Piers Plouhman, p. 92.

That maketh me so megre.
And thereto she was lene and megre.

Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose.
O physick's power, which (some say) hath restrain'd
Apreach of death, alas! thou helpest meagerly.
Sidney. Arcadia, b. iv.
Thou art so leane and meagre waxen late,
That scarse thy legs uphold thy feeble gate.
Spenser. Mother Hubberd's Tale.
Many a burning sun
Has sear'd my body, and boil'd up my blood,
Feb'd my knees, and stampt a meagerness
Upon my figure, all to find out knowledge.

Braum & Fletch. The Island Princess, Act iv. sc. 1. Bat Poynings (the better to make compensation of the messe of his service in the warres, by acts of peace,) cada parliament.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 138.

His ceaseless sorrow for th' unhappy maid
Menger'd his look, and on his spirits prey'd.
Dryden. Ovid. Metam. b. xi.

I calls for famine, and the meagre fiend
Blows mildew from between his shrivell'd lips,
And taints the golden ear.
Cowper. Task, b. ii.
MEAL. A. S. Mal; Dut. Maal; Ger. Mal;
The A. S. Mal, and Eng. Meal, is—
A part or portion, a measure,-of food or any
thing else.

Sw. Mael.

Meal-tide or time,-the tide or time when each receives his part, portion, or measure of food. He wole the lyme mele To drawe and vorsuolwe, peraunture at one mele. R. Gloucester, p. 206. Here have I eten many a mery mele. Chaucer. The Sompnoures Tale, v. 7357.

The morow came, and nighen gan the time Of mealtide. Id. Troil. & Cres. b. ii.

For thei in hope to asswage

That thei lasse shulden feele,

The peine of dethe vpon the rage,

Of wyne let fill full a meele,

And dronken till so was befall,

That thei her strengthes losen all.-Gower. Con. A. b. vi.

Vnquiet meales make ill digestions.

Shakespeare. Comedy of Errours, Act v. sc. 1.

As to his meals, I should think it best, that as much as it can be conveniently avoided, they should not be kept constantly to an hour.-Locke. Of Education, s. 15.

Beneath whose shade the lusty steers repose
Their cumbrous limbs, mix'd with the woolly tribes,
And leisurely concoct their grassy meal.

Jago. Edge Hill, b. iv.

MEAL. Fr. Mesler to mix, to mingle; Scotch, to mell. See MEDLEY, and YMELL.

Were he mealed; were he mixed with; were there intermixed or intermingled in him-that which he corrects, then were he tyrannous.

He doth with holy abstinence subdue

That in himselfe, which he spurres on his powre
To qualifie in others: were he meal'd with that
Which he corrects, then were he tirranous,
But this being so, he's just

Shakespeare. Meas. for Mens. Act iv. sc 2

MEAL. A. S. Mealeue; Dut. Meel: Ger. MEALY. Mal; Sw. Meol; from Goth. Mal-an, Dut. Maelen; Ger. Malen, mulen, Sw. Mala; Lat. Mol-ere; to grind, bruise, or crush, (sc.) to a powder; into fine, small particles.

Corn or grain ground or crushed to a powder.

Mealy, having the qualities or appearances of meal, its whiteness, fineness, softness.

Meale-mouthed or faire-spoken,-whose words are mild and soft, as meal, (Minshew.)

The kyngdom of hevenes is lyk to sour dowgh whiche a woman took and hidde in thre mesuris of mele, til it was al soured.—Wiclif. Matthew, e. 13.

The kyngdome of heauen is lyke vnto leuen which a woma taketh and hydeth in iii peckes of meele, tyl all be leuened. Bible, 1551. Ib.

Thou shalt a cake of half a bushel find,
That was ymaked of thin owne mele
Which that I halpe my fader for to stele.

Chaucer. The Reves Tale, v. 4043.

So were more meete for mealy-mouthed men.

Gascoigne. The Fruites of Warre, (86.) Mene. Consider this: he has bin bred i' th' warres Since a could draw a sword, and is ill-school'd In boulted language: meale and bran together He throwes without distinction.

Shakespeare. Coriolanus, Act iii. sc. 1.

Though the regular spots in their wings [the caterpillar] seem but a mealie adhesion, and such as may be wiped away, yet since they come in this variety, out of their cases, there must be regular pores in those parts and membranes, defining such exudations.-Brown. Cyrus' Garden, c. 3. The world's eye bleared with those shameless lyes, Mask'd in the show of meal-mouth'd poesies. Bp. Hall. Satires, b. i. Prol. A lewd fellow was brought forth, who said, that he himself escaping in a meal-tub, had been entreated by those who were in peril of drowning, to desire of the poople revenge of their deaths upon the captains.

