Scotish Nation likewise wrote a great Latin book in folio of Chronology which is exceeding useful for such as in a short time would attaine to the knowledge of many histories Another Gordon also beyond sea penned several books of divinity in an excellent stile of Latin Of which kinde of books but more profoundly couched another Scot named Turneboll wrote a great many These four eminent Scots I have put together because they were societaries by the name of Jesus vulgarly called Jesuits some whereof are living as yet and none of those that are not dyed above fourteen yeers ago Methinks I were to blame should I in this nomenclature leave out Dempster who for his learning was famous over all Italy had made a learned addition to Rossinus and written several other excellent books in Lat in amongst which that which doth most highly recommend him to posterity is the work which he penned of five thousand illustrious Scots the last liver whereof as is related in the 64. page of this book dyed above fifty yeers since for which together with the other good parts wherewith he was endowed himself was truly illustrious Balfour a professor of Philosophy in Bourdeaux wrote an excellent book in Latine upon the morals so did another of the Scotish Nation named Donaldson upon the same very subject and that very accurately Primrose a Scotish man who was a preacher in French at Bourdeaux and afterwards became one of the three that preached in the French Church at London wrote several good books both in Latin and French Doctor Liddel penned an exquisite book of Physick and so did Doctor William Gordon and both in the Latine tongue which two Doctors were for their learning renownedover all Germany Pontaeus a Scotish man though bred most of his time in France by several writings of his obvious to the curious Reader gave no small testimony of his learning There was a professor of the Scotish Nation within these sixteen yeers in Somure who spoke Greek with as great ease as ever Cicero did Latine and could have expressed himself in it as well and as promptly as in any other Language yet the most of the Scotish Nation never having astricked themselves so much to the propriety of words as to the knowledge of things where there was one preceptor of Languages amongst them there were above forty professors of Philosophy nay to so high a pitch did the glory of the Scotish Nation attaine over all the parts of France and for so long time together continue in that obtained hight by vertue of an ascendant the French conceived the Scots to have above all Nations in matter of their subtlety in Philosophical disceptations that there hath not been till of late for these several ages together any Lord Gentleman or other in all that Country who being desirous to have his son instructed in the principles of Philosophy would intrust him to the discipline of any other then a Scotish Master of whom they were no less proud then Philip was of Aristotle or Tullius of Cratippus And if it occurred as very often it did that a pretender to a place in any French University having in his tenderer yeers been subferulary to some other kind of schooling should enter in competition with another aiming at the same charge and dignity whose learning flowed from a Caledonian source commonly the first was rejected and the other preferred education of youth in all grounds of literature under teachers of the Scotish nation being then held by all the inhabitants of France to have been attended caeteris paribus with greater proficiency then any other manner of breeding subordinate to the documents of those of another Country Nor are the French the only men have harboured this good opinion of the Scots in behalf of their inward abilitles but many times the Spaniards Italians Flemins Dutch Hungarians Sweds and Polonians have testified their being of the same mind by the promotions whereunto for their learning they in all those Nations at several times have attained Here nevertheless it is to be understood that neither these dispersedly-preferred Scots were all of one and the same Religion nor yet any one of them a Presbyterian Some of them were and are as yet Popish Prelates such as the Bishop of Vezon and Chalmers Bishop of Neems and Signor Georgio Con who wrote likewise some books in Latine was by his intimacy with Pope Vrban's Nephew Don Francesco Don Antonio and Don Tadaeo Barbarini and for his endeavoring to advance the Catholico-pontificial interest in great Britain to have been dignified with a Cardinals hat which by all appearance immediately after his departure from London he would have obtained as soon as he had come to Rome had death not prevented him by the way in the City of Genua but had he returned to this Island with it I doubt it would have proved ere now as fatal to him as another such like cap in Queen Maries time had done to his compatriot Cardinal Betoun By this as it is perceivable that all Scots are not Presbyterians nor yet all Scots Papists so would not I have the reputation of any learned man of the Scotish Nation to be buryed in oblivion because of his being of this or this or that or you or of that other Religion no more then if we should cease to give learning and moral vertues their due in the behalfe of pregnant and good spirits born and bred in several climates which to withhold from them whether Perisians Heteroscians or Amphiscians would prove very absurd to the humane ingenuity or ingenuous humanity of a true Cosmopolite For we see how the various aspect of the heavens in their asteristick and planetary influences according to the diversity of