Patanjali is the name of two ancient Indian authors, of whom one is the author of the "Yoga," a theistic system of philosophy, and the other of a criticism on the Sanskrit grammarian Pánini.

Patchouli, a perfume with a strong odour, derived from the dried roots of an Indian plant introduced into the country in 1844.

Pater, Walter Horatio, an English prose-writer, specially studious of word, phrase, and style, born in London; studied at Oxford, and became a Fellow of Brasenose College; lived chiefly in London; wrote studies in the "History of the Renaissance," "Marcus the Epicurean," "Imaginary Portraits," "Appreciations," along with an essay on "Style"; literary criticism was his forte (1839-1894).

Paterculus, Marcus Velleius, a Latin historian of the 1st century, author of an epitome, especially of Roman history, rather disfigured by undue flattery of Tiberius his patron, as well as of Cæsar and Augustus.

Paterson, Robert, the original of Scott's "Old Mortality," a stone-mason, born near Hawick; devoted 40 years of his life to restoring and erecting monumental stones to the memory of the Scotch Covenanters (1712-1801).

Paterson, William, a famous financier, born in Tinwald parish, Dumfriesshire; originated the Bank of England, projected the ill-fated Darien scheme, and lost all in the venture, though he recovered compensation afterwards, an indemnity for his losses of £18,000; he was a long-headed Scot, skilful in finance and in matters of trade (1658-1719).

Pathos, the name given to an expression of deep feeling, and calculated to excite similar feelings in others.

Patlock, Robert, English novelist, author of "Peter Wilkins," an exquisite production; the heroine, the flying girl Youwarkee (1697-1767).

Patmore, Coventry, English poet, born in Essex, best known as the author of "The Angel in the House," a poem in praise of domestic bliss, succeeded by others, superior in some respects, of which "The Unknown Eros" is by many much admired; he was a Roman Catholic by religious profession (1823-1896).

Patmos, a barren rocky island in the Ægean Sea, S. of Samos, 28 m. in circuit, where St. John suffered exile, and where it is said he wrote the Apocalypse.

Patna (165), the seventh city of India, in Bengal, at the junction of the Son, the Gandak, and the Ganges; is admirably situated for commerce; has excellent railway communication, and trades largely in cotton, oil-seeds, and salt. It is a poor city with narrow streets, and except the Government buildings, Patna College, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and a mosque, has scarcely any good buildings. At Dinapur, its military station, 6 m. to the W., mutiny broke out in 1857. It is famous for its rice, but this is largely a re-export.

Patois, a name the French give to a corrupt dialect of a language spoken in a remote province of a country.

Paton, John Gibson, missionary to the New Hebrides, son of a stocking-weaver of Kirkmahoe, Dumfriesshire; after some work in Glasgow City Mission was ordained by the Reformed Presbyterian Church, and laboured in Tanna and Aniwa for twenty-five years; his account of his work was published in 1890; b. 1824.

Paton Sir Joseph Noel, poet and painter, born at Dunfermline; became a pattern designer, but afterwards studied in Edinburgh and London, and devoted himself to art; his early subjects were mythical and legendary, later they have been chiefly religious; he was appointed Queen's Limner for Scotland in 1865, knighted in 1867, and in 1876 received his LL.D. from Edinburgh University; his "Quarrel" and "Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania" are in the National Gallery, Edinburgh; the illustrations of the "Dowie Dens o' Yarrow," and the series of religious allegories, "Pursuit of Pleasure," "Lux in Tenebris," "Faith and Reason," &c., are familiar through the engravings; "Poems by a Painter" appeared in 1861; b. 1821.

Patras (37), on the NW. corner of the Morean Peninsula, on the shores of the Gulf of Patras; has a fine harbour; is the chief western port of Greece, shipping currants, olive-oil, and wine, and importing textiles, machinery, and coal; it is a handsome city, in the present century rebuilt and fortified.

