PERIZONIUS, JAMES VOOKBROEK. 



PERRY, JAMES, 



743 



traditional resemblances in the delineation of the features of gods and 

 heroes, otherwise he would have lost one grand hold upon the people 

 of Athens. If Pericles had not possessed oratorical skill, he would 

 never have won his way to popularity, and later in life he must have 

 been able to direct an army, or the expedition to Samoa might have 

 been fatal to that edifice of power which he had been so long in 

 building. Lastly, had he not lived to strengthen the resolve of the 

 wavering people while the troops of Sparta were yearly ravaging the 

 Thriasian plain, the Peloponnesian war would have been prematurely 

 ended, and that lesson, so strikingly illustrative of the powers which 

 a free people can exercise under every kind of misfortune, lost to 

 posterity. 



Pericles's connection with Aspasia can hardly be passed over without 

 a trifling notice. Some misunderstanding exists on this subject from 

 Dot taking into account the fact that Aspasia was a foreigner. She 

 came, it is true, as an adventurer to Athens, and it is also probable 

 that she was the cause of the separation of Pericles and his first wife, 

 the widow of Uipponicus. He lived with her after divorcing hia wife, 

 who consented to the separation, and be is said to have been strongly 

 attached to her. The relation which subsisted between Pericles and 

 Aspasia may have been of the same nature with the morganatic 

 marriage at present in use on the Continent. Whether the jokes of 

 Aristophanes as to the real origin of the Peloponneaian war had any 

 foundation, we cannot now tell. It is hardly probable that a man like 

 Pericles should have been a coarse and vulgar voluptuary. [ASPASIA.] 



(Thucydidea ; Plutarch, Peridei ; Grote and Thirlwall, Histories of 

 Greece ; Clinton, Fasti Hellenici.) 



PERIZO'NIUS, JAMES VOORBROEK, was born at Dam in the 

 province of Groniugen, in 1651. He studied at Deventer, and after- 

 wards at Leyden under Gncvius. He chiefly applied himself to 

 philological aud historical studies. In 1674 he was appointed rector 

 of the gymnasium of Delft; in 1681 he was made professor of eloquence 

 and history at Franeker. In 1693 he removed to Leyden as professor 

 of history aud the Greek language. He died at Leyden in 1715. 

 IVri/.onius was one of the most distinguished scholars that Holland 

 has produced. He published numerous dissertations on subjects of 

 classical learning, and editions of Qu. Curtius, of Dictys Cretensis's 

 ' Trojan War,' and of other Latin and Greek authors. Nicerou, in 

 his ' Me'moirea,' has given a list of hia works, which however is not 

 complete. Among his more important works, the following deserve 

 notice: 1, 'Animadvcrsiones Histories, in quibus quamplurima in 

 priscis Romanarum rerum utriueque lingua; autoribus notantur; 

 roulta etiatn illustrantur atque emendantur,' Svo, Amsterdam, 1685. 

 In this work the author compares many passages of various historians 

 relating to particular events, and also to other subjects of language, 

 habitH, and civil polity ; it is a work full of erudition, and useful t j 

 classical scholars ; 2, ' Ue Usu atquo Utilitate Groecso Itomanseque 

 Lingua; ; ' 3, ' Rerum per Europam Sseculo XVI. gestarum Common- 

 tarii historic!,' a work imitabd by Durand, in his 'History of the 

 Sixteenth Century ; ' ' Disquiaitio de 1'raetorio ; ' 5, ' Diasertatio de 

 Mia Gravi;' 5, 'Diasertatio de Morte Judie;' 6, ' Origines Babylo- 

 nica; et ^Egyptiacae,' 2 vols. 8vo, Leyden, 1711 ; awork, the importance 

 of which lias been superseded by the more recent investigations into 

 Egyptian chronology aud antiquities. The ' Upuscula Minora ' of 

 Perizonius, consisting of orations and disa> rtations, were published at 

 Leyden in 1740, with a biography of the author. Perizonius left his 

 manuBcripta to the Leyden library. 



