PRAGUE (310), capital of Bohemia, on the Moldau, 217 m. by rail NW. of Vienna, is a picturesque city with over 70 towers, a great royal palace, unfinished cathedral, an old town-hall, a picture-gallery, observatory, botanical garden, and museums; the University, partly German and partly Czech, has 300 teachers, 4000 students, and a magnificent library; the centre of an important transit trade, Prague is the chief commercial city of Bohemia; has manufactures of machinery, chemicals, leather, and textile goods; four-fifths of the population are Czechs; founded in the 12th century, it has suffered in many wars; was captured by the Hussites 1424, fell frequently during the Thirty Years’ War, capitulated to Frederick the Great 1757, and in 1848 was bombarded for two days by the Austrian Government in quelling the democratic demonstrations of the Slavonic Congress of that year.

PRAIRIE, name given by the French to an extensive tract of flat or rolling land covered with tall, waving grass, mostly destitute of trees, and forming the great central plain of North America, which extends as far N. as Canada.

PRAKRIT, name given to a group of Hindu languages based on Sanskrit.

PRATIQUE, license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from the captain to convince the authorities that she is free from contagious disease.

PRAXITELES, great Greek sculptor, born at Athens; executed statues in both bronze and marble, and was unrivalled in the exhibition of the softer beauties of the human form, especially the female figure, his most celebrated being the marble one of Aphrodite at Cnidus; he executed statues of Eros, Apollo, and Hermes as well, but they have all perished.

PRAYING-WHEELS, cylinders with printed prayers on them, driven by hand, water, or wind-power, in use among the Buddhists of Thibet.

PRE-ADAMITES, a race presumed to have existed on the earth prior to Adam; traditional first fathers of the Jews.

PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES, name given to the gradual shifting of the equinoctial points along the ecliptic from east to west.  See EQUINOXES.

PRECIEUSES RIDICULES, a play of Moliere’s, published in 1653, directed against the affectations of certain literary coteries of the day.

PREDESTINATION, the eternal decree which in particular foreordains certain of the human family to life everlasting and others to death everlasting, or the theological dogma which teaches these.  See ELECTION, THE DOCTRINE OF.

PREDICABLES, the five classes of terms which can be predicated of a subject, viz.—­GENUS, containing species; SPECIES, contained in a genus; DIFFERENTIA, distinguishing one species from another; PROPERTY, quality possessed by every member of a species; and ACCIDENT, attribute belonging to certain individuals of a species and not others.

PREGEL, a navigable river in E. Prussia, 120 m. long and 730 ft. broad, which falls into the Frische Haff below Koenigsberg.