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In 1551, through the interest of some of his pupils, he was set at liberty; and to indemnify him for his sufferings, the King supplied him with money for his current expenses, and promised him preferment. But Buchanan, placing no reliance upon Portuguese faith, embarked on board a Cretan vessel in the harbour of Lisbon, then taking in a cargo for London, and landed in England. The confusion however, which prevailed in the councils of Edward VI. during his minority, not seeming to promise any encouragement to literature, he returned to France in the following year.

IMITATED.

Nymph, sprung from countless kings, whose happy sway Old Caledonia's hardy sons obey!

Whose worth thy years, thy rank whose powers o'erpass,

Thy sex whose spirit, and whose wit thy race:
Accept, propitious, from a Latian tongue,
Strains, which of yore Judæa's monarch sung-
Born from Castalia's spring and Cyrrha far,
Beneath the chill breath of the northern star;
Yet would I not expose these hapless lays,

Or doom to perish what 'twas thine to praise:

Destined perchance from thy bright smile to gain,

What from their master they might hope in vain. F. W.

Of the Psalms, his CIV. in hexameters has been particularly applauded, and I am only restrained by a consideration of it's length from presenting it to the classical reader. This Psalm has received Latin versions from nine Scottish poets, eight of which were printed at Edinburgh with the Poetic Duel' of Dr. George Eglisem and Buchanan, in 1699. The former accused his competitor of bad Latin, and bad poetry, in his translation. The Consilium Collegii Medici Parisiensis de Mania G. Eglisemii, prefixed to the Poetic Duel,' is worth perusing for it's pleasantry. The ninth, by the celebrated Dr. Pitcairne, was published under the name of Walter Daniston. A beautiful version of it, likewise, into English has been executed by Blacklock, a poet of the same nation.

He was now known throughout Europe for his great learning, more particularly for the elegance and correctness of his Latin poetry.* The principal French nobility, therefore, thought it an honour to protect him. This gave him an opportunity of publishing his tragedies of Alcestis, and Jephthes, in the most advantageous manner. In his dedication

of the latter to Charles de Cossi, Mareschal de Brissac, Buchanan pronounced so high an eulogium on the character of that great man,† that in 1555 he received from him an invitation to settle in Piedmont, with a handsome appointment, in quality of preceptor to his son Timoleon. He accepted the offer, and passed five years very agreeably with his pupil; employing his hours of leisure in the study of the Scriptures and polemical authors, with a view of forming his own opinion upon the religious controversies, which at this time agitated Christendom. He was, likewise, occasionally admitted to the Mareschal's secret councils.

Where he passed the two subsequent years, is uncertain but about 1563 he returned to Scotland, where finding the Reformation in a great measure established, he openly declared himself a Protestant.

* A specimen of this he had presented in 1539 to the Emperor Charles V., as he passed through Bourdeaux, in a small complimentary poem, copies of which had been dispersed in Spain and Germany by order of his Imperial Majesty. Scaliger, indeed, pronounced him unum in totâ Europa, omnes post se relinquentem in Latinâ poësi: and this judgement his Elegies, Sylvæ, Hendecasyllables, Iambics, Epigrams, Miscellanies, and Books on the Sphæra, in addition to his works already recorded, abundantly justify.

+ Beside two poems in his Miscellanies, De Amore Cossæi et Aretes and Post captas Vercellas, composed to his honour.

The reception, which he obtained from his countrymen, evinced that they were not incapable of estimating his merits; and the satisfaction with which he spent the remainder of his life among them, after he had enjoyed the society of the most learned men in Europe, is a sufficient proof, that they had made no inconsiderable advances in the acquisition of polite literature. That they were ignorant indeed of arts and civility, and corrupted (as Hume has slanderously affirmed of them) beyond their usual rusticity by a dismal fanaticism, which rendered them incapable of all humanity or improvement,' is an assertion, which argues either inexcusable ignorance or deplorable prejudice.*

