MEND, v. ME'NDABLE. ME'NDER. MENDING, n. MENDMENT. itself dropped. Burke. On a Regicide Peace, Let. 1. Fr. Amender; It. Ammendare, emendare; Sp. Emendar; Lat. Emendare, to amend, (qv.); the Lat. preposition e has been first changed into a, and then the a To free from deficiency, fault, or blemish; to repair, to correct, to improve, to reform. By thynkyng that suche castell werk was nat semyng to religion, in a mendement of that trespas, he maked so many minstres of religion, and endowed hem with londes and rentes.-R. Gloucester, p. 451. Note. A man I salle the make, richely for to lyue, Or my Chefe Justice, the lawes to mend and right. R. Brunne, p. 69. And is redy to vnderfonge the to mercy, gif thou wilt come to mendement.-Id. p. 651. Now blessid be God of mendemente of hele and eke of cure! The Pardonere & Tapstere. Imputed to Chaucer. And the worckmē wrought, and the worcke mended thorow theyr handes.-Bible, 1551. 2 Chron. c. 24. Diligently refourme & amende in such as are mendable, & those whose corrupte canker no cure can heale cut off in season for corrupting further.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 925. And the preastes coseted to receaue no more moneye of the people: But it shoulde go to the mendynge of the temple. Bible, 1551. 4 Kynges, c. 12. Zealous hee was, and would haue all things mended, MENDICANT, adj. MENDICANT, N. And that we shall not deny, if we call to mind the mendacity of Greece, from whom we have received most relations, and that a considerable part of ancient times, was by the Greeks themselves termed vikov, that is, made up or stuffed out with fables.-Brown. Vulg. Errours, b. i. c. 6. Fr.Mendier, mendiant, mendience, mendicité; It. Mendicare, mendicante, mendicanza, mendicità; Sp. Mendigar, mendigante, mendicidad; Lat. Mendicare, from menda, a deficiency, a want; and thus, (lit.) to want, to tell his wants. See Vossius and Martinius. MENDICANCY. MENDICA'TION. MENDICITY. One who begs, asks, or seeks what he wants or needs; who craves or entreats aid, assistance, or relief from want; who begs or asks alms. For richesse and mendicities mind, or have in mind, (mens) to put in mind, (monere); to intend, to design, to wish or will. Vossius explains,-Monumentum aliquid scriptum aut factum memoriæ causa: and Regimen,any thing meant, intended, or designed, as a rule or regulation. See MONEY, and MENTAL. MENTAL. MENTALLY. Fr. Mental; It. Mentale; Sp. Mental, from the Lat. Mens, the mind, (qv.) Mental is one of those adjectived signs which we have borrowed from the Latin, without borrowing the unadjectived sign. Mens is from Gr. Mevos, impetus, (sc.) animi, and hence, animus. Mevos, from ev-ew, manere, to remain. (See Vossius and Lennep.) May not the A. S. Man-an, be the radical word? See To MEAN. See also MEMORY. Of or pertaining to the mind. Without all mental representations, conceive of your God forme, without matter, without composition; yea an infipurely, simply, spiritually; as of an absolute being, without nite, without all limit of thoughts. Bp. Hall, Epist. 7. Dec. 4. So deep the power of these ingredients pierc'd, Milton. Paradise Lost, b. xl. Ben cleped two extremities.-Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose. Id. Ib. Bp. Hall, b. v. Sat. 1. Suidas is silent herein, Sedrenus and Zonaras, two grave and punctual authors, delivering only the confiscation of his goods, omit the history of his [Belisarius] mendication. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. vii. c. 17. Fast by, a meagre mendicant we find, — What is station high? But death comes not at call, justice divine Milton. Paradise Lost, b. x. Els, be ye sure, dearely shall abyde, Pan. Faith, Ile not meddle in't; let her be as she is, if she be faire, 'tis the better for her: and she be not, she has the mends in her own hands Shakespeare. Troyl. & Cress. Act i. sc. 1. Salt earth and bitter are not fit to sow, Dryden. Virgil. Georg. b. ii. For there can be no retreat for him then, no mending of his choice in the other world, no after-game to be play'd in hell.-South, vol. ii. Ser. 1. MENDA'CIOUS. Į Fr. Menteux; It. MenMENDA'CITY. zognere; Sp. Mendoso; Lat. Mendax, lying; from mendum or menda ;-a fault, an error, or mistake; and, consequentially, a falsehood. Lying; telling or declaring to be true that which is not so; which the teller knows is not so; false. Our vniuersall ryghteousnesses are afore God as clothes stayned with menstrue.-Bale. Apology, fol. 57. The wylde beastes shall go their way, and the menstruous wemen shal beare monsters.-Bible, 1551. Esdras, c. 5. Note; that the dissents of the menstrual or strong waters may hinder the incorporation as well as the dissents of the metals themselves.-Bacon. Physiological Remains. That women are menstruant, and men pubescent at the year of twice seven, is accounted a punctual truth. