205 



MERLIN. 



MESSIER, FIUEDRICH ANTON". 



206 



his earlier pieces; and in 1844, shortly before his death, a volume of 

 translations of the ' Minor Poems of Schiller, of the second and third 

 periods, with a few of those of earlier date.' This was perhaps the 

 most successful of his productions. It is an essay towards the render- 

 ing the pieces of the German poet in the same, or nearly the same, 

 metres with the originals, and with an approach to close but not 

 literal version. The more metaphysical or subjective poems of 

 Schiller's later period those which it is the most difficult to bend to 

 this species of treatment the Gods of Greece, the Feast of Eleusis, 

 the Progress of Art (die Kunstlcr), and others of the same character 

 are among the best executed parts of the work. Mr. Merivale was 

 an extensive contributor to literary reviews, but none of his prose 

 essays on these eubjects are published in a separate form. 



MERLIN, or, more properly, MERDHIN. Some of the Welsh 

 antiquaries speak of three Merlins: Merdhin Emrys, or Mcrlinus 

 Ambrosius ; Merdhin Wyllt, or Merlinus Caledonius, or Merlinus Syl- 

 vestru ; and Merdhin ap Morvryn, otherwise called Merlinus Avalonius 

 (from a poem ascribed to him, entitled 'Avallenau,' or the Orchard), 

 and also known by the Latin names of Melchinus, Melkinus, and 

 Mervynus. (Nicholson's ' Eng. Hist. Library.') It is generally agreed 

 however that the second and third are the same person ; and it is far 

 from improbable that all the three Merlins are but one iudividual. Of 

 Merlin Ambrosius the principal account we have is iu Geoffrey of 

 Moumouth's * Historia Brittonum,' where he is represented as a great 

 prophet and enchanter, who flourished iu the time of King Vortigern, 

 or about the middla of the 5th century. This is the Merlin who is 

 celebrated by many of our old poets, especially by Spenser, in the 

 ' Faery Queen,' book iii., and elsewhere; and he is also the subject of 

 the English metrical romance of Merlin, of the first part of which 

 there is a copy iu the library of Lincoln's Inn, and a more ancient one, 

 containing also a second part, in the Auchiuleck manuscript in the 

 Advocates' Library, and of which Mr. Ellia has given an analysis, with 

 extracts, in the first volume of his ' Specimens of Early English Metrical 

 Romances.' Of the Caledonian Merlin there is a life in Latin hexameters, 

 extending to 1528 lines, by Geoffrey of Monmouth, who professes to 

 have compiled it from an Arinoric original ; it is extant in one of the 

 Cotton manuscripts (Vesp., E. iv.), and has never been printed, but 

 there is an account of it in the same volume of Mr. Ellia's work. (See 

 also Pinkerton's ' Inquiry into the Early History of Scotland,' it 275.) 

