PARIS. 443 
means. He fought with little courage'; and, at the very 
fight of Menelaus, whom he had fo recently injured, all 
his refolution vanifhed, and he retired from the front of 
the army, where he walked before like a conqueror. In 
a combat with Menelaus, which he undertook by means 
of his brother Heftor, Paris mull have perilhed, had not 
Venus interfered, and ftolen him from the refentment of 
his antagonift. He wounded, however, in another battle, 
Machaon, Euryphilus, and Diomedes; and, according to 
fome opinions, he killed with One of his arrows the great 
Achilles. 
The death of Paris is differently related : fome fay that 
he was mortally wounded by one of the arrow's of Phi- 
loftetes, which had been once in the pofleffion of Her¬ 
cules ; and that, when he found himfelf languid on 
account of his wounds, he ordered himfelf to be carried 
to the feet of CEnone, whom he had bafely abandoned, 
and who in the years of his obfcurity had foretold him 
that he would folicit her affiftance in his dying moments. 
He expired before he came into the prefence of CEnone ; 
and the nymph, ftili mindful of their former loves, threw 
herfelf upon his body, and dabbed herfelf to the heart, 
after fhe had plentifully bathed it with their tears. What¬ 
ever was the mode of his death, it is underftood to have 
taken place about the year 1188 B. C. 
It is agreed on all hands that Helen was taken back 
by her hufband after the death of Paris; (fee Helen, 
vol. ix.) but whether fhe was really in Troy during the 
war undertaken on her account, is not clear. It is pro¬ 
bable (lie was not; and it is always worthy of curiofity 
to obferve how far fable agrees with hiftory. The fallow¬ 
ing is an extraft from Salmon’s General Hiftory, (Alia.) 
“ Proteus, king of Egypt, refided at Memphis, where, 
in Herodotus’s time, his temple was ftili Handing, in 
which was a chapel dedicated to Venus the Stranger. Tt 
is conjectured that this Venus was Helen; for, in the reign 
of this monarch, Paris the Trojan, returning home with 
Helen, whom he had ftolen, w'as driven by a ftorm into 
one of the mouths of the Nile, called the Canopy, and 
thence was conduced to Proteus, at Memphis, who re¬ 
proached him in the ftrongeft terms for his perfidy in 
Healing the wife of his hoft with all the effefts in his 
houfe. He added, that the only reafon he did not punifh 
him with death, (as his crime deferved,) waSxbecaufe the 
Egyptians did not care to imbrue their hands in the blood 
of ftrangers ; but that he W'ould keep Helen, with all the 
riches that he brought with her, to reftore them to their 
owner; that, as for himfelf, (Paris,) he muft either quit 
his dominions in three days, or expeCt to be treated as 
an enemy. The king’s order was obeyed : Paris con¬ 
tinued his voyage, and arrived at Troy, whither he w'as 
clofely purfued by the Grecian army. The Greeks fum- 
.moned the Trojans to furrender Helen, and, wjith her, 
all the treafures of which her hufband had been plun¬ 
dered. The Trojans anfwered, that neither Helen nor 
her treafures were in their city ; nor indeed was it at all 
likely, fays Herodotus, that Priam, w'ho was fo wife an old 
prince, fhould choofe to fee his children and country de- 
ftroyed before his eyes, rather than give the Greeks the 
juft and reafonable fatisfaftion they defired. But it was 
to no purpofe for them to affirm, with an oath, that Helen 
was not in their city : the Greeks, being firmly perfuaded 
that they were trifled with, perfifted -obftinately in their 
unbelief. The Deity, continues the fame hiftorian, re- 
folved, that the Trojans, by the total deftrudtion of their 
city, fhould teach the affrighted world this leflon; that 
great crimes are attended with as great and fignal puniffi- 
ments from the offended gods. Menelaus, in his return 
from Troy, called at the'court of king Proteus, who re- 
ftored him Helen with all her treafure. Her.odotus proves, 
from fome paffages in Homer, that the voyage of Paris 
to Egypt was not unknown to this poet.” 
How much might the efteCt of that excellent poem the 
Iliad, .have been heightened, had it been.carried on agree¬ 
ably to the hiftory, as above related ! At prefent, Priam’s 
age and misfortunes can excite no real companion, while 
he detains Menelaus’s wife in the city, and protects Paris 
in his outrage. It may be objected to this, that the 
abfence of Helen would deprive us of many fine deferip- 
tions, and a beautiful epifode: but there is little doubt 
the poet could have fupplied thefe in another manner; 
and the mainfubjedl of the poem (the anger of Achilles) 
would have buffered no alteration. 
