t-W 



roaaio. 



POLKMO. 





BafflwlU inspired him with resolution to endeavour to Imitate tho 

 grace of that great matter, especially in the naked figure. He however 

 formed fur himself a Tery different and entirely new style, not resem- 

 bling that of any Italian master, unless it be in liis adorning his land- 

 scapes with the ruins of ancient buildings, which he represented with 

 great accuracy. He excelled all his contemporaries in the delicacy of 

 hit taste and the vividness of hit colouring, as well aa in the choice of 

 hii subject The skies are clear, light, and transparent, and the mag- 

 nificent remains of Roman edifices in his backgrounds give harmony to 

 the whole composition. His female figures, which he generally repre- 

 sented naked, are distinguished by beauty and elegance of form. It it* 

 an obvious objection however that in some representations of nymphs 

 bathing, he has chosen exposed situations by a roadside. 



Poelemburg's works were highly esteemed in Italy, and some of the 

 cardinals used to visit him while he was painting, to observe his manner 

 of working. He left Rome with much regret, and returned to his own 

 country. On the way he received many honours at Florence from 

 the grand-duke and had great respect shown him in all the cities 

 through which he passed, as well as in his native city of Utrecht 

 Soon after his return he was visited by Rubens, who expressed great 

 pleasure in examining his works, of which be purchased several for 

 his own collection, and bespoke others, by which he directed attention 

 to the merit of Poelemburg, and advanced both bis fortune and his 

 reputation. Poelemburg was invited by Charles I. to London, where 

 ho painted many fine pictures, for which he received Urge sums. 

 The kirig wished him to stay in England ; but his affection for his 

 own country induced him to return to Utrecht, where he acquired a 

 large fortune and was universally esteemed, and where he died in 1660. 

 Many eminent artists, especially Steenwyck and Kierings, got him to 

 paint the figures in their works. The genuine pictures of Poelemburg 

 are extremely scarce; but his disciple, Jean van dor Lis imitated his 

 manner with such success that his paintings ore often taken for works 

 of his master. There ore some good examples of his pencil in private 

 collections in this country. 

 POGGIO. [BRAOCIOLINI, Poocio.] 



POILLY, FRANCOIS, a distinguished French engraver, was born 

 at Abbeville in 1622. Ue was the pupil of P. Daret, and studied some 

 time in Rome. He adopted the somewhat hard style of engraving of 

 Blociuart in direct cross-lines, in which he was completely successful : 

 his drawing also, which is quite correct, adds much to the value of his 

 finely executed engravings. Though Poilly's style is very laborious, 

 there are about 400 print* which bear his name, in which however lie 

 was of course assisted by bis pupils. His master-piece is the print 

 from Mignard's celebrated picture, now lout, of San Carlo Borromeo 

 administering the Sacrament to the Milanese attacked with the Plague. 

 A catalogue of his prints was published by R. Heuquet in 1752; it 

 comprises several after RaflVlle, including the Vierge au Berceau, 

 La Vierge au Linge, the large Holy Family in the Louvre, and other 

 Holy Families by Raffaelle. Poilly died at Paris in 1693. Ilia 

 brother Nicholas and nephew Jean Baptiste Poilly were likewise 

 distinguished engravers. 



POlSSON, SIMEON DENIS, was born June 21st 1781, in an 

 humble station, and was admitted in 1798 a pupil of the Ecole Poly- 

 technique. M. Fourcy, in bis history of this school, records tho 

 manner in which the young student, at the sge of eighteen, attracted 

 the notice of Lagrange by an improvement in the method of demon- 

 strating the binomial theorem, which the latter read publicly to the 

 claa*, and announced his intention of abiding by it for the future. 

 Poissou never held any political situation, or took public share in 

 anything but education. In 1828 he was baron, officer of the legion 

 of honour, repetittur-adjoint and permanent examiner of the Poly- 

 technic School, member of the Council of Public Instruction, and of 

 the Academy of Sciences. He died April 25th 1840. 



As far as so few words can go, it may be said that the labours of 

 Poisson were directed to the introduction of tho use of delimit 

 integrals into all branches of mathematical physics, and the extension 

 of the vaiious brauchos by their means. Tut re is nothing out of 

 which to make a popular reputation ; the successes of Poissou are all 

 purely mathematical, and none but the mathematician con as mucli 

 as understand the description of them. 



1 he greater part of the writings of Poisson are contained in various 

 periodicals, particularly the Memoirs of tho Institute, tho Journal of 

 the Pol} techuic School, the ' Aunales dea Matbcmatiques,' the ' Con- 

 nsisesnce des Terns,' Ac., &c. There is hardly any subject on which 

 they do not treat, and almost always with decided success; electricity, 

 magnetism, heat, gases, capillary attraction, gravitation, the pendulum, 

 Ac., tc., are titles each of which suggests to the well-informed 

 mathematician of our time the memory of some ably-written paper by 

 I'ousou. Ilia object was to leave no branch of physics unexplored 

 by aid of the new and powerful methods of investigation which a 

 school yet more modern than that of Lagrange and Laplace hod added 

 to the pare mathematics. Towards the end of his life he began to 

 collect his scattered memoirs into separate works, with tho additions 

 which his subsequent researches had given. 