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iv. c. 12. Briefly, it consisteth of parts so far from an icie dissolution, that powerful menstruums are made for its enrollition. Id. Ib. b. ii. c. 1. MENSURATION. Į From Lat. Mensura. MENSURABILITY. See MEASUre. Measurement; calculation of bulk or quantity. The measure which he would have others mete out to himself, is the standard whereby he desires to be tried in his mensurations to all other.-Bp. Hall. The Christian, s. 2. In other words, the common quality which characterizes all of them is their mensurability.—Reid. Ess. On Quantity. MENT, ter. Common to us with the French (says Wallis); and derived from the Latin words in men and mentum, or formed in imitation of them. The Lat. is probably from the A. S. Man-an, (man-ed, mean'd, ment;) to mean or I pretended not to determine, whether or no body or matter be so perpetually divisable, that there is no assignable portion of matter so minute that it may not at least, mentally, (to borrow a school-term) be further divided into still lesser and lesser parts.-Boyle. Works, vol. i, p. 401. Motion upwards, on the other hand, and perhaps still more, whatever is able to oppose an adequate resistance to a superincumbent weight, or to a descending shock, furnishes, for reasons hereafter to be explained, the most appropriate images subservient to that modification of the sublime, which arises from a strong expression of mental energy-Stewart. Philosophical Essays, c. 3. Essay 2. MENTION, v. Į Fr. Mentioner; It. MenMENTION, n. tionare; Sp.Mentar, from the Lat. Mentio, from mentum, the supine of the obsolete meno, whose preterite is memini. See Vossius (in v. Commentum) and Martinius; and MENTAL. To place before the mind, (sc. of another;) to name or nominate; in speech or writing. Piers Plouhman, p. 198. David maketh mencion. I say he bade, they shulden contrefete The pope's bulles, making mention That he hath leve his firste wif to lete. Chaucer. The Clerkes Tale, v. 8620. Of Jupiter and of Juno, Ouide Ye do, & I, agree, yt such thinges as ar mecioned in the gospel spoke by Christ vnto Saint Peter & other apostles & disciples, wer not only sayde to theself, nor only for theself, but to the for their successours in Christ's flocke, & by the to vs al, yt is to wit euery mã as shal apperteine to his part. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 141. Yea, begge a haire of him for memory, O ancient Powers of air and this wide world, This our old conquest, than remember hell, So vertuous and so fair. Beaum. & Fletch. Custom of the Country, Act i. sc. I, 'Tis true, I have been a rascal, as you are, A fellow of no mention, nor no mark. Id. The Prophetess, Act v. sc. 3. Let them, I say, be made almost from their very cradle to hate it, [Rebellion, name and thing; so that their blood may rise, and their heart may swell at the very mention of it. South, vol. v. Ser. 1. Now, the mention [of God's name? is vain, when it is useless; and it is useless, when it is neither likely nor intended to serve any good purpose.-Paley. Moral Phil. b. iv. o. 2. MEʼRCANTILE. Į Fr. Mercantil, merchantly, MERCANTANTE. merchantlike, (Cotgrave.) See MERCHANT. Marcantant; It. Mercatante. The latter (the It.) is frequent in old plays for merchant, (Steevens.) The only procede (that I may use the mercantile term) you can expect is thanks, and this way shall not be wanting to make you rich returns.-Howell, b. i. s. 1. Let. 29. Tra. What is he, Biondello? Bio. Master, a marcantant, or a pedant, I know not what.-Shakes. Taming the Shrew, Activ. sc.2. MERCENARY, adj. Fr. Mercenaire; It. narius, from merces, a reward or payment. He was a shepherd, and no mercenarie. Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, v. 516. That is a mercennary preacher and an hired, which seeketh his own temporal aduaûtage & commoditie. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 507. The Almaygnes, and mercenaries of strange countreis, I canne not name at this present tyme. Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 205. For God forbid I should my papers blot Basely attending on the hopes of men.-Daniel, son. 55. This is to show, both how tyranny grows to stand in need of mercenary soldiers, and how those mercenaries are, by mutual obligation, firmly assured unto the tyrant. Ralegh. History of the World, b. v. c. 2. s. 2. Thus needy wits a vile revenue made, Dryden. The Art of Poetry, c. 4. Fifthly, it charity] casts out all mercenariness, and selfseeking.-The Whole Duty of Man. Sunday 16. For a heaven so considered, to forego readily all the pleasures of the senses, and undergo chearfully all the hardships and dangers, that are wont to attend a holy life, is such a kind of mercenariness as none, but a resigned, noble, and believing soul is likely to be guilty of. MERCER. ME'RCERSHIP. Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 281. For ge ben men beter ytagt to schouele and to spade, R. Gloucester, p. 99. Make not my father's house an house of marchaundyse. A marchant was ther with a forked berd, Chaucer. Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, v.254. The Marchauntes Second Tale, imputed to Chaucer. Gower. Con. A. b. ii. And cleped hym [Mercury] in the beleues, Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. ii. c. 129. And [Ferdinando] marchanded at this time with France, for the restoring of the counties of Russignon and Perpignian, oppignorated to the French.-Bacon. Hen. VII. p. 99. For were it not for this lazie trade of vsury, money would not lie still, but would, in great part, be imployed upon merchandizing.-Id. Essay on Vsury. Now look into the statutes of subsidy of tonnage and poundage, and you shall find, a few merchandize only accepted, the poundage equal upon alien and subject. Id. Argument concerning Impositions on Merchandizes. And for merchandizing, it may be a question, whether that the companies of the merchant adventures, of the Turkey merchants, and the Muscovy merchants, if they shall be continued, should not be compounded of merchants of both Therefore, when merchant-like I sell reuenge, Fr. Mercier; It. Merciajo, nations, English and Scottish.-Id. Union of Eng. & Scoll. merciadro; Sp. Mercero, from the Lat. Merx, q. d. merciarius, i. e. minutarum mercium venditor, a seller of small wares, or articles of merchandise, (Skinner.) A dealer in various articles of merchandise. English it is now restricted (perhaps not entirely so) to a dealer in silken wares. In ME'RCHAND, v. Fr. Marchander, marMERCHANDIse, v. chandise; It. Mercatantare, MERCHANDISE, n. mercatanzia; Sp. MercaMERCHANDRY. dea, mercaderia; Lat. MERCHANT. Mercari, which Vossius MERCHANTABLE. thinks has been rightly derived from the Phoenician or Hebrew. Merx, or mercs, contracted from mercis, is by some de-ived from mercari, by others from the Gr. Mepos, pars, quia res per partes venditur. To merchand,To buy and sell, to trade, to traffic. Shakespeare. 2 Pt. Hen. VI. Act iv. sc. 1. Harrington, b. 1. Epig. 40. Sol gold is, and Luna silver we threpe, Chaucer. The Chanones Yemannes Tale, v. 13,295 Donne. Anatomy of the World, an. 1. In memory of which service he [Thomas Milles] had given him for the crest of his arms, a chapeau with wings, to denote the mercuriousnesse of this messenger. Fuller. Worthies. Kent. It cannot be said, as in the former cases (wherein a part only of the metal is mercurified) it may be, that the obtained quicksilver consists of the more solid and ponderous parts of the metal.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 641. It remains, that I perform the promise I made, of adding But if mercurial scribblers pant for fame, MERCY, v. MERCIFY, V. See AMERCE, and the quotation from Rastall. Fr. Mercie It. Merce ;-cons tracted from misericordia, or from miseresce,-say different etymologists; or, adds Skinner, it is from the Lat. Merx. And from the Lat. Merr it has no doubt proceeded through the Low Lat. Merciare, amerciare. Nor. Fr. Amercier, to amerce, to merce, or to mercy, to impose or exact a recompense, to impose a fine and, as fines were accepted in commutation for life forfeited to the law, or over which power had been obtained in battle; to mercy, to grant mercy, that is, to grant that mercy or fine should be imposed and received as a ransom for life forfeited, was benefit or beneficence to the party to whom the punishment of death was remitted; and was ascribed to-benevolence or willingness to spare and save,-to-clemency, kindness, compassion, pity. (See Caseneuve in Menage.) Further, to cry mercy, in our old chronicles, is to cry ransom; which was acceded to or not," according as it fortuned to fall in the handes of them that were crucl or courtesse." Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. iii. c. 4. Courtesy, aided by covetousness, commonly prevailed, for mercy paid in ransom was an important portion of the booty in the constant predatory scrimysshes, recorded (by Froissart especially;) there was nothing gained by slaughter. Thus to cry mercy, was (consequentially) to beg for life; and to grant mercy, was to spare life; and, as this forbearance was attributed wholly to courtesy, and covetousness allowed no share in it,-hence the general application of mercy, to For the employment of the procedure of forraine commodities, brought in by merchant-strangers, vpon the native commodities of the realme.-Id. Ib. p. 66. Now, why they placed this invention upon the Beaver, beside the medicall and merchantable commodity of Castoreum, or parts conceived to be bitten away, might be the sagacity and wisdom of that animal. See a merchant in a storm at sea, and what he values most Mr. Hastings says he has two hundred and fifty of that Burke. On Mr. Fox's East India Bill. MERCURY, v. Fr. Mercurial; It. Mer- A mercury,—a messenger, a bearer, a vender of news. A willingness to spare and save, to pardon and forgive; to kindness, clemency, compassion, sympathy, pity. Minshew produces from an old statute of Henry VI. the expression,-" to be in grievous mercie of the king, i. e. to be in hazard of a great penaltie." And yet by our law writers mercie is retranslated into the Lat. Misericordia. To be in mercy, (see the quotation from Blackstone,) is to be "under fine." To merce, see To AMERCE. R. Gloucester, p. 58. Haue merci of hym ich bidde. He sesed fiue castels, & held tham in his wage, Thei & alle ther rightes were don in his mercy. Forsters did somoun, enquered vp & doun Id. p. 112. And marchauns merciable wolde be. and men of lawe bothe. So grace of the Holy Gost. melteth al to mercy Pray eke for us, we sinful folk unstable, Chaucer. The Prioresses Tale, v. 13,618. With suche mercy who that bileueth Id. Court of Loue. Gower. Con. A. b. iii. For the kynge of Egipt put him downe at Jerusale and merced the land in an hundred talētes of sylver, and a talent of golde.