CGI 



PRATT, CHARLES. 



TIUXITELF.S. 



962 



answer to the character of an epic, it is something very superior to a 

 Riimkronik, or mere chronicle in verse, as its author modestly styles 

 it, being a romantic narrative founded upon the traditions of northern 

 legend and mythology, and recording the hero Stcerkodder's adven- 

 tures in search of Skirner's mystic sword and other talismans. Thus 

 considered, this production of Pram's (iu fifteen cantos) is a classic 

 one of its kind, and is one that places its author by the side of Ariosto 

 and Wieland. 



Shortly afterwards he commenced, with the assistance of Rahbek, 

 the ' Minerva,' one of the best literary periodicals of its time ill 

 Denmark, and one which also discussed many important political 

 and statistical questions. Few could have been better qualified than 

 Pram for conducting such a miscellany, he being equally at home in 

 both departments of it; and to the literary part he contributed a 

 number of his minor pieces both in prose and verse. Among his 

 other services to literature may be reckoned that of having, together 

 with Thaarup, Baggesen, and Host, established the Scandinavian 

 Literary Society in 1796; of which institution he was president from 

 1811 to 1818. He may also be ranked among the Danish dramatists, 

 having, besides his 'Damon and Pythias,' aud 'Fingal and Frode,' 

 produced several comedies and some minor pieces for the stage. 



On the Chamber of Commerce being united, in 1816, with the 

 Board of West India Affairs, Pram retired from his situation in the 

 former ; but though his various emoluments had been very consider- 

 able for a scries of years, and though he was allowed a pension of 

 1800 dollars, he was in such straitened if not embarrassed circum- 

 stances, that after the death of his wife, in 1819, he resolved to accept 

 an official appointment in the island of St. Thomas. He accordingly 

 proceeded thither in the following spring, departing without the hope 

 of ever revisiting his native land, being then in his sixty-third year. 

 He died at St. Thomas's, November 25th, 1821. 



A collection of his miscellaneous poems and prose works was edited 

 by Rahbek, in 4 vols., 1824-26. Oehlenschlager, who has drawn his 

 character, describes him as a man of powerful mind and excellent 

 disposition, though subject to occasional violence of temper, and of 

 great aud varied talents and attainments. Of his ' Stcsrkodder,' he 

 says that it possesses many detached parts of very great beauty ; but 

 among all Pram's productions he gives the preference to the poem 

 i -i. titled ' Emilias Kilde.' 



PRATT, CHARLES. [CAMDEN, EARL OF.] 



I'KAXA'GOKAS, a celebrated physician of Cos, belonging to the 

 fumily of the Asclepiadx. His father's name was Nearchus, and he 

 wan one of the last of bis family who acquired any reputation as a 

 physician. His most celebrated pupil was Herophilus (Galen, ' De 

 Different. Puls.,' lib. iv., cap. 3), aud he himself was particularly 

 famous for his skill iu anatomy and physiology. The titles of several 

 of his works are preserved, but only a few fragments of them remain, 

 together with some of his opinions on medical subjects recorded by 

 Galen and others. He was the first person who pointed out the dis- 

 tinction between the veins and arteries, and affirmed that it is only in 

 the latter that any pulsation is felt, though be believed them to be 

 filled with air (Guleu, ' De Dignoso. Puls.,' lib. iv., cap. 2), and he 

 accounted for the hemorrhage that occurs when they are wounded by 

 attributing it to an unnatural state, in which the wounded arteries 

 attract to themselves the blood from all the neighbouring parts. He 

 supposed that the heart gave birth to all the ligaments, and that the 

 arteries are ultimately converted into nerves (or ligaments) as they 

 contract in diameter. (Qalen, ' De Hippocr. et Plat, Decret.,' lib. i. 

 cap. 6.) The brain he supposed to be of no particular use, but merely 

 an expansion of the spinal marrow. His anatomical skill and obser- 

 vations made him introduce several improvements into the theory and 

 practice of medicine ; for example he declared that the pulse indicates 

 the variations of the strength of the disease, a discovery which threw 

 great light on the knowledge of diseases. He imagined the humours 

 of the body to be the cause of all sorts of diseases, and that the vena 

 c.iva is the seat of an intermittent fever. (Ruf. Epb.es.) The greater 

 part of the remedies that he employed were taken from the vegetable 

 kingdom, and we are told by Cselius Aurelianus that he was very fond 

 of emetics. ('De Morb. Acut.,' lib. iii., cap. 17.) In cases of iliac 

 passion he recommended emetics, as several modern practitioners have 

 also done ; and when attended with intro-susception, he ventured to 

 open the abdomen in order to replace the intestine (Ciel. AureL, loco 

 cit,), an operation that has been proposed and executed in modern 

 times. Notwithstanding the extravagance of some of his opinions, 

 he must have been a very remarkable man, and we may well regret that 

 we know so little of his practice. He lived about B.C. 300 (OL 120.) 



1'RAXI'TELES, a sculptor of Greece. Neither the exact time nor 

 the place of bis birth is known. It is also remarkable that there is no 

 mention of the master under whom he acquired the rudiments of the 

 art, in which he made such important changes with regard to style, 

 that he is justly considered the founder of a school. The period at 

 which he flourished is however pretty clearly established on the 

 authority of ancient writers, as well as by the testimony of some of 

 hU works and by the received dates of artists who are classed as 

 his contemporaries. Pliny (' Hist. Nat.,' xxxiv. 8) says Praxiteles 

 flourished in the 104th Olympiad, at the same time with Euphrauor, 

 who was a celebrated statuary and painter. Pausanias (viii. 9) says 

 Praxiteles lived three generations after Alcameuea. He must therefore, 



BIOO. Div. VOL. iv. y 



according to these statements, be placed at about B.C. 360 ; or if, as 

 some antiquaries have contended, he executed a work so late as the 

 123rd Olympiad, or B.C. 284, he may have begun his career as an 

 artist rather later than the time mentioned. It is however possible, 

 supposing he lived to an extreme old age, that Praxiteles was practising 

 as a sculptor at the periods recorded, although they include a range 

 of seventy-six years. 



