Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 06.djvu/425

MYSTERY 863 MYXCEDEMA MYSTERY, a kind of mediaeval drama, or dramatic composition, the characters and events of which were drawn from sacred history. They were totally devoid of invention or plot, following the sacred narrative of the legends tamely and lite- rally. They were also called Miracle Plays. Mysteries were succeeded in the 16th century by moralities, in which we find the first attempts at dramatic art, as they contain some rudiments of a plot, and even attempted to delineate character and to paint manners. MYSTICISM, the views of the mystics ; specially, that they possessed more direct communion with G<od than did other Christians. Individuals have more or less held this view in every age of the Church. The creed of modem mysticism may be found in the universally popular "Imitation," attributed to a Kempis, somewhat less known are the poems of Madame Guyon, translated by Cowper. The piety breathed in her verse is most ardent, though at times the language used is more familiar than is usually addressed to God. MYTH, in general, a fiction framed unconsciously; not a willful falsehood. Such myths arose most copiously in the infancy of nations, but they do so yet, especially among young people or the uneducated, there being the closest anal- ogy between the mind of early man and that of a child or of an untaught person. MYTHOLOGY, a term applied to the collected myths of a nation, sometimes to the scientific study of myths. In the former sense see the names of the vari- ous gods and heroes. Mythology in the latter sense has for its object not to ascertain why men believe in gods — ^that is rather the business of the science of religion — ^but, granted the belief, why men tell these (sometimes extraordinary) stories about them. MYTHRAS (mith'ras), or MIHIR (mi-her'), the sacred being enthroned in the sun whom the Ghebers worship. MYX(EDEMA, the name generally accepted for a diseased condition first described by Sir William Gull in 1873. It occurs in adults, generally females, and is characterized by widespread changes in nutrition and by a thickening of the subcutaneous tissues, most notice- able in the face (which becomes enlarged, swollen-looking, and expressionless) and the hands, with a simultaneous dulling of all the faculties and slowing of the movements of the body. A precisely similar condition occurs in many cases where the thyroid gland has been re- moved for disease. Myxcedema is very slow in its progress, but undoubtedly tends to shorten life. It gveatly resem- bles cretinism, except that the mental condition is much less aifected, and that the deformities resulting from arrested development are not present.