101 



MARIE ANTOINETTE. 



MARIUS, CAIUS. 



10J 



After his persecution he made an epitome of the 'Bibliotheca' o 

 Photius, translated some homilies, revised his ' History of Spain,' anc 

 published a supplement, or rather a summary, or concise annals o 

 Spain from 1515 to 1612. At the age of eighty-three he published his 

 'Scholia ' on the Old and New Testament, availing himself of the besi 

 Hebrew commentaries, and some valuable and very early manuscripts 

 which dated from the age of the ancient Gothic dominion in Spain 

 This work secured for him a place among the best commentators in 

 the ' Histoire Critique du Vieux Testament ' of the hypercritical Father 

 Simon, who is usually unfavourable to Spaniards. Bayle, in his 

 'Dictionary,' supposes Mariana to be also author of a work 'lie 

 liepublica Christiana,' but neither Alegambe nor Nicolas Antonio, 

 both 'of them Spaniards, mentions it. Stevens, the English trans- 

 lator of Mariana's history, misstates some particulars of the author's 

 life, and very unaptly compares him with Raleigh. Mariana left manu- 

 scripts of at least twice the extent of all his publications. He died on 

 the 6th of February 1623, in the eighty seventh year of hia age and the 

 forty-ninth of his retirement to Toledo. 



Besides the authorities quoted there may be added : Mondejar, 

 A ihertenciaa 6, Mariana ; Juicio y Noticia de lot Historiadores de 

 Stpafia ; Andrade, Vida de Mariana ; Acosta, Vida de Mariana ; 

 Andr. Schot, Uispan. llluttrat. ; Baronius, A nnal, Ecdesiatt. ; Ber 

 nur.l. Girald., Pro Senatu Veneto, quoted in Colomesius, Uitpania 

 Orienlalis ; Rene 1 Rapin, Rtjlexioni sw IHitloire. 



MARIE ANTOINETTE, bom at Vienna November 2nd, 1755, was 

 the daughter of Francis of Lorraine, emperor of Germany, and of 

 Maria Theresa of Austria. In May 1770 she married Louis, the 

 dauphin, grandson of Louis XV., who in 1774 became king of France, 

 under the name of Louis XVI. She was handsome, lively, and 

 thoughtless, but kind-hearted and with good intentions. She disliked 

 the etiquette and reserve of the court, but she affected, rather too osten- 

 tatiously, a taste for privacy and domestic familiarity. Although her 

 thoughtlessness afforded a pretence for slander, her private conduct has 

 been generally allowed to have been guiltless. When the difficulties 

 and dissensions which produced the revolution began, Marie Antoinette 

 was on the tide that was for making resistance ; but unable to impart 

 energy to her husband, she only led him into inconsistencies. She 

 did not disguife her aversion to those leaders who had begun the 

 revolution, and would never stoop to conciliate their favour. After 

 the national assembly had assumed the supreme power, she refused 

 the offers of Mirabeau to support the interests of the crown, and thus 

 drove that able but unprincipled orator back into the ranks of the 

 revolutionists. But her influence in the councils of Louis has been 

 much exaggerated by her enemies. Louis, naturally disposed to con- 

 cession, was by temper irresolute, and he allowed himself to be led 

 away by the course of events, instead of striving to direct them. 

 Marie Antoinette was one of the advisers of the attempted fliylit of 

 the king, which proved unsuccessful, and only served to excite the 

 public animosity against her and her husband. After that epoch there 



Medal of Marie Antoinette. 



wan no longer much opportunity for her to exercise any political 

 influence; her husband had lost all power; besides which, a strong 

 faction supported by the armed masses had determined to do away 

 with the kingly office altogether. Mario Antoinette showed great 

 courage during tlie various attacks made against the royal family ; 

 she appeared much more anxious about her husband and her children 

 than about herself. She shared their captivity with resignation ; 

 her demeanour, under the most trying circumstances, never lost 

 it? dignity. Adversity imparted firmness to her mind, and she 

 exhibited a moral strength which astonished while it irritated her 

 bitterest enemies. After the death of her husband, ehe eeemed 

 forgotten for a time ; but the terrorist faction having overthrown the 

 Girondinn, its leaders resolved to make away with the ex-queen, an 

 net of cruelty the more odious as it was entirely useless. They 

 brought her to trial before the convention. She was of course found 

 guilty, find condemned to death. In the presence of her judges her 

 <le never forsook her, and the burst of indignant maternal feeling 

 with which si e appealed to the mothers who might be there present, 



when an infamous and absurd charge was brought against her, over- 

 awed even her accusers. 



On the 16th of October 1793, Marie Antoinette was removed in a 

 common cart from the prison of the Conciergerie to the place of 

 execution. On her way she was reviled and abused by the ferocious 

 mob in the most unfeeling manner; but she appeared heedless of 

 their vociferations, and suffered death with firmness and composure. 