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*But the historian was content to slander even his own countrymen, as they were hostile at that time to his idolised Stuarts, though he almost unconsciously pleaded the cause of superstition by so doing, as they were hostile likewise in the highest degree to Popery. See M'Crie II. 17., and Not. E. 297. In the parliament which met in 1543, observes the same intelligent historian, individuals among the nobility and other laymembers discovered more knowledge of Greek, in a debate which occurred, than all the ecclesiastical bench. Foreign writers have been amused with information, stating many of the Scottish clergy to have affirmed, that Martin Luther had lately composed a wicked book called the New Testament; but that they, for their part, would adhere to the Old.' Ignorant however as they were, they were not more so than many on the Continent. A foreign Monk, declaiming one day in the pulpit against Lutherans and Zuinglians, said to his audience; "A new language was invented some time ago, called Greek, which has been the mother of all these heresies. A book is printed in this language, called the New Testament, which contains many dangerous things. Another language is now forming, the Hebrew: whoever learns it, immediately becomes a Jew!" No wonder, after this, that the Commissioners of the Senate of Lucern should have confiscated the works of Aristotle, Plato, and some VOL. I. 20

He was shortly afterward made Principal of St. Leonard's college, in the University of St. Andrew's, where he for some years taught philosophy;* employing his occasional intervals of labour in collecting all his poems, except such as were in the hands of his friends, and of which he had no copies. In 1567 he was, though a layman, elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was, also, appointed by the states of the realm preceptor to the young Prince James VI.; and when, it was afterward observed to him, that he had made. his Majesty a pedant,' he is said to have replied,. that it was the best he could make of him.'‡ When the civil dissensions broke out between Mary. and her subjects, he joined the party in opposition to the Queen, and by the direction of his old pupil the Earl of Murray, then Regent of Scotland, composed. under the title of The Detection' a work containing very severe reflexions upon her character and con

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of the Greek poets, which they found in the library of a friend of Zuinglius; concluding, that every book printed in that language must be infected with Lutheranism. (I. Von Muller's Schw. Gesch. in Hess' Life of Ulrich Zuingle.')

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* He appears, also, to have read divinity-lectures in this seminary; whence Rutherfurd, in his Lex Rex,' calls him a "Doctor of Divinity," and Baillie, in his Historical Vindica

tion,' says

"he had been a preacher at St. Andrew's."

† In this important charge, he had the learned and accomplished Mr. Peter Young for his collegue. To enable Buchanan to discharge it more completely, he was very honourably permitted to nominate a successor to his literary functions at St. Andrew's, upon which occasion he named Patrick Adamson, afterward Archbishop of that see.

Mackenzie relates a story of a hearty whipping, which Buchanan bestowed upon his royal pupil, for having persisted to disturb him while engaged in his private studies.

duct.* For this his memory has been aspersed by such, as have undertaken the more than Herculean labour of exculpating that weak and wicked woman. *

In 1568, Buchanan was chosen one of the Com missioners, who were sent to England to accuse Mary of having been privy to the murther of her husband Lord Darnley; and, upon his return, he had the revenues of the abbey of Cross Raguel (or Royal) assigned to him for life. He was also made Director of the Chancery, one of the Lords of the Council, and finally Lord Privy Seal. Beside all these promotions and emoluments, it is said, that Queen Elizabeth allowed him an annual pension of one hundred pounds.

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The remaining thirteen years of his life he employed, chiefly, in literary pursuits. His two last performances were his 'De Jure Regni apud Scotos, dedicated to James VI. and published in 1579, and his History of Scotland:' both of them by impartial judges esteemed masterly productions; but both, as favouring the principles of democratic government, condemned by the states of the realm. Upon the publication of the History,† indeed, he was cited before

* Beside this, he also wrote an Admonition to the true Lords;' in which he vindicates every thing done or said by himself, or his party, against the Queen. Yet he had been under great obligations to her Majesty, had celebrated her beauty and her merits in some of his poems, and had even composed an epithalamium upon her marriage with Francis II. His arguments were encountered by Adam Blackwood, in a Tract entitled, 'Apologia pro Regibus adversus G. Buchanani Dialogum de Jure Regni, &c.'

This work completely occupied his closing years, and nothing but the most resolute application could have enabled him to finish it; afflicted as he was with extreme ill health,

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