88 MEL 
The commentators of old Ari- 
Stotle, ’tis urg’d, in judgment vary: 
They to their own conceits have brofight 
The image of his general thought : 
Juft as the melancholic eye 
Sees fleets and armies in the Iky. Prior. 
Unhappy; unfortunate ; caufing forrow.—Tine king 
found himfelf at the head of his army, after fo many ac¬ 
cidents and melancholic perplexities. Clarendon. 
MEL'ANCHOLY, j. [melancholie, Fr. from the Gr. 
black, and x <>*«> bile.] A difeafe fuppofed to pro¬ 
ceed from a redundance of black bile; but it is better 
known to arife from too heavy and too vifcid blood; its 
cure is in evacuation, nervous medicines, and powerful 
ftimuli. Quincy. —A kind of madnefs, in which the mind 
is always fixed on one objeft.—I have neither the fcholar’s 
melancholy , which is emulation; nor the mufician’s, which 
is fantaftical; nor the courtier’s, which is proud; nor 
the foldier’s, which is ambitious; nor the lawyers’s, 
which is politic ; nor the lady’s, which is nice; nor the 
lover’s, which is all thefe ; but it is a melancholy of mine 
own, compounded of many fimples, extrafiled from many 
objects, and, indeed, the fundry contemplation of my tra¬ 
vels, in which my often rumination wraps me in a moft 
humorous fadnefs. Shahejpcare. —A gloomy, penfive, dil- 
contented, temper.—If we murmur here, we may at the 
next melancholy be troubled that God did not make us 
angels. Taylor's Holy Living. 
This melancholy flatters, but unmans you; 
What is it elle but penury of foul, 
A lazy'froft, a numbnefs of the mind ? Dry den. 
SpenJ'cr accents this word on the fecond fyllable: 
As he on his way did ride. 
Full of melancholie and fad misfare 
Through milconceipt. Fairy Queen. 
MEL'ANCHOLY, adj. [melancliolique , Fr.] Gloomy ; 
difmal: 
If in the melancholy fhades below, 
The flames of friends and lovers ceafe to glow; 
Yet mine fhall facred laft, mine undecay’d. 
Burn on through death, and animate my fliade. Pope. 
Difeafed with melancholy ; fanciful; habitually dejefted. 
_He obferves Lamech more melancholy than ufual, and 
imagines it to be from a fufpicion he has of his wife 
Adah, whom he loved. Loche. 
MEL'ANCHOLY THIS'TLE. See Carduus. 
MEL'ANCHOLY TRE'E. See Nycteria. 
MELANCRA'NES, in botany. SeeScHasNus. 
MELANC'THON (Philip), one of the wifeft and belt 
men of his age, and an illuftrious inftrument in bringing 
about the great work of the reformation, in conjunction 
with Luther, was born at Bretten in the Palatinate upon 
the Rhine, on the 17 th of February, 1497. His family 
furname was Sc/iivartferdt, literally meaning “ Black 
Earth,” jvhich Reuchlin changed for Melanfthon, a word 
in Greek of the fame fignification. He received his early 
education in his native place, where for fome time he 
attended the public fchool, and was afterwards placed 
under the care of a private tutor. From Bretten he was 
fent to the college of Pfortflieim, and had lodgings in 
that town at the houfe of one of his relations, who was 
lifter to the famous Reuchlin; by which means he be¬ 
came known to that learned man, who conceived a ten¬ 
der aftedtion for him. After remaining here about two 
years in 1509 he was removed to Heidelberg, where he 
made' luch a rapid and uncommon proficiency in litera¬ 
ture, that, before he had completed his fourteenth year, 
he was entrufted with the tuition of the fons of count 
Leonltein. So early an exhibition of extraordinary ta¬ 
lents and improvement v.as defervedly celebrated by 
Baillet, v/ho has bellowed a chapter upon him in his 
« Hiftorical Treatife of young Men who became famous 
by their Study or W ritings.” F rom that we learn, among 
M T& L 
other curious particulars, that at the age of thirteen our 
young l’cholar dedicated to Reuchlin a comedy which he 
wrote without any afiiftance. M. Baillet adds, “ that he 
was employed to make the greateft part of the harangues 
