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 frō the prik.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1157. For some of them I see wel be not worth the mecting, 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. Exek. 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 mele 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 measure 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. Fr. MétempsyMETEMPSYCHO'SIS. Schose; Lat. Metempsychosis; Gr. Μετεμψυχωσις, 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, For thus we read in Plato, that from the opinion of metempsychosis, 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 melempsychosis. 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. METEOR. METE'OROUS. METEO'RICAL. METEOROLOGY. METEOROLOGICAL. tollere, to raise aloft. the word. South, vol. viii. p. 294. Fr. Météore; It. Meteora; Sp.Meteoro; Gr. Merewpos, sublimis, perewpa, quæ in altum sunt, sublata, sublimia; uera, and aeip-ew, 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 Crashaw. Musick's Duel. 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.-Bp. 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. The cherubim descended; on the ground Let them not be left (as is too much, God knows, the case) to pick it up themselves as well as they can, from casual information, or a few superficial, unconnected instructions; but let it be taught them systematically and 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. This, too, is the region of the most awful and alarming meleorological appearances -" vapours, and clouds, and storms."-Stewart. Philosophical Essays, c. 2. Ess. 2. METHE GLIN. Welsh Meddyglyn. A kind of drink among the Welsh, made of wine and honie sodden together, (Minshew.) See Hr 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. See ME. METHINKS. to METHODISM. METHODIST. An orderly or regular METHODISTICAL. 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 carly 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 nuber, 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. 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, | 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. 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. MetoMETONY'MICALLY. J nymia; Gr.Meтovvjua, (μEта, See trans, et ovoua, nomen,) a change of name. 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 [Meaxler] 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 melonymically 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. MеTWTоσKoжos, from μеTшTоV, a forehead, and σKETTE, to regard; Lat. Metoposcopus; Fr. Métoposcopie; Sp. Metoposcopia. The art of divination by inspection of the forehead. 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 Physiognomy, Meloposcopy, Chiromancy. Burton. Anatomy of Melancholy, p. 35. METRE. METRICAL. METRICIAN. METRIST. ME'TRIFIE, V. Fr. Mètre; It. and Sp. Metro; Lat. Metrum; Gr. Merpov, peTpew, to mete or measure. Measure; (sc.) of syllables or` combinations of syllables. And ye that ben metricians me excuse. Chaucer. The Court of Loue. And Herodot in his science Skellon. The Crowne of Laurell No more did Thomas Smith, Richard Dalliso, Willia Stawne, &c. &c., wyth such other blind popish poetes and dirtye metristes, when they vttered their shytten rimes and posies. Bale. Image, pt. ii. And in especially because he neuer beseged citie before, but either it was yelden, or taken, of the tyme of this siege a metrician made these verses.-Hall. Hen. VIII. an. 22. Of this William Wallase one Henrie, who was blind from his birth, in the time of my natiuitie (saith John Maior) composed a whole booke in vulgar verse, in which he mitred all those things vulgarlie spoken of this Wallase. Holinshed. Historie of Scotland, an. 1305. METROPOLITICK. METROPOLITICAL. The mother-city; the chief or principal city of a country or district, civil or ecclesiastic. The whole country of Russia is termed by some by the name of Moscouia, the metropolite city. Hackluyt. Voyages, vol. i. p. 479. These be, lo, the verye prelates and bysshoppes metropolitanes and postles of theyr sects. