,transcriber's ,notes ,irregular or archaic spelling and irregular hyphenation are retained4 ,minor changes to punctuation1 in the index and in section headings1 have been made without comment4 ,footnotes have been moved to the end of the book4 ,in this utf-#h text version of the e-book1 italic typeface is represented by underscores2 small caps typeface by ,,upper ,,case4 ,other notes follow the text4 ,,george ,,buchanan ,,famous ,,scots ,,series ,the following ,volumes are now ready3-- ,,thomas ,,carlyle4 ,by ,,hector ,c4 ,,macpherson4 ,,allan ,,ramsay4 ,by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton4 ,,hugh ,,miller4 ,by ,w4 ,,keith ,,leask4 ,,john ,,knox4 ,by ,a4 ,,taylor ,,innes4 ,,robert ,,burns4 ,by ,,gabriel ,,setoun4 ,,the ,,balladists4 ,by ,,john ,,geddie4 ,,richard ,,cameron4 ,by ,professor ,,herkless4 ,,sir ,,james ,y4 ,,simpson4 ,by ,,eve ,,blantyre ,,simpson4 ,,thomas ,,chalmers4 ,by ,professor ,w4 ,,garden ,,blaikie4 ,,james ,,boswell4 ,by ,w4 ,,keith ,,leask4 ,,tobias ,,smollett4 ,by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton4 ,,fletcher ,,of ,,saltoun4 ,by ,g4 ,w4 ,t4 ,,omond4 ,,the ,,blackwood ,,group4 ,by ,sir ,,george ,,douglas4 ,,norman ,,macleod4 ,by ,,john ,,wellwood4 ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott4 ,by ,professor ,,saintsbury4 ,,kirkcaldy ,,of ,,grange4 ,by ,,louis ,a4 ,,barb4 ,,robert ,,fergusson4 ,by ,a4 ,b4 ,,grosart4 ,,james ,,thomson4 ,by ,,william ,,bayne4 ,,mungo ,,park4 ,by ,t4 ,,banks ,,maclachlan4 ,,david ,,hume4 ,by ,professor ,,calderwood4 ,,william ,,dunbar4 ,by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton4 ,,sir ,,william ,,wallace4 ,by ,professor ,,murison4 ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson4 ,by ,,margaret ,,moyes ,,black4 ,,thomas ,,reid4 ,by ,professor ,,campbell ,,fraser4 ,,pollok ,,and ,,aytoun4 ,by ,,rosaline ,,masson4 ,,adam ,,smith4 ,by ,,hector ,c4 ,,macpherson4 ,,andrew ,,melville4 ,by ,,william ,,morison4 ,,james ,,frederick ,,ferrier4 ,by ,e4 ,s4 ,,haldane4 ,,king ,,robert ,,the ,,bruce4 ,by ,a4 ,f4 ,,murison4 ,,james ,,hogg4 ,by ,sir ,,george ,,douglas4 ,,thomas ,,campbell4 ,by ,j4 ,,cuthbert ,,hadden4 ,,george ,,buchanan4 ,by ,,robert ,,wallace4 ,completed by ,j4 ,,campbell ,,smith4 ,illustration ,,george ,,buchanan ,,by ,,robert ,,wallace ,,completed ,,by ,j ,,campbell ,,smith ,,famous ,,scots ,,series ,,published ,,by ,,oliphant ,,anderson ,,ferrier ,,edinburgh ,,and ,,london ,the designs and ornaments of this volume are by ,mr4 ,joseph ,brown1 and the printing from the press of ,messrs4 ,t4 and ,a4 ,constable1 ,edinburgh4 ,,preface ,the concluding chapter of the book ,i intended to serve the purpose of prologue and epilogue1 but on reflection ,i find that readers both in and out of ,scotland may desire to be told a little more about ,robert ,wallace1 ,m4,a41 ,d4,d41 and ,m4,p41 a collocation of titles of honour1 so far as ,i know1 unexampled4 ,he was a minister of the ,church of ,scotland from the summer of #aheg to the autumn of #ahgf2 was in succession the minister of ,newton-on-,ayr1 of ,trinity ,college ,church1 ,edinburgh1 and of ,old ,greyfriars'1 ,edinburgh1 in which last he succeeded ,dr4 ,robert ,lee1 as also in the leadership of the ,liberal ,party of the ,church of ,scotland4 ,the degree of ,d4,d4 was conferred upon him by the ,university of ,glasgow1 pretty much1 it was believed1 through the influence of ,dr4 ,caird1 the most eloquent preacher and one of the most profound theologians of our day4 ,after ,dr4 ,wallace became editor of the ,scotsman he resigned his chair of ,church ,history1 his church1 and even his licence to preach1 and he left in abeyance the title of ,d4,d41 and became in his time1 as a barrister-at-law1 plain ,mr4 ,robert ,wallace4 ,but the degree of a university is1 ,i believe1 indelible1 and he will always be ,dr4 ,wallace to me4 ,his degree of ,m4,a41 like mine1 was conferred by the ,university of ,st4 ,andrews in ,april #ahec after four years' study1 during which we attended simultaneously every ,humanity class4 ,he was first in every literary class1 and by far the best classical scholar of my day4 ,dr4 ,alexander1 the venerable professor of ,greek1 who had taught for thirty years1 pronounced him the best student he had ever taught4 ,his splendid classical attainments1 the erudition necessary to the chair of ,church ,history1 his extensive and distinguished practice as a debating gladiator in ,church ,courts1 especially the ,general ,assembly1 perhaps even his experience in the solid1 stolid1 non-mercurial ,house of ,commons1 all fitted him1 as few men have been fit1 to do justice to the life1 labours1 and supreme ,european culture of ,george ,buchanan4 ,to equal fitness ,i do not pretend4 ,to the best of my ability ,i have tried to complete the unfinished task of my friend1 with whom ,i at intervals interchanged ideas since the beginning of our college career in ,october #ahdi4 ,i am not sure he would have agreed with all ,i say in the last chapter4 ,for the views expressed therein ,i alone am responsible4 ,from one error in fact and a doubtful assumption as to ,buchanan's relation to ,montaigne1 the #8representative' sceptic1 ,i have been saved by ,dr4 ,p4 ,hume ,brown1 the author of the best life of ,buchanan1 whose knowledge of the history of ,buchanan and his contemporaries is probably unrivalled4 ,he read the proof-sheets1 and for his friendly1 disinterested attention ,dr4 ,wallace's representatives and ,i are greatly obliged to him1 as all readers ought to be1 for they have the assurance that the most enlightened eye on the subject of ,buchanan examined what they are expected to believe4 ,j4 ,,campbell ,,smith4 ,,dundee1 ,december #ahii4 ,,contents ,,chapter ,i ,,page ,,preliminary ,,and ,,general #i ,,chapter ,,ii ,,characteristics #bf ,,chapter ,,iii ,,characteristics 7continued7 #dh ,,chapter ,,iv ,,further ,,characteristics #ff ,,chapter ,v ,,buchanan ,,and ,,calvinism #hi ,,chapter ,,vi ,,biographical ,,facts #aaa ,,epilogistic #ach ,,index #adg ,,george ,,buchanan ,,chapter ,i ,,preliminary ,,and ,,general ,on the #bast ,july #afhc1 ,lord ,william ,russell was beheaded in ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields1 because ,charles ,,ii41 ,f4,d41 who never said a foolish thing1 and never did a wise one1 thought it would help to keep alive the ,stuart doctrine of the ,divine right of kings4 ,on the same day1 the political writings of ,george ,buchanan and one ,john ,milton were1 by decree of the learned and loyal ,university of ,oxford1 publicly burned in front of their ,schools by the common hangman1 because they were regarded as the most formidable and dangerous defences of the principles on account of which it had been considered judicious to kill ,lord ,william ,russell1 and perhaps also in token that if ,buchanan and ,milton had not been dead they might have been burned too1 along with their books4 ,it is comforting to reflect that this same decree was subsequently burned with the same publicity--and by the same common hangman1 one would hope4 ,at the time1 however1 the ,oxford transaction1 in view of the sycophancy1 obscurantism1 and other degrading characteristics of the then ,university1 was the highest compliment that could have been paid to ,buchanan and ,milton1 and especially to ,buchanan4 ,for ,buchanan was substantially a century before ,milton1 who1 like the rest of the ,roundheads1 was inspired by ,buchanan's principles and greatly assisted by his arguments4 ,dryden1 indeed1 declared that ,milton stole his ,defence of the ,people of ,england from ,buchanan's ,de ,jure ,regni apud ,scotos2 but that was only #8,glorious ,john's' inglorious way of making himself controversially disagreeable4 ,milton put his own genius and experience into ,buchanan's idea1 and produced an essentially original work4 ,but what although he had not8 ,milton was fighting a great battle1 and was entitled1 or rather bound1 to use the best weapons1 wherever he could get them4 ,the anti-plagiarising spirit is often a mere form of vanity4 ,if the ,royal ,artillery declined to plagiarise from ,armstrong and ,krupp1 and insisted on making all their ammunition themselves1 ,i should tremble for the defence of the country4 ,not the less1 however1 does ,buchanan amply merit the title of #8,father of ,liberalism1' since the principles which he successfully floated in unpropitious times undoubtedly produced the two great ,english1 the ,american1 and the first ,french ,revolutions1 with all their continuations and consequences4 ,let it be noted that the distinction which ,buchanan achieved in this matter was not merely that of the political philosopher and thinker4 ,the publication of the ,de ,jure1 at the time and under the circumstances in which it appeared1 was a blow of the utmost consequence1 delivered in the great politico-theological struggle with which he was contemporary4 ,it was like one of ,knox's famous sermons1 which were not mere religious meditations1 but political events of the most immense influence1 present and future4 ,the ,reformation1 particularly in ,scotland1 was1 in its inception and establishment1 a political1 quite as much as a religious revolution1 of which ,buchanan was not simply an interested but recluse critic and dilettante spectator4 ,he thought profoundly about what he saw going on1 but he also threw his thoughts into the fight that was raging round him1 with bombshell results1 and the effects of what he thought and did upon the fortunes of the great struggle for popular liberty against usurping ascendency--a struggle not even yet concluded--prove him to have possessed qualities of far-sightedness and statesmanship of the highest order4 ,in a totally different walk of life he achieved almost equal distinction4 ,he was a great scholar-poet and general writer2 and when1 in this connection1 ,i use the words #8almost equal1' ,i am thinking of the question whether the director of human affairs or the artist in words and ideas of beauty or human interest is the greater4 ,of course1 comparison of things or people generically distinct is scarcely possible4 ,you can hardly compare a snuff-box and a policeman4 ,but it seems less difficult to ask whether ,csar or ,shakespeare1 ,alfred the ,great or ,alfred ,tennyson1 was the greater man4 ,however that may be1 there can be no doubt that ,buchanan rose to very great eminence as an intellectual artist1 both in prose and verse4 ,he enjoyed an unsurpassed ,european reputation among the ,renaissance magnates of his day4 ,henri ,estienne1 for instance1--,buchanan's ,stephanus1 our ,stephens--said that he was poetarum nostri sculi facile princeps1 meaning thereby #8easily the first poet of our time1' which is sufficiently strong4 ,of course it may be said that ,estienne or ,stephens was only a printer4 ,but there are printers and printers1 and ,stephanus belonged to the second class4 ,anybody who knows anything about the literary history of the time will understand that such praise from ,estienne implied a very great deal4 ,then there were the ,scaligers1 ,julius ,csar pre1 and ,joseph fils1 a greater man than his father1 in the opinion of the best judges--himself included1 probably4 ,they were not men easy to please1 the ,scaligers4 ,even ,erasmus was not good enough for ,julius ,csar1 who used language truly awful about the glory of the priesthood and the shame4 ,as for ,joseph1 there was but one man alive in his own line for whom he had a vestige of respect1 and that was ,casaubon2 and he told him so1 intimating that he might think a good deal of the compliment1 as he1 ,joseph1 was the only man in ,europe who was capable of forming an opinion about him--a perfectly true if not absolutely humble observation4 ,but however difficult to please in most cases1 the ,scaligers had a sincere and unbounded admiration of ,buchanan--an admiration abundantly shown while he lived1 and when he was gone1 expressed1 especially by the younger ,scaliger1 with a tenderness and beauty which stamp the tribute with authority and value4 ,his epitaphium on ,buchanan concluded thus3-- #8,namque ad supremum perducta ,poetica culmen ,in te stat1 nec quo progrediatur habet4 ,imperii fuerat ,romani ,scotia limes2 ,romani eloquii ,scotia finis erit4' ,anybody with a fair understanding of ,latin and a full understanding of epigram1 who reads the last couplet here1 will know that ,scaliger was perfectly qualified to pronounce a judgment in the matter4 ,for the benefit of the man in the street1 it may be stated that what ,scaliger was driving at was that ,buchanan had brought poetry to a pitch of perfection beyond which it could not go2 and that as ,scotland had in the past been the last line of expansion for the ,roman ,empire1 so in the future it would1 in the person of ,buchanan1 be found to have given the highest note of ,roman eloquence4 ,of course it may be said that this was only the customary and privileged lie of the epitaph2 but that it was really ,scaliger's deliberate opinion appears from a well-known quotation from his table-talk1 that #8in ,latin poetry ,buchanan stands alone in ,europe1 and leaves everybody else behind4' ,coming to more modern times1 it will probably be admitted that ,wordsworth knew good poetry when he saw it1 and he says of one of ,buchanan's poems--by no means his best--that it was equal in sentiment1 if not in elegance1 to anything in ,horace4 ,this he said before a pedantic relative pointed out a false quantity4 ,what he would have felt had he known this before he read the poem1 ,schoolmaster only knows4 ,what the latter potentate would have done we may partly surmise from what ,porson actually did when some one got him to commence reading ,buchanan's poetry and he stumbled up against a false quantity1 or what he regarded as such4 ,he at once got up and pitched the volume across the room in disgust1 probably with an accompaniment of expressions not loud but deep4 ,regarding which behaviour1 two remarks seem natural4 ,the first is that possibly ,buchanan was right and ,porson wrong4 ,at ,eton1 as is well known1 ,porson was a poor quantitarian1 and fell behind in consequence4 ,he may have made up his leeway afterwards1 but not likely1 and certainly his line of scholarship was not in the direction of ,latin ,prosody4 ,but suppose ,buchanan were wrong1 what then8 ,is ,shakespeare to be flung into the corner because many of his lines will not scan8 ,an indignant critic of the ,agamemnon has discovered1 what ,i believe is the fact1 that in that play schylus has violated ,dawes's canon4 ,yet everybody that can reads the ,agamemnon4 ,dr4 ,johnson points out that ,milton uses the hideous solecism vapulandum4 ,only think of it6 ,and yet we read ,paradise ,lost4 ,perhaps ,porson did too1 knowing nothing of vapulandum6 ,johnson was no such stickler1 for he read and enjoyed ,milton1 vapulandum notwithstanding4 ,he had also the highest opinion of ,buchanan1 both as a ,latinist and as #8a great poetical genius1' and his authority on such matters1 being both poet and critic himself1 is much greater than ,porson's1 great though the latter was in his own department of research4 ,hallam is inclined to qualify the almost universal admiration of ,buchanan's poetry1 but one begins to doubt ,hallam's judgment in this matter when he finds him preferring ,buchanan's ,de ,sphra to the rest of his poetry4 ,the ,sphere may contain exquisite isolated passages #8equal to ,virgil1' as the enthusiastic ,guy ,patin maintained1 but it is not properly a poem at all4 ,it is really a versified and very lame defence of the exploded ,ptolemaic ,astronomy1 totally destitute of the human interest which inspires so much else that ,buchanan wrote4 ,on his own field of history ,hallam is more of an authority1 and here his admiration of ,buchanan is unstinted and unequivocal4 ,he extols the #8perspicuity and power' of the ,history of ,scottish ,affairs1 recognises the #8purity' of its diction1 and affirms that few writings of the ,latinists are #8more redolent of the antique air1' and is almost as emphatic in his eulogy as ,dryden1 when the latter says of ,buchanan1 #8our isle may justly boast in him a writer comparable to any of the moderns1 and excelled by few of the ancients4' ,froude might be cited to the same effect1 but enough has been said to establish ,buchanan's fame and power in the world of letters4 ,of course1 care must be taken to distinguish the precise character of ,buchanan's scholarship4 ,he was not a scholar in the sense that ,casaubon1 or ,porson1 or ,liddell and ,scott were scholars4 ,that is to say1 he was not a classical antiquarian1 or philologist1 or grammarian1 although he knew antiquities and such philology as was going1 and had refurbished or even made a grammar or two as he went along4 ,but he used these simply as instruments to his main aim as a scholar1 which was to write as good ,latin as ,virgil1 or ,livy1 or ,horace1 or ,tacitus4 ,there is nothing absurd or impossible in such an aim4 ,i have heard ardent ,aberdonians maintain that the late ,dr4 ,melvin of their city wrote better ,latin than ,cicero1 and1 apart from the matter1 ,i am quite ready to believe it4 ,that ,buchanan as good as accomplished his purpose we have already seen4 ,and be it remembered that all this cultivation of a ,latin style was not mere dilettante work on his part4 ,he and one ,sturm of ,strasbourg1 along with other ,humanists1 had formed the design of making ,latin the vernacular of ,europe1 and actually believed that it would ultimately become such4 ,hence they had a twofold purpose in writing ,latin4 ,they desired to forward this reform of a universal language1 and they wished to be intelligible to a ,latin-speaking posterity4 ,i state this on the authority of ,dr4 ,p4 ,hume ,brown1 the well-known author of ,george ,buchanan1 ,humanist and ,reformer1 and ,i should not advise any one rashly to contradict ,dr4 ,brown on any ,buchanan matter4 ,he seems to me to have mastered the entire subject1 and to have left very little for subsequent research to do1 unless some lucky #8find' of new sources should occur4 ,i have been able to glean nothing from any quarter that ,i have not found already known to ,dr4 ,brown1 and recorded by him1 unless it be some such small fact as the presence of ,joseph ,scaliger in ,edinburgh in #aeff1 along with his friend ,chastaigner1 but not expressly to see ,buchanan2 and other little things of that sort4 ,i do not pretend to contribute any fresh ,buchanan materials4 ,my object is the humble1 but not1 ,i hope1 useless one of boiling down ,dr4 ,brown and the other scientific biographers1 and attempting a brief popular presentation of what ,buchanan was and did4 ,another proof of the varied power of ,buchanan is found in the storm he raised as a controversialist1 in the still burning question as to the guilt or innocence of ,mary ,queen of ,scots4 ,in #aega1 four years after the ,scottish people had deposed their sovereign1 ,buchanan published a pamphlet1 or what in these days would probably have taken the shape of a magazine article1 with the title ,detectio ,mari ,regin1 i4e4 ,the ,detection or ,exposure of ,queen ,mary1 or as an editor of to-day would have been sure to head it1 ,the ,truth about the ,queen4 ,buchanan's object in this publication is to vindicate the ,scottish people and their leaders before the public opinion of ,europe for having1 after the murder of ,darnley1 brought ,mary's career as sovereign to a close1 as being not only a public danger1 but a public scandal4 ,that the vigour of the brochure itself1 backed up by ,buchanan's immense reputation1 went far to make ,mary an impossible factor in ,european politics1 is beyond question4 ,to the same extent he made himself the bte noire of ,mary's friends and apologists1 and very brutal and very black they certainly made him out to be4 ,in more recent times a school of sentimental historians has arisen1 who refuse to see in ,mary either fault or flaw1 and recognise in her a sort of spotless goddess1 of irresistible charm1 thrown away upon an unworthy age4 ,not content with pity--it would be inhuman not to feel it in any case--they show how true it is that pity is akin to love1 and falling victims in some degree to the spell which ruined the unhappy and love-maddened ,chastelard1 they conduct a necessarily ,platonic flirtation with their idol's romantic and fascinating memory1 across the separating interval of three hundred years4 ,had ,mary been ugly1 or even plain1 she would have had fewer champions4 ,in vituperation of ,buchanan they are not a whit behind his contemporary assailants4 ,mr4 ,hosack1 for instance1 one of the most ingenious of ,mary's modern defenders1 calmly says1 #8,buchanan was without doubt the most venal and unscrupulous of men4' ,his usual way of alluding to the ,detectio is #8,buchanan's famous libel1' varied occasionally by #8the highly coloured narrative of ,buchanan1' or #8the subsequently invented slanders of ,buchanan1' or #8the slanderous narrative of ,buchanan1' or #8the atrocious libel of ,buchanan4' ,sir ,john ,skelton1 whose treatment of the subject is distinguished by a literary grace which cannot be claimed for ,mr4 ,hosack1 is on a level with him when he reaches ,buchanan4 #8,buchanan's atrocious libel' is common form with the ,marians1 and ,sir ,john has it4 ,perhaps his gentlest reference is when he speaks of #8the industrious animosity of the man who had been her pensioner1' and when he desires to be specially severe1 he speaks of #8grotesque adventures invented1 or at least adapted1 by ,buchanan1 whose virulent animosities were utterly unscrupulous1 and whose clumsy invective was as bitter as it was pedantic4' ,the present is not the place to inquire into the truth or falsehood of these statements4 ,they are adduced merely as a tribute to ,buchanan's power4 #8,woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you1' does not logically justify the counter statement1 #8,good for you when all men shall speak ill of you'2 but when a controversialist has been abused by his opponents as ,buchanan has been1 it is at least a proof that he has been found a formidable antagonist1 either for his ability or veracity1 or both1 and that in the direct ratio of the violence with which they attack him4 ,one other aspect of ,buchanan's varied power seems to call for some mention4 ,up to the middle of this century1 a chapbook usually entitled ,the ,witty and ,entertaining ,exploits of ,george ,buchanan1 sometimes adding ,the ,king's ,jester1 ran through many editions original and revised1 and had a certain vogue all over ,scotland among a considerable class--not the most refined1 certainly--of the population4 ,it is an ignorant1 coarse1 and indecent production1 and can be read only by the historical student for the purpose of investigating the popular taste of its time4 ,its description of ,buchanan as the #8,fule' instead of the tutor of ,king ,james1 and its placing him at the ,english court of ,james1 who did not ascend the throne of ,england until ,buchanan had been twenty-one years dead1 are sufficient commentary on its historical accuracy4 ,at first sight one might imagine that it had been put together by an enemy of ,buchanan1 but its brutish zeal in holding up ,buchanan as a desperately clever fellow who was continually turning the tables and raising the laugh against people who wished to take him off1 and who were generally ,english1 and often ,english nobles1 bishops or other clergy1 show that it was earnest in its admiration according to its dim and dirty lights4 ,buchanan was a humorist1 and saw the ludicrous side of existence with a depth and keenness and enjoyment very different from the barbarian faculty which produced the #8merry bourds' of ,knox and certain of his iconoclastic cronies4 ,even the prospect of having soon to leave the world could not make him utterly solemn1 although the circumstances lend a grim aspect to the humour which may make it distasteful to wooden seriousness4 #8,tell the people who sent you1' he said to the macer of the ,court of ,session1 who came to summon him for something objectionable in some of his writings1 #8tell them ,i am summoned before a higher tribunal4' ,when good ,john ,davidson called on him and reminded him of the usual evangelical consolations1 he repaid him with some original causticity propos of the ,romish doctrine of the ,mass1 which would no doubt delight that worthy man4 ,he never had much money at any time1 and less than usual at the close2 and when1 on counting it up with his attendant1 he found that there was not enough to bury him1 he directed it to be given to the poor4 ,but #8what about the funeral8' naturally asked the servitor4 #8,well1' ,buchanan said1 #8he was very indifferent about that1' as he meditated on the dilemma in which he saw he was placing the people of ,edinburgh1 who had not been over kind to the greatest scholar of the age4 #8,if they will not bury me1' he said1 #8they can let me lie where ,i am1 or throw my body where they like4' ,of course1 as he knew1 they had to bury him1 so he could enjoy his posthumous triumph of wit2 but they had their repartee1 denying him a gravestone for a generation or two4 ,there is a weird humour in the famous interview between himself on the one hand and the ,melvilles1 ,andrew and ,james1 on the other1 who had crossed from ,st4 ,andrews to ,edinburgh to see him shortly before he passed away4 ,they found him teaching his young attendant his a b1 ab4 ,andrew ,melville1 amused by the spectacle of the greatest scholar in ,europe engaged in so disproportionate a task1 made a suitable observation4 #8,better this than stealing sheep1' quoth ,buchanan1 or #8than being idill1' he added1 which latter he maintained to be as bad as the stealing of sheep4 ,then the conversation wandered to his ,history1 which was by this time in the hands of the printer4 ,the ,melvilles noticed in the proofs the well-known and ugly story of ,mary's having got ,rizzio's body removed to the tomb of ,james ,v4 ,they suggested that the king might take offence at this reflection on his mother's memory1 and that the publication might be stopped4 #8,tell me1' said the dying historian1 #8if it is true4' ,they said they thought so4 #8,then ,i will bide his feud1 and all his kin's1' was the answer4 ,there was1 no doubt1 a dash of the heroic in this1 but there was a chuckle in it too1 as the speaker reflected that the king who had neglected him1 and whom he had flogged for persistent boyish insolence1 according to the pedagogic fashion of the time1 would once more have his pride humbled at his hands when he was gone4 ,no story was better known in ,scotland than his correction of the king1 and his now unrepeatable sarcasm in reply to the ,countess of ,mar's haughty demand how he1 a mere man of learning1 could dare to lift his hand upon the ,lord's anointed4 ,it tickled the popular mind1 and along with other reports of ,buchanan's fun--for it is not to be supposed that his table-talk with the ,scaligers1 or even with ,knox1 was wholly funereal in character--indeed we know it was not--formed a sort of ,buchanan myth1 to which every witling who thought he had invented a good thing1 and wanted to get it listened to by fathering it on a well-known name--a device not yet extinct--would contribute further bulk1 although not more ornament4 ,in this way an idea of ,buchanan as a man of mirth and facetiousness#a would take root and spread in the public consciousness1 and as the people could not get at the real ,buchanan for his ,latin1 they formed a picture of him according to their own uncivilised conceptions4 ,hence the chapbooks--a hideous reflection from a cracked and distorted mirror1 but still showing that there was something to reflect4 ,such was ,buchanan1 political thinker1 practical statesman1 poet1 scholar1 historian1 controversialist1 humorist1 and great in all these diverse directions--certainly a personality