" MINUET-MIRABEAU. MINUET (French, menuet); a French dance, in slow time, which requires great grace and dignity of carriage. It was, therefore, considered us the touchstone of an elegant dancer, and is admirably adapted to cultivate ease and grace of motion. It was the favorite dance in the time of Louis XIV, but has since been supplanted by contra-dances, quadrilles, &c. According to Brossard, the minuet Acwas originally from Poitou, and is said to have had, at first, a quicker motion. cording to Schubart, Lully (1603 to 1687) was the inventor of the minuet, and Louis XIV is said to have danced the first in 1660, at Versailles. The name is derived from menu (little), on account of its short, measured steps. = = MINUTE; a division of time, and of anThe degree is divided gular measure. into 60 minutes. The divisions of degrees are fractions, whose denominators increase in a sexagesimal ratio; that is, a 3600, &c. o, or second minute is of a degree. Minutes are expressed by acute accents, thus' the seconds by two"; the thirds by three"". In the computation of time, a minute is the 60th part of an hour. MINUTOLI, Henry, baron Menu von, was born at Geneva, of a Savoyard family, in 1772; entered the Prussian military service, and was, at a later period, tutor to prince Charles, son of the king. In 1820, he married the widow of baron Von Watzdorf. She accompanied him on his scientific expedition to Egypt, made under the royal patronage. He returned in 1822. A part of his collections was lost by shipwreck; the king of Prussia purchased the remainder for the new museum in Berlin, for about $15,000. Among his works are, Considerations on the Military Art (3d ed., 1816); On the Ancient Painting on Glass (in connexion with Klaproth); Journey to the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, in the Desert of Libya (Berlin, 1824); Additions to my Journey, &c. (1827); and Description of an old Heathen Burial Place, discovered at Stendal in 1826 (Berlin, 1828). The baroness has also published Souvenirs d'Egypte (Paris, 1826; English, London, 1827). The travellers arrived at Alexandria, from whence the baroness went to Cairo, while her husband visited Cyrene (q. v.), determined the position of the oracle of Jupiter Ammon, at Siwah (in 29° 12' N. lat.), and, after returning to Cairo, visited Thebes. The works above mentioned contain numerous engravings. MINYE; 1. the Argonauts were so called, either because the bravest of their 44* number were descended from Minyas, or MIQUELETS; the inhabitants of the MIQUELON; an island in the Atlantic ocean, near the southern coast of Newfoundland, belonging to France; lat. 47° 4′ N.; lon. 56° 20 W. To the south These islands of it lies Little Miquelon (Petite Miquelon), which, since 1783, has been connected with it by a sand-bank. are under the direction of the commandant of St. Pierre (see Pierre, St.), and are occupied only by a few families engaged in the fisheries. MIRABEAU, Honoré Gabriel Ricquetti, count of, so famous for his influence in the French revolution, was born March 9, 1749, at Bignon, in Provence, and died at Paris, April 2, 1791. He sprang from a celebrated family. Nature gave him violent passions and a robust frame. Education might have made him a truly great man; but the propensities of his genius were checked, and the developement of his energies perverted. When 14 years of age, he entered a military boarding school, where he studied mathematics, made some progress in music and drawing, and became a proficient in bodily was entirely neglected, the most vehement exercises. But as his moral education passions grew with his growth. While yet a boy, he published a eulogy on the On leaving school, he entered the military great Condé, and some pieces in verse. service; and his intercourse with young and dissipated officers made him familiar with all their vices. His active mind, however, could not remain idle, and he read all the books which he could procure on the military art. He also fell in love; and his passion was marked by all the impetuosity of his character. His father, who systematically thwarted his inclinations, now procured his confinement in a fortress on the island of Ré. He was even on the point of having him sent to the Dutch colonies. But the friends of the family succeeded in preventing it. This abuse of the paternal power decided the son's hatred of despotism. After his liberation, he went, as a volunteer, to Corsica. He distinguished himself, and obtained a commission as captain of dragoons; but as his father refused to purchase him a regiment, he abandoned, though unwillingly, the military profession. During the war in Corsica, he wrote a memoir respecting it, with remarks on the abuses of the Genoese aristocracy, and gave it to