MELI MELO 371 while Julian, intending to make Antioch the central seat of restored paganism, was opposed by Meletius, whom he banished again. He was recalled in 363, and held a council in which Acacius of Csesarea and his adherents adopted the Nicene creed. In 364 Meletius was exiled a third time by the Arians, and was only re- called in 378. The Eustathians during the in- terval had been losing ground, the orthodoxy of Meletius became better known at Rome and Alexandria, and he himself found supporters and advocates in Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory Nazianzen. In 379 he convened in Antioch a council of 144 bishops, who condemned the Apollinarian heresy ; and in 381 he presided at the first general council of Constantinople. He died soon after, and his remains were taken to Antioch and buried in the church of St. Babylas. John Chrysos- tom pronounced over his tomb an eloquent panegyric, Feb. 12, 386, on which day Mele- tius was honored as a saint by the eastern churches ; his name was inserted by Baronius in the Roman martyrology for the same date. MELI, Giovanni, an Italian poet, born in Pa- lermo in 1740, died there, Dec. 20, 1815. He was professor of chemistry at Palermo. His compositions have procured him the titles of "the Sicilian Anacreon" and "the modern Theocritus." A small pension was granted him, and a mausoleum was erected in his honor. He employed the Sicilian dialect, and his love songs especially are extremely popular in Sicily. A complete edition of his poetical works appeared at Palermo in 1814, in 7 vols., and an additional volume was published by Agostino Lallo in 1826. A new edition of his works, in 8 vols., appeared in 1830-'39. MELITA. See MALTA. MELLEN, Grenville, an American poet, born in Biddeford, Me., June 19, 1799, died in New York, Sept. 5, 1841. He graduated at Harvard college in 1818, studied law in Portland, and removed in. 1823 to North Yarmouth, where he engaged in practice. In 1826 he pronounced in Portland before the peace society of Maine a poem on " The Rest of Empires." In 1827 he published a satire entitled " Our Chronicle of Twenty-Six;" in 1828 delivered a poem before a society of Bowdoin college on the "Light of Letters ;" and in 1829 issued a vol- ume of prose entitled "Glad Tales and Sad Tales." " The Martyr's Triumph, Buried Val- ley, and other Poems" was published at Bos- ton in 1833. He resided about five years in Boston, and in New York in 1839 he began a " Monthly Miscellany," which was discon- tinued after a few numbers. His health was always feeble, and he died of consumption after a voyage to Cuba in 1840. MELLIN, Gnstaf Henrik, a Swedish author, born at Revolax, Finland, April 23, 1803. He stud- ied theology at Upsal, and acquired celebrity by numerous historical novels, most of which have been translated into German. He is also the author of many historical and biographical works, including Faderlandets Hittoria, which has had several editions, and a history of Swe- dish literature (1864). MELLONI, Maeedonio, an Italian physicist, born in Parma in 1801, died in Portici, near Naples, Aug. 11, 1853. He was professor of natural philosophy in the university of Parma from 1824 to 1831, when political events compelled him to take refuge in France. Through the efforts of Arago he was appointed a professor in the college of Dole, in the department of the Jura. Going thence to Geneva, he availed himself of the scientific instruments of Prevost and De la Rive to make several important dis- coveries respecting the radiation of heat, which he presented in 1833 to the French academy of sciences. His communication was received coldly, but the discoveries which it embraced subsequently procured him the Rumford med- al from the royal society of London. He was enabled through the influence of Arago and Humboldt to return to Italy, and in 1839 was appointed director of the meteorological obser- vatory then building on Mt. Vesuvius. There he made the discovery of heat in lunar light, which led to the determination of the analogy of radiant heat to light. For his presumed sympathy with liberal principles he was eject- ed from his post in 1849, and retired to a villa near Portici. In 1850 he published the first volume of La termocrasi, o la colorazione ca- lorifica, containing an account of his theory of the "coloration of light," and of his experi- ments on the diffusion of heat by radiation, and particularly of its transmission through trans- parent media. A month before his death he communicated to A. de la Rive the result of his researches in electrical induction. MELMOTfl. I. William, an English author, born in London in 1666, died there, April 6, 1743. He was called to the bar in 1693, and appears to have been treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1730. He is known as the author of "The Great Importance of a Religious Life Considered," of which 100,000 copies were sold. A new edition was privately printed in London in 1849, and presented to the benchers of Lincoln's Inn. II. William, son of the pre- ceding, born in London in 1710, died in Bath, March 15, 1799. He was educated for the bar, but lived chiefly in retirement, and published "Letters on Several Subjects" (2 vols., 1742). MELO, or Mello, Francisco Manuel de, a Portu- guese historian and poet (who wrote in Span- ish), born in Lisbon, Nov. 23, 1611, died there, Oct. 13, 1665. He early became familiar with literature, but entered the army and attained the rank of colonel. When the insurrection against Philip IV. broke out in Catalonia he was sent thither, and at the request of the king he wrote Historia de los movimientos, separation y guerra de Catalufta (Lisbon, 1645 ; 2 vols., Paris, 1832), which ranks as a classic. After the separation of Portugal from Spain, he entered the service of his native country, but was imprisoned under a false accusation of