worth knowing in greater detail4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,characteristics ,buchanan's life1 like the lives of most people who have done anything worth speaking of in their time1 divides itself roughly into two sections--the period of preparation1 and the period of performance4 ,what ,i shall call his period of performance1 or at all events chief performance1 was from the time when he finally returned to ,scotland1 after an absence abroad1 with brief interruptions1 of twenty-two years1 and spent the remaining twenty-one years of his life in more or less intimate occupation with the public affairs of his country4 ,on the #aith of ,august #aefa1 ,queen ,mary1 then in her nineteenth year1 landed at ,leith1 and was escorted to ,holyrood by her enthusiastic subjects1 by whom she was also serenaded at night in a style which1 as the queen's ,french retinue thought1 showed more heart than art4 ,shortly before or after this date1 ,buchanan1 now fifty-five years old1 also appeared in ,scotland1 for his final settlement there4 ,it is a curious coincidence that these two persons1 eminent alike in their widely divergent spheres1 and destined alternately to a literary friendship that was pleasant to both1 and a political antagonism that was fatal to one of them1 should have appeared on the scene of their sympathies and conflicts practically at the same time4 ,i have said that the division of ,buchanan's life into a period of preparation and a period of performance is a rough division4 ,by that ,i mean that what really deserves to be called performance could not be absolutely excluded from the preparation period1 and that1 to some extent1 one stage of the performance period was often a preparation for the next2 but taken with this qualification1 the division is a sufficiently valid one4 ,it was1 for instance1 mainly during the preparation or foreign period that ,buchanan wrote those poems which stamped him not only as a man of wit and poetic genius1 but as the first ,latin stylist in ,europe of his day4 ,during this period1 too1 he acquired from classic and other sources those broad and comprehensive ideas on the leading questions of the day which made him the thinker and ,humanist as contrasted with the mere cleric or scholastic obscurantist4 ,it was then also that1 through observation on the spot1 he was able to comprehend the #8true inwardness' of the struggle that was going forward between the old order of things and the new1 and often give practical advice that was useful4 ,in this period1 too1 he completed that thorough study of the ,roman and ,protestant controversy which ended in determining him to identify himself publicly with the ,protestant side in the great conflict that was on foot--in itself no inconsiderable event4 ,all this was undoubtedly performance of no mean order1 but from the ,scottish national point of view1 and from the point of view of general history1 on which the special ,scottish history exerted so profound an influence1 it was preparatory to the great work he did in his native land4 ,his ,latin and his various ,continental activities are forgotten1 but his ,scottish work is still memorable4 ,yet it was because he was the great ,humanist and unequalled ,latinist1 as well as the thinker and experienced observer of affairs1 that he was able to command the ear of learned and diplomatic ,europe1 and through them to make the events that were happening in his country a factor in the world's history4 ,his foreign performance was therefore1 in reality1 a preparation for his crowning performance at home4 ,i shall not labour the point of one stage of his performance being preparatory to another4 ,of course ,i do not mean to say that ,buchanan did all this consciously and systematically2 that he deliberately prepared abroad1 and then came and deliberately performed at home4 ,few men1 especially men of ,buchanan's type1 shape their lives on such lines of exact and exhaustive purpose4 ,i leave out of account the unhappily large class who foolishly1 and even wickedly1 throw away their lives1 and have hardly ever tried or desired to make a better of it4 ,i confine myself to those who do get something out of life for themselves or society1 or both4 ,but ,i doubt if any1 beyond a small minority even of this class1 begin life with a distinct aim at reaching what they end life by becoming4 ,there is1 of course1 the famous case of ,whittington1 who set himself in cold blood to become ,lord ,mayor of ,london4 ,but for one ,whittington there have been centuries of ,lord ,mayors who never dreamt of the ,mansion ,house when they started business in the ,city4 ,the glory and the turtle came upon them1 virtually unsolicited2 and even ,whittington would probably not have addressed himself as he did to his high achievement1 had it not been for the unique campanula of inspiration caught by his ear alone4 ,probably ,napoleon early laid his plans for attaining the mastership of ,france1 possibly of ,europe2 but did ,csar begin life with a determination to conquer ,rome and become its dictator1 or ,cromwell with a sketch-plan for cutting off his king's head1 cashiering his country's parliament1 and making himself ,lord ,protector and military despot8 ,millionaires are seldom so of set design4 ,they begin1 most probably1 by aiming at a competent fortune1 but having got that length1 the acquired delight in pulling the strings of an extensive and possibly adventurous undertaking1 and not mere miserly greed1 has kept them at a task which they find they can perform1 until the millions roll in as a justification of their ideas and processes4 ,in politics and the professions men probably set out with a general aim at the best position and the most money they can make for themselves2 but very few1 ,i should imagine1 of those who have reached the greatest eminence or prosperity possible to them said in their youth1 #8,i mean to be ,prime ,minister1 or ,lord ,chancellor1 or ,archbishop of ,canterbury1 or ,president of the ,royal ,college of ,physicians1 or of the ,royal ,academy4' ,buchanan seems to have belonged to a type of character which does not include either of the classes of persons just considered4 ,neither cupidity nor ambition nor any of the ordinary self-aggrandising motives seems to have had much1 if any1 place in his character4 ,apostrophising ,buchanan in his ,funeral ,elegy1 ,joseph ,scaliger says3-- #8,contemptis opibus1 spretis popularibus auris1 ,ventosque fugax ambitionis1 obis4' #8,despising wealth1 spurning the mob's applause1 and shunning vain ambition1 thou passest away4' ,this was literally true4 ,buchanan lived from hand to mouth during the greater part of his career4 ,but there is no evidence that he ever tried to make a fortune4 ,he might have prospered in the ,church1 as ,dunbar was willing to do4 ,but he had ideas of his own on that subject1 and neither gold nor dignities could tempt him to sell his soul4 ,begging ,letter-,writer ,he was often #8hard up1' but it does not appear to have depressed his spirits4 ,indeed1 he is never sprightlier1 more epigrammatically witty1 or more genially humorous than when he is what some of us might call #8begging' from some wealthy friend who could appreciate his genius and accomplishments4 ,here1 for instance1 is a #8begging letter' to ,queen ,mary1 in the days when they were still friends1 and read ,livy1 and doubtless indulged in fencing-matches of wit together3-- #8,do quod adest3 opto quod abest tibi3 dona darentur ,aurea1 sors animo si foret qua meo4 ,hoc leve si credis1 paribus me ulciscere donis3 ,et quod abest1 opta tu mihi3 da quod adest4' ,which may be literally1 or nearly so1 according #8to the best of my knowledge and belief1' as the affidavits say3-- #8,to you ,i give what ,i do have3 for you ,i wish what you don't have3 ,golden1 indeed1 would be my gifts1 were ,fortune equal to my will4 ,if you should chance to think this levity1 in equal levities have your revenge3 ,for me wish you what ,i don't have3 to me give you what you do have4' ,dr4 ,hume ,brown puts it neatly into rhyme thus3-- #8,i give you what ,i have3 ,i wish you what you lack3 ,and weightier were my gift1 were fortune at my back4 ,perchance you think ,i jest8 ,a like jest then ,i crave3 ,wish for me what ,i lack1 and give me what you have4' ,take another in the same strain3-- #8,ad ,jacobum1 ,moravi ,comitem4 #8,si magis est1 ut ,christus ait1 donare beatum1 ,quam de munifica dona referre manu3 ,aspice quam faveam tibi3 sis ut dando beatus1 ,non renuo fieri1 te tribuente1 miser4' #8,to ,james1 ,earl of ,moray4 #8,if1 as ,christ says1 it is more blessed to give than to receive gifts from a munificent hand1 just see what a favour ,i am doing you3 that you may be blessed in giving1 ,i am ready to play miserable receiver to your happy donor4' ,or1 to cite ,dr4 ,brown again3-- #8,it is more blest1 saith ,holy ,writ1 to give than to receive3 ,how great1 then1 is your debt to me1 who take whate'er you give6' ,with equally humorous familiarity he sends in an application1 #8,ad ,matthum ,levini ,comitem1 ,scoti ,proregem' 7,to ,matthew1 ,earl of ,lennox1 ,regent of ,scotland'74 ,i quote only the concluding couplet3-- #8,denique da quidvis1 podagram modo deprecor unam3 ,munus erit medicis aptius illa suis4' ,that is-- #8,to be brief1 give me whatever you like--only1 not your gout4 ,that will be a more appropriate fee for the doctors who are trying to cure it4' ,or to fall back on ,dr4 ,brown's translation once more3-- #8,since ,i am poor and you are rich1 what happy chance is thine6 ,my modest wishes1 too1 you know--one nugget from your mine6 ,only1 whatever be your gift1 let it not be your gout3 ,that1 a meet present for your leech1 ,i'd rather go without4' ,these are merely samples of many communications1 similar in object and style1 which he addressed1 at various periods of his life1 to quarters where he thought they would not be ill-taken4 ,as a rule1 he supported himself by #8regenting' in colleges1 or acting as tutor in royal or noble families4 ,it was only when he could not make a better of it that he asked ,society1 through its most likely magnates1 to give him something #8to go on with4' ,what else could he do8 ,carlyle's description of ,thackeray as #8writing for his life' could never have applied to ,buchanan4 ,literature was not yet a profession or #8bread-study4' ,it was not till next century that ,milton got #e for ,paradise ,lost2 and even ,shakespeare made his money less as a writer than as a showman4 ,the idea of ,buchanan or ,erasmus--a much more importunate beggar than ,buchanan--going into business1 say the wine or the wool trade1 would have been absurd4 ,they would have ruined any house that adopted them in two or three years1 to say nothing of the indecency of allowing intellectual leaders of high genius to be lost in work which could be much better done by humbler men4 ,there was nothing else for it1 in ,buchanan's case1 but to do as he did4 ,of course1 in this age of contract and commerce1 we are apt to associate an idea of meanness and pitifulness with the conduct of ,buchanan and ,erasmus and others in this matter4 ,our first feeling is that nobody should give any other body anything except according to bargain4 ,every man should be independent1 and if he asks anything outside a contract1 he might as well go bankrupt at once4 ,he must clearly be a weakling1 and the weak must go to the wall4 ,the feudal sentiment1 however1 amidst which ,buchanan lived1 was entirely different1 and had a nobler side than ours1 although one does not want feudalism back merely on that account4 ,kings and lords took everything to themselves1 in the shape of power and possession1 that they could lay their hands on2 but it was on the understanding that they were to make a generous use of what they had appropriated4 ,noblesse oblige was still a maxim with vitality in it4 ,the right men acknowledged it1 and acted on it2 the ruffians1 as their manner is1 wherever they are placed in life1 ignored it4 ,patronage was not an act of grace3 it was a duty4 ,it was part of the honourable service to society1 by which the patron's tenure of his prosperity was conditioned4 ,more particularly must this duty have been recognised by right-minded possessors of power and wealth who had felt the influence of the ,renaissance1 that mighty and far-reaching effort of the human intellect to assert its freedom and its varied energies against the narrowing and obscurantist influences of scholasticism1 reduced to its then existing state of enslavement1 often against its better knowledge and attempts at self-emancipation1 by ,ecclesiastical authority1 wielding the weapon of ,papal and ,conciliar decree1 sanctioned by fire and faggot4 ,then there was still the tradition of hospitality which the ,old ,church1 with all its faults1 had kept up4 ,in these contractual days of ours1 there is very little hospitality1 as it was defined by the ,author of ,christianity4 ,a modern dinner is generally a meeting of creditors1 or a combination of clever or stupid epicureans1 the better to amuse or otherwise enjoy themselves1 according to their tastes in meat and drink1 or even conversation4 ,it is often a case of undisguised #8treating' on the part of the so-called host1 who wants to use his so-called guests for a purpose1 and whose performance might very appropriately go into a schedule to some of the ,bribery and ,corruption ,acts4 ,but in the days of the ,old ,church1 a wandering or needy scholar would have been welcomed at many1 if not all1 of the religious houses1 and treated on a very different footing from our applicants for relief at the casual wards of one of our workhouses1 probably the only institution resembling ,christian hospitality authorised by modern organised society4 ,this latter may be a better arrangement1 for anything ,i know to the contrary4 ,all ,i say is that it is different from what was recognised in ,buchanan's day4 ,it would never occur to ,buchanan that he was doing anything inconsistent with self-respect in putting his position before people like ,queen ,mary1 or ,moray1 or ,lennox1 and asking their temporary aid or a permanent office4 ,they had taken over the wealth of the religious houses2 did not their hospitalities pass with it8 ,they had divided up the country among themselves and others2 were they not honourably bound to see that a great civilising force like ,buchanan was not extinguished8 ,besides1 he understood his own value4 ,a man is not six feet six inches high without being aware of it4 ,he knew what he was1 and what he had made himself1 and what he was worth1 and that he was giving as good as he was getting1 or likely to get4 ,in those days a great master of the ,new ,learning was an object of the highest admiration1 as a sort of intellectual ,magician4 ,moreover1 he was a power1 in as far as he was a leader of contemporary thought and learning4 ,in these respects ,buchanan was an invaluable acquisition to persons like ,mary1 or ,moray1 or ,lennox1 or ,knox1 who must have winked at a good deal in ,buchanan1 which he would not have stood in a less potent ally4 ,in his prime1 and even until his death1 no one had an equal command over the universal ear of cultured ,europe4 ,to the rulers of his time he was worth what1 say1 fifty friendly editors of newspapers--including the ,times and all the sixpenny weeklies1 as far as they are worth anything would be to a politician of to-day4 ,to ,queen ,mary especially1 with her refined intellectual tastes and her ambition to be a figure in the world1 it was no small matter to have the greatest and most brilliant scholar-poet of the day as a part of her court1 whether he read ,livy and exchanged wit with herself1 or officiated as her poet-laureate on great occasions4 ,as a mere ornament he was worth a considerable fraction of her best diamond necklace4 ,i am dwelling on this point because it will save time and trouble afterwards1 and accordingly ,i ask further if ,edie ,ochiltree1 in later times1 and in a less feudalistic state of public sentiment1 could beg round the district1 without loss of respect1 on the strength of his badge and uniform1 testifying to past good service in his time and station1 why should not an eminent public servant like ,buchanan1 in a totally different state of general feeling on such matters1 ask society1 through representatives of it who1 he knew1 should not and would not treat him roughly1 to help him in prosecuting his shining and useful career8 ,he had done a good work on the ,high ,street of the ,world4 ,he had sung it a song or played it a melody such as it would hear nowhere else4 ,was he not entitled to send round his hat among the listeners8 ,is it not what is done by every book-writer of to-day1 who1 when the last page is finished1 sends out a confederate in the shape of a publisher to canvass the public--for a consideration--with the book in one hand and the hat in the other8 ,is it not what is done1 inter alia1 by every ,parliamentary lawyer1 who goes into the ,house of ,commons to grind his axe1 when the fitting occasion arises1 and he says to his party leader1 #8,i have fought two general elections for you4 ,i have spoken for you unnumbered times in the ,house and on the platform4 ,i have voted for you1 up hill and down dale1 through thick and thin1 right or wrong1 and now ,i will trouble you for that ,chancellorship1 or that ,chief-,justiceship1 or that ,attorney-,generalship1 or that ,puisne or ,county ,court ,judgeship that has just fallen vacant'8 ,except that ,buchanan and his work were not shams1 but realities1 the cases are the same4 ,buchanan's enemies say that in accepting maintenance or preferment he sold his independence to the donors1 and when it is answered that he showed anything but want of independence in the case of ,queen ,mary and others1 whom he subsequently came to oppose in the public interest1 they tack about and accuse him of the basest ingratitude--in biting the hand that fed him1 as they put it4 ,it is as if in these days ,sir ,gorgias ,midas1 ,m4,p41 were to say to some editor who had noticed a speech of his unfavourably1 #8,ungrateful scribbler1 have ,i not1 over and over again1 dined you and wined you with the best that larder and cellar can produce1 and do you now turn and rend me8' ,there have been editors who would have answered1 #8,presumptuous moneybag1 ,i suppose ,i paid fully for my dinner with my company1 and ,i am perfectly free to criticise you as you deserve4' ,buchanan stood equally free in his relations to his patrons4 ,from the personal point of view1 whether his connection were regarded as an ornament1 a pleasure1 or a utility1 his alliance was worth his subsidy4 ,from the public point of view it was their duty1 as trustees for the public property and progress1 to maintain a great civiliser like ,buchanan in a position where his powers had scope1 while it was ,buchanan's privilege and duty to exercise his creative and critical capacities in the public interest without fear or favour4 ,and this1 as will be seen1 is what ,buchanan substantially did4 ,knox and ,melville repeatedly reminded ,queen ,mary and ,king ,james that there was another kingdom in the realm besides theirs--the kingdom of ,christ1 to wit--and suggested1 or rather demanded1 that their ,majesties should not meddle with officials of this spiritual kingdom like themselves1 the said ,knox and ,melville4 ,this claim they rested on a supernatural1 and therefore disputable1 basis4 ,but there could be nothing disputable about the ground ,buchanan stood on4 ,he too was a potentate--of the intellect2 a king of thought1 learning1 and poetic might1 and in that dominion1 when it was necessary1 bore himself with a courage and independence that have not always been successfully reproduced by his successors1 when confronted with the monarchies and lordships of material power and glory4 ,no ,notoriety ,hunter ,this discussion arose in our endeavour to determine ,buchanan's character so far as money-making was concerned4 ,he was no money-maker4 ,contemptis opibus--#8despising wealth'--is1 as we have seen1 ,joseph ,scaliger's account of him1 meaning thereby that personally he did not care for more money than would maintain the much other than money-making career which he liked1 and had set his heart on1 keeping himself independent by the labour of a scholar1 but not hesitating to ask payment1 when he wanted it1 from a society that was morally indebted to him4 ,his indifference1 however1 to wealth as a life-object must not be confounded with the counsel of the ascetic preacher who urges his hearers to forget the present world in thoughts of the world to come1 and wins1 perhaps1 a better living by an eloquent and pessimistic sermon on the text which says that #8the love of money is the root of all evil4' ,there is nothing to show that ,buchanan did not hold1 with all sensible people1 that there is a sense in which the love of money is the root of all good1 inasmuch as it is the men of strong cupidity who organise industry and commerce1 thereby laying that foundation of material wealth without which there can be no superstructure of leisured thought1 learning1 or art1 acting1 it may be1 only as the dray-horses of civilisation--some of them1 of course1 are a good deal more--but worthy of all the corn they consume1 although were one desirous of exchanging ideas1 it would not be to their sumptuous stables that he would resort4 ,neither does he appear to have set his heart upon the ordinary objects of ambition1 in the shape of fame or power4 #8,dear is fame to the rhyming tribe4' #8,that dearest wish of every poetic bosom--to be distinguished1' said ,burns in his preface to the first edition of his poems1 and he1 if any one1 was entitled to speak4 ,but in the same preface he also says that to amuse himself amidst toil1 to transcribe the feelings in his own breast1 to find some counterpoise to the struggles of a world alien and uncouth to the poetic mind--#8these were his motives for courting the ,muses1 and in these he found ,poetry to be its own reward4' ,in other words1 the poet may desire fame and distinction for what he has done1 yet it need not have been the desire of fame and distinction that made him do it4 ,buchanan seems to have been even more self-controlled or more indifferent than this account of matters might imply4 ,his numerous efforts had won him the highest reputation1 but he had taken no pains to advertise himself4 ,he had handed his productions here and there to friends who wished to see them1 and it was only the solicitation of those friends that prevented his consigning to everlasting obscurity some of the brightest things he1 or indeed any one else1 ever wrote4 ,his most famous production as a poet1 his version of the ,hebrew ,psalms1 or rather series of poems based upon these1 was certainly not written for fame4 ,every ,humanist of eminence was expected to try his hand upon the ,psalms1 and when ,buchanan found himself in ,portugal under lock and key1 at the instance of the ,inquisition1 among a set of monks1 whom he hits off as equally good-natured and ignorant1 and who had been told off to instruct him in orthodoxy1 he addressed himself to a classic rendering of the ,psalms with the double purpose of discharging his duty by his ,humanistic ,vocation1 and doing something that might redeem his time and his temper from the boredom of the uncongenial society amidst which misfortune had placed him4 ,there does not seem in all this much of that passionate desire of distinction to which ,burns confesses4 ,it is said1 however1 that fame was his object in commencing and carrying on his poem on the ,sphere1 which was undoubtedly planned on an elaborate and extensive scale4 ,if fame was his desire1 it was not a very consuming one1 for he was five-and-twenty years at least over it1 and left it unfinished at last1 although goaded by friends to hasten its production4 ,what does he say on the matter himself8 ,writing to ,tycho ,brahe in #aegf1 six years before his death1 and more than twenty after he began to work at the ,sphere1 he says that bad health had compelled him1 spem scribendi carminis in posterum penitus abjicere1--#8completely to abandon the hope of writing a poem for posterity4' ,three years afterwards1 writing to a literary friend in ,england1 who1 like many others1 kept dunning him for his promised books1 and even for #8copy1' he says1 with respect to his #8astronomical' aims in poetry1 he had not so much voluntarily abandoned them1 as been obliged reluctantly to submit to the deprivation of them2 neque enim aut nunc libet nugari1 aut si maxime vellem per tatem licet4 ,accessit eo histori scribend labor1--#8for neither am ,i now greatly disposed for mere trifling1 nor1 were ,i never so much disposed1 will my years allow it4 ,then in addition to my other difficulties there is the labour of writing my ,history'2 the plain meaning being that as his years forbade him to do both the ,history and the ,sphere1 he elected to go on with the ,history and give up the ,sphere1 as a form of nugari or #8dilettantism4' ,all this does not look very like a burning eagerness for posthumous fame1 at all events of the kind that moves a certain class of people to leave money for hospitals1 or almshouses1 or learned foundations1 to perpetuate names that would otherwise never have risen out of obscurity or escaped oblivion4 ,as a matter of fact1 ,buchanan knew that he was celebrated1 but no one had a poorer opinion of the work that had won him reputation than he had himself1 not from the modesty of merit1 as the common form carelessly puts it1 but from the consciousness of merit1 and because he felt that it was in him to do better4 ,he hated the idea of having more celebrity than he deserved1 and wanted to produce something that would show he was not an impostor or a quack4 ,in short1 he did not want more fame1 but what he thought a better and honester title to the fame he had4 ,that1 however1 is not the passion for fame1 but simply self-respect1 and an unselfish anxiety for the good name of those friends who had staked their reputation for taste and judgment on his ability for turning out the highest class of work4 ,this is not the love of glory1 but something better1 although even if it were1 it would not necessarily be either weak or wrong1 provided the subject of it knew what he was doing in giving a rational scope to a natural impulse1 and that he could and would give humanity something worth the prize of its praise4 ,buchanan himself tells us why he gave up the ,sphere and took up the ,history4 ,it was primarily to gratify his friends1 who thought that such a work was a want of the time1 more useful and more suitable to ,buchanan's years than poetry2 while he himself assures us1 and there is no reason to doubt his declaration1 that he desired to set before his royal pupil1 ,james ,,vi41 the warnings and the encouragements derivable from the story of his predecessors on the throne1 including his own ill-advised and ill-fated mother4 ,it was no fault of ,buchanan's if ,james despised his teacher's counsel1 and1 listening to flatterers1 took up with the ,divine ,right doctrine1 by impressing which on his unhappy son1 both through precept and example1 he virtually destined him to jump the life to come from the scaffold of ,whitehall4 ,buchanan's friends seem to have tried to tempt him to undertake the ,history by representing that no subject was aut uberius ad laudem1 aut firmius ad memori conservandam diuturnitatem1--#8better fitted to win him renown or prolong his memory4' ,it is not on the strength of such hopes1 however1 that he describes himself as working4 ,it was1 by his own account1 only the shame of leaving unfinished a task he had engaged himself to his friends to perform that made him persevere at a labour which1 he says1 in tate integra permolestus1 nunc vero in hac meditatione mortis1 inter