402 



PKIDE 



I'KII.ST 



in the open air, and occasionally ripens it* fniit. 

 In America it in cultivated MMUanMy to _tln- 

 north of its native region. Lime rubbish is often 

 mixed with the soil in which it is t be plant<Hl. 

 The fruit is imiioiied into llriuin. to a small 

 extent, fnini tin- Mediterranean. The Dwarf 

 Prickly Pear(0. nann), very similar, but smaller, 

 and having prostrate stems, "is naturalised in Kuroiie 

 an far north as the-sunny sloi>es of the Tyrol. The 

 Tuna ( ". litiui), much MM in some parts of tlu> 

 \N e-t Indies an a hedge plant, and also valuable as 

 one of the s|>ccics which afford food to the cochineal 

 incet, yidils a pleasant fruit. It lion red Mowers, 

 with long stamens, which display a remarkable 

 irritability. 



I'riiir. THOMAS, one of the moot resolute of 

 Cromwell's soldier*. was 11 native of London, and 

 of humble origin. At lirst a drayman and brewer. 

 In- enlisted at the commencement of the Civil \\iir, 

 and by his nierii <|iiickly rose to be colonel. He 



cm anded a brigade under Cromwell in Scotland, 



and, when the House of ('ominous IM-I rayed a dis- 

 position to ellect a settlement with the kin;;, was 

 appointed by the army to purge it of its Presby- 

 terian royalist members. By 'Pride's Purge' 

 about a hundred were excluded, whereupon the 

 House, now reduced to about eighty memliers, 

 proceeded to bring the king to justice. Colonel 

 Pride sat among his judges, and signed the death- 

 warrant He diet! .'.{.! October 1658, and so felt 

 not the rage of his enemies when his body was dug 

 up and hanged beside Cromwell's on Tyburn. 



l'ril'ail\. H I'M I'll KKV, scholar and divine, 

 was Imrn of an ancient and honourable family at 

 Padstow, Cornwall, -><\ May Kits. Me WM educated 

 at Westminster School under l)r Itnshy, and then 

 at Christ Church. Oxford, where he graduated B.A. 

 in Ifi7'2. His Mm-iimni </ nnieniria (1676), an ac- 

 count of the Anindel Marbles, procured for him the 

 friendship of Lord Chancellor Finch (afterwards 

 Karl of Nottingham), who in 1679 ap|>ointed him 

 rector of St Cli'iiii-ni's. Oxford, ami in 1681 a pre- 

 bendary of Norwich. After several minor prefer- 

 ments he was collated in 1(588" to the archdeaconry 

 of Suffolk, and in 17<>2 was made Dean of Norwich. 

 He died 1st November 1724. His nine- works in- 

 elude a Lift /''/"/'"""'' (!<!'" ). long very popular; 

 Direction* to Churchioaniens (1701 ; loth ed. 1886); 

 ami The Connection of t/ir Ilixt-H-i/ nf /// dhl ,unl 

 New Testament ( 1715-17 ; -'7th ML 1876). The last 

 treats with much learning, but less discernment, 

 t In- affairs of ancient Kgypt. Assyria. Persia, .lud:ea, 

 tlreecp, and Home, so far as they l>ear on the sub- 

 ject of sacred prophecy. See Pridcaux's I.i-Hrr* to 

 .Infill Ellis, edited by E. M. ThompKon (Camden 

 Soe. 1875). 



Pride of China (also called Pride of India 

 ami Bead-tree), a handsome tree of the order 

 Meliaoeie (M. azedtirarh), a native of India, 

 naturalised in the southern states of the American 

 1'nion. It grows rapidly, has large bunches of 

 Howe... Mnd enormous quantities of small fruit. 

 A decoction "f the bark of its root is used as a 

 vermifuge. 



PHl'-dion (Hr., 'pray God'), a portable kneel- 

 ing desk ; a chair which may be used for kneeling 

 in praj cr. 



PrleKO, a town of Spain, 46 miles SE. of 

 Cordova, grows wine and weaves Bilk. Pop. 

