P

Pillars of Hercules. See Hercules, Pillars of.

Pillory, an obsolete instrument of punishment for centuries in use all over Europe, consisted of a platform, an upright pole, and at a convenient height cross-boards with holes, in which the culprit's neck and wrists were placed and fastened; so fixed he was exposed in some public place to the insults and noxious missiles of the mob. Formerly in England the penalty of forgery, perjury, &c., it became after the Commonwealth a favourite punishment for seditious libellers. It was last inflicted in London in 1830, and was abolished by law in 1837.

Piloty, Karl von, a modern German painter of the new Münich school, and professor of Painting at the Münich Academy; did portraits, but his masterpieces are on historical subjects, such as "Nero on the ruins of Rome," "Galileo in Prison," "The Death of Cæsar," &c.; he was no less eminent as a teacher of art than as an artist (1826-1886).

Pilsen (50), a town in Bohemia, 67 m. SW. of Prague; has numerous industries, and rich coal and iron mines, and produces an excellent beer, which it exports in large quantities. It was an important place during the Thirty Years' War.

Pindar, the greatest lyric poet of Greece, and for virgin purity of imagination ranked by Ruskin along with Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Scott; born near Thebes, in Boeotia, of a musical family, and began his musical education by practice on the flute, while he was assisted in his art by the example of his countrywoman Corinna, who competed with and defeated him more than once at the public festivals; he was a welcome visitor at the courts of all the Greek princes of the period, and not the less honoured that he condescended to no flattery and attuned his lyre to no sentiment but what would find an echo in every noble heart; he excelled in every department of lyric poetry, hymns to the gods, the praises of heroes, pæans of victory, choral songs, festal songs and dirges, but of these only a few remain, his Epinikia, a collection of triumphal odes in celebration of the successes achieved at the great national games of Greece; he was not only esteemed the greatest of lyric poets by his countrymen, but is without a rival still; when Alexander destroyed Thebes he spared the house of Pindar (522-442 B.C.).

Pindar, Peter. See Wolcott, John.

Pindarees or Pindaris, a set of freebooters who at the beginning of the present century ravaged Central India and were the terror of the districts, but who under the governor-generalship of Hastings were driven to bay and crushed in 1817.

Pindus, Mount, is the range of mountains rising between Thessaly and Epirus, which forms the watershed of the country.

Pineal Gland, a small cone-shaped body of yellowish matter in the brain, the size of a pea, and situated in the front of the cerebellum, notable as considered by Descartes to be the seat of the soul, but is now surmised to be a rudimentary remnant of some organ, of vision it would seem, now extinct.

Pinel, Philippe, a French physician, distinguished for the reformation he effected, against no small opposition, in the treatment of the insane, leading to the abandonment everywhere of the cruel, inhuman methods till then in vogue (1745-1826).

Pinero, Arthur Wing, dramatic author, born in London; bred to law, took to the stage and the writing of plays, of which he has produced a goodly number; collaborated with Sir Arthur Sullivan and Mr. Comyns Carr in a romantic musical drama entitled "The Beauty Stone"; b. 1855.

Pinerolo (12), a town 23 m. SW. of Turin, now a fortress in an important military position, and in which the "Man with the Iron Mask" was imprisoned.

Pinkerton, John, a Scottish antiquary and historian, born in Edinburgh; was an original in his way, went to London, attracted the notice of Horace Walpole and Gibbon; died in Paris, poor and neglected (1758-1826).

Pinkie, a Scottish battlefield, near Musselburgh, Midlothian, where the Protector Somerset, in his expedition to secure the hand of Mary Stuart for Edward VI., defeated and slaughtered a Scottish army 1547.

Pinto, Mendez, a Portuguese traveller; wrote in his "Peregriniçam" an account of his marvellous adventures in Arabia, Persia, China, and Japan, extending over a period of 21 years (1527-1548), of which, amid much exaggeration, the general veracity is admitted (1510-1583).

Pinturicchio, Italian painter, born at Perugia; was assistant to Perugino (q. v.) when at work in the Sistine Chapel, Rome, did frescoes and panel paintings, one of the "Christ bearing the Cross" (1454-1513).

Pinzen, the name of two brothers, companions of Christopher Columbus, and one of whom, Vicente Yanez, discovered Brazil in 1500.

