wer of turning everything he touched into
gold, a gift which he prayed him to revoke when he found it affected his
very meat and drink, which the god consented to do, only he must bathe in
the waters of the Pactolus, the sands of which ever after were found
mixed with gold; appointed umpire at a musical contest between Pan and
Apollo, he preferred the pipes of the former to the lyre of the latter,
who thereupon awarded him a pair of ass-ears, the which he concealed with
a cap, but could not hide them from his barber, who could not retain the
secret, but whispered it into a hole in the ground, around which sprang
up a forest of reeds, which as the wind passed through them told the tale
into the general ear, to the owner's discomfiture.

MIDDLE AGES, is a term used in connection with European history to
denote the period beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, and
closing with the invention of printing, the discovery of America, and
the revival of learning in the 15th century.

MIDDLE ENGLISH, the English in use for two centuries and a half from
1200 to 1460.

MIDDLE PASSAGE, in the slave-trade the part of the Atlantic
stretching between Africa and the West Indies.

MIDDLESBROUGH (99), iron manufacturing and shipping town at the
mouth of the Tees, in the N. of Yorkshire, 45 m. N. of York; has also
shipbuilding yards and chemical works, and exports coal. It owes its
growth to the discovery of one of the largest iron-fields in the country
in the Cleveland hills, near at hand, in 1850.

MIDDLESEX (560), a small county on the N. of the Thames, adjacent to
and W. of London; has no hills and no rivers, only undulating pasture
land and small streams. In 1888 the populous part next the metropolis was
detached for the new county of London, leaving no big town but many
suburban villages, Brentford, reckoned the county town, Harrow with its
school, Highgate, and Hornsey. Hampton Court, Hampstead Heath, and
Enfield Chase are in the county. There are many market gardens.

MIDDLETON, CONYERS, a liberal theologian, Fellow of Cambridge; was
engaged a good deal in controversy, particularly with Bentley; wrote an
able Life of Cicero; is distinguished among English authors for his
"absolutely plain style" of writing (1683-1750).

MIDDLETON, THOMAS, dramatist, born in London, where he was
afterwards City Chronicler, married Mary Morbeck, and died; was fond of
collaboration, and received assistance in his best