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Erie and Ontario. He participated in the attack upon Fort George at the head of a body of seamen, but his great fame rests upon the victory he won over the British squadron on Lake Erie, near Put-in-Bay, Ohio, Sept. 10, 1813. In this action, known as Perry's victory," the Americans were completely victorious, the result being very fitly told in Perry's dispatch to the government: "We have met the enemy and they are ours." He was rewarded with the rank of captain and a vote of thanks by congress. He continued in the naval service of the government throughout this war and for several years thereafter until his death, which took place at Port Spain, on the island of Trinidad, Aug. 23, 1819.

Persepolis (per-sep'-o-lis) (Persian City), the Greek name for the capital of ancient Persia-the Persian name having been lost. This city was situated in a beautiful plain near the junction of the Araxes (now Bendemir) and the Medus (now Polwar) rivers. Nothing remains of the city at the present day except its magnificent ruins. It was generally designated as the "Glory of the East," and, according to ancient writers, "no other city could be compared with it either in beauty or in wealth." It was not the residence of Cyrus the Great, but Darius Hystaspes, Xerxes, Artaxerxes, and other Persian kings each contributed something to its wealth and glory. It was nearly or wholly destroyed by Alexander the Great in his conquest of Persia, and is scarcely mentioned in history ever afterward. The site of its royal edifices and temples arouses the interest and enthusiasm of every traveler from Chardin down to our own time.

Perseus (per'-soos), in Greek mythology the son of Zeus and Danaë. He was brought up on one of the Cyclades, where Polydectes reigned, who, wishing to get rid of him, sent him when yet a youth to bring the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Perseus set forth under the protection of Athena and Hermes, the former of whom gave him a mirror, by which he could see the monster without looking at her (for that would have changed him into stone), and the latter a sickle, while the nymphs provided him with winged sandals and a helmet of Hades or invisible cap.

After numerous wonderful adventures he reached the abode of Medusa, who dwelt near Tartessus, on the coast of the ocean, and succeeded in

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| cutting off her head, which he put into a bag and carried off. On his return he visited Ethiopia, where he liberated and married the beautiful Andromeda, who had been fastened to a rock and left as a prey to a terrible sea monster. He then rescued his mother from Polydectes, whom he turned into stone. Perseus was worshiped as a hero in various parts of Greece, and according to Herodotus in Egypt too. In ancient works of art the figure of Perseus much resembles that of Hermes.

Persia (per'-shi-a), called by the natives Iran, the most extensive and powerful native kingdom of western Asia, is bounded on the north by the Caspian sea and the Asiatic provinces of Russia; on the east by Afghanistan and Beluchistan; on the south by the Indian ocean, the Strait of Ormuz and the Persian Gulf; on the west by Asiatic Turkey. It extends about 900 miles from east to west, and 700 miles from north to south, and has an area of 600,000 square miles. It consists for the most part of an elevated plateau, which in the center and on the east side is almost a dead level, but on the northwest and south is covered with mountain chains.

The climate is exceedingly varied. The younger Cyrus is reported to have said to Xenophon that " people perish with cold at one extremity of the country, while they are suffocated with heat at the other." Persia, in fact, may be said to possess three climates-that of the gulf coast, that of the elevated plateau, and that of the Caspian provinces. Along the southern coast the heat of summer and autumn is very severe, while in winter and spring the climate is delightful. On the plateau there is considerable difference of climate, and considerable variation from heat to cold. About Ispahan the winters and summers are equally mild; but to the north and northwest of this the winters are very severe, and the desert region of the center and east and the country on its border endure most oppressive heat in summer and piercing cold in winter. The Caspian provinces in the north, on account of their general depression below the sea level, are exposed to a degree of heat in summer almost equal to that of the West Indies, and their winters are mild. Rains, however, are frequent, and many tracts of low country are very unhealthy. Except in the Caspian provinces, the atmosphere of Per

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sia is remarkable for its dryness and purity.

The cultivated portions of Persia, when supplied with moisture, either by rainfall or irrigation, are very fertile in some places two crops can be raised in the year. The principal products are wheat (the best in the world), barley, corn, sugar and rice. The vine flourishes in several provinces, and the wines of Shiraz are celebrated in eastern poetry, Mulberries are largely cultivated, and silk is one of the most important productions of the country. The silk cultivation has greatly diminished of late years, however, on account of the silkworm disease.

