5 PRUDENCE
The same Prowe, it is believed, was also worshipped under a different form : he stands on a column, his nude form in a pair of boots; a bell lies at his feet. This is asserted by the chronicle of Botho, which calls the god Prono, and speaks of him as being the idol of Altenburg or Stargard. E-otho may be mistaken in identifying this booted deity with Prowe: other idols besides the latter may have been worshipped at Stargard ; perhaps the chroniclers mistook one of them for the god of jus- tice.— Vollmer, Worterb. d. Mythol. s. v. See Thorpe, - Northern Mythology (sec Index in vol. iii).
Prozymites (from Greek Trpo,foi; tyfiri, leaven, i. e.for leavened bread) is a term applied reproachfully by the Western Church to the adherents of the Greek Church because they contended for the use of leavened, or common, bread in the Eucharist. The Latin Church were A zy mites (q. v.). See also Eucharist.
Prshemishl, the first fabulous duke of Bohemia, the husband of the celebrated Libussa. His name is synonymous with that of Prometheus: it means he, who thinks in advance, probably because Prshemishl was a seer, a great prophet. — Vollmer, Wurterb. d. Mythol. s. v.
Frshipegala, a warlike divinity in Slavic mythol- ogy, sanguinary as were his priests and all the gods of the Slavonians. The Christian prisoners were beheaded in front of his image, and their blood was presented to him to drink. — Vollmer, Wurterb. d. Mythol. s. v.
Prudden, Nehemiah. a New England minister of the Gospel, flourished near the close of the last and the opening of this century. He was born about 1750, and of a collegiate | was educated at Yale College. He became pastor of a church at Enfield, Conn. He died in 1815. He is the author of Marryin;/ a Sister <>f a Deceased Wife (1811) : — Sermon in a Missionary Society (1815). See Bacon, Hist. Discourses, p. 55 sq.
Prudence is the act of suiting words and actions according to the circumstances of things, or rules of right reason. Cicero thus defines it: "Est rerum ex- petendarum vel fugiendarum scientia" — the knowledge of what is to be desired or avoided. Grove thus : " Pru- dence is an ability of judging what is best in the choice both of ends and means." Mason thus: "Prudence is a conformity to the rides of reason, truth, and decency, at all times and in all circumstances. It differs from wisdom only in degree; wisdom being nothing but a more consummate habit of prudence, and prudence a lower degree or weaker habit of wisdom." It is divided into, 1, Christian prudence, which directs to the pursuit of that blessedness which the Gospel discovers by the use of Gospel means; 2, moral prudence, which has for its end peace and satisfaction of mind in this world, and the greatest happiness after death ; 3. civil prudence, which is the knowledge of what ought to be done in order to secure the outward happiness of life, consisting in pros- perity, liberty, etc. ; 1. monastic, relating to any circum- stances in which a man is not charged with the care of others; 5, economical prudence, which regards the con- duct of a family ; 6. political, winch refers to the good government of a state. The idea of prudence, says one, includes due consultation — that is, concerning such things as demand consultation— in a right manner and for a competent time, that the resolution taken up may be neither too precipitate nor too slow: and a faculty of discerning proper means when they occur. To the perfection of prudence these three things are further re- quired, viz. a natural sagacity; presence of mind, or a ready turn of thought; and experience. Plato styles prudence the leading virtue; and Cicero observes that "not one of the virtues can want prudence;" which is certainly most true, since, without prudence to guide them, piety would degenerate into superstition, zeal into bigotry, temperance into austerity, courage into rashness, and justice itself into folly. — Buck. Theol. Diet. s. v. In a comparison of prudence and morality, the for-
PRUDENTirs
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PRUDENTIUS
mer has been called the vowel, the latter the consonant. The latter cannot be uttered (reduced to practice) but by means of the former. See Watts, Sermons, ser. 28; Grove, Moral PhUos. voL Li, ch. ii: Mason, Christian Mor. vol. i. ser. 1: Evans, Christian Temper, ser. 38; Colerid - >• 13, 21 sq.