PAR 
To PAR'BREAK, v. a. Toejeft fromthe ftomach.—- 
If thou findeft honey, eate fo much as is fiufficient for 
thee, left thou be over full, and parhreake it out agayne. 
Prov. xxv. 16. (edit. 1569.) 
PAR'BREAK, f. Vomit,—Her filthy parbreak all the 
place defiled has. Spenfer. 
PAR'CiE, in mythology, powerful goddeftes who pre- 
fuled over the birth and the life of mankind. They were 
•three in number, Clotho, Lachefis, and Atropos, daugh¬ 
ters of Noxand Erebus,according to Hefiod, or of Jupiter 
and Themis, according to the fame poet in another poem. 
Some make them daughters of the fea. Clotho, the 
youngelt of the filters, prefided over the moment in which 
we are born, and held a diftaft in her hand ; Lachefis fpun 
out all the events and aftions of our life; and Atropps, 
the eldeft of the three, cut the thread of human life with 
a pair of fciflars. Their different functions are well ex- 
prefled in this ancient verfe : Clotho coltnn retinet, Lachefis 
net , et Atropos occat. 
The name of the Parcse, according to Varro, is derived 
a partu or parturiendo, becaule they prefided over the birth 
of men ; but by Servius it is explained quod nemini parcant , 
becaufe they fpare nobody. Their power was great and 
extenfive. Some fuppofe that they were fubjefted to none 
of the gods but Jupiter; while others fupport, that even 
Jupiter himfelf was obedient to their commands; and 
indeed we fee the father of the gods in Homer’s Iliad un¬ 
willing to let Patroclus perilh, yet obliged by the fuperior 
power of the Fates to abandon him to his deftiny. Ac¬ 
cording to the more received opinions, they were the 
arbiters of the life and death of mankind ; and whatever 
good or evil befalls us in this world, immediately proceeds 
from the Fates, or Parcre. Some make them minifters of 
the king of hell, and reprefent them as fitting at the foot 
of his throne ; others reprefent them as placed on radiant 
throne's, amidft the celeftial fpheres, clothed in robes 
fpangled with liars, and wearing crowns on their heads. 
According to Paufanias, the names of the Parcte were 
different from thofe already mentioned. The moll ancient 
of all, as the geographer obferves, was Venus Urania, who 
prefided over the birth of men; the fecond was Fortune; 
Ilithya was the third. To thele fome add a fourth, Pro- 
ferpina, who often difputes with Atropos the right of 
cutting the thread of human life. 
The worlhip of the Parcae was fully eftablifhed in fome 
cities of Greece; and, though mankind were well con¬ 
vinced that they, were inexorable, and that it was impoffi- 
ble to mitigate them, yet they were eager to fhow a pro¬ 
per refpeft for their divinity, by railing them temples 
and ftatues. They received the feme worfhip as the Fu¬ 
ries; and their votaries yearly facrificecl to them black 
flteep, during which folemnity the priefts were obliged to 
wear garlands of flowers. The Parcse were generally re- 
prefented as three old women, with chaplets made of 
wool, and interwoven with the flowers of the narcifius. 
They were covered with a white robe, and a fillet of the 
fame colour, bound with chaplets. One of them held a 
diftaff, another the fpindle, and the third was armed with 
fciflars, with which fhe cut the thread which her filters 
had fpun. Their drefs is differently reprefented by fome 
authors. Clotho appears in a variegated robe, and on 
her head is a crown of feven ltars. She holds a diftaff in 
her hand reaching from heaven to earth. The robe which 
Lachefis wore was variegated with a great number of 
liars ; and near her were placed a variety of fpindles. 
Atropos was clothed in black ; file held fciflars -in her 
hand, with clues of thread of different fizes, according to 
the length and fhortnefs of the lives whofe deftinies they 
feemed to contain. 
PAR'CAS, a town of Wallachia: fixteen miles fouth 
of Brancovani. 
PARCAY', a town of France, in the department of the 
Mayne and Loire : twelve miles fouth-eaft of Bauge, and 
fourteen north-eaft of Saumur. 
