PAPTRUS. 



PARABOLA. 



bearing <IU older than about A.I>. 950 U 

 MMTt that tbe totalled papvri of Uie 



Bl,nts are really mad* of bark, and ar a kind of cWu corticeo. 



Tb. moat rwnarkatiU of the Roman papyri are the 1756 rolls, and 

 (mgnMOM found in an excavation of HercuUnmmi, about A.D. 1763, in 

 a buok eas* in a small room in a bouM, utt.-rly reduced to carbon, and 

 twuud to as to rateable ram* barns. by the effecta of tbe eruption o( 

 Vesuvius Tbry * at ftrat Mieved to be men- billets of carbon . l.nt 

 Him baring DOT obwrred on some. attempt* were made to unrol and 

 ilacitaW tliaai Tbe ftn* attempts tu unr.ll them were mud.- >>> 

 PariMVi. wbo in 17JS incised them to tbe centre in two opposite 

 plaoss of UM eynnder eo a* to reveal two pagea, but otherwise to spoil 

 tb. baa* papyri Tbe flu* eucceaful atUmpta were made by Piaggi in 

 175.andiince bis time no improvement on hi. system haVbeen 

 made tbe attempu of Lapira. Davy, and Siokler, being equally 

 j_-m " Tbe proee-Tr Piaggi (till practised at Kaplee, U to l..y 

 tb* papyrus in a convex trough on cotton supported by two upright* 

 of wood", which lower at the pleasure of the unrulier ; the trough is 

 ,^-L^uUjl by a band pawing over it at each end, and attached 

 above tbe outer portion of tbe papyrus in slightly saturated with 

 gam orglue, and tbe layer of writing detached with a nee<li< 

 aa quickly M detached bed by the back on a layer of gold-beater's 

 dun placed vertically ; a tbird band panel in the middle between 

 thoee of UM endf . and it attached to tbe gold-beater's skin which U 

 drawn up with the pages attached aa the operation proceeds. After a 

 few pagea have been unrolled, tbe skin is cut off and the pages handed 

 to the artuti wbo draw and engrave them, they ore then passed to the 

 interpreters who collate and transcribe them. The process is one 

 requiring tbe greatest care, experience and patience, and the progress 

 is necessarily alow, not more than about an inch can be unrolled in 

 four or five hours, and it took four years to unroll thirty-nine pages of 

 Pbiluderuiu on music, and one year and a half to perform the same 

 operation for twenty-nine pages of rhetoric. When unrolled they are 

 framed and glazed, and published. The work proceeds but slowly, 

 owing to the interest taken in them having diminished since their 

 discovery, and the contents not having had the literary importance 

 that was expected. The rolls were in the library of an epicurean, and 

 consist of philosophical disquisitions, chiefly by the philosophers of 

 that school ; there is one treatise by Epicurus himself on Nature, 

 another by Chrysippus on Providence, several by Philodemus on 

 Music, Morals, and other subjects, and others by Colotes, Corniseus 

 and Polystratua. The papyri with latin texts are differently prepared, 

 and present still greater difficulties to unroll. Neither the dimen- 

 sions nor tbe fabric of these correspond with the description of Pliny, 

 and it may be generally remarked that the monuments and literature 

 of the ancientu rarely agree. The breadth of the papyri at Hercu- 

 laneum is from 84 to 12} inches for that of the Greek, the Latin are 

 wider ; the pages are quite black, and tbe letters only distinguishable 

 in a favourable light by the greater intensity of colour, or by their 

 polish. Prom the similarity of the letters it is evident tbe rolls were 

 new. Tbe space occupied by ancient libraries of these rolls appears to 

 bave been considerable ; from the portion of the ' Iliad ' found at 

 Elephantine, 8 feet long and 10 inches wide, it appears that a copy of 

 tbe works of Homer would require 41 such rolls. In the Alexandrian 

 library, a separate room contained his works and those of his commen- 

 tators in lotto rolls. The libraries of the New Museum at Alexandria, 

 and of the Serapcum have been estimated at from 54,000 to 700,000 

 such books or rolls. At Rome the first public library was that of Asinius 

 Pollio, in tbe time of Augustus ; some private individuals possessed 

