152 M E R 
MERLEN'GO, a town of Italy, in the department of 
the Mincio : ten miles north of Mantua. 
MERLE'RA, a fmall ifland in the Mediterranean: 
four miles from Cape Sidero, on the north coaft of 
Corfu. 
MERLERAU'LT, a town of France, in the department 
Of the Orne: eighteen miles north-north-eaft of Alen^on, 
and leventeen weft of L’Aigle. 
MER'LIN, f. A kind of hawk ; the Falco aelalon.— 
Not yielding over to old age his country delights, he was 
at that time following a merlin. Sidney. 
MER'LIN (Ambtofe), a Britifh writer who flourished 
in the fifth century, and was regarded as a prophet and 
magician. Strange ftories are told of him by ancient 
writers, fome of whom have aftumed that he conveyed by 
enchantment the ftupendous ftones on Salilbury plain from 
Ireland. There are likewife certain extravagant predic¬ 
tions that pafs under his name, printed at Paris in 1530. 
Near Caermarthen is a mount called Merlin’s Hill, be¬ 
neath which it is faid the prophet was buried. 
MER'LIN (James), a learned French prieft who flou¬ 
rished in the fixteenth century, was a native of Limoges. 
He appears to have purlued his ftudies at the univeriity 
of Paris, where he was admitted to the degree of dofitor 
of divinity in the year 1499. For fome time he was refitor 
of the parilh of Montmartre, and afterwards canon of the 
church of Notre-Dame, at Paris. In 1525, he was chofen 
grand-penitentiary. He was fo far tranfported by his zeal 
againft the principles of the reformed religion, that he in¬ 
dulged to no little freedom in declaiming againft thofe 
courtiers who were fuppofed to be favourable to them ; of 
which fuch reports were made to king Francis I. that he 
commanded him to be arrefted, andcommitted to the cat¬ 
tle of the Louvre, in 1527. After remaining two years in 
confinement, at the requeft of the canons of Paris he was 
enlarged ; but at the fame time banilhed to Nantes by the 
commiffaries whom the king had appointed to be his judges. 
At length, the king having been appealed. Merlin was 
permitted to return to Paris in 1530; where he was after¬ 
wards promoted to the dignity of vicar-general to the bi- 
lhop of that fee, and was made reftorandarch-prieft of the 
church of St. Mary Magdalen. With the character of 
being the moft zealous and moll affefilionate of pallors, he 
died in the year 1541. He is celebrated as the firft perfon 
who undertook to publilh “ A Collection of the Councils,” 
of which there were three editions ; the firft publilhed at 
Paris in two volumes folio, in 1523 and 1524; the fecond 
at Cologne in 1530, in two volumes odlavo ; and the third 
at Paris in 1535, in two volumes, odtavo ; and, notwith- 
ftanding that the value of this work is greatly diminilhed, 
owing to the publication of more ample and correct per¬ 
formances of the fame kind, yet the author is entitled to 
the honour of having excited others by his example to 
engage in fuch arduous undertakings. Merlin is alfo the 
firft perfon who, when publilhing the works of Origen, 
ventured to defend that great man againft the charges of 
error preferred againft him ; which he did in an apology 
for that father prefixed to his edition of his works, in four 
volumes folio, of the date of 1511. Merlin likewife pub- 
.lilhed The Works of Richard de St. Viftor, in 1518; the 
Works of Peter of Blois, in 1519; and the Works of 
Durand of St. Pourt;ain, in 1515. Gen. Biog. 
MERLTNA. See Melina, p, 57. 
MERLIN'GEN, a town Swifferland, in the canton of 
Berne : feven miles fouth-eaft of Thun. 
MER'LOM, a town of Hindoollan, in Dowlatabad : 
twelve miles fouth-eaft of Beder. 
MER'LON, J'. in fortification, that part of a parapet 
which lies between the two embfafures of a battery. 
MERLOU', or Mellou', a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Oile: feven miles fouth of Clermont, and 
ten weft of Senlis. 
