M E N 
pofitively faid, Yelhall furely die ; butffie, extenuating, 
replied, Left ye die. Brown. 
MENDAI'ANS, in ecclefiaftical hiftory, the fame as the 
Hemero-Baptists, which fee, vol. ix. p. 385. 
MEN'DAM, a town of New Jeriey : eighteen miles 
north-north-weft of New Brunfwick. 
MENDA'MA, a town of the ifland of Ceylon : eighteen 
miles north of Candia. 
MENDA'VIA, a town of Spain, in Navarre : eight 
miles eaft-fouth-eaft of Viana. 
MEN'DE, a city of France, and capital of the depart¬ 
ment of the Lozere, fituated on an eminence near the 
Lot; before the revolution, the fee of a billiop. The 
number of inhabitants is about 5000 : forty-five miles 
eaft of Rhodez, and forty-nine weft of Privas. Lat. 44. 
jr. N. Ion. 3. 34. E. 
MENDE'LI, a town and fortrefs of the Arabian Irak, 
on the frontiers of Perfia : fifty miles north-eaft of Bag¬ 
dad. Lat. 33. 54. N. Ion. 45. E. 
MEN'DELSOHN (Mofes), a Jewifli philofopher, and 
elegant writer, was born at Deffau in Anhalt, in the year 
1729. His father was a fchoolmafter, and undertook the 
education of his fon. He was brought up to bufinel's, 
but devoted every hour he could claim as his own to 
literature, in which he greatly excelled, and obtained as 
a fcholar a diftinguiflied reputation; but it was, unfor¬ 
tunately, at the expenfe of his health. He was alfo def- 
tined to a ftate of extreme penury : at the age of four¬ 
teen, he travelled on foot to Berlin, where he lived in 
indigence and obfcurity, and frequently in want of the 
neceffaries of life. At length he got employment from 
a rabbi as a tranfcriber of MSS. who, at the fame time 
that he afforded him the means of lubliftence, liberally 
initiated him into the myfteries of the theology, the ju- 
rifprudence, and fcholaftic philofophy, of the Jews. The 
ftudy of philofophy and general literature became from 
this time his favourite purfuit; but the fervours of appli¬ 
cation to learning were by degrees alleviated and ani¬ 
mated by the confolations of literary friendfhip. He 
formed a ftriCt intimacy with Ifrael Mofes, a Polifh Jew, 
who, without any advantages of education, had become 
an able, though felf-taught, mathematician and naturalift. 
He very readily undertook the office of inftruCtor to 
Mendellohn in fubjeCts of which he was before igno¬ 
rant, and taught him the Elements of Euclid from his 
own Hebrew verfion. The fingular fpeCtacle of the 
two youthful rabbies, circumftanced as they were, fitting 
in the corner of retired ftreets, the one, with a Hebrew 
Euclid, inftruCting the other, who was hereafter to be 
claffed among the moft eminent literati of his country, 
may fltow the young and the indigent, that the cold 
touch of poverty can never palfy the fublime efforts of 
refolute genius. The intercourfe between thefe young 
men was not of long duration, owing to the calumnies 
propagated againft Ifrael Mofes, which occafioned his 
expullion from the communion of the orthodox ; in con- 
fequence of this, he became the viCtim of a gloomy me¬ 
lancholy and defpondence, which terminated in a pre¬ 
mature death. His lofs, which was a grievous affliction 
to Mendelfohn, was in fome meafure fupplied by Dr. 
Kifch, a Jewifti phyfician, by whofe affilfance he was 
enabled to attain a competent knowledge of the Latin 
language. In 1748 he became acquainted with another 
literary Jew, viz. Dr. Solomon Gumperts, by whofe en¬ 
couragement and affiftance he attained a general know¬ 
ledge of the living and modern languages, and particu¬ 
larly the Engliffi, by which he was enabled to read the 
great work of our immortal Locke in its own idiom, 
which he had before ftudied through the medium of the 
Latin language. About the fame period he enrolled 
the celebrated Leffing among his friends, to whom he 
was likewife indebted for affiftance in his literary pur- 
fuits. The fcholar amply repaid the efforts of his" in¬ 
structor, and foon became his rival and his affociate, 
and after his death the defender of his reputation, 
even at the expenfe of his own life; for a when Left, 
Vol. XV, No. 1026. 