our sublunary situations disposeth the inclinations of the earths respective inhabitants differently whence as is said in the 56. page of this book The Spaniards are proud the French inconstant the Italians lascivious c. and every Nation almost in their humour not only discrepant from one another but each having some disorderly motion which another hath not makes the other to be possessed with some irregularity which the former wants We know the Hollanders are more penurious then the high Germans and they more intemperate then the Spaniards who againe are more lecherous then the Hollanders Now seeing ex malis moribus bonae oriuntur leges and that vices like diseases of the body must be cured by contraries it will cleerly follow there being vices contrary to other as well as vice to vertue that the Laws curbing thoses vices in the opposite extreams must needs be very dissonant from one another Do not we see that in Holland to play the Merchant is accounted honorable although it be thought disgraceful in high Germany for a gentleman to use anykind of traffick The Spaniard holds him worse then a beast that is at any time drunk yet the Dutch-man esteems him no good fellow that sometimes is not The
to forgo their present emoluments by continual receiving and never erogating by never sowing and always reaping and by making the sterility of all men prove fruitful to them and their fertility barren to all Would wish Presbytery were of as empty a sound as it s homaeoteleft Blitery and the Covenant which asserts it no less exploded from all Ecclesiastical Societies then Plautus exolet phrases have been from the eloquent orations of Ciceron But this affecting only a part of the Tribe of Levi how the remainder of new Palestine as the kirkomanetick Philarchaists would have it called comes to be upbraided with the same opprobry of covetousness is that which I am so heartily sorry for that to wipe of its obloquy I would undertake a pilgrimage to old Judea visit the ruines of Jerusalem and trace the foot-steps of Zodekiahs fellow-captives to the gates of Rabylon Yet did this so great an inconvenience proceed meerly from an incogitancy in not taking heed to what is prescribed by Prudence the directress of all vertues and consequently of that which moderates the actions of giving and receiving although it be nobilius dare quam accipere the non-vitiosity whereof by her injunctions dependeth on the judicious observing of all the circumstances mentioned in this Mnemoneutick Hexameter Quis quid ubi quibus auxiliis cur quomodo ' quando whose last particle by the untimely taking of a just debt and unseasonable receiving of what at another time might have been lawfully required being too carelesly regarded by the State and Milice of that country gave occasion to this contumely the staine whereof remaineth still notwithstanding the loss in money besides other prejudices sustained since of ten times more then they got I heard once a Maronite Jew to vindicate the reputation of the family and village of the Iscariots in which he pretended to have some interest very seriously relate that according to the opinion of Rabbi Ezra the thirty peeces of silver delivered to Judas was but the same sum which long before that when Christ went up from Galilee to celebrate the feast of tabernacles at Jerusalem Malchus the servant of Caiaphas had borrowed from him whilst he had the charge of his Masters bag with assurance punctually to repay it him again at the subsequent term of the passover as the fashion was then amongst the inhabitants of Judea but although it were so which we are not bound to give ear to because it is plainly set down in the fifth verse of the two and twentieth Chapter of the Evangile according to Saint Luke that the high priests made a Covenant with Judas yet should he not have received the mony in the very nick of the time that his master was to be apprehended This I the rather believe for that I likewise heard a Minister say that he offends God who stretcheth forth his hand to take in the payment of any debt how just soever it be upon a Sunday and that though a purse full of gold were offered unto himself whilst he is a preaching in the Pulpit he would refuse it These collateral instances I introduce not for application but illustration sake not for comparison but explication of the congruent adapting of necessary puntilio's for the framing of a vertuous action Another thing there is that fixeth a grievous scandal upon that Nation in matter of philargyrie or love of money and it is this There hath been in London and repairing to it for these many yeers together a knot of Scotish bankers collybists or coinecoursers of trasfickers in Merchandise to and againe and of men of other professions who by hook and crook fas nefas slight and might all being as fish their net could catch having feathered their nests to some purpose look so idolatrously upon their Dagon of wealth and so closely like the earths dull center hug all unto themselves that for no respect of vertue honor kinred patriotism or whatever else be it never so recommendable will they depart from so much as one single peny whose emission doth not without any hazard of loss in a very short time superlucrate beyond all conscience an additionall increase to the heap of that stock which they so much adore which churlish and tenacious humor hath made many that were not acquainted with any else of that country to imagine all their compatriots infected with the same leprosie of a wretched peevishness whereof those quomodocunquizing clusterfists and rapacious varlets have given