PENSIONARY, GRAND. 



PEPPERMINT, ESSENTIAL OIL OF. 



Vr'VSIONARY. ORAXD, was the name generally given to the first 

 BMgistrato of the state or republic of Holland, which wu a member of 

 UM confederation of the Seven United Province* of the Netherlands. 

 The Pensionary wai the president of the council of states or legislature 

 of HoUand.and he was at the tame time the flnt minuter of the republic, 

 and transacted business with foreign powers, like the Avoyer of Bern 

 rT wl other Swiss cantons. He was elected fur five years, but was gene- 

 rally confirmed indefinitely, and often for life. He was also, in virtue 

 of his office, the perpetual deputy of the state of Holland to the 

 assembly of the statee-general of the United Provinces, of which he 

 was a most influential member, in consequence of the superior import- 

 ance of the province of Holland. His name was derived from the 

 pension which was attached to his office. He wu also styled advocate- 

 general to the states of Holland. The individual chosen for this high 

 office was a person well versed in the science of the law, and he is 

 styled by Orotius " Adsessor Jurisperitus." The various towns of 

 Holland and Zealand had also each their pensionary, or chief municipal 

 magistrate. 



PENSTOCK, a kind of small sluice or floodgate, employed to retain 

 or let go at pleasure the water of a mill or other pond. A cut uf a 

 simple form of penstock sluice is given under IRRIGATION. [Si.ru-K.] 



PENTACHLORXYLON (C,,H,C1,OJ. One of the chlorinated pro- 

 ducts of the decomposition of creasote. 



PENTACHORD, an ancient Greek musical instrument, which had, 

 as the word implies, five strings. The term also signified a scale of 

 five sounds. 



PENTATEUCH (ntrri-rtv^ot, from WKT, "five," and rCx, "a 

 volume") is the Greek name of the first five books of the Old Testa- 



ment, which are called in Hebrew TTnVl, " the law." The Hebrew 



copies of the Pentateuch form one volume ; the division of it into five 

 books is first mentioned by Josephus, and seems to have been made 

 either by the Septuagint translators, or before their time, and after 

 the return of the Jews from Babylon. 



The five books of the Pentateuch have been treated of under 

 GEKESIS, EXODUS, LKVITICCI, NUMBERS, and DEUTERONOMY. 



With regard to the Pentateuch in general, it has never been doubted, 



till at a recent period, that Moses was its author. The following are 



the chief arguments for its genuineness : 1. It is repeatedly asserted 



in the book itself that Moses was the author, and that he wrote it at 



the command of God. This assertion is made with regard to the 



whole book (Deut. i. 5 ; xxxi. 9-13, 22, 24-20), and to separate parts of 



it (Exod. xvii. 14; zziv. 4, 7; xxxiv. 27; Numb, xxxiii. 1, 2). And 



in the recapitulation of the law which Moses makes in the book of 



Deuteronomy, he frequently speaks of " the law," " this law," " the 



book of the (or this) law," " the book of religion ; " by which expres- 



sions we cannot fairly understand anything except either the whole 



Pentateuch, or that part of it which was already composed. (Deut. i. 



6 ; iv. 44-45 ; xvii. 18, 19 ; xxviii 58-61 ; xxix. 19, 20, 27, 29 ; xxx. 10.) 



2. In all ages of the Jewish history, from the time uf Joshua down- 



wards, the Pentateuch was received as the divinely inspired compo- 



sition of Moses. Thus we read repeatedly in the Old Testament of 



" the law," " the law of Moses," " the law of Jehovah," " the law which 



God gave by Moses," " the book of the law." (Josh. i. 7, 8 ; xxiii. 6 ; 



xxi v. 26 ; 1 Kings ii. 3 ; Psalms i. 1 ; and many other passages, which 



are collected in Rosenmuller's ' Scholia,' aud Jahn's ' Introduction.') 



