PRUTH PSALM. 



737 



dissolved in water. Prussian blue, mingled with 

 more or less alumine, precipitates. It is afterwards 

 dried on chalk stones in a stove. The ferrocyanate 

 of potash employed in the process is prepared by 

 heating to redness dried blood, or other animal 

 matters, with an equal weight of pearl-ash, until 

 the mixture has acquired a pasty consistence. The 

 sulphocyanic acid is a compound of cyanogen, sul- 

 phur and hydrogen. Cyanogen forms two com- 

 pounds with sulphur alone, and one with selenium. 

 PRUTH; a river of Europe, which rises in Ga- 

 licia, in the Carpathian mountains, and empties into 

 the Danube below Galacz. By the treaty of Bu- 

 charest between Russia and the Porte (May 6, 

 1812), the Pruth, from its entrance into Moldavia, 

 was recognised as the boundary of the two empires, 

 and all that part of Moldavia lying on the left 

 bank, was ceded to Russia. In 1711, Peter the 

 Great (see Peter /.), after three days' disadvanta- 

 geous fighting on the Pruth, was surrounded by the 

 Turkish forces, and extricated only by a treaty, 

 concluded through the prudence and promptitude 

 of the empress. (See Catharine I.) By the treaty 

 of Adrianople (September, 1829) it was stipulated 

 that the Pruth should continue to form the boundary 

 between the R ussian and Turkish territories. 



PRYNNE, WILLIAM, a learned lawyer and anti- 

 quary, was born at Swanswick, in Somersetshire, in 

 1600, and was placed at Oriel college, Oxford, 

 where he was graduated bachelor of arts, in 1620. 

 He then removed to Lincoln's-inn to study the law, 

 and became barrister, bencher, and reader of that 

 society. His attendance upon the lectures of Dr 

 Preston, a distinguished Puritan, strongly attached 

 him to that sect, and he began to write as early as 

 1627, attacking the drinking of healths, love-locks, 

 popery, and Arminianism, which he deemed the 

 enormities of the age. In 1632, he published his 

 work against theatrical exhibitions, entitled Histrio- 

 Mastix; which, although licensed by archbishop 

 Abbot's chaplain, yet, in consequence of some 

 reflections upon female actors, that were construed 

 to be levelled at the queen (who had acted in a 

 pastoral after the publication of the work), brought 

 a persecution upon the author in the star-chamber, 

 which condemned him to a fine of 5000, to be 

 expelled the university of Oxford and Lincoln's-inn, 

 to be degraded from his profession of the law, to 

 stand twice in the pillory, losing an ear each time, 

 and to remain a prisoner for life. Prynne continued 

 writing against prelacy in prison ; until, for a vir- 

 ulent piece, entitled News from Ipswich, he was 

 again sentenced by the star-chamber to a fine of 

 5000, to lose the remainder of his ears in the 

 pillory, and to be branded in each cheek with the 

 letters S. L. (seditious libeller). This sentence 

 was also executed, and he was removed for impris- 

 onment to Caernarvon castle, and afterwards to the 

 island of Jersey. His spirit was not, however, to 

 be subdued, and he continued to write until the 

 meeting of parliament in 1640, when, being chosen 

 representative for Newport in Cornwall, the house 

 of commons issued an order for his release. He 

 entered London, with other sufferers, in triumphant 

 procession, and petitioned the commons for damages 

 against his prosecutors. On the impeachment of 

 Laud, he was employed as chief manager of the 

 prosecution, and, when the parliament became 

 victorious, was appointed one of the visitors to the 

 university of Oxford, where he laboured strenuously 

 to advance the cause of Presbyterianism. He 

 warmly opposed the Independents when they 

 acquired ascendency, and used all his influence to 

 produce an accommodation with the king, being 

 one of the members who were excluded and impris 



oned on that account. With the other excluded 

 members, he resumed his seat in 1659, and dis- 

 played so much zeal for the restoration, that general 

 Monk was obliged to check his impetuosity. He 

 sat in the healing parliament as member for Bath, 

 and on the restoration was appointed to the office 

 of chief keeper of the records in the Tower. He 

 occupied his later years in writings connected with 

 his office in the Tower, and finished his life at his 

 chambers in Lincoln's-inn, in 1669. Prynne was a 

 man of extensive learning and indefatigable indus- 

 try, but wanted genius and judgment. His works, 

 of which Wood has given a catalogue, amount to 

 forty volumes, folio and quarto, the most valuable 

 of which is his Collection of Records (3 vols., 

 folio). 



PRYTANEUM; the building in Athens, in 

 which the Prytanes (those senators who presided 

 in turn) held their meetings, and lived at the public 

 expense during the thirty-five or thirty-six days of 

 their presidency. The liberty of eating in the Pry- 

 taneum was one of the highest marks of honour, 

 and was conferred only on those who had done 

 important service to the state. Napoleon estab- 

 lished a school in Paris under the name of the pry- 

 tanee, in which some hundreds of scholars were 

 educated, mostly at the expense of the state. They 

 were educated together until they were twelve 

 years old, when they were trained for civil affairs 

 (for which there were five professors), or for the 

 military service (for which there were three pro- 

 fessors). At the age of fifteen years, they left this 

 institution, for the purpose of completing their edu- 

 cation in other seminaries. 



PSALM; in general, a song; in a narrower 

 sense, a sacred song (from the Greek ^a/Ut/, to 

 play on a stringed instrument, to sing). Psalm is 

 used particularly to denote the sacred songs which 

 are contained in the collection of religious lyric 

 poems in the Old Testament. They are mostly of 

 the time of David, or of a later period, one only, 

 perhaps (the ninetieth, the psalm of Moses), being 

 of more ancient date. (See Hebrew Literature.) 

 David, who arranged the temple music, not only 

 appointed from the Levites a considerable number 

 of singers and musicians, but also composed for the 

 divine worship sacred songs, which served as a 

 model for many others. Several of the psalms that 

 bear his name are not, indeed, written by him, but 

 only composed in his manner, and therefore called 

 by his name. Seventy-one, in particular, are 

 ascribed to him, but some, even of these, are evi- 

 dently of a later date. On the other hand, the 

 contents and style of some which do not bear his 

 name, and the superscriptions of which have, per- 

 haps, been lost, show him to have been the author 

 To his times belong most of the psalms attributed 

 to Asaph, Heman, and Ethan or Jeduthun. Twelve 

 psalms bear Asaph's name, of which several show 

 traces of a later origin. Asaph, son of Berachiah, 

 was a Levite, and (1 Chron. xvi. 5) the first of the 

 chief musicians appointed by David for the divine 

 worship. The name of Heman is attached to one 

 only (the eighty-eighth psalm). Heman, surname 1 

 the Ezrahite, seems to have been a Levite, and is 

 named among the chief singers of David. Some 

 of the Psalms were composed by Solomon, who, 

 according to the First Book of Kings (iv. 32) wrote 

 " a thousand and five songs/' but whose name is 

 affixed, in our collection, to two only (the 72d and 

 127th), and of these the first seems rather to have 

 been written for Solomon than by him. But, on 

 the other hand, some others, of unknown authors, 

 may be his ; several are at least of his time, and 

 refer to events of his reign the consecration of Uo 

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