jan subjected it to the dominion of Rome, A. D. 106, but the Persians did not suffer her to remain long in undisturbed, possession of it. When the Arabs, in 651, established a new empire upon the ruins of the kingdom of the Sassanides, Mesopotamia was also obliged to submit to the storm. In the year 1040, it fell into the hands of the Seljooks. From that time it had many rulers, in rapid succession. Genghis Khan made himself master of it in 1218, but, in the year 1360, it fell into the hands of Tur Ali Bey. 40 years afterwards, Mesopotamia was conquered by Tamerlane, and, in 1514, Ismael Sophi incorporated it with the Persian empire. The Persians were, however, in 1554, compelled to cede more than half of it to the Turks; and though they again, in 1613, recovered the lost portion, they were unable to withstand the attacks of Amurath IV, who united this, in 1637, with many other provinces, to his empire. The present extent of this country is computed at about 36,000 square miles, with 800,000 inhabitants. The capital, Diarbekr, situated on the Tigris, with 38,000 inhabitants, a considerable manufacturing and commercial city, is the seat of a sangiack. (See J. S. Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia, [Aleppo, Diarbekr, Mosul, Bagdad, the Ruins of Babylon, &c.] London, 1827, quarto).

MESS, in sea language, denotes a particular company of the officers or crew of a ship, who eat, drink and associate together, whence messmate, one of the number thus associated. In military language, mess denotes a sort of military ordinary, for the maintenance of which every officer, who takes his meals there, gives a certain proportion of his pay. These associations of officers, in the English armies, exist not merely in time of peace, but even in the field; and foreigners are surprised at the degree to which the national love of comfort prevails, even amid the fatigues of service, leading the officers to carry with them loads of table equipage, thereby adding to the cumbrous baggage of an English army. In all the descriptions of the English military life, the mess is conspicuous; and it may easily be imagined that these social meetings, when the toils of service are suspended, and the pleasures of the table are heightened by music; when the restraints of military etiquette are relaxed, and a soldier-like frankness prevails; when the young express their hopes, and the older relate their experiences, are among the bright spots of British military life. Several armies, par

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ticularly the Prussian, have attempted, in time of peace, to imitate the English mess, but without being able to copy it fully.

MESSA DI VOCE (Italian) signifies, in music, the gradual swell and diminishing of the tones. It takes place in notes of long duration, especially upon fermates (q. v.), and in the preparation of a cadence. On the duration of the note, the gradation in the piano, crescendo, forte and decrescendo must depend. In shorter notes, less gradation takes place. The messa di voce requires the singer to have his breath entirely under his control. If well executed, it has a very fine effect; but it is not to be confounded with the erroneous practice of many singers, to begin every tone piano, and gradually to increase in strength; neither ought it to occur too frequently.

MESSALIANS (in the Syriac), or Euchetes (in Greek, that is, praying people), also Enthusiasts, and Pneumatists (as they called themselves); the members of a heretical sect, which arose in Mesopotamia about the year 360, and was introduced by Adelphius (one of their teachers), in the fourth century, into Syria. The Messalians insisted upon the incessant exercise of prayer, which they considered as alone sufficient for salvation. They did not labor, but supported themselves by begging, and gave themselves up to fanciful speculation, which explains both their confused notions of Christianity, founded on Oriental mysticism, and resembling Manicheism, and also their expectation of being able by prayer to arrive at such a degree of perfection that in it all sin would be of necessity removed. With this are also connected those ascetic, and, in part, indecent excesses and strange convulsions, of which they were accused, those divine revelations and visions, of which they boasted, and their contempt of the church. Notwithstanding the opposition and denunciations of councils, emperors and bishops, Messalians of both sexes continued to exist, although not in large numbers, among the Oriental Christians, till the end of the seventh century. The modern Messalians, or Bogomili, who are often improperly confounded with this sect, are more nearly connected with the Paulicians. (q. v.)

