PARENTHESIS is defined by others, certain intercalary words inserted in a discourse, which interrupt the sense, but seem necessary for the better understanding of the subject. But this is not a definition of the parenthesis, but of the sentences included in it. Dr Johnson's is strictly accurate. The parentheses are often misapplied by authors and printers, by being made to enclose words at the end of a sentence, where they are quite unnecessary, and still more, when they are made to enclose clauses without which the sentence is incomplete.

PARENTIUM, an ancient sea-port town of Istria; (Plin. iii. c. 19).

PARERGY, n.s. Gr. παρα and έργον, α work. Something unimportant; something done by the bye.

Scripture being serious, and commonly omitting such purergies, it will be unreasonable to condemn oll laughter. Brou ne.

PARESIS, in medicine, a palsy of the bladder, wherein the urine is either suppressed or discharged involuntarily.

PARETONEUM, in mineralogy, an earth found on the shores of Egypt, Cyrene, and Crete, used by the ancients in painting. It had its name either from a part of Egypt, near which it was gathered, or from a town in that kingdom, where it was usually soid. Vitruvius is of the first opinion, and Volaternus of the last. Of late it was thought to be lost; but it is still common on the shores of most of the islands of the Archipelago, though not observed or regarded; and s truly a very heavy and tough clay, of a fine white color, found in masses of different sizes, generally as soft as the softer clays within the strata; and, by rolling about on the beach in this state, it gathers up the sand, small shells, and other foulnesses we always find about it. It is likely there are strata of it fine and pure in the cliff's there, and that the sea washes off masses of them in storms and high tides, which are what

we find.

that he wrote a piece, entitled Candlemas Day or the Killing of the children of Israel; a mys. tery; 1512; republished in Mrs. Hawkins's Collection of Old Plays, in 1773.

PARGA, a strong sea-port town on the coast of Albania, opposite the southern point of the island of Corfu. It was first built on the present rocky site on the decline of the Roman empire, near the Achem of ancient history, and has à double harbour, defended by a battery. The citadel commands a noble prospect. It has often been independent.

In 1401 it entered into an alliance with Venice, which continued to 1797. While independent of Ali Pacha it was an asylum to all the refugees of Albania and Greece: but in 1798 he reduced Bucintro, Prevesa, and the other fortified places on the adjacent coast. Parga alone bade defiance to him. In 1814 he marched against it with a military force: the Pargiots withstood the attack, but applied to the British in Corfu, and received a garrison from them, in the hope of being incorporated with the new republie of the Ionian islands. To this, however, the British government did not give countenance; and ultimately Ali, paying a pecuniary indemnity to those of the inhabitants who should refuse to remain, obtained the transfer of the island. This compensation was so large (about £200,000 sterling) that hardly any of the Pargiots chose to submit to the tyrant; and the evacuation took place in 1819, most of them removing to the Ionian Islands. Thirty miles south-west of Joannina.

PARGET, n. s. upon roofs of rooms.

Fr. pargette. Plaster laid

Gold was the parget, and the cieling bright Did shine all scaly with great plates of gold; The floor with jasp and emerald was dight. Spenser.

There are not more arts of disguising our corporeal blemishes than our moral; and yet, while we thus paint and parget our own deformities, we cannot allow any the least imperfection of another's to reGovernment of the Tongue.

main undetected.

Of English tale, the coarser sort is called plaster or parget: the finer, spaad. Woodward. PARGET, in mineralogy, a name giving to several kinds of gypsum, or plaster stone.

PARGETING, in building, is used for the plastering of walls, and sometimes for plaster itself. Pargeting is of various kinds: as, 1. White lime and hair-mortar laid on bare walls. 2. On bare laths, as in partitioning and plain ceiling. 3. Renewing the insides of the walls, or doubling partition walls. 4. Rough-casting on heart-laths. 5. Plastering on brick-work with finishing mortar, in imitation of stone-work; and the like upon heart-laths.

PARHELION, n. s. Gr. παρα and ηλιος. See below. A mock sun.

To neglect that supreme resplendency that shines in God for those dim representations of it, that we so doat on in the creature, is as absurd, as it were for a Persian to offer his sacrifice to a parhelion, inBoyle. stead of adoring the sun.

five.