mortalitatis metum1 et desinendi pudorem1 non potest non lentus esse et ingratus1 quando nec cessare licet1 nec progredi lubet1--#8would1 even in the flower of my age1 have been a burden1 but now1 in contemplation of my end1 what between the dread of death interrupting me before ,i am done1 and the shame there would be in abandoning my undertaking1 ,i neither find myself free to stop1 nor feel any pleasure in going on4' ,not much there of glory for himself1 although something of an heroic devotion to the claims of friendship and the call of duty6 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,characteristics--7continued7 ,did not seek power ,scaliger's ascription to ,buchanan of a spirit superior to the temptations of wealth and fame seems thus fairly well justified2 but what of his further claim that he was insensible to ambition8 ,he rose to be the foremost ,latin poet and man of letters1 or indeed poet and man of letters of any kind in his day1 and to the highest positions1 political1 ecclesiastical1 educational1 in his native land4 ,did he reach all this without aiming at it8 ,did it all come upon him unsolicited8 ,substantially1 it would seem1 that was so4 ,the key to his plan of life1 ,i believe1 is to be found in the beginning of the short autobiography which he wrote 7#aehj7 in the third person1 two years before his death1 not from motives of egotism1 but at the request of friends4 ,he is stating how he came to be sent to the ,university of ,paris when about fourteen1 and then he says1 ibi cum studiis literarum1 maxime carminibus scribendis1 operam dedisset1 partim natur impulsu1 partim necessitate 7quod hoc unum studiorum genus adolescenti proponebatur71 etc41--#8devoting himself there to literary studies1 and chiefly to writing verses1 partly from natural impulse and partly from necessity1 that being the only sort of study open to youthful learners4' ,that is really ,buchanan in a nutshell4 ,he followed the bent of his genius1 and did not pick and choose his work1 but performed1 to the best of his ability1 the task placed before him by ,destiny4 ,he lived up to his nature and his ,fate1 did with his might what his hand found to do1 then took up the next undertaking that came along1 and handled it in the same fashion4 ,he waited upon #8time and the hour' rather than sought to force its hand--a very good way1 if not indeed the best way1 to confront life and its problems1 for those who are wise enough and strong enough to do it4 ,he made himself master of the spirit1 ideas1 and style of the great writers and thinkers of classic antiquity1 because it was the work that lay nearest to his hand1 and because he liked it--passionately--and could not rest until it was all and easily his own1 and not because he thought he could make it pay1 whether in money or reputation1 or both4 ,except in the case of the unlucky and unfinished ,sphere1 he did not sit down to compose poetry deliberately and in cold blood1 at the rate of so many scores or hundreds of lines before breakfast or dinner1 as certain #8poets' are said to have done1 or do4 ,his best work of this kind was struck out of him like the fire from the flint1 by the demand of the occasion1 or the suggestion of friends1 or an inspiration or impulse that came upon him at the moment4 ,it was the request of ,james ,v4 7#aecg7 that led to his becoming the most powerful satirist of his time and country1 much above ,lyndsay1 at least on a level with ,dunbar1 and second only to ,burns4 ,his #8,psalms' were written 7#aeej-ea7 to kill time while imprisoned in a ,portuguese monastery4 ,his ,elegies1 ,epigrams1 ,tragedies1 ,masques1 ,addresses 7#aecj-ff7 were thrown off in answer to the call of the moment and the circumstances4 ,the ,detectio ,regin 7#aefi-ga7 was composed at the desire of the great anti-despotic and reforming party to which he belonged4 ,the #8,admonition to the ,trew ,lordis' and the #8,chameleon' were political tracts for the times designed to stimulate the flagging zeal of the friends of freedom4 ,the ,de ,jure 7#aegj-gi7 was inspired by a present and a foreseen necessity of making ,liberty impregnable as against the reactionaries of ,absolutism4 ,the ,history was undertaken and completed 7#aefi-hb7 less for a scientific than for a patriotic and politico-paideutic purpose1 to set his country and its constitution in a true light before the world1 and to help in moulding its future king into the constitutional ruler of a free people4 ,he held many appointments1 and executed many commissions1 not a few of them of the highest responsibility and dignity1 but most of them sought him1 not he them4 ,lord ,cassilis had him for tutor-companion 7#aecb-cg74 ,king ,james ,v4 engaged him as tutor for one of his children 7#aech-ci74 ,the ,king of ,portugal employed him to aid in founding and conducting his ,college at ,coimbra1 and did his best1 though in vain1 to retain him in his kingdom 7#aedg-eb74 ,the famous ,marchal de ,brissac chose him to mould the mind of his son1 and sometimes had him at a ,council of ,war 7#aeee-fj74 ,queen ,mary attached him to her ,court1 and as we have seen1 read ,livy with him1 and1 no doubt1 much else 7#aefb74 ,the ,general ,assembly of the ,reformed ,church of ,scotland chose him1 though a layman1 as their ,moderator 7#aefg71 he having already sat four years as a member and aided them in drawing up their ,first ,book of ,discipline4 ,he was appointed by ,regent ,moray ,principal of ,st4 ,leonard's ,college1 ,st4 ,andrews 7#aeff71 to reorganise its curriculum and constitution4 ,he was selected as ,secretary to the ,commission sent by the ,scots ,government to deal with the high questions at issue between ,queens ,elizabeth and ,mary 7#aefh-fi74 ,the ,scots ,parliament chose him to the extremely responsible office of ,tutor to the youthful ,king ,james ,,vi4 7#aegj71 and continued him in that position nominally until his death 7#aehb74 ,he sat as a member of the ,scots ,parliament 7#aegj-gh7 in virtue of his keepership of the ,privy ,seal1 and did secretarial work for it1 which nobody else was qualified to do1 while at the same time assisting the ,general ,assembly in revising their ,book of #8,policy4' ,this keepership he may have solicited--he subsequently resigned it--although there is no proof of that1 but all the other appointments came to him1 and engaged his best ability as they passed him in procession4 ,sir ,james ,melville backs ,scaliger ,this view of ,buchanan's character and scheme of life is confirmed by the remarkable and elaborate account of him given1 in his own ,memoirs1 by ,sir ,james ,melville of ,halhill 7#aede-afag71 a professional courtier and diplomatist who had served on the ,continent in important missions and affairs1 and had been a confidential servant both to ,queen ,mary and her son ,james ,,vi4 ,he is describing the guardians of the boy-king at ,stirling 7#aegj-gh71 and after having highly eulogised the ,governor1 he proceeds3 #8,the ,laird of ,dromwhassel1 his ,maiestie's maister of houshald1 was ambitious and greedy1 and had gretest cair how till advance himself and his friendis4 ,the twa abbots ,cambuskenneth and ,dryburgh were wyse and modest2 my ,lady ,mar was wyse and schairp1 and held i4e4 kept the ,king in great aw2 and sa did ,mester ,george ,buchwhennen4 ,mester ,peter ,young#b was gentiller1 and was laith till offend the ,king at any tym1 and used himself wairily1 as a man that had mynd of his awin weill1 be keeping of his ,maiestie's favour4 ,bot ,mester ,george was a stoik philosopher1 and looked not far before the hand2 a man of notable qualities for his learning and knawledge in ,latin poesie1 mekle maid accompt of in other contrees1 plaisant in company1 rehersing at all occasions moralities short and fecfull1 whereof he had aboundance1 and invented wher he wanted4 #8,he was also of gud religion for a poet1 bot he was easily abused1 and sa facill that he was led with any company that he hanted for the tyme1 quhilk maid him factious in his auld dayes2 for he spak and wret as they that wer about him for the tym infourmed him4 ,for he was become sleperie and cairles1 and followed in many thingis the vulgair oppinion1 for he was naturally populaire1 and extrem vengeable against any man that had offendit him1 quhilk was his gretest fault4 ,for he wret dispytfull invectives against the ,erle of ,monteith1 for some particulaires that was between him and the ,laird of ,buchwhennen2 and became the ,erle of ,morton's gret ennemy1 for ane hackney of his that chancit to be tane fra his saruvand during the civil troubles1 and was bocht be the ,regent2 wha had na will to part with the said horse1 he was sa sur of foot and sa easy1 that albeit ,mester ,george had oft tymes requyred him again1 he culd not get him1 and wher he had bene the ,regentis gret frend of before1 he becam his deadly ennemy1 and spak evil of him fra that tym fourth in all places and at all occasions4 ,dromwhassel also1 because the ,regent kepit all the casualtes#c to himself1 and wald let nathing fall till vuthers that wer about the ,king1 becam also his ennemy1 and sa did they all that wer about his ,maiestie4' ,melville was scarcely the man to take the measure of ,buchanan on the more important side of his character1 but he may be trusted to have given an honest view of him according to his lights--which1 in some serious respects1 were darkness--as well as of the impression which ,buchanan had made on better judges of remarkable men than was the worthy ,sir ,james himself4 ,the latter's preface is a charming piece of navet4 ,he tells us that though a courtier he had dealt faithfully and not flatteringly with #8princes1' but had not found it a paying procedure1 and hints that if he had it to do over again1 he might sail on the opposite tack4 ,he had advised the ,laird of ,carmichael to do so1 who profited greatly by the advice1 both for himself and his friends1 but did not show much gratitude to his counsellor1 as the latter complains--rather unreasonably1 one would say1 since1 if you corrupt a man's morale1 you must not be disappointed if he treats you accordingly4 ,perhaps ,sir ,james recovers his honest standing by the honest simplicity with which he confesses his leanings to dishonesty1 like the ,m4 de ,bussy whom he quotes as also bewailing1 too late1 the honesty of his courtier career1 but excusing himself on the ground that he could not help it1 as it was his #8nature to4' ,all the more trustworthy1 however1 is probably the distinction ,sir ,james draws between ,peter ,young and ,buchanan4 #8,mester ,peter' was evidently no ,nathanael in his critic's view1 and his subsequent good fortune1 as attested by history1 shows that his character had been accurately enough diagnosed4 ,there is no reason to doubt1 accordingly1 that ,sir ,james is equally correct in describing ,buchanan as one who #8looked not far before the hand4' ,that is1 he was not a calculating person1 and set his duties above his interests2 did his work to the best of his ability1 and took his reward if1 as1 and when it came1 but was really less anxious about securing the reward than about doing the work as it ought to be done4 ,a ,faithful ,mentor ,his whole connection with ,james makes this plain4 ,it begins with his ,genethliacon or ,birthday ,ode1 in which1 after apostrophising the infant prince as the hope of all who desired the unity and consequent tranquillity of the two kingdoms1 he addresses the felices felici prole parentes 7#8parents to be felicitated on an offspring born to a felicitous career'71 and under guise of a sketch1 in verse of ,virgilian elevation and beauty1 of the standard of character up to which they should train their child1 lays down with #8faithful' outspokenness the lines of duty on which their own lives should run1 and warns them of the ruin which neglect of his counsel would bring4 ,it is not1 except in style1 a courtly production4 ,darnley probably could not1 but ,mary certainly both could and would see the poet's drift1 and happy would it have been for both had they avoided the faults against which the poet directed his pointed admonition4 ,if ,james turned out #8the wisest fool in ,christendom1' the folly was not the fault of ,buchanan1 but of ,james's nature1 and perhaps also of flatterers of the #8,mester ,peter ,young' order1 who scattered tares among the wheat of the more worthy sower4 ,at all events he made ,james a scholar1 if the latter made himself a pedant2 and this implied1 in the circumstances and the particular case1 an exercise of firm and even stern discipline--of which a famous if not quite elegant instance has been quoted above1--and which was better fitted to improve the morale of the pupil than the fortunes of the disciplinarian4 ,as ,melville puts it1 ,buchanan #8held the king in awe1' an awe which ,james felt and resented to the last1 although1 to do him justice1 he also plumed himself on his training by an unrivalled scholar4 ,three works remarkable for their political teaching--his ,baptistes1 his ,de ,jure ,regni1 and his ,history--,buchanan dedicated to ,james1 in prefaces as remarkable as the works themselves4 ,all three books were mainly1 the second entirely1 motived by the idea which ,buchanan seems to have regarded as constituting and directing his true mission in life1 namely1 the unspeakable value of liberty1 the constant possibility and deadly evil of tyranny1 and the corresponding and always pressing duty of forestalling this possibility and resisting this evil by abundant proclamation and practice of the doctrine that legitimate political sovereignty exists only for the good and by the will of the people--a principle1 of course1 entirely subversive of the despotic doctrine of the ,divine right of kings1 so prevalent in usurpationist quarters in that day1 and anticipatory of the modern and accepted democratic #8platform' of #8,government of the ,people1 by the ,people1 for the ,people4' ,this is not the stage at which to describe the books themselves--it is their prefaces that make them relevant at present1--but a word to indicate their general character is necessary4 ,the ,baptistes was written 7#aedj-da7 when ,buchanan was comparatively a young man1 thirty-four or thirty-five1 and was #8regenting' in a great secondary school or gymnasium at ,bordeaux1 called the ,collge de ,guyenne1 organised and presided over by one ,andr de ,gouva1 a famous ,portuguese ,humanist and educator of the day4 ,this ,baptistes was simply a dramatic reproduction of the story of ,john the ,baptist and his tragic end1 the dramatis person being ,king ,herod1 ,queen ,herodias1 the latter's dancing daughter1 ,malchus the high priest1 ,gamaliel1 and the unlucky ,john himself4 ,it was composed1 ,buchanan tells us in the dedicatory preface and in his autobiography 7#aegd71 in accordance with the rules of the college1 and intended by him to win the students1 who acted it1 from the silly #8mysteries' of the monks to the imitation of classic antiquity1 and the rising study of religion in its original documents4 ,but there was something more intended4 ,it is scarcely necessary to read #8between the lines' to find a complete condemnation of absolutist tyranny1 and a picture of the misery which it brings on the tyrant himself as well as on his victims4 ,this was not the kind of writing to please monarchs of the period4 ,nevertheless ,buchanan dedicates it 7#aegf7 to the boy-king1 as #8having a peculiar appositeness to his position1' warning him of #8the agonisings and wretchedness which await tyrants1 even when they seem to be most flourishing outwardly4' ,this lesson1 he goes on to say1 he thinks #8not only useful1 but absolutely essential1' for his royal pupil to learn now1 so that he may #8early begin to hate' a fault which #8he ought always to shun4' ,moreover1 he #8wishes to place it on record1 for the information of posterity1 that if the king should in the future1 at the instigation of evil advisers1 or by allowing the lust of power to overcome the principles of his education1 act contrary to the warnings now given him1 the blame must be laid1 not on his teachers1 but on himself1 in not having listened to those who gave him good counsel4' ,this was not the language of flattery2 and though ,james was only ten when he was thus addressed1 the precocity of his intelligence would enable him to understand its import4 ,he was destined1 in a very few years1 to be king in fact as he was now in name1 and ,buchanan knew that if his charge turned out other than he was trying to make him--what actually happened--his own plain speaking would not be to his advantage4 ,knowing this1 he did his duty1 and had his sovereign for his enemy when the latter got used to being his own master4 ,the fact reveals an elevation of character in ,buchanan which cannot be justly forgotten in judging of him in other connections4 ,it is not surprising that the agents in ,scotland of ,cecil1 ,queen ,elizabeth's great minister1 when on the look-out for #8,biencontents1' as they were called1 who might be dealt with in the way of bribery with a view to forming a strong ,elizabethan party in ,scotland1 should have secretly reported 7#aegi1 ,king's age thirteen7 ,buchanan as #8a singular man1' while of #8,mester ,peter ,young' they say that he was #8specially well affected1 and ready to persuade the king to be in favour of her majestye4' ,three years after dedicating the ,baptistes to ,james in the style we have seen1 he dedicated the ,de ,jure to him 7#aegi74 ,this was a still bolder and more independent proceeding4 ,without entering1 for the present1 into the details of its argument1 it may be enough to remember that1 with its doctrine of ,sovereignty as originating from the ,people1 existing for their benefit1 and not autocratic1 but bounded by laws to which the ,people have consented1 the ,de ,jure must have appeared to ,absolutist and #8,divine right people' generally1 revolutionary rubbish of the most pernicious description2 and accordingly1 in #aehd1 when ,buchanan had been dead two years1 they had it condemned and its publication and circulation forbidden by express ,statute of the ,scots ,parliament--the ,king1 of course1 assenting1 if not inciting2 while1 as we have already seen1 the ,university of ,oxford1 later on1 paid it the compliment of having it publicly burned4 ,buchanan must have1 in a general way1 foreseen the possibility of something like this1 and the risk he ran if the ,king should1 in his riper age1 turn upon him and seek to rend him4 ,this1 however1 did not deter him from pressing his democratic treatise on the attention and study of his royal pupil4 ,he praises him1 not in the fulsome and fawning language of the ,dedication literature of the time1 but with evident sincerity and honest1 hearty admiration for the brightness of his abilities1 his intellectual interests1 his independence of judgment while inquiring into the truth of things and opinions4 ,he congratulates him1 too1 on his present aversion to flattery1 that #8nurse of ,tyranny1 and deadliest of plagues to genuine kingship'--tyrannidis nutricula1 et legitimi regni gravissima pestis1--and rejoices that he seems #8instinctively to detest'--natur quodam instinctu oderis--#8the courtly solecisms and barbarisms'--solcismos et barbarismos aulicos--affected by those self-chosen #8arbiters of elegance'--eleganti censores--who #8spice their conversation'--velut sermonis condimenta--with #8profuse employment of 8,your ,majesty10 8,your ,lordship10 8,your ,illustrious ,highness10 and any other still more sickening title they can find'--passim ,,majestates1 ,,dominationes1 ,,illustritates1 et si qua alia magis sunt putida1 adspergant4 ,was there any latent reference here to #8,mester ,peter ,young' and his courtier ways8 ,anyhow1 ,buchanan plainly owns that he has doubts and fears for ,james's future4 ,he tells him of the dangers of evil companionship1 and invites him to the study of the essay thus dedicated to him1 not only as an instructor that will show him the right and wrong of the subject1 but as a ,mentor that may #8keep at him' in importunate and even audacious fashion1 as it may seem for the moment4 ,if he is faithful to the principles commended to him1 there will be peace in the present for him and his1 and lasting glory in the future4 ,james subsequently thought he could do better1 and threw off his early training2 but1 notwithstanding1 or in consequence1 he failed alike to achieve a peaceful career or to transmit a glorious memory4 ,the citation from the chorus in the ,thyestes of ,seneca--who also was tutor to a royal failure1 although ,james must1 of course1 be admitted to have been a brilliant success compared with ,nero--in which the great but ill-starred ,roman delineates the ,stoic king1 appended to ,buchanan's dedication1 no doubt expresses his own view of what ,james might and should have been3 beginning with-- #8,regem non faciunt opes ,non vestis ,tyri color1' etc4 #8,it is not wealth nor the purple robe that makes a king1' etc4 and ending-- #8,rex est1 qui metuit nihil1 ,rex est1 qui cupiet nihil4 ,hoc regnum sibi quisque dat4' #8,he is a king who has conquered ,fear and ,desire4 ,such a kingship every man may give himself1 and none else4' ,it is in the same spirit that he dedicates his ,history to the ,king 7#aehb1 ,james sixteen74 ,he knows perfectly well how his book is likely to be taken4 ,writing 7#aegg7 to ,sir ,thomas ,randolph1 ,queen ,elizabeth's representative at the ,scottish court1 and ,buchanan's quondam pupil at ,paris1 he says3 #8,i am occupiit in wryting of our historie1 being assurit to content few1 and to displease many thairthrow4' ,among the many #8displeased1' he could not but foresee that possibly the young ,king might be found1 on account of the unfavourable view which1 in common with most historians1 he felt himself obliged to take of the character and career of the ,king's own mother1 ,queen ,mary4 ,he must have felt too that1 unless ,james were all the more magnanimous1 he might take deep offence--as he did1 death alone saving ,buchanan from criminal proceedings on account of his #8seditious' writings--at his now nominal preceptor's contention that by the ,constitution of ,scotland the monarchy had1 as an historical fact as well as by a true philosophy1 been all along a derivative and limited1 even very limited1 one1 and anything but a divinely authorised ,absolutism1 as maintained by courtly authorities4 ,buchanan1 however1 prefers to assume that ,james had enough of the king and the public man in him to sink private feeling in public duty and accept truth1 however unpleasant2 and accordingly he dedicates his ,history to him1 urging him to follow the example of his good predecessors and eschew that of the bad ones1 and more particularly commending to his notice and imitation the career of the saintly ,david ,i41 the #8sair saunt for the crown' of one of his successors and descendants1 as a ruler who1 according to his lights--some of which1 however1 especially those that led to his profuse and corrupting liberality to the ,church1 ,buchanan1 herein endorsing ,john ,major1 his early ,st4 ,andrews #8regent' in ,logic1 emphatically decries--devoted himself not to pleasure1 or the strengthening of his prerogative1 but to what seemed to him to be the true welfare of his people4 ,in all this1 some of ,buchanan's critics have thought him too stern1 and that gentler methods might have won over ,james to better thoughts4 ,but truth must always be stern to those who dislike or fear it4 ,yet those only are the real friends of these latter who give them the chance of profiting by it2 and in so acting by ,james1 come what might of himself and his personal fortunes1 ,buchanan will be thought by most admirers of a high morale to have stamped himself as a wholly high-minded and even heroic character4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,further ,,characteristics ,a ,stoic ,philosopher ,we are now1 perhaps1 in a better position to face ,melville's further characterisation of him as a #8,stoik philosopher1 of gud religion for a poet4' ,that ,sir ,james knew something about ,stoicism1 although perhaps not very deeply1 is shown by his apparent familiarity with the ,seneca1 whom he quotes in that remarkable preface of his1 although only for a sarcastic comment upon those foolish political ,stoics who1 like ,sir ,james himself1 throw away their ,stoical honesty upon unappreciative #8,princes1' and repent of their ,stoicism when too late4 ,that ,buchanan had studied the ,stoics goes without saying4 ,he was as familiar with the metres of ,seneca and ,botius as with those of ,horace and ,catullus1 and he was not the man--not the pedant or grammarian--to master the form and style merely of his author without penetrating to his inner thought4 ,how minutely he had read ,cicero appears from his famous emendation in the second ,philippic of patrem tuum1 passed over by previous commentators1 into matrem1 subsequently parentem tuam--a case in which even ,gibbon would probably have admitted that a vowel1 to say nothing of a diphthong1 was vital to truth1 and which gave occasion to ,dionysius ,lambinus to flay alive a rival ,ciceronic editor1 ,petrus ,victorius by name1 for critical larceny1 in having feloniously but silently appropriated1 first1 the laurels of ,buchanan who did the good deed1 and next1 those of him1 ,lambinus1 who had the sagacity to recognise and adopt ,buchanan's great performance4 ,but ,buchanan had doubtless read ,cicero's ,de ,officiis with not less care1 and had gathered from its pages some idea of ,stoicism as expounded by ,cicero's own early tutor1 ,pantius1 probably the most distinguished of ,rome's then professional teachers of this great ethical system4 ,he must have come across such a passage as this1 where ,cicero says3 #8,what is called the summum bonum by the ,stoics1 to live agreeably to ,nature 7convenienter ,natur vivere71 has1 ,i conceive1 this meaning--always to conform to virtue2 and as to all other things which may be according to ,nature 7secundum naturam7 i4e4 other possible bona besides the summum3 as gratifications of appetite1 propensity1 ambition1 etc41 to take them if they should not be repugnant to virtue1'--a declaration which ,butler1 with his supremacy of conscience as part of true ,nature1 would have accepted1 and in substance1 indeed1 has explicitly endorsed4 ,probably1 too1 he had noticed the habitual doctrine of ,epictetus1 #8this is the great task of life also1 to discern things and divide them1 and say1 8,outward things are not in my power2 to will is in my power4 ,where shall ,i seek the ,good1 and where the ,evil8 ,within me--in all that is my own4 ,but of all that is alien to thee1 call nothing good nor evil1 nor profitable nor hurtful1 nor any such term as these4 ,what then8 should we be careless of such things8 ,in no wise4 ,for this1 again1 is a vice in the ,will1 and thus contrary to ,nature4 ,but be at once careful1 because the use of things is not indifferent1 and steadfast and tranquil because the things themselves are4444 ,and hard it is1 indeed1 to mingle and reconcile together the carefulness of one whom outward things affect1 with the steadfastness of him who regards them not4 ,but impossible it is not2 and if it is1 it is impossible to be happy4444 ,take example of dice-players4 ,the numbers are indifferent1 the dice are indifferent4 ,how can ,i tell what may be thrown up8 ,but carefully and skilfully to make use of what is thrown1 that is where my proper business begins0' 7,rolleston translation74 ,this seems to me to describe the general temper and spirit in which ,buchanan confronted the vicissitudes of life4 ,i do not say that in a ,register of ,religions like that provided under #f and #g ,will4 ,,iv4 c4 #he and amending acts1 he would have entered himself as #8,g4 ,b41 ,stoic4' ,for one thing1 he had not the chance1 as only one denomination was allowed4 ,nor do ,i think he ever