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MADURA.

witty poems; others saying it is mandra gale (Lat. gale= calis, a mere suffix), mandra meaning a herd, so that a madrigal or mandrigal is a herdsman's ditty-but unfortunately no pastoral madrigals exist! The fact is that the madrigal is the Spanish version of the old Oriental proverbial songs, the madre gaña, mother-wit, being the very appropriate Spanish name. One of the great writers of madregañas was a certain Don Jorge de Madrigal, Madrigal being a village in Spain, and the madregaña was called madrigal by the Northerners (Flemings and English) in a certain confusion between poet and poetry, and hence also madrigale by the Italians.

There were very usually three stanzas to a madrigal, and each one wove in the motto or proverb, the whole (like the sonnet) inclosing one simple master-idea. When the Netherlanders began to write madrigals and set them to music, it was but natural that the short lines of the poems, the repetition of the motto, and the answering of one stanza by another should fall in most admirably with the imitative and contrapuntal style of the early medieval music. It is evident that each recurring enunciation of the "motto "should bear the same melody, and further that the whole poem being based upon the expression of one thought, or of few thoughts, the music ought to be constructed upon one melody or upon a few associated melodies. Hence arises the well-known conversational arrangement in short phrases so typical of madrigalian music, one phrase being "answered " in technical musical manner by its counterpart. Petrarca and Tasso have left the finest Italian madrigals, apart from musical treatment, and there are many very fine ones among early Spanish poetry.

MADRIGAL, in music, is an unaccompanied vocal composition for a choir, sometimes in three parts, but commonly in more. The Flemings invented the madrigal about the middle of the sixteenth century, and the Italians took it up shortly after. Palestrina, Marenzio, Mazocchi, Festa, Gastoldi, and Scarla, in Italy, and Morley, Weelkes, Wilbye, Bennet, John Ward, Orlando Gibbons, Dowland, and Ford, in England, were the chief madrigal writers of that and the next century. It is not too much to say that the English madrigalists have no superiors. The art was long indebted to the Madrigal Society, a club which consisted chiefly of amateurs, founded in London in 1741, and which, by zeal and perseverance, succeeded in diffusing throughout the British Isles a taste for a species of music as delightful as it is scientific. The contrapuntal nature of the madrigal, the complete equality of interest in the parts, and the unlimited number of performers who may take part in it, are the chief points of difference from the later form of the "glee." The severe simplicity of the madrigal, its purity of effect, as it is always unaccompanied, and may be sung therefore in just (untempered) intonation, place it at the head of concerted vocal music.

MADU'RA, an island in the Eastern seas, separated by a narrow strait from the north-east coast of Java, with which it is connected under the Netherlands government. Lat. 70° S., lon. 113° E. Its extreme length from east to west is 90 miles, and its mean breadth 17 miles. The inhabitants, who reside chiefly in villages, amount to about 670,000. The religion of the Madurese is Mohammedan, although the remains of Hindu temples attest the prevalence of that faith in former times. The natives are active, honest, brave, and skilful.

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MÆCE'NAS, CAIUS CIL'NIUS, belonged to the equestrian order, and was descended from an ancient Etruscan family at Arretium. He early became ac quainted with Octavianus (Augustus Cæsar), and continued through his life an intimate friend and chief adviser of that emperor. While Augustus was engaged in opposing Sextus Pompeius, and also during many of his other wars, Marcenas was intrusted with the charge of the city. Maecenas is said to have dissuaded Augustus from his purpose of restoring the ancient Roman constitution, which Augustus, bowever, probably never seriously intended. He was born about B.C. 70, and died B.C. 8.

Mæcenas was a great patron of literature; and it was principally owing to his assistance and support that Virgil and Horace were raised from indigence, and enabled to devote themselves to poetry. They were both admitted to his friendship, and Horace in particular lived in terms of intimacy with him. He was a man of luxurious habits, and lived in a magnificent house on the Esquiline HL He amassed a very large fortune, which he used liberally, and which he bequeathed to the emperor at his death. It was from the tower of the house that Maecenas built that, later on, Nero beheld the burning of Rome. Maceras wrote several works, such as poems, tragedies, and a "History of the Wars of Augustus."

