PAPYRUS.

PAPYRUS.

a

the most remarkable use of this plant was for the manufacture of paper, B.C. 1500, with large cursive hieroglyphs written in retrograde lines ; tams, which appears in the hands of scribes on the earliest monuments there are several of the age of the 19th dynasty, or about B.c. 1000, and (Lepsius, Denkm., ii. 6. 9. 11.) in square sheets or long scrolls, ssesht. one in the British Museum was made for an officer of the court of Seti L. The process of manufacture, as described by Pliny, was to cut off In the subsequent dynasties the rituals are often abridged, a few of the both ends of the plant, the portion used was neither the outer bark nor principal chapters, chiefly those relating to the heart being given, and the inner pith, but some twenty layers or pellicles under the rind generally in the hieratic hand-writing which prevailed in the 26th, or surrounding the triangular stalk, those nearest the centre being the Saite dynasty, which closed B.c. 525, when the hieroglyphs, if used, are finest, which were separated by a needle. These were laid side by smaller, but still neatly written, and the papyrus remarkably white side upon a board, and other layers, philyræ, were placed at right and fine. Under the Ptolemies and Romans, mere extracts or short angles on them, so as to cover them, and the whole cemented with papyri containing excerpts of these sacred books were given ; and Nile water, or more probably a fine glue. By continuing this process, under the Roman empire, the mummies had the allowance reduced to it was possible to make the piece of any length and breadth required; a single chapter. The rituals are divided into books, shaa, which are and the whole was pressed, beaten with a hammer, and rubbed with again subdivided into chapters, zu, and the whole comprised in volumes, tooth or shell, it was then pared, smoothed, laid in the sun, bound gama. The sheets are called sesht, perhaps the Roman scheda, the together and rolled out. The size and quality of this paper differs pages sesh, the pictures, skher. These vignettes, one of which accomconsiderably, the greatest breadth being 1 foot 6 inches, or the lesser panies each chapter, are placed above the text, and represent the cubit; but some are not more than 4 inches, while the quality varies principal action of the chapter, the subject of which and the comfrom a coarse and stringy to a silky material remarkably fine and mencement, as well as the directions and especial words in the text are smooth. The length was, of course, quite arbitrary, the longest written in red ink, and are called skher teshr, or “rubric.” The ritual pieces, such as the hieroglyphical ritual at Leyden, measuring 60 feet, was an inspired book, and was supposed to have been dictated and while other portions do not exceed a few inches. The papyrus of the written by the god Thoth himself, and the collection of which it was 18th dynasty is generally about 13 inches wide, and of a pale brownish- composed assured to the soul a transit through the purgatory and white colour; that of the 19th dynasty measures 9 and 11 inches, other regions of the dead, the immortality of the future life, and its and is of a dark colour, those of the 20th are 145, 11, 8, and 5 union with the body, the passage to the future judgment and acquittal, inches, and are of whiter colour and stouter texture ; in the 21st, protection against decay and consequent transmigration, and directions the papyrus is 81 and 5 inches wide, and of dark colour. Some of the for a variety of spells of a magical nature, especially for the preservation papyri of the subsequent dynasties are 1 foot 6 inches, or 1 foot, or of the heart: the most remarkable part of the doctrine is the distinct 9 inches wide, of whiter colour but coarser texture, and at the time enunciation of the immortality of the soul at the remote period of of the 26th dynasty, the material is remarkably fine and white, but B.C. 2000, everywhere spoken of as the acknowledged dogma of Egypoccasionally as narrow as 6 inches. The demotic contracts under the tian theosophy. Ptolemies are written on a yellowish-brown papyrus of the average The first sixteen chapters commence with the invocation of Thoth to width of 11 inches, and about 20 long, while the Greek papyri, unde Osiris, and contain various prayers, and a formula for the preparation the Ptolemies and Romans, measure about 124–14 inches wide; the of the sepulchral work or little figures so often found in the tomb. rituals, 1 foot, 10 inches, 94 inches, and these, as well as the Roman The 17th chapter is an esoteric interpretation of the faith-the 18th to rituals, from 1 foot to 94 or 4 inches, are of a stout and whiter the 21st is the Crown of Justification, in which Thoth justifies the Osiris material, not, however, so fine as those of the 26th dynasty.