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nomad races the Turkish is the most numerous, the present Kajar dynasty belonging to it. The nomad races are distinguished for courage, manliness and independence of character; but they are inveterate robbers, and have been the cause of many revolutions and civil wars. There is a small population of native Christians-the Nestorians of Urumiah and Telmais, and Armenians, whose principal settlement is at Ispahan. Including those who have joined the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches the whole number of Christians can hardly exceed 50,000. Christian missions are, however, making steady progress in Persia. The population of

Among the domestic animals the horse, the ass and the camel hold the first place. The horses of Persia are larger and handsomer than those of Arabia, but less fleet. Salt is the principal mineral product, although copper, lead, antimony and some other minerals abound in certain localities. Considerable coal has been mined in the mountains near Teheran. The settled portion of the population are chiefly descendants of the ancient Persian race with an intermixture of foreign blood. They are all Mohammedans of the Shiite sect, except the few Parsees who still retain the ancient faith of Zoroaster. The nomads or pastoral tribes are of four distinct races-Turks, Kurds, Lirurs and Arabs. Of these

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Persia is variously estimated at from 5,000,000 to 10,000,000. The government is a pure despotism, the "shah," or padishah," possessing absolute authority over the lives and property of his subjects. His deputies, the governors of provinces and districts, possess a like authority over those under them, although they are accountable to the shah, and may be punished by him for any acts that he does not approve. The revenue is derived almost exclusively from a tax on the land and its products, and as a natural result the peasantry are seriously oppressed by the provincial governors. It is believed that great as the legal taxes are, the illegal exactions amount to nearly an equal sum. For the history of ancient

PERSIAN GULF

PERU

Persian Gulf, an arm of the Indian ocean, lying between Arabia and Persia. Its length is between 600 and 700 miles, its breadth varying from 50 to 250 miles. Total area, about 75,000 square miles. The order of the periodic currents in this gulf is precisely the reverse of those of the Red Sea, as they ascend from May to October, and descend from October to May. The greatest depth of the Persian gulf does not exceed 50 fathoms. Oriental geographers give to this gulf the name of the Green Sea," from the strip of water of a greenish color lying along the Arabian coast.

Persigny (per-seen'-yi), JEAN GILBERT VICTOR FIALIN, an adherent of Napoleon III.was born at Saint-Germain l'Espinasse Jan. 11, 1808. He entered the cavalry school at Saumur in 1826, and the 4th Hussars in 1828, but was expelled from the army for insubordination in 1831. In 1834 he became acquainted with Louis Napoleon, and established a journal devoted to the advocacy of Bonapartist principles. He had the chief hand in the affair of Strasburg in 1836; and in 1840 he participated in the descent on Boulogne, for which he was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment. Persigny was very active in securing the election of Louis Napoleon as president of the republic in 1848; and he also took a prominent part in the coup d'etat of December, 1851. He filled various offices under Napoleon III. until 1863, when he was created duke. He then sat in the senate until the fall of the empire in 1870. He died at Nice Jan. 12, 1872.

Persimmon, a tree from 30 to 60 feet in height, which yields a fruit about the size of a plum, with six to eight oval seeds. It is very astringent until over-ripe and mellowed by frost, when it has a sweet and agreeable taste. It is a native of the southern portions of North America, where one tree often yields several bushels of fruit.

Persius (per'-shi-us), FLACCUS AULrs, a Roman satirist and poet, was born in Etruria, Dec. 4, 34 A. D. He was educated in his native town, but in early manhood went to Rome, where he received instruction from the Stoic philosopher Cornutus, who imbued his mind with the tenets of that school and exerted a marked influence upon his

and

year 62 when 28 years old, but was distinguished in a marked degree for the purity and integrity of his character. He left at his death six brief satires, the whole not exceeding 650 hexameters; but these have been held in high esteem down to our own day, fathers of the church like Augustine and Jerome, and humanists like Buchanan Casaubon finding employment in interpreting the poet's ridicule of the degeneracy of his times. "Probably no writer ever borrowed so much and yet left on the mind so decided an impression of originality," says Covington, who further indicates the resemblance between the genius of Persius and that of Carlyle.

Perth, a city of Scotland, on the right bank of the Tay, 43 miles from Edinburgh and 62 miles from Glasgow. The great beauty of its surroundingsthe noble river, the two wooded heights, Moncreiffe and Kinnoull hills, each 700 feet high, and away to the north, the Grampians-makes the "Fair City well worthy the name. A handsome bridge of nine arches connects the city with the suburb of Bridgend, where Ruskin spent a great portion of his childhood. Along the bank of the Tay extend two beautiful public parks, each containing nearly 100 acres.