MESSALINA, 1, Valeria. This notorious Roman empress, the daughter of Messala Barbatus, and wife to the emperor Claudius, has left behind her the infamy of having surpassed, in licentiousness, the most abandoned women of any age. She had all the males belonging to the household

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of the emperor for her lovers; officers, soldiers, slaves, players-nothing was too low for her. Not satisfied with her own shame, she even compelled the most noble Roman ladies to commit, in her presence, similar excesses. Whosoever did not comply with her wishes she punished with death. She at length went so far as, during the lifetime of her husband, publicly to marry Caius Silius, a senator. Narcissus, a freedman and favorite of the emperor, formerly a paramour of the empress, discovered to Claudius, who was then absent from Rome, this new act of infamy on the part of Messalina. But Claudius delayed to punish her, and Narcissus, seeing that his own life was at stake, if the empress should succeed in recovering the favor of her weak and infatuated husband, gave orders to his friends to murder her secretly (A. D. 46).-2. Statilia Messalina; the third wife of Nero, on whose death she returned to private life. She then devoted herself to the study of eloquence and the fine arts, and acquired some celebrity.

MESSANA. (See Messina.)

MESSE CONCERTATE (Italian); masses in which the recitation is intermixed with choruses.

MESSE DI CAPELLA; an expression applied by the Italians to masses sung by the grand chorus. In these compositions, various fugues, double counterpoints, and other elaborate qualifications, are always required.

MESSENIA; a country of ancient Greece, in the southern part of the Peloponnesus, Its capital was Messene (Mavromati), with the mountain fortress Ithome; Mothone (Modon), Korone (Coron) and Pylos (Navarino), with the strong-hold Pheræ, now Calamata, were its principal ports. On its southern coast lay the Messenian gulf (now the gulf of Coron). A ridge of mount Taygetus separated Messene from Sparta. Messenia is celebrated for the long struggle of its inhabitants with the Lacedæmonians, in defence of their liberty. In the first Messenian war (743724 B. C.), the Lacedæmonians with the Athenians invaded Messenia, notwithstanding the proposal of the Messenian king to submit their differences to the arbitration of the Areopagus, or the Amphictyonic council. For 20 years, the Messenians defended themselves valiantly, under their king Aristodemus, who, in consequence of an answer of the Delphic oracle, which promised them the victory on condition of the sacrifice of a virgin of the royal family, offered his own daugh

ter as the victim. Her lover, to save her life, declared her to be pregnant by himself, and Aristodemus, to prove her innocence, stabbed her with his own hand, and caused her to be opened and sacrificed. The Messenians, though for some time successful, were finally obliged to submit by the loss of Ithome. About 40 years after, they again rose; and thus commenced the second Messenian war (685 B. C.), which ended in their subjugation. (See Aristomenes.) A part of the Messenians are said to have emigrated to Sicily, and there to have founded Messana (see Messina), on the site of the ancient Zancle (668 B. C.). After 200 years of servitude, the Helots (q. v.) and Messenians took up arms. This third Messenian war lasted ten years (465–455 B. C.), and resulted in the expulsion of the Messenians from the Peloponnesus. Epaininondas restored them. They rebuilt Mes sene (369 B. C.), and maintained their independence till the country was conquered by the Romans. The Messenians remained true to their customs, manners and language, through all changes of for tune. Delavigne (q. v.) has called his elegies Messeniennes. In modern Greece as organized since the revolution, two of the seven departments of the Morea, in the south-western part of the peninsula, have received the names of Upper Messenia and Lower Messenia.

MESSENIUS, John, born at Wadstena, in East Gothland, in 1584, was a Swedish historian. He was in the confidence of the great Gustavus Adolphus (q. v.), and became professor of law and politics at Upsal. His fame exposed him to envy, and his enemies accused him, in 1615, of corresponding secretly with the German emperor Sigismond, on which he was sentenced to imprisonment for life. He died in confinement, in 1637. Of his writings, the principal is Joan. Messeni Scondia (not Scandia) illustrata, seu Chro nologia de Rebus Scondiæ, hoc est Suecia, Dania, Norwegia, &c. (Stockholm, 1710, 14 vols., folio). His son Arnold was executed in 1651, on account of a libel against the queen and the senate. This libel was written by John, son of Arnold, who was then but 17 years old. The father; however, had been accessary to it. John shared his fate.

