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rocket an empty cartridge, and introduce into it the rope which is to carry it; placing the head of the rocket towards that side on which you intend it to move: if you then set fire to the rocket, adjusted in this manner, it will run along the rope without stopping, till the matter it contains is entirely exhausted. If you are desirous that the rocket should move in a retrograde direction; first fill one-half of it with the composition, and cover it with a small round piece of wood, to serve as a partition between it and that put into the other half; then make a hole below this partition, so as to correspond with a small canal filled with bruised powder, and terminating at the other end of the rocket: by these means the fire, when it ceases in the first half of the rocket, will be communicated through the hole into the small canal, which will convey it to the other end; and, this end being then kindled, the rocket will move backwards, and return to the place from which it set out.

Two rockets of equal size, bound together by means of a piece of strong pack-thread, and disposed in such a manner that the head of the one shall be opposite to the neck of the other, that when the fire has consumed the composition in the one it may be communicated to that in the other, and oblige both of them to move in a retrograde direction, may also be adjusted to the rope by means of a piece of hollow reed. But, to prevent the fire of the former from being communicated to the second too soon, they ought to be covered with oil-cloth, or to be wrapped up in paper.

Remark.-Rockets of this kind are generally employed for setting fire to various other pieces when large fire-works are exhibited; and to render them more agreeable, they are made in the form of different animals, such as serpents, dragons, &c.; on which account they are called flying dragons. These dragons are very amusing, especially when filled with various compositions, such as golden rain, long hair, &c. They might be made to discharge serpents from their mouths, which would produce a very pleasing effect, and give them a greater resemblance to a dragon.

Rockets which fly along a rope, and turn round at the same time.-Nothing is easier than to give to a rocket of this kind a rotatory motion around the rope along which it advances; it will be sufficient for this purpose to tie it to another rocket, placed in a transversal direction. But the aperture of the latter, instead of being at the bottom, ought to be in the side, near one of the ends. If both rockets be fired at the same time, the latter will make the other revolve around the rope, while it advances along it.

Of rockets which burn in the water.-Tnough fire and water are two things of a very opposite nature, the rockets above described, when set on fire, will burn and produce their effect even in the water; but as they are then below the water the pleasure of seeing them is lost for this reason, when it is required to cause rockets to burn as they float on the water, it will be necessary to make some change in the proportions of the moulds, and materials of which they are composed. In regard to the mould, it may be eight

or nine inches in length, and an inch in diame ter: the former, on which the cartridge is rolled up, may be nine lines in thickness, and the rod for loading the cartridge must as usual be somewhat less. For loading the cartridge there is no need for a piercer with a nipple

The composition may be made in two ways; for if it be required that the rocket, while burning on the water, should appear as bright as a candle, it must be composed of three materials mixed together, viz. three ounces of pulverised and sifted gunpowder, one pound of saltpetre, and eight ounces of sulphur. But, if you are desirous that it should appear on the water with a beautiful tail, the composition must consist of eight ounces of gunpowder pulverised and sifted, one pound of saltpetre, eight ounces of pounded and sifted sulphur, and two ounces of charcoal. When the composition has been prepared according to these proportions, and the rocket has been filled in the manner above described, apply a saucisson to the end of it; and having covered the rocket with wax, black pitch, resin, or any other substance capable of preventing the paper from being spoiled in the water, attach to it a small rod of white willow, about two feet in length, that the rocket may conveniently float.

If it be required that these rockets should plunge down, and again rise up, a certain quantity of pulverised gunpowder, without any mixture, must be introduced into them, at certain distances, such, for example, as two, three, or four lines, according to the size of the cartridge.

Remarks.-1. Small rockets of this kind may be made without changing the mould or composition, in several different ways, which, for the sake of brevity, we are obliged to omit. Such of our readers as are desirous of further information on this subject may consult those authors who have written expressly on pyrotechny.

2. It is possible also to make a rocket which, after it has burnt some time on the water, shall throw out sparks and stars; and these after they catch fire shall ascend into the air. This may be done by dividing the rocket into two parts, by means of a round piece of wood, having a hole in the middle. The upper part must be filled with the usual composition of rockets, and the lower with stars, which must be mixed with grained and pulverised gunpowder, &c.