Ralegh. History of the World, c. 8. s. 10. Some fly with two wings, as birds and many insects, some with four, as all farinaceous or mealy-winged animals, as butterflies and moths.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 15. The cameleon had been observed to drink water, and delight to feed on meal-worms; and although we have not had the advantage of our own observation, yet have we received the like confirmation from many ocular spectators. Id. Ib. b. iii. c. 21. Auriculas, enrich'd With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves. Thomson. Spring.

MEAN, adj. Fr. Moyen, moyennant, from MEAN, n. the It. Mediante, and that from the Low Lat. Medianum; Lat. Medium. The Scotch write or wrote moyen. See in Jamieson.

Mediate, being or lying at equal distance, between the beginning and end; intervening; being or lying at a distance, between the extreme points; and thus distant, removed, restrained or withheld, from extremity, from excess; moderate, temperate.

Mean, n. -that which is mediate, or intermediate; that by the intervention, intercession, instrumentality or agency of which any thing is

done.

Consider, how justlie he was plagued in his gross bodie, many yeares before his death, with sores and diseases, that grew upon him by meanes of drunken surfetts, idlenesse, sloth and vicious trade of life.-R. Brunne, p. 559. Glossary.

For richesse and mendicities
Ben cleped two extremeties,
The meane is cleped sufficiaunce,
There lieth of vertue the aboundaunce.
Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose.

And that darknesse shal I som what assaye to maken thinne and weake, by lyght and meaneliche remedies: [lenibus mediocribusque fomentis.]—Id. Boecius, b. i.

Medea in the meane while,
Which thought hire father to beguile,
The treasour, whiche hir father had,
With hir all priuely she lad.

Gower. Con. A. b. v. But we (or euer he come neare) are redy in the meane season to kyl him.-Bible, 1551. Actes, c. 23.

And in the meane tyme betwixte that and daye, Paule besoughte them all to take meate.-Id. Ib. c. 27.

O blessed lady be thou meane and medyatryce betwene thy sonne and wretched synners that hee punysshe vs not euerlastyngely-Fisher. Šeuen Psalmes, Ps. 38.

For his churche is ye wote wel a church of folke, not menely good, but of folk so good, so pure, & so cleane, that ther be not among them al so much as either spot or wrincle-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 808.

Reserve her cause to her eternal doome;
And, in the meane, vouchsafe her honorable toombe.
Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 1.

And therefore the mean is the vertue, and not to go too far in this, as in all other things besides, it is the best. North. Plutarch, p. 116.

And you know, his meanes
If he improue them, may well stretch so farre
As to annoy vs all: which to preuent,
Let Antony and Cæsar fall together.

Shakespeare. Julius Cæsar, Act ii. sc. 1.
Duke. The more degenerate and base art thou
To make such meanes for her, as thou hast done,
And leaue her on such slight conditions.
Id. Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v. sc. 4.
For by the means of his affinity,

Was lost all that his father conquered;
Ev'n as if France had some Erynnis sent,
T' avenge their wrongs done by the insolent.
Daniel. Civil Wars, b. v.

God intends repentance to be the means to purify the heart from that corruption that renders it utterly unserviceable.-South, vol. ix. Ser. 7.

MEAN. A. S. Gemæne; Dut. Gemeen ; ME'ANLY. Ger. Gemein; Sw. Genen; comME'ANNESS. munis, vulgaris; A. S. Mane; Ger. Mein; Sw. Men. The A. S. Mane is maneg, the many, (qv.) applied to the many or multitude, the menial, the rout or rabble, the low or base. Consequentially,

Low or base; abject, degrading, dejected; disgraceful, dishonourable.

All manere of men. the mene & the ryche.

Piers Plouhman, p. 2.

Rich. The sonne of Clarence haue I pent vp close,
His daughter meanly haue I matcht in marriage,
The sonnes of Edward sleepe in Abraham's bosome,
And Anne my wife hath bid this world good night.
Shakespeare. Rich. III. Act iv. sc. 3.
That to be less than gods
Disdain'd, but meaner thoughts learned in their flight,
Mangl'd with gastly wounds through plate and maile.
Milton. Paradise Lost, b. vi.

Worship ye sages of the east,
The king of Gods in meanness drest.

Bp. Hall. Anthemes. For Christmas Day. Religion and divinity have the ill-luck to be so meanly thought of, that every half-witted corporation blockhead thinks himself a competent judge of the deepest points of its doctrine, and the reason of its discipline.

South, vol. vi. Ser. 2.

To signify; to design; to have, bear, or keep in mind; in the mind or understanding; to purpose, to intend, to think.

Me troweth he was the lynx al thyng thurlyng, of whiche Merlyne meneth of. R. Gloucester, p. 522. Note.

Than spak Philip, "I wote what this menes."

155.

R. Brunne, p.
Thei wist what it ment.-Id. p. 8.
And saide mcy madame. what may this be to mene.
Piers Plouhman, p. 13.
In menynge that alle men. myghte the same
Lyven thorgh leell by leyve. as oure Lord wittnesseth.
Id. p. 13.