of late such cannibal-like proofs by their inhumanity and obdurate carriage towards some whose shoos-strings they are not worthy to unty that were it not that a more able pen then mine will assuredly not faile to jerk them on all sides in case by their better demeanor for the future they endeavor not to wipe off the blot wherewith their native country by their sordid avarice and miserable baseness hath been so foully stained I would at this very instant blaze them out in their names and surnames notwithstanding the vizard of Presbyterian zeal wherewith they maske themselves that like so many Wolves Foxes or Athenian Timâ—ns they might in all times coming be debarred the benefit of any honest conversation Thus is it perceptible how usual it is from the irregularity of a few to conclude an universal defection and that the whole is faulty because a part is not right there being in it a fallacy of induction as if because this that and the other are both greedy and dissembling that therefore all other their country-men are such which will no wayes follow if any one of these others be free from those vices for that one particular negative by the rules of contradictory opposites will destroy an universal affirmative and of such there are many thousands in that Nation who are neither greedy nor dissemblers And so would all the rest if a joint and unanimous course were taken to have their noblemen free from baseness their Church-men from avarice their Merchants from deceit their gentlemen from pusillanimity their Lawyers from prevarication their Tradesmen from idleness their Farmers from lying their young men from pride their old men from morosity their rich from hard heartednes their poor from theeving their great ones from faction their meaner sort from implicit Sectatorship the Magistrates from injustice the Clients from litigiousness and all of them from dishonesty and disrespect of learning which though but negatives of vertue and at best but the ultimum non esse of vice would nevertheless go near to restore the good fame of that country to its pristine integrity the report whereof was raised to so high a pitch of old that in a book in the last edition of a pretty bulk written in the Latine Tongue by one Dempster there is mention made what for armes and arts of at least five thousand Illustrious men of Scotland the last liver whereof dyed above fifty yeers ago Nor did their succession so far degenerate from the race of so worthy
of the Shires of Innernass and Ross whether joyntly or separately sitting proved the most barbarous and inhumane it being a commonly-received practise amongst their loggerhead stick wisdoms not only to pass these and such like enormities with the foresaid officers but to gratifie them besides for the laying of a burthen upon their neighbours which they should have undergone themselves yea to such a height did their covetousness and hypocrisie reach that the better to ingratiate themselves in the favors of the souldiery for the saving of their pence when the officers out of their laziness would be unwilling to travel fourty or fifty miles from their quarters for the taking up of mantenance or any arreer due of horse and foot-levies they took this savage and unchristian course they would point at any whom they had a peck at pretending he was no good Covenanter and that he favoured toleration and for that cause being both judges and parties themselves would ordaine him under pain of quartering and plundring to advance to the insatiable officers so much money as the debt pretended to be due by those remote inhabitants though meer strangers to him did extend to by which means it ordinarily fell out that the civillest men in all the country and most plyable to good order were the greatest sufferers and the basest the greedyest and the most unworthy of the benefit of honest conversation the onely men that were exempted and had immunities Now when many of these Laird and Lord Kirk-officers had by such unconscionable means and so diametrally opposite to all honour and common honesty acquired great sums of money then was it that like good Simeons of iniquity they had recourse to their brother Levi for framing of Protestations their conscience not serving them to fight for a King that was like to espouse a malignant interest under which cover free from the tempest of war like fruitful brood-geese they did stay at home to hatch young chickens of pecunial interest out of those prodigious egs which the very substance of the commons had laid down to them with a curse to sit upon Yet if for fashion sake at the instigation of inferior officers who were nothing so greedy as they some shew of muster was to be made of souldiers to be sent to Sterlin-leaguer or anywhere else then were these same very men whom out of their pretended zeal to the good cause they had formerly cast either for malignancy or infencibility and in lieu of each of them accepted of fifty or threescore dolars more or less inrolled in their Troops or Companies when for the matter of three or four dolars with the consent of a cup of good Ale and some promise of future plunder they had purchased their good wils to take on with them they approving themselves by such insinuating means good servants in being able by the talent of their three dolars to do the State that service for the which the poor Country-Gentleman must pay threescore and be forced to quit his man to boot Truly those are not the Scotish Colonels whom I intend to commend for valour it being fitter to recommend them to posterity as vipers who to work out a livelihood to