MITE. 631 MITHRAS. Trombidiida; and RliiK-liuloplud;L>, or harvest- liiitL-.; many of large size and briylit red color. Kiipudidie, consisting of many .small, soft- bodied species that occur, ou moist soil. letranychida', spinning mites, red-spiders, and clover-mites. i!ilellid;e, or snouted mites, from the long, pro- jecting mandibles; predaceous. Cheyletid.-e, mites with .stout, spin' palpi; pre- daceous or parasitic. Uribatida-, or beetle-mites; so called from their hard and often shining bodies; very nuniei'ous, but of little economic importance. (ianiasidaN many predaceous, and lurking com- monly under fallen leaves and in moist places. IxodidiC, or ticks, all parasitic. Tarsonemids, soft-bodied, and of curious struc- ture. Tyroglyphidte, cheese and flour mites, soft- bodied forms, in which the 'H^vpopus' stage is very common. Hydrachnidae, or fresh-water mites; and Hala- carida-. or marine mites. Sarco])tid;c, or itch-mites; and Analgesidfe, or bird-mites. Kriophyidie, or gall-mites, remarkable for their minite size, tapering, annulate body, and pos- sessing (inly four legs. MITE, Sir JIatthew. In Foote's i^lay The Xabob, a wealthy and dissolute character, who has made his fortune as a merchant in India, and squanders it in objectionable ways on his return. MIT'FOED. .Tonx (1781-1859). An English autliur and divine, born at Richmond, in Surrey, August 13, 1781. He graduated E.A. from Oriel College. O.xford. in 1804. Five years later he took orders in the English Church ; and in 1810 he received from Lord Redesdale the vicarage of Benhall in Suffolk. A few years later he ob- tained two other livings in the same shire. At Benliall he built a parsonage, collected a choice library, and amused himself in gardening. He took jiernianent lodging in London, where as time went on he came to live for most of the year. He was an intimate friend of Samuel Rogers, of Charles Lamb, and of other literary men. From 1834 to 18.50 he edited the GenUe- waii'f! Mfir/azine, to which he contriljuted largely. He died at Benhall, April 27. 18.50. IMitford wrote considerable verse, of which may be cited Afiiics, the Indian Captive, a poem in four cantos (1811). and Miscellaneous Poems, a selection frnni his fugitive pieces (1858). For the Aldine edition of the English poets he contributed eleven memoirs. His best critical work was on Gray, fiiund in The Works of Thomas Grnif (1810 1, arid in the .ldine edition (5 vols.. 1S3.5-43). His re- searches have been very freely used by succeeding editors. Clifford left three volumes of manu- script on Gray and a large mass of oilier manu- script, much of which is now in the South Ken- sington iluseum and the library of the British Museum. MITFOED, M.VRY Eu.ssELL (1787-1855). An English authoress, born at Alresford. Hampshire, December 16, 1787. In 1797 she drew f'20,000 in a lottery, with a part of which her father built a house at Reading. She was .sent to a good London school for a short time (1798-1802), and then returned to her father's house. At this time she was reading extensively. In 1810 she ]niblished Miscellaneous I'oeins, which were ira- niediately followed by other volumes (1811-12- 13). The family, reduced to poverty as a result of the father's improvidence, moved in 1S20 to a 'laborer's cottage' at Three JMile Cross, a vil- lage near Reading. For a living she now began writing for the magazines and the stage. Among her plays (tragedies), which were moderately successful, are Julian (1823), Foscari (1820), and L'ienzi (1828). In the meantime she had taken to writing sketches of village life as she iiad observed it. They were publislied (5 vols., 1824-32) in installments, under the title Our Vil- lage. These descriptive pieces ])Ossess charm, grace, and humor akin to .Tane Austen's. They were followed by the more regular novel of country life, Belford Regis (1835), and, after a long interval, by Atherton and Other Tales (1854). In 1851 Miss Mitford removed to a near-by cottage at Swallowfield, where she died, January 10, 1855. Consult her delightful Recol- lections (London. 1852); Our Village, with introduction bv Mrs. A. T. Ritchie (London, 1803) ; L'Estrange, Life of Mart/ Russell Mitford ( ib.. 1870 ) : and The Friendships of Mary Russell Mitford (ib., 1882). MITFORD, ViLLi.ii (1744-1827). An Eng- lish historian, born in London. He studied at Queen's College, O.xford, and in 1709 became a captain in the South Hampshire militia. He made the acquaintance of Gibl)on, then a fellow- officer, by whose advice and eneoiiragemcnt he was induced to undertake his celebrated History of Greece, The first volume of this work ap- peared in 1784. and the last in 1810. He was three times elected to Parliament, and was pro- fessor of ancient history at the Royal Academy. He also wrote An Essay on the Harmony of Lan- guage (1774), and several minor works. MITH'AN. The name of the gayal (q.v.), among the Indo-Chinese tribes west of the Bay of Bengal. MITH'RAS (Gk.M/fl/)ar,Ar. M iSra, Skt. Jilitra, friend I . One of the chief deities of the an- cient Persian religion. The god seems to have been known to the Indo-lranians before their separation, as he appears in both Avesta and Veda. He is a god of light, invoked in company with the heaven (Ahura and Varuna), and is the guardian of truth and the enemy of all falsehood. In India this deity seems to have been early superseded, but in Persia he retained his place as one of the chief gods. It may bo con- sidered very doubtful whether the god was lior- rowed from the early Babylonians at a date long before our knowledge begins, more especially as in the earlier texts Mithras is not the sun. but the light of he;n'en. In the Zoroastrian religion he is one of the Yazata or spirits of the second rank, though even here he occupies a high posi- tion, seeing and knowing everything, a being whom it is impnssible to deceive and in constant conflict with the powers of darkness, so that he becomes a warrior god. who is the chief helper of Ahura -ilazda in his sti-uggle with .Mirinian. In the Old Persian inscriptions, it should be .said, he is invoked by the .Vcluemenida; along with Ahura-Mazda and Anahita. and his festival (on the 16th day of the 7th month) was one of the solemn functions of the State religion. Honored by the numerous princes who built up small principalities throughout Western Asia after the
