or thirty reverses. They are indeed the best epitomes in the world, and let you see, with one cast of an eye, the substance of above a hundred pages. Another use of medals is, that they not only show you the actions of an emperor, but at the same time mark out the year in which they were performed. Every exploit has its date set to it. A cabinet of medals is a body of history.' It was the conviction of these facts,' continues Mr. Todd, united with the preceding observations, that suggested the idea upon which the following tablets are founded. The theory is simply this:-Instead of a large room or building, which, as we have already explained, was formerly made use of for this purpose, there is a cabinet or associating key, Plate MNEMONICS, fig. 1, consisting of nine distinct parts, arranged and disposed in order. Each of these parts, or tablets (as they are afterwards called), is distinguished by its peculiar color, and subdivided into twelve equal squares, or compartments, the whole of which are numbered in consecutive order. Each color occurs twice, but in such regular order, and so far separated, that no mistake can easily arise: five perfectly distinct colors, thus arranged, being less liable to confusion than nine not so well contrasted. They appear thus:

Blue. Brown. Green. Pink, Yellow.

Frequently repeat these, and revolve them in your thoughts, till you have obtained such an accurate knowledge of their relative situation, as to be enabled to run them over one after another without hesitation, and in any order that may be necessary. Impress them, by these means, so strongly upon t the momory, that every part, and every single square in each part, may be perfectly familiar to the mind's eye, even long after the engraving is removed. These compartments are intended, as the subsequent plates will exemplify, for the reception of one or more series of medals, properly arranged, commemorating a regular succession of events, the names of sovereigns, or other historical subjects which you may wish to remember, with the date of each

attached. And it will afterwards be found almost impossible, when reviewing the several parts and subdivisions of this cabinet or key, not to associate the medal, together with its inscription, previously annexed to each particular square. A very few repetitions, with ordinary attention, will be found sufficient to impress the series almost indelibly upon the memory.

'But we shall frequently find it necessary to know and preserve something more than the mere idea of things; we shall wish for, 2. The ready and accurate remembrance of their dates: the accomplishment of which is usually found to be a very difficult and uncertain task. It will be generally admitted that there is the greatest difficulty in retaining numbers. They are like grains of sand, which will not cohere in the order in which we place them; but by transmuting figures into letters, which easily cohere in every form of combination, we fix and retain numbers in the mind with the same ease and

certainty with which we remember words; and if language could have been so contrived, that the same word, or nearly the same word, which gave the name of a thing, should also have contained its date, there would have been little, if any, difficulty in the attainment.

In the first place, then, it is necessary to learn perfectly the numerical key, Plate MNEMONICS, fig. 2, which, corresponding with the first part of the cabinet, consists of twelve squares, in each of which will be found its proper figure, together with one consonant, and one vowel, or diphthong. These letters are to represent the figures to which they are respectively attached; so that you may be able, at pleasure, to form any number into a technical syllable, or to resolve such a syllable already formed into the number which it stands for. Thus,

10 may be represented by az or by.

325

431

1491 200 4000

and so for any other numbers.

tel or idu. fib or ota. afna or bona.

eg. oth.

Now, to remember the date of any single event in history or chronology, a word is formed, the beginning of which, being invariably the first syllable or syllables of the thing for which a date is sought, will, by frequent repetition, of course suggest the latter or chronological part, which is so contrived, by the method already explained, as to give the date. Thus, the Deluge happened in the year B. C. 2348; this is signified by the technical word Delétor-Del. standing for DELuge, and étor for 2348. So, the emperor Constantine the Great removed the seat of empire to Constantinople, A. D. 328; for this you have the word Constanter-Constan. standing for CONSTANtine, and ter for 328. A reference to the tablets will, it is hoped, clear up any little obscurity in this description.

The situation or locality of any medal in the tablet, having already suggested the general and relative period of the event sought-which indeed will often be sufficient for the occasionthe technical word will not fail to furnish the

*Note. The diphthongs are to be considered but as one letter, or rather as representing only one figure. Note, also, that y may be pronounced as wi, for the more easily distinguishing it from i; as syt, 603, pronounced swit. The letters are assigned to the figures somewhat arbitrarily; but the following reasons, trifling as they are, may contribute to impress the series more deeply on the memory. Vowels -a, e, i, o, u, in order, naturally represent 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. The diphthongs represent the total of the two vowels of which they are composed, as au (composed of a 1, and u 5,) stands for 6; and so of the rest. consonants.-When they can be conveniently retained, the initials are made use of, as t for three, f four, s six, and n nine. The letter p is the emphatic letter in the Latin word septem, seven, and r may be easily remembered for eight. The first consonant represents 1, and I, being the Roman letter for 50, stands for 5. For the cipher, 0, you have the two last letters of the alphabet, y and z. For 100 there g, and th for thousand.

