PARABLE, a short allegorical narrative intended to illustrate and convey some spiritual instruction.

PARABOLA, a conic section formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to one of its sides.

PARACELSUS, a Swiss physician, alchemist, and mystic, whose real name was Theophrastus Bombastus, born at Einsiedeln, in Schwyz; was a violent revolutionary in the medical art, and provoked much hostility, so that he was driven to lead a wandering and unsettled life; notwithstanding, he contributed not a little, by his knowledge and practice, to inaugurate a more scientific study of nature than till his time prevailed (1493-1541).

PARAFFIN, name given by Baron Reichenbach to a transparent crystalline substance obtained by distillation from wood, bituminous coal, shale, &c., and so called because it resists the action of the strongest acids and alkalies.

PARAGUAY (400), except Uruguay the smallest State in South America, is an inland Republic whose territories lie in the fork between the Pilcomayo and Paraguay and the Parana Rivers, with Argentina on the W. and S., Bolivia on the N., and Brazil on the N. and E.; it is less than half the size of Spain, consists of rich undulating plains, and, in the S., of some of the most fertile land on the continent; the climate is temperate for the latitude; the population, Spanish, Indian, and half-caste, is Roman Catholic; education is free and compulsory; the country is rich in natural products, but without minerals; timber, dye-woods, rubber, Paraguay tea (a kind of holly), gums, fruits, wax, honey, cochineal, and many medicinal herbs are gathered for export; maize, rice, cotton, and tobacco are cultivated; the industries include some tanning, brick-works, and lace-making; founded by Spain in 1535, Paraguay was the scene of an interesting experiment in the 17th century, when the country was governed wholly by the Jesuits, who, excluding all European settlers, built up a fabric of Christian civilisation; they were expelled in 1768; in 1810 the country joined the revolt against Spain, and was the first to establish its independence; for 26 years it was under the government of Dr. Francia; from 1865 to 1870 it maintained a heroic but disastrous war against the Argentine, Brazil, and Uruguay, as a consequence of which the population fell from a million and a half to a quarter of a million; it is again prosperous and progressing.  The capital is Asuncion (18), at the confluence of the Pilcomayo and Paraguay.

PARAGUAY RIVER, a South American river 1800 m. long, the chief tributary of the Parana, rises in some lakes near Matto Grosso, Brazil, and flows southward through marshy country till it forms the boundary between Brazil and Bolivia, then traversing Paraguay, it becomes the boundary between that State and the Argentine Republic, and finally enters the Parana above Corrientes; it receives many affluents, and is navigable by ocean steamers almost to its source.