MEL 
MELLS, a village in Somerfetlhire, near Frome. ft 
lias two fairs, for cattle, flieep, and pedlary wares, the 
firfi Monday after Trinity week, and on Michaelmas-day. 
MEL'LUAH. See Melhua, p. 53. 
MEL'LYj S' poetical word, from mel, Lat.] Honey. 
—For fro’thy makings milke and melhj flows. Davies of 
Her efo "d. 
MELLYPOU'R, a town of Hindooftan, in Bahar: 
thirty-eight miles weft-fouth-weft of Boglipour. 
MEL'MOTH (William), an eminent and learned 
pleader at the bar, and member of Lincoln’s Inn, 
was born in 1666. He became a bencher of that fo- 
ciety, and, in conjunction- with Mr. Peeve Williams, 
publilhed Vernon’s Reports, under an order of the court 
of chancery. It appears that he had an intention of 
printing his own Reports, and even advertifed them as 
actually preparing for the prefs : they have not, however, 
made their appearance. But the work by which he is 
belt known, and for which he will be very long remem¬ 
bered, is entitled “ The Great Importance of a Religious 
Life.” This little tract has gone through many editions; 
more than 40,000 copies were circulated in the courfe 
of twenty years, independently of other large impreflions 
that have been taken off, as -well for fale as for charitable 
purpofes -. it is a lingular circumftance, that the author 
of this treatife, fo much read and fo highly applauded, 
lhould not have been known till the fact was revealed 
by his fon. It was commonly attributed to the firft earl 
of Egmont, to whom it had been given by Mr. Walpole 
in his Catalogue. Mr. Melmoth died on the 6th of April, 
1743, and was buried under the cloifler of Lincoln’s Inn 
chapel. His character has been drawn by his fon, the 
fubjeft of the next article, in the following words : “The 
author’s life was one uniform ‘exemplar of thofe precepts 
which, with fo generous a zeal, ana fuch an elegant and 
abetting iimplicity of ftyle, he endeavours to recommend 
to general praftice. He poffeiTed by temper every moral 
virtue; by religion every Chriftian grace. He had a 
humanity that melted at every diflrefs: a charity which 
not only thought no evil, but fufpefted none. He 
exercifed his profefllon with a Ikill and integrity which 
nothing could equal, but the diiinterefted motive that 
animated his labours, or the amiable modefty which 
accompanied all his virtues. He employed his indufery, 
not to gratify his own ft'/: res ; no man indulged himfelf 
lefs: not to accumuhj^q nfelefs wealth; no man more 
difdained fo umv.ort'^y .. purfuit: it was for the decent 
advancement of his iyinily, for the generous affiftance of 
his friends, for the ready relief of the indigent. How 
often did he exert his diftinguilhed abilities, yet refuted 
the reward of them, in defence of the widow, the father- 
lefs, and him that had none to help him! In a word, 
few people have ever palled a more ufeful, not one a more 
blamelefs, life; and his whole time was employed in doing 
good, or in meditating it.” Memoirs of a (ate eminent 
Advocate. 
MELMOTH (William), an elegant writer, the fon of 
the above, was born in 1710; and firft appeared before 
the public as a writer about 1742, in a volume of Letters 
under the name of Fitzolborne, which were much ad¬ 
mired for the elegance of their language, and their juft 
and liberal remarks on various topics, moral and literary. 
In 1747 he gave a Tranflation of the Letters of Pliny, in 
7. vols. 8vo. which was regarded as one of the happieft 
verfions of a Latin author that had appeared in the Englilh 
language. In this and his later tranllations it feems to 
have been his object to obliterate every trace of a Latin 
ftyle, and render the conftruftion and phrafeology purely 
Englilh. In effefting this, he neceffarily funk every cha- 
rafteriftic of his author’s manner, and perhaps enfeebled 
the energy of Latin diftion by expanfion ; but he pro¬ 
duced a very polilhed and agreeable fpecimen of epifto- 
lary writing. In 1753 he publilhed a tranflation of The 
Letters of Cicero tofeveral of his Friends, with Remarks, 
j vols. Svo. This, like the former, was. well received, 
Vol. XV No. 1024. 
