320 



MORRIS-DANCE 



MOUT.M: 



Crtttir the Strong, The Story of Ike 

 Voltung* inn! .\ihlinty.i, iiml '/Vic. .\'<>rthern Lore 

 Stone*. The Home of tkt "..//fn./ ( 1HS9) wag in 

 prow ; as was aim The Root* of the Mountain* 

 (1890), R fine story of primitive Nortliern life, in 

 :tniticiallv archaic language, afterwards much 

 affected by him. The Glittering Plain and Netct 

 /rt>iH\oichere(\88\) a ul<>| ii:in n nuance follow ed, 

 anil in the name year J'IH-IH.I Ay the H'y. l>i '* 

 volume of original' verse. Later were The Wood 

 >>,,,,,n,l thr ir.,r/,/(18<l,->), Chilil Christopher (1886) 

 a variant of ' Havelock the Dane,' a verse trans- 

 lati,>ii of Beowulf (1895) and The Well at the 

 World~*End(\*m). In 1863 Mr Morris and others 

 founded the establishment for the manufacture of 

 wall-papers, stained glass, tiles and artistic house- 

 hold decorations, which has largely contributed to 

 reform English taste in colour anil design (the article 

 on painted or stained glass, Vol. V. p. 246, is by him). 

 Latterly a pronounced socialist, fervid in his 

 sympathy with the poor, but by no means syste- 

 matic in "his theory, he wrote and lectured much in 

 support of hU views, and edited and wrote for the 

 Common meal. Hope* and Fears for Art (1 892 ) were 

 lectures. In his later years much of his energy 

 was devoted to the Kelmscott Press, founded by 

 him, which in 1891-96 published in special typo- 

 graphy and with beautiful adornments a series of 

 some fifty works, including translations of medieval 

 French romances, Shelley, Keats, Rossetti, Herrick, 

 parts of Shakesj>eare, Coleridge, and Swinburne, 

 fai own Beowulf and some other poems, and finally 

 a magnificent Chaucer. He died 3d October 1896, 

 and was buried at Kelmscott, near the Oxfordshire, 

 mansion he occupied after D. G. Rossetti. See his 

 Life and Letters by J. W. Mackail ( 1899). Morris 

 strove to lead his contemporaries away from the 

 hideonsness and materialism of modern life into a 

 beautiful garden of dreams. As a story-teller, he 

 was endowed with the richest gift of imagination ; 

 and he was unsurpassed in the freshness of his 

 descriptions and the music of his verse. 



Morris-dance, a rustic dance, formerly an 

 accompaniment to the May-day games and Whit- 

 sun-ales, probably of Moorish origin. Douce con- 

 jectures it was introduced into England by John of 

 Gaunt on his return from Spain ; out Strutt main- 

 tained that the Morisco or Moor dance differed 

 from the morris-dance in England, having l>een 

 accompanied with castanets or rattles at the end of 

 the fingers, and not with bells attached to various 

 parts of the dress. The principal performers of the 

 morris dance were Robin Hood, Maid Marian, the 

 hobby-horse, and the Bavian or fool. 



Morrison. KOIIKHT. the founder of Protestant 

 missions in China, wm* born ol Scottish parentage 

 nt Morpeth, in Northumlicrland, , r ith January I7s'_'. 

 Hi- studied at one of the Independent colleges, 

 ami in 1807 he was sent t<> \L-u-ao ami Canton 

 by the London Missionary Society. In February 

 1809 he wa- appointed translator to the Ka-t India 

 Company's factory at Canton, and by 1HI4 he had 

 completed the translation ami printing of the whole 

 of the New Testament. Four years later, by the 

 help of William (afterwards Dr) Milne, he had 

 done the same with the Old Testament; and in 

 ls-j:t he completed and printed his great (.'/, 

 />! tinii'iri/ in six large quarto volumes, at an 

 \pcnse to the East India Company of 12,000. 

 It iK'cnjiied him for sixteen years, ami in connec- 

 tion with it he had accumulated a library of 

 10. IKK) Chinese bonks. It eontain.il 40,(KK) words 

 expressed by Chinese characters, and was after- 

 wards translated into Japanese. In 1816 he 

 acted UK interpreter to Lord Amherst. In 1K18 he 

 established an Anglo Chinese College at Malacca. 

