admirer also of the beauty of virtue; and that every lover of nature reflects, that

Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.

If, however, the admirer of nature can turn his amusements to a higher purpose; if its great scenes can inspire him with a religious awe, or its tranquil scenes with that complacency of mind which is so nearly allied to benevolence, it is certainly the better. Apponat lucro. It is so much into the bargain; for we dare not promise him more from picturesque travel than a rational and agreeable amusement. Yet even this may be of some use in an age teeming with licentious pleasure; and may in this light at least be considered as having a moral tendency.

PICUIPINIMA, is the Brasilian name of a species of pigeon, which is so very small as scarcely to exceed the lark in size.

PICUMNUS and PILUMNUS, were two Roman deities, who presided over the auspices required before the celebration of nuptials. Pilumnus was supposed to patronize children, as his name seems in some manner to indicate quod pellat mala infantiæ. The manuring of land was first invented by Picumnus, from which reason he is called Sterquilinius. Pilumnus is also invoked as the god of bakers and millers, as he is said to have first invented the art of grinding corn.

PICUS, the WOODPECKER, a genus of birds belonging to the order of Picæ. See ORNITHOLOGY

Index.

PICUS, in fabulous history, a king of Latium, son of Saturn. He married Venilia, also called Canens, by whom he had Faunus. He was tenderly loved by the goddess Pomona, and he returned her affection. As he was one day hunting in the woods, he was met by Circe, who became deeply enamoured of him, and who changed him into a woodpecker, called by the name of picus among the Latins. His wife Venilia was so disconsolate when she was informed of his death, that she pined away. Some suppose that Picus was the son of Pilumnus, and that he gave out prophecies to his subjects by means of a favourite woodpecker; from which circumstance originated the fable of his being metamorphosed into a bird.

PICUS, John Francis, prince of Mirandola, nephew of John Pica or Picus, mentioned above, was born about the year 1469. He cultivated learning and the sciences after the example of his uncle; but he had a principality and dominion to superintend, which involved him in great troubles, and at last cost him his life. He was twice driven from his principality, and twice restored; and at last, in 1533, was, together with his eldest son Albert, assassinated in his own castle by his nephew Galeoti. He was a great lover of letters; and such of his works as were then composed were inserted in the Strasburg edition of his uncle's in 1504, and continued in future impressions, besides some others which were never collected.

PIECE, in matters of money, signifies sometimes the same thing with species; and sometimes, by adding the value of the pieces, it is used to express such as have no other particular name. For the piece of eight, or piastre, see MONEY TABLE.

PIECE, is also a kind of money of account, or rather

I

manner of accounting, used among the negroes on the Fiert, coast of Angola in Africa. See MONEY Table.

PIECE, in Heraldry, denotes an ordinary or charge. The honourable pieces of the shield are the chief, fess, bend, pale, bar, cross, saltier, chevron, and in general all those which may take up one-third of the field, when alone, and in what manner soever it be. See HERALDRY.

PIECES, in the military art, include all sorts of great guns and mortars. Battering pieces are the larger sort of guns used at sieges for making the breaches; such are the 24-pounder and culverine, the one carrying a 24 and the other an 18 pound ball. Field-pieces are 12 pounds, demiculverines, 6-pounders, sackers, mi nions, and 3-pounders, which march with the army, and encamp always behind the second line, but in day of battle are in the front. A soldier's firelock is likewise called his piece.

