ever, they were soon far surpassed by their scholars, Giorgione da Castel Franco, and Titian, who, superadding to the most astonishing richness of colour the powerful light and shade of da Vinci, produced works, which, in their way, have baffled all future attempts at improvement. The tone of colour of their pictures is not that of nature in her every-day garb; it is in some respects ideal, like the chiaro-scuro of Coreggio and Rubens, or the design of Michael Angelo; that which may be supposed, but which is seldom found in nature: the depth and mellowness of their tints seem the effect of a tranquil, but vigorous light, shining through the heated atmosphere of a summer's evening. And here it may not be foreign to our purpose to observe, that there seems to be nothing in the colouring of Titian and Giorgione incompatible with the greatest purity of design, sublimity of conception, or propriety of expression; whereas the splendid extravagances, the brocaded stuffs, the gaudy trappings of the greater part of the more modern Venetians, although they were perhaps all masters of the theory of colours, are wholly inconsistent with genuine expression and true grandeur: in short, the sober senatorial dignity of Titian was soon changed for show, for glitter, and for ornament; invention, composition, design, and expression, were all made subservient to the inordinate desire of effect of colour.

The short limits of this article will not permit us to mention the numerous artists who have excelled in chiaro-scuro and colouring. These parts of the art, being more especially calculated to give pleasure to the sight, have been more generally and more successfully practised, than the arduous and less flattering task of rational and expressive composition, and correct design.

In the present enquiry it has been our chief aim to enforce such arguments as are calculated to draw the attention of the reader to the legitimate end of the art: that whilst the eye is charmed with beautiful forms, the magic of chiaroscuro, and the richness and harmony of colours, the due expression of the subject of a piece may be attained, it were folly to deny this union, indeed, constitutes the perfection of painting, which should convey, like fine writing, truths to the mind in language at once the most forcible and beautiful; but an attempt to

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point out the means, by which this delight may be conveyed to the sight, would necessarily require a minute investigation of all the different modes which it is in the power of the painter to adopt in the executive departments of his art; and consequently lead us, with perhaps, after all, little prospect of success, far beyond the limits we are obliged to prescribe to ourselves.

Simplicity with variety, inequality of parts, with union in the whole, are, perhaps, the basis of all those effects in painting which give pleasure to the sight. As in a composition one group, or one figure, should strike the eye with superiority over the secondary groups, or other objects in the picture; so there should be in a picture one principal mass of light, which, however connected with others, should still predominate; and for the same reason no two colours should have equal sway in the same picture; as we are at liberty to give the chief group or figure of the composition that situation which we judge most appropriate; so there is no rule by which we are obliged to place the principal light in any one given part of the picture. In clair-obscure, an inequality of parts, a subordina. tion of several small masses to one large one, never fails to produce richness and beauty of effect; and thus, in composition, a similar richness and beauty are the result of an opposition of several small bodies or parts, to one large and simple; and in the same manner, from an arrangement of several small masses of colour in the vicinity of one large mass, the latter seems enriched, and to acquire additional consequence and beauty.

As by the addition of smaller masses of light, connected with the principal mass, that mass acquires at once greater breadth and influence, so the unity of action in a composition is in many cases powerfully augmented by a repetition of nearly the same action in two or three of the accessorial figures arranged together, one nevertheless being principal: this was the frequent custom of Raffaele, has its foundation in nature, where similar sentiments most frequently excite similar outward demonstrations, and never fails, if judiciously managed, to produce its effect.

The doctrine of contrasts is equally ap. plicable to composition, to clair-obscure, and to colouring. As in composition the too frequent contrast of lines, or of back to front figures, is destructive of simplici. ty and force of expression; so the inordi

nate and frequent introduction of strong oppositions of lights and shadows, or of colours, produces a spotty and confused appearance, wholly subversive of breadth, and grandeur of effect; the moderate and judicious use of contrasts is of the greatest use; it gives a zest to the picture, and is like the discord in music, which sheds additional sweetness on the full harmony which succeeds it.

PAIR, in anatomy, an assemblage or conjugation of two nerves, which have their origin together in the brain, or spinal marrow, and thence distributed into the several parts of the body, the one on one side, and the other on the

other.

PALEE, in botany, thin, membranaceous chaffy plates, springing out of a common receptacle, and intended as lines of partition between the small partial florets of compound and aggregate flowers.

PALAMEDEA, the screamer, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Gralla. Generic character: bill conic, the upper mandible hooked; nostrils oval; toes divided nearly to their origin, with a small membrane between the bottoms of each. There are two species. The horned screamer is about as large as a common turkey, and has on the crown of its head a slight horn, rising perpendicularly about three inches in length. It feeds on herbs and seeds, and some add, on reptiles. It is fouud in Guiana, and other neighbouring territories of South America, principally in the low and marshy grounds. These birds are never observed but in pairs, and so faithful, tender, and constant is their attachment, that the death of one is generally attended with a degree of distress and grief which destroys the other. They are eaten by the natives while young; but their flesh is very darkly coloured, though not ill tasted. The crested screamer inhabits Brazil, and is about as large as a heron, and feeds on the same substances as that bird. It is esteemed good for the table.