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1091. Those cities were chief and metroples where the gospel was first planted, and thence communicated to the neighbouring 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, Metropolitane 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 ax other ministers there, and a metropolitan bishop sundry preheminences above other bishops, one of which prehemimences was, in the ordination of bishops to have Kupos TV γινομένων, 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. Draylon. Poly-Olbion, s. 18. Selden. Illust. For can they hope to perswade any living man, that these having at that time a lawfull Archbishop of their owne religion, 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 them, 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 reason of things, the precedency in each province was assigned to the Bishop of the Metropolis, who was called the first Bishop, the Metropolitan-other ancient synods style him the Metropolile; and to the Metropolites of the principal cities they give the name of Archbishop. Thus I conceive the Metropolitical governance was introduced by humane prudence following considerations of publick necessity or utility.-Barrow. On the Pope's Supremacy. 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. A dog will never learn to mew, nor a cat to bark. Grew. Cosmo. Sacra, b. ii. c. 3. 8. 7. MEW, or Fr. Muer; Lat. Mutare, to MUE, v. & n. change. And mue,-" A change or changing; hence any casting of the coat or skin, as the mewing of a hawke; also an hawke's mue, and a mue, or coope wherein fowl is fattened," (Cotgrave.) To change; to change the feathers, to moult; and as mue, the noun, was applied not merely to the change, but to the place of change, (sc. the cage or coop where hawks changed or moulted their feathers,) to mue became, consequentially, To encage, to coop up, to confine. ད་ 1700. Mr. John Smith; The best mezzotinter who united softness with strength, and freedom with finish. Walpole, vol. v. Cat. of Engravers. MICH, v. Also written Meech; to miche, MICHER. to lurk, with a slight deviation, MICHERY. from the Fr. Muser, to idle. A MICHING, n. 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 "pryvely stelyn smale thyngs." And Lambard, in his Eirenarchia, says, 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. And by hire beddes had she [Canace] made a mew, 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 ill. sc. 1.. Hark ye, She keeps her shape? Theo. Yes, and I think by this time Has mew'd her old.-Id. Love's Pilgrimage, Act iii. sc. 2. Gun. This Jew sure, That alter'd you, is a mad knave. Sof. Oh a most excellent fellow.. And all her teeth together. Id. The Tamer Tam'd, Act iv. sc. 1. Whose body mewes more plaisters every month, Than women doe old faces. Id. Thierry & Theodorat, Act ii. sc. 1. Can you love a poor man, That relies on cold meat, and cast stockings, One only suit to his back, which now is mewing? Id. The Honest Man's Fortune, Act v. sc. 1. Methinks I see her as an eagle muing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazl'd eyes at the full mid-day beam. Milton. Of Unlicens'd Printing. Where griesly night, with visage deadly sad, That Phoebus chcarefull face durst never vew, And in a foule blacke pitchy mantle clad, She findes forth comming from her darksome mew. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. i. c. 5. Italy, Spain, Artois, and now of late France itself, provides nests, and perches, and mewes, for these birds, with the same confidence wherewith wee breed our own at home. Bp. Hall. Quo Vadis? s. 23. On the North side of Charing Cross stand the royal stables, called from the original use of the buildings on their site, the mews; having been used for keeping the king's falcons, at least from the time of Richard II. MEZZOTINTO. MEZZOTINTER. Pennant. London, p. 151. It. Mezzo, middle, and Stinto, tint, or dye. To make the noise or cry of a To miche, is to take or steal small things, to pilfer; and, consequentially, to lay in wait, to 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. 4. 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 in corners amongst their friends idlely. Spenser. View of the State of Ireland. Though michers that love not to buy or to crave, Make come gather [fruit] sooner, or else few to have. Tusser. September's Husbandry. Shall the blessed Sonne of Heauen proue a micher, and eate black-berrys? a question not to be askt. 