Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/834

 828 MADISON UNIVERSITY MADOU strong relish for everything facetious, and told a story admirably. In his old age, when some friends came to visit him, he sank back rn his couch with the smiling words: "I ays talk more easily when I lie /" and du- ring his last illness, while the family and the doctor were at dinner, his voice was heard feebly from the adjoining chamber crying: "Doctor, are you pushing about the bottles? Do your duty, doctor, or I must cashier you." In addition to the passage already quoted, Jef- ferson wrote of Madison: "From three and thirty years' trial I can say conscientiously that I do not know in the world a man of purer in- tegrity, more dispassionate, disinterested, and devoted to pure republicanism ; nor could I in the whole scope of America and Europe point out an abler head." Madison was a very volu- minous writer. His manuscripts were pur- chased by congress from his widow for $30,- 000, and portions of them, " The Madison Pa- pers," were published under the supervision of Henry D. Gilpin, by authority of congress (3 vols. 8vo, 1840). See William 0. Rives, " His- tory of the Life and Times of James Madi- son" (3 vols., Boston, 1859, '66, and '69), and " Letters and other Writings of James Madi- son " (4 vols., Philadelphia, 1865). MADISON UNIVERSITY. See HAMILTON, N. Y. MIDLER, Johann Heinrieh, a German astron- omer, born in Berlin, May 29, 1794, died in Hanover, March 14, 1874. He gained a high reputation as teacher in the principal normal schools in Berlin. In 1829, in company with his pupil Wilhelm Beer, the brother of Meyer- beer, he commenced the construction of the great map of the moon afterward published at Berlin (1834-'6). This was followed by his Allgemeine Selenographie (2 vols., 1837). In 1833 he made chronometrical observations for the Russian government on the island of Rtigen. In 1836 he was appointed director of the Berlin observatory, and in 1840 of that of Dorpat. In 1865 he returned to Ger- many on account of a disease of the eyes. In his work Die Centralsonne (Dorpat, 1846) he advanced the hypothesis of the existence of a central body, preponderating in mass, as the universal centre of gravity about which the whole stellar universe revolves, designa- ting the bright star ij Tauri (Alcyone) in the Pleiades as such centre. This latter assump- tion is now very generally rejected by astron- omers. He made a great number of impor- tant observations upon the physical aspects of Mars and Jupiter, upon double stars, the determined periods of variable stars, and the centre of gravity of the solar system. Among his works are : UntersucJiungen uber die Fix- sternsysteme (Mitau, 1847-'8) ; Populdre As- tronomie (Berlin, 1841 ; 6th ed., 1866) ; and G-escMchte der HimmelsTcunde nach ihrem ge- sammten Umfange (Brunswick, 1872-'3). MADOC, a legendary Welsh prince, said to have been the son of Owen Gwynnedd, who according to Cambrian chroniclers discovered America more than three centuries before the discovery by Columbus. According to the legends, Madoc, compelled by civil disturb- ances to leave his native country, sailed west- ward in 1170 with a small fleet, and after a voyage of some weeks landed on a continent of exuberant fertility, whose inhabitants dif- ered altogether from those of Europe. After some time he returned to Wales, but left be- hind him 20 of his crew. He fitted out an- other fleet of 10 sail, departed again with the intention of revisiting the newly discovered land, and was never more heard of. Madoc is the hero of one of Southey's poems. MADOCKAWANDO, a chief of the Etechemin Indians, on the Penobscot, who figured promi- nently in the border wars between the French and English colonies. He first appears as a leading chief about 1676, when he made a treaty at Boston, but from 1690 to 1694 he was the scourge of the New England frontier. The baron de St. Castin married the chief's daughter Matilda, and the tribe espoused his cause when despoiled by the English. In May, 1690, Madockawando with his Indians aided Portneuf to reduce Fort Casco ; and in June, 1692, he made an attack on Wells. He joined in the peace made at Pemaquid in Au- gust, 1694, but soon after accompanied Villieu in his operations against Oyster River, now Durham, N. H. MADONNA (Ital.), a word originally equiva- lent in Italy to the French madame, and as such used as a title of deference and honor; but now applied almost exclusively to the Virgin Mary, or, as she is called in other languages, Our Lady. The title has also given the name to a great number of pictures in which the Virgin forms the sole or prominent object, such as the Madonna di San Sisto or the Ma- donna della Seggiola of Raphael. The pictures of Madonnas without the infant Christ belong only to modern art; the most celebrated of these is Murillo's "Conception." The "Le- gends of the Madonna" (8vo, London, 1852), by Mrs. Jameson, describes the manner in which the subject has been illustrated by dif- ferent painters. MADOU, Jean Baptiste, a Belgian painter, born in Brussels about 1796. He studied under Ce- lestin Francois, and exhibited in 1835 " The Strolling Musicians" and "The Dealers in Jewelry." He became professor at the royal school, and drawing master to the junior mem- bers of the royal family. Among his finest genre pictures are " The Marplots," which was purchased by the government, and " The En- tertainment at the Palace," which was much admired at the Paris exhibition of 1855. He also excels as an engraver. Among his designs are those for a work on the "Physiognomy of Society in Europe, from Louis XI. to our Days," and lithographed "Belgian Designs and Costumes, Ancient and Modern," and " Scenes in the Lives of Painters of the Flem- ish and Dutch Schools."