The ME'SSUAGE. Skinner refers to mease, domus, which he derives from the Fr. Meix, or as Menage writes it, mas, and Du Cange-mes, an old word for Saison Du Cange says of the Low Lat. MessuStream, that it is formed from mes, i. e. mansus, a manse or mansion; and Vossius,-quasi mansigium, (De Vit. lib. iii. c. 25.) The word is of common usage in legal instruments of conveyance. There were then greater number of mesuages and manions almost in euery place.-Harrison. Desc. of Eng. c. 22. Sp. Fr. Métal; It. Metallo; to The temper or disposition; spirit, courage, fortitude, firm Metal, as led & tyn in the contre of Excestre. Er that the pot be on the fire ydo Of metals with a certain quantitee, R. Gloucester, p. 6. My lord hem tempereth, and no man but he. Chaucer. The Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 13,368. Steele is hardest in its kinde Gower. Con. A. Prol. Aboue all other, that men finde Of metalles. Where one veine is discovered, there is another alwayes and not far off: which is a rule observed not in mines of rer onely, but also in all others of what meltall soever; And hereupon it seemeth that the Greeks doe call them maila (uera ra aλAu).-Holland. Plinie, b. xxxiii. c. 6. I hate such measur'd, give me metall'd fire, from μeraμoppoew, transformare, to transform; To transform; to change from one form or Himselfe [Enuy] he fretteth as I vnderstond, Chaucer. The Court of Loue. Thus men (my lord) be metamorphosed, Can turn itself into disguises A transference or translation, (sc.) of the ap- Remember al my words, And beare them wel in minde, Gascoigne. The Complaynt of Phylomenc. I see some that avoid pleasures for their danger, and nity, and in this metaphor is often used in scripture. She said; and lo! a palace towering seems, King. Rufinus, or the Favourite. The quicksilver,were by this means brought to appear a eye and lovely metalline cylinder, not interrupted by persed bubbles as before.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 49. Every man living, some time or other, sooner or later, assuredly meet with an hour of temptation; a certain bour, which shall more especially try what mettle Cleart is made of, and in which the eternal concerns of soul shall more particularly lie at stake. South, vol. vi. Ser. 7. Et their force differs from true spirit, as much as a as from a mettlesome horse.-Tatler, No. 61. The frigid chymist culls, in mineral store, The glossy spherules of metallic ore. But metaphors, we know, are but weak mediums to prove In respect of which union to an earthly nature it [the METAPHRASE. METAPHRA'STIC. } Gr. Μεταφρασις, μετά, and oparis, from opašev, to speak. Applied toA literal or verbal translation; a translation phrase for phrase. How-ever his other labours lie hid, his metaphrase of the [Margaret] sister to Sir Edwin Sandys, of Borne, in com. Harte. Christ's Parable of the Sower, Pref. and it is so used by Shakespeare. And there corrupt they their iudgementes with apparent arguments, and wyth alleaging vnto them textes of logike, of naturall philautia, of metaphisike, and morall philosophy, & all maner bookes of Aristotle.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 104. All they haue none other thing for themselfe, as farre as I haue redde and could perceiue, but arguments grouded vpo philosophy & metaphysicall reasons. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 386. The one part which is physic, inquireth and handleth the material and efficient causes; and the other, which is melaphysic, handleth the formal and final causes. Bacon. On the Advancement of Learning, b. ii. By which sayings, [Jer. xxiii. 24. 2 Chron. vi. 18.] the divine immensity is as fully expressed as by the artificial term ubiquity; that is, every-whereness, or by any metaphysick book.-Grew. Cosmo. Sacra, b. iv. c. 8. High thee hither, That I may poure my spirits in thine eare, And chastise with the valour of my tongue All that impeides thee from the golden round Which fate and metaphysicall ayde doth seeme To haue thee crown'd withall.-Shakes. Macbeth, Acti. sc.3. And of this sort, a man may find an infinite number of propositions, reasonings, and conclusions, in books of metaphysicks, school-divinity, and some sort of natural philosophy and after all, know as little of God, spirits, or bodies, as he did before he set out. Locke. Hum. Underst. b. iv. c. 8. s. 9. Those who discourse metaphysically of the nature of truth, as to the reality of the thing, affirm a perfect coincidence between truth and goodness; and I believe it might be easily made out, that there is nothing in nature perfectly true but what is also really good.