 Fordun, in the third book of his ' Scotichronicon,' has a long account 

 of .Merlin the Wild, and especially of an interview between" him and 

 St. Kentigern, bishop of Glasgow, who lived in the latter part of the 

 6th century. This account agrees with other testimonies as to the 

 age of the Caledonian Merlin, and also as to his having been a native 

 and inhabitant, not of the country now called Wales, but of the Welsh 

 kingdom of Ueged, or Stratliclwyd, which extended over the south- 

 west of Scotland. That district, it may be added, still retains several 

 traditionary recollections of the fame of Merlin ; his gr*ve, in parti- 

 cular, is yet shown near the village of Drumelzier, on the Tweed. (See 

 Sir W. Scott's Introd. to Romance of ' Sir Tristram," p. 38 ; and Note 

 to ' Vision of Don Roderick," p. 367, edits, of 1834.) Collections of the 

 Prophecies of Merlin have appeared in French, at Paris, 1498; in 

 Engli-h, at London, 1529 and 1533 ; in Latin, at Venice, 1554 ; and 

 there are also manuscripts of them, in French and English, in the 

 Cotton and other libraries. (See Warton, ' Hist of Eng. Poet.,' Hi. 430, 

 edit, of 1824.) We find some of them applied by the poet Lawrence 

 Minot, who wrote about 1360, to the victories of Edward III. (Ibid., 

 and Minot's 'Poems,' by liitson, 'note,' pp. 100-104.) It appears to 

 have been generally assumed by the French and English collectors 

 that the author of these prophecies was Merlinus Ambrosius ; but in 

 the Scottish edition, printed at Edinburgh, 1615, they are attributed 

 to Merlin the Wild, or the Caledonian. They appear to have been 

 very famous in Scotland in the early part of the 1 6th century. (See 

 Sir W. Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Border,' iv. pp. 134-147.) The ' Aval- 

 lenau,' and some other Welsh poems, attributed to Merdhin Wyllt, 

 are published in the ' Welsh Archaiology,' 3 vols, 8vo, 1801, &c. 

 (See Mr. Sharon Turner's vindication of the authenticity of these 

 productions, printed at the end of his ' History of the Anglo-Saxons,' 

 vol. iii., 1823.) 



MEHRICK, JAMES, an English divine and poet, was boru in 1720. 

 At the age of fourteen, while still at Reading school, he published the 

 ' Messiah, a Divine Essay,' and in 1739, at Trinity College, Oxford, hi 

 made a translation of the poem of Tryphiodorus on the Capture ol 

 Troy, Ho also published, in 1741, the Greek text of Tryphiodorus. 

 He wag chosen Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, in 1744, and took 

 holy orders, though, owing to infirm health, he never undertook 

 parochial duties. Hi chief works were, ' A Dissertation on Proverbs, 

 ch. ix. ;' ' Prayers for a Time of Earthquakes and Violent Floods,' 

 written in 1756, soon after the earthquake at Lisbon; 'An Encourage- 

 ment to a Good Life, particularly addressed to some soldiers quartered 

 at Reading.' He appears to have paid great attention to this class o! 

 men, who at that time especially required it. Ho also wrote 'Poems 

 on Sacred Subjects,' and made an excellent translation of the Psalms 

 into English verse. This, beyond all doubt the best poetical transla- 

 tion we have, was unfortunately not adapted for parochial choirs, 

 inasmuch as it was divided into stanzas for music. On this account it 

 baa not been used as generally as its merits would justify. He pub 

 luhed several other religious treatises, and tome remarks on profane as 



well as sacred writers. Dr. Lowth calls him " one of the best of men 

 and most eminent of scholars." He died in 1769. 



MERSENNE, MARIN, a very learned philosopher and mathema- 

 tician, one of the religious order of 'Minimes,' was born in 1588 at 

 Oyse, in the present department of Maine, and received his education 

 at the college of La Fleche, where lie was a fellow-student of Descartes, 

 with whom he formed an intimacy which a similarity of pursuits 

 ripened into a friendship that death only dissolved. He afterwards 

 studied at the University of Paris, and subsequently at the Sorbonue. 

 [n 1612 he took the vows at the convent of the Minimes, in the 

 neighbourhood of Paris, and the year following received ordina- 

 ;ion as priest, when he deemed it incumbent on him to study the 

 Hebrew language, a thorough knowledge of which he acquired. In 

 1615 he filled the chair of philosophy at Nevers, and there taught till 

 the year 1619, when he was chosen superior of the convent, and on 

 completing the term of his office he travelled into Germany, Italy, 

 and the Netherlands. He finally settled in Paris, where his gentle 

 temper and his polite and engaging manners procured him a number 

 of distinguished friends. Of these the chief was the founder of the 

 Cartesian philosophy, who entertained the highest opinion of his 

 abilities, and consulted him upon all occasions. 



