MOL 
636 
in 1695, he was chofen reprefentative of the univerfity, 
and held that honourable feat during the remainder of 
his life, being alfo complimented by that learned body 
with the degree of doctor of laws. Mr. Molyneux was 
likewife nominated by the lord-lieutenant one of the 
commiffioners of forfeited eftates, with a yearly falary of 
500I. but he declined the office, confidering it to be an 
invidious employment. As he had the warmeft affeXion 
for the honour and intereft of his country, he ffiowed his 
patriotilm by the zeal which he difplayed in his fenato- 
rial capacity in promoting the linen-manufaXory, which 
was much encouraged by queen Mary ; and alio by the 
lingular ardour with which he efpoufed the caufe of the 
Irifli woollen-manufaXory, when he conceived it to be 
oppreffed by the Engliffi government. In the affair laft 
mentioned, he boldly hood forward as the advocate of 
the independence of his country, by publilhing a piece 
entitled, “The Cafe of Ireland Hated, in relation to its 
being bound by Ails of Parliament made in England,” 
1698 ; which contains the fubftance of all that can be laid 
on this very interefting 1 'ubjeX, written with great clear- 
nefs and ftrength of real’oning. The fame year, Mr. Mo¬ 
lyneux was attacked with a levere fit of the Hone, his 
conftitutional complaint; and, a blood-veffel burfting in 
the paroxyfms of that cruel difeafe, he expired on the 
nth of OXober, 1698, in the forty-third year of his age. 
In perl'on, he is laid to have refembled his friend Mr. 
Locke. Belides the articles already mentioned, he was 
the author of a great number of pieces in the Philol'ophi- 
cal TranlaXions, which may be feen in volumes xiv.- 
xxix. and feveral papers commonly in each volume. Many 
of his letters are preferved in the coTleXion of “Familiar 
Letters between Mr. Locke and feveral of his Friends.” 
MOL'YNEUX (Samuel), fon of the preceding, was 
born at Chefter in the year 1689. He was educated ac¬ 
cording to the plan laid down by the friend of his father, 
Mr. Locke. The progrefs of the child was very rapid, fo 
that he knew more at the age of fix or feven than moll 
children do at double that age. On the death of his fa¬ 
ther, the care of his education devolved upon an uncle, 
Dr. Thomas Molyneux, an eminent phyfician at Dublin, 
and a friend alfo of Mr. Locke, who executed the trull re- 
pofed on him with honour and fidelity. The young man, 
improving the advantages beftowed upon him, became 
one of the moll polilhed and accompliihed gentlemen of 
liis age, and was appointed fecretary to the prince of 
Wales, afterwards king George II. As he was poffeffed 
of an ample fortune, he purfued, with great ardour, the 
fciences of allronomy and optics, and projected many 
ichemes for their advancement. He applied himfelf to 
find out a convenient method of manufacturing fpecula 
for fir Ilaac Newton’s reflecting teiefcope, in which his 
chief defign was to reduce the method of making thefe 
inllruments to a fort of certainty, in order that the diffi¬ 
culty in conftruXing them, and the danger of mifcarrying, 
might no longer difeourage any workman from attempt¬ 
ing to make them for public fale. With the affiftance of 
Mr. Bradley, the Savilian profelfor of allronomy at Ox¬ 
ford, he fucceeded fo well, that, the whole procefs being 
communicated to a Ikilful optician, the conilruXion of 
thefe telefcopes was afterwards executed with great readi- 
nefs and difpatch. His zeal for the improvement of his 
favourite fciences induced Mr. Molyneux not only to 
colled and confider what had been written and pradifed 
by others, but alio to procure a complete apparatus for 
the purpofe of making new experiments.' In the midll 
of thele avocations, he was appointed one of the lords of 
the admiralty; by which means he became 1b involved in 
public affairs, that he had no leifure to promote the in- 
terefts of philofophy and lcience. He accordingly gave 
all his papers to Dr. Robert Smith, profelfor of allronomy 
at Cambridge, whom he invited to make ufe of his houle 
and inllruments, in order to finilh what he had left in¬ 
complete. By the death of Mr. Molyneux, which hap¬ 
pened loon .after this, the profelfor was precluded from 
MOL 
the benefit of this invitation; he, however, fupplied what 
was unfinilhed by our ingenious author from Huygens 
and. others, and publilhed the whole in his Treadle on, 
Optics. Bit>g. Brit. 
