432 
PAR 
they believed it was done for a juft caufe. We read of it 
in the laws of Henry I. After fuch abjuration, the per¬ 
son was incapable of inheriting any thing from any of his 
relations, &c. 
PARENTHESIS, f [Greek ; of ircipa, between, and 
pofition; q. d. putting between.] Intercalary 
•words inferted in a difcourfe, which interrupt the fenfe 
or thread, but which feetn necefiary for the fuller under- 
itanding of the fubjedf. The proper charadferiftic of a 
'parenthefis is, that it may be either taken in, or left out, 
the fenfe and grammar remaining entire. In fpeaking, 
parenthefes are to be pronounced in a different tone ; and 
in writing they are inclofed thus ( ), to diftinguifh them 
from the reft of the difcourfe. The character itfelf, 
whereby they are diftinguifbc-d, is alfo called a parenthefis. 
The long parent hefts which fo frequently occurs in the 
old writers, to the great embarrafiment and perplexity of 
their meaning, has fallen much intodifufe. It has been 
remarked that the parenthefis occurs in no place of John- 
fion’s writings. Authors have fhortened their fentences, 
which, in fome of the beft writers of the feventeenth and 
-the beginning of the laft century, were extended to an 
almoft immeafurable length; and they have ftated their 
fentitnents to much more advantage, by feparating their 
ideas from each other, and exprefting them with greater 
exadfnefs. Whether, however, this circumftance may not 
.argue a want of fertility of ideas, and a tardinefs of con¬ 
ception, might be a fubjedf of inquiry; and it mu ft, however, 
be allowed, that the pradfice of writing in ftiort fentences 
has a tendency to give language a disjointed appearance; 
and detradls from roundnefs of period, and dignity of 
.compofition ; but it certainly contributes materially to 
perfpicuity. Modern Preceptor. 
Thou fhalt be feen 
■(Though with fome fhort parenthefis between) 
High on the throne of wit. Dry den. 
PARENTHET'IC, or Parenthetical, adj. Pertain¬ 
ing to a parenthefis.—This is a parenthetical obfervation 
of Mofes himfelf. Dr. Hales on Dent, xxxii. 31.—Ufing 
parenthefes.—If Pope’s temper had not led him to per- 
lonality, the obfervation of Cleland, (whom he deferibes 
as a man of fenfe and of integrity, and, to be very paren¬ 
thetic, who was the Will Honeycomb of the Spedlator’s 
club,) in a letter to him, “ that all fuch writings and dif- 
courles as touch no man, will mend no man,” might 
have given the biafs to his pen. Tyers's Rhapfody on Pope. 
PARENTHET'IC ALLY, ado. In a parenthefis.—This 
intelligence is certainly mentioned parenthetically. Bry¬ 
ant's Obf on Script. 
PARENTICIDE, f. [from the Lat. parens, a parent, 
and ceedo, to kill.] One who murders a parent. 
PAREN'TIS de BOR'N, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Landes, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftridt of Mont-de-Marlan : thirty-three miles north 
of Tartas. The place contains 1440 fouls. 
PA'RENTLESS, adj. Deprived of parents : 
Thy orphans left poore, parentlejfe, alone, 
The future time’s fad miferie to mone. Mir.for Mag, 
PAREN'ZA, a feaport town of Iftria; the fee of a 
bifhop. It is a well-built town, fituated on a rock, with 
a harbour for large velfels: thirty-four miles fouth of 
Triefte. Lat. 45. 18. N. Ion. 13. 40. E. 
PA'RER, J\ An inftrument to cut away the furface : 
A hone and a parer, like foie of a boot, 
To pare away graffe, and to raife up the root. Tvjfer. 
PARER'GA, f. [Gr. of irapx, with or befide, and 
zpyov, work.] A term fometimes ufed in architedfure, for 
additions, or appendages, made by way of ornament to a 
principal work. It is fometimes alfo uled in painting, for 
little pieces, or compartiments, on the fides, or in the 
corners, of the principal pieces. Hence, 
PARRR'GY, f. Something unimportant j fomething 
2 
PAR 
done by the by.—Scripture being ferious, and commonly 
omitting fuch parcrgics, it will be unreafonable to con¬ 
demn all laughter. Brown. 