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. Lon. O meiching varlet, I'll fit ye as I live. Id. The Noble Gentleman, Act I. sc. I. Come, meecher, Thou shalt have both. Id. Bonduca, Act i. sc. 1. Dur. Forward, you micher. Massinger. The Guardian, Act i. sc. 5, MICKLE. See MUCKLE. MICROCOSM. MICROCO'SMICAL. Fr. Microcosme; It. and Sp.Microcosmo; Lat. Micro cosmus ; Gr. Μικροκοσμος, μικρός, small, little, and Kоσμоs, the world. The examples explain the usage; sec especially that from Ralegh. 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 microcosmical 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. MICROGRAPHY. Gr. Mixpos, small, and Ypapew, to write, to describe. The description of small things, (sc. visible by aid of the microscope.) (For want of Dr. Hook's Micrography being at hand, it being a very scarce book) I have] given descriptions of two or three things, which I have thought had not been tolerably well observed before, but are described well by that curious gentleman. Derham. Physico-Theology, Pref. MICROSCOPE. MICROSCO'PIAL. MICROSCOPIC. From the Gr. Mixpos, small or little, and σколη, σкоже, to see, to view, to MICROSCOPICAL. see small things; (sc.) inagnified or enlarged. An instrumont to see or examine small things (magnified or enlarged.) Many a fair edifice besides, more like Outside and inside both.-Milton. Par. Regained, b. iv. To the performance of every muscular motion, in greater animals at least, there are not fewer distinct parts concerned than many millions of millions and these visible through a microscope.-Ray. On the Creation, pt. 1. The works of art do not bear a nice microscopial inspec tion, but the more helps are used, and the more nicely you pry into natural productions, the more do you discover of the fine mechanism 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. MI/DDLER. A. S. Mid, midda, midde, middle, (mid-dæl,) 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 mydddye (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 This chanon toke his cole, with sorry grace, And laid it aboue on the midward 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. The worlde was still on euery side.-Id. Ib. b. v. For lykewise as God is in the myds of the good counsayle, so in the myddest of an euyl counsayl, is ther vndoutedly the dyuel.-Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1301. Christ is called a corner stone, because he being here mediatour or middeler betwene God and me. 1 Timo. ii. 5. coupleth in hym the Jewes & the Getiles, and joineth them together.-Bible, 1551. Isaye, c. 28. Thus the hyest chambers were alway narrower than the lowest and the myddlemoste of the buildinge. Id. Ezechiel, c. 42. I thence 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. Then with envy, fraught and rage Flies to his place, nor rests, but in mid air To council summons all his mighty peers. Milton. Paradise Regained, b. i. Who since the morning hour set out from heav'n Where God resides, and ere mid-day arriv'd In Eden; distance inexpressible By numbers that have name.-Id. Paradise Lost, b. viii. ledge of future conditionate contingents. 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. MIDWIFE, n. MID-WIVE, U. MIDWIFERY. 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, "wife or woman hired, for meed or reward." Junius,-that it is a word compounded of meed, reward, and wife. And Verstegan, (c. 7,)" mede-wyf, a woman of mede, or merit, deserving recompense." q.d. A. S. Med-wif; 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. Cade. My mother a Plantagenet. Shakespeare. 2 Pt. Hen. VI. Act iv. sc. 2. Nor need I crave the Muse's midwifry To bring to light so worthless poetry.-Bp.Hall, b. i. Sat. 1. Which presbitery, though some call the rod of Aaron, yet it more resembles those rods of Jacob, as being designed to midwive a pybald, mixt, ringstraked progeny of church governors into the world.-South, vol. vii. Ser. 4. 