Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/859

 PRIME was employed by Francis I. and his succes- sors as a painter, and also as a sculptor and architect. His frescoes of " The Gods of Ho- mer " and " The Adventures of Ulysses " were destroyed in 1728, and only those of "Alex- ander the Great " remain at Fontainebleau. PRIME. I. Samuel Irensens, an American cler- gyman, born at Ballston, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1812. He graduated at Williams college, Mass., in 1829, studied theology at Princeton, and en- tered the ministry of the Presbyterian church. He preached for one year in his native town, and for three years in a parish on the Hudson, opposite Newburgh. Since 1840 he has been editor of the "New York Observer." His contributions under the signature "Irenseus" have had much popularity, and the "Obser- ver " has become one of the leading periodicals in the country. He has several times visited Europe, and has published sketches of his travels under the titles "Travels in Europe and the East" (2 vols., New York, 1855), "Letters from Switzerland" (1860), and "The Alhambra and the Kremlin >5 (1873). He has also published " The Old White Meeting House, or Reminiscences of a Country Congregation " (1845); "Life in New York" (1845); "An- nals of the English Bible," an abridgment and continuation of the work of Anderson (1849) ; " Thoughts on the Death of Little Children " (1850); "The Power of Prayer," a sketch of the Fulton street prayer meeting (1859 ; trans- lated into several languages), followed by a volume entitled "Five Years of Prayer " (1864), and another entitled " Fifteen Years of Pray- er " (1872) ; " The Bible in the Levant " (1859) ; " Memoirs of Rev. Nicholas Murray " (1862) ; " Under the Trees," and "Life of S. F. B. Morse " (1874). He has received the degree of D. D. from Hampden Sidney college, Va. II* Edward Dorr Griffin, an American journal- ist, brother of the preceding, born at Cam- bridge, N. Y., Nov. 2, 1814. He graduated at Union college in 1832, and at Princeton seminary in 1838, and was pastor of a Pres- byterian church at Scotchtown, N. Y., from 1839 to 1851. He became associate editor of the " New York Observer " in 1853, was foreign correspondent of the same and chap- lain at Rome in 1854-'5, resumed his editor- ship in 1855, and became one of the proprie- tors in 1865. In 1869-'70 he visited Califor- nia, Japan, China, India, Egypt, and the Holy Land, and on his return published " Around the World : Sketches of Travel through many Lands and over many Seas." He has also written "Forty Years in the Turkish Empire, or Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, D. D., Missionary of the A. B. C. F. M." (1875). III. William Cowper, an American author, broth- er of the preceding, born at Cambridge, N. Y., Oct. 31, 1825. He graduated at Princeton col- lege, N. J., in 1843, and became a member of the bar in the city of New York, where he practised his profession till 1861, when he became a proprietor of the New York " Jour- PRIMOGENITURE 835 nal of Commerce" newspaper, of which he was for some years editor. Among his mis- cellaneous publications are : " The Owl Creek Letters " (1848), consisting of papers originally contributed to the "Journal of Commerce-" "The Old House by the River" (1853); and "Later Years" (1854). In 1855-'6 he trav- elled extensively in the East and elsewhere and published " Boat Life in Egypt and Nubia " (1857), and "Tent Life in the Holy Land" (1857). He has since published " Coins, Med- als, and Seals" (4to, 1861); "O Mother, Dear Jerusalem! the old Hymn, its History and Genealogy" (1865); and "I go a-Fishing" (1873). He has edited with an introduction a facsimile of Albert Durer's Die Kleine Pas- sion (4to, 1868). PRDIOGEMTIRE, a rule of law which con- fers a dignity or estate in lands on a person in virtue of his being the eldest male of those who could inherit. A preference of sons to daughters was common to many of the an- cient systems of law ; but few or none of them recognized what in our time is meant by primogeniture. Among the Hebrews, the first born son as such received a double por- tion in his father's estate. If a Greek father died intestate leaving daughters only, his prop- erty went to his nearest kinsman. His will, if in such a case he made one, passed his estate not to his daughters, but to their future husbands. The earlier Roman law excluded daughters from the inheritance. Justinian first admitted them to share equally with their brothers. The Mohammedan law makes daughters heirs, but allows a twofold share to sons. The states of Europe which, after the decline of the Roman empire, made the later Roman law the basis of their jurisprudence, did not find in that code the doctrine of primo- geniture. In France, it was not until the Ca- pets came to the throne that even the pre- rogative of succession to the crown was re- served exclusively to the first born. The lords promptly imitated the kings, and secured their fiefs to their eldest sons, and thus founded in France the droit cfamesse. Whatever may have been in any country the immediate ori- gin of primogeniture, the custom was no doubt everywhere the peculiar policy of the feudal system. To make certain and efficient the render of military service, which was at once the cause and consideration of the grant of feuds (or fees), it was expedient to render these indivisible. The fittest successor to the original holder, as being the one first capable of doing military duty, was the eldest son; and to him accordingly the feudal law quite invariably transmitted the father's lands. It is possible, perhaps probable, that in Eng- land, before the Norman conquest, the custom still prevalent in Kent, known as gayelkind, extended over the whole island. In virtue of this custom, the lands of one who died intes- tate, leaving sons and daughters, descend in equal divisions to the sons, exclusive of the