Poulle, Nicolas - Louis, a French preacher, was born Feb. 10, 1703, at Avignon. He was destined to the magistracy, and studied law. But he did not allow those grave pursuits to interfere with his poetical tastes, and presented at the Jeux Floraux several poems which were crowned. Towards 1735 he received orders, and from that time devoted himself entirely to oratory. Encouraged by the favor some of his panegyrics and ser- mons had met with at the hands of his countrymen, he repaired to Paris in 1738, and preached in nearly all the great pulpits. In 1745 a life-rent of a thousand francs on the abbey of l'Argentiere was bestowed upon him ; in 1748 lie was nominated commendatory abbe of No- gent-sous-C'oucy, after pronouncing the panegyric of Saint-Louis before the French Academy. He was sub- sequently honored with the titles of ordinary preacher of the king and of grand vicar of Laon. Some writers have compared the abbe Poulle with Massillon : such a parallel can only be made by those who mistake brill- iancy of style for eloquence. He might be more prop- erly compared with the abbe De Boismont, his contem- porary ; they have the same qualities and the same de- fects. The abbe Poulle did not aspire to the honors of authorship: he was not in the habit of writing his ser- mons. In 1776, complying with the wishes of his neph- ew, Louis Poulle, grand vicar of Saint-Malo, he dictated to him eleven sermons which he had preserved in his memory for forty years, and these sermons were pub- lished, after he had corrected them himself, in Paris in 1778, 1781, 1818, 1821 (2 vols. 12mo). This edition con- tains also his Panegyrique de Saint-Louis (17-ls, 4to) and a Discours pour la Prise d Habit de Mme. de Rupel- monde aux Carmelites (1752, 12mo). The Biblioth'eque des Orateurs Chretiens edited a volume of (Fuvres C koi- nes of the abbe Poulle (1828, 18mo), preceded by a bio- graphical notice. He died at Avignon Nov. 8, 1781. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v. See De Sainte- Croix, Eloge de Poulle (Avignon, 1783, 8vo).
Pound (weight) is the rendering of one Heb. and one Greek word in the A. V.
1. ft3B, maneh' (1 Kings x, 17; Ezra ii, 69; Neh. vii,71,72). See Maneh.
2. Ai'rpor, liira (John xii, 3; six, 39), is a Roman pound of twelve ounces, a libra. This pound, as used in trade and authorized by the Roman government, contained G165 Paris grains, according to Boeckh (Meial- lurg. Unters. p. 100 sq.). The word AiVpa was adopted in the Aramaean dialect, JOE"1? (Buxtorf, Lex. Rabb. col. 1138).— Winer. See Weight.
Pound (money), a value (pva, mina) mentioned in the parable of the Ten Pounds (Luke xix, 12-27),- as the talent is in the parable of the Talents (Matt, xxv, 14-30), the comparison of the Saviour to a master who intrusted money to his servants wherewith to trade in his absence being probably a frequent lesson in our Lord's teaching (com p. Mark xiii, 32-37). The refer- ence appears to be to a Greek pound, a weight used as a money of account, of which sixty went to the talent, the weight depending upon the weight of the talent. At this time the Attic talent, reduced to the weight of the earlier Phoenician, which was the same as the He- brew, prevailed in Palestine, though other systems must have been occasionally used. The Greek name doubt- less came either from the Hebrew maneh or from a com- mon origin; but it must be remembered that the He- brew talent contained but fifty manehs, and that we have no authority for supposing that the maneh was called in Palestine by the Greek name, so that it is most reasonable to consider the Greek weight to be meant.— Smith. See Mina.
Pounds, John, an English philanthropist, flour- ished in the second half of last century. He was born at Portsmouth in 1766 of very humble parentage, and enjoyed himself no educational advantages worth men- tioning. But, endowed with a remarkably active mind and generous disposition, he used his leisure hours from the busy trade he plied as a shoemaker for the amelio- ration of the poor children of his surroundings. He collected a number of them in his shop, and there taught them the elements of education he had been able to master successfully, and thus became the founder of what are now called the Ragged Schools. He died in 1839.
Pourchot, Edmonde, a French philosopher of some note, was born at Poilly, near Sins, in 1651. About 1678 he became professor of philosophy in the Univer- sity of Paris, of which he was chosen rector seven times. He was a friend of Racine and Boileau. He died in 1734. He published Institutiones Philosophic^ (1695), which was highly esteemed by his contemporaries. Pourchot was really the first of modern philosophers who taught by a rational method.
Poussin, Nicolas, a French painter of great ce- lebrity, was born near Le Grand-Andely, in Normandy, in 1593 or 1594; was first a pupil of Quintin Varin, then painting pictures for the Church of Grand-Andely, but at the age of eighteen went to Paris, studied under Ferdinand Elle, the Flemish painter, and others; but chiefly improved himself by drawing from casts and drawings and prints after Raffaelle and Julio Romano in the collection of M. Courtois, who accorded him ac- cess to them. After a long and hard struggle, he at- tained the object of his desire— namely, the means of visiting Rome. He was thirty years of age when he arrived there, and a considerable period elapsed after that before he obtained much employment. At length, however, he received several important commissions from the cardinal Barberini, which he executed so suc- cessfully that he afterwards rapidly acquired fame and fortune. After an absence of sixteen years he returned to Paris with M. de Chantelou, and was introduced by cardinal Richelieu to Louis XIII, who appointed him his painter in ordinary, and gave him apartments in the Tuileries. But while away at Rome, preparatory to re- moval to Paris, the king died, and Poussin abandoned the proposed return to France. He died at Rome in 1665, after a most successful career. His pictures have