 15,674.- 



Prlene, anciently one of the ' twelve' cities of 

 Ionia, stood a little NW. of the mouth of the 

 .M.i -ander in ('aria. Here in the second half of the 

 19th century the remains of an elegant Ionic temple 

 to Athene Polias were examined by an agent of 

 the British Society of Dilettanti, who carried off 



and gave to the British Museum the stone bear- 

 ing the inscription that recorded its dedication by 

 Alexander the Great. See Anttquitiu of Ionia, 



part iv. (1882). 



Pricssnitz. Sw HYDROPATHY. 



Prlost ((Jr. jtresbyteros, Lat. nresbytcr, Fr. 

 /it'll- . the title, in its most general signification, 

 of a minister of public worship, but specially 

 applied to the minister of sacrifice or other media 

 torial otliees. In the early history of mankind 

 the functions of the priest seem to have common Iv 

 lieen discharged by the head of each family ; but 

 on the expansion of the family into the state the 

 olliec of priest liecame a public one. It thus came 

 to pass that in many instances the priestly olliee 

 was associated with that of the sovereign. But in 

 many leligioiis and political liodies, also, the orders 

 were maintained in complete independenre, and 

 the priests formed a distinct and, generally speak- 

 ing, a privileged class. The priestly order, in most 

 of the ancient religions, included a graduated hier- 

 archy ; and to the chief, whatever was his tiilc, 

 were' assigned the most solemn of the religions 

 ollices entrusted to the body. In Egypt the popu- 

 lation is siip|M)sed to have been divided into three 

 or four castes, at the head of which was the sacer- 

 dotal, or priests. This division, however, was not 

 very strictly observed, as the son did not invariably 

 follow the profession of the father. That of the 

 priest appeals most honourable, and two principal 

 classes or priests were in existence at the earliest 

 periods- the limit, or prophets, and the li, or 

 inferior priests. The first were attached to tin- 

 worship of all the deities of Kgypt : and in the 

 greater cities there was hunt <I/H, high prophet, or 

 priest, who presided over the others ; at Thebes 

 there were as many as four prophets of Ammon. 

 Their duties appear to have comprised the general 

 cultus of the deity. They also Interpreted the 

 oracles of the temples, IJesides the piophets of 

 the gods, others were attached to the worship of 

 tin- king, and to various ollices connected with the 

 administration of the temples. The class of priests 

 called ab, or 'pun-.' were inferior, and were also 

 attached to the principal deities and to the per- 

 sonal worship of the monarch. They were required 

 to be scrupulously neat and clean, entirely shaven, 

 and ascetic in their diet, bathing and fasting 

 frequently. The priesthood of India belongs to 

 the first caste, or that of the Braliinans. exclusively 

 (seeCASTK. INDIA). But, as the proper perform- 

 ance of such functions requires, even in a Brahman, 

 the knowledge of the sacred texts to be recited at 

 crilice, and of the complicated ceremonial of 



which the sacrificial acts < sist, none but a 



Brahman learned in one or more Vedas. and 

 versed in the works treating of the ritual, pos- 

 sesses, according to the ancient law, the qtialihca 

 tion of a priest. See also HrmmisM. I, \\I\ISM. 



In sacred history the patriarchal period furnishes 

 an example of the family priesthood : while in 

 Melchi/.cdec. king of Salem, we find the union of 

 the royal with the priestly character. In the 

 \l"-.iic law the whole theory of the priesthood, 

 as a sacrificial and mediatorial office, is fully 

 ilevehqied. The priest of the Mosaic law stands 

 in the position of a mediator l>etween Cod and the 

 people ; and, even if the sacrifices which he olfered 

 be regarded as but typical and prospective in their 

 moral efficacy, the 'priest must be considered as 

 administering them with full authority in all that 

 regards their legal value. The Mosaic priesthood 

 was the inheritance of the family of Aaron, of the 

 trilx- of Levi (ii.v.). It consisted of a High-priest 

 (q.v.), and of inferior ministers, distributed into 

 twenty-four classes. The age for admission to the 

 priesthood is nowhere expressly fixed ; but, from 



