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ceding, Paris, 1639, in eight vols. 12mo; 6. That of Am- Molinists 
sterdam, 1749, in four vols. 12mo, with figures; 7. That il 
of Bret, with grammatical remarks and observations, and Moliterno. 
figures, Paris, 1773, in six vols. 8vo; 8. That of Didot the T™ 
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Moliére.| Eouis XLV. \isisted upon Boileau telling him whom he 
constdeted-as the most original writer of his time, Boileau 
answered, Moliére. The French comic poet is always the 
satirist of vice and folly, and of these alone; virtue, with 
him, is ever sacred. The characters he selected for ridi- 
cule were mostly peculiar to the times in which he lived ; 
_ but he has nevertheless managed to render each as it were 
the type of a class, and thus to impart to his delineations 
an universality which must prevent them from ever be- 
coming obsolete. The external manifestations of vice and 
folly may change with time, and vary according to the fluc- 
tuations of fashion, caprice, or accident; yet the essential 
elements of human character and passion will remain always 
the same; and Moliére penetrated too deeply below the sur- 
face not to distinguish the permanent from the accidental, 
and to catch those generic indications which are at all times 
equally significant. He possessed comic powers of the 
very highest order, and wit of the purest kind; his mirth 
is unalloyed with bitterness, and his pleasantry is always 
‘innocent. His comedies in verse, such as the Misanthrope 
and the Yurtuffe, constitute a specific variety of their class, 
in which vice is exposed in the style of elegant and po- 
lished satire, although with a formal gravity ill suited to our 
notions of the comic. His verses have all the freedom 
and fluency of conversation, yet he is said to have passed 
whole days in fixing upon a proper epithet or a suitable 
rhyme. In his prose comedies, though there is a profes- 
sion of ridicule equally pointed and effective, yet there is 
nothing to offend the most fastidious purity, or to throw 
contempt on sobriety and virtue. But, with all these high 
qualities, Moliére has also some acknowledged defects. He 
is not happy in the unravelling of his plots. More atten- 
tive to the strong exhibition of chatacter than to the con- 
duct of the intrigue, he seems to be carried away by this 
natural predilection; and hence the denouement is fre- 
quently brought about with too little preparation, and with- 
out sufficient attention to probability. The scene is wound 
up on a sudden, and in a manner which leaves an impres- 
sion of disappointment, mixed with a conviction that, in 
unfolding the character, the author has neglected the in- 
cidents. In his rhymed comedies he is sometimes not 
sufficiently interesting, and many of the speeches are by 
far too long; whilst, in his shorter pieces, intended to serve 
as interludes or entertainments, the comic often degene- 
rates into the farcical. Upon the whole, however, few 
writers ever possessed the genuine spirit and attained the 
true end of comedy so perfectly as Moliére. His Tartuffe 
in the grave style, and his Avare in the gay, are account- 
ed by his countrymen his two greatest masterpieces. The 
French Academy, which had declined admitting him as a 
member on account of his profession, sought to render to 
his memory the homage which it had considered itself oblig- 
ed to refuse to his person, and in the year 1778 ordered his 
bust to be placed in the hall containing the portraits of 
academicians, with this inscription, proposed by Saurin: 
Rien ne manque 4 sa gloire; il manquait 4 la nétre. 
> 
And, not content with this, it proposed, as the subject of 
competition for a prize, an eulogium on Moliére. The 
successful candidate was Chamfort, who evinced much 
spirit and discrimination in judging and praising the pro- 
ductions of the great dramatist. 
Of the works of Moliére there have been many editions, 
but the principal are the following, viz. 1. The edition 
published by Lagrange and Vinot, Paris, 1682, in eight 
vols. 12mo; 2. Those of Amsterdam, by Jacques Lejeune, 
1675 and 1679, in five vols. 12mo, and that of the same, 
1684, in six vols. 12mo; 3. That of Amsterdam, by Wet- 
stein, 1691, in six yols. 12mo; 4. That of Joly, with Mé- 
moires sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Moliére by De la 
Serre, Paris, 1734, in six vols. 4to; 5. A reprint of the pre- 
elder, 1792, in six vols. 4to, vellum paper; 9. That of the 
same, forming part of the Collection of the best Works 
in the French Language; 10. That of Petitot, accompa- 
nied with a life of Moliére, a preliminary discourse, and 
reflections on each piece, Paris, 1813, in six vols. 8vo; 
11. That of Auger, in nine vols. 8vo, with engravings from 
designs by Horace Vernet, a life of Moliére, a preliminary 
discourse, and a commentary. (A. 
MOLINISTS, in ecclesiastical history, a sect in the Ro- 
man Catholic church, who follow the doctrine and sentiments 
of the Jesuit Molina, respecting sufficient and efficacious: 
grace. He taught that the operations of divine grace were 
entirely consistent with the freedom of human will; and he 
introduced a new kind of hypothesis to remove the difficul- 
ties attending the doctrines of predestination and liberty, and 
to reconcile the jarring opinions of Augustines, Thomists, 
Semi-Pelagians, and other polemical divines. He affirmed 
that the decree of predestination to eternal glory was found- 
ed upon a previous knowledge and consideration of the 
merits of the elect ; that the grace, from the operations of 
which these merits are derived, is not efficacious by its own 
intrinsic power only, but also by the consent of our own 
will, and because it is administered in those circumstances 
in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge which 
is called scientia media, foresees that it will be efficacious. 
The kind of prescience denominated in the schools seien- 
tia media, is that foreknowledge of future and contingent 
events which arises from an acquaintance with the nature 
and faculties of rational beings, the circumstances in which 
they shall be placed, the objects which shall be presented 
to them, and the influence which these circumstances and 
objects must exert on their actions. 
MOLINOSISTS, a,sect amongst the Roman Catholics 
who adhere to the doctrine of Molinos. These are the 
same with those otherwise called Quéetests, whose chief 
principle is, that men ought to annihilate themselves in 
order to be united to God, and afterwards remain in quiet- 
ness of mind, without being troubled for what shall happen 
to the body. Molinos, the author of these opinions, was 
a Spanish priest, and was born in the year 1627. His sixty- 
eight propositions were examined in 1687, by the pope and 
the inquisitors, who decreed that his doctrine was false’and 
pernicious, and that his books should be burned. He was 
obliged to recant his errors publicly in the Dominican 
church, and was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. 
He was then sixty years of age, and had been spreading 
his doctrine twenty-two years before this time. He died 
in prison in 1692. 
MOLISE, a province of the kingdom of Naples, which 
extends in east longitude from 14. 7. to 15. 5., and in 
north latitude from 41. 18. to 41. 51., being 1261 square _ 
miles in extent. It is divided from the province of Terra 
di Lavoro by the snowy mountains of Matese, the highest 
chain of the Apennines, whence the principal rivers, the 
Biferno, the Trigno, and the Tammaro, have their sources. 
The province comprises nine cities, sixteen market-towns, 
and seventy-seven villages, with 206,670 inhabitants, chief- 
ly subsisting by agricultural labour, and having few manu- 
factures and little commerce. Molise produces sufficient 
corn, oil, and wine for the consumption ; and of the first it 
forms a kind of granary for Campania. Hemp, flax, and silk 
are also produced, but in small quantities. The capital is 
the city of Campobasso. 
MOLITERNO, a city of Naples, in the province of Prin- 
cipato Citeriore. It is situated between two branches of 
the river Maglio, on an elevation, with a suburb extending 
into the valley of Diana. It contains 5176 inhabitants. 
