751 
M ON MON 
ftrong and ardent mind could fupport. His chief faults 
are, that his ftyle is often inelegant, and too much em- 
barraifed with repetitions ; and, in his account of fome 
modern difcoveries, he difplays a fpirit of nationality, 
■which ought never to be found in a drift and impartial 
hiftorian. But thefe blemiflfes are of trifling importance 
compared with the general excellence of the work, which 
every-where abounds with interefting details, and the 
molt perfpicuous explanations of the various inventions 
and improvements, which, at different times, have con¬ 
tributed to the progrefs of thefe fciences. If he be not 
fo profound as fome other writers, he is frequently lefs 
obfcure, and may often be confulted with advantage 
upon points where the original authors would be nearly 
unintelligible to common readers. In fliort, there is, 
perhaps, no work, which is capable of affording more 
pleafure and inftruftion to thofe, who propofe to devote 
themfelves to thefe ftudies, or which is likely to create a 
more earned defire to profecute them; fo that it is pro¬ 
bable he will long continue to deferve the title, which 
he has hitherto exclufively poilefied, of The Hiftorian of 
Mathematics. 
Montucla had been a member of the National Inflitute 
from its original eflablifhment. He had obtained vari¬ 
ous employments under the revolutionary government, 
though he was but meanly paid for his labour, and had 
to druggie with many difficulties to furnifh his family 
with the bare neceflaries of life. At length he was re¬ 
duced to feek the fcanty means of fupport by keeping a 
lotter.y-office, till the death of Sauflure put him in pof- 
feflion of a penfion of 2,400 francs, about iool. per annum, 
which he enjoyed only four months. He died in Decem¬ 
ber 1799, in the feventy-fifth year of his age. He was, 
fays his biographer, “modeft to a degree, which, when 
his exalted merits are confidered, cannot but excite our 
admiration ; and he was didinguilhed by afts of generofity 
and liberality, which will appear equally extraordinary, 
when the fmallnefs of his means is recollefted. He was 
a’warm friend, a lively cheerful companion ; and his man¬ 
ners and behaviour were Ample, innocent, and virtuous.” 
Le Blonde's Notice of the Author s Life, with additions hi) 
Lalande, annexed to vol. iv. of the lift, of the Mathematics. 
JPref. to the trmflaiion of lit fat's Gen. HiJ't. of Mathematics. 
MON'TVILLE, a town of France, in the department 
of the Lower Seine : thirteen miles ead of Caudebec, and 
feven north of Rouen. 
MON'TVILLE, a town of America, in the date of 
Connefticut: ten miles fouth-weft of Norwich. 
MONTUO'SA, a fmallifland in the Paciflc Ocean, near 
the coad of Mexico. Lat. 8. 1 j. N. Ion. 83. 36. W. 
MON'TURE, _/.’ [French.] A riding-horfe : 
While thus his thoughts debated on the cafe. 
The hilts Argantes hurled at his face, 
And forward fpurr’d his inonture fierce withal. Fairfax. 
MONTUY'RI, a very ancient town of the ifland of 
Majorca, which has a parifh-church and a bailiff royal. 
Its vicinity affords neither fpring nor fountain, fo that the 
inhabitants are obliged to procure water from wells and 
ciderns. The land produces corn, wine, and padure for 
cattle. 
MONTWILISZ'KI, a town of Samogitia: fourteen 
miles ead-fouth-ead of Roflenne. 
MON'TZBURG, a town of Saxony, in the marggravate 
of Meiflen : nine miles north of Drefden. 
MON'TZEN, a town of the duchy of Limburg: feven 
miles north of Limburg. 
MON'UMENT, J’. [Fr. monumentum, Lat.] Anything 
by which the memory of perfons or things is prelerved ; 
a memorial.-—In his time there remained the monument of 
his tomb in the mountain Jafius. Raleigh. —He is become 
a notable monument of unprofperous difloyalty. King 
Charles. —Colleft the bed monuments of our friends, their 
own images in their writings. Pope to Swift. 
