PROSOPOPOEIA PROTEUS. 



725 



weight of syllables, is called quantity, and langu- 

 ages, in which vowels predominate, incline more to 

 quantity ; on the other hand, idioms, in which con- 

 sonants prevail, incline more to accent, as they 

 determine the duration of the tone more by the 

 logical priority of the syllables. The German lan- 

 guage is of the latter sort, though the meaning or 

 derivation does by no means always determine the 

 length of the syllables in this language. The Ger- 

 mans have, moreover, distinct long and short syl- 

 lables, .ike the Greeks and Romans, and of late 

 have very much settled their prosody, so that they 

 are enabled to write in all the ancient metres. The 

 other modern languages of Europe, west or south 

 of Germany, have not long or short syllables, pro- 

 perly speaking. The English language has no 

 prosody, in the ancient sense of the word : its verse 

 depends upon accent and the number of the sylla- 

 bles. See Rhyme, and Versification. 



PROSOPOPOEIA. See Personification. 



PROTAGORAS; a Grecian philosopher, born 

 at Abdera, in the middle of the fifth century B. C. 

 He taught principally at Athens. He may be con- 

 sidered one of the first Sophists who travelled in 

 G reece, reading his writings, holding public dispu- 

 tations, and giving instruction for pay. He was 

 accused of atheism, and banished from Athens, and 

 his writings were publicly burnt. He is said to 

 have denied that there was any such thing as ab- 

 solute truth, and to have applied his doubts of 

 human knowledge to the most sacred and important 

 subjects, virtue and the existence of God, main- 

 taining that they might as well exist as not exist. 

 How far this is true cannot be determined with cer- 

 tainty, because his writings are lost. 



PROTECTOR, CARDINAL. Every Catholic na- 

 tion and religious order has a protector, residing in 

 Rome, who is a cardinal, and is called cardinal 

 protector. 



PROTECTOR, LORD. See Cromwell. 



PROTECTOR OF SLAVES. An officer en- 

 tirely novel, and intended to give some legal protec- 

 tion to slaves, was created by the English ministry 

 of earl Grey, by a British order in council, of Nov- 

 ember 2, 1831, constituting in the colonies of 

 Trinidad, St Lucia, the Mauritius, British Guiana, 

 and the cape of Good Hope, certain officers, called 

 protectors of slaves. They are never to be proprie- 

 tors of slaves ; are to receive complaints of slaves 

 against their masters and others ; may summon the 

 latter to appear before them ; and institute a prose- 

 cution against them before the proper tribunal. If 

 a slave is prosecuted before a court, notice must be 

 given to a protector, who personally, or by an as- 

 sistant protector, must be present at the trial, in 

 order to protect the interest of the slave. The 

 protector also keeps a register of all the slaves of 

 his district ; has the power to enter any plantation 

 or building, where he believes slaves are ill-treated; 

 to grant them marriage licenses, and to attend, in 

 various other ways, to the preservation of good or- 

 der among them. 



PROTECTOR OF THE CONFEDERATION 

 OF THE RHINE. See Bonaparte, and Confede- 

 ration of the Rhine. 



PROTESILAUS, one of the Grecian heroes at 

 Troy, was the son of Iphiclus, king of Phylace, in 

 Thessaly, and of Diomedea. His original name 

 was lolaus, and he received the surname of Prote- 

 silaus, because he was the first of the Greeks who 

 leaped ashore on their landing before Troy ; but he 

 was immediately killed by a Trojan warrior, accord- 

 ing to some by Hector. His tomb was on the 

 Sigjean promontory. He was honoured as a hero 

 after his death, and had an oracle at Elzeus in the 



Chersonesus, particularly for athleta?; he also heal- 

 ed several diseases. 



PROTEST ; a solemn declaration of opinion, 

 commonly against some act, particularly a formal 

 and solemn declaration, in writing, of dissent from 

 Lhe proceedings of a legislative body, as a protest 

 of the lords in parliament, or a like declaration of 

 dissent by a minority of any body, against the pro- 

 ceedings of the majority. In commerce, a formal 

 declaration, made by a notary public, under hand 

 and seal, at the request of the payee, or holder of a 

 bill of exchange, for non-acceptance or non-pay- 

 ment of the same, protesting against the drawer 

 and others concerned, for the exchange, charges, 

 damages and interest. This protest is written on a 

 copy of the bill of exchange, and notice is given to 

 the endorser of the same, by which he becomes 

 liable to pay the amount of the bill, witli charges, 

 damages and interest. (See Bill of Exchange.} 

 The name of protest is also given to a like declara- 

 tion against the drawer of a note of hand, for non- 

 payment to a banking corporation, and of the mas- 

 ter of a vessel against seizure, &c. A protest is also 

 a writing, attested by a justice of the peace, or a 

 consul, drawn by a master of a vessel, stating the 

 severity of a voyage, by which the ship has suffered, 

 and showing it was not owing to the neglect or 

 misconduct of the master. 



PROTESTANTISM includes the Protestant re- 

 ligion in its various forms, and the history of its 

 development, as well as the influence which it has 

 had on mankind. This name, like many others in 

 history, owes its origin to a circumstance compara- 

 tively insignificant. It originated in Germany, 

 when those members of the empire who were at- 

 tached to the reformation, protested (April 19, 

 1539), before the assembled princes, against the 

 following resolve of the diet at Spire : " that, until 

 a general council should be held, further innova- 

 tions in ecclesiastical affairs should be avoided ; the 

 mass should not be any further abolished, nor its 

 celebration be prevented in those places whither the 

 new doctrine had already spread ; no inflammatory 

 sermons should be preached ; and no vituperative 

 writings be printed." In consequence of this pro- 

 testation, they were called Protestants, and soon 

 adopted this name themselves. To this protestation 

 was added (April 25) a formal appeal to the em- 

 peror against every measure hostile to their faith. 

 The word Protestant was afterwards adopted, also, in 

 other countries ; and when, in 1817, the centennial 

 celebration of the beginning of the German refor- 

 mation caused several controversies in Prussia, the 

 government prohibited (June 30, 1817) the further 

 use of the term Protestant in the country, as being 

 obsolete and unmeaning, since the Protestants did 

 not any longer protest, and ordered the word evan- 

 gelical to be substituted for it. The numberless 

 sects which have sprung up among the seceders 

 from Catholicism, since the time of the reformation, 

 and which are comprehended under the name of 

 Protestants, all agree (however different their 

 opinions on some important points may be) in re- 

 jecting human authority in matters of religion, tak- 

 ing the Holy Scripture as the sole rule of their faith 

 and life, and adhering to particular creeds only as 

 expressing the convictions in which all their mem- 

 bers agree. (See Reformation.') The present num- 

 ber of the Protestants and Catholics is given in the 

 article Ecclesiastical Establishments. 



PROTEUS, according to the old Grecian mytho- 

 logy, a deified mortal, a soothsaying and wonder- 

 working old man of the sea, who fed the phoc<e of 

 Neptune in the ^5Egean s>a, and was said by wan- 

 dering mariners to sun himself with his sea-calves. 



