nor and Sir William Jones are not claimed to have gone beyond twentj'-eight; -while Mithridates and Pico of jMirandola have been made famous by twenty-two.
In general learning ^lezzofanti's attainments were highly respectable. He was a well-informed theologian and canonist, and an impressive though not eloquent preacher. M. Libri, the historian of mathematical sci- ence in ItJily, found him well aciiuaintcd with algebra, and reports an interesting conversation which he had
verse freely in it. but even to preach to the young Chi- i with him on the Bija (Jannita (the algebra of the Hin- nese ecclesiastics. During the same period he accpiired dris), as well as on the general subject of Indian history the Abyssinian, the Californian, some of the North and antiquities. Other writers describe him as entering American Indian languages, and even the ''impossi- freely into the history as well as the literature of their blc" Basque. It was in Rome, and especially in the several countries. But as an author he is almost un- Propaganda, that he displayed in its greatest perfection known. He occasionally read papers at various literary his singular power of instantaneously passing in con- ( and scientific societies in Bologna and Rome; but his versation from one language to another, without the i only known publication is a short memoir of his friend slightest mixture or confusion, whether of words or of i and brother professor, father Emanuel da Ponte, which pronunciation. j was printed at Bologna in 18211; and he leaves no mon-
Mezzo£auti, by virtue of liis position as cardinal, was I ument for posterity beyond the tradition that he was
MIAKO
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MIBHAR
incomparably the greatest linguist the world has ever seen. See G. Stolz, Biof/raphiu del Cardinal Ghisejype Mezzofanti, in the Journal de Rome of Feb. :\ l.s.'iO ; A. Manaxit, Esqiiisse historique sur le Cardiiml M, .:j'i'anti (Paris, 1854, 8vo) ; Kussell, Life of the Cardinal Jltzzo- fanti, etc. (Lond. 1857, 8vo) ; L'Ami de la Reliylon (1849) ; Revue Catholique de Louvain, Sept. 1853 ; Enr/l. Ci/clop. s. V. ; Billiotheca Sacra, 1849, p. 407 ; English Rerie/r, Jan. 1855 ; Princeton Review, 1858, p. 645 sq. ; Catholic World, March, 1870, p. 857.
Miako, one of the largest cities of Japan, was, un- til the recent abolishment of the ecclesiastical emperor, the seat of the mikado, or spiritual prince. The cit\^, containing nearly one million of inhabitants, is situated in the south-west of the island of Nipon, in the midst of an extensive plain, and about thirty miles from Osaca. Miako is also noted as the great stronghold of Sinfuium (q. V.)— the ancient religion of Japan — of tern pie- wor- ship, priests, monks, ceremonies, and ritualism. Some of the temples are of great size and splendor. Don Rodrigo de Vivero, the Spanish governor of Manilla, who visited Miako in 1608, was told that it then con- tained 5000 temples. He describes one in which was an immense bronze image of Buddha, the construction of which was begun by the tycoon in 1602. He says, '• I ordered one of my people to measure the thumb of the right hand; but, although he was a person of the ordinary size, he could not quite encircle it with both arms. But the size of the statue is not its only merit : the feet, hands, mouth, eyes, forehead, and other feat- ures are as perfect and as expressive as the most accom- plished painter could make a portrait. When I first visited this temple it was unfinished; more than 10,000 men were daily employed upon it. The devil could not suggest to the emperor a surer expedient to get rid of his immense wealth." This colossus was injured by an earthquake in 1662, after which it was melted down, and a substitute prepared of wood gilded. Kilmpfer, who was at Miako in 1691, describes the temple which contained this image as enclosed by a high wall of freestone, some of the blocks of which were twelve feet square. "A stone staircase of eight steps led up to the gateway, on either side of which stood a gigantic image twenty-four feet high, with the face of a lion, but otherwise well proportioned, black, and almost naked, and placed on a pedestal six feet high. 'W'ithin the gateway were sixteen stone pillars on each side for lamps, and on the inside of the enclosing wall was a spacious gallery covered with a roof supported by two rows of pillars eighteen feet high and twelve feet distant from each other. Opposite the gateway, in the middle of the court, stood the temple, much the loftiest struct- ure which Kampfer had seen in Japan, with a double roof supported by ninety-four immense wooden pillars, nine feet in diameter. The floor of the temple was paved with square flags of marble. There was nothing inside but the great image of Buddha sitting on a terete, or lotus flower, supported by another flower of which the leaves were turned upwards, the two being raised about twelve feet from the floor. The idol was gilded all over, had long ears, curled hair, and a crown on the head which appeared through the window over the first roof of the temple. The shoulders were so broad as to reach from one piUar to another, a distance of thirty feet. In front of this temple is an edifice containing a bell, which is described in the Japanese guide-books as seventeen feet two and a half inches high, and weighing 1,700,000 Japanese catties, equal to 2,066,000 English pounds, a weight five times greater than that of the famous bell at ^Moscow. Kampfer, however, who had seen the great bell at Moscow, describes this Japanese bell as inferior in size to that, and as being rough, ill cast, and ill shaped. It was sounded by striking it on the outside with a large wooden mallet. Another tem- ple, dedicated to Quanwon, was very long in proportion to its breadth. In the centre was a gigantic image of Quanwon, with thirty-six arms. Sixteen black images