352 
M A R 
tra&s from Tome of bis polemical pieces againft the en- 
thufiafts and millenarians, which will afford him enter¬ 
tainment. 
Our author left behind him two Tons, who were refpec- 
table for their erudition, and particularly diftinguiflied 
themfelves by the popularity of their pulpit-talents. 
Hkkry, the eldeft, was originally bred to the law, but 
reiinquifhed that profeffion for the miniftry ; and offici¬ 
ated fucceffively, with great acceptance, in the French 
churches at Groningen, Caffel, Bois-le-duc, and Delft. 
Daniel, his younger brother, was at firlt his father’s col¬ 
league in tile French church at Groningen ; whence he 
removed to the Walloon church at Middleburg; and af¬ 
terwards was called to the French church at the Hague, 
where his abilities, eloquence, and wit, rendered him a 
favourite at the court of the prince of Grange, who gave 
him an afylum, and a confidential employment in one of 
his country palaces, when the date of his health obliged 
him to difcontinue the exercife of his minifterial rundions. 
Thefe two brothers were jointly concerned in editing that 
French verfion of the Bible, with notes, which bears their 
name, and was printed by Elzevir in 1699, on a beautiful 
type and large paper, in folio. 
MARE'TS (Roland des), born at Paris in 1594, was 
for fome time an advocate; but, difgufted with the noife 
and contention of the bar, he retired to a life of literary 
repofe, and died unmarried in 1653. He was efteemed 
an excellent critic, and wrote a number of Latin letters 
on literary topics, which were publifhed after his death 
by M. de Launoy, under the title of “ Rolandi Marefii 
Epiftolarum philologicarmn Lib. II.” 1665, and 1686. 
Some poems of his compofition are added to this collection. 
MARE'TS de St. SOR'LIN (John des), brother to the 
preceding, a man of letters, of a lingular character, was 
born at Paris in 1595. He early diftinguiflied himfelf by 
the livelinefs of his parts ; and was in great favour with 
cardinal Richelieu, whom he ufed to amufe with his con- 
verfation in his hours of leifure, and aflifl: in the literary 
productions which were the foible of that great minifter. 
As a reward, he had the pofts of comptroller-general of 
the war-extraordinaries, and fecretary-general of the ma¬ 
rine of the Levant. He was one of the fit ft members of 
the French Academy; and made himfelf known by a va¬ 
riety of compofitions in poetry and romance. He wrote a 
number of dramatic pieces, of which the comedy of “ Les 
Vifionnaires” was the molt popular. After a licentious 
courfe of life, which communicated a taint to many of 
his works, he became a vifionary and fanatic in religion, 
and was a bitter enemy of the Janfenifts and all their friends, 
whom he attacked in writings full of extravagance. He 
applied the prophecies in the Revelation to Louis XIV. 
who, at the head of the 144,000 eled, was to deftroy he¬ 
reby and Mahometifm, and bring the whole world to the 
profeffion of the true faith. So high did the fpirit of party 
run at that time, that he was admired and patronifed by 
fome of the bifhops ; and he was permitted, though a lay¬ 
man, to vent his reveries in religious houfes, and affiime 
the diredion of devotees of both lexes. He preferved his 
credit with the great to the lalt; and died in 1676, in the 
lioufe of the duke of Richelieu at the age of eighty-one. 
Boyle. 
MAREU'IL, a town of France, in the department of 
the Vendee: five miles north of Lugon, and twelve fouth- 
fouth-eaft of La Roche lur Yon. 
MAREU'IL, a town of France, in the department of 
the Dordogne : twenty-one miles north-weft of Perigueux. 
MAR'GA, f. Marl; in mineralogy, a genus of cal¬ 
careous earth—Confiding of carbonat of lime and argil, 
with generally fome oxyd of iron ; loft, opake, of a com¬ 
mon form, internally earthy, light, and milcible with com¬ 
mon water by agitation, found in It rati tied mountains ; 
partly folu’ole in nitric acrid, with effervefcence ; harden¬ 
ing in the fire, and vitrifying in a ftrong heat. 