PARERE (John), an old dramatic writer of England, of whom nothing is recorded, except

sun or meteor, being a part of the heavens strongly illuminated by the image of the sun, and appearing like another sun, but often color

ed and drawn out to a considerable length, in the form of a tail.

The parhelia usually accompany the coronæ, or luminous circles, and are placed in the same circumference, and at the same height, Their colors resemble those of the rainbow; the red and yellow are on the side towards the sun, and the blue and violet on the other. Though there are coronæ sometimes seen entire, without any parhelia; and sometimes parhelia without co

ronæ,

The apparent size of parhelia is the same as that of the true sun; but they are not always round, nor always so bright as the sun; and, when several appear, some are more bright than others. They are tinged externally with colors like the rainbow, and many of them have a long fiery tail opposite to the sun, but paler towards the extremity. Some parhelia have been observed with two, and others with three tails. These tails appear for the most part in a white horizontal circle, which generally passes through all the parhelia; and, if it were entire, would go through the centre of the sun. Sometimes there are arcs of lesser circles, concentric to this, touching those colored circles which surround the sun. They are also tinged with colors, and contain other parhelia. Parhelia are generally situated in the intersections of circles; but Cassini says that those which he saw, in 1683, were on the outside of the colored circle, though the tails were in the circle that was parallel to the horizon. M. Epinus apprehends that parhelia with elliptical coronæ are more frequent in the northern regions, and those with circular ones in the southern. They have been visible for one, two, three, and four hours together; and in North America they are said to continue some days, and to be visible from sun-rise to sun-set. When the parhelia disappear, it sometimes rains, or there falls snow in the form of oblong spiculæ, as Maraldi, Weidler, Krafft, and others, have observed; and because the air in North America abounds with such frozen spiculæ, which are even visible to the eye, according to Ellis and Middleton, such particles have been thought to be the cause of all coronæ and parhelia.

Parhelia are sometimes double, triple, &c. Aristotle observes that two were seen in the Bosphorus from morning to evening; though in general, he observes, they are not seen, except when the sun is near the horizon. Pliny relates under what consuls this phenomenon was ever seen at Rome.

In the year 1629 was seen at Rome, by Scheiner, a parhelion of four suns, and the same number was seen by M. Muschenbroeck at Utrecht; Gassendi says that in 1635 and 1636 he often saw one mock sun; in 1661 Hevelius observed at Dantzic one of seven suns; and in 1666 another was seen at Arles, of six.

Phenomena of this kind have also been observed by M. de la Hire at Paris, in 1689, and by M. Cassini, in 1693; by Mr. Grey, in 1700; by Halley, in 1702; and Maraldi in 1721.

Aristotle (Meteor. cap. 3) was of opinion that rainbows, halos, and mock suns, were all occasioned by the reflection of the sun beams in dif

ferent circumstances, by which an imperfect image of his body was produced, the color only being exhibited, and not his proper figure. The image, he says, is not single, as in a mirror; for each drop of rain is too small to reflect a visible image; but the conjunction of all the images is visible. See OPTICS.

PARIA, a province of Buenos Ayres, formerly included in Peru, is bounded on the north by Pacajes, on the north-east by Oruro, east and south-east by Porco, south-west by Lipes, and west by Caranjas. It takes its name from a lake along the border of which it extends, and whicn is also called Paria, though more commonly Chucuito. It is cold and produces little grain, but abundant pasturage, and cattle of all kinds are plentiful. It contains salt and silver mines, saline lakes, and hot springs. The cheese made of sheep's milk is esteemed a delicacy. Population 10,000.

PARIA, the capital of the above province, is 210 miles north-west of La Plata.