before or against different deities, in certain mystical regions. From tha The darkness of colour is probably owing to the greater age, those of 22nd to the 26th are the different spells and incantations for the prethe oldest period being generally the darkest and almost of a sienna servation of the heart, tongue, and other parts of the body. The 27th colour, the material having carbonised with age, while the later are to the 42nd are destined to repel the various Typhonian animals that generally, but not always, white; but there can be no doubt that the seek to destroy the body. The 43rd to the 63rd refer to the means contact of the rituals with the hot bitumen of the mummies has in for escaping decapitation in Hades, corruption and pollution, and the many instances rendered the colour darker, the hieratic historical passage in the makhen or mystical boat over the river of Hades. papyri, said to have been found in vases are, however, extremely dark. Subsequent chapters refer to the exit of the soul from earth, its Papyri are found under various circumstances, but principally in con expedition into Elysium and passage of the Gates of the Sun. The nection with the mummies, as in their hands, under their arms, between most remarkable of these was found in the days of king Mencheres by their legs, or under the bandages stretched all over them like a shroud. the prince Hartetaf, on a brick under the statue of the god Thoth in They are generally, however, of a cylindrical form rolled upon them. Hermopolis. The 77th to the 87th contain the transmigrations or selves, the first page, of course, being outwards, and those of letters are genesis of the soul under various types in the future state. The 89th, sealed with a clay seal. The rituals are often placed in wooden cases, the union of the soul and body. Subsequent chapters refer to similar made in shape of Osiris, or Ptah Socharis Osiris, hidden in niches ideas. From 98 to 102 is a group referring to the mystical boat, a made for that purpose, or in the hollowed body of the deity, or else in kind of Argo, the parts of which address the deceased, and require him a niche in the pedestal, so skilfully covered, joined, and painted as to to tell their names before it will move. The 110th is the Egyptian elude detection by the eye. The historical and documentary papyri Aahlu or Elysium, where the deceased sows, irrigates, reaps, and eats of are said to be found in vases, boxes, and coffins.

the divine corn of the Heavenly Egypt. The 125th contains the The ink with which the Egyptians wrote on this material was an "great judgment,” the appearance of the deceased before Osiris and animal carbon, apparently mixed with oil; they used for the purpose a the 42 demons, the negative confession of the sins he has not comlong rectangular palette or canon, from 1 ft. 8 to 9 inches long, and mitted, the justification by Thoth, the weighing of his heart in the from 2 to 14 feet in width, having two small cells or hollows which balance against the feather of Truth, the devourer of the wicked, the held a small quantity of red and black ink, the pens used were a thin, new birth, and metempsychosis. Each part of the Hall calls out to cylindrical and fibrous reed, called kash, the ends of which when split him to tell its name before it will allow him to proceed, and the form a kind of natural brush. The writing is according to the nature deceased then escapes the pool of fire or Phlegethon, the subject of the of the document, the hieroglyphical in vertical lines of thin linear 126th chapter. The subsequent chapters refer to the passage of the hieroglyphs, the hieratic and demotic in broader and thicker cha- Empyreal gateway, and the admission into the boat of the sun in which racters, generally about 10 lines to a page of 9 or 11 inches long, and that luminary circulated through the liquid ether or Celestial Nile. in black and red characters. Compositions of the nature of books, are Other chapters contain miscellaneous information ; 137 is to restore the written with great care and regularity, official documents less so, and vital warmth ; 141, 142, the knowledge of the names of the gods; 145, with characters of larger dimensions at the commencement. The 146, the passage through the mystical doorways of Osiris guarded by religious compositions are ornamented with pictures or vignettes, demons, whose names the deceased has to declare. In the 152nd, the traced with great delicacy, and sometimes brilliantly coloured with deceased enters his new mansion and drinks the waters of Nu, or life ; simple colours, and even gilded.

the 154th is to preserve the soul from transınigration. Seven others Considered as the books and documents of ancient Egypt, the papyri give instructions for the amulets placed on the throat of the are of the greatest importance to the knowledge of the history and mummies ; and the last, 162, for the placing of the coffin of the dead Literature. They consist of Hermetic writings, religious and moral so as to be blown upon by the four winds. The ritual closes here, books, civil documents, and literary compositions in three kinds of but at the time of the Turin ritual three supplementary chapters, 163writing, besides manuscripts in Greek of the highest literary import. 165, were introduced, of mythical import, referring to the worship of

The most often repeated and extensively found, is the so-called Amen Ra. ritual of the Dead, a copy or abridgment of which in one of the three Besides the ritual other religious papyri are known, one the book writings was deposited with every mummy of consequence from the of the Lamentations of Isis over her brother Osiris, the other the 18th dynasty to the Roman epoch.

passage of the sun through the eleventh hour of the night, chiefly This Book of Departure from the Day, and entrance into the found with the mummies of the priestesses of Amen Ra in the future state, is a composition which can be traced as early as the age of the XX and subsequent dynasties at Thebes, and a hymn to 4th dynasty, or the pyramid builders, copies of which, more or less the Nile. complete, exist in all the museums of Europe, there being probably The hieratic civil and literary papyri are equally interesting and 200 papyri relating to it in Europe. One of the copies at Leyden important for the knowledge of the chronology and history of the measures 60 feet, another in the British Museum still more ; but the country. These papyri are known under the names of their posmost complete example is the so-called ritual of Turin, written about the sessors, as the Prisse, Sallier, Anastasi, D'Orbiney, and Abot Papyri