MER'MAID, f. [»?«•, the fea; and maid.] A fea-woman ; 
an animal with a woman’s head and fiih’s tail.—Few eyes 
have efcaped the picture of a mermaid; Horace his mon- 
H E R 
fter, with woman’s head above, and fifhy extremity below, 
anfwers the lhape of the ancient fyrens that attempted 
upon Ulyfies. Brown's Vulgar Errours. 
Once I fat upon a promontory. 
And heard a mermaid on a dolphin’s back 
Uttering fuch dulcet and harmonious breath 
That the rude fea grew civil at her fong. Shahefpear e. 
The exiftence of an animal, half human and half a fill], 
has long been talked of, believed, dilbelieved, and doubted. 
Homer is the firft who fpeaks of fuch beings, which he 
ftyles (Sirens; but we do not find that he gives any de- 
fcription of their lhape. Horace, however, in his Art of 
Poetry, paints the monlter in one line : Dejinit in pifcem 
mulier formofa fuperne ; “ Above a lovely maid, a fifli be¬ 
low.” The Sirens were three lifters, whofe voice was fo 
delightfully harmonious, fo enticing, that no refinance 
could be made againft its powerful charms ; but “ ’twas 
death to hear,” for they led the navigators and their Ihips 
to certain deftruflion among the rocks which bordered 
the dangerous coafts which they inhabited, near the Ihores 
of Italy. 
Mermaids, then, may be ranked among the Nereides 
of the heathen mythology, or produced by the fancy of 
poets, whom painters imitate, by giving to fancy the re- 
lemblance of life. See the Frontifpiece to the fifth volume 
of this work. 
The origin of mermen or mermaids has been differently 
accounted for by the writers of antiquity. Some have 
been ridiculous enough to affirm that a portion of the 
difobedient angels were precipitated into the fea, and be¬ 
came mermen ; fome fuppofe that the devil begat them on 
fillies 5 and others, anxious not to be exceeded in impro¬ 
bability, fay that fillies, generating in the deluge, and fee¬ 
ing drowned men, became fomewhat like them from the 
force of imagination. Surely the force of imagination can¬ 
not eafily go farther than this. 
Accounts of the appearance of thefe non-defcripts are 
fo various, that we mull content ourfelves with enumerat¬ 
ing fome of the moft extraordinary. 
In the year 1187, a merman was fillied up on the coaft 
of Suffolk, and kept for fix months by the governor. This 
is related in many of our Engliffi chronicles; the writers 
of which add, that it bore fo near a conformity with man, 
that nothing feemed wanting to it except fpeech. It 
took an opportunity of making its efcape, by plunging 
into the fea. 
In 1560, near the ifland of Manar, on the wellern coaft 
of the ifland of Ceylon, fome fifliermen brought up at 
one draught of the net, feven mermen and mermaids, of 
which feveral Jefuits (and among the reft, F. Hen. Hen- 
riques, and Dimar Bofquer, phylician to the viceroy of 
Goa) were witneffes. The phylician, who examined them 
with much care, and made many diffe&ions from them, 
afferts, that all parts, both internal and external, were 
found perfectly conformable to thole of men. See Hill, de 
la Compagnie de Jefus, tom. iv. where the relation is given 
at length. We have another account, as well attefted, of 
a merman feen near the Diamond-rock, on the coaft of 
Martinico ; the perfons who viewed it, gave in a precile 
defcription of it before a notary. 
A creature of the fame lpecies was caught in the Baltic 
in the year 1531, and lent as a prefent to Sigifmond king 
of Poland, with whom it lived three days, and was leen 
by ail the court. But the moft authentic and particular 
relation we meet with, is in the Hiftory of the Netherlands ; 
and the lame occurrence is noticed, with fome/light va¬ 
riations, in the Delices de la Hollande. In the year 1430, 
after a violent tempeft, which broke down the dykes in 
Holland, and made way for the fea into the meadows, 
fome market-women who were crofting the Mere in a boat, 
faw a human head above the water, and, upon the nearer 
examination, difcovered a mermaid embarraffed in the 
mud. After fome refinance on the creature's part, they 
fucceeded in Securing her, and by gentle ufage prevailed 
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