665 



PARIS. 



PARIS, MATTHEW. 



excited against him, and he waa at one time in imminent danger of 

 losing hia appointments, owing to hia refusing, for some reason or 

 other, to compose, as he had been commissioned to do, an eloge ou the 

 Empress Maria Theresa. Notwithstanding this, Leopold II. promoted 

 him to the prefectureship of the Brera, with an increased salary. At 

 the period of the French Revolution politics began to engage his 

 attention ; General Bonaparte and Saliceti caused him to be elected 

 one of the magistrates of Milan ; but being disappointed in his expecta- 

 tions of being able to serve his fellow-citizens, Parini requested per- 

 mission to retire from office, and bestowed on the poor the emoluments 

 he had derived from it From this period he lived in retirement, 

 poor but respected. In addition to his general ill state of health, he 

 was obliged in his seventieth year to undergo an operation. Ho died 

 August 15, 1799, and the astronomer Ordani caused a monument and 

 bust of him to be erected in the college of the Brera. 



His principal production, ' II Giorno,' may be considered an ironical, 

 didactic poem, wherein, pretending to instruct a youth in the various 

 duties and economy of a fashionable day, he satirises the frivolities, 

 the follies, and vices of the idlers and triflera who constitute what is 

 called the. gay world. Yet although it is relieved by many agreeable 

 episodes, the continued strain of irony and mock solemnity becomes 

 fatiguing ; and though the style is elegant, it is somewhat too ornate 

 and laboured for the subject. Besides this and hia lyrical pieces, Parini 

 also wrote some 'rime piacevoli,' and other compositions of that class. 



PARIS, also called ALEXANDER, one of the most celebrated 

 characters of the mythic age, is said to have been tho son of Priam 

 and Hecuba. In consequence of an alarming dream which his mother 

 had previous to his birth, Priam gave him to a slave to be exposed 

 upon Mount Ida. The order was obeyed, but upon returning at the 

 end of five days to the spot where he had exposed the infant, he found 

 that he had been nursed by a bear. The slave took the child to hia own 

 home and brought him up as one of hia sons, among the shepherds of 

 Mount Ida. When Paris grew up, he became distinguished by his beauty 

 and strength, and in consequence of his success in repelling the attacks 

 of wild beasU and robbers, he is said to have obtained the name of 

 Alexander (from i\t'{eii<). He was afterwards recognised by his parents, 

 and received at the court of his father; but before he left his flocks 

 he is said to have given that celebrated decision in favour of the 

 superior beauty of Aphrodite (Venus), in consequence of which he 

 obtained Helena, but at the same time brought upon himself and the 

 whole Trojan race the implacable enmity of Hera (Juno) and Athena 

 (Minerva). 



He is said to have carried off Helena from the court of Menelaus, 

 while the latter was absent at Crete ; and after touching at Sidon in 

 his way home, to have brought her in safety to Troy. Herodotus 

 however informs ua (ii. 113-116'), on the authority of the Egyptian 

 priests, that Paris in his voyage home was driven to Egypt by unfavour- 

 able winds, and that Helen and all her property were detained by 

 Proteus with the view of restoring them to Menelaus. Herodotus 

 thinks that Homer was acquainted with this story, and quotes some 

 passage* in the 'Iliad' and 'Odyssey ' in confirmation of his opinion. 



We read very little in the ' Iliad' of the exploits of Paris. In the 

 third book he engages in single combat with Menelaus, and is only 

 saved from death by the intervention of Aphrodite. He wounds 

 with his arrows Diomede (xi. 369-383), and Machaon (xi. 505) ; and is 

 mentioned in the twelfth book (1. 93) as a commander of one of the 

 divisions of the Trojan army. According to later poets, he killed 

 Achilles with one of his arrows. The manner of his death is variously 

 told ; but it is generally agreed that he was killed by Philoctetes with 

 one of the arrows of Hercules. Later writers state that, while he fed 

 his flocks upon Mount Ida, he was married to (Enone, daughter of the 

 river Cebren, who endeavoured to dissuade him from attempting to 

 carry off Helen, but, unable to succeed in his endeavours, she told him 

 to return to her if he was ever wounded, as she alone could save him. 

 After being wounded by Philoctetes, Paris accordingly desired to be 

 carried to (Enone ; but offended by his desertion, she refused to heal 

 him, and left him to his fate. 



PARIS, JOHN AYRTON, a distinguished physician. He was born 

 at Cambridge on the 7th of August 1785. He received his early educa- 

 tion at the Grammar school at Linton. At the age of fourteen he 

 commenced the tudy of medicine, and for this purpose became a 

 pupil of Dr. Bradley of London, who was physician to Westminster 

 Hospital. Here he made great progress in his classical studies, and 

 made acquaintance with the sciences of chemistry and botany. In 

 1803 he matriculated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he became 

 distinguished for the extent and elegance of his classical knowledge, 

 and pursued natural science in as far as the university studies per- 

 mitted him. He subsequently graduated as M.D. at Cambridge, after 

 having previously studied at Edinburgh. He obtained the Tanered 

 studentohip in physic at Cambridge in 1804, and made the Taucred 

 speech in 1 808. He first commenced the practice of his profession in 

 London, where he made the acquaintance and gained the patronage of 

 Dr. Maton, whom he succeeded when only in his twenty-third year as 

 physician to the Westminster Hospital. He had not however been 

 long in London when he waa induced to settle at Penzance in Cornwall, 

 ax successor to Dr. Borlase. Here he met with great success in practice, 

 and turned his attention to the study of natural history. He founded 

 he lloyal Geological Society of Cornwall, ouo of the earliest geolo- 



gical societies in the kingdom. He wrote a 'Guide to Mount's Bay 

 and Land's End,' which contained an account of the geology and 

 objects of natural interest in that part of Cornwall. He also studied 

 agriculture in relation to chemistry, and wrote a paper 'On the Soils of 

 Cornwall, with a View to form a national System of Improvement by 

 the Judicious Application of Mineral Manure." He anticipated here the 

 discoveries of modern times, and suggested a practice which is but 

 now beginning to bear its fruits. Whilst at Penzance he also wrote 

 ' Memoirs of the Life and Scientific Labours of the late Rev. W. Gregor.' 