Piedmont

PIEDMONT, a country of Italy, having formerly the title of a principality, is bounded on the north by Savoy and Italy; on the west by France; on the south by the Mediterranean and the republic of Genoa; and on the east by the duchies of Montferrat and Milan; extending about 150 miles from north to south, but much less from east to west. It is called Piedmont, and in Latin Piedmontium, from its situation at the foot of the mountains, or Alps, which separate France from Italy. This country is in some parts mountainous, but is everywhere very fruitful. The plains produce fine corn, and Montferrat and the Milanese yield great quantities of Turkey wheat, which commonly serves for bread, and with which the people of the middle rank mix rye; the pods are used for fuel, and the stalks being thick serve to mend the roads. The hills produce plenty of wine, which, like the Italian wines, is very luscious when new, especially the white. There is also a tartish red wine called vino brusco, said to be very wholesome for fat people, and, on the other hand, the sweet wine is recommended as a stomachic. The neighbourhood of Turin is famous for its fine fruits, and many long walks of chesnut and mulberry trees, which produce both pleasure and profit. Marons, or large chesnuts, are a favourite dainty among the common people. These are put into an oven, and, when thoroughly hot, and cooled in red wine, are dried a second time in the oven, and afterwards eaten cold. Truffles grow here in such abundance, that Piedmont has obtained the name of the truffle country. Some are black, others white marbled with red. Their price is rated according to their size. Sometimes they are found of 12 or 14 pounds weight; and many country people earn from 60 to 70 dollars a-year merely by digging for them. The trade in cattle is said to bring into Piedmont no less than three millions of livres per annum. The cultivation of silk is also a profitable article, the Piedmontese silk being, on account of its fineness and strength, esteemed the best in Italy. The Piedmontese gentry breed vast numbers of silk-worms under the care of their tenants, who have the eggs and mulberry leaves delivered to them, and in return they give half the silk to their masters. This principality comprehends eleven small provinces: Piedmont proper, the valleys between France and Italy, the valley of Saluza, the county of Nice, the marquisate of Susa, the duchy of Aost, the Canavese, the lordship of Vet

sail,

nually; and it is not only abundant, but universally Piedmont, known to be stronger and finer than any in Italy. The Pienes. land owners divide the profit with their tenants. The Piedmontese workmen, however, are said to want expertness, though they finish their work equally well with those of other natoins. The high duty and landcarriage on mules likewise tend to lessen the value of this trade. They have besides corn, rice, wine, fruits, flax, and cattle.

Piedmont. sail, the county of Ast, and the Langes. It was formerly a part of Lombardy, but now belongs to the king of Sardinia, and lies at the foot of the Alps, which separate France from Italy. It contains many high mountains, among which there are rich and fruitful valleys, as pleasant and populous as any part of Italy. In the mountains are mines of several kinds, and the forests afford a great deal of curious game, among which the tumor is an useful animal. "The mules (says Mr "The mules (says Mr Watkins) are very fine in this country; but the inhabitants have other beasts, or rather monsters, which they find very serviceable, though vicious and obstinate. These are produced by a cow and an ass, or mare and bull, and called jumarres or gimerri (a). I cannot say that I have ever seen any of them, but I am told they are very common.”

Payne's Geog.

Fol, ii,

The Piedmontese are said to be more intelligent than the Savoyards, but less sincere. Some authors represent them as lively, artful, and witty, the inhabitants of the mountain of Aosta excepted, who are farther distinguished by large wens, as even their horses, dogs, and other animals. Mr Baretti, however, in his Account of Italy, vol. ii. p. 116. gives the following account of them. "One of the chief qualities (says he), which distinguish the Piedmontese from all other Italians, is their want of cheerfulness. Piedmont never produced a single good poet, as far as the records of the country can go, whereas there is no other province of Italy but what can boast of some poet ancient or modern; and yet the Piedmontese are not deficient in several branches of learning, and some of them have succeeded tolerably well in civil law, physic, and the mathematics. It is likewise observed of this people, that none of them ever attained to any degree of excellence in the polite arts, and it is but lately that they can boast of a painter, Cavaliero Bomente; a statuary, Signor Lodetto; and some architects, Conte Alfieri, Signor Borra, and others, who yet, to say the truth, are far inferior to numberless artists produced by the other provinces of Italy. They have, on the other hand, greatly advanced when considered as soldiers; though their troops have never been very numerous, every body conversant in history knows the brave stand they made for some centuries past against the French, Spaniards, and Germans, whenever they have been invaded by these nations. The skill of the Piedmontese in fortification is likewise very great, and their Benlas and Pintos have shown as much genius as the Vaubans and Cohorns, in rendering impregnable several places which inferior engineers would only have made secure."