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, Betwixt which two some have placed a third, a midknow-q.d. ductus seu lineamentum faciei, the draught or Bp. Hall. Christian Moderation, b. ii. s. 6. delineation of the face. Wachter may be right; Our souls best baiting and mid-period but it is evidently used by Spenser as equivalent In her long journey of considering God. to demean or demeanour. (See DEMEAN.) Such Donne. Elegy on the Death of Prince Henry. interchanges of a simple and compound term are By others, that under the name of Chimæra, was ment a familar to our old poets. Mien is applied tocruel pirate of the Lycians, whose ship had in her prow a The whole manner and appearance of behaviour lion, a goat in the mid-ship, and a dragon in the stern. or comportment; to the look, the countenance, Ralegh. History of the World, b. ii. c. 13. s. 3. with correspondent carriage of body. It being then the mid-time of the night Drayton. The Barons' Wars, b. vi. He who serves has still the low and ignoble restraints of dread upon his spirit; which in business, and even in the midst of action, cramps and ties up his activity. South, vol. ii. Ser. 2. The cohesion of the middlemost of the three lately mentioned small dyes with the other two, the one above it, the other below, is not so strong as that of the parts of that middlemost corpuscle.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 412. No readers here with hectic looks are found, There are grown men and women, nay, even middle-aged persons, who have not thought seriously about religion an hour, nor a quarter of an hour, in the whole course of their lives.-Paley, Ser. 1. We should be pleas'd that things are so, Life's hubbub safe, because unseen.-Green. The Spleen. MIDRIFFE. A. S. Mid-hrife; Dut. Middel-rift, or rif. Rif, or rift, Kilian calls--involucrum. The A. S. Hrife. (Lye,) venter, uterus. It is most probably from the A. S. Reaf-ian, to rive, to part asunder. See DIAPHRAGM. Her whyles Sir Calidore there vewed well, And mark't her rare demeanure which him seemed So farre the meane of shepheards to excell, He was unwares surpris'd in subtle bands Of the blynd boy.-Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. vi. c. 9. The whiles that mighty man did her demeane With all the evil termes and cruell meane That he could make.-Id. Ib. c. 7. A mien compos'd of mildness and of state, Stepney. To the Memory of Q. Mary. If my phantasy betrayed not my judgment, I observed in his eyes a mien, a vivacity, and sprightliness that is nothing common.-Boyle. Works, vol. i. p. 75. Not in thy gorgon terrours clad, Gray. Hymn to Adversity. MIFF. to mutter. A muttering discontent or displeasure. Nay she [Mrs. Blifil] would through it in the teeth of Allworthy himself, when a little quarrel or miff, as it is vulgarly called, arose between them. Fielding. Tom Jones, b. iii. c. 6. with might and main. Mihte, potuit, valuit, is likewise the perfect of mag-an, to may. It is written mought, continually in old authors, formed immediately from Mowe, mowed, mow'd, mout, mouht. See MOUGHT. Might, n.-Dut. and Ger. Macht; Sw. Magt, Power, strength, ability, force. 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 helle schulen not have myght agens it.-Wiclif. Matt. c. 16. Corineus hatte here souereyn, that so strong was of honde, He, that mygtuol ys, His flesshe wolde haue charged him with fatnesse, but that the wantonesse of his wombe with trauaile and fastyng he a daunteth, and in rydinge & goyng trauayleth myghteliche 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 mighlyest kynges douhter of Englisshemen.-Id. p. 13. Note. Priue pride in pes es nettille in herbere, The rose is myghlles, 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, Chaucer. Troil. & Cres. b. ill. Now Jesu Crist, that of his might may sende Id. The Wif of Bathes Prologue, v. 5582. O myghtfull God in heven! wher was evir man Chaucer. Troil. & Cres. b. v. Her lives then were longe, To shew the mightinesse of their malice, after his holye soule departed, they perced his holye heart with a sharpe speare Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1260. "Ah! dearest lord." quoth she, "how might that bee, And he the stoutest knight that ever wonne?" Spenser. Faerie Queenc, b. i. c. 6. The feeble Britons, broken with long warre, Id. Ib. b. iii. c. 3. Great Gormond, having with huge mightinesse Del. Does your mightiness, That is a great destroyer of your memorie, Beaum. & Fletch. The Prophetess, Act iii. sc. 1. The next experience of your mighty mind Waller. Upon his Majesty's happy Return. When he seemed to be overpowered at his attachments, he then exerted his mightiness in causing his armed adversaries to fall backwards, and healing Malchus's ear with a touch.-South, vol. vii. Ser. 1. When conscience begins to do its office, they will feel things changed within them mightily.