464 , MAS 
MASCHFTO, a town of Naples, in the province of 
Bafilicata: three miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Venofa. 
MAS'CLE,yi in heraldry. See vol. ix. p. 423. 
MAS'CLEF (Francis), a learned French pried and 
orientalift, was born at Amiens, about the year 1672. He 
received the clerical tonfure when very young; and, after 
having had a good claflical education, and palhng through 
the ordinary courfes of philofophy and divinity in his na¬ 
tive city, applied clofely to the ftudy of the facred Scrip¬ 
tures. That he might be able thoroughly to enter into 
their literal fenfe, and to underftand their peculiar idioms, 
he made himfelf mailer not only of the Greek and He¬ 
brew languages, but alfo of the Syriac, the Chaldee, and 
the Arabic. In the Hebrew, particularly, he became pro¬ 
foundly fkilled. He obtained confiderable preferment in 
the church ; and, to aftift the ftudies of the younger clergy, 
he drew up A Courfe of Philofophy, and A Courfe of Di¬ 
vinity, which it was his intention to publilh for their life ; 
but circurnftances obliged him to relinquifh that delign. 
He added to his other acquirements a fufficient knowledge 
of the Italian and Spanilh to read the writers in both with¬ 
out the alfillance of tranflations. By incelfant applica¬ 
tion, however, and a confined mortified manner of living, 
he injured his health, and died in 1728, about the age of 
fixty-fix. He was the author of, 1. Ecclefiafiical Con¬ 
ferences in the Diocefe of Amiens, on the Duties and Ob. 
ligations of the Ecclefiafiical State, and on the principal 
Truths of Religion, in feveral volumes, 121110. 2. The 
Catechifm of Amiens, 4to. and feveral pieces relative to 
the Janfenifi controverfy, which are particularifed in Mo- 
reri. Btit his fame with pofterity chiefly refts on his 
Grammatica Hebraica, a PunElis aliifque Inventis Majforetfiicis 
libera, printed at Paris in 1716, in i2ino. This very able 
and ftandard work, the merits of which are now well 
known and acknowledged in the learned world, is intro¬ 
duced by a preface on the proper method of learning the 
Hebrew language, which does credit to the author’s eru¬ 
dition and his Latinity. The freedom, however, with 
which he explodes vowel-points, and many other rabbi¬ 
nical trifles, gave offence to Dorn. Guarin, a learned Be¬ 
nedictine, who, in 1724, publiflied a Hebrew grammar on 
the oppolite fyffem to that of M. Mafclef, in the firft 
volume of which he attacked our author’s performance. 
M. Mafclef replied in a letter of twenty-four pages, in 
French, printed in the fame year. Upon the appearance 
of Guarin’s fecond volume, in 1728, containing a more 
particular endeavour to refute the principles of the gram¬ 
mar without points, our author began to prepare an an- 
fwer to his ftridures, but was prevented from completing 
it by his death. In 1730, the abbe de la Bletterie, the 
friend of M. Mafclef, publiflied the fecond edition of his 
Grammar, in 2 vols. i2:no. the firft confifting of the ori¬ 
ginal work greatly enlarged ; and the fecond containing 
three other Grammars, the Chaldee, the Syriac, and the 
Samaritan, together with a full reply to the objections of 
Guarin. . Moreri. 
MASCOBU', a town of New Mexico, in the province 
of Mayo: no miles north-eaft of Santa Cruz. 
MASCO'MY, a river of New Hampfhire, which runs 
into the Connecticut in lat. 43. 37. N. Ion. 72.16. W. 
MASCOU'TENS, a river of the weftern territory of 
America, which runs into the Wabafli in lat. 39. 17. N. 
Ion. 87. 58. W. 
MAS'CULINE, adj. [snafculin , Fr. mafculinin, Lat.] 
Male ; not female.— His long beard noteth the air and 
fire, the two niafculine elements, exercifing their operation 
upon nature, being the feminine. Peac/mm on Drawing. 
O 1 why did God.; 
Creator wife, that peopled highelt heav’n 
With fpirits mafculine , create at lalt 
This novelty on earth, this fair defeCt 
Of nature ? Milton's Par adi/e Loft. 
Refembling man ; virile; not effeminate.—You find fome- 
thing bold and mafculine in the air and philtre of the firft 
MAS 
figure, which is that of Virtue. Addifon. — In grammar it 
denotes the gender denoted to the male kind in any word, 
though not always exprefling fex.—The Englifh language 
with Angular propriety following nature alone, applies the 
diflinClion of mafculine and feminine only to the names of 
animals ; all the re(t are neuter. Lozot/i. 