Ther is no soul that fleeth under heven,
That she ne shal wel understond his steven,
And know his mening openly and plaine.

Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,474.
Thei wondred, what she wolde mene,
And riden after a softe pas.
Gower. Con. A. b. ii.

He should reject And not pervse the meaning of the same. Turbervile. To the rayling Route of Sycophants, Each stair mysteriously was mean, nor stood There alwayes, but drawn up to heav'n sometimes Viewless. Milton. Paradise Lost, b. lil

This room was built for honest meaners, that deliver themselves hastily and plainly, and are gone.

Beaum. & Fletch. The Scornful Lady, Act i. sc. 1.

But see how much I do myself beguile,
And do mistake thy meaning all this while.

Drayton. King John to Matilda.

Seis'd of his prey, heavenwards, uplifted light,
On Hermes' nimble wings, he took his flight.
Now thoughtful of his course, he hung in air,
And meant through Europe's happy clime to steer.
Rowe. Lucan, b. ix.

I mean, there never was a date or point of time in our history, when the government of England was to be set up anew, and when it was referred to any single person, or assembly, or committee, to frame a charter for the future government of the country; or when a constitution, so prepared, and digested, was by common consent received and established.-Paley. Moral Philosophy, b. vi. c. 7.

The word is always sufficiently original for me in that language where its meaning, which is the cause of its application, can be found and seeking only meaning, when I have found it, there I stop: the rest is a curiosity whose

usefulness I cannot discover.

Tooke. Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. c. 4.

MEANDER, n. MEA'NDER, V. MEA'NDROUS.

MEA'NDRY.

"The

Lat. Maander; Gr. Malavδρος ; quasi Μαιονίας ύδωρ, the water of Mæonia, vel quia per Μαιονίαν αναδραμει, it runs through Mæonia, (Martinius.) Maander fetcheth such windings to and fro, that oftentimes it is taken for to run backe againe from whence it comes," (Pliny, b. v. c. 29.) See the quotations from Selden and Drayton.

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. Poly-Olbion. Selden. Illust. Note 2.

As crankling Manyfold,

The first that lends him force: of whose meandred ways
And labyrinth-like turns (as in the moors she strays)
She first received her name.-Id. Poly-Olbion, s. 12
And in meand'red gyres doth whirl herself about,
That, this way, here and there, back, forward, in, and
out,

And like a wanton girl, oft doubling in her gate,
In labyrinth-like turns, and twinings intricate.

Id. Ib. s. 22. Thy full and youthful breasts which in their meadowy pride And branch'd with rivery veins, meander-like that glide. Id. Ib. s. 10. But this proverb may better be verifyed of Ouse it self in this shire, more maandrous than Mæander, which runneth above eighty miles in eighteen by land.

Fuller. Worthies. Bedfordshire.

The river Styx, with crooked and meandry turnings, encircleth the palace of the infernal Dis.-Bacon.

Wide, deep, unsullied Thames meandring glides
And bears thy wealth on mild majestic tides.

Savage. London and Bristol Delineated.

Near fair Avon's silver tide,
Whose waves in soft meanders guide,
I read to the delighted swains
Your jocund songs and rural strains.

ME ASLE. ME'ASLED. ME'ASELRY. ME'ASLY.

Somervile. An Epistle to Allan Ramsay.

the disease itself.

Dut. Maschel; Ger. Mas, a spot. Massel-sucht,—the spotted sickness, the leprosy. Meazel, a leper, or person diseased; also,

& to meselle houses of that same lond, Thre thousand marke vnto ther spense he fond. R. Brunne, p. 136. For foule meselrie he comond with no man.-Id. p. 140. Rise ye dede men, clense ye mesels.-Wiclif. Matt. c. 10. For peine is sent by the rightwise sonde of God and by his suffrance, be it meselrie, or maime, or maladie. Chaucer. The Persones Tale. Either he repreveth him by som harme of peine, that he hath upon his bodie, as mesel, &c.- Id. Ib.

As for my country, I haue shed my blood,

Not fearing outward force: so shall my lungs
Coine words till their decay, against those meazels
Which we disdaine should tetter us.

Shakespeare. Coriolanus, Act iii. sc. 1.

He found a youth in tissue brave, (A daintier man one would not wish to have) Was courting of a lothsome, measled sow. Drayton. The Moon-Calf. From whence they start up chosen vessels, Made by contact, as men get measles.-Hudib. pt. i. c. 3. The murian shall infect all kine And measles will destroy the swine.

Last trotted forth the gentle swine,
To ease her itch against the stump,
And dismally was heard to whine,

All as she scrubb'd her meazly rump.
Swift. On cutting down the Old Thorn at Market Hill.
MEASURE, v.
MEASURE, n.
MEASURABLE.

MEASURABLY. MEASURELESS. MEASURELY, MEASUREMENT. ME'ASURER. MEASURING, N.

