METWODISTS, the body of Chris tians to whom this name is chiefly applied are the followers of the late John Wesley, the founder of this numerous sect ; hence called Wesleyan Methodists. But the term bears a more extensive meaning, being applied to several bodies or sections of Christians who .have seceded or with drawn from the Wesleyan denomination. The origin of the Methodist Society took place at Oxford in 1729. After the Revo lution, when the principles of religious toleration were recognized amid the pro gress of free inquiry, the clergy of the Established Church were thought by some to have sunk int-o a state of comparative litkewartnness and indifference. This alleged degeneracy 'was observed with pain by John Wesley and his brother Charles, when students at the University of Oxford ; and being ,joined by at few of their fellow-students who were intended for the ministry in the Established Church, they formed the most rigid rules for the regulation or their time and studies, for reading the Scriptures, fur self-examina. tion, and other religious exercises. The
ardent piety and rigid observanoe of system in everything connected with tht now opinions displayed by the Weslcys and their adherents, as well as in their college studies, which they never neglect ed, attracted the notice and excited the jeers of various members of the Univer sity, and gained for them the appellation of Methodists; in allusion to the melba dici, a class of physicians at Rome who practised only by theory.
manyci, the resident aliens, who formed a large class of the inhabitants of Athens. They were distinguished from the few fell citizens by many disa bilities and burdens. They had no share in the administration of the state, and were precluded from the power of pos sessing landed estates. Each was com pelled to purchase the shelter he receiv ed from the state by the payment of a small annual sum, and to place himself under the guardianship of a citizen, who was his formal representative in the courts of law. They were generally en gaged in mercantile and mechanical busi ness.