themselves have not stuck to tear the very bowels of their mother-country and bury its honor in the dust Such were not those Scotish Col. I formerly mentioned whose great vassalages abroad and enterprises of most magnanimous adventures undertaken and performed by them in other countries might very well make a poorer climate then Scotland enter in competition with a richer soyle Yet seeing the intellectual faculties have their vertues as well as the moral and that learning in some measure is no less commendable then fortitude as those afore-named Scotish men have been famous beyond sea for the military part so might I mention thrice as many moe of that Nation as I have set down of war-like officers who since the yeer one thousand and six hundred have deserved in all those aforesaid countryes of France Italy Spaine Flanders Holland Denmark Germany Pole Hungary and Swedland where they lived great renown for their exquisite abilities in all kind of literature the greatest part of whose names I deem expedient for the present to conceal thereby to do the more honor to some whose magnanimity and other good parts now to commemorate would make one appear in the opinions of many guilty of the like trespass with them that in the dayes of Nero called Rome by its proper name after he had decreed to give it the title of Neroniana Nevertheless being to speak a little of some of them before I lanch forth to cross the seas I must salute that most learned and worthy gentleman and most indeared minion of the Muses Master Alexander Ross who hath written manyer excellent books in Latine and English what in prose what in verse then he hath lived yeers and although I cannot remember all yet to set down so many of them as on a sudden I can call to minde will I not forget to the end the Reader by the perusal of the works of so universal a scholar may reap some knowledge when he comes to read His Virgilius Evangelizans in thirteen several books a peece truly which when set forth with that decorement of plates it is to have in its next edition will evidently shew that he hath apparelled the Evangelists in more splendid garments and royal robes then without prejudice be it spoken his compatriots Buchanan and Jhonstoun have in their Paraphrastick translation of the Psalmes done the King and Prophet David His four books of the Judaick wars intituled De rebus Judaicis libri quatuor couched in most excellent hexameters his book penned against a Jesuite in neat Latine prose called Rasuratonsoris his Chymera Pythagorica contra Lansbergium his Additions to Wollebius and Vrsinus his book called The new planet no planet his Meditations upon predestination his book intituled the pictures of the conscience his Questions upon Genesis his Religions Apotheosis his Melissomachia his Virgilius Triumphans his four curious books of Epigrams in Latin Elegiacks his Mel heliconium his Colloquia plautina his Mystagoguspoeticus his Medicus medicatus his Philosophical touch-stone his Arcana Microcosmi his observations upon Sir Walter Rawley his Marrow of History or Epitome of Sir Walter Rawleigh ' works his great Chronology in the English tongue set forth in folio deducing all the most memorable things that have occurred since the Macedonian war till within some ten or twelve yeers to this time and his many other learned Treatises whose titles I either know not or have forgot Besides all these Volumes Books and Tractates here recited he composed above three hundred exquisite Sermons which after he had redacted them into an order and diction fit for the press were by the merciless fury of Vulcan destroyed all in one night to the great grief of many preachers to whom they would have been every whit as useful as Sir
Edward Cooks reports are to the Lawyers But that which I as much deplore and am as unfainedly sory for is that the fire which on that fatal night had seazed on the house and closet where those his Sermons were consumed had totally reduced to ashes the very desks wherein were locked up several Metaphysical Physical Moral and Dialectical Manuscripts whose conflagration by Philosophers is as much to be bewailed as by Theologically-affected spirits was that of his most divine elucubrations This loss truly was irrecoverable therefore by him at last digested because he could not help it but that some losses of another nature before and after that time by him sustained have as yet not been repaired lyeth as a load upon this land whereof I wish it were disburthened seeing it is in behalf of him who for his piety Theological endowments Philosophy Eloquence and Poesie is so eminently qualified that according to the Metempsychosis of Pythagoras one would think that the souls of Socrates Chrysostome Aristotle Ciceron and Virgil have been transformed into the substantial faculties of that entelechy wherewith by such a conflated transanimation he is informed and sublimely inspired He spends the substance of his own lamp for the weal of others should it not then be recruited with new oyle by those that have been enlightened by it Many enjoy great benefices and that deservedly enough for the good they do to their coaevals onely how much more meritoriously should he then be dealt with whose literate erogations reach to this and after-ages A lease for life of any parcel of land is of less value then the hereditary purchase thereof so he of whom posterior generations reap a benefit ought more to be regarded then they whose actions perish with themselves Humane reason and common sense it self instructeth us that dotations mortifications and other honorary recompences