Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 13.djvu/44

MANZONI. praised the Conte di i'lirmagnola. In connection with these pieces Manzoni enunciated tlie follow- ing principles: the dramatic composer should adapt the poetic invention to the historic fact and not follow the contrary practice; the unities of time and place need not he observed ; the style and the dialogue should he perfectly natural; and the Chorus^ a sort of commentary on the events enacted, should provide a place in which the author may freely express his own feelings. Of the prose publications of ilanzoni, the first to be noted is the Morale aittolico (Milan, 1819), a reply to Sismondi's strictures upon Catholicism. His masterpiece is the novel / promessi sposi (Milan, 182.1-2G), which is more remarkable as an excellently framed psycholog- ical novel than as an historic novel. The story relates events supposed to have taken place in Lombardy during the years 1628 to Ifi.Sl. and as background to the account of the marriage of two peasants, long thwarted by a tyrannous local potentate, gives a picture of the manners of the time. The novel contains a most graphic description of the ravages of the plague in Milan in 1C30. / promessi sposi has passed through about 150 Italian editions, and has been trans- lated into very many modern languages. Con- vinced that pure Tuscan was the only true literary Italian, he revised the form of the tale with a view to expunging (Gallicisms and Lombard dia- lect expressions, and repulilishcd it in 1840. With the second edition of / promessi sposi appeared a sort of sequel to it. the Colonna infnine. much inferior to the earlier work, and reallj' only an historical and legal essay.

Consult: Opcrr rarie di A. Manzoni (Milan. 184.5-70, with additional prose works) ; the edi- tion of his letters or Epislolario, by G. Sforza (Milan, 1882-83) ; Vismara, Bihliografia man- zoniana (Milan. 1875); Uersezio. .1. Manzoni, stttdio bio(jraficn e criliro (Turin. 1873) ; De Gubernatis. .1. Manzoni, studio hiografico (Flor- ence. 1870) ; C. Cantil. .1. Manzotii, reminiscenze (Milan. 1885) ; V. Waille, Le romantisme de Manzoni (Paris, 1890).

MAORIS, mii'6-rez. The aborigines of New Zealand. In many respects the most remarkable representatives of the Polynesian race. Above the average in stature, they are more or less robust, with athletic frames. The head-form is dolichocephalic. The women for the most part are strong and vigorous. I!oth sexes are adepts in swimming, and the people are fond of bodily exercise. Some authorities hold, on insufficient grounds, that the Maoris and other Eastern Polynesians are non-.Malay. and Caticasie rather than Mongolie, although they admittedly speak dialects of the eonunon .Malayo-Polynesian speech. A few more ventiresome inquirers have even sought to .show that the Maori tongue is related to the .Aryan family of languages. Hut all such efforts are vain. The Moriori of Chatham Island are hardly more than a branch of the Maori, with perhaps more of a pre-Maori Mela- nesian intermixture, noticeable not only in phys- ical characteristics, but also in art. weapons, etc. The Maoris are noted for their tattooing, their ornamental and decorative art, their epic pnetr^'. legends, and mythology. In early times they were among the most cannibalistic of Poly- nesian peoples, despite thrir relatively high cul- ture. Their long and valiant struggle with the British colonists, in the course of which they displayed some brilliant war tactics, gained for them the respect of their opponents, and they now have their representatives in the Legislature on the same basis as their white fellow country- men. The Maoris, scattered over parts of the northern island and the northern portion of the southern island, seem, according to the last census, to be increasing in numbers, and not rapidly dying out as has hitherto been .supposed. Considerable intermarriage has also taken place. Consult : Finsch, Jfeise in der Siidsee ( Uien. 1884) : Von IIoehstetter.YcK-.S'cc/inirf (Stuttgart, 1803) ; White. The Ancient IJistor;/ of the Maori, Bis Mytliolog;/ and Traditions (London. 1889) ; Tregear. Maori Poli/ncsian Comparative Diction- ary (Wellington, New Zealand, 1801); Robley, Moko, or Maori Tattooing (London. 189t)) ; Reeves. The hong White Cloud (London, 1898). See Polynesians.

MAP (from Lat. mappa, napkin). A delinea- tion upon a plane surface of objects that are actually located upon a spherical surface. The word was brought into use in the iliddle Ages and signified that maps were originally printed on cloth. In common usage ma]) is nearly synonymous with chart, although there is a tendency to limit the former woril to representa- tions of the earth's surface, while delineations of stars in the celestial vault and of hydrographic facts are generally designated as charts. The earliest maps were purely empirical drawings presenting the relative positions of known points and defining in a general way the limits of land and ^^ater areas. Jlodern nuijis. however, whose construction involves a high degree of skill and judgment, are faithful epitomes of our earth knowledge, recording that which is revealed by geographical surveys and discoveries or added to or taken away from the earth by man's industry. History of M.p-Makixg. The earliest examples of cartographic art are fiirnislied by the Egyptians and Babylonians. Picture maps illus- trating events as early as the fifteenth century B.C. have been found among the Habvlonians, to whom also belongs the credit of dividing the circle into degrees, minutes, and seconds, according to cur present sexagesimal system. The Greeks de- veloped the knowledge of these ancient peoples upon a scientific basis. Anaximander of Miletus (sixth century B.C.) is credited with the first attempt to draw a map of the then known world, but the hrmor of founding the methods of rational cartogra|>liy must be assigned to Claudius Ptole- m.TUs, who lived in the second century a.d. .- though largely indebted to the labors of Ilip- parchus, who provided the necessary means for the determination of geographical position, to Eratosthenes, the keeper of the .Mexandrian Li- brary, and es]iecially to Marinus of Tyre. Ptolemy combined the results of their investigations and constructed a general maj) of the world that not only excelled all previous elTorts in this direction. l"it is generally recognizeil as the most complete summary of geographical knowledge available l)r( vious to the sixteenth century. Under the Itonians map-making was confined to such de- lineations as were iiseful for military and polit- ical jiurposes. They did not apply astronomical methods to (he art, and the few examples of world maps were const rncted upon an oval plan, in which the earth appeared to be twice as long from east to west as from north to south. The Middle Ages witnessed a return to the