3. A rocket which takes fire in the water, and, after burning there half the time of its duration, mounts into the air with great velocity, may be constructed in the following manner :Take a flying rocket, furnished with its rod, and by means of a little glue attach it to a waterrocket, but only at the middle, in such a manner, that the latter shall have its neck uppermost, and the other its neck downward. Adjust to their extremity a small tube, to communicate the fire from one end to the other, and cover both with a coating of pitch, wax, &c., that they may not be damaged by the water. Then attach to the flying rocket, after it has been thus cemented to the aquatic one, a rod of the kind described in the second article; and suspend a piece of packthread to support a musket bullet made fast to the rod by means of a needle or bit of iron wire.

When these arrangements have been made, set fire to the part after the rocket is in the water; and, when the composition is consumed, the fire will communicate through the small tube to the other rocket: the latter will then rise and leave the other, which will not be able to follow it, on account of the weight adhering to it.

SECT. V.-BY MEANS OF ROCKETS TO REPRESENT SEVERAL FIGURES IN THE AIR.

If several small rockets be placed upon a large one, their rods being fixed around the large cartridge which is usually attached to the head of the rocket, to contain what it is destined to carry up into the air; and these small rockets be set on fire while the large one is ascending, they will represent in a very agreeable manner a tree, the trunk of which will be the large rocket, and the branches the small ones. If these small rockets take fire when the large one is half burned in the air, they will represent a comet; and when the large one is entirely inverted, so that its head begins to point downwards, in order to fall, they will represent a kind of fiery fountain. If several serpents be attached to the rocket with a

PYRRHA, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, and wife of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, in whose reign the flood happened. See DEUCALION. She was the mother of Amphyction, Helen, and Protogenes, by Deucalion. Ovid, Met. i.

PYRRHICHA, in antiquity, a kind of exercise on a horseback, or a feigned combat, for the exercise of the cavalry.. It was thus called from its inventor Pyrrhus of Cydonia, who first taught the Cretans to march in measure and cadence to battle, and to observe the time of the Pyrrhic foot. Others derive the name from Pyrrhus the son of Achilles, who instituted this exercise at the obsequies of his father. Aristotle says that it was Achilles himself who invented it. The Romans also called it ludus Trojanus, the Trojan game; and Aulus Gellius, decursus. It is represented on medals by two cavaliers in front running with lancets, and the word decursio in the exergue.

PYRRHIC, in the Greek and Latin poetry, a foot consisting of two syllables, both short; as deus. Among the ancients this foot is also called periambus; by others hegemona.

PYRRHO, a Greek philosopher, born at Elis in Peloponnesus, who flourished about 300 B. C. He was the disciple of Anaxarchus, whom he accompanied as far as India, where he conversed with the Brahmins and Gymnosophists. He had made painting his profession before he studied philosophy. He established a sect whose fundamental principle was, that there is nothing true or false, right or wrong, honest or dishonest, just or unjust; or that there is no standard of any thing beyond law or custom, and that uncertainty and doubt belong to every thing, From this continual seeking after truth and never finding it, the sect obtained the name of Sceptics or Pyrrhonians from the founder. Pyrrho died about the ninetieth year of his age; his memory was honored with a statue at Athens, and a monument in his own country.

piece of pack-thread, by the ends that do not catch fire; and if the pack-thread be suffered to hang down two or three inches, between every two, this arrangement will produce a variety of agreeable and amusing figures.

A rocket which ascends in the form of a screw. -A straight rod, as experience shows, makes a rocket ascend perpendicularly, and in a straight line: it may be compared to the rudder of a ship, or the tail of a bird, the effect of which is to make the vessel or bird turn towards that side to which it is inclined; if a bent rod therefore be attached to a rocket, its first effect will be to make the rocket incline towards that side to which it is bent; but, its centre of gravity bringing it afterwards into a vertical situation, the result of these two opposite efforts will be that the rocket will ascend in a zig-zag or spiral form. In this case indeed, as it displaces a greater volume of air and describes a longer line, it will not ascend so high as if it had been impelled in a straight direction; but, on account of the singularity of this motion, it will produce an agreeable effect. For the military Congreve rocket, see ROCKET.

