Essex did not build or adorn any house; the queen perchance spending his time, and himself his means. Wotton. A good character, when established, should not be rested in as an end, but only employel as a means of doing still farther good. Atterbury. It renders us careless of approving ourselves to God by religious duties, and by that means securing the continuance of his goodness. Id. The Roman legions were all recalled to help their country against the Goths; mean-time the Britons, left to shift for themselves, and harassed by inroads from the Picts, were forced to call in the Saxons for their defence. Swift. MEAN, v. a. & v. n. Sax. mænan; Belg. MEANING, n. s. meenen; Teut. meinin; MEANT, part. Dan. meene. To purpose; intend; design; have in mind; think: meaning is, intention; purpose; sense; the thing to be understood; the power of thinking: meant is the perf. and past. part. of the verb. Genesis 1. 20. Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to save much people alive. When your children shall say, What mean you by this service? ye shall say, It is the passover. Erodus xii. 26. I am no honest man, if there be any good meaning towards you. Shakspeare. King Lear. The Scripture may have more senses besides the literal; because God understands all things at once; but a man's writing has but one true sense, which is that which the author meant when he wrote it. Selden. These delights if thou canst give, If we do presume to offer this service, we should do it in the manner appointed by himself-taking heed that our meaning be conformable to the sense of our words, and our words to the verity of things. Barrow. Some whose meaning hath at first been fair, I practised it to make you taste your cheer He was not spiteful though he wrote a satyr, MEARNS, or KINCARDINESHIRE, a county of Scotland, is bounded on the east by the German or British Ocean for about thirty-five miles, including the various indentations of a high and precipitous rocky shore; on the north by the river Dee and part of Aberdeenshire; and on the west and south by the county of Angus, from which it is separated, in almost the whole line, by the river North Esk. It is of a triangular form, and extends thirty-two miles in length from southwest to north-east, and twenty-four miles where broadest from south to north, comprehending an area of 380 square miles, or 243,444 acres. Dividing the whole into 100 parts, there are about thirty in full cultivation, twelve partially cultivated, eight in plantations, and one-half of such high hills or barren heaths as altogether to preclude cultivation, and even unproductive in pasture. The general aspect of this county is diversified; but it has been divided into the five following districts, i. e. 1. The Dee-side district, on the north side of the Grampians, through which flows the river of that name. 2. The district on the coast, north of the water of Cowie, which flows into the German Ocean near Stonehaven. 3. The coast district south of this water. 4. The valley or How of the Mearns, to the south of the Grampians; and 5. That part of the county which is occupied by the Grampians. 1. That part of the Dee district which lies north of the river Dee is between thirteen and twenty-two miles west from Aberdeen, and consists altogether of about twenty-six square miles, or 16,640 acres. It has been greatly improved by the exertions of the proprietors and tenants, though there is still not more than one-eighthAnd he who now to sense, now nonsense leaning, part of it in cultivation. There is more land in Id. Whatever was meant by them, it could not be that Cain, as elder, had a natural dominion over Abel. Locke. Means not, but blunders round about a meaning. Pope. No word more frequently in the mouths of men than conscience; and the meaning of it is, in some measure, understood: however, it is a word extremely abused by many, who apply other meanings to it which God Almighty never intended. Swift. MEAN'DER, n. s. & v. n. Į From the river MEAN DROUS. Meander, in Phrygia, which had a very winding course. Maze; labyrinth; circuitous course: to wind circuitously: meandrous, winding; flexuous. this quarter planted with wood, in proportion to its extent, than in any other district of the county. The southern portion is partly in a state of complete cultivation, and partly in a progress towards it. It extends east and west eighteen miles, and comprehends about fifty-four square miles, or 34,560 acres, of which not more than one-fifth is in actual cultivation. 2. The coast-district north of Stonehaven extends about fourteen miles along the coast, between that place and the Dee, and is about three miles and a quarter at an average breadth, between the sea and the Grampians, where cultivation has not reached, and thus will comprehend forty-five square miles, or 28,800 acres. Near the town of Stonehaven part of the lands is in a high state of cultivation. There are also small strips of fertile ground by the sea in the vicinity of Aberdeen; but the great proportion of this tract is the most wretched country that can be conceived. 