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LEFT PERRY 191 PERSEPHONE American Mind" (1911); "Carlyle" (1915) ; "American Spirit in Literature" (1918). PERRY, JAMES DE WOLF, JR., an American bishop, born in Germantown, Pa., in 1871. Graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1891. After studying theology at the Cambridge Theological School he became a deacon, in 1895, priest in the following year. For two years following he was pastor of Christ Church, Springfield, Mass., and was suc- cessively pastor of Christ Church, Fitch- burg, Mass., and St. Paul's Church, New Haven, Conn. He remained in the latter position until 1911, when he was conse- crated Bishop of Rhode Island. In 1898 to 1904 he was chaplain of the 6th Massa- chusetts Infantry. PERRY, NORA, an American author; born in Dudley, Mass., in 1841. For many years she was a correspondent of the Chicago "Tribune" and the Provi- dence '^Journal." Early in her career she gained a reputation as a poet, but was more widely knoAvn as a writer of stories for girls. Her works include: "After the Ball, and Other Poems" (1875) ; "For a Woman" (1885), a novel; "New Songs and Ballads" (1886) ; "A Flock of Girls" (1887) ; "A Rosebud Gar- den of Girls" (1892); "Hope Benham" (1894). She died in 1896. PERRY, OLIVER HAZARD, an American naval officer; born in South Kingston, R. I., Aug. 23, 1785; famous for his defeat of a British force on Lake Erie in 1813. Perry, who had nine OLIVER HAZARD PERRY vessels, with 54 guns and 492 offi- cers and men, fought six vessels, with 63 guns and 502 officers and men, lost four-fifths of the crew of his flagship, and finally won a com- plete victory, which he announced in a brief dispatch : "We have met the enemy, and they are ours — two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one sloop." Perry died of yellow fever in Trinidad, Aug. 23, 1819, and was buried in Newport, R. I., where there is a bronze statue (1885). PERRY, ROLAND HENTON, sculp- tor and painter. He was born in New York in 1879, and studied painting and sculpture in Paris, and his work quickly won recognition. The "Fountain of Nep- tune" in front of the Congressional Library, Washington, is an example of his first plastic work, but this, and his "Siegfried," were progressively excelled by his later works, among them, "The Lion in Love," "Circe," the Langdon doors of the Buffalo Historical Society, the frieze in the lobby of the New Am- sterdam Theater in New York, "Pennsyl- vania" on the capitol at Harrisburg. Sculpture has been his main work but his painting at Detroit "The Death of Sigurd" shows finish in that field also. PERSECUTION, the act or practice of persecuting; specifically, the act of afflicting with suffering or loss of life or property for adherence to particular opinions, religious creed, political views, nationality, etc., either as a penalty or in order to compel the sufferers to re- nounce the principles in which they be- lieve. The word first became current in Christian circles in connection with 10 persecutions of Christians under the Ro- man emperors. The first was the perse- cution under Nero, A. D. 64; the second, under Domitian, a. d. 95; the third, under Trajan, a. d. 106; the fourth, under Mar- cus Aurelius, a. D. 166; the fifth, under Septimius Severus, a. d. 198; the sixth, under Maximinus, A. D. 285; the seventh, under Decius, a. d. 250; the eighth, un- der Valerian, a. d. 258; the ninth, under Aurelian, a. d. 275; and the tenth, under Diocletian, a. d. 303. The mediaeval church persecuted all whom it considered heretics, and the Reformation in England everywhere had to struggle against per- secution. When it became powerful enough, it also became intolerant to those who differed from it, passing and carry- ing out penal laws against Roman Cath- olics, dissenters, and unbelievers. PERSEPHONE, in Greek mythology, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter (Ceres). While she was gathering flow- ers near Enna in Sicily Pluto carried her off to the infernal regions, with the con- sent of Zeus, and made her his wife, but in answer to the prayers of Demeter she was permitted to spend the spring and