Peter the Great, emperor of Russia, son of the Czar Alexei, born at Moscow; succeeded his half-brother Feodor in 1682, but was forced for a time to share the throne with his half-sister Sophia, acting as regent for her brother Ivan; conscious of his imperfect education, he chose a Genoese named Lefort as his preceptor, and after some years' careful training he deposed Sophia, and entered Moscow as sole ruler in 1689; with the help of Lefort and Patrick Gordon, a Scotsman, he proceeded to raise and discipline an army on the European model, and determined also to construct a navy; to reach the sea he made war on the Turks, and possessed himself of the port of Azov, at the mouth of the Don; hither he invited skilled artificers from Austria, Venice, Prussia, and Holland, and a navy was built; from 1697 to 1698 he visited the countries on the Baltic and England, acquiring vast stores of information, working as a shipwright in the Dutch yards, and finally taking back with him an army of mechanics; on his return he vigorously reformed the Russian press, schools, and church, introduced European manners and literature, and encouraged foreign trade; desirous now of an opening on the Baltic, he began in 1700 a long contest with Sweden, marked first by many defeats, notably that of Narva, then the seizure of Ingria, and founding of the new capital St. Petersburg 1703, the victory of Pultowa 1712, seizure of the Baltic provinces and part of Finland 1713, and finally by the Peace of 1721, which ceded the conquered territories to Russia; in 1711 the Turks had recovered Azov; in 1722 war with Persia secured him three Caspian provinces; Peter pursued a vigorous and enlightened policy for the good of Russia, but his disposition was often cruel; his son Alexei was put to death for opposing his reforms, and on his own death he was succeeded by the Empress Catherine I., the daughter of a peasant, who had been his mistress, and whom he had married in 1712 (1672-1725).
Peter the Hermit, a monk, born in Amiens, of good family, who is credited with having by his preaching kindled the enthusiasm in Europe which led to the first Crusade; he joined it himself as the leader of an untrained rabble, but made a poor figure at the siege of Antioch, where he was with difficulty prevented from deserting the camp; he afterwards founded a monastery near Liège, where he died (1050-1115).
Peterborough (25), an English cathedral city, on the Nen, partly in Huntingdonshire and partly in Northamptonshire, on the edge of the Fen country, 76 m. N. of London; has an old town-hall, manufactures of farm implements, trade in malt and coal, and is a great railway centre; the cathedral is one of the finest in Britain, of very varied architecture, was restored and reopened afterwards in 1890.
Peterborough, Charles Mordaunt, Earl of, saw some active service as a volunteer in Charles II.'s navy, and on the accession of James II. threw himself into politics as an opponent of the king; William III. showed him great favour; he was of the Queen's Council of Regency when William was in Ireland, but imprudent intriguing brought him a short confinement in the Tower in 1697; the war of the Spanish Succession was the opportunity which brought him fame; appointed to the command of the British and Dutch forces, which fought for Charles of Austria, he reduced Barcelona 1705, and Valencia 1706; retook Barcelona from the French, and but for Charles's hindrance would have entered Madrid; differences with other generals led to his recall in 1707; the rest of his life was spent in retirement; he was the friend of Pope, and held by him in genuine esteem; he died in Lisbon (1658-1735).
Peterhead (12), a seaport on the E. coast of Aberdeenshire, 30 m. NE. of Aberdeen; built irregularly of reddish granite; has a free library and museum, and is the seat of a convict prison; the chief industry is herring-fishing; there are two harbours, and a third, a great harbour of refuge, is in course of construction.
Peterhof (14), a town on the Gulf of Finland, 18 m. W. of St. Petersburg, with a palace of the Czar built in 1711 by Peter the Great.
Peterloo, a name, suggested by Waterloo, given to an insurrectionary gathering in 1819 of workers in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, to demand Parliamentary reform, and which was dispersed by the military to the sacrifice of 13 lives and the wounding of 600, a proceeding which excited wide-spread indignation, and contributed to promote the cause which it was intended to defeat.