-Bible, 1551. 2 Chron. c. 36. Nat onely reason persuadeth but also experience proueth, that in whom mercy lacketh, and is nat founden, in hym all other vertues be drowned, and lose their iust commendation. Sir T. Elyot. Governour, b. ii. c. 7. And cotrarywise, if we beleue that of mercyable fauour God gaue his most deare sonne to redeme us from our sinne. Fryth. Workes, p. 16. The merciable kinge gote mercy of God and repented. Joye. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 1. Leat vs enbrace the merciable and unwrathefull maker of the law euangelicall.-Udal. Luke, c. 3. This law wyll no more but that in dealyng mercifullye we beastes we shoulde lerne mercifulnesse vnto oure neighboures.-Bible, 1551. Deuteronomy, c. 22. Notes. And thou shalte make a merciseate of pure golde: ii. cubytes and a halfe longe, and a cubyte and a halfe brode. Id. Exodus, c. 25. The erle of Derby sayde, he that mercy desireth, mercy ought to haue.-Berners. Froissart. Cronycle, vol. i. c. 104. The king then, by the consent of his counsayle, as he yt thought to reduce the countrey by faire meanes if he myght, receyued their offre on a codicyon; and that was this, that they of Ipre shulde pay to the kynge xl thousand frankes towards his charges comyng thyder; to the whiche they of Ipre made no refuse but were right joyful therof. Thus they of Ipre were taken to mercy.-Id. Ib. c. 317. Then the kynge was counsayled to take them to mercy, so that amonge them they shulde giue to the king 1x thousand franks toward his charges.-Id. Ib. At this sayde courte these iudgys punysshed sore baylyes, and other offycers that before hym were conuycte for dyuerse trespacys, and specyallye for takynge of merceamentys otherwyse then the lawe them commaundyd.-Fabyan, an. 1258. At length, vpon their submission, the king tooke them to mercie, vpon their fine, which was seized at twentie thousand marks-Holinshed. Hen. III. an. 1265. He is so meeke, wise, and merciable. Spenser. Shepheard's Calender. September. Id. Faerie Queene, b. vi. c. 6. That to obey is best, Still overcoming evil.-Milton. Paradise Lost, b. xii. Savile. Tacitus. Historie, p. 11. And all dismayd through mercilesse despaire Id. Sermon preacht at Westminster, April 5, 1628. But whether bread or fame be their end, it must be allowed, our author, by and in this poem, has mercifully given them a little of both.-Pope. Letter to the Publishers. We shall still find, that such as are most merciless to dying sinners, in stopping up the passages of repentance and salvation against them, do yet relax this rigour, and walk by another rule themselves; unless, perhaps it may more properly be said, that they walk by no rule at all. South, vol. ix. Ser. 7. And the said William Kent being solemnly called doth not come, nor hath prosecuted his writ aforesaid. Therefore it is considered, that the same William and his pledges of prosecuting, to wit, John Doe and Richard Roe, be in mercy for his false complaint. Blackstone. Commentaries, vol. iii. App. No. 1. p. 6. MERD. Fr. Merde; Lat. Merda; Gr. Miveos, odor, malus odor, stercus. Merde de fer, the dross of iron. Perhaps from the A. S. Merr-an, to mar, to spoil. Dung, excrement, ordure. Disputare de nobilitate generis, sine divitiis, est disputare steen; Why should he follow? Shakespeare. Antony & Cleopatra, Act iii. sc. 2. Bacon. Ess. of Judicature. MERE. Fr. Mère; It. and Sp. Mero; Lat. ME'RELY. Merus, which Vossius thinks is either from povos, solus, or from μep-eoba, to divide or separate for merum is that which is divided or separated from every thing else, and, therefore, alone. Sole, alone, unmixed, unmingled, pure; simple, absolute. Lo one whom later age hath brought to light, Great both by name, and great in power and might, And meriting a mere triumphant seate.-Spenser, son. 3. Who is apparently troublesome and contentious, and without reasonable cause, upon a meer will and stomach doth vex and molest his brother, and trouble the country. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Polílie. Pref. But now our joys are mere and unmixt; for that we may do our duty and have our reward at once. Bp. Taylor. Rule of Conscience, Epist. Ded. B. Jonson. To one that asked to be sealed of the Tribe of Ben. And [the ant] is reported by some to bite off the germen of them, least they should sprout by the moisture of the earth, which I look upon as a meer fiction. Ray. On the Creation, pt. i. As for the rest of the planets, their particular uses are to us unknown or meerly conjectural.