MELMOTH, WILLIAM. 



MELVILLE, ANDREW. 



Ml 



thtope*oJfcrirtoagraextrmeononeoocMion: heengraved 

 te Veronica, 1 or the Fce of Christ, u lug* as life, by tingle 



pinl line, oommenciog *t the end of the note; the execution is 

 breutiful and it i* an extraordinary monument of patience and per- 

 Hieracer. but what it has gained in singularity it hat lost in effect a* 

 n week of art He made two preparatory drawings for this print : one 

 to in the Imperial Library at Paris. Mellan's prints are very numerous ; 

 they amount, according to some account*, to upwards of 500 : many of 

 them are after hia own design*. His masterpieces are' Rebecca at 

 the Well.' after Tintoretto; -St. Peter Nolaacu* borne by two Angel*,' 

 after a deaign by himetlf; and 'Pope Urban VIIL,' after Bernini He 

 eajond a great reputation during hi. lifetime : Charles II. invited him 

 to Kfgl.mJ. and Lonia XVI. granted him an annual pension, and gave 

 him apartment, in the Louvre. He died at Paris, in 168S, aged 

 eighty Mien. (Florent Le Comte, Cabinet d a Si*ff*larit(t, etc.; Hubcr, 

 jKm~l da Amateur*. Ac.) 



MEI.MOTH, WILLIAM, bencher of Lincoln's Inn, bom in 1666, 

 died in 1743. The work by which his name is known U 'The 

 gnat Importance of a Religious Life,' a book of which the author Wai 

 not known till after hi* death, and which was ascribed by Walpole 

 to the fint Earl of Egmoot Nichols mentions, in his ' Literary 

 Anecdote.,' that since the death of Melmoth to his time above 100,000 

 lomim of this work had been sold. It ha* now passed into entire 

 oblivion. 



MELUOTH. WILLIAM, son of the above, was born in 1710. He 

 we* appointed commissioner of bankrupts by Sir Eardley Wilmot. 

 lie warn an accomplished tch'-hr, though not educated at either uni- 

 versity, and hi* translation, of tho Epistles of Pliny, those of Cicero 

 to his friend*, and the treatise* on Old Age and Friendship, are 

 generally allowed to be the best in the English language. These 

 tranalations are made in an ea*y and pleasing but rather diffuse style. 

 He was the writer of ' FitxOsborne's Letters, containing dissertations 

 both moral and literary.' He wrote a treatise on the Christian 

 Religion; Memoir, of hi* father; and a poem on Active and Retired 

 Life, in Dodaley'* 'Collection,' which is characterised by smooth 

 vrinficaUou and *ound morality. He was twice married, first to the 

 daughter of the well-known 1'r. King, secondly to Mrs. Ogle; and 

 died in 1798. 



MELVILL, or MALEVILL, GEOFFREY DE, of Melville Castle, 

 in the shire of Edinburgh, fint appean in the records about the 

 middle of the 12th century, when he is designated by King Malcolm IV., 

 " Vtceoome* meu* de castello putllarum," that is to say, sheriff of 

 Edinburgh. There was then no sheriff of the thiro of Edinburgh ; 

 none had yet been constituted, nor for some time afterwards ; and 

 the public buiinees wa* in all likelihood principally transacted in the 

 itirtrt of which he wat said to be sheriff. In the tame reign and 

 forward* to the year 1171, Melvill wa* lord-justiciar of "Scotland," 

 then strictly *o called, or the territory of the king of Soot* north of 

 the Frith of Forth ; the district south of the Forth (once a part of 

 Northumberland) long continuing a distinct territory under the name 

 of " Lothian," and having it. own separate justiciar. Melvill is the 

 earliest jnttkbr of Scotland yet discovered in our records. The time 

 of hi* death i* uncertain. He bad a younger ton Philip, who by hia 

 marriust obtained the barony of Moncthyn in the Mearns. Philip do 

 MaUvifl, the eon of the laid Philip, wat sheriff of the Mearus about 

 the year 1200. In 1222 be wa* made sheriff of Aberdeen; and in 

 1240 a joint-justidar of Scotland with Richard de Montalt. 