The Five Articles of Perth, memorable in the ecclesiastical history of Scotland, were agreed upon in a meeting of the general assembly, by command of James VI., in 1618. They enjoined kneeling at the Lord's Supper, the observance of Christmas, Good Friday, Easter and Pentecost, and sanctioned the private administration of baptism and the Lord's Supper. These articles became one of the chief subjects of that contention between the king and the people which produced such serious results in the succeeding reign of Charles I. The general assembly of Glasgow in 1638 declared that of Perth to have been "unfree, unlawful and null," and condemned the five articles. The population of Perth in 1891 was 30,525.

Peru, a republic of South America, bounded on the north by Ecuador, on the east by Brazil and Bolivia, on the south by Chile and the Pacific ocean and on the west by the Pacific. Its area is not definitely known, but may be estimated at about 450,000 square miles. The population, not including wild Indians, according to a census made in

1876, was 2,704,998, the aboriginal Inca Indians constituting over fifty per cent. of this number. The length of Peru along the Pacific coast is nearly 1,500 miles; its breadth at its northern boundary is between 700 and 800 miles, while at the southern boundary it is less than 100 miles. The surface of Peru is divided into three distinct tracts, the climate of which varies from torrid heat to arctic cold, and whose productions range from the stunted herbage of the mountain slopes to the rich fruits of the tropical valleys. These three separate regions are the Coast, the Sierra and the Montaña. The Coast is a strip of land from 30 to 60 miles in width extending from the western Cordillera to the Pacific ocean. It is for the most part a sandy desert, but it contains a great many fertile valleys watered by streams that have their sources on the slopes of the Cordilleras. Between these valleys are trackless deserts of greater or less width, covered with a shifting, yellow sand, which is often carried about by the wind in pillars 100 feet high. In the Coast region rain is unknown. This is due to the fact that the southeast trade winds of the Atlantic, after traversing the continent from its eastern coast, exhaust their remaining moisture in covering the Cordilleras with snow, after which they fall upon the western coast of Peru cool and dry. The Sierra embraces all the region between the eastern and western Cordilleras, and the two ranges of the Andes. This region averages 100 miles in width, and has been estimated to contain an area of 150,000 to 200,000 square miles. After the tablelands of Thibet those of Peru are the highest in the world. Unlike those of Thibet, which are mere grassy uplands, they are studded over with towns and villages; and even at this elevation the climate is pleasant, and wheat, corn, barley, rye and potatoes are produced in no insignificant quantities. At the height of 9,000 feet above the sea level the mean temperature is 60° Fahrenheit, and the variation throughout the year is not great. The soil of the Sierras is of great variety, but is generally fertile.

The Montaña region extends eastward from the Andes to Brazil and Bolivia. It embraces more than half the area of Peru, and almost its only inhabitants are a few scattered tribes of Indians. It consists of vast forests and alluvial plains, is rich in all the productions of tropical latitudes and teems with vege

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table and animal life. The wealth of Peru consists entirely in mineral, vegetable and animal products. The Andes abound in gold, silver, copper, lead, etc.; and in the Montaña, gold is said to exist in abundance in veins and in pools on the margins of rivers. The public revenue is derived mainly from the sale of guano, and only to a small extent from customs. Peru was under the dominion of Spain from the time of its conquest by Pizarro in the 16th century until the year 1821, when it was proclaimed an independent republic under the protectorate of General San Martin, one of the liberators of Chile. San Martin retired on the arrival of General Simon Bolivar in 1823, and the next year occurred the battle of Ayacucho, in which the Spanish viceroy was taken prisoner, and the Spanish dominion finally came to an end. Bolivar left Peru two years later, but it was not until 1844 that the government was fully settled under the presidency af Ramon Castilla. In 1879 Peru, as the ally of Bolivia became involved in a war with Chile, the latter state coveting the nitrate deposits in the Peruvian province of Tarapaca. This war was very disastrous to Peru on both land and sea, the provinces of Tacna and Tarapaca being wrested from her, and in 1881 the Chilean army entered Lima, the capital. Peace was concluded in October, 1883, and some months afterward the Chileans evacuated the country. Under the presidency of General Caceres and his successor Colonel Don Remijio Morales Bermudez, Peru has made slow but certain progress in repairing the wastes and losses that she suffered during her conflict with Chile.