Fr. Mesurer; It. Misurare; Lat. Mensurare, from mensus, past part. of met-iri, to mete: metiri dicitur, qui explorat, quæ alicujus rei sit magnitudo, to examine what may be the magnitude of any thing.

To examine, to calculate,

to ascertain the magnitude or bulk, the quantity or number, space or distance; to act by or according to a fixed or stated measure; a regular standard of size or quantity; to observe or keep a stated measure, a sufficient measure; to regulate or govern, to moderate; to apportion, to adjust. Measure, n. is also applied to a regulated succession of movements, in dancing; of sounds, in music and poetry.

False elnen & measures he brogte al clene adoun. R. Gloucester, p. 429. And he seide to hem, see ye what ye heren, in what measure ye meten: it shal be meten to you again. Wiclif. Mark, c. 4. Take hede what ye heare, wyth what measure ye mete, wyth the same shall it be measured vnto you agayne. Bible, 1551. Ib. And many folke mesuren and gessen, that souerayne good be ioye and gladnesse.-Chaucer. Boecius, b. iii.

She nas to sobre ne to glad,
In all things more measure,
Had never I trowe creature.
Of his diete measurable was he,
For it was of no great superfluitee.

Id. Dreame.

Id. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, v. 437. She was ful measurable, as women be.

Id. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,675.
He sayth also: The goodes that thou hast ygeten use
them by measure, that is to sayn, spende mesurably.
Id. The Tale of Melibeus.

So as the philosophre techeth
To Alisander, and him betecheth
The lore, howe that he shall measure
His bodie, so that no measure

Of fleshly lust he shulde excede.-Gower. Con. A. b. vii.
Here hath he comfort when he doth measure
Measureless mercye to measureless faulte.-Wyatt, Ps. 51.
Each day to be feasted, what husbandry worse,
Each day for to feast, is as ill for the purse;
Yet measurely feasting, with neighbours among,
Shall make thee belov'd, and live the more long.

Tusser. Husbandly Lessons, c. 10.
With that the rolling sea, resounding soft,
In his big base them fitly answered;
And on the rocke the waves breaking aloft
A solemne meane unto them measured.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 11. In all which the king measured and valued things amisse, as afterwards appeared.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 45.

I cannot but second and commend that great clerk of Paris, who (as our witty countryman Bromaird reports) when King Lewis of France required him to write down the

best word that ever he had learnt, call'd for a faire skin of parchment, and in the midst of it wrote this word measure, and sent it sealed up to the king.

Bp. Hall. Christian Moderation, b. i. s. 1.
But after these, as men more civil grew,
He did more grave and solemn measures frame,
With such fair order and proportion true,

And correspondence ev'ry way the same,
That no fault finding eye did ever blame.

Davies. On Dancing.
The World's bright eye, Time's measurer, begun
Through wat'ry Capricorn his course to run.

Howell. Letters, p. 7. The Note. A Poem. Although he buy whole harvests in the spring, And foyst in false strikes to the measuring

God is infinite; and an infinite mird, both in its knowledge and purposes, proceeds not according to the methods and measures of a finite understanding. South, vol. viii. Ser. 4.

But all ye lovers of game and glee,
And feast and frolic, come follow me!
To nature's measureless licence free,
And follow, follow, follow me!

Brooke. Songs from Jack the Giant Queller, Air 30. It seems amazing to me, that artists, if they were as con

vinced as they pretend to be, that proportion is a principal cause of beauty, have not by them at all times accurate measurements of all sorts of beautiful animals to help them to proper proportions. Burke. On the Sublime and Beautiful, pt. iii. § 4.

In S. Edward tyme the erle suld with him ete,
A seruitour ther was that serued at the mete.

R. Brunne, p. 55.
It neghed nere metesel, than rose vp alle the route.
Id. p. 334.

Meteles and moneyles. on Malverne hulles.

Piers Plouhman, p. 162. His mete was honey soukis and honey of the wood. Wiclif. Matthew, c. 3. His meate was locusts and wylde hony.-Bible, 1551. Ib. And on his meate borde there shal been borde clothes and towelles many paire.-Chaucer. Testament of Loue, b. fi. But euery lust he shall forbere

Of man, and like an oxe his mete

Of grasse he shall purchace and ete.-Gower. Con. A. b. i. Is not thys a royall feast to leue these beggers meatcles, & the send mo to dynner to theim ? Sir T. More. Workes, p. 302. Strong oxen and horses, well shod, and well clad, Well meted well used, for making thee sad.

Tusser. September's Husbandry, c. 16.

As fire converts to fire the things it burns;
As we our meals into our nature change.

Davies. The Immortality of the Soul, 8. 4.
The meat-offering consisted of fine flower, or parched corn,
with oyl, salt, and frankincense.
Grew. Cosmo. Sacra, b. iv. c. 8. s. 124.
Them-their despairing creditors may find
Lurking in shambles; where with borrow'd coin
They buy choice meats and in cheap plenty dine.

MECHANISM.

