PROUDHON 



4S4S 



PROVERB 



which serve as organs of locomotion, and a 

 groovelike opening at one end of the body 

 which serves as a rudimentary mouth. Some 

 protozoans reproduce by cell division, each half 

 of the original cell becoming a separate animal; 

 with others, the parent cell puts forth a pro- 

 tuberance which breaks off and forms a new 

 organism. This is called budding. Certain 

 parasitic forms, such as the organism that 

 causes malaria when introduced into the blood 

 of a human being, multiply by dividing into 

 small bodies called spores. 



The oceans contain countless millions of pro- 

 tozoic organisms, and it is interesting to know 

 that these myriads of one-celled creatures are 

 an important source of food supply for marine 

 animals. Most of the ocean protozoans have 

 the body cell enclosed in a tiny shell of won- 

 derful delicacy and beauty (see RADIOLARIA). 

 Accumulations of the shells of one order (glo- 

 bigerinae) cover large sections of the floor of 

 the Atlantic, appearing like thick masses of a 

 slimy, gray mud; some of the world's largest 

 chalk deposits are composed largely of the 

 fossil shells of marine protozoa. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 



the following articles in these volumes : 

 Amoeba Protoplasm 



Cell Zoology (outline of . 



Infusoria animal kingdom) 



PROUDHON, proodawN', PIERRE JOSEPH 

 (1809-1855), a well-known French socialist. 

 He was born at Besancon, educated in the col- 

 lege there, and in 1828 entered the printing 

 business. After an unsuccessful attempt to 

 establish such a business of his own, he pub- 

 lished, in 1838, his Essai de grammaire generate, 

 and received in recognition of its excellence a 

 three-year pension of 1,500 francs from the 

 Academy of Besangon. Two years later he lost 

 his pension and the approval of the Academy 

 by the publication of What Is Property? 

 wherein was contained the socialistic answer, 

 "Property is theft. ' In 1842, on the appear- 

 ance of a similar publication, he was prose- 

 cuted at Besangon, but v:as acquitted. 



For three years he was in charge of a water- 

 transport system on the Rhone and Saone, with 

 headquarters at Lyons, but in 1848 he returned 

 to Paris and took an important part in the 

 revolution of that year. His views as pub- 

 lished in the papers which he edited were more 

 influential than was his work in the Constitu- 

 ent Assembly, of which he was a member. In 

 1849 he tried to found a People's Bank, which 

 should be run according to his economic prin- 



ciples, but was forced to close the institution 

 and escape to Geneva because of the opposi- 

 tion of the authorities to his theories. On his 

 return his violent utterances led to his impris- 

 onment for three years, and after his rel 

 he removed to Brussels, where he lived for 

 eight years. Proudhon stands out as one of 

 the important figures in the history of social- 

 ism (which see). 



PROVENCAL , pro vahN sal ' , LANGUAGE 

 AND LITERATURE, the form of speech and 

 writings of the people of medieval Southern 

 France, particularly of the region called Prov- 

 ence. In the early part of the Middle Ages 

 Provengal poetry (see TROUBADOUR) had con- 

 siderable vogue in Europe, and there have 

 come down to us the lyrics of more than 400 

 poets of that school. The Provencal language 

 as a literary medium began to decline about 

 the year 1200, but it never wholly died out, 

 and in the nineteenth century a society of 

 literary men was organized to labor for its 

 restoration and preservation. Many French 

 poets of high rank have figured in this move- 

 ment, notably Frederic Mistral, who died in 

 1914. The society is called the Felibrige, and 

 its members, the Felibres. The language used 

 by these modern Provencal poets is not that of 

 the medieval troubadours, but represents sev- 

 eral modern dialects that have developed from 

 the original tongue of Southern France. 



PROVERB, a short, pithy sentence which 

 is commonly used and which expresses some 

 truth or some bit of practical wisdom. Some- 

 times a proverb may be the saying of one 

 man, which has been generally adopted and 

 made a part of everyday speech; far more 

 frequently it is a gradual growth, like the bal- 

 lad or folk epic, and has been built up by a 

 number of authors. 



Every language, so far as known, has prov- 

 erbs, and frequently the same one is found 

 current among several different peoples. In 

 some instances these may all be traced to a 

 common source, or at least a common source 

 may be inferred; but in other cases similar 

 experiences and observations by widely sepa- 

 rated peoples account for the similar proverbs. 

 Thus, Sterne's "God tempers the wind to the 

 shorn lamb" is identical in sentiment with the 

 old Turkish proverb "God makes a nest for 

 the blind bird," with which it was probably 

 not at all connected in its origin. 



The Bible contains an entire book of Prov- 

 erbs (which see), and many of those which 

 are most common are from that book, as 