PARIA, GULF Or, a gulf of South America, in the Caraccas, which has on the east the island of Trinidad, and on the west the province of Cumana. From these two lands on the north, two points jut out, with two islands intervening, which leave four openings, called the Mouths of the Dragon, by which the gulf communicates with the Carribbean Sea. This gulf is twentyfive leagues from east to west, and fifteen from north to south: there is anchorage in all that extent, but its depth varies from eight to thirty fathoms. Upon the coast of Paria its soundings are less. It has a muddy bottom, except near the coast of Terra Firma, where there are shoals and sand banks. It receives on the S. S. W. the different mouths of the Orinoco, which enters it with a velocity that very much incommodes the vessels which steer that way; and they discharge themselves into the Carribbean Sea by the Mouths of the Dragon, which it is therefore impossible to enter, especially the small ones, unless highly favored by the winds: and it is at least as difficult to enter the gulf on the south as on the north. The wind must be south-east to be able to enter with any certain prospect of safety. The tide is not only perceptible, but even formidable in the gulf of Paria, where it discovers a violence not to be conceived by those who are not well acquainted with this sea. There are several ports and roads along the coast which greatly facilitate the communication with Trinidad.

PARIAN CHRONICLE. See ARUNDELIAN MARBLES. Under that article we have given the arguments for and against the authenticity of the Parian Chronicle as fully as the subject seemed to require, or as the nature of our work would admit. Such of our readers, however, as wish for further information on this subject, we must refer to Robertson's attack, and to Gough's Learned and Judicious Vindication of their authenticity, published in Archæologia for 1789. The extent of his learning, and the solidity of his arguments, appear upon the whole to outweigh the objections of his sensible and plausible opponent, and the accession of persons to this side of the argument gives it no small additional weight.

Hewlett's book upon the same side of the question is also ingenious.

PARIAN MARBLE, in the natural history of the ancients, the white marble used then, and to this day, for carving statues, &c., and called by us at this time statuary marble. Too many of the later writers have confounded all the white marbles under the name of the Parian; and, among the workmen, this and all the other white marbles have the common name of alabasters; so that it is in general forgotten among them, that there is such a thing as alabaster different from marble; which, however, is truly the case. Almost all the world also have confounded the Carrara marble with this, though they are really very different; the Carrara kind being of a finer structure and clearer white than the Parian; but less bright and splendid, harder to cut, and not capable of so glittering a polish. The true Parian marble has usually somewhat of a faint bluish tinge among the white, and often has blue veins in different parts of it. It is supposed by some to have had its name from the island Paros (see PAROS), where it was first found; but others will have it to have been so called from Agoratritus Parius, a famous statuary, who ennobled it by cutting a statue of Venus in it.

PARIAS, or PERREAS, a degraded tribe of Hindoos, who live by themselves in the outskirts of towns: and, in the country, build their houses apart from the villages, or rather have villages of their Own. They dare not in cities pass through the streets where the Brahmins live; nor enter a temple of the superior castes. They get their bread by sowing, digging, and building the walls of mud houses; most of those inhabited by the common people being raised by the Parias; who perform all kinds of menial work: their diet is also wretched. One would scarcely imagine that contentions for precedency should ever occur among a people who seem to have renounced all cleanliness, and who are held in such utter contempt by the rest of the Hindoos; yet pride has divided the Parias into two classes: the first simply called Parias, the other Seriperes.

PARIETAL, adj. Lat. paries. Constituting the sides or walls.

The lower part of the parietal and upper part of the temporal bones were fractured. Sharp.

PARIETALIA OSSA. See ANATOMY.

PARIETARIA, pellitory of the wall; a genus of the monocia order, and polygamia class of plants: natural order fifty-third, scabrida hermaphrodite CAL. quadrifid: cor. none; there are four stamina; one style; and one seed, superior and elongated: FEMALE CAL. quadrifid: COR. none: nor are there any stamina. There is one style; and one seed superior and elongated. Species six, of which the

P. officinalis is used in medicine. This has a creeping root. The stalk grows erect, is rough to the touch, and adhesive. The leaves are alternate, elliptical, lanceolate, veined, and a little rough. The flowers grow out of the ale of the leaves, in sessile, branched, verticillate clusters, of a greenish color tinged with red. The anthere have a great degree of sensibility; for, if irritated with the point of a pin, they fly from

the calyx with elastic force, and throw out their powder. The plant has a cooling and diuretic quality. Three ounces of the juice taken internally, or a fomentation externally applied, have been found serviceable in the strangary. The plant, laid upon heaps of cotton infested with weevils, is said to drive away those destructive insects.

