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scribes it very accurately in that part of his work where Phoenit. he treats of the palm tree.

There is scarcely any part of the date tree which is not useful. The wood, though of a spongy texture, lasts such a number of years, that the inhabitants of the country say it is incorruptible. They employ it for making beams and instruments of husbandry; it burns slowly, but the coals which result from its combustion are very strong, and produce a great heat.

Phoenix. should be kept in a moderate temperature of heat, and the earth frequently refreshed with water. When the plants are come up to a proper size, they should be each planted in a separate small pot, filled with the same light earth, and plunged into a hotbed again, observing to refresh them with water, as also to let them have air in proportion to the warmth of the season and the bed in which they are placed. During the summer time they should remain in the same hotbed; but in the beginning of August, they should have a great share of air to harden them against the approach of winter; for if they are too much forced, they will be so tender as not to be preserved through the winter without much difficulty, especially if you have not the conveniency of a bark stove to keep them in. The soil in which these plants should be placed, must be composed in the following manner, viz. half of light fresh earth taken from a pasture-ground, the other half sea sand and rotten dung or tanners bark in equal proportion; these should be carefully mixed, and laid in a heap three or four months at least before it is used, but should be often turned over to prevent the growth of weeds, and to sweeten the earth.

The trees, however, which spring from seed never produce so good dates as those that are raised from shoots; they being always poor and ill tasted. It is undoubtedly by force of cultivation, and after several generations, that they acquire a good quality.

The date trees which have been originally sown, grow rapidly, and we have been assured that they bear fruit in the fourth or fifth year. Care is taken to cut the inferior branches of the date tree in proportion as they rise; and a piece of the root is always left of some inches in length, which affords the easy means of climbing to the summit. These trees live a long time, according to the account of the Arabs; and in order to prove it, they say that when they have attained to their full growth, no change is observed in them for the space of three generations.

The number of females which are cultivated is much superior to that of the males, because they are much more profitable. The sexual organs of the date tree grow, as is well known, upon different stalks, and these trees flower in the months of April and May, at which time the Arabs cut the male branches to impregnate the female. For this purpose, they make an incision in the trunk of each branch which they wish to produce fruit, and place in it a stalk of male flowers; without this precaution the date tree would produce only abortive fruit (A). In some cantons the male branches are only shaken over the female. The practice of impregnating the date tree in this manner is very ancient. Pliny de

The Arabs strip the bark and fibrous parts from the young date trees, and eat the substance which is in the centre; it is very nourishing, and has a sweet taste: it is known by the name of the marrow of the date tree. They eat also the leaves, when they are young and tender, with lemon juice; the old ones are laid out to dry, and are employed for making mats and other works of the same kind, which are much used, and with which they carry on a considerable trade in the interior parts of the country. From the sides of the stumps of the branches which have been left, arise a great number of delicate filaments, of which they make ropes, and which might serve to fabricate cloth.

Of the fresh dates and sugar, says Hasselquist, the Egyptians make a conserve, which has a very pleasant taste. In Egypt they use the leaves as fly-flaps, for driving away the numerous insects which prove so troublesome in hot countries. The hard boughs are used for fences and other purposes of husbandry; the principal stem for building. The fruit, before it is ripe, is somewhat astringent; but when thoroughly mature, is of the nature of the fig. The Senegal dates are shorter than those of Egypt, but much thicker in the pulp, which is said to have a sugary agreeable taste, superior to that of the best dates of the Levant.

A white liquor, known by the name of milk, is drawn also from the date tree. To obtain it, all the branches are cut from the summit of one of these trees, and after several incisions have been made in it, they are covered with leaves, in order that the heat of the sun may not dry it.

The sap drops down into a vessel placed to receive it, at the bottom of a circular groove, made below the incisions. The milk of the date tree has a sweet and agreeable taste when it is new; it is very refreshing, and it is even given to sick people to drink, but it generally turns sour at the end of 24 hours. Old trees are chosen for this operation, because the cutting of the branches, and the large quantity of sap which flows from them, greatly exhaust them, and often cause them to decay.

