M A L 
M A L 
ftrength of intelled, and rapidity of comprehenlion on 
Subjects independent of thofe to which his ft tidies were 
immediately directed, which, iticreafing within his growth, 
l'eemed likely in manhood to have placed more within his 
reach than it ufually falls to the lot of humanity to grafp 
at. He united, in a remarkable manner, the folid and the 
brilliant; for the powers of his memory kept pace with 
thofe of his underftanding and imagination; and the cha¬ 
racter of his mind may be comprifed in thefe few but 
comprehenfive words ; that he remembered whatever he 
had once known, and could do whatever be had once 
been done. But it may not be uninterefting to parti¬ 
cularise'the periods of his fhort life, at which the leading 
traits of his character firft prefented themfelves to ob¬ 
servation. He was familiar with the alphabet long be¬ 
fore he could fpeak, not only as exhibited on counters, a 
practice very judicious, becaufe very enticing to children, 
but as exprefted in books, to which, from feeing them 
conftantly about him, he (howed a very early partiality. 
At the age of three years, on his birth-day, he wrote his 
firft letter to his mother; and though it contained no¬ 
thing but fhort expreflions of affeCtion, he foon after¬ 
wards began to write in a ftyle and on Subjects to which 
thildhood in general is a total (tranger; and this practice 
of writing his fentiments on all Subjects he perfevered in 
with a continually-increafing expanlion and improve¬ 
ment, both as to matter and manner. At the time of 
which we are Speaking, (three years old,) he could not 
only read and fpeli with unfailing accuracy, but knew 
the Greek characters, and would have attempted the 
language, had not the caution of his parents, in this 
inftance, difcouraged the forwardnefs of his inclination. 
When he was five, he had made confiderable advances in 
Latin, as well as in all the other ftudies which he purfued 
fo fuccefsfully for nearly two years longer. His lrudy of 
Latin in particular was far removed from that mechanical 
routine, by which fcholars of more advanced age too fre¬ 
quently proceed. His comparison of the idiom and con- 
ltruCbion with thofe of' his ovyn and the French languages, 
his acutenefs in tracing the etymology and detecting the 
component parts of words, hunting them through Engliih 
and French, and inquiring the forms they alfumed in 
Greek and Italian, with which he was unacquainted, 
proved him to have polFeffed a mind peculiarly calculated 
for philological inquiries. Nor was his attention confined 
to words; he never paffed over any paffage, the ftyle or 
SubjeCt of which was obfcure or difficult, without fuels an 
explanation as fatisfied his doubts; nor did he ever fuller 
errors of the prefs, even the trifling ones of punctuation, 
to efcape, without detecting and correcting them with a 
pencil he kept for the purpofe. Notwithstanding thefe 
ftudious inclinations, he was a child of manly corporeal 
ftruCture, of unufual livelinefs and activity. He was by 
no means grave in his difpofition, except in the purfuit of 
knowledge, from which, however, aCtive fports were ge¬ 
nerally fuccefsful in detaching him ; but the bane of all 
improvement, both of mind and body, indolence, and the 
habit of lounging, were totally excluded from the cata¬ 
logue of his plealures. 
But, as mere defeription, tsnaffifted by anecdote, feldom 
conveys a lively and accurate idea of character, it will not, 
we hope, be thought impertinent to mention an observation 
or two, which nsay ferve to illuftrate the turn of his mind. 