If calcareous carbonats contain afufficient proportion of 
clay to crumble,, by expofure to air, and fall into a powder 
M A R 
in water, they are then called marls. The proportion of 
calcareous carbonat in marls varies from about two-thirds 
to four-fifths; all,which part may be feparated by rr.oft of 
the acids; being readily foluble in them ; the refiduum is 
clay ; which itfelf confifts, as all clays do, of alumine and 
files. The feveral conftituent parts of marl'are in fuch 
a minute Kate of divifion as to be invifible to the naked 
eye. According to the proportion of the calcareous and 
argillaceous parts, different marls, as ufed in agriculture, 
are applicable to different foils ; where the calcareous part 
is comparatively abundant, the marl is proportioiiabjy ap¬ 
plicable to a clayey foil ; where the argillaceous part is 
more confiderable than ufual, to a fandy foil. 
From the fiffile ftr.udure of marls, the frequent prefence 
of organic remains in them, and the equable mixture of 
their component parts, Wallerius fuppofes that they ori¬ 
ginated from the detritus of other tubftaaces ; and that 
they were once in a liquid (late. This is now very gene¬ 
rally allowed to have been their origin ; elpecialLy as they 
■only occur among fecondary ftrata. 
1. Marga terrea, common or earthy marl: friable, mea¬ 
gre, a little rough to the touch. Found in almolt every 
country in Europe, in ifrata. Colour whitifh, y.eliowifh- 
white, or yellowifli-grey, and grows paler in drying ; 
fometimes found mixed with mica, gypfum, or fand ; in 
the latter cafe it is fufible into a tranfparent glafs, fome,- 
times impregnated with iron, very rarely with other me¬ 
tals; generally contains from 60 to 80 per cent, of mild 
carbonat of lime, the remainder of alumina or clay ; fpe- 
cific gravity, from 1 '6 to **4. 
There are four varieties: a. Agillaceous, lubricous, 
friable, plaftic. ( 3 . Argillaceous, compact, dry, pure, with 
very fine particles, y. Cretaceous, foiling the fingers. 
Mixed with arenaceous particles, crumbling to powder in 
the air, a little greafy. 
2. Marga Nilotica, or Nilotic marl: farinaceous, browti- 
ifh, cinereous when burnt, mixed with mould. Found in 
the plains of Egypt, annually overflowed by the waters of 
the Nile, where it is left by depofition after their recefs, 
and is highly fertile. 
The variety (3, which is fufceptible of vitrification, oc¬ 
curs at Upland in Sweden. 
3. Marga fatifcens, or brittle marl : very foft, fefiile, 
greyifh, crumbling to powder in the air. Found in thicker 
or thinner ftrata, in Sweden, Germany, and Swifferland, 
often between calcareous ftrata ; colour yellowifli, greenifh, 
or bluifh, with often a rufous tinge. 
4. Marga porofa, or porous marl: indurated, porous, 
precipitated from water, breaking into indeterminate frag¬ 
ments. Found in various parrs of Britain, Sweden, and 
Germany, at the bottom of waters, particularly thofe 
which are ftagnant, and becomes reddifh when burnt, in 
proportion to the oxyd of iron which it comtaips ; fome¬ 
times whitifh or grey. 
5. Marga fchiitofa, or marl-fliiftus: indurated, not 
crumbling in the air, greyifh, of a flaty texture, breaking 
into difcoid fragments. Found ftratified in various parts 
of Europe, as Saxony, Drefden, Wehrau, Meiflen, &c. 
Auftria; Bilin, Luftritz, Meronitz, and feveral other 
places of Bohemia; Bavaria; Moravia; the Palatinate; 
Thuringia; Heflia ; England; Italy; France; and other 
countries where the fletz-trapp’and coal formations occur. 
It is chiefly found fubordinate to fletz-limeftone, in which 
it fometimes forms confiderable beds, alternating with 
compad limeftone; it alfo occurs in coal-countries, fome¬ 
times in entire beds ; and it conltitutes the cement of fome 
fand ftones. The circutnftances under which it occurs in 
the fletz-trapp formation, have not yet been afcertained. 
That in Bohemia it pafles into bafalt, as has been affirmed 
by Reufs, is doubted by other mineralogifts; but a tran- 
fition of marl into limeftone on one fide, and into indu¬ 
rated clay on the other, is far from being a rare occurrence. 
Indurated marl often contains iron pyrites, garnets (that 
of the Hiffelberg, at Meronitz, in Bohemia), copper azure, 
malachite (that of Thalitter), &c. Nor are petrifadions 