PYRRHUS I., or Neoptolemus, the first king of Epirus, the son of Achilles and Deidamia. See EPIRUS. He was killed by Orestes in the temple of Delphi.

PYRRHUS II., king of Epirus, the son of Eacides and Phthia, and a lineal descendant of Pyrrhus I.; celebrated for his war with the Romans. He conquered Antigonus, and reigned some time in Macedonia, but was at last killed at Argos, A. A. C. 272. See ROME.

PYR'RHONISM, n. s. [From Pyrrho, the founder of the sceptics.] Scepticism; universal doubt.

As some ignorantly affect to be more knowing, so others vainly affect to be more ignorant than they are; who, to show they have greater insight and penetration than other men, insist upon the absolute uncertainty of science; will dispute evén first principles; grant nothing as certain, and so run it into downright pyrrhonism; the too common effect of abstracted debates excessively refined.

Mason.

PYRUS, the pear-tree, a genus of the pentagynia order and icosandria class of plants; natural order thirty-sixth, pomacea: CAL. quinquefid; petals five; fruit an apple, inferior, quinquelocular, and polyspermous. To this genus Linné has joined the apple and quince.

1. P. communis, the common pear-tree, rises with an upright large trunk, branching thirty or forty feet high; in some widely around, in others more erectly, and forming a conical head, oval, lanceolated, serrated leaves, and corymbous clusters of white flowers from the sides of the branches, succeeded by large fruit extended at the base. Under this species are comprehended almost endless varieties, all bearing the above description. They bear their flowers and fruit upon spurs, arising from the sides of the branches from two or three years old and upwards; the same branches and spurs continuing fruitful for a great number of years. The summer pears ripen in different sorts from the beginning of July until the middle or end of

September, and are generally fit to eat from the tree, or at least do not keep a week or two before they rot. The autumn pears come to perfection in October, November, and December; some ripening nearly on the tree in October and November, others requiring to lie some time in the fruitery, while some will keep two months; but all the winter pears, though they attain their full growth on the tree by the end of October and in November, yet they do not acquire perfection for eating till from the end of November to April and May. Those of each class have different properties; some being melting, others breaking, some mealy, and some hard and austere, fit only for kitchen uses. As many of the finest sorts were first obtained from France, they are still continued in most catalogues by French names. All the varieties of the pear-tree are hardy, and will succeed in any common soil of a garden or orchard. They are propagated by grafting and budding upon any kind of pear stocks; also occasionally upon quince stocks, and sometimes upon white thorn stocks; but pear stocks are greatly preferable to all others for general use.

2. P. coronaria, the sweet scented crab of Virginia, grows twelve or fifteen feet high, having angular serrated leaves, pedunculated umbels of whitish red, sweet-scented flowers, succeeded by small round crabs, remarkably sour and austere. There is one variety, called the evergreen Virginian crab-tree.

3. P. cydonia, the quince, formerly ranked by botanists as a distinct genus, but classed by Linné and his followers as a species of pyrus. It was formerly divided into three species, which must now rank as varieties; viz.

i. P. cydonia lusitanica, the Portugal quince, with obverse oval leaves, woolly on their under side:

ii. P. cydonia maliforma, with oval leaves, wholly on their under side, and lengthened at their base: and

iii. P. cydonia oblonga, with an oblong fruit lengthened at the base. There are some other varieties of this fruit, propagated in fruit gardens, and in the nurseries for sale; one of which is a soft eatable fruit, another very astringent, and a third with a very small fruit, cottony all over, which is scarcely worth keeping. These Mr. Miller supposed to be the seminal variations, but the three others to be distinct species. The Portugal quince is the most valuable; its pulp turns to a fine purple when stewed or baked, and becomes much softer and less austere than the others; it is therefore much fitter for making marmalade. These trees are all easily propagated, either by layers, suckers, or cuttings, which must be planted in a moist soil. Those raised from suckers are seldom so well rooted as those which are obtained from cuttings or layers, and are subject to produce suckers again in greater plenty; which is not so proper for fruit bearing trees. These trees require very little pruning; the chief thing to be observed is, to keep their stems clear from suckers, and cut off such branches as cross each other; likewise all upright luxuriant shoots from the middle of the tree should be taken off, that the head may not

be too much crowded with wood, which is of ill consequence to all fruit trees. These sorts may also be propagated by budding or grafting upon stocks raised by cuttings; so that the best sorts may be cultivated in this way in greater plenty than by any other method.

