M A L 
bflife, which terminated at the age of feventy-feven years, 
in 1715. His manners in private life were timple, cheer¬ 
ful, and complaifant. He paid little regard to thofe fub- 
je&s of erudition which employed the thoughts and time 
of other literary perfons; and which merely ferved to 
make them acquainted with the opinions of different phi- 
lofophers, without leaving them fufficiently at leifure to 
think for themfelves. For poetry he had no tqfte ; and it 
is faid, indeed, that he never read ten verfes without dif- 
guft. It was his cuftom to ftudy with his windows fhut, 
that he might not be difturbed by the light. The fpecu- 
lations of his retirement were the fubjeCts of.his conver- 
fation, with regard to which he was communicative, and 
yet modeft and unaffuming. His company was much va¬ 
lued and defired ; and no foreigner of learning vifited 
Paris without wirtiing to be introduced to him; and we 
are informed by one of his biographers, that an Englifh 
officer, being taken prifoner in the war between the king 
of France and William III. exprefled his fatisfaCtion at 
being fent to Paris, becaufe he had long wiflied to fee 
Louis XIV. and father Malebranche. 
Dr. Enfield, in his Abridgment of Brucker’s Philofophy, 
has given the following account of the fyftem of Male¬ 
branche. “ The doCtrine of this book,” referring to his 
Search after Truth, “ though in many refpeCts original, 
is raifed upon Cartefian principles, and is, in fome parti¬ 
culars, Platonic. The author reprefents, in ftrong colours, 
the caufes of error, arifing from the disorders of the ima¬ 
gination and paffions, the abufe of liberty, and an implicit 
confidence in the fenfes. He explains the aCtion of the 
animal fpirits, the nature of memory, the connexion of 
the brain with other parts of the body, and their influence 
upon the underltanding and will. On the fubjeCl of in¬ 
tellect, he maintains, that thought alone is eflential to 
mind, and deduces the irnperfeCt ftate of fcience from the 
imperfection of the human underltanding, as well as from 
the inconltancy of the will in inquiring after truth. Re¬ 
jecting the ancient doCtrine of /peeks fent forth from ma¬ 
terial objeCts, and denying the power of the mind to pro¬ 
duce ideas, he aferibes their production immediately to 
6od ; and aflerts, that the human mind immediately per¬ 
ceives God, and fees all things in him. As he derives the 
imperfection of the human mind from its independence 
upon the body, fo he places its perfection in union with 
God, by means of the knowledge of truth and the love of 
virtue. Singular and paradoxical as the notion of feeing 
all things in God, and fome other dogmas of this writer, 
mult have appeared, the work was written with fuch ele¬ 
gance and fplendour of diCtion, and its tenets were fup- 
ported by fuch ingenious reafonings, that it obtained ge¬ 
neral applaufe, and procured the author a diltinguilhed 
name among philofophers, and a numerous train of fol¬ 
lowers. Its popularity might, perhaps, be in part owing 
to the appeal which the author makes to the authority of 
St. Auguftine, from whom he profelfes to have borrowed 
his hypothefis concerning the origin of ideas. The im¬ 
mediate intercourfe which this doCtrine fuppofes, between 
the human and the divine mind, has led fome to remark a 
ftrong refemblance between the notions of Malebranche 
and thofe of the feCt called Quakers.” 
Malebranchifm appears to many perfons not only illu- 
five and vifionary, but even dangerous, and deftruCtive to 
religion; and it has accordingly been vigoroully oppofed 
by many zealous French authors. The firft was M. Fou- 
cher. After him came M. Arnauld; and, in 17J5, du 
Tertre, a Jefuit, publilhed an ample confutation (as he 
imagines) of his whole fyftem. It was alfo charged with 
atheifm by F. Hardouin, in the Atheifts Unmafked; 
though his fyftem, formed by a warm and exuberant ima¬ 
gination, tends more to fanaticifm and enthufiafm than to 
atheifm. That part which relates to our feeing all things 
in God, was anfwered by Mr. Locke, in a fmall trad 
printed among his pofthumous works. Thofe who choofe 
to fee this fyftem, attacked on the one hand and defended 
on the other, with fubtilty of argument and elegance of 
Vol.XIV. No. 966. 