-South, vol. vii. Ser. 5. But the importance rises higher when we reflect upon the application of words to metaphysics. And when I say metaphysic, you will be pleased to remember, that all general reasoning, all politics, law, morality, and divinity, are merely metaphysic.-Tooke. Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. c. 4. From this part of Aristotle's logic, there is an easy transition to what has been called his metaphysics; a naine unknown to the author himself, and given to his most abstract philosophical works by his editors, from an opinion that those books ought to be studied immediately after his physics, or treatises on natural philosophy. Gillies. Analysis of Aristotle's Works, vol. i. c. 2. confounding with the metaphysical speculations already This experimental philosophy, no one now is in danger of mentioned. Stewart. The Human Mind, pt. i. Introd. In the writings, indeed, of several other modern metaphysicians, we meet with a variety of important and well ascertained facts; but, in general, these facts are blended with speculations upon subjects which are placed beyond the reach of the human faculties.-Id. Ib. METASTA'SIS. Gr. MeTaotaois, μeta, and σTaσis, station, place. Change of place; a motion or removal. He considers what not unfrequently happens in distempered bodies by the metastasis of the morbinck matter. Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 197. For oftentimes nature will, in spite of remedies, make a metastasis of the peccant matter, and so impair the condition of the patient.-Id. Ib. vol. ii. p. 240. And in what mesure ye meten, it schal be meten agen to you.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 7. And wt what mesure ye mete, wt the same shall it be measured to you agayne.-Bible, 1551. Ib. And there weren set sixe stoonen cannes aftir the clensing of the Jewis, holdinge, ech twayne either thre metretis. Wielif. Jon, c. 2. And therefore this marke that we must shoote at, set vp wel in our sight, we shal nowe meate for the shoote, and consider how neare toward, or how farre of, your arrowes are fro the prik.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1157. For some of them I see wel be not worth the meating, and no great maruayl, though I shoote wide whyle I somewhat mystake the marke.-Id. Ib. The meetrodde that he hadde in his hande, was syxe cubytes longe and a spanne.-Bible, 1551. Ezek. c. 40. Nay say they, the scriptures is so harde, that thou couldest neuer vnderstand it but by the doctours. That is, I must measure the mete yarde by the cloth.-Tyndall. Workes, p.103. The prince will, in the perfectness of time, By which his grace must mete the liues of others, Shakespeare. 2 Pt, Hen. IV. Act iv. sc. 4. He reformed the olde vntrue measures, and made a mea sure by the length of his own arme, which was then called vlna, an elle, and now the same is called a yard, or a metwand, &c.-Stow. Hen. I. an. 1102. Then, of your labour to compute the gain, Cooke. Hesiod. Works & Days, b. ii. But the aulnager, the weigher, the meeter of grants, will not suffer us to acquiesce in the judgement of the prince reigning at the time when they were made. Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord. METEMPSYCHOSE, v. Į Fr. MétempsyMETEMPSYCHO'SIS. Schose; Lat. Metempsychosis; Gr. Μετεμψύχωσις, μετα, and ψυχη, the soul. The transmigration or passage of the soul from one body to another. The souls of usurers after their death, Lucan affirms to be metempsychosed, or translated into the bodies of asses, and there remain certain years, for poor men to take their pennyworth out of their bones.-Peacham. On Blazoning. How great a joy 'twould be, how great a bliss, If we could have a metempsychosis !-Brome. To Mr.J. B. For thus we read in Plato, that from the opinion of metempsuchosis, or transmigration of the souls of men into the bodies of beasts most suitable unto their humane condition, after his death, Orpheus the musician became a swan. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 27. The sages of old live again in us; and in opinions there is a metempsychosis. We are our re-animated ancestours, and antedate their resurrection. Glanvill, Vanity of Dogmatizing, c. 15. Oh! had he dy'd of old, how great a strife Learn'd, virtuous, pious, great; and have by this Dryden. On the Death of Lord Hastings. But if we understand it of sin already committed in his own person [John ix. 23.] so it favours of the opinion of Pythagoras, then common amongst the Jews, as also at this day, that there is a metempsychosis, or transmigration of our souls from one body to another successively. South, vol. viii. p. 294. METEOR. METEOROUS. METEO'RICAL. METEOROLOGY. METEOROLOGICAL. tollere, to raise aloft. the word. Fate scatters lightening from thy meteor-shield, Beattie. The Judgment of Paris (1765.) Now any appearance of a body of light in the air is called by the Greek and Latin authors a star, though it be only a meteor, that is, a transient, accidental, luminous vapour, neither of considerable height, nor of long continuance; in which sense also the Scripture speaks of stars falling from heaven.