468 M Y S 
Engliffi gentlemen. Under a fecurer and more Ikilful 
government, the whole furface of the country will be 
embelliftied ; traffic will fmooth and decorate its roads; 
induftry will widen and variegate its bazaars; and agri¬ 
culture will fufpend in huger tanks its hoards of irriga¬ 
tion. Laftly, to the intelleftual twilight of manufcript 
literature will fucceed the radiations of the prefs of 
Calcutta; and manners will acquire a nobler tendency 
from intercourfe with the exemplary civilization of Euro¬ 
pean refidents. 
Cotemporary events have not often been employed as 
themes of the epopea: yet it would be difficult to in¬ 
dicate any hiltorical incident of equal importance, fo 
glorious in its conduft and fo flattering to national feel¬ 
ings, which for unity and majefty of fable, for progreffive 
intereft and decifive folution, is fo well fitted to the pur- 
pofes of the poet, and fo capable of mythological deco¬ 
ration, as this final conqueft of the Myfore. The ancient 
divinities of Hindooftan, not in alliance indeed with the 
faints of Chriftianity, but with the higher pow’ers of its 
empyreum, have driven the demons of Iflamifm from 
their mofques, and buried the fabre of perfecution in the 
tomb of the perfecutor. Wilks's Hiftorical Sketches of the 
South of India, vol. i. See alfo the article Hindoostan, 
vol. x. p. 98, 99, 100. and the places there referred to; 
and the article Hyder Ali, in the fame volume. 
MYSO'RE, a fortified town of Hindooftan, anciently 
the capital of the country fo called: ten miles fouth of 
Seringapatam. 
MYSTAGO'GICAL, adj. Belonging to a myftagogue. 
MYS'TAGOGUE, f. [from the Gr. yvrn;, a teacher of 
facred things, and «.ywyo;, a leader.] One wdio interprets 
divine myfteries; alfo one who keeps church-relics, and 
ffiows them to ftrangers.—The myftagogue taught them, 
that Jupiter, Mercury, Bacchus, Venus, Mars, and the 
whole rabble of licentious deities, were only dead mortals. 
Warburton's Div. Leg. 
MYS'TAGOGY, f. An initiation into the myfteries 
of religion; the aft of initiating into facred myfteries. 
MYS'T AX, /! in botany. See Hugonia. 
MYSTE'RIAL, adj. [from myftery.~\ Containing a 
myftery or enigma: 
Beauty and love, whofe ftory is myferial, 
In yonder palm-tree and the crown imperial. 
Do, from the rofe and lily fo delicious, 
Promife a ffiade, ffiall ever be propitious 
To both the kingdoms. B. Jonfon's Mafques. 
MYSTE'RIARCH,/! [from theGr. ywrvfiov, a myftery, 
and ap%o;, a chief.] One who has the charge or manage¬ 
ment ot lacred myfteries. 
MYSTE'RIOUS, adj. [from myftery.'] Inacceffible to the 
underftanding; awfully obfcure: 
Then the true Son of knowledge firft appear’d, 
And the whole dark myferious clouds were clear’d. 
Denham. 
Artfully perplexed.—Thofe princes who were diftinguiflied 
for myflerions Ikill in government, found, by the event, 
that they had ill confulted.their own quiet, or the hap- 
pinefs of their people. Swift. 
MYSTE'RIOUSLY, adv. In a manner above under¬ 
ftanding.—Oblcurely; enigmatically.—Each ftair my/ie- 
rioufy was meant. Milton's ParadiJ'e Lofi. 
MYSTE'KIOUSNESS,./! Holy obfcurity.—My purpofe 
is, to gather together into an union all thofe feveral por¬ 
tions of truth, and differing apprehenfionsof myferioufnefs. 
Bp. Taylor's Worthy Communicant. —Artful difficulty or 
perplexity. 
To MYS'TERIZE, y. a. To explain as enigmas.— Myf- 
terizing their enligns, they make the particular ones of 
the twelve tribes accommodable unto the twelve figns of 
the zodiack. Brown's Vu/g. Err. 