3. The district south from Stonehaven extends about eighteen or twenty miles along the shore of the ocean. A bold rocky shore, from 100 to 300 feet in height, expands in general into plain fields, many of which are in high cultivation. Some of the hills (and generally the most barren) approach close to the sea; but the greater part are in the back ground. The soil in the lower parts is of every description, from the most worthless to the most valuable, oddly intermixed, the greater proportion being as product ive perhaps as any in Britain, and bearing luxuriant crops of beans, wheat, clover, &c. This tract, stretching inland from four to five miles, may comprehend about eighty-five square miles, or 54,400 acres, of which one half is in cultivation. 4. The How of the Mearns lies to the west of the district last described, and immediately south from the Grampians. It is a low well-cultivated country, abounding in seats, villages, and plantations. It is about sixteen miles long from east to west, and five miles broad at the west end, but grows narrower towards the east, until at its termination at the Water-shed, about four miles west from Stonehaven, it is little more than half a mile across. It comprehends altogether about fifty square miles, or 32,000 acres, of which five parts in six are in cultivation, and it is sheltered from the cold northern blasts. by the Grampians, which here present a front of from 500 to 2500 feet in height. The soil in this district, throughout the greater part, is pretty uniform. On the northern side, fronting the south, it may be defined as a gravelly loam, and on the opposite side, fronting the north, a loam derived from clay. Throughout the whole it is commonly productive. 5. The Grampian district stretches through the whole breadth of the county from east to west. Commencing where cultivation ceases, this bleak and hilly country, at about three miles from the coast, increases rapidly in altitude, but on a pretty regular scale of gradation, until, at the western extremity, about twenty miles from the sea, Mount Battock, nearly 3500 feet high, rises above them all. The tract thus occupied is, at an average, from sixteen to eighteen miles in length from east to west, and about from six to eight miles across from south to north, comprehending altogether an area of upwards of 120 square miles, or nearly 80,000 acres. Over the whole district granite is the m prevalent stone; and southward along the eas sandstone, puddingstone, limestone, and me rock. Limestone is found in several perso the county, but not in great quantities. P puddingstone composes a principal portion the rocks. In some places, consisting of a sta gravel, it is manufactured into millstones. I noted rocks of Fowls'-beugh, about three mis south from Stonehaven, form a range along t coast, about a mile in length, and 200 feet a height. Jasper, porphyry, and specimens asbestos, are also observed here. Pebbles z procured in every brook; and the Scots tope or cairngorum, is found among the Grampians y Kincardine. The animals are the roe-dest, in hare, badger, otter, wild-cat, weasel, polec and hedgehog. Of the birds, grouse are ple ful, and partridges and sea-fowl in the m country. 20 The principal rivers are the Dee, which ha course of seventy-five miles, eight of whià within Kincardineshire; the North Esk, 2 boundary between the counties of Kince and Forfar; Bervie water, which fans into t German Ocean near the town of Bervie; the Cowie, which falls into the sea at Stoneleve There are also the Carron, Feuch, Avon, a Dye, besides other inferior streams. There also two lakes, which are about three miles circumference. The chief antiquities are f nella's Castle, remarkable for its vitrified was about a mile and a half from Fettercairn; Quee Castle, about a mile eastward from that tow the Kame of Mathers, about six miles t Montrose; Whistlebury Castle, about twee from Bervie; and Dunnotar Castle, about a z south from Stonehaven; all placed on the s mits of lofty insulated rocks on the shore. valued rent of the county is £74,921. Krc dineshire contains one royal burgh, Inverbervie, or more commonly Bervie, k there are the towns and villages of Stondan Johnshaven, and Laurencekirk. The coury: divided into nineteen parochial districts. MEA'SLES, n. s. Belg. mazelen, BOK?" MEA'SLED, adj. MEA'SLY, adj. Teut. maselen, mass. masche; of Lat. murs. spots. An eruptive disease of man and som the lower animals: Mortimer also finds trees: measled and measly are, infected, scabbed, with measles. My lungs Coin words till their decay, against those mezar Which we disdain should tetter us, yet seek The very way to catch them. Shakspeare. Corsion One, when he had an unlucky old grange needs sell it, and proclaimed the virtues of thing ever thrived on it, no owner of it ever de his bed; the swine died of the measles, and the s of the rot. Ben Jonson's Durer Thou vermin wretched. As e'er in measted pork was hatched; Thou tail of worship, that dost grew On rump of justice as of cow. Huer Fruit-bearers are often infected with the The climate in winter and spring is here excessively severe, and the country, except in a very few places, is devoid of human habitation. In summer the glens or valleys are, however, uncommonly warm, and are somewhat enlivened by the fringe of pasture on the sides of the different brooks. But these valleys form but a small pro- by being scorched with the sun. portion of