MAIMON, SOLOMON, philosopher, born, of Jewish parents, in a village of Minsk; came to Berlin, where he studied, lived an eccentric, vagabond life, dependent mostly on his friends; made the acquaintance of Kant and Goethe, and attempted and published an eclectic system of philosophy in 1790, being Kant’s system supplemented from Spinoza, Leibnitz, and Locke, and even Hume; his last patron was Count Kalkreuth, at whose house in Siegersdorf he died (1754-1800).

MAIMONIDES, MOSES, a Jewish rabbi, born at Cordova, whom the Jews regarded as their Plato, and called the “Lamp of Israel” and the “Eagle of the doctors”; was a man of immense learning, and was physician to the Sultan of Egypt; in his relation to the Jews he ranks next to Moses, and taught them to interpret their religion in the light of reason; he wrote a “Commentary on the Mishna and the Second Law,” but his chief work is the “Moreh Nebochim,” or “Guide to the Perplexed” (1135-1204).

MAINE (662), the most north-easterly State in the American Union, lies between Quebec and New Hampshire on the W. and New Brunswick and the Atlantic on the E., and is a little larger than Ireland, a picturesque State with high mountains in the W., Katahdin (5000 ft), many large lakes like Moosehead, numerous rivers, and a much indented rocky coast; the climate is severe but healthy, the soil only in some places fertile, the rainfall is abundant; dense forests cover the north; hay, potatoes, apples, and sweet corn are chief crops; cotton, woollen, leather manufactures, lumber working, and fruit canning are principal industries; the fisheries are valuable; timber, building stone, cattle, wool, and in winter ice are exported; early Dutch, English, and French settlements were unsuccessful till 1630; from 1651 Maine was part of Massachusetts, till made a separate State in 1820; the population is English-Puritan and French-Canadian in origin; education is advancing; the State’s Liquor Law of 1851 was among the first of the kind:  the capital is Augusta (11); Portland (36) is the largest city and chief seaport; Lewiston (22) has cotton manufactures.

MAINE, SIR HENRY, English jurist, legal member of the Council in India, and professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford; wrote on “Ancient Law,” and important works on ancient institutions generally; regarded the social system as a development of the patriarchal system (1822-1888).

MAINTENANCE, CAP OF, an ermine-lined, crimson velvet cap, the wearing of which was a distinction granted first to dukes but subsequently to various other families.

MAINTENON, FRANCOISE D’AUBIGNE, MARQUISE DE, born in the prison of Niort, where her father was incarcerated as a Protestant; though well inoculated with Protestant principles she turned a Catholic, married the poet Scarron in 1652, became a widow in 1660; was entrusted with the education of the children of Louis XIV. and Madame de Montespan; supplanted the latter in the king’s affections, and was secretly married to him in 1684; she exercised a great influence over him, not always for good, and on his death in 1715 retired into the Convent of St. Cyr, which she had herself founded for young ladies of noble birth but in humble circumstances (1635-1719).