Ml JJi 'ARLES-FRAKfOIS-ANTnlN!. 



MORSE, SAMUEL F. K 





I in the Levant, thing unusual in the suspicious aristoorac; 

 of Venice. In 1S9 Morosini returned to Venice; the ento in 



body went to meet him at era, and escorted him in triumph to the 

 Unding ploe at the square of St. Mark, amidst the acdamationa of 

 whole population. ThU wa a proud day for Venice, the latt day o 

 triumph in her history of a tboniand year*. A few year* after 

 Morosini. UMD old and infirm, waa cent again to the More*, when 

 Ware* terminated hi* glorious career, at Nauplia in 1693. A statin 

 of bronie wat erected to him in the ball of the Council of Ten. In 

 IlltlnHrt of the great oaptain* of antiquity, the adjunct 'Peloponne 

 ateoaa' waa added to hia name. Hia tomb is in the church of 

 Stefaoo at Venice, with the inscription ' Franciaci Mauroceni Pelopon 

 Deaiaci Venetiarum Principu OSES.' 



MORREN, CHARLES-FRANCOI&ANTOINE, a distinguished 

 Belgian botaniat and naturalist lie waa born at Ghent, and educated 

 in tae university of that city. Hariug taken hia degree of M.D., he 

 waa apfointed when rery young profcaaor of botany in the University 

 of Liege. He is known throughout Europe for hia researches, more 

 especially in Vegetable Physiology. One of hia earliest papers was 

 pobUahed j n the ' Nora Acta Natura Curioaorum,' consisting of notice* 

 of the natural history collection in the University of Liege. In 1836 

 be published an essay upon the influence of light on the manifesta- 

 tion and development of animal and vegetable organism*. In this 

 easay he ahowed the influence which physical agent* exerted upon 

 the development of the ova and ipore* of animals and plants that had 

 long lain dormant. Thia paper wa followed by a series of researches 

 on the movement* of the stamens and other parts of the reproductive 

 apparatus of such plants as Goldfuuia anuopkylla, Siylidium gramini- 

 fotttum, and Sparmannta Afritana. He also pointed out the sens* 

 live nature of the leave* of the various species of Osalidatccr. In 

 many departments lYofeeeor Morren has worked successfully with the 

 microscope, and has contributed many papers on the functions and 

 tructure of the lower plants and animal* to the ' Transactions of the 

 Itoyal Academy of Brussels.' 



In bis physiological researches Professor Morren has never lost sight 

 of their practical bearing. In 1837 he was present at the meeting of 

 the British Association at Newcostle-upon-Tyne, and gave an account 

 of his researches on the structure of the flowers and fruit of the 

 Vanilla plant, and showed that it might be successfully cultivated for 

 commercial purposes in Europe. In 1844 he published a work on 

 those (act* and principle* of the natural sciences which were available 

 for the cue of man. He took also an active part in the investigation 

 of the nature of the disease of the potato, and wrote several papers 

 on that subject. 



Professor Morren baa not confined himself to botany in hi* researches. 

 The ' Transactions of the Royal Brussels Academy ' contain many 

 paper* from bis pen on ' Zoology ' and ' Palaeontology.' A aerie* of 

 these paper* are on the fossil bones of elephants, whales, and other 

 animals that have been found in various parts of Belgium. 



MORRISON, REV. HOIIKRT, D.D., the Hr.t Proteatant missionary 

 to China, was born at Morpeth, Northumberland, January 5 1782. 

 Ilii parents) were respectable and worthy persons in humble life. 

 After receiving some elementary instruction in English, writing, and 

 arithmetic, in a school conducted by a maternal uncle at Newcastle, 

 be was apprenticed at a very early age to bis father. In 1799 he com- 

 menced a course of religious reading and study. In 1801 he studied 

 Hebrew, Latin, and theology, under the superintendence of a 

 Presbyterian minister of the town, by whom he was introduced, in 

 1808, to the committee and tutors of the Independent Theological 

 Academy at Hozton, as a fit person to be received into that insti- 

 tution. In May, 1804, he offered his services as a missionary to the 

 London Missionary Society, and being accepted, he removed from 

 Hozton to the Mission College at Qoaport. In August 1805 be com- 

 meoced the study of Chinese under a native teacher. In January 

 1807 be was ordained as a missionary, and in September of the same 

 year be arrived at Canton. 



Before leaving England Mr. Morrison had procured from the British 

 Museum a Harmony of the Gospels,' and the ' Pauline Epistles,' 

 translated into Chinese by an unknown liomnn Catholic Missionary; and 

 the Royal Asiatic Society lent him a manuscript Latin and Chinese 

 dictionary. In 1803 he was appointed translator to the East India 

 Company 1 , factory at Canton. In 1810 the Acta of the Apostles in 

 China*-, which he hid brought with him, were printed, after he bad 

 carefully revised and amended the text In 181 1 a Chinese grammar, 

 be had prepared about three years before, waa aent to Bengal 

 to be printed, but after many delays, it did not iraue from the press 

 until 1816, when it was printed at Scrampore, at the expense of the 

 East India Company. In 1812 the Gospel of St. Luke in Chinese waa 

 printed, and by the beginning of 1814, the whole of the New Testa- 

 ment being ready for the pros, the East India Company sent out a 

 press and materials, and a printer to auperintend the printing of the 

 work. In IMS the London Missionary Society rent out the Rev 

 (afterward* I'M Milne to aasiat Morrison, and they proceeded with 

 the tnu.latiou of the Old Testament. In 1816 the Book of Genesis 

 and l p alm w.r.- printed. In the following year the Chinese dic- 

 tionary waa finished, and before the end of 1821 was printed by the 

 East India Company at a cost of 16.00W. In 1817 the University of 

 Glasgow conferred upon M r. Morrison the degree of D.D. The Anglo- 



Chinese College, for Chinese and Kugliah youth, which he had pro- 

 jected, was also commenced. He published in the same year 'A 

 f China for 1'hilological Purposes,' in English, and a trans- 

 lation of Morning and Evening Prayers of the Church of England ' 

 into Chinese. 



