[Prakrit], name given to a group of Hindu languages based on Sanskrit.
[Pratique], license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from the captain to convince the authorities that she is free from contagious disease.
[Praxiteles], great Greek sculptor, born at Athens; executed statues in both bronze and marble, and was unrivalled in the exhibition of the softer beauties of the human form, especially the female figure, his most celebrated being the marble one of Aphrodité at Cnidus; he executed statues of Eros, Apollo, and Hermes as well, but they have all perished.
[Praying-Wheels], cylinders with printed prayers on them, driven by hand, water, or wind-power, in use among the Buddhists of Thibet.
[Pre-Adamites], a race presumed to have existed on the earth prior to Adam; traditional first fathers of the Jews.
[Precession of the Equinoxes], name given to the gradual shifting of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic from east to west. See [Equinoxes].
[Précieuses Ridicules], a play of Molière's, published in 1653, directed against the affectations of certain literary coteries of the day.
[Predestination], the eternal decree which in particular foreordains certain of the human family to life everlasting and others to death everlasting, or the theological dogma which teaches these. See [Election, the Doctrine of].
[Predicables], the five classes of terms which can be predicated of a subject, viz.—genus, containing species; species, contained in a genus; differentia, distinguishing one species from another; property, quality possessed by every member of a species; and accident, attribute belonging to certain individuals of a species and not others.
[Pregel], a navigable river in E. Prussia, 120 m. long and 730 ft. broad, which falls into the Frische Haff below Königsberg.