-Id. Ib. Their [the heathen] religion being merely ceremonial and political, never pretended to reach the heart, or to inspire it with any sincerity or warmth of affection towards the Deity. Porteus, vol. i. Ser. f. The Frithdike near my midst... Whoever fish'd or fowl'd that cannot make report Of sundry meres at hand, upon my western way As Ramsey-mere. Drayton. Poly-Olbion, s 21 MERETRICIOUS. Lat. Meretricius, from meretrix, a harlot, and that from merere, to deserve or acquire by service. See HARLOT. As a harlot, viciously alluring or enticing; viciously adorned or decked. And therefore thei thinke it impossible to be any knauerye or errours in so holy fathers with their meretrik mother. Joye. Exposicion of Daniel, c. 12. The depraved custom of change, and the delight in meretricious embracements, (where sinne is turned into art) maketh mariage a dull thing, and a kind of imposition, or tax.-Bacon. New Atlantis. She shall return to her wonted trading and shall exercise her deceitful and meretricious traffick with all the nations of the world.-Bp. Hall. Hard Texts. Isaiah, xxiii. 17 On sure foundations let your fabric rise, And with attractive majesty surprise, Not by affected meretricious arts, But strict harmonious symmetry of parts. Roscommon. An Essay on Verse. The mersion also in water, and the emersion thence, doth figure our death to the former, and receiving to a new life. Barrow. Of Baptism. Whenever a greater estate and a less coincide and meet in one and the same person, without any intermediate estate, the less is immediately annihilated; or in the law phrase is said to be merged, that is, sunk or drowned in the greater. But they must come to one and the same person in one and the same right; else, if the freehold be in his own right, and he has a term in right of another (en autre droit) there is no merger.-Blackstone. Com. b. ii. c. 11. Their object is to merge all natural and all social sentiment in inordinate vanity. Burke. Leller to a Member of the National Assembly. Fr. Méridien; It. and Sp. Meridiano; Lat. Meridianus, from meridies, i. e. medidies, mid-day. Credo quod Ipsum meridiem, cur non medidiem? Mid-day,-when the sun is the highest; hence highest or supreme point ;-when the sun to those on this side the equator is in the south; hence, southern. And tables as wel for the gouernacion of the clocke, as for to finde the altitude meridian.-Chancer. The Astrolabie. Phebus hath left the angle meridional. Id. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,577. For of meridians and parallels, Donne. The first Anniversary. The true meridian is a major circle passing through the poles of the world, and the zenith or vertex of any place, exactly dividing the east from the west. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 2. His grieved look he fixes sad, Sometimes towards heav'n and the full-blazing sun, Which now set high in his meridian towre. Milton. Paradise Lost, b. iv. In this gate none pass In the circirnations and sphærical rounds of onyons, the circles of the orbes are ofttimes larger, and the meridional lines stand wider upon one side then the other. Brown. Cyrus' Garden, c. 4. Who [the Jewes] reverentially declining the situation of their Temple, nor willing to lye as that stood; doe place their beds from north to south, and delight to sleep meridionally. Id. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 3. Christ here discover'd himself after his rising, not to all his apostles at once, nor to any of them with the same evidence at first, but by several ascending instances and arguments; till in the end he shone out in his full meridian, and made the proof of his resurrection complete in his ascension. South, vol. v. Ser. 4. The meridional (which they of the Ocean call south, and those of the Mediterranean Sea, Zezzo Giorno) commonly is rainy, and boisterous, and in the same city whereof I speak, it is wholesome and pleasant.-Boyle. Works, vol. ii. p. 611. ME/RIT, v. ME'RIT, n. MERITABLE. ME'RITEDLY. MERITORY. MERITORIOUS. MERITORIOUSNESS. Fr. Mériter, mérite; It. Meritare, merito; Sp. Meritar, mèrito; Lat. Meritum, past. part. of Merere, from Gr. Meip-ew, dividere, whence Mepos, a part or share; meritum ferè partium est, sive labor, sive pretium spectetur, (Vossius.) Merit, the part or share, (sc.) deserved, i. e. earned, gained, by service. Hence to merit generally is, To earn, gain, or acquire by service; to deserve, to possess or obtain a right or claim to— by service, or in return for service; any thing promised in return for service, for any thing done or performed: good or ill. And merit, Desert, (sc.) for good or ill done, for good or ill qualities attained or possessed. For if thou yeuest it in lening, I hold it but wretched thing: Chaucer. Rom. of the Rose. Ayenst glotonie the remedie is abstinence, as sayth Galien: but that I holde not meritorie, if he do it only for the hele of his body.