel
and fanguinary. Although the phyfical conftitution of
man be everywhere the fame, yet the varieties of cli¬
mate, the abundance or fearcity of natural productions,
have a powerful influence to determine the inclinations;
even the fiercenefs of the tiger is foftened under a mild
Iky. Now nature forms the manners of favages juft as
fociety and civil inftitutions form the manners of civili¬
zed life. In the one cafe climate and food produce al¬
moft the whole effeCt *, in the other they have fcarcely
any influence. The habits of fociety every moment
contend with nature, and they are almoft always victo¬
rious. The favage devotes himfelf to the dominion of
his paftions ; the civilized man is employed in reftrain-
ing, in directing, and in modifying them : fo much in¬
fluence have government, laws, fociety, and the fear of
eenfure and punifhment, over his foul.
i ] P L E
“ It is not to be doubted that favages are fufceptible
both of pleafure and pain; but are the impreflions made
on their organs as fenfible, or do they feel pain in the
fame degree with the inhabitants of a civilized coun¬
try ?
“ I heir enjoyments are fo limited, that if we confine
ourfelves to truth, a few lines will be fufficient to de-
Icribe them : our attention muft therefore be confined to
pain, becaufe the manner in which they fupport misfor¬
tune, and even torture, prefents us with a view of cha-
rafter unequalled in the hiftory of civilized nations. It
is not uncommon in civilized countries to fee men bra¬
ving death, meeting it with cheerfulnefs, and even not
uttering complaints under the torture ; but they do not
infult the executioners of public vengeance, and defy
pain in order to augment their torments; and thofe who
are condemned by the laws fuffer the punifhment with
different degrees of fortitude. On thofe mournful oc-
cafions, the common ranks of mankind in general die
with lels firmnefs : thofe, on the other hand, who have
received education, and who, by a train of unfortunate
events are brought to the fcaffold, whether it be the
fear of being reproached with cowardice, or the confi-
deration that the ftroke is inevitable, fuch men difcover
the expiring fighs of felf-love even in their laft mo¬
ments ; and thofe efpecially of high rank, from their
manners and fentiments, are expeCted to meet death
with magnanimity : but an American favage in the mo¬
ment of punifhment appears to be more than human ; he
is a herd of the firft order, who braves his tormentors,
who provokes them to employ all their art, and who
confiders as his chief glory to bear the greatefl degree
of pain without Ihrinking (fee America, N° 14, 27,
28, 29.). The recital of their tortures would appear
exaggerated, if it were not attefted by the beft autho¬
rity, and if the favage nations among whom thofe cu-
ftoms are eftablifhed were not fufficiently known ; but
the excefs of the cruelty is not fo aftoniftiing as the cou¬
rage of the victim. The European expofed to fufferings
of the fame dreadful nature would rend heaven and earth
with his piercing cries and horrible groans ; the reward
of martyrdom, the profpeft of eternal life, could alone
give him fortitude to endure fuch torments ; but the fa¬
vage is not animated with this exalted hope. Whatfup-
ports him then in feenes of fo exquifite fuffering ? The
feeling of fhame, the fear of bringing reproach on his
tribe, and giving a llain to his fellows never to be wiped
awav, are the only fentiments which inftuence the mind
of a favage, and which always prefent to his imagina¬
tion, animate him, fupport him, and lend him fpirit and
refolution. At the lame time, however powerful thofe
motives may be, they would not be alone fufficient, if
4 N 2 the
Pleafiire,
(a) There are inftances of perfons who have died at the noife of thunder without being touched. A man
frightened with the fall of a gallery in which he happened to be, was immediately feized with the black jaundice.
M. le Cat mentions a young perfon on whom the infolence of another made fuch an impreffion, that his counte¬
nance became at firft yellow, and then changed into black, in fuch a manner that in lefs than eight days he ap¬
peared to wear a mafle of black velvet: he continued in this Hate for four months, without any other fymptom of
bad health or any pain. A failor was fo terrified in a rtorm, that his face fweated blood, which like ordinary
fweat returned as it was wiped off. Stahl, whofe teftimony cannot be called in queftion, cites a fimilar cafe of a
girl who had been frightened with Ibldiers. The excefs of fear, according to many phyficians, produces madnefs
and epilepfy.
F L E t 6s
gieafure. the favage felt pain in the fame degree with the Euro-
~-~y—— peari> Senfibility, as we have already obferved, is in-
creafed by education j it is influenced by fociety, man¬
ners, laws, and government ; climate and food work it
into a hundred different fliapes ; and all the phyfical and
moral caufes contribute to increafe and diminilh it. The
habitual exiftence of a favage would be a flate of fuffer-
ing to an inhabitant of Europe. You muff cut the flelh
of the one and tear it away with your nails, before you
can make him feel in an equal degree to a fcratch or
prick of a needle in the other. The favage, doubtlefs,
fuffers under torture, but he fuffers much lefs than an
European in the fame cjrcumftances : the reafon is ob¬
vious •, the air which the favages breathe is loaded with
fog and moifl; vapours ; their rivers not being confined
by high banks, are by the winds as well as in floods
fpread over the level fields, and depofit on them a putrid
and pernicious flime •, the trees fqueezed one upon an¬
other, in that rude and uncultivated country ferve ra¬
ther as a covering to the earth than an ornament. In-
ffead of thofe frefli and delicious (hades, thofe openings
In the woods, and walks crofling each other in all direc¬
tions, which delight the traveller in the fine forells of
France and Germany ; thofe in America ferve only to
Intercept the rays of the fun, and to prevent the benign
influence of his beams. The favage participates of this
•old humidity *, his blood has little heat, his humours
are grofs, and his conftitution phlegmatic. To the
powerful influence of climate, it is neceffary to join the
habits of his life Obliged to traverfe vaft deferts for
fubfiftence, his body is accuftomed to fatigue ; food not
nourifhing, and at the fame time in no great plenty,
blunts his feelings ; and all the hardfhips of the favage
flate give a rigidity to his members which makes him
almoft incapable of fuffering. The favage in this (late
of nature may be compared to our water-women and
ftreet-porters, who, though they poffefs neither great
vigour nor ftrength, are capable of performing daily,
and without complaint, that kind of labour which to a
man in a different condition of life would be a painful
and grievous burden. Feeling, in lefs perfe£tion with
the favage, by the effedls of climate and food, and the
habits of his life, is dill farther reftrained by moral con-
fiderations. The European is lefs a man of nature than
of fociety : moral reilraints are powerful with him j
while over the American they have fcarcely any in¬
fluence. This latter then is in a double condition of
imperfe&ion with regard to us ; his fenfes are blunted,
and his moial powers are not difclofed. Now, pleafure,
and pain depending on the perfection of the fenfes and
the unfolding of the intellectual faculties, it cannot be
doubted, that in enjoyments of any kind favages expe¬
rience lefs pleafure, and in their fuffering lefs pain, than
Europeans in the fame circumftances. And in faCt, the
favages of America poffefs a very feeble conftitution.
They are agile without being ftrong; and this agility
depends more on their habits than on the perfection of
their members : they owe it to the neceflitv of hunting •,
and they are moreover fo weak, that they were unable
to bear the toil which their firft oppreffors impofed on
them. Hence a race of men in all refpeCts fo imperfeCt
could not endure torment under which the molt robuft
European would fink, if the pain which they feel were
rteally as great as it appears to be. Feeling is then, and
4
1
P L E
mult neeeffariiy be, lefs in the favage condition •, for Pleafuiy
this faculty difclofing itfelf by the exercife of all the 'T-*
phyfieal and moral qualities, mutt be lefs as they are lefs
exercifed. Every thing (hows the imperfection of this
precious quality, this fource of all our affeCtions, in the
American lavages.
“ All the improvements in Europe have had a ten¬
dency to unfold fenfibility: the air is purified that we
may breathe more freely ; the moraffes are drained, the
rivers are, regulated in their courfes, the food is nourifh*
ing, and the houfes commodious. With the favages, on
the contrary, every thing tends to curb it ; they take
pleafure even in hardening the organs of the body, in
accuftoming themfelves to bear by degrees the mod
acute pain without complaining. Eoys and girls among
the favages amufe themfelves with tying their naked
arms together, and laying a kindled coal between them,
to try which of them can longed differ the heat ; and
the warriors who afpire to the honour of being chief,
undergo a courfe of differing which exceeds the idea
of torture inflicted on the greated criminals in Eu¬
rope.”
Thefe obfervations on the pleafures and pains of fa¬
vages appear to be well-founded, and, as the attentive
reader will perceive, are perfectly agreeable to the the¬
ory of Dr Sayers. If indeed that theory be jud, as we
believe it to be, it will follow, that the few pleafures of
fenfe which the American enjoys, he ought to enjoy
more completely than any European, becaufe to him
they recur but feldom. This may very poflibly be the
cafe j and certainly would be fo, were not his fibres, by
climate and the habits of his life, rendered more rigid
than thofe of the civilized part of the inhabitants of Eu¬
rope. But if we agree with our author * in what he * Encytk
fays of the pains and pleafures of favages, we cannot ad- ped:e Me
mit, without many exceptions, his theory of the enjoy- tf}*Mque,
ments of children. It is fo far from being true, that
few things aroufe, and that nothing fatisfies them, thatfique,
the direCt contrary mud have been obferved by every Morale,
man attentive to the operations of the infant mind, tom,‘v
which is amufed with every thing new, and often com¬
pletely fatisfied with the mered trifle. The pleafures
of philofophy are not indeed unfolded to the infant •,
but it by no means follows that he does not enjoy his
rattle and his drum as much as the philofopher enjoys
his telefcope and air-pump ; and if there be any truth in
the fcience of phyfiognomy, the happinefs of the former
is much more pure and exquifite than that of the latter.
That the mo(t perfeCt mufic is vain noife to an infant,
is far from being felf-evident, unlefs the author confines
the (late of infancy to a very few months ; and we are
not difpofed to believe, without better proof than we
have yet received, that the relifh of exquifite perfumes-
and highly-feafoned difhes adds much to the fum of hu¬
man felicity. <--
But however much we difapprove of many of thefe
reflections, the following we cordially adopt as our own.
“ If we compare ((ays our author) the pleafures of
fenfe with thofe which are purely intellectual, we (hall
find that the latter are infinitely fuperior to the former,
as they may be enjoyed at all times and in every fitua-
tion of life. What are the pleafures of the table, fays
Cicero, of gaming, and of women, compared with the
delight of dudy ? This tade increafes with age, and no
bappinefe
P L E [65
afure. liappinefs is equal to it. Without knowledge andlludy,
Y~~~ fays Cato, life is almoft the image of death (a). The
pleafures of the foul are fuch, that it is frequent enough
to fee men preferve their gaiety during their whole life,
notwithftanding a weak, difeafed, and debilitated body.
Scaron, who lived in the laft century, was an ex¬
ample of this. Balzac, fpeaking of him, fays, that Pro¬
metheus, Hercules, and Philodletes, in profane, and
Job in facred, hiilory, faid many great tilings while they
were afflidted with violent pain *, but Scaron alone
faid pleafant things. I have feen, continues he, in ma¬
ny places of ancient -hiftory, conilancy, and modeily,
and wifdora, and eloquence, accompanying afflidlion ;
but he is the only inftance wdierein I have feen plea-
fantry.
“ There are men wdiofe underilandings are confrantly
on the ilretch, and by this very means they are impro¬
ved ; but if the body were as conftantly employed in
the purfuit of fenfual gratification, the conftitution
would foon be deilroyed. The more we employ the
mind we are capable of the greater exertion ; but the
more we employ the body we require the greater re-
pofe. There are befides but fume parts of the body
capable of enjoying pleafure; every part ot it can expe¬
rience pain. A toothach occafions more fuffering than
the moft confiderable of our pleafures can procure of en¬
joyment. Great pain may continue for any length of
time; exceffive pleafures are almoft momentary. Plea-
fure carried to an extreme becomes painful ; but pain,
either by augmenting or diminiftiing it, never becomes
agreeable. For the moment, the pleafures of the fenfes
are perhaps more fatisfadlory ; but in point of duration
thofe of the heart and mind are infinitely preferable.
All the fentiments of tendernefs, of friendfhip, of gra¬
titude, and of generofity, are fources of enjoyment for
man in a ftate of civilization. The damned are exceed¬
ingly unhappy, faid St Catherine de Sienna, if they are
incapable of loving or being beloved.
“ Pleafure, continued for a great length of time, pro¬
duces languor and fatigue, and excites lleep; the con¬
tinuation of pain is produdtive of none of thefe effedls.
Many fuffer pain for eight days and even a month with¬
out interruption ; an equal duration of exceflive pleafure
would oecalion death.
“ Time is a mere relative idea with regard to pleafure
and pain ; it appears long when we fuffer, and (hort
when we enjoy. If there exifted no regular and uniform
movement in nature, we w’ould not be able from our
fenfations alone to meafure time with any degree of ex-
a&nefs, for pain lengthens and pleafure abridges it.
From the languor of unoccupied time has arifen the pro¬
verb expreftive of our defire to kill it. It is a melan¬
choly refledlion, and at the fame time true, that there
is no enjoyment which can cffedfually fecure us from
pain for the remainder of our lives ; while there are ex¬
amples of evils which hold men in conftant forrow and
3 1
P L E
pain during their whole exiftence. Such then is the ‘ Pi«fure.
imperfection of the one and the power of the other. ^ "
“ Plealure and pain are the fources of morality ; an
a£lion is juft or unjuft, good or otherwife, only as its
natural tendency is to produce fuffering or enjoyment
to mankind. No crime could be committed againft a
being altogether infenlible, nor could any good be be¬
llowed on it. Unlels he were endowed with the defire
of pleafure and the apprehenfion of pain, man, like an
automaton, would a£t from neceftity, without choice and
without determination.
“ All our paflions are the developement of fenfibility.
If we were not poffefled of feeling, we thould be defti-
tute of pafiions; and as fenfibility is augmented by ci¬
vilization, the paftions are multiplied ; more aftive and
vigorous in an extenfive and civilized empire than in a
fmall ftate ; more in the latter than among barbarous
nations ; and more in thefe laft than among i'avages (fee
Passion). There are more paffions in France and ^
England than in all the nations of Europe ; becaufe
every thing which ferves to excite and fofter them is al¬
ways in thofe countries in the greateft ftate of fermenta¬
tion. The mind is aflive ; the ideas great, extenfive,
and multiplied. And is it not the foul, the mind, and
heart, which are the focus of all the paftions r”
But wherever the paflions are multiplied, the fources
of pleafure and pain are multiplied with them. This
being the cafe, it is irapoflible to preferibe a fixed and
general rule of happinefs fuited to every individual.
There are objeffs of pleafure with regard to which all
men of a certain education are agreed ; but there arc
perhaps many more, owing to the variety of tempers
and education, about which they differ. Every man
forms ideas of enjoyment relative to his charafler ; and
what pleafes one may be utterly detefted by another.
In proportion as a nation is civilized and extenfive, thofe
differences are remarkable. Savages, who are not ac¬
quainted with all the variety of European pleafures,
amufe themfelves with very few objefls. Owing to the
want of civilization, they have fcarcely any choice in
the objedls of tafte. They have few paflions ; wre have
many. But even in the nations of Europe pleafure is
infinitely varied in its modification and forms. Thofe
differences arife from manners, from governments, from
political and religious cuftoms, and chiefly from educa¬
tion. Meanwhile, however different and variable the
ideas of pleafure may be among nations and individuals,
it dill remains a fa61, that a certain number of perfons
in all civilized ftates, whether diftinguifhed by birth, or
rank, or fortune, or talents, as they have nearly the
fame education fo they form nearly the fame ideas of
happinefs : but to poffefs it a man muft give his chief ap¬
plication to the ftate of his mind ; and notwithftanding
all his efforts it is of uncertain duration. Happinefs is
the funfhine of life : we enjoy it frequently at great in¬
tervals-; and it is therefore neceflary to know how to
ufe
(b) “ Savages, barbarians, and peafants, enjoy little happinefs except that of fenfation. The happinefs of a ci¬
vilized and well-informed man confrfts of fenfations. of ideas, and of a great number of affinities, altogether un¬
known to them. He not only enjovs the prefent, but the paft and the future. He recals the agreeable idea of;
pleafures which he hastafied. It’is great happinef-, fays an ancient, to have the recolle&ion of good actions, of
fin upright intention, and of promifes which we have kept.”
;
P L E [ 654 ] P L E
flcafure xtfe It. All the productions of art perifli; the largeft
e fortunes are ditfipated ; rank, honour, and dignity, pafs
^" . away like a deeting (hadovv j the memory is impaired $
all the faculties of the foul are extinguilhed the body
links under the infirmities of old age ; and fearcely has
one reached the boundaries of happinefs marked out by
his imagination, when he muft give place to another,
and renounce all his pheafures, all his hopes, all his illa¬
tions ; the fugitive images of which had given happinefs
to the mind.
There are pleafures, however, on which the mind may
fecurely reft, which elevate man above himfelf, dignify
his nature, fix his attention on fpiritual things, and ren¬
der him worthy of the care of Providence. Thefe are
to be found in true religion ; which procures for thofe
who praCtife its duties inexpreflible happinefs in a better
country, and is in this world the fupport of the weak,
and the fweet confolation of the unfortunate.
PLEBEIAN, any perfon of the rank of the com¬
mon people. It is chiefly ufed in fpeaking of the an¬
cient Romans, who were divided into fenators, patrici¬
ans, and plebeians. The diflinftion was made by Ro¬
mulus the founder of the city ; who confined all digni¬
ties, civil, military^ and facerdotal, to the rank of pa¬
tricians. But to prevent the feditions which fuch a dif-
tinftion might produce through the pride of the higher
order and the envy of the lower, he endeavoured to en¬
gage them to one another by reciprocal ties and obliga¬
tions. Every plebeian was allowed to choofe, out of
the body of the patricians, a proteftor, who fliould be
obliged to affifl him with hisintereft and fubftance, and
to defend him from oppreffion. Thefe proteftors were
called patrons ; the protected, clients. It was the duty
of the patron to draw up the contra&s of the clients, to
extricate them out of their difficulties and perplexities,
and to guard their ignorance againft the artfulnefs of the
crafty. On the other hand, if the patron was poor, his
clients were obliged to contribute to the portions of his
daughters, the payment of his debts, and the ranfom of
him and his children if they happened to be taken in
war. The client and patron could neither accufe nor
bear witnefs againft each other ; and if either of them
was convi&ed of having violated this law, the crime
was equal to that of treafon, and any one might with
impunity Hay the offender as a viftim devoted to Pluto
and the infernal gods. For more than 600 years we
find no diffenfions or jealoufies between the patrons and
their clients; not even in the times of the republic,
when the people frequently mutinied againft the great
and powerful.
PLEC TRANTHUS, a genus of plants belonging
to the didynamia clafs ; and in the natural method
ranking under the ^2d order, Verticillatce. See Botany
Index.
PLEDGE (P/e?ius), in common law, a furety or
gage, either real or perfonal, which the plaintiff or de¬
mandant is to find for his profecuting the fuit.
The word is fometimes alfo ufed for FRANK Pledge
which fee. 5 ’
To Pledge, in drinking, denotes to warrant, or be
furety to one, that he fliall receive no harm while he is
taking his draught. The phrafe is referred by antiqua¬
ries to the praaice of the Danes heretofore in Eng¬
land, who frequently ufed to ftab or cut the throats of
the natives while they were drinking.
PLEDGES of Goods for money. See Pawn. py
PLEDGERY, or Pleggery, in Law, furetilhip, H51
or an undertaking or anfwering for another. pknus,
PLEDGET, Bolster, or Comprefs, in Surgery,
kind of flat tent laid over a wound, to imbibe the fuper-
fluous humours, and to keep it clean.
PLEIADES, in fabulous hiftory, the feven daugh¬
ters of Atlas king of Mauritania and Pleione, were thus
called from their mother. They were Maia, Eleftra,
Taygete, Afterope, Merope, Halcyone, and Celoeno ;
and were alfo called At/antides, from their father Atlas.
Thefe princeffes were carried off by Bufiris king of
Egypt; but Hercules having conquered him, delivered
them to their father : yet they afterwards fuffered a new
perfecution from Orion, who purfued them five years,
till Jove, being prevailed on by their prayers, toak them
up into the heavens, where they form the conflellation
which bears their name.
Pleiades, in AJlronomy, an affemblage of feven ftars,
in the neck of the conftellation Taurus.
They are thus called from the Greek navigure,
“ to fail as being terrible t® mariners, by reafon of
the rains and ftorms that frequently rife with them.
The Latins called them vergilice, from ver, “ fpring
becaufe of their riling about the time of the vernal equi¬
nox. The largeft is of the third magnitude, and is cal¬
led lucida pleiadum.
PLENARY, fomething complete or full. Thus we
fay the pope grants plenary indulgences ; i. e. full and
entire remiftions of the penalties due to all fins. See In¬
dulgences.
PLENIPOI ENTIARY, a perfon veiled with full
power to do any thing. See Ambassador.
PLENITUDE, the quality of a thing that is full,
or that fills another. In medicine, it chiefly denotes a
redundancy of blood and humours.
PLENUM, in Pftyjics, denotes, according to the
Cartefians, that ftate of things wherein every part of
fpace is fuppofed to be full of matter, in oppofition to
a Vacuum, which is a fpace fuppofed devoid of all
matter.
PLENUS Fi,os, a full flower ; a term exprelfive of
the higheft degree of luxuriance in flowers. See Bo-
TANY. Such flowers, although the moft delightful to
the eye, are both vegetable monitors, and, according
to the fexualills, vegetable eunuchs ; the unnatural in-
creafe of the petals conllituting the firft ; the confequent
exclulion of the ftamina or male organs, the latter.
The following are well-known examples of flowers with
more petals than one ; r-anunculus, anemone, marlh-
marygold, columbine, fennel-flower, poppy, paeony,
pink, gilliflower, campion, vifcous campion, lily, crown
imperial, tulip, narciffus, rocket, mallow, Syrian mal¬
low, apple, pear, peach, cherry, almond, myrtle, rofe,
and ftrawberry. ^
Flowers with one petal are not fo fubjeft to fullnefs.
The following, however, are inftances : polyanthus, hy¬
acinth, primrofe, crocus, meadow-faffron, and thorn-
apple ; though Kramer has afferted that a full flower
with one petal is a contradiftion in terms. In flowers
with one petal, the mode of luxuriance, or impletion,
is by a multiplication of the divifions of the limb or up¬
per part; in flowers with more petals than one, by a
multiplication of the petals or ne£tarium.
T« take a few examples. Columbine is rendered full
ife
P L E
emis. in three diiFerent ways: by the multiplication of its
petals, and total exclufion of the neftaria ; 2. By the
multiplication of the ne&aria, and exclufion of the pe¬
tals; or, 3. By fuch an increafe of the ne&aria only as
does not exclude the petals, between each of which are
interje&ed three nedaria, placed one within another.
Again, fennel-tlower is rendered full by an increafe of
the ne&aria only; narciffus, either by a multiplication
of its cup and petals, or of its cup only ; larkfpur com¬
monly by an increafe of the petals and exclufion of the
fpur, which is its ne&arium. In faponaria concava an-
glia the impletion is attended with the Angular effefl:
of incorporating the petals, and reducing their number
from five to one; and in gelder-rofe, the luxuriance is
effe&ed by an increafe both in magnitude and number
of the circumference or margin of the head of dowers,
in the plain, wheel-fhaped, barren dorets; and an exclu¬
fion of all the bell-draped hermaphrodite dorets of the
centre or dilk.
Hitherto we have treated of plenitude in fimple dow¬
ers only: the indance juft now adduced feems to connect
the different modes of impletion in them and compound
dowers. Before proceeding farther, however, it will
not be improper to premife, that as a fimple luxuriant
dower is frequently, by beginners, miftaken for a com¬
pound dower in a natural ftate, fuch dowers may always
bediftinguidred with certainty by this rule: That in fim¬
ple dowers, however luxuriant, there is but one piftillum
or female organ ; whereas in compound dowers, each
doret, or partial dower, is furnifhed with its own proper
piftillum. Thus in hawk-weed, a compound dower,
each dat or tongue-diaped doret in the aggregate has its
five ftamina and naked feed, which laft is in effe£t its
piftillum; whereas, in a luxuriant lychnis, which is a
fimple dower, there is found only one piftillum or female
organ common to the whole.
In a compound radiated dower, which generally con-
fifts of plain dorets in the margin or radius, and tubular
or hollow dorets in the centre or difc, plenitude is ef¬
fected either by an increafe of the dorets in the margin,
and a total exclufion of thole in the difc; which mode of
luxuriance is termed impletion by the radius, and refem-
bles what happens in the gelder-rofe: or by an elonga¬
tion of the hollow dorets in the centre, and a lefs pro¬
found divifion of their brims; which is termed impletion
of the difc. In the firft mode of luxuriance, the dorets
m the centre, which are always hermaphrodite or male,
are entirely excluded; and in their place fucceed dorets
fimilar in fex to thofe of the radius. Now as the dorets
in the margin of a radiated compound dower are found
to be always either female, that is, furnilhed with the
piftillum only; or neuter, that is, furniftied with neither
ftamina nor piftillum; it is evident, that a radiated com¬
pound dower, filled by the radius, will either be entire¬
ly female, as in feverfew, daify, and African marigold;
or entirely neuter, as in fun-dower, marygold, and cen¬
taury: hence it will always be eafy to diftinguidi fuch a
luxuriant dower from a compound dower with plain do-
rots in a natural ftate; as thefe dowers are all herma*
phrodite, that is, furniftied with both ftamina and piftil¬
lum. Thus the full flowers of African marigold have
each floret furnifhed with the piftillum or female organ
only: the natural flowers of dandelion, which, like the
former, is compofed of plain florets, are furniftied with
ooth ftamina and piftillum..
P L E
In the fecond mode of luxuriance, termed impletion by Henna
the difc, the florets in the margin fometimes remain un- . N
changed: but moft commonly adopt the figure of thofe Heihoia
in the centre, without, however, fuffering any alteration
in point oi fex; fo that confufion is lefs to be apprehend¬
ed trom this mode of luxuriance than from the former;
befides the length to which the florets in the centre run
out is of itfelf a fuflicient diftindtion, and adapted to ex¬
cite at once an idea of luxuriance. Daily, feverfew, and
African marigold, exhibit inftances of this as well as of
the former mode of impletion.
In luxuriant compound flowers with plain florets, the
femiflofculofi of Tournefort, the Itigma or fummit of the
ftyle in each floret is lengthened, and the feed-buds are
enlarged and diverge; by which charafters loch flowers
may always be diftinguilhed from flowers of the fame
kind in a natural ftate. Scorzonera, nipple-wort, and
goat’s-beard, furnilh frequent inftances of the plenitude
alluded to.
Laftly, the impletion of compound flowers with tu¬
bular or hollow florets, the Jlofculoji of Tournefort, feems
to obferve the fame rules as that of radiated flowers juft
delivered. In everlafling-flower, the xeranthemum of
Linnasus, the impletion is lingular, being effeded by the
enlargement andexpanfion of the inward chaffy fcales of
the calyx. Thefe Icales, which become coloured, are
greatly augmented in length, fo as to overtop the florets,
which are fcarce larger than thofe of the fame dower in
a natural date. The dorets too in the margin, which
in the natural flower are female, become, by luxuriance,
barren; that is, are deprived of the piftillum; the ftyle,
which was very Ihort, fpreads, and is of the length of
the chaffy fcales; and its fummits, formerly two in num¬
ber, are metamorphofed into one.
Full flowers are more eafily referred to their refpeftive
genera in methods founded upon the calyx, as the flower-
cup generally remains unaffedltd by this higheft degree
of luxuriance.
PLEONASM, a figure in Rhetoric, whereby we ufe
words feemingly fuperfluous, in order to exprefs a thought
with the greater energy; fuch as, “ 1 law it with my
own eyes,” &c. See Oratory, N° 67.
PLESCOW, a town of Ruflia, capital of a duchy of
the fame name, with an archbilhop’s fee, and a ftrong
caftle. It is a large place, and divided into four parts,
each of which is furrounded with walls. It is feaitd on
the river Muldow, where it falls into the lake Plefcow,
80 miles fouth of Narva, and 1 50 fouth by weft of Pe-
terlburg. E. Long. 27. 52. N. Lat. 57. 58.
Plescow, a duchy in Ruflia, between the duchies of
Novogorod, Lithuania, Livonia, and Ingria.
PLESSLS-les-Tours, formerly a royal palace of
France, within half a league of Tours. It was built by
Louis XL and in it he died in the year 1483. Itisfi-
tuated in a plain furrounded by woods, at a fmall dif-
tance from the Loire. The building is yet handfome,
though built of brick, and converted to purpofes of com¬
merce.
PLETHORA, in Medicine, from ttMQos, “ pleni¬
tude.” A plethora is when the veffels are too much
loaded with fluids. The plethora may be fanguine or fe-
rous. In the firft there is too much craffamentum in the
blood, in the latter too little. In the fanguine plethora,
there is danger of a fever, inflammation, apoplexy, rup¬
ture of the blood-veffels, obftrufted fecretions, &c.': in
the.
t 655 ]
P L E [6.
Plctliora tlie foous, of a dropfy, Sec. A rarefa£Hon of the blood
il produces all the eftects a plethoict; it may accompany
a plethora, and Ihould be dittinguHhed thereirom. Mr
Bromfield obferves, that a langume plethora may thus
be known to be prefent by the pulfe. An artery over¬
charged with blood is as incapable ot producing a llrong
full pulfe, as one that contains a deficient quantity ; in
both cafes there will be a low and weak pulfe. To dif-
tinguitli rightly, the pulfe mutt not be felt with one or
two fingers on the carpal artery ; but if three or four
fingers cover a confiderable length of the artery, and we
preis hard for feme time on it, and then fuddenly raife
all thefe fingers except that which is nearett to the pa¬
tient’s hand, the influx of the blood, if there is a ple¬
thora, will be fo rapid as to raife the other finger, and
make us fenfible of the fulnefs. The fanguine plethora
is relieved by bleeding: the ferous by paging, diuretics,
and fweating. See Medic IKE Index.
PLEURA, in Anatomy, a thin membrane covering
the in fide of the thorax. See Anatomy Index.
PLEURITIS, or Pleurisy. See Medicine In¬
dex.
PLEURONECTES, a genus of filhes belonging to
the order of thoracici. See Ichthyology Index.
PLEURS, a town in France, which was buried un¬
der a mountain in the year 1618. Of this fatal circum-
ilancc, Bifhop Burnet, in his travels, p. 96. gives the
following account. “ Having mentioned (fays the Bi-
ihop) feme falls of mountains in thefe parts (viz. near
the Alps), I cannot pafs by the extraordinary fate of the
town of Pleurs, about a league from Chdvennes to the
north.—The town was half the bignefs of Chavennes, but
much more nobly built j for, befides the great palace of
the Francken, that colt feme millions, there were many
other palaces built by rich factors both of Milan and the
other parts of Italy, who, liking the fifuation and air,
as well as the freedom of the government, gave thera-
felves all the indulgencies that a vaft wealth could fur-
niili By one of the palaces that was a little dillant
from the town, and was not overwhelmed with it, one
may judge of the reft. It was an out-houfe of the fami¬
ly of the Francken, and yet it may compare with many
palaces in Italy. The voluptuoufnefs of this place be¬
came very crying •, and Madame de Sails told me that
£he heard her mother often relate feme paffages of a Pro-
teftant minifter’s fermons that preached in a little church
there, who warned them often of the terrible judgments
of God which were hanging over their heads, and which
he believed would fuddenly break out upon them.
“ On the 25th of Auguft 1618, an inhabitant came
and told me to be gone, for he faw the mountains cleav¬
ing ; but he was laughed at for his pains. He had a
daughter whom he perfuaded to leave all and go with
him •, but when ftie was fafe out of town, ftie called to
mind that five had not locked the door of a room in which
Hie had feme things of value, and fo (lie went back to do
that, and ^vas buried with the reft ; for at the hour of
fupper the hill fell down, and buried the town and all
the inhabitants, to the number of 22CO, fo that not one
perfon efcaped. The fall of the mountains did fo fill the
channel of the river, that the firft news thofe of Chaven-
ne.s had of it was by the failing of their river ; /or three
or four hours there came not a drop of water, but the
river wrought for itfelf a new courfe, and returned to
them.
6 ] P L I
“ I could hear no particular charafter of the man who
efcaped (continues the Biftiop) , fo I rauft leave the fe- || '
cret reafon of fo Angular a prefervation to the great dif- Eimpt(
Covery, at the laft day, of thofe fteps of Divine Provi-
denee that are now fe unaccountable. Some of the fa¬
mily of the Francken, got feme miners to work under
ground, to find out the wealth that was buiied in their
houfe; for, betides their plate and furniture, there was
a great deal of cath and many jewels in the houfe. The
miners pretended they could find nothing ; but they
went to their country of Tyrol and built fine houfes, and
a great wealth appeared, of which no other vifible ac¬
count could be given but this, that they had found feme
of that treafure.”
PLEXUS, among anatomifts, a bundle of fmall vef-
fels interwoven in the form of net-work ; thus a conge¬
ries of veftels within the brain is called plexus choroides,
reticularis, or ret iformis. See Anatomy.
A plexus of nerves is the union of two or more nerves,
forming a fort of ganglion or knot.
PLICA POLON1CA, or Plaited Hair, is a difeafe pecu¬
liar to Poland •, whence the name. See Medicine, N°
355. Mr Coxe, who gives a Ihort account of it, attempts
likewife to give the phylical enufes of it. Many caufes
of this kind, he tells us, have been fuppofed to concur
in rendering the plica more frequent in thofe regions than
in other parts. It would be an endlefs work to enumer¬
ate the various conjectures with which each perfen has
fupported his favourite hypothefis.—The molt probable
are thofe afligned by Dr Vicat: The firft cauie is the
nature ol the Polifti air, which is rendered infalubrious
by numerous woods and morafles, and occafionally de¬
rives an uncommon keennefs even in the rcidft of fum-
mer from the pofition of the Carpathian mountains ; for
the feuthern and feutb-eafterly winds, which ufually con¬
vey warmth in other regions, are in this chilled in their
pafiage over their fnowy fummits. The feoond is, un-
wholefeme water } for although Poland is not deficient
in good iprings, yet the. common people ufually drink
that which is neareft at hand, taken indifcriminately
from rivers, lakes, and even ftagnant pools. The third
caufe is the grofs inattention of the natives to clean!inefs;
for experience {hows, that thofe who are not negligent
in their perfons and habitations, are lefs liable to be af-
llifted with the plica than others who are deficient in
that particular. Thus.perfens of higher rank are lefs fub-
je£t to this diforder than thofe of inferior ftations •, the
inhabitants of large torvns than thofe of frnall villages j
the free peafants than thofe in an abfelute ftate of vaffal-
age} the natives of Poland Proper than thofe of Lithu¬
ania. Whatever we may determine as to the poflibility
that all or any of thefe caufes, by themfelves, or in con¬
junction with others, originally produced the diforder ;
we may venture to aflert, that they all, and particular¬
ly the laft, affift its propagation, inflame its fymptoms,
and protraCt its cure.
In a word, the plica polohica appears to be a conta¬
gious diftemper j which, like the leprofy, {till prevails
among a people ignorant in medicine, and inattentive to
check its progrefs, but is rarely known in thofe coun¬
tries where proper precautions are taken to prevent its
fpreading.
PLIMPTON, a town of Devonihire, in England,
feated on a branch of the river Plime, which had once
a caftle, now in ruins. It fends two members to parlia¬
ment j
P L 1 [ 657 ] P L I
Hirap'ton raent j is feven miles E. of Plymouth, and 218 W. by
A S. of London. W. Long. 40. o. N Lat. 50. 22.
plmy- PLINIA, a genus of plants belonging to the poly-
^ v ' andria clafs of Linnaus. See Botany Index.
PLINTH, ORLE, or Orlo, in ArchiteEhtre, a flat
fquare member, in the form of a brick. It is ufed as
the foundation of columns, being that flat fquare table
under the moulding of the bafe and pedeftal at the bot¬
tom of the whole order. It feems to have been origi¬
nally intended to keep the bottom of the original wood¬
en pillars from rotting. Vitruvius alfo calls the Tuf-
can abacus plinth.
PLINTH of a Statue, &c. is a bafe, either flat, round,
or fquare, that ferves to fupport it.
PLINTH of a Wall, denotes two or three rows of
bricks advancing out from a wall •, or, in general, any
flat high moulding, that ferves in a front-wall to mark
the floors, to fuftain the eaves of a wall, or the larmier
of a chimney.
PLINY the Elder, or Ccecilius Plinius Secundus,
one of the molt learned men of ancient Rome, was de-
fcended from an iiluflrious family, and born at Verona.
He bore arms in a diftinguifhed poft *, was one of the
college of augurs; became intendant of Spain •, and
was employed in feveral important affairs by Vefpafian
and Titus, who honoured him with their efteem. The
eruption of Mount Vefuvius, which happened in the
year 79, proved fatal to him. His nephew, Pliny the
Younger, relates the e ire urn dances of that dreadful
eruption, and the death of his uncle, in a letter to Ta¬
citus. Pliny the Elder wrote a Natural Hiftory in 37
books, which is dill extant, and has had many editions-,
the moft efteemed of which is that of Father Hardouin,
printed at Paris in 1723, in two volumes folio.
PLINT the Younger, the nephew of the former, was
born in the ninth year of Nero, and the 62d of Chrift,
at Novocomum, a town upon the lake Larius, near
which he had feveral beautiful villas. Ccecilius was the
name of his father, and Plinius Secundus that of his
mother’s brother, who adopted him. He brought into
the world with him fine parts and an elegant tafte,
which lie did not fail to cultivate early ; for, as he tells
us himfelf, he wrote a Greek tragedy at 14 years of
age. He loft his father when he was young and had
the famous Virginius for his tutor or guardian, whom
he has fet in a glorious light. He frequented the fchools
of the rhetoricians, and heard Quintilian for whom
he ever after entertained fo high an efteem, that he be¬
llowed a confiderable portion upon his daughter at her
marriage. He was in his 18th vear when his uncle died;
and it was then that he began to plead in the forum,
which was the ufual road to dignities. About a year
after, he affumed the military charadler, and went into
Syria with the commifiion of tribune : but this did not
fuit his tafte any more than it had done Tully’s*, and
therefore we find him returning after a campaign or two.
He tells us, that in his paffage homewards he was de¬
tained by contrary winds at the ifland Icaria, and how
he employed himfelf in making verfes: he enlarges in
the fame place upon his poetical exercitations} yet
poetry was not the (Lining part of his charafter any
more than it had been of Tully’s.
Upon his return from Syria, he married a wife, and
fettled at Rome : it was in the reign of Domitian. Du
sing this moft perilous time, he continued to plead in
VOL. XVI. Part II.
toe forum, where he was not more diftinguifhed by his
uncommon abilities and eloquence, than by his great
refolution and courage, which enabled him to fpeak
boldly, when fcareely one el!e durft fpeak at all. On
thefe accounts he was often fingled out by the fenatc
to defend the plundered provinces againft their oppref-
five governors, and to manage other caufes of a like
important and dangerous nature. One of thefe was for
the province of Baetica, in their profecution of Btebius
Maffa in which he acquired fo general an applaufe,
that the emperor Nerva, then a private man, and in ba-
nifhment at Tarentum, wrote to him a letter, in which
he congratulated not only Pliny, but the age which had
produced an example fo much in the fpirit of the an¬
cients. Pliny relates this affair in a letter to Cornelius
Tacitus; and he was fo pleafed with it himfelf, that he
could not help intreating this friend to record it in his
hiftory. He intreats him, however, with infinitely
more modelly than Tully had intreated Lucceius upon
the fame occafion : and though he might imitate Cicero
in the requeft, as he profeffes to have conftantly fet that
great man before him for a model, yet he took care
not to tranfgrefs the bounds of decency in his manner
of making it. He obtained the offices of queftor and
tribune, and luckily went unhurt through the reign of
Domitian : there is, how ever, reafon to fuppofe, if that
emperor had not died juft as he did, that Pliny rvould
have {hared the fate of many other great men for he
tells us himfelf, that his name was afterwards found in
Domitian’s tables, among the number of thofe who were
deftined to deftru&ion.
He loft bis wife in the beginning of Nerva’s reign,
and foon after married his beloved Calphurnia, of w'hom
wTe read fo much in his Epiftles. He had not, however,
any children by any of his wives: and hence w-e find
him thanking Trajan for the jus trmm likerorum, w hich
he afterwards obtained of that emperor for his friend
Suetonius Tranquillus. He hints alfo, in his letter of
thanks to Trajan, that he had been twice married in
the reign of Domitian. He was promoted to the con-
fulate by Trajan in the year 100, when lie was 38 years
of age 5 and in this office pronounced that famous pa¬
negyric, which has ever fince been admired, as well for
the copioufnefs of the topics as the elegance of addrefs.
Then he was elefted augur, and afterwards made pro-
conful of Bithynia 5 whence he wrote to Trajan that
curious letter concerning the primitive Chriftians}
which, with Trajan’s refeript, is happily extant among
his Epiftles. Pliny’s letter, as Mr Melmoth obftrves
in a note upon the paffage, is efteemed as almoft the
only genuine monument of ecclefiaftical antiquity rela¬
ting to the times immediately fucceeding the apoftles,
it being written at moft not above 40 years after the
death of St Paul It was preferved by the Chriftians
themfelves, as a clear and unfufpicious evidence of the
purity of their doeftrines, and is frequently appealed to
by the early writers of the church againft the calumnies
of their adverfaries. It is not know n what became of
Pliny after his return from Bithynia ; whether he lived
at Borne, or what time he fpent at his country houfes.
Antiquity is alfo filent as to the time of his death : but
it is eonjtdlured that he died either a little before or
foon after that excellent prince, his admired Trajan }
that is, about the year of Chrifi 116.
Pliny was one of the greateft wits, and one of the
4O worthieft
P L O [ 658 ] P L O
JPHny worth left men, among the ancients. He had fine parts,
!.< which he cultivated to the utmoft $ and he accomplilh-
?!omo' ed himfelf with all the various hinds of knowledge
which could ferve to make him either ufeful or agree¬
able. He wrote and publifhed a great number of
things j but nothing has efcaped the wreck of time ex¬
cept the books of Letters, and the panegyric upon
Trajan. This has ever been confidered as a mafter-
piece : and if he has, as forpe think, aimoft exhaufied
all the ideas of perfection in a prince, and gone per¬
haps a little beyond the truth, yet it is allowed that
no panegyrtd was ever pofleffed of a finer fubjedf, and
on which he might better indulge in all the flow of elo¬
quence, without incurring the fufpicion of flattery and
lies. His letters feem to have been intended for the
public ; and in them he may be confidered as writing
his own memoirs. Every epittle is a kind of hiftorical
flcetch, wherein we have a view of him in fame ftriking
attitude either of a&ive or contemplative life. In
them are preferved anecdotes of many eminent perfons,(
whole works have come down to us, as Suetonius, Si-
lius Italicus, Martial, Tacitus, and Quintilian 5 and of
curious things, which throw great light upon the hi-
ftory of thofe times. They are written with great po-
litenefs and ipirit and if they abound too much in
turn and metaphor, we muft impute it to that degene¬
racy of tafle which was then accompanying the degene¬
rate manners of Rome. Pliny, however, feems to have
preferved himfelf in this latter refpeft from the gene¬
ral contagion : whatever the manners of the Romans
were, his were pure and incorrupt. His writings
breathe a fpirit of tranfeendent goodnefs and humanity :
bis only imperfeflion is, he was too defirous that the
public and pofterity fliould know how humane and good
be was. We have two elegant Englifh tranflations of
his Epiftles; the one by Mr Melmoth, and the other
by Lord Orrery.
PLOCAMA, a genus of plants belonging to the
pentandria clafe. See Botany Index.
PLOCE. See Oratory, p. 433.
PLOCKSKO, a town of Poland, and capital of a
palatinate of the fame name, with a eaflle and a bifliop’s
fee. The churches are very magnificent; and it is built
upon a hill, whence there is a fine profpedl every way,
near the river Viftula. It is 25 miles fouth-eaft of U-
ladiflaw, and 65 weft of War law.. E. Lopg. 19. 29.
N. Lat. 52. 46. ,
Plocksko, a palatinate of Poland, bounded on the
north by Regal Pruflia, on the call by the palatinate of
Mazovia, on the fouth by the Viftula, and on the weft
by the palatinate of Inovladiflaw. The capital town is
of the fame name.
PLOEN is a town of Germany in the circle of
Lower Saxony, and capital of Holftein. It ftands on
the banks of a lake of the fame name, and gave title to
a duke, till by the death of the laft duke Charles with¬
out male iffue it efeheated to the king of Denmark in
1761. The ducal palace, riling in the midft of the town,
on an elevated fpot of ground, and overlooking the lake,
is a very picfurefque object. The town ftands 22 miles
north-weft of Lubeck, and 10 fouth-eaft of Eiell. E.
Long. 10. 30. N. Lat. 54. 11.
PLOMO, in Metallurgy, is a name given by the
Spaniards, who have the care of the filver mines, to the
£lver. ere, when found adhering to the furface of Rones,
2,
and when it incrufts their cracks and cavities like fmall Plo«»
and loofe grains of gunpowder. Though thefe grains U
be few in number, and the reft of the ftone have no fill- ii^otinu<
ver in it, yet they are always very happy when they find ^
it, as it is a certain token that there is a rich vein fome-
where in the neighbourhood. And if in digging for¬
wards they ftill meet with thefe grains, or the plomo in
greater quantity, it is a certain fign that they are getting
nearer and nearer the good vein.
PLOT, Dr Robert, a learned antiquarian and phi-
lofopher, was born at Sutton-barn, in the parifti of Bor¬
den in Kent, in the year 1641, and ftudied in Magda-
len-hall, and afterwards in Univerfity-college, Oxford.
In 1682 he was elefted fecretary of the Royal Society,
and publifhed the Philofopbical Tranfa6tions from N0
143 to N° i 66 inelufive. The next year Elias Aflimole,
Eiq. appointed him firft keeper of his mufeum, and about,
the fame time the vice-chancellor nominated him firft
profeflbr of ehemiftry in the univerfity of Oxford. In
1687 he was made fecretary to the Earl Marfhal, and
the following year received the title ot Hijforiogrci'pher
to King James II. In 1690 he refigned his profeflor-
ftup of chemiftry, and like wile his place of keeper of
the mufeum, to which he prefented a very large collec¬
tion of natural curiofities ; which were thole he had de«
feribed in bis hiftories of Oxfordlhire and Staffordftiire:
the former publifhed at Oxford in 1677, folio, and re¬
printed with additions and corre&ions In 1705; and
the latter was printed in the fame fize in 1686. In
January 1694-5, Henry Howard, Earl Marfhal, nomi¬
nated him Mobray-herald extraordinary j two days after
which he was conftituted regifter of the court of honour",
and, on the 30th of April 1696, he died of the ftone at
his houfe in Borden.
As Dr Plot delighted in natural hiftory, the above-
works were defigned as effay-s towards a Natural Hifto¬
ry of England ; and he had asftually formed a defign of
travelling through England and Wales for that purpofe.
He accordingly drew up a plan of his fcheme in a letter
to the learned Bithop Fell j which is inferted at the end
of the feeond volume of Leland’s Itinerary, of the edi¬
tion of 1744. Amongft feveral MSS. which be left be¬
hind him were large materials for the “ Natural Hiftory
of Kent, Middlefex, and the city of London.” Befides
the above works, he publilhed De origine fontium tenta-
men philofophicum, 8vo, and nine papers in the Philofo-
phical Tranfa&ions.
Plot, in dramatic poetry, is fometimes ufed for the
fable of a tragedy or comedy; but more properly for the
knot or intrigue, which makes the embarras of any piece.,
See Poetry.
Plot, in Surveying, the plan or draught of any field,
farm, or manor, furveyed with an inftrument, and laid
down in the proper figure and dimenfions.
PLOTINUS, a Platonic philofopher in the third
century. He w'as born at Lyeopolis a city of Egypt,,
in 204 ; and began very early to (how a great Angula¬
rity both in his taftp and manners : for, at eight years-
of age, when he went to fchool, be ufed to run to his
nurfe, and uncover her bread to fuck ; and would have
continued that pra&ice longer, if he had not been dif-
couraged by her. At 28 years of age he had a ftrong
defire to ftudy pbilofopby, on which occafion he was re¬
commended to the moft famous profeffors of Alexan¬
dria. He was net fatisfled with their lectures; but
upon-
P L O [ 659 ] PL O
lutiiiui, upon hearing thofe of Ammonius, he con ft: fled that this
■nr~~' was the man he wanted. He ftudied for 11 years un¬
der that excellent mafter, and then went to hear the
Perlian and Indian philofophers : for in 243, when the
emperor Gordianus intended to wage ivar againft the
Perfians, he followed the Roman army, but probably
repented of it ; for it was with difficulty he could fave
his life by flight, after the emperor had been Pain. He
was then 39 ; and the year following he went to Rome*
and read philofophical leflures in that city *, but avoid¬
ed following the example of Erennius and Origen, his
fellow-pupils, who, having proruifed with him not to
reveal fome hidden and excellent doctrines they had re¬
ceived from Ammonius, had neverthelefs forfeited their
word. Plotinus continued ten years in Rome, without
writing any thing •, but, in his 50th year. Porphyry be¬
came his fcholar j who, being of an exquilitely fine ge¬
nius, was not fatisfied with fuperfieial anfwers, but re¬
quired to have all difficulties thoroughly explained ; and
therefore Plotinus, to treat things with greater accura¬
cy, was obliged to write more books. He had before
written 21 books, and during the fix years of Porphy¬
ry’s flay with him he wrrote 24, and 9 after Porphyry’s
leaving Rome, in all 54. The Romans had a high ve¬
neration for him •, and he pafled for a man of fueh judge¬
ment and virtue, that many perfons of both fexes, when
they found themfelves dying, intrufted him, as a kind
of guardian angel, with the care of their eftates and
children. Pie was the arbiter of numberlefs laW-fuits j
and conftantly behaved with fuch humanity and re6H-
tude of mind, that he did not create himfelf one enemy
during the 26 years he refided in Rome. He, however,
did not meet with the fame juftice from all of his own
profeffion *, for Olympias a philofopher of Alexandria,
being envious of his glory, ufed his utmoft endeavours,
though in vain, to ruin him. The emperor Galliemis,
and the emprefs Salonina, had a very high regard for
him ) and, had it not been for the oppofition of fome
jealous courtiers, they would have had the city of Cam¬
pania rebuilt, and given to him with the territory be-
longing to it, to eftabliffi a colony of philofophers, and
to have it governed by the ideal laws of Plato’s common¬
wealth. He laboured under various diforders during
the laft year of his life, which obliged him to leave
Rome, when he was carried to Campania to the heirs of
one of his friends, who furniffied him with every thing
neceflary j and he died there in the year 270, at the age
of 66, and in the nobleft manner that an heathen philo-
fopher could do, thefe being his words as he breathed
his laft : “ I am labouring with all my might to return
the divine part of me to the Divine Whole which fills
the univerfe.”
We have already remarked that the ideas of Plotinus
were lingular and extraordinary ; and we {hall now ffiow
that they were fo. He was afhamed of being lodged in a
body, for which reafon he did not care to tell the place
of his birth or familv. The contempt he had for all
earthly things, was the reafon why he would not permit
his picture to be drawn : and when his difciple Amelius
was urgent with him upon this head, “ Is it not enough
(laid he) to drag after us, whitherfoever we go, that
image in which nature has ffiut us up ? Do you think
that we fliould likewife tranfmit to future ages an image
of that image, as a fight worthy of their attention ?”
Worn the fame principle, he refufed to attend to his
health 5 for he never made ufe of prefervatives or baths, Plotinus,
and did not even eat the fleffi of tame animals. He ate '
but little, and abltaincd very often from bread ; which,
joined to his intenfe meditation, kept him very much
from fleeping. In Ihort, he thought the body altogether
below his notice ; and had fo little relpedt for it, that
he confidered it as a prifon, from which it would be
his fupreme happinefs to be freed. When Amelius, alter
his death, inquired about the ilale of his foul of the
oracle of Apollo, he wTas told, “ that it was gone to the
affembly of the hleffed, where charity, joy, and a love of
the union with God prevail and thereafon given for
it, as related by Porphyry, is, “ that Plotinus had been
peaceable, gracious, and vigilant ; that he had perpetu¬
ally elevated his fpotlefs foul to God ; that he had loved
God with his whole heart j that he had dilengaged him¬
felf, to the utmoft of his abilities, from this wretched
life $ that, elevating himfelf with all the powers of his
foul, and by the feveral gradations taught by Plato, to¬
wards that Supreme Being which fills the univerfe, he
had been enlightened by.him ; had enjoyed the vifion of
him without the help or ititerpofition of ideas •, had, in
ftiort, been often united to him.” This is the account
of Porphyry, who tells us alfo, that he himfelf had once
been favoured with the vifion. To this account, how¬
ever, we need fcarcely add, that little credit is due : it
agrees pretty much with modern enthufiafm and the re¬
veries of Behmenifts. Plotinus had alfo his familiar
fpirit, as well as Socrates; but, according to Porphyry,
it was not one of thofe called demons, but of the' order
of thofe who are called gods ; fo that he was under the
protection of a genius fuperior to that of other men.
The fuperiority of his genius puffed him up not a little :
for when Amelius defired him to fhare in the facrifices,
which he ufed to offer up on folemn feftivals, “It is
their bufinefs (replied Plotinus) to come to me, not
mine to go to them “ which lofty a Kver (fays Por¬
phyry) no one could guefs the reafon W, or dared to
afk,”
Porphyry put the 54 books of Plotinus in order,
and divided them into fix enneafes. The greater part
of them turn on the moft high-flown ideas in meta-
phyfics ; and this philofopher feems, in certain points,
not to differ much from Spinoza. Pie wrote two books
to prove, that “ all being is one and the fame which
is the very dodlrine of Spinoza. Pie inquires, in ano¬
ther bopk, “ Whether there are many fouls, or only
one ?” Plis manner of compofing partook of the Angu¬
larity of his nature : he never read over his compofitions
after he had written them ; he wrote a bad hand, and
was not exaft in his orthography : he flood in need,
therefore, of a faithful friend to revife and corredl his
writings ; and he chofe Porphyry for this purpofe be¬
fore Amelius, who had, however, been his difciple 24
years, and was very much efteemed by him. Some have
accufed Plotinus of plagiarifm, with regard to Nume-
nius ; a flander which Amelius refuted. Longinus was
once much prejudiced a^ainft our great philofopher,
and wrote agaihft his Treatife of Ideas, and againft
Porphyry’s anfwer in defence of that treatife. He af¬
terwards conceived a high efteem for him ; fought in-
duitrioufly for all his books ; and, in order to have them
very corredl, defired Porphyry to lend him his copy j
but at the fame time wrote to him in the following
manner : “ I always obferved to you, when we were to-
4 O S .gether,
P L U [ 660 3 FLU
Plotinus getli^r, •when we were at a diftance from one another,
H as well as when you lived at Tyre, that I did not eom-
flu(he' prehend many of the fubje&s treated of by Plotinus ;
but that I was extremely fond of his manner of writing,
the variety of his knowledge, and the order and difpo-
fition of his queftions, which are altogether philofopbi-
cal.” “ This tingle paffage (fays Bayle) fhows the
exalted genius, the exquitite difcernment, and judicious
penetration of Longinus. It cannot be denied, that
molt fubjefts which this philofopher examines are in-
comprehenllble j neverthelefs, we difcover in his works
a very elevated, fruitful, and capacious genius, and a
clofe way of reafoning. Had Longinus been an injudi¬
cious critic, had he not pofleffed an exalted and beauti¬
ful genius, he would not have been fo fenfible of Ploti¬
nus’s obfcurity : for no perfons complain lefs of the ob-
fcurity of a book, than thofe whofe thoughts are con-
fufed and underftanding is (hallow.” Martilius Ficinus,
at the requeft of Cofmo de Medicis, made a Latin ver-
tlon of the works of Plotinus, with a fummary and ana-
lyfis of each beok •, which was printed at Bafil, firlt by
itfelf, in 1559, and afterwards with the Greek in 1380,
folio. His life was written by Porphyry, the moft il-
luftrious of his difciples.
PLOT US, or Darter, a genus of birds belonging
to the order anferes. See Ornithology Index.
PLOUGH, in Agriculture, a machine for turning up
the foil by the action of cattle, contrived to fave the
time, labour, and expence, which, without this inftru-
ment, mult have been employed in digging the ground,
and fitting it for receiving all forts of teed. See Agri¬
culture.
PLOUGHMAN, the perfon who guides the plough
in the operation of tilling.
PLOUGHING, in Agriculture, the turning up the
earth with a plf igh. See Agriculture, 'pajjim.
PLOVER, Y-e Englith name of feveral fpecies of
Charadrius, (Ornithology Index.
PLOW DEN, Edmund, ferjeant at law, defeended
from an ancient family in Shropfhire, was born in 1517,
and was firtl a ftudent of the univerfity of Cambridge,
where he (pent three years in the ttudy of philofophy
and medicine. He then removed to Oxford, where,
having continued his former ftudies about four years
more, in 1552 he was admitted to the pra&ice of phyfic
and furgery : but probably finding the pradice of the
art of healing lefs agreeable than the ftudy, he entered
himfelf of the Middle Temple, and began to read law.
Wood fays, that in 1557 he was fummer reader to that
fociety, and Lent-reader three years after, being then
ferjeant and oracle of the law. He died in the vear
aged 67 } and was buried in the Temple church.
He wrote, 1. Commentaries or Reports of divers Cafes
&.c. in the reigns of King Edward VI. Queen Mary’
and Queen Elizabeth 5 London, 1571, 78, 99, 1612,
&.c. Written in the old Norman language. 2. Que¬
ries, or a Moot-book of cafes, &c. tranflated, metho¬
dized, and enlarged, by H. B. of Lincoln’s-Inn. Lon¬
don, 1662, 8vo.
PLUCHE, Antony, a celebrated French writer,
•was born at Rheims in 1688, and having diftinguithed
himfelf by his engaging manners and proficiency in the
belles-lettres, was appointed profeflbr of humanity in the
univerfity of that city. Two years after he obtained
the chair of rhetoric, and was admitted into holy orders.
P 3
The bifliop of Laon (Clermont) informed of his talents, PlncW.
conferred upon him the direction of the college of his
epifcopal city. By his induftry and fuperior knowledge,
a proper order and fubordination fioon took place in it;
but fome peculiar opinions refpedling the affairs of the
time diffurbed his tranquillity, and obliged him to quit
his office. The intendant of Rouen, at the requeft of
the celebrated Rollin, entrufted him with the education
of his fon. Abbe Pluche having filled that place with
fuccefs and great honour to himfelf, left Rouen and
went to Paris, where, by the patronage of fome literary
friends and his own excellent writings, he acquired a
very diftinguithed reputation for learning. He publith-
ed, 1. Le Speclacle de lit Nature (Nature Difplayed), in
9 vols in 1 2mo. This work, which is equally inftruc-
tive and entertaining, is written with perfpicuity and
elegance •, but the form of dialogue which is adopted
has rendered it rather prolix. The fpeakers, who are
the Prior, the Count, and Countefs, are not diftinguith¬
ed by any ftriking feature ; but they have all the com¬
mon eharadter, which is tolerably pleating, not except¬
ing even that of the little chevalier de Breuil, who is,,
however, a mere fcholar. This is the opinion which
Abbe Desfontaines has formed of this work. Though
the author has given the converfations a pretty inge¬
nious turn, and even fome vivacity, yet now and then
they affume the tone of the college. 2. Hijloire dit
del, or Hiftory of the Heavens, in 2 vols in l2mo. In
this performance we find two parts almoft independent
of one another. The firtl contains fome learned inqui¬
ries into the origin of the poetic heavens. It is nearly
a complete mythology, founded upon ideas which are
new and ingenious. The fecond is the hiftory of the
opinions given by philofophers refpefting the formation
of the world. The author (hows the inutility, the incon-
fiftency, and uncertainty, of the moft efteemed fyftems j
and concludes with pointing out the excellence and fub-
lime fimplicity of the Mofaic account. Betides a noble
and well-turned expreffion, we find in it an erudition
which does not fatigue the mind. As to the foundation
of the fyftem explained in the firft part, though it ap¬
pears extremely plaufible, we will not take upon us to
fay how far it is true : Voltaire called it Fable du del,
or a Fable of the Heavens. 3. De Linguarum artif.cio ;
a work which he tranllated with this title, La Mccaniquc
des Lungues, in 1 2mo. In this treatife he propofes a
fhort and eafy method of learning languages, which is
by the ufe of tranflations rnftead of themes or exercifes j
his refie£lions on that fubje£l are judicious and well ex-
preffed. 4. Harmony of the Pfalms and the Gofpel, or
a Tranflation of the Pfalms and Hymns of the Church,
with Notes relative to the Vulgate, the Septuagint, and
Hebrew Text, printed at Paris in 1764, in 1 2mo. In
1749, Abbe Pluche retired to Varenne St Maure,
where he gave himfelf up entirely to devotion and ftudy.
Having become fo deaf that he could not hear without
the help of a trumpet, the capital afforded him little en¬
tertainment. It was in this retreat that he died of an
apoplexy on the 20th of November 1761, at the age of
73 years. He poffeffed thofe qualities which form the
fcholar, the honeft man, and the Chriftian : temperate
in his meals, true to his word, an affedlionate parent, a
fenfible friend, and a humane philofopher j he gave lef-
fons of virtue in his life as well as his writings. Flis
fubmiffion to all the dogmas of religion tvas very great.
Some
P L U
udie Some Delfts having been furprifed that, in matters of
|1 faith, he ftiould think and fpeak like the vulgar, his an-
mbery. pwer waSj “ I glory in doing fo : It is iniinitly more
rational to believe the word of God, than to follow the
glimmering lights of a real’on which is limited and fub-
je£t to error.”
PLUG, certain pieces of timber, formed like the
fruftum of a cone, and ufed to ftop the haufe-holes and
the breaches made in the body of a (hip by cannon¬
balls 5 the former of which are called haufe-ptugs, and
the latter [hot-plugs, which are formed of various fizes
in proportion to the holes made by the different fizes of
{hot, which may penetrate the Ihip’s fides or bottom in
battle j accordingly they are always ready for this pur-
pofe.
PLUKENET, Leonard, a phyfician who flourifh-
ed in the reign of King Charles II. was one of the moft
excellent and laborious botanifts of that or any other
age. He was author of the Phytographia Plukenetiana,
the AlmagejHcum Britannicurn, and other works of the
like kind, on which he ipent the greateft part of his
life and fortune. His Phytography is mentioned with
the higheft encomiums in the Philofophical Tranfa&ions
for February 1696-7. His Opera Botanica, with cuts,
were printed at London in 6 vols folio, in 1720.
PLUM-tree. See Prunus, Botany Index.
PLUMAGE, the feathers which ferve birds for a
covering. See Ornithology.
PLUMB-line, among artificers, denotes a perpen¬
dicular to the horizon •, fo called, as being commonly
erefted by means of a plummet.
PLUMBAGO, Lead-wort; a genus of plants be¬
longing to the pentandria clafs. See Botany Index.
Plumbago, or Black-LEAD. See Graphite, Mi¬
neralogy Index.
PLUMBERY, the art of calling and working lead,
and ufing it in building.
As this metal melts foon and with little heat, it is eafy
to call it into figures of any kind, by running it mto
moulds of brafs, clay", plafter, &c. But the chief article
in plumbery is Iheets and pipes of lead ; and as thefe
make the bafis of the plumber’s work, we ftiall here
give the procefs of making them.
In calling Jheet-lead, a table or mould is made ufe of,
which confilts of large pieces of wood well jointed, and
bound with bars of iron at the ends ; on the fides of
which runs a frame confiding of a ledge or border of
wood, three inches thick and four inches high from the
mould, called the (harps : The ordinary width of the
mould, within thefe lharps, is from four to five feet;
and its length is 16, 17, or 18 feet. I his Ihould be
fomething longer than the Iheets are intended to be, in
order that the end where the metal runs off from the
mould may be cut off, becaufe it is commonly thin or
uneven, or ragged at the end. It mull Hand very even
or level in breadth, and fomething falling from the end
in which the metal is poured in, viz. about an inch or
an inch and a half in the length of 16 or 17 feet or
more, according to the thicknefs of the Iheets wranted ;
for the thinner the Iheet, the more declivity the mould
Ihould have. At the upper end of the mould Hands
the pan, which is a concave triangular priira, compofed
of two planks nailed together at right angles, and two
triangular pieces fitted in between them at the ends.
The length of this pan is the whole breadth of the
P L U
mould in which the Iheets are call ; it Hands with its Uumbei
bottom, which is a {harp edge, on a form at the end of  
the mould, leaning with one fide againft it; and on the
oppofite fide is a handle to lift it up by, to pour out
the melted lead ; and on that fide of the pan next the
mould are two iron hooks to take hold of the mould,
and prevent the pan from flipping while the melted lead
is pouring out ot it into the mould. This pan is lined
on the infide with moiftened land, to prevent it from be¬
ing fired by the hot metal. The mould is alfo Ipread
over, about two inches thick, with land fifted and moill-
ened, which is rendered perfectly level by moving over
it a piece of wood called a Jlrike, and fmoothing it over
with a fmoothing plane, which is a plate of polithed
brafs, about one-fourth of an inch thick and nine inches
fquare, turned up on all the lour edges, and with a
handle fitted on to the upper or concave fide, 'i he land
being thus fmoothed, it is fit for calling {beets of lead :
but if they would call a cillern, they meaiure out the
bignefs of the four fides ; and having taken the dimen-
fions of the front or fore-part, make mouldings by pref-
fing long flips of wood, which contain the fame mould¬
ings, into the level land ; and form the figures of birds,
beails, &c. by prefling in the fame manner leaden
figures upon it, and then taking them off, and at the
fame time fmoothing the furface where any of the fand
is raifed up by making thefe impreflions upon it. The
reft of the operation is the fame in calling either cifterns
or plain Iheets of lead. But before we proceed to men¬
tion the manner in which that is performed, it will be
necefiary to give a more particular defcription of the
Jlrike. The ftrike, then, is a piece-of board about five
inches broad , and fomething longer than the breadth of
the mould on the infide ; and at each end is cut a notch
about two inches deep, fo that when it is ufed it rides
upon the iharps with thofe notches. Before they be¬
gin to call, the ftrike is made ready by tacking on two
pieces of an old hat on the notches, or by flipping a
cafe of leather over each end, in order to raife the un¬
der fide about one-eighth of an inch or fomething more
above the fand, according as they would have the Iheet
to be in thicknefs ; then they tallow the under edge of
the ftrike, and lay it acrofs the mould. The lead being
melted, it is put into the pan with ladles, in which,
when there is a fufficient quantity for the prefent pur-
pofe, the fcum of the metal is fvvept off with a piece of
board to the edge of the pan, letting it fettle on the
fand, which is by this means prevented from falling in¬
to the mould at the pouring out of the metal. When
the lead is cool enough, which muft be regulated ac¬
cording to the thicknefs of the ftieets wanted, and is
known by its beginning to Hand with a fhell or wall on
the fand round the pan, two men take the pan by the
handle, or elfe one of them lifts it by the bar and chain
fixed to a beam in the ceiling, and pour it into the
mould, while another man Hands ready with the ftrike,
and, as foon as they have done pouring in the metal,
puts on the mould, frveeps the lead forward, and draws
the overplus into a trough prepared to receive it. The
fheets being thus caft, nothing remains but to roll them
up or cut them into any meafure wanted : but if it be
a cittern, it is bent into four fides, fo that the two ends
may join the back, where they are foldered together ;
after which the bottom is foldered up.
The method of cajling pipes without foldering.—To
maker
[ 661 I
P L IT [ 662 ] P L u
Plumbery make thefe pipes they have a kind of iittle mill, with
arms or levers to turn it withal. The moulds are of
1 brafs, and confift of two pieces, which open and ftiut by
means of hooks and hinges, their inward caliber or di¬
ameter being according to the fize of the pipe, ufually
two feet and a half. In the middle is placed a core or
round piece of brafs or iron, fomewhat longer than the
mould, and of the thicknefs of the inward diameter of
the pipe. This core is paflfed through two copper
rundles, one at each end of the mould, which they
ferve to clofe ; and to thefe is joined a little copper tube
about two inches long, and of the thicknefs the leaden
pipe is intended to be of. By means of thefe tubes, the
core is retained in the middle of the cavity of the mould.
The core being in the mould, with the rundles at its
two ends, arul the lead melted in the furnace, they take
it. up in a ladle, and pour it into the mould by a little
aperture at one end, made in the form of a funnel.
When the mould is full, they pafs a hook into the end
of the core, and, turning the mill, draw it out; and then
opening the mould, take out the pipe. If they defire
to have the pipe lengthened, they put one end of it in
the lower end of the mould, and pafs the end of the
core into it; then {hut the mould again, and apply its
rundle and tube as before, the pipe jult caft ferving for
a rundle, &c. at the other end. Things being thus re¬
placed, they pour in frelh metal, and repeat the opera¬
tion till they have got a pipe of the length required.
For making pipes of fheet-lead, the plumbers have
wooden cylinders, of the length and thicknefs required •,
and on thefe they form their pipes by wrapping the
iheet around them, and foldering up the edges all along
them.
The lead which lines the Chinefe tea-boxes is reduced
to a thinnefs which we are informed European plumbers
cannot imitate. The following account of the procefs
by which the plates are formed was communicated to a
writer in the Gentleman’s Magazine by an intelligent
officer of an Eaft Indiaman. The cafter fits by a pot con¬
taining the melted metal; and has two large ftones, the
under one fixed, the upper moveable, dirt ily before
him. He raifes the upper {lone by preffing his foot
upon the fide of it, and with an iron ladle pours in the
opening a proper quantity of the fluid metal. He then
immediately lets fall the upper ftone,and by that means
forms the lead into a thin irregular plate, which is after¬
wards cut into a proper ffiape. The furfaces of the
Hones, where they touch each other, are exactly ground
together.
PLUMBUM, Lead. See Lead, Chemistry In¬
dex.
PLUMBUM Corneum, or muriate of lead, a combina¬
tion ofltad with muriatic acid. See Lead, Chemistry
Index.
PLUME, or Plumula, in Botany, the bud or germ.
See Gemma.
PLUMIER, Charles, a learned Minim, born at
Marfeilles, and one of the moll able botanifts of the
17th century. He was inilru&ed by the famous Maig-
nan, who taught him mathematics, turnery, the art of
making fpeclacles, burning-glaffes, microfcopes, and
other works. He at length went to Rome to perfecl
him felt in his ftudies, and there applied himfelf entirely
to botany uncier a Ikilful Italian. At his return to
Provence, he fettled in the convent at Bornes, a marl- Phimiei
time place near Hieres, where he had the conveniency ||
of making difcoveries in the fields with refpeft to fim- p^uraiit)
pies. He was fume time after fent by tke French king '"""'‘Y*'
to America, to bring from thence fuch plants as might
be of fervice in medicine. He made three different
voyages to the Antilles, and vifited the ifland of St
Domingo. The king honoured him with a penfion j
and he at laft fettled at Paris. However, at the de¬
lire of M. Fagon, he prepared to go a fourth time to
America, to examine the tree which produces the Je-
luits bark 5 but died at the port of Santa Maria, near
Cadiz, in 1706. He wrote feveral excellent works ; the
principal of which are, 1. A volume of the Plants in the
American Illands. 2. A Treatife on the American
Fern. 3. The Art of Turnery j a curious work embel*
liffied with plates.
PLUMMET, PLUMB-Rule, or Plumb-line, an in-
Ifrument ufed by carpenters, mafons, &c. in order to
judge whether walls, &c. be upright planes, horizontal,
or the like. It is thus called from a piece of lead,
faltened to the end of a cord, which ufually conftitutes
this inftrument. Sometimes the firing defcends along a
wooden ruler, &c. raifed perpendicularly on another j
in which cafe it becomes a level.
PLUMMING, among miners, is the method of ufing
a mine-dial, in order to know the exa6I place of the
work where to link down an air-lhaft, or to bring an
adit to the work, or to know which way the load in¬
clines when any flexure happens in it.
It is performed in this manner : A Ikilful perfon with
an alfiltant, and with pen, ink, and paper, and a long
line, and a mine-dial, after his guefs of the place above
ground, defcends into the adit or work, and there
fallens one end of the line to fome fixed thing in it j
then the incited needle is let to reft, and the exa£l point
where it refts is marl ed with a pen : he then goes on
farther in, the line Hill faftened, and at the next flexure
of the adit he makes a mark on the line by a knot or
otherwife : and then letting down the dial again, he
there likewife notes down that point at which the needle
Hands in this fecond pofition. In this manner he pro¬
ceeds, from turning to turning, marking down the
points, and marking the line, till he comes to the in¬
tended place : this done, he afeends and begins to work
on the furface of the earth what he did in the adit,
bringing the firft knot in the line to fuch a place where
the mark of the place of the needle will again anfwer
its pointing, and continues this till he come to the de«
fired place above ground, which is certain to be perpen¬
dicular over the part of the mine into which the air-fhaft
is to be funk.
PLUMOSE, fomething formed in the manner of a
feather, with a Hem and fibres iffuing from it on each
fide \ fuch are the antennae of certain moths, butter¬
flies, &e.
PLURAL, in Grammar, an epithet applied to that
number of nouns and verbs which is ufed when we fpeak
of more than one thing. See Grammar.
PLURALITY, a diferete quality, confifting of two
or a greater number of the fame kind : thus we fay, a
plurality of gods, &c. See the article Astronomy*
N° 157. for the arguments both for and againft a plu¬
rality of worlds.
Plurality
FLU [ 663 ] P L U
raSty. PLVRALITT of Benefices, or Livings, is where the
>1 -y—fame clerk is poffeffed of two or more fpiritual prefer¬
ments with cure of fouls. See Benefice.
The fmallnefs of fome benefices firft gave rife to plu¬
ralities 5 for an ecclefiailic, unable to fubfiit on a lingle
one, was allowed to hold two5 and at length the num¬
ber increafed without bounds. A remedy'"was attempt¬
ed for this abufe at the council of Lateran under Alex¬
ander III. and Innocent III. in the year 1215, when
the holding more than one benefice was forbid by a ca¬
non under the penalty of deprivation j but the fame
canon granting the pope a power to difpenfe with it in
favour of perfons of diftinguiihed merit, the prohibition
Jrecame almoft ufelefs. They were alfo retrained by
ftatute 21 Hen. VIII. cap. 13. which enadts, that if any
perfon having one benefice with cure of foulti, of the
yearly value of 81. or above (in the king’s books), ac¬
cept any other with cure of fouls, the firfl fhall be ad¬
judged in law to be void, &c. though the fame ftatute
provides for difpenfation in certain cafes.
In England, in order to procure a difpenfation, the
prefentee muft obtain of the biftiop, in whofe diocefe
the livings are, two certificates of the values in the king’s
books, and the reputed values and diftance; one for the
archbifhop, and the other for the lord-chancellor. And
if the livings lie in two diocefes, then two certificates
of the fame kind are to be obtained from each biftiop.
He muft alfo (how the archbiftiop his prefentation to
the fecond living; and bring with him two tertimonials
from the neighbouring clergy concerning his behavior'll-
and converfation, one for the archbifhop and the other
for the lord-chancellor; and he muft alfo fhow the arch¬
biftiop his letters of orders, and a certificate of his ha¬
ving taken the degree of mafter of arts at the leaft, in one
of the univerfities of this realm, under the hand of the
regifter. And if he be not doflor or bachelor of divi¬
nity, nor doftor nor bachelor of law, he is to procure a
qualification of a chaplain, which is to be duly regiftered
in the faculty office, in order to be tendered to the
archbiftiop, according to the ftatute. And if he hath
taken any of the aforefaid degrees, which the ftatute
allows as qualifications, he is to procure a certificate
thereof as already mentioned, and to ffiow the fame to
the archbiftiop; after which his difpenfation is made
Out at the faculty office, where he gives fecurity accord¬
ing to the dire&ion of the canon. He muft then repair
to the lord-chancellor for confirmation under the' broad
leal; and he muft apply to the biftiop of the diocefe
where the living lies for his admiffion and inftitutiori.
By the feveral ftamp a£ts, for every fkin, or paper, or
parchment, &c. on which anv difpenfation to hold two
eeclefiaftical dignities or benefices, or a dignity and a
benefice, lhall be engroffed or written, there ftiall be paid
a treble 40s. ftarap duty.
We have alfo a regulation in regard to pluralities^
but it is often difpenfed with: for, 'by the faculty of
difpenfation, a pluralift is required, in that benefice l^om
■which he fhall happen to be moft abfent, to preach 13
fermons every year, and to exercife hofpitality for two
months yearly.
In Germany the pope grants difpenfation for poficffing
aplurality of benefices, on pretence that the ecclefiaftical
princes there need largo revenues to bear up againft the
Proteftant princes.
PLUS, in Algebra, a character marked thus -f-, ufed Pius-
for the iign of addition. See Aegebra. H
PLUSH, in commerce, &c. a kind of fluff, having
a fort of velvet knap or lhag on one fide, compofed re¬
gularly of a woof ot a Angle woollen thread and a
double warp; the one wool, of two threads twifted;
the other goats or camels hair; though there are lome
plufties entirely of worfted, and others compofed wholly
of hair.
PLUTARCH, a great philofopher and hiftorian of
antiquity, who lived from the reign of Claudius to that
of Hadrian, was born at Ghaeronea, a fmall city of Boeo-
tia in Greece. Plutarch’s family was ancient in Chaero-
nea: his grandfather Lamprias was eminent for his learn¬
ing and a philofopher ; and is often mentioned by Plu¬
tarch in his writings, as is alfo his father. Plutarch
was initiated early in ftudy, to which he was naturally
inclined; and was placed under the care of Ammonius,
an Egyptian, who, having taught philofophy with great
reputation at Alexandria, from thence travelled into
Greece, and fettled at Athens. Under this mafter he
made great advances in knowledge; and like a thorough
philofopher, more apt to regard things than words, he
purfued this knowledge, to the negleft of languages.
The Roman language at that time was not only the
language of Rome, but of Greece alfo: and much more
ufed there than the French is now in England. Yet
he was fo far from regarding it then-, that,' as we learn
from himfelf, he became not converfant in it till the
declenfion of his life : and though he is fuppofed ta
have refided in Rome near 40 years at different times,
yet he never feem-s to have acquired a competent Ikilt
in it. But this was not the worft: he did not culti¬
vate his mother-tongue with any great exaftnefs; and
hence that harfhnefs, inequality and obfeurity in his
ftyle, which has fo frequently and fojuftly been com¬
plained of.
After he was principled and grounded by Ammonius,
having an infatiable thirft for knowledge, he refolved to
travel. Egypt was at that time, as formerly it had
been, famous for learning; and probably the myfteriouf-
nefs of their doffrine might tempt him, as it had tempt¬
ed Pythagoras and others, to go and converfe with the
priefthood of that country. This appears to have been,
particularly his bufinefs, by his treatife Of I fts and Oft-
ris: in which he {hows himfelf verfed in the ancient
theology and philofophy of the wife men. From E-
gypt he returned into Greece; and vifiting in his way
all the academies and fchools of the philofophers, ga¬
thered from them many of thofe obfervations with which
he has abundantly enriched pofterity. He does not
feem to have been attached to any particular fe<ft, but
culled from each of them whatever he thought excel¬
lent and worthy to be regarded. He could not bear
the paradoxes of the Stoics, but yet was more averfe
from the impiety of the Epicureans: in many things
he followed Ariftotle; but his favourites were Socrates
and Plato, whofe memory he revered fo highly, that he
annually celebrated their birth-days with much folemni-
tyi Befides this, he applied himfelf with extreme di¬
ligence to colleft not only all books that were excellent
in their kind, but alfo all the fayings and obfervations
of wife men which he had heard in converfation or had
received from others by tradition; and like wife to con-
fult
P L U [ 664 1 P L U
Bktarcln fuit tlie records and public inftruments preferved in
w“"V“~r—' cities which he had vifited in his travels. He took a
particular journey to Sparta, to fearch the archives of
that famous commonwealth, to underftand thoroughly
the model of their ancient government, the hiftory of
their legiflators, their kings, and their ephori; and di-
gefted all their memorable deeds and layings with much
care. He took the fame methods with regard to many
other commonwealths j and thus was enabled to leave
us in his works fuch a rich cabinet of obfervations upon
men and manners, as, in the opinion of Montaigne and
Bayle, have rendered him the moft valuable author of
antiquity.
T he circumftances of Plutarch’s life are not known,
and therefore cannot be related with any exaiflnefs. Ac¬
cording to the learned Fabricius, he was born under
Claudius, 50 years after the Chriilian era. He was
married to a moft amiable woman of his own native
town, whofe name, according to the probable conjec¬
ture of Rualdus, was Timoxena, and to whofe fenfe and
virtue he has borne the moft affeftionate teftimony in
his moral works. He had feveral children, and among
them two fons ; one called Plutarch after himfelf, the
other Lamprias in memory of his grandfather. Lam-
prias was he, of all his children, who feems to have in¬
herited his father’s philofophy $ and to him we owe the
table or catalogue of Plutarch’s writings, and perhaps
alfo his apophthegms. He had a nephew, Sextus Chse-
roneus, who taught the learned emperor Marcus Aure¬
lius the Greek tongue, and was much honoured by him.
Some think, that the critic Longinus was of his family ;
and Apuleius, in the firft book of his Metamorphofes,
affirms himfelf to be defcended from him.
On what occafion, and at what time of his life, he
went to Rome, how long he lived there, and when he
finally returned to his own country, are all uncertain.
It is probable, that the fame of him wrent thither before
him, not only becaufe he had publiftied feveral of his
works, but becaufe immediately upon his arrival, as
there is reafon to believe, he had a great refort of the
Roman nobility to hear him : for he tells us himfelf,
that he was fo taken up in giving ledlures of philofophy
to the great men of Rome, that he had not time to
make himfelf mafter of the Latin tongue, which is one
of the firft things that would naturally have engaged
his attention. It appears that he w'as feveral times at
Rome } and perhaps one motive for his living there
was the intimacy he had contracted in feme of thefe
journeys with Soffius Senecio, a great and worthy man,
who had been four times conful, and to whom Plutarch
has dedicated many of his lives. But the great induce¬
ment which carried him firft to Rome, was undoubt¬
edly that which had carried him into fo many other
parts of the world ■, namely, to make obfervations upon
men and manners, and to colleft materials for writing
the lives of the Roman worthies, in the fame manner as
he had already written thofe of the Grecian : and ac¬
cordingly he not only eonverfed with all the living, but
fearched the records of the Capitol, and of all the libra¬
ries. Not but, as we learn from Suidas, he was intruft-
ed alfo w'ith the management of public affairs in the
■empire, during his refidence in the metropolis. “ Plu¬
tarch (fays he) lived in the time of Trajan, who be-
ffowed on him the confular ornaments, and alfo eaufed
4sH edict to be paffed, that the magiftrates or officers of
Illyria ftiould do nothing in that province without his Plutarej
knowledge and approbation.” Wutol
When and how he was made known to Trajan is'"*^l'~
likewife uncertain : but it is generally fuppoffd that
Trajan, a private man when Plutarch firft came to
Rome, was, among other nobility, one of his auditors.
It is alfo fuppofed, that this wife emperor made ufe of
him in his councils j at leaft, much of the happinefs of
his reign has been imputed to Plutarch. Fabricius af-
ferts that he was Trajan’s preceptor, and that he was
raifed to the coniular dignity by him, and made procu¬
rator of Greece in his old age by the emperor Adrian.
We are equally at a lols concerning the time of his
abode in the imperial city *, which, howrever, at different
times, is not imagined to fall much flrort of 40 years.
The defire of viliting his native country, fo natural to
all men, and elpecially when growing old, prevailed
with him at length to leave Italy : and at his return he
was unanimoufly chofen archon or chief magiftrate of
Chaeronea, and not long after admitted into the num¬
ber of the Delphic Apollo’s priefts. We have no par¬
ticular account of his death, either as to the manner of
it or the year ; only it is evident that he lived, and
continued his ffudies, to a good old age. The moft
probable conjefture is that of Fabricius, who fays he
died in the fifth year of Adrian, at the age of 70.
His works have been divided, and they admit of a
pretty equal divifion, into Lives and Morals : the for¬
mer of which, in his own eftimation, were to be prefer¬
red as more noble than the latter. His ftyle, as we
have already obferved, has been excepted to with fome
reafon : lie has alfo been criticifed for fome miftakes in
Roman antiquities, and for a little partiality to the
Greeks. On the other hand, he has been juftly praifed
for the copioufnefs of his fine fenfe and learning, for
his integrity, and for a certain air of goodnefs which
appears in all he wrote. His bufinefs was not to pleafe
the ear, but to inftruft and charm the mind ; and in
this none ever went beyond him. Of his moral wri¬
tings it is to be regretted that we have no elegant Eng-
lilh tranfiation. Even his Lives were chiefly known
to the Englilb reader by a motley and miferable verfion,
till a new one executed with fidelity and fpirit was pre-
fented to the public by the Langhornes in 1770. On
the whole, it is to be wiflied that this moft amiable mo-
ralift and biographer had added a life of himfelf to thole
which he has given to the world of others, a? the parti¬
culars which other writers have preferved of his perfo-
nal hiftory are very doubtful and imperfect.
PLUTO, in Pagan worfhip, the king of the infer¬
nal regions, was the fon of Saturn and Ops, and the
brother of Jupiter and Neptune. This deity finding
himfelf childlefs and unmarried, mounted his chariot to
vifit the world •, and arriving in Sicily, fell in love with
Proferpine, whom he faw gathering flowers with her
companions in the valley of Enna, near Mount ./Etna :
when, forcing her into his chariot, he drove her to the
river Chemarus, through which he opened himfelf a pai-
fage back to the realms of night. See CERES and PRO¬
SERPINE.
Pluto is ufually reprefented in an ebony chariot drawn
bv four black horfes ; fometimes holding a feeptre, to
denote his power •, at others, a wand, with which he
drives away the ghofts •, and at others, fome keys, to
ftgnify that he had the keys of death. Homer obferves,
PLY t 665 ] PLY
Plato- that his helmet had the quality of rendering the wearer
ti invifible, and that Minerva borrowed it in order to be
lymouth. conceaifc(l from Mars when Are fought againft the Tro-
jans. Pluto was greatly revered both by the Greeks
and Romans, who erected temples and altars to him. To
this god lacrifices were offered in the night, and it was
not lawful to offer them by day.
PLUTUS, in Pagan worlhip, the god of riches, is
frequently confounded with Pluto. He was reprefented
as appearing lame when he approached, and with wings
at his departure •, to Ihow the difficulty of amafling
wealth and the uncertainty of its enjoyment. He was
alfo frequently reprefented blind, to Ihow that he often
bellowed his favours on the moft unworthy, and left in
neceffiity thofe who had the greater!: merit,
PLUVIALIS, a fpecies ot plover. See Chara-
drius, Ornithology Index.
PLUVIUS, a furname of Jupiter. Pie was invoked
by that name among the Romans whenever the earth
was parched up by continual heat, and was in want of
refrelhing rains. He had an altar in the temple on the
capitol.
PLYERS, in fortification, denote a kind of balance
ufed in raifing or letting down a draw-bridge. They
confift of two timber levers, twice as long as the bridge
they lift, joined together by other timbers framed in the
form of a St Andrew’s crofs to counterpoife them.
They are fupported by two upright jams, on which
they fwing ; and the bridge is railed or let down by
means of chains joining the ends of the plyers and
bridge.
PLYING, in the fea language, the a£f of making,
or endeavouring to make, a progrefs againft the direc¬
tion of the wind. Hence a fhip that advances well in
her courfe in this manner of failing, is faid to be a good
plyer. See the articles Beating, Pitching, and l'ACK-
ING.
PLYMOUTH, a town of Devonthire, in England,
about 215 miles from London, ftands between the rivers
Plym and Tamar, juft before they fall into the Britilh
channel. From a mere filhing village it has become
one of the largeft towns in the county ; and is one of
' the chief magazines in the kingdom, on account of its
port, which is one of the fafeft in England, and which
is fo large as to be able to contain 1000 fail. It is de¬
fended by feveral different forts, mounting altogether
nearly 300 guns; of which the chief is the Royal Cita¬
del erefted in the reign of Charles II. oppofite to St
Nicholas ifland, which is within the circuit of its walls,
and contains a large ftore-houfe and five regular baf-
tions. In time of war the outward-bound convoys ge-
nei-ally rendezvous at Plymouth, and homeward-bound
ftiips generally put in to provide pilots up the Channel.
It is alfo a great place of refort for men of war that are
I wind-bound.
The mouth of the Tamar is called Ham-Ooze, and
that of Plym Catwater, which are both commanded by
the caftle on St Nicholas ifland. About two miles up
the mouth of the Tamar there are four docks, two of
which were built in the reign of William III. one wet
and the other dry, and two which have been built fince.
They have every convenieney for building or repairing
ihips. One of the docks is hewn out of a mine of flate,
and lined with Portland ftone. This town enjoys a
pilchard fiftierv of confiderable importance, and carries
Vol. XVI. Part II.
on an extenfive trade with Newfoundland and the Straits. Plytnoatiu
There is a cuftomhoufe in it; and though there are two "1T—v"™"'
churches (and beiides feveral meeting-houfes), yet each
church hasfo large a cure of fouls, that the parilh clerks
were till very lately in deacons orders, to enable them
to perform all the occafional and other offices. The
feat-rents are given to the poor. The ledturers are
chofen every three years by the corporation, which was
conflituted by Henry VI. and con flits of a mayor, 12
aldermen, and 24 common-council men. The mayor
is elefted by a jury of 36 perfons, ehofen by four others,
two of whom are appointed by the mayor and aldermen,
and the other two by the common-council. There is
alfo a recorder, and a town-clerk. The population in
1801 exceeded 43,000. The town confifls of four divi-
fions, which were anciently governed by four captains,
each of whom had three conftables under him. It is well
lupplied with freffi water, which was brought from the
diltance of feven miles, by Sir Francis Drake a native of
the town. The toll of the markets and of the cotton,
yarn, 8cc. with the profit of the mill, which.is very
confiderable, belongs to the corporation, as do the re¬
venues of the ihambles, which are farmed out for the
mayor’s kitchen. There is a charity-fchool in Plymouth,
four hofpitals, and a workhoufe, in all which 100 poor
children are clothed, fed, and taught; and there are
two printing-houfes. To one of the hofpitals Colonel
Jory gave a charity for 12 poor widows, as he did a
mace worth 120I. to be carried before the mayor, and
fix good bells, valued at 500I. to Charles-Church, fo
called from our kings in whofe reigns it was begun and
finiffied. In the entrance of the bay lies the famous
Eddyftone rock, which is covered at high water, and on
which the ingenious Mr Winftanley built a light-houfe,
that was blown down in the terrible hurricane of Nov.
27th 1703, and himfelf, with others that were with
him in it, never more heard of. However, another was
erefled in the room of it, by the corporation of the
Trinity-houfe, in the time of Queen Anne, which was
deftroyed by an accidental fire Dec. 4th 1755, but re¬
built in 1799 : which alfo was burnt down, and rebuilt
by the celebrated Smeaton in the year 1770. In the
reign of Edward III. the French landed, and burnt
part of the town, but were foon repulfed by Hugh
Courtenay earl of Devon. In the reign of Henry IV.
the French landed here again, and burnt 600 houfes.
Between this town and the fea is a hill called the Haw,
which has a delightful plain on the top, having a plea-
fant profpefl all round it, and a good landmark for the
ufe ol mariners. The lift of parliament-men for this
borough, formerly divided into two parts, by the names
of Sutton-Valtort and Sutton-Prior, commences the 26th
of Edward I. and continues to the 14th of Edward III.
after which we find no return made for it till the 20U1
of Henry VI. when the privilege was renewed. On the
Haw is a fort, which at once commands the town and de¬
fends the harbour. Here is a ferry over the Tamar, called
Crum well or Crimble Paffage, the weft fide of which is
called Weftone-Houfe, and is in Devonihire, though
moft of the pariih wherein it ftands is in Cornwall. In
April 1759 parliament granted 25,159!. for the better
fortifying the town and dock of Plymouth. N. Lat. 50.
26. W. Long. 4. 15.
Plymouth, in New England, a fea-port town, and
capital of the county of the fame name, in the province
4 P of
PLY [
Plymouth, of Maffachufets Bay, in North America, with about 2000
Piynterio. inhabitants. It is remarkable for having been the firft
~ fettlement in New England, and for having had the firft
place of worlhip. It is foated at the fouth end of Ply¬
mouth bay. W. Long. 40* N. Lat. 41. 58.
PLYNTERIA, a Grecian feftival in honour of
Aglauros, or rather of Minerva, who received from the
daughter of Cecrops the name of Aglauros. The word
is derived from vX-jiuv, lavare, becauie during the folem-
nity they undreffed the ftatue of the goddtls and waftied
it. The day on which it was obferved was looked up-
666 ] PLY
on as unfortunate and inaufpicious 5 and therefore no
    1 — /      w “v*
perfon was permitted to appear in the temples, as they
were purpofely furrounded with ropes. The arrival of
Aleibiades in Athens that day was thought very unfor¬
tunate, but the luccefs that ever after attended him
proved it to be other wife. It was cuftomary at this fef¬
tival to bear in proceflion a clutter of figs j which in¬
timated the progrefs of civilization among the firft inha¬
bitants of the earth, as figs ferved them for food after
they had found a diflike ibr acorns.
PNEUMATICS.
Bcfinition
of the term.
JE^tert of
the fcience.
No p'reeife
limit to the
different
rlaffes of
bodies.
’’HIS term.is reftrifted, in the prefent habits of our
- language, to that part of natural philofophy which
treats of the mechanical properties of elaftic fluids. 1 he
rvord, in its original meaning, expreffes a quality ot air,
or more properly of breath. Under the article Physics
we obferved, that m a great 'number of languages the
term ufed to exprefs breath was alfo one of the terms
ufed to exprefs the animating principle, nay, the intel¬
lectual fubitance, the foul. It has been perhaps owing
to fome attention to this chance of confufion that our
philofophers have appropriated the term Pneumatics to
the fcience of the mechanical properties of aii% and
Pneumatology to the fcience of the intellectual phe¬
nomena confcquent on the operations or affedtions of our
thinking principle.
We have extended (on the authority of prefent cuf-
tom) the term Pneumatics to the ftudy of the me¬
chanical properties of all elaftic or fenfibly compreffible
fluids, that is, of fluids whole elafticity and comprefli-
bility become an interefting objeCf of our attention } as
the term Hydrostatics is applied to the ftudy of the
mechanical properties of fuch bodies as intereft us by
their fluidity or liquidity only, or whofe elafticity and
eompreflibility are not familiar or interefting, though
not lefs real or general than in the cafe of air and all
vapours.
We may be indulged in the obfervation by the bye,
that there is no preeife limit to the different, claffes of
natural bodies with refpeft to their mechanical proper¬
ties. There is no fuch thing as a body perfedlly hard,
perfeCfly foft, perfectly elaftic, or perfectly incompref-
fible. All bodies have fome degree of elafticity inter¬
mixed with fome degree of duCfility. Water, mercury,
oil, are compreftible ; but their compreflibility need not
be attended to in order perfeCtly to underftand the phe¬
nomena confequent on their materiality, fluidity, and
gravity. But if we negleCt the compreflibility of air,
we remain ignorant of the caufe and nature of its molt
interefting phenomena, and are but imperfeCtly informed
with reipeCt to thofein which its elafticity has no fhare j
and ft is convenient to attend to this diitinCtion in our
refearches, in order to underftand thofe phenomena
which depend folely or chiefly on compreflibility and
elallicity. r.l his obfervation is important \ for here ela-
flicily appears in its molt Ample form, unaccompanied
with any other mechanical affi Ction of matter (;f we
except gravity), and lies mnft open to our obfervation,
whether employed for inveftigating the nature of this
X
very property of bodies, or for explaining its mode of
aChon. We ftiall even find that the conftitution of an
avowedly elaftic fluid, whofe compreflibility is fo very
fenfible, will give us the diftinCtefi notions of fluidity
in general, and enable us to underftand its char after if ic
appearances, by which it is diftinguifhed from lolidity,
namely, the equable diftribution of preffure through all
its parts in every direction, and the horizontality which
its furface affumes by the aCtion of gravity: phenomena
which have been aftumed as equivalent to the definition
of a perfeCt fluid, and from which all the Jaws of hydro-
ftatics and hydraulics have been derived. And thefe
laws have been applied to the explanation of the pheno¬
mena around us; and water, mercury, oil, &c. have
been denominated fluid only becaufe their appearances
have been found to tally exaCtly with thefe confequences
of this definition, while the definition itfeif remains in
the form of an alTbmption, unfupported by any other
proof of its obtaining in nature. A real mechanical
philofopher will therefore attach hitnfelf with great ea-
gernefs to this property, and confider it as an introduc¬
tion to much natural fcience. ^
Of all the fenfible comprefllble fluids air is the moftAirthe
familiar, was the firft ftudied, and the moft minutely Rioft fanit
examined. It has therefore been generally taken as the^1''1
example of their mechanical properties, while thofe me-j^j^
chanical properties which are peculiar to any of them,
and therefore charaCteriftic, have ufually been treated
as an appendix to the general fcience of pneumatics.
No objection occurs to us againfi this method, which
will therefore be adopted in treating this article.
But although the mechanical properties are the pro-Different
per fubjefts of our confideration, it will be impoflible properties
to avoid confidtring occafionally properties which are0^11'
more of a chemical nature ; becaufe they occafion fuch
modifications of the mechanical properties as would fre¬
quently be unintelligible without confidering them in
conjunction with the other ; and, on the other hand,
the mechanical properties produce fuch modifications of
the properties merely chemical, and of very interefting
phenomtna confequent on them, that thefe would often
pafs unexplained unlefs we give an account of them in
this place. $
By mechanical properties we ivould be underftood to Mechanic
mean fuch as produce, or are conneCted with, fenfible propertied
changes of morion, and which indicate the prefence and
agency of moving or mechanical powers. They are
therefore the fubjeCt of mathematical difeuffion j admit¬
ting
nr com-
preffibl
5
1.
hat is
8
30f»
at it ii
itter,
Plate
ccxxin.
i.
9
iTeifed of
pulfive
ce.
xe
penetra-
ity,
it
tfticity,
P N E U M
ting of meafure, number, and direftion, notions purely
mathematical.
We ihall therefore begin with the confideration of
air,
It is by no means an idle queftion, “ IV/iat is this air
of which fo much is faid and written ?” We fee no¬
thing, we feel nothing. We find ourfelves at liberty to
move about in any diredlion without any let or hin-
derance. Whence, then, the affertion, that we are fur-
rounded with a matter called air ? A few very fimple
obfervations and experiments will Ihovr us that this af¬
fertion is well founded.
We are accuftomed to fay that a velfel is empty
when we have poured out of it the water which it con¬
tained. Take a cylindrical glafs jar (fig. x.) having a
fmall hole in its bottom j and having flopped this hole,
fill the jar with water, and then pour out the water,
leaving the glafs empty, in the common acceptation of
the word. Now, throw a bit of cork, or any light bo¬
dy, on the furface of water in a ciftern: cover this with
the glafs jar A held in the hand with its bottom up¬
wards, and move it downwards, as at B, keeping it all
the while in an upright pofition. The cork will continue
to float on the furface of the water in the infide of the
glafs, and will moft diftin<flly flxow whereabouts that
furface is. It will thus be feen, that the water within the
glafs has its furface confiderably lower at C than that of
the furrounding water j and however deep we immerge
the glafs, we fliall find that the water will never rife in
the infide of it fo as to fill it. If plunged to the depth
of 32 feet, the water will only half fill it 5 and yet the
acknowledged laxvs of hydroftatics tell us, that the wa¬
ter xvould fill the glafs if there were nothing to hinder
it. There is therefore fomething already within the
glafs which prevents the water from getting into it $
manifefting in this manner the moft diftinftive property
of matter, viz. the hindering other matter from occu¬
pying the fame place at the fame time.
While things are in tbis condition, pull the ftopper
D out of the hole in thd bottom of the jar, and the wa¬
ter xvill inftantly rife in the infide of the jar, and ftand
at an equal height within and without. This is juftly
aferibed to the efcape through the hole of the matter
which formerly obftrudled the entry of the water j for
if the hand be held before the hole, a puff will be di-
ftinflly felt, or a feather held there will be blown afide 5
indicating in this manner that what prevented the
entry of the water, and now efcapes, poffeffes another
charafleriftic property of matter, impu/Jive force. The
materiality is concluded from this appearance in the
fame manner that the materiality of water is concluded
from the impulfe of a jet from a pipe. We alfo fee the
mobility of the formerly pent up, and now liberated,
fubftance, in confequence of external preffure, viz. the
preffure of the furrounding water.
Alfo, if we take a fmooth cylindrical tube, fhut at
one end, and fit a plug or cork to its open end, fo as
to Aide along it, but fo tightly as to prevent all paffage
by its fides •, and if the plug be well foaked in greafe,
we fliall find that no force "whatever can pufh it to the
bottom of the tube. There is therefore fomething with¬
in the tube preventing by its impenetrability the entry
of the plug, and therefore poffeffing this charatfteriftic
of matter.
In like manner, if, after having opened a pair of com-
A T T C S. C6y
mon bellows, we (hut up the nozzle and valve hole, and
try to bring the boards together, we find it impoffible.
There is fomething included which prevents this, in the
fame manner as if the bellows wTere filled with wool ;
but on opening the nozzle we can eafily fhut them, viz.
by expelling this fomething ; and if the compreflion be
forcible, the fomething will iffue with confiderable force,
and very fenfibly impel any thing in its way. I3
It is not accurate to fay, that we move about with-inertia, and
out any obftrmftion ; for we find, that if we endeavour mobility,
to move a large fan with rapidity, a very fenfible hin-
derance is perceived, and that a very fenfible force muft
be exerted ; and a fenfible wind is produced, which will
agitate the neighbouring bodies. It is therefore juftly
concluded that the motion is poflible only in conftquence
of having driven this obftrmfting fubftance out of the
way ; and that this impenetrable, refitting, moveable,
impelling fubftance, is matter. We perceive the perfe-
verance of this matter in its ftate of reft when we wavx
a fan, in the fame manner that we perceive the inertia
ot water when we move a paddle through it. The ef-
fedts of wind in impelling our (hips and mills, in tearing
up trees, and overturning buildings, are equal indica¬
tions of its perfeverance in a ftate of motion.
To this matter, when at reft, we give the name
Air ; and when it is in motion we call it Wind. x..
Air, therefore, is a material fluid: a fluid, becaufe It is there
its parts are eafily moved, and yield to the fmalleft in-fcr<3 ^In¬
equality of preffure. terial huid.
Air poffeffes fome others of the very general, though Heav^5 an(}
not effential, properties of matter. It is heavy. This
appears from the following facts.
1. It always accompanies this globe in its orbit round
the fun, furrounding it to a certain diftance, under the
name of the Atmosphere, which indicates the being
connedted with the earth by its general force of gravity.
It is chiefly in confequence of this that it is continually
moving round the earth from eaft to weft; forming what
is called the trade-wind, to be more particularly con-
fidered afterwards. All that is to be obferved on this
fubjedt at prefent is, that, in confequence of the dif-
turbing force of the fun and moon, there is an accumu¬
lation of the air of the atmofphere, in the fame manner
as of the waters of the ocean, in thofe parts of the
globe which have the moon near their zenith or nadir :
and as this happens fucceflively, going from the eaft t»
the weft (by the rotation of the earth round its axis ia
the oppofite diredtion), the accumulated air muft gra¬
dually flow along to form the elevation. This is chiefly
to be obferved in the toirid zone 5 and the generality
and regularity of this motion are greatly difturbed by
the changes which are continually taking place in differ¬
ent parts of the atmofphere from caufes which are not
mechanical.
2. It is in like manner owing to the gravity of the^uPP°,,:s
air that it fupports the clouds and vapours which w’e ^ie c^ou<*s'
fee conftantly floating in it. W^e have even feen bodies
of no inconfiderable weight float, and even rife, in the
air. Soap bubbles, and balloons filled with inflamma¬
ble gas, rife and float in the fame manner as a cork rife->
in water. This phenomenon proves the weight of the
air, in the fame manner that the fwimming of a piece
of wood indicates the weight of the w'ater which fup- 16
ports it. Familiar
3. But we are not left to thefe refined obfervationspro.offoflts
4 Pa f«we‘£h‘-
663
PNEUMATICS.
for the proof of the air’s gravity. We may obferve fa¬
miliar phenomena, which would be immediate confe-
quences of the fuppofition that air is a heavy fluid, and,
like other heavy fluids, preffes on the outfides of all
bodies immerfed in or furrounded by it. Thus, for
inflance, if we fhut the nozzle and valve hole of a pair
of bellows after having fqueezed the air out of them,
we fhall find that a very great force, even fome hundred
pounds, is nectffary for feparating the boards. They
are kept together by the preffure of the heavy air which
furrounds them in the fame manner as if they were im¬
merfed in water. In like manner, if we flop the end
of a fyringe after its pifton has been preffed down to the
bottom, and then attempt to draw up the pifton, we
(hall find a confiderable force neceffary, viz. about 15
or 16 pounds for every fquare inch of the fedlion of the
fyringe. Exerting this force, we can draw up the pifton
to the top, and we can hold it there ; but the moment
■we ceafe adding, the pifton rufhes down and ftrikes the
bottom. It is called a fuflion, as we feel fomething as
it Avere drawing in the pifton •, but it is really the weight
of the incumbent air preffing it in. And this obtains
in every pofition of the fyringe ; becaufe the air is a
fluid, and preffes in every direddion. Nay, it preffes on
the fyringe as well as on the pifton ; and if the pifton
be hung by its ring on a nail, the fyringe requires force
to draw it down (juft as much as to draw the pifton up) ;
Plate ancl it he let go, it will fpring up, unlefs loaded with
ccccxxni. at ieaq j (- p0unds for every fquare inch of its tranfverfe
fe£tion (fee fig. 2.).
It may 4. But the moft diredd proof of the weight of the air
even be is had by weighing a veffel empty of air, and then
weighed, weighing it again -when the air has been admitted ;
and this, as it is the moft obvious confequence of its
weight, has been afferted as long ago as the days of
Ariftotle. He fays (rteg/ Ovgxvov, iv. 4.), That all bo¬
dies are heavy in their nlace except fire ; even air is
heavy 5 for a blown bladder is heavier than when it is
empty. It is fomewhat furprifing that his folkwers
fhould have gone into the oppofite opinion, while pro-
fefling to maintain the doftrine of their leader. If we
take a very large and limber bladder, and fqueeze out
the air very carefully, and weigh it, and then fill it till
the wrinkles juft begin to difappear, and weigh it again,
we fhall find no difference in the weight. But this is
not Ariftotle’s meaning ; becaufe the bladder, confider-
ed as a veffel, is equally full in both cafes, its dimenfions
being changed. We cannot take the air out of a blad¬
der without its immediately collapfing. But what would
be true of a bladder would be equally true of any veffel.
pig. 3. Therefore, take a round veffel A (fig. 3.), fitted with
a ftopcock B, and fyringe C. Fill the whole with
water, and prefs the pifton to the bottom of the fyringe.
Then keeping the cock open, and holding the veffel up¬
right, with the fyringe undermoft, draw down the pifton.
The water will follow it by its weight, and leave part of
the veffel empty. Now ftiut the cock, and again pu(h up
the pifton to the bottom of the fyringe 5 the water efcapes
through the pifton valve, as will be explained afterward :
then opening the cock, and again drawing down the pi¬
fton, more water will come out of the veffel. Repeat this
operation till all the water have come out. Shut the cock,
unfcrew the fyringe, and weigh the veffel very accurate¬
ly. Now open the cock, and admit the air, and weigh
the veffel again, it will be found heavier than before, and
this additional weight is the weight of the air which fills
it •, and it will be found to be 523 grains, about an ounce
and a fifth avoirdupois, for every cubic foot that the vefl'el
contains. Now fince a cubic foot of Avater would weigh
IOOO ounces, this experiment would fhow that water is
about 840 times heavier than air. The moft accurate
judgment of this kind of which we have met Avith an
account is that recorded by Sir George Shuckburgh,
which is in the 67th vol. of the Philofophical Tranfac-
tions, p. q6o. From this it follows, that Avhen the air
is of the temperature 53, and the barometer Hands at
29I: inches, the air is 836 times lighter than Avater.
But the experiment is not fufceptible of fufficient accu¬
racy for determining the exa£l Aveight of a cubic foot of
Its Aveight is Amry fmall j and the veffel muff be
!
ftrong and heavy, fo as to overload any balance that is
fufficiently nice for the experiment. lS
To avoid this inconvenience, the Avdiole may beThr. moft
weighed in water, firft loading the veffel fo as to make conver!'CT‘
it preponderate an ounce or two in the water. By this met"0(*ot
the balance Avill be loaded only Avith this fmall om2Uj ?
preponderancy. But even in this cafe there are confi¬
derable fources of error, arifing from changes in the
fpecific gravity of the Avater and other caufes. The
experiment has often been repeated with this vieAV, and
the air has been found at a medium to be about 840
times as light as Avater, but Avith great variations, as
may be expefted from its very heterogeneous nature, in
confequence of its being the menftruum of almoft evrery
fluid, of all vapours, and even of moft folid bodies ; all
which it holds in folution, forming a fluid perfe&ly
tranfparent, and of very different denfity according to
its compofition. It is found, for inftance, that perfedl-
ly pure air of the temperature of our ordinary fummer
is confiderably denfer than when it has diffolved about
half as much Avater as it can hold in that temperature ‘7
and that with this quantity of Avater the difference of
denfity increafes in proportion as the mafs grows warmer,
for damp air is more expanfible by heat than dry air.
We have had occafion to confider this fubjeft when
treating of the connexion of the mechanical properties
of air with the ftate of the weather. See Meteoro-
■■
kf
LOGY.
Such is the refult of the experiment fuggefted byTliispro-
Ariftotle, evidently proving the AAreight of the air ; and perty of
yet, as has been obferved, the Peripatetics, Avho profefsL
to follow the diSlates of Ariftotle, uniformly refufed it, jp?tetics, |
this property. It ivas a matter long debated among though ac
the philofophers of the laft century. The reafon Avas, knowledg
that Ariftotle, Avith that indiftindlnefs and inconfiftency,
Avhich is obferved in all his writings Avhich relate toiria
matters of fa£t and experience, afligns a different caufe
to many phenomena Avhich any man led by common
obfervation Avould aferibe to the Aveight of the air. Of
this kind is the rife. of water in pumps and fyphons,
Avhich all the Peripatetics had for ages aferibed to fome¬
thing Avhich they called nature's abhorrence of a void.
Ariftotle had afferted (for reafons not our bufinefs to
adduce at prefent), that all nature was full of being,
and that nature abhorred a void. He adduces many
fadls, in ivhich it appears, that if not abfolutely impof-
fible, it is very difficult, and requires great force, to
produce a fpace void of matter. When the operation
of pumps and fyphons came to be knoAvm, the philofo¬
phers of Europe (Avho had all embraced the Peripatetic
dodrines)
P N E U M
do&rines) found in this fancied horror of a fancied mind
(•what elfe is this that nature abhors ?) a ready folution
of the phenomena. We (hall ftate the fads, that every
reader may fee what kinds of reafoning were received
among the learned not two centuries ago.
I °uc Pumps were then conftru&ed in the following man-
til >fUC" ner: A long pipe GB (fig. 4.) was fet in the water
1 pu is in 0f the well A. This was fitted with a fucker or pifton
th lft C having a long rod CF, and was furnilhed with a
*e ry‘ va’lVe B at the bottom, and a lateral pipe DE at the
11 place of delivery, alfo furni(hed with a valve. The faft
is, that if the pifton be thruft down to the bottom, and
then drawn up, the water will follow it; and upon the
pifton being again pulhed down, the water (huts the
valve B by its weight, and efcapes or is expelled at the
valve E; and on drawing up the pifton again the valve
E is (hut, the water again rifes after the pifton, and i&
ao-ain expelled at its next defcent.
&The Peripatetics explain all this by faying, that \£
the water did not follow the pijlon there would be a void
T r'ope- between them. But nature abhors a void 5 or. a void
ra n ac- is impoffible : therefore the Avatey follows the pifton.—
■ cc ted ft is not worth while to criticife the Avretched reafoning
I fo y the in this pretence to explanation. It is all overturned by
,ate‘ one obfervation. Suppofe the pipe (hut at the bottom,
the pifton can be drawn up, and thus a void produced.
No, fay the Peripatetics •, and they fpeak of certain fpi-
rits, effluvia, &cc. which occupy the place. But if fo,
why needs the water rife ? Ihis therefore is not the
caufe of its afcent. It is curious and important phe¬
nomenon.
I f feo firft The fugacious Galileo feems to have been the firft who
I a unted ferioufly afcribed this to the weight of the air. Many
BfJtra- before him had fuppofed air heavy j and thus explained
^ * l11/ the difficulty of raifing the board of bellows, or the pi¬
fton of a fyringe, &c. But he diftinctly applies to this
allowed weight of the air all the confequences of hydro.
2. ftatical laws j and he reafons as follows,
t ha The heavy air refts on the Avater in the ciftern, and
a dit of prefles it Avith its Aveight. It does the fame Avith the
1 atrao- ivater in the pipe, and therefore both are on a level :
_ f re’ but if the pifton, after being in contact with the furface
of the water, be drawn up, there is no longer any pref-
fure on the furface of the w^ater Avithin the pipe 5 for
the air now refts on the pifton only, and thus occafions
a difficulty in drawing it up. Fhe Avater in the pipe,
therefore, is in the fame fituation as if more water Aveie
poured into the ciftern, that is, as mucn as would exci.t
the fame preffiire on its furface as the air does. In this
cafe Ave are certain that the water avIII be preffed into
the pipe, and Avill raife up the water already in it,
follow it till it is equally high Avithin and without. The
fame preflfure of the air (huts the -/alve E during the de-
24 fcent of the pifton. (See Gal. Difcourfef.
\ pre- He did not Avait for the very obvious objection, that
ted the rife of the water Avas the effect of the au s prefture,
I fc^^a it would alfo be its meafure, and would be rafted and
| would fupported only to a certain height. .He directly faid f>,
II 'in and adduced this as a deeifive experiment. If the honor
m- of a void be the caufe, fays he, the water rouft rife to any
height however great 5 but if it be owing to the preffure
of the air, it will only rife till the Aveight ot the water
in the pipe is in equilibrio Avith the preffure of the air,
according to the common laws of hydroftatics. And
he adds, that this is Avell known ) for it is a fact, that
A T I c s. 669
pumps will not draw water much above forty palms, al¬
though they may be made to propel it, or to lift it to
any height. He then makes an aiiertion, Avhich, it, true,
will be decifive. Let a very long pipe, (hut at one end,
be filled with water, and let it be erected perpendicu¬
larly Avith the clofe end uppermoft, and a ftopper in the
other end, and then its lower orifice immerfed into a
veffel of Avater ; the water Avill fubfide in the pipe upon
removing the ftopper, till the remaining column is in
equilibrio Avith the preffure of the external air. This
experiment he propofes to the curious 5 faying, however,
that he thought it unneceffary, there being already fuch
abundant proofs of the air’s preffure.
