MASSON, DAVID, man of letters, born in Aberdeen; elected literature as his profession in preference to theology, with the study of which he commenced; joined the staff of the Messrs. Chambers; settled in London, and became professor of English Literature in University College, from the chair of which he removed to the corresponding one in Edinburgh in 1865; edited Macmillan’s Magazine from 1859 to 1868; his great work, the “Life of Milton,” in 6 vols., a thorough book, and of great historical value; has written on “British Novelists and their Styles,” “Life of Drummond of Hawthornden,” &c.; became in 1893 Historiographer-Royal of Scotland; b. 1822.

MASSO`RAH, a body of Biblical references, chiefly handed down by tradition, and calculated to be of great service in verifying the original text of the Hebrew Scriptures.

MASSORETIC POINTS, the vowel points and accents in Hebrew; invented by the Massorites, or authors of the Massorah.

MASTER HUMPHREY, a character in Dickens’s “Old Curiosity Shop.”

MASTER OF SENTENCES, PETER LOMBARD (q. v.).

MASTODON, one of an extinct species of mammals akin to the elephant.

MASULIPATAM (38), chief seaport in the district of Kistna, Madras
Presidency, India, 215 m.  N. of Madras, with a large coasting trade.

MATABELELAND, a country stretching northward from the Transvaal, 180 m. by 150 m., towards the Zambesi River; formerly occupied by peaceful Mashona and Makalaka tribes, but conquered by the Matabele in 1840, and since held by them.  They are warlike, and have no industries.  The women grow mealies, the men make continual forays on their neighbours.  Gold exists in various parts, and the country was declared British territory in 1890.  It is developed by the British South African Company, whose chief stations are Buluwayo in the SW. and Fort Salisbury in the NE.

MATANZA (50), a fortified town in Cuba, 32 m.  E. of Havana.

MATERIALISM, the theory which, denying the independent existence of spirit, resolves everything within the sphere of being into matter, or into the operation and the effect of the operation of forces latent in it, or into the negative and positive interaction of mere material forces, to the exclusion of intelligent purpose and design.

MATHER, COTTON, an American divine, born in Boston; notorious for his belief in witchcraft, and for the persecution he provoked against those charged with it by his zeal in spreading the delusion (1663-1728).

MATHEW, THEOBALD, or FATHER MATHEW, apostle of temperance, born in Tipperary; studied for the Catholic priesthood, but joined the Capuchin Minorites; was in 1814 ordained a priest, and located in Cork, where at sight of the cruel effects of drunkenness on the mass of the people his heart was moved, and he resolved on a crusade against it to stamp it out; he started on this enterprise in 1827, but it took a year and a half before his mission bore any fruit, and then it was accompanied with marvellous success wherever he went, even as far as the New World itself (1790-1856).