his father, who destroyed it. In conformity with the request of his father, he now settled in Limousin, and employed himself in cultivating, the earth and in conducting lawsuits. But he soon became weary of his situation. His domestic circumstances, moreover, were unhappy. In 1772, he had received, in Aix, the hand of Mademoiselle de Marginane, an amiable young lady, with prospects of large fortune. But his extravagant propensities soon involved him in a debt of 160,000 livres. His contentious and inflexible father took advantage of the embarrassments of his son, and obtained, from the Chatelêt in Paris, an interdict, by which he confined him to his estate. Here he published his Essay on Despotism. He soon after left his place of confinement, to avenge an insult offered to his sister; and a new lettre de cachet imprisoned him, in 1774, in the castle of If, from whence he was transferred to Joux, near Pontarlier, in 1775. Here he first saw his Sophia, the wife of the president Monnier, a man of advanced age. She was well affected towards him. His passion for her soon became extremely violent. But St. Maurice, the commander of the fortress, was his rival. In order to escape from the persecutions of this man and his father, he fled to Dijon, whither his mistress followed. He was seized, and his father obtained new letters of arrest. Meanwhile M. de Malesherbes, who was then minister, and felt much good will for the young Mirabeau, gave him a hint to escape from the country. He fled to Switzerland, and Sophia rejoined him there. He then took refuge in Holland with his mistress. The offended husband entered a complaint for seduction. Mirabeau was condemned to death, and was decapitated in effigy. In Holland, he went under the name of St. Matthew, and lived unnoticed with Sophia, his books, and some friends. During the years 1776 and 1777, he supported himself and his mistress altogether by his literary labors. Among other things, Mirabeau translated, in conjunction with Durival, Watson's History of Philippe II. Learning that his father accused him of the blackest offences, he avenged himself by sending abroad libels against him. His father now effected a violation of international law, and a police officer was sent to Holland, with letters of arrest, signed by Amelot and Vergennes. Mirabeau and his mistress were arrested, in 1777, without the consent of the Dutch governor. Mirabeau was incarcerated at Vincennes; but Sophia, being far advanced in pregnancy, was resigned to the inspection of the police. After her delivery of a daughter, she was conveyed to the convent of St. Clara, at Gien. During an imprisonment of three years and a half, at Vincennes, Mirabeau wrote the celebrated Lettres à Sophie; Lettres originales de Mirabeau (1792, 4 vols.). Of these, Lettres écrites du Donjon de Vincennes (1777-1780, 3 vols.), a new edition appeared in 1820. Their accent is passionate, and the style is various, flowing and forcible. Mirabeau's health was much affected by his confinement, and, under many bodily sufferings, he wrote, with the assistance of Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, his Erotica Biblion, a very free picture of the excesses of physical love, among different nations, particularly the Jews. At the same time, he projected a grammar and a treatise on mythology, translated Johannes Secundus, and exposed the abuses of despostic authority in his energetic work on Lettres de Cachet. As he was denied paper, he tore out the blank leaves in the beginning and end of the books allowed him. He concealed the leaves in the lining of his clothes, and left the prison with the manuscript of his Lettres de Cachet thus sewed in. His long incarceration had wearied his persecutors. The judges also saw that the conduct of Mirabeau's father, whose own character was far from moral, could only proceed from revenge and hatred. The son was therefore released, in 1780, and seems to have become reconciled with his father, for he lived with him, and left the pater nal mansion only to obtain the revocation le 5 Juill. jusqu'au 19 Janv., 1787 (1789, of the sentence of death pronounced 2 vols.). This work was an indiscreet against him in Pontarlier, in which he disclosure of his political manœuvres, and succeeded in 1782. At the same time, was written in the tone of a libel. It Sophia recovered her dowry and freedom. excited general reprehension of a man so Mirabeau now returned to Provence, and unscrupulous as to make of the secrets of tried to effect a reconciliation with his hospitality, and the confidence of his wife. But nothing could overcome the friends and the government, an offering opposition of his wife's relatives. He to the public appetite for scandal. The therefore had recourse to the law, and a