The male flowers of the date tree are also useful.
They

(A) The celebrated Linnæus, in his Dissertation on the Sexes of Plants, speaking of the date tree, says, "A female date-bearing palm flowered many years at Berlin without producing any seeds; but the Berlin people taking care to have some of the blossoms of the male tree, which was then flowering at Leipsic, sent to them by the post, they obtained fruit by these means; and some dates, the offspring of this impregnation, being planted in my garden, sprung up, and to this day continue to grow vigorously. Kaempfer formerly told us, how necessary it was found by the oriental people, who live upon the produce of palm-trees, and are the true Lotophagi, to plant some male trees among the females, if they hoped for any fruit; hence it is the practice of those who make war in that part of the world to cut down all the male palms, that a famine may afflict their proprietors; sometimes even the inhabitants themselves destroy the male trees when they dread an invasion, that their enemies may find no sustenance in the country."

These date trees are very lucrative to the inhabitants of the desert. Some of them produce 20 bunches of dates; but care is always taken to lop off a part of them, that those which remain may become larger; JO or 12 bunches only are left on the most vigorous

trees.

Pholas,

Phoenix. They are caten when still tender, mixed up with a little it is observed that, in the year of Rome 787, the phoe- Phoenix, lemon juice. They are reckoned to be very provoca- nix revisited Egypt; which occasioned among the learntive: the odour which they exhale is probably the cause ed much speculation. This being is sacred to the sun. of this property being ascribed to them. Of its longevity the accounts are various. The common persuasion is, as we have mentioned above, that it lives 500 years; though by some the date is extended to 1461. The several eras when the phoenix has been seen are fixed by tradition. The first, we are told, was in the reign of Sesostris; the second is that of Amasis; and, in the period when Ptolemy the third of the Macedonian race was seated on the throne of Egypt, another phoenix directed its flight towards Heliopolis. When to these circumstances are added the brilliant appearance of the phoenix, and the tale that it makes frequent excursions with a load on its back, and that when, by having made the experiment through a long tract of air, it gains sufficient confidence in its own vigour, it takes up the body of its father and flies with it to the altar of the sun to be there consumed; it cannot but appear probable, that the learned of Egypt bad enveloped under this allegory the philosophy of co

It is reckoned that a good tree produces, one year with another, about the value of 10 or 12 shillings to the proprietor. A pretty considerable trade is carried on with dates in the interior part of the country, and large quantities of them are exported to France and Italy. The crop is gathered towards the end of November. When the bunches are taken from the tree, they are hung up in some very dry place where they may be sheltered and secure from insects.

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Dates afford wholesome nourishment, and have a very agreeable taste when they are fresh. The Arabs eat them without seasoning. They dry and harden them in the sun, to reduce them to a kind of meal, which they lay up in store to supply themselves with food during the long journeys which they often undertake across their deserts. This simple food is sufficient to nourish them for a long time.-The inhabitants of the Zaara procure also from their dates a kind of honey which is exceedingly sweet. For this purpose they choose those which have the softest pulp; and having put them into a large jar with a hole in the bottom, they squeeze them by placing over them a weight of eight or ten pounds. The most fluid part of the substance, which drops through the hole, is what they call the honey of the date.

Even the stones, though very hard, are not thrown away. They give them to their camels and sheep as food, after they have bruised them or laid them to soften in water.

The date, as well as other trees which are cultivated, exhibits great variety in its fruit, with respect to shape, size, quality, and even colour. There are reckoned to be at least twenty different kinds. Dates are very liable to be pierced by worms, and they soon corrupt in moist or rainy weather.

From what has been said, it may easily be perceived, that there is, perhaps, no tree whatever used for so many and so valuable purposes as the date tree.

PHOENIX, in antiquity, a famous bird, which is generally looked upon by the moderns as fabulous. The ancients speak of this bird as single, or the only one of its kind; they describe it as of the size of an eagle; its head finely crested with a beautiful plumage, its neck covered with feathers of a gold colour, and the rest of its body purple, only the tail white, and the eyes sparkling like stars: they hold, that it lives 500 or 600 years in the wilderness; that when thus advanced in age, it builds itself a pile of sweet wood and aromatic gums, and fires it with the wafting of its wings, and thus burns itself; and that from its ashes arises a worm, which in time grows up to be a phoenix. Hence the Phoenicians gave the name of phoenix to the palm-tree; because when burnt down to the root it rises again fairer than ever.

In the sixth book of the Annals of Tacitus, sect. 28.
VOL. XVI. Part II.

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mets.

