PHILIPPONES PHILOCTETES. 



513 



of these islands is principally with the Chinese and 

 British. See Aragon's Description de la Isla de 

 Luzon (Manilla, 1820). 



PHILIPPONES ; a Russian sect, a branch of the 

 Roskolnicians, so called from their founder, Philip 

 Pustoswiat. The sect took its rise in the northern 

 part of Russia, towards the end of the seventeenth 

 century, and neither acknowledges the pope, nor 

 esteems consecration by the Russian church as valid. 

 They differed from the other Roskolnicians chiefly 

 in having no ordained clergy. Communion, con- 

 firmation, absolution, and marriage, by ecclesiastics, 

 were not, therefore, practised among them. (See 

 Greek Church, and Roskolnicians.) In each of their 

 societies is an elder (starikj) chosen by themselves or 

 by his predecessor, who can read Sclavonic, and is 

 obliged, after his baptism, to abstain from strong 

 drinks. He performs the different clerical offices. 

 Absolution, they consider, must be received imme- 

 diately from God. They scruple to take an oath, 

 or to perform military service. Many Philippones 

 fled, in the beginning of the eighteenth century, into 

 Polish Lithuania, whence some of them passed into 

 the Prussian territories. 



PHILIPS, AMBROSE, a poet and dramatic writer, 

 was a native of Leicestershire, and studied at Cam- 

 bridge. On quitting the university he went to Lon- 

 don, and became one of the literary wits who fre- 

 quented Button's coffee-house, and a friend of Steel 

 and Addison. The publication of his Pastorals in- 

 volved him in a war with Pope, who ridiculed them 

 in the Guardian ; in consequence of which Philips 

 threatened to inflict personal correction on the satir- 

 ist. He was one of the writers of a periodical 

 paper, called the Freethinker ; and doctor Boulton, 

 the conductor, obtaining preferment in Ireland, 

 Philips was made registrar of the prerogative court 

 at Dublin. He returned to England in 1748, and 

 died the next year. He was the author of the Bis- 

 trest Mother, a tragedy (1712), taken from Racine ; 

 the Briton (1722,) and Humphrey, duke of Glouces- 

 ter (1723); and he wrote the Life of Archbishop 

 Williams. See Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 



PHILIPS, JOHN, an English poet, born in Oxford- 

 shire, 1676, was educated at Christchurch, Oxford, 

 where he produced the Splendid Shilling, in which 

 the sonorous cadence of the blank verse of Milton is 

 adapted to familiar and ludicrous topics. He also 

 wrote Blenheim, a poem, in celebration of the duke 

 of Marlborough's victory ; but his principal work is 

 Cyder, a Georgical work, in imitation of Virgil. He 

 died in 1708. See Johnson's Lives of the Poets. 



PHILISTINES; apparently an Egyptian tribe, 

 from whom Palestine, before called Canaan, received 

 its name. They dwelt in the southern plains of that 

 country along the coasts of the Mediterranean. 

 They were constantly at war with the Israelites, 

 whom they reduced to subjection at one period after 

 the death of Joshua. In the German universities, 

 the students give the name of Philistines to persons 

 not members of the universities. 



PHILO ; a learned Jewish author, who flourished 

 in the first century of the Christian era, in the reign 

 of the emperor Caligula. He was born some years 

 before Christ, in Alexandria, where he was educat- 

 ed, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in 

 eloquence, philosophy, and a knowledge of the 

 sacred writings. With the writings of Plato, whose 

 philosophy was at that time in the highest repute in 

 Alexandria, he made himself intimately acquainted, 

 and he adopted his doctrines so completely, that it 

 was said of him, Philo platonizes. From the time of 

 the Ptolemies the Jews had borrowed the use of alle- 

 gories from their Egyptian neighbours, and thus im- 

 bibed Platonic and Pythagorean doctrines, which they 



treated as the hidden and symbolical sense of their 

 own law. Thus, without having the appearance of 

 being indebted to the heathen philosophers, they 

 could make an arbitrary use of their systems. These 

 systems were likewise mixed with various Oriental 

 theories, in particular respecting the nature of God. 

 Philo zealously studied this philosophy, then so po- 

 pular in Alexandria ; and either because he did not 

 sufficiently understand the Jewish doctrines, or be- 

 cause he was not satisfied with the literal sense of 

 the Mosaic law, he mingled Platonic dogmas with 

 the holy scriptures, and ascribed them to Moses. 

 Probably he followed the example of the Essenes 

 and Therapeutae, of whom he always spoke witli 

 great esteem, though he did not adopt their mode of 

 fife. He considered God and matter as co-eternal 

 principles ; God as the primitive light, from whose 

 rays all finite intelligences proceed. The under- 

 standing or wisdom of God (Xoyo;), he called also the 

 Son of God, his image, according to which God, by 

 his creative power, produced the material world. 

 He founds our knowledge of God upon intuition. 

 On account of these doctrines, Bouterwek considers 

 him as one of the first Alexandrian New Platonists. 

 Philo 'perfected himself also in eloquence, and ac- 

 quired a knowledge of public affairs, in which his 

 fame was so great that he was sent by his country- 

 men, in the year 42, at the head of an embassy to 

 Rome, to defend the Jews against the calumnious 

 accusations of Apion and others. Caligula would 

 not admit the embassy into his presence, and Philo 

 was even in danger of losing his life. He composed, 

 in consequence, a written justification of the Jews, 

 evincing great learning and skill. The accounts are 

 unworthy of belief, which state that Philo went after- 

 wards to Rome under Claudius, that he became there 

 the friend of the apostle Peter, and embraced the 

 Christian faith, but renounced it again on account of 

 some mortifications which he met with. Those 

 writings of Philo, which have come down to us, are 

 published in the last and most complete edition by 

 Manzey (London, 1742, 2 vols., folio) ; after him, 

 by Pfeiffer (Erlangen, 1785 and the following years, 

 5 vols.). They show that Philo was a man of great 

 learning and industry, who was well acquainted with 

 Greek philosophy and literature, and are very useful 

 for those who would learn the state of philosophy at 

 that time hi Alexandria. 



PHILO OF BIBLOS ; a grammarian, who lived 

 under Nero and the following emperors till the time 

 of Adrian. He translated Sanchoniathon's Phoenician 

 History into Greek, of which we still possess some 

 fragments. 



PHILO OF BYZANTIUM, who lived in the se- 

 cond and third centuries, is mentioned as the author 

 of a work on military engines, on the Seven Wonders 

 of the World, &c. Besides these, there are an aca- 

 demic and a stoic philosopher of this name. 



PHILOCTETES ; a Grecian hero, son of Poean 

 and Demonassa, celebrated for his skill in archery. 

 He led the warriors of Methone, Thaumacia, Meli- 

 bcea, and Olizon in the expedition against Troy ; but, 

 having been bitten in his foot, while he was offering 

 sacrifice in the island of Chrysa, by a serpent which 

 guarded the temple, he became, by the mortification 

 of his wound, so offensive that he was sent back to 

 Lemnos, and there dragged out nine miserable years 

 in lamentations. But, according to the prophecy of 

 Helenus, Troy could not be taken without the arrows 

 of Hercules, and these were in possession of Philoc- 

 tetes, to whom the hero had given them, when he 

 ascended his funeral pile. It therefore became ne- 

 cessary for the Grecians before Troy to recall Philoc- 

 tetes. Ulysses, who had advised his exile, with 

 Pyrrhus (according to some, Diomedes) undertook 

 IB 