The chief trade of this principality consists in hemp and silk. Indeed, so great is their trade in raw silk, that the English alone have purchased to the value of 200,000 lib. in a year. The silk worm thrives so well, that many peasants make above (B) 100 lib. of silk an

In the valleys of Lucerne, Peyrouse, and St Martin, which have always belonged to Piedmont, live the celebrated Waldenses or Vaudois, a name which signifies people of the valleys. These have rendered themselves famous in history for their dissent from the Romish church long before the time of Luther and Calvin, and for the persecutions they have suffered on that account; but since the year 1730 they have not been openly molested for their religion, but, in order to suppress them by degrees, a popish church has been built in every parish. They are heavily taxed, and labour under great oppressions. The number of people in these valleys scarce at present exceeds 10,000, of which 1000 are Catholics. The chief river of Piedmont is the Pɔ, which flows out of Mount Viso. The river Sesia, the Doria, Baltea, the ancient Druria, the Tenaro, and several others, run into it. The Var, anciently called the Varus, rises in the county of Nice, and after watering it empties itself into the Mediterranean. The language of the Piedmontese is a mixture of French and Italian. In this country are about 50 earldoms, 15 marquisates, a multitude of lordships, and 20 abbeys. Though the country be entirely popish, except some valleys inhabited by the Waldenses, the king reserves to himself the greatest part of the power in church affairs, which in many other places is given up to the pope, and the constitution unigenitus is here universally opposed. Towards the end of the 17th century, the French king persuaded the duke of Savoy to drive them out of the country; in consequence of which 200,000 of them retired to Germany, England, and Holland, and yet they are not all extirpated, though, as we have observed, they are obliged to have a Roman Catholic church in every parish.

Turin, formerly the residence of the king of Sardinia, to whom this principality belonged, is the chief city. See TURIN. The number of inhabitants, Mr Watkins says, in Piedmont and Savoy, amount to 2,695,727 souls, of which Turin contains about 77,000. Piedmont was long subject to France, but was restored to the king of Sardinia with the rest of his continental dominions in 1814.

PIENES, a small island of Japan, opposite to the harbour of Saccai, is famed not only for the beauty of its walks, to which crowds of people resort from the city, but for a deity worshipped there, to which vast numbers of persons devote themselves. They go from his temple to the sea side, where they enter into a boat provided

bourers.

Pierre, Pietists.

and laid on a flat iron to dry, so that it may be powdered very fine. The powder is moistened with fresh oil, and the mass is put into a double crucible, surrounded with coals, where it stands till it be thoroughly dried again. This is again powdered, and put into a china vesse!, which being covered with a silk cloth and a double paper, they pour on it boiling water, which makes its way, drop by drop, through those coverings, till so much is got in as is sufficient to reduce it to a paste. This paste is well mixed together in the vessel it is kept in, and this is put into a vessel of water, and the whole set over the fire. The matter thus becomes again dried in balneo mariæ, and is then finished. Observ. sur les Cout. de l'Asie, p. 258.

PIERRE, St, is a large river in North America, scarcely inferior to the Rhine or the Danube, and navigable almost to its source. Together with many other large streams, it falls into the river Mississippi.

PIERRE, St, or St Peter's, the capital of Martinico, was built in 1665, in order to overawe the mutineers of the island who rebelled against its proprietors, the second West India Company, who were at the same time the proprietors of all the French Antilles. It is situated on the western side of the island. The town extends along the shore, and a battery that commands the road is erected on the west side, which is washed by the river Royolan, or St Peter. The town is divided into three wards; the middle, which is properly St Peter's, begins at the fort, and runs westward to the battery of St Nicholas. Under the walls of the second ward ships at anchor ride more securely than under the fort, on which account this ward is called the Anchorage. The third ward, called the Gallery, extends along the sea side from Fort St Peter to the Jesuits River, and is the most populous part of the city. The houses of St Peter's ward are neat, commodious, and elegant, particularly those of the governor of the island, the intendant, and the other offcers. The parish church of St Peter is a magnificent stone building which belonged to the Jesuits, with a noble front of the Doric order. The church of the Anchorage, which belongs to the Jacobine friars, is likewise of stone. It is a place of considerable trade, and is built with tolerable regularity. The houses are mostly constructed of a gray pumice-stone or lava, which is found on the strand; and the high-street is, according to Dr Isert, above an English mile in length. It is supposed to contain about 2000 houses, and 30,000 inhabitants, including negroes. St Pierre, with the whole of the flourishing island of Martinico, was taken from the French in the month of March 1794, by the British troops: 125 vessels loaded with the produce of the island, and of great value, were captured, 71 of which were in the harbour of St Pierre.

