The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 362

due SE. of Mexico, is the third city of the republic, and a beautiful town, with Doric cathedral, theological, medical, and other schools, a museum, and two libraries; cotton goods, iron, paper, and gla.s.s are manufactured; it is a commercial city, and carries on a brisk trade. Is the name also of a Colorado town (24) on the Arkansas River; it is in a rich mineral district, and is engaged in the manufacture of steel and iron wares.

PUERTO DE SANTA MARIA (22), a seaport in Spain, on the Bay of Cadiz, 9 m. SW. of Xeres, and the chief place of export of Xeres port or sherry wines.

PUERTO PLATA (15), the chief port of the Dominican Republic, on the N. of Hayti; exports tobacco, sugar, coffee, &c.

PUERTO PRINCIPE (46), a town on the E. of Cuba; manufactures cigars, and exports sugar, hides, and mola.s.ses; originally on the sh.o.r.e, but removed inland.

PUFFENDORF, SAMUEL, Baron von, eminent German jurist, born at Chemnitz, Saxony; wrote several works on jurisprudence, one of which, under the ban of Austria, was burned there by the hangman, but his "De Jure Naturae et Gentium" is the one on which his fame rests; was successively in the service of Charles XI. of Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg (1632-1694).

PUGIN, AUGUSTUS WELBY, architect, born in London, of French parentage; made a special study of Gothic architecture; a.s.sisted in decorating the new Houses of Parliament, but becoming a Roman Catholic he gave himself to designing a good number of Roman Catholic churches, including cathedrals; he wrote several works on architecture, and was the chief promoter of the "Mediaeval Court" in the Crystal Palace; he was afflicted in the prime of life with insanity, and died at Ramsgate (1812-1852).

PULCI, LUINI, Italian poet, born at Florence; the personal friend of Lorenzo de' Medici, and the author of a burlesque poem of which Roland is the hero, ent.i.tled in Tuscan "Il Morgante Maggiore" ("Morgante the Great"); he wrote also several humorous sonnets; two brothers of his had similar gifts (1432-1484).

PULQUE, a favourite beverage of the Mexicans and in Central America, from the fermented juice of the agave.

PULTENEY, WILLIAM, Earl of Bath, English statesman; in 1705 entered Parliament zealous in the Whig interest; was for years the friend and colleague of Walpole, but afterwards, from a slight, became his bitterest enemy and most formidable opponent; he contributed a good deal to his fall, but, unable to take his place, contented himself with a peerage, his popularity being gone (1682-1764).

PULTOWA (43), a town in Southern Russia, 90 m. by rail SW. of Kharkoff, on an affluent of the Dnieper; manufactures leather and tobacco; here Peter the Great won his victory over Charles XII. of Sweden in 1709.

PULTUSK, a Polish town, 33 m. N. of Warsaw; here Charles XII. gained a victory over the Saxons in 1703, and the French over the Russians in 1806.

PULU, a kind of silk obtained from the fibres of a fern-tree of Hawaii.

PUNCH, the name of the chief character in a well-known puppet show of Italian origin, and appropriated as the t.i.tle of the leading English comic journal, which is accompanied with ill.u.s.trations conceived in a humorous vein and conducted in satire, from a liberal Englishman's standpoint, of the follies and weaknesses of the leaders of public opinion and fas.h.i.+on in modern social life. It was started in 1841 under the editors.h.i.+p of Henry Mayhew and Mark Lemon; and the wittiest literary men of the time as well as the cleverest artists have contributed to its pages, enough to mention of the former Thackeray, Douglas Jerrold, and Tom Hood, and of the latter Doyle, Leech, Tenniel, Du Maurier, and Lindley Sambourne.

PUNDIT, a Brahmin learned in Sanskrit and in the language, literature, and laws of the Hindus.

PUNIC FAITH, a plighted promise that one can put no trust in, such as the Romans alleged they systematically had experience of at the hands of the Poeni or Carthaginians.

PUNIC WARS, the name given to the wars between Rome and Carthage for the empire of the world, of date, the first from 264 to 241, the second from 218 to 201, and the third from 149 to 146 B.C., due all to transgressions on the one side or the other of boundaries fixed by treaty, which it was impossible for either in their pa.s.sion of empire to respect. It was a struggle which, though it ended in the overthrow of Carthage, proved at one time the most critical in the history of Rome.

PUNJAB (25,130), "five rivers," a province in the extreme NW. of India, watered by the Indus and its four tributaries, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravee, and Sutlej; its frontiers touch Afghanistan and Cashmir. Mountain ranges traverse the N., W., and S; little rain falls; the plains are dry and hot in summer. There is little timber, cow-dung is common fuel; the soil is barren, but under irrigation there are fertile stretches; wheat, indigo, sugar, cotton, tobacco, opium, and tea are largely grown; cotton, silk, lace, iron, and leather are manufactured; indigo, grain, cotton, and manufactured products are exported in exchange for raw material, dyes, horses, and timber. The population is mixed, Sikhs, Jats, and Rajputs predominate; more than a half are Mohammedan, and more than a third Hindu. Lah.o.r.e is the capital, but Delhi and Amritsar are larger towns. Several railways run through the province. The natives remained loyal throughout the Mutiny of 1857-58, Sikhs and Pathans joining the British troops before Delhi.