-Porteus, vol. i. Lect. 2. Fr. Météore; It. Meteora; Sp.Meteoro; Gr. Merewpos, sublimis, per ewpa, quæ in altum sunt, sublata, sublimia; μετα, and αειρ-ειν, The Romans did not adopt New sorts of meteors gazing from the skies. Drayton. The Barons' Wars, b. iv. The lute's light genius now does proudly rise This, too, is the region of the most awful and alarming meteorological appearances -"vapours, and clouds, and storms."-Stewart. Philosophical Essays, c. 2. Ess. 2. Crashaw. Musick's Duel. METHE GLIN. Welsh Meddyglyn. A kind of drink among the Welsh, made of wine and honie sodden together, (Minshew.) See HY DROMEL. Howbeit they [cider and perry] are not their onlie drinke at all times, but referred vnto the delicate sorts of drinke, as metheglin is in Wales, whereof the Welchmen make no lesse accompt (and not without cause if it be well handled) than the Greeks did of their ambrosia or nectar. Harrison. Description of England, b. ii. c. 6. Asv. Metheglin! what's that, sir? may I be so audacious to demand.-B. Jonson. Cynthia's Revels, Act i. sc. 4. O'er our parch'd tongue the rich metheglin glides. Gay. To a Lady, Ep. 1. I see a resemblance of that meteorical light which appears in morish places. that seems fire, but is nothing but a flimsy glittering exhalation, causing both the wonder and errour of the traveller; leading him through the impulsive motion of the air into a ditch.-Ep. Hall, Soliloquy 12. In sundry animals we deny not a kind of natural meteorology, or innate presentation both of wind and weather. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 10. With many others, considerable in meteorological divinity, which would more sensibly make out the epithite of the heathens.-Id. Ib. b. vii. c. 4. METHINKS. See ME. Fr. Méthode; It. and Sp. Metodo ; Lat. Methodus; Gr. Metodos; μera, with, and odos, way. It is applied to METHOD. METHODICK. METHODICAL. METHODICALLY. METHODISM. METHODIST. An orderly or regular METHODI'STICAL. course, way, progress, or MethodIZE, v. proceeding; a plan. Methodist,-one who pursues an orderly course or way, or system; a systematizer. Also one ofA religious sect; so called, probably, from the precise and orderly habits and manners of their founder and his early converts. Method hath been placed, and not amiss, in logic, as a part of judgment: for as the doctrine of syllogisms comprehendeth the rules of judgment upon that which is invented, so the doctrine of method containeth the rules of judgment upon that which is to be delivered. Bacon. Of the Advancement of Learning, b. ii. For honours, riches, kingdoms, glory, Have been before contemn'd, and may agen: Therefore to know what more thou art than man, Worth naming Son of God by voice from heav'n, Another method I must now begin. Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i. For of these manner of rulings by one, by the fewer part, and by the multitude or greater nüber, they which haue more methodically and more distinctly & perfitly written vpon them, doe make a subdiuision. Smith. Commonwealth, c. 3. As Themison, and his old sect of methodists resolv'd, that the laxum and strictum, the immoderate dissolution or constipation, were the principles and originals of all diseases in the world, so it will be likely to prove in our spiritual estate also.-Hammond. Works, vol. iv. p. 577. And of late this loose, and I can hardly help calling it profane humour, has been directed chiefly against the followers of methodism.—Paley, Ser. 1. Do methodists deserve this treatment? Be their particular doctrines what they may, the professors of these doctrines appear to be in earnest about them; and a man who is in earnest in religion cannot be a bad man, still less a fit subject for derision.-Id. Ib. Let such persons rather acknowledge the goodness of God towards them, and not quarrel with the great physician of souls for having cured them by easy and gentle methods. South, vol. ix. Ser. 1. For he [the devil] is able to present images of words and sentences to the imagination, in as clear and perspicuous an order, as the most faithful and methodical memory. Id. vol. v. Ser. 3. You must not expect that I should methodically enumerate and particularly discourse to you of all the grounds and motives I may have of looking for great advantages to accrue to mankind by men's future progresses in the discovery of nature.