MAEL'AR, an extensive lake of Sweden, running inland for about 80 miles from the Baltic, with a breadth varying from 2 to 23 miles. It contains no less than 1300 islands, and its total area is 520 square miles. It has deep and clear water, and is connected with the Baltic by a strait, on both sides of which Stockholm is built. The river Arboga and a canal connect it with Lake Hjælmar. When the Baltic rises much above its ordinary level the sea-water flows in, and the lake becomes brackish. It gradually becomes fresh again; and in this way its bottom may present alternating marine and fresh-water deposits, with foss after the manner of the tertiary basin of Paris.

MAEL'STROM or MALSTROM (Danish, malstrən, a whirlpool), a celebrated whirlpool off the north-west coast of Norway, and immediately to the south-west of Moskenesoe, the most southern of the Loffoden Isles. It is in reality a violent current, which runs in opposite diretions alternately for six hours at a time, and with a peculiar rotatory motion. Notwithstanding the fables told of its dangerous character, it may be traversed with safety by ordinary sailing boats, except when a north-west wind beats up against the reflux of the waves. Its depth does not

exceed 20 fathoms.

MAELʼZEL, JOHANN NEPOMUK, inventor eď the well-known and highly valuable musical appliance called the METRONOME, was the son of an organ-builder of Ratisbon. He was born in 1772, visited many countries, but not England, and died on shipboard in the American seas, 1838. He was a most ingenious man, but overshrewd. His relations with Beethoven are not to his honour. Beethoven wrote for him the fine piece "Battle of Vittoria," for a large automatic musical machine to represent an or chestra, in gratitude at a slight relief he had experienced from an ear-trumpet invented by Maelzel; but Maelzel behaved so badly with regard to claiming the copyright, and even (as he asserted) the musical design of this valuable piece, which he had induced Beethoven to score for an or chestra, that the composer even had to take legal proceed

The island is inferior in fertility to Java, and barely sup-ings against him. Beethoven's authoritative commendation ports its population; but in parts the soil is rich, and rice grows abundantly. Buffaloes and sheep are reared in great numbers. The chief export is salt.

MÆAN'DER, the modern Buyak Meinder, a river of Asia Minor, which flows for 250 miles through wild mountain gorges and rich alluvial plains to the Ægean near Miletus, and whose remarkable windings have given rise to the English word "meander."

of the metronome in 1817 at once brought it into universal favour, and it is a proof of the excellent nature of that great man that he not only stated this in the fullest manner, but withdrew his lawsuit in order not to prejudice Maelzel (The costs were equally divided.) At one time Marlzel possessed the famous automaton chess player; he sold it to Eugène Beauharnais, stepson of Napoleon I. He invented many ingenious musical and other appliances. The main

MÆNADS.

idea of the metronome-the use of a variable pendulum to mesure musical time-was not due to Maelzel, but was tated by him, in the course of his many travels with his Tical antomata, from a Dutch artisan named Winckel. Masel, in fact, was exceedingly acute and inventive, but t truly original.

MÆ NADS, another name for the half-maddened female worshippers of Dionysos (Bacchus), better known to us as BAGIANTES. The name comes from Gr. mainomai, to be d. The term is often used as an epithet for an amazonian by modern writers: a splendid example is that in CarFrench Revolution," vol. i.," Insurrection of Women." MESA, JULIA, one of the cleverest of the Roman tresses, was the sister of the noble Julia Domna, wife of Emperor Severus, and mother of the tyrant Caracalla. Fa Masa had two daughters, each of whom had a son; and when her nephew Caracalla had met the fatal reward lis crimes (A.D. 217) Julia Mæsa spent her vast fortae in preparing the elevation of her grandsons to empire. Listally ELAGABALUS, the elder of them, was by her tuteness enabled to overthrow the usurper Macrinus (218),

when she found that his dissolute character had dissted the Roman people, Alexander Severus [see SEVERUS], Langer of them, was raised by her arts to the purple Julia Masa shared largely in the public acts of me, very unusual for a woman, and after her death rally prohibited. She died about 225.

