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lovers of falconry, and the king liar, generally 800 of them, each ofwhich has a person to attend it. The rivers in Persia are few, andDot navigable, except the Araxes. The seas on the S. of Persia are, the Gulph of Persia, or Bassora , the Gnlph of Ormns, andthe Indian Ocean. The only sea on the N. is the Caspian , orHyrcanian sea; which is more properly a lake , having no com-munication with any other sea. These seas, together with thelakes and rivers, supply Persia with plenty of fish. The Persian gulph is believed to have more fish than any other sea in theworld. The soil of Persia is in general stony, sandy, barren, andeverywhere so dry, that, if it be not watered, it produces nothing,not even grass; but, where they can turn the water into their plainsand valleys, it is not unfruitful. All along the Persian gulph, thesoil is barren, cattle less numerous, and every thing in a worsecondition than anv where else.

PERSIAN.GULF, or the GULF OF PERSIA , a large gulfof Asia, between Persia and Arabia Felix. The entrance nearOrmus is not above 30 miles over; but within, it is 180 in breadth ;and the length, from Ormus to the mouth of the Euphrates , is 4'iOmiles.

PERSICAR1A, in bo*any. See Polygonum.

PERSICUM MARE, or PERSICUS SINUS, in ancientgeography, a part of the sea which the Romans called Mare Uu-brum, and the Greeks Mare Erythranun ; washing Arabia Felixon the E. between which and Carmania, entering into the land, itwashes Persis on the S.

PERSIS, in ancient geography, a province of Persia , houndedby Media, Carmania, Susiana, and the Persian gulf , it is usedby some authors.for Persia itself.

PERStUS ELACCUS, Aulus, a Latin poet in the reign ofNero , celebrated for his satires. He was born, according to some,at Volterra, in Tuscany ; and, according to others, at Tigulia, inthe gulf of Specia, in the year 34. He was educated till twelveyears old at Volterra; and afterwards at Rome under Palannonthe grammarian, Virginius the rhetorician, and Comutus the Stoic ,who contracted a friendship for him. Persius consulted that illus-trious friend in the composition of his verses. Lucian also studiedwith him under Cornutus , and was so charmed with his verses,that he was incessantly breaking out into acclamations at the beau-tiful passages in his satires. He was a steady friend, a good son,an affectionate brother and parent. He was chaste, meek, andmodest: which siiews how wrong if is to judge of a man’s moral-by his writings; for the satires of Persius are not only licentious,but sharp and acrimonious. Persius was of a weak constitution,and troubled with a weak stomach, which was the cause of hisdeath in the thirtieth year of his age. Only six of his satires nowremain.

PERSON , an individual substance of a rational intelligent na-ture. The word person, persona, is thought to be borrowed a

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personando, from personating or counterfeiting ; and is supposedto have first signified a mask : because, as Boethius informs us, inlarva concava sonus volvaturt and hence the actors who ap-peared masked on the stage were sometimes called larvati, andsometimes personati. Things merely corporeal, as a stone, &plant, or a horse, were called hypostases, or supposita, but neverpersons.

Person, in grammar, is applied to such nouns or pronouns as,being either prefixed or understood, are the nominatives in all in-flections of a verb; or it is the agent or patient in all infinite orpersonal verbs. Sec Grammar.

Person, in dramatic poely, the character assumed by an actor,or he who is represented by the player. Thus, at the head ofdramatic pieces, is placed the dramatis persona 1 , or list of the per-sons that are to appear on the stage.

PERSONABLE, in law, signifies the being aide to maintain aplea in court; especially in the case of an alien, who may be madepersonable by an act ot parliament.

PERSONAL, that concerns, or is restrained to, the person.

Personal Action, in law, is an action levied directly and solelyagainst the person, in opposition to a real or mixed action. SeeAction.

Personal Goods, or Chattels, inlaw, signifies any move-able thing belonging to a person, whether alive or dead. SeeChattels.

Personal Identity. See Metaphysics.

Personal Tythes , tithes paid of such profits as come by thelabour of a man’s person, as by buying ami selling, gains of mer-chandise, handicrafts, &c.

PERSONALI TY, an action is in the personality where it isbrought against the right person, or the person against whom inlaw it lies.

PERSON ATT, the fortieth order in Li minus’s Fragments of aNatural Method, consisting of plants whose flowers are furnishedwith an irregular gaping or grinning petal, which in figure some-what resembles the snout of an animal. See Botany .

PERSONATE, in law, is the representing a person by a fieri]tious or assumed character, so as to pass for the person represent-ed. Personating bail, Is by stat. 21 Jac. I. c. 2(5, a capital felony.By various other statutes, personating seamen entitled to wages,prize-money, &c. is a capital felony.

PERSONIFICATION, PERSONIFYING , or PERSON-ALIZING, the giving an inanimate heingthe figure, sentiments,and language, of a person. See Oratory.

PERSOONTA, in botany, a genus of the (elrandria monogyniaclass and order. Calyx none ; petals four, stain ini I’crous towardsthe base ; glands four at the base of the germ ; stigma blunt; drupeone-seeded. These are generally shrubby plants, natives of theislands of the Southern Ocean .

PERSPECTIVE.

PERSPECTIVE, [from perspicio, I see plainly,] the art ofdelineating visible objects on a plain surface, such as they appearat a given distance upon a transparent plane, placed between theeye and the object.

History of Perspective..

Perspective, according to the accounts of historians, is derivedfrom painting, particularly as employed in theatrical decorations ;but was very little known until about the beginning of the six-teenth century. The desire of representing on a plane or a flatsurface, such figures as should produce, on the eyes of the specta-tors, effects similar to those which would be occasioned by view-ing them in relief, and at different distances, engaged the artists ofthose times to consider the apparent diminution of magnitude, andalterations of position, which such different objects exhibit to theeye, according as they are nearer to or farther from the same. Inthis research it is, at least, very probable that a due observance ofnatural appearances furnished the first hints to intelligent paintersfcow to proceed in this part of their art; for, by looking at a range

of objects placed on lines parallel to each other, as rows of trees,&c. they could not but see them as converging together and ap-pearing nearer and nearer to each other in proportion to their re-| moleness; the ground, although really level, would seem as risingi upwards with a gentle ascent: on the other hand, in viewing a levelplane elevated on high, as a flat deling, &c. they would see it asappearing to decline or sink in going off from the eye. These andsuch like notices may reasonably be supposed the primary or prin-cipal guides by which artists were directed to make the imitationswhich they iirst produced, ot these kinds of appearances ; that illu-sions of this sort being publicly exhibited, induced geometricians,who are not satisfied with any thing less than rigorous exactness"to examine strictly into the causes of these effects, and the meansof accurately investigating perfect imitations of these illusive ap-pearances, and by this means perspective is become a system ofmathematical rules, the true guide and firm support of the imita-tive arts. The ancients made it a general and leading principleto consider the objects which they would represent, as being be-yond a transparent plane, so placed between the eye and the ob-jects,