Peter's, St., church at Rome, is built, it is alleged, over the tomb of St. Peter, and on the site of the basilica erected by Constantine and Helena in 306. The original structure after falling into decay was begun to be rebuilt in 1450, and finally consecrated by Urban XIII. in 1626. It is the largest and grandest church in Christendom, covers an area of over 26,000 square yards, the interior of it in length being 206 yards, the transept 150 yards, the nave 150, and the dome 465. It contains thirty altars, and is adorned with numerous statues and monuments.
Peter's Pence, an annual tribute of a silver penny per household in England to support the chair of St. Peter at Rome, and which continued more or less to be levied from the end of the 8th century till the days of Elizabeth, when it ceased. The payment has been revived since 1848 in Britain, France, and Belgium in compensation to the Pope for loss of his territorial possessions.
Peterwardein (4), a strong Austrian fortress on the right bank of the Danube, near the Servian frontier, 40 m. NW. of Belgrade; stands among unhealthy marshes.
Pétion de Villeneuve, Jérôme, born at Chartres; figured in the French Revolution as a zealous republican, member of the Tiers État, one of the commission to reconduct the royal family from Varennes; was mayor of Paris in the year of the September massacres, 1792; was first President of the Convention, and, though his influence was declining, member of the first Committee of Defence, 1793; his attack on Robespierre proving unsuccessful he committed suicide; his body was afterwards found on the Landes of Bordeaux half devoured by wolves; was surnamed the "Virtuous," as Robespierre the "Incorruptible"; was of the Girondist party; had "unalterable beliefs, not hindmost of them," says Carlyle, "belief in himself" (1783-1793).
Petite Nature, a French term applied to pictures containing figures less than life-size, but with the effect of life-size.
Petition of Right, a petition presented to Charles I. by the Commons in 1628, and that became law by the king's acceptance of it. It sought for and obtained the abolition of certain grievances which the country unconstitutionally suffered from, such as taxation or levying of money without consent of Parliament, imprisonment without cause shown, billeting of troops, and recourse to martial law in a time of peace. This petition Charles I. would at first fain have evaded, but the Commons would be satisfied with nothing less than its acceptance entire.
Petöfi, Sandor, celebrated Magyar poet and patriot, born in the county of Pesth, of poor parents; first announced himself as a poet in 1844; wrote a number of war-songs; fought in the cause of the revolution of 1848, and fell in the battle of Schässburg; his poetry inaugurated a new era in the literature of his country (1823-1849).
Petra, a ruined city, and once the rock capital of Edom, and afterwards of Arabia Petræa; was a place of some importance at one time as a commercial centre; the name Petra signifies rock.
Petrarch, Francesco, the famous Italian lyric poet, born at Arezzo, in Tuscany, whither his father had gone when exiled with Dante from Florence; spent his youth in Avignon; intended for the profession of law, devoted his time to the study of Cicero and Virgil; met Laura in the church of St. Clare there in 1327, a lady of surpassing beauty; conceived a passion for her which she could not return, and wrote sonnets in praise of her, which immortalised both himself and her; after travel in France and Germany he retired in 1337 to the valley of Vaucluse, where he composed the most of his poems, and his reputation reached its height in 1341, when he was crowned laureate in the Capitol of Rome; he was in Italy when tidings reached him of the death of Laura in 1348, on the anniversary of the day when he first met her, upon which he gave expression to his feelings over the event in a touching note of it in his Virgil; we find him again at Rome in 1350, and after moving from place to place settled in Arqua in 1370, where he died; his Latin works are numerous, and include an epic on the Second Punic war, Eclogues, Epistles in verse, and Letters of value giving the details of his life; his fame rests on his lyrics; by those alone he still lives, and that more from the finished art in which they are written than from any glow of feeling they kindle in the reader's heart (1304-1374).
Petri, Laurentius, a Swedish Reformer; was a disciple of Luther; became professor of Theology and first Protestant archbishop of Upsala, and superintended the translation of the Bible into Swedish (1499-1573).
Petrie, Flinders, Egyptologist, son of an Australian explorer; after explorations at Stonehenge, surveyed the pyramids and temples of Ghizeh in 1881-82; excavated for the Egyptian Exploration Fund Nankratis, Am, and Defenneh; has achieved many other important works of the kind, and issued a popular work, "Ten Years' Diggings in Egypt"; b. 1853.
