PER 
653 
—Wait the feafons of providence with patience and per- 
feverance in the duties of our calling, what difficulties 
foever we may encounter. L' Ef range. —Patience and per- 
feverance overcome the greateft difficulties. Richardfov. 
The king-becoming graces, 
Bounty, perfeverav.ee, mercy, lowlinefs. Shaliefpeare. 
Continuance in a (late of grace.—We place the grace of 
God in the throne, to rule and reign in the whole work 
of converfion, perfeverance, and falvation. Hammond. 
PERSEVE'RANT, adj. [Fr. perfeverans , Lat.] Per- 
fifting; conftant.—How early was he [Job] and perfeve- 
rant to look after his revelling children’s exorbitances! 
to offer facrifices for them, and fanftifie them ! Bp. Pri- 
deaux's Euchologia. —What obedience do we yield to the 
whole law of our God ? If that be entire, hearty, uni- 
verfal, conftant, perfeveravt, and truly conscientious, we 
have whereof to rejoice. Bp. Hall's Rem. 
PERSEVE'RANTLY, adv. With conftancy.—That I 
may love thee ftrongly, purely, perfectly, perfeveranthj. 
Spiritual Conquejl, 1651. 
To PERSEVE'RE, v.n. [perfevero, Lat. perfeverer, Fr.] 
To perfift in an attempt; not to give over ; not to quit 
tliedefign.—To perfevere in any evil courfe, makes you 
unhappy in this life, and will certainly throw you into 
everlafting torments in the next. Wahe's Prep, for Death. 
Thrice happy, if they know 
Their happinefs, and perfevere upright ! Milton's P. L. 
Thus beginning, thus we perfevere ; 
Ourpaffions yet continue what they were. Dryden. 
This word was anciently accented, lefs properly, on the 
fecond Fyliable : 
But my rude mufic, which was wont to pleafe 
Some dainty ears, cannot with any fkill 
The dreadful tempeft of her wrath appeafe, 
Nor move the dolphin from her ftubborn will; 
But in her pride (he doth perfevere ftill. Spenfer. 
And hence it was fometimes written without the final e: 
And, though in vain thy love thou do perfsver, 
Yet all in vain do thou adore her ever. Britain's Ida. 
PERSEVE'RINGLY, adv. With perfeverance.—The 
holy angels have conftantly and perfeveringly glorified 
him. Bp. Bull. 
PER'SEUS, in mythology, thefon of Jupiter and Danae. 
Danae, according to the fable, was the daughter of Acri- 
fius, who, having learned from the oracle, that at a fu¬ 
ture time his grandfon would bereave him of his life and 
crown, flint her up in a tower of brafs, and declined at¬ 
tention to every propofal of marriage for her. In the 
mean time, Prcetus his brother, being defperately in love 
with his niece, by means of money corrupted the fidelity 
of the keepers of the princefs, and having gained accefs 
to her through the roof of the prifon, made her the mo¬ 
ther of Perfeus. This fable has been comprifed by Ovid 
(Met. 1 . 6.) in a fingle verfe; “ Perfea quern pluvio Da¬ 
nae conceperat auro;” and thofe who have written the 
hiftory of this adventure, wiftiing to palliate the difgrace 
which might be entailed upon the royal family, re¬ 
ported, that Jupiter, enamoured of Danae, had trans¬ 
formed himfelf into a fhower of gold : and this was the 
more probable, as Prastus, if we may believe Voffius, 
(De Orig. Idol.) affumed the furname of Jupiter. Pam- 
ianias mentions the tower, or rather apartment of brafs, 
in which Danae had been ffiut up, and allures us that it 
iubfifted till the time of Perilaus, the tyrant of Argos, 
who demoliffied it ; adding, that even in his time lotne 
remains were ftill to be feen of the fubterraneous palace, 
of which Danae’s chamber formed a part. Such is the 
ltory of Perfius’s birth, which, confidering all the cir- 
cumftances attending it, is not improbable. 
