318 MIC MIC 
microcofmic fait it makes a tranfparent opalefcent glafs. 
It confifts of alumine 63-75, fiHca 29-5, and oxyd of iron 
6-75. It was firft difcovered in the mine called Pini, at 
Schneeberg in Saxony ; whence it has fometimes the name 
of Finite. Mr. Pinkerton notes the following varieties : 
a. Micarel Hate, from the bed of the Ganges, near Siri- 
nagur; the fame, from the Alps, and alfo from Scotland. 
/S. Dendritic from Spain. 
MICABA', a town of Japan, in the ifland of Niplion : 
one hundred miles north-north-eaft of Meaco. 
MICA'CEOUS, adj. Of the nature of mica; eafily fe- 
parable.—A reddifli earth tilled with friable micaceous 
nodules. Pennant. 
MI'CAH, [Heb. poor.] The tixth in order of the twelve 
minor prophets. He is called the Moralfhite, or of Mo¬ 
rels, a village near Eleutheropolis, in the fouth of Judah. 
He was nearly contemporary with Ifaiah, and has fome 
expreffions in common with him: compare Ifaiah ii. 12. 
with Micah iv. 1. and Ifaiah xii. 15. with Micah iv. 13. 
St. Jerome fays, that Micah was buried at Morafthi; and 
Sozomen adds, that his tomb was difcovered to Zebennus, 
bilhop of Eleutheropolis, in the reign of Theodofius the 
Great. Some have confounded Micah with Micaiah, fon 
•of Imlah, who was of Ephraim, and who prophefied in 
the time of king Ahab. Micah prophefied under Jotham, 
Ahaz, and Hezekiah, for about fifty-fix years, from the 
beginning of the reign of Jotham, or 754 B.C. to the laft 
year of Hezekiah, 698 B. C. His prophecy contains feven 
chapters; in which he firft foretells the calamities of Sa¬ 
maria; afterwards he prophefies againft Judah ; and, hav¬ 
ing exclaimed againft the iniquities of Samaria, he fore¬ 
tells the captivity of the ten tribes, and their return. 
After a pathetic invedive againft the princes of the houfe 
of Jacob, and the judges of the houfe of Ifrael, he fpeaks 
of the birth and reign of the Mefiiah. The two laft chap¬ 
ters contain an invedive againft the iniquities of Samaria; 
after which he predicts the fall of Babylon, the re-efta- 
blilhment of Ifrael, their liappinefs, &c. in fuch lofty 
terms as chiefly agree with the ftate of the Chriftian 
church. The ftyle of Micah is for the moft part clofe, 
forcible, pointed, and concife; fometimes approaching 
the obicurity of Hofea; in many parts animated and 
lublime, and in general truly poetical. Louth de Sacri 
'Poeji Heh. xxi. 
MICAI'AH, [Heb. godlike.] A prophet of Ifrael. See 
the preceding article. 
MICEL'LA, one of the fmaller Molacca iftands. 
MFCH AEL, or Michel, [Heb. godlike, or Who is like 
to God ?] The name of an archangel. The Scripture-ac¬ 
count of Michael is, that he was an archangel, who pre¬ 
sided over the Jewilh nation, as other angels, or princes as 
they are called, did over the Gentile world; (as is evident 
of the kingdom ofPerfiaand Greece, Dan. x. 13.) that he 
had an army of angels under his command; that he fought 
with the Dragon, or Satan and his angels; (Rev. xii. 7-9.) 
and that, contending with the Devil, he dilputed about 
the body of Moles ; (Jude 9.) 
As to the combat between Michael and the Dragon, 
fome authors underftand it literally, and think it means 
the expulfion of certain rebellious angels, with their head 
or leader, from the prefence of God. Others take it in a 
figurative fenle ; and refer it, either to the conteft that 
happened at Rome between St. Peter and Simon Magus, 
in which the apoitle prevailed' over the magician, or to 
thole violent perfecutions under which the church la¬ 
boured for three hundred years, and which happily cealed 
xvhen the powers of the world became Chriftian. Among 
the commentators who maintain the former opinion is 
Grotius ; and among thole who take it in a figurative 
fenle are Hammond and Mede. 
