To remove the oppressiveness of melancholy the fol- lowing remedies may be applied : 1, early rising ; 2, plain, nourishing food ; 3, strict temperance ; 4, exer- cise in the open air. Or, if it arises particularly from the mind: 1, associate with the cheerful; 2, study the Scriptures; 3, consider the amiable character of God, and the all-sufficient atonement of his Son ; 4, avoid all sin ; 5, be much in prayer, so as to enjoy the promised presence of the Holy Spirit, the infallible Comforter ; 6, be constantly engaged in such employments as combine the sense of duty and the feelings of benevolence. See Burton, Baxter, and Rogers, On Melancholy ; Cecil, Ee- vuiitis; Fuller, Works; Haslsim, Observations on Madness and Melancholy ; Esquirol, Maladies Mentales, i, 398 ; Crichton, Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Mental Derangement. See also Mind ; ]\Ioxo>ianl\.
Melancthon, Philip, the most noted associate of Luther in the German Reformation.
Life. — Philip was bora at Bretten, then in the Lower Palatinate, but now in the grand-duchy of Baden, Feb. Ifi, 1497. His father, George Schwartzerd, was a skilful armorer, and an earnest, pious man, whose personal worth and success in his art had gained for him the patronage and esteem of many of the princes of Ger- many. His mother, Barbara Reuter, was a frugal, in- dustrious, and energetic woman, the daughter of the burgomaster of the village, and the supposed authoress of several householrl rhymes still popular in Germany. His education was begun, under the superintendence of his grandfather Reuter, at his native place. Among
his earliest teachers was John Unger, to whose thor- oughness Melancthon, in later years, paid the tribute, " He made me a grammarian." Already, under Unger, his quickness of comprehension, the facility with which he memorized, the readiness with which he clearly ex- plained what he knew, his deep interest in his studies, and his eagerness to converse upon them, marked the- young pupil as a boy of rare promise. Upon the death of his grandfather, he was removed in 1508 to Pforz- heim, in Baden, where he attended a Latin school, and made his home with a female relative (according to some authorities, his grandmother), who was a sister of the renowned Reuchlin. Here he became a favorite of this great classical scholar, who presented him with books, and in recognition of his extraordinary attain- ments, according to a custom of the times, translated his German name Schwartzerd into the Greek Melanch- thon (/.itXag, black; x^'^»'» earth)— a name retained throughout his life, although he usually spelled it Me- lanthon ; at present many writers have come to adopt the spelling Melancthon, and, as this is the orthogra- phy of this Cycloptedia, we have conformed to it. In October, 1509, he entered the University of Heidel- berg, where, notwithstanding his extreme j'outh, he soon gained great distinction as a linguist, being known among his fellow-students as "the Grecian." When only a few months over fourteen he received the degree of bachelor of arts, became private tutor to the sons of count Lowenstein, and composed the Greek Grammar which was published several years afterwards. The se- verity of the climate occasioning repeated attacks of fever, and the refusal of the faculty, on account of his youth, to admit him to the master's degree, induced him in 1512 to remove to Tubingen. Here he devoted himself to a wide range of study, embracing Greek and Latin literature, philosophy, history, rhetoric, logic, mathe- matics, medicine, jurisprudence, and theology. In the- ology he attended the lectures of Lempan, and read William Occam. In medicine, he studied Galen with such diligence that he could repeat the most of that au- thor from memori'. In 1514 he received his master's degree, and began to lecture on Virgil and Terence. The next year found him aiding Reuchlin in the con- troversy with the monks. About the same time (1515) Erasmus expressed his unquahfied admiration of the young master's attainments. " What promising hopes does Philip Melancthon give us, who, yet a youth, yes, almost a boy, deserves equal esteem for his knowledge of both languages. What sagacity in argument, what purity of expression, what a rare and comprehensive knowledge, what extensive reading, what delicacy and elegance of mind does he not display 1" Three years later he wrote : " Christ designs this youth to excel us all : he will totaUy eclipse Erasmus." In 151G he lectured on rhetoric, and expounded Livy and Cicero ; and before leaving Tubingen had published his Greek Grammar.
Of the spiritual struggles of Melancthon during this period we know nothing. His great modesty prevented him from giving publicity to the details of his inner history. Whatever was the mode in which God was preparing this chosen vessel for his service we cannot discern, as in the case of Luther, any crisis, marked on the one side by the anguish of felt guilt and agonizing efforts to satisfy God's law, and on the other by rest in the merits of Christ and joy in the assurance of pessonal salvation. From his earliest j-outh God's Spirit s^ems to have sanctified his mind through the principles of the divine Word, which he had made the object of the most conscientious study; so that when he was called to the assistance of Luther, by his personal experience of the grace of God, he had already apprehended tbe great doctrine of justification by faith, which he was summoned to expound and defend. Called in 1518, upon the recommendation of Reuchlin, to the Greek professorship at Wittenberg, he declined, on his way thither, invitations from both Ingolstadt and Leipsic, At his arrival, his boyish appearance, and his timid and