Patriarch, in Church history is the name given originally to the bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, and later to those also of Constantinople and Jerusalem, who held a higher rank than other bishops, and exercised a certain authority over the bishops in their districts. The title is in vogue in the Greek, Syrian, Armenian, and other Churches. It was originally given to the chief of a race or clan, the members of which were called after him.

Patricians and Plebeians, the two classes into which, from the earliest times, the population of the Roman State was divided, the former of which possessed rights and privileges not conceded to the latter, and stood to them as patrons to clients, like the baron of the Middle Ages to the vassals. This inequality gave rise to repeated and often protracted struggles in the commonalty, during which the latter gradually encroached on the rights of the former till the barrier in civic status, and even in social to some extent, was as good as abolished, and members of the plebeian class were eligible to the highest offices and dignities of the State.

Patrick, Order of St., an Irish order of knighthood, founded in 1783 by George III., comprising the sovereign, the Lord-Lieutenant, and twenty-two knights, and indicated by the initial letters K.P.

Patrick, St., the apostle and patron saint of Ireland; his birthplace uncertain; flourished in the 5th century; his mission, which extended over great part of Ireland, and over thirty or forty years of time, was eminently successful, and at the end of it he was buried in Downpatrick, henceforth a spot regarded as a sacred one. Various miracles are ascribed to him, and among the number the extirpation from the soil of all venomous reptiles.

Patrick, Simon, English prelate; distinguished himself, when he was rector of St. Paul's, by his self-denying devotion during the Plague of London; became bishop in succession of Chichester and Ely, and was the author of a number of expository works (1652-1707).

Patristic Literature, the name given to the writings of the early Fathers of the Christian Church.

Patroclus, a friend of Achilles, who accompanied him to the Trojan War, and whose death by the hand of Hector roused Achilles out of his sullenness, and provoked him to avenge the deed in the death of Hector.

Patteson, John Coleridge, bishop of Melanesia, grand-nephew of Coleridge; a devoted bishop, in material things no less than spiritual, among the Melanesian islanders; was murdered, presumably through mistake, by the natives of one of the Santa Cruz groups (1827-1871).

Patti, Adelina, prima donna, born in Madrid, of Italian extraction; made her first appearance at New York in 1859, and in London at Covent Garden, as Amina in "La Somnambula," in 1861, and has since made the round once and again of the Continent and America, North and South; has been married three times, being divorced by her first husband, and lives at Craig-y-nos Castle, near Swansea, Wales; b. 1843.

Pattison, Mark, a distinguished English scholar, born at Hornby, Yorkshire; studied at Oxford, and was for a time carried away with the Tractarian Movement, but when his interest in it died out he gave himself to literature and philosophy; wrote in the famous "Essays and Reviews" a paper on "The Tendency of Religious Thought in England"; became rector of Lincoln College, Oxford; wrote his chief literary work, a "Life of Isaac Casaubon," a mere fragment of what it lay in him to do, and left an autobiography, which revealed a wounded spirit which no vulnerary known to him provided by the pharmacopoeia of earth or heaven could heal (1813-1889).

Pattison's Process, the name of a process for desilverising lead, dependent on the fact that lead which has least silver in it solidifies first on liquefaction.

Pau (31), chief town of the French province of Basses-Pyrénées, on the Gave de Pau, 60 m. E. of Bayonne; is situated amid magnificent mountain scenery, and is a favourite winter resort for the English; linen and chocolate are manufactured; it was the capital of Navarre, and has a magnificent castle; it stands on the edge of a high plateau, and commands a majestic view of the Pyrenees on the S.

Pauillac, a port for Bordeaux, on the left bank of the Gironde.

