MAC 



tempted by any author (as he knows of), yet maybe ianf ; 

 though fome ha9 been fo wife (or othervvife) to contradict 

 it: 



" Sed experientia docult." 



" Any of thefe five things may be learned fo underftand- 

 ingly, in this little time he (lays (by fiich general rules as 

 he gives, together with Mufick's Moinniunt, written princi- 

 pally to yi; .-A /ar/iq/J/), as that any aptly inclined, may (for 

 the future) teach themfelves without any other help." 



Mace,'Fran"cis, a teamed French prieft, was born at 

 Paris about the year 1 640, and being deligned for the church, 

 he purhicd his lludies with that view at the univerlity of 

 his native city, where he took his degrees. His firft public 

 employment was that of focretary to the council for manag- 

 ing the domains and finances of the queen, confort to Lewis 

 XiV. It was not till the year 1685 that he took holy 

 orders, when he was immediately appointed canon, veftry- 

 keeper, and retlor of the roval collegiate and parochial 

 church of St. Opportune, at Paris. He was a very dih- 

 gent iludent as well in profane as in facred literature, and 

 was celebrated for his popular talents as a preacher. He 

 died in 17?!, leaving behind him a great number of works 

 that do honour to hia memory, of which we fiiall mention " A 

 Chrgnological, Hiftorical, and Moral Abridgment of the 

 Old and New Teftament," in 2 vols. 410. ; '■ Scriptural 

 Knowledge, reduced into Four Tables ;" a French verlion 

 of the apjcryphal "Teilaments of theTwelve Patriarchs ;" 

 of which Groffetefte, bifhop of Lincoln, gave the firll Latin 

 tranflation, Grabe the firft Greek edition, from MSS. in the 

 Enghfh Qiiiverfitiss, and Whillon an Engliih verfion ; " The 

 Hillory of the Four Ciceros," which abound in learned and 

 curious enquiries, and intended to prove, from the teftimony 

 of Greek rnd Irttin hiltorians, that the fons of Cicero were 

 as illullrious as their father Moreri. 



Mace, in Commerce, a fmall gold coin, current in Su- 

 matra, and fome other Eaft India iflands. It weighs nine 

 grains, and is worth about 14J. ilerling. Sixteen mace are 

 eaual 64 copangs =; 4 pardovvs = a tale : and 2J00 fmall 

 pieces of tin or lead, called calhes, ufually pafs for a 

 mace. 



Mace, Mach, is a pretty thick, tough, undluous mem- 

 brane, reticular or varioully chapt, of a lively reddiili-yel- 

 low colour, approaching to that of fafFron, enveloprng the 

 (hell of the fruit, whofe kernel is the nutmeg. The mace, 

 when frefli, is of a blood-red colour, and acquires its yellow 

 hue in drying. It is dried in the fun, upon hurdles fixed 

 above one another, and then, as it is faid, fprinkled with fea- 

 water, to prevent its crumbling in carriage. 



Mace has a pleafant aromatic fmell, and a warm, hit- 

 terilh, moderately pungent tafte ; it is a thhi and flat mem- 

 branaceous lubftance, of an oleaginous nature, and of a 

 yellowifh colour. We meet with it in flakes of an inch or 

 more in length, which are divided into a multitude of irre- 

 gular ramifications ; it is of an extremely fmooth furface, 

 -and of a tolerably clofe texture, yet friable, and ver)- eafily 

 cut to pieces. It is of an extremely fragrant, aromatic, and 

 agreeable fmell, and of a pleafant, but acrid and oleaginous 

 tafle ; it is to be chofen new, not dry, and of a fragrant 

 fmell, tough, oleaginous, and of a good yellow. The peo- 

 ple who colle£l the nutmeg fruit cut it open, and throw 

 away the pulpy fubftance, or external coat ; they then fee 

 the mace covering the nutmeg, wrapping itfelf every where 

 round its outer woody (hell. The mace is at this time of a 

 red colour ; they take it carefully off from the nutmeg, and 

 lay it in the fun for the whole day. In this time its colour, 

 from a llrong blood-red, becomes dufky ; it is after this 



Vol. XXI. 