Poiason's separate works are 1, ' TraiW de Mdcauiijue,' Paris, 1811, 

 2 vols. 8vo ; second edition, Paris, 1833, 2 vola. 8vo. Perhaps this u 

 the best elementary work on a branch of mathematical physics which 

 exists, considered M an introduction to tho use of modern analysis 



An English student should read It with some of our own writers, who 

 abound in examples. 2, 'Nouvelle Thcorie de 1'Action Capillaire,' 

 Paris, 1831, 4to. The principal distinction between this theory nj 

 .hat of Laplace, physically speaking, is the consideration of the varia- 

 tion of density which takes place at the end of the capillary column 

 of fluid. 3, 'Theorie Mathduiatique de la ChaU-ur,' Paris, 1885, 4 to. 

 The data from which Poissou starts are derived from the experiments 

 on the nature of heat made subsequently to the time of Fourier, his 

 {real predecessor in this branch of the subject. 4, ' Itecherches sur 

 la Probability des Jugemeus en Maticre CrimineUe et en Maticre 

 Civile,' Paris, 1837, 4to. This is, in fact, a treatise on the theory of 

 probabilities, with especial reference to its application to matters of 

 evidence, particularly of the judicial kind. 



POLE, REGINALD, the celebrated Cardinal, was bom in 1500. 

 He was of very illustrious descent on the side of his mother, who was 

 the daughter of George, duke of Clarence, brother to King ICdward I V., 

 and cousin-merman to Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII. and mother of 

 Henry VIII. He was a younger son, and received an education such 

 as was given to those who were destined to high stations in the chuivli, 

 being placed when a child in the Carthusian monastery at Shone, from 

 whence be was removed to Magdalen College, Oxford, where lie had 

 the benefit of the instruction of the celebrated Linacre. As early as 

 1525, he was made B.A., admitted into deacon's orders, and, when 

 only nineteen, was mode dean of Wimborne and dean of Kxeter. 



About 1520 he went abroad to pursue his studies in an Iuli.ui uni- 

 versity, visiting Padua for that purpose. He returned to England in 

 1525, when he was received by the king in a manner befitting his 

 rank and eminent attainments. But the gaieties of the court of 

 Henry VIII. had fewer charms for him than the opportunities for 

 seclui-ion and study which were afforded by the monastery at Sheno, 

 to which he retired. When however the king bod resolved on divorcing 

 his queen and acting in defiance of ecclesiastical authority, Pole pre- 

 sented a strenuous opposition, and wrote his famous treatise ' J'ro 

 Unitate Ecclesiastica.' This was a great disappointment to the king, 

 who withdrew bis pension, deprived him of his preferments, ai. 

 cured that he should be attainted in parliament. There is little doubt 

 indeed that Pole would have shared the same fate which befel More 

 and Fisher, had he not withdrawn himself from England and tho 

 reach of the king. As it was his elder brother was put to death, and 

 his mother, the old Countess of Salisbury, was executed, both on the 

 poorest and weakest pretences. 



During the remainder of that reign, and through the whole reign of 

 Edward VI., Pole lived abroad. In proportion as he was hated by the 

 king, he was cherished by the pope, by whom he was made a cardinal, 

 employed on several important embassies, and was in fact his priii- 

 cipal adviser touching all matters which affected the spiritual 

 affairs of the realm of England, and touching the Reformation gene- 

 rally. On the death of Pone Paul III. in 1549, he narrowly missed 

 being elected to the popedom. Failing in this, he retired to a convent 

 near Verona, where ho continued till the accession of Mary to the 

 English throne, when an attempt was made to re-unite the English 

 nation to the Romish church. 



He re-appeared in his native country at the very beginning of tho 

 reign, coming as legate from the Roman see, with full power to absolve 

 the nation, and receive it again into tho bosom of the Roman Catholic 

 church. As is well known the re-union was effected. Then began tho 

 cruel measures for the extirpation of heresy and heretics, which have 

 made the reign of Mary so infamous in the English annals. How far 

 Cardinal Pole was implicated in the guilt of those unjustifiable 

 severities, is one of the points in his life on which different opinions 

 will be entertained by those who study with attention the history of 

 that period. It is certain that he had great influence iu the councils 

 of that reign, and that he accepted the archbishopric of Canterbury 

 when Crumncr was put to death. At the same time, the apparent 

 rectitude of his conduct and the general mildness of his dispo.iit ion 

 would almost forbid us to suppose that ho could be a party to tho 

 <!r, mlliil M vi'iiti. of that [..nod. 



Besides tho high dignity of primate, he was made chancellor of both 

 the universities, which he vibitod by his couuiiiasioucrr. If any man 

 could have done it, he would have effected the entire reversal of the 

 measures of the Reformation in England, hud the life of the quetn 

 been prolonged: but her reign was short; she died in 1558, ami, 

 by a singular coincidence, Pole himself died about sixteen hours 

 after her. 



PO'LKMO (noA/pur), the name of several Greek writers, of whom 

 the most important are 



1. POLKMO, the philosopher, the sou of Philostratus, who succeeded 

 Xcnocrates as the head of the Old Academy about in: 315. (Diog. 

 l.acrt., iv. 16.) He died in H.C. 270, and was succeeded by Crates. 

 Polemo wrote several works (Diog. Lab'rt., iv. 20), which are referred 

 to by Cicero ('Acad. Quicst,,' ii. 42), but none of them have come 

 down to us. Cicero says that Polemo did not differ much from Aris- 

 totle. ('De Orat,' iii. 1-.) Zeuo and Arcesilos were his disciples. 

 (Cic., 'Acad^Quasst,' i. 8.) 



2. POLKMO, the sophist, was born at Laodicea, and was one of the 

 most celebrated teachers of rhetoric in the beginning of the 2nd 

 century of tho Christian era. He was highly esteemed by Hadrian 

 and Antoninus Pius. He taught at Smyrna, and conferred great 



