milkweed family Family Asclepiadaceae, composed of about 2,000 species of flowering herbaceous plants or shrubby climbers in more than 280 genera. Most family members have milky juice, podlike fruits, and tufted silky-haired seeds that drift on wind currents to new locations for sprouting. Common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) and bloodflower {A. curassavica) often are cultivated as ornamentals. Hoya carnosa, com¬ monly called wax plant because of its waxy white flowers, is often grown indoors as a potted plant. The family also includes some succulents, some PITCHER PLANTS, and BUTTERFLY WEED.
Milky Way Galaxy Large spiral galaxy (roughly 150,000 light-years in diameter) that contains Earth’s soiar system. It includes the multitude of stars whose light is seen as the Milky Way, the irregular luminous band that encircles the sky defining the plane of the galactic disk. The Milky Way system contains hundreds of billions of stars and large amounts of interstellar gas and dust. Because the dust obscures astronomers’ view of many of its stars, large areas could not be studied before the development of infrared astronomy and radio astronomy (see radio and radar astronomy). Its precise constituents, shape, and true size and mass are still not known; it is believed to contain large amounts of dark matter and a massive black hole at its core. The Sun lies in one of the Galaxy’s spiral arms, about 27,000 light-years from the centre.
Mill, James (b. April 6, 1773, Northwater Bridge, Forfarshire, Scot.—d. June 23, 1836, London, Eng.) Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist. After studying at the University of Edinburgh and teach¬ ing, he went to London in 1802, where he met Jeremy Bentham and became a major promulgator of Bentham’s utilitarianism. He wrote for several journals, including the Edinburgh Review (1808-13), and contributed articles on government and education to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He helped found London University in 1825. After completing his His¬ tory of British India (3 vol., 1817), he was appointed an official in India House (1819) and later became head of the examiner’s office (1830). His criticism of British rule led to changes in the government of India. His Elements of Political Economy (1821) summarized the views of David Ricardo, and his Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind (1829) associated psychology with utilitarianism, a doctrine continued by his son, John Stuart Mill. Mill is considered the founder of philosophical radical¬ ism.
Mill, John Stuart (b. May 20, 1806, London, Eng.—d. May 8, 1873, Avignon, France) British philosopher and economist, the leading exposi¬ tor of utilitarianism. He was educated exclusively and exhaustively by his father, James Mill. By age 8 he had read in the original Greek Aesop’s Fables, Xenophon’s Anabasis, and all of Herodotus, and he had begun a study of Euclid’s geometry; at age 12 he began a thorough study of scho¬ lastic logic. In 1823 he cofounded the Utilitarian Society with Jeremy Bentham, though he would later significantly modify the utilitarianism he inherited from Bentham and his father to meet the criticisms it encoun¬ tered. In 1826 he and Bentham cofounded London University (now Uni¬ versity College). From 1828 to 1856 he was an assistant examiner in India House, where from 1836 he was in charge of the East India Company’s relations with the Indian states. In the 1840s he published his great sys¬ tematic works in logic and political economy, chiefly A System of Logic (2 vol., 1843) and Principles of Political Economy (2 vol., 1848). As head of the examiner’s office in India House from 1856 to 1858 he wrote a defense of the company’s government of India when the transfer of its powers was proposed. In 1859 he published On Liberty, a trenchant defense of individual freedom. His Utilitarianism (1863) is a closely rea¬ soned attempt to answer objections to his ethical theory and to address misconceptions about it; he was especially insistent that “utility” include the pleasures of the imagination and the gratification of the higher emo¬ tions and that his system include a place for settled rules of conduct. In 1869 he published The Subjection of Women (written 1861), now the clas¬ sical theoretical statement of the case for woman suffrage. Prominent as a publicist in the reforming age of the 19th century, he remains of lasting interest as a logician and ethical theorist. See also Mill's methods.
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Millais Vmi-.la, mi-Ta\, Sir John Everett (b. June 8, 1829, Southamp¬ ton, Hampshire, Eng.—d. Aug. 13,
1896, London) British painter and illustrator. In 1848 he became a founding member of the Pre- Raphaelites, a group founded in oppo¬ sition to contemporary academic painting. His period of greatest achievement came in the 1850s, with The Return of the Dove to the Ark (1851) and one of his greatest public successes. The Blind Girl (1856), a tour de force of Victorian sentiment and technical facility. He was popu¬ lar as a portraitist and also as a book illustrator, notably for the novels of Anthony Trollope.
Milland \mi-Tand\, Ray orig.
Reginald Truscott-Jones (b.
Jan. 3, 1907, Neath, Glamorganshire,
Wales—d. March 10, 1986, Tor¬ rance, Calif., U.S.) Welsh-born U.S. actor. He made his film debut in 1929 and moved to Hollywood in 1930.
The debonair romantic leading man in many movies of the 1930s and ’40s, he won acclaim for his perfor¬ mance as an alcoholic writer in The Lost Weekend (1945, Academy Award) and also played dramatic parts in The Big Clock (1948), Some¬ thing to Live For{ 1952), and Dial M for Murder (1954). In his later years, he generally only played minor roles. He also directed several movies in the 1950s and early ’60s.
Millay, Edna St. Vincent (b. Feb. 22, 1892, Rockland, Maine, U.S.—d. Oct. 19, 1950, Austerlitz, N.Y.) U.S. poet and dramatist. Her work is filled with the imagery of the Maine coast and countryside. In the 1920s, when she lived in Greenwich Village, she came to personify the romantic rebellion and bravado of youth. Among her volumes are Rena¬ scence (1917); A Few Figs from Thistles (1920); The Harp Weaver (1923, Pulitzer Prize); The Buck in the Snow (1928), which introduced a more sombre tone; the sonnet sequence Fatal Interview (1931); and Wine from These Grapes (1934).
Mi lie, Agnes de See Agnes de Mille
millefleurs tapestry \mel-'fbrz\ French "thousand flowers"
Tapestry characterized by a background motif of many small flowers. Most millefleurs tapestries show secular scenes or allegories. They are thought to have been made first in the Loire district of France in the mid-15th century. As they became popular, they were produced in many parts of France and the Low Countries until the end of the 16th century.
millennialism or millenarianism Belief in the millennium of Christian prophecy (Revelation 20), the 1,000 years when Christ is to reign on earth, or any religious movement that foresees a coming age of peace and prosperity. There are two expressions of millennialism. Premil- lennialism holds that the Second Coming of Christ will occur before the millennium and will initiate the final battle between good and evil, which will be followed by the establishment of the 1,000-year kingdom on earth or in heaven. Postmillennialism maintains that Jesus will return after the creation of the millennial kingdom of peace and righteousness, which prepares the way for the Second Coming. Throughout the Christian era, periods of social change or crisis have tended to lead to a resurgence in millennialism. The legend of the last emperor and the writings of Joachim of Fiore are important examples of medieval millennialism, and, during the Reformation, Anabaptists, Bohemian Brethren, and other groups held millennial beliefs. It is now associated especially with such Protestant denominations as the Adventists, Jehovah's WiTNESSes, and Mormons. In a broader sense, many non-Christian traditions, including Pure Land Bud¬ dhism and the Ghost Dance religion, are understood as millennialist.