303 MAN 
MANTLING, f The aft of fermenting, as liquors; 
a fermentation. In heraldry, fee voL ix. p. 444. 
MAN'TO, in fabulous hiftory, a daughter of the pro¬ 
phet Tirefias, and (killed in divination. She was made 
prifoner by the Argives when the city of Thebes fell 
into their hands ; and, as the was contidered the worthieft 
part of the booty, the conquerors fent her to Delphi, as 
the molt valuable prefent they could make to Apollo. 
Manto, often called Daphne , remained for fome time at 
Delphi, where (lie officiated as prieftefs, and where (lie 
gave oracles. From Delphi (lie came to Claros in Ionia, 
where (lie eitabliffied an oracle of Apollo. Here (lie married 
Rhadius, the fovereign of the country, by whom (he had 
a fon called Mopfus. Manto afterwards vifited Italy, w here 
(lie married Tiberinus the king of Alba, or, as the poets 
mention, the god of the river Tiber. From this marriage 
fprang Ocnus, who built a town in the neighbourhood, 
which, in honour of his mother, he called Mantua. Manto, 
according to a certain tradition, was fo (truck at the mif- 
fortunes which afflifted Thebes, her native country, that 
(he gave way to her forrow, and was turned into a foun¬ 
tain. Some fuppofe her to be the fame who conducted 
./Eneas into hell, and who fold the Sibylline books to Tar- 
quin the Proud. She received divine honours after her 
death. Virg. ALn. Ovid. Met. 
MAN'TO, or Olan'cho el Vie'jo, a town of Mexico, 
in the province of Honduras: forty-five miles foutli- 
eaft of St. Jorge de Olancho, and 130 ealt of Comayagua. 
Lat. 14. 4. N. Ion. 86. W. 
MAN'TO CREE'K, a river of New Jerfey, which runs 
into the Delaware in lat. 39. 51. N. Ion. 75.15. W. 
MANTOL'OGY, /. [Greek.] Gift of prophecy.— 
The reader would not pardon an author, who, treating of 
this fubjeft, ffiould omit that remarkable mantology , or gift 
of prophecy, which diftinguiffies the inhabitants of the 
Hebrides. Guthrie. 
M ANTON (Thomas), a learned Engliffi nonconformift 
divine, was born at Law rence Lydiard in Somerfetffiire, in 
the year 1620. He was educated in grammar-learning at 
Tiverton-fchool; whence he was fent at fifteen years of 
age to Wadham-college, Oxford; where he remained till 
the year 1639, wffien he removed to Hart-hall, .and was- 
admitted to the degree of B. A. At the age of twenty, 
he received deacon’s orders from Dr. Hall, biffiop of Exe¬ 
ter. By this ceremony he confidered himfelf to be pro¬ 
perly and fully ordained to the minifterial office, and 
would never fubmit to receive prieft’s orders, conceiving 
that no power on earth had a right to divide that office 
into two branches, with different qualifications. After 
preaching for fome time at Culliton in Devonffiire, he fet¬ 
tled at Stoke Newington near London, where he continued 
leven years, and was generally efteemed as an excellent 
preacher, and a learned expo.li.tor of feripture. Afterwards 
he was prefented by the duke of Bedford to the living of 
St. Paul, Covcnt-Garden, where he was always attended 
by a very numerous audience. In 1653, he was appoint¬ 
ed one of the chaplains of the prpteftor Oliver; and alfo 
one of the triers of perfons’ qualifications for the work of 
the miniltry, to the duties of which office he paid conltant 
attention. During the following year he w_as created 
B. D. In 1660, however, we find him very aftive, with 
the preftyterian minifters in general, in bringing about 
the reltoration of king Charles II. and for which fervice 
he was nominated one of the chaplains to his majefty,and, 
in tisiifequence of the king’s mandamus, created D.D. In 
the year 1661, he was one of the commiffioners at the Sa¬ 
voy Conference; and about the fame time was offered the 
deanery of Rqcliefter, which he would have accepted 
had not the Aft of Uniformity taken place, to the pro- 
virions of which be could not in confcience lubmit. Un¬ 
der that aft he was ejefted from his living in 1662 ; after 
vhiph-d’-e held a private meeting in his own houfe, but 
was imprifoned, and met with other obltruftions in the 
£xetcife.of his minifterial funftions. He was confuJted 
MAN 
in all the treaties for a comprehenfion with the eftabliffied 