PHOENIX, son of Amyntor king of Argos by Cleo-
bule or Hippodamia, was preceptor to young Achilles.
His father having proved faithless to his wife, through
fondness for a concubine called Clytia, Cleobule, who
was jealous of him, persuaded her son Phoenix to ingra-
tiate himself with his father's mistress. Phoenix easily
succeeded; but Amyntor discovering his intrigues, he
drew a curse upon him, and the son was soon after de-
prived of his sight by divine vengeance. Some say that
Amyntor himself put out his son's eyes, which so cruelly
provoked him that he meditated the death of his father.
Reason and piety, however, prevailed over passion; and
that he might not become a parricide, Phoenix fied from
Argos to the court of Peleus king of Phthia. Here he
was treated with tenderness; Peleus carried him to
Chiron, who restored his eyesight; soon after which he
was made preceptor to Achilles, his benefactor's son.
He was also presented with the government of many ci-
ties, and made king of the Dolopes. He went with his
pupil to the Trojan war; and Achilles was ever grate-
ful for the instructions and precepts which he had re-
ceived from him. After the death of Achilles, Phœnix,
with others, was commissioned by the Greeks to return
into Greece, to bring to the war young Pyrrhus. This
commission he successfully performed; and after the fall
of Troy, he returned with Pyrrhus, and died in Thrace.
He was buried, according to Strabo, near Trachinia,
where a small river in the neighbourhood received the
name of Phoenix. There was another Phoenix, son of
Agenor, by a nymph who was called Telephassa, ac-
cording to Apollodorus and Moschus, or, according to
others, Epimedusa, Perimeda, or Agriope. He
was, like
his brother Cadmus, and Cilix, sent by his father in
pursuit of his sister Europa, whom Jupiter had carried,
away under the form of a bull; and when his inquiries
proved unsuccessful, he settled in a country, which, ac-
cording to some, was from him called Phoenicia. From
him, as some suppose, the Carthaginians were called
Pœni.

PHOLAS, a genus of shell-fish belonging to the or-
der of vermes testacea. See CONCHOLOGY Index.
The word pholas is derived from the Greek, and sig-
nifies something which lies hid. This name they derive
3 F
from

Pholas.

of this fish has furnished matter for various observations Photag and experiments to M. Reaumur and the Bolognian academicians, especially Beccarius, who took so much pains with the subject of phosphoreal light.

from their property of making themselves holes in the earth, sand, wood, or stone, and living in them. The means of their getting there, however, are as yet entirely unknown. All that we can know with certainty is, that they must have penetrated these substances when very small; because the entrance of the hole in which the pholas lodges is always much less than the inner part of it, and indeed than the shell of the pholas itself. Hence some have supposed that they were hatched in holes accidentally formed in stones, and that they naturally grew of such a shape as was necessary to fill the cavity.

The holes in which the pholades lodge are usually twice as deep, at least, as the shells themselves are long; the figure of the holes is that of a truncated cone, excepting that they are terminated at the bottom by a rounded cavity, and their position is usually somewhat oblique to the horizon. The openings of these holes are what betray the pholas being in the stone; but they are always very small in proportion to the size of the fish. There seems to be no progressive motion of any animal in nature so slow as that of the pholas; it is immersed in the hole, and has no movement except a small one towards the centre of the earth; and this is only proportioned to the growth of the animal. Its work is very difficult in its motion; but it has great time to perform it in, as it only moves downward, sinking itself deeper in the stone as it increases itself in bulk. That part by means of which it performs this, is a fleshy substance placed near the lower extremity of the shell; it is of the shape of a lozenge, and is considerably large in proportion to the size of the animal; and though it be of a soft substance, it is not to be wondered at that in so long a time it is able, by constant work, to burrow into a hard stone. The manner of their performing this may be seen by taking one of them out of the stone, and placing it upon some soft clay; for they will immediately get to work in bending and extending that part allotted to dig for them, and in a few hours they will bury themselves in the mud in as large a hole as they had taken many years to make in the stone. They find little resistance in so soft a substance; and the necessity of their hiding themselves evidently makes them hasten their work. The animal is lodged in the lower half of the hole in the stone, and the upper half is filled up by a pipe of a fleshy substance and conic figure, truncated at the end this they usually extend to the orifice of the hole, and place on a level with the surface of the stone; but they seldom extend it any farther than this. The pipe, though it appears single, is in reality composed of two pipes, or at least it is composed of two parts separated by a membrane. The use of this pipe or proboscis is the same with that of the proboscis of other shell fish, to take in sea-water into their bodies, and afterwards to throw it out again. In the middle of their bodies they have a small green vessel, the use of which has not yet been discovered. This, when plunged in spirit-of-wine, becomes of a purple colour; but its colour on linen does not become purple in the sun like that of the

murex.

