[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, entitled "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 institutions. Its shipping interests are very large; a ship canal enables the largest ships 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 constituted 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, Goderich, and Wellington; succeeding to the title 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 God's justice, Abraham did homage and paid tithes; a true type of priest as ordained of God, 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 snatched 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.
[Melpomenë], the one of the nine muses which presides over tragedy.