MAC 
tlie electrified prime conductor, during 
which time tiie electric matter will pass 
through the vacuum between the hand and 
the inner surface of that part of the glass 
which is nearest the prime conductor. This 
appearance is exceedingly beautiful in the 
dark, especially if the bottle be of a consi- 
derable length. It exactly resembles those 
lights which appear in the northern sky, 
and are called streamers, or the aurora 
borealis. If one. liand be applied to the 
part of the bottle which was applied to the 
conductor, while the other remains at the 
neck, the shock will be felt, at which instant 
the natural state of the inner surface is re- 
stored by a flash, which is seen pervading 
the vacuum between the two hands. 
MACHINERY, in epic and dramatic 
poetry, is when the poet introduces the 
use of machines, or brings some super- 
natural being upon tlie stage, in order to 
solve some difficulty, or to perform some 
exploit out of the reach of human power. 
The ancient dramatic poets never made use 
of machines, unless where there was an ab- 
solute necessity for so doing ; whence the 
precept of Horace, 
‘'Nec Dens intersit, nisi dignus vindice 
nodus — inciderit.” 
It is quite otherwise with epic poets, vr ho 
introduce machines in every part of their 
poem ; so that nothing is done without 
the intervention of tlie gods. In Milton’s 
Paradise Lost, by far the greater part of the 
actors are supernatural personages : Homer 
and Virgil do nothing without them ; and 
in Voltaire’s Henriade, the poet has made 
excellent use of Saint Lonis. 
MACKREL, in ichthyology. See Icom- 
BER. 
MACLAURIN (Colik), in biography, a 
most eminent mathematician and philoso- 
pher, was the son of a clergyman, and born 
atKilmoddan in Scotland, in the year 1698. 
He was sent to the university of Glasgow in 
1709 ; where he continued five years, and 
applied to his studies in a very intense 
manner, and particularly to the mathema- 
tics. His great genius for mathematical 
learning discovered itself so early as twelve 
years of age; when, having accidentally met 
with a copy of “ Euclid’s Elements” in a 
friend’s chamber, he became in a few days 
master of the first six books without any as- 
sistance ; and, it is certain, that in his six- 
teenth year he had invented many of the 
propositions which were afterwards pub- 
lished as part of his work, entitled, “ Geo* 
MAC 
metria? Organica.” In his fifteenth year he 
took the degree of Master of Arts ; on 
which occasion he composed, and publicly 
defended, a thesis on the pow'er of gravity, 
with great applause. After this be quitted 
the university, and retired to a country seat 
of his uncle, who had the care of his edu- 
cation ; his parents being dead some time. 
Here he spent two or three years in pursuing 
his favourite studies ; but in 1717, at nine- 
teen years of age only, he offered himself a 
candidate for the professorship of mathe- 
matics in the Marischal College of Aber- 
deen, and obtained it after a tea day’s trial, 
against a very able competitor. 
In 1719, Mr. Maclaiirin visited London, 
where he left his “ Geometria Organica” 
to- print, and where he became acquainted 
with Dr. Hoadley, then Bishop of Bangor, 
Dr. Clarke, Sir Isaac Newton, and other 
eminent men ; at which time also he w'as 
admitted a member of the Royal Society ; 
and in another journey in 1721, he con- 
tracted an intimacy with Martin Folkes, 
Esq. the president of it, which continued 
during his whole life. 
In 1722, Lord Polworth, plenipotentiary 
of the King of Great Britain at the con- 
I gre.ss of Cainbray, engaged Maclaurin to go 
as a tutor and companion to his eldest son, 
who was then to set out on his travels. 
After a short stay at Paris, and visiting 
other towns in France, they fixed in Lor- 
rain, where he wrote his piece on the 
percussion of bodies, which gained him the 
prize of the Royal Academy of Sciences for 
the year 1724. But his pupil dying soon 
after at Montpelier, he returned immedi- 
ately to his piofession at Aberdeen. He 
was hardly settled here when he received 
an invitation to Edinburgh ; the curators 
of that university being desirous that lie 
should supply the place of Mr. James Gre- 
gory, whose great age and infirmities had 
rendered him incapable of teaching. He 
had here some difficulties to encounter, 
arising from competitors, who had good in- 
terest with the patrdns of the university, 
and also from the want of an additional 
fund for the new professor; which, however, 
at length were all surmounted, principally 
by the means of Sir Isaac Newton. Ac- 
cordingly, in November 1725, he was intro- 
duced into the university, as was at the 
same time his learned colleague and inti- 
mate friend, Dr. Alexander Miinro, pro- 
fessor of anatomy. After this, the mathe- 
matical classes soon became very numerous, 
there being generally upwards of 100 st«^ 
