1017 



PURCHAS, SAMUEL. 



PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER SERGEIVITCH. 



1018 



remarks made by us elsewhere some years ago. Purcell, take him for 

 all in all, is the greatest musical genius this couutry ever produced; 

 and our deliberate opinion is, tha% from the earliest period in the 

 history of the art, down to the time of his death, Europe would in vain 

 bu searched to find his equal as a composer of secular music. That he 

 was to some extent indebted to Lulli will hardly be denied ; but that 

 he far surpassed what, perhaps in compliment to our second Charles, 

 and to the taste of the time, he occasionally took as his model, every 

 impartial critic must admit. If too his cantatas be compared with 

 compositions in a degree similar, by Alessandro Scarlatti, which have 

 been so highly praised, and BO long were vaunted, the vast superiority 

 of the English musician, whether as relates to air, to harmony, to 

 variety of expression, or to beauty of effect, will never be disputed by 

 unbiassed judges. He certainly was not wholly guiltless of the faults 

 of the ape in which he lived ; or, perhaps, was obliged sometimes to 

 yield his better judgment to the tyrannical demands of custom or of 

 fashion ; yet some of his ecclesiastical and most of his secular music, 

 written under the influence of his own feeling, and uncontrolled by 

 the necessity of submitting to the taste of the great and small vulgar, 

 is so rich in melody, so expressive of the depth and energy of true 

 pa-sion, that all who understand the English tongue, who have acquired 

 eome knowledge of the language of music, and have no governing 

 pitdilection for any particular school, confess his power, and admit 

 the originality and vigour of his genius. 



PURCHAS, SAMUEL, was born at Thaxted in Essex, in 1577. 

 He was educated at Cambridge, and though Wood says that he could 

 not ascertain at what college or hall, it appears from his own testimony 

 that he was a member of St. John's College ; for in speaking of this 

 college he says " Where also the author first conceived with this 

 travelling genius, whereof without travelling he hath travelled ever 

 frince." (' Pilijrimuje?,' part iii., ' Dedication to Lord Keeper 

 Williams.') 



In 1G04 Purchas was instituted to the vicarage of Eastwood in Essex, 

 but he soou left this cure to a brother, and went to live in London for 

 the sake of greater advantages in preparing and printing the collection 

 of travels which he had begun to make. In July 1615 he was incor- 

 porated Bachelor of Divinity at Cxford, as he stood at Cambridge, 

 having previously been collated by the favour of Dr. John King, bishop 

 of London, to the rectory of St. Martin's Ludgate, in London. He also 

 became chaplain to Archbishop Abbot, but he never obtained higher 

 preferment. By the publication of his books he brought himself into 

 debt, and it was reported that he died in prison ; but Wood affirms 

 that he died in his own house a little while after the king (Charles I.) 

 hod promised him a deanery, about 1G2S, aged fifty-one. 



The works of this author are the following: 1, 'Purchas hU 

 I'iU'i'itnage, or Relations of the World, and the Religions observed in 

 nil Ages, and Places discovered, from the Creation unto this present,' 

 1 vol. folio, 1613, 1614, 1617, 1626. The materials of this work he 

 borrowed, as he eays, of above thirteen hundred authors of one or 

 other kind, in he knew not how many hundredths of their epistles, 

 treatises, and relations. (' Dedication to Archbishop Abbot," prefixed 

 to fourth edition.) 2, ' Purchas his Pilgrimmes,' in four parta or vols., 

 folio, 1 025, each volume containing five books. The difference between 

 these volumes and the former publication may be best shown in his 

 own words : " These brethren holding much resemblance in name, 

 nature, and feature, yet differ in both the object and the subject. 

 This (the ' Pilgrimage ') being mine own in matter, thoui'h borrowed, 

 and in form of words and method ; whereas my Pilgrims are the 

 authors themselves, acting their own parts in their own words, only 

 furnished by me with such necessaries as that stage further required, 

 and ordertd according to my rules." (' Dedication,' as above.) 3, 

 ' Microcosmu?, or the History of Man,' 8vo, 1619 ; 4, ' The King's Tower, 

 and triumphant Arch of London,' 8vo, 1623; 5, 'A Funeral Sermon 

 on Pealm xxxix. 5,' 8vo, 1619. 



Of these five publications the first two are best known, though they 

 are now very scarce. They are curious, and in some respects valuable, 

 and are probably the first works of the kind in our language. The 

 dedications and prefaces particularly show that Purchas was an honest, 

 a benevolent, and a pious man, and that he was of unwearied industry 

 in performing his clerical duties, as well as in preparing his books for 

 publication. He ia well described by a foreign writer, quoted by Wood, 

 as " an Englishman admirably skilled in languages, and human and 

 divine arts, a very great philosopher, historian, and theologian, a faith- 

 ful priest of his own church, very widely known for his many excellent 

 writings, and especially for his large volumes pertaining to the East 

 and West Indies." 



PUSEY, EDWARD BOUVERIE, D.D., is the second son of the 

 late Honourable Philip Bouverio (who as.-uuied the name pf Pusey) 

 younger brother of the first Earl of Radnor, by a daughter of the 

 fourth Earl of Harborough. He was bom in 1800, and received his 

 early education at Eton, and Chriotchurcb, Oxford, where he graduated 

 as a first-class in classics in 1822; soon afterwards he was elected to a 

 fellowship in Oriel College. In 1828 he succeeded the late Rev. Dr. 