 She was thirty-eight years of age, but her sufferings had given her a 

 much older appearance. She left one son, who died in prison 

 (Louis XVII.), and a daughter, afterwards Duchess of Angouleme. 



MARIE DE' ME'DICl, the daughter of Francis I., grand-duke of 

 Tuscany, and of the Archduchess Joan of Austria, was born at 

 Florence in 1573, and was married in 1600 to Henri IV. of France. 

 She was handsome, and Henri was for a time really attached to her ; 

 but she was violent, jealous, and obstinate, and seldom passed a week 

 without quarrelling with her husband. The memoirs of Sully and 

 others contain details of these domestic bickerings. But the best his- 

 torical critics acquit her of any more serious misconduct, and especially 

 of the odious insinuation thrown out by some writers, that she was 

 privy to the murder of her husband. Henri at that time was just 

 going to set off for the army, and he had signified his intention to 

 leave her regent of the kingdom. Herault only observes that she did 

 not show sufficient grief for the death of her husband. Mary was weak 

 rather than wicked; she had the aspirations of ambition without 

 corresponding mental powers ; and when she became regent, during 

 her sou's minority, she found herself incapable of bearing the weight 

 of the administration. [Louis XIII.] She next quarrelled with 

 her son, and made peace with him by means of Kichelieu, whom 

 she had introduced into the council ; but she afterwards grew 

 jealous of Richelieu's great influence, and plotted against him. 

 She wag exiled in 1630 ; went to Belgium, England and Germany ; 

 and at last died at Cologne, in 1642, in a state bordering upon 

 destitution. 



MARIOTTE, EDME. Little is known of his life. He was a Bur- 

 gundian born, a priest by profession, and resided in the earlier part 

 of bis philosophical career at Dijon. He was afterwards prior of St. 

 Martin, near Beauue, and died May 12, 1684, having been one of the 

 first members of the Academy of Sciences. See the eToge by Coudorcet, 

 vol. u, p. 74, of his collection. 



Several of the writings of Mariotte were published by himself, and 

 one or two more after his death. Those of the former class were 

 several times reprinted, and the whole were finally collected under 

 the title ' CEuvres de Mariotte,' in two volumes quarto, Leyden, 1717. 

 Another edition (perhaps the same with a new title,) was published at 

 the Hague, iu 1740. This collection contains treatises on percussion, 

 on vegetation, on the nature of the air, on heat and cold, on the 

 nature of colours, on hydraulics, on some phenomena connected with 

 sight, on levelling, on the motion of the pendulum, on the congelation 

 of water, and ou the logic of the sciences. 



Coudorcet says of Mariotte, that "he was the first Frenchman 

 who carried with him iuto experimental philosophy a spirit of obser- 

 vation and doubt, and inspired others with that caution and timidity 

 which are so necessary to those who interrogate nature and undertake 

 to interpret her responses." His writings, though more connected 

 with mathematical deduction than those of Robert Boyle, somewhat 

 resemble them in the miscellaneous character of the experiments with 

 which they are crowded. 



The principal results by which the name of Mariotte is knowu to a 

 reader of modern works are the following : 1. He was the discoverer 

 of that law of elastic fluids which now goes by his name; that is, of 

 the elastic force being exactly in the inverse proportion of the space 

 which a given mass of fluid occupies. Subject to such alterations as 

 difference of temperature may require, the formula derived from this 

 ,aw is now one of the fundamental parts of aerostatics. 2. He dis- 

 covered that air, and air in a state of condensation, exists in liquids. 

 3. He found that the part of the retina iu which it meets the optic 

 nerve is not capable of conveying the impression of sight. Amoug 

 minor matters, we may mention the now common guinea and feather 

 experiment, which he first made with the air-pump. 



MA'RIUS, CAIUS, was born of humble parents, at or in the 

 neighbourhood of Arpinum, about B.C. 157. He served at the siege 

 of Numantia, B.C. 134, under Scipio Africanus, together with Jugurtha, 

 where he highly distinguished himself. He received great marks of 

 jonour from Scipio, who used frequently to invite him to his table; 

 and when, one evening at supper, Scipio was asked, where they should 

 ind so great a general when lie was gone, he is said to have replied, 

 ilacing his hand upon the shoulder of Marius, "Here, perhaps." 



In B.C. 119 he was elected tribune of the plebs, through the influ- 

 ence of Ctecilius Metellus, according to Plutarch, but more probably 

 n consequence of the fame he had acquired iu the Nutnantine war. 

 'n this office he showed himself, as he did throughout the whole of 

 lis life, a most determined enemy to the patrician order, and ono who 

 was not easily to be put down by the threats and opposition of his 

 enemies. Having proposed a law to prevent illegal voting at elections, 

 ho senate passed a decree that the law should not be put to the vote 

 n the popular assembly, and summoned Marius before them to 

 answer for his conduct. Marius not only appeared, but threatened to 

 Commit the consuls to prison, if they did not repeal the decree; and 