. time of the Ptolemies, and published by Lepsius in the Todtenbuch! Of those as yet published, the most remarkable are the Hieratic canon The earliest examples are of the age of the 18th dynasty, or about 1 of the kings at Turin, unfortunately much mutilated, which originally

ance.

contained a list of kings till the 19th dynasty, with the dates of their V. and Attalus, or Eumenes II., in whose reign the grammarian Crates reigns, and a chronological introduction; the Prisse Papyrus, con- is said to have invented pergamena, or parchment, or rather to sisting of a book of moral instruction written by Ptahhetp, an officer have substituted its use, this material having already existed long of the 5th dynasty, and the oldest known papyrus; the I. Sallier, before in Egypt-rolls of brown leather of the 14th, and of white containing an account of transactions between the Hykshos king leather or parchment of the subsequent dynasties existing in the Apapus, and the Egyptian monarch Taakan of the 17th dynasty; the collections of the British Museum of nearly 1000 years older than the II. Sallier, the instructions of Amenemha I. of the 12th dynasty parchments of the kings of Pergamus. to his son Usertesen I.; and those of Sakarta to his son Papi The use of papyrus in Rome dated from the earliest period, the on his return from the college at Silsilis, the IV. Sallier, an Almanac books of Numa and the Sibyl were said to have been made of this of fasts and festivals, with the religious reasons for the same, and the material, but Varro, in a passage controverted by Pliny, states that the luck or misfortunes of each day; the D'Orbiney Papyrus, the romance paper was first invented long after, in the days of Alexander the Great. of the two brothers written by Enna for the young prince Seti II. in It is clear, however, that it was in use in European and Asiatic the reign of Merienptah, a kind of novel, the plot turning on the Greece, and consequently Magna Grecia, long before. According to misconduct of the wife of the eldest, the death of the younger, his other authorities it was raised in Apulia and Calabria, and even in the revival and metamorphosis into a bull, and persea trees; the III. Sallier, marshes of the Tiber, in the vicinity of Rome ; but there appears to be or poem of Pentaur celebrating the exploits of Rameses II., against the some doubt whether the Romans manufactured paper at Rome or Khita, and the grand triumph of Egypt over that people. Besides merely improved and adapted the raw papyri exported from Egypt. these which are literary, several documentary hieratic papyri remain, In the days of the empire various kinds of papyri then in use were as those at Turin, dated in the reign of Thothmes III., Amenophis II., named from their size or fineness. The Romans prepared their paper Rameses II., III., V., VI., the contents of which are as yet unpublished, with greater care, and sized it with a paste of fine flour stirred in and the Abot papyrus dated in the 16th year of Rameses IX., con- boiling water with a few drops of vinegar, and some leaven, which was taining an account of the violation of certain royal tombs and the filtered and kept for one day, after sizing it was beaten with a hammer examination by the police. The Anastasi papyri appear to be copies and sometimes sized a second time, pressed and smoothod. The names of correspondence and instructions entered on the Egyptian patent of the principal kinds were the charta Augusta, 12 inches broad, of a rolls. In Sallier I. are ten letters of Ameneman, and one of Pentaur, fine and white quality, anciently called the hieratica, because used for about agricultural affairs, the advantages of learning, and instructions. religious purposes, rather too thin for books, and used only for letters, I. Anastasi describes a journey in Palestine, III. Anastasi miscel. hence called epistolaris; the Liviana, named after Livia, was the laneous matters addressed by Amenemap to Pinebsa, giving an account second quality; the third quality was the amphitheatrica, so called of a military life. IV. Anastasi admonitions and other affairs, V. VI. from being made near some amphitheatre, of 9 inches breadth, being VII. VIII. of the same series, letters and miscellaneous entries about beaten out from an Egyptian papyrus of 8 inches; an improved kind judicial and other matters. A series of papyri at Leyden refer to called the Panniana, was prepared by the grammarian Rhemmius similar matters, or magic. At Berlin a papyrus contains the receipts Fannius Palæmon, in the reign of Claudius I., 10 inches in width, and of an Egyptian physician.

very fine, and capable of being written on both sides; the Claudia, The demotic or enchorial papyri consist principally of contracts for invented by the same emperor, was 13 inches wide, and underlaid with the sale of lands, houses, nummies, and tombs, commencing in the a second layer; besides which there were the emporetica, or warehouse reign of Psammetichus I., B.C. 850, and continuing till the reign of paper, for packing, of 6 inches; the saitica, made either of coarser or Nero; besides which, there are in the same handwriting, memoranda, old material, and narrow; the tæniotica, very coarse, sold by weight; accounts, letters, translations of fragments, or later rituals by the and other qualities and kinds as the Thebaica, Carica, Memphitica, Gnostics, Basilidians, or Valentinians, occasionally accompanied with named from the places where produced; the Corneliana, said to have valuable interlinear translations and words in Greek. They are chiefly been called after Cornelius Gallus; the regia, or royal, finer, but not important for the light they throw on the chronology of the Persians large; and the macrocollus, larger than 13 inches. The quire, scapus, and Ptolemies, and on the changes which the language underwent at a consisted originally of twenty sheets, or plagulæ, but was afterwards later period. Two Phænician papyri have also been found in a tomb reduced to ten. The defects wero roughness, spots, and gaps. The of the Thebaid.

