those who employed medicines of that class. All unfortunate cases in which they had been exhibited he set down as so many murders, and he kept a particular register which he termed the Antimonial Martyrology.: In his own practice he was a greater shedder of blood than almost any other of the Parisian school, which was noted for phlebotomy, and he generally imputed the death of a patient to the want of suificient perseverance in the use of thelancet. With this instrument and a few simple remedies, particularly of the purgative class, he thought that every thing might be effected, within the power of the healing art. He, justly perhaps, derided the costly compounds and pretended specifics with which the apothecaries' shops at that time abounded; and had rational notions of the general operation of medicines, though under the influence of false theories and strong prejudices with respect to particular articles.

In other matters Patin was one who speculated freely. Without joining the Protestants, he cultivated a friendship with many of that communion, and was not behind any of them in his keen strictures on the bigotry and superstition of the Roman-catholic church. He seems, indeed, in his private opinions to have concurred with the philosophers of the time; and it has been noted as a very unchristian sentiment, that he consoled himself for the idea of quitting this world, with the hope of meeting Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, Galen, and Cicero in the other. He read much and upon a variety of subjects, and was eager in the purchase of new and valuable books, of which he possessed a copious collection. This learned and singular man died in 1672, in his seventy-first year. He wrote few works in his own profession, and those of little importance. After his death a great number of his letters were given to the public, which have been the chief means of preserving his memory. Of these there are two collections; one addressed to various friends, printed in 1685 and 1692, two volumes, 12mo.; the other all written to his friend Charles Spon, of Geneva, and published by that family in 1718, two volumes, 12mo. Patin's letters are an amusing miscellany of political and literary intelligence, biographical anecdotes, free opinions, medical history and criticism, with a plentiful mixture of spleen and sarcasm. It is difficult to say whether he lashes most severely the court and ministry, the clergy, or the chemical doctors. He has been accused of giving credit to idle reports, especially in disparagement of those whom he hated; and it would not be safe to

rely upon the authority of his narratives, which are often only the lie of the day; nevertheless the pictures which he gives of the manners and sentiments of the time are in most respects equally just and lively. Most of his medical opinions are to be found in these letters, with some extraordinary instances of practice. They are copiously interlarded with Latin, in which language his phraseology is much more cultivated than in his mother-tongue. All his letters have been published together in five or six volumes. Bayle. Halleri Bibl. Med. Eloy. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

PATIN, CHARLES, second son of the preceding, a physician and eminent antiquary, was born at Paris in 1633. He made an extraordinary progress in learning, and at the age of fourteen sustained theses in Greek and Latin before a large and splendid audience. He was designed for the bar, and became a licentiate in law at Poitiers, and afterwards an advocate in the parliament of Paris. He abandoned however this profession for that of physic, in which he took the degree of doctor in 1656. He had begun to practise with great reputation, when a circumstance occurred which obliged him to quit France for fear of imprisonment. The cause of his disgrace is involved in some obscurity; but it is said, that having been sent into Holland by a great prince in order to buy up all the copies of a work of court scandal, and burn them on the spot, he saved a number of them and dispersed them among his friends. His father, in his letters, lamenting his son's misfortune, gives no hint of such a fact, but mentions the discovery of some obnoxious books in his library. Charles Patin, after passing some time in travelling into Holland, England, Germany, and Switzerland, finally settled with his family in Italy, and in 1676 was made professor extraordinary of medicine at Padua. He had the chair of surgery in 1681, and of the practice of medicine in 1683, which posts he filled with so much distinction, that the republic of Venice conferred on him the title of a chevalier of St. Mark. He was aggregated to the academy Nature Curiosorum, and was for many years chief and director of He died at Pathe academy of Ricovrati. dua in 1693. This learned person was the author of numerous works in the Latin, French, and Italian languages. Those by which he is best known relate to the numismatic or medallic science, in which he was a great proficient. The following are upon that subject: "Familia Romanæ ex antiquis Numismatibus," 1663, folio; this is chiefly founded on the

