which the faculty of philosophy complimented him with the degree of M. A. In 1696, he published another piece, entitled, "Epicrisis philologica de reverendi Michaelis Beckii, Ulmensis, Disquisitionibus philologicis, cum responsionibus ad Examen XIV. Dictor. Gen." Besides the Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldee, he also taught the Syriac, Samaritan, Arabic, and rabbinical Hebrew. Having formed an acquaintance with the learned Job Ludolf, he was persuaded to accompany that eminent scholar to Frankfort, for the purpose of learning the Ethiopic language under his instructions; and though our author's stay there was but short, he made so rapid a progress in acquiring a knowledge of that tongue, as to secure the commendation of his master. In 1699, he succeeded Francke in the chair of Greek professor at Halle; and in 1707 was made keeper of the university-library. Afterwards he was nominated professor of divinity in ordinary, and admitted to the degree of doctor in that faculty. In 1732, he was made senior of the faculty of divinity, and inspector of the theological seminary He died in 1738, about the age of seventy. Besides the two articles above mentioned, he published "Dissertationes de Accentibus, seu Interstinctionibus Hebræorum Metricis;" "Dissertationes de Angelo Deo," 1701; " Nova Versio Latina Psalterii Ethiopici, cum Notis philologicis," 1701; "Claudii Confessio Fidei, cum Jobi Ludolfi Versione Latina, Notis et Præfatione," 1702; "De Peculiaribus Hebræorum loquendi Modis," 1702; "De Historia Lingue Arabicæ," 1706; "Dissertationes de Textu Novi Testamenti Græco," 1707, 12mo; "Biblia Hebraica," "Biblia Hebraica," 1720; "Uberiorum Annotationum in Hagiagraphos, Volumina triæ," 1720, quarto; "De Codicibus manuscriptis Biblio-hebraicis maximè Erfurtensibus," 1706; "De Usu Septuaginta Interpretum in Novum Testamentum," 1709; "De Targumin. De Libro Coheleth, seu LeEcclesiastes Salomonis," 1716; "De Cantico Canticorum Salomonis," 1727; "Introductio Historico-theologica in Sancti Jacobi minoris Epistolam Catholicam," 1722; "De vera Gratia Jesu-Christi, quà propriè Christiani sumus, et salvamur," 1723, &c. Moreri. -M.

MICHELI, PIETRO ANTONIO, an eminent botanist, was born at Florence in 1679, of parents in an humble condition of life. He was destined to the bookselling trade; but the perusal of Matthiolus inspired him with such a

love for botany, that he spent all his time in herborisation, and in the study of such other books on the science as he could procure. He was assisted in his botanical pursuits by some well-informed persons then in Florence; and at length became so devoted to them, that he entirely forsook all other employments. Nature had admirably fitted him for investigation; for he was fully master of his imagination, and could be contented with nothing less than proof derived from actual inspection; and he possessed an extraordinary sagacity in detecting those essential marks in individuals upon which specific and generic characters are founded. He obtained a liberal patron in the marquis Cosimo de Castiglione, who introduced him. to the learned count Lorenzo Magalotti, by whom he was first made acquainted with the system of Tournefort, then lately offered to the world. By the help of this method he was immediately enabled to arrange the treasures which he was continually collecting, and which at length amounted to a greater number of new plants than any botanist before his time had added to the floral catalogues. He carried his researches through almost the whole of Italy, and into Germany, as far as Saltzburg; and also, by correspondences in various countries of Europe, obtained a great number of specimens beyond the range of his personal examination. His enquiries were particularly directed to the more obscure and minute departments of botanical science, such as the plants with inconspicuous flowers, and the classes of lichens, mosses, fungi, algæ, &c., into which he was one of the first who introduced order and method. Nor did he neglect the other kingdoms of nature, but in his various journeys collected a number of observations concerning the testaceous animals of land and water, fishes and serpents, fossils and minerals. Modest, disinterested, and unambitious, he lived content in scientific poverty, "in tenui re beatus" as his epitaph expresses, having no other preferment than that of botanist to the grand-duke of Tuscany, and superin. tendant of the botanical garden at Florence, which situation so well suited him, that he refused all offers of settling in foreign countries. He derived his greatest pleasure from his herborisations in the pleasant and romantic tracts of Italy. A laborious expedition of this kind to mount Baldo and other parts of Lombardy, undertaken for the purpose of collecting plants for the public gardens of Florence and Pisa, was the cause of his death. The inclemency of

the weather brought on an inflammation of the lungs, of which he died in January 1737, at the age of fifty-seven. His friends erected a marble monument to his memory in the church of Santa Croce, near those of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and other great men.