Praxiteles was eminent for his works both in bronze and marble, 

 but he seems to have had the highest reputation for Ms skill in the 

 latter. " Praxiteles marmore felioior et clarior fuit ;" aud again, 

 "Praxitelis retatem inter statuarios diximus qui marmoris gloria 

 superavit etiam semet." (Pliu., ' Hist. Nat.,' xxxiv. 3, and xxxvi. 5.) 

 Pliny and Pausanias enumerate a long list of the productions of 

 Praxiteles. Amongst those in bronze, which appear by the concurrent 

 testimony of ancient writers to have been held in the highest estima- 

 tion, were a statue of Bacchus and another of a satyr, so excellent that 

 it was called by way of distinction Periboetos (the celebrated). He also 

 made a statue of Venus, which was afterwards destroyed by fire ; 

 likewise a statue of a youthful Apollo, called Sauroctonos, or the 

 lizard-killer, as he is represented in the act of killing a lizard. Two 

 statues of women are also recorded by Pliny ; one of them represented 

 a matron weeping, the other a courtesan laughing. The latter was 

 much admired for its expression : it was believed to be a portrait of 

 the celebrated Thespian courtesan Phryne. Of these works and 

 several others iu the same material, the only record that remains is an 

 undoubtedly ancient copy, in marble, of the Apollo Sauroctonos. It 

 is too well known to require a, particular description in this place. 

 Though defective in some trifling respects of detail, it is not difficult 

 to judge from it of the purity of style, and grace and beauty of form, 

 which muat have characterised the original. It is justly considered 

 one of the greatest treasures of the Vatican. Among the works iu 

 marble l<y Praxiteles, the famous Vtnus of Cuidus must undoubtedly 

 be placed in the first rank. We are told that two statues of the 

 goddess were made; one draped, the other entirely naked. The 

 people of Cos preferred the first ; the Cnidians immediately purchased 

 the latter. The fame of this statue was so great that travellers visited 

 Cnidus solely for the purpose of seeing it ; and Nicomedes, the king of 

 Bithyuia, was so desirous to possess it, that he offered to pay off a 

 heavy debt for them if the Cnidians would consent to give up this 

 celebrated work. The tempting offer was however declined. Praxi- 

 teles, observes Pliny, " illo enim si-mo uobilitavit Cuidum." There 

 were doubtless many copies of so celebrated a work, and the represen- 

 tation of a figure of Venus on the coins of Cnidus affords unquestionable 

 authority at least for the action aud general composition of the far- 

 famed statue. The Venus of Cnidus is mentioned by Luciau as the 

 finest of the works of Praxiteles (EiWct s, c. 4), and from the description 

 in another passage ("EpoiTes, e. 13, &c.) we may form some notion of 

 the style of this celebrated work. It is also the subject of numerous 

 epigrams in the Greek Anthology. The original work fell a prey to 

 the flames, at Constantinople, in the 5th century, in the dreadful fire 

 which destroyed so many other fine monuments of art collected in 

 that city. The loss of the Venus of Cnidus may justly be considered 

 among the greatest which art has sustained ; for no production in 

 ancient sculpture, with the single exception of the Olympian Jupiter 

 of Phidias, has received such universal and such unqualified admira- 

 tion. Two statues of Cupids are also mentioned among the most 

 esteemed works of this master. One of these was so beautiful that it 

 is placed by Pliny quite on an equality with the famous Venus of 

 Cnidus. It was made of marble of Paros. It is thought that a copy 

 of it exists in the collection of sculpture in the Vatican. Among 

 other works that have been thought worthy to be recorded were two 

 statues of Phryne : one was of marble, and was placed iu the temple 

 of Venus at Thespiae, the native place of the courtesan ; the other was 

 of bronze gilt, and was dedicated by her at Delphi, where it had the 

 honour of a distinguished place. Praxiteles appears also to have 

 executed works of a more extensive character aud composition. The 

 chief of these were some sculptures that decorated the pediments of 

 the temple of Hercules at Thebes. (Paus., ix. 11.) They represented 

 part of the labours of Hercules. 



The style of the school of which Praxiteles may be considered the 

 founder was softness, delicacy, and high finish. We read of few of his 

 productions of a sublime or severe character, such as distinguished the 

 art which immediately preceded his era under Myron, Phidias, and 

 Polycletus ; whose genius led them to represent the more exalted and 

 majestic personages of the ancient mythology, as Jupiter, Juno, and 

 Minerva, or the classic forms of heroes, warriors, aud athletes. Praxi- 

 teles, on the other hand, seems to have beeu attracted by, and to have 

 devoted himself to, the lovely, the tender, and the expressive. Beyond 

 this he appears to have acquired great skill in execution, and to have 

 had some peculiarities in the mode of finishing his marble. He is said 

 to have declared that he considered those to be his best works which 

 had undergone the process of 'circumlitio' by Nicias. From the 

 circumstance of Nicias being a painter, it seems reasonable to conclude 

 that this cannot simply mean polishing and rubbing, but that some 

 varnish or encaustic was Lid over the surface of the marble after it 

 had left the sculptor's hands, in order to give it a rich softness, similar 

 to what the Italians, in speaking of the flesh surface of marble, call 

 the ' moi'bidezza di came.' Modern ingenuity has vainly endeavoured 