Paul, the name of five Popes: Paul I., Pope from 757 to 797; Paul II., Pope from 1464 to 1471; Paul III., Pope from 1534 to 1549, was zealous against the Protestant cause, excommunicated Henry VIII. in 1536, sanctioned the Jesuit order in 1540, convened and convoked the Council of Trent in 1545; Paul IV., Pope from 1555 to 1559, originally an ascetic, was zealous for the best interests of the Church and public morality, established the Inquisition at Rome, and issued the first Index Expurgatorius; Paul V., Pope from 1605 to 1621, his pontificate distinguished by protracted strife with the Venetian republic, arising out of the claim of the clergy for immunity from the civil tribunals, and which was brought to an end through the intervention of Henry IV. of France in 1607; it need not be added that he was zealous for orthodoxy, like his predecessors.

Paul, St., originally called Saul, the great Apostle of the Gentiles, born at Tarsus, in Cilicia, by birth a Jew and a Roman citizen; trained to severity by Gamaliel at Jerusalem in the Jewish faith, and for a time the bitter persecutor of the Christians, till, on his way to Damascus, in the prosecution of his hostile purposes, the overpowering conviction flashed upon him that he was fighting against the cause that, as a Jew, he should have embraced, and which he was at once smitten with zeal to further, as the one cause on which hinged the salvation, not of the Jews only, but of the whole world. He did more for the extension, if not the exposition, of the Christian faith at its first promulgation than any of the Apostles, and perhaps all of them together, and it is questionable if but for him it would have become, as it has become, the professed religion of the most civilised section of the world.

Paul I., Czar of Russia, son of the Empress Catharine II., and her successor in 1796; was a despotic and arbitrary ruler; fought with the allies against France, but entered into an alliance with Napoleon in 1799; was murdered by certain of his nobles as he was being forced to abdicate (1734-1801).

Paul and Virginia, a celebrated novel by Saint-Pierre, written on the eve of the French Revolution, in which "there rises melodiously, as it were, the wail of a moribund world: everywhere wholesome Nature in unequal conflict with diseased, perfidious art; cannot escape from it in the lowest hut, in the remotest island of the sea"; it records the fate of a child of nature corrupted by the false, artificial sentimentality that prevailed at the time among the upper classes of France.

Paul Samosata, so called as born at Samosata, on the Euphrates, a heresiarch who denied the doctrine of three persons in one God, was bishop of Antioch, under the sway of Zenobia, but deposed on her defeat by Aurelian in 272.

Paulding, American writer, born in New York State; author of "History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan," and the novels "The Dutchman's Fireside" and "Westward Ho" (1779-1860).

Pauli, Reinhold, German historian of England, born in Berlin; studied much in England, and became professor of History at Göttingen; wrote "Life of King Alfred," "History of England from the Accession of Henry II. to the Death of Henry VII.," "Pictures of Old England," and "Simon de Montfort" (1823-1882).

Paulicians, a heretical sect founded by Constantine of Mananalis about A.D. 660 in Armenia, and persisting in spite of severe persecution, were transferred to Thrace in 970, where remnants were found as late as the 13th century; they held that an evil spirit was the creator and god of this world, and that God was the ruler of the next; they refused to ascribe divinity to Christ, to worship Mary, to reverence the cross, or observe the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist; their name was derived from the special regard in which they held the writings of St. Paul, from which they professed to derive their tenets; they were charged with Manichæism, but they indignantly repudiated the imputation.

Pauline, Browning's first poem, written at 19 and published at 21, "breathless, intense, melodramatic," says Professor Saintsbury, "eschewing incident, but delighting in analysis, which was to be one of the poet's points throughout, and ultimately to prevail over the others."

Paulinus, the first archbishop of York, sent in company with Augustin from Rome by Gregory to Britain in 601: laboured partly in Kent and partly in Northumbria, and persuaded Edwin of Northumbria to embrace Christianity in 629; d. 644.

Paulus, Heinrich, one of the founders of German rationalism, born near Stuttgart; held in succession sundry professorships; denied the miraculous in the Scripture history, and invented ingenious rational explanations, now out of date (1761-1851).

