MEZZOTIN'10, a particular manner of engraving, so called from its resem blance to drawings in Indian ink. To perform this, the smooth surfime of the copper or steel plate is furrowed all over with an instrument made for the purpose. till the whole is of a regular roughness throughout ; so that if a paper were to be worked off from it at the copper-plate press it would be black all over. When this is done, the plate is rubbed with charcoal, block chalk, or black lead, and then the design is drawn with white chalk ; after which the outlines and deepest shades are not scraped at all, the next shades are scraped but little, the next more, and so on, till the shades gradu ally falling off, leave the paper white, in which places the plate is perfectly bur nished. By an artificial disposition of the shades, and different parts of a figure on different plates, mezzotinto3 are printed in colors, so as to represent actual paint ings.
Ml'CAII, a canonical book of the 01,1 Testament, written by the prophet Micah; in which the writer censures the reigning vices of Jerusalem and Samaria., and de
nounces the judgments of God against both kingdoms. The birthplace of our Saviour is this designated by him: " But thou, Bethlehem Ephrata, little among 'he thousands of Judith, out of thee shall come forth a ruler in Israel, whose gene ration is of old, front everlasting" MICIFAELMAS, or Feast of St. Mi chael, a festival of the Romish church, observed on the 29tls of September. In England, Michaelmas is ore of the regu lar periods tbr settling rents ; and an old custom is still in use of having a roast goose for dinner on that day, probably Because geese are at that period most ple»tiful, and in the highest perfection. sin has been milled so by some fanciful writers on natural phi losophy turf tnetaphysiex, by reason of a correspondence between the dif ferent parts and qualities of his nature and those of the universe.