4

Persia, most all of them in private (excepting those who have performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and ecclesiastics): they also are very liable to be quarrelsome when inebriated, which is often attended with fatal consequences. They eat opium, but in much less quantities than the Turks; and indeed in every thing they say or do, eat or drink, they make a point to be as different from this nation as possible, whom they detest to a man, beyond measure; esteeming Jews and Christians superior to them, and much nearer to salvation.

Anecdotes

Every one knows, that the religion of the Persians is of their re- Mahometan; and that they are of the sect of Ali, for ligion. whom they entertain the most extravagant veneration. Mr Francklin heard one of his guides on the road reprove another for the expression O God! O Ali! "No, no (said his zealous companion), Ali first, God second!" This attachment is the source of their hatred to the Turks, and of many strange customs among themselves, which we have not room to enumerate; a few, however, must be mentioned.

"Their mode of living is as follows: They always rise at daybreak, in order to perform their devotions. Their first prayer is denominated numaz soobh, or the morning prayer; it is said before sunrise, after which they eat a slight meal called nàshta, or breakfast; this consists of grapes, or any other fruits of the season, with a little bread and cheese made of goats milk; they afterwards drink a cup of very strong coffee without milk or sugar; then the calean or pipe is introduced. The Persians, from the highest to the lowest ranks, all smoke tobacco.

"Their second hour of prayer is called numaz zòhur, or mid-day prayer, and is always repeated when the sun declines from the meridian. Their dinner, or chàsht, which is soon after this prayer, consists of curds, bread, and fruits of various kinds; animal food not being usual at this meal.

"The third hour of prayer is called numaz àsur, or the afternoon prayer, said about four o'clock.

"The fourth hour of prayer is numaz shàm, or even. ing prayer, which is said after sunset; when this is finished, the Persians eat their principal meal, called shami or supper. This generally consists of a pilau, dressed with rich meat sauces, and highly seasoned with various spices: sometimes they eat kibaab or roast meat. When the meal is ready, a servant brings notice thereof, and at the same time presents a ewer and water; they then wash their hands, which is an invariable custom with the Persians both before and after eating. They eat very quick, conveying their food to their mouths with their fingers; the use of knives and forks being unknown in Persia. Sherbets of different sorts are introduced, and the meal concludes with a desert of delicious fruits. The supper being finished, the family sit in a circle, and entertain each other by relating plea

PER

PERSIAN WHEEL. See HYDRODYNAMIES. PERSICA, the PEACH, is by Linnæus referred to the same class and genus with amygdalus. There is a great variety of peach trees planted in the gardens, some of which are preserved only for the beauty of their dowers, but most of them for the sake of the fruit. Of

sant stories (of which they are excessively fond), and Persia also by repeating passages from the works of their most favourite poets, and amusing themselves at various Persica. kinds of games. The fifth and last prayer is styled numax akhir, the last prayer; or sometimes numaz shèb, or the night prayer, repeated about an hour after supper.' 8r The most remarkable law among the Persians respects Remarkmarriage. A man may divorce his wife when he chooses, able law without assigning any other reason for the divorce than respecting marriage. that it is his pleasure. If he should change his mind, he may again marry her, divorce her a second time, and a third time marry her; but here this privilege stops. No man is allowed to marry the woman whom he has thrice divorced. A widow is obliged to mourn four months for her deceased husband before she can be married to another; but a concubine may form a new con-nection the instant that her keeper expires.

dren.

Sz

At the naming of children in Persia, Mr Francklin Ceremony informs us that the following ceremony is observed: of naming "The third or fourth day after the child is born, the their chilfriends and relations of the woman who has lain-in assemble at her house, attended by music and dancing girls hired for the occasion; after playing and dancing some time, a mullah or priest is introduced, who, taking the child in his arms, demands of the mother what name she chooses the infant should be called by; being told, he begins praying, and after a short time applies his mouth close to the child's ear, and tells him distinctly three times (calling him by name) to remember and be obedient to his father and mother, to venerate his Koran and his prophet, to abstain from those things which are unlawful, and to practise those things which are good and virtuous. Having repeated the Mahometan profession of faith, he then redelivers the child to his mother; after which the company are entertained with sweetmeats and other refreshments, a part of which the females present always take care to carry away in their pockets, believing it to be the infallible means of their having offspring themselves."