PARE'SIS, f. [from ircipiypi, Gr. to relax.] The third 
divifion, or fpecies, of pally, (fee p. 303.) but by fome 
confined to a palfy of the bladder, attended either with 
retention of the urine, or involuntary difeharge of it. 
PARETO'NIUM, f. The name of an earth anciently 
found on the fhores of Egypt, Cyrene, and the ifland of 
Crete; and uled by the ancients,in painting. It had its 
name either from a part of Egypt near which it was ga¬ 
thered, or from the name of a town in that kingdom 
where it was ufually fold. Vitruvius is of the firft opi¬ 
nion, and Volaternus of the other. Of late we have been 
taught to think it loft; but it is ftill common on 1110ft of 
the fhores of the iflands of the Archipelago, though not 
obferved or regarded ; and is truly a very heavy and 
tough clay, of a fine w hite colour, found in maffes of dif¬ 
ferent fixes', generally as- foft as the fofter clays within the 
ftrata ; and, by rolling about on the beach in this date, 
it gathers up the land, fmall fhells, and other foulnefle9, 
we always find about it. It is moil: probable, that there 
are ftrata of it fine and pure in the cliffs there, and that 
the fea wadies off maffes of them in ftorras and high tides, 
which are what we find. 
PARE'US (David), whofe proper name was Wangler, 
a celebrated German divine of the reformed communion, 
was born at Francoliein in Silefia, in the year 1548. His 
father, who was the fon of a wealthy peafant, after having 
him educated at a fchool in his native town, placed him 
as an apprentice, at firft with an apothecary ; and after¬ 
wards, at the inftigation of an ill-humoured fecond wife, 
with a fhoemaker. This humble fituation did not reprefs 
the early inclination which young David had difeovered 
for acquiring learning ; and at length his father permitted 
him to follow the bent of his mind. When he was fixteen 
years of age, therefore, he was fent to Hirchberg, where 
there was a college, of which Chriftopher Schilling, a man 
of confiderable learning, was the principal. It was a pre¬ 
valent cuftom in thofe times, among fuch ftudents as de¬ 
voted themfelves to literary purfuits, to change their 
family-names for others taken from the Greek language, 
carrying with them a fimilar meaning ; and of this cuftom 
Schilling was an admirer: he, therefore, perfuaded our 
young fcholar to take the name of Parens, formed from 
the Greek word vrupetet, which fignifies “ the cheek,” as 
wange, whence his family name Wangler was formed, 
does in the German. David had not been fettled many 
months at Hirchberg, before he found means to fupport 
his expenfes, by undertaking the office of private tutor 
in the family of an honeft citizen ; and by the handfome 
prefents which he received from one of the principal in¬ 
habitants of the place, for writing fome verfes on the death 
of his eldeft fon, and other poems with the fubjedfs of 
which that gentleman furnilhed him. In the mean time. 
Schilling had not only perfuaded his pupil to change his 
name, but had made a convert of him from Lutheranifm, 
in which he had been educated, to the principles of the 
reformed church, on the fubjedf of the real prefence ; and 
he fucceeded in the fame manner with the reft of his 
fcholars. This change in dodfrinal fentiment involved 
both the mailer and pupil in no little trouble : the former 
being expelled from his college, at the inftigation of the 
minifter of that place; and the latter running the rilk of 
being difinherited by his exafperated father. With great 
difficulty, when his father’s anger was a little cooled, he 
obtained his permiffion to go and finilh his ftudies in the 
Palatinate; but, fo trifling was the fum which his father 
allowed him for his journey, that he was fometimes re¬ 
duced to the neceffity of begging for fubfiftence on the 
road ; at length, however, he arrived at Amberg, where the 
eledfor-palatine, Frederic III. had appointed his mafter 
Schilling principal of a new college which he had founded 
at that place. Soon afterwards, in 1566, he was lent 
with ten of his fchoolfellows to Heidelberg; and they 
carried 
