M Y S 
lingular and auftere piety. It is impoffible to defcribe 
the rigour and feverity of the laws which thefe fenfelefs 
fanatics impofed upon themfelves, in order, as they al¬ 
leged, to appeafe the Deity, and to deliver the celeltial 
fpirit from the bondage of this mortal body. They not 
only lived among the wild beads, but alfo lived after the 
manner of thofe favage animals. They ran naked through 
the lonely deferts with a furious afped, and with all the 
agitations of madnefs and phrenfy; they prolonged the 
life of their emaciated bodies by the wretched nourifh- 
ment of grafs and wild herbs; avoided the fight and con- 
verfation of men; remained motionlefs in certain places 
for feveral years, expofed to the rigour and inclemency of 
the feafons; and, towards the conclufion of their lives, 
Ihut themfelves up in narrow and miferable huts ; and all 
this they conlidered as true piety, the only acceptable me¬ 
thod of worfiiipping the Deity, and rendering him pro¬ 
pitious. The myftics, for the mod part, were led into 
the abfurdities of this extraordinary difcipline, not fo 
much by the pretended force of reafon and argument, as 
by a natural propenfity to folitude, a gloomy and melan¬ 
choly cad of mind, and an implicit and blind fubmidion 
to the authority and example of others. For thedifeafes 
of the mind, as well as thofe of the body, are generally 
contagions; and no pedilence fpreads its infection with a 
more dreadful rapidity than fuperdition and enthufiafm. 
In the ninth century, the dodrine of the mydics, the 
origin of which is falfely attributed to Dionyfius the Areo¬ 
pagite, which had been for a long time in vogue among 
the Greeks, and efpecially among the monadic orders, 
was dideminated in the wedern churches. The Latins 
had hitherto efcaped the contagious influence of this 
dodrine ; but, when the Grecian emperor, Michael Bal- 
bus, or the Stammerer, lent to Louis the Meek, in the 
year 824, a copy of the pretended works of Dionyfius the 
Areopagite, (now univerfally allowed to be fpurious, 
even among the mod learned and impartial of the Roman 
Catholic writers,) this prefent kindled the flame of myfli- 
cifm in the wedern provinces, and infpired the Latins with 
the mod enthufiadic admiration of this new religion. 
The tranflation of thefe works into Latin, by order of the 
emperor Louis, contributed much to the progrefs of myf- 
ticilin. By the order of the fame emperor, Hilduin, ab¬ 
bot of St. Denys, compofed an account of the life, ac¬ 
tions, and writings, of Dionyfius, under the title of 
“ Areopagitica ;” in which work, among other impudent 
fidions, ufual in thofe times of fuperdition and impodure, 
he maintained, in-order to exalt the honour of his nation, 
that Dionyfius the Areopagite, and Dionyfius, or St. De¬ 
nys, the bilhop of Paris, were one and the fame perlon. 
This fable was received with avidity by the credulous 
multitude ; and its credit is hardly extind at this day. 
As the fil'd tranflation of the works of Dionyfius, that 
had been executed by order of Louis, was probably in a 
barbarous and obfeure dyle, a new and more elegant one 
was made by the famous Johannes Scotus Erigena, at 
the requed of Charles the Bald; the publication of which 
conilderably increafed the partifans of the mydic theo¬ 
logy among the French, Italians, and Germans. Scotus 
himfelf, called the Wife, was fo enchanted with this new 
dodrine, that he incorporated it into his philofophical 
fyltem ; and upon all occafions either accommodated his 
philofophy to it, or explained it according to the princi¬ 
ples of his philofophy. Thus philofophical enthufiafm, 
born in the Ead, nouriflied by Plato, educated in Alex¬ 
andria, matured in Afia, and adopted into the Greek 
church, found its way, under the pretext and authority 
of an apodolic name, into the Wedern Church, and there 
produced many injurious effe£ts. 
