PENELOPE PENN. 



457 



shown that the meridians contain some irregularities, 

 from which it has been justly concluded, that the 

 earth has not a perfectly regular form, but deviates 

 more or less from the shape of a sphere. We can, 

 therefore, properly draw conclusions from the oscil- 

 lations of the pendulum respecting the power of 

 gravity only, and not respecting the form of the earth. 

 Besides the friction of the rod, &c., and the resist- 

 ance of the air, there are also other circumstances 

 which influence the oscillations of the pendulum. 

 These are the changes of heat and cold. Heat 

 lengthens the rod of the pendulum, cold contracts it ; 

 hence common pendulum clocks go much quicker in 

 winter ; and the change of temperature in rooms 

 which are heated during the day influences them 

 considerably. Many contrivances have been de- 

 vised for overcoming this inconvenience. One is, 

 by making pendulums of the form of a gridiron, 

 consisting of several parallel bars of different metals, 

 so connected that the effect of one set of them coun- 

 teracts that of the others. These have been very 

 successful. Rods are sometimes made of certain 

 kinds of wood, well seasoned, which are little in- 

 fluenced by the weather. Astronomical clocks of 

 the present day do not err to the amount of one beat 

 or oscillation of the pendulum in a year. A common 

 clock is merely a pendulum with wheel-work at- 

 tached to it, to record the number of vibrations, and 

 with a weight or spring to counteract the retarding 

 effects of friction and the resistance of the air. Huy- 

 gens, who developed the doctrine of the pendulum, 

 which had been treated already by Galileo, first ap- 

 plied it to clocks, and thus became the inventor of 

 the pendulum clock (in 1656). (See Clock.) For 

 the application of pendulums to Horology, see Ber- 

 thoud's Essai sur VHorlogerie (Paris, 1763, 2 vols., 

 4to). See, also, Biot's treatise Sur la Longueur du 

 Pendule A Secondes, in the third volume of his Traite 

 d 1 Astronomic Physique (second edition, Paris, 1810). 

 See, also, Bode's Anleitung zur Kenntniss der 

 Erdkugel (second edition, Berlin, 1803). 



PENELOPE. See Ulysses. 



PENGUIN. See Pinguin. 



PENITENTIARIES. See Prisons. 



PENN, WILLIAM, was born in London, in 1644. 

 He was the only son of William Penn, of the county 

 of Wilts, vice-admiral of England in the time of 

 Cromwell, and afterwards knighted by king Charles 

 II., for his successful services against the Dutch. 

 He appears to have been seriously inclined from his 

 youth, having imbibed religious impressions as early 

 as his twelfth year, which were soon afterwards con- 

 firmed by the ministry of Thomas Loe, an eminent 

 preacher among the people called Quakers, then 

 newly associated in religious fellowship. In his 

 fifteenth year, he was, notwithstanding, entered as 

 a gentleman commoner of Christ-church, Oxford, 

 where, meeting with some other students who were 

 devoutly inclined, they ventured to hold private 

 meetings among themselves, wherein they both 

 preached and prayed. This gave great offence to 

 the heads of the college, by whom these zealous tyros 

 were at first only confined for non-conformity ; but 

 persisting in their religious exercises, they were 

 finally expelled the university. On his return home, 

 his father endeavoured in vain to divert him from his 

 religious pursuits, as being likely to stand in the 

 way of his promotion in the world ; and at length, 

 finding him inflexible in what he now conceived to 

 be his religious duty, beat him severely, and turned 

 him out of doors. Relenting, however, at the inter- 

 cession of his mother, and hoping to gain his point 

 by other means, he sent his son to Paris, in company 

 with some persons of quality ; whence he returned 

 so well skilled in the French language, and other 



polite accomplishments, that he was again joyfully 

 received at home. After his return from France, he 

 was admitted of Lincoln's Inn, with a view of study- 

 ing the law, and continued there till his twenty- 

 second year, when his fattier committed to him the 

 management of a considerable estate in Ireland, a 

 circumstance which unexpectedly proved the occa- 

 sion of his finally adhering to the despised cause of 

 the Quakers, and devoting himself to a religious life. 

 At Cork, he met again with Thomas Loe, the per- 

 son whose preaching had affected him so early in 

 life. At a meeting in that city, Loe began his de- 

 claration with these penetrating words, *' There is a 

 faith that overcomes the world, and there is a faith 

 that is overcome by the world ;" which so affected 

 Penn, that from that time he constantly attended the 

 meetings of the Quakers, though in a time of hot 

 persecution. He was soon afterwards, with many 

 others, taken at a meeting in Cork, and carried be- 

 fore the mayor, by whom they were committed to 

 prison; but young Penn was soon released, on appli- 

 cation to the earl of Orrery, then lord-president of 

 Minister. His father, being informed of his conduct, 

 remanded him home ; and, finding him unalterably 

 determined to abide by his own convictions of duty, 

 in respect to plainness of speech and deportment, he 

 would have compounded with him, if he would only 

 have consented to remain uncovered before the king, 

 the duke (afterwards James II.), and himself. Be- 

 ing disappointed in this, he could no longer endure 

 the sight of his son, and a second time drove him 

 from his family. Yet after a while, becoming con- 

 vinced of his integrity, he permitted him to return; 

 and though he never openly countenanced him, he 

 would use his interest to get him released, when 

 imprisoned for his attendance at religious meetings. 

 In the year 1668, in the twenty-fourth year of his 

 age, Penn first appeared as a minister and an author, 

 and it was on account of his second essay, entitled 

 The Sandy Foundation Shaken, that he was impri- 

 soned in the Tower, where he remained seven months, 

 during which time he wrote his most celebrated work, 

 No Cross, no Crown, and finally obtained his release 

 from confinement by an exculpatory vindication, un- 

 der the title of Innocency with her open Face. In 

 1670, the meetings of dissenters were forbidden, 

 under severe penalties. The Quakers, however, 

 believing it their religious duty, continued to meet 

 as usual; and when forcibly kept out of their meet- 

 ing-houses, they assembled as near to them as they 

 could in the street. At one of these meetings, 

 William Penn preached to the people thus assembled 

 for divine worship ; for which pious action he was 

 committed to Newgate, and, at the next session at 

 the Old Bailey, was indicted for " being present at, 

 and preaching to, an unlawful, seditious, and riotous 

 assembly." He pleaded his own cause, though me- 

 naced by the recorder, and was finally acquitted by 

 the jury; but he was, nevertheless, detained in New- 

 gate, and the jury fined. Sir William died this year, 

 fully reconciled to his son, to whom he left a plenti- 

 ful estate, taking leave of him in these memorable 

 words : " Son William, let nothing in this world 

 tempt you to wrong your conscience. So will you 

 keep peace at home, which will be a feast to you in 

 a day of trouble." Shortly after this event, Penn 

 travelled, in the exercise of his ministry, into Hol- 

 land and Germany. In the year 1672, he married 

 Gulielma Maria Springett, whose father (Sir William) 

 having been killed at the siege of Bamber, in the 

 civil wars, her mother had married Isaac Pening- 

 ton of Chalfont, in Bucks, an eminent minister and 

 writer among the Quakers. In 1677, in company 

 with George Fox and Robert Barclay, the celebrated 

 apologist, he again set sail on a religious visit to 