Pausanias, a famous Spartan general, the grandson of Leonidas, who, as commander-in-chief of the Greeks, overthrew the Persian army under Mardonius at Platæa in 479, but who, elated by this and other successes, aimed at the sovereignty of Greece by alliance with Xerxes, and being discovered, took refuge in a temple at Athens, where he was blockaded and starved to death in 477 B.C., his mother throwing the first stone of the pile that was cast up to bar his exit.

Pausanias, a Greek traveller and topographer, lived during the reigns of Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius; wrote an "Itinerary of Greece" in 10 books, the fruit of his own peregrinations, full of descriptions of great value both to the historian and the antiquary.

Pavia (30), on the Ticino, in Lombardy, is an imposing "city of a hundred towers," with little industry or commerce; in its unfinished cathedral St. Augustine was buried; San Michele, where the early kings of Italy were crowned, dates from the 7th century; the University was founded by Charlemagne, and has now attached to it colleges for poor students, a library, museum, botanic garden, and school of art; stormed by Napoleon in 1796, Pavia was in Austrian possession from 1814 till its inclusion in the kingdom of Italy 1859.

Paxton, Sir Joseph, architect of the Crystal Palace, born in Bedfordshire, was originally a gardener in the service of the Duke of Devonshire, and promoted to the charge of the duke's gardens at Chatsworth, where he displayed the architectural ability in the construction of large glass conservatories which developed itself in the construction of the Great Exhibition of 1851, for which he received the honour of knighthood (1803-1865).

Payn, James, English novelist, born at Cheltenham; edited Chambers's Journal and Cornhill Magazine; his novels were numerous and of average quality, "Lost Sir Massingberd" and "By Proxy" among the most successful (1830-1899).

Payne, John, actor and playwright, born in New York; resided in London from 1813 to 1832; most of his days a stranger in a strange land, immortalised himself as the author of "Home, Sweet Home"; only his remains buried at home 30 years after his death at Tunis (1792-1852).

Peabody, George, philanthropist, born at Danvers, now Peabody, in Massachusetts, U.S.; made a large fortune as a dry-goods merchant in Baltimore and as a stockbroker as well in London; gave away for benevolent purposes in his lifetime a million and a half of money, and left to his relatives one million more; died in London; his body was laid beside his mother's at South Danvers, U.S. (1795-1869).

Peace Society, a society founded in 1816 for the promotion of permanent and universal peace; advocates a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament of all nations and the principle of arbitration.

Peacock, Thomas Love, English novelist, born at Weymouth; was pretty much a self-taught scholar, and no mean one, as his literary activity over half a century abundantly showed; held a post in the India House, his predecessor being James Mill and his successor John Stuart Mill; was an intimate friend of Shelley and the father-in-law of George Meredith; he made his first literary appearance as a poet in two small volumes of poems, and his first novel was "Headlong Hall" as his latest was "Gryll Grange," all of them written in a vein of conventional satire, and more conspicuous for wit than humour; Thackeray owed not a little to him, little as the generality did, he being "too learned for a shallow age" (1785-1866).

Pearson, John, English prelate, born in Norfolk; held a succession of preferments in the Church, and in the end the bishopric of Chester, author of a very learned work "Exposition of the Creed," of which Bentley said, "its very dross is gold" (1612-1686).

Peasant War or Bauernkrieg, revolt of the peasantry in the S. and W. of Germany against the oppression and cruelty of the nobles and clergy which broke out at different times from 1500 to 1525, and which, resulting in their defeat, rendered their lot harder than before. The cause of the Reformation, held answerable for the movement, suffered damage as well, but indeed the excesses of the insurgents were calculated to provoke the retribution that was meted out to them.

Pechili, Gulf of, a great land-locked bay opening in the NW. of the Yellow Sea, receives the waters of the Hoang-ho, and on opposite tongues of land at the mouth of it stand Port Arthur and Wei-hai-Wei.