PIETISTS, a religious sect, sprung up among the Protestants of Germany, seeming to be a kind of mean between the Quakers of England and the Quietists of the Romish church. They despise all sorts of ecclesiastical polity, all school theology, and all forms and ceremonies, and gave themselves up to contemplation and the mystic theology. Many gross errors are charged on the Pietists, in a book entitled Manipulus Observationum Antipietisticarum; but they have much of the air of polemical exaggeration, and are certainly not at all just. Indeed there are Pietists of various kinds: Some running into gross illusions, and carrying their errors to VOL. XVI. Part II.

the overturning of a great part of the Christian doctrine, Pietists while others are only visionaries; and others are very 0 honest and good, though perhaps misguided, people. Piety. They have been disgusted with the coldness and formality of other churches, and have thence become charmed with the fervent piety of the Pietists, and attached to their party, without giving into the grossest of their See Mosheim's Eccl. History, vol. iv. p. 454. PIETISTS, otherwise called the Brethren and Sisters of the Pious and Christian Schools, a society formed in the year 1678 by Nicholas Barre, and obliged by their engagements to devote themselves to the education of poor children of both sexes.

errors.

PIETOLA, anciently called Andes, is a place within two Italian miles of Mantua, famous for being the birthplace of Virgil.

PIETY, is a virtue which denotes veneration for the Deity, and love and tenderness to our friends. This distinguished virtue, like many others, received among the Romans divine honours, and was made one of their gods. Acilius Glabrio first erected a temple to this divinity, which he did upon the spot on which a woman had fed with her own milk her aged father, who had been imprisoned by order of the senate, and deprived of all aliments. The story is well known, and is given at length in authors which are in the hands of every schoolboy, See Cicero de div. 1. and Valerius Maximus, v. c. 4. and our article FILIAL Piety.

If piety was thus practised and thus honoured in Heathen antiquity, it surely ought not to be less so, among Christians, to whom its nature is better defined, and to the practice of which they have motives of greater cogency. A learned and elegant writer has said that the want of piety arises from the want of sensibility; and his observations and arguments are so just and so well expressed, that we cannot do better than transcribe them.

"It appears to me (says Dr Knox), that the mind of man, when it is free from natural defects and acquired corruption, feels no less a tendency to the indulgence of devotion than to virtuous love, or to any other of the more refined and elevated affections. But debauchery and excess contribute greatly to destroy all the susceptible delicacy with which nature usually furnishes the heart; and, in the general extinction of our better qualities, it is no wonder that so pure a sentiment as that of piety should be one of the first to expire.

It is certain that the understanding may be improved in a knowledge of the world, and in the arts of succeeding in it, while the heart, or whatever constitutes the seat of the moral and sentimental feelings, is gradually receding from its proper and original perfection. Indeed experience seems to evince, that it is hardly possible to arrive at the character of a complete man of the world, without losing many of the most valuable sentiments of uncorrupted nature. A complete man of the world is an artificial being; he has discarded many of the native and laudable tendencies of his mind, and adopted a new system of objects and propensities of his own creation. These are commonly gross, coarse, sordid, selfish, and sensual. All, or either of these attributes, tend directly to blunt the sense of every thing liberal, enlarged, disinterested; of every thing which participates more of an intellectual than of a sensual nature. When the heart is tied down to the earth by lust 'and avarice, it is not extraordinary that the eye should be t 3 Z

seldom

Piety. seldom lifted up to heaven. To the man who spends his Sunday (because he thinks the day fit for little else) in the counting-house, in travelling, in the tavern, or in the brothel, those who go to church appear as fools, and the business they go upon as nonsense. He is callous to the feelings of devotion; but he is tremblingly alive to all that gratifies his senses or promotes his interest.

"It has been remarked of those writers who have attacked Christianity, and represented all religions merely as diversified modes of superstition, that they were indeed, for the most part, men of a metaphysical and a disputatious turn of mind, but usually little distinguished for benignity and generosity. There was, amidst all their pretensions to logical sagacity, a cloudiness of ideas, and a coldness of heart, which rendered them very unfit judges on a question in which the heart is chiefly interested; in which the language of nature is more expressive and convincing, than all the dreary subtleties of the dismal metaphysicians. Even the reasoning faculty, on which we so greatly value ourselves, may be perverted by excessive refinement; and there is an abstruse, but vain and foolish philosophy, which philosophizes us out of the noblest parts of our noble nature. One of those parts of us is our instinctive sense of religion, of which not one of those brutes which the philosophers most admire, and to whose rank they wish to reduce us, is found in the slightest degree to participate.