Petrie, George, Irish archæologist, born in Dublin, of Scottish parentage; bred to art; executed Irish landscapes, but is best known for his "Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland," a work of no small interest (1790-1866).
Petroleum, is the common name of a series of rock oils found in large quantities in the United States and Canada, near Rangoon, and in the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea. The oil issues from the rocks, or is drawn from subterranean reservoirs, where its presence is supposed to result from natural distillation of vegetable and animal substances, and after refining, put in the market as benzoline, paraffin, and lubricating oil. It is extensively used in the industries, and has been applied as fuel to steamships.
Pétroleuse, was a name given to certain Parisian women of the Commune of 1871, who poured petroleum on the Hôtel de Ville and other buildings to burn them.
Petronius, a Roman satirist and accomplished voluptuary at the court of Nero, and the director-in-chief of the imperial pleasures; accused of treason, and dreading death at the hands of the emperor his master, he opened his veins, and by bandaging them bled slowly to death, showing the while the same frivolity as throughout his life; he left behind him a work, extant now only in fragments, but enough to expose the abyss of profligacy in which the Roman world was then sunk at that crisis of its fate; d. 63.
Pettie, John, painter, born at Edinburgh; his works, chiefly historical, were numerous, and of a high character (1839-1893).
Petty, Sir William, political economist, born in Hampshire; was a man of versatile genius, varied attainments, and untiring energy; was skilled in medicine, in music, in mechanics, and in engineering, as well as economics, to which especially he contributed by his pen (1623-1687).
Petty Jury, a jury of 12 elected to try a criminal case after a true bill against the accused has been found by a Grand Jury.
Petty Officers, officers in the navy, consisting of four grades, and corresponding in function and responsibility to non-commissioned officers in the army.
Petty Sessions, name given to sessions of justices of the peace to try small cases without a jury.
Peutinger, Conrad, an Augsburg antiquary, left at his death a 13th-century copy of a 3rd-century map of the Roman military roads, now in the Imperial Library at Vienna, known as the "Tabula Peutingeriana" (1465-1547).
Pfäfers, hot springs near a village of the same name in the Swiss canton of St. Gall; have been in use for 800 years.
Pfahlbauten, lake dwellings of prehistoric date in Switzerland.
Pfalz, the German name for the Palatinate.
Pfeiffer, Ida, a celebrated traveller, born in Vienna; being separated from her husband, and having completed the education of her two sons and settled them in life, commenced her career of travel in 1842, in which year she visited Palestine, in 1845 visited Scandinavia, in 1846 essayed a voyage round the world by Cape Horn, in 1851 a second by the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1856 an expedition to Madagascar, returning at the end of each to Vienna and publishing accounts of them (1797-1858).
Pffleiderer, Otto, a philosophical theologian, born in Würtemberg, professor at Jena, and afterwards at Berlin; has written on religion, the philosophy of it and sundry developments of it, in an able manner, as well as lectured on it in Edinburgh in connection with the Gifford trust, on which occasion he was bold enough to overstep the limits respected by previous lecturers between natural and revealed religion, to the inclusion of the latter within his range; b. 1830.
Pforzheim (29), manufacturing town in Baden, in the N. of the Black Forest; manufactures gold and silver ornaments, and has chemical and other factories.
Phædrus, a Latin fabulist, of the age of Augustus, born in Macedonia, and settled in Rome; originally a slave, was manumitted by Augustus; his fables, 97 in number, were written in verse, and are mostly translations from Æsop, the best of them such as keep closely to the original.
Phaëthon (i. e. the shining one, and so called from his father), the son of Helios (q. v.); persuaded his father to allow him for one day to drive the chariot of the sun across the heavens, but was too weak to check the horses, so that they rushed off their wonted track and nearly set the world on fire, whereupon Zeus transfixed him with a thunderbolt, metamorphosed his sisters who had yoked the horses for him into poplars and their tears into amber.
Phalanstery, a body of people living together on the Communistic principle of Fourier; also the building they occupy.
