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Earthly things
Are out the transient pageants of an hour;
And earthly pride is like the passing flower,
That springs to fall, and blossoms but to die.
Kirke White.

PRIDEAUX (Humphry), D. D., a learned divine, born at Padstow in Cornwall in 1648. Three years he studied at Westminster under Dr. Busby; and then was removed to Christ Church, Oxford. Here he published, in 1676, his Marmora Oxoniensia ex Aurundelianis, Seldenianis, aliisque conflata, cum perpetuo Com

mentario. This introduced him to the lord chancellor Finch, afterwards earl of Nottingham, who, in 1679, presented him to the rectory of St. Clements, near Oxford, and in 1681 bestowed on him a prebend of Norwich. Some years after he was engaged in a controversy with the Papists, at Norwich, concerning the validity of the orders of the church of England, which produced his book upon that subject. In 1688 he was installed in the archdeaconry of Suffolk; to which he was collated by Dr. Lloyd, then bishop of Norwich. In 1691, upon the death of Dr. Edward Pococke, the Hebrew professorship at Oxford, being vacant, was offered to Dr. Prideaux, but he declined it. In 1697 he published his Life of Mahomet, and in 1702 was installed dean of Norwich. In 1710 he underwent the operation of lithotomy, which interrupted his studies for more than a year. Some time after his return to London he proceeded with his connexion of the History of the Old and New Testament. He died in 1724.

PRIDEAUX (John), D.D., a learned English prelate, born at Stowford in Devonshire in 1578. His father had a numerous family, and John applied for the office of parish-clerk at Ugborow and lost it yet, by the generosity of a friend, he was sent to the university of Oxford; where he succeeded Dr. Holland as master of Exeter

College, in which he took his degrees. He was also regius professor of divinity, and vice-chancellor. In 1641 he was made bishop of Worcester, but was plundered soon after, during the troubles that followed, for having excommunicated those who had taken up arms against the king. He died in 1650. His principal works are, 1. Orationes inaugurales. 2. Lectiones decem de totidem Religionis Capitibus. 2. Fasciculus Controversiarum. 3. Theologiæ Scholastica Syntagma Mnemonicum. 5. Sermons, 4to. 6. A Synopsis of the Councils. His son Matthias was born in 1622, and died in 1646. After his death was published, with his name, though supposed to be his father's, a work entitied An easy and compendious Introduction for reading all sorts of Histories, 4to.

PRIE, n. s. An old name of privet.-John

son.

Lop poplar and sallow, elme, maple, and prie,
Well saved from cattle, till summer to lie. Tusser.
PRIEST, n. s.
PRIEST CRAFT,
PRIEST'ESS,

PRIEST'HOOD,
PRIEST'LY, adj.

PRIEST RIDDEN,

Sax. pneore; Fr. prestre; a corruption of Gr. πρεσ BUTEpos; the Span. retains presbytero. A minister of religion offering sacrifices or prayers; one of the second order of the English hierarchy: priestcraft is religious fraud; art of wicked priests : priestess, a female who officiated in the heathen rites: priesthood, the office or order of priests: priestly, pertaining to, or becoming a priest: priest-ridden, managed or governed by priests. The high priest shall not cover his head.

Leviticus. There were no priests and anti-priests in opposition to one another, and therefore there could be no schism. Lesley. Jeroboam is reproved because he took the priestWhitgifte. hood from the tribe of Levi.

I'll to the vicar;
Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest.
Shakspeare.
Our practice of singing differs from the practice
of David, the priests, and Levites.
These pray'rs I thy priest before thee bring.

Peacham.

Milton.

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Law.