Micheli published in 1723, "Relazione dell'Erba detta da Botanici Orobanche," octavo, an account of the herb orobanche or broomrape, which had become a great nuisance in the Tuscan territory, with a proposal for destroying it. His "Nova Plantarum Genera juxta Tourneforti Methodum disposita," 1729, folio, with plates, is termed by Haller, "Nobile et memorabile opus." It professes to give fourteen hundred species hitherto unobserved, of which the greater part are grasses, carexes, and the cryptogamous tribe. Though some of these were already described, and not a few varieties are reckoned as species, yet the work made a great addition to botanical knowledge. Some of the minute parts which Micheli thought he had discovered, such as the antheræ of the fungi, have not since been observed. A second volume, to contain marine plants and the account of his botanical tours, was promised by his successor Targioni, but never appear

ed.

After his death was published his "Catalogus Plantarum Horti Fiorentini," 1748, folio, to which Targioni made several additions. There are also three of Micheli's botanical tours described among those of Targioni. The name of this botanist has been perpetuated by Linnæus in the genus Michelia, a woody plant of Ceylon. Elogio di P. A. Micheli da Ant. Cocchi. Halleri Bibl. Bot.-A.

MICKLE, WILLIAM JULIUS, eminent as a poetical translator, was born in 1734, at Langholm in Dumfries-shire, Scotland, of which place his father was the minister. After an initiatory education under his father, he was sent to the High-school at Edinburgh, where he continued till the age of sixteen, when he went into the counting-house of his aunt, who carried on the business of a brewer in that capital after the death of her husband. An early taste for poetry, which he continued to cultivate, exerted its usual unfavourable influence over him as a tradesman; and though for some time after he was of age he carried on the brewing business for himself to a large extent, he was finally unsuccessful. In 1763 he quitted Edinburgh and repaired to London, in order to solicit employment in the sea service. He took with him a poem entitled "Providence," which he sent to lord Lyttleton, at that

time the noblest patron of the muses, for his inspection. It was returned with a polite letter; and a correspondence commenced between them, which was fertile in compliment to the poor poet, but produced no other advantage to him. Indeed, the specimens he at that time gave of his poetical powers could scarcely claim the meed even of a serious compliment, for they amounted to little more than flowery diction and smooth versification. His lordship's regard for Mickle was probably conciliated by the zeal of the latter for revealed religion; for in a letter to lord Lyttleton he mentions a design he had formed of an allegorical poem to be entitled "The Cave of Design," of which cave David Hume was to be the keeper. Several projects for a settlement at home and abroad in a commercial or official situation having failed, he at length accepted the humble situation of corrector to the Clarendon press in Oxford. In 1767 he published his most considerable original poem,

The Concubine," the title of which, after it had gone through three editions, was altered to "Sir Martyn," as the first title had occasioned some misconception of its nature. It is written in the stanza and antiquated language of Spenser, with an imitation of that poet's allegorical and descriptive manner, and displays much poetical imagery, with great facility of versification. The purpose is purely moral, that of exposing the evils and disgraces consequent upon lawless love terminating in a state of concubinage; but it may be questioned whether such a subject would not be better treated in a more familiar strain, and with the simple colouring of real life. But ease and sprightliness had no place among this poet's qualities. His name, however, became advantageously known to the public by this and some other productions, and a way was prepared for the reception of his greatest performance, and that which alone entitles him to biographical record, the translation of the "Lusiad" of Camoens. He had long entertained an idea of such a work, but it was not till 1771, that, having made acquisition of the Portuguese language, he published the first book of his version as a specimen. The approbation of his friends encouraged him to proceed; and that he might devote his whole attention to the task, he resigned his office at the Clarendon press, and took lodgings at a farm-house at Forest-hill. His work was finished in 1775, and published in a quarto volume with the title of "The Lusiad, or the Discovery of