M A L ]Q3 
expreffion,and on the part of Arnauld with much wit and 
humour, may find fatisfaCtion by reading Malebranche’s 
Enquiry after Truth ; Arnauld’s book of True and Falfe 
Ideas ; Malebranche’s Defence ; and fome fubfequent re¬ 
plies and defences. It ffiould be remembered^ however, 
that Malebranche was a Jefuit, and Arnauld a'janfenift; 
and the antipathy between the Jefuits and Janfenifts left 
Malebranche no room to expeCt quarter from his learned 
antagonift. Bayle juftly remarks on this controverfy, 
that the arguments of Arnauld againli the fyftem of Male¬ 
branche were often unanfwerable, but they were capable 
of being retorted againlt his own fyftem; and his inge¬ 
nious antagonift well knew how to ufe this defence. Mr. 
Norris, an Engliffi divine, efpoufed the fyftem of Male¬ 
branche, in his “ Effay towards the Theory of the Ideal 
or Intellectual World,” 2 vols. 8vo. 1701. 
MALE'CA, a cape of the illand of Candia: twelve 
miles north-eaft of Canea. 
MA'LECKH, a town of the duchy of Stiria ; eight miles 
north of Fridaw. 
MALECONTEN'T, or Maleco-ntented, adj. Dif- 
contented ; difiatisfied.—The king, for fecu.ring his ftate 
again ft mutinous and malecontented fubjects, who might 
have refuge in Scotland, fent a folemn ambaftage to con¬ 
clude a peace. Bacon. 
Poor Clarence ! Is it for a wife 
That thou art malecontent? I will provide thee. Shahefpeare. 
MALECONTEN'TEDLY, adj. With difeontent. 
MALECONTEN'TEDNESS,y: Difcontentednefs; want 
of affeClion to government.—They would aferibe the lay¬ 
ing down my paper to a fpirit of malecontentednefs. SpeElator. 
—The above words are now more commonly written with¬ 
out the e, as, malcontent , &c. 
MALECOTOO'N, or Melicot'ton, f. [This is fup- 
pofed (in a note to the collection of old plays publifhed 
in 1780) to mean a late kind of peach ; but, as peaches 
occur before in the fame enumeration, and as mala cotonca 
is one botanical name for quince, it may perhaps be more 
properly ftyled] A quince.—A wife here with a ftraw- 
berry breath, cherry lips, apricot cheeks, and a foft vel¬ 
vet head, like a melicotton. Ben Jonfon's Bartholomew Fair. 
Peaches, apricots. 
And malecotoons , with other choicer plums. 
Will ferve for large fiz’d bullets. Cartwright’s Ordinary . 
Should the two words which form this article not be ab- 
folutely fynonymes, there appears no objection to fup- 
pofing melicotton a peach. Mafon’s Supplement. 
MALECOT'TA, a town of Hindooltan : forty-two 
miles ealt of Cochin. 
MALEDIC'TED, adj. [malediElus , Lat.] Accurfed. 
MALEDIC'TION, f. [from maledidio, Lat.] Curie ; 
execration ; denunciation of evil.—In Spain they liaid 
near eight months, during which Buckingham lay under 
millions of maledidions ; which, upon the prince’s arrival 
in the weft, did vanifh into praifes. Wotton. 
MALEENSOO'NOO, a fmall ifland in the Eaftern In¬ 
dian Sea, near the fouth-weft coaft of Palawan. Lat. 8. 
ix. N. Ion. 117. 22. E. 
MALEEPOE'THAS, one of the Soloo iflands, in the 
Eaftern Indian Sea. Lat. 6. 3.N. Ion. 120. 18. E^ 
MALEFAC'TION, f [male and facio , Lat.] A crime; 
an offence : 
Guilty creatures at a play 
Have, by the very cunning of the feene. 
Been ffruck fo to the foul, that prefently 
They have proclaim’d their malefattions. Shahefpeare. 
MALEFAC'TOR,/. An offender againlt law; a cri¬ 
minal ; a guilty perfon.—It is a fad thing when men fliall 
repair to the miniftry, not for preferment but refuge ; like 
malefadors flying to the altar, only to fave their lives. Souths 
If their barking dog difturb her eafe, 
Th’ unmanner’d malefactor is arraign’d. Drvden. 
3 £> las 