Such a cant of high-church and persecution, and being priestridden. Swift. Curanius is a holy priest, full of the spirit of the gospel, watching, labouring, and praying for a poor country village. The state of parents is a holy state, in some degree like that of the priesthood, and calls upon them to bless their children with their prayers and sacrifices to God. Id. A PRIEST, in antiquity, was a person set apart for the performance of sacrifice, and other offices and ceremonies of religion. Before the promulgation of the law of Moses, the first born of every family, the fathers, the princes, and the kings, were priests. Thus Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Melchizedec, Job, Isaac, and Jacob, offered their own sacrifices. Among the Israelites, after their exodus from Egypt, the priestly office was confined to one tribe; and it consisted of three orders, the high-priests, priests, and Levites. The priesthood was made hereditary in the family of Aaron; and the first-born of the oldest branch of that family, if he had no legal blemish, was always the high-priest. This divine appointment was observed with considerable accuracy till the Jews fell under the dominion of the Romans. Then, indeed, the highpriesthood was sometimes set up to sale; and instead of continuing for life, as it ought to have done, it seems to have been nothing more than a temporary office. There is sufficient reason, however, to believe that it was never disposed of but to some descendant of Aaron, capable of filling it had the older branches been extinct. In the time of David the inferior priests were divided into twenty-four companies, who were to serve in rotation, each company by itself, for a week. The order in which the several courses were to serve was determined by lot; and each course was in all succeeding ages called by the name of its original chief.

All nations have had their priests. The Pagans had priests of Jupiter, Mars, Bacchus, Hercules, Osiris and Isis, &c.; and some deities had priestesses. The Mahometans have priests of different orders, called mollah and mufti; and the Indians and Chinese have their brahmins and bonzes. The church of Rome, which holds the propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, has, of course, her proper priesthood. In the church of England, the word priest is retained to denote the second order in the hierarchy. Some few of her most eminent divines have maintained that the Lord's Supper is a commemorative and eucharistical sacrifice. These consider all who are authorised to administer that sacrament as in the strictest sense priests. Great numbers, however, of the English clergy, perhaps the majority, agree with the church of Scotland and with the Dissenters, in maintaining that the Lord's Supper is a rite of no other moral import than the commemoration of the death of Christ. These cannot consider themselves as priests in the rigid sense of the word, but only as presbyters, of which the word priest is a contraction of the same import with elder.

PRIESTLEY (Joseph), LL. D. F. R. S. and member of many foreign literary societies, was born March 13th, 1733, at Field-head, in Birstall parish, in the West Riding of Yorkshire.

His father was a manufacturer of cloth, and both the Calvinistic Dissenters. Joseph was brought his parents were persons of respectability among up, from an early period, in the house of Mr. Joseph Keighly, who had married his aunt. Showing an early fondness for reading, he was sent to a school at Batley, where he acquired a knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages. In his nineteenth year he went to the academy at Daventry, where he became the first pupil of Dr. Ashworth, under whom he studied divinity. In 1755, his twenty-second year, he was chosen assistant minister to the Independent congregation of Needham Market, Suffolk; and at this time began to entertain Unitarian opinions. He also became a student and admirer of the metaphysical philosophy of Mr. Hartley, of which, during life, he continued the elucidator and advocate. In 1758 he was invited to be pastor of a congregation at Namptwich, in Cheshire; where he opened a school, exhibited philosophical experiments, and drew up an English Grammar, which was his first publication. Upon the death of the Rev. Dr. Taylor, tutor in divinity at Warrington Academy, Dr. Aikin being chosen to supply his place, Mr. Priestley was appointed to that of belles lettres in the doctor's room in 1761. He soon after married Mary, daughter of Mr. Wilkinson of Bersham, near Wrexham. Among the first of his publications at Warrington, were his Chart of Biography, and his Chart of History. He also published the substance of his Lectures on General History and Politics. He next published Lectures on the Theory and History of Language; and on the Principles of Oratory and Criticism. He next published his great work, the History of Electricity, wherein he gave an account of many of his own experiments. The first edition appeared at Warrington in 1767, 4to., and the fifth in 4to. in 1794. In 1768 he accepted of an invitation from a numerous and respectable congregation at Leeds. Here he published many tracts upon polemical theology, particularly, Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion: and a View of the Principles and Conduct of the Protestant Dissenters. In these works he showed himself an open enemy to all unions of ecclesiastical with political systems. His next publication at Leeds was The History and Present State of Discoveries relating to Vision, Light, and Colors, 2 vols. 4to. 1772. About this period he began his celebrated experiments upon the atmospheric air. In 1770, through the recommendation of Dr. Price, the earl of Shelburne invited him to reside with him, as his librarian. At this time his family resided at Calne in Wilts, near Bowwood, lord Shelburne's seat. In 1775 he published his Examination of Dr. Reid's Enquiry into the Human Mind, of Dr. Beattie's Essay on Truth, and Dr. Oswald's Appeal to Common Sense. His object was to prepare the way for the Hartleian Theory of the Human Mind, which he next published, wherein he expressed his doubts of the immateriality of the soul: and in 1777, notwithstanding the obloquy occasioned by this work, he published Disquisitions relating to Matter and Spirit, in which he supported the

