Chapter Prisoner of State to Prophet of P by Brewer's Readers Handbook

Prometheus taught man the use of fire, and instructed him in architecture, astronomy, mathematics, writing, rearing cattle, navigation, medicine, the art of prophecy, working metal, and, indeed, every art known to man. The word means “forethought,” and fore-thought is the father of invention. The tale is that he made man of clay, and, in order to endow his clay with life, stole fire from heaven and brought it to earth in a hollow tube. Zeus, in punishment, chained him to a rock, and sent an eagle to consume his liver daily; during the night it grew again, and thus his torment was ceaseless, till Herculês shot the eagle, and unchained the captive.

Learn the while, in brief,
That all arts came to mortals from Prometheus.

Mrs. Browning: Prometheus Bound (1850).

Truth shall restore the light by Nature given,
And, like Prometheus, bring the fire from heaven.

Campbell: Pleasures of Hope, i. (1799).

(Percy B. Shelley has a classical drama entitled Prometheus Unbound, 1819.)

Promise (Colonel). (See Place, Lord, p. 851.)—Fielding: Pasquin (1736).

Promised Land (The), Canaan or Palestine. So called because God promised to give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.—Gen. xii. 7; xxvi. 3; xxviii. 13.

Prompt, the servant of Mr. and Miss Blandish.—Burgoyne: The Heiress (1871).

Pronouns. It was of Henry Mossop, tragedian (1729–1773), that Churchill wrote the two lines—

In monosyllables his thunders roll—
He, she, it, and we, ye, they, fright the soul;

because Mossop was fond of emphasizing his pronouns and little words.

Prophesy. (See Equivokes, p. 327.)

Prophet (The), Mahomet (560-632).

The Mohammedans entertained an inconceivable veneration for their prophet. … Whenever he made his ablutions, they ran and caught the water he had used; and when he spat, licked up the spittle with superstitious eagerness.—A bulfeda: Vita Moham., 85 (thirteenth century).