particular year in which it happened. First, the tablet: then the square; and, lastly, the word which brings the date; they are so linked together, and have been so closely associated in your mind, from first to last, that it will be almost impossible to retain a separate idea of either, unconnected with the others. Those things which are first and always seen together, learnt together, and deposited together in the mind, will not be recollected, except in the same connexion: the memory will restore with equal readiness and fidelity that which was entrusted to it with so much care, and in such particular order. And to render this connexion more complete and useful, as well as to shorten his first labor, the student should commit the technical words and lines to memory chiefly from the medals themselves, and occasionally repeat them with the tablets, either actually or mentally, before his eyes for vision, or the sense of seeing, is to be considered throughout as the very essence of our system.'

We may add, there is an appropriate explanation to each series of tablets, and the reader is assured, by way of encouragement, that the whole may be perfectly learnt, without the aid of extraordinary abilities, in the space of a few days; and, what is more, that when once well learnt, and supported by occasional practice, it will never be forgotten.

MNEMOSYNE, in the mythology, the daughter of Cœlus and Terra. She married Jupiter, by whom she had the nine Muses. Mnemosyne signifies memory;' and therefore the poets rightly called Memory the mother of the Muses, because it is to that mental endowment that mankind are indebted for their progress in science

MNIUM, marsh moss, a genus of the natural order of musci, and cryptogamia class of plants. The anthera,is operculated; the calyptra smooth, the female capitulum naked and powdery, remote. There are numerous species, of which several are natives of Britain; but none have any remarkable property except the two following.

M. fontanum is an elegant moss, frequent in bogs, and on the borders of cold springs. It is from two to four inches high: the stalks are simple at the base, and covered with a rusty down; but higher up are red, and divided into several round, single, taper branches, which proceed nearly from the same point. The leaves are not more than one-twelfth of an inch long, lanceolate and acute, of a whitish green color; and so thinly set that the red stalk appears be

tween them. This moss, as it may be seen at a considerable distance, is a good mark to lead to the discovery of clear and cold springs. Linnè informs us that the Laplanders are well acquainted with this sign. Mr. Withering informs us that, wherever this moss grows, a spring of fresh water may be found without much digging. M. hygrometricum, grows in woods, heaths, garden-walks, walls, old trees, decayed wood, and where coals or cinders have been laid. It is stemless, has tips inversely egg-shaped, nodding, and bright yellow. If the fruit-stalk is moistened at the base with a little water or

steam, the head makes three or four revolutions: if the head is moistened, it turns back again. MO, or MOE, adj. & adv. Sax. ma, maɲe;

Goth. mar; mer; Scotch, mae. An old method of writing MORE, which see.

And if ye vouchsauf that it be so Telle me anon withouten wordes mo And I wol early shapen me therefore.

Chaucer. Cant. Tales. With oxbows, and oxyokes, with other things mo, For oxteem and horse teem in plough for to go.

Calliope and muses mo,

Soon as your oaken pipe begins to sound
Their ivory lutes lay by.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;

Tusser.

Spenser.

Shakspeare.

The frauds of men were ever so, Since Summer first was leafy. MOAB, in ancient geography, a country of Arabia Petræa; so called from Moab the son of Lot, to whose posterity this country was allotted by divine appointment, Deut. ii. 9. It was originally occupied by the Emims, a race of giants extirpated by the Moabites, ib. 10. Moab anciently lay to the south of Ammon, before Sihon the Amorite stripped both nations of a part of their territory, afterwards occupied by the Israelites, Numb. xxii.; and then Moab was bounded by the Arnon on the north, the Asphaltites on the west, the brook Zared and the mountains Abarim on the east. See MAB. . MOAN, v. a., v. n., & n. s. Sax. mœnan, to grieve. To lament; express grief; grieve: as a substantive it means audible grief or lamentation; a low sorrowful noise.

I have disabled mine estate, By shewing something a more swelling port Than my faint means would grant continuance; Nor do I now make moan to be abridged From such a noble rate.