MELVILL, REV. HENRY, ai>., was educated at the university 

 of Cambridge, where be took the degree* of a A. and M.A., and 

 became a tutor and fellow of St Peter* College. Having taken holy 

 order*, he received the appointment of minister of Camden Chapel, 

 CnaborweU, London, and in 1833 published a volume of ' Sermons by 

 Hrory Mtlvill, M.A.,' and a second volume in 1838. In 1836 he 

 published at Cambridge, by request of the university, 'Sermons 

 preached before the University of Cambridge, during the Month of 

 Febnery 1830; also Two Sermons preached in Great St. Mary's 

 Church, at the Evening Lecture,' 8vo, and a eimilar course in tho 

 jean 1037 and 18SK. He had become greatly di*tingui*bed for hia 



preacher. He received tho degree" of B.D., . 

 appointed chaplain to the Tower of London, and published ' Sermons 

 on certain of the lose prominent Fact* and Reference* in Sacred 

 Hietory,' Bvo, vol L in 1843, and voL U. in 1845, after he had 

 been appointed Principal to the East India College at Haileybury, 

 HertfotMahire. In 1846 be puUiahed a volume of 'Sermon* on 

 Puhtk OmelnBi,' Svo. H* wa* next elected to what i* commonly 

 known a* the Golden Lectorwhip, and having completed hi* fint annual 

 vane, there wa* published 'The Golden Lecture*: Forty-Eight 

 Hrmxn* delivered at SL Margartft Church, Lothbury, on Tueedar 

 Morning*, from Jan. 1. to De* 31, I860,' Svo. London, and similar 

 counts for the tubseqnent year*. These Sermon* first appeared in 

 The Pulpit,' and were published without Mr. MelviU* sanction? Mr. 

 M.lr.ll U. .!> pubUtbed Thought, euggwted by the Seaton and the 

 Keys' n. He wa. .elected to preech before the Hone* of Common* 



Ordinary to the Queen. Having been appointed 

 n 1864, he reskned the Golden Loot 



ha. been published under the title of ' Voice* 



.11 

 rcahip. 



of St. Paul. Cathedral In 



of the Yor; coon* of Rapceitory Reading., appropriated to "the 



Sundays and Holidays throughout the Year, chiefly selected from the 

 Golden Lectures delivered by the Rev. Henry Melvill, B.D. (Chaplain 

 in Ordinary to her Majesty) in the Church of St. Margaret, Lothuurr,' 

 '2 vols, crown 8vo, London, no date. 



MELVILLE, ANDREW, was born on the 1st of August 1545. 

 He was the youngest of the nine sous of Richard Melville of Baldovy, 

 a small estate on the banks of the South Esk, near Moutrose ; and he 

 had the misfortune to lose both his parents when only about two yean 

 old, his father falling at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and his mother 

 dying in the course of the same year. The care of young Melville 

 devolved upon his oldest brother, who was minister of the neighbouring 

 parish of Maritoun after the establishment of the Reformation in 1 560. 

 The year preceding this, Melville, then at the age of fourteen, was 

 removed from the grammar-school of Montroee, where he had been 

 for some time, to St. Mary's College, in the university of St. Andrews. 

 This place he left in 1564, with considerable reputation for proficiency 

 in philosophy and the languages; and repairing to the Continent, 

 entered himself a student in the university of Paris, where he 

 remained two years, when, in order to acquire a more perfect know- 

 ledge of the civil law, he proceeded to Poictiers. lie had scarcely 

 arrived there when, such 'was the opinion entertained of him, that 

 though a stranger and only twenty-one years of age, he was made a 

 regent in the College of St. Marccon. Ue continued in this situation 

 for three yean, prosecuting at the same time the study of tho law, 

 when, on account of the political disturbances of the place, he retired 

 to Geneva, and was there, by the influence of IVza, appointed to thu 

 chair of humanity in the Academy, which happened to ba then vacant. 