Pecksniff, a pronounced hypocrite in Dickens's "Martin Chuzzlewit," and who lies and cants whether he is drunk or sober.

Pecock, Reginald, bishop in succession of St. Asaph and Chichester, born in Wales; the author, among other works, of the "Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy" and the "Book of Faith"; he wrote on behalf of the Church against Lollards, but he offended Churchmen as well as the latter—Churchmen because he agreed with the Lollards in regard to the Bible as the rule of faith, and the Lollards because he appealed to reason as the interpreter of the Bible; he displeased the clergy also by his adoption in theological debate of the mother-tongue, but figures since in literature as the first English theologian; he was accused of treating authority with disrespect as well as setting up reason above revelation, obliged to recant in a most humiliating manner, deprived of his bishopric, and condemned to solitary confinement, away from his books, all to a few, and denied the use of writing materials (1390-1460).

Pedro I., emperor of Brazil, second son of John VI. of Portugal; reigned from 1822 to 1831, when he abdicated in favour of his son (1798-1834).

Pedro II., emperor of Brazil, son of preceding, ascended the throne in 1831; reigned peacefully till 1889, when a sudden revolution obliged him to resign, and retire to Europe and take up his abode in France, where he indulged his taste for science and learning (1825-1891).

Peebles, Peter, a character in Scott's "Redgauntlet."

Peeblesshire (19), a lowland Scottish county bordered by Lanark, Midlothian, Selkirk, and Dumfries; comprises hilly pastoral land watered by the upper Tweed; Windlestraw, Hartfell, and Broadlaw are the highest of its grassy hills; among the lesser rivers are the Leithen and Quair; some crops are grown, but most of the land is devoted to sheep grazing; a little coal is found in the N.; the only towns are Innerleithen (3) and Peebles (5), the county town, engaged in Tweed manufacture. The county is known also by the name of Tweeddale; its representation in Parliament is united with that of Selkirk.

Peel (4), a fishing town and holiday resort on the W. coast of the Isle of Man, 12 m. NW. of Douglas; it is noted for its castle.

Peel, Sir Robert, English statesman, born near Bury, Lancashire, the son of a wealthy cotton-spinner, to whose large fortune and baronetcy he succeeded; graduated at Oxford in 1808, and next year entered Parliament as Tory member for Cashel; he afterwards sat for his own university, and after 1832 for Tamworth; he was appointed Under-Secretary for the Colonies in 1811. and from 1812 till 1818 was Secretary for Ireland; in 1822 he became Home Secretary, but seceded from the Government when Canning became Premier in 1827; the question at issue was Catholic Emancipation, and it was characteristic of Peel that in the Government which succeeded Canning's he had the courage, having changed his opinions, to introduce the measure which removed the disabilities; opposed to Reform he became leader of the Conservative opposition in the Parliament of 1833; called to the Premiership in 1834 he could not maintain his administration, and it was not till 1841 that the victory of protection over the free-trade agitation gave him a stable majority in the Commons; his first measure was a modification of the corn laws on protectionist principles, 1842; then followed the 7d. income-tax and general tariff revision; in 1845 the agitation for free-trade in corn was brought to a crisis by the Irish potato famine; Peel yielded, and next year carried the final repeal of the corn laws; his "conversion" split the Tory party and he retired from office, becoming a supporter of the Whig ministry in its economical and ecclesiastical policy; he was a master of finance, an easy speaker, slow to form but conscientious to act upon his convictions, a man of the highest character; his death was the result of a fall from horseback (1788-1850).

Peel Towers, the name given to fortresses of the moss-troopers on the Scottish border.

Peele, George, dramatist, of the Elizabethan period, born in London; author of "Arraignment of Paris" and "David and Bathsabe," full of passages of poetic beauty; has been charged with having led the life of a debauchee and to have died of a disease brought on by his profligacy, but it is now believed he has been maligned (1548-1597).