-Paley, Ser. 12. To depart, leave, quit or remove from. Wo is me, too too long banished from the Christian world, with such animosity, as if it were the worst of enemies, and meet to be adjudged to a perpetual migration. Bp. Hall. The Invisible World. The Epislle. The migration of birds from an hotter to a colder country, or a colder to an hotter, according to the seasons of the year, as their nature is, I know not how to give an account of, it is so strange and admirable.-Ray. Creation, pt. i. The Tuscans were a branch of the Pelasgi that migrated into Europe not many ages after the dispersion. Langhorne. Milton's Epitaphium Damonis Translated, N. 2. They would of course migrate in separate families and clans, which, forgetting by degrees the language of their common progenitor, would form new dialects to convey new ideas.-Sir W. Jones. On the Origin and Families of Nations. 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 migratory instinct, sometimes by the spirit of conquest; at one time avarice drives men from their homes, at another they are actuated by a thirst of knowledge; where none of these causes can operate, the sanctity of particular places attracts men from the most distant quarters. } MILD. MILDLY. MILDNESS. gare, miserere, Burke. Abridgement of English History b. ii. c. 2. Ger. Dut. and Sw. Mild; A. S. Milde, mildsian, ge-mildsian, miltsian, ge-miltsian, mitescere, mitito become soft or gentle, to mitigate; (met.) to have pity or compassion on one's misery; to have a melting or commiserating heart or bowels, (Somner.) Soft, gentle, soothing; kind, compassionate. MILDEW, v. MILDEW, n. A. S. Mildeawe; Ger Meltau, which both Somner and Lyc call Ros melleus,-honey-dew; as if compounded of mel, Fr. Miel, honey and dew. Skinner suggests, it may be mild-dew. Wachter,-Meil, macula. Ros maculans. Edg. This is the foule Flibbertigibbet: hee mildewes the white wheate, and hurts the poore creature of earth. Shakespeare. Lear, Act iii. sc. 4. The mil-dew is one of the greatest [accidents of corn] which (out of question) cometh by closenesse of aire. Bacon. Naturall Historie, § 669. And yet more med'cinal is it than that moly Millon. Comus. So may Sylvanus ever 'tend your bowers, And Zephyr brush the mildew from the flowers. Fenton. On the Death of the late Marquis of Blandford. MILE. Fr. Mille; It. Miglio; Sp. Milla; Lat. Mille, i. c. 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 MILITAR. MILITARY. MILITARILY. MILITARIST. MILITATE, U. MILITIA. Millon. 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 miliR. Brunne, p. 497. tale, (now a common word,) to war or fight against; to oppose, to disagree, or be discordant with. & thanked Ihesu Criste with herte fulle mylde, That ageyn the paiens his lond myght schilde. Take ye my yok on you, and lerne ye of me, for I am mylde and meke in herte.-Wiclif. Matthew, c. 11. Schal I com to ghou in a gherde, or in charite and in spyrit of myldenesse.-Id. 1 Cor. c. 4. Oure Sauiour myldlye answered for Mary' Mawdleyne, and said, Why reproue you thys woman? Sir T. More. Workes, p. 1303. But to say that Christ would haue his disciples to compell men with prisonment, fetters, scourgyng, sword, and fire, is very false and farre from the mildnesse of a Christiē spirite.-Fryth. Workes, p. 57. Most bitter wordes they spake, Most shamefull, most unrighteous, most untrew, That they the mildest man alive would make Forget his patience.-Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 12. In adoration at his feet I fell Submiss he heard me, and, "Whom thou soughtst I am," Said mildely, "Author of all this thou seest Millon. Paradise Lost, b. viii. Drayton. Matilda to King John. Ah! cruel nymph! from whom her humble swain Flies for relief unto the raging main; And from the winds and tempests does expect A milder fate, than from her cold neglect! Waller. At Pens-Hurst. At the transfiguration, the cloud was bright, the whole scene was luminous and transporting, and nothing was heard but the mild paternal voice of the Almighty expressing his delight in his beloved Son.-Porteus, vol. ii. Lect. 15. [The Roman Government] though despotic and above all control, is exercised by the Pontiff with mildness, and submitted to by the people with respect. Eustace. Italy, vol. iii. c, 6. 