83

The Persians excel more in poetry than any other sort Intellectual of literature; and astrologers are now in as great repu- excellence! tation in Persia as the magi were formerly. Their books are all manuscripts, the art of printing having not yet been introduced among them: they excel indeed in writing, and have eight different hands. They write from the right hand to the left, as the Arabs do. In their short hand, they use the letters of the alphabet; and the same letters differently pointed, will have 20 different significations. In short, the Persians are born with as good natural parts as any people in the East, but make a bad use of them; being great dissemblers, cheats, liars, and flatterers, and having a strong propensity to voluptuousness, luxury, idleness, and indolence; vices indeed to which the Asiatics in general are. much addicted. See PERsia, Supplement.

Persica africana, or double-flowering dwarf-almond. These two reach not above the height of three or four feet, though Persimon. their flowers are of equal beauty with the former.

B

Of the peach-trees cultivated for the sake of their fruit there is a great number. They are raised from the stones of the fruit, which should be planted in autumn on a bed of light dry earth, about three inches deep and four inches asunder. In the winter the beds should be covered with mulch to protect them from the frost. In this bed they should remain for a year; when they are to be taken up and planted in a nursery, where they are to remain one or two years; after which they must be removed to the places where they are to continue.

PERSICARIA. See POLYGONUM, BOTANY Index. PERSICUS SINUS, in Ancient Geography, (Mela, Pliny); a part of the sea which the Romans called Mare Rubrum, and the Greeks Mare Erythræum ; washing Arabia Felix on the east, between which and Carmania, entering into the land, it washes Persia on the south. Its large mouth consists of straight sides, like a neck, and then the land retiring equally a vast way, and the sea surrounding it in a large compass of shore, there is exhibited the figure of a human head (Mela). Theophrastus calls this bay Sinus Arabicus, a name it equally claims with Persicus, only for distinction sake Persicus is appropriated to it by others.

PERSIMON See DIOSPYROS, BOTANY Index.From the persimon is made a very palatable liquor in the following manner: As soon as the fruit is ripe, a sufficient quantity is gathered, which is very easy, as each tree is well stocked with them. These persimon apples are put into a dongh of wheat or other flour, formed into cakes, and put into an oven, in which they continue till they are quite baked and sufficiently dry, when they are taken out again: then, in order to brew the liquor, a pot full of water is put on the fire, and some of the cakes are put in these become soft by degrees as the water grows warm, and crumble in pieces at last; the pot is then taken from the fire, and the water in it well stirred about, that the cakes may mix with it: this is then poured into another vessel, and they continue to steep and break as many cakes as are necessary for a brewing the malt is then infused, and they proceed as usual with the brewing. Beer thus prepared is reckoned much preferable to other beer. They likewise make brandy of this fruit in the following manner having collected a sufficient quantity of persimons in autumn, they are altogether put into a vessel, where they lie for a week till they are quite soft: then they pour water on them, and in that state they are left to ferment of themselves, without promoting the fermentation by any addition. The brandy is then made in the common way, and is said to be very good, especially if grapes (in particular of the sweet sort), which are wild in the woods, be mixed with the persimon fruit. Some persimons are ripe at the end of September, but most of them later, and some not before November and December, when the cold first overcomes their acrimony. The wood of this tree is very good for joiners instruments, such as planes, handles to chisels, &c. but if after being cut down it lies exposed to sunshine and rain, it is the first wood which rots, and in a year's time there is nothing left but what is useless. When the persimon trees get once into a field, they are not easily got out of it again, as they spread much.

[

PERSIS, a Roman lady, whom St Paul salutes in Persis his epistle to the Romans (xvi. 12.), and whom he calls his beloved sister. He says she has laboured mech Person. for the Lord, and still labours. Nothing else of her life is come to our knowledge, nor do we know that she is honoured by any church; which is something singular.