4. P. malus, the common apple-tree, grows twenty or thirty feet high, having oval serrated leaves and sessile umbels of whitish red flowers, succeeded by large, roundish, and oblong fruit, concave at the base. The varieties of this species are amazingly great with respect to the differences of the fruit. Botanists say, that the wilding, or crab-apple of the woods and hedges is the original kind, and from the seeds of which the cultivated apple was first obtained. The varieties of this last no doubt are multiplied to some hundreds in different places, having been all first accidentally obtained from the seed or kernels of the fruit, and the approved sorts continued and increased by grafting upon crabs or any kind of apple stocks; but, although the number of varieties is very considerable, there are not above forty or fifty sorts retained in the nursery man's catalogue. These varieties arrive at full growth in successive order from July to the end of October, improve in perfection after being gathered, and several of the winter kinds, in particular, keep good for many months, even till the arrival of apples next summer. Among these various kinds of apples some are used for the dessert, some for the kitchen, and some for cyder making. All kinds of apples are propagated in the same manner as the pears, using apple stocks instead of pear stocks. They will succeed in any common soil of a garden or orchard, and in any free situation, except in a low and very moist soil, in which they are apt to canker, and very soon go off. In a friable loam they are generally very successful.

PYTHAGORAS, a celebrated philosopher of antiquity, respecting the time and place of whose birth critics are much divided. Dr. Bentley determines the date of his birth to be the fourth year of the forty-third Olympiad; Lloyd places it about the third year of the forty-eighth; and Dodwell fixes it in the fourth year of the fiftysecond. It is generally believed that he was born in the island of Samos, and that he flourished about A. A. C. 500. His father Mnesarchus, who is said by some to have been a lapidary, and by others a merchant of Tyre, appears to have been a man of some distinction, and to have bestowed upon his son the best education. Of his childhood and early education we know nothing, except that he was first instructed in his own country by Creophilus, and afterwards in Scyros by Pherecydes. Poetry and music, eloquence and astronomy, became his studies; and in gymnastic exercises he often bore the palm for strength and dexterity. He first distinguished himself in Greece at the Olmpic games, and soon after he commenced his travels. He visited Egypt, where, through the interest of Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, he obtained the patronage of king Amasis, by whose influence, with his own assiduity and perseverance, he gained the confidence of the priests; from whom he learned their sacred mysteries,

it was even deemed a crime to dispute his word; and their arguments were considered as infallibly convincing, if they could enforce then by adding that the master said so. To give more weight to his exhortations, Pythagoras retired into a subterraneous cave, where his mother sent him intelligence of every thing which happened during his absence. After several months, he re-appeared on the earth with a grim and ghastly countenance, and declared in the assembly of the people that he was returned from Hades ; which gave rise to many other fabulous reports. At length his singular doctrines, and perhaps his strenuously asserting the rights of the people against their tyrannical governors, raised a powerful party against him; which soon obliged him to fly for his life. His friends fled to Rhegium; and he himself, after being refused protection by the Locrians, fled to Metapontum, where he took refuge in the temple of the Muses, and where it is said he died of hunger about A.A.C. 497. The time, place, and manner of his death, however, are all very uncertain. After his death his followers paid the same respect to him as was paid to the gods; they erected statues in honor of him, converted his house at Crotona into a temple of Ceres, appealed to him as a deity, and swore by his name. Pythagoras married Theano of Crotona, or of Crete, by whom he had two sons, Telagues and Mnesarchus, who, after his death, took the management of his school. He also had a daughter called Damo. Whether he left any writings behind him is disputed. The golden verses, which Hierocles illustrated with a commentary, have been ascribed to Epicharmus or Empedocles, and contain a brief summary of his popular doctrines. From his mysterious secrecy, our information