length of the writing on the pages was narrow, and the Herculaneum The few Coptic papyri consist principally of portions of the Old and papyri do not exceed 4 inches; the writer used an ink made of soot, New Testament, religious works, deeds and donations to monasteries of pine-wood, burnt pitch, and resin, and special writers, called at Gemi in the Thebaid. There are no early Arabic papyri, but this chrysographi, wrote gold letters; all wrote with the calamus, a language is found in the Neskhi character, probably written in recent Carian or Egyptian reed, on blind lines, alokes, generally on one side times on old material.

only, the back being generally stained with saffron or cedar-oil. The Nor are the Greek papyri found in Egypt less important; and recent writings or books were rolled up upon a stick, like the Egyptian, into a discoveries have not only added considerably to the stock of Greek cylindrical form-each cylinder was called volumen ; and those of Herliterature, but excited hopes of finding still greater treasures. The culaneum have the stick, bacillus, or the umbilicus, concealed in the 150 papyri found in the vicinity of the Serapeum of Memphis have rolls: at each end was a projecting knob, cornu ; the edges were revealed the inner life and government of that temple-the mode of coloured black. Volumes were often placed in purple leather cases, transacting public business, the administration of justice, the value of called sittybe ; and the title of the roll, titulus, was written on a small commodities, the state of the chancery of the Ptolemies, the rules of strip of papyrus or parchment, lorum, in letters of a light red colour,the religious orders, and many other curious particulars connected with besides which, a portrait of the author was sometimes drawn on the first the history of that temple. [SERAPEUM.] Those exhumed from the page of the roll. The titles of works were suspended to the door-posts, ruins of Thebes have also been of great interest, throwing considerable columnæ, of the booksellers, librarii, who formed an important class. light upon the history of the place, especially the sale of the mummies, Books were not very dear: a copy of the first book of Martial's ' Epiliturgies, and houses, the quarrels of the various classes of undertakers grams' sold for 5 denarii, or about 4s., in the author's lifetime. The and others in that declining city. Besides these, letters of private Alexandrian trade in books was very great; and nothing astonished individuals, advertisements for runaway slaves, a treatise on astronomy, Hadrian more on his visit to that city than the activity of the paper a horoscope, and a treatise on grammar, with extracts from lost manufacture at Alexandria, which formed one of the staples of Egyptian authors, and other miscellaneous writings have been found. The dis-commerce, which is mentioned by Philostratus, A.D. 244; and the covery of a book of the Iliad,' and of two lost orations, and portions pretender to the empire, Firmus, A.D. 272, boasted that he could feed of two others of Hypereides, have proved what important manuscripts his army off the papyrus and glue of his paper manufactory. The in this material may come from the Theban tombs. The Psalms of Alexandrian papyrus is mentioned by St. Cyril

, A.D. 409, and a Latin David, in uncial characters, on papyrus, in the form of a book, have deed of sale is known of the same century, found at Phila. St. Jerome also been found in Egypt.

in this century mentions its use as universal. The use of this material Although there is no doubt from the mention of papyrus, either in continued to be universal in the following century, and there remains its natural or manufactured state, by Homer, Alcæus, Æschylus, of this age the homilies of St. Avitus, A.D. 525; the charters of Herodotus, and Plato, that the Greeks were acquainted with its use at Ravenna, of A.D. 552; the homilies of St. Augustine, written on papyrus an early period, yet it is doubtful if it was universally employed, not with sheets of parchment introduced ; and fragments of Josephus. withstanding the spurious letter of Sarpedon, said to have been written The most remarkable event of this age is the abolition of the paper from that monarch when at Troy, and sent to Lycia. It appears from duty by Theodoric, recorded in the pompous and flowery panegyric of an Athenian inscription that a sheet of papyrus, charta, in the days of Cassiodorus, A.D. 562. It is also mentioned in this century in the Pericles, cost 1 drachm 2 obols, or about 18. 1 d., which, taking the legend of St. Eugendus, and by Gregory of Tours, as exported from value of money at that period as four times greater than at pre- Alexandria. The Greek charters of Mauricius and Heraclius, A.D. 606sent, amounts to about 48. 6d. [Rhangabé · Ant. Hell. I., 1842, No. 616, and the Latin of Dagobert I., A.D. 690, show its use in the east 56—59; Egger, ‘Rev. Contemp. 1856, p. 171.] Probably the state and west in the 7th century; the bull of Pope John VIII., A.D. 876, ment of Varro is substantially correct, and it was not much in use brings its use down to the 9th ; and in Italy it continued to be used till the time of Alexander the Great-before which period the Greeks till the 11th or 12th, the latest known document being the bull of used palm-leaves, linen, lead, or wax. Among the Ionian Greeks Paschal II. in favour of the see of Ravenna, but Eustathius, A.D. 1170, dipthera, or skins, appear to have been anciently employed, for they speaks of papyrus as extinct in his days; and it appears to have been gave this name to papyri. At the time of the Ptolemies papyri and quite superseded by the use of cotton-paper, Charta Bombycina, or books were exported from Egypt, but the trade was stopped by Damascena, introduced by the Arabs from Asia, of which they obtained the rivalry of the kings of Egypt and Pergamus—Ptolemy Epiphanes the knowledge in A.D. 704, according to some authorities, but no

