M O P 
M O R 
760 
MO'PING, adj. Dull; fpiritlefs : 
Inteftine ftone, and ulcer, cholick pangs, 
Demoniack phrenfy, moping melancholy, 
And moon-ftruck madnefs. Milton's Paradife Loft. 
MOPINO'T (Simon), a learned French BenediCfine 
monk, was born at Rheims in the year 1685. After 
having been inftruCted in grammar-learning at his na¬ 
tive city, at fifteen years of age he was fent to the mo- 
naftery of St. Faron de Meaux, where he took the vows 
in 1703. He went through his courfes of philofophy 
and divinity at St. Dennis, and fecured the efteem of 
his fuperiors by his literary improvement, as well as 
by his piety and regularity. He taught the dallies and 
rhetoric for fome years at Point-le-Foi, in the diocefe 
of Blois, with great fuccefs. He alfo occafionally ap¬ 
peared in the pulpit, and was much admired as a 
preacher. About the year 1715, his fuperiors called him 
J:o Paris, where he was alfociated with father Peter 
Couftant in preparing his laborious collection of “ the 
Letters of the Popes.” The firll volume of this work- 
was publilhed in 1721, in folio, with a dedication and pre¬ 
face by father Mopinot, which do him honour as an ele¬ 
gant writer and judicious critic. The preface, however, 
excited difpleafure at Rome, where it was maintained 
that he had not done jultice to the pretenlions of fome of 
the fovereign pontiffs ; but he ably vindicated himfelf 
againft this charge, in a letter addrefled to the attorney- 
general of his order, which was printed in quarto. Upon 
the death of Couftant, in 1721, the whole care of conti¬ 
nuing this collection devolved upon our author; and he 
feduioufly devoted to it all the time which his religious 
duties permitted. He was prepared to print a fecond vo¬ 
lume, when he w'as attacked by a violent dyfentery, of 
which he died in 1734, in the thirty-ninth year of his 
age. Father Mopinot w'rote in Latin with all the purity 
and elegance of the belt authors ; and he had conliderable 
pretenfions to poetic genius. In different monafteries of 
his order, Hymns of his compolition were chanted, which 
good judges prefer to thofe of M. Santeuil de St. ViCtor, 
for genuine devotional fentiment and fpirit, while they 
.are inferior to the latter in point of energy and livelinefs 
of imagery. He was alfo the author of the dedicatory 
epiltle prefixed to the Thefaurus Anecdotum, of fathers 
Martenne and Durand; and a Funeral Eulogium, in 
Latin, on M. Proufteau, profeflor of law in the univerfity 
.®f Orleans. Nonv. Did. IJiJl. 
MO'PISH, adj. Spiritlefs; inattentive; dejeCted.—They 
generally fit down under crofles and afflictions, are ex- 
pofea to contempt and lhame, traduced as a fort of mopijh 
.and unfociable creatures. Killingbeclt's Sermons. 
MO'PISHNESS, J'. DejeCtion; inactivity.—The re¬ 
ceives of the cloyfter; the feats of mopijhnefs, fuperllition, 
and bigotry. Coventry's Phil, to Hyd. Conv. 2.—He became 
very melancholy, and at length feilintoa kind of mopijh- 
nejs or fatuity. Hijl■ It. S. iv. 501. 
MOP'PET, or Mopsey, J\ [perhaps from mop.'] A 
puppet made of rags, as a mop is made ; a fondling name 
for a girl: 
Our fovereign lady: made for a queen ? 
With a globe in one hand, and a iceptre in t’other ? 
A very pretty moppet. Dryden's Spanijh Friar. 
MOPSO'PIA, an ancient name of Athens, from Mopfus 
one of its kings ; and from thence the epithet of MdpJ'opius 
is often applied to an Athenian. 
MOP'SUS, a celebrated prophet, fon of Manto and 
Apollo, during the Trojan war. He was confulted by 
Amphimachus, king of Colophon, who wilhed to know 
what fuccefs would attend his arms in a war which he was 
going to undertake. He predicted the greateft calamities ; 
but Calclias, wlio had been a foothlayer of the Greeks 
.during the Trojan war, promifed the greateft fiuccefles. 