said in his heart1 #8,i am a ,stoic1 and mean to guide my life by the ,stoical system'2 but all the same1 ,i believe that convenienter natur vivere1 interpreted in the ,stoical sense1 sank with gradually increasing depth into his moral nature as life went on1 and preserved him from ,epicurean timidity1 levity1 and egotism4 ,not that he succeeded perfectly1 but he kept trying to4 ,stoicism did not1 any more than ,christianity1 maintain that the concrete ,stoic was free from sins1 both of omission and commission4 ,not ,socrates1 nor even ,diogenes--most misunderstood of men1 who attained the high degree of ,cynic--would have been claimed as impeccable1 although they came very near it4 ,it has been said that ,buchanan in several ways allowed the #8outward things that were not in his power' get the better of the #8will' that was1 that he was1 for instance1 fiery and irritable1 for little other reason1 apparently1 than that he had ,celtic blood in him1 and was bound to be so2 that he was disappointed and soured by his early struggle with poverty1 his critics assuming that this must have been the case1 because in his circumstances they would have been so themselves2 that he was a #8good hater'--as if that were really a fault at all1 etc4 ,had he been all that his detractors call him1 that would not have unstoicised him1 since1 as already said1 the system admits that #8no mere man is able to keep the commandments1 but doth daily break them1' as the ,shorter ,catechism puts it in questionable grammar4 ,but his censors have not sufficiently observed that if he displayed faults of passion1 eagerness1 temper1 impatience1 it was when he was young2 and the fair inference is that if he overcame those tendencies as life proceeded1 it was by a persistent effort of #8will1' repelling the invading influence of the #8outward4' ,by all accounts his age was not a #8crabbed age4' ,though plain1 and even rustic1 in appearance--in the matter of dress he seems to have carried his superiority to the #8outward' to a really unstoical extreme--when he opened his mouth he was a different being1 courtly in manner1 refined and elegant in expression1 humorous and entertaining1 as well as instructive even to the verge of #8edifying1' in every way a polite and variously pleasant companion--#8with nothing of the pedagogue about him but the gown1' said a keen and competent observer1 who knew him well4 #8,plaisant in company1' says the slightly garrulous ,sir ,james1 #8rehersing at all occasions moralities short and fecfull1 whereof he had aboundance1 and invented wher he wanted'--a combination1 in short1 of wit1 wisdom1 resource1 and pith1 anything but a picture of the snappish old curmudgeon1 soured and made ill-natured by disappointments which he had not wisely overcome4 ,his letters1 too1 of which unfortunately we possess only a few1 reveal the same well-ordered and placid moral interior3 full of the purest friendly devotion1 ready always to do a good turn1 especially to merit in obscurity1 not insensible to the difficulties and distresses of life1 but rising above them1 and achieving in spite of them not only contentment1 but a degree of light-heartedness4 ,he was long a martyr to gout--a sore affliction1 if sufferers from it may be trusted4 ,but he took it with a smile4 ,writing 7#aegg7 at seventy-one to his old friend and pupil ,randolph1 by that time ,postmaster-,general to ,queen ,elizabeth1 he tells him that he is hard at work on his ,history1 and adds3 #8,the rest of my occupation is wyth the gout1 quhilk holdis me besy both day and nyt4 ,and quhair ye say ye haif not lang to lyif live1 ,i traist trust to ,god to go before you1 albeit ,i be on fut1 and ye ryd the post4444 ,and thus ,i tak my leif leave shortly at you now1 and my lang leif quhen ,god pleasis4' ,the fun may not be of a side-splitting character1 nor the seriousness very unctuous1 but the man who could encounter the gout keeping at him night and day in this fashion1 must have practised keeping the #8outward' at bay in a considerable variety of situations1 and for a considerable time1 and with considerable success4 ,alleged ,vindictiveness ,the fastidious ,sir ,james seems to think that ,buchanan rather stepped down from the high #8,stoik philosopher' pedestal in being what he calls #8extrem vengeable against any man that had offendit him4' ,but1 as already suggested1 ,dr4 ,johnson1 who was a tolerable authority on the higher morality1 would have been rather prejudiced in ,buchanan's favour on this very account1 and would probably have wished to know ,sir ,james's evidence for unfavourably meant reflection1 and would certainly have thought that it did not amount to much4 ,it may be pardoned in an old ex-courtier to think it a dreadful thing to have written #8dispytfull invectives against the ,erle of ,monteith4' ,no doubt1 the fact that the subject of the incriminated #8invectives' was some #8particulaires that was between him 7the 8,erle07 and the ,laird of ,buchwhennen1' would dispose ,buchanan to do his best1 because blood is thicker than water1 and when ,buchanan was at his best on an invective1 it is likely enough that the object of it and his friends might think it #8dispytfull1' if not worse1 although unprejudiced people might find it very good reading4 ,but everything depends on the merits of the #8particulaires1' and of these ,sir ,james tells us nothing4 ,with every respect to him and his kidney1 an #8,erle' may be in the wrong while a #8,laird' is in the right1 and if that were so in the present instance1 it was the part of a #8philosopher1' and especially a #8,stoik' one1 to take an #8,erle' precisely for what he was worth and no more1 as ,diogenes1 the champion ,stoic1 in the famous anecdote1 whether vero or ben trovato1 tells ,alexander the ,great that1 as far as he knew1 the only thing he 7the ,great7 could do for him 7the champion7 was to stand out of his light4 ,sir ,james's other instance of ,buchanan's #8vengeableness' is not much more to the point4 ,perhaps the story of the requisitioned #8hackney' that was #8sa sur of foot and sa easy' is not true1 and merely an instance of the baseless gossip that so easily gets into circulation about distinguished people1 and people that are not distinguished as well4 ,but even if the #8said horse' and ,melville's history of it are facts1 most people will be of opinion that ,buchanan had grounds of displeasure4 ,he was deprived of the #8said horse'--there is no word of a price1 but that is immaterial--for public purposes during the civil wars4 ,when the public purpose was satisfied1 the animal ought to have been returned to him4 ,in the meantime ,morton had #8bocht' the beast1 apparently from the requisitioner or his donee1 and ,morton was not the man to pay too much for him4 ,but when the morally rightful proprietor applied to have his own back1 and that time after time1 he found the ,regent of ,scotland standing upon his real or fancied contractual rights4 ,if ,buchanan and ,morton were the great friends ,melville says they were1 ,buchanan was not treated in a friendly manner4 ,it takes two to make a friendship1 and by the proverb it is #8giff gaff1' not giff and no gaff1 that creates the connection4 #8,love me1 love my dog1' is one thing2 but love me1 and let me love your horse la ,morton1 is very much another thing4 ,loyalty is tested by conduct in small matters1 even more than in great ones1 and in the circumstances stated1 it would not have been wonderful if ,buchanan's feeling of personal liking for ,morton1 if it ever existed1 underwent a change4 ,it is certain that ,buchanan at a particular point ceased to approve of parts of ,morton's policy1 but not for any such trumpery reason as the one assigned by tattling ,sir ,james4 ,while ,knox was alive1 there was a complete solidarity of public action between him and ,morton and ,buchanan1 to whom the cause of ,protestantism meant the cause of liberty4 ,their aim was to strengthen the position of ,protestantism in ,scotland by the ,english ,alliance1 and to strengthen the position of ,elizabeth as fighting the general battle of ,protestantism against the ,catholic reaction of the ,continent2 while1 even in spite of ,elizabeth herself1 who had an interest in ,monarchical ,absolutism as well as in ,protestant freedom1 they firmly resisted every attempt to restore ,mary1 the champion of the old faith and its political tyranny4 ,with this view ,knox1 who was a statesman1 and not the mere crazy fanatic and demagogue that he is sometimes mistaken for1 winked at the moral irregularities of ,morton1 and would even have joined the ,general ,assembly in making him an #8,elder1' if he had not himself1 though quite free from scruples1 felt that this would have been putting on rather too much2 while ,buchanan gave him every support in his power1 and as internal evidence shows1 wrote for him the ,memorial demanded by ,elizabeth at the final ,london ,conference1 in which the right of the ,scottish nation to depose ,mary from her regal office is defended on the same principles and often in the same language as are employed in the ,detectio1 the ,de ,jure1 the ,history1 and indeed all through ,buchanan's writings4 ,after ,knox's death he still pursued the anti-,marian and pro-,elizabethan policy1 but with a difference4 ,to complete the unity of ,scottish and ,english ,protestantism1 ,morton sought to reduce the ,scottish ,church to the same level with the ,english--that is1 to make it ,episcopal and ,erastian4 ,when he made this proposal he was fully aware of the opposition on which he had to reckon2 for although he made very light of the other ,presbyterian clergy1 and indeed told some of them who kept boring him beyond endurance that he might have some of them #8hanged' if they did not take care1 he knew that in ,knox he met a man who was not afraid of him1 or any one1 or anything else1 and who was the one man in ,scotland who was a stronger man than himself4 ,but when ,knox was gone1 he had the stage to himself1 and began to develop his views1 apparently seeking to use ,buchanan as a tool for carrying them into execution4 ,james ,melville1 in his entertaining diary1 tells us that when ,andrew his uncle returned from abroad1 ,morton sent ,buchanan to him to try whether the influence of an old master over an old pupil and lifelong friend could not prevail on ,andrew to assist him in more or less ,anglicising the #8,kirk4' ,the idea of getting ,andrew ,melville to assent to ,episcopacy and ,erastianism1 or any modification of them1 was of course utterly futile and ludicrous4 ,you might as well have tried to marry fire and water4 ,to ,buchanan himself the proposal would not appear unreasonable in itself4 ,he was not an ecclesiastic1 but a scholar and thinker to whom the struggle between ,presbyterian and ,prelate would appear a sectarian squabble1 but his interview with his severely ,puritanical pupil undoubtedly convinced him that ,morton's scheme for turning the ,scottish into a branch of the ,anglican church would simply defeat itself4 ,it would rend and desolate the ecclesiastical life of ,scotland--as was too amply proved by the ,scottish history of the seventeenth century1--and paralyse it for the time as a power in resisting the efforts of the avowed or tacit ,catholic ,league to crush that element of liberty in the ,protestant revolt1 which to ,buchanan was its most valuable characteristic4 ,this1 and not #8the said horse1' was unquestionably the explanation of ,buchanan's growing antagonism to ,morton4 ,if #8the said horse' was not a myth1 it might1 taken in conjunction with the abortive ,melville negotiation1 lead ,buchanan to think that ,morton was just a little too much disposed to convert his friends into useful instruments for his own purposes--an impression which would be greatly deepened when he noticed ,morton's great and increasing anxiety to get the young ,king1 ,buchanan's special charge1 into his power1 ,buchanan's opposition to which project1 for which ,melville 7,sir ,james7 expressly vouches1 contributed ultimately to ,morton's downfall4 ,but that ,buchanan1 from the alleged #8hackney' period1 and from #8hackney' causes1 #8spak evil' of ,morton #8in all places and at all occasions1' is not only incredible when we remember the high character and intellectual tastes of the man1 but inconsistent with the facts of the situation4 ,if ,buchanan had desired to abuse ,morton in a vindictive spirit1 he had the amplest opportunity in his ,history4 ,but what are the facts8 ,there is not a word of depreciation1 but many of praise1 more or less direct4 ,he does full justice to ,morton's great powers and wise foresight1 and in accordance with a rule which he held ought to be applied to public men1 screens his defects4 ,he describes him exactly as he was1 a fearless and skilful military leader1 and a sagacious1 firm1 and patriotic statesman4 ,he even goes out of his way a little to state facts in ,morton's favour1 recording the energy and self-sacrifice which he once and again displayed in rising from a sick-bed of very serious prostration and redeeming a dangerous crisis to which he knew no one else was equal1 and in relating the last negotiations which ,morton conducted with ,elizabeth and her council pays a due compliment to his diplomatic dexterity and merit4 ,detractors have said that he stopped in his ,history when on the threshold of ,morton's ,regency1 because he did not wish to advertise an adversary4 ,but it was really death1 not animosity1 that stayed the narrator's hand4 ,by a weird prescience1 ,buchanan forecast the hour of his exit from time to a nicety1 if such a term may be employed in such a connection4 ,he worked up to within a month of his death2 and then1 when asked whether he meant to go on with his work1 he said he had now another work to do2 and when further asked what that was1 he said it was the work of #8dying1' to which he addressed himself in the fashion we have already seen--a fashion not unworthy of a #8,stoik philosopher4' ,not so ,facile ,it is of course a pity that we do not possess an account and criticism of ,morton's singularly able and interesting rule in ,scotland by so original a contemporary observer as ,buchanan4 ,that it would1 in all respects1 have been favourable1 is not likely1 for the reasons already noticed4 ,that it would have been consciously unjust is incredible in the light of such treatment of ,morton by ,buchanan as we have1 much of which must have been written after ,morton's violent and unjust execution4 ,indeed1 one could almost wish to be sure that the #8hackney' story was true1 as it would show how superior the #8,stoik philosopher' can rise to petty and personal considerations when he has to discharge the high function of narrator and judge of public events4 ,that his delineation of men and events would have been conspicuously able is as certain as any such matter can be1 notwithstanding good ,sir ,james's remark that #8in his auld dayes he was become sleperie and cairless1 and followed in many things the vulgair oppinion1 for he was naturally populaire1' etc4 ,there is no sign of this alleged falling off into sleepiness and carelessness in ,buchanan's ,history4 ,the last chapter is as well thought out and written as the first4 ,you may think him wrong1 but you can have no doubt about the distinctness of his explanation of the sequence of events and the motives and aims of historic characters1 while the style in no respect falls below the unsurpassed standard of prose ,latinity maintained throughout the entire work4 ,one grows a little suspicious of ,sir ,james's judgment when his reasons for it are considered4 ,buchanan had come1 he says1 to #8follow in many things the vulgair oppinion1 for he was naturally populaire'2 that is to say1 he was democratic in spirit4 ,of course he was4 ,he felt it to be his mission in life to oppose ,regal ,absolutism in behalf of public liberty1 and never let slip an opportunity of maintaining that all sovereignty originated from the people1 and was justifiable only as it subserved their advantage4 ,the courtly ,sir ,james did not like this4 ,he was a good deal of what ,thackeray has immortalised as a #8,snob4' ,he might very well be called ,sir #8,jeames1' and when he says ,buchanan had been #8maid factious1' we must not forget that the #8faction' ,sir ,j4 had in his eye was the #8faction' of ,liberty against ,tyranny1 and how far that can be justly called a faction will be settled by different critics according to their different tastes4 ,with his soreness on this point1 it is not surprising that he should describe ,buchanan as #8easily abused1 and sa facill that he was led with any company that he hanted for the tyme1' and that #8he spak and wret as they that were about him for the tym informed him4' ,that is to say1 ,buchanan did not belong to ,sir ,j4's #8set1' which is not surprising4 ,the ,democratic old scholar and thinker was not likely to sympathise with the kind of people whom the courtier naturally regarded as the lite of society and the salt of the earth4 ,knox and ,scaliger1 ,moray and ,mar1 ,randolph and ,ascham1 ,melville and ,scrymgeour1 ,beza and ,tycho ,brah1 were among his correspondents or intimates2 and if ,buchanan thought that #8information' derived from persons of that stamp was prima facie trustworthy1 it was no more than the rules of evidence permitted and justified4 ,it is barely conceivable that they sought to #8abuse' him and succeeded1 but specific proof of this is necessary in such a case1 and is not forthcoming4 ,that ,buchanan was #8sa facill that he was led with any company that he hanted for the tyme' is rendered utterly incredible by the facts4 ,it is one of the most remarkable circumstances in ,buchanan's career that he mixed with people of the most opposite and irreconcilable characters and positions1 while preserving his independence of both4 ,there was1 for instance1 a time when he was equally at home with ,maitland and ,moray1 and what is more wonderful still1 with ,knox and ,mary4 ,on the very same day when he had been reading ,livy and turning verses with ,mary at ,holyrood1 he might be discussing ,calvin and the political situation with ,knox in his ,high ,street house2 and what is more1 each of them knew it4 ,to my mind this does not point to #8facility1' but to dominancy4 ,the #8,stoik philosopher' was quietly their master1 because he was his own4 ,he was not moved by their inter-personal attractions and repulsions1 but passionlessly contemplated them as interesting life-#8forces1' that he had to take as they came along1 and in his calm judicial presence they bowed their more vehement heads4 ,that is as probable an explanation as any of a very striking psychological phenomenon4 #8,gud ,religion' #8,he was also of gud religion for a poet1' says ,sir ,james1 when adding the last item to the creditor side of his profit and loss account of ,buchanan's qualities4 #8,gud religion for a poet' is good1 and characteristic of the times which said ,ubi tres medici1 duo athei1--#8,three ,physicists1#d two ,atheists4' ,humanists1 and still more ,humanist poets1 were also suspect1 and for the same reason4 ,the rebellion against ,scholasticism1 the resuscitation of the old ,pagan spirit in thought and art and science1 involved a staggering blow to ,ecclesiastical ,faith4 ,men whose minds were steeped in the literature of ancient ,greece and ,rome could not take sympathetically1 ,i will not say1 to ,christianity1 but to the dogmatic system of the ,church1 and even to much of its ethical teaching4 #8,humanity1' in the sense of #8the humanities1' really meant the antithesis of ,divinity4 ,the ,renaissance was a wakening up of the human intellect1 an assertion of #8private judgment' in every possible sphere of its exercise1 and in innumerable instances the ,humanist created a faith and a code of morals for himself1 although for comfort and convenience he might conceal his spiritual interior from the view of the ignorant and the unenlightened4 ,in many an instance he held that there was one law for the men who understand1 and another for the #8vulgar' who cannot understand4 ,popes and priests were often at heart ,humanists of the most #8advanced' type1 pushing the right of #8private judgment' to its furthest limit1 discarding the public creed1 and in morals1 exercising1 in favour of their appetites1 that dispensing power which #8private judgment1' the ,pope's successor in so many awakened intellects1 carried over with it1 at all events extensively into practice1 while simultaneously a silent outward conformity with the established system was carefully maintained4 ,not that it did not sometimes betray itself4 ,it is a ,roman dignitary who is credited with the famous remark about the profit brought in by #8this fable of ,christ'2 and everybody remembers how horrified poor ,luther was in ,rome when he heard the priests at ,mass saying panis es1 panis manebis1--#8bread thou art1 and bread thou shalt remain4' ,the open licentiousness of many ,church dignitaries of those days is too notorious for special mention4 #8,private judgment' may be a primary human right and a duty owing by reason to itself of the highest order2 but to cast off in its favour an inveterate obedience to authority1 is a psychological problem surrounded with the greatest difficulty and danger1 and unless when under the control of an adequately strong judgment and will1 may cause much wreckage of faith and conduct4 ,i do not think that ,buchanan suffered much in this way--certainly not so much as many others among the leaders and supporters of the ,reformation2 while any damage he sustained was amply compensated by his gains4 ,knox and other ,reformers--,i speak of ,scotland--were driven by the violence of the recoil involved in their assault on the ,catholic and ,feudal system into extreme positions1 necessarily harmful to themselves1 and bequeathing legacies of disadvantage to their successors4 ,they needed1 through polemical necessities1 an authority equal to that of ,rome1 which they had overthrown1 and this drove them into placing ,scripture in a position which the speculative and historical criticism of the last two centuries has made highly uncomfortable for many people of intelligence1 including ,broad ,churchmen1 whom it has driven into crypto-scepticism1 and ,evangelicals and ,ritualists1 whom it has moulded into wilful believers4 ,their denunciation and destruction of #8idolatry' and every rite #8not appointed in the ,word1' with the necessity they lay under of maintaining a high standard of ,biblical morality as a proof that ,antinomian licence was not the necessary result of ,justification by ,faith1 engaged them in a war against ,art1 ,literature1 and ,natural ,beauty and ,pleasure1 which1 while it stamped the national consciousness with a grave1 deep1 and serious habit of regarding life1 which is of the greatest value1 produced also an immense amount1 not yet exorcised1 of official ,pharisaism1 popular hypocrisy1 and practical pessimism1 with all its miserable consequences4 ,these were unfortunate results of the great rebellion against authority and claim of #8private judgment1' apparently suggested1 in part at least1 by self-defence2 while the ,nicene and ,predestinarian dogmas were put forward with an emphasis and detail which would not be attempted in the present day1 but were very seasonable in times when immaculate and even strained orthodoxy was both weapon and armour in a degree that does not prevail now4 ,knox1 it must be remembered1 did not discourage the belief that he could predict the future and had a good deal of the #8second-sight' in him4 ,he had a powerful political instinct1 and he and his chief associates knew that if they went #8too far' in their destructions1 the alarm would be taken1 and the life and death struggle in which they were engaged would for them be lost for ever2 and every man of any depth of thought or feeling is aware that the #8doctrines of grace1' in their inner1 perhaps mystical1 interpretation1 and apart altogether from the stupendous metaphysical and historical setting assigned them in systems of ,christian dogma1 have a consoling1 strengthening1 and guiding influence on that vast body of serious1 simple1 if often practically powerful natures1 to whom ,criticism is neither a necessity nor a possibility4 ,such a union of accommodation and exaggeration need not be construed as of set purpose propositional in form1 and deliberate in execution4 ,in the transition from authority to private judgment initiated by ,humanism and the ,renaissance generally1 special ,reformation exigencies may be conceived as leading to such a union1 so that in thought and action it was only semi-conscious and instinctive1 and there was little time for the minuti of introspective scrutiny4 ,on the ethical side1 however1 there was no ,renaissance loosening among the mass of the leading ,reformers4 ,the value of the controversial mendacities propagated about the morals of ,knox may be judged of by the fact that the coryphus of the revilers maintained that he won his second wife by magic6 ,as a rule they kept the ten commandments1 and especially the seventh1 rigidly4 ,they failed a good deal on the new one of ,charity4 ,they preached the #8,gospel' with technical accuracy1 but they mostly practised the #8,law1' and if ,paul had returned among them1 he would probably have re-edited his ,epistle to the ,romans1 with up-to-date applications1 as indeed he might have to do still4 ,,chapter ,v ,,buchanan ,,and ,,calvinism ,in ,buchanan's case1 the revolt from authority seems to have produced different effects4 ,as regards dogma1 it appears to have led him into an attitude of mind that was mainly negative4 ,he had none of the #8,evangelical' fervour which marked the utterances of ,knox1 ,luther1 ,calvin though to a less degree1 and the ,reforming preachers of ,scotland4 ,he never preached1 in the popular sense of the word1 although as ,principal of ,st4 ,leonard's and #8doctor in the schools' he could easily have had himself #8called' and ordained1 if he had been animated by any zeal for the function4 ,he could not have written such letters as ,knox wrote1 full of pious sentiment and sympathy1 in phraseology that was absolutely unctuous1 to ,mrs4 ,bowes1 and ,mrs4 ,locke1 and other women1 who leant on him for a sort of semi-priestly or confessorial guidance4 ,he was a critic1 not a sentimentalist4 ,you may read his whole works through1 prose and poetry both1 without knowing that he laid any stress on the ,calvinism of the ,scottish ,church1 except on its destructive side4 ,indeed1 much of his literary work was done before he openly and formally broke with ,rome1 which he was in no hurry to do4 ,he satirises the clergy1 especially the monks1 and ridicules such doctrines as those of ,indulgences and ,transubstantiation1 the latter especially in the ,franciscanus1 where it is stated with a grossness and extravagance of literalism which would probably be disowned by the highest order of ,catholic dogmatist4 ,as the ,franciscanus was published1 after revision and completion1 in his ,protestant days1 this may have been an addition of the period2 but nowhere1 in anything he wrote during the ,protestant part of his career1 does he emphasise1 or almost even allude to1 such doctrines as ,justification by ,faith1 the ,incarnation1 the ,atonement1 ,election1 and ,reprobation1 or any of the positive dogmatic propositions most prominently characteristic of ,scottish ,protestantism4 ,not a ,zealot ,it is remarkable that in his ,history he associates the ,reformers less with ,evangelium than with ,libertas4 ,they are the vindices libertatis--#8the champions of liberty'--quite as much or oftener than the ,evangelii professores--#8the professors of the ,evangel1'--from which it might seem that for ,buchanan1 not the least valuable aspect of ,protestantism lay in its being a struggle for liberty--a