should be most subfervient to the use of those that afford literatory adminicularies of the longest continuance for the improvement of our sense and reason Therefore could I wish nor can I wish a a thing more just that this reverend worthy and learned gentleman Master Rosse to whom this age is so much beholden and for whom posterity will be little beholden to this age if it prove unthankful to him were as he is a favorite of Minerva courted by the opulent men of our time as Danae was by Jupiter or that they had as much of Mecaena's soul as he hath of Virgil's for if so it were or that this Isle of all Christendom would but begin to taste of the happiness of so wise a course vertue would so prosper and learning flourish by his encouragements and the endeavours of others in imitation of him that the Christians needed lie no longer under the reproach of ignorance which the oriental Nations fixe upon them in the termes of seeing but with one eye but in the instance of great Britain alone to vindicate in matter of knowledge the reputation of this our Western world make the Chineses by very force of reason of whose authority above them they are not ashamed be glad to confess that the Europaeans as well as themselves look out with both their eyes and have no blinkard minds Of which kind of brave men renowned for perspicacy of sight in the ready perceiving of intellectual objects and that in gradu excellenti is this Master Rosse the more ample expressing of whose deserved Elogies that I remit unto another time will I hope be taken in better part that I intend to praise him againe because Laus ought to be virtutis assecla and he is alwayes doing good Therefore lest I should interrupt him I will into France Spain and other countries to take a view of some great scholars of the Scotish Nation who of late have been highly esteemed for their learning in forraign parts of which number he that first presents himself is one Sinclair an excellent Mathematician professor Regius and possessor of the chaire of Ramus though long after his time in the University of Paris he wrote besides other books one in folio de quadratura circuli Of the same profession and of his acquaintance there was one Anderson who likewise lived long in Paris and was for his abilities in the Mathematical Sciences accounted the profoundlyest principled of any man of his time in his studyes he plyed hardest the equations of Algebra the speculations of the irrational lines the proportions of regular bodies and sections of the cone for though he was excellently well skilled in the Theory of the planets and Astronomy the Opticks Catoptricks Dioptricks the Orthographical Stereographicial and Schenographical projections in Cosmography Geography Trigonometry and Geodesie in the Staticks Musick and all other parts or pendicles Sciences Faculties or Arts of or belonging to the disciplines Mathematical in general or any portion thereof in its essence or dependances yet taking delight to pry into the greatest difficulties to soar where others could not reach and like another Archimedes to work wonders by Geometry and the secrets of numbers and having a body too weak to sustaine the vehement intensiveness of so high a spirit he dyed young with that respect nevertheless to succeeding ages that he left behind him a Posthumary-book intituled Andersom opera wherein men versed in the subject of the things therein contained will reap great delight and satisfaction There was another called Doctor Seaton not a Doctor of Divinity but one that had his degrees at Padua and was Doctor utriusque juris for whose pregnancy of wit and vast skill in all the mysteries of the Civil and Canon Laws being accounted one of the ablest men that ever breathed he was most heartily desired by Pope Vrbane the eighth to stay at Rome and the better to encourage him thereto made him chief professor of the Sapience a Colledge in Rome so called where although he lived a pretty while with great honor and reputation yet at last as he was a proud man falling at some ods with il collegio Romano the supreamest seat of the Jesuites and that wherein the general of that numerous society hath his constant residence he had the courage to adventure coping with them where they were strongest and in matter of any kind of learning to give defiance to their greatest scholars which he did do with such a hight of spirit and in such a lofty and bravashing humour that although there was never yet that Ecclesiastical incorporation wherein there was so great universality of literature or multiplicity of learned men he nevertheless misregarding what estimation they were in with others and totally reposing on the stock or basis of his own knowledge openly gave it out that if those Teatinos his choler not suffering him to give them their own name of Jesuites would offer any longer to continue in vexing him with their frivolous chat and captious argumentations to the impugning of his opinions and yet in matters of Religion they were both of one