Piozzi, Hester, a female friend of Johnson under the name of Mrs. Thrale, after her first husband, a brewer in Southwark, whose home for her sake was the rendezvous of all the literary celebrities of the period; married afterwards, to Johnson's disgust, an Italian music-master, lived with him at Florence, and returned at his death to Clifton, where she died; left "Anecdotes of Johnson" and "Letters"; was authoress of "The Three Warnings" (1741-1821).

Pipe of Peace, a pipe offered by an American Indian to one whom he wishes to be on good terms with.

Piræus (36), the port of Athens 5 m. SW. of the city, planned by Themistocles, built in the time of Pericles, and afterwards connected with the city for safety by strong walls, which was destroyed by the Spartans at the end of the Peloponnesian War, but restored, to fall afterwards into neglect and ruins.

Pirano (9), a seaport of Austria, on the Adriatic, 12 m. SW. of Trieste; has salt-works in the neighbourhood, and manufactures glass, soap, &c.

Pirithous, king of the Lapithæ and friend of Theseus, on the occasion of whose marriage an intoxicated Centaur ran off with his bride Hippodamia, which gave rise to the famous fight between the Centaurs and the Lapithæ, in which Theseus assisted, and the former were defeated; on the death of Hippodamia, Pirithous ran off with Persephone and Theseus with Helen, for which both had to answer in the lower world before Pluto; Hercules delivered the latter, but Pluto would not release the former.

Pirke Aboth (i. e. sayings of the Fathers), the name given to a collection of aphorisms in the manner of Jesus the Son of Sirach by 60 doctors learned in the Jewish law, representative of their teaching, and giving the gist of it; they inculcate the importance of familiarity with the words of the Law.

Pirna (11), a town in Saxony, on the Elbe, 11 m. SE. of Dresden; has sandstone quarries in the neighbourhood which employ 8000 quarrymen.

Pisa (38), on the Arno, 49 m. by rail W. of Florence, is one of the oldest cities in Italy; formerly a port, the river has built up the land at its mouth so that the sea is now 4 m. off, and the ancient trade of Pisa has been transferred to Leghorn. There are a magnificent cathedral, rich in art treasures, a peculiar campanile of white marble which deviates 14 ft. from the perpendicular, known as the leaning tower of Pisa, several old and beautiful churches, a university, school of art, and library. Silks and ribbons are woven, and coral ornaments cut. In the 11th century Pisa was at the zenith of its prosperity as a republic, with a great mercantile fleet, and commercial relations with all the world. Its Ghibelline sympathies involved it in terrible struggles, in which it gradually sank till its fortunes were merged in those of Tuscany about 1550. The council of Pisa, 1409, held to determine the long-standing rival claims of Gregory XII. and Benedict XII. to the Papal chair, ended by adding a third claimant, Alexander V. Pisa was one of the twelve cities of ancient Etruria.

Pisano, Nicola, Italian sculptor and architect of Pisa; his most famous works are the pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa, and that for the Duomo at Siena, the last being the fountain in the piazza of Perugia (1206-1278).

Pisgah, a mountain range E. of the Lower Jordan, one of the summits of which is Mount Nebo, from which Moses beheld the Promised Land, and where he died and was buried.

Pishin (60), a district of South Afghanistan, N. of Quetta, occupied by the British since 1878 as strategically of importance.

Pisidia, a division of ancient Asia Minor, N. of Pamphilia, and traversed by the Taurus chain.

Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, was the friend of Solon and a relative; an able but an ambitious man; being in favour with the citizens presented himself one day in the Agora, and displaying some wounds he had received in their defence, persuaded them to give him a bodyguard of 50 men, which grew into a larger force, by means of which in 560 B.C. he took possession of the citadel and seized the sovereign power, from which he was shortly after driven forth; after six years he was brought back, but compelled to retire a second time; after 10 years he returned and made good his ascendency, reigning thereafter peacefully for 14 years, and leaving his power in the hands of his sons Hippias and Hipparchus; he was a good and wise ruler, and encouraged the liberal arts, and it is to him we owe the first written collection or complete edition of the poems of Homer (600-527 B.C.).

