607 
MOD 
cafes, forgotten what did beft become them. Raleigh's 
Arts of Empire. 
MOD'ESTY , f. [» wdejiie, Fr. modejlas, Lat.] Not ar¬ 
rogance; not prefumptuoufnefs.—They cannot, with rno- 
dejlit, think to have found out abfolutely the beft which 
the wit of men may devife. Hooker. —Not impudence ; 
not forwardnefs : as, His petition w'as urged with modejly. 
—Moderation ; decency: 
A lord will hear you play; 
But I am doubtful of your viodeJii.es, 
Left, over-eying of his odd behaviour, 
You break into fome merry paflion. Shahefpeare. 
Chattily; purity of manners.—Talk not to a lady in a 
way that modejly will* not permit her to anfwer. Richard- 
Jbn's ClarijJ'a. 
Would you not fwear, 
All vou that fee her, that ftie were a maid. 
By thefe exterior fhews ? But the is more : 
Her blufli is guiltinels, not modcjtij. Shahefpeare. 
Modesty, in ethics, is fometimes ufed to denote hu¬ 
mility, and fometimes to exprefs chaftity or purity of fen- 
timent and manners. Modefty was deified by the Romans 
under the name of Pndicitia: and at Rome fie had two 
temples, one dedicated to the chaftity of the nobles, and 
the other to that of the populace, and alfo altars on which 
facrifices were offered to her. The origin of the diftinc- 
tion between the chaftity of the patrician ladie.s and that 
of the plebeians is thus related by Livy ( 1 . x. c. 25.) Vir- 
oinia, of a patrician family, having married a plebeian 
named Volumnius, who was, however, afterwards conful, 
her filler, looking upon this match to be unworthy her 
name, having joined with the other matrons, would no 
lonc-er fuffer her to partake in the myfteries of the goddefs 
of Chaftity, but drove her out of the temple. Virginia, 
ftung with this affront, got a chapel raifed in the lame ' 
ftreet, where was the godrlefs’s temple from which lire 
was excluded, and Ihe dedicated it to the Chaftity of the 
Plebeian Ladies ; where the wives, who were not of the 
fenatorian order, convened from that time to offer facri- 
fice to that goddefs. Chaftity was reprelented under the 
figure of a woman veiled, or feeming to point her right- 
hand, or her fore-finger, to her face, to fignify that Ihe has 
no reafon to blufli. 
MOD'ESTY,-PIECE, f. —A narrow' lace which runs 
along the upper part of the ftays before, being a part of 
the tucker, is called the modejly-piece. Addifon's Guardian. 
MO'DI, a fmall illand in the Gulf of Engia. Lat. 37. 
27. N. Ion. 23.33. E. 
MODIANO'RE, a town of Hindooftan, in Myfore : 
forty-five miles eaft-north-eaft of Bangalore, and twenty- 
five weft of Pulluninare. 
MODIA'TION, f. [modiatio, Lat ] A meafure. Not 
in nfe. —That they flnould be free, throughout England 
and Normandy, of all cuftom, tolls, and mediations of 
wine. l’ovey's Anglia Jud. 
MODIBOO', a town of Africa, in the kingdom of 
Bambarra, near the river Niger: fifty-fix miles north-eaft 
of Sego. 
MOD'ICA, a town of Sicily, in the Valley of Noto : 
eight miles weft of Noto, and twenty-feven weft of Syra¬ 
cuse. Lat. 36. 51. N. Ion. 14.4.3. E. 
MODl'CITY, J'. \modicite, Fr. from modicus, Lat.] 
Moderatenefs; meannefs ; littlenefs. Not now in nfe. Cot- 
grave and Sherwood. 
MOD'ICUM, f. [Latin.] Small portion ; pittance.— 
What modicums of wit he utters ! his evafions have ears 
thus long. Shahefpeare's Trail, and CrcJ]'. 
Though hard their fate, 
A cruife of water, and an ear of corn, 
Yet ftill they grudg’d that modicum. Dryden. 
