Original and Right of Tithes (8vo.); Ecclesiastical Tracts (8vo.), &c.

PRIESTLEY, Joseph, an eminent philosopher and divine, was born in March, 1733, at Fieldhead, near Leeds. His father was a clothier, of the Calvinistic persuasion, in which he was also himself brought up, under the protection of an aunt, who, after he had attained a respectable degree of classical acquirement in several schools of the neighborhood, finally placed him at the dissenting academy at Daventry, with a view to the ministry. He spent three years at this school, when he became acquainted with the writings of doctor Hartley, which made a great impression upon his mind; and he was gradually led into a partiality for the Arian hypothesis. On quitting the academy, he accepted an invitation to become minister of Needham Market, in Suffolk, when, being suspected of heretical opinions, he received little encouragement; and, after a residence of three years, he undertook the charge of a congregation at Namptwich, in Cheshire, to which he joined a school. Here his reputation increased; and, in 1761, he was invited by the trustees of the dissenting academy at Warrington to occupy the post of tutor in the languages. At Warrington, his political opinions were manifested in an Essay on Government. He also published an Essay on a Course of Liberal Education, and his useful Chart of Biography. A visit to London having introduced him to doctors Franklin, Watson and Price, he was encouraged to compose a History of Electricity, which first appeared in 1767, and procured him an admission into the royal society; he had previously obtained the title of doctor of laws from the university of Edinburgh. In the same year, he accepted an invitation to preside over a congregation at Leeds, where his religious opinions became decidedly Socinian. At Leeds his attention was first drawn to the properties of fixed air; and here he also composed his History and Present State of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, and Colors. After a residence of six years at Leeds, he accepted an invitation from the earl of Shelburne, afterwards marquis of Lansdowne, to reside with him as a companion, in the nominal capacity of librarian. While forming a part of the establishment of this nobleman, he occupied himself in scientific pursuits, and, in 1773, gave to the Philosophical Transactions a paper on the different kinds of air, which obtained the prize of Copley's gold medal. This was followed by three vol

umes, the publication of which forms an era in the history of aëriform fluids. In 1775, he published his Examination of the Doctrine of Common Sense, as held by doctors Reid, Beattie and Oswald, and soon after published the treatise of Hartley. He had already declared himself a believer in the doctrine of philosophical necessity, and, in a dissertation annexed to his edition of Hartley, expressed some doubts of the immateriality of the sentient principle in man. This doctrine he still more forcibly supported in his Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit (1777); and the obloquy which these works brought on him producing a coolness in his patron, the connexion was dissolved, the doctor retaining an annuity of 150 pounds per annum, by original agreement. He next removed to Birmingham, where he became once more minister of a dissenting congregation, and occupied himself in his History of the Corruptions of Christianity, and History of the early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ. His Familiar Letter to the Inhabitants of Birmingham was written in support of the claims of the dissenters for a repeal of the test acts. The era of the French revolution added to the usual animosity of theological dispute. The anniversary of the capture of the Bastile being celebrated at Birmingham, a mob assembled, and, although doctor Priestley was not present, proceeded to his house, which, with his library, manuscripts and apparatus, fell a prey to the flames. The outrage was countenanced by too many exercising both lay and clerical influence, and the legal compensation which he obtained fell considerably short of his real losses. On quitting Birmingham, he was chosen to succeed his friend doctor Price at Hackney, where he remained some time in the cultivation of his scientific pursuits, until, finally, goaded by party enmity to seek an asylum in the U. States, which he reached in 1794, and took up his residence at Northumberland, in Pennsylvania. In America he dedicated his whole time to his accustomed pursuits, until a severe illness laid the foundation of a debility in his digestive organs; and a gradual decay followed, which terminated his existence, February 6, 1804, in his seventy-first year. He had composed, not long before, his Jesus and Socrates compared.* Doctor Priestley was an ardent controversialist, chiefly in conse

