43 
M O R 
proper by flat. 21 Henry VIII. c.6. to reduce them to Tome 
kind of certainty. For this purpofe it is enadted, that 
all mortuaries, or corf'e-prefents to parfons of any parilh, 
fhall be taken in the following manner, unlefs where by 
cultom lefs or none at all is due; viz. for every perl'on 
•who does not leave goods to the value of ten marks, 
nothing; for every perion who leaves goods to the value 
of ten marks and under thirty pounds, 3s. 4-d. if above 
thirty pounds," and under forty pounds, 6s. 8d. if above 
forty pounds, of what value foever they may be, 10s. and 
no more. And no mortuary (hall throughout the king¬ 
dom be paid for the death of any feme-covert; nor for 
any child; nor for any one of full age that is not a 
houfekeeper; nor for any wayfaring man ; but fuch way¬ 
faring man’s mortuary lhall be paid in the parilh to which 
he belongs. And upon this llatute Hands the law of 
mortuaries to this day. 
MOR'TUARY, adj. [ mortuaire , Fr.] Belonging to the 
burial of the dead.—Near the pyramids and mortuary 
caves. GreenhilVs Art of Embalming. 
MORTUGA'RA, a'town of Brazil, in the government 
of Para: twenty miles (outh-weft of Para. 
MOR'TY, an illand in the North Pacific Ocean, about 
fixty miles long from north to fouth, and from ten to 
twenty-five in breadth; leparated from the north-eait 
part of the illand of Gilolo by a channel about twenty- 
five miles wide, called the Strait of Morty. It belongs 
to the fultan of Ternate. Lat. 2. 15. N. Ion. 128. 23. E. 
MORVEAU' (Louis Bernard Guyton de), an eminent 
French chemilt, was born at Dijon, Jan. 4, 1737. He was 
defcended from an ancient and reipedtable family; and 
his father was profeflbr of the civil law in the univerfity 
of Dijon. 
Morveau’s early education was not negledted. But, 
while his father and his tutor were initiating him in the 
old routine of theories, nature taught him to relort to 
the practical acquifition of knowledge. Accuftomed every 
day to fee the various artificers, whom his father em¬ 
ployed about his houfe, to fatisfy a caprice for building, 
young Guyton infenfibly caught the ipirit of mechanics. 
At the age of feven he had already given many inftances 
of a difpolition for that branch of pliilofophy; and this, 
which was in him improperly confidered as a natural in¬ 
clination, was the inconteftible effedt of example. Being 
with his father at a fmall village near Dijon, during the 
vacation, he there happened to meet a public officer re¬ 
turning from a (ale, whence he had brought back a clock 
that had remained unfold, owing to its very bad condi¬ 
tion. Morveau intreats his father to purchafe it; fix 
francs were given—the clock was difmounted and cleaned 
by the ardent boy—fome pieces that were wanting were 
added—the whole put together as before, without any 
other affiftance; and in 1799, that js, fifty-five years after¬ 
wards, the clock was refold at a higher price, together 
with the eftate and houfe in which it had been originally 
placed ; having during the whole of that time preferved 
its movement in the mod fatisfadtory manner. The fame 
operation he once undertook for his mother’s watch, to 
her perfedt fatisfadtion, though he was then only eight 
years of age. Thefe trivial details might be multiplied; 
but they might alfo appear tedious and unimportant; 
they have been mentioned to (how how impoffible it is 
to predibi, from the early whims of childhood, the voca¬ 
tion which is to engage any individual at a more advanced 
period of life. No one has ffiown lefs taite for mechanics 
than Guyton, during his long and brilliant career. 
After the firfl: years of inltrubtion under his paternal 
roof, he was lent to college, where he finilhed his Itudies 
at the age of fixteen. About this time a M. Michault, a 
friend of his father, and a naturalift of fome merit, pro- 
pofed to inltrudt him in botany. And a vifit which he 
foon after paid to Voltaire at Ferney, feems to have given 
him, at one time, a turn for poetry; particularly of the 
defcriptive and fatiric kind. 
