PROCRIS PROFILE. 



719 



senator and prefect of Constantinople, where he is 

 supposed to have died, about 560. His works are, 

 a History of his Own Times, in eight books, the 

 first two relating to the Persian war, the two fol- 

 lowing 1 to the war with the Vandals, and the re- 

 maining four to the Gothic war ; and a History of 

 the Edifices built or repaired by Justinian. A kind 

 of scandalous chronicle of the court of Justinian, in- 

 cluding a most degrading account of the personal 

 history of the emperor, the empress Theodora, and 

 many other individuals, and entitled Anecdota, has 

 been attributed to him by some writers. His works 

 were published at Paris (1662, folio.) 



PROCRIS ; daughter of Erechtheus and wife of 

 Cephalus. (q. v.) 



PROCRUSTES ; a celebrated robber of Attica, 

 who had two bedsteads, one short and the other 

 long. The monster placed his short guests in the 

 long bed, and then, under pretence of fitting the 

 l>ed to the occupant, stretched the latter till he 

 died. If his guest was tall, Procrustes placed him 

 in the short bed, and reduced him to the proper 

 dimensions by cutting and clipping. Theseus finally 

 served him as he had served others. 



PROCTOR (from procurator), in the doctors' 

 commons. (See College of Civilians.) In the Eng- 

 lish universities the proctors are two officers chosen 

 from among the masters of arts, to superintend the 

 scholastic exercises, to enforce the statutes, and to 

 preserve the public peace. 



PROCURATOR, among the Romans ; an agent, 

 an overseer of an estate ; at a later period, the title 

 of a provincial officer, inferior to the governor (see 

 Province, and Proconsul), who managed the re- 

 venue. In some of the small provinces, or in a part 

 of a large province, the procurator discharged the 

 office of a governor, and had the power of punish- 

 ing capitally, as was the case with Pontius Pilate, 

 in Judasa, which was attached to the province of 

 Syria. In the civil law, the procurator, or proctor, 

 answers to the attorney in the common law. (See 

 Advocate of the Crown.) 



Procurator, or proctor, in monasteries, is the 

 conventual, to whom is intrusted the care of the 

 temporal concerns. 



Procurator di San Marco was the title of the 

 chief officers or senators in the Venetian republic. 

 Besides the nine actual procurator!, from among 

 whom the doge was chosen, there were also many 

 titular procurators, who paid a great sum for this 

 title, which was much coveted by the Venetian 

 patricians on account of the rank it conferred. 



PROCUREUR GENERAL, PROCUREUR DU 

 ROI. See Advocate of the Crown. 



PRODICUS. See Sophists. 



PRODUCTION. See Political Economy. 



PRCETUS; in fabulous history, twin brother of 

 Acrisius, king of Argos. They quarrelled with 

 each other in their mother's womb. Acrisius banish- 

 ed Prcetus from Argos. He fled to Jobates or Am- 

 phiaiuix, king of Lycia, married his sister, and, by 

 his aid, conquered the city of Tirynthus, and found- 

 ed a small kingdom. Here Bellerophon (q. v.) 

 took refuge with him. His daughters, the Prcetida?, 

 wandered about through Argolis and Arcadia, hav- 

 ing become mad, either on account of their contempt 

 of the mysteries of Bacchus, or of their derision of 

 the statue of Juno. According to later traditions, 

 they imagined themselves cows, and wandered 

 through the fields with wild lowings ; the same 

 frenzy seized the other women of Argos also. Me- 

 lampus cured them, and received a part of the 

 kingdom. Perseus changed Prcetus into stone, by 

 showing him the head of Medusa. 



PROFANE; an epithet applied, in ancient times, 



to uninitiated persons who were not allowed to be 

 present at the sacred services, particularly those of 

 Ceres and Bacchus, but were obliged to remain out- 

 side of the temple. The Romans used the word in 

 a wider sense, applying it to the vicious, in general. 

 When every thing was prepared for the sacrifice, 

 the priest exclaimed, Profani sacris exeste. The 

 word was afterwards used by Christians in contra- 

 distinction from sacred, as profane literature. It 

 was also applied to persons who treat sacred things 

 with irreverence. 



PROFESSED. See Jesuits. 



PROFESSION ; the act of taking the vows by 

 the member of a religious order, after the novitiate 

 is finished. See Monastic F~ows. 



PROFILE; in general, the view of an object 

 from one of its chief sides, at which more or less of 

 the other side is hidden from the eye ; in particular, 

 the contour of the human face, viewed from one 

 side. The traits of character are often expressed 

 with peculiar strength in the profile. A face which, 

 when seen directly in front, attracts us by its round- 

 ed outline, blooming colour, and lovely smile, is 

 often divested of its charm, when seen in profile 

 and strikes only as far as it has an intellectual ex 

 pression. On the other hand, it is often the eye 

 alone which expresses the character strongly. It 

 requires practice to judge accurately in viewing a 

 profile, in which the marked often strikes too 

 strongly, the soft too slightly. Only where great 

 symmetry exists, connected with the preponderance 

 of the intellectual over the sensual, will the profile 

 appear finer than the front face. In the profile the 

 facial angle appears. (See Facial Angle.) It is 

 comparatively easy for the artist to draw a likeness 

 in profile, yet he must be careful not to exaggerate 

 the peculiar traits, lest he approach caricature, nor 

 to weaken them, lest he detract from the expression 

 of the face. As the profile indicates more particu- 

 larly the intellectual character of man, it is natural 

 that in children it should be insignificant. In 1818, 

 professor Blumenbach received, from the present 

 king of Bavaria, a skull of an ancient Greek, found 

 in a tomb of Magna Graecia. It may be considered 

 as a model of the antique Greek profile, in respect 

 of beautiful form. The nose is connected in a 

 straight line with the forehead, and thus would 

 contradict the theory recently started, that the pro- 

 file, exhibited in works of ancient Greek art, was 

 not an imitation of nature, but, as De Pauw asserts, 

 merely a style adopted arbitrarily in various schools. 

 In the case of buildings, mountains, &c., the outline, 

 viewed from one side, is also called the profile. In 

 regard to the profile of a mountain, which is a sub- 

 ject of much importance to the engineer, we may 

 remark, that every mountain admits three different 

 views; one, from the summit or one of the declivi- 

 ties; another, from the opposite declivity; and a 

 third, from the adjacent country, when it is seen in 

 profile. The last view is the best for obtaining a 

 correct estimate of the angle of declivity, and 

 representing it in a plan. The profile of a mountain 

 is of importance to the architect, the farmer, and to 

 the soldier, in the building of roads and aqueducts, 

 in the cultivation of the soil, in the march, and 

 especially in the disposition of troops, particularly 

 of artillery, which is more or less difficult according 

 to the greater or less steepness of a country. In 

 architecture, the importance of the profile of heights 

 has been long understood; but. in the military art, 

 it was first fully understood in modern times, that 

 a correct view of the country is of the greatest im- 

 portance, alike to the artillerist, the engineer, and 

 the general officer ; and much precision has been 

 obtained, by taking the horizontal level, shown by 



