PRIOR PRISON DISCIPLINE. 



701 



for classical literature, and attracted the notice of 

 the earl of Dorset (see Sackville), who enabled him 

 to enter himself, in 1682, at St John's college, Cam- 

 bridge, where he proceeded B. A. in 16,86, and was 

 shortly after chosen fellow. At college lie con- 

 tracted an intimacy with Charles Montagu, after- 

 wards earl of Halifax, in concert with whom, in 

 1688, he composed the Country Mouse and City 

 Mouse, a parody on Dryden's Hind and Panther. 

 In 1690, he was introduced at court by the earl of 

 Dorset, at whose recommendation he was ap- 

 pointed secretary to the English plenipotentiaries 

 at the Hague. With this post he also held the 

 title of gentleman of the king's bed-chamber; and 

 he presented an ode to king William in 1695, on the 

 death of queen Mary; ami soon after displayed his 

 humorous vein in a parody of Boileau's ode on the 

 taking of Namur, when it was recaptured by Wil- 

 liam. In 1697, he was nominated secretary to the 

 commissioners for the treaty of Ryswick ; and, on 

 his return from that employment, was made secre- 

 tary to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He was 

 afterwards secretary to the earls of Portland and 

 Jersey, successively ambassadors to France. At 

 length he was made under-secretary of state, and, 

 while holding that office, was sent to France to as- 

 sist in the partition treaty. In 1701, he succeeded 

 Locke as a commissioner at the board of trade, but 

 soon after deserted the whigs and joined the tories, 

 for which no satisfactory reasons have been assigned. 

 At the beginning of the reign of Anne, he published 

 a volume of poems, and took some share in the 

 Examiner. When the tories again obtained the 

 ascendency, he was employed in secretly negotiat- 

 ing at Paris the terms of the treaty of Utrecht. He 

 remained in France, with the appointment of am- 

 bassador, and, after the departure of the duke of 

 Shrewsbury, in 1713, publicly assumed that charac- 

 ter. On the accession of George I., he was recalled 

 and examined before the privy council in respect to 

 his share in negotiating the treaty of Utrecht, and 

 treated with great rigour for some time, although 

 ultimately discharged without trial. Being with- 

 out any provision for his declining years, except 

 his fellowship, he again applied himself to poetry; 

 and having finished his Solomon, he published his 

 poems by subscription. The publication, being 

 liberally encouraged by party zeal, produced a con- 

 siderable sum, which was doubled by the earl of 

 Oxford, at whose seat the author died, after a ling- 

 ering illness, in 1721, in the fifty-eighth year of his 

 age. He was interred in Westminster abbey, under 

 a monument, for which " last piece of human va- 

 nity," as he styles it in his will, he left the sum of 

 .500. Prior seems to have made his way by wit 

 and social qualities, rather than by moral or politi- 

 cal endowments of a superior order. He is said to 

 have always retained a taste for coarse intercourse 

 and gross enjoyments. As a poet, his reputation 

 has declined of late years, the humour in which he 

 principally excels being overlooked on account of 

 the character of his serious performances, which, 

 although as in his Solomon, and Henry and Emma, 

 splendid and correct in diction, harmonious in versi- 

 fication, and copious in poetical imagery, fail in 

 moving either the feelings or the fancy. The great 

 art of Prior consists in telling a story with a degree 

 of poetical ease and vivacity, which, perhaps, set- 

 ting aside La Fontaine, has never been excelled. 

 His Alma, a piece of philosophical pleasantry, 

 exhibits a felicitous vein of humour ; and for his 

 lighter pieces he is now chiefly read. A History of 

 his Own Times, compiled from his MSS., contains 

 little from his pen, and is of small value. His 



poems were published i I7'i3, in "> vols., 8vo, and 

 are also in all the collections. 



PRISCIAN. See Philology. 



PRISM, in geometry, is a body, or solid, whose 

 two ends are any plane figures which are parallel, 

 equal, and similar ; and its sides, connecting those 

 ends, are parallelograms. Hence every section 

 parallel to the base is equal and similar to the base; 

 and the prism may be considered as generated by 

 the parallel motion of this plane figure. Prisms 

 receive particular names, according to the figure of 

 their bases ; as a triangular prism, a square prism, 

 a pentagonal prism, a hexagonal prism, and so on. 

 And hence the denomination prism comprises also 

 the cube and parallelopipedon, the former being a 

 square prism, and the latter a rectangular one. And 

 even a cylinder may be considered as a round prism, 

 or one that has an infinite number of sides. Also a 

 prism is said to be regular, or irregular, according 

 as the figure of its end is a regular or an irregular 

 polygon. The axis of a prism is the line conceived 

 to be drawn lengthwise through the middle of it, 

 connecting the centre of one end with that of the 

 other end. Prisms, again, are either right or oblique. 

 A right prism is that whose sides and its axis are 

 perpendicular to its ends, like an upright tower; and 

 an oblique prism is when the axis and sides are ob- 

 lique to the ends ; so that, when set upon one end, 

 it inclines on one hand more than on the other. 

 The principal properties of prisms are, 1. That all 

 prisms are to one another in the ratio compounded 

 of their bases and heights ; 2. Similar prisms are to 

 one another in the triplicate ratio of their like sides; 



3. A prism is triple of a pyramid of equal base and 

 height, and the solid content of a prism is found by 

 multiplying the base by the perpendicular height ; 



4. The upright surface of a right prism is equal to 

 a rectangle of the same height, and its breadth 

 equal to the perimeter of the base or end, and there- 

 fore such upright surface of a right prism is found 

 by multiplying the perimeter of the base by the 

 perpendicular height. Also the upright surface of 

 an oblique prism is found by computing those of all 

 its parallelogram sides separately, and adding them 

 together. And if to the upright surface be added 

 the areas of the two ends, the sum will be the whole 

 surface of the prism. 



Prism, in optics, is an instrument employed for 

 showing the properties of solar light, and consists 

 merely of a triangular prism of glass, which sepa- 

 rates the rays of light in their passage through it. 

 See Optics. 



PRISON DISCIPLINE. The true and only 

 real object of punishment is the prevention of crime. 

 There is, of course, a great latitude of choice in the 

 means which may be adopted for the attainment of 

 this object, a latitude to be limited by a just re- 

 gard to the rights inseparable from human nature, 

 however depraved, by a correct view of the true 

 power of society over its members, and by a wise 

 estimate of the probable effect of the means em- 

 ployed. In most ages of the world men seem to 

 have imagined their rightful power over their fellow 

 men absolutely unlimited, and have inflicted punish- 

 ment upon the violators of the law, apparently 

 without regard to any other consideration than 

 their own pleasure, and the degree of guilt they 

 have attributed to the offender. Acting with this 

 apprehension of their own unrestricted power, they 

 have, at the same time, exhibited the most narrow 

 acquaintance with the almost infinite variety of 

 means of punishment. They have confined them- 

 selves very much to the effects of physical suffering, 

 as if that were the sole remedy which could be 