"Such philosophers may be called, in a double sense, the enemies of mankind. They not only endeavour to entice man from his duty, but to rob him of a most exalted and natural pleasure. Such, surely, is the pleasure of devotion. For when the soul rises above this little orb, and pours its adoration at the throne of celestial majesty, the holy fervour which it feels is itself a rapturous delight. Neither is this a declamatory representation, but a truth felt and acknowledged by all the sons of men ; except those who have been defective in sensibility, or who hoped to gratify the pride or the malignity of their hearts by singular and pernicious speculation.

"Indeed all disputatious, controversial, and metaphysical writings on the subject of religion, are unfavourable to genuine piety. We do not find that the most renowned polemics in the church militant were at all more attentive than others to the common offices of religion, or that they were actuated by any peculiar degree of devotion. The truth is, their religion centered in their heads, whereas its natural region is the heart. The heart! confined, alas! in colleges or libraries, unacquainted with all the tender charities of husband, father, brother, friend; some of them have almost forgotten that they possess a heart. It has long ceased to beat with the pulsations of love and sympathy, and has been engrossed by pride on conquering an adversary in the syllogistic combat, or by impotent anger on a defeat. With such habits, and so defective a system of feelings, can we expect that a doctor of the Sorbonne, or the disputing professor of divinity, should ever feel the pure flame of piety that glowed in the bosoms of Mrs Rowe, Mrs Talbot, or Mr Nelson?

"It is however certain, that a devotional taste and habit are very desirable in themselves, exclusive of their effects in meliorating the morals and disposition, and promoting present and future felicity. They add dignity, pleasure, and security to any age: but to old age they are the most becoming grace, the most substantial support, and the sweetest comfort. In order to pre

2

The following example of filial piety in China, taken from P. Du Halde's description of that country, will not we trust be disagreeable to our readers. "In the commencement of the dynasty of the Tang, Lou-taotsong, who was disaffected to the government, being accused of a fault, which touched his life, obtained leave from those who had him in custody, to perform the duties of the Tao to one of his diseased friends. He managed matters so well, that giving his keepers the slip, he fled to the house of Lou Nan-kin, with whom he had a friendship, and there hid himself. Lou Nan-kin, notwithstanding the strict search that was made, and the severity of the court against those who conceal prisoners that have escaped, would not betray his friend. However, the thing coming to be discovered, Lou Nan-kin was imprisoned; and they were just on the point of proceeding against him, when his younger brother presenting himself before the judge, It is 1, Sir, said he, who have hidden the prisoner; it is I who ought to die, and not my elder brother. The eldest maintained on the contrary, that his younger brother accused himself wrongfully, and was not at all culpable. The judge, who was a person of great sagacity, sifted both parties so effectually, that he not only discovered that the younger brother was innocent, but even made him confess it himself: It is true, Sir, said the younger all in tears, I have accused myself falsely; but I have very strong reasons for so doing. My mother has been dead for some time, and her corpse is not yet buried; I have a sister also who is marriageable, but is not yet disposed of: these things which my brother is capable of managing, 1 am not, and therefore desire to die in his stead. Vouchsafe to admit my testimony. The commissioner gave an account of the whole affair to the court, and the emperor at his solicitation pardoned the criminal."

PIG, see Sus,

Guinea-PIG, see MUS,MAMMALIA Index.

PIG of lead, the eighth part of a fother, amounting to 250 pounds weight.

PIGANIOL DE LA FORCE, JOHN AYMAR DE, a native of Auvergne, of a noble family, applied himself with ardour to the study of geography and of the history of France. With the view of improving himself in this study, he travelled into different provinces; and, in the course of his travels, made some important observations on the natural history, the commerce, the civil and ecclesiastical government of each province. These observations were of great use to him in compiling the works he has left behind him, of which the chief are, 1. An Historical and Geographical Description of France; the largest edition of which is that of 1753, in 15 vols. 12mo. It is the best work which has hitherto appeared upon that subject, though it contains a great number of inaccuracies and even errors. 2. A Description of Paris, in 10 vols. 12mo; a work equally entertaining and instructive, and much more complete than the description given by Germain Brice: besides, it is written with an elegant

simplicity.