:

PARABOLA,

PAPYRUS.

267

a

Arabic paper manuscript bearing a date older than about A.D. 950 is body of blank papyri, or of the dried stem of an ancient plant found known. Some indeed assert that the so-called papyri of these later in the sepulchre, and then glue over this cylindrical mass fragments centuries are really made of bark, and are a kind of charta corticea. of one or more broken papyri, the writing outwards in an admired

The most remarkable of the Roman papyri are the 1756 rolls, and confusion, tie the whole with a strip, and seal it with a clay seal bearing fragments found in an excavation of Herculaneum, about A.D. 1753, in the impression of a scarabæus. It is painful to think how many Egyptian a book case in a small room in a house, utterly reduced to carbon, and and Greek manuscripts of the highest value to science and literature twisted so as to resemble ram's horns, by the effects of the eruption of have been in this way destroyed. Vesuvius. They were at first believed to be mere billets of carbon, but The extremely brittle condition in which Egyptian papyri are found, letters having been observed on some, attempts were made to unrol and renders it impossible to unroll them in their actual condition without decipher them. The first attempts to unroll them were made by injury, but they regain their elasticity by the application of cold or Paderni, who in 1755 incised them to the centre in two opposite hot water, or exposure to damp, and still better by carefully steaming places of the cylinder so as to reveal two pages, but otherwise to spoil them in a covered vessel ; those that have much oil or bitumen require the best papyri. The first succesful attempts were made by Piaggi in the application of alcohol to separate them more easily: they should then 1758, and since his time no improvement on his system has been be unrolled and laid down, if only written on one side, on drawingmade, the attempts of Lapira, Davy, and Sickler, being equally paper, and fixed with a paste containing alum or a slight quantity of unsuccessful. The process of Piaggi still practised at Naples, is to lay corrosive sublimate to prevent the ravages of insects. Formerly they the papyrus in a convex trough on cotton supported by two uprights were unrolled on a gauze and glued at the edges, and gently pressed with of wood, which lower at the pleasure of the unroller; the trough is linen, but it is preferable to mount them as prints. When they are suspended by a band passing over it at each end, and attached only endorsed in a few places, it is merely necessary to leave the above : the outer portion of the papyrus is slightly saturated with endorsements not mounted, and place over them goldbeater's-skin or gum or glue, and the layer of writing detached with a needle, and tracing-paper for protection. At Leyden, the papyri are fixed on tissue as quickly as detached fixed by the back on a layer of gold-beater's paper made transparent by glue, and they are rolled up; those in the skin placed vertically; a third band passes in the middle between Vatican are pasted on pages of cloth; those of Paris are glazed or fixed those of the ends, and is attached to the gold-beater's skin which is on thin but compact pasteboard; those in the British Museum are drawn up with the pages attached as the operation proceeds. After a mounted in frames, or in separate pages of pasteboard and glazed. few pages have been unrolled, the skin is cut off and the pages handed The custom of rolling up papyri is objectionable, owing to the fibres to the artists who draw and engrave them, they are then passed to the splitting with the unrolling and injuring the writing. Facsimiles of interpreters who collate and transcribe them. The process is one hieroglyphic hieratic, demotic, Greek, Latin, and other papyri have requiring the greatest care, experience and patience, and the progress been published at various times, exhibiting the palæography, textures, is necessarily slow, not more than about an inch can be unrolled in size, and other peculiarities of these rolls. four or five hours, and it took four years to unroll thirty-nine pages of (The principal works to be consulted are, Guilardinus, Papyrus, Philodemus on music, and one year and a half to perform the same 12mo, Madrid, 1667; Mabillon, De Re Diplomatica, i. c. 8, p. 38 and operation for twenty-nine pages of rhetoric. When unrolled they are foll. ; Montfaucon, Palæographia Græca i. 2, p. 13 and foll. ; Caylus, sur framed and glazed, and published. The work proceeds but slowly, le Papyrus, Mem. d'Acad. xxvi., p. 267; Jomard, Descr. de l'Egypte, owing to the irtere t taken in them having diminished since their