 When hu returned to England in 1824, he brought 



with him his collection of books, ultimately pr- 

 sen ted to tin' Council of I" Diversity College, I/mdon. 

 After visiting France. Ireland, and Scotland, he 

 in IS-ti returned to China. In 1834 he acrom 

 panicd Lord Napier to Canton as interpreter, and 

 died tli. MC l-t August. Besides the works already 

 mentioned, he is the author of il"nr >Y /< i ISl-Jl. 

 licing translations iroui the popular literature of 

 the Chinese, a ''/,,/,, s , Ci-nininur (1815), and 

 r/,,,,,-.vr Miscellany (1825). In 1839 his widow 

 published his Mnnoirs. See also Townsemi - 

 Robert Morrison (1888). 



Morristown. capital of Morris county, New 

 Jersey, on the Whippany River, 30 miles by rail 

 W. of New York. It is a pleasant summer- resort, 

 with some historic associations, and has ironworks 

 and various mills: 3 mil.- to the north is a large 

 state lunatic asylum. Pop. ( 19UO) Il,'2ti7. 



Morse. See WALRUS. 



Morse, SAMUEL FINLEV RREKSK, American 

 artist and inventor, was the eldest son of IJev. lr 

 Jedidiah Morse, geographer, and was born at 

 Charlestown, Massachusetts, April 27, 1791. II.- 

 graduated at Yale College in 1810, and visited 

 England with the American painter Washington 

 All-ton, to study painting with him and Itenjamin 

 West. In 1813 he received the gold medal of the 

 Adelphi Society of Arts for his first effort in sculp 

 ture, the ' Dying Hercules.' Returning to New 

 York in 1815, he became the first president of the 

 National Academy of Design, which was estab- 

 lished in 1826, and filled the office till 1842, and 

 was appointed professor of the Arts of Design in 

 the university of the city of New York in IS3.1. 

 He did not give his entire attention to art. but 

 devoted mnch study to chemistry, especially to 

 electrical and galvanic experiments ; and on a 

 voyage from Havre to New York in 1832 he con- 

 ceived the idea of a magnetic telegraph, which he 

 exhibited to congress in 1837, and vainly attempted 

 to patent in England. His claims to priority of 

 invention over Professor Wheatstone in England 

 have Iwen the subject of considerable controvei-% 

 (see TELEGRAPH). He straggled on heroically 

 against scanty means until 1843, when at length 

 congress, at midnight, in the last moments of the 

 session, appropriated 30,000 dollars for an experi- 

 mental telegraph line between Washington and 

 Baltimore. Morse lived to see his system of tele- 

 graphy adopted in France, Germany, Denmark, 

 Sweden, Russia, and Australia. Honours both 

 from home and abroad were heaped upon him, and 

 an international present of 400,000 francs was 



fiven him in 1858, at the instance of Napoleon 

 II. A bronze statue was erected to him in New 

 York in 1N71. He died in New York. IS72. See 

 the Life by S. I. Prime ( New York, 1875). 



Morslllinsk. a town of Russia, 58 miles N. of 

 Tamhon" and 1 111 by rail W. by N. of Penza, has 

 distilleries anil an active trade in wheat, hemp- 

 seed, and tallow. It was almost burned to the 

 ground in 174. Pop. 21,190. 



Mortality. The subject of general tables of 

 mortality is discussed at INSI I:\M-K : see also 

 VITAL STATISTICS. Weekly ' Bills of Mortality,' 

 weekly reports as to christenings and burials, were 

 first prepared by the parish clerks of London about 

 1.VI2 !t:t, in eOBMOMOae of the frequent, recurrence 

 of the plague. The area 'within the old bills of 

 mortality' was gradually increased, till in 1726 it 

 extended to 21,587 acres. In 1801 the 'New 

 Tables of Mortality ' gave the registration district 

 an area of 30,000 acres, which lias also been ex- 

 tended till ' Hegist ration London ' had in 1871-81 

 an area of 75,362 acres. See LIIMMIN. 



Mortar, a short and very thick piece of artillery 

 of large calibre, firing a heavy shell at a fixed 