It is probable that the cumberlomenefs of the necef- His predic*
fary apparatus protracted the making of this experiment, tj011 ven-
Another equally eonclufive, and much ealier, Avas made^^yg^®"
in 1642 after Galileo’s death, by his zealous and learned pcriment>
difciple Toricelli. He filled a glafs tube, clofe at one end,
Avilh mercury } judging, that if the fupport of the Avater
was Giving to the preilure of the air, and AATas the mea-
fure of this preffure, mercury Avould in like manner be
fupported by it, and this at a height which Avas alio the
meafure of the air’s preffure, and therefore 13 times lefs
than Avater. He had the. pleafure of feeing his expec¬
tation verified in the completed: manner j the mercury
defending in the tube AB (fig. 5.), and finally fettling Fig. 5,.
at the height/B of 29^ Roman inches: and he found,
that Avhen the tube Avas inclined, the point/Avas in the
fame horizontal plane Avith/in the upright tube, accord¬
ing to the received laAVS of hydroftatical preflure. The
experiment Avas often repeated, and foon became famous,
' exciting great controvTer lies among the philofophers about
the poflibiiity of a vacuum. About three years after¬
wards the fame experiment Avas publiffied, at Warfaw
in Poland, by Valerianus Magnus, as his own fuggeftion
and difeovery : but it appears plain from the letters of
Roberval, not only that Toricelli Avas prior, and that his
experiment Avas the general topic of difeufiion among,
the curious-, but alfo highly probable that Valerianus
Magnus Avas informed of it when at Rome, and daily
converfant Avith thofe who had feen it. He denies,
hoAvever, even having heard of the name of Toricelli.
This Avas the era of philofophical ardour ; and we
think that it Avas Galileo’s invention and immediate ap¬
plication of the telefcope which gave it vigour. Dif-
coveries of the moft Avonderful kind in the heavens, and
-which required no extent of previous knorvledge to un-
derft and them, Avere thus put into the hands of every per-
fon Avho could purchafe a fpy-glafs j Avhiie the high de¬
gree of credibility Avhich fome of the difeoveries, fuch as
the phafes of Venus and the rotation and fatellites of Ju¬
piter, gave to the Copernican fyftern, immediately fet the
Avhole body of the learned in motion. Galileo joined to
his ardour a great extent of learning, particularly of ma¬
thematical knoAvledge and found logic, and Avas even the
firft Avho formally united mathematics Avith phyficJj and
his treatife on accelerated motion was the firft, and a pre¬
cious fruit of this union. About the years 1642 and 1644, q. ?n of
Ave find clubs of gentlemen affociated in Oxford and Lon-the Koyal
don for the cultivation of knowledge by experiment; and Society,
before 165 $ all the do&rines of hydroftatics and pneuma-Sa¬
ties Avere familiar there, eftabliftred upon experiment. Mr
Boyle procured a coalition and corrcfpondence of thefe
clubs under the name of the Invifible and Philofophical
Society. In May 1658, Mr Hooke finiftied for Mr
Boyle
P K? £ U M
Boy 16 an air-pump, which had employed him a long
time, and occalioned him feveral journeys to London for
things which the workmen of Oxford could not execute.
He fpeaks of this as a great improvement on Mr Boyle’s
own pump, which he had be n ufing fome time before.
Boyle therefore muft have invented his air-pump, and
was not indebted for it to Schottus’s account of Otto
Guerick’s, publifhed in his (Schottus) Mechanico Htj-
draulo-pneumatica in 165 7, as he afferts ( Techno Curiqfd').
The Royal Society of London arole in 1656 from the
coalition of thefe clubs, after 15 years co-operation and
Correfpondence. The Montmorine Society at Paris had
fubfifted nearly about the fame time j for we find Pafchal
in 1648 fpeaking of the meetings in the Sorbonne Col¬
lege, from which we know that fociety originated.—
Nuremberg, in Germany, was alfo a diftinguiihed femi-
nary of experimental philofophy. The magiftrates, fen-
fible of its valuable influence in many manufactures, the
fource of the opulence and profperity of their city, and
many of them philofophers, gave philofophy a profefled
and munificent patronage, furnifhing the philofophers
with a copious apparatus, a place of affembly, and a fund
for the expence of their experiments ; fo that this was
the firft academy of fciences out of Italy under the pa¬
tronage of government. In Italy, indeed, there had
z8 long exifted inftitutions of this kind. Rome was the cen-
The expe- tre of church-government, and the refort of all expeCI-
rhnents of ants for preferment. The clergy was the majority of the
Toricelfina learned m a11 Chriftian nations, and particularly of the
rapidly dif- fydema^c philofophers. Each, eager to recommend
fufed. himfelf to notice, brought forward every thing that was
curious ; and they were the willing vehicles of philofo-
phical communication. Thus the experiments of Gali¬
leo and Toricelli were rapidly diffufed by perfons of rank,
the dignitaries of the church, or by the monks their ob-
{'equious fervants. Perhaps the recent defeftion of Eng¬
land, and the want of a refiding embafly at Rome, made
her fometimes late in receiving or fpreading pbilofopbi-
cal refearches, and was the caufe that more was done
there proprio Marie.
We hope to be excufed for this digreflion. We were
naturally led into it by the pretenfions of Valerianus
T)he merit Magnus to originality in the experiment of the mercury
efToricel- fupported by the preffure of the air. Such is the
by others^ ^ren8^ national attachment, that there were not
wanting fome who found that Toricelli had borrowed
his experiment from Honoratus Fabri, who had pro-
pofed and explained it in 1641: but whoever knows
Hie writings of Toricelli, and Galileo’s high opinion of
him, will never think that he could need fuch helps.
(See this furmife of Mounier in Scroll. Tec/u Cur. ILL
at the end).
.670
27
Invention
@f the air-
■pump.
. Galileo muft be confidered as the author of the expe¬
riment when he propofes it to be made. Valerianus
Magnus owns himfelf indebted to him for the principle
and the contrivance of the experiment. It is neither
wonderful that manv ingenious men, of one opinion
and inftrufted by Galileo, ftiould feparately hit on fo
obvious a thing; nor that Toricelli, his immediate dif-
ciple, his enthufiaftic admirer, and who was in the ha¬
bits of correfponding with him till his death in 1642
fhould be the firft to put it in praftice. It became
the fubjeft of difpute from the national arrogance and
ielf-conceit of fome Frenchmen, who have always ftiown
thenifelves difpofed to confider their nation as at the
A T I C &
head of the republic of letters, and Cannot brook the
concurrence of any foreigners. Roberval was in this
inftance, however, the champion of Toricelli j but thofe
who know his controverfies with the mathematicians of
France at this time will eafily account, for this exception.
All now agree in giving Toricelli the honour of theu„J*v
f rft invention ; and it univerfally pafles by the name of
the Toricelli an Expert-uent. The tube is called
the ToricELLIAN Tube j and the fpace left by the
mercury is called the ToricELLIAN Vacuum, to di-
ftinguifti it from the Boylean Vacuum, which is only
an extreme rarefadftion.
The experiment -was repeated in various forms, and It was re.
with apparatus which enabled philofophers to examinePea.tedi*
feveral effefts which the vacuum produced on bodies ex-)oar™U5
pofed in it. This was done by making the upper part of
the tube terminate in a veflfel of fome capacity, or com¬
municate with fuch a veflel, in which were included
alongjwith the mercury bodies on which the experiments
were to be made. When the mercury had run out, the
phenomena of thefe bodies were carefully obferved.
An objeftion was made to the conelufion drawn from An objec.
Toricelli’s experiment, which appears formidable. Iftion totb
the Toricellian tube be fufpended on the arm of a ba-conclufion
lance, it is found that the counterpoife muft be equal to
the weight both of the tube and of the mercury it con-' °
tains. This could not be, fay the objeifors, if the mer¬
cury were fupported by the air. It is evidently fup¬
ported by the balance ; and this gave rife to another
notion of the caufe different from the peripatetic fuga
‘vacui: a fnfpenfiveTorce, or rather attra&ion, was
affigned to the upper part of the tube.
But the true explanation of the phenomenon is moft
eafy and fatisfaftory. Suppofe the mercury in theciftem
and tube to freeze, but without adhering to the tube, fo
that the tube could be freely drawn up and down. In
this cafe the mercury is fupported by the bafe, without
any dependence on the preflure of the air; and the tube
is in the fame condition as before, and the folid mercury
performs the office of a pifton to this kind of fyringe.
Suppofe the tube thruft down till the top of it touches
the top of the mercury. It is evident that it muft be
drawn up in oppofition to the preffure of the external
air, and it is precifely fimilar to the fyringe mentioned
in N° 16. The weight fuftained therefore by this arm
of the balance is the weight of the tube and the down¬
ward preffure of the atmofphere on its top. 3$
The curiofity of philofophers being thus excited by Galileo’s
this very manageable experiment, it was natural now tooriginaIe
try the original experiment propofed by Galileo. Ac-^[^
cordingly Berti in Italy, Pafchal in France, and many
others in different places, made the experiment with a
tube filled with tvater, wine, oil, 8tc. and all with the
fuccefs which might be expected in fo fimple a matter :
and hence the doflrine of the weight and preffure of the
air was eftablifhed beyond contradisftion or doubt. All
this wras done before the year 1648.— A very beautiful
experiment was exhibited by Auzout, which complete¬
ly fatisfied all who had any remaining doubts. 34
A fmall box or phial EFGH (fig. 6.) had two glafs^nexpei
tubes, AB, CD, three feet long, inferted into it in fuch ^2011/
a manner as to be firmly fixed in one end, and to reachftgi6.
nearly to the other end. AB was open at both ends,
and CD was clofe at D. This apparatus was complete¬
ly filled with mercury, by unferewing the tube AB, fil¬
ling
I
P N E U M
ling tlie box, and the tube CD ; then fere wing in the
tube AB, and filling it: then holding a finger on the
orifice A, the whole was inverted and fet upright in
the pofition reprefented in figure /3, immerfing the ori¬
fice A (now a of fig. /3.) in a finall velfel of quickfilver.
The refult was, that the mercury ran out at the orifice a,
till its furface mn within the phial defeended to the top
of the tube b a. The mercury alfo began to defeend
in the tube dc (formerly DC) and run over into the
tube b a, and run out at till the mercury in d c was
very near equal in a level with m n. The mercury de¬
fending in £ « till it flood at 29 J inches above the
furface op ni the mercury in the cifeern, juft as in the
Toricellian tube.
The rationale of this experiment is very eafy. The
whole apparatus may firft be confidered as a Toricellian
tube of an uncommon fhape, and the mercury would
flow out at a. But as foon as a drop of mercury comes
out, leaving a fpace above m n, there is nothing to keep
up the mercury in the tube dc. Its mercury therefore
defends alfo ; and running over into b «, continues to
fupply its expence till the tube dc is alraoft empty, or
can no longer fupply the wafte of h a. The inner fur-
face therefore falls as low as it can, till it is level with
b. No more mercury can enter b a, yet its column
is too heavy to be fupported by the prefi'ure of the air
on the mercury in the ciftern below , it therefore de¬
fends in b a, and finally fettles at. the height h 0, equal
to that of the mercury in the Toricellian tube.
The prettieft circumftanee of the experiment remains.
Make a finall hole g in the upper cap of the box. The
external air immediately rufhes in by its weight, and now
preffes on the mercury in the box. This immediately
raifes the mercury in the tube dc to /, 29A inches above
tnn. It preffes on the mercury at k in the tube b <1, ba¬
lancing the preffure of the air in the ciftern. The mer¬
cury in the tube therefore is left to the influence of its
own weight, and it defends to the bottom. Nothing
can be more appofite or decifive.
And thus the doftrine of the gravity and preffure of
the air is eftablifhed by the moft unexceptionable evi¬
dence : and we are intitled to affume it as a ftatical
principle, and to affirm <7 priori all its legitimate confe-
quences.
And in the firft place, ive obtain an exa£t meafure of
the preffure of the atmofphere. It is precifely equal to
the weight of the column of mercury, of water, of oil,
&c. which it can fupport $ and the Toricellian tube, or
others fitted up upon the fame principle, are juftly term¬
ed barofeopes and barometers with reipecl to the air.
Now it is obferved that water is fupported at the height
of 32 feet nearly : the weight of the column is exaftly
2000 avoirdupois pounds on every fquare foot of bafe, ,
.or 13^ on every^fquare inch. The fame eonclufion
very nearly may be diawn from the column of mercury,
which is nearly 29-J inches high when in equilibrium
with the preffure of the air. We may here obferve, that
the meafure taken from the height of a column of water,
wfine, fpirits, and the other fluids of confiderable volati¬
lity, as chemifts term it, is not fo exaff as that taken
from mercury, oil, and the like. For it is obferved,
that the volatile fluids are converted by the ordinary
heat of our climates into vapour when the confining
preffure of the air is removed •, and this vapour, by its
elafticity, exerts a fmall preffure on the furface of the
A T I C 3.
671
water, &c. in the pipe, and thus eounterafts a fmall
part of the external preffure j and therefore the column
fupported by the remaining preffure muft be lighter,
that is, fliorter. 'I bus it is found, that reftified ipirits
will not ftand much higher than is competent to a weight
of 13 pounds on an inch, the elafticity of its vapour ba¬
lancing about ^ of the preffure of the air. We lhall
afterwards have occafion to confider this matter more
particularly.
As the medium height of the mercury in the barome¬
ter is 29-i- inches, we fee that the whole globe fuftains a
preffure equal to the whole weight of a body of mercury
of this height ; and that all bodies on its furface fuftain
a part of this in proportion to their furfaces. An ordi-
nnry fized man iuftains a preffure of feveral thoufand
pounds. How comes it then that we are not fenfible of 3$
a preffure which one ffiould think enough to crufh us A difficulty,
together ? This has been conlidered as a itrong objection l°bTed.
to the preffure of the air; for when a man is plunged a
few feet under water, he is very fenfible of the preffure.
The anfwer is by no means' fo eafy as is commonly ima¬
gined. We feel very diftinftly the effects of removing
this preffure from any part of the body. If any one will
apply the open end of a fyringe to his hand, and then
draw up the pifton, he will find his hand fucked into,
the fyringe with great force, and it will give pain j and
the foft part of the hand wfill fwell into it, being preffed
in by the neighbouring parts, which are fubjedt to the
adtion of the external air. If one lays his hand on the
top of a long perpendicular pipe, fuch as a pump filled
to the brim with water, which is at firft prevented from
running out by the valve below ; and if the valve be
then opened, fo that the water defeends, he will then •
find his hand fo hard prefl'ed to the top of the pipe that
he cannot draw it away. But why do we only feel the
inequality of preffure ? There is a fimilar inftance where¬
in we do not feel it, although we cannot doubt of its
exiftence. When a man goes flowly to a great depth
under water in a diving-bell, we know unqueftionably
that he is expofed to a new and very great preffure, yet
he does not feel it. But thofe, fadts are not fufficiently
familiar for general argument. The human body is a
bundle of foiids, hard or foft, filled or mixed with fluids,
and there are few or no parts of it which are empty. All
communicate either by veffels or pores *, and the whole
furface is a fieve through which the infenfible perfpira-
tion is performed. The whole extended furface of the
lungs is open to the preffure of the atmofphere •, every
thing is therefore in equilibrio : and if free or fpeedy ac-
cefs be given to every part, the body will not be dama¬
ged by the preffure, however great, any more than a
wet fponge would be deranged by plunging it any depth
in water. The preffure is inftantaneoufly diffufed by
means of the incomprefiible fluids with which the parts
are filled ; and if any parts are filled with air or other
compreffible fluids, thefe are compreffed till their elafti¬
city again balances the preffure. Beftdes, all our fluids
are acquired flowly, and gradually mixed with that pro¬
portion of air which they can diffolve or contain. The
whole animal has grown up in this manner from the firft
vital atom of the embyro. For fuch reafons the preffure
can occafion no change of (hape by fqueezing together
the flexible parts •, nor any obftrutftion by comprefling
the veffels or pores. We cannot fay what would be felt
by a man, were it poffible that he could have been pro¬
duced
672
39
The wea-
ther-glafs.
40
The pref-
fure of the
air in pro¬
portion to
the eleva¬
tion
41
firft fup-
pofed by
Defcartes
and Paf-
chal, and
proved by
experi¬
ments,
P N E U M
daced and grown up in vacuo, and then fubjedtt d to the
compreflion. We even know that any fudden and con-
fiderable change of general preffure is very feverely felt,
Perfons in a diving-bell have been altnoft killed by let¬
ting them down or drawing them up toa fuddenly. In
drawing up, the elaftic matters within have fuddenly
fwelled, and not finding an immediate efcape have burft
the veffels. Dr Halley experienced this, the blood gufti-
ing out from his ears by the expanfion of air contained
in the internal cavities of this organ, from which there
are but very flender paffages.
A very important obfervation recurs here : the pref¬
fure of the atmofphere is variable. 1 his was ooferved
almoft as foon as philofophers began to attend to the ba¬
rometer. Pafchal oblerved it in Prance, and Defcartes
obferved it in Sweden in 1650. Mr Boyle and others
obferved it in England in 1656. And before this, ob-
fervers, who took notice of the concomitancy of thefe
changes of aerial preffure with the flate of the atmo¬
fphere, remarked, that it was generally greateft in win¬
ter and in the night •, and certainly moft variable during
winter and in the northern regions. Familiar now with
the weight of the air, and confidering it as the vehicle
of the clouds and vapours, they noted with care the
connection between the weather and the preffure of the
air, and found that a great preffure of the air was gene¬
rally accompanied with fair weather, and a diminution
of it with rain and miffs. Hence the barometer came
to be confidered as an index not only of the prefent ftate
of the air’s weight, but. alfo as indicating by its varia¬
tions changes of weather. It became a W EATHER-
GLASS, and continued to be anxioufly obferved with this
view. This is an important fubjeft, and in another place
is treated in fome detail.
In the next place, we may conclude that the preffure
of the air will be different in different places, according
to their elevation above the furface of the ocean : for if
air be an heavy fluid, it muff prefs in fome proportion
according to its perpendicular height. If it be a homo¬
geneous tluid of equal denfity and weight in all its parts,
the mercury in the cittern of a barometer muff be preffed
precifely in proportion to the depth to which that ciftern
is immerfed in it; and as this preffure is exactly mea-
fured by the height of the mercury in the tube, the
height of the mercury in the Toricellian tube muff be
exactly proportional to the depth of the place of obfer¬
vation under the furface of the atmofphere.
The celebrated Defcartes firft entertained this thought
(Epift. 67. of Pr. III.) and foon after him Pafchal.
His occupation in Paris not permitting him to try the
juftnefs of his conjefture, he requefted Mr Perrier a
gentleman of Clermont in Auvergne, to make the ex¬
periment, by obferving the height of the mercury at
one and the fame time at Clermont and on the top of
a very high mountain in the neighbourhood. His let¬
ters to Mr Perrier in 1647 are extant. Accord¬
ingly Mr Perrier, in September 1648, filled two equal
tubes with mercury, and obferved the heights of both
to be the fame, viz. 26^ inches, in the garden of the
convent of the Friars Minims, fituated in the loweft part
of Clermont. Leaving one of them there, and one of
the fathers to obferve it, he took the other to the. top
of Puy de Domme, which was elevated nearly 500
French fathoms above the garden. He found its height
to be 23?V inches. On his return to the town, in a
A t 1 c S.
place called Font de IWrhre, 150 fathoms above the
garden, he found it 25 inches 5 when he returned to the
garden it was again 26-5^, and the perfon fet to watch
the tube which had been left find that it had not varied
the whole day. Thus a difference of elevation of 3000
French feet had occafioned a depreffion of 3! inches;
from which it may be concluded, that 3! inches of
mercury weighs as much as 3000 feet of air, and one-
tenth of an inch of mercury as much as 96 feet of air.
The next day he found, thai taking the tube to the top
of a fteeple 120 feet high made a fall of one-fixth of an
inch. This gives 72 feet of air for one-tenth of an inch
of mercury; but ill agreeing with the former experiment.
But it is to be obferved, that a very fmall error of ob¬
fervation of the barometer would correfpond to a great
difference of elevation, and alfo that the height of the
mountain had not been meafured with any precifion.
This has been lince done (Mem. Acad. par. 1703), and
found to be 529 French toifes. _ 41
Pafchal publilhed an account of this great experiment which
(Grande Exp. fur la Pefanteur de EAir), and it was^®^
quickly repeated in many places of the world. In 1653^^
it was repeated in England by Dr Power (Power’s Ex-
per. Phil.) ; and in Scotland, in 1661, by Mr Sinclair
profeffor of philefophy in the univerfity of Glafgow, who
obferved the barometer at Lanark, on the top of Mount
Tinto in Clydefdale, and on the top of Arthur’s Seat
at Edinburgh. He found a depreffion of two inches be¬
tween Glafgow and the top of Tinto, three quarters
of an inch between the bottom and top of Arthur’s
Seat, and yV of an inch at the cathedral of Glafgow on
a height of 126 feet. See Sinclair’s Arc Nova et Mag¬
na Gravitatis et Levitatis ; Sturmii Collegium Expert-
mentale, and Sc ho Hi Technica Curiofa. ^ _ 43
Hence we may derive a method of meafuring the Hence ty
heights of mountains. Having afcertained with great
precifion the elevation correfponding to a fall of one- heights.!
tenth of an inch of mercury, which is nearly 90 feet,
we have only to obferve the length of the mercurial co¬
lumn at the" top and bottom of the mountain, and to
allow 90 feet for every tenth of an inch. Accordingly
this method has been pra£lifed with great fuccefs; but
it requires an attention to many things not yet confi¬
dered 3 fuch as the change of denfity of the mercury
by heat and cold j the changes of denfity of air, which
are much more remarkable from the lame caules 3 and
above all, the changes of the denfity of air from its
compreflibility 3 a change immediately connedted with
or dependent on the very elevation we wilh to meafure.
Of all thefe afterwards. 44
Thefe obfervations give us the moft accurate meafure Alio a [J
of the denfity of air and its fpecific gravityThis
but vaguely though direftly meafured by weighing air0ft],e;
in a bladder or veffel. The weight of a manageable
quantity is fo fmall, that a balance fufficiently tickiilh to
indicate even very fenfible fractions of it is overloaded
by the weight of the veffel which contains it, and ceafes
to be exadl : and when we take Bernouilli’s ingenious
method of fufpending it in water, we expofe ourfelves
to great rifk of error by the variation of the water’s
denfity, Alfo it muff neceffarily be humid air which
we can examine in this way : but the proportion of an
elevation in the atmofphere to the depreflion of the co¬
lumn of mercury or other fluid, by which we meafuie
its preffure, gives us at once the proportion of tins
1 0 weight
673
P N E U M
weight or their fpecific gravity. Thus fince it is found
that in fuch a ftate of prefiure the barometer ftands at
30 inches, and the thermometer at 3 2°, 87 feet of rife
produces one-tenth of an inch of fall in the barometer,
the air and the mercury being both of the freezing tem¬
perature, we mult conclude that mercury is 10,440 times
heavier or denfer than air. Then, by comparing mer¬
cury and winter, we get T§r nearly for the deniity of
air relative to water : but this varies fo much by heat
and moifture, that it is ufelefs to retain any thing more
than a general notion of it ; nor is it eafy to determine
whether this method or that by actual weighing be pre¬
ferable. It is extremely difficult to obferve the height
of the mercury in the barometer nearer than of an
inch; and this will produce a difference of even five feet,
or Tv of the whole. Perhaps this is a greater propor¬
tion than the error in weighing.
1 feme From the fame experiments we alfo derive fome know-
wledge. ledge of the height of the aerial covering which furrounds
the our globe. When we raife our barometer 87 feet above
:£llt of the furface of the fea, the mercury falls about one-tenth
s atm0‘ of an inch in the barometer : therefore if the barome¬
ter ffiows 30 inches at the fea-fhore, we may expert that,
by railing it 300 times 87 feet, or 5 miles, the mercury
in the tube will defeend to the level of the ciftern, and
that this is the height of our atmofphere. But other
appearances lead us to fuppofe a much greater height.
Meteors are feen with us much higher than this, and
which yet give undoubted indication of being fupported
by our air. There can be little doubt, too, that the vi-
libility of the expanfe above us is owing to the reflec¬
tion of the fun’s light by eur air. Were the heavenly
fpaces perfe£tly tranfparent, we fhould no more fee them
than the pureft water through which we fee other ob-
jedls •, and we fee t/iem as we fee water tinged with milk
or other faeculae. Now it is eafy to (how, that the light
■which gives us what is called twilight muff be refledled
from the height of at leaf! 50 miles j for we have it when
g the fun is depreffed 18 degrees below our horizon.
hy4this A little attention to the conftitution of our air will
owledge convince us, that the atmofphere mult extend to a much
not ac- greater height than 300 times 87 feet. We fee from
rate’ the mofl: familiar fa£ls that it is compreflible } we can
fqueeze it in an ox-bladder. It is alfo heavy ; preffing
on the air in this bladder with a very great force, not
lefs than 1500 pounds. We muff therefore confider it
as in a ftate of compreffion, exifting in fmaller room than
it would affume if it were not compreffed by the incum¬
bent air. It muft therefore be in a condition fomething
refembling that of a quantity of fine carded wool thrown
loofely into a deep pit j the lower ftrata carrying the
weight of the upper ftrata, and being compreffed by them j
and fo much the more compreffed as they are further
down, and only the upper ftratum in its unconftrained
and moft expanded ftate. If we {hall fuppofe this wool
thrown in by a hundred weight at a time, it will be di¬
vided into ftrata of equal weights, but of unequal thick-
nefs: the loweft being the thinneft, and the {uperior
ftrata gradually increafing in thicknefs. Now, fuppofe
the pit filled with air, and reaching to the top of the
atmofphere, the weights of all the ftrata above any ho¬
rizontal plane in it is meafured by the height of the mer¬
cury in the Toricellian tube placed in that plane •, and
one-tenth of an inch of mercury is juft equal to the
weight of the loweft ftratum 87 feet thick *. for on
Vol. XVI. Part II.
A T I C S.
railing the tube 87 feet from the fea, the furface of the
mercury will d, feend one-tenth of an inch, liaife the
tube till the mercury fall another tenthj,: This ftratum
muft be more than 87 feet thick j how much more we
cannot tell, being ignorant of the law of the air’s ex-
panfion. In order to make it fall a third tenth, we
muft raife it through a ftratum ftill thicker j and fo on
continually.
All this is abundantly confirmed by the very firft ex¬
periment made by the order and dire&ions of Pafclial :
For by carrying the tube from the garden of the con¬
vent to a place 1 50 fathoms higher, the mercury fell 1
inches, or 1.2916; which gives about 69 feet 8 inches
of aerial ftratum for TV of an inch of mercury ; and by
carrying it from thence to a place 350 fathoms higher,
the mercury fell iTJ, or 1.9167 inches, which gives
109 feet 7 inches for XV of an inch of mercury. Thefe
experiments were not accurately made ; for at that time
the philofophers, though zealous, were but fcholars in
thefcienceoi experimenting, and novices in the art. But
the refults abundantly (how this general truth, and they
are completely confirmed by thoufands of fubfequent ob-
fervations. It is evident from the whole tenor of them,
that the ftrata of air decreafe in denfity as we afeend
through the atmofphere ; but it remained to be difeo-
vered what is the force of this decreafe, that is, the
law of the air’s expanfion. Till this be done we can
fay nothing about the conftitution of our atmofphere :
we cannot tell in what manner it is fitteft for raifing
and fupporting the exhalations and vapours which are
continually arifing from the inhabited regions ; not as
an excrementitious wafte, but to be fupported, perhaps
manufactured, in that vaft laboratory of nature, and to
be returned to us in beneficent {bowers. We cannot
ufe our knowledge for the curious, and frequently ufeful,
purpofe of meafuring the heights of mountains and taking
the levels of extenfive regions; in fliort, without an ac¬
curate knowledge of this, we can hardly acquire any
acquaintance with thofe mechanical properties which
diftinguifti air from thofe liquids which circulate here
below. 47
Having therefore conlidered at fome length the lead- Compreffi-
ing confequences of the air’s fluidity and gravity, let ot the
us confider its compreflibility with the fame care ; and a '
then, combining the agency of both, we {hall anfwerall
the purpofes of philofophy, difeover the laws, explain
the phenomena of nature, and improve art. We pro¬
ceed therefore to confider a little the phenomena which
indicate and chara&erife this other property of the air.
All fluids are elaftic and compreffible as well as air ;
but in them the compreflibility makes no figure, or does
not intereft us while we are confidering their preflures,
motions, and impulfions. But in air the compreflibility
and expanfion draw our chief attention, and make it a
proper reprefentative of this clafs of fluids. 4S
Nothing is more familiar than the compreflibility of^fami,lar
air. It is feen in a bladder filled with it, which we can which
forcibly fqueeze into lefs room ; it is feen in a fyringe,
of which we can pufti the plug farther and farther as
we increafe the preffure. 49
But thefe appearances bring into view another, and ,lt3
the moft interefting, property of air, viz. its elqjlicitij.ela 1CI
When we have fqueezed the air in the bladder or fy¬
ringe into lefs room, we find that the force with which
we compreffed it is neceffary to heep it in this bulk ; and
4 & that
<574
5°
refifHnsf
force, and
prlucing
iT.OtlOil.
Fluidity of
the air
S*
eftperimen-
tally
F'g- ?•
S3
proved.
PNEUMATICS
that if vsle ceafe to prefs it together, it will fwell out
and regain its natural dimentions. This diltinguiihes
it elliintiaily from fuch a body as a mafs of flour, fait,
or fuch like, which remain in the comprefled ilate to
which we reduce them.
There is fomethsng therefore which oppofes the com-
preffion different from the limple impenetrability of the
air: there is fomething that oppofes mechanical force:
there is fomething too which produces motion, not only
refilling compreffion, but pufhing back the comprelfing
body, and communicating motion to it. As an arrow
is gradually accelerated by the bow tiring preffing it
forward, and at the moment of its difcharge is brought
to a (late of rapid motion; fo the ball from a pop¬
gun or wind-gun is gradually accelerated along the
barrel by the preffure of the air during its expanfion
from its compreffed Hate, and finally quits it with an ac¬
cumulated velocity. Thefe two motions are indications
perfectly fimilar of the elafticity of the bow and of the
air.
Thus it appears that air is heavy and elaftic. It
needs little confideration to convince us in a vague man¬
ner that it is fluid. The ea!e with which it is pene¬
trated, and driven about in every direction, and the mo¬
tion of it in pipes and channels, however crooked and
intricate, entitle it to this character. But before we
ean proceed to deduce confequences from its fluidity,
and to offer them as a true account of what will happen
in thefe cxrcumflances, it is neceffary to exhibit ibme
diflindl and Ample cafe, in which the charadleriftic me¬
chanical property of a fluid is clearly and unequivocally
obferved in it. That property of fluids from which all
the laws of hydroftatics arid hydraulics are derived with
ftridleft evidence is, that any prelfure applied to any
part of them is propagated through the whole rnafs in
every direftion; and that in confequence of this diffu-
fion of preffure, any two external forces can be put in
equilibrio by the interpofition of a fluid, in the fame
way as they can be put in equilibrio by the intervention
of any mechanical engine.
Let a clofe veflel ABC (fig. 7.), of any form, have
two upright pipes EDC, GFB, inferted into any parts
of its top, fides, or bottom, and let water be poured
into them, fo as to Hand in equilibrio with the horizon¬
tal furface at. E, D, G, F, and let D d, F/ be hori¬
zontal lines, it will be found that the height of the co¬
lumn ;E</ is fenfibly equal to that of the column G f
This is a fa6t uriiverfally obferved in whatever way the
pipes are inferted.
Now the furface of the water at D is undoubtedly
preffed upward? with a force equal to a column of wa¬
ter, having its furface for its bafe, and E d for its height;
it is therefore prevented from rifing by fotne oppofite
force. This can be nothing but the elailieity of the
confined air prefling it down. The very fame thing
mull be faid of the furface at F; and thus there are
two external, preflures at D and F fet in equilibrio by
the interpofition of air, The force exerted on the fur-
face D, by the preflure of the column Ex/, is therefore
propagated.to the furface at F: and thus air has this
charafleriftic mark of fluidity.
In this experiment the weight of the air is infenfible
when the veflel is of fmall fize, and has no fenfible {hare
m the preflure reaching at D and F. But if the ele¬
vation of the point F above D is very great, the column
E d will be obferved fenlibly to exceed the Column G f
Thus if F be 70 feet higher than D, E x/ will be an inch
longer than the column Gf: for in this cafe there is
reading at D, not only the prefliire propagated from F,
but alfo the weight of a column of air, having the fur¬
face at D for its bale and 70 feet high. This is equal
to the weight of a column of water one inch high.
It is by this propagation of preffure, this fluidity,
that the pellet is difeharged from a child’s pop gun. It
flicks faff in the muzzle; and he forces in another pel¬
let at the other end, which he preffes forward with the
rammer, condenfing the air between them, and thus pro¬
pagating to the other pellet the preffure which he exerts,
till the fri&ion is overcome, and the pellet is difeharged
by the air expanding and following it.
There is a pretty philofophical plaything which il-
luftrates this property of air in a very peripicuous man¬
ner, and which we fhall afterwards have occafion to con-
fider as converted into a moll; ufeful hydraulic machine.
This is what is ufuaily called Hero's fountain, having Hero^
been invented by a Syraeufan of that name. It con-iountalu,
lifts of two veffels KLMN (fig. 8.), 0P£) R, which are
clofe on all fides. The tube AB, having a funnel a-top,
paffes through the uppermoft veffel without communi¬
cating with it, being foldered into its top and bottom.
It alfo paffes through the top of the under veffel, where
it is alfo foldered, and reaches almoft to its bottom.
I his tube is open at both ends. There is another open
tube ST, which is foldered into the top of the under
veffel and the bottom of the upper veffel, and reaches
almoft to its top. Thefe two tubes ferve alfo to fup-
port the upper veffel. A third tube GF is foldered
into the top of the upper veffel, and reaches almoft to
its bottom. I his tube is open at both ends, but the
orifice G is very fmall. Now fuppofe the uppermoft
veffel filled with water to the height EN, E e being its
furface a little below T. Stop the orifice G with the
finger, and pour in water at A. This will defeend
through AB, and comprefs the air in OPQR into lefs
room. Suppofe the water in the under veffel to have
acquired the furface Cz’, the air which formerly occupied
the whole of the fpaces OPQR, and KL eK, will now
be contained in the fpaces oP c C and KL* E; and its
elafticity will be in equilibrio with the weight of the
column of water, whole bafe is the furface E*, and
whofe height is A c. As this preffure is exerted in
every part of the air, it will be exerted on the furface
E * of the water of the upper veflel, and if the pipe
FG were continued upwards, the water would be fup-
ported in it to an height e H above E e, equal to A c.
Therefore if the finger be now taken from off the ori¬
fice G, the water will fpout up to the fame height as if
it had been immediately forced out by a column of water
A c without the intervention of the air, that is, nearly
to H. If inftead of the funnel at A, the veffel have
a brim VW which will caufe the water difeharged at G
to run down the pipe AB, this fountain will play till
all the water in the upper veffel is expended. The ope¬
ration of this fecond fountain will be better underftood
from fig. 9. which an intelligent reader will fee is per-Fig.
fe&ly equivalent to fig. 8. A very powerful engine for
railing water upon this principle has long been employed
in the Hungarian mines; where the pipe AB is about
200 feet high, and the pipe FG about 120; and the
condenfation is made in the upper veffel, and communi¬
cated-
P N E U M
£ated to the lower, at the bottom of the mine, by a long
55 pipe* See WATER-Works.
vs of We may now apply to air all the law? of hydroftaties
! Irofta- anc[ hydraulics, in perfeft confidence that their leglti-
applu.a- raaje confequences will be obferved in all its fituations.
W a We lhall in future fubftitute, in place of any force act¬
ing on a furface of air, a column of water, mercury, or
any other fluid whofe weight is equal to this force :
and as we know diftinftly frorfi theory what will be the
confequences of this hydroftatic preflure, we {hall de¬
termine a priori the phenomena in air j and in cafes
where theory does not enable us to fay with precifion
what is the effect of this preflure, experience informs
us in the cafe of water, and analogy enables us to tranf-
fer this to air. We (hall find this of great fervice in
fome cafes, which otherwife are almoft defperate in the
^5 prefent flate of our knowledge.
re re- From fuch familiar and fimple obfervations and expe-
>d expe- r;mentSj the fluidity, the heavinefs, and elafticity, are
!^s’ difeovered of the fubftance with which wre ^re furround-
ed, and which we call air. But to underfland thefe pro¬
perties, and completely to explain their numerous and
important confequences, we mufi: call in the aid of more
refined obfervations and experiments, which even this
fcanty knowledge of them enables us to make ; we
mufl contrive {ome methods of producing with preci¬
fion any degree of condenfation or rarefaftion, of em¬
ploying or excluding the gravitating preflfure of air, and
of modifying at pleafure the a&ion of all its mechanical
properties.
iethod Nothing tan be more obvious than a method of com-
:ompref- preffing a quantity of air to any degree. Take a cy-
;the air jjnqer br prifmat;c tube AB (fig. 10.) fhut at one end,
Plate anA fit it with a pifton or plug C, fo nicely that no air
:cxxiv. can pafs by its fides. This will be beft done in a cy-
’S-10* lindric tube by a turned ftopper, covered with oiled
leather, and fitted with a long handle CD. When this
is thruft down, the air which formerly occupied the
whole capacity of the tube is condenfed into lefs room.
The force neceffary to produce any degree of compref-
fion may be concluded from the weight neceffary for
pufliing down the plug to any depth. But this inftru-
ment leaves us little opportunity of making interefling
experiments on or in this condenfed air ; and the force
required to make any degree of compreflion cannot be
meafured with much accuracy; becaufe the pifton mufl:
be very clofe, and have great fri&ion, in order to be
fufficiently tight : And as the compreflion is increafed,
the leather is more fqueezed to the fide of the tube ;
and the proportion of the external force, which is em¬
ployed merely to overcome this variable and uncertain
friftion, cannot be afeertained with any tolerable pre¬
cifion. To get rid of thefe imperfeAions, the following
addition may be made to the inftrument, which then be-
jS comes what is called the condenfing fyringe.
e con- The end of the fyringe is perforated with a very
nfmg fy. hole i and being externally turned to a fmall
^ewit cylinder, a narrow flip of bladder, or of thin leather j
foaked in a mixture of oil and tallow, muft be tied over
the hole. Now let us fuppofe the pifton puflied down
to the bottom of the. barrel to which it applies clofe ;
when it is drawn up to the top, it leaves a void behind,
and the weight of the external air preffes on the flip of
bladder, which therefore claps clofe to the brafs, and
thus performs the part a valve* and keeps it dole fp
A T I C S. 675
that no air can enter. But the pifton having reached
the top of the barrel, a hole F in the tide ot 11 is juft
below the pifton, and the air rufties through this hole
and fills the barrel. Now pufh the pifton down again,
it immediately pafles the hole F, and no air efcapes
through it •, it therefore forces open the valve aif, and
efcapes while the pifton moves to the bottom. ^
Now let E be any veffel, fuch as a glafs bottle, hav- its veffel or
ing its mouth furnifhed with a brafs cap firmly ce-receiver,
mented to it, having a hollow ferew which tits a folid
ferew p 0, turned on the eylindric nozzle of the tyringe.
Screw the fyringe into this cap, and it is evident that
the air forced out of the fyringe will be accumulated in
this veflel : for upon drawing up the piiton the valve
always {huts by the elafticity or expanding force of the
air in E ; and on pufliing it down again, the valve will
Open as foon as tjie piflon has got fo far down that the
air in the lower part of the barrel is more powerful than
the air already in the veffel. T hus at every ftroke an
additional barrelful of air will be forced into the veflel
E ; and it will be found, that after every ftroke the pi¬
fton muft be farther puthed down before the valve will
open. It cannot open till the preffure ariftng from the
elafticity of the air condenfed in the barrel is fuperior to
the elafticity of the air condenfed in the veflel j that is,
till the condenfation of the firft, or its denfity, is fome-
what greater than that of the laft, in order to overcome
the ftraining of the valve on the hole and the flicking
occafioned by the clammy matter employed to make it
air-tight. _ _ .60
Sometimes the fyringe is conftrufted with a valve m a. different
the pifton. This pifton, inftead of being of one piece conftruc.
and fo(id, confifts of two pieces perforated. The upper
part iktim is conne&ed with the rod or handle, and }1‘Lge‘
has its lower part turned down to a fmall cylinder,
which is ferewed into the lower part k la n ; and has
a perforation g h going up in the axis, and terminating
in a hole h in one fide of the rod, a piece oi oileu lea¬
ther is ftrained acrofs the hole g. Vv hen the piiion is
drawn up and a void left below it, the weight of the ex¬
ternal air forces it through the hole hg, opens the valve
g, and fills the barrel Then, on pufhing down the pi¬
fton, the air being fqueezed into leis room, preffes on the
valve g, {huts it •, and none efcaping through the pifton,
it is gradually condenfed as the piiton deicends till it
opens the valve ^ and is added to that already accumu¬
lated in the veff l E. 61
Having in this manner forced a quantity of air into Elafticity
the veffel E, we can make many experiments in it in the(‘^
this ftate of condenfation. We are chiefly concerned at
prefent with the effect which this produces on its elaiti-fation.
city. We fee this to be greatly increaled ; for we find
more and more force required for introducing every fuc-
ceflive barrelful. When the fyringe is unicrewed, we
fee the air rufli out with great violence, and every in¬
dication of rrreat expanding force. If the fyringe be
conne6led with the veffel E in the fame manner as the
fyringe in N° 1 7. viz. by interpofmg a ftopeock B be¬
tween them (fee fig. 3.), and if this ftopcock have a
pipe at its extremity, reaching near td the bottom of the
veffel, yvhich is previoufly half filled with water, we can.
obferve diftin&ly when the elafticity of the air in the fy¬
ringe exceeds that of the air in the receiver : for the pi¬
fton mult he puflied down a certain length before the
air from the fyringe bubbles up through the water, and
4 O 2 the
676
PNEUMATICS.
the pifton imift be farther down at each faccefllve ftroke
before this appearance is obferved. When the air has
thus been accumulated in the receiver, it preffes the
tides of it outward, and will burft it if not ftrong enough.
It alfo prefles on the furface of the water } and if we
now fhut the cock, unfcrew the fyringe, and open the
cock again, the air will force the water through the
pipe with great velocity, caufing it to rife in a beautiful
jet. When a metfd-receiver is ufed, the condenfation
may be pulhed to a great length, and the jet will then
rife to a great height, which gradually diminilhes as the
-water is expended and room given to the air to expand
itfelf. See the figure.
A method We judge of the condenfation of air in the veffel E
of judging by the number of ftrokes and the proportion of the
of the con- capacity of the fyringe to that of the veflel. Suppofe
dentation, ^ ^ tQ ^ one_tenth of the laft j then we know,
that after to ftrokes the quantity of air in the veffel is
doubled, and therefore its denfity double, and fo on af¬
ter any number of ftrokes. Let the capacity of the fy¬
ringe (when the pifton is drawn to the top) be a, and
that of the velfel be b, and the number of ftrokes be «,
the denfity of air in the veifel will be } or
v a
I+T*
63
not per- But this is on the fuppofition that the pifton accu-
fedlly accu- rately fills the barrel, the bottom of the one applying
clofe to that of the other, and that no force is necefi'ary
for opening either of the valves : but the firft cannot
be infured, and the laft is very far from being true. In
the conftruflion now defcribed, it will require, at leaft
one-twentieth part of the ordinary preflure of the air to
open the pifton valve : therefore the air which gets in
will want at leaft this proportion of its complete elafti-
city } and there is always a fimilar part of the elaftici-
ty employed in opening the nozzle valve. The conden¬
fation therefore is never nearly equal to what is here de-
64 termined.
A better It is accurately enough meafured by a gage fitted to
method. pbe inftrument. A glafs tube GH of a cylindric bore,
and clofe at the end, is ferewed into the fide of the cap
on the mouth of the veffel E. A fmall drop of wrater
or mercury is taken into this tube by warming it a little
in the hand, which expands the contained air, fo that
when the open end is dipped into water, and the whole
allowed to cool, the water advances a little into the tube.
The tube is furnilhed with a fcale divided into fmall
equal parts, numbered from the clofe end of the tube.
Since this tube communicates with the veffel, it is evi¬
dent that the condenfation will force the water along
the tube, afling like a pifton on the air beyond it, and
the air in the tube and veffel will always be of one den¬
fity. Suppofe the number at which the drop ftands
before the condenfation is made to be c, and that it
ftands at d when the condenfation has attained the de¬
gree required, the denfity of the air in the remote end
of the gage, and confequently in the veffel, will be -.
65 _ # d
A variation Sometimes there is ufed any bit of tube clofe at one
CI if- end, having a drop of water 'in it, fimply laid into the
veffel E, and furniihed or not with a fcale : but this
can only be ufed with glafs veffels, and thefe are too
•weak to refift the preffure arifing from great condenfa¬
tion. In fuch experiments metalline veffels are ufed,
fitted with a variety of apparatus for different experi¬
ments. Some of thefe will be occafionally mentioned
afterwards. ^
It mull; be obferved in this place, that very great con-Syringes
denfations require great force, and therefore fmall fy- for great
ringes. It is therefore convenient to have them of va- con^enh.
rious fizes, and to begin with thofe of a larger diame¬
ter, which operate more quickly 5 and when the con¬
denfation becomes fatiguing, to change the fyringe for
a fm after. ^
For this reafon, and in general to make the conden-Aftop.
fing apparatus more convenient, it is proper to have acock be-
ftop-cock interpofed between the fyringe and the veffel, |.ween ^ (
or as it is ufually called the receiver. This confifts of Vecme/1
brafs pipe, which has a weft ground cock in its middle,
and has a hollow ferew at one end, which receives the
nozzle ferew of the fyringe, and a iolid ferew at the
other end, which fits the ferew of the receiver. See
%• 3* . . 6S
By thefe gages, or contrivances fimilar to them, we Inftances cj
have been aide to afeertain very great degrees of con-great con¬
denfation in the courfe of fome experiments. Dr Halestieilfatlon
found, that when dry wood was put into a ftrong veffel, ^rove
which it almoif filled, and the remainder was filled with
water, the fwelling of the wood, occafioned by its im¬
bibition of water, condenfed the air of his gage into the
thoufandth of its original bulk. He found that peafe
treated in the fame way generated elaftic air, which
prefling on the air in the gage condenfed it into the
fifteen hundredth part of its bulk. This is the greateft
condenfation that has been afeertained with precifion,
although in other experiments it has certainly been car¬
ried much farther 5 but the precife degree could not be
afeertained. ^
The only ufe to be made of this obfervation at pre-airand
fent is, that fince we have been able to exhibit air in a water to 1
denfitv a thoufand times greater than the ordinary den-5
fity or the air we breathe, it cannot, as tome imagine,
be only a different form of water ; for in this ftate it is
as denfe or denfer than water, and yet retains its great
expanfibility.
Another important obfervation is, that in every ftate and fhow
of denfity in which we find it, it retains its perfedl t*16 err0.r
fluidity, tranfmitting aft preffures which are applied toj®^0^
it with undiminifhed force, as appears by the equality fpe&ing
conftantly obferved between the oppofing columns ofelafticityj
water or other fluid by which it is compreffed, and by &-c>
the facility with which all motions are performed in it
in the moft compreffed ftates in which we can make ob-
fervations of this kind. This fact is totally incompa¬
tible with the opinion of thofe who aferibe the elaftiei-
ty of air to the fpringy ramified ftrudure of its particles,
touching each other like fo many pieces of fponge or
foot-balls. A collc£lion of fuch particles might indeed
be pervaded by folid bodies with confiderable eafe, if
they were merely touching each other, and not fubjeff-
ed to any external preffure. But the moment fuch pref¬
fure is exerted, and the affemblage fqueezed into a
fmaller fpace, each preffes on its adjoining particles:
they are individually compreffed, flattened in their touch¬
ing furfaces, and before the detifty is doubled they are
fqueezed into the form of perfeil cubes, and compofe a
mafs,
ittr
71
c 2qLien-
ct f the
ai elaf-
ti '■ ,
l2
Ii reat
t nfibi-
li
73
p ed by
e '.riment,
ig. XI.
74
■ empts
1 lifcover
limits
1 his ex-
i lion by
75
yrmge ;
l'1g- 12.
P N E U M
mafs, which may indeed propagate prefihre from one
place to another in an imperfect manner, and with great
diminution of its intenfity, but will no more be fluid than
a mafs of foft clay. It will be of ufe to keep this ob-
fervation in mind.
We have feen the air is heavy and compreflible, and
nflo'ht now proceed to deduce in order the explanation
of the appearances confequent on each of thefe pro¬
perties. But, as has been already obferved, the elafli-
city of air modifies the effedls of its gravity fo remark¬
ably, that they would be imperfedlly underftood if both
qualities w'ere not combined in our confideration of ei¬
ther. At any rate, fome farther confequences of its elaf-
ticity mufi. be confidered, before we underftand the
means of varying at pleafure the effedts of its gravity.
Since air is heavy, the lower lirata of a mafs of air
muft fupport the upper •, and, being compreflible, they
muft be condenfed by their weight. In this Hate of
compreflion the elafticity of the lower flrata of air adls
in oppofition to the -weight of the incumbent air, and ba¬
lances it. There is no reafon which would make us fup-
pofe that its expanding force belongs to it only w'hen in
luch a Hate of compreflion. It is more probable, that,
if we could free it from this preffure, the air would ex¬
pand itfelf into ftill greater bulk. This is moft diftindt-
ly feen in the following experiment.
Into the cylindric jar ABCD (fig. II.) which has
a fmall hole in its bottom, and is furnifhed with an
air-tight pifton E, put a fmall flaccid bladder, having
its mouth tied tight with a firing. Having puflied the
pifton near to the bottom, and noticed the ftate of the
bladder, Hop up the hole in the bottom of the jar with
the finger, and draw up the pifton, which will require a
confiderable force. You will obferve the bladder fwell
out, as if air had been blown into it ; and it wdll again
collapfe on allowing the pifton to defcend. Nothing can
be more unexceptionable than the conclufion from this
experiment, that ordinary air is in a ftate of compreflion,
and that its elafticity is not limited to this ftate. The
bladder being flaccid, (hows that the included air is in
the fame ftate with the air which furrounds it ; and the
fame muft be affirmed of it while it fwells but ftill re¬
mains flaccid. We mull conclude, that the whole air
within the veflel expands, and continues to fill it, when
its capacity has been enlarged. And fince this is ob¬
ferved to go on as long as we give it more room, we
conclude, that by fuch experiments we have not yet
given it fo much room as it can occupy.
It was a natural obje£l of curiofity to difcover the
limits of this expanfion j to know what was the natural
unconftrained bulk of a quantity of air, beyond which
it would not expand though all external compreffing
force were removed. Accordingly philofophers con-
ftru£led inftruments for rarefying the air. I he common
water pump had been long familiar, and appeared very
proper for this purpofe. The moft obvious is the fol¬
lowing.
Let the barrel of the fyringe AB (fig. 12.) commu¬
nicate with the veffel V, with a ftopcock C between
them. Let it communicate with the external air by
another orifice D, in any convenient fituation, alfo fur-
nifhed with a ftopcock. Let this fyringe have a pifton
very accurately fitted to it fo as to touch the bottom all
over when puftied down, and have no vacancy about
the fides.
a t i c s. 677
Now, fuppofe the pifton at the bottom, the cock C 7^
open, and the cock D ffiut, draw the pifton to the 0pCrat;on
top. The air which filled the veflel V will expand 0f which
as to fill both that veffel and the barrel AB ; and as no
reafon can be given to the contrary, we muft fuppofe
that the air will be uniformly diffufed through both.
Calling V and B the capacity of the veffel And barrel,
it is plain that the bulk of the air will now be V -T B }
and fince the quantity of matter remains the fame, and
the denfity of a fluid is as its quantity of matter direftly
and its bulk inverfely, the denfity of the expanded air
will be y the denfity of common air being 1 : for
Y + B : V=i :
V
V-f-B'
77
The pifton requires force toraife it, and it is raifed
oppofition to the preffure of the incumbent atmofphere j tion 0f tjie
for this had formerly been balanced by the elafticity elafticity o£
of the common air : and we conclude from the fail, expanded
that force is required to raife the pi/1 on, that the elaftici- air>
ty of the expanded air is lefs than that of air in its ordi¬
nary ftate } and an accurate obfervation of the force ne-
ceffary to raife it would fliow how much the elafticity is
diminifhed. When therefore the pifton is let go, it will
defcend as long as the preffure of the atmofphere exceeds
the elafticity of the air in the barrel ; that is, till the air
in the barrel is in a ftate of ordinary denfity. To put
it further down -will require force, becaufe the air muft:
be compreffed in the barrel; but if we open the cock
D, the air will be expelled through it, and the pifton
will reach the bottom. 7®
Now ffiut the difcharging cock D, and open the cock j1™
C, and draw up the pifton. The air which occupied A,
V
the fpace V, with the denfity y. will now occupy
the fpace ,V-J-B, if it expands fo far. To have its
denlity D, fay, As its prefent bulk V-f-B is to its
former bulk V, fo is its former denfity — ■ — to its
V -J-Jd
v+v
new denfity, which will therefore be y—g"
V
V + B
It is evident, that if the air continues to expand,
the denfity of the air in the veffel after the third draw-
, after the fourth
T9
V
ing up of the pifton will be y~^
it will be
V
V + B|
will be
V + B
1 and after any number of ftrokes n
Thus, if the veffel is four times as
large as the barrel, the denfity after the fifth ftroke will
be nearly \ of its ordinary denfity.,
On the other hand, the number n of ftrokes 89*
neceffary for reducing air to the denfity D is
Log D
Log V—Log (V-f-B) 8r
Thus wTe fee that this inftrument can never abftrafl
the whole air in confequence of its expanfion, but only ences 0f
rarefy it continually as long as it continues to expand jthisinftru-
nay, there b a Uuiit beyond which the rarefadion can-mento
not
6y8
PNEUMATICS.
not go. When the pxiton has reached the bottom,
there remains a fmall fpace between it and the cock C
filled with common air. When the pifton is drawn up,
this fmall quantity of air expands, and alfo a fimilar
quantity in the neck of the other cock j and no air will
come out gf the receiver V till the expanded air in the
barrel is of a fmaller denSty than the air in the receiver.
This circumftance evidently directs us to make thefe
two fpaces as fmall as poflible, or by fome contrivance
to fill them up altogether. Perhaps this may be done
effectually in the following manner.
Let BE (fig. 13.) reprefent the bottom of the bar-
fey another, rej an{j iet tircle HK1 be the feftion of the key
Fig. 13. ’ J
82
Remedied
Fig. 14.
S3
called an
exhcntjling
fyringe.
r 34
Its con-
ftrudiion
and
Fig. 15.
85
operation.
of the cock, of a large diameter, and place it as near
to the barrel as can be. Let this communicate with
the barrel by means of a hole FG widening upwards,
as the frultum of a hollow obtufe cone. Let the bottom
of the pifton bfhge be ftiaped fo as to fit the bottom
of the barrel and this hole exaftly. Let the cock be
pierced with two holes. One of them, HI, paffes
perpendicularly through its axis, and forms the commu¬
nication between the receiver and barrel. The other
hole, KL, has one extremity K on the fame circum¬
ference with H, fo that rvhen the key is turned a fourth
part round, K will come into the place of H : but this
hole is pierced obliquely into the key, and thus keeps
clear of the hole HI. It goes no further than the
axis, where it communicates with a hole bored along
the axis, and terminating at its extremity. This hole
forms the communication with the external air, and
ferves for difcharging the air in the barrel. (A fide
view of the key is feen in fig. 14.). Fig. 1 2. ftiows the
pofition of the cock while the pifton is moving upyvards,
and fig. 14. ftiows its pofition while the pifton is moving
downwards. When the pifton has reached the bottom,
the conical piece f hg of the pifton, which may be of
firm leather, fills the hole FHG ; and therefore com¬
pletely expels the air from the barrel. The canal KL/
of the cock contains air of the common denfity ; but
this is turned afide into the pofition KL (fig. 13.),
While the pifton is ftill touching the cock. It cannot
extend into the barrel during the afcent of the pifton.
In place of it the perforation HLI comes under the pif-
lon, filled with air that had been turned afide with it
when the pifton was at the top of the barrel, and there¬
fore of the fame denfity with the air of the receiver. It
appears therefore that there is no limit to the rarefac¬
tion as long as the air will expand.
This inftrument is called an Exhausting Syringe.
It is more gennerally made in another form, which is
much lefs expenfive, and more convenient in its ufe.
Inftead of being furnilhed with cocks for eftabliftiing
the communications and {hutting them, as is neceffary,
it has ’Dafoes like thofe of the condenfing fyringe, but
opening in the oppofite dire&ion. It is tlius made :
The pipe of communication or conduit MN (fig. 1 5.)
has .a male fcrew in its extremity, and over this is tied
a.flip of bladder or leather M. The lower half of the
pifton has alfo a male fcrew on it, covered at the end
with a flip of bladder O. This is fcrewed into the up¬
per half of the pifton, which is pierced with a hole H
coming out of the fide of the rod.
. Now foppofe the fyringe fcrewed to the conducing
pipe, and that fcrewed into the receiver V, and the
piftcn at the bottom of the barrel. When the pifton
is drawn up, the preffure of the external air fhuts tU5
valve O, and a void is left below the pifton : there il
therefore no preffure on the upper fide of the valve M
to balance the elafticity of the air in the receiver which
formerly balanced the weight of the atniofphere. The
air therefore in the receiver lifts this valve, and diftri-
butes itfelf between the vefl'el and the barrel j fo that
when the pifton has reached the top the denfity of the
V
air in both receiver and barrel is as before
V + B’
When the pifton is let go it defcends, becaufe the
elafticity of the expanded air is not a balance for the
preffure of the atmofphere, which therefore preffes down
the pifton with the difference, keeping the pilton-valve
ftiut all the while. At the fame time the valve M
alfo {huts : for it was opened by the prevailing elafticity
of the air in the receiver, and while it is open the two
airs have equal denfity and elafticity j but the moment
the pifton defcends, the capacity of the barrel is dimi-
niftied, the elafticity of its air increafes by collapfing,
and now prevailing over that of the air in the receiver
flints the valve M.
When it has arrived at fuch a part of the barrel that
the air in it is of the denfity of the external air, there
is no force to pufli it farther down ; the hand muft
therefore prefs it. This attempts to condenfie the air in
the barrel, and therefore increafes its elafticity j fo that
it lifts the valve O and efcapes, and the pifton gets to
the bottom. When drawn up again, greater force is
required than the laft time, becaule the elafticity ot the
included air is lefs than in the former ftroke. The
pifton rifes further before the valve JY! is lifted up, and
when it has reached the top of the barrel the denfity of
"4
%
1
i
the Included air is
V
V + B
The pifton, when let go,
will defcend further than it did before ere the pifton-
Valve open, and the preffure of the hand will again pufh
it to the bottom, all the air efcaping through O. The
rarefaftion will go on at every fuceeffive ftroke in the
fame manner as with the other fyringe. 83
This fyringe is evidently more eafy in its ufe, requir- Advantaf
ing no attendance to the cocks to open and ftiut them
at the proper times. On this account this conftruc- the forme
tion of an exhaufting fyringe is much more generally and
ufed. _ g?
But it is greatly inferior to the fyringe with cocks iU |nferj,
with refpedf to its power of rarefa6!ion. Its operation ority.
is greatly limited. It is evident that no air will come
out of the receiver unlefs its elafticity exceed that of the
air in the barrel by a difference able to lift up the valve
M. A piece of oiled leather tied acrols this hole can
hardly be made tight and certain of clapping to the
hole without fome fmall draining, ’which muft therefore
be overcome. It muft be very gentle indeed not to re¬
quire a force equal to the weight of two inches of water,
and this is equal to about the 2COth part of the whole
elaftieity of the ordinary air; and therefore this fyringe,
for this reafon alone, cannot rarefy air above 200 times,
even though air were capable of an indefinite expan-
fion. In like manner the valve O cannot be railed
without a fimilar prevalence of the elafticity of the air
in the barrel above the weight of the atmofphere.
Thefe caufes united, make it difficult to rarefy the air
more than 100 times, and very tew fuch fyringes will
ratify
rarefy it more than 50 times; whereas the fyringe with
cocks, when new and in good order, will rarefy it 1000
00 tiraes-
'}• brmer But, on the other hand, fyringes with cocks arc much
[y tb, more ex pen five, efpecially when furnifhed with appara-
lu ;wri tus for opening and (hutting the cocks. They are more
111 out Ctrt make equally tight, and (which is the great-
<cf ler. eft obje&ion) do not remain long in good order. The
cocks, by fo frequently opening and (hutting, grow
loofe, and allow the air to efcape. No method has been
found of preventing this. They muft be ground tight
by means of emery or other cutting powders. Some of
thefe unavoidably (lick in the metal, and continue to
wear it down. For this reafon philofophers, and the
makers of philofophical inflruments, have turned their
chief attention to the improvement of the fyringe with
valves. We have been thus minute in the account of
the operation of rarefaftion, that the reader may better
underftand the value of thefe improvements, and in
general the operation of the principal pneumatic en¬
gines.
Of the ^IR-PUMP.
Ir mon An AlR-PuMP is nothing but an exhaufting fyringe
oi e air. accommodated to a variety of experiments. It was firft
pi > by invented by Otto Guericke, a gentleman of Magde-
^ icke' burgh in Germany, about the year 1654. We truft
that it will not be unacceptable to our readars to fee this
inftrument, which now makes a principal article in a
philofophical apparatus, in its firft form, and to trace it
through its fucceffive (leps to its prefent (late of improve¬
ment.
Guericke, indifferent about the folitary poffeflion of
an invention which gave entertainment to numbers who
came to fee his wonderful experiments, gave a minute
defeription of all his pneumatic apparatus to Gafpar
Schottus profeffor of mathematics at Wirtemberg, who
immediately publiftied it with the author’s confent, with
an account of fome of its performances, firft in 1657,
in his Mechanica Hydraulico-pneumatica ; and then in
his Technica Curio fa, in 1664, a curious colleclion of all
the wonderful performances of art which he collected
£2 by a correfpondence over all Europe.
C :mc- Otto Guericke’s air-pump confifts of a glafs receiver
d of his A (fig. 16.) of a form nearly fpherical, fitted up with
?- ’• a brafs cap and cock B. The nozzle of the cap was
1 ' fixed to a fyringe CDE, alfo of brafs, bent at 13 into
half a right angle. This had a valve at E>, opening
from the receiver into the fyringe, and (hutting when
preffed in the oppofite direftion. In the upper fide of
the fyringe there is another valve F, opening from the
fyringe into the external air, and (hutting when prefled
inwards. The pifton had no valve. The fyringe, the
cock B, and the joint of the tube, were immerfed in a
eiftern filled with water. From this defeription it is
eafy to underftand the operation of the inftrument.
When the pifton was drawn up from the bottom of the
fyringe, the valve F was kept (hut by the preffure of
the external air, and the valve D opened by the elafti-
city of the air in the receiver. When it was puftied
dbwn again, the valve D immediately (hut by the fupe-
rior elafticity of the air in the fyringe ; and when this
^as fufficiently compreffed, it opened the valve F, and
P N E U M A T I C S. 6 79
was difeharged. It was immerfed in water, that no air Air-pump.^
might find its way through the joints or eocks.
It.would feem that this machine was not very perfefl, Its j^er-
for Guericke fays that it took feveral hours to produce feftions,
an evacuation of a moderate-fized veffel ; but he fays,
that when it was in good order, the rarefaflion (for he
acknowledges that it was not, nor could be, a complete
evacuation) was fo great, that when the cock was open¬
ed, and water admitted, it filled the receiver fo as fome-
times to leave no more than the bulk of a pea filled with
air. This is a little furprifing ; for if the valve F be
placed as far from the bottom of the fyringe as in Schot-
tus’s figure, it would appear that the rarefatftion could
not be greater than what muft arife from the air in DF
expanding till it filled the whole fyringe: becaufeas foon
as the pifton in its defeent paffes F it can difeharge no
more air, but muft comprefs it between F and the bot¬
tom, to be expanded again when the pifton is drawn up.
It is probable that the pifton was not very tight, but
that on prefting it down it allowed the air to pafs it;
and the water in which the whole was immerled pre¬
vented the return of the air when it was drawn up
again : and this accounts for the great time neceffary
for producing the defired rarefaftion. 94,.
Guericke, being a gentleman of fortune, fpared no Hb
expence, and added a part to the machine, which faved
his numerous vifitants the trouble of hours attendance
before they could fee the curious experiments with the ppr ^
rarefied air. He made a large copper veffel G (fig. 17.),
having a pipe and cock below, which palled through the
floor of the chamber into an under apartment, where it
was joined to the fyringe immerfed in the ciftern of wa¬
ter, and worked by a lever. The upper part of the vefi.
fel terminated in a pipe, furniflied with a ftopcock
furrounded with a fmall brim to hold water for prevent¬
ing the ingrefs of air. On the top was another cap I,
alfo filled with water, to prote£I the junftion of the
pipes with the receiver K. This great vefi’el was always
kept exhaufted, and workmen attended below. When
experiments were to be performed in the receiver K, it
was fet on the top of the great veffel, and the cock H
was opened. The air in K immediatedly diffufed itfelf
equally between the two veffels, and was fo much more
rarefied as the receiver K was fmalier than the veffel G.
When this rarefa£Hon was not fufficient, the attendants
below immediately worked the pump.
Thefe particulars deferve to be recorded, as they (how
the inventive genius of this celebrated philofopber, and
becaufe they are ufeful even in the prefent advanced
date of the ftudy. Guericke’s method of excluding air
from all the joints of his apparatus, by immerfing thefo
joints in water, is the only method that has to this day
been found effeflual ; and there frequently occur expe.
riments where this exclufion for a long time is abfolutely
neceffary. In fuch cafes it is neceffary to conftrudl little
cups or cifterns at every joint, and to fill them with wa¬
ter or oil. In a letter to Schottus, 1662-3, deferibes
very ingenious contrivances for producing complete ra-
refa&ion after the elafticity of the remaining air has
been fo far diminifhed that it is not able to open the
valves. He opens the exhaufting valves by a plug,
which is puftied in by the hand ; and the difeharging
valve is opened by a fmall pump placed on its outfide, fo
that it opens into a void inftead of opening againft the
preffm'iV-
4
68o
PNEUMATICS.
Air-pump, preffure of tTie atinoipliert'. (See Schotti Technica Cu-
riofa, p. 68. 70.). Thefe contrivances have been lately
added to air-pumps by Haas and Hurter as new inven-
95 ,
Merits of
Guericke.
$6
Progrefs of
•experimen¬
tal philoio-
97 ,
Ardour of
Mr Boyle.
tions. . .
It mull be acknowledged, that the application oi the
pump or fyringe to the exhauftion of air was a very ob¬
vious thought on the principle exhibited in N° 17. and
in this way it was alfo employed by Guericke, who firft
filled the receiver with water, and then applied the fy¬
ringe. But this was by no means either his objeft or
his principle. His objeft was not folely to procure a
veffel void of air, but to exhauft the air which was al¬
ready in it •, and his principle was the power which he
fufpe£ted to be in air of expanding itfelf into a greater
fpace when the force was removed which he fuppofed
to comprefs it. He exprefsly fays {TraB. de Expen-
mentis Mag deburg ids, et in Epiji. ad Schottum), that the
contrivance occurred to him accidentally when occupied
with experiments in the Toricellian tube, in which he
found that the air would really expand, and completely
fill a much larger fpace than what it ufually occupied,
and that he had found no limits to the expanfion, evin¬
cing this by fafts which we {hall perfectly underftand
by and by. This was a doftrine quite new, and re¬
quired a philofophical mind to view it in a general and
fyftematic manner } and it muft be owned that his man¬
ner of treating the fubjecl is equally remarkable for in¬
genuity and for modefty. {Epift. ad Schottum).
His doctrine and his machine were foon fpread over
Europe. It was the age of literary ardour and philofo¬
phical curiofity \ and it is moft pleafant to us, who,
{landing on the fhoulders of our predeceflbrs, can fee far
around us, to obferve the eagernefs with which every
new, and to us frivolous, experiment was repeated and
canvafied. The worfhippers of Ariftotle were daily re¬
ceiving fevere mortifications from the experimenters, or
empirics as they affected to call them, and they exerted
themfelves ftrenuoufly in fupport of his now tottering
caufe. This contributed to the rapid propagation of
every difeovery j and it was a moft profitable and re-
fpeftable bufinefs to go through the chief cities of
Germany and France exhibiting philofophical experi¬
ments.
About this time the foundations of the Royal Society
of London were laid. Mr Boyle, Mr Wren, Lord
Brounker, Dr Wallis, and other curious gentlemen,
held meetings at Oxford, in which were received ac¬
counts of whatever was doing in the ftudy of nature •,
and many experiments were exhibited. The refearches
of Galileo, Toricelli, and Pafchal, concerning the pref¬
fure of the air, greatly engaged their attention, and
many additions were made to their difeoveries. Mr
Boyle, the moft ardent and fuccefsful ftudier of nature,
had the principal (hare in thefe improvements, his in-
quifitive mind being aided by an opulent fortune. In
a letter to his nephew Lord Dungarvon, he fays that
he had made many attempts to fee the appearances ex¬
hibited by bodies freed from the preffure of the air.
He had made Toricellian tubes, having a fmall veffel
a top, into which he put fame bodies before filling the
tubes with mercury 5 fo that when the tube was fet
upright, and the mercury run out, the bodies were in
vacu'). He had alfo abftra&ed the water from a veffel,
by a fmall pump, by means of its weight, in the man-
tier deferibed in N6 17, having previoufly put bodies
into the veffel along with the water. But all thefe ways Air-pump
wrere very troublefome and imperfeft. He was delight-
ed when he learned from Schottus’s firft; publication,
that Counfellor Guericke had effe&ed this by the ex-
panfive power of the air ; and immediately fet about
conftrudting a machine from his own ideas, no deferip-
tion of Guericke’s being then publifhed.
It confifted of a receiver A (fig. J 8.), furniftied with p’late
a ftopcock B, and fyringe CD placed in a vertical pofi- ccccxxv
tion below the receiver. Its valve C was in its bottom, %i8.
clofe adjoining to the entry of the pipe of communica¬
tion *, and the hole by which the air iffued was farther
fecured by a plug which could be removed. The pifton
was moved by a wheel and rackwork. The receiver of
Guericke’s pump was but ill adapted for any confider-njs ^
able variety of experiments j and accordingly very fewpumi)<
were made in it. Mr Boyle’s receiver had a large open¬
ing EF, with a ftrong glafs margin. To this was fitted
a ftrong brafs cap, pierced with a hole G in its middle,
to which was fitted a plug ground into it, and ftiaped
like the key of a cock. The extremity of this key was
furnifhed with a ferew, to which could be affixed a hook,
or a variety of pieces for fupporting what was to be ex¬
amined in the receiver, or for producing various motions
within it, without admitting the air. This was farther
guarded againft by means of oil poured round the key,
where it was retained by the hollow cup-like form of the
cover. With all thefe precautions, however, Mr Boyle
ingenuoufly confeffes, that it was but feldom, and with
great difficulty, that he could produce an extreme de¬
gree of rarefa&ion j and it appears by Guericke’s letter
to Schottus, that in this refpeft the Magdeburgh ma¬
chine had the advantaged But moft of Boyle’s very in-
terefting experiments did not require this extreme rare-
fa£tion •, and the variety of them, and their philofophic
importance, compenfated for this defeft, and foon eclip-
fed the fame of the inventor to fuch a degree, that the
ftate of air in the receiver was generally denominated
the vacuum Bsyleanum, and the air-pump was called
tnachina Boyleana. It does not appear that Guericke
was at all felicitous to maintain his claim to priority of
invention. He appears to have been of a truly noble
and philofophical mind, aiming at nothing but the ad¬
vancement of fcience. < 95 |
Mr Boyle found, that to make a veffel air-tight, it His con |
was fufficient to place a piece of wet or oiled leather on vancest |
its brim, and to lay a flat plate of metal upon this.j?j^V J
The preffure of the external air'fqueezed the two folidtighti 1
bodies fo hard together, that the foft leather effeftually
excluded it. This enabled him to render the whole
machine incomparably more convenient for a variety of
experiments. He caufed the conduit-pipe to terminate
in a flat plate which he covered with leather, and on
this he fet the glafs ball or receiver, which had both its
upper and lower brim ground flat. He covered the
upper orifice in like manner with a piece of oiled leather
and a flat plate, having cocks and a variety of other
perforations and contrivances fuited to his purpofes.
This he found infinitely more expeditious, and alfo
tighter, than the clammy cements which he had former¬
ly ufed for fecuring the joints. _ # i«
He was now affifted by Dr Hooke, the moft ingeni-orHo'!
ous and inventive mechanic that the world has ever feen.imprc j
This perfon made a great improvement on the air-pump,
by applying two fvringes W'hofe pifton-rods were worked
by1 “
r. •■•••
tot
< lerally
* ated.
P N E U M
j-pump. b/ tbe fame wheel, as in fig. 20. and putting valves
’•'v'"—-' in the piltons in the fame manner as in the pitton of
• a0' a common pump. This evidently doubled the expe¬
dition of the pump’s operation j but it alfo greatly dimi-
nifbed the labour of pumping : for it muft be obferved,
that the pifton H muft be drawn up againft the preffure
»f the external air, and when the rarefaftion is nearly
perfect this requires a force of nearly 15 pounds for
avery inch of the area of the pifton. Now when one pi¬
fton H is at the bottom of the barrel, the other K is at
the top of the barrel, and the air below K is equally
rare with that in the receiver. Therefore the preffure
of the external air on the pifton K is nearly equal to
that on the pifton H. Both, therefore, are afting in
oppofite direftions on the wheel which gave them mo¬
tion ; and the force neceffary for raifing H is only the
difference between the elafticity of the air in the barrel
H and that of the air in the barrel K. This is very
fmall in the beginning of the ftroke, but gradually in-
creafes as the pifton K defcends, and becomes equal to
the whole excefs of the air’s preffure above the elafticity
of the remaining air of the receiver when the air at K of
the natural denfity begins to open the pifton valves.
An accurate attention to the circumftances will fhow us
that the force requifite for working the pump is greateft
at firft, and gradually diminiflies as the rarefaction ad¬
vances ; and when this is nearly complete, hardly any
more force is required than what is neceffary for over¬
coming the friCtion of the piftons, except during the dif-
charge of the air at the end of each ftroke.
This is therefore the form of the air-pump which is
moft generally ufed all over Europe. Some traces of
national prepoffeftion remain. In Germany, air-pumps
are frequently made after the original model of Gue¬
ricke’s (Wolff Cyclomathefis) 5 and the French gene¬
rally ufe the pump made by Papin, though extremely
awkward. We (hall give a defcription of Boyle’s air-
pump as finally improved by Hawkefbee, which, with
fome fmall accommodations to particular views, (till re¬
mains the moft approved form.
1 vkef- Here follows the defcription from Ftefaguliers.
i’sim- It confifts of two brafs barrels a a, a a (fig. 19.), 12
f 'ements. inches high and 2 wide. The piftons are raifed and de-
preffed by turning the winch b b. This is fattened to an
axis palling through a ftrong toothed wheel, which lays
hold of the teeth of the racks cccc. Then the one
is raifed while the other is depreffed ; by which means
the valves, which are made of limber bladder, fixed in
the upper part of each pifton, as well as in the open¬
ings into the bottom of the barrels, perform their office
of difcharging the air from the barrels, and admitting
into them the air from the receiver to be afterwards dif-
charged ; and when the receiver comes to be pretty
well exhaufted of its air, the preffure of the atmofphere
in the defcending pifton is nearly fo great, that the
power required to raife the other is little more than is
neceffary for overcoming the fridion of the pifton, which
renders this pump preferable to all others, which require
more force to work them as the rarefaftion of the air in
the receiver advances.
The barrels are fet in a brafs difh about two inches
deep, filled with water or oil to prevent the infinuation
of air. The barrels are fcrewed tight down by the nuts
e e, e e, which force the frontifpiece i//'down on them,
through which the two pillars pafs.
Vol. XVI. Part II.
i9.
. I<53
^ rels.
A T 1 c S. tisi
From between the barrels rifes a {lender brafs pipe b h, Air-pun p.
communicating with each by a perforation in the tranf- '“""v
verfe piece of brafs on which they ftand. The upper end
of this pipe communicates with another perforated piece ^c. 1
of brafs, which fcrews on underneath the plate i i i /, of
ten inches diameter, and furrounded with a brafs rim
to prevent the (bedding of water ufed in fome experi¬
ments. This piece of brafs has three branches: ift,
An horizontal one communicating with the conduit
pipe hh. 2d, An upright one fcrewed into the middle
of the pump-plate, and terminating in a fmall pipe
rifing about an inch above it. 3d, A perpendicular one,
looking downwards in the continuation of the pipe
k, and having a hollow fcrew in its end receiving the
brafs cap of the gage-pipe 11/i, which is of glafs, 34
inches long, and immerfed in a glafs cittern mm filled
with mercury. This is covered a-top with a cork float,
carrying the weight of a light wooden fcale divided into
inches, which are numbered from the furface of the mer¬
cury in the ciftern. This fcale will therefore rife and
fall with the mercury in the ciftern, and indicate the
true elevation of that in the tube.
There is a ftopcock immediately above the infertion Stopcock,
of the gage-pipe, by which its communication may be
cut off. There is another at n, by which a communi¬
cation is opened with the external air, for allowing its
readmiffion •, and there is fometimes another immediately
within the infertion of the condu£t-pipe for cutting off
the communication between the receiver and the pump.
This is particularly ufeful when the rarefadlion is to be
continued long, as there are by thefe means fewer
chances of the infinuation of air by the many joints. JO£
The receivers are made tight by (imply fetting them Receivers,
on the pump-plate with a piece of wet or oiled leather
between 5 and the receivers which are open a-top, have
a brafs cover fet on them in the fame manner. In thefe
covers there are various perforations and contrivances for
various purpofes. The one in the figure has a flip wire
paffing through a collar of oiled leather, having a hook
or a fcrew in its lower end for hanging any thing on or
producing a variety of motions.
Sometimes the receivers are fet on another plate, which Cont i-
has a pipe fcrewed into its middle, furniftied with a flop-vance for
cock and a fcrew, which fits the middle pipe h. When
the rarefaflion has been made in it, the cock is (hut, and ' “
then the whole may be unferewed from the pump, and
removed to any convenient place. This is called a tranf-
porter 'plate. ir/^
It only remains to explain the gage // //. In the Principle
ordinary (late of the air its elafticity balances the pref-nPon which
fure of the incumbent atmofphere. We find this from^^1^
the force that is neceffary to fqueeze it into lefs bulkec]
in oppofition to this elafticity. Therefore the elaftici¬
ty of the air increafes with the vicinity of its particle!?.
It is therefore reafonable to expeft, that when we al¬
low it to occupy more room, and its particles are far¬
ther afunder, its elafticity will be diminiffied though
not annihilated ; that is, it will no longer balance the
WHOLE preffure of the atmofphere, though it may ftill
balance part of it. If therefore an upright pipe have
its lower end immerfed in a veffel of mercury, and com¬
municate by its upper end with a veflel containing rare¬
fied, therefore lefs elaftic, air, w7e (hould expeft that the
preflure of the air will prevail, and force the mercury
into the tube, and caufe it to rife to fuch a height that
4 & the
682
P N E U M
Air-pump.
top
fo as to in¬
dicate the
degree of
rarefaction.
no
Inconveni¬
ences of this
£pge,
?ig. 20.
Ill
remedied.
Kg. ax.
tlie weight of the mercury, joined to the elafticity of the
rarefied air acting on its upper furface, fhall be exa£tly
equal to the whole preffure of the atmofphere. The
height of the mercury is the exaft meafure of that part
of the whole prefihre which is not balanced by the ela¬
fticity of the rarefied air, and its deficiency from the
height of the mercury in the Toricellian tube is the
exa£t meafure of this remaining elafticity.
It is evident therefore, that the pipe will be a fcale of
the elafticity of the remaining air, and will indicate in
fome fort the degree of rarefadtion : for there muft be
fome analogy between the denfity of the air and its
clafticity ; and we have no reafon to imagine that they
do not increafe and diminifh together, although we may
be ignorant of the law, that is, of the change of elaftici¬
ty correfponding to a known change of denfity.. This
is to be difeovered by experiment ; and the air-pump
itfelf furnifties us with the beft experiments for this pur-
pofe. After rarefying till the mercury in the gage has
attained half the height of that in the Toricellian tube,
(hut the communication with the barrels and gage, and
admit the water into the receiver. It will go in till
all is again in equilibrio with the prefture of the atmo¬
fphere ; that is, till the air in the receiver has collap-
fed into its natural bulk. This we can accurately mea¬
fure, and compare with the whole capacity of the re¬
ceiver •, and thus obtain the prccife degree of rarefaction
correfponding to half the natural elafticity. We can
do the fame thing with the elafticity reduced to one-
third, one-fourth. &c. and thus difeover the whole law.
This gage muft be confidered as one of the moft in¬
genious and convenient parts of Hawkcfbee’s pump *,
and it is well difpofed, being in a fituation protected
againft accidentsbut it neceffarily increafes greatly
the fize of the machine, and cannot be applied to the
table-pump, reprefented in fig. 20. When it is wanted
here, a fmall plate is added behind, or between the bar¬
rels and receiver ; and on this is fet a fmall tubulated (as
it is termed) receiver, covering a common Weaiher-glafs
tube.—This receiver being rarefied along with theother,
the preffure on, the mercury in the ciftern arifing from
the elafticity of. the remaining air is diminifhed fo as
to be no longer able to fupport the mercury at its full
height ; and it therefore defeends till the height at
which it Hands puts it in equilibrio with the elafticity.
In this form, therefore, the height of the mercury is di-
re£!ly a meafure of the remaining elafticitv *, while in
the other it meafures the remaining unbalanced preffure
of the atmofphere. But this gage is extremely cum-
berfome, and liable to accidents. We are feldom much
interefted in the rarefaftion till it is great: a. contrafted
form of this gage is therefore very ufeful, and was early
ufed. A fyphon ABCD (fig. 21.), each branch of
which is about four inches long, clofe at A and open at
is filled with boiling mercury till it occupies the
branch AB and a very fmall part of CD, having its fur-
face at O. This is fixed to a fmall {land, and fixed into
the receiver, along with the things that are to be exhi¬
bited in the rarefied air. When the air has been rare¬
fied till its remaining elafticitv is not able to fupport
the column BA, the mercury defeends in AB, and rifes
in CD, and the remaining elafticity will always be mea-
fured by the elevation of the mercury in AB above
that in the leg CD. Could the exhauftion be perfe&ed,
ths- furfaces la both legs would be on a level. Another
A T I C S.
gage might be put into the feme foot, having a fmall Air-pump;,
bubble of air at A. This would move from the begin-v Aj
ning of the rarefaftion j but ;our ignorance of the ana-
logy between the denfity and elafticity hinders us from
ufing it as a meafure of either.
It is enough for our prefent purpofe to obferve, that
the barometer or fyphon gage is a perfeft indication
and meafure of the performance of an air-pump, and
that a pump is (cceteris paribus) {q much the more per-
fe£I, as it is able to raife the mercury higher in the gage.
It is in this way that we difeover that none can pro-A ln.x
duce a complete exhauftion, and that their operationexhauft^
is only a very great farefadlion : for none can raife the not effe<M
mercury, to that height at which it Hands in the Toricel-by tbe
lian tube, well purged of air. Few pumps will bring it
within one-tenth of an inch. Hawkelbee’s, fitted up
according to his inftruftions, will feldom bring it with¬
in one-fifth. Pumps with cocks, when conftrufted ac¬
cording to the principles mentioned when fpeaking of
the exhaufting fyringe, and new and in fine order, will
in favourable circumftances bring it within one-fortieth.
None with valves fitted up wi ’1 wet leather, or when
water or volatile fluids are allowed accefs into any part,
will bring it nearer than one-fifth. Nay, a pump of the
beft kind, and in the fineft order, will have its rarefying
power reduced to the loweft ftandard, as meafured by
this gage, if we put into the receiver the tenth part of a
fquarejnch of white fheep-lkin, frefh from the (hops, or
of any fubftance equally damp. This is a difeovery
made by means of the improved air-pump, and leads to
very extenfive and important confequences in general
phyfics ; fome of which will.be treated of under this ar¬
ticle : and the obfervation is made thus early, that our
readers may better underftand the improvements which
have been made on this celebrated machine.
It would require a volume to defcribeall the changes Various
which have been made on it. An inftrument of fuch impnm'-
multifarious ufe, and in the hands of curious men, each
diving into the fecrets of nature in his favourite line,
muft have received many alterations and real improve¬
ments in many particular refpedts. But thefe arebefide
our prefent purpofe ; which is to confider it merely as a
machine for rarefying elaftic or expanfive fluids. We
muft therefore confine ourfelves to this view of it ; and
(hall carefully Hate to our readers every improvement
founded on principle, and on pneumatieal la\vs. 114
All who ufed it perceived the limit fet to the rarefac-by f.t-
ion by the refiftance of the valves, and tried to perfect tera{)tlnC
the conftruftion of the cocks. The abbe Nollet and^^
Gravefande, two of the moft eminent experimental phi-ftru(<ijon|
lofopbers in Europe, were the moft lucceftful. the cocks.
Mr Gravefande juftly preferred Hooke’s plan of a n5
double pump, and contrived an apparatus for turning
the cocks by the motion of, the pump’s handle. ThisproveirieiJ
is far from either being Ample or eafy in working} and
occaftons great jerks and concufli'ons in the whole ma¬
chine. This, however, is not neceffarily connected
with the truly pneumatical improvement. His pifton
has no valve, and the rod is conneffed with it by a
ftirrup D (fig. 22.), as in a common pump. The rod pjg.
has a cylindric part cp, which paffes through the ftir¬
rup, and has a ftiff motion in it up and down of about
half an inch } being Hopped by the (boulder c above
and the nut below. The round plate fupported by this
ftirrup has a fhert ftjuare tube n d, which fits tight into
the
. ■
■-pump.
u6
5 man-
r jfufing
”7
' eful
» tri-
:e.
uS
”9
1 nconve-
i ices,
120
edied.
121
J hly ex-
^ ^d, but
122
; ted in
1 pera-
P N E U M
tls.e hole of a piece of cork F. The round plate E has
a fquare fhank g, which goes into the fquare tube n d.
A piece of thin leather f foaked in oil, is put between
the cork and the plate E, and another between the cork
and the plate which forms the foie of the llirrup. All
thefe pieces are fcretved together by the nail e, whofe flat
head covers the hole n. Suppofe, therefore, the pifton
touching the bottom of the barrel, and the winch turn¬
ing to raife it again, the fri&ion of the pifton on the
barrel keeps it in its place, and the rod is drawn up
through the ftirrup D. Thus the wheel has liberty to
turn about an inch ; and this is fufficient for turning the
cock, fo as to cut off the communication with the ex¬
ternal air, and to open the communication with the re¬
ceiver. This being done, and the motion of the winch
continued, the pifton is raifed to the top of the barrel.
When the winch is turned in the oppofite direftion, the
pifton remains fixed till the cock is turned, fo as to (hut
the communication with the receiver, and open that with
the external air.
This is a pretty contrivance, and does not at firft ap¬
pear neceffary ; becaufe the cocks might be made to turn
at the beginning and end of the ftroke without it. But
this is juft poflible j and the fmalleft error of adjuftment,
or wearing of the apparatus, will caufe them to be open
at improper times. Befides, the cocks are not turned
in an inftant, and are improperly open during fome very
fmall time ; but this contrivance completely obviates
this difficulty.
The cock is precifely fimilar to that formerly defcrib-
ed, having one perforation diametrically through it, and
another entering at right angles to this, and after reach¬
ing the centre, it paffes along the axis of the cock, and
comes out to the open air.
It is evident, that by this conftru£Hon of the cock,
the ingenious improvement of Dr Hooke, by which the
preffure of the atmofphere on one pifton is made to
balance (in great part) the preffure on the other, is given
up : for, whenever the communication with the air is
opened, it rulhes in, and immediately balances the pref¬
fure on the upper fide of the pifton in this barrel} fo
that the whole preffure in the other muft be overcome
by the perfon working the pump. Gravefande, aware
of this, put a valve on the orifice of the cock •, that is,
tied a flip of wet bladder or oiled leather acrofs it •, and
now the pifton is preffed down, as long as the air in the
barrel is rarer than the outward air, in the fame manner
as when the valve is in the pifton itfelf.
Thi s is all that is neceffary to be defcribed in Mr
Gravefande’s air-pump. Its performance is highly ex¬
tolled by him, as far exceeding his former pumps with
valves. The fame preference was given to it by his
fucceffor Mufchenbroek. But, while they both prepar¬
ed the piftons and valves and leathers of the pump,
by fteeping them in oil, and then in a mixture of water
and fpirits of wine, we are certain that no juft eftimate
could be made of its performance. For with this prepa¬
ration it could not bring the gage within one-fifth of an
inch of the barometer. We even fee other limits to its
rarefaction : from its conftruClion, it is plain that a very
confiderable fpace is left between the pifton and cock,
not lefs than an inch, from which the air is never cu¬
pelled ; and if this be made extremely fmall, it is plain
that the pump muft be worked very flow, otherwife
there will not be time for the air to diffufe itfelf from
A T I C S.
68
the receiver into the barrel, efpecially towards the end, Air-pump-
when the expelling force, viz. the elafticity of the re- l"—
maining air, is very fmall. There is alfo the fame li- jn 0^re.
mit to the rarefaction, as in Hooke’s or Hawkelbee’s ipectinfe-
pump, oppoied by the valve E, which will not open tillrior to
the air below the pifton is confiderably denfer than the ^aY^e^'
external air : and this pump foon loft any advantages 0Le s‘
it poffeffed when frefh from the workman’s hands, by
the cock’s growing loofe and admitting air. It is fur-
prifing that Gravefande omitted Hawkelbee’s fecurily
againft this, by placing the barrels in a dilh filled with
oil ; which would effectually have prevented this incon¬
venience. 124
We muft not omit afeemingly paradoxical obfervalion Advantage
of Gravefande, that in a pump conftruCted with valves, 0^l0rt^ai
and worked with a determined uniform velocity, the re-re s*
quired. degree of rarefaCtion is fooner produced by fhort
barrels than by long ones. It would require too much
time to give a general demonftration of this, but it will
eafily be feen by an example. Suppofe the long barrel
to have equal capacity with the receiver, then at the end
of the firft ftroke the air in the receiver will have one-
half its natural denfity. Now, let the ftiort barrels have
half this eapacity : at the end of the firft ftroke the den¬
fity of the air in the receiver is two-thirds, and at the
end of the fecond ftroke it is four-ninths, which is lefs
than one-half, and the two ftrokes of the ftiort barrel
are fuppofed to be made in the fame time with one of
longeft, &c.
Hawkelbee’s pump maintained its pre-eminence with- Smeaton
out rival in Britain, and generally too on the continent, improves
except in France, where every thing took the ton of the t^ie vaIve'
Academy, which abhorred being indebted to foreigners ^Uin^
for any thing in fcience, till about the year 1750, when
it engaged the attention of Mr John Smeaton, a perfon
of uncommon knowledge, and fecond to none but Dr
Hooke in fagacity and mechanical refource. He was
then a maker of philofophical inftruments, and made
many attempts to perfeCt the pumps with cocks, but
found, that whatever perfection he could bring them to,
he could not enable them to preferve it j and he never
would fell one of this conftruCtion. He therefore at¬
tached himfelf folely to the valve pumps. jzg
The firft thing was to diminilh the refiftance to the by enlar-
entry of the air from the receiver into the barrels : this t?Jef
he rendered almoft nothing, b)^ enlarging the furface on “ 1
which this feebly elaftic air was to prefs. Inftead of
making thefe valves to open by its preffure on a circle of
one-twentieth of an inch in diameter, he made the valve-
hole one inch in diameter, enlarging the furface 400
times ; and, to prevent this piece of thin leather from
being burft by the great preifure on it, when the pifton
in its defcer.t was approaching the bottom of the barrel,
he fupported it by a delicate but ftrong grating, dividing
the valve-hole like the fection of a honey-comb, as re* ^
prefented in fig. 25. j and the ribs of this grating are ^
feen edgewife in fig. 23. at a be.
The valve was a piece of thin membrane or oiled changing
fiik, gently ftrained over the mouth of the valve-hole.
, . P , , r- _ j , , s. . ’ tare of the
and tied on by a fine filk thread wound round it in the
valve, and
fame manner that the narrow flips Bad been tied on
formerly. This done, he cut with a pointed knife the
leather round the edge, nearly four quadrantal arcs,
leaving a fmall tongue between each, as in fig. 25. The Fig. 25..
ftrained valve immediately (brinks inwards, as reprefent-
4 R 2 ' e4
6S4
Air-pump.
128
increaling
the expei-
iing force.
129
Structure
of his pi.
Iton for
this pur-
poi'e.
Fig. 23-
P N E U M
ed by the fluded parts ; and the ftrain by which it is
kept down is now greatly diminilhed, taking place only
at the corners. The gratings being reduced nearly to
an edge (but not quite, left they fhould cut), there is
very little preffure to produce adhefion by the clammy
oil. Thus it appears, that a very fmall elafticity of the
air in the receiver will be fuffieient to raife the valve •,
and Mr Smeaton found, that when it was not able to
do this at firft, when only about °f the natural elaf¬
ticity, it would do it after keeping the pifton up eight
or ten feconds, the air having been all the while under¬
mining the valve, and gradually detaching it from the
grating.
Unfortunately he could not follow this method with
the pifton valve. There was not room round the rod
for fuch an expanded valve •, and it would have obliged
him to have a great fpace below the valve, from which
he could not expel the air by the defcent of the pifton.
His ingenuity hit on a way of increafing the expelling
force through the common valve : he inclofed the rod of
the pifton in a collar of leather /, through which it
moved freely without allowing any air to get part its
fides. For greater fecurity, the collar of leather was
contained in a box terminating in a cup filled with oil.
As this makes a material change in the principle of con-
ftruftion of the air-pump (and indeed of pneumatic en¬
gines in general), and as it has been adopted in all the
iubfequent attempts to improve them, it merits a parti¬
cular eonfideration.
The pifton itfelf confifts of two pieces of brafs fatten¬
ed by fcrews from below. The uppermoft, which is of
one folid piece with the rod GH (fig. 23.) is of a dia¬
meter fomewhat lefs than the barrel; fo that when they
are fcrewed together, a piece of leather foaked in a
mixture of boiled oil and tallow, is put between them }
and when the pifton is thruft into the barrel from above,
the leather comes up around the fide of the pifton, and
fills the barrel, making the pifton perfeftly air-tight.
The lower half of the pifton projefts upwards into the
upper, which has a hollow g b c d \.o receive it. There
is a fmall hole through the lower half at a to admit the
air •, and a hole c d in the upper half to let it through,
and there is a flip of oiled ftlk {trained acrofs the hole a
by way of valve, and there is room enough left at £ c for
this valve to rife a little when preffed from below. The
rod GH pafles through the piece of brafs which forms
the top of the barrel fo as to move freely, but without
any fenftble (hake : this top is formed into a hollow box,
confifting of two pieces ECDF and CNOD, which
fcrew together at CD. This box is filled with rings of
oiled leather exactly fitted to its diameter, each having
a hole in it for the rod to pafs through. When the
piece ECDF is fcrewed down, it comprefles the lea¬
ders ; fqueezing them to the rod, fo that no air can
pafs between them *, and, to fecure us againft all ingrefs
of air, the upper part is formed into a cup EF, which
is kept filled with oil.
The top of the barrel is alfo pierced with a hole LK,
which rifes above the fiat jurface NO, and has a flip of
oiled filk tied over it to aft as a valve 5 opening when
preffed from below, bat (hutting when preffed from
above.
. The communication between the barrel and receiver
is made by means of the pipe x\BPO •, and there goes
from the hole K in the top of the barrel a pipe KRST
A T I C S.
which either communicates with the open air or with Afr-fmmp,
the receiver, by means of the cock at its extremity T.' 1 v “-1
The conduit pipe ABP(^ has alfo a cock at £), by which
it is made to communicate either with the receiver or
with the open air. Thefe channels of communication
are varioufly condufted and terminated, according to
the views of the maker : the (ketch in this figure is fuf-
ficient for explaining the principle, and is fuited to the
general form of the pump, as it has been frequently
made by Nairne and other artifts in London. ^
Let us now fuppofe the pifton at the top of the barrel, Superioritf
and that it applies to it all over, and that the air in theof this con-
barrel is very much rarefied : in the common pump the^ru^fi°n»
pifton valve is preffed hard down by the atmofphere, and
continues (hut till the pifton gets far down, condenfes
the air below it beyond its natural date, and enables it
to force up the valves. But here, as (oon as the pifton
quits the top of the barrel, it leaves a void behind it 3
for no air gets in round the pifton rod, and the valve at
K is {hut by the preffure of the atmofphere. There is
nothing now to oppofe the elafticity of the air below
but the diffnefs of the valve be; and thus the expelling
(or more accurately the liberating) force is prodigioufly
increafed. ^
The fuperiority of this conftruftion will be beft feen fi10vvn by
by an example. Suppofe the ftiffnefs of the valve equal an exara-
to the weight of Yoth of an inch of mercury, when theP^e‘
barometer (lands at 30 inches, and that the pump-gage
(lands at 29.9 •, then, in an ordinary pump, the valve in
the pifton will not rife till the pifton has got within the
300th part of the bottom of the barrel, and it will leave
the valve-hole filled with air of the ordinary denfity.
But in this pump the valve will rife as foon as the pifton
quits the top of the barrel •, and when it is quite down,
the valve-hole a will contain only the 300th part of the
air which it would have contained in a pump of the or¬
dinary form. Suppofe farther, that the barrel is of
equal capacity with the receiver, and that both pumps
are fo badly conftrmfted, that the fpace left below the
pifton is the 300th part of the barrel. In the common
pump the pifton valve will rife no more, and the ra-
refaftion can be carried no farther, however delicate
the barrel valve may be j but in this pump the next
ftroke will raife the gage to 29.95, and the pifton valve
will again rife as foon as the pifton gets half way down
the barrel.
The limit to the rarefaftion by this pump depends
chiefly on the fpace contained in the hole LK, and in
the fpace b c d oi the pifton. When the pifton is brought
up to the top, and applied clofe to it, thofe fpaces re¬
main filled with air of the ordinary denfity, wrhich will
expand as the pifton defeends, and thus will retard the
opening of the pifton valve. The rarefaction will (top
when the elafticity of this fmall quantity of air, expand¬
ed (o as to fill the whole barrel (by the defcent of the
pifton to the bottom), is juft equal to the force requifite
for opening the pifton valve. j^2
Another advantage attending this conftruCtion is, it is eafily
that in drawing up the pifton, we are not refitted by worked,
the whole preffure of the air \ loecaufe the air is rarefied
above this pifton as well as below it, and the pifton is in
precifely the fame ftate of preffure as if connesfted with
another pifton in a double pump. The refiftance to
the afeent of the pifton is the excefs of the elaftieity of
the air above it over the elafticity of the air below :
this.
PNEUMATICS. 68
iir-purap. this, toward the end of the rarefa&ion, is very fmall,
—V—' while the pifton is near the bottom of the barrel, but
gradually increafes as the pifton rifes, and reduces the
air above it into fmaller dimenfions, and becomes equal
to the prefture of the atmofphere, when the air above
the pifton is of the common denftty. If we ftiould raife
the pifton ftill farther, we muft condenfe the air above
it: but Mr Smeaton has here made an iffue for the air
by a {mall hole in the top of the barrel, covered with a
delicate valve. This allows the air to efcape, and (huts
again as foon as the pifton begins to defcend, leaving
almoft a perfect void behind it as before.
This pump has another advantage. It may be chan¬
ged in a moment from a rarefying to a condenfing en¬
gine, bv limply turning the cocks at and T. While
T communicates with the open air and with the re¬
ceiver, it is a rarefying engine or air-pump : but when
T communicates with the receiver, and with the open
cccxx-Vi. air, it is a condenfing engine.
fig a<5. Fig. 26. reprefents Mr Smeaton’s air-pump as it is
.W . ufually made by Nairne. Upon a folid bafe or table
nine a1 are UP ‘Lli,re“ pillars F, H, H : the pillar F fupports
on’s pump, the pump-plate A; and the pillars H, H, fupport the
front or head, containing a brafs cog-wheel, which is
turned by the handle B, and works in the rack C faf-
tened to the upper end of the pifton rod. The whole
is ftill farther fteadied by two pieces of brafs c b and 0
k, which connedl the pump-plate with the front, and
have perforations communicating between the hole a in
the middle of the plate and the barrel, as will be de-
fcribed immediately. DE is the barrel of the pump, firm¬
ly fixed to the table by fcrews through its upper tlanch :
efdchz flender brafs tube ferewed to the bottom of
the barrel, and to the under hole of the horizontal ca¬
nal c b. In this canal there is a cock which opens a
communication between the barrel and the receiver,
when the key is in the pofition ^eprefented here : but
when the key is at right angles with this pofition, this
communication is cut off. If that fide of the key which
is here drawn next to the pump-plate be turned outward,
the external air is admitted into the receiver 5 but if
turned inwards, the air is admitted into the barrel.
g h Is another {lender brafs pipe, leading from the dif-
charging valve at g to the horizontal canal h b, to the
under fide of which it is ferewed faft. In this horizon¬
tal canal there is a cock n which opens a paflage from
the barrel to the receiver when the key is in the pofition
here drawn \ but opens a paffage from the barrel to the
external air when the key is turned outwards, and from
the receiver to the external air when the key is turned
inwards. This communication with the external air is
not immediate but through a fort of box i; the ufe of
this box is to receive the oil w?hich is difeharged through
the top valve g. In order to keep the pump tight, and
in working order, it is proper fometimes to pour a table-
fpoonful of olive oil into the hole a of the pump-plate,
and then to work the pump. The oil goes along the
conduit b c df e, gets into the barrel and through the
pifton-valve, when the pifton is preffed to the bottom of
the barrel, and is then drawn up, and forced through
the dircharging valve g along the pipe g h, the horizon¬
tal paffage h n, and finally into the box z. ft his box
has a fmall hole in its fide near the top, through which
the air efcapes.
From the upper fide of the canal c b there arifes a
1
{lender pipe which bends outward and then turns down- Air-pump,
wards, and is joined to a fmall box, which cannot be '*
feen in this view. From the bottom of this box pro¬
ceeds downwards the gage-pipe of glafs, which enters
the ciftern of mercury G fixed below.
On the upper fide of the other canal at 0 is feen a
fmall ftud, having a fiiort pipe of glafs projecting hori¬
zontally from it, clofe by and parallel to the front piece
of the pump, and reaching to the other canal. This
pipe is clofe at the farther end, and has a fmall drop of
mercury or oil in it at the end 0. This ferves as a gage
in condenfing, indicating the degree of condenfation by
the place of the drop : For this drop is forced along the
pipe, condenfing the air before it in the fame degree
that it is condenfed in the barrel and receiver.
In conftruCling this pump, Mr Smeaton introduced Method of
a method of joining together the different pipes and other joining to-
pieces, which has great advantages over the ufual man-Sp^er the
ner of fere wing them together with leather between, and^j^^
which is now much ufed in hydraulic and pneumatic ’
engines. We {hall explain this to our readers by a de-
feription of the manner in which the exhaufting gage is
joined to the horizontal du£t c b.
ft'he piece h ip, in fig. 23. is the fame with the little Fig- 23)
cylinder obfervable on the upper fide of the horizontal
canal c d, in fig. 26. The upper part h i is formed in-Fig. %6t
to an outfide ferew, to fit the hollow ferew of the piece
deed, ft'he top of this laft piece has a hole in its mid¬
dle, giving an eafy paffage to the bent tube c b a, fo as
to flip along it with freedom. To the end c of this
bent tube is foldered a piece of brafs cf g, perforated in
continuation of the tube, and having its end ground flat
on the top of the piece h ip, and alfo covered with a
flip of thin leather {trained acrofs it and pierced with a
hole in the middle.
It is plain from this form, that if the furface fg be
applied to the top of h i, and the cover r/e e r/ be ferew¬
ed down on it, it will draw or prefs them together, fo
that no air can efcape by the joint, |nd this without
turning the whole tube c b a round, as is neceffary in
the ufual way. This method is now adopted for joining
together the conducing pipes of the machines for ex-
tinguifliing fires, an operation which was extremely
troublefome before this improvement.
ft'he conduit pipe Y. ef c (fig. 26.) is faftened to the Fig. 2’S,
bottom of the barrel, and the difeharging pipe^/z to its
top, in the fame manner. But to return to the gage ;
the bent pipe cb a enters the box j t near one fide, and
obliquely, and the gage pipe y r is inferted through its
bottom towards the oppofite fide, ft'he ufe of this box
is to catch any drops of mercury which may fometimes
be dafhed up through the gage pipe by an accidental
ofcillation. "This, by going through the paffages of the
pump, would corrode them, and would acl particularly
on the joints, which are generally foldered with tin.
When this happens to an air-pump, it muft be cleaned
with the moft fcrupulous attention, otherwife it will be
quickly deftroyed. .
ft’his account of Smeaton’s pump is fufficient for ena- Great-3
bling the reader to underftand its operation and to fee powers of
its fuperiority. It is reckoned a very fine pump of thethjs pump,
ordinary conftruftion which will rarefy 200 times, or^S-2?*
raife the gage to 29.85, the barometer Handing at 30.
But Mr Smeaton found, that his pump, even after long
ufing, raifed it to 29.95, which we confider as equiva¬
lent
136
Another
ton’s
Tig. 27.
g$6 B N E U M
Air-pump, lent to rarefying 600 times. When in fine order, he
^found no bounds to its rarefaftion, frequently raifing the
gage as high as the barometer and he thought its per¬
formance fo perfeft, that the barometer-gage was not
fufficiently delicate for meafuring the rarefaction. He
therefore fubftituted the fyphon gage already defcribed,
which he gives fume reafons for preferring; but even
this he found not fufficiently fenfible.
He contrived another, which could be carried to
contrivance any degree of fetffibility. It confifts of a glafs body
ofSmea- ^ (fig. 27.), of a pear ffiape, and was therefore called
the pear-gage. This had a fmall projecting orifice at
B, and at the other end a tube CD, whofe capacity was
the hundredth part of the- capacity of the whole veffel.
This was fufpended at the flip-wire of the receiver, and
there was fet below it a fmall cup with mercury. When
' the pump was worked, the air in the pear-gage was
rarefied along with the reft. When the rarefaCtion was
brought to the degree intended, the gage was let down
till B reached the bottom of the mercury. The exter¬
nal air being now let in, the mercury was raifed into
the pear, and flood at fome height E in the tube CD.
The length of this tube being divided into 100 parts,
DE
and thofe numbered from D, it is evident that =-rr will
DB
exprefs the degree of rarefaClion which had been pro¬
duced when the gage was immerfed into the mercury :
or if DC be of the whole capacity, and be divided
into 100 parts by a fcale annexed to it, each unit of
137 the fcale Avill be -ro4^o °f the whole,
veryingeni- This was a very ingenious contrivance, and has been
0US> the means of making fome very curious and important
difcoveries w-hich at prefent engage the attention of phi-
lofophers. By this gage Mr Smeaton found, that his
pump frequently rarefied a thoufand, ten thoufand, nay
an hundred thoufand times. But though he in every
inftance faw the great fuperiority of his pump above all
others, he frequently found irregularities which he could
not explain, and> a want of correfpondence between the
pear and the barbmeter gages which puzzled him. The
pear-gage frequently indicated a prodigious rarefaction,
when the barometer-gage would not fhow more than
600.
Thefe unaccountable phenomena excited the curiofity
tion *f the philofophers, who by this time were making continual
literary ufe of the air-pump in their meteorological refearches,
and much interefted in every thing connected with the
ftate or conftitution of elaftic fluids. Mr Nairne, a
moft ingenious and accurate maker of philofophical in-
ftruments, made many curious experiments in the exa¬
mination and comparifon of Mr Smeaton’s pump with
thofe of the ufual conftruftion, attending to every cir-
cumftance which could contribute to the inferiority of
the common pumps or to their improvement, To as to
bring them nearer to this rival machine. This rigorous
comparifon brought into view feveral circumftances in
the conftitution of the atmofpheric air, and its relation
to other bodies, which are of the moft extenfive and im¬
portant influence in the operations of nature. We ffiall
notice, at prefent fuch only as have a relation to the
operation of the air-pump in extrading AIR from the
receiver.
*38
Tt excited
the atten-
world.
^ *39
Experi¬
ments with
it by Mr
Nairne.
Mr Nairne found, that when a little water, or even
bit of paper damped with water, was expofed under
A T I C -S.
the receiver of Mr Smcaton’s air-pump, when in the Alr.pnmj
moft perfeft condition, raifing the mercury in the baro-
meter-gage to 29.95, cou^ no1- make it rife above
29.8 if Fahrenheit’s thermometer indicated the tempe¬
rature 470, nor above 29.7 if the thermometer Hood at
550 ; and that to bring the gage to this height and keep
it there, the operation of the pump rouft be continued
for a long time after the water had difappeared or the
paper become perfectly dry. He found that a drop of
fpirits, or paper moiftened with fpirits, could not in
thofe circumftanees allow the mercury in the gage to
rife to near that height j and that fimilar effeCts follow¬
ed from admitting any volatile body whatever into the
receiver or any part of the apparatus. ^
This fliovved him at once how improper the direc-fhowthe
lions were which had been given by Guericke, Boyle, imProPrie-
Gravefande, and others, for fitting up the air-pump for^ °^oak-
experiment, by foaking the leather in w'ater, covering
the joints with water, or in ffiort, admitting water or water
any other volatile body near it. j t
He therefore took his pumps to pieces, cleared them and the
of all the moifture which he cotild drive from them byut!htyof
beat, and then leathered them anew w ith leather foaked1^"^^®
in a mixture of olive oil and tallow, from which he had low *
expelled all the water it ufually contains, by boiling it
till the firft frothing was over. When the pumps were
fitted up in this manner, he uniformly found that Mr
Smeaton’s pump rarefied the gage to 29.95, ar|d the
beft common pump to 29.87, the firft of which he com¬
puted to indicate a rarefaClion to 600, and the other to
^o. But in this ftate he again found that a piece of
damp paper, leather, wood, &c. in the receiver, reduced
the performance in the fame manner as before.
But the moft remarkable phenomenon was, that when ^ remark
he made ufe of the pear-gage with the pump cleared able phem
from all moifture, it indicated the fame degree of rare-menon
faCtion with the barometer-gage : but when he expofed
bit of paper moiftened with fpirits, and thus reduced
the rarefaClion of the pump to what he called 50, the
barometer gage Handing at 29.4, the pear-gage indicat¬
ed a rarefaClion exceeding 100,000 in ffiort, it was
not meafurable j and this phenomenon was almoft con-
ftant. Whenever he expofed any fubftance fufceptible
of evaporation, he found the rarefaClion indicated by
the barometer-gage greatly reduced, w'hile that indi¬
cated by the pear-gage was prodigioufly increafed ■, and
both thefe effeCts were more remarkable as the fubjeCl
Was of eafier evaporation, or the temperament of the
air of the chamber Avas warmer. r
This uniform refult fuggefted the true caufe. Water accounted
boils at the temperature 212, that is, it is then con Averted for-
into a vapour which is permanently elaftic Avhile of that
temperature, and its elafticity balances the preffure of
the atmofphere. If this preffure be diminifhed by rare¬
fying the air above it, a low temperature will not alloAV
it to be converted into elaftic vapour, and keep it in
that ftate. Water will boil in the receiver of an air-
pump at the temperature 96, or even under it. Phi¬
lofophers did not think of examining the ftate of the va¬
pour in temperatures lower than Avhat produced ebulli¬
tion. But it noAv appears, that in much loAver heats
than this the fuperficial water is converted into elaflic
vapour, Avhich continues to exhafe from it as long as
the Avater iafts, and, fupplying the place of air in the
receiver,,
P N E U M
Mr-pump. receiver, exerts the fame elafticity, and hinders the mer-
' any from rifing in the gage in the fame manner as fo
much air of equal elafticity would have done.
When Mr Nairne was exhibiting thefe experiments
to the Honourable Henry Cavendilh in 1776, this gen¬
tleman informed him that it appeared from a feries of
experiments of his father Lord Charles Cavendilh, that
when water is of the temperature 720, it is converted
into vapour, under any preffure lefs than three-fourths
ef an inch of mercury, and at 410 it becomes vapour
when the preflure is lefs than one-fourth of an inch :
Even mercury evaporates in this manner when all pref¬
fure is removed. A dewy appearance is frequently ob-
ferved covering the infide of the tube of a barometer,
where we ufually fuppofe a vacuum. This dew, when
viewed through a microfcope, appears to be a fet of de¬
tached globules of mercury, and upon inclining the tube
fo that the mercury may afcend along it, .thefe globules
will be all licked up, and the tube become clear. The
dew which lined it was the vapour of the mercury con-
denfed by the fide of the tube ; and it is never obferved
but when one fide is expofed to a ftream of cold air from
a window, &c.
To return to the vapour in the air-pump receiver, it
muft be obferved, that as long as the water continues to
yield it, we may continue to work the pump ; and it
will be continually abftra&ed by the barrel-, and dif-
charged in the form of water, becaufe it collapfes as
foon as expofed to the external preflure. All this while
the gage will no; indicate any more rarefaction, beeaufe
the thing immediately indicated by the barometer-gage
is diminijhed e/afticity, which does not happen here.
When all the w’ater which the temperature of the room
can keep elaftic has evaporated under a certain preflure,
fuppofe an inch of mercury, the gage Handing at
29.5, the vapour which now fills the receiver expands,
and by its diminifhed elafiicity the gage rifes, and now
fome more water which had been attached to bodies by
chemical or corpufcular attraction is detached, and a
new fupply continues to fupport the gage at a greater
height ; and this goes on continually till almoji all has
been abftraCted : but there will remain fome which no
art can take away ; for as it paffes through the barrels,
and gets between the pifton and the t@p, it fucceffively
collapfes into -water during the afcent of the pifton, and
again expands into vapour when we pufti the pifton down
again. Whenever this happens there is an end of the
rarefadion.
While this operation is going on, tKe air comes out
along with the vapour ; but -we cannot fay in what pro¬
portion. If it were always uniformly mixed with the
vapour, it would diminifh rapidly ; but this does not
appear to be the cafe. There is a certain period of
rarefaClion in which a tranfient cloudinefs is perceived
in the receiver. This is w-atery vapour formed at that
degree of rarefaciion, mingled with, but not diffolved in
or united with, the air, otherwife it would be tranfpa-
rent. A fimilar cloud will appear if damp air be ad-
mitled fuddenly into an exhaufted receiver. The va¬
pour, which formed an uniform tranfparent mafs with
the air, is either fuddenly expanded and thus detached
from the other ingredient, or is fuddenly let go by the
air, which expands more than it does. We cannot af.
firm with probability which of thefe is the cafe : differ
rent compofitions of air, that is, air loaded witli vapours
,*45
ir and
pour not
liformly
ixed to-
ther.
A T I C S. 687
from different fubftances, exhibit remarkable differences Air-pump,
in this refpeCt. But we fee from this and other pheno-' ' v
mena, which fhall be mentioned in their proper places,
that the air and vapour are not always intimately united j
and therefore will not always be drawn out together by
the air-pump. But let them be ever fo confufedly blen¬
ded, we fee that the air muft come out along with the
vapour, and its quantity remaining in the receiver mufl:
be prodigioufly diminifhed by this affociation, probably
much more than could be, had the receiver only con¬
tained pure air. ^
Let us now confider what muft happen in the pear- Confequerf.
gage. As the air and vapour are continually drawn offces ot this
from the receiver, the air in the pear expands and goes{5’fterer‘t ia
off with it. We fhall fuppofe that the generated va- tfara-
pour hinders the gage from rifing beyond 29.5. Du-meter
ring the continued working of the pump, the air ing^ges.
the pear, whofe elaflicity is 0.5, flowly mixes with
the vapour at the mouth of the pear, and the mix¬
ture even advances into its infide, fo that if the
pumping be long enough continued, what is in the
pear is nearly of the fame compofidcn with what is
in the receiver, confifting perhaps of 20 parts of vapour
and one part of air, all of the elafticity of 0.5.