work was condemned, by the parliament, process took place which was honorable to be burnt by the common hangman. to neither party, and which his wife When the estates were actually convoked, gained. Mirabeau now went to London. he went to Provence for the purpose of His letters show that his opinions respecting being elected; but the noblesse of the provEngland were not, in general, very fa- ince refused him a place among them, on vorable. He wrote there the Considéra- the ground that none were entitled to it tions sur l'Ordre de Cincinnatus-an or- but the possessors of fiefs. He was now der of which he disapproved, as the be- chosen, by acclamation, a deputy of the ginning of a military aristocracy in the U. third estate, where he soon obtained an States. He likewise wrote against the plan immense influence. The 23d of June was of Joseph II to make the Scheldt free, one of the most remarkable days of his and, against Linguet's famous work,-his political career. It was decisive of the fate Doutes sur la Liberté de l'Escaut. He was of the monarchy. The king, after making also a coadjutor in the French journal, important concessions in this memorable published in London, Le Courrier de l'Eu- sitting, had ordered the assembly to sepa⚫rope. In his subsequent writings on the rate. The assembly, however, remained Caisse d'Escompte, the Banque de St. together in their seats. The marquis Charles, the Actions des Eaux, he discuss- of Brezé, master of ceremonies, came to ed the grounds of public credit, and of. remind the assembly of the orders of the speculations in the public stocks, accord- monarch. Mirabeau, in the name of his ing to Adam Smith's principles, with much colleagues, made the celebrated answer, eloquence. This and the satirical por- "The commons of France have resolved traits of famous persons, brought his to deliberate. We have listened to the works into repute. He nevertheless so- king's exposition of the views which have licited in vain, of the minister of finance, been suggested to him; and you, who have Calonne, the office of consul in Dantzic no claim to be his organ in this assembly,—— or Hamburg. He now lived some months you, who have here no place, nor vote, nor of 1786 in Berlin, and then went to Bruns- right of speaking,-you are not the person wick, but returned to Berlin in the same to remind us of his discourse. Go, tell your year, probably with secret commissions master that we are here by the order of from his court. In Berlin he collected the people, and that nothing shall drive information and projected the plan of the us hence but the bayonet." Mirabeau had ingenious, but far from faultless work, De already made an unsuccessful attempt to la Monarchie Prussienne, which was exe- establish an understanding with the mincuted by his friend Mauvillon. (q. v.) His isters, with a view of relieving the disdescription of Frederic II is especially tracted state of his pecuniary affairs. admired. In 1787, Mirabeau returned to Negotiations were afterwards entered into France. Calonne having convoked the between him and the court. He required notables, Mirabeau brought out his Dénon- a pension of 40,000 francs a week, and ciation de l'Agiotage, au Roi et aux Nota- the promise of such a diplomatic or minisbles. The king, on account of the offen- terial post as he should select, after the sive character of this pamphlet, ordered reestablishment of the royal authority. the author to be imprisoned; but he These demands were conceded, and he escaped, and wrote a continuation of his received the pension for several weeks. It Dénonciation de l'Agiotage. He now was agreed that a dissolution of the aswrote his Avis aux Bataves. At that time sembly should be effected by an expresthere also appeared (von Dohm asserts, sion of the will of the nation, and that a V. 409, without the consent of Mirabeau) new assembly should be convoked, comthe letters on the Prussian court, written posed of men of more moderate opinions. in confidence to Calonne, entitled His- While the negotiations were pending, toire secrète de la Cour de Berlin, ou Cor- Mirabeau redoubled his activity in the asrespond. d'un Voyageur Français, depuis sembly, and at the Jacobin club. Sus picions were already entertained of his defection from the revolutionary party, and clamors had already been raised against him, when a fever closed his stormy life, April 2, 1791. The news of his decease was received with every mark of popular mourning: his funeral was solemnized with the utmost pomp. His body was deposited in the Pantheon, from which, however, in 1793, his remains were taken and dispersed by the populace, who then stigmatised him as a royalist.