Pistoia (20), a town of N. Italy, at the foot of the Apennines, 21 m. NW. of Florence, with palaces and churches rich in works of art; manufactures iron and steel wares.

Pistol, Ancient, a swaggering bully and follower of Falstaff in the "Merry Wives of Windsor."

Pistole, an obsolete gold coin of Europe, originally of Spain, worth some 16s. 2d.

Pit`aka` (lit. a basket), the name given to the sacred books of the Buddhists, and constituting collectively the Buddhistic code. See Tripitaka.

Pitaval, a French advocate, compiler of a famous collection of causes célèbres (1673-1743).

Pitcairn Island, a small volcanic island 2½ m. long and 1 broad, solitary, in the Pacific, 5000 m. E. of Brisbane, where, in 1790, nine men of H.M.S. Bounty who had mutinied landed with six Tahitians and a dozen Tahitian women; from these have sprung an interesting community of islanders, virtuous, upright, and contented, of Christian faith, who, having sent a colony to Norfolk Island, numbered in 1890 still 128.

Pitcairne, Archibald, Scottish physician and satirist, born at Edinburgh; studied theology and law, and afterwards at Paris, medicine; he practised in Edinburgh, and became professor at Leyden; returning, he acquired great fame in his native city; in medicine he published a treatise on Harvey's discovery of the circulation of the blood; being an Episcopalian and Jacobite, he wrote severe satires on all things Presbyterian, e. g. "Babel, or the Assembly, a Poem," 1692 (1652-1713).

Pithom, a town of Rameses, one of the treasure-cities built by the children of Israel in Lower Egypt, now, as discovered by M. Naville, reduced to a small village between Ismailia and Tel-el-Kebir.

Pitman, Sir Isaac, inventor of the shorthand system which bears his name, born at Trowbridge, Wiltshire; his first publication was "Stenographic Sound-Hand" in 1837, and in 1842 he started the Phonetic Journal, and lectured extensively as well as published in connection with his system (1813-1897).

Pitrè, Giuseppe, eminent Italian folk-lorist, born at Palermo, after serving as a volunteer in 1860 under Garibaldi, and graduating in medicine in 1866, threw himself into the study of literature, and soon made the folk-lore of Italy, the special study of his life, and to which he has devoted himself with unsparing assiduity, the fruits from time to time appearing principally in two series of his works, one in 19 vols. and another in 10 vols.; b. 1841.

Pitris (i. e. Fathers), in the Hindu mythology an order of divine beings, and equal to the greatest of the gods, who, by their sacrifice, delivered the world from chaos, gave birth to the sun and kindled the stars, and in whose company the dead, who have like them lived self-sacrificingly, enter when they lay aside mortality. See Rev. vii. 14.

Pitacottie, Robert Lindsay of, proprietor in the 16th century of the Fifeshire estate name of which he bore, was the author of "The Chronicles of Scotland," to which Sir Walter Scott owed so much; his work is quaint, graphic, and, on the whole, trustworthy.

Pitt, William. See Chatham, Earl of.

Pitt, William, English statesman, second son of Lord Chatham, born near Bromley, Kent, grew up a delicate child in a highly-charged political atmosphere, and studied with such diligence under the direction of his father and a tutor that he entered Cambridge at 14; called to the bar in 1780, he speedily threw himself into politics, and contested Cambridge University in the election of 1781; though defeated, he took his seat for the pocket burgh of Appleby, joined the Shelburne Tories in opposition to North's ministry, and was soon a leader in the House; he supported, but refused to join, the Rockingham Ministry of 1782, contracted his long friendship with Dundas, afterwards Viscount Melville, and became an advocate of parliamentary reform; his first office was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Shelburne; his reputation steadily rose, but on Shelburne's resignation he refused the Premiership, and went into opposition against the Portland, Fox, and North coalition; that minority being defeated (1783) on their Indian policy by the direct and unconstitutional interference of the king, he courageously formed a government with a majority of 100 against him; refusing to yield to adverse votes, he gradually won over the House and the country, and the dissolution of 1784 gave a majority of 120 in his favour, and put him in office, one of England's strongest ministers; during his long administration, broken only for one month in 20 years, he greatly raised the importance of the Commons, stamped out direct corruption in the House, and abolished many sinecures; he revised taxation, improved the collection of revenue and the issue of loans, and set the finances in a flourishing condition; he reorganised the government of India, and aimed strenuously to keep England at peace; but his abandonment of parliamentary reform and the abolition of the slave-trade suggests that he loved power rather than principles; his Poor-Law schemes and Sinking Fund were unsound; he failed to appreciate the problems presented by the growth of the factory system, or to manage Ireland with any success; on the outbreak of the French Revolution he failed to understand its significance, did not anticipate a long war, and made bad preparations and bad schemes; his vacillation in Irish policy induced the rebellion of 1798; by corrupt measures he carried the legislative union of 1801, but the king refused to allow the Catholic emancipation he promised as a condition; Viscount Melville was driven from the Admiralty on a charge of malversation, his own health broke down, and the victory of Trafalgar scarcely served to brighten his closing days; given to deep drinking, and culpably careless of his private moneys, he yet lived a pure, simple, amiable life; with an overcharged dignity, he was yet an attractive man and a warm friend; England has had few statesmen equal to him in the handling of financial and commercial problems, and few orators more fluent and persuasive than the great peace minister.

