superintendent of the cabinets of natural and physical science of the Count de Provence, afterwards Louis XVIII. In 1781 he established a museum, for the purpose of supplying scientific students with a place and with apparatus for carrying on experiments. His first aërial voyage was made along with the marquis d'Arlandes, in a fire-balloon of Montgolfier's (q.v.), on the 21st of October, 1783: it was perfectly successful, and was followed by several others. Having devised the very dangerous plan of combining a hydrogen gas balloon with a fire balloon, with a view to exercising greater control over the ascent and descent of the machine, he made a trial of that scheme in company with Romain on the 10th of June, 1785, intending to cross from France to England. At the height of about five hundred or six hundred feet above the ground the balloon took fire, and blazed for about half an hour, when the aeronauts at last fell to the earth; Romain lived but for a few minutes, and Pilatre was killed on the spot.—W. J. M. R.
PILES, Roger de, a French painter and writer on painting, was born at Clemecy in the Nivernois in 1635. Of a good family of that neighbourhood, he received an excellent classical education. His inclination was towards art, and he studied with a view to making painting his profession. From this, however, he was diverted by the offer in 1662 of the post of tutor to the son of the minister, Amelot, though he continued to paint in his intervals of leisure. De Piles accompanied his pupil to Italy, and whilst there wrote his well-known essays on painting. He also translated into French prose the Latin poem on Painting of his friend Du Fresnoy, and accompanied it with a body of notes. In 1682 his former pupil, M. Amelot de la Houssaye, being sent on a diplomatic mission to Venice, De Piles accompanied him as secretary of legation, and he went with him in a similar capacity to Lisbon in 1685, and to Switzerland in 1689. In 1692 De Piles was sent by Louis XIV. to the Hague, ostensibly for the purpose of studying the pictures in the great collections there, but really to conduct a negotiation with the heads of the party desirous of concluding a peace with France. De Piles' purpose was, however, discovered; he was arrested, and was not released till the signing of the treaty of Ryswick. Whilst in confinement he wrote his "Lives of the Painters." On his return to Paris he received a pension; but M. Amelot being appointed ambassador to Spain, De Piles agreed to accompany him. His health had, however, became too enfeebled to resist the climate of Madrid, and he returned to Paris, where he died, May 5, 1709. Besides the works already mentioned he wrote on anatomy for artists. Dialogues on Painting, and other treatises on art. His works were published in a collected form in 5 vols. 12mo, Paris, 1767. Several of them have been translated into English.—J. T—e.
PILKINGTON, James, a learned prelate of the English church, was born in Lancashire in 1520. He received his education at Cambridge. In 1548 he became master of St. John's college, and was of immense service to the cause of literature by his zealous efforts to promote the study of Greek in England. In 1549, a discussion having taken place before a royal commission on the doctrine of transubstantiation, in which Ridley "learnedly determined," the judgment of Ridley was attacked by one Langdale, but ably defended by Pilkington. He was presented by Edward VI. with the vicarage of Kendal. During the Marian persecutions he was obliged to take refuge on the continent, and from the Swiss reformers he seems to have imbibed those opinions about externals which he afterwards professed. Soon after the accession of Elizabeth he was elevated to the bishopric of Durham, and in 1562 was appointed queen's reader of divinity. The Church of England was in 1564 agitated with a contest about ecclesiastical habits. Pilkington had scruples regarding the habits (especially the cap and surplice), though he did not refuse to wear them. He objected, however, to forcing them on others, and wrote an earnest letter to Leicester, entreating the government to refrain from exacting compliance in this matter, and justifying his own conduct by declaring that he complied for the sake of peace. He died in 1575, and his remains were interred in the choir of Durham cathedral. Pilkington wrote commentaries on many of the books of scripture, and was the author of a defence of the service of the church.—D. G.