The conteft about the body of Mofes is likewife taken 
both literally and figuratively. Thole who underftand it 
literally are of opinion, that Michael by the order of God 
hid the body of Moles after his death ; and that the Devil 
endeavoured to difeover it, as a lit means to entice the 
people to idolatry, by a fuperftitious worlhip of his relics, 
But this difpute is figuratively underftood to be a contro- 
verfy about re-building the temple, and reftoring the fer- 
vice of God among the Jews at Jerulalem ; the Jewilh 
church being fitly enough ltyled “ the body of Mofes/” It 
is thought by fome, that this ftory of the conteft between 
Michael and the Devil was taken by St. Jude out of an 
apocryphal book called The Alfumption of Mofes. 
It has been fuppofed, that it was Michael the archangel 
who conduced the Ilraelites in their journey through 
the wildernefs, (fee Exod. xxxiii. 2.) that it was he who 
appeared to Mofes in the burning bulh ; w-ho appeared'to 
Jolhua in the fields of Jericho, and to Gideon, and Ma- 
noah the father of Samfon; and, in a word, to him have 
been imputed the greateft part of the moft remarkable ap¬ 
pearances either in the Old or New Teftament. 
The Romilh church celebrates three appearances of 
Michael, of which no mention is made in Scripture, and 
which have happened, they fay, a long time after the age 
of the apoftles. The firft appearance of this archangel 
was at Coloflse in Phrygia, but at what time is uncertain. 
The fecond is that of Mount Garganus, in the kingdom 
of Naples, about the end of the fifth century. The third 
is his appearance to Aubert bilhop of Avranches, upon a 
rock called the Tomb, where at this day is the abbey of St. 
Michael. This was about the year 706. The firft of 
thefe felfivals is obferved on the 6th of September, the fe¬ 
cond on the 8tli of May, and the laft on the 16 th of Odo- 
ber. The proteftant church keeps the feaft of “ St. Mi¬ 
chael and all Angels” on the 29th of September; and it 
appears to have been commemorated among Chriftians 
ever fince the fixth century ; about which time of the year 
it lists been, and ftill continues, the cuftom to eled the 
governors pf towns and cities. 
It is a cuftom equally ancient, in this country to eat 
goofe on Michaelmas-day; but in catholic countries, the 
goofe is confecrated to St. Martin of Tours, wliofe feftival 
is held on the nth of November. This bilhop was once fc 
popular in France, that his feaft had an o6lave, that is, was 
celebrated a fecond time in the week following ; and it 
was a rule among his devotees to roaft a goofe for the fa¬ 
mily-dinner on the day of his anniverfary. 
We have already explained why St. Martin is chofen as 
the patron of the vintners. (See the article London, 
vol. xiii. p. 425.) The goofe is confecrated to him for the 
fame realon. His feftival occurs when geefe are in leafon; 
and it was always celebrated with a voracity the mor« 
eager, as it happens on the eve of the petit careme, when 
fowls could no longer beprefented on the tables of a reli¬ 
gious age. A German monk, Martin Schoock, has made 
it a cale of confidence whether, even on the eve of the 
little lent, it be allowable to eat goofe : “ An liceat Mar- 
tinalibus anferem comedere ?” Exerc. xvii. p. 205. After 
having dived into the weedy pool of the cafuift’s argu¬ 
ments, the delighted devotee emerges with the permillion 
to roaft his goole; and thus the goole came to be a Hand¬ 
ing dilh on the Continent at Martinmas, as in England 
at Michaelmas. 
Ivlonfi Millin, a member of the Inftitute and a knight 
of the Legion of Honour, has very lately written a book 
ppon the fubjed, wherein he has compiled a vaft many 
particulars of goofc-cating. Petronius praifes this fowl in 
the following paffage, as a popular dilli: 
Ales Phafiaces petita Colchis 
Atque Afne volucres placent palato. 
Quod non funt faciles : at albus anfer 
Et pidis anas enotata pennis 
Plebeium liipit. 
Diodorus Siculus (ii. 3.) fpeaks of the goofe as a regulay 
and favourite diet of ./Egyptian kings ; and on feveral of 
the monuments conftruded by them, priefts are repre- 1 
fented offering a goofe in facrifice. Athemcus mention* 
(xiv. 74.) the fondnefis of Lacedasmonians for the goofe; 
and the Romans not only yahied it as a delicacy, but kept 