Pitt Diamond, a diamond brought from Golconda by the grandfather of the elder Pitt, who sold it to the king of France; it figured at length in the hilt of the State sword of Napoleon, and was carried off by the Prussians at Waterloo.

Pittacus, one of the seven sages of Greece, born at Mitylene, in Lesbos, in the 7th century B.C.; celebrated as a warrior, a statesman, a philosopher, and a poet; expelled the tyrants from Mitylene, and held the supreme power for 10 years after by popular vote, and resigned on the establishment of social order; two proverbs are connected with his name: "It is difficult to be good," "Know the fit time."

Pittsburg (321), second city of Pennsylvania, is 350 m. by rail W. of Philadelphia, where the junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela Rivers forms the Ohio; the city extends for 10 miles along the rivers' banks, and climbs up the surrounding hills; there are handsome public buildings and churches, efficient schools, a Roman Catholic college, and a Carnegie library; domestic lighting and heating and much manufacture is done by natural gas, which issues at high pressure from shallow borings in isolated districts 20 m. from the city; standing in the centre of an extraordinary coal-field—the edges of the horizontal seams protrude on the hillsides—it is the largest coal-market in the States; manufactures include all iron goods, steel and copper, glassware, and earthenware; its position at the eastern limit of the Mississippi basin, its facilities of transport by river and rail—six trunk railroads meet here—give it enormous trade advantages; its transcontinental business is second in volume only to Chicago; in early times the British colonists had many struggles with the French for this vantage point; a fort built by the British Government in 1759, and called after the elder Pitt, was the nucleus of the city.

Pityriasis, a skin eruption attended with branlike desquamation.

Pius, the name of nine Popes, of which only six call for particular mention: P. II., Pope from 1458 to 1464, was of the family of the Piccolomini, and is known to history as Æneas Sylvius, and under which name he did diplomatic work in Britain and Germany; as Pope he succeeded Callistus III.; he was a wily potentate, and is distinguished for organising a crusade against the Turks as well as his scholarship; the works which survive him are of a historical character, and his letters are of great value. P. IV., from 1559 to 1563, was of humble birth; during his popehood the deliberations of the Council of Trent were brought to a close, and the Tridentine Creed was named after him. P. V., Pope 1566 to 1572, also of humble birth, was severe in his civil and ecclesiastical capacity, both in his internal administration and foreign relationships, and thought to browbeat the world back into the bosom of Mother Church; issued a bull releasing Queen Elizabeth's subjects from their allegiance; but the great event of his reign, and to which he contributed, was the naval victory over the Turks at Lepanto in 1571. P. VI., Pope from 1775 to 1799; the commencement of his popehood was signalised by beneficent measures for the benefit of the Roman city, but he was soon in trouble in consequence of encroachments on Church privileges in Austria and the confiscation of all Church property in France, which ended, on his resisting, to still further outrages, in his capture by the French under Bonaparte and his expatriation from Rome. P. VII., Pope from 1800 to 1823, concluded a concordat with France, crowned Napoleon emperor at Paris, who thereafter annexed the papal territories to the French empire, which were in part restored to him only after Napoleon's fall; he was a meek-spirited man, and was much tossed about in his day. P. IX., or Pio Nono, from 1846 to 1878, was a "reforming" Pope, and by his concessions awoke in 1848 a spirit of revolution, under the force of which he was compelled to flee from Rome, to return again under the protection of French bayonets against his own subjects, to devote himself to purely ecclesiastical affairs; in 1854 he promulgated the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, and in 1869 the Infallibility of the Pope; upon the outbreak of the Franco-German War in 1871 the French troops were withdrawn and Victor Emmanuel's troops entered the city; Pius retired into the Vatican, where he lived in seclusion till his death.

