ckeray, and Tennyson on the
other; he was no great poet (1787-1874).

PROCTOR, RICHARD ANTONY, astronomer and lecturer on Astronomy;
determined the rotation of the planet Mars, and propounded the theory of
the solar corona (1837-1888).

PROCURATOR-FISCAL, is a Scottish law officer appointed by the
sheriff, and irremovable on efficient and good behaviour, whose duties
are to initiate the prosecution of crimes and inquire into deaths under
suspicious circumstances.

PROGNE, the sister of Philomela and wife of Tereus, changed into a
swallow by the gods. See TEREUS.

PROGRESS OF THE SPECIES MAGAZINES, Carlyle's name for the literature
of the day which does nothing to help the progress in question, but keeps
idly boasting of the fact, taking all the credit to itself, like AEsop's
fly on the axle of the careering chariot soliloquising, "What a dust I
raise!"

PROHIBITIONIST, one who would prohibit the sale of all intoxicating
liquors.

PROLETARIAT, the name given to the lowest and poorest class in the
State, and which still retains the original Roman meaning, as denoting,
from _proles_, offspring, one who enriches the State not by his
prosperity, but by his progeny.

PROMETHEUS (i. e. Forethought), a Titan, the son of lapetus and
Klymene, and the brother of EPIMETHEUS (q. v.), who, when the
gods, just installed on Olympus, met with men at Mekone to arrange with
them as to their dues in sacrifice, came boldly forth as the
representative and protector of the human race and slew a bullock in
sacrifice, putting the flesh of it in one pile and the entrails with the
bones in another, veiled temptingly with fat, and invited Zeus to make
his choice, whereupon, knowing well what he was about, Zeus chose the
latter, but in revenge took away with him the fire which had been
bestowed by the gods upon mortals. It was a strife of wit _versus_ wit,
and Prometheus, as the defender of the rights of man, was not to be
outwitted even by the gods, so he reached up a hollow fennel stalk to the
sun and brought the fire back again, whereupon the strife was transformed
into one of force _versus_ force, and Zeus caught the audacious Titan and
chained him to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle gnawed all day at
his liver which grew again by night, though, in inflicting this
punishment, Zeus was soon visited with a relenting heart, for it was by
express commission from him that Hercules, as a son of his, scaled the
rock and