PALIANO, a town of the Papal States, in the province of Frosinone, 7 miles N.W. of Anagni, and 32 E.S.E. of Rome. It is surrounded with walls of considerable strength; and contains a large baronial castle, which was for a long time occupied as a residence by the powerful Colonna family. This family was descended from Pierre Colonna, a vassal of the pope in the eleventh century, and counted among its members Pope Martin V., as well as numerous prelates and generals. Pop. about 4000.
1 Indeed, it is a favourite misrepresentation of theirs, that the language of writers on natural theology, in consistency with some supposed logical necessity, degrades the Delty into a laborious "mechanic." The answer, of course, is, that it is a mere misinterpretation of the obvious meaning of these writers. All they mean to assert is, that there must be power and intelligence in the supreme Cause of all, proportioned to the production of the phenomena ascribed to him; just as there must be in man, proportioned to the phenomena of his power and intelligence; but though, in expressing this, they necessarily use figurative language derived from the analogy of man's nature, they plainly do not intend to imply that the modes in which wisdom and intelligence on the part of God and man are respectively exerted or manifested are the same; or that what is long-sought, laborious, and successive in man's mind is at all so in God's. And as this is the meaning of these writers, and their sole meaning, so it may be doubted whether there ever was an atheist who really misunderstood it.