Pix, the name of a little chest in which the consecrated host is kept in the Roman Catholic Church. See Pyx.

Pixies, Devonshire Robin Goodfellows, said to be the spirits of infants who died unbaptized.

Pizarro, Francisco, the conqueror of Peru, born at Truxillo, in Spain, the son of a soldier of distinction; received no education, but was of an adventurous spirit, and entered the army; embarked with other adventurers to America, and having distinguished himself in Panama, set out by way of the Pacific on a voyage of discovery along with another soldier named Almagra; landed on the island of Gallo, on the coast of Peru, and afterwards returned with his companion to Spain for authority to conquer the country; when in 1529 he obtained the royal sanction he set sail from Spain with three ships in 1531, and on his arrival at Peru found a civil war raging between the two sons of the emperor, who had just died; Pizarro saw his opportunity; approached Atahualpa, the victorious one, now become the reigning Inca, with overtures of peace, was admitted into the interior of the country; invited him to a banquet, had him imprisoned, and commenced a wholesale butchery of his subjects, upon which he forced Atahualpa to disclose his treasures, and then put him perfidiously to death; his power, by virtue of the mere terror he inspired, was now established, and he might have continued to maintain it, but a contest having arisen between him and his old comrade Almagro, whom after defeating he put to death, the sons and friends of the latter rose against him, seized him in his palace at Lima, and took away his life (1476-1541).

Plague, The, is a very malignant kind of highly contagious fever, marked by swellings of the lymphatic glands. From the development of purple patches due to subcutaneous hæmorrhages the European epidemic of 1348-50 was called the Black Death. A quarter of the European population perished on that occasion. Other visitations devastated London in 1665, Northern Europe 1707-14, Marseilles and Provence 1720-22, and South-East Russia 1878-79. The home of the Plague was formerly Lower Egypt, Turkey, and the shores of the Levant. From these it has been absent since 1844. Its home since then has been in India, where it has assumed epidemic form 1836-38 and 1896-99.

Plain, The, the name given to the Girondists or Moderate party in the French National Convention, in contrast with the Mountain (q. v.) or Jacobin party.

Planché, James Robinson, antiquary and dramatist, born in London, of French descent; author of a number of burlesques; an authority on heraldry and costumes; he produced over 200 pieces for the stage, and held office in the Heralds' Court (1796-1880).

Planetoids, the name given to a number of very small planets revolving between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, originally called Asteroids, all of recent discovery, and the list, amounting to some 400, as yet made of them understood to be incomplete. They are very difficult of discovery, many of them from the smallness of their size and their erratic movements.

Planets, bodies resembling the earth and of different sizes, which revolve in elliptical orbits round the sun, and at different distances, the chief of them eight in number, two of them, viz., Mercury and Venus, revolving in orbits interior to that of the earth, and five of them, viz., Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, exterior, the whole with the planetoids (q. v.) and comets constituting the solar system.

Plantagenets, the name attached to a dynasty of kings of England, who reigned from the extinction of the Norman line to the accession of the Tudor, that is, from the beginning of Henry II.'s reign in 1154 to the end of Richard III.'s on Bosworth Field in 1458. The name was adopted by Geoffrey of Anjou, the husband of Matilda, the daughter of Henry I., whose badge was a sprig of broom (which the name denotes), and which he wore in his bonnet as descended from the Earl of Anjou, who was by way of penance scourged with twigs of it at Jerusalem.