MO'DIFIABLE, qdj. [French.] That may be diver- 
fified by accidental differences,—It appears to be more 
MOD 
difficult to conceive a diftinft vifible image in the uni¬ 
form, invariable, elfence of God, than in varioufly modifi¬ 
able matter; but the manner how I fee either ftill efcapes 
my comprehenfion. Locke. 
MODIF'ICABLE, adj. Diverfifiable by various modes. 
To MODIF'ICATE v. a. [from modify.] To qualify. 
—The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of the Lord, and of his Chrill, and he fliall reign for ever 
and ever : not only to the modificated eternity of his me- 
diatorlhip, fo long as there fliall be need of regal power to 
fubdue the enemies of God’s eleft; but alfo to the com-, 
plete eternity of the duration of his humanity, which for 
the future is co-eternal to his divinity. Pearjon on the 
Creed. 
MODIFICATION, f. [French.] The aft of modify¬ 
ing any thing, or giving it new accidental differences of 
external qualities or mode.—The phenomena of colours 
in refrafted or reflefted light, are not caufed by new mo¬ 
difications of the light varioufly imprefled, according to 
the various terminations of the light and ihadow. Newton's 
Optichs. 
MODIF'ICATIVE, f. Something that modifies, or 
gives a thing a certain manner of being. 
Father Buffier eftabliflies a new part of lpeech, which he 
calls modificative. Nounsand verbs, he obferves, are luf- 
ceptibleof divers circumftances or modifications. In the 
phrafe, “ Zeal afts,” we have a noun and a verb without 
any modification ; but in that, “ Zeal without diferetion 
afts raflily,” the noun and verb are each attended with 
a modification or circumftance. The laft kind of w'ords, 
which ferve to modify nouns and verbs, fince they have 
no general name in the common grammars he choofes to 
call modificatives; which include what grammarians com¬ 
monly call abverb, conjunftion, and prepofition. 
To MOD'IFY, v. a. [ modifier , Fr.] To change the ex¬ 
ternal qualities or accidents of any thing ; to fliape.—The 
middle parts of the broad beam of white light which fell 
upon the paper, did, without any confine of ihadow to mo¬ 
dify' it, become coloured all over with one uniform colour, 
the colour being always the fame in the middle of the pa¬ 
per as at the edges. Newton's Optichs. —To loften ; to mo¬ 
derate ; to qualify: 
He modifies his firft fevere decree, 
The keener edge of battle to rebate. Dryden. 
To MOD'IFY, v. n. To extenuate.—After all this dif- 
canting and modifying upon.the matter, there is hazard 
on the yielding fide. L’EJ'trange. 
MODIFYING,_/i The aft of putting in due form. 
MODIL'LON, or Modiu.ion, f. [Fr. modiglione, Ital. 
from modiolus, Lat.]— 3 Todi//ons, in architefture, are little 
brackets which are often fet under the Corinthian and 
Compoiite orders, and ferve to fupport the projefture of 
the larmier, or drip: this part muft be diftinguiihed from 
the great model, which is the diameter of the pillar ; for, 
as the proportion of an edifice in general depends on the 
diameter of the pillar, fo the fize and number of the rno- 
dillons, as alfo the interval between them, ought to have 
due relation to the whole fabrick. Harris. —The modillons 
or dentelli make a noble fhow by their graceful projections. 
Spectator. —The entablature, and all its parts and orna¬ 
ments, architrave, frieze, cornice, triglyph, metopes, mo¬ 
di glions, and the reft, have each an ufe. Warton's E/jiey on 
Pope. 
MODILO'WA, a town of Poland, in Volhynia: thir¬ 
ty-fix miles north-eaft of Zytomiers. 
MO'DIN, a village of Paleftine, fituated on a hill; made 
famous by the tomb of the Maccabees, and by a viftory 
obtained by Judas Maccabeus over Antiochus Eupator : 
fourteen miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Jaffa. 
MODINAGUR', a town of Hindooftan, in Buhar: 
twenty-five miles eaft-north-eaft of Hajipour. Lat. 25, 
34. N. Ion. 85. 51. E. 
MO'DINGHAM, a village or hamlet in Kent, be¬ 
tween the parilhes of Lee, Eltharn, and Chifle'huHl, near 
Biackheath. 