Peeping Tom of Coventry. See Godiva.

Peers, The Twelve, the famous warriors or paladins at the court of Charlemagne, so called from their equality in prowess and honour.

Pegasus, the winged horse, begotten of Poseidon, who sprung from the body of Medusa when Perseus swooped off her head, and who with a stroke of his hoof broke open the spring of Hippocrene on Mount Helicon, and mounted on whom Bellerophon slew the Chimera, and by means of which he hoped, if he had not been thrown, to ascend to heaven, as Pegasus did alone, becoming thereafter a constellation in the sky; this is the winged horse upon whose back poets, to the like disappointment, hope to scale the empyrean, who have not, like Bellerophon, first distinguished themselves by slaying Chimeras.

Pegu (6), a town of Lower Burma, in the province and on the river of the same name, 46 m. NE. of Rangoon, is a very ancient city; the province (1,162) is a rice-growing country, with great teak forests on the mountain slopes.

Pei-ho, a river of North China, 350 miles long; formed by the junction of four other rivers, on the chief of which stands Pekin; has a short navigable course south-eastward to the Gulf of Pechili, where it is defended by the forts of Taku.

Peirce, Benjamin, American mathematician and astronomer, born in Massachusetts, U.S.; wrote on the discovery of Neptune and Saturn's rings, as well as a number of mathematical text-books (1809-1880).

Peishwah, the name of the overlord or chief minister of Mahratta chiefs in their wars with the Mohammedans, who had his head-quarters at Poonah, the last to hold office putting himself under British protection, and surrendering his territory; nominated as his successor Nana Sahib, who became the chief instigator of the Mutiny of 1857, on account, it is believed, of the refusal of the British Government to continue to him the pension of his predecessor who had adopted him.

Pekin (1,000), the capital of China, on a sandy plain in the basin of the Pei-ho, is divided into two portions, each separately walled, the northern or Manchu city and the southern or Chinese. The former contains the Purple Forbidden city, in which are the Imperial palaces; surrounding it is the August city, in which are a colossal copper Buddha and the Temple of Great Happiness. Outside this are the government offices, foreign legations, the temple of Confucius, a great Buddhist monastery, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and Christian mission stations. The Chinese city has many temples, mission stations, schools, and hospitals; but it is sparsely populated, houses are poor, and streets unpaved. Pekin has railway communication with Hankow, and is connected with other cities and with Russia by telegraph. Its trade and industry are inconsiderable. It is one of the oldest cities in the world. It was Kubla Khan's capital, and has been the metropolis of the empire since 1421.

Pelagius, a celebrated heresiarch of the 5th century, born in Britain or Brittany; denied original sin and the orthodox doctrine of divine grace as the originating and sustaining power in redemption, a heresy for which he suffered banishment from Rome in 418 at the hands of the Church. A modification of this theory went under the name of Semi-Pelagianism, which ascribes only the first step in conversion to free-will, and the subsequent sanctification of the soul to God's grace.

Pelasgi, a people who in prehistoric times occupied Greece, the Archipelago, the shores of Asia Minor, and great part of Italy, and who were subdued, and more or less reduced to servitude, by the Hellenes, and supplanted by them. They appear to have been, so far as we find them, an agricultural people, settled and not roving about, and to have had strongholds enclosed in cyclopean walls, that is, walls consisting of huge boulders unconnected with cement.

Peleus, the son of Æacus, the husband of Thetis, the father of Achilles, and one of the Argonauts, after whom Achilles is named Pelides, i. e. Peleus' boy.

Pelew Islands (10), twenty-six in number, of coral formation, and surrounded by reefs; are in the extreme W. of the Caroline Archipelago in the North Pacific, and SE. of the Philippines. They belong to Spain; are small but fertile, and have a healthy climate. The natives are Malays, and though gentle lead a savage life.

