MALLET. 
202 
of confequence enough to be admitted to tbe company of 
men of rank and literary eminence. Among thefe he 
particularly courted the favour of Pope, whole ridicule of 
critics and commentators he echoed in a poem, publifhed 
in 1753, on Verbal Criticifm. When Frederic prince of 
Wales kept an oppofition court, and aft’eCted the patron¬ 
age of men of letters, Mallet was made bis under-fecre- 
tary, with a falary of 200I. per annum. He attended the 
prince of Orange on a vifit to Oxford in 1734, and pre- 
fented to him a copy of verfes written in the name of the 
univertitv; on which occafion he was admitted to the de¬ 
gree of M. A. His tragedy of Muftapha was brought on 
the ftage in 1739, under the protection of the prince of 
Wales; it had a temporary fuccefs, but was never revived. 
His principal profe performance, the Life of Lord Bacon, 
prefixed to a new edition of his works, appeared in J74.0. 
Though an elegant, and in many refpeCts a judicious, 
piece of biography, it is defective in the difplay of what 
conftitutes the great point of that wonderful man’s merit, 
his character as a luminary of fcience ; infomuch that Dr. 
Warburton obferved, with witty juftnefs, “that Mallet in 
his Life of Bacon had forgotten that he was a philofo- 
pher; and, if he (liould write the Life of the Duke of 
Marlborough, which he had undertaken to do, he would 
probably forget that he was a general.” In the fame year 
Mallet was affociated with Thomfon in the compofition 
of the patriotic Mafque of Alfred, reprefented at Clief- 
den ; and he afterwards altered it for the Drury-lane 
theatre. 
Mallet married his firft wife in 1741. From that time 
lie refided in the vicinity of London, and lived in a gen¬ 
teel ftyle. His longelt poem, Amyntor and Theodora, 
was publifhed in 174.7. It is a pathetic tale in blank verfe, 
intermixed with much poetical defcription; but its length 
and affetled fplendour of language take off from its in- 
tereft, and there are few readers to whom it will not ap¬ 
pear tedious. One of the diftinguifhed perfons whom 
Mallet courted was lord Bolingbroke; and when, af¬ 
ter Pope’s death, that nobleman refolved to take venge¬ 
ance on his memory for having clandeftinely printed his 
Patriot King, Mallet was employed to bring forward the 
charge in an advertifement to a publication of that and 
feme other traCls. This office he performed with fo much 
feverity, that Warburton interpofed with an apologetical 
letter to the editor; which Mallet retorted by “A letter 
to the moft impudent Man living.” He was rewarded 
for this fervice to lord Bolingbroke by the bequeft of his 
lordfhip’s works; and in 1754- he publifhed them in five 
volumes, 4-to. As a part of them confifted of an attack 
upon revealed religion, the publication drew down much 
obloquy upon Mallet, and was even followed by a pre- 
fentment of the grand jury of Weftminlter. What more 
affefted him was, that the expectation of great emolument, 
which was probably his principal motive in undertaking 
the talk, was fruftrated. In another concern he appears 
to have enjoyed emolument without any adequate fer¬ 
vice. When Sarah duchefs of Marlborough left a legacy 
of ioool. to Glover and Mallet, on condition of writing 
the life of her great lord, the former refufed the bufinefs, 
but the latter undertook it, and received a penfion befides 
in confideration of the fuppofed progrefs he was making 
in it; but no veftige of any labour of this kind was found 
among his papers. 
The unfavourable commencement of the war of 1756 
rendering the miniflry unpopular, our author was em¬ 
ployed to divert the public odium upon admiral Byng ; 
and a paper which he wrote for this purpofe, under the 
fignature of “ A Plain Man,” was circulated with great 
i-ndultry and effeCt. Byng was (hot, and Mallet was re* 
warded with a conliderable penfion; and it is to be hoped 
that he was convinced of thejuflice of the fentence which 
proved fatal to that unfortunate commander ; though Dr. 
johnfon remarked of him, that he was ready for any dirty 
job; that, as he had written againft Byng at the mitiga¬ 
tion of the miniftry, he would equally be ready to write 
for him, provided he had found Ids account in it. 