* It was incorrectly stated, in the article John Blair Linn (vol. vii), that the merits of Socrates, in this work of doctor Priestley, are placed above those of Jesus Christ.

quence of extreme simplicity and openness of character, but no man felt less animosity towards his opponents than he did; and many who entertained the strongest antipathy to his opinions were converted into friends by his gentleness and urbanity in personal intercourse. As a man of science, he stands high in the walk of invention and discovery; and to no one has pneumatic chemistry been so much indebted. As a metaphysician, his elucidation of Hartley's theory of association, his works upon philosophical necessity and upon materialism, will always ensure attention. As a theologian, doctor Priestley, who followed his convictions wherever they led him, passed through all changes, from Calvinism to a Unitarian system, in some measure his own; but, to the last, remained a zealous opposer of infidelity. Of his theological and controversial productions, those most generally esteemed are his Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion, and Letters to a philosophical Unbeliever. He also wrote many works of practical divinity. His works amount to about seventy volumes, or tracts, in octavo. (See his Life, by himself and his son.) PRIESTS; officers called by choice or birth to perform religious rites, and to inculcate and expound religious dogmas. Among the ancient pagan nations, all that was dignified and venerable, that deserved respect and obedience, that stood nearer to the Divinity than the common mass of mortals, was associated with the idea of the priestly office. The patriarch of the primitive world was at once the king and the priest of his family; and when the state was developed from the family, the royal and priestly dignity still continued, for a long time, to be united in the same person. (See Melchisedek, and Patriarchs.) But these offices became separated in those states of antiquity which owed their existence to the ascendency of single heroes or conquering tribes; and by the side of the regal dignity and sovereignty a sacerdotal order, which in some countries was elective, in others hereditary, grew up, and by the reputation of superior wisdom, and secret communion with the gods (whence the priests were also honored as magicians and physicians), inspired the mind with awe. In the states of Western Asia, in Egypt, Greece and Rome, the priests were therefore public counsellors, and instruments of government. Their original office was to bring down divine things to the conception of men (the origin of most of the mythuses may therefore be referred to their expla

nations of symbols and emblems), and to solemnize the public worship of the gods by sacrifices, prayers and religious pomp (mysteries). Instruction and the interpretation of symbolical doctrines ceased to be a part of their office when the mythical religious system came to an end; and when the poets, rhetoricians and philosophers assumed the office of interpreters of the mythuses, the sole business of the priests became the performance of the religious rites. The Mosaic constitution exhibits them in this stage of developement, and, while it clothes them with great power, reserves the spiritual part of religion to the prophets. (See High Priest, and Theocracy.) The posterity of Aaron, the hereditary priests of the Hebrews, became, therefore, mere mechanical agents in the daily repetition of the temple service. It fared no better with the Roman Catholic clergy when they adopted the rigor and formalities of the Jewish priesthood, with the view of obtaining the same privileges, and exacting from the Christian laity the same contributions (e. g. tithes) which the Levites had enjoyed. Such a tendency was altogether foreign from the Founder of Christianity and its apostles. The primitive Christian communities had, indeed, teachers, whose duty it was to expound the divine word, and to exercise a paternal care over their disciples; but not to perform pompous ceremonies, nor to rule over the conscience. Some of these teachers were called presbyters, whence the term priest, in our language, is derived (see Presbyterians); but they were by no means priests in the sense of the word which prevails at present. In the Catholic church, priests are that order of the clergy who perform the holy office of the mass, and in some of the Protestant churches, those who administer the sacraments, preach, &c. (See Hierarchy, and Ordination.) Among the Hindoos, the sacerdotal caste styled Bramins form the highest caste. (See Bramins, and Caste.) In the systems of Lamaism and Mohammedanism, the dalai-lama and the caliph are the heads of the priesthood. (See Lama, and Caliph.)