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MAES TRICHT or MAASTRICHT, a town of the Sands, the capital of the province of Limburg, erly considered one of the strongest places in Europe, at dismantled in 1878. It is situated on the left bank the Maas, 110 miles south-east of Amsterdam; oppoto it is its suburb of Wyck. The town is now a place at commercial activity, and has famous earthenware glass works, and manufactures of leather, paper, cottons, arms, tobacco, and beer. Its chief s are its town-house, its churches, and it has er as hospitals and charitable institutions. Popula29,000. Maestricht is the Trajectum Superius of the mans. It was besieged by the Spaniards, under the Þar of Parma, during four months, in 1579, and its sur*ar was followed by a terrible massacre of the citizens. Fortress has sustained numerous other sieges, of which three most memorable terminated with its capitulation, that of 1632 by Prince Frederick Henry of Orange, 1673 by Louis XIV., and that of 1748 by the French Marshal Saxe. Maestricht was almost the only town tawuth part of the Netherlands which was successmaintained by the Dutch against the Belgian inents after the eventful month of September, 1830. A miles distant, called Pietersberg, has most extensive ratons, supposed to have been made by the Romans ttain stone. In these there are 16,000 passages 12 het wile, and 20 to 50 feet high, and covering a space 12 rss by 6.

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MAES TRICHT CHALK is a calcareous formation

mrs at Maestricht, on the Maas. It is about 100 *ck, and rests unconformably on the chalk. It is resting as containing an admixture of cretaceous and fil forms, which show it to be of intermediate 1: cntains the aberrant cephalopods Baculites and *.wikh are peculiar to the cretaceous, but with these ites, typically representing tertiary gasteropod life. MAGAL HAENS, STRAIT OF, commonly called ** Nermit of Magellan, is the most extensive strait known the sofice of the globe. Its length in a straight line salve 200 miles; but if the three great bends are taken the account, it is rather more than 300 miles. It the continent of South America from Tierra del The eastern entrance is formed by Cape de las tes on the continent and by Cape del Espiritu Santo, * Catherine's Foreland, which is on King Charles'

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MAGDALA.

Southland, the largest of the islands composing Tierra del Fuego. At its western entrance are Cape Pillar to the south, on the island of South Desolation, and Cape Victory to the north, on a small island belonging to Queen Adelaide's Archipelago. The most northern bend of the strait approaches 53° 10' S. lat., and the most southern inlet, called Admiralty Sound, 55° S. lat. The eastern extremity of the strait is situated in about 68° 20′ W. lon., and the western in about 74° 40'.

The Strait of Magalhaens was discovered by Fernando Magalhaens in 1520. It was formerly much navigated by vessels bound for the harbours on the western coast of America; but the navigation was always dangerous and tedious, in consequence of the all but continuous western gales, the great strength and irregularity of the currents, the numerous rocks and cliffs in the western part of the strait, and the great humidity of the climate, which engenders scurvy and other diseases. At present a vessel rarely enters the strait unless despatched by some government for a special purpose.

MAGAZINE (Arabic makhzan), a strong building, constructed generally of brick or stone within a fortified place, or in the neighbourhood of a military or naval station, in order to contain in security the gunpowder or other warlike stores which may be necessary for the defence of the place, or for the use of the troops who are to perform military duty in the province or district.

The buildings in which gunpowder is contained are constructed with every precaution necessary to insure dryness. They are generally in places remote from other buildings; they are furnished with metallic conductors, in order to avert danger from lightning; and for security against the attempts of ill-disposed persons they are surrounded by a wall and ditch. When in situations where they may become the objects of hostile measures, they are made shellproof. They should always he built to admit sufficient daylight to render the use of lanterns unnecessary.

The great magazines which have been constructed in this country consist of several parallel vaults, separated from each other by brick partition walls, in which are doorways for affording lateral communication. Each vault is about 90 feet long, 19 feet wide internally, and from the floor to the crown of the arch 19 feet high. The side walls are from 8 to 10 feet thick, and are strengthened by buttresses built at intervals against them. The concave or interior surface of each vault, in a vertical and transverse section, is nearly of a parabolical figure, above the springing courses; and the exterior surface has the form of two inclined planes meeting in a longitudinal ridge-line above the middle of the vault. One of the vaults is usually kept empty, so that the gunpowder may be moved from one place to another, a process necessary to keep it in good condition. The thickness of the brickwork forming the vaulted roof is therefore various: at the crown it is 7 or 8 feet, and on the hances about 3 feet, this being considered sufficient to resist the shock of falling shells. Temporary magazines, such as are formed to supply the batteries in a siege, are generally made of wood covered with earth.

