PSAMMETICUS PSYCHOLOGY. 



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Jiy them called nelvl. ^Ve know but little of the 

 ancient form of this instrument, but have reason to 

 conclude that it resembled that of our harp. The 

 psaltery now in use is a fiat instrument, in the form 

 of a trapezium, or a triangle truncated at top. 

 It is strung with thirteen wire cords, tuned in uni- 

 sons, or octaves, and mounted on two bridges. It 

 is performed with a plectrum, whence it is usually 

 ranked among the instruments of percussion. 



PSAMMETICUS. See Egypt. 



PSARA, or IPSARA (Psyia); an island of the 

 Grecian Archipelago, seven miles north-west of 

 Scio, about five and a half miles in length, and as 

 many in breadth. It consists almost entirely of a 

 rock, thinly covered in some places with a vegetable 

 mould. The population is about 400. It was set- 

 tled about a century ago, by a little band of Greeks, 

 who fled thither to escape the Turkish yoke, and 

 supported themselves by fishing. In 1824, it was 

 taken by the Turks ; 600 Psariotes, the sole rem- 

 nant of a population of 6000 which had perished 

 under the Turkish scymetar, after defending 

 themselves for a long time, in a mountain-for- 

 tress of the island, buried themselves beneath its 

 ruins. 



PSEUDO (from the Greek ^ii/3f, a falsehood) ; 

 a term or particle prefixed to names and words, to 

 denote any thing spurious and false. Thus we call 

 any thing which has a false name, as a book writ- 

 ten under a feigned name, pseudonymous. (See 

 Anonymous.) Pseudo-Smerdis, the false Smerdis. 

 See Persia. 



PSEUDO-DEMETRIUS; See Russia. 



PSEUDO-ISIDORE. See Isidore, Decretals, 

 and Popes. 



PSYCHE, the twofold signification of whose 

 name (^, the soul, and a butterfly) added much 

 to the effect of the beautiful allegory respecting her, 

 was the daughter of Sol and Constancy. Apuleius 

 makes her the daughter of a king, and relates her 

 history thus : Psyche, whose two elder sisters were 

 of moderate beauty, was so lovely, that she was 

 taken for Venui' herself, and men dared only to 

 adore her as a goddess, not to love her. This 

 excited the jealousy of Venus, who, to revenge 

 herself, ordered Cupid to inspire her with love for 

 some contemptible wretch. But Cupid fell in love 

 with her himself. Meanwhile, her father desiring 

 to see his daughter married, consulted the oracle 

 of Apollo, which commanded that Psyche should be 

 conveyed, with funeral rites, to the summit of a 

 mountain, and there be left, for she was destined to 

 be the bride of a destructive monster, in the form 

 of a dragon, feared by gods and men. With sorrow 

 was the oracle obeyed, and Psyche was left alone 

 on the desert rock, when suddenly Zephyr hovers 

 around her, gently raises and transports her to a 

 beautiful palace of the god of love, who visits her 

 every night, unseen and unknown, leaving her again 

 at the approach of day. Perfect happiness would 

 have been the lot of Psyche, if, obedient to the 

 warning of her lover, she had never been curious 

 to know him better. But by the artifices of her 

 jealous sisters, whom she had admitted to visit her, 

 contrary to the commands of Cupid, she was per- 

 suaded that she held a monster in her arms, and 

 curiosity triumphed. As he slept, she entered with 

 a lamp tq examine him, and discovered the most 

 leautiful of the gods ; in her joy and astonishment, 

 she let a drop of the heated oil fall upon his shoul- 

 ders. Cupid awoke, and, having reproached the 

 astonished Psyche for her suspicions, fled. After 

 having tried in vain to throw herself into a river, 

 she wandered, inconsolable, to all the temples, 

 seeking every where her beloved, till she came to 



the temple of Venus. Here began her severest 

 sufferings. Venus kept her near her person, treated 

 her as a slave, and imposed upon her the severest 

 and most trying tasks. Psyche would have sunk 

 under the burden, had not Cupid, who still tender- 

 ly loved her, secretly assisted her in her labours. 

 But in the last dangerous task imposed upon her, 

 to descend to the realm of shadows, and bring away 

 Proserpine's box of cosmetics, she almost perished. 

 She succeeded, indeed, in the adventure ; but, having 

 opened the box, a deadly vapour issued from it, and 

 she sunk lifeless to the earth. Cupid now appeared 

 and the touch of his arrow restored her to life. 

 Venus was finally reconciled ; by Jupiter's com- 

 mand Psyche became immortal, and was for ever 

 united with her beloved. Her marriage was cele- 

 brated with great festivities, but her envious sisters 

 threw themselves from a precipice. Raphael has 

 given a most beautiful representation of the mar- 

 riage, in the Farnesina at Rome. 



PSYCHOLOGY (from ^u^a, the soul, and Xay, 

 doctrine) ; the science of the soul, or the spiritual 

 principle in man. The object of this science is to 

 teach the laws and relations of the changes and phe- 

 nomena which take place in the mind during the 

 intellectual operations ; or to trace the causes of 

 these phenomena, and to discover the nature of the 

 mind and its relations to the universe ; or, in short, 

 to treat of the mind, either as it manifests itself, or 

 as it is in itself. Investigations of the latter class, 

 which have for their object that which cannot be 

 discovered by observation, constitute metaphysical 

 or transcendental psychology ; while those of the 

 former class, in which the soul becomes a subject 

 of observation, constitute empirical or experimental 

 psychology Empirical psychology may, therefore, 

 be defined to be the scientifically conducted obser- 

 vation of the operations and changes of the human 

 soul. Asa science, it includes all the phenomena 

 of the intellectual activity ; as the science of the 

 soul, it forms a part of anthropology, called psycholo- 

 gical anthropology, in distinction from physiology, 

 or physiological anthropology. It takes for granted 

 the distinction of the spiritual substance (the I, the 

 self) from the body, as a matter of consciousness, 

 and does not therefore attempt to explain it. It 

 treats of the mind, indeed, in its operations and in 

 so far as it is connected with the body, but neglects 

 the mere physical phenomena. It is, more strictly 

 than logic, an introduction to intellectual philosophy, 

 since logic treats only of the laws of reason. As 

 the development of the human mind proceeds from 

 the particular to the general, empirical psychology 

 is the most proper introduction to speculative phil- 

 osophy ; the more so, as it makes us acquainted 

 with the spiritual instrument which philosophy 

 employs. In this course of investigation, the sub- 

 ject ot attention is merely facts, of which every one 

 is conscious, and which, therefore, are intelligible 

 by all, and of which a distinct and connected view 

 may prevent many errors in philosophical specula- 

 tion. Again, empirical psychology is applied phil- 

 osophy ; for it must not only employ the philosophi- 

 cal forms in the disposition and explanation of facts, 

 but also certain metaphysical notions (as power, 

 cause, &c.), and requires a philosophical spirit to 

 give it the character of a science ; and it is thus 

 distinguished from a mere natural history of the 

 soul, the development of which is prior in point of 

 time. The latter merely records the facts in their 

 natural order, while psychology presents them in 

 their connexions, anil according to the laws which 

 regulate them ; and in this view it is that part of 

 applied philosophy which tenches the organisation 

 of the human soul, according to the external maui- 

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