Besides these direct testimonies, the existence and authority of the 



Pentateuch among the Israelites are proved by the fact that the insti- 



tutions which it contains were always observed as the laws of their 



nation, and that the sentiments of the Psalmists, the maxims of the 



Book of Proverbs, and the reproofs and exhortations of the prophets, 



are all exactly in agreement with the spirit uf those institutions. 



S. The internal evidence is strongly in favour of Moses being the 



author. The language of the book of Deuteronomy is that of an aged 



man addressing the people whom he had governed for forty years, 



appealing to their past experience, and speaking with all the earnest- 



new of a man on the verge of death. If these characteristics are of 



any weight to show that the speaker and the writer of this book were 



the same, then we are supplied with an argument for the genuineness 



of the \chole Pentateuch ; for the book of Deuteronomy supposes the 



previous composition of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, as these do 



that of Genesis. The information contained in the Pentateuch on 



subjects of history and geography (especially with reference to Egypt 



and Arabia), on natural history, diseases, the arts, and military science, 



agrees with all the notions we can form of the state of things at that 



remote period, and with what we should expect from a man who, like 



Moses, had been liberally educated at the Egyptian court, and had 



been engaged for forty years in leading a whole nation through the 



wildrneas. The language uf the Pentateuch is the most ancient 



known form of Hebrew. The style of the songs which are contained 



in it possesses that plain sublimity which generally characterises the 



first ug of a nation's poetry. The style of the narrative is better 



than that of any other Hebrew work, as we might expect from 



a highly educated man like Moses ; and it is not more varied than 



can be accounted for by the different subject* treated of, and the 



intervals at which the different parU were written. The arrangement 



of the matter is not that which would be adopted by a parson digesting 



nto one book previously existing tales and laws ; tut it is such as we 



might expect from one exposed to frequent interruptions in his work, 

 and who recorded each event as it occurred, which answers to the 

 position of Moses. The selection of the materials appears to have been 

 made on the principle of recording those things which were connected 

 with the legislation which was the chief work of Moses ; while of the 

 tews themselves, some are repeated more than once, and others altered 

 in the course of the work ; all indicating that the legislator and historian 

 were the same person. 



It is true that there are passages in the Pentateuch which eouM not 

 have been written by Motes. But there is no difficulty in explaining 

 these passages as interpolations, inserted by a copyist with a view to 



make the author's meaning clearer. The following passages have been 

 placed in this class ; but some of them may be explained otherwise : 

 Deut i. 1-4; iv. 44-49; Exod. vi. 13-29; vii 7; xi 1-8; Deut. ii 

 10-12, 20-23 ; iii. 9, 11, 18-14 ; x. 6-9 ; Numb, xxxii. 41 ; Deut. W. 14; 

 Numb. xii. 3. To these may be added the 84th chapter of Deutero- 

 nomy, which, as it contains an account of the death and burial of 

 Moses, was not written by himself. In some parts, however, of his 

 narratives, Moses appears to have made use of previously existing 

 documents, especially at the beginning of the book of GeucsU. 

 [GENESIS.] 



The Pentateuch was the only part of the Old Testament which tin* 

 Samaritans received ; and as, from feelings of national animosity, they 

 held no intercourse with the Jews, their copies of the Pentateuch were 

 preserved independently of the Hebrew copies. The Samaritan Penta- 

 teuch is mentioned by several ancient writers ; but it was unknown in 

 modern times till copies were obtained from the east by Archbishop 

 Usher and Pietro della Valle. It was printed from the copy procured 

 by the latter in the Paris Polyglot of Morinus, from which it was 

 reprinted in Walton's Polyglot. It was also edited by Dr. BUyney in 

 Hebrew characters, at Oxford, 1790. The original is in the Samaritan 

 or old Hebrew character. 



