M I N 
he is a (harp biter at a fmall worm in hot weather: and in 
the-fpring they make excellent minnow tanfies ; for, being 
waffied well in fait, and their heads and tails cut oft', and 
' their guts taken out, being fried with yolks of eggs, prim- 
rofes, and tanfy. Walton's Angler. 
MI'NO, one of the fmaller Philippine iftands, near the 
eaft coaft of the illand of Bcol. Lat. 10. 6. N. Ion. 124. 
3 °- E- 
MINO'A, a town of Sicil)’', built by Minos, when he 
was purfuing Daedalus; and called alfo Heraclea. —A town 
of Peloponnefus.—A town of Crete. 
MINOIS, belonging to Minos. Crete is called. Minoin 
Rcgna, as being the legislator's kingdom.—Ariadne, the 
daughter of Minos, was alfo called Minois. 
MINOME'IT, a town of Pruflia, in Oberland : thirteen 
miles weft-north-weft of Keillperg. 
MINONG', or Isle Royal, an iftand of Canada, in 
Lake Superior, thirty miles long, and ten broad. Lat. 
48. N. Ion. 89. W. 
MI'NOR, adj. [Latin.] Petty; inconftderable.—If there 
are petty errors and minor lapfes, not confiderably inju¬ 
rious unto faith, yet is it not fafe to contemn inferior 
falfities. Brown's Vu/g. Err. —Inferior.—He willies to take 
cm-board the eight fecondaries, or minor canons, of his 
college. Wnrton. —Lefs; fmaller.—They altered this cuf- 
tom from cafes of high concernment to the moft trivial 
debates, the minor part ordinarily entering their proteft. 
Clarendon. 
MI'NOR, f. One under age ; one whofe youth cannot 
yet allow him to manage his own affairs.—The nobleft 
blood of England having been ftied in the grand rebel¬ 
lion, many great families became extinct, or fupported 
only by minors. Swift. 
Long as the year’s dull circle feems to> run, 
When the brifk minor pants for twenty-one. Pops. 
Minor, in law. denotes a perfon under age ; or who, 
by the laws of the country, is not yet arrived a'c the 
power of adminiltering his own affairs, or the poffeffion of 
liis eftate. Among us, a perfon is a minor till the age of 
twenty-one, before which time his a£ts are invalid. See 
Infant. —A minor or infant cannot be faid to be contu- 
maceous, becaufe he cannot appear as a defendant in 
court, but by his guardian. Ai/liff'e's Parergon. —It is alfo 
provided by the cuftora and law of parliament, that no 
one fnall fit or vote in either houfe, unlefs he be twenty- 
one years of age. This is likewife exprefsly declared by 
flat. 7 and 8 Will. III. cap. 25. with regard t.o the houfe 
of commons. Jacob. 
Minor, in logic, is the fecond propofition of a for¬ 
mal or regular fyllogifm ; called alfo the ajfumption .— 
He fuppoied that a philofopher’s brain was like a foreft, 
where ideas are ranged like animals of feveral kinds ; that 
the major is the male, the minor the female, which copu¬ 
late by the middle term, and engender the conclufion. 
Arbuthnot. 
Minor, in mufic. %ee the article Music. 
MI'NOR, J’. A Francifcan friar. Fratres minores, or 
fratricelli, was the name adopted by the Francifcans to 
exprefs their extraordinary humility.—The minors (faith 
Stow) firft arrived in England at Dover, nine in number; 
five of them remained at Canterbury, and did there build 
the firft convent of friers minors that ever was in Eng¬ 
land. Weever. 
To MI'NORATE, v. a. [from minor, Lat.] Toleffen; 
to diminiih. A word not yet admitted into the language, 
Dr. Johnlon fays; citing only the example from Glanvilie. 
The ufe of the word by others prior to or contemporary 
with Glanvilie, and thofe of no mean fame, may perhaps 
be allowed to eftablifh it. Todd. —I could not in any cha¬ 
rity believe, that he, who had been fo often vice-chancel¬ 
lor, would any way feem to betray or minorate the autho¬ 
rity and power of that place. Hilts Letter to Bp. Laud, 
(1631,) Abp. Laud's Hem. —Forget not how afluefaCtion 
into a thing minorates the paffion from it. Brown's Chr. 
Vol. XV. No. 1064. 
