PER 
PER 
each pe&oral fin, A in each ventral, 16 in the tail, in 
the dorl'al, T 3 ^ in the anal. Found between Greenland 
and Norway. The operculum terminates in a long fpine. 
Noftrils double, Tome fay treble. Scales round, large, and 
ftrongly adherent. The dorfal fin reaches from the top 
of the head to the tail. 
PERCAPTU'R A, f. in old records, a wear or dam in 
a river for catching fifii. 
PERCA'SE, adv. Perchance ; perhaps. Not ufed .—’A 
virtuous man will be virtuous in folitudine, and not only 
in theatro, though percafe it will be more ftrong by glory 
and fame, as an heat which is doubled by reflexion. 
Bacon. 
PERCE', adj. In heraldry, perforated, reprefented as 
having a hole bored through. 
PER'CEANT, adj. [percant, Fr.] Piercing; penetra¬ 
ting. Obfolete. 
Wonderous quick and perceant was his fpright, 
As eagle’s eyes that can behold the fun. Spenfer. 
PERCE'E (Ifle), a fmall but remarkable ifland on the 
weft fide of the Gulf of St. Laurence; being a perpendi¬ 
cular rock, pierced with two natural arches, through 
which the fea flows. One of thefe arches is large enough 
to admit a large boat to pafs through it: fifteen miles 
fouth of Cape Gafpee. 
PERCEIA'NA, in ancient geography, a town of 
Spain, in the route from the mouth of the river Anas to 
Emerita, according to the Itinerary of Antonine. 
PERCE'IVABLE, adj. [from perceive.'] Perceptible ; 
fuch as falls under perception.—The body, though it 
really moves, yet, not changing perceivable diftance with 
fome other bodies as fall as the ideas of our own minds 
will follow one another, feems to ftand ftill; as the hands 
of clocks. Locke. —That which we perceive when we fee 
figure, as perceivable by fight, is nothing but the termina¬ 
tion of colour. Locke. 
PERCE'IVABLY, adv. In fuch a manner as may be 
obferved or known. 
PERCE'IVANCE, f. Power of perceiving. — The 
fenfes, and common perceivance, might carry this meflage 
to the foul within, that it is neither eafeful, profitable, 
nor praifeworthy, in this life, to do evil. Milton’s Beaf. of 
Ch. Gov. —Haft thou any perceivance of thefe things, and 
do they make any impreflion upon thy mind ? Tranfl. of 
Boethius, 1674. 
To PERCE'IVE, v, a. [ pcrcipio, Lat.] To difcover by 
fome fenfible effects: 
When you above perceive me like a crow. 
That it is place which leflens and fets off. Shakefpeare. 
To know; to obferve.—Jefus perceived in his fpirit that 
they fo reafoned within themfelves. Mark, ii. 8.—His 
fons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they 
are brought low, but he perceiveth it not. Job, xiv. 21.— 
Till we Gurfelves fee it with our own eyes, and perceive 
it by our own underftandings, we are ftill in the dark. 
Locke. —How do they come to know' that themfelves think, 
when they themfelves do not perceive it ? Locke. —To be 
affeSled by.—The upper regions of the air perceive the 
colleftion of the matter of tempefts before the air here 
below. Bacon. 
PERCEI'VER, f One who perceives or obferves.— 
Which eftimation they have gained among weak percei- 
vers. Milton's Tetrachordon. 
PERCEL'LES (John), a Dutch engraver, the pupil of 
H. Cornelius de Vrooms, was born at Leyden in the year 
1597. His fon Julius was a native of the fame city, and 
both excelled in painting and engraving fhipwrecks, and 
other marine fubjefts. From the circumftance of the 
works of the father and fon being marked with the fame 
initial letters, fomeconfufion has arifen ; nor is it known 
whether to attribute the twelve fmall fea-views which 
bear thefe initials, to John or Julius. Another fet of 
twelve in folio, of which the fubjedts are the Dutch navy, 
597 
are etched in a fomewhat broader ftyle, and are mod 
likely the performance of the elder Percelles, being in- 
fcribed “Notatae a' famofiflimo Navium Piftore Johannes 
Percelles,” without any feparate mention of the engra¬ 
ver’s name. 
