He is chiefly memorable as the first christian writer who gives us a catalogue of the books of the Old Testament. The books of Nehemiah and Esther are omitted, but otherwise Melito's catalogue agrees with that of the Jews.
MELLAN, Claude, a celebrated French engraver, was born at Abbeville, May 23, 1598. He studied at Paris under Leon Gaultier, and at Rome under Simon Vouet and Villamena. Whilst at Rome he was employed in engraving the Giustinian marbles, and executed several other plates. These were engraved in the ordinary manner of line engraving; but after his return to France he adopted a novel method, and one to which much of his contemporary popularity and subsequent notoriety are to be attributed. The peculiarity of Mellan's method consisted in his producing the different gradations of light and shade and colour by varying the thickness, &c., of a single series of lines, instead of crossing them by other lines. The most noted of his plates, and that in which he carried this mechanical trick farthest, was a portrait of Christ as impressed on the handkerchief of Sta. Veronica. In this Mellan formed the portrait by a single spiral line, commencing from the tip of the nose. As a specimen of misapplied patience and ingenuity, this print is remarkable; as a work of art it is of little worth. Mellan is said to have engraved nearly four hundred prints, many of thein from his own designs. Louis XVI. bestowed on Mellan a handsome pension and apartments in the Louvre, as a recompense for having declined the invitation of Charles II. to settle in England. He died in Paris, October 9, 1688.—J. T—e.
MELMOTH, William, the anonymous author of a book once extremely popular, entitled "The Great importance of a Religious Life," was born in 1666, became a bencher of Lincoln's inn, and a celebrated pleader. His ability and benevolence form the theme of a small book published in 1796 by his more celebrated son, under the title of Memoirs of a late Eminent Advocate. He wrote comments on the immoralities of the stage, in the form of letters to Daniel Defoe. In conjunction with Mr. Peere Williams he published "Reports of the Court of Chancery." He died on the 6th of April, 1743, and was buried under the cloisters of Lincoln's inn chapel.—R. H.
MELMOTH, William, son of the preceding, and one of the most eloquent English prose writers of the eighteenth century, was born about 1710, being the eldest son of his father's second wife. He was educated for the law, but his inclination and capacity for general literature were displayed in 1742 by the publication of "Fitzosborne's Letters on Several Subjects," 2 vols., which contain many admirable remarks, both moral and critical. In 1746 he published the Letters of Pliny the Consul, 2 vols., which show, says Dr. Bird, that translations may equal the force and beauty of the originals. A translation of Cicero's letters next appeared in 1753; his "Cato, or Old Age," in 1773; "Lælius, or Friendship," in 1777. Meantime Sir J. E. Wilmot, at that time one of the commissioners of the great seal, in 1756 appointed Melmoth a commissioner of bankrupts. For some time he lived at Shrewsbury, then removed to Bath, where he died at a great age on the 14th of March, 1799. Shortly before his death, he replied in a pamphlet to Bryant's objections to what he had said in the notes to Pliny, of Trajan's persecution of the christians of Bithynia. Mathias in the Pursuits of Literature, pays tribute to Melmoth's talents. On the other hand, he is spoken of slightingly in the correspondence between Mrs. Thrale and Dr. Johnson.—R. H.