church; and had great weight with his brethren, on ac¬ 
count of his aftivity and addrefs in the management of 
public affairs. In 1677, he W'as feized with a kind of le¬ 
thargy, which terminated in his death after he had en¬ 
tered on the fifty-feventh year of his age. He was a man 
of confiderable learning, who had carefully read the fa¬ 
thers and fchoolmen, and had well digefted the bell com¬ 
mentators on feripture. He was alfo well read in ancient 
and modern hiftory ; and would furprife perfons who had 
travelled with the fuperior knowledge which he difeovered 
of things abroad, concerning which he talked as if he had 
been on the fp.ot. In this refpeft, Waller the poet ufed 
to fay, that he never met w'ith his equal. Dr. Bates, in 
his funeral fermon fays, that he was a divine of a rich 
fancy, a ftrong memory, and happy elocution, improved 
by diligent ftudy. He took great pains with his com- 
pofitions, fo as fometimes to tranferibe them more than 
once ; and Dr. Bates ufed to fay, that, though he fome¬ 
times heard the greateft men deliver a mean difeourfe, he 
never heard fuch a one from Dr. Manron. Archbilhop 
Ufher ufed to call him a voluminous preacher, meaning that 
he had the art of comprelling the fubltance of volumes of 
divinity into a narrow compafs. But the expreffion was 
applicable to him in the literal meaning of the words; 
for his Sermons fill five large volumes in folio, one of 
which contains a hundred and nineteen on the cxixth 
Pfalm. The talk of reading thefe to his aunt, when he 
was a youth, had an unhappy effeft on the mind of lord 
Bolingbroke. In a letter to Swift, he writes, “ My next 
(hall be as long as one of Dr. Manton’s fermons, who 
taught my youth to yawn, and prepared me to be a high- 
churchman, that I might never hear him read, nor read 
him more.*’ Wood's Athen. vol. ii. Neal's Hijl. Purit. vol. iv. 
MANTRA, J iu Hindoo mythology, a kind of charm 
or incantation. See the article Hindoostan, vol. x. 
p. 139, 40.—The Hindoos have mantras, and tantras, and 
yantras; and, as many books in the Sanfkrit language are 
extant on thefe fubjefts, their differences and diltinctions 
are doubtlefs well known to the Brahmins; although, hi¬ 
therto, thofe books do not appear to have been fufficiently 
examined (and it may be well queltioned, if they are 
worth the labour) to be undetltood by any of our ori¬ 
ental fcholars. Mantra often means a curie, a fort of im¬ 
precatory incantation, either ejaculated or written, and 
compofed of a paflage from one of the Vedas, containing 
the name of (ome tremendous deity. Sometimes it ap¬ 
pears rather to affume the form of what we underltand of 
the word talifman-, affefting fupernatural purpofes, luch 
as rendering a perfon invilible, See. Both Hindoos and 
Mahometans have great faith in the efficacy of propi¬ 
tiatory incantations, more efpecially the former, and a 
correfponding dread of thofe of a malevolent tendency. 
It is, of courfe, the triumph of prieftcraft to keep alive 
thefe iinpreffions; and the lacred and other books of the 
Hindoos are well calculated for that effect. The male¬ 
diction of a prielt would ferioufty affeft the comfort and 
quiet of a pious Hindoo. The following paffage from the 
Ramayana, a much-elteemed epic poem, will ierve to ex¬ 
emplify this, as well as the accredited femi-omnipotency 
of the Brahmins ; and, with thofe who have faith in thefe 
doftrines, affords a fufficient reafon to fear the effects of 
fuch curies : “ Even he who cannot be (lain by the pon¬ 
derous arms of Indra, nor by thofe of Kali, nor by the 
terrible chakra of Viffinu, (hall be deltroyed if a Brahmin 
curfe him, as if he were confumed by fire.” The tantret 
is a fort of hieroglyphic myiterioufty (acred to a particular 
deity. Of thefe tantras there are a great many, as we are 
informed by Mr. Paterfon, in his Elfay on the Origin of 
the Hindoo Religion, in the eighth volume of the Afiatic 
Refearches. Tfie term, as well as yantra, is applied to 
invocations of a fupplicatory tendency, or to defenfive 
incantations; likewife to a philtre, or chann ; and to 
other fooleries fimilar to our abracadabra and magic 
1 '■ Squares, 