MOLYN'SIS, j. [Greek.] A defilement; a miafma s 
the effluvia of pelliiential dileafes. Phillips. 
MOL'ZA (Francefco Maria), a diltinguifhed charaXer . 
among the Italian literati, was born in 1489, at Modena, 
of parents defcended from the noblell families of that city. 
From early youth he was confpicuous for the readinefa 
and avidity with which he imbibed claffical literature; 
and to a knowledge of the Greek and Roman languages 
he added that of the Hebrew. His father fent him, about 
the age.of fixteen, to Rome, where he continued to pur- 
fue his lludies with advantage, but was unfortunately 
led by his natural propenfities into a courfe of licentious 
plealure, which influenced the fortune of his whole after¬ 
life. For the-purpofe of reclaiming him, he was married 
in 1512, to a Modenele young lady of noble defeent, with 
whom he lived till Hie had borne him four children. In 
1516 he returned to Rome, in which capital he afterwards 
fpent all his days, with the exception of the time paffed 
in journeys, and a refidence at Bologna from 1520 to 1525. 
Study and pleafure were his lole occupations ; of the 
latter, his connexions with the fair-fex form a copious 
and fcandalous chapter. Several objects of his tranfitory 
attachments are mentioned; among the reft, Furnia, a 
Roman courtezan, of whom he was fo much enamoured, 
that, it is Laid, he allumed the furname Furnius on her 
account; but, as his mother’s family name was cle Fnrni, 
it leems more probable that he thence derived his addi¬ 
tional appellation. Befides the injury done to his repu¬ 
tation by thele amours, he was once brought into danger 
of his life from the wound of an affaffin ; and he finally 
contraXed the ihameful difeafe that brought him to an 
untimely end. From 1529 to 1535, Molza was at the 
court of cardinal Ippolito de Medici; after whofe death, 
and the elevation of Paul to the popedom, he removed to 
that of Alexander Farnefe. The laxity of morals at that 
time in Rome rendered his licentioufnefs no obftacle to 
an intimacy with many of the moll illuftrious men of let¬ 
ters, fuch as Bembo, Sadoleto, Colocci, Caro, &c. and he 
was regarded as one of the principal ornaments of the li¬ 
terary academies then flourilhing in that capital. His 
compofitions were chiefly poems, both in Latin and Ita¬ 
lian, and on topics as well moral and ferious as lpor- 
tive and amorous, in all of which he equally excelled. 
His Latin Elegies are among the happiell imitations of 
Tibullus; that written on the profpeX of his approach¬ 
ing death is particularly pathetic and elegant. He was 
alio a powerful orator, and diltinguiihed himfelf by a very 
forcible Latin inveXive againft Lorenzino de Medici, on 
his mutilation of fame antique ftatues in Rome. His 
Epiltles in both languages are graceful and eiegant; and 
he wrote in Italian fome pleating novels. Molza died, 
under fevere fufferings, at Modena, in 1544, and, as his 
biographer affirms, with truly Chriftian fentiments. From 
a paffage in his Elegy on Death, it appears that he con- 
foled himfelf with having contributed nothing to the 
propagation of Lutheranifm; an ealy merit in one who 
was probably indifferent to all religion ! Of his works, 
many were given feparately to the public; but no edi¬ 
tion of the whole colledlively appeared till that of Ber¬ 
gamo in 1749, with his life prefixed by Seraffi. 
MOL'ZA (Tarquinia), a lady highly celebrated for her 
learning and other accomplilhments, daughter of Camillo, 
the eldell fon of the 1'ubjeX of the preceding article, 'was 
born at Modena in 1542.. Her father, perceiving her ca¬ 
pacity for literary attainments, fent her to fchool with 
her brothers, where fhe acquired the rudiments of learn¬ 
ing. By the inllruXions of proper mailers file afterwards 
became miftrefs’of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, lan¬ 
guages ; of rhetoric, logic, mathematics, philofophy, and 
theology; was a proficient in mufic ; and was moreover 
diltinguiihed by all the graces and amiable qualities of her 