PEROUSE, JEAN-FKANCOI.S-GALAUP DE LA, a distinguished 

 French seaman and navigator of the last century, was born -at Alby 

 in the department of Tarn, in 1741. He entered early into the 

 French navy, and was appointed midshipman in 1756. He distin- 

 guiahed himself in the battle of llelli.-i.sle (1759), and was taken 

 prisoner. After the peace of 1762 he returned to his native country. 

 In 1773 he viaited the East Indies, where he served till 1777. In the 

 war from 1778 to 1783 he distinguished himself on several occasions, 

 and in the beginning of 1782 he wag sent with three vessels to take 

 possession of the establishments of the Hudson's liay Company, on 

 the shores of the bay from which the company derives its name. He 

 took Fort York on the 24th of August, without resistance, as there 

 was no garrison, and after having ordered the fort to be destroyed, he 

 re-embarked and abandoned it. Having been informed that several 

 Englishmen had escaped into the woods, and fearing that they would 

 perish with hunger or fall into the hands of the savages, he left some 

 provisions and arms, an act of humanity which was acknowledged by 

 the English with gratitude. At Fort York he found the manuscript 

 of Hearne'a ' Journey to the Coppermine River,' which he was inclined 

 to take to France, but Hearne declaring that it was hia private pro- 

 perty, he restored it to him, on the express condition that it should 

 be printed on his return to England. The promise was made, but 

 only performed thirteen years after. 



After the re-establishment of peace (1783), the French government 

 wishing to rival the English in making discoveries in the Pacific, La 

 Perouse was appointed commander of a squadron, consisting of two 

 fiigates, the Boudsole and the Astrolabe. He sailed from Brest on the 

 1st of August 1785, and went round Cape Horn. After doubling Cape 

 Horn, he sailed to 60 N. lat., and then coasted along the western coast 

 of North America to Monterey in Upper California, which coast had 

 previously been examined by Cook and Vancouver. From Monterey 



he went to Canton, and thence along the eastern coast of Asia to 

 Avatsha in Kamtchatka. This is the most important part of his 

 voyage, as he surveyed a coast which previously was very imperfectly 

 known. From Avatsha he sent one of his officers, Lessep, with au 

 account of his voyage, to Paris by land. After leaving Avatsha he 

 sailed to the Navigators' Islands, where the Astrolabe lost her captain 

 and eleven of the crew, who were killed by the natives. After 

 touching at the Friendly Islands, he sailed to Botany Bay, where ho 

 found that Governor Phillip had arrived for the purpose of founding 

 the first British colony in Australia. From this place Tie sent to 

 Europe the continuation of the account of his voyage, and after leaving 

 Botany Bay he was never heard of. It was supposed that his vessels 

 were wrecked, and the French sent several ships to ascertain his fate. 

 It was finally ascertained that his vessels had been wrecked on one 

 of the islands of Santa Cruz, also called Queen Charlotte Islands. 

 This island is called by the English Wauicoro, or Wanicolo, and by 

 the French Isle de Recherche. (La Perouse, Voyage autour du, Monde.) 



PERRAULT, CLAUDE, born at Paris in 1613, has earned a 

 memorable name in the history of art as the designer of one of the 

 finest monuments of modern architecture. He was the sou of an 

 advocate, and was brought up to the medical profession, but extended 

 his studies to other branches of science, particularly mathematics and 

 architecture. His attention became more especially directed to archi- 

 tecture on being engaged by Colbert to undertake a translation of 

 Vitruvius, the first edition of which appeared in 1673, in a folio 

 volume, with plates after his own drawings, If he did not always 

 comprehend the meaning of that obscure writer, he had in the mean- 

 while given indisputable proof of his .practical ability and superior 

 taste in architecture in the east front aud colonnades of the Louvre, 

 in regard to which edifice, Bernini (invited to Paris in 1644) and other 

 eminent artists bad been consulted. It appears to have been at the 

 instance of his brother Charles that Perrault entered into the com- 

 petition, in which he bore off the prize from his rivals ; and his 

 superiority on this occasion has by one of his biographers been attri- 

 buted to hia being unchecked by professional prejudices and habits. 