iii., p. 117–118; Winckelmann, ii., Bd. l.; Goodwin, C. W., Cambridge discovery, and the contents not having had the literary importance Essays, 1858, p. 226; Library of Entertaining Knowledge-Egyptiar that was expected. The rolls were in the library of an epicurean, and Antiquities, ii. c. 7; De Rougé, Revue Contemporaine, xxvii., p. 389; consist of philosophical disquisitions, chiefly by the philosophers of Chabas, Revue Archeologique, 1857; De Rougé, Rer. Archeol., 1852; that school; there is one treatise by Epicurus himself on Nature, Moniteur, 7 et 8 Mars, 1851; Hincks’ Cat. of Eg. Man. Trin. Coll. Dubl., another by Chrysippus on Providence, several by Philodemus on 8vo, 1843; Goodwin, Græco-Egyptian work on Magic, 8vo, 1852.) Music, Morals, and other subjects, and others by Colotes, Carniseus PAR OF EXCHANGE. [EXCHANGE.] and Polystratus. The papyri with latin texts are differently prepared, PARA (coin). [MONEY.] and present still greater difficulties to unroll. Neither the dimen- PARA. A pretis sometimes used in chemistry in naming com. sions nor the fabric of these correspond with the description of Pliny, pounds which either in properties or composition resemble the body and it may be generally remarked that the monuments and literature to which it is attached, but differ from it in some other respects. of the ancients rarely agree. The breadth of the papyri at Hercu- Thus paracyanogen is a body of the same composition as cyanogen, laneum is from 8 to 12 inches for that of the Greek, the Latin are but differs from the latter in properties. Such compounds will wider; the pages are quite black, and the letters only distinguishable generally be found under the name to which the prefix is added. in a favourable light by the greater intensity of colour, or by their PARABANIC ACID. [URIC ACID.] polish. From the similarity of the letters it is evident the rolls were PARABLE (Trapaßorn, "a comparison or similitude"), is defined by new. The space occupied by ancient libraries of these rolls appears to Bishop Lowth as "a continued narrative of a fictitious event, applied have been considerable; from the portion of the “Iliad' found at by way of simile to the illustration of some important truth." Elephantine, 8 feet long and 10 inches wide, it appears that a copy of (* Prælect.,' x.) It is a species of fable, and differs from the apologue the works of Homer would require 41 such rolls. In the Alexandrian by narrating events which, though fictitious, are not impossible to have library, a separate room contained his works and those of his commen- happened. [FABLE.] This mode of instruction is of great antiquity, tators in 1000 rolls. The libraries of the New Museum at Alexandria, especially among the eastern nations. In the Old Testament we have and of the Serapeum have been estimated at from 54,000 to 700,000 examples of it in the parable of Nathan to David (2 Sam., xii. 1-9), in such books or rolls. At Rome the first public library was that of Asinius that of the woman of Tekoah (2 Sam., xiv. 1-13), and repeatedly in the Pollio, in the time of Augustus; some private individuals possessed writings of the prophets (Is., v. 1-7; Ezek., XV., xvi., xix., xxxiii., &e.). magnificent libraries, and that of Epaphroditus, the grammarian of The parable of Jotham, which is often spoken of as the most ancient Chæronea, who lived from the reign of Nero to that of Nerva, had parable in existence (Judges, ix. 7-15), is properly an apologue. In 30,000 rare books in papyri. The rooms which held these papyri were the New Testament parables form a most marked feature of our probably small, and when required for reading, a few were carried out Saviour's teaching. (See the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.) in cylindrical boxes, cistee, of bronze, standing on three legs with a Lowth lays down as the essential qualities of a parable, that the vaulted cover, and placed on the floor beside the reader. The rolls image must be well known and applicable to the subject, and its stood vertical, and were taken out of the box by a strip of parchment meaning clear and definite; it must be elegant and beautiful in attached. The reader fixed one end by his chin, unrolled as far as he itself; all its parts and appendages must be perspicuous and pertinent; required, and then held the roll with both hands. The first pages and the literal must never be confounded with the metaphorical were called protocolla or protocols, the last eskatocolla. So important sense. was the due supply of paper to the Roman scribes and public, that a Many of the Scripture parables are accompanied by an explanation, deficiency in the reign of Tiberius gave rise to a riot.

