363 



MOLINA, LOUIS. 



MOLYNEUX, WILLIAM. 



294 



Moliere, but the king prevailed on the Archbishop of Paris to allow 

 them, on condition that the ceremony should be celebrated without 

 any pomp. He was accordingly buried by two priests, who accom- 

 panied the body without chanting, in the cemetery behind the chapel 

 of St. Joseph, Kue Moutmartre. All his friends attended, each 

 bearing a flambeau. In this country and in the present age it is 

 scarcely possible to read the treatment of Moliere's remains without | 

 indignation, especially when we find the writers of his life speaking 

 ill the highest terms of his goodness of heart and integrity. 



Our opinion of Moliere has been given in the remarks on particular 

 pieces, and we need only briefly repeat that his strength lies in the 

 delineation of character, His plots are often excessively inartificial 

 and improbable, but in character he is almost unrivalled. He also 

 enters deeply into the humour of a comic situation, though here it is 

 rather difficult to measure his merits by) a right standard, as many of 

 his most striking situations are notoriously borrowed from the Italian 

 coiuedios. On character therefore alone rest his unequivocal preten- 

 sions to fame, for even if the idea be borrowed from other writers, 

 still the minute portraying of an individual character, with all its 

 propensities and bearings, requires a master spirit, and if the design 

 be borrowed, the execution mu.'st still be original. He has naturally 

 often run into the failing, too common with those who make distinctive 

 character their principal object, of degenerating into caricature ; but 

 still, where a personage is made the symbol of a single passion or whim, 

 the omission of the qualifying tints of real life necessarily throws out 

 the single characteristic so prominently, that caricature almost neces- 

 sarily arises. The personages of Theophraatua and La Bruyere 

 become caricatures, from their representing certain qualities taken 

 abstractedly, instead of a mixture such as is observable in real life. 



Besides hut dramatic works, Moliere translated nearly the whole of 

 Lucieliua, but all bis translation baa been lost, except a few line*, 

 which are introduced in the 'Misanthrope.' liis works have been so 

 frequently published, and can be so easily procured in every shape 

 and size, that it is almost useless to point out any particular edition. 

 A very good one was however published at Paris in 1 838, in which 

 the actors' names are printed after the dramatis penmate, and which 

 thus shows that Moliere always played himself the principal comic 

 ports, and also forms a very agreeable illustration to the dramatic 

 history of the tiuioo. IB this respect it is superior to the more 

 splendid edition, published with wood-cut* by Tony Johanuor. 



MOLI'NA, LOUIS, born at Cuonca, in Castile, entered the order of 

 Jesuits in 1553. He studied at Coiuibra, became a learned divine, and 

 taught theology for twenty years in the college of Evora. He died at 

 Madrid iu the year 1600. He wrote commentaries upon Thomas 

 Aquinas, and a treatise ' De Justitia et Jure;' but the work which 

 has rendered his name fatuous aa the heed of a school of theology is 

 his book ' De Concordia Cratiae et Liberi Arbitrii,' printed at Lisbon 

 in 1508, with an appendix to it, published after. In this work Molina 

 undertook the ta*k of reconciling the freewill of maa with the fore- 

 knowledge of God and predestination. He observed that the early 

 fathers who had preceded the heresy of Pelagius had defined predes- 

 tination as being the foreknowledge of God from all eternity of the 

 uae which each individual would make of his freewill ; but St. 

 Augustine, who had to oppose the Pelagian*, who granted too much 

 to freewill, spoke of predestination in a more absolute and restricted 

 ettfte. Molina says, that man reqnires grace in order to do good, but 

 that God never rails to grant this grace to those who ask it witli 

 fervour. He also asserts that man has it in his power to answer, or 

 not, to the culling of grace. 



The opinions of Molina, which were adopted, enlarged, and com- 

 mented upon by the Jesuits, and strongly opposed by the Dominicans, 

 gave rise to the long disputes concerning grace and freewill. The par- 

 tisans of Molina were called Molinists, and their antagonists Thornists, 

 from Thomas Aquinas, the favourite divine of the Dominican order. 

 Already in Molina's lifetime bis opinions were stigmatised as savouring 

 of I'elagianisui. After numerous disputations, Pope Paul V., in 1609, 

 forbade both Jesuits and Dominicans from reviving controversy. But 

 soon after Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, wrote a book in which he dis- 

 cussed the question concerning grace after the manner of St. Augus- 

 tine. Hi-i book was denounced by the Jesuits, and thus the dispute 

 began afresh between the Moliniata and the Jauseuists. Pascal, in his 

 second ' Lettre Provinciate,' gives an account of the state of the contro- 

 versy in his time. He fays that the Jesuits pretend that (hero is a 

 sufficient grace imparted unto all men, and subordinate to their free will, 

 which can render it active or inactive, while the Jansenists maintain 

 that the only sufficient grace is that which is efficacious, that is to say, 

 which determines the wilt to act effectively. The Jesuits support the 

 ^ sufficient grace," the Jansenists tho " efficacious grace." 



Molina must not be confounded with Molinos (Michael), a 

 Spanish clergyman of the 17th century, who was the founder of the 

 theory of piety and devotion called Quietism, of which FtSuclon and 

 Madame Guyon were distinguished supporters. 