-Mirabeau was the creature of his passions; the early restraints, which had been imposed upon him, served only to inflame them; and, with all the resources of genius, a decision and energy of will which yielded to no opposition, an audacity of purpose which shrunk before no difficulties, he united an insatiable ambition. His orations are collected in the work entitled Mirabeau peint par lui-même (1791, 4 vols.), and in the Collection compl. des Travaux de Mirabeau à l'Assemblée nationale par Méjan (1791, etc., 5 vols.), in Esprit de Mirabeau (1804), Lettres inédites de Mirabeau, publ. par Vitry (Paris, 1816, 2 vols.), in his Euvres oratoires (complete, at Paris, 1819, 2 vols.), and Œuvres choisies de Mirabeau (Paris, 1820). Concerning his connexion with the court, the Memoirs of Mad. Campan (Paris, 1823, 3 vols.), contain some remarkable disclosures. The fifth livraison of the Mémoires des Contemporains (Paris, 1824) consists of four parts, containing Mém. sur Mirabeau et son Époque, sa Vie littéraire et privée, etc. MIRACLE (Latin, miraculum, a wonder, a prodigy; in the original Greek, anμsov, Tapas) is usually defined to be a deviation from the course of nature, or an event in a given system which cannot be accounted for by the operation of any general principle in that system. But this definition seems to omit one of the elements of a miracle, viz. that it is an event produced by the interposition of an Intelligent Power for moral purposes; for, otherwise, we must consider every strange phenomenon, which our knowledge will not permit us to explain, as a miraculous event. To the atheist, who does not admit the existence of a Supreme Intelligence, a miracle is an impossibility, a contradiction in terms. A miraculous event cannot, indeed, prove the existence of God, for it presupposes it; but it may prove the moral government of the world by the Deity, or the divine character of a communication which claims to come from him. It is in this light that we must consider miracles as the proofs of a revelation; and, in fact, a revelation is itself a miracle. If one claims to be a teacher from God, he asserts a miraculous communication with God: this communication, however, cannot be visible, and visible miracles may therefore be necessary to give credibility to his pretensions. To those who deny the possibility of miracles, a revelation is impossible. The use, then, of a miraculous interposition in changing the usual course of nature is to prove the moral government of God, and to explain the character of it. As to the nature of miraculous events, we may distinguish those which do not appear supernatural in themselves, but are rendered so by the manner in which they are produced, as cures of diseases by a touch or a word, and those which are supernatural in themselves, as in the burning bush which was not consumed, the stopping of the course of the sun, &c. In proof of miraculous occurrences, we must have recourse to the same kind of evidence as that by which we determine the truth of historical accounts in general; for, though miracles, in consequence of their extraordinary nature, challenge a fuller and more accurate investigation, still they do not admit an investigation conducted on different principles, testimony being the only assignable medium of proof for past events of any kind. While some writers have entirely denied the possibility of miracles, others have, with the same result, denied the possibility of proving the occurrence of a miracle. Hume's argument on this point is, that it is contrary to experience that a miracle should be true, but it is not contrary to experience that testimony should be false: it is therefore more improbable that the miracle should be true than that the testimony should be false. Without dwelling on the ambiguity of the expression "contrary to experience," it may be replied that the improbability arising from a want of experience of such events is only equal to the probability of their repetition, this being the precise measure of the improbability of their performance. To assert that, because miracles have occurred, they ought to occur again, or frequently, is to render a miracle impossible; for an event which is frequently occurring would cease to be a miracle. The existence of a Supreme Intelligence being allowed, the infrequency of miracles, or their being against our experience, is no argument against their occurrence. Hume asserts that a miracle is a contest of improbabilities; and there is no need of denying this assertion, as is MIRACLE-MIRAGE. usually done: the improbability of a miracle is weakened by considering it an event in the moral system of the universe-not a causeless phenomenon, or a useless violation of nature; and the improbability that the testimony to it should be false is strengthened by the publicity of the event, the intelligence