PARIETES, in anatomy, a term used for the enclosures or membranes that stop up or close the hollow parts of the body; especially those of the heart, the thorax, &c. The parietes of the two ventricles of the heart are of unequal strength and thickness; the left exceeding the right, because of its office, which is to force the blood through all parts of the body; whereas the right only drives it through the lungs.

PARIMA, a lake of Guiana, in the interior. It was formerly reported by travellers to be 100 miles long and fifty broad, with an island in the middle, of glittering mica, the celebrated seat of El Dorado, the imaginary city whose streets were paved with gold. It is now, however, said to be nothing more than an overflow of some of the head branches of the Parima or Branco. Long. 45° 20′W., lat. 3° 40' N.

PARIMA, or Branco, a river of South America, which rises in the above lake, and running south for above 400 miles, and collecting the waters of several other rivers, enters by four mouths the Rio Negro.

PARINA-COCHAS, a province of Peru, bounded on the north by the province of Aimaraes, north-west by that of Valcas-huaman, east by that of Chimbivilcas, south by that of Arequipa, and west by that of Lucanas. It is thirtyfive leagues long, and of irregular breadth. The situation is elevated and cold, with the exception of some hollows among the Andes. Here numerous breeds of cattle, particularly sheep, are found, and the mountains abound in mines of silver and gold, and herds of Guanucus or Peruvian camels; most of the inhabitants of this part, therefore, are drovers or woollen manufacturers. It contains thirty settlements, and 11,000 inhabitants.

PARINA-COCHA, a lake in the above province, seven leagues long and one broad.

PARINI (Joseph), a modern Italian poet, was the son of a poor peasant, and born on the shores of Lake Pusiano, about seven leagues from Milan. The monks bestowed on him a gratuitous education, to fit him for a subordinate ecclesiastical office; but a thirst for learning induced him to acquire farther knowledge; until his prospects of promotion in the church were blasted by an attack of paralysis in his nineteenth year. This rendered him a cripple for life. He at first was obliged to struggle through nearly twenty years of obscurity and indigence to procure the means of support for himself and his widowed mother; but a sudden change in his fortunes was produced by the appearance of his fine satirical work, Il Giorno, intended to exhibit a humorous delineation of the Milanese nobility. He was also the author of several lyric compositions, which display the same strain of moral satire. Towards the close of his life he enjoyed a large share of popularity. Once when the democratic spirit ran high, and the people

PARIS, Loutourezi, Lutetia, one of the largest, richest, and most flourishing cities of Europe, the capital of the kingdom of France, the seat of the government, and the residence of the king, royal family, and ministers of state. It is locally situated in the Isle of France, department of the Seine, of which it is the chief place. Here are held the meetings of the two chambers of deputies, of the court of cassation, the court of accounts, a royal court for the departments of the Aube, the Eure-et-Loire, the Marne, the Seineet-Marne, and the Seine; an inferior court of judicature; and a chamber of commerce for twelve cantons and twelve mayoralties; a general court for superintendence of the customs, of waters and forests, of bridges and highways, &c.; a general administration of the post, of exchanges and lotteries; royal manufactories of tobacco; the archives of the kingdom; a royal printing office; a prefecture of the police; the bank of France; a university academy; a school of medicine; an academy of belles lettres; a royal athenæum; a polytechnic school; a military school; a school of the fine arts; an institution for the deaf and dumb; a court of longitude; a society of music; and numerous other learned institutions. Its population is about 717,000.

