142 



MERIDEN 



MKIMMKE 



NK. of Cain peachy. It occupies tin- site of a 

 fiirinrr native city, and veto* founded by the 

 Spuii.irds in l.">4'-'. Merida has a cathedral and 

 thirteen churches, a university, seminary, girls' 

 high school, ami conservatory of music, an anti- 

 quarian museum, a public lifirnry, hospital, alms- 

 linii-i'. anil foundling aKylum. Its trade is not 

 extensive. 1'op. 32.000.' (2) A town of Venezuela, 

 capital of L<w Andes state, lies . r i21M) feet nlmve 

 eft-level, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada tie 

 \|. -i i.l.i. and 70 miles S. of the lake of Maracaylxi. 

 Founded in l.V>S, it was almost wholly destroyed 

 by cailhi|iiakc in 1S12 anil 1KU4. It is the seat of 

 a bishop, contains university and several Ugbw 

 schools, and has manufactures of carjiets and 

 woollen and cotton -tint-. 1'op. 10,750. 



Hfrillrn. a city of Connecticut, 19 miles by 

 rail X. Ky K. i>f New Haven, with a nnnihcr of 

 manufactories of metal wares, cutlery, firearms, 

 woollens, i\e. Mciiden contain- the state reform 

 whixd. I 'op. (1880) 15,540; (1900)24,290. 



Meridian I I.at. nim'dia, 'mid-day'), the name 

 given to tin 1 gieat circle of the celestial sphere 

 which passes through Ixith poles of the heaven-. 

 and al-o through (lie /.enitli and nadir of any place 

 on the earth's surface. Kvery place on the earth's 

 surface has eOWeqMatly its own meridian. The 

 meridian is divided liy the |xdar axis into two equal 

 portion-, which streteli from pole to pole, one OR 

 each side of the earth. It is mid-day at any place 

 on the earth's surface when the centre of the sun 



coin IIJHIII the i i.lian of that place ; at the same 



instant it in mid day at all places under the same 

 half of that meridian, and midnight at all place- 

 under tlie oppu-itc half. All places under the same 

 meridian have therefore the same longitude (sec 

 LATITMIK \M> LoNuiTrnK, where the <|iie.stion of 

 the First Meridian U discussed ). Stars attain their 

 greatest altitude when they come upon the meri- 

 dian ; the same tiling is true Approximately of the 

 him and planet-* ; and as at tins point the effect 

 of refraction upon these bodies is at a minimum, 

 and their appaient motion is also more uniform, 

 a-- nummers prefer to make their observations when 

 the Ixxlx is on the meridian. The instruments 

 nsed for this pur|x>se are called tncriilian circlet. 

 ''I THAI, CHICLE. 



Mrri'/iiiii MfHitiirfiiiriit. Two stations, having 

 nearly the same longitude, are chosen : their 

 latitude and longitude are accurately determined 

 (the error of a -i-cond in latitude introduces a con- 

 sidcrnhle error into the result), and the direction 

 of the meridian to ! measured ascertained ; then 

 a bane line i- mea-ured with the greatest accuracy, 

 a* an error here generally Ix-comcs increased at 

 every nnhnequeiit step ; anil then, l>y Triangulation 

 (see reference* at TRIANGLE), the length of the 

 arc of the meridian contained between the parallels 

 of latitude of tin- two stations in ascertained. As 

 the previously found latitudes of its two extremi- 

 tie* give the nunilHT of degrees it contains, the 

 average length of a degree of this arc can he at 

 once determine.!. This o|>eration of meridian 

 measurement lias hci-n |>erformed nt ditVerent 

 tiimit on a groat many arcs King Ix-twcen Us 

 X. lot. and :is. S. lat'., and the results show a 

 teadv though irregular increase in the length of 

 the degree of latitude as the latitude increases. 

 On the .ii]i|Miition that this law of increase holds 

 g<xid to the |xih-, the length of every tenth degree 

 of latitude in Knglish feet is as follows : 



This result shows that tl ..... arth is not spherical, 

 as in that case the length of all degrees of latitude 

 would he alike, lull of spheroidal form it- curva- 

 ture becomes less as we go from the extremity of 

 ii - greater or equatorial diameter to the pole. See 

 K VI:TH. 