Phalanx, among the Greeks a body of heavy infantry armed with long spears and short swords, standing in line close behind one another, generally 8 men deep, the Macedonian being as much as 16; its movements were too heavy, and it was dashed in pieces before the legions of Rome to its extinction; it was superseded by the Roman legion.
Phalaris, a tyrant of Agrigentum, in Sicily, in the 6th century, who is said, among other cruelties, to have roasted the victims of his tyranny in a brazen bull which bears his name; the "Letters of Phalaris," at one time ascribed to him, have been proved to be spurious.
Phallus, a symbol of the generative power of nature, being a representation of the male organ of generation, and associated with rites and ceremonies of nature-worship in the early stages of civilised life, and the worship of which was supposed to have a magic influence in inducing fertility among the flocks and herds, as well as in the soil of the earth.
Pharamond, a Knight of the Round Table, and the reputed first king of the Franks.
Pharaoh, a name, now proper, now common, given in the Old Testament to the kings of Egypt, identified with that of the sun-god Phra, and applied to the king as his representative on earth; some 10 of the name occur in the Bible, and it is matter of difficulty often to distinguish one from another.
Pharisees (i. e. Separatists), a sect of the Jews who adopted or received this name because of the attitude of isolation from the rest of the nation which they were compelled to assume at the time of their origin. This was some time between the years 165 and 105 B.C., on their discovery that the later Maccabæan chiefs were aiming at more than religious liberty, and in their own interests contemplating the erection of a worldly kingdom that would be the death of the theocratic, which it was the purpose of Providence they should establish; this was the separate ground which they at first assumed alone, but they in the end carried the great body of the nation along with them. They were scrupulously exact in their interpretation and observance of the Jewish law as the rule to regulate the life of the Jewish community in every department, and were the representatives of that legal tendency which gave character to the development of Judaism proper during the period which elapsed between the date of the Captivity and the advent of Christianity. The law they observed, however, was not the written law as it stood, but that law as expounded by the oral law of the Scribes, as the sole key to its interpretation, so that their attitude to the Law of Moses was pretty much the same as that of the Roman Catholics and the High Churchmen in relation to the Scriptures generally, and they were thus at length the representatives of clericalism as well as legalism in the Jewish Church, and in doing so they took their ground upon a principle which is the distinctive article of orthodox Judaism in the matter to the present day. In the days of Christ they stood in marked opposition to the Sadducees (q. v.) both in their dogmatic views and their political principles. As against them, on the dogmatic side, they believed in a spiritual world and in an established moral order, and on the political their rule was to abstain from politics, except in so far as they might injuriously affect the life and interests of the nation; but at that time they had degenerated into mere formalists, whose religion was a conspicuous hypocrisy, and it was on this account and their pretensions to superior sanctity that they incurred the indignation and exposed themselves to the condemnation of Christ.
Pharos, an island of ancient Egypt, near Alexandria, on which the first lighthouse was erected by Ptolemy Philadelphus in 48 B.C.
Pharsalia, a district in the N. of Greece, the southern portion of the modern province of Larissa; was the scene of Cæsar's victory over Pompey, 48 B.C.
Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, American authoress, born at Andover; wrote "Gates Ajar" and other popular stories, is a great advocate, by lecturing and otherwise, for social reform and the emancipation of women; b. 1844.
Phelps, Samuel, an English actor, born in Devonport; made his début as Shylock in London at the Haymarket in 1837, achieved his greatest successes in Sadler's Wells by his representation of Shakespeare's plays and the works of eminent dramatists of the 18th century; was distinguished in comedy as well as tragedy, in which last he primarily appeared and established his fame (1804-1878).
Pherecydes, an ancient Greek philosopher, born in Syros in 6th century B.C.; distinguished as having had Pythagoras among his pupils, and believed to have been the author of many of the doctrines promulgated by his disciple and named Pythagorean.