PER'CEPIER, f. in botany. See Aphanes. 
PERCEPTIBILITY, f The ftate of being an objeft 
of the fenfes or mind ; the ftate of being perceptible. 
Perception ; the power of perceiving. Not proper. —The 
illumination is not fo bright and fulgent, as to obfcure or 
extinguifh all perceptibility of the reafon. More. 
PERCEP'TIBLE, adj. [Fr. from perceptus, Lat.] 
Such as may be known or obferved.—No found is pro¬ 
duced but with a perceptible blaft of the air, and with fome 
refiftance of the air ftrucken. Bacon. —When I think, re¬ 
member, or abftraft ; thefe intrinfick operations of my 
mind are not perceptible by my fight, hearing, tafte, fmell, 
or feeling. Hale's Orig. of Mankind. —In the anatomy of 
the mind, as of the body, more good will accrue to man¬ 
kind by attending to the large, open, and perceptible, parts, 
than by ftudying too much finer nerves. Pope. —Capable 
of perception.—The foul, when feparated from the body, 
becomes more perceptible of happinefs or mifery. Greene's 
Four Lafl Things. 
PERCEP'TIBLY, adv. In fuch a manner as may be 
perceived.—The woman decays perceptibly every week. 
Pope. 
PERCEP'TION, /'. [Fr. perceptio, Lat.] The power 
perceiving; knowledge; confcioufnefs. — Perception is 
that a6f of the mind, or rather a paflion or impreflion, 
whereby the mind becomes confcious of any thing; as 
when I feel hunger, thirft, cold, or heat. Watts. —Matter 
hath no life nor perception, and is not confcious of its own 
exiftence. Bentley. —The aft of perceiving; obfervation. 
Notion ; idea.—By the inventors, and their followers 
that would feem not to come too fliort of the perceptions 
of the leaders, they are magnified. Hale's Origin of Man¬ 
kind. —The ftate of being aftefted by fomething.—Great 
mountains have a perception of the difpofition of the air 
to tempefts fooner than the vallies below; and therefore 
they fay in Wales, when certain hills have their night¬ 
caps on, they mean mifehief. Bacon. —This experiment 
difeovereth perception in plants to move towards that 
which (hould comfort them, though at a diftance. Bacon . 
PERCEP'TIVE, adj. [ perceptus , Lat.] Having the 
power of perceiving.—There is a difficulty that pincheth : 
the foul is awake and follicited by external motions, for 
fome of them reach the perceptive region in the molt 
filent repofe and obfeurity of night: what is it then that 
prevents our fenfations ? Glanville. —Whatever the leaft 
real point of the efl’ence of the perceptive part of the foul 
does perceive, every real point of the perceptive mull per¬ 
ceive at once. More's Dialogues. 
PERCEPTIV'ITY, f. The power of perception or 
thinking.—When the body is quite wearied out, con¬ 
fcioufnefs and perceptivity do not leave the foul. A. Bax¬ 
ter on the Soul.-— Although there be the difference of life 
and perceptivity between the animal and the plant, it is a 
difference which enters not into the account. Paley's 
Nat. Theol. 
PER'CEVAL (Spencer), born Nov. 1, 1761, was fon 
of John, the late earl of Egmont, by Catharine Comp¬ 
ton, filter to Spencer earl of Northampton, from whom 
he took the Chriftian name of Spencer. His mother was, 
in 1770, created a peerefs of Ireland, in her own right, 
with the title of Baronefs Arden; and, dying in 1784, 
file was fucceeded by her eidelt fon, Charles-George, 
who, in July 1808, was raifed to the peerage of England. 
See the article Heraldry, vol. ix. p. 591, 2. Mr. Per¬ 
ceval’s infancy was fpent at Charlton in Kent, the feat 
of his family, where he received the elements of his edu¬ 
cation. After this he went to Harrow fchcol, where he 
was diftinguilhed for the gentlenefs of his manners, the 
benevolence of his difpofition, and the goodnefs of his 
heart: here he was contemporary with fir William Jones; 
3 and, 