most

India," &c. with an introduction on the Portuguese conquests in India, the life of Camoens, a dissertation on the Lusiad, observations on epic poetry, notes, illustrations, &c. That he might neglect no proper means of obtaining from it the emolument which his narrow circumstances demanded, a noble dedicatee was fixed upon, by whom his application for permission to dedicate was graciously received. As he was chosen only because he was a nobleman of high rank, perhaps the poet does not deserve much pity for the neglect with which he was treated; which was such, that his finely bound presentationcopy was never read, and not the slightest notice was taken of the author. His performance, however, acquired for him a rank among the English poets which he is likely to retain; and though it is only in the inferior capacity of a translator, yet as far as splendour of diction and melody of versification can go to establish a poetical character, the name of Mickle has not many superiors. It is true, that perhaps no metrical translator ever took greater liberties with his original, and that his Lusiad, and that of Camoens, have little more in common than the plan and outline. Their difference consists not only in the language, which in the Portuguese poet is as remarkably bald, as it is florid in the English poet, but in many of the circumstances and incidents of the piece. A late Portuguese editor of Camoens, while he does justice to Mickle's poetical talents, complains with reason of his licentious alterations. He gives an instance in which the transactions between Gama and the Zamorin are narrated in a totally different manner by the translator, who has painted a storm and a naval action in three hundred lines, of which there is not a vestige in Camoens, His suppressions are as frequent as his additions, and he has given to a poem, confessedly full of the faults of a barbarous age and country, the dignified air of a classical composition. He acknowledges, indeed, that his purpose was "to give a poem that might live in the English language," and this he has probably effected, though the defects of the original plan will ever hang as a weight upon the detached beauties of description, and render the perusal of the whole rather a task than a pleasure. The preliminary historical matter is respectably composed, but the comparative estimate of the merits of Camoens partakes much of the partiality of a translator, and is not free from critical arrogance. Previously to the publication of the Lusiad,

VOL, VII.

he had written a tragedy entitled "The Siege of Marseilles," which being offered to Garrick for his opinion, he allowed that it contained fine passages, but pronounced that it was not adapted to the stage. This sentence so much displeased the poet, who seems to have been of an irritable constitution, that he talked of writing a Dunciad of which Garrick should be the hero; but his tragedy being rejected also by Mr. Harris and Mr. Sheridan, he suffered his wrath to subside, though he appears never to have lost his own good opinion of the unfortunate piece. The success of his Lusiad, which came to a second edition in 1778, gave. him hopes of considerable emolument from publishing his works by subscription; but in the mean time a more lucrative employment than that of an author presented itself. Governor Johnstone, his patron, and kinsman in a remote degree, being appointed to the command of the Romney man of war, in 1779, offered him the post of his secretary. This he accepted, and was left in that year at Lisbon as joint-agent for prizes. A residence in that capital, where he was known as one who had done honour to the Lusitanian bard, was made agreeable to him by several flattering marks of attention, among which was that of being admitted a member of the Royal Academy of Lisbon at its first opening. During his abode he wrote his poem of "Almadahill, an Epistle from Lisbon," which did not support the reputation acquired by his Lusiad. Returning to England with a moderate independence, he married in 1782, and settled at Wheatley near Oxford. His subsequent literary exertions were chiefly confined to writing in the European Magazine. It is scarcely necessary to notice some previous prose writings, consisting of controversial pamphlets now forgotten. He died at Wheatley in 1789, in his fifty-fifth year, regarded as a man with some foibles and imperfections, but possessed of solid worth and integrity. Europ. Magaz. Monthl. Magaz. Anderson's British Poets. --A.

MICOTSI, MOSES, a learned Spanish Jew who flourished in the fourteenth century. He was the author of a work, entitled, "Sepher Misevoth Gadol," or, "The great Book of Precepts," explanatory of the commandments of the Jewish law, which was printed at Venice in 1545, and is frequently quoted. Father Simon says, that it is deserving of perusal on account of the great learning and judgment with which the author has treated on the sub

א

ject. Catalogue of Jewish Authors annexed to "Simon's Crit. Hist. Öld Test. Moreri.-M.