Phidias, the greatest sculptor and statuary of ancient Greece, born at Athens; flourished in the time of Pericles, and was appointed by him to direct the works of art projected to the beautifying of the city, and expressly commissioned to execute certain of these works himself; the chief work that he superintended was the erection of the Parthenon, much of which he himself adorned; and of the statues he executed the most famous were one of Athena of ivory and gold for the Parthenon, and a colossal one of Zeus, his masterpiece, also of ivory and gold, for Olympia; accused of having appropriated some of the gold intended for the statue of Athena he was acquitted, but was afterwards charged with impiety for carving his own likeness and that of Pericles on the shield of the goddess, and was thrown into prison, where he died, 432 B.C.
Philadelphia (1,293), largest city in Pennsylvania, on the Delaware, 100 m. from the sea and 90 m. by rail SW. of New York; is the third city in the Union in population, manufactures, and commerce, regularly built with plain substantial dwelling-houses; recently more splendid public buildings have been erected, the town-hall, of white marble, is the second highest structure in the world; a masonic temple and Government offices of granite and the Mint are also fine buildings; there is a university and colleges of science, medicine, art, and music, many churches, a Roman Catholic cathedral, and many hospitals and charitable institutions; the industries include locomotive building, saw-making, woollen and cotton goods, sugar and oil refining, and chemical works; it trades largely in coal. Founded by William Penn in 1682, it was the central point of the War of Independence; the first Congress met here, and the Declaration of Independence was signed (1776) in a building still standing; here too the Federal Union was signed (1778) and the constitution drawn up (1787), and from 1790 to 1800 it was the capital of the United States.
Philador, François André, a celebrated composer and chess-player, born at Dreux; wrote a number of operas; in regard to chess his great maxim was "Pawns are the soul of chess"; fled at the time of the Revolution to London, where he died (1726-1795).
Philæ, an island of syenite stone in the Nile, near Assouan, in Nubia, 1200 ft. long and 50 ft. broad; is almost covered with ancient buildings of great beauty, among which is a temple of Isis, with a great gateway dating from 361 B.C., which was converted into a church in 577.
Philatory, a transparent reliquary to contain and exhibit the bones and relics of saints.
Philemon, Epistle to, a short letter by Paul to a member of the Church at Colossæ on behalf of a slave, Onesimus, who had deserted his service, gone off with some of his property, and taken refuge in Rome, but had been converted to Christ, and whom he begs not to manumit, but simply to receive back as a brother for his sake.
Philemon and Baucis, in the Greek mythology a pair of poor people who, in fond attachment to each other, lived in a small cottage in Phrygia by themselves and gave hospitality to gods in disguise when every other door was shut against them, and to whom, in the judgment that descended upon their inhospitable neighbours, the gods were propitious, and did honour by appointing them to priesthood, when they would rather have been servants, in a temple metamorphosed out of their cottage. Here they continued to minister to old age, and had but one prayer for themselves, that they might in the end die together; when as they sat at the door of the temple one day, bent with years, they were changed, he into an oak and she into a linden. This is Ovid's version of the story, to which he adds as the moral of it, "Those who piously honour the gods are themselves held in honour."
Philip, an Indian chief whose father had been a staunch friend of the Pilgrim settlers, was himself friendly to the colonists, till in 1671 their encroachments provoked him to retaliation; after six years' fighting, in which many colonists perished and great massacres of Indians took place, he was defeated and slain, 1676.
Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, usurped the kingdom from the infant king Amyntas, his nephew and ward, in 360 B.C.; having secured his throne, he entered on a series of aggressive wars, making expeditions into Thrace and Thessaly; the siege of Olynthus brought him into conflict with Athens, the two cities being allies, and occasioned some of the most brilliant orations of Demosthenes; the successive appeals for his aid against their enemies by the Thebans and the Argives led him into Greece and into the Peloponnesus; in 339 B.C. a council of Greek cities appointed him commander-in-chief of their leagued forces in a projected war against the Locrians, but the Athenians and Thebans opposed his coming; the defeat of their armies at Chæronea, 338 B.C., placed all Greece at his feet; his next project was an expedition against Persia, but while preparations were on foot he was assassinated at Ægæ; a man of unbridled lust, he was an astute and unscrupulous politician, but of incomparable eloquence, energy, and military skill (382-336 B.C.).
