MERCIER, LOUIS SEBASTIEK. 



MERIVALE, JOHN HERMAN. 



-'..I 



be wa* engaged in a correspondence with tome of the principal geome- 

 triden* o( l*tmark . luly, and Kngland. In 1 660 he came to England, 

 and shortly after the formation of the Royal Soti.tj he wa* elected a 

 Member of that body. Tbe date of hi* death is uncertain. According 

 to Dr. Mutton, it took place in England in the year 16W (' Mathematical 

 Tract* "), or in 1694 f Mathematical Dictionary'); but, according to 

 WesM ('Biog. Uuivera,'), he died at 1'arU, February, 1687. The 

 reputation of Mercator net* principally upon a method, of which he 

 wm* the author, whereby the area of the (pace* comprised between the 

 hyperbola, and it* asymptote may be determined arithmetically to any 

 degree of approximation required ; and upon the application of this 

 method to the construction of logarithmic table*. These investigations 

 were pubUabed by Mercator in 1668, in a work entitled ' Logarith- 

 mtrtartinH. aive methodu* conitruendi logarithmoe nova, accurst* et 

 ndlia,' 4to, London. Walli*, who toon improved upon this method, 

 aye, when speaking of the work in a letter addressed to Lord Viscount 

 Brounkrr. " With thia book, which ha* just appeared, I was so much 

 pirated, that I could not quit it until I had completed ita perusal. 

 The doctrine by which the logarithm* may be expeditionary constructed 

 i* perspicuously and ingenioualy treated." ('Phil. Trans.,' 1668.) 



Mercator baa been charged with dishonourably appropriating the 

 difoovcrie* of others, and with meanly withholding the publication of 

 aome which really belonged to him. [MKRCATOR, GKBARD.] In the 



Philosophical Transaction* ' for 1670 there i* a paper by him entitled 

 Considerations concerning the Geometric and Direct Method of 

 Signtor Cassini for finding tbe Apogees, Excentricitie*, and Anomalies 

 of the Planet*,' beside* which he baa left the following works: 



Cosmograpbi*,' 12mo, Dan rig, 1651; 'Rationea Mathematics ub- 

 dncta>,' 4to, Copen., 1653; 'De Emeudatioue Annua diatribe due, 

 qniboa exponuntur et demonstrantur I'ycli Soli* et Luna?,' 4 to; 



Hypotben* Astronomic* nova et consemu* eju* cum obaervationibn*,' 

 fol, Lond., 1664; ' Institutionum Astronomicarum libri duo,' 8vo, 

 London, 1676; 'Enclidis Elementa Geometric*, 1 1 2mo, Lond., 1678. 



(Hutton, MaOumatKal Traeti; Montucla, But. de* MatiUm.; Biog. 

 Unn.) 