MECHANIST.

MECHANICIAN. MECHANICK, adj. MECHANICK, n. MECHANICKS. MECHANICAL. MECHANICALLY.

Congreve. Juvenal, Sat. 11.

Fr. Méchanique; It. Mecanico; Sp. Mecanico; Lat. Mechanicus; Gr. Mnxavix's, from μηχανη, a machine, (qv.)

See the first quotation from Boyle.

Of hem that ben artificers, Whiche vsen craftes and misters, Whose arte is cleped mechanike.-Gower. Con. A. b. vii. But (we are to consider) how the mechanism, that is, the bulk and figure of the bone and muscules, and the insertion of the muscule into the bone, are more advantageous to some certain motions, in one inan, than in another.

Grew. Cosmo. Saora, b. ii. c. 6. How many chimaeras, antics, golden mountains and castles in the aire doe they build unto themselves? I appeale to painters, mechanicians, mathematicians. Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 92. He [a friend] is not accustomed to any sordid way of gaine, for who is any way mechanicke will sell his friend upon more profitable termes.

Habington. Castara, pt. ii. 4 Friend. An art quite lost with our mechanicks, a work not to be made out, but like the walls of Thebes, and such an artificer as Amphion.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vii. c. 18

The poore mechanicke porters, crowding in
Their heavy burthens at his narrow gate,

Shakespeare. Hen. V. Acti. sc. 2.

We have also divers mechanical arts, which you have not; and stuffs made by them; as papers, linnen, silks, tissues. Bacon. New Atlantis, p. 28.

A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
That work for bread vpon Athenian stals,
Were met together to rehearse a play,
Intended for great Theseus nuptiall day.

Shakespeare. Mids. Night's Dream, Act iii. sc. 2.

These mechanic philosophers being no way able to give an account thereof (the formation and organization of the bodies of animals] from the necessary motion of matter, unguided by mind for ends, prudently therefore break off their system there, when they should come to animals, and so leave it altogether untouched.—Ray. On the Creation, pt. i.

I do not here take the term, Mechanicks, in that stricter and more proper sense, wherein it is wont to be taken, when it is used only to signify the doctrine about the moving powers, (as the beam, the lever, the screws, and the wedge) and of framing engines to multiply force; but I here understand the word Mechanicks in a larger sense, for those disciplines that consist of the applications of the pure mathematicks to produce or modify motion in inferior bodies. Boyle. Works, vol. iii. p. 435. The commonwealth of learning would lose too many useful observations and experiments, and the history of nature would make too slow a progress, if it were presumed, that none but geometers and mechanicians should employ themselves about writing any part of that history. Id. Ib. vol. ii. p. 473.

Fourthly, I very well foresee it may be objected that the chick with all its parts is not a mechanically contrived engine, but fashioned out of matter by the soul of the bird lodged chiefly in the cicatricula.-Id. Ib. vol. iii. p. 68.

There [in the kingdom of God] virtue only gives precedence, and the meanest mechanic takes place of the nobles and kings of the earth, if he were a better christian than they were.-Horne. Works, vol. iv. Dis. 9.

If guards, mechanically form'd in ranks,
Playing, at beat of drum, their martial pranks,
Should'ring and standing as if stuck to stone,
While condescending majesty looks on.

Cowper. Table Talk.

But when a knowing medalist becomes his instructor, he may then know some (much defaced) letters, that were illegible to him before; and both understand the sense of the inscription, and approve it as genuine, and suitable to the things whereto it be congruous.-Id. Ib.

I have lately seen, says Eugenius, a medallic history of the present king of France.-Addison. Anc. Medals, Dial. 3.

I shall beg leave to give this class the appellation of medalets, as the genius of our language admits of this dimi Butive, in ringlet, bracelet, and the like.

Pinkerton. Essay on Medais, vol. i. s. 13.

!

!

mingle: The Danish has megler, melerer. Dr. Jamieson thinks the Fr. is of Gothic origin, and that the primary term is the Sw. Mid, i. e. middle; to meddle or to mell being merely to interpose one's self between other objects.

To mix, to mingle; to mix or mingle, interdeal, or interfere, (sc. among other people and their concerns,) to busy or be busy, to take part or share, in any thing.

A medley, a mixture of persons, an affray.
He tok his seurd in hand. the croyce let he falle,
& medeled him in the pres, among the barons alle.
R. Brunne, p. 18.
Alle tymes in medle euer more first he was.-Id. p. 311.
And thei gaven him to drynke wyn medlid with gall.
Wiclif. Matthew, c. 27.
And broughte a medling of myrre and aloes as it were an
hundrid pound.-Id. Jon, c. 19.

For in no wise dare I more mell
Of thing wherein such perill is,

As like is now to fall of this.-Chaucer. Dreame.
He rode but homely in a medlee cote,
Girt with a seint of silk, with barres smale.