PALATE, in anatomy, the flesh that composes the roof, or the upper and inner part of the mouth. See ANATOMY.

PALAVIA, in botany, so named in honour of Don Antonio Palau, an eminent botanist, a genus of the Monadelphia Polyandria class and order. Natural order of Columniferæ. Malvaceae, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx half, five-cleft; style many-cleft; capsule many-celled; cells in a ball on the raised central receptacle. There are two species: viz.

P. malvifolia, and P. moschata: these are both annuals, and natives of Lima in Peru, where they were discovered by Dombey.

PALE, a little pointed stake or piece of wood, used in making inclosures, separations, &c. The pale was an instrument of punishment, and execution, among the ancient Romans, and still continues so among the Turks. Hence empaling, the passing a sharp pale up the fundament through the body.

PALE, in heraldry, one of the honourable ordinaries of an escutcheon; being the representation of a pale or stake placed upright, and comprehending the whole height of the coat from the top of the chief to the point. When the pale is single, it is to contain one-third of the breadth of the shield. When there are several, more properly called pallets, they are proportioned so as that two take up two-fifths of the shield, and three take up three-sevenths; and in those cases the number of pieces are specified, as well as that of those they are charged withal, &c. Pales are borne various ways, as wavy, indented, ingrailed, inverted, &c. There also cometed and flaming pales, which are pointed, sometimes waved, &c.

PALISADE, or PALISADO, in fortification, an enclosure of stakes or piles driven into the ground, each six or seven inches square, and eight feet long, three whereof are hidden under ground. Palisadoes are generally used to fortify the avenues of open forts, gorges, half-moons, the bottoms of ditches, the parapets of covert ways, and in general all posts liable to surprise, and to which the access is easy. Palisadoes are usually planted perpendicularly, though some make an angle inclining towards the ground next the enemy, that the ropes cast over to tear them up may slip.

PALISADE, in gardening, denotes a sort of ornament, being a row of trees which bear branches and leaves from the bottom, cut and spread in manner of a wall along the side of an alley, or the like, so as to appear like a wall covered with leaves.

PALISSE, in heraldry, a bearing like a range of palisades before a fortification, represented on a fesse, rising up a considerable height, and pointed a-top, with the field appearing between them.

PALLADIUM, in chemistry, a metal discovered by Dr. Wollaston in the native platina: it is of a greyish colour, and, when polished, of considerable lustre : it

is very ductile and very malleable; so that by the flatting mill it can be reduced into thin slips, which are flexible, but not very elastic. Its fracture is fibrous, and in diverging striæ, shewing a kind of crystalline arrangement. In hardness it is superior to wrought iron. Its specific gravity varies according to its perfect fusion, and as it is more or less porous, from hammering or flatting, from 10.9 to 11.8. It is a less perfect conductor of caloric than the other metals, and is also less expansible. When exposed to a strong heat, its surface tarnishes a little, and becomes blue, but by increasing the heat it again becomes bright. By a very great heat it is fused. It is not oxided by heat; its oxides formed by the action of acids are reduced by means of a high temperature. It is acted upon by a number of the acids; and the solutions formed by them may be decomposed by the alkalies and earths; precipitates being thrown down, which are generally of a beautiful orange colour. The alkalies act likewise on palladium even in the metallic state : the action is promoted by the contact of the atmospheric air. All the metals, except gold, silver, and platina, preci. pitate palladium from its solution in the metallic state. Palladium combines readily with sulphur, but not with charcoal. It may be alloyed with a number of the metals. A full account of the discovery of palladium, with the controversy to which it gave rise, will be found in the Philosophical Transactions for the years 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805.

PALLASIA, in botany, so named in honour of Peter Simon Pallas, M. D. a genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Frustranea class nnd order. Natural order of Composite Oppositifolia. Corymbiferæ, Jussieu. Essential character: receptacle, chaffy; down none; seeds vertical, flat, margin ciliated; calyx, imbricate. There is but one species, viz. P. halimifolia, a native of Lima, in Peru.

PALLET, among painters, a little oval table, or piece of wood or ivory, very thin and smooth; on and round which the painters place the several colours they have occasion for, to be ready for the pencil. The middle serves to mix the colours on, and to make the tints required in the work. It has no handle, but instead thereof, a hole at one end, to put the thumb through to hold it.

PALLET, among potters, crucible makers, &c. a wooden instrument, almost the only one they use, for forming, heating,

and rounding their works: they have several kinds; the largest are oval, with a handle; others are round, or hollowed triangularly; others, in fine, are in manner of large knives, serving to cut off whatever is superfluous on the moulds of their work.