Shakspeare. Merchant of Venice. The fresh stream ran by her, and murmured her

MOAT, or ditch, in fortification. The brink of the moat, next the rampart, is called the scarp; and the opposite one, the counterscarp. A dry moat round a large place, with a strong garrison, is preferable to one full of water; because the passage may be disputed inch by inch, and the besiegers, when lodged in it, are continually exposed to the bombs, granades, and other fireworks, which are thrown incessantly from the rampart into their works. In the middle of dry moats there is sometimes another small one, called cuneite; which is generally dug so deep till they find water to fill it. The deepest and broadest moats are accounted the best: but a deep one is preferable to a broad one: the ordinary breadth is about twenty fathoms, and the depth about sixteen. To drain a moat that is full of water, they dig a trench deeper than the level of the water, to let it run off; and then throw hurdles upon the mud and slime, covering them with earth or bundles of rushes, to make a firm passage. See FORTIFICATION.

MOATĂZALITES, or Separatists, a religious sect among the Turks, who deny all forms and qualities in the Divine Being; or who divest God of his attributes. MOB, n. s. & v. a. Lat. mobile, moveable MOB'ILE, (applied metaphorically MOBIL'ITY, to a crowd). The crowd; MOB'LE, v. a. a tumult to overbear with clamor: mobile (Fr. mobile) is also used for the crowd, but is a gallicism : mobility is used both in the literal sense of the power of being moved, activity or nimbleness; and for the populace, or crowd, Moved with a feather, tickled by a straw.' To moble, written also mable, perhaps by a ludicrous allusion to the Fr. je m'habille, says Johnson, is to dress grossly or inelegantly.'

But who, oh! who, had seen the mobled queen, Run barefoot up and down. Shakspeare. Hamlet.

Iron, having stood long in a window, being thence taken, and by a cork balanced in water, where it may have a free mobility, will bewray a kind of inquietude. Wotton.

The present age hath attempted perpetual motions, whose revolutions might out-last the exemplary mobility, and out-measure time itself.

Browne's Vulgar Errours. She singled out with her eye as commander-inchief of the mobility. Dryden's Don Sebastian.

Dreams are but interludes, which fancy makes, When monarch reason sleeps, this mimick wakes; Compounds a medley of disjointed things,

A court of cobblers, and a mob of kings. Dryden. The mobile are uneasy without a ruler, they are restless with one. L'Estrange. Long experience has found it true of the unthinking mobile, that the closer they shut their eyes the wider they open their hands. South.

A cluster of mob were making themselves merry

with their betters.

Addison's Freeholder.

your fingers out of your ears, being delivered from the deafening shouts of the most zealous mob that ever strained their lungs in the cause of religion. Cowper's Letters.

MOBILE, a small country, post town, and port of entry, Alabama territory, on the west side of the river of the same name at its entrance into Mobile Bay; thirty-three miles north of Mobile Point, which is on the east side of the mouth of the bay, fifty west by north of Pensacola, ten W. S. W. of Blakeley, 100 by land, and 120 by water south of St. Stephen's, 170 E. N. E. of New Orleans. The site of the town is on a beautiful and extensive plain, elevated about twenty feet above the level of the river, and open to refreshing breezes from the bay, of which it commands a handsome prospect. The approach to the harbour, for vessels drawing more than eight feet of water, is circuitous and difficult. Within a low grassy island, which lies opposite to the town, there is a good shelter for vessels.

Mobile was taken possession of by the United States in 1813, at which time it contained about 100 houses, mostly mean decaying wooden buildings of one story. It has since increased considerably, and is now in a very flourishing state, and has considerable trade. It contains a Roman Catholic church, and a printing office, and is defended by a fort. The shipping owned here, in 1816, amounted to 594 tons. A steam boat was then plying between this town and St. Stephen's, and another was building, which was to ply between Mobile and New Orleans, through lake Pontchar

train.

MOBILE ISLAND, an island formed by the divided stream of the river Mobile, about twentysix miles long, and five wide. Long. 87° 55′ W., lat. 310 N.

MOBILE, PERPETUUM. See MOTION.

MOBILE, PRIMUM, in the ancient astronomy, was a ninth heaven or sphere, imagined above those of the planets and fixed stars. This was supposed to be the first mover, and to carry all the lower spheres round along with it; by its rapidity communicating to them a motion whereby they revolved in twenty-four hours. But the diurnal revolution of the planets is now accounted for, without the assistance of any such primum mobile.

MOCENIGO (Andrew), a native of Venice, in the sixteenth century. He served his country with zeal, being employed in various public afHe was fairs, which he managed with success. the author of a History of the War sustained by the Republic of Venice, in consequence of the League of Cambray, in four books, which is esteemed for its accuracy.

He also wrote a

Latin poem on the war with Bajazet II.

MOCHA, a large city of the province of Yemen, Arabia, the principal port of the Red Sea. It was first visited in 1513, by Alphonso Albuquerque, but was then of little consequence. In 1610 we have the first account of any attempt to open a trade here by the British expeditions under Sharpey and Sir Henry Middleton; when