PERSIUS FLACCUS, AULUS, a Latin poet in the reign of Nero, celebrated for his satires. He was born, according to some, at Volterra in Tuscany; and according to others, at Tigulia, in the gulf Della Specia, in the year 34. He was educated till 12 years old at Volterra; and afterwards continued his studies at Rome under Palamon the grammarian, Virginius the rhetorician, and Cornutus the Stoic philosopher, who contracted a friendship for him. Persius consulted that illustrious friend in the composition of his verses. Lucian also studied with him under Cornutus; and appeared so charmed with his verses, that he was incessantly breaking out into acclamations at the beautiful passages in his satires: an example rarely seen in poets of equal rank. He was a steady friend, a good son, an affectionate brother and parent. He was chaste, meek, and modest: which shows how wrong it is to judge of a man's morals by his writings; for the satires of Persius are not only licentious, but sharp and full of bitterness. He wrote but seldom; and it was some time before he applied himself regularly to it.

Persius was of a weak constitution, and troubled with a bad stomach, which was the cause of his death in the 30th year of his age. Six of his satires remain; in their judgments of which the critics have been much divided, excepting as to their obscurity, Persius being indeed the most obscure of all the Latin poets. As a poet, he is certainly inferior to Horace and Juvenal; and all the labours of Isaac Causabon, who has written a most learned and elaborate commentary upon him, cannot make him equal to either of them as a satirist, though in virtue and learning he exceeded them both. He was a professed imitator of Horace; yet had little of Horace's wit, ease, and talent at ridicule. His style is grand, figurative, poetical, and suitable to the dignity of the Stoic philosophy and hence he shines most in recommending virtue and integrity: here it is that satire becomes him. He was too grave to court the muses with success but he had a great soul, susceptible of noble sentiments, which give a grace to but indifferent poetry. His cotemporaries thought highly of him. Quintilian allows, that Persius, although he wrote but one book of satires, acquired a great deal of true glory, Multum et veræ gloriæ quamvis uno libro Persius meruit: and Martial says much the same thing, Sæpius in libro memoratur Persius uno, &c.

PERSON, an individual substance of a rational intelligent nature. Thus we say, an ambassador represents the person of his prince; and that, in law, the father and son are reputed the same person.

The word person, persona, is thought to be borrowed à personando, from personating or counterfeiting; and is supposed to have first signified a mask: because, as Boethius informs us, in larva concava sonus volvatur ; and hence the actors who appeared masked on the stage were sometimes called larvati and sometimes personati. He likewise says, that as the several actors represented each a single individual person, viz. Oedipus, or Chremes,

or

Personify cially if he has no prospect of ever seeing them again, ing. he can scarce avoid having somewhat of the same feel ing as when he is leaving old friends. They seem endowed with life. They became objects of his affection; and, in the moment of his parting, it scarce seems absurd to him to give vent to his feeling in words, and to take a formal adieu.

"So strong is that impression of life which is made upon us, by the more magnificent and striking objects of nature especially, that I doubt not in the least of this having been one cause of the multiplication of divinities in the heathen world. The belief of dryads and naiads, of the genius of the wood and the god of the river, among men of lively imaginations, in the early ages of the world, easily arose from this turn of mind. When their favourite rural objects had often been animated in their fancy, it was an easy transition to attribute to them some real divinity, some unseen power or genius which inhabited them, or in some peculiar manner belonged to them. Imagination was highly gratified, by thus gaining somewhat to rest upon with more stability; and when belief coincided so much with imagination, very slight causes would be sufficient to establish it.

"From this deduction may be easily seen how it comes to pass that personification makes so great a figure in all compositions where imagination or passion have any concern. On innumerable occasions it is the very language of imagination and passion; and therefore deserves to be attended to, and examined with peculiar

care.

There are three different degrees of this figure, which it is necessary to remark and distinguish, in order to determine the propriety of its use. The first is, when some of the properties or qualities of living creatures are ascribed to inanimate objects; the second, when those inanimate objects are introduced as acting like such as have life; and the third, when they are represented either as speaking to us, or as listening to what we say to them."

