good, or in meditating it. He died on the 6th day of April, 1743, and lies buried under the cloister of Lincoln'sinn chapel." This passage is repeated in a short tract entitled "Memoirs of a late eminent Advocate," published in 1796, in which the character of his father is rather more unfolded. We learn from this tract, that Mr. Melmoth "from early youth performed the painful but indispensable duty of communing with his own heart, with the severest and most impartial scrutiny." This appears by a copy of a letter from some eminent casuit, whom he had consulted respecting certain religious scruples. He was afterwards perplexed respecting taking the oaths at the revolution, which happened when he had the prospect of being admitted to the bar. On this occasion he consulted the celebrated Mr. Norris of Bemerton, and a correspondence took place, part of which is published in the "Memoirs." It is probable that he was at last convinced of the lawfulness of the oaths, as he was called to the bar in 1693. There are other letters and circumstances given in these "Memoirs,' ," which tend to raise the character of Mr. Melmoth as a man of sincerity and humility, not, however, perhaps, unmixed with what may now be reckoned a degree of superstitious weakness.

With respect to his "Great Importance," it may be added, to the credit of the age, that above 100,000 copies have been sold since the author's death.'

MELMOTH (WILLIAM), son of the above, by his second wife, was born in 1710. Of his early history little is known. He probably received a liberal education, although we do not find that he studied at either university. He was bred to the law, as appears by his being appointed a commissioner of bankrupts in 1756, by sir John Eardley Wilmot, at that time one of the commissioners of the great seal, and an excellent discerner and rewarder of merit. The greater part of Mr. Melmoth's life, however, was spent in retirement from public business, partly at Shrewsbury, and partly at Bath, where he was no less distinguished for integrity of conduct, than for polite manners and ele gant taste. He first appeared as a writer about 1742, in a volume of "Letters" under the name of Fitzosborne, which have been much admired for the elegance of their

1 Nichols's Bowyer.-Memoirs by his son.-For an account of a Socinian edition of the Great Importance, see Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXIII.

language, and their just and liberal remarks on various topics, moral and literary. In 1747 he published "A Translation of the Letters of Pliny," in 2 vols. 8vo, which was regarded as one of the best versions of a Latin author that had appeared in our language. In 1753, he gave a translation of the "Letters of Cicero to several of his Friends, with Remarks," in 3 vols. He had previously to this, written an answer to Mr. Bryant's attack, in his Treatise on the Truth of the Christian Religion, on his remarks on Trajan's Persecution of the Christians in Bithynia, which made a note to his translation of Pliny's Letters. He was the translator likewise of Cicero's treatises "De Amicitia" and "De Senectute," which were published in 1773 and 1777. These he enriched with remarks, literary and philosophical, which added much to their value. In the former he refuted lord Shaftesbury, who had imputed it as a defect to Christianity, that it gave no precepts in favour of friendship, and Soame Jenyns, who had represented that very omission as a proof of its divine origin. The concluding work of Mr. Melmoth was a tribute of filial affection, in the Memoirs of his father, which we have already noticed. After a long life passed in literary pursuits, and the practice of private virtue, Mr. Melmoth died at Bath, March 15, 1799, at the age of eighty-nine. He had been twice married; first to the daughter of the celebrated Dr. King, principal of St. Mary's-hall, Oxford, and secondly to Mrs. Ogle. The author of "The Pursuits of Literature" says, "Mr. Melmoth is a happy example of the mild influence of learning on a cultivated mind; I mean that learning which is declared to be the aliment of youth, and the delight and consolation of declining years. Who would not envy this fortunate old man, his most finished translation and comment on Tully's Cato? Or rather, who would not rejoice in the refined and mellowed pleasure of so accomplished a gentleman, and so liberal à scholar?" Dr. Warton, in a note on Pope's works, mentions his translation of Pliny as "one of the few that are better than the original." Birch, in his Life of Tillotson, had made nearly the same remark, which was the more liberal in Birch, as Melmoth had taken great liberties with the style of Tillotson. To Mr. Melmoth's other works we may add a few poetical efforts, one in Dodsley's Poems (vol. I. p. 216, edit. 1782), entitled "Of active and retired life;" and three in Pearch's poems (vol. II.) "The Transformation of Lycon

and Euphormius;" a "Tale," in p. 149; and "Epistle to Sappho."