It has been stated though the story seems 'highly improbable 

 that Descartes, by the advice of Mcrsenne, at once changed his inten- 

 tion of founding his system on the principle of a vacuum, and adopted 

 that of a plenum. The discovery of the cycloid has been ascribed 

 to him and also to Descartes, but it now saems pretty clear that to 

 neither are we indebted for the first notice of this curve. Mersenne 

 died at Paris in 1648, iu consequence of drinking gold water when 

 over-heated. The result of this indiscretion was an internal abscess 

 in the side, which he desired should be opened. The surgeon mad 

 the incision two inches below the right place, and the patient expired 

 under the operation. 



The Pere Mersenne was undoubtedly a man of great learning and 

 unwearied research, and deserved the esteem in which he was held by 

 the philosophers and literati of his age ; but, except his ' Harmonie 

 Universelle," his works are now unread and almost unknown. If by 

 some he was over-rated, by others he has been undervalued; and 

 when Voltaire mentioned him as " Le minima et trej minitne Pere 

 Mersenne," he indulged his wit at the expense of one with^'whoaa 

 writings, it is to be suspected, he was very little acquainted. His 

 eulogist however, in the ' Dictionnaire Historique,' admits that he 

 very ingeniously converted the thoughts of others to his own use; 

 and the Abbe" Le Vayer calls him " Le bon Larron "a skilful pilferer. 

 Nevertheless, the work above named, ' L'Harmonie Universelle, con- 

 tenant la The'orie et la Pratique de la Musique," in 2 vols. folio, 1637, 

 has proved of the utmost value to all later writers on the subject, and 

 among the number to the author of the present notice. The work 

 was in 1648 translated into Latin and enlarged, by the author; but 

 both the original and translation are now become as rare as they are 

 curious to the antiquary and interesting to the musical inquirer. 



MERZLIAKOV, ALEXIUS PHEDOROVICH, a Russian writer, 

 more distinguished as a critic than as a poet, though not without 

 talent in the latter character, was born at Dalmatova, in the govern- 

 ment of Perm (where his father was a wealthy merchant), iu 1778. 

 In his fourteenth year he recommended himself to Catherine II. by 

 an ode on the peace with Sweden, and the empress ordered him to be 

 sent to the University of Moscow, where he was placed under the 

 charge of Kheraskov [KHERASKOV], and in 1798 was made professor 

 of eloquence and poetry. In 1805 he quitted Moscow for the northern 

 capital, where he held a similar professorship in the university. It 

 was at St. Petersburg that, at the suggestion of Prince Galitzin, he 

 commenced a popular course of lectures on literature, which wero 

 numerously attended, and obtained for him a high reputation with 

 the public. These lectures, which were held twice a week during the 

 winter at Galitzin's house, were then a novelty, and were the more 

 interesting to his auditors, because the critic discussed at length the 

 merits of the principal Russian poets and pro^e-writers, 



u 



i 



j 



and songs are the best, the latter more especially, for they breathe 

 strong national feeling, and have accordingly acquired morj than a 

 transitory popularity. Merzliakov died in 1827. 



MESMER, FRIEDRICH ANTON, was born in 1734 at Marsburg 

 in Baden, on the borders of the Lake of Constanz. He was educated 

 at the schools of Dillingen and Ingoldstadt, whence he proceeded to 

 Vienna to study physic, and took his degree of Doctor of Medicine in 

 the university of that place, in the year 1766. On that occasion he 

 published an inaugural thesis on the ' Influence of the Planets on the 

 Human Body,' which asserted the existence of a subtle fluid 

 exercising an influence on the human body. This he supposed to ba 

 planetary and to resemble the power of gravitation. In 1772 he began 

 some investigations as to the power of the magnet, in conjunction 

 with the professor of astronomy at Vienna, a Jesuit, named Father 

 Hell, who had great faith in the influence of the loadstone on human 

 diseases, and had invented steel plates of a peculiar form which he 

 impregnated with the virtues of the magnet, and applied to the cure 