In the twelfth century, thefe mydics took the lead in 
their method of expounding Scripture; and, by fearch- 
ing for myderies and hidden meaning in the plained ex- 
preflions, forced the word of God into a conformity with 
their vifionary dodrines, their enthufiadic feelings, and 
She fyltem of difcipline which they had drawn from the 
M Y S 
excunions of their irregular fancies. In the thirteenth 
century they were the mod formidable antagonids of the 
Jchoolmcn, who, as they were lefs popular, endeavoured 
to recommend themfelves by extolling, illudrating, and 
defending, the fentimental fydem of their adverfaries. 
Towards the dole of the fourteenth century, many of 
them redded and propagated their tenets almod in every 
part of Europe. They had, in the fifteenth century, 
many perfons of didinguilhed merit in their number ; and 
in the fixteenth century, previous to the reformation, if 
any (parks of real piety fubfided under the defpotic em¬ 
pire of fuperdition, they were only to be found among 
the mydics. For this fed, renouncing the fubtilty of the 
fchools, the vain contentions of the learned, and all the 
ads and ceremonies of external worfliip, exhorted their 
followers to aim at nothing but internal fandity of heart, 
and communion with God, the centre and fource of ho- 
linefs and perfedion. Hence the mydics were loved and 
refpeded by many perfons who had a ferious fenfe of reli¬ 
gion, and a devotional frame of mind. Yet,- as they were 
not entirely free from the reigning fuperditions, but alfo- 
ciated many vulgar errors with their pradical diredions 
and precepts; and as their excefiive padion for contem¬ 
plation led them into chimerical notions, and fometimes 
into a degree of fanaticifin that approached to madnefs ; 
more ed'edual fuccours than theirs were necedary to com¬ 
bat the inveterate errors of the times, and to bring about 
the reformation which was expeded with fuch impatience. 
The principles of this fed were adopted by thofe called 
Quietids in the feventeenth century ; and, under diderent 
modifications, by the Quakers and Methodids. Moth. Eccl. 
Iiift. Brucker's Hift. Phil, by Enfield. 
MYS'TICALLY, adv. In a manner, or by an ad, im¬ 
plying fome fecret meaning; emblematically. — Unto 
which I conceive the prophet Ilaiah to allude, in that 
paflage touching the city of Tyre, reprefenting there 
myjlicalhj the church of Rome. More's Ant. agauift Ido¬ 
latry. 
Thefe two in thy facred bofom hold, 
Till myjUcally join’d but one they be. Donne. 
MYS'TICALNESS, f. Involution of fome fecret mean¬ 
ing. 
MYS'TICISM, f. The pretences of the mydics; fana- 
ticifm.—This ingenious man has lpent a long life in hunt¬ 
ing after, and with an incredible appetite devouring, the 
tralh dropt from every fpecies of myjiicifm. Warburton's 
Do cl. of Grace. 
MYS'TRUM, f. A liquid meafure among the ancients, 
containing the fourth part of the cyathus, and weighing 
two drams and a half of oil, or two drams two fcruples of 
water or wine. It nearly anlwers to our fpoonful. 
MYSZ, a town of Lithuania, in the palatinate of No- 
vogrodek : thirty-fix miles fouth of Novogrodek. 
MY'TACISM, J. Iy.vray.n7y.0g, Gr.] In rhetoric, the 
too frequent repetition of the letter M ; thus, Mammam 
ipj’am amo quafi meant animam. 
MY'TENS (Daniel), of the Hague, was an admired 
painter in the reigns of James I. and Charles I. to the lat¬ 
ter of whom he was made pidure-drawer in ordinary, in 
May 1625. He continued to hold this dation at the ar¬ 
rival of Vandyke in England ; but, upon that artid bein?- 
made principal painter to his majedy, he alked leave to 
retire. The king, however, retained him for lome time 
longer in his fervice ; and the two rivals, if they may be 
fo called, lived amicably together. Mytens faw and ac¬ 
knowledged the high degree of Vandyke’s talents, and 
benefited by the obfervance of his produdions. There 
are a great many excellent portraits by Mytens in this 
country, which are diltinguiffiable by the neat fmooth- 
nefs and clearnels of their finilhing, and their great air 
of nature. We have none of his pidures painted after 
1630. The period of his death is not exadly known. 
MYTH'ECUS, a fophid of Syracule. He dudied 
cookery; and, when he thought himfelf diffidently (killed 
in 