view in which a good many other people will be ready to concur4 ,queen ,mary1 in her later years1 protesting against ,buchanan's appointment as her son's tutor1 described him1 in writing1 as an #8,atheist'2 but that was in the sense in which ,athanasius described ,arius as an atheist1 and is said to have seized an opportunity of striking him in the jaw in that capacity1 to show what he thought of it and him4 ,arius1 however1 constantly professed himself a believer in #8,god1 the ,father ,almighty1' under1 of course1 #8heretical' modifications2 but ,athanasius thought that a wrong ,god--that is1 a ,god that was not ,god1 according to ,athanasius--was no ,god1 and spoke and acted accordingly4 ,buchanan was certainly no atheist in his own sense and intention1 which1 it must always be remembered1 was essentially of a deep-sea seriousness1 although the wavelets of wit might often dance and gleam on its surface4 ,he manifestly held by some ,almighty ,power called by him ,god1 ,deus1 ,numen1 ,providentia2 but whether this was the ,god of ,mary ,stuart1 or the anthropomorphic ,god of ,calvin1 or the accommodation to the popular sense of reverence ascribed by many people1 and not without reason1 to ,carlyle1 might form a subject of discussion4 ,bearing on this matter1 passing allusion may be made to the ,dirge or ,epicedium1 as he called it1 which ,buchanan wrote on the death of ,calvin 7#aefd71 an event which occurred some three years1 more or less1 after ,buchanan had publicly become a ,protestant1 when he was already a member of the ,general ,assembly1 sitting cheek-by-jowl with ,knox1 and on the ,assembly's judicial committee2 the year when ,mary1 having been finally off with the ,spanish ,don ,carlos marriage1 was drawing towards the ,catholic ,darnley marriage1 which ,knox1 correctly scenting on the way1 was beginning to anathematise by anticipation1 he having the year before fiercely denounced from the ,high ,kirk pulpit the ,spanish alliance as fatal to ,scotland1 because it was an #8infidel' marriage1 and #8all ,papists are infidels1' said the uncompromising one1 in the true ,athanasian vein1 on the head of which he had quarrelled with ,mary and ,moray also2 while all the time ,buchanan was1 to ,knox's knowledge1 continuing to act as ,mary's ,court poet1 and possibly meditating on the #8,pompa' or masque for her wedding1 and getting on so well with her that she was arranging for giving him that #ejj 7,scots7 pension from ,crossraguel ,abbey1 out of which it cost him such excruciating difficulty to get anything at all1 at the same time that he was helping the ,general ,assembly to revise the ,book of ,discipline1 translating ,spanish despatches for the ,privy ,council1 and generally acting as #8handy man' on the highest planes all round4 ,this #8,dirge' is too long for quotation3 a curious attempt to combine the ,pagan spirit and the ,calvinistic theology--spiritual elevation and sarcastic wit in the best poetic form4 #8,those who believe that there are no ,manes1 i4e4 no hereafter1 or if they do1 live despising ,pluto and the trans-,stygian penalties1 may well deplore their coming fate1 while they leave sorrow to surviving friends4 ,but we have no such grief over our lost ,calvin4 ,he has passed beyond the stars1 and1 filled with a draught of ,deity 7,numinis71 lives in an eternal and nearer enjoyment of 8,god0 7,deo74 ,but ,death has not taken all of him from us4 ,we have monuments of his genius and his fame wherever the ,reformed religion has spread4 ,we have the terror which he struck1 and which his name will continue to strike1 into your ,popes--your ,clements and ,pauls1 and ,juliuses and ,piuses2 while we know that the ,pontiff tyrant of fire and sword who appropriated all the functions of the nether kingdom--becoming a ,pluto in empire1 a ,harpy in his shameful extortions1 a ,fury in his martyr-making fire1 a ,charon in his viaticum 7,charon naulo71 and a ,cerberus in his mitre 7triplici corona ,cerberus7--will have to appropriate the penalties also of the same lower world1 becoming a ,tantalus thirsty amidst waters1 a ,sisyphus rolling back the ever-recurring stone1 a ,prometheus with vultures ceaselessly pecking at his liver1 a ,danaid vainly filling her empty bucket1 and an ,ixion twisted into a circle on his endless wheel4' propos of ,calvin's #8draught of ,deity1' ,buchanan gives in the course of the poem what seems to be meant for an explanation of the spiritual work of #8regeneration1' which1 ,i am afraid1 would not have been so satisfactory to ,mess ,john ,davidson as some others of his efforts to propitiate that sound divine4 ,as the soul animates the body1 otherwise a mass of clay--sic animi ,deus est animus--so #88,god0 is the ,soul of the soul1' and when the ,numinis haustus1 the #8draught of ,deity1' has been taken1 the soul which before was #8shrouded in darkness1 illusioned by empty appearance1 and grasping at mere shadows of the 8right and good10' sees the #8darkness disappear1 the vain 8simulacra0 cease1 the unveiled face of 8truth0 reveal itself in light4' ,i may be wrong1 but this looks to me more like a ,pantheistic theory of #8illumination' than the #8regeneration' of the ,calvinistic creeds6 ,besides1 there is no word of #8sin1' and the change to at least an incipient #8holiness' only from #8illusion' to #8truth' 7verum74 ,if it be said that this must be assumed1 then a new contradiction of ,calvinism arises1 since a divine ,soul of the soul cannot will evil1 and #8sanctification' is thus erroneously made out to be an instantaneous act and not a gradual process4 ,altogether1 and as it stands1 the passage might have been written by one of those later ,stoics1 including possibly ,aurelius himself1 who seem to have believed in the indwelling ,divinity1 and that the souls of good men at death were not immediately reabsorbed into the ,all1 but lived with #8,god1' in some cases a thousand years1 in others for ever1 or1 at all events1 until the #8philosopher's year' was over1 and the new cycle began to repeat the history of the old4 ,but there is one omission which1 among various others1 seems remarkable4 ,of the relics enumerated by ,buchanan as left by ,calvin1 he passes over the most important of all--,calvin's own body4 ,he makes no reference to the resurrection4 ,yet1 on orthodox principles1 ,calvin's glory and beatitude could not be complete until that event4 ,if ,calvin had been writing about ,buchanan1 instead of vice versa1 he would not have forgotten the matter1 for he laid great stress upon it4 #8,he alone1' he says1 #8has made solid progress in the ,gospel1 who has acquired the habit of meditating continually on a blessed resurrection4' ,buchanan's silence here and on other points that have been mentioned1 and the scantiness1 brevity1 for the most part simply ,theistic references he makes to matters of faith1 are significant4 ,he clearly was not zealous about most of those doctrines on which the ,reforming preachers placed the greatest emphasis4 ,his training and wide intellectual illumination must have stood in the way of his sympathising with the more violent among them1 probably not excepting ,knox himself occasionally4 ,in this connection one thinks of another illustrious son of the ,renaissance1 ,erasmus1 ,buchanan's senior by forty years4 ,after all he had said and done1 the ,protestants demanded1 with loud reproaches1 that he should publicly join their ranks4 ,erasmus would not1 perhaps could not4 ,the alternate violence and unctuousness of the ,evangelicals repelled him as much as the ignorance1 and worse1 of the monks disgusted him4 ,with certain reforms in morals1 constitution1 and discipline1 he did not see why the old ,church should not be satisfactorily worked on the lines of the traditional doctrine and ritual4 ,probably he thought that if a man could reconcile himself to the ,nicene dogmas and their consequences1 it was not worth his pains boggling over ,transubstantiation4 ,although any one may see that his heart was in many things with the ,reform movement1 he had never directly and openly denied any dogma4 ,apparently he was not prepared in his own mind to do so4 ,if a man is asked1 #8,do you deny that ,abracadabra is ,mesopotamia8' he can probably say #8,no' quite conscientiously2 and there can be no doubt that this attitude of non-denial is widely accepted for positive faith4 ,the ,roman ,church1 and the ,roman ,empire before it1 were quite willing to take it so4 ,if a man would hold his peace1 they would let him alone4 ,erasmus condemned the outbreak of ,luther1 whose faith in the immense amount of doctrine he left untouched he perhaps regarded as simply a huge faculty of taking things for granted1 ending in straining at the gnat and swallowing the camel4 ,for myself1 as one of the crowd1 ,i am glad that with all his blunders and shortcomings1 so easy to point out at this distance1 ,luther took his own way1 and did what he did4 ,truth is greater than peace4 #8,ye shall know the truth1 and the truth shall make you free1' is the method of ,christianity1 unless the ,founder of it is mistaken4 ,the martyrs had faults and weaknesses--say even that they were mistaken1--but they were men of nobler spirit1 and did more for us and our liberties than the traditores1 the #8traitors' who handed over their ,scriptures to the ,prtor rather than face the lions4 ,up to a certain point1 ,buchanan's attitude seems to have been practically that of ,erasmus4 ,he tells us himself in his ,autobiography1 that while a student at the ,university of ,paris 7#aebf-bi1 pp4 #bj-bc7 he #8fell into the spreading flame of the ,lutheran sect4' ,several years later 7#aece-ch71 while resident in ,scotland1 he wrote some satirical verses on the ,franciscan monks1 which the brethren took in high dudgeon1 very much to ,buchanan's astonishment--boys always are astonished that frogs should object to the pleasant amusement of being stoned1--and gave him so much annoyance1 ending in his having to flee the country for his life1 as to make him1 in his own words1 #8more keenly hostile to the licentiousness of the clergy1 and less indisposed to the ,lutheran cause than before4' ,silent ,doubt ,all this time1 however1 he appears not to have attacked or denied anything in creed or ritual1 although there cannot be a doubt that he had his own secret doubts4 ,the relentless persecution of the monkish enemies he had made for himself at last brought him before the ,inquisition 7#aedh7 at ,coimbra1 in ,portugal1 where he was acting as #8,regent' in a college recently founded by the ,king2 but although the ,inquisitors had him through their hands several times1 they discovered nothing against him that could properly be called heretical4 ,he was said to have eaten flesh in ,lent1 but everybody did it there1 when they could get it4 ,he was said to have given it as his opinion that on the ,eucharistic controversy ,augustine's opinions were more favourable to the ,lutherans than to the ,church2 but that was merely literary or historical criticism1 not heresy4 ,two young gentlemen testified that ,buchanan was not at heart a good ,catholic--which was probably true enough1 but was not specific4 ,so they shut him up1 as already said1 in a monastery to be taught by monks1 who1 though good fellows1 did not know anything2 and for want of something better to do1 ,buchanan made his famous ,latin paraphrase of the ,psalms4 ,what must his ,faith have been during those years8 ,manifestly1 like that of ,erasmus1 less a positive assent than an abstinence from denial4 ,would he deny ,transubstantiation or the ,trinity8 ,no1 he was not ready to do anything of the kind--anyhow1 not yet4 ,it need not be maintained that in all this ,buchanan1 or ,erasmus either1 was merely seeking to save his own skin4 ,he may have thought that it was best for the order and edification of society to let things alone4 ,probably too1 by this time1 that spirit of ,stoicism1 which ,i have shown reason for believing sank deeper into ,buchanan's nature as time went on1 was beginning to assert itself4 ,and here1 in passing may ,i say that the common popular image of the ,stoic as a gloomy1 unbending1 sour1 cantankerous1 repulsive curmudgeon1 is a mistake4 ,there is nothing in ,stoicism to make him so1 and as a matter of fact he was not so4 ,aurelius was a finished gentleman4 ,seneca had all the culture of his time1 and was the poet of the day4 ,botius was a polished courtier4 ,when ,buchanan went over to the ,reformers1 it was the smartest epigrammatist going who was joining the most advanced party and leaving the #8stupid' party behind4 ,to return4 ,it was a well-known rule of the ,stoics not to quarrel with the popular beliefs1 but1 if possible1 to utilise them for good1 as we see ,buchanan does with the ,pagan mythology in his ,dirge on ,calvin's death4 ,socrates1 their model wise man1 teaches conformity to the cult of the city where the sage resides2 and everybody will recollect the care with which1 as his trial approached1 he arranged that ,esculapius should have the cock that was due him4 ,probably ,esculapius is still receiving a good deal of that class of poultry4 ,for a long time--indeed until he was fifty-five1 the last five of which he spent in carefully scrutinising and balancing theological controversies1 and examining the whole situation--,buchanan followed the lines of ,erasmus1 used the cult of the ,roman ,esculapius to go on with1 pending eventualities4 ,but when the termination of the ,guisian tyranny in ,scotland made it safe for him to return1 he had to make up his mind whether he was to side with the cause of oppression as advocated by the ,church in which he had been born and lived up to now1 or that in which1 though unfortunately with certain drawbacks1 a battle was being fought for liberty to express opinions different from those taught by the ,church4 ,nobody who knew ,buchanan could doubt what his choice would be4 ,the transition would be all the easier that in his new quarters he would find much less to offend his philosophic reason than in his old ones2 but would there not be an occasional bird to be sacrificed still8 ,he had been doing it all his ,catholic life4 ,was it completely over now8 ,that is not likely4 ,but1 however that may be1 ,buchanan was the least dogmatic and the most tolerant of all the theologically instructed men who helped to give ,protestantism its place in ,scotland4 ,he might have preached had he chosen1 but as he shrank from priest's orders in the ,catholic ,church1 so he shrank in the ,protestant from a position in which he would be bound to dogmatise4 ,he did not frown upon ,mary's private ,mass1 while ,knox denounced it as worse than ten thousand armed opponents4 ,when he narrates the hanging of a priest1 according to statute1 for saying ,mass a third time1 he does not exult1 as was no doubt done by the men of the #8,congregation1' and possibly by ,knox himself1 when they heard of the happy event4 ,there is nothing about him of the zeal of the renegade1 who often out-,herods ,herod in championing his new faith--a tendency from which ,knox was by no means free4 ,in his ,history he evidently tries to hold the balance fair between ,catholic and ,protestant1 and is as just to ,mary of ,guise as to ,moray4 ,his whole religious career points to a man who thought profoundly and inquired anxiously after truth1 and was careful to give expression to his feeling of reverence for the mystery of being by outward conformity with a creed and ritual to which he could more or less reconcile his reason4 ,well might ,james ,melville 7,rev41 not ,sir7 describe him not only as a #8maist learned and wyse1' but also as a #8maist godlie' man1 although he himself might have preferred #8spiritual' as a more comprehensive epithet4 ,it may be objected that men like ,buchanan and ,erasmus did not act honestly in remaining silent and conforming members of a system which they secretly regarded as in many vital respects false1 and an imposture upon the world4 ,of course1 it is to be said for ,buchanan that he did ultimately come out of it2 but then1 why not sooner8 ,why did he not earlier follow the lead of ,luther and ,calvin and ,knox8 ,for one thing1 it must be remembered that even these great heroes of veracity had probably their reticences4 ,at all events1 they have left to us the legacy of an incompletely performed work4 ,was their outspokenness equal to ,christ's8 ,his brought ,him to the cross4 ,it seems to be in the nature of the ,ideal that to make an utterly clean breast of it should be perilous or fatal to its revealer1 and the hero of ,truth who dies in his bed has probably made a good many compromises with his conscience to achieve that result4 ,it is all a matter of degree1 a comparison of the well and the very well1 of the bad and the too bad4 ,a good man is a man who tries to be good1 and a bad man is a man who does not care whether he is bad or good4 ,but man is finite1 and there can be nothing absolute in human life1 except perhaps the absolute fool who thinks there may4 ,everything depends on the state of the facts4 ,in these days1 for instance1 when historical and speculative criticism has put ,scripture and the supernatural in so very different a position from that assigned to them by the ,reformers1 there is too good reason to believe1 especially in the light of intra-ecclesiastical demands for the revision of ,confessions and ,articles1 that many of the clergy feel extremely uneasy in being pledged to dogmas which they more or less disbelieve4 ,as they could not speak out without having to face starvation for those dependent on them1 a merciful man might be disposed to say that while the situation was bad1 it was perhaps not unpardonable1 and that the person implicated might still be regarded as a good and otherwise honestly intentioned man4 ,but if the inner state of mind should be one of hopeless antagonism to the supernatural1 one would be disposed to say that it was #8too bad' to remain1 and that speaking out and coming out1 at any cost1 was the duty of the position4 ,bearing in mind that ,buchanan carried his life in his hand1 and that he had never undertaken the function of religious teacher1 only a very heroic person could afford to say that he had not done all he dared1 and that he showed himself deeply in earnest about ,truth1 when at last he had the opportunity1 and really #8was of gud religion for a poet1' and even for a more hopeful character4 ,buchanan1 on the intellectual side of him1 was not merely a poet1 but a wit and humorist--a type of mind not in itself easy to harmonise with being of #8gud religion4' ,perhaps if the ,puritans had not been in so many cases hopelessly wooden1 it might have saved their cause from having so many joints in its harness open to the shafts of the satirical sharpshooter1 but they would probably not have done so great and grave a work in the world4 ,dire1 however1 are the fruits of an igneous temperament and a ligneous intellect1 and ,praise-,god ,barebones and ,co4 have done an evil turn to a good undertaking4 ,the capacity and habit of seeing and enjoying the ludicrous are a temptation to their possessor to forget that life has its serious aspect also1 and in too many instances this seems to be forgotten4 ,hence the presumption is against the laugher until he has become better known4 ,i recollect once hearing a celebrated preacher give a highly comical account of his own conversion1 and albeit not given to the frowning mood1 ,i could not help asking myself whether this could be a serious man2 and it was not until ,i read his life that ,i saw he knew that there is a time for everything under the sun1 and that he possessed the secret of assigning its due claim to all views of life4 ,buchanan1 too1 had mastered this power--for it requires an effort of will1 and there must always be an essential difference between the humorous man's view of religion1 and that of the man who cannot show his teeth by way of smile1 though ,nestor swear the jest be laughable4 ,buchanan could sparkle when sparkling was in place1 but he could also be depended on when grave or even grim work was in request4 ,renaissance ,morals ,part of the price paid for the enlightenment of the ,renaissance was that in too many instances its breadth of ethical as well as intellectual outlook was allowed by its possessor to sink into a practical licentiousness1 open or concealed1 that corrupted1 or even totally destroyed1 the moral and spiritual faculties4 ,i cannot see proof of any such results in ,buchanan's case4 ,i think he was careful to secure himself from danger on this side of his temptations4 ,his bitterest detractors do not raise a whisper against him here4 ,but there is a section of his poetry which may best be characterised as of the ,ad ,neram1 ,in ,leonoram 7,lenam71 ,ad ,gelliam1 ,ad ,briandum ,vallium pro ,lena ,apologia order1 which has occasioned misgiving to some of his friends4 ,one biographer1 a very competent authority on this period of ,scottish history1 says1 somewhat severely1 that these pieces ought not to have been written by the man who wrote ,franciscanus--a powerful satire on the vices and hypocrisy of the monks4 ,i must say that1 with every deference to a critic highly worthy of respect1 ,i am not able to see it4 ,the ,franciscanus was essentially an exposure of dishonesty1 not so much of the vices practised under the cowl1 as of the shameful trickery of using the cowl to cloak them4 ,as far as honesty and consistency go1 there is no reason why an honest and consistent man should not have written every word of these #8,lena' sketches4 ,even from an artistic point of view they will stand inspection4 ,the subject1 of course1 is a revolting one1 and so is ,dame ,quickly--but would any man of average robustness of mind wish ,dame ,quickly unwritten8 ,many people seem to forget that while the real itself may be unpleasant1 the artistic image of the real may be a delight4 ,we should shrink from ,caliban in the flesh1 but ,shakespeare throws a charm over him2 ,pandemonium is not1 ,i believe1 a sweet scene1 but ,milton's account of it is sublime2 ,falstaff was disreputable1 but he makes an admirable stage figure2 a corpse is an unlovely object1 but ,rembrandt's #8,dissectors' has a fascination4 ,probably it was for want of noting this distinction that the late ,principal ,shairp1 who was a good judge of a certain class of poetry1 lamented that ,burns should have written ,holy ,willie's ,prayer and the ,jolly ,beggars6--a remark which led ,louis ,stevenson1 in a compassionating way1 to hint that ,burns was perhaps too #8burly' a figure for the ,principal's microscope4 ,there is a good deal of this #8burliness' in ,buchanan's ,leonoras1 which in point of graphic power are second only to the ,jolly ,beggars1 while their savage and even hideous realism1 contrasting with the elegance of the ,latin line1 produce a piquant effect from the mere point of view of art4 ,but ,i demur to any suggestion that these or any of ,buchanan's so-called #8amorous' poetry are corrupting or intended to be1 or that they exhibit any gloating over the degrading or the degraded on the part of the writer4 ,from references in them ,i believe they were satires written for the warning of #8college' youth1 and resembled certain passages in the ,book of ,proverbs and elsewhere in the ,bible1 where certain counsels1 highly necessary and practical1 are conveyed in language not deficient either in directness or detail4 ,they could not possibly scandalise or tempt any one1 being written in ,latin4 ,mr4 ,podsnap and the #8young person' would pass equally scatheless1 for they could not read them4 ,only men who could construe and scan ,horace could understand them1 and these might be trusted to see their true drift4 ,then the ,ad ,gelliam verses were merely playful little satires upon ladies who painted1 or wore brass rings and glass gems1 which might amuse readers1 while producing no effect1 good or evil1 upon their subjects4 ,as to the ,nera series1 they are not love-poems at all1 but epigrams4 ,there is no passion1 sensuous or otherwise1 in them4 ,what show of manufactured emotion there may be is simply a stage-scaffolding on which to plant and fire off the epigram4 ,probably the best known of the series is the following3-- #8,illa mihi semper prsenti dura ,nera1 ,me quoties absum semper abesse dolet2 ,non desiderio nostri1 non mret amore1 ,sed se non nostro posse dolore frui'2 which ,james ,hannay1 who was well able to appreciate this class of work1 translated thus3-- #8,nera is harsh at our every greeting1 ,whene'er ,i am absent1 she wants me again2 ',tis not that she loves me1 or cares for our meeting1 ,she misses the pleasure of seeing my pain'2 adding that #8,mnage used to say that he would have given his best benefice to have written the lines--and ,mnage held some fat ones4' ,what anchorite could discover anything exceptionable here1 or if he had any intelligence left1 could fail to perceive that it was simply a case for admiring extreme cleverness of thought and smartness of phrase8 ,if any one desires to see how ,buchanan could appreciate and address the highest type of womanhood1 let him read such verses as the ,ad ,mildredam or the ,ad ,camillam ,morelliam1 and he will see that he was a man with tenderness in him as well as virility1 with grace as well as severity of speech2 and the fact that in his maturer years he was not ashamed to publish the incriminated poetry1 showed that he was not conscious of anything to be ashamed of1 that he knew the poet's dominion was conterminous with the whole range of things1 and no part of it whatever exempt from his critical or sympathetic function1 while his fiercest or lightest dealing with the facts of life is in no way inconsistent with a profound and silent veneration in presence of the mystery of existence4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,biographical ,,facts ,earlier and ,continental ,buchanan was born early in ,february #aejf1 at ,moss or ,mid-,leowen1 on the ,blane ,water1 about two miles south-east of ,killearn in ,stirlingshire1 of a #8family ancient rather than opulent1' as he tells us in his ,autobiography1 so that he was delivered from the peasant or upstart consciousness which1 except in the priesthood1 would1 in those feudal times1 have handicapped him heavily in the race of life4 ,his real and ,scoto-,irish clan name was ,macauslan1 but the ,macauslan having acquired the lands of ,buchanan in the ,lennox1 took the name of his property1 and became ,buchanan of that ,ilk2 and thus it came to pass that our ,george ranked as a #8cadet of ,buchanan1' as ,hannay was proud and particular to specify4 ,ancient lineage1 however1 is no insurance against misfortune1 and the ,buchanans of ,moss1 never rich1 sank into deep poverty4 ,the father died in ,george's youth1 and the grandfather who survived him was a waster and became a bankrupt1 and ,agnes ,heriot1 the mother1 was left to struggle with the upbringing of five sons and three daughters--a task however1 which she successfully accomplished1 like the heroine she was1 as her most distinguished son gratefully commemorates4 ,having never known wealth or luxury1 perhaps it was easier for ,buchanan to reconcile himself to their opposites in after years4 ,in the ,lennox they talked ,gaelic1 and ,buchanan picked up that speech to begin with4 ,he would also learn some ,scotch or ,northern ,english from his mother1 who came from ,haddingtonshire1 and in addition she was careful to have him sent to the schools in the neighbourhood1 where he could learn the elements of ,latin4 ,for the old ,church had not entirely neglected popular education1 as has been shown1 in a very interesting way1 in ,grant's ,burgh ,schools of ,scotland1 and as1 indeed1 appears on the face of the ,reformers' ,first ,book of ,discipline itself 7#aefj74 ,most of the burghs maintained schools1 both secondary and elementary1 so that