The pholas is remarkable for its luminous quality, which was noticed by Pliny, who observes that it shines in the mouth of the person who eats it: and if it touch his hands or clothes, it makes them luminous. He also says that the light depends upon its moisture. The light

M. Reaumur observes, that whereas other fishes give light when they tend to putrescence, this is more luminous in proportion to its being fresh; that when they are dried, their light will revive if they be moistened either with fresh or salt water, but that brandy immediately extinguishes it. He endeavoured to make this light permanent, but none of his schemes succeeded.

The attention of the Bolognian academicians was engaged to this subject by M. F. Marsilius in 1744, who brought a number of these fishes, and the stones in which they were inclosed, to Bologna, on purpose for their examination.

Beccarius observed, that though this fish ceased to shine when it became putrid, yet that in its most putrid state it would shine, and make the water in which it was immersed luminous when it was agitated. Galeatius and Montius found that wine or vinegar extinguished this light; that in common oil it continued some days, but in rectified spirit of wine or urine hardly a minute.

In order to observe in what manner this light was affected by different degrees of heat, they made use of a Reaumur's thermometer, and found that water rendered luminous by those fishes increased in light till the heat arrived to 45°, but that it then became suddenly extinet, and could not be revived again.

In the experiments of Beccarius, a solution of sea-salt increased the light of the luminous water; a solution of nitre did not increase it quite so much. Sal ammoniac diminished it a little, oil of tartar per deliquium nearly extinguished it, and the acids entirely. This water, poured upon fresh calcined gypsum, rock-crystal, ceruse, or sugar, became more luminous. He also tried the effects of it when poured upon various other substances, but there was nothing very remarkable in them. Afterwards, using luminous milk, he found that oil of vitriol extinguished the light, but that of tartar increased it.

This gentleman had the curiosity to try how differently coloured substances were affected by this kind of light; and having, for this purpose, dipped several ribbons in it, the white came out the brightest, next to this was the yellow, and then the green: the other colours could hardly be perceived. It was not, however, any particular colour, but only light, that was perceived in this case. He then dipped boards painted with the dif ferent colours, and also glass tubes filled with substances of different colours, in water rendered luminous by the fishes. In both these cases, the red was hardly visible, the yellow was the brightest, and the violet the dullest. But on the boards, the blue was nearly equal to the yellow, and the green more languid; whereas in the glasses, the blue was inferior to the green.

Of all the liquors to which he put the pholades, milk was rendered the most luminous. A single phelas made seven ounces of milk so luminous, that the faces of persons might be distinguished by it, and it looked as if it were transparent.

Air appeared to be necessary to this light: for when Beccarius put the luminous milk into glass tubes, no agitation would make it shine unless bubbles of air were mix

ed

Pholas, ed with it. Also Montius and Galeatius found, that, in Pholeys. an exhausted receiver, the pholas lost its light, but the

water was sometimes made more luminous: which they ascribed to the rising of bubbles of air through it.

Beccarius, as well as Reaumur, had many schemes to render the light of these pholades permanent. For this purpose he kneaded the juice into a kind of paste with flour, and found that it would give light when it was immersed in warm water; but it answered best to preserve the fish in honey. In any other method of preservation, the property of becoming luminous would not continue longer than six months, but in honey it had lasted above a year; and then it would, when plunged in warm water, give as much light as ever it had done. See Barbut's Genera Vermium, p. 14. &c.

PHOLEYS, or FOULIES, are a people of Africa, of very peculiar manners. Some authors tell us, that the kingdom of Pholey, from whence they derive their name, is divided from that of Jaloff by a lake called in the language of the Mundingoes Cayor; and that it stretches from east to west about 180 miles; but that, though it extends a great way south, its limits in that direction are not exactly ascertained.

Mr Moore, however, gives a very different account, and says, that the Pholeys live in clans, build towns, and are in every kingdom and country on each side of the river; yet are not subject to any of the kings of the country, though they live in their territories; for if they are used ill in one nation, they break up their towns, and remove to another. They have chiefs of their own, who rule with such moderation, that every act of government seems rather an act of the people than of one man. This form of government is easily administered, because the people are of a good and quiet disposition, and so well instructed in what is just and right, that a man who does ill exposes himself to universal contempt.

The natives of all these countries, not being avaricious of land, desire no more than they can use; and as they do not plough with horses or other cattle, they can use but very little; and hence the kings willingly allow the Pholeys to live in their dominions, and cultivate the earth.

The Pholeys have in general a tawney complexion, though many of them are of as deep a black as the Mundingoes; and it is supposed that their alliances with the Moors have given them the mixed colour between the true olive and the black. They are rather of a low stature, but have a genteel and easy shape, with an air peculiarly delicate and agreeable.

