McDonnell (William), American novelist, b. 15 Sept. 1824. Author of The Heathens of the Heath and Exeter Hall, ’73, both Freethought romances.
Mackay (Robert William), author of The Progress of the Intellect, 1850, Sketch of the Rise and Progress of Christianity, ’53, and The Tubingen School, ’63.
Mackey (Sampson Arnold), astronomer and shoemaker, of Norwich, who is said to have constructed an orrery out of leather. He wrote The Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients, Norwich, 1822–24, Pious Frauds, ’26, A Lecture on Astronomy and Geology, edited by W. D. Saull, ’32, Urania’s Key to the Revelation, ’33, and The Age of Mental Emancipation, ’36–39. Mackey also wrote the Sphinxiad, a rare book. Died 1846.
Mackintosh (Thomas Simmons), author of The Electrical Theory of the Universe, 1848, and An Inquiry into the Nature of Responsibility. Died 1850.
MacSweeney (Myles), mythologist, b. at Enniskillen 1814. He came to London, and hearing Robert Taylor at the Rotunda in 1830, adopted his views. He held that Jesus never existed, and wrote in the National Reformer, Secular Chronicle, and other papers. He published a pamphlet on Moses and Bacchus in 1874. Died Jan. 1881.
Madach (Imré), Hungarian patriot and poet, b. 21 Jan. 1823, at Sztregova, studied at the University of Buda Pesth, and afterwards lived at Cseszlova. He was in ’52 incarcerated for a year for having given asylum at his castle to a political refugee. He became in ’61 delegate at Pesth. In this year he published his fine poem Az Ember Tragédiája (The Human Tragedy), in which mankind is personified as Adam, with Lucifer in his company. Many Freethought views occur in this poem. Died 5 Oct. 1864. His works were published in 3 vols., 1880.
Maier (Lodewyk). See [Meyer].
Maillet (Benôit de). French author, b. Saint Michiel, 12 April, 1656. He was successively consul in Egypt and at Leghorn; and died at Marseilles, 30 Jan. 1738. After his death was published “Telliamed” (the anagram of his name), in which he maintained that all land was originally covered with water and that every species of animal, man included, owes its origin to the sea.
“Mainlaender” (Philipp), pseudonym of Philipp Batz, German pessimist, author of a profound work entitled the Philosophy of Redemption, the first part of which was published in 1876. It was said that “Mainländer” committed suicide in that year, but the second part of his work has come out 1882–86. He holds that Polytheism gives place to Monotheism and Pantheism, and these again to Atheism. “God is dead, and his death was the life of the world.”
Malherbe (François de). French poet, b. Caen, 1555. He served in the civil wars of the League, and enjoyed the patronage of Henry IV. He was called the prince of poets and the poet of princes. Many stories are told illustrating his sceptical raillery. When told upon his death-bed of paradise and hell he said he had lived like others and would go where others went. Died Paris, 16 Oct. 1628.