When the pear is plunged into the mercury, and the
external air allowed to get into the receiver, th% mercu¬
ry rifes in the pear-gage, and leaves not but ^ 
, r o » 60 60X20
or ~~2oo ^ with common air, the vapour ha¬
ving eollapfed into an invifible atom of water. Thus
the pear-gage will indicate a rarefadlion of 1200, while
the barometer-gage only fhowed 60, that is, fhowed
the elafticity of the included fubftance diminifhed 60
times. The conclufion to be drawn from thefe two
meafures (the one of the rarefa6Hon of air, and the
other of the diminution of elafticity) is, that the matter
with which the receiver was filled, immediately before
the readmiffion of the air, confifted of one part of in-
condenfible air, and or 20 parts of watery vapour.
The only obfcure part of this account is what relates Difficulty
to the compofition of the matter which filled the pear->n account-
gage before the admiflion of the mercury. It is not eafy jn£
to fee how the vapour of the receiver comes in by a rsair-lhd'e con-
row mouth while the air is comingoutby thefame paffage. fequences.
Accordingly it requires a very long time to produce this
extreme rarefaction in the peaf-gage \ and there are
great irregularities in any two fucceeding experiments,
as may be feen by looking at Mr Nairne’s account of
them in the Philofophieal TranfaCtions, vol. Ixvii. Some
vapours appear to have mixed much more readily with
the air than others ; and there are fome unaccountable
cafes where vitriolic acid and fulphureous bodies were
included, in which the diminution of’denfity indicated
by the pear-gage was uniformly- lefs than the diminution
of elafticity indicated by the barometer-gage. It is
enough for us at prefent to have eftabliflhed, by un-
queftionable faCls, this produftion of elaftic vapour, and
the neeeflity of attending to it, both in the conftruc-
tion of the air-pump and in drawing refults from expe- . *4$
riments exhibited in it. "^*e
Mr Smeaton’s pump, when in good order, and pe> thTpump
feftly free from all moifture, will in dry weather rarefv excites two
air about 600 times, railing the barometer-gage to with-new im-
• provwncjits,
4*4
m p N £ U M
Air-pump, in y-b- of an indb of a fine barometer. This was a per-
‘““'■■v-**''' forniance fo much fuperior to that of all others, and by-
means of Mr Nairne’s experiments opened fo new a field
of obfervation, that the air-pump once more became a
capital inftrument among the experimental philofophers.
The caufes of its fuperiority were alfo fo diftinft, that
artifts were immediately excited to a farther improve¬
ment of the machine j fo that this becomes a new epoch
in its hiftory.
Improve- There is one imperfeflion which Mr Smeaton has not
meats in attempted to remote. The difcharging valve is ftill
tho pump 0penecj againft the preflure of the atmofphere* An au-
attempte tjlor 0£ t|ie gwedifli academy adds a fubfidiary pump to
this valve, which exhaufts the air from above it, and
thus puts it in the fituation of the pifton valve. We do
not find that this improvement has been adopted fo as
to become general. Indeed the quantity of air which
remains in the palfage to this valve is fo exceedingly
little, that it does not feem to merit attention. Suppo-
fing the valve hole of an inch wide and as deep (and
it need not be more), it will not occupy more than -5-^0
part of a barrel twelve inches long and two inches
wide.
150 Mr Smeaton, by his ingenious conftrudlion, has great
ly dirhinilhed, but has not annihilated, the obftrudHons
to the ^affage of the air from the receiver into the bar¬
rel. His fuccefs encouraged farther attempts. One of
the firft and mod ingenious was that of Profeffor Ruffel
of the univerfity of Edinburgh, who about the year
1770 conftrufted a pump in which both cocks and
valves were avoided.
f*y Ituflel, The pifton is folid, as reprefented in fig* 28. and its
Fig. a8. roc[ pafles through a collar of leather on the top of the
barrel. This collar is divided into three portions by
two brafs rings a, b, which leave a very fmall fpace round
the pifton rod. The upper ring a communicates by
means of a lateral perforation with the bent tube Imn,
which enters the barrel at its middle n. The lower ring
b communicates with the bent tube cd, which commu¬
nicates with the horizontal paffage d c, going to the
middle e of the pump plate. By the way, however, it
communicates alfo with a barometer gage p 0, ftanding
in a ciftern of mercury 0, and covered with a glafs tube
elofe at the top. Beyond e, on the oppofite circumfer¬
ence of the receiver plate, there is a cock or plug^com-
municating with the atmofphere.
The pifton rod is clofely embraced by the three col¬
lars of leather; but, as already faid, has a free fpace
round it in the two brafs rings. To produce thR pref-
fure of the leathers to the rod, the brafs rings which fe-
parate them are turned thinner on the inner fide, fo that
their crofs feftxon along a diameter Would be a taper
wedge. In the fide of the pifton rod are two cavities
g r, t s, about one-tenth of an inch w ide and deep, and
of a length equal to the thicknefs of the two rings «, bt
and the intermediate collar of leathers. Thefe cavities
are fo placed on the pifton-rod, that when the pifton
is applied to the bottom of the barrel, the cavity ts in
the upper end of the rod has its upper end oppofite to
the ring a, and its lower end oppofite to the ring b, or
to the mouth of the pipe cd. Therefore, if there be a
void in the barrel, the air from the receiver will come
from the pipe cd, into the cavity in the pifton rod, and
by it will get paft the collar of leather between the rings
and thus will get into the fmall inter ft ice between the
A T I C S.
rod and the upper ring, aad then into the pipe //« », and Air-pu*»»
into the. empty barrel. When the pifton is drawn up,
the folid rod immediately ftiuts up this paffage, and the
pifton drives the air through the difcharging valve k.
When it has reached the top of the barrel, and is clofely
applied to it, the cavity yr is in the fituation in which
t r formerly was, and the communication is again opened
between the receiver and the empty barrel, and the air
is again diffufed between them. Pulhing down the pi¬
fton expels the air by the lower difcharging pipe and
valve /i i; and thus the operation may be continued.
This muft be acknowledged to be a molt fimple and
ingenious conftrudlion, and can neither be called a cock
nor a valve. It feems to oppofe no obftru£tion what¬
ever : and it has the fuperior advantage of rarefying
both during the afeent and the defeent of the pifton,
doubling the expedition of the performance, and the
operator is not oppofed by the preffure of the atmo¬
fphere except towards the end of each ftroke. The ex¬
pedition, however, is not fo great as one fhould expeft j
for nothing is going on while the pilton is in motion,
and the operator muft flop a while at the end of each
ftroke, that the air may have time to come through this
long, narrow, and crooked paffage, to fill the barrel.
But the chief difficulty which occurred in the execu¬
tion arofe from the clammy oil with -which it was ne-
ceffary to impregnate the collar of leathers. Thefe were
always in a ftate of ftrong compreffion, that they might
clofely grafp the pifton rod, and prevent all paffage of
air during the motion of the pifton. Whenever there¬
fore the cavities in the pifton rod come into the fituations
neceffary for connefting the receiver and barrel, this oil
is fqueezed into them, and chokes them up. Hence it
always happened that it was fome time after the ftroke
before the air could force its way round the pifton rod,
carrying with it the clammy oil which choked up the
tube Inin; and when the rarefaflion had proceeded a
certain length, the diminiffied elafticity of the air was
not able to make its way through thefe obftruxftions.
The death of the ingenious author put a flop to the
improvements by which he hoped to remedy this deleft,
and xve have not heard that any other perfon has fince
attempted it. We have inferted it here, becaufe its
principle of eonftruftion is not only very ingenious, but
entirely different from all others, and may furnifti very
ufeful hints to thofe who are much engaged in the con-
ftruftion of pneumatic engines.
In the 73d volume otthe Philofophical Tranfaftions, Ey Haas
Mr Tiberius Cavallo has given the defeription of anant^ur*
air-pump contrived and executed by Meffrs Haas andter‘
Hurter, inftrument-makers in London, where thele ar¬
tifts have revived Guericke’s method of opening the bar¬
rel-valve during the laft ftrokes of the pump by a force
afting from without. We lb all infert fo much of this
defeription as relates to this diftinguiftiing circumftance
of its eonftruftion.
Fig. 29. reprefents a feftion of the bottom of the bar-Fig.
rel, where A A is the barrel and BB the bottom, which
has in its middle a hollow cylinder CCFF, projefting
about half an inch into the barrel at CC, and extending
a good way downwards to FF. The fpace between this
projection and the fides of the barrel is filled up by a
brafs ring DD, over the top of which is {trained a piece
of oiled filk EE, which performs the office of a valve,
covering the hole CC. But this hole is filled up by a
piece
r53
P N E U M
^ir-pump. piece of brafe, or rather an aflemblage of pieces fcrewed
a*~'i ' together GGHHII. It confifts of three projecting fil¬
lets or (boulders GG, HH, II, which form two hollows
between them, and which are filled with rings of oiled
leather OO, PP, firmly fcrewed together. The extreme
fillets GG, II, are of equal diameter with the infide of
the cylinder, fo as to fill it exactly, and the whole ftuffed
with oiled leather, Aide up and down without allow¬
ing any air to pafs. The middle fillet HH is not fo
broad, but thicker. In the upper fillet GG there is
formed a (hallow difh about of an inch deep and \
wide. This di(h is covered with a thin plate, pierced
with a grating like Mr Smeaton’s valve-plate* There
is a perforation VX along the axis of this piece, which
has a paffage out at one fide H, through the middle fil¬
let. Oppofite to this paflage, and in the fide of the cy¬
linder CCFF, is a hole M, communicating with the
conduit pipe MN, which leads to the receiver. Into the
lower end of the perforation is fcrewed the pin KL, whofe
tail L paifes through the cap FF. The tail L is connedl-
ed with a lever RQ, moveable round the joint Q. This
lever is pulhed upwards by a fpring, and thus the whole
piece which we have been deferibing is kept in contact
with the flip of oiled filk or valve EE. This is the
ufual fituation of things.
Now fuppofe a void formed in the barrel by drawing
up the pilton ; the elafticity of the air in the receiver, in
4he pipe NM, and in the palTage XV, will prefs on the
great furface of the valve expofed through the grating,
will raife it, and the pump will perform precifely as Mr
Smeaton’s does. But fuppofe the rarefadlion to have
been fo long continued, that the air is no longer able to
raife the valve ; this will be feen by the mercury rifing
no more in the pump-gage. When this is perceived, the
operator muft prefs with his foot on the end R of the le¬
ver R(^. This draws down the pin KL, and with it the
whole hollow plug with its grated top. And thus, in-
ftead of railing the valve from its plate, the plate is here
drawn down from the valve. The air now gets in with¬
out any obftrudlion whatever, and the rarefadlion pro¬
ceeds as long as the pitlon rifes. When it is at the top of
the barrel, the operator takes his foot from the lever, and
the fpring preffes up the plug again and (huts the valve.
The piflon rod paiTes through a collar of leather, as in
Mr Smeaton’s pump, and the air is finally difeharged
through an outward valve in the top of the barrel.
Thefe parts have nothing peculiar in them.
This is an ingenious contrivance, fimilar to what was
adapted by Guericke himfelf; and we have no doubt of
thefe pumps performing extremely well if carefully made:
and it feems not difficult to keep the plug perfeftly air¬
tight by fupplying plenty of oil to the leathers. We
cannot fay, however, with precifion what may be ex¬
pelled from it, as no account has been given of its ef-
fetffs befides what Mr Cavallo publifhed in Philofophical
Tranfadions 1783, where he only fays, that when it had
been long ufed, it had, in the courfe of fome experiments,
rarefied 600 times.
Aiming (lill at the removing the obftruclions to the
entry of the air from the receiver into the barrels, Mr
Prince, an American, has conftru&ed a pump in which
there is no valve or cock whatever between them. In
this pump the pillon rod pafles through a collar of lea¬
thers, and the air is finally difeharged through a valve,
as in the two laft. But we are chiefly to attend, in this
Vol. XVI. Part II.
*54
7 Prince,
A T I C S. 6*.g
place, to the communication between the barrel and the Air-pump,
receiver. The barrel widens below into a fort of ciftern
A BCD (fig. 30.), communicating with the receiver by Fig. jo,
the pipe EF. As foon, therefore, as the pilton gets into
this wider part, where there is a vacancy all round it, the
air of the receiver expands freely through the paffage
FEE into the barrel, in which the defeent of the pifton
had made a void. When the pifton is again drawn up,
as foon as it gets into the cylindrtc part of the barrel,
which it exactly fills, it carries up the air before it, and
expels it by the top valve ; and, that this may be done
more completely, this valve opens into a fecund barrel
or air-pump whofe pifton is rifing at the fame time, and
therefore the valve of communication (which is the dif-
charging valve of the primary pump) opens with the
fame facility as Mr Smeaton’s pifton valve. While the-
pifton is rifing, the air in the receiver expands into the
barrel ; and when the pifton defeends, the air in the
barrel again coltapfes till the pifton gets again into the
ciftern, when the air pafies out, and fills the evacuated
barrel, to be expelled by the pifton as before.
No diftinfl account has as yet been given of the per¬
formance of this pump. We only learfi that great in¬
conveniences were experienced from the ofcillations of
the mercury in the gage. As foon as the pifton comes
into the ciftern, the air from the receiver immediately
rtifties into the barrel, and the mercury (hoots up in
the gage, and gets into a ftate of ofcillation. The fub-
fequerit rile of the pifton will frequently keep time with
the fecond ofcillation, and increafe it. The defeent of
the pifton produces a downward ofcillation, by allow¬
ing the air below it to collapfe •, and, by improperly
timing the ftrokes, this ofcillation becomes fo great as
to make the mercury enter the pump. To prevent this,
and a greater irregularity of working as a condenfer,
valves were put in the pifton : but as thefe require force
to open them, the addition feemed rather to increafe
the evil, by rendering the ofcillations more fimultaneous
with the ordinary rate of working. If this could be got
over, the conftruflion feems very promifing.
It appears, however, of very difficult execution. It has
many long, (lender, and crooked paffages, which muft be
drilled through broad plates of brafs, fome of them ap¬
pearing fcarcely praflicable. It is rare to find plates
and other pieces of brafs without air-holes, which it
would be very difficult to find out and to clofe 5 and it
muft be very difficult to clear it of obftruflions ; fo that
it appears rather a fuggeftion of theory than a thing
warranted by its aftual performance. J£.,,
Mr Lavoifier, or fome of the naturalifts who were by LaVcr-
occupied in concert with him in the inveftigation of the fier,
different fpecies of gas which are difengaged from bo¬
dies in the courfe of chemical operations, has contrived
an air-pump which has great appearance of fimplicity,
and, being very different from all others, deferves to be
taken notice of.
It confifts of two barrels /, fig. 3 1. with folid pi- Fig. jt,
ftons hh. The pump-plate ab is pierced at its centre c
with a hole which branches towards each of the barrels,
as reprefented by c r/, c e. Between the plate and the
barrels flides another plate hi, pierced in the middle with
a branched hole f dg, and near the ends with two holes
h h, i i, which go from its under fide to the ends. The
holes in thefe two plates are fo adjuPed, that when the
plate h i b drawn fo far towards h that the hole / comes
• 4. S irithin
6c>o
P N E U M
Air-pump, ■vvithln the barrel wz, the branch df of the hole in the
—-\ middle plate coincides with the branch cd of the upper
plate, and the holes e,g are (hut. Thus a coraraunication
is eilablithed between the barrel / and the receiver on
the pump-plate, and between the barrel m and the ex¬
ternal air. In this fituation the barrel / will exhauft,
and « will difcharge. When the pifton or /is at its
mouth, and that of m touches its bottom, the Aiding
plate is drifted over to the other Ade, fo that in commu¬
nicates with the receiver through the paflage gd, ec,
and / communicates with the air by the pafiages h h.
It is evident that this Aiding plate performs the office
of four cocks in a very beautiful and Ample manner, and
that if the piftons apply clofe to the ends of the barrels,
fo as to expel the whole air, the pump will be perfect.
It works, indeed, againft the whole preffure of the ex¬
ternal air. But this may be avoided by putting valves
on the holes Z, i; and thefe can do no harm, becaufe
the air remaining in them never gets back into the bar¬
rel till the pition be at the farther end, and the ex-
hauilion of that Aroke completed. But the beft work-
men of London think that it will be incomparably more
difficult to execute this cock (for it is a cock of an un-
ufual form), in fuch a manner that it Arall be air-tight
and yet move with tolerable cafe, and that it is much
more liable to wearing loofe than common cocks. No
accurate accounts have been received of its performance.
It muft be acknowledged to be ingenious, and it may
fuggeft to an intelligent artiffi a method of combining
common conical cocks upon one axis fo as to anfwer the
fame purpofes much more effedlually ; for which reafon
jjg we have inferted it here.
and by The laft improvement which we ffiall mention is that
Cuthbert- publiffied by Mr Cuthberfon, philofophical inftrument-
^on' maker in AmAerdam, now of London. His pump has gi¬
ven fuch evidences of its perfection, that we can hardly
expeft or wiffi for any thing more complete. But we mult
be allowed to obferve, beforehand, that the fame con-
AruCtion was invented, and, in part, executed before the
end of 1779, by Dr Daniel Rutherford, now profeffor
of botany in the univerAty of Edinburgh, who was at
that time engaged in experiments on the production of
air during the combuftion of bodies in contaCt with
nitre, and who was vaftly deArous of procuring a more
complete abftraCtion of pure aerial matter than could be
effeCled by Mr Smeaton’s pump. The compiler of this
article had then an opportunity of peruAng the DoCtor’s
differtation on this fubjeCt, which was read in the Phi¬
lofophical Society of Edinburgh. In this differtation
the DoCtor appears fully apprifed of the exiltence of pure
vital air in the nitrous acid, as its chief ingredient, and
as the caufe of its moft remarkable phenomena, and to
want but a itep to the difcoveries which have ennobled
the name of Mr LavoiAer. He was particularly anxious
to obtain apart this diftinguiffiing ingredient in its com-
poAtion, and, for this purpofe, to abftraCl completely
from the veffel in which he fubjeded it to examination
every particle of elaftic matter. The writer of this ar¬
ticle propofed to him to cover the bottom of Mr Smea¬
ton’s pifton with fome clammy matter, which ffiould
A T I c s.
take hold of the bottom valve, and^for/ it when the pi- Air-pump,
lion wms drawn up. A few days after, the DoClor
ffiowed him a drawing of a pump, having a conical me¬
tal valve in the bottom, furniffied with a long flender
wire, Aiding in the inAde of the piffon-rod with a gentle
friCIion, fuAncient for lifting the valve, and fecurcd
a < min ft all chance of failure by a fpring a-top, which
took hold of a notch in the inAde of the pition-rod about
a quarter of an inch from the lower end, fo as certainly
to lift the valve during the laft quarter of an inch of the
pifton’s motion. Being an excellent mechanic, he had
executed a valve on this principle, and was fully latis-
fted with its performance. But having already conftrm-
ed his doftrines refpefling the nitrous acid by incontro¬
vertible experiments, his w idles to improve the air-pump
loft their incitement, and he thought no more of it; and
notlong after this,, the ardour of the philofophers of the
Tevlerian Society at Haerlem and Amfterdam excited the
efforts of Mr Cuthbertfon, their inftruraent-maker, to the
fame purpofe, and produced the moft perfedl air-pump that
has yet appeared. We fhall give a defeription of it, and an
account of its performance, in the inventor’s own words.
CUTHBERTSON'S Air-pump.
157
On Plate CCCCXXVII. fig. 32. is a perfpe&ive view Fig. 32.
of this pump, with its two principal gages 1 ere Wed into
their places. Thefe need not be ufed together, except
in cafes where the utmoft exaftnefs is required. In com¬
mon experiments one of them is removed, and a ftop-
ferew put in its place. When the pear-gage is ufed, a
fmall round plate, on which the receiver may Hand,
muft be firft ferewed into the hole at A y but this hole
is flopped on other occafions with a ferew. When all
the three gages are ufed, and the receiver is exhaufted,
the ftop-ferew B, at the bottom of the pump, muft be
unferewed, to admit the air into the receiver y but when
they are not all ufed, either of the other ftop-ferews will
anfwer this purpofe.
Fig. 33. reprefents a crofs-bar for preventing the bar- Fig. 33.
rels from being ffiaken by working the pump or by any
accident. Its place in fig. 32. is reprefented by the dot¬
ted lines. It is confined in its place, and kept clofe
down on the barrels, by two flips of wood NN, which
muft be drawn out, as well as the ferews OO, -when the
pump is to be taken afunder.
Plate CCCCXXVIII. exhibits a feclion of all the
working parts of the pump, except the wheel and rack,
in which there is nothing uncommon.
Fig. 34. is a fe&ion of one of the barrels, with all its
internal parts ; and figs. 35. 36. 37. and 38. are differ¬
ent parts of the pifton, proportioned to the fize of the
barrel (a) and to one another.
In fig. 34. CD reprefents the barrel, F the collar of Fig. 3^
leathers, G a hollow cylindrical veffel to contain oil, R
is alfo an oil-veffel to receive the oil which is drawn,
along with the air, through the hole a a, when the pi¬
fton is drawn upwards *, and, when this is full, the oil is
carried over wdth the air, along the tube I , into the
oil-veffel G. c c is a wire which is driven upwards from
the
(a) The pifton and barrel are 1.65 inches in diameter, in proportion to which the fcale is drawn.. Figures 35
36. 37. and 38. are, however, of double fize.
P N E U M
jr-pump. the hole a a by the. paffage of the air j and as foon as
this has efcaped, it falls down again by its own weight,
flints up the hole, and prevents all return of the air into
the barrel. Ax d d are fixed two pieces of brafs, to
keep the wire r e in a vertical direftion, that it may ac¬
curately fhut the hole. H is a cylindrical wire or rod
which carries the pifton I, and is made hollow to receive
along wire gg, which opens and fhuts the hole L ;
and on the other end of the wire O is fere wed a nut,
which, by flopping in the narrowed part of the hole,
prevents the wire from being driven up too far. This
wire and ferew are more clearly feen in fig. 35. and 39.}
they Hide in a collar of leather rr, fig. 55. and 38. in
the middle piece of the pifton. Fig. 37. and 38. are the
two mean parts which compofe the pifton, and, when
the pieces 36. and 39. are added to it, the whole is re-
prefented by fig. 35. Fig. 38. is a piece of'brafs- of a
conical form, with a fhoulder at the bottom. A long
hollow ferew is cut in it, about two-thirds of its length,
and the remainder of the hole, in which there is no
ferew, is of about the fame diameter with the ferewed
part, except a thin plate at the end, which is of a width
exa&ly equal to the thicknefs of g g. That part of the
infide of the conical brafs in which no thread is cut, is
filled with oiled leathers with holes through which ig(§'
can Aide ftiffly. There is al'foa male ferew with a hole
in it, fitted to ferving to comprefs the leathers r r.
In fig. 37. a aa « is the outfide of the pifton, the infide
of which is turned fo as exaftly to fit the outfide of
fig. 38. b b are round leathers about 60 in number,
c c is a circular piece of brafs of the fize ol the leathers,
and r/ r/ is a ferew ferving to comprefs them. I he ferew
at the end of fig. 36. is made to fit the ferew in fig. 38.
Now if fig. 39, be pufhed into fig. 38. this into fig. 37.
and fig. 36. be ferewed into the end of fig. 38. thefe will
compofe the whole of the pifton, as reprefented in
fig. 34. H in fig. 34. reprefents the fame part as H in
fig. 33. and is thjat to which the rack is fixed. If,
therefore, this be drawn upwards, it will caufe fig. 38.
to ftmt clofe into fig. 37. and drive out the air above it;
and when it is pulhed downward, it will open as far as
the fhoulder a a will permit, and fuller air to pafs
Fig. 40. through. A A, fig. 40. is the receiver plate, B B is a
long fquare piece of brafs, ferewed into the under fide
of the plate, through which a hole is drilled correfpond-
ing to that in the centre of the receiver-plates and with
three female ferews £, £, c.
The rarefa&ion of the air in the receiver is effe&ed
as follows. Suppofe the pifton at the bottom of the
barrel. The infide of the barrel, from the top of the pi-
34- fton to a, fig. 34. contains common air. When the rod is
drawn up, the upper part of the pifton flicks faft in the
barrel till the conical part conne£led with the rod fhuts
the conical hole, and its fhoulder applies clofe to its bot¬
tom. The pifton is now fhut, and therefore the whole-
is drawn up by the rack-work, driving the air before it
through the hole n c, into the oil-vefTel at R, and out
into the room by the tube T. The pifton will then be
at the top of the barrel at a, and the wire will ftand
nearly as reprefented in the figure juft raifed from the
hole L, and prevented from riling higher by the nut O.
During this motion the air will expand in the receiver,
and come along the bent tube m into the barrel. Thus
the barrel will be filled with air, which, as the pifton
rifes, will be rarefied in proportion as the capacity of
A T I C S. 69l
the receiver .pipes, and barrel, is to the barrel alone. '“P t
When the pifton is moved down again by the rack-work,
it will force the conical part fig. 38. out of the hollow
part fig. 37. as far as the ftiouiders a ay fig. 35‘* wi^
reft on a a fig. 37. which will then be fo tar open as
to permit the air to pafs freely through it, while at the
fame time the end of gg is forced againft the top of the
hole, and fhuts it in order to prevent any air from re¬
turning into the receiver. Thus the pifton, moving-
downwards, fuffers the air to pafs out between the tides
of fig. 37. and 38.; and, when it is at the bottom of the
barrel, will have the column of air above it; and, con-
fequently, when drawn upwards it will fhut, and drive
out this air, and, by opening the hole L at the fame
time, will give a free paflage to more air from the re¬
ceiver. This procefs being continued, the air of the re¬
ceiver will be rarefied r/.r far as its expanjive power will
permit. For in this machine there are no valves to be
forced open by the elaflicity of the air in the receiver,
which at lafl it is unable to effefl. I here is therefore
nothing to prevent the air from expanding to its utmoft
degree.
It may be fufpe£ted here, that as the air muft efcape
through the difeharging paffage a c, fig. 34. againtl
the preffure of a column of oil and the weight of the
wire, there will remain in this paffage a quantity of
air of confiderable denfity, which will expand again
into the barrel during the defeent of the pifton, and
thus put a flop to the progrefs of rarefaction. Fhis is
the cafe in Mr Smeaton’s pump, and all which have
valves in the pifton. But it is the peculiar excellency
of this pump, that whatever be the denfity of the air
remaining in a c, the rarefa£lion will ftill go on. It is
worth while to be perfectly convinced of this. Let us
fuppofe that the air contained in a c is -rs-Q-th part of the
common air which would fill the barrel, and that the
capacity of the barrel is equal to that of the receiver
and paffages, and that the air in the receiver and bar¬
rel is of the fame denfity, the-pifton being at the bot¬
tom of the barrel : The barrel will therefore contain
tJL5_ parts of its natural quantity, and the receiver
T» * Now let the pifton be drawn up. No air will
be difeharged at ac, beeaufe it will contain the whole
air which was in the barrel, and which has now col-
lapfed into its ordinary bulk. But this does not in the
leafl hinder the air of the receiver from expanding into
the barrel, and diffufing itfelf equally between both.
Each will now contain t^oo of their ordinary quantity
when the pifton is at the top, and ac will contain r^g-
as before, or Now pufh down the pifton. The
hole L is inftantly ftiut, and the air in a c expands in¬
to the barrel, and the barrel now contains T-sip; ^ ^en
the pifton has reached the bottom, let it be again drawn
up. There will be T^Vo difeharged through c, and
the air in the receiver will again be equally dillributed
between it and the barrel. Therefore the receiver will
now contain ——— • ^Vhen the pifton reaches the bot-
1000
12~~ •
tom, there will be  — in the barrel. When again
’ 1000
2
drawn up to the top, there will be —— — difeharged,
* A IOOO
1-
and the receiver will contain —— ; and when the piftoa
1000
4 S 2 reaches
692
Air-pump,
PNEUMATICS.
reaches the bottom, there ■will be
1000
next ftroke the receiver will contain only
1000
At the
&c.
&.C.
Xhus it appears, that notwithftanding the t^§o which
always expands back again out of the hole n c into the
barrel, the rarity of the air in the receiver will be
doubled at every ftroke. There is therefore no need
of a fublidiary air-pump at f, as in the American air-
pump, and in the Swediih attempt to improve Smea-
ton’s.
In ufing this air-pump no particular diredlions are ne-
ceffarv, nor is any peculiar care neceffary for keeping it
in order, except that the oil-veffel A be always kept
about half full of oil. When the pump has flood long
•without being ufed, it will be proper to draw a table-
fpoonful of olive-oil through it, by pouring it into the
hole in the middle of the receiver-plate when the pi-
fton is at the bottom of the barrel. Then by working
the phton, the oil will be drawn through all the parts of
the pump, and the furplus will be driven through the
tube 'I' into the oil-veffel G. Near the top of the pi-
flon-rod at H there is a hole which lets feme oil into the
infide of the rod, which gets at the collar of leathers
T r, and keeps the wire air-tight.
When the pump is ufed for condenfation at the fame
time that it rarefies, or feparately, the piece containing
the bent tube T mufl: be removed, and fig. 41. put into
Pig. 41. its place, and fixed by its ferews. Fig. 41. as drawn in
the plate, is intended for a double-barrelled pump. But
for a fingle barrel only one piece is ufed, reprefented by
baa, the double piece being cut off at the dotted line
a a. In this piece is a female ferew to receive the end
of a long brafs tube, to which a bladder (if fufficient for
the experiment of condenfation), or a glafs, properly fe-
cured for this purpofe, muff be ferewed. Then the air
which is abftrafled from the receiver on the pump-plate
will be forced into the bladder or glafs, But if the
pump be double, the apparatus fig. 41. is ufed, and the
l°ng brafs tube ferewed on at c.
Fig. 42. and 43. reprefent the two gages, which will
be fufficiently explained afterwards. Fig’. 42 is ferewed
into cb, or into the ferew at the other end of c. fig. 40.
and fig. 43. into the ferew a b fig. 40.
If it be ufed as a fingle pump, either to rarefy or con-
deofe, the ferew K, which fattens the rack to the pitton-
rod H, mutt be taken out. Then turning the winch till
H is depreffed as low as poffible, the machine will be
fitted to exhauft as a fingle pump •, and if it be required
to condtnfe, the dire&ion in N° 8. mutt be obferved
with regard to the tube T, and fig. 41.
“ I took (fays Mr Cuthbertfon) two barometer-tubes
©f an equal bore with that fixed to the pump. Thefe
were filled with mercury four times boiled. They were
then compared, and flood exa&ly at the fame height.
The mercury in one of them was boiled in it four limes
more, without making any change in their height-, they
were therefore judged very perfect. One of thefe was
immerfed in the cittern of the pump-gage, and fattened
in a pofition parallel to it, and a Aiding {bale of one inch
was attached to it. This fcale, when the gage is ufed,
snuft have its upper edge fet equal with the furface of
the mercury in the boiled tube after exhauftion, and the
4
difference between the height of the mercury in this and Air-pump
in the other barometer tube may be obferved to the y
ta_ of an inch j and being dole together, no error
arifes from their not being exaftly vertical, if they are
only parallel. This gage will be better underttoud by
infpebting fig. 43.
“ I ufed a ftcond gage, which I {hall call a double
fyphon. . See fig. 42. This was alfo prepared with the
utmoft care. I had a fcale for meafunng the difference
between the height of tbt columns in the two legs. It
was an inch long, and divided as the former, and kept
in a truly vertical pofition by fufpending it from a point
with a weight hung to it, as reprelented in the figure.
Upon comparing thefe two gages, I always found them
to indicate the lame degree of rarefa&ion. I alfo ufed
a pear-gage, though the moft imperfedl of all, in order
to repeat the curious experiments of Mr Nairne and
others.”
W hen experiments require the utmoft rarefying
power of the pump, the receiver mutt not be placed
on leather, either oiled or foaked in water, as is dually
done. The pump plate and the edge of the receiver
mutt be ground very fiat and true, and this with very
fine emery, that no roughnefs may remain. The plate
of the pump mutt then be wiped very clean and very
dry, and the receiver rubbed with a warm cloth till it
become eledfrical. The receiver being now fet on the
plate, hog’s lard, either alone or mixed u ith a little
oil, which has been cleared of water by boiling, mutt;
be fmeared round its outfide edge. In this condition
the. pump will rarefy its utmoft, and what ftill remains
in the receiver will be permanent air. Or a little of this
compofition may be thinly fmeared on the pump-platej
this will prevent all rilk of fcratching it with the edge
of the receiver. Leather of very uniform thicknefs^
long dried before a fire, and well foaked in this com¬
pofition, which mutt be cleared of all -water by the
firrt boiling, will anfwer very well, and is expeditious,
when receivers are to be frequently fliifted". Other
leathers {hould be at hand foaked in a compofition con¬
taining a little rofin. This gives it a clamminefs which
renders it impermeable to air, and is very proper at all
joints of the pump, and all apparatus for pneumatic ex¬
periments. As it is impoflible to render the pear-gage
as dry as other parts of the apparatus, there will be
generally feme variation between this and the other
gages.
When it is only intended to {how the utmoft power
of the pump, without intending to afeertain the qua¬
lity of the refiduum, the receiver may be fet on wet
leather. If, in this condition, the air be rarefied as far
as poffible, the fyphon and barometer gage will indi¬
cate a lefs degree of rarefa&ion than in the former ex¬
periments. But when the air is let in again, the pear-
gage will point out a rarefadlion fome thoufands of
times greater than it did before. If the true quality
of permanent air after exhauftion be required, the pear-
gage will be neareft the truth : for when the air is
rarefied to a certain degree, the moiftened leather emits
an expanfible fluid, which, filling the receiver, forces
out the permanent air j and the two firft gages indicate
a degree of exhauftion which relates to the whole ela—
flic matter remaining in the receiver, viz. to the ex¬
panfible fluid together with the permanent air ; whereas
the pear-gage points out the degree of exhauftion, with
relation.
PNEUMATICS.
jf-pump. relation to the permanent air alone, which remains in
“"v—the receiver j for by the preflure of the air admitted in¬
to the receiver, the elaftic vapour is reduced to its for¬
mer bulk, which is imperceptible.
Many bodies emit this elaftic fluid when the preffure
of the air is much diminithed ; a piece of leather, in its
ordinary damp ftate, about an inch fquare, or a bit of
green or dry wood, will fupply this for a great while.
When fuch fluids have been generated in any expe¬
riments, the pump muft be carefully cleared of them,
for they remain not only in the receiver, but in the
barrels and paflages, and will again expand when the
exhaultion has been carried far.
The beft method of clearing the pump is to take a
verv large receiver, and, ufing every precaution to ex-
hauft it as far as poflible. Then the expanfible matter
lurking in the barrels and palTes avill be diffufed through
the receiver alio, or will be carried oft' along with its
air. It will be as much rarer than it was before, as the
aggregate capacity of the receiver barrels and paffes is
larger than that of the two laft.
The performance of the pump may be judged of from
the four following experiments.
The two gages being fere wed into their places, and
the hole in the receiver-plate (hut up, the pump was
made to exhauft as far as it could. The mercury in
the legs of the fyphon was only ^ of an inch out of
the level, and that in the boiled barometer-tube ^ of
an inch higher than in the one ferewed to the pump.
A ftandard barometer then flood at 30 inches, and
therefore the pump rarefied the permanent air 1200
times. This is twice as much as Mr Nairne found
Mr Smeaton’s do in its beft ftate. Mr Cavallo feems
difpofed to give a favourable (while we muft fuppofe
it a juft) account of Haas and Hunter’s pump, and
it appears never to have exceeded 600 times. Mr
Cuthbertfon has often found the mercury within
of an inch of the level in the fyphon-gage, indicating a
rarefaftion of 3000.
To the end of a glafs tube, 2 inches diameter and
30 inches long, was fitted a brals cap and collar of
leather, through which a wire was inferted, reaching
about two inches within the tube. This was connected
with the conductor of an electric machine. The other
end was ground flat and fet on the pump plate. When
the gages indicated a rarefadftion of 3000, the light be¬
came fteady and uniform, of a pale colour, though a
little tinged Avith purple •, at 600 the light was of a
pale dufky white; when 1200 it difappeared in the
middle of the tube, and the tube conduced fo well
that the prime conductor only gave fparks fo faint and
fhort as to be fcarcely perceptible. After taking off
the tube, and making it as dry as poflible, it was again
connected with the conductor, which was,giving fparks
two inches long. When the air in it was rarefied ten
times, the fparks were of the fame length. Sometimes
a pencil of light darted along the tube. When the
rarefaction was 20, the fpark did not exceed an inch,
and light dreamed the whole length of the tube. When
the rarefaCtion was 30, the fparks were half an inch,
and the light rufhed along the tube in great itreams.
When the rarefaCtion was 100, the fparks Avere about 4-
long, and the light filled the tube in an uninterrupted
body. When 300, the appearances were as before.
When 600, the Iparks were xs> and the light tvas of
a faint white colour in the middle, but tinged Avith Air-pump,
purple towards the ends. When 1200, the light was '“■“"V ‘
hardly perceptible in the middle, and vvas much fainter
at the ends than before, but llill ruddy. When 1400,
Avhich Avas the moft the pump could produce, fix inches
of the middle of the tube Avere quite dark, and the
ends free of any tinge of red, and the fparks did not
exceed of an inch.
*58'
We truft that our readers Avill not be difpleafed with Hie belt
the preceding hiftory of the air-pump. The occafionalmiProv^
information which it gives Avill be of great ufe to every Tr_
perfon much engaged in pneumatic experiments, and pUmp have
help him in the contrivance and conftruCtion of the ne-been made
cefiary apparatus. ,n Bntauv
We may be indulged in one remark, that although
this noble inftrument originated in Germany, all its im¬
provements were made in this kingdom. Both the me¬
chanical and pneumatical principles of Mr Boyle’s con-
flruCf ion were extremely different from the German, and,
in refpeCI of expedition and conveniency, much fuperior.
The double barrel and gage by HaAvkeibee were capital
improvements, and on principle ; and Mr Smeaton’s
method of making the pifton work in rarefied air made
a complete change in the whole procefs. xgp
Aided by this machine, avc can make experiments Utility of
eftablifhing and illuftrating the gravity and elafticity oftlie a’r*
the air, in a much more perfpicuous manner than could
be done by the fpontaneous phenomena of nature. jgo
It alloAvs us in the firfl place to ftiow the materiality Experi-
of air in a very diftincl manner. Bodies cannot move jjientsJ?
about in the atmofphere without difplacing it. This^-j- 1
requires force ; and the refiftance of the air always di-
minifhes the A'elocity of bodies moving in it. A heavy
body therefore has the velocity of its fall diminifhed ;
and if the quantity of air difplaced be very great, the
diminution will be very confiderable. This is the rea-
fon AA'hy light bodies, fuch as feathers, fall very flowly.
Their moving force is very fmall, and can therefore
difplace a great quantity of air only with a very fmall
velocity. But if the fame body be dropped in vacuo,
when there is no air to be difplaced, it falls Avith the p]ate
Avhole velocity competent to its gravity. Fig. 44.,cccccxxix.
reprefents an apparatus by Avbich a guinea and a downy fig. 44.
feather are dropped at the fame inftant, by opening
the forceps Avbich holds them by means of the llip-
Avire in the top of the receiver. If this be done after
the air has been pumped out, the guinea and the fea¬
ther Avill be obferved to reach the bottom at the fame
inffant. 1$l
Fig. 45. reprefents another apparatus for ftiowirig the Fig. 45. .
fame thing. It confifts of two fets of brafs vanes put
in feparate axles, in the manner of windmill fails. One
fet has their edges placed in the direction of their
Avhirling motion, that is, in a plane to Avbich the axis
is perpendicular. The planes of the other fet pafs
through the axis, and they are therefore trimmed fo as
direftlv to front the air through which they move.
Tavo fprings aft upon pins projefting from the axis ;
and their ftrength or tenfions are foadjuited, that when
they are difengaged m vacuo, the two fets continue in
motion equally long. If they are difengaged in the
air, the vanes which beat the air Avith their planes Avill
flop long before thofe which cut it edgeAvife.
We can now abftraft the air molt completely from
a .
162
P N E U M
Air-pump, a dry velTel, fo ets to know the precife weight of the
air which filled it. The firft experiment we have of
this kind, done with accuracy, is that of Dr Hooke,
February 10. 1664, when he found 1-14 pints of air to
weigh 94 s grains. One pint of water was. 8TV ounces.
This gives for the fpecific gravity of air very
161, nearly. . . . .
The eftedt since we are thus immerfed in a gravitating fluid, it
of air on f0ii0WSj that every body preponderates only with the
of bolhef1 excefs of its own weight above that of the air which it
immerfed difplaces; for every body lofes by this immerfion the
in it. weight of the difplaced air. A cubic foot lofes about
521 grains in frofty weather. ^Ve fee balloons even
rife in the air, as a piece of cork rifes in water. A
mafs of water which really contains 850 pounds will
load-the fcale of a balance with 849 only, and will be
balanced by about 849^ pounds of brafs. This is e-
vinced by "a very pretty experiment, repr dented in
Fig. 46. fio-. 46. A fro all beam is fufpended within a receiver.
To one end of the beam is appended a thin glais or
copper ball, clofe in every part. This is balanced by
a fmall piece of lead hung on the other arm. As the
air is pumped out of the receiver, the ball will gradu¬
ally preponderate, and will regain its equilibrium when
the air is re-admitted.
164 Some naturalifts have propofed, and actually ufed, a
large globe of light make, fufpended at a beam, for a
barometer. If its capacity be a cubic foot, lT~- grains
will indicate the fame change that is indicated by ^
of an inch of tm ordinary barometer. But a veffel of
this lize will load a balance too much to leave it futh-
ciently fenfible to fmall changes of denfity. Befides,
it is affeded by heat and cold, and would require a
very troublefome equation to corredt their effects.
165 It may perhaps be worth while to attend to this in
buying and felling precious commodities j fuch as pearls,
diamonds, filk, and fume drugs. As they are generally
fold by brafs or leaden weights, the buyer will have
fome advantage when the air is heavy and the barome¬
ter high. On the other hand, he will have the advan¬
tage in buying gold and mercury when the air is light.
It is needlefs to confine this obfervation to precious
commodities, for the advantage is the fame in all in
' proportion to their levity.
166 There is a cafe in which this obfervation is of confe-
quence to the philofopher: we mean the meafuring of
time by pendulums. As the accelerating force on a
pendulum is not its whole weight, but the excefs of its
weight over that of the difplaced air, it follows that a
pendulum will vibrate more flowly in the air than in
vacuo. A. pendulum compofed of lead, iron, and brafs,
may be about 8400 times heavier than the air which
it difplaces when the barometer is at 30 inches and
the thermometer at 3 20, and the accelerating force will
be diminithed about This will caufe a fecond
pendulum to make about five vibrations lefs in a day
than it would do in vacuo. In order therefore to de¬
duce the accelerative power of gravity from the length
of a pendulum vibrating in the air, we muft make an
allowance of c/'.iy, or ToV °f a fecond, per day for
every inch that the barometer fiends lower than 30
inches. But we muft alfo note the temperature of the
air •, beeaufe when the air is warm it is lefs denfe when
Supporting by its elafticity the fame weight of atmo-
A T I C S,
fphere, and we muft know how much its denfity is di- Air-pump,
minilhed by an increafe of temperature. The eorredfion
is ftili more complicated ; for the change of denfity af¬
fects the refiftanee of the air, and this affects the time
of the vibration, and this by a law that is not yet well
afeertained. As far as we can determine from any ex¬
periments that have been made, it appears that the
change arifing from the altered refiftance takes oft" about
j. of the change produced by the altered denfity, and
that a fecond pendulum makes but three vibrations a-,
day more in vacuo than in the open air. This is a very
unexpected refult; but it muft be owned that the expe¬
riments have neither been numerous nor very nicely
made.
The air-pump alfo allows us to ihow the effeCts of the
air’s preffure in a great number of amufing and inftruc-
tive phenomena. .
When the air is abftraCted from the receiver, it i^£Xper;,
ftrongly preffed to the pump-plate by the incumbent ments to
atmofphere, and it fupports this great preffure in eon- the
fequence of its circular form. Being equally compreffed.^®^,^
on all fides, there is no place where it ftiould give waypreffure>
rather than another -7 but if it be thin, and not very
round, which is ibmetimes the cafe, it will be cruthed
to pieces. If we take a fquare thin phial, and apply
an exhaufling fyringe to its mouth, it will not fail be¬
ing cruibed.
As the operation of pumping is fomething like luck¬
ing, many of tbefe phenomena are in common difeourfe
aferibed to fuftion, a word much abufed ; and this
abufe mifleads the mind exceedingly in its contemplation
of natural phenomena. Nothing is more ufual than to
fpeak of the fueffion of a fyringe, the fuCtion and draught
of a chimney, &c. The following experiment puts the
true caufe of the ftiong adhelion of the receiver beyond
a doubt.
Place a fmall receiver or cupping-glafs on the pump-
plate without covering the central hole, as reprefented
in fig. 47. and cover it with a larger receiver. Exhauft Fig. 47.
the air from it \ then admit it as fuddenly as poflible.
The outer receiver, which after the varefaClion adhered
ftrongly to the plate, is now loofe, and the cupping-
glafs will be found {ticking faft to it. While the rare-
fa£tion was going on, the air in the fmall receiver alio
expanded, efcaped from it, and was abftrafted by the
pump. When the external air was fuddenly admitted,
it preffed on the fraall receiver, and forced it down to
the plate, and thus ftiut up all entry. The Imall re¬
ceiver muft now adhere j and there can be no fuftion,
for the pipe of the pump was on the outfide of the cup¬
ping-glafs.
This experiment fometimes does not fucceed, becaufe
the air fometimes finds a paffage under the brim of the
cupping-glafs. But if the cupping-glafs be preffed
down by the hand on the greafy leather or plate, every
thing will be made fmooth, and the glafs will be fo little
raifed by the expanfion of its air during the pumping,
that it will inftantly clap clofe when the air is re-admited.
In like manner, if a thin fquare phial be furnilhed with i£3
a valve, opening from within, but (hutting when preffed
from without, and if this phial be put under a receiver,
and the air be abftrafted from the receiver, the air in
the phial will expand during the rarefaction, will efcape
through the valve, and be at laft in a very rarefied ftate
within
♦
5
;.4S.
l(>9
k- 45*
ig- 5o-
P N E U M
^r-pump. within the phial. If the air be now admitted into the
-—\r“—receiver, it will prefs on the flat fides of the included
phial and crufh it to pieces. See fig. 48.
If a piece of wet ox-bladder be laid over the top of
a receiver whofe orifice is about four inches wide, and
the air be exhaufted from within it, the incumbent at-
mofphere will prefs down the bladder into a hollow
form, and then burft it inward with a prodigious noife..
See fig. 49. Or if a piece of thin flat glafs be laid over
the receiver, with an oiled leather between them to make
the jundture air-tight, the glafs will be broken down¬
wards. This muft be done with caution, becaufe the
pieces of glafs fometimes fly about with great force.
If there be formed two hemifpherical cups of brafs,
with very flat thick brims, and one of them be fitted
with a neck and ftopcock, as reprefented by fig. 50. the
air may be abflracled from them by fcrewing the neck
into the hole in the pump-plate. To prevent the infinu-
ation of air, a ring of oiled leather may be put between
the rims. Now unfcrew the fphere from the pump, and
fix hooks to each, and fufpend them from a ftrong nail,
and hang a fcale to the loweft. It will require a confi-
derable weight to feparate them’, namely, about 15
pounds for every fquare inch of the great circle of'the
fphere. If this be four inches diameter, it will require
near 190 pounds. This pretty experiment was firft made
by Otto Guericke, and on a very great fcale. His fphere
was of a large fize, and when exhaufted the hemifpheres
could not be drawn afunder by 20 horfes. It w7as exhi¬
bited, along with many others equally curious and mag¬
nificent, to the emperor of Germany and his court, at
the breaking up of the diet of Ratifbon in x 654.
If the loaded fyringe mentioned in N° x 6. be iufpend-
ed by its pifton from the hook in the top plate of the re¬
ceiver, as in fig. 51. and the air be abftrafted by the
pump, the fyringe will gradually defcend (becaufe the
elafticity of the air, which formerly balanced the prel-
fure of the atmofphere, is now diminiftied by its expan-
fibn, and is therefore no longer able to prefs the fyringe
to the pifton), and it will at laft drop off. If the air be
admitted before this happens, the fyringe will immedi¬
ately rife again.
Screw a fhort brafs pipe into the neck of a tranfpor-
ter, N° 107. on which is fet a tall receiver, and immerfe
it into a ciftern of water. On opening the cock the pref-
fure of the air on the furface of the water in the ciftern
will force it up through the pipe, and caufe it to fpout
into the receiver with a ftrong jet, becaufe there is no
air within to balance by its elafticity the preflure of the
atmofphere. See fig. 52.
It is in the fame way that the gage of the air-pump
performs its office. The preffure of the atmofphere raifes
ireffure the mercury in the gage till the weight of the mercu-
tir-purn*11 r^’ together with the remaining elafticity of the air in
the receiver, are in equilibrio with the whole preflure of
the atmofphere : therefore the height and weight of the
mercury in the gage is the excefs of the weight of the
atmofphere above the elafticity of the included air ; and
the deficiency of this height from that of the mercury in
the Toricellian tube is the meafure of this remaining ela¬
fticity.
If a Toricellian tube be put under a tall receiver, as
ftiown in fig. 53. and the air be exhaufted, the mercury
in the tube will defcend while that in the gage will rife ;
and the fum of their heights will always be the fame,
171
:S- Sl-
472
,Jg- 52-
i73
3y means
>1 this
idts.
P7 174
Fi£- S3-
A T I C ff. <595
that is, equal to the height in an ordinary barometer. Air-pump.
The height of the mercury in the receiver is the effeit v
and meafure of the remaining elafticity of the included
air, and the height in the pump-gage is the unbalanced
preffure of the atmofphere. This is a very inftructive
experiment, perfectly fimilar to Mr Auzout’s, mention¬
ed in N° 34. and completely eftablifties and illuftrates
the whole doflrine of atmofpheric preflure. 175
We get a fimilar illuftration and confirmation (if fuch Water riles
a thing be now needed) of the caufe of the rife of waterin PumPs>
in pumps, by ferewing a fyringe into the top plate of a
receiver, which fyringe has a Ihort glafs pipe plunging
into a fmall cup of water. See fig. 54. When the pif-Fig. 54.
ton-rod is drawn up, the wafer rifes in the glafs-pipe, as
in any other pump, of which this is a miniature repre-
fentation. But if the air has been previoufly exhaufted
from the receiver, there is nothing to prefs on the wa¬
ter in the little jar •, and it will not rife in the glafs
pipe though the pifton of the fyringe be drawn to the-
top. ... t76
Analogous to the rife of water in pumps is its rife and and moves?
motion in fyphons. Suppofe a pipe ABCD, fig. 33. n# fyphons*
bent at right angles at B and C, and having its two ends Flg‘
immerfed in the citterns of water A and D. Let the
leg CD be longer than the leg BA, and let the whole
be full of water. The water is prefled upwards at A
with a force equal to the weight of the column of air E
A reaching to the top of the atmofphere ; but it is prel-
fed downwards by the weight of the column of water B
A. The water at E is prefled downwards by the weight
of the column CD, and upwards by the weight of the
column of air FD reaching to the top of the atmofphere.
The two columns of air differ very little in their weight,
and may without any fenfible error be confidered as
equal. Therefore there is a fuperiority of preffure down-
xvards at D, aud the water will flow out there. The
preffure of the air will raife the water in the leg AB,
and thus the ftream will be kept up till the veffel A is
emptied as low as the orifice of the leg BA, provided
the height of AB is not greater than what the preffure
of the atmofphere can balance, that is, does not exceed
32 or 33 feet for water, 30 inches for mercury, &c.
A fyphon then will always run from that veffel whofe -
furface is higheft •, the form of the pipe is indifferent,
becaufe the hydroftatical preffures depend on the verti¬
cal height only. It muft be filled with water by fome
other contrivance, fuch as a funnel, or a pump appli¬
ed a-top •, and the funnel muft be Hopped up, otherwife
the air would get in, and the water would fall in both
legs- . 177
If the fyphon have equal legs, as in fig. 36. and be Fig. 56.
turned up at the ends, it will remain full of water, and
be ready for ufe. It need only be dipped into any vef¬
fel of water, and the water will then flow out at tire other
end of the fyphon. This is called the IVirtemberg fy¬
phon, and is reprefented in fig. 36. Syphons will after¬
wards be confidered more minutely under the title of
PNEUMATICAL Engines, at the end of this article. ^3
What is called the fyphoti fountain, con ft r Lifted on this The fyphon
principle, is ftiown in fig. 37. where AB is a tall recei-fout1ta‘n-
ver, Handing in a wide bafon DE, which is fupported4^ 57*
on the pedeftal H by the hollow pillar EG. In the cen¬
tre of the receiver is a jet pipe C, and in the top a ground
ftopper A.. Near the bafe of the pillar is a cock N, and
in the pedeftal is another eock 0»
Fill
496
Experi-
Suents on
Air, &_c.
179
Manner of
its conftruc-
tion and
ojx;ration.
Fig- 5S.
Fig- 57-
t8o
Syphons are
often ufed
thus.
Fig. 59
181
The' air-
pump dif-
<10vers the
combina-
tton of air
■with water,
P N E U M
Fill tlie bafon DE with water within half an inch of
the brim. Then pour in water at the top of the recei¬
ver (the cock N being (hut) till it is about half full, and
then put in the ftopper. A little water will run out into
the veil'd DE. But before it runs over, open the cock
N, and the water will nln into the cifiern H } and by
the time that the pipe C appears above water, a jet will
rife from it, and continue as long as water is fupplied
from the bafon DE. The paflage into the bafe ciitern
may be fo tempered by the cock N that the water wuth-
in the receiver (hall keep at the fame height, and what
runs into the bafe may be received from the cock O in¬
to another veffel, and returned into DE, to keep up the
fiream.
This pretty philofophical toy may be conftru&ed in
the following manner. BB, fig. 58. is the fenil or cap
into which the receiver is cemented. From its centre
defcends the jet pipe C«, Hoping outwards, to give room
for the difcharging pipe b d of larger diameter, whofe
lower extremity d fits tightly into the top of the hollow
pillar FG.
The operation of the toy is eafily tmderllood. Sup-
pofe the difiance from C to H (fig. 57.) three feet, which
is about Tt the height at which the atmofphere would
fupport a column of w7ater. The water poured into AB
would defcend through FG (the hole A being (hut) till
the air has expanded -5%, and then it would flop. If the
pipe C o be now7 opened, the preffure of the air on the
furface of the water in the ciftern DE will caufe it to
i'pout through C to the height of three feet nearly, and
the water will continue to defcend through the pipe
FG. By tempering the cock N fo as to allow the water
to pafs through it as faft as it is fupplied by the jet, the
amufement may be continued a long time. It will flop
at lafi, however ; becaufe, as the jet is made into rare¬
fied air, a little air will be extricated from the w7ater,
which will gradually accumulate in the receiver^ and
diminifh its rarefadlion, which is the moving caufe of the
jet. This indeed is an inconvenience felt in every em¬
ployment of fyphons, fo much the more remarkably as
their top is higher than the furface of the water in the
cittern of fupply.
Cafes of this employment of a fyphon are not unfre*
quent. When water collected at A (fig. 59.) is to be
conduced in a pipe to C, fituated in a lower part of the
country, it fometimes happens, as between Lochend and
Leith, that the intervening ground is higher than the
fountain-head as at B. A forcing pump is created at A,
and the water forced along the pipe. Once it runs out
at C, the pump mav be removed, and the water will
continue to run on the fyphon principle, provided ED
do not exceed 33 feet. But the water in that part of
the conduit which is above the horizontal plane AD, is
in the fame fiate as in a receiver of rarefied air, and gives
out fome of the air which is chemically united with it.
This gradually accumulates in the elevated part of the
conduit, and at lafi choke;s it entirely. When this hap¬
pens, the f rcing nump muft again be worked. Although
the elevation in the Leith conduit is only about eight or
ten feet, it will feldom run for 12 hours. N.B. This air
cannot be difcharged by the ufual air-cocks ; for if there
were an opening at B, the air would rufii in, and imme¬
diately flop the motion.
This combination of air with water is very diftinfl-
ly fecn by means of the air-pump. If a fmall glafs c®n-
A T I C S.
Mate
cccgxxx,
%• 60,
tainiug cold water, freili drawn from the fprxng, be ex- Eiaftlcit-
pofed, as in fig. 6. under the receiver, and the air rare- &-c-
tied, fmall bubbles will be obferved to form on the inner
furface of the glafs, or on the furface of any bodv im-
merfed in it, which will increaie in lize, and then detach
themfelves from the glafs and reach the top , as the ra¬
refaction advances, the whole water begins to (how very
minute air-bubbles rifing to the top; and this appearance
will continue for a very long time, till it be completely
difengaged. Warming the water will oceafion a ftill
farther leparation of air, and a boiling heat will feparate
all that can be difengaged. The reai'on afiigned for
thefe air-bubbles firrt appearing on the furface of the
glafs, &c. is, that air is attracted by bodies, and adheres
to their furfaee. This may be fo. But it is more pro¬
bably owing to the attraction of the water for the glafs,
which cauies it to quit the air which it held in folution,
in the fame manner as we fee it happen when it is mix¬
ed with fpirits-of-wine, with vitriolic acid, &c. or when
falts or fugar are diffolved in it. For if we pour out
the water which has been purged of air by boiling in
vacuo, and fill the glals with fre(h water, tve fliall ob-
ferve the fame thing, although a film of the purified
water was left adhering to the glafs. In this cafe there
can be no air adhering to the glals.
Water thus purged of air by boiling (or even with¬
out boiling) in vacuo, will again abforb air when expo-
fed to the atmofphere. The beft demonftration of this
is to fill with this water a phial, leaving about the fize
of a pea not filled. Immerfe this in a veffel of water,
with the mouth undermofi, by which means the air-
bubble will mount up to the bottom of the phial. Af¬
ter fome days (landing in this condition, the air-bubble
will be completely abforbed, and the vefiel quite filled
with water.
The air in this date of chemical folution has loft its
elafticity, for the water is not more compreflibie than
common water. It is alfo found that water brought up
from a great depth under ground contains much more
air than water at the furface. Indeed fountain waters
differ exceedingly in this refpeCI. The water which now
comes into the city of Edinburgh by pipes contains fo
much as to throw it into a confiderable ebullition in va~
Other liquors contain much greater quantities of
elaftic fluids in this loofely combined fiate. A glafs of
beer treated in the fame way will be almoft wholly con¬
verted into froth by the efcape of its fixed air, and will
have loft entirely the prickling fmartnefs which is fo
agreeable, and become quite vapid.
The air-pump gives us, in the next place, a great va-and illu-
riety of experiments illuftrative of the air’s elafticity andftr^te't^
expanfibility. The very operation of exhauftion, as it*111 se"
185
. . r • 'ticity and
is called, is an inftance of its great, and hitherto un-eXpantibi-
limited, expanfihility. But this is not palpably exhibited lit*7,
to view. The following experiments (how it moft di-
ftindlly. 184
ift, Put a flaccid bladder, of which the neck isExperi-
firmly tied with a thread, under a receiver, and worka,ent?
the pump. The bladder will gradually fwell, and will
even be fully diftended. Upon readmitting the a!rpertie;,
into the receiver, the bladder gradually collapfes again
into its former dimenfions: while the bladder is flaccid,
the air within it is of the fame denfity and elafticity
with the furrounding air, and its elafticity balances
the preffure of the atmofphere. When part of the air
of
P N E U M A T IX S.
Espefi- of tlie receiver is abftracled, tlie remainder expands fo
ments on as to fill the reciver : but by expanding, its elalli-
Air’ , city is plainly diminilhed •, for we fee by the fadf, that
'u"' * the eladicity of the air of the receiver no longer balan¬
ces the elatficity of that in the bladder, as it no longer
keeps it in its dimenlions. The air in the bladder ex¬
pands alfo : it expands till its diminifhed elaftieity is
again in equilibrio with the diminillied elailicity of the
air in the receiver ; that is, till its denlity is the fame.
• When all the wrinkles of the bladder have difappeared,
its air can expand no more, although we continue to di-
rmniih the elatlicity of the air of the receiver by further
rarefa&ion. The bladder now tends to burft ; and if it
be pierced by a point or knife fattened to the flip-wire,
the air will rufh out, and the mercury defcend rapidly
in the gage.
155 If a phial or tube be partly filled with water, and im-
merfed in a veflel of water with the mouth downwards,
the air will occupy the upper part of the phial. If this
apparatus be put under a receiver, and the air be ab-
ftradted, the air in the phial will gradually expand, al¬
lowing the water to run out by its weight till the fur-
face of the water be on a level within and without.
When this is the cafe, we muft grant that the denflty
and elafticity of the air in the phial is the fame with that
in the receiver. When we work the pump again, we
lhall obferve the air in the phial expand Hill more, and
come out of the water in bubbles. Continuing the ope¬
ration, we (hall fee the air continually efcaping from the
phial : when this is over, it (hows that the pump can ra¬
refy no more. If we now admit the air into the receiver,
we (hall fee the water rife into the. phial, and at lad al-
moft completely fill it, leaving only a very fmall bubble
©f air at top. This bubble had expanded fo as to fill the
'• whole phial. See this reprefented in fig. 61.
156 Every one mud have obferved a cavity at the big end
of an egg between the (hell and the white. The white
and volk are contained in a thin membrane or bladder
which adheres loofely to the (hell, but is detached from
it at that part j and this cavity increafes by keeping the
egg in a dry place. One may form a judgment of its
dze, and therefore of the fredinefs of the egg, by touch¬
ing it with the tongue j for the diell, where it is not in
contaft with the contents, will prefently feel warm, be
ing quickly heated by the tongue, while the red of the
egg will feel cold.
If a hole be made in the oppofite end of the egg, and
it be fet on a little tripod, and put under a receiver, the
expanfion of the air in the cavdy of the egg will force
the contents through the hole till the egg be quite emp
tied : or, if nearly one half of the egg be taken away at
the other end, and the white and yolk taken out, and
the (hell be put under a receiver, and the air abdrafled,
the air in the cavity of the egg will expand, gradually
detaching the membrane from the (hell, till it caufes it
to fwell out, and gives the whole the appearance of an
entire egg. In like manner dirivelled apples and other
fruits will fwell in vacuo by the expanfion of the air
confined in their cavities.
If a piece of wood, a twig with green leaves, charcoal,
plader of Paris, &c. be kept under water in vacuo, a
prodigious quantity of air will be extrafted ; and if we
readmit the air into the receiver, it will force the water
into the pores of the body. In this cafe the body will
Jiot fwim in water as it did before, (bowing that the
Vol. XVI. Part II.
697
vegetable fibres are fpeclfically Iieavier than water. It
is found, however, that the air contained in the pith and ,1111
bark, fuch as cork, is not all extricated in this way ; and
that much of it is contained in veficles which have no
outlet: being fecreted into them in the procefs of vegeta¬
tion, as it is lecreted into the air-bladder of filhes, where
it is generally found in a pretty comprefled (late, confi-
derably denfer than the furrounding air. The air-bladder
of a fi(h is furrounded by circular and longitudinal mu(-
cles, by which the fi(h can comprefs the air (till further ;
and, by ceafing to aft with them, allow it to fwell out
again. It is in this manner that the fi(h can fuit its
fpecific gravity to its (ituation in the water, fo as to
have no tendency either to rile or fink : but if the fifli
be put into the receiver of an air-pump, the rarefaftion
of the air obliges the fifli to aft more (Irongly with
thefe contrafting mufcles, in order to adjult its fpecific
gravity ; and if too much air has been abftrafted from
the receiver, the fifli is no longer able to keep its air-
bladder in the proper degree of compreflion. It becomes
therefore too buoyant, and comes to the top of the wa¬
ter, and is obliged to druggie with its tail and fins in
order to get down ; frequently in vain. The air-bladder
fometimes burfls, and the fi(h goes to the bottom, and
can no longer keep above without the continual aftion
of its tail and fins. When fiilies die, they commonly
float at top, their contraftive aftion being now at an end.
All this may be illuflrated (but very imperfeftly) by a
fmall half blown bladder, to which is appended a bit
of lead, jufl fo heavy as to make it fink in water : when
this is put under a receiver, and the air abflrafted, the
bubble will rife to the top ; and, by nicely adjuflingthe
rarefaftion, it may be kept at any height. Ste fig. 62. Fig. 62.
The playthings called Cartejian devils are fio ilar to lti8
this : they are hollow glafs figures, having a fmall aper¬
ture in the lower part of the figures, as at. the point of
the foot •, their weight is adjuded fo that they fwim up¬
right in water. When put into a tall jar filled to the
top, and having a piece of leather tied over it, they will
(ink in the water, by prefling on the leather with the
ball of the hand ; this, by comprefling the water, forces
fome of it to enter into the figure and makes it hea¬
vier than the water 5 for which reafon it finks, but rifes
again on removing the prtfiure of the hand. See figs.
63, and 64. Figs 63.
If a half blown ox-bladder be put into a box, and ami 64-
great weights laid on it, and the whole be put under a
receiver, and tht air abftrafted ; the air will, by ex¬
panding, lift up the weights, though above an hundred
pounds. See fig. 65. _ _ Fig. 6c..
By fuch experiments the great expanfibility of the ^xSp
air is abundantly illuftrated, as its compre'flibillty was 1 ompreffi-
formerly by means of the condenfing fyringe. "We biFty and
now fee that the two fets of experiments form an unin- ilty A
terrupted chain } and that there is no particular (fate ofno ftat< of
the air’s denfity where the c< mprt flibility and eXpanfibi- the air very
lity are remarkably diflimilar. Air in its ordinary (fate
expands ; becaufe its ordinary date is a (late of com¬
preflion bv the weight of the atmofphere : and if there
were a pit about 33 miles deep, the air at the bottom
would probably be as denfe as water ; and if it were 50
miles deep, it would be as denfe as gold, if it did not
become a liquid before this depth : nay. if a bottle with
its mouth undermoft were immerfed fix miles undei-
water, it would probably be as denfe as water j %ve fay
4 X probably.
698
Experi¬
ments
en Air.
190
.Relation
between
eompref-
^fion and
the forca
producing
it
191
Denfity ex¬
plained as
applied to
air.
PNEUMATICS.
probably, for this depends on the nature of its corapref-
fibility j that is, on the relation which fubfifts between
the compreflion and the force which produces it.
This is the circumftance of its conftitution, which we
now proceed to examine ; and it is evidently a very im¬
portant circumftance. We have long ago obferved,
that the great comprefftbility and permanent fluidity of
air, obferved in a vaft variety of phenomena, is totally
inexplicable, on the fuppolition that the particles of air
are like ib many balls of fponge or fo many foot-balls.
Give to thofe what compreflibility you pleafe, common
air could no more be fluid than a mafs of clay ; it could
no more be fluid than a mafs of fuch balls prefled into a
box. It can be demonftrated (and indeed hardly needs
a demonflration), that before a parcel of fuch balls, juft
touching each other, can be fqueezed into half their
prefent dimenfions, their globular lhape will be entirely
gone, and each will have become a perfect cube, touch¬
ing fix other cubes with its whole furface 5 and thefe
cubes will be ftrongly comprt fled together, fo that mo¬
tion could never be performed through among them by
any folid body without a very great force. Whereas
we know that in this ftate air is juft as permeable to
every body as the common air that we breathe. There
Is no way in which we can reprefent this fluidity to our
imagination, but by conceiving air to confift of particles,
not only difcrete, but diftant from each other, and aftu-
ated by repulfive forces, or fometlring analogous to them,
it is an idle fubterfuge, to which fome naturaliits have
recourfe, faying, that they are kept afunder by an in¬
tervening ether, or elaftic fluid of any other name.
This is only removing the difficulty a ftep farther off:
for the elafticity of this fluid requires the fame explana¬
tion ; and therefore it is neceffary, in obedience to the
rules of juft reafoning, to begin the inquiry here j that
is, to determine from the phenomena what is the analo¬
gy between the diftances of the particles and the repul¬
five forces exerted at thefe diftances, proceeding in the
fame way as in the examination of planetary gravitation.
We {hall learn the analogy by attending to the analogy
between the comprefting force and the denfity.
For the denfity depends on the diftance between the
particles 5 the nearer they are to each other, the denfer
is the air. Suppofe a fquare pipe one inch wide and
eight inches long, flint at one end, and filled with com¬
mon air j then fuppofe a plug fo nicely fitted to this
pipe that no air can pafs by its fides j fuppofe this pi-
ffon thruft down to within an inch of the bottom : it is
evident that the air which formerly filled the whole pipe
now occupies the fpace of one cubic inch, which con¬
tains the fame number of particles as were formerly dif-
ftifed over eight cubic inches.
The condenfation would have been the fame if the air
which fills a cube whofe fide is two inches had been
fqueezed into a cube of one inch, for the cube of two
inches alfo contains eight inches. Now, in this cafe it
is evident that the diftanee between the particles would
be reduced to its half in every direftion. In like manner,
if a cube whofe fide is three inches, and which therefore
contains 27 inches, be fqueezed into one inch, the dif¬
tance of the particles will be one-third of what it was: in
general the diftance of the particles will be as the cube-
root of the fpace into which they are compreffed. If the
fpace be f, ^ &-c- of its former dimenfions,
the drftance of the particles will be j, •£, j-, See. Now
the term denfity, in its ftrift fenfe, exprefles the vicini- CempreC
ty of the particles j denji arbores are trees growing near b*hty, &ca
each other. The mealure of this vicinity therefore is v J
the true meafure of the denfity y and when 27 inches of
air are comprefled into one, we (hould fay that it is
three times as denfe 5 but we fay, that it is 27 times
denfer.
Denfity is therefore ufed in a fenfe different from its Farther
ftrifteft acceptation: it exprefles the comparative number explana,'
of equidiftant particles contained in the fame bulk.ticm‘
This is alfo abundantly precife, when we compare bodies
of the fame kind, differing in denfity only y but we alfo
fay, that gold is 19 times denfer than water, becaufe
the fame bulk of it is 19 times heavier. This affertion
proceeds on the affumption, or the faft, that every ulti¬
mate atom of terreftrial matter is equally heavy : a par¬
ticle of gold may contain more or fewer atoms of matter
than a particle of water. In fuch a cafe, therefore, the
term denfity has little or no reference to the vicinity of
the particles j and is only a term of comparifon of other
qualities or accidents.
Tut when we fpeak of the refpeftive denfities of the
fame fubftance in its different ftates of compreffion, the
word denjity is ftriftly connefted with vicinity of parti¬
cles, and we may fafely take either of the meafures.
We (hall abide by the common acceptation, and call
that air eight times as denfe which has eight times as
many particles in the fame bulk, although the particles
are only twice as near to each other.
Thus then we fee, that by obferving the analogy be- The1 ana-
tween the compreffing force and the denfity,. we {hall fogy be-
difeover the analogy between the comprefling force andtweentbe
the diftance of the particles. Now the force which
neceffary for compreffing two particles of air to a cer- anj the di-
tain vicinity is a proper meafure of the elafticity of the ftance of
particles correfponding to that vicinity or diftance j for Parft»
it balances it, and forces which balance muft be efteem-Cies’ ®cc'
ed equal. Elaftieity is a diftinftive name for that cor-
pufcular force which keeps the particles at that diftance:
therefore obfervations made on the analogy between
the compreffing force and the denfity of air will give us
the law of its corpufeular force, in the fame way that
obfervations on the fimultaneous defleftions of the pla¬
nets towards the fun give us the law of celeftial gravi¬
tation..
But the fenfible compreffing forces which we are able ■
to apply is at once exerted on unknown thoufands of
particles, while it is the law of aftion of a fingle par¬
ticle that we want to difeover. We muft therefore
know the proportion of the numbers of particles on which
the compreffing force is exerted. It is eafy to fee, that
fince the diftanee of the particles is as the cube root of
the denfity inverfely, the number of particles in phyfical
contaft with the compreffing furface muft be as the
fquare of this root. Thus when a cube of 8 inches is
compreffed into one inch, and the particles are twice as
near each other as they were before, there muft be four
times the number of particlas in contaft with each of
the fides of this cubical inch j or, when we have puftied
down the fquare pifton of the pipe fpoken of above to
within an inch of the bottom, there will be four times
the number of particles immediately contiguous to the
pifton, and refilling the compreffion j and in order to
obtain the force really exerted on one particle, and the
elafticity of that particle, we muft divide the whole com-
preffijig^
194
Experi¬
ments on
Air.
P N E 0 M A f I C S.
prefTmg force by 4* Manner, if we have com-
prefled air into of its former bulk, and brought the
tparticles to y of their former diftance, we muft divide
tlie comprefling force by 9. In general if d exprefs the
699
iJ>S
Experi¬
ments efta-
bliihing
the law of
compref-
fiOn.
tomprefli-
feility of air
not rarer
than the
atmofphere
at the
earth’s fur-
face.
fig- 66.
dcnfity, j—r= will exprefs the diftance x of the par-
i \ d
__ I
tides j 3 -y/1/, or £/T, will exprefs the vicinity or real
1
denflty ; and xvill exprefs the number of particles
a&ing on the comprefling furface : and if f exprefs the
/
accumulated external comprefling force, —I will exprefs
d^
the force ading on one particle j and therefore the elaf-
ticity of that particle correfponding to the diftance x.
We may now proceed to confider the experiments by
which the law of compreflion is to be eftabliftied.
The firft experiments to this purpofe were thofe made
by Mr Boyle, publiftied in 1661 in his Defenjio Doc-
trince de Aeris Elatere contra Linwn, and exhibited be¬
fore the Royal Society the year before. Mariotte made
experiments of the fame kind, which were publifhed in
1676 in his EJfaifur la Nature de /’ /Hr and Traite des
Mouvemens des Eaux. The moft copious experiments
are thofe by Sulzer (Mem. Berlin, ix.), thofe by Fon¬
tana (Opufc. Physico- Mat hi), and thofe by Sir George
Shuckburgh and Gen. Roy.
In order to examine the compreflibility of air that is
not rarer than the atmofphere at the furface ©f the earth,
we employ a bent tube or fyphon A BCD (fig. 66.), her¬
metically fealed at A and open at D. The fliort leg
AB mufl: be very accurately divided in the proportion of
its folid contents, and fitted with a fcale whole units de¬
note equal increments, not ot length, but of capacity.
There are various ways of doing this •, but it requires
the molt fcrupulous attention, and without this the ex¬
periments are of no value. In particular, the arched
form at A mufl: be noticed. A fmall quantity of mer¬
cury mufl: then be poured into the tube, and paffed
backwards and forwards till it Hands (the tube being
held in a vertical pofition) on a level at B and C. Then
xve are certain that the included air is of the fame den-
fity with that of the contiguous atmofphere. Mercury
is now poured into the leg DC, which will fill it, fup-
pofe to G, and will comprefs the air into a fmaller fpace
AE. Draw the horizontal line EF: the new bulk of
the compreffed air is evidently AE, meafured by the
adjacent fcale, and the addition made to the compref-
fing force of the atmofphere is the weight of the column
GF. Produce GF downwards to H, till EH is equal
to the height fliown by a Toricellian tube filled with the
fame mercury; then the whole comprefling force is
HG. This is evidently the meafure of the elaflicity of
the compreffed air in AE, for it balances it. Now
pour in more mercury, and let it rife to g, comprcfling
the air into A e. Draw the horizontal line ef, and
make fh equal to FH j then Ne will be the new bulk
AB
of the compreffed air, —— will be its new denfity, and
Ac
hg will be the meafure of the new elafticity. This ope¬
ration may bo extended as far as we pleafe, by length¬
ening the tube CD, and taking care that it be ftrong Compiefii-
enough to relift the great preffure, Great care mull be >Jlllty> &c*
taken to keep the whole in a conllant temperature, be-
caufe the elailicity of air is greatly affefted by heat, and
the change by any increafe of temperature is different
according to its denflty or comnreflion. 197
The experiments of Boyle, Mariotte, Amontons, and xperi-
others, were not extended to very great compreflions, 1^‘eijts
the denfity of the air not having been quadrupled in any .^her
of them; nor do they feem to have been made with very nicely made
great nicety. It may be colledted from them in gene-nor e-.tt.nd-
ral, that the elafticity of the air is very nearly propor-6^ t0 very
tioned to its denfity j and accordingly this law was aF ^ !!m0nbm"
moft immediately acquiefced in, and was called the1
Boylean law: it is accordingly affumed by almoft all
writers on the fubjedft as exadt. Of late years, how¬
ever, there occurred queftions in which it was of impor¬
tance that this point fliould be more fcrupuloufly fettled,
and the former experiments were repeated and extend¬
ed. Sulzer and Fontana have carried them farther than
any other. Sulzer compreffed air ir to one-eighth of its
former dimenfions.
Confiderable varieties and irregularities are to be ob- Varieties,
ferved in thefe experiments. It is extremely difficult to in
preferve the temperature of the apparatus, particularly tliei-e ex"
of the. leg AB, which is moft handled. A great quan-*>enment'’
tity of mercury muft be employed ; and it does not ap¬
pear that philofophers have been careful to have it pre-
cifely fimilar to that in the barometer, which gives us
the unit of compreffing -force and of elafticity. The
mercury in the barometer ffiould be pure and boiled.
If the mercury in the fyphon is adulterated with bif-
muth and tin, which it commonly is to a confiderable
degree, the comprefling force, and confequently the
elafticity, will appear greater than the truth. If the
barometer has not been nicely fitted, it will be lower
than it ffiould be, and the comprefling force will ap-
appear too great, becaufe the unit is too fmall •, and
this error will be moft remarkable in the fmaller com-
preffions. _ _ l99
The greateft fource of error and irregularity in theHeteroge-
experiments is the very heterogeneous nature of the airneout na-
itfelf. Air is a folvent of all fluids, all vapours, and1^^^1^6
perhaps of many folid bodies. It is highly improbable
that the different compounds (hall have the fame elafti-fource of
city, or even the fame law of elaflicity : and it is v’ellerror,
known, that air, loaded with water or other volatile
bodies, is much more expanfible by heat than pure air j
nay, it would appear from many experiments, that cer¬
tain determinate changes both of denfity and of tempe¬
rature, caufe air to let go the vapours which it holds in
folution. Cold caufes it to precipitate water, as ap¬
pears in dew j fo does rarefaction, as is feen in the re¬
ceiver of an air-pump. 20c)
In general, it appears that the elafticity of air does The air’s
not increafe quite fo faft as its denfity. This will be elafticity
beft feen by the following tables, calculated from the ^
experiments of Mr Stilzer. The column E in each faft as its
fet of experiments expreffes the length of the column denfity.
GH, the unit being FH, while the column D exprefles
AB
AE'
4 T 2
3ft
P N E U
SOS
ift Set.
D
1.000
1.100
1.222
i-375
I-57I
1.692
2.000
2.288
2.444
3-M3
3.666
4.000
4.444
4.888
5-5°°
5.882
E
1.000
1-093
1.211
1.284
1- 559
1.669
1.796
T 958
2.130
2- 375
2.936
3- 391
3.706
4- °35
4- 438
4.922
5- 522
2d Set.
D
1.000
1.236
I-294
I-375
1.466
I-57I
1.692
2.000
2.444
3a43
3.666
4.444
5-5°o
7-333
1.000
1.224
1.288
1.417
I-5I5
1.647
1.964
2.392
3.078
3-575
4.320
5.096
6.694
3d Set.
D
1.000
1.091
1.200
r-333
I. coo
1.714
2.000
2.4OO
3.OOO
4.OOO
6.000
8.000
E
1.000
1.076
x-i83
1.472
1.659
1.900
2.241
2.793
3-631
5-297
6.835
There appears in thefe experiments fufficient grounds
for calling in queftion the Boylean law 5 and the writer
of this article thought it incumbent on him to repeat
them with fome precautions, which probably had not
been attended to by Mr Sulzer. He was particularly
anxious to have the air as free as poffible from moifture.
For this purpofe, having detached the fhort leg of the
fyphon, which was 34 inches long, he boiled mercury
in it, and filled it with mercury boiling hot. He took
a tinplate veffel of fufficient capacity, and put into it a
quantity of powdered quicklime juft taken from the
kiln j and having clofed the mouth, he agitated the
lime through the air in the veffel, and allowed it to re¬
main there all night. He then emptied the mercury out
of the fyphon into this veffel, keeping the open end
far within it. By this means the fhort leg of the fy¬
phon was filled with very dry air. The other part
was now joined, and boiled mercury put into the bend
of the fyphon ; and the experiment was then profecuted
with mercury which had been recently boiled, and was
the fame with which the barometer had been carefully
filled.
The refults of the experiments are expreffed in the
following table.
Here it appears again in the cleareft manner that the
slafticities do not increafe as faft as the denfities, and
3
M A T I C S,
the differences are even greater than in Mr Suker’s ElaftUSty.
experiments. ,
The fecond table contains the refults of experiments 203
made on very damp air in a warm fummer’s morning.
In thefe it appears that the elafticities are almoft pre-
cifely proportional to the denfities -}- a fmall conftant
quantity, nearly 0.11, deviating from this rule chiefly
between the denfities 1 and 1.5, within which limits we
have very nearly DirE1,0017. As this air is nearer to
the conftitution of atmofpheric air than the former, this
rule may be fafely followed in cafes where atmofpheric
air is concerned, as in meafuring the depths of pits by
the barometer.
The third table fhows the compreffion and elafticity ^
of air ftrongly impregnated with the vapours of cam-
phire. Here the Boylean law appears pretty exaft, or
rather the elafticity feems to increafe a little fafter than
the denfity.
Dr. Hooke examined the compreffion of air by im- *05
merfing a bottle to great depths in the fea, and weigh¬
ing the water which got into it without any efcape of
air. But this method w'as liable to great uncertainty,
on account of the unknown temperature of the fea at
great depths. _ > 2o5
Hitherto we have confidered only fuch air as is not Mode of
rarer than what we breathe ; we muft take a very dif- examining
ferent method for examining the elafticity of rarefied t^le
• 0 city of ra-
air* . refied air.
Let^- n (fig. 67.) be a long tube, formed a-top mtopig.
a cup, and of fufficient diameter to receive another
fmaller tube af, open at firft at both ends. Let the
outer tube and cup be filled with mercury, which will
rife in the inner tube to the fame level. Let a f now
be flopped at a. It contains air of the fame denfity and
elafticity with the adjoining atmofphere. Note exadlly
the fpace a b which it occupies. Draw it up into the
pofition of fig. 68. and let the mercury fland in it at the Fig. dSl
height de, while ce is the height of the mercury in the
barometer. It is evident that the column cf e is in equi-
librio between the preffure of the atmofphere and the
elafticity of the air included in the fpace a d. And
fince the weight oi c e would be in equilibrio with the
whole preffure of the atmofphere, the weight of c d is
equivalent to the elafticity of the included air. While
therefore c e is the meafure of the elafticity of the fur¬
rounding atmofphere, c d will be the meafure of the
elafticity of the included air j and fince the air original¬
ly occupied the fpace a b, and has now expanded into
a d, we have ~ for the meafure of its denfity. N. B.
Cl ct
c e and c d are meafured by the perpendicular heights of
the columns, but a b and a d muft be meafured by their
Jo lid capacities.
By raifing the inner tube ftill higher, the mercury 207
will alfo rife higher, and the included air will expand
ftill farther, and we obtain another c d, and another
—-; and in this manner the relation between the den-
a d
fity and elafticity of rarefied air may be difcovered.
. . 20^
Tms examination maybe managed more eafily by An eafier
means of the air-pump. Suppofe a tube ae (fig. 69.) method by
containing a fmall quantity of air a b, fet up in a ciftern
of mercury, which is fupported in the tube at the height ^imp *
e b, pig. fy.
Experi¬
ments on
Air.
209
Another
afy me-
hod.
'ig. 70.
210
lie mod
xa<fl mode
f examin-
ig this
lafticity.
P N E U M
e b, and let e 0 be the height of the mercury in the ba¬
rometer. Let this apparatus be fet under a tubulated
, receiver on the pump-plate, and let g n be the pump-
gage, and mnbe equal to c e.
Then, as has been already thown, c b is the meafure
of the elafticity of the air in a b, correfponding to the
bulk a b. Now let fome air be abftradted from the re¬
ceiver. The elarticity of the remainder will be dimi-
nilhed by its expanfion ; and therefore the mercury in
the tube a e will defcend to fome point d. For the fame
reafon, the mercury in the gage will rife to fome point
0, and m 0 will exprefs the elafticity of the air in the
receiver. This would fupport the mercury in the tube
a e at the height e r, if the fpace a r were entirely void
of air. Therefore r c? is the effeft and meafure of the
elafticity of the included air when it has expanded to
the bulk, ad; and thus its elafticity, under a variety of
other bulks, may be compared with its elafticity when
of the bulk a b. When the air has been fo far abftradft-
ed from the receiver that the mercury in «defcends to
«>, then m 0 will be the precife meafure of its elafticity.
In all thefe cafes it is neceffary to compare its bulk
a b with its natural bulk, in which its elafticity balances
the preffure of the atmofphere. This may be done by
laying the tube ae horizontally, and then the air will
collapfe into its ordinary bulk,
Another eafy method may be taken for this exami¬
nation. Let an apparatus a b c d ef (fig. 70.) be made,
confifting of a horizontal tube « £ of even bore, a ball
dg ^ of a large diameter, and a fwan-neck tube h f Let
the ball and part of the tube £ be filled with mer¬
cury, fo that the tube may be in the fame horizontal
plane with the furface de ei the mercury in the ball.
Then feal up the end 0, and conned! f with an air-pump.
When the air is abftradted from the furface de, the air
in ff £ will expand into a larger bulk a c, and the mer¬
cury in the pump-gage will rife to fome diftance below
the barometric height. It is evident that this diftance,
without any farther calculation, will be the meafure of
the elafticity of the air prefling on the furface de7 and
therefore of the air in a e.
The moft exadl of all methods is to fufpend in the
receiver of an air-pump a glafs veffel, having a very
narrow mouth, over a ciftern of mercury, and then ab-
ftradl the air till the gage rifes to fome determined
height. The difference e between this height and the
barometric height determines the elafticity of the air in
the receiver and in the fufpended veffel. Now lower
down that veffel by the flip-wire till its mouth is im-
merfed into the mercury, and admit the air into the re¬
ceiver 5 it will prefs the mercury into the little veffel.
Lower it ftill farther down, till the mercury within it
is level with that without j then flop its mouth, take
it out and weigh the mercury, and let its weight be w.
Subtraft this weight from the weight v of the mer¬
cury, which would completely fill the whole veffel;
then the natural bulk of the air will be v—to, while
its bulk, when of the elafticity e in the rarefied receiver,
was the bulk or capacity to of the veffel. Its denfity
. . t;—to
therefore, correfponding to this elafticity <?, was •
And thus may the relation between the denfity and ela¬
fticity in all cafes be obtained.
A great variety of experiments to this purpofe have
been made, with different degrees of attention, accord-
A T I C S. 701
ing to the intereft which the philofophers had in the Boylean
refult. Thofe made by M. de Luc, General Roy, Mr, Law~ .
Trembley, and Sir George Shuckburgh, are by far 2IVI
the moft accurate ; but they are all confined to very Various eS-
moderate rarefa&ions. The general refult has been, thatperiments
the elafticity of rarefied air is very nearly proportional ^ave
to its denfity. We cannot fay with confidence that any
regular deviation from this law has been obferved, there p0fe.
being as many obfervations on one fide as on the other j
but we think that it is not unworthy the attention of
philofophers to determine it with precifion in the cafes
of extreme rarefaftion, where the irregularities are moft
remarkable. The great fource of error is a certain ad-
hefive fluggiftmefs of the mercury when the impelling
forces are very fmall j and other fluids can hardly be
ufed, becaufe they either fmear the infide of the tube
and diminilh its capacity, or they are converted into va¬
pour, which alters the law of elafticity. 2I2
Let us, upon the whole, affume the Boylean law, Wss.Tbe Boyle-
that the elafticity of the air is proportional to its denfity.an law may
The law deviates not in any fenfible degree from the
truth in thofe cafes which are of the greateft pradlical
importance, that is, when the denfity does not much
exceed or fall Ihort of that of ordinary air. 213
Let us now fee what information this gives us withltweftiga-
refpefl to the aflion of the particles on each other. tl^Il
The inveftigation is extremely eafy. V/e have feen.j^ part:;_
that a force eight times greater than the preffure of deg on eaci3,
the atmofphere will comprefs common air into the other,
eighth part of its common bulk, and give it eight times
its common denfity : and in this cafe we know, that
the particles are at half their former diftance, and that
the number which are now adling on the furface of the
pifton employed to comprefs them is quadruple of the
number which adt on it when it is of the common den¬
fity. Therefore, when this eightfold comprefling force
is diftributed over a fourfold number of particles, the
portion of it which a<fts on each is double. In like
manner, when a comprefling force 27 is employed,
the air is compreffed into ^ of its former bulk, the
particles are at of their former diftance, and the force
is diftributed among 9 times the number of particles j
In ftiort, let - be the
x
the force on each is therefore 3.
diftance of the particles, the number of them in any
given veffel, and therefore the denfity will be as .v3,
and the number prefling by their elafticity on its whole
internal furface xvill be as x''. Experiment ftiows, that
the comprefling force is as x*, xvhich being diftributed
over the number as «*, will give the force on each as x.
Now this force is in immediate equilibrium with the
elafticity of the particle immediately contiguous to the
comprefling furface. This elafticity is therefore as x :
and it follows from the nature of perfect fluidity, that
the particle adjoining to the compreffing furface preffes
with an equal force on its adjoining particles on every
fide. Hence we muft conclude, that the corpufcular
repulfions exerted by the adjoining particles are inverfe-
ly as their diftances from each other, or that the adjoin- ^.
ing particles tend to recede from each other with forces
inverfely proportional to their diftances. was t}je
Sir Ifaac Newton was the firft who reafoned in thisfirft who
manner from the phenomena. Indeed he was the firft realoned
who had the patience to reflect: on the phenomena with
any precifion. His difcoveries in gravitation naturally j 5^,
gave
703
P N E U M A T I C S.
Boylean
Law.
. **5
Limits the
adlion to
adjoining
'^particles.
gave his thoughts this turn, and he very early hinted
his fufpicions that all the chara&eriftic phenomena of
tangible matter were produced by forces which were ex-
erted by the particles at fmall and infenlible diftances:
And he eonfiders the phenomena of air as affording an
excellent example of this invelligation, and deduces from
them the law which we have now demonftrated ; and
fays, that air conlilts of particles which avoid the ad¬
joining particles with forces inverfely proportional to
their diftances from each other. From this he deduces
(in the, 2d book of his Principles) feveral beautiful pro-
pofitions, determining the mechanical conftitutioa of the
atmofphere.
But it muft be noticed that he limits this action to the
adjoining particles : and this is a remark of immenfe
confequence, though not attended to by the numerous
experimenters who adopt the law.
It is plain that the particles are fuppofed to a£l at a
diftance, and that this diftance is variable, and that the
forces diminifti as the diftances increafe. A very ordi¬
nary air-pump will rarefy the air 125 times. The di¬
ftance of the particles is now 5 times greater than be¬
fore ; and yet they ft ill repel each other : for air of this
denfity will ftill fupport the mercury in a fyphon-gage
at the height of 0.24, or of an inch : and“a better
100
pump will allow this air to expand twice as much, and
ftill leave it elaftic. Thus we fee that whatever is the
diftance of the particles of common air, they can a6t
five times farther off. The queftion comes now to be,
Whether, in the ftate of common air, they really do a£t
five times farther than the diftance of the adjoining par¬
ticles ? While the particle a adits on the particle b with
the force 5, does it alfo a£t on the particle c with the
force 2.5, on the particle d with the force 1.667, wn
particle e with the force 1.25, on the particle f with
the force 1, on the particle^ with the force 0.8333, &c. ?
Sir Ifaac Newton (hows in the plaineft manner, that
this is by no means the cafe ; for if this were the cafe,
he makes it appear that the fenfible phenomena of con-
denfation would be totally different from what we ob-
ferve. The force neceffary for a quadruple condenfa-
tion would be eight times greater, and for a nonuple
condenfation the force muft be 27 times greater. Two
fpheres filled with condenfed air muft repel each other,
and two fpheres containing air that is rarer than the
furrounding air muft attra& each other, &c. &c. All
this will appear very clearly, by applying to air the rea-
foning which Sir Ifaac Newton has employed in dedu¬
cing the fenfiole law of mutual tendency of two fpheres,
which confift of particles attracting each other with
forces proportional to the fquare of the diftance in-
verfely.
;Si7 li we could fuppofe that the particles of air repelled
each other with invariable forces at all diftances within
(ome fmall and infenfible limit, this would produce a
compreffibilxty and elafticity fimilar to what we obferve.
For if we confider a row of particles, within this limit,
as compreffed by an external force applied to the two ex¬
tremities, the aClion of the whole row on the extreme
points would be proportional to the number of particles,
that is, to their diftance inverfely and to their denfity: and
a number of fuch parcels, ranged in a firaight line, would
- conftitute a row of any fenfible magnitude .having the
fame law of compreflion. But this lav/ of corpufcular Height 0f
force is unlike every thing w'e obferve in nature, and to Atniu.
the laft degree improbable. Sphere.
We muft therefore continue the limitation of this mu- nT"*"*
tual repulfion of the particles of air, and be contented
for the prefent with having eftablithed it as an experi¬
mental fa61, that the adjoining particles of air are kept
afunder by forces inverfely proportional to their diftan¬
ces : or perhaps it is better to abide by the fenfible law,
that the denjity of air is proportional to the comprejjing
/free. This law is abundantly fufficient for explaining
all the fubordinate phenomena, and for giving us a com¬
plete knowledge of the mechanical conftitution of our
atmofphere.
A # # 21®
And in the firft place, this view of the compreflx-The height
bility of the air muft give us a very different notion of of the air
the height of the atmofphere from what we deduced on’nveftiSa-
a former occafnm from our experiments. It is found, confid0”'
that when the air is of the temperature 3 2° of Fah-its compref.
renheit’s thermometer, and the mercury in the barome-Ability, &c.
ter Hands at 30 inches, it will defcend one-tenth ef an
inch if we take it to a place 87 feet higher. Therefore,
if the air were equally denfe and heavy throughout, the
height of the atmofphere would be 30 X 10 X 87 feet, or
5 miles and 100 yards. But the loofe reafoning addu¬
ced on that occafion was enough to (how us that it muft
be much higher, j becaufe every ftratum as we afeend
muft be fucceflively rarer as it is lefs compreffed by in¬
cumbent weight. Not knowing to what degree air ex¬
panded when the compreflion was diminifhed, we could
not tell the fucceflive diminutions of denfity and confe-
quent augmentation of bulk and height; we could only
fay, that feveral atmofpheric appearances indicated a
much greater height. Clouds have been feen much
higher ; but the phenomenon of the twilight is the moft
convincing proof of this. There is no doubt that the vi-
fibility of the Iky or air is owing to its want of perfeft
tranfparency, each particle (whether of matter purely
aerial or heterogeneous) refledting a little light. 22e
Let b (fig. 71.) be the laft particle of illuminated air Fig. 71
which can be feen in the horizon by a fpedlator at A.
This muft be illuminated by a ray SD b, touching the
earth’s furface at fome point D. Now it is a known
fadl, that the degree of illumination called twilight is
perceived when the fun is 180 below the horizon of the
fpe&ator, that is, when the angle E £ S or ACD is 18
degrees ; therefore £ C is the fecant of 9 degrees (it is
lefs, viz. about 8^ degrees, on account of refradlion).
We know the earth’s radius to be about 3970 miles :
hence we conclude £ B to be about 45 miles ; nay, a
very fenfible illumination is perceptible much farther
from the fun’s place than this, perhaps twice as far, and
the air is fufficiently denfe for refledling a fenfible light
at the height of nearly 200 miles. 2II
We have now feen that air is prodigioufly expanfible. Experimefit
None of our experiments have diftindily Ihown us any fixes 110 !i'
limit. But it does not follow that it is expanfible with-11^ t0 ttie
out end j nor is this at all likely. It is much more
probable that there is a certain diftance of the parts in
which they no longer repel each other; and this would
be the diftance at which they wrould arrange themfelves
if they were not heavy. But at the very fummit of the
atmofphere they will be a very fmall matter nearer to
each other, on account of their gravitation to the earth.
Till
5
PNEUMATICS.
(eight of TUI we know precifely the law of this mutual repul-
e Atmo- fionj we cannot fay what is the height of the atmo-
fhyere- , fphere.
222 But if the air be an elaftic fluid whofe denfity is al-
rther ob- ways proportionable to the comprefling force, we can
rations teji js its denfity at any height above the furface
ligation the eartl1: an^ we can cornPare the denfity fo calcu-
the lated with the denfity difcovered by obfervation : for
ght of this laft is meafured by the height at which it fupports
atmo- mercury in the barometer. This is the diredl meafure
of the preflure of the external air j and as we know the
law of gravitation, we can tell what would be the pref-
fure of air having the calculated denfity in all its
parts.
*23 Let us therefore fuppofe a prifmatic or cylindric co¬
lumn of air reaching to the top of the atmofphere.
Let this be divided into an indefinite number of ftrata
of very final! and equal depths or thicknefs j and let us,
for greater fimplicity, fuppofe at firft that a particle of
air is of the fame weight at all diftances from the cen¬
tre of the earth.
2*4 The abfolute weight of any one of thefe ftrata will
on thefe conditions be proportional to the number of
particles or the gravity of air contained in it; and fince
the depth of each ftratum is the fame, this quantity of
air will evidently be as the denfity of the ftratum : but
the denfity of any ftratum is as the comprefling force;
that is, as the preflure of the ftrata above it; that is, as
their weight; that is, as their quantity of matter—there¬
fore the quantity of air in each ftratum is proportional
to the quantity of air above it; but the quantity in
each ftratum is the difference between the column in¬
cumbent on its bottom and on its top : thefe differences
are therefore proportional to the quantities of which
they are the differences. But when there is a feries of
quantities which are proportional to their own differ¬
ences, both the quantities and their differences are in
continual or geometrical progreflion : for let «, £, c, be
three fuch quantities that
b : c=za—b : b—c, then by alter.
b : a—b~c : b—c and by compof.
b: a~c : b
and a : b—b : c
therefore the denfities of thefe ftrata decreafe in a geo¬
metrical progreflion; that is, when the elevations above
the centre or furface of the earth increafe, or their depths
under the top of the atmofphere decreafe, in an arithme¬
tical progreflion, the denfities decreafe in a geometrical
225 progreflion.
Let AR£) (fig. 72.) reprefent the fedlfon of the earth
by a plane through its centre O, and let m OAM be a
vertical line, and AE perpendicular to OA will be a
horizontal line through A, a point on the earth’s furface.
Let AE be taken to reprefent the denfity of the air at
A; and let DH, parallel to AE, be taken to AE as
the denfity at D is to the denfity at A : it is evident,
that if a logiftic or logarithmic curve EHN be drawn,
having AN for its axis, and pafling through the points
E and H, the denfity of the air at any other point C,
in this vertical line, will be reprefented by CG, the or¬
dinate to the curve in that point: for it is the property
of this curve, that if portions AB, AC, AD, of its ax¬
is be taken in arithmetical progreflion, the ordinates,
AE, BF, CG, DH, will be in geometrical progref-
fifcn,.
%
7°$
It is another fundamental property of this curve, that Height of
if EK or Ht> touch the curve in E or H, the fubtangent t^ie
AK or DS is a conftant quantity. iphere. ^
And a third fundamental property is, that the infinite- 226
ly extended area MAEN is equal to the reft angle KA 237
EL of the ordinate and fubtangent ; and, in like man¬
ner, the area MDHN is equal to SD X DH, or to KA>
X DH; confequently the area lying beyond any ordinate
is proportional to that ordinate.
Thefe geometrical properties of this curve are all ana- „2g
logous to the chief circumftances in the conftitution oF 22
the atmofphere, on the fuppofition of equal gravity.
The area MCGN reprefents the whole quantity of aeriaL
matter which is above C : for CG is the denfity at C,
and CD is the thicknefs of the ftratum between C and
D; and therefore CGHD will be as the quantity of
matter or air in it; and in like manner of all the others,
and of their fums, or the whole area MCGN: and as
each ordinate is proportional to the area above it, fo each
denfity, and the quantity of air in each ftratum, is pro¬
portional to tho quantity of air above it: and as the
whole area MAEN is equal to the re&angle KAEL,
fo the whole air of variable denfity above A might be
contained in a column KA, if, inftead of being com-
prefled by its own weight, it were without weight, and
compreffed by an external force equal to the preflure of
the air at the furface of the earth. In this cafe, it
would be of the uniform denfity AE, which it has at
the furface of the earth, making what we have repeat¬
edly called the homogeneous atmofphere.
Hence we derive this important circumftance, that 229
the height of the homogeneous atmofphere is the fub¬
tangent of that curve whole ordinates are as the denfities
of the air at different heights, on the.fuppofition of equal
gravity. This curve may with propriety be called the-
ATMOSPHERICAL logarithmic ; and as the different
logarithmics are all chara&erifed by their fubtangents,.
it is of importance to determine this one.
It may be done by comparing the denfities of mercury
and air. For a column of air of uniform denfity, reach¬
ing to the top of the homogeneous atmofphere, is in
equilibrio with the mercury in the barometer. Now it
is found, by the beft experiments, that when mercury
and air are of the temperature 3 2° of Fahrenheit’s ther- ■
mometer, and the barometer Hands at 30 inches, the ■
mercury is nearly 10440 times denfer than air. There¬
fore the height of the homogeneous atmofphere is 10440.
times 30 inches, or 26100 feet, or 8700 yards, or 4350
fathoms, or 5 miles wanting 100 yards.
Or it may be found by obfervations on the barometer. 230’
It is found, that when the mercury and air are of the
above temperature, and the barometer on the fea-thore
Hands at 30 inches, .if we carry it to a place 884 feet;
higher it will fall to 29 inches. Now, in all logarith¬
mic curves having equal ordinates, the portions of the
axes intercepted between the eorrefponding pairs of or¬
dinates are proportional to the fubtangents. And the
fubtangents of the curve belonging to our common tables
is 0.4342945, and the difference of the logarithms of
30 and 29 (which is the portion of the axis intercepted
between the ordinates 30 and 29), or o.Ol47233, is to
0.4342945 as 883 is to 26058 feet, or 8686 yards, or-
4343 fathoms, or 5 miles wanting 114 yards. This de¬
termination is 14 yards lefs than the other, and it is un¬
certain which is the more exatt. It is extremely difficult:
toe
7o4 P N E U M
Height to meafure the refpe&ive denfitles of mercury and air *,
of the At- ancj jn meafuring the elevation which produces a fall oi
mofpheiG. ^ jnch in the barometer, an error of ^ of an inch
v_ Would produce all the dilference. We prefer the laft, as
depending on fewer circumitances.
But all this inveftigation proceeds on the fuppofition
of equal gravity, whereas we know that the weight of a
particle of air decreafes as the fquare ot its diftance from
231 the centre of the earth increafes. In order, therefore,
that a fuperior ftratum may produce an equal prelfure
at the furface of the earth, it mud be denfer, becaufe a
particle of it gravitates lefs. The denfity, therefore, at
equal elevations, muft be greater than on the fuppofition
of equal gravity, and the law of diminution of denfity
inuft be different.
Blake OD : OA=OA : Od;
OC : OA—OA : Oc;
OB : OA=OA : Ob; &c.;
fo that Od,Oc,Ob, OA, may be reciprocals to OD,
OC, OB, OA ; and through the points A, b, c, d, draw
the perpendiculars AE, bf, eg, dh, making them pro¬
portional to the denfities in A, B, C, D : and let us
fuppofe CD to be exceedingly fmall, fo that the denfity
may be fuppofed uniform through the whole ftratum.
Thus we have
OD X o J=0 A*=OC X o c
and O c : O OD : OC ;
and O 4" : O c~—0 r/~OD : OD—OC,
or O c c d~OT) : DC }
and e d : CD—O c : OD ;
«r, becaufe OC and OD are ultimately in the ratio of
Equality, we have
c d : CD=0 c : OC=OA* : OC%
OA* ^ OA*
and cdzzCD and c (/X X Xj
O A*
but CD X ^ X QQi as t^ie Pre^ure at ^ arifing from
the abfolute weight of the ftratum CD. For this
Weight is as the bulk, as the denfity, and as the gra¬
vitation of each particle jointly. Now CD expreffes
b
the bulk, eg the denfity, and the gravitation of
«ach particle. Therefore, cr/X £'£■ is as the preffure on
C arifing from the weight of the ftratum DC •, but
cdxcg is evidently the element of the curvilineal area
A m 11E, formed by the curve and the ordinates
AE, bf, eg, ah, &c. tnn. Therefore the fum of all the
elements, fuch as cdhg, that is, the area cning below
eg, will be as the whole preffure on C, arifing from the
gravitation of all the air above it ; but, by the nature
©f air, this whole preffure is as the denfity which it
produces, that is, as eg. Therefore the curve Ejr « is
of fuch a nature that the area lying below or beyond any
•rdinate eg is proportional to that ordinate. This is the
property of the logarithmic curve, and E ^ « is a loga¬
rithmic curve
But farther, this curve is the fame with EGN. For
let B continually approach to A, and ultimately coin¬
cide with it. It is evident that the ultimate ratio of
BA to A b, and of BF to is that of equality ; and if
EFK, E /*l, be drawn, they will contain equal angles
with the ordinate AE, and will cut off equal fubtan-
gents AK, AT. The curves EGN, Y.gn are therefore
the fame, but in oppofite pofitions.
A T I C S.
Laftly, if OA, 0&, Oc, Od, &c. be taken in anth- Height
metical progreflion decreafing, their reciprocals O A, OB, °f ^h,v At-
OC, OD, &c. will be in harmonical progreflion increa-
fing, as is well known: but, from the nature of the ^
logarithmic curve, when OA, O b, O c, O d, &c. are
in arithmetical progreffion,the ordinates AE, bf, eg, dh,
&c. are in geometrical progreflion. Therefore when
OA, OB, OC, OD, &c. are in harmonical progreffion,
the denfities of the air at A, B, C, D, &c. are in geo¬
metrical progreflion j and thus may the denfity of the
air at all elevations be discovered. 1 hus to find the
denfity of the air at K the top of the homogeneous at-
mofphere, make OK : OA=:OA : OL, and draw the
ordinate LT, LT is the denfity at K.
The celebrated Dr Halley was the firft who obferved
the relation between the denfity of the air and the or¬
dinates of the logarithmic curve, or common loga¬
rithms. This he did on the fuppofition of equal gra¬
vity $ and his difeovery is acknowledged by Sir Ifaac
Newton in Princip. n. prop. 22. fchol. Halley’s differ-
tation on the fubjea is in N° 185 of the Phil. Tranf.
Newton, with his ufual fagacity, extended the fame rela¬
tion to the true ftate of the cafe, where gravity is as
the fquare of the diftance inverfely } and ihowed that
when the diftances from the earth’s centre are in har¬
monic progreffion, the denfities are in geometric pro-
greflion. He ftiows indeed, in general, what progreflion
of the diftance, on any fuppofition of gravity, will
produce a geometrical progreflion of the denfities, fo
as to obtain a fet of lines OA, Ob, Of, Od, &c. which
will be logarithms of the denfities. The fubjeft was
afterwards treated in a more familiar manner by Cotes
in his Hydrojl. Lett, and in hisHarmonia Menfurarum;
alfo by Dr Brook Taylor, Moth. Increment.; Wolf in
his Aerometna ; Herman in his Phoronomia ; &c. &c.
and lately by Horfley, Phil. Tranf. tom. Ixiv. .
An important corollary is deducible from thefe prin-The air h
ciples, viz. that the air has a finite denfity at an in-^finite
finite diftance from the centre of the earth, namely,™^
fiich as will be reprefented by the ordinate OP drawn ,];^aiice
through the centre. It may be objefled to this con-from the
elufion, that it would infer an infinity of matter in the centre of
univerfe, and that it is inconfiftent with the. phenomenathe earth'
of the planetary motions, which appear tube performed
in a fpace void of all refiftance, and therefore of all mat¬
ter. But this fluid muft be fo rare at great diftances,
that the refiftance will be infenfible, even though the
retardation occafioned by it has been accumulated for
ages. Even at the very moderate diftance of 500 miles,
the rarity is fo great that a cubic inch of common air
expanded to that degree would occupy a fphere equal to
the orbit of Saturn ; and the whole retardation which
this planet would fuftain after fome millions of years
would not exceed what would be occafioned by its meet¬
ing one bit of matter of half a grain weight.
This being the cafe, it is not unreafonable to fuppofe
the vifible univerfe occupied by air, which, by its gra¬
vitation, will accumulate itfelf round every body in it,
in a proportion depending on their quantities of matter,
the larger bodies attracting more of it than the fmaller
ones, and thus forming an atmofphere about each. And
many appearances warrant this fuppofition. Jupiter,
Mars, Saturn, and Venus, are evidently furrounded by
atmofpheres. I he conftitution of thefe atmofpheres
may differ exceedingly from other caufes. If the pla-
P N E U M A T I C S.
*35
'he atmo
there of
Jars.
*3 5
I? Jupiter
Atmo net lias nothing on its iorface which can be diffolved
jpheres ^by the air or volatilized by heat, the atmofphere will be
planets1^ cont‘nUally cIear anc* tran^Par€r‘t, like that of the moon.
&C. ’ Mars has an atmofphere which appears precifely like
* ' our own, carrying clouds, or depoliting fnows : for
when, by the obliquity of his axis to the plane of his
' ecliptic, he turns his north pole towards the fun, it is
obferved to be occupied by a broad white fpot. As
the fummer of that region advances, this fpot gradually
waftes, and fometimes vanithes, and then the fouth pole
comes in fight, furrounded in like manner with a white
fpot, which undergoes limilar changes. This is precife¬
ly the appearance which the fnowy circumpolar regions
of this earth will exhibit to an aftronomer on Mars. It
may not, however, be fnovv that we fee j thick clouds
will have the fame appearances.
The atmofphere of the planet Jupiter is alfo very
limilar to our own. It is diverlified by ftreaks or belts
parallel to his equator, which frequently change their
appearance and dimenfions, in the fame manner as thofe
tradis of limilar Iky which belong to different regions
of this globe. There is a certain kind of weather that
more properly belongs to a particular climate than to
any other. This is nothing but a certain general Rate
of the afmofphere which is prevalent there, though
with confiderable variations. This muff appear to a
fpedlator in the moon like a ftreak fpread over that
climate, diftinguilhing it from others. But the moll
remarkable limilarity is in the motion of the clq^ds on
Jupiter. They have plainly a motion from call to weft
relative to the body of the planet : for there is a re¬
markable fpot on the furfaee of the planet, which is
obferved to turn round the axis in 9I1. 51' 16" ; and
there frequently appear variable and perilhing fpots in
the belts, which fometimes laft for feveral revolutions.
Thefe are obferved to circulate in 9. 55. 05. Thefe
numbers are the refults of a long feries of obfervations
by Dr Herfchel. This plainly indicates a general cur¬
rent of the clouds weftward, precifely fimilar to what
a fpedfator in the moon muft obferve in our atmofphere
arifing from the trade-winds. Mr Schroeter has made
the atmofphere of Jupiter a ftudy for many years j and
deduces from his obfervations that the motion of the va¬
riable fpots is fubjeft to great variations, but is always
from eaft to weft. This indicates variable winds.
The atmofphere of Venus appears alfo to be like
ours, loaded with vapours, and in a ftate of continual
change of abforption and precipitation. About the
middle of the 1 yth century the furfaceofVenus was pretty
diftinftly feen for many years chequered with irregular
fpots, which are deferibed by Campani, Bianchini, and
other aftronomers in the fouth of Europe, and alfo by
Caflini at Paris, and Hooke and Townley in England.
But the fpots became gradually more faint and indi-
ftin<ffj and, for near a century, have difappeared. The
whole furface appears now of one uniform brilliant
white. The atmofphere is probably filled with a refledt-
ing vapour, thinly diffufed through it, like water faint¬
ly tinged with milk. A great depth of this muft ap¬
pear as white as a fmall depth of milk itfelf; and it
appears to be of a very great depth, and to be refrac¬
tive like our air. For Dr Herfchel has obferved, by
the help of his fine telefcopes, that the illuminated
part of Venus is confiderably more than a hemifphere,
and that the light dies gradually away to the bounding
Vol. XVI. Part II.
the earth Atmo-
The tphere.s
.237
J Venuj.
margin. This is the very appearance that
would make if furnifhed with fuch an atmofphere. ^ ^ 0^c.
boundary of illumination would have a penumbra reach- pianetS;
ir.g about nine degrees beyond it. If this be the con- ate.
ftitution of the atmolphere of Venus, fhe may be inha- - ■—v
bited by beings like ourfelves. They would not be
dazzled by the intolerable fplendour of a fun four lime*
as big and as bright, and fixteen times more glaring,
than ours: for they would feldom or never fee him, but
inftead of him an uniformly bright and white Iky. They
would probably never fee a ftar or planet, unlefs the
dog-ftar and Mercury j and perhaps the earth might
pierce through the bright haze which furrounds their
planet. For the fame reafon the inhabitants would not
perhaps be incommoded by the fun’s heat. It is in¬
deed a very queftionable thing, whether the fun would
caufe any heat, even here, if it were not for the chemi¬
cal aftion of his rays on our air. This is rendered not
improbable by the intenfe cold felt on the tops of the
higheft mountains, in the cleareft air, and even under a
vertical fun in the torrid zone. 238
The atmofphere of comets feems of a nature totally Al-d ofc<v
different. This feems to be of inconceivable rarity,mets'
even when it reflefts a very fenfible light. The tail is
always turned nearly away from the fun. It is thought
that this is by the impulfe of the folar rays. If this
be the cafe, we think it might be difeovered by the
aberration and the refradfion of the light by which we-
fee the tail: for this light muft come to our eye with
a much fmaller velocity than the fun’s light, if it be
reflefted by repulfive or elaftic forces, which there is
every reafon in the world to believe; and therefore the
velocity of the refle<fted light will be diminifhed by all
the velocity communicated to the refleffing particles.
This is almoft inconceivably great. The comet of 1680
went half round the fun in ten hours, and had a tail at
leaft a hundred millions of miles long, which turned
round at the fame time, keeping nearly in the dire£fion
oppoftte to the fun. The velocity neceffary for this is
prodigious, approaching to that of light. And perhaps
the tail extends much farther than we fee it, but is vi-
ftble only as far as the velocity with which its particles
recede from the fun is lefs than a certain quantity,
namely, what would leave a fufficient velocity for the
refledted light to enable it to affeft our eyes. And it
may be demonftrated, that although the real form of
the vifible tail is concave on the anterior fide to which
the comet is moving, it may appear convex on that
fide, in confequence of the very great aberration of the
light by which the remote parts are feen. All this
may be difeovered by properly contrived obfervations j
and the eonjedlure merits attention. But of this digref-
lion there is enough j and we return to our fubjedl, the
conftitution of our air.
We have fhown how to determine h priori the denfi-The bare¬
ly of the air at different elevations above the furface of meter uied
the earth. But the denfities may be difeovered in allin.taklnS
acceflible elevations by experiments •, namely, by ob-
ferving the heights of the mercury in the barometer.
This is a diredt meafure of the preffure of the incum¬
bent atmofphere; and this is proportional to the denfity
which it produces.
Therefore, by means of the relation fubfifting between 24»
the denfities and the elevations, we can difeover the ele¬
vations by obfervations made on the denfities by means
4^ of
7©6
241
Explana¬
tion of its
vfe, &c.
P N E U M
Barometer. cf the barometer ; and thus we may meafure elevations
' by means of the barometer j and, with very little trou¬
ble, take the level of any extenfive trafl of country.
Of this we have an illullrious example in the fe&ion
which the Abb6 Chappe D’Auteroche has given of the
whole country between Breft and Ekaterineburgh in
Siberia. This is a fubjedl which deferves a minute con-
fideration : we (hall therefore prefent it under a very
limpleand familiar form } and trace the method through
its various fteps of improvement by De Luc, Roy, Shuck-
burgh, &c.