MERCIER, LOUIS SEBASTIEN, a prolific writer on men and 

 manner*, politic*, science, the drama, literary criticism, and many 

 other subject*, was born at Paris on the 6th of June 1740. He was 

 for tome yean professor of rhetoric in tbe college of Bordeaux. The 

 greater part of hi* works are *unk in oblivion, but several of them 

 still deeerve and obtain attention. Such are those in which he attacks 

 the manners and morality of hi* age. Tbe first of those appeared in 

 1771, with the title L'An 2440 ; Rcve, s'il en fut jatnais.' In 1781 

 be commenced the publication of the ' Tableau de Paris.' Having 

 courted the attention of the authorities to his authorship of this book 

 which, by ita bitter remark* on all the social institutions of France, 

 wa* rare to provoke their wrath, be found it prudent to retire to 

 Switzerland, where he completed this remarkable work. Without 

 holding with it* author that the 'Tableau de Paris' produced the 

 French Resolution, there ia no doubt that it did much to open tbe 

 eye* of mankind to tbe immoral and corrupt state of the social system 

 of th* French capital, and the inapplicability of the great national 

 institution* of the country to supply their proper end of doing good 

 to the nation at large. Mercirr wrote with an animated, descriptive, 

 and biting pen. He occasionally appealed to a high acnse of morality, 

 but hi* chief power lay in showing his reader* the bad taste and tbe 

 folly of the prevalent habit* of the day. Wherever he had to depict 

 h onset industry struggling against false social lawn, or the remains of 

 pristine simplicity holding out against the inroad* of corrupting man- 

 ner*, hi* tone hi* dignity and feeling. When he speaks of the profligate 

 administration of the laws, of the artificial and vicious tastes of the 

 ImilMi of fashion, of the tyranny over tbe free expression of opinion, 

 he overwhelms with sarcastic ridicule. Tbe work is a curious anatomy 

 of Parisian aockty, and expose* many evil* incident to large cities, of 

 which the lap** of seventy yean ha* not entirely enabled u to find 

 the remedy. The sanitary regulations which have lately so much 

 occupied the attention of sockty, and other mean* of social organisa- 

 tion, are intended to supply deficiencies which Mercirr points out in 

 kit own peculiar fashion : whether kt oould have devised remedies for 

 tit* drfecu be discover* may be questioned. He wa* an avowed hunter 

 after paradoxes. In leOl he published ' Noologie, ou Vocabulaire de 

 Mote noavMux. a renouveller, on pri* dan* de* Acception* nouvellr*,' 

 a work m which he announced such proposition* as 'La* prouteun 

 soot no* vraia poetrs.' He made war on th* chief ornament* of French 

 literature ; seemuf , wherever public opinion had unequivocally de- 

 dated rUelf, to find that be had to perform the function of rev, rsiug 

 the judgment In philosophy he wa* equally paradoxical, raising his 

 voice against th* U*t established truths in physical science. From 

 the** lecnUarHMi his attacks on the aodal morality of his age have 



*. ^^^^i. j ^_ . 1,1 *_ I _t . , 



M CtMme* blow* struck in a right quarter by a man who 

 track at everything. Bat Herder deserves a better appreciation, and 

 no one can attentively read hi* censure* without sec-ing that they pro- 

 ceed not only from a condemnation of what is wrong, but a sense of 

 what i* right A list of hi* works would be much longer than the 

 prrwnt article. He |a**ed a life of cheerful vivacity, surrounded by 

 is who teem not to have been the lea* attached to him that he 

 tr|< tuslly dwpbjed with tiogular simplicity his sublime self-conceit. 



MERIAN, MATTHKW, an eminput enpraviT, was bom at Basel in 

 1593. After bavii g for some time pursued his profession with snocrss 

 n his native place, he removed to Frankfurt on-tin? Main, where he 

 established a book and print business: and where he died about 1650. 

 t'hougb he acquired a considerable standing as an engraver in his own 

 dsy, be is now perhaps chiefly remembered as tbe father of his more 

 distinguished son and daughter, whom we proceed to notice. 



MATTHEW MKRIAH was born at Baael in 10-21. He wa* tho pupil <>f 

 Sandiart who wa* much attached to him ; be studied also after Van- 

 lyck in London ; became acquainted with Le Sueur and Vouet in 

 'ris, and studied under Sacchi and Carlo Mnratti at Rome. A* a 

 x>rtrait painter he attained a very high reputation. From about 1650, 

 vhen the elder Merian died, Matthew conducted his father's book and 

 irint business, at Fraukfurt-on-the-Main, but he did not give up his 

 iwn profession. He painted the Emperor Leopold I. on horseback, 

 and many other German prince* and nobles. He also painted some 

 listorical pieces, and engraved a few plates, which are marked M. 

 Merian, junior. He died at Frankfurt in 1687. 



MARIA SIBTUA MIRIAM, the daughter of Matthew Merian the 

 elder, was born at Frankfurt-on-the-Main, April 12, 1647. Her 

 nstructor in drawing was Abraham Mignon. In 1665 she married 

 John Andriez Graff, a painter of Nurnberg, but tbe celebrity which 

 attached to her own name as an artist prevented that of her husband 

 from being adopted. They had two children, both daughters, who 

 were also skilled in drawing. In consequence of liberal offers Madame 

 Uerian and her husband settled in Holland, but Maria Sibylla, whose 

 great object was the study of nature, travelled for the sake of delineat- 

 ng insects, Sowers, and other natural objects. In 1699 ehe went to 

 Surinam for the express purpose of making tbe drawings which have 

 since added so considerably to her fame, and remained there till the 

 month of June 1701. Madame Merian died at Amsterdam, January 

 18, 1717. 



