MALLET, Paul-Henri, an eminent historian, was born at Geneva in 1730, of a family distinguished for the great number of notable men whom it has produced. After completing his education with marked success, he became tutor to the Count of Calenberg, and in 1752 was appointed regius professor of belles-lettres in the university of Copenhagen. The duties devolving on Mallet in this position were discharged with signal ability; but as the French language was not much cultivated in Denmark at that time, the number of his auditors was for the most part very limited. He employed his leisure time in the study of the old Norse language, and brought to light many important historical facts respecting the ancient inhabitants of the north, almost entirely unknown to their descendants of Denmark or the Scandinavian peninsula. The reception which his work met among the learned drew upon the professor the attention of the king, who appointed him instructor in the French language and literature to the young prince, afterwards Christian VII. In 1760 Mallet returned to his native city; and after having filled the chair of history in the college of Geneva for four years with distinguished success, he was chosen a member of the Council of the Two Hundred. Unmistakeable marks of admiration flowed in upon Mallet from persons of rank and distinction; from the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, from the Czarina of Russia, and from the Earl of Bute, whose son, Lord Mount-stewart, Mallet accompanied to Italy, and afterwards to England, where he was presented to the royal family, and was asked by the queen to write a history of the House of Brunswick. On returning to his native country, Mallet resolved to spend the evening of his days in studious retirement and tranquillity, when, in 1792, the revolution of Geneva, in which he warmly espoused the cause of the aristocratic party, deprived him of what moderate fortune his talents had purchased. Owing to the events of the war, the pensions which he had received from the English queen and from the landgrave of Hesse ceased to be forthcoming; but the government of France, on being made aware of the circumstance, granted Mallet an allowance, which he did not live long to enjoy. He died at Geneva, of an attack of paralysis, on the 8th of February 1807.
Mallet was an associate of the Academy of Inscriptions of France, a member of the academies of Upsal, Lyons, and Cassel, and of the Celtic Society. His principal works are, — Introduction à l'Histoire de Danemark, ou l'on Traite de la Religion, des Mœurs, des Lois, et des Usages des Anciens Danois, Copenhagen, 1755-56. This work, the most po-
Mallet-
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Malmody.
pular of Mallet's in this country, was translated into English and extended by Bishop Percy in 1770, and has recently been republished, with further additions by Blackwell, in Bohn's Antiquarian Library, under the title of Mallet's Northern Antiquities. The Histoire de Danemark, from A.D. 714 to 1699, Copenhagen, 1758-65-77, 3 vols. 4to; De la Forme du Gouvernement de Suède, avec quelques Pièces Originales, contenant les Lois Fondamentales et le Droit Public de ce Royaume, Copenhagen, 1756, 8vo; Histoire de la Maison de Hesse, 1766-85, 4 vols. 8vo; Histoire de la Maison de Brunswick, 1767-85, 4 vols. 8vo; Des Intérêts et des Devoirs d'un Republicain, par un Citoyen de Raguse, Inverdun, 1770, 8vo; Histoire de la Maison et des Etats de Mecklenbourg, Schwerin, 1796, 1 vol. 4to; it only came down to 1503, and was never finished. Histoire des Suisses ou Helvétiques, Geneva, 1803, 4 vols. 8vo; Histoire de la Ligue Hanseatique, Geneva, 1805, 8vo; Mémoires sur la Littérature du Nord, Copenhagen, 1759-60, 6 vols. 8vo. Also a Traduction du Voyage de WILL. COXE en Pologne, Russie, Suède, et Danemark, Geneva, 1786, 4 vols. 8vo, with the Voyage en Norvège. He also published a new and enlarged edition of the Dictionnaire de la Suisse, by Tscherner, Geneva, 1788, 3 vols. 8vo. (See De la Vie et des Ecrits de P. H. Mallet, by I. C. L. S. Sismondi, Geneva, 1807, 8vo.)