which, of course, fixes the sense. Where this is not the case, the The manufacture, for the sake of verifying the statements of Pliny, intended meaning must be gathered from a consideration of the subwas revived in the last century. Its existence in the vicinity of Panor-ject-matter of the parable itself, the context in which it occurs, and mus at a farm called the Massa Papyreti, had been already mentioned the circumstances under which it was uttered. by Gregory and by Hugo Falcandus, at a place called Papero, and in Besides its usual signification, this word is employed in the Scripthe pools of the Liane,

near Syracuse, where it was discovered by the tures in the following senses :--a proverb, a famous saying, a thing Cavalier Landolina, and a coarse stout papyrus, inferior to the ancient, darkly or figuratively expressed, and a visible type or emblem. produced from it, small quantities for curiosities being made to the PARA'BOLA. The probable origin of this name, as applied to one present day. It was introduced from Egypt under the reign of one of of the conic sections, may be seen in RECTANGLE. As in the case the later tyrants of Syracuse.

of the other Conic SECTIONS (ELLIPSE and HYPERBOLA), we shall here The extreme value obtained by papyri, some extraordinary manu- give a small collection of the most remarkable properties of this scripts having fetched from 901. to 2001., and all of them being a highly prized class of antiquities, menaces these ancient rolls with 1. Let a point p move in such a way that its distance sp from a destruction. The Arab fellaheen, who dive into the cemeteries of fixed point s is ålways the same as its perpendicular distance PM Gizeh and Gournal, tear into pieces (these frail rivals of the pyramids," from a given line M L. This point p describes what is called a as they have been called, and for the sake of obtaining greater sums parabola. from the ignorance of travellers, are accustomed to make out of the 2. The line Ls, perpendicular to LM, produced, is the axis, or unfortunate fragments fictitious rolls of papyri. They make a core or I principal diameter; and any line pv parallel to it is called a diameter.

3. s A is equal to A L, and S K to twice a S.

4. If an ellipse be described with the vertex A and the focus s, the farther the centre is from the point s, the more nearly will the part of the ellipse which falls within any given ordinate P N coincide with the corresponding part of the parabola: and the same of an hyperbola drawn with the vertex A and focus s. And a parabola may be considered as an ellipse or hyperbola with a given focal distance As, and a centre at an infinite distance.

ing to the balloon. It is in shape like an umbrella, and its construction may be understood by supposing the umbrella to be large and strong, to be provided with ropes or stays fastened to the extremities of the whalebones, and brought down to the handle, where they must be fixed, so as to prevent the umbrella from turning inside outwards. Instead of the stick, suppose a metal tube to be fixed in the centre, with a rope passing through it, attached by its upper extremity to the balloon, and by its lower end to a tub or car. This machine is a parachute: while ascending, it will be like a closed umbrella, but it may at any moment be detached from the balloon by cutting the end of the rope which is tied to the car; the resistance of the air will then cause it to expand, and will at the same time retard the velocity of descent.

The idea of using such a machine to break the fall from a high place is not new: it has been frequently experimented with; has been found utterly useless for any desirable purpose; and has caused the death of many who have attempted to descend by its means.

Three formulas have been given for calculating the velocity of descent of a parachute. They are

in which w is the weight in pounds avoirdupois; d, the diameter of the parachute; the number of feet fall per second.

According to the first of these, if a parachute be 50 feet in diameter and weigh 529 lbs., it will fall 11.96 feet in a second; according to the second, the fall will be 13.01 feet; according to the third, 15:17 feet: the truth may lie between.

In these three cases, the shock felt on landing would be nearly equal to that caused by a leap from heights represented by the following three formulas respectively:-10-5; 12-4

го

d

го

d2

; 16.93 ; being, under the given circumstances, something less than 2 feet 3 inches, 2 feet 8 inches, and 3 feet 7 inches: a fall, therefore, of two or three thousand feet would almost certainly be fatal.

A figure of a similar instrument may be found in Tycho Brahe,

A

P

Fig. 1.

F

M

term applied to a proposition which is opposed to the general belief, or to one which appears at first sight to contradict some previously ascer-Astron. Instaur. Mechanica,' sheet o. We have thought Ptolemy's tained truth. The nature of a paradox and the distinction between it and a contradiction is clearly explained in the following sentence from Bishop Horsley's 19th Sermon :-"When two distinct propositions are separately proved, each by its proper evidence, it is not a reason for denying either, that the human mind, upon the first hasty view, imagines a repugnance, and may perhaps find a difficulty in connecting them, even after the distinct proof of each is clearly perceived and understood. There is a wide difference between a paradox and a contradiction. Both, indeed, consist of two distinct propositions, and so far only are they alike; for of the two parts of a contradiction, the one or the other must necessarily be false: of a paradox, both are often true, and yet, when proved to be true, may continue paradoxical. This is the necessary consequence of our partial view of things. An intellect to which nothing should be paradoxical would be infinite. . . . In all these cases there is generally in the nature of things a limit to each of the two contrasted propositions, beyond which neither can be extended without implying the falsehood of the other, and changing the paradox into a contradiction; and the whole difficulty of perceiving the connection and agreement between such propositions arises from this circumstance, that by some inattention of the mind these limits are overlooked."