theology, and system of symbolical learning. In Egypt, too, he became acquainted with geometry, and the solar system; and made himself master of all the learning for which it was so famed among the nations of antiquity. It is said that he afterwards visited Persia and Chaldea, where from the Magi he learnt divination, the interpreting of dreams, and astronomy. He likewise travelled into India, conversed with the Gymnosophists, and acquired from them a knowledge of the philosophy and literature of the east; and such was his ardor in the pursuit of science, that in quest of it, says Cicero, he crossed many seas, and travelled on foot through many barbarous nations. After he had spent many years in acquiring information on every subject, he returned to Samos, and attempted to institute a school for the instruction of his countrymen. Failing of success, he repaired to Delos, where he pretended to receive moral dogmas from the priestess of Apollo. He also visited Crete, where he was initiated into the most sacred mysteries of Greece. He went likewise to Sparta and Elis, and again assisted at the Olympic games; where, in the public assembly, he was saluted with the title of sophist, or wise man, which he declined. He returned to Samos, enriched with mythological learning and mysterious rites, and again instituted a school. His mysterious symbols and oracular precepts made this attempt more successful than the former; but, meeting with some opposition, he retired to Magna Græcia, and settled at Crotona. Here he founded the Italic sect; and his mental accomplishments, the fame of his travels, and his Olympic crown, soon procured him numerous pupils. His manly eloquence, and graceful delivery, attracted the most dissolute, and produced a remarkable change in the morals of the Cro-concerning his doctrine and philosophy is very tonians. His influence was increased by the regularity of his own example, and its conformity to his precepts. He punctually attended the temples of the gods at an early hour; he lived upon the most simple food; clothed himself like the priests of Egypt; and, by his frequent purifications and regular offerings, appeared superior in sanctity to the rest of mankind. He endeavoured to delight his scholars with verse and music, by playing on his harp, and singing the pæans of Thales. Bodily exercises also made a considerable part of his discipline. At Crotona he had a public school for the general benefit of the people, in which he taught them virtue, condemning vice, and instructing them in the duties of social life. He also had a college in his own house, which he denominated KOLVUẞLOV, in which there were two classes of students, viz. ežwrεpikot, or auscultantes, and EOWTEOIROL. The former were probationers, and were kept under a long examen. A silence of five years was imposed upon them; which, according to Clemens Alexandrinus was to inure them to the pure contemplation of the Deity. The latter were called genuini, perfecti, mathematici; and, by way of eminence, Pythagoreans. They alone were admitted to the knowledge of the arcana of Pythagoric discipline, and the use of ciphers and hieroglyphics. The authority of Pythagoras among his pupils was so great that

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uncertain. The purpose of philosophy, according to his system, is to raise the mind to the contemplation of immutable truth, and the knowledge of divine and spiritual objects. Mathematical science was with him the first step to wisdom, because it inures the mind to contemplation, and takes a middle course between corporeal and incorporeal beings. The whole science he divided into two parts, numbers and magnitude; and each of these he subdivided into two others, the former into arithmetic and music, and the latter into magnitude at rest and in motion; the former comprehending geometry, and the latter astronomy. Arithmetic he considered as the noblest science; and an acquaintance with numbers as the highest good. He considered numbers as the principles of every thing; and divided them into scientific and intelligible. Of the Monad, Duad, Triad, Tetrad, and Decad, various explanations have been given by various authors; but nothing certain is known of them. Music followed numbers, and was useful in raising the mind above the dominion of the passions. He invented the harmonical canon, or monochord; and the music of the spheres was a fanciful doctrine of Pythagoras. He reduced geometry to a regular science. A geometrical point, which he defines to be a monad, or unity with position, he says, corresponds to unity in arithmetic, a line to two, a

PYTHEAS, an eminent philosopher, astronomer, and geographer, born in Massilia in the age of Aristotle. He distinguished himself by his travels, as well as by his writings, all of which are now lost, though some of them were extant so late as the fifth century. He entered the sea, then unknown, now called the Baltic, and sailed as far as Thule. He was the first who established a distinction of climate by the length of days and nights.