same doctrine. At this time also he stood forth as the champion of the philosophical doctrine of Necessity. As his friend, Dr. Price, differed from him on these two last mentioned points (as well as respecting the divinity of our Saviour), a correspondence relative to them took place, which was published in one volume. In the midst of these speculations, he carried on his experiments upon air with success, and enriched the science of chemistry with various disco

veries.

About this period his Institutes of Religion were continued; his Letters to a Philosophical Unbeliever, and his Harmony of the Evangelists, and various similar tracts were published. The term of his engagement with lord Shelburne being concluded, and his lordship allowing him an annuity of £150, he took up his residence near Birmingham, not only on account of the advantage its manufactures afforded to his chemical pursuits, but also because of its being the residence of Messrs Watt, Bolton, Keir, Withering, and other eminent men of science. He was soon after invited to be pastor to a congregation of Dissenters at Birmingham, whom he found cordially attached to him. From the Birmingham press issued his Letters to Bishop Newcome on the Duration of Christ's Ministry; his History of the Corruptions of Christianity; and his History of Early Opinions Respecting Jesus Christ. Controversies now multiplied upon his hand. The disputes which took place upon the Dissenters' bill for relief from the test act furnished a new subject of contest; and he appealed to the people in his Familiar Letters to the Inhabitants of Birmingham. Previously to this Dr. Priestley had shown his attachment to freedom, by his Essay on the First Principles of Government, and by a pamphlet on the State of Public Liberty in this Country; and he had displayed a warm interest in the cause of America, when the disputes between Britain and her colonies broke out. The French Revolution was also viewed by him with satisfaction. His sanguine hopes, as well as those of many others, prognosticated from it the dawn of light and liberty throughout Europe; and he particularly expected from it the downfall of all ecclesiastical establishments. In this state of party exasperation, the celebration of the 14th of July, 1791, by a public dinner, at which Dr. Priestley was not present, afforded the signal for those savage riots which disgraced the town of Birmingham. Amidst the burning of chapels and private houses, Dr. Priestley was hunted like a proclaimed criminal; and his house, library, MSS. and chemical apparatus, were destroyed. Driven from his favorite residence, his losses were but poorly compensated. After passing some time as a wanderer, an invitation to succeed Dr. Price afforded him a new settlement at

United States he was received with general respect; and was offered the place of Chemical Professor at Philadelphia, but declined it. Having collected a new apparatus and library, he resumed his experiments, and published the results in the American Philosophical Transactions, wherein he continued to defend the doctrine of Phlogiston to the last. He also published a comparison of the Jewish with Mahometan and Hindoo religions. He even commenced the printing of two extensive works; viz. a Church History, and an Exposition of the Scriptures; but did not. live to finish them; though he urged it upon his surviving friends. He also composed, transcribed, and left in MS. ready for the press, A Comparison of the different Systems of Grecian Philosophy with Christianity. His health began to decline in 1801; but his intellectual powers continued unimpaired to the last; in so much that he dictated some corrections of his unfinished works the last day of his life. He died on the 9th of February, 1804, between eight and nine P. M. with much calmness. Dr. Aikin thus sums up his character:-'He was naturally disposed to cheerfulness. In large and mixed companies he usually spoke little. In his domestic relations he was uniformly kind and affectionate, and not malice itself could ever fix a stain on his private conduct, or impeach his integrity.'

PRIG, n. s. A cant word derived from prick; as, he pricks up, he is pert; or from prickeared, an epithet of reproach bestowed upon the presbyterian teachers of the commonwealth. A pert, conceited, pragmatical fellow.

The little man concluded, with calling monsieur Mesnager an insignificant prig. Spectator.

There have I seen some active prig,
To shew his parts, bestride a twig.

Swift's Miscellanies.