and the same faith he would like a Hercules amongst so many Myrmidons fal in within the very midst of them so besquatter them on all sides and with the granads of his invincible arguments put the braines of all and each of them in such a fire that they should never be able pump as they would to finde in all the celluls thereof one drop of either reason or learning wherewith to quench it This unequal undertaking of one against so many whereof some were greater courtiers with his Papal Holiness then he shortened his abode at Rome and thereafter did him so much prejudice in his travels through Italy and France that when at any time he became scarce of money to which exigent his prodigality often brought him he could not as before expect an ayuda de costa as they call it or viaticum from any Prince of the territories through which he was to pass because the chanels of their liberality were stopped by the rancour and hatred of his conventual adversaries When nevertheless he was at the lowest ebb of his fortune his learning and incomparable facility in expressing any thing with all the choicest ornaments of and incident varieties to the perfection of the Latine elocution raised him to the dignity of being possessed with the chair of Lipsius and professing humanity in Italy called buone letere in the famous University of Lovan yet like Mercury unapt to fix long in any one place deserting Lovan he repaired to Paris where he was held in exceeding great reputation for his good parts and so universally beloved that both Laicks and Church-men courtiers and Scholars gentlemen and Merchants and almost all manner of people willing to learn some new thing or other for as sayes Aristotle every one is desirous of knowledge were ambitious of the enjoyment of his company and ravished with his conversation For besides that the matter of his discourse was strong sententious and witty he spoke Latine as if he had been another Livy or Salustius nor had he been a native of all the three countryes of France Italy and Germany could he have exprest himself as still he did when he had occasion with more selected variety of words nimbler volubility of utterance or greater terity for tone phrase and accent in all the three Languages thereto belonging I have seen him circled about at the Louvre with a ring of French Lords and gentlemen who hearkned to his discourse with so great attention that none of them so long as he was pleased to speak would offer to interrupt him to the end that the pearles falling from his mouth might be the more orderly congested in the several treasures of their judgements the ablest advocates barristers or counselors at law of all the parlement of Paris even amongst those that did usually plead en la chambre doree did many times visit him at his house to get his advice in hard debatable points He came also to that sublime pitch of good diction even in the French tongue that there having past by vertue of a frequent intercourse several missives in that idiom betwixt him and le sieur de Balzak who by the quaintest Romancealists of France and daintiest complementers of all its lushions youth was almost uncontrollably esteemed in eloquence to have surpassed Ciceron the straine of Seatons letters was so high the fancy so pure the words so well connexed and the cadence so just that Balzak infinitely taken with its fluent yet concise Oratory to do him the honor that was truly due unto him most lovingly presented him with a golden pen in acknowledgement of Seatons excelling him both in Retorick and the art of perswasion which gift proceeding from so great an oratour and for a supereminency in that faculty wherein himself without contradiction was held the chiefest of this and all former ages that ever were born in the French Nation could not chuse but be acounted honorable Many learned books were written by this Seaton in the Latine tongue whose titles to speak ingenuously I cannot hit upon There was another Scotish man named Cameron who within these few yeers was so renowned for learning over all the provinces of France that besides his being esteemed for the faculties of the minde the ablest man of all that Country he was commonly designed because of his universal reading by the title of the walking Liberary by which he being no less known then by his own name he therefore took occasion to set forth an excellent book in Latine and that in folio intituled Bibliotheca movens which afterwards was translated into the English Language To mention those former Scotish men and forget their compatriot Barclay the Author of Argenis Icon animorum and other exquisite Treatises translated out of Latine into the Languages almost of every country where use is made of printing would argue in me a great neglect it shall suffice nevertheless for this time that I have named him for I hope the Reader will save me a labour and extoll his praises to as great hight when he shall be pleased to take the paines to peruse his works Yet that the learning of the travelers of the Scotish Nation may not seem to be tyed to the climate of France although all Scots by the privilege of the laws of that kingdome be naturalized French and that all the French kings since the dayes of Charlemaine which is about a thousand yeers since by reason of their fidelity to that Crown have put such real confidence in the Scots that whither soever the King of France goeth the Scots are nearest to him of any and the chief guard on which he reposeth for the preservation of his royal person there was a Scotish man named Melvil who in the yeer 1627. had a pension of King Philip the fourth of six hundred ducats a yeer for his skilfulness in the Hebrew Caldean Syraick Aethiopian Samaritan and Arabick tongues beyond all the Christians that ever were born in Europe The service he did do the Spanish King in those languages especially the Arabick and Caldean which after great search made over all his ample territories and several other Kingdoms besides for some able man to undergo the task could not be got performed by any but him was to translate into Latine or Spanish some few books of those six hundred great volumes taken by Don Juan de Austria at the battel of Lepanto from the great Turk which now lye in the great Library of the magnifick palace of the Escurial some seven leagues Westward from Madrid and otherwayes called San lorenço el real Of those and many other mental abilities of that nature he gave after that most excellent proofs both at Rome Naples and Venice That most learned Latine book in folio Treating of all the Mathematical Arts and Sciences which was written by that Scotish gentleman Sempil resident in Madrid sheweth that Scotish spirits can produce good fruits even in hot climates Another named Gordon of the
