MAXIMUS TYRIUS MAYHEW. 



733 



the treatises on the differential calculus, and Toma- 

 sini's treatise De Maximis et Minimis ad Institutions 

 geometricas accommodatis Specimen, Pisa, 1774. 



MAXIMUS TYRIUS, a celebrated philosopher 

 of the second century, was a native of Tyre in Phoe- 

 nicia, whence he took his name. It is generally 

 supposed that he flourished under Antoninus. He 

 appears to have adopted the principles of the Platonic 

 school, with an inclination to scepticism. He left 

 forty-one Dissertations on various philosophical topics, 

 still extant, and written with extreme eloquence. 

 They were published in Greek, by Stephens, in 1557, 

 and in Greek and Latin, by Heinsius, in 1607. 



MAY, the fifth month in the year, has thirty-one 

 days (in Latin, Maius, from which May has been 

 generally derived ; the names of the other months 

 being also of Latin origin). Several etymologists 

 maintain, however, that the German May, or Mai, is 

 not derived from the Latin, but that May and Maius 

 may both belong to one original root. As early as in 

 the Salic laws, this month is called Meo, and it would 

 appear that the idea of youthful lieauty and loveli- 

 ness, so naturally connected by northern nations with 

 the month of May, gave rise to its name. In the 

 Low Saxon, Moj, in Dutch, Mooy, is beautiful, agree- 

 able ; in Swedish, Mio, in Icelandic, Mior, small, 

 pretty, agreeable ; in ancient Swedish, Mo, a virgin 

 (connected with maid, maiden). In Lower Brittany, 

 Mae signifies green, flourishing, and Maes, a field, 

 meadow ; German, Matte; in Lorraine, lo Mai and 

 Me, in ancient French Mets, Mes, signify a garden. 

 Whether all these must be referred to one Teutonic 

 root, and whether this, again, is connected with the 

 Indian Maya (see Magic), the goddess of nature, 

 cannot be investigated here. 



MAY, CAPE ; on the coast of New Jersey, at the 

 mouth of the Delaware bay, on its northern coast. 

 It is eighteen miles N. E. of cape Henlopen on the 

 southern shore. Lon. 74 52' W. ; lat. 38 57' N. 



MAY FLY. See EpAemerides. 



MAY, THOMAS, a poet and historian, the eldest 

 son of Sir Thomas May, was born about 1595. He 

 studied at Cambridge, and was afterwards admitted a 

 member of Gray's Inn ; but never seems to have fol- 

 lowed the law as a profession. His father having 

 spent nearly all the family estate, he enjoyed but a 

 scanty inheritance. May was much noticed by 

 Charles I., and the wits of his early courts. He was 

 the author of three tragedies and two comedies, also 

 of several poetical translations, as Virgil's Georgics, 

 with annotations ; Lucan's Pharsalia ; to the latter of 

 which he supplied a continuation of his own, both in 

 Latin hexameters and in English. Of his original 

 poems, the principal are Reign of Henry II., and the 

 Victorious Reign of Edward III., each in seven books. 

 According to lord Clarendon, disgust at being denied 

 a small pension, induced him, on the breaking out of 

 the civil war, to enter into the service of parliament, 

 to which he was appointed secretary ; and his well- 

 known History of the Parliament of England, which 

 began November 3, 1640, became extremely ob- 

 noxious to the royal party, who vilified both the 

 author and his production, without measure. He 

 afterwards made an abstract of this history, under the 

 title of a Breviary of the History of the Parliament 

 of England (1650, 8vo), and died a few months after 

 its publication, aged fifty-five, 1650. He was buried 

 in Westminster abbey, by the order of parliament, 

 which also erected a monument to his memory. This 

 was removed at the restoration, and his body disin- 

 terred, and thrown with many others, into a pit, dug 

 for that purpose, in St Margaret's churchyard. 



MAYENCE. SeeMentz. 