Pelham, a fashionable novel by Bulwer Lytton, severely satirised by Carlyle in "Sartor" in the chapter on "Dandies" as the elect of books of this class.

Pelias, king of Iolchus, and son of Poseidon, was cut to pieces by his own daughters, which were thrown by them into a boiling caldron in the faith of the promise of Medea, that he might thereby be restored to them young again. It was he who, to get rid of Jason, sent him in quest of the golden fleece in the hope that he might perish in the attempt.

Pelican, a bird, the effigy of which was used in the Middle Ages to symbolise charity; generally represented as wounding its breast to feed its young with its own blood, and which became the image of the Christ who shed His blood for His people.

Pelides, a patronymic of Achilles, as the son of Peleus.

Pelion, a range, or the highest of a range, of mountains in the E. of Thessaly, upon which, according to Greek fables, the Titans hoisted up Mount Ossa in order to scale heaven and dethrone Zeus, a strenuous enterprise which did not succeed, and the symbol of all such.

Pelissier, a French marshal, born near Rouen; was made Duc de Malakoff for storming the Malakoff tower, which led to the fall of Sebastopol in 1855; rose from the ranks to be Governor-General of Algeria, the office he held when he died (1794-1864).

Pella, the capital of Macedonia, and the birthplace of Alexander the Great, stood on a hill amid the marches NW. of Thessalonica.

Pellegrini, Carlo, a caricaturist, born in Capua; came to London; was distinguished for the inimitable drollery of his cartoons (1838-1889).

Pellico, Silvio, Italian poet and patriot, born in Piedmont; suffered a fifteen years' imprisonment in the Spielberg at Brünn for his patriotism, from which he was liberated in 1830; he wrote an account of his life in prison, which commanded attention all over Europe, both for the subject-matter of it and the fascination of the style (1789-1854).

Pellisson, Paul, a man of letters and a wit of the age of Louis XIV.; spent some five years in the Bastille, but after his release was appointed historiographer-royal; in his captivity he made a companion of a spider, who was accustomed to eat out of his hand (1624-1693).

Pelopidas, a Theban general, and leader of the "sacred band"; the friend of Epaminondas; contributed to the expulsion (379 B.C.) of the Spartans from the citadel of Thebes, of which they had taken possession in 380, after which he was elected to the chief magistracy; gained a victory over Alexander of Pheræ the tyrant of Thessaly, but lost his life in 362 while too eagerly pursuing the foe.

Peloponnesian War, a war of thirty years' duration (431-404 B.C.) between Athens and Sparta, which ended in the supremacy of the latter, till the latter was overthrown at Leuctra by the Thebans under Epaminondas in 371 B.C. This war is the subject of the history of Thucydides.

Peloponnesus (lit. the Isle of Pelops), the ancient name of the Morea of Greece, the chief cities of which were Corinth, Argos, and Sparta; it was connected with the rest of Greece by the Isthmus of Corinth.

Pelops, in the Greek mythology the grandson of Zeus and son of Tantalus, who was slain by his father and served up by him at a banquet he gave the gods to test their omniscience, but of the shoulder of which only Demeter in a fit of abstraction partook, whereupon the gods ordered the body to be thrown into a boiling caldron, from which Pelops was drawn out alive, with the shoulder replaced by one of ivory.

Pembrokeshire (89), a maritime county, the farthest W. in Wales; is washed by St. George's Channel except on the E., where it borders on Cardigan and Carmarthen. It is a county of low hills, with much indented coast-line. Milford Haven, in the S., is one of the best harbours in the world. The climate is humid; two-thirds of the soil is under pasture; coal, iron, lead, and slate are found. St. David's is a cathedral city; the county town is Pembroke (18) on Milford Haven, and near it is the fortified dockyard and arsenal Pembroke Dock (10).

Pemmican, a food for long voyages, particularly in Arctic expeditions, consisting of lean meat or beef without fat dried, pounded, and pressed into cakes. The use of it is now suppressed.

