must be read through to be appreciated Among the sayings of Hillel we miss the best known one, What is hateful to thee do not, &c. (J. F. p. 142), with which we may now compare Ecclus. xxxi. 15 Heb, “ Know (?) thy neighbour is as thyself, and consider what thou hatest.” Of the precept, “ Make a fence to the Torah ” (i.1; cf. iii. 17) it may be said that “everything is therein.” As a doctrine of development and as an ethical principle it is reflected in Clement of Alexandria's view of philosophy as a φραγμός of the vineyard (Strom. i. 20), and Polycarp's saying “ He that has love is far from all sin.” The use of Aboth in the synagogue stamps it as authoritative, and, with its intrinsic excellence, has led to its being “the most popular of all rabbinical writings.” For midrashic comments upon it see the Aboth of Rabbi Nathan (ed. S. Schechter, Vienna, 1887), or the rendering of it (new ed., New York, 1900) in M. L. Rodkinson's translation of the Babylonian Talmud into English. (See also Apocryphal Literature:, § Old Testament, II. d.)
Bibliography.—Aboth is included in editions of the Mishnah and the Talmud Babli, and in many prayer-books. For separate editions from about 1484–1485, see Moritz Ste1nschneider's Boolean Catatogus, col. 228–239, 2785, and other works cited in Herm. L. Strack's very useful n;:x*p1:|, Die Sprüche der Väter (ed. 3, 1901). See also C. Taylor's Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (ed. 2, 1897, referred to above as J. F.) a separate Appendix (1900) describes or enumerates manuscripts of Aboth—and Jewish Encyclopedia, art "Abot." (C. T.*)
PIRMASENS, a town of Germany, in the Bavarian Palatinate, 40 m. W. by S. of Spires, on the railway from Biebermühle.
Pop. (1905), 34,002. The only noteworthy buildings are the
town-hall and the principal Evangelical church, which contains a
fine monumcnt to Louis IX. (d. 1790), landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt,
who made the town his residence. The staple
industry is the production of boots and shoes; but musical
instruments, leather and machines are also manufactured.
Pirmasens owes its name to a St Pirmin, who is said to have
preached Christianity here in the Sth century. It originally
belonged to the count of Hanau-Lichtenberg, but passed to
Hesse-Darmstadt in 1736. In September 1793 the Prussians
gained a victory here over a body of French troops.
See T. Weiss, Pirmasens in der Franzosenzeit (Pirmasens, 1905).
PIRMEZ, OCTAVE (1832–1883), Belgian author, was born at Châtelineau in 1832. He belonged to a well-known Belgian
family, and his cousin, Édouard Pirmez, was distinguished for
his works on literary and political subjects. He lived an uneventful
life at his château of Acoz, in Hainaut, where he died in
May 1883. Pirmez was an ardent admirer of the French
romanticists. His works include Les Feuillées: pensées et maximes
(1862), Victor Hugo (1863); Jours de solitude (1869); Rémo;
Souvenirs d'un frère (1880); Heures de philosophies (1881); and the
posthumous Lettres à José (1884). These books form a history
of his emotional life, and reveal an extreme melancholy.
See Vie et correspondence d'Octave Pirmez (1888), by Adolphe
Siret and José de Copp1n.
PIRNA, a town in the kingdom of Saxony, on the left bank of the Elbe, 11 m. above Dresden, and on the railway to Bodenbach and Prague. Pop. (1905), 19,22O. The town is regularly built, with promenades covering the site of the old fortifications; the most notable edifices are the line Gothic parish church, built in the 16th century and restored in 1890, and the old town-hall.
Excellent sandstone is found on both banks of the Elbe. There are manufactures of glass, machinery, cigars, pottery and enamelled
goods; and there is a trade in grain, fruit and timber, mainly
carried on by river, and a little shipbuilding. Pirna, originally
a Slavonic settlement, was for many years in the alternate
possession of Bohemia and Meissen, but it became permanently
united with the latter, and thus with Saxony, in 1405. The
Sonnenstein, a fortress on a commanding eminence above the
town, was erected in the 16th century on the site of an older
castle by the elector of Saxony, Augustus I. It was once considered
the most important fortress on the Elbe, and successfully
withstood the Swedes in 1639, but it was captured and dismantled
by the Prussians in 1758, and in 1813 was occupied by
the French.