The ingenious professor goes on to investigate the na

ture of personification at considerable length. We shall Personify give his caution for the use of it in prose compositions, ing. in which he informs us this figure requires to be used with great moderation and delicacy. "The same liberty is not allowed to the imagination there as in poetry. The same assistances cannot be obtained for raising passion to its proper height by the force of numbers and the glow of style. However, addresses to inanimate objects are not excluded from prose; but have their place only in the higher species of oratory. A public speaker may on some occasions very properly address religion or virtue; or his native country, or some city or province, which has suffered perhaps great calamities, or been the scene of some memorable action. But we must remember, that as such addresses are among the highest efforts of eloquence, they should never be attempted unless by persons of more than ordinary genius: for if the orator fails in his design of moving our passions by them, he is sure of being laughed at. Of all frigid things, the most frigid are the awkward and unseasonable attempts sometimes made towards such kinds of personification, especially if they be long continued. We see the writer or speaker toiling and labouring to express the language of some passion which he neither feels himself nor can make us feet. We remain not only cold but frozen; and are at full leisure to criticise on the ridiculous figure which the personified object makes, when we ought to have been transported with a glow of enthusiasm. Some of the French writers, particularly Bossuet and Flechier, in their sermons and funeral orations, have attempted and executed this figure, not without warmth and dignity. Their works are exceedingly worthy of being consulted for instances of this and of several other ornaments of style. Indeed the vivacity and ardour of the French genius is more suited to this bold species of oratory, than the more correct but less animated genius of the British, who in their prose works very rarely attempt any of the high figures of eloquence."

PERSPECTIVE is the art of drawing on a plane surface true resemblances or pictures of objects, as the objects themselves appear to the eye from any distance and situation, real or imaginary.

It was in the 16th century that Perspective was revived, or rather reinvented. It owes its birth to painting, and particularly to that branch of it which was employed in the decorations of the theatre, where landscapes were properly introduced, and which would have looked unnatural and horrid if the size of the objects had not been pretty nearly proportioned to their distance from the eye. We learn from Vitruvius, that Agatharchus, instructed by Eschylus, was the first who wrote upon this subject; and that afterwards the principles of the art were more distinctly taught by Democritus and Anaxagoras, the disciples of Agatharchus. the theory of this art, as described by them, we know nothing; since none of their writings have escaped the general wreck that was made of ancient literature in the dark ages of Europe. However, the revival of 3

Of

The first person who attempted to lay down the rules of perspective was Pietro del Borgo, an Italian. He supposed objects to be placed beyond a transparent tablet, and endeavoured to trace the images which rays of light, emitted from them, would make upon it. But we do not know what success he had in this attempt, because the book which he wrote upon the subject is not now extant. It is, however, very much commended by the famous Egnazio Dante; and, upon the prin ciples of Borgo, Albert Durer constructed a machine, by which he could trace the perspective appearance of objects.

Balthazar Perussi studied the writings of Borgo, and endeavoured to make them more intelligible. To him we owe the discovery of points of distance, to which all lines that make an angle of 45 degrees with the ground-line are drawn. A little time after, Guido Ubalni, another Italian, found that all the lines that are

parallel

parallel to one another, if they be inclined to the groundline, converge to some point in the horizontal line; and that through this point also, a line drawn from the eye, parallel to them, will pass. These principles put together enabled him to make out a pretty complete theory of perspective.

Great improvements were made in the rules of perspective by subsequent geometricians; particularly by Professor Gravesende, and still more by Dr Brooke Taylor, whose principles are in a great measure new, and far more general than any before him.

In order to understand the principles of perspective, it will be proper to consider the plane on which the representation is to be made as transparent, and interposed between the eye of the spectator and the object to be represented. Thus, suppose a person at a window looks through an upright pane of glass at any object beyond it, and, keeping his head steady, draws the figure of the object upon the glass with a black lead pencil, as if the point of the pencil touched the object itself; he would then have a true representation of the object in perspective as it appears to his

eye.