Moft fubftances are ranged under the heads mafculine 
or feminine. This, in foine cafes, is done with a (how of 
reafon; but in others is merely arbitrary, and for that, 
reafon is found to vary according to the languages and 
even according to the words introduced from one language 
into another. Thus the names of trees are generally fe¬ 
minine in Latin, and mafculine in French. Farther, the 
genders of the fame word are fometimes varied in the" 
lame language. Thus alvus, according to Prifcian, was 
anciently mafculine, hut is now become feminine. And 
navire, a fhip, in French, was anciently feminine, but is now 
mafculine. The word carrojfe, a coach, was originally fe¬ 
minine, as its termination implies; and it is fo found in 
Cotgrave’s Dictionary. A child of five years old altered 
the gender : Louis XIV, came to the crown at that age;, 
and loon afterwards happened to call out. Oil eft mon. 
carrojfe? The word has been confidered mafculine ever 
fince : Menage, in his Did. Etymologiqu.e, calls it maf¬ 
culine, but obferves, that formerly it was feminine. See 
farther under the article Grammar, vol. viii. p. 765. 
Masculine Rhyme, in the French poetry, is that made 
with a word which has a ftrong, open, and accented, pro¬ 
nunciation ; as all words have, excepting thofe which have- 
an e feminine in their laft fyliable. For infiance, amour' 
and jour, mort and fort, are mafculine rhymes; and pere 
and mere, gloire and memoire, are feminine. Hence alfo 
verfes ending with a mafculine rhyme are called mafculine 
vcrjes, and thofe ending with a feminine rhyme feminine 
verfes. It is now a rule eftablilhed among the French 
poets never to ufe above two mafculine or two femir, 
nine verfes fucceflively, except in the kiofer kind of poe¬ 
try. Marot was the firft who introduced this mixture c£ 
mafculine and feminine verfes, and Ronfard was the firft 
who pradifed it with fuccefs. The mafculine verfes fhould 
always have a fyllable lefs than the feminine ones. 
Masculine Signs. Afirologers divide the planets and’ 
figns into mafculine { and feminine; by reafon of their qua¬ 
lities, which are either adive, and hot or cold, accounted' 
mafculine; or paflive, dry or moift, which are feminine.: 
On this principle they call the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and 
Mars, mafculine; and the Moon and Venus feminine. Mer¬ 
cury, they fuppofe, partakes of the two. Among the figns, 
Aries, Libra, Gemini, Leo, Sagittarius, Aquarius, are maf¬ 
culine: Cancer, Capricornus, Taurus, Virgo, Scorpio, and 
Pifces, are feminine. See the article Astrology, vol. ii- 
MAS'CULINELY, adv. Like a man: 
Aurelia tells me, you have done moil mafculincly. 
And play the orator. Ben Jonfon's Catiline.- 
MAS'CULINENESS, f. Manniflinefs; male figure er. 
behaviour. 
MASDEVAL'LIA, /. in botany, a genus of the clafs 
gynandria, order monandria, natural order orchidfse. Ge¬ 
neric characters—Calyx: perianthium fuperior, of one 
leaf, bell-fhaped, three-cleft; its. legmen ts ovate, termi¬ 
nating in two fmall horns, the upper one rather the 
fhorteft. Corolla: petals two,,oblong, oblique, fmall, the 
fofemolt angle at their bafe moft prominent, their inner 
margin approaching the ftyle; lip ovate, entire, Sightly', 
keeled, fomewhat ftalked, enclofed within the calyx. Sta¬ 
mina: anthers a terminal hemifpherical lid; mafles of 
pollen ovate, ftalked, in pairs. Piftillum : germen infe¬ 
rior, oblong; ftyle fhort, gibbous, channelled in front;, 
iligma in the fore pair, concave. Pe'ricarpium: capfule 
oblong.— Fffential CharaEler. Calyx of one leaf, bell-fhaped, 
three-cleft; lip ovate, fomewhat ftalked, (horter than the 
calyx; anthers a terminal lid, decidufcus, ^ 
Mafdevallia uniflora, a fingle fpecies: native of Peru, 
where it is called kwaffqhwajji, Siyartz, 
MASE'BEi, 
v 