She published 1, 'The Origin of Caterpillars, their Nourishment 

 and Changes,' in Dutch, 2 voU 4 to, the first published at N urn berg 

 in 1679, the second in 1683, published in Amsterdam in Latin, 4 to, 

 1717. This work, much enlarged by herself and her daughters, was 

 published in French by John Marret, fol, Amt, 1730, under the title 

 jf 'Histoire Qdnerale des Insectes de 1' Europe.' 2, 'Dissertatio de 

 Generatione et Metamorphosibus Inseotorum Surinamensium,' fol., 

 Amst, 1705, separately iu Dutch and in Latin. These editions contain 

 only sixty plate*. To some of the later ones twelve plates were annexed 

 liy her daughters Jane Helen and Dorothea Maria Henrietta. There 

 is an edition of thia work in folio, French and Dutch, printed at Am- 

 sterdam in 1719; another in French and Latin, Hagte, 1726; and 

 another in Dutch in 1 730. There have been also editions of the two 

 works united, under the title of 'Histoire des Insectes de 1' Europe et 

 de 1'Amerique,' fo)., Par., 1768 and 1771. 



Many of the original drawings of this artist arc preserved in the 

 department of drawings and prints in the British Museum, in two 

 volumes, purchased by Sir Hans Slonno at a large price. One contains 

 the insects of Surinam, tbe other those of Europe. A few of the 

 Surinam insects, though elegantly finished, appear, upon examination, 

 not to be entirely drawings, but to have been coloured upon outline 

 proofs of the engravings. Those of Europe are entirely original deli- 

 neations. All ore upon vellum. Other drawings of Madame Merian 

 are preserved at Petersburg, iu several collections in Holland, and at 

 Frankfurt A portrait of Madame Merian, formerly Sir Hans Sloane's, 

 is still preserved in the British Museum. An engraved portrait of her, 

 by Houbraken, is prefixed to the Latin edition of the ' Origin of Cater- 

 pillars,' 1717. 



MERIVALE, JOHN HERMAN, was bom at Exeter in 1779, in 

 which neighbourhood his father, John Merivale, Esq., resided, and was 

 possessed of *ome landed property : bis grandfather, the Rev. Samuel 

 Merivale, was a Presbyterian minuter at Exeter, and tutor at the dis- 

 senting theological academy there. Mr. Merivale entered St John's 

 College, Cambridge, in 17U7, but took no degree, in consequence of 

 the impediment of his dissenting persuasion, although at a later period 

 he joined the Church of England. He married Louisa, daughter of 

 the Rev. Dr. Drury, head master of Harrow School : was called to the 

 bar in 1805, and practised iu the Court of Chancery. He published 

 three volumes of Chancery Reports from 1815 to 1817, of esses decided 

 by Lord Eldon and Sir William Urant In 1825 he was a member of 

 tbe commission for inquiring into the state of the Court of Chancery, 

 which was appointed in consequence of the attacks made at that 

 period on Lord Eldon ; and wrote a ' Letter on the Chancery Com- 

 mission ' in 1827, as well as some other pamphlets on law reform. He 

 became a commissioner of bankruptcy ou the then newly organised 

 sjstem in 1831 ; and continued to hold that office till his death in 

 April 1844. From his early youth Mr. Merivale was addicted to 

 literary and antiquarian pursuits, especially to the study of Italian 

 and, iu hit later yean, of German literature. He contributed a Inrge 

 proportion of the translations contained iu tho ' Collections from the 

 Greek Anthology,' published in 1813 under tbe editorship of the Rev. 

 Robert Bland ; of which Mr. Merivale brought out a second edition, 

 enlarged, iu 1833. In 1814 appeared his poem of ' Orlando in Rouccs- 

 valles,' a tale in tbe ottava rims, beiug chiefly a free abridgment of 

 pait of tbe'Morgante Maggiore.' In lt-11 Mr. Merivale published 

 two volumes of ' I'oeuif, original and translated,' comprising most of 