Priests, Non-juring, or Prêtres Insermentés. The schism in the French church, produced by the constitution civile du clergé of the 12th of July, 1790, was connected with the old relations of that church with the Roman see and the French government, and of these latter with each other. Louis IX, by his pragmatic sanction (1268), defended the rights

of election against the see of Rome, and restricted the pecuniary exactions of the latter. By the concordate of Leo X with Francis I (1516), the right of appointing the bishops and prelates was secured to the king, and that of receiving the annates, to the pope; at the same time, an opportunity was afforded to the nobles, by requiring of them a shorter period of preparation, to exclude the learned class, who were really the clergy, from the higher and more profitable ecclesiastical offices. By a royal edict of 1606, this exclusion of the learned was completed, and those abuses introduced, which, in connexion with the licentiousness and immorality of some of the higher clergy, contributed to produce the revolution. The immense revenues of the Gallican church were not applied to spiritual purposes, but merely to supply to the younger sons of nobles the means of leading dissipated and dissolute lives, while the real laborers in the church-the priests—were obliged to live, for the most part, on very moderate, and often scanty incomes. The declaration of the French clergy of 1682 (denying the personal infallibility of the pope and his power to interfere in secular affairs), the Jansenist controversy, and the bull Unigenitus (1713), had introduced divisions into the church. It was no wonder, then, that when, in 1788, the government itself called the people to a great political reform, the church should have been one of the first objects of attention. The first step was to declare the possessions of the church national property, which, after supplying the necessary wants of the church, was to be employed for purposes of state. The relations of the state to the Catholic church were afterwards entirely changed by the civil constitution of the clergy above mentioned. The 135 bishoprics, which were of very unequal extent, were reduced to 83, one for each department, and the whole country was divided into ten archbishoprics. The ten archbishops were to have their seats at Rouen, Rheims, Besançon, Rennes, Paris, Bourges, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Aix and Lyons. The bishops were to officiate as the curates of their sees; the priests and bishops were to be chosen by the people; the canonical consecration was to be performed by the bishop or archbishop (the archbishop being consecrated by the oldest bishop in the archbishopric). The pope, as the visible head of the church, was merely to be informed after the choice had taken place, without any confirmation from him being necessary; and all the bishops, both those

in office at the time and those who should thereafter be chosen, were to take an oath "to watch over the congregations committed to them, to be faithful to the nation, the law and the king, and to support the constitution, which should be framed by the national assembly and accepted by the king." Most of the old prelates and many of the priests refused to take this oath. Such refusal was declared equivalent to a resignation, and others were chosen to supply their places. The non-juring clergy formed one of the most powerful means of opposing republicanism in France; they kindled the war in La Vendée; the greatest part of them emigrated, and published excommunications and charges of heresy, particularly from England, against those who had submitted to the new order of things. The national convention opposed these attacks by the most rigorous measures. Several hundreds of the clergy, who refused to take the oath, were murdered in the prisons of Paris, on the 2d and 3d of September, 1792. The revolutionary tribunal endeavored to extirpate them from the republic. Carrier drowned fiftyeight at once, at Nantes; and a law was passed condemning them to deportation en masse. Even those servants of religion who had submitted to the civil constitution were not suffered to live in peace; religion itself had become hateful to political fanaticism. This violence was carried so far, that the constitutional bishop of Paris, John Baptist Joseph Gobel, a man 67 years of age, who had been educated at Rome, and had been suffragan of the bishop of Basle (since 1772), appeared at the bar of the convention, acknowledged himself an impostor, who had hitherto deceived the people with doctrines which he did not believe himself, and tore off the badges of his sacred office. He was soon after guillotined. This madness, however, did not long continue. Some constitutional bishops obtained from the national convention, in 1794, the declaration of freedom of conscience, and entered into an association with their clerical brethren. The consequence of this was the national councils of 1797 and 1801, the acts of which were printed; and their principles, founded on the constitution civile, met with approbation from many foreign bishops, particularly the Italian. Of the 40,000 parish churches of France, 32,214 were again opened in 1796, and almost all were filled by priests who had taken the oath (prêtres assermentés). The French church was fur advanced towards

independence, when the revolution of 1799, and the concordate of 1801, in which Napoleon sought to make the church a support to his power, restored its old connexion with Rome. The result showed how much Napoleon erred in this policy.