PRILUKI, a town of European Russia, in the government of Poltava. It stands on the river Udai, and has 2500 inhabitants, who carry on a traffic in corn, cattle, horses, and silk. Eighty miles S. S. E. of Czernigov, and 128 W. N. W. of Poltava.

PRIM, adj. By contraction from primitive. Formal; precise; affectedly nice.

A ball of new-dropt horse's dung
Mingling with apples in the throng,
Said to the pippin, plump and prim,
See, brother, how we apples swim.

Swift's Miscellanies. PRIME VIE, in medicine, a name some times given to the whole alimentary canal. PRIMATE, n. s. Į Fr. primat; Lat. primus. station of a primate. SA chief ecclesiastic: the

PRIMARY.

We may learn from the prudent pen of our most reverend primate, eminent as well for promoting Holyday. unanimity as learning.

When he had now the primacy in his own hand,

remedies.

Clarendon.

Hackney, where he expected to have ended his days in quiet; but he received an intimation of high authority that if he did not voluntarily he thought he should be to blame if he did not apply leave the country the executive government When the power of the church was first estawould proceed against him. He therefore re-blished, the archbishops of Canterbury and York solved to embark for America, and, accordingly, had then no pre-eminence one over the other; the in 1794 arrived with his family at Northumber- former being primate over the southern, as the latter land, an inland town of Pennsylvania. In the was over the northern parts.

Ayliffe.

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PRIMARINESS, n. s.

Swift. Lat. primarius. First; chief; principal: primal is a poetical word of

PRIME, n. s., adj., & v. a. (the same significaPRIME'LY, adv. tion : primarily, PRIME NESS, n. s. originally; in the PRIMER. first place the noun substantive corresponding: prime is the first part of the day; the beginning; best or chief part; spring or height of life or health; spring of the year; height of perfection: as an adverb, early; principal; first rate; blooming; original: to prime is, apply the first coat of paint; put in first powder, or the powder into the pan of a gun: primely and primeness correspond with prime, as an adjective: primer is an obsolete word for first; original.

His 'larum bell might loud and wide be heard When cause required, but never out of time; Early and late it rung at evening and at prime. Spenser.

Make haste, sweet love, while it is prime, For none can call again the passed time. Id. Quickly sundry arts mechanical were found out in the very prime of the world. Hooker.

Will she yet debase her eyes on me,
That cropt the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed? Shakspeare.
We smothered

The most replenished sweet work of nature,
That from the prime creation e'er she framed. Id.
We are contented with

Catharine our queen, before the primest creature
That's paragoned i' the' world.

Id.

Id.

It hath been taught us from the primal state, That he, which is, was wished, until he were. Before that beginning, there was neither primarily matter to be informed, nor form to inform, nor any being but the eternal.

Raleigh.

As when the primer church her councils pleased to call,

Great Britain's bishops there were not the least of Drayton.

all.

The figurative notation of this word, and not the primary or literal, belongs to this place. Hammond. Divers of prime quality, in several counties, were, for refusing to pay the same, committed to prison. Sure pledge of day that crown'st the smiling

morn

Clarendon.

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Humility and resignation are our prime virtues.

Id.

Moses being chosen by God to be the ruler of his people, will not prove that priesthood belonged to Adam's heir, or the prime fathers.

Locke.

These I call original or primary qualities of body, which produce simple ideas in us, viz. solidity, extension, figure and motion.

Id.

That which is peculiar must be taken from the primariness and secondariness of the perception.

Norris.

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That little orb in days remote of old, When angels yet were young, was made for man, And titled earth, her primal virgin name.. Pollok.

PRIME, in fencing, is the first of the chief guards. See FENCING.

PRIME FIGURE, in geometry, one which cannot be divided into any other figures more simple than itself, as a triangle among planes, and the pyramid among solids.

PRIME VERTICAL is that vertical circle which passes through the poles of the meridian, or the east and west points of the horizon; whence dials projected on the plane of this circle are called prime vertical or north and south dials.

PRIMER, n. s. A small prayer-book in which children were taught to read, so named from the Romish book of devotions; an elementary book; an office of the Virgin Mary.

Another prayer to her is not only in the manual, but in the primer or office of the blessed Virgin. Stillingfleet.