When lord Bute came into power at the beginning of 
the prefent reign, Mallet had a double motive for lilting 
under the minifterial banners; and be ferved the cauie 
by his Truth in Rhyme, and his tragedy of Elvira, imi¬ 
tated from La Motte, and pointed to a political end. 
Again It this, tragedy, Mr. Bofwell, the Hon. Andrew Er- 
fkine, and Mr. Dempfter, joined in writing a pamphlet, 
entitled, Critical Strictures. The Critical Review, in 
which Mallet himfelf fometimes wrote, characterifed this 
pamphlet as “ the crude efforts of envy, petulance, and 
felf-conceit.” There being thus three epithets, the three 
authors had a humorous contention how each ftiould be 
appropriated. Mallet’s recompence, however, for the poem 
and the tragedy, was the place of keeperof the book of en¬ 
tries for the port of London. He had married fora fecond 
wife the daughter of a nobleman’s fteward, pofiefled of a 
conliderable fortune, which Ihe kept in her own hands. 
From his various fources of income, Mallet may be rec¬ 
koned among the belt provided of the Ions of the mufes; 
and, as he was by no means devoid of vanity, his external 
appearance announced the profperity of his circnmftances. 
He palled fome time in France after the peace; but, find¬ 
ing his health decline, he returned to England, and died 
in 1765. Mallet was a man of agreeable converfation and 
amiable manners in private life, fufficiently attentive to 
his own interelt, but ready to ferve his friends. Nothing 
elevated or dignified can be difeerned in his character or 
principles. As a poet, he may lay claim to elegant diction, 
fplendid imagery, and pathetic fentiment; but is deficient 
in energy and judgment. His works are admitted into 
the collections of Englifh poetry; hut his name is fcarcely 
remembered except as theauthor of two ballads, one of du¬ 
bious originality. John/on’s and Anderfon’s Lives of the Brit. 
Poets. Bofwell's Life of Johnfon , vol. i. ii. iii. 
MAL'LET (Edme), an eltimable French writer, was 
born at Melun in 1713. He ferved a cure near his na¬ 
tive place till 1751J when he came to Paris, to the profef- 
forlhip of theology in the college of Navarre, of which, 
houfe he was an aggregated doctor. The oppolite im¬ 
putations of Janfenifm and Freethinking under which be¬ 
laboured, at firlt indifpofed towards him Boyer, the dif- 
penfer of ecclefialtical favours ; but, upon acquaintance 
with his real character, he recompenfed his learning and 
morals with a canonry of Verfailles. Mallet made him¬ 
felf known by various publications, of which the follow¬ 
ing were the principal. 1. Principes pour la LeCture des 
Poetes. a. Eflai fur l’Etude des Belles Lettres. 3. El- 
fai fur les Bienfeances Oratoires. 4. Principe pour la. 
LeCture des Orateurs. 5. A Tranllation of Davila’s Hif- 
tory of the Civil Wars of France. He likewife engaged 
to furnilh the articles of theology and belles lettres for 
the Encyclopedic. His ftyle in all thefe performances is 
neat, clear, and unaffeCted. He had planned two other 
confiderable works, when he was carried oft' by a prema¬ 
ture death at Paris in 1755. His modefty, mildnefs, can¬ 
dour, moderation, and attachment to his friends, rendered 
him an objeCt of efteem to all who knew him. Nouv. Did-. 
Hifl. 
MAL'LET (James Andrew), a profefior at Geneva, de- 
feended from a good family in that city, was born in. 
1740 ; he was deftined for a military life, but was prevented 
from purfuing it by an accident in his youth, by which 
the mufcles of his legs became contracted, and he con¬ 
tinued lame through the whole of his life. He was edu¬ 
cated in the public l’chool of Geneva, and difplayed an 
early attachment to the mathematics. From Geneva he 
went to Bafil, and ftudied with great fuccefs under the 
celebrated David Bernouilli. In 1764 lie obtained a 
prize from the Academy of Lyons for the bell anfwer to 
a mathematical prize-queftion ; and in the following year 
he made a tour to France and England, in the eourle of 
which, he fonned an acquaintance with Lalande at Paris, 
and 