-Boyle. Works, vol. iii. p. 422. And therefore I wonder not that the most learned of the methodists themselves have much valued and celebrated some peculiar processes and receipts.-Id. Ib. vol. ii. p. 245, Those rules of old discover'd, not devis'd, Are Nature still, but Nature methodis'd: Nature, like Liberty, is but restrain'd By the same laws, which first herself ordain'd. Pope. Essay on Criticism. The precise number of methodistical marks you know best.-Lavington. To Mr. Wesley, p. xii. What was done in France was a wild attempt to methodize anarchy; to perpetuate and fix disorder. Burke. Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. ME/TONYMY. Fr. Métonimie; It. and METONY'MICAL. Sp. Metonimia; Lat. Meto-, METONY'MICALLY. nymia; Gr.Μετωνυμία, (μετά, trans, et ovoua, nomen,) a change of name. See the quotation from Blair. Here, therefore, ye have an evident metonymy: the thing signified, which is the husband's power, is put for that which signifies it, which is the woman's vail. Bp. Hall, Ser. 1. Cor. xi. 10. Intricate turnings, by a transumptive and metonymical kind of speech, are called meanders: for this river [Meander' did so strangely path itself, that the foot seemed to touch the head.-Drayton. Rosamond to King Henry, Note 2. This vow of theirs therefore is metonymically filthy, because it makes them such. Bp. Hall. The Honour of the Maried Clergie, s. 16. By [life] I suppose, there can be no need of proving, that our Saviour does not here mean [life] barely and physically so taken, and no more; which is but a poor thing, God knows; but by life, according to a metonymy of the subject for the adjunct, understands the happiness of life in the very same sense wherein S. Paul takes this word in 1 Thess. ii. 8. South, vol. iv. Ser. 11. The disposition also of the coloured body, as that modifies the light, may be called by that name [colour] metonymically (to borrow a school-term) or efficiently, that is in regard of its turning the light, that rebounds from it, or passes through it, into this or that particular colour. Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 671. To tropes, founded on these several relations, of cause and effect, container and contained, sign and thing signified, is given the name of metonymy.-Blair, vol. i. Lect. 14. METOPO'SCOPY. Gr. MerwπоσKOTOS, from μETWTOV, a forehead, and σKETTEw, to regard; Lat. Metoposcopus; Fr. Métoposcopie; Sp. Metoposcopia. The art of divination by inspection of the fore head. Appion the Grammarian hath left in writing (a thing incredible to be spoken) that a certaine Physiognomist, or teller of fortunes by looking onely upon the face of men and women, such as the Greekes call metoposcopos, judged truly by the pourtraits that Apelles had drawne, how many yeares they either had lived or were to live, for whom those pictures were made.-Holland. Plinie, b. xxxv. c. 10. Other signs [of melancholy] there are taken from Physio gnomy, Metoposcopy, Chiromancy. And Herodot in his science Skelton. The Crowne of Laurel No more did Thomas Smith, Richard Dallisō, Willi Stawne, &c. &c., wyth such other blind popish poetes an dirtye metristes, when they vttered their shytten rimes an posies.-Bale. Image, pt. ii. And in especially because he neuer beseged citie befor but either it was yelden, or taken, of the tyme of this sieg a metrician made these verses.-Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 22. Of this William Wallase one Henrie, who was blind fro his birth, in the time of my natiuitie (saith John Maio composed a whole booke in vulgar verse, in which he mitr all those things vulgarlie spoken of this Wallase. Holinshed. Historie of Scotland, an. 130 Rhime being no necessary adjunct or true ornament of peem or good verse, in longer works especially, but the Invention of a barbarous age, to set off wretched matter and lame meeter-Millon. Paradise Lost, Pref. So varying still their moods, observing yet in all Fr. Métropole; It.and Sp. Metropoli; Lat. Metropolis; Gr. MnrрorоMETROPOLITAN, adj. Ais, i. e. unTnp Toxis, the mother-city. METROPOLITAN, n. METROPOLITICAL. The mother-city; the a country or district, civil or ecclesiastic. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1091. Those cities were chief and metroples where the gospel was first planted, and thence communicated to the neighbearing regions.