The Samaritan Pentateuch is quite entitled to rank with the 

 Hebrew as an independent source for settling the sacred text In 

 some places it gives readings manifestly superior to those of the 

 Hebrew. In many passages, in which it differs from the latter, it 

 agrees with the Septuagint. Its chronology differs from that uf the 

 Hebrew Pentateuch. (Hales's 'Analysis of Chronology,' vol. i., p. -7- ) 

 In Deut. xxvii. the Samaritan differs from the Hebrew by having K)>al 

 for Gerizim, and vice vend. This has been regarded as an intentional 

 corruption, made for the purpose of humouring national prejudices ; 

 but Dr. Kennicott has shown good reasons for preferring the Samaritan 

 to the Hebrew in this case. (' Diss.' ii., pp. 20-165.) 



The authenticity of the Pentateuch is also substantiated by passages 

 in the later books of Holy Scripture, showing that there had been 

 an uninterrupted belief in its authenticity. Thus it U quoted in 

 2 Kiugx xiv. 6, and xxiii. 2; 2 Chron. xxxv. 6; Ezra iii H, and vi. 

 18 ; Nehemiah i. 7; Amos ii. 9 and 10; Isaiah i 9 and 14; and 

 Micah vi. 5, where the books of Moses ore directly quoted or alluded 

 to. Christ and his apostles also acknowledge their authority by 

 quoting them. Thus we have all the evidence of their authenticity 

 that the nature of the case admits. 



An account of the institutions recorded in the Pentateuch has beeu 

 given under MOSES, in Bioo. Div. 



(Rosenmiiller, Scholia in Vet. Tat., vol. i, Proltg. in Pent., and 

 others quoted by him ; Jahn, Intrvd. in Lib. Sac. Vet. Foed. ; Heng- 

 stenberg, Die Aut/tcntie da Pentatcucht, 1836; Graves' a Lecture! on the 

 Pentateuch ; Bp. Marsh's Authenticity of the Five Bookt of Motet vindi- 

 cated ; Home's Introduction, voi i. ; and Blunt, Veracity of the Five 

 Bookt of Motet.) 



PENTATHIONIC ACID. [StjLFHCR.] 



PENTECOST, one of the three great Jewish feasts, so called because 

 the day on which it began was the fiftieth (r/ KTIJ<COOT^) from the 

 second day of the Passover. It was also called the Feast of Weeks, from 

 its falling at the end of a series of seven weeks, reckoning from the Pass- 

 over, and also the Feast of the Harvest It was a feast of thanksgiving 

 for the harvest, at the end of which it fell, and among the sacrifices 

 appointed for it were some of the first-fruits of the harvest This 

 festival lasted eight days. The laws relating to it are contained in 

 Exod., xxiii. 16; xxxiv. 22; Lovit., xiiii. 15-21; Nuinb., xxviii. 

 26-31 ; Deut , xvi 9-12. 



PEN UMBRA (incomplete shade), that portion of space which, in the 

 eclipse of a heavenly body, is partly, but not entirely, deprived of its 

 light In a solar eclipse, as long as any part of the sun is visible, the 

 parties observing are in the penumbra, and not in the umbra, or com- 

 plete shadow. 



PEPPER-CORN RENT. [REXT.] 



1'KITERMINT, ESSENTIAL OIL OF. Obtained by submitting 

 the fresh herb [M>:.\THA pijicrita, iu NAT. HIST. Inv.] to distillation 

 with water, in the manner already described. [ESSENTIAL OILS.] It 

 is colourless when first prepared, but gradually acquires a yellow tint ; 

 has a characteristic, pungent, aromatic taste, and a peculiar odour, 

 resembling that of the plant Several varieties of it exist iu commerce, 



[ME3TI1A I'irEHlTA.J 



Oil of peppermint consists of a camphor, or stearopten, and a liquid 

 portion, or el&opten. The latter has not been minutely examined. 

 English oil contains but little stearopten ; American oil yields a con- 

 siderable quantity; while the Chinese variety is wholly i 