MICRELIUS, JOHN, a learned German Lutheran divine and profeffor in the seventeenth century, was born at Caslin, in Pomerania, in the year 1597. After commencing his academical studies in the college at his native town, in 1614 he was sent to the university of Stettin, where he entered upon his theo logical course. Here he distinguished himself by his exercises in the public schools; as he did afterwards at the universities of Koningsberg and Gripswald, in the latter of which he was admitted to the degree of master of philosophy in 1621. From this university he went to that of Leipsic, in which he finished his studies, and then returned to Stettin. In 1624, he was appointed professor of rhetoric in the royal college at that university, to which he rendered essential service, by procuring professorships of law, physic, and mathematics to be established in that seminary, as well as the grant of exhibitions for a number of students. In 1627, he was nominated rector of the senate school; in 1642, by the command of Christina queen of Sweden, rector of the royal college; and in 1649, professor of divinity. In the same year he was created doctor of divinity by the university of Grips wald, without the payment of the customary fees, which were discharged by queen Christina. In 1653, he took a voyage to Sweden, where he had the honour of being introduced to her majesty, and received from her obliging testimonies of her liberality. He died of a suppression of urine in 1658, at the age of 61. He was the author of "Lexicon Philologicum," quarto; "Lexicon Philosophicum," quarto; "Syntagma Historia Mundi;" "Syntagma Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ;" "Ethnophronius contra Gentiles de principiis religionis christian;""Tabelle Historicae, ad Millen. et Secularia Regnorum & Rerumpublic. Tempora dijudicanda necessariæ;" "Tractatus de copia rerum et verborum, cum praxi continua præceptorum Rhetor;" "Archæologia;" "Arithmeticæ, usus Globorum, et Tabular. Geographicar;" and a vast number of "Theses," "Disputations," "Orations," &c. of which a list may be seen in Freheri Thea trum Vir. Erud. Clar. Nouv. Dict. Hist.-M. MIDDLETON, SIR HUGH, a public-spirited man, deserving of record for his benefit conferred on the city of London, was sixth son of Richard Middleton, esq. governor of Denbigh castle under Edward VI., Mary, and

Elizabeth Hugh settled in London, where he was a citizen and goldsmith. He had early engaged in mining adventures in his own country, and worked a copper-mine in Cardiganshire, which brought him in a considerable income. When in the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. the citizens of London had obtained a power to bring a new supply of water to the city from streams in Middlesex or Hertfordshire, various projects were considered for the purpose, but were all abandoned on account of the difficulty and expence. The enterprising spirit of Middleton, however, was not daunted by these objections; and the city having made over to him and his heirs all the powers and rights conferred by the act of parliament, he began in 1608 to execute the work. Two springs, one rising near Ware, and the other at Amwell, in Hertfordshire, were united for the supply of an artificial river, which was conducted to the metropolis. It was probably owing to the imperfect state of the engineering art at that period, that so many windings were made in order to avoid inequalities of ground, that the length of the river was about double the distance in a direct line, and amounted to 39 miles. The expences of the undertaking were so great, that they exhausted the fortune of the projector, who, having in vain applied for assistance to the corporation of London, procured that of the king, to whom a moiety of the concern was made over, in consideration of his taking an equal share of the expence. The work was completed in 1613, on Michaelmas-day of which year the water was let into the reservoir at Islington, with great solemnity. Mr. Middleton was rewarded by his majesty with a knighthood; so little emolument, however, accrued to him. from the project, that he was reduced to become a surveyor and engineer for pay, and in that capacity was very serviceable in various schemes of mining and draining. He was created a baronet in 1622, and died in 1631. The value of the shares in this New River gradually advanced, especially after the com pany had obtained a further supply of water from the river Lee; and an original hundred pound share is at present worth at least ten thousand pounds-such has been the increase of London in wealth and population! Biogr Britain. Pennant's London, and Tour in Wales.-A.