* MOLLKR, OEORO, an eminent architect of Germany, was born 

 at Diepholz in Hanover, in 1786. From 1807 to 1810 he stu'lied 

 architecture, paitly at Carlsruhc, under Weinbreuner, and partly in 

 Italy. Much attention was then being paid by the German school to 

 the architecture of the middle ages ; and Moller, who studied it zealously 

 and with intelligence, promoted the study effectually. In 1815 he 



commenced a work, ' Denkmiiler Deutschen Kunst' (' Monuments of 

 German art '), which was not completed till 1845, in three volumes, and 

 in this he first published a fac-simile of the original plan of Cologne 

 cathedral, which he had discovered in a garret-roof. The publication 

 of this work created much interest, as it was the first architectural 

 collection of its kind. He also acquired considerable reputation as a 

 practical architect by the erection of the casino, the opera-house, the 

 Human Catholic church, and the chancery court in Darmstadt, between 

 1817 and 1826 ; and he was appointed court architect. The church is a 

 handsome circular structure, 173 feet in diameter, with a splendid dome 

 123 feet huh, supported by 28 large columns 50 feet high ; the effect 

 U grand and imposing, though extremely simple, but it has been found 

 considerable fault with, because the round form has occasioned it to 

 have inconvenient echoes : this fault, however, is scarcely to be attri- 

 buted to Moller, who recommended the usual cross form, which was 

 rejected, as it was desired to accommodate the largest number of per- 

 sons at the smallest cost. In 1827 he erected the Roman Catholic 

 church at Bensheim. In 1828 and 1833 he completed the eastern 

 cupola of the cathedral, and the theatre in Mainz, the last a handsome 

 building ou the classical model of the ancients, of which, unlike most 

 modern theatres, the outer form bears some relation to the interior. 

 Between 1837 and 1840 the splendid new palace for the Duke of 

 Nassau, at Wiesbaden, was also erected by him, though unfortunately 

 not altogether from his original design. The above are some of his 

 principal works, and belong to the best specimens of modern architec- 

 ture in Germany, especially as examples of constructive skill. In them 

 he has shown himself far removed from a servile imitation of his ancient 

 models, but carefully adheres to the true principle, that the require- 

 ments of the pieseut age, in many respects, demand a distinction of 

 style, particularly in the character and construction of single build- 

 ings. What he has chiefly derived from the middle ages is the princi- 

 ple of construction of the ancient architects, which he believes he has 

 first rediscovered, which he stjles the net or knot system, and which 

 he hag employed in several of his buildings. On this system he has 

 rendered himself eminent as n roof constructor, one example of which 

 is the cupola to the cathedral at Mainz, formed of iron and zinc ; and 

 another is the roof of the theatre in that city, which has been imitated 

 with increased effect in the theatre at Dresden, by Semper. Moller's 

 constructive principles have been developed in his ' Beitragen zur 

 Lehre von den Constructioneu ' (' Contributions to the Theory of 

 Construction '). He is at the head of a numerous school, which has 

 already produced several excellent architects. 



MOLYN PKTKR. [TEMFKSTA, CAVALIERS.] 



MOLYNEUX, WILLIAM, wag born at Dublin, on the 17th of April, 

 1656. He entered the university of that city In 1671, whence, after 

 taking the degree of B.A., he removed to London, and entered the 

 Middle Temple, where he studied law during three years. On his 

 return to Ireland he married (1678) the daughter of Sir William 

 Domville, the king's attorney-general. The same year his wife was 

 attacked by an affection of the eyes, which increased so rapidly, that 

 in a few months her sight was wholly destroyed. To divert the 

 melancholy thoughts to which his wife's affliction incessantly gave rise, 

 he took to the study of the mathematics. " This," he says, " was the 

 grand pacificura I used ; these were tho opiates which lulled my 

 troubled tboughts'to sleep," In the mathematics he had probably 

 received some instruction from his father, Captain Samuel Molyueux, 

 who was author of a treatise on gunnery on the principles expounded 

 by Galilei concerning the motion of projectiles. In 1683 he took an 

 active part in the formation of the Dublin Philosophical Society, of 

 which he was first secretary and afterwards president. In 1685 he 

 was appointed by the English government to inspect the fortresses of 

 the Netherlands, and the same year was elected a Fellow of the 

 Royal Society of London. In 1688, upon the political disturbances 

 of Ireland, brought about by the severities of Tyrconnel's government, 

 he, with many other Protestants, was obliged to take refuge in 

 England ; but he returned to Ireland after the battle of Boyne in 

 1690. In 1692 he sat in th Irish parliament as one of the repre- 

 sentatives of the university of Dublin, and at the close of the session 

 was nominated by the government commissioner of forfeitures, with 

 an annual salary of 400i, which appointment however he thought 

 fit to decline, chiefly on account of the bad reputation of the other 

 commissioners named. 



His principal work is a treatise on optics, entitled 'Dioptrica Nova,' 

 4to., London, 1692, and 1709. It was the first work on the subject 

 which had appeared iu English, and contained a great many pro- 

 positions practically useful and clearly demonstrated, for which 

 reasons it continued in request for many yearo. The revisal of the 

 proof sheets was undertaken by Dr. Halley, who added in an Appendix 

 his celebrated theorem for finding the loci of optic glasses. Flam- 

 steed had also assisted iu the preparation of the work, and iu par- 

 ticular had furnished solutions of three propositions, which Molyneuz 

 placed after the solutions given by himself. At this circumstance 

 the astronomer-royal, with whom Molyueux had previously been on 

 terms of intimacy, took such offence, says Molyneuz, " that ha broke 

 his friendship with me, and that witli such inveteracy, that I could 

 never after bring him to a reconciliation ; so that at last I slighted the 

 friendship of a man of so much ill-nature and irreligiou, however 

 ingenious and learned soever." 



