PER 
PER 
of the item and root, but for the occafional variations ob- 
fervable in both. 
PERPENDICULARLY, adv. In fuch a manner as to 
cut another line at right angles.—In the direftion of a 
ftraight line up and down.—Shoot up an arrow •perpendi¬ 
cularly from the earth, the arrow will return to your foot 
again. More. —All weights naturally move perpendicularly 
downward. Ray. 
Ten marts attach’d make not the altitude 
Which thou haft perpendicularly fallen. Shakefpeare. 
PERPEN'NA. See the article Rome. 
PERPEN'SION,yi [from perpend.'] Confideration. Not 
in vfe. —Unto reasonable perpenjiuns it hath no place in 
fome fciences. Brown's Vulg. Err. 
PERPEN'SUM, f. in botany. See Gunnera. 
PERPES'SIONjj'i [perpejjio, Lat.] Suffering.—The eter¬ 
nity of deftruftion in the language of Scripture fignifies 
a perpetual perpejjion and duration in mifery. Pearfon on 
the Creed. 
To PER'PETRATE, v.a. [perpetro , Lat.] To commit: 
to a« 5 t. Always in an ill fenfe : 
Hear of fuch a crime 
As tragick poets, fince the birth of time 
Ne’er feign’d a thronging audience to amaze ; 
But true and perpetrated in our days. Tate. 
It is ufed by Butler in a neutral fenfe, in compliance with 
his verfe, but not properly: 
Succefs, the mark no mortal wit 
Or fureft hand can always hit; 
For whatfoe’er we perpetrate, 
We do but row, we’re fteer’d by fate. Hudibras. 
PERPETR A'TION, f. The aft of committing a crime. 
—A defperate difcontented aflaflinate would, after the 
perpetration , have honefted a meer private revenge. Wotton. 
—A woman, who lends an ear to a feducer, may be infen- 
ftbly drawn into th t perpetration of the moft violent afts. 
Richardfon's Clarijfa. —A bad aftion.—The ftrokes of di¬ 
vine vengeance, or of men’s own confciences, always at¬ 
tend injurious perpetrations. King Charles. 
PERPET'UA (Cape), lies on the north-weft coaft of 
North America, in lat. 44. 6. N. Ion. 235. 52. E. This is 
the northern extreme of the projefting land ; and the 
fouthern extreme was called by Cook “ Cape Gregory,” 
in lat. 43. 30. N. Ion. 235. 57. E. 
PERPET'UA (Saint),was a married lady of diftinguilh- 
ed parentage, and only in the 22d year of her age, when 
file was ordered into confinement, by Minutius Firmianus, 
the procanful of Africa, in the fifth general perfecution 
of the Chriftians, under the emperor Severus; who, hav¬ 
ing in the early part of his fovereignty been favourable to 
Chriftianity, proved, in the fublequent period of his 
reign, one of its moft unrelenting and bitter enemies. 
The hufband and mother of Perpetua were reputed Chrif¬ 
tians ; her father was a heathen. While under confine¬ 
ment, every art which parental authority or affeftion 
could diftate, was effayed by the father of Perpetua, to 
make her abandon the Chriftian faith, and fave the life of 
herfelf and that of the infant which ftie nourilhed at her 
breaft: but fhe remained firm againft every effort; and, 
when under the awful examination before Hillarian the 
procurator, who officiated as judge, difplayed the moft 
heroic fortitude, receiving with magnanimous refigna- 
tion her fentence “ to be devoured by wild beafts.” A 
conduft fo noble wrought upon Hillarian, who afterwards 
embraced thofe doftrines which he found no reafon could 
refute, or earthly power overcome. In the amphitheatre, 
where Perpetua was expofed to the fury of an enraged 
bull, (he received feveral bruifes from the animal, though 
none of immediate danger; and was finally difpatched by 
the hands of the public executioner, amidft the feoffs and 
exultations of the brutal fpeftators, A. D. 205. 