MIDDLETON, CONYERS, a learned and celebrated divine of the church of England in the eighteenth century, was born in the year

1683, at Richmond in Yorkshire, where his father was minister. From the grammar-school, where his acquirements gave fair promise of future excellence, he was sent to Trinitycollege, in the university of Cambridge, of which he was entered a pensioner at the age of seventeen. In the year 1702, he was chosen a scholar upon the foundation, and was admitted to the degree of B. A. at the statuteable period. Not long afterwards he entered into deacon's orders, and officiated for some time as curate to one of the senior fellows of his college, at Trumpington, a village near Cambridge. In the year 17c6, he was himself elected a fellow of his college; and in the following year he proceeded M. A. About this time being inclined to corpulency, which might prove an impediment to those diversions and exercises in which he took delight, and was remarkable for his activity, he had the imprudence, by way of counteracting that tendency, to change entirely his mode of diet, and to make a very free use of acids; by which means he reduced himself to the contrary extreme, and brought on a complaint that obliged him to live in the most abstemious manner. Soon after Mr. Middleton's election to a fellowship, he took an active part in the measures which were then concerting in opposition to Dr. Bentley's imperious conduct, as master of the college; and he joined in the petition for redress, presented to the bishop of Ely, their visitor, which charged the doctor with several misdemeanours. Soon after this he vacated his fellowship, by marrying a widow lady of considerable fortune, who resided at Cambridge. This event, though it removed him from the jurisdiction of Dr. Bentley, yet it did not separate him so far from his friends at Trinity-college, as to prevent him from assisting them in the prosecution of their appeal to the vifitor; and he persevered in this business with that spirit and resolution which were natural to him, and which he was persuaded the cause both required and deserved. Accordingly, when by the death of the bishop of Ely the first prosecution at Ely-House was quashed, and the complaining fellows had petitioned the king, in the year 1715, that a visitor might be assigned, in order to carry on the process against the master, Mr. Middleton warmly supported it, and made interest, for the same purpose, with all the persons of influence at court to whom he could gain access. From this design Dr. Bentley could find no means whatever of diverting him,

though he had succeeded in softening, or even in bringing over almost all the rest of the complainants; on which account he considered Mr. Middleton to be his most determined and dangerous enemy.

Not long after his marriage, our author was inducted into a rectory in the Isle of Ely, which was in the gift of his wife; but finding the situation unhealthy, he resigned it in little more than twelve months. From this time he chiefly resided at Cambridge; where he was in the year 1717, when king George I. paid a visit to the university. On this occasion, though he was not regularly of a suficient standing, he found no difficulty in getting his name inserted with those of several others, in the royal mandate for the degree of doctor of divinity; which he accordingly received soon afterwards from Dr. Bentley, the regius professor. In our Life of Dr. Bentley we have shewn, how his rapacity in extorting exorbitant and unheard of fees for the ceremony called creation, was resisted by Dr. Middleton, the proceedings which consequently took place in the court of the vice-chancellor, and the final issue of that contest. This business having given rise to some letters in one of the London papers, censuring the proceedings of the university as violent and illegal, Dr. Middleton thought it expedient to lay the whole affai before the public, in a pamphlet, entitled, "A full and impartial Account of all the late Proceedings in the University of Cambridge against Dr. Bentley," octavo; which was soon followed by "A second Part of the full and impartial, &c." and by "Some Remarks upon a Pamphlet, entitled 'the Case of Dr. Bentley stated and vindicated," octavo. These pieces, which appeared in the year 1719, were the first of Dr. Middleton's productions from the press, and acquired him considerable reputation as an author; which he supported by publishing a fourth pamphlet, entitled, "A true Account of the present State of Trinity College, under the Oppressive Government of their Master," &c. octavo. In this piece, however, which was anonymous, he suffered some expressions to escape that laid him open to the legal attack of his watchful antagonist, who lodged an information against him in the court of King's Bench, for a libel. Upon which he published an advertisement in the public papers, avowing himself to be the author, and offering, if Dr. Bentley, or any of his friends, would undertake an answer in print, either to defend and prove every article which he had advanced, or