and honesty of the witnesses, the consideration of the results which followed it, &c. Further than this, the testimony, under these circumstances, is a fact which it is more easy to account for by allowing the event testified to to have actually taken place, than to have recourse to any other hypothesis. In examining the different objections which have been urged against miracles, it will be seen that they arise, in general, from a neglect of the existence of a moral system: when it is objected that they are against the usual course of nature, that is, against all we know of the government of God, it is forgotten that they are entirely in accordance with his moral government, and that experience as fully proves the existence and nature, as plainly teaches the character, of this government, as of the physical system of the world. Most of the miracles, of which history is full, may, indeed, be put aside from want of sufficient testimony, from their being useless, unnecessary, or even unworthy of a wise and good Being, from the circumstance that the workers of them did not lay any claim to divine agency, from their having been without results, &c. We may also reject those which are referable to false perceptions; those which are merely tentative, that is, belonging to a series of attempts of which some were unsuccessful; those which are doubtful in their nature; those which are merely exaggerations of natural events, &c., especially if they are unconnected with others of a different character, or with moral effects: so miracles which are in support of an established creed, pretended to be wrought by men vested with a divine character in the presence of credulous devotees, if they do not belong to any of those above cited, are to be looked upon with suspicion. But, when miraculous powers are claimed to be exerted by the opponents of what is established in public opinion and supported by public authority, in the face of opposition and incredulity, by men without influence or friends, and when they convince and confound their bitterest enemies, and produce a change in their lives and characters as a proof of their conversion,-when these witnesses, with no interested motives, but with the cer 525 tain prospect of suffering and persecution, come forward and testify their belief, and when all these results are declared to have been produced to prove the divine origin of doctrines calculated to elevate humanity, and the divine mission of teachers, who spoke as no man had ever before spoken,—we are not surely to refer these to the illusions of credulity, or the jugglings of imposture. It is not possible, in a work of this nature, to go into a minute examination of particulars. The subject is fully and ably treated in Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles, in Reply to Hume; in Paley's Evidences of Christianity; in Butler's Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion, and numerous other works, to which we must refer the reader. MIRAGE; an optical phenomenon, produced by refraction. The unusual elevation or apparent approximation of coasts, mountains, ships, and other objects, has long been known under the name of looming; and, if the same phenomenon is accompanied by inverted images, it is called a mirage. The mirage is frequently observed on the surface of the sea by sailors, and on dry sandy plains, as in those of Egypt, where it was repeatedly seen by the French, during their campaign in that country. The appearance presented is that of a double image of the object in the air; one of the images being in the natural position, the other inverted, so as to resemble a natural object and its inverted image in the water. It may be produced whenever the rays of light meet in an oblique direction, the surface of a less refracting medium than that in which they were previously moving: they are thus turned back into the original medium in the same direction in which they would be impelled by reflection taking place at the common surface of the two mediums. The surface of the earth or sea, becoming heated, communicates a portion of its caloric to the superincumbent layer of air, which thus becomes less dense than the superior layers. The rays of light which proceed from an object in the heated layer will then be bent downward, and thus arrive at the end in such a direction as to cause the object to appear above its actual position. In the desert, where the surface is perfectly level, a plain thus assumes the appearance of a lake, reflecting the shadows of objects within and around it, and the thirsty traveller is often tantalized with this appearance, which recedes, as, by approaching it, he changes the angle of direction of the rays which enter his eye. The mirage is commonly vertical, |