MAS
( ScjO
MAS
Courfes; but the Stones ate only fet in otder as to the Courfes, the Middle being fill'd up with Stones thrown in at random among the Mortar. See Plate Arch. fig. 5. Compound iSafmrx, is of Vitruvius's propofing ; fo call'd, as being form'd ot all the refl. In this, the Courfes are of hew'd Stone, and the middle Place left void, fill'd up with Mortar and Pebbles thrown in together. After this the Stones of one Courfe are bound to thofe of another Courfe, with Cramp-irons fallcn'd with melted Lead. See Flats Arch. Ftg.6.
All the Kinds of Mafomy now in ufc may be reduced to thefe five, viz. Bound Mafonry ; that of brick-Work, where the Bodies and Projeflures of the Stones inclofc fquare Spaces or Pannels, £fr. fet with Bricks : That de Moilon, or fmall Work, where the Courfes are equal, well fqua- red, and their Edges or Beds ruilicated : That where the Courfes are unequal ; and thatfiU'd up in the middle with little Stones and Mortar.
FREE, or ACCEPTED MASONS, a very antient So- ciety, or Body of Men, fo call'd either from fome extra- ordinary Knowledge of Mafonry or Building, which they are fuppofed to be Mafters of, or becaufe the firll Founders of the Society were Pcrfons of that Profeflion. They are now very confiderable both forNumbers and Cha- racter ; being found in every Country in Europe, and con- filling principally of Pcrfons of Merir and Confideration. As to Antiquity, they lay claim to a Standing of fome thoufand Years ; and, 'tis faid, can trace up their Origin as early as the Building of Solomon's Temple. What the End of their Inftitution is, feems {till, in fome meafure, a Secret ; tho fo much of it as is known, appears truly good and laudable, as it tends to promote Friendfhip, So- ciety, mutual Afliftance, and Good-Fellowfhip. The Brothers of this Family are faid to be poffefs'd of a great Number of Secrets, which have been religioufly obferv'd from Age to Age : Be their other Virtues therefore what they will, 'tis plain they are Mailers of one in a very great degree, viz. Secrecy.
MASQUE, or Mask, aCover forthe Face.contrived with Apertures for the Eyes and Mouth ; wore chiefly by Women of Condition, either to preferve their Completion from the Weather, or out of Modefty, to prevent their being known. Topfea, Wife of Nero, is faid to be the firil In- venter of the Mafaue ; which fhe did to guard her Com- plection from the Sun and Weather, as being the mofl delicate Woman, with regard to her Perfon, that has been known. Brantome obferves, that the ordinary life of Mafaues was not introduced till towards the end of the 1 «th Century. The Word Mafqtte is alfo ufed to fignify any thing ufed to cover the Eyes, and prevent a Perfon's being known. Thus the Penitents of Lyons and Avignon hide their Faces with large white Veils, which ferve 'em for ylafques.
Masojje, in Architecture, is underflood of certain Pieces of Sculpture, reprefenting fome hideous Form, Grotefque, or Satyrs Faces, &c. ufed to fill up and adorn fome vacant Places, as in Freezes, the Pannels of Doors, Keys of Arches, (Sc. but particularly in Grotto's.
MASQUERADE, or Mascaraee ; an Affcmbly of Ferfons mask'd or difguis'd, meeting to dance and divert themfelves. This is a very common Practice abroad, efpe- cially in Carnaval Time. The Word comes from the Italian Mafcarata, and that from the Arabic Uafcira, which fignifies Raillery, Buffoonery.
"MASS, in Mechanics, is defined to be the Matter of any Body cohering with it, i. e. moving and gravitating alon" with it ; and is diflinguifh'd from its Bulk, or Volumn, which is its Expanfion in Length, Breadth, and Thicknefs. The Mafs of any Body is rightly eflimated by its Weight. And the lAaffes of two Bodies of the fame Weigh t are in a reciprocal Ratio of their Volumes. See Motion,Weioht, Moment, lye.
MASSALIANS, certain Seflaries, fo call'd from a Hebrew Word fignrfjing Prayer 5 it being their dillinguifh- ing Tenet, that a Man is to be continually in Prayer. The Greeks call'd them Euchites, ttyt-nti, which in their Lan- guage fignified the fame thing. St. Efipianiui diftin- guifhes two Kinds of Maffhtians, the Antient and the New. The firfl, according to him, are neither Jews, Cbriftians, nor Samaritans, but pure Gentiles ; who owning feveral Gods, yet adore only one, whom they call Almighty. They had Oratories like our Churches, where they ufed fo meet, to pray and ling Hymns in honour of God ; their Oratories being finely illumined with Lamps and Flam- beaux. This Defcription of St. Epiphaniut comes fo near the Practice of the Effeni, that Scaiiger thinks the two Sects ought not by any means to be diflinguifh'd. The Majfalians have gone by the Names of Enthufiafts, Eucbi- tes, Saccopbori, and fome of them Martyrians.
As to the other Maffalians, who were by Profeflion Chriftians, their Rife was not till about the Time of St. Ep'fhatiius. Their Doftrine was, that Prayer alone was
fufficient to Salvation. Many Monks, who loved a Life of Lazinefs, and were averfe to Labour, join'd the Ma£a Hans. Sje Euchites.
