METASTASIS METEOR. 



789 



already produced an oi;era, Jl Giustino, in his four- 

 teenth year. In 1724, he began his career as a 

 dramatic poet, with the Didone aLbandonata, which 

 was brought out at Naples with Sarti's music, and in 

 which he is thought to have depicted his own con- 

 nexion with Roinanina. His success was such that 

 Charles VI. invited him to Vienna in 1729, and 

 appointed him poet laureate (poeta cesareo) with a 

 pension of 4000 guilders. Thenceforward no gala 

 took place at court which was not graced by his 

 verses. Ferdinand VI. of Spain, who was delighted 

 with his operas, in which Farinelli (q. v.) performed, 

 sent the poet a flattering token of approbation. 

 Metastasio constantly declined all the distinctions 

 which Charles VI. and Maria Theresa were desirous 

 to confer on him, and died in 1782. Pius VI., who 

 was then at Vienna, visited him in person, and sent 

 him his apostolical benediction in articulo mortis. 

 The most important of Metastasio's works are his 

 operas and musical cantatas, which have appeared in 

 numerous editions. A ninth edition of his Opere 

 dramatiche was published in Venice in 1748 ; a bet- 

 ter edition is that of Turin (1757, 14 vols.). His 

 complete works, published in Venice (1781, 16 vols.) 

 contain his life. His Opere posthume appeared at 

 Vienna (1795, 3 vols.). Metastasio's purity, clear- 

 ness, elegance, and grace of style, the harmony, 

 sweetness, ease, and expressive rhythm of his arie, 

 canzonets, and songs, have rendered him a classic 

 among the Italians. No poet, perhaps, has ever pos- 

 sessed in a higher degree the power of embracing 

 the most essential circumstances of a poetical situa- 

 tion in a narrow compass. The songs, with which 

 his personages retire, are almost always the most 

 concise and natural expression of the state of the 

 feelings. His representations of the passions are, 

 .owever, general ; his pathos equally destitute of 

 individual character, and of general contemplation. 

 He is throughout musical, and never picturesque. 

 His melodies are light and pleasing, but are fre- 

 quently repeated with little variation : when one has 

 read several of his pieces, he is acquainted with all. 

 The gallantry of his heroes and the fondness of his 

 heroines are, perhaps, less to be blamed than the 

 choice of subjects whose serious character makes 

 trifling out of place. His tragic attempts failed. 

 His astonishing success through all Europe, and 

 particularly at courts, was owing partly to his being 

 not only in office, but in manner, a court poet. 

 Brilliant and superficial, arraying prosaic thoughts 

 in a poetical style, always preserving a courtly ele- 

 gance, with a constant observance of the conventional 

 proprieties of high life, he could not fail to please in 

 the courtly world. Few of his operas have maintain- 

 ed a place on the stage, on account of the change in 

 the musical taste. 



METASTASIS, in medicine ; the transfer of a 

 disease from one part of the body to another, or such 

 an alteration as is succeeded by a solution. 



METAURUS ; a town with a small river of the 

 same name in the country of the Bruttii. The river 

 Metaurus falls into the Adriatic. 



METELIN. See Lesbos. 



METELLA ; the wife of Sylla. 



METELLI ; the surname of the family of the 

 Caecilii, at Rome, the most known of whom were a 

 general, who defeated the Achaeans, took Thebes, 

 and invaded Macedonia, &c. ; Q. C&cilius, who 

 rendered himself illustrious by his successes against 

 Jugurtha, the Numidian king, from which he was 

 surnamed Numidicus. He took, in this expedition, 

 the celebrated Marius (q. v.) as his lieutenant, and 

 soon had cause to repent of the confidence he had 

 placed in him. Marius raised himself to power by 

 defaming the character of his benefactor, and Metel- 



lus was recalled to Rome, and accused of extortion 

 and ill-management. Marius was appointed his 

 successor to finish the Numidian war, and Metellus 

 was acquitted of the crimes laid to his charge before 

 the tribunal of the Roman knights, who observed 

 that the probity of his whole life, and the greatness 

 of his exploits, were stronger proofs of his innocence 

 than the most powerful arguments. Another, who 

 saved from the flames the Palladium, when Vesta's 

 temple was on fire. He was then high priest. He 

 lost his sight and one of his arms in doing it, and the 

 senate, to reward his zeal and piety, permitted him 

 always to be drawn to the senate-house in a chariot, 

 an honour which no one had ever before enjoyed. 

 He also gained a great victory over the Carthagin- 

 ians, &c. Q. Ccecilius, a general who conquered 

 Crete and Macedonia, and was surnamed Macedoni- 

 us. 



METEMPSYCHOSIS (Greek, from (*, beyond, 

 ', in, and -^v^ou, I animate) ; transmigration ; the 

 passage of the soul from one body to another. Me- 

 tensomatosis (from pi-ret, beyond, and wrupaTi&, I 

 embody) has a similar meaning. Generally the doc- 

 trine of transmigration of souls implies some change 

 in the soul itself for better or worse, for purification 

 or punishment. See Transmigration of Souls. 



METEMPTOSIS, (from ^TO., after, and *iv, I 

 fall) ; a term in chronology expressing the solar 

 equation necessary to prevent the new moon from 

 happening a day too late. Proemptosis signifies the 

 lunar equation necessary to prevent the new moon 

 from happening too soon. 



METEOR. (Greek, pinu^, in the air.) The 

 term meteors is often applied to all the phenomena 

 which take place in the atmosphere, but is some- 

 times restricted to the appearance of luminous bodies 

 flying or floating in the atmosphere, or in a more 

 elevated region, including those brilliant globes or 

 masses of matter which are occasionally seen moving 

 rapidly through our atmosphere, and which throw 

 oft' with loud explosions fragments that reach the 

 earth, and are called falling stones ; also those fire- 

 balls which are usually denominated falling stars, 

 supposed to be owing to gelatinous matter, inflated 

 by phosphureted hydrogen gas (see Falling Stars) ; 

 also the lights which appear over moist grounds and 

 burial grounds, called ignes fatui, which are ascribed 

 to the same cause. Falling stars appear under a 

 variety of circumstances, but particularly in autumn 

 and spring, when the sky is clear. Their size and 

 brilliancy are variable. They always move with 

 great celerity. They are higher than the region of 

 the clouds, because they are never seen in a cloudy 

 sky. Electricity, spontaneous combustion of matter 

 in the atmosphere, or the incandescence of little 

 globes of a nature similar to that of the bolides, are 

 the agents to which philosophers in general, though 

 without sufficient reasons, attribute the origin of 

 these meteors, with the true nature of which we shall 

 not become acquainted vithout more numerous and 

 exact observations. Meteors, in the most general 

 sense of the word, may be reduced to four classes 

 igneous or fiery meteors, including, besides those 

 above mentioned, lightning, St Elmo's fire ; luminous 

 meteors, as the rainbow, haloes, aurora borealis, 

 zodiacal light, parhelia, or mock-suns, paraselenes, 

 or mock-moons ; aqueous meteors, dew, hoar frost, 

 mist, clouds, rain, snow, hail, &c. ; and aerial 

 meteors, as winds, water-spouts. It will be seen 

 that these phenomena are of very different natures, 

 and owing to different causes. The only connexion 

 between them is that of a common medium, and we 

 therefore refer to the separate articles for informa- 

 tion concerning them ; also to Electricity. See 

 also the articles Meteoric Stones, and Meteorology. 



