MET 
o-ccaflon to the report, that Euphorbus’s foul, who peri (he'd 
in the Trojan war, had tranfmigrated into Pythagoras. 
Abfurd as this doftrine now appears to us, we find that 
both the favage and the fage, at one period of the world, 
admitted its validity. A paflage in Lucan afcribes the 
dodtrine of transmigration to the Northern nations ; 
--Vobis audtoribus, umbras 
Non tacitus Erebi cedes, ditifque profundi 
Pallida regna petunt: regit idem fpiritus artus 
Orbe alio : longse, canitis fi cognita, vitae 
Mors media elf. Pliarft. lib. i. 454. 
And in the Eaft it flill reigns triumphantly. Pythagoras 
is faid to have borrowed it from the Egyptians ; others 
lay, from the ancient Brachmans. It is Hill retained 
among the Bahians, and other idolaters, of India and 
China; and makes the principal foundation of their reli¬ 
gion. So extremely are they bigotted to it, that they not 
only forbear .eating any thing that has life, but many of 
them even refufe to defend themlelves from wild bealls. 
They burn no wood, left fome little animalcule Ihould 
be in it; and are fo very charitable, that they will redeem 
from the hands of ftrangers any animals that they find 
ready to be killed. In the Ir.ftitutes of Menu, there is a 
fcale of penalties to which the immortal foul is doomed: 
“ For {inful adds, that are moftly corporeal, a man {hall 
aO'ume, after death, a vegetable or mineral form : for fuch 
afts,'moftly verbal, the form of a bird or beaft: for finful 
adts, moftly mental, the loweft of human conditions.” 
The Jewifh Cabbala holds, that all fouls were produced 
at once, and pre-exifted in Adam ; and that every human 
foul has two guardian angels, produced by emanation at 
the time of the production of fouls. The cabbaliftic doc¬ 
trine is minute and elaborate in its inveftigation of the 
human foul, which it defcribes as .confifting of four parts : 
Nephrjh , or the principle of vitality; Rucich, or the prin¬ 
ciple of motion; Nefchama, or the power ofinteliiger.ee; 
and Jechidah, or the divine principle. Not very remote 
from the dodtrine of the Cabbala was the opinion of 
Plato, which makes the foul confift of three parts : the 
the firft, the feat of intelligence; the fecond, of paffion; 
the third, of appetite. The Egyptians, according to He¬ 
rodotus and Diogenes Laertius, believe, that, when the 
body decays; the foul pafies into fome other animal, which 
is then born; and' that, after it has made the circuit of 
beafts, birds, and fiflies, through a period of 3000 years, 
it again becomes an inhabitant of a human body. To 
colledt and detail the opinions of Ariftotle, Socrates, 
Pythagoras, Empedocles, Democritus, Heraclitus, Epi¬ 
curus, Strabo, Dicearchus, &x. &c. on this abftrule fub- 
jedt, would hardly reward the labour: for, as Milton fays, 
Much of the ioul they talk, but all awry.” Paraclfte 
regained, iv. 3x3. 
METEM'PTOSIS, ft. [from the Greek yi to, againft, 
and, arraoit;, a falling.] A term in chronology,,expreffing 
the folar equation, neceffary to prevent the new moon 
from happening a day too late. By which ix Hands con- 
tradiftinguiihed from pro-emptofis, which fignifies the lu¬ 
nar equation, necelfary to prevent the new moon from 
happening a day too loon. 
The new moons running a little backwards, that is, 
coming a day too foon at the end of three hundred and 
twelve years and a half; by the pro-emptofis, a day is 
added every three hundred years, and another every two' 
thoufand four hundred years ; on the other hand, by the 
xnet-emptofis, a biflextile is fuppreffed each hundred 
and thirty-four years; that is, three times in four hun¬ 
dred years. Thefe alterations are never made but at the 
end of each century; that period being very remarkable, 
and rendering the praftice of the calendar eafy. There 
are three rules for making this addition, or fuppreffion, 
of the biflextile day, and, by conlequence, for changing 
the index of the epadts. x. When there is a met-emptofis 
without a pro-emptofis, the next following or lower in¬ 
dex rnuft be taken. 2. When there is a pro-emptofis 
Vol. XV. No. 1039. 