Meridian, capital of Laudenlale county, 

 Miissippi, l.Ti miles l>\ rail X. l>y \V. of Mol.ife, 

 contains a foundry ami machine -hop, a cotton 

 factory, and manufactories of Minds and sashes, 

 furniture. \c. 1'op. (1900) U.o.Mi. 



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M4.8R2 

 MA.4M 



, PIIOSI-EK, a great French writer, was 

 IKU-II at Paris, '28th September 1803, the win of a 

 well known painter. He was educated at the 

 College Charlemagne, and tried law, but soon aban- 

 doned it. He was in Spain during the revolution 

 of !S3<>, anil after his return liccamc attached to 

 the go\ eminent, and held otlicc successively in the 

 ministry of Marine, of Commerce, and of the 

 Interior, liecoming finally Inspector of Ilistoiieal 

 Documents, in which capacity be visited the south 

 and west of France, Auvergne, and Corsica. He 

 had lieen long an intimate friend of tjie Countess 

 Montijo, mother of the Kmpress Kugenie, and con- 

 sequently enjoyed the closest intimacy with the 

 impeiial family at the Tuileries. Compicgne, and 

 Biarritx, yet without surrendering his independence 

 of spirit and frankness of speech. Admitted to the 

 Academy in IH44, he became a senator in )s~>:t. and 

 in 1SA8 inesident of the committee for reorganis- 

 ing the Hibliothiijiie Impcriale. His hist years 

 were clouded by ill-health ami melancholy, and 

 the misfortunes of his country and the downfall of 

 the impeiial house hastened on his death, at 

 Cannes, 23d Septemlicr 1870. 



Meiimce iH-gan his career as a writer at twenty- 

 two by an audacious liteiaiy i.vy... '/'"'" entitled 

 Thfulre tie C/tna (inzul, a collection of Spanish 

 plays of singular matiiritv. leprescnled a.s trans- 

 lated by Joseph L'Estrange, with his own portrait 

 in female dress as frontispiece. A volume of pre- 

 tended translations of lllyrian folk-son^s, by an 

 imaginary Hvacinthe Ma<;lanovitch, followed in 

 IvJT, under tiie title (,'iu/n. His more important 

 works embrace novtls and short stories, archa-o- 

 logical and historical dissei lat ions, and travels, all 

 of which display wide and exact learning, keen 

 olwervation, strong intellectual grasp, grave irony 

 and real humour, and withal a style that attains 

 an exi|iii-iieness of |>erfection rare even among the 

 best i'rench writers. K\er the refined and elegant 

 scholar, he wrote, rather than afl'ected to wiite, 

 as a dilettante '!< ijinth iinin auteur' as he was 

 styled by bis own countrymen. Of bis more 

 erudite works it may here lie enough to name his 

 Htstoire de Don 1'Mre /., Roi tie CaMle (1848; 

 Kng. trans. 1849); tudcs sur I'Jfittoire Komaine 

 (1844); Let faux Dfmttriw* (IS-W); ifi,nii>u,-nfx 

 lu,\ti,ri<iiitt (1843); and Melanyet fitstonqtiet et 

 litttrttire* (1855). But his greatest work is his 

 tales, alxiut twenty in number, some of which are 

 among the rarest masterpieces of the story-teller's 

 art: Culomlm, Mtitcu t'lilruiir, Curnifn, l.ti !' 

 il'lllr, l.nkis, Arsene Gutl/ol, I," I'luunhre Jilene, 

 and L'Abbt Auboin. One of the most remarkable 

 merits of some of these stmies, as l.n 1'nnii if/lie 

 and I.<ikis, is the dexterous manner in which an 

 uncanny sii]>eistiiion is turned to artistic use. 



Meiimee's character remains somewhat of an 

 enigma, with its outward mask of cynicism, its 

 inward capacity for the most tender and devoted 

 friend-hip, its longing for the love of little children. 

 In his constant struggle against impulse and 

 enthusiasm he succeeded, hut. as he himself says 

 of Saint-Clair in the I'/f.vr f:inixi/iir, the victory 

 cost him dear. Tew li\c- have Ix-en more solitary 

 and unhappy than Mcrimee'i, at once from a 