this district. Mortimer's Husto Last trotted forth the gentle swine, MEASURE, n. s. & v. a. משורה Swift. Fren. mesure ; Ital. misura; Lat. mensura; Hebrew Rule of MEASURING, adj. dimension, proportion, or quantity; hence sufficient quantity; due degree or proportion; limit; boundary; allotment; musical time; metre; tune; a stately dance; mean of action, referring, as Johnson observes, to the necessity of measuring the ground upon which any structure is to be raised, or any distant effect to be produced, as in shooting at a mark. Hence, he that proportioned his means to his end was said to take right measures: to measure is to compute by rule, or by passing over: hence to adjust; judge; mark out; allot: measuring, as an adjective, is applied by Waller to a cast not to be distinguished in its length from another but by measuring. For not to mesure, God gyuith the spirit. Wiclif. Jam. iii. Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days what it is, that I may know how frail I am. Psalms. With what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. Matth. vii. 2. Wine measurably drunk, and in season, bringeth gladness of the heart. Ecclus. xxxi. 28. The joyous nymphs and light-foot fairies, Which thither came to hear their musick sweet, And to the measures of their melodies Did learn to move their nimble-shifting feet. Spenser. Measure is that which perfecteth all things, because every thing is for some end; neither can that thing be available to any end, which is not proportionable thereunto; and to proportion as well excesses as defects are opposite. Hooker. Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths, Our stern alarms changed to merry meetings, Our dreadful marches to delightful measures. Shakspeare. Id. He shut up in measureless content. Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque pace; the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding mannerly, modest as a measure, full of state and anchentry. Id. My legs can keep no measure in delight, A true devoted pilgrim is not weary Who stood with shears and measure in his hand, Our religion sets before us not the example of a stupid stoick, who had, by obstinate principles, hardened himself against all pain beyond the common measures of humanity, but an example of a man like ourselves. Tillotson. A concave measure, of known and denominated capacity, serves to measure the capaciousness of any other vessel. Holder. All magnitudes are capable of being measured ; but it is the application of one to another which makes actual measure. Id. I addressed them to a lady, and affected the softness of expression, and the smoothness of measure, rather than the height of thought. Dryden. The vessel ploughs the sea, And measures back with speed her former way. Id. As when the stars, in their æthereal race, At length have rolled around the liquid space, From the same point of heaven their course advance, And move in measures of their former dance. Id. Silver is the instrument as well as measure of commerce; and 'tis by the quantity of silver he gets for any commodity in exchange, that he measures the value of the commodity he sells. Locke. What thou seest is that portion of eternity which is called time, measured out by the sun, and reaching from the beginning of the world to its consummation. Addison's Spectator. Christ reveals to us the measures according to which God will proceed in dispensing his rewards. Smalridge's Sermons. Amaryllis breathes thy secret pains, And thy fond heart beats measure to thy strains. Prior. God's eternal duration is permanent and invisible, the other homogeneous or similar quantities is not measurable by time and motion, nor to be computed by number of successive moments. Bentley's Sermons. The numbers themselves, though of the heroick measure, should be the smoothest imaginable. Pope. Can that arm measure, with an arm divine! And canst thou thunder with a voice like mine? Young. A series of inconsistent measures has alienated the colonies from their duty as subjects, and from their natural affections to their common country. Junius. In some mensure I succeeded; I had pride before, but he taught it to flow in proper channels. Burns. They think there is nothing worth pursuit, but that which they can handle; which they cau measure with a two-foot rule, which they can tell upon ten fingers. Sheridan. MEASURE, among botanists. In describing the parts of plants, Tournefort introduced a geometrical scale, which many of his followers have retained. They measured every part of the plant; and the essence of the description consisted m an accurate mensuration of the whole. As the parts of plants, however, are liable to variation in no circumstance so much as that of dimension, Linnæus very rarely admits any other mensuration than that arising from the respective length and breadth of the parts compared together. In cases that require actual mensuration, the same author recommends, in lieu of Tournefort's artificial scale, the following natural cale of the human body, which he thinks is nuch more convenient, and equally accurate. This scale consists of eleven degrees, which are as follows:-1. A hair's-breadth, or the diameter of a hair (capillus). 