PESTH PETER I. 



493 



economy of a large establishment for instruction, 

 and to employ to the most advantage the talents of 

 many teachers. He was void of worldly prudence, 

 and this want was an abundant source of vexations 

 to him and others throughout his life. The idea of 

 communicating all instruction by immediate address 

 to the sensations or conceptions, and effecting the 

 formation of the child by constantly calling all his 

 powers into exercise, instead of making him a mere 

 passive recipient, selecting the subjects of study in 

 such a way that each step shall best aid the further 

 progress of the pupil, is original with him. It is 

 not the acquisition of skill in reckoning, reading, 

 writing, drawing, singing, &c., but the exercise of 

 the powers of the child by means of these subjects, 

 which Pestalozzi makes the object of elementary 

 education. The principles of his method are clearly 

 developed in his tFochenschrift fur Menschenbildung 

 (3d and 4th vols., 1810 and 1812). This publication, 

 with the reply of his assailant, Niederer, to the Re- 

 port on Pestalozzi's Institution at Yverdun (addressed 

 to the diet in 1810), Gruner's Letters from Burg- 

 dorf (in German, in 1806), and Johannsen's Criti- 

 cism of Pestalozzi's Method (in German, 1804, afford 

 a satisfactory view of his system. HP, himself did 

 not consider his system entirely complete. From 

 Spain, France, Prussia, and many other countries, 

 testimonies of honour and regard were sent to him 

 from the governments; and his pupils have spread 

 as far as European civilization extends. His exterior 

 was extremely simple. His negligent black dress, 

 his broad Swiss dialect, and blunt manners, without 

 any kind of ceremony, showed the honest Swiss. In 

 1818, he undertook a new edition of his complete 

 works, the proceeds of which he destined for a new 

 school for poor children. He died February 17, 

 1827, at Brugg, in Aargau. See his autobiography, 

 The Scenes of my Life while at the Head of my 

 Institutions of Education at Burgdorf and Yferdun 

 (Leipsic, 1826,) ; also Ed. Biber's Memoirs on Pesta- 

 lozzi and his Plan of Education (London, 1831). 



PESTH, or PEST (anciently, Transucincum) ; a 

 city of Hungary, on the Danube, opposite to Buda, 

 with which it is connected by a bridge of boats three 

 quarters of a mile long ; ninety miles south-east of 

 Prestburg, 113 south-east of Vienna; Ion. 19 14' 

 E.; lat. 47 32' N.; population, 61,502, of which 

 45,000 are Catholics. Buda is the residence of the 

 viceroy, and accounted the capital of Hungary, yet 

 Pesth is the seat of the high courts of justice, and 

 the place of meeting for the diet. It is situated on 

 a plain ; the streets are tolerably spacious and 

 regular, and the houses substantial, but not elegant. 

 It contains eleven Catholic, one Lutheran, one Re- 

 formed, and two Greek churches, two synagogues, 

 four convents, three hospitals, a university, a gym- 

 nasium, a public library, and a royal museum. The 

 university was transferred hither from Buda in 1784, 

 and is the only one in Hungary. It has four faculties, 

 and is richly endowed, having a library of 60,000 

 volumes, a botanic garden, an observatory, &c. The 

 number of regular professors is forty-three, and the 

 number of students is about 1000 ; and in the gym- 

 nasium, 701. The lectures in the university are 

 generally given in Latin. Pesth is the most popu- 

 lous and most commercial town in Hungary. The 

 Danube affords means of intercourse with a consid- 

 erable tract of country. There are four annual fairs, 

 which are numerously attended. The manufactures 

 comprise silk, cotton, leather, jewellery, musical 

 instruments, and tobacco. 



PESTILENCE. See Plague, and Cholera 

 Morbus. 



PESTUM, or PESTO. See Pastum. 



PETAL ; among botanists, an appellation given 



, to the flower leaves, in opposition to the folia, or 

 common leaves. 



PETALITE; a mineral first discovered in the 

 mine of Uto, in Sweden, and interesting as having 

 led to the discovery of a new alkali. (See Lithia.) 

 It is possessed of the following properties : massive ; 

 fracture splintery and imperfectly conchoidal ; 

 lustre resinous ; colour white, occasionally tinged 

 with red or blue ; translucent ; tough ; hardness 

 the same with that of feldspar; specific gravity, 

 2.439. It consists of silex 79.21, alumine 17.22, 

 and iithia 5.76. If exposed to a high degree of heat 

 before the blowpipe, it becomes glassy, semitrans- 

 parent and white ; but melts with difficulty, and only 

 on the edges. When gently heated, it emits a blue 

 phosphorescent light. This rare substance is found 

 in Massachusetts, at Bolton, in a lime quarry, asso- 

 ciated with pyroxene, sphene, and scapolite. 



PETARD, in the art of war ; a metallic engine, 

 somewhat resembling a high-crowned hat, which is 

 loaded with powder. Its use is, in a clandestine 

 attack, to break down gates, bridges, barriers, &c., 

 to which it is hung, by means of a wooden plank 

 attached to it. It is also used in countermines, to 

 break through the enemy's galleries, and give their 

 mines vent. 



PETECCHI^E. See Plague. 



PETER I., ALEXIEWJTSCH, the Great, czar and 

 emperor of Russia, born at Moscow, May 30 (June 

 11, new style), 1672, was the eldest child of the 

 czar Alexis Michailowitsch, by his second wife, 

 Natalia Kirilowna, daughter of a Russian boiar. 

 Blessed with a healthy constitution and a vigorous 

 mind, Peter attracted general attention while he was 

 but a child ; and Alexis wished to pass by his two 

 elder sons, the sickly Feodor and the feeble Ivan, 

 and appoint Peter his successor. But the ambitious 

 Sophia, daughter of Alexis by his first marriage, 

 prevented the elevation of her half-brother. Feodor 

 III., however, the successor of Alexis (1676 1682), 

 passed over Ivan, and named Peter, yet a minor, his 

 successor. On the death of Feodor, Peter was 

 accordingly proclaimed czar. But Sophia excited a 

 rebellion of the Strelitzes, by the report that Ivan 

 had been put to death by Peter, and that her own 

 destruction was resolved upon. When Ivan after- 

 wards appeared, the Strelitzes exclaimed, " Thou 

 art our czar !" " I will be so," answered the trem- 

 bling Ivan, " only on condition that my dear brother 

 shall share my throne." Peter was, therefore, 

 crowned with Ivan, June 23, 1682. The Strelitzes 

 again rebelled ; but Peter escaped with his mother 

 to a monastery, which protected him from the fury 

 of the insurgents. In the mean time, the cavalry of 

 the czar hastened to his rescue, and overpowered 

 the rebels, thirty of whom were beheaded to prevent 

 future seditions. But Sophia, taking advantage of 

 the weakness of Ivan and the youth of Peter, became 

 constantly more assuming: her name was finally 

 subscribed to the imperial ukases with those of the 

 two czars, and her image was stamped on the 

 reverse of the coins. Peter, meanwhile, was 

 silently developing his manly and warlike spirit. 

 He formed two companies of soldiers from the young 

 men of his own age, in whose ranks he himself 

 served. Their commander was the young Lefort. 

 Sophia considered this amusement as well calculated 

 to remove her brother from state affairs, and heard 

 with pleasure of the excesses in which Peter and 

 his favourites indulged. But the accomplished and 

 enthusiastic Lefort was instilling a large amount of 

 valuable knowledge into the mind of the inquisitive 

 czar, in whom the early instructions of Sotow (an 

 experienced diplomatist), and Francis Timmermann 

 (a German mathematician), and the lessons of his 