On being told by a lady that (he would lend for him the 
following day, when he flsould draw as much as he pleafed, 
he faid, “ I with to-morrow would come direCtly.” Af¬ 
ter a fhort paufe, he added, “ Where can to-morrow be 
now? It mutt be fomewhere; for every thing is in Some 
place.” After a little further reflection, he faid, “Per¬ 
haps to-morrow is in the Sun.” On meeting with the fol¬ 
lowing aphorifm: “Learning is not fo much elteemed by 
wife men as it is defpifed by fools;” he faid : “I think the 
perfon who wrote that Sentence was himfelf very foolifh 5 
for wife men efteem learning as much as poflible, and fools 
cannot defpife it more." But the molt Singular inftance 
m 
in which he displayed fertility of imagination, united with 
the power of making every thing he met with in books 
and converfation his own, was his invention of an imagi¬ 
nary country called Alleftone, of which he confidered 
himfelf as king. It ref'embled Utopia, though he had ne¬ 
ver heard of that celebrated political romance. Of this 
country he wrote the hiftory, and drew a niofl curious 
and ingenious map, giving names of his own invention 
to. the principal cities, mountains, rivers, Sc c. and, as 
learning was always the objeCt of his higheft refpeCt, he 
endowed it moft liberally with univerfitir.s, to which he 
appointed profeflors by name, with numerous ftatutes and 
regulations, which would have reflected no difgrape on 
graver founders. 
But, though in the progrefs of his fhort life he was con¬ 
tinually employed in laying up ftores of knowledge, ap¬ 
parently for purpofes which, the event proved, were ne¬ 
ver to be fulfilled ; his laft iilnefs, which he fupported- 
with a patience and fortitude almoft unexampled, amply 
evinced that he knew how to apply the treafures he had 
acquired to the folace and relief of his own mind, under 
circumstances of trial and fuffering. He frequently be¬ 
guiled the tedious hours of a fick-bed with the recollec¬ 
tion of what he had read, feen, or done, in the days of 
health; and little points of intereft or information, which 
might have been l'uppofed to have made a tranfient inv- 
prefiion, were as much prefent to his mind as when they 
firft engaged his attention. He often talked of the period 
of his recovery, but never with impatience; and rite tri¬ 
umph of mind over body continued fo complete to the 
laft, that he looked with intereft and pleafure at his dif- 
•ScCted maps within half an hour of his difSolution. With¬ 
out entering with unneceffary minutenefs into the nature 
of his diforder, it will be interelting to parents in general 
to be informed, that it afforded no confirmation of the 
common idea, that early expanfion of intellect is unfa¬ 
vourable to the continuance of life. In confequence of 
remarkable form of his head, which had been much ad¬ 
mired, Specially by artifts, fome doubts had been iuggeft- 
ed, that rendered it defirable to have the head as well as 
body examined. From the refult of this inveltigation it 
appeared, that the brain was unufuaUy large, and in the 
moft perfeCt and healthy ftate; that the diforder, as it was 
uniformly confidered to have been, was in the ftomach, 
and had received all the relief that medical (kill and the 
moft anxious attention could afford ; and that there was 
more than ordinary probability, from the vigour of his 
conftitution, and the well-proportioned formation of his 
body, of his arriving at manhood, but for one of thefe 
accidents in the fylfem, to which the old and young, the 
healthy, and infirm, are equally expofed. Monthly Mag. 
Nov. 1802. 
MALK'WITZ, a town of Silefia, in the principality 
of Breflau : nine miles fouth-weft of Breflau.. 
MALL, /. [ malleus , Lat. a hammer.] A kind of beater 
or hammer.—He took a mall, and, after having hollowed 
the handle, and that part which ftrikes the ball, he err- 
clofed in them Several drugs. Addifon's Spectator. 
The mall, mell, or war-mallet, is a weapon formerly ufed 
both by the Englifh and Scots. In the memorable combat 
fought in Bretagne, in the year 1315, between thirty 
champions on the part of the Englifh, and the like num¬ 
ber on that of the French, one of the Englifh champions, 
named Billefort, was armed with a leaden mallet, weigh¬ 
ing twenty-five pounds.. We learn.alfo from father Da¬ 
niel, that the Englifh archers ftill ufed mallets in the time 
of Louis XII. who began his reign in 1515, and died in 
1524. In the ancient poem of the Battle of Flodden, the 
mention of leaden malls often occurs ; and from the fol¬ 
lowing defeription there given of it, it Seems as if the head 
of the mall was entirely of lead, hooped round at the ends 
with iron : 
Some made a mall of mafly lead, 
Which iron all about did bind. 
Ralph Snujh equips an archsr with a mall of.lead, five fe. fe 