Having at length greater maturity of underltanding, 
young Guyton was admitted a law-ltudent in the univer- 
3 
M O R 
fity of Dijon; and, after three years of clofe application, was 
fent to Paris to acquire a knowledge of prablice at the bar. 
At the age of twenty-four, Guyton had pleaded ieveral 
important caufes; and about that time, when the office of 
advocate-general at the parliament of Dijon was advertifed 
for fale. It is well known that all public fituations, even 
of the greatell refponfibility, were then fold in France to 
the belt bidder. Guyton’s father, having afcertained that 
this place would be acceptable to his Ion, purchafed it 
for forty thoufand francs. The reputation of the young 
advocate, and his engaging manners, concurred in faci¬ 
litating the bargain ; and it is perhaps worthy of remark, 
that, when his father prelented him to the parliament on 
that occafion, the magiltrates compofing it, after many 
flattering compliments, exprefled a fear that his health, 
which leemed delicate, would fuller from the fatigues of 
office. He lived, however, to be nearly eighty years of age. 
But the more fober itudy of the law did not prevent 
him from cultivating various branches of polite lite¬ 
rature, on which fubjebfs he correfponded with feveral 
friends who were eminent in the belles-lettres. In 1764 
he was admitted an honorary member of the Academy of 
Sciences, Arts, and Belles Lettres, of Dijon, then one of 
the mod learned focieties of Europe: and here begins 
that brilliant career which he followed with fo much"ar¬ 
dour and glory. Two months afterwards he prelented to 
the alfembled chambers of the parliament of Burgundy a 
Memoir on Public Inftrublion, with a Plan for a College, 
on the principles detailed in his work. When we conli- 
der the youth of the writer, the age he lived in, the pre¬ 
judices he encountered, and the deeply-rooted abufes he 
had to combat, we cannot help admiring the talent dis¬ 
played in this work, and wifhing that its principles had 
never been loll fight of in arranging the fyllems of pub¬ 
lic education. The encomiums which every public jour¬ 
nal of the time has palled on this produblion, and the 
flattering letters which he received, were proofs of its 
value. The celebrated Chalottes, who was the king’s 
attorney-general at the parliament of Bretagne, and who 
had treated the fame fubjedt in a mafterly manner, wrote 
to him as follows: J'ai prouve la necejjite de la reforme de 
1 'education publique ; vous avez indique les moyens de l'exe¬ 
cute!'. “ I have pointed out the neceffity of a reform in 
the mode of public inltrudtion; you have lliown how this 
reform may be efredted.” A few months after this, Mor¬ 
veau delivered an Eloge on the prelident Jeannin, at a 
public meeting of the Dijon Academy: it was full of 
chalte eloquence, and virtuous fentiments. 
Thus we have lliown the wonderful verfatiiity of ta¬ 
lents difplayed by one man. He was qualified by nature 
to excel in mechanics, the belles lettres, law, ethics, or 
eloquence. But we mult pals overall the circumltances 
of minor importance, and haften to the brilliant chemical 
career which he firfl; entered upon at the age of thirty, 
when deeply plunged in the intricacies of a very different 
purfuit. 
The exadt fciences were fo ill taught, and lamely cul¬ 
tivated, at the time of Morveau’s univeriity-education, 
that, after his admiffion into the academy of Dijon, his 
notions of mechanical and natural philofophy were fcanty 
and infufficient. This partial ignorance expoled him to 
fome mortification during the meetings of that fociety. 
A Dr. Chardenon was in the habit of reading memoirs 
on chemical fubjedts; and on one occafion our author 
thought it necellary to hazard fome remarks which were 
ill received by the dobtor, who fneeringly told him, that, 
having obtained fuch fuccefs in literature, he had better 
rell fatisfied with the reputation fo juftly acquired, and 
leave chemiltry to thole who knew more of the matter. 
Angry at this remark, Guyton determined upon an ho¬ 
nourable revenge. He therefore applied himfelf to itudy 
the Theoretical and Practical Chemiltry of Macquer, and 
the Manual of Chemiltry which Beaume had jult pub- 
lilhed. To the latter chemilt he alfo fent an order for 
chemical preparations and utenfils, with a view of form¬ 
ing a fmall laboratory next his office. Having done this, 
hs 