Though they are strangers in the country, they are the greatest planters in it. They are extremely industrious and frugal, and raise much more corn and cotton than they consume, which they sell at reasonable rates; and are so remarkable for their hospitality, that the natives esteem it a blessing to have a Pholey town in their neighbourhood; and their behaviour has gained them such reputation, that it is esteemed infamous for any one to treat them in an unhospitable manner. Their humanity extends to all, but they are doubly kind to people of their race; and if they know of any one of their body being made a slave, they will readily redeem him. As they have plenty of food, they never suffer any of their own people to want; but sup

port the old, the blind, and the lame, equally with the Pholeys, others.

These people are seldom angry; and Mr Moore observes that he never heard them abuse each other; yet this mildness is far from proceeding from want of courage, they being as brave as any people of Africa, and very expert in the use of their arms, which are javelins, cutlasses, bows and arrows, and upon occasion guns. They usually settle near some Mundingo town, there being scarce any of note up the river that has not a Pholey town near it. Most of them speak Arabic, which is taught in their schools; and they are able to read the Koran in that language, though they have a vulgar tongue called Pholey. They are strict Mahometans, and scarce any of them will drink brandy, or any thing stronger than sugar and water.

They are so skilful in the management of cattle, that the Mundingoes leave theirs to their care. The whole herd belonging to a town feed all day in the savannahs, and after the crop is off, in the rice-grounds. They have a place without each town for their cattle, surrounded by a circular hedge, and within this enclosure they raise a stage about eight feet high, and eight or ten feet wide, covered with a thatched roof; all the sides are open, and they ascend to it by a ladder. Round this stage they fix a number of stakes, and when the cattle are brought up at night, each beast is tied to a separate stake with a strong rope made of the bark of trees. The cows are then milked, and four or five men stay upon the stage all night with their arms to guard them from the lions, tygers, and other wild beasts. Their houses are built in a very regular manner, they being round structures, placed in rows at a distance from each other to avoid fire, and each of them has a thatched roof somewhat resembling a high-crowned hat.

They are also great huntsmen, and not only kill lions, tygers, and other wild beasts, but frequently go 20 or 30 in a company to hunt elephants; whose teeth they sell, and whose flesh they smoke-dry and eat, keeping it for several months together As the elephants here generally go in droves of 100 or 200, they do great mischief by pulling up the trees by the roots, and trampling down the corn; to prevent which, when the natives have any suspicion of their coming, they make fires round their corn to keep them out.

They are almost the only people who make butter, and sell cattle at some distance up the river. They are very particular in their dress, and never wear any other clothes but long robes of white cotton, which they make themselves. They are always very clean, especially the women, who keep their houses exceedingly neat. They are, however, in some particulars very superstitious: for if they chance to know that any person who buys milk of them boils it, they will from thenceforth on no consideration sell that person any more, from their imagining that boiling the milk makes the cows dry.

PHOLIS, in Natural History, is an old name for gypsums or plaster-stones. The name is derived from Qoλs, a scale or small flake, because they are composed of particles of that form.

PHOLIS, in Ichthyology, is the name of a small ans guilliform fish. The back is brown, the belly is white, the whole back and sides are spotted, and the skin is soft, free of scales, but with a tough mucilaginous mat

3 F2

ter

Pholis.

Pholeys ter like the eel. This species most of all approaches to 0 the alauda; and though usually larger, yet Mr Ray Phormium doubts whether it really differs from it in any thing essential; the distinction is its colour, which though a very obvious is certainly a very precarious one. PHONICS, the doctrine or science of sound, otherwise called ACOUSTICS, which see.

PHORMIUM, FLAX-PLANT, (Phormium tenax, Forst.) is a name which we may give to a plant that serves the inhabitants of New Zealand instead of hemp and flax. Of this plant there are two sorts; the leaves of both resemble those of flags, but the flowers are smaller, and their clusters more numerous; in one kind they are yellow, and in the other a deep red. Of the leaves of these plants, with very little preparation, they make all their common apparel, and also their strings, lines, and cordage, for every purpose; which are so much stronger than any thing we can make with hemp, that they will not bear a comparison.-From the same plant, by another preparation, they draw long slender fibres, which shine like silk, and are as white as snow: of these, which are very strong, they make their finest clothes; and of the leaves, without any other preparation than splitting them into proper breadths, and tying the strips together, they make their fishing-uets, some of which are of an enormous size.