We have already obferved, oftener than once, that if
the mercury in the barometer Hands at 30 inches, and if
the air and mercury be of the temperature 3 2° in Fah¬
renheit’s thermometer, a column of air 87 feet thick
has the fame w'eight with a column of mercury -5%- of an
inch thick. Therefore, if we carry the barometer to a
higher place, fo that the mercury finks to 29.9, we have
afeended 87 feet. Now, fuppofe we carry it Hill higher,
and that the mercury Hands at 29.8 j it is required to
know what height we have now got to ? We have evi¬
dently afeended through another flratum of equal weight
with the former : but it muH be of greater thicknefs,
becaufe the air in it is rarer, being lefs compreffed. We
may call the denfity of the firR flratum 300, meafuring
the denfity by the number of tenths of an inch of mercu¬
ry which its elaflicity proportional to its denfity enables
it to fupport. For the fame reafon, the denfity of the
feeond Hratum mufl be 299 : but when the weights are
equal, the bulks are inverfely as the denfities; and when
the bafes of the Hrata are equal, the bulks are as the
thickneffes. Therefore, to obtain the thicknefs of this
fecondfiratum, fay 299: 300=87: 87.29; and this fourth
term is the thicknefs of the fecond flratum, and we have
afeended in all 174.29 feet. In like manner we may rife
till the barometer (hows the denfity to be 29.8 : then fay
298 : 30=87 : 87.584 for the thicknefs of the third
ftratum, and 261,875 or 26i-J for the whole afcent ;
and we may proceed in the fame way for any num¬
ber of mercurial heights, and make a table of the corre-
fponding elements as follows ; Where the firft column is
the height of the mercury in the barometer, the fecond
column is the thicknefs of the flratum, or the elevation
above the preceding Ration ; and the third column is
the whole elevation above the firft Ration.
24*
Bar.
30
29.9
29.8
29.7
29.6
29-5
29.4
29-3
29.2
29.I
29
Strat.
00.000
87.000
87.291
87.584
87.879
88.176
88.475
88.776
89.079
89.384
89.691
Elev.
00.000
87.OOO
174.29I
261.875
349-754
437-93°
526.405
615.181
704.260
793-644
883-335
Having done this, wre can now meafure any elevation
within the limits of our table, in this manner.
Obferve the barometer at the lower and at the upper
Rations, and write down the correfponding elevations.
Subtract the one from the other, and the remainder is
the height required. Thus fuppofe that at the lower
A T I C S.
ftation the mercurial height was 29.8, and that at the Taking
upper ftation it was 29.1 i fo'ghn.
29.1 793-644 ' ^
29.8 *74-291
619-3 53— Elevation.
We may tfe the fame thing with tolerable accuracy
without the table, by taking the medium m of the mer¬
curial heights, and their difference d in tenths of an inch;
and then fay, as m to 300, fo is 87 d to the height re-
' ^ t i 3°° X 87^ 26100c/ „ . ,
qmred«: ox fizz. =r -. Ihus, in the
in m
foregoing example, m is 294.5, and </ is = 7; and there-.
fore h ^7 X 2^.}S2 = 6 20.4, differing only one foot from
294-5
the former value.
Either of thefe methods is fufficiently accurate for
moft purpofes, and even in very great elevations will not
produce any error of confequence : the whole error of
the elevation 883 feet 4 inches, which is the extent of
the above table, is only of an inch.
But we need not confine ourfelves to methods of ap- *43
proximation, when we have an accurate and feientifie
method that is equally ealy. We have feen that, upon
the fuppefition of equal gravity, the denfities of the air
are as the ordinates of a logarithmic curve, having the
line of elevations for its axis. We have alfo feen that,
in the true theory of gravity, if the diftances from the
centre of the earth increafe in a harmonic pregreflion, the
logarithm of the denfities will decreafe in an arithmeti¬
cal progreflion ; but if the greateft elevation above the
furface be but a few miles, this harmonic progreflion
will hardly differ from an arithmetical one. Thus, if
Ab, Ac, A dt are 1, 2, and 3 miles, we fhall find that
the correfponding elevations AB, AC, AD are fenfibly
in arithmetical progreflion alfo ; for the earth’s radius
AC is nearly 4000 miles. Hence it plainly follows
that BC—AB is 1 , or — of a mile.
4000x4001 16004000
or of an inch £ a quantity quite infignificant. We
may therefore affirm w-ithout hefitation, that in all ac-
ceffible places, the elevations increafe in an arithmetical
progreffion, while the denfities decreafe in a geometrical
progreffion. Therefore the ordinates are proportional
to the numbers which are taken to meafure the denfities,
and the portions of the axis are proportional to the lo¬
garithms of thefe numbers. It follows, therefore, that
we may take fuch a fcale for meafuring the denfities
that the logarithms of the numbers of this fcale {hall be
the very portions of the axis ; that is, of the vertical line
in feet, yards, fathoms, or what meafure we pleafe : and
We may, on the other hand, choofe fuch. a fcale for mea¬
furing our elevations, that the logarithms of our fcale of
denfities fhall be parts of this fcale of elevations ; and we
may find either of thefe feales feientifically. For it is a
known property of the logarithmic curves, that when the
ordinates are the fame, the intercepted portion of the
abfciffae are proportioned to their fubtangents. Now we
know the fubtangent of the atmofpherical logarithmic :
it is the height of the homogeneous atmofphere in any
meafure we pleafe, fuppofe fathoms : we find this height
by comparing the gravities of air and mercury, when
both
P N E U M
trometer. both are of fome tletermined denfity. Thus, in the
' tetnperature of 32° of Fahrenheit’s thermometer, when
the barometer ftands at 30 ihches, it is known (by many
experiments) that mercury is 10423.068 times heavier
than air j therefore the height of the balancing column
of homogeneous air will be 10423.068 times 30 inches j
that is, 4342.945 Englilh fathoms. Again, it is known
that the lubtangent of our common logarithmic tables,
where I is the logarithm of the number 10, is 0.4342945.
Therefore the number 0.4342945 is to the difference
D of the logarithms of any two barometric heights as
4342.945 fathoms are to the fathoms F contained in
the portion of the axis of the atmofpherical logarith¬
mic, which is intercepted between the ordinates equal
to thefe barometrical heights j or that 0.4342945 : D
=4342.945 : F, and 0.4342.945 : 4342.945=!) : F j
but O.434 2945 is the ten-thoufandth part of 4342.945,
and therefore D is the ten-thoufandth part of F.
244 And thus it happens, by mere chance, that the loga¬
rithms of the denfities, meafured by the inches of mer¬
cury which their elafticity fupports in the barometer,
are juft the ten-thoufandth part of the fathoms con¬
tained in the correfponding portions of the axis of the
atmofpherical logarithmic. Therefore, if we multiply
our common logarithms by 10000, they will exprefs the
fathoms of the axis of the atmofpherical logarithmic j no¬
thing is more eafily done. Our logarithms contain what
is called the index* or chara&eriftie, which is an integer
and a number of decimal places. Let us juft remove
the integer-place four figures to the right hand : thus
the logarithm of 60 is 1.778151^, which is one integer
and . 7^1 -Od-. ]\4uitiply this by 10.ooo, and we ob-
I0000000 A
tain 17781.513, or 17781
IOOX 11 J J 11 1000
145 The practical application of all this reafoning is ob¬
vious and eafy : obferve the heights of the mercury in
the barometer at the upper and loxver ftations in inches
and decimals ; take the logarithms of thefe, and fub-
traft the one from the other : the difference between
them (accounting the four firft decimal figures as inte¬
gers) is the difference of elevation of fathoms.
Example.
Merc. Height at the lower ftation 29.8 1.4742163
upper ftation 29.1 1.4638930
Diff. «f Log. x IOOOO 0.0103.233
or 103 fathoms and —i-A. of a fathom, which is 619.392
J 1000
feet, or 619 feet 4! inches ; differing from the approxi-
346 mated value formerly found about f an inch,
iiii me- Such is the general nature of the barometric meafure-
od of rnent of heights firft fuggefted by Dr Halley *, and it has
Ights0^ been verified by numberlefs comparifons of the heights
w much calculated in this way with the fame heights meafured
proved, geometrically. It was indeed in this way that the pre-
cife fpecific gravity of air and mercury was moft accu¬
rately determined j namely, by obferving, that when the
temperature of air and mercury was 32, the difference
of the logarithms of the mercurial heights were precife-
lj the fathoms of elevation. But it requires many cor-
A T I C & 707
regions to adjuft this method to the circumftances of Taking
the cafe j and it was not till very lately that it has been ,
fo far adjufted to them as to become ufeful. We are
chiefly indebted to Mr de Luc for the improvements.
The great elevations in Switzerland enabled him to
make an immenfe number of obfervations, in almoft
every variety of circumftances. Sir George Shuckburgh
alfo made a great number with moft accurate inftruments
in much greater elevations, in the fame country $ and he
made many chamber experiments for determining the
laws of variation in the fubordinate circumftances. Ge¬
neral Roy alfo made many to the fame purpofe. And to
thefe two gentlemen we are chiefly obliged for the cor-
reftions which are now generally adopted.
It is eafy to perceive that the method, as already jt depends
exprefied, cannot apply to every cafe : it depends on 0n the
the fpecific gravity of air and mercury, combined with fpecific gra-
the fuppofition that this is affedted only by a change
prejjitre. But fince all bodies are expanded by heat,
and as there is no reafon to fuppofe that they are equal¬
ly expanded by it, it follows that a change of tempera¬
ture will change the relative gravity of mercury and
air, even although both fuffer the fame change of tem¬
perature : and fince the air may be warmed or cooled
when the mercury is not, or may change its tempera¬
ture independent of it, we may expedt ftill greater vari¬
ations of fpecific gravity.
The general effedl of an augmentation of the fpecifio
gravity of the mercury muft be to increafe the fubtan-
gent of the atmofpherical logarithmic} in which cafe
the logarithms of the denfities, as meafured by inches of
mercury, will exprefs meafures that are greater than fa¬
thoms in the fame proportion that the fubtangent is in-
creafed } or, when the air is more expanded than the
mercury, it will require a greater height of homogene¬
ous atmofphere to balance 30 inches of mercury, and a
given fall of mercury will then correfpond to a thicker
ftratum of air.
In order, therefore, to perfedt this method, we mult
learn by experiment how much mercury expands by an
increafe of temperature } we muft alfo learn how much
the air expands by the fame, or any change of tempera¬
ture } and how much its elafticity is affedled by it. Both
thefe circumftances muft be confidered in the cafe of
air } for it might happen that the elafticity of the air is
not fo much affedled by heat as its bulk is.
It will, therefore, be proper to ftate in this place the
experiments which have been made for afcertaining
thefe two expanfions. 2^g
The moft accurate, and the beft adapted experiments General
for afcertaining the expanlion of mercury, are thofe of Roy’s ex-
General Roy, publiftitd in the 67th volume of the Phi- Per,”ients
lofophical Tranfadlions. He expofed 30 inches of raer- panfionof"
cury, adlually fupported by the atmofphere in a baro- mercury,
meter, in a nice apparatus, by which it could be made
of one uniform temperature through its whole length \
and he noted the expanfion of it in decimals of an inch.
Thefe are contained in the following table } Avhere the
firft column expreffes the temperature by Fahrenheit’s
thermometer, the fecond column expreffes the bulk of
the mercury, and the third column the expanfion of an
inch of mercury for an increafe of one degree in the ad¬
joining temperatures.
4 U 2 Table
ya8
Barometer.
P N E U M
Table A.
Temp.
212
202
192
182
172
162
152
I42
132
122
I 12
102
92
82
72
62
52
42
32
22
12
2
O
Bulk of 5?
Expan. for 1°.
3°-5TI7
30.4888
3O.46C2
30.4409
3°'4I59
30.3902
30.3638
30i33^7
30.3090
30.2807
30.2518
30.2223
30.1922
30.1615
30.1302
30.0984
30.0661
30,0333
30.0000
29.9662
29.9319
29.8971
29.8901
0.0000763
0.0000787
0.0000810
0.0000833
0.0000857
0.0000880
0.0000903
0.0000923
0.0000943
0.0000963
0.0000983
0.0001003
0.0601023
0.0001043
0.0001063
0.0001077
0.0001093
0.0001110
0.0001127
0.0001143
0.0001160
0.0000177
-49 This table gives rife to fome reflexions. The fcale
of the thermometer is conftruXed on the fuppofition
that the fticceffive degrees of heat are meafured by
equal increments of bulk, in the mercury of the ther¬
mometer. How comes it, therefore, that this is not ac¬
companied by equal increments of bulk in the mercury
of the column, but that the correfponding expanfions
of this column do continually diminifli: General Roy
attributes this to the gradual detachment of elaflic mat¬
ter from the mercury by heat, which preffes on the top
@f the column, and therefore ftiortens it. He applied
a boiling heat to the vacuum a-top, without producing
any farther depreffion •, a proof that the barometer had
been carefully filled. It had indeed been boiled through
its whole length. He had attempted to meafure the
mercurial expanfion in the ufual way, by filling 30
inches of the tube with boiled mercury, and expofing it
to the heat with the open end uppermoft. But here it
is evident that the expanfion of the tube, and its folid
, ’ contents, muft be taken into the account. The expan¬
fion of the tube was found fo exceedingly irregular,
and fo incapable of being determined with precifion
for the tubes which were to be employed, that he was
obliged to have recourfe to the method with the real
barometer. In this no regard was neccflary to any
circumftance but the perpendicular height. There was,
befides, a propriety in examining the mercury in the
very condition in which it was ufed for meafuring the
preffure of the atmofphere ; becaufe, whatever compli¬
cation there was in the refults, it was the fame in the
barojneter in aXual ufe.
250 The moft obvious manner of applying thefe experi¬
ments on the expanfion of mercury to our purpofe, is to
reduce the obferved height of the mercury to what it
would have been if it were of the temperature 32.
Thus, fuppofe that the obferved mercurial height is
I'
A T I C S.
29.2, and that the temperature of the mercury is 72°, Taking
make 30.1302 : 3012:29.2 : 29.0738. This will be llcigl‘ts.
the true meafure of the denfity of the air of the Itan- v ^
dard temperature. In order that we may obtain the
exaX temperature of the mercury, it is proper that
the obfervation be made by means of a thermometer at¬
tached to the barometer-frame, fo as to warm and cool
along with it.
Or, this may be done without the help of a table, 251
and with fufficient accuracy, from the circumftance
that the expanfion of an inch of mercury for one degree
diminifhes very nearly part in each fucceeding de¬
gree. If therefore wre take from the expanfion at 3 2°
its thoufandth part for each degree of any range above
it, we obtain a mean rate of expanfion for that range.
If the obferved temperature of the mercury is below
3 2°, we muft add this correXion to obtain the mean ex¬
panfion. This rule will be made more exaX if we fup¬
pofe the expanfion at 320 to be =0.0001127. Then
multiply the obferved mercurial height by this expan¬
fion, and we obtain the correXion, to be fubtraXed or
added according as the temperature of the mercury was
above or below 3 2°. Thus to abide by the former ex¬
ample of 7 2°. This exceeds 320 by 40 : therefore take
40 from 0.0001127, and we have 0.0001087 for the
medium expanfion for that range. Multiply this by 40,
and we have the whole expanfion of one inch of mercu¬
ry ,—0.004348. Multiply the inches of mercurial height,
viz. 29.2 by this expanfion, and we have for the correc¬
tion 0.12696; which being fubtraXed from the obfer¬
ved height leaves 29.07304, differing from the accurate
quantity lefs than the thoufandth part of an inch. This
rule is very eafily kept in the memory, and fuperftdes
the ufe of a table.
This correXion may be made with all neceffary ex- 252
aXnefs by a rule ftill more fimple; namely, by multi¬
plying the obferved height of the mercury by the dif¬
ference of its temperature from 3 2°, and cutting off
four cyphers before the decimals of the mercurial height.
This will feldom err -r— of an inch. We even believe
that it is the moft exaX method within the range of
temperatures that can be expeXed to occur in meafuring
heights : for it appears, by comparing many experiments
and obfervations, that General Roy’s meafure of the
mercurial expanfion is too great, and that the expanfion
of an inch of mercury between 20° and 70° of Fahren¬
heit’s thermometer does not exceed 0.000102 per de¬
gree. Having thus correXed the obferved mercurial
heights by reducing them to what they would have been
if the mercury had been of the ftandard temperature,
the logarithms of the correXed heights are taken, and
their difference, multiplied by icooo, will give the dif¬
ference of elevations in Englifh fathoms.
There is another way of applying this correXion, ful-
ly more expeditious and equally accurate. The differ¬
ence of the logarithms of the mercurial hbights is the
meafure of the ratio of thofe heights. In like manner
the difference of the logarithms of the obferved and cor¬
reXed heights at any ftation is the meafure of the ratio
of thofe heights. Therefore this laft difference of the
logarithms is the meafure of the correXion of this ratio.
Now the obferved height is to the correXed height
nearly as I to 1.000102. The logarithm of this ratio,
or the difference of the logarithms of 1 and 1.000102,
is 0.0000444. This is the correXion for each degree
that
T N E U M
irometcr. that the temperature of the' mercury differs from 32.
—'V-"*"' Therefore multiply 0.0000444 by the difference of the
mercurial temperatures from 32, and the products will
be the correftions of the refpe&ive logarithms.
2^4 But there is ftill an eafier way of applying the lo¬
garithmic correftion. If both the mercurial tempera¬
tures are the fame, the differences of their logarithms
will be the fame, although each may be a good deal
above or below the ftandard temperature, if the expan-
fion be very nearly equable. The corredtion will be
neceffary only when the temperatures at the two flations
are different, and will be proportional to this difference.
Therefore, if the difference of the mercurial tempera¬
tures be multiplied by 0.0000444, the product‘will be
the corredlion to be made on the difference of the lo¬
garithms of the mercurial heights.
But farther, fince the differences of the logarithms
of the mercurial heights are alfo the differences of ele¬
vation in Englifh fathoms, it follows that the correftion
is alfo a difference of elevation in Englifh fathoms, or
that the corredlion for one degree of difference of mer¬
curial temperature is a fa^10In> or 32 inches,
or 2 feet 8 inches.
This corredtion of 2.8 for every degree of difference
of temperature muff be fubtradled from the elevation
found by the general rate, when the mercury at the up¬
per flation is colder than that at the lower. For when
this is the cafe, the mercurial column at the upper fta-
tion tvill appear too (hort, the preffure of the atmofphere
too fmall, and therefore the elevation in the atmofphere
will appear greater than it really is.
Therefore the rule for this corredlion will be to mul¬
tiply O.OOOO444 by the degrees of difference between
the mercurial temperatures at the two ftations, and to
add or fubtradl the produdt from the elevation found by
the general rule, according as the mercury at the upper
flation is hotter or colder than at the lower.
If the experiments of General Roy on the expanfion
of the mercury in a real barometer be thought moil de-
ferving of attention, and the expanfion be confidered as
variable, the logarithmic difference correfponding to this
expanfion for the mean temperature of the two barome¬
ters may be taken. Thefe logarithmic differences are
contained in the following table, which is carried as far
-as 1120, beyond which it is not probable that any ob-
fervations will be made. The number for each tempera¬
ture is the difference between the logarithms of 30 inches
of the temperature 32, and of 30 inches expanded by
that temperature.
Table B.
255
Temp.
112
102
92
82
72
62
52
42
32
22
12
o
Log. diff.
O.OOOO427
O.OOOO436
O.OOOO444
O.OOOO453
O.OOOO460
O.OOOO468
O.OOOO475
O.OOOO482
O.OOOO489
O.OOOO497
O.OOOO504
Dec. of
Path.
.427
•436
•444
•453
.460
.468
•475
.482
.489
•497
•5°4
Ft. In.
2.7
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.9
2.10
2.10
2.11
2.11
3-o
3*°
A T I C S. 709
It is alfo neceffary to attend to the temperature of Taking
the air j and the change that is produced by heat in its , heights. ^
denfity is of much greater confequence than that of the ^
mercury. The relative gravity of the two, on which The tem-
the fubtangent of the logarithmic curve depends, and perature of
confequently the unit of our fcale of elevations, is much^6 airmuft
more affefted by the heat of the air than by the heat of
the mercury.
This adjuftment is of incomparably greater difficulty
than the former, and we can hardly hope to make it
perfect. We ffiall narrate the chief experiments which
have been made on the expanfion of air, and deduce
from them fuch rules as appear to be necefiary confe-
quences of them, and then notice the circumftances
which leave the matter ilill imperfe£l. 2^8
General Roy compared a mercurial and an air ther- Compari-
mometer, each of which was graduated arithmetically, fon of a
that is, the units of the feales were equal bulks of mer-
cury, and equal bulks (perhaps different from the t°r-thermome*
mer) of air. He found their progrefs as in the follow- ter,
ing table.
Table C.
*59
It has been eftablilhed by many experiments that
equal increments of heat produce equal increments in
the bulk of mercury. The differences of temperature
are therefore expreffed by the fecond column, and may
be confidered as equal *, and the numbers of the third
column muff: be allowed to exprefs the fame tempera¬
tures with thofe of the firft. They direBly exprefs the
bulks of the air, and the numbers of the fourth column
exprefs the difference of thefe bulks. Thefe are evi¬
dently unequal, and (how that common air expands moft
of all when of the temperature 62 nearly.
The next point was to determine what was the afiualr
increafe of bulk by fome known increafe of heat. For mirie an
this purpofe he took a tube, having a narrow bore, and adlual in.
a ball at one end. He meafured with great care the C1’eafe of
capacity of both the ball and the tube, and divided the
tube into equal fpaces which bore a determined pro- increafe 0f
portion to the capacity of the ball. This apparatus heat,
was fet in a long cylinder filled with frigorific mixtures
or with water, which could be uniformly heated up to
the boiling temperature, and was accompanied by a nice
thermometer. The expanfion of the air was meafured
by means of a column of mercury which rofe or funk in
the tube. The tube being of a fmall bore, the mercu¬
ry did not drop out of it; and the bore being chofen
as equable as poffible, this column remained of an uni¬
form length, whatever part of the tube it chanced to
occupy. By this contrivance he was able to examine
the
7io
P N E ,U M
"Barometer, the expanfibillty of air1 of various deivfities. When the
v—-v column of mercury contained only a Angle drop or two,
the air was nearly of the denflty of the external air. If
he wifhed to examine the expansion of air twice or thrice
as denfe, he ufed a column of 30 or,60 inches long j
and to examine the expanfion of air that is rarer than
the external air, he placed the tube with the ball upper-
moft, the open end coming through a hole in the bot¬
tom of the vefiel containing the mixtures or water. By
this pofition the column of mercury was hanging in the
tube, fupported by the prelfure of the atmofphere j and
the elafticity of the included air was meafured by the
difference between the fufpended column and the com¬
mon barometer.
The following table, contains an expanfion of 1000
parts of air, nearly of the common denfity, by. heating it
from o to 212. The firft column contains the height
of the barometer*, the fecond contains this height aug¬
mented by the fmall column of mercury in the tube of
the manometer, and therefore expreffes the denfity of
the air examined; the third contains the total expan¬
fion of 1000 parts ; and the fourth contains the expaw-
fion for i°, fuppofing it uniform'throughout.
Table D.
<t6t
26%
Barom.
Denfity
©f Air
29*95
3°-07
29.48
29.90
29.96
29.90
29-95
30.07
29.48
31-52
3°-77
29.90
3°-73
,30.92
3°-55
30.60
30.60
30.00
Mean J 30.62
Expanfion
of xooo pts
by 2ia°.
483.89
482.IO
480.74
485.86
489.45
476.04
487-55
482.80
489.47
484.21
Expanfion
by i°.
2.2825
2.2741
2.2676
2.2918
2.3087
2-2455
2.2998
2.2774
2.3087
2.2840
Hence it appears, that the mean expanfion of ioqo
parts of air of the denfity 30.62 by one degree of Fah¬
renheit V thermometer is 2.284, or that 1000 becomes
1002.284.
If this expanfion be fuppofed to follow the fame rate
that was obferved in the comparifon of the mercurial and
air thermometer, we ftiall find that the expanfion of a
thoufand parts of air for one degree of heat at the differ¬
ent intermediate temperatures will be as in the follow¬
ing table.
Table E.
Temp.
212
192
172
!52
132
112
92
82
72
Total
Expanfion.
484.210
444.OII
402.452
359-503
315-193
269.513
222.006
'97-195
172.671
mfion I
Expanfion
for
Temp.
2.OO99
2.0080
2-I475
2-2155
2.2840
2-3754
2.4211
2.5124
72
62
52
42
32
22
12
o
Total
Expanfion.
172.671
147.090
I2I.OC3
95-929
7i-7i8
48.421
26.038
Expanficn
for i°.
2.5581
2.6037
2.5124
2.4211
2.3297
2.2383
2.1698
.A T I jC S.
-If we would have a mean expanfion for any particu¬
lar range, as between 12° and 9 2°, which is the moll;
likely-to-comprehend all the geodgetical obfervations,
we need only take the difference of the bulks 26.038
and 222.006.= 195.968, and divide this by the inter¬
val of temperature 8o°, and we obtain 2.4496, or 2.45
for the mean expanfion for 1°.
It would perhaps be better to adapt the table to a
mafs of 1000 parts of air of the ftandard temperature
3 2° j for in its prefent form it Ihows the expanfibility
of air originally of the temperature o. This will be
done with fufficient accuracy by faying (for 212°)
1071.718 : 1484.210=1000. : 13849, and fo of the
reft. Thus we ftiall conftruQ; the following table of the
expanfion of.10,000 parts of air.
Table F.
Taking
heightsa
4 £3
Temp.
212
I92
172
J52
132
112
92
82
72
62
-52
42
32
22
12
O
Bulk.
i3489
*3474
13087
12685
1227 2
11846
114°3
11177
10942
10704
10461
102.26
10000
9783
9574
9331
Differ.
375
387
392
4'13
426
443
226
235
238
243
235
226
217
209
243
Expanf.
for i°.
18.7
'9-3
19.6
20.6
21.3
22.1
22.6
23- 5
23.8
24- 3
23-5
22.6
21.7
20.9
20.2
This will give for the mean expanfion of 1000 parts
6f air between 12° and 92=2.29.
Although it cannot happen that in nieafuring the G#n*ra4i
differences of elevation near the earth’s furface, we fhall Roy’s ex-
have oecafion to employ air greatly exceeding the com- periments
mon denfity, wemayinfert the experiments made by°"“r ,
General Roy on fuch airs. They are expreffed in the Common*
following table -, where column firft contains the den-denfity.
fities meafured by the inches of mercury that they will
fupport when of the temperature 3 2° : column fecond is
the expanfion of 1000 parts of fuch air by being heated
from o to 212} and -column third is the mean expan¬
fion for i°.
Table G.
Mean
Denfity.
IOI.7
92-3
80.5
54-5
49-7
75-7
Expanfion
for 212.
45I-54
423-23
412.09
439-87
443-24
434
Expan f.
for i°.
2.130
I.996
1 -944
2-075
2.091
2.047
We have much more frequent occafion to operate in And on ak
air'that is rarer than the ordinary ftate of the fuperficial below that
atmolpherc. ^-en^t>r*
P N E U M
rometer. atmofpheret General Roy accordingly made many ex-
"-y—* periments on fuch airs. He found in general, that their
expanlibility by heat was analogous to that of air in its
ordinary denfity, being greateft about the temperature
6o°. He found, too, that its expanfibility by heat di-
minilhed with its denfity, but he could not determine
the law of gradation. When reduced to about one-fifth
of the denfity of common air, its expanfion was as fol-
A T I C S.
lows.
Table H.
Temp.
212
192
172
152
I32
112
92
. 72
. 52
32
Bulk.
1141.504
II34-429
1122.165
1108.015
1093.864
1079.636
1064.699
io4J.78'8
1017.845
1000.000
Difference
7-°75
12.264
14.150
I4-15I
14.228
14-93 7
20.911
25-943
Mean expanfion
■of or-
ary dea
ex
Expanfion
for i€
o-354
0.6x3
0.708
0.708
0.711
0.747'
I-°45
x.297
0.892
0.786
From this very extenfive and judicious range of ex¬
periments, it is evident that the expanfibility of air by
heat is-greateft when the air is about its ordinary den-
dimoft, fity, ,and.that in fmall denfities it is greatly diminiflied.
- It appears alfo, that the law of compreflion is altered j
for in this fpecimen of the rare air half of the whole ex¬
panfion happens about the temperature 990, but in air
of ordinary denfity at 105°. This being the cafe, we
fee that the experiments of Mr Amontons, narrated in
the Memoirs of the Academy at Paris 1702, &c. are
not inconfiftent with thofe more perfpicuous experiments
of General'Roy. Amontons found, that whatever was
the denfity of the air, at leaft in cafes much denfer
than ordinary air, the change of 18o° of temperature
increafed its elafticity in the fame proportion : for he
found, that the column of mercury which it fupported
when of the temperature 50, was increafed one-third at
the temperature 212. Hence he haftily concluded, that
its expanfibility w-as increafed in the fame proportion j
but this by no means follows, unlefs we are certain that
in every temperature the elafticity is proportional to the
denfity. This is a point which ftill remains undecided j
and it merits attention, becaufe if true it eftablifties a
remarkable law concerning the aftion of heat, which
would feem to go to prove that the elafticity of fluids
is the property of the matter of fire, whichit fuper-
induces on every body with which it combines in the
form of vapour.
After this account of the expanfion of air, we fee
that the height through which we muft rife in order to
produce a given fall of the-mercury in the barometer, or
the thicknefs of the ftratum of air equiponderant with a
tenth of an inch of mercury, muft increafe with the ex-
2.20
panfion of air 5 and that if 7-;— be the expanfion for
(67
■ height
v ch
1 luces
« ven fall
i heba-
* elrer,
i eafes
1 i the
f s expan-
IOOO
one degree, we muft multiply the excefs of the tempera¬
ture of the air above 32° by 0.00229, and multiply the
produdl by 87, in order to obtain the tlxicknefs of the
5
711
Taking
heights.
•5S--
ftratum where the barometer llands at 30 inches: or
whatever be the elevation indicated by the difference of
the barometrical heights, upon the fuppofition that the
air is of the temperature 3 20, we muft multiply this by
0.00229 f°r every degree that the air is warmer or
colder than 32. The product muft be added to the
elevation in the firft cafe, and fubtra&ed in the latter.
Sir George Shuckburgh deduces 0.0024 from his
experiments as the mean expanfion of air in the ordinary
cafes : and this is probably nearer the truth 5 becaufe
General Roy’s experiments were made on air which was
freer from damp than the ordinary air in the fields : and
it appears from his experiments, that a very minute quan¬
tity of damp increafes its expanfibility by heat in a pro- ’
digious degree.
The great difficulty is how to apply this correftion ; DiffiSltiesr
or rather, how to determine the temperature of the air in this
in thofe extenfive and deep ftrata in which the elevations m0<,e of
are meafured. It feldom or never happens that the ftra-
turn is of the fame temperature throughout. It is com- he'S tS’
monly much colder aloft $ it is alfo of different conftitu-
tions. Below it is warm, loaded with vapour, and very
expanfible j above it is cold, much drier, and lefs ex-
panfible, both by its drynefs and its rarity. The cur*-
rents of wind are often difpofed in ftrata, which * lotig
retain their places ; and as they come from different re*-
gions, are of different temperatures and different confli-
tutions. We cannot therefore determine the expanfion
of the whole ftratum with precifion, and muft content
ourfelves with an approximation : and the heft approxi¬
mation that we can make is, by fuppofing the whole
ftratum of a mean temperature between thofe of its up*
per and lower extremity, and employ the expanfion ccr*
refponding to that mean temperature.
This, however, is-founded on » gratuitous fuppofition, -
that the whole intermediate ftratum expands alike, and
that .the expanfion is equable in the different interme*
diate temperatures -, but neither of thefe- is warranted
by* experiment. Rare air expands lefs than what is
denfer j and therefore the general expanlion of the whole
ftratum renders its denfity mere uniform. Dr Horfley”
has pointed out fome curious confequences of this in
Phil. 1 fanf. vol. Ixiv. There is a particular eleva¬
tion at which the general expanfion, inftead of diminifiiJ
ing the denfity of the air, increafes it by the fuperior
expanfion of what is below ; and we know that the ex¬
panfion is not equable in the intermediate temperatures:
but- we cannot find out a rule which will give us a more
accurate correftion than by taking the expanfion for the
mean temperature.
When we have done this, we have carried the method
of meafuring heights by the barometer as far as it can
go; and this fouree of remaining error makes it needfcfs
to attend to fome other very minute equations which
theory points out. Such is the diminution of the weight
of the mercury by the change of diftance from the centre
of the earth. This accompanies the diminution of the
weight of the air, but neither fo as to compenfate it, nor
to go along with it paripajju.
After all, there are found cafes where there is a re¬
gular deviation from thofe rules, of which we cannot
give any very fatisfa&ory account. Thus it is found,
that in the province of Q^uito in Peru, which is at a
great elevation above the furface of the ocean, the*
heights obtained by thefe rules fall confiderably fhort of
the
7*
PNEUMATIC S.
Barometer, the real heights ; and at Spitsbergen they considerably
exceed them. It appears that the air in the circumpo¬
lar regions is denfer than the air of the temperate cli¬
mates when of the fame heat and under the fame pref-
fure ; and the contrary feems to be the cafe with the air
in the torrid zone. It would feem that the Specific gra¬
vity of air to mercury is at Spitsbergen about i to 10224,
and in Peru about I to 13100. This difference is with
great probability aferibed to the greater drynefs of the
circumpolar air.
This fource of error will always remain ■, and it is
combined with another, which fhould be attended to
by all who pra&ife this method of meafuring heights,
namely, a difference in the fpecific gravity of the quick-
filver. It is thought fufficiently pure for a barometer
when it is cleared of all calcinable matter, fo as not to
drag or fully the tube. In this Slate it may contain a
confiderable portion of other metals, particularly of fil-
ver, bifmuth, and tin, which will diminilh its fpecific
gravity. It has been obtained by revivification from
cinnabar of the fpecific gravity 14.229, and it is thought
very fine if 13.65. George Shuckburgh found the
quickfilver which agreed precifely with the atmofpheri-
cal obfervations on which the rules are founded, to have
the fpecific gravity 13.61. It is feldora obtained fo
heavy. It is evident that thefe variations will change
the whole refults; and that it is abfolutely neceffary, in
order to obtain precifion, that we know the denfity of
the mercury employed. The fubtangent of the atmo-
fpherical logarithmic, or the height of the homogeneous
atmofphere, will increafe in the fame proportion with
the denfity of the mercury ; and the elevation cor-
refponding to one-tenth of an inch of barometric height
will change in the fame proportion.
We muft be contented with the remaining imperfec¬
tions : and we can readily fee, that, for any purpofe
that can be anfwered by fuch meafurements of great
heights, the method is fufficiently exadl j but it is quite
-inadequate to, the purpofe of taking accurate levels, for
direfling the conllruflion of canals, aquedufls, and
other works of this kind, where extreme precifion is ab¬
solutely neceffary.
We (hall now deduce from all that has been faid on
this fubjefl fets of eafy rules for the praflice of this
mode of meafurement, illuftrating them by an example.
I. M. DE Luc's Method.
I. Subtrafl the logarithm of the barometrical height
at the upper ftation from the logarithm of that at the
lower, and count the index and four firft decimal figures
of the remainder as fathoms, the reft as a decimal frac¬
tion. Call this the elevation.
II. Note the different temperatures of the mercury
at the two ftations, and the mean temperature. Mul¬
tiply the logarithmic expanfion correfponding to this
mean temperature (in Table B, p. 709.) by the differ¬
ence of the two temperatures, and fubtrafl the produfl
from the elevation if the barometer has been coldell at
the upper ftation, otherwife add it. Call the difference
or the fum the approximated elevation.
III. Note the difference of the temperatures of the
air at the two fiations by a detached thermometer, and
alfo the mean temperature and its difference from 3 2°.
Multiply this difference by the expanfion of air for the
mean texnpexature, and multiply the approximate eleva-
■S70
Mode of
meafuring
heights by
Ahe baro¬
meter ac¬
cording to
Be Luc,
tion by irt: this produfl, according as the air is above ;•
or below 32°. I lie produfl is the correfl elevation in height.,
fathoms and decimals.
Example.
Suppofe that the mercury in the barometer at the
lower ftalion was at 29.4 inches, that its temperature
was 50°, and the temperature of the air was 45 j and
let the height of the mercury at the upper ftation be
25.19 inches, its temperature ,46, and the temperature
ot the air 39. Thus we have
^ al Hts. Temp, g .
29'4 JO
25.19 46^
I. Log. of 29.4
Log. of 25.119
Mean.
48
Temp. Air. Mean.
45
3°
1.4683473
1.4012282
4a
Elevation in fathoms
II. Expanf. for 48° .473
Multiply - 4
Approximated elevation
III. Expanf. of air at 42 0.00238
X42—S2^1©0
Multiply
By
10
0.0238
671.191
1.892
669.299
669.2990
1.0238
ProdmSl the corredl elevation 685.228
2. Sir George Shuck burgh's Method.
I. Reduce the barometric heights to what they would ami2a^!,
be if they were of the temperature 32°. cording u
II. The difference of the logarithms of the reduced Shuck"
barometrical heights will give the approximate eleva-^ur^’
tion.
III. Cor re 61 the approximated elevation as before.
Same Example.
I. Mean expanf. for i° from Tab. A, iso.ooom
i8°x o.oooi ir x 29.4= - 0.059
Subtradl this from - - 29.4
Reduced barometric height - 29*34I
Expanf. from Tab. A is o.ooom.
14^X0.000111 X 25.19
Subtra6l from
. Reduced barometric height
II. Log. 29.341
L«g- 25.151
0.039
25.190
25.151
1.4674749
M°05553
Approximated elevation - 669.196
III. This multiplied by 1.0238 gives 685.125
Remark. 1. If 0.000101 be fuppofed the mean ex-ReniarfcS
panfion of mercury for 1°, as Sir George Shuckburgh on this d
determines it, the redudtion of the barometric heights thod.
will be had fufficiently exa6l by multiplying the obfer-
ved heights of the mercury by the difference of its tem¬
peratures
P N E U M
irometer. peratures from 3 2, and cutting off four more decimal
-nr—' 1 ,
places j thus 29.4 X  gives the reduced height
v^on
?73
274
neafy
le with-
it the
:Ip of
bles.
:75
IOOOO
29.347, and 25.19 x 7^“§Ives 25-J55» and the dif¬
ference of their logarithms gives 669.4 fathoms for the
approximated elevation, which differs from the one given
above by no more than 15 inches.
Remark 2. If 0.0024 be taken for the expanfien of
air for one degree, the corfeftion for this expanfion will
be had by multiplying the approximated elevation by
12, and this product by the fum of the differences of
the temperatures from 3 2°, counting the difference as
negative when the temperature is below 3 2, and cutting
off four places', thus 669.196 X 12 X 1 3-i-07 X —~—
=: 16.061, which added to 669.196 gives 685.257,
differing from the former only 9 inches.
From the fame premifes we may derive a rule, which
is abundantly exadff for all geodaetical purpofes, and
which requires no tables of any kind, and. is eafily re¬
membered.
1. The height through which wre muff rife in order
to produce any fall of the mercury in the barometer, is
inverfely proportional to the denfity of the air, that is,
to the height of the mercury in the barometer.
2. When the barometer ftands at 30 inches, and the
air and quickfilver are of the temperature 32, we muff
rife through 87 feet, in order to produce adepreflionof
of an inch.
3. But if the air be of a different temperature, this
87 feet muff be increafed or diminifhed by 0.21 of a
foot for every degree ef difference of the temperature
from 3 2°.
4. Every degree of difference of the temperatures of
the mercury at the two ftations makes a change of 2.833
feet, or 2 feet 10 inches in the elevation.
Hence the following rule.
1. Take the difference of the barometric heights in
tenths of an inch. Call this d.
2. Multiply the difference a between 32 and the
mean temperature of the air by 21, and take the fum or
difference of this produft and 87 feet. This is the
height through which we muff rife to caufe the ba¬
rometer to fall from 30 inches to 29.9. Call this
height /i.
Let m be the mean between the two barometric
heights. Then is the approximated elevation
very nearly.
Multiply the difference § of the mercurial tempera¬
tures by 2.83 feet, and add this product to the approxi¬
mated elevation if the upper barometer has been the
warmeft, otherwife fubtraiff it. The refult, that is, the
fum or difference, will be the corrected elevation.
Same Examp/e.
d—294—251.9=42.1
£=874-10 X0.21,= 89.1
29.44-2 c. 19
tnz=--- —-—-=27.29
2
. , . 30X42.1X89.1 r .
Approx, elevation = J  —, =4123.24 xeet.
Vol. XVI. Part II. ^ 9
27S
Correfled elevation in feet - - 4111.92
Ditto in fathoms _ - - - 685.32
Differing from the former only 15 inches.
This rule may be expreffed by the following fimple
and eafily remembered formula, where a is the diffe¬
rence between 32° and the mean temperature of the air,
d is the difference of barometric heights in tenths of an
inch, m is the mean barometric height, 5 the difference
between the mercurial temperatures, and E is the cor-
re£f elevation. E= o.2ia)d 2.83.
tn J
We (hall now conclude this fubjedl by an account of Heights of
fome of the moft remarkable mountains, &c. on the^® moft
earth, above the furface of the ocean, in feet.
277
remarkable
mountains.
Alp
1
Pyrenees
Mount Puy de Domme in Auvergne, the firft
mountain meafured by the barometer
Mount Blanc
Monte Rofa
Aiguille d’Argentine
Monafiery of St Bernard
Mount Cenis
Pic de los Reyes'
Pic du Medi
Pic d’Offano
Canegou
Lake of Geneva
Mount AStna - - -
Mount Vefuvius
Mount Hekla in Iceland
Snewdown -
Ben More - - -
Ben Lawers - - -
Ben Gloe -
Schehallion
Ben Lomond -
Tin to -
Table Hill, Cape of Good Hope
Gondar city in Abyflinia
Source of the Nile
Pic of Teneriffe
Chimborazo - - >
Cayambourow -
Antifan a - - - -
Pinchinha (fee Peru, N0 56.)
City of Quito (fee ditto)
Cafpian fea below the ocean
5088
15662
15084
13402
7944
9212
7620
9300
11700
8544
1232
I09f4-
393s
4887
3555
3723
3858
3472
3461
3180
2342
3454
8440
8082
14026
W595
I939I
19290
1C670
9977
306
This lad is fo fingular, that it is neceffary to give the
authority on which this determination is founded. It
is deduced from nine years obfervations with the baro¬
meter at Aftrachan by Mr Lecre, compared with a fe-
ries of obfervations made with the fame barometer at
St Peterfburgh. ' .
This employment of the barometer has caufed it to improved
become a very intereffing inftrument to the philofopherbarometers,
and to the traveller j and many attempts have beenw4^.a<^e"
made of late to improve it, and render it more portable.
The improvements have either been diredted to the en¬
largement of its range, or to the more accurate meafure-
ment of its prefent fcale. Of the firft kind are Hooke’s
wheel barometer, the diagonal barometer, and the hori¬
zontal barometer, dcfcribed in a former part of this
4 X work.
7H
Barometer.
PNEUMATICS.
Plate
flcccxxxx,
$£• 73-
579
Inferior to
the com¬
mon one
for the
rneafure-
ment of
heights.
280
How the
common
one might
be impro¬
ved..
work. See BAROMETER. In that place are alfo deferi-
bed two very ingenious contrivances of Mr Rownings,
which are evidently not portable. Of all the barometers
with an enlarged fcale the beft is that invented by Dr
Hooke in 1668, and defcribcd in thePhil.Tranf.N°i 85.
The invention was alfo claimed by Huyghens and by
De la Hire j but Hooke’s was publiilted long before.
It confifts of a compound tube AB CDEFG (fig. 730>
of which the parts AB and DE are equally wide, and
EFG as much narrower as we would amplify the fcale.
The parts AB and EG muft alfo be as perfectly cy¬
lindrical as poffible. The part HBCDI is filled with
mercury, having a vacuum above in AB. IF is filled
with a light fluid, and FG with another light fluid which
will not mix with that in IF. The ciflern G is of the
fame diameter as AB. It is eafy to fee that the range
of the feparating furface at F muft be as much greater
than that.of the furface I as the area of I is greater
than that of F. And this ratio is in our choice. This
barometer is free from all the bad qualities of thofe for¬
merly defcribed, being molt delicately moveable j and
is by far the fitteft for a chamber, for amufement, by
obfervations on the changes of the atmofpheric preffure.
The {lighteft breeze caufes it to rife and fall, and it is
continually in motion.
But this, and all other contrivances of the kind, are
inferior to the common barometer for meafurement of
heights, on account of their bulk and cumberfome-
nefs : nay, they are inferior for all philofophical pur-
pofes in point of accuracy ; and this for a reafon that
admits of no reply. Their fcale muft be determined in
all its parts by the common barometer •, and, therefore,
notwithftanding their great range, they are fufceptible
of no greater accuracy than that with which the fcale
of a common barometer can be obferved and meafured.
This will be evident to any perfon who will take the
trouble to confider how the points of their fcale muft
be afcertained. The moft accurate method for gradu¬
ating fuch a barometer as we have now defcribed would
be to make a mixture of vitriolic acid and water, which
fhould have ^ of the denfity of mercury. Then, let
a long tube ftand vertical in this fluid, and connedl its
upper end with the open end of the barometer by a
pipe which has a branch to which we can apply the
mouth. Then if we fuck through this pipe, the fluid
will rife both in the barometer and in the other tube j
and to inches rife in this tube will correfpond to one
inch defcent in the common barometer. In this manner
may every point of the fcale be adjurted in due propor¬
tion to the reft. But it ftill remains to determine what
particular point of the fcale correfponds to fome deter¬
mined inch of the common barometer. This can only
be done by an attual comparifon ; and this being done,
the whole becomes equally accurate. Except therefore
for the mere purpofe of chamber amufement, in which
cafe the barometer laft defcribed has a decided prefer¬
ence, the common barometer is to be preferred ; and
our attention flmuld be entirely direfted to its improve¬
ment and portability.
For this purpofe i.t fhould be furnifhed with two mi-
crofcopes or magnifying glaflV, one of them ftationed
at the beginning of the fcale ; which fhould either be
moveable, fb that it may always be brought to the fur¬
face of the mercury in the ciflern, or the ciftern fhould
b® fo contrived that its furface may always be brought
to the beginning of the fcale. The glafs will enable us Air iu
to fee the coincidence with accuracy. The other micro- Motion,
fcope nmft be moveable, fo as to be fet oppofite to the '“““V'—'
furface of the mercury in the tube 5 and the fcale fhould
be furnifired with a vernier which divides an inch into
toco parts, and be made of materials of:which we know
the expanfion with great precition.
For an account of many ingenious contrivances to ^8*
make the inftruments accurate, portable, and commodi¬
ous, con full Magellan, Differ, de diverfes hijir. de Phyf.;
Phil. Tranf. Ixvii. Lxviii. •, Journ. de Phyf. xix. 108. 346.
xvi. 392. xviii. 391. xxi. 436. xxu. 390. •, Sulzer, AB.
He’vet. iii. 259.*, De Luc, Recherche, fur les Modifica¬
tions de PHtmofphere, i. 401. ii. 459, 490. De Luc’s
feems the moft fimple and perfect of them all. Cardinal
de Luynes (Mem. Par. 1768)3 Pnnf. De Luc, Re-
cherches, § 63.3 Van Swinden’s Poftiones Phi/fcce;
Com. Acad. Petrop. i. j Com. Acad. Petr op. Nov. ii.
200 viii.
Thus wre have given an elementary account of the
diftinguifhing properties of air as a heavy and compref-
ftble fluid, and of the general phenomena which are
immediate confequences of thefe properties. This we
have done in a fet of propofitions analogous to thofe
which form the doftrines of hydroftatics. It remains to
confider it in another point of view, namely, as moveable
and inert. The phenomena confequent on thefe proper¬
ties are exhibited in the velocities which air acquires by
preffure, in the refiftance which bodies meet with to their
motion through the air, and in the impreffion which air
in motion gives to bodies expofed to its aftion.
We {hall firft confider the motions of which air is
fufceptible when the equilibrium of preffure (whether
a riling from its weight or its elafticity) is removed 3 and
in the next place, we {hall confider its adtion on folid
bodies expofed to its current, and the refiftance which
it makes to their motion through it. 252
In this confrderation we (hall avoid the extreme of Do&rine oJ
generality, which renders the difeuflion too abftradl and air 111 ac‘
difficult, and adapt our inveftigation to the circum-^^j^^
fiances in which compreffible fluids (of which air is a(f|ed onb;
taken for the reprefentative) are moft commonly found, equal and
We fhall confider air therefore as it is commonly found Para1.^
in acceffible fituations, as added on by equal and parallel &ravity*
gravity ; and we fhall confider it in the fame order in
which water is treated in a fyftem of hydraulics. jSj
In that fcience the leading problem is to determine analogous 1
with what velocity the water will move through a given ^ ^
orifice when impelled by fome known preffure 3 and it^terin
has been found, that the beft form in which this moll hydraulic.*,
difficult and intricate propofition can be put, is to de¬
termine the velocity of water flowing through this ori¬
fice when impelled by its weight alone. Having de¬
termined this, we can reduce to this cafe every queftion
which can be propofed 3 for, in place of the preffire
of any pifton or other mover, we can always fubftitute
a perpendicular column of water or air whofe weight
fhall be equal to the given preffure.
The firft problem, therefore, is to determine with The velo-
what velocity air will rufh into a Void when impelled city with
by its weight alone. This is evidently analogous to thew^^?J[4 ’
hydraulic problem of water flowing out of a veffel. avoid by
And here we muft be contented with referring our its own
readers to the folutions which have been given of that weight,
problem,
Air in
Motion
P N E U M
problem, and tbe demonftration that it flows with the
velocity which a heavy body would acquire by falling
from a height equal to the depth of the hole under the
furface of the water in the vefiel. In whatever way we
attempt to dtmonftrate that propofition, every Hep, nay,
every word, of the demonftration applies equally to the
air, or to any fluid whatever. Or, if our readers fnould
with to fee the conne&iun or analogy of the cafes, w'e
only defire them to recollefl an undoubted maxim in
the 'cience of motion, that vjhen the moving force and
the matter to be moved vary in the fame proportion, the
velocity voill be the fame. If therefore there be fimilar
veffels of air, water, oil, or any other fluid, all of the
height of a homogeneous atmofphere, they will all run
through equal and fimilar holes with the fame velocity ;
for in whatever proportion the quantity of matter mo¬
ving through the hole be varied by a variation of den-
fity, the preiTure which forces it out, by aiding in cir-
cumftances perfeiUy fimilar, varies in the fame propor¬
tion by the fame variation of denfity.
We muft therefore aftume it as the leading propofi¬
tion, that air rufhes from the atmofphere into a void with
the velocity which a heavy body would acquire by falling
from the top of a homogeneous atmofphere.
It is known that air is about 840 times lighter than
water, and that the preffure of the atmofphere fupports
water at the height of 33 feet nearly. The height there¬
fore of a homogeneous atmofphere is nearly 33 X 840,
or 27720 feet. Moreover, to know' the velocity ac¬
quired by any fall, recolleii that a heavy body by fall¬
ing one foot acquires the velocity of 8 feet per fecond ;
and that the velocities acquired by falling through
different heights are as the fquare roots of the heights.
Therefore to find the velocity correfponding to any
height, expreffed in feet per fecond, multiply the fquare
root of the height by 8. We have therefore in the
prefent inftance \—s/27270, =r8x 166.493, ==:I332
feet per fecond. This therefore is the velocity with
which common air will ruih into a void ; and this may
be taken as a ftandard number in pneumatics, as 16 and
32 are ftandard numbers in the general fcience of me¬
chanics, exprefling the aftion of gravity at the furface
of the earth.
It is eafy to fee that greater precifion is not neceffary
in this matter. The height of a homogeneous atmo¬
fphere is a variable thing, depending on the temperature
*f the air. If this reafon feeras any objeftion againft
the ufe of the number 1332, we may retain SyTI in
place of it, where H expreffes the height of a homoge¬
neous atmofphere of the given temperature. A varia¬
tion of the barometer makes no change in the velocity,
nor in the height of the homogeneous atmofphere, be-
eaufe it is accompanied by a proportional variation in
the denfity of the air. When it is increafed for in¬
ftance, the denfity is alfo increafed r'g-j and thus the
expelling force and the matter to be moved are changed
in the fame proportion, and the velocity remains the
fame, N. B. We do not here confider the velocity
which the air acquires after its iffuing into the void by
its continual expanfion. This may be afeertained by
the 39th prop, of Newton’s Principia, b. i. Nay, which
appears very paradoxical, if a cylinder of air, communi¬
cating in this manner with a void, be compreffed bv a
pifton loaded with a weight, which preffes it down as
the air flows out, and thus keep it of the fame denfity,
285
A T T C S.
the velocity of efflux will ftill be the fame,however great
the preiTure may chance to be : for the firft and imme¬
diate effect of the load on the pifton is to reduce the air
in the cylinder to fuch a denfity that its elafticity fhal-1
exactly balance the load ; and becaufe the elaiticity of
air is proportional to its denfity, the denfity of the air
will be increafed in the lame proportion with the load,
that is, with the expelling power (for we are neglect¬
ing at prefent the weight of the included air as too in-
confiderable to have any fenfible effect). Therefore,
fince the matter to be moved is increafed in the fame
proportion with the prelfure, the velocity will be the
fame as before.
It is equally eafy to determine the velocity with which an<^ f*16
the air of the atmofphere will ruih into a fpace contain- vel(’city
ing rarer air. Vv hatever may be the denfity of this air, 4 rufhes in¬
ks elafticity, which follows the proportion of its denfity, to a fpace
will balance a proportional part of the preffure of the containing
atmofphere j and it is the excefs of this laft only whichiarer air*-
is the moving force. The matter to be moved is the
fame as before. Let D be the natural denfity of the
air, and 2 the denfity of the air contained in the veffel
into which it is fuppofed to run, and let P be the
preffure of the atmofphere, and therefore equal to the
force which impels it into avoid; and let w be the
force with which this rarer air would run into a void.
We have D : P : a-, and Now the moving
El
D*
Laftly, let V be the velocity of air rufliing into a void,
and v the velocity with which it will ruth into this ra¬
refied air.
It is a theorem in the motion of fluids, that the
preffures are as the fquares of the velocities of efflux.
P&
Therefore P : P—— — V* : v2. Hence we derive
D*
force in the prefent inftance is P — v, or P —
D
v2=Vt x i-
T, and
We do not
here confider the refiftance which the air of the atmo¬
fphere will meet with from the inertia of that in the
veffel which it muft difplace in its motion.
Here we fee that there will always be a current into
the veffel while £ is lefs than D.
We alfo learn the gradual diminution of the velocity
as the veffel fills; for £ continually increafes, and there¬
fore I — — continually diminifhes.
It remains to determine the time t expreffed in fe-
conds, in which the air of the atmofphere will How into
this veffel from its ftate of vacuity till the air in the vef¬
fel has acquired any propofed denfity 3.
For this purpofe let H, expreffed in feet, be the
height through which a heavy body muft fall in order
to acquire the velocity V, expreffed alfo in feet per fe¬
cond. This we fiiall txprefs more briefly in future, by
calling it the height producing the velocity V. Let
C repiefent the capacity of the veffl l, expreffed in cubic
feet, and O the area or fection of the orifice, exprtffed
in fuperficial or fquare feet ; and let the natural denfity
of the air be D.
Since the quantity of aerial matter contained in a
veffel depends on the capacity of the veffel and the
denfity of the air jointly, we may exprefs the air which
4X2 would
s P N E U
would fill tliis veffel by the fymbol CD when the air
is in its ordinary ftate, and by C 2 when it has the
denfity S. In order to obtain the rate at which it fills,
we tnuft take the fluxion of this quantity C d. This is
C £ ; for C is a conllant quantity, and ^ is a variable or
flowing quantity.
But we alfo obtain the rate of influx by our know¬
ledge of the velocity, and the area of the orifice, and
tli£ denfity. The velocity is V, or 8 \/H, at the firfl:
inflant 5 and when the air in the veffel has acquired the
denfity 5, that is, at the end of the time t, the velocity
ov8x'liJD~^
M A T I C S.
is 8 a/H,
or 81/ H
D’
v/D—2
!/D
D
The rate of influx therefore (which may be con¬
ceived as meafured by the little mafs of air which will
enter during the time t with this velocity) will be
Sv'HODyT)”^ /
VD
or S^HOv/D^/D—2/, multi¬
plying the velocity by the orifice and the denfity.'
Here then we have two values of the rate of influx.
By Hating them as equal u7e have a fluxionary equation,
from which we may obtain the fluents, that is, the
time t in feconds neceflary for bringing the air in the
veflel to the denfity or the denfity £ which will be
produced at the end of any time t. We have the equa¬
tion 8 v'HO a/D VD—£ t—C S'. Hence we derive
• C ^
t—-Q y _ Of this the fluent is
8-v/HOv/DA VD—3
-186
Illuftrated
Iby ex¬
amples in
slumbers.
is an inch fquare, or of a fquare foot,
time in feconds of completely filling it will be
111J2
or 1.7297''. If the hole is only
of completely filling the hogfhead will be 173" very
nearly, or fomething lefs than three minutes.
If we make the experiment with a hole cut in a thin
plate, we {hall find the time greater nearly in the pro¬
portion of 63 to 100, for reafons obvious to all who
have ftudied hydraulics. In like manner we can tell the
time neceflary for bringing the air in the veffel to of
its ordinary denfity. The only variable part of our
fluent is the coefficient — s/O-l or >y/1—Let S
then \/1—and 1— \/ ]
Air in
Motion.
be
izz——tx \/D—£-4-A., in which A is a con-
4V/HOv/D 1
ditional conftant quantity. The condition which de¬
termines it is, that t muff be nothing when § is nothing,
that is, when f°r this is evidently
the cafe at the beginning of the motion. Hence it
follows, that the conffant quantity is and the
complete fluent, fuited to the cafe, is
4v/HOy'D x v 1'v/-D—*
The motion ceafes when the air in the veffel has ac¬
quired the denfity of the external air ; that is, when
c c
0—D, or when t=z ———- V a/D, =   .
4\/HQi/ D ^ v ’ 4VHO
Therefore the time of completely filling the veffel is
C
4v/HO'
Let us illuftrate this by an example in numbers.
Suppofing then that air is 840 times lighter than wa¬
ter, and the height of the homogeneous atmofphere
27720 feet, we have ^x/H=666. Let us further fup-
pofe the veffel to contain 8 cubic feet, which is nearly
a wine hogfliead, and that the hole by which the air of
the ordinary denfity, which we {hall make =1, enters
and the time is 86t" very nearly when the hole is -^o of
an inch wide. Fig; 8r.
Let us now fuppofe that the air in the veffel ABCD
(fig. 81.) is compreffed by a weight adling on the cover TJ16
AD, which is moveable down the veffel, and is thus
expelled into the external air. additional
The immediate effeft of this external preffure is to impure of
comprefs the air and give it another denfity. Thea we‘gllt
denfity D of the external air correfponds to its Preffure
P. X'Ot the additional preffure on the cover of theveflel.
veffel be p, and the denfity of the air in the vefiel
be d. We {hall have P : P-f-p—H : d; and therefore
p=rPX —Then, becaufe the preffure which ex¬
pels the air is the difference between the force which
compreffes the air in the veffel and the force which
compreffes the external air, the expelling force is
p. And becaufe the quantities of motion are as the
forces which fimilarly produce them, we ffiall have
P : P X — jy - — MV : mv ; where M and m exprefs
the quantities of matter expelled, V expreffes the ve¬
locity with which air rulhes into a void, and v ex¬
preffes the velocity fought. But becaufe the quanti¬
ties of aerial matter which iffue from the fame orifice in
a moment are as the denfities and velocities jointly,
we {hall have MV : /« ?/—DVV : dvv, “DV* : dv%.
Therefore P :y;——zrDV1 : dv. Hence vve deduce
D
d—D
d
We may have another expreffion of the velocity with¬
out confidering the denfity. We had P : P-}-p=D : d:
therefore dz
DxP+P
and d— D
 D X P +p
P
■ D,
_D x P-fp—DP
~ p >
P+P—p _ P .
P-fP ’ p-pp'
and
d—D _D x P+p—DP _
d
DxP+P
therefore v~'V x
/;
p
is a very fimple and convenient expreffion.
P+P
which
Let us now confider the ef- cf au
Then the
8'
666’
666   /iy/ • tijc muc is oiuy ^ of a
fquare inch, that is, ii its fide is V© of an inch, the time
3
duced by its weight only
fed! of its elafticity. elafticity
Let ABCD (fig. 8r.) be a veffel containing air ofconjiclert
any denfity D. This air is in a Hate of compreffion }
and if the compreffing force be removed it will expand,
and its elafticity will diminifli along with its denfity.
Its elaflieity in any ftate is meafured by the force which
keeps it in that ftate. The force which keeps common
air in its ordinary denfity is the weight of the atmo¬
fphere, and is the fame with the weight of a column of
water 33 feet high. If therefore we fuppofe that this
_ _ f)Q
Hitherto we have confidered the motion of air as pro-,^ ^
air.
P N E U M
Air in air, inftead of being confined by the top of the veffel, is
Motion, prefied down by a moveable plfton carrying a column of
water 33 feet high, its elafticity will balance this pref-
fure as it balances the preffure of the atmofphere j and
as it is a fluid, and propagates through every part the
preffure exerted on any one part, it will prefs on any
little portion of the veflel by its elafticity in the fame
manner as when loaded with this column.
The confequence of this reafoning is, that if this
fmall portion of the veffel be removed, and thus a paf-
fage be made into a void, the air will begin to flow out
with the fame velocity with which it would flow when
impelled by its weight alone, or with the velocity ac¬
quired by falling from the top of a homogeneous atmo¬
fphere, or 1332 feet in a fecond nearly.
But as foon as fome air has come out, the denfity of
the remaining air is diminiftied, and its elafticity is di-
minilhed} therefore the expelling force is diminilhed.
But the matter to be moved is diminiftied in the very
fame proportion, becaufe the denfity and elafticity are
found to vary according to the fame law •, therefore the
velocity ivill continue the fame from the beginning to
the end of the efflux.
This may be feen in another way. Let P be the
preffure of the atmofphere, which being the counter¬
balance and meafure of the initial elafticity, is equal to
the expelling force at the firft inftant. Let D be the
initial denfity, and V the initial velocity. Let d be its
denfity at the end of the time t of efflux, and v the
contemporaneous velocity. It is plain that at the end
P d
of this time we ftiall have the expelling force tt—-
for D : d—V
D
Thefe forces are proportional to the quantities of mo¬
tion which they produce *, and the quantities of motion
are proportional to the quantities of matter M and m
and the velocities V and ^jointly : therefore we have
P : = MV : m v. But the quantities of matter
W'hich efcape through a given orifice are as the denfities
and velocities jointly 5 that is, M : m~T>\T : dv : there-
P d Pi/DV*
fore P : yyzrDV1: </*>»,and P X ^ =Pr/V%
and Vs—u2, and V—and the velocity of efflux is
conftant. Hence follows, what appears very unlikely
at firft fight, that however much the air in the veffel is
condenfed, it will always iffueinto a void with the fame
velocity.
In order to find the quantity of aerial matter which
will iffue during any time t, and confequently the den-
%of the remaining air at the end of this time, we
ind thV * ’ mu^ §et ^ie ra^e efflux* 1° the element of time
11 entity at 1 there iffues (by 'what has been faid above) the bulk
lie end of . 8 -y/HO t (for the velocity V is conftant) j and there¬
fore the quantity S\/ HO J t. On the other hand, the
quantity of air at the beginning was CD, C being the
capacity of the veffel} and when the air has acquired
the denfity d, the quantity is C d, and the quantity
run out is CD—C d: therefore the quantity which has
run out in the time t muft be the fluxion of CD—C d,
-or —C d. Therefore we have the equation 8 y/HOif t~
2S9
Quantity
if air idli¬
ng into a
ioid in a
hat ti;
A T I C S.
—C d, and
The fluent of this is tz
C __g/
:8v/HOX /
7*7
Air in
Motion.
:87H0l0g'A Th!sfluent
muft be fo taken that t may beraro when r/—D. There-
C D
fore the correct fluent will be t log. —, for
’81/ HO & d'
D
190
log.-iyzrlcg. I, = 0. We deduce from this, that it
requires an infinite time for the whole air of a veffel to
flow out of it into a void.v N. B. By log. </, &c. is
meant the hyperbolic logarithm of d, &c.
Let us next fuppofe that the veffel, inftead of letting wheiTthe
out its air into a void, emits it into air of a lefs den-veffel emits
fity, which remains conftant during the efflux, as we h int0 rarer
may fuppofe to be the cafe when a veflel containingair’
condenfed air emits it into the furrounding atmo¬
fphere. Let the initial denfity of the air in the veffel
be and that of the atmofphere D. Then it is plain
PD
that the expelling force is P y, and that after
, . . .Vd PD
the time t it is -s- — —r—.
Wa have therefore P—
PD
P d PD
— Lr-MV
: V* : d Whence we
291
. Ar/—D
derive lurrY V — .
dl—V>
From this equation we learn that the motion will be
at an end when D : and if o~D there can be no
efflux.
To find the relation between the time and the den-Relation
fity, let H as before be the height producing the velo- between
city V. The height producing the velocity of efflux
v muft be H and the little parcel of air ^into a"
d ^ % void,
which will flow out in the time t 'will be rrS^/HO d t
^ . On the other hand, it is =: — C d.
d'h—D
Hence we deduce the fluxionary equation t rr
CJY-
-D —</
VhOv,2Xn/(Z"_d</
ed fo as to make t—O when r/—is t
■S—AD-f-vA —DS'
The fluent of this, correfl-
X lo,
g- (
d—\V>+Jdl—Ddl
C t/2—D
Sv/HOvA'
And the time of coin-
^ . • C V %—D ,
pleting the efflux, when tf—D, is Xl°g>
f £—|D —D
V i-D
Laftly, let ABCD, CFGH (fig. 82.) be two veffeleFig. 82.
containing airs of different denfities, and communicating ^ 292
by the orifice C, there will be a current from the veffel
containing the denfer air into that containing the rarer : ^Jr'into
fuppofe from ABCD into CFGH. rarer air,
Let P be the elaftic force of the air in ABCD,
its denfity, and V its velocity, and D the denfity of the
air in CFGH, And, after the time let the denfity
o£
718
PNEUMATICS.
Air in 0f the air in ABCD he its veloosity v, and the denfi-
Motion. ty. 0£ tjie ajr jn cpqjj be ^ The expelling force from
—v—' pj)
ABCD will be P — at the firft inllant, and at the
Therefore we
J f 1 . . . P (7 P £
end or the time (it will be — jj .
PT> p n p ^
iliall have P   : —1~ Qy* \ a v*. which
& O ^ ^ y ’
gives “yrrV X —jyy and the motion will ceafe
when ^—q.
Let A be the capacity of the firfl: veffel, and B that
of the fecond. We have the fecond equation AQ-}-
BDrr Ay-{“fi and therefore ——.
Subftituting this value of ^ in the former value of v,
, J Q,£B (y—D)—A (Q—y) ] .. ,
vHH—U)
gives the relation between the velocity v and the den-
fity q.
In order to afcertain the time when the air in
ABCD has acquired the denlity <7, it will be convenient
to abridge the work bv fome fubftitutions. There¬
fore make Q (B + A)=M, BQD + BQ^N, Bp—
N
BD—Pi and — —i7i. Then, proceeding as before, we
obtain the fluxionary equation
V h.y y
Ap—A7——A7, whence t— -——A  
VHOv/MX,/^
of which the fluent, completed fo that t—o when o=(),
is /- x Iop. (Q~ifn+ V(Q*'v Q)) ^
8 \/HO ‘ \ q—\m.y yJ(cfTnq') /'
When air Some of thefe queftions are of difficult folution, and
bvdorce^as are n?*' ^recluen^ ui"e in the more important and
in bellows. u^ua^ applications of the doftrines of pneumatics, at
lead in thilr prefent form. L he'cafes of greateft ufe are
w hen the air is expelled from a veflel by an external
force, as when bellows are worked, whether of the or¬
dinary form or confining of a cylinder fitted with a move-
able pifton. 1 his lafl cafe merits a particular confide-
ration j and, fortunately, the inveftigation is extremely
eafy.
’Shg. Sz. ^ Bet AD, fig. 81. be confidered as a pifton moving
downward with the uniform velocity/, and let the area
of the pifton be n times the area of the hole of efflux,
then the velocity of efflux arifing from the motion of
- the pifton will be nf Add this to the velocity V pro¬
duced by the elafticity of the air in the firft queftion,
and the whole velocity will be V-f 7;/ It will be the
vame in the other. 1 he problem is alfo freed from the
confideration of the time of efflux. For this depends
now on the velocity of the pifton. It is ftill, however,
a vei y intricate problem to afcertain the relation bet wreen
. e and the denfity, even though the pifton is mov¬
ing uniformly ; for at the beginning of the motion the
air is of common denfity. As the pifton defcends, it
both expels and compreffes the air, and the denfity of
ine aw m the veflel varies in a very intricate manner, as
xiio its refiftance or reaftion on the pifton. For this
rcaion, a pifton which moves uniformly by means of an
external force will never make an uniform blaft by fuc- Air ;n
ceffive ftrokes } it will always be weaker at the beofn. Motioiu
ning of the ftroke. The belt way for fecuring an uni-
form blaft is to employ the external force only for lift¬
ing up the pifton, and then to let the pifton defcend by
its own weight. In this way it will quickly fink down,
com prefling the air, till its denfity and correfponding
elafticity exactly balance the weight of the pifton. Af¬
ter this the pifton will defcend equably, and the blaft
will be uniform. We (hall have occafion to confider
this more particularly under the head of PNEUMAT1CAL
Machines. 1 hefe obiervations and theorems will ferve
to determine the initial velocity of the air in all im¬
portant cafes of its expiufion. The philofopher will learn
the rate of its efflux out of one veflel into another ; the
chemift will be able to calculate the quantities of the
difterent gafes which are employed in the curious expe¬
riments of the ingenious but unfortunate Lavoifier on
Combuftion, and will find them extremely different from
what he fuppofed •, the engineer will learn how to pro¬
portion the motive force of his machine to the quantity
of aerial matter which his bellows muft fupply. But
it is not enough, for this purpofe, that the air begin
to iffue in the proper quantity j we muft fee whether it
be not affeftcd by the circumftances of its fubfequent
paffage.
All the modifications of motion which are obferved PaflEe of
in water conduits take place alio in the paflage of air air througl
through pipes and holes of all kinds. There is the P'Pes> &c- i
fame diminution of quantity paffing through a hole in fi,rr,llar)t0 ^
a thin plate that is obferved in water. ° We know of wTterTrj
that (abating the fmall effe6I of fri&ion) water if-conduits,
fues with the velocity acquired by falling from the
furface j and yet if we calculate by this velocity and
by the area of the orifice, we fhall find the quantity
of water deficient nearly in the proportion of 63 to ICO.
Ibis is owing to the water preffing towards the orifice
from all fides, which occafions a contraction of the jet.
The fame thing happens in the efflux of air. Alfo the
motion of water is greatly impeded by all contractions
of its paffage. Fhefe oblige it to accelerate its veloci¬
ty, and therefore require an increafe of preffure to force
it through them, and this in proportion to the fquares
of the velocities. Thus, if a machine ivorking a pump
caufes it to give a certain number of ftrokes in a mi¬
nute, it will deliver a determined quantity of water in
that time. Should it happen that the paflage of the
water is contracted to one half in any part of the ma¬
chine (a thing which frequently happens at the valves),
the water muft move through this contraction with twice
the velocity that it has in the reft of the paflage. This
will require four times the force to be exerted on the
pifton. Nay (which will appear very odd, and is ne¬
ver fufpeCted by engineers), if no part of the paffage is
narrower than the barrel of the pump, but on the con¬
trary a part much wider, and if the conduit be again
contracted to the width of the barrel, an additional force
muft be applied to the pifton to drive the water through
this paffage, which would not have been neceffary if the
paflage had not been widened in any part. It will re¬
quire a force equal to the weight of a column of water
of the height neceffary for communicating a velocity, rhe
fquare of which is equal to the difference of the fquares
of the velocities of the water in the wide and the nar*
row part of the conduit.
TH©
Air in
Motion-
*95
ir fuffers
e fane
P N E U M
Tile fame tiling tab's place in tiie motinn of air, and
therefore all contractions and dilatations mult be care¬
fully avoided, when we want to prefcrve the velocity un¬
impaired.
Air alfo fuffers the fame retardation in its motion
A T I C S. 7j9
No very difiinft theory can be delivered on this fob- Air in
but we may derive eonfiderable afTiitance
in un-
Motion.
, along P5Pes* BV not knowing, or not atiendjng to that,
m pipe" enginee.rs of the firlt reputation have been prodigiously
water, difappointed in their expectations of the quantity of air
d the which will be delivered by long pipes. Its extreme
Iceflityof mobility and lightnefs hindered them from liifpeding
;endmg jt wou]g fufper ariy fenfible retardation. Dr Pa¬
pin, a moft ingenious man, propofed this as the molt
cffeftual method of transferring the aCtion of a moving
power to a great diftance. Suppofe, for in dance, that
it was required to raife water out of a mine by a wa¬
ter-machine, and that there was no foil of water nearer
than a mile’s diltance. He employed this water to
drive a pilton, which fliould comprefs the air in a cy¬
linder communicating, by a long pipe, with another
cylinder at the mouth of the mine. This fecond cy¬
linder had a pifton in it, whofe rod was to give motion
to the pumps at the mine. He expe&ed, that as foon
as the pition at the water-machine had compreffed the
air fufficiently, it would caufe the air in the cylinder
at the mine to force up its pifton, and thus work the
pumps. Dr Hooke made many objections to the
method, when laid before the Royal Society, and it
was much debated there. But dynamics was at this
time an infant fcience, and very little underlined. New¬
ton had not then taken any part in the bufinefs of the
fociety, other wife the true objections would not have
efcaped his fagacious mind. Notwithstanding Papin’s
great reputation as an engineer and mechanic, he could
not bring his fcheme into ufe in England ; but after¬
wards, in France and in Germany, where he fettled, he
got fome perfons of great fortunes to employ him in this
projeCt ; and he erected great machines in Auvergne
and Weftphalia for draining mines. But, fo far from
being effective machines, they would not even begin to
move. He attributed the failure to the quantity of air
in the pipe of communication, which mult be condenfed
before it can condenfe the air in the remote cylinder.
This indeed is true, and he fhould have thought of this
earlier. He therefore diminilhed the fize of this pipe,
and made his water-machine exhauft inftead of conden-
ling, and had no doubt but that the iromenfe velocity
with which air rufties into a void would make a rapid
and effectual communication of power. But he was
equally difappointed here, and the machine at the mine
flood flill as before.
Near a century after this, a very intelligent engineer
attempted a much more feafible thing of this kind at an
iron-foundery in Wales. He ereCted a machine at a
powerful fall of water, which worked a fet of cylinder
bellows, the blowpipe of which was conducted to the
(liftance of a mile and a half, where it was applied to a
blaft furnace. But notwithftanding every care to make
the conducting pipe very air-tight, of great ftze, and as
ftnootb as pofiible, it would hardly blow out a candle.
J-he failure was aferibed to the impoflibility of making
the pipe air-tight. But, what was furprifing, above ten
minutes elapled after the aCHon of the piftons in the bel¬
lows before the leaft wind could be perceived at the end
of the pipe ; whereas the engineer expected an interval
®f 6 feconds only.
4
,    
derftanding the caufes of the obftruction to the motion fio 1
of water in long pipes, by confide ring what happens No dilHudl
to air. J. he elalticity of the air, and its great com-theory on
p re (Ability, have given us the di ft in Cleft notions of flui-thisfubJe<ft
dity in general, (howing us, in a way that can hardly
be controverted, that the particles of a fluid are kept
at a diftance from each other, and from other bodies,
by the corpuicular forces. We (hall therefore take this
opportunity to give a view of the (ubjeCt, which did not
occur to us when treating of the motion ol water in pipes,
referving a further difeuffion to the articles River, M a-
TER-lVorks.
i he writers on hydrodynamics have always confider- Howfluiis
ed the ooftruftion to the motion of fluids along canals are ob-
of any kind, as owing to fumething like the friction by ftmfted in
which the motion of (olid bodies on each other is ob- ninvni"
ft ruffed j but wre cannot form to ourlclves any diftinft lia[3 ^ Ca*'
notion of refemblance, or even analogy between them.
j. he faff is, however, that a fluid running along a ca¬
nal has its motion obftruffed ; and that this obltruc-
tion is greateft in the immediate vicinity of the folid
canal, and gradually diminifties to the middle of the
ftream. It appears, therefore, that the parts of fluids
can no more move among each other than among (b^
lid bodies, without fuffering a diminution of their mo¬
tion. The parts in phyfical contaff with the fides and
bottom are retarded by tbefe immoveable bodies. The
particles of the next flratum of fluid cannot preferve
their initial velocities without overpafling the particles
of the firft ftratum ; and it appears from the faff that
they are by this means retarded. They retard in the
fame manner the particles of the third ftratum, and fo
on to the middle ftratum or thread of fluid. It ap¬
pears from the faff, therefore, that this fort of friffion
is not a confequence of rigidity alone, but that it is
equally competent to fluids. Nay, fince it is a matter
of taff in air, and is even more remarkable there than
in any other fluid, as we (hall fee by the experiments
which have been made on the fubjeff ; and as our ex¬
periments on the compreflion of air (Row us the par¬
ticles of air ten times nearer to each other in fome cafes
than in others (viz. when we fee air a thoufand times
denfer in thefe cafes), and therefore force us to ac¬
knowledge that they are not in contaCt; it is plain that
this obftruffion has no analogy to friffion, which fup-
pafes roughnefs or inequality of furface. No fucb ine¬
quality can be fuppofed in the furface of an aerial par¬
ticle ; nor W'ould it be of any fervice in explaining the
obftruffion, fince the particles do not rub on each other
but pafs each other at fome fmall and imperceptible dif¬
tance.
Wre muft therefore have recourfe to fome other mode
of explication. We (hall apply this to air only in this
place j and, fince it is proved by the incontrovertible
experiments of Canton, Zimmerman, and others, that
water, mercury, oil, &c. are alfo compreflible and per-
feffly elaftic, the argument from this principle, which
is conclufive in air, muft equally explain the fimilar
phenomenon in hydraulics.
The moft highly poliflied body which we know muft:
be conceived as having an uneven furface when we
compare it with the fmall fpaces in which the corpuf-
cular forces are exerted ; and a quantity of air moving
in.
*97 r
Particles of
air refill a
change
from a rec¬
tilineal to
an undula¬
ting mo¬
tion,
29S
hnd the
undulation
of the fe-
cond row
of particles
will be lei's
than that
-of the firft.
Fig- 83.
299
Each par¬
ticle ap¬
pears to
lofe no ve
locity.
P N E U M
in a policed pipe may be compared to a quantity of
fmall Ibot Hiding down a channel with undulated fides
and bottom. The row of particles immediately conti¬
nuous to the fides will therefore have an undulated mo¬
tion : but this undulation of the contiguous particles
of air will not be fo great as that of the furface
along which they glide ; for not only every motion
requires force to produce it, but alfo every change of
motion. The particles of air refill this change from
a rectilineal to an undulating motion 3 and, being ela-
ftic, that is, repelling each other and other bodies,
they keep a little nearer to the furface.as they are pal¬
ling over an eminence, and their path is lefs incuryated
than the furface. The difference between the motion of
the particles of air and the particles of a fluid quite un-
elaftic is, in this refpeft, fomewhat like the difference be¬
tween the motion of a fpring-carriage and that of a com¬
mon carriage. When the common carriage paffes along
a road not perfeClly fmooth, the line deferibed by the
centre of gravity of the carriage, keeps perfe&ly pa¬
rallel to that deferibed by the axis of the wheels, ri¬
ling and falling along with it. Now let a fpring body
be put on the fame wheels and pafs along the fame road.
When the axis rifes over an eminence perhaps half an
inch, finks down again into the next hollow, and then
rifes a fecond time, and fo on, the centre of gravity of
the body deferibes a much ftraighter line j for upon the
riling of the wheels, the body refills the motion, and
compreffes the fprings, and thus remains lower than it
would have been had the fprings not been ihterpofed.
In like manner, it does not fink fo low as the axle does
when the wheels go into a hollow. And thus the mo¬
tion of fpring-carriages becomes lefs violently undulated
than the road along which they pafs. This illuftration
will, we hope, enable the reader to conceive how the
deviation of the particles next to the fides and bottom,
of the canal from a re&ilineal motion is lefs than that of
the canal itfelf.
It is evident that the fame reafoning will prove that
the undulation of the next row of particles will be lefs
than that of the firft, that the undulation of the third
row will be lefs than that of the fecond, and fo on, as
is reprefented in fig. 83. And thus it appears, that
while the mafs of air has a progreflive motion along the
pipe or canal, each particle is deferibing a waving line,
of which a line parallel to the direftion of the canal is
the axis, cutting all thefe undulations. This axis of
•each undulated path will be ftraight or curved as the
canal is, and the excurfions of the path on each fide of
its axis will be lefs and lefs as the axis of the path is
nearer to the axis of the canal.
Let us now fee what fenfible effect this will have 5 for
all the motion which we here fpeak of is imperceptible.
It is demonftrated in mechanics, that if a body moving
with any velocity be deftefted from its rectilineal path
by a curved and perfectly fmooth channel, to which the
reCtiiineal path is a tangent, it will proceed along this
channel with undiminifhed velocity. Now the path, in
the prefent cafe, may be confidered as perfectly fmooth,
finee the particles do not touch it. It is one of the un¬
dulations which we are confidering, and we may at pre¬
fent conceive this as without any fubordinate inequali
ties, There ftiould not, therefore, be any diminution
of the velocity. Let us grant this of the abfolute ve¬
locity of the particle , but what we obferve is the ve-
A T I C S.
locity of the mafs, and we judge of it perhaps by the
motion of a feather carried along by it. Let us fup-
pofe a fingle atom to be a fenfible objeCt, and let us at¬
tend to two fuch particles, one at the fide, and the other
in the middle : although we cannot perceive the undu¬
lations of the**' particles during their progreffive mo¬
tions, we fee the progreflive motions themfelves. Let
us fupppfe then that the middle particle has moved
without any undulation whatever, and that it has ad¬
vanced ten feet. ’ The lateral particle will alfo have
moved ten feet; hut this has not been in a Itraight line.
It will not be fo far advanced, therefore, in the direc¬
tion of the canal } it will be left behind, and will ap¬
pear to us to have been retarded in its motion : and in
like manner each thread of particles will be more and
more retarded (apparently only) as it recedes farther
from the axis of the canal, or what is ufually called the
thread of the ftream.
And thus the obferved faCt is fhown to be a necef-ButJon tlit
fary confequence of what we know to be the nature of whole the
a compreflible or elaftic fluid; and that without fup-undulatory
poling any diminution in the real velocity of each par-a
tide, there will be a diminution of the velocity of the ftru^}0I>i
fenfible threads of the general ftream, and a diminution
of the whole quantity of air which pafles along it dur-
ing a given time.
Let us now fuppofe a parcel of air impelled along
a pipe, which is perfe&hj fmooth, out of a larger
veffel, and iffuing from this pipe with a certain, velocity.
It requires a certain force to change its velocity in the
veffel to the greater velocity which it has in the pipe.
This is abundantly demonftrated. How long foever
we fuppofe this pipe, there will be no change in the ve¬
locity, or in the force to keep it up. But let us fup¬
pofe that about the middle of this pipe there is a part of
it which has fuddenly got an undulated furface, how¬
ever imperceptible. Let us further fuppofe that the
final velocity of the middle thread is the fame as be¬
fore. In this cafe it is evident that the fum total of the
motions of all the particles is greater than before, btf
caufe the abfolute motions of the lateral particles is
greater than that of the central particle, which we fup¬
pofe the fame as before. This abfolute increafe of mo¬
tion cannot be without an increafe of propelling force :
the force a&ing now, therefore, muft be greater than
the force a&ing formerly. Therefore, if only the for¬
mer force had continued to ad, the fame motion of
the central particle could not have been preferved, or
the progreflive motion of the whole ftream muft be di-
minifhed.
And thus we fee that this internal infenfible undula¬
tory motion becomes a real obftrudtion to the fenfible
motion which we obferve, and occafions an expence of
power. 301
Let us fee what will be the confequence of extend-An addl¬
ing this obftruaing furface further along the canal, tioaal for
It muft evidently be accompanied by an augmentation^®^
of the motion produced, if the central velocity be fiij|ving a gi|
kept up ; for the particles which are now in eontaft ven pro-
with the fides do not continue to occupy that fituation;greffiveri
the middle particles moving fafter forward get overtion,
them, and in their turn come next the tide ; and as
they are really moving equally fall, but not in the di¬
rection into which they are now to be forced, force is
neceffary for changing the direction alfo; and this is in
addition
*
Air in
Motion.
302
ifpecially
hrough
my con-
:ra(^ion-
303
There are
sefides
>ther ob-
tnuftions,
is angular
ifperitics,
fcc.
304
md a
.vant of
lorfeft flui-
!ity.
305
rhe law of
'etardation
:?lending
:rom the
ixis to the
ides cf the
Uanal un-
1 Known.
P N E U M
addition to tlie force neceiTary for producing the undula¬
tions fo minutely treated of. The confequence of this
J muft be, that an additional force will be neceffary for
preferving a given progreffive motion in a longer ob-
Jlrutting pipe, and that the motion produced in a pipe of
greater length by a given force will be lefs than in a
{hotter one, and the efflux will be diminifhed.
There is another confideration which muft have an
influence here. Nothing is more irrefragably demon-
ftrated than the neceffity of an additional force for pro¬
ducing an efflux through any contraction, even though
it fliould be fucceeded by a dilatation of the paflage.
Now both the”inequalities of the fides and the undula¬
tions of the motions of each particle are equivalent to a
fucceffion of contractions and dilatations; although each
of thefe is next to infinitely fmall; their number is alfo
next to infinitely great, and therefore the total effeCt
may be fenfible.
We have hitherto fuppofed that the abfolute velocity
of the particles was not diminifhed ; this we did, ha¬
ving altumed that the interval of each undulation of
the fides was without inequalities. But this was gra¬
tuitous : it was alfo gratuitous that the fides were only
undulated. We have no reafon for excluding angular
afperities. Thefe will produce, and moft certainly of¬
ten produce, real diminutions in the velocity of the
contiguous particles; and this muft extend to the very
axis of the canal, and produce a diminution of the fum
total of motion : and in order to preferve the fame fen¬
fible progreflive motion, a greater force muft be em¬
ployed. This is all that can be meant by faying that
there is a refiftance to the jnotion of air through long
pipes.
There remains another caufe of diminution, vit,. the
want of perfeft fluidity, whether arifing from the dif-
femination of folid particles in a real fluid, or from the
vifeidity of the fluid. We {hall not infift on this at pre-
fent, becaufe it cannot be fhown to obtain in air, at
leaft in any cafe which deferves confideration. It feems
of no importance to determine the motion of air hur¬
rying along with it foot or duft. The effeCt -of fogs on
a particular modification of the motion of air has been
confidered under Acoustics. What has been faid on
this fubjeCt is fufficient for our purpofe, as explaining
the prodigious and unexpeded obftruftion to the paf-
fage of air through long and narrow pipes. We are able
to colled an important maxim from it, viz. that all pipes
of communication fliould be made as wide as circum-
ftances will permit ; for it is plain that the obftrudtion
depends on the internal furface, and the force to over¬
come it muft be in proportion to the mafs of matter
which is in motion. The firft increafes as the diameter
of the pipe, and the laft as the fquare. 1 he obftrue-
tioni muft therefore bear a greater proportion to the
whale motion in a fmall pipe than in a large one.
It were very defirable to know the law by which the
retardation extends from the axis to tire fides of the ca¬
nal, and the proportion which fubfifts between the
lengths of the canal and the forces neceflary for overcom¬
ing the obftruftions when the velocity is given; as alfo
whether the proportion of the obftrudtion to the whole
motion varies with the velocity : but all this is unknown.
It does not, however, feem a defperate cafe in air : we
know pretty diftinftly the law of aftion among its par¬
ticles, viz. that their mutual-repulfions are inverfely as
Vox.. XVI. Part II.
721
Air in
Motion.
A T I C S.
their diftances. This promifes to enable us to trace the
progrefs of undulation from the fides of the canal to the
3X1S» ^06
We can fee that the retardations will not increafe foit will not
faft as the fquare of the velocity. Were the fluid in-increafe fo
compreffible, fo that the undulatory path of a particle^ 35 ^
were invariable, the deflefting forces by which each in-^ vejoc‘_
dividual particle is made to deferibe its undulating pathties.
would be precifely fuch as arife from the path itfelf and
the motion in it ; for each particle would be in the fitu-
ation of a body moving along a fixed path. But in a
very compreffible fluid, fuch as air, each particle may be
confidered as a folitary body, a&uated by a proje&ile
and a tranfverfe force, arifing from the adtion of the ad¬
joining particles. Its motion muft depend on the ad-
juftment of thefe forces, in the fame manner as the ellip¬
tical motion of a planet depends on the adjuftment of
the force of projeftion, with a gravitation inverfely pro¬
portional to the fquare of the diftance from the focus.
The tranfverfe force in the prefcnt cafe has its origin in
the preffure on the air which is propelling it along the
pipe : this, by fqueezing the particles together, brings
their mutual repulfion into a£fion. Now it is the pro¬
perty of a perfect fluid, that a preffure exerted on any
part of it is propagated equally through the whole fluid ;
therefore the tranfverfe forces which are excited by this
preffure are proportional to the preffure itfelf; and we
know that the preffures exerted on the furface of a fluid,
fo as to expel it through any orifice, or along any canal,
are proportional to the fquares of the velocities which
they produce. Therefore, in every point of the undu¬
latory motion of any particle, the tranfverfe force by
which it is defledled into a curve is proportional to the
fquare of its velocity. When this is the cafe, a body
would continue to deferibe the fame curve as before ;
but by the very compreffion, the curvatures are increa-
fed, fuppofing them to remain fimilar. This would re¬
quire an increafe of the tranfverfe forces ; but this is not
to be found : therefore the particle will not deferibe a
fimilar curve, but one which is lefs incurvated in all its
parts; con fequently the progreffive velocity of the whole,
which is the only thing perceivable by us, will not be fo
much diminifhed ; that is, the obftrucHons will not in¬
creafe fo faff as they would otherwife do, or as the fquares
of the velocities.
This reafoning is equally applicable to all fluids, and
is abundantly confirmed by experiments in hydraulics,
as we fliall fee when confidering the motion of rivers.
We have taken this opportunity of delivering our notions
on this fub]fccl ; becaufe, as we have often faid, it is in
the avowed diferete eonftitution of air that we fee moft
diftinffly the-operation of thofe natural powers which
conftitute fluidity in general.
We would beg leave to mention a form of experiment iVT. Boflut’s
for di{covering the law of retardation with confiderableexPen-
accuracy. Experiments have been made on pipes ard ment' 011
canals.
Mr Boffut, in his Hydrodynamique, has given c” naL?^
a very beautiful fet made on pipes of an inch and two
inches diameter, and 200 feet long : but although thefe
experiments are very inftrmftive, they do not give us
any rule by which we can extend the refult to pipes of
greater length and different diameters.
Let a fmooth cylinder be fet upright in a very large
vefltl or pond, and be moveable round its axis: let it be
turned round by means of a wheel and pulley with an
4 Y uniform
7 22
Velocity of
Wind.
PNEUMATICS.
308
Wind is
air in mo¬
tion.
3°9
The veloci¬
ty of wind
not eafily
ctiicovered.
uriiform moltott and determined velocity. It will ex-
, ert the fame force on the contiguous w^ater which would
be exerted on it by water turning round it with the
fame velocity : and as this water would have its motion
gradually retarded by the fixed cylinder, fo the moving
cylinder will gradually communicate motion to the fur¬
rounding water. We fhould obferve the water gradually
dragged round by it} and the vortex would extend far¬
ther and farther from it as the motion is continued, and
the velocities of the parts of the vortex will be lefs and
lefs as we recede from the axis. Now, we apprehend,
that when a point of the furface of the cylinder has
moved over 200 feet, the motion of the water at differ¬
ent diltances from it will be fimilar and proportional to,
if not precifely the fame with, the retardations of water
flowing 200 feet at the fame diitance from the fide of a
canal: at any rate, the two are fufceptible of an accu¬
rate comparifun, and the law of retardation may be ac¬
curately deduced from obfervations made on the motions
of this vortex.
Air in motion is a very familiar objeft of obfervation }
and it is interefting. In all languages it has got a name ;
we call it wind: and it is only upon reflection that we
confider air as wind in a quiefcent date. Many perfons
hardly know what is meant when air is mentioned} but
they cannot refufe that the blaft from a bellows is the
expulfion of what they contained 5 and thus they learn
that wind is air in motion.
It is of confequence to know the velocity of wind ;
but no good and unexceptionable method has been con¬
trived for this purpofe. The beft feems to be by mea-
furing the fpace palled over by the fhadow of a cloud }
but this is extremely fallacious. In the firft place, it is
certain, that although we fuppofe that the cloud has the
velocity of the air in which it is carried along, this is not
an exacl meafure of the current on the furface of the
earth ; we may be almoft certain that it is greater : for
air, like all other fluids, is retarded by the fidesand bot¬
tom of the channel in which it moves. But, in the next
place, it is very gratuitous to fuppofe, that the velocity
of the cloud is the velocity of the ft rat urn of air between
the cloud and the earth } we are almoft certain that it is
not. It is abundantly proved by Dr Hutton of Edin¬
burgh, that clouds are always formed when two parcels
of air of different temperatures mix together, each con¬
taining a proper quantity of vapour in the ftate of che¬
mical folution. We know that different ftrata of air will
frequently flow in different direftions for a long time.
In 1781 while a great fleet rendezvouzed in Leith
Roads during the Dutch war, there was a brifk eafterly
wind for about five weeks} and, during the laft fortnight
of this period, there was a brilk wefterly current at the
1 icight of about three-fourths of a mile. This was diftinct-
ly indicated by frequent fleecy clouds at a great diftance
above a lower ftratum of thefe clouds, which were driv¬
ing all this time from the eaftward. A gentleman who
was at the liege of Quebec in 17 59, informed us, that
one day while there blew a gale from the weft, fo hard
.hat the (hips at anchor in the river were obliged to
ftrike their topmafts, and it was with the utmoft diffi¬
culty that fome well-manned boats could row againft it,
carrying fome artillery ftores to a poll above the town,’
'everal {hells were thrown from the town to deftroy the
boats : one of the ffiells burft in the air near the top of
fts flight, which was about half a mile high. The
fmoke of this bomb remained in the fame fpot for above Velocity of
a quarter of an hour, like a great round ball, and gra- Wind,
dually diffipated by diffufion, without removing many v"1 “
yards from its place. When, therefore, twro ftrata of air
come from different quarters, and one of them flows
over the other, it will be only in the contiguous furfaces
that a precipitation of vapour will be made. This will
form a thin fleecy cloud } and it will have a velocity
and direction which neither belongs to the upper nor to
the lower ftratum of air which produced it. Should
one of thefe ftrata come from the eaft and the other
from the weft with equal velocities, the cloud formed
between them will have no motion at all } ftiould one
come from the eaft, and the other from the north, the
cloud will move from the north-eaft with a greater velo¬
city than either of the ftrata. So uncertain then is the
information given by the clouds either of the velocity
or the direftion of the wind. A thick fmoke from a
furnace will give us a much lefs equivocal meafure ; and
this, combined with the effedls of the wind in impelling
bodies, or defledling a loaded plane from the perpendicu¬
lar, or other effedts of this kind, may give us meafures of
the different currents of wind with a precifion fufficient
for all practical ufes.
I he celebrated engineer Mr John Smeaton has given, The refult
in the 51ft volume of the Philofophical Tranfadtions, the of Smea-
velocities of wind correfponding to the ufual denomina-ton’s ?b'
tionsin our language. Thefe are founded on a great
number of obfervations made by himfelf in the courfe of head,
his pradlice in eredting wind-mills. They are contained
in the following table.
Miles
per hour.
3
4
5
10
J5
20
25
3°
35
40
45
5°
60
80
100
Feet
per fecond.
M7
2-93 7
4.40 j-
5*87 7
7*33 3
14.677
22. 3
29*34 7
36-67 s
44.01
5r*34
58.687
66.01 J
73*35 7
88.02 \
1
H7.36
146.70
Names.
Light airs.
Breeze.
Brilk gale.
Frelh gale.
Strong gale.
Hard gale.
Storm.
f Hurricane, tearing up
< trees, overturning build-
(.ings, &c.
See alfo fome valuable experiments by him on this
fubjedl, Philofophical Tranfadtions 1760 and 1761. -n
One of the moft ingenious and convenient methods Account rf
for meafuring the velocity of the wind is to employ its Dr Linfi s
preffure in Supporting a column of water, in the fame ar,em°me*
way as Mr Pitot meafures the velocity of a current of
water. We believe that it was firft propofed by Dr
James Lind of Windfor, a gentleman eminent for his
great knowledge in all the branches of natural fcience,
and for his ingenuity in every matter of experiment or
pradlieal application.
His anemometer (as thefe inftruments are called) con- Fjg ^
lifts
Velocity
Wind.
3U
t is inge.
ious and
feful.
S- 85.
P N E U M
of fifts of a glafs tube of the form A BCD (fig. 84.), open
at both ends, and having the branch AB at right angles
to the branch CD. This tube contains a few inches of
water or any fluid (the lighter the better) 5 it is held
with the part CD upright, and AB horizontal and in
the direflion of the wind ; that is, with the mouth A
fronting the wind. The wind a61s in the way of pref-
fure on the mr in AB, compreffes it, and caufes it to
prefs on the furface of the liquor ; forcing it down to F,
while it iifes to E in the other leg. The velocity of
the wind is concluded from the difference E/betw'een
the heights of the liquor in the legs. As the wind does
not generally blow with uniform velocity, the liquor is
apt to dance in the tube, and render the obfervation dif¬
ficult and uncertain : to remedy this, it is proper to con-
traft very much the communication at C between the
two legs. If the tube has half an inch of diameter (and
it fhould not have lefs), a hole of TV of an inch is large
enough ; indeed the hole can hardly be too fmall, nor
the tubes too large.
This inftrument is extremely ingenious, and will un¬
doubtedly give the proportions of the velocities of dif¬
ferent currents with the greateft precifion ; for in what¬
ever way the preffure of wind is produced by its mo¬
tion, we are certain that the different preffures are as the
fquares of the velocities : if, therefore, we can obtain one
certain meafure of the velocity of the wind, and obferve
the degree to which the preffure produced by it raifes
the liquor, we can at all other times obferve the pref¬
fures and compute the velocities from them, making pro¬
per allowances for the temperature and the height of
the mercury in the barometer j becaufe the velocity will
be in the fubduplicate ratio of the denfity of the air in-
verfely when the preffure is the fame.
It is ufually concluded, that the velocity of the wind
is that which wTould be acquired by falling from a height
which is to E/as the weight of water is to that of an
equal bulk of air. Thus, fuppofing air to be 840 times
lighter than water, and that E/is of an inch, the
velocity will be about 63 feet per fecond, which is that
of a very hard gale, approaching to a ftorm. Hence we
fee by the bye, that the fcale of this inftrument is ex¬
tremely fhort, and that it would be a great improvement
of it to make the leg CD not perpendicular, but very
much Hoping 5 or perhaps the following form of the
inftrument will give it all the perfedlion of which it is
capable. Let the horizontal branch AB (fig. 83.) be
contracted at B, and continued horizontally for feveral
inches BG of a much fmaller bore, and then turned
down for turn or three inches GC, and then upwards
with a wide bore. To ufe this inftrument, hold it with
the part DC perpendicular 5 and (having (heltered the
mouth A from the wind) pour in water at D till it ad¬
vances along GB to the point B, which is made the
beginning of the fcale j the water in the upright branch
Handing at in the fame horizontal line with BG.
Now, turn the mouth A to the wind ; the air in AB
will be compreffed and will force the wTater along BG
to F, and caufe it to rife from jfto E ; and the range
/E will be to the range BF on the fcale as the feClion
of the tube BG to that of CD. Thus, if the width of
DC be f an inch, and that of BG we (hall have 25
inches in the fcale for one inch of real preffure E f.
But it has not been demonftrated in a very fatisfac-
tory manner, that the velocity of the wind is that ac-
A T I C S. 72 ;
quired by falling through the height of a column of air Velocity of
whofe weight is equal to that of the column of water ^
Ey] Experiments made with Pitot’s tube in currents _v
of water (how that feveral corrections are neceffary for
concluding the velocity of the current from the eleva¬
tions in the tube : thefe corrections may however be
made, and fafely applied to the prefent cafe ; and then
the inftrument will enable us to conclude the velocity
of the wind immediately, without any fundamental com-
parifon of the elevation, with a velocity aClually deter¬
mined upon other principles. The chief ufe which we
have for this information is in our employment of wind
a3 an impelling power, by which we can aCIuate ma¬
chinery or navigate fhips. Thefe are very important
applications of pneumatical doCtrines, and merit a par¬
ticular confideration ; and this naturally brings us to the
laft part of our fubjeCt, viz. the confideration of the im-
pulfe of air on bodies expofed to its aClion, and the re-
fiftance which it oppofes to the paflage of bodies through
" 3I3
This is a fubjeCI of the greateft importance j being This fub-
the foundation of that art which has done the greateft 5s moft
honour to the ingenuity of man, and the greateft fervice
to human fociety, by conneCling together the moft dif- f0 diffieitfo
tant inhabitants of this globe, and making a communi¬
cation of benefits which would otherwife have been im-
poflible ; we mean the art of Navigation or Seamanftiip.
Ol- all the machines which human art has conftru&ed, a
ftiip is not only the greateft and moft magnificent, but
alfo the moft ingenious and intricate ; and the clever
feaman poffeffes a knowledge founded on the moft diffi¬
cult and abftrufe dodlrines of mechanics. The feaman
probably cannot give any account of his own fcience 5
and he poffeffes it rather by a kind of intuition than by
any procefs of reafoning j but the fuccels and efficacy of
all the mechanifm of this complicated engine, and the
propriety of all the manoeuvres which the feaman prac-
tifes, depend on the invariable laws of mechanics ; and
a thorough knowledge of tkefe would enable an intelli¬
gent perfon not only to underftand the machine and the
manner of working it, but to improve both.
Unfortunately this is a fubjedt of very great difficulty;
and although it has employed the genius of Newton, and
he has confidered it with great care, and his followers
have added more to his labours on this fubjecf than on
any other, it ftill remains in a very imperfedl ftate.
A minute difcuftion of this fubjedf cannot therefore
be expedied in a work like this : we muft content our-
felves with fuch a general ftatement of the moft approv¬
ed dodtrine on the fubjedt as (hall enable our readers to
conceive it diftindly, and judge with intelligence and
confidence of the pradlical dedudh'ons which may be
made from it. 314
It is evidently a branch of the general theory of the Dipulfe
impulfe and refiftance of fluids, which belongs to Hy-a"d refi'.
DRAULICS, but will be better underftood when the me-^nCU
chanical properties of compreffible fluids have been con-
fidered. It was thought very reafonable to fuppofe that
the circumftances of elafticity would introduce the fame
changes in the impulfe and refiftance of fluids that it
does in folid bodies. It would greatly divert the atten¬
tion from the diftindtive properties of air, if we ffiould
in this place enter on this fubjedl, which is both exten-
five and difficult. We reckon it better therefore to take
the whole together: this we (hall do under the article
4 Y 3 Resistance
724
Velocity of
Wind.
Fig. 86.
.
Air mo¬
ving with
a double
velocity
will gene¬
rally impel
as the
fquare of
that velo¬
city,
P N E U M
RESISTANCE of Fluids, and confine ourfelves at prefent
to what relates to the impulfe and refiftance of air
alone j anticipating a few of the general propofitions
of that theory, but without demonllration, in order to
underhand the applications which may be made of it.
Suppofe then a plane furfaee, of which aC (fig* 86.)
is the fedtion, expofed to the action of a ftream of wind
blowing in the direction QC, perpendicular to a C.
The motion of the wind will be obltrudled, and the fur-
face a C preffed forward. And as all impulfe or prek
fure is exerted in a diredtion perpendicular to the fur-
face, and is refitted in the oppofite diredtion, the furface
will be impelled in the diredtion CD, the continuation
of QC. And as the mutual adtions of bodies depend on
their relative motions, the force adting on the furface
a C will be the fame, if we fhall fuppofe the air at rett,
and the furface moving equally fvvift in the oppofite
diredtion. The refiftance of the air to the motion of
the body will be equal to the impulfe of the air in the
former cafe. Thus refiftance and impulfe are equal and
contrary.
If the air be moving twice as faft, its particles will
give a double impulfe j but in this cafe a double num¬
ber of particles will exert their impulfe in the fame time:
the impulfe will therefore be fourfold; and in general
it will be as the fquare of the velocity: or if the air
and body be both in motion, the impulfe and refiftance
will be proportional to the fquare of the relative velo¬
city.
This is the firft propofition on the fubjedl, and it ap¬
pears very confonant to reafon. Ihere will therefore
be fome analogy between the force of the air’s impulfe
or the refiftance of a body, and the weight of a column
of air incumbent on the furface-, for it is a principle
in the action of fluids, that the heights of the columns
of fluid are as the fquares of the velocities which their
preflures produce. Accordingly the fecond propofition
is, that the abfolute impulfe of a ftream of air, blowing
perpendicularly on any furface, is equal to the weight
of a column of air which has that iurface for its bafe,
and for its height the fpace through which a body muft
fall in order to acquire the velocity of the air.
Thirdly, Suppofe the furface AC equal to a C no
longer to be perpendicular to the ftream of air, but in¬
clined to it in the angle ACD, which we ftiall call the
angle of incidence ; then, by the refolution of forces, it
follows, that the adiion of each particle is diminiftied in
the proportion of radius to the fine of the angle of in¬
cidence, or of AC to AL, AL being perpendicular to
CD.
Again: Draw AK parallel to CD. It is plain that
jio air lying farther from CD than KA is will ftrike
the plane. The quantity of impulfe therefore is dimi¬
niftied ftill farther in the proportion of «C to KC, or
of AC to AL. Therefore, on the whole, the abfolute
impulfe is diminiftied in the proportion of AC* to AL*:
hence the propofition, that the impulfe and refiftance of
a given furface are in the proportion of the fquare of the
fine of the angle of incidence.
Fourthly, This impulfe is in the diredtion PL, per¬
pendicular to the impelled furface, and the fuifaes tends
to move in this diredtion: but fuppofe it moveable only
in fome other diredtion PO, or that it is in the diredtion
PO that wewith to empl'.v this impulfe, its action is
therefore obliquej and if wt with to know the intenfity.
34
A T I C S.
of the impulfe in this diredtion, it tnuft be diminiftied Velocity <,!
ftill farther in the proportion of radius t > the cofine of the Wind,
angle LPO or fine of CPO. Hence the general pro- * 1
pofition : The effeElive impulfe is as the furface, as the
fquare of the velocitij of the wind, as the fquare of the fine
of the angle of incidence, and as the fine of the obliquity
jointly, which we may exprefs by the fymbol R=:S-V**
/?«.*• Vfm. O; and as the impulfe depends on the den-
fity of the impelling fluid, we may take in every circum-
ftance by the equation R—S'D-V2-I ’ fm. O. If
the impulfe be eflimated in the diredtion of the ftream,
the angle of obliquity ACD is the fame with the angle
of incidence, and the impulfe in this diredtion is as the
furface, as the fquare of the velocity, and as the cube of'
the angle of incidence jointly.
It evidently follows fromthefe premifes, that if AC A'
be a wedge, of which the bafe AA; is perpendicular to
the wind, and the angle ACA'bileaed by itsdireaion,
the direa or perpendicular impulfe on the bafe is to the
oblique impulfe on the fides as radius to the Iquare of
the fine of half the angle ACA'.
The fame muft be affirmed of a pyramid or cone
ACA', of which the axis is in the direaion of the
wind.
If AC A' (fig. 87.) refrefent the feaion of a folid,Fig. 87.
produced by the revolution of a curve line APC round
the axis CD, which lies in the direaion of the wind, the
impulfe on this body may be compared with the direa
impulfe on this bafe, or the refiftanee to the motion of
this body through the air may be compared with the
direa refiftance of its bafe, by refolving its furface into
elementary planes P/>, which are coincident with a tan¬
gent plane PR, and comparing the impulfe on Pp with
the direa impulfe on the eorrefponding part K £ of the
bafe.
In this way it follows that the impulfe on a fphere
is one half of the impulfe on its great circle, or on the
bafe of a cylinder of equal diameter.
We ffiall conclude this {ketch of the doarine with a
very important propofition to determine the moft advan¬
tageous pofition of a plane furface, when required^ to
move in one direaion while it is impelled by the wind
blowing in a difterent direaion. Thus, . jjg
Let AB (fig. 88.) be the fail of a (hip, CA the di- Importari i,
reaion in which the wind blows, and AD the line of
the ffiip’s courfe. It is required to place the yard AC
in fuch a pofition that the impulfe of the wind upon the
fail may have the greateft effea poffible in impelling
the ffiip along AD.
Let AB, A b, be two pofitions of the fail very near Fig. 8S. )
the beft pofition, but on oppofite fides of it. Draw BE,
be, perpendicular to CA, and Bh, bf, perpendicular to
AD, calling AB radius5 it is evident that BE, BE,
are the fines of impulfe and obliquity, and that the ef-
feaive impulfe is BE* X BE, or b e% X bf This muft be
a maximum.
Let the points B, by continually approach and ulti¬
mately coincide j the chord /'B will ultimately coincide
with a ftraight line CBD touching the circle in B; the
triangles CBE, c b e are fimilar, as alfo the triangles
DBF, D bf: therefore BE*:£c*=BC* : be1, and
BE b/rr:RD : bD', and BE* X BE : be'x 'bf—CF*1 X
BD : cb1 x b D. 1 l erc fore when AB is in the beft po-
fitton, fo that BE*xBF is greater than bely,bf we
{hail have CB X BD greater thanCi/* x ort.B* X BD
is-
PNEUMATICS.
725
elocity of is alfo a maximum. This we know to be the cafe when
Wind. CB=2BD : therefore the fail muft be fo placed that
— v     jhe tangent of the angle of incidence (hall be double of
the tangent of the angle of the fail and keel.
In a common windmill the angle CAD is neeelfarily
a right angle ; for the fail moves in a circle to which
the wind is perpendicular: therefore the bed angle of
the fail and axle will be 54°.44 nearly.
Such is the theory of the refiftance and impulfe of
the air. It is extremely (imple and of eafy application.
In all phylical theories there are affumptions which de¬
pend on other principles, and thofe on the judgment of
the naturalift *, fo that it is always proper to confront
the theory with experiment. There are even circum-
ftances in the prefent cafe which hare not been attended
to in the theory. When a dream of air is obdru&ed by
a folid body, or when a folid body moves along in air,
the air is condenfed before it and rarefied behind.
There is therefore a preffure on the anterior parts arifing
from this want of equilibrium in the eladicity of the air.
This mud be fuperadded to the force arifing from the
impetus or inertia of the air. We cannot tell with pre-
cifion what may be the amount of this condenfation ;
it depends on the velocity with which any condenfation
diffufes itfelf.
Alfo, if the motion be fo rapid that the preffure of
the atmofphere cannot make the air immediately occupy
the place quitted by the body, it will fudain this pref¬
fure on its fore part to be added to the other forces.
317 f Experiments on this fubjett are by no means nume-
heprinci- rous j at ^eal^ experiments as can be depended on
alexptri- for the foundation of any pradlical application. J he
lentson f5rft that have this charafler are thofe publifhed by Mr
Jlub- Robins in 1742 in his treatife on Gunnery. They were
repeated with feme additions by the Chevalier Borda,
and fome account of them publifhed in the Memoirs of
the Academy of Sciences in 1763. In the Philofo-
phical Tranfa£lions of the Royal Society of London,
vol. Ixxiii. there are fome experiments of the fame kind
on a larger fcale by Mr Edgeworth. Thefe were all
made in the way deferibed in our account of Mr Robins s
improvements in gunnery. Bodies were made to move
with determined velocities, and the refidances were
meafured by weights.
In all thefe experiments the refiftances were found
very exaftly in the proportion of the fquares of the ve¬
locities j but they were found confiderably greater than
the weight of the column of air, whofe height would
produce the velocity in a falling body. Mr Robins s
experiments on a fquare of 16 inches, defending 25.2
feet per fecond, indicate the refiflance to be to this
weight nearly as 4 3* Borda’s experiments on the
fame furface (late the difproportion dill greater.
The refidances are found not to be in the proportion
of the furfaces, but increafe confiderably fader. Sur¬
faces of 9, 16, 36, and 81 inches, moving with one ve¬
locity. had refidances in the proportion ot 9* 1 7t> 4^-f>
and 1044. . r , r
Now as this deviation from the proportion or the lur-
faces increafes with great regularity, it is mod probable-
that it continues to increafe in furfaces of dill greater
extent ; and thefe are the mod generally to be met
with in praflice in the aftion of wind on (hips and mills.
Bord^’s experiments on 81 inches fhow that the inn-
pulfe of wind moving one foot per fecond is about •3-g-o
of a pound on a fquare foot. Therefore to find the
impulfe on a foot correfpondmg to any velocity, divide
the fquare of the velocity by 500, and we obtain the
impulfe in pounds. Mr Roufe of Leietderdiire made
many experiments, which are mentioned with great ap¬
probation by Mr Smeaton. His great fagacity and ex¬
perience in the ere£lion of windmills oblige us to pay a
confiderable deference to his judgment. T hefe experi¬
ments confirm our opinion, that the impulfes increafe
fader than the furfaces. The following table was cal¬
culated from Mr Roufe’s obfervations, and may be con*
fidered as pretty near the truth.
Velocity of
Wind.-
Veloeity Impulfe on a
in Feet. Foot in Pounds.
O
IC3t
20
3°
4°
50
60
70
80
90
100
no
I 20
I30
140
*5°
0,000
0,229
o,9lS
2,059
3,660
5>7l8
8,234
11,207
14,638
18,526
22,872
27,675
32,926
38,654
44,830
51,462
If we multiply the fquare of the velocity in feet by*
16, the produft will be the impulfe or refidance in a
fquare foot in grains, according to Mr Roufe’s numbers.
The greated deviation from the theory occurs in the
oblique impulfes. Mr Robins compared the refidance
of a wedge, whofe angle was 90°, with the refidance
of its bafe ; and indead of finding it lefs in the propor¬
tion of v^2 to 1, as determined by the theory, he found
it greater in the proportion of 55 to 68 nearly ; and
when he formed the body into a pyramid, of which the
fides had the fame furface and the fame inclination as
the fides of the wedge, the refidance of the bafe and
face were now as 55 to 39 nearly : fo that here the
fame furface with the fame inclination had its refidance
reduced from 68 to 39 by being put into this form.
Similar deviations occur in the experiments of the Che¬
valier Borda j and it may be colle&ed from both, that
the refiftances diminidr more nearly in the proportion of
the fines of incidence than in the proportion of the
fquares of thofe fines.
The irregularity in the refidance of curved furfaces
is as great as in plane furfaces. In general, the theory
gives the oblique impulfes on plane furfaces much too
fmall, and the impulfes on curved furfaces too great.
The refidance of a fphere does not exceed the fourth
part of the refidance of its great circle, indead of being
its half-, but the anomaly is fuch as to leave hardly any
room for calculation. It would be very defirable to
have the experiments on this fubjedf repeated in a great¬
er variety of cafes, and on larger furfaces, fo that the
errors of the experiments may be of lels confequence.
Till
726 P N E 0 M
R fiftanee Till this matter be reduced to fome rule, the art of
ot Air in vpo,king ftips muft remain very imperfeft, as mull alfo
. the conftruetion of windmills.