the barons and freeholders who were ordered by the celebrated ,act of ,james ,,iv4 7#adid7 to keep their heirs at school until they had learned #8perfyt ,latyn'--then the international language of the educated and of diplomacy--had abundant opportunity of doing so had they chosen1 although unfortunately they too seldom chose2 so that the burgh schools were largely recruiting-grounds for the priesthood4 ,there were also elementary ,church schools1 in many cases taught by women1 and private adventure schools2 and in these a considerable number of the children of the poor were taught at least to read4 ,accordingly1 when it is said that ,knox and the ,reformers established the ,scottish ,parish ,school system1 a little discrimination must be exercised4 ,they did not invent popular education--they found it2 but they did invent1 on paper1 in the ,first ,book of ,discipline1 the idea of bringing education to the people's doors1 by securing that there should be a school wherever there was a #8kirk'--that is1 practically in every parish2 so that #8the youth-head and tender children shall be nourished and brought up in vertue1 in presence of their friends1 by whose good attendance many inconveniences may be avoyded in which the youth commonly fall1 either by over much libertie which they have in strange and unknowne places1 while they cannot rule themselves2 or else for lack of good attendance1 and of such necessaries as their tender age requires4' ,so far the ,book of ,discipline1 at once recognising an existing educational system1 and suggesting1 for reason given1 the vital improvement of its national application6 ,the whole scheme1 indeed1 is admirable1 including as it does compulsion1 the picking out and1 in the case of the poor1 supporting the class of youth suited for the higher kinds of service to society1 while the others not so gifted #8must be set to some handie craft1 or to some other profitable exercise'--that is1 technical education1 or some other form of practical training4 ,i have said #8on paper1' but not by way of sneer1 and ought to add in passing1 that it was not the fault of ,knox and his associates that it remained to a great extent merely #8on paper1' instead of being immediately and effectually established4 ,it was the fault and the disgrace of a different type of men4 ,knox1 as ,i have already said1 was a politician1 and made dexterous use of the #8,lords of the ,congregation' to secure the triumph of ,protestantism4 ,but these #8,lords of the ,congregation' were politicians also1 and made an equally dexterous use of ,knox to fill their own pockets with ,church spoil--,i except a few1 who were really noble men4 ,they gave little for parish churches1 and nothing that ,i ever heard of for parish schools4 ,the whole thing broke poor ,knox's heart4 ,it did not ruffle ,buchanan1 although he was probably the greatest educational enthusiast in ,europe at the moment4 ,but he was really a greater intelligence and a calmer master of himself than ,knox1 and probably knew that any one who expects to find more than twenty-five per cent4--if so much--of the race as existing at any given moment worthy of intellectual or moral respect1 must either have had little experience of life1 or possess a very low standard of human excellence4 ,not till #afif was the plan of the ,book of ,discipline adumbrated in legislation1 and the successors of the #8,lords of the ,congregation' bound by law to provide a school-house and a salaried teacher in every parish4 ,but during the whole of the intervening century and a third1 the ,presbyterian clergy never ceased in their efforts1 and often their sacrifices1 for popular education1 while at the same time fighting a steady battle for liberty against as mean and cruel a crusade of ,absolutist ,monarchy and ,ecclesiastical ,tyranny as ever was preached by a ridiculous and pedant ,peter against a self-respecting people4 ,for myself1 ,i fail to find much of the theology of the ,covenanters credible--although ,i must say ,i should like if we could hear ,knox and ,melville1 or even ,cameron and ,cargill1 on the existing state of things4 ,i think we should get some different guidance from what we are receiving from those blind leaders of the blind who shiveringly and stammeringly attempt to fill their places4 ,for it is almost impossible to appraise too highly the service done by the ,covenanters for the cause of liberty and popular education2 and although they had their very obvious faults1 one is always sorry to think that the aristocratic and ,episcopalian prejudices of ,scott should have led him to hold them up to ridicule1 while glad that a higher and juster view was taken by a greater ,scotsman even than ,scott1 when1 in answer to a contemptuous critic of the men of the ,covenant1 ,burns turned on him with the withering impromptu3-- #8,the ,solemn ,league and ,covenant ,cost ,scotland blood--cost ,scotland tears-- ,but it sealed ,freedom's sacred cause-- ,if thou'rt a slave1 indulge thy sneers4'#e ,we go back to young ,george ,buchanan 7#aeag-ai7 at the ,catholic local grammar-school of ,killearn or ,dumbarton1 or wherever else in the neighbourhood secondary education was to be had4 ,the boy had shown such aptitude that his uncle1 ,james ,heriot1 who is said to have been ,justiciar of ,lothian1 sent him to the ,university of ,paris1 then1 though not quite so much as at an earlier date1 enjoying the reputation of the most notable of any seat of learning in existence4 ,instead of being required to pass through the preparatory school1 he at once began his studies in the ,arts faculty 7#aebj1 age fourteen71 his ,scottish acquirements having apparently been sufficient to pass him through whatever entrance examination was imperative4 ,here he spent about two years1 working mainly at ,latin versification1 which1 as his reputation for ,latin poetry was to be the making of him in after years1 was perhaps the best thing he could do1 especially as he liked it4 ,at this point1 as evil fate would have it1 his uncle died1 and he himself fell ill4 ,but as he was penniless1 he had to struggle home1 illness and all1 as best he could1 and was not able to move about again for a year or thereabouts 7#aebc74 ,and then it turned out that a very singular purpose had entered the mind of the ill or convalescent student of seventeen4 ,here ends ,dr4 ,wallace's ,,ms4 ,that purpose was to enlist as a volunteer in an army for the invasion of ,england1 to be led by the ,regent ,albany1 who had supposed wrongs of his own as well as of the borders to avenge against that old neighbour and untiring enemy4 ,that army1 consisting of ,french auxiliaries and ,scottish recruits1 marched to ,melrose and then partly crossed the ,tweed by a wooden bridge1 then1 holding ,flodden in memory1 intimated a mutinous resolution not to cross the border1 then marched down the left bank of the river1 and for three days besieged ,wark ,castle to little effect1 then made a sudden night-march to ,lauder in a snowstorm1 #8which told heavily on man and beast1' and reduced ,buchanan to very bad health for the rest of the winter4 ,buchanan1 when he came to write his own life in his old age1 had come to believe that he joined this abortive expedition to learn the art of war1 which1 without intentions more far-seeing than those of a lad of eighteen1 he certainly did1 just as ,gibbon was educated to understand the evolution of the phalanx and the legions1 by what he saw1 in his two and a half years' captaincy of the ,hampshire ,militia1 of the evolutions of a modern battalion4 ,in the spring of #aebe ,buchanan appeared as a #8pauper student' at the ,university of ,st4 ,andrews1 doubtless specially well qualified both as a student and as a #8pauper'--which epithet #8pauper1' however1 meant probably nothing more opprobrious than a youth who required board and education free1 like many a score of ,st4 ,andrews students1 from poet ,buchanan to poet ,fergusson1 who about two and a half centuries later sat at the bursar's free table and said grace over the too plentiful college rabbits that were last century procured from the links that now swarm only with golfers4 ,he was sent there1 he tells in his ,autobiography1 to #8sit at the feet of ,john ,major1' the celebrated logician of that age2 but he did not long sit at his feet as pupil before he felt in a position to criticise his master as a teacher of sophistry rather than logic4 ,next summer1 having taken the ,st4 ,andrews ,b4,a4 degree1 he followed or accompanied ,major to ,paris1 and there passed through two years' adversity under pressure of poverty and the suspicion of not being an orthodox ,papist4 ,fortune relaxed her frown1 and he was admitted to the ,college of ,ste4 ,barbe1 in which he was ,professor of ,grammar for three years4 ,meanwhile ,gilbert ,kennedy1 the young ,earl of ,cassilis1 one of the earliest of ,scottish hero-worshippers1 had the insight to appreciate his learning and genius1 and the devotion to adhere to him as friend1 pupil1 and protector for five years4 ,in #aecc1 the tutor dedicated to the pupil his translation of ,linacre's ,grammar1 one of the items of work done by him during his professorship in the ,college of ,ste4 ,barbe2 and in #aeeh1 after this pupil1 who had held a prominent position among ,scottish nobles1 died1 probably from poison1 at ,dieppe1 on his way home from the marriage of ,mary ,stuart to the ,dauphin1 along with the other three ,scottish commissioners who had attended it1 ,buchanan celebrated him in emphatic ,latin verse that is now better known than most contemporary epitaphs4 ,let it be told1 however1 to illustrate the cross-threads that run through the web of life1 that ,queen ,mary1 on #ith ,october #aefd1 granted to ,buchanan1 who had been her tutor also1 and probably the most learned and intellectual of all her friends1 a pension of #ejj ,scots1 or #be sterling a year1 from the ,abbey of ,crossraguel2 that the then ,earl of ,cassilis1 son of ,buchanan's old pupil1 claimed the temporalities of that abbey as his own1 and sometimes stopped temporarily1 and often permanently diminished1 the pension which had been granted by the ,queen out of the spoils of the ,reformation1 tarnishing by pious ,protestant greed the brightest page in the history of the earldom of ,cassilis4 ,after ,buchanan's tutorship of the father of this grasping ,protestant was ended1 and ,buchanan was proposing to return to his old scholar's life in ,paris1 ,james ,v4 detained him to act as tutor to one of his natural sons--not the one known afterwards as the ,good ,regent1 but ,james ,stewart1 ,prior of ,coldingham4 ,this king1 who entertained the idea that the clergy ought not to disregard the moral law as if they were royal personages like himself1 set ,buchanan to the not uncongenial task1 upon which ,dunbar and ,sir ,david ,lindsay of the ,mount had previously been engaged1 of #8lashing the vices' of the clergy1 and especially of the monks4 ,in the form of a dream1 ,somnium1 he represented to ,st4 ,francis the reasons of a decent man for refusing to enter this order of sainthood--reasons which1 because of their truth1 might satisfy a saint1 but which also1 because of their truth1 would likely be disagreeable to sanctified hypocrites and scoundrels4 ,two palinodes1 wearing the aspect of apologies1 were seen by those who understood irony to be rather stinging aggravations of the original satire4 ,after some months of a mixed tumult of priestly rage and secular laughter1 the royal love of fun and of virtue again prompted ,buchanan to renew the attack1 which he did by beginning ,franciscanus1 not published till #aefj1 and then dedicated to the ,regent ,moray and gradually extended to a thousand ,latin lines1 which contain the most polished1 skilfully contemptuous exposure of the arts1 ignorance1 and vices of the later generations of the ,romish clergy in ,scotland4 ,it is still worth reading by all who enjoy rough1 boisterous1 coarse humour1 as also by all anti-,papist fanatics1 even if they should renew their ,latin studies for nine months to enable them to understand and utilise it4 ,these men1 drenched with satire1 published and unpublished1 whose craft of various hues was endangered by it1 of course thought that it would be judicious if not just to burn its author4 ,cardinal ,beaton had him on his list of heretics1--for what heresy could be so dangerous as disbelief in the solid1 well-fed1 red-faced exponents of infallible truth8 ,in #aeci he escaped from prison in ,edinburgh#f when his guards were asleep4 ,but being warned after the ,king had received the ,,ms4 of ,the ,franciscan that ,beaton had offered this fickle monarch a price for his head1 he felt constrained to bid farewell once more to his native country4 ,he fled to ,england1 but1 as ,henry ,,viii4 was then busy burning all shades of believers that did not suit his personal fancy1 ,buchanan thought it prudent to trust his safety and his fortunes once more to ,paris4 ,on arriving there1 however1 he found that ,cardinal ,beaton was there before him as ambassador1 so on the invitation of ,andrew ,gouva he withdrew to ,bordeaux4 ,there he taught three years at least in the public schools1 and wrote four tragedies for the annual exhibitions of these schools1 to wit ,the ,baptist1 ,medea1 ,jepthes1 and ,alcestis4 ,in the ,college of ,guyenne he had ,gouva as a principal1 and as a pupil ,montaigne1 the celebrated sceptic1 who is dogmatic enough to state in one of his essays that ,gouva was #8without comparison the chiefest rector in ,france1' and that he himself had1 as a principal actor1 #8undergone and represented the chiefest parts in the ,latin ,tragedies of ,buchanan4' ,when here1 ,beaton and the ,franciscans harassed him until that fear was dispelled by the plague raging over ,aquitaine and the death of his fickle patron1 the ,king of ,scots4 ,next1 about #aedg1 in the wake or under the convoy of ,gouva1 he migrated to ,portugal in response to the invitation of the ,king to teach in a resuscitation of the ,university of ,coimbra that was being then worked out at great expense for education in the liberal arts and the philosophy of ,aristotle4 ,many of his friends1 eminent for learning1 were there before him1 and he expected to find peace in that out of the way corner of the world4 ,but ,gouva died suddenly1 and then all his enemies ran at him with open mouth4 ,he was thrown into prison1 charged with writing against the ,franciscans and eating flesh in ,lent4 ,the ,inquisitors tormented themselves and him for six months without stateable result2 and then1 thinking it prudent1 and perhaps honest1 to conceal that their toil had been in vain1 they shut him up in a monastery to be converted to the true faith or to be prepared for the fagots4 ,to the great scholar1 however1 the monks1 though ignorant1 behaved not unkindly4 ,they allowed him the truest literary leisure and quiet he ever had except perhaps in ,st4 ,andrews2 and he devoted it to the so-called translation of ,david's ,psalms into ,latin verse1 which are in truth artistic evolutionary expositions from ,hebrew hints1 or splendid blossoms of sacred poetry grown from the seed given by the poet-king of ,israel to the winds of heaven1 in the moments of inspiration occurring in a life of suffering1 of passion1 and of hope4 ,never elsewhere did the iron fetters of ,buchanan's own environment permit him to soar so close to the firmament4 ,when set at liberty1 though the ,king of ,portugal offered him the means of subsistence1 he returned to ,england4 ,but as affairs were then in disorder under a young king1 he in a short time returned to ,france and celebrated the siege of ,metz in a ,latin poem1 not without the approbation which rewarded all his efforts in that line of composition4 ,thereafter the ,marshal de ,brissac called him to ,italy1 and he lived with him and his son in ,italy and ,france for four years till #aefj1 spending much time in writing his poem ,de ,sphra1 and in study of the religious controversies then seething through civilised ,europe1 and carrying it into a scientific region that rendered a poetic exposition of the ,ptolemaic system a work of futility and utterly misspent power4 ,in #aefa he returned to his native country1 and there indicated his ,rationalistic leanings to the side of ,protestantism4 ,nevertheless1 the non-,protestant ,mary ,stuart1 of ever-living memory in the realm of history and romance1 pursued her studies in ,livy and other classics with his help4 ,as formerly mentioned1 she endowed him with a pension of #ejj a year4 ,but in after years ,mary's faults or her misfortunes threw them into the hostile camps that tore ,scotland into confusion and deadly discord4 ,in regard to the murder of ,darnley1 he came to the conclusion1 on the evidence of open foes and of professed friends1 that she was guilty4 ,he preferred truth to the beautiful queen1 and it is difficult to comprehend how any man capable of weighing and scrutinising such evidence as was accessible to him can blame him4#g ,buchanan has been accused of ingratitude to ,mary1 his friend as well as his mistress1 divinely gifted and divinely appointed4 ,he may have been compelled to seem ungrateful through the lying of ill-informed ,reformers and rogues2 but sure am ,i that his ,latin and other ,humanist studies with that most fascinating and accomplished of women1 or at least of queens1 gave him the opportunity of forming an idea of her intellectual powers and unsurpassed personal charms that no other contemporary in ,scotland was mentally and morally capable of forming1 and ,i don't doubt that this idea finds sincere expression in his dedication to her of his version or paraphrase of the ,psalms of the ,hebrew poet-king1 without any hint whatever of kindred royal frailties1 or of tendencies thereto4 ,what ,buchanan must have seen in her when he had the best opportunity of sight and knowledge stands recorded unalterably in his noble verse that rolls down the centuries1 bearing an impress of insight and sincerity unequalled in the poetical portraiture of queens till ,tennyson laid his dedication at the feet of the most illustrious and fortunate of all her countless descendants4 ,a true poet ,i believe to be a true seer1 and incapable of falsehood to the extent that he has had the chance to see4 ,but a true poet may be deceived4 ,spenser and ,shakespeare were deceived into uttering gross flatteries about ,queen ,elizabeth2 but they were deceived by the dense atmosphere of lying by which one of the cleverest1 falsest1 most hateful of women of all history encompassed herself4 ,that ,queen ,mary should have been no worse than she was in a world with her royal cousin and rival flaunting her fictitious moral and physical beauties at the head of it1 and getting prematurely canonised as the ,good ,queen ,bess1 ought certainly to qualify or blot out for ever all that can be stated truly and justly in condemnation or even grave censure of ,queen ,mary4 ,therefore let the modest and honest muse of ,history cease howling and canting about her crimes1 and try to refrain from lavishing eulogy upon her kindred in position and in blood--,henry ,,viii41 the ,royal ,bluebeard1 and his inconstant1 cruel1 deceitful daughter--a pair of monarchs whose fickle affections led so many adventurous wives and ambitious wooers to the scaffold1 by processes that involved the partial but temporary corruption of their country's conscience4 ,the wants and troubles of his country beset ,buchanan with many a call of duty1 and cast upon him loads of multifarious work1 such as perhaps never in the history of human-kind before were thrown upon the most accomplished and studious of living men4 ,the tasks assigned to ,buchanan1 and the duties imposed upon him1 reflect no inconsiderable honour and credit upon his lawless1 homicidal1 half-civilised countrymen4 ,while still friendly with ,queen ,mary1 he gave effect to his ,reformation convictions1 by sitting and working for years1 from #aefc onwards1 as a member of the new-born democratic ,general ,assembly1 knowing well enough that it was an institution that the ,queen would have been happy to see strangled1 even before it began to discuss the scandals of ,rizzio and ,darnley with the plain-spoken impudence of a rustic kirk-session and the arrogance of an infallible tribunal4 ,buchanan was one of the ,commissioners that revised the ,book of ,discipline1 and1 along with ,knox and others1 was a member of a committee appointed to confer regarding the causes that fell1 or that ought to fall1 within the jurisdiction of the ,kirk4 ,in #aefg1 a few days after the beginning of ,mary's imprisonment in ,lochleven1 ,buchanan filled the chair of the ,moderator of the ,general ,assembly1 a position that for generations has not called for the worldly wisdom and terse1 impatient talk of a layman1 and seldom1 if ever1 so much required to be reminded of the limits of its power and jurisdiction as when ,buchanan sat as its ,moderator1 and the head of the ,state was a captive4 ,in the previous year1 ,queen ,mary's half-brother1 the ,earl of ,moray1 commendator of the ,priory of ,st4 ,andrews1 and as such patron of the ,principalship of ,st4 ,leonard's ,college there1 appointed ,buchanan to that office1 which he held for four years4 ,during these years ,st4 ,leonard's1 which in the first year was studentless1 became the best attended of the three ,st4 ,andrews colleges4 ,but the fame of the #8greatest poet of the age' could not permanently revive the fortunes of ,st4 ,leonard's1 nor did the efforts of the ,parliamentary ,commission of #aegi1 of which ,andrew ,melville as well as ,buchanan were members4 ,by the time ,dr4 ,johnson was on his way to the ,hebrides1 the ,college buildings were ruinous and forsaken1 including ,st4 ,leonard's ,church1 of which the ,doctor could not see the inside1 because of decent excuses exciting in his mind the hope that #8,where there is still shame there may yet be virtue4'#h ,the ,regent ,moray1 ,buchanan's patron and friend1 to whom the ,franciscanus was dedicated1 was a recognised mainstay of ,protestantism1 heartily hated by the allies of the ,queen and of the ,pope4 ,he was assassinated in ,linlithgow on #bjth ,january #aegj1 partly to further their interests and partly to gratify private revenge4 ,hamilton of ,bothwellhaugh was waiting for him in the house of his uncle1 ,archbishop ,hamilton1 with small-bore matchlock and lighted match1 and the accident of a crowded street gave him the opportunity of a deliberate aim4 ,his death was laid at the door of the ,hamiltons1 and it stirred the patriotism of ,buchanan to write a political pamphlet1 called an ,admonition to the ,trew ,lordes1 in the vernacular of ,scotland1 directed against the ,hamiltons and their friends--a publication full of practical insight1 good sense1 and cogent argument1 the work of a wise1 earnest1 sagacious man1 who in the zeal for the good of his country forgot that he had the gift of poetic inspiration1 in that respect very unlike his great successor ,milton when he too became a political pamphleteer1 more rhapsodical than relevant4 ,he suspected the ,hamiltons of a desire to secure the crown1 and ,buchanan very much preferred to them ,queen ,mary and her son1 whose birth he had welcomed as a star of hope for his country4 ,his birthday ode of welcome1 ostensibly intended for the boy when he grew up1 but positively in the meantime for the guidance and the warning of his mother1 is in substance a serious homily on the duty of kings to ,god and the people1 from whom their power came1 and whose will and welfare alone justified its exercise4 ,the essence of the ,de ,jure ,regni underlies it1 an essence never practically intelligible to the fated ,house of ,stuart4 ,neither the beautiful1 brilliant ,mary nor her erratic but not stupid race could understand the teaching of ,buchanan as an exposition of the law of the ,king of kings4 ,the fate of that race1 from her flight to ,england to the flight from ,culloden1 has helped the world to understand it4 ,they were doomed to be born in and live through ages of ignorance1 superstition1 and falsehood1 in which few men arose who could discover and recognise truth and publish it at their risk for the dark here and the darker hereafter1 as was done by ,buchanan4 ,he may not have been infallible1 but he had insight1 veracity1 and courage1 the like of which will never be exhibited by his traducers to the end of time4 ,those who can believe him guilty of base ingratitude and malicious falsehood are incapable of discriminating the best from the worst in human nature and in human history4 ,buchanan's truthfulness and resolute desire to be impartial can be best inferred in our time from his ,history of ,scotland1 at which he had written for years1 and for which he had collected materials from his boyhood4 ,the style of it appears to be an eclectic adaptation of available and appropriate elements from the styles of ,livy1 ,sallust1 and ,tacitus4 ,it wants the special charm of #8,livy's pictured page1' for ,scottish places1 deeds1 heroes1 and tastes did not for ,buchanan's earnest1 realistic1 dialectical1 judicial mind present inducements to poetic word-painting--indeed1 it was after his day1 before the fascinations of the picturesque dawned upon the mind of ,scotland1 unless it may have been to some semi-mythical1 mist-inspired member of the tribe of ,ossian4 ,the speeches of his ,history are the most tersely expressed1 forcibly reasoned specimens of ancient ,scottish oratory1 assuming1 of course1 that they ought to have been delivered1 but that they never were4 ,they want the terse1 pregnant suggestiveness of the orations of ,tacitus2 but they may probably appear to be not less skilfully adapted for the dramatic surroundings in which they are supposed to have been delivered4 ,young students of ,latin1 especially in the ,aberdeen region1 have found it to be for their interest to read and re-read ,buchanan's ,history1 and it is in the original that the literary art and linguistic skill of its author can be best seen4 ,but it is still worth reading1 and is often read in ,dr4 ,watkins' translation1 which as a translation reflects a good deal more credit upon its author than his old-womanly1 newspapery but not dishonest attempt at original historical composition shown in his bringing down of ,buchanan's masterly story to the culmination or extinction of ,scottish history in the visit of ,george ,,iv4 to ,edinburgh4 ,the babes and sucklings of the school of ,dry-as-dust assert that ,buchanan is superseded as an historian2 but a man of ,buchanan's powers and opportunities can never be superseded as a narrator of the history of his own time4 ,buchanan died on the #bhth ,september #aehb1 a few days or weeks after his ,history had been published4 ,he had striven1 in spite of old age1 ill-health1 and poverty1 to accomplish this long-meditated patriotic task2 and when he had corrected the proofs and given it to the world1 he felt that his last slender tie to life was broken1 and his long1 chequered1 poorly-paid day's work was done4 ,his death took place in ,kennedy's ,close1 the second close off the ,high ,street of ,edinburgh above the ,tron ,church1 as recorded by #8,george ,paton1 ,antiquary1' upon the rather reliable authority of an ancient ,lord ,advocate1 ,sir ,james ,stewart of ,goodtrees4 ,his last lodging was in #8the first house in the turnpike above the tavern1' and occupied some few cubic feet of space1 probably about twelve feet above the existing causeway blocks of ,hunter ,square1 an entirely vanished pile of tall1 substantial1 over-populated masonry1 part of the crest of the ,high ,street once1 standing within a quarter of a mile of the vanished garden in which ,darnley was found dead in his shirt without mark of violence1 still nearer to the site of the vanished house in which ,walter ,scott was born1 and to the vacant air-space once filled