PALLET, in gilding, an instrument made of a squirrel's tail, to take up the golden leaves from the pillow, and to apply and extend them on the matter to be gilt. See GILDING.

PALLET, in heraldry, is nothing but a small pale, consisting of one half of it in breadth, and therefore there are sometimes several of them upon one shield.

PALLET is also a part belonging to the balance of a watch or movement. See WATCH.

PALLET, in ship-building, is a room within the hold, closely parted from it, in which, by laying some pigs of lead, &c. a ship may be sufficiently ballasted, without losing room in the bold, which, therefore will serve for the stowing the more goods.

PALLIUM, or PALL, an archiepiscopal vestment of white woollen cloth, about the breadth of a border, made round, and thrown over the shoulders. Upon this border there are two others of the same matter and form, one of which falls down upon the breast, and the other upon the back, each having a red cross upon it; several crosses of the same colour being likewise upon the upper part of it about the shoulders. The pall was part of the imperial habit, and originally granted by the emperors to patriarchs; but at present it is given by the pope as a mark of the apostolic power, without which nei. ther the function nor title of archbishop can be assumed by the bishops of his communion.

PALM, an ancient measure, taken from the extent of the hand. The Roman palm was of two kinds: the great one was equal to about 8 inches English: the small one to about three inches. The modern palm differs in different countries:

In. Lines. 8 34

99

the same. 30

Under

PALME, in botany, palms. this name Linnæus has arranged several genera, which he has placed apart in an appendix to the work. The same plants constitute one of the seven families or tribes, into which all vegetables are dis

tributed by Linnæus in his "Philosophia Botanica." They are defined to be plants with simple stems, which, at their summit, bear leaves resembling those of the ferns, being a composition of a leaf and a branch; and whose flowers and fruit are produced on that particular receptacle, or seat, called a spadix, protruded from a common calyx in form of a sheath or scabbard, termed by Linnæus "spatha."

PALME, is likewise the name of the first order of Linnæus's "Fragments of a Natural Method," consisting of the following genera; the three last of which, although not ranged with the palms in the appendix to his "Artificial System," are placed with them, on account of their alleged conformity in point of habit, in his "Natural Method." The plants of this order are perennial, and mostly of the shrub and tree kind. The stem is in height from two to a hundred feet, and upwards. The roots form a mass of fibres, which are commonly simple, that is, without any ramifications. In frog's bit the roots are terminated by a small cup, of a conic form, which covers them like an extinguisher, as in duck's-meat. The stem is generally simple, cylindrical, and composed of strong longitudinal fibres; the leaves, which are a composition of a leaf and a branch, termed by Linnæus frondes, are of different forms, being sometimes shaped like an umbrella or fan, sometimes single or double-wing. ed; the small or partial leaves, which are often three feet in length, being rang ed alternately; the branches, or principal leaves, are six, eight, ten, and twelve feet long, the length varying according to the age and size of the plant; the flow. ers are male and female upon the same or different roots, except in the watersoldier, which bears hermaphrodite flowers only; and the palmetto, in which the flowers are hermaphrodite and male upon distinct roots. In vallisneria and frog'sbit, too, the flowers are not so properly male and female upon different roots, as barren bermaphrodites; a small seed-bud being discovered in those called the male flowers, and the remains of stamina in the female. Abortive flowers of the same kind are frequently observed in vallisneria upon the same root. The common calyx in this order is that sort termed a spatha, or sheath, and has either one valve or opening, as in date-tree and cocoa-nut; or two, as in faufel-nut, and wild Malabar-palm. The spadix, or head of VOL. IX.

flowers protruded from the sheath, is generally branched. Each flower is commonly furnished with a perianthium, or proper flower-cup, consisting of three leaves or divisions, that are small and permanent; the petals are three in number, of a substance like leather, and permanent like the leaves of the calyx. The flowers of zamia have no petals; the stamina are in number from two to twenty, and upwards, and cohere slightly at the base. In frog's-bit they appear like a pillar in the centre of the flower; the seedbuds are from one to three in number, placed in the middle of the flower, and support a like number of styles, which are very short. In frog's-bit, vallisneria, and water-soldier, the seed-bud is placed under the receptacle of the flower; the seed vessel is generally a pulpy fruit of the berry or cherry kind, containing one cell, filled with fibrous flesh, and covered with a skin, which is of a substance like leather; the seeds are in number from one to three in each pulpy fruit, of a hard bony substance, round or oval, and attached by their base to the bottom of the fruit.

PALMATED, something resembling the shape of the hand: thus we say palmated leaves, roots, stones, feet of birds, &c.

PALSY, in medicine, a disease wherein the body, or some of its members, lose the power of motion, and sometimes their sensation of feeling.