Philip II., Philip-Augustus, king of France, shared the throne with his father, Louis VII., from 1179, and succeeded him as sole ruler in 1180; marrying Isabella of Hainault, he united the Capet and Carlovingian houses; his grand aim was to secure to himself some of the English possessions in France; his alliance with Richard of England in the third crusade ended in a quarrel; returning to France he broke his oath to Richard by bargaining with John for portions of the coveted territory; an exhausting war lasted till 1119; on Richard's death Philip supported Arthur against John in his claim to Anjou, Maine, and Touraine; after Arthur's murder, the capture of Château Gaillard in 1204 gave him possession of these three provinces with Normandy and part of Poitou; the victory of Bouvines 1214 secured his throne, and the rest of his reign was spent in internal reforms and the beautifying of Paris (1165-1223).
Philip IV., the Fair, king of France, succeeded his father Philip III. in 1285; by his marriage with Joanna of Navarre added Navarre, Champagne, and Brie to his realm; but the sturdy valour of the Flemish burghers at Courtrai on the "Day of Spurs" prevented the annexation of Flanders; his fame rests on his struggle and victory over the papal power; a tax on the clergy was condemned by Boniface VIII. in 1296; supported by his nobles and burghers Philip burnt the papal bull, imprisoned the legate, and his ambassador in Rome imprisoned the Pope himself; Boniface died soon after, and in 1305 Philip made Clement V. Pope; kept him at Avignon, and so commenced the seventy years' "captivity"; he forced Clement to decree the suppression of the Templars, and became his willing instrument in executing the decree; he died at Fontainebleau, having proved himself an avaricious and pitiless despot (1268-1314).
Philip VI., of Valois, king of France, succeeded Charles IV. in 1328; Edward III. of England contested his claim, contending that the Salic law, though it excluded females, did not exclude their male heirs; Edward was son of a daughter, Philip son of a brother, of Philip IV.; thus began the Hundred Years' War between France and England, 1337; the French fleet was defeated off Sluys in 1340, and the army at Crécy in 1346; a truce was made, when the war was followed by the Black Death; the worthless king afterwards purchased Majorca (1293-1350).
Philip II., king of Spain, only son of the Emperor Charles V.; married Mary Tudor in 1554, and spent over a year in England; in 1555 he succeeded his father in the sovereignty of Spain, Sicily, Milan, the Netherlands, Franche-Comté, Mexico, and Peru; a league between Henry II. of France and the Pope was overthrown, and on the death of Mary he married the French princess Isabella, and retired to live in Spain, 1559. Wedding himself now to the cause of the Church, he encouraged the Inquisition in Spain, and introduced it to the Netherlands; the latter revolted, and the Seven United Provinces achieved their independence after a long struggle in 1579; his great effort to overthrow Protestant England ended in the disaster of the Armada, 1588; his last years were embittered by the failure of his intrigues against Navarre, raids of English seamen on his American provinces, and by loathsome disease; he was a bigot in religion, a hard, unloved, and unloving man, and a foolish king; he fatally injured Spain by crushing her chivalrous spirit, by persecuting the industrious Moors, and by destroying her commerce by heavy taxation (1527-1598).
Philip V., grandson of Louis XIV., first Bourbon king of Spain; inherited his throne by the testament of his uncle Charles II. in 1700; the rival claim of the Archduke Charles of Austria was supported by England, Austria, Holland, Prussia, Denmark, and Hanover; but the long War of the Spanish Succession terminated in the peace of Utrecht, and left Philip his kingdom; after an unsuccessful movement to recover Sicily and Sardinia for Spain he joined England and France against the Emperor, and gained the former island for his son Charles III.; he died an imbecile at Madrid (1683-1746).
Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, was the fourth son of John the Good, king of France; taken captive at Poitiers 1356; on his return to France he received for his bravery the duchies of Touraine and Burgundy; on his brother's accession to the French throne as Charles V. he exchanged the former duchy for the hand of Margaret of Flanders, on the death of whose father he assumed the government of his territories; his wise administration encouraged arts, industries, and commerce, and won the respect and esteem of his subjects; he was afterwards Regent of France when Charles V. became imbecile (1342-1404).