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. Pope. The Rape of the Lock, c. 1., The common military sword is a heavy massive weapon, for close engagement; wielded by a strong and skilful arm, it stabs and cuts, opens dreadful gashes where it falls, severs limbs, lops the head, or cleaves the body. Bp. Horsley, vol. i. Ser. 7. MILK, v. MILK, n. MILKEN, V. MILKER. MILKY. A. S. Mylne; Dut. Meulen; Ger. Mule; Fr. Moulin; It. Mulino; Sp. Molino; Lat. Mola, from molGoth. Mal-an; Ger. Mal-en, mulen; Also written Milch. Dut. MILKINESS. MILKSOP. press out hand. Milk is applied (met.) to softness, gentleness, effeminacy; hence a milk-sop, soft as a sop, or any thing sopped in milk. To milk, to draw out or extract, to drop, or distil, the milk, the juices or moisture; to drain. Hony & mylk ther ys muche. R. Gloucester, p. 43. Hour Louerd myd ys eyen of milce on the loketh theruore. Id. p. 265. An hynde othr while To husselle seilde cam. and suffrede to be milked. Piers Ploukman, p. 285. As to litle children in Crist I ghaf to ghou mylk dryuk not mete.-Viclif. 1 Cor. c. 3. For lich a mother she can cherish And milken as doth a norice.-Chaucer. Rom. of the R. "Alas," she saith, "that ever I was yshape To wed a milksop, or a coward ape." Id. The Monkes Prologue, v. 13,916. And to ayd the kynge in hys right must the commons be milked till they bleede agayne.-Tyndall. Workes, p. 365. I gaue them a lad that floweth with mylck and hony. For thou hast caught a proper paragon, Gascoigne. Farewel with a Mischiefe. Millon. Paradise Lost, b. ix. It is by all confess'd, thy happy straines, Beaumont. To the Memory of Sir J. Beaumont. I have a hundred milch-kine to the pale. Id. Taming the Shrew, Act ii. sc. 1. And they call him also the milken-way, and the Eliah of the Messiah.-Bacon. New Allantis. Nor. Tis but a sweat of honor-(alas) thou milksop, Thou man of march pain, canst thou fear to see A few light hurts, that blush they are no bigger. Beaum. & Fletch. The Knight of Malta, Actii. sc. 1. Thou wilt not find my shepherdesses idly piping on oaten reeds but milking the kine, tying up the sheaves. Gay. The Shepheard's Week, Proeme to the Reader. His kine, with swelling udders, ready stand, Dryden. Virgil. Georgics, b. iii. Cleom. Would I could share the balmy, even temper, And milkiness of blood. Id. Cleomenes, Act i. sc. 1. The milky-way being found to be (as was formerly conjectur'd) nothing but great companies or swarms of minute stars singly invisible, but by reason of their proximity mingling and confounding their lights, and appearing like lucid clouds.-Ray. On the Creation, pt. i. Milk is the first support of our childhood. The component parts of this are water, oil, and a sort of very sweet salt, called the sugar of milk. Burke. On the Sublime and Beautiful, pt. iv. s. 22. Perhaps in some far distant shore, There are who in these forms delight; Whose milky features please them more, To coin, or stamp coin, by means of a mill. R. Brunne, p. 173. And whoever schal sclaundre oon of these litil that bileven in me it were betere to him that a milne stoon were doen about his necke and he were caste into the sea. Wiclif. Mark, c. 9. And whosoeuer shall offende one of these lytel-ons, that beleue in me, it were better for hym that a mylstone wer hanged about hys necke & that he were cast into the sea. Bible, 1551. Ib. Jangling, is whan men speketh to moche before folk, and clappeth as a mille, and taketh no kepe what he sayeth. Chaucer. The Persones Tale. And with hir napron feir and white ywash She wypid soft hir eyen for teris that she out lash As grete as any mylstone. The Pardonere & Tapestere. Imputed to Chaucer. But al is one to you a horse mill & a mill-horse, drinke ere ye goe, & goe ere you drinke. Sir T. More. Workes, p. 238. What man, more water glideth by the mill Then wots the miller of, and easie it is Of a cut loafe to steale a shiue we know. Shakespeare. Titus Andronicus, Act ii. sc. 1. The which, once being burst, Like to a great mill-damb forth fiercely gusht And powred out of her infernall sinke Most ugly filth. Spenser. Faerie Queene, b. v. c. 11. His legs, which creep out of two old-fashion'd knapsacks, Are neither two mill-posts, nor yet are they trap-sticks. Cotton. Epistle to Sir Clifford Clifton. The miker was throwne one way, another man another way, one towards the North the other South, a parte of the mill roofe, and halfe the milstone, on the like manner, throwne one way, the other halfe another way. Stow. Q. Eliz. an. 1600. He goes to market with twenty shillings in one pocket of this new money, which are valued at 240 pence; and in the other pocket with four mill'd crown pieces, (or twenty mill'd shillings of the present coin,) which are valued at three hundred pence, which is one-fifth more. Locke. Of the Lowering of Interest, &c. As I remember, suitable to this policy of the Mint, there was, some two years since, a complaint of a worthy gentleman, not ignorant of it, that the mill in the Mint stood still; and therefore there was a proposal offer'd for bringing grist to the mill.