On board a man-of-war the magazine is of great strength. It is situated in the hold, and is separated by a transparent screen from the light room, in which lanterns of a special kind are kept to light the magazine the introduction of fire in any form into the magazine itself being absolutely forbidden. In case of a fire near it, it can be immediately flooded.

MAGAZINE (in literature). See NEWSPAPER.

MAG DALA, a town and hill fortress of Abyssinia, situated on the Talanta plateau, an elevation about 9000 feet above the sea, and considered by the Abyssinians to be impregnable. It is 120 miles south-east of Gondar, and is worthy of notice as having been the chief stronghold of the late Emperor Theodore, and the place in which 4

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MAGDEBURG.

he kept the English prisoners confined for a long period. | first mentioned in Luke viii. 2, as being among the women It was stormed and taken by the British army on 14th who followed Jesus and ministered to him of their subApril, 1868. stance, and we learn from the same passage that seven devils had been cast out of her. Her life of ministration seems to have brought her into close companionship with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Salome, the mother of James and John, and at the time of the crucifixion she stood with the women "afar off, beholding these things" (Luke xxiii. 49). She was also the first at the sepulchre on the morning of the resurrection, and the first to see Jesus after that event (Mark xvi. 9-11). At an early period, by an altogether unsupported assumption, Mary Magdalen was identified by Christian writers with the woman of unchaste life who anointed the feet of Jesus, as recorded in Luke vii. 37-50, and it is in this character she is always represented in art. It is in consequence of this theory that the term Magdalene or Magdalen has come to be applied to women who have fallen from chastity, as we see in the name Magdalene Asylums given to the refuges erected by Christian charity for such unfortunates.

MAGDALEN COLLEGE, OXFORD (always pronounced Maudlin), was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete, bishop of Winchester and lord high chancellor of England, for a president, forty fellows, thirty scholars callied demies, a schoolmaster, an usher, four chaplains, an organist, eight clerks, and sixteen choristers. By an ordinance framed for the college under powers granted by the Act 17 & 18 Vict. c. 81, the statutable restriction of fellowships to certain counties and dioceses was abolished, and ten fellowships were suspended, and ten demyships added to the statutable number. Demyships are now open, and without reference to place of birth, for five years. There are twenty exhibitions for deserving persons in need of support at the university; and four professorships (called Waynflete Professorships) were founded and maintained within the college in lieu of the lectureships mentioned in the previous statutes. The visitor is the Bishop of Winchester. The tyrannical conduct of James II. in forcing a Catholic president (a man of infamous life moreover), and twelve Catholic fellows on Magdalen in 1687, was one of the most unpopular of the acts which led to his overthrow and the fall of the Stuart dynasty. The whole of the university at once became rebels in their hearts.

Magdalen College stands upon a plot of ground at the entrance of Oxford from London, bounded on its east side by the Cherwell, beyond which extends a fine deer park. The buildings are extensive and finely designed. The cloisters are particularly fine. The entrance-court leads into a larger quadrangle, which contains the chapel, hall, and library. South of the chapel, and on the south side of what is called the chaplain's court, stands the tower of the college, the beautiful proportions of which render it one of the chief ornaments of Oxford. The great quadrangle was begun by the founder in 1473, though not finished till after his death. The foundations of what are called the new buildings of this college, unfortunately in most unhappy contrast with the exquisite architecture of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, on the north side of the great quadrangle, were laid in 1833. The chapel, which had been refitted and decorated in an incongruous manner in the time of Charles I., was restored to its former magnificence in 1833. In 1872 various improvements were made in the college, and a fine class-room, &c., added, and in 1885 were finished a noble set of buildings extending along the High Street of Oxford, in the original style of the architecture of the college, and forming, therefore, a beautiful mass with the tower which rises at the end of them. These buildings cost the college at the rate of £1000 for each set of rooms, owing to the intricacy of the carvings, &c., required.

