Erring," written in Arabic, and translated into Hebrew during his lifetime—had an astonishing success in that age, and is still a most useful work. It was intended to serve the purpose of an introduction to the fruitful reading of holy scripture, by supplying clear and accurate ideas of the divine things which Judaism contains. How much it is still prized appears from the fact, that a new edition of it in the original Arabic printed with Hebrew letters, and containing an excellent French translation, has appeared at Paris in our own time. Maimonides shines in the firmament of Jewish science as a star of the first magnitude. The Jews have a saying which gives him a place of honour second only to that of Moses himself—"From Moses till Moses appeared no second Moses."—P. L.
MAIN, James, a Scotch botanist, was born in Edinburgh, and died at Chelsea in the spring of 1846. He began life as a gardener near Edinburgh, and he was afterwards patronized by Mr. George Hibbert, who sent him to China to collect plants. After leaving the service of Mr. Hibbert he took a farm; but being unsuccessful, he turned his attention to the literature of horticulture and agriculture, and became a contributor to various periodicals. In 1830 he published the "Villa and Cottage Florist's Directory;" in 1833 "Illustrations of Vegetable Physiology;" "in 1835 "Popular Botany;" in 1839 the "Young Farmer's Manual;" and the "Fruit Planter's and Pruner's Assistant." He became an associate of the Linnæan Society in 1829, and road a paper on vegetable physiology, an abstract of which appeared in their Proceedings.—J. H. B.
MAINE DE BIRAN, François Pierre Gonthier, one of the philosophers of France, was born at Bergerac on the 29th November, 1766, and died at Paris on the 16th July, 1824. From 1784 to 1789 he served in the body-guard of the French king, a period of indulgence on which he afterwards looked back with regret. He was the first to enter a protest against the extreme sensationalism of the French philosophers, and to inquire how much influence the soul or the active powers of the mind may exert on the impressions derived from without. This was his philosophical career, but he had also a political career of no small note. He was a member of the council of Five Hundred, but having joined the reactionary and royalist party, his election was annulled by the directory, and he narrowly escaped transportation. He retired to his estate and gave himself to literature, obtained the academy prize for his essay on habit, became the friend of Cabanis and Destutt de Tracy, and was named a corresponding member of the Institute. He wanted, however, some of the qualities necessary to attain a first position. He was a thinker, and could discover truth, but lacked the faculty of expressing the truths he had discovered. This office was afterwards performed by Royer Collard and Cousin. Cousin was the rhetorician of the principles first brought to light in France by Maine de Biran. Formerly the French philosophers had commenced with matter and the senses, and had elaborated a philosophy of materialism. Maine de Biran commenced in the same way, but ended in asking if all things were not derived from God. Both M. Royer Collard and M. Cousin have the merit of paying a just tribute to so sound a mode of thought. M. Cousin called him the greatest metaphysician who had appeared in France since Malebranche.—P. E. D.