 magnificent libraries, and that of Epaphroditus, the grammarian of 

 CbaWonea, who lived from the reign of Nero to that of Narva, had 

 80,000 rare books in papyri. The rooms which held these papyri were 

 probably small, and when required for reading, a few were carried out 

 in cylindrical boxes, citta, of bronze, standing on three legs with a 

 vaulted cover, and placed on the floor beside the reader. The rolls 

 stood vertical, and were taken out of the box by a strip of parchment 

 attached Tbe reader fixed one end by his chin, unrolled as far as he 

 required, and then held the roll with both hands. The first pages 

 were called pnt<KvUa or protocols, the last alatocolla. So important 

 was the due supply of paper to the Roman scribes and public, that a 

 deficiency in tbe reign of Tiberius gave ri-e to a riot. 



The manufacture, for tbe sake of verifying the statements of Pliny, 

 was revived in the last century. 1U existence in tbe vicinity of Panor- 

 mus at a farm called the Maasa Papyreti, had been already mentioned 

 br Gregory and by Hugo Falcandus, at a place called Papero, and in 

 the pools of tbe Liane, near Syracuse, where it was discovered bv the 

 Cavalier Landulina, and a coane stout papyrus, inferior to the ancient, 

 produced from it, amall quantities for curiosities being made to the 

 present day. It was introduced from Egypt under the reign of one of 

 UM laUr tyrants of Syracuse. 



Tb* extreme value obtained by papyri, some extraordinary manu- 

 script* having fetched from MV. to 2001., and all of them being a 

 highly prized class of antiquities, menaces these ancient rolls with 

 destruction. Tbe Arab fellaheen, who dive into the cemeteries of 

 OiMb and (journal, Uor into pieces " those frail rivals of tbe pyramids," 

 as they bave been called, and for tbe sake of obtaining greater sums 

 from U ignorance of travellers, are accustomed to make out of the 

 unfortunate fragments fictitious rolls of papyri. They make a core or 



body of blank papyri, or of the dried stem of an ancient plant found 

 in tbe sepulchre, and then glue over this cylindrical mass fragments 

 of one or more broken papyri, the writing outwards in an admired 

 confusion, tie tbe whole with a strip, and seal it with a clay seal bearing 

 the i mpmwion of a scarahicus. It is painful to think how many Egyptian 

 and (in-rk manuscripts of tbe highest value to science and literature 

 have been in this way destroyed. 



The extremely brittle condition in which Egyptian papyri are found, 

 renders it impossible to unroll them in their actual condition without 

 injury, but they regain their elasticity by the application of cold or 

 hot water, or exposure to damp, and Mill Letter by carefully steaming 

 (linn in a covered vessel ; those that have much oil or I'itumen require 

 the application of alcohol to separate them more easily : they should t lu-n 

 be unrolled and laid down, if only written on one side, on drawing- 

 paper, and fixed with a paste containing alum or a slight quantity of 

 corrosive sublimate to prevent the ravages of insects. Former! 

 were unrolled on a gauze and glued at the edges, and gently pressed with 

 linen, but it is preferable to mount them as prints. When they are 

 only endorsed in a few places, it is merely necessary to leave the 

 endorsements not mounted, and place over them goldbeater's-skin or 

 tracing-]>aper for protection. At Ley den, the papyri are fixed on tissue 

 paper made transparent by glue, and they are rolled up ; those in tbe 

 Vatican ore pasted on pages of cloth ; those of Paris are glazed or fixed 

 on thin but compact pasteboard ; those in the British Museum are 

 mounted in frames, or in separate pages of pasteboard and glazed. 

 The custom of rolling up papyri is objectionable, owing to tbe fibres 

 splitting with the unrolling and injuring the writing. Facsimiles of 

 hieroglyphic hieratic, demotic, Greek, Latin, and other papyri have 

 been published at various times, exhibiting the palaeography, textures, 

 size, and other peculiarities of these rolls. 