MAYER, JOHN TOBIAS, a celebrated astronomer, 

 born at Marbach in Wurtemberg, February 17, 1723, 



passed his early years in poverty at Esslingen. By 

 his private industry, without attending any academy, 

 he made himself a mathematician, and became known 

 by several original essays in this department, such as 

 Allgemeine Methods zur Auflbsung Geometr.. Pro- 

 bleme (Esslingen, 1741) ; after which, he went to 

 Nuremberg, and entered the establishment of Ho 

 mann, where he distinguished himself by his improve- 

 ment of maps. At the same time, he did not neglecf 

 to improve himself in other branches of study : he 

 acquired, for instance, an elegant Latin style, which, 

 in his circumstances, did him much honour. These 

 various merits procured him an invitation to Gottin- 

 gen, as professor of mathematics, in 1750, and the 

 royal society of sciences of that place chose him a 

 member. About this time, astronomers were em- 

 ployed on the theory of the moon, to assist in finding 

 the longitude at sea. Mayer overcame all difficul- 

 ties, and prepared the excellent lunar tables, by 

 which the situation of the moon may at any time be 

 ascertained to a minute, for which tables, after his 

 death at Gottingen, February 20, 1762, his heirs 

 received .3000 sterling, as a part of the reward 

 proposed by the British parliament for a method of 

 finding the longitude at sea. These tables have im- 

 mortalized him. To the same department belong his 

 Theoria Lunce juxta Sy sterna Newtonianum (London, 

 1767, 4to) and Tabulae Motuum Solis et Lunee (Lon- 

 don, 1770, 4to). He also rendered other services to 

 astronomy, especially by his improvement of instru- 

 ments for measuring angles, and the introduction of 

 the multiplication circle (which was afterwards made 

 more perfect by Borda, so as to be adapted to the 

 most delicate operations of astronomy), by the theory 

 of refraction and eclipses, by catalogues of the fixed 

 stars, &c. The manuscripts left by him are preserv 

 ed in the observatory at Gottingen. A part only o' 

 them have appeared, Opera inedita, ed. Lichtenberg 

 (Gottingen, 1774, fol.). 



MAYER, or MAYR, SIMON, a distinguished Ger- 

 man composer, born near Ingolstadt, in 1764, resided 

 a long time in Italy. He was liberally educated, but 

 tiis inclination for music seduced him from the 

 sciences, and, at the age of twenty-five years, he went 

 to Bergamo, where count Pesenti assisted him, and 

 enabled him to study at Venice, under the chapel- 

 master Bertoni. The death of his patron obliged him 

 to connect himself with the theatre, and in 1802 the 

 place of chapel-master in Bergamo was given him. 

 He composed a great number of serious and comic 

 operas, oratorios, cantatas, &c. His principal operas 

 are Lodoiska ; Misterj Eleusini ; La Ginevra di 

 Scozia ; Medea in Corinto ; La Rosa bianca e la 

 Rosa rossa ; and Adelasio ed Aleramo. 



MAYHEW, JONATHAN, D. D., son of a dis- 

 tinguished clergyman and successful missionary 

 among the Indians, was born at Martha's Vineyard, 

 n the year 1720, and educated at Harvard college, 

 of which he received the honours in 1744. In youth 

 he manifested talents, and great proficiency in his 

 studies : he was ordained the minister of the West 

 church in Boston, June 17, 1747. In this station he 

 continued during the rest of his life. He died sud- 

 denly July 9, 1766, in the forty-sixth year of his age. 

 Hie published a number of sermons and some contro- 

 ersial tracts, by which he gained as high a reputa- 

 tion as was possessed by any American writer or 

 clergyman of his time. His style is nervous and 

 chaste ; he displayed on every occasion critical and 

 xtensive learning, and singular independence of 

 spirit. Most of his writings passed through several 

 editions in England. The university of Aberdeen 

 sent him a diploma of doctor of divinity. He entered 

 requently into politics, and was termed a whig of the 

 first magnitude, or rather a principled republican. 