and orations which were delivered in public” in the 
univerfity of Heidelberg; in which ftatement he is 
confirmed by the teftimony of Melchior Adam. In the 
year 1511, he was admitted to the degree of B. A. but, 
having made application for the higheft degree in arts 
during the following year, and meeting with a refufa'l on 
account of his youth ; and finding alfo that the air of 
Heidelberg did not agree w'ith his conftitution ; he took 
his leave of that univerfity, and entered himfelf at Tu¬ 
bingen. Here he purfued his'ftudies with great dili¬ 
gence and fuccefs, and became himfelf a ledlurer on the 
Latin daffies. In 1513, before he had attained the age 
of feventeen, Melan&hon was created dodlor of philo- 
lophy. It w r as about this period that Erafmus paid him 
the following high compliment: “ What hopes may we 
not entertain of Philip Melandlhon, who, though as yet 
very young, and almoft a boy, is equally to be admired 
for his knowledge in both languages ? What quicknef's 
of invention ! what purity of didtion ! what powers of 
memory ! what variety of reading! what modelly and 
gracefulnefs of behaviour!” While at Tubingen, Me- 
landthon diligently Itudied the iacred Scriptures, and 
always carried about with him a - Bible, which he had re¬ 
ceived as a prefent from Reuchlin. This treafure, it may 
be faid, he bound to his heart: he was hardly ever feen 
without it; and, during divine fervice, he frequently 
referred to its contents: on this account, thofe who 
were jealous of his riling fame endeavoured to excite 
prejudices againft him, by inlinuating that he fpent his 
time at church in reading what did not belong to the 
folemnities of the fervice. 
In 1518 he was appointed by the eledtor of Saxony pro- 
feflor of the Greek language in the univerfity of Wit>- 
temberg, and by his inaugural fpeech excited the higheft 
applaule and admiration. He now began to read ledlures 
upon Homer, and the Greek text of the Epiftle of St. 
Paul to Titus, which attradled vaft crowds of auditors, 
and which contributed, in no fmall degree, to promote 
the ftudy of Greek literature. In the year 1519 he pub- 
lilhed his “ Rhetoric ;” and in the following year, a 
treatife on “ Logic ; and four years after this, his work 
on “ Grammar.” 
From the time of his fettling at Wittemberg, Me- 
landthon contradled a clofe intimacy with Luther; and 
in the year 1519 he accompanied him to Leipfic, to be a 
witnefs of his ecclefiaftical combat with Eckius. Hitherto, 
Melandlhon, though he approved Luther’s defign of deli¬ 
vering the fcience of theology from the darkneis and fub- 
tilty of fcholaftic jargon, had been rendered averfe from 
engaging in difputes of this kind, by the mildnefs of his 
temper, and his elegant tafte for polite literature. On 
this occafion he appears to have been in lbme degree a 
party, and by the acutenefs of his obfervations to have 
provoked the rage of Eckius, who called upon Luther 
to difeard the aid of “ that bundle of diftinftions,” whom 
he alfo fcornfully ftyled “ the grammarian.” The iffue 
of this debate we have already related in the life of 
Luther, (vol. xiii. p. 789, 90.) and alfo the eftefit pro¬ 
duced by it on the mind of Melanfthon, who was con¬ 
vinced of the excellence of that reformer’s caufe, and, by 
the fervices which he afterwards rendered to it, made his 
name immortal. In the year 1520, he delivered a courfe 
of lectures at Wittemberg, by way of expofition of the 
Epiftle of St. Paul to the Romans ; with which Luther was 
fo highly pleafed, that he caufed.it to be printed, adding 
to it a preface of his own, and recommending the ufe of 
it to all the churches. During the following year, find¬ 
ing that the univerfity of Paris had palled a fentence of 
condemnation on the do&rines and books of Luther, 
MelanChon undertook a defence of them, which he con¬ 
duced with admirable ability and moderation. 
3 The 