by ,johnny ,dowie's vanished tavern1 in which during his ,edinburgh sojourn ,robert ,burns was wont to make merry with select friends4 ,the records of the ,commissary ,court show that ,buchanan left no property except #ajj of his ,crossraguel pension 7gifted by ,queen ,mary1 and withheld as often and as long as he could by the ,earl of ,cassilis71 which had been in arrear from the previous ,whitsunday4 ,his #8,inventar' exhibits him in his true character of an ancient philosopher1 whether ,stoic or not4 ,the civic authorities of ,edinburgh1 who from time immemorial have been ready and willing to bury scholars1 buried his body the day after his death at the public expense4 ,the ground of ,greyfriars1 one of the spoils of the ,reformation1 was then being turned into a burying-ground1 and ,buchanan was the #8first person of celebrity' buried in it4 ,the exact spot of his sepulture is1 however1 in doubt1 though a small tablet was put up by a humble blacksmith to mark where it is believed to be--a tribute of hero-worship like to that in ,parliament ,square which is supposed to mark the burial-place of ,knox4 ,it is not likely that ,buchanan ever asked the ,town ,council of ,edinburgh for bread1 but it is believed that they gave him a stone--without any inscription1 however1 to show for whom it was intended1 so that by #agja it was lost or stolen4 ,his skull also is believed to be one of the lawful and sacred possessions of the ,edinburgh ,university4 ,if genuine1 it may be a phrenological curiosity4 ,sir ,w4 ,hamilton once used it at a lecture which was listened to and approved of by ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,sir ,william demonstrated to ,carlyle's satisfaction that the said skull1 supposed to be ,buchanan's1 was according to phrenological dogmas far inferior to that of some #8,malay cut-throat' or other unredeemed ruffian4 ,assuming this to be the fact--and my authority for believing it is a letter of ,carlyle published in ,veitch's ,life of ,sir ,w4 ,hamilton--,i am surprised that ,mr4 ,hosack and ,sir ,john ,skelton were not converted to phrenology4 ,but for my part1 believing in the universal but mostly untranslatable symbolism of ,nature1 from the #8flower in the crannied wall' to the human face and form divine1 and believing only to a limited extent in phrenology as the dark side of physiognomy that is open to touch rather than to sight1 ,i should hold that the skull which was inferior to a ,malay's in any respect except thickness could never be the skull of ,buchanan2 and it would not alter my conviction to feel sure that ,george ,combe was present at ,sir ,william ,hamilton's lecture1 and for the first and only time in their career of phrenological disputation expressly agreed with him4 ,whatever ,buchanan's head and face may have been like--and his portraits impute to him either sleepy1 benevolent dulness1 or ferrety1 peevish conceit--it is not believable that his head or face could have ever resembled that of a ,malay or any other kind of savage4 ,so acute a logician as ,sir ,w4 ,hamilton ought to have doubted one of his premises at least1 and been able to conceive it possible that the resetters of dead men's skulls may be sometimes the victims of outside1 as well as inside1 deception4 ,,epilogistic ,the sudden and untimely death of ,dr4 ,wallace has left this volume incomplete1 and incapable of being completed as he would have done it4 ,detailed facts are in part awanting1 but they are awanting in every biography and autobiography1 and after the oblivion of centuries has passed over them1 they tend to be unintelligible and uninteresting as lying remote from everyday experience4 ,these1 however1 the inquiring reader1 to his reasonable satisfaction1 can find elsewhere2 what he will never find elsewhere are ,dr4 ,wallace's ultimate1 deliberate1 critical estimates of the life and work of ,buchanan4 ,his book1 as it grew under his nimble pen1 grew1 probably unconsciously1 to be not so much an articulation of the bare bones of fact as a narrative of the genesis1 evolution1 growth1 and vitality of ,buchanan's ideas1 more especially his ideas affecting social democratic development1 and in particular his capital heresy1 dangerous for himself1 but vital for the race1 touching the #8rights of man4' ,few men of any country have had such versatility of talent1 and have in life found tasks so varied as ,george ,buchanan and ,robert ,wallace4 ,no other ,scotsman known to me1 through credible report or in the flesh1 has had the personal experience that would enable him so well to understand and interpret the personal experience of ,george ,buchanan4 ,both were pre-eminent in the university learning of their respective eras1 which had little in common except ,latin2 scholastic logic and metaphysic being the dominating study of ,buchanan's days1 as inductive positive science is of ours4 ,both were wandering scholars seeking for fortune1 or at least for bread2 each acting as tutor1 schoolmaster1 university professor1 man of letters1 theologian1 politician1 and teacher of public men who were too ignorant or too neglectful of honest rational principle to be fit to rule in mercy and in justice2 both were doomed by circumstances or by conscience to poverty and the discrediting influences of poverty1 though fit to furnish invaluable light and guidance to their fellow-men4 ,methinks the pre-,reformation church was a kinder1 less harsh nursing-mother to the inquiring1 doubting1 hesitating1 satirical ,protestant1 than the dry-as-dust nurses of ultra-,protestantism1 agnosticism1 atheism1 and sincere worship of nothing except ,mammon's golden calf were to the learned literary man of our day who1 afflicted with distracting doubts himself1 and many sorrows1 could still give reasons for his faith in a supreme ,creator and an administrator of the universe according to fixed law and unswerving right1 and could help to lift the mind of his age out of a darkness deeper than ,popery--the blackness of atheistic despair4 ,both knew about politics as revealed in the wrangling of churches or religious sects1 and the strife of factions intriguing and fighting for power to govern or to misgovern4 ,the politics familiar to ,buchanan included the ethics that prompted and the arts that effected the murders of ,cardinal ,beaton1 ,rizzio1 ,darnley1 ,regent ,moray1 and ,queen ,mary1 and that often imperilled his own life4 ,nevertheless1 worn out by his years and assiduous labours1 he died in his bed when his work was done1 a fortnight after his ,history of his country was published1 and before his old pupil the ,scottish ,solomon had time to discover all the treason it contained2 ordered his servant to give his few last coins to a beggar1 and left the care of his funeral to all whom it might concern on ,christian1 natural1 civic1 and sanitary grounds1 ending his long1 busy1 chequered tenure of time with that courage and hope which gilds the last sunset of those who have striven to do right and never doubted that ,god is just4 ,there was no man in ,scotland or in ,europe that could have been of so much service to ,scotland in guiding it through the troubles and storms1 political1 moral1 and religious1 of the ,reformation as ,buchanan1 if the people of ,scotland1 more especially the feudal lords of ,scotland1 had been fit to follow the dictates of the broadest1 most complete worldly wisdom1 and of the clear conscience of one who had spent his years in study and in poverty1 who had lived the life of a stranger to the entanglements of foolish pleasure and the illusions of earthly hope1 who had the most of his possible life behind him and eternity in no distant prospect1 and who had no conceivable motive to applaud murder or to tell lies4 ,sceptical by innate constitution1 and educated to doubt in the schools of adversity and experience1 personal and historical1 he was not the man to commit himself hastily to faith in dark dogmas and half-explored truths2 he was the man to be a cautious1 judicious reformer1 not the man to be an impetuous1 frantic destroyer1 too rash and unrestrained to discriminate between the entirely and partially unsound1 too just to plunder churchmen1 some of them profligate1 in order to enrich feudal lords skilled in few arts except the arts of war and theft4 ,like ,erasmus and ,beza1 he saw that the old order of society was dissolving2 but1 like all wise men1 he preferred slow and gradual to revolutionary change4 ,john ,knox1 in point of culture and of pure intellect and reason1 was a small man--a rash1 daring1 half-educated schoolboy1 compared with ,buchanan4 ,knowledge and reason are conservative forces1 and ,knox could not have been great had he not been a destroyer4 ,his most indelible historical records are the ruins of cathedrals and other religious houses1 #8rooks' nests' requiring to be pulled down only in the judgment of blind superstition and rabid fanaticism4 ,for the ignorance and savagery of the people of ,scotland the ,church of ,rome was primarily to blame4 ,that ,church required reformation1 moral and intellectual2 but no spiritual entity1 however corrupt1 can be miraculously reformed by the destruction of ,gothic or any other architecture which took its form under the sincere art and piety of buried generations4 ,cardinal ,beaton's mode of burning good true men to support and preserve the divine truth that had vitalised his ,church for centuries was irrational and infernal2 but it was not very much worse than the mad1 destructive fury inspired by ,john ,knox's #8excellent' sermons1 which1 whatever their merits1 can scarcely have emanated from a mind that had any clear comprehension of the processes by which spiritual truth makes its way and holds its power effectively among mankind4 ,beaton and ,knox were both powerful in their age and characteristic of it1 but they would have found no conspicuous function in an age that was not in the course of emerging from the mire of savagery1 with all its tendencies to violence and to vice4 ,both alike were uncompromising enemies of individual freedom1 and equally bent upon the suppression of all conscientious opinions that did not concur with their own4 ,both were patriots1 and of signal service to ,scotland2 but the evil they did so nearly counterbalances all the good they did 7which might1 and would1 in time have been done by less unscrupulous1 ungentle instruments71 that it might have been well had ,scotland been liberated by ,providence from the piebald burden of both of them4#i ,buchanan as a scholar was a very large inheritor of the wisdom of many ages1 the largest inheritor of that rare kind of wealth of all the ,scotsmen of his day4 ,he was by nature somewhat of a sceptic1 the teacher in ,latin--and who can tell what beside8--of ,montaigne--most candid and sincere of sceptics--by necessity a doubter1 as true seekers of truth1 especially in dark1 troubled1 fermenting ages1 cannot help being4 ,he was a philosopher--a ,stoic probably1 as most impecunious philosophers are compelled to be more or less1 capable of bearing the inevitable with patience1 and of waiting to solve difficulties by skill and cautious experiment rather than by violence or deceit6 ,what his worldly wisdom and great intellectual power might have done for the good of his country opens up a wide field of conjecture touching the solution of most of the big problems of his age4 ,why should the clever1 beautiful ,queen ,mary not have trusted him as an adviser rather than ,scotch rakes and traitors and ,italian fiddlers8 ,why should her race1 more gifted than most royal races1 have hugged a delusion about the ,divine right of kings along the precipices overhanging death and ruin8 ,why should the ,reformers1 who had the means of ascertaining that among them he was a veritable ,saul among the prophets1 and neither a fanatic nor a hypocrite1 not have utilised his wisdom and his inspiration of the beautiful and the true to direct the course and shape the limits of the ,reformation1 without proclaiming a barbarian1 everlasting divorce between the power of truth and the beauty of holiness8 ,why should the spiritual force and illumination of every great man who did not wear fine raiment and fare sumptuously every day1 of the prophets of ,juda and the sages of ,greece and ,rome1 have been lost upon their contemporaries and left to find its way and its expanding efficacy in the slow course of centuries8 ,buchanan's lot was the common lot of unendowed1 and therefore unappreciated1 genius4 ,the greatest scholar and writer of his own country in his own time1 one of the most potent of the intellectual aristocracy of ,europe for all time1 he was a rustic in dress1 a plain1 unpretentious1 non-assertive inhabitant of the ,european villages called cities1 known to him as ,st4 ,andrews and ,edinburgh2 a man pure of life in a vicious1 half-decent age2 loyal to truth so far as it was possible for him to discover it among contemporaries prone to falsehood and ready for the perpetration of it by forgery or any other effective and not unpracticable mode1 he was esteemed a stranger in his native land1 and not a ,solon or a seer except by the more cultured of his own unlettered generation2 to subsequent vulgar generations he was so unknown or so forgotten as to fill1 in their rude ,temple of ,fame1 the niche of a mythical court-jester and coarse wit or witling2 nevertheless he holds a title to lasting remembrance as sure as the story of the ,reformation and the era of the never-to-be-forgotten ,mary ,stuart can give2 also the unique distinction of being the greatest master of the ,latin language since it died as a vernacular1 and became the immortal medium of intercommunication for the wide1 high1 and cold republic of scholars and thinkers1 scattered through realms of ether and cloudland1 and lit by volcanic fire and spiritual aurora fitfully lifting the night from peaks of rock and ice4 ,,footnotes #a ,when ,i first heard from one of my early schoolmasters the medival chestnut1 ,quid distat inter sotum et ,scotum8--,mensa tantum4 7#8,what divides a sot 7fool7 from a ,scot8--,only the table'7--the reply was credited to ,buchanan4 #b ,he was ,buchanan's assistant1 and called the king's #8,pedagogue1' ,buchanan being called #8,master4' #c ,certain emoluments arising to the feudal superior 7in this case the king72 which1 as they depend on uncertain events1 are termed casualties4 #d ,this covers the meaning more accurately than #8,physicians4' #e ,burns appears to have afterwards written it down thus3-- #8,the ,solemn ,league and ,covenant ,now brings a smile1 now brings a tear2 ,but sacred ,freedom1 too1 was theirs3 ,if thou'rt a slave1 indulge thy sneer4' ,the form may be improved1 the sentiment could not be4 #f ,my authority is ,herkless's ,cardinal ,beaton1 p4 #aec4 #g ,my non-forensic sympathy1 but not my full conviction1 goes with ,mr4 ,hosack and ,sir ,john ,skelton in their chivalrous but too unmeasured defence of ,mary4 ,my verdict in regard to her being #8art and part' in putting an end to that traitor in heart and deed1 the good-for-nothing1 faithless fool ,darnley1 is a hesitant #8,not ,proven'2 but if otherwise1 then a distinct non-hesitant #8served him right4' ,skelton's clever1 interesting book upon ,maitland of ,lethington1 ,mary's most faithful and capable minister1 does not throw much1 if any1 light upon ,buchanan4 ,in it he is treated as an opposition pleader1 capable rather than scrupulous1 who did not know all the facts1 and who was instructed by men who had other purposes to serve than telling the whole truth1 and who probably did not know it themselves so well as ,skelton had opportunities to come to know it1 e4g4 in regard to the #8,casket ,letters'--documents that could be satisfactory to no modern tribunal except a ,dreyfus court-martial4 ,buchanan's attack1 in a pamphlet written in ,scotch1 upon ,skelton's hero ,maitland1 entitled ,the ,chameleon1 ,skelton sneers at as a #8,dawb'--not entirely an inaccurate criticism1 for ,the ,chameleon is a caricature1 and that1 of course1 means an exaggeration of all faults1 actual or presumable4 ,but when a #8chameleon' like ,disraeli or ,maitland1 both of whom have found in ,john ,skelton an ingenious and eloquent hero-worshipper1 is assailed by satirists in ,punch or elsewhere1 the only effective condemnatory judgment worth stating is that the caricature is not recognisable by an honest enemy or a free and easy friend4 ,for my part1 ,i believe that the unvarnished truth1 though perhaps not the whole of it1 can be better inferred from ,buchanan than from ,skelton4 #h ,sir ,david ,brewster1 when ,principal of the ,united ,college of ,st4 ,leonard and ,st4 ,salvador1 had a residence close to ,st4 ,leonard's roofless church4 ,in #ahec1 ,sir ,david told to a breakfast-party of students1 which included ,dr4 ,wallace and the writer1 that his house embraced all that existed of ,buchanan's old dwelling-house1 and pointed out one particular part of the ancient outer wall thick enough to resist the artillery of ,buchanan's day4 ,dr4 ,johnson's general contempt for ,scotland1 which did not keep silence in ,st4 ,andrews1 could not resist the inspiration of the genius loci of ,st4 ,leonard's so far as to prevent his generously recognising ,buchanan's claim to immortality as being as fair as modern ,latinity can give1 and #8perhaps fairer than the instability of vernacular languages admit4' #i ,carlyle's estimate of ,knox ,i accept and credit as the estimate of as penetrating an insight and as true a conscience as ever uttered the verdicts of history2 but it is the estimate of a mind that could discover more to approve in the storm than in the sunshine1 and who too readily infers noble motives from splendid results4 ,i believe all the good he imputes to ,knox and his life-battle for truth1 and ,i don't believe sufficiently in the vileness of human nature to believe in any of the charges of immorality which rival ecclesiastics have persisted in relating against him4 ,but for all that1 ,i am not blind to his human imperfections4 ,i am far from thinking him to be a perfect man1 much less a perfect ,christian4 ,his wild joy and unbridled merriment over the dying miseries of ,cardinal ,beaton and of ,mary of ,guise would be scarcely in harmony with the budding benevolence of a half-reformed cannibal4 ,his virtues were genuine1 and not hypocritical1 but they were essentially ,pagan virtues--gifts of nature1 tested and strengthened1 but not acquired1 through his experiences as a notary and an ecclesiastic4 ,,index ,admonition to ,trew ,lords1 the1 #acj4 schylus1 #ae4 ,agamemnon1 #ae4 ,arius1 #ia4 ,ascham1 ,roger1 #ha4 ,atonement1 the1 #ij4 ,augustine1 #ii4 ,aurelius1 ,marcus1 #ajj4 ,baptistes1 the1 #eg1 #eh4 ,beaton1 ,cardinal1 #abb1 #aci4 ,begging letter-writer1 #ca4 ,beza1 #ha4 ,botius1 #ff1 #ajj4 ,bordeaux1 #eh4 ,brahe1 ,tycho1 #dd1 #ha4 ,brissac1 ,marshal of1 #ea4 ,brewster1 ,sir ,d41 #abi4 ,brown1 ,p4 ,hume1 #ah4 ,,buchanan1 ,,george-- ,writings burned by hangman1 #i4 ,milton and ,buchanan's ,de ,jure1 #aj4 ,effect of the ,de ,jure1 #aa4 ,relations to the ,scaligers1 #ac4 ,wordsworth on ,buchanan1 #ad4 ,porson and ,buchanan1 #ae4 ,milton's opinion of him1 #ae4 ,hallam's estimate of him1 #af4 ,froude's opinion of him1 #af4 ,buchanan's scholarship1 #ag4 ,his ,detectio ,mari ,regin1 #ah4 ,the ,marians and ,buchanan1 #bj4 ,the chapbook ,buchanan1 #ba4 ,his humour1 #bb4 ,interview with ,melvilles1 #bc4 ,the ,countess of ,mar and1 #be4 ,division of his life into periods of preparation and performance1 #bg4 ,why he became a ,protestant1 #bh4 ,joseph ,scaliger's elegy on1 #ca4 ,begging letter-writer1 #ca4 ,letters to ,mary1 ,queen of ,scots1 #cb4 ,letters to ,earl of ,moray1 #cb4 ,comparison between ,erasmus and1 #ce4 ,hospitality of ,roman ,catholic days1 #cf4 ,his influence on cultured ,europe1 #ch4 ,parallel between his conduct and that of to-day1 #ci4 ,no loss of self-respect1 #dj4 ,no notoriety hunter1 #da4 ,no money grabber1 #dc4 ,did not seek power1 #dh4 ,dates and aims of his works1 #ej4 ,moderator of ,general ,assembly1 #ea4 ,various appointments held1 #ea4 ,aids in drawing up ,first ,book of ,discipline1 #ea4 ,appointed ,principal of ,st4 ,leonard's ,college1 #ea4 ,secretary to the ,scots ,commission re ,mary1 #ea4 ,opinion of ,sir ,james ,melville of1 #eb4 ,not to be blamed for ,james ,,vi4's pedantry1 #eg4 ,dedicates his three great works to the king--,baptistes1 ,de ,jure1 and the ,history1 #eg4 ,examination of the ,prefaces to these1 #eh-fe4 ,resembled a ,scots ,stoic philosopher1 #ff4 ,his courtly manners1 #gj4 ,alleged vindictiveness towards ,morton disproved1 #gb4 ,his policy regarding ,scots affairs1 #gf4 ,further disproof of ,sir ,j4 ,melville's remarks1 #hj4 ,his religious views1 #hc4 ,the ,scots ,reformation position1 #hc-hh4 ,his relations to ,calvinism1 #hi-if4 ,not a zealot1 #ij4 ,his views of ,evangelium1 #ij4 ,his pension1 #ib4 ,his dirge upon ,calvin1 #ic4 ,his period of doubt1 #ih4 ,why he never took orders1 #aja4 ,is ,conformity allowable8 #ajd4 ,renaissance morals1 #ajf4 ,buchanan's amorist poetry1 #ajg4 ,biographical facts1 #aaa4 ,the ,roman ,catholic ,church and education1 #aab4 ,lords of the ,congregation and education1 #aad4 ,his early years of education1 #aaf4 ,enlists as a volunteer to invade ,england1 #aah4 ,life at ,st4 ,andrews ,university1 #aai4 ,proceeds to ,st4 ,barbe1 #aai4 ,friendship with ,earl of ,cassilis1 #aai4 ,james ,v4 invites him to write ,franciscanus1 #aba4 ,leaves him to the vengeance of ,beaton1 #abb4 ,escapes from prison to the ,continent1 #abb4 ,migrates to ,portugal3 seized by the ,inquisition1 #abc4 ,imprisoned in a monastery1 where he translates the ,psalms1 #abc4 ,returns to ,scotland and declares for ,protestantism1 #abd4 ,relations between ,mary and ,buchanan1 #abe4 ,accused of ingratitude towards her1 #abf4 ,the multifariousness of his work1 #abh4 ,writes ,admonition to the ,trew ,lords1 #acj4 ,characteristics of his ,history of ,scotland1 #acb4 ,buchanan's last days1 #acc4 ,his burial-place and property1 #ace4 ,legend of his skull1 #ace4 ,characteristics1 #acf4 ,final summing up1 #acg-ade4 ,parallel drawn between ,dr4 ,wallace and ,buchanan1 #ach4 ,burns1 #ajg1 #aaf4 ,calvin1 ,j41 #hb1 #hi1 #ij1 #ib1 #id1 #ajj4 ,cameron1 #aae4 ,cargill1 #aae4 ,carlyle1 ,t41 #cd1 #adc4 ,casaubon1 #ac4 ,cassilis1 ,lord1 #ea1 #aai1 #acd4 ,catullus1 #ff4 ,chameleon1 the1 #ej1 #abf4 ,chapbooks on ,buchanan1 #ba4 ,charles ,,ii41 #i4 ,cicero1 #fg4 ,coimbra1 college of1 #ea1 #ih4 ,collge de ,guyenne1 #eh4 ,congregation1 ,lords of1 #aad1 #aae4 ,covenanters1 #aae4 ,darnley1 #abh1 #acd1 #aci4 ,dawes1 ,canon1 #ae4 ,detectio ,mari ,regin1 #ah1 #ej4 ,diogenes1 #fi4 ,dionysius1 ,lambinus1 #fg4 ,dirge1 the1 #ib4 ,discipline1 ,book of1 #aab4 ,divine right1 #i1 #aa1 #ej1 #eg4 ,dryden1 ,john1 #aj4 ,dunbar1 ,william1 #aba4 ,education in ,catholic days1 #aac4 ,election1 doctrine of1 #ij4 ,elizabeth1 ,queen1 #abg4 ,england1 invasion of1 #aah4 ,erasmus1 #ac1 #cd1 #if1 #ii1 #ajj4 ,eucharistic controversy1 #ii4 ,evangelicals1 the1 #hi4 ,france1 #abd4 ,franciscanus1 the1 #ej1 #ij1 #ih1 #ajf1 #aba4 ,gamaliel1 #eh4 ,general ,assembly of ,church of ,scotland1 #ea4 ,genethliacon1 the1 #ef4 ,gibbon1 #fg1 #aah4 ,gouva1 ,andr de1 #eh1 #abb1 #abc4 ,hackney1 the1 #ge4 ,hamilton1 ,sir ,w41 #ace4 ,hebrew ,psalms1 #dc1 #abc4 ,henry ,,viii41 #abg4 ,heriot1 ,j41 #aaf4 ,herod1 ,king1 #eh4 ,herodias1 #eh4 ,history of ,scotland1 #ej1 #eg1 #fc1 #acb4 ,horace1 #ff4 ,hosack1 #bj4 ,humanists1 #bg1 #bh1 #dc1 #eh1 #hc1 #hd1 #abf4 ,incarnation1 the1 #ij4 ,indulgences1 #ij4 ,inquisition1 the1 #dc1 #ih4 ,james ,,iv41 #aab4 ,james ,v41 #ej1 #abj4 ,james ,,vi41 #df1 #eb1 #ef1 #gf4 ,johnson1 ,s41 #ae1 #abi4 ,justification by ,faith1 #hf1 #ij4 ,killearn1 #aaa4 ,knox1 ,j41 #aa1 #cg1 #dj1 #ge1 #gf1 #ha1 #he1 #ib1 #aja1 #ajb1 #aad1 #aae1 #ada4 ,latin ,style1 #ag1 #bg1 #acb4 #8,lena' poetry1 the1 #ajf4 ,lennox1 ,earl of1 #cc1 #cg4 ,leo ,x41 #hd4 ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields1 #i4 ,livy1 #ca1 #ea1 #acb4 ,luther1 #hd4 ,lyndsay1 ,sir ,d41 #ej1 #aba4 ,macauslan1 #aaa4 ,major1 ,john1 #fe4 ,mar1 ,countess of1 #bd1 #ha4 ,mary1 ,queen of ,scots1 #ai1 #ca1 #cg1 #dj1 #ea1 #fd1 #ge1 #ib1 #abj1 #abg1 #abh1 #aci4 ,mary of ,guise1 #ajb4 ,melville1 ,andrew and ,james1 #bc1 #dj1 #ha1 #ajb1 #aae4 ,melville1 ,sir ,james1 #eb1 #hj4 ,milton1 ,john1 #i1 #aj4 ,moderator of ,assembly1 #ea1 #abh4 ,montaigne1 #aai4 ,moray1 ,earl of1 #cb1 #cc1 #cg1 #ea1 #ha1 #ib1 #aba1 #abi1 #acj1 #aci4 ,morton1 ,earl of1 #gc1 #gd1 #ge1 #gi4 ,nera pieces1 #ajh4 ,nicene ,dogmas1 #hf4 ,oxford ,university1 #i4 ,pantius1 #fg4 ,paris1 ,university of1 #aaf4 ,paten1 ,guy1 #af4 ,pension1 #ib4 ,petrus1 ,victorinus1 #fg4 ,porson1 #ae4 ,portugal1 #dc1 #ea1 #ih1 #abc4 ,predestinarianism1 #hf4 ,principal of ,st4 ,leonard's1 #ea4 ,private judgment1 #hf4 ,randolph1 ,sir ,t41 #fc1 #ga1 #ha4 ,reformation1 ,scots1 #aa1 #hc1 #he1 #hg1 #abj4 ,renaissance1 the1 #hc1 #hg1 #if1 #ajf4 ,revolutions1 ,english1 ,american1 and ,french1 #aa4 ,rizzio1 #abh1 #aci4 ,roman ,catholic hospitality1 #cf4 ---- ---- ,church1 #bh1 #ig1 #ii1 #aja4 ,russell1 ,lord ,william1 #i4 ,st4 ,andrews1 ,university of1 #aah1 #abi4 ,sallust1 #acb4 ,scaligers1 the1 #ab1 #ac1 #cj1 #dh1 #ha4 ,scott1 ,sir ,w41 #aaf4 ,seneca1 #fc1 #fg1 #ajj4 ,shairp1 ,principal1 #ajg4 ,shakespeare1 #ab1 #ae4 ,skelton1 ,sir ,j41 #bj1 #abe4 ,skull1 ,buchanan's1 #ace4 ,socrates1 #fi1 #ajj4 ,stephanus1 #ab4 ,stevenson1 ,r4 ,l41 #ajg4 ,stoic philosopher1 #ec1 #fc1 #ff1 #fi1 #gc1 #hb1 #ajj4 ,tacitus1 #acb4 ,tennyson1 #ab1 #abg4 ,thackeray1 #cd1 #ha4 ,thyestes1 the1 #fc4 ,transubstantiation1 #ij4 ,wordsworth1 ,w41 #ad4 ,young1 ,peter1 #ec1 #ee1 #eg1 #fb4 ,,opinions ,,of ,,the ,,press ,,on ,,the #8,,famous ,,scots' ,,series4 ,of ,,thomas ,,carlyle1 by ,h4 ,c4 ,,macpherson1 ,the ,british ,weekly says3-- #8,we congratulate the publishers on the in every way attractive appearance of the first volume of their new series4 ,the typography is everything that could be wished1 and the binding is most tasteful4444 ,we heartily congratulate author and publishers on the happy commencement of this admirable enterprise4' ,the ,literary ,world says3-- #8,one of the very best little books on ,carlyle yet written1 far outweighing in value some more pretentious works with which we are familiar4' ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,as an estimate of the ,carlylean philosophy1 and of ,carlyle's place in literature and his influence in the domains of morals1 politics1 and social ethics1 the volume reveals not only care and fairness1 but insight and a large capacity for original thought and judgment4' ,the ,glasgow ,daily ,record says3-- #8,is distinctly creditable to the publishers1 and worthy of a national series such as they have projected4' ,the ,educational ,news says3-- #8,the book is written in an able1 masterly1 and painstaking manner4' ,of ,,allan ,,ramsay1 by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,it is not a patchwork picture1 but one in which the writer1 taking genuine interest in his subject1 and bestowing conscientious pains on his task1 has his materials well in hand1 and has used them to produce a portrait that is both lifelike and well balanced4' ,the ,people's ,friend says3-- #8,presents a very interesting sketch of the life of the poet1 as well as a well-balanced estimate and review of his works4' ,the ,edinburgh ,dispatch says3-- #8,the author has shown scholarship and much enthusiasm in his task4' ,the ,daily ,record says3-- #8,the kindly1 vain1 and pompous little wig-maker lives for us in ,mr4 ,smeaton's pages4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,a careful and intelligent study4' ,of ,,hugh ,,miller1 by ,w4 ,,keith ,,leask1 ,the ,expository ,times says3-- #8,it is a right good book and a right true biography4444 ,there is a very fine sense of ,hugh ,miller's greatness as a man and a ,scotsman2 there is also a fine choice of