PRIMAGE is a small allowance made by the shippers to the master of a freighting vessel, for his care and trouble in respect to the cargo. It is usually confounded with average (see Average) in the bill of lading, and both are estimated at a certain rate per cent. on the amount of the freight.

PRIMARY. (See Ornithology.) PRIMARY ROCKS. (See Geology.) PRIMATE (primas regni, head of the kingdom); in the European states, the chief archbishop in the state, and the first subject of the realm; in the Catholic church, the primate is also perpetual legate of the pope, and has a sort of spiritual jurisdiction over the other archbishops. There are also primates of provinces. The archbishop of Toledo is primate of Spain; the archbishop of Braga is styled primate of Portugal, although he is actually inferior to the patriarch of Lisbon. In England, the archbishop of Canterbury is styled primate of all England, and the archbishop of York primate of England. In the Protestant Irish church, the archbishop of Armagh is primate of all Ireland; the archbishop of Dublin, primate of Ireland; the archbishop of Cashel, primate of Munster, and the archbishop of Tuam, primate of Connaught. In the German empire, the archbishop of Salzburg was primate of Germany. In France, the archbishop of Lyons is primate of France; that of Bourges, primate of Aquitania, and that of Rheims, of Normandy. In Hungary, the archbishop of Gran is primate; in Poland, the archbishop of Gnesen.

PRIMATICCIO, Francesco, a painter of the Bolognese school, born at Bologna, in 1490, received his first instruction from Innocenzo da Immola, and completed his studies under Giulio Romano. In connexion with several of the pupils of the latter, he painted the Palazzo del Te, in Mantua (q. v.), from Giulio's designs. Through the recommendation of Frederic, duke of Mantua, Primaticcio was taken into the service of Francis I of France, in 1531. His arrival and residence in France makes an epoch in French art. To his influence were ow ing, not only numerous paintings in fresco and works in stucco, which the king caused to be executed, but several branches of painting, as, for instance, enamel painting, and designs for tapestry, were carried

to great perfection through his exertions. Francis sent him to Italy to purchase antique statues, of which he made a respectable collection, and caused numerous casts to be executed. On the death of Rosso, the royal painter, Primaticcio succeeded him in his post, and Francis II appointed him superintendent of the royal buildings. He furnished the designs of several architectural works, among them of the tombs of Francis I and Henry II. His works at Fontainebleau, however, gained him more reputation. He was assisted in his labors by several of his countrymen, of whom Niccolò del Abbate was the most distinguished. Primaticcio died in 1570. The works which he executed in France are nobler and freer, in point of design, than those which he executed in Giulio's school. In his great works he often violated nature.

PRIME MINISTER, or PREMIER. (See Minister.)

The

PRIME NUMBERS are those which have no divisors, or which cannot be divided into any number of equal integral parts, less than the number of units of which they are composed; such as 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, &c. These numbers have formed a subject of investigation and inquiry from the earliest date down to the present day; and a rule for finding them is still amongst the desiderata of mathematicians. method of finding a prime number beyond a certain limit, by a direct process, is considered one of the most difficult problems in the theory of numbers, which, like the quadrature of the circle, the trisection of an angle, and the duplication of the cube, have engaged the attention of many able mathematicians, but without arriving at any satisfactory result.

PRIME VERTICAL is that vertical circle, or azimuth, which is perpendicular to the meridian, and passes through the east and west points of the horizon.

PRIME VERTICALS, in dialling, or PRIME VERTICAL DIALS, are those that are projected on the plane of the prime vertical circle, or on a plane parallel to it. These are otherwise called direct, erect, north, or south dials.

PRIMER. Great primer and long primer are different kinds of type. (See Type.

PRIMITIVE ROCKS. (See Geology.)