Id. Prol. to the Canterbury Tales, v. 330. His garment was every dele

Ipurtraied and ywrought with flours,

By divers medling of colours.--Id. Rom. of the Rose.
Through venim, whiche that medled is

In holy churche of erthely thynge-Gower. Con. A. Prol.

O mighty lorde toward my vice
Thy mercy medle with iustice.

And said, this daie venim is shadde
In holy churche of temporall.

Id. Ib. b. i

Whiche medleth with the spirituall.—Id. Ib. b. iii.

But they suffred it bycause they would not medell, nor be in no businesse nor prease. Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 357. And euery mad medler must now be a maker.

Skelton. Speake Parrot. There was no manne tha. anye meddeling hadde wyth theym, into whose handes they were more lothe to come. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 868.

Ther myght wel a ben legges sene tourned vpwarde; ther being a sore medlynge, for they of the hoost alwayes encreased, wherfore it behoued thenglysshasa to withdrawe toward ther fortresse.-Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 81.

He desyred hym that he wolde take on hym the medlyng of the businesse of the realme of France.-Id. Ib. c. 179. The dead knight's sword out of his sheath he drew, With which he cutt a lock of all their heare, Which medling with their blood and earth he threw Into the grave, and gan devoutly sweare.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 1.
Mor. Here is a great deale of good matter
Lost for lacke of telling;

Now siker I see thou dost but clatter,
Harme may come of melling.

Id. Shepheard's Calender. July.

A meddled estate of the orders of the gospell, and the ceremonies of poperie, is not the best way to banish popery. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. iv. s. 8.

Lue. My lord I know him, 'tis a medling fryer,
I doe not like the man.

Peter. I know him for a man diuine and holy,
Not seuruy, nor a temporary medler
As he's reported by this gentleman.

For there is one God, and one (mediator) betwene God and man, whiche is the man Christ Jesus.-Bible, 1551. Ib.

For it in soth of kingdomes and of realmes,

Is bearer vp and conservatrice,

From al mischief and sothfast mediatrice,
To God aboue.

Lidgate. The Story of Thebes, pt. iii. Neither Gyngemin thy companyon nor thou neither shall enter in there, either immediately or mediatlye, if ye exclude Christ as ye haue done hitherto.-Fryth. Workes, p. 18.

And thereupon was Warwick (by whose cast
All must be wrought) employed to mediate
A present marriage, to be had between
Him and the gister of the young French queen.

Daniel. Civil Wars, b. viii.

It is certain, that the immediate cause of death, is the resolution or extinguishment of the spirits; and that the destruction or corruption of the organs is but the mediate cause.-Bacon. Naturall Historic, § 399.

The carnall eye looks through God, at the world; the spirituall eye looks through the world, at God; the one of those he seeth mediately, the other, terminatively.

Bp. Hall. The Remedy of Prophaneness, b. i. s. 6. Now, upon the birth, when the infant forsaketh the womb, although it dilacerate, and break the involving membranes, yet do these vessels hold, and by the mediation thereof the infant is connected unto the womb, not onely before, but awhile also after the birth.

Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. v. c. 5.

And in deliv'ring it, lifts up her eyes, (The moving'st mediators she could bring.) And straight withdraws them in submissive wise. Daniel. Civil Wars, b. viii. If thine angels, O blessed Jesu, desired to look into the great and deep mysterie of the gospel, their longing is satis fied in the sight of thy blessed incarnation, and the full accomplishment of the great office of thy mediatorship.

Bp. Hall. The great Mystery of Godliness, s. 11.

If it had pleased thee to have commanded Moses and Elias to wait upon thee in thy mediatorie perambulation, and to attend thee at Jerusalem, on the mount of Sion, as they did on the mount of Tabor, whom hadst thou not in a zealous astonishment drawn after thee?-Id. Ib. s. 3.

Bp. Hall, b. i. Sat. 8.

Do not drive away such, as bring thee information, as medlers; but accept them in good part. Id. Ess. of Great Place. How to distinguish between medling innocently from being blameably meddlesome, hic labor, hic opus est . . . . I shall touch some cases in which it is allowable or commendable to meddle with the affairs of others; then I shall propound some general rules according to which such meddlesomeness is commonly blameable. Barrow, vol. i. Ser. 21. This the peasants blithe Will quaff, and whistle as thy tinkling team They drive, and sing of Fusca's radiant eyes, Pleas'd with the medley draught.-J. Philips. Cider, b. ii. Honour, that meddlesome, officious ill. Pursues thee e'en to death.

Blair. The Grave.

Hopkins. A practical Exposition on the Lord's Prayer. I tell you againe (with an addition of more incongruities still) that God and his divine phisician doe still let bloud in the median vein of the heart. Bp. Hall. Sermon to the Lords of Parliament.

It being the undeniable prerogative of the first cause, that whatsoever it does by the mediation of second causes, it can do immediately by itself without them.