Philip the Good, grandson of the above, raised the duchy to its zenith of prosperity, influence, and fame; he was alternately in alliance with England, and at peace with his superior, France; ultimately assisting in driving England out of most of her Continental possessions (1396-1467).
Philiphaugh, a battlefield on the Yarrow, 3 m. W. of Selkirk, was the scene of Leslie's victory over Montrose in 1645.
Philippi, a Macedonian city, was the scene of a victory gained in 42 B.C. by Octavianus and Antony over Brutus and Cassius, and the seat of a church, the first founded by St. Paul in Europe.
Philippians, Epistle to the, an Epistle of Paul written at Rome during his imprisonment there to a church at Philippi, in Macedonia, that had been planted by himself, and the members of which were among the first-fruits of his ministry in Europe. The occasion of writing it was the receipt of a gift from them, and to express the joy it gave him as a token of their affection. It is the least dogmatic of all his Epistles, and affords an example of the Apostle's statement of Christian truth to unbiased minds; one exhortation, however, shows he is not blind to the rise of an evil which has been the bane of the Church of Christ since the beginning, the spirit of rivalry, and this is evident from the prominence he gives in chapter ii. 5-8 to the self-sacrificing lowliness of Christ, and by the counsel he gives them in chapter iv. 8.
Philippic, the name originally applied to Demosthenes' three great orations against Philip of Macedon, then to Cicero's speeches against Mark Antony; now denotes any violent invective written or spoken.
Philippine Islands (8,500), a large and numerous group in the north of the Malay archipelago, between the China Sea and the Pacific, of which the largest, Luzon, and the next Mindanao, are both much greater than Ireland; are mountainous and volcanic, subject to eruptions and continuous earthquakes. In the N. of the group cyclones too are common. The climate is moist and warm, but fairly healthy; the soil is very fertile. Rice, maize, sugar, cotton, coffee, and tobacco are cultivated; the forests yield dye-woods, hard timber, and medicinal herbs, and the mines coal and iron, copper, gold, and lead. The chief exports are sugar, hemp, and tobacco. The aboriginal Negritoes are now few; half-castes are numerous; the population is chiefly Malayan, Roman Catholic at least nominally in religion, and speaking the Tagal or the Visayan language. Discovered by Magellan in 1521, who was killed on the island of Mactan; they were annexed by Spain in 1569, and held till 1898, when they fell to the Americans. The capital is Manilla (270), on the W. coast of Luzon; Laoag (37), San Miguel (35), and Banang (33) among the largest towns.
Philips, Ambrose, minor poet, born in Leicester, of good family; friend of Addison and Steele, and a Whig in politics; held several lucrative posts, chiefly in Ireland; wrote pastorals in vigorous and elegant verse, and also some short sentimental verses for children, which earned for him from Henry Carey the nickname of "Namby-Pamby" (1678-1749).
Philips, John, littérateur, born in Oxfordshire, author of "The Splendid Shilling," an admirable burlesque in imitation of Milton, and a poem, "Cider," an imitation of Virgil (1676-1708).
Philips, Katherine, poetess, born in London; was the daughter of a London merchant and the wife of a Welsh squire, a highly sentimental but worthy woman; the Society of Friendship, in which the members bore fancy names—hers, which also served her for a nom de plume, was Orinda—had some fame in its day, and brought her, as the foundress, the honour of a dedication from Jeremy Taylor; her work was admired by Cowley and Keats; she was a staunch royalist (1631-1664).
Philistine, the name given by the students in Germany to a non-university man of the middle-class, or a man without (university) culture, or of narrow views of things.
Philistines, a people, for long of uncertain origin, but now generally believed to have been originally emigrants from Crete, who settled in the plain, some 40 m. long by 15 broad, extending along the coast of Palestine from Joppa on the N. to the desert on the S., and whose chief cities were Ashdod, Askelon, Ekron, Gaza, and Gath; they were a trading and agricultural people, were again and again a thorn in the side of the Israelites, but gradually tamed into submission, so as to be virtually extinct in the days of Christ; their chief god was Dagon (q. v.).