MAGDALEN HALL, OXFORD. The school, with the refectory and chambers erected by Bishop Waynflete for students previous to admission into his college, and adjoining its buildings, obtained the appellation of St. Mary Magdalen Hall as early as 1448, and was governed by one of the fellows till 1602, when it became an independent hall. The president and fellows of Magdalen College, being desirous of recovering this site, obtained in 1816 an Act of Parliament which authorized them to prepare Hertford College, which had lapsed to the crown, for the reception of this society, and the principal and other members removed there on its completion in 1822. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1875 making certain changes in the constitution of the Hall, which is now known as Hertford College.

MAGʻDALEN, MARY, that is, Mary of Magdala (a village on the shores of Galilee). The name seems to have been given by the evangelists to distinguish the bearer from the other Maries mentioned in the Gospels. She is

MAGDALENE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE (pronounced Maud'lin), was built by Edward Stafford, duke of Buckingham, in the year 1519, under the name of Buckingham House, on the site of an ancient hostel belonging to the abbeys of Ely, Ramsey, and Walden. The duke not having completed the building at the time of his attainder, the college fell to the crown, and was granted to Thomas, Lord Audley, lord high chancellor of England. Formerly there were four fellowships on the foundation of the college and fourteen by-fellowships; but by the new statutes the by-fellowships were abolished, and there are eight open fellowships. It is also declared by the new statutes that (excepting those scholarships and exhibitions the right of preference to which is preserved to particular schools) the total amount of such scholarships and exhibitions forms a general fund for open scholarships. At present these alterations have permitted three open scholarships of £60, three of £40, and six of £20 a year each.

This college, which stands on the north side of the Car, consists of two small courts. On the north side of the second is a stone building, the body of which is appr priated to the reception of the Pepysian Library. Itis library was bequeathed to the college by the well-known "diarist " Samuel Pepys, secretary of the admiralty in the reigns of King Charles II. and King James II., the original of whose famous and priceless diary is one of its chief treasures. See PEPYS.

MAG'DEBURG, a town of Germany, and the capital of the government of the same name and of the province of Prussian Saxony, and one of the strongest fortresses in Prussia, stands on the left bank of the Elbe and on island formed by its arms, 80 miles south-west from Ber.. The town consists of three parts, called Altstadt. Neumarat and Friedrichs-stadt; and of two suburbs, Sudenburg and Neustadt. It is ill built, with narrow, crooked streets The most remarkable buildings are-the noble cathedra', which was completed in 1363, the town-hall, the gove"tment house, the artillery barracks, and the theatre. Of the squares the largest are the old market-place, in which is a statue of Otho the Great; and the cathedral square, which is surrounded by handsome buildings and avenues of trees. It has numerous charitable, literary, and scientine institutions, schools, gymnasia, libraries, and picture gaileries; and manufactures of silk, broad cloth, leather, gloves, lace, tobacco, jewelry, pottery, beer, spirits, &c. There is also an active trade, facilitated by railways to Berlin, Hamburg, and Dresden, and by steam on the Elbe. Magdeburg is very ancient, dating from the eighth century, and is rich in historical associations; it is the see of 4 bishop, was at one time a member of the Hanseatic League, and long the capital of an archbishopric, which was secularized at the peace of Westphalia. It suffered

