674 



POUSSIN POYAIS. 



An artist who loved quiet, and had been all his life 

 devoted to liis art, could not be contented in such a 

 situation, and he soon determined to leave Paris. 

 In September, 1642, while employed on cartoons of 

 the labours of Hercules, for the gallery of the 

 Louvre, he returned to Home, which he never again 

 quitted. He died there in I C65. Although Louis 

 XIV. allowed him to retain his post and pension, 

 yet he never became rich ; his disinterestedness 

 made him neglect the opportunity of acquiring 

 wealth ; he laboured more for fame than for money. 

 Full of veneration for the ancients, he aspired to 

 the lofty ideal which he observed in them. His 

 drawing is remarkably correct; his composition 

 judicious, dignified, and noble. His invention was 

 rich ; his style grand and heroic. His expression 

 approaches that of Raphael, and he has been called 

 the Raphael of France. His merits were due to 

 his own efforts. His only pupil was his brother-in- 

 law, Caspar Dughet, who became distinguished as 

 a landscape painter. (See the next article.) Poussin 

 had studied the works of Titian, but his later pro- 

 ductions are inferior in colouring to his earlier, since 

 he paid less attention as he advanced in life to this 

 branch of the art, and more to the design. Poussin 

 has been censured for a too studied arrangement, 

 and a too great propensity to episodes ; too much 

 uniformity in the attitudes, air, and expression of his 

 figures ; an excessive fulness in the drapery, and too 

 small proportions in his figures faults which may 

 have been owing to his close imitation of the an- 

 cients. But, notwithstanding these faults, Poussin 

 may be compared with the greatest Italian masters. 

 Among his most celebrated works are the Seven 

 Sacraments, the Deluge, Germanicus, the Capture 

 of Jerusalem, the Plague of the Philistines, Rebec- 

 ca, the Adulteress, the Infant Moses, and Moses 

 bringing Water from the Rock, the Worship of the 

 Golden Calf, John Baptizing in the Wilderness, &c., 

 and many fine landscapes. Bellori has written his 

 life in Italian. Chateau, Poilly, and Claudine 

 Stella, have engraved many of his works. 



POUSSIN, GASPAR, a very eminent landscape- 

 painter, was born, according to some authors, in 

 France, in 1600, and to others, in Rome, in 1613. 

 His real name was Dughet. His sister was the 

 wife of Nicholas Poussin. The disposition which 

 he early showed for painting caused him to be 

 placed under his brother-in-law, whose surname he 

 assumed ; and, being a lover of the country and its 

 sports, he devoted himself to rural sketches, and 

 became one of the greatest masters of landscape 

 upon record. He practised his art with great dis- 

 tinction in various parts of Italy, but chiefly in 

 Rome, where he lived a life of celibacy, and freely 

 expended his gains in hospitable attentions to his 

 friends. He worked with extreme celerity, although 

 nothing can exceed the beauty of his scenery, and 

 the precision of his perspective. He particularly 

 excelled in the representation of land-storms, in 

 which every tree seems agitated, and every leaf in 

 motion. In his figures he was less happy, and they 

 were frequently supplied by Nicholas. This skilful 

 artist, whose performances are deemed very valu- 

 able, died, according to D'Argenville, in 1675, and 

 to others in 1663 ; but the former date is preferred. 

 He engraved eight of his own landscapes. 



POWDER OF SUCCESSION. See Poudre de 

 Successian. 



POWER, in arithmetic and algebra; that which 

 arises by the successive multiplication of any num- 

 ber or quantity into itself, the degree of the power 

 being always denominated by the number of equal 

 {actors that are employed ; thus, 



2', 1st power of 2 



2x2= 2 s , 2d power, or square, 

 2 x 2 X 2 = 2 3 , 3d power, or cube. 



Hence it appears, that the index which denotes 

 the degree of any power, is always equal to the 

 number of factors from which that power arises ; or 

 one more than the number of operations. See 

 Exponent, and Involution. 



POWER, in law, is an authority which one man 

 gives to another to act for him; and it is sometimes 

 a reservation which a person makes in a conveyance 

 for himself to do some acts, as to make leases or the 

 like; thus, power of attorney, an instrument or deed 

 whereby a person is authorized to act for another, 

 either generally, or in a specific transaction. 



POWER, in mechanics, denotes any force, whe- 

 ther of a man, a horse, a spring, the wind, water, 

 &c., which, being applied to a machine, tends to 

 produce motion ; also, any of the six simple ma- 

 chines, viz. the lever, the balance, the screw, the 

 wheel and axle, the wedge, and the pulley. See 

 Mechanics, and Horse Power. 



POWER LOOMS are driven by water or steam, 

 and are now universally introduced into cotton and 

 woollen manufactories. See Cotton Manufacture. 



POWER OF A GLASS, in optics, is, by some 

 used for the distance between the convexity and the 

 solar focus. 



POWERS, GREAT, OF EUROPE; a term of 

 modern diplomacy, by which are meant Britain, 

 France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia. 



POWHATAN ; a famous sachem, of great au- 

 thority among the Indian tribes in Virginia, at the 

 period of its colonization. He was father of the 

 celebrated Pocahontas, (q. v.) 



POWNALL, THOMAS, born at Lincoln in 1722, 

 became secretary to the commissioners for trade and 

 plantations in 1745, and had a situation in the com- 

 missariat of the army in Germany. In 1753, he 

 went to America, and in 1757 was appointed gov- 

 ernor of Massachusetts bay, and, subsequently, of 

 South Carolina. He remained there till 1761 , when 

 returning to England, he was nominated director- 

 general of the office of control, with the" rank of 

 colonel. He died at Bath, April 25, 1805. Gover- 

 nor Pownall was a fellow of the society of antiqua- 

 ries, and a contributor to the Archseologia. He was 

 also the author of Descriptions of Antiquities of the 

 Provincia Romana of Gaul (1788, 4to); Descrip- 

 tions of Roman Antiquities dug up at Bath (4to); 

 Observations on the Currents in the Atlantic Ocean 

 (1787, 4to); and Intellectual Physics (4to); besides 

 many political tracts, as the Administration of the 

 Colonies (London, 4th edition, 1768). 



POYAIS; a fertile tract of land, on the Mosquito 

 shore, near the bay of Honduras, with a capital of 

 the same name, inhabited by a warlike race of 

 Indians (the Poyais), who have hitherto maintained 

 their independence. Sir Gregor Mac-Gregor, a 

 British officer, who served with reputation in Spain, 

 was afterwards (1816) active in the Venezuelan 

 revolution, and, in 1817, took possession of Amelia 

 island, on the coast of Florida (then belonging to 

 Spain), calling upon the inhabitants to embrace the 

 cause of independence. In 1819 he attacked Por- 

 tobello, which he captured, but was soon after sur- 

 prised iu his bed, and obliged to escape out of a 

 window. Some years after, he settled among the 

 Poyais, and gained their confidence to such a de- 

 gree as to be chosen their cacique. He encouraged 

 commerce, founded schools, &c. In 1824, the ca- 

 cique of Poyais procured a loan in London from 

 respectable honses. The chief production of his 