South, vol. iv. Ser. 11. No: our church cashiers the whole article, [about the invocation of saints] as contumelious to, and inconsistent with the infinitely perfect mediatorship and intercession of Christ.-Id. vol. vi. Ser. 1.

But poetry no medium can admit,
No reader suffers an indifferent wit.

Dryden. The Art of Poetry, c. 4. It is plain, from the form and turn of the expression, (1 Tim. ii 5) that his mediatorial character and office was meant to be represented as a perpetual character and office, because it is described in conjunction with the existence of God and men, so long as men exist: there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.

Paley, Ser. 24

Why didst thou not, O gentle mother-queen!
As judge and mediatress stand between,
When the feed guards in mighty ambush lay?
Lewis. Statius, b. vii.

MEDICATE, v. MEDICA'TION.

ME'DICABLE.

ME'DICAL.

ME'DICALLY.

MEDICAMENT.

MEDICAMENTALLY. MEDICATIVE. ME'DICINE, v. ME'DICINE, n. MEDICINAL.

MEDICINALLY.

MEDICINABLE.

Fr. Médeciner; It. Medicinare: Sp. Medecinar; Lat. Medicina, medicare, mederi, from the Gr. MedEolai, to cure, to heal.

Medicine, Fr. Médecin,one who cureth, a physician.

To medicine, to give or supply medicine, or healing or salutary physic.

To medicate, to give, to endow with medical or me

MEDIOCRE.
MEDIOCRIST.

MEDIOCRITY.
MEDIETY.

Fr. Médiocrer, médiocre ; It. Mediocre, Sp. Mediocre; Lat. Mediocris, from medius and ocris, quod locum signi

ficat, (Vossius.) As the Fr.Médiocre, "Mean; moderate, indifferent; reasonable, competent, neither too big nor too little," Cotgrave.

This low, abject brood That fix their seats in mediocrity,

Willing by his owne medicinall meekenes that mens hartes should bee lyfted vp, and not with man's pride agayne to be drouned in these inferior thinges.-Barnes. Workes, p. 367.

But as manie weedes are right medicinable, so maie you finde in this none so vile, or stinking, but that it hath in it some virtue, if it be rightlie handled.

Gascoigne. To the Youth of England.

If some infrequent passenger crossed our streets, it was not without his medicated posie at his nose.

Bp. Hall. A Sermon of Thanksgiving.

Now (what is very remarkable) whereas in the same place he adviseth to observe the times of notable mutations, as equinoxes, and the solstices, and to decline medication ten days before.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 13.

That sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth, [the silly-how] is therefore preserved with great care, not onely as medical in diseases, but effectual in success concerning the infant and others; which is surely no more then a continued superstition.-Id. Ib. b. v. c. 21.

But that which chiefly promoted the consideration of these dayes, and medically advanced the same, was the doctrine of Hyppocrates.-Id. Ib. b. iv. c. 13.

They do make such a constitution of a mendicament, as we now require.-Bacon. History. Of Life & Death.

We first affirm that the substance of gold is invincible by the powerfullest action of natural heat, and that not only alimentally in a substantial mutation, but also medicamentally in any corporeal conversion. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 5.

Bel. Great greefs I see med'cine the lesse.

Shakespeare. Cymbeline, Act iv. sc. 2.

Cla. The miserable haue no other medicine
But only hope. Id. Meas. for Meas. Act iii. sc. 1.
Meet we the medicine of the sickly weale,
And with him pour we in our Countries purge,
Each drop of vs. 11. Macbeth, Act v. sc. 2.

(As sometimes even poysons turn medicinall) the furious prosecution of absurd authoritie increased the zeale of trueth.-Bp. Hall. The Old Religion, c. 2.

My purpose and endeavour is, to anatomize this humour of melancholy through all his parts and species, as it is an habite or an ordinary disease, and that philosophically, medicinally, to shew the causes, symptomes, and severall cures of it, that it may be the better avoided.

Burton. Democritus to the Reader, p. 76.

I would here intreat farther, to what end the commers thither doo drinke oftimes of that medicinable liquor.

Holinshed. Descrip. of England, b. ii. c. 23.

He made not venom to be our poison, for neither made he death or any deletery medicament upon the earth; but so, that by a slight industry and endeavour of our own they might be turned into great pledges of his love, for the use of men against the cruelty of diseases which were in process of time to rise.-Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 122.

First pouring out the med'cinable bane,
The heart, her tears had rins'd, she bath'd again.
Dryden. Sigismonda & Guiscardo.

To mend thy mounds, to trench, to clear, to soil
Thy grateful fields, to medicale thy sheep,
Hurdles to weave, and cheerly shelters raise,
Thy vacant hours require.
Dyer. The Fleece, b. i.

And favour'd isles with golden fruitage crown'd,
Where tufted flowrets paint the verdant plain
Whcie every breeze shall med'cine every wound.
Shenstone, Elegy 20.