MAC 



earried to another place, where the fun lias lefs power, and 

 there expofed again to its rays, the few hours they reach 

 thither. By thii, means it dries gently, and remains tough, 

 and retains its fragrancy and colour in a great degree : if it 

 were dried more hallily, it would he whi;i(h, brirtle, and 

 would lofe much of its fmell ; after this it is (lightly 

 fprinkled over with fea-water, and then put up into bales 

 in which it is preflcd down firm and dole, by way of pre. 

 ferving its fragrance and confillence. 



It is of an aftringent and dr^'ing nature, and is ufcd as a 

 corrector in cardiac and cathartic coinpolitions. In its ge- 

 neral quality it is nearly fimilar to the nutmeg, which lee ; 

 the principal difference confiits in the mace- being much 

 warmer, more bitterifh, lefs uiiftuous, and fitting eafier on 

 weak ftomachs ; in its yielding by exprcflion a more fluid 

 oil, and in diftillation with water a more fnbtile volatile one. 

 Lewis's Mat. Med. 



Mace, Oil rj", is a kind of febaceous matter, faid to be 

 expreffed from the nutmt-g, and appearing to be a mixture 

 of the grofs febaceous matter of the nutmeg, with a little 

 of the efiential or aromatic oil ; both which may be per- 

 feflly feparated from one another by maceration or digeftion 

 in rectified fpirit, or by diftillation with water. The beft 

 fort of this oil is brought from the Eaft Indies in ftonejars, 

 and is fomewhat foft, of a yellow colour, and of a ftrong 

 agreeable fmell, much refembling that of the nutmeg itfelf. 

 There is another fort brought from Holland in lolid mafies, 

 generally flat, and of a fquare figure of a paler colour, and 

 much weaker fmell. Lewis. 



Mace, Reed, in Botany. See Typha. 



MACEDA, in Geography, a town of Spain, in the pro- 

 vince of Galicia ; five miles S.E. of Santiago. 



MACEDO, Fr. Franxisco DE Santo Agostikiio, in 

 Biography, a learned Portuguefe, was born at Coimbra in 

 1 ,9^, and at a very early age difcovercd premature and extra- 

 ordinary proofs of memory and imitation. At the age of 

 eleven he could repeat the whole of the JEncid, and compofe 

 good Latin verfes. He joined the company of the Jefuits, 

 which he quitted, and entered the Francifcan order in the 

 reformed province of St. Antonio. When the Braganzaii 

 revolution broke out, Maeedo efpoufed the patriotic fide, 

 was called to political exertions, and vifited Rome, Paris, 

 and London with ambaffadors of Joam IV. As he ad- 

 vanced in years he retired to Rome, where he obtained the 

 profefforfhip of ecclefiaftical hiftorv, and other offices in the 

 college De Propaganda Fide ; for fome time he performed 

 all the high duties attached to his feveral ftations with credit, 

 and to the entire fatisfaftion of the pope, whofe favour he 

 forfeited for refufing to expunge a word in an epitaph writ- 

 ten upon a fervant of his holinefs. . At Rome, and alfo at 

 Venice, he engaged in many learned difputes with charafters 

 of the firll literary reputation. To all his opponents Ma- 

 eedo replied moft readily and without the fmalleft embarralT- 

 ment, corretling their falfe quotations, and confuting their 

 arguments ; and he is faid to have crowned the whole by 

 reciting a thoufand extempore verfes, and an epigram in 

 praife of the city of Venice, which epigram was by order 

 of the republic written under his picture, and placed in the 

 library of St. Mark. From the wonderful powers of his 

 memory he obtained the title of the walking Cyclopxdia. 

 He died in 1681, at the great age of eighty-five. H«. 

 left a vaft multitude of works either in maiiufcript or it 

 print ; he eftimated the number of verfes which he LaJ 

 made at a million and a half. Of this prodigious number, 

 lays Mr, Soutliey, nobody now reidj a fingle hne. Gen. 

 Biog. 



5 A MACEDONI-\, 



