PARSONS PARTNERSHIP. 



427 



frequently in the spring, and the roots are in perfec- 

 tion about the end of September 



From the pastinaca opoponax, a naiive of the coun- 

 tries about the Mediterranean, is obtained a gum- 

 resin, which is famous in the East for curing all kinds 

 of maladies. 



PARSONS, THEOPHILUS, a distinguished chief-jus- 

 tice of Massachusetts, was born in February, 1750, 

 in Byefield, Massachusetts, His father was minister 

 of that parish. His youth was assiduously devoted 

 to the study of the Latin and Greek languages, 

 logic, metaphysics, and the mathematical sciences. 

 He studied law in Falmouth, now Portland, and 

 kept for some time the grammar school in that town. 

 He practised law there a few years; but, in con- 

 sequence of the destruction of the town by the Bri- 

 tish, he retired to the house of his father, in New- 

 bury. In about a year from this time, he opened 

 his office in Newburyport. Never was fame more 

 early or more just than that of Parsons as a lawyer. 

 His professional services were generally sought for, 

 not merely in his native county, but in the neigh- 

 bouring state of New Hampshire and in Boston. Af- 

 ter thirty-five years' extensive practice, he succeeded 

 chief-justice Dana in the supreme judicial court of 

 Massachusetts in 1806. The regularity of trials, 

 and the promptness and correctness of decisions 

 throughout the commonwealth, soon attested the 

 beneficial effects of his labours. The first six vol- 

 umes of the reports of the court in which he pre- 

 sided are a monument of his accurate juridical rea- 

 sonings, and his deep and extensive knowledge of 

 the common law, and the constitutions and statutes, 

 of his country. As regards his political character, 

 although unwilling to take so great a share in-pub- 

 lic councils as his townsmen and the people of his 

 county desired, yet, on great occasions, he gave his 

 time and talents to the state. He died at Boston, 

 Oct. 30, 1813. 



PARTHENON. See Athens. 



PARTHENOPE. See Naples. 



PARTH F A. By Parthia, in the widest sense, we 

 understand the Parthian empire, lying between the 

 Euphrates, the Oxus, the Caspian, and Arabian seas. 

 In the narrowest sense, Parthia (Parthyene) is the 

 small country formerly inhabited by the Parthians, 

 bounded by Hyrcania, Aria, Carmania, and Media, 

 and encircled by mountains. It was situated in the 

 northwestern part of the modern Chorasan, where 

 Kurti and Thus now lie. In a middle sense, .Par- 

 thia included the northern provinces of Persia, Hyr- 

 cania Felix (now Masenderan, Jerfan, and Corcan), 

 the small Parthyene itself, celebrated for its breed of 

 horses, Aria (a part of Chorasan), Margiana (now Forg 

 and Marushak in East Chorasan), Bactriana (or the 

 southern part of Bucharia), the regions about the Paro- 

 pamisus (the district around Candahar), Drangiana 

 (Segistan), Arachosia and Sogdiana (the northern 

 division of Great Bucharia). The Parthians (fugitives) 

 were known in the earliest times as a nation of barba- 

 rians. They were of Scythian origin. Polygamy was 

 common among them. They fought only on horse- 

 back, were celebrated for their skill in archery, and 

 were particularly formidable in flight. They were 

 subject successively to the Persians, Macedonians, and 

 Syrians. Under the latter they remained till the time 

 of Antiochus II. At that period, Arsaces (Aschak) 

 took up arms, expelled the Syrians, and extended 

 his conquests over the neighbouring countries. H is 

 successors continued his career of victory. This 

 was the origin of the Parthian empire, governed by 

 the ArsacidgB (Aschcanians or Aschakians), from B. 

 C. 156. Ctesiphon, the capital, on the eastern bank i 

 of the Tigris, was built by Vardanus. They carried : 

 on war with the Romans with various fortune, but ' 



the Romans never gained any permanent advantage 

 over them. Crassus was slain in a battle against 

 them, B. C. 53, in which he was defeated with 

 great loss. Trajan, indeed, conquered a part of 

 Parthia ; but this conquest was lost partly by him- 

 self and partly by Adrian. In the year A. D. 214, 

 Artaxerxes, a Persian, son of Sassan, excited a re- 

 bellion, drove the Arsacida? from the throne, and, 

 in 229, subjected all Central Asia, and founded the 

 line of the Sassanides. See Persia. 



PARTICIPLE; that part of a verb which has 

 the nature of the adjective, with this addition, tha 

 it expresses also the relations of time, the present, 

 past, &c. This double nature gave the participle 

 its name, participating as it does of the characters 

 of two parts of speech. Many languages have ac- 

 tive and passive participles, past, present, and fu- 

 ture. The beauty of a language, its force and ex- 

 pressiveness, depend greatly upon the perfection ot 

 its participles. The modern European languages 

 are very deficient in this respect, compared with 

 the two classical languages. 



PARTICLES (particulee); such parts of speech as 

 are incapable of any inflection, as, for instance, the 

 preposition, conjunction, &c. These words are gen- 

 erally short, consisting mostly of original sounds, 

 and the name particles has been given to them 

 from this circumstance ; but, as the external dimen- 

 sion of a word is a very unphilosophical and in- 

 sufficient ground of classification, many grammar- 

 ians have dropped this name, and divided all parts 

 of speech into declinable and indeclinable. 



PARTIDAS, LAS. See Alphonso X., and Loui- 

 siana, Code of. 



PARTITION is a dividing of lands descended 

 by the common law, or custom, among coheirs or 

 parceners, where there are two at the least. 



PARTNERSHIP. A partnership is an agree- 

 ment between two or more to share in the profit 

 and loss of the use and application of their capital, 

 labour, and skill, in some lawful business, whether one 

 supplies capital, and another skill and labour, or each 

 contributes both labour and capital. The benefits of 

 a union of the means and advantages of different 

 persons for the conduct of a branch of business, in 

 many instances, are too obvious and common to need 

 illustration. A partnership is not constituted merely 

 by an interest of different parties in the same thing, 

 but it depends on a participation of profits and joint 

 liability to loss. And yet there are some exceptions 

 to this rule, for it has been held that seamen shipping 

 on shares in a fishing voyage are not copartners with 

 the owners. And so, where a certain share or com- 

 mission is allowed to a clerk, or agent, depending on 

 the success of the business or amount of profits, in ad- 

 dition to his other compensation, it has been held, 

 in many cases, not to make him a copartner. It 

 is difficult to point out the criterion by which cases 

 of this description are distinguished from those 

 of copartnership ; and some of them look more like 

 an exception of cases which strictly come within the 

 definition of copartnership. A question has been 

 made whether joint owners of a ship are copartners, 

 and the general doctrine is that they are not so ; and 

 yet it is generally held that each one is liable for the 

 whole amount of repairs and expenditures in the navi- 

 gation of the ship ; but still the ownership is not 

 joint, for, in case of the decease of one, the property 

 in the whole ship does not survive to the others, 

 as would be the case if it were partnership pro- 

 perty, but the property is held in common, each part 

 owner having a distinct title to his share ; and 

 one part owner cannot, merely as such, convey 

 a title to the whole ship, or to any share except his 

 own. As to the share of each partner in the proSts, 



