Purner, John Milton, a minister of the Methodist
PURPLE
812
PUPPPE
Episcopal Church, was bom in Cecil County, Md., March 31, [833. He was converted al Elktnn, .Md.. in 1854, and was for some time engaged in business al Oxford, l'a. In 1858 he felt called to preach, and was made assistant pastor on Lewistown Circuit. In the follow- ing year he joined the Philadelphia Conference, and was made junior preacher on Laurel Circuit, Del., in ! on Church Creek Circuit, Md., in I860. In
1861 ami L862 lie was in charg< Aries Circuit, Md.
[i .1 L864 in- was in charg i Sharptown < ir-
cuit, Md., .-iihI in L865 was appointed junior preacher (in Priucess Anne Circuit, Md., ami al tin- same time attended the Biblical [nstitute, Concord, N. II. In 186G lie was in charge of Atlantic Circuit, Va., and in 1867 lie preached in Accomac Circuit for a short time, whence lie was removed by the presiding elder and ap- pointed in charge of Princess Anne Circuit, Md. There li,- closed his labor and his life in September, 1867. See Minutes oft 'onft fences, l.-i(>7.
Purple i " •--'"■•?• '"'.'/"""'"■ from the Sanscrit rdga, red; see Gesen. Thes. s. v.; Chald. ""•'"X. argevdn, from the same ro.it. in _' Chron. ii, 7 ; Dan/v, 7. 16, 29 ; Sept. and Greek Test, jroptyvpa ; Vulg. purpura) oc- curs in Exod. xxv. 1; xxvi, 1. 31, 36; xxvii, Hi: xxviii, .">. 6, 8, 15, :;:!: xxxv. 6, 23, 25, 35; xxxvi. 8, :;.,. :;7: xxxviii, 18, 23; xxxix, 1, 2, 3, 5, K 24, _".•: Numb. iv. L3; Judg. vui, 26; 2 Chron. ii. 11; iii. 11; K-ih. i,6; vui, 15; Prov. xxxi, 22; Cant. iii. 10; vii, 5; Jer. x. !t; Ezek. xxvii. 7. 16; Ecclus. xlv, 10; Bar. vi. 12, 72; 1 Mace. iv. •_'.!; viii. 14, x. 20, <r2; 2 Mace. iv. 38; Mark xv, 17. 20; Luke xvi, I'd. John xix, 2, 5; Art- xvi, 11; Rev. xvii, 4; xviii, 12, 16. In many ol these passages the word translated "purple" means " purple cloth," <>r some other material dyed purple, as wool, thread, etc.; but no reference occurs to tin. means by which the dye was obtained, except in 1 ."Mace. iv. I'd. where we have iropfvpa StaXaaaia, "purple of the sea" (comp. Diod. Sir. iii. 68; Josephus, War, \. 5, 1 i. There is. however, no reason to doubt that it was obtained, like the far-tamed Tyrian purple, from the juice of certain species of shell-fish. Differ- ent ace. nmt- are given by the ancients respecting the date and origin of this invention. Some place it in
the reign of Phoenix, second king of Tyre. B.< . ■ ;
others al the time that Minos I reigned in Crete. B.C. L439, and consequently before the Exodus (Sui- das, s. v. 'RpaicXrjc, "• 7di. lint the person to whom tiic majority ascribe it is the Tyrian Hercules, whose dog, it is said, instigated by hunger, broke a certain kind ol shell-fish on the coasl of Tyre, and his month he, -..1111111;' stained of a beautiful color, his master was induced to try ii- properties on wool, and gave his first specimens to the king of Tyre, who admired the color so much thai he restricted the use of it by law to the myal garments (Pollux, Onom. i. 1; Achilles Tatius, />< Clitoph.; Pahephat. in Chron. Paschal, p. 43). It is remarkable thai though the Israelites, as
early a- tin- firsl i struction ..i the tabernacle in the
wilderness, appear to have had purple stuff in profu- sion (Exod. xxv, I I), which tiny had most likelj brought with them out of Egypt, yel no instance oc- cur- in the pictorial language of the Egyptians, nor in Wilkinson's Ancient Manners and Customs, of (In1 actual process of dyeing either linen or woollen, al- though dyes similar to the Tyrian wire found among them. These facts agree, al least, with tin' accounts which ascribe the invention to the earliest ol these two periods, and the pre-eminent trade in it to the Tyrian-. The Greeks attributed ii- first introduction among themselves to the Phoenicians (Eurip. Phcen, 1497). Their word <f>olvi%, Phoenix, means Loth I'lm- nician and purple. The word iropfipa is, according to Martinius, ..i Tyrian origin. Though purple dyes were by no mean- .online. 1 to the Phoenicians (comp.
Ezek. xxvii, 7. ■•purple from the isles of Elisha," sup- posed to mean Elis, •• and from Syria." ver. 16), y. l
violet porples and scarlet were nowhere dyed so well as at Tyre, whose shores abounded with the best kind of purples (Pliny, Hist. Nat. ix, CO, p. 524, ed. Harduin), and which was supplied with the best wool by the neighboring nomads. The dye .ailed purple by the an. i. in-, and its various shades, were obtained from many kinds of shell -fish, all of which are, however. ranged by Pliny under two classes: one called "bucci- nuui." because shaped like a horn, found, he Bays, in cliffs and rocks, and yielding a sullen blue dye. which he compare- to the color of the angry raging -.a in a tempest : the other called " purpura," or - pelagia," the proper purple -hell, taken by fishing in the sea, and yielding the deep-red color which he compares to the rich, fresh, and bright color of deep-red purple i to coagulated blood, and which was chiefly vain, rl | ibid. c. 61,62). The latter is the Murex trunculus ..t Linnaeus and Lamarck (see Syst, Nat. p. 1215, and Animaux sans Vertebres [Paris. 1822], vii. 170). Both BOrta were supposed to he as many years old as they had spi- rals round. Michaelis think- that Solomon allude- to