-Id. The Persones Tale. Wherof the perfite of her lawe Fro then forth hein was withdrawe, So that thei stonde in no merile.-Gower. Con. A. b. v. How meritory is thilke dede Of charitee to clothe and fede The poore folke. Id. Ib. Prol. And yet he bode the do it, and they were boude to obay, and mergted and deserued by their obedience. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 496. They bring argumentes to proue that it is more meritorious to eate fish then flesh.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 171. Here ye perceiue good readers, that to belieue meritoriously, so as it shal be rewarded with saluació, may not be fayth alone, but fayth with woorking loue. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1050. Like as these merilemongers doe which esteeme themselves after their merits, think themselves perfect in so much that their workes shall not onely helpe themselves but others.-Latimer, Ser. 3. Upon the Lord's Prayer. Extol not riches then, the toil of fools, The wise man's cumbrance if not snare, more apt All power I give thee, reign for ever, and assume Val. Ay, ever, ever; and the people generally are very Beaum. & Fletch. The Woman's Prize, Act iv. sc. 4. Pope. Essay on Criticism. Merit is an unpardonable piece of popery, with respect to men as well as to God, and to the rewards of this world, as well as of the next.-South, vol. v. Ser. 10. There Philaretus had the curiosity to visit the place on which stood Piur, a pleasant little town once esteemed for its deliciousness, but now much more and more meritedly famous for its ruin.—Boyle. Works, vol. i. The Life, p. xxiii. They were not only egregious hypocrites, and gross violators of the law, but they also faced down the world, that they did well and meritoriously in those very things, in which their hypocrisy and violation of the law did consist. South, vol. iv. Ser. 3. Our Saviour himself told his disciples, that men should kill them, and think that in so doing, they did God service. So that here (we see) was a full opinion and persuasion, and they did.-Id. Ib. vol. ii. Ser. 12. a very zealous one too, of the high meritoriousness of what Had they no ground for hope, but merit, that is to say, could they look for nothing more than what they should strictly deserve, their prospect would be very uncomfortable. Paley, Ser. 19. Fr. Mearle, It. Merla; Sp. Murla; Lat. Merula. Merula quod mera, id est, sola volitat, (Var. de Ling. Lat. b. iv.) The blackbird. MERLE. But it was wonder like to bee Song of mermaidens of the see, Though we meremuidens clepe hem here, In English, as is our vsaunce, Men clepe hem Sereins in France.-Chaucer. R. of the R. Shakespeare. Hamlet, Act iv. sc. 7. And as for the meremaides called Nereides, it is no fabulous tale that goeth of them: for looke how painters draw them, so they are indeed: only their bodie is rough and skaled all over, even in those parts wherein they resemble a woman. I am able to bring forth for mine authors divers knights of Rome right worshipfull persons and of good credite, who testifie that in the coast of the Spanish Ocean neare unto Gades, they haue seene a mereman [marinum hominem] in every respect resembling a man as perfectly in all parts of the bodie as might bee. Holland. Plinie, b. ix. c. 5. MERRY. MERRIMENT. ME'RRINESS. MERRIMAKE, v. MERRIMAKE, N. MIRTH, v. MIRTH, n. MIRTHFUL. MIRTHFULLY. MIRTHLESS. A. S. Myrig, mirige, hilaris, jucundus, lætus; A. S. Myrhth, hilaritas, jucunditas, lætitia. Skinner derives from the Ger. Mehren, augere, to magnify or dilate. Junius,-from the Gr. Mupi-Sew, to anoint, because the ancients anointed them. selves at public festivities. Tooke derives from the Goth. Mer-yan; A. S. Merran, mirran, myrran, to dissipate, to disperse, to spread abroad, to scatter; and of this verb, he affirms mirth to be the third person, and to mean,——— "That which dissipateth, viz. care, sorrow, melancholy." ( (See To MAR.) It is now consequentially applied to A lightness, airiness, hilarity of spirit; free from all care or trouble, all seriousness or sadness; Milton. Paradise Regained, b. ii, formerly, also, to a calmer feeling of pleasure or Than prompt her to do ought may merit praise. jovial, laughing; loving or inclined to laughter, Pleasing, agreeable, cheerful or cheering; gay, laughable. Milton's epithet, most melancholy, applied to the nightingale, is evidently in correspondence with the context alluding to the metamorphosis of Philomela into that bird. He imagines her singing "in her sweetest, saddest plight." Chaucer's merry bird" is the true English songstress, rattling out her notes, and, like the lark, though at different hours, "startling the dull night;" or even like the cock, who with "lively din, scatters the rear of darkness thin." Such also was Chaucer's Chaunticlere: "His vois merier than adj. merry" to the hounds and horn," which the mery orgon." Milton might have prefixed the cheerly rouse the slumbering morn." 66 Tho me barnde grete townes & courtes day and nygt, So that joye and murthe y now among hem was there. With joy and myrth, i now Id. p. 466. Blysse of my ioye, that ofte me murthed, is turned into galle, to thynke on thing that may not at my wil in armes me hent.