England for refuge from the tyranny and persecution of the late reign, and recommended to their majesties several worthy persons to fill the vacant bishoprics. In the year 1691, our prelate was translated to the see of Ely, which was vacant by the deprivation of Dr. Francis Turner for refusing to take the oaths to the new government. In this situation he fulfilled the duties of the episcopal function with the utmost application, zeal, and integrity, while he continued to prosecute his studies with great assiduity. He established lectures in two churches in Cambridge, with a salary to each of thirty pounds a year, for afternoon sermons every Sunday. He also shewed himself a benefactor to his see by the improvements which, at a considerable expence, he introduced into its temporalities. At the same time he shew

ed himself a benefactor in the noblest sense to

the public at large, by the valuable writings, consecrated to the interests of piety and virtue, which he was continually committing to the press. He died at Ely in 1707, in the eightyfirst year of his age. He was a man of very extensive learning and eminent abilities, and possessed great merit as a writer. Of the excellence of his public character we have already made mention; and in private life he was exemplary for the ardour of his piety, the sanctity of his manners, his integrity, candour, and charity, and the other virtues which constitute the good man and the good christian. Bishop Burnet ranks him among those who were indeed an honour to the church, and to the age in which they lived. Among his publications are numerous devotional, practical, and miscellaneous pieces, tracts against popery, sermons, &c. for the titles of which we must refer to either of the two first of our authorities. But the most valuable of his works are his "Commentaries" upon the historical books of the Old Testament, and "Paraphrases" on the books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, which made their appearance at various times from the year 1679, and, after having been frequently reprinted in octavo and quarto, were collected into three volumes folio. The "Paraphrases" were first in the order of publication. These volumes, with Lowth's "Commentaries" upon the prophets, Arnald's upon the Apocrypha, and Whitby's on the New Testament, form a collection of English exegetical works which is held in high estimation, and, when complete, now sells for an exorbitant price. Biog. Brit. Gen. Dict. Brit. Biog. Neal's Hist. Purit. vol.

IV.ch. viii.-M.

VOL. VII.

PATRIZI, FRANCESCO, (Lat. Patricius) a philosopher and man of letters in the sixteenth century, was born in 1529 in the island of Cherso on the coast of Dalmatia, but he derived his origin from the family of Patrizi in Sienna. At an early age he was sent for education to Padua, where he studied under some of the most eminent masters of the time. In 1553 he began to appear as an author in some miscellaneous Italian tracts. He finished his studies in the following year, and after some excursions, returned to his own country. In 1557, with the view of obtaining the patronage of the duke of Ferrara, he published a panegyrical poem on the house of Este, entitled, "L'Eridano," in a novel kind of heroic verse of thirteen syllables, not, however, of his own invention. For several successive years he passed an unsettled life, in which he twice visited the isle of Cyprus, which was his abode for seven years, and which he finally quitted on its reduction by the Turks in 1570 or 1571. He also travelled into France and Spain, and spent three years in the latter country, collecting a treasure of ancient Greek MSS. which he lost on his return to Italy. In 1578 he was invited to Ferrara by duke Alphonso II. to teach philosophy in the university of that city. He had remained there fourteen years, when, upon the accession of Clement VIII. to the popedom, he was appointed public professor of the Platonic philosophy at Rome, which office he filled with great applause till his death in 1597.

Of the various branches of science and literature cultivated by this learned man, ancient philosophy was that by which he most distinguished himself. His work, entitled, " Discussiones Peripateticæ," of which the first part was printed at Venice in 1571, and was reprinted with three others at Basil in 1581, is characterised as a learned, perspicuous and elegant performance. After having commenced with a very particular account of the Aristotelicphilosophy and its author, composed with singular erudition, he becomes a violent oppugner of it, and undertakes entirely to subvert it. In a second work, entitled, "Nova de Universis Philosophia," he proposes a new system, founded upon the Platonic philosophy, but with such additions and alterations as seemed requisite. It is, however, in reality, a compound of useless subtleties and chimæras; and like many other philosophers, he has shown himself more happy in refuting error than in establishing truth. Yet he deserves praise, for having been one of