Hollander deems him unworthy of the name of man that fornicates before he marry but the Spaniard hardly doth repute him a Man who hath not exercised those male-abilities whereby he is distinguished from the woman Thus according to the Genius of each climate statutes acts and ordinances being instituted for the regulating of mens actions and our obedience to superior powers by custome becomming as it were natural we by experience finde that the Religion wherewith men are most accustomed lyes best to their consciences For that it is so we know by the vehemency of fidimplicitaries of whom some will chuse to lose their lives before they quit their Religion although they be altogether ignorant of what they should believe till they ask the Minister whose custome to make their consciences subservient to their choler is to principle them with the negative faith without any great positive doctrine for so begins the Covenant of which kind of zealous disciples was that covenanting gentleman who burnt a great many historical and Philosophical books thinking they had been books of Popery he taking them to be such because of the red letters he saw in their titles and inscriptions Nor shall we need to think it strange that in the world there are so many several Religions if we consider that the divers temperaments of our bodies alter our inclinations from whose disparity arise repugnant laws which long obedience makes it seem a sacriledge to violate In my opinion truly there is nothing more natural then variety yea and that sometimes with opposition Are not we composed of the four elements which have their contrary as wel as symbolizing qualities and doth not the manner of their mixture and the degrees by more or less of the qualities from thence flowing in the constitution of mens bodies disagree in all the persons of the world Hence some are Melancholious some Phlegmatick some Cholerick and some Sanguinean and every one of those more or less according to the humour that affects him in its quantity and quality Thus if men were left to themselves every one would have a several religion but seeing to reap good from one another we must to one another apply our selves that this application without conformity would prove destructive therefore is it that the individuals of mankinde have been still pleased to forego some natural interest they had in peculiar differences the better to erect an uniformity in their society for that self-preservation which is the chief end of their designes This making either a King or State we come then to have laws imposed on us according to the climate or disposition of the people And although I know there be a difference bewixt divine and humane institutions and that it is fitting wicked thoughts be punished as well as words or actions Yet do I appeal to the judgement of any that will in casting his eye upon the world as it is and still hath been consider but the various governments in the regulating of the deeds of the consciences of men if he finde it not to be true that over the whole universe amongst the Christians Jews Paynims and Mahumetans both in this and former ages religions almost have been still distinguished by secular soveraignties each State having its own profession and the faith of one climate being incompatible with that of another and yet in the duties commonly observed 'twixt neighbor and neighbor in matter of buying and selling trucking changing and such like sociable commutations there is as great unanimity by the most part of the world maintained even in the bonds of honesty as if as they know what pleaseth God should please them they were of the opinion of Tamarlain who believed that God was best pleased with diversity of Religions variety of worship dissentaneousness of faith and multiformity of devotion For this cause prescinding from the Religion of any of my compatriots which if displeasing to God will no doubt at last displease themselves and hurry upon them that punishment which we ought not to aggravate before its time by detaining from them what praise to them is due for the natural and moral accomplishments wherewith God hath endowed them for our benefit for in praising them we praise God who hath made them the instruments of doing us good These three profound and universal scholars of the Scotish Nation Tyry of the house of Drumkilbo Mackbrek and Broun deserve a rank in this list of men of literature as well as Chisum the Bishop of Vezon and others of the Romish faith above mentioned and for whose praises I have already apologized Tyry wrote books of Divinity in a most acurate straine and being assistant to the general of the Jesuites was the second person of all that vast Ecclesiastical republick which reacheth as far as to the outmost territories of all the Christian Kings and States of the whole continent of the world a higher place then which amongst them no stranger ever attained to in Italy which is the place of their supremest jurisdiction Mackbrek is eminent for his literature in