M E N 89 
fing was charged with atheifm by M. Jacobi, a German 
writer, he roufed all his powers in Iris juftification, and 
entered fo vehemently into the controveffy, as to exhauft 
an already feeble and delicate frame : his w'hole nervous 
fylfem became fo completely deranged, that fevere ftudy, 
for a fhort time only, produced fainting fits. To avoid 
thefe, when he found them approaching, Mendelfohn 
would inftantly abandon what he was about, and baniffi 
all thought from his mind. Being afked how he con¬ 
trived to exirt without thinking, and exercifing the 
powers of reflection, he replied, “I retire to the window, 
and count the tiles upon the roof of my neighbour’s 
houfe.” He died on the 4th of January, 1785, in his 
fifty-feventh year, highly refpeCted and beloved by a nu¬ 
merous acquaintance, and by perfons of very different 
opinions. When his remains were conflgned to the grave, 
he received thofe honours from his nation which are" 
commonly paid to their chief rabbies. 
As an author, his firft piece was publiffied in 175;, en¬ 
titled “ Jerufalem,” in which he maintains that the Jews 
have a revealed law, but not a revealed religion, and that 
the religion of the Jewifli nation is that of nature. His 
work entitled “ Phaedon, a Dialogue on the Immortality 
of the Soul,” in the manner of Plato, gained him much 
honour: in this he prelents the reader with all the argu¬ 
ments of modern philofophy, ftated with great force and 
perlpicuity, and recommended by the charms of elegant 
writing. From the reputation which he obtained by°this 
mafterly performance, he was entitled by various perio¬ 
dical writers the Jewifli Socrates. It was tranflated into 
French in 1773, and into the Englifli in 1789. Among 
his other works, which are all creditable to his talents^ 
he wrote, 3. Philofophical Pieces. 4. A Commentary on. 
Part of the Old Teftament. 5. Letters on the Senfation 
of the Beautiful. Gen. Biog\ Monthly Mug-. July 1798. 
MEN'DEN, a town of Weftpbaiia: thirteen miles 
weft-north-weft of Arenfberg, and forty-two north-eaft 
of Cologne. 
MEN'DER,/ One who makes any change for the bet¬ 
ter.—What trade art thou ? A trade that I may ufe with 
a fafe confcience; a mender of bad foals. Shakefpcare's 
Julius, CceJ'ar. 
MEN'DES, in ancient geography, a town of Egypt* 
near the mouth of one of the eaftern branches of the Nile* 
between Sebennytus to the weft, and Tanes to the eaft. 
The arm of the Nile on which it was feated was denomi¬ 
nated the Mendejian. This ancient city was famous fof 
its temples, and the indecency of the worfliip paid there 
to the ram. When the facred animal dies, the Mendefian 
province lolemnized his death by a general mourning. 
Herodotus, lib. ii. 
MEN'DES, in mythology, an Egyptian deity, who 
was worfhipped as the emblem of the Sun. The Egyp¬ 
tians, having difcovered that they owed the fertility of 
their country to the influence of the fun, worfhipped 
him under the name of Mendes, which lignifies “ very 
fruitful.” Accordingly they confecrated the goat to 
him, as the moft prolific of all animals. This animal was 
fed in the temple of Mendes, as the living image of the 
god whom he reprefented. The Greeks gave to Mendes 
the name of Pan ; which fee. 
MEN'DES, Mentes, or Myndes, a town of Afiatic 
Turkey, in Natolia, on a bay of the Archipelago. This 
town was anciently called Myndus. It is twenty miles 
fouth of Milets. Lat. 37. 5. N. Lon. 27. 10. E. 
MENDESI'NO, a town of Naples, in Calabria Citra 5 
three miles weft of Cofenza. 
MEN'DEZ (Mofes), an Engliffi poet and dramatic 
writer, who died about the year 1758. He was of Jewifli 
extraction, though he had abandoned the religion of his 
fathers. He was author of feveral poems in Dodfley’s 
Collections. 
MEN'DEZ PIN'TO (Ferdinand), born at Montemor-o- 
velho in Portugal, was at firft fervant to a Portuguefe 
gentleman. In expectation of making a fortune, he em¬ 
barked for India in 1537- His veffei being taken by the 
A a Turks 