The seeds of this valuable plant were brought over into England; but, upon the first trial, appeared to have lost their vegetating power. We understand however that it has since succeeded with the aid of artificial heat.

The filamentous parts of different vegetables have been employed in different countries for the same mechanic uses as hemp and flax among us. Putrefaction, and in some degree alkaline lixivia, destroy the pulpy or fleshy matter, and leave the tough filaments entire. By curiously putrefying the leaf of a plant in water, we obtain the fine flexible fibres, which constituted the basis of the ribs and minute veins, and which form as it were a skeleton of the leaf. In Madagascar, different kinds of cloth are prepared from the filaments of the bark of certain trees boiled in strong ley; and some of these cloths are very fine, and approach to the softness of silk, .but in durability come short of cotton: others are coarser and stronger, and last thrice as long as cotton; and of these filaments they nrake sails and cordage to their vessels. The stalks of nettles are sometimes used for like purposes, even in France; and Sir Hans Sloane relates, in one of his letters to Mr Ray, that he has been informed by several, that muslin and callico, and most of the Indian linens, are made of nettles. A strong kind of cloth is said to be prepared in some of the provinces of Sweden of hop-stalks; and in the Transactions of the Swedish Academy for 1750, we have an account of an experiment relating to this subject: A quantity of stalks was gathered in autumn, which was equal in bulk to a quantity of flax sufficient to yield a pound after preparation. The stalks were put into water, and kept covered with it during the winter. In March, they were taken out, dried in a stove, and dressed as flax. The prepared filaments weighed nearly a pound, and proved fine, soft, and white; they were spun and wove into six ells of fine strong cloth. Unless the stalks are fully rotted, which will take much longer time than flax, the woody part

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will not separate, and the cloth will prove neither white Phormium nor fine. [ PHOSPHATE is a saline body composed of phos- Photius. phoric acid united to some base, as for instance, lime, which is called phosphate of lime. For an account of the different phosphates, see CHEMISTRY and MINERALOGY Index.

PHOSPHORUS, a name given to certain substances which shine in the dark without emitting heat. By this circumstance they are distinguished from the pyrophori, which though they take fire on being exposed to the air, are yet entirely destitute of light before this exposure.

Phosphori are divided into several kinds, known by the names of Bolognian phosphorus, Mr Canton's phos phorus, Baldwin's phosphorus, phosphorus of urine, &c. of which the last is by far the most remarkable both with respect to the quantity of light which it emits, and its property of taking fire and burning very fiercely upon being slightly heated or rubbed. For the method of preparing these, and for an account of their properties and combinations, see CHEMISTRY Index.

:

PHOTINIANS, in ecclesiastical history, were a sect af beretics in the fourth century who denied the divinity of our Lord. They derive their name from Photinus their founder, who was bishop of Sirmium, and a disciple of Marcellus. Photinus published in the year 343 his notions respecting the Deity, which were repugnant both to the orthodox and Arian systems. He asserted, that Jesus Christ was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary that a certain divine emanation, which he called the Word, descended upon him; and that because of the union of the divine word with his human. nature, He was called the son of God and even God himself; and that the Holy Ghost was not a person, but merely a celestial virtue proceeding from the Deity. Both parties condemned the bishop in the councils of Antioch and Milan, held in the years 345 and 347He was condemned also by the council at Sirmium in 351, and was afterwards degraded from the episcopal dignity, and at last died in exile in the year 372 or 375. His opinions were afterwards revived by Soci

nus.

PHOTIUS, patriarch of Constantinople, was one of the finest geniuses of his time, and his merit raised him to the patriarchate; for Bardas having driven Ignatius from the see, Photius was consecrated by Asbestus in 859. He condemned Ignatius in a synod, whereupon the pope excommunicated him, and he, to balance the account, anathematized the pope. Basilius of Macedon, the emperor whom Photius had reproved for the murder of Michael the late emperor, expelled him, and restored Ignatius; but afterwards re-established Photius, upon Ignatius's death, in 878. At last, being wrongfully accused of a conspiracy against the person of Leo the philosopher, son and successor to Basilius, he was expelled by him in 886, and is supposed to have died soon after. He wrote a Bibliotheca, which contains an examen of 280 authors: we have also 253 epistles of his; the Nomacanon under 14 titles; an abridgement of the acts of several councils, &c. This great man was born in Constantinople, and was descended from a very illustrious and noble family. His natural abilities werè very great, and he cultivated them with the greatest as

siduity.

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