412 
P I E 
cefior to M. de Buffon.” Under the Napolean dvnafty 
he received the crofs of the legion of honour ; and jofeph 
Bonaparte bellowed upon him, unfolicited, a penlion of 
6000 francs out of his privy purfe. Thus the declining 
years of Saint Pierre were made comfortable ; and, as he 
himfelf obferves, “ his bark, long tolled by the tempell, 
advanced witli propitious gales towards the haven of life 
before lire fhould come to an anchor there forever.” 
In the firll five years that fucceeded the publication of 
the Studies of Nature, the author was engaged in prepa¬ 
ring farther developments of his fubjefl; for he did no¬ 
thing haftily, and took great pains with his compofitions. 
This patient attention to the finifning cf his lucubrations 
catifed him to keep back for feveral years that delicious 
paftoral, “Paul and Virginia,” which he copied over and 
over feven or eight times; and it was not publifhed till 
1789. Nearly at the fame period he gave to the world 
the pretty tale of the “Indian Cottage,” a production 
of a different (lamp, in which fatire was happily 
blended with that exquilite feeling for the phyfical and 
moral beauties of nature which pervades all the works of 
M. de St. Pierre. The fragments of the “ Arcadia,” 
which he left unfiniflied, afforded the means of forming a 
complete idea of the original talents which he difplayed 
as a painter and a colourift. 
St. Pierre was twice married ; by his firll wife he had 
two children, a boy and a girl, to whom he fondly gave 
the names of Paul and Virginia. He died at or near Pon- 
toife, four miles from Paris, on the 21ft of January, 1814, 
leaving behind him his “ Harmonies of Nature” (partly 
finilhed), “ Memoirs of his Life,” and a number of ir¬ 
regular dramas, and other flights of imagination, which 
are monuments of the foundett philofophy, and of his rare 
genius. 
His fyllem to account for the ftupendous operations of 
the deluge, is, we believe, not generally known. Though 
not ftriClly warranted by the literal reading of the text, 
his idea offers an eafy folution to certain phenomena con- 
liefled with the event in quellion. He thinks that a 
change was then introduced into the agronomical order 
and revolution of our planet; and that, “at the very 
inllant that the fountains of the great deep were broken up, 
the mandate of Omnilcience ordained that the polar axes 
of our globe Ibould change their politions in the heavens. 
By a flight inclination of thefe axes to the eaft and well, 
the mod mighty revolutions were at once produced in 
the climates of either hemifphere; the diurnal courfe of 
the fun was altered, and with it the temperature of all the 
countries within the fphere of its influence. The obli¬ 
quity of the ecliptic thus defcribing a new path in the 
heavens, the frozen regions of the arftic circle quickly 
brightened under the genial influences of a fupernatural 
warmth; the polar ices, which before ftretched in grim 
defolation to the borders of the frigid zone, accelerated 
by an impulfe unfelt before, were broken up with tremen¬ 
dous effefl, and poured their waters towards the middle 
hemifphere, whofe oceans prefently fwelled over conti¬ 
nents and iflands, and whelmed all nature in one univer- 
fal deluge.” The accumulation of fixteen centuries of 
fnows and of ice, bound by eternal froits, and llretching 
to an almolt meaiurelefs extent, may have had, doubtlefs, 
a very confiderable influence in producing upon the earth 
a flood of waters of the depth and extent which the fa- 
cred text plainly defcribes; but it is, on the other hand, 
equally plain, that our philofopher has no other bafis than 
liis own imagination, fertile in refource, upon which he 
can found his hypotheiis. MonthhjMag. July 1814. Gent. 
Blag. Feb. 1824. 
PIERRE d’ALBIGNY' (St.), a town of Savoy, in 
the diftrift of Chamberry ; containing 2714 inhabitants. 
