8i6 M O R 
the back. Geoffroy affirms this to be the oxyrhynckui of 
ancient writers. 
5. Mormyrus Salahia: fnout blunt, lower jaw much 
longer than the upper; dorlal fin oppofite the anal, and 
rather lhorter. Geoffroy firft obferved this fpecies at Sa- 
lahie; in the defert he found a great many of them, 
which had been walked out of the Nile by an inundation, 
and had been left in a hole, whence the water had after¬ 
wards evaporated. 
6. Mormyrus Bebe: fnout blunt; jaws equal; dorfal- 
fin oppofite the anal, and only one-fixth of its length. 
This fpecies is very numerous in a place called Bebe by 
the inhabitants of Egypt, in which are extant the ruins of 
a magnificent temple of Ifis. 
7. Mormyrus l'.erse : fnout obtufe; upper jaw rather 
longeft ; dorfal fin the whole length of the back. This 
bears the l'pecific name given it by the Arabs. 
2 . Mormyrus bane : fnout obtufe, upper jaw much 
longer than the under; dorfal fin equal in length to the 
anal ; noltrils fingle. This alfo bears the Arabian name. 
MORN, f. [Goth, maitgins ; Icel. morgen, myrgen ; 
Sax. mop gen, mejigen, mepien, mepne, mapne, mopne. 
Mr. H. Tooke derives this l’ubftantive from the Goth. 
merjan, Sax. meppan, myppan, to fpread abroad, to diffi- 
pate, to fcatter; “ morrow , therefore, and morn, (the 
former, being the pad tenfe of myppan, with the addi¬ 
tion of the participal termination en,) have both the 
fame meaning, viz. dijfipated, dj'perfed ; and, whenever 
either of thofe words is ufed by us, clouds or darknefs are 
underftood ; whofe difperjion, or the time when they are 
difperfed, it exprefles.” Div. of Purl. ii. 214. Dr. Jamiefon 
views the Gothic maitgins as allied to the verb maurgjan, 
to Ihorten; as the dawn of morning Ihortens the reign of 
darknefs, or cuts off the night. The term is ufed by Ulph. 
St. Mark xiii. 20. he adds, exprel’sly with refpeft to time, 
Gamurgida titans dagavs, “ he hath Jhortened the days 
the days referred to are thofe of darknefs in a figurative 
ienfe. Mr. Tooke’s is the more natural dedudlion. And 
thus the Latin mane has been traced to the Greek y.a>ov, 
clear. Dr. Jo/mfon's Dictionary by ike Rev. H. J. Todd.'] 
The firft part of the day; the morning. Morn is not 
ufed but by the poets : 
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn, 
Doth with his lofty and Ihrill-founding throat, 
Awake the god of day. Shakefpeare. 
Friendlhip fhall Hill thy evening feafts adorn, 
And blooming peace fhall ever blefs thy morn. Prior. 
MORNAN'T, a town of France, in the department 
of the Rhone and Loire: ten miles fouth-fouth-weft of 
Lyons, and lixteen north-eaft of St. Etienne. 
MOR'NAS, a town of France, in the department of the 
Vauclufe : nine miles north-north-weft of Orange. 
MORNA'Y, a town of France, in the department of 
the Ain, and chief place of a canton, in the diftridt of 
Nantua. The place contains 405, and the canton 6590, 
inhabitants. 