St. Auguftin records, that the day of Perpetua’s mar¬ 
tyrdom was commemorated in his time; but why, after 
637 
having been expunged from our calendar by the firft re¬ 
formers, it was again introduced, not any reafon has been 
afligned. It Hands, in our calendar, againft the 7th of 
March. 
PERPET'UAL, adj. [perpetuel , Fr. perpetuus, Lat.] 
Never ceafing; eternal with refpeft to futurity.—Under 
the fame moral, and therefore under the tame perpetual, 
law. Holyday. 
Mine is a love, which muft perpetual be, 
If you can be fo juft as I am true. Dryden. 
Continual; uninterrupted; perennial.—By the mufcular 
motion and perpetual flux of the liquids, a great part of 
them is thrown out of the body. Arbuthnot. 
Within thofe banks, where rivers now 
Stream, and perpetual draw their humid train. Milton. 
A ferew which afts againft the teeth of a wheel, and con¬ 
tinues its aftion without end ; and hence called other- 
wife an endlefs ferew.— A perpetual ferew hath the motion 
of a wheel and the force of a ferew, being both infinite. 
Wilkins's Math. Magick. 
Perpetual is fometimes alfo ufed for a thing that 
lafts, or holds, during a perfon’s life. Thus offices, &c. 
held durante vita, are fometimes called perpetual offices. 
In this fenfe, M. Fontenelle was faid to be perpetual fe- 
cretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences 5 and the French 
called him abfolutely, M. le Perpetuel. 
Perpetual Pills, Pilalce perpetua, among phyficians, 
are pills made of regulus of antimony;’which, being 
fwallowed and voided fifty times, will purge every time 
with undiminifhed force. Chambers. 
PERPET'UALLY, adv. Conftantly ; continually; in- 
ceffantly.—The bible and common prayer book in the 
vulgar tongue, being perpetually read in churches, have 
proved a kind of ftandard for language, efpecially to the 
common people. Swift. 
To PERPETUATE, v.a. [perpeluer, Fr. from perpetua, 
Lat.] To make perpetual; to preferve from extinftion; 
to eternize.—Medals, that are at prefent only mere curio- 
fities, may be of ufe in the ordinary commerce of life, and 
at the fame time perpetuate the glories of her majefty’s 
reign. AddiJ'on. —To continue without ceflation or inter- 
miflion.—What is it, but a continued perpetuated voice 
from heaven, refounding for ever in our ears ? to give men 
no reft in their fins, no quiet from Chrift’s importunity, 
till they awake from their letharglck deep and arife from 
fo mortiferous a ftate, and permit him to give them life. 
Hammond. 
PERPETUA'TION, f. The aft of making perpetual; 
inceflant continuance.—Nourilhing hair upon the moles 
of the face is the perpetuation of a very ancient cuftom. 
Brown's Vulg. Err. —Now the prophetical funftion con- 
fifteth in the promulgation, confirmation, and perpetua¬ 
tion, of the doftrine containing the will of God for the 
falvation of man. Pearfon on the Creed. 
PERPETUITY, f. [ perpetuite , Fr. from perpetuitas, 
Lat.] Duration to all futurity.—For men to alter thofe 
laws, which God for perpetuity hath eftablilhed, were pre- 
fumption moft intolerable. Hooker. —There can be no 
other affuranceof the perpetuity of this church, but what 
we have from him that built it. Pearfon. 
Yet am I better 
Than one that’s fick o’ the gout, fince he had rather 
Groan fo in perpetuity, than be cur’d 
By the fure phyfician, death. Shakefpeare's Cymbeline. 
Exemption from intermiflion or ceflation.—A cycle or pe¬ 
riod begins again as often as it ends, and fo obtains a per¬ 
petuity. Holder. — What the Gofpel enjoins is a conftant 
difpofition of mind to praftifeall Chriftian virtues, as often 
as time and opportunity require ; and not a perpetuity of 
exercife and aftion ; it being impoffible at one and the 
fame time to difeharge variety of duties. Nelfon. —Some¬ 
thing of which there is no end.—A mefs of pottage for a 
birthright; 