 Nicoll, as canon of Christchurch cathedral, and Regius Professor of 

 Hebrew in the university. His first publication, which related to the 

 state of religion in Germany, did not attract much attention, but on 

 the commencement of what was termed the Anglo-Catholic movement 

 in 18S3, he joined Mr. Xewmaa [I.'EWHAN, J. II.] in bringing out the 



celebrated Oxford ' Tracts for the Times,' many of which he wrote 

 himself, including au elaborate treatise on baptism. In 1843 he 

 preached before the University a sermon on the Holy Eucharist, for 

 ee: tain statements in which, as savouring of the Roman Catholic 

 doctrine of transubstantiation, he was suspended from preaching for 

 three years. He had previously published long and elaborate 

 ' Letters ' to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Oxford 

 in defence of his opinions, which he followed up somewhat later by 

 another to the Bishop of London, justifying his encouragement of tho 

 practice of auricular confession, on the ground that the latter, if not 

 taught, is at all events tolerated, by the Church of England. The 

 use of the confessional by some strong partisans in the Established 

 Church, has been mainly the result of his touching and preaching, and 

 he has several times incurred the displeasure of his ecclesiastical 

 superiors by the zeal with which he haa advocated and exercised 

 as a priest this portion of his functions. Dr. Pusey also has been 

 mainly instrumental, in conjunction with Miss Sellon, in fostering tho 

 growth of conventual institutions in the Established Church, several 

 of which are in existence as voluntary penitentiaries for women. Dr. 

 Pusey is also the author of several well-known sermons on important 

 occasions, and of two treatises on the ' Royal Supremacy in Spiritual 

 Matters,' aud on the ' Ancient Doctrine of the Real Presence, gathered 

 from the Fathers." He has translated aud adapted to the use of the 

 English Church several Roman Catholic devotional works. He is also 

 one of the editors of the ' Anglo-Catholic Library,' and of the ' Library 

 of Translations from the Fathers,' who flourished previous to the 

 separation of the Oriental from the We.-tern Church. 



PUSEY, PHILIP, elder brother of the preceding, was born in 1799. 

 Having succeeded in 1823 to the Pusey estates in Berkshire (held 

 originally by the tenure of a horn, which has been in possession of the 

 family upwards of 800 years), he became member for the borough of 

 Chippenham in 1830, and in the following year for that of Caahel. In 

 Dec. 1834 he was elected for Berkshire, for which he had been an unsuc- 

 cessful candidate two years previously ; and he continued to represent 

 that county until the dissolution in 1852, A conservative iu politics, 

 and a decided supporter of the Corn Laws, on finding that agricul- 

 tural protection, however desirable he might deem it, was practic-illy 

 unattainable after the passing of the Corn Law measures by Sir Robert 

 Peel in 1846, he, instead of continuing with the bulk of the Protec- 

 tionist party to agitate for a repeal of the free trade measures, urged 

 the agriculturists to make the best of their position, and to adopt 

 without delay every improvement which scientific investigation aud 

 practical experiment had shown to be beneficial, in order to enable 

 them to compete advantageously with the foreign producer. Already 

 well known as a practical agriculturist, and as one who had given his 

 attention to, and carefully watched and tested, every scientific improve- 

 ment which had been introduced from time to time into the system 

 of draining, ploughing, and reaping, his advice was listened to with 

 respect and his various practical papers in the 'Agricultural Journal* 

 were received as authoritative, and probably to the influence of his high 

 character and sober judgment may be attributed in no small mrasuro 

 the great advance which has been made within the last few years 

 in every department of English agriculture. Mr. Pusey was president 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1854, and one of the 

 chief contributors to the Journal of that society, which he also edited 

 for several years. He died July 6, 1855. 



PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER SEUGEIVITCH, called by some the 

 Russian Byron, and certainly the most distinguished poet of Russia in 

 the present century, was born at St. Petersburg, May 26th (June 7th) 

 1799, and was educated in the Imperial Lyceum at Tzorskoe-Selo, 

 which he quitted in 1817. While at that seminary, though he made 

 very little progress in his studies, he began to write poetry. On 

 quitting the Lyceum he began to exercise his pen with more of enthu- 

 siasm than of discretion in favour of liberalism ; and although his first 

 productions of the kind were circulated only in manuscript his opinions 

 became known, and he was sent into a kind of nominal banishment 

 by the Emperor Alexander in 1820 ; being compelled to accept some 

 subordinate situation under the governor-general of Odessa. Perhaps 

 Siberia would have been the place of his destination, had not his 

 legendary poem, ' Ruslan and Liudiuila," relating to the half-fabulous 

 time of Vladimir, the Russian Charlemagne, just then appeared, and 

 been warmly received by the public. 



The success of this, his first production of any length, did not 

 however induce Pushkin to cultivate this kind of epic, if we may so 

 term it, for he adopted in his subsequent poetical narratives a looser 

 and more lyrical form, in which, taking for his subject some single 

 incident or brief aud detached historical episode, he renders it a 

 vehicle for the delineation of character, the expression of impassioned 

 sentiment and feelings, and the portraiture of local manners and 

 scenery. His earliest production of this class, his ' Plennik Kavkaskoi, 

 or I'risoner of the Caucasus' (1822), is a mere sketch, most meagre 

 indeed in its outline, relating no more than the escape of a young 

 Russian captive from a horde of wild Tcherkassians, through the 

 assistance of a Tcherkassian maiden ; but it is vigorously touched, the 

 images are as poetical as they are distinct, and the style is eminently 

 graphic, though perfectly simple. This poem was translated into 

 German almost immediately after its appearance. 



To the 'Plennik' succeeded his 'Fountain of BaUhtchii-urai' (1S24 