(The principal works to be consulted are, Guilardinus, Papyriu, 

 12mo, Madrid, 1667 ; Mabillon, De lie Diplomaika, i. c. 8, p. 38 and 

 foil. ; Montfaucon, Palccographia Gi-itca i. '2,p. 13 and foil. ; Caylug, tur 

 le Papyriu, Mem. (TAcad. xxvi., p. 267; Jomard, Deter, de (1. 

 iii., p. 117-118 ; Winckelmann, ii., Bd. 1. ; Goodwin, C. W., Cambridge 

 Euayi, 1858, p. 226; Library of Entertaining Knowledge Ej : - 



'' J i'<!, ii. c. 7; De Rouge 1 , Revue Coiil<ijii>r<iiHr, xxvii., p. 889; 

 Chabas, Revue Arclteolo//ique, 1857; De Rouge 1 , Jin: Arcfual.,l66i; 

 Moniteur,7et& Hart, 1851; Hincks' Cat. of Kj. M<tx. UM., 



8vo, 1843; Goodwin, Graco-Egyptian work on Magic, 8vo, 1852.) 



PAR OF EXCHANGE. [KXCHA.NGE.] 



PARA (coin). [MONEY.] 



PARA. A prefix sometimes used in chemistry in naming com- 

 pounds which either in properties or composition resemble the body 

 to which it is attached, but differ from it in some other respects. 

 Thus paracyanogen is a body of the same composition as cyanogen, 

 but differs from the latter in properties. Such compounds will 

 generally be found under the name to which the prefix is added. 



I'AKABANICAUD. [Umc ACID.] 



PARABLE (xafa&okri, " a comparison or similitude "), is defined by 

 Bishop Lowth as " a continued narrative of a fictitious event, applied 

 by way of simile to the illustration of some important truth." 

 (' Praleet.,' x.) It is a species of fable, and differs from the apologue 

 by narrating events which, though fictitious, are not impossible to hare 

 happened. [FABLE.] This mode of instruction is of great antiquity, 

 especially among the eastern nations. In the Old Testament we have 

 examples of it in the parable of Nathan to David (2 Sam., xii. 1-9), in 

 that of the woman of Tekoali (2 .Sam., xiv. 1-13), and repeatedly in the 

 writings of the prophets (Is., v. 1-7 ; Ezek., xv., xvi , xix., xxxiii., &.C.). 

 The parable of Jotham, which is often spoken of as the most ancient 

 parable in existence (Judges, ix. 715), is properly an apologue. In 

 the New Testament parables form a most marked feature of our 

 Saviour's teaching. (See the gospels of Matthew, M.-irk, and Luke.) 

 Lowth lays down as the essential qualities of a parable, that the 

 image must be well known and applicable to the subject, and its 

 meaning clear and definite; it must be elegant and beautiful in 

 itself ; all its parts and appendages must be perspicuous and pertinent ; 

 and the literal must never be confounded with the metaphorical 

 sense. 



Many of the Scripture parables are accompanied by an explanation, 

 which, of course, fixes the sense. Where this is not the case, the 

 intended meaning mu.-t be gathered from a consideration of the sub- 

 ject-matter of the parable itself, the context in which it occurs, and 

 the circumstances under which it was uttered. 



Besides its usual signification, this word is employed in the Scrip- 

 tures in the following senses : a proverb, a famous saying, a thing 

 darkly or figuratively expressed, and a visible type or emblem. 



PARA'BOLA. The probable origin of this name, as applied to one 

 of the conic sections, may be seen in RECTANUI.K. As in the case 

 of the other CuNic SECTIONS [ELLIPSE and HYPERBOLA], we shall here 

 give a small collection of the most remarkable properties of this 





,. 



1. Let a point p move in such a way that its distance S P from a 

 fixed point s is always the name as its perpendicular distance I'M 

 from a given line M L. This point p describes what is called a 

 parabola. 



2. The line LS, perpendicular to LSI, produced, U the axil, or 

 principal diameter; and any lino pv parallel to it is colled a diaMctci: 