MORNA'Y (Philip de, Seigneur Du Pleffis de Marly), 
an illuftrious French proteftant, was born at Buhy, or 
Biffiuy, in the French Vexin, in the year 1549. His father 
was a defcendant of an ancient and noble family; and, as he 
was zealoufty attached totheRomilh religion, he intended 
to educate his fon, the fubjedt of this article, to the eccle- 
fiaftical profeffion. He was the rather induced to this ftep 
from the circumftance of his having a brother already high 
in the church, who promifed to refign hereafter his bene¬ 
fices in favour of his nephew. Thele profpedts were dif- 
appointed by the death of the dignitary, while Philip was 
only in the eighth year of his age. In the mean time his 
mother had become a con vert to the proteftant religion, 
and had taken care to infill its principles into the mind 
of her fon. His father died in 1560, after w-hich his wi¬ 
dow made an open and undifguiled profeffion of her reli¬ 
gious principles, and had the proteftant worlhip conduct¬ 
ed at her manfion of Buhy. Philip ftudied at feveral of 
the univerfities at Paris and ellewhere, and made a rapid 
M Q R 
progrefs in the feveral departments ofliterature to which 
lie bent his mind. Before he had completed his eigh¬ 
teenth year his uncle, the archbilhop of Riieims, came to 
Paris, and, having examined the young man as to the 
proficiency he had made in his ftudies, was furprifed at the 
depth and extent of his erudition. He was aware alio of 
his dereliction from the religion in which he had been 
brought up, and endeavoured by every means in his 
power to reclaim him, promifing to refign his biihopric 
in his favour at fome future period, and to find him pro¬ 
motion in the church immediately. Thefe offers he de¬ 
clined ; and in 1567, upon the commencement of the 
troubles in France, M. du Pleffis found himfelf under the 
neceffity of quitting the metropolis, and returning to 
Buhy. He refolved to take up arms, and to lerve under 
his maternal uncle ; but, in proceeding to the army, his 
horfe fell under him, and both bones of his leg were 
broken. During a long confinement, the refult of this 
accident, he compofed a poem on the civil war, and fome 
fonnets in praife of Coligni. Peace being figned in 1568, 
he began a tour in foreign countries, as well for the im¬ 
provement of his mind as with the view of the more per¬ 
fect recovery of his crippled limb. He went to Geneva, 
which he was obliged to quit in a very ffiort time, owing- 
to the plague breaking out in that city. From Geneva he 
palled to Heidelberg, where he began the ftudy of the 
civil law, and the German language. In the courfe of 
fix months he made himfelf fo far acquainted with the 
language, as to be able to read all kinds of books in it. 
Having quitted Heidelberg he travelled to the principal 
cities in Italy, and we find him proceeding to Frankfort, 
Padua, and Venice. In 1571, he went to Rome, where 
he was expofed to fome danger on account of his religion. 
In the following year we find him in England, where he 
met with a mofc gracious reception from queen Elizabeth, 
whofe courtiers leemed to vie with each other in the at¬ 
tention which they fliowed him. On his return to France 
he paid a vifit to Coligni; and, while flaying with him, 
he drew up a memorial of the obfervations that he had 
made in Flanders ; and a piece intended to demonftrate 
the juftice and advantages of declaring war againft Spain ; 
both of which were prel’ented to the king by the admiral, 
who urged his majefty to improve the opportunity that 
offered itfelf by fending M. du Pleffis to the prince of 
Orange, for the purpofe of concerting a combination of 
the efforts of France and the United Provinces, but the 
king (Charles IX.) refufed to attend to the advice thus 
offered : he had no wifh to come to a milunderftanding 
with the Spaniards; and he was meditating, at the very 
moment, the deltru&ion of the proteftants of his own 
country. At length the fatal eve of St. Bartholomew 
arrived ; and Du Pleffis was awakened in the dead of 
the night by the lavage butchers who were execut¬ 
ing the orders of a ftill more favage monarch. Coligni 
fell a lacrifice among the multitudes whofe lives were 
taken away on that tremendous night; (fee vol. ii. 
p. 764.) but Du Pleffis, when he found that all refiftance 
would be in vain, efcaped to England, the happy afylum 
of the perfecuted in many periods of her hiftory. Here 
he met with a cordial reception from perfons of all ranks, 
and particularly from Mr. Secretary Walfingham. When 
it was known at Paris that he was fafe in England, the 
ambaifador of the elector of Saxony and other German 
princes at the court of Charles IX. wrote to his friends 
to lupply him with every thing of which he might Hand 
in need. In 1574, he returned to France; and upon his 
arrival he attended a council of feveral of the proteftant 
chiefs, in which it was propofed that the party fttould im¬ 
mediately take arms to provide for the fecurity of their 
own rights by promoting the views of the duke of Alen^on. 
This project, though oppofed by Du Pleffis, was carried 
by a majority 5 and he, forefeeing the ill conlequences, re¬ 
tired to Sedan. 
While at this place he married, and wrote, at the re- 
queft of his lady, “ A Treatife on Life and Death,” which 
was afterwards publifhed at Geneva, and tranflated into 
3 feveral 