language in making it ours4' ,the ,bookseller says3-- #8,mr4 ,leask gives the reader a clear impression of the simplicity1 and yet the greatness1 of his hero1 and the broad result of his life's work is very plainly and carefully set forth4 ,a short appreciation of his scientific labours1 from the competent pen of ,sir ,archibald ,geikie1 and a useful bibliography of his works1 complete a volume which is well worth reading for its own sake1 and which forms a worthy instalment in an admirable series4' ,the ,daily ,news says3-- #8,leaves on us a very vivid impression4' ,of ,,john ,,knox1 by ,a4 ,,taylor ,,innes1 ,mr4 ,hay ,fleming1 in ,the ,bookman says3-- #8,a masterly delineation of those stirring times in ,scotland1 and of that famous ,scot who helped so much to shape them4' ,the ,freeman says3-- #8,it is a concise1 well written1 and admirable narrative of the great ,reformer's life1 and in its estimate of his character and work it is calm1 dispassionate1 and well balanced4444 ,it is a welcome addition to our ,knox literature4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,there is vision in this book1 as well as knowledge4' ,the ,sunday ,school ,chronicle says3-- #8,everybody who is acquainted with ,mr4 ,taylor ,innes's exquisite lecture on ,samuel ,rutherford will feel instinctively that he is just the man to do justice to the great ,reformer1 who is more to ,scotland #8than any million of unblameable ,scotsmen who need no forgiveness4' ,his literary skill1 his thorough acquaintance with ,scottish ecclesiastical life1 his religious insight1 his chastened enthusiasm1 have enabled the author to produce an excellent piece of work4444 ,it is a noble and inspiring theme1 and ,mr4 ,taylor ,innes has handled it to perfection4' ,of ,,robert ,,burns1 by ,,gabriel ,,setoun1 ,the ,new ,age says3-- #8,it is the best thing on ,burns we have yet had1 almost as good as ,carlyle's ,essay and the pamphlet published by ,dr4 ,nichol of ,glasgow4' ,the ,methodist ,times says3-- #8,we are inclined to regard it as the very best that has yet been produced4 ,there is a proper perspective1 and ,mr4 ,setoun does neither praise nor blame too copiously4444 ,a difficult bit of work has been well done1 and with fine literary and ethical discrimination4' ,youth says3-- #8,it is written with knowledge1 judgment1 and skill4444 ,the author's estimate of the moral character of ,burns is temperate and discriminating2 he sees and states his evil qualities1 and beside these he places his good ones in their fulness1 depth1 and splendour4 ,the exposition of the special features marking the genius of the poet is able and penetrating4' ,of ,,the ,,balladists1 by ,,john ,,geddie1 ,the ,birmingham ,daily ,gazette says3-- #8,as a popular sketch of an intensely popular theme1 ,mr4 ,geddie's contribution to the 8,famous ,scots ,series0 is most excellent4' ,the ,publishers' ,circular says3-- #8,it may be predicted that lovers of romantic literature will re-peruse the old ballads with a quickened zest after reading ,mr4 ,geddie's book4 ,we have not had a more welcome little volume for many a day4' ,the ,new ,age says3-- #8,one of the most delightful and eloquent appreciations of the ballad literature of ,scotland that has ever seen the light4' ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,the author has certainly made a contribution of remarkable value to the literary history of ,scotland4 ,we do not know of a book in which the subject has been treated with deeper sympathy or out of a fuller knowledge4' ,of ,,richard ,,cameron1 by ,professor ,,herkless1 ,the ,freeman says3-- #8,professor ,herkless has made us all his debtors by his thorough-going and unwearied research1 by his collecting materials from out-of-the-way quarters1 and making much that was previously vague and shadowy clear and distinct4' ,the ,christian ,news says3-- #8,this volume is ably written1 is full of interest and instruction1 and enables the reader to form a conception of the man who in his day and generation gave his life for ,christ's cause and kingdom4' ,the ,dundee ,courier says3-- #8,in selecting ,professor ,herkless to prepare this addition to the 8,famous ,scots ,series0 of books1 the publishers have made an excellent choice4 ,the vigorous1 manly style adopted is exactly suited to the subject1 and ,richard ,cameron is presented to the reader in a manner as interesting as it is impressive4444 ,professor ,herkless has done remarkably well1 and the portrait he has so cleverly delineated of one of ,scotland's most cherished heroes is one that will never fade4' ,of ,,sir ,,james ,,young ,,simpson1 by ,,eve ,,blantyre ,,simpson1 ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,this little book is full of insight and knowledge1 and by many picturesque incidents and pithy sayings it helps us to understand in a vivid and intimate sense the high qualities and golden deeds which rendered ,sir ,james ,simpson's strenuous life impressive and memorable4' ,the ,daily ,chronicle says3-- #8,it is indeed long since we have read such a charmingly-written biography as this little ,life of the most typical and 8,famous ,scot0 that his countrymen have been proud of since the time of ,sir ,walter4444 ,there is not a dull1 irrelevant1 or superfluous page in all ,miss ,simpson's booklet1 and she has performed the biographer's chief duty--that of selection--with consummate skill and judgment4' ,the ,leeds ,mercury says3-- #8,the narrative throughout is well balanced1 and the biographer has been wisely advised in giving prominence to her father's great achievement--the introduction of chloroform--and what led to it4' ,of ,,thomas ,,chalmers1 by ,w4 ,,garden ,,blaikie1 ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,the most notable feature of ,professor ,blaikie's book--and none could be more commendable--is its perfect balance and proportion4 ,in other words1 justice is done equally to the private and to the public life of ,chalmers1 if possible greater justice than has been done by ,mrs4 ,oliphant4' ,the ,scottish ,congregationalist says3-- #8,no one can read the admirable and vivid sketch of his life which ,dr4 ,blaikie has written without feeling admiration for the man1 and gaining inspiration from his example4' ,of ,,james ,,boswell1 by ,w4 ,,keith ,,leask1 ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,this is one of the best volumes of the excellent 8,famous ,scots ,series10 and one of the fairest and most discriminating biographies of ,boswell that have ever appeared4' ,the ,dundee ,advertiser says3-- #8,it is the admirable manner in which the very complexity of the man is indicated that makes ,w4 ,keith ,leask's biography of him one of peculiar merit and interest4444 ,it is not only a life of ,boswell1 but a picture of his time--vivid1 faithful1 impressive4' ,the ,morning ,leader says3-- #8,mr4 ,w4 ,k4 ,leask has approached the biographer of ,johnson in the only possible way by which a really interesting book could have been arrived at--by way of the open mind4444 ,the defence of ,boswell in the concluding chapter of his delightful study is one of the finest and most convincing passages that have recently appeared in the field of ,british biography4' ,of ,,tobias ,,smollett1 by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton1 ,the ,dundee ,courier says3-- #8,it is impossible to read the pages of this little work without being struck not only by its historical value1 but by the fairness of its criticism4' ,the ,weekly ,scotsman says3-- #8,the book is written in a crisp and lively style4444 ,the picture of the great novelist is complete and lifelike4 ,not only does ,mr4 ,smeaton give a scholarly sketch and estimate of ,smollett's literary career1 he constantly keeps the reader in conscious touch and sympathy with his personality1 and produces a portrait of the man as a man which is not likely to be readily forgotten4' ,the ,newsagent and ,booksellers' ,review says3-- #8,tobias ,smollett was versatile enough to deserve a distinguished place in any gallery of gifted ,scots1 such as the one to which ,mr4 ,smeaton has contributed this clever and lifelike portrait4' ,of ,,fletcher ,,of ,,saltoun1 by ,w4 ,g4 ,t4 ,,omond1 ,the ,edinburgh ,evening ,news says3-- #8,the writer has given us in brief compass the pith of what is known about an able and patriotic if somewhat dogmatic and impracticable ,scotsman who lived in stormy times4444 ,mr4 ,omond describes1 in a clear1 terse1 vigorous way1 the constitution of the ,old ,scots ,parliament1 and the part taken by ,fletcher as a public man in the stormy debates that took place prior to the union of the ,parliaments in #agjg4 ,this part of the book gives an admirable summary of the state of ,scottish politics and of the national feeling at an important period4' ,the ,leeds ,mercury says3-- #8,unmistakably the most interesting and complete story of the life of ,fletcher of ,saltoun that has yet appeared4 ,mr4 ,omond has had many facilities placed at his disposal1 and of these he has made excellent use4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,mr4 ,omond has told the story of ,fletcher of ,saltoun in this monograph with ability and judgment4' ,of ,,the ,,blackwood ,,group1 by ,sir ,,george ,,douglas1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,in brief compass1 ,sir ,george ,douglas gives us skilfully blended together much pleasantly written biography and just and judicious criticism4' ,the ,weekly ,citizen says3-- #8,it need not be said that to every one interested in the literature of the first half of the century1 and especially to every ,scotsman so interested1 8,the ,blackwood ,group0 is a phrase abounding in promise4 ,and really ,sir ,george ,douglas fulfils the promise he tacitly makes in his title4 ,he is intimately acquainted not only with the books of the different members of the 8group10 but also with their environment1 social and otherwise4 ,besides1 he writes with sympathy as well as knowledge4' ,of ,,norman ,,macleod1 by ,,john ,,wellwood1 ,the ,star says3-- #8,a worthy addition to the 8,famous ,scots ,series0 is that of ,norman ,macleod1 the renowned minister of the ,barony of ,glasgow1 and a man as typical of everything generous and broadminded in the ,state ,church in ,scotland as ,thomas ,guthrie was in the ,free ,churches4 ,the biography is the work of ,john ,wellwood1 who has approached it with proper appreciation of the robustness of the subject4' ,the ,scots ,pictorial says3-- #8,its general picturesqueness is effective1 while the criticism is eminently liberal and sound4' ,the ,daily ,free ,press says3-- #8,it is one of the great merits of ,mr4 ,wellwood's book that it is wholly free from dulness4 ,his attention once secured1 the reader is carried irresistibly along till he has finished the whole of the fascinating story4' ,the ,daily ,chronicle says3-- #8,mr4 ,wellwood is in thorough sympathy with his hero1 and has given us in this little volume a graphic and picturesque sketch of him4' ,of ,,sir ,,walter ,,scott1 by ,,george ,,saintsbury1 ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette says3-- #8,mr4 ,saintsbury's miniature is a gem of its kind4444 ,mr4 ,saintsbury's critique of the ,waverley ,novels will1 ,i venture to think1 despite all that has been written upon them1 discover fresh beauties for their admirers4' ,the ,morning ,leader says3-- #8,a fresh and charming biography4' ,the ,st4 ,james's ,gazette says3-- #8,apart from ,lockhart1 we do not know any one who has given a better picture of ,scott than ,mr4 ,saintsbury1 and there is no sounder and more comprehensive estimate of his work4' ,the ,scots ,magazine says3-- #8,the little volume is bright1 informative reading1 and is a worthy addition to a capital and much-needed series4' ,of ,,kirkcaldy ,,of ,,grange1 by ,,louis ,a4 ,,barb1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,mr4 ,barb's sketch sticks close to the facts of his life1 and these are sought out from the best sources and are arranged with much judgment1 and on the whole with an impartial mind4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,a conscientious and thorough piece of work1 showing wide and accurate knowledge4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,this scholarly monograph seeks to unravel the seeming contradictions of a great career1 as well as to show that ,kirkcaldy of ,grange was a sincere patriot4' ,the ,bookseller says3-- #8,mr4 ,barb has put together a very instructive and interesting account of his career4' ,of ,,robert ,,fergusson1 by ,,dr4 ,a4 ,b4 ,,grosart1 ,the ,westminster ,gazette says3-- #8,one of the most interesting of the 8,famous ,scots0 ,series is devoted to 8,robert ,fergusson0 the poet1 to whom 8the greater ,robert10 as he freely acknowledged1 was under so many obligations4 ,dr4 ,grosart is perhaps the best living authority on all that relates to the bard of 8,the ,farmer's ,ingle10 and he gives many new facts and corrects a number of erroneous statements that have hitherto obtained currency respecting him4 ,we have read it with genuine pleasure4' ,the ,british ,weekly says3-- #8,it is a creditable1 useful1 and painstaking book1 a genuine contribution to ,scottish literary history4' ,the ,north ,british ,daily ,mail says3-- #8,the little volume is a thoroughly competent piece of work1 and forms a valuable addition to an excellent series4' ,the ,weekly ,scotsman says3-- #8,the book will be welcomed as a worthy addition to that wonderfully entertaining and instructive series of biographies1 the 8,famous ,scots40 ,of ,,james ,,thomson1 by ,,william ,,bayne1 ,the ,daily ,news says3-- #8,a just appreciation of ,thomson as poet and dramatist1 and an interesting record of the conditions under which he rose to fame1 as also of his friendships with the great ones of the eighteenth century4' ,literature says3-- #8,the story of ,thomson's claim to the disputed authorship of 8,rule ,britannia0 is sustained by his countryman with spirit1 and in our judgment with success4' ,the ,publishers' ,circular says3-- #8,the book is one which every lover of ,thomson will welcome1 and which students of poetry cannot well afford to neglect4' ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,this is one of the compactest and best written volumes of the useful series of biographies to which it belongs4' ,of ,,mungo ,,park1 by ,t4 ,,banks ,,maclachlan1 ,the ,leeds ,mercury says3-- #8,we owe to ,mr4 ,maclachlan not only a charming life-story1 if at times a pathetic one1 but a vivid chapter in the romance of ,africa4 ,geography has no more wonderful tale than that dealing with the unravelling of the mystery of the ,niger4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,mr4 ,maclachlan recounts with incisive vigour the story of ,mungo ,park's heroic wanderings and the services which he rendered to geographical research4' ,the ,kilmarnock ,herald says3-- #8,it is a thrilling story1 powerfully told1 of one of ,scotland's noblest sons4' ,the ,educational ,news says3-- #8,mungo ,park has his record here summarised in such a manner as to win1 inform1 and delight4' ,of ,,david ,,hume1 by ,,henry ,,calderwood1 ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,the little book is a virile recruit of the 8,famous ,scots ,series40' #8,this monograph is both picturesque and critical4' ,the ,new ,age says3-- #8,to the many students of philosophy in ,scotland a special interest will attach to ,professor ,calderwood's sketch of ,david ,hume from the fact that it is the last piece of work done by its lamented author2 and very pleasing it is to note the fairness and charity of the judgment passed by the most evangelical of philosophers upon the man who used to be denounced as the prophet of infidelity4' ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,fulfils admirably well the purpose of the writer1 which was that of presenting in clear1 fair1 and concise lines ,hume and his philosophy to the mind of his countrymen and of the world4' ,the ,publishers' ,circular says3-- #8,this biography is well written1 and it will no doubt be considered1 as it really is1 one of the best of the 8,famous ,scots ,series40' ,of ,,william ,,dunbar1 by ,,oliphant ,,smeaton1 ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,mr4 ,smeaton looks narrowly into the characteristics of ,dunbar's genius1 and does well to insist on the almost ,shakespearian range of his gifts4 ,he contends that in elegy1 as well as in satire and allegory1 ,dunbar's place in ,english literature is amongst the great masters of the craft of letters4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,this is a bright and picturesquely written monograph1 presenting in readable form the results of the critical research undertaken by ,laing1 ,schipper1 and the other scholars who during the present century have done so much for the elucidation of the greatest of our early ,scottish poets4' ,the ,bailie says3-- #8,a graphic and informed account not only of the man and his works1 but of his immediate environment and of the times in which he lived4' ,the ,bookman says3-- #8,the book is an admirable biography1 one of the liveliest and most readable in the series4' ,of ,,sir ,,william ,,wallace1 by ,professor ,,murison1 ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,mr4 ,murison is to be congratulated on this little book4 ,after much hard and discriminative labour he has pieced together by far the best1 one might say the only rational and coherent1 account of ,wallace that exists4' ,mr4 ,william ,wallace in the ,academy says3-- #8,professor ,murison has acquitted himself of his task like a patriot4' #8,capital reading4' ,the ,daily ,news says3-- #8,a scholarly and impartial little volume1 one of the best yet published in the 8,famous ,scots ,series40' ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette says3-- #8,a bright little book which will be much relished north of the ,tweed1 and also among those ,scottish exiles who are supposed to be pining away their lives south of it4' ,the ,new ,age says3-- #8,anyhow1 here1 at least1 we have his life-story--a most difficult tale to tell--recorded with a painstaking research and in a spirit of appreciative candour which leave almost nothing to be desired4' ,of ,,robert ,,louis ,,stevenson1 by ,,margaret ,,moyes ,,black1 ,the ,banffshire ,journal says3-- #8,the portrait1 drawn as it is by a loving hand1 is absolutely photographic in its likeness1 and the literary criticisms with which the book is pleasantly studded are alike careful and judicious1 and with most of them the ordinary reader will cordially agree4' ,the ,bookman says3-- #8,this little book is sure to get a welcome4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,sense and sensibility are in these pages1 as well as knowledge and delicate discrimination4' ,the ,outlook says3-- #8,certainly one of the most charming biographies we have ever come across4 ,the writer has style1 sympathy1 distinction1 and understanding4 ,we were loth to put the book aside4 ,its one fault is that it is too short4' ,the ,daily ,free ,press says3-- #8,one of the most charming sketches--it is scarcely a biography--of a literary man that could be found has just been published as the latest number of the 8,famous ,scots ,series0--8,r4 ,louis ,stevenson10 by ,miss ,black4 ,the excellence of the little book lies in its artless charm1 in its loose and easy style1 in its author's evident love and delight in her subject4' ,of ,,thomas ,,reid1 by ,professor ,,campbell ,,fraser1 ,the ,north ,british ,daily ,mail says3-- #8,a model of sympathetic appreciation and of succinct and lucid exposition4' ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,professor ,campbell ,fraser's volume on ,thomas ,reid is one of the most able and valuable of an able and valuable series4 ,he supplies what must be allowed to be a distinct want in our literature1 in the shape of a brief1 popular1 and accessible biography of the founder of the so-called ,scottish ,school of ,philosophy1 written with notable perspicuity and sympathy by one who has made a special study of the problems that engaged the mind of ,reid4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,we do not know any volume of the 8,famous ,scots ,series0 that deserves or is likely to receive a heartier welcome from the educated public than this life and estimate of ,reid by ,professor ,campbell ,fraser4 ,the writer is no amateur1 but a past-master in the subject of ,scottish philosophy1 and it has evidently been a real pleasure to him to expiscate quite a number of new facts regarding the professional and private life of its best representative4' ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette says3-- #8,the little work is of high excellence--comprehensive in view1 dear in exposition1 and exemplary in literary style4' ,the ,saturday ,review says3-- #8,mr4 ,campbell ,fraser has added to the 8,famous ,scots ,series0 an excellent little book on ,reid and his philosophy1 dealing lucidly with the philosopher's relations with contemporary thinkers and with modern thought4' ,of ,,pollok ,,and ,,aytoun1 by ,,rosaline ,,masson1 ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,one of the most artistically conceived and gracefully written of the series to which it belongs4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,the facts of the two lives are presented by ,miss ,masson with intelligence and spirit1 and the volume will take a good place among the rest of the series4' ,of ,,adam ,,smith1 by ,,hector ,c4 ,,macpherson1 ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,this little book is written with brains and a degree of courage which is in keeping with its convictions4 ,it has vision1 too1 and that counts for righteousness1 if anywhere1 in political economy4' ,the ,echo says3-- #8,smith's life is briefly and clearly told1 and there is a good deal of independent criticism interspersed amidst the chapters on the philosopher's two principal treatises4 ,mr4 ,macpherson's analysis of ,smith's economic teaching makes excellent reading4' ,the ,scots ,pictorial says3-- #8,one of the best of an admirable series4' ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer says3-- #8,i have learned much from your sketch of ,adam ,smith's life and work4 ,it presents the essential facts in a lucid and interesting way4 ,especially am ,i glad to see that you have insisted upon the individualistic character of his teaching4 ,it is well that his authority on the side of individualism should be put forward in these days of rampant ,socialism1 when the great mass of legislative measures extend public agency and restrict private agency2 the advocates of such measures being blind to the fact that by small steps they are bringing about a state in which the citizen will have lost all freedom4' ,the ,glasgow ,herald says3-- #8,a sound and able piece of work1 and contains a fair and discerning estimate of ,smith in his essential character as the author of the doctrine of ,free ,trade1 and consequently of the modern science of economics4' ,of ,,andrew ,,melville1 by ,,william ,,morison1 ,the ,spectator says3-- #8,the story is well told1 and it takes one through a somewhat obscure period with which it is well to be acquainted4 ,no better guide could be found than ,mr4 ,morison4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,the great aspects of his career as ,principal of ,glasgow and then of ,st4 ,andrews--it has been said that the ,european renown of the ,scottish ,universities began with ,melville--are admirably discussed in this virile1 and at the same time critical monograph4' ,the ,north ,british ,daily ,mail says3-- #8,mr4 ,morison outlines the main facts of ,melville's life-work with singular lucidity and point4 ,he displays a full and accurate knowledge of the ecclesiastical history of the period1 and his judgments are invariably sound4 ,altogether the book is one of the best of the series4' ,the ,british ,weekly says3-- #8,mr4 ,morison writes with full knowledge of ,scottish history1 and also with what is equally important1 perfect sympathy with the strong men who made it4' ,the ,academy says3-- #8,mr4 ,morison has told ,melville's story with a care for accurate history4' ,of ,,james ,,frederick ,,ferrier1 by ,e4 ,s4 ,,haldane1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,ferrier the man1 and even ,ferrier the professor1 ,miss ,haldane brings near to us1 an attractive and interesting figure4' ,the ,pall ,mall ,gazette says3-- #8,his splendid and transcendental thought and fine eloquence were so inspiring and stimulating1 and his personal charm was so fascinating1 that a study of the man must engage the sympathies of every student4 ,the author1 who is already known for admirable work in the philosophical field1 has written an excellent exposition of ,ferrier's views4' ,of ,,king ,,robert ,,the ,,bruce1 by ,professor ,,murison1 ,the ,morning ,leader says3-- #8,professor ,murison has given us a book for which not only ,scots1 but every man who can appreciate a record of great days worthily told will be grateful4' ,the ,aberdeen ,journal says3-- #8,the story of ,bruce is brilliantly told in clear and flexible language1 which draws the reader on with the interest of a novel4 ,professor ,murison is a most impartial and thoroughly reliable critic1 and may be followed with confidence by all who desire a truthful and unprejudiced picture of this greatest of the ,scots4' ,the ,leeds ,mercury says3-- #8,a worthy1 as it is a necessary1 addition to an admirable series4' ,the ,speaker says3-- #8,he has sifted for himself ,state records1 official papers1 old chronicles1 and has come to his own conclusions without the aid of modern historians4 ,therein lies the value of the book3 it is a fresh1 independent1 critical estimate of a man who emancipated ,scotland from a thraldom which was almost worse than death4 ,bruce's career from first to last is described in these pages with uncompromised fidelity1 and no attempt is made to gloss over the faults of a masterful nature4' ,the ,morning ,leader says3-- #8,professor ,murison has given us a book for which not only ,scots1 but every man who can appreciate a record of great days worthily told1 will be grateful4' ,of ,,james ,,hogg1 ,,the ,,ettrick ,,shepherd1 by ,sir ,,george ,,douglas1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,sir ,george ,douglas has contributed a gracefully written and well-knit biography of the ,ettrick ,shepherd to the 8,famous ,scots0 ,series4 ,it follows in a spirit of kindly criticism the steps of ,hogg through the shadow and sunshine1 the failures and successes of his career1 from the hillsides of ,yarrow and ,ettrick to the more slippery places of the world of literature1 and back again to the solitude of the forest2 and it gives us judicious and sympathetic appreciations of his work in prose and in verse1 much of it already fallen into unmerited neglect4' ,the ,new ,age says3-- #8,a capital biography--full1 careful1 discriminating1 and sympathetic4' ,the ,daily ,news says3-- #8,the story of ,james ,hogg's manly1 honourable battle with poverty1 and of his literary achievement1 is excellently told by ,sir ,george ,douglas4' ,the ,expository ,times says3-- #8,the book is accurate1 and must have cost research1 but it is written in a pleasant gossipy manner1 quite as if ,hogg had flung the flavour of ,hogg's writings over his biographer4' ,saint ,andrew says3-- #8,we have no hesitation in saying that this valuable and interesting volume will be welcomed by the ,scots people as heartily as any that have preceded it4' ,of ,,thomas ,,campbell1 by ,j4 ,,cuthbert ,,hadden1 ,the ,scotsman says3-- #8,a very useful1 compact1 well-digested1 and well-written account of ,campbell's career and literary labours4' ,transcriber's ,note ,in the ,daily ,chronicle's review of ,,sir ,,james ,,young ,,simpson1 by ,eve ,blantyre ,simpson1 8superflous0 has been changed to 8superfluous04