-Hammond. Works, vol. iii. p. 635. Dublin being the metropole and chiefe citie of the whole land, and where are hir maiesties principall and high courts. Holinshed. Ireland, an. 1578. It [Kent] hath the Archbishopricke of Canterbury, Metropetase and Primate of all England, and the Bishopricke of Rochester, and had kings as followeth. Stow. Kentish Saxons, an. 456. A bishop at that time had power in his own diocese over all other ministers there, and a metropolitan bishop sundry preeminences above other bishops, one of which prehemimences was, in the ordination of bishops to have Kupos TWV , the chief power of ordaining all things done. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. viii. s. 8. Briefly it had the first English king, in it was the first Christianity among the English, and Canterbury then honoured with the metropolitic see. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 18. Selden. Illust. For can they hope to perswade any living man, that these haring at that time a lawfull Archbishop of their owne religon, legally established in the metropoliticall chaire by an acknowledged authority, the way of the times openly favouring the, when all churches, all chappels gladly opened to then, that they would be so mad as to go and ordaine themselves in a taverne? Bp. Hall. Honour of the Maried Clergie, b. i. § 18. By consent of all churches grounded on such obvious son of things, the precedency in each province was ed to the Bishop of the Metropolis, who was called the Bishop, the Metropolitan :-other ancient synods style the Metropolite; and to the Metropolites of the prinpal cities they give the name of Archbishop. Thus I eive the Metropolitical governance was introduced by ane prudence following considerations of publick necesty or utility-Barrow. On the Pope's Supremacy. But are not wholesome airs To be preferred to smoke, to the eclipse That metropolitan volcanoes make, Whose Stygian throats breathe darkness all day long. Cowper. Task, b. iii. Bet notwithstanding this wealth of their own, these arthes will pay willing homage to the royal consort, their dest sister, the metropolitical church of Jerusalem. Bp. Horsley, vol. i. Ser. 8. METT, v. A. S. Mat-an, met-an, somniare, to dream. To dream; to think during sleep. And in a lande as ich lay, lenede ich & slepte, The sicke mette he drinketh at the tonne, Madame, Chaucer. The Assembly of Fowles. pray you, that ye take it not a grefe : By Gad the mette 1 was in swiche mischefe Right now, that yet min herte is sore afright. Id. The Nonnes Preestes Tale, v. 14,900. All this she met, and seeth hym dien. METTLE. See METAL. MEW, or To make the noise or cry of a Hare at your devil's pate: do you mew? Hotsp. Marry, and I am glad of it with all my heart, I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Shakespeare. 1 Pt. Hen. IV. Act iii. sc. 1. Mewling, and puking in the nurse's armes. Id. As You Like It, Act ii. sc. 7. To change; to change the feathers, to moult; And by hire beddes had she [Canace] made a mew, And Tisbe durst not remewe, in lothsome lurcking mue, Turbervile. Against one that compared his Mistresse. Phu. Forsooth, they say, the king has mew'd Ford. The Broken Heart, Act ii. sc. 1. Cel. It was a kind of death, sir, I suffer'd in your absence, mew'd up here, But I have mew'd that coat; I hate a lawyer. Id. The Little French Lawyer, Act iii. sc. 1. She keeps her shape? Then. Yes, and I think by this time Has mew'd her old.-Id. Love's Pilgrimage, Act iii. sc. 2. That alter'd you, is a mad knave. Sof. Oh a most excellent fellow. Gun. How he has mew'd your head, has rub'd the snow Id. The Tamer Tam'd, Act iv. sc. 1. Id. Thierry & Theodorat, Act ii. sc. 1. On the North side of Charing Cross stand the royal stables, Pennant. London, p. 151. This afternoon [13 March, 1661] Prince Rupert shew'd MICH, v. Also written Meech; to miche, to lurk, with a slight deviation, from the Fr. Muser, to idle. A micher, a covetous man, either from Lat. Miser, or from the Fr. Miche; mica panis, because he counts all the crumbs that fall from his table, (Skinner.) The latter etymology is undoubtedly the true one. Mr. Tyrwhitt tells us that in the Promptuarium parvum, “mychyn" stands as equivalent to " thyngs." And Lambard, in his Eirenarchia, says, pryvely stelyn smale that one justice may charge constables to arrest such as shall be suspected to be "draw-latches, wastors, or robertsmen, that is to say, either miching or mightie theeves:"-contrasting these different sorts of plunderers. The Fr. Miche, Lat. Mica, is a small thing. To miche, is to take or steal small things, to pilfer; and, consequentially, to lay in wait, to lurk. A micher,-one who takes or steals, small things; a pilferer, a petty thief; one who lies in wait, lurks, or loiters about; either to thieve, or for other purposes. How should I by this word him leve, Forsworne, or els Goddes lier.-Chaucer. Rom. of the R. But nowe thou shalt full sore abie That thou hast both take and do.