The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 307

MEISTER, WILHELM, a great work of Goethe's, fraught with world-wisdom, the hero of which of the name represents a man who is led, in these very days, by a higher hand than he is aware of to his appointed destiny.

MEISTERSaNGERS or SINGERS, a guild founded in Germany in the 15th century or earlier for the cultivation of poetry, of which HANS SACHS (q. v.) was the most famous member.

MEKHONG, is the great river of Siam. Its source In the mountains of Chiamdo is unexplored. Its course, 3000 m., is southerly to the China Sea; the last 500 m. are navigable. It carries great quant.i.ties of silt which goes to form and augment the delta through which it issues.

MELANCHTHON, PHILIP, Protestant Reformer, born in the Palatinate of the Rhine; was the scholar of the German Reformation, and a wise friend of Luther's, having come into contact with him at Wittenberg, where he happened to be professor of Greek; he wrote the first Protestant work in dogmatic theology, ent.i.tled "Loci Communes," and drew up the "Augsburg Confession"; the sweetness of temper for which he was distinguished, together with his soberness as a thinker, had a moderating influence on the vehemence of Luther, and contributed much to the progress of the Reformation; he was the Erasmus of that movement, and combined the humanist with the Reformer, as George Buchanan did in Scotland (1497-1560).

MELANESIA, eleven archipelagoes of crystalline, coralline, and volcanic islands in the W. of Polynesia, all S. of the equator, and inhabited by the Melanesian or dark oceanic race; includes the Fiji, Solomon, Bismarck, and New Hebrides islands.

MELBA, NELLIE, a celebrated operatic singer, born in Australia; made her first appearance when she was only six; has often appeared in opera in London; her private name is Mrs. Armstrong, and she resides in Paris; _b_. 1865.

MELBOURNE (491), the capital of Victoria, at the head of Port Phillip Bay; is the largest and most important city in Australia; built in broad regular streets, with much architectural beauty, and containing, besides the Government buildings, a Roman and an Anglican cathedral, a mint and a university, numerous colleges, hospitals, and other inst.i.tutions. Its s.h.i.+pping interests are very large; a s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l enables the largest s.h.i.+ps to reach the quays; exports of gold and wool are extensive. Melbourne is the railway centre of the continent. It has manufactures of boots and clothing, foundries and flour-mills. It has a hot climate. Its water supply is abundant, but defective drainage impairs its healthfulness. First settled in 1835, it was incorporated in 1842, and nine years later was made capital of the newly const.i.tuted colony. It was the scene of an exhibition in 1888, of a great industrial struggle in 1890, and of a very severe financial crisis in 1893.

MELBOURNE, WILLIAM LAMB, VISCOUNT, English statesman, born in London; educated at Cambridge and Glasgow Universities; entered Parliament as a Whig in 1805, but was Chief Secretary for Ireland in the Governments of Canning, G.o.derich, and Wellington; succeeding to the t.i.tle in 1828, he reverted to his old party; was Home Secretary under Earl Grey in 1830, and was himself Prime Minister for four months in 1834, and then from 1835 till 1841, when he retired from public life; he was a man of sound sense, and showed admirable tact in introducing the young queen to her various duties in 1837 (1779-1848).

MELCHIZEDEK (i. e. king of righteousness or justice), a priest-king of Canaan, to whom, though of no lineage as a priest, but as a minister of G.o.d's justice, Abraham did homage and paid t.i.thes; a true type of priest as ordained of G.o.d, and one in that capacity "without father and without mother."

MELEAGER, a Greek mythic hero, distinguished for throwing the javelin, and by his skill in it slaying a wild boar which devastated his country, and whose life depended on the burning down of a brand that was blazing on the hearth at the time of his birth, but which his mother at once s.n.a.t.c.hed from the flames. But a quarrel having arisen between him and his uncles over the head of the boar, in which they met their death, the mother to be avenged on him for slaying her brothers threw back into the fire the brand on the preservation of which his life depended, and on the instant he breathed his last.

MELIORISM, the theory that there is in nature a tendency to better and better development.

MELODRAMA, a play consisting of sensational incidents, and arranged to produce striking effects.

MELPOMENe, the one of the nine muses which presides over tragedy.

MELROSE, a small town in Roxburghs.h.i.+re, at the foot of the Eildons, on the S. bank of the Tweed, famed for its abbey, founded by David I. in 1136; it is celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his "Lay of the Last Minstrel."

MELTON-MOWBRAY (6), a town 15 m. NE. of Leicester, the centre of the great hunting district; celebrated for its pork pies.

MELUSINA, a fairy of French legend, who married Raymond, a knight, on condition that on a particular day of the week he would not visit her, a stipulation which he was tempted to break, so that on a day of her seclusion he broke into her chamber, and found the lower part of her body from the waist downwards transformed into that of a serpent, upon which she straightway flew out at the window, to hover henceforth round the castle of her lord and only appear again on the occasion of the death of any of the inmates.

