840 



MIRANDOLA MIRROR. 



through P&hion's influence, was appointed major- 

 general. Under Dumouriez, he was second in com- 

 mand in Champagne and Belgium, and his skill as 

 an engineer and tactician, united with his uncommon 

 talents, obtained for him the esteem of the republi- 

 cans in Paris, as well as the respect of the army. 

 When Dumouriez entered Holland, Miranda was 

 directed to besiege Maestricht, but, being unsup- 

 ported by general Valence, was obliged to abandon 

 the siege. In the battle of Neerwinden, he com- 

 manded the left wing : Dumouriez imputed to him 

 the loss of the battle ; but the charge was refuted by 

 Miranda, in an able and ingenious defence. Du- 

 mouriez and Miranda had both declared against the 

 Jacobins ; but the former now became an object of 

 suspicion to Miranda, who communicated his fears to 

 his friend Pethion, then a member of the committee 

 of public safety, and Miranda was ordered to arrest 

 the commander. (See Dumouriez.) The Giron- 

 dists, however, soon fell before the Mountain party, 

 and Miranda was obliged to appear before the revo- 

 lutionary tribunal. He was not convicted of the 

 charges brought against him, and the fall of Robes- 

 pierre delivered him from prison. Having, how- 

 ever, become suspected by the directory, he was 

 again thrown into prison, and, in 1797, was con- 

 demned to transportation, but fled to England. In 

 1803, he returned to Paris, and was again banished, 

 for taking part in an opposition to the first consul. 

 General Miranda now devoted himself, with all the 

 energy of his character, to the accomplishment of 

 his long cherished scheme of overthrowing the 

 Spanish dominion in America. Having procured 

 some secret assistance, he sailed from New York 

 in 1806, with one ship and a number of volunteers, 

 and touched at St Domingo, where he chartered two 

 schooners. On arriving off the coast, the two latter 

 were captured by Spanish guardacostas, and he was 

 obliged to escape with his ship. In August, he 

 landed in Venezuela ; but his attempts to rouse the 

 inhabitants were altogether unsuccessful, and he 

 found himself compelled to re-embark. In 1810, he 

 renewed his attempt with more success (see Colom- 

 bia), but was finally obliged to capitulate to the 

 Spanish general Monteverde, who, in violation of the 

 articles of his surrender, treated him as a prisoner. 

 Miranda was sent to Spain, and confined in the 

 dungeons of the inquisition at Cadiz, where he died, 

 after four years' imprisonment. The monks caused 

 his body to be thrown out without burial. Miranda 

 was a man of great energy and sagacity, full of 

 resources, bold, active, and intelligent. 



MIRANDOLA, GIOVANNI Pico DELLA, count and 

 prince of Concordia, surnamed the Phoenix, one of 

 the brightest ornaments of literature at the time of 

 the revival of letters, born in 1463, was the youngest 

 son of Gianfrancesco della Mirandola and Julia, of 

 the noble family of Boiardo. His youth was marked 

 by an early display of talent, and, being destined for 

 the church, he was placed at Bologna, to pursue the 

 study of the canon law, at the age of fourteen years. 

 Two years were spent in this course, when his grow- 

 ing repugnance to the study, and his inclination to 

 philosophical and scientific subjects, led him to visit 

 the different parts of Italy and France for the pur- 

 pose of observation, and to attend the most cele- 

 brated schools and most distinguished professors. 

 After seven years of the most assiduous application, he 

 went to Rome, and, in 1486, proposed 900 theses 

 on all subjects, which he declared himself ready to 

 defend, according to the custom of the times, in 

 public. He challenged all the learned from all 

 countries to dispute, with him, and offered to pay 

 the expenses of the journey to those who came from 

 a distance. No one ventured to appear against him. 



and the envious endeavoured to implicate him in 

 a charge of heresy. Mirandola repelled the charge, 

 in his Apologia, a work full of profound erudition. 

 To deprive his enemies of every pretext for their 

 accusations, he determined, although not insensible 

 to love and its pleasures, to lead the most rigid 

 course of life, and to devote himself entirely to let- 

 ters. In consequence of this resolution, he threw 

 into the fire five books of amatory poems in Italian, 

 the loss of which is much to be regretted. None of 

 his writings on this subject have been preserved, 

 except a commentary on a canzone of Girolamo 

 Benivieni, in which he follows the notions of the 

 New Platonists in respect to love. Having next 

 applied himself to the study of biblical literature, he 

 published the fruits in his Heptaplus, a mystical or 

 cabalistic explanation of the history of the creation, 

 in which he derives Plato's doctrines from Moses. 

 Two years after, he published a treatise in ten chap- 

 ters De Ente et Una in which he aimed to unite 

 the opinions of Plato and Aristotle. Mirandola died 

 at Florence, in 1494, where he had lived some time 

 in terms of intimacy with some of the most learned 

 and distinguished men of the age, particularly Lo- 

 renzo de' Medici and Politian. At the time of his 

 death, he was employed in great literary enterprises, 

 to which his treatise against astrology must be con- 

 sidered as preparatory. He was considered by his 

 contemporaries a miracle of learning and genius. 

 Paolo Giovio says that the immortal gods had united 

 in him all rare gifts of mind and body. In judging 

 of his works, it is necessary, however, to remember 

 the state of letters at the time when he lived. His 

 nephew Gianfrancesco Pico was a disciple of his, but 

 not equal to his master. 



MIRE, NOEL DE ; a good engraver of Rouen, 

 among whose works are ornamental engravings 

 accompanying the writings of Rousseau,Voltaire, Boc- 

 caccio, and Lafontaine. His last works form part of 

 the beautiful Galerie de Florence. He died in 1801. 

 MIREVELT, MICHAEL JANSON, a famous portrait 

 painter, born at Delft, in 1568, was the son of a 

 goldsmith. He first intended to become an engraver 

 under Wierinx, but, at a later period, studied the 

 art of painting under a painter named Blocklandt. 

 He is said to have painted 10,000 portraits, and to 

 tiave received a high price for them. Mirevelt was 

 a Mennonite, of a very amiable disposition. He 

 died in his native city, in 1641. His eldest son, 

 Peter Mirevelt, is also esteemed as a painter. 



MIRIAM, the sister of Moses, directed the He- 

 brew women in their rejoicings after the passage of 

 the Red sea. Having spoken against Moses, on 

 account of his marriage with an Ethiopian woman, 

 she was struck with leprosy, and shut out of the 

 camp seven days. (Num. xii.) She died at 

 Kadesh. (Id. xx. i.) 



MIRKHOND, or MIRCHOND. See Persian 

 Literature. 



MIRROR. Mirrors are surfaces of polished metal, 

 or glass silvered on its posterior side, capable of 

 reflecting the rays of light from objects placed 

 before them, and exhibiting to us their image. 

 There are three classes of mirrors, distinguishable 

 by the figure of their reflecting surface: they are 

 plane, concave, and convex. The reflection of light 

 by either of these mirrors observes the constant law, 

 that the angle which the incident ray makes with 

 the reflecting surface is equal to the angle of reflec- 

 tion. When a person views himself in a looking- 

 glass, if he measures the size of which he appears on 

 the glass, the image will always be one half his real 

 magnitude ; for, as the image appears behind the 

 glass exactly at the distance of the object before it, 

 the mirror will be half way between the person and 