-Gower. Con. A. b. v. For no man of his counsaile knoweth, What he maie gette of his michynge.-Id. Ib. But should straggle up and downe the country, or mich Shakespeare. 1 Pt. Hen. IV. Act ii. sc. 4. Sure she has some meeching rascal in her house, some hind, that she hath seen bear (like another Milo) quarters of malt upon his back and sing with't. Beaum. & Fletch. The Scornful Lady, Act iv. sc. 1. Id. Bonduca, Act i. sc. 1. Mussinger. The Guardian, Act i. sc. 5, MICKLE. See MUCKLE. MICROCOSM. Fr. Microcosme; It. and cosmus; Gr. Miкрокоσμоя, μIкpos, small, little, and She, to whom this world must itself refer, Donne. Anatomy of the World. The First Anniversary. There were some also, that staid not here; but went further, and held; that if the spirit of man (whom they call the microcosm) do give a fit touch to the spirit of the world, by strong imaginations, and beleefes, it might command nature, Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 900. Because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was man called microcosmos, or the little world. Ralegh. Hist. of the World, b. i. c. 2. This opinion confirmed would much advance the micro cosmical conceit, and commend the geography of Paracelsus; who according to the cardinal points of the world divideth the body of man.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 3. Why, as great, no doubt, and of as fatal consequence to the affairs and government of the microcosm, or lesser world, as if, in the greater, God should put out the sun, and establish one great, universal cloud in the room of it. South, vol. ii. Ser. 9. This chanon toke his cole, with sorry grace, The diaphragm; a long and round muscle, whereby the vital parts are separated from the Chaacer. The Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 16,659. natural, and the heart and lights from the stomach and nether bowels, (Cotgrave.) About hir middell twentie score Ther hangen that time tho.-Gower. Con. A. b. iv. I wyll go the middell wey And write a boke bytwene the twey.-Id. Ib. Prol. Till high middaic, that he arise.-Id. Ib. b. v. And praid God with good intent, It was nought passed yet midmorowe.-Id. Ib. b. viii. And that was at midnight tide, The worlde was still on euery side.-Id. Ib. b. v. The upmost inwards of a man, to wit, the heart and the lungs, are divided from the other entrailes beneath, by certaine pellicles or rimmes of the midriffe, which the Latines call præcordia (because they are drawne and set before the heart as a defence) and the Greekes phrenes. Holland. Plinie, b. xi. c. 37. Here most men have placed the seat of laughter; it hath much sympathy with the brain, so that if the midriff be inflamed, present madness ensues it. P. Fletcher. The Purple Island, c. 4. Note 9. In A. S. Thenian wifum, is mulieribus administrare, obstetricare. Doct. Th. H. says, MIDWIFE, n. MIDWIFERY. q.d. A. S. Med-wif; "wife or woman hired, for meed or reward." Junius,-that it is a word comgan, (c. 7,) “mede-wyf, a woman of mede, or merit, deserving recompense." For lykewise as God is in the myds of the good counsayle,pounded of meed, reward, and wife. And Verste- Christ is called a corner stone, because he being here mediatour or middeler betwene God and me. 1 Timo. ii. 5. The works of art do not bear a nice microscopial inspec- coupleth in hym the Jews & the Getiles, and joineth them together.-Bible, 1551. Isaye, c. 28. tion, but the more helps are used, and the more nicely you pry into natural productions, the more do you discover of the fine mechanisin of Nature.-Berkeley, Siris, § 283. There are, besides the above mentioned, innumerable retainers to physick, who, for want of other patients, amuse themselves with the stifling of cats in an air-pump, cutting up dogs alive, or impailing of insects upon the point of a needle for microscopic observations.-Spectator, No. 21. The magic of those works, in which by the help of glasses we discover all the beauties of statuary and drawing, and even the science of anatomy, has been restricted to an age that was ignorant of microscopic glasses; a problem hitherto unresolved to satisfaction. Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. iv. c. 2. MID. MIDDEST, or MIDST. M'IDDLE, adj. MIDDLE, n. MIDDLEMOST. MIDDLING,adj. MIDDLER. A. S. Mid, midda, midde, middle, (mid-dal,) midl, midlest; Lat. Med-ius. The centre or point from which the circumference is every where equidistant; the point between, and equidistant from extremes; the point, the place, any thing surrounded or encompassed equally on all sides; and more laxly,--remote or distant from an extreme point or line, from excess. Midling, adj.