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the first moderns who attentively observed the phenomena of nature; and he made good use of the opportunities afforded by his travels to collect remarks concerning various points of astronomy, meteorology, and natural history. He was superior to vulgar prejudices, and rejected the vain science of judicial astrology, then so much in vogue. It is remarkable that in one of his " Dialogues on Rhetoric" he advances, under the fiction of an Ethiopic tradition, a theory of the earth perfectly similar to that afterwards proposed with so much fancy and eloquence by Dr. Thomas Burnet. His propensity to new ideas also appeared in what he wrote respecting the mathematical sciences. In his "Nova Geometria," published in 1587, he attempted to establish certain rules better than those hitherto adopted in geometrical processes; but he appears to have made no converts to his system. His "Paralleli Militari," published in 1594, though a work of much ingenuity and erudition, drew upon him some ridicule for his projects and speculations in an art of which he was so practically ignorant as that of military engineering. In his "Dieci Dialoghi della Storia," in which he treats at large on the art of writing history, the same spirit has led him into frequent digressions upon speculative topics, which are neither instructive nor amusing. Besides his original writings, he appeared as a learned editor in the following publication: "Oracula Zoroastris, Hermetis Trismegisti, et aliorum ex scriptis Platonicorum collecta, Græce et Latine, præfixa Dissertatione Historica," Ferrara, 1591. Brucker. Moreri. Tiraboschi.-A.

PATRU, OLIVER, a distinguished French pleader and man of letters, was born at Paris in 1604. His father, who was a procureur in the parliament, brought him up to the bar. After having visited Rome, he returned to Paris and frequented the courts of law, cultivating with great assiduity the talent of speaking and writing with purity. His reputation procured him admission to the French academy in 1640; and at his reception he delivered an oration of thanks, which pleased that body so well, that it became thenceforth the rule for every new member to pronounce a similar harangue. Patru was connected with most of the eminent literary characters in France of that period, and was consulted as an oracle upon every question relative to language. Vaugelas derived great assistance from him in his remarks on the French language, for which he has made a proper acknowledgment. Boileau,

Racine, and other wits, read their works to him, and profited by his remarks. Racine, indeed, sometimes shrunk from the severity of his animadversions; but the correct Boileau seems to have been fully sensible of their value. As Patru, from what cause we are not informed, fell into a state of indigence, Boileau purchased his library, and generously permitted him to retain it during his life. That a poet should be the pecuniary benefactor of a celebrated pleader, seems contrary to the usual order of things; but Patru was probably more engaged in polishing his style than in turning over law. books and hunting for clients. He was a man of a philosophical spirit, generous, compassionate, and not depressed by the frowns of fortune. His opinions were of the sceptical cast, on which account he was visited by Bossuet in his last illness, for the purpose of exhorting him to edify the public by some demonstrations of religious conviction. "It will more become me (said Patru) to be silent, for men in their last moments talk only through weakness or vanity." It was reported, however, that he died like a good christian. On his death-bed he received a visit from the minister Colbert, who brought him a late donation of five hundred crowns. He expired in January 1681, in his seventy-seventh year.

As an author, Patru was principally known by his "Plaidoyers," which have the merit of being free from the former barbarisms of the bar, but are without warmth or imagination. He also wrote harangues, letters, and the lives of some of his friends, which have a similar character of cold correctness, and have lost their former reputation. The best edition of his works is that of 1732, in two volumes quarto. Moreri. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-A.

PAVILLON, NICHOLAS, a pious and celebrated French prelate in the seventeenth century, was a son of an advocate of the parliament of Paris, in which city he was born in the year 1597. Being destined to the church, he was placed under the direction of the famous Vincent de Paul, founder of the congregation of the priests of the missions, who, finding him well qualified by abilities and inclination for the purposes of the society, employed him in the work of preaching and instruction in different parts of the kingdom. He also appointed him director of the order of the Daughters of Charity, and of the conferences for the instruction of young ecclesiastics. So high was the reputation which he acquired by his virtues, his zeal, and particularly by his