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during the religious wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, being sacked and nearly destroyed in 1631. It had sustained a siege of twenty-eight weeks against the imperialists, under Tilly; and when it was at last taken, 30,000 of the inhabitants were butchered. The French tack it in 1806, and annexed it to the then kingdom of Westphalia, but it was restored to Prussia in 1814. The ppalation of the city and suburbs in 1881 was 137,109. MAG DEBURG CENTURIES was the name given xan ecclesiastical history published at Basel (1559-72), because the work was begun at Magdeburg by Matthias Facius (1552), and was divided into centuries, each of which occupied a volume. The design of the originator of the work was to demonstrate the identity of the principles e Protestantism with the doctrines of the primitive church, and to show how, from time to time, novelties and innovatys had been introduced by the papacy. In this undertang be was assisted by J. Wigand, Matthew Judex, 5. Faber, A. Corvinus, T. Holthutus, and others, and the pense of publication was defrayed by several Protestant prices and noblemen. The writers, who received the we of Magdeburg Centuriators, accomplished their task th much learning, earnest research, and temperate judgret; but the work was only brought down to the year 1, and as a volume was devoted to each century it just aded to thirteen folio volumes. It was not allowed to Banchallenged by the historians of the Roman Catholic (tch, and the Annales Ecclesiastici," in twelve vols. were written by Baronius in reply (Rome, 1588-1607). MAG DEBURG HEMISPHERES. It is of course alt for anyone to realize the enormous weight of the ericumbent mass of the air-ocean in which we live as ld be to make a fish sensible of the weight of water. Tentore any appliances which make this weight visible by ts efects are very welcome. Otto von Guericke, burgoaster of Magdeburg, an ardent student of natural philo*t upon the idea of pumping air out of inclosed st as one would pump water; and the AIR-PUMP was invented by him about 1650. Among the best of the 1.as instruments he invented to show the powers of the rap is that of the hollow divided sphere, called after iz the Magdeburg Hemispheres; for these not only show the rushing weight of the atmosphere, but also that it the laws of other fluids and distributes this enormous are equally in all directions, though it arises in the vertical direction only. The Magdeburg hemispheres are y of brass, and about 4 inches in diameter, fitting by the edges, which are somewhat broadened and well sed. The lower hemisphere has a stopcock on a tube, that the air-space formed by the two when put together ay exhausted of its air by an air-pump. The cock is the turned off, the air-pump detached, and the apparatus aybe carried by a ring attached to the other hemisphere. To beta beres thus treated will not fall apart, no matter wat position they are held, and thus give an elegant that the elastic force of the atmosphere presses them sides. It requires indeed a very strong pull, if they made, to get them asunder, for the pressure is conby over a hundredweight; though if the stopcock be red and the air admitted they fall asunder instantly. MAGEL LAN, STRAIT OF. See MAGALHAENS, STRAIT OF.

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MAGGIORE.

Abdurrahman Sufi in A.D. 900; was observed by Pinzon in 1499, and Anghiera, 1510. When telescopically investigated the Magellanic Clouds are found to be markedly different from the Milky Way; for whereas the latter is made up almost purely of stars, the former contain great numbers of all kinds of nebulæ. Sir John Herschel counted 278 nebulæ in the Nubecula major, and seventy or eighty nebulæ lay around in detached masses. Since stars from the ninth magnitude downwards are mixed up with these nebula, it is clear, as Sir John Herschel points out, that the theory of the great distance of nebula as compared with stars, formerly held, must fall to the ground, even independently of the spectroscopic investigations, which have solved the same problem from another standpoint.

MAGELLAN IC CLOUDS, the name given by sailors candy oval masses of light, to the naked eye very portions of the Milky Way, with which they are, howtracted. Sometimes sailors also call them fami"Y"coal-bags." The astronomical name is Nubecula. T.y are named Nubecula major and minor, and are situ2 the southern hemisphere. Nubecula major will be in our Plate CONSTELLATIONS (Southern Heminear the Antarctic Pole, and close to the constellata. Durado. This is mentioned by the Arabian astronomer

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MAGENTA, a town and commune of Italy, in the province of Milan, 16 miles west of Milan, with a population of about 6000. It contains four churches, one of considerable size, and manufactures of soap, wax candles, and whetstones. The wine of the district is held in good repute. There is a station near the town on the railway from Turin to Milan.