PYTHEUS, a Lydian, famous for his riches, who is said to have entertained Xerxes, and all his numerous army, when going to invade Greece.

superficies to three, and a solid to four. God he considered as the universal mind, diffused through all things, and the self-moving principle of all things (avroμariopos Tv Tαvτwy), and of whom every human soul is a portion. Subordinate to the Deity there were, in the Pythagorean creed, three orders of intelligences, gods, demons, and heroes, of different degrees of excellence and dignity. These, together with the human soul, were considered as emanations from the Deity, the particles of subtle ether assuming a grosser clothing the farther they receded from the fountain. God himself was represented under the notion of monad, and the subordinate intelli-* gences as numbers derived from, and included in, unity. Man was considered as consisting of an elementary nature, and a divine or rational soul. His soul, a self-moving principle, is composed of two parts; the rational, seated in the brain; and the irrational, including the passions, in the heart. In both these respects he participates with the brutes. The sensitive soul perishes; the other assumes an ethereal vehicle, and passes to the regions of the dead, till sent back to the earth to inhabit some other body brutal or human. See METEMPSYCHOSIS. It was this notion which led Pythagoras and his followers to abstain from flesh, and to be so peculiarly merciful to animals of every description. This doctrine is thus beautifully represented by Ovid, who introduces Pythagoras as saying,

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'Morte carent animæ: semperque priore relicta
Sede, novis domibus habitant, vivuntque receptæ :
Omnia mutantur; nihil interit; errat et illinc,
Huc venit, hinc illuc, et quoslibet occupet artus
Spiritus, èque feris humana in corpora transit,
Inque feras noster: nec tempore deperit ullo,
Utque novis fragilis signatur cera figuris,
Nec manet ut fuerat, nec formas servat easdem,
Sed tamen ipsa eadem est, animam sic semper eandem,
Esse, sed in varias doceo migrare figuras.'

"What then is death, but ancient matter drest
In some new figure, and a varied vest?
Thus all things are but altered, nothing dies;
And here and there the' unbodied spirit flies,
By time, or force, or sickness dispossessed,
And lodges where it lights, in man or beast;
Or hunts without, till ready limbs it find,
And actuates those according to their kind;
From tenement to tenement is tost,

The soul is still the same, the figure only lost:
And, as the softened wax new seals receives,
This face assumes, and that impression leaves;
Now called by one, now by another name,
The form is only changed, the wax is still the same;

So death, thus called, can but the form deface,
The' immortal soul flies out in empty space,
To seek her fortune in some other place.'

PYTHIA, or PYTHONISSA, the priestess of Apollo at Delphi, by whom he delivered oracles. She was so called from Pythius, a name of that god. The Pythia was at first required to be a young girl; but in latter times she was a woman of fifty years of age. The first and most famous Pythia was Phemonöe. Oracles were at first delivered by her in hexameter verse. All the Pythias were to be pure virgins, and all of them delivered their oracles with great enthusiasm and violent agitations. See ORACLE and DELPHI.

PYTHIAN GAMES, in Grecian antiquity, sports instituted near Delphos in honor of Apollo, on account of his slaying the serpent Python. See APOLLO. These games, at their first institution, were celebrated only once in nine years; but afterwards every fifth year, from the number of the Parnassian nymphs who came to congratulate Apollo, and to make him presents on his victory. The victor was crowned with garlands.

PYTHON, in fabulous history, a monstrous serpent, produced by the earth after Deucalion's deluge. Juno, being exasperated at Latona, who was beloved by Jupiter, commanded this serpent to destroy her; but, flying from the pursuit of the monster, she escaped to Delos, where she was delivered of Diana and Apollo; the latter of whom destroyed Python with his arrows, in memory of which victory the Pythian games were instituted. See APOLLO.

PYX, n. s. Lat. pyxis; Gr. ružic, a box, The box in which the Romanists keep the host.

Pyxis is a small metal case for containing the consecrated species in the Catholic church. Anciently it was made in the form of a dove, and suspended over the altar. Dr. A. Rees.

Prx. Lat. pyxis, from Gr. wúži. In archaiology, a name given to the little casket in which the ancients often deposited their jewels and terials, and highly embellished; its shape was a other ornaments. It was frequently of rich malong square, and it is often found represented on Greek vases.

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