This word was also used by the Greeks for a remarkable saying. Cicero, in his work entitled 'Paradoxa,' illustrates six of these paradoxes, borrowed from the Greek stoics. These propositions are the following:-1. The honourable is the only good. 2. Virtue is sufficient for happiness. 3. All sins and right actions are equal. 4. Every fool is mad. 5. The wise man alone is free, and every fool is a slave.

6. The wise man alone is rich.

PARAFFIN (CH2). A white crystalline body first found by Reichenbach in coal, wood, and animal tars. He found that the lower the temperature at which the tar was produced the larger the amount of paraffin formed. It is now obtained in large quantities by distilling cannel coal at the lowest temperature practicable, the rectified and purified product constitutes the basis of paraffin oil. The tar is filled with crystals of paraffin, which may be collected upon a strainer, and purified by pressure and treatment with concentrated sulphuric acid and caustic soda alternately.

Paraffin is a beautifully white translucent body, like spermaceti, and when manufactured into candles gives a clear smokeless light. It fuses at 110° Fahr., and is remarkable for its resistance to chemical action; hence its name from parum affinis.

PARAFFIN, is one of the numerous substances which chemical discovery has added to the list of liquid fuels for lamps; its nature may in some degree be shown by the proceedings in a chancery suit which took place in 1854. In 1850, Mr. Young had taken out a patent for "the treatment of certain bituminous mineral substances, and in obtaining products therefrom." It was Paraffin oil, obtained from bituminous coal. The coal was distilled at a low red heat. If a higher temperature were employed, the elements would be converted into gas and naphthaline; but the lowness of the heat prevented this, and brought over the product as an oil rich in paraffin; and this oil, when purified, became useful as a fuel and a lubricator. On the other side, it appeared that the Hydro Carbon Gas Company of Manchester were the owners of two patents, obtained by Mr. White, for inventions relating to the gas manufacture. One was for obtaining a compound gas from the vapours of oil, fat, and tar, combined with hydrogen obtained by the decomposition of water; while the other was for using resin, tar, fat, or pit coal for the same purpose, but at a white red heat. The defendants sold an oil which they called Paraffin oil, and which the plaintiff claimed as belonging to his patent. The defendant pleaded that paraffin is not a new substance, it having been produced many years ago by Reichenbach, who showed that it can be obtained from wood-tar and coal-tar. The decision was in favour of the plaintiff, as having adopted a low temperature for obtaining paraffin, on finding that a greater heat would result in the production of naphthalin.

PARAFFIN OIL. [PARAFFIN.]

PARALLACTIC ANGLE. The angle which measures the parallax of a celestial body. [PARALLAX.]

PARALLACTIC INSTRUMENT, or Ptolemy's Rules, the name given to an instrument invented by Ptolemy for determining the moon's parallax, and described by him, 'Almagest,' b. v., c. 12.

A B.

A

C

B

Fig. 2.

Rules worth notice chiefly as pointing out a very cheap and accurate Let A B be a rod turning on pivots above and below, for instance, instrument for obtaining the time by the method of equal altitudes. between the sill and architrave of a window, and capable of being set perpendicular by a plumb-line, supposed in the figure to hang behind EC, a stout edge-bar turning round a pin at o, and fixable in any direction by two laths, EM, CN. On E ca telescope is lashed (one sufficient for the purpose might easily be made of a tin tube and spectacle-glasses), with one or more horizontal wires placed in the focus. If the times of contact of the sun's limbs with the horizontal wires be observed in the forenoon and again in the afternoon (the axis A B being in both cases truly adjusted, and the instrument in other respects unchanged), the data will be obtained for finding the time shown by the watch when the sun is on the meridian-that is, apparent noon-with great accuracy and very little calculation. (See and many other collections.) The determination of the error of the Schumacher's Hülfstafeln,' p. 49, &c.; Baily's Tables,' pp. 92, 148, watch by equal altitudes of the same star is even more simple, as there is then no motion in declination to be allowed for, and the middle time by the watch of similar observations is the time when the star passes the meridian, or its right ascension, which is known from the Nautical Almanac, or from well-known catalogues. The observer must be very careful to adjust the instrument by the plumb-line to the same position in both observations, and he must have a watch which will keep time correctly for the interval.

Sometimes the word parallactique is used to signify the instrument known to us by the name of EQUATORIAL. Lalande (Astronomie,' § 2278) says the proper word is parallatique, or that which follows the parallel of stars; he reserves parallactique for Ptolemy's Rules.

PARALLAX (rapáλλağıs), used in astronomy generally for the angular variation in the position of an object caused by the excentric situation of the observer with respect to a certain point of reference. Thus the parallax of the moon, sun, planets, comets, is the difference between the position of any of those bodies as seen from the surface of the earth and that in which they would be seen if the observer were placed at the earth's centre. The parallax of the fixed stars is the difference between their places as seen from the earth and from the