Amphimachus followed the opinion of Calchas, but the 
prediction of Mopfus was fully verified. This had fuch 
an effeCl upon Calchas, that he died foon after. But the 
death of Calchas is attributed by fome to another morti¬ 
fication of the fame nature. The two foothfayers, jea¬ 
lous of each other’s fame, came to a trial of their lkill 
in divination. Calchas firft alked his antagonift how 
many figs a neighbouring tree bore. Tenthouland ex¬ 
cept one replied Mopfus; and one tingle veflel can con¬ 
tain them all. The figs were gathered, and his conjec¬ 
tures were true. Mopfus, now, to try his adverfary, alked 
him how many young ones a certain pregnant Low would 
bring forth. Calchas confeffed his ignorance; and Mop¬ 
fus immediately find, that the fow would bring forth on 
the morrow ten young ones, of which only one fliould be 
a male, all black, and that the females Ihould all be known 
by their white ftreaks. The morrow proved the veracity 
of his prediction, and Calchas died by excefs of the grief 
which his defeat produced. Mopfus after death was 
ranked among the gods ; and had an oracle at Malia, ce¬ 
lebrated for the true and decifive anfwers which it gave. 
MOP'SUS, a fon of Ampyx and Chioris, born at Ti- 
tarelfa in Theflaly. He was the prophet and foothfiiyer 
of the Argonauts, and died at his return from Colchis 
by the bite of a lerpent in Libya. Jafon ereCted him a 
monument on fhe fea-fiiore, where afterwards the Afri¬ 
cans built him a temple where he gave oracles. He has 
often been confounded with the fon of Manto, as their 
profefflons and their names were alike. 
MO'PUS, J'. [a cant word, from mope.] A drone; a 
dreamer: 
I’m grown a mere mopus; no company comes 
But a rabble of tenants. Swift. 
MOQUEG'NA, a town of Peru, in the diocefe of Are- 
quipa: feventy miles louth of Arequipa. Lat. 17.20. N. 
Ion. 70. 56. W. 
MOQUILE'A, f. [apparently a barbarous name, of 
which no explanation is given.] In botany, a genus of 
the clafs icofandria, order monogynia, natural order po- 
maceae, Linn, (rofacese, JnJJ'.) Generic characters—Calyx; 
perianthium inferior, of one leaf, turbinate, internally 
villous, with five roundiih, acute, marginal, fegments. 
Corolla : petals five, roundiih, inferted between the feg¬ 
ments of the calyx. Stamina 1 filaments numerous (about 
40), inferted into the calyx, capillary, longer than the 
corolla ; antherre roundifii, incumbent. Piftillum : ger- 
men roundiih, hairy, in the bottom of the calyx; ftyle 
lateral, from the bale of the germen, afeending, as long as 
the ftamens, hairy in its lower half; ftigma obtufe. Peri- 
carpium and feeds : unknown.— Ejfential Char after. Ca¬ 
lyx five-cleft, inferior; petals five; ftyle from the bafe of 
the germen. 
Moquilea Guianenfis, the only fpecies : a tree, found 
by Aublet in the fortrefs of Guiana, flowering in May. 
The trunk rifes to the height of thirty feet, with a thick 
reddilh bark. The wood is v. T hite, not compaCl. Leaves 
alternate, four to feven inches long, and two or three 
broad, elliptical, pointed, entire, lmooth, and fhining, 
with one rib and feveral tranfverfe veins. Flowers white, 
in axillary and terminal clufters, whofe ftalks are triangu¬ 
lar. Aublet law nothing of the fruit; nor is mention 
made of any particular ufes or qualities of this tree. 
Aublet , Guian. 521. t. 208. 
MO'QUIS, or Mooui'nos, a favage tribe, who inhabit 
the centre of the mother-chain of mountains, in the part 
of America bordering on New Mexico. They were for¬ 
merly converted by the Francifcans ; but they have fince 
killed all the miflionaries, and abjured the Chriftian faith. 
MOR, a town of Arabia, in Yemen : twelve miles eaft 
of Loheia, 
MOR, a town of Arabia, in the province of Hedsjas : 
thirty-two miles north-weft of Hagiaz. 
MOR, an ifland of Denmark, in the gulf of Lymfiord : 
fixteen miles long, and fix wide. It contains a town and 
feveral villages. 
v 
MO'RAj 