MELVILLE (Malleville), Andrew, the famous Scottish reformer, the youngest of nine sons of Richard Melville of Baldovy, near Montrose, was born on the 1st of August, 1545. When he was only two years old his father fell at Pinkie, and his mother died soon after. But his elder brother Richard and his wife took an affectionate charge of the orphan, and he never forgot their kindness. After attending the grammar-school at Montrose he entered St. Mary's college, St. Andrews, in 1559. The works of Aristotle were then the great text-book, and young Melville astonished the professors who knew only a Latin version of the Stagyrite, by studying his various treatises in the original Greek. The rector of the university used to take the weak and slender boy on his knee and say, "My silly fatherless and motherless lad, it's ill to witt what God may make of thee yet." Having finished his course of study, he left St. Andrews with the reputation of being "the best philosopher, poet, and Grecian of any young master." Like many young Scotchmen of the time he went over to the continent in 1564, and studied two years at the university of Paris, the oriental languages specially claiming his attention. In 1566 he entered the university of Poictiers, and when only twenty-one years of age was made a regent in the college of St. Marceon. Here he remained for three years, and gave himself to the study of jurisprudence. But the civil war between the catholics and protestants broke out again in France, the city was besieged, the university broken up, and Melville became tutor in the family of a counsellor of parliament. When the siege was raised he left Poictiers, set out on foot with a Hebrew bible slung from his belt, and after several dangers, reached Geneva and obtained through Beza the chair of humanity in its academy. Scrimgeour, a countryman and a relation who tilled the chair of civil law, and the famous Joseph Scaliger were reckoned among his intimate friends. Melville returned to Scotland in July, 1574, strongly recommended by Beza to the general assembly for his piety and erudition. After refusing to be domestic instructor to the Regent Morton, and spending some time at Baldovy with his brother and James his well-known nephew, he was chosen by the general assembly principal of Glasgow college. On his installation into office he had delivered to him "the belt of correction with the keys of the college." He devolved the task of corporal punishment on the regents, and as was seen in several cases, as in that of a son of Lord Harries and of a son of Boyd of Pinkhill, he was both impartial and unflinching in his castigations. At this time he published his "Carmen Mosis," a Latin paraphrase or the thirty-second chapter of Deuteronomy. The poem shows him to be a master of Latin verse, little if at all inferior to Buchanan; and the beauty and fire of his lines would be the more admired if we did not remember the noble imagery, tenderness, and force of the Hebrew original. His zeal, diligence, skill, and fortitude raised the fame and fortune of the dilapidated college, and its literary history properly commences with his principality. Melville during the last three years of his residence in Glasgow officiated as minister of Govan, and he sat in the general assembly in March, 1575. He was a member of a committee appointed by that assembly, one of whose fruits at length was the Second Book of Discipline. At a meeting of assembly in August of the same year he boldly and unreservedly condemned episcopacy, though the convention of Leith had given it a species of sanction just before the death of Knox. Melville was moderator of the assembly in 1578, and the Second Book of Discipline was thenceforth regarded as containing the authorized polity of the Scottish church. In connection with this work, the charter of presbytery, Melville incurred no little labour; "it cost him," his nephew says, "great pain in mynd, body, and gear," and he was foremost in debate and in committee. His influence it was that mainly contributed to the establishment of the presbyterian form of government in Scotland, and in his vindications of it he referred for proof to the word of God, and for example to the church of Geneva. The Regent Morton felt his influence, sent for him, and attempted to intimidate him. "There never will be quietness in the country," said he, "till half-a- dozen of you be hanged or banished." "Tush, sir," answered Melville, "threaten your courtiers after that fashion; it is the same to me whether I rot in the air or in the ground. I have lived out of your country ten years as well as most."
In 1580 Melville was translated to the principality of St. Mary's college, St. Andrews, and at once, amidst difficulty and opposition, commenced to reform the academic training and discipline. As moderator of the general assembly which met at St. Andrews in 1582, in spite of a royal command to desist, Melville pronounced sentence of suspension on Montgomery, whom he had already impeached for having accepted the bishopric of Glasgow from the court in defiance of the decisions of the church. Preaching at the opening of next assembly he censured with great severity the tyrannical measures of the court, condemning those who were introducing into the country the "bludie gullie" of absolute power. The assembly drew up a remonstrance to be laid before the king, and appointed Melville and others to proceed to Perth to present it. On their being presented to the council, and the paper being read, Arran said in a tone of indignation, "Who dares subscribe these treasonable articles?" "We dare," calmly responded Melville, and at once took up a pen and appended his name. In 1584 he was cited before the privy council, and after boldly defending himself, was sentenced to be imprisoned. His friends afraid of his life urged him to flight, and he hasted into England. The privy council, to counteract the odium of his persecution, gave out the ingenious falsehood that