Grew. Cosmo. Sacra, b. ii. c. 7. Which [syrens] notwithstanding were of another description, containing no fishy composure, but made up of man and bird; the human mediety variously placed not only above but below.-Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. v. e. 19.

A very mediocre poet, one Drayton, is yet taken some notice of, because Selden writ a few notes on one of his poems.-Pope. To Dr. Warburton, Nov. 27, 1742.

He [John Hughes] is too grave a poet for me, and, I think among the mediocribus [some ed. mediocrists] in prose as well as verse.-Swift. To Pope, Sept. 3d. 1735.

The most successful and splendid exertions, both in the sciences and arts, (it has been frequently remarked,) have been made by individuals, in whose minds the seeds of genius were allowed to shoot up, wild and free: while, from the most careful and skilful tuition, seldom any thing results above mediocrity.

Stewart. The Human Mind, pt. ii. s. 1.

MEDITATE, v. Fr. Méditer; It. Meditare; MEDITANCE. Sp. Meditar; Lat. Meditari, MEDITATION. quasi melitari, from the Gr. Meλerav, from μeλei, curæ est: it is (a matter) of care; and, consequently, of thought, reflection.

To think carefully, studiously; to keep the thoughts carefully or studiously fixed upon; to dwell upon thoughtfully, considerately, contemplatively; to consider, to contemplate.

But nathless this meditation

I put it ay under correction

Of clerkes; for I am not textual.

MEDITERRANEAN. MEDITERRANEOUS.

}

MEDITERRANE. Fr. Méditerranée, the Mediterranean, or midearth sea, (Cotgrave.) It. Mediterraneo; Sp. Mediterraneo, from the Lat. Medius, middle, and terra, the land or earth.

In the midst, situated in the midst of, surrounded by, earth or land, within land, inland.

They that haue seene the mediterran or inner parts of the kingdome of China, do report it to be a most amiable countrey, adorned with plenty of woods, with abundance of fruits and grasse, and with woonderful variety of riuers. Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 91. As for example, he that neuer saw the sea will not be persuaded that there is a mediterrane sea. Id. Ib. vol. i. p. 588.

And for our own ships, they went sundry voyages, as well to your streights, which you call the Pillars of Hercules, as to other parts in the Atlantique and Mediterrane Seas. Bacon. New Atlantis.

It is found in mountains and mediterraneous parts. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 4.

I know there is nothing more undetermined among the learned than the voyage of Ulysses; some confining it to the Mediterranean, others extending it to the great Ocean, and others ascribing it to a world of the poet's own making. Addison. Remarks on Italy.

Chaucer. The Persones Prologue, v. 7292. "Telleth" quod he, "your meditatioun,

Is not done rashly, your first thought is more
Than others' laboured meditance.

Beaum. & Fletch. Two Noble Kinsmen, Act i. sc. 1.
That day and night said his devotion:
Ne other worldly busines did apply;
His name was heavenly contemplation;
Of God and goodness, was his meditation.

Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 10.

He that accustoms himself to meditate upon the greatness of God, finds those questions continually rising and stirring in his heart, how shall dust and ashes ever be able to stand before him, how shall weakness and imperfection enjoy that nature that it is at a loss even to think of, and never contemplates upon without amazement ! South, vol. x. Ser. 1.

In a word, he [whose corrupt nature is impatient of any restraint from morality or religion] will not venture his meditations upon so unwelcome and so afflicting a subject. South, vol. iv. Ser. 1. Oft have I rag'd, when their wide wasting cannon Lay pointed at our batt'ries yet unform'd And broke the meditated lines of war. Johnson. Irene, Aot ii. so. 6

prefers the A. S. Met-an, occurrere, invenire, adipisci; to meet; meed being that which any one meets with deservedly, in return for service done: or rather, perhaps,—

That which is meet, convenient, becoming, or fitting, as a reward,-in return for service done, or favour bestowed: and thus, generally, a reward or remuneration; reward deserved; desert; a payment, a donation, a bounty.

Or may it not be from the verb, to mete? thus signify

And

The measure; due or deserved; given or paid in return for service done, &c.

Mr. Steevens furnishes the instance of the verb from Heywood.

Ich habbe y holde hym in hys londe, & my mede ther of ys.
R. Gloucester, p. 54.
Theruore vnderstond the wel, & geld my mede blyue.
ld. p. 311.
R. Brunne, p. 29.

At myn vnderstandyng he wild tak no mede
That was ateynt of wikkednes.

And as muche mede. for a myte that he offreth
Ac the riche man for al his moneye.

Piers Plouman, p. 220. Joie ye and be ye glade for your meede is plenteous in hevenes.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 5.

A wight, without nedeful compulsion ought medefully to
be rewarded.-Chaucer. Testament of Loue, b. iii.
He maie not failen of his mede,
That hath mercy.

It is mine Anna, God it wot,
The only causer of my paine;
My loue that medeth with disdaine.

Gower. Con. A. t. ill

Wyatt. Of his Loue called Aere.