VOL. XVIII. No. 1254. 
3? A R 421 
PARCE', a town of France, in the department of the 
Ille and Vilaine: four miles fouth of Fougeres. 
PARCE'a town of France, in the department of the 
Sarte: fix miles eaft of Sable, and eighteeen fiouth-weft 
of Le Mans. 
PAR'CEL, f. [parcolic, Fr. particula, Lat.] A finall 
bundle ; a part of the whole ; a part taken.feparately.— 
With what face could finch a great man have begged 
fuch a parcel of tlte croivn-lands; one a vail fium of money, 
another the forfeited eltate ? Davenant. —I have known 
penfions given to particular perions, any one of which, if 
divided into fmaller parcels, and diftributed to thofe who 
diltinguilhed themfielves by wit or learning, would an- 
fwertheend. Swift. 
I drew from her a prayer of earned heart. 
That I would all my pilgrimage delate, 
Whereof by parcels fhe had fiomething heard. Shaltefp. 
An inventory, thus importing 
The feveral parcels of his plate, his treafiure, 
Rich Huffs, and ornaments of houfiehold. SkuJtefpeare. 
A quantity or mats.—What can be rationally conceived 
in fio transparent a fiubltance as water for the production 
of thefie colours, belides the various fizes of its fluid and 
globular parcels. Newton. —A number of perfons: in con¬ 
tempt : 
This youthful parcel 
Of noble batchelors Hand at my bellowing. Shaltefp. 
Any number or quantity : in contempt.—They came to 
this conclufion ; that, unlefs they could, by a parcel of 
fair words and pretences, engage them into a confede¬ 
racy, there was no good to be done. L'Efran^e. 
To PAR'CEL, v.a. To divide into portions 5 with out. 
■—If they allot and parcel out feveral perfections to feveral 
deities, do they not, by this, aflert contradictions, making- 
deity only to fuch a raeafure perfeCt ? whereas a deity 
implies perfection beyond all meafure. South. 
Thofe gholtly kings would parcel out my power. 
And all the fatnefs of my land devour. Dryden. 
To make up into a mafs.—What a wounding flume, that 
mine own fervant fhould parcel the fum of my difgraces 
by addition of his envy ! Shahefpeare. —Tollrengthen by 
laying on a ftrip of canvafs ; a lea-term. 
PAR'CELLING,/ In (hip-building, lon'g narrow flips 
of canvas payed or dipt in foft tar, which are bound 
round the furface of ropes in fpiral turns, as fmoothly as 
poffible, before it is Jerved, that the rope may not be un¬ 
even, or full of ridges, and to further preferve it from the 
injuries of weather, &c. 
Parcelling a Seam, is laying a flip of canvas, pre¬ 
pared as above, over the feam, firft paying under it, and 
then over it, with foft tar or melted pitch. This Ihould 
be always performed when feams are covered by the 
cheeks of the heads. See. or, what is better, covered with 
fheet copper. 
PAR'CEL-MAKER, f. One of the two officers in the 
exchequer who make up the accounts of the efeheator. 
PAR'CELOR a mountain of Alia, on the coalt of Sa- 
lengore, near the Straits of Malacca. Lat. 2. 45. N. 
Ion. 101. 29. E. 
PAR'CENER, f. [quafi parceller, i. e. rem in parceling 
dividens. Cow el.} A parcener is according to the courfe 
of the common law, or according to cuftom.—Where a 
perfon feized in fee T fimple (or fee-tail) dies, and his next 
heirs are two or more females, his daughters, filters, aunts, 
coufins, or their reprefentatives ; in this cafe they ffiall all 
inherit by common law; and thefe coheirs are then called 
coparceners ; or, for brevity, parceners only. Parceners hr/ 
particular cuftom are where lands defeend, as in gavelkind, 
to all the males in equal degree, as fons, brother, uncles, 
&c. In either of thefe cafes, all the parceners put together 
make but one heir. Blachjione. 
Parceners are fo called, fays Littleton, becaufe they 
5 P may 