Hia great work, the translation of the Bible, wa* completed in 1818. 

 From 1810 to 1818 the British and Foreign Bible Society had voted 

 the sum of COOO/. at seven different times, to assist in the printing and 

 publication. The Old Testament formed 21 vols. 12mo. Tho Book 

 of Job and the Historical Books were translated by Dr. Milne, and the 

 other portions by Dr. Morrison. Of the New Testament Dr. Morrison 

 had translated the four Gospels, and from Hebrews to the end. In 

 1824 Dr. Morrison came to England, and was introduced to Ring 

 George IV., to whom he presented a copy of the Scriptures in Chinese. 

 During bis visit he endeavoured to promote the study of Chinese 

 literature in England. His first wife, whom ho married in 1808, having 

 died in 1821, he married Miss Armstrong, of Liverpool, in 1*. 

 soon afterwards sailed for China.. His time waa now occtipir.! in 

 preaching, translating, superintending the distribution of j 

 works, and promoting education. In 1832 he wrote to his friends in 

 England : " I have been twenty-five years in China, and am beginning 

 to see the work prosper. By the press we have been able to scatter know- 

 ledge far and wide." In the midst of these occupations Dr. Morrison 

 died at Canton, August 1, 1S34. His coadjutor, Dr. Milne, wh 

 some time before, said of Morrison, that " his talents were rather of 

 the solid than the showy kind ; fitted more for continued labour than 

 to astonish by sudden bursts of genius; and hia well-known cautiun 

 fitted him for a station where one false step, at the beginning, might 

 have delayed the work for ages." 



The translation of the Scriptures, the great object of Dr. Morrison's 

 life, was given to the world "not as a perfect translation." Dr. 

 Morrison i?ays he studied "fidelity, perspicuity,! and simplicity;" 

 " common words being preferred to classical ones." The authorised 

 English version was followed. Dr. Morrison always explicitly ataU'd 

 that the Chinese manuscript in the l!riti>h Museum was " the foun- 

 dation of the New Testament;" which, he says, " I completed and 

 edited." 



Tho translators contemplated the improvement of their work at 

 some future period, " expecting that they should be able to sit down 

 together and revise the whole." This expectation was never realised ; 

 Dr. Milne died in 1822, and the correction of errors and the verbal 

 alterations made by Dr. Morrison were not of great importance. 

 Towards the latter part of hia life, Dr. Morrison became mor 

 more confirmed in the necessity of a thorough revision, and he antiri 

 pated the probability of this being effected by bis son, who however, 

 on tho death of his father, was selected to succeed him as the translator 

 to tho Superintendents of British Trade at Canton, and could not 

 therefore devote his time to this object. It is no disparagement to 

 Dr. Morrison to assert that his work required revision : it was a first 

 version into the most difficult language in the world. 



It may serve to give an idea of the exertions of Dr. Morrison and 

 bis colleagues to state that from 1810 to 1886, 751,763 copies of works, 

 consisting of 8,000,000 pages, were printed in the Chinese and ' 

 languages at Canton, Malacca, liatavia, Penang, and Singapore. TbU 

 Deludes 2075 complete Chinese Bibles, 9970 New Testaments, and 

 )1,000 separate portions of Scripture in Chinese. 



(Memoirs of Hit Life and Correspondence of Robert Morriton, D.D., 

 compiled by hit Widow, to which is appended A Critical Eaay on the 

 Literary Labour* of Dr. Morrison, by the Kov. S. Kidd, Professor of 

 e in the University College, 8 vols. 8vo, London, 1839.) 



MORRISON, SIB RICHARD, architect, was born about th, 

 707, and wan the son of John Morrison, architect, of Cork, llu was 

 at one time intended for the Church, but subsequently became a pupil 

 of James Gandon, the architect, in Dublin. Through his godfather, 

 he Earl of Shannon, Morrison obtained a government appointment, 

 n the Ordnance department, but had to relinquish it in consequence 

 of reductions, when he got into practice as an architect, and in the 

 course of his life erected a largo number of buildings. For a few 

 mrticulars of some of these, reference may be made to Wealc's 

 Quarterly Papers on Architecture' (vol. i.), in which there is a 

 memoir of WILLIAM VITHUVIDS MORRISON, son of sir KieharJ, who 

 waa some time in practice conjointly with hia father, and who died at 

 he age of forty-four. Sir Richard Morrison waa last employed for 

 jord Longford and the Karl of llowtb. Hi* knighthood was received 

 luring the viceroyolty of tho Earl de firry. He left considerable 

 iropcrty, including a well-stocked library, and died on the 31st of 

 October 1849, at the age of eighty-two. He was president of the Irish 

 'in-titute of Architects. 



MORSE, SAMUKI. r. I 1 ,, the inventor of the American system 



of telegraphs, wa* born in Cborlestown, Massachusetts, on April 12, 



'791. Desiring to become an artist, he came to England in 1811, and 



rss a student at the Royal Academy, where in 1813 he gained a prize 



or a sculpture model On his return to America be practise. '. 



art with some success. In 1820 be again visited England, and in 1S32, 



.i..]i i'ii bin n IMII to the United States, the experiment of Franklin 



upon a wire some four miles in length wa* recalled to hia mind in til's 



ourso of conversation with a passenger, and it occurred to him that 



' if the presence of electricity could bo made visible in any part of 