Magenta was the scene of a great battle in the war which established the independence of Italy. In the spring of 1859 the Austrians had entered Piedmont, and advancing to within a few miles of Turin, occupied the country between the Dora, Sesia, and Ticino, while the Sardo-French army was posted south of the Po, supported by Alexandria and Casale, and receiving supplies from Genoa. Towards the end of May the French emperor suddenly changed his plan of operations, and by a brilliant series of movements turned the right wing of the Austrians and encamped his army on the west side of the Sesia. On the morning of the 4th of June, the allies, in two great divisions, one under General M Mahon, and the other under Napoleon III. himself, moved forward from Turbigo on the north and Novara on the south, in order to effect a junction at Magenta, and fall with overwhelming force on the Austrians. Napoleon, in crossing the Ticino, met with an obstinate resistance, and the issue seemed doubtful until M Mahon, successful on his side, brought up his division to the emperor's aid, and advanced on Magenta. About six o'clock the Austrians occupied the town, and bravely defended it for ten hours against the combined forces of M Mahon, of Canrobert, and of the Imperial Guard, which, after a furious strife, had fought its way from the Ponte Nuovo, each house being defended and stormed as if it were a battery. The arrival of the French reserves compelled the Austrians, though reluctantly, to fall back; and on the morrow, defeated and disorganized, they retired in a southerly direction, leaving open the road to Milan to Napoleon and Victor Emmanuel. The Austrians lost 13,000 killed and wounded, and 7000 prisoners; the French 3700 killed, and 735 prisoners.

The victory was commemorated by the inauguration of a monument on the battle-field. It consists of an imposing obelisk placed upon a solid cubic basement; total height, 65 feet. The sides are ornamented with marble bas-reliefs, representing the Emperor Napoleon, Victor Emmanuel, and the principal types of the French army. It is from Magenta that one of the colours produced from coal-tar derives its name.

MAGGIORE, LAGO DI (pronounced Majior'ay), the most westerly of the great lakes in North Italy, surrounded by Lombardy, Piedmont, and Ticino. It is the Lacus Verbanus of the Romans, and has a length of 37 miles, a breadth of from 2 to 6 miles, and an area of 82 square miles. Its greatest depth is 2666 feet, or about 2000 feet below the sea level. The north banks are bounded by lofty mountains, for the most part wooded, while the east shore towards the lower end slopes gradually away to the level of the plains of Lombardy. The west bank affords a succession of charming landscapes, and altogether it is

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considered the most beautiful of the Italian lakes. The | water is of a green colour in its north arm, and deep blue towards the south. Its waters are well stocked with fish, and, like all Alpine lakes, its navigation is dangerous from sudden squalls.

The Borromean Islands are situated in a bay on its west side, opposite to the mouths of the Toce. Of these the Isola Bella and the Isola Madre are the most famous. They are of small size, and previously to the middle of the seventeenth century were little better than bare rocks, but being the property of Count Vitaliano Borromeo, a descendant of the celebrated St. Carlo Borromeo, he resolved to make them his residence, and to convert them, according to the taste of the time, into a sort of Italian paradise. MAG GOT is one of the popular names given to the larvæ of insects. [See LARVA.] The term maggot seems especially applied to larvæ which feed on animal, and particularly putrescent, matter, and is perhaps most generally given to larvæ of dipterous insects or flies. It is also applied to footless larvæ, such as those of the hive-bee. MA'GI. See MAGIC.

MAGIC.

by a celestial fire which emanated from Ormuzd. Hence the sacred fire always preceded the monarch as a symbol of his illustrious rank; and Plato says the Persian kings studied magic, which is a worship of their gods.

It was, however, in Egypt that magic received its development as an art. The most famous temples in Egypt were those of Isis. at Memphis and Bus ris; of Serapis, at Canopus, Alexandria, and Thebes; of Osiris, of Apis, and Phtha. Isis, the wife of Osiris, derives her name from the Coptic word isi, or plenty, and would seen to typify the earth; but she is usually represented as the goddess of the moon (Gr. kerasphóros, the horn-bearing) Isis was also employed as a personification of wisdom, and to a certain extent she may be regarded as a symbol of the eternal will, her shrines bearing the enigmatic inscription "I am the all that was, that is, that will be; a mortal can raise my veil." Horus was the son of Isis, and was instructed by his mother in the art of healing. Horus, synonymous with light, is the king or spirit of the sun. Astrological science and magic were earnestly and eagerly studied by the Egyptian priests. It was their belief that the different stars exercised a powerful influence on the huma body. Their funeral ceremonies may be quoted as an illustration, for they agree in sharing among the diviaites the entire body of the dead. To Ra, or the Sun, they assigned the head; to Anubis, the nose and lips; to Hathor, the eyes; to Selk, the teeth; and so on. Is ascertain the nativity the astrologer had only to combine the theory of the influences thus exercised by these star

of an individual's birth. It was an element of the Egyp tian as well as of the Persian astrological doctrine that a particular star controlled the natal hour of everyone.