PILKINGTON, Letitia, was born at Dublin in 1712, her father. Dr. Van Leuwen, having been for some time settled there. She married when very young the Rev. Matthew Pilkington, the author of a collection of second-rate poems. They lived unhappily together, in consequence, if the lady may be believed, of her husband's conceiving a jealousy of her superior talents; but the more probable account is that her irregularities gave him but too much cause for dissatisfaction. He attempted to obtain a divorce, but was only able to bring about a separation a mensâ et thoro. Mrs. Pilkington after the separation, which was effected in 1732, repaired to London, and with the assistance of the good-natured Colley Cibber, successfully published her "Memoirs" by subscription. This is a lively and piquant production, and contains many anecdotes about Dean Swift. She seems, however, to have failed in the attempt to earn a livelihood in London by writing, and to have returned to Dublin; for her play of "The Turkish Court, or the London Prentice" was first acted in that city in 1748, and she died there prematurely—being, it is said, addicted to the bottle—in 1750.—T. A.
PILLET, Claude Marie, born at Chamberry about 1773, is best known as one of the chief conductors of the Biographic Universelle. He was also a contributor to the Biographic des Hommes Vivants. Pillet died in 1826.—W. J. P.
PILON, Germain, a celebrated French sculptor, flourished during the second half of the sixteenth century. He was the favourite sculptor of Henri II. and of Catherine de' Medicis, and executed for them many important monumental and other works, some of which are extant. His most admired work is the group of the Graces, draped and holding on their heads a gilt urn, in which were placed the hearts of Henri and Catherine. This group was originally placed in the church of the Celestins, but is now with several other things by him in the Renaissance Court of the Louvre. One of his most celebrated extant works is the tomb of Henri II. in St. Denis. Pilon is among the best of the French sculptors of the Renaissance period. He worked in alabaster and stone, as well as marble and bronze. He died about 1590.—J. T—e.
PILPAY, a corruption of Bidpai, the name affixed to the earliest extant collection of fables. It is now impossible to determine the birthplace of the originals of these tales, but there can be no doubt that the collection which bears the name of Pilpay had its origin in Hindostan. From a very early period, stories in which animals are introduced as speakers and actors were current among the Hindoos. The parent stock of all of them is the Sanscrit book, called the Pancha Tantra or Five Sections, an analytical account of which has been published by Professor H. H. Wilson in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society. An abridgment of the Pancha Tantra, entitled the Hitôpadesa or Salutary Instruction, has been translated into English by Sir Charles Wilkins and by Sir William Jones, and has thus become more generally known in Europe than the original work. The fables contained in both of these collections are narrated in prose, but reflections in verse, chiefly quotations from the poets, are freely interspersed throughout the narrative. The names of the compilers of these works, as well as the exact epoch of their composition, are unknown; but it appears from internal evidence that they must have been compiled subsequently to the fifth century. According to an ancient tradition these celebrated fables were carried into Persia about the middle of the sixth century by an eminent physician named Barzûyeh, who is alleged to have been a christian monk. An Arabic version of the fables made two centuries later, but long ago lost, was the channel through which they reached Western Asia and Europe. It is usually called the "Kalila Damana" from the names of two jackals which figure prominently in the first story. And the name Bidpai, given in this version to the wise man who is the story-teller, has been corrupted into Pilpay. In the twelfth century Pilpay's fables were translated from the Arabic into Hebrew by Rabbi Joel, a learned Jew; and this version was in the following century turned into Latin by a converted Jew named Johannas de Capua. The fables have been translated into Spanish, Italian, English, and other languages; and it is believed that there is no work except the Bible of which so many versions have been made. Pilpay's fables bear unmistakably the stamp of their origin. "The animals, the scenery, and the aspect of society, are all genuinely Indian, and not a few features image vividly the ancient state of Indian greatness and independence. Among other tales found in the collection which are not properly fables, are the originals of the Arabian Alnaschar, of the story of the faithful dog, versified in Bethgelert; and of several of the French fabliaux."—J. T.
