their proper places.

MOBILE (31), a city and port of Alabama, U.S., 30 m. N. of the Gulf
of Mexico; a thriving place; exports cotton, lumber, &c.

MOBILIER CREDIT, a banking and financial company founded in Paris in
1852; lends money on security of property other than real, and takes
shares in public schemes, such as railways.

MODENA (31), Italian town, 62 m. N. of Florence; has a cathedral,
with noted campanile, university, library, and art collections, and
manufactures silk and leather; capital of a duchy (303); incorporated in
the kingdom of Italy 1860.

MODERN ATHENS, Edinburgh, from its resemblance to Athens and its
repute for literary culture; applied also to Boston, in America.

MODERN BABYLON, London, from its huge extent and the miscellaneous
character of its inhabitants.

MODJESKA, HELENA, actress, born in Cracow; went on the stage after
her first marriage in 1861, and from 1868 to 1876 was the favourite of
Warsaw; retired to California on her second marriage, but returned to the
stage, having learned English in seven months in California 1877, and
till her final retirement in 1895, was eminently successful in America
and Britain in such parts as Rosalind, Beatrice, &c.

MODRED, SIR, a treacherous knight, the rebellious nephew of King
Arthur, whose wife he seduced; was slain in battle, and buried in Avalon.

MOFFAT, ROBERT, African missionary, born at Ormiston,
Haddingtonshire; the scene of his nearly lifelong labours was among the
Bechuanas in South Africa, whom he raised from a savage to a civilised
state; he was sent out in 1816 by the London Missionary Society. He
married (1819) Mary Smith, a daughter of his former employer at
Dunkinfield.

MOHAMMED, great prophet of the Arabs, and founder of Islamism, born
at Mecca, the son of Abdallah, of the tribe of the Koreish; left an
orphan, brought up by his uncle Abu Taleb; became steward to a rich
WIDOW KADIJAH (q. v.) whom he married; was given to serious
meditation, would retire into solitude and pray, and one day, by the
favour of Heaven, got answer which left him "in doubt and darkness no
longer, but saw it all," saw into the vanity of all that was not God,
that He alone was great, inconceivably great; that it was with Him alone
we had to do, we must all submit to Him; this revelation made to him he
imparted to Kadijah, and after a time she assented, and his heart leaped
for joy; he spoke or his doctrine to this man and that, b