2. A line (linea), the breadth of the crescent or white appearance at the root of the finger (not thumb), measured from the skin towards the body of the nail; a line is equal to twelve hair-breadths, and is the twelfth part of a Parisian inch. 3. A nail (unguis), the length of a finger nail; equal to six lines, or half a Parisian inch, 4. A thumb (pollex, the length of the first or uttermost joint of the thumb; equal to a Parisian inch. 5. A palm (palmus), the breadth of the palm exclusive of the thumb; equal to three Parisian inches. 6. A span (spithama), the distance between the extremity of the thumb and that of the first finger when extended; equal to seven Parisian inches. 7. A great span (dodrans), the distance between the extremity of the thumb and that of the little finger when extended; equal to nine inches. A foot (pes, measuring from the elbow to the basis of the thumb; equal to twelve Parisian inches, 9. A cubit (cubitus), from the elbow to the extremity of the middle finger; equal to seventeen inches. 10. An armlength (brachium), from the arm-pit to the extremity of the middle finger; equal to twentyfour Parisian inches, or two feet. 11. A fatbom (orgya), the measure of the human stature; the distance between the extremities of the two middle fingers, when the arms are extended; equal, where greatest, to six feet. MEASURE, in geometry, de: otes any quantity assumed, as one, or unity, to which the ratio of expressed. See MEASURE, in music, the interval or space of time which the person who beats time takes between the rising and falling of his hand or foot, in order to conduct the movement, sometimes quicker and sometimes slower, according to the kind of music, or the subject that is sung or played. The measure is that which regulates the time we are to dwell on each note. TIME. The ordinary or common measure is one second, or sixtieth part of a minute, which is nearly the space between the beats of the pulse or heart; the systole, or construction of the heart, answering to the elevation of the hand; and its diastole, or dilatation, to the letting it fall. The measure usually takes up the space that a pendulum of two feet and a half long employs in making a swing or vibration. measure is regulated according to the different quantity or value of the notes in the piece; by which the time that each note is to take up is expressed. The semibreve, for instance, holds one rise, and one fall; and this is called the measure, or whole measure; sometimes the measure note, or time note; the minim, one rise, or one fall; and the crotchet, half a rise or half a fall, there being four crotchets in a full measure. The MEASURE BINARY, OF DOUBLE, is that wherein the rise and fall of the hand are equal. MEASURE TERNARY, OF TRIPLE, is that wherein the fall is double to the rise; or where two minions are played during a fall, and but one in the rise. To this purpose, the number three is placed at the beginning of the lines, when the measure is intended to be triple; and a C, when the measure is to be common or double. This rising and falling of the hands was called by the Greeks apoic and Scotg. St. Augustine calls it plausus, and the Spaniards compas. See ARSIS and Tutsis. MEASURE is also used to signify the cadence and time observed in poetry, dancing, and music, to render them regular and agreeable. The different measures or metres in poetry are the different manners of ordering and combining the quantities, or the long and short syllables. Thus hexameter, pentameter, iambic, sapphic verses, &c., consist of different measures. In English verses the measures are extremely various and arbitrary, every poet being at liberty to introduce any new form that he pleases. The most usual are the heroic, generally consisting of five long and five short syllables; and verses of four feet; and of three feet and a ea sura, or single syllable. The ancients, by variously combining and transposing their quantities, made a vast variety of different measures. Of words, or rather feet of two syllables, they formed a spondee, consisting of two long syllables; a pyrrhic, of two short syllables; a trochse, of a long and a short syllable; and an iambic, of a short and a long syllable. Of their feet of three syllables they formed a molossus, consisting of three long syliables; a tribrachys, of three short syllables; a dactyl, of one long and two short syllables; and an anapast, of two short and one long syllale. The Greek poets contrived 120 different combinations or measures, under as many different names, from feet of two syllables to those of six. MEASURE, in a legal and commercial sense, denotes a certain quantity or proportion of any thing bought, sold, valued, or the like. It is necessary, for the convenience of commerce, that a uniformity should be observed in weights and measures, and regulated by proper standards. A foot-rule may be used as a standard for measures of length, a bushel for measures of capacity, and a pound for weights. There are several standards of this kind in England and Scotland. See WEIGHTS and MEASURES, where the history of the late important alterations in the British standards will be found; and an ample table of ancient and modern weights and measures. MEASURING, in general, makes the practical part of geometry. From the various subjects whereon it is employed, it acquires various names, and constitutes various arts. See GEOMETRY, and TRIGONOMETRY. MEAT, n. s. Sax. mere; Goth, and Swed. MEATED. S mate, mat; Dan. mad; Welsh, mueth. Food; animal food in particular: meated is, fed; foddered. knowen not. But he seide to hem, I have mete to ete that ye Wiclif. Jon. iv. To his father he sent ten she asses laden with corn and bread, and meat for his father by the way. Gen. xlv. 23. Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats; but God shall destroy both. 1 Cor. vi. 13. Strong oxen and horses, wel shod and wel clad, Wel meated and used. Tusser's Husbandry. Never words were musick to thine ear, And never meat sweet-savoured in thy taste, Unless I spake or carved. Shakspeare. Comedy of Errors. Carnivora, and birds of prey, are no good meat; but the reason is, rather the cholerick nature of those birds than their feeding upon flesh; for pewets and ducks feed upon flesh, and yet are good meat. Bacon's Natural History. He gives the reason of the distaste of satiety, and of the pleasure in novelty in meats and drinks. Id. There was a multitude of excises; as, the vectigal macelli, a ta upon meat. Arbuthnot. MEAT. See ALIMENT, DIET, DRINK, and Foon. Among the Jews several kinds of animals were forbidden to be used as food. The flesh with the blood, and the blood without the flesh, were prohibited; as well as the fat of sacrificed animals. Roast meat, boiled meat, and ragouts, were used among the Hebrews, but they had no seasoning, except salt, bitter herbs, and honey. They never mingled milk in any ragout or hash, and never eat at the same meal both meat and milk, butter, or cheese. The daily provision for Solomon's table was thirty measures of fine wheat flour, sixty of common flour, ten stalled oxen, twenty pasture oxen, 100 sheep, besides venison and wild-fowl. The principal and most necessary food among the ancient Greeks was bread, which they called aproc, and produced in a wicker basket colled κανεον. Their loaves were sometimes baked under the ashes, and sometimes in an oven. They also used a sort of bread called maza. Barley meal was used among the Greeks, which they called alperov. They had a frequent dish called Optov, which was a composition of rice, cheese, eggs, and honey, wrapped in fig-leaves. The Μυττωτον was made of cheese, garlic, and eggs, beaten and mixed together. Their bread, and substitutes for it, were baked in the form of hollow plates, into which they poured a sauce. Garlic, onions, and figs, seem to have been a very common food amongst the poorer Athenians. The Greeks, especially in the heroical times, ate flesh roasted; boiled meat was seldom used. Besides beef, mutton, venison, &c., it appears from Hippocrates that they ate the flesh of horses, asses, dogs, and foxes. Fish seem not to have been used for food in the early ages of Greece. The young people only, among the Lacedemonians, ate aniinal food; the men and the old men were supported by a black soup called μελα ζυμος, which to people of other nations was always disagreeable. Grasshoppers, and the extremities of tender shoots of trees, were frequently eaten by the poor among the Greeks. Eels dressed with beet root were esteemed a delicate dish, and they were fond of the jowl and belly of salt fish. The dessert consisted frequently of fruits, almonds, nuts, figs, peaches, &c. In every kind of food salt was used. The diet of the earliest Romans consisted of milk, herbs, and roots, which they dressed with their own hands; they also had a kind of gruel, or coarse gross pap, composed of meal and boiling water; this served for bread: and, when they began to use bread, they had none for a long time, but of unmixed rye. Barley-meal was next eaten by them, which they called polenta. When they began to eat animal food it was esteemed a piece of luxury, and an indulgence not to be justified but by some particular occasion. After animal food had grown into common use, the meat most frequent upon their tables was pork. MEATH, a county of the province of Leinster, in the kingdom of Ireland. It is bounded on the north by the counties of Cavan and Louth, on the east by the Irish Channel, on the south by Kildare and Dublin, and on the west by Westmeath county. There are eighteen baronies, and 147 parishes in this shire, the area of which measures 327,900 acres. The surface of Meath, as the name imports, (Maith signifying a level country.) is almost a continued plane; the soil is a deep loam, remarkably fruitful in the production of corn, and also yielding the richest pasturage for the fattening of heavy stock. Meath was anciently a favored province; the great hall of Tarah, where the Irish kings of old assembled, where laws were digested, and whence they were published, and with the extinction of whose honors the majesty of the Irish throne may be said to have expired, occupied a central and commanding position here. Few counties possess greater agricultural capabilities, and none in Ireland has turned those natural advantages to a better account. The staple of the county is corn, which is exported from the port of Drogheda. There are many splendid residences of nobility within the boundaries of East Meath, amongst which should be mentioned Slave Castle (honored |