-Id. Ib. For lo! the board with cups and spoons is crown'd, The berries erackle, and the mill turns round. Pope. The Rape of the Lock. In a plain pleasant cottage, conveniently neat, With a mill and some meadowes-a freehold estate, A well meaning miller by labour supplies Those blessings, that grandeur to great ones denies. Cunningham. The Miller. Blondeau, after the Restoration, November 3, 1662, received letters of denization, and a grant for being engineer of the Mint in the Tower of London, and for using his new invention for coining gold and silver with the mill and press. Walpole. Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii. c. 3 Not so where, scornful of a check, it leaps The milldam, dashes on the restless wheel, And wantons in the pebbly gulph below. To what purpose should we ransack the grave, and rake in the ashes of an odious Cerinthus, or an unexploded Papias, for the long-since condemned conceits of an old, and hitherto forgotten millenarism.-Bp. Hall. Revelation unrevealed. 'Tis said that he [Sir W. Ralegh] wrote a tract of millenianism, he having for some time been much addicted to that opinion.-Wood. Athena Ozon. vol. ii. When at your second coming you appear, The sharpen'd share shall vex the soil no more, Dryden. Palamon & Arcile, Ded MILLET. Fr. Millet; It. Miglio; Sp. Mijo; Lat. Milium; perhaps so called from the multitude of its seeds. See Vossius and Martinius. As touching the millet, the head thereof bearing seed round about, is bent likewise and curbed, beset also with fringes (as it were) of hairie fillets. Holland. Plinie, b. xviii. e. 7. Some of his [Hook] friends (whose testimonials he desired) did affirm, that they had seen 10,000, others 30,000, others 45,000, little living creatures, in a quantity of water no bigger than a grain of millet.-Ray. On the Creation, pt. i. And there, if thou Wouldst make the sand yield salutary food, Let Indian millet rear its corny reed, Like arm'd battalions in array of war. Grainger. The Sugar Cane, b. iv. MILLINER, so called from Milaner, one from Milan; or Malineer, from Maline; or millenarius, because he deals in a thousand articles. It is perhaps mistlener, from mistlen or mestlin, a medley or mixture. One who deals in a mixed variety of articles. Lor. He hath songs for man or woman, of all sizes; no milliner can so fit his customers with gloues. Shakespeare. Winter's Tale, Act iv. sc. 3. Tho' sometimes I injure the milliner's sight, Still I add to her credit and store.-Cotton. To a Lady. Fr. Million; It. Milione, a thousand-thousanded; or the MILLION. MILLIONED. MILLIONTH. thousandth thousand. And but with fifteen hundred men do land, Daniel. Civil Wars, b. vil, But reckoning time, whose million'd accidents Also written melt. The A. S. Milt; MILTER.} Dut. Mildt, Ger. Miltz, Sw. Mell; It. and Sp. Milza, is-the spleen. Kilian and Wachter agree to derive from mild, mollis; the former, because the spleen is soft; the latter, because it is the seat of mildness or gentleness. Milt, as applied to the soft roe of a fish, is pro Cowper. The Task, b. v. bably the same word. Lat. Mile, a thousand. Syluestre, after the full accomplishment of this myllenary Bale. English Volaries, pt. ii. p. 9. Bp. Hall. Breathings of the Devout Soul, § 15. Than ours of jet thus burnish'd bright.-Cratbe. Woman. Gospel.-Id. The Revelation unrevealed. And it [that carps breed several months in one year] is the rather to be believed, because you shall scarce, or never, take a male carp without a melt, or a female without a roe or spawn.-Wallon. Angler, pt. i. c. 9. That they might do so [by breeding] he had, as the rule is, put in three melters for one spawner.-Id. Ib. MIME, v. MIME, n. MIMICK, adj. MIMICK, V. MIMICK, n. MIMER. MIMETICAL. MIMICAL. MIMICALLY. MIMICKRY. MIMO-GRAPHer. In the fit Fr. Mime; It. and Sp. Mimo; Lat. Mimus; Gr. Μιμος. To mime or mimic, is, to imitate, to counterfeit, the action, mode, or manner; to mock. See the first quotation from Milton. Of miming, gets th' opinion of a wit.-B. Jonson, Epig. 115 |