Plantin, Christophe, a printer of Antwerp, born near Tours, in France; celebrated for the beauty and accuracy of the work that issued from his press, the most notable being the "Antwerp Polyglot"; he had printing establishments in Leyden and Paris, as well as Antwerp, all these conducted by sons-in-law (1514-1589).

Plassey, a great battlefield in Bengal, now swept away by changes in the course of the river, scarcely 100 m. N. of Calcutta; was the scene of Clive's victory in 1757 with 800 Europeans and 2200 unreliable native troops over Suraj-ud-Dowlah, the ruler of Bengal, which laid that province at the feet of Britain, and led to the foundation of the British Empire in India.

Plaster of Paris, a compound of lime, sand, and water used for coating walls, taking casts, and forming moulds.

Platæa, a city of ancient Greece, in western Boeotia, neighbour and ally of Athens, suffered greatly in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars. It was destroyed by the Persians 480 B.C., by the Peloponnesian forces 429 B.C., and again by the Thebans 387 B.C. Philip of Macedon restored the exiles to their homes in 338 B.C.

Plato, the great philosopher, born in Athens, of noble birth, the year Pericles died, and the second of the Peloponnesian War; at 20 became a disciple of Socrates, and passed eight years in his society; at 30, after the death of Socrates, quitted Athens, and took up his abode at Megara; from Megara he travelled to Cyrene, Egypt, Magna Græcia, and Sicily, prolonging his stay in Magna Græcia, and studying under Pythagoras, whose philosophy was then at its prime, and which exercised a profound influence over him; after ten years' wandering in this way he, at the age of 40, returned to Athens, and founded his Academy, a gymnasium outside the city with a garden, which belonged to his father, and where he gathered around him a body of disciples, and had Aristotle for one of his pupils, lecturing there with undiminished mental power till he reached the advanced age of 81; of his philosophy one can give no account here, or indeed anywhere, it was so unsectarian; he was by pre-eminence the world-thinker, and though he was never married and left no son, he has all the thinking men and schools of philosophy in the world as his offspring; enough to say that his philosophy was philosophy, as it took up in its embrace both the ideal and the real, at once the sensible and the super-sensible world (429-347 B.C.).

Platoff, Matvei Ivanovich, Count, hetman of Cossacks, and Russian commander in the Napoleonic wars; took part in the campaigns of 1805-7, and scourged the French during their retreat from Moscow in 1812, and again after their defeat at Leipzig 1813; he commanded at the victory of Altenburg 1813, and for his services obtained the title of count (1757-1818).

Platonic Love, love between persons of different sexes, in which as being love of soul for soul no sexual passion intermingles; is so named agreeably to the doctrine of Plato, that a man finds his highest happiness when he falls in with another who is his soul's counterpart or complement.

Platonic Year, a period of 26,000 years, denoting the time of a complete revolution of the equinox.

Platt-Deutsch or Low German, a dialect spoken by the peasantry in North Germany from the Rhine to Pomerania, and derived from Old Saxon.

Platte, the largest affluent of the Missouri, which joins it at Plattsmouth after an easterly course of 900 m.

Platten-See. See Balaton, Lake.

Plauen (46), a town in Saxony, on the Elster, 78 m. S. of Leipzig, with extensive textile and other manufactures.

Plautus, a Latin comic poet, born in Umbria; came when young to Rome, as is evident from his mastery of the Latin language and his knowledge of Greek; began to write plays for the stage at 30, shortly before the outbreak of the second Punic War, and continued to do so for 40 years; he wrote about 130 comedies, but only 20 have survived, the plots mostly borrowed from Greek models; they were much esteemed by his contemporaries; they have supplied material for dramatic treatment in modern times (227-184 B.C.).

Playfair, John, Scotch mathematician, born at Benvie; bred for the Church, became professor first of Mathematics and then of Natural Philosophy at Edinburgh University; wrote on geometry and geology, in the latter supported the Huttonian theory of the earth (1748-1819).

Pleiades, in the Greek mythology seven sisters, daughters of Atlas, transformed into stars, six of them visible and one invisible, and forming the group on the shoulders of Taurus in the zodiac; in the last week of May they rise and set with the sun till August, after which they follow the sun and are seen more or less at night till their conjunction with it again in May.