MESSIAH; a Hebrew word, signifying the anointed; in the Greek translation xoros, whence Christ. In the Old Testa ment, the word is applied to the whole Jewish people, to the priests, to the kings ("the Lord's anointed"-in the original,

"Messiah"), and even to Gentile kings. In the books of the prophets, however, it began to be applied, by way of eminence, to the Savior and Redeemer of the Jewish nation, and, in this sense, is used in the New Testament, with the extension of its meaning so as to signify the Savior of all men. The Jews deny that the Messiah is yet come, and still expect the restoration of their state and nation from his arrival. (See Jews, and Jesus.)

MESSIER, Charles, an astronomer, born at Badonviller, in Lorraine, in 1730, went to Paris at the age of 20, and was employed by the astronomer Delille, in copying and drawing maps. Delille, who was struck with his zeal in the study of astronomy, obtained a situation for him, and, in 1758, the observation of the comet, which then occupied the attention of astronomers, was intrusted to him. He was one of the first to discover the comet whose return Halley had predicted in 1759; and he carefully observed the newly-discovered planet Uranus. A telescope, a quadrant, and a pendulum, were his only instruments. His sight was remarkably keen, and enabled him to discover objects of search before other observers. The revolution deprived him of his former appointments, but he continued his observations through the reign of terror, and was afterwards appointed a member of the institute, of the board of longitude, and of the legion of honor. He died in 1817, at the age of 86. His observations are contained in the Mémoires of the academy, and in the Connaissance des Temps.

MESSINA (anciently Messana); a city on the eastern coast of Sicily, lying on the strait called the Pharos of Messina, with a safe and commodious harbor; lat. 38° 11′ N.; lon. 15° 34′ E. It is the see of an archbishop. The streets are broad, well laid out, and paved with lava, cut into blocks two feet square. Since the earthquake of 1783, the houses have been rebuilt, of fewer stories. The population is 55,000; 30 convents and about 60 churches, four seminaries of education, several asylums for the poor, hospitals, and monti di pietà, a senate-house, a royal and an episcopal palace, are among the public buildings. It has an extensive transit trade between Italy and the Levant, and exports silks, wines, oil, fruits, wool, &c. The cathedral is dedicated to the virgin, who is the patroness of the city, under the title of Madonna della Lettera, and contains a letter in the hand-writing of the virgin to the Messinians, a lock of her hair, an arm of St. Paul, and the skull of Mary Magdalen!

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The city was ravaged by the plague in 1743, and almost entirely destroyed by an earthquake in 1783. (See Sicily.)

MESTIZOS, OF METIS (Spanish, mixed). In countries where Spanish Europeans have settled and intermingled with the natives, the descendants are called Mestizos. In Mexico, the European Spaniards were called Chapetones, or Gachupines. The pure descendants of Europeans are called Creoles (q. v.), in similar countries. The Mestizo is described as having a transparent skin, a thin beard, small hands and feet, and a certain obliquity of the eyes. If a Metis marry with a white, the fruits of the union differ but slightly from a European.

MESTO (Italian); a term significative of a pathetic and melancholy style of performance.

MESTRE DE CAMP; formerly the title of the commanding officer of a regiment of cavalry in the French service. He was distinguished by this appellation on account of there being a colonel-general in the cavalry. The chief of a regiment of infantry was also formerly so called.

MESUE; a name given to the author of several ancient Arabic works on medicine, which were early translated into Latin. They are founded on the principles of Galen, and enjoyed great authority for a time, in the middle ages, and were commented upon down to the sixteenth century. There is much uncertainty respecting the name itself, and the life of the author. It seems necessary to suppose the existence of two physicians of this name, an elder one, who was body physician to the famous caliph Haroun al Raschid (q. v.), and to several other caliphs, and died at Bagdad about A. D. 851. Haroun al Raschid, and his successor, Almamon, employed him to translate several works from the Greek. The younger Mesue was born in the eleventh century. He is said to have been a Christian, and a pupil of Avicenna. His works on medicine, translated into Latin, were common text-books in the medical schools of the middle ages, and were commented upon as late as the seventeenth century.

MESURADO, CAPE. (See Liberia.)

META; a Greek preposition (perá) of a great variety of meanings. It is used in numerous compound words, which have been adopted in English, and, in this case, generally means with, over, beyond, after.