M E L 65 
and added to his reputation, both as a writer and a fcho- 
lar. He afterwards proceeded to tranllations of two of 
the molt pleating and popular of Cicero’s compolitions; 
his Cato, or an Elfay of Old Age, and his Lclius, or an 
Eflay on Friendfhip ; the firft of which he publilhed in 
1773, and the fecond in 1777. Both of thefe he enriched 
with remarks, literary and philofophical, which greatly 
added to their value. In the latter, particularly, he in- 
genioully refuted both Shaftelbury, who had imputed it 
as a deleft to Chriftianity that it gave no precepts in 
favour of friendlhip, and Soame Jenyns, who had repre- 
fented that very omifllon as a proof of its divine origin. 
The concluding work of Mr. Melmoth was a tribute of 
filial affeftion in “ Memoirs of a late eminent Advocate 
and Member of the Hon. Society of Lincoln’s Inn,” 8vo. 
1796 ; by whom his father was intended, though, through 
a Angular delicacy, his name was not mentioned in the 
delineation of his charafter. See the preceding article. 
After a long and refpeftable life palled in literary pur- 
fuits and the practice of private virtue, Mr. Melmoth died 
at Bath in 1799, at the age of eighty-nine. He was twice 
married : firft to the daughter of the celebrated Dr. King, 
principal of St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford; and lecondly to 
Mrs. Ogle, an Irilh lady. Gent. Mag. Mar. 1799. 
MEL'NERSEM, a town of VVeftphalia, in the princi¬ 
pality of Luneburg Zelle : iixteen miles fouth-eaft of 
Zelle. 
MEL'NIK, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Bolef- 
law, at the conflux of the rivers Elbe and Moldau : fix- 
teen miles weft-fouth-weft of Jung Buntzel, and eighteen, 
north of Prague. Lat. 50. 20. N. Lon. 14.40. E. 
ME'LO, f [from Gr. an apple.] The Melonv 
See Cucumis, vol. r . 
MELOCAC'TUS. See Cactus. 
MELO'CHIA, f in botany, a genus of the clafs rao- 
nadelphia, order pentandria, natural order of columuitene, 
(malvaceae, Jujf.) Generic charafters—Calyx: peri- 
anthium often double, outer one-fided, three-leaved; 
inner one-leafed, half-five-cleft; fegments half-ovate, 
acute, permanent. Corolla ; petals five,obcordate, ipread- 
ing, large. Stamina: filaments five, awl-lhaped, united 
at the bale into a pitcher involving the germ ; anthers Am¬ 
ple. Piftillum: germ roundifti; ftyles five, awl-ihaped, 
ereft, the length of the ftamens, permanent; ftigmas Am¬ 
ple. Pericarpium : capfule foundifii or five-cornered, 
five-celled, five-va,lved ; valves acute ; partitions contrary, 
doubled. Seeds; folitary or in pairs, on one fide roundifh, 
on the other angular compreffed. The calyx in fome fpe- 
cies is double, in others fingle. — EJfential Character. 
Styles five ; capfule five-celled, one-feeded. 
r. Melochia pyramidata, or pyramidal melochia: flow¬ 
ers umbelled ; capfules pyramidal, five-cornered ; angles 
mucronate; leaves naked. Stem (hrubby at the bafe, 
branched, a foot high. Branches depreffed, diftufed, af- 
cending, limple, fmooth ; leaves alternate, ovate, acu¬ 
minate, ferrate, nerved, fmooth; petiole llrorter than the 
leaves ; fomewhat ereft, flender. Flowerspeduncled, fubum- 
belled; peduncles lateral, oppoiite to the petioles, foli- 
tary, the length of the petioles, three-flowered; corollas 
(mail, blood-red, frequently clofed ; calyx five-toothed 5 
teeth ereft, lanceolate, acute ; claws of the petals yellow 
at the bafe; border fubereft, entire, blunt. According to 
Swartz, the feeds are folitary and oblong; according to Mil¬ 
ler, folitary and angular. Swartz affures us, that M. do- 
minicenfis of Jacquin certainly differs from this, the Item 
being four feet high, the leaves two inches long, &c. 
Browne deferibes it as a very elegant little plant, commonly 
lliooting to the height of three feet or more, fo flender and 
weak as generally to require fome fupport. The umbels 
of flowers are ufually placed pretty near; and each has five 
or fix rays, on a common peduncle. Native of Brafil and 
Jamaica. Cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1768. 
2. Melochia tomentofa, or downy melochia: flowers 
umbelled, axillary; capfules pyramidal, five-cornered j 
angles mucronate ; leaves tomenteffe. This is an upright 
S fii.rub| 
