Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/645

* PXTSEY. 563 PUSHKIN. was the theologian of the new movement. His great learning, enl'orced as it was by the strict- ness and purity of his life, gave it its vitality. His suspension for preaching his celebrated ser- mon on the Eucharist in 1843 only enhanced his intluence. His power of sustained work was remarkable and his jrainstaking diligence proverbial. His correspondence as a spiritual adviser alone was enormous. His life was one of continuous con- trovers}'. He was the editor-in-chief of the Library of the Fathers, and there was no impor- tant controversy in the Church of England from the time of the publication of his tract On Baptism in 183.5 to his tilt with Farrar on everlasting punishment in 1879 in which he did not have a part. His monument is the memorial building at Oxford which bears his name, enshrines his li- brary, and perpetuates his teaching. The Pusey House with its stafl' of clergj", its daily worship, and devout life is a home of sacred learning and a rallying-point of Christian faith. Besides sev- eral volumes of sermons, his more important works were commentaries on Daniel (1804) and on the ilinor Prophets (1860 sqq.) ; his discus- sions of the possibility of the reunion of Chris- tendom generally known by their sub-title of Eirenicon, in three parts ( 1SG.5. 1809, 1870) : and the eschatological treatise already alluded to. What is of Faith as to Ererlastinf) Punishment f (1880). Consult an admirable biography begun by Canon Liddon and completed after his death by J. O. Johnston and R. .J. Wilson (4 vols., London, 1893-96) ; a brief, more popular one by the author of the Life of Charles Loirder (ib., 1898) ; also Cirafton, Pusey and the Church Re- vival (Jlilwaukee, 1902): and many of the works referred to under Oxford Movement. PtrSHAN, poo'shan ( Skt. Pi'isan, prosperer, from pus. to cause to thrive). A deity of Vedie India. He is frequently mentioned in the Vedas (q.v. ). He beholds all creatures, and has his home in heaven, where he rides in a golden car drawn by goats. He furthermore conducts the souls of the dead to the Pitris (q.v.), and is con- sequently a guardian of roads, and, by implica- tion, a discoverer of what is hidden. In his char- acter he is beneficent, protecting not only men. but beasts, and is therefore a deity of wealth, while as a god of fertility he is invoked in the wedding ritual, being himself the lover of his mother, or. according to other hymns, of his sister. He has a unique and somewhat grotesque quality in his toothlessness, in consequence of which his food is gruel. The data concerning him make reasonable the view that he is a pastoral deity representing the sun in its beneficent aspect. Consult : Muir, Original Sanslcrit Texts (London, 1868-74) ; Perry, "Notes on the Vedie Deity Piisan," in Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Dri.sler (New York, 1894) ; Macdonell, Vedie Mythology (Strasshurg. 1897). PtrSHKIN, pushTcen, Alexander Sergeye- viTCH (1799-1S37). The greatest poet of Russia. He was born at JIoscow of a noble family, in- heriting African blood from a maternal ancestor. According to the fashion of the time, his educa- tion at home was purely French, and his knowl- edge of Russia was obtained from nursery tales, legends, and songs. In 1811 he entered the Im- perial Lyceum at Tsarskoye Selo, where he soon attracted general attention by his outspoken criticisms of everything and everybody, his neg- lect of study, his bold epigrams, and his poetic endowments. His first published poem bears the date of 1814, and at the public examination in 1815 he aroused the admiration of the veteran poet Derzhavin by his Recollections of Tsarskoye Selo. On graduating in 1817, Pushkin became a clerk in the ilinistry of Foreign Afl'airs. He was now a well-known figure in Russian literature and was immediately accepted as a member of the literary society Arzamas, whose members were the shining lights of the day. His first important long poem, lluslan and Lyudmila (1817-20), a bold combination of fancy and realism, attracted much attention. About this time, because of his objec- tionable political views, Pushkin was sent to •Southern Russia with General Inzofl's colonizing bureau. The life in Bessarabia, the Crimea, the Caucasus, and Odessa was an important period for Pushkin : the variety and gorgeousness of the natural scenery, life among new people, the influ- ence of Byron, with whose works he now became acquainted — all these are set forth in glowing colors in his works of this period. The Prisoner of the Caucasus, The Fountain of Bakhtchisarai, the first three cantos of Yevgen Onyegin (Eugene Onegin), a novel in verse, and The (Jypsies are all a direct product of his Byronism. In 1824 he was transferred to his mother's estate, ilikhaylofskoye ( Government of Pskov ) . The two years spent in this remote corner of Russia were the most fruit- ful in his life. Cantos four to six of Yergcn Onyegin, The Brother Murderers, and the drama Boris (lodunoff were written in this exile. Push- kin freely admitted his indebtedness to Shake- speare, Karamzin. and the Chronicles, but the drama is entirely original in character. All the characters, as well as the masses and historical background, are Russian through and through and drawn with a marvelous fidelity to the epoch. In 1829 appeared his Poltava (finished in less than a month I, depicting the struggle between Peter the Great and Charles XII. and the treach- ery of Mazeppa. In 1831 he produced the last two cantos of Yevgen Onyegin. Written within a period embracing about nine years, this picture of society reflects various incidents of the poet's life during its composition. In 1831 Pushkin was attached to the Foreign Ministry with a yearly salary of 5000 rubles to write a history" of Peter the Great. In 1833 he received 20.000 rubles to print his History of the Pugatcheff Insurrection. During this period his woiks were chiefly in prose: the novels The Captain's Daughter (1836) and Dubrovski (pub- lished 1841). and the history-. gave Russian prose its highest degree of perfection. He was killed in a duel with D'AnthJs. adopted son of the Dutch Ambassador, whose association with Mme. Push- kin had caused much gossip. Pushkin was the flowering of all that was best in Russian literature before him. He possessed an original intellect, reenforeed by a quick in- tuition. His humor was gentle and his wit keen ; his epigrams are among the best ever produced in any language. He had an extraordinary mastery of the technique of his art. A monument to him was erected at iloscow in 1880. BiBLioGR.PHT. The best among the numerous editions of his works is that by P. O. Morozoff, in seven volumes (Saint Petersburg, 1S87). Eng- lish translations: Poems, by Ivan Panin (2d ed.,