This city is situated on the two banks of the Seine, in a pleasant valley, overlooked by lofty hills, on the sides of which part of it is built. The river crosses it from east to west, dividing it into two nearly equal parts; it then divides itself into two branches, which unite again after forming three tolerably large islands. The communication between the two banks and the islands is effected by a great number of bridges, some of which are remarkable for the beauty of their construction, and abut upon grand quays, bordered by elegant houses, which have a very imposing appearance. Most of the streets are wide, airy, watered by numerous fountains, and full of magnificent hotels, shops, and warehouses of every description. The pleasantness of the boulevards planted with trees, the numerous public squares adorned with triumphal arches, columns, and statues, the majestic architecture of the public buildings, the beauty of the suburbs, the mildness of the climate, the various manufactures carried on here, the celebrated artists and learned men that reside in it, and the multitude of establishments devoted to the sciences and arts, well combine with its political importance to render Paris a resort of foreigners from all parts of the globe. According to the most recent accounts there are twenty-eight royal roads that meet here, fifty-six barriers, some of them very elegant, eighteen boulevards, thirty-one quays, sixteen bridges, three islands, eighty

squares, 1085 streets, 26,801 houses, thirty-seven public markets, seven of which are under cover, eighty-five fountains, eight public libraries, twelve theatres, seven civil and military prisons, twelve parish churches, thirty-six chapels of ease, three protestant temples, three Jews' synagogues, twenty-four barracks, twenty-six civil hospitals, and four for the military, besides numerous infirmaries. The outer circumference of the boulevards is about twenty-one miles, and the superficial extent 34,396,800 square metres.

Paris was, at the time of the Roman invasion, only a miserable township, built by the Gauls in the island called now the city. It was, however, the capital of the Parisiaci, one of the ninety eight tribes, of which, according to Julius Cæsar, Celtic Gaul consisted. Struck with the advantages of its situation, Cæsar made himself master of it after a very vigorous resistance. A city was soon raised on the yet smoking ruins of the ancient habitations, which received the name of Lutetia. It considerably increased during the five centuries that the Romans were in possession of it, was the seat of one of the prefectures of Gaul, and at different periods became the temporary residence of several of the Roman emperors, who here built an aqueduct and a palace, the remains of which are visible.

History assigns no date to the foundation of the Gaulish town. The form of government of the tribe settled here was republican: and there is reason to think that this was a numerous people, brave, and jealous of their independence, since they defeated Cæsar's lieutenant Labienus, who was first sent against them; in a second encounter, however, they were not so successful : the courage of their old general Camulogenes was of no avail; he was slain, and thus spared the mortification of seeing his tribe subjugated by the enemy. They afterwards set fire to their capital: but Cæsar caused it, as we have stated, to be rebuilt, surrounded it with walls, and fortified with towers at short intervals. Some of these fortifications were in existence at the time of the siege of the Normans in 885. Its advantageous situation soon made it a place of great trade. About the year 350 a few churches were erected, and, a few years after, Julian, who resided at the palace of Thermes, was there proclaimed emperor by the soldiers. In 380 it began to be called the city of the Parisii, or Paris. It was invaded in 451 by the Francs, under the conduct of Merovée, who drove out Ætius, the last of the Roman governors. At length Clovis, after having accomplished the conquest of the Gauls, fixed upon Paris as the capital of his states. Under Charlemagne learning and science began to flourish here. Left to its own resources, by the feeble successors of this monarch, it was

several times ravaged by the Normans, who began their attacks in 845, set fire to it in 857, and besieged it for three months in 885-6, continued their ravages until the year 910, and finally destroyed even the remains of those monuments which the power of the Romaus had erected.