METAL; the most numerous class of undecompounded chemical bodies, distinguished by the following general char

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acters: 1. They possess a peculiar lustre, which continues in the streak and in their smallest fragments. 2. They are fusible by heat, and in fusion retain their lustre and opacity. 3. They are all (except selenium) good conductors, both of electricity and caloric. 4. Many of them may be extended under the hammer, and are called malleable; or under the rolling-press, and are called laminable; or drawn into wire, and are called ductile. 5. When their saline combinations are electrized, the metals separate at the negative pole. 6. When exposed to the action of oxygen, chlorine, or iodine, at an elevated temperature, they generally take fire, and, combining with one or other of these three elementary dissolvents, in definite proportions, are converted into earthy, or saline-looking bodies, devoid of metallic lustre and ductility, called orides, chlorides, or iodides. 7. They are capable of combining in their melted state with each other, in almost every proportion, constituting alloys. 8. Most of them combine, in definite proportions, with sulphur and phosphorus, forming bodies frequently of a semi-metallic lustre; and others unite with hydrogen, carbon and boron, giving rise to peculiar gaseous or solid compounds. Their names are as follows: 1. platinum, 2. gold, 3. silver, 4. palladium, 5. mercury, 6. copper, 7. iron, 8. tin, 9. lead, 10. nickel, 11. cadmium, 12. zinc, 13. bismuth, 14. antimony, 15. manganese, 16. cobalt, 17. tellurium, 18. arsenic, 19. chromium, 20. molybdenum, 21. tungsten, 22. columbium, 23. selenium, 24. osmium, 25. rhodium, 26. iridium, 27. uranium, 28. titanium, 29. cerium, 30. potassium, 31. sodium, 32. lithium, 33. calcium, 34. barium, 35. strontium, 36. magnesium, 37. yttrium, 38. glucinum, 39. aluminum, 40. zirconium, 41. silicium, 42. thorinum.* The first 12 are malleable, and so are the 30th, 31st, and 32d, in their congealed state. The first 16 yield oxides, which are neutral, salifiable bases. The metals 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 are acidifiable by combination with oxygen. Of the oxides of the rest, up to the 30th, little is known. The remaining metals form, with oxygen, the alkaline and earthy bases.

METALLIQUES; a kind of Austrian stocks, so called because the interest is paid in the precious metals, and not, like the interest of other stocks, in paper money. The name was afterwards used also in

*To this list we must now add vanadium, a

new metal, just discovered by Sestrom, director of the iron mines of Fahlun, in Scandinavia.

other countries, for instance, in Russia, for stocks of a similar kind.

METALLOID, in chemistry; a name given at first to the metals which have been obtained from the fixed alkalies and some of the earths. These bodies, having been found to be completely metallic, are now classed with the other metals, and no distinction is necessary.

METALLURGY, MetallurgicCHEMISTRY, is that part of chemistry which teaches the combinations and analyses of metals. It has been much cultivated of late.

METAMORPHOSIS (from the Greek (see Meta) and poop, the form); a change of form, used also for an entire change of the subject. The active imagination of nations in an early stage of history, indulges itself in representing metamorphoses of men, beasts, plants, stones, &c., and these productions of youthful imagination enter into their religion, philosophy, poetry (generally at first identical). Surrounded by the constant metamorphoses of nature, and seeking, as man always does, to connect effects and causes, yet unable, from his limited knowledge, to satisfy his desires, he is led to ascribe many changes, which riper ages find to be the consequences of eternal laws, to sudden metamorphoses. To these he resorts to explain the mysteries of his present condition (which perplex the mind of man in the infancy of society as well as in advanced cultivation), and, by a series of metamorphoses, accounts for the undefinable connexion between man, nature aud providence. To all this we must add the great interest which attends the story of metamorphoses. Even in this reflecting age, in which cool understanding seems to have acquired the ascendency, who can read, without interest, the tales of strange transformations contained in the Arabian Nights-those wild productions of a creative imagination? Of the metamorphoses of the Greek mytholo gy, while some startle the sober taste of our age, others belong to the sweetest productions of poetry. The popular belief in metamorphoses has by no means subsided entirely in all Christian countries. In natural history, the word metamorphosis is used sometimes for any change in the organization of matter, as, for instance, the transformation of food or rain into animal or vegetable organic substances, but more particularly for those sudden changes in the form of things, which are obvious and interesting even to ordinary observation, as the change of the pupa into a butterfly.