 In the Preface to this work, which was published in 1817, ha took 

 leave of his frienda in Cornwall, and once more returned to London. 



He now commenced a course of lectures on the materia medica at 

 the Windmill-street School of Medicine. He also gave a course of 

 lectures on the philosophy of medicine, at the Royal College of Physi- 

 cians. The matter of these lectures he afterwards worked into the 

 Introduction to hia celebrated ' Pharmacologia.' This work, which 

 was originally published in 1819, went through many editions, and is 

 at the present day regarded as one of the useful text-booka on the 

 subject of materia medica. He also published a ' Treatise on Diet,' 

 which comprehended all that was known on the subject at the time 

 he wrote. It was a work much needed in the profession, and brought 

 Dr. Paris more than any of his other publicationa as a practical 

 physician before the public. * 



Aa a Cambridge graduate all the positions at the London College of 

 Physicians became opened to him. He was made a censor in 1817, an 

 elect iu 1839, and delivered the Harveiau oration in 1843. On the 

 death of Sir Henry Halford in 1844, as one of the elects, of whom 

 there are seven, he was eligible for the post of president of the College, 

 and was selected by the fraternity of elects to that position. During 

 his presidency he was opposed to all reform in the College, whose 

 charter, granted iu the time of Henry VIII., is ill adapted to the 

 requirements of the profession in the present century. Hs retained 

 his position as president till his death, on the 21th of December 1856, 

 and was succeeded by Dr. Thomas Mayo. 



Dr. Paris devoted much attention to the study of the physical 

 sciences, especially chemistry. When .in Cornwall he conferred a 

 great benefit on the mining population by suggesting that the bar 

 used for moving portions of rock, should be covered with copper, 

 which prevented the iron of which it was composed from striking fire 

 against the rock, and which by igniting the gunpowder used in 

 blasting, often produced the most serious ill consequences. In London 

 he became an early member of the Royal Institution, and waa the 

 friend and biographer of Sir Humphry Davy. His 'Life' of the 

 great chemist is an unusually elegant piece of biography. He wrote 

 anonymously a little work of great merit, and which has gone through 

 many editions, entitled 'Philosophy in Sport made Science iu Earnest.' 

 He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and a Doctor of Civil Law of 

 the University of Oxford. 



PARIS, MATTHEW, was bom about the end of the 12th century, 

 took the religious habit in the Benedictine monastery of St. Alban's in 

 1217, and died there in 1259. Almost the only incident of his life 

 that has been recorded is a journey he made to Norway, by command 

 of the pope, to introduce some reforms into the monastic establish- 

 ments of that country, which mission he has the credit of having 

 executed with great ability and success. He is said to have stood high 

 in the favour of Henry III., and to have obtained various privileges 

 for the University of Oxford through his influence with that king. 

 His acquirements embraced all the learning and science of his age ; 

 besides theology and history, oratory, poetry, painting, architecture, 

 and a practical knowledge of mechanics, are reckoned among his 

 accomplishments by his biographers or panegyrists. His memory is 

 now preserved by his history of England, entitled ' Historia Major,' 

 which begins with the Norman Conquest, and comes down to tho 

 year of the author's death. Of this work the following are the printed 

 editions: 1, fol., Lon., 1571, edited by Archbishop Parker ; 2, fol., 

 Tiguri (Zurich), 1606, a mere reprint of the preceding ; 3, fol., Lon., 

 1640 (or in some copies 1611), edited by Dr. William Watts; 4, fol., 

 Paris, 1644; and 5, fol., Lon., 1684. Watts's edition, which ia some- 

 times divided into two volumes, besides various readings and copious 

 indexes, contains two other works of the author never before printed, 

 namely, his ' Duorum Offarum Merciorum Regum (S. Albani Fuuda- 

 torum) Vitte,' and his ' Virginti Triuin Abbatum S. Albani Vittc,' 

 together with what he calls his ' Additamenta ' to those treatises ; and 

 these minor productions are also given in the subsequent Paris and 

 London editions. In the British Museum, and in the libraries of 

 Corpus Christi and Bene't colleges, Cambridge, there are manuscripts 

 of an epitome, by Matthew Paris himself, of his history, generally 

 referred to by the names of the ' Historia Minor,' or the ' CUronica,' 

 which has never been published, but which, Bishop Nicholson says, 

 contains " several particulars of note omitted iu the larger history ; " 

 and some other works, which are now lost, are attributed to him ou 

 the doubtful authority of Bale and Pits. Some old notices of his 

 ' History ' speak of it as beginning at the creation of the world ; and 

 on this account it has been conjectured, though with no probability, 

 that the historical compilation ascribed to Matthew of Westminster 

 may really have been the composition of Matthew Paris. But even of 

 the ' History ' which bears his name, the portion extending to the year 

 1235 ia very little inoro than a transcript from the work of Roger de 



