turned him six guineas out of the ten which he had received.

Doctor Mead, besides the works we have already mentioned, wrote, 1. "A treatiss on the scurvy,' 2. "De variolis et morbillis dissertatio," 3. "Medica Sacra; sive de morbis Insignioribus, qui in Bibliis memorantur commentarius," 4. " Monita et Præcepta Medica," 5. "A discourse concerning pestilential contagion and the methods to be used to prevent it." The works which he wrote aad published, in Latin, were translated into English, under the doctor's inspection by Thomas Stack, M. D. and F. R. S. Dr. Mead died on the 16th February, 1754.

MEDICIS, (COSMO DE) born in 1389, was private citizen of Florence, who lived without seeking for titles; but acquired by commerce a fortune equal to the greatest monarchs of his time. He employed his great wealth in relieving the poor, in making himself friends among the rich by lending them money, in adorning his country with superb edifices, and inviting to Florence the men of learning among the Greeks, who were driven from Constantinople. His advice was, for thirty years, the law of the republic. His only arts were his good deeds, which are of all others the most just. After his death, his papers shewed that he had lent immense sums to his countrymen, of which he had never demanded the least payment; and he died universally regretted by his very enemies. The people of Florence, with one consent, adorned his tomb with the glorious epitaph of" Father of his country," a title which not one of the many kings, we have seen press in review, were ever able to obtain.

His reputation procured his descendants the chief authority in Tuscany. His son took the administration under the name of Gonfalonier. His two grandsons Lawrence and Julian, who were masters of the

republic, were set upon in the church by a band of conspirators, at the time of the elevation of the host. Julian died of the wounds he received, but Lawrence made his escape. Florence resembled Athens, both in government and genius. It was at one time aristocratical, and at another popular, and dreaded nothing so much as tyranny.

Cosmo de Medicis might be compared to Pisistratus, who, notwithstanding his great power, was ranked among the number of sages. The sons of this Cosmo resembled those of Pisistratus, and both of them lived to revenge the death of his brother: but that happened at Florence, which did not at Athens; the chiefs of religion were concerned in this conspiracy. Pope Sextus V. planned it, and the Archbishop of Pisa set it on foot.

The people of Florence revenged this cruel act on those, who were found guilty: and the Archbishop himself was hanged, at one of the windows of the public palace. Lawrence, thus revenged by his fellow citizens, made himself beloved by them, during the rest of his life. He was sirnamed the "Father of Learning," a title, not equal, indeed, to that of "Father of his Country," but which shewed, that he was so in fact. It was a thing no less admirable, than foreign to the manners of that age and country, to see this citizen, who always addicted himself to commerce, selling, with one hand, the commerce of the Levant, and with the other supporting the weight of the republic; entertaining fac tors and ambassadors; opposing an artful and powerful pope, making peace and war, standing forth the arbiter of the disputes of princes, and the cultivator of the Belles Lettres, furnishing amusement for the people, and giving a reception to the learned Greeks of Constantinople. He died in 1492, leaving two sons, Peter, who held the supreme authority in Florence, at the time that the French made their expedition to Naples; but with much less credit than ei

ther of his predecessors or descendants; and John, who was afterwards pope Leo X.

Such was the foundation of the political consequence of the Medicis family, which, for several centuries, continued to make a very conspicuous figure in the history of Europe.

MENANDER, an ancient Greek comic poet, was born at Athens, about the year 345 B. C. His happiness in introducing the new comedy, and refining an art, which had been so gross and licentious in former times, quickly spread his name over the world. The kings of Egypt and Macedon gave a noble testimony of his merit, sent ambassadors to invite him to their courts, and even fleets to bring him over; but Menander was so much of a philosopher, as to prefer the free enjoyment of his studies to the promised favours of the great. Of his works, which amounted to above an hundred comedies, only four are preserved. The ancients have said high things of Menander; and we find the true masters of rhetoric, recommending his works, as the true paterns of every beauty, and every grace of public speaking. Quintilian declares, that a careful imitation of Menander, alone will supply all the rules which he has laid down in his institutions. It is in Menander that he would have his orator search for a copiousness of invention, for an elegance of expression, and especially for that universal genius, which is able to accomodate itself to persons, things and affections. Menander's wonderful talent at expressing nature in every condition, and under every accident of life, gave occasion to that memorable question of Aristophanes, the grammarian, "O Menander and Nature! which of you copies from the others work." Julius Cæsar has left the loftiest, as well as the justest praise of Menander's works, when he calls Terence, only a half Menander. He died 293 years before Christ.

METIUS, (JAMES) of Alcmaar, in Holland, was the inventor of telescopes with glasses. He frequently observed school boys playing upon the ice, making use of their copy books, rolled up in the shape of tubes, to look at each other, to which they sometimes added pieces of glass, at each end, to view distant objects; which led him to the invention of optic glasses. From so trifling a circumstance, did the invention of one of the most important instruments made use of in astronomy, originate. Metius flourished about the year 1600..

MEZERAY, (FRANCIS EUDES DE) an eminent French historian, was born near Orgentau, in Lower Normandy, in 1610. He early discovered an inclination for the muses, and had so high an opinion of his poetical abilities, that he expected to be able to raise himself both a character and a fortune thereby; but upon going to Paris, he was dissuaded from pursuing poetry by the former præceptor of Louis XIII. and advised to apply himself earnestly to history and politics, as the surest means of succeeding in what he aimed at. In the mean time that gentleman procured him the place of commissary of war, which he held for two or three years and then quitted it. Upon his return to Paris, he resolved to stay there the remainder of his life; in a short time, however, finding his little stock of money, almost exhausted, he was under strong apprehensions of being under the necessity of abandoning his resolution. He, therefore, with a view to support himself, had recourse to writing satires against the ministry; things, which were then extremely well received in that city, and for which he had naturally a turn. By these Mezeray gained a considerable sum in less than three years, and, being now in easy circumstances, he applied himself at the age of twenty-six, to compile an

"History of France," which was received with extraordinary applause, and procured him a pension from the king. In 1668, he published an abridgement of the above history, in which there being several bold passages, which displeased the minister Colbert, the author promised to retract the passages complained of, which he did, in a new edition in 1672; but in such a manner as satisfied neither the public, who were displeased to see the truth altered, nor the minister, who retrenched half his pension. Mezeray was extremely piqued at this, and complained of Colbert in very severe terms, so that, at last, it was entirely taken away from him.

Mezeray was a man subject to strange humours; extremely negligent in his person; and so careless in his dress, that he might have passed for a beggar rather than for what he was. He was actually seized one morning by the parish officers; which mistake, however, was so far from provoking him, that he was highly diverted with it; and told them, " that he was not able to walk on foot, but that as soon as a new wheel was put to his chariot, he would attend them wherever they thought proper." He used to study and write by candle-light, even at noon day in summer; and, as if there had been no sun in the world, always waited upon his company to the door, with a candle in his hand.

He was secretary of the French academy; and it was a constant way with him, when candidates of fered themselves for vacant places in the academy, to throw in a black ball instead of a white one; and when his friends asked him the reason of this unkind procedure, he answered, that "it was to leave to posterity, a monument of the liberty of elections in the academy." As an historian, he is very highly valued for his fidelity in relating facts as he found them, but for this solely; for as to his style, it is neither accurate nor polite.

VOL. III. No. 22.