MELOZZO (FRANCIS, or FRANCESCO), called Melozzo of Forli, flourished about 1471, and was probably the scholar of Ansovino da Forli, a pupil of Squarcione. The memory of Melozzo is venerated by artists as the inventor of perspective representation and true foreshortening on arched roofs and ceilings, of what the Italians style "di Sotto in Sú;" the most difficult and most rigorous branch of execution. A tolerable progress had been made in perspective after Paolo Uccello, by means of Piero della Francesca, an eminent geometrician, and some Lombards; but the praise of painting roofs with that charming illusion which we witness, belongs to Melozzo. Scannelli and Orlandi relate, that, to learn the art, he studied the best antiques; and, though born to affluence, let himself as servant and colour-grinder to the masters of his time. Some make him a scholar of Piero della Francesco: it is at least not improbable that Melozzo knew him and Agostino di Bramantino, when they painted in Rome for Nicolas V. towards 1455. Whatever be the fact, Melozzo painted on the vault of the largest chapel in SS. Apostoli, an Ascension, in which, says Vasari, the figure of Christ is so well foreshortened, that it seems to pierce the roof. That picture was painted for cardinal Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV. about 1472; and at the rebuilding of that chapel, was cut out and placed in the palace of the Quirinal, 1711, where it is still seen with this epigraphe: "Opus Melotii Foroliviensis, qui summos fornices pingendi artem vel primus invenit vel illustravit." Some heads of the apostles were likewise sawed out and placed in the Vatican. His taste on the whole resembles that of Mantegna and the Padouan schools more than any other. The heads are well formed, well coloured, well turned, and almost always foreshortened; the lights duly toned and opportunely relieved by shadows which give ambience and almost motion to his figures on that space; there is grandeur and dignity in the principal figure, and the lightsome drapery that surrounds him; with finish of pencil, diligence, and grace in every part. It is to be lamented, that so uncommon a genius has not met with an exact historian, of whom we might have learned his travels and labours previous to this great

1 Nichols's Bowyer.

work painted for Riario. At Forli, they shew, as his work, the front of an apothecary's shop, painted in arabesque, of exquisite style, with a half-length figure over the door pounding drugs, very well executed. We are informed by Vasari, that Francesco di Mirozzo da Forli painted before Dosso, in the villa of the dukes of Urbino, called L'Imperiale; we ought probably to read Melozzo, and to correct the word in the text, as one of that writer's usual negligences, of which Vasari gives another instance in Marco Palmegiani, of Forli, whom he transforms to Parmegiano; a good and almost unknown artist, though many of his works survive, and he himself seems to have taken every precaution not to be forgotten by posterity, inscribing most of his altar-pieces and oil-pictures with Marcus pictor Foroliviensis, or, Marcus Palmasanus P. Foroliviensis pin. sebat. Seldom he adds the year, as in two belonging to prince Ercolani, 1513 and 1537. In those, and in his works at Forli, we recoguise two styles. The first differs little from the common one of Quattrocentist's, in the extreme simplicity of attitude, in the gilding, in minute attention, and even in anatomy, which extended its researches at that time seldom beyond a S. Sebastian, or a S. Jerome. Of his second style the groups are more artificial, the outline larger, the proportions grander, but the heads perhaps less varied and more mannered. He used to admit into his principal subject others that do not belong to it thus in the crucifix at St. Agostino, in Forli, he placed two or three groups in different spots; in one of which is S. Paul visited by S. Anthony; in another, S. Augustine convinced, by an angel, of the absurdity of his attempt to fathom the mystery of the Trinity; and in those small figures he is finished and graceful beyond belief. Nor is his landscape or his architecture destitute of charms. His works abound in Romsagna, and are met with even in Venetian galleries: at Vicenza there is, in the palace Vi centini, a Christ of his between Nicodemus and Joseph; an exquisite performance, in which, to speak with Dante, "il morto par morto e vivi i vivi.'

MELVIL (Sir JAMES), a statesman and historian, was de scended from an honourable family in Scotland, and born at Halhill in Fifeshire, in 1530. At fourteen, he was sent by the queen regent of Scotland, to be page to her daughter

1 By Fuseli in Pilkington.

Mary, who was then married to the dauphin of France: but by her leave he entered into the service of the duke of Montmorenci, great constable and chief minister of France, who earnestly desired him of her majesty, having a high opinion of his promising talents. He was nine years employed by him, and had a pension settled on him by the king. Then, obtaining leave to travel, he went into Germany; where being detained by the elector palatine, he resided at his court three years, and was employed by him on several embassies. After this, prosecuting his intentions to travel, he visited Venice, Rome, and the most famous cities of Italy, and returned through Switzerland to the elector's court; where, finding a summons from queen Mary, who had taken possession of the crown of Scotland, after the death of her husband Francis II. he set out to attend her. The queen-mother of France at the same time offered him a large pension to reside at her court; for she found it her interest, at that juncture, to keep up a good understanding with the protestant princes of Germany; and she knew sir James Melvil to be the properest person to negociate her affairs, being most acceptable to them all; but this he declined.

Upon his arrival in Scotland, in 1561, he was admitted a privy-counsellor and gentleman of queen Mary's bedchamber; and was employed by her majesty in her most important concerns, till her unhappy confinement at Lochleven; all which he discharged with an exact fidelity; and from his own account there is reason to think that, had she taken his advice, many of her misfortunes might have been avoided. He maintained a correspondence in England in favour of Mary's succession to the crown of that kingdom; but upon the discovery of her unhappy partiality for Bothwell, after her husband's murder, he ventured upon the strongest remonstrances with her, which she not only disregarded, but communicated them to Bothwell, in consequence of which Melvil's endeavours were fruitless, and he was himself obliged to escape from Bothwell's fury.. He was, however, afterwards regarded by the four succes-. sive regents in a special manner, and trusted by them with: negociations of the greatest moment; though, after the queen's imprisonment, he had ever adhered to her son. When James came to the government, Melvil was especially recommended to him by the queen, then a prisoner in England, as one most faithful, and capable of doing him