318 The cafe in which we are moft interefted in the
It is of knowledge of the refinance of the air is the motion of
great con- bullets and (hells. Writers on artillery have long been
know'thV0 feeble of the great efifed of the air’s refiftance. It
refiftance feems to have been this confideration that chiefly enga-
of air in ged Sir Ifaac Newton to confider the motions of bodies
of bullets*1 a medium. A propofition or two would
gcc A have fufficed for (bowing the incompatibility of the pla¬
netary motions with the fuppofition that the celeftial
fpaces were filled with a fluid matter ; but he has with
great folicitude confidered the motion of a body pro¬
jected on the furface of the earth, and its deviation
from the parabolic track afligned by Galileo. He has
beftowed more pains on this problem than any other in
his whole work ; and his inveftigation has pointed out
almoft all the improvements which have been made in
the application of mathematical knowledge to the ftudy
of nature. Nowhere does his fagacity and fertility of
refource appear in fo (trong a light as in the fecond
book of the Principia, which is almoft wholly occupied
by this problem. The celebrated mathematician John
Bernouilli engaged in it as the fineft opportunity of dif-
playing his fuperiority. A miftake committed by New¬
ton in his attempt to a folution was matter of triumph
to him \ and the whole of his performance, though a
piece of elegant and elaborate geometry, is greatly hurt
by .his continually bringing this miftake (which is a
mere trifle) into view. The difficulty of the fubjeCl is
fo great, that fubfequent mathematicians feem to have
kept aloof from it ; and it has been entirely overlooked
by the many voluminous writers who have treated pro-
feffedly on military proje&iles. They have fpoken in¬
deed of the refiftance of the air as affefting the flight of
(hot, but have faved themfelves from the talk of invef-
tigating this effeCl (a talk to which they were unequal),
by fuppofing that it was not fo great as to render their
theones and praClical deductions very erroneous. Mr
Robins was the firft who ferioufly examined the fubjeCt.
He (bowed, that even the Newtonian theory (which had
'been corrected, but not in the fmalleft degree improved
or extended in its principles) was fufficient to (lioW
that the path of a cannon ball could not referable a pa¬
rabola. Even this theory (bowed that the refiftance was
more than eight times the weight of the ball, and (hould
produce a greater deviation from the parabola than the
319 parabola deviated from a ftraight line.
rance^of0" * J?1.8 fimPle but Angular obfervation was a ftrottg
the writers Proof .how faulty the P™feffed writers on artillery had
on artillery been, m rather amufing themfelves with elegant but ufe-
in this re- lefs applications of eafy geometry, than in endeavouring
to give their readers any ufeful information. He add¬
ed, that the difference between the ranges by the New¬
tonian theory and by experiment was fo great, that
the refiftance of the air muft be vaftly fuperior to’ what
that theory fuppofed. It was this which fuggefted to
him the neceflity of experiments to afcertain this point.
We have.feen the remit of thefe experiments in mode-
rate velocities; and that they were fufficient for calling
the whole theory in queftion, or at leaft for rendering ft
u(clefs. It became neceffary, therefore, to fettle every
point by means of a direCt experiment. Here was a
great difficulty. How (hall we meafure either thefe
A T 1 C S.
great velocities which are obferved in the motions of Refi<hm
cannon-fhot, or the refiftances which thefe enormous ofAirii,
velocities occafion ? Mr Robins had the ingenuity to do Gunneb
both. The method which he took for meafuring the ve- v
locity of a mulket-bali was quite original ; and it was
fulceptible of great accuracy. We have already given
an account of it under the article Gunnery. Having-
gained this point, the other was not difficult. In the
moderate velocities he had determined the refiftances by
the forces which balanced them, the weights which kept
the refilled body in a ftate of uniform motion. In the
great velocities, he propofed to determine the refiftances
by their immediate effefts, by the retardations which they
occafioned. This was to be done by firft afcertaining
the velocity of the ball, and then meafuring its velocity
after it had paffed through a certain quantity of air. The
difference of thefe velocities is the retardation, and the
proper meafure of the refiftance; for, by the initial and
final velocities of the ball, we learn the time which was
employed in paffing through this air with the medium
velocity. In this time the air’s refiftance diminifficd the
velocity by a certain quantity. Compare this with the
velocity which a body proje£led dire&ly upwards would
lofe in the fame time by the refiftance of gravity. The
two forces muft be in the proportion of their effe&s.
Thus we learn the proportion of the refiftance of the air
to the Weight of the ball. It is indeed true, that the
time of paffing through this fpace is not accurately had
by taking the arithmetical medium of the initial and
final velocities, nor does the refiftance deduced from this
calculation accurately correfpond to this mean velocity ;
but both may be accurately found by the experiment by
a very troublefome computation, as is (hown in the 5th
and 6th propofitions of the fecond book of Newton’s
Principia. The difference between the quantities thus
found and thofe deduced from the fimple procefs is quite
trifling, and far within the limits of accuracy attain¬
able in experiments of this kind ; it may, therefore, be
fafely negle&ed. ^2Q
Mr Robins made many experiments on this fubjeifr ; Mr Robins
but unfortunately he has publiflied only a very few, fuch made man;
as were fufficient for afcertaining the point he had in experi*
view. He intended a regular work on the fubjedf, in^fub-
which the gradual variations of reliftance correfpondingjedt.
to different velocities (hould all be determined by expe¬
riment : but he was then newly engaged in an import¬
ant and laborious employment, as chief engineer to the
Eaft India Company, in whofe fervice he went out to
India, where he died in lefs than two years. It is to be
regretted that no perfon has profecuted thefe experiments.
It would be neither laborious nor difficult, and would
add more to the improvement of artillery than any thing
that has been done fince Mr Robins’s death, if we except
the profecution of his experiments on the initial veloci¬
ties of cannon-fliot by Dr Charles Hutton royal profeffor
at the Woolwich Academy. It is to be hoped that this
gentleman, after having with fuch effect and fuccefs ex¬
tended Mr Robins’s experiments on the initial velocities
of mulket-lhot to cannon, will take up this other fubjed,
and thus give the art of artillery all the fcientific foun¬
dation which it can receive in the prefent ftate of our
mathematical knowledge. Till then we muft content
ourfelves with the pradical rules which Robins has de¬
duced from his own experiments. As he has not given
us the mode of dedudion, we muft compare the refults
with
PNEUMATIC
sfiftfince with experiment. He has indeed given a very extenfive
f Air m C(>mpanTon with the numerous experiments made both in
^'inery', Britain and on the continent 5 and the agreement is very
great. His learned commentator Euler has been at no
pains to inveftigate thefe rules, and has employed him-
felf chiefly in dete&ing errors, moft of which are fup-
pofed, becaufe he takes for a finifhed work what Mr
Robins only gives to the public as a hafty but ufeful
n Iketch of a new and very difficult branch of fcience.
,3eral re- The general refult of Robins’s experiments on the re-
tof tardation of mufket-fhot is, that although in moderate
velocities the refiftance is fo nearly in the duplicate pro¬
portion of the velocities that we cannot obferve any de¬
viation, yet in velocities exceeding 200 feet per fecond
the retardations increafe farter, and the deviation from
this rate increafes rapidly with the velocity. He afcribes
this to the caufes already mentioned, viz. the condenfa-
tion of the air before the ball and to the rarefaftion be¬
hind, in confequenee of the air not immediately occu¬
pying the fpace left by the bullet. This increafe is fo
great, that if the refiftance to a ball moving with the
velocity of 1700 feet in a fecond be computed on the
fuppofition that the refirtance obferved in moderate ve¬
locities is increafed in the duplicate ratio of the velocity,
it will be found hardly one-third part of its real quanti¬
ty. He found, for inftance, that a ball moving through
1670 feet in a fecond loft about 125 feet per fecond of its
velocity in parting through 50 feet of air. This it mult
have done in the of a fecond, in which time it would
have loft one foot if projected direftly upwards 5 from
which it appears that the refiftance was about 1 25 times
its weight, and more than three times greater than if it
had increafed from the refiftance in fmall velocities in
the duplicate ratio of the velocities. He relates other
experiments which (how fimilar refults.
But he alfo mentions a fingular circumftance, that till
the velocities exceed 1 too feet per fecond, the refiftan-
ces increafe pretty regularly, in a ratio exceeding the
duplicate ratio of the velocities; but that in greater
velocities the refiftances become fuddenly triple of what
they would have been, even according to this law of in¬
creafe. He thinks this explicable by the vacuum which
is then left behind the ball, it being well known that
air ruflies into a vacuum with the velocity of 1132 feet
3 tlycon- per fecond nearly. Mr Euler controverts this conclu-
| 'erte(l fion, as inconfiftent with that gradation which is obferved
j in all the operations of nature ; and fays, that although
t the vacuum is not produced in fmaller velocities than
« it this, the air behind the ball muft be fo rare (the fpace
! wds. being but imperfectly filled), that the preffiire on the
anterior part of the ball muft gradually approximate to
that preflure which an abfolute vacuum would produce 5
but this is like his other criticifms. Robins does no¬
where aflert that this fudden change of refiftance hap¬
pens in the tranfition of the velocity from 1132 feet to
that of 1131 feet 11 inches or the like, but only that
it is very fudden and very great. It may be ftriftly
demonftrated, that fuch a change muft happen in a nar¬
row enough limit of velocities to juftify the appellation
of fudden : a fimilar faCf may be obferved in the motion
of a folid through water. If it be gradually accelera¬
ted, the water will be found nearly to fill up its place,
till the velocity arrives at a certain magnitude, corre-
fponding to the immerfion of the body in the water ;
■and then the fmalleft augmentation of its motion imme¬
diately produces a void behind it, into which the water Refiftance
nifties in a violent manner and is daftied into froth. A in
gentleman, who has had many opportunities for fuch , >
obfervations, affures us, that when (landing near the
line ot direflion of a cannon difcharging a ball with a
large allotment of powder, fo that the initial velocity
certainly exceeded 11 go feet per fecond, he always ob- ,
ferved a very fudden diminution of the noife which the
binlet made during its paffage. Although the ball was
coming towards him, and therefore its noife, if equable,
would be continually increafing, he obferved that it was
loudeft at firft. I hat this continued for a lecond or two,
and fuddenly diminifhed, changing to a found which
was not only weaker, but differed in kind, and gra¬
dually increafed as the bullet approached him. He
faid, that the firft: noife was like the hiding of red-hot
iron in water, and that the fubfequent noife rather re-
fembled a hazy whittling. Such a change of found is a
neceflary confequence of the different agitation of the
air in the two cafes. We know alfo, that air ruftiing
into a void, as when we break an exhaufted bottle, makes
a report like a mufket.
Mr Robins’s affertion therefore has every argument
for its truth that the nature of the thing will admit.
But we are not left to this vague reafoning : his expe¬
riments (how us this diminution of refiftance. It clear¬
ly appears from them, that in a velocity of 1700 feet
the refiftance is more than three times the refiftance de¬
termined by the theory which he fuppofes the common
one. When the velocity was 1065 feet, the aftual re¬
fiftance was V of the theoretical ; and when the velo¬
city was 400 feet, the aftual refiltance was about ^ of
the theoretical. That he affumed a theory of refiftance
which gave them all too fmall, is ol no confequence in
the prefent argument. .
Mr Robins, in fumming up the refults of his obfer-Rub by
vations on this fubjedt, gives a rule very eafily remem- Robins for
bered for computing the refiftanees to thofe very rapid cojpPut,ng
motions. It has been already mentioned in the articlevery3
GuxNERY, but we repeat it here, in order to accommo-rapid mo*
date it to the quantities which have been determined in Rons-
fome degree by experiment.
A C B D
Let AB reprefent the velocity of 1700 feet per fecond,
and AC any other velocity. Make BD to AD as the
refiftance given by the ordinary theory to the refiftance
adlually obferved in the velocity 1 700 : then will CD
be. to AD as the refiftance affigned by the ordinary
theory to the velocity AC is to that which really cor-
refnonds to it.
To accommodate this to experiment, recoiled * that a * See Guk-
fphere of the fize of a 1 2 pound iron (hot, moving 25 feet ««7,N°ip.
in a fecond, had a refiftanee of of a pound. Augment&c*
this in the ratio of 251 to 1700*, and we obtain 210
nearly for the theoretical refiftanee to this velocity ;
but by comparing its diameter of 4^ inches with the
diameter of the leaden ball, which had a refiftance of at
leaft 11 pounds with this velocity, we conclude that the
1 2 pound (hot would have had a refiftance of 396 pounds :
therefore BD : AD=2io : 396, and AB : AD=:i86 :
396 •, and AB being 1700, AD will be 3613.
Let ADzr«, AC=x, and let R be the refiftance to a
12 pound iron (hot moving one foot per fecond, and-
r the refiftance (in pounds) wanted for the velocity x ;
we. -
728
Undulation a x%
of Air. we have rrrK
t ___ Ct' ',m OC
P N E U M
Mr Robins’s experiments give
R=—^—very nearly. This gives Ro = 0,263235,
1375°
Which is nearly one-fourth. Thus our formula becomes
0.26323 5 x*
or very nearly
-, falling
3613—* ’ ” v 4(36’3—^). .
fhort of the truth about Toth part. The fimplicity of
the formula recommends it to our ufe, and when we in-
creafe its refult ifc is incomparably nearer to the
true refult of the theory as correlated by Mr Robins than
we can hope that the theory is to the a6tual refinance.
We can eaiily fee that Mr Robins’s correction is only a
fagacious approximation. If we fuppofe the velocity 36*3
feet, a very poffible thing, the refiltance by this formula
is infinite, which cannot be. We may even fuppofe that
the refiltance given by the formula is near the truth only
in fuch velocities as do not greatly exceed 1700 feet
per fecond. No military projeCtile exceeds 2200,
and it is great folly to make it fo great, becaufe it is
reduced to 1700 almoft in an inftant, by the enormous
refiflance.
The refiftance to other balls will be made by taking
them in the duplicate ratio of the diameters.
The cUfcuf- It has been already obferved, that the firll mathema-
fxonsof ma- ticians of Europe have lately employed themfelves in im-
thematiei- proving this theory of the mot ion of bodies in a refift-
ans not eafi-medium j but their difcuffions are fuch as few ar-
tillerifts can underftand. The problem can only be
folved by approximation, and this by the quadrature of
very complicated curves. They have not been able
therefore to deduce from them any praClical rules of
325 eafy application, and have been obliged to compute
Borda’s and tables fuited to different cafes. Of thefe performances,
Ttobkis’s tjjg Chevalier Rorda, in the Memoirs of the A-
cademy of Sciences for 1 '/bp, feems the bell adapted to
military readers, and the tables are undoubtedly of con-
fiderable ufe ; but it is not too much to fay, that the
Ample rules of Mr Robins are of as much fervice, and
are more eafily remembered : befides, it mull be obfer¬
ved, that the nature of military fervice does not give
room for the application of any very precife rule. The
only advantage that we can derive from a perfect theory
would be an improvement in the conftruftion of pieces
of ordnance, and a more judicious appropriation of certain
velocities to certain purpofes. The fervice of a gun or
mortar mull always be regulated by the eye.
There is another motion of which air and other elaftic
fluids are fufceptible, viz. an internal vibration of their
particles, or undulation, by which any extended portion
of air is diftributed into alternate parcels of condenfed
and rarefied air, which are continually changing their
condition without changing their places. By this change
the condenfation which is produced in one part of the air
is gradually transferred along the mafsof air to the great-
ell diflances in all diredions. It is of importance to have
fome diftinft conception of this motion. It is found to
be by this means that diftant bodies produce in us the
fenfation of found. See Acoustics. Sir Ifaac Newton
treated this fubjeft with his accuftomed ingenuity, and
has given us a theory of it in the end of the fecond book
ol his Princtpia. This theory has been obje6fed to with
refpe61 to the con duff of the argument, and other expla¬
nations have been given by the moft eminent mathema¬
ticians. Though they appear to differ from Newton’s,
apparently
the belt.
326
Undulation
of air.
A T I C S.
their refults are precifely the fame •> but, on & clofe exa- Undubtiw
mination, they differ no more than -John Bernouilli’s Air-
theorem of centripetal forces differs from Newton’s, »
viz. the one being exprefled by geometry and the other
by literal analyfis. The celebrated De la Grange redu¬
ces Newton’s inveftigation to a tautological propofition
or identical equation $ but Mr Young of Trinity college,
Dublin, has, by a different turn of expreflion, freed New¬
ton’s method from this objeflion. We ftiall not repeat
it here, but refer our mathematical readers to the article
Acoustics, as it is not our bufinefs at prefent to confider
its connection with found. ^
But fince Newton publilhed this theory of aerial un-Has been
dnlations, and of their propagation along the air, and ufrd to ex
fince the theory has been lo corrected and improved asP^amava
to be received by the mofl: accurate pbilofophers as
branch of natural philofophy fufceptible of rigid de-nomena,
monftration, it has been freely reforted to by many
writers on other parts of natural fcience, who did not
profefs to be mathematicians, but made ufe of it for
explaining phenomena in their own line on the autho¬
rity of the mathematicians themfelves. Learning from
them that this vibration, and the quaquaverfum propa¬
gation of the pulfes, w'ere the neceffary properties of an
elaftic fluid, and that the rapidity of this propagation
had a certain aflignable proportion to the elaflicity and
denfity of the fluid, they freely made ufe of thefe con-
ceffions, and have introduced elaftic vibrating fluids in¬
to many faffs, where dthers would fufpeCf no fuch
thing, and have attempted to explain by their means
many abftrufe phenomena of nature. ./Ethers are every¬
where introduced, endued with great elafticity and te¬
nuity. Vibrations and pulfes are fuppofed in this aether,
and thefe are offered as explanations. The doffrines
of animal fpirits and nervous fluids, and the whole
mechanical fyftem of Hartley, by which the operations
of the foul are faid to be explained, have their foun¬
dation in this theory of aerial undulations. If thefe
fancied fluids, and their internal vibrations, really ope¬
rate in the phenomena aferibed to them, any explana¬
tion that can be given of the phenomena from this
principle muft be nothing elfe than fhowing that the
legitimate confequences of thefe undulations are fimilar
to the phenomena j or, if we are no more able to fee
this laft ftep than in the cafe of found (which we know
to be one confequence of the aerial undulations, although
we cannot tell how), we muft be able to point out, as in
the cafe of found, certain conftant relations betweea
the general laws of thefe undulations and the general
laws of the phenomena. It is only in this way that we
think ourfelves entitled to fay that the aerial undulations
are caufes, though not the only caufes, of found ; and
it is becaufe there is no fuch relation, but, on the con¬
trary, a total diflimilarity, to be obferved between the
laws of elaftic undulations and the laws of the propaga¬
tion of light, that we affert with confidence that ethe¬
real undulations are not the caufes of vifion. ^
Explanations of this kind fuppofe, therefore, intheg^the
firft place, that the philofopher who propofes them un-plication
not bein
makes his reader fenfible of
derftands precifely the nature of thefe undulations $ in
the next place, that he
thofe circumftances of them which are concerned in the Ijecilion
effect to be explained 5 and, in the third place, that
he makes the reader underftand how this circumftance
of the vibrating fluid is connefted with the phenome¬
non, either by {bowing it- to be its mechanical caule,
Indication
of Air.
3*9
be-
ome the
l lundation
f mate-
ialifm.
330
If the mo-
ion of ela-
tic fluids.
33*
low they
offer from
metallic
iuids in
iropaga-
ing any
gitation
f tlieir
'arts.
P N E U M
as when the phllofopher explains the refounding of a
nmfical chord to a tiute or pipe which gave the fame
tone j or by (bowing that this circumltance of the un¬
dulation always accompanies the phenomenon, as when
the philofopher Ihorvs that 233 vibrations of air in a
fecond, in whatever manner or by whatever caufe they
are produced, always are followed by the fenfation of
the tone C in the middle of the harplichord.
But here we mull obferve, that, with the exception
of Euler’s unfuccefsful attempt to explain the optical
phenomena by the undulations of ether, we have met
with no explanation of natural phenomena, by means of
elaltic and vibrating fluids, where the author has fo
much as attempted any one of thefe three things, fo in-
difpenfably requifite in a logical explanation. They
have talked of vibrations without defcribing them, or
giving the reader the leaf! notion of what kind they are;
and in no inftance that we can recoiled!: have they
{hewed how fuch vibrations could have any influence in
the phenomenon. Indeed, by not defcribing with pre-
cilion the undulations, they were freed from the talk of
ihowing them to be mechanical caufes of the phenome¬
non ; and when any of them fhow any analogy between
the general laws of elaflie undulations and the general
laws of the phenomenon, the analogy is fo vague, indi-
llindl, or partial, that no perfon of common prudence
would receive it as argument in any cafe in which he
was much interefted.
We think it our duty to remonftrate again!! this flo-
venly way of writing : we would even hold it up to re¬
probation. It has been chiefly on this faithlefs founda¬
tion that the blind vanity of men has raifed that de¬
grading fyftem of opinions called Materialism, by
■which the affedlions and faculties of the foul of man have
been refolved into vibrations and pulfes of ether.
We alfo think it our duty to give fome account of
this motion of elaliic fluids. It mull be fuch an account
as lhall be underftood by thofe who are not mathemati¬
cians, becaufe thofe only are in danger of being milled
by the improper application of them. Mathematical
difeuflion is, however, unavoidable in a fubje£t purely
mathematical ; but we fhall introduce nothing that may
not be eafily underftood or confided in ; and we truft
that mathematical readers will excufe us for a mode of
reafoning which appears to them lax and inelegant.
The firft thing incumbent on us is to Ihow how elaftic
fluids differ from the unelaftic in the propagation of any
agitation of the "parts. When a long tube is filled
with water, and any one part of it pulhed out of its
place, the whole is inftantly moved like a folid mafs.
But this is not the cafe with air. If a door be fuddenly
Ihut, the window at the farther end of a long and clofe
room will rattle; but fome time will elapfe between the
{hutting of the door and the motion of the window.
If fome light duft be lying on a braced drum, and an¬
other be violently beat at a little diftance from it, an at¬
tentive obferver will fee the duft dance up from the
parchment ; but this rvill be at the inftant he hears the
found of the ftroke on the other drum, and a fenfible
time after the ftroke. Many fuch familiar fa6ts fhow
that the agitation is gradually communicated along the
air; and therefore that when one particle is agitated by
any fenfible motion, a finite time, however fmall, muft
clapfe before the adjoining particle is agitated in the
fame manner. This would not be the cafe in water if
Vol. XVI. Part II,
A T I C S. 729
water be perfe£tly incompreftible. 'We think that this Undulation
may be made intelligible with very little trouble. . ^ ^r‘ ,
A a B £ C D
Let A, B, C, D, &c, be a row of aerial particles,
at fuch diftances that their elafticity juft balances the
preffure of the atmofphere ; and let us fuppofe (as is
deducible from the obferved denfity of air being pro¬
portional to the compreffing force) that the elafticity of
the particles, by which they keep each other at a dif*
tance, is as their diftances inverfely. Let us farthef
fuppofe that the particle A has been carried, with an
uniform motion, to a by fome external force. It is evi¬
dent that B cannot remain in its prefent ftate; for be¬
ing now nearer to a than to C, it is propelled towards
C by the excefs of the elafticity of A above the natural
elafticity of C. Let E be the natural elafticity of the
particles, or the force correfponding to the diftance BC
or BA, and let F be the force which impels B towards
C, and let f be the force exerted by A when at a.
We have
E :f=Ba : BC, -Be : BA;
and E :/—E=B n : BA—B o=B a: Aa;
or E : F=B a : A a.
Now in fig. 89. let ABC be the line joining three pjg.
particles, to which draw FG, PH parallel, and IAF,
HBG perpendicular. Take IF or HG to reprefentthe
elafticity correfponding to the diftance AB. Let the
particle A be fuppofed to have been carried with an uni¬
form motion to a by fome external force, and draw
R c M perpendicular to RG, and make FI : RM—
B a : BA. We ftiall then have FI : PM=B a : A a;
and PM will reprefent the force with which the particle
B is urged towards C. Suppofe this conftruflion to be
made for every point of the line AB, and that a point
M is thus determined for each of them, mathematicians
know that all thefe points M lie in the curve of a hy¬
perbola, of which FG and GH are the afymptotes. It
is alfo known by the elements of mechanics, that fince
the motion of A along AB is uniform, An or IP may¬
be taken to reprefmt the time of defcribing A a ; and
that the area I PM reprefents the whole velocity which
B has acquired in its motion towards C when A has
come to a, the force urging B being always as the por¬
tion PM of the ordinate.
Take GX of any length in HG produced, and let
GX reprefent the velocity which the uniform a61ion of
the natural elafticity IF could communicate to the par¬
ticle B during the time that A would uniformly deferibe
AB. Make GX to GY as the re<ffangle I FG H to the
hyperbolic fpace IFRM, and draw YS cutting MR
produced in S, and draw FX cutting MR in T. It is
known to the mathematicians that the point S is in a
curve line FS r called the logarithmic curve; of which
the leading property is, that any line RS parallel to
GX is to GX as the rectangle IFGH is to the hy¬
perbolic fpace IFRM, and that FX touches the curve
m F.
This being the cafe, it is plain, that becaufe RT in-
creafes in the fame proportion with FR, or with the
re6!angle IFRP, and RS increafes in the proportion of
the fpaee IFRM, TS increafes in the proportion of the
fpace IPM. Therefore TS is proportional to the velocity
4 Z of
PNEUMATICS.
Undulation of B when A has reached a, and Hi is proportional to
of Air. tpe velocity which the uniform aftion of the natural
' v " elafticity would communicate to B in the fame time.
Then fince FT is as the time, and TS is as the velocity,
the area FTS will be as the fpace defcribed by B
(urged by the variable force PM) 5 while A, urged by
the external force, deferibes Aa; and the triangle
FRT will reprefent the fpace which the uniform aftion
of the natural elatficity would caufe B to deferibe in the
fame time.
And thus it is plain that thefe three motions can be
compared together : the uniform motion of the agitated
particle A, the uniformly accelerated motion which the
natural elafticity would communicate to B by its con-,
ftant aftion, and the motion produced in B by the agi¬
tation of A. But this comparifon, requiring the qua¬
drature of the hyperbola and logarithmic curve, would
lead us into moft intricate and tedious computations.
Of thefe we need only give the refult, and make fome
other comparifons which are palpable.
* Let A a be fuppofed indefinitely fmall in comparifon
of AB. The fpace defcribed by A is therefore inde¬
finitely fmall •, but in this cafe we know that the ratio
of the fpace FPiT to the rectangle 1FRP is indefinitely
fmall. There is therefore no comparifon between the
agitation of A by the external force, and the agitation
which natural elafticity would produce on a fingle par¬
ticle in the fame time, the laft being incomparably
fmaller than the firft. And this fpace FRT is incompa¬
rably greater than FTS ; and therefore the fpace which
B would deferibe by the uniform action of the natural
elafticity is incomparably greater than what it tvould
deferibe in confequence of the agitation of A.
From this reafoning we fee evidently that A muft be
fenfibly moved, or a finite or roeafurable time muft elapfe
before B acquires a meafurable motion. In like manner
B muft move during a meafurable time before C ac¬
quires a meafurable motion, &c, j and therefore the
agitation of A is communicated to the diftant particles
in gradual fucceffion.
By a farther comparifon of thefe fpaces we learn the
time in which each fucceeding particle acquires the very
agitation of A. If the particles B and C only are con-
fidered, and the motion of C negledted, it will be found
that B has acquired the motion of A a little before it
has defcribed -f- of the fpace defcribed by A ; but if the
motion of C be confidered, the acceleration of B muft;
be increafed by the retreat of C, and B muft deferibe a
greater fpace in proportion to that deferibed by A. By
computation it appears, that when both B and C have
acquired the velocity of A, B has defcribed nearly 4 of
A’s motion, and C more nearly y. Extending this to
.D, we fttail find that D has defcribed ftill more nearly
y of A’s motion. And from the nature of the compu¬
tation it appears that this approximation goes on rapid¬
ly : therefore, fuppofing it accurate from the very firft
particle, it follows from the equable motion of A, that
each fueceeding particle moves through an equal fpace
in acquiring the motion of A.
The conclufion which we muft draw from all this is,
that when the agitation of A has been fully communi¬
cated to a particle at a fenjible diftance, the intervening
particles, all moving forward with a common velocity,
are equally comprefTed as to fenfe, except a very few of
the firft particles j and that this communication, or this
propagation of the original agitation, goes on with an Undulation
uniform velocity. of Air,
Thefe computations need not be attended to by fuch
as do not wifh for an accurate knowledge of the precile
agitation of each particle. It is enough for fuch
readers to fee clearly that time muji efcape between the
agitation of A and that of a diftant particle \ and this
is abundantly manifeft from the incomparability (excufe
the term) of the nafeent reftangle 1FRP with the naf-
cent triangle FRT, and the incomparability of FRT
with FTS.
What has now been fliown of the communication of
any fenfible motion A a muft hold equally with refpeft
to any change of this motion. Therefore if a tremulous
motion of a body, fuch as a fpring or bell, ftiould agi¬
tate the adjoining particle A by pufhing it forward in
the direction AB, and then allowing it to come back
again in the direction BA, an agitation fimilar to this
will take place in all the particles of the row one after
the other. Now if this body vibrate according to the Newton’s
law of motion of a pendulum vibrating in a cycloid, the demonltra.
neighbouring particle of a\r will of neceffity vibrate in bon on this
the fame manner ; and then Newton’s demonftration in
art. Acoustics needs no apology. Its only deficiency asit
was, that it feemed to prove that this would be the way
in which every particle would of neceffity vibrate j
which is not true, for the fucceflive parcels of air will
be differently agitated according to the original agita¬
tion. Newton only wants to prove the uniform propa¬
gation of the agitations, and he felefts that form which
renders the proof eafieft He proves, in the moft unex¬
ceptionable manner, that if the particles of a pulfe of
air are really moving like a cycloidal pendulum, the
forces adling on each particle, in confequence of the
compreffion and dilatation of the different parts of the
pulfe, are precifely fuch as are neceffary for continuing
this motion, and therefore no other forces are required.
Then fince each particle is in a certain part of its path,
is moving in a certain direction and with a certain ve¬
locity, and urged by a determined force, it muji move
in that very manner. The objedtion ftarted by John
Bernouilli againfl: Newton’s demonftration (in a fingle
line) of the elliptical motion of a body urged by a force
in the inverfe duplicate ratio of the diftance from the
focus, is precifely the fame with the objedtion againft
Newton’s demonftration of the progrefs of aerial undu¬
lations, and is equally futile.
It muft, however, be obferved, that Newton’s demon¬
ftration proceeds on the fuppofition that the linear agita¬
tions of a particle are incomparably fmaller than the ex¬
tent of an undulation. This is not ftridtly the cafe in
any inftance, and in many it is far from being true. In
a pretty ftrong twang of a harpfichord wire, the agita¬
tion of a particle may be near the 50th part of the ex¬
tent of the undulation. This muft: difturb the regula¬
rity of the motion, and caufe the agitations in the re¬
mote undulations to differ from thofe in the firft: pulfe.
In the explofion of a cannon, the breaking of an ex-
haufted bottle, and many inftances which may be given,
the agitations are ftill greater. The commentators on
Newton’s Principia, Le Sueur and Jacquier, have fliown,
and Euler more clearly, that when the original agita¬
tions are very violent, the particles of air will acquire a
fubordinate vibration compounded with the regular-cy¬
cloidal vibration, and the grogrefs of the pulfes will be
fome what
P N E U M
Jmlulation fomewhat more rapid j but the intricacy of the calculus
of Air. js f0 great, that they have not been able to determine
with any tolerable precifion what the change of velocity
will be.
t ;s All this, however, is fully confirmed by experiment
trengthen-on founds. The found of a cannon at IO or 20 miles
d by com- diftance does not in the lead referable its found when
aring the neart jn this cafe it is a loud inftantaneous crack, to
annon which we can aflign no mufical pitch : at a diftance, it
| ear and at is a grave found, of which we can tell the note j and it
diftance. begins foftly, fvvells to its greateft loudnefs, and then
dies away growling. The fame may be faid of a clap
of thunder, which we know to be a loud fnap of ftill
lefs duration. It is highly probable that the appreciable
tones which thofe diftant founds afford are produced by
the continuance of thefe fubordinate vibrations which
are added together and fortified in the fucceffive pulfes,
though not perceptible in the firft, in a way fomewhat
refembling the refonance of a mufical chord. Newton’s
explanation gathers evidence therefore from this cir-
cumftance. And we muff further obferve, that all ela-
ftic bodies tremble or vibrate almoft precifely as a pen¬
dulum fwinging in a cycloid, unlefs their vibrations are
uncommonly violent *, in which cafe they are quickly re¬
duced to a moderate quantity by the refiftance of the
air. The only very loud founds which we can produce
in this way are from great bells 5 and in thefe the ut-
moft extent of the vibration is very fmall in comparifon
with the breadth of the pulfe. The velocity of thefe
founds has not been compared with that of cannon, or
perhaps it would be found lefs, and an objeftion againft
Newton’s determination removed. He gives 969 feet
per fecond, Experiment 1142.
'he^aeita- ®ut ll ‘s al^° very Pro!3^ble, that in the propagation
ion in all through the air, the agitation gradually and rapidly ap-
robability proaches to this regular cycloidal form in the fucceflive
1 the fuc- pUifeSj in the fame way as we obferve that whatever is
effive the form of agitation in the middle of a fmooth pond of
water, the fpreading circles are always of one gentle
form without afperities. In like manner, into whatever
form we throw a ftretched cord by the twang which we
give it, it almoft immediately makes fmooth undulations,
keeping itfelf in the thape of an elongated trochoid.
Of this laft we can demonftrate the neceflity, becaufe
the cafe is fimple. In the wave, the inveftigation is
next to impoffible j but we fee the faift. ^Ve may
therefore prefume it in air. And accordingly We know
that any noife, however abrupt and jarring, near at
hand, is fmooth at a diftance. Nothing is more rough
and harfh than the fcream of a heron but at half a
mile’s diftance it is foft. The ruffle of a drum is alfo
fmooth at a diftance.
Fig. 90. (hows the fucceflive fituations of the particles
of a row. Each line of the figure {hows the fame parti¬
cles marked with the fame letters ) the firft particle a
being fuppofed to be removed fucceflively from its qui-
efcent fituation and back to it again. Th6 mark X is
put on that part of each line where the agitated particles
are at their natural diftances, and the air is of the natu¬
ral denfity. The mark 1 is put where the air is moft of
all comprefled, and : where it is moft of all dilated ;
the curve line drawn through the low eft line of the fi¬
gure is intended to reprefent the denfity in every point,
by drawing ordinates to it from the ftraight line ; the
ulfes af-
ames a
ycloidal
3rm.
Plate
Ccccxxxn.
% 90.
A T 1 C S. 731
ordinates below the line indicate a rarity, and thofe Undulation
above the line a denfity, greater than common. ^ir' .
It appears that when a has come back to its natural
fituation, the part of greateft denfity is between the
particles i and k, and the greateft rarity between c
and d.
We have only to add, that the velocity of this pro¬
pagation depends on the elafticity and denfity of the
fluid. If thefe vary in the fame proportion, that is, if
the fluid has its elafticity proportional to its denfity, the
velocity will remain the fame. If the elafticity or den¬
fity alone be changed, the velocity of the undulations
will change in the direft fubduplicate ratio of the elafti¬
city and the inverfe fubduplicate ratio of the denfity ;
for ihould the elafticity be quadrupled, the quantity of
motion produced by it in any given time will be qua¬
drupled. This will be the cafe if the velocity be
doubled ; for there would then be double the number
of particles doubly agitated. Should the denfity be qua¬
drupled, the elafticity remaining the fame, the quantity
of motion muft remain the fame. This will be the cafe
if the velocity be reduced to one half 5 for this will pro¬
pagate half the agitation to half the diftance, which
will communicate it to twice the number of particles,
and the quantity of motion will remain the fame. The
fame may be faid ^ other proportions, and therefore
Ve
Vr=-
Therefore a change in the barometer will
not affeft the velocity of the undulations in air ; but they
will be accelerated by heat, which diminifties its denfity,
or increafes its elafticity. The velocity of the pulfes in.
inflammable air muft be at leaft thrice as great, becaufe
its denfity is but one-tenth of that of air when the ela¬
fticity of both are the fame. 335
Let us now attend a little to the propagation of aerial
pulfes as they really happen •, for this hypothefis of a a(T_
fingle row of particles is nowhere to be obferved. r;ai pUii'es
Suppofe a fphere A, fig. 91. filled with condenfed air, as they
and that the veffel which contains it is fuddenly annih:-re;ihy oc-
lated. The air muft expand to its natural dimenfions, ^
fuppofe BCD. But it cannot do this without prefling ^
afide the furrounding air. We have feen that in any
fingle row of particles this cannot be at once diffufed to
a diftance, but muft produce a condenfation in the air
adjoining *, which will be gradually propagated to a di¬
ftance. Therefore this fphere BCD of the common
denfity will form round it a {hell, bounded by EFG, of
condenfed air. Suppofe that at this inftant the inner
air BCD becomes folid. The {hell of condenfed air can
expand only outwards. Let it expand till it is of the
common denfity, occupying the {hell HIK. This ex-
panfion, in like manner, muft produce a (hell of con¬
denfed air without it: at this inflant let HIK become
folid. The furrounding ftiell of condenfed air can ex¬
pand only outward, condenfing another ftiell without it.
It is plain that this muft go on continually, and the cen¬
tral agitation will be gradually propagated to a diftance
in all directions. But, in this procefs, it is not the fame
numerical particles that go to a diftance. Thofe of the
original fphere go no further than BCD, thofe of the
next (hall go no further than HIK, &c. Farther, the
expanfion outwards of any particle will be more mode¬
rate as the diffufion advances •, for the whole motion of
4 Z 2 each
P N E U M A T I C S.
732 . .
Undulation each {hell cannot exceed the original quantity of mo-
°f A‘r' tion ; and the number of particles in each fucceffive
—v £jiejj increafes as the furfaoe, that is, as the fquare of
the diftance from the centre j therefore the agitation of
the particles will decreafe in the fame ratio; or will be
in the inverfe duplicate ratio of the diftance from the
centre. Each i’ucceflive ftiell, therefore, contains the
fame quantity of motion, and the fucceflive agitations of
the particles of any row out from the centre will not be
equal to the original agitation, as happens in the folitary
row. But this does not affeft the velocity of the pro¬
pagation, beeaufe all agitations are propagated equally
fait.
We fuppofed the air A to become folid as foon as it
acquired the common denlity j but this was to facilitate
the conception of the diffufion. It does not ftop at this
bulk ; for while it was denfer it had a tendency to ex¬
pand. Therefore each particle has attained this diftance
with an accelerated motion. It will, therefore, conti¬
nue this motion like a pendulum that has palled the per-
per.dicu’ar, till it is brought to reft by the air without
it •, and it is now rarer than common air, and collapfes
again by the greater elafticity of the air without it.
This outward air, therefore, in regaining its natural
denfity, muft^expand both ways. It expands towards
the centre, following the collapfing of the air within it 5
and it expands outwards, condenfing the air beyond it.
By expanding inwards, it will again condenfe the air
within it, and this will again expand ; a limilar motion
happens in all the outward Ihells •, and thus there is pro¬
pagated a fucceflion of condenfed and rarefied Ihells of
air, which gradually fwell to the greateft diftance.
It may be demonftrated, that when the central air
has for the fecond time acquired the natural denfity, it
will be at reft, and be difturbed no more 5 and that
this will happen to all the ftiells in fucceifion. But the
demonftration is much too intricate for this place ; we
mull be contented with pointing out a fa£t perfe£fly
Application analogous. When we drop a final] pebble into water,
of the fa<ft we fee it produce a feries of circular waves, which go
f ei°biPi'ngal°n^ the lurface of fmuoth water to a great diftance,
into water, becoming more and more gentle as they recede from the
centre •, and the middle, where the agitation was firft
produced, remains perfe&ly fmooth, and this fmooth-
nefs extends continually ; that is, each wave when
brought to a level remains at reft. Now thefe waves
are produced and propagated by the depreffion and ele¬
vation made at the centre. The elevation tends to dif-
fufeitfelf; and the force with which each particle of
water is actuated is a force afting dire&ly up and down,
and is proportional to the elevation or depreffion of the
particle. This hydroftatical preffure operates precifely
in the fame way as the condenfation and rarefa&ion of
the air j and the mathemadcal inveftigation of the pro¬
pagation of the circular undulations on fmooth water
is fimilar in every tVp to that of the propagation of the
fpherical waves in ftill air. For this we appeal to New¬
ton’s Vrincipia,' or to Euler’s Opttfcu/a. where he gives a
very beautiful inveftigation of the velocity of the aerial
pulfes ; and to fume memoirs of de la Grange in the
collections of the academies of Berlin and Turin. Thefe
two la ft authors have made the inveftigation as fimple
as feems poffible, and have freed it from every objection
vlneh can be ftated againft the geometrical cne of their
great teacher Newton,
Having faid this much on the firnilarity between the Undulation
waves on water and the aerial undulations, we ftiall have C)f Air.
reeourfe to them, as affording us a very fenfible objeCt
to reprefent many affeCtions of the other which it
would be extremely difficult to explain. We neither fee of water
nor feel the aerial undulations •, and they behoved, there-aie ufeful
fore, to be deferibed very abftraCtedly and imperfedtlv. fr ex!|l;!'o»
In ihe watery wave there is no permanent progreffive 6
motion of the water from the centre. Throw a fmall bit
of cork on the furface, and it will be obferved to popple
up and down without the leaf! motion outwards. In like
manner, the particles of air are only agitated a very
little outwards and inwards ; which motion is commu¬
nicated to the particles beyond them, while they them-
felves come to reft, unlefs agitated afrefh and this agi¬
tation of the particles is inconceivably fmall. Even the
explofion of a cannon at no great diftance will but
gently agitate a feather, giving it a fingle impulfe out-
wards, and immediately after another inwards or to¬
wards the cannon. When a harpfichord wire is forcibly
twanged at a few feet diftance, the agitation of the
air is next to infenfible. It is not, however, nothing ‘7
and it differs from that in a watery wave by being really
outwards and inwards. In confequence of this, when
the condenfed {hell reaches an elaftic body, it impels
it {lightly. If its elafticity be fuch as to make it ac¬
quire the oppofite ftiape at the inftant that the next
agitation and condenfed {hell of air touches it, its agi¬
tation will be doubled, and a third agitation will increafe
it, and fo on, till it acquire the agitation competent
to that of the ftiell of air which reaches it, and it is
thrown into fenfible vibration, and gives a found ex¬
tremely faint indeed, becaufe the agitation which it ac¬
quires is that correfponding to a fhell of air confider-
ably removed from the original firing. Hence it hap¬
pens that a mufical chord, pipe, or bell, will caufe
another to refound, whofe vibrations are ifochronous
with its own j or if the vibrations of the one coin¬
cides with every fecond, or third, or fourth, &c. of the
other 5 juft as we can put a very heavy pendulum into
fenfible motion by giving it a gentle puff with the
breath at every vibration, or at every fecond, third, or
fourth, &c. A drum ftruck in the neighbourhood of
another drum will agitate it very fenjibly ; for here the
ftroke depreffes a very confiderable fur face, and pro¬
duces an agitation of a confiderable mafs of air : it will
even agitate the furfaee of flagrant water. The explo¬
fion of a cannon will even break a neighbouring win¬
dow. The {hell of condenfed air which comes againft
the glafs has a great furface and a great agitation : the
beft fecurity in this cafe is to throw up the fafli •, this
admits the condenfed air into the room, which a£ts on
the infide of the window, balancing part of the external
impulfe. . i
It is demonftrated in every elementary treatife of na- For waves
tural philofophy, that when a wave on water meets any of air and
plane obftacle, it is refleded by it from a centre equal-oi: ^ater
ly removed behind the obftacle; that waves radiating
from the focus of a parabola are refleded in waves per-very liini-
pendicular to its axis; that waves radiating from onelar.
focus of an ellipfe are made to converge, to the other
focus, &c. &c. All this may be affirmed of the aerial
undulations ; that when part of a wave gets through a
hole in the obftacle, it becomes the centre of a new fe¬
ries of waves; that waves bend round the extremities
«s.
339
Action to
h« fup-
wrters ef
ethers, ani
nal fpirits,
tc.
34a
rhe folly
appeal¬
ing to fuch
unknown
JiMances.
P N E U M
of anobftacle: all this liappens bt toe aerial undula¬
tions. And laflly, that when the fur face of water is
thrown into regular undulations by one agitation, ano¬
ther agitation in another place will produce other re¬
gular waves, which will crofs the former without di-
fturbing them in the fmalleft degree. The fame thing
happens in air j and experiments may be made on ea¬
ter which will illuftrate in the molt perfect manner
jnSnv other aHeCtions of the aerial pulfes, which we
ihould otherwife conceive very imperfeCUy. We would
recommend to our curious readers to make foine of
thefe experiments in a large veffel of milk. Take a
long and narrow plate of lead, which, when let on the
bottom of the veffel, will reach above the furface of the
milk 'y bend this plate into a parabola, elliptical or other
curve. Make the undulations by dropping milk on the
focus from a fmall pipe, which will caule the agitations
to fucceed with rapidity, and then all that we have faid
will be moil diftinClly feen, and the experiment will be
very amufing and inftruCfive, efpccially to the rcnfical
reader.
We would now requeft all who make or read expla¬
nations of natural phenomena by means of vibrations of
aethers, animal ipirits, nervous fluids, &tc. to fix their
’attention on the nature of the agitation in one of thefe
undulations. Let him conlider whether this can pro¬
duce the phenomenon, acting as any matter muff a£i, by
impulfe or by preffure. If he fees that it can produce
the phenomenon, he will be able to point out the very
motion it will produce, both in quantity and direction,
in the fame manner as Sir Ifaac Newton has pointed
out all the irregularities of the moon’s motion produ¬
ced by the difturbing force of the fun. if he cannot
do this, he fails in giving the firft evidence of a me¬
chanical explanation by the a&ion of an elaiiie vibrating
fluid. Let him then try to point out fome palpable con¬
nection between the general phenomena of elaltic undu¬
lations and the phenomenon in queftion ; this would
(how an accompaniment to have at lead fome probabi¬
lity. It is thus only we learn that the undulations of
air produce found : we cannot tell how they afte£t the
mechanifra of the ear; but we fee that the phenomena
of found always accompany them, and that certain mo¬
difications of the one are regularly accompanied by cer¬
tain modifications of the other. If we cannot do this
neither, we have derived neither explanation nor illul-
tration from the claific fluid. And laftly, let him re¬
member that even if he fhould be able to fhow the com¬
petency of this fluid to the production of the phenome¬
non, the w hole is ftill an hypothefis, becaufe we do not
know that fuch a fluid exifls.
We will venture to fay, that whoever will proceed in
this prudent manner will foon fee the rutility of mofl:
of the explanations of this kind which have been given.
They are unfit for any but confummate mathematicians;
for they alone really underftand the mechanifm of ae¬
rial undulations, and even they fpeak of them with he-
fitation as a thing but imperfectly underflood.^ But
even the unlearned in this feience can fee the incom¬
patibility of the hypothefes with many things widen
they are brought to explain. fo take an in dance of
the conveyance of fenfation along the nerves ; an elailic
fluid is fuppofed to occupy them, and the uudma-
tions of this fluid are thought to be propagated along
the nerves. Let us juft think a little how the undula-
4 . >
A T I C S.
tions would be conveyed along the furface of a canal
which was completely filled up \vjth reeds and bulrufhes,
or let us make the experiment on fuch a canal: we may
reft affined that the undulations in the one tale will
referable thofe in the other ; and we may fee that in the
canal there will be no regular or fenfible propagation of
the waves.
Let thefe obfervations have their influence, along
with others which we have made on other occaiions, to
w'ean our readers from this faihionable pronenefs to in¬
troduce invifible fluids and unknown vibrations into our
phyfical difeuflions. They have done immenfe, and we
fear irreparable, mifehief in fcience ; and there is but
one phenomenon that has ever received any explanation
by their means.
This may fuffice for a loofe and popular account of
aerial undulations; and with it we conclude our account
of the motion, impulfe, and refiftance of air.
We fhall now explain a number of natural appear¬
ances, depending on its preffure and elafticity, appear¬
ances not fufficiently general, or too complicated for the
purpofes of argument, while we were employed in the
inveftigation of theft- properties, but too important to be
palled over in filence. 341
It is owing to the preffure of the atmofphere that The air’s
two furfaces which accurately fit each otlier cohere with
fuch force. This is a fact familiarly know n to the glafs- of
grinders, polifhers of marble, &c. A large lenie or tw0 fur_
fpeculum, ground on its tool till it becomes very fmooth, faoes accu-
requires more than any man’s ftrength to feparate it di-rately^
redtly from the tool. If the furface is only a fquare
inch, it will require 15 pounds to feparate them perpen- ’
dicularly, though a very moderate force will make them
Hide along each other. But this cohefion is not ob-
ferved unlefs the furfaces are wetted or fmeared with
oil or greafe ; otherwife the air gets between them, and
they feparate without any trouble. That this cohefiou
is owing to the atmofpheric preffure, is evident from the
eafe with which the plates may be feparated in an ex-
haufted receiver. 342
To the fame caufe we muft aferibe the very ftrong and the ad-
adhefion of in ails, periwinkles, limpets, and other uni-j?^”11^
valve (hells, to the rocks. The animal forms the rim
of its (hell, fo as to fit the fhape of the rock to which it
intends to cling. It then fills its (hell (if not already
filled by its own body) with water. In this condition
it is evident that we muft act with a force equal to 15 ,
pounds for every fquare inch of touching iurface be¬
fore we can detach it. This may be illuff rated by fill¬
ing a drinking glafs to the brim with water; and having
covered it ’’vith a piece of thin wet leather, whelm it on
a table, and then try to pull it ftraight up; it will re¬
quire a coniiderable force. But if we expofe a fnail ad¬
hering to a itime in the exhaufted receiver, we (hall fee
it drop off by its own weight. In the fame manner
do the remora, the polypus, the lamprey, and many
other animals, adhere with fuch firmnefs. Boys fre¬
quently amufe themfelves by pulling out large ftones
from the pavement by means of a circle of (lift wetted
leather faftened to a firing. It is owing to the fame
caufe that the bivalve fhell fifties keep themfel^es fo
firmly {hut. We think the mufcular force of an oyfter
prodigious, becaufe it requires fuch force to open it; but
if we grind off a bit of the convex {hell, fo as to make-a
hole in it, though without, hurting the fifh in the fmall-
eft;
-'A
/ j
EfFedls of
Air’s pref-
fure.
PNEUMATICS.
Other ef¬
fects of
the air’s
preflure.
Plate
ecccxxxi
74-
344
Why froils
inftantly
occafion a
fcarcity of
water.
345
The necef-
fity of com¬
mon air to
animal life.
eft degree, it opens with great eafe, as it does alfo in
vacuo.
j The preflure of the air, operating in this way, con¬
tributes much to the cohefion of bodies, where we do
not fufpedt its influence. The tenacity of our mortars
and cements would frequently be ineffeftual without
this affiftance.
It is owing to the preflure of the atmofphere that a
calk will not run by the cock unlefs a hole be opened in
fome other part of the calk. If the calk is not quite
full, fome liquor indeed will run out, but it will flop as
foon as the diminilhed elafticity of the air above the li¬
quor is in equilibrio (together with the liquor) with the
atmofpheric preflure. In like manner, a teapot mull
have a fmall hole in its lid to enfure its pouring out the
tea. If indeed the hole in the calk is of large dimen-
lions, it will run without any other hole, becaufe air
will get in at the upper fide of the hole while the liquor
■runs out by the lower part of it.
On the fame principle depends the performance of an
in ft rumen t ufed by the fpirit dealers for taking out a
fample of their Ipirits. It confifts of a long tinplate
• tube AB (fig. 74.), open a-top at A, and ending in a
fmall hole at B. The end B is dipped into the fpirits,
which rifes into the tube j then the thumb is clapt on
the mouth A, and the whole is lifted out of the calk.
The fpirit remains in it till the thumb be taken oflfj it
is then allowed to run into a glafs for examination.
It feems principally owing to the preflure of the air
that frofts immediately occafion a fcantinefs of v'ater in
our fountains and wells. This is erroneoufly accounted
for, by fuppofing that the water freezes in the bowels
of the earth. But this is a great miftake : the moll
intenfe froft of a Siberian winter would not freeze the
ground two feet deep ; but a very moderate froft will
confolidate the whole furface of a country, and make it
impervious to the air; efpecially if the froft has been
preceded by rain, which has foaked the furface. When
this happens, the water which w'as filtering through the
ground is all arrefted and kept fufpended in its capil¬
lary tubes by the preflure of the air, in the very fame
manner as the fpirits are kept fufpended in the inftru-
ment juft now defcribed by the thumb’s (hutting the
hole A. A thaw melts the fuperficial ice, and allows
the water to run in the fame manner as the fpirits run
when the thumb is removed.
Common air is neceffary for fupporting the lives of
moft animals. If a fmall animal, fuch as a moufe or
bird, be put under the receiver of an air-pump, and the
air ne exhaufted, the animal will quickly be thrown into
convulfions and fall down dead; if the air be immedi¬
ately readmitted, the animal will fometimes revive, ef¬
pecially if the rarefaftion has been brilkly made, and has
not been very great. We do not know that any breath¬
ing animal can bear the air to be reduced to one-fourth
of its ordinary denfity, nor even one-third; nor have we
good evidence that an animal will ever recover if the
rarefaftion is pufhed very far, although continued for a
very Ihort time.
But the mere prefence of the air is by no means fuf-
ficient for preferring the life of the animal ; for it is
found, that an animal fliut up in a veffel of air cannot
live in it for any length of time. If a man be Unit up
•■'in a box, containing a wine hogftiead of air, he cannot
Tive m it much above an hour, and long before this he
S
will find his breathing very unfatisfa&ory and uneafy.
A gallon of air will fupport him about a minute. A Air’sPfef.
box EF (fig. 75.) may be made, having a pipe AB in- fure-
ferted into its top, and fitted with a very light valve atEvT*^
B, opening upwards. This pipe fends off a lateral * 7S’
branch a D d C, which enters the box at the bottom,
and is alfo fitted with a light valve at C opening up^
wards. If a perfon breathe through the pipe, keeping
his noftrils ftiut, it is evident that the air which he Ex¬
pires will not enter the box by the hole B, nor return
through the pipe CD r/y and by this contrivance he
will gradually employ the whole air of the box. With
this apparatus experiments can be made without any
rilk or inconveniency, and the quantity of air neceffary
for a given time of eafy breathing may be accurately
afeertained.
How tire air of our atmofphere produces this effefb,
is a queftion which does not belong to mechanical phi-
lofophy to inveftigate or determine. We can, how¬
ever affirm, that it is neither the preflure nor the elafti¬
city of the air which is immediately concerned in main¬
taining the animal functions. We know that we can
live and breathe with perfect freedom on the tops of the
higheft mountains. The valley of Quito in Peru, and
the country round Gondar in Abyffinia, are fo far ele¬
vated above the furface of the ocean, that the preflure
and the elafticity of the air are one-third lefs than in the
low countries; yet thefe are populous and healthy places.
And, on the other hand, we know, that when an ani¬
mal has breathed in any quantity of air for a certain
time without renewal, it will not only be fuffocated, but
another animal put into this air will die immediately ;
and we do not find either the preffure or elafticity of
the air remarkably diminilhed : it is indeed diminilhed,
but by a very fmall quantity. Reftoring the foimer
preflure and elafticity has not the fmalleft tendency to
prevent the death of the animal: for an animal will live
ho longer under a receiver that has its mouth inverted
on water, than in one fet upon the pump-plate covered
with leather. Now when the receiver is fet on water,
the preffure of the atmofphere a<fts completely on the
included air, and preferves it in the fame ftate of elafti-
city. 6
In ftiort, it is known that the air which has already Th/nature
ferved to maintain the animal functions has its chemical aif
and alimentary properties completely changed, and is no when ^
longer fit for this purpofe. So much of any mafs of air
as has really been thus employed is changed into wbatfun<ftionsis
is ealledyfcm/ atr by Dr Black, or carbonic acid by the quite al-
chemifts of the Lavoifierian fchool. Any perfon may tered-
be convinced of {bis by breathing or blowing through
a pipe immerfed in lime water. Every expiration will
produce white clouds on the water, till all the lime
which it contains is precipitated in the form of pure
chalky In this cafe we know that the lime has combi¬
ned with the fixed air.
The celebrated Dr Stephen Hales made many ex-HaW?ex¬
periments, with a view to clear the air from the nox- periments
ious vapour which he fuppofed to be emitted from the F° reftore
lungs. ks former
He made ufe of the apparatus which we have been fl^lltieS’
juft mow mentioning ; and he put feveral diaphragms
&c. of thin woollen fluff into the box, and ffioif-
tened them with various liquids. He found nothing fo
efficacious as a folution of potafti. We now under-
ftand
PNEUMATICS.
,ff«as of ftand this perfe&ly. If the folution is not already fa¬
ir’s pref- tuj-ated with fixed air, it will take it up as faft as it is
fure' , produced, and thus will purify the air : a folution of
cauftic alkali therefore will have this effeft till it is ren-
348 dered quite mild.
vv Thefe experiments have been repeated, and varied in
'changed Tnany circumftances, in order to alcertain whether this
breath- fixed air was really emitted by the lungs, or whether
and the infpired air was in part changed into fixed air by
mature jts combination with fome other fubllance. This is a
j'&c1" (lue^ion which comes properly in our way, and which
’ ’ the doftrines of pneumatics enable us to anfwer. If
the fixed air be emitted in fubftance from the lungs, it
does not appear how a renewal of the air into which it
is emitted is neceflary : for this does not hinder the
fubfequent emifiion j and the bulk of the air would be
increafed by breathing in it, viz. by the bulk of all the
^ fixed air emitted 3 but,, on the contrary, it is a little di-
minilhed. We muft therefore adopt the other opinion y
and the difcoveries in modern chemiflry enable us to
give a pretty accurate account of the whole procefs.
Fixed air is acknowledged to be a compound, of which
one ingredient is found to conftitute about three-eighths
of the whole atmofpheric fluid we mean vital air or the
oxygen of Lavoifier. When this is combined with phlo-
gifton, according to the dodtrine of Stahl, or with char¬
coal, according tp Lavoifier, the refult is fixed air or
carbonic acid. The change therefore which breathing
makes on the air is the folution of this matter by vital
air 3 and the ufe of air in breathing is the carrying off
this noxious principle in the way of folution. When
therefore the air is already fo far faturated as not to dif-
lolve this fubftance as faft as it is fecreted, or muft be
fecreted in the lungs, the animal fuffers the pain of fuf-
fbcation, or is otherwife mortally affedted. Suffocation
is not the only confequence 3 for we can remain for a
number of feconds without breathing, and then we be¬
gin to feel the true pain of fuffocation ; but thofe who
have been inftantaneoully ftruck down by an inlpiration
of fixed air, and afterwards recovered to life, complain¬
ed of no fuch pain, and feemed to have fuffered chiefly
by a nervous affedlion. It is faid (but we will not
vouch for the truth of it), that a perfon may fafely take,
a full infpiration of fixed air, if the pafiages of the nofe be
Unit; and that unlefs thefe nerves are ftimulated by the
fixed air, it is not inftantaneoufly mortal. But thefe are
queftions out of our prefent line of inquiry. They are
queftions of phyfiology, and are treated of in other places
of this work. See Anatomy and Physiology j fee
alfo Lungs and Respiration. Our bufinefs is to ex-
plain in what manner the preffure and elafticity of the
air, combined Avith the ftrudture and mechanifm of the
body, operate in producing this neceffary fecretion and
removal of the matter difeharged from the lungs in the
aft of breathing.
It is well afeertained, that the fecretion is made from
the mafs of blood during its paflage through the lungs,
The blood delivered into the lungs is of a dark blackifh
colour, and is there changed into a florid red. In
the lungs it is expofed to the aft ion of the air in a pror
digioufly extended furface : for the lungs confift of an
inconceivable number of fmall veffels or bladders, com¬
municating with each other and with the windpipe.
Thefe are filled with air in every infpiration. Thefe
veffels are everywhere in contact with minute blood-vef-
735
fels. The blood does not tn toto come into immediate Effefts of
contact with the air j and it wmuld feem that it is only A-1^.’s
the thin ferous part of it which is afted on by the air , .
at the mouths of the veffels or pores, where it Hands by
capillary attraftion. Dr Prieftley found, that venous
blood inclofed in thin bladders and other membranes
was rendered florid by keeping the bladders in contaft
with abundance of pure vital air. We know alfo, that
breath is moift or damp, and mujl have acquired this
moifture in the lungs. It is immaterial whether this
fecretion of w'ater or lymph (as the anatomifts call it)
be furnifhed by mere exudation through Ample pores,
or by a vafcular and oi-ganic fecretion 3 in either cafe,
fome ingredient of the blood comes in contaft with air
m the lungs, and there unites -with it. This is farther
confirmed, by obferving, that all breathing animals are
warmer than the furrounding medium, and that by every
procefs in which fixed air is formed from vital air heat
is produced. Hence this folution in air of fomething
from the blood has been afligned by many as the fource
of animal heat. We touch on thefe things in a very
tranfitory vray in this place, only in order to prove that,
for the fupport of animal life, there muft be a very ex-
tenfive application of air to the blood, and that this is
made in the lungs.
The queftion before us in this place is, Plow is this
brought about by the weight and elafticity of the air ?
This is done in two ways ; by the aftion of the mufcles
of the ribs, and by the aftion of the diaphragm and other^
mufcles of the abdomen. The thorax or cheft is a great
cavity, completely filled by the lungs. The fides of
this cavity are formed by the ribs. Thefe are crooked
or arched, and each is moveable round its two ends, one
of them being inferted into the vertebrae of the back,
and the ether into the fternum or breaft-bone. The rib >
turns in a manner refembling the handle of a drawer* -
The infpeftion of fig. 76. will illuftrate this matter, a Fig. 76.
little. Suppofe the curves a c e, b kf c /g, &c» to re-
prefent the ribs moveable round the extremities. Each
fucceeding rib is more bent than the one above it, and
this curvature is both in the vertical and horizontal di-
reftion. Suppofe each fo broad as to projeft a little
over its.inferior like the tiles of a roof. It is evident,
that if we take the lower one by its middle, and draw
it out a little, moving it round the line np, it will bring
out the next dmh along with it. Alfo, becaufe the di-1
fiance of the middle point 0 from the axis of motion np
is greater than the diftance of m from the axis d A, nncl
becaufe 0 wrill therefore deferibe a portion of a larger
circle than m does, the- rib n op will Aide up a little un¬
der the rib dm h, or the rib dmh will overlap no p %
little more than before j the diftance om will therefore
be diminifhed. The fame muft happen to all the fupe-
rior ribs y but the change of diftance will be lefs and lefs
as we go upwards. Now, inftead of this great breadth
of the ribs overlapping each other, fuppofe each inferior
rib connefted with the one above it by threads or fibres
fufceptible of contraftion at the will of man. The arti¬
culations e, a, of the firft or upper rib rvith the fpine and
fternum are fo broad and firm, that this rib can have
little or no motion round the line ae; this rib therefore
is as a fixture for the ends of all the contrafting fibres :
therefore, whenever the fibres which conneft the fecond
rib with the firft rib contraft, the fecond muft rife a
little, and alfo go outward, and will carry the loAver
ribs
73<S P N E U M
Effeifls of ribs along with it; tbe third rib will rife ftill farther by
Air’s pref- t]ie eontraftion of the raufcles which connefl it with
. fui'e- , the fecond, and fo on : and thus the whole ribs are raif-
ed and thrown outward (and a little forward, becaufe
the articulation of each with the fpine is confiderably
higher than that with the fternum), and the capacity of
the thorax is enlarged by the contraction of its raufcu-
lar covering, d he direction of the rnuicular fibres is
very obligue to tlie direction of the circular motion
which it produces; from which circumftance it follows,
that a very minute contraction of the mufcles produces
all the motion which is neceffary. This indeed is not
great; the whole motion of the loweft ribs is lefs than
an inch in the moft violent infpiration, and the whole
contraction of the mufcles of the twelve ribs does not
exceed the eighth part of an inch, even fuppofing the
intercoftal mufcles at right angles to the ribs; and be¬
ing oblique, the contraction is (till lefs (fee BoRELLl,
Sabatier, Monro, &c.). It would feem, that the
intentity of the contraftive power of a mufcular fibre is
eafily obtained, but that the fpace through which it can
be exerted is very limited; for in moil cafes nature
places the mufcles in Situations of great mechanical dif-
advantage in this refpeCt, in order to procure other con*
veniences.
But this is not the whole effeCt of the contraction of
the intercoltal mufcles: fince the compound aCtion of the
two fets of mufcles, which crofs each other from rib to
rib like the letter X, is nearly at right angles to the
rib, but is oblique to its plane, it tends to path the ribs
clofer on their articulations, and thus to prefs out the
two pillars on which they are articulated. Thus, fup-
Fig. 77. pofing (fig. 77.) to reprefent the feftion of one of
the vertebrae of the fpine, and a feCfion of the fter¬
num, and a b c,f e d, two oppolite ribs, with a lax thread
be conneCHng them. If this thread be pulled upwards
by the middle g till it is tight, it will tend to pull the
points b and e nearer to each other, and to prefs the
vertebra a f and the fternum c d outwards. The fpine
being the chief pillar of the body, may be confidered
as immoveable in the prefent inftance. The fternum is
fufficiently fufceptible of motion for the prefent purpofe.
It remains almoft fixed a-top at its articulation with the
firft rib, but it gradually yields below; and thus the
capacity of the thorax is enlarged in this dire Cl ion alio.
The whole enlargement of the diameters of the thorax
during infpiration is very fmall, not exceeding the fif¬
tieth part of an inch in ordinary cafes. This is eafily
calculated. Its quiefcent capacity is about two cubic
feet, and we never draw in more than 15 inches. Two
fpheres, one of which holds 2 cubic feet and the other
2 feet and 15 inches, will not differ in diameter above
the fiftieth part of an inch.
The other method of enlarging the capacity of the
thorax is very different. It is feparated from the ab¬
domen by a ftrong mufcular partition called the dia¬
phragm^ which is attached to firm parts all around.
In its quiefcent or relaxed ftate it is confiderably convex
upwards, that is, towards the thorax, rifing up into its
cavity like the bottom of an ordinary quart bottle, only
not fo regular in its fhape. Many of its fibres tend
from its middle to the circumference, where they are in-
ferted into firm parts of the body. Now fuppofe thefe
fibres to contrafl. This muft draw down its middle,
A T I C S.
or make it flatter than before, and thus enlarge the ca- Effe&scf
■pacity of the thorax. Air’s pref.
Phyfiologifts are not well agreed as to the ftiare which fuIe• *
each of thefe aftions has in the operation of enlarging 'rmm*
the thorax. Many refufe all fhare of it to the intercoftal
mufcles, and fay that it is performed by the diaphragm
alone. But the fa£t is, that the ribs are really obferved
to rife even while the perfon is afleep; and this cannot
poffibly be produced by the diaphragm, as thefe analo-
mifts afBrt. Such an opinion {hows either ignorance
or negleft of the laws of pneumatics. If the capacity
of the thorax were enlarged only by drawing down the
diaphragm, the preffure of the air would comprefs the
ribs,’ and make them defcend. And the fimple laws
of mechanics make it as evident as any propofition in
geometry, that the contraftion of the intercoftal mufcles
muji produce an elevation of the ribs and enlargement
of the thorax; and it is one of the moft beautiful con¬
trivances of nature. It depends much on the will of
the animal what fhare each of thefe affions fhall have.
In general, the greateft part is done by the diaphragm;
and any perfon can breathe in fuch a manner that his
rib fhall remain motionlefs; and, on the contrary, he
can breathe almoft entirely by railing his cheft. In the
firft method of breathing, the belly rifes during infpira¬
tion, becaufe the contra61ion of the diaphragm com-
preffes the upper part of the bowels, and therefore
fqueezes them outwards ; fo that an ignorant perfon
would be apt to think that the breathing was performed
by the belly, and that the belly is inflated with the air.
The ftrait lacing of the women impedes the motion of
the ribs, and changes the natural habit of breathing, or
brings on an unnatural habit. When the mind is de-
preffed, it is obferved that the breathing is more per¬
formed by the mufcles of the thorax; and a deep figh is
always made in this way.
Thefe obfervations on the manner in which the capa¬
city of the cheft can be enlarged were neceffary, before
we can acquire a juft notion of the way in which the
mechanical properties of air operate in applying it to
the mafs of blood during its paifage through the lungs.
Suppofe the thorax quite empty, and communicating
with the external air by means of tbe trachea or wind¬
pipe, it would then refemble a pair of bellows. Railing
the boards correfponds to the railing of the ribs; and
\ve might imitate the a£Hon of the diaphragm by for¬
cibly pulling outwards the folded leather which unites
them. Thus their capacity is enlarged, and the air
rufhes in at the nozzle by its weight in the fame manner
as water would do. The thorax differs from bellows
only in thisrefpeft, that it is filled by the lungs, which
is a vaft collettion of little bladders, like the holes in a
piece of fermented bread, all communicating with the
trachea, and many of them with each other. When
the cheft is enlarged, the air rufhes into them all in the
fame manner as into the Angle cavity of an empty tho¬
rax. It cannot be faid with propriety that they are in¬
flated: all that is done is the allowing the air to come
in. At the fame time, as their membranous covering
muft have fome tflicknefs, however fmall, and feme
elafticity, it is not unlikely that, when coropreffed by
expiration, they tend a little to recover their former
fhape, and thus aid the voluntary action of the mufcles.
It is in this manner that a fmall bladder of caoutchouc
fwelb
!5ocls of
Vir’s pref-
£ure.
349 .
Vre take m
ir not by
ur own
(Sion, but
y external
reffure.
_ 350
Mature of
Ixpiration.
P N E U M
fweils again after com^reOxon, and fills itfelf with air
or water. But this cannot happen except in the moft
minute veficles: thofe of fenfible bulk have not ela-
flicity enough for this purpofe. The lungs of birds,
however, have fotne very large bladders, which have a
very confiderable elafticity, and recover their fliape and
fize with great force after comprellion, and thus fill
themfelves with air. The refpiration of thefe animals
is confiderably different from that of land animals, and
their mufcles aft chiefly in expiration. This will be
explained by and by as a curious variety in the pneuma¬
tic inftrument.
This account of the manner in which the lungs are
filled with air does not feem agreeable to the notions
we entertain of it. We feem to fuck in the air j but al¬
though it be true that we aft, and exert force, in order
to get air into our lungs, it is not by our aft ion, but by
external prelfure, that it does come in. If we apply
our mouth to the top of a bottle filled with water, we
find that no draught, as we call it, of our chell: will
fuck in any of the water; but if we fuck in the very
fame manner at the end of a pipeimmerfed in water, it
follows immediately. Our interell in the thing makes
us conneft in imagination our own aftion with the
■effeft, without thinking on the many fteps which may
intervene in the train of natural operations 5 and we
confider the aftion as the immediate caufe of the air’s
reception into the lungs. It is as if we opened the
door, and took in by the hand a perfon who was really
pulhed in by the crowd without. If an incifion be made
into the fide of the thorax, fo that the air can get in by
that way, when the animal afts in the ufual manner, the
air will really come in by this hole, and fill the fpace
between the lungs and the thorax j but no air is fucked
into the lungs by this procefs, and the animal is as com¬
pletely fulfocated as if the windpipe were fhut up. And,
on the other hand, if a hole be made into the lungs
without communicating with the thorax, the animal will
breathe through this hole, though the windpipe be flop¬
ped. This is fuccefsfully performed in cafes of patients
whofe trachea is ftiut up by accident or by inflammation;
only it is neceflary that this perforation be made into a
part of the lungs where it may meet with fome of the
great pulmonary paffages : for if made into fome remote
part of a lobe, the air cannot find its way into the reft
of the lungs through fuch narrow paffages, obftrufted too
by blood, &c.
We have now explained, on pneumatical principles,
the procefs of infpiration. The expiration is chiefly
performed by the natural tone of the parts. In the aft
of infpiration the ribs were raifed and drawn outwards
in oppofition to the elafticity of the folids themfelves j
for although the ribs are articulated at their extremities,
the articulations are by no means fuch as to give a free
and eafy motion like the joints of the limbs. This is
particularly the cafe in the articulations with the fter-
num, which are by no means fitted for motion. -It would
feem that the motion really produced here is chiefly
by the yielding of the cartilaginous parts and the bend¬
ing of the rib j when therefore the mufcles which pro¬
duced this effeft are allowed to relax, the ribs again
collapfe. Perhaps this is aflifted a little by the aftion
■of the long mufcles which come down acrofs the ribs
^without being inferted into them. Thefe may draw them
-Vol. XVI, Part II.
fure.
35T
A T I 0 S. 737
together a little, as we edmpref* a loofe bundle by a Effefts of
firing. Air’s Pref-
In like manner, when the diaphragm was drawn down,,
it compreffed the abdomen in oppofition to the elafticity
of all the vifcera contained in it, and to the elafticity and
tone of the teguments and mufcles which furround it.
When therefore the diaphragm is relaxed, thefe parts
pufti it up again into its natural fituation, and in doing
this expel the air from the lungs.
If this be a juft account of the matter, expiration Jt requires
Ihould be performed without any effort. This accord-no effort,
ingly is the cafe. We feel that, after having made an
ordinary eafy infpiration, it requires the continuance of
the effort to keep the thorax in this enlarged ftate, and
that all that is necelfary for expiration is to ceafe to aft.
No perfon feels any difficulty in emptying the lungs -?
but weak people often feel a difficulty of irifpiration, and
compare it to the feeling of a weight on their bread j
and expiration is the laft motion of the thorax in a dy¬
ing perfon.
But nature has alfo given us a mecbanifm by which
we can expire, namely, the abdominal mufcles ; and
when we have finifhed ah ordinary and eafy expiration,
we can ftill expel a confiderable bulk of air (nearly half
of the contents of the lungs) by contrafting the abdo¬
minal mufcles. Thefe, by comprefling the body, force
up its moveable contents againft the diaphragm, and
caufe it to rife further into the thorax, afting in the fame
manner as when we expel the fasces per anum. When
a perfon breathes out as much air as he can in this man¬
ner, he may obferve that his ribs do not collapfe during
the whole operation.
There feems then to be a certain natural unconftrain-a. certain
eft ftate of the veficies of the lungs, and a certain quan-quantity o?
tity of air neceffary for keeping them of this fize. It isair nec,-f-
probablethat this ftate of the lungs gives the freeft m°-^luags ^
tion to the blood. Were they more compreffed, the0f a nafurai
blood veffels wrould be compreffed by the adjoining fize.
veficles •, were they more lax, the veffels would be more
crooked, and by this means obftrufted. The frequent
infpirations gradually change this air by mixing freih
air with it, and, at every expiration, carrying off fome
of it. In catarrhs and inflammations, efpecially when
attended with fuppuration, the fmall paffages into the
remote veffels are obftrufted, tind thus the renewal of
air in them will be prevented. The painful feeling
which this occafions caufes us to expel the air with vio¬
lence, fhutting the wihdpipe, till we have exerted ftrong-
ly with the abdominal mufcles, and made a ftrong com-
preflion on the lower part of the thorax. We then open
the paffage fuddenly, and expel the air and obftrufting
matter by violent coughing.
We have faid, that birds exhibit a curious variety proCefs 0f
in the procefs of breathing. The mufoles of their breathing
wings being fo very great, required a very extenfive‘n birds,
infertion, and this is one ufe of the great breaft-bone.
Another ufe of it is, to form a firm partition to hinder
the aftion of thefo mufcles from comprefting the thorax
in the aft of flying : therefore the form of their cheft
does not admit of alternate enlargement and contraftion
to that degree as in land animals. Moreover, the
mufcles of their abdomen are alfo very fmall ; and it
would feem that they are not fufficient for producing
the compreflion on the bowels which is neceffary &r
5 A carrying
v
738
PNEUMATICS.
Fig, 78.
.Effefls of carrying on tTie procefs of concoftion and digeftlon,
Air’S pref- inftead of aiding the lungs, they receive help from
J^!_them.
In an oftrich, the lungs confift of a fleftiy part A, A
(fig. yS.), compofed of veficles like thofe of land ani¬
mals, and, like theirs, ferving to expofe the blood to the
a&ion of the air. Befides thefe, they have on each fide
four large bags B, C, D, E, each of which has an ori¬
fice G communicating with the trachea} but the fecond,
C, has alfo an orifice H, by which it communicates with
another bag F fituated below the reft in the abdomen.
Now, when the lungs are compreffed by the aftion of
the diaphragm, the air in C is partly expelled by the tra¬
chea through the orifice G, and partly driven through
the orifice H into the bag F, which is then allowed to
receive it •, becaufe the fame atlion which comprelTes the
lungs enlarges the abdomen. When the thorax is en¬
larged, the bag C is partly fupplied with frefti air through
the trachea, and partly from the bag F. As the lungs
of other animals refemble a common bellows, the lungs
of birds refemble the finith’s bellows with a partition ;
and anatomifis have difcovered paflages from this part of
the lungs into their hollow bones and quills. We do
not know all the ufes of this contrivance ; and only can
obferve, that this alternate aftion muft aflift the mufcles
of the abdomen in promoting the motion of the food
along the alimentary canal, &c. We can diftinflly ob¬
ferve in birds that their belly dilates when the cheft col-
lapfes, and vice verfa, contrary to what we fee in the
land animals. Another ufe of this double paflage may
be to produce a circulation of air in the lungs, by which
a compenfation is made for the fmaller furface of a£lion
on the blood : for the number of fmall veficles, of equal
capacity with thefe large bags, gives a much more ex-
tenfive furface.
If we try to raife mercury in a pipe by the adlion of
the cheft alone, we cannot raife it above two or three
inches 5 and the attempt is both painful and hazardous.
It is painful chiefly in the breaft, and it provokes cough¬
ing. Probably the fluids ooze through the pores of the
veficles by the preffure of the furrounding parts.
On the other hand, we can by expiration fupport mer¬
cury about five or. fix inches high : but this alfo is very
painful, and apt to produce extravafation of blood. This
feems to be done entirely by the abdominal mufcles.
The operation properly termed SUCKING is totally dif¬
ferent from breathing, and refembles exceedingly the
action of a common pump. Suppofe a pipe held in the
mouth, and its lower end immerfed in V'ater. We fill
the mouth with the tongue, bringing it forward, and
applying it clofely to the teeth and to the palate ; we
then draw it back, or bend it downwards (behind) from
the palate, thus leaving a void. The preffure of the
air on the cheeks immediately depreffes them, and ap¬
plies them clofe to the gums and teeth ; and its preffure
on the water in the veffel caufes it to rife through the
pipe into the empty part of the mouth, which it quickly
fills. W7e then pufti forward the tip of the tongue, be¬
low the water, to the teeth, and apply it to them all
round, the water being above the tongue, which is kept
much depreffed. We then apply the tongue to the palate,
beginning at the tip, and gradually going backwards in
this application. By this means the water is gradually
forced backward by an operation fimilar to that of the
gullet in fwallowing. This is done by contrafling the
354
The opera¬
tion of
i'tickincr,
gullet above and relaxing it below, juft as we would Effects of
empty a gut of its contents by drawing our clofed hand Al7’5 Prd-
along it. By this operation the mouth is again complete-, Ul'e'^
ly occupied by the tongue, and we are ready for repeat¬
ing the operation. Thus the mouth and tongue refem¬
ble the barrel and pifton of a pump *, and the application
of the tip of the tongue to the teeth performs the office
of the valve at the bottom of the barrel, preventing the
return of the water into the pipe. Although ufual, it
is not abfolutely neceffary, to withdraw the tip of the
tongue, making a void before the tongue. Sucking may
be performed by merely feparating the tongue gradually
from the palate, beginning at the root. If we withdraw
the tip of the tongue a very minute quantity, the water
gets in and flows back above the tongue.
The attion of the tongue in this operation is very
powerful j fome perfons can raife mercury 25 inches :
but this ftrong exertion is very fatiguing, and the foft
parts are prodigioufiy fwelled by it. It caufes the blood
to ooze plentifully through the pores of the tongue, fau¬
ces, and palate, in the fame manner as if a cupping-glafs
and fyringe were applied to them ; and, when the infide
of the mouth is excoriated or tender, as is frequent with
infants, even a very moderate exertion of this kind is
accompanied with extravafation of blood. When chil¬
dren fuck the nurfe’s breaft, the milk follows their exer¬
tion by the preffure of the air on the breaft ; and a weak
child, or one that withholds its exertions on account of
pain from the above-mentioned caufe, may be affifted
by a gentle preffure of the hand on the breaft : the in¬
fant pupil of nature, without any knowledge of pneu¬
matics, frequently helps itfelf by preffing its race to the
yielding breaft.
In the whole of this operation the breathing is perfor¬
med through the noftrils ; and it is a prodigious diftrefs
to an infant when this paffage is obftru&ed by mucus.
We beg to be forgiven for obferving by the way, that
this obftruclion may be almoft certainly removed for a
little while, by rubbing the child’s nofe with any liquid
of quick evaporation, or even with water. ^
The operation in drinking is not very different from and of
that in fucking: we have indeed little occafion here to drinking,
fuck, but we muft do it a little. Dogs and fome other
animals cannot drink, but only lap the water into their ^ ‘ !
mouths Avith their tongue, and then fwallow it. The
gallinaceous birds feem to drink very imperfectly ; they
feem merely to dip their head into the water up to the
eyes till their mouth is filled with water, and then hold¬
ing up the head, it gets into the gullet by its weight,
and is then fwallowed. The elephant drinks in a very
complicated manner : he dips his trunk into the water,
and fills it by making a void in his mouth : this he does
in the contrary way to man. After having depreffed his
tongue, he begins the application of it to the palate at
the root, and by extending the application forward, he
expels the air by the mouth which came into it from the
trunk. The procefs here is not very unlike that of the
condenfing fyringe without a pifton valve, deferibed in
N° 58. in which the external air (correfponding here to
the air in the trunk) enters by the hole F in the fide,
and is expelled through the hole in the end of the bar¬
rel 5 by this operation the trunk is filled with water j
then he lifts his trunk out of the water, and bringing it
to his mouth, pours the contents into it, and fwallows
it. On confidering this operation, it appears that, by
the
P N E U M
Effects oi the Tame procefs by which the air of the trunk is taken
Air’* pref- jnto t]ie mouth, the water could alfo be taken in, to be
fure' , afterwards fvvallowed: but we do not find, upon inquiry,
- ^ that this is done by the elephant •, we have always ob-
ferved him to drink in the manner now defcribed. In
either way it is a double operation, and cannot be car¬
ried on any way but by alternately fucking and fwallow'-
ing, and while one operation is going on the other is in¬
terrupted ; whereas man can do both at the fame time.
Nature feems to delight in exhibiting to rational obfer-
vers her inexhaullible variety of refource ; for many in¬
fers, which drink with a trunk, drink without inter¬
ruption : yet we do not call in queftion the truth of the
aphorifm, Natura maxime Jimp/ex et femper jibi confona,
nor doubt but that, if the whole of her purpofe were
feen, wTe (hould find that her procefs is the fimpleit pof-
fible : for Nature, or Nature’s God, is wife above our
wifeft thoughts, and fimplicity is certainly the choice of
wifdom : but alas ! it is generally but a fmall and the
moft obvious part of her purpofe that we can obferve or
appreciate. We feldom fee this fimplicity of nature Hat¬
ed to us, except by fome fyftem-maker, who has found
a principle which fomehow tallies with a confiderable
Variety of phenomena, and then cries out, Trujlrajit per
plura quod fieri potejl per pandora.
.lodiof There is an operation fimilar to that of the elephant,
leeping up which many find a greatdifficulty in acquiring, viz. keep-
continued ing up a continued blaft with a blow-pipe. We would
laft with a defn.e our chemical reader to attend minutely to the gra-
ow-pipe. aftion of his tongue in fucking, and he will find it
fuch as we have defcribed. Let him attend particularly
to the way in which the tip of the tongue performs the
office of a valve, preventing the return of the water into
the pipe : the fame pofition of the tongue would hinder
air from coming into the mouth. Next let him obferve,
that in fwallowing what water he has now got lodged
above his tongue, he continues the tip of the tongue ap¬
plied to the teeth •, now let him (hut his mouth, keeping
his lips firm together, the tip of the tongue at the teeth,
and the whole tongue forcibly kept at a diftance from
the palate ; bring up the tongue to the palate, and allow
the tip to feparate a little from the teeth, this will expel
the air into the fpace between the fauces and cheeks, and
will blow up the cheeks a little : then, a&ing with the
tip of the tongue as a valve, hinder this air from getting
back, and depreffing the tongue again, more air (from
the noftrils) will get into the mouth, which may be ex¬
pelled into the fpace without the teeth as before, and
the cheeks will be more inflated : continue this operation,
and the lips will no longer be able to retain it, and it
will ooze through as long as the operation is continued.
When this has become familiar and eafy, take the blow¬
pipe, and there will be no difficulty in maintaining a
blaft as uniform as a fmith’s bellows, breathing all
the while through the noftrils. I he only difficulty
is the holding the pipe : this fatigues the lips 5 but it
may be removed by giving the pipe a convenient ftiape,
a pretty flat oval, and wrapping it round with leather or
thread.
Another phenomenon depending on the principles
already eftabliffied, is the land and fea-breeze in the
warm countries.
We have feen that air expands exceedingly by heat;
therefore heated air, being lighter than an equal bulk
of cold air, muft rife in it. If we lay a hot ftone in the
T 357
v ature of
he land
ad fea-
reeze in
’arm
ountries.
A T I C S. 739
funfliine in a room, we fiiall obferve the ihadow or the Effedbof
ftone furrounded with a fluttering fliadow of different de-
grees of brightnefs, and that this flutter rifes rapidly in ., r ■
a column above the ftone. If we hold an extinguilhed
candle near the ftone, we (hall fee the fmoke move to¬
wards the ftone, and then afeend from it. Now,
fuppofe an ifiand receiving the firft rays of the fun in a
perfectly calm morning ; the ground will foon be warm¬
ed, and will warm the contiguous air. If the ifland be
mountainous, this effect will be more remarkable ; be-
caufe the inclined fides of the hills will receive the light
more direclly : the midland air will therefore be moft
warmed : the.heated air will rife, and that in the middle
will rife fafteft •, and thus a current of air upwards will
begin, which muft be fupplied by air coming in from all
(ides, to be heated and to rife in its turn 5 and thus the
morning fea-bree%e is produced, and continues all day.
This current will frequently be reverfed during the
night, by the air cooling and gliding down the fides of
the hills, and we (hall have the land-breeze.
It is owing to the fame caufe that we have a circula-circulation
tion of air in mines which have the mouths of their of air in
(hafts of unequal heights. The temperature under ground mines,
is pretty conftant through the whole year, while that of
the atmofphere is extremely variable. Now, fuppofe a
mine having a long horizontal drift, communicating be¬
tween two pits or (hafts, and that one of thefe (hafts ter¬
minates in a valley, while the other opens on the brow
of a hill perhaps 100 feet higher. Let us further fup¬
pofe it fummer, and the air heated to 65°, while the
temperature of the earth is but 450 ; this laft will be
alfo the temperature of the air in the drafts and the
drift. Now, fince air expands nearly 24 parts in 10,000
by one degree of heat, we (hall have an odds of preffure
at the bottom of the two (hafts equal to nearly the 20th
part of the weight of a column of air 100 feet high
(xoo feet being fuppofed the difference of the heights of
the drafts). This will be about fix ounces on every fquare
foot of the feftion of the (haft. If this preffure could
be continued, it would produce a prodigious current of
air down the long (hafts, along the drift, and up the
(hort (haft. The weight of the air afting through 100
feet would communicate to it the velocity of 80 feet
per fecond : divide this by sj20, that is, by 4.5, and
we (hall have 18 feet per fecond for the velocity : this is
the velocity of what is called a brifle gale. This preffure
would be continued, if the warm air which enters the
long draft were cooled and condenfed as faft as it comes
in ; but this is not the cafe. It is however cooled and
condenfed, and a current is produced fufficient to make
an abundant circulation of air along the whole paffage ;
and care is taken to difpofe the drafts and conduft the
paffages in fuch a manner that no part of the mine is
out of the circle. When any new lateral drift is made,
the renewal of air at its extremity becomes more im-
perfeft as it advances : and when it is carried a certain
length, the air ftagnates and becomes fuffocating, till
either a communication can be made with the reft of
the mine, or a (haft be made at the end of this drift.
As this current depends entirely on the difference of
temperature between the air below and that above, it
> muft cehfe when this difference ceafes. Accordingly,
in the fpring and autumn, the miners complain much of
ftagnation ; but in fummer they never want a current
from the deep pits to the dial low, nor in the winter
C A 2 a
740
Effects of
Air’s pref-
lure.
359
The nature
of what is
called the
draught in
pbimneya».
P N E U M
a current from the ITiallow pits to the deep ones. It
frequently happens alfo, that In mineral countries the
chemical changes which are going on in different parts
of the earth make differences of temperature fufficient
to produce a fenfible current.
It is eafy to fee that the fame caufes muff produce
a current down our chimneys in fummer. The chim¬
ney is colder than the fummer air, and muff therefore
condenfe it, and it will come down and run out at the
doors and windows.
And this naturally leads us to confider a very impor¬
tant effeft of the expansion and confequent afcent of air
by heat, namely the drawing (as it is called) of chim¬
neys. The air which has contributed to the burning of
fuel muff be intenfely heated, and will rife in the atmo-
fphere. This will alfo be the cafe with much of the fur¬
rounding air which has come very near the fire, although
not in contaft with it. If this heated air be made to rife
in a pipe, it will be kept together, and therefore will not
foon cool and collapfe: thus we fhall obtain a long column
of light air, which will rife with a force fo much the great¬
er as the column is longer or more heated. Therefore the
taller we make the chimney, err the hotter we make the
fire, the more rapid will be the current, or the draught
or fuftion, as it is injudicioufly called, will be fo much
the mreater. The afcenfional force is the difference be-
tween the weight of the column of heated air in the fun-
nel and a column of the furrounding atmofphere of equal
height. We increafe the draught, therefore, by increaf-
ing the perpendicular height of the chimney. Its length
in a horizontal direction gives no increafe, but, on the
.contrary, diminifties the draught by cooling the air be¬
fore it gets into the effeftive part of the funnel. We
increafe the draught alfo by obliging all the air which
enters the chimney to come very near the fuel ; there¬
fore a low mantle-piece will produce this effeft •, alfo
filling up all the fpaces on each fide of the grate. When
much air gets in above the fire, by having a lofty man¬
tle-piece, the general mafs of air in the chimney cannot
be much heated. Hence it muff happen that the great-
eft draught will be produced by bringing down the man¬
tle-piece to the very fuel 5 but this converts a fire-place
into a furnace, and by thus fending the whole air through
the fuel, caufes it to burn with great rapidiiy, .producing
a prodigious heat ; and this producing an increafe of
afcenfional force, the current becomes furioully rapid,
and the heat and confumption of fuel immenfe. If the
fire-place be a cube of a foot and a half, and the front
clofed by a door, fo that all the air muff enter through
the bottom of the grate, a chimney of 15 or 20 feet high,
and fuffieiently wide to give paffage to all the expanded
air Avhich can pafs through the fire, will produce a cur¬
rent which will roar like thunder, and a heat fufficient
to run the whole infide into a lump of glafs.
All that is neceffary, however,, in a chamber fire-place,
is a current fufficiently great for carrying up the fmoke
and vitiated air of the fuel. And as we want alfo the
enlivening flutter and light of the fire, we give the chim¬
ney-piece both a much greater height and width than
what is merely neceffary for carrying up the fmoke, on¬
ly wifhing to have the current fufficiently determinate
and fteady for countera&ing any occafional tendency
which it may fometimes have to come into the room.
By allowing a greater quantity of air to get into the
ftfcimney, heated only ta a moderate degree, we produce
A T I C S.
a more rapid renewal of the air of the room : did we Efo&sjf
oblige it to come fb much nearer the fire as to produce ^-'^preu
the fame renewal of the air in confequence of a more lurp’
rapid current, we fhould produce an inconvenient heat. """ 'r"“J
But in this country, where pit-coal is in general fo very
cheap, we carry this- indulgence to an extreme •, or ra^-
ther we have not ftudied how to get all the defired ad¬
vantages with economy. A much fmaller renewal of
air than we commonly produce is abundantly whnlefome
and pleafant, and we may have all the pleafure of the
light and flame of the fuel at much lefs expence, by
contrafting greatly the paffage into the vent. The beft
way of doing this is by contrailing the brick-work oh
each fide behind the mantle-piece, and reducing it to a
narrow parallelogram, having the back of the vent for
one of its long fides. Make an iron plate to fit this hole,
of the fame length, but broader, fo that it may lie flop-
ing, its lower edge being in contaft with the forefide of
the hole, and its upper edge leaning on the back of the
vent. In this pofition it fhuts the hole entirely. Now
let the plate have a hinge along the front or lower edge,
and fold up like the lid of a cheft. We fhall thus be
able to enlarge the paffage at pleafure. In a fire-place
fit for a room of 24 feet by 18, if this plate may be
about 18 inches long from fide to fide, and folded back
within an inch or an inch and a half of the wall, this
will allow paffage for as much air as will keep up a
very cheerful fire : and by railing or lowering this Re¬
gister, the fire may be made to burn more or lefs ra¬
pidly. A free paffage of half an inch will be fufficient
in weather that is not immoderately cold. The prin¬
ciple on which this conftruftion produces its effeft is,
that the air which is in the front of the fire, and much
warmed by it, is not allowed to get into the chimney,
where it would be immediately hurried up the vent,
but rifes up to the ceiling and is- diff'ufed over the whole
room. This double motion of the air may be diftinft-
ly obferved by opening a little of the door and holding
a candle in the way. If the candle be held near the
floor, the flame will be blown into the room j but if
held near the top of the door, the flame will be blown
outward- ^
But the moft perfeft method of warming an apart-Defcriptitit
ment in the temperate climates, where we can indulge of a Hove-
in the cheerfulnefs and fvveet air produced by an open Srate ^
fire, is what we call a ftove-grate, and our neighboursch:i^e e'
on the continent call a chapelle, from its refemblance
to the chapels or oratories in the great churches.
In the great chimney-piece, which, in this cafe, may
be made even larger than ordinary, is fet a fmaller one
fitted up in the fame ftyle of ornament, but of a fize
no greater than is fufficient for holding the fuel. The
fides and back of it are made of iron (caff iron is
preferable to hammered iron, becaufe it does not fo rea¬
dily calcine), and are kept at a fmall diffance from the
fides and back of the main chimney-piece, and are con¬
tinued down to the hearth, fo that the afh-pit is alfo fe-
parated. The pipe or chimney of the ftove grate is
carried up behind the ornaments of the mantle-piece
till it rifes above the mantle-piece of the main chim¬
ney-piece, and is fitted with a regifter or damper-plate
turning round a tranfverfe axis. The beft form of this
regifter is that which vve have recommended for an or¬
dinary fire-place, having its axis or joint clofe at the
front $ fo that when it is open or turned up, the burnt
airr
P N E U M
iffefls of air and fmoke ftrikxng it obliquely, are dire&ed with
tir’s pref-certainty into the vent, without any riik of reverbera-
fure- ting and coming out into the room. All the reft of
^v‘" the vent is ftmt up by iron plates or brick-work out of
.61 light.
fedtof The effeft of this conftruiftion is very obvious. The
con- fuel, being in immediate contact with the back and
udtion. 0f the grate, heats them to a great degree, and
they heat the air contiguous to them. This heated
air cannot get up the vent, becaufe the paffages above
thefe fpaces are ftmt up. It therefore comes out into
the room j fome of it goes into the real fire-place and is
carried up the vent, and the reft rifes to the ceiling and
is diffufed over the room.
It is furprifing to a perfon who does not confider
it with Ikill how powerfully this grate warms a room.
Lefs than one-fourth of the fuel confumed in an ordi¬
nary fire-place is fufficient ; and this wTith the fame
cheerful blazing hearth and falutary renewal of air. It
even requires attention to keep the room cool enough.
The heat communicated to thofe parts in contact with
the fuel is needlefsly great 5 and it will be a confiderable
improvement to line this part with very thick plates
of caft iron, or with tiles made of fire-clay which will
not crack with the heat. Thefe, being very bad con-
duftors, will make the heat, ultimately communicated
to the air, very moderate. If, with all thefe precau¬
tions, the heat fhould be found too great, it may be
brought under perfect management by opening paifages
into the vent from the lateral fpaces. Thefe may be
valves or trap-doors moved by rods concealed behind
the ornaments.
Thus we have a fire-place under the moft complete
regulation, where we can always have a cheerful fire
without being for a quarter of an hour incommoded by
the heat *, and we can as quickly raife our fire, when
too low, by hanging on a plate of iron on the front,
which Ihall reach as low as the grate. This in five mi¬
nutes will blow up the fire into a glow : and the plate
may be fent out of the room, or fet behind the ftove-
grate out of fight.
The propriety of inclofing the afti-pit is not fo ob¬
vious ; but if this be not done, the light allies, not
finding a ready paffage up the chimney, will come out
into the room along with the heated air.
We do not confider in this place the various extra¬
neous eircumftances which impede the current of air in
our chimneys and produce ftnoky houfes : thefe will be
treated of, and the. methods of removing or remedying
them, under the article Smoke. We confider at prefent
only the theory of this motion in general, and the modi¬
fications of its operation arifing from the various purpofes
to which it may be applied.
It le of Under this head we {hall next give a general' ac-
armlng count and defeription of the method of warming apart-
partments ments by ftoves. A Stove in general is a fire-place
> ftoves. (hut up on all fides, leaving- only a pafiage for admitting
the air to fupport the fire, and a tube for carrying oft
the vitiated air and fmoke 5 and the air of the room
is warmed by coming into conta£t with the outfide of
the ftove and flue. The. general principle of conftrue-
tion, therefore, is very fimple. The air muft be made
to come into as clofe contact as poflible with the fire, or
even to pafs through it, and this in fuch quantities as
juft to confume a quantity of fuel, fufticient for produ.-
2
A T I C S. 741
cing the heat required ; and the ftove muft be fb con- Effects ot
ftructed, that both the burning fuel and the air which Al^ * Pie^
has been heated by it lhall be applied to as extenlive . u‘ <
a furface as poftible of furnace, ail in contact with the
air of the room j and the heated air within the ftove
mult not be allowed to get into the funnel which is to
carry it off till it is too much cooled to produce any
confiderable heat on the outfide of the ftove.
In this temperate climate no great ingenuity is ne-
ceffary for warming an ordinary apartment ; and ftoves
are made rather to pleafe the eye as furniture than as
economical fubftitutes for an open fire of equal calori¬
fic power. But our neighbours on the continent, and
efpeeially towards the north, where the cold of winter
is intenfe and fuel very dear, have bellowed much at¬
tention on their conftrudtion, and have combined inge¬
nious economy with every elegance of form. Nothing
can be handfomer than the ftoves of Fayencerie that are
to be feen in French Flanders, or the Ruffian ftoves at
St Peteriburgh, finilhed in ftucco. Our readers will
not, therefore, be difpleafed with a defeription of them.
In this place, however, we (hall only confider a ftove in
general as a fubjedf of pneumatical difeuffion, and we
refer our readers to the article Stove for an account of
them as articles of domeftic accommodation.
The general form, therefore, of a ftove, and of which General
all others are only modifications adapted.to eircumftances f‘)rra ot a
of utility or tafte, is as follows : fto\e.
MIKL (fig. 79.) is a quadrangular box of any fixe Fig. 79k
in the directions MILK. The iniide width from front
to back is pretty conftant, never lefs than ten inches,
and rarely extending to 20 *, the included fpace is di¬
vided by a great many partitions. The loweit chamber
AB is the receptacle for the fuel, which lies on the
bottom of the ftove without any grate } this fire-place
has a door AO turning on hinges, and in this door is
a very finall wicket P : the roof of the fire-place ex¬
tends to within a very few inches of the farther end,
leaving a narrow pafi’age B for the flame. The next
partition c C is about eight inches higher, and reaches
almoft to the other end, leaving a narrow paffage for
the flame at C. The partitions are repeated above, at
the diftance of eight inches, leaving paffages at the
ends, alternately difpofed as in the figure ; the laft of
them H communicates with the room vent. This com¬
munication may be regulated by a plate of iron, which
can be Aid acrofs it by means of a rod or handle which
comes through the fide. The more ufual Way of {hut¬
ting up this paffage is by a fort of pan or bowl of earthen
ware, which is whelmed over it with its brim refting in
fand contained in a groove formed all round the hole.
This damper is- introduced by a door in the front, which
L then {hut. The whole is fet. on low pillars, fo that
its bottom may be a few inches from the floor of the
room : it is ufually placed in a corner, and the apart>
ments are fo difpofed that their chimneys can be joined
in {lacks as with us-,.
Some draw or wood-ftiavings are firft burnt on the
hearth at its farther end. This warms the air in the
ftove, and creates a determined current. The fuel is
then laid on the hearth clofe by the door, and pretty
much piled up. It is now kindled ; and the current
being already directed to the vent, there is no danger
of any fmoke coming out into the room. Effe&ually to
prevent this, the door is fliut, and the wicket P open¬
ed..
742
Effects of ed.
PNEUMATICS.
364
Aim and
«}Fei3;s of
this con .
ftrudlion.
The air iupplied by this, being direfted to the
Air’s prei- or bottom of the fuel, quickly kindles it, and
fare. ,,
the operation goes on.
The aim of this conftruftion is very obvious. The
flame and heated air are retained as long as poflible
within the body of the Hove by means of the long paf-
fages ; and the narrownefs of thefe paflages obliges the
flame to come in contact with every particle of foot, fo
as to confume it completely, and thus convert the whole
combuftible matter of the fuel into heat. For want of
this a very conliderable portion of our fuel is wafted by
our open fires, even under the very beft management :
the foot which flicks to our vents is very inflammable,
and a pound weight of it will give as much if not more
heat than a pound of coal. And what flicks to our
vents is very inconfiderable in comparifon with what
efcapes unconfumed at the chimney top. In fires of
green wood, peat, and fome kinds of pit-coal, nearly
one-fifth of the fuel is loft in this way ; but in thefe
ftoves there is hardly ever any mark of foot to be feen;
and even this fmall quantity is produced only after
lighting the fires. The volatile inflammable matters are
expelled from parts much heated indeed, but not fo hot
as to burn 5 and fome of it charred or half burnt cannot
be any further confumed, being enveloped in flame and
air already vitiated and unfit for combuftion. But when
the ftove is well heated, and the current brifk, no part
of the foot efcapes the adlion of the air.
The hot air retained in this manner in the body of
the ftove is applied to its fides in a very extended furface.
To increafe this ftill more, the ftove is made narrower
from front to back in its upper part; a certain breadth
is neceffary below, that there may be room for fuel. If
this breadth were preferved all the way up, much heat
■would be loft, becaufe the heat communicated to the
partitions of the ftove does no good. By dimini filing
their breadth, the proportion of ufeful furface is in-
creafed. The whole body of the ftove may be confider-
ed as a long pipe folded up, and its effeft would be the
greateft poflible if it really were fo ; that is, if each par¬
tition cC, dT), &c. were fplit into two, and a free
paflage allowed between them for the air of the room.
Something like this will be obferved afterwards in fome
German ftoves.
It is with jthe fame view of making an extenfive
application of a hot furface to the air, that the ftove is
not built in the wall, not even in contaft with it, nor
with the floor : for by its detached fituation, the air in
contaft with the back, and with the bottom (where it
is hotteft), is warmed, and contributes at lead one half
of the whole effedl ; for the great heat of the bottom
makes its effefl on the air of the room at leaft: equal
to that of the two ends. Sometimes a ftove makes part
of the wall between two fmall rooms, and is found fuf-
ficient.
It muft be remarked, on the whole, that the effedl of
a ftove depends much on keeping in the room the air
already heated by it. This is fo remarkably the cafe,
that a fmall open fire in the fame room will be fo far
from increafing its heat, that it will greatly diminilh it:
it will even draw the warm air from a fuite of adjoining
apartments. i his is diftimfllv obferved in the houfes
of the Englifh merchants in St Peterfburgh : their
habits of life in Britain make them uneafv without an
‘open fire in their fitting rooms j and this obliges them
to heat all their ftoves twice a-day, and their houfes are Effe&so
cooler than thofe of the Ruffians who heat them only Air’s pre;
once. In many German houfes, efpecially of the lower *“re-
clafs, the fire-place of the ftove does not open into the F**
room, but into the yard or a lobby, where all the files
are lighted and tended j by this means is avoided the
expence of warm air which muft have been carried oft'
by the ftove : but it is evident that this muft be very
unpleafant, and cannot be wholefome. We muft breathe
the fame quantity of ftagnant air loaded with all the va¬
pours and exhalations which muft be produced in every
inhabited place. Going into one of thefe houfes from
the open air, is like putting one’s head into a ftew-pan
or under a pie-cruft, and quickly naufeates us who are
accuftomed to freffi air and cleanlinefs. In thefe coun¬
tries it is a matter almoft of neceffity to fumigate the
rooms with frankincenfe and other gums burnt. The
cenfer in ancient worfhip was in all probability an uten-
fil introduced by neceffity for fweetening or rendering
tolerable the air of a crowded place : and it is a conftant
practice in the Ruffian houfes for a fervant to go round
the room after dinner, waving a cenfer with fome gums
burning on bits of charcoal.
365
The account now given of ftoves for heating rooms, Of hot
and of the circumftances which muft be attended to in walls in
their conftruftion, will equally apply to hot walls in
gardening, whether within or without doors. The on-^',“
ly new circumftance which this employment of a flue in¬
troduces, is the attention which muft be paid to the equa¬
bility of the heat, and the gradation which muft be ob¬
ferved in different parts of the building. The heat in the
flue gradually diminiffies as it recedes from the fire-place,
becaufe it is continually giving out heat to the flue. It
muft; therefore be fo conduced through the building by
frequent returns, that in every part there may be a
mixture of warmer and cooler branches of the flue, and
the final chimney fhould be clofe by the fire-place. It
would, however, be improper to run the flue from the
end of the floor up to the ceiling, where the fecond ho¬
rizontal pipe would be placed, and then return it down¬
ward again and make the third horizontal flue adjoining
to the firll, &c. This would make the middle of the
wall the coldeft. If it is the flue of a greenhoufe, this
would be highly improper, becaufe the upper part of
the wall can be very little employed ; and in this cafe it
is better to allow the flue to proceed gradually up the
wall in its different returns, by which the loweft part
would be the warmeft, and the heated air will afcend
among the pots and plants j but in a hot wall, where
the trees are to receive heat by contaft, fome approxi¬
mation to the above method may be ufeful.
In the hypocaufta and fudaria of the Gree ks and Ro¬
mans, the flue was condufled chiefly under the floors.
Malt-kilns are a fpecies of ftove which merit our at- Malt-kiln
tention. Many attempts have been made to improve a ^PeCie3C
them on the principle of flue ftoves : but they have been ^ove'
unfuccefsful, becaufe heat is not what is chiefly wanted
in malting : it is a copious current of very dry air to
carry off the moillure. We muft refer the examination
of this fub]e£l alfo to the article Stove, and proceed to
confider the current of heated air in the chief varieties
of furnaces. 367
All that is to be attended to in the difierent kinds of ^
melting furnaces is, that the current of air be fufficiently melting
rapid, and that it be applied in as extenfive a furface asfurnaCes,
poffible
PNEUMATICS.
3<\
reverbe-
ffedbof poffible to tbe fubftance to be melted. The more rapid
r’s pret- t|ie current it is the hotter, becaufe it is confuming
fure' , more fuel j and therefore its eflfeft increafes in a higher
proportion than its rapidity. It is doubly eifeftual if
twice as hot; and if it then be twice as rapid, there is
twice the quantity of doubly hot air applied to the fub-
je£l: ’■) it would therefore be four times more powerful.
This is procured by raifmg the chimney of the furnace
to a greater height. The clofe application of it to the
fubjeft can hardly be laid down in general terms, be¬
caufe it depends on the precife circumllances of each
cafe.
In reverberatory furnaces, fuch as refining furnaces
ory fur- for gold, filver, and copper, the flame is made to play
over the furface of the melted metal. This is produced
entirely by the form of the furnace, by making the arch
of the furnace as low as the circumftances of the mani¬
pulation will allow. See Furnace. Experience has
pointed out in general the chief circuraftances of their
conftruflion, viz. that the fuel fhould be at one end on
a grate,' through which the air enters to maintain the
fire ; and that the metal fhould be placed on a level
floor between the fuel and the tall chimney which pro¬
duces the current. But there is no kind of furnace
more variable in its effedt, and almoft every place has
a fmall peculiarity of conftru&ion, on which its pre-emi¬
nence is refted. This has oceafioned many whimfical
varieties in their form. This uncertainty feems to de¬
pend much on a circumftance rather foreign to our pre-
fent purpofe j but as we do not obferve it taken notice
of by mineralogical writers, we beg leave to mention
it here. It is not heat alone that is wanted in the re¬
fining of filver by lead, for inflance. We muff make
a continual application to its furface of air, which has
not contributed to the combuftion of the fuel. Any
quantity of the hottefl air, already faturated with the
fuel, may play on the furface of the metal for ever, and
keep it in the ftate of moft perfect fufion, but without
refining it in the leaft. Now, in the ordinary conflruc-
tion of a furnace, this is much the cafe. If the whole
air has come in by the grate, and pafled through the
middle of the fuel, it can hardly be otherwife than near¬
ly faturated with it 5 and if air be alfo admitted by the
door (which is generally done or fomething equivalent),
the pure air lies above the vitiated air, and during the
paffage along the horizontal part of the furnace, and
along the furface of the metal, it {till keeps above it, at
leafi: there is nothing to promote their mixture. Thus
the metal does not come into contaft with air fit to aft
on the bafe metal and calcine it, and the operation of
refining goes on flowly. Trifling circumftances in the
form of the arch or canal may tend to promote the
jumbling of the airs together, and thus render the ope¬
ration more expeditious ; and as thefe are but ill un-
derftood, or perhaps this circumftance not attended to,
no wonder that we fee thefe confidered as fo many nof-
trums of great importance. It were therefore worth
while to try the effeft of changes in the form of the
roof direfted to this very circumftance. Perhaps fome
little prominence down from the arch of the reverbera¬
tory would have this effeft, by fuddenly throwing the
current into confufion. If the additional length of paf-
fage do not cool the air too much, we fhould think that
if there were interpofed between the fuel and the re¬
3
743
fining floor a paffage twilled like a cork-fcrew, making Effects of
juft half a turn, it would be moft effeftual : for we ima-
gine, that the two airs, keeping each to their refpeftive _
fides of the paffage, would by this means be turned up-
fide down, and that the pure ftratum ivould now be in
contaft with the metal, and the vitiated air would be
ab°Ve it’ . . ... 3*9
The glafshoufe furnace exhibits the chief variety in and in the
the management of the current of heated air. In thisg'afthoufe
it is neceffary that the hole at which the workman dips^urnace?1
his pipe into the pot {hall be as hot as any part of the
furnace. This could never be the cafe, if the furnace
had a chimney fituated in a part above the dipping-
hole 5 for in this cafe cold air would immediately ruftv
in at the hole, play over the furface of the pot, and go
up the chimney. To prevent this the hole itfelf is made
the chimney •, but as this would be too fhort, and would
produce very little current and very little heat, the whole
furnacq is fet under a tall dome. Thus the heated air
from the real furnace is confined in this dome, and con-
ftitutes a high column of very light air, wThich will there¬
fore rife w,ith great force up the dome, and efcape at
the top. The dome is therefore the chimney, and will
produce a draught or current proportioned to its height.
Some are raifed above a hundred feet. When all the
doors of this houfe are ftiut, and thus no fupply given-
except through the fire, the current and heat become
prodigious. This, however, cannot be done, becaufe
the workmen are in this chimney, and muft have re-
fpirable air. But notwithftanding this fupply by the
houfe-doors, the draught of the real furnace is vaftly
increafed by the dome, and a heat produced fufficient
for the work, and which could not have been produced
without the dome. 370:
This has been applied with great ingenuity and effeft Improve-
to a furnace for melting iron from the ore, and an iron
finery, both without a blaft. The common blaft iron rej for
furnace is well known. It is a tailcone with the apex melting
undermoft. The ore and fluxes are thrown into this iron f»om-
cone mixed intimately with the fuel till it is full, and^1®010-
the blaft of. moft powerful bellow's is direfted into the
bottom of this cone through a hole in the fide. The
air is thrown in with fuch force, that it makes its w'ay
through the mafs of matter, kindles the fuel in its paf¬
fage, and fluxes the materials, which then drop down
into a receptacle below the blaft-hole, and thus the paf¬
fage for the air is kept unobftrufted. It rvas thought
impofllble to produce or maintain this current without
bellows ; but Mr Cotlerel, an ingenious founder, tried
the effeft of a tall dome placed over the mouth of the
furnace, and though it was not half the height of many
glafshoufe domes it had the defired effeft. Confider-
able difficulties, however, occurred j and he had not
furmounted them all when he left the neighbourhood of
Edinburgh, nor have we fince heard that he has brought
the invention to perfeftion. It is extremely difficult to
place the holes below, at which the air is to enter, at
fuch a precife height as neither to be choked by the
melted matter, nor to leave ore and ftones below them
unmelted ; but the invention is very ingenious, and will
be of immenfe fervice if it can be perfefted j for in
many places iron ore is to be found where water cannot
be had for wmrking a blaft furnace.
The laft application which we {hall make of the cur¬
rents.
744
EfFe<fls of
Air’s pref-
fure.
371
Currents of
air applied
to free
mines,
fhips, pri-
fons, See.
of noxious
air.
.37*
Air necef-
fary for the
combuftion
of fuel.
P N E U M
rents produced by heating the air is to the freeing mine?,
Ihips, prifons, &c. from the damp and noxious vapours
which frequently infeft them.
As a drift or work is carried on in the mine, let a
trunk of deal boards, about 6 or 8 inches fquare, be
laid along the bottom of the drift, communicating with
a trunk carried up in the corner of one of the lhafts.
Let the top of this lait trunk open into the ath pit of a
fmall furnace, having a tall chimney. Let fire be kin¬
dled in the furnace •, and when it is well heated, (hut
the fire-place and afii-pit doors. There being no other
fijpply for the current produced in the chimney of this
furnace, the air will florv into it from the trunk, and
will bring along with it all the offenfive vapours. 1 his
is the moll effeflual method yet found out. In the
fame manner may trunks be conducted into the alh-pk
of a furnace from the cells of a prifon or the wards of an
hofpital.
In the account which we have been giving of the
management of air in furnaces and common fires, w7e
have frequently mentioned the immediate application of
air to the burning fuel as neceffary for its combuflion.
This is a general fa£l. In order that any inflammable
body may be really inflamed, and its combufiible matter
eonfumed and allies produced, it is not enough that the
body be made hot. A piece of charcoal inclofed in a
box of iron may be-kept red hot for ever, without waft¬
ing its fubftance in the fmalleft degree. It is farther
neceffary that it be in contact with a particular fpecies
of air, which conftitutes about three-fourths of the air of
the atmofphere, viz. the vital air or oxygen of Lavoifier.
It was called empyreal air by Scheele, who firftobferved
its indifpenfable ufe in maintaining fire : and it appears,
that, in contributing to the combuftion of an inflam¬
mable body, this air combines with fome of its ingredi¬
ents, and becomes fixed air, fuffering the fame change as
by the breathing of animals. Combuftion may therefore
be confidered as a folution of the inflammable body in
air. This doctrine was firft promulgated by the cele¬
brated Dr Hooke in his Micrographia, publilhed in
1660, and afterwards improved in his treatife on Lamps.
It is now completely eftablifhed, and confidered as a new
difeovery. It is for this reafon, that in fire-places of all
kinds we have diredled the conftrudlion, fo as to pro¬
duce a clofe application of the air to the fuel. It is
quite needlefs at this day to enter into the difeuflions
which formerly occupied philofophers about the manner
in which the preffure and elafticity of the air promoted
combuftion. Many experiments were made in the 17th
century by the firft members of the Royal Society, to
difeover the office of air in combuftion. It was thought
that the flame was extinguiffied in rare air for want of a
preffure to keep it together; but this did not explain its
extin&ion when the air was not renewed. Thefe expe¬
riments are ftill retained in courfes of experimental
philofophy, as they are judicioufly ftyled ; but they give
little or no information, nor tend to the illuftration of
any pneumatical doftrine ; they are therefore omitted
in this place. In ftiort, it is now fully eftabliftied, that
it is not a mechanical but a chemical phenomenon. We
can only inform the ehemift, that a candle will confume
fafter in the low countries than in the elevated regions of
Quito and Gondar, becaufe the air is nearlv one half
denfer below, and will ad proportionally fafter in de-
CQmpofing the candle.
