tion; and acquired much respect and celebrity among the foreign Divines. He died there in 1621. It is not within my province to arraign the conduct of James for his great feverity thus exercifed against Andrew Melville. It muft, however, be obferved, that the ufage of the Kirk of Scotland to their King was fo cruel and tyrannical, that it was not very easy for him, when once emancipated from their power, to forget that ufage. The learning and abilities of Mr. Melville were equalled only by the purity of his manners, and fanctity of his life. His temper was warm and violent; his carriage and zeal perfectly fuited to the times in which he lived. The discipline of the Church of Scotland was in a great measure framed by him; and to him the Scots are very confiderably indebted for their prefent ecclefiaftical conftitution. Archbishop Spotswood is unfriendly to his memory. Bishop Burnet obferves, that though Spotfwood relates with truth the oppofition, and even the rude treatment which the King received from afsemblies, and from particular perfons, he generally fupprefses the provocations which were given, and the circumftances which would have explained, and, perhaps, in fome degree, have extenuated their conduct. "He was," fays Dr. Robertfon (Hist. of Scotland, B. VI.), a man diftinguished by his uncommon erudi"tion, by the severity of his manners, and the intrepidity of "his mind. But, bred up in the retirement of a College, he was unacquainted with the arts of life, and being more at"tentive to the ends which he purfued, than to the means "which he employed for promoting them, he often defeated "laudable defigns by the impetuofity and imprudence with "which he carried them on." He feems to have been treated by his adverfaries with much afperity.-Others befides Mr. George Herbert exercised their talents againft him. Anthony Wood names Mr. Thomas Atkinson, B. D. of St. John's College, Cambridge, as having written "Andreæ Melvini AntiTami-Cami-Categoria," and "Melvinus delirans in Iambis." Indeed, our English writers feldom fpeak of him favourably. The following lines, allufive to his name, are faid to have been written by Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln: Cor tibi felle nigrum eft, et aceto lingua redundat; And the learned James Duport has not difdained to make the fame allufion: In Andream Melvinum, Scotum, De fuâ Anti-Tami-Cami-Categorià, Sapphico verfu confcriptâ. Utraque fic tibi, Scote, Anglorum Academia fordet? Utraque fchifmatis hoftis atrox, et malleus ingens, Z Cui tu patronum te clypeumque geris- Qui non MEL fed FEL, non VINUM das, fed ACETUM, Let it not, however, be inferred from thefe verfes, that Andrew Melville always fought to dip his pen in gall; that he was principally delighted with the feverity of fatire and invective. He occafionally diverted his muse to the subject of just panegyric. In many of his epigrams he has celebrated the literary attainments of his contemporaries. He has endeared his name to pofterity by his encomium on the profound learning of the two Scaligers, and the clafsic elegance of Buchanan, his preceptor, and the parent of the Mufes . His Latin paraphrafe of the Song of Mofes is truly excellent. It is infcribed to James VI. whom he ftyles a boy: Sancte Puer, cape facra meæ primordia Mufæ, Of the exordium, and, indeed, of the whole poem, it may be pronounced, that they perfectly correfpond to the character which Ifaac Walton gives of his poetic genius: of h GEORGE BUCHANAN is celebrated by Julius Cæfar Scaliger, by Jofeph Scaliger, by Turnebus, by Beza, and other foreigners, as a prodigy of learning :-"Buchananum omnibus antepono-Haddonum nemini postpono," were the exprefsions of Queen Elizabeth. His works are fraught with all the beauty and elegance of clafsic antiquity. He finifhed the greatest part his incomparable verfion of the Pfalms when in a ftate of confinement, at a monaftery in Portugal, under the care of certain monks, who were di rected to inftruct him in the principles of religion, and whom he charac terifes as men of great humanity, and goodness; but totally ignorant of divinity-Omnis religionis ignari. Prefixed to his Poems is a fhort "Hiftory of his Life," written by himself. The following anecdute is extracted from the Diary of Mr. James Melville: "Sept. 1582.-During the vacance my uncle, Mr. Andrew, Principal "of the New College, Mr. Thomas Buchanan, Provolt of Kilkaldie, and I, hearing that Maifter George Buchanan was weakly, and his History in the prefs, pafsed over to Edenbrugh anes eirand to vifit him, and to "fee the wark. Whan we cam to his chaimber we found him fitting in “his chaire, teaching his young man, that ferved him in his chalmber, to "fpell AB, E3, IB, &c.-After falutation, Mr. Andrew fays, I fee, Sir, you are not idle.' Better this (quoth hee) than tealing theipe, or ""fitting idle, whilk is als ill.'” 62 6 Vos æterni ignes, et confcia lumina mundi, Et cœlum et tellus (ego vos nunc alloquar), aures The following lines are exquifitely beautiful:-See Deut. xxxii. 10, 11. -ceu pupula, cornu Quam vitreo murus cingit chryftallinus; et quam, Ac veluti alituum princeps, fulvusque Tonantis i "And ye five other wand'ring fires that move MILT. PAR. LOST, B. V. 177. * This defcription of the eye feems to be taken from " Cicero de Natura Deorum." L. II. 57. "Munitæ funt palpebræ tanquam vallo pilorum.” Z 2 |