-moderate, tolerable. S. Johnson uses midlingly in v. Indifferently. Mid is used much in Composition. The kyng withoute essoyn suld be in the midde Euen at myddaye (o kinge) I saw in the way a light from heaue.-Bible, 1551. Ib. But at midnight a cry was maad: lo the spouse comith, goe ye out to meete with him.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 25. And euen at mydnight, there was a crye made: behold, ye brydgrome commeth, go out agaynste hym. Bible, 1551. Ib. For young she was, and hewed bright Thus the hyest chambers were alway narrower than the Id. Ezechiel, c. 42. I turn'd my thoughts, and with capacious mind Or earth, or middle, all things fair and good.—Id. Ib. b. iv. Who was more light of foote and swift in chace, Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. vi. c. 3. Shakespeare. Troyl. & Cress. Act ii. sc. 2. Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i. By numbers that have name.-Id. Paradise Lost, b. viii. Bp. Hall. Christian Moderation, b. ii. s. 6. Donne. Elegy on the Death of Prince Henry. It being then the mid-time of the night Drayton. The Barons' Wars, b. vi. No readers here with hectic looks are found, There are grown men and women, nay, even middle-aged We should be pleas'd that things are so, MIDRIFFE. A. S. Mid-hrife; Dut. Middel-rift, To mid-wive, is to act as midwife; and consequentially, to help into the world; to help to bring forth or produce; to produce. Johnson explains Obstetrick—Midwifish. Shakespeare. 2 Pt. Hen. VI. Act iv. sc. 2. Dr. Lloyd did afterwards labour much in midwiving a book into the world, entit. An Essay towards a real character, and a philosophical language.-Wood. Athena Oxon. vol. ii. So hasty fruits, and too ambitious flowers, Scorning the midwifery of ripening showers, In spite of frosts, spring from th' unwilling earth, But find a nip untimely as their birth. Stepney. To the Earl of Carlisle. MIEN, n. Fr. Mine; Ger. Mine, from meinen, significare, to signify, to mean, (Wachter.) Skinner considers it to be a word newly introduced, and derives it from the Low Lat. Minare, ducere, q.d. ductus seu lineamentum faciei, the draught or | delineation of the face. Wachter may be right; but it is evidently used by Spenser as equivalent to demean or demeanour. (See DEMEAN.) Such interchanges of a simple and compound term are familar to our old poets. Mien is applied to The whole manner and appearance of behaviour or comportment; to-the look, the countenance, with correspondent carriage of body. Her whyles Sir Calidore there vewed well, And mark't her rare demeanure which him seemed That he could make.-Id. Ib. c. 7. A mien compos'd of mildness and of state, Stepney. To the Memory of Q. Mary. Not in thy gorgon terrours clad, Nor circled with the vengeful band, (As by the impious thou art seen,) With thundering voice and threatning mien. Gray. Hymn to Adversity. MIFF. Perhaps from Dut. Maffelen, mussitar", to mutter. See MAFFLE. A muttering discontent or displeasure. Fielding. Tom Jones, b. iii. c. 6. 1 Goth. Mahts; A. S. Mægeth, MIGHT, V. third person singular of the in- Mihte, potuit, valuit, is likewise the perfect of Mighty-powerful, strong, forcible, vigorous, valiant; it is also used as equivalent to great; large, bulky, vast; (bulkiness being a usual concomitant of strength.) On this stoon I schal bilde my cherche and the gatis of He, that mygtuol ys, Dethe [doth] after oure deserte. Id. p. 23. His flesshe wolde haue charged him with fatnesse, but that the wantonesse of his wombe with trauaile and fastyng be a daunteth, and in rydinge & goyng trauayleth myghtebele his youthe.-Id. p. 482. &teld how the Bretons, men of mykelle myght. R. Brunne, p. 2. He was of grete elde, & myght not trauaile. Id. p. 3. Toward Wircestre he com with myght & mayn.-Id. p. 56. Kyng Bryghtrye had take these to wyue as for the ggest kynges douhter of Englisshemen.-Id. p. 13. Note. Priue pride in pes es nettille in herbere, The rose is myghiles, the nettille spredis ouer fer. Id. p. 280. Y seye to you that God is myghtie to reise of these stoones the sones of Abraham.-Wiclif. Luke, c. 3. Thus al is wel, but tho began aright, The newe ioy, and al the fest againe, Bet Pandarus, if goodly had he might, He wold have hied hir to bedde full faine. Now Jesu Crist, that of his might may sende Joye after wo, govern us in his grace, Id. The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 5582. Oughtfull God in heven! wher was evir man An other time he should mightely Her lives then were longe, Chaucer. Troil. & Cres. b. v. Her wittes great, her mightes strong.