MASS ATER, from fMur/saafuti, manduco, to chew 5 the Name of a Mufcle, that helps to pull the Jaw upwards in eating: It is thick and fhort, arifing from the Zygoma, and from the firll Bone of the upper Jaw, and is inferred into the lower Edge of the lower Jaw, from its external Angle to its middle. Its Fibres run in three Directions > thole from the Zygoma obliquely to the middle of the Jaw, and thofe from the firll Bone of the upper Jaw crofs the former, and run to the Angle of the lower Jaw ; and the Fibres that are in its middle, run perpendicularly from their Origin to their Infertion.
MASSES, in Painting, are the large Parts of a Picture, containing the great Lights and Shadows 5 and thus, when it is almoil dark, we fee only the Maffes of a Picture, 1. e. the Places of the grearei! Lights and Shadows.
MASSIVE, fomething grofs and folid, in oppofition to Tenderncfs and Delicacy. Thus we fay, a Wall, or a Building, is too mafive, that is, its Walls are too thick, or the Lights and Openings too little in proportion. A mafive Column is that, which is too fhort for the Order, whofe Capital it bears.
MASSORA, a Term in the Jewifi Theology, figni- fying a Performance on the Bible by feveral learned Rab- bins, to fecure it from any Alterations that might other- wife happen 5 and to ferve, according to their Expreflion, as a Hed(e to tbe Law< Bitxtorf defines it a Critique on the Hebrew Text, contrived by the antient Jewijb Doctors, in which they have number'd the Verfes, Words, and Let- ters of the Text, and mark'd all the Variations of it* For the Text of the Sacred Books was originally written without any Breaks, or Divifions into Chapters, or Verfes, or even into Words. So that a whole Book, in the antient Manner, was but one continued Word 5 of which kind we have flill feveral antient Manufcripts, both Greek and La- tin. In regard the Sacred Writings had undergone an infinite Number of Alterations, whence various Readings had arifen, and the Original was become mangled and difguis'd ; the Jews had recourfe to a Rule, which they judg'd infallible, to fix and afcertain the Reading of tho Hebrew Text : and this Rule they call'd Majfora, Tradi- tion 5 as if this Critique were nothing but a Tradition, which they had receiv'd from their Fore-Fathers. Ac- cording to Elias Levita, it was the Jews of a famous School at Tiberias who compofed, or at leaft begun the Mqffora, whence they are call'd Majjoretes. Ahen Efra makes them the Authors of the Points and Accents in the Hebrew Text, as we now find it, and which ferve for Vowels. The Arabs have done the fame thing to their 'Alcoran, that the Ma(foretes have done to the Bible: Nor do the Jews deny their having borrow'd this Expedient from the Arabs, who firfl put it in practice in the 7th Cen- tury. There is a great and a little Mafjora, printed ar Venice, and at Bafil, with the Hebrew Text in a different Character. Bitxtorf has written a Majjoretic Comment, which he calls Tiberias.
MASSORETES, Jewifi Doctors, Authors of the Maf- fora. See Massora.
MAST of a Fore/?, the Fruit of a Species of Trees, call'd Glandiferous, or Mali- Bearing ; as Beech, Oak, Chefnut, {£?c. Mast, a large Tree, or Pole, rais'd in Veffels, for the Cordage and Sails to be faflen'd to, in order to their re- ceiving the Wind neceffary for Navigation. In large Veffels, the Number ofMafts is four : Their Names are, th&Main- Maft, the Fore-Maft, the Mizen-Maft, and the Boltfprit. To which fome add a fifth, viz. a Cotmter-Mizen. The Main-Maft, or Mafler-Mafl, is the chief Maft in the Ship ; its Place is in the middle of the Veffel, and it bears the flrongeil Cordage, and the largeft Sails. The Fore-Maft is between the Main-Maft and the Head. The Mizen- Majl is between the Main-Maft and the Stern. The Bolt- fprit lies upon the Beak, in the Prow or Head of the Ship. The Counter- Mizen, in large Veffels and Galleons, is m the Stern.
We alfo ufe the Word Maft to fignify thofe Divifions, or additional Pieces in the Mafts, placed over one another. The Main-Maft, and Main-Top-Maft, have each of them two, viz. the Main-Maft, Main-Top-Maft, Main-Gallant- Maft ; the Fore-Maft, Fore-Top-Maft, Fore-Top-Gallant-Maft. The Mizen-Maft has one, viz. the Mizen-Top-Maft. The Word Maft fignifies the fame thing in Frencb, Higb Dutch, Flemifi, and Englijl. The Italians fay Maftr, and the Spa- niards Maftel.
For the Proportion of Mafts, Sir H. Vlanwaring gives thefe Rules: Whatever the Breadth of a Ship be in Feet, multiply | of that Breadth by 30, the Product is the Length of her Main-Maft in Yards. Thus if a Ship be 30 Foot at the Midfhip-Beam, | of 30 is 24 ; there- fore that Ship's Main-Maft mull be 24 Yards, or 72 Feet in Length. Then for its Bignefs, he allows an Inch