A T I C S.
We (hall conclude this part of our fubjed with the Pneumati
explanation of a curious phenomenon obferved in many Engines,
places. Certain fprings or fountains are obferved to
have periods of repletion and fcandnefs, or feem to ebb Curious ef
and flow at regular intervals*, and fome of thefe periods feft of the
are of a complicated nature. Thus a well will have fe- a‘r’s pref. ;
veral returns of high and low water, the difference of^ure‘
which gradually increafes to a maximum, and then di-
minifties, juft as we obferve in the ocean. A very inge¬
nious and probable explanation of this has been given in
N° 424. of the Philofophical Tranfadions, by Mr At¬
well, as follows.
Let ABCD (fig. 80.) reprefent a cavern, into which Fig. 8a,
water is brought by the fubterraneous paffage OT. Let
it have an outlet MNP, of a crooked form, with its
higheft part N confiderably raifed above the bottom of
the cavern, and thence Hoping dowmwards into lower
ground, and terminating in an open well at P. Let
the dimenfions of this canal be fuch that it will difeharge
much more w ater than is fupplied by TO. All this is
very natural, and may be very common. The effed of
this arrangement will be a remitting fpring at P : for
when the cavern is filled higher than the point N, the
canal MNP will ad as a fyphon ; and, by the condi¬
tions affumed, it will difeharge the water fafter than
TO fupplies it; it will therefore run it dry, and then
the fpring at P will ceafe to furnifti w'ater. After fome
time the cavern will again be filled up to the height N,
and the flow at P will recommence.
If, befides this fupply, the well P alfo receive water
from a conftant fource, we ftiall have a reciprocating
The fituation and dimenfions of this fyphon canal,
and the fupply of the feeder, may be fuch, that the ef¬
flux at P will be conftant. If the fupply increafe in a
certain degree, a reciprocation will be produced at P
with very ftiort intervals; if the fupply diminiihes confi¬
derably, we ftiall have another kind of reciprocation
with great intervals and great differences of water.
If the cavern have another fimple outlet R, new va¬
rieties will be produced in the fpring P, and R will af¬
ford a copious fpring. Let the mouth of R, by which
the water enters into it from the cavern, be lower than
N, and let the fupply of the feeding fpring be no great¬
er than R can difeharge, we ffiall have a conftant fpring
from R, and P will give no water. But fuppofe that
the main feeder increafes in winter or in rainy feafons,
but not fo much as will fupply both P and R, the ca¬
vern will fill till the water gets over N, and R will be
running all the while; but foon after P has begun to
flow, and the water in the cavern finks below R, the
ftream from R will flop. The cavern will be emptied
by the fyphon canal MNP, and then P will flop. The
cavern will then begin to fill, and when near full R
will give a little water, and foon after P will run and R
flop as before, &c.
Defaguliers (hows, vol. ii. p. 177, &c. in what man¬
ner a prodigious variety of periodical ebbs and flows may
be produced by underground canals, which are extreme¬
ly fimple and probable.
374
We (hall conclude this article with the deferiptions Account ^
of fume pneumatical machines or engines which have not Pnt 1
been particularly noticed under their names in the for-matK' ’ I
mer volumes of this work. &
Bellows
PNEUMATICS.
ufumatic Bellows are of moft extenfive and important ufe 5 and
Engines, it will be of fervice to defcrib.e fuch as are of uncommon
^-Y——' conftruftion and great power, fit for the great operations
in metallurgy.
It is not the impulfive force of the blaft that is want¬
ed in moft cafes, but merely the copious fupply of air,,
to produce the rapid combuftion of inflammable matter ;
and the fervice would be better performed in general if
this could be done with moderate velocities, and an ex¬
tended furface. What are called air-furnaces, where a
confiderable furface of inflammable matter is afted on at
once by the current which the mere heat of the expend¬
ed air has produced, are found more operative in pro¬
portion to the air expended than blaft furnaces animated
by bellows \ and wejdoubt not but that the method pro-
pofed by Mr Cotterel (which we have already mention¬
ed) of increafing this current in a melting furnace by
means of a dome, tvill in time fuperfede the blaft fur¬
naces. There is indeed a great impulfive force required
in fome cafes; as for blowing off the fcorisc from the
furface of filver or copper in refining furnaces, or for
keeping a clear paflage for the air in the great iron fur¬
nace.
In general, however, we cannot procure this abun¬
dant fupply of air any other way than by giving it a
great velocity by means of a great preffure, fo that the
general conftrudfion of bellows is pretty much the fame
in all kinds. The air is admitted into a very large ca¬
vity, and then expelled from it through a fmall hole.
The furnaces at the mines having been greatly en¬
larged, it was necefiary to enlarge the bellows alfo : and
the leathern bellows becoming exceedingly expenfive,
wooden ones were fubftituted in Germany about the be¬
ginning of the 17th century, and from them became
Plate general through Europe. They confift of a wooden box
cccxxxn. ABCPFE (fig. 92.), which has its top and two fides
fig. 5t2.j flat or ftraight, and the end BAE e formed into an
arched or cylindrical furface, of which the line FP at
the other end is the axis. This box is open below, and
ig. p3. receives within it the {hallow box KHGNML (fig. 93.),
which exaftly fills it. The line FP of the one coincides
wfith FP of the other, and along this line is a fet of
hinges on which the upper box turns as it rifes and finks.
The lower box is made fall to a frame fixed in the
ground. A pipe OQ^ proceeds from the end of it, and
terminates at the furnace, where it ends in a fmall pipe
called the tewer or tuyere. This lower box is open
above, and has in its bottom two large valves V, V,
ig. 54, fig. 94. opening inwards. The condufting pipe is fome-
times furniftied with a valve opening outwards, to pre¬
vent burning coals from being fucked into the bellows
when the upper box is drawn up. The joint along PF
is made tight by thin leather nailed along it. The fides
and ends of the fixed box are made to fit the fides and
curved end of the upper box, fo that this laft can be
raifed and lowered round the joint FP without fenfible
fri&ion, and yet without fuffering much air to efcape:
but as this would not be fufficiently air-tight by reafon
of the ftirinking and warping of the wood, a farther
contrivance is adopted. A {lender lath of wood, divided
into feveral joints, and covered on the outer edge with
very foft leather, is laid along the upper edges of the
fides and ends of the lower box. This lath is fo broad,
that when its inner edge is even with the infide of th6
box, its outer edge projects about an inch. It is kept
Vol. XVI. Part II.
745
in this pofition by a number of fteel wires, which are Pneumatic
driven into the bottom of the box, and ftand up touch- £ngmCiK ,
ing the fides, as reprefented in fig. 95. where ab c are ^ ^
the wires, and e the lath, projecting over the outfide of
the box. By this contrivance the laths are preffed clofe
to the fides and curved end of the moveable box, and
the (bring wires yield to all their inequalities. A bar
of wood RS (fig. 92.) is fixed to the upper board, bypjg ^
which it is either raifed by machinery, to fink again by
its own weight, having an additional load laid on it, or
it is forced downward by a crank or wiper of the ma¬
chinery, and afterwards raiftd.
The operation here is precifely fimilar to that of
blowing with a chamber-bellows. When the board is
lifted up, the air enters by the valves V, V, fig. 94. and
is expelled at the pipe by depreffing the boards.
There is therefore no occaiion to infift on this point.
Thefe bellows are made of a very great fize, AD
being 16 feet, AB five feet, and the circular end AE
alfo five feet. The rife, however, is but about 3 or 34
feet. They expel at each ftroke about 90 cubic feet
of air, and they make about 8 ftrokes per minute.
Such are the bellows in general ufe on the continent.
We have adopted a different form in this kingdom, which
feeras much preferable. We ufe an iron or wooden cy¬
linder, with a pifton Aiding along it. This may be made
with much greater accuracy than the wooden boxes, at
lefs expence, if of wood, becaufe it may be of coopers
work, held together by hoops; but the great advantage
of this form is its being more eafily made air-tight. The
piften is furrounded with a broad (trap of thick and foft
leather, and it has around its edge a deep groove, in
which is lodged a quantity of wool. This is called the
packing or (tufting, and keeps the leather very clofely
applied to the inner furface of the cylinder. Iron cylin¬
ders may be very neatly bored and fmoothed, fo that
the pifton, even when very tight, will Aide along it very
fmoothly. To promote this, a quantity of black lead is
ground very fine with water, and a little of this is fmear-
ed on the infide of the cylinder from time to time.
The cylinder has a large valve, or fometimes two, in
the bottom, by which the atmofpheric air enters when
the pifton is drawn up. When the pifton is thruft down,
this air is expelled along a pipe of great diameter, which
terminates in the furnace with a fmall orifice.
This is the fimpleft form of bellows which can be
conceived. It differs in nothing but fize from the bel¬
lows ufed by the rudeft nations. The Chinefe fmiths
have a bellows very fimilar, beingafquare pine of wood
ABODE (fig. 96.), with a fquare board G which ex-
adftly fits it, moved by the handle FG. At the farther 1&' 9','‘
end is the blaft pipe HK, and on each fide of it a valve
in the end of the fquare pipe, opening inwards. The
pifton is fufficiently tight for their purpofes without any
leathering.
The pifton of this cylinder bellows is moved by ma¬
chinery. In fome blaft engines the piflon is Amply
raifed by the machine, and then let go, and it defeends
by its own weight, and compreffes the air below it to
fuch a degree, that the velocity of efflux becomes con-
ftant, and the pifton defeends uniformly : for this pur-
pofe it muft be loaded with a proper weight. This
produces a very uniform blaft, except at the very begin¬
ning, while the pifton falls fuddenly and compreffes the
air : but in moft engines the pifton rod is forced down
5 B the
746
PNEUMATICS.
Fi'g. 5)7.
Pneumatic the cylinder witli a determined motion, by means of a
Engines. bearnj crank, or other contrivance. This gives a more
unequal blaft, becaufe the motion of the piiton is necef-
farily flow in the beginning and end of the ftroke, and
quicker in the middle.
But in all it is plain that the blaft muft be defultory.
It ceafes while the pifton is riling j for this reafon it is
ufual to have two cylinders, as it was formerly ufual to
have two bellows, which worked alternately. Some¬
times three or four are ufed, as at the Carron iron
works. This makes a blatl abundantly uniform.
But an uniform blafl: may be made with a Angle cy¬
linder, by making it deliver its air into another cylin¬
der, which has a pifton exaftly fttted to its bore, and
loaded with a fufficient weight. The blowing cylinder
ABCD (fig. 07.) has its pifton P worked by a rod
NP, connefted by double chains with the arched head
of the working beam NO, moving round a gudgeon at
R. The other end O of this beam is connected by the
rod OP, with the crank P(} of a wheel machine 5 or it
may be conne&ed with the pifton of a fleam engine,
&c. &c. The blowing cylinder has a valve or valves
E in its bottom, opening inwards. There proceeds
from it a large pipe CF, which enters the regulating cy¬
linder GHKI, and has a valve at top to prevent the air
from getting back into the blowing cylinder. It is evi¬
dent that the air forced into this cylinder muft raife its
pifton L, and that it muft afterwards defcend, while
the other pifton is rifing. It mull: defcend uniformly,
and make a perfectly equable blaft.
Obferve, that if the pifton L be at the bottom when
the machine begins to work, it will be at the bottom
at the end of every ftroke, if the tuijere T emits as
much air as the cylinder ABCD furniflies; nay, it will
lie a while at the bottom, for, while it was rifing, air
was iffuing through T. This would make an interrupt¬
ed blaft. To prevent this, the orifice T muft: be leften-
ed j but then there will be a furplus of air at the end of
each ftroke, and the pifton L will rife continually, and
at laft get to the top, and allow air to efcape. It is
juft poffible to adjuft circumftances, fo that neither fliall
happen. This is done eafier by putting a flop in the
way of the pifton, and putting a valve on the pifton, or
<hi the conducing pipe KSF, loaded with a weight a
little fuperior to the intended elafticity of the air in the
eylinder. Therefore, when the pifton is prevented by
the flop from rifing, the fnifting valve, as it is called, is
forced open, the fuperfluous air efcapes, and the blaft
preferves its uniformity.
It may be of ufe to give the dimenfions of a machine
of this kind, which has worked for lome years at a very
great furnace, and given fatisfa&ion.
I he diameter of the blowing cylinder is 5 feet, and
the length of the ftroke is 6. Its pifton is loaded with
S-sr tons. It is worked by a fteam-engine whofe cylin¬
der is 3 feet 4 inches wide, with a fix-feet ftroke. The
regulating cylinder is 8 feet wide, and its pifton is load¬
ed with S'j- tons, making about 2.63 pounds on the fquare
inch 5 and it is very nearly in equilibrio with the load
on the pifton of the blowing cylinder. The conducing
pipe KST is 12 inches m diameter, and the orifice of
ine iuyere was 4 of an inch when the engine wasereift-
ed, but it has gradually enlarged by reafon of the in-
- 1 e j eft ^ which ^ is expofed. The fnifting valve
is loaded with 3 pounds on the fquare inch.
When the engine worked briikly, it made 18 ftrokes Pneunut
per minute, and there was always much air difeharged EBguic:
by the fnifting valve. When the engine made 15 ftrokes
per minute, the fnifting valve opened but feldom, fo that
things were nearly adjufted to this fupply. Each ftroke
of the blowing cylinder fent in 118 cubic feet of com¬
mon air. The ordinary prefiure of the air being fup-
pofed 14^ pounds on an inch, the denfity of the air in
the regulating cylinder muft be = 1.1782.
14.75 °
the natural denfity being 1.
This machine gives an opportunity of comparing the
expence of air with the theory. It muft (at the rate
of 15 ftrokes) expel 30 cubic feet of air in a fecond
through a hole of inches in diameter. This gives
a velocity of near 2000 feet per fecond, and of more
than 1600 feet for the condenfed air. This is vaftly
greater than the theory can give, or is indeed poflible ;
for air does not rufti into a void with fo great velocity.
It (hows with great evidence, that a vaft quantity of
air muft efcape round the two piftons. Their united
circumferences amount to above 40 feet, and they move
in a dry cylinder. It is impoflible to prevent a very
great lofs. Accordingly, a candle held near the edge
of the pifton L has its flame very much difturbed. This -
cafe therefore gives no hold for a calculation 5 and it
fuggefts the propriety of attempting to diminilh this
great wafte.
This has been very ingenioufly done (in part at leaft)
at fome other furnaces. At Omoah foundery, near
Glafgow, the blowing cylinder (alfo worked by a fleam
engine) delivers its air into a theft without a bottom,
which is immerfed in a large ciftern of water, and fup-
ported at a fmall height from the bottom of the ciftern,
and has a pipe from its top leading to the tuyere. The
water ftands about five feet above the lower brim of the
regulating air-cheft, and by its prefiure gives the moft
perfect uniformity of blaft, without allowing a particle
of air to get off by any other pafiage befides the tuyere.
This is a very effe&ual regulator, and muft produce a
great faving of power, becaufe a fmaller blowing cylin¬
der will thus fupply the blaft. We muft obferve, that
the lofs round the pifton of the blowing cylinder remains
undiminiftied.
A blowing machine was eredled many years ago at
Chaftillon in France on a principle conliderably differ-
ent, and which muft be perfe&ly air tight through-CCCC^A
out. Two cylinders AB (fig. 98.), loaded with great fig.pS
weights, were fufpended at the end of the levers CD,
moving round the gudgeon E. From the top F, G
of each there w'as a large flexible pipe which united
in H, from whence a pipe KT led to the tuyere T.
1 here were valves at F and G opening outwards, or
ipto the flexible pipes*, and other valves L, M, adjoin¬
ing to them in the top of each cylinder, opening in¬
wards, but kept (hut by a flight fpring. Motion was
given to the lever by a machine. The operation of this
blowing machine is evident. When the cylinder A
was pulled down, or allow'ed to defcend, the water, en¬
tering at its bottom, comprefled the air, and forced it
along the paflage FHKT. In the mean time, the cy¬
linder B was rifing, and the air entered by the valve M.
We fee that the blaft will be very unequal, increafing
as the cylinder is immerfed deeper. It is needlefs to
deferibe this machine more particularly, becaufe we fihall
givs
P N E U M
1‘neumatic give an account of one which we think perfect in its
[ Engines. anti which leaves hardly any thing to be deflred
^ in a machine of this fort. It was invented by Mr John
Laurie, land-furveyor in Edinburgh, about 15 years
ago, and improved in fome refpe£ts frnce his death by
an ingenious perfon of that cityi
ll.pp. ABCD (fig. 99.) is an iron cylinder, truly bored
tvithin, and evafated a-top like a cup. EFGH is an*
other, truly turned both without and within, and a fmall
matter lefs than the inner diameter of the firft cylinder.
This cylinder is clofe above, and hangs from the end
of a lever moved by a machine. It is alfo loaded with
weights at N. KILM is a third cylinder, whofe out-
fide diameter is fomewhat lefs than the infide diameter
of the fecond. This inner cylinder is fixed to the fame
bottom with the outer cylinder. The middle cylinder
is loofe, and can move up and down between the outer
and inner cylinders without rubbing on either of them.
The inner cylinder is perforated from top to bottom
by three pipes 0£), SV, PR. The pipes 0£), PR
have valves at their upper ends O, P, and communicate
with the external air below. The pipe SV has a hori¬
zontal part VW, which again turns upwards, and has
a valve at top X. This upright part WX is in the
middle of a ciftern of waterfhkg. Into this ciftern
is fixed an air-cheft a YZ £, open below, and having
at top a pipe c d e terminating in the tuyere at the fur¬
nace.
When the machine is at reft, the valves X, O, P,
are ftmt by their own weights, and the air-cheft is full
of water. When things are in this ftate, the middle
cylinder EFGH is drawn up by the machinery till its
lower brims F and G are equal with the top RM of the
inner cylinder. Now pour in water or oil between the
outer and middle cylinders : it will run down and fill
the fpace between the outer and inner cylinders. Let
it come to the top of the inner cylinder.
Now let the loaded middle cylinder defeend. It
cannot do this without comprefling the air which is
between its top and the top of the inner cylinder. This
air being comprefled will caufe the water to defeend
between the'inner and middle^ylinders, and rife between
the middle and outer cylinders, fpreading into the cup j
and as the middle cylinder advances downwards, the
water will defeend farther within it, and rife farther
without it. When it has got fo far down, and the air
has been fo much comprefled, that the difference between
the furface of the water on the infide and outfide of
this cylinder is greater than the depth of water betAveen
X and the furface of the water air will go out by
the pipe SVW, and will lodge in the air-cheft, and
will remain there if c be (hut, wrhich we fhall fuppofe
for the prefent. Pulhing down the middle cylinder
till the partition touch the top of the inner cylinder,
all the air which was formerly between them will be
forced into the air-cheft, and will drive out water from
it. Draw up the middle cylinder, and the external
air will open the valves O, P, and again fill the fpace
between the middle and inner cylinders ; for the valve
X will fhut, and prevent the regrefs of the condenfed
air. By pufliing down the middle cylinder a fecond
time, more air will be forced into the air-cheft, and it
will at laft efcape by getting out between its brims Y,
Z and the bottom of the ciftern 5 or if we open the paf-
A T I C S.
fage r, it will pafs along the conduit cds to the tuyere,
and form a blaft.
The operation of this machine is fimilar to Mr Haf-
kins’s quickfilver pump deferibed by Defaguliers at
the end of the fecond volume of his Experimental Phi-
lofophy. The force which condenfes the air is the load
on the middle cylinder. The ufe of the water between
the inner and outer cylinders is to prevent this air from
efcapingj and the inner cylinder thus performs the office
of a pifton, having no friftion. It is neceffary that
the length of the outer and middle cylinders be greater
than the depth of the regulator-ciftern, that there
may be a fufficient height for the water to rife between
the middle and outer cylinders, to balance the com¬
prefled air, and oblige it to go into the air-cheft. A
large blaft-furnace will require the regulator-ciftern five
feet deep, and the cylinders about fix or feven feet
long*. .
It is in £a<ft a pump without friftion, and is perfectly
air-tight. The quicknefs of its operation depends on
the fmall fpace between the middle cylinder and the two
others j and this is the only ufe of thefe two. With¬
out thefe it would be fimilar to the engine at Chaftillon,
and operate more unequally and {lowly. Its only im-
perfedtion is, that if the cylinder begin its motion of
afeent or defeent rapidly, as it will do when Avorked
by a fteam-engine, there will be fome danger of water
daffiing over the top of the inner cylinder and getting
into the pipe SV \ but ffiould this happen, an iffue
can eafily be contrived for it at V, covered with a load¬
ed valve v. This will never happen if the cylinder is
moved by a crank.
One blowing cylinder only is repreftmted here, but
two may be ufed.
We do not hefitate in recommending this form of
bellows as the moft perfect of any, and fit for all ufes
where Handing bellows are required. They will be
cheaper than any other fort for common purpofes. For
a common fmith’s forge they may be made with fquare
wooden boxes inftead of cylinders. They are alfo eafily
repaired. They are perfectly tight} and they may be
made with a blaft almoft perfectly uniform, by making
the ciftern in which the air-cheft Hands of confiderabie
dimenfions. When this is the cafe, the height of water,
which regulates the blaft, will vary very little.
This may fuffice for an account of blaft machines.
The leading parts of their conftruftion have been de
feribed as far only as was neceffary for underftanding
their operation, and enabling an engineer to ereft them
in the moft commodious manner. Views of complete
machines might have amufed, but they would not have
added to our reader’s information.
But the account is imperfeft unlefs we ftiow how
their parts may be fo proportioned that they ffiall per¬
form what is expefted from them. The engineer ftiould
know what fize of bellows, and what load on the board
or pifton, and what fize of tuyere, will give the blaft
which the fervice requires, and what force muft be em¬
ployed to give them the neceffary degree of motion.
We ffiall accomplifti thefe purpofes by confidering the
efflux of the comprefled air through the tuyere. The
propofitlohs formerly delivered will enable us to afeer-
tain this.
That we may proportion every thing to the power
5 B 2 employed.
748 pneumatics.
Pneumatic employed, we muft recoiled!:, that if the pifton of a cy-
Engines. l|nc}er employed for expelling air be prelied down with
» any force p, it muft be confidered as fuperadded to the
atmol'pheric preflure P on the fame pifton, in order that
we may compare the velocity t; of efflux with the known
velocity V with which air ruffles into a void. By what
has been formerly delivered, it appears that this velocity
v=zVX -
Pxjs
where P is the prelTure of the atmo-
fphere on the pifton, and p the additional load laid on it.
This velocity isexpreffed in feet per fecond ; and, when
multiplied by the area of the orifice (alfo exprefled in
fquare feet), it will give us the cubical feet of conden-
fed air expelled in a feeond : but the bellovcs are always
to be filled again with common air, and therefore
we want to know the quantity of common air which
will be expelled ; for it is this which determines the
number of ftrokes which muft be made in a minute, in
order that the proper fupply may be obtained. There¬
fore recolle6t that the quantity expelled from a given
orifice with a given velocity, is in the proportion of the
denfity ; and that when D is the denfity of common air
produced by the preffure P, the denfity d produced by
P-f-p
the preffure P-f-/7* is Dx—p— j or if D be made I,
we have d——
Therefore, calling the area of the orifice expreffed in
fquare feet O, and the quantity of common air, or the
cubic feet expelled in a fecond £) , we have £)=:V X O X
y
p+p
It will be fufficiently exaft for all practical purpofes
to fuppofe P to be 15 pounds on every fquare inch of
the pifton ; and p is then conveniently expreffed by the
pounds of additional load on every fquare inch : we may
alfo take V=rT332 feet.
As the orifice through which the air is expelled is ge¬
nerally very fmall, never exceeding three inches in dia¬
meter, it will be more convenient to exprefs it in fquare
inches j which being the of a fquare foot, wre (hall
have the cubic feet of common air expelled in a fecond, or
P+P ~ /
x—=0 x 9.25 X V
X33VV
' *44
„ P+P
P+P
F+p
and this feems to be as fimple an expreffion
as wc can obtain.
T his will perhaps be illuftrated by taking an example
in numbers. Let the area of the pifton be four fquare
feet, and the area of the round hole through which the
air is expelled be two inches, its diameter being 1.6,
and let the load on the pifton be 1728 pounds : this is
three pounds on every fquare inch. We have Pm 5,
i7—3> Pand 0=2 ; therefore we will have
/~J\ 18
Q,— 2 X 9125 X v Yg! X —j —9'°S3 cubic feet of com¬
mon air expelled in a fecond. Phis will however be di-
miniffled at leaft one-third by the contraaion of the jet;
and therefore the fupply will not exceed fix cubic feet
per fecond. Suppofing therefore that this blowing ma¬
chine is a cylinder or prifrn of this dimenfion in its fac¬
tion, the pifton fo loaded would (after having compref-
5
fed the air) defcend about 15 inches in a fflcond : It Pneumati
would firft fink one-fifth of the whole length of the cy- Engines,
linder pretty fuddenly, till it had reduced the air to the
denfity 4J-, and would then defcend uniformly at the
above rate, expelling fix cubic feet of common air in a
fecond.
The computation is made much in the fame way for
bellows of the common form, w ith this additional cir-
cumftance, that as the loaded board moves round a
hinge at one end, the preffure ol the load muft be calcu¬
lated accordingly. The computation, however, becdmes-
a little intricate, when the form of the loaded board is
not rectangular : it is almoft ufelefs when the bellows
have flexible fides, either like fmiths bellows or like
organ bellows, becaufe the change of figure during their
motion makes continual variation on the comprefling
powers. It is therefore chiefly with refpeCt to the-
great wooden bellows, of which the upper board Aides
down between the fides, that the above calculation is of
fervice.
The propriety, however, of this piece of information-
is evident: we do not know precifely the quantity of
air neceffary for animating a furnace j but this calcula¬
tion tells us what force muft be employed for expelling
the air that may be thought neceffary. If we have fixed
on the ftrength of the blaft, and the diameter of the cy¬
linder, we learn the weight with which the pifton mull
be loaded ; the length of the cylinder determines its ca¬
pacity, the above calculation tells the expence per fe¬
cond ; hence we have the time of the pifton’s coming
to the bottom. This gives us the number of ftrokes per
minute : the load muft be lifted up by the machine this
number of times, making the time of afeent precifely
equal to that of defeent j otherwife the machine will ei¬
ther catch and flop the defeent of the pifton, or allow it
to lie inaftive for a while of each ftroke. Thefe circum-
ftances determine the labour to be performed by the ma¬
chine, and it muft be conftrufted accordingly. Thus
the engineer will not be affronted by its failure, nor will
he expend needlefs power and eoft.
In machines which force the pifton or bellows-board
with a certain determined motion, different from what
arifes from their own weight, the computation is ex¬
tremely intricate. When a pifton moves by a crank, its
motion at the beginning and end of each ftroke is-flow,
and the compreffion and efflux is continually changing
we can however approximate to a ftatement of the force
required.
Every time the pifton is drawn up, a certain fpace
of the cylinder is filled again with air of the common
denfity ; and this is expelled during ths defeent of the
pifton. A certain number of cubic feet of common air
is therefore expelled with a velocity which perhaps con¬
tinually varies j but there is a medium velocity with which
it might have been uniformly expelled, and a preffure
correfponding to this velocity. To find this, divide the
area of the pifton by the area of the blaft-hole (or ra¬
ther by this area multiplied by 0.613, in order to take
in the effedt of the contradled jet), and multiply the
length of the ftroke performed in a fecond by the quo¬
tient arifing from this divifion ; the produdt is the me¬
dium velocity of the air (of the natural denfity). Then
find by calculation the height through which a heavy
body muft fall in order to acquire this velocity ; this is
the height of a column of homogeneous air which would
expel
P N E U M
neuoiatic expel It ■with this velocity. The weight of this column
Engines. js tke jea^ force that can be exerted by the engine: but
this force is teo fmall to overcome the refiftance in the
middle of the ftroke, and it is too great even for the end
of the ftroke, and much too great for the beginning of
it. But if the machine is turned by a very heavy water¬
wheel, this will aft as a regulator, accumulating in it-
felf the fuperfluous force during the too favourable pofi-
tions of the crank, and exerting it by its vis injita dur¬
ing the time of greateft elf or t. A force not greatly ex¬
ceeding the weight of this column of air will therefore
fuffice. On the other hand, if the ftrength of the blaft
be determined, which is the general ftate of the problem,
this determines the degree of eondenfation of the air,
and the load on the fquare inch of the pifton, or the
mean force which the machine muft exert on it. A
table, which will be given prefently, determines the
cubic feet of common air expelled in a fecond, corre-
fponding to this load. This combined with the propofed
dimenfions of the cylinder, will give the defcent of the
pifton or the length of the ftroke.
Thefe general obfervations apply to all forms of bel¬
lows •, and without a knowledge of them no perfon can
ereft a machine for working them without total uncer¬
tainty or fervile imitation. In order, therefore, that they
may be ufeful to fuch as are not accuftomed to the ma¬
nagement of even thefe ftmple formulae, we infert the
following fhort table of the velocity and quantity of air
difcharged from a cylinder whofe pifton is loaded with
the pounds contained in the firft column on every ftjuare
inch. The fecond column contains the velocity with
which the condenfed air rulhes out through any fmall
hole; and the third column is the cubic feet difcharged
from a hole whofe area is a fquare inch 5 column fourth
contains the mean velocity of air of the common den-
fity ; and column fifth is the cubic feet of common air
difoharged ; the fixth column is the height in inches at
which the force of the blaft would fupport a column of
water if a pipe were inferted into the fide of the cylin¬
der. This is an extremely proper addition to fuch ma¬
chines, Ihowing at all times the power of the machines,
and teaching us what intenfity of blaft is employed for
different purpofes. The table is computed from the
fuppofition that the ordinary preflbre of the air is 15
pounds on a fquare inch. This is fomewhat too great,
and therefore the velocities are a little too fmall ; but
the quantities difcharged will be found about one-third
too great (without affefting the velocities) on account of
the convergency of the ftream.
A T I C S. 749
This table extends far beyond the limits of ordinary Pneumatic
ufe, very few blaft-furnaces having a force exceeding Engines. ^
60 inches of water. ' V”
We (hall conclude this account of blowing machines
with a defcription of a fmall one for a blowpipe.
ABCD, fig. 100. is a veffel containing water, about Fig. iso.
two feet deep. EFGH is the air-box of the blower
open below, and having a pipe ILK rifing up from it
to a convenient height 5 an arm ON which grafps this
pipe carries the lamp N : the blowpipe LM comes from
the top of the upright pipe. PKO is the feeding pipe
reaching near to the bottom of the veffel.
Water being poured into the veffel below, and its co¬
ver being put on, which fits the upright pipe, and
touches two ftuds <7, a, projefting from it, blow in^ a
quantity of air by the feeding pipe PQ *, this expels the
water from the air-box, and occafions a preffure which
produces the blaft through the blowpipe M.
In N° 54. of this article, we mentioned an applica¬
tion which has been made of Hero’s fountain, at Chem¬
nitz in Plungary, for raifing water from the bottom of
a mine. We (hall now give an account of this very in¬
genious contrivance.
In fig. 101. B reprefents the fouree of water elevated Fig. roi,
above the mouth of the pit 136 feet. From this there
is led a pipe B b CD four inches diameter. This pipe
enters the top of a copper cylinder be de, feet high,
five feet diameter, and two inches thick, and it reaches
to rvithin four inches of the bottom ; it has a cock at
C. This cylinder has a cock at F, and a very large
one at E. From the top b c proceeds a pipe GUFF
two inches in diameter, which goes down the pit 96
feet, and is inferted into the top of another brafs cy¬
linder f g h f, which is 6-J feet high, four feet diameter,
and two inches thick, containing 83 cubic feet, which is
very nearly one half of the capacity of. the other, viz.
of 170 cubic feet. There is another pipe NI of four
inches diameter, which rifes from within four inches of
the bottom of this lower cylinder, is foldered into its
top, and rifes to the trough NO, which carries off the
rvater from the mouth of the pit. This lorver cylinder
communicates at the bottom Avith the Avater L which
collefts in the drains of the mine. A large cock K
ferves to admit or exclude this water ; another cock M,
at the top of this cylinder, communicates Avith the ex¬
ternal air..
Now fuppofe the coek G (hut, and all the reft open y
the upper cylinder Avill contain air, and the loAvcr cy¬
linder Avill be filled with water, becaufe it is funk fo
deep that its top is beloAV the ufual furface of the mine-
waters. Now fhut the coeks F, E, M, K, and open
the cock C. The Avater of the fource B muft run in
by the orifice D, and rife in the upper cylinder, com-
preffing the air above it and along the pipe GHIT,
and thus afting on the furface of the water in the loAver
cylinder. It Aviil therefore caufe it to rife gradually
in the pipe IN, Avhere it Avill always be of fuch a height
that its Aveight balances the elaftieity of the compreffed
air. Suppofe no iffue given to the air from the upper
cylinder, it Avould be compreffed into one-fifth of hs
bulk by the column of 136 feet high y for a.column of
34 feet nearly balances the ordinary elaflieity of the air.
Therefore, Avhen there is an iffue given to it through
the pipe GHFF, it Avill drive the compreffed air along
this pipe, and it will expel w'ater from the lorver eylin-
*0
P N £ U M
Fueuinatie der. When tiie uppef cylinder is full of water, there
, -t‘J>gllls5~ ^ WJ}1 be 34 cubic feet of water expelled from the lower
' cylinder. If the pipe IN had been more than 136 feet
long, the water would have rifen 136 feet, being then
in equilibrio with the water in the feeding pipe B b CD
(as was Ihown in N° 52.), by the intervention of the
elaftic air ; but no more water would have been ex¬
pelled from the lower cylinder than what fills this pipe.
But the pipe being only 96 feet high, the water will
be thrown out at N with a very great velocity. If it were
not for the great obftru&ions which water and air muft
meet with in their paffage along pipes, it would iffue at N
with a velocity of more than 50 feet per fecond. It
iffues much more {lowly* and at laft the upper cylinder
is full of water, and the water would enter the pipe GH
and enter the lower cylinder, and without difplacing the
air in it, would rife through the difcharging pipe IN,
and run off to waftei To prevent this thfcre hangs in
the pipe HG a cork ball or double cone, by a brafs
wire which is guided by holes in two crofs pieces in the
pipe HG. When the tipper cylinder is filled with water,
this cork plugs up the orifice G, and no water is wafted j
the influx at D now ftops. But the lower cylinder con¬
tains comprefled air, which would balance water in a
difcharging pipe 136 feet high, whereas IN is only 96.
Therefore the water will continue to flow at N till the
air has fo far expanded as to balance only 96 feet of
water, that is, till it occupies one-fourth of its ordinary
bulk, that is, one-fourth of the capacity of the upper cy¬
linder, or 42 j- cubic feet. Therefore 42^- cubic feet
will be expelled, and the efflux at N willceafe j and the
lower cylinder is about one half full of water. When
the attending workman obferves this, he {huts the cock
C. He might have done this before, had he known
when the orifice G was flopped ; but no lofs enfues
from the delay. At the fame time the attendant opens
the cock E, the water iflues with great violence, being
preffed by the condenfed air from the lower cylinder.
It therefore iffues with the fum of its own weight and
of this compreffion. Thefe gradually decreafe together,
by the efflux of the water and the expanfion of the air y
but this efflux flops before all the water has flowed out:
for there is 42f- feet of the lower cylinder occupied by
air. This quantity of water remains, therefore, in the
upper Cylinder nearly : the workrhan knows this, be-
caufe the difeharged water is received firft of all into
a veflel containing three-fourths of the capacity of the
upper cylinder. Whenever this is filled, the attendant
opens the -cock K by a long rod which goes down
the fhaft; this allows the water of the mine to fill the
lower cylinder, allows the air to get into the upper cy¬
linder, and this allows the remaining water to run otit
cf it.
And thus every thing is brought into its firft condi¬
tion ; and when the attendant fees no more water come
out at E, he {huts the cocks E and M, and opens the
•ock C, and the operation is repeated.
There is a very furprifing appearance in the working
of this engine. When the efflux at N has flopped, if
the cock F be opened, the water and air ruftt out toge¬
ther with prodigious violence, and the drops of water
are changed into hail or lumps of ice. It is a fight
ufually ftiown to ftrangers, who are defired to hold their
hats to receive the blaft of air : the ice Comes out with
fuch violence as frequently to pierce the hat like a piftol
Z
A T I C S.
bullet. This rapid congelation is a remarkable Inflance Ffleunr-t
of the general fad, that air by fuddenly expanding, ge- Engine-
nerates cold, its capacity for heat being increafed. Thus
the peafant cools his broth by blowing over the fpoon,
even from warm lungs: a ftream of air from a pipe is
always cooling.
The above account of the procedure in working this
engine flrows that the efflux both at N and E becomes
very flow near the end. It is found convenient therefore
not to wait for the complete difeharges, but to turn the
cocks when about 30 cubic feet of-water have been dif¬
eharged at N : more work is done in this way. A gen¬
tleman of great accuracy and knowledge of thele fubjeds
took the trouble, at our defire, of noticing particularly
the performance of the machine. He obferved that
each ftroke, as it may be called, took up about three mi¬
nutes and one-eighth j and that 32 cubic feet of water
were difeharged at N, and 66 were expended at E. The
expence therefore is 66 feet of water falling 136 feet,
and the performance is 32raifed 96, and they are in
the proportion of 66x136 to 32X96, or of 1 to
0.3422, or nearly as 3 to 1. This is fuperior to the
performance of the moft perfed underftiot mill, even
when all fridion and irregular obflrudions are negled-
ed j and is not much inferior to any overfliot pump-mill
that has yet been ereded. When we refled on the
great obftrudions which water meets with in its paflage
through long pipes, we may be allured that, by dou¬
bling the fize of the feeder and difeharger, the perfor¬
mance of the machine will be greatly improved j we do
not hefitate to fay, that it would be increafed one-
third : it is true that it will expend more water j but
this will not be nearly in the fame proportion } for moft
of the deficiency of the machine arifes from theneedlefa
velocity of the firft efflux at N. The difcharging pipe
ought to be 110 feet high, and not give fenfiblylefs water.
Then it muft be confidered how inferior in original
expence this fimple machine muft be to a tnill of any
kind which would raife 10 cubic feet 96 feet high in a
minute, and how fmall the repairs on it need be, when
compared with a mill.
And, laftly, let it be noticed, that fuch a machine can
be ufed where no mill whatever can be put in motion.
A fmall ftream of water, which would not move any
kind of wheel, will here raife one-third of its own quan¬
tity to the fame height j working as faft as it is fupplied.
For all thefe reafons, we think that the Hungarian
machine eminently deferves the attention of mathemati¬
cians and engineers, to bring it to its utmoft perfection,
and into general ufe. There are fituations where this
kind of machine may be very ufeful Thus, where the
tide rifes feet, it may be ufed for coinpreffing air to
feven-eighths of its bulk j and a pipe leading from a
very large Veflel inverted in it, may be ufed for raifing
the water from a veflel of one eighth of its capacity
feet high 5 or if this veffel has only of the capacity
of the large one fet in the tide way, two pipes may be led
from it, one into the fmall veflel and the other intoan equal
veflel 16 feet higher, which receives the water from the
firft. Thus one fixteenth of the water may be raifed 34
feet, and a fmaller quantity to a ftill greater height *, and
this with a kind of power that can hardly be applied in
any other way. Machines of this kind are deferibed
by Schottus, Sturmius, Leupold, and other old Writers;
and they Ihould not be forgotten, becaufe opportunities
may
pneumatics
Plate cccc'xxm
Fig. 1.
Fig J.
Fig. 3. Fig- '4'-
Pn e ttmati c s . Flat/? ly y y'joti
Fig.n.
fiS. scufyi ?
'M '
■ ,, ‘ > . - ;?
. )
■
Fig. 18.
Fig. 21.
D A
Fig.23.
PLA 7'F CrCFFXV.
Pneumatics .
Fig. ig
Fig. 23.
Fig. 22.
E.MitcA.e/lgZulg1':
T/Tjfrv '/fz£?tr7*£ ■
Pneumatics.
/’LATE CCCC'XXVM.
/V. Jl/fi/.r/ r// s-f// /// (
MATIC S
/'X</. 60.
Fi#.6V.
7<Y</. {>/.
i
A. f
PLATE CCCCXXXI7.
PNEUMATICS
/A T
", Ay. ye.
sA.
A *  ryk- 'l---
PNEUMATICS
/•LATE CCCCXXXm.
P N E U M
ijumatic may offer of making them highly tifeful. A gentleman’s
gincs. jn the country may thus be fupplied with water
1 ' by a machine that will coft little, and hardly go out of
repair.
The laft pneumatical engine which we fliall fpeak of
at prefent is the common fanners, ufed for winnowing
grain, and for drawing air out of a room : and we have
but few obfervations to make on them.
The wings of the fanners are inclofed in a cylinder
or drum, whofe circular fides have a large opening BDE
l.xos. (fig. 102.) round the centre, to admit the air. By
turning the wings rapidly round, the air is hurried
round along with them, and thus acquires a centrifugal
tendency, by which it preffes ftrongly on the outer rim
of the drum : this is gradually detached from the circle
as at KI, and terminated in a trunk IHGF, which goes
off in a tangential direction j the air therefore is driven
along this paffage.
If the wings W'ere difpofed in planes paffing through
the axis C, the compreffion of the air by the anterior
furface would give it fome tendency to efcape in every
A T I C S. 75.I
direction, and would obffruft in fome degree th« arrival Pneumatic
of more air through the fide-holes. They are therefore ^-ng^nes> <
reclined a little backward, as reprefented in the figure. ’
It may be (hown that their beft form would be that of a
hyperbolic fpiral a b c ; but the ftraight form approaches
fufficiently near to the moft perfeft lhape.
Much labour is loft, however, in carrying the air
round thofe parts of the drum where it cannot efcape.
I he fanners would either draw or difeharge almoft
twice as much air if an opening were made all round
one fide. This could be gradually contracted (where
required for winnowing) by a furrounding cone, and
thus direfted againft the falling grain : this has been
verified by aCtual trial. When ufed for drawing air out
of a room for ventilation, it would be much better to
remove the outer fide of the drum entirely, and let the
air fly freely off on all fides j but the flat fides are ne-
ceffary, in order to prevent the air from arriving at the
fanners any other way but through the central holes,
to which trunks fhould be fitted leading to the apart¬
ment which is to be ventilated.
P o c
PNEUMATOSIS. See Medicine, N° 336.
PNEUMONIA. See Medicine, N® 183.
PNEUMONICS, in Pharmacy, medicines proper in
difeafes of the lungs, in which refpiration is affeded.
PO, a large and celebrated river of Italy, which has
its fource at Mount Vifs In Piedmont, and on the con¬
fines of Dauphiny. It runs through Piedmont, Mont-
ferrat, the Milanefe, and duchy of Mantua $ from thence
it runs to the borders of the Parmefan, and a part of
the Modenefe 5 and having entered the Ferrarefe, it be¬
gins to divide at Ficheruolo, and proceeds to difeharge
itfelf into the gulf of Venice by four principal mouths.
As it paffes along, it receives feveral rivers, and often
overflows its banks, doing a great deal of mifehief: the
reafon of which is, that moft of thofe rivers defeend
from the Alps, and are increafed by the melting of the
fnow.
PO A, Meadow-grass ; a genus of plants belonging
to the pentandria clafs, and in the natural method rank¬
ing under the fourth order, Gramina. See Botany and
Agriculture Index.
POCHETTI. See Barbatelli.
POGOCKE, Dr Edward, a learned oriental fcho-
lar, was the eldeft fon of the Rev. Edward Pococke j
and was born at Oxford in 1604, where he was alfo
educated. In 1628 he was admitted probationer-fellow
of his college, and about the fame time had prepared an
edition of the Second Epiftle of St Peter, the Second
and Third of St John, and that of St Jude, in Syriac
and Greek, with a Latin Tranflation and Notes. In
1629 he was ordained prieft, and appointed chaplain to
the Englilh merchants at Aleppo, where he continued
five or fix years j in which time he diftinguifhed himfelf
by his fortitude and zeal while the plague raged there.
At length returning to England, he was in 1636 ap¬
pointed reader of the Arabic ledlures founded by Arch-
bifhop Laud. Three years after he went to Conftanti-
I umatofis
II
cocke.
1 - - *
P o c
nople, where he profecuted his ftudies of the eaftern pococke.
tongues, and procured many valuable manuferipts. Af-’——y—
ter near four years ftay in that city, he embarked in
1640 ; and taking Paris in his way, vifited Gabriel Sio-
nita the famous Maronite, and Hugo Grotius. In 1643
he was prefented to the reiftory of Childrey in Berks j
and about three years after married the daughter of
Thomas Burdett, Efq. About the middle of 1647 he
obtained the reftitution of the falary of his Arabic lec¬
ture, which had been detained from him about three
years. In 1648 King Charles I. who was then prifoner
in the ifle of Wight, nominated Mr Pococke to the pro-
fefforlhip of Hebrew, and the canonry of Chrift-church.
annexed to it *, but in 1650 he was ejefted from his ca¬
nonry for refufing to take the engagement, and foon
after a vote paffed for depriving him of his Hebrew and
Arabic leftures; but feveral governors of houfes, &c.
prefenting a petition in his favour, he was fuffered to
enjoy both thefe places. He had fome years before
publifhed his Specimen Hiftorice Arabum; and now ap¬
peared his Porta Mojis: and foon after the Englifti Po-
lyglot edition of the Bible, to which he had largely
contributed, and alfo Eutychius’s Annals, with a Latin
verfion. At the Reftoration, he was reftored to the
canonry of Chrift-church, and alfo received the degree
of do&or of divinity. He then publifhed his Arabic
verfion of Grotius’s Treatife of the Truth of the Chrif-
tian Religion •, and an Arabic poem entitled Laimato /’
Ajam, with a Latin tranflation and notes. Soon after
he publifhed Gregory Abul Pharajius’s Hijloria Dynaf-
tiaruni. In 1674 he publiflied an Arabic verfion of the
chief parts of the Liturgy of the church of England j
and a few years after his Commentary on the Prophecies
of Micah, Malachi, Hofea, and Joel. This great man
died in 1691, after having been for many years con-
feffedly the firft perfon in Europe for eaftern learning •,
and "was no lefs worthy of admiration for his uncommon
ir.odefty
POE ' [ 752 J POE
poeo.’ke modelly and humility, and all the virtues that can adorn
a Chriftian. His theological works were republillred at
Poettum. ^ £t0nc{on jn in two folumes in folio.
v PODAGRA, or the Gout. See Medicine, N°
211.
PODALIRIUS, fon of ARculapius and Epione,
was one of the pupils of the Centaur Chiron, under whom
he made himfelf fuch a mafter of medicine, that during
the Trojan war the Greeks invited him to their camp to
flop a peflilence which had baffled the Ikill of all ,their
phyficians. Some fuppofe, however, that he went to
the Trojan war, not in the capacity ofaphyfician in the
Grecian army, but as a warrior, attended by his brother
Machaon, in 30 {hips, with foldiers from Oechalia,
Ithome, and Trica. At his return Podalirius was fflip-
wrecked on the coaft of Caria, where he cured of the
falling fickriefs a daughter of the king of the place. He
fixed his habitation there; and built two towns, one of
which he called Syrna, after his wife. The Carians, on
his death, built him a temple, and paid him divine
honours.
PODEX, in Anatomy, the fame ivith Anus.
PODGRAJE. See Asisia.
PODOLIA, a province of Poland, bounded on the
eaft by Volhinia and the river Ukrain; on the north and
north-eaft, by Budfiac Tartary; on the fouth-eail, by
the river Niefter, which feparates it from Beffarabia and
Moldavia in European Turkey on the fouth-weft; and
by the province of Red Ruffia on the north-weft. It
is ufually divided into the Upper and Lower. In the
UPi rer, which is the weftern part, the chief town is
Kamieck, the capital of Podolia, and of a palatinate.
In the Lower or eaftern part of Podolia the chief town
is Bracklaw, the capital of a palatinate.
PODOPHYLLUM, a genus of plants belonging
to the polyandria clafs; and in the natural method
ranking under the 27th order, Rhcecedce. See Botany
Index.
PODURA, or Springtail, a genus of infers of
the order of aptera. See Entomology Index.
POE-bird is an inhabitant of fome of the South fea
ifiands, where it is held in great efteem and veneration
by the natives. It goes by the name of hogo in New
Zealand; but it is better known by that of poe-bird.
It is fomewhat lefs than our blackbird, and is remark¬
able for the fweetnefs of its note, as well as the beauty
of its plumage. Its flefti is alfo delicate food.
POECILE was a famous portico at Athens, which
received its name from the variety of paintings
which it contained. Zeno kept his fchool there; and
there alfo the ftoics received their leffons, whence their
name, h <•««, a porch. The Poecile was adorned, among
many others, with a pidlure of the fiege and facking of
Troy, the battle of Thefeus againft the Amazons, and
the fight between the Lacedaemonians and Athenians at
Oenoe in Argolis. The only reward which Miltiades
obtained after the battle of Marathon was to have his
pi&ure drawn more confpicuous than that of the reft of
the officers that fought with him, in the reprefentation
which was made of the engagement, and which was
hung up in the Poecile in commemoration of that cele¬
brated vi61ory.
POEM, a poetical compofition. See Poetry.
POKSTUM, or Posidonia, an ancient city of
Grecia Magna, now part of the kingdom of Naples.
It was founded by one of thofe colonies from Greece Pcefhm
which in the early ages eftabliftied themfelves in Italy;
and it flouriftied before the foundation of Rome itfelf.
It was deftroyed by the Goths on the decline of the
Roman empire, who in their barbarous zeal for the
Chriftian religion overturned every place of Pagan wor-
fhip which was expofed to their ravages. Since that
time it has been in ruins; and thefe ruins were unknown
till they were difcovered in the following manner: “ In
the year 1755 (fays the author of the Antiquities, Hi*
Jiory, and Views of Pcefum), an apprentice to a painter
at Naples, who was on a vilit to his friends at Capaccio,
by accident took a walk to the mountains which fur-
round the territory of Poeftum. The only habitation
he perceived was the cottage of a farmer, who cultivated
the beft part of the ground, and referved the reft for
pafture. The ruins of the ancient city made a part of
this view, and particularly ftruck the eyes of the young
painter; who approaching nearer, faw with aitonifti-
ment walls, towers, gates and temples. Upon his re¬
turn to Capaccio, he confulted the neighbouring people
about the origin of thefe monuments of antiquity. He
could only learn, that this part of the country had been
uncultivated and abandoned during their memory; that
about ten years before, the farmer, whofe habitation he
had noticed, eftabliffied himfelf there ; and that having
dug in many places, and fearched among the ruins that
lay round him, he had found treafures fufticient to enable
him to purchafe the whole. At the painter’s return
te Naples, he informed his mafter of thefe particulars,
whofe curiofity was fo greatly excited by the defeription,
that he took a journey to the place, and made drawings
of the principal views. Thefe were ftiown to the king
of Naples, who ordered the ruins to be cleared, and
Poeftum arofe from the obfeurity in which it had re¬
mained for upwards of 700 years, as little known to the
neighbouring inhabitants as to travellers.”
Our author gives the following defeription of it in
its prefen t ft ate. It is, fays he, of an oblong figure,
about two miles and a half in circumference. It has
four gates, which are oppofite to each other. On the
key-ftone of the arch of the north gate, on the outfide,
is the figure of Neptune in baifo relievo, and within a
hippocampus. The walls which ftill remain are com*
pofed of very large cubical ftones, and are extremely
thick, in fome parts 18 feet. That the walls have re¬
mained unto this time is owing to the very exaft manner
in which the ftones are fitted to one another (a circum-
ftance obferved univerfally in the mafonry of the an¬
cients), and perhaps in fome meafure to a ftala&ical
coneretion which has grown over them. On the walls
here and there are placed towers of different heights;
thofe near the gates being much higher and larger than
the others, and evidently of modern workmanftiip. He
obferves, that, from its fituation among marffies, bitu¬
minous and fulphureous fprings, Poeftum muft have been
unwholefome; a circumftance mentioned by Strabo,
Morbofam eamfacitfluvius in paludes dijfufus. In fuch
a fituation the water muft have been bad. Hence the
inhabitants wrere obliged to convey that neceffary of life
from purer fprings by means of aquedufts, of which
many veftiges flill remain.
The principal monuments of antiquity are a theatre,
an amphitheatre, and three temples. The theatre and
amphitheatre are much ruined* The firft temple is
hexaftylos.
POE . [ 753 ] POE
Fccftnm. liexaflylos, and amphlproftylos. At one end, the pi-
"^"^lafters and two columns which divided the cella from
the pronaos are ftill remaining. Within the cella are
two rows of fmaller columns, with an architrave, which
fupport the fecond order. This temple our author takes
to be of that kind called by Vitruvius hyphcethrot, and
fupports his opinion, by a quotation from that author.
The fecond temple is alfo amphiproftylos : it has nine
columns in front and 18 in flank, and feems to be of that
kind called by Vitruvius pfeudodipteros. The third is
likewife amphiproftylos. It has fix columns in front and
13 in flank. Vitruvius calls this kind of temple peri-
pteros. “ The columns of thefe terpples (fays our au¬
thor) are of that kind of Doric order which we find em¬
ployed in works of the greateft antiquity. They are
hardly five diameters in height. They are without bafes,
which alfo has been urged as a proof of their antiquity $
but we do not find that the ancients ever ufed bafes to
this order, at leaft till very late. Vitruvius makes no
mention of bafes for this order : and the only inftance we Pceftum,
have of it is in the firft order of the Colifaeum at Rome, Poet'
which was built by Vefpafian. The pillars ot thele
temples are fluted with very (hallow flutings in the man¬
ner defcribed by Vitruvius. The columns diminifli from
the bottom, which was the moft ancient, method almoft
univerfally in all the orders. The columns have aftra-
gals of a very Angular form } which (hows the error of
thofe who imagine that this member was firft invented
with the Ionic order, to which the Greeks gave an aftra-
gal, and that the Romans were the firit who applied it
to the Doric. The echinus of the Capitol is of the fame
form with that of the temple of Corinth defcribed by
Le Roy.” See Swinburne's Travels in the Two Sici¬
lies, vol. ii. p. 131—140.
POET, the author of a poem. See the article
Poetry.
Provencal POETS. See TROUBADOURS.
P O E T R. Y.
A MIDST thofe thick clouds which envelope the
firft ages of the world, reafon and hiftory throw
fome lights on the origin and primitive employment sf
this divine art. Reafon fuggefts, that before the inven-
1 tion of letters, all the people of the earth had no other
'riginof method of tranfmitting to their defcendants the prin-
)et^y• ciples of their worlhip, their religious ceremonies, their
laws, and the renowned adlions of their fages and heroes,
than by poetry •, which included all thefe objefls in a
kind of hymns that fathers fung to their children, in
order to engrave them with indelible ftrokes in their
hearts. Hiftory not only informs us, that Mofes and
Miriam, the firft authors that are known to mankind,
fung, on the borders of the Red fea, a fong of divine
praife, to celebrate the deliverance which the Almighty
had vouchfafed to the people of Ifrael, by opening a paf-
fage to them through the waters ; but it has alfo tranf-
mitted to us the fong itfelf, which is at once the moft
ancient monument and a mafterpiece of poetic compo-
lition.
The Greeks, a people the moft ingenious, the moft
animated, and in every fenfe the raoft accomplifhed, that
the world ever produced—ftrove to ravilh from the He¬
brews the precious gift of poetry, which was vouchfafed
them by the Supreme Author of all nature, that they
might afcribe it to their falfe deities. According to
their ingenious fi£lions, Apollo became the god of poe¬
try, and dwelt on the hills of Phocis, Parnaflus and
Helicon, whofe feet were walhed by the waters of Hip-
pocrene, of which each mortal that ever drank was
feized with a facred delirium. The immortal fwans
floated on its w'aves. Apollo was accompanied by the
Mufes—thofe nine learned fitters—the daughters of
Memory : and he was conftantly attended by the Graces.
Pegafus, his winged courfer, tranfported him with a ra¬
pid flight into all the regions of the univerfe. Happy
emblems! by which we at this day embellifh our poe¬
try, as no one has ever yet been able to invent more bril¬
liant images.
The literary annals of all nations afford veftiges of
Vol. XVI. Part II.
poetry from the remoteft ages. They are found among
the moft favage of the ancient barbarians, and the moll
defolate of all the Americans. Nature afferts her rights
in every country and every age. Tacitus mentions
,the verfes and the hymns of the Germans, at the time
when that rough people yet inhabited the woods, and
while their manners were ftill favage. The firft inha¬
bitants of Runnia and the other northern countries,
thofe of Gaul, Albion, Iberia, Aufonia, and other na¬
tions of Europe, had their poetry, as well as the an¬
cient people of Afia, and of the known borders of A-
frica. But the Ample productions of nature have con¬
ftantly fomething unformed, rough, and favage. The
Divine Wifdom appears to have placed the ingenious
and polifhed part of mankind on the earth, in order to
refine that which comes from her bofom rude and im¬
perfect : and thus art has polifhed poetry, which iffued
quite naked and favage from the brains of the firft of
mankind. a
But what is Poetry ? It would be to abridge the Definition
limits of the poetic empire, to contraCt the fphere of of poetry,
this divine art, ftrould we fay, in imitation of all the
dictionaries and other treatifes on verfification, That
poetry is the art of making verfes, of lines or periods that
are in rhyme or metre. This is rather a grammatical
explanation of the word, than a real definition of the
thing, and it would be to degrade poetry thus to de¬
fine it. The father of criticifm has denominated poe¬
try /uiptflix-t], an imitative art: but this, though
juft in itfelf, is too general for a definition, as it does
not difcriminate poetry from other arts which depend
equally on imitation. The jufteft definition feems to
be that given by Baron Bielfield *, That poetry is the * Elem. of
art of exprcfjing our thoughts by fiftion. In faCt, it is Univ.Erui.
after this manner (if we refleCl with attention) that all
the metaphors and allegories, all the various kinds of
fiClion, form the firft materials of a poetic edifice : it
is thus that all images, all comparifons, allufions, and
figures, efpecially thofe which perfonify moral fubjeCls,
as virtues and vices, concur to the decoration of fuch a
5 C ftruCture,
754
POE
fh-u&ure. A work, therefore, that Is filled with in¬
vention, that inceffantly prefents images which render
the reader attentive and affe&ed, where the author gives
intereftingfentiments to every thing that he makes fpeak,
and where he makes fpeak by fenfible figures all thole
objects which would affe£t the mind but weakly when
clothed in a fimple profaic ftyle, fuch a work is a poem.
While that, though it be in verfe, which is of a didaftic,
dogmatic, or moral nature, and where the objects are
prefented in a manner quite fimple, without fiction,
without images or ornaments, cannot be called poetry,
but merely a work in verfe : for the art of reducing
thoughts, maxims, and periods, into rhyme or metre, is
very different from the art of poetry.
An ingenious fable, a lively and interefting romance,
a comedy, the fublime narrative of the actions of a hero,
fuch as the Telemachus of M. Fenelon, though written
in profe, but in meafured profe, is therefore a work of
poetry : becaufe the foundation and the fuperftrufture
are the productions of genius, as the whole proceeds
from fiCtion *, and truth itfelf appears to have employed
an innocent and agreeable deception to inltruCt with ef¬
ficacy. This is fo true, that the pencil alfo, in order to
pleafe and affeCt, has recourfe to fiCtion ; and this part
of painting is called the poetic compojition of a piBure. It
is therefore by the aid of fiCtion that poetry, fo to fpeak,
paints its expreflions, that it gives a body and a mind
to its thoughts, that it animates and exalts that which
would otherwife have remained arid and infenfible. It
is the peculiar privilege of poetry to exalt inanimate
things into animals, and abftraCI ideas into perfons.
The former licence is fo common, that it is now con-
fidered as nothing more than a charaCIeriftical dialed
appropriated by the poets to diftinguilh themfelves from
the writers of profe $ and it is at the fame time fo eflen-
tial, that we queftion much if this fpecies of compofi-
T R Y.
tion could fubfift without it : for it will perhaps, upon
examination, be found, that in every poetical defcription
fome of the qualities of Animal Nature are afcribed to
things not having life. Every work, therefore, where
the thoughts are expreffed by fidions or images, is po¬
etic ; and every work where they are expreffed natural¬
ly, limply, and without ornament, although it be in
verfe, is profaic.
Verfe, however, is not to be regarded as foreign or
fuperfluous to poetry. To reduce thofe images, thofe
fidions, into verfe, is one of the greateft difficulties in
poetry, and one of the greateff merits in a poem : and
for thefe reafons, the cadence, the harmony of founds,
particularly that of rhyme, delight the ear to a high
degree, and the mind infenfibly repeats them while the
eye reads them. There refults therefore a pleafure to
the mind, and a ftrong attachment to thefe ornaments :
but this pleafure would be frivolous, and even childilh,
if it were not attended by a real utility. Verfes were yerfe
invented in the firil ages of the world, merely to aid though not
and to ftrengthen the memory : for cadence, harmony,cflential t0
and efpecially rhyme, afford the greateft; afliftance to
the memory that art can invent; and the images, orcepencjeSi
poetic fidions, that ftrike our fenfes, aflift in graving
them with fuch deep traces in our minds, as even time
itfelf frequently cannot efface. How many excellent
apophthegms, fentences, maxims, and precepts, would
have been buried in the abyfs of oblivion, if poetry had
not preferved them by its harmony ? To give more .
efficacy to this lively impreflion, the firft poets fung
their verfes, and the words and phrafes xnuft neceffarily
have been reduced, at leaft to cadence, or they could
not have been fufceptible of mufical expreflion. One
of the great excellencies, therefore, though not a ne-
ceffary conftituent of poetry, confifts in its being ex¬
preffed in verfe. See Part III.
PART I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE ART.
SECT. I. Of the Effence and End of Poetry.
THE effence of Polite Arts in general, and confe-
quently of poetry in particular, confifts in exprefjion ;
and we think that, to be poetic, the expreflion muft
4 neceffarily arife from f&ion, or invention. (See the ar-
Sifence of tide Art, particularly from N° 12. to the end). This in¬
poetry. vention, which is the fruit of happy genius alone, arifes,
l. From the fubjed itfelf of which we undertake to
treat: 2. From the manner in which we treat that fub¬
jed, or the fpecies of writing of which we make ufe :
3. From the plan that we propofe to follow in conformi¬
ty to this manner ; and, 4. From the method of exe¬
cuting this plan in its full detail. Our firft guides, the
ancients, afford us no lights that can elucidate all thefe
objeds in general. The precepts which Ariftotle lays
down, relate to epic and dramatic poetry only : and
which, by the way, confirms our idea, that antiquity
itfelf made the effence of poetry to confift in fidion, and
not in that fpecies of verfe which is deftitute of it, or in
that which is not capable of it. But fince this art has
rifen to a great degree of perfedion ; and as poetry,
like eledricity, communicates its fire to every thing it
touches, and animates and embellifhes whatever it treats ;
there feems to be no fubjed in the univerfe to which
poetry cannot be applied, and which it cannot render
equally brilliant and pleafing. From this univerfality
of poetry, from its peculiar property of expreflion by
fidion, which is applicable to all fubjeds, have arifen
its different fpecies, of which a particular defcription
will be given in the fecond part.
Horace, in a well-known verfe, has been fuppofed to
declare the end of poetry to be twofold, to plealc, or to
inftrud :
Aut prodeffe volant, aut deleElare poetce.
But Dr Beattie* maintains, that the ultimate end of End of
this art is to pleafe; inftrudion being only one of the poetry,
means (and not always a neceffary one) by which that *
ultimate end is to be accomplilhed. The paffage rightly
underftood, he obferves, will not appear to contain any part i.
thing inconfiftent with this dodrine. The author is chap. i.
there ftating a comparifon between the Greek and Ro¬
man writers, with a view to the poetry of the ftage ; and,
after commending the former for their corrednefs, and
for the liberal fpirit wherewith they conduded their
literary labours, and blaming his countrymen for their
inaccuracy.
Parti. POE
Effence and inaccuracy and avarice, he proceeds thus : “ The ends
End of propofed by our dramatic poets (or by poets in ge-
LPoetry. . neral) are, to pleafe, to inftruS, or to do both. When
inftru&ion is your aim, let your moral fentences be
exprefled with brevity, that they may be readily un-
derftood, and long remembered : where you mean to
pleafe, let your fiftions be conformable to truth or
probability. The elder part of your audience (or
readers) have no relifli for poems that give pleafure only
without inftruflion ; nor the younger for fuch Avritings
as give inftru&ion without pleafure. He only can fe-
cure the univerfal fufffage in his favour, who blends
the ufeful with the agreeable, and delights at the fame
time that he inftrufts the reader. Such are the works
that bring money to the bookfeller, that pafs into fo¬
reign countries, and perpetuate the author’s name
f Her. Ar. through a long fucceflion of ages f.”—Now* what is the
Poet. 333. meaT1ing of all this ? What, but that to perfeElion
d47- 0p dramatic poetry (or, if you pleafe, of poetry in ge¬
neral) both found morals and beautiful fidtion are re-
quifite ? But Horace never meant to fay, that inftruc-
tion, as well as pleafure, is neceflary to give to any
compofition the poetical character ; or he would not in
another place have celebrated Avith fo much affection
and rapture the melting ftrains of Sappho, and the
\Hr,r.Carm. playful genius of Anacreon j:,—Iavo authors tranfeen-
lib. iv. dently fAveet, but not remarkably inftrudlive. We are
°^e 9' fure, that pathos, and harmony, and elevated language,
5 Hor. Sat. Avere, in Horace’s opinion, effential to poetry § $ and
lib. i. fat. 4. 0f thefe decorations nobody Avill affirm that inftrudlion
'er- 40< js the end, who conliders that the molt inltrudlive books
in the Avorld are written in plain profe.
In fhort, our author has endeavoured by many inge¬
nious arguments and illuftrations to eftabliffi it as a
truth in criticifm, that the end of poetry is to pleafe.
Verfes, if pleafing, may be poetical, though they con¬
vey little or no inilrudtion •, but verfes, whofe foie merit
it is that they convey inftrudlion, are not poetical. In-
ftrudlion, hoAvever, he admits, efpeeially in poems of
length, is neceffary to their perfe&ion, becaufe they
AVould not be perfeRly agreeable Avithout it.
Sect. II. Of tlie Standard of Poetical Invention.
6
Poetical Homer’s beautiful defeription of the heavens and
invention earth, as they appear in a calm evening by the light of
lated reSU" t^ie 1110011 and ftars, concludes Avith this circumftance,
viii. “ And the heart of the ffiepherd is glad Madame
555. Dacier, from the turn Ihe gives to the paffage in her
verlion, feems to think, and Pope, in order perhaps to
make out his couplet, infinuates, that the gladnefs of
the Ihepherd is oAving to his fenfe of the utility of thofe
luminaries. And this may in part be the cafe : but
this is not in Homer*, nor is it a neceffary confideration.
It is true, that, in contemplating the material univerfe,
they Avho difeern the caufes and effefls of things mult
Beattie's fog more rapturoufly entertained than thofe Avho perceive
pgY’ nothing but fhape and lize, colour and motion. Yet,
chap. 2. ln the mere outfide of Nature’s tvork, there is a fplen-
dour and a magnificence to Avhich even untutored minds
cannot attend Avithout great delight.
Not that all peafants or all philofophers are equally
fufceptible of thefe charming impreflions. It is (trange
to obferve the calloufnefs of fome men, before Avhom all
the glories of keaAren and earth pafs in daily fucceflion,
TRY. 75s
Avithout touching their hearts, elevating their fancy, or Of
leaving any durable remembrance. Even of thofe Avho entioin
pretend to fenfibility, Iioav many are there to whom the
luftre of the rifing or fetting fun j the fparkling concave
of the midnight Iky *, the mountain-foreft toffing and
roaring to the llorm, or Avarbling with all the melodies
of a fummer evening *, the fAveet interchange of hill and
dale, (hade and funfhine, grove, laAvn, and Avater, Avhich
an extenfive landfcape offers to the vIcav ; the feenery
of the ocean, fo kwely, fo majeftie, and fo tremendous j
and the many pleafing varieties of the animal and vege¬
table kingdoms, could never afford fo much real fatisfac-
tion, as the fteams and noife of a ball-room, the infipid
fiddling and fqueaking of an opera, or the vexations and
Avranglings of a card-table !
But fome minds there are of a different make *, who,
eAren in the early part of life, receive from the contem¬
plation of Nature a fpecies of delight which they Avould
hardly exchange for any other, and Avho, as avarice and
ambition are not the infirmities of that period, Avould,
Avith equal fincerity and rapture, exclaim,
I care not, Fortune, Avhat you me deny *,
You cannot rob me of free Nature’s grace j
You cannot ffiut the AvindoAvs of the iky,
Through which Aurora ffunvs her bright’ning face j
You cannot bar my conffant feet to'trace
The Avoods and laAvns by living ffream at eve.
Cajll of Indolence.
Such minds have ahvays in them the feeds of true tafte,
and frequently of imitative genius. At leaff, though
their enthufiaftic or vifionary turn of mind (as the man
of the world Avould call it) ffiould not ahvays incline
them to pra<ffife poetry or painting, Ave need not fcruple
to affirm, that Avithout fome portion of this enthufiafm
no perfon ever became a true poet or painter. For he
Avho would imitate the works of nature, mud firft ac¬
curately obferve them *, and accurate obfervation is to
be expected from thofe only who take great pleafure in
it.
To a mind thus difpofed no part of creation is indif¬
ferent. In the croAvded city and howling wildernefs j
in the cultivated province and folitary ifle ; in the
floAvery lawn and craggy mountain ; in the murmur of
the rivulet and in the uproar of the ocean ; in the ra¬
diance of fummer and gloom of Avinter \ in the thunder
of heaven and in the whifper of the breeze j he ffill
finds fomething to rouze or to foothe his imagination,
to draAv forth his affeftions, or to employ his under-
ftanding. And from every mental energy that is not
attended Avith pain, and even from fome of thofe that
are, as moderate terror and pity, a found mind derives
fatisfaflion \ exercife being equally neceffary to the body
and the foul, and to both equally produ&ive of health
and pleafure.
This happy fenfibility to the beauties of nature fliould
be cherifhed in young perfons. It engages them to
contemplate the Creator in his Avonderful Avorks ; it pu¬
rifies and harmonizes the foul, and prepares it for moral
and intelle&ual difeipline 5 it fupplies an endlefs fource
of amufement ; it contributes even to bodilv health :
and, as a ftrict analogv fubfifts betAveen material and mo¬
ral beauty, it leads the heart by an eafy tranfition from
the one to the other ; and thus recommends virtue for
its tranlcendant lovelinefs, and makes vice appear the
5 C 2 object
756 POE
Of objeft of contempt and abomination. An intimate ac-
Invention. qUajntance with the beft defcriptive poets, Spenfer, Mil-
ton, and Thomfon, but above all with the divine Geor¬
gia, pined to fome practice in the art of drawing," will
promote this amiable fenfibility in early years : for then
the face of nature has novelty fuperadded to its other
charms, the paflions arc not pre-engaged, the heart
is free from care, and the imagination warm and ro-
7 mar lie.
by the But not to infill longer on thofe ardent emotions that
ftandard of are peculiar to the enthufiatlic difciple of nature, may it
nature. not affirmed of all men, without exception, or at
leaft of all the enlightened part of mankind, that they
are gratified by the contemplation of things natural, as
oppofed to unnatural ?* Monftrous fights pleafe but for
a moment, if they pleafe at all •, for they derive their
charm from the beholder’s amazement, which is quick-
* Brydor/e sly over. We read indeed of a man of rank in Sicily *,
Tour in Si- who choofes to adorn his villa with pi&ures and ilatues
let. 24. q£ mofl. unnaturaj deformity : but it is a lingular in-
llance ; and one would not be much more furprifed to
hear of a perfon living without food, or growing fat by
the ufe of poifon. To fay of any thing, that it is
contrary to nature, denotes cenfure and difguft on the
part of the fpeaker; as the epithet wn/r/ra/intimates an
agreeable quality, and feems for the moll part to imply
that a thing is as it ought to be, fuitable to our own
talle, and congenial with our own conftitution. Think
with what fentiments we ffiould perufe a poem, in
which nature was totally mifreprefented, and principles
of thought and of operation fuppofed to take place, re¬
pugnant to every thing we had feen or heard of:—in
which, for example, avarice and coldnefs were afcribed
to youth, and prodigality and paffionate attachment to
the old •, in which men were made to a£l at random,
fometimes according to charadler, and fometimes con¬
trary to it; in which cruelty and envy were produ6tive
of love, and beneficence and kind affedlion of hatred :
in which beauty was invariably the object of diilike, and
uglinefs of defire j in which fociety was rendered happy
by atheifm and the promifcuous perpetration of crimes,
and juftice and fortitude were held in univerfal contempt.
Or think, how we fhould relifii a painting, where no
regard was had to the proportions, colours, or any of
the phyfical laws, of Nature :—where the ears and eyes
of animals were placed in their fhoulders ; where the
Iky was green and the grafs crimfon ; where trees grew
with their branches in the earth and their roots in the
air*, where men were feen fightingafter their heads were
cut off, (hips failing on the land, lions entangled in cob¬
webs, Iheep preying on dead carcafes, fiffies fporting in
the woods, and elephants walking on the fea. Could
fuch figures and combinations give pleafure, or merit the
appellation of fublime or beautiful ? Should we hefitate
to pronounce their author mad ? And are the abfurdities
of madmen proper fubjedls either of amufernent or of imi¬
tation to reafonable beings ?
Let it be remarked, too, that though we diftinguifli
our internal powers by different names, becaufe other-
wife we could not fpeak of them fo as to be underftood,
they are all but fo many energies of the fame individual
mind \ and therefore it is not to be fuppofed, that what
contradufls any one leading faculty fhould yield perma¬
nent delight to the reft. That cannot be agreeable to
• feafon, which confidence difapproves 5 nor can that gra-
5
T Pv Y. Part I,
tify imagination, which is repugnant to reafon.——Be- Of
fides, belief and acquiefcence of mind are pleafant, as !nvention.
diftruft and difhelief are painful: and therefore, that y—»*
only can give folid and general fatisfadion, which has
fomething of plaufibility in it ; fomething which we
conceive it poffible for a rational being to believe. But
no rational being can acquiefce in what is obvioufly
contrary to nature, or implies palpable abfurdity.
Poetry, therefore, and indeed every art whofe end is
to pleafe, muft be natural *, and if fo, muft exhibit real
matter of facl, or fomething like it 5 that is, in other
words, muft be either according to truth or according
to verifimilitude.
And though every part of the material univerfe
abounds in objefts of pleafurable contemplation, yet no¬
thing in nature fo powerfully touches our hearts, or gives
fo great variety of exercife to our moral and intelleftual
faculties, as man. Human affairs and human feelings are
univerfally interefting. There are many who have no
great relilh for the poetry that delineates only irrational
or inanimate beings; but to that which exhibits the
fortunes, the characters, and the condudl of men, there
is hardly any perfon -who does not liften with fympathy
and delight. And hence to imitate human aClion, is
confidered by Ariftotle as effential to this art; and muft
be allowed to be effential to the moft pleafing and moft
inftrudtive part of it, Epic and Dramatic compofition.
Mere defcriptions, however beautiful, and moral reflec¬
tions, however juft, become tirefome, where our paffions
are not occafionally awakened by fome event that con¬
cerns our fellow-men. Do not all readers of tafte re¬
ceive peculiar pleafure from thofe little tales or epifodes
with which Thomfon’s defcriptive poem on the Seafons
is here and there enlivened ? and are they not fenfible,
that the thunder-ftorm -would not have been half fo in¬
terefting without the tale of the two lovers {Summer, v.
1171) } nor the harveft-fcene, without that of Palemon
and Lavinia v. 177.)} nor the driving fnows,
wdthout that exquifite pifture of a man perifhing among
them {Winter, v. 2^6.) ? It is much to be regretted,
that Young did not employ the fame artifice to animate
his Night-Thoughts. Sentiments and defcriptions may
be regarded as the pilafters, carvings, gildings, and
other decorations of the poetical fabric : but human ac¬
tions are the columns and the rafters that give it lia¬
bility and elevation. Or, changing the metaphor, we
may confider thefe as the foul which informs the lovely
frame; while thofe are little more than the ornaments
of the body.
Whether the pleafure we take in things natural, and
our diflike to what is the reverfe, be the effeft of habit
or of conllitution, is not a material inquiry. There is
nothing abfurd in fuppofing, that between the foul, in
its firft formation, and the reft of nature, a mutual har¬
mony and fympathy may have been eftablilhed, which
experience may indeed confirm, but no perverfe habits g
could entirely fubdue. As no fort of education could Habit has
make man believe the contrary of a felf-evident axiom, £reat in'
or reconcile him to a life of perfeft folitude ; fo we oveGenti-
ftiould imagine, that our love of nature and regularity ment and
might Hill remain with us in fome degree, though we had feeling, and
been born and bred in the Sicilian villa above mentioned, °fcour^e
and never heard any thing applauded but what deferved “P0"
cenfure, nor cenfured but what merited applaufe. YeG
habit muft be allowed to have a powerful influence over
the
Part I.
J\To necef-
fity that
the poet
(houltl ex¬
actly copy
nature.
to
Fiction luf-
flciently
conform¬
able to
nature
when it ac¬
cords with
received
opinions,
POE
the fentiments and feelings of mankind ; for obje&s to
which we have been long accuftomed, we are apt to
contra£l a fondnefs: we conceive them readily, and
contemplate them with pleafure ; nor do we quit our
old trafts of fpeculation or praclice without relu&ance
and pain. Hence in part arifes our attachment to our
own profeflions, our old acquaintance, our native foil,
our homes, and to the very hills, ftreams, and rocks in
our neighbourhood. It would therefore be ftrange, if
man, accuftomed as he is from his earlieft days to the
regularity of nature, did not contraft a liking to her
produftions and principles of operation.
Yet we neither expert nor defire, that every human
invention, where the end is only to pleafe, ftiould be an
exart tranfcript of real exiftence. It is enough, that the
mind acquiefce in it as probable or plaulible, or fuch as
we think might happen without any dirert oppofition to
the laws of nature :—Or, to fpeak more accurately, it is
enough that it be confiftent, either, firft, with general
experience •, or, fecondly, with popular opinion j or
thirdly, that it be confiftent with itfelf, and connerted
with probable tircumftances.
Firft : If a human invention be confiftent with general
experience, we acquiefce in it as fufficiently probable.
Particular experiences, however, there may be, fo un¬
common, and fo little exported, that we fhould not ad¬
mit their probability, if we did not know them to be
true. No man of fenfe believes, that he has any likeli¬
hood of being enriched by the difcovery of hidden trea-
lure 5 or thinks it probable, on purchafing a lottery-
ticket, that he fhall gain the firft prize; and yet great
wealth has artually been acquired by fuch good fortune.
But we {hould look upon thefe as poor expedients in a
play or romance for bringing about a happy cataftrophe.
We expert that firtion fhould be more confonant to the
general tenor of human affairs; in a word, that not pof-
fibility, but probability, fhould be the ftandard of poeti¬
cal invention.
Secondly : Firtion is admitted as conformable to this
ftandard, when it accords with received opinions. Thefe
may be erroneous, but are not often apparently repug¬
nant to nature. On this account, and becaufe they are
familiar to us from our infancy, the mind readily ac-
quiefces in them, or at leaft yields them that degree of
credit which isneceffary to render them pleafing: hence
the fairies, ghofts, and witches of Shakefpeare, are ad¬
mitted as probable beings ; and angels obtain a place in
religious pirtures, though we know that they do not now
appear in the fcenery of real life. A poet who fhould at
this day make the whole artion of his tragedy depend
upon enchantment, and produce the chief events by the
affiftance of fupernatural agents, -would indeed be cenfur-
ed as tranfgrefting the bounds of probability, be banifhed
from the theatre to the nurfery, and condemned to write
fairy tales inftead of tragedies. But Shakefpeare was in
no danger of fuch cenfures : In his days the dortrine of
witchcraft was eftablifhed both bv law and by the fa-
fliion 5 and it was not only unpolite, but criminal, to
T R Y.
doubt it. Now indeed it is admitted only by the vul-
757
Of
gar j but it does not therefore follow that an old poem ,
built upon it fhould not be acceptable to the learned
them ft Ives. When a popular opinion has long been ex¬
ploded, and has become repugnant to philofophical be¬
lief, the firtions built upon it are ftill admitted as natu¬
ral, both becaufe we all remember to have liftened to
them in childhood with fome degree of credit, and be¬
caufe we know that they were accounted natural by the
people to whom they were firft addreffed *, whofe fenti¬
ments and views of tilings we are willing to adopt, when,
by the power of pleafing defcription, we are introduced
into their fcenes, and made acquainted with their man¬
ners. Hence we admit the theology of the ancient poets,
their Elyfium and Tartarus, Scylla and Charybdis, Cy¬
clops and Circe, and the reft of thofe “ beautiful won¬
ders” (as Horace calls them) which were believed in
the heroic ages*, as well as the demons and enchantments
of Taffo, which may be fuppofed to have obtained no
fmall degree of credit among the Italians of the i6th
century, and are fuitable enough to the notions that pre¬
vailed univerfally in Europe not long before (a). In
fart, when poetry is in other refperts true, when it gives
an accurate difplay of thofe parts of nature about which
■we know that men in all ages muft have entertained the
fame opinion, namely, thofe appearances in the vifible
creation, and thofe feelings and workings of the human
mind, which are obvious to all mankind ;—when poetry
is thus far according to nature, we are very willing to
be indulgent to what is firtitious in it, and to grant a
temporary allowance to any fyftem of fable which the
author pleafes to adopt; provided that he lay the fcene
in a diftant country, or fix the date to a remote period.
This is no unreafonable piece of complaifance j we owe
it both to the poet and to ourfelves; for without it we
(hould neither form a right eftimate of his genius, nor
receive from his works that pleafure which they were
intended to impart. Let him, however, take care, that
his fyftem of fable be fuch as his countrymen and cotem¬
poraries (to whom his w'ork is immediately addreffed)
might be fuppofed capable of yielding their aflent to ;
for otherwife we ftiould not believe him to be in earned:
and let him connert it as much as he can with probable
circumftances, and make it appear in a feries of events
confiftent with itfelf.
For (thirdly) if this be the cafe, we (hall admit his
(lory as probable, or at leaft as natural, and confequently
be interefted in it, even though it be not warranted by
general experience,and derive but (lender authority from
popular opinion. Calyban, in the Temped, would have
(hocked the mind as an improbability, if we had not been
made acquainted with his origin, and feen hxs chararter
difplayed in a feries of confiftent behaviour. But when
we are told that he fprur.g from a witch and a demon, a
connertion not contrary to the laws of nature, as they
were underftood in Shakefpeare’s time, and find his
manners conformable to his defeent, we are eafily recon¬
ciled to the firtion. In the fame fenfe, the Lilliputians
of
(a) In the 14th century, the common people of Italy believed that the poet JDante went down to hell ; that
the Inferno was a true account of what he faw there ; and that his fallow complexion, and ftunted beard (which
feemed by its growth and colour to have been too near the fire), were the confequence of his pafling fo much of
Ins time in that hot and fmoky region. See Vicende della Literatura del Sig. C. Denina, cap. 4.
758 POE
Of 'of Swift may pafs for probable beings ; not fo much be-
Invention. caupe we that a belief in pigmies was once current
It in the world (for the true ancient pigmy was at leaft
and is thrice as tall as thofe whom Gulliver vifited), but be-
confiftent caufe we find that every circumftance relating to them
with itklf. accox'ds with itfelf, and with their fuppofed charafter.
It is not the fize of the people only that is diminutive ;
their country, feas, fhips, and towns, are all in exafl
proportion ; their theological and political principles,
their paflions, manners, cuftoms, and all the parts of
their condu£t, betray a levity and littlenefs perfeftly
fuitable : and fo fimple is the whole narration, and ap¬
parently fo artlefs and fincere, that we fliould not much
Beattie's 'vonc^er ^ ^ impofed (as we have been told it has)
EJ/hys, upon fome perfons of no contemptible underflanding.
ut fupra. The fame degree of credit may perhaps for the fame rea*
fons be due to his giants. But when he grounds his
narrative upon a contradiction to nature •, when he pre-
fents us with rational brutes, and irrational men ; when
he tells us of horfes building houfes for habitation, milk¬
ing cows for food, riding in carriages, and holding con-
vejfations on the laws and politics of Europe : not all
his genius (and he there exerts it to the utmoft) is able
to reconcile us to fo monflrous a fiftion : we may fmile
at fome of his abfurd exaggerations *, we may be pleafed
with the energy of ftyle, and accuracy of defcription, in
particular places j and a malevolent heart may triumph
in the fatire ; but we can never relifh it as a fable, be-
caufe it is at once unnatural and felf-contradiClory.
Swift’s judgment feems to have forfaken him on this
occafion : he wallows in naftinefs and brutality : and the
general run of his fatire is downright defamation. Lu¬
cian’s True HiJlonj, is a heap of extravagancies put to¬
gether without order or unity, or any other apparent
defign than to ridicule the language and manner of grave
authors. His ravings, which have no better right to
the name of fab/e, than a hill of rubbilh has to that of
palace, are deftitute of every colour of plaufibility. Ani¬
mal trees, (hips failing in the Iky, armies of monftrous
things travelling between the fun and moon on a pave¬
ment of cobwebs, rival nations of men inhabiting woods
and mountains in a whale’s belly,—are liker the dreams
12 3 be<Bairnte than the inventions of a rational being.
A ftridter ^ we WRre to profecute this fubjeft any farther, it
probability would be proper to remark, that in fome kinds of poe-
requifite in tical invention a ftrifter probability is required than in
ofpoJtry^ otliers that> for inftance, Comedy, whether dramatic
than in ^ or narrative (b), muft feldom deviate from the ordinary
others. courfe of human affairs, becaufe it exhibits the manners
of real and even of familiar life :—that the tragic poet,
becaufe he imitates charaders more exalted, and gene¬
rally refers to events little known, or long fince part,
may be allowed a wider range : but muft never attempt
the marvellous fiftions of the epic mufe, becaufe he ad-
dreffes his work, not only to the paflions and imagina¬
tion of mankind, but alfo to their eyes and ears, which
are not eafily impofed on, and refufe to be gratified with
any reprefentation that does not come very near the
truth :—that the epic poem may claim ftill ampler pri¬
vileges, becaufe its fi&ions are not fubjeft to the fcru-
TRY. _ Parti.
tiny of any outward fenfe, and becaufe it conveys in- Of
formation in regard both to the higheft human charac- Mention,
ters, and the moft important and wonderful events, and ''■“■"V—
alfo to the affairs of unfeen worlds and fuperior beings.
Nor would it be improper to obferve, that the feveral
fpecies of comic, of tragic, of epic compofition, are not
confined to the fame degree of probability : for that
farce may be allowed to be lefs probable than the regu¬
lar comedy •, the mafque than the regular tragedy ; and
the mixed epic, fuch as the Fairy Queen, and Orlando
Furiofo, than the pure epopee of Homer, Virgil, and
Milton. But this part of the fubjefl feems not to re¬
quire further illuftration. Enough has been faid to
{how, that nothing unnatural can pleafe •, and that there¬
fore poetry, whofe end is to pleafe, muft be according to
nature.
And if fo, it muft be either according to real na¬
ture, or according to nature fomewhat different from the
reality.
SECT. III. Of the System of Nature exhibited by Poetry.
To exhibit real nature is the bufinefs of the hiftorian ;
who, if he were ftri6tly to confine himfelf to his own
fphere, would never record even the minuteft circum-
ftance of any fpeech, event, or defcription, which was
not warranted by fufficient authority. It has been the
language of critics in every age, that the hiftorian ought emtellifh
to relate nothing as true which is falfe or dubious, and their works
to conceal nothing material which he knows to be true, fry fiftion,
But it is to be doubted whether any writer of profane ^i^rake
hiftory has ever been fo fcrupulous. Thucydides him¬
felf, who began his hiftory when that war began which
he records, and who fet down every event foon after it
happened, according to the moft authentic information,
feems, however, to have indulged his fancy not a little
in his harangues and defcriptions, particularly that of
the plague of Athens : and the fame thing has been
praftifed, with greater .latitude, by Livy and I'acitus,
and more or lefs by all the beft hiftorians both ancient
and modern. Nor are they to be blamed for it. By
thefe improved or invented fpeeches, and by the height-
enings thus given to their defcriptions, their work be¬
comes more interefting, and more ufeful ; nobody is de¬
ceived, and hiftorical truth is not materially affedted. A
medium is, however, to be obferved in this, as in other
things. When the hiftorian lengthens a defcription in¬
to a detail of fiiffitious events, as Voltaire has done in
his account of the battle of Fontenoy, he lofes his cre¬
dit with us, by railing a fufpicion that he is more in¬
tent upon a pretty ftory than upon the truth. And
we are difgufted with his infincerity, when, in defiance
even of verifimilitude, he puts long elaborate orations in
the mouth of thofe, of-whom we know, either from the
circumftances that they could not, or from more authen¬
tic records that they did not, make any fuch orations ;
as Dionyfius of Halicarnaffushas done in the cafe of Vo-
lumnia haranguing her fon Coriplanus, and Flavius Jofe-
phus in that of Judah addrefling his brother as viceroy
of Egypt. From what thefe hiftorians relate, one would
conjedfure
Fielding’s Tom Jones, Amelia, and Jofeph Andrews, are examples of what may be called the Epic or Nar¬
rative Comedy, or more properly perhaps the Comic Epopee.
Part I.
Of N ature
in Poetry.
M
n fome de-
rree poe-
:ical.
Beattie's
Efays,'
;iiap. ii.
IS
Poets em-
f bdlifh na¬
ture itfelf,
* Compare
Hor. lib. i.
fat. 4. verf.
1—5. with
dr. Poet.
»er£a8I 
*85.
POE
conjedure that tlie Roman matron Lad ftudied at Athens
under Tome long-Avinded rhetorician, and that the Jewifh
patriarch muft have been one of the mod flowery orators
of antiquity. But the fictitious part of hiftory, or of
dory-telling, ought never to take up much room ; and
mufl: be highly blameable when it leads into any mi-
ftake either of faCts or of characters.
Now, why do hiltorians take the liberty to embelliflr
their works in this manner ? One reafon, no doubt, is,
that they may difplay their talents in oratory and nar¬
ration : but the chief reafon, as hinted alreadv, is, to
render their compofition more agreeable. It would feem,
then, that fomething more pleafing than real nature,
or fomething which {hall add to the pleafing qualities
of real nature, may be devifed by human fancy. And
this may certainly be done. And this it is the poet’s
bufinefs to do. And when this is in any degree done
by the hillorian, his narrative becomes in that degree
poetical.
The poflibility of thus improving upon nature mufl;
be obvious to every one. When we look at a land-
fcape, we can fancy a thoufand additional embellifli-
ments. Mountains loftier and more pifturefque 5 rivers
more copious, more limpid, and more beautifully wind¬
ing ; fmoother and wider lawns ; valleys more richly
diverfified *, caverns and rocks more gloomy and more
ftupendous j ruins more majeftic buildings more mag¬
nificent ; oceans more varied with iflands, more fplendid
with {hipping, or more agitated by {form, than any we
have ever feen—it is eafy for human imagination to con¬
ceive. Many things in art and nature exceed expecta¬
tion 5 but nothing fenfible tranfcends or equals the ca¬
pacity of thought:—a finking evidence of the dignity
of the human foul ! The finefl woman in the wrorld ap¬
pears to every eye fufceptible of improvement, except
perhaps to that of her lover. No wonder, then, if in
poetry events can be exhibited more compaCt, and of
more pleafing variety, than thofe delineated by the hi-
ftorian, and fcenes of inanimate nature more dreadful or
more lovely, and human characters more fublime and
more exquifite, both in good and evil. Yet ftill let
nature fupply the ground-wmrk and materials, as well as
the ftandard, of poetical fiCHon. The mofi: expert
painters ufe a layman, or other vifible figure, to direCl
their hand and regulate their fancy. Homer himfelf
founds his ttvo poems on authentic tradition ; and tragic
as well epic poets have followed the example. The
writers of romance, too, are ambitious to interw'eave true
adventures with their fables ; and when it can be conve¬
niently done, to take the outlines of their plan from
real life. Thus the tale of Robinfon Crufoe is founded
on an incident that aftually befel one Alexander Sel¬
kirk, a feafaring man, who lived feveral years alone in
the ifland of Juan Fernandes : Smollet- is thought to
have given us feveral of his own adventures in the hi¬
ftory of Roderic Random •, and the chief characters in
Tom Jones, .Tofeph Andrews, and Pamela, are faid to
have been copied from real originals. Dramatic co¬
medy, indeed, is for the moft part purely fiClitious : for
if it were to exhibit real events as well as prefent man¬
ners, it would become too perfonal to be endured by a
well-bred audience, and degenerate into downright
abufe 5 which appears to have been the cafe with the
old comedy of the Greeks *. But in general, hints ta¬
ken from real exiftence will be found to give no little
4-
T R Y. 759
grace and {lability to fiCtion, even in the mofl: fanciful Of Nature
poem. Thefe hints, however, may be improved by the , ^
poet’s imagination, and fet oft' with every probable or¬
nament that can be devifed, confiftently with the defign
and genius of the work ; or in other words, with the
fympathies that the poet means to awaken in the mind
of his reader. For mere poetical ornament, when it
fails to intereft the affe£lions, is not only ufelefs, but im¬
proper j all true poetry being addrefied to the heart, and
intended to give pleafure by railing or foothing the paf-
fions;—the only effedfual way of pleafing a rational and
moral creature. And therefore we would take Ho¬
race’s maxim to be univerfal in poetry : “ Non fatis e/fy
pulchra ejfe poemata ; dulcia Junto“ It is not enough
that poems be beautiful •, let them alfo be affeBing —
For that this is the meaning of the word dulcia in this
place, is admitted by the belt interpreters, and is indeed ^ _ioo.'
evident from the context f. 16
That the fentiments and feelings of percipient beings and de-
when exprefted in poetry, fhould call forth our affec- fcnl:)e
tions, is natural enough j but can defcriptions of inaui- Animat*
mate things alfo be made aflefting ? Certainly they can : f0 as to
and the more they affedt, the more they pleafe us, and make them
the more poetical we allow them to be. Virgil’s Geor- affedting.
gic is a noble fpecimen (and indeed the nobleft in the
world) of this fort of poetry. His admiration of exter¬
nal nature gains upon a reader of tafte, till it rife to per-
fedl enthufiafm. The following obfervations will per¬
haps explain this matter.
Every thing in nature is complex in itfelf, and bears
innumerable relations to other things ; and may there¬
fore be viewed in an endlefs variety of lights, and con-
fequently defcribed in an endlefs variety of ways. Some
defcriptions are good, and others bad. An hiftorical
defcription, that enumerates all the qualities of any ob¬
ject, is certainly good, becaufe it is true j but may be
as unaffedling as a logical definition. In poetry, no un-
affefting defcription is good, however conformable to
truth : for here we expedt not a complete enumeration
of qualities (the chief end of the art being to pleafe),
but only fuch an enumeration as may give a lively and
interefting idea. It is not memory, or the knowledge
of rules, that can qualify a poet for this fort of defcrip¬
tion j but a peculiar livelinefs of fancy and fenfibility
of heart, the nature whereof we may explain by its
effedts, but we cannot lay down rules for the. attain¬
ment of it. N
When our mind is occupied by any emotion, we na¬
turally ufe words and meditate on things that are fuit-
able to it and tend to encourage it. If a man were to
write a letter when he is very angry, there would pro¬
bably be fomething of vehemence or bitternefs in the
ftyle, even though the perfon to whom he-wrote were
not the objedl of his anger. The fame thing holds true
of every other ftrong paflionor emotion :—while it pre¬
dominates in the mind, it gives a peculiarity to our
thoughts, as well as to our voice, gefture, and counte¬
nance : And hence we expedt, that every perfonage in- EveZ/per-
troduced in poetry ftrould fee things through the me-fonintro-
dium of his ruling paflion, and that his thoughts andducedin
language ftiould be tindlured accordingly. A melan- f
choly man walking in a grove, attends to thofe things [hinas Ce
that fuit and encourage his melancholy j the fighing of through the
the wind in the trees, the murmuring of waters themeddim
darknefs .and folitude of the {hades : A cheerful man inhis ruling
tte1*®0”-
760
POE
Beattie's
Etfays,
ut fupra.
Of Nature tlie fame place, finds many fubje&s of cheerful medita-
in Poetry. tjonS5 Jn the finging of birds, the brilk motions of the
' ^ babbling dream, and the livelinefs and variety of the ver¬
dure. Perfons of different chara&ers, contemplating
the fame thing, a Roman triumph, for inftance, feel dif¬
ferent emotions, and turn their view to different objefts.
One is filled with wonder at fuch a difplay of wealth and
power •, another exults in the idea of conqueft, and pants
for military renown ; a third, dunned with clamour, and
haraffed with confufion, wifhes for filence, fecurity, and
folitude •, one melts with pity to the vanquifhed, and
makes many a fad refieftion upon the infignificance of
worldly grandeur, and the uncertainty of human things 5
■while the buffoon, and perhaps the philofopher, con-
fiders the whole as a vain piece of pageantry, which, by
its folemn procedure, and by the admiration of fo many
people, is only rendered the more ridiculous :—and each
of thefe perfons would defcribe it in a way fuitable to
his own feelings, and tending to raife the fame in others.
We fee in Milton’s Allegro and Penferofo, how a dif¬
ferent cad of mind produces a variety in the manner of
conceiving and contemplating the fame rural fcenery.
In the former of thefe excellent poems, the author per-
fonates a cheerful man, and takes notice of thofe things
in external nature that are fuitable to cheerful thoughts,
and tend to encourage them : in the latter, every objeft
defcribed is ferious and folemn, and productive of calm
reflection and tender melancholy j and we fhould not
be eafily perfuaded, that Milton wrote the fird under
the influence of forrow, or the fecond under that of
gladnefs. We often fee an author’s character in his
works ; and if every author were in earned when he
writes, we fliould oftener fee it. Thomfon Avas a man
of piety and benevolence, and a warm admirer of the
beauties of nature ; and every defcription in his delight¬
ful poem on the Seafons tends to raife the fame laudable
affeCtions in his reader. The parts of nature that at-
traCl his notice are thofe which an impious or hard¬
hearted man would neither attend to, nor be affeCted
with, at lead in the fame manner. In Swift we fee a
turn of mind very different from that of the amiable
Thomfon ; little relifli for the fublime or beautiful, and
a perpetual fucceflion of violent emotions. All his pic¬
tures of human life feem to fliow, that deformity and
meannefs were the favourite objeCts of his attention, and
that his foul was a condant prey to indignation (c),
difgud, and other gloomy paflions, arifing from fuch a
view of thingSi And it is the tendency of almod all
his writings (though it was not always the author’s de-
fign), to communicate the fame paffions to his reader :
infomuch, that notwithdanding his erudition and know¬
ledge of the world, his abilities as a popular orator and
man of bufinefs, the energy of his dyle, the elegance of
fome of his verfes, and his extraordinary talents in wit
and humour, there is reafon to doubt, whether by ftu-
dying his works any perfon was very much improved in
piety or benevolence.
And thus we fee, how the compofitions of an inge¬
nious author may operate upon the heart, whatever be
T R Y. Part I,
the fubjeCt. The affeCHons that prevail in the author Of Nature
himfelf, dired: his attention to objeCtscongenial, and give
a peculiar bias to his inventive powers, and a peculiar 'r'—J
colour to his language. Hence his work, as well as face, rt t; „s
if nature is permitted to exert herfelf freely in it, will that poetry
exhibit a picture of his mind, and awaken correfpondentthe
fympathies in the reader. When thefe are favourable to he;'r! wktt-
virtue, which they always ought to be, the work will 1U
have that fweet pathos to which Horace alludes in the
paffage above mentioned *, and which we fo highly ad¬
mire, and fo rvarmly approve, even in thofe parts of the
Georgic that defcribe inanimate nature.
Horace’s account of the matter in quedion differs not
from what is here given. “ It is not enough (fays he*) * Ar pC(f
that poems be beautiful; let them be affefting, and v. 99.—
agitate the mind with whatever paflions the poet wiflies m.
to impart. The human countenance, as it fmiles on
thofe who fmile, accompanies alfo rvith fympathetic tears
thofe AArho mourn. If you Avould have me Aveep, you
mud fird weep yourfelf; then, and not before, fliall I be
touched Avith your misfortunes.—For nature fird makes
the emotions of our mind correfpond Avith our circum-
dances, infufing real joy, forroAV, or refentment, accord¬
ing to the occafion ; and aftenvards gives the true pa¬
thetic utterance to the voice and language.” This
doftrine, Avhich concerns the orator and the player no
lefs than the poet, is driCUy philofophical, and equally
applicable to dramatic, to defcriptive, and indeed to
every fpecies of intereding poetry. The poet’s fenfibi-
lity mud fird of all engage him warmly in his fubjeft,
and in every part of it ; otherwife he will labour in vain
to intered the reader. If he Avould paint external nature,
as Virgil and Thomfon have done, fo as to make her
amiable to others, he mud fird be enamoured of her him¬
felf ; if he Avould have his heroes and heroines fpeak the
language of love or forrow, devotion or courage, ambi¬
tion or anger, benevolence or pity, his heart mud be
fufceptible of thofe emotions, and in fome degree feel
them, as long at lead as he employs himfelf in framing
Avords for them ; being affured, that
He bed fliall paint them Avho can feel them mod.
Pope’s E/cnfa, v. 366.
Ip
The true poet, therefore, mud not only dudy nature, The true
and know the reality of things, but mud alfo poffefs poet muft
fancy, to invent additional decorations; judgment, toP0^e^an‘
direct him in the choice of fuch as accord Avith verifi- ^,nt
militude ; and fenfibility, to enter Avith ardent emotions rations to
into every part of his fubjedt, fo as to transfufe into eve-nature,
ry part of his Avork a pathos and energy fufficient to
raife correfponding emotions in the reader.
“ The hidorian and the poet (fays Ariffotle *) dif- * Poetic-
fer in this, that the former exhibits things as they are, ^'9'
the latter as they might be ;”—i. e. in that date of per-
fedlion Avhich is confident Avith probability,and in Avhich,
for the fake of our oAvn gratification, we Avifli to find
them. If the poet, after all the liberties he is alloAved
to take Avith the truth, can produce nothing more ex-
quifite than is commonly to be met Avith in hidory, his
\ reader
(c) For part of this remark avc have his OAvn authority, often in his letters, and very explicitly in the Latin
epitaph Avhich he compofed for himfelfubi Leva indignatio ulterius cor lacerare nequit.” See his laji will and
tejlament.
Parti. POE
Of Nature, reader will be difappointed and diftatisfied. Poetical re-
in Poetr-’'. prefentations mull therefore be framed after a pattern of
U-'*’v the higheft probable perfection that the genius of the
work will admit:—external nature mull in them be
more pifturefque than in reality } aftion more animated $
fentiments more expreilive of the feelings and ehara&er,
and more fuitable to the cireumltances of the fpeaker ;
perfonages better accompliihed in thoffe qualities that
raife admiration, pity, terror, and other ardent emo¬
tions ; and events more compact, more clearly conned-
ed with caufes and confequenees, and unfolded in an
order more flattering to the fancy, and more interefting
to the paffions. But where, it may be faid, is this pat¬
tern of perfedlion to be found ? Not in real nature 5
otherwife hiltory, which delineates real nature, would
alfo delineate this pattern of perfe&ion. It is to be
found only in the mind of the poet; and it is imagina¬
tion, regulated by knowledge, that enables him to form it.
In the beginning of life, and while experience is con¬
fined to a fmall circle, we admire every thing, and are
pleafed with very moderate excellence. A peafant thinks
the hall of his landlord the finelt apartment in the uni-
verfe, liftens with rapture to the ftrolling ballad-finger,
and wonders at the rude wooden cuts that adorn his
ruder eompofitions. A child looks upon his native vil¬
lage as a town ; upon the brook that runs by as a ri¬
ver •, and upon the meadows and hills in the neighbour¬
hood as the moll fpaeious and beautiful that can be.
But when, after long abfence, he returns in his de¬
clining years, to vifit, once before he die, the dear fpot
that gave him birth, and thofe fcenes whereof he re¬
members rather the original charms than the exaft pro¬
portions ; how is he difappointed to find every thing fo
debafed and fo diminilhed ! The hills feem to have funk
into the ground, the brook to be dried up, and the vil¬
lage to be forfaken of its people j the parifh-church,
flripped of all its fancied magnificence, is become low,
gloomy, and narrow *, and the fields are now only the
miniature of what they were. Had he never left this
fpot, his notions might have remained the fame as at
firll; and had he travelled but a little way from it, they
20 would not perhaps have received any material enlarge-
Obfervationment. It feems then to be from obfervation of many
of many things of the fame or fimilar kinds, that we acquire the
thmp ot ta]ent of forming ideas more perfeCl than the real ob-
Wnd agreat l'e immediately around us : and thefe ideas we
help to poe-may improve gradually more and more, according to the
tical fancy, vivacity of our mind, and extent of our experience, till at
kecaufe jafl. we corne to raife them to a degree of perfeflion fu-
perior to any thing to be found in real life. There can¬
not fure be any mvilery in this doftrine ; for we think
and fpeak to the fame purpofe every day. Thus nothing
is more common than to fay, that fueh an artift excels
all we have ever known in his profeflion, and yet that
we can Hill conceive a fuperior performance. A mci-
ralift, by bringing together into one view the feparate
virtues of many perfons, is enabled to lay down a fy-
ilem of duty more perfeft than any he has ever feen ex¬
emplified in human condu6l. Whatever be the emo¬
tion the poet intends to raife in his reader, whether ad¬
miration of terror, joy or forrow ; and whatever be the
objeft he would exhibit, whether Venus or Tifiphone,
Achilles or Therfifes, a palace or a pile of ruins, a
dance or a battle j he generally copies an idea of his
own imagination j confidering each quality as it is
You XVI. Part II.
T R Y.
found to exilt in feverai individuals of a fpecieS, and 9^
thence forming an aflemblage more or lefs perfect in its ,u'1 t'*.
kind, according to the purpofe to which he means to
apply it. 51
Hence it Would appear, that the ideas of poetry are poetical
rather general than fingular j rather collected from the
examination of a fpecies or clafs of things, than copied nerajt
from an individual. And this, according to Ariftotle,
is in fa£l the cafe, at leaft for the molt part 5 whence
that critic determines, that poetry is fomething more
eXquifite and more philofophical than hiilory *. I he hi- * Poetic*
ftorian may defcribe Bucephalus, but the poet delineatesi 9'
a war-horfe ; the former mull have feen the animal he
fpeaks of, or received authentic information concern¬
ing it, if he mean to defcribe it hiltorically j for the
latter, it is enough that he has feen feverai animals
of that fort. The former tells us, what Achilles ac¬
tually did and faid ; the latter, what fueh a fpecies of
human charafter as that which bears the name of Achil¬
les would probably do or fay in certain given circum-
ilances.
It is indeed true, that the poet may, and often does,
copy after individual objects. Homer, no doubt, took
his characters from the life *, or at leaft, in forming
them, was careful to follow tradition as far as the na¬
ture of his plan would allow. But he probably took
the freedom to add or heighten fome qualities, and
take away others j to make Achilles, for example,
ftronger, perhaps, and more impetuous, and more emi¬
nent for filial affeflion, and Heftor more patriotic and
more amiable than he really was. If he had not done
this, or fomething like it, his work would have been
rather a hiftory than a poem ; would have exhibited
men and things as they were, and not as they might have
been } and Achilles and HeElor would have been the
names of individual and real heroes ^ whereas, according
to Ariftotle, they are rather to be confidered as two
diftinCl modifications or fpecies of the heroic charaCler.
Shakefpeare’s account of the cliffs of Dover comes fo
near the truth, that we cannot doubt of its having been
written by one who had feen theni : but he who takes
it for an exaCl hiftorical defcription, will be furprifed
when he comes to the place, and finds thofe cliffs not
half fo lofty as the poet had made him believe. An
hiftorian would be to blame for fuch amplification j.
becaufe, being to defcribe an individual, precipice, he
ought to tell us juft what it is 5 which if he did, the
defcription would fuit that place, and perhaps no other
in the whole world. But the poet means only to give
an idea of what fuch a precipice may be $ and therefore
his defcription may perhaps be equally applicable to
many fuch chalky precipices on the fea-(hore.
This method of copying after general ideas formed
by the artift from obfervation of many individuals, di-
ftinguifties the Italian and all the fublime painters,
from the Dutch and their imitators. Thefe give us
bare nature, with the imperfedlions and peculiarities
of individual things or perfons \ but thofe give nature
improved as far as probability and the defign of the
piece will admit. Teniers and Hogarth draw faces,
and figures, and dreffes, from real life, and prefent man¬
ners ; and therefore their pieces muft in fome degree
lofe the tffefl, and become awkward, when the prefent
faftiions become obfolete.——Raphael and Reynolds
take their .models from general nature j avoiding, as
5 I? fe*
62
POE
Of N iture far as poffible, (at lead: in all their great performances),
^in roe try. ^0pe peculiarities tliat derive their beauty from mere
2( fafliion j and therefore their works muft give pleafure,
in order to and appear elegant as long as men are capable of form-
p e.'fe all ing general ideas, and of judging from them. 'Ihe
d " ■ ‘ ‘ '
age
couutr.es.
laft-mentioned incomparable artift is particularly ob-
fervant of children, whole looks and attitudes, being
lefs under the controul of art and local manners, are
more chara&eriftical of the fpecies than thofe of men
and women. This field of obfervation has fupplied
him with many fine figures, particularly that mold ex¬
quisite one of Comedy, ftruggling for and winning (for
who could refill her!) the affeiflions of Garrick :—a
figure which could never have occurred to the imagi¬
nation of a painter who had confined his view's to
grown perfons looking and moving in all the forma-
litv of polite life ;—a figure which in all ages and coun¬
tries would be pronounced natural and engaging^—
whereas thofe human forms that we fee every day bow¬
ing and courtefying, and ft rutting, and turning out
their toes fecundum artem, and dreffed in ruffles, and
wigs, and flounces, and hoop-petticoats, and full-trim¬
med (hits, would appear elegant no further than the pre-
fent fafhions are propagated, and no longer than they
remain unaltered.
There is, in the progrefs of human fociety, as well
as of human life, a period to which it is of great im-
foclety Portance f°r the higher order of poets to attend, and
to which from which they will do well to take their charadters,
epic and and manners, and the era of their events 5 namely,
tragic poets therein men are raifed above fava^e life, and con-
fliould at- - - - - -
21
The period
in the pro¬
grefs ot hu¬
man
tend.
fiderably improved by arts, government, and conver-
fation ; but not advanced fo high in the afcenf towards
politenefs, as to have acquired a habit of difguifing
their thoughts and paflions, and of reducing their be
haviour to the uniformity of the mode. Such w'as the
period which Homer had the good fortune (as a poet) to
live in, and to celebrate. This is the period at which
the manners of men are rooft pidfurefque, and their ad¬
ventures moft romantic. This is the period when the
appetites unperverted by luxury, the powers unnervat-
ed by effeminacy, and the thoughts difengaged from
artificial reftraint, will, in perfons of fimilar dif-
pofitions and circumftances, operate in nearly the fame
wav ; and when, confequently, the charadfcrs of par¬
ticular men will approach to the nature of poetical or
general ideas, and, if well imitated, give pleafure to the
whole, or at leaft to a great majority of mankind.
Bot a charadler tinflured with the fafhions of polite life
would not be fo generally interefting. Like a human
figure adjufted by a modern dancing-mailer, and dref¬
fed by a modern tailor, it may have a good effeft in
fttire, comedy, or farce : but if introduced into the
higher poetry, it would be admired bv thofe onlv who
hsid learned to admire nothing but prefent fafhions,
and by them no longer than the prefent fafhions laft-
«d 5 and to all the reft of the world would appear awk¬
ward, unaffe&ing, and perhaps ridiculous. But A-
chilles and Sarpedon, Diomede and Heiftor, Neftor
and Ulyffes, as drawn by Homer, muft in all ages, in¬
dependently on fafhion, command the attention and ad¬
miration of mankind. Thefe have the qualities that are
univerfally known to belong to human nature; whereas
the modern fine gentleman is diftinguifhed by qualities
that belong only to a particular age, fociety, and cor-
T R Y. Parti.
ner of the world. We fpeak not of moral or intellec-Of Poetical
tual virtues, which are objects of admiration to every drafters,
age; but of thofe outward accomplifhments, and that '
particular temperature of the paffions, which form the
moft perceptible part of a human chara&er.——As,
therefore, the politician, in difculling the rights of
mankind, muft often allude to an imaginary ftate of na¬
ture ; fo the poet who intends to raife admiration, pity,
terror, and other important emotions, in the generality
of mankind, efpcially in thofe readers whofe minds are
moft improved, muft take his pi&ures of life and man¬
ners, rather from the heroic period we now fpeak of,
than from the ages of refinement; and muft therefore
(to repeat the maxim of Ariftotle) “ exhibit things, not
as they are, but as they might be.”
Sect. IV. Of Poetical Characters.
Horace feems to think, that a competent know-Requifites
ledge of moral philofophy will fit an author for aflign- to the deli-
ing the fuitable qualities and duties to each poeticalneatH)n
perfonage: (Art. Poet. v. 309.-316.). The maxim
may be true, as far as mere morality is the aim of the
poet j but cannot be underftood to refer to the deline¬
ation of poetical charafters in general : for a thorough
acquaintance w'ith all the moral philofophy in the world
would not have enabled Blackmore to paint fuch a per¬
fonage as Homer’s Achilles, Shakefpeare’s Othello, or
the Satan of Paradife Loft. To a competency of mo¬
ral fcience, there muft be added an extenfive knowledge
of mankind, a warm and elevated imagination, and the
greateft fenfibility of heart, before a genius can be for¬
med equal to fo difficult a talk. Horace is indeed fo
fenfible of the danger of introducing a new character in
poetry, that he even difcourages the attempt, and ad-
vifes the poet rather to take his perfons from the an¬
cient authors, or from tradition : Ibid. v. 119.—130.