 When he received this appointment he was, as to pecuniary means, 

 in a state of almost total destitution. Leaving his books and other 

 effects behind him, he had set out on his journey to Geneva on foot 

 along with a young Frenchman, who wished to accompany him, and 

 on reaching their destination the joint fund of the two travellers did 

 not exceed a crown. The quarter's salary, which was advanced to 

 Melville at his admission to the chair, proved accordingly a most 

 seasonable relief. Geneva was a scene to which the mind of Melville 

 often recurred in after-life. It was there he made that progress in 

 Oriental learning for which ho became so distinguished. There also 

 he enjoyed the society of some of the best and most learned men of 

 the ago ; but above all it was there the hallowed flame of civil and 

 religious liberty began to glow in his breast, with a fervour which 

 continued unabated ever after. He left Geneva in the spring of 1 .'.71 , 

 at the urgent request of his friends at home, and returned to his 

 native country after an absence altogether of about ten yean. On 

 this occasion Beza addressed a letter to the General Assembly, in 

 which, among other expressions of a like kind, he declared that 

 Melville was " equally distinguished for his piety and his erudition, 

 and that the Church of Geneva could not give a stronger proof of 

 affection to her sister church of Scotland than by suffering herself to 

 be bereaved of him that his native country might be enriched with his 

 gifts." It was about this time Melville seems to have made his first 

 appearance as an author. His earliest publication consisted of a 

 poetical paraphrase of the ' Song of Moses,' and a chapter uf the 

 Book of Job, with several smaller poems, all in Latin, and worthy 

 of the disciple of Buchanan, as he terms himself. 



On Melville's arrival in Edinburgh, in July 1574, he was invited by 

 the regent Morton to enter his family as a domestic tutor ; but this 

 invitation was declined by Melville, who was averse to a residence at 

 court, and preferred an academic life. He was early gratified in this 

 wish ; for shortly afterwards he was appointed by the General Assem- 

 bly Principal of Glasgow College. Here his learning, energy, and 

 talents were eminently serviceable, not only to the university over 

 which he presided, but to the whole kingdom and to literature in 

 general. Ho introduced improvements iu teaching and discipline, ot 

 great importance, and infused an uncommon ardour into his pupils. 

 His very table-talk and conversation were to interesting and instructive 

 that the master of the grammar-school, who was afterwards principal 

 of the college, used to say " he learned more of Mr. Andrew Melville, 

 cracking and playing, for understanding of the authors which he 

 taught in the school, than by all his commentators." It was not how- 

 ever as a mere scholar or academician that Melville was distinguished. 

 He took a prominent part in the ecclesiastical disputes of the time, 

 and was* active in the church courts and in the conferences held with 

 tho parliament and privy-council on the then much agitated subject 

 of church government. To him is generally ascribed the overthrow 

 of Episcopacy at that time and the establishment of Presbytery, and 

 he commonly went afterwards by the name of Epitoopomaitix, or tho 

 4 scourge of bishop*.' Hit intrepidity was often very remarkable. On 

 one occasion, when threatened by the regent Morton in a menacing 

 way, which few who were acquainted with his temper could bear 

 without apprehension, Melville replied, " Tush, man ! threaten your 

 courtier* to. It i* the same to me whether I rot in the air or iu^tho 

 ground ; and I have lived out of your country as well as iu it. Let 

 God be praised ; you can neither hang nor exile his truth ! " 



Another matter to which the attention of the General Assembly 

 wat at this time directed waa the reformation aud improvement of the 

 universities. Hera Melville also took a leading part. At the end of 

 the year 1680 he was translated from Glasgow to be principal of St. 

 Mary's CoUege in the Univenity of St. Andrews, where he distiu. 