PRIMOGENITURE. The right of primogeniture in males seems anciently to have prevailed only among the Jews. The first born in the patriarchal ages had a superiority over his brethren, and, in the absence of the father, was priest of the family. Among the Jews, he had a double portion of the inheritance; in the same

manner as, by the laws of Henry I, in England, the eldest son had the capital fee, or principal feud of his father's possessions,and no other preeminence; and as the eldest daughter had the principal mansion when the estate descended in coparcenary. The "insolent prerogative of primogeniture," as Gibbon denominates it, was unknown among the Romans; the two sexes were placed on a just level; all the sons and all the daughters were entitled to an equal portion of the patrimonial estate. The Greeks, the Britons, the Saxons, the Danes, &c., and even, originally, the feudists, divided the lands equally, some among all the children at large, some among the males only. The equal division of the patrimonial estate among the children is certainly the most obvious and natural way. When the emperors began to create honorary feuds, or titles of nobility, it was found necessary, in order to preserve their dignity, to make them impartible, and, in consequence, descendible to the eldest son alone. This example was further enforced by the inconveniences that attended the splitting of estates; namely, the division of the military services, the multitudes of infant tenants, incapable of performing any duty, the consequent weakening of the strength of the kingdom, and the inducing younger sons to take up with the business and idleness of a country life, instead of being serviceable to themselves and the public, by engaging in mercantile, military, civil or ecclesiastical employments. These reasons occasioned an almost total change in the nature of feudal inheritances; so that the eldest son began, universally, to succeed to the whole of the lands in all military tenures.

In this condition, the feudal constitution was established in England by William the Conqueror. Before the conquest, the descent of lands was to all the sons alike. Socage estates in England frequently descended to all the sons equally, till the time of Henry III, when, in imitation of lands in chivalry, they had almost entirely fallen into the right of succession by primogeniture; except in Kent, where they gloried in the preservation of their ancient gavelkind tenure, of which a principal branch was the joint inheritance of all the sons; and except in some particular manors and townships, where their local customs continued the descent sometimes to all, sometimes to the youngest son only, or in other more singular methods of succession. By the English law, there is no right of

primogeniture among females, except as to the inheritance of the crown. (Black. Commentaries, ii, 215.) The right of primogeniture, which calls the eldest born to the crown, was not introduced into France till very late; it was unknown to the first and second race of kings. The four sons of Clovis shared the kingdom equally among themselves. Those of Louis le Debonnaire did the same; and it was not till the race of Hugh Capet ascended the throne, that the prerogative of succession to the crown was appropriated to the first born. The right of primogeniture is now abolished in France; but it prevails in some degree in every other nation of Europe. In the U. States, no distinction of age or sex is made in the descent of estates to lineal descendants. Though primogeniture and the preference of males are now thus universally given up in this country, yet in some states they remained in full force, and in others modifications of them continued for a long period. The English common law, with regard to descents, prevailed in New Jersey until 1780, in Maryland and South Carolina until 1786, and in Virginia until 1787. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, the eldest son, probably in imitation of the Jewish law, had formerly a double portion of the real and personal estate, and, in Delaware, of the real estate, of his father. (Amer. Jurist, No. I. 80.)

PRIMROSE (primula). A genus of beautiful low Älpine plants, abounding especially on the mountains of the eastern continent. A few species are found in North America, chiefly in Canada, on the Rocky mountains, and on those which border the North Pacific. Some are among the earliest flowers in spring, as the common primrose, the oxlip and cowslip of Europe; and several are cultivated in gardens as ornamental plants. Their roots are perennial; the leaves almost always radical; and the flowers supported on a naked stem, and usually disposed in a sort of umbel. The calyx is tubular; the corolla funnel-shaped, and divided at the summit into five equal lobes; the stamens five in number, with a single style; and the capsule oval, onecelled, and containing numerous seeds attached to a central placenta. The varieties of the common primrose, which have arisen from cultivation, are very numerous. The P. auricula, a native of the Alpine regions of Italy, Switzerland and Germany, is also a well known favorite with the florist.