MERCIA MERCURY. 



777 



was about fifty-six years of age when he thus per- 



MERCIA, the largest kingdom of the Saxon hep- 

 tarchy, comprehended all the middle counties of 

 England, and, as its frontiers extended to those of 

 the other six kingdoms, as well as to Wales, it derived 

 its name from that circumstance (Anglo-Saxon Merk, 

 marches, q. v.). It was reduced by Egbert (q. v.), 

 king of Wessex. See Turner's Hist, of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. 



MKRCIER, Louis SEBASTIAN, a French writer, 

 remarkable for the eccentricity of his sentiments. 

 He was born at Paris in L740, and, at the age of 

 twenty, published a volume of heroic epistles, after 

 which he renounced poetry for criticism. In his 

 Essai sur I' Art dramatique, he attacked the reputa- 

 tion of Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire, proposing to 

 replace their works by his own productions ; and, as 

 the comedians paid no attention to his diatribe, he 

 published a virulent manifesto against them. In 

 1771 appeared, under the title of L'An 2440, a 

 declamatory tract, which was suppressed by autho- 

 rity. In 1781 was published, anonymously, the two 

 first volumes of his Tableau de Paris ; after which 

 he removed to Switzerland, and at Neufchatel printed 

 ten more volumes of that work, which was favour- 

 ably received, both in France and in other coun- 

 tries. Returning home at the beginning of the 

 revolution, he declared himself a friend to liberty, 

 and, in concert with Carra, published Les An- 

 nales Politiques, and Chronique dn Mois, journals 

 which displayed both moderation and spirit. He 

 became a member of the convention, in which he 

 voted for the detention, instead of the death of Louis 

 XVI. In 1795, he passed into the council of five 

 hundred, and was subsequently professor of history at 

 the central school, and a member of the institute at its 

 formation. Mercier died at Paris in 1814. Among 

 his numerous works are Mon Bonnet de Nuit (Neuf 

 chatel, 1783, 4 vols., 8vo) ; De I 'Impossibility des 

 Systemes de Copernic et de Newton (1806, 8vo) ; and 

 Satire contre Racine et Boileau (1808). See Ersch's 

 France Litteraire. 



MERCURE DE FRANCE ; a journal remarkable 

 for its antiquity. It is a continuation of the Mercure 

 Galant. and forms 1800 small volumes. The Mer- 

 cure Galant was established in Paris by J. Donneau 

 de Vise, in 1672, and continued until 1716 (form- 

 ing 571 12mo volumes.) The periodical then took 

 the title of Mercure de France, and appeared, unin- 

 terruptedly, from 1717 to 1778, in 603 volumes. 

 Panckoucke edited it from 1778 to 1792 (174 volumes 

 12mo.). It then became a daily, and sometimes a 

 weekly paper. A new series, until 1797, comprises 

 forty volumes, 8vo. It was continued, though once 

 interrupted, to 1803. At a later period, the Minerve 

 Francaise appeared, as a continuation. Another 

 periodical adopted the title Mercure de France. So 

 long a continuance must necessarily give value to 

 the contents of a journal, although they may not 

 have been of the most interesting character at the 

 time of their publication. Mercury is, in France, 

 as well as in Germany, a very common name for 

 periodicals. 



MERCURIALE ; the first Wednesday after the 

 great vacations of the French parliaments. On this 

 day, they held a full session, in order to discuss the 

 deficiencies in the administration of justice, and par- 

 ticularly in the course of business, and to take 

 measures for correcting them. The first president 

 and the crown-advocate had alternately the duty 

 of reporting to the meeting. From the day of 

 assembly, their speeches were called mercurials. 

 This name was also given to a reproof or rebuke, 

 because the members, on this day, received their 



reprimands. See Crown- Advocate, Parliaments, and 

 France. 



MERCURY (called, by the Greeks, Hermes) was 

 the son of Jupiter and Maia, the daughter of Atlas. 

 According to tradition, Arcadia was his birth-place. 

 Four hours after his birth, he left his cradle, and 

 invented the lyre, which he made by killing a tor- 

 toise, and stringing the shell with seven strings. He 

 then sang to it the loves of Jupiter and his mother 

 Maia. Having concealed the lyre in his cradle, he 

 began to seek for food ; for which purpose, he went, 

 in the evening, to Pieria, and stole fifty oxen of the 

 sacred herd of the gods, which he drove backward 

 and forward to confound their tracks ; then, going 

 backward himself, he drove . them backward also ; 

 and, after having killed two of them near the river 

 Alpheus, roasted them by a fire procured by rubbing 

 two sticks together, and sacrificed a part to the gods. 

 He concealed the remainder in a cavern. He also 

 carefully destroyed all traces of them. The next 

 morning Apollo missed his oxen, and went in search 

 of them ; but he could discover no traces of them until 

 an old man of Pylos told him that he had seen a boy 

 driving a herd of oxen in a very strange manner. 

 Apollo now discovered, by his prophetic art, that 

 Mercury was the thief. He hastened to Maia, and 

 accused the infant, who pretended to be asleep, and, 

 not terrified by the threat of the god, that he would 

 hurl him into Tartarus, steadily maintained his inno- 

 cence. Apollo, not deceived by the crafty child, 

 carried his complaint to the god of gods. Mercury 

 lied even to him. But Jupiter penetrated the artifice 

 of the boy, and perceived him to be the offender ; yet 

 he was not angry with him, but, smiling good-natur- 

 edly at his cunning, ordered him to show the place 

 where the oxen were concealed. To secure him, 

 Apollo bound his hands ; but his chains fell off, and 

 the cattle appeared, bound together by twos. Mer 

 cnry then began to play upon his newly-invented 

 lyre, at which Apollo was so much enraptured, that 

 he begged the instrument of the inventor, learned of 

 him how to play on it, and gave him a whip to 

 drive the herds, thenceforth belonging to both in 

 common. Apollo was still more astonished when the 

 ingenious god also gave the flute its tones. They 

 then concluded a contract with each other : Mercury 

 promised never to steal Apollo's lyre or bow, and 

 never to approach his dwelling : the latter gave him 

 in return, the golden wand of peace, the caduceus. 

 The ancients represent Mercury as the herald and 

 messenger of the gods. He conducts the souls of 

 the departed to the lower world (whence he is called 

 Psychopompos), and is therefore the herald of Pluto, 

 and the executor of his commands. His magic wand 

 had the power to close the eyes of mortals, to cause 

 dreams, and wake the slumbering. The qualities 

 requisite for a herald he possessed in the highest per- 

 fection, and bestowed them on others grace, dignity, 

 and insinuating manners. He was also the symbol of 

 prudence, cunning and fraud, and even of perjury. 

 We must remember that rude antiquity did not, as we 

 do, associate any thing dishonourable or base with 

 these ideas. Whoever was distinguished for artifice 

 and deceit, as, for example, Ulysses, was a favourite 

 of Mercury, and enjoyed his assistance. Mercury 

 was also distinguished as the god of theft and rob- 

 bery, especially when fraud and cunning were em- 

 ployed. The exploits of his childhood have this 

 symbolical signification. Among the actions of his 

 manhood, the following are examples of his cunning : 

 He accompanied Hercules when he carried off Cer- 

 berus ; delivered Jupiter from the cave into which 

 Typhon had cast him ; rescued Mars from the prison 

 in which the Aloides, Otus and Ephialtes had con- 

 fined him ; killed Argus, the keeper of the unhappy 



