404 
PAR 
to the Atlantic, about fio <5 miles from eafl; to weft, and 200 
from north to fouth. It produces abundance of cotton, 
fugar, vanilla, chocolate, coft'ee, and tobacco : a fleet la¬ 
den with thefe articles has ufually failed every year for 
Lifbon. The climate is extremely hot; and the woods 
abound with valuable timber of great folidity and bril¬ 
liant colours, and fome trees that yield odorous balfams. 
This province contains about 150,000 inhabitants. 
PA'RA, the capital of the above jurifdiftion, is fituated 
at the mouth of the great river Tocantin, which receives 
that called Dos Bocas, into which a natural canal from 
the Maranon has been opened by the violent tides. This 
is a rich and hffndfome town, with two parifh-churches, a 
college, and 15,000 inhabitants. Befides a citadel, it has 
a fortrefs, with a ftrong train of artillery, and a garrifon 
of four companies. Lat. 1.45. S. Ion. 50. W. 
PA'RA, a river of Brafil, formed by the union of the 
Tocantin and the Guanapa. It is a large river, and runs 
about 120 miles in a north-eafterly direftion, feparating 
the ifland of Marajo from the continent, and emptying 
itfelf into the Atlantic about twenty miles fouth of the 
line. 
PA'RA, a river of Brafil, which rifes about 150 miles 
weft of Villarica, and runs into the St. Francifco in lat. 
16. 50. S. 
PA'RA, a town of Turkifli Armenia : ninety miles 
north-north-eaft of Cars. 
PA'RA IIO'TUN, a town of Chinefe Tartary, on the 
river Kerlon : 512 miles north of Pekin. Lat. 43. 6. N. 
Ion. 11 3.14. E. 
■PARABIT'TA, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Otranto .-ten miles north-weft of Alefiano. 
PAR'ABLE, f. [7 ra.^a.Zo^Yi, Gr. formed from 
Xew, to oppofe, or compare.] A fable or allegorical in- 
Itruftion, founded on fomething real or apparent in na¬ 
ture or hiftory; from which a moral is drawn, by compar¬ 
ing it with fome other thing wherein the people are more 
immediately concerned.—In the parable of the talents, 
our Saviour plainly teacheth us, that men are rewarded 
according to the improvements they make. Nelfon. 
What is thy fulfome parable to me? 
My body is from all difeafes free. Dry den. 
Seme make parable differ from fable; Grotius and 
others ufe the two terms promifeuoufly. Kircher derives 
the ufe of parables from the Egyptians. 
Parable, according to the eminently-learned bifliop 
Lowth, (Lectures on the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews,) 
is that kind cf allegory which conflfts of a continued nar¬ 
ration of a fictitious event, applied by way of fimile to 
the illuftration of fome important truth. The Greeks 
call thefe allegories envoi, or apologues ; the Latins fabulce, 
or fables : and the writings of the Phrygian fage, or thole 
compofed in imitation of him, have acquired the greateft 
celebrity. Nor has our Shviour himfelf difdained to adopt 
the fame method of inftruftion, of whofe parables it is 
doubtful, whether they excel moft in wifdom and utility, 
or in fweetnefs, elegance, and perfpicuity. This fpecies 
of compcfition occurs very frequently in the prophetic 
poetry, and particularly in that of Ezekiel. If to us they 
ftiould fometimes appear obfeure, we mull remember, that 
in thofe early times, when the prophetical writings were 
indited, it was univerfally the mode throughout all the 
eaftern nations to convey facred truths under myfterious 
figures and reprefentations. 