The Lord's prayer, the creed, and ten commandments he should learn by heart, not by reading them himself in his primer, but by somebody's repeating

them before he can read.

Locke.

PRIMER SEASIN, in feudal law, was a feudal burden, only incident to the king's tenants in

capite, and not to those who held of inferior or mesne lords. It was a right which the king had when any of his tenants in capite died, seized of a knight's fee, to receive of the heir (provided he were of full age), one whole year's profits of the lands if they were in immediate possession, and half a year's profits if the lands were in reversion expectant on an estate for life. This seems to be little more than an additional relief, but grounded upon this feudal reason, that, by the ancient law of feods, immediately upon the death of a vassal, the superior was entitled to enter and take seisin or possession of the land, by way of protection against intruders, till the heir appeared to claim it, and receive investiture; and, for the time the lord so held it, he was entitled to take the profits; and, unless the heir claimed within a year and day, it was by the strict law a forfeiture. This practice, however, seems not to have long obtained in England, if ever, with regard to tenures under inferior lords; but, as to the king's tenures in capite, this prima seisina was expressly declared under Henry III. and Edward II. to belong to the king by prerogative, in contradistinction to other lords. And the king was entitled to enter and receive the whole profits of the land, till livery was sued; which suit being commonly within a year and day next after the death of the tenant, therefore the king used to take at an average the first-fruits, that is to say, one year's profits of the land. And this afterwards gave a handle to the popes, who claimed to be feudal lords of the church, to claim in like manner from every clergyman in England the first year's profits of his benefice, by way of primitiæ, or first fruits. -All the charges arising by primer seisin were abolished by 12 Car. II. c. 24.

PRIME'RO, n. s. Span. primero. A game

at cards.

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Thou, who didst put to flight
Primeval silence, when the morning stars,
Exulting, shouted o'er the rising ball. Young.
PRIMING, among painters, signifies the lay-
ing on of the first color.

PRIMING, in gunnery, the train of powder that is laid, from the opening of the vent, along the gutter or channel on the upper part of the breech of the gun: which, when fired, conveys the flame to the vent, by which it is further communicated to the charge, in order to fire the piece. This is only used on shipboard at the proof, and sometimes in garrison; for, on all other occasions, tubes are used for that purpose. PRIMING WIRE, in gunnery, a sort of iron needle employed to penetrate the vent or touch

hole of a piece of ordinance when it is loaded, in order to discover whether the powder contained therein is thoroughly dry and fit for immediate service; as likewise to search the vent, and penetrate the cartridge, when the guns are not loaded with loose powder.

PRIMIPILUS, in antiquity, the centurion of the first cohort of a legion, who had the charge of the Roman eagle. This officer also went under the several titles of dux legionis, præfectus legionis, primus centurionum, and primus centurio; and was the first centurion of the triarii in every legion. He presided over all the other centurions, and generally gave the word of command by order of the tribunes. Having the care of the eagle, or chief standard of the legion, aquilæ præesse was used for the dignity of primipilus; and hence aquila is used by Pliny for that office. Nor was this station honorable only, but also very profitable; for he had a special stipend allowed him, and, when he left that charge, was reputed equal to the members of the equestrian order, bearing the title of primipilarius, as those who had discharged the greater civil offices were styled ever after consulares, censorii, &c.

PRIMITIÆ, the first-fruits gathered of the earth, whereof the ancients made presents to the gods.

PRIMITIVE, adj. Fr. primitif; Lat. PRIMITIVELY, adv. primitivus. Ancient; PRIMITIVENESS, n. s. original; from the beginning: formal; precisely grave: the adverb and noun substantive correspond.

Their superstition pretends, they cannot do God greater service than utterly to destroy the primitive apostolic government of the church by bishops.

King Charles.

The scripture is of sovereign authority, and for itself worthy of all acceptation. The latter, namely the voice and testimony of the primitive church, is a ministerial, and subordinate rule and guide, to preserve and direct us in the right understanding of the scriptures. White.

Milton.

Our primitive great sire to meet
His godlike guest, walks forth.
Solemnities and ceremonies, primitively enjoined,
were afterward omitted, the occasion ceasing.

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