voice clear and pleasing, his style simple and manly, generally argumentative, and strongly imbued with the doctrines of the Church of England. In accordance with his last desires, bishop Middleton's papers were de- stroyed, and we have, therefore, none of his greater works excepting the one he had published in his earlier years on " the Greek Article," the periodical publication men- ' tioned above, and some sermons, charges, and tracts, which have been collected into a volume, to which a memoir of bishop Middleton is prefixed, by H. K. Bon- ney, D.D., archdeacon of Bedford (London", 1824). See Charles Webb Le Bas, Life of the Right Rer. Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (London, 1831, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Miss Yonge, Pioneers and Founders, ch. vii ; Month!// Review, 1810 (May) ; Kaye, Christianity in India. (J. II. W.)
Middoth. See Talmud.
Midgard's Serpent, or the World-Serpent (Jor- munijamh, is, in the mythology of theNorsemen, the great serpent which surrounds the world. As the offspring of Loki (q. v.), the principle of evil, the other gods feared the new-born, and determined to get early possession of it and Fenrir, another of Loki's offspring, and, when se- cured, Midgard's Serpent was cast into the ocean, where it grew till it encircled the world, biting its own tail. At the end of the world, the world-serpent wiU fight among the enemies of the gods and be slain by Thor, who, however, will die immediately afterwards from the effect of its A-enom. The myth of the Avorld-serpent is supposed to signify the deep or main ocean, which, ex- cited by Loki (subterranean fire or earthquake), is thrown upon the land, thus proving scarcely less fatal to the works of man than the direct action of volcanic fire, represented under the form of Fenrir. For fur- ther particulars, see 1hor\)%'s Northern Mythology, i, 80 sq., 161 sq.; IMallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. ii, Fables xvi, XXV, xxvi, xxvii ; Keyser's Relifjion of the North- men ; Petersen's Nordisk Alythologi.
Mid'ian (Heb. Midyan', '"p'lp, strife, as in Prov. xviii, 18; xix, 13; Sept. Mn5t«^t v. r. Mahav; N. T. Macidjx, Acts vii, 29, where the Auth.Vers. has "Ma- dian;" the Heb. often stands collectively for the "Mid- ianites" also, as it is frequently rendered in all the' ver- sions), the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, and the progenitor of the INIidianites (Gen. xxv, 2 ; 1 Chron. i, 32). B.C. post 2024. His five sons are enumerated in (ien. xxv, 4 ; 1 Chron. i, 33. Of his personal history nothing further is known. See Midianite.
Mid'ianite (Heb. Midyani', '^i'^'}'>2. Numb, x, 29, used collectively, and so rendered " Midianites," which is tlie usual translation for Midian itself; Sept. Matt- ai'irijQ ; but the plur. C^D"''!^ ^^so occurs, Gen. xxxvii, 28, and the fem. "'^3^7'?' Numb, xxv, 15; see also Ma- ihan), a tribe of people descended from Abraham's son Blidian (q. v.), a branch of the Arabians dwelling prin- cipally in the desert north of the peninsula of Arabia. Southwards they extended along the eastern shore of the Gulf of Aileh; and northwards they stretched along the eastern frontier of Palestine; while the oases in the peninsula of Sinai seem to have afforded them pasture- grounds, and caused it to be included in the "land of iNIidian." The notion that there were two peoples called Midian, founded on the supposed shortness of the inter- val for any considerable multiplication from Abrakani to Moses, and on the mention of Moses's Cushite wife, seems to be untenable. Even conceding the former ob- jection, which is unnecessary, one tribe has often be- come merged into another and older one, and only the name of tlie latter retained. In the following account of the Midianites we chiefly follow the statements in Kitto's and Smith's Dictionaries.
I. Histoi-y. —Midmn, though not the oldest, was the most celebrated son of Keturah. What Judah became among the tribes of Israel, Midian became among the tribes of Arabia. It is true we find the other branches of the Keturites spoken of a few times in sacred his-
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torv, and mentioned in such a way as to prove that as trilies they never lost their individuality ; yet the Mid- ianites were the dominant people, and Midian is the great name which always comes out i)rominently before I he historian. Not only so, but the Midianites appear to have been for a lengthened period the virtual rulers of Arabia, combining into a grand confederacy, and then guiding or controlling, as circumstances reijuired, all the Arabian branches of the Hebrew race. This fact comes out incidentally in many parts of Scripture; and we re- (juire to keep it carefully in view in order to luiderstand the sacred narrative.