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PEREKOP 182 PERIANTH and Reuben Percy, Brothers of the Bene- dictine Monastery of Mount Benger." Their real names were Thomas Byerley {died 1826), first editor of the "Mirror," and Joseph Clinton Robertson (died 1852), projector and editor of the "Me- chanics' Magazine"; the work owed its name to the Percy coffee house in Rath- bone Place, their usual place of meeting during its progress. An edition was prepared by John Timbs (1868), and another enlarged edition in 1887. PEREKOP, ISTHMUS OF, in S. Russia, connecting the peninsula of the Crimea with the mainland of European Russia. In the N. of the isthmus is the small town of Perekop. PEREZ GALDOS, BENITO, a Spanish novelist. He was born in the Canary Islands in 1845, and studied law at Madrid, but followed literature as a career. He was a member of the Cortes for a time, and while there gave evi- dence of the revolutionary ideals that showed in his historical romances. He wrote voluminously, and completed 20 stories of his "Episodios Nacionales" series by 1883. His best known work is "Doiia Perfecta" which appeared in 1876. Others are "Gloria"; "La Familia de Leon Roch"; Marianela"; "El Amigo Manso"; "El Doctor Centeno"; "Fortu- nata y Jacinta"; "Miau"; "Angel Guer- ra"; "Nazarin"; "Misericordia." He also wrote several plays. He died in 1920, statues having been erected to him in his lifetime, and national subscriptions being gathered to honor him. PERFECTIONIST, in ecclesiastical and Church history, one who believes in the possibility of living without sin; a perfectibilist. Any member of an Amer- ican sect of Antinomian Communists, which was founded about 1854, by John Humphrey Noyes, who had been an In- dependent minister at Yale College. He professed to have discovered from the writings of St. Paul that all Christian sects were in spiritual darkness, and de- termined to establish a church of his own. He founded a community at Oneida, N. Y., and others subsequently at Walling- ford. New Haven, and New York, in order to_ carry out what he asserted to be a divinely revealed system of society, based on the following principles: (1) Reconciliation with God; (2) salvation from sin; (3) brotherhood of man and woman ;_ and (4) community of labor, and of its fruits. They are called also Bible Communists, All possessions of the sect are held in common. PERFTTMES, substances emitting an agreeable odor, and used about the per- son, the dress, or the dwelling, having also some value as disinfectants. Per- fumes of various sorts have been held in high estimation from the most ancient times. The Egyptians, Hebrews, Phoe- nicians, Assyrians, and Persians are known to have made great use of them, as did also the Greeks and Romans, Perfumes are partly of animal but chiefly ^ of vegetable origin. They may be divided into two classes, crude and prepared. The former consist of such animal perfumes as musk, civet, amber- gris, and such vegetable perfumes as are obtained in the form of essential oils. At the present time the manufacture of perfumes is chiefly carried on in Paris and London, and in various towns near the Mediterranean, especially in the S. of France. Certain districts are famous for certain productions; as Cannes for its perfumes of the rose, tuberose, cassia, jasmine; Nimes for thyme, rosemary, and lavender; Nice for the violet and mignonette. England claims the supe- riority for her lavender, which is culti- vated on a large scale at Mitcham in Surrey. PERGAMTTS, in ancient geography, a city of Mysia, in Asia Minor, noted for the magnificence of its buildings, and as the place where parchment was first made, and tapestry, called by the Ro- mans aulsea, first worked. After the battle of Issus it became the capital of a kingdom, and flourished for more than 150 years, till conquered by the Romans, 120 B. C. It was destroyed during the Turkish wars, but its extensive ruins are still visible. PERI, according to the mythical lore of the East, a being begotten by fallen spirits, which spends its life in all imag- inable delights, is immortal, but is for- ever excluded from the joys of Paradise. It takes an intermediate place between angels and demons, and is either male or female. The Peris live in constant war- fare with the Devs. Otherwise, they are of the most innocuous character to mankind, and are just like the fairies. They belong to the great family of genii, or Jinn. PERIANDER, one of the seven re- puted sages of Greece, a tyrant of Cor- inth, who succeeded his father, Cypselus, 625 B. c, and died with the reputation of an able ruler, 585 B. c. He was a man of licentious manners, and, in the latter part of his reign, became a cruel ruler. PERIANTH, the envelope surround- ing the reproductive organs in a flower, when the calyx and corolla are not easily