To conceive the idea of a good man, and to invent
and iupport a great poetical character, are two very
different things, however they may Teem to have been
confounded by feme late critics. The firft is ealy to
any perfon fufficiently inftrutted in the duties of life:
the laft is perhaps of all the efforts of human genius
the moft difficult ; fo very difficult, that, though at¬
tempted by many, Homer, Shakefpeare, and Milton,
are almoft the only authors who have fucceeded in it-
But characters of perfeft virtue are not the moft pro¬
per for poetry. It feems to be agreed, that the Dei¬
ty fliould not be introduced in the machinery of a poe¬
tical fable. To aferibe to him words and a&ions of
our own invention, feems very unbecoming ; nor can
a poetical defeription, that is known to be, and muft
of neceffity be, infinitely inadequate, ever fatisfy the
human mind. Poetry, according to the beft critics,:Which,
is an imitation of human a61 ion ; and therefore poeth though efo
cal characters, though elevated, ihould Hill partake of^aU'f’ r
the paffions and frailties of humanity. If it were not-f^ 0fPthe
for the vices of fome principal perfonages, the Iliad frailties of
would not be either fo interefting or fo moral: the-humamtyi•
moft moving and moft eventful parts of the iEneid are
thofe that deferibe the effeCts of unlawful paftion : 
the moft inftruClive tragedy in the world, we mean
Macbeth, is founded in crimes of dreadful enormity :
—and if Milton had not taken into his plan the fall of
our firft parents, as well as their Hate of innocence,
his--,
Part I. POE
Of Poetical his divine poem muft have wanted much of its pathos,
Characters. ancj could not have been (what it now is) fuch a trea-
fure of important knowledge, as no other uninfpired
writer ever comprehended in fo fmall a compafs.-l 
Virtue, like truth, is uniform and unchangeable. We
may anticipate the part a good man will aft in any gi¬
ven circumftances : and therefore the events that de¬
pend on fuch a man mull be lefs furprifing than thofe
which proceed from pafiion •, the viciflitudes whereof
it is frequently impoffible to forefee. From the vio¬
lent temper of Achilles, in the Iliad, fpring many great
incidents ; which could not have taken place, if he had
been calm and prudent like Ulylfes, or pious and pa¬
triotic like Eneas: his rejeftion of Agamemnon’s of¬
fers, in the ninth book, arifes from the violence of his
refentment ;—his yielding to the requeft of Patroclus,
in the 16th, from the violence of his friendlhip (if we
may fo fpeak) counterafting his refentment *, and his
refloring to Priam the dead body of Heftor, in the
24th, from-the violence of his affeftion to his own aged
father, and his regard to the command of Jupiter, coun¬
t-crafting, in fome meafure, both his forrow for his friend,
and his third for vengeance. Befides, except where
there is fome degree of vice, it pains us too exquifitely
to fee misfortune j and therefore poetry would ceafe to
have a pleafurable influence over our tender paflions, if
it -were to exhibit virtuous charafters only. And as in
life, evil is neceiTary to our moral probation, and the
poffibility of error to our intelleftual improvement ; fo
bad or mixed charafters are ufeful in poetry, to give to
the good fuch oppofition, as puts them upon difplaying
26 and exercifing their virtue.
whilft the All thofe perfonages, however, in whofe fortune
pertonages f})e p0e^ means t|iat \\e diould be intereded, mult have
fate the agreeable and admirable qualities to recommend them
poet means to olir regard. And perhaps the greated difficulty in
that we the art lies in fuitably blending thole faults which the
Ihould^be p0e{- Jt expedient to give to any particular hero,
) i^ht to with moral, intelleftual, or corporeal accomplidi-
havc good ments, as may engage our edeem, pity, or admira-
and great tion, without weakening our hatred of vice, or love
nialities. Qf virtue. In mod of our novels, and in many of our
plays, it happens unluckily, that the hero of the piece
is fo captivating, as to incline us to be indulgent to
every part of his charafter, the bad as well as the
good. But a great mader knows how to give the pro¬
per direftion to human fenfibility ; and, without any
perverfion of our faculties, or any confufion of right
and wrong, to make the fame perfon the objeft of
very different emotions, of pity and hatred, of admi¬
ration and horror. Who does not edeem and admire
Macbeth for his courage and generofity ? who does
not pity him when befet with all the terrors of a preg¬
nant imagination, fuperditious temper, and awakened
confcience ? who does not abhor him as a monder of
TRY. 7S3
cruelty, treachery, and ingratitude ? His good quali- Of Poetical
ties, by drawing us near to him, make us, as it were, ^f'ara(deri'
eye-witneffes of his crime, and give us a fellow-feel- ~J"”" ^
ing of his remorfe j and therefore, his example cannot
fail to have a powerful effeft in cherifhing our love of
virtue, and fortifying our minds againd criminal im-
preffions 5 whereas, had he wanted thofe good quali¬
ties, we diould have kept aloof from his concerns, or
viewed them with a fuperficial attention ; in which cafe
his example would have had little more weight than
that of the robber, of whom we know nothing, but
that he was tried, condemned, and executed.—-Satan,
in Paradile Lod, is a charafter drawn and fupported
with the mod confummate judgment. The old furies
and demons, ITecate, Tifiphone, Alefto, Megara, are
objefts of unmixed and unmitigated abhorrence ; Ti-
tyus, Enceladus, and their brethren, are remarkable
for nothing but impiety, deformity, and vadnefs of fize $
Pluto is, at bed, an infipid perfonage ; Mars, a hair¬
brained ruffian 5 d affo’s infernal tyrant, an ugly and
overgrown monder :—but in the Miltonic Satan, we
are forced to admire the majedy of the ruined arch¬
angel, at the lame time that we deted the unconquer¬
able depravity of the fiend. _ “ But, of all poetical cha- Beattie'*
rafters, (fays the elegant critic from whom ive are ex- E-Jays-:
trafting), Hie Achilles of Homer (d) feems to me the
‘ii°d exquifite of invention, and the mod highly finidi-
ed. The utility of this charafter in a moral view is
obvious ; for it may be confidered as the fource of all
the morality of the Iliad. Had not the generous and
violent temper of Achilles determined him to patronize
the augur Calchas in defiance of Agamemnon, and af¬
terwards on being affronted by that vindiftive com¬
mander, to abandon for a time the common caufe of
Greece the fatal t-ffefts of diffenfion among confede¬
rates, and of capricious and tyrannical behaviour in a fo-
vereign, would not have been the leading moral of Ho¬
mer’s poetry; nor could Heftor, Sarpedon, Eneas, Ulyf-
fes, and the other amiable heroes, have been brought
forward to fignalize their virtues, and to recommend
tbemfelves to the efteem and imitation of mankind.
“ They who form their judgment of Achilles from The excel-
the imperfect Iketch given of him by Horace in the lerJce of the
of Poetry, (v. 121, 122.) ; and confider him only as a Poetical
hateful compofition of anger, revenge, fiercenefs, obdi- ofTehll
nacy and pride, can never enter into the views of Ho- and C 1 ^
mer, nor be fuitably affe.fted with his narration. AH
thefe vices are no doubt, in fome degree, combined in
Achilles 5 but they are tempered with qualities of a dif¬
ferent lort, which render him a mod intereding charac¬
ter, and of courfe make the Iliad a mod interefting
poem. Every reader abhors the faults of this hero*:
and yet, to an attentive reader of Homer, this hero mud:
be the objeft of efteem, admiration, and pity j for he
has many good as well as bad affeftions, and is equally
5 ^ 2 violent
(D) “ I fay the Achilles of HOMER. Later authors have degraded the charafter of this hero, by fuppofina-
every part of his body invulnerable except the heel. I. know not how often t have heard this urged as one of
Homer’s abfurdities ; and indeed the whole Iliad is one continued abfurditv, on this fuppofition. But Ho¬
mer all along makes his hero equally liable to wounds and death with other men. Nav, to prevent all mi-
dakes in regard to this matter, (if thofe who cavil at the poet would but read his work), he actually wounds
him in the right arm by the lance of Aderopaeus, in the battle near the river Scaouuder.” See Iliad xxu
*erfe 161—168. -
76+ POE
Of Poetical violent in all:—Nor is he poffeffed of a lingle vice or
Characters. virtue) which the wonderful art of the poet has not
1Tiaje fubfervient to the defign of the poem, and to the
progfefs and cataftrophe of the a£Hon j fo that the hero
of the Iliad, confidered as a poetical perfonage, is juft
what he ftiould be, neither greater nor lefs, neither
worfe nor better.—He is everywhere diftinguiilied by
an abhorrence of oppreftion, by a liberal and elevated
mind, by a paffion for glory, and by a love of truth,
freedom, and fincerity. He is for the moft part atten¬
tive to the duties of religion ; and, except to thofe who
have injured him, courteous and kind : he is affectionate
to his tutor Phenix ; and not only pi&ses the misfortunes
of his enemy Priam, but in the moft foothing manner
adminifters to him the belt confolation that Homer’s
poor theology could furnifli. Though no admirer of
the caufe in which his evil deftiny compels him to en¬
gage, he is warmly attached to his native land ; and,
ardent as he is in vengeance, he is equally fo in love to
his aged father Peleus, and to his friend Patroclus. He
Is not luxurious like Paris, or clownilh like Ajax 5 his
accomplishments are princely, and his amufemervts wor¬
thy of a hero. Add to this, as an apolegy for the vehe¬
mence of his anger, that the affront he had received
was (according to the manners of that age) of the moft
atrocious nature 5 and not only unprovoked, but fuch
as, on the part of Agamemnon, betrayed a brutal in-
fenlibility to merit, as well as a proud, felfilh, ungrate¬
ful, and tyrannical difpofition. And though he is of¬
ten inexcufably furious ; yet it is but juftice to remark,
that he was not naturally cruel (e) 5 and that his
wildeft outrages were fuch as in thofe rude times might
be expeCted from a violent man of invincible ftrength
and valour, when exafperated by injury, and frantic
with forrow. Our hero’s claim to the admiration of
mankind is indifputable. Every part of his character
is fublime and aftonilhing. In- his perfon, he is the
ftrongeft, the fwifteft, the moft beautiful of men :—this
1'aft circumftance, however, occurs not to his own obfer-
vation, being too trivial to attraCl the notice of fo great
a mind. The Fates had put it in his power, either to
return home before the end of the war, or to remain at
Troy :—if he chofe the former, he would enjoy tran¬
quillity and happinefs in his own country to a good old
age 5 if the latter, he muft perilh in the bloom of his
youth :—his affeCtion to his father and native country,
and his hatred to Agamemnon, ftrongly urged him to
the firft ; but a defire to avenge the death of his friend
determines him to accept the laft with all its confequen-
ces. This at once difplays the greatnefs of his forti¬
tude, the warmth of his friendfhip, and the violence of
his fanguinary paffions: and it is this that fo often and
fo powerfully recommends him to the pity, as well as
25 admiration, of the attentive reader.”
«f all Ho- It is equally a proof of rich invention and exaCl
?aaersCha* In Homer, that he mixes fome good qualities
in all his bad characters, and fome degree of imperfec¬
tion in almoft all his good ones.—Agamemnon, not-
withftanding his pride, is an able general, and a valiant
T R Y. PartIi
man, and highly efteemed as fuch by the greater part of Of Poetical
the army.—Paris, though effeminate, and vain of his Chandlers,
drefs and perfon, is, however, good-natured, patient of ''““'V'—1'
reproof, not deftitute of courage, and eminently Ikilled
in mufic and other fine arts.—Ajax is a huge giant j
fearlefs rather from infenfibility to danger, and confi¬
dence in his maffy arms, than from any nobler principle }
boaftful and rough j regardlefs of the gods, though not
downright impious: yet there is in his manner fome- Beattie,
thing of franknefs and blunt fincerity, which entitle himllt %ra>
to a fhare in our efteem ; and he is ever ready to aflift
his countrymen, to whom he renders good fervice on
many a perilous emergency. The charaCter of He¬
len, in fpite of her faults, and of the many calamities
whereof (he is the guilty caufe, Homer has found means
to recommend to our pity, and almoft to our love ; and
this he does, without feeking to extenuate the crime
of Paris, of which the moft refpeCtable perfonages in
the poem are made to fpeak with becoming abhorrence.
She is fo full of remorfe, fo ready on every occafion
to condemn her paft conduCt, fo affeCHonate to her
friends, fo willing to do juftice to every body’s merit,
and withal fo finely accomplifhed, that ftie extorts our
admiration, as well as that of the Trojan fenators.——
Menelaus, though fufficiently fenfible of the injury he
had received, is yet a man of moderation, clemency, and
good-nature, a valiant foldier, and a moft affeCtionate
brother : but there is a dalh of vanity in his compofi-
tion, and he entertains rather too high an opinion of his
own abilities, yet never overlooks nor undervalues the
merit of others.—Priam would claim unreferved efteem,
as well as pity, if it were not for his inexcufeable weak-
nefs, in gratifying the humour, and by indulgence abet¬
ting the crimes, of the moft worthlefs of all his chil¬
dren, to the utter ruin of his people, family, and king¬
dom. Madame Dacier fuppofes, that he had loft his
authority, and was obliged to fall in with the politics of
the times : but of this there appears no evidence •, on
the contrary, he and his unworthy favourite Paris feem
to have been the only perfons of diftinftion in Troy
who were averfe to the reftoring of Helen. Priam’s
foible (if it can be called by fo foft a name), however
faulty, is not uncommon, and has often produced cala¬
mity both in private and public life. The Scripture
gives a memorable inftance in the hiftory of the good
old Eli. —Sarpedon comes nearer a perfect charafler
than any other of Homer’s heroes \ but the part he has
to aft is fhort. It is a charafter which one could hard¬
ly have expefted in thofe rude times : a fovereign prince,
who confiders himfelf as a magiftrate fet up by the
people for the public good, and therefore bound in ho¬
nour and gratitude to be himfelf their example, and
ftudy to excel as much in virtue as in rank and authori¬
ty. Heftoris the favourite of every reader, and with
good reafon. To the trueft valour he joins the moft ge¬
nerous patriotifm. He abominates the crime of Paris r
but not being able to prevent the war, he thinks it his
duty to defend his country, and his father and fove¬
reign, to the laft. He too, as well as Achilles, forefees
his
(e) See Iliad xxi. too. and xxiv. 485—673.—In the firft of thefe paffages, Achilles himfelf declares, that be¬
fore Patroclus was {lain, he often fpared the lives of his enemies, and took pleafure in doing it. It is ftrange, as
Dr Beattie obferves, that this fhould be left out in Pope’s Tranftation,
Parti. POE
of Poetical his own death j which heightens our compaffion, and
Characters. ra{fes our idea of his magnanimity. In all the relations
~ ’ of private life, as a fon, a father, a hulhand, a brother,
he is amiable in the higheft degree ; and he is diftin-
guilhed among all the heroes for tendernefs of affe&ion,
gentlenefs of manners, and a pious regard to the duties
of religion. One circumftance of his chara&er, flrong-
ly expreffive of a great and delicate mind, we learn
from Helen’s lamentation over his dead body, that he
was almoft the only perfon in Troy who had always
treated her with kindnefs, and never uttered one re¬
proachful word to give her pain, nor heard others re¬
proach her without blaming them for it. Some ten¬
dency to oftentation (which however may be pardon¬
able in a commander in chief), and temporary fits of
timidity, are the only blemilhes difcoverable in this he¬
ro ; whofe portrait Homer appears to have drawn with
an affe&ionate and peculiar attention.
By afcribing fo many amiable qualities to He&or and
fome others of the Trojans, the poet interefts us in the
fate of that people, notwithftanding oqr being conti¬
nually kept in mind that they are the injurious party.
And by thus blending good and evil, virtue and frailty,
in the compofition of his chara&ers, he makes them
the more conformable to the real appearances of human
nature, and more ufeful as examples for our improve¬
ment $ and at the fame time, without hurting verifimi-
litude, gives every neceffary embellifiiment to particular
parts of his poem, and variety, coherence, and anima¬
tion, to the whole fable. And it may alfo be obferved,
that though fever al of his char afters are complex, not
one of them is made up of incompatible parts : all are
natural and probable, and fuch as we think we have
met with, or might have met with, in our intercourfe
with mankind.
From the fame extenfive views of good and evil in
all their forms and combinations, Homer has been en¬
abled to make each of his charafters perfeftly diftinft
in itfelf, and different from all the reft ; infomuch that
before we come to the end of the Iliad, we are as well
acquainted with his heroes, as with the faces and tempers
Virgif fails our m°ft fa>wihar friends. Virgil, by confining him-
in drawing felf to a few general ideas of fidelity and fortitude, has
chara&ers. macle his fubordinate heroes a very good fort of people j
but they are all the fame, and we have no clear know¬
ledge of any one of them. Achates is faithful,, and
Gyas is brave, and Cloanthus is brave 5 and this is all
we can fay of the matter. We fee thefe heroes at a
diftance, and have fome notion of their lhape and fize $
but are not near enough to diftinguifh their features ;
and every face feems to exhibit the fame faint and am¬
biguous appearance. But of Homer’s heroes we knovV
every particular that can be known. We eat, and drink,
and talk, and fight, with them : we fee them in aftion
and out of it 5 in th^ field and in their tents and houfes .
the very face of the country about Froy we feem to be
as well acquainted with as if we had been there.
milar charafters there are among thefe heroes, as there
are fimilar faces in every fociety *, but we never miftake
one for another. Neftor and Ulyffes are both wife and
both eloquent : but the wifdom of the former feems to
be the effeft of experience ; that of the latter of genius,
the eloquence of the one is fweet and copious, but not
always to the purpofe, and apt to degenerate into ftory-
telling $ that of the other is clofe, emphatical, and per-
3
T R Y. 765
fuafive, and accompanied with a peculiar ntodefty and
fimplicity of manner. Homer’s heroes are all valiant} , ara^ er~‘.
yet each difplays a modification of valour peculiar to
himfelf; one is valiant from principle, another from con-
ftitution ; one is rafh, another cautious ; one is impe¬
tuous and headftrong, another impetuous, but traftable j
one is cruel, another merciful; one is infolent and often-
tatious, another gentle and unaffuming ; one is vain of
his perfon, another of his ftrength, and a third of his
family.—It would be tedious to give a complete enu¬
meration. Almoft every fpecies of the heroic charafter
is to be found in Homer.
Of the agents in Paradife Loft, it has been obferved*, * Johnforfs
that “ the weakeft are the higheft and nobleft of human
beings, the original parents of mankind ; with whofe
aftions the elements confented ; on whofe reftitude or
deviation of will depended the ftate of terreftrial nature,
and the condition of all the future inhabitants of the
globe. Of the other agents in the poem, the chief are
fuch as it is irreverence to name on flight occafions: the
reft are lower powe ‘s ;
  Of which the leaf! could wield
Thefe elements, and arm him with the force
Of all their regions : „o
Powrers, which only the controul of Omnipotence re-^h^dfiB—
ftrains from laying creation wafte, and filling the vaft
expanfe of fpace with ruin and cenfufion. To difplay an(i difa-i.
the motives and aftions of beings thus fuperior, fo far as minating
human reafon can examine, or human imagination re-tlie ckarac-
prefent them, is the talk which Milton undertook and radife Loft,
performed. The charafters in the Paradife Loft, which
admit of examination, are thofe of angels and of men :
of angels good and evil; of man in his innocent and
finful ftate.
“ Among the angels, the virtue of Raphael is mild and
placid, of eafy condefcenfion, and free communication :
that of Michael is regal and lofty, attentive to the dig¬
nity of his own nature. Abdiel and Gabriel appear oc-
calionally, and aft as every incident requires : the foli-
tary fidelity of Abdiel is very amiably painted.
“ Of the evil angels, the charafters are more diver-
fified. To Satan fuch fentiments are given as fuit the
moft exalted and moft depraved being. Milton has
been cenfured for the impiety which fometimes breaks
from Satan’s mouth ; for there are thoughts, it is juftly
remarked, which no obfervation ofcharafter can juftify;
becaufe no good man would willingly permit them to
pafs, however tranfiently, through his mind. This cen-
fure has been fliown to be groundlefs by the great critic
from whom we quote. To make Satan fpeak as a rebel,
fays he, without any fuch expreflions as might taint the
reader’s imagination, was indeed one of the great diffi¬
culties in Milton’s undertaking; and. I cannot but think
that he has extricated himfelf with great happinefs. 3I
There is in Satan’s fpeeches little that can give pain to Milton’s
a pious ear. The language of rebellion cannot be the^cefsin
fame with that of obedience : the malignity of Satan
foams in haughtinefs and obftinacy; but his expreffionstaki^
are commonly general, and no otherwife offenfive than
as they are wicked.—The other chiefs of the celeftial
rebellion are very judicioufly difcriminated; and the
ferocious charafter of Moloch appears, both in the battle
and in the council, with exaft confiftency.
s‘ To
?66 POE
Or Poetical « rfo Adam and to £v'e are given, during their inno-
rneiitn&c cence? ^entiments as innocence can generate and
- - J T utter. Their love is pure benevolence and mutual vene¬
ration •, their repafts are without luxury, and their dili¬
gence without toil. Their addrefles to their Maker
have little more than the voice of admiration and grati¬
tude : fruition left them nothing to alk, and innocence
left them nothing to fear. But with guilt enter diftruft
and difcord, mutual accufation and llubborn felf-de-
fence : they regard each other with alienated minds,
and dread their Creator as the avenger of their tranf-
greffion j at laft, they feek fhelter in his mercy, foften
to repentance, and melt in fupplication. Both before
and after the fall, the different fentiments arifing from
difference of fex are traced out with inimitable delicacy
and philofophical propriety. Adam has always that pre¬
eminence in dignity, and Eve in lovelinefs, which we
fliould naturally look for in the father and mother of
mankind.”
From what has been faid, it feems abundantly evi¬
dent,—That the end of poetry is to pleafe ; and there¬
fore that the moft perfect poetiy mutt be the molt plea-
fug }—that what is unnatural cannot give pleafure;
and therefore that poetry mutt be according to nature :
—that it mutt be either according to real nature, or ac-
32 cording to nature fomewhat different from the reality j
Poetry ac- —that, if according to real nature, it would give no
nSt'ureim 3reater Pleai'ure than hittory, which is a tranfeript of
proved to lea^ nature 5—^at greater pleafure is, however, to be
that decree exPe<^ef f"om becaufe. we grant it fuperior indul-
which is gence, in regard to fi&ion, and the choice of words ; 
with^H*” confequently, that poetry mutt be, not according
babilit™' to re;f nature, but according to nature improved to that
degree which is contittent with probability and fuitable
to the poet’s purpofe.- And hence it is that we call
poetry, An imitation of nature.—For that which is pro¬
perly termed imitation has always in it fomething which
is not in the original. If the prototype and tranfeript
be exajflly alike j if there be nothing in the one which
is not in the other •, we may call the latter a reprefenta-
tvm, a copy, a draught, or a piElure, of the former j but
we never call it an imitation.
Sect. V. Of Arrangement, Unity, Digrefion.—Further
remarks on Nature in Poetry.
I. The origin of nations, and the beginnings of great
events, aie little known, and feldom intereftingj whence
33 \her firft Part of evei7 hifory, compared with the fequel,
How a is tome what dry and tedious. But a poet muff even in
’tTbeZ^ !hbeginr”nS. of his w<*k, intereft the readers, and raife
^ high expeftation ; not by an affefted pomp of ftyle, far
Ids by ample promifes or bold profeflions; but by fet-
ting immediately before them feme incident, ftriking
enough to raife curiofity, in regard both to its caufes
and to its confequences. He mull therefore take up his
ftory, not at the beginning, but in the middle ; or ra¬
ther, to prevent the work from being too long, as near
the end as poflible j and afterwards take fome proper op¬
portunity to inform us of the preceding events, in the
way of narrative, or by converfation of the perfons in¬
troduced, or by fhort and ‘ ’ ” ~
The aflion of both the
flx weeks before its concl
nr
7/iad and Odyffey begins abou
Lilion j although the principa
TRY.
events of the war of Troy are to be found in the former •,
and the adventures of a ten years voyage, followed by
the 1‘uppreffion of a dangerous domeftie enemy, in the
latter. One of the firll things mentioned by Homer in
the Iliad, is a plague, which Apollo in anger fent into
the Grecian army commanded by Agamemnon and now
encamped before Troy. Who this Agamemnon was,
and who the Grecians were j for what reafon they had
come hither 5 how long the liege had laded ; what me¬
morable adlions had been already performed 5 and in
what condition both parties now were :—all this, and
much more, we foon learn from occalional hints and
converfations interfperfed through the poem.
In the JEneid, which, though it comprehends the
tranfadlions of feven years, opens within a few months
of the concluding event, we are firll prefented with a
view of the Trojan fleet at fea, and no lefs a perfon than
Juno interelling herfelf to raife a ftorm for their deftruc-
tion Ibis excites a curiolity to know fomething fur¬
ther : who thefe Trojans were, whence they had come,
and whither they were bound ; why they had left their
ow-n country, and what had befallen them fince they
left it. On all thefe points, the poet, without quitting
the track of his narrative, foon gives the fulleil informa¬
tion : I he ftorm rifes; the Trojans are driven to
Africa, and hofpitably received by the queen of the
country ; at whofe defire their commander relates his
adventures.
Part I.
Of Poetics;
3rrange-
ment, &.c.
i he action of Paradife Lofl commences not many
days before Adam and Eve are expelled from the gar¬
den of Eden, which is the concluding event. This
poem, as its plan is incomparably more fublime and more
important than that of either the Iliad or .JEneid, opens
with a far more interelling feene : a multitude of angels
and archangels Ihut up in a region of torment and dark-
nefs, and rolling on a lake of unquenchable fire. Who
thefe angels are, and what brought them into this mi-
ferable condition, we naturally wilh to know j and the
poet in due time informs us j partly from the eonverfa-
tion of the fiends themfelves; and more particularly by
the mouth of a happy fpirit, fent from heaven to caution
the father and mother of mankind againll temptation,
and confirm their good refolutions by unfolding the
dreadful effldls of impiety and difobedience.
This poetical arrangement of events, fo different from Beattie,
the hillorical, has other advantages befides thofe arifingfupra.
from brevity and compattnefs of detail : it is obvieuflv . 34
more aftbaing to the fancy, and more alarming to the ^ the”
paffions; and, being more fuitable to the order and the poetical ar-
manner in which the aaions of other men lb ike our rangemcoh
fenfes, is a more exad imitation of human affairs. I
hear a fudden noife in the llreet, and run to fee what
is the matter. An infurreaion has happened, a great
multitude is brought together, and fomething very im¬
portant is going forward. The feene before me is the
firll thins that engages my attention ; and is in itfelf
fo interelling, that for a moment or two I look at it in
filence and wonder. By and by, when I get time for
refledlion, I begin to inquire into the caufe of all this
tumult, and what it is the people would be at; and one
who is better informed rhan I, explains the affair from
the beginning; or perhaps l make this out for myfelf,
from the words and a6110ns of the perfons principally
concerned. This is a fort of p!6lure of poetical arrange¬
ment, both in epic and dramatic compofition ; and this
plan
hrt T. POE
)f poetkal plan Las been followed in narrative odes and ballads
Arrange- both ancient and modern.—The hi dorian purfues a
different method. He begins perhaps with an account
of the manners of a certain age, and of the political
conftitution of a certain country j then introduces a par¬
ticular perfon, gives the dory of his birth, eqnneaions,
private charafter, purfuits, difappointments, and of the
events that promoted his views, and brought him ac¬
quainted with other turbulent fpirits like himfelf *, and
fo proceeds, unfolding, according to the order of time,
the caules, principles, and progrefs of the conljriracy,
if that be the fubjeft which he undertakes to illudrate.
It cannot be denied, that this latter method is more fa¬
vourable to calm information : but the former, compa¬
red with it, will be found to have all the advantages al¬
ready fpecified, and to be more effeaually produdive of
that mental pleafure which depends on the padions and
^ imagination.
Tnity of II* If a work have no determinate end, it has no
efignne- meaning; and if it have many ends, it will diftrad by
fhiher itS multiPlicity* Unity of defign, therefore, belongs in
»etry? feme meafure to all compofitions, whether in verfe or
profe. But to fome it is more effential than to others ;
and to none fo much as in the higher poetry. In cer¬
tain kinds of hiilory, there is unity fufficient if all the
events recorded be referred to one perfon ; in others, if
to one period of time, or to one people, or even to the
inhabitants of one and the fame planet. But it is not
enough that the fubjed of a poetical fable be the ex¬
ploits of one perfon ; for thefe may be of various and
even of oppofite forts and tendencies, and take up longer
time than the nature of poetry can admit:—far leff can
a regular poem comprehend the affairs of one period or
of one people it muff be limited to one great adion
or event, to the illuftration of which all the 1'ubordinate
events muff contribute; and thefe muff be fo conneded
with one another^ as well at; with the poet’s general
purpofe, that one cannot be changed, tranfpofed, or
taken away, vtthout affeding the confidence and ftabi-
Arifl. lity of the whole *. In itfelf aw incident may be in-
W. § 8. terefting, a charader well drawn, a defeription beauti¬
ful ; and yet, if it disfigure the general plan, or if it ob-
ftrud or encumber the main adion, inftcad of helping it
forward, a corred artift would eonfider it but as a gaudy
fuperfluity or fplendid deformity ; like a piece of fcarlet
Hor. Ar. doth fewed upon a garment of a different colour f j
'oet. v. 15. Not that all the parts of the fable either are, or can be,
I-0, equally effential. Many delcriptions and thoughts, of
little confequence to the plan, may be admitted for the
fake of variety : and the poet may, as well as the hiilo-
rian and philofopher, drop his fubjed for a time, in or-»
35 der to take up an affeding or infirudive.digrefiion.
lie pro- HI. The dodrine of poetical digreilions and epiiodes
nety of has been largely treated by the critics. We fhall here
nd epi- only remark, that, in eftimating their propriety, three
idesde- things are to be attended to:—their connedion with
ends upon the fable or fubjed ; their own peculiar excellence;
^ and their fubferviency to the poet’s defign.
leircon- (l.) Thofe digrellions that both arile from and terrm-
edhon nate in the fubjed, like the epifode of the angel Ra-
J]16 phael in Paradife Loft, and the tranfition to the death
iepoem ^-'8e^ar an(I the civil wars in the firft book of the
Georgic, are the moft artful, and if fuitably executed*
claim the higheft praife :—thofe that arife from, but do
.not terminate in, the fubjed, are perhaps fecond in the.
t r y. 767
order of merit ; like the flory of Dido in the iEneid, Of Poetical
and the encomium on a country life in the fecond book
of the Georgic : thofe come next that terminate in, but ‘ ’
do not rife from, the fable ; of which there are feveral
in the third book of the aTineid and in the Odyffey :—
and thole that neither terminate in the fable nor rife
from it are the leati artful ; and if they be long, cannot
efcape cenfure, unlefs their beauty be very great. 38
But (2.) we are willing to excufe a beautiful epifode Their own-
at whatever expence to the fubjed it may be introduced. PecuI‘ar ex~
I hey who can blame Virgil lor obtruding upon them ^ f11 ^
the charming tale of Orpheus and Euridice in the fourth
Georgic, or Milton fur the apoftrophe to light in the
beginning of his third book, ought to forfeit all title to
the perufal of good poetry ; for of fuch divine ftrains
one would rather be the author than of all the books of
criticiim in the world. Yet ft ill it is better that an
epifode pofiefs the beauty of connedion, together with
its own intrinfic elegance, than this without the other.
Moreover, in judging of the propriety of epifodes and their Tub-
other fimilar contrivances, it may be expedient to attend ferviency to-
( T) to the defign of the poet, as ditlinguiihed from the ^'et s
fable or fubjed of the poem. The great defign, for ex- L
ample, of Virgil, was to intereft his countrymen in a
poem written with a view to reconcile them to the per¬
fon and government of Auguftus. Whatever, therefore,
in the poem tends to promote this defign, even though it
Ihould in fome degree hurt the contexture of the fable,
is really a proof of the poet’s judgment ; and may be
not only allowed, but applauded.—The progrefs of the
adion of the AZneid may feem to be too long obftruded
in one place by the ftory of Dido, which, though it
rifes from the preceding part of the poem, has no intlu-
ence upon the fequel : and, in another, by the epifode
of Cacus, which, without injury to the fable, might
have been omitted altogether. Yet thefe epifgdes, in¬
tereft ing as they are to us and all mankind becaufe of
the tranfeendant merit of the poetry, muft have beea .
ftill more interefting to the Romans becaufe of their
connedion with the Roman affairs; for the one accounts
poetically for their wars with Carthage ; and the other •
not only explains fome of their.religious ceremonies, but
alfo gives a moft charming rural pidure of thofe hills and
valleys in the neighbourhood of the Tiber, on which, in
after times, their majeftic city was fated to ftand.— And
if we cunlider, that the defign of Homer’s Iliad was not
only to fliow the fatal effeds of diffenfien among confe¬
derates, but alfo to immortalize his country, and cele¬
brate the molt diftinguiihed families in it, we fhall he
inclined to think more favourably than critics generally
do of fome of his long fpeeches and digreflions ; which,
though to us they may feem trivial, mult.have been very
interefting to his countrymen on account of the genealo¬
gies and private hiftory recorded in them.—Shakefpeare’s -
hiftorical plays, confidtred as dramatic fables, and tried
by the laws of tragedy and comedy, appear very rude
compofitions ; but if we attend to the poet’s defign (as
the elegant critic has with equal truth and beauty ex-1 EJhyx ofp
plained it), we ftiall be forced to admire-his judgment wit-
in the general conduct of thofe pieces, as well as un-tinSs-
equ.died fuccefs in the execution of particular parts. ^shake-
There is yet another point of view in which thefe &\- fpeare,
greflions may be confidered. If they tend to elucidateP- 5S- -
anv important character, or to introduce any interefting
event not ptherwife .within the coaipafs of the poem, or
to .
76$
POETRY.
Of Poetical to give an amiable difpl&y of any particular virtue, they
Arrange- jntitled, not to our pardon only, but even to our
znent, .. c. a£}mjraj-jon^ however loofely they may hang upon the
fable. All thefe three ends are effe&ed by that moft
beautiful epifode of He£tor and Andromache in the
fixth book of the Iliad ; and the two lalt, by the no lefs
beautiful one of Euryalus and Nifus in the ninth book
of the TEneid.
IV. And now, from the pofition formerly eftablilhed,
that the end of this divine art is to give pleafure, it has
been endeavoured to prove, that, whether in difplaying
the appearances of the material univerfe, or in imitating^
the workings of the human mind, and the varieties of
human character, or in arranging and combining into
one whole the feveral incidents and parts whereof his
fable confilts,—the aim of the poet muft be to copy
nature, not as it is, but in that ftate of perfection in
which, confidently with the particular genius of the
work, and the laws of verifimilitude, it may be fuppo-
fed to be.
Such, in general, is the nature of that poetry which
is intended to raife admiration, pity, and other ferious
emotions. But in this art, as in all others, there are
different degrees of excellence \ and we have hitherto
direfted our view chiefly to the higheft. All ferious
poets are not equally folicitous to improve nature. Eu¬
ripides is faid to have reprefented men as they were j
Sophocles, more poetically, as they fhould or might
be *. Theocritus in his Idyls, and Spenfer m his Shep¬
herd’s Calendar, give us language and fentiments more
nearly approaching thofe of the Rus verum et barba-
rumJ{, than what we meet with in the Paftorals of Vir¬
gil and Pope. In the hiltoncal drama, human chaiac-
ters and events muft be according to hiftorical truth, or
at leaft not fo remote from it as to lead into any import¬
ant mifapprehenfion of faCt. And in the hiftorical epic
poem, fuch as the Pharfalia of Lucan, and the Cam¬
paign of Addifon, the hiftorical arrangement is preferred
to the poetical, as being nearer the truth. Yet nature
is a little improved even in thefe poems. The perfons
in Shakefpeare’s hiftorical plays, and the heroes of the
Pharfalia, talk in verfe, and fuitably to their characters,
and with a readinefs, beauty, and harmony oi exprefl-
lion, not to be met with in real life, nor even in hiftory :
fpeeches are invented, and, to heighten the defcrip-
tion, drcumftances added, with great latitude : real
events are rendered more compaCt and more ftriCtly de¬
pendent upon one another •, and fictitious ones brought
in, to elucidate human characters and diverfify the nar¬
ration.
The more poetry improves nature, by copying after
general ideas collected from extenfive obfervation, the-
more it partakes (according to Ariftotle) of the nature
of philofophy * the greater ftretch of fancy and of obfer¬
vation it requires in the artift, the better chance it has
to be univerfally agreeable.
Yet poetry, when it falls fhortof this perfection, may
have great merit as an inftrument of both inftruCtion
and pleafure. To moft men, Ample unadorned nature
is, at certain times, and in certain compofitions, more
agreeable than the moft elaborate improvements of art j
as a plain fhort period, without modulation, gives a
pleafing variety to a difcourfe. Many fuch portraits of
Ample nature there are in the fubordinate parts both of
« Ari/t.
Poet.
f Martial.
4° -
Mature al¬
ways to be
improved
by the poet
Chough
Part I.
Homer’s and of Virgil’s poetry : and an excellent effeCI Of Poetical
they have in giving probability to the fiftion, as well as Lang«ag^
in gratifying the reader’s fancy with images diftinCt and
lively, and eafily comprehended. The hiftoricai plays
of Shakefpeare raife not our pity and terror to fuch a
height as Lear, Macbeth, or Othello ; but they inlereft
andJinftruCt us greatly notwithftanding. The rudeft of
the eclogues of Theocritus, or even of Spenfer, have by
fome authors been extolled above thofe of Virgil, be-
caufe more like real life. Nay, Corneille is known t©
have preferred the Pharfalia to the iEneid, perhaps
from its being nearer the truth, or perhaps from the
fublime fentiments of ftoical morality fo forcibly and fe
oftentatioufly difplayed in it.
Poets may refine upon nature too much as well as too
little } for affeCtation and rufticity are equally remote
from true elegance. The ftyle and fentiments of comedy
fhould no doubt be more correCt and more pointed than
thofe of the moft polite converfation : but to make every
footman a wit, and every gentleman and lady an epi¬
gram matift, as Congreve has done, is an exceflive and
faulty refinement. The proper medium has been hit by
Menander and Terence, by Shakefpeare in his happier
fcenes, and by Garrick, Cumberland, and fome others
of late renown. To defcribe the paflion of love with as
little delicacy as fome men fpeak of it would be unpar¬
donable ; but to transform it into mere Platonic adora¬
tion is to run into another extreme, lefs criminal indeed,
but too remote from univerfal truth to be univerfally in-
terefting. To the former extreme Ovid inclines, and
Petrarch and his imitators to the latter. Virgil has hap¬
pily avoided both ; but Milton has painted this paflion
as diftina from all others, with fuch peculiar truth and
beauty, that we cannot think Voltaire’s encomium too
high, when he fays, that love in all other poetry feema
a weaknefs, but in Paradife Loft a virtue. There are
many good ftrokes of nature in Ramfay s Gentle Shep¬
herd 5 but the author’s p uTion for the rus verum betrays
him into fome indelicacies: a cenfure that falls with
greater weight upon Theocritus, who is often abfolutely
indecent. The Italian paftoral of Taffo and Guarini,
and the French of Fontenelle, run into the oppofite ex¬
treme (though in fome parts beautifully fimple), and
difplay a fyftem of rural manners fo quaint and affeCled
as to outrage all probability. In fine, though mediocrity
of execution in poetry be allowed to deferve the doom
pronounced upon it by Horace } yet it is true, notwith¬
ftanding, that in this art, as in many other good things,
the point of excellence lies in a middle between two
extremes ■, and has been reached by thofe only who
fought to improve nature as far as the genius of their
work would permit, keeping at an equal diftance from
rufticity on the one hand, and affe&ed elegance on the
other.
Sect. VI. Of Toetical Language.
4*
when poe¬
try falls
fhort of
this per¬
fection it
may have
great me¬
rit in other
Yt'fjwfts.
4*
WORDS in poetry are chofen, firft, for their fenfe ,• Words in
and, fecondly, for their found. That the firft of thefe poetry to be
grounds of choice is the more excellent nobody can de-”nfeu°fe
ny. He who in literary matters prefers found to fenfe and for
is a fool. Yet found is to be attended to even in profe, their feun<?
and in verfe demands particular attention. We ihall
confider poetical language, firft, as SIGNIFICANT 5 and,
fecondly, as susceptible of harmony.
§ J.
Fart L
Of Poetic?!
Language. £
POETRY.
7(>9
43
The lan¬
guage of
poetry an
imitation
of the lan¬
guage of
nature,
* EJfayt,
Part ii.
shap. i.
44
improve!
&6 far as
may be con¬
fident with
probability,
&c.
Of Poetical Language confidered ay SIGNIFICANT.
If, as it has been endeavoured to prove, poetry be
imitative of’nature, poetical fi&ions of real events, poe¬
tical images of real appearances in the vifible creation,
and poetical perfonages of real human chara&ers *, it
would feem to follow, that the language of poetry mull
be an imitation of the language of nature.
According to Dr Beattie *, that language is natural
which is fuited to the fpeaker’s condition, character, and
circumftances. And as, for the molt part, the images
and fentiments of ferious poetry are copied from the
images and fentiments, not of real, but of improved,
nature ; fo the language of ferious poetry mull (as hint¬
ed already) be a tranfeript, not of the real language of
nature, which is often diffonant and rude, but of natural
language improved as far as may be confident with pro¬
bability, and with the fuppofed charatffer of the fpeaker.
If this be not the cafe, if the language of poetry be fuch
only as we hear in converfation or read in hillory, it
will, inftead of delight, bring difappointment: becaufe
it will fall (liort of what we expefl from an art which is
recommended rather by its pleafurable qualities than by
its intrinfic utility •, and to which, in order to render it
pleafing, we grant higher privileges than to any other
kind of literary compofition, or any other mode of hu¬
man language.
The next inquiry mull therefore be, “ What are thofe
improvements that peculiarly belong to the language of
poetry ?” And tbefe may be comprehended under two
heads \ poetical words, and tropes and figures. ^
Art. I. Of Poetical Words.
One mode of improvement peculiar to poetical diflion
refults from the ufe of thofe words and phrafes which,
becaufe they rarely occur in profe, and frequently in
verfe, are by the grammarian and lexicographer termed
poetical. In thefe fome languages abound more than
others ; but no language perhaps is altogether without
have words t}ien)t ancl perhaps no language can be fo in which any
petuhar to numj5er 0f g,)0d poems have been written : for poetry is
better remembered than profe, efpecially by poetical au¬
thors, who will always be apt to imitate the phrafeology
of thofe they have been accufiomed to read and admire ;
and thus, in the works of poets down through fuceeflive
generations, certain phrafes may have been conveyed,
which, though originally perhaps in common ufe, are
now confined to poetical compofition. Profe writers
are not fo apt to imitate one another, at lead in words
and phrafes, both becaufe they do not fo well remember
one another’s phrafeology, and alfo becaufe their lan¬
guage is lefs artificial, and muft not, if they would make
it eaiy and flowing (without which it cannot be elegant),
depart efientially from the ftyle of correft converfation.
Poets, too, on account of the greater difficulty of their
numbers, have, both in the choice and in the arrange¬
ment of words, a better claim to indulgence, and (land
more in need of a diferetionary power.
The language of Homer differs materially from what
'■was written and fpoken in Greece in the days of So-
•crates. It differs in the mode of inflexion, it differs in
the fyntax, it differs even in the words : fo that one
might read Homer with eafe who could not read Xeno¬
phon *, or Xenophon, without being able to read Ho-
* Vol. XVI. Part II.
45
All lan¬
guages
mer. Yet we cannot believe that Homer, or the firft^f t’oeucat
Greek poet who wrote in his llyle, would make choice, *
of a dialect quite different from what was intelligible in
his own time : for poets have in all ages written with a
view to be read, and to be read with pleafure •, which
they could not be if their di&ion were hard to be un-
deritood. It is more reafonable to fuppofe that the lan¬
guage of Homer is according to fome ancient dialect,
which, though not perhaps in familiar ufe among the
Greeks at the time he wrote, was however intelligible.
From the Homeric to the Socratic age, a period had
elapfed of no lefs than 400 years j during which the
ftyle both of difeourfe and of writing muft have under¬
gone great alterations. Yet the Iliad continued the
llandard of heroic poetry, and was confidered as the
very perfection of poetical language ; notwithllanding
that fome words in it were become fo antiquated, or fo
ambiguous, that Ariftotle himfelf feems to have been
fome what doubtful in regard to their meaning f. Andt Foeta
if Chaucer’s merit as a poet had been as great as Ho-03*7'
mer’s, and the Englifli tongue under Edward III. as
perfefl as the Greek was in the fecond century after the
Trojan war, the ftyle of Chaucer umuld probably have
been our model for poetical diflion at this day *, even as
Petrarch, his contemporary, is ftill imitated by the beft
poets of Italy.
The rudenefs of the ftyle of Ennius has been imputed
by the old critics to his having copied too clofely the
dialed! of common life. But this appears to be a mif-
take. For if we compare th« fragments of that author
with the comedies of Plautus, who flourilhed in the fame
age, and whofe language was certainly copied from that
of common life, we lhall be ftruck with an air of anti¬
quity in the former that is not in the latter. Enniu:,
no doubt, like moft other fublime poets, affecled fon.la¬
thing of the antique in his expreffion : and many of bis
words and phrafes, not adopted by any profe-writer now
extant, are to be found in Lucretius and Virgil, and ^
were by them tranfmitted to fucceeding poets. Thefe The per ti-
forna part of the Roman poetical dialed!; which appears
from the writings of Virgil, where we have it in perfec-£,l0J^r^..t
tion, to have been very copious. The ftyle of this0f prcf,.
charming poet is indeed fo different from profe, and is
altogether fo peculiar, that it is perhaps impoffible to
analyfe it on the common principles of Latin grammar.
And yet no author can be more perfpicuous or more ex-
preffive ; notwitbftanding the frequency of Grecifm irt
his fyntax, and his love of old words, which he, in the
judgment of Quintilian, knew better than any other
man how to improve into decoration jj. |] Injf.it.
The poetical dialed! of modern Italy is fo different v‘n‘3* 5
from the profaic, that perfons who can read the hifto-
rians, and even fpeak with tolerable fluency the lan¬
guage of that country, may yet find it difficult to con-
ftrue a page of Petrarch or Taffo. Yet it is not prA-
pable, that Petrarch, whofe works are a ftandard of the
Italian poetical didlion §, made any material innova-5 deride
tions in his native tongue. It is rather probable that
he wrote it nearly as it was fpoken in his time, that is, Benina,
in the 14th century ; omitting only harfficombinations,cap. 4.
and taking that liberty which Homer probably, and
Virgil certainly, took before him, of reviving fuch old,
but not nbfolete expreffions, as feemed peculiarly figni-
ficant and melodious ; and poliftiing his ftyle to that de¬
gree of elegance which human fneech, without beco-
5 E mhrg
77°
Of P'leflcal
Words.
47 .
Phrafes in
linglifh
poetry not
ufual in
profe.
P O E
ming unnatural, may admit of, and which the genius
of poetry, as an art fubfervient to pleafure, may oe
thought to require.
The French poetry in general is diftinguifhed from
profe rather by the rhime and the meafure, than by any
old or uncommon phrafeology. Yet the French, on
certain fubjeAs, imitate the flyle of their old poets, of
Marot in particular ; and may therefore be faid to have
iomething of a poetical dialect, though far lefs extenhve
than the Italian, or even than the Englifh. And it
may be prefumed, that in future ages they will have
more of this dialeA than they have at prefent. J his
mav be inferred from the very uncommon merit of fome
of their late poets, particularly Boileau and La Fon¬
taine, who, in their relpeAive departments, will conti¬
nue to be imitated, when the prefent modes of french
profe are greatly changed : an event that, for all the
pains they take to preferve their language, muff inevi¬
tably happen, and whereof there are not wanting fome
prefages already.
The Englith poetical dialeA is not charaAeriftd by
any peculiarities of infleAion, nor by any great latitude
in the ufe of foreign idioms. More copious it is, how¬
ever, than one would at flrft imagine •, as may appear
from the following fpeeimen and obfervations.
(i.) A few Greek and La'in idioms are common
in Engliib poetry, which are feldom or never to be met
with in profe. QUENCHED OF HOPE. Shakefpeare.—
Shorn OF HIS BEAMS. Milton.— Created thing NOR
VALUED HE^NOR shun’d. Milton.—'Tis thus we not,
while WHO SOW IT STARVE. Pope.—Tins day BE
BREAD AND PEACE MY LOT. Pope.— INTO W'HAT PIT
thou see’st From w'hat height fallen. Milton.
He deceived the mother of mankind. WHAT TIME HIS
PRIDE Had cast HIM out of heaven. Milton.—Some
of thefe, with others to be found in Milton, feem to
have been adopted for the fake of brevity, which in the
poetical tongue is indifpenfable. For the fame reafon,
perhaps the articles a and the are fometimes omitted by
our poets, though lefs frequently in ferious than bur-
lefque compofition. In Engllih, the adjeAive gene¬
rally goes before the fublfantive, the nominative before
the verb, and the aAive verb before (what we cal!) the
accufative. Exceptions, however, to this rule, are not
uncommon even in profe. But in poetry thev are more
frequent. Their homely joys, and DESTINY obscure.
Now fades the glimmering landfcape on the fght ; and
all the air a folemn f illnefs holds. In general, that verfi-
iication may be lefs difficult, and the cadence more uni¬
formly pleafing •, and fometimes, too, in order to give
energy to expreffion, or vivacity to an image,—the
Englidv poet is permitted to take much greater liberties
than the profevwriter, in arranging his words, and mo¬
dulating his lines and periods. Examples may be ften
in every page of Paradife Loft.
(2.) Some of our poetical words take an additional
fyllable, that they may fuit the verfe the better ; as,
difpart, dif a in, difport, affright, enchain, for part, ftain,
fport, fright, chain. Others feem to be nothing elfe
than con.mon words made fhorter, for the convenience
of the verfifier. Such are, auxihar, fublunar, trump,
vale, part, dune, fubmffs, frolic, plain, drear, dread,
helm, morn, mead, eve and even, gan, illume and illu¬
mine, ope, hoar, bide,fwage,fcope; for auxiliary,..fublu-
siary; trumpet, valley, depart, climate, fubmiflive, frolic-
T R Y. Part ].
fome, complain, dreary, dreadful, helmet, morning, mea- Of Poetical
dow, evening, began or began to, illuminate, open, hoa- 'VVords-
ry, abide, afluage, efcape. Of fome oi theie the (hurt vr J
form is the more ancient. In Scotland, even, morn,
bide, fwage, are ftill in vulgar ufe j but morn, except
when contradiftinguilhed. to even, is fynonymous, not
with morning (as in the Englifh poetical dialeA), but
with morrow. The Latin poets, in a way lomewhat
fimilar, and perhaps for a fimilur reafon, ffiortenedyi/n-
datnentum, tut amentum, munimentum, 8cc. into lunda-
men, tutamen, munimen.
(3.) Of the following words, which are now almoft
peculiar to poetry, the greater part are ancient, and
were once no doubt in common ufe in England, as
many of them ftill are in Scotland. Afeld, amain, an¬
noy (a noun), anon, aye (ever), belief , blithe, brand
(fword), bridal, carol, dame {\?Af,jeully, fell (an ad¬
jeAive), gaude, gore, hof (army), lambkin, late (ol late),
lay (poem), lea, glade, gleam, hurl, lore, meed, or if on s,
plod (to travel laborioufty), ringlet, rue (a verb) ruth,
ruth lefs, fojourn (a noun ), y tniie, fpeed (an aAive verb),
five (except),y^/w/ fdig),feed,Jirain <fo\\g)Jirand,
fwain, thrall, thrill, trail (a verb), troll, wail, welter,
warble, wayward, woo, the while (in the mean time),
yon, of yore.
(4.) Thefe that follow are alfo poetical \ but, fo far
as appears, were never in common ufe. Appal, arrowy,
attune, battailous, breezy, car (chariot), clarion, cutes,
cow for, darkling, flicker, floweret, emblaze, gairijh, cir¬
clet, impend, nightly, noifelefs, pinion ( wing),Jhadowy,
flumberoitr,flrenmp, Ujoublous, wilder (a verb) jLnU (a
verb), [hook (thaken), madding, view/efs.—The follow¬
ing, too, derived from the Greek and Latin, leem pe¬
culiar to poetry. Clang, clangor, choral, bland, boreal,
dire, enfanguined, ire, ireful, lave (to wafli), nymph, (la¬
dy, girl), orient, panoply, philomel, infuriate, jocund, ra¬
diant, rapt, redolent, refulgent, verdant, vernal,.zephyr,
zone (girdle),flylvsn, fujjufe.
(5.) In molt languages, the rapidity of pronuncia¬
tion abbreviates fume ot the commoneft words, or even
joins two, or perhaps more, of them, into one 5 and
lome of thofe abbreviated forms nnd ad million into wri¬
ting. The Englifh language was quite disfigured by
them in the end of the loft century ; but Swift, by his
fa tire and example, brought them into difrepute : and,
though fome of them be retained in converfation, as
doti1), (han't, can't, they are now avoided in folemn
ilyle 5'and by elegant writers in general, except where
the colloquial dialeA is imitated, as in comedy. 'Tis
and 'twasy. fince the time of Shaftefbury, feem to have
been daily lofing credit, at leaft in profe 5 but ftill have
a place in poetry, perhaps becaufe they contribute to
concifenefs. 'Twas on a lofty vafe's fide. Gray.—'1 is
true, 'tis certain, man, though dead, retains part of him-
fe/fl Pope. In verfe too, over may be ftiortoned into
o'er, (which is the Scotch, and probably was the old
Englifh, pronunciation) ; never into ne'er; and from the
and to, when they go before a word beginning ivith a
vow'd, the final letter is fometimes cut off. O'er hills,
o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they gee. Pope.— Where'er
fhe turns, the Graces homage pay. And all that beauty,
all that wealth e'er gave. Rich with the fpoils of time
did ne'er unroll. Gray.—T'aiartn th' eternal midnight
of the grave.- T hefe abbreviations me now peculiar
to the poetical tongue, but not neceifary to it. i hay
fom Aimes
Part T. P O E
Of Poetical To me times promote brevity, and render verfification lefs
Words difficult.
~lJ '‘ (6.) Thnfe \vord> tvliich are commonly called com¬
pound epit/iets, as rofy-finger'd, rofy-bnfom'd, many-twink-
ling, many-founding, mofs-grown, bright-eyed,firaw-built,
fpirit-fiirring, incetife-breathing, heaven-taught, love-whif-
pering, lute-refounding, are alib’to be confidered as part
of our poetical dialeft. ft is true, we have compound¬
ed adjectives in familiar ufe, as high-fecifoned, well-natu¬
red, ill-bred, and innumerable others. But we fpeak of
thofe that are lets common, that feldom occur except
in poetry, and of which in profe the life would appear
to beaded affe(^-e<3* And that they fometimes promote brevity
Sparingly; and vivacity of e'xpreffion, cannot be denied. But as
they give, when too frequent, a ftiff and finical air to
a performance ) as they are not ahvays explicit in the
fenfe, ndr agreeable in the found *, as they are apt to
produce a confufion, or too great a multiplicity, of
images j as they tend to disfigure the language, and
furniffi a pretext for endlefs innovation ; they ought to
be ufed fparingly; and thofe only ufed which the prac¬
tice of popular authors has rendered familiar to the ear,
and which are in themfelves peculiarly emphatical and
harmonious.
(7.) In the transformation of nouns into verbs and
participles, our poetical dialed admits of greater lati¬
tude than profe. Hymn, pillow, curtain, (lory, pil¬
lar, pidure, peal, 'furge, cavern, honey, career, cinc¬
ture, bofom, fphere, are common nouns ; but to hymn,
to pillow, curtained, pillared, pic hired, pealing, /urging,
cavern1 d, honied, careering, cin&ured, bofomed, fphered,
would appear affeCted in profe, and yet in verfe they
are warranted by great authorities, though it muff be
^John/on. confeffed that they are cenfured by an able critic *, who
had ffudied the Englifii language, both poetical and
profaie, with wonderful diligence.
Some late poets, particularly the imitators of Spen-
fer, have introduced a great variety of Uncommon words,
as certes, eftfoons, ne, whilom, tranftnetv, moil, fone,
lofel, albe, hight, dight, pight, thews, couthful, affbt,
muchel, wend, arre'at, &c. Thefe were oncfe poetical
words, no doubt; but they are now obfolete, and to
many readers unintelligible. No man of the prefent age,
however Converfant in this dialed, would naturally ex-
prefs himfelf ?n it on any interefting emergence j or,
fuppofing this natural to the antiquarian, it would ne¬
ver appear fo to the common hearer or reader. A mix¬
ture of thefe words, therefore, muff ruin the pathos of
modern language : and as they are not familiar to our
ear, and plainly appear to be fought after and afte&ed,
will generally give a ftiffnefs to modefn verfification.
Yet in fubjeCls approaching to the ludicrous they may
have a good-effe£t; as in the Schoolmifirefs of Shenftone,
Parnel’s Fairy-tale, Thomfon’s Caftle csf Indolence, and
Pope’s lines in the Dunciad upon Woritiius. But this
effect will be molt pleafing to thofe who have lead occa-
fion to recur to the gloiTary.
Indeed, it is not always eafy to fix the boundary be¬
tween poetical and obfolete exprefiions. To many readers,
t n y. 771
lore, meed, behejl, blithe, gaude,Jpray, thrall, may already Of Poetical
appear antiquated 5 and to feme the flyle of Spenfer, or , 5' r
even of Chaucer, may be as intelligible as that of Dry-
den. This however we may venture to affirm, that a
word, which the majority of readers cannot underfland
without a gloffary, may with reafon be confidered as ob¬
folete ; and ought not to be ufed in modern compofition,
unlefs revived, and recommended to the public ear, by
fome very eminent writer. There are but few words in
Milton, as nathlefs, tine, frore, bojky, &c. *, there are
but one or two in Dryden, as falfify (f) ; and in Pope,
there are none at all, which every reader of our poetry
may not be fuppofed to underftand : whereas in Shake-
fpeare, there are many, and in Spenfer many more, <for
which one who knows Fngliffi very well may be obliged
to confult the di&ionary. The practice of Milton, Dry¬
den, or Pope, may therefore, in almoft all cafes, be ad¬
mitted as good authority for the ufe of a poetical word.
And in them, all the words above enumerated, as poe¬
tical, and in prefent ufe, may ailually be found. And
of fuch poets as may choofe to obferve this rule, it will
not be faid, either that they rejecl; the judgment of
Quintilian, who recommends the neweft of the old
words, and the oldeft of the new, or that they arc inat¬
tentive to Pope’s precept j
Be not the firff by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the lull to lay the old afide.
FJJ- on Crit. v. 335.
We muff not fnppofe that thefe poetical words never
occur at all except in poetry. Even from converfation
they are not excluded : and the ancient critics allow,
that they may be admitted into profe, where they oc-
eafionally confer dignity upon -a fublime fubjetl, or
heighten the ludicrous qualities of a mean one. But it
is in poetry only where the frequent ufe of them does
not favour of afftftation.
Nor muff; we fuppofe them eflential to this art. Many
pafiages there are of exquifite poetry, wherein not a fingle
phrafe occurs that might not be ufed in profe. In fa<T,
the influence of thefe words in adorning Englifli verfe is
not veryex ten five. Some influence however they have.
They ferve to render the poetical ftyle, firlt, more me¬
lodious ; and, fecondly, moredolemn.
Firft, They render the poetical ftyle more melodious,
and more eafily reducible into iueafure. Words of un¬
wieldy l>ze, or difficult pronunciation, are never ufed by
corredl poets, where they can be avoided : unlcfs in their
found they have futtiething imitative of Ihe fenfe. Ho¬
mer’s poetical inflexions contribute wonderfully to the
fweetnefs of his numbers : and if the reader is pleafed to
look back to the fpeeimen above given of the Englilh
poetical dialeX, he will find that the words are in general
well founding, Und fuch as may coalefce with other words,
without producing harfh combinations. Quintilian ob-
ferYes, that poets, for the fake of their verfe, are indul¬
ged m many liberties, not granted to the orator, of
lengthening, Ihortening, and dividing their words * :—
and if the Greek and Roman poets claimed this indul-
5 E 2 gence
49
In which
cafe they
may render
the poetical
ftyle more
melodieus.
* I’Jlit-
Orat. lib. x/
cap. i. $ a.
(d) Dryden in one place (/Encid ix. verfe 1095.) ufes Falfified to denote Pierced through and through. He ac-
knowledo-es, that this ufe of the word is an innovation ; and has nothing to plead for it but his own authority,
arid that'E^re-in Italian fometimes means the fame thing.
^72
POETRY.
Ot Poeti-al gence from neceffity, and obtained it, the Englifh, thofe
Wardi». t|iera efpetially who write in rhyme, may claim it
» v •with better reafon ; a.s the words of their language are
lefs mufical and far let's fufceptible of variety in arrange-
ment and fyntax.
ami foleinn. Secondly, Such poetical words as are known to be
ancient have fomething venerable in their appearance,
and impart a folemnity to all around them. 1 his re¬
mark is from Quintilian 5 who adds, that they give to
a corapofition that caft and colour of antiquity which
in painting is fo highly valued, but which art can never
* Lib. vlii. effectually imitate*. Poetical words that are either not
caP- 3* ancient, or not known to be fuch, have, however, a plea¬
ting effeft from affociation. We are accuftomed to meet
with them in fublime and elegant writing; and^ hence
they come to acquire fublimity and elegance : Even as
the words we hear on familiar occalions come to be ac¬
counted familiar; and as thofe that take their rife among
piek-pockets, gamblers, and gypfies, are thought too
indelicate to be ufed by any perfon of tafte or good man¬
ners. When one hears the following lines, which abound
in poetical words,
The breezy call of incenfe-breathing morn,
The 1 wallow twittering from the ftraw-built died,
The cock’s ihrill clarion, or the echoing horn,
No more (hall roufe them from their lowly bed :
——one is as fenfible of the dignity of the language, as
one would be of the vilenefs or vulgarity of that man’s
fpeech, who fhould prove his acquaintance with Bride-
wcll, by interlarding his difeourfe with fuch terms as
f See the milldoU, queer cu//, or nobbing cheat]- ; or who, in imi-
Scoundrel s tatjon t)f f0pS and gamblers, ihould on the common occa-
i.uti'mary fl()ns 0f jjfe^ ta]^ 0f being beat hollow, or faving his di-
| Languagefiance J. What gives dignity to perfons gives dignity
of New- t0 language. A man of this charader is one tvho has
borne important employments, been connefted with
honourable affociates, and never degraded himfelf by le¬
vity or immorality of conduCl. Dignified phrafes are
thofe which have been ufo.d to exprefs elevated fenti-
ments, have always made their appearance in elegant
eompofition, and have never been profaned by giving
permanency or utterance to the paffions of the vile, the
giddy, or the worthlefs. And as by an aflive old age, the
dignity of fuch men is confirmed and heightened; fo the
dignity of fuch words, if they be not fuffered to fall into
difufe, feldom fails to improve by length of time.
Market.
Si
Art. II. Of Tropes and Figures.
Tropes and If it appear that, by means of figures, language may
figures ne- be more pleujing and more natural than it would be
Poetical*0 'vit^nut ^erri 5 i1 follow, that to poetic language,
Umruage, whofe end is to pi cafe by imitating nature, figures muff
be not only ornamental, but neceffary. It will here be
proper, therefore, firft to point out the importance and
utility of figurative language ; fecondly, to (how, that
figures are more neceffary to poetry in general than to
any other mode of writing.
I. As to the importance and utility of figurative expref-
fion, in making language more pleafing and more natu¬
ral ; it may be remarked,
(1.) That tropes and figures are often neceffary to
fupply the unavoidable defers of language. When
proper words are wanting, or not recollected, or when
we do not choofe to be always repeating them, we muff
Part T,
have recourfe to tropes and figures. When philofophers Of Trcpei
began to explain the operations of the mind, they found
that moft of the words in common ufe, being framed to , lg^res~j
anfwer the more obvious exigencies of life, were in their ^
proper fignification applicable to matter only and itstofupply
qualities. What was to be done in this cafe ? Would the defedts
they think of making a new language to exprefs the^1™?1®
qualities of mind ? No ; that would have been difficult
or impracticable ; and granting it both practicable and
eafy, they muft have forefeen, that nobody would read
or liften to what was thus fpoken or written in a new
and confequently in an unknown tongue. I hey there¬
fore took the language as they found it; and where-
ever they thought there was a fimilarity or analogy be¬
tween the qualities of the mind and the qualities ot mat¬
ter, fcrupled not to ufe the names of the material quali¬
ties tropically, by applying them to the mental qualities.
Hence came the phrafes folidity of judgment, warmth of
imagination, enlargement of underftanding, and many
others-; which, though figurative, exprefs the meaning
juft as well as proper words would have done. In faCt,
numerous as the words in every language are, they muft
always fall Ihort of the unbounded variety of human
thoughts and perceptions. Taftes and fmells are almoft
as numerous as the fpeeies of bodies. Sounds admit of
perceptible varieties that furpafs all computation, and
the feven primary colours may be diverfified without end.
If each variety of external perception were to have a
name, language would be infurmountably difficult; nay,
if men w ere to appropriate a clafs of names to each par¬
ticular fenfe, they would multiply words exceedingly,
without adding any thing to the clearnefc of fpcech.
Thofe words, therefore, that in their proper fignifi¬
cation denote the objeCts of one fenfe, we often apply
tropically to the objeCts of another, and fay, Sweet
tafte, fweet fmell, fweet found ; (harp point, ffiarp tafte,
ffiarp found ; harmony of founds, harmony of colours,
harmony of parts ; foft filk, foft colour, foft found, foft
temper ; and fo in a thoufand inftances : and yet thefe
words, in their tropical fignification, are not lefs intelli¬
gible than in their proper one ; for ffiarp tafte and ffiarp
found, are as expreffive as ffiarp fword; and harmony of
tones is not better underftood by the mufician, than har¬
mony of parts by the arehiteft, and harmony of colours
by the painter.
Savages, illiterate perfons, and children, have compa¬
ratively but few w7ords in proportion to the things they
may have occafion to fpeak of; and muft therefore re¬
cur to tropes and figures more frequently than perfons
of copious elocution. A feaman, or mechanic, even
when he talks of that which does not belong to his art,
borrows his language from that which does ; and this
makes his di&ion figurative to a degree that is fome-
times entertaining enough. “ Death (fays a feaman in
one of Smollet’s novels) has not yet boarded my com¬
rade ; but they have been yard-arm and yard-arm thefe
three glaffes. HisJlarboard eye is open, but hH jammed
in his head ; and the haulyards of his under jaw have
given way.” Thefe phrafes are exaggerated ; but we
allow them to be natural, becaufe we kifowthat illiterate
people are apt to make ufe of tropes and figures taken
from their own trade, even when they fpeak of things
that are very remote and incongruous. In thole poems,
therefore, that imitate the converfation of illiterate per¬
fons, as in comedy, farce, and paftoral, fuch figures ju-
dicioufly
Part I. POE
Of Tropes ditloufly applied may render the imitation more pleafing,
an(i becaufe more exaft and natural.
^rigures- ^ Words that are untuneable and harfli, the poet is of-
ten obliged to avoid, when perhaps he has no other way
to avoid to exprefs their meaning than by tropes and figures ;
harihnefs of anj fometimes the meafure of his verle may oblige him
iidtlon. re:e^ a proper word that is not harfh, merely on
account of its being too long, or too thort, or in any
other way unfuitable to the rhythm, or to the rhyme.
And hence another ufe of figurative language, that it
contributes to poetical harmony. Thus to prefs the
plain, is frequently ufed to fignify to be Jlain in battle ;
liquid plain is put for ocean, blue ferene for fky, and fyl-
54 van reign for country life.
Tropes and ^2.) Tropes and figures are favourable to delicacy.
S^oWI-h t^e Pro[)er nanR' a thing is in any refpeft un-
dXacv • ° pleafant, a well chofen trope will convey the idea in fuch
a way as to give no offence. This is agreeable, and
even neceflfary, in polite converfation, and cannot be
difpenfed with in elegant writing of any kind. Many
words, from their being often applied to vulgar ufe, ac¬
quire a meannefs that difqualifies them for a place in
ferious poetry •, while perhaps, under the influence of a
different fyftem of manners, the correfponding words in
another language may be elegant, or at leaf! not vulgar.
When one reads Homer in the Greek, one takes no
offence at his calling Eumeus by a name which, literally
rendered, fignifies fwinc-herd; firft, becaufe the Greek
word is well-founding in itfelf •, fecondly, becauie we
have never heard it pronounced in converiation, nor con-
fequently debafed by vulgar ufe •, and, thirdly, becauie
we know, that the office denoted by it was, in the age
of Eumeus, both important and honourable. But Pope
would have been blamed, if a namefo indelicate asfwine-
herd had in his tranflation been applied to fo eminent a
perfhnage ; and therefore he judicioufiy makes ufe of
*OdyJey, the trope fynecdoche, and calls him fivain * j a word
book xiv. both elegant and poetical, and not likely to lead the
ver. 41. reader into any miftake about the perfon fpoken of, as
his employment had been deferibed in a preceding paf-
fage. The fame EumeUs is faid, in the fimple but me¬
lodious language of the original, to have been making
his own ffioes when Ulyffes came to his door ; a work
which in thofe days the greateft heroes would often find
neceffary. This, too, the tranflator foftens by a tropi¬
cal expreffion :
Here fat Eumeus, and his cares applied,
To form ftrong bujkins of well feafoned hide.
A hundred other examples might be quoted from this
tranflation ; but thefe will explain our meaning.
There are other occafions on which the delicacy of
figurative language is ftill more needful $ as in Virgil s
account of the effedfs of animal love, and of the plague
among the beads, in the third Georgic } where Dryden’s
ftyle, by being lefs figurative than the original, is in one
place exceedingly filthy, and in another ffiockingly ob-
feene.
Hobbes could conftrue a Greek author j but hisfkill
in words mud have been all derived from the diftionary j
for he feems not to have known that any one articulate
found could be more agreeable, or any one phrafe more
dignified than another. In his Iliad and Odyffey, even
when he hits the author’s fenfe (which is not always the
cafe), he proves, by his choice of words, that of Uaijno-
T R Y. 773-
ny, elegance, or energy of dyloj he had no manner of
conception. And hence that work, though called a
Tranjlation of Homer, does not even deferve the name i..,, Ivl,, <
of poem ; beeaufe it is in every refpedl unpleafing, being
nothing more than a fiftitious narrative delivered in a
mean profe, with the additional meannefs of harffi rhyme
and untuneable meafure.—Trapp underflood Virgil well
enough as a grammarian, and had a lafte for his beau¬
ties : yet his tranflation bears no refemblance to Virgil;
which is owing to the fame caufe, an imprudent choice
of words and figures, and a total want of harmony. ^ 55
' The delicacy we here contend for may, indeed, both which,
in converfation and in writing, be carried too far. 1 o call
killing an innocent man in a duel an affair of honour, and ried t00 .
a violation of the rights of wedlock an affair of gallantry,
is a proftitutioo of figurative language. Nor is it any
credit to us, that we are faid to have upwards of 40 fi¬
gurative phrafes to exprefs exceffive drinking. Lan¬
guage of this fort generally implies, that the public ab¬
horrence of fuch crimes is not fo itrong as it ought to
be : and it is a queliion, whether even our morals might
not be improved, if we were to call thefe and fuch like
crimes by their proper names, murder, adultery, drunken*
nefs, gluttony; names that not only exprefs our mean¬
ing, but alfo betoken our difapprobation.— As to writ¬
ing, it cannot be denied, that even Pope himfelf, in the
excellent verfion juft pow quoted, has fometimes, for the
fake of his numbers, or for fear of giving offence by too
clofe an imitation of Homer’s fimplicity, employed tropes
and figures too quaint or too folemn for the occafion.
And the finical ftyle is in part charaifterifed by the wri¬
ter’s diflike to literal expreffions, and affeftedly fub-
ftituting in their (lead unneceffary tropes and figures.
With thefe authors, a man’s only child muft always be
his only hope ; a country maid becomes a rural beauty,
or perhaps a nymph of the groves ; if flattery fing at all,
it rauft be * fyren Jong; the fhepherd’s flute dwindles
into an oaten rted, and his crook is exalted into a fcep~
tre; the fiver lilies rife from their golden beds, and
languifh to the complaining gale. A young woman,
though a good Chriftian, cannot make herfelf agree¬
able without facrifcing to the Graces ; nor hope to do
any execution among the gentle /wains, till a whole le-’
gion of Cupids, armed with flames and darts, and other
weapons, begin to difeharge from her eyes their formi¬
dable artillery. For the fake of variety, or of the verfe,
fomc of thefe figures may now and then find a place in
a poem ; but in profe, unlefs very fparingly ufed, they
favour of affedlation. ^6
(3.) Tropes and figures promote brevity; and brevity, Tropes and
united with perfpicuity, is always agreeable. An ex‘ monfbr*-*
ample or two will be given in the next paragraph. Sen-Vlty and*
timents thus delivered, and imagery, thus painted, are
readily apprehended, by the mind, make a ftrong im-
preflion upon the fancy, and remain long in the memo¬
ry ; whereas too many words, even when the meaning
is good, never fail to bring difguft and wearinefs. They
argue a debility of mind which hinders the author from
feeing his thoughts in one diftindl point of view ; and
they alfo encourage a fufpicion, that there is fomething
faulty or defedtive in the matter. In the poetic ftyle,
therefore, which is addrelfed to the fancy and paflions,
and intended to make a vivid, a pleafing, and a perma¬
nent impreffion, brevity, and confequently tropes and
figures, are indifpenfable. And a language will always
be-'
774 P O E
Of Tropes be the better fuited to poetical pUrpofes, the more it
T?.an^ admits of this brevity-,—a character which is more
. . confpicuous in the Greek and Latin than in any modern
tongue, and much lefs in the French than in the Italian
^ or Englith.
contribute (4.) Tropes and figures contribute to flrength or
to ftrength energy of language, not only by their concifenefs, but
ami energy ajp0 conveying to tbe fanny ideas that are eafily com-
01 lan ^ua 2-e * « o * ^ •
0 '6 prehended, and make a flrong impredion. We are
powerfully affected with what we fee, or feel, or hear.
When a fentiment comes enforced or i Hull rated by figures
taken from objedts of fight, or touch, or hearing, one
thinks, as it were, that one fees, or feels, or hears, the
thing fpoken of; and thus, trhat in itfelf would perhaps
be obfeure, or is merely intcllefiua], may be made to
ftize our attention and interefl our paffions almoft as ef-
fedtually as if it were an obiedt of outward fenfe. When
Virgil calls the Scipios thunderbolts of war, he very
ftrongly exprefles in one wrord, and by one image, the
rapidity of their vidtorres, the tioife their atchievemeflts
made in the world, dr.d the ruin and eonfternation that
attended their irrefiftible career.-^-When Homer calls
Ajax the bulwark of the Greeks, he paints with equal
brevity his vaft fize and ftrength, the difficulty of pre¬
vailing again!! him, and the confidence wherewith his
countrymen repofed on his valour.—When Solomon fays
of the ftrange woman, or harlot, that “ her feet go dolvn
to death,” he lets us know, not only that her path ends
in deftrudlion, but alfo, that they who accompany her
will find it eafy to go forwards to ruin, and difficult to
return to their duty.—Satan’s enormous magnitude, and
refulgent appearance, his perpendicular rifeent through
a region of darknefs, and the inconceivable rapidity of
his motion, are all painted out to our fancy by Milton,
in one very !hort fimilitude,
Sprung upward, like—a pyramid of fire.
- Par. Lo]}. iv. 1013.
To take in the full meaning of which figure, we muft
imagine ourfelves in chaos, and a Vail luminous body
riling upwards, near the place where we are, fo fwiftly
as to appear a continued track of light, and leffening
to the view according to the increafe of diflance, till it
end in a point, and then difappear ; and all this muft be
fuppofed to ftrike our eye at one inftant. Equal to
this in propriety, though not in magnificence, is that
allegory of Gray,
The paths of glory lead but to the grave:
Which prefents to the imagination a wide plain, where
feveral roads appear, crowded with glittering multitudes,
and iffuing from different quarters, but drawing nearer
and nearer as they advance, till they terminate in the
dark and narrow houfe, where all their glories enter in
fucceflion, and difappear for ever.- When it is faid
in Scripture, of a good man who died, that he fell
ajleep, what a number of ideas are at once conveyed to
our imagination, by this beautiful and expreffive figure :
As a-labourer, at the clofe of day, goes to lleep, with
the fatisfaclion of having performed his work, and with
the agreeable hope of awaking in the morning of a new
day, refrelhed and cheerful ; lb a good man, at the end
of life, refigns bimfelf calm and contented to the will of
his Maker, with the fweet reflection of having endea¬
voured to do his duty, and with the tfanfporting hope
T It Y. Parti.
of foon awaking in the regions of light, to life and hap- Of Tropes
pinefs eternal. The figure alfo fuggefts, that to a good ,.arill
man the tfanfition from life to death is, even in the fenfa- t ^ :Surt‘t-
tion, no more painful, than when our faculties melt away
into the pleafmg infenfibility of fleep. Satan, flying
aVnong the ftars, is faid by Milton to '"'’fail between
Worlds and worlds which has an elegance and force
far fuperior to the proper Word fy. For by this allufion
to a fhip, wc are'made to form a lively idea of his greats,
fize, and to conceive of his motion, that it was equable
fend majeltic.— Virgil ufes a happy figure to expre.fs
the fize of the great wooden horle, by means of which
the Greeks were conveyed into Troy : “ Equum divina
Palladis arte cedificantd''- Milton is ftill bolder when
he fays,
Who would not fing for Lycidas ! he knew
Rimfelf to fing, and build the lofty rhyme.
The phrafe,’however, though bold, is emphatical ; and
gives a noble idea of the durability of poetry, as well
as of the art and attention requifite to form a good
poem.——‘■There are hundreds of tropical expreffions in
common ufe, incomparably more energetic than any pro¬
per words of equal brevity that could be put in their
place. A cheek burning with blufhts, is a trope which
at once deferibes the colour as it appears to the-beholder,
and the glowing heat as it is felt by the perfon blulhing.
Chilled with defpondence, petrified with aftoniftimeht,
thunderjiruck with difagreeable and unexpected intelli¬
gence, melted with love or pity, dijjhlved in luxury, har¬
dened in wickednefs, foftefting into remorfe, inflamed
with defire, to fed with uncertainty, &c.—every one is
fenfible of the force of thefe and the like phrafes, and
that they muft contribute to the-energy of compofition.
(5.) Tropes and figures promote ftrength of expref-They are
lion ; and are in poetry peculiarly requiftte, becaufethey like wife
_are often more natural, and more imitative, than properthe lan"f
words. In faCt, this is fo much the cafe, that it would paf„
be impoflible to imitate the language of paffion without fion.
them. It is true, that when the mind is agitated, one
does not run out into allegories, or long-winded fimili-
tudes, or any of the figures that require much attention
and many words, or that tend to withdraw the fancy
from the objeCt of the paffion. Yet the language of
marly paffions muft be figurative notwithftanding ; be-
caufe they roufe the fancy, and direCt it to objefts
congenial to their own nature, which diverfify the lan¬
guage of the fpeaker with a multitude of allufions.
The fancy of a very angry man, for example, prefents
to his view a train of difagreeable ideas connected with
the paffion of anger, and tending to encourage it ; and
if he fpeak without reftraint during the paroxyfm of
’ his rage, thofe ideas will force themfelves upon him,
and compel him to give them utterance. “ Infernal
monfter ! (he will fay),-—my blood boils at him : he
has ufed me like a dog ; never was man fo injured as
I have been by this barbarian. He has no more fenfe
of propriety than a (tone. His countenance is diabolical,
and his foul as ugly as his countenance. His heart is
cold and hard, and his refolutions dark and bloody,” &c.
This fpeech is wholly figurative. It is made up of meta¬
phors ar\d. hyperboles, which, with the profopopeia and
apof rdphe, are the molt pafiionate of all the figures.
Lear, driven out of doors by his unnatural daughters,
in the midlt of darknefs, thunder, and tempeft, natu¬
rally
Part I. POE
Of Tropes rally breaks Forth (for his indignation is juft now raifed
ani1 to the very higheft pitch) into the following violent
Figures. exc]amation againft the crimes ©f mankind, in AThich
almoft every word is figurative..
Tremble, thou wretch,
That haft within thee undivulged crimes
Unwhipt of juftice. Hide thee, thou bloody hand,
Thou perjur’d, and'thou fimular of virtue,
That art inceftuous. Caitiff", to pieces ffiake,
That under covert, and convenient feeming,
Haft practis’d on man’s life. Clofe pent-up guilts,
Rive your concealing continents, and cry
Thefe dreadiul fummoners grace. King Lear.
——The vehemence of maternal love, and forrow from
the apprehenfion of lofing her child, make the Lady
Conftance utter a language that is ftrongly figurative,
though quite fuitable to the condition and character of
the fpeaker. The paffage is too long for a quotation,
but concludes thus:
O Lord ! my boy, my Arthur, my fair (bn,
My life, my joy, my food, my all the world,
My widow comfort, and my furrow’s cure. King Jolm.
- "Similar to this, and equally expreffive of conjugal
love, is that beautiful hyperbole in Homer5 where An-
dromache, to difluade her hulband from going out to the
battle, tells him that flu had now no mother, father, or
brethren, all her kindred being dead, and her native
country defolate ; and then tenderly adds,
But while my Hedftor yet furvives, I fee
My father, mother, brethren, all in thee. Iliad, b. vL
As the paftions that agitate the foul, and roufe the
r   fancy, are apt to vent themfelves in tropes and figures,
guage moft f0 thofe that deprefs the mind adopt for the moft part a
!i iiMfi t0 P^a'n di&ion, without any ornament: for to a dejected
- ® mind, wherein the imagination is generally inactive, it
is not probable that any great variety of ideas will pre-
fent themfelves; and when thefe are few and familiar,
the words that exprefs them mu ft be fimple. As no au¬
thor equals Shakefpeare in boldhefsor variety of figures
when he copies the ft vie of 'thole violent paffions that
ftimulate the fancy, fi>, when he would exhibit the hu¬
man mind in a dejected ftate,. no uninfpired writer ex¬
cels him in fimplicity. The fame Lear whofe refent-
ment had impaired his underftanding, while it broke
out in the moft boifterous language, when, after fome
medical applications, he recovers his reafon, his rage
being now exhaufted, his pride humbled, and his fpirits
totally depreffed, Tpeaks in a ftyle than which nothing
can be imagined more fimple or more affecting.
Pray, do not mock me :
I am a very foolilh, fond old man,
Fourfcore and upward; and^ to deal plainly with you,,
I fear I am not in my perfefl mind.
Methinks I ihould know you, and know this man ;
Yet I am doubtful: for I am mainly ignorant
What place this is ; and all the ikill I have
Renumbers not thefe garments: nor I know not
Where I did lodge laft night. Lear, ait iv. fc. 7.
... ....Hefdemona, ever gentle, artlefs, and fincere, (hock¬
ed at the unkindnefi. of her hufband, and overcome with
59
The fim
pleft lan-
paffions,
T R Y.
.77S
melancholy, fpeaks in a ftyle fo beautixtilly fimple, and
fo perfectly natural, that one knows not what to fay in
commendation of it :
Cf Tropes
and
Figures.
My mother had a maid call’d Barbara;
She was in love, and he (lie lov’d prov’d falfe.
And did forfake her. She had a long of willow ;
An old thing it was, but it exprefs’d her fortune,
And (he died finging it. That fong to-night
Will not go from my mind: I have much to do.
But to go hang my head all at one fide,
And fing it like poor Barbara. Othello, ail iv. fc. 3,
Sometimes the imagination, even when exerted to
the utmoft, takes in but few ideas. This happens when
the attention is totally engrofled by fome very great
objeil ; admiration being one of thofe emotions that
rather fufpend the exercife of the faculties than puflr them
into ailion. And here, too, the fimpleft language is
the moft natural ; as when Milton fays of the Deity, c*
that he fits “ high-throned above all height,” And as and to the
this fimplicity is more fuitable to that one great exertion lentmient
which occupies the fpeaker’s mind than a more elaborate'' a
imagery or language would have been, io lias it alio a
more powerful effect in fixing; and elevating the imagi¬
nation of the hearer ; for to introduce other thoughts
for the fake of illuftrating what cannot be illuftrated,
could anfvver no other pui pofe than to draw off" the at¬
tention from the principal idea. In thefe and the like
cafes, the fancy left to itfelf will have more fatisfailion
in purfuing at leifure its own fpeculations than in at¬
tending to thofe of others ; as they who fee for the tint
time fome admirable objeft would chuofe rather to feaft
upon it in file nee v than to have their, thoughts interrupt¬
ed by a long defeription from another perfon, informing
them of nothing but what they fee before them.^re al¬
ready acquainted with, or may eafily conceive.
It was remarked above that the lu/perbole, profopo-
pela, and upojlrophe, are among the moft pafliunate fi¬
gures. This deferves iliuftration. ^
I-ft, A very angry- man is-apt to think the injury he Hyperbole-
has juft received-
immediate
exceed the
in his turn. The fond parent looks upon his child as a^c.’
prodigy of genius and beauty ; and the romantic lover
will not be perfuaded that his miftrefs has nothing fu-
pernatural either in her mind or perfon. Fear, in like
manner, not only magnifies its object when real, but
even forms an objeeft out of nothing, and miitakes the
fictions of fancy for the intimations of fenfe.—No wotv-
der, then, that they who fpeak.aecording to the impulfe
of paftion ftiould (peak hyperbolicullij ;..that the angry
man fttould exaggerate the injury lie has received, and
the vengeance he is going to infiiff ; that the forrovvful
fliould magnify what they have loft, and the joyful what
they have obtained ; that the lover fhould fpeak extra¬
vagantly of the beauty of his miftrefs, the coward of
the dangers he has encountered, and the credulous clown
of the miracles performed by the juggler. In fa£f',
thefe people would not do juftice to what they feel if
they did not fay more than the truth. The valiant man,
on the other hand, as naturally adopts the diminifhing
hyperbole when he fpeaks of danger ; and the man of
fenfe, when he is obliged to mention his own virtue or
ability; becaufc it appears to him, or he is willing to
confider
proceed
fails to
greater than it really is ; and if he natural to
ly to retaliate Ly word or deed, feldom PR®on
due bounds, and to become injurious ’
^6 POE
i i'*
Of Tropes ©onfider it, as lefs than the truth, or at beft as inconfi-
.and derable. Contempt ufes the fame figure •, and there-
. Flg”,rfS- f()re petruchio, affeding that paffion, affeds alfo the
language of it:
Thou lieft, thou thread, thou thimble,
Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail,
Thou flea, thou nit, thou winter-cricket, thou !
Brav’d in mine own houfe with a Ikein of thread !
A.way, thou rag, thou quantity, thou remnant!
Taming of the Shrew, ad iv. fc. I.
Tor fome paflioris confider their objeds as important,
and others as unimportant. Of the former fort are
anger, love, fear, admiration, joy, furrow, pride ; of the
latter are contempt and courage. Thofe may be faid
to fubdue the mind to the objed, and thefe to fubdue
the objeft to the mind. And the former, when violent,
always magnify their objeds : whence the hyperbole
called amplification, or auxejis : and the latter as con-
ftantly diminiflr theirsand give rife to the hyperbole
called meiofis, or diminution.—Even when the mind can¬
not be faid to be under the influence of any violent paf¬
fion, we naturally employ the fame figure when we
would imprefs another very ftrongly with any idea. “ He
is a walking (hadow i he is worn to (kin and bone . he
has one foot in the grave and the other following:”—
thefe, and the like phrafes, are proved to be natural by
their frequency. By introducing great ideas, the hy¬
perbole is further ufeful in poetry as a fource of the
fublime *, but when employed injudicioufly is very apt
to become ridiculous. Cowley makes Goliah as big as
* Davideis, the hill down which he was marching*-, and tells us,
that when he came into the valley he feemed to fill it,
and to overtop the neighbouring mountains (which, by
the br, feems rather to lefien the mountains and valleys
than to magnify the giant) : nay, he adds, that, the fun
darted back when he faw the fpletidour of his arms.
This poet feems to have thought that the figure in
queftion could never be fufficiently enormous •, but Quin¬
tilian would have taught him, “ Quamvis omnis hyper¬
bole ultra fidem, non tamen effe debet ultra mndum”
The reafon is, that this figure, when exceflive, betokens
rather abfolute infatuation than intenfe emotion *, and
refembles the efforts of a ranting tragedian, or the ra¬
vings of an enthufiaftic declaimer, who, by putting on
the geftures and looks of a lunatic, fatisfy the difcerning
part of their audience, that, inftead of feeling ftrongly*
they have no rational feelings at all. In the wildeft
energies of nature there is a tnodefty which the imitative
artift will be careful never to overftep.
rroiono- 2dly, That figure, by which things are fpoken of as
preia, when if they were perfons, is called profopopaiit, or pcrfomfica-
prop«r. tion. It is a bold figure, and yet is often natural. Long
acquaintance recommends to fume (bare in our affetfion
even things inanimate, as a houfe, a tree, a rock, a
mountain, a country ; anl were we to leave fuch a thing
without hope of return, we (hould be inclined to addrefs
it with a farewel, as if it were a percipient creature.
Hence it was that Mary queen of Scotland, when on her
return to her own kingdom, fo affe&ionately bade adieu
to tin* country which (lie had left. “ Farewel France,”
faid (be, “ farewel, beloved country, which I (ball ne¬
ver more behold !” Nav. we find that ignorant nations
have a&ually w or (hipped fuch things, or confidered them
as the haunt of certain powerful beings. Dryads and
txiok iii.
62
Profopo-
TRY. Parti.
hamadryads were by the Greeks and Romans fuppJed Of Tropes
to prefide over trees and groves •, river gods and nymphs, and
over dreams and fountains *, little deities, called Lares ,
and Penates, were believed to be the guardians of hearths
and houfes. In Scotland there is hardly a hill remark¬
able for the beauty of its ihape, that was not in former
times thought to be the habitation of fairies. Nay, mo¬
dern as well as ancient fuperttition has appropriated the
waters to a peculiar fort of demon or goblin, and people
the very regions of death, the tombs and charnel-houles,
with multitudes of ghofts and phantoms.—Befides, when
things inanimate make a flrong impreffion upon us, whe¬
ther agreeable or otherwife, we are apt to addrefs them
in terms of affe£lion or diflike. The failor bleffes the
plank that brought him afliore from the (hipwreck * and
the paflionate man, and fometimes even the philolbpher,
will fay bitter words to the Humbling block that gave
him a fall.—Moreover* a man agitated with any interef-
ting paflion, efpecially of long continuance, is apt to fan¬
cy that all nature fympathifes with him. If he has loft
a beloved friend, he thinks the fun lefs bright than at
other times •, and in the fighing of the winds and groves,
in the lowings of the herd, and in the murmurs of the
dream, he feems to hear the voice of lamentation. But
when joy or hope predominate, the whole world affumes
a gay appearance. In the contemplation of every part
of nature, of every condition of mankind, of every form
of human fociety, the benevolent and the pious man, the
m or ole and the cheerful, the mifer and the mifanthrope,
finds occafion to indulge his favourite paflion, and fees,
or thinks he fees, his own temper reflected back in the
actions, fy mpathies, and tendencies of other things and
perfons. Our affections are indeed the medium through
which we may be faid to furvey ourfelves, and every
thing elfe and -whatever be our inward frame, we are
apt to perceive a wonderful congeniality in the world
without us. And hence the farcy, when roufed by real
emotions, or by the pathos of compofition, is eafily re¬
conciled to thofe figures of fpeech that aferibe fympathy,
perception* and the other attributes of animal life, to
things inanimate, or eVe-n to notions merely intelltClual.
Motion, too, bears a clofe affinity to a&ion, and af-
feCls our imagination nearly in the fame manner ; and
we fee a great part of nature'in motion, and by its IVnfi-
ble effeCls are led to contemplate energies innumerable.
Thefe conduCl the rational mind to the Great Firft
Caufe ^ and thefe, in times of ignorance, difpofed the
vulgar to believe in a variety of fubordinate agents em¬
ployed in producing thofe appearances that could not
otherwife bo accounted for. Hence an endlefs train of
fabulous deities, and of witches, demons, fairies, genii j
which, if they prove our reafon weak, and our fancy
ft tong, prove alfo that perfonificatiott is natural to the
human mind •, and that a right ufe of this figure may
have a powerful effe Cl, in fabulous writing efpecially, tA
engage our fympathy in behalf of things as well as per¬
fons : for nothing can give lading delight to a moral be¬
ing, but that which awakens fympathy, and touches the
heart; and though it be true that we fympathife in fome
degree even with inanimate things, yet what has, or is
fuppofed to have, life* calls forth a more fincere and
more permanent fellow-feeling.—Let it be obferved fur¬
ther, that to awaken our fympathetic feelings, a lively
conception of their obieCl is neceffary. This indeed is
true of almoft all our emotions \ their keennefs is in pro¬
portion
Part T. POE
Of Tropes portion to the vivacity of tlie perceptions that excite
them. Diftrefs that we fee is more affefting than what
we only hear of *j a perufal of the gayeft feenes in a
* Hor. An comedy does not roufe the mind fo effeftually as the pre-
roct- fence of a cheerful companion} and the death of a friend
V-1,8®* is of greater energy in producing ferioufnefs, and the con-
fideration of our latter end, than all the pathos of Young.
Of deferiptions addreffed to the fancy, thofe that are
mofl: vivid and pi&urefque will generally be found to
have the mod powerful influence over our affections $
and thofe that exhibit perfons engaged in aftion, and
adorned with vifible infignia, give a brifker impulfe
to the faculties than fuch as convey intelle&ual ideas
only, or images taken from dill life. No abdraft notion
of time, or of love, can be fo driking to the fancy as
the image of an old man accoutred with a feythe, or of
a beautiful boy with wings and a bow and arrows: and
no phyfiological account of frenzy could fugged fo vi¬
vid an idea as the poet has given us in that exquifite por-
. trait,
And moody madnefs laughing wild amid fevered -wo.
And for this reafon partly it is that the epic poet, in or¬
der to work the more effe&ually upon our paflions and
imagination, refers the fecret fprings of human condu£f,
and the viciffitudes of human affairs, to the agency of
perfonified caufcsj that is, to the machinery of gods and
goddeffes, angels, demons, magicians, and other power¬
ful beings. And hence, in all fublime poetry, life and
motion, with their feveral modes and attributes, are li¬
berally bedowed on thofe objefts wherewith the author
intends that we fhould be drongly impreffed: feenes per-
fettly inanimate and dill, tending rather to diffufe a lan¬
guor over the mind than to communicate to our internal
powers thofe lively energies without which a being ef-
fenti^ly affive can never receive complete gratification.
—Ladly, fome violent paffions are peculiarly inclined to
change things into perfons. The horrors of his mind
haunted Oredes in the thape of furies. Confcience, in
the form of the murdered perfpn, dares the murderer in
the face, and often terrifies him to didradtion. The fu-
perditious man, travelling alone in th^ dark, midakes a
white done for a ghod, abufh for a demon, a tree wav¬
ing with the wind for an enormous giant brandifhing a
hundred arms. The .lunatic and enthufiad converfe with
perfons who exid only in their own didempered fancy;
and the glutton and the mifer, if they were to give ut¬
terance to all their thoughts, would often, it is prefu-
mable, fpeak, the one of his gold, the other of his bel¬
ly, not only as a perfon, but as a god,—the objedt of
his warmed love and mod devout regard.—More need
not be faid to prove that perfonification is natural, and
may frequently contribute to the pathos, energy, and
^ beauty of poetic language.
^poftrophe S^ly, Apq/lrophe, or a fudden diverfion of fpeech from
iifcdt0 ^ °ne Per^,n to an°ther perfon or thing, is a figure
nearly related to the former. Poets fometimes make
ufe ©f it, in order to help out their verfe, or merely to
give variety to their dyle : but on thefe occafions it is
to be confidered as rather a trick of art, than an effort
of nature. It is mod natural, and mod pathetic, when
the perfon or thing to whom the apodrnphe is made,
and for whofe fake we give a new diredlid(#to our
fpeech, is in our eyes eminently didinguilhed for good
«r evil, or raifes within -us fome Hidden and powerful
Vol. XVI. Part II.
thould only betray the levity of the fpeaker, or fuch wan¬
derings of his mind as neither the fubj. <d nor the occa-
fion would lead one to expe£t, it will then create dif-
gud indead of approbation. The orator, therefore, mud
not attempt the paflionate apodrophe, till the minds of
the hearers be prepared to join in it. And every au¬
dience is not equally obfequious in this refpedl. In the
forum of ancient Rome that would have paffed for fub¬
lime and pathetic, which in the mod refpe&able Britith
auditories would appear ridiculous. For our dyle of
public fpeaking is cool and argumentative ; and par¬
takes lefs of enthufiafm than the Roman did, and much
lefs than the modern French or Italian. Of Britidi
eloquence, particularly that of the pulpit, the chief re¬
commendations are gravity and fimplicity. And it is *
vain to fay, that our oratory ought to be more vehement:
for that matter depends on caufes, which it is not only
inexpedient, but. impoffible to alter; namely, on the cha¬
racter and fpirit of the people, and their rational notions
in regard to religion, policy, and literature. The ex¬
clamations of Cicero would weigh but little in our par¬
liament; and many of thofe which wre meet with in
French fermons would not be more effe&ual if attempt¬
ed in our pulpit. To fee one of our preachers, who
the moment before was a cool reafoner, a temperate
fpeaker, an humble Chridian, and an orthodox divine>
break out into a fudden apodrophe to the immortal
powers, or to the walls of the church, tends to force a
fmile, rather than a tear, from thofe among us who
refieft, that there is nothing in the fubjeft, and fhould
be nothing in the orator, to warrant fuch wandi.ings of
fancy or vehemence of emotion. If he be careful to
cultivate a pure dyle, and a grave and graceful utter¬
ance, a Britidi clergyman, who fpeaks from convidlion
the plain unaffeided words of truth and fobernefs, of be¬
nevolence and piety, will, it is believed, convey more
pathetic, as well as more permanent, impreffions to the
heart, and be more ufeful as a Chridian teacher, than
if he were to put in pradtice all the attitudes of Rofcius,
and all the tropes and figures of Cicero.
But where the language of paflion and eiathufiafm is
permitted to difptey itfelf, whatever raifes any ftrong
emotion, whether it be animate or inanimate, abfent
or prefent, fenfible or intelledbal, may give rife to the
apodrophe. A man in a didant country, fpeaking of
the place of his birth, might naturally exclaim, “ O my
dear native land, diall I never fee thee more!” Or, when
fome great misfortune befals him, “ Happy are ye, O
my parents, that ye are not alive to fee this.” We have
a beautiful apodrophe in the third book of the Atneid
where iEneas, who is telling his dory to Dido, happen¬
ing to mention the death of his father, makes a fudden
addrefs to him as follows:
  hie, pelagi tot tempedntibus adlus,
Hcu, genitorem, omnis curte cafufquc levamen,
Amitto Anchifen:—hie me, pater optime, feffum
Deferis, lieu, tantis nequiequam erepte pcriclis!
This apodrophe has a pleafing effeft. It feems to intf-
mate, that the love which the hero bore his father was
fo great* that when he mentioned him he forgot every
f F thing:
778
Figure?.
POE
Of Tropes thing elfe $ and, without minding his company, one of
a,ld whom was a queen, fuddenly addreffed bimfelf to that
which, though prefent only in idea, was ftill a principal
objea of his a(fe£tion. An emotion fo warm and fo
reafonable cannot fail to command the fympathy of the
reader. When Michael, in the eleventh book of Pa-
radife Loft, announces to Adam and Eve the neceftity
of their immediate departure from the garden of Eden,
the poet’s art in preferving the decorum of the two cha-
ra&ers is very remarkable. Pierced to the heart at the
thought of leaving that happy place, Eve, in all the
violence of ungovernable lorrow, breaks forth into a pa¬
thetic apoftrophe to Paradife, to the flowers ftie had
reared, and to the nuptial bower ftie had adorned. A-
dam makes no addrels to the walks, the trees, or the
flowers of the garden, the lofs whereof did not fo much
afflidt him ; but, in his reply to the Archangel, expreffes,
without a figure, his regret for being banifhed from
a place where he had been fo often honoured with a fen-
fible manifeftation of the divine prefence. _ The ufe of
the apoftrophe in the one cafe, and the omiflion of it in
the other, not only gives a beautiful variety to the ftyle,
but alfo marks that fuperior elevation and compofure of
mind, by which the poet had all along diftinguiftred the
character of Adam.—One of the fineft applications of
this figure that is anywhere to be feen, is in the fourth
book of the fame poem ; where the author, catching by
fympathy the devotion of our firft parents, fuddenly
drops his narrative, and joins his voice to theirs in ado¬
ring the Father of the univerfe.
Thus at their fliady lodge arriv’d, both flood,
Both turn’d, and under open fky ador’d
The God that made both iky, air, earth, and heav’n,
Which they beheld, the moon’s refplendent globe,
Anti ftarry pole Thou alfo mad’ft the night,
Maker omnipotent! and thou the day,
Which we in our appointed work employ’d
Have finilh’d.———
Milton took the hint of this fine contrivance from a
well-known paflage of Virgil :
Hie juvenum chorus, ille fenum j qui carmine laudes
Hereuleas et fafta ferant ;
T ll Y.
-ut duros mille labores
64
Tropes
and figures
are ufeful,
as they
fuggeft
an endlefs
variety of
agreeable
images.
Rege fub Euryftheo, fatis Juncnis iniquae,
Pertulerit :—Tu nubigenas, invi£te, bimembres,
Hykeumque, Pholumque manu, tu Crefia madias
Prodigia.' 
The beauty arifing from diverfified compofition is the
fame in both, and very great in each. But every read¬
er rnuftyL'/, that the figure is incomparably more afifedL
ing to the mind in the imitation than in the original.
So true it is, that the moft rational emotions raife the
moft intenfe fellow-feeling ; and that the apoftrophe is
then the moft emphatical, when it diiplays thofe work¬
ings of human affedlion which are at once ardent and
well-founded.
To conclude this head : Tropes and figures, particu¬
larly the metaphor, fimilitude, and allegory, are further
ufeful in beautifying language, by fuggefting, together
with the thoughts effential to the fubjedl, an endlefs va¬
riety of agreeable images, for which there would be no
place, if writers were always to confine themfelves to the
proper names of things. And this beauty and variety,
Part I.
judicioufly applied, is fo far from diftra&ing, that it Of Tropes
tends rather to fix the attention, and captivate the heart Fi“Jcc
of the readers, by giving light, and life, and pathos, to
the whole compofition.
H. That tropes and figures are more neceffary to
poetry, than to any other mode of writing, was the
fecond point propofed to be illuftrated in this left ion. ^
Language, as already oblerved, is then natural, Mien ■£j0pes an(j
it is fuitable to the fuppofed condition of the fpeaker. figures
Figurative language is peculiarly fuitable to the fuppo- necef.
fed condition of the poet 5 becaufe figures are fuggelted1^
by the fancy j and the fancy of him who compofes to any other
poetry is more employed than that of any other author, mode of
Of all hiftorical, philofophical, and theological refearch- writing,
es, the objeft is real truth, which is fixed and perma¬
nent. The aim of rhetorical declamation (according ta
Cicero) is apparent truth ; which, being lefs determi¬
nate, loaves the fancy of the fpeaker more free,, give*
greater fcope to the inventive powers, and fupplies the
materials of a more figurative phrafeology. But the
poet is fubjeft to no reftraints, but thofe of verifimili-
tude j which is ftill lefs determinate than rhetorical
truth. He feeks not to convince the judgment of his
reader by arguments of either real or apparent cogency y
he means only to pleafe and intereft him, by an appeal
to his fenlibility and imagination. His own imagina¬
tion is therefore continually at work, ranging through
the whole of real and probable exiftence, “ glancing
from heaven to earth., from earth to heaven,” in. quo ft
of images and ideas fuited to the emotions he .bimfelf
feels and to the fympathies he would communicate t»
others. And, confequently, figures of fpeech, the off-
fpring of excurfive fancy, mu ft (if he fpeak according
to what he is fuppofed to think and feel, that is, ac¬
cording to his fuppofed condition) tinftuie the lan¬
guage of the poet more than that of any other compo-
fer.& So that, if figurative diftion be unnatural in geo¬
metry, becaufe all wanderings of fancy are unfuitable,
and even impoflible to the geometrician, while intent
upon his argument j it is, upon the fame principle, per-
feftly natural, and even unavoidable, in poetry j becaufe
the more a poet attends to his fubjeft, and .the bette.r
qualified he is to do it juftice, the more aftive rvill his
imagination be, and the more diverfified the ideas that
prefent themfelves to his mind. -Befides, the. true
poet addreffes himfelf to the paffions and fympathies of
mankind •, which, till his own be raffed, he cannot hope
to do with fuccefs. And it is the nature of many paf*
fions, though not of all, to increafe the aftivity of ima¬
gination : and an aftive imagination naturally vents it-
felf in figurative language j nay, unlefs reftrained by a
correft tafte, has a tendency to exceed in it.', of which
Bifliop Taylor and Lord Verulam, two geniufes differ¬
ent in kind, but of the higheft order, are memorable
examples. - .
We faid, that “ the poet feeks not to convince the
judgment of his reader by arguments of either real or
apparent cogency.”— We do not mean, that in poe-
try argument has no place. Ihe moft legitimate, rea-
foning, the foundeft philofophy, and narratives purely
hiftorical, may appear in a poem, and contribute great¬
ly to the honour of the author, and to the importance
of his work. All this we have in Paradife Loft. We
mean, 1,hat ''v^iat diftinguifties pure poetry from other
writing, is its aptitude, not to fway the judgment by rea-
0 fomng,
Part I. POE
Of Poetital foning, but to pleafe the fancy, and move the paffions, by
Harmony. a |Jvely imitation of nature. Nor would we exclude poe-
"r tical embelliQi merit from hiftory, or even from philofo-
phy. Plato’s Dialogues and the Moral EiTays of Addi-
fon and Johnfon abound in poetic imagery •, and Livy
and Tacitus often amufe their readers with poetical de-
fcription. In like manner, though geometry and phyfics
be different fciences *, though abftraft ideas be the fub-
je£I, and pure demonftration or intuition the evidence,
of the former ; and though the material univerfe, and
the informations of fenfe, be the fubjeft and the evidence
of the latter ; yet have thefe fciences been united by the
belt philofophers, and very happy effe&s refulted from
the union. In one and the fame work, poetry, hillo-
ry, philofophy, and oratory, may doubtlefs be blended •,
nay, thefe arts have all been ailually blended in one and
the fame work, not by Milton only, but alfo by Ho¬
mer, Virgil, Lucan, and Shakefpeare. Yet ftill thefe
arts are different ; different in their ends and principles,
and in the faculties of the mind to which they are re-
fpe£tively addreffed : and it is eafy to perceive when a
•writer employs one and when another.
is
The poet
might to
attend to
the har¬
mony of
language,
which con-
fifts in
67
fweetnefs
and
68
ffieafure,
which,
though not
offential,
§ 2. Of the SOUND of Poetical Language.
As the ear, like every other perceptive faculty, is
capable of gratification, regard is to be had to the found
of words, even in profe. But to the harmony of lan¬
guage, it behoves the poet, more than any other writer,
to attend ; as it is more efpecially his concern to render
his work pleafurable. In fa£l, we find, that no poet was
ever popular who did not pofiefs the art of harmonious
compofition.
What belongs to the fubjeft of Poetical Harmony
may be referred to one or other of thefe heads, Sweet-
nefs, Menfure, and Imitation.
I. In order to give fweetnefs to language, either in
verfe or profe, all words of harfh found, difficult pro¬
nunciation, or unwieldy magnitude, are to be avoided as
much as poffible, unlefs when they have in the found
fomething peculiarly emphatical ; and words are to be
fo placed in refpeft of one another, as that difcordant
combinations may not refult from their union. But in
poetry this is more neceffary than in profe •, poetical
language being underftood to be an imitation of natural
language improved to that perfeftion which is confident
with probability. To poetry, therefore, a greater lati¬
tude mud be allowed than to profe, in expreffing, by
tropes and figures of pleafing found, thofe ideas whereof
the proper names are in atiy refpeft offenfive, either to
the ear or to the fancy.
II. How far verfification or regular tneafure may be
effential to this art, has been difputed by critical wri¬
ters 5 fome bolding it to be indifpenfably neceffary, and
fome not neceffary at all.
The faft feems to be, as already hinted, that to poe¬
try verfe is not effential. In a prole work, we may
have the fable, the arrangement, and a great deal of the
pathos and language, of poetry j and fuch a work is cer-
T R Y. 779
tainly a poem, though perhaps not a perfe£l one. For °^^cal
how abfurd would it be to fay, that by changing the , a.r”1°
pofition only of a word or two in each line, one might
dived Homer’s Iliad of the poetical charadder ! At this
rate, the arts of poetry and verfification would be the
fame ; and the rules in Defpauter’s Grammar, and the
moral didichs afcribed to Cato, would be as real poetry
as any part of Virgil. In fa<d, fome very ancient poems,
when tranflated into a modern tongue, are far lefs poe¬
tical in verfe than in profe ; the alterations necefiary to
adapt them to our numbers being detrimental to their
fublime fimplicity ; of which any perfon of tade will be
fenfible, who compares our common profe-vernon ot
Job, the Pfalms, and the Song of Solomon, with the
bed metrical paraphrafe of thofe books that has yet ap¬
peared. Nay, in many cafes, Comedy will be more
poetical, becaufe more pleafing and natural, in profe
than in verfe. By verfifying Tom Jones, and The
Merry Wives of Windfor, we Ihould fpoil the two fined
comic poems, the one epic, the other dramatical, now in
the world. s9
But, fecondly, though verfe be not effential to poetry, adds to
it is neceffary to the perfe&ion of all poetry that admits^ perfeo
of it. Verfe is to poetry, what colours are to paint-tlon ®
ing (g). A painter might difplay great genius, and^
draw maderly figures with chalk or ink ; but if he in¬
tend a perfe<d piddure, he mud employ in his work as
many colours as are feen in the objedd he imitates. Or,
to adopt a beautiful comparifon of Demodhenes, quoted
by Aridotle *, “ Verfification is to pi>etry what bloom
is to the human countenance.” A good face is agrce-cap
able when the bloom is gone, and good poetry may
pleafe without verfification ; harmonious numbers may
fet off an indifferent poem, and a fine bloom indifferent
features : but, without verfe, poetry is incomplete ; and
beauty is not perfefl, unlefs to fweetnefs and regularity
of feature there be fuperadded
The bloom of young defire, and purple light of love.
If numbers be neceffary to the perfection of the higher
poetry, they are no lefs fo to that of the lower kinds, to
Padoral, Song, and Satire, which have little befides the
language and verfification to didinguiffi them from profe;
and which fome ancient authors are unwilling to admit
to the rank of poems : though it feems too nice a fcru-
ple, both becaufe fuch writings are commonly termed
poetical; and alfo becaufe there is, even in them, fome¬
thing that may not improperly he confidered as an imi¬
tation of nature.
That the rhythm and meafure of verfe are naturally
agreeable, and therefore that by thefe poetry may be
made more pleafing than it would be without them, is
evident from this, that children and illiterate people,
whofe admiration we cannot fuppofe to be the effeCt of
habit or prejudice, are exceedingly delighted with them.
In many proverbial fayings, where there is neither rhime
nor alliteration, rhythm is obvioufly dudied. Nay, the
ufe of rhythm in poetry is univerfal j whereas alliteration
5 F 2 and
(g) Horace feems to hint at the fame comparifon, when, after fpecifying the feveral forts of verfe fuitable to
Epic, Elegiac, Lyric, and Dramatic Poetry, he adds,
Defcriptas fervare vices, operumque colores.
Cur ego, fi nequeo ignoroque, Poeta falutor ? Ar. Poet, ver, 86.
2S<
POETRY.
Of i oetlcal anJ rlarae, though rclidied by fome nations, are not much
/tarniony. fought after by others. And we need not be at a lofs
■ to account for the agreeablenefs of proportion and order,
if we relied, that they fuggeft the agreeable ideas of
contrivance and fkill, at the fame time that they render
the connection of things obvious to the underftanding,
and imprint it deeply on the memory. Verfe, by pro¬
moting diltind and eafy remembrance, conveys ideas to
the mind with energy, and enlivens every emotion the
poet intends to raife in the reader or hearer. Befides,
when we attend to verfes, after hearing one or two, we
become acquainted with the meafure, which, therefore,
we always look for in the fequel. This perpetual inter¬
change of hope and gratification is a fource of delight ;
and to this in part is owing the pleafure we take in the
rhimes of modern poetry. And hence we fee, that
though an incurred rhime or untuneable verfe be in it-
felf, and compared with an important lentiment, a very
trifling matter ; yet it is no trifle in regard to its eflfeds
on the hearer $ becaufe it brings difappointment, and fo
gives a temporary (hock to the mind, and interrupts the
current of the affedions •> and becaufe it fuggefls the
difagreeable ideas of negligence or want of (kill on the
part of the author. And therefore, as the public ear
becomes more delicate, the negligence will be more gla¬
ring, and the difappointment more intenfely felt *, and
corrednefs of rhime and of meafure will of courfe be
the more indifpenfible. In our tongue, rhime is more
neceffary to Lyric than to Heroic poetry. The reafon
In what feems to be, that in the latter the ear can of itfelf per-
cafes rhime ceive the boundary of the meafure, becaufe the lines are
may be dif- a]} ()f equal length nearly, and every good reader makes
m^ a ft101*- Pauk at the end of each •, whereas, in the for-
poetry.' tfler, the lines vary in length : and therefore the rhime
is requifite to make the meafure and rhythm fuflaciently
perceptible. Cuftom too may have forrje influence. Eng-
lifh Odes without rhime are uncommon ; and therefore
have fomething awkward about them, or fomething at
lead to which the public ear is not yet thoroughly re¬
conciled. Indeed, when the drama is excepted, we do
not think that rhime can be fafely fpared from Englifli
poetry of any kind, but when the fubjed is able to
fupport itfelf. “ He that thinks himfelf capable of
aftoniihing (fays Johnfon) may write blank verfe; but
thofe that hope only to pleafe, mud condcfcend to
rhime.”
Rhime, however, is of lefs importance by far than
rhythm, which in poetry as well as in mufic is the
fource of much pleafing variety ; of variety tempered
with uniformity, and regulated by art; infomuch that,
notwithdanding the likenefs of one hexameter verfe to
another, it is not common, either in Virgil or Homer,
to meet with two contiguous hexameters whofe rhythm
is exadly the fame. And though all Englifli heroic
verfes confid of five feet, among which the iambic pre¬
dominates; yet this meafure, in refped of rhythm alone,
is fufceptible of more than 30 varieties. And let it be
remarked further, that did'erent kinds of verfe, by be-
i^g adapted to different fubjeds and modes of writing,
give variety to the poetic language, and multiply the
charms of this pleafing art.
What has formerly been diown to be true in regard
to dyle, will alfo in many cafes hold true of verfifica-
tion, “ that it is then natural when it is adapted to
fche fuppofed condition of the fpeaker.”-—In the epopee
Part I.
the poet affumes the charader of calm infpiration ; and Of cortical
therefore bis language mud be elevated, and his num- **armony-
hers majedic and uniform. A peafant fpeaking in he- ~~ v——1
roic or hexameter verfe is no improbability here ; be- Theban-
caufe his words are fuppofed to be tranfmitted by one guage of the
who will of his own accord give them every ornamenteP’c l10et
neceflary.to reduce them into dignified meafure; as an
eloquent man, in a folemn affembly, recapitulating the ]jjs nur^i,en
fpeech of a clown, would naturally exprefs it in pure uniformly
and perfpicuous language. The uniform heroic mea-
fure v ill fuit any (ubjed of dignity, whether narrative
or didadic, that admits or requires uniformity of dyle.
In tragedy, where the imitation of real life is more
perfed than in epic poetry, the uniform magnifi¬
cence of epic numbers might be improper ; becaufe the
heroes and heroines are fuppofed to fpeak in their own
perfons, and according to the immediate impulfe of paf- 73
fion and fentiment. Yet, even in tragedy, the verfifica-In tragedy
tion may be both harmonious and dignified; becaufe the^^^e
charaders are taken chiefly from high life, and the ^agnifi-
events from a remote period ; and becaufe the higher cence
poetry is permitted to imitate nature, not as it is, but would be
in that date of perfedion in which it might be. The imProPer»
— - - - 1 - - 0 and much
Greeks and Romans confidered their hexameter as too
more fo i»
artificial for dramatic poetry ; and therefore in tragedy, comedy,
and even in comedy, made ufe of the iambic, and fome
other meafures that came near the cadence of converfa-
tion : we ufe the iambic both in the epic and dramatic
poem ; but for the mod part it is, or ought to be, much
more elaborate in the former than in the latter. In
dramatic comedy, where the manners and concerns of
familiar life are exhibited, verfe would feem to be unna¬
tural, except it be fo like the fource of common difeourfe
as to be hardly dillingui(liable from it. Cudom, how¬
ever, may in fome countries determine otherwife; and
againd cuftom, in thefe matters, it is vain to argue.