PARTS, f. [of very obfeure etymology. Profeffor 
Martyn leaves it unexplained, as Tournefort and Linnaeus 
had done before him, all of them either overlooking, or 
being diflatisfied with, the explanation of Ambrofinus, 
who, in his Phytologia 506, derives it a paritate foliorum, 
from the uniformity or equality of the four leaves, which 
make, as it were, two pair, equally fituated. As the 
Engliffi name is herb truelove, perhaps it may be derived 
from that famous lover of antiquity, the fubjedt of the pre¬ 
ceding article.] Herb Paris; in botany, a genus of theclafs 
o&andria, order tetragynia, natural order of farmentaceae, 
(afparagi, Jiijff.) Generic characters—Galyx : perianth 
four-leaved, "permanent; leaflets lanceolate, acute, the 
fize of the corolla, fpreading. Corolla: petals four, 
fpreading, awl-fliaped, (linear, Gartner,) )ike the calyx, 
permanent. Stamina: filaments eight, awl-fhaped, below 
the anthers ftiort; antherae long, faftened on both fides 
to the middle of the filaments. Piftillum .- germ fuperior, 
round-four-cornered, (or fubglobular.) Styles four, 
fpreading, ftiorter than the ftamens ; ftigmas Ample. Pe- 
ricarpium: berry globular-four-cornered, four-celled. 
Seeds feveral, incumbent in a double row'.— EJJ'ential Cha- 
va6ler. Calyx four-leaved ; petals four, narrower than the 
calyx ; berry four-celled. There are two fpecies. 
1. Paris quadrifolia, herb Paris, true-love, or one- 
berry: leaves ovate, about four. Few plants are more 
readily diftinguiftied than this, by the proportion and 
regularity of all the parts. Stalk quite Ample or un¬ 
branched, upright, fmooth, round, naked. Leaves four, 
in a crofs, or a lort of whorl, fpreading, feffile at the top 
of the ftalk, ovate, quite entire, drawn to a point, fmooth, 
nerved underneath, three or four inches long, and two 
wide. Peduncle Angle, riling from the middle of the four 
leaves, fomewhat angular, about an inch in length, fup- 
porting one greenifli flower, an inch in diameter. Cal¬ 
cine leaflets four, linear-lanceolate, acute, reflex. Petals 
alfo four, very narrow', reflex, a little ihorter than the 
calyx; ftamens eight; antherae in the middle of the fila¬ 
ment; ftyles four, three times Ihorter than the ftamens: 
hardly fo long as the berry, purpiifli black. Berry one, 
black, large, flatted at top, obfeurely four-grooved, 
fmooth, juicy, and containing - in each cell fix or eight 
feeds. Root perennial, flelhy. See the anriexed Plate. 
The leaves and berries are faid to partake of the pro¬ 
perties of opium; and the juice of the latter to be ufeful 
in inflammations of the eyes. Linnaeus fays the root will 
vomit as well as ipecacuanha, given in a double quantity. 
Bergius recommends the herb for difeuffing buboes and 
other inflammatory tumours, in the hooping orconvulfive 
cough, &c. Gefner experienced it to be an antidote to 
the poifon of the nux vomica. Having given a fcruple 
of if to two dogs, he gave one a dram of the herb, and it 
recovered ; the other died. He alfo took a dram of the 
herb himfelf, without any eft’eCl except a drynefs in the 
fauces, and fome fweat. Burghard on the contrary fays, 
that cardialgia and vomiting enfue from the ufe of it; 
and Krocker was credibly informed, that a child died by 
eating the berries, and that another was recovered with 
difficulty. Gefner affirms that the berries are baneful to 
poultry. It ought therefore to be given with great cau¬ 
tion. One fcruple is given twice a-day. 
Herb Paris is a native of moft countries of Europe, 
particularly the northern parts; and alfo of Japan. In 
Britain it is not uncommon, in woods, efpecially thofe 
which are thick, and on ftrong foil. Gerard fays, “ it 
grows .plentifully in Chalkney-wood, near Wakes Colne 
in Eflex, in the parfonage orchard at Radwinter, and in 
Bocking- 
