PIERCE, FRANKLIN, the fourteenth President of the United States, born in New Hampshire, was the lifelong friend of Nathaniel Hawthorne; bred to the bar; served in the Mexican War, and was elected President in 1852; his period of office was one of trouble, he supported the States’ rights doctrine, and served with the South in the Civil War (1804-1869).

PIERIA, a district in Macedonia E. of Olympus, inhabited by Thracians, and famous as the seat of the worship of the Muses and their birthplace, giving rise to the phrase Pierian Spring, as the source of poetic inspiration.

PIERIDES, the name given to the Muses from their fountain
PIERIA (q. v.).

PIERS PLOWMAN, VISION OF, a celebrated satirical poem of the 14th century ascribed to Robert Langland.

PIETA (i. e. piety), the name given to a picture, the subject of which is the dead Christ in the embrace of his sorrowing mother, accompanied by sorrowing women and angels; that sculptured by Michael Angelo, in St. Peter’s at Rome, representing the Virgin at the foot of the cross, and the dead Christ in her lap.

PIETERMARITZBURG (16), capital of Natal, 73 m. by rail N. of Durban; well situated on the Umgeni River, with fine streets, an ample water-supply, and a fine climate; has railroad connection with Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Charlestown.  A third of the population consists of Kaffirs and coolies.

PIETISTS, the name given to a religious party that arose in Germany at the end of the 17th century, but without forming a separate sect; laid more stress on religious feeling than dogmatic belief, and who at length, as all who ground religion on mere feeling are apt to do, distinguished themselves more by a weak sentimentality than by a sturdy living faith.

PIETRA DURA, a name given to the purest kind of Florentine mosaic work, consists of hard stones characterised by brilliancy of colour.

PIGEON ENGLISH, a jargon used in commercial dealings with the Chinese, being a mixture of English, Portuguese, and Chinese.

PIG-PHILOSOPHY, the name given by Carlyle in his “Latter-Day Pamphlets,” in the one on Jesuitism, to the wide-spread philosophy of the time, which regarded the human being as a mere creature of appetite instead of a creature of God endowed with a soul, as having no nobler idea of well-being than the gratification of desire—­that his only Heaven, and the reverse of it his Hell.

PIGWIGGIN, an elf in love with Queen Mab, who fights the jealous Oberon in furious combat.

PILATE, PONTIUS, Roman procurator of Judea and Samaria in the days of Christ, from A.D. 26 to 36; persuaded of the innocence of Christ when arraigned before his tribunal, would fain have saved Him, but yielded to the clamour of His enemies, who crucified Him; he protested before they led Him away by washing his hands in their presence that he was guiltless of His blood.

PILATUS, MOUNT, an isolated mountain at the W. end of Lake Lucerne, opposite the Rigi; is ascended by a mountain railway, and has hotels on two peaks.  A lake below the summit is said to be the last receptacle of the body of Pontius Pilate, hence the adoption of the name of “Mons Pilatus.”