MAINTENON, Françoise D'Aubigné, Marchioness de, was born at Niort on the 27th November, 1635, and died at Saint Cyr on the 15th April, 1719. She was the daughter of Constant D'Aubigné, the disreputable son of the distinguished Theodore D'Aubigné, whose autobiography contains the most interesting details regarding Henry IV.; a devoted companion of this popular prince he had from an early period been. In 1639 Constant D'Aubigné, gambler and adventurer, went in pursuit of fortune to the French West Indies. On his death in 1645 his widow, with Françoise and another child, returned to France. Françoise was received into the house of Madame De Villette, a sister of Constant D'Aubigné, and strictly educated in those protestant principles of which the valiant Theodore D'Aubigné had been to the death so earnest an apostle. By one of the cruel intrigues then so common in France, and perhaps still not altogether unknown there, the queen-regent, Anne of Austria, was induced to tear the child from the sanctuary of her aunt's dwelling, that she might be instructed in the catholic faith. At the age of fourteen Françoise left the convent in which she had for this purpose been placed. The death of her mother in 1652 left Françoise entirely destitute. A girl of seventeen, she married the comie poet Scarron, who, though deformed, was not the old man he is sometimes represented. At the house of Scarron she saw the most brilliant society, and formed friendships, which with her instinctive skill she afterwards turned to account. Acquainted with Ninon De Lenclos, and exposed to many temptations, she yet kept her unblemished name. Scarron died in 1660, and Anne of Austria settled a pension of two thousand francs on his widow. Gifted with good looks, good talents, insinuating manners, and wholly mistress of her passions, Madame Scarron became a favourite in brilliant aristocratic salons. Among the persons whom she here met was Madame De Montespan. This lady, one of the most celebrated of Louis XIV.'s concubines, had seven children by him. Madame Scarron, scheming and never scrupulous, undertook the guardianship of some of these children. This degrading office brought her into relation with the court. From being a sort of head nurse to Madame De Montespan's adulterous offspring, Madame Scarron slowly rose to be the formidable and at last the triumphant rival of Madame De Montespan herself. In 1673 Louis XIV. bought for Madame Scarron the estate of Maintenon, from which she thenceforth took her title. First the king's mistress, Madame De Maintenon, toward the end of 1684, took by a secret marriage the place of an excellent queen, whom, pure as she was patient, the king had outraged by the most scandalous conduct. Over the king Madame De Maintenon gained immense influence, by flattering his whims and ministering to his selfishness. That influence was in general fatal to Louis XIV. and to France. But not to Madame De Maintenon must principally be ascribed the most disastrous and impolitic measure clouding Louis' reign, the revocation of the edict of Nantes in 1685, but to the powerful minister Louvois, who planned and commanded the horrible massacrings and burnings in the palatinate a few years after. Cold and heartless, not deliberately hypocritical or vicious, Madame De Maintenon permitted evil rather than counselled it, in order to maintain her empire over the king, who, after having been a monster of lust, had grown a maniac of superstition. This empire she contrived to hold till the king's death in 1715. The remaining years of Madame De Maintenon's life were spent at Saint Cyr, where every external respect was paid to her as to one who had, though in strangest fashion, shared a throne. Madame De Maintenon took an active and seldom a creditable part in the quietist, jansenist, and other religious debates which troubled her country. More worthily does she come before us as a sincere and zealous supporter of educational and charitable institutions. She had, along with her other accomplishments, a facile and graceful pen; and a complete and correct edition of her works has been recently published.—W. M—l.
MAINZER, Joseph, a gentleman distinguished for his zeal and philanthropic exertions in the encouragement of a popular taste for music, was born at Treves in 1801; and at a very early age showed a desire to cultivate the art, in imparting a knowledge of which he subsequently so greatly excelled. He was a performer on several instruments, including violin, piano, oboe, horn, flute, and bassoon. At twelve years of age he could read the most difficult music at sight, and he had also made some very creditable efforts in composition. After studying mathematics and natural science, at twenty-one years of age he became an engineer of mines; but finding his health decline, he embraced the church as a profession, though still continuing to study the "divine art." He made soon after a tour of Germany, and visited nearly all the great masters in musical science, spending some time in the family of Rinck. After two years' absence he returned to Treves, formed several choirs, and became the director of the musical department of the normal school. He afterwards distinguished himself in Paris, as a writer for the public press. After quitting Paris, Dr. Mainzer (for he had been honoured with a degree at one of the Germany universities) resorted to England, and resided a short time in London. His efforts were principally confined to Manchester, where he had many thousands of young persons under his immediate tuition, and where his memory will long be revered by both rich and poor. His incessant labours produced a malady, under which he suffered much, and which unfortunately terminated in his demise, He died at Manchester, November, 1851, aged fifty years. It was under the auspices of Dr. Mainzer that Mr. J. Alfred Novello commenced his Musical Times; the original title having been Mainzer's Musical Times. He was the author of several popular works, "Singing for the Million;" a "Musical Grammar;" "Music and Education," &c.—E. F. R.
