Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/39

Rh M E N M E R 29 Pisa, and equalling that of Naples. Frost occurs on the average only once in ten years ; in one particular year the thermometer did not fall below 46 Fahr. In summer the heat is never very great, the temperature rarely exceeding 86 Fahr. Winter and summer are the most agreeable seasons; in autumn the rain storms are accompanied by sudden changes of temperature, and in spring the sea breezes are apt to be violent. Besides the charms of its climate, Menton offers those of an almost tropical vegetation. Lemon-trees, olive-trees, and pines, rising above each other in successive stages, adorn the sur rounding slopes. The district produces forty millions of lemons yearly, and this is the principal source of its natural wealth. The olive-trees are remarkable for the great size they have attained in the course of the centuries during which they have continued to bear. Of their wood a multitude of fancy objects are made for sale to strangers. The origin of Menton is unknown. Daring the Middle Ages it was successively occupied by the Saracens, the Genoese, and the princes of Anjou. In the middle of the 14th century it was pur chased as a single domain by the Grimaldis, lords of Monaco. During the times of the republic and the first empire it belonged to France ; but in 1815 it ngain became the property of the princes of Monaco, who subjected it to such exactions that in 1848 its inhabitants, weary of finding their reasonable demands put off with empty promises, proclaimed their town free and independent, under the protection of Sardinia. Menton, with the neighbouring commune of Roquebrune, was united to France in 1860, at the same time as Nice and Savoy. MENTZ. See MAINZ. MEXZEL, WOLFGANG (1798-1873), poet, critic, and historian, was born June 21, 1798, at Waldenburg in Silesia, studied at Bre.slau, Jena, and Bonn, and after living for some time in Aarati and Heidelberg finally settled in Stuttgart, where, from 1830 to 1838, he had a seat in the Wiirtemberg &quot;landtag.&quot; His first work, a clever and original volume of poems, entitled Streckverse (Heidelberg, 1823), was followed in 1824-25 by a popular Geschichte der Deutschen in three volumes, and in 1829 and 1830 by Riibezahl and Narcissus, the ballads upon which his reputation as a poet chiefly rests. In 1851 he published the romance of Furore, a lively picture of the period of the Thirty Years War ; his other very numerous writings include Geschickte Europa s, 1789-1815 (1853), and histories of the German war of 1866 and of the Franco-German war of 1870-71. From 1825 to 1848 Menzel edited a &quot; Literaturblatt &quot; in connexion with the Morgenhlatt ; in the latter year he transferred his allegiance from the Liberal to the Conservative party, and in 1852 his &quot; Literaturblatt &quot; was again revived in that interest. In 1866 his political sympathies again changed, and all his energies were employed to oppose the &quot; particularism &quot; of the Prussian &quot;junkers&quot; and the antiunionism of South Germany. He died on April 23, 1873. His large private library of 18,000 volumes was afterwards acquired for the university of Strasburg. MEPHISTOPHELES, the name of one of the personi fications of the principle of evil. In old popular books and puppet-plays the word appears in various forms, as Mephistopheles, Mephistophiles, Mephistophilis, and Mephostophilis. In the Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, Marlowe writes &quot;Mephistophilis&quot;; in the Merry Wives of Windsor we find &quot; Mephistophilus.&quot; The etymo logy of the word is uncertain. According to one theory, it may be taken to represent /x^^wo-ro^t A^s ; in which case the meaning would be &quot; one who loves not light.&quot; Another theory is that the word is a combination of the Latin &quot;mephitis&quot; and the Greek &amp;lt;i Aos, signifying &quot;one who loves noxious exhalations.&quot; Probably it is of Hebrew origin, from 1?P, a destroyer, and ?S13, taken to mean a liar. This view is supported by the fact that almost all the names of devils in the magic-books of the 1 6th century spring from the Hebrew. In the old Faust legends the character of Mephistopheles is simply that of a powerful and wicked being who fulfils Faust s commands in order to obtain possession of his soul. Marlowe attributes to him a certain dignity and sadness, and there can be little doubt that the Mephistophilis of the Tragical History suggested some important traits of Milton s Satan. The name has been made famous chiefly by Goethe, whose conception of the character varied at different periods of his career. In the fragment of Faust published in 1790, but written many years before, Mephistopheles has a clearly marked individuality; he is cynical and materialistic, but has a man s delight in activity and adventure, and his magical feats alone remind us that he is preternatural. In revising and extending this fragment, which forms the chief portion of the first part of Faust, Goethe treated Mephistopheles as the representative of the evil tendencies of nature, especially of the tendency to denial for its own sake, rather than as a living person. This character Mephistopheles maintains in the second part, where, indeed, the name often stands for a pure abstraction. See Julius Mosen, Faust ; Duntzer, Erldutcrungen zu Goethe s WcrTccn : Faust ; Vischer, Goethe s Faust. MEQUINEZ (the Spanish form of the Arabic Mikndsa], a town of Morocco, the ordinary residence of the emperor, is situated in a fine hilly country about 70 miles from the west coast and 35 west-south-west of Fez on the road to Sallee, in 34 N. lat. and 5 35 W. long. The town-wall, with its four-cornered towers, is kept in good condition; and a lower wall of wider circuit protects the luxuriant gardens with which the outskirts are embellished. In the general regularity of its streets, and in the fairly substantial character of its houses, Mequinez ranks higher than any other town in Morocco ; but it possesses few buildings of any note, except the palace, and the mosque of Mulei Ismael, which serves as the royal burying-place. At one time the palace (founded in 1634) was an imposing structure, but the finest part has been allowed to go to ruin. In 1721 Windhus described it as &quot; about 4 miles in circumference, the whole building exceeding massy, and the walls in every part very thick ; the outward one about a mile long and 25 feet thick.&quot; The best part consisted of oblongs enclosing large open courts or gardens. Mortar or concrete was the principal material used for the walls, but the pillars were in many cases marble blocks of great beauty and costliness (A Journey to Mequinez, London, 1725). Most of the inhabitants of Mequinez are connected more or less directly with the court. Their number has been very variously estimated by different travellers. Graberg de Hemso gives 56,000 in 1834, Rohlfs in 1861 from 40,000 to 50,000, and Conring in 1880 about 30,000. The town was formerly called Takarart. Edrisi refers the present name to a Berber chief Meknas. MERAN, a favourite health resort, and the capital of a district in South Tyrol, Austria, is picturesquely situated at the foot of the vine-clad Kiichelberg, on the right bank of the Passer, about half a mile above its junction with the Adige, and 45 miles to the south of Innsbruck. Meran proper consists mainly of one long narrow street, called the Laubengasse, flanked by covered arcades. In a wider sense, the name is often used to include the adjacent villages of Untermais, Obermais, and Gratsch. The most noteworthy buildings are the Gothic church of St Nicholas, with its lofty tower, dating from the 14th and 15th centuries; the Spitalkirche, built in the 15th century, and restored in 1880; and the quaint old Fiirstenhaus, or residence of the counts of Tyrol. The town contains a gymnasium, a nunnery and school for girls, an institution for sick priests, and several other charitable establishments.