It is the criterion of a parable, that it be confident 
throughout, and that the literal be never confounded with 
the figurative fenfe ; and in this refpeft it materially dif¬ 
fers from that fpecies of allegory called the continued me¬ 
taphor. (See Ilaiah, v. 1-7.) It ftiould be confidered 
that the continued metapftorand the parable have a very 
different view. The foie intention of the former is to 
embellifh a fubjeft, to reprefent it more magnificently, 
or at the moft to illuftrate it; that, by deferibing it in 
more elevated language, it may ftrike the mind more for- 
P A R 
cibly: but the intent of the latter is to withdraw the 
truth for a moment from our fight, in order to conceal 
whatever it may contain ungraceful or difgufting, and to 
enable it fecretiy to infinuate itfelf, and obtain an afeen- 
dancy as it were by ftealth. There is, however, a fpe¬ 
cies of parable, the intent of which is only to illuftrate 
the fubjeft; fuch is that remarkable one of Ezekiel, 
(chap, xxxi.) of the cedar of Lebanon ; than which, if 
we confider the imagery itfelf, none was ever more apt or 
more beautiful ; of the defeription and colouring, none 
was ever more elegant or fplendid; in which, however, 
the poet has occafionally allowed himfelf to blend the 
figurative with the literal defeription, (feever. 11,14-17.) 
whether he has done this becaufe the peculiar nature of 
this kind of parable required it, or whether his own fervid 
imagination alone, which difdained the ftrifter rules of 
compofition, was his guide, our learned author can 
fcarcely prefume to determine. 
In the New Teftament, the word parable is ufed va- 
rioufly. I11 Luke iv. 23. for a proverb, or adage ; in 
Matth. xv. 15. for a thing darkly and figuratively ex- 
prefled ; in Heb. ix. 9, &c. for a type ; in Luke xiv. 7, &c. 
tor a fpecial inftruftion ; Matth. xxiv. 32. fora fimilitude 
or comparifon. 
Parables, or fimilitudes, are of two forts, Ample and 
compound. Thofe are called Jimple, in which one thing 
only is likened or compared to another in this manner: 
as fwallows appear in fummer, but in winter retreat; fo 
' falfe friends fhow themfelves in profperity, but fly all 
away, when adverfity approaches. Compound fimilitudes 
are fuch wherein one thing is likened or compared to 
feveral others; as thus : What light is to the world, phy- 
fic to the lick, water to the thirfty, and reft to the weary ; 
that is knowledge, to the mind. The more exaft the 
agree'ment is between the things compared, they give the 
greater beauty and grace to the figure. Ward's Orat. 
vol. ii. 
To PAR'ABLE, v. a. To reprefent by a parable. — That 
was chiefly meant, which by the ancient fages was thus 
parubled. Milton's D 661 . and Difc. of Div. 
PAR'ABLE, adj. [from pa.ro, Lat. to prepare.] Eafily 
procured. Not in ufe. —They were not "well withers unto 
parable phyfic, remedies eaiily acquired, who derived me- 
decines from the pheenix. Brown. 
PARAB'OLA, f. [Latin.] A curve line arifing from a 
cone’s being cut by a plane parallel to one of its tides, 
or parallel to a plane that touches one fide of the cone. 
See Conic Sections, vol. v.—Had the velocities of the 
feveral planets been greater or lefs than they are now, at 
the fame diftances from the fun, they would not have 
revolved in concentric circles as they do, but have moved 
in hyperbolas ox parabolas, or in eliipfes very excentrick. 
Bentley's Serm. 
PARABOL'IC, or Parabolical, adj. [from pen-able.] 
Exprefled by parable or fimilitude.—The fche'me of thefe 
words is figurative, as being a parabolical defeription of 
God’s vouchfafing to the world the invaluable blefilng of 
the gofpel-by the fimilitude of a king. South. —Having 
the nature or form of a parabola; [from parabola.'] — 
The pellucid coat of the eye doth not lie in the fame fu- 
perncies with the white, but rifeth up a hillock above its 
convexity, and is of an hyperbolical or parabolical figure. 
Bay, —The incident ray will deferibe, in the refrafting 
medium, the parabolic curve. Cheyne's Phil. Prin. 
PARABOL'IC ALLY, adv. By way of parable or fimi¬ 
litude.— The words, not with ftanding paraloUcully in¬ 
tended, admit no literal inference. Brown's Vitlg-. Err. — 
In the form of a parabola. 
PARABOL'ICALNESS, f. The ftate of being para¬ 
bolical. 
PARABOLTFORM, adj. Having the form of a para¬ 
bola. 
PARAB'OLISM, f. In algebra, the divifion of the 
terms of an equation, by a known quantity that is in¬ 
volved or multiplied in the firlt term. 
3 PARAB'O- 