In order to this two things are necessary: first, that the glass be laid over with strong gum-water, which, when dry, will be fit for drawing upon, and will retain the traces of the pencil: and, secondly, that he looks through a small hole in a thin plate of metal, fixed about a foot from the glass, between it and his eye, and that he keeps his eye close to the hole; otherwise he might shift the position of his head, and consequently make a false delineation of the object.

Having traced out the figure of the object, he may go over it again with pen and ink; and when that is dry, put a sheet of paper upon it, and trace it thereon with a pencil then taking away the paper and laying it on a table, he may finish the picture by giving it the colours, lights, and shades, as he sees them in the object itself; and then he will have a true resemblance of the object.

To every person who has a general knowledge of the principles of optics, this must be self-evident: For as vision is occasioned by pencils of rays coming in straight lines to the eye from every point of the visible object, it is plain that, by joining the points in the transparent plane, through which all those pencils respectively pass, an exact representation must be formed of the object, as it appears to the eye in that particular position, and at that determined distance; and were pictures of things to be always first drawn on transparent planes, this simple operation, with the principle on which it is founded, would comprise the whole theory and practice of perspective. As this, however, is far from being the case, rules must be deduced from the sciences of optics and geometry for drawing representations of visible objects on opaque planes; and the application of these rules constitutes what is properly called the art of perspective.

Previous to our laying down the fundamental principles of this art, it may not be improper to observe, that when a person stands right against the middle of one end of a long avenue or walk, which is straight and equally broad throughout, the sides thereof seem to approach nearer and nearer to each other as they are fur

ther and further from his eye; or the angles, under which their different parts are seen, become less and less according as the distance from his eye increases; and if the avenue be very long, the sides of it at the farthest end will seem to meet and there an object that would cover the whole breadth of the avenue, and be of a height equal to that breadth, would appear only to be a mere point.

Having made these preliminary observations, we now proceed to the practice of perspective, which is built upon the following.

(Fundamental) THEOREM I.

eye

Let a bed (fig. 1.) represent the ground-plan of the figure to be thrown into perspective, and efgh the transparent plane through which it is viewed by the at E. Let these planes intersect in the straight line K L. Let B be any point in the ground-plan, and BE a straight line, the path of a ray of light from that. point to the eye. This will pass through the plane ef g h in some point b; or B will be seen through that point, and 6 will be the picture, image, or representation of B.

If BA be drawn in the ground-plan, making any angle BAK with the common intersection, and EV be drawn parallel to it, meeting the picture-plane or perspective-plane in V, and VA be drawn, the point 6 is in the line VA so situated that BA is to EV as b A to b V.

For since EV and BA are parallel, the figure BALVE 6 B is in one plane, cutting the perspectiveplane in the straight line VA; the triangles BA b, EV b, are similar, and BA: EV=b A: b V.

Cor. 1. If B be beyond the picture, its picture b is above the intersection KL; but if B be between the eye and the picture, as at B', its picture b' is below KL.

2. If two other parallel lines BA', ES, be drawn, and A', S, be joined, the picture of B is in the intersection of the lines AV and A'S.

3. The line BA is represented by b A, or b A is the picture of BA; and if AB be infinitely extended, it will be represented by AV. V is therefore called the vanishing point of the line AB.

4. All lines parallel to AB are represented by lines converging to V from the points where these lines intersect the perspective-plane; and therefore V is the vanishing point of all such parallel lines.

Plate

CCCCx.

fig. I.

5. The pictures of all lines parallel to the perspective- Fig, z. plane are parallel to the lines themselves.

6. If through V be drawn HVO parallel to KL, the Fig. 1. angle EVH is equal to BAK.

Remark. The proposition now demonstrated is not limited to any inclination of the picture-plane to the ground-plane; but it is usual to consider them as perpendicular to each other, and the ground-plane as horizontal. Hence the line KL is called the ground-line, and OH the horizon line; and OK, perpendicular to both, is called the height of the eye.

If ES be drawn perpendicular to the picture-plane, it will cut it in a point S of the horizon-line directly opposite to the eye. This is called the point of sight, or principal point. Y 2 7. The