The profeffed enthufiafm of the dithyrambic poet ren¬
ders wildnefs, variety, aqd a fonorous harmony of num¬
bers, peculiarly fuitable to his odes. The love-fonnet,
and Anacreontic fong, will be lefs various, more regu¬
lar, and of a fofter harmony ; becaufe the ftate of mind
expreffed in it has more compofure. Philofophy can
fcarce go further in this invelligation, without deviating
into whim and hypotbefis. The particular forts of
verfe to be adopted in the lower fpecies of poetry, are
determined by faftiion chiefly, and the prattice of ap¬
proved authors.
III. The origin and principles of imitative harmony,
or of that artifice by which (he found is made, as Pope
fays, “ an echo to the fenfe,” may be explained in the
following manner.
It is pleafing to obferve the uniformity of nature in A (Inking-
all her operations. Between moral and material beauty analogy be-
and harmony, between moral and material deformity *wjee,y1^
and difionance, there obtains a very ftriking analogy. teri!ll beau.
The vifible and audible exprefiions of almoft every vir-ty and de-
tuous emotion are agreeable to the eye and the ear, and lormity.
thofe of almoft every criminal paffion difagreeable. The
looks, the attitudes, and the vocal founds, natural to
benevolence, to gratitude, to com paffion, to piety, are
in themfelves graceful and pleafing ; while anger, dif-
content, defpair, and cruelty, bring difeord to the voice,
deformity to the features, and diftortion to the limbs.
That flowing curve, which painters know to be eflen-
tial to the beauty of animal ftiape, gives place to a mul¬
tiplicity
73
Part I.
POE
Of Poetical tlplicity of right lines and tli.irp angles in the counte-
H&mriny. nance ani gefture. of him who knits his Jbrows, ftretclies
u' ’ his noftrils, grinds his teeth, and clenches his fill ;
whereas, devotion, magnanimity, benevolence, content¬
ment, and good-humour, foften the attitude, and give a
more graceful fwell to the outline of every feature. Cer¬
tain vocal tones accompany certain mental emotions.
The voice of furrow is feeble and broken, that of de-
fpair boifterous and incoherent; joy affumes a fweet and
*)rightlv note, fear a we-ak and tremulous cadence ) the
tones of love and benevolence are mufical and uniform,
thole of rage loud and diflonant; the voice of the fedate
reafoner is equable and grave, but not uapleafant ; and
he who declaims with energy, employs many varieties
ot modulation fuited to the various emotions that predo¬
minate in his difeourfe.
But it is not in the language of pallion only that the
human voice varies its tone, or the human face its fea¬
tures. Every ftriking fentiment, and every interefling
idea, has an effect upon it. One would efteem that per-
fon no adept in narrative eloquence, who (liouid deferibe,
with the very fame accent, 1’wift and flow emotion, ex¬
treme labour and eafy performance, agreeable fenfation
and excruciating pain : who fliould talk of the tumult
of a tempeftuous ocean, the roar of thunder, the deva-
ftations of an earthquake, or an Egyptian pyramid tum¬
bling into ruins, in the fame tone of voice wherewith
he deferibes the murmur of a rill, the warbling of the
harp of TEolus, th.e Twinging of a cradl», or the defeent
of an angel. Eleva ion of mind gives dignity to the
voice. From Achilles, Sarpedon, a»d Othello, we
fliould as naturally expe£t a manly and fonorous accent,
as a nervous ftyte and majeftic attitude. Coxcombs and
bullies, while they affume airs of importance and valour,
affeft alfo a dignified articulation.
The'fource Since the tones .of natural language are fo various,
of imitative poetry, which imitates the language of nature, muff al-
harmony of f0 vary its tones ; and, in refpefl of found as well as of
meaning, be framed after that model of ideal perfec¬
tion, which the variety and energy of the human_arti-
culate voice render probable* This is the more eafily
numbers.
T R Y. 781
accomplifhed, becaufe in every languag-e there is be- Of Poetical
tween the found and fenfe of certain words a perceptible Harmony.
analogy j which, though not fa accurate as to lead a
foreigner from the found to the fignificalion, is yet ac¬
curate enough to (how, that, in forming fuch words, re¬
gard has been had to the imitative qualities of vocal
lound. Such, in Engliffi, are the words ye//t craJJ)^
crack, Jiffs, roar, murmur, and many others.
All the particular laws that regulate this fort of imi¬
tation, as far as they are founded in nature, and liable
to the cognizance of philofophy, depend on the general
law of ftyle above mentioned. Together with the other
circumftances of the fuppofed fpeaker, the poet takes
into confideration the tone of voice fuitable to the ideas
that occupy his mind, and thereto adapts the found of
his language, if it can be done confiftently with eafe and
elegance of expreffion. But when this imitative har¬
mony is too much fought after, or words appear to be
chofen for found rather than fenfe, the verfe becomes
finical and ridiculous. Such is Ronfard’s affefted imi¬
tation of the fong of the Iky-lark :
Eile quindee du zephire
Sublime en Pair vire et revirc,.
Et y declique un joli cris,
Qui rit, guerit, et tire Tire
Des efprit mieux que je n’ecris".
This is as ridiculous as that line of Ennius,
Turn tuba terribili fonitu taratantara dixit:
Or as the following verfes of Swift j
The man with the kettle-drum enters the gater
Dub dub a dub dub : the trumpeters follow,
Tantara tantara ; while all the boys hollow.
... . r 7$
Words by their found may imitate found ; and quick^iar-'
or flow articulation may imitate quick or flow motion.
Hence, by a proper choice and arrangement of words, can lini_
the poet may imitate Sounds that are fweet with dig-tate.
nity (h),—fweet and tender (1),—loud (k),—and
harth (1,),—and Motions that are flow, in confequence
of dignity (m),—flow in confequence of difficulty (n),
fwift
(fl) No fooner had W Almighty ceas’d, than all
The multitude of angels, with a fhout
Loud as from numbers without number, fweet
As from bleft voices uttering joy ; heav’h rung
With jubilee, and loud hofannas fill’d
Th’ eternal regions.  Par. Lojl, Hi.
■See alfo the night-florm of thunder, lightning, wind, and
rain, in Virg. Georg, lib. i. ver. 328—334.
(l) Et longum, fprmofe, vale, vale, inquit, lola.
Virg. Eel. i.
Formofam refonare doces Amaryllida filvas.
Virg. Eel. i.
See alfo the fimile of the nightingale, Georg, lib. iv.
verfi.511. And fee that wonderful couplet deferibihg
the wailings of the owl, Aineid iv. 462.
(k) vibratus ab aethere fulgor
Cum fonitu venit',.et ruere omnia vifa repente,
Tyrrhenufque tubae mugire per rethera clangor,
Sufpiciunt: iterum atque iterum fragor increpat
ingens. JEneid, viii. .
See alfo the ftorm in the firft book of the ./Eneid, and
in the fifth of the Odyffey.
(l) The hoarfe rough verfe fliould like the torrent
i’oar. Pope.
  On a fudden open fly,
With impetuous recoil and jarring found,
'1 h’ infernal doors, and on their hinges grate
Harfli thunder.  Par. LoJJ, ii. 879.
See alfo.Homer’s Iliad, lib. ii. ver. 363, and Clarke’s
Annotation.
(m) See an exquifite example in Gray’s Progrefs of 1
Poefy ; the conclufion of the third ftanza.
(n) And when up ten fleep flopes you’ve dragg’d
your thighs. Pope.
Jufl brought out this, when fcarce his tongue could
ftir. Pope. .
 The huge leviathan
Wallowing unwieldly, enormous in their gait,
Tempeft the ocean. Par. Lojl, vii. 411* .
4
POE
1ft and fmooth (p)—uneven
Harmony. and abrUpt (<{), —quick and joyous (r). An unex*
' pefted paufe in the verfe may alfo imitate a fudden
failure of ftrength (s), or interruption of motion (x),
or give vivacity to an image or thought, by fixing our
attention longer than ufual upon the word that pre¬
cedes it (u),—Moreover, when we defcribe great bulk,
it is natural for us to articulate flowly, even in common
difcourfe ; and therefore a line of poetry that^ requires
a flow pronunciation, or feems longer than it Ihould
be, may be ufed with good effeft in defcribing vaftnefs
offize (x).—Sweet and fmooth numbers are moft pro¬
per, when the poet paints agreeable obje£ts, or gentle
energy (y) ; and harftjer founds when he fpeaks of
what is ugly, violent, or difagreeable (z). This too
is according to the nature of common language j for
782
Of Poetical fwift and nolfy (o'}-—-f
T R Y. Parti.
we generally employ harflier tones of voice to cxprefs Of Poetical
what we diflike, and more melodious notes to defcribe Harmony^
the objects of love, complacency, or admiration. Harlh ''
numbers, however, fliould not be frequent in poetry :
for in this art, as in rnufic, concord and melody ought
always to predominate. And we find in fad, that good
poets can occafionally exprefs themfelves fomewhat hardi¬
ly, when the fubjed requires it, and yet preferve the
fweetnefs and majefty of poetical didion. Further, the
voice of complaint, pity, love, and all the gentler affec¬
tions, is mild and muflcal, and (hould therefore be imi¬
tated in mufical numbers ; while defpair, defiance, re¬
venge, and turbulent emotions in general, aflame an
abrupt and fonorous cadence. Dignity of defcription
(a), folemn vows (b), and &11 fentiments that proceed
from a mind elevated with great ideas (c), require a
correfpondent
See the famous defcription of Sifyphus rolling the ftone,
Odyff. lib. xi. ver. 592. See Quintil. Inft. Oral. lib. ix.
cap. 4. § 4. compared with Paradife Loft, book ix. ver.
1022.
(°) Quadrupedante putrem fenitu quatit ungula
campum. JEneid.
Avrasg ivreirx TreSavJs Xxtg xvxiciris. Odyjf. Xl.
See alfo Virg. ALneid. lib. i. ver. 83—87.
(p) See wild as the winds o’er the defert he flies.
Pope.
file volat, fimul arva fuga, fimul aequora verrens.
Virg.
Tll^W T iTTHTX TTiXH, %XXi7rYI tOVtT . Hefxod.
TIoXXx y xvxitx xxrxyrx x-xgx>rx re ^o^p.tx t yiXB-ov.
Horn.
The lafs ftxriek’d, flatted up, and ftuaek’d again.
Anonym.
(r) Let the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecks found,
To many a youth, and many a maid,
Dancing in the checquer’d fliade. Milt. Allegro.
See alfo Gray’s Progrefs of Poefy, ftanza 3.
(s) Ac velut in fomnis oculos ubi languida preflit
Node quies, nequicquam avidos extendere curfus
Velle videmur :—et in mediis conatibus aegri
Succidimus.— JEneid.
See alfo Virg. Georg, lib. iii. ver. 5I5>
(x) For this, be fure to-night thou (halt have cramps,
Side-ftitches that (hall pen thy breath up. Urchins
Shall exercife upon thee."
Profpero to Calyban in the Tempejl.
See Pope’s Iliad, xiii. 199.
(u) . —How often from the fteep
Of echoing hill or thicket have we heard
Celeftial voices, to the midnight,air,
Sole,—or refponfive to each other’s note.
Singing their great Creator ? Par. Lojl^ ivi
And over them triumphant Death his dart
Shook,——but delay’d to flrike. I<d.
See alfo Horn. OdylT. lib. ix. ver. 290.
(x) Thus ftretch’d out, huge in length, the arch fiend
lay. Pur. Lojf.
Monftrum horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen
adem-ptum. JEneid. iii.
Et magnos membrorum artus, magna ofla, lacertofque
Exuit, atque ingens media confillit arena.
JEneid. v. 422.
(y) Hie gelidi fontes, hie mollia prata, Lycori,
Hie nemus, hie ipfo tecum confumerer aevo.
Virg. Eel. x.
The dumb fhall fing ; the lame his crutch forego,
And leap, exulting, like the bounding roe.
Pope's MeJJiah.
See Milton’s defcription of the evening, Par. Loft, book
iv. ver. 598—609..
Ye gentle gales beneath my body blow,
And foftly lay me on the waves below.
Pope's Sappho.
(z) Strident! ftipula miferum difperdere carmen.
Virg. Eel. iii.
Ivnmo ego Sardois videar tibi amarior herbis,
Horridior rufeo, projefta vilior alga.
Virg. Eel. vii.
Neu patriae validas in vifeera vertite vires.
Virg. JEneid. vi.
See alfo Milton’s defcription of the Lazar-houfe in Pa¬
radife Loft, book xi. ver. 477—492.
(a) See Virg. Georg. 1. 328. and Homer, Virgil,
and Milton, paflim. See alfo Dry den’s Alexander’s
Feaft, and Gray’s Odes.
(b) See Virg. iEneid, iv. 24.
(c) Examples are frequent in the great authors. See
Othello’s exclamation :
  O now for ever
Farewell the tranquil mind ! See. AB \n.fc. 3.
5
Part I. POE
Of Poeticalcorrefpondent pomp of language and verGfication.—
Harmony.^ £aftly, an Irregular or uncommon movement in the
^ ' verfe may fometimes be of ufe, to make the reader con¬
ceive an image in a particular manner. Virgil, defcrib-
ing horfes running over rocky heights at full fpeed, be¬
gins the line with two da&yls, to imitate rapidity, and
concludes it with eight long fyllables :
Saxa per, et fcopulos, et depreffas convalles,
Georg, iii. 276.
which is very unufual meafure, but feems well adapted
to the thing exprefled, namely, to the defcent of the
TRY. 783
animal from the hills to the low ground. At any rate, Of Poetical
this extraordinary change of the rhythm may be allow- Harmony.
ed to bear fome refemblance to the animal’s change of
motion, as it would be felt by a rider, and as we may
fuppofe it is felt by the animal itfelf.
Other forms of imitative harmony, and many other
examples, befides thofe referred to in the margin, will
readily occur to all who are converfant in the writings
of the belt verlifiers, particularly Homer, Virgil, Mil-
ton, Lucretius, Spenler, Dryden, Shakefpeare, Pope,,
and Gray.
Part II. Of the DIFFERENT SPECIES of POETRY, with their Particular Prin¬
ciples.
Sect. I. Of Epic and Dramatic Compoftions.
§ I. The Epopee and Drama compared.
Bern, of TRAGEDY and the epic differ not in fubftantials:
Criticijm. in both the fame ends are propofed, viz. inftrudtion and
76 amufement 5 and in both the fame mean is employed,
In what • imitation of human actions. They differ only in
e[)icpoetry the manner of imitating; epic poetry employs narra-
agree, and tion ; tragedy reprefents its fa6ts as palling in our fight :
in what jn t}ie former, the poet introduces himfelf as an hillo-
th«y differ. rjan . -n t^e iatterj jie prefents his a£lors, and never
himfelf.
This difference, regarding form only, may be thought
flight : but the effe£fs it occafions are by no means fo ;
for what we fee makes a deeper impreflion than what
we learn from others. A narrative poem is a ftory told
by another : fa61s and incidents palling upon the flage,
come under our own obfervation ; and are befide much
enlivened by adlion and gelture, expreflive of many fen-
timents beyond the reach of language.
A dramatic compofition has another property, in¬
dependent altogether of aftion ; which is, that it makes
a deeper impreflion than narration : in the former, per-
fons exprefs their own fentirnen-ts ; in the latter, fenti-
ments are related at fecond-hand. For that reafon, Ari-
♦Pscf.chap. flotle, the father of critics, lays it down as a rule *,
25. feet. 6. That in an epic poem the author ought to have every
opportunity of introducing his aftors, and of confining
the narrative part within the narroweft bounds. Ho¬
mer underftood perfeflly the advantage-of this method ;
and his poems are both of them in a great meafure
dramatic. Lucan runs to the oppofite extreme ; and
is guilty of a Hill greater fault, in fluffing his Pharfa-
lia with cold and languid reflexions, the merit of which
he affumes to himfelf, and deigns not to lhare with his
aXors. Nothing can be more injudicioufly timed, than
a chain of fuch refleXions, which fufpend the battle of
Pharfalia, after the leaders had made their fpeeches, and
vh. two armjes are ready to engage f.
iTtoHne Ariftotle, from the nature of the fable, divides tra-
460. gedy into fimple and complex : but it is of greater mo-
77 ment, with refpeX to dramatic as well as epic poetry.
Tragic and to foun(} a diftinXion upon the different ends attained
pathetic’or b7 ^ch eompofftions. A poem, whether dramatic or
moral. epic, that has nothing in view but to move the paffions
and to exhibit piXures of virtue and vice, may be di-
ftinguilhed by the name of pathetic : but where a ftory
is purpofely contrived to illuftrate fome moral truth, by
ffiowing that diforderly paffions naturally lead to exter¬
nal misfortunes, fuch compofttions may be denominated
moral. Belide making a deeper impreflion than can be
done by cool reafoning, a moral poem does not fall Ihorfc
of reafoning in affording conviXion: the natural connec¬
tion of vice with mifery, and of virtue with happinefs,
may be illuftrated by Hating a faX as well as by urging
an argument. Let us affume, for example, the folknv-
ing moral truths : That difeord among the chiefs renders
ineffeXual all common meafures ; and that the confe-
quences of a llightly founded quarrel, foftered by pride
and arrogance, are not lefs fatal than thofe of the grof-
feft injury : thefe truths may be inculcated by the quar¬
rel between Agamemnon and Achilles at the liege of *
Troy. If faXs or circumftances be wantingv fuch as tend
to roufe the turbulent paffions, they mult be invented ;
but no accidental nor unaccountable event ought to be
admitted ; for the neceffary or probable conneXion be¬
tween vice and mifery is not learned from any events
but what are naturally occafioned by the charaXers and
paffions of the perfons reprefented, aXing in fuch cir¬
cumftances. A real event, of which we fee not the
caufe, may afford a leffon, upon the prefumption that
what hath happened may again happen : but this cannot
be inferred from a ftory that is known to be a fiXion.
Many are the good effeXs of fuch compofitions. A The good
pathetic compofition, whether epic or dramatic, tendsof
to a habit of virtue, by exciting us to do what is right, iL1”1.com‘
and reftraining us from what is wrong. Its frequent1'
piXures of human woes produce, befide, two effedls,
extremely falutary : They improve our fympathy, and
fortify us to bear our mi-fortunes. A moral com¬
pofition mult obvioufly produce the fame good effeXs
becaufe by being moral it ceafeth not to be pathetic :
it enjoys befides an excellence peculiar to itfelf; for it
not only improves the heart, as above mentioned, but
inftruXs the head by the moral it contains. It feems
impoffible to imagine any entertainment more fuited
to a rational being, than a work thus happilly illuttrat-
ing fome moral truth ; where a number of perfons of
different charaXers are engaged in an important aXion,
fome retarding, others promoting, the great cataftrophe;
and where there is dignity of ftyle as well as of mat¬
ter. A work of this kind has our fympathy at com¬
mand.
for tragic
and epic
poetry.
* Blair's
Lectures.
POE
Of the niancl, and can put in motion ttie whole train of the
^Dramaaffections : our curiofity in feme feenes is ex-
. ^ . cited, in others gratified j and our delight is confum-
mated at the clofe, upon finding, from the characters
and fituations exhibited at the commencement, that
every incident down to the final cataftrophe is natural,
and that the whole in conjunction make a regular chain
of caufes and effefts.
Confidering that an epic and a dramatic poem are the
fame in fubflance, and have the fame aim or end, one
will readily imagine, that fubjeCts proper for the one
mu ft be equally proper for the other. But confidering
their difference as to form, there will be found reafon
to correCt that conjeCture, at leaft in fome degree.
The fame Many fubjeCts may indeed be treated with equal ad-
fubjedts not vantage in either form : but the fubjeCts are (till more
always fit numerous for which they are not equally qualified *, and
there are fubjeCts proper for the one and not at all for
the other. To give fome flight notion of the difference,
as there is no room here for enlarging upon every arti¬
cle, we obferve, that dialogue is better qualified for eic-
preffing fentiments, and narrative for difplaying faCts.
Heroifm, magnanimity, undaunted courage, and other
elevated virtues, figure belt in aCtion : tender paflions,
and the whole tribe of fympathetic affeCtions, figure belt
in fentiment. It clearly follows, that tender paffions are
more peculiarly the province of tragedy, grand and
heroic a&ions of epic poetry,
“ The epic poem is univerfally allowed to be *, of all
poetical works, the moft dignified, and, at the fame time,
the moft difficult in execution. To contrive a ftory which
fhall pleafe and intereft all readers, by being at once en¬
tertaining, important, and inftruCliVej to fill it with fuit-
able incidents; to enliven it with a variety of charafters
and of deferiptions ; and, throughout a long wTork, to
maintain th*t propriety of fentimewt, and that elevation
of ftyle, which the epic charaCler requires, is unqueftioh-
ably the higheft effort of poetical genius.
“ The aCtion or fubieCt of the epic poem muft be great
and interefting. Without greatnefs it Would not have fuf-
ficient importance either to fix our attention or to juftify
the magnificent apparatus W'hich the poet beftowTson it.
This is fo evidently requifite as not to require illuftration;
and, indeed, hardly any who have attempted epic poetry
have failed in choofingfomefubjeCl fufficiently important,
either by the nature of the aftion or by the fame of the
perfonages concerned in it. The fame of Homer’s heroes,
and the confequences of difienfion between the greateft
of them, is a fubjeCl important in itfelf, and muft have
appeared particularly fo to his countrymen, who boafted
their defeent fromthofe heroes. The fubjeCl of the^neid
is (till greater than that of the Iliad, as it is the founda¬
tion of the moft powerful empire that ever was eftablifh-
ed upon this globe ; an event of much greater import¬
ance than the deftrudion of a city, or the anger of a fe-
mibarbarous warrior. But the poems of Homer and Vir¬
gil fall in this refpeCl infinitely ftiort of that of Milton.
‘ Before the greatnefs difplayed in Paradife Loft, it has
A John/on's t*een well obferved f that all other greatnefs (brinks away.
Life of The fubjeCl of the Englifh poet is not the deftruClion of
llitton. a city, the conduCl of a colony, or the foundation of an
empire : it is the fate of worlds, the revolutions of hea¬
ven and earth ; rebellion againll the Supreme King, raif-
ed by the higheft order of created beings; the overthrow
their hoft and the puniftiment of their crime; the crea-
£o
The proper
fubje(ft of
an epic
poem.
TRY. Part II,
tion of a new race of teafonable creatures ; their original Of the
happinefs and innocence, their forfeiture of immortality, £l^hee and
and their reftoration to hope and peace.” . olarna»^
An epic poem, however, is defective if its aCtion be
not interfiling as well as great; fur a narrative of mere
Valour may be fo conftruCltd as to prove cold and tire- «
fome. “ Much * will depend on the happy choice of* -Bfoirubi
fome fubjeCl, which (hall by its nature intereft the pu- ^uPra‘
blic ; as when the poet feleCts for his hero one who is
the founder, or the deliverer, or the favourite of his na¬
tion ; or when he writes atchievements that have been
highly celebrated, or have been connected with import¬
ant confequences to any public caufe. Moft of the great
epic poems are abundantly fortunate in this reipeCl, and
muft have been very interelling to thde ages in which
they were compofed.” The fubjeCl of the Paradife Loft,
as it is infinitely greater, muft likewife be confidered as
more univerfally interefting than that of any other poem.
“ We all feel the efftCls of Adam’s tranigreffion ; we
all fin like him, and like him muft all bewail out of¬
fences. We have reftltfs and infidicus enemies in the
fallen angels, and in the bkffed fpirits we have guar¬
dians and friends ; in the redemption of mankind w e
hope to be included ; in the delcription of heaven and
hell we are furely interefted, as we are all to refide
hereafter either in the regions of horror or blifs.7’ - •
“ The chief circumftance which renders an epic poem circum-
interefting f, and w hich tends to intereft not one age or fiances
country alone, but all readers, is the fkilful conduCl ofc^e^yiK:
the author in the management of his lubieCl. His plan tcre^ln^,1,’
muft comprehend many aneCting incidents. Tie may | ani
fometimes be awful and auguft ; he muft often be tender Johnfon.
and pathetic ; he muft give us gentle and pleafing feenes
of love, friendftiip, and affeCtion. The more that an
epic poem abounds with fituations which awaken the
feelings of humanity, it is the more interefting. In this
refpeCl perhaps no epic poets have been fo happy as Vir¬
gil and Taffo. The plan of the Paradfe Lojl comprifes
neither human aClions nor human manners. The man
and woman who ad and fuffer, are in a (late which no
other man or woman can ever know. The reader finds
no tranfaClion in which he can be engaged ; beholds no
condition in which he can by any off rt of imagination
place himfelf; he has therefore little natural curiofity
or fympathy.”
A queftion has been moved, Whether the nature of Whether
the epic poem does not require that the hero ftiould be fte kero
ultimately fuccefsful ? To this queftion Johnfon replies,j
that “ there is no reafon why the hero (hould not be fuCCefjfu}.
unfortunate, except eftabliffied praClice, fince fuccefs and
virtue do not neceffarily go together.” Moft critics,
however, are of a different opinion, and hold fuocefs to
be, if not the neceffary, at leaft the moft proper iffue of
an epic poem. An unhappy conclufion depreffes the
mind, and is oppoijte to the elevating emotions which
belong to this fpecies of poetry. Terror and compaffon
are the, proper fubjeds of tragedy ; but as the epic is of
larger extent, it were too much, if, after the difficulties
and troubles which commonly abound in the progrefsof
the poem, the author ftiould bring them all at laft to an
unfortunate conclufion. We know not that any author
of name has held this courfe except Lucan ; for in the
Paradife Loft, as Adam’s deceiver is at laft cruftied, and
he himfelf reftored to the favour of his maker, Milton’s
hero muft be confidered as finally fuccefsful.
We
Part II. POE
Of the We haX'e no occafion to fay more of the epic, con-
Epopee and fidered as peculiarly adapted to certain fubjeds, and to
■ J:>ra>nia' , be conduded according to a certain plan. But as dra¬
matic fubjeds are more complex, it is neceflary to take
a narrower view of them. They are either the light
and the gay, or the grave and affeding, incidents of
human life. The former conftitute the fubjed of co¬
medy, and the latter of tragedy.
As great and ferious objeds command more attention
than little and ludicrous ones j as the fall of a hero in-
terefts the public more than the marriage of a private
perfon ; tragedy has been always held a more dignified
entertainment than comedy. The firft thing required of
the tragic poet is, that he pitch upon fome moving and
interefting ftory, and that he condud it in a natural and
probable manner. For we muft obferve, that the natu¬
ral and probable are more eflential to tragic than even to
epic poetry. Admiration is excited by the wonderful j
but paflion can be raifed only by the impreflions of na-
ture and truth upon the mind.
Subje&s The fubjed beft fitted for tragedy is where a man has
belt fitted been the caufe of his misfortune ; not fo as to be
0 ag® y* deeply guilty, nor altogether innocent: the misfortune
muft be occafioned by a fault incident to human nature,
and therefore in fome degree venial. Such misfortunes
call forth the focial affedions, and warmly intereft the
fpedator. An accidental misfortune, if not extremely
lingular, doth not greatly move our pity: the perfon who
fuffers, being innocent, is freed from the greateft of all
torments, that anguifti of mind which is occafioned by
remorfe. An atrocious criminal, on the other hand, who
brings misfortunes upon himfelf, excites little pity, for a
different reafon : his remorfe, it is true, aggravates his
diftrefs and fwells the firft emotions of pity: but then
our hatred of him as a criminal blending with pity, blunts
its edge confiderably. Misfortunes that are not innocent*
nor highly criminal, partake the advantages of each ex¬
treme : they are attended with remorfe to embitter the
diftrefs, which raifes our pity to a great height 3 and the
flight indignation we have at a venial fault detrads not
fenfibly from our pity. The happieft of all fubjeds ac¬
cordingly for raifing pity, is where a man of integrity
falls into a great misfortune by doing an adion that is
innocent, but which, by fome lingular means, is con¬
ceived by him to bu criminal: his remorfe aggravates
his diftrefs 3 and our compaflion, unreftrained by indig¬
nation, knows no bounds. Pity comes thus to be the
ruling paffion of a pathetic tragedy 3 and, by proper re-
prefentation, may be raifed to a height fcarcely exceed¬
ed by'any thing felt in real life. A moral tragedy takes
in a larger field 3 as it not only exercifes our pity, but
raifes another paflion, which, though felfifti, deferves to
be cheriflied equally with the focial affedion. The paf¬
lion we have in view is fear or terror 3 for when a mif-
fortune is the natural confequence of fome wrong bias
in the temper, every fpedator who is confcious of fuch
a bias in himfelf takes the alarm, and dreads bis falling
into the-fame misfortune : and by the emotion of fear or
terror, frequently reiterated in a variety of moral trage¬
dies, the fpedators are put upon their guard againft the
diforders of paflion.
The commentators upon Ariftotle, and other critics,
have been much gravelled about the account given of
tragedy by that author : “ That by means of pity and
terror, it refines or purifies in us all forts of paflion.But
'VOL. XVI. Part II.
TRY.
no one who has a clear conception of the end and effeds ”• ■
of a good tragedy, can have any difficulty about Ariftotle’s
meaning : Our pity is engaged for the perfons reprefent- ■ ■ - j
ed 3 and our terror is upon our own account. Pity indeed
is here made to Hand for all the fympathetic emotions, be-
caufe of thefe it is the capital. There can be no doubt,
that our fympathetic emotions are refined or improved
by daily exercife 3 and in what manner our other paf-
lions are refined by terror, has been juft now faid. One
thing is certain, that no other meaning can juftly be
given to the foregoing dodrine than that now men¬
tioned 3 and that it wTas really Ariftotle’s meaning,
appears from his 13th chapter, where he delivers feve-
ral propofitions conformable to the dodrines as here ex¬
plained. Thefe, at the fame time, we take liberty to
mention 5 becaufe, fo far as authority can go,' they con¬
firm the foregoing reafoning about fubjeds proper for
tragedy. The firft propofition is, That it being the pro¬
vince of tragedy to excite pity and terror, an innocent per¬
fon falling into adverfity ought never to be the fubjed.
This propofition is a neceffary confequence of his dodrine
as explained 3 a fubjed of that nature may indeed excite
pity and terror 3 but the former in an inferior degree, and
the latter in no degree for moral inftrudion. The fecond
propofition is, That the hiftory of a wicked perfon in a
change from mifery to happinefs ought not to be repre-
fented 3 which excites neither terror nor compaflion, nor
is agreeable in any refped. The third is, That the mis¬
fortunes of a wicked perfon ought not to be reprefented :
fuch reprefen tation may be agreeable in fome meafure upon
a principle ofjuftice; but it will not move our pity, or
any degree of terror, except in thoffe of the fame vicious
difpofition with the perfon reprefented. The laft propo¬
fition is, 1 hat the only charader fit for reprefentation lies
in the middle, neither eminently good nor eminently bad 3
where the misfortune is not the effed of deliberate vice,
but of fome involuntary fault, as our author expreffes it.
The only objedion we find to Ariflotle’s account of tra¬
gedy, is, that he confines it within too narrow bounds, by
refufing admittance to the pathetic kind : for if terror be
effential to tragedy, no reprefentation deferves that name
but the moral kind, where the misfortunes exhibited are
ir4
caufed by a wrong balance of mind, or fome diforder in
the internal conftitution: fuch misfortunes always fuggeft
moral inftrudion 3 and by fuch misfortunes only can ter¬
ror be excited for our improvement.
L hus Ariftotle’s four propofitions above mentioned
relate folely to tragedies of the moral kind. Thofe of
the pathetic kind are not confined within fo narrow li¬
mits : fubjeds fitted for the theatre are not in fuch
plenty as to make us rejed innocent misfortunes which
roufe our fympathy, though they inculcate no moral.
With refped indeed to the fubjeds of that kind, it
may be doubted, whether the conclufion ought not al¬
ways to be fortunate. Where a perfon of integrity is
reprefented as fuffering to the end under misfortunes
purely accidental, we depart difeontented, and with fome
obfeure ffenfe of injuft ice : for feldom is man fo fubmif-
five to Providence, as not to revolt againft the tyrahny
and vexations of blind chance 3 he will be tempted to
fay, this ought not to be. We give for an example the
Romeo arid Juliet of Shakefpeafte, where the fatal cata-
ftrophe is occafioned by Friar Lawrence’s coming to the
monument a minute too late 3 we are vexed at the un¬
lucky chance, ami go away diffatisfied. Stfch' imprei-
5 G fions,
786
POETRY.
Part II.
Of the
Epopee and
Drama.
' , 1
85
The impro¬
per ufe of
deitiny in
the ancient
tragedies.
* Blair.
S<S
How it is
uied in the.
tragedy of
the Rob¬
bers.
fions, which ought not to be cheriflied, are a fufftcient
reafort for excluding ftories of this kind from the
theatre. _
Tlie misfortunes of a virtuous perfon, ariling from
neceffary caufes, or a chain of unavoidable circumilances,
as they excite a notion of deftiny, are equally unfatisfac-
tory to the human mind. A metaphyfician in his cb-
fet may reafon himfelf into the belief of fate, or what in
modern language is called philofophical necejjity but the
feelings of the heart revolt againft that do<5trine , and
we have the confeffion of the two ableft philofopher<» by
whom it was ever maintained, that men condufl them-
felves through life as if their will were abfolutely free,
and their a6tions no part of a chain of neceffary caufes
and effeas. As no man goes to the theatre to ftudy
metaphyfics, or to diveft himfelf of the common feelings
of humanity, it is impoffible, whatever be his philofo¬
phical creed, that he fhould contemplate without horror
and difguft an innocent perfon fuffering by mere deftiny.
A tragedy of uncommon merit in every other refpedl
may indeed be endured, nay perhaps admired, though
fuch be its cataftrophe ; becaufe no work of man was
ever perfect \ and becaufe, where imperfections are un¬
avoidable, a multitude of excellencies may be allowed to
cover one fault : but we believe the mifery of an inno¬
cent perfon refulting from a chain of unavoidable cir-
cumftances has never been confidered as a beauty by
minds unperverted by a falfe philofophy. “ It muft be
acknowledged * that the fubjeCts of the ancient Greek
tragedies were frequently founded on mere deftiny and
inevitable misfortunes. In the courfe of the drama ma¬
ny moral fentiments occurred *, but the only inftruCtion
which the fable conveyed was, that reverence was due
to the gods, and fubmiflion to the decrees of fate. Mo¬
dern tragedy has aimed at a higher object, by becoming
more the theatre of paflion ; pointing out to men the
eonfequences of their own mifeonduft, fliowing the dire¬
ful effects which ambition, jealoufy, love, refentment,
and other fuch ftrong emotions, when mifguided or left
unreftrained, produce upon human life. An Othello,
hurried by }ealoufy to murder his innocent wife j a Jaf-
fier enfnared by refentment and want to engage in a
confpiracy, and then flung with remorfe and involved
in ruin •, a Sifffedi, through the deceit which he employs
for public-fpirited ends, bringing deftrudtion on all
whom he loved : thefe, and fuch as thefe, are the ex¬
amples which Tragedy now difplays to public view 5 and
by means of which it inculcates on men the proper go¬
vernment of their paflions.”
There is indeed one Angular drama, in which deftiny
is employed in a manner very different from that in
which it was ufed by the poets of Greece and Rome.
It is Schiller’s tragedy of the Robbers, of which “ the
hero endowed by nature (as the tranflator of the piece
obferves) with the moft generous feelings, animated by
the higheft fenfe of honour, and fufceptible of the warm-
eft affections of the heart, is driven by the perfidy of a
brother, and the fuppofed inhumanity of his father, into
a ftate of confirmed mifanthropy and defpair.” He with-
ed that he “ could blow the trumpet of rebellion through
all nature ; that he could extinguilh with one mortal
blow the viperous race of men j and that he could fo
itrike as to deftroy the germ of exiftence.” In this fi-
tuation he is hurried on to the perpetration of a feries of
crimes which find from their very magnitude and atro¬
city a recommendation to his diftempered mind. Sen- Of the
fible all the while of his own guilt, and fuffering for that^P®®^
guilt the fevereft pangs of remorfe, he yet believes him-. .
felf an inftrument of vengeance in the hands of the Al¬
mighty for the puniftiment of the crimes of others. In
thus accompliftiing the dreadful deftiny which is pre-
feribed for hifti, he feels a fpecies of gloomy fatisfaClion,
at the fame time that he confiders himfelf as doomed to
the performance of that part in life which is to confign
his memory to infamy and his foul to perdition. After
burning a town, he exclaims, “ O God of vengeance 1
am I to blame for this ? Art thou to blame, O Father
of Heaven ! when the inftrumentsof thy wrath, the pef-
tilence, flood, and famine overwhelm at once the righ¬
teous and the guilty ? Who can command the flames to
ftay their courfe, to deftroy only the noxious vermin,
and fpare the fertile field ?” yet with the fame breath he
accuies himfelf of extreme criminality for “ prefumptu-
oufly wielding the fword of the Moft High !” He fre¬
quently laments in the moft affeCling manner the lofs of
his innocence, willies that “ he could return into the
womb that bare him, that he hung an infant at the
breaft, that he were born a beggar, the meaneft hind, a
peafant of the field.” He confiders himfelf as the outcaft
of Heaven, and finally reje&ed by the Father of mercy
yet he tells the band of robbers whom he commanded,
that the “ Almighty honoured them as agents in his
hands to execute his wonderous purpofes ; employed
them as his angels to execute his ftern decrees, and pour
the vials of his wrath and in a very folemn prayer,
he fuppofes that “ the God who ruleth over all had de¬
creed that he ftiould become the chief of thefe foul mur¬
derers.”
“ It will be allo'ived (fays the tranflator), that the ima¬
gination could not have conceived a fpeftacle more
deeply interefting, more powerfully affe&ing to the
mind of man, than that of a human being thus charac-
terifed and a£ling under fuch impreflions. The compaf-
fionate intereft which the mind feels in the emotions or
fufferings of the guilty perfon, is not diminifhed by the
obfervation, that he a6ts under an imprefiion of inevi¬
table deftiny ; on the contrary, there is fomething in our .
nature which leads us the more to compaflionate the in¬
ftrument of thofe crimes, that we fee him confider him¬
felf as bound to guilt by fetters, which he has the con-
ftant with, but not the ftrength, to break.”
This is indeed true : we fympathife with the hero of
the Robbers, not only, on account of his exalted fenti¬
ments and his inflexible regard to the abftraft principles
of honour and juftice, but much more for that diforder
of intelleft which makes him fuppofe “ his deftiny fixed
and unalterable,” at the very time that he is torn with
remorfe for the perpetration of thofe crimes by which he
believed it to be fulfilling. Deftiny, however, is not in
this tragedy exhibited as real, but merely as the phan-
tom of a diftempered though noble mind. Had the poet
reprefented his hero as in faB decreed by God, or bound
by fate, to head a band of foul murderers, and to com¬
mit a feries of the moft atrocious crimes j though our pity
for him might not have been leffened, the impreflions
of the whole piece on the mind could have been only
thofe of horror and difguft at what would have appeared
to us the unequal ways of providence.
The tragedy of the Robbers is a ftriking inftance of
the juftnefs of Dr Blair’s criticifm, in oppofition to that
of
Part II. , POE
Of the of Lord Karnes'. His lorddiip holds that it is effential
Epopee and to a g00d tragedy, that its principal fa£ts be borrowed
t Drama‘ from hiftory; becaufe a mixture of known truth with
the fable tends to delude us into a conviftion of the re-
Whether ality of the whole. The Doctor confiders this as a mat-
the fubjedt ter 0f n0 great confequence j for “ it is proved by expe-
of tragedy rjence^ a fictitious tale, if properly conduced, will
itsfounda-6 raelt t^e ^eart as muc^ as any real hiftory j” this obfer-
tion in vation is verified in the Robbers. It is indeed a very
truth. irregular drama, and perhaps could not be a£ted on a
BritHh theatre. But although the whole is known to
be a fidlion, we believe there are few efFufions of human
genius which more powerfully excite the emotions of
terror and pity. Truth is indeed congenial to the mind •,
and when a fubjeft proper for tragedy occurs in hiftory
or tradition, it is perhaps better to adopt it than to in¬
vent one which has no fuch foundation. But in ehoof-
Ing a fubjeft which makes a figure in hiftory, greater
precaution Is neceffary than where the whole is a fi&ion.
In the latter cafe the author is under no reftraint other
than that the characters and incidents be juft copies of
nature. But where the ftory is founded on truth, no
circumftances muft be added, but fuch as conned natu¬
rally with what are known to be true •, hiftory may be
fupplied, but muft not be contradicted. Further, the
fubjeCt chofen muft be diftant in time, or at leaft in
place; for the familiarity of recent perfons and events
ought to be avoided. Familiarity ought more efpecially
to be avoided in an epic poem, the peculiar charaCter of
which is dignity and elevation: modern manners make
but a poor figure in fuch a poem. Their familiarity un¬
qualifies them for a lofty fubjeCt. The dignity of them
will be better underftood in future ages, when they are
no longer familiar.
After Voltaire, no writer, it is probable, will think
of rearing an epic poem upon a recent event in the hif-
tory of his own country. But an event of that kind is
perhaps not altogether unqualified for tragedy : it was
admitted in Greece ; and Shakefpeare has employed it
fuccefsfully in feveral of his pieces. One advantage it
poffeffes above fiCtion, that of more readily engaging our
belief, which tends above any other particular to raife
our fympathy. The fcene of comedy is generally laid
at home: familiarity is no objection ; and we are pecu-
gg liarly fenfible of the ridicule of our own manners.
How a tra- After a proper fubjeCl is chofen, the dividing it into
gedy fliould parts requires fome art. The conclufion of a book in an
be divided epjc p0emj or Gf an in a play, cannot be altogether
Ind arbitrary ; nor be intended for fo flight a purpofe as to
many°aas make the parts of equal length. The fuppofed paufe at
it fliould the end of every book, and the real paufe at the end of
have. every ad, ought always to coincide with fome paufe in
E!em. of the aftion. In this refpeft, a dramatic or epic poem
Criticifm, 0Ught to refemble a fentence or period in language, di-
cb. xSii. vided into members that are diftinguifhed from each
other by proper paufes ; or it ought to refemble a piece
of mufic, having a full clofe at the end, preceded by im-
r R Y. _ 7V
perfeCl clofes that contribute- to the xuelociy. The divi-^
fion of every play into Jive aCts has no other foundation
than common practice, and the authority of Horace (d).
It is a divifion purely arbitrary ; there is nothing in the
nature of the compofition which fixes this number rather
than any other ; and it had been much better if no fuch
number had been afcertained. But, fince it is afcertain-
ed, every aft in a dramatic poem ought to clofe with
fome incident that makes a paufe in the aftion; for
otherwife there can be no pretext for interrupting the
reprefentation. It would be abfurd to break off in the.
very heat of aftion ; againft which every one would ex¬
claim : the abfurdity ftill remains where the aftion re¬
lents, if it be not aftually fufpended for fome time. 1 his
rule is alfo applicable to an epic poem : though in it a
deviation from the rule is lefs remarkable ; becaufe it is
in the reader’s power to hide the abfurdity, by proceed¬
ing inftantly to another book. The firft book of Para-
dife Loft ends without any clofe, perfeft or imperfeft :
it breaks off abruptly, where Satan, feated on his throne,
is prepared to harangue the convocated hoft of the fall¬
en angels ; and the fecond book begins with the fpeech.
Milton feems to have copied the JEneid, of which the
two firft books are divided much in the fame manner.
Neither is there any proper paufe at the end of the
feventh book of Paradife Loft, nor at the end of the
eleventh. In the Iliad little attention is given to this
rule. . 89
Befides tragedy, dramatic poetry comprehends co- The objeft
medy and farce. Thefe are fufficiently diftinguifhed of comedy,
from tragedy by their general fpirit and ftrain. “ While
pity and terror, and the other ftrong paftions, form the
province of the tragic mufe, the chief or rather foie in-
ftrument of comedy and farce is ridicule.” Thefe two
fpecies of compofition are fo perpetually running into
each other, that we ftiall not treat of them feparately ;
fince wdiat is now known by the name offarce differs in
nothing effential from what was called the old comedy
among the Greeks. “ Comedy propofes for its objeft * * Blairs
neither the great fufferings nor the great crimes of men ; Letturet.-
but their follies and {lighter vices, thofe parts of their
charafter which raife in beholders a fenfe of impropri¬
ety, which expofe them to be cenfured and laughed at
by others, or which render them troublefome in civil
fociety.
“ The fubjefts of tragedy are not limited to any age
or country ; but the fcene and fubjeft of comedy ftiould
always be laid in our own country, and in our own times.
The reafon is obvious : thofe decorums of behaviour,
thofe leffer diferiminations of charafter, which afford fub¬
jeft for comedy, change with the differences of countries
and times; and can never be fo u'ell underftood by fo¬
reigners as by natives. The comic poet, who aims at
correfting improprieties and follies of behaviour, fhould
‘ catch the manners living as they rife.” It is not his
bufinefs to amufe us with a tale of other times ; but to
give us piftures taken from among ourfelves ; to fa irize
5 G 2 reigning
(d) Neve minor, neu Jit quinto produflior aBu
Tabula. De Arte Poetica.
If you would have your play deferve fuccefs,
Give it five afts complete, nor more nor lefs, Frances.
788
Of the
Epopee and
Drama.
9°
Comedy of
two kinds.
91
The com¬
mon faults
of comedy.
POE
reigning and prefent vices ; to exhibit to the age a faith¬
ful copy of itfelf, with its humours, its follies, and its
extravagancies.
v “ Comedy may be divided into two kinds : comedy
ot c/iara£ier, and comedy of intrigue. The former is the
more valuable fpecies; becaufe it is the bufinefs of co¬
medy to exhibit the prevailing manners which mark the
charadter of the age in which the fcene is laid : yet there
Ihould be always as much intrigue as to give us fome-
thing to wifh and fomething to fear. The incidents
fhould fo fucceed one another, as £0 produce ftriking
fituations, and to fix our attention; while they afford at
the fame time a proper field for the exhibition of charac¬
ter. The adlion in comedy, though it demands the
poet’s care in order to render it animated and natural,
isalefs fignificant and important part of the performance
than the adtion in tragedy : as in comedy it is what men
fay, and how they behave, that draws our attention, ra¬
ther than what they perform or what they fuffer^
“ In the management of charadlers, one of the moft
common faults of comic writers is the carrying of them
too far beyond life. Wherever ridicule is concerned, it
is indeed extremely difficult to hit the precife point
where true wit ends and buffoonery begins. When the
mifer in Plautus* fearching the perfon whom he fufpedfs
of having ftolen his cafket, after examining firft his right
hand and then his left, cries' out* ojlende etiam lertiam—
‘ ffiow me your third hand,’there is no one but muft be
fenfible of the extravagance. Certain degrees of exag¬
geration are allowed to the comedian, but there are li¬
mits fet to it by nature and good tafte ; and fuppofing
the mifer to be ever fo much engroffed by his jealoufy
and his fufpicions, it is impoffible to conceive any man
in his wits fufpedling another of having more than two
hands.”
It appears from the plays of Ariftophanes which re¬
main, that the charadters in the old comedy of Athens
were almoft always overcharged. They were likewife
diredt and avowed fatires againft particular perfons, who
Were brought upon the ftage by name. “ The ridicule
employed in them is extravagant, the wit for the moft
part buffooniffi and farcical, the raillery biting and cruel,
and the obfeenity that reigns in them is grofs and intole¬
rable. They feem to have been compofed merely for the
mob.” Yet of thefe abominable dramas, an excellent
* Hurd- critic* lias affirmed, with too much truth, that what is
now called farce is nothing more than the ffiadow. The
charadlers in genuine comedy are not thofe of particular
and known perfons, but the general characters of the
age and nation ; which it requires no fmall fkill to diftin-
guiffi clearly and naturally from each other. In attempt¬
ing this, poets are too apt to contrail charadlers and in¬
troduce them always in pairs j which gives an affedled au¬
to the whole piece. The perfedtion of art is to conceal
art. “ A mafterly writer will give us his charadlers dif-
tinguiffied rather by fucl\ (hades of diverfity as are com¬
monly found in fociety, than marked with fuch ftrong
oppofitions as are rarely brought into adlual contrail in
92 any of the circumftances of real life.”
The ftyle The ftyle 'of comedy ought to be pure, elegant,
ef comedy. an(j very feldom riling higher than the ordinary
tone of polite converfation $ and upon no occafion de¬
fending into vulgar, mean, and grofs expreffions j and
in one word, adlion and charadter being the funda¬
mental parjs of every epic and dramatic compolition,
2
TRY. Part II,
the fentiments and tone of language ought to be fubfer- Of the
vient to thele, lo as to appear natural and pioper for the Epopee,
occafio/i. v—J
\ 2. Refpefiive peculiarities of the Epopee and Drama.
In a theatrical entertainment, which employs both Machinery
the eye and the ear, it would be a grofs abluidity to in-can have
troduce upon the ftage fapei ior beings in a viiibie lhape. r,° P:ace
There is no place for lueh objection in an epic Poem >
and Boileau, with many other critics, declares ftrong-
ly for that fort of machinery in an epic poem. But wa¬
ving authority, which is apt to impofe upon the judge¬
ment, let us draw what light we can from realon. We
may in the firft place obferve, that this matter is but
indillindlly handled by critics : the poetical privilege of
animating infenfible objedls for enlivening a defciiption,
is very different from what is termed machinery, where
deities, angels, devils, or other fupernatural powers, are
introduced as real perlonages, mixing in the adlion, and
contributing to the catalirophe and yet thefe two
things are conftantly jumbled together in reafoning.
The former is founded on a natural principle : but
nothing is more unnatural than the latter. Its effedts,
at the fame time, are deplorable. Tirft, it gives an air
of fidlion to the whole *, and prevents that impreffion of
reality which is requifite to intereft our affedtions, and
to move our paffions } which of itfelf is fufficient to ex¬
plode machinery, w hatever entertainment it may afford
to readers of a fantallic tatle or irregular imagination.
And, next, were it poflible* by difguifing the fidlion, to]ias :^4a
delude us into a notion of reality, an infuperable objec-g00d effe&
tion would ftill remain, which is, that the aim or end in ihehigk-
of an epic poem can never be attained in any perfedlion er eP^c*
where machinery is introduced 5 for an evident reafon,
that virtuous emotions cannot be raifed fuccefsfully but
by the adlions of thofe who are endued with paffions
and affedlions like our own, that is, by human adlions }
and as for moral inllrudlion, it is clear, that none can
be drawn from beings who adt not upon the fame
principles with us. A fable in Aifop’s manner is no
objedtion to this reafoning : his lions, bulls, and goats,
are truly, men under difguife; they adt and feel in every
refpedt as human beings and the moral we draw is
founded on that fuppofition. Homer, it is true, intro¬
duces the gods into his fable : but the religion of his
country authorized that liberty ; it being an article in
the Grecian creed, that the gods often interpofe vifibly
and bodily in human affairs. It muft however be ob-
ferved, that Homer’s deities do no honour to his poems :
fidlions that tranfgrefs the bounds of nature, feldom
have a good effedl } they may inflame the imagination
for a moment* but will not be reliftied by any perfon of
a corredt tafte. They may be of fome ufe to the lower
rank of writers ; but an author of genius has much finer
materials, of Nature’s produdlion, for elevating his iub-
jedf, and making it interefting.
One would be apt to think, that Boileau, declaring
for the Heathen deities, intended them only for embel-
lifhing the didlion : but unluckily he banilhes angels and
devils, who undoubtedly make a figure in poetic lan¬
guage, equal to the Heathen deities. Boileau, there¬
fore, by pleading for the latter in oppofition to the form¬
er, certainly meant, if he had any diftindt meaning, that
the Heathen deities may be introduced as adlors. And,
in fadl, he hinifell- is guilty of that glaring abfurdity*
wherei
Part II. POE
Of the where it is not To pardonable as in an epic poem: In his
Epopee. 0£je Up0n the taking ®f Namur, he demands with a moft
~ * ferious countenance, whether the walls were built by
Apollo or Neptune: and in relating the palfage of the
Rhine, anno 1672, he defcribes the god of that river as
fighting with all his might to oppofe the French mo¬
narch} which is confounding fiftion with reality at a
ftrange rate. The French writers in general run into
this error: wonderful the effect of cuitom entirely to
hide from them how ridiculous fuch fictions are !
That this is a capital error in Gierufalemme Libera-
ta, Taffo’s greateft admirers mult acknowledge: a fitua-
tion can never be intricate, nor the reader even in pain
about the cataftrophe, fo long as there is an angel, devil,
or magician, to lend a helping hand. Voltaire, in his
eflay upon epic poetry, talking of the Pharfalia, ob-
ferves judicioufly, “ That the proximity of time, the no¬
toriety of ever*, the chara6ter of the age, enlightened
and political, joined with thefolidity of Lucan’s fubjed,
deprived him of poetical fittiun.” Is it not amazing,
that a critic who reafons fo juftly with refped to others,
can be fo blind with refped to himfelf ? Voltaire, not
fatisfied to enrich his language with images drawn from
jnvifible and fuperior beings, introduces them into the
a&ion: in the fixth canto of the Henriade, St Louis
appears in perfon, and terrifies the fuldiers} in the fe-
venth canto, St Louis fends the god of Sleep to Henry }
and in the tenth, the Demons of Difcord, Fanaticifm,
War, &c. aflift Aumale in a finglecombatwilhTurenne,
and are driven away by a good an£tl brandifhing the
fword of God. To blend fuch fiditious perfonages
in the fame adion with mortals, makes a bad figure
at any rate} and is intolerable in a hittory fo recent
as that of Henry IV. But perfedion is not the lot of
man.
But perhaps the moft fuccefiful weapon that can be
employed upon this fubjed is ridicule. Addifon has
applied this in an elegant manner: “ Whereas the time
of a general peace is, in all appearance, drawing near}
being informed that there are feveral ingenious perfons
who intend to fhow their talents on fo happy an occa-
fion, and being willing, as much as in me lies, to pre¬
vent that effufion of nonfenfe which we have good caufe
to apprehend} I do hereby ftridly require every perftm
who {hall write on this lubjed, to remember that he is
a Chriftian, and not to facrifice his catechifm to his
poetry. In order to it, I do exped of him, in the firft
place, to make his own poem, without depending upon
Phoebus for any part of it, or calling out for aid upon
any of the mufes by name.' I do likewife pofitively
forbid the fending of Mercury with any particular mef-
fage or difpatch relating to the peace } and ftiall by no
means fuffer Minerva to take upon her thelhape of any
plenipotentiary concerned in this great work. I do fur¬
ther declare, that I (hall not allow the Deftinies to have
had a hand in the deaths of the fevera! thoufands who
have been fi^in in the late war} being of opinion that
all fuch deaths may be well accounted for by the Chri¬
ftian fyftem of powder and ball. I do there foie ilridly
forbid the Fates to cut the thread of man’s life upon any
pretence whatfoever, unlefs it be for the fake of rivvmt.
And whereas I have good reafon to fear, that Neptune
will have a great deal of bufinefs on bi> hands in feveral
poems which we may now fuppofe are. upon the anvil,
I do alfo prohibit his appealance, unlefs it be done in
TRY. 789
metaphor, fimile, or any very fhort allufion} and that Of the
even here he may not be permitted to enter, but with Epopee. ^
great caution and circumlpection. I deiire that the
fame rule may be extended to his whole fraternity of
Heathen gods} it being my defign to condemn every
poem to the flames in which Jupiter thunders, or exer-
cifes any other aft of authority which does not belong
to him. In ftiort I expeft that no pagan agent (hall
be introduced, or any taft related which a man cannot
give credit to with a good confcience. Provided al¬
ways that nothing herein contained lhall extend, or be
conftrued to extend to feveral of the female poets 11
this nation, who fhall ftill be left in full pofieffion of
their gods and goddeffes, in the fame manner as if this
paper had never been written.” Spe£i. N° 523.
The marvellous is indeed fo much promoted hy ma¬
chinery, that it is not wonderful to find it embraced by
the bulk of writers, and perhaps of readers. If in¬
dulged at all, it is generally indulged to excefs. Ho¬
mer introduceth his deities with no greater ceremony
than his mortals} and Virgil has ftill lefs moderation :
a pilot fpent with watching cannot fall afleep and drop
into the fea by natural means: one bed cannot receive
the two lovers TEneas and Dido, without the immediate
interpofition of fuperior powers. The ridiculous in fuch
fiftions muft appear even through the thickeft veil of
gravity and folemnity.
Angels and devils-ferve equal with Heathen deities
as materials for figurative language} perhaps better
among Chriftians, becaufe we believe in them, and not
in Heathen deities. But every one is fenfible, as well
as Boileau, that the invifiblepowers in our creed make
a much worfe figure asaftors in a modern poem than the
invilible powers ir> the Heathen creed did in ancient
poems; the caufe of which is-not far to feek. The
Heathen deities, in the opinion of their votaries, were
beings elevated one ftep only above mankind, fubjtft to
the fame paflions, and direfted by the fame motives;
therefore not altogether improper to mix with men in
an important aftion. In our creed fuperior beings are
placed at fuch a mighty dilfance from us, and are of a
nature fo different, that with no propriety can we appear
with them upon the fame ftage: man, a creature much
inferior, lofes all dignity in the comparifon. ^
There can be no doubt that an hiftorical poem admits An hiftori-
the embellifliment of allegory as well as of metaphor,ca* ptem
fimile, or other figure. Moral truth, in particular, is
finely illuftrated in the allegorical manner: it aroufes the&.c"u^j'er
fancy to find abftraft terms, by a fort of magic, meta-j,n per ie-
morpholt'd into aftive beings; and it is delightful toitnftions.
trace a general propofition in a piftured event. But
allegorical beings fhould be confined within their own
fphere, and never be admitted to mix in the principal
aftion, nor to co-operate in retarding or advancing the
cataftrophe; which would have a ftill worfe effeft than
invifible powers: for the impreftion of real exiftence,
effential to an epic poem, is inconfiftent with that figu¬
rative exiftence which is effential to an allegory ; and
therefore no method can more effeftnally prevent the
impreflion ot reality than the introduftion of a’legmical
beings co-operating with thofe Avhom we conceive to
be really exiftlng. The love epifnde in the Henr’ade
(canto q.), infufforable by the difcoidant mixture of al¬
legory with real life, is copied from that of Rimfidr. and
Armida in the. Gierufulemme Liberata, which hath no
merit
79°
Of the
Epopee.
9«
Epiloa de-
fined.
What con-
ftitutes a
good epi-
fodr.
POE
xnerit to entitle It to be copied. An allegorical objeft,
fuch as Faroe in the TEneid, and the Temple of Love
in the Henriade, may find place in a defcription : but to
introduce Difcord as a real perfonage, imploring the
affiftanee of Love as another real perfonage, to enervate
the courage of the hero, is making thefe figurative beings
acl beyond their fphere, and creating a ftrange jumble
of truth and fiftion. The allegory of Sin and Death
in the Paradife Loft is poflibly not generally reliftied,
though it is not entirely of the fame nature with what
we have been condemning; in a work comprehending
the atchievements of fuperior beings there is more room
for fancy than where it is confined to human aftions.
What is the true notion of an epifode ? or how is it
to be diftinguifhed from the principal action ? Every
incident that promotes or retards the cataftrophe mutt
be part of the principal action. This clears the nature
of an epifode •, which may be defined, “ An incident
connected with the principal a£tion, but contributing
neither to advance nor retard it.” The defcent of
TEneas into hell does not advance or retard the cata-
Itrophe, and therefore is an epifode. The ftory of Nifus
and Euryalus, producing an alteration in the affairs of
the contending parties, is a part of the principal atftion.
The family-fcene in the fixth book of the Iliad is of the
fame nature : for by He&or’s retiring from the field of
battle to vifit his 'wife, the Grecians had opportunity
to breathe, and even to turn upon the Trojans. The
unavoidable effeft of an epifode according to this defi¬
nition muft be, to break the unity of aftion ; and there¬
fore it ought never to be indulged unlefs to unbend the
mind after the fatigue of a long narration. An epifode,
when fuch is its purpofe, requires the following condi¬
tions : it ought to be Well connected with the principal
adtion } it ought to be lively and interefting ; it ought
to be ftiort; and a time ought to be chofen when the
principal adtion relents (E).
In the following beautiful epifode, which clofes the
fecond book of Fingal, all thefe conditions are united.
“ Comal was a fen of Albion j the chief of an hun¬
dred hills. His deer drunk of a thoufand ftreams ; and
a thoufand rocks replied to the voice of his dogs. His
face was the mildnefs of youth *, but his hand the death
of heroes. One was his love, and fair was (he ! the
daughter of mighty Conloch. She appeared like a fun-
beam among women, and her hair was like the wing of
the raven. Her foul was fixed on Comal, and the was
his companion in the chace. Often met their eyes of
love, and happy were their words in fecret. But Gor-
mal loved the maid, the chief of gloomy Ardven. He
watched her lone fteps on the heath, the foe of unhappy
Comal.
“ One day, tired of the chace, when the mift had
concealed their friends, Comal and the daughter of
Conloch met in the cave of Ronan. It was the wonted
haunt of Comal. Its fides were hung with his arms; a
hundred fhields of thongs were there, a hundred helms
of founding fteel. Reft here, faid he, my love Galvina,
T R Y. Part II.
thou light of the cave of Ronan : a deer appears on Of the
Mora’s brow j I go, but foon will return. I fear, faid , EPQPee'
flie, dark Gormal my foe : I will reft here ; but foon
return, my love.
“ He went to the deer of Mora. The daughter of
Conloch, to try his love, clothed her white fide with
his armour, and ftrode from the cave of Ronan. Think¬
ing her his foe, his heart beat high, and his colour
changed. He drew the bow : the arrow flew : Galvina
fell in blood. He ran to the cave with hafty fteps, and
called the daughter of Conloch. Where art thou, my
love ? but no anfwer.- He marked, at length, her
heaving heart beating againft the mortal arrow. O
Conloch’s daughter, is it thou!—he funk upon her
breaft.
“ The hunters found the haplefs pair. Many and
filent were his fteps round the dark dwellings of his
love. The fleet of the ocean came : he fought, and the
ftrangers fell: he fearched for death over the field j but
who could kill the mighty Comal ? Throwing away his
fhield, an arrow found his manly breaft. He fleeps with
his Galvina : their green tombs are feen by the mariner
when he bounds on the waves of the north.”
Next, upon the peculiarities of a dramatic poem. And Double plot
the firft we fhall mention is a double plot: one of which in a drama
muft refemble an epifode in an epic poem j for it would ^e^om
diftra<!ft the fpe&ator, inftead of entertaining him, if
were forced to attend at the fame time to two capital
plots equally interefting. And even fuppofing it an
under-plot like an epifode, it feldom hath a good effect
in tragedy, of which fimplicity is a chief property ; for
an interefting fubjeft that engages our affe&ions, occu- .
pies our whole attention, and leaves no room for any fe-
parate concern. Variety is more tolerable in comedy j
which pretends only to amufe, without totally occupy¬
ing the mind. But even there, to make a double plot
agreeable, is no flight effort of art: the under plot
ought not to vary greatly in its tone from the principal j
for difcordant emotions are unpleafant when jumbled
together; which, by the way, is an infuperable ob-
jeftion to tragi-comedy. Upon that account the Pro¬
vok’d Hufband deferves cenfure; all the fcenes that
bring the family of the Wrongheads into a&ion, being
ludicrous and farcical, are in a very different tone from
the principal fcenes, difplaying fevere and bitter expo-
ftulations between Lord Townley and his lady. The
fame objefHon touches not the double plot of the Care-
lefs Hufband ; the different fubjedts being fweetly con¬
nect'd, and having only fo much variety as to refemble
fhades of colours harmonioufly mixed. But this is not
all. The under-plot ought to be conne&ed with that
which is principal, fo much at leaft as to employ the
fame perfons : the under-plot ought to occupy the inte-
vals or paufes of the principal aCion ; and both ought
to be concluded together. This is the cafe of the
Merry Wives of Windfor.
Violent aCion ought never to be reprefented on the violent ac-
ftage. While the dialogue goes on, a thoufand parti-tion ought
culars,10t t0 k®
reprefent*
—■■ ■     ■■■  .... . —   — ed.
(e) Homer’s defcription of the fnield of Achilles is properly introduced at a time when the aCion relents, and
the reader can bear an interruption. But the author of Telemachus defcribes the fliield of that young hero in the
heat of battle; a very improper time for an interruption.
Part II. POE
Of the culars concur to delude us into an impreflion of reality j
Drama. genuine fentiments, pafiionate language, and perfuafive
" » ’ gefture : the fpedator, once engaged, is willing to be
deceived, lofes fight of himfelf, and without fcruple
enjoys the fpe&acle as a reality. From this abfent
ftate he is roufed by violent a£Hon ; he wakes as from
a pleafing dream ; and, gathering his fenfes about him,
finds all to be a fiftion. Horace delivers the fame rule j
and founds it upon the fame reafon :
Ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet j *
Aut humana palam coquat exta nefarius Atreus ;
Aut in avem Progne vertatur, Cadmus in anguem :
Quodcumque oftendis mihi tic, incredulus odi.
The French critics join with Horace in excluding blood
from the ftage ; but overlooking the moft fubftantial
objection, they urge only that it is barbarous and (hock¬
ing to a polite audience. The Greeks had no notion
of fuch delicacy, or rather effeminacy ; witnefs the mur¬
der of Clytemneftra by her fon Orelles, patfing behind
the fcene, as reprefented by Sophocles : her voice is
heard calling out for mercy, bitter expoftulations on his
part, loud fhrieks upon her being (tabbed, and then a
deep filence. An appeal may be made to every perfon
of feeling, whether this fcene be not more horrible than
if the deed had been committed in fight of the fpe6ta-
tors upon a hidden guff of paflion. If Corneille, in re-
prefenting the affair between Horatius and his filter,
upon which the murder enfues behind the fcene, had no
other view but to remove from the fpeftators a (hocking
action, he was guilty of a capital miftake : for murder
in cold blood, which in fome meafure was the cafe as
reprefented, is more (hocking to a polite audience, even
where the conclufive (tab is not feen, than the fame aft
performed in their prefence by violent and unpremedita¬
ted paflion, as fuddenly repented of as committed. Ad-
##or, difon’s obfervjation is juft *, That no part of this inci-
N° 43. dent ought to have been reprefented, but referved for
a narrative, with every alleviating circumftance in fa¬
vour of the hero.
The proper ^ ^ew 'vords upon the dialogue, which ought to be
conducT of condufted as to be a true reprefentation of nature.
Uhedia- We talk not here of the fentiments nor of the language
°Sue- (which are treated elfewhere) j but of what properly be¬
longs to dialogue writing 3 where every (ingle fpeech,
(hort or long, ought to arife from what is faid by the
former fpeaker, and furnifti matter for what comes after
till the end of the fcene. In this view, all the fpeeches
from firft to laft reprefent fo many links of one regular
chain. No author, ancient or modern, poffeffes the art
of dialogue equal to Shakefpeare. Dryden, in that par¬
ticular, may juftly be placed as his oppofite. He fre¬
quently introduces three or four perfons fpeaking upon
the fame fubjeft, each throwing out his own notions
feparately, without regarding what is faid by the reft :
take for an example the firft fcene of Aurenzebe. Some¬
times he makes a number club in relating an event, not
to a ftranger, fuppofed ignorant of it, but to one another,
for the fake merely of (peaking 3 of which notable fort
of dialogue we have a fpecimen in the firft fcene of the
firft part of the Conqueft of Granada. In the fecond
part of the fame tragedy, fcene fecond, the King, Aben-
amar, and Zulema, make their feparate obfervations,
like fo many foliloquies, upon the flu6luating temper of
the mob j a dialogue fo uncouth puts one in mind of two
3
T 11 Y.
791
(hepherds in a paftoral excited by a prize to pronounce
verfes alternately, each in praife of his own miftrefs.
This manner of dialogue-writing, befides an unnatural
air, has another bad effeft ; it ftays the courfe of the ac¬
tion, becaufe it is not productive of any confequence.
In Congreve’s comedies, the aCtion is often fufpended to
make way for a play of wit.
No fault is more common among writers than to pro¬
long a fpeech after the impatience of the perfon to whom
it is addreffed ought to prompt him or her to break in.
Confider only how the impatient aClor is to behave iu
the mean time. To exprefs his impatience in violent
aClion without interrupting would be unnatural j and yet
to diffemble his impatience, by appearing cool where he
ought to be highly inflamed, would be no lefs fo.
Rhyme being unnatural and difguftful in dialogue, is
happily baniflied from our theatre : the only wonder is
that it ever found admittance, efpecially among a people
accuftomed to the more manly freedom of Shakefpeare’s
dialogue. By banifliing rhyme, we have gained fo much,
as never once to dream that there can be any further
improvement. And yet, however fuitable blank verfe
may be to elevated characters and warm pafiions, it muft
appear improper and affeCledin the mouths of the lower
fort. Why then (hould it be a rule, That every fcene
in tragedy muft be in blank verfe ? Shakefpeare, with
great judgment, has followed a different rule ; which is,
to intermix profe with verfe, and only to employ the lat¬
ter where it is required by the importance or dignity of
the fubjeCt. Familiar thoughts and ordinary faCts ought
to be expreffed in plain language : to hear, for example,
a footman deliver a fimple meffage in blank verfe muft
appear ridiculous to every one who is not biaffed by
cuftom. In (hort, that variety of charaClers and of
fituations, which is the life of a play, requires not
only a fuitable variety in the fentiments, but alfo in
the diClion.
Of the
Drama.
§ 3. The Three Unities.
When we confider the chain of caufes and effeCts in
the material world, independent of purpofe, defign, or
thought, we find a number of incidents in fucceflion,
without beginning, middle, or end : every thing that-
happens is both a caufe and an efteCt j being the effeCt
of what goes before, and the caufe of what follows : one
incident may affeCt us more, another lefs ; but all of
them are links in the univerfal chain : the mind, in
viewing thefe incidents, cannot reft or fettle ultimately
upon any one 3 but is carried along in the train without
any clofe.
But when the intellectual world is taken under view, In t^
in conjunction with the material, the fcene is varied. umty 0f
Man aCts with deliberation, will, and choice : he aims adtion con.
at fome end j glory, for example, or riches, or conqueft, (ids-
the procuring happinefs to individuals, or to his country
in general: he propofes means, and lays plans to attain
the end propofed. Here are a number of faCts or inci¬
dents leading to the end in view, the whole compofing
one chain by the relation of caufe and effeCt. In run¬
ning over a feries of fuch faCts or incidents, we cannot
reft upon any one 3 becaufe they are prcfented to us as
means only, leading to fome end 3 but we reft with fa-
tisfaCtion upon the end or ultimate event 3 becaufe there
the purpofe or aim of the chief perfon or perfons is ac-
compliftied. This indicates the beginning, the middl^,.
and
1
792
The Three
Unities.
* Poet. c. 6
Elem. of
Criticifrn.
102
Unity of
ion a
capital
beauty,
POE
and the end, of what Ariftotle calls an entire afhon *.
The ftory naturally begins with deferibing thofe circum-
ftances which move the perfon who a£ls the principal
part to form a plan, in order to compafs fume defired
event ; the profecution of that plan, and the obltruc-
tions, carry the reader into the heat of aftion ; the mid¬
dle is properly where the aftion is the moft involved ;
and the end is where the event is brought about, and
the plan accomplilhed.
We have given the foregoing example of a plan
crowned with fuccefs, becaufe it affords the cleared con¬
ception of a beginning, a middle, and an end, in which
confifts unity of aftion •, and indeed drifter unity can¬
not be imagined than in that cafe. But an aftion may
have unity, or a beginning, middle, and end, without
fo intimate a relation of parts 5 as where the catadrophe
is different from what is intended or defired, which
frequently happens in our bed tragedies. In the .ZEneid,
the hero, after many obdruftions, makes his plan ef-
feftual. The Iliad is formed upon a different model :
it begins with the quarrel between Achilles and Aga¬
memnon goes on to defcribe the feveral effefts produ¬
ced by that caufe j and ends in a reconciliation. Here
is unity of aftion, no doubt, a beginning, a middle, and
an end j but inferior to that of the Aineid, which will
thus appear. The mind hath a propenfity to go for¬
ward in the chain of hidory •, it keeps always in view
the expefted event 5 and when the incidents or under¬
parts are connefted by their relation to the event, the
mind runs fweetly and eafily along them. This plea-
fure we have in the Ahieid. It is not altogether fo
pleafant to conneft, as in the Iliad, effefts by their
common caufe ; for fuch conneftion forces the mind to
a continual retrofpeft ; looking backward is like walk¬
ing backward.
If unity of aftion be a capital beauty in fable imita¬
tive of human affairs, a plurality of unconnefted fables
mud be a capital deformity. For the fake of variety
we indulge an under-plot that is connefted with the
principal but two unconnefted events are extremely
unpleafant, even where the fame aftors are engaged in
both. Ariodo is quite licentious in that particular : he
carries on at the fame time a plurality of unconnefted
dories. His only excufe is, that his plan is perfeftly
well adjuded to his fubjeft j for every thing in the Or-
lando Furiofo is wild and extravagant.
Though to date fafts in the order of time be natural,
yet that order may be varied for the fake of confpicuous
beauties. If, for example, a noted dory, cold and
dmple in its fird movements, be made the fubjeft of an
epic poem, the reader may be hurried into the heat of
aftion : referving the preliminaries for a converfafion
piece, if thought neceffary ; and that method, at the
fame, time, has a peculiar beauty from being dramatic.
But a privilege that deviates from nature ought to be
fpar’ngly indulged 5 and yet romance writers make no
difficulty of prefenting to the reader, without the lead
preparation, unknown perfons engaged in fome arduous
adventure equally unknown. In Caffandra, two per-
fonages, who afterwards are difcovered to be the heroes
of the fable, dart up completely armed upon the banks
of the Euphrates, and engage in a tingle combat.
A play analyfed is a chain of connefted fafts, of which
each fcene makes a link. Each fcene, accoidingly, ought
, to produce fome incident relative to the catadrophe or
T It Y. Pan II.
ultimate event, by advancing or retarding it. A fcene The Three
that produceth no incident? and for that reafon may be Unities,
termed barren, ought not to be indulged, becaufe it r' - ^
breaks the unity of adtion : a barren fcene can never be
intitled to a place, becaufe the chain is complete with- '
out it. • In the Old Bachelor, the 3d fcene of aft 2. and
all that follow to the end of that aft, are mere conver-
fation-pieces, productive of.no confequence. The rcth
and nth feenes, aft 3. Double Dealer, and the 10th,
11 th, 12th, 13th, and 14th feenes, aft 1. Love for Love,
are of the fame kind. Neither is The Way of World
entirely guiltlefs of fucli feenes. It will be no judifica-
tion that they help to difplay charafters : it were better,
like Dryden in his dramatis perfonce, to defcribe cha¬
rafters beforehand, which would not break the chain of
aftion. But a writer of genius has no occafion for fuch
artifice j he can difplay the charafters of his perfonages
much more to the life in fentiment and aftion. How
fuccefsfully is this done by Shakefpeare ! in whofe
works there is not to be found a fingle barren fcene.
Upon the whole, it appears, that all the fafts in an
hiftorical fable ought to have a mutual conneftion, by
their common relation to the grand event or cataftrophe.
And this relation, in which the unity of aftion confifts,
is equally effential to epic and dramatic compofitions. I03
How far the unities of time and of place are effential, Whether
is a queftion of greater intricacy. Thefe unities were unity of
ftriftly obftrved in the Greek and Romen theatres ; and
they are inculcated by the French and Engliffi critics
as effential to every dramatic compofition. In theory
thefe unities are alfo acknowledged by our bell poets,
though their praftice feldom correfponds : they are of¬
ten forced to take liberties, which they pretend not to
juftify, againft the praftice of the Greeks and Romans,
and againft the folemn decifion of their own country¬
men. But in the courfe of this inquiry it will be made
evident, that in this article we are under no neceflity to
copy the ancients j and that our critics are guilty of a
miftake, in admitting no greater latitude of place and
time than was admitted in Greece and Rome.
Indeed the unities of place and time are not, by the
moft rigid critics, required in a narrative poem. In fuch
compofition, if it pretend to copy nature, thefe unities
would be abfurd •, becaufe rpal events are feldom confin¬
ed within narrow limits either of place or of time : and
yet we can follow hiftory, or an hiftorical fable, through
all its changes, with the greateft facility ; we never once
think of meafuring the real time by what is taken in
reading j nor of forming any conneftion between the
place of aftion and that which we occupy.
We are aware, that the drama differs fo far from the
epic as to admit different rules. It will be obferved,
“ That an hiftorical fable, intended for reading folely,
is under no limitation of time or of place more than a
genuine hiftory ; but that a dramatic compofition cannot
be accurately reprefented unlefs it be limited, as its re-
prefentation is, to one place and to a few hours •, and
therefore that no fable can be admitted but what has
thefe properties, becaufe it would be abfurd to compofe
a piece for reprefentation that cannot be juftly reprefent-
ed.” This argument has at leaft a plaufible appearance ;
and yet one is apt to fufpeft fome fallacy, confidering
that no critic, however ftrift, has ventured to confine the
unities of place and of time within fo narrow bounds.
A view of the Grecian drama, compared with our own,
may
Part II. POE
The throe may perhaps relieve us from this dilemma : if they be
Um:iec* differently conftru&ed, as (hall be made evident, it is
L ’ podible that the foregoing reafoning may not be equal-
104 y applicable to both.
They were All authors agree, that tragedy in Greece was derived
effentul to from the hymns in praife of tiaechus, which were fung
the Greek^ jn pirts by a chorus. Thefpis, to relieve the fingers, and
drama, out £or fa£e Gf variety? introduced one actor, whofe pro¬
vince it was to explain hiftorically the fubjeCl of the
fong, and who oecafionally reprefented one or other
perfonage. Efchylus, introducing a fecund addor, form¬
ed the dialogue, by which the performance became dra¬
matic $ and the actors were multiplied when the fubjeft
reprefented made it neceffary. But ftill the chorus,
which gave a beginning to tragedy, was confidered as
an eflential part. The firtt fcene, generally, unfolds the
preliminary circumftances that lead to the grand event j
and this fcene is by Arifiotle termed the prologue. In
the fecond fcene, where the adtion properly begins, the
chorus is introduced, which, as originally, continues
upon the ftage during the whole performance: the chorus
frequently makes one in the dialogue $ and when the
dialogue happens to be fufpended, the chorus, during
the interval, is employed in finging.. Sophocles adheres
to this plan religioufly. Euripides is not altogether fo
corredl. In fome of his pieces it becomes neceffary to
remove the chorus for a little time : but when that un-
ufual ftep is riflted, matters are fo ordered as not to in¬
terrupt the reprefentation : the chorus never leave the
ftage of their own accord, but at the command of fome
principal perfonage, who conftantly waits their return.
Thus the Grecian drama is a continued reprefentation
without any interruption ; a circumffance that merits
attention. A continued reprefentation without a paufe
affords not opportunity to vary the place of adtion, nor
to prolong the time of the adlion beyond that of the re¬
prefentation. To a reprefentation fo confined in place
and time, the foregoing reafoning is ftridtly applicable :
a real or feigned adlion, that is brought to a conclufion
after confiderable intervals of time and frequent changes
of place, cannot accurately be copied in a reprefenta¬
tion that admits no latitude in either. Hence it is, that
the unities of place and of time, were, or ought to have
been, ftridlly obferved in the Greek tragedies; which is
made neceffary by the very conftitution of their drama,
for it is abfurd to compofe a tragedy that cannot be juftly
reprefented.
Modern critics, who for our drama pretend to eftablifh
rules founded on the practice of the Greeks, are guilty
of an egregious blunder. The unities of place and of
time were in Greece, as we fee, a matter of necefiity,
not of choice $ and it is eafy to fhow, that if we fubmit
to fach fetters, it muft be from choice, not neceffity.
This will be evident upon taking a view of the conflitu-
fcion of our drama, which differs widely from that of
Greece*, whether more or lefs perfect, is a different point,
to be bandied afterward. By dropping fhe chorus, op-
por*unitv is afforded to divide the reprefentation by inter¬
vals of time, during which the ftage is evacuated, and the
fpefracle fufbended. This qualifies our drama for fubjeiffs
Ipread through a wide fpace both of time and of place :
the time fijppofed to pafs during the fiffpenfion of the re¬
prefentation is not meafured by the time of‘he fiffpenfion;
and anv place may be funpofed, as it is not in fight: by
Vol. XVI. Part II. 1
*05
set to the
French or
Sfigiilh.
T R V. 793
which means, many fubjecls can be juftly reprefented in The three
our theatres, that were excluded from thufo of ancient „
Greece. This do£lrine may be illullrated, by comparing
a modern play to afet of hiftorical pictures*, let us fup-
pofe them five in number, and the refembiance will be
complete: each of the pictures reiembles an act in one
of our plays; there mult neceffaiily be the Itrifteft unity
of place and of time in each picture ; and the fame ne-
ceflity requires thefe two unities during each a6t of a
play, becaufe during an a6t there is no interruption in
the fpedtacle. Now, when we view* in fucceftion a num¬
ber of fuch hiftorical pidtures, let it be, for example, the
hiftory of Alexander by Le Brun, we have no difficulty
to conceive, that months or years have palled between
the events exhibited in two different p'dlures, though the
interruption is imperceptible in palling our eye from tlvs
one to the other j and we have as little difficulty to con¬
ceive a change of place, however great: in which view,
there is truly no difference between five a6ts of a modern
play and five fuch pictures. Where the reprefentation is
fufpended, we can with the greateft facility fuppofe any
length of time or any change of place : the fpeftator, it
is true, may be confcious, that the real time and place
are not the fame with what are employed in the repre¬
fentation ; but this is the work of reflection j and by the
fame reflection he may alfo be confcious, that Garrick, is
not King Lear, that the playhoufe is not Dover cliffs,
nor the noife he hears thunder and lightning. In a
word, after an interruption of the.reprefentation, it is not
more difficult for a fpeCtator to imagine a new place, or
a different time, than, at the commencement of the play,
to imagine himfelf at Rome, or in a period of time two
thoufand years back. And indeed, it is abundantly ri¬
diculous, that a critic, who is willing to hold candle¬
light for funfhine, and fome painted canvaffes for a
palace or a prifon, ftiould affeCt fo much difficulty in
imagining a latitude of place or of time in the fable,
beyond what is neceffary in the reprefentation. lc6
There are, it muft be acknowledged, fome effeCts of Great lati-
great latitude in time that ought never to be indulged tl1(‘e ln
in a compofition for the t heatre : nothing can be more^jy
abfurd, than at the cjqfe to exhibit a full-grown perfon t0 ^ ;n_
who appears a child at the beginning : the mind rejeCls, dulged,
as contrary to all probability, fuch latitude of time as
is requifite for a change fo remarkable. 'Hie greateit
change from place to place hath not altogether the fame
bad effeft : in the bulk of human affairs place is not
material \ and the mind, when occupied with an intereft-
ing event, is little regardful of minute circumftances :
thefe may be varied at will, becaufe they fearcely make
any impreffion. ro^
At the fame time, it is not here meant to juftify Is-nor in
berty without any referve. An unbounded licence withplace*
relation to place and time, is faulty, for a reafon that
feems to have been overlooked, which is, that it feldom
fails to break the unitv of aiffion : in the ordinary courfe
of human affairs, fingle events, fuch as are fit to be repre¬
fented cm the ftage, are confined to a narrow fpot, and ge¬
nerally emnloy no great extent of time *, and according¬
ly we feldom find ftri<51 unity of action in a dramatic com¬
pofition, where any remarkable lati tudeisindulged in *hefe
particulars. It may even be admitted, that a compofition Elem, of
which employs bur one place, and icquires not a gi t ateri:rlt*c’Jm*
length of time than is neceffary for the reprefentation, isLl,rii>',Z‘*’
5 H fo
79+
The three
Unities.
POETRY
Part II.
10S
Whether,
our drama
be prefer¬
able to
that of
Greece.
fo much the more perfect} bccaufe the confining an event
within fo narrow bounds, contributes to the unity of ac¬
tion, and alfo prevents that labour, however flight, which
the mind muft undergo in imagining frequent changes of
place, and many intervals of time. But flill tve mull in-
llfl that fuch limitation of place and time as was necef-
fiary in the Grecian drama, is no rule to us } and therefore,
that though fuch limitation adds one beauty more to the
compofition, it is at befl but a refinement, which may juflly
oiveplace toa thoufandbeauties more fubftantial. And we
may add, that it is extremely difficult, if not impra&ica-
ble, to contradl within the Grecian limits any fable fo fruit¬
ful of incidents in number and variety as to give full fcope
to the fiuftuation of paflion. . _ .
It may row appear, that critics who put the unities
of place and of time upon the fame footing with the
unity of adlion, making them all equally eflential, have
not attended t® the nature and conftitution of the mo¬
dern drama. If they admit an interrupted reprefenta-
tion, with which no writer finds fault, it is abfurd to re-
iefl its greateft advantage, that of reprefenting many in-
"terefling fubjefts excluded from the Grecian ftage. If
there needs muft be a reformation, why not reftore the
ancient chorus and the ancient continuity of aftion ?
'There is certainly no medium } for to admit an inteirup-
tion without relaxing from the ftridt unities of place and
of time, is in effe£t to load us with all the inconveni¬
ences of the ancient drama, and at the fame time to
withhold from us its advantages.
And therefore the only proper queftion is, Whether
our model be or be not a real improvement ? This in¬
deed may fairly be called in queftion 5 and in order toa
comparative trial, fome particulars miift be premifed.
When a play begins, we have no difficulty to adjuftour
imagination to the fcene of a£Uon, however diftant it be
in time or in place } becaufe we know that the play is a
reprefentation only. The cafe is very different after we
are engaged : it is the perfe&ion of reprefentation to hide
itfelf, to impofe on the fpeftator, and to produce in him
an impreffion of reality, as if he were ipeftator of a real
event-, but any interruption annihilates that impreffion,
by roufing him out of his waking dream, and unhappily
reftoring him to his fenfes. So difficult it is to fupport
the imp'reffion of reality, that much {lighter interruptions
than the interval between two afts are fufficient to dif-
folve the charm : in the 5th aft of the Mourning Bride,
the three firft fcenes are in a room of ftate, the fourth
in the prifun 5 and the change is operated by ffiifting the
fcene, which is done in a trice : but however quick the
tranfition may be, it is impra&icable to impofe upon the
fpeftators fo as to make them conceive that they are ac¬
tually carried from the palace to the prifon 5 they imme¬
diately refieft, that the palace and prifon are imaginary,
and that the whole is a fittion.
From thefe premifes, one will naturally be led, at firft
view, to pronounce the frequent interruptions in the
modern drama to be an imperfe&ion. It will occur,
“ That every interruption muft have the effect t© banifli
the dream of reality, and with it to banifh our concern,
"which cannot fubfift while we are confcious that all is a
ii£Iion and therefore, that in the modern drama, fuffi¬
cient time is not afforded for fluftuation and fwelling of
paffion, like what is afforded in that of Greece, where
there is no interruption.” This reafoning, it muft be
owned, has a fpecious appearance : but we muft not be- The three
come faint-hearted upon the firft repulfe 5 let us rally our , Un‘tle^
troops for a fecond engagement.
On the Greek ftage, whatever may have been the
cafe on the Roman, the reprefentation was never inter¬
rupted, and the divifion by afts was totally unknown.
The word aid never once occurs in Ariftotle’s Poetics,
in which he defines exa&ly every part of the drama,
and divides it into the beginning, the middle, and the
end. At certain intervals indeed the a6tors retired ;
but the ftage was not then left empty, nor the curtain
let fall; for the chorus continued and fung. Neither
do thefe fongs of the chorus divide the Greek tragedies
into five portions fimilar to our aas : though fome of
the commentators have endeavoured to force them into
this office. But it is plain, that the intervals at which
the chorus fung are extremely unequal and irregular,
fuited to the occafion and the fubjed ; and would divide
the play fometimes into three, fometimes into feven or
eight ads.
As pradice has now eftablifhed a different plan on
the modern ftage, has divided every play into five ads,
and made a total paufe in the reprefentation at the end
of each ad, the queftion to be confidered is, Whether
the plan of the ancient or of the modern drama is beft
qualified for making a deep impreffion on the mind ?
That the preference is due to the plan of the modern
drama, will be evident from the following confiderations.
If it be indeed true, as the advocates for the three uni¬
ties allege, that the audience is deluded into the belief
of the reality of a well-aded tragedy, it is certain that
this delufion cannot be long fupported ; for when the
fpirits are exhaufted by clofe attention, and by the agi¬
tation of paffion, an uneafinefs enfues, which never fails
to banifli the waking dream. Now fuppofing the time
that a man can employ with ftrid attention without
wandering to be no greater than is requifite foi a fingle
ad (a fuppofition that cannot be far from truth), it fol¬
lows, that a continued reprefentation of longer endur¬
ance than an ad, inftead of giving fcope to fluduation
and fwelling of paffion, would overftrain the attention,
and produce a total aofence of mind. In this refped,
the four paufes have a fine effed : for by affording to
the audience a feafonable refpite when the impreffion of
reality is gone, and while nothing material is in agita¬
tion, they relieve the mind from its fatigue : and confe-
quently prevent a wandering of thought at the very time
poffibly of the moft interefting fcenes.
In one article, indeed, the Grecian model has greatly
the advantage : its chorus, during an interval, not only
preferves alive the impreffions made upon the audience,
but alfo prepares their hearts finely for new impreffions.
In our theatres, on the contrary, the audience, at the
end of every ad, being left to trifle time away, lofe
every warm impreffion j and they begin the next ad
cool and unconcerned, as at the commencement of the
reprefentation. T his is a grofs malady in our theatrical
reprefentations *, but a malady that luckily is not incu¬
rable : to revive the Grecian chorus, would be to revive
the Grecian flavery of place and time j but we can fi¬
gure a detached chorus coinciding with a paufe in the
reprefentation, as the ancient chorus ffid with a paule
in the principal adion. What objedion, for example,
can there lie againft mufic between the ads, vocal and
inftrumentalj
5
dern dra¬
ma fug-
gefted.
Elem. of
Criticifm-,
diap. 23.
110
’The mo¬
dern dra-
Part II* POE
The three inftrumefital, adapted to the fubjecl ? Such detached.
Unities. cl10ru3, without putting us under any limitation of time
or place, would recruit the fpirits, and would preferve
An im- entire the tone, if not the tide* of paflion : the mufic,
provement after an aft, Ihould commence in the tone of the prece-
of the mo- paffton, and be gradually varied till it accord with
the tone of the paffion that is to fucceed in the next
aft. The mufic ’and the reprefentation would both of
them be gainers by their conjunftion •, which will thus
appear. Mufic that accords with the prefent tone of
mind, is, on that account, doubly agreeable ; and ac¬
cordingly, though mufic fingly hath not power to raife
a paflion, it tends greatly to lupport a paflion already
raifed. Further, mufic prepares us for the paffion that
follows, by making cheerful, tender, melancholy* or ani¬
mated impreflions, as the fubjeft requires. Take for an
example the firfi; feene of the-Maurning Brit/e, where foft
mufic, in a melancholy {train, prepares us for Almeria’s
deep diftrefs. In this manner, mufic and reprefentation
fupport each other delightfully: the impreflion made
upon the audience by the reprefentation, is a fine prepa¬
ration for the mufic that fucceeds-*, and the impreflion
made by the mufic is a fine preparation for the repre¬
fentation that fucceeds. It appears evident, that by
fome fuch contrivance, the modern drama may be im¬
proved, fo as to enjoy the advantage of the ancient cho¬
rus without its flavifli limitation of place and time. Rut
to return to the comparifon between the ancient and the
modern drama.
The numberlefs improprieties forced upon the Greek
dramatic poets by the conftitution of their drama, may
Pj'e~ be fufficient, one Ihould think, to make us jirefer the
the ancient moc^ern drama, even abftrafting from the improvement
propofed. To prepare the reader for this article, it
muft be premifed, that as in the ancient drama the place
of aftion never varies, a place neceflarily muft be chofen
to which every perfon may have accefs without any im¬
probability. This confines the feene to fome open place,
generally the court or area before a palace •, which ex¬
cludes from the Grecian theatre tranfadlions within
doors, though thefe commonly are the moft important.
Such cruel reftraint is of itfelf fufficient to cramp the
tnoft pregnant invention j and accordingly the Greek
writers, in order to preferve unity of place, are reduced
to woful improprieties. In the Hippolytus of Euripides
(adt i. fc. 6.), Phajdra, diftreffed in mind and body, is
carried without any pretext from her palace to the
place of adlion j is there laid upon a couch, unable to
fupport herfelf upon her limbs ; and made to utter many
things improper to be heard by a number of women
who form the chorus : and what is ftill more improper,
her female attendant ufes the ftrongeft entreaties to
make her reveal the fecret caufe of her anguiffi; which
at laft Phtedra, contrary to decency and probability, is
prevailed upon to do in prefence of that very chorus
(adt ii. fc. 2.). Alceftes, in Euripides, at the point of
death, is brought from the palace to the place of adlion,
groaning and lamenting her untimely fate (adl ii. fc. I.).
In the Trachinice of Sophocles (adl. ii.), a fecret is im¬
parted to Dejanira, the wife of Hercules, in prefence of
the chorus. In the tragedy of Iphigenia, the meffenger
employed to inform Clytemneftra that Iphigenia w-as fa-
crificed, flops fliort at the place of adlion, and with a
loud voice calls the queen from her palace to hear the
T R Y. 795
news. Again, in the Iphigenia in Tauris (adl iv.), the Ti e threw
necefTary prefence of the chorus forces Euripides into a , ^
grofs abfurdity, which is to form a fecret in their hear¬
ing ; and, to difguife the abfurdity, much court is paid,
to the chorus, not one woman but a number, to engage
them to fecrecy. In the Medea of Euripides, that prin-
cefs makes no difficulty, in prefence of the chorus, to
plot the death of her hufband, of his miftrefs, and of her
lather the king of Corinth, all by poifon : it was ne-
ceflary to bring Medea upon the Aage j and there is
but one place of adlion, which is always occupied by
the chorus. This feene clofes the fecond adl \ and in
the end of the third, ftie frankly makes the chorus her
confidants in plotting the murder of her own children.
Terence, by identity of place, is often forced to make
a converfation within doors be heard on the open ftreet:
the cries of a woman in labour are there heard di-
ftindlly. ,ir
The Greek poets are not le(s hampered by unity of Inconve-
time than by that of place. In the Hrppolytus of Euri-n*ences
pides, that prince is baniihed at the end of the 4tht^e.Ij!an
adl ; and in the firft feene of the following adl, a mef-cientdral
fenger relates to Thefeus the whole particulars of the.ma.
death of Hippolytus by the fea-monfler : that remark¬
able event muft have occupied many hours ; and yet in.
the reprefentation it is confined to the time employed
by the chorus upon the fong at the end of the 4th adl.
The inconliftency is ftill greater in the Iphigenia in Tau¬
ris (adl v. fc. 4.) : the fong could not exhauft half an
hour; and yet the incidents fuppofed to have happened
during that time could not naturally have been tranfadl-
ed in lefs than half a day.
The Greek artifts are forced, not lefs frequently, ta
tranfgrefs another rule, derived alfo from a continued
reprefentation. The rule is, that as a vacuity, however
momentary, interrupts the reprefentation, it is neceflary
that the place of adlion be conftantly occupied. So¬
phocles, with regard to that rule as well as to others, is
generally corredt : but Euripides cannot bear fuch re¬
ftraint ; he often evacuates the ftage, and leaves it empty
for others. Iphigenia in Tauris, after pronouncing a
foliloquy in the firft feene, leaves the place of adlion,
and is fucceeded by Oreftes and Pyladps : they, after
fome converfation, walk off; and Iphigenia re-enters,
accompanied with the chorus. In the Alceftes, which
is of the fame author, the place of adlion is void at the
end of the third adl. It is true, that to cover the irre¬
gularity, and to preferve the reprefentation in motion,
Euripides is careful to fill the ftage without lofs of time:
but this ftill is an interruption, and a link of the chain
broken : for during the change of the adlors, there muft
be a fpace of time, during which the ftage is occupied
by neither fet. It makes indeed a more remarkable in¬
terruption, to change the place of adlion as well as the
adtors ; but that was not pradlicable upon the Grecian
ftage.
It is hard to fay upon what model Terence has form¬
ed his plays. Having no chorus, there is a paufe in the
reprefentation at the end of every adt: but advantage is
not taken of the ceffation, even to vary the place of ac¬
tion ; for the ftreet is always chofen, where every thing
pa fling may be feen by every perfon ; and by that
choice, the moil fprightly and interefting parts of the
adlion, \vhich commonly paffes within doors, are exclud-
5 H 2 ed 4
Etew. of
Criticijm,
chap. 23.
112
No change
of time or
place to
be admit¬
ted but be¬
tween the
adts.
POE
ed ; witnefs the laft aft of the Eunuch. He hath fub-
ra it ted to the libe flavcry with refpeft to time. In a
word, a play with a regular chorus, is not more confined
in place and time than his plays are. Thus a zealous
feftary follows implicitly ancient forms and ceremonies,
without once confidering. whether their introduftive
caufe be ftill fubfiiling. Plautus, of a bolder genius
than Terence, makes good ufe of the liberty afforded by
an interrupted reprefentation : he varies the place of ac¬
tion upon all occafions, when the variation fuits his pur-
r The intelligent reader will by this time underftand,
that we plead' for no change of place in our plays but
after an interval, nor for any latitude in point of time
but what falls in with an interval. The unities of place
and time ought to be ftriftly obferved during each aft 5
for during the reprefentation there is no opportunity for
the fmallefl deviation from either. Hence it is an effential
requifite, that during an aft the ftage be always occu¬
pied j for even a momentary vacuity makes an interval
or interruption. Another rule is no lefs effential . it
would be a grofs breach of the unity of aftion to exhibit
upon the Rage two feparate aftions at the fame time ; and
therefore, to preferve that unity, it is neceffary that each
perfonage introduced during an aft be linked to thofe in
poffeffion of the ftage, fo as to join all in one aftion. Thefe
things follow from the very conception of an aft, which
admits not the High left interruption : the moment the re¬
prefentation is intermitted, there is an end of that^aft }
and we have no other notion of a new aft, but where,
after a paufe or interval, the reprefentation is again put
in motion. French writers, generally fpeaking, are cor-
reft in this particular. The Englifh, on the contrary,
are fo irregular as fearce to defer've a criticifm •, aftors
not only fucceed each other in the fame place without
conneftion, but, what is ftill lefs excufable, they fre¬
quently fucceed each other in different places. _ This
change of place in the fame aft ought never to be indul¬
ged •, for, befide breaking the unity of the aft, it has a
difagreeable effeft : after an interval, the imagination
adapts itfelf to any place that is neceffary, as readily as
at the commencement of the play ; but during the re¬
prefentation weerejeft change of place. From the fore¬
going cenfure muft be excepted the Mourning Bride of
Congreve, where regularity concurs with the beauty of
fentiment and of language, to make it one of the mofl:
complete pieces England has to boaft of. It is acknow¬
ledged, however, that in point of regularity this elegant
performance is not altogether unexceptionable. In the
four firil afts, the unities of place and time are ftriftly
obferved : but in the laft aft, there is a capital error
with refpeft to unity of place 5 for in the three firft
feenes of that aft, the place of aftion is a room of Rate,
which is.changed to a prifon in the fourth feeney the
chain alfo of the aftors is broken j as the perfons intro¬
duced in the prifon are different from thofe who made
their appearance in the room of ftate. A his remarkable
interruption of the reprefentation makes in effeft two afts
nftead of one : and therefore, if it be a rule that a play
ought not to confift of more afts than five, this perform¬
ance is fo far defective in point of regularity. It may be
added, that, even admitting fix afts, the irregularity
would not be altogether removed, without a longer
p&ufe in the reprefentation than Is allow7ed in the aft-
T K Y.
Part II.
Of the
Opera.
ing •, for more than a momentary interruption is requi¬
fite for enabling the imagination readily to fall in with
a new place, or with a wide fpace of time. In The v
Way of the World, of the fame author, unity of place is
preferved during every aft, and a ftrifter unity of time
during the whole play than is neceffary.
§ 4. Of the Opera.
113
An opera is a drama reprefented by mufic. This en-The opera,
tertainment was invented at Venice. A n exhibition ofa drama re-
this fort requires a moft brilliant magnificence, and an Pre^^
expence truly royal. The drama muft neceffarily be * uu ’
compofed in verfe } for as operas are Ring and accom¬
panied with lymphonies, they muft be in verfe to be pro¬
perly applicable to mufic. To render this entertainment
ftill more brilliant, it is ornamented with dances and
ballets, with fuperb decorations, and furprifing ma¬
chinery. The dreffes of the aftors, of thofe who aflill
in the chorus, and of the dancers, being all in the nioft
fplendid and elegant tafte, contribute to render the ex¬
hibition highly fumptuous. But notwithftanding this
union of arts and pleafures at an immenfe expence, and
notwithftanding a moft dazzling pageantry, an opera
appears, in the eyes of many people of tafte, but as a
magnificent abfurdity, feeing that nature is never there
from the beginning to the end. It is not our bufinefs
here, however, to determine between the different taftes
of mankind.
The method of exprefling our thoughts by finging
and roufic is fo little natural, and has fomething in it
fo forced and affefted, that it is not eafy to conceive,
how it could come into the minds of men of genius to
reprefent any human aftion, and, what is more, a feri-
ous or tragic aftion, any otherwife than by fpeech. We
have, it is true, operas in Englifti by Addifon, &c. in
Italian by Metaftafio, in French by M. Quinault, Fcn-
tenelle, &c. the fubjefts of which are fo grave and tra¬
gic, that one might call them mufical tragedies, and real
chefs d'ceuvres in their kind. But though we are high¬
ly fatisfied and greatly affefted on reading them, and
are much pleafed with feeing them reprefented, yet the
fpeftator is, perhaps, more charmed with the magnifi¬
cence of the fight and the beauty of the mufic, than
moved with the aftion and the tragical part of the per¬
formance. We are not, however, of that order of cri¬
tics who ftrive to prove, that mankind aft wrong in
finding pleafure in an objeft with which they are really
pleafed-, who blame a lover for thinking his miftrefs
charming, when her features are by no means regular ; Bjelfield’s
and who are perpetually applying the rules of logic to
the works of genius : we make thefe obfervations mere¬
ly in order to examine if it be not poflible to augment
the pleafures of a polite people, by making the opera
fomething more natural, more probable, and more con-
fonant to reafon.
We think, therefore, that the poet fhould never, orfl10Uid take
at leaft very rarely, choofe a fubjeft from hiftory, but its fubjeft
from fable or mythology, or from the regions of en-from^
chantment. Every rational mind is conftantly fhock-^^ble
ed to hear a mutilated hero trill out, from the (lender en_
pipe of a chaffinch, To arms! Tq arms l and in the chantment,
fame tone animate his foldiers, and lead them to the af-
fault ; or harangue an affembly of grave fenators, and
fometimes a whole body of people. Nothing can be
more
Part II. POE
Of the more bt»rlefque than fuch exhibitions j and a man muft
Opera. be poffeffed of a very uncommon fenfibiiity to be
  v " aifefted by them. But as we know not what was the
language of the gods, and their manner of expreffing
themfelves, we are at liberty in that cafe to form what
illufions we pleafe, and to fuppofe that they fung to
diilinguiih themfelves from mortals. Befides, all the
magic of decorations and machinery become natural,
and even neceffary, in thefe kinds of fubjetts ; and
therefore readily afford opportunity for all the pomp of
thefe performances. The chorus, the dances, the bal-
lettes, the fymphonies and dreffes, may likewife be all
made to correfpond with fuch fubje&s, nothing is here
affected, abfurd, or unnatural. Whoever is poffeffed
of genius, and is well acquainted with mythology,
will there find an inexhauftible fource of fubje£ls
highly diverfified, and quite proper for the drama of an
opera.
We {hall not fpeak here of that fort of mufic which
appears to us the moft proper for fuch a drama, and
of the feveral alterations of which we^ think it fufcep-
tible in order to make it more complete, and to adapt
it to a more pathetic, more noble, and more natural
expreflion, as well in the recitatives as in the airs and
chorus. (See Music). We have only here to confider
the bufujefs of the poet. He ftiould never lofe fight
of nature even in the midft of the greateft fi&ion. A
god, a demi-god, a renowned hero, fuch for example
sfodflwuld as Renaud in° Armida, a fairy, a genii, a nymph, or
reprefent fury, &c. ihould conftantly be reprefented according
its charac- t0 the charaRers we give them, and never be made to
ters as con- tjie language of a fop or a petite maitrejfe. The
fiftent‘ recitative, which is the ground-work of the dialogue,
requires verfes that are free and not regular, fuch as
with a fimple cadence approach the neareft to common
language. The airs (hould not be forced into the piece,
nor improperly placed for the fake of terminating a
fcene, or to difplay the voice of a performer; they
fhould exprefs fume fentiment, or fome precept, ftiort
and ftriking, or tender and affetting; or fome fimile
lively and natural; and they {hould arife of themfelves
from a monologue, or from a Icene between two per-
fons: prolixity {hould here be particularly avoided,
efpecially when fuch an air makes part of a dialogue ;
for nothing is more infipid or difguftful than the coun¬
tenances of the other adlors who appear at the fame
time, whofe filence is quit unmeaning, and who know
not what to do with their hands and feet while the
finger is {training his throat. The verfe of all the^airs
fhould be of the lyric kind, and {hould contain fome
poetic image, or paint fome noble paffion, which may
furmfh the compofer with an opportunity of difplaymg
his talents, and of giving a lively -and affeaing expref-
fion to the mufic. A phrafe that is inanimated can never
have a good effedt in the performance, but muft become
infipid and horribly tedious in the air. i he trite fimi-
lies of the Italians, of a ftream that flows, or a bird that
flies, &c. are no longer fufferable. I he fame thing
may be faid with regard to the chorus, which fliould be
equally natural and well adapted: it is here fometimes a
whole people, fometimes the inhabitants oi a peculiar
country, and fometimes warriors, nymphs, or priefts, &c.
who raife their voice to demand jufiice, to implore fa¬
vour, or render a general homage. 1 he adtion itfelf
\
T R Y. 797
will furnifh the poet of genius with ideas, words, and the Of the
manner of difpoling them. < ^ “ .
Laftly, the opera being a performance calculated lefs
to fatisfy the underftanding than to charm the ear and
affedt the heart, and efpeci&lly to ftrike the fight, the
poet {hould have a particular attention to that objedt,
{hould be {killed in the arts of a theatre, fliould know
how to introduce combats, ballets, fealts, games, pom¬
pous entries, folemn proceffions, and lueh marvellous in¬
cidents as occur in the heavens, upon earth, in the fea,
and even in the infernal regions: but all thefe matters
demand a ftrong charadter, and the utmoft preciiion in
the execution: for otherwife, the comic being a near
neighbour to the fublime, they will eafily become ridi- u6'
culous. The unity of adtion muff certainly be obferved Unity of
in fuch a poem, and all the incidental epifodes muft eon-^*®" nt^‘
cur to the principal defign; otherwife it would be at£eaopera„
monftrous chaos. It is impoffible, however, ferupu-
loufly to obferve the unity of time and place: though
the liberty, which reafon allows the poet in this refpedt,
is not without) bounds; and the lefs ufe he makes of it,
the more perfedt his poem will be. It is not perhaps
impoflible fo to arrange the objedts, that, in changing
the decorations, the painter may conftantly make ap¬
pear fome part of the principal decoration which cha-
radterifes the fituation of the fcene, as the corner of a
palace, at the end of a garden, or fome avenue that
leads to it, &c. But all this is liable to difficulties,
and even to exceptions; and the art of the painter muff
concur in fuch cafe with that of the poet. For the reft,
all the operas of Europe are at leaft one third too
long; efpecially the Italian. The unity of adtion re¬
quires brevity, and fatiety is infeparable from a diver-
fion that lafts full four hours, and fometimes longer.
They have indeed endeavoured to obviate this incon¬
venience by dividing an opera into three, and even into
five adis; but experience proves, that this divifion,
though judicious, is ftill not fufficient to relieve the wea¬
ried attention.
Sect. II. Of Lyric Poetnj.
The ode is very ancient, and was probably the firft Origin of
fpecies of poetry. It had its fource, we may fuppofe,the ode.
from the heart, and was employed to exprefs, with be¬
coming fervour and dignity, the grateful fenfe man
entertained of the bleffings which daily flowed from
God the fountain ' of all goodnefs : hence their har-
veft hymns, and other devotional compofitions of that
kind.
But in procefs of time it was employed, not only to
praife the Almighty for bounties received, but to folicit
his aid in time of trouble; as is plain from the odes
written by King David and others, and colle&ed by the
Jewilh Sanhedrim into the book of Pfalms, to be fung
at their faffs, feftivals, and on other folemn occafions.
Nor was this pradflice confined to the Ifraelites only:
other nations had their fongs of praife and petitions of
this fort, which they preferred to their deities, in time
of public profperity and public diftrefs, as well as to
thofe heroes who diftinguiffied themfelves in arms.
Even the American Indians, whofe notions of religion
are extremely confined, have their war-fongs, which they
fing to this day.
798
Of Lyric
Poetry.
118
Its free¬
dom,
POE
It is reafonable to fuppofc that the awful purpose to
which the ode was applied, gave rife among the ancients
to the cuftom of invoking the mufes ; and that the poets
in order to raife their fentiments and language, fo as to
be acceptable to their deities, thought it expedient to
folicit feme divine affiftance. Hence poets are faid to
have been infpired, and hence an unbounded liberty has
been given to the ode •, for the lyric poet, fired, as it
were, with his fubjeift, and borne away on the wings of
gratitude, difdains grammatical niceties and common
inodes of fpeech, and often foars above rule, though not
above reafon. This freedom, however, confilts chiefly
in fudden tranfitions, bold digreflions, and lofty excur-
fions. For the ancient poets, and even Pindar, the moft
daring and lofty of them all, has in his fublimeft flights,
and amidlt all his rapture, preferved harmony, and often
uniformity in his verfification : but fo great is the vari*
ety of his meafures, that the traces of famenefs are in a
manner loft j and this is one of the excellencies for which
that poet is admired, and which, though feemingly de¬
void of art, requires fo much that he has feldom been
imitated with fuccefs.
The ancients in their odes indulged fuch a liberty of
fancy, that fome of their beft poets not only make bold
excurfions and digreflions, but, having in their flights
llarted fome new and noble thought, they frequently
purfue it, and never more return to their fubjeft. But
this loofe kind of ode, which feems to rejeft all method,
and in which the poet, having juft touched upon his
fubjeft, immediately diverts to another, we ftiould think
blameable, were it lawful to call in queftion the autho¬
rity of thofe great men who were our preceptors in this
art. We may venture to affirm, however, that thefe
compofitions ftand in no degree of coroparifon with other
odes of theirs ; in which, after wandering from thefub-
jeft in purftiit of new ideas arifing from fome of its ad¬
junctions, and ranging wantonly, as it wrere, through a
variety of matter, the poet is from fome other circum-
ftance led naturally to his fubjcCt again *, and, like, a
bee, having collected the eflence of many different
flowers, returns homo, and unites them all in one uni¬
form pleafing fweet.
The tub r^'^e °^e amori8 ancients fignified no more than a
je<5ts of the f°ng : but with the moderns, the ode and the fong are
-ode. confidered as different compofitions j the ode being ufu-
ally employed in grave and lofty fubjeds, and feldom
fung but on folemn occafions.
The fubje&s moft proper for the ode and fong, Ho¬
race has pointed out in a few elegant lines.
Gods, heroes, conquerors, Olympic crowns,
Love’s pleafing cares, and the free joys of wine,
Are proper fubjefts for the lyric fong.
110
The fub-
To which we may add, that happinefs, the pleafures
of a rural life, and fuch parts of morality as afford lef-
fons for the promotion of our felicity, and reflections on
the conduCt of life, are equally fuitable to the ode. This
both Pindar and Horace were fo fenfible of, that many
of their odes are feafoned with thefe moral fentences and
sefieCtions.
But who can number ev’ry fandy grain
Wafti’d by Sicilia's boarfe-refounding main ?
T R Y. Part II.
Or who can Therati's gen’rous works exprefs, Of Lyric
And tell how many hearts his bounteous virtues blefs ? , Poctry'
Ode to Thf.rok, v"_ xJ
And in another Olympic ode, inferibed by the fame
poet to Diagoras of Rhodes (and in fueh efteem, that
it was depofited in the temple of Minerva, written in
letters of gold), Pindar, after exalting them to the Ikies,
concludes with this leffon in life :
Yet as the gales of fortune various blow,
To-day tempeftuous, and to-morrow fair,
Due bounds, ye Rhodians, let your tranfports know: j
Perhaps to-morrow comes a ftorm of care.
Weft's Pindar.
The man refolv’d and fteady to his truft,
Inflexible to ill, and obdurately juft.
May the rude rabble’s infolence defpife,
Their fenfelefs clamours and tumultuous cries *,
The tyrant’s fiercenefs he beguiles,
And the ftern brow and the harlh voice defies,
And with fuperior greatnefs fmiles.
Not the rough whirlwind, that deforms
Adria’s black gulf, and vexes it with ftorms,
The ftubborn virtue of his foul can move j
Nor the red arm of angry Jove,
That flings the thunder from the Iky,
And gives it rage to roar, and ftrength to fly.
Should the whole frame of nature round him break,
In ruin and confufion hurl’d,
He unconcern’d would hear the mighty crack,
And ftand fecure amidft a falling world.
Horace,
M. Defpreaux has given us a very beautiful and juft
defeription of the ode in the following lines.
L’Ode avec plus d’eclat, & non meins d’energie
Elevant jufqu’au ciel fon vol ambitieux,
Entretient dans vers commerce avec les Dieux.
Aux Athletes dafts Pife tile ouvre la barriere,
Chanteun vainqueur poudreux aubout de la carriere j
Mene Achille fanglant au bords du Simois
Ou fait flechir 1’Efeaut fous le joug de Louis.
Tantot comme une abeille ardente a fon ouvrage
Elle s’en va de fleurs depouiller le rivage :
Elle point les feftins, les danfes & les ris,.
Vante un baifer cueilli fur les levres d’iris,
Qui mollement refifte & par un doux caprice
Quelquefois le refufe, afin qu’on le raviffe.
Son ftyle impetueux fouvent marehe au hafard.
Chez elle un beau defordre eft un effet de Part,
Loin ces rimeurs craintifs, dont 1’efprit phlegmatique
Garde dans fes fureurs un ordre didaClique:
Qui chantant d’un heros les progres eclatans,
Maigres hiftoriens, fuivront 1’ordre des temps.
Apollon de fon feu leur fut toujours avare, &c.
The lofty ode demands the ftrongeft fire,
For there the mufe all Phoebus muft infpire:
Mounting to heav’n in her ambitious flight,
Amongft the gods and heroes takes delight j
Of Pifa’s wreftlers tells the finewy force,
And fings the dully conqueror’s glorious courfe $
Part II.
Of Lyric
Poetry.
POETRY.
To Simois’ banks now fierce Achilles fends.
Beneath the Gallic yoke now Efcaut bends ;
Sometimes Ihe flies, like an induftrious bee,
And robs the flow’rs by nature’s chemiitry •,
Defcribes the Ihepherds dances, feafts, and blifs,
And boafts from Phillis to furprife a kifs,
When gently fhe refills with feign’d remorfe,
That what flie grants may feem to be by force.
Her generous ftyle will oft at random Hart,
And by a brave diforder (how her art j
Unlike thofe fearful poets whofe cold rhyme
In all their raptures keeps exafteft time,
Who fing th’ illuftrious hero’s mighty praife,
Dry journalifts, by terms of weeks and days j
To thefe, Apollo, thrifty of his fire,
Denies a place in the Pierian choir, &c.
SOAMKS*.
799
Of Lyric
Poetry.
POETRY continued in next Volume*
END OF THE SIXTEENTH VOLUME.
©IHECTIONS FOR PLACING THE PLATES OF Vol. XYL
Part I.
Plate CCCCIV.—CCCCVI. to face
CCCCVII.
CCCCYIII.
CCCCIX.
ccccx.—ccccxv.
CCCCXVI.
page
9a
114
128
184
336
Part II.
CCCCXVII. CCCCXVIII. - - 528
CCCCXIX. . - * . 552
CCCCXX.—CCCCXXII. - - 600
CCCCXXIIL—CCCCXXXIIL - - 750
$
wm*