Perugia, a city of Italy, stands on the right bank of the Tiber, 1,700 feet above the level of the sea, 10 miles east of the Lake of Perugia, and 125 miles by rail from Rome. It is surrounded by walls pierced with numerous gates, of which the Etruscan arch of Augustus is the finest. The university has 20 teachers and 130 students, a botanical garden, an observatory, a valuable antiquarian museum, and a library of 30,000 volumes. Perugia became a part of the kingdom of Italy in 1860.

Perugino (pā -roo-jee'-no), a celebrated Italian painter, whose real name was Pietro Vannucci, was born in Umbria in 1446, but as he established himself in the neighboring city of Perugia, he has generally been given the name of Perugino. At Rome, to which place

he went in 1843, Pope Sixtus IV. employed him in the Sistine chapel; his fresco, Christ Giving the Keys to Peter, is the best of those still visible-others being destroyed by him to make way for Michael Angelo's Last Judgment. He returned to Perugia in 1512 and painted a number of pictures there. He was engaged in painting frescoes in a church near Perugia in 1524, when he was seized with the plague of which he died.

Pessimism (pes'-sim-ism) is the theory or doctrine that on the whole the world is bad rather than good; or, it might be defined as the negative answer to the question, "Is life worth living?" Pessimism in its hold upon so many minds may be referred to the contemplation of actual pain and unhappiness in the world, and also to the fact that the actual world is so far inferior to the ideals of the human soul that we can never be satisfied with things as they are or even with the progress mankind are making toward a higher and better condition. Pessimism as a mood or temper of mind has existed in all ages of the world, but it is only in recent times that it has been elaborated into a complete philosophy or theory in the systems of Schopenhaur and his successor E. von Hartmann. The full force of pessimism lies in the assertion that all the ends and aims of life are illusory, that life brings only illusions, the chief illusion of all being man's belief that he is born to enjoy life. According to the pessimistic theory, nothing of value is ever attained in this world, as its very essence consists in strife and change, and in the case of the individual life there is an excess of unhappiness and pain over happiness and pleasure. To the first of these statements, that nothing of value can be attained in this world, it may be answered that it is not rational to despise the realization of certain ends because there arise other ends to be realized. It is natural and therefore rational for the infant to enjoy its first walk across the floor even though it has all the lessons of life yet to learn. The assertion that in the individual life there is more pain than pleasure is disproved by our consciousness and our experience. We desire to live, therefore our lives must be worth living at least to ourselves. But whatever errors may be found in pessimism, it certainly involves the truth that happiness is not to be obtained by direct

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seeking, and that life can be made valuable only by losing sight of self and directing our thoughts and energies to high and noble purposes without ourselves; or, to express the same principle in scriptural phrase, "He that loseth his life shall find it."

Pestalozzi (pes -tah-lot'-see), educational reformer, was born in Zurich, Jan. 12, 1745. Eager to be an adjuster of social wrongs from his youth, he sought to realize his aims through the education of the young, and to him belongs the high honor of conceiving a method which is the corner-stone of all sound theories of education, especially of primary education. Although he was illiterate, ill-dressed, a poor speaker and a poor manager, and although all his undertakings resulted in practical failure, he yet aroused the admiration of Europe, and called forth a host of disciples, who down to the present day have carried out the principles of their master with the greatest enthusiasm. Pestalozzi was totally unable to cope with the world, but he awoke the minds of men to a sense of their responsibility to childhood, and ushered in the 19th century as the educational age par excellence. He first sought to carry out his theories by collecting a number of orphans and outcast children upon a farm in the canton of Aargau and to educate them by a blending of industrial, mental and moral training, but on account of a faulty domestic economy this enterprise failed, and was abandoned after a five years' struggle. Soon after this he published his Evening Hours of a Hermit. In this work he developed the following principles as the basis of education: In educating man, seek first of all to know him; the method whereby to educate anyone should be founded upon his own nature; in his nature are hidden the forces that will draw out his faculties, therefore exercise them; it is exercise that connects the wants of our nature with the objects that satisfy those wants, and everyone's education should answer to his own needs and the inner call of his or her soul. In later years Pestalozzi published his work How Gertrude Educates Her Children, which is the recognized exposition of the Pestalozzian method, and sets forth that the education and development of human nature should be in harmony with natural laws; that in order to teach well, we should study the processes of nature in man and its particular processes in individuals, and that