MYSTERY, / [yorrifiiov, Gr.J Something above hu¬ 
man intelligence ; fomething awfully obfcure.—If God 
M Y S 
fttould pleafe to reveal unto us this great myftery of the 
Trinity, or fome other mijjleries in our holy religion', we 
fhould not be able to underftand them unlefs he would 
beftow on us fome new faculties of the mind. Swift. 
They can judge as fitly of his worth, 
As I can of thofe myjleries which heaven 
Will not have earth to know. Shahefpeare's Coriol. 
An enigma ; any thing artfully made difficult.—To thy 
great comfort in this myftery of ill opinions, here’s the 
twin-brother of thy letter. ShalieJ'peare's Merry Wives of 
Windfor. 
Important truths ftill let your fables hold, 
And moral myfteries with art unfold. Granville. 
A trade; a calling; [from mcfier, Fr. a trade.]— My fiery 
is a fpecious and eafy corruption of maijtery or majiery 
the Englifli of" the Latin magifterium, or artificium; in 
French, maiftrije, mefMer, meftrie. Warton's Hij't. of Eng. 
Poetry.— Chaucer writes it mijiere: 
In youth he lerned hadde a good ' miflere: 
He was a wel-good wright, a carpentere. Chaucer. 
Inftruftion, manners, myfteries, and trades. 
Degrees, obfervances, cuftoms, and laws, 
Decline to your confounding contraries. Shahefpearc. 
Mystery, in its modern acceptation, imports fome¬ 
thing above human intelligence, fomething awfully ob¬ 
fcure and enigmatical; any thing artfully made difficult; 
the fecret of any bufinefs or profeffion. The w'ord is 
often ufed by the founder of the Chriftian religion, and 
more frequently by his apoftles, efpecially St. Paul. In 
thefe cafes, it generally fignifies thofe doftrines of Chrif¬ 
tianity which the Jews, prior to the advent of the Meffiah, 
either did not or could not underftand. 
The word comes from the Greek yvrypov-; and that, 
according to fome etymologifts, from you, I. ftvut, and 
roya., mouth ; but it feems derived, with more propriety, 
from the Hebrew T/ID, fatar, to hide ; whence is formed. 
" 171 DQ, miliar, a hidden thing. 
Myftery is primarily ufed in fpeaking of certain truths, 
revealed in Scripture, into the full underftanding of which 
human reafon cannot penetrate. Such are the doftrines. 
of the Trinity, the Incarnation, &c. We have an epitome 
of the myfteries of faith, or the myfteries of Chriftianity, 
in the fymbols or creeds faid to have been compofed by 
the apoftles, the council of Nice, and St. Athanafius. I11 
fome of thefe, mention is made of the myftery of the 
Trinity; the myfteries of the incarnation of the Son of 
God, his death and paffion, and his delcent into hell, for 
the redemption of mankind; of his refurreftion the third 
day, his afcenfion into heaven, his fitting on the right 
hand of God, and his coming again to judge the world ; 
of the divinity and coequality of the Holy Ghoft with, 
the Father and the Son ; of the unity of the church ; of 
the communion of faints; the participation of the facra- 
ments; and the general refurreftion. Such are the prin¬ 
cipal myfteries of faith ; which the church declares necef- 
fary to be known and believed, in order to falvation. 
From the earlieft ages there have been particular fefti- 
vals inftituted in honour of thefe myfteries; to return 
thanks to God for having revealed them, and to oblige 
the minillers and paftors to inltruft the people in them. 
Such are the feafts of the myftery of the Incarnation, 
called alfo Chriftmas ; thofe of the Circumcifion, Paffion, 
Refurreftion, &c. 
The heathens alfo had their myferies, particularly thofe 
of Ceres (fee Eleusinia), the Bona Dea,.&c. Thofe who 
revealed the myfteries of the Bona Dea were leverely 
punilhed; and none were trufted with them but thofe 
folemnly initiated, and fworn to l'ecrecy. But thefe were 
not called myfteries, as being incomprehenfible, or raifed 
above the power of reafon ; but becaufe they were covered 
and cUfguifed under types and figures, to raile the greater 
veneration in the people. 