MAGIC is the pseudo-art by which the medieval philosophers professed to obtain a mastery over the secrets of the unseen world, and to communicate with demons and invisible spirits. In a more general sense it includes every species of divination of the future, whether under the names of astrology, necromancy, sorcery, vauderie, or witchcraft; while of late years it has even been made to include the common tricks and sleight-of-hand performances of vulgar conjurors. In its original applica-related gods with the aspect of the heavens at the moment tion it signifies the doctrine of the Magi; because the Chaldean priests were supposed to have gained their extraordinary knowledge, superior wisdom, and remarkable | skill from familiar spirits, or other supernatural agents. It may therefore be briefly defined as the art or science which teaches how to perform various phenomena, and obtain an insight into coming events by the application of mysterious means, known only to the initiated, which command the services and interposition of good and evil spirits. Magic appears to have had its origin on the plains of Assyria, and the worship of the stars was the creed of those pastoral tribes who, pouring down from the mountains of Kurdistan into the wide level where Babylon afterwards raised its thousand towers, founded the sacerdotal race of the Chasdim or Chaldeans. To these men were soon allotted peculiar privileges and ascribed peculiar attributes, until, under the name of Magi, they acquired a vast and permanent influence. Their temples were astronomical observatories as well as holy places; and the legendary tower of Babel, in the Book of Genesis, is probably but the mythical equivalent of a vast edifice consecrated to the study of the seven planets, or perhaps, as the Bab (court or palace) of Bel, to the brilliant star of good fortune alone. Availing themselves of the general adoration of the stars, they appear to have invented a system of astrology-the apotelesinatic science-by which they professed to decide upon the nature of coming events and the complexion of individual fortunes, with especial reference to the planetary aspects.

In Persia magic assuined a yet more definite development. The Chaldeans had attributed the origin of all things to a great central everlasting fire. The foundation of the Persian system, usually ascribed to Zerdusht or Zoroaster, was the existence of two antagonistic principles -Ormuzd, the principle of good, and Ahriman, the principle of evil. In Persia everything associated with science or religion was included under the denomination "magic." The Persian priests were named the Magnise or Magi, but they did not arrogate to themselves the entire credit of intercourse with the gods. Zoroaster, who was king of Bactria, made some reservations for the sake of exalting the regal power, and taught that the kings were illuminated

Through the instrumentality of Orpheus, Museus, Pythagoras, and others, who had travelled in Egypt, and been initiated by the priests into their mysteries, magie found its way into Greece, and there assumed various novel developments. The Greek sorcery was chiefly manifested in the peculiar rites of the Orpheotelesta, the invocation of the dead, the cave of Trophônios, the oracles of the gods, and the worship of Hekatê. The latter mysterious deity, the mostgoddess, was the patron divinity of the sorcerers. From her, as from one of the powers of the nether world, proceeded phantoms that taught witchcraft, hovered among the tombs, and haunted crossways and places accursed by the blood of the murdered or the suicide. **The Mormo, the Cereops, the Empusa, were among the goblin crew that did her bidding.'

Rome borrowed her magic, no less than her art and literature, from poetic Hellas. The occult science does not appear to have been known to the Romans until abst 200 years before the Christian era. But they had prevously cultivated a modification of the Etruscan sorcery, comprising the divination of the future, the worship of the dead, the evocation of their lemures or phantoms, and the mystic ceremonies of the Mana-Genita, a noctur goddess of awful character. Numa was the great teacher of the ancient Roman magic, which probably partock both of a religious and medical character.

The Christian church, at the outset of its history, forbade the practice of pagan magic, but taught what may be described as a magic of its own. Both Origen asú Tertullian held that mania and epilepsy were produced by the action of demons or evil spirits confined within the bodies of the sufferers, and that these were to be excrcise! by certain forms of words. The church formally reag nized the efficacy of exorcism in 367, when the Connci' ! Laodicea ordained that only those should practise it wh were duly authorized by the bishops. Connected with magic and magical rites were the supposed curative properties of the relics of saints, and the divine origia popalarly ascribed to visions and ecstatic trances.

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