PURaNAS, a body of religious works which rank second to the Vedas, and form the basis of the popular belief of the Hindus. There are 18 princ.i.p.al Puranas and 18 secondary Puranas, of various dates, but believed to be of remote antiquity, though modern critical research proves that in their present form they are not of very ancient origin.

PURBECK, ISLE OF, the peninsula in South Dorsets.h.i.+re lying between the river Frome, Poole Harbour, and the English Channel; formerly a royal deer-forest; has a precipitous coast, and inland consists of chalk downs; nearly 100 quarries are wrought of "Purbeck marble."

PURCELL, HENRY, eminent English musician, born at Westminster; was successively organist at Westminster Abbey and to the Chapel Royal; excelled in all forms of musical composition; was the author of anthems, cantatas, glees, &c., which attained great popularity; he set the songs of Shakespeare's "Tempest" to music (1658-1695).

PURCHAS, SAMUEL, collector of works of travel and continuator of the work of Hakluyt, in two curious works ent.i.tled "Purchas his Pilgrimage,"

and "Hakluyt's his Posthumous, or Purchas his Pilgrimmes," and was rector of St. Martin's, Ludgate, and chaplain to Archbishop Abbot (1577-1626).

PURGATORIO, region in Dante's "Commedia" intermediate between the Inferno, region of lost souls, and the Paradiso, region of saved souls, and full of all manner of obstructions which the penitent, who would pa.s.s from the one to the other, must struggle with in soul-wrestle till he overcome, the most Christian section, thinks Carlyle, of Dante's poem.

PURGATORY, in the creed of the Church of Rome a place in which the souls of the dead, saved from h.e.l.l by the death of Christ, are chastened and purified from venial sins, a result which is, in great part, ascribed to the prayers of the faithful and the sacrifice of the Ma.s.s. The creed of the Church in this matter was first formulated by Gregory the Great, and was based by him, as it has been vindicated since, on pa.s.sages of Scripture as well as the writings of the Fathers. The conception of it, as wrought out by Dante, Carlyle considers "a n.o.ble embodiment of a true n.o.ble thought." See his "Heroes."

PURIM, THE FEAST OF, or LOTS, an annual festival of the Jews in commemoration of the preservation, as recorded in "Esther," of their race from the threatened wholesale ma.s.sacre of it in Persia at the instance of Haman, and which was so called because it was by casting "lots" that the day was fixed for the execution of the purpose. It lasts two days, being observed on the 14th and 15th of the month Adar.

PURITAN CITY, name given to Boston, U.S., from its founders and inhabitants who were originally of Puritan stock.

PURITANS, a name given to a body of clergymen of the Church of England who refused to a.s.sent to the Act of Uniformity pa.s.sed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, because it required them to conform to Popish doctrine and ritual; and afterwards applied to the whole body of Nonconformists in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, who insisted on rigid adherence to the simplicity prescribed in these matters by the sacred Scriptures. In the days of Cromwell they were, "with musket on shoulder," the uncompromising foes of all forms, particularly in the wors.h.i.+p of G.o.d, that affected to be alive after the soul had gone out of them.

PURSUIVANT, one of the junior officers in the Heralds' College, four in England, named respectively Rouge Croix, Blue Mantle, Rouge Dragon, and Portcullis; and three in Scotland, named respectively Bute, Carrick, and Unicorn.

PUSEY, EDWARD BOUVERIE, English theologian, born in Berks.h.i.+re, of Flemish descent; studied at Christ's Church, Oxford, and became a Fellow of Oriel, where he was brought into relations.h.i.+p with Newman, Keble, and Whately; spent some time in Germany studying Rationalism, and, after his return, was in 1828 appointed Regius Professor of Hebrew at Oxford; in 1833 he joined the Tractarian Movement, to which he contributed by his learning, and which, from his standing in the University, as well as from the part he played in it, was at length called by his name; he was not so conspicuous as other members of the movement, but he gained some notoriety by a sermon he preached on the Eucharist, which led to his suspension for three years, and notwithstanding his life of seclusion, he took an active part in all questions affecting the interests he held to be at stake; he was the author of several learned works, among them the "Minor Prophets, a Commentary," and "Daniel the Prophet" (1800-1882).

PUSEYISM, defined by Carlyle to be "a noisy theoretic demonstration and laudation of _the_ Church, instead of some unnoisy, unconscious, but _practical_, total, heart-and-soul demonstration of _a_ Church, ... a matter to strike one dumb," and apropos to which he asks pertinently, "if there is no atmosphere, what will it serve a man to demonstrate the excellence of lungs?"

PUSHKIN, a distinguished Russian poet, considered the greatest, born at Moscow; his chief works are "Ruslan and Liudmila" (a heroic poem), "Eugene Onegin" (a romance), and "Boris G.o.dunov" (a drama); was mortally wounded in a duel (1799-1837).

PUSHTOO or PUSHTO, the language of the Afghans, said to be derived from the Zend, with admixtures from the neighbouring tribes.

PUTEAUX (17), a suburb of Paris, on the left bank of the Seine, a favourite residence of the Parisians, who have villas here.

PUTNEY (18), a London suburb on the Surrey side, 6 m. from Waterloo, has a bridge across the Thames 300 yards long; the parish church tower dates from the 15th century. The river here affords favourite rowing water, the starting-place of the inter-universities boat-race; Putney Heath was a favourite duelling resort; Gibbon was a native; Pitt and Leigh Hunt died here.