METAPHOR (Greek, μεταφορά, from μετα, α preposition often signifying in compound words, over, and pépw, I carry); a figure of rhetoric, by which a word is transferred from the subject to which it properly belongs, and applied to another which has some similitude to its proper subject, with a view to give impressiveness to the latter. The metaphor may be merely in an epithet or an auxiliary term, as "winged haste," the "spring of life," &c., or in the main subject of a sentence, as when a hero is called a lion, a minister a pillar of the state, &c. In respect to the points of comparison, the metaphor may either put something animate or intellectual for something inanimate and material; for instance, "the wrath of the sea," "the bountiful earth," to represent nature as if endowed with will; or, vice versa, may substitute the physical for the spiritual, as, "the stars of his merits will shine from the night of the grave." As the impressions which we receive through the senses are the liveliest, the designation of things spiritual by images taken from the material world may often produce a striking effect. Thirdly, a metaphor may consist in the transfer of a term from one thing to another, falling under the same great division of material or spiritual, but substituting the more familiar for the less, as when we speak of the "silver moon." Brevity and power are the characteristic excellences of the metaphor; novelty shows the original wit. Unexpected contrast may produce an effect sublime and ridiculous in the highest degree. Jean Paul, in his Vorschule der Aesthetik says, "The metaphor is the proof of the unity of both worlds (spiritual and physical). The metaphors of all nations are similar, and none calls error light, or truth darkness." Liveliness of conception, comprehensiveness of view, and activity of imagination, are necessary to produce good metaphors, which often produce great effects, sometimes to the prejudice of sober reasoning. He who wishes to study metaphors must read the Old Testament and Shakspeare. A slight consideration will show us how constantly we speak in metaphors, and that we convey most abstract ideas by metaphors of the second kind; thus, He is cold towards me, He is large minded, &c. It is maintained by many, that all language began by the designation of objects and actions affecting the senses, and that when the mind began to abstract, man was obliged to use his stock of words for abstract ideas, so that all words, if we had the

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means to trace them, would be found to refer originally to things material, which, it cannot be denied, is often the case. the speculative sciences, morals, metaphysics, politics, &c., metaphors, instead of being confined to the rank of illustrations, have often been treated as if they had an independent meaning, and have been made the foundation of reasonings. No philosophy deserves this reproach more severely than the most recent philosophy of Germany, which often takes ingenious metaphors as explanations of truth.

METAPHYSICs. What am I? What is all that surrounds me? What is mind, soul, existence, perception, feeling, thought? What is evil? What is time, space, cause, effect? What is truth? What is necessity? What is freedom? Can we know any thing with certainty? Questions of this character are continually suggesting themselves to the mind of man. It is one of his distinguishing characteristics to look for causes, and to establish relations among the numberless phenomena around him, and within him; to separate the generic from the special, and to reduce the whole system of things to harmonious order. His acquisitions and advancement are all owing to this disposition, ineradicably planted in his soul by his Creator. The rudest speculations of uncivilized man, and the profoundest systems of philosophy, are alike proofs that this desire cannot be extinguished, this anxious feeling cannot be lulled into apathy. All investigations relating to these great questions belong to what has been called, though arbitrarily, metaphysics. Such speculations it is neither possible nor desirable to check, though they may result in but distant approximations to truth. Revealed religion does not attempt to repress them, and even if the end of the whole should be that the search was vain, this itself would be a fact of the highest interest. A man who contemns metaphysics must think his own nature unworthy of examination. Metaphysical inquiries, indeed, have often been disfigured with overstrained subtilty and revolting sophistry, and too often arbitrary analogies, bold comparisons, and unmeaning mysticism have claimed and received homage as having unlocked the long hidden truth; but the same has taken place in regard to religion and politics, and all the great subjects which strongly stir the soul of man. In a historical point of view, all these aberrations, and even absurdities, mournful as they may