PALY, or PALE, in heraldry, is when the shield is divided into four or more equal parts, by perpendicular lines falling from the top to the bottom. Palybendy is when the escutcheon is divided by perpendicular lines, which is paly; and also by diagonals, which is called bendy. See BENDY.

PANACEA, among physicians, denotes an universal medicine, or a remedy for all diseases.

PANAX, in botany, a genus of the Polygamia Dioecia class and order. Natural order of Hederaceæ. Araliæ, Jussieu. Essential character: umbellatex; corolla five-petalled; stamina five; hermaphrodite, calyx five-toothed, superior; styles two; berry two-seeded : male, calyx entire. There are nine spe. cies.

PANACRATIUM, in botany, a genus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Spathacea. Narcissi, Jussieu. Essential character: petals six; nectary twelve-cleft; stamina placed

on the nectary. There are ten species. This genus consists of perennial bulbous rooted plants, from whence proceed long narrow leaves, and a strong upright scape, two feet in height, terminated by a large spathe, bursting on one side, disclosing in some of the species many, in others only one or two white flowers of great elegance and fragrance. They are chiefly natives of America and the West Indies.

PANCREAS, in anatomy, popularly called the sweet-bread, is a large gland, of a flattish shape, and fleshy colour, extended behind the stomach, and reaching from the duodenum transversely towards the spleen. See ANATOMY.

PANCREATIC juice, a liquid secreted by the pancreas, which is found to be analogous to saliva, and probably serves the same purpose in promoting the digestion of the food. See PHYSIOLOGY.

Es

PANDANUS, in botany, a genus of the Dioecia Monandria class and order. sential character; calyx and corolla none : male, anther sessile, inserted into the ramifications of the spadix : female, stigmas two; fruit compound There is but one species, viz. P. odoratissimus, sweetscented pandanus. It is a native of the warmer parts of Asia, where it is much used for hedges; it grows readily from branches; the tender white leaves of the flowers yield that most delightful fragrance, for which they are so generally esteemed. Of all the perfumes it is by far the richest and most powerful; the lower yellow pulpy part of the drupe is sometimes eaten by the natives in times of scarcity and famine; also the tender white base of the leaves, either raw or boiled.

PANDECTS, in the civil law, collections made by Justinian's order, of five hundred and thirty-four decisions of the ancient lawyers, on so many questions occurring in the civil law; to which that emperor gave the force and authority of law, by an epistle prefixed to them. The pandects consist of fifty books, and make the first part of the body of the civil law. PANIC, denotes an ill-grounded terror or fright. The origin of the phrase is from Pan, one of the captains of Bacchus, who, with a few men, put a numerous army to rout, by a noise which his soldiers made in a rocky valley favoured with a great number of echoes; for this stratagem making their number appear much greater than it really was, the

enemy quitted a very commodious encampment, and fled. Hence all illgrounded fears have been called panics, or panic fears.

PANICLE, in botany, denotes a soft woolly beard, on which the seeds of some plants, as millets, reeds, &c. hang.

PANICULA, in botany, a mode of flowering, in which the fructifications are dispersed upon foot-stalks variously sub. divided It is a sort of branching or diffused spike, composed of a number of small spikes that are attached along a common foot-stalk. The term is exemplified in oats, panic-grass, &c.

PANICUM, in botany, panic-grass, a genus of the Triandria Digynia class and order. Natural order of Gramina, Gramineæ, or Grasses Essential character: calyx two-valved, the third valve very small There are seventy-nine species. For an account of this very numerous genus, we refer the reader to Martynʼs edition of Miller's Botany.

PANIERS, baskets used in fortification. In military affairs, the term is expressive of a man dangerous to society, of one who ought to be guarded against where confidence and discretion are necessary.

PANEL, in law, an oblong piece of parchment, containing the names of the jurors, annexed to the writ of venire facius, and returned by the sheriff to the court from whence the process issued. From this the jury is often called the panel, and are said to be impanelled.

PANNAGE, or PAWNAGE, in law, the fruit of trees, as acorns, crabs, nuts, mast of beech, &c. which the swine feed upon in the woods, and which in some places the inhabitants take as a right of common.

PANNEL, in joinery, is a tympanum, or square piece of thin wood, sometimes carved, framed, or grooved in a larger piece, between two upright pieces and two cross pieces.

PANORPA, in natural history, a genus of insects of the order Neuroptera: mouth lengthened into a cylindrical horny proboscis; feelers four, nearly equal; stemmata three; antennæ filiform, longer than the thorax; tail of the male armed with a chelate appendage of the female unarmed. There are nine species: the most familiar is, as its name imports, P. fasciata, an insect very frequently seen in meadows during the early part of the summer. It is a longish bodied fly, of moderate size, with four yellowish wings,