-Gower. Con. 4.b.iv. To shew the mightinesse of their malice, after his holye e departed, they perced his holye heart with a sharpe peare--Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1260. "Ah! dearest lord," quoth she, "how might that bee, The feeble Britons, broken with long warre, Id. Ib. b. iii. c. 3. Great Gormond, having with huge mightinesse De Does your mightiness, That is a great destroyer of your memorie, Yet understand our faces? Beaum. & Fletch. The Prophetess, Act iii. sc. 1. The next experience of your mighty mind how you combat Fortune now she's kind: And this way too you are victorious found; Se datters with the same success she frown'd. Fr. Migrer; Lat. Migrare; of unknown etymology. See EMIGRATE. To depart, leave, quit or remove from. Wo is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, Bp. Hall. The Invisible World. The Epistle. The migration of birds from an hotter to a colder country, The Tuscans were a branch of the Pelasgi that migrated They would of course migrate in separate families and On the other hand, let us suppose a colony upon its migration to have settled itself in a warmer climate, where men would find little or no occasion for clothes, houses, or the preparation of food by fire, and where they were cut off from all communication with the rest of the world. Horne. Works, vol. iv. Dis. 24. This purpose is sometimes carried on by a sort of migra- Burke. Abridgement of English History b. ii. c. 2. Soft, gentle, soothing; kind, compassionate. & thanked Ihesu Criste with herte fulle mylde, R. Brunne, p. 497. Schal I com to ghou in a gherde, or in charite and in Oure Sauiour myldlye answered for Mary Mawdleyne, But to say that Christ would haue his disciples to com- Most bitter wordes they spake, Submiss he heard me, and, "Whom thou soughtst I Said mildely, "Author of all this thou seest Millon. Paradise Lost, b. viii. Is this the mean that mightiness approves? Drayton. Matilda to King John. Waller. At Pens-Hurst. Ten he seemed to be overpowered at his attachments, At the transfiguration, the cloud was bright, the whole to fall backwards, and healing Malchus's ear with a South, vol. vii. Ser. 1. When conscience begins to do its office, they will feel mitted to by the people with respect. Edg. This is the foule Flibbertigibbet: hee mildewes the And yet more med'cinal is it than that moly Milton. Comus. So may Sylvanus ever 'tend your bowers, MILE. Fr. Mille; It. Miglio; Sp. Milla; Lat. Mille, i. e. mille passus, a thousand paces. A space or distance measuring 1000 paces; in English measurement, eight furlongs, or 1760 yards. From South to North he ys long eigte hondred myle. R. Brunne, p. 22. The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud Milton. Paradise Lost, b. ii. Fr. Militer, militaire, militant; It. and Sp. Militante; Lat. Militare, from miles, a souldier, unus ex mille, because a legion was first formed of three thousand (trium millium,) Varro, lib. iv. A military man, or militarist, whose business is war; a soldier. Militant,-warring, fighting, contending. To militate, (now a common word,)—to war or fight against; to oppose, to disagree, or be discordant with. I thinke hee can not prooue but that S. Paules saying is verified of the Church, that is here militant, and not of the Church triumphant.-Barnes. Workes, p. 253. And where on earth long militant before, Stirling. Domes-day. The Twelfth Houre. How doe they look up at us, as even now militantlytriumphant, whiles they are miserably wallowing in dust and blood.-Bp. Hall. Ser. at Westminster, April 5, 1628. All humane life, especially the active part, is constituted in a state of continual militancy. Mountague. Devoute Essayes, pt. i. Treat. 10. s. 7. Although he were a prince in militar vertue approued, jealous of the honour of the English nation, and likewise a good law-maker, for the ease and solace of the common people.-Bacon. Hen. VII. Suetonius Paullinus was esteemed the most expert man of that age for militare affayres.-Savile. Tacit. Hist. p. 71. Those of templars, St. James, Calatrava, Alcantara, and such like other, were more religious than military. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s. 15. Selden. Illustrations. Cap. G. Y'are deceu'd my lord, this is Mounsieur Parroles the gallant militarist, that was his owne phrase. Shakespeare. All's Well that Ends Well, Act iv. sc. 3. Therefore let any Prince or State thinke soberly of his forces; except his militia of natives be of good and valiant souldiers.-Bacon. Of Kingdomes & Estates. His hope, no mitre militant on earth, 'Tis that bright crown, which Heav'n reserves for worth. Savage. The Character of the Rev. James Forster. Know then, unnumber'd spirits round thee fly, The light militia of the lower sky. Pope. The Rape of the Lock, c. I. The common military sword is a heavy massive weapon, |