Perrault's other chief worka are the Observatory (not particularly 

 remarkable in point of design), aud the Grotto, &c., at Versailles. The 

 monument which, after the Louvre, would have best maintained his 

 fame, the grand triumphal arch at the entrance of the Fauxbourg St. 

 Autoine, was never executed, notwithstanding that the foundations 

 were built, and a temporary plaster model of the whole was erected. 

 Besides his translation of Vitruvius, an enlarged edition of which 

 appeared in 1684, he published an abridgement of it, 1674 ; a work 

 'On the Five Orders,' folio, 1683; ' Essais de Physique,' 2 vols. 4to, 

 1680; and a work on natural history; to which may be added a 

 posthumous one (1700), giving an account of several machines of his 

 invention. He died at Paris, October 9th, 1688. 



CHARLKS PERBAOI/T, brother to the preceding, born January 12th, 

 1628, possessed also some talent for architecture, which procured for 

 him the appointment of ' premier commis des batimens du roi.' He 

 is now chiefly known as the author of the ' Parallele des Ancieus et 

 Modernes,' Paris, 1690, wherein he extols the latter at the expense of 

 the former; aud whatever may be thought of his judgment, he must 

 be allowed to have shown no little courage when he ventured to 

 express his preference of such writers as Scuderi and Chapelain to 

 Homer. Such an extravagant opinion was hardly worth serious refu- 

 tation, yet it was formally opposed by Boileau, iu his ' Reflections on 

 Longinus,' intended as au answer to the ' Parallele,' and this literary 

 squabble was prolonged for some time. Of Perrault's work entitled 

 ' Les Hommes llluatres qui out paru en France pendant ce Siecle,' 

 folio, the first volume appeared in 1696, the second in 1701. A collec- 

 tion of his miscellaneous pieces iu verse and prose appeared at Paris in 

 1676, previously to which he had produced some other poems, which 

 have long since been forgotten. One of his most interesting literary 



Productions is his own ' Me'inoires,' first published at Avignon, in 1759. 

 [e died May 16, 1703. Hia son, PERRAULT D'ARMANCOURT, also a 

 writer, is remembered by the ' Contes de ma Mere 1'Oye,' which contain 

 the nursery stories of Cinderella, &c., and are a classical work in that 

 branch of literature ; the ' Biographic Universelle ' however states 

 that though published in his name these tales were really written by 

 his father. 



PERKOT, NICOLAS. [ABLANCOURT.] 



PKHRY, JAMES, was born in Aberdeenshire on the 30th of Octo- 

 ber 1756. He received the rudiments of his education at the rural 

 pariah school of Chapel of Garioch, studied Latin at the grammar- 

 school of Aberdeen, and iu the year 1771 was entered a student of 

 Mariachal College. He seems to have been destined for the profession 

 of the law, and was for some time employed in the office of one of the 

 attorneys, or, as they are by local usage termed, advocates, of Aber- 

 deen. From Aberdeen he proceeded to Edinburgh, where he in vain 

 attempted to procure the means of livelihood. He went afterwards 

 to Manchester, and was rather more fortunate, obtaining employment 

 as clerk to a manufacturer. He had all along occupied his hours of 

 involuntary leisure in cultivating hia mind, and fitting himself for 

 those higher walks of industry which he felt au innate capacity to 

 occupy. He had shown intelligence and ability as a member of a 

 debating society in Manchester, and went thence in 1771 with intro- 

 ductions to people of some influence in London. Among the friends 



