The hand-mills of the ancient Egyptians appear to have been of the same character as those of their de- scendants, and like them were worked by women (Wil- kinson, Anc. Eg. ii, 118, etc.). "They had also a large miU on a very similar principle, but the stones were of far greater power and dimensions; and this could only have been turned by cattle or asses, like those of the ancient Romans and of the modern Cairenes." It was the millstone of a mill of this kind, driven by an ass, which is alluded to in Matt, xviii, 6 (fiiXog ovikoq), to distinguish it, says Lightfoot (Hoi: Hebr. ad loc), from those small mills which were used to grind spices for the wound of circumcision, or for the delights of the Sabbath, and to which botli Kimchi and Jarchi find a reference in Jer. xxv, 10. Of a married man with slen-
Koman Uand-mills.
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der means it is said in the Talmud (Kidduskin, p. 29 6), " Witli a millstone on his neck he studies the law," and the expression is still proverbial (Tendlau, Sprichwurter, p. 181). 'i'lic ordinary miU of the Homans, however, was essentially like the conical hand-mill of the East, as specimens preserved among the ruins of bake-houses in Pompeii show (see Smith's Diet, of Or. and Rom, Antiq. s. v. Mola).
It was the movable upper millstone of the hand-mill with which the woman of Thebez broke Abimclcch's skull (Judg. ix, 53). It is now generally made, accord- ing to Dr. Thomson, of a porous lava brought from the Hauran, both stones being of the same material ; but, says the same traveller, '• I have seen the nether made of a compact sandstone, and quite thick, while the iipper was of this lava, probably because from its lightness it is the more easily driven round with the liand" (Land and Hook; ii, 29(J), The porous lava to which he refers is probably the same as the black tufa mentioned by Burckhardt {Sy}-ia, p. 57), the blocks of which are brought from the Lejah, and are fashioned into mill- stones by the inhabitants of Ezra, a village in the Hau- ran. " They vary in price according to their size, from fifteen to sixty piastres, and are preferred to all others on account of the hardness of the stone."
One i)assage (Lam. v, 13) is deserving of notice, which Iloheisel (De Molis Manual, Vet, in Ugolini, vol. xxix) explains in a manner which gives it a point that is lost in our Auth. Vers. It may be rendered, " The choice (men) bore the mill ("iin::, tec/tun), and the youths stumbled beneath the wood ;" the wood being the wood- work or shaft of the mill, which the captives were com- pelled to carry. There are, moreover, allusions to other apparatus connected with the operation of grinding — the sieve, or bolter (f^E3, naphah', Isa. xxx, 28; or il"i-2, kiharah', Amos ix, 9), and the hopper, though the lat- ter is only found in the Mishna (Zabim, iv. 3), and was a late invention. AVe also find in tlie iVlishna {Demai, iii, 4) that mention is made of a miller ("Hia, tuchen), indicating that grinding grain was recognised as a dis- tinct occupation. Wind-mills and water-mills are of more recent date.— Smith; Kitto.
Mill, David, D.D., a noted German Orientalist, was born at Kiinigsberg, Prussia, April 13, 1G92. Called to Holland, he accepted a professorship in the Univer- sity of Utrecht. He died May 22, 1755. His ablest work is, Dixfeiiationes Selectee Varia S. Lilt, ei Anti- quitatis Orientalis Capita expionentes et illustruntes, curis secundis (Lugd. Bat. 1743).
Mill, James, an eminent British metaphysician and political cconiiTnist, was bom of hiwnl)lc jiarcntage in the iieighhorliood of .Montrose, Scotland, ApriKi, 1773. After having received a thorough education in the house of Sir John Stuart, INI.P., he was sent to the I'niversity of Edinburgh, where he was educated for the Church. He entered into holy orders in 1798, but, instead of devoting himself to his sacred calling,he went to London in IHOO; became editor of the Literary Journal, and wrote for various periodicals, including the Eclectic and the Kdin- hurf/h lieriew. In IHUIJ he commenced a Ilixtory of liritish India, which he completed and published in 1818. The impression produced by this masterly history on the Indian authorities was such that in 1819 Mill was appointe<l assistant-examiner of Indian correspondence. He continued in this office till IK'52, when he was ap- pointed head of the examiner's office, where he had the control of all the departments of Indian administration. Shortly after his appointment to the India House, he contributed the articles on Goveniment, Education, Ju- risprudence, Law ofXalions, Lilierti/ of the rreax. Colo- nies, and Prison Discipline to the Enn/clopwdia Jiritmi- nica. These essays were reprinted in a separate form and became widely known. The powers of analysis, of clear statement, and thorough application of principles exhibited in these articles had probably never before
been brought to bear on this class of subjects. In 1821- 1822 he published his Elements of Political Economy, a work prepared [)rimarily with a view to the education of his eldest son, John Stuart Mill (q. v.).