PIERRE d’AUTO'MNE, a French name, tranflated 
from theChinefe, of a medicinal Hone, celebrated in the 
Eall for curing all diforders of the lungs. Some have 
imagined it had its name of the autumn-Jlone, from its 
R R E. 
being only to be made at that feafon of the'ye.ir; but it 
may certainly be made equally at ail times. The Chi- 
nefe chemills, however, refer the various parts of the 
body to the feveral leafons of the year, and thus they re¬ 
fer the lungs to autumn ; hence the Hone for difeafes of 
the lungs came to be called autumn-ft one. 
It is a tedious preparation of human urine, and made as 
follows: They put thirty pints of the urine of a ilrong 
and healthy young man into a large iron pot, and fet it 
over a gentle fire ; when it begins to boil, they add to if, 
drop by drop, about a large tea-cup full of rape-oil; it i3 
then left on the fire till the whole is evaporated to a thick 
fubllance refembling black mud; they then take it out of 
the pot, and, laying it on a flat iron, they dry it fo that it 
may be powdered very fine. 
This powder they moillen with frelh oil, and put the 
mnfs into a double crucible, furrounded with co'als, where 
it (lands till thoroughly dried again. They finally pow¬ 
der this again, and putting it into a china-veflel, co¬ 
vered with lilk cloth and a double paper, they pour on 
boiling water, which makes its way, drop by drop, 
through thefe coverings, till fo much is got in as is fuf- 
ficient to reduce it to a palle. This pafte is well mixed 
together in the veflel it is kept in, and this is put into 
a veffel of water; and the whole Jet over the fire. The 
matter thus becomes again dried in balneo Marite, and 
is then finilhed. Obferv. far les Coill. de VAfie, p. 258. 
PIERRE BUFFIE'RE, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Upper Vienne: nine miles fouth-fouth- 
ealt of Limoges, and fourteen fouth-weft of St. Leonard. 
PIERRE COMMESS'E, or Pietre Commesse, an 
Italian expreflion, which frequently occurs in books of 
travels and treadles on the fine arts. It fignifies Mofaic 
work, elpecially that which is by others called Floren¬ 
tine Work, which fee. 
PIERRE sur DI'VES (St.), a town of France, in 
the department of the Calvados, and chief place of a 
canton, in the diftrift of Lifieux. The place contains 
1499, and the canton 9287, inhabitants. 
PIERRE EGLI'SE (St.), a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Channel, and chief place of a canton, in 
the diftrift of Valognes. The place contains 1619, and 
thecanton j3,342, inhabitants. 
PIERRE LET'TE, a town of France, in the depart¬ 
ment of the Drome, and chief place of a canton. The 
place contains 2536, and the canton 12,534, inhabit¬ 
ants. 
PIERRE le MOUTIE'R (St.), a town of France, in 
the department of the Nievre, and chief place of a can¬ 
ton, in the diftrift of Nevers. The place contains 1969, 
and the canton 8615, inhabitants. 
PIERRE A l’OISSEAU', a (mail ifland in the Englilh 
channel, near the coalt of France. Lat. 48. 54. N. Ion, 
3. 24. W. 
PIERRE d’OLERON' (St.), a town of France, in the 
department of the Lower Charente, and chief place of a 
canton, in the dill rift of Marennes. The place contains 
4249, and the canton 9653, inhabitants. 
PIERRE PERTUI'S, the name of a curious arch cut 
through the mountain Durvau, in Swifferland, which 
mountain feparates the canton of Berne from the bilhop- 
ric of Bafil. 
The Romans, to whom no difficulty was infurmount- 
able, in order to open a communication between the an¬ 
cient Helvetia and the country of the Rouraci, were at 
the pains of excavating a folid rock of fixty feet in thi-ck- 
nefs : the aperture is 28 feet in height, and 27 in width. 
At about forty feet from the furface of the road, is the 
infcription, which being fomewhat defaced by time, the 
following reading is fubmitted to the learned : “Numini 
Augufto dedicatum Via dufta per montem Durvuin, pate- 
fafla in ufutn Coloniae Helvetiae.” Pupienus having been 
governor of the Sequani, of whofe territories the moun¬ 
tain Durvau was likewile the limits, it has been conjee - 
1 lured 