When the princeis was delivered of Perfeus, Acrifius 
ordered her to be expofed upon the fea, with her child, 
in a mean barge, which, after long conflict with the winds 
, PER 
and waves, flopped near the little ifland of Seriphus, one 
of the Cyclades, in the ASgean Sea. Polydefles, king of 
the illand, hofpitably received the mother and child, and 
took great care of the education of the young prince. 
But afterwards falling in love with Danae, and fearing 
the refentment of Perfeus, advancing to maturity, he 
fought a pretext for difmiffirig him. Under a pretence of 
wooing one of the Grecian princeffes, he determined to 
make a magnificent feaft for the celebration of the nup¬ 
tials, and adlually invited the princes of the neighbour¬ 
ing ifles, each of whom was to bring with him a prefent 
of the bed things which his country fupplied. Perfeus 
was in the number of the invited, and the more particu¬ 
larly fo, as Polydefles knew that he could not receive 
from him the prefent which he expefled from all the reft. 
Neverthelefs Perfeus, who wiftied not to appear inferior 
to the others in magnificence, told the king that as he 
could not give him a prefent immediately, he would 
bring him the head of Medufa, the only one of the Gor- 
gons who was fubjedf to mortality. The offer was doubly 
agreeable to Polydefles, as it would remove Perfeus from 
Seriphos, and, on account of its feeming impoffibility, the 
attempt might perhaps end in his ruin. But the inno¬ 
cence of Perfeus was patronized by the gods. Pluto 
lent him his helmet, which had the wonderful power of 
making.its bearer invifible; Minerva gave him her buck¬ 
ler, which was as refplender.t as glals; and he received 
from Mercury wings and the talaria, with a (hort dagger 
made of diamonds, and called herpe. According to fome 
it was from Vulcan, and not from Mercury, that he re¬ 
ceived the herpe, which was in form like a feythe. With 
thefe arms Perfeus began his expedition, and traverfed 
the air, condufled by Minerva. He went to the Graise, 
the fifters of the Gorgons, who, according to the poets, 
had wings like the Gorgons, but only one eye and one 
tooth between them all, of which they made life, each 
in her turn. They were three in number, according to 
Asfchylus and Apollodorus; or only two, according to 
Ovid and Hefiod. With Pluto’s helmet, which rendered 
him invifible, Perfeus was enabled to fteal their eye and 
their tooth while they wereafleep; and he returned them 
only when they had informed him where their fifters, the 
Gorgons, refided. 
When he had received every neceffary information, 
Perfeus flew to the habitation of the Gorgons, which was 
fituate beyond the Weftern Ocean, according to Heliod 
and Apollodorus ; or in Libya, according to Ovid and 
Lucan ; or in the deferts of Afiatic Scythia, according to 
ALfchylus. He found thefe monfters afleep; and, as he 
knew that, if he fixed his eyes upon them, he fiiould be 
inftantly changed into a ftone, he continually looked on 
his (liield, which reflefled all the objefls as clearly as the 
belt of glaffes. He approached them, and, with a courage 
which Minerva fupported, he cut off Medufa’s head at 
one blow. The node awoke the two immortal, fifters; 
but Pluto’s helmet rendered Perfeus invifible, and the at¬ 
tempts of the Gorgons to revenge Medufa’s death proved 
fruitless; the conqueror made his way through the air, 
and from the blood which dropped from Medufa’s head 
fprang all thofe innumerable lerpents which have ever 
fince infefted the fandy defarts of Libya. Chryfaor, alfo, 
with his golden fword, fprung from thefe drops of blood, 
as well as the horfe Pegafus, which immediately flew 
through the air, and flopped on mount Helicon, where he 
became the favourite of the Mufes. 
Mean time Perfeus had continued his journey acrofs the 
deferts of Libya ; but the approach of night obliged him 
to alight in the territories of Atlas, king of Mauritania. 
He went to the monarch’s palace, where he hoped to find 
a kind reception by announcing himfelf as the fon of Ju¬ 
piter, but in this he was dil’appointed. Atlas recollefled 
that, according to an ancient oracle, his gardens were to 
be robbed of their fruit by one of the ions of Jupiter; 
and therefore he not only refilled Perfeus the hofpitality 
he demanded, but he even offered violence to his perfon. 
Perfeus, 
