Prehistoric Man. See Pkeadamite.
Preissler, Johami Justinus, a German painter and engraver of repute, was born at Nuremberg Dec. 4, 1698. His father, Johann Daniel, was his early master; then he spent eight years in Italy, and after his return to Germany succeeded his father in the direction of the Academy of the Fine Arts at Nuremberg (1742). Among his works, several of which were engraved, we mention the Burial of the Lord, the Ark of the Covenant, the Transfiguration, Christ crowned with Thorns. Christ before Herod, the Cure of the Lame. He engraved the paintings of Rubens in the church of the Jesuits at Antwerp, twenty drawings (Nuremberg, 1734, fol.) ; a collection of fifty of the most beautiful statues of Rome, after the drawings of Bouchardon (ibid. 1732, fol.); and Ornamenti d' Architettura. He died at Nuremberg Feb. 17, 1771.— Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s. v.
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Preissler, Johann Martin, an engraver, brother of the preceding, was born at Nuremberg March 14, 1715. After learning, under the direction of his lather and his brothers, the arts of drawing and engraving, he went to Paris in 1739, where he made several engrav- ings for the Galerie de Versailles. In 1744 he was called as professor of the art of engraving to Copenhagen, was subsequently honored with the title of engraver fo the court, and received other honorable distinctions. Among his numerous and much esteemed engravings we men- tion, of sacred subjects and ecclesiastical historic in- terest, the Cardinal of Bouillon ; J. Andrew Cramer; Balth. Munter; Struensee; M. Luther; Gellert; Juel's Klopstoc/c; Kaffaelle's Madonna of the Chair, a work in which we find in the highest degree all the excellent qualities of Preissler; Paul Veronese's Carrying if the Cross; Rosa's Jonah preaching to the Ninevites; Guido's Sinus and Semiramis ; Rubens's Mary, if other of Grace, and St. Cecilia; the Adoration if the Shepherds, after Vanloo; the Judgment of Solomon and the Happy Mut- ing, after his own sketches ; the Inoculation of the < 'oun- tess of Bernstorf ; Moses, after Michael Angelo. Preiss- ler made several engravings for the Museum of Florence and for the antique marbles of Dresden. He died at Copenhagen Nov. 17, 1794. — Hoefer, Nour. Biog. Ge- nerale, s. v. See Will, Kiirnbergisehes Lexibm. and Supplement of Nopitsch.-Fuessli, Al/ge/n. Kiinstlerlexi- kon; Nagler, Neues Allgan. Kunstlerli xikun.
Freiswerk, Samuel. Dr., a Swiss theologian, was born Sept. 19, 1799, at Riimlingen, Switzerland. After having completed his theological studies at Basle, he was appointed in 1824 a minister at the Orphan-house, and in 1828 he succeeded R. Stier (q. v.) as professor at the Mission-house. He had hardly entered upon a new field of ministerial labors in 1830 at Muttenz, when the revolution broke out, which compelled him to leave the place, and two years afterwards he was appointed pro- fessor of Old -Testament exegesis and Oriental lan- guages at the £cole de The'ologie of the Evangelical Society at Geneva. In 1837 he returned to Basle, was appointed deacon in 1840. and in 1845 pastor of St. Leonhard, occupying at the same time the chair for Old -Testament exegesis at the university. From 1859 he occupied the position as antistes, or super- intendent, of the Church at Basle, till lie was called to his rest in 1871. Preiswerk was an excellent preacher and poet, and his fine missionary hymn, "Dies ist der Gemeinde Starke" has been translated into English by Mrs. Winkworth (Lyra Germ, ii, 88 — "Hark! the Church proclaims her honor"). He also published, Das alte and neue Morgenland fur Freunde der hi iligen Seh rift ( Basle, 1834^40) :— l)ie Nestorianer oder die 10 Stamme Israels (ibid. 1843) ; this is a translation of 77/' Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes, by A. Grant (q. v.) : — Granunaire Hehra'iqne. precedee d'un Precis historique sur'la Langue Hebraique. (3d ed. 1871). See Fiirst, Bibliotheca Judaica, iii, 120; Zuchold, Bibliotheca The- ologica, iii, 1012; Steinschneider, Bibliogr. Handbuch, p. 112; Peck, Samuel Preisicerk, in the "Evangel. Mes- senger" (Cleveland, Ohio, 1877) ; Koch, Geschichte des deutschen Kirchenliedes, vii, 99 sq. ; Knapp, Evangelischer Liederscha/z, s. v. (B. P.)
Prejudice (prwjudico, to judge before inquiry) is a prejudging, that is, forming or adopting an opinion concerning anything before the grounds of it have been fairly or fully considered. The opinion may be true or false; but in so far as the grounds of it have not been examined, it is erroneous or without proper evidence. "In most cases prejudices are opinions which, on some account, men are pleased with, independently of any conviction of their truth; and which, therefore, they are afraid to examine, lest they should find them to be false. Prejudices, then, are unreasonable judgments, formed or held under the influence of some other motive than the love of truth. They may therefore be classed according to the nature of the motives from which they
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result. These motives are either, 1, pleasurable, inno- cent, and social; or. 2, they are malignant" (Taylor, Elements of Thought). I>r. Reid [Inteli. Powers, essay vi, ch. viii) has treated of prejudices, or the causes of error, according to the classification given of them by lord Bacon, under the name of idols. Locke ( Essay on tl„ Human Understanding, bk. iv, ch. xx) has treated of the causes of error. Some excellent observations on the prejudices peculiar to men of study may be Been in Malebranche (Search after TrutK). See Christian Ex- aminer and Gen. Rev. iv (1830), 280.