M I N 541 
Mor. —Imagination, puts a double fallacy upon ancient 
men ; firft, it makes them undervalue themfelves, and 
minorate their own abilities; and then it makes them 
overvalue the objects of fear, and make them far greater 
than they are. Smith on Old Age. —This it doth not only 
by the advantageous aftiftance of a tube, but by fhewing 
in what degrees diftance minorates the object. Glanville’s 
Sccpfis. \ 
MINORA'riON, /! The a£t of leffening; diminution; 
decreafe. A word not in ufe. —His good pleafure was, by 
this willing minoration and exinanition of himfelf, to (hew 
his greater condefcenfton. Walfalts Life of Thrift, 161 5.— 
Bodies emit virtue without abatement of weight, as is 
moft evident in the loadltone, whofe efficiencies are com¬ 
municable without a minoration of gravity. Brown's Vul¬ 
gar Errors. 
MINORBI'NO, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Bari, the fee of a billiop : eighty-five miles eaft of Naples, 
and twenty-eight vveil-north-weft of Matera. Lat. 41. c. N. 
Ion. 15. 59. E. 
MINOR'CA, an iftand in the Mediterranean, belong¬ 
ing to Spain, one of thofe anciently called Baleares; about 
thirty miles in length, and ten in breadth. It is called 
Minorca, or Inf da Minor, the Smaller Ifland, when com¬ 
pared with Majorca, from which it lies about ten leagues 
to the north-eaft, and fifty eaft from the mouth of th'e 
Ebro. Minorca has fucceflively fallen under the domi¬ 
nion of the Carthaginians, the Romans, the Vandals, tire 
Moors, the Arragonefe, and the Caftiiians; and for a 
century, from 1708, it has been in the poffefTion of the 
houfe of Auftria, the Englifti, French, and Spaniards, 
by turns. 
This ifland is (ituated in the middle of a number of 
fmall rocks, banks, and iftands; on the (outh the (bore 
is level The air is moift, and the foil dry. The admi- 
niftration is divided into terminos, or diftrifts, the chief 
towns of which are Cittadella, Mahon, Alayor, Ferarias, 
and Mercadal, which fee refpedrively. The principal ports 
are, Mahon on the eaft, Fornella on the north, and Cit¬ 
tadella on the weft. The ifle is level, and there is only 
one mountain diftinguiftred by its elevation, viz. Monte 
Toro. 
Cittadella, or Samna, the capital, is fituated at a fmall 
diftance from the coaft, towards the north-weft, eleven 
leagues from Mahon ; it was in the fifth century the fee 
of a bifliop, and the reiidence of the governor of the 
ifland, and alfo the (eat of civil and eccleliaftical jurifdic- 
tion. In the time of the Carthaginians and Romans it 
was a confiderable place ; but its fplendour has declined ; 
and Port Mahon difputed with it the fuperiority, when 
the Englifti eltablifhed their tribunals and feat of govern¬ 
ment in the ifland. See Mahon, vol. xiv. The port is 
fmall and marfhy, formed by a canal, bounded by rocks. 
On the right and left are towers, correfponding to each 
other, to repeat the (ignals, and two cannons of a large 
calibre, upon fwivels, (ufficient to flop a privateer. The 
entrance is difficult of accefs. The city is furrounded in 
part with ancient walls, erected by the Moors; the reft is 
modern, formed of baftions and curtains of hewn (tone. 
The ftreets are of ancient form, being narrow and (hady, 
paved with large unhewn Hones; and in the city are a 
cathedral, flanked by a beautiful fquare tower, and fup- 
pofed to be built in the third century, two churches, three 
convents, and an hofpital. The termino of which Cit¬ 
tadella is the capital, bearing its name, is above five 
leagues and a half long, and two and three-quarters wide ; 
and its total population amounts to about 800 perfons. 
Alayor is fituated about four leagues and a half from 
Mahon, being the chief town of the termino of that 
name, containing about 112 hamlets or manors, and ra¬ 
ther more than 4000 people. The ftreets are uneven, 
narrow, crooked, and ill paved ; but the houfes are well 
built. At the entrance into the town is a church, built 
of free-ftone, in a limple Gothic ftyle of architecture with¬ 
out, and within decorated with fculptures and pairiting-s. 
6 Y The' 