-Chaucer. The Testament of Loue, b. i. The nightingale with so merry a note Id. The Flower and the Leaf. A day or two ye shall have digestives :- Id. Ib. v. 14,974. If anye of you be eueyll vexed, let hym praye, If anye of you bee mery, let him sing psalmes.-Bible, 1551. James, c.5. But whiles I doo these mirthless meeters vse, This rashe conceite doth reue me from delight. Gascoigne. Dan Bartholomew of Bathe. There eke my feeble barke awhile may stay, Till mery wynd and weather call her thence away. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 12. Loren. Come, hoe, and wake Diana with a hymne, With sweetest tutches pearce your Mistresse eare, And draw her home with Musicke. Jessi. I am neuer merry when I heare sweete musicke. Shakespeare. Merchant of Venice, Act v. sc. 1. But when he saw her, toy, and gibe, and gearn, And pass the bonds of modest merimake, Her dalliaunce he despis'd, and follies did forsake. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 0. That rownd about him dissolute did play Their wanton follies, and light meriment. penser. Faerie Queene, b. ii. c. 6. Ber. Well, sir, be it as the stile shall give vs cause to elime in the merrinesse. Shakespeare. Love's Labour Lost, Act i. sc. 1. I'm wondrous merry-hearted. I could laugh now. The rest Of our young ladies in their wanton blood, Beaum. & Fletch. The Maid's Tragedy, Act i. sc. 1. This nephta is an oily or fat liquid substance, in colour not unlike soft white clay; of quality hot and dry, so as it is apt to inflame with the sunbeams, or heat that issues from fire; as was mirthfully experimented upon one of Alexander's pages, who, being annointed, with much ado escaped burning.-Sir T. Herbert. Travels, p. 182. Whilst his gamesome cut-tail'd cur Drayton. The Shepherd's Sirena. Dryden, Epil. 23. That any man should be merry, because another has offended God, or undone himself, is certainly a thing very unnatural.-South, vol. vii. Ser. 7. For if these [great crimes and great miseries] be made the matter of our mirth, what can be the argument of our sorrow? Id. Ib. I said: the feast was serv'd, the bowl was crown'd; Steep'd grain, and curdled milk with dulcet cream Dyer. The Fleece, b. H. Nor doth his skilful hand refuse This self-pleas'd king of emptiness permit Warton. Fushion, a Satire. MERSION. See MERGE. ME'SENTERY. Į Fr. Mésentère; It. MesenMESERA'ICK. terio; Sp. Mesenterio; Lat. Mesenterium; Gr. MedevTeplov, from ueros, middle, and EVTepov, the intestine. See the quotation from Fletcher. Meseraick, Gr. Μεσαραιον, μεσος, and αραια, venter. The mesenterium, (or midst amongst the entrails.) whence Or spreads his subtle nets from sight Dryden. Horace, Epode 2. Cambridge. The Scribleriad, b. vi. Now with barb'd hook, or meshy net, they try From quiet floods to drag the scaly fry. Hoole. Orlando Furioso, b. vii. ME'SLINE. This word is variously written maslin, mastline, mesline, and by Bacon misselane; and his authority has suggested miscellane, Lat. Miscellaneus, to be the true word. Hall writes misceline and mesline. It is more probably the Fr. Meslinge or meslange, a medley or mixture, from the verb meslanger, mesler, to meddle or mix. The Dutch have Misschteluyn, from mischelen, to mix. A medley or mixture, (sc.) of corn, metal, &c. Hen. It must not be iron, for quicksilver is the tyrant of metals, and will soon fret it. Hen. Nor brass, nor copper, nor mastlin, nor mineral. Brewer. Lingua, Act iv. sc. 1. Herevnto likewise, bicause it is drie and brickle in the working (for it will hardelie be made vp handsomelie into loaues) some adde a portion of rie meale in our time, whereby the rough drinesse or drie roughnes therof is somewhat qualified, and then it is named miscelin, that is, bread made of mingled corne.-Holinshed. Descrip. of Eng. b. ii. c. 6. Take thee, therefore, all kinds of grain, wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and fitches, and put them all together, and make bread of this mesline, and eat thereof for the space of three hundred and ninety days. Bp. Hall. Hard Texts. Ezekiel, iv. 9. For what reason is there, which should but induce, and therefore much less inforce us to think that care of dissimilitude between the people of God and the heathen nations about them, was any more the cause of forbidding them to put on garments of sundry stuff, than in charging them withal not to sow their fields with meslin. Hooker. Ecclesiasticall Politie, b. iv. § 6. It hath not been practised, but it is thought to be of use, to make some missellane in corne; as if you sow a few beans with wheat your wheat will be the better. Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 670. Mended (saith your doctor) and yet admitted the misceline rabble for the prophane. Bp. Hall. An Apologie against Brownists. MESS, v. From Mes, metz; It. Messo. MESS, n. Skinner suggests-Bar. Lat. MisME'SSMATE. sus, q.d. cibus missus, meat or food sent, sent round to those who were to eat it; he seems, however, to suspect that it has some connexion with meat; and Tooke considers it to be the past part. of metsian cibare, to furnish meat or food. By usage, to mess is— To feed (sc.) together, as soldiers or sailors do. A mess, food, a quantity of food: sometimes applied to a large quantity, or hotchpot, more than one can manage; and hence, (met.) the common expression, to get into a mess, to get into But [pepper] being in greater quantity, dissipateth the difficulty, into a bad plight. it takes the name, ties and knits the entrails together. P. Fletcher. The Purple Island, c. 2. Note 46. wind; and itself getteth to the mesentery veines. Bacon. Naturall Historie, Cent. 1. s. 44. So that it (medicamentally) entreth not the veins with those electuaries wherein it is mixed: but taketh leave of the permeant parts, at the mouthes of the meseraicks, and accompanieth the inconvertible portion into the seige. Brown. Vulgar Errours, b. ii. c. 5. Dut. Masche; Fr. Maches, maile; It. Maglia; Lat. Macula; the hole of a net between thread and thread; applied to the entire net. With your brode knyfe properly unclose the napkyn, that the bread is in, and set the bread all beneath the salt towards the seconde messe. Leland. Collectanea. The Inthronization of Abp.Neville. Better is a messe of potage with loue, than a fat oxe with euel wyl.-Bible, 1551. Prouerbes, c. 16. I desyre but one messe onelye, I will thou geue me without farther delay, John Baptist's head in a charger. Udal. Mark, c. 6. God uses us as Joseph did his brother Benjamin; we have many changes of raiment, and our mess is five times To take or catch in a net or snare, to ensnare, bigger than the provision made for our brothers of the creato entangle. How smal a net may take and meash a hart of gentle kinde.--Surrey. Description of the Fickle Affections, &c. Meashed in the breers, that erst was onely torne. tion.-Bp. Taylor, vol. ii. Ser. 26. Of herbs, and other country messes, Which the neat-handed Phillis dresses. Milton. L'Allegro. There is not the least thing in the world, which the Wyatt. The Louer that fled Loue, &c. tempter offers a man for nothing; not so much as a pitiful The flies by chance mesht in the hair, mess or morsel to relieve thy craving, starving appetites. By the bright radiance thrown South, vol. vi. Ser. 6. From her clear eyes, rich jewels were, They so like diamonds shone. Drayton. The Shepherd's Sirena. This but sweats thee Like a mesh-nag-Beaum & Fletch. Bonduca, Act iv. sc. 1. My friend Alcheic formed once a party for my entertainment, composed of all the prime wits and philosophers of Fourli, and each of us brought his mess along with him to the place where we assembled. Hume. Essays, vol. ii. A Dialogue. Sing the dangers of the sea.-G. A. Stevens. The Storm, I should only stipulate that these new mess Johns in robes and coronets should keep some sort of bounds in the democratick and levelling principles which are expected from their titled pulpits.-Burke. On the French Revolution. Fr. Message; It. Messaggio; Sp. Mensage; from Low Lat. Missaticum, and this (Menage) from missus, one sent in old Fr. Mes. : Cange, in v. Missus.) The old Fr. Mes was applied both to the Message and messager. in Roquefort. Serenius composes message of the Sw. Med, with, and sacga, to say or speak; though the Swedes have not the word in its compound form. (See Du See The emperoure's messengeres to Engelond hire com. R. Brunne, p. 40. Chaucer. The Squieres Tale, v. 10,413. The eye is a good messenger, Which can to the hart in such manner To void him of his paines clene.-Id. Rom. of the Rose, To verifie that solemn message late, To visit oft the dwellings of just men On errands of supernal grace.-Id. Paradise Lost, b. vii. The angels are still dispatched by God upon all his great messages to the world: and therefore their very name in Greek, which is Ayyeλos, signifies a messenger. The womman seith to hym, I woot that Messias is comen, that is seid Crist.-Wiclif. Jon, c. 4. The woman sayd vnto hym: I wot well Messias sha'l come, whiche is called Christ.-Bible, 1551. Ib. At thy nativity a glorious quire Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i. There was such demonstration and evidence given to Jesus's being the true Messias by his coming in the flesh, that it cast its discovering influence both backwards and forwards; and equally baffled and confuted the pretences of those who went before, and those who rose up after. South, vol. iii. Ser. 7. A crown will not want pretenders to claim it, nor usurpers, if their power serves them to possess it: and hereupon the Messiaship was pretended to by several impostors.-Id. lb. The word Messiah signifies anointed; that is a perso appointed to some high station, dignity, or office; becaase originally among the Eastern nations men so appointed (pai. ticularly kings, priests, and prophets) were anointed with oil.-Porteus. Truth and Divine Origin of the Christ. Rev. |