Pole and Broun in Germany and both of them authors of good books To hit upon the names of others such as these of the Scotish Nation renowned for learning even in remoter parts of the world it would be a task not so proper for any as for the great traveler Lithco a compatriot likewayes of theirs who in nineteen yeers space traveled three times by land over all the known parts almost of Europe Asia and Africk as by a book of a pretty bulk in quarto set forth by himself is more evidently made manifest the said Lithco also is an author of several other books and so was Simon Graham a great traveler and very good scholar as doth appear by many books of his emission but being otherwayes too licentious and given over to all manner of debordings the most of the praise I will give him wil be to excuse him in these terms of Aristotle Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae Some other eminent men for literature of the Scotish Nation besides those formerly rehearsed have been much esteemed of abroad although they were no Roman Catholicks such as Doctor John Forbas who was a professor of Divinity in Leyden and wrote an excellent book of Divinity in folio called Irenicon Doctor Read likewise was an able scholar as may appear by his book of Anatomy and other learned writtings Now seeing I am from beyond sea bringing the enumeration of my scholars homewards I cannot forget the names of Doctor Baleanquel Doctor Sibbalds Doctor Stuart and Doctor Michel all able Divines and sometimes beneficed men in England How much the protestant saith oweth to Doctor Robert Baron for his learned Treatises against Turnebol the Jesuite de objecto formali fidei I leave to be judged by those that have perused them To the conversatiof Doctor William Lesly who is one of the most profound and universal scholars now living his friends
and acquaintance of any literature are very much beholding but to any books of his emission nothing at all whereat every one that knoweth him wondreth exceedingly and truly so they may for though scripturiency be a fault in feeble pens and that Socrates the most learned man of his time set forth no works yet can none of these two reasons excuse his not evulging somewhat to the publike view because he is known to have an able pen whose draughts would grace the paper with impressions of inestimable worth nor is the example of Socrates able to a pologize for him unless he had such disciples as Plato and Aristotle who having seposited in their braines the scientifick treasures of their masters knowledge did afterwards in their own works communicate them to the utility of future generations yet that this Caledonian Socrates though willing could not of late have been able to dispose of his talent did proceed from the merciless dealings of some wicked Anites Lycons and Melits of the Covenant the cruelty of whose perverse zeal will keep the effects of his vertue still at under till by the perswasion of some honest Lysias the authority of the land be pleased to reseat him into his former condition with all the encouragements that ought to attend so prime a man Doctor John Gordon sometime Minister of Elgin Doctor William Hogstoun and Doctor James Sibbet are men who have given great proof of their learning as well by Treatises which they have divulged as in all manner of Academical exercitations Doctor William Guild deserveth by himself to be remembred both for that he hath committed to the press many good books tending to the edification of the soul and bettering of the minde and that of all the Divines that have lived in Scotland these hundred yeers he hath been the most charitable and who bestowed most of his own to publike uses The lovingness of his heart dilates it self to many and the center of his desires is the Common weal in matter of great edifices where he builds not he repaires and many Churches Hospitals Colledges and Bridges have been the objects of his beneficence But to shew the vertue of this man beyond thousands of others richer then he even of those that had a nearer and more immediate call to the performance of such charitable offices when he was principal of the old Colledge of Aberdeen and that at a time when by reason of the sword everywhere raging through the land all schooles almost were laid waste so great was his industry so prudent his government and so liberal his erogations that the number of the scholars there all the time that he ruled did by threescore and ten a yeer exceed the greatest confluence that ever was therein since the foundation of that University to which I wish all happiness because of him for whom this book is intended who learned there the elements of his Philosophy under the conduct of one Master William Seaton who was his tutor a very able preacher truly and good scholar and whom I would extoll yet higher but that being under the consistorian lash some critick Presbyters may do him injury by pretending his dislike of them for being praised by him who idolizeth not their authority The same reason invites me not to insist upon the praises of Master William Lawder preacher at Ava a good Divine and excellent Poet both in Latine and English And for the same cause must I forbear to spend encomions upon that worthy Gentleman Master David Leech who is a most fluent Poet in the Latine tongue an exquisite Philosopher and profound Theolog. Seeing I am come to speak againe of Scotish Poets which have flourished of late the foresaid Master Leech hath an elder brother named John who hath set forth four or five most excellent books of Epigrams and Eclogues in the Latine Tongue