Pleiades, The, the name given to the promoters of a movement in the middle of the 16th century that aimed at the reform of the French language and literature on classical models, and led on by a group of seven men, Ronsard, Du Bellay, Belleau, Baïf, Daurat, Jodelle, and Pontus de Tyard. The name "Pleiad" was originally applied to seven contemporary poets in ancient Greece, and afterwards to seven learned men in the time of Charlemagne.

Plenist, name given to one who holds the doctrine that all space is filled with matter.

Plesiosaurus, an extinct marine animal with a small head and a long neck.

Pleura, the serous membrane that lines the interior of the thorax and invests the lungs.

Pleura-pneumonia, an inflammation of the lungs and pleura, Pleurisy being the inflammation of the pleura alone.

Plevna (14), a fortified town in Bulgaria, in which Osman Pasha entrenched himself in 1877, and where he was compelled to capitulate and surrender to the Russians with his force of 42,000 men.

Pleydell, Mr. Paulus, a shrewd lawyer in Scott's "Guy Mannering."

Plimsoll, Samuel, "the sailor's friend," born at Bristol; after experience in a Sheffield brewery entered business in London as a coal-dealer; interesting himself in the condition of the sailor's life in the mercantile marine, he directed public attention to many scandalous abuses practised by unscrupulous owners, the overloading, under-manning, and insufficient equipment of ships and sending unseaworthy vessels out to founder for the sake of insurance money; entering Parliament for Derby in 1868, he secured the passing of the Merchant Shipping Act in 1876 levelled against these abuses; his name has been given to the circle with horizontal line through the centre, now placed by the Board of Trade on the side of every vessel to indicate to what depth she may be loaded in salt water (1824-1898).

Plinlimmon (i. e. five rivers), a mountain 2469 ft. high, with three summits, on the confines of Montgomery and Cardigan, so called as source of five different streams.

Pliny, the Elder, naturalist, born at Como, educated at Rome, and served in the army; was for a space procurator in Spain, spent much of his time afterwards studying at Borne; being near the Bay of Naples during an eruption of Vesuvius, he landed to witness the phenomenon, but was suffocated by the fumes; his "Natural History" is a repertory of the studies of the ancients in that department, being a record, more or less faithful, from extensive reading, of the observation of others rather than his own; d. A.D. 79.

Pliny, the Younger, nephew of the preceding, the friend of Trajan; filled various offices in the State; his fame rests on his "Letters," of special interest to us for the account they give of the treatment of the early Christians and their manner of worship, as also of the misjudgment on the part of the Roman world at the time of their religion, as in their eyes, according to him, "a perverse and extravagant superstition" (62-115).

Plotinus, an Alexandrian philosopher of the Neo-Platonic school, born at Lycopolis, in Egypt; he taught philosophy at Rome, a system in opposition to the reigning scepticism of the time, and which based itself on the intuitions of the soul elevated into a state of mystical union with God, who in His single unity sums up all and whence all emanates, all being regarded as an emanation from Him (207-270).

Plugston of Undershot, Carlyle's name in "Past and Present" for a member or "Master-Worker" of the English mammon-worshipping manufacturing class in rivalry with the aristocracy for the ascendency in the land, who pays his workers his wages and thinks he has done his duty with them in so doing, and is secure in the fortune he has made by that cash-payment gospel of his as all the law and the prophets, called of "Undershot," his mill being driven by a wheel, the working power of which is hidden unheeded by him, to break out some day to the damage of both his mill and him.

Plumptre, Edward Hayes, distinguished English divine and scholar, born in London; was Dean of Wells; as a divine he wrote commentaries on books of both the Old and New Testaments, and as a scholar executed able translations in verse of Sophocles, Æschylus, and the "Commedia" of Dante, the last perhaps his greatest and most enduring work (1821-1891).

Plunket, Lord, Chancellor of Ireland, born in Ireland, bred to the bar; entered the Irish House of Commons; opposed the Union with Great Britain; after the Union practised at the bar, and held legal appointments; was made a peer, and materially aided the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords in carrying the Catholic Emancipation Bill of 1829 (1764-1854).