/ MET . 249 
without a met-emptofis, the next preceding or fuperior 
index is to be taken. 3. When there are both a rnet-emp- 
tofis and a pro-emptofis, or when there is neither the one 
nor the other, the fame index is preferved. Thus, in 
1600, we had D; in 1700, by reafon of the met-emptofis, 
C was taken; in 1800, there were both a pro-emptofis 
and a met-emptofis; fo the fame index was retained. In 
1900, there will be a metemptofis again, when B will be 
taken, which will be preferved in 2000, becaufe there will 
then be neither the one nor the other. This is as far as we 
need compute for it: but Clavius has calculated a cycle of 
301,800 years; at the end of which period, the fame in¬ 
dices return in the fame order. 
ME'TEOR, /! [from pirsoi^i;, Gr. high, fublime.] A 
genera! term ufed to fignify the tranfient fiery appearances 
in the heavens; fuch as are denoted by the more parti¬ 
cular names of {hooting ftars, globes of lire, ignes fatui, 
aurora borealis, Sec. —She began to call with herfelf from 
what coaft this blazing ftar muft rife upon the horizon of 
Ireland; for there had the like meteor Strong influence 
before. Bacon s Henry VII. 
Then flaming meteors, hung in air, were feen, 
And thunders rattled through a Iky ferene. Dry dm. 
Why was I rais’d the meteor of the world, 
Hung in the (kies and blazing as I travell’d. 
Till all my fires were {pent; and then caft downward, 
To be trod out by Caffar? Dryden's All for Love. 
The word is by fome writers extended to fignify all the 
various phenomena of the atmofphere, as clouds, rain, 
hail, thunder, thunder-{tones, &c. See the article Me¬ 
teorology. 
METEO'RA. See Metzovo. 
To METE'ORISE, v. n. To afeend upwards as a me¬ 
teor. Scott. 
METEO'ROLITE, ft. [from meteor, and Aiflo?, a ftone.] 
A ftony fubftance, exhibiting peculiar characters; and by 
fome called aerolite, as being formed in the air; by others 
Jelenite, from c-cAnm, the moon, as if fuch fubftances were 
projected from that planet. See Meteorology. 
METEOROLOGICAL, adj. Relating to the doCtrine 
of meteors.—Make diiquifltion whether thefe unufual 
lights be new-come guefts, or old inhabitants in heaven, 
or tneteorological imp/eflions not tranfeending the upper 
region, or whether to be ranked among celeftial bodies. . 
HoiceVs Vocal Foreft. —Relating to the weather.— Meteoro¬ 
logical Journal is a table recording the daily ftate of the 
air, exhibited by the barometer, thermometer, hygrome¬ 
ter, anemometer, and other meteorological inftruments. 
We have many journals of this kind, kept at the houfe of 
the Royal Society, and by different obfervers in other 
places, in the Philofophical TranfaCtions, the Memoirs 
of the Academy of Sciences, and fimilar publications. 
Chambers. 
METEOROL'OGIST, f. A man frilled in meteors, or 
ftudious of them.—The meteorologifts obferve,that,amongft 
the four elements which are the ingredients of all fublu- 
nary creatures, there is a notable correlpondency. Howeis 
Vocal Foreft. 
METEOROL'OGY, ft. [from meteor, and Aoyo, adif- 
courle.] The doCtrine of meteoi's. The doCtrine of the 
weather.—In animals we deny not a natural meteorology, 
or innate presentation of wind and weather. Brown. 
Meteorology, as a Science, naturally divides itfelf 
into two Separate heads. I. Of the Weather; or fuch 
changes as take place in the gravity and temperature of 
the air, whether produced by evaporation and rain, or by 
winds, or by atmofphei'ical electricity. II. Of Meteors ; 
or thofe vifible phenomena, accompanied with light, 
which take place in the atmofphere, or near the Surface of 
the earth. But, as Several branches of thefe Subjects have 
been treated of incidentally in various articles to which 
we Shall refer as we proceed, we hope to bring the prelent 
article within reafonable lixnits. 
3 S 
I. Of 