Penance, in the Roman Catholic Church an expression of penitence as well as the sacrament of absolution; also the suffering to which a penitent voluntarily subjects himself, according to the schoolmen, as an expression of his penitence, and in punishment of his sin; the three steps of penitence were contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

Penang or Prince of Wales Islands (91), a small fertile island near the northern opening of the Straits of Malacca, off the Malay coast, and 360 m. NW. of Singapore; is one of the British Straits Settlements, of value strategically; it is hilly, and covered with vegetation; the population are half Chinese, a fourth of them Malays; figs, spices, and tobacco are exported. The capital is Georgetown (25), on the island. Province Wellesley (97), on the mainland, belongs to the same settlement; it exports tapioca and sugar. The Dindings (2), 80 m. S., are another dependency.

Penates, the name given by the Romans to their household deities, individually and unitedly, in honour of whom a fire, in charge of the vestal virgins, was kept permanently burning.

Penda, a Mercian king of the 7th century, who headed a reactionary movement of heathenism against the domination of Christianity in England, and for a time seemed to carry all before him, but Christianity, under the preaching of the monks, had gained too deep a hold, particularly in Northumbria, and he was overpowered in 665 in one final struggle and slain.

Pendennis, the name of a novel by Thackeray, from the name of the hero, and published in 1849-50 in succession to "Vanity Fair."

Pendleton, a NW. suburb of Manchester, in the direction of Bolton, with extensive manufactures and collieries.

Pendragon, a title bestowed on kings by the ancient Britons, and especially on the chiefs among them chosen by election, so called from their wearing a dragon on their shields or as a crest in sign of sovereignty.

Penelope, the wife of Ulysses, celebrated for her conjugal fidelity during his twenty years' absence, in the later half of which an army of suitors pled for her hand, pleading that her husband would never return; but she put them all off by a promise of marriage as soon as she finished a web (called after Penelope's web) she was weaving, which she wove by day and undid at night, till their importunities took a violent form, when her husband arrived and delivered her.

Peninsular State, the State of Florida, from its shape.

Peninsular War, a war carried on in Spain and Portugal during the years 1808 and 1814, between the French on the one hand and the Spanish, Portuguese, and British, chiefly under Wellington, on the other, and which was ended by the victory of the latter over the former at Toulouse just after Napoleon's abdication.

Penitential Psalms or Psalms of Confession, is a name given from very early times to Psalms vi., xxxii., xxxviii., li., cii., cxxx., which are specially expressive of sorrow for sin. The name belonged originally to the fifty-first Psalm, which was recited at the close of daily morning service in the primitive Church.

Penitents, Order Of, a religious order established in 1272 for the reception to the Church of reformed courtesans.

Penn, William, founder of Pennsylvania, the son of an admiral, born in London; was converted to Quakerism while a student at Oxford, and for a fanatical attack on certain fellow-students expelled the University; his father sent him to travel in France, and afterwards placed him in charge of his Irish estates; his religious views occasioned several disputes with his father, and ultimately brought him into conflict with the Government; he spent several periods of imprisonment writing books in defence of religious liberty, among them "The Great Cause of Liberty of Conscience" (1671); then travelled in Holland and Germany propagating his views; his father's death brought him a fortune and a claim upon the crown which he commuted for a grant of land in North America, where he founded (1682) the colony of Pennsylvania—the prefix Penn, by command of Charles II. in honour of the admiral; here he established a refuge for all persecuted religionists, and laying out Philadelphia as the capital, governed his colony wisely and generously for two years; he returned to England, where his friendship with James II. brought many advantages to the Quakers, but laid him under harassing and undeserved prosecutions for treason in the succeeding reign; a second visit to his colony (1699-1701) gave it much useful legislation; on his return his agent practically ruined him, and he was a prisoner in the Fleet in 1708; the closing years of his life were clouded by mental decay (1644-1718).