Plutarch, celebrated Greek biographer and moralist, born at Chæronea, in Boeotia; studied at Athens; paid frequent visits to Rome, and formed friendships with some of its distinguished citizens; spent his later years at his native place, and held a priesthood; his fame rests on his "Parallel Lives" of 46 distinguished Greeks and Romans, a series of portraitures true to the life, and a work one of the most valuable we possess on the illustrious men of antiquity, and an enduring memorial of them (50-120).

Pluto, god of the nether world, son of Kronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and husband of Persephone; on the dethronement of Kronos the universe was divided among themselves by the three brothers, Zeus assuming the dominion of the upper world and Poseidon that of the ocean, leaving the nether kingdom to him, a domain over which and forth of which he ruled with a greater and more undisputed authority than the other two over heaven, earth, and sea.

Plutonic Theory, the theory that unstratifled rocks were formed by fusion in fire.

Plutus, the god of riches, son of Jason and Demeter. Zeus is said to have put out his eyes that he might bestow his gifts without respect to merit, that is, on the evil and the good impartially.

Plymouth (87), the largest town in Devonshire, stands on the N. shore of Plymouth Sound, 250 m. W. of London by rail; adjacent to it are the towns of Stonehouse and Devonport. Among the chief buildings are a Gothic town-hall, a 15th-century church, and a Roman Catholic cathedral. The chief industry is chemical manufactures. There is a large coasting and general trade, and important fisheries. Many sea-going steamship companies make it a place of call. The Sound is an important naval station, and historically famous as the sailing port of the fleet that vanquished the Armada.

Plymouth Brethren, an anti-clerical body of Christians, one of the earliest communities of which was formed in Plymouth about 1830; they accept, along with Pre-Millenarian views, generally the Calvinistic view of the Christian religion, and exclude all unconverted men from their communion, while all included in the body are of equal standing, and enjoy equal privileges as members of Christ. They appear to regard themselves as the sole representatives in these latter days of the Church of Christ, and as the salt of the earth, for whose sake it exists, and on whose decease it and its works of darkness will be burnt up. They are known also by the name of Darbyites, from the name of one of their founders, a barrister, John Nelson Darby, an able man, and with all his exclusiveness a sincere disciple of Christ (1800-1882).

Pneumonia, name given to acute inflammation of the lungs.

Po, the largest river in Italy, rises 6000 ft. above sea-level in the Cottian Alps, and after 20 m. of rocky defiles emerges on the great Lombardy plain, which it crosses from W. to E., receiving the Ticino, Adda, Mincio, and Trebbia, tributaries, and enters the Adriatic by a rapidly growing delta. Its total course is 360 m.; the width and volume of its stream make it difficult to cross and so a protection to all Italy. The chief towns on its banks are Turin, Piacenza, and Cremona.

Pocahontas, the daughter of an Indian chief in Virginia, who favoured the English settlers there, saving the life of Captain Smith the coloniser, and afterwards married John Rolfe, one of the settlers; came to England, and was presented at Court; several Virginian families trace their descent to her.

Pocket Borough, a borough in which the influence of some magnate of the place determines the voting at an election time, a thing pretty much of the past.

Pocock, Edward, English Arabic and Hebrew scholar, born at Oxford, and occupied both the chairs of Arabic and Hebrew there, and left works in evidence of his scholarship and learning in both languages, quite remarkable for the time when he lived (1604-1691).

Pococke, Richard, English prelate, born at Southampton; travelled extensively, particularly in the East; wrote a description of the countries of the East and of others, among them "Tours In Scotland" and a "Tour in Ireland," all deemed of value (1704-1765).

Podesta, the name given to the chief magistrate of an Italian town, with military as well as municipal authority; he was salaried, and annually elected to the office by the council, and had to give an account of his administration at the end of his term.

Podiebrad, George, king of Bohemia; rose, though a Hussite, and in spite of the Pope, from the ranks of the nobles to that elevation; forced his enemies to come to terms with him, and held his ground against them till the day of his death (1420-1471).

Poe, Edgar Allan, an American poet, born in Boston, Massachusetts; a youth of wonderful genius, but of reckless habits, and who came to an unhappy and untimely end; left behind him tales and poems, which, though they were not appreciated when he lived, have received the recognition they deserve since his death; his poetical masterpiece, "The Raven," is well known; died at Baltimore of inflammation of the brain, insensible from which he was picked up in a street one evening (1809-1849).