MAIN TENON
667
MAISTRE
cesslty of a sufficient power existing for every given ef- fect" {Hist, of Mod. Phil. p. G39, 640 ; compare the me- moire Be la Decompositioji de la Pensee ; preferable even, Nouvelles Consideralions, part i, sec. 1, and part ii, sec. 1 and 3 ; also the Examen des Lemons de Philosophie, sec. 8 and 9). " In the whole of the process by which our author had gradually advanced from the ideology of Cabanis to the absolute dynamical s])iritualism of Leib- nitz, he had relied simply upon his own power of reliec- tion. Disciple of none, he had philosophized simply within the region of his own consciousness; so that whatever merit some may deny him, there are none, as- suredly, who can reject the claim to that of complete originality" (Morell, p. 038-9). " Of all the masters of France," says Cousin, " JMaine de Biran, if not the great- est, is unquestionably the most original. M. Laromi- guiere only continued the philosophy of Condillac, mod- ifying it in a few important points. M. Koyer-Collard came from the Scottish philosophy, which, with the vig- or and natural power of his reason, he would have infal- libly surpassed, had he completely followed out the la- bors which form only the least solid part of his glory. As for myself] I come at the same time from the Scottish and German school. ]M. IMaine de Hiran alone comes from himself, and from his own meditations" (Preface to the Frar/meris Pkilosophiqiies). See, besides the au- thorities already quoted, Ernest Naville, Maine de Bi- ran, sa vie et ses Pensees (1857) ; Damiron, Essai snr I'histoire de la Philosophie en France an dix-neuvi'eme Siecle; Brit. Qn.Rev. 186G (Oct.); Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, vol. xxxii, s. v. ; The A cademy (Lond.), Sept. 15,1872. (J. H.W.)
Maintenoil, Madame de, a very noted charac- ter in the history of France, both in secular and ecclesi- astic affairs, was born of a noble Protestant family in the prison at Niort, France, Nov. 27, 1635; came with her parents to this country, but returned to France in 1646; married the poet Scarron in 1651, and after his death (1660) was about to remove to Portugal, when she was secured by Jladame !Montespan, the favorite of Louis XIV, as governess of the duke of Maine, the ille- gitimate son of the king. The large estate of TJain- tenon was presented to her, until now Frangoise iJ'Au- biffne, and hereafter she assumed the name of the es- tate. Later she became a formidable rival of Madame Montespan. It was by the influence of Madame de IMaintenon that Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, and that he established the educational institution in the abbey of St. Cyr. In the last-named place she spent her days after the death of the king. She died April 15, 1719. It is difficult to describe Madame de Maintenon's relation to Louis XIV. She ;vas married to him some eighteen months after the death of the queen. She is never believed to have been the king's ?nist)'ess, in the ordinary sense of the term, but her asso- ciation with him was surely of a very intimate charac- ter long before they were joined in wedlock. She cer- tainly exercised an uncommon influence over him. She had a passion to be regarded as " a mother of the Church ;" but while she confessed the strength of her desire to Romanize the Huguenots, she earnestly denied that she approved of the detestable drayonnades. Her pretended Memoirs are spurious, but her Letters (Amst. 1759, 9 vols. ; best edit, by Lavallcc, Paris, 18(35 sq.) are genuine. See Noailles, Ilistoire de Mad. de Maintcnon (1858-59, 4 vols. 8vo) ; Sainte-Beuve, Causeries dii Lun- di, iv; Blackwood's Muyazine, 1850 (Feb.); Eraser's Magazine, 1849 (March). See Louis XIV.
Mair, Hugh, D.D., a Presbyterian minister, was born at New Mylus, Ayrshire, Scotland, July 16, 1797; grad- uated at the college in Glasgow m IS 17; studied theol- ogy in Edinburgh; was licensed in 1822; was employed for soma time as a missionary in tlie Orkneys, and oth- er parts of Scotland; came to America in 1828, and was ordained and installed pastor i)f the churches at Fort Miller and Northumberland, N. Y.; in 1830 became pas-
tor of the Church at Johnstown ; resigned in 1843, and went to Brockport, where he officiated, as a stated sup- ph', for several months ; subsequently supplied at War- saw for a year, and in 1847 went to Upper Canada, and became pastor at Fergus, in connection with the Church of Scotland, and there continued till the close of life, Nov. 1, 1854. Mair published Four Miscellaneous Ser- mons. A Memoir, with a selection from his MS. ser- mons, was published in 1856 by A. Dingwall Fordyce. — Sprague, A nnals, iv, 744.
IVIairs, GEORGK,an Irish minister, was bom at Drum- beg, Monaghan County, Ireland, in 1761 ; received his classical education at the University of Glasgow ; next studied theology ; was licensed to preach by an associ- ate presbytery in Ireland, and, after laboring as a proba- tioner for eighteen months, was ordained and installed pastor of the congregation of Cootehill, Cavan Co. In- terested in the work of evangelizing in America, he left Ireland in Maj', 1793, and arrived in New York in Au- gust of the same year. Soon after his arrival he was installed pastor of the churches in the towns of Hebron and Argyle ; six years after he confined his labors to the Church in Argyle alone, and held this position until old age interrupted his active labors. He died in 1841. — Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit, \o\. ix.