The kings of the third race, wishing to render their capital worthy of a great kingdom, granted to it some important privileges, and executed some splendid works for its embellishment. Under Philip Augustus the foundations of Notre Dame were laid, the streets began to be paved, the city was surrounded with walls, flanked with 500 towers, and augmented by the addition of four new quarters. The establishment of the schools of surgery, and of the Three Hundred, and the enlargement of the Hotel Dieu, were the work of St. Louis. Under Philip the Fair the chamber of accounts and the exchange were established, and Charles the Good added eight new quarters, and built the bridges of St. Michael and Notre Dame. In 1420 Paris was taken by the English, who were forced to evacuate it fifteen years afterwards. The same year a great part of the population was carried off by cold and famine, and in 1438 more than 50,000 of the inhabitants died of famine and the plague; so that troops of hungry wolves, after venting their rage in the country parts, entered the city by means of the river, and committed dreadful devastation. So great was the mortality, owing to the heat of the weather, in 1466, that it was found necessary, we are told, to open an asylum to malefactors from all parts in order to repeople the capital! Under Louis XI. the post office was established, and the city greatly extended. The foundation of the royal college was laid by Francis I., and this prince raised a noble palace on the site of the old towers of the Louvre. Streets were formed in different parts, edifices of Grecian architecture arose in the place of the old Gothic buildings, and several magnificent churches were built in the same reign. In the time of Henry IV. the faubourg of St. Germain was added, and a great number of streets were laid out in the quarter of the Marsh; the Place Dauphine, the Place Royale, and the Pont Neuf, were built, and several other public squares were made more regular. Under Louis XIII, were erected the gate of St. Gervais, the aqueduct of Arcueil, the quays and bridges of the island of St. Louis, the palace of the Luxembourg, the Sorbonne, the college of Louis the Great, and the statue of Henry IV. At the same time the foundations of the Palais Royal were laid, and the botanical garden planted. Louis XIV. built the Hospital of Invalids, the Observatory, the colonnade of the Louvre, the Place Vendome, and the gates of St. Martin and St. Denis. The military school, the schools of medicine and law, the gates of St. Sulpice and St. Eustathius, and the church of St. Geneviève, were the works of Louis XV. In the reign of Louis XVI. the fountain of the Innocents was repaired for the first time; the corn market, the theatres of the Odeon, the Italians, and Feydeau, the Mont de Piété, and the bridge in the Place de Louis XV. were built, and the botanical garden was enlarged. In 1782 this monarch ordered

the farmers-general to erect new walls round the enclosure of the fauxbourgs, with openings at intervals for the admission of merchandise and provisions for the capital. The Place du Carousel, the triumphal arch which adorns it, the gallery parallel to that of the museum, some immense quays, several gates, the bridges of the Arts and of Austerlitz, the military school, a number of new streets, particularly those of Rivoli and la Paix, the column in the Place de Vendome, that of the Place du Châtelet, the triumphal arch of the Etoile, the wine-market, the granary, many of the markets and fountains in Paris, the front of the hall of the legislative body, the exchange, and the repair of the Louvre, the Luxembourg, and several other public edifices, were undertaken and nearly finished under the reign of Napoleon. Louis XVIII. erected the new equestrian statue of Henry IV., and those of Louis XIII. and XVI, and finished the exchange and the Magdalen.

Situated nearly in the centre of France, this city has been the theatre of the greatest events of more than ten centuries. Under Charles IX., of hateful memory, a dreadful massacre of the Protestants took place here on the night of St. Bartholomew's day; Henry III. and Henry IV. laid siege to this capital; in the seventeenth century it was the theatre of the war of the Fronde, during which the court was obliged to leave the place. Towards the end of the eighteenth century the abuses and exactions, which the nation had for a long time endured, becoming intolerable, a terrible revolution broke out here, when Louis XVI. was condemned and executed, the monarchy was abolished, and a republic decreed; after several years of anarchy Buonaparte, at first nominated consul, and afterwards emperor of the French under the title of Napoleon I., was crowned here by pope Pius VII.' In 1814 the foreign powers took Paris by capitulation, and Louis XVIII, made his public entry; Napoleon again entered it as emperor on the 20th of March 1815; but was obliged to abdicate the throne in three months, when it was a second time taken possession of by the allied armies, and the king once more brought in.

Among the numerous public buildings we can only particularise the following: 1. The palace of the Louvre. This superb edifice is of high antiquity. In the reign of Dagobert it was a royal residence; and, burnt by the Normans, it was rebuilt by Louis the Young; Philip I. repaired and enlarged it; but it was still only a pile of buildings of very simple construction and without any marks of symmetry, flanked with a great number of towers, and surrounded with broad and deep ditches. In the centre of these rose a great tower, called the tower of the Louvre, which was successively the residence of kings, an arsenal, and state prison. Philip Augustus and his successors made it their treasury. It was Francis I. who laid the foundation of what is now called the Old Louvre, which was completed in the reign of Henry II. The gallery on the side of the Seine was built by Henry III., and Henry IV.; Louis XIV. built the principal front, which is a fine specimen of architecture, executed by Claude Herault; but the construc