See R. Hofmann, Zur Geschichte der Stadt Pirna (Pirna, 1891); E. Küngel, Führer durch Pirna (Pirna, 1889), the Urkundenbuch der Städte Dresden und Pirna, edited by C. F. von Posern-Klett (Leipzig, 1875); and the publications of the Verein für Geschichte der Städt Pirna (Pirna, 1897 seq).
PIROGUE, or Piragua (the French and Spanish forms respectively of a Caribbean word for this type of vessel; it has at various times taken many corrupt forms, e.g. periagua, pettiaugua, pettyoagar),
originally the native name of a vessel made by hollowing
out the trunk of a tree, a “ dug-out ”; hence applied to many
different developments of this type of vessel used in the West
Indies and along the American coast. An early improvement
was to split the “ dug-out ” into two sections and insert a flat
bottom of planking to widen it; another form had a leeboard, was
decked in at either end, and had two masts.
PIRON, ALEXIS (1689-1773), French epigrammatist and dramatist, was born at Dijon on the 9th of July 1689. His father, Aimé Piron, was an apothecary, who wrote verse in the Burgundian patois. Alexis began life as clerk and secretary to a banker, and then studied law. In 1719, when nearly thirty years old, he went to seek his fortune at Paris. An accident brought him money and notoriety. The jealousy of the regular actors produced an edict restricting the Théâtre de la Foire, or licensed booths at fair times, to a single character on the stage. None of the ordinary writers for this theatre would attempt a monologue-drama for the purpose, and Piron made a great success with a piece called Arlequin Deucalion, representing Deucalion immediately after the Deluge, amusing himself with
recreating in succession the different types of man. In 1728 he produced Les Fils ingrats (known later as L'École des pères) at the Comédie Française. He attempted tragedy in Callisthène (1730), Gustave Vasa (1733) and Fernaud Cortès (1744), but none
of these succeeded, and Piron returned to comedy with La Métromanie (1738), in which the hero, Damis, suffers from the verse mania. His most intimate associates at this time were Mlle Quinault, the actress, and her friend Marie Thérèse Quenaudon, known as Mlle de Bar. This lady was slightly older than Piron and not beautiful, but after twenty years' acquaintance he married her in 1741. He died on the 21st of January 1773, in his eighty-fourth year. He was elected in 1753 to the Academy, but his enemies raked up a certain Ode à Priape, dating from his early days, and induced Louis XV. to interpose his veto. Piron however was pensioned, and during the last half-century of his
life was never in any want. His best title to remembrance lies in his epigrams. The burlesque epitaph on himself, in which he ridicules the Academy—
“Ci-git Piron, qui ne fut rien,
Pas meme académicien"—
is well-known, While many others are as brilliant. Grimm called him a “machine à saillies.”
Piron published his own theatrical works in 1758, and after his death his friend and literary executor, Rigoley de Juvigny, published his Œuvres complètes. M. Bonhomme produced a critical egition in 1859, completed by Poésies choisies et pièces inédites in 1879.
PIROT (Turkish Shehr-Koey), a Servian town, 12½ m from the Bulgarian frontier at Tsaribrod, on the railway line between Nish and Sofia. Pop (1900), 10,428. Pirot is the seat of the prefecture for the department of the same name, with a tribunal, several schools and a custom-house. It is the only proper industrial town in Servia, having numerous small factories for the manufacture of thin cloth (shayak), woollen braid (gaytan), and especially carpets. Its carpets have a great reputation in the Balkan Peninsula for their quaint designs, durability and freshness of colour. Pirot has a medieval fortress, believed to have been built on the site of the Roman fortress Quimedava, on the military road leading from Old Naissus to Philippopolis. The town is of great strategical importance, for which reason the Russian plenipotentiaries at the Berlin congress (1878) stubbornly tried to include it within the Bulgarian frontier, while Austria and some other Powers insisted that it should be given to Servia. In the war between Servia and Bulgaria in 1885 the Bulgarians occupied and held it until the conclusion of peace.