MELVILLE, ANDREW, Scottish Presbyterian ecclesiastic, born near Montrose; of good and even wide repute as a scholar; became Princ.i.p.al first of Glasgow College and then of St. Mary's College, St. Andrews; was zealous for the heads.h.i.+p of Christ over the Church, in opposition to the claim of the king, James, and spoke his mind freely both to the king and the bishops, for which he was sent to the Tower; on his release, after four years, he retired to a professors.h.i.+p at Sedan, in France, having been forbidden to return to Scotland (1545-1622).

MELVILLE, WHYTE-, novelist; his novels were chiefly of the hunting field, such as "Katerfelto" and "Black, but Comely," though he wrote historical ones also, such as "The Queen's Maries" (1821-1878).

MEMEL (19), Baltic seaport at the mouth of the Kurisches Haff, in the extreme NE. of Prussia; s.h.i.+ps great quant.i.ties of Russian and Lithuanian timber, and has some chemical works and s.h.i.+pbuilding yards.

MEMNON, a son of t.i.thonus and Aurora, who was sent by his father, king of Egypt and Ethiopia, to the a.s.sistance of Troy on the death of Hector, and who slew Antilochus, the son of Nestor, and was himself slain by Achilles, whereupon Aurora, all tears, besought Zeus to immortalise his memory, which, however, did not calm her sorrow, for ever since the earth bears witness to her weeping in the dews of the morning; a statue, presumed to be to his memory, was erected near Thebes, in Egypt, which was fabled to emit a musical sound every time the first ray fell on it from the rosy fingers of Aurora.

MEMPHIS, an ancient city of Egypt, of which it was the capital; it was founded by Menes at the apex of the delta of the Nile, and contained 700,000 inhabitants.

MEMPHIS (102), a Tennessee port on the Mississippi, 826 m. above New Orleans, accessible to the largest vessels, is also a great railway centre, and therefore a place of great commercial importance; has many industries, and a great cotton market.

MENADO (549), a Dutch colony in the N. of Celebes.

MENAI STRAIT, a picturesque channel separating Anglesey from Carnarvons.h.i.+re, 14 m. long and at its narrowest 200 yards wide; is crossed by a suspension bridge (1825) and the Britannia Tubular Bridge for railway (1850).

MENANDER, a Greek comic poet, born at Athens; was the pupil of Theophrastus and a friend of Epicurus; of his works, which were numerous, we have only some fragments, but we can judge of them from his imitator TERENCE (q. v.) (342-291 B.C.).

MENCIUS or MENG-TZE, a celebrated Chinese sage, a disciple, some say a grandson, of Confucius (q. v.); went up and down with his disciples from court to court in the country to persuade, particularly the ruling cla.s.ses, to give heed to the words of wisdom, though in vain; after which, on his death, his followers collected his teachings in a book ent.i.tled the "Book of Meng-tze," which is full of practical instruction (372-289 B.C.).

MENDICANT ORDER, a religious fraternity, the members of which denude themselves of all private property and live on alms.

MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY, FELIX, celebrated German composer, grandson of the succeeding, born in Hamburg; he began to compose early in life, and his compositions consisted of symphonies, operas, oratorios, and church music; his oratorios of "St. Paul" and "Elijah" are well known, and are enduring monuments of his genius; he was a man universally loved and esteemed, and had the good fortune to live amidst the happiest surroundings (1809-1847).

MENDELSSOHN, MOSES, a German philosopher, born at Dessau, of Jewish descent, a zealous monotheist, and wrote against Spinoza; was author of the "Phaedon, a Discourse on the Immortality of the Soul," and did a great deal in his day to do away with the prejudices of the Jews and the prejudices against them; he was the friend of Lessing, and is the prototype of his "Nathan" (1720-1786).

MENDOZA (137), province in the extreme W. of Argentina; has the Andes in the W., Aconcagua (23,500 ft.), the highest peak in the New World, otherwise is chiefly worthless pampa, fertile only where irrigated from the small Mendoza River; there vines flourish; copper is plentiful, coal and oil are found. MENDOZA (20), the capital, 640 m. W. of Buenos Ayres by rail, is on the Trans-Andine route to Chili, with which it trades largely; suffers frequently from earthquakes.

MENELAUS, king of Sparta, the brother of Agamemnon and the husband of Helen, the carrying away of whom by Paris led to the Trojan War.

MENHIR, a kind of rude obelisk understood to be a sepulchral monument.

MENINGES, the name of three membranes that invest the brain and spinal cord, and the inflammation of which is called meningitis.

MENNONITES, a Protestant sect founded at Zurich with a creed that combines the tenets of the Baptists with those of the Quakers; have an episcopal form of government, and maintain a rigorous church discipline.