he Star Chamber or not is
uncertain, was in 1637 sentenced anew, and "lost his ears a second and
final time, having had them 'sewed on again' before; this time a heroine
on the scaffold," adds Carlyle, "received them on her lap and kissed
him"; after this the zeal of Prynne appears to have waxed cold, for he
was as a recalcitrant imprisoned by Cromwell, after whose death he
espoused the Royalist cause, and was appointed Keeper of the Records of
the Tower (1600-1669).

PRYTANE`UM, name given to the public hall in Greek cities, and the
head-quarters of the Executive.

PSALMANAZAR, GEORGE, an impostor, born in the South of France, who,
being brought to London, imposed on Compton, bishop of London, by
fabricating a history of Formosa, of which he professed to be a native,
but was convicted of the error of his ways by Law's "Serious Call," and
led afterwards what seemed a sober life, and one to commend the regard of
Johnson (1679-1763).

PSALMS, THE BOOK OF, the name given in the Septuagint to a
collection of sacred songs in the Hebrew Bible, which are all of a
lyrical character, and appear to have been at first collected for
liturgical purposes. Their range is co-extensive with nearly all divine
truth, and there are tones in them in accord with the experience and
feelings of devout men in all ages. Nay, "the Psalter alone," says
Ruskin, "which practically was the service-book of the Church for many
ages, contains, merely in the first half of it, the sum of personal and
social wisdom,... while the 48th, 72nd, and 75th have in them the law and
the prophecy of all righteous government, and every real triumph of
natural science is anticipated in the 104th." The collection bears the
name of David, but it is clear the great body of them are of later date
as well as of divers authorship, although it is often difficult to
determine by whom some of them were written, and when. The determination
of this, however, is of the less consequence, as the question is more a
speculative one than a spiritual one, and whatever may be the result of
inquiry in this matter now going on, the spiritual value of the Psalms,
which is their real value, is nowise affected thereby. It matters nothing
who wrote them or when they were written; they are _there_, are conceived
from situations such as are obvious enough and common to the lot of all
good men, and they bear on spiritual interests, which are our primary
ones, and these, still, as in eve