Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/855

Rh M O R M O R 825 Declaration (1654), directed against faults in the adminis tration of the Oratory and reflecting on the general (Father Bourgoing), was strictly suppressed. So, too, his great work on penance gave equal offence to the Jesuits and to Port- Royal, and even after his death (1659) the polemical vehemence of his Exercitationes Micge, and the exaggera tion of his assertion &quot;apud neotericos Haereticos verba Scripturarum non esse integra, non superficiem, non folia, neclum sensum, medullam et radicem rationis&quot; long led Protestants to treat his valuable contributions to the history of the Hebrew text as a mere utterance of Popish prejudice. Morinus was a voluminous and prolix writer on ecclesiastical antiquities. His principal works in this field are Commentary hintoricus de disciplina in administrationc sacramenti pcenitentiee XIII primis scculis in Eccl. Occid. et hucusque in Orient, observata (1051), and Comm. de sacris Ecclcsiae ordinotionibus secundum nntiquos et recentiorcs Latinos, Gr&cos, Syros et Babylonios (1655). Flic second of these works expresses those ironical views on the subject of ordination which recommended Morinus to Urban VIII. The literary correspondence of Morinus appeared in 1682 under the title of Antiquitates Ecclesiie Oricntalis (edited by R. Simon). The chief fame of Morinus, however, now rests on his Biblical and critical labours. By his cditio princcps of the Samaritan Penta teuch and Targum, in the Paris Polyglott, he gave the first impulse in Europe to the study of this dialect, which he acquired without a teacher (framing a grammar for himself) by the study of MSS. then newly brought to Europe. Not unnaturally he formed a very exaggerated view of the value of the Samaritan tradition of the text, exalting it above the tradition of the Jews (Excrcitationes in utrum- quc Samaritanorum Pentatcuctium, 1631). A similar tone of ex aggerated depreciation of the Hebrew text, coloured, as has been remarked above, by polemical bias against Protestantism, mars his greatest work, the posthumous Excrcitationes biblicas de Hcbrseici GfrsBcique textus sinceritate (1660), in which, following in the foot steps of Cappellus, but with incomparably greater learning, he brings irrefragable arguments against the then current theory of the absolute integrity of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, and (he antiquity of the vowel points. The second part of this work is still valued as a copious storehouse of materials for the history of the Hebrew text collected by the most self-denying labour mcis ingratiis, as he said himself. MORLAIX, the chief town of an arrondissement in the department of Finistere, France, lies 350 miles west of Paris on the railway from Paris to Brest, and at the con fluence of two small streams, 7 miles distant from the sea. Its port has 13 feet of water at ordinary and 23 feet at spring tides. The entrance of the roadstead is defended by the Chateau du Taureau, which stands on a rock in the sea, and was built in 1542 to protect the town from the English. Morlaix still contains a considerable number of curious wooden houses of the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries; but the most striking piece of architecture in the town is the gigantic two-storied viaduct of the railway from Paris to Brest, 934 feet long and 207 feet above the quays. The old church of the Dominicans is now occupied by the town library. The hospital has beds for 500 patients, and can accommodate 300 female lunatics besides. A tobacco-factory, employing 400 men and 700 women, is the principal industrial establishment ; and there are also extensive paper-mills, a considerable flax-mill, canvas-fac tories, foundries, and saw-mills. A considerable trade is carried on in grain, yarn, canvas, leather, tallow, wax, and horses ; and a large quantity of butter, cattle, and vegetables is exported from Roscoff, a village in the neighbourhood, which is also known for its sea-bathing and its zoological station. The population of Morlaix was 15,183 in 1876. Judging by the numerous coins found on the spot, the site of Morlaix was probably occupied in the time of the Romans. The counts of Leon held the lordship in the 12th century, but the dukes of Brittany disputed possession with them, and in 1187 Henry II. of England, guardian of Arthur of Brittany, made himself master of the town after a siege of several weeks. During the War of the Hundred Years Morlaix was again captured and recaptured by the French and the English, and pillaged by the latter in 1522. Queen Mary of Scotland, on her way to be married to the Dauphin, made solemn entry into Morlaix in 1548. And finally, the town having joined the League, the castle was taken by storm in the name of Henry IV. in 1594. MORLAND, GEORGE (1763-1804), animal and subject painter, was born in London on the 26th of June 1763. He came of a race of artists. His father, a painter, mezzotint- engraver, and picture-dealer, gave him a careful art-training, and at an exceptionally early age he produced works of wonderful promise. At sixteen he exhibited sketches at the Royal Academy, and even before this his productions found ready purchasers, and some of them had been engraved. But already the taste for dissipation, which was stronger in Morland than even his love for art, had begun to manifest itself, and at seventeen he escaped from the over-strict discipline of his father s house, and began a career of reckless prodigality which has hardly a parallel in art-biography, gathering round him an entourage of the most abandoned associates, and supporting himself by the sale of the pictures rustic subjects and scenes from low life which he threw off with unexampled rapidity. About 1786 there appeared to be some prospect of amendment. He went to reside at Kensal Green, came under the influ ence of better companions, and married a beautiful and virtuous girl, a sister of James Ward the animal-painter and William Ward the engraver. The subjects which Morland painted during this period reflect the change in his way of life. The Idle and Industrious Mechanic, and Letitia or Seduction, moralities in the style of Hogarth, were engraved and became exceedingly popular. But soon the force of old habit asserted itself, the desire for freedom and lawlessness returned to the artist with redoubled violence, and he again drifted into a career of riot and intemperance. The means of dissipation were not wanting ; the dealers were eager for his productions ; indeed, so greatly were they esteemed that skilled copyists were employed to make many transcripts from the pictures on which he was at work, which were sold as originals to an unsuspecting public. The finest of Morland s subjects date from 1790 to 1792. In 1791 was painted the Inside of a Stable, now in the National Gallery, probably the artist s masterpiece. In spite of his popularity and his industry his affairs became inextricably embarrassed. For a time he eluded the bailiffs with singular dexterity, but in November 1799 he was arrested. Obtaining the Rules of the Bench, he took a house within bounds, and con tinued to practise both his art and his debauchery. He was released under the Insolvent Act of 1802, but his health was ruined and he was speedily stricken with palsy. Partially recovering, he continued to paint, but before long he was again arrested for debt, and died in a sponging- house in Eyre Street, Coldbath Fields, on the 29th of October 1804. His wife survived him only some three days, and they were buried in one grave. The most characteristic works of Morland are those which deal with rustic and homely life. They show much direct and instinct ive feeling for nature, and admirable executive skill, but they have no elevation of subject, no great beauty of colour or truth of atmo sphere. They suffer from the haste in which the artist habitually worked. Many of them have been admirably mezzotinted by J. R. Smith and his pupils, William Ward and&quot; John Young. Par ticulars of Morland s life will be found in the biographies by J. Hassell (1804), G. Dawe (1807), and Blagton (1806), and in Memoirs of a Picture, by W. Collins, 1 805. MORMONS, or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day Saints, are a religious sect founded by Joseph Smith at Manchester, New York, in 1830, and for the last thirty- six years settled in Salt Lake City, Territory of Utah, United States. Smith was born 23d December 1805 at Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, from which place ten years later his parents, a poor, ignorant, thriftless, and not too honest couple, removed to New York, where they settled on a small farm near Palmyra, Wayne county (then Ontario). Four years later, in 1809, they removed to Manchester, some 6 miles off ; and it was at the latter place when fifteen years old that Joseph began to have XVI. 104