MIMES MINE. 



823 



have been published by Syminonds, with an account 

 of his life (7 vols., 8vo.) Thomas Warton published 

 an edition of the minor poems, with a valuable com- 

 mentary. In 1825, an unpublished work on the 

 Christian Doctrine was discovered among some 

 state papers, and published in the original Latin, 

 and in an English translation, by Mr Sumner, a 

 royal chaplain. This publication led to a new dis- 

 cussion, not only of the theological tenets, but of the 

 general merits of Milton, in the periodical works of 

 the time. The most celebrated treatises thus pro- 

 duced were the one in the Edinburgh Review by 

 Mr Macaulay, and the one in the Christian Examiner 

 (Boston, America) by the Rev. Dr Charming. 



MIMES (pup*, imitation). The Greeks gave this 

 name to short plays, or theatrical exhibitions, the 

 object of which was to represent some action of a 

 simple nature. They consisted merely of detached 

 scenes, generally of a comic character, and often of 

 a dialogue composed extemporaneously ; they were 

 commonly exhibited at feasts, but appear to have 

 also been occasionally represented on the stage. 

 The mimes of Sophrou of Syracuse were a kind of 

 comic delineations of real life in rhythmical Doric 

 prose, which Theocritus imitated in his Idyls. 

 Among the Romans, the mimes were, at first, irre- 

 gular comedies, calculated to amuse the people by 

 their broad humour; they afterwards assumed a 

 more artificial form. The actors who performed 

 them were also called mimes, and differed from the 

 pantomimes (q. v.), who represented every thing by 

 action. Decimus Laberius (50 B. C.) and Publius 

 Syrus, his contemporary, were the principal mimo- 

 graphers, or authors of mimes. See Ziegler, De 

 Mimis Romanorum, Gottingen, 1789. 



MIMIC. See Pantomime. 



MIMNERMUS ; the name of an ancient Greek 

 poet and musician, known, according to Athenaeus, 

 as the inventor of the pentameter measure in versifi- 

 cation. Strabo assigns Colophon as the city of his 

 birth, which took place about six centuries before 

 the commencement of the Christian era. Horace 

 speaks in the highest terms of his love elegies, which 

 he prefers to the writings of Callimachus, while 

 Propertius places him before Homer in the expres- 

 sion of the softer passions. Both he and his mis- 

 tress, Nanno, are said to have been musicians by 

 profession, and to have been celebrated for their 

 performance on the flute, especially, according to 

 Plutarch, in a particular air, called Kradias, used 

 at the Athenian sacrifices. A few fragments only 

 of his lyric poems have come down to posterity, as 

 preserved by Stobaeus ; they are, however, of a 

 character which leads us to suppose that the high 

 reputation he enjoyed was not unmerited. Nothing 

 is known of the time or manner of his death. See 

 Schonemann's De Vita et Carm. Mimnermi, Gottin- 

 gen, 1824. 



MIMOSA. See Sensitive Plant. 



MINA (/*), among the Greeks; a weight of a 

 hundred drachmae ; also a piece of money valued at 

 a hundred drachmas ; sixty of them were equivalent 

 to a talent. 



MINARET; a round tower, generally surrounded 

 with balconies, and erected near the mosques in Mo- 

 liammedan countries, from which the muezzin sum- 

 mons the people to prayer, and announces the hours, 

 bells, as is well known, not being in use among the 

 Mohammedans. (See Mosque.') 



MINAS GERAES; a province of the central part 

 of Brazil, so called from the richness and variety of 

 its mines. It is between 14 and 23 south latitude 

 and 45 20' and 52 30' west longitude, to the south 

 of the provinces of Pernambuco and Bahia. It is in 

 general. mountainous, with an agreeable and healthy 



climate, and a fertile soil, yielding a great variety of 

 fruits, aromatic plants, &c. Its mineral productions 

 are gold, iron, lead, quicksilver, arsenic, bismuth, 

 antimony, diamonds, and other precious stones, salt, 

 sulphur, &c. It contains a population of 514,500 

 inhabitants, of whom 131,000 are whites, 150,000 

 free mulattoes, 51,544 free blacks, and 182,000 slaves. 

 Chief town, Villa-Rica. 



MINCIO (Mincius); a considerable river of Italy, 

 which flows from lake Garda, and, after forming the 

 lake and marshes that surround Mantua, falls into the 

 Po eight miles below the city. Its banks are remark- 

 ably fertile, and are celebrated by Virgil, who was a 

 native of this country, for the beauty of their scenery. 



MINDANAO, or MAG1NDANAO; one of the 

 Philippine islands, and next to Lugon in point of size, 

 of a triangular form, about 300 miles long, and 105 

 broad, with many deep bays ; discovered by the 

 Spaniards who accompanied Magellan, in 1521. It 

 lies south-east of Manilla, at the distance of 600 

 miles. All the country, except upon the sea-coast, 

 is mountainous, yet it abounds in rice, and produces 

 very nourishing roots. There are infinite numbers 

 of the palm-trees, called sago. (q. v.) This island 

 likewise produces all sorts of fruits that are to be 

 found in other islands of this archipelago, but the 

 cinnamon-tree is peculiar to Mindanao, and grows on 

 the mountains without cultivation. In the sea be- 

 tween this island and that of Xolo, very large pearls 

 are taken. Lon. 122 to 126 27' E.; lat. 5 40' to 

 9 55' N. The population is about 1,000,000. Min- 

 danao, the principal town and the residence of the 

 sultan, is on the Pelangy, about six miles from its 

 mouth ; Ion. 124 40' E.; lat. 7 9' N. The town 

 properly called Mindanao contains only about twenty 

 houses, but Selangan, opposite to it, makes with it 

 but one town. See Philippines. 



MINDEN; a town of Prussia, in the province oi 

 Westphalia, government of Minden, on the left bank 

 of the Weser; lat. 52 17' N.; Ion. 8 53' E.; popu- 

 lation, 8960. It is one of the oldest towns in Ger- 

 many, and was formerly the see of a bishopric, 

 secularized in 1648. Its fortifications have been 

 repaired since 1814; the stone bridge over the Weser 

 is 600 feet long by twenty-four wide. It lies partly 

 on a plain and partly on a mountainous ridge, in 

 which is a singular opening, called Porta JVestpha- 

 lica, through which the Weser flows. Minden was 

 twice captured by the French in the seven years' 

 war (1757 and 1759), and a third time in 1814. The 

 government of Minden formed a part of the kingdom 

 of Westphalia in 1807, and, in 1810, of the French 

 department of the Upper Ems. In 1814, it was 

 restored to Prussia. 



MINDORO. See Philippines. 



MINE, in military language ; a subterraneous pas- 

 sage dug under the wall or rampart of a fortification, 

 or under any building or other object, for the purpose 

 of blowing it up by gunpowder. The gunpowder is 

 in a box, and the place where the powder is lodged 

 is called the chamber (in French, fourneau). The 

 passage leading to the powder is termed the gallery ; 

 the line drawn from the centre of the chamber per- 

 pendicularly to the nearest surface of the ground is 

 called the line of least resistance. It has been found, 

 by experience, that the figure produced by the explo- 

 sion is a paraboloid, and that the centre of the powder, 

 or charge, occupies the focus. The pit, or hole made 

 by springing the mine, is called the excavation. The 

 fire is communicated to the mines by a pipe, or hose, 

 made of coarse cloth, whose diameter is about an 

 inch and a half, called a saucisson (for the filling of 

 which near half a pound of powder is allowed to every 

 foot), extending from the chamber to the entrance of 

 the gallery, to the end of which is fixed a match, that 