So many grateful altars I would rear 
Of grafiy turf; and pile up every done 
Of ludre from the brook ; in memory, 
Or monument, to ages. Milton's P. L. 
A tomb ; a cenotaph ; fomething erebled in memory of 
the dead : 
The flowers which in the circling valley grow 
Shall on his monument their odours throw. Sandy s'sParaph. 
With thee on Raphael’s monument I mourn, 
Or wait infpiring dreams at Maro’s urn. Pope. 
The ereftion of tombs feems to be one of the mod an¬ 
cient, and at the fame time one of the mod univerfal, cuf- 
toms at prefent in exidence. Whether it be a rude heap 
of earth or Aones, or a magnificent maufoleum, the fame 
objeft feems dill in view, namely, to perpetuate the me¬ 
mory of the deceafed, and at the lame time to prefent a 
moral leflbn to the furvivors, by placing before their eyes 
an awful emblem of the uncertainty of life, laying to them, 
in the words of Horace— v 
Inter fpem, curamque ; timores inter et iras. 
Nunc crede diem tibi diluxifle fupremum. 
The word monument feems to have taken its origin in this 
idea ; but various ways are adopted by authors of deriving 
it. Scipio Gentiiis lays, “ Nam monumentum lepulchri 
ed, quod causa muniendi ejus loci factum fit, in quo corpus 
impofitum lit, unde monumentum quadmunirncutian dicitur.” 
Weever feems likewife to obtain it fo ; though in the re- 
gider of the Grey Friars, fays he, “ the fignification of a 
monument is thus defined— Monimentum elt quafi monens 
mentem, et fie folet a doftoribus etymologiari, &c.” which, 
in faft, feems far more reafonable and aireft. The word 
fepulchre may be derived from femi-pulcher, alluding to the 
contrail of magnificence and finery without, with the 
darknefs and rottennefs within. 
Thefe two words appear to be ufed too fynonymoully 
in general: a fepulchre may be a monument, though a mo¬ 
nument is not always a fepulchre; for, whilfl by the latter 
is always underdood a receptacle exprefsly for the corpfe, 
yet the former may be a cenotaph, a datue, a pillar, &c. 
Any great building is often Ayled the monument of him 
who erefted it; lo, in St. Paul’s Cathedral, is this infeription 
to its architect, Sir C. Wren : “ Si monumentum requiras— 
circumfpice i” The literary labours of the deceafed, alfo, 
have always been confidered as a mod honourable monu¬ 
ment to his memory. Horace fays of his own works Exegi 
monumentum cere perennius; “ I have raifed a monument 
more durable than brafs.” 
Monuments received different names among the an¬ 
cients, according to their figure. When the bafe was 
fquare, and the lolid erefted thereon a prifin, the monu¬ 
ment was called fteles; whence fquare piladers or attic 
columns are fuppofed to be derived. When the bafe was 
circular, and the lolid erefted thereon a cone, the monu¬ 
ment was called Jbjlos. Thofe monuments that were 
fquare at the foot, and tapering therefrom in planes to a 
point in which the planes ended, were called pyramids. 
Others which had triangular bales, and their fides ending 
in a point, w’ere called vbelijks, being condrufted in imi¬ 
tation of the indruments or fpits ufed in roading facrifice. 
Monument, The, abfoiutely fo called among us, de¬ 
notes, a magnificent pillaiverefted by order of parliament, 
in memory of the burning of the city of London, in the 
very place where the fire began. This pillar was begun 
in 1671, and finilhed in 1677. Seethe article London, 
vol. xiii. p. 431, 2. About thirty years ago, fome appre- 
henfionswere entertained that the Monument was in dan¬ 
ger of falling. It was therefore furveyed for the fatisfac- 
tion of the public, and found to be perfeftly fafe. It then 
underwent fome repairs; and the city of London granted 
permiflion to a decayed citizen to occupy the apartment 
within the pededal, and to receive the profit of ihowing 
it; that is of buffering perfons, at 6d. a-head, to walk 
up 