Phillip, John, painter, born in Aberdeen; his early pictures illustrate Scottish subjects, his latest and best illustrate life in Spain, whither he had gone in 1851 for his health (1817-1867).
Phillips, Wendell, slavery abolitionist and emancipationist generally, born at Boston, U.S., and bred to the bar; was Garrison's aide-de-camp in the cause, and chief after his death (1811-1884).
Philo Judæus (i. e. Philo the Jew), philosopher of the 1st century, born in Alexandria; studied the Greek philosophy, and found in it, particularly the teaching of Plato, the rationalist explanation of the religion of Moses, which he regarded as the revelation to which philosophy was but the key; he was a man of great learning and great influence among his people, and was in his old age one of an embassy sent by the Jews of Alexandria in A.D. 40 to Rome to protest against the imperial edict requiring the payment of divine honours to the emperor; he identified the Logos of the Platonists with the Word in the New Testament.
Philocretes, a famous archer, who had been the friend and armour-bearer of Hercules who instructed him in the use of the bow, and also bequeathed his bow with the poisoned arrows to him after his death; he accompanied the Greeks to the siege of Troy, but one of the arrows fell on his foot, causing a wound the stench of which was intolerable, so that he was left behind at Lemnos, where he remained in misery 10 years, till an oracle declared that Troy could not be taken without the arrows of Hercules; he was accordingly sent for, and being healed of his wound by Æsculapius, assisted at the capture of the city.
Philomela, daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, and sister of Progne; she was the victim of an outrage committed by her brother-in-law Tereus, who cut out her tongue to prevent her exposing him, and kept her in close confinement; here she found means of communicating with her sister, when the two, to avenge the wrong, made away with Itys, Tereus' son, and served him up to his father at a banquet; the fury of Tereus on the discovery knew no bounds, but they escaped his vengeance, Philomela by being changed into a nightingale and Progne into a swallow.
Philopoemon, the head of the Achæcan League, born at Megalopolis, and the last of the Greek heroes; fought hard to achieve the independence of Greece, but having to struggle against heavy odds, was overpowered; rose from a sick-bed to suppress a revolt, was taken prisoner, thrown into a dungeon, and forced to drink poison (252-183 B.C.).
Philosophe, name for a philosopher of the school of 18th century Enlightenment, represented by the Encyclopedists (q. v.) of France; the class have been characterised by the delight they took in outraging the religious sentiment. See Aufklärung and Illumination, The.
Philosopher's Stone was, with the Elixir of Life, the object of the search of the mediæval alchemists. Their theory regarded gold as the most perfect metal, all others being removed from it by various stages of imperfection, and they sought an amalgam of pure sulphur and pure mercury, which, being more perfect still than gold, would transmute the baser metals into the nobler.
Philosophism, French, a philosophy such as the philosophers of France gave instances of, founded on the notion and cultivated in the belief that scientific knowledge is the sovereign remedy for the ills of life, summed up in two articles—first, that "a lie cannot be believed"; and second, that "in spiritual supersensual matters no belief is possible," her boast being that "she had destroyed religion by extinguishing the abomination" (l'Infame).
Philosophy, the science of sciences or of things in general, properly an attempt to find the absolute in the contingent, the immutable in the mutable, the universal in the particular, the eternal in the temporal, the real in the phenomenal, the ideal in the real, or in other words, to discover "the single principle that," as Dr. Stirling says, "possesses within itself the capability of transition into all existent variety and varieties," which it presupposes can be done not by induction from the transient, but by deduction from the permanent as that spiritually reveals itself in the creating mind, so that a Philosopher is a man who has, as Carlyle says, quoting Goethe, "stationed himself in the middle (between the outer and the inner, the upper and the lower), to whom the Highest has descended and the Lowest mounted up, who is the equal and kindly brother of all." "Philosophy dwells aloft in the Temple of Science, the divinity of the inmost shrine; her dictates descend among men, but she herself descends not; whoso would behold her must climb with long and laborious effort; may still linger in the forecourt till manifold trial have proved him worthy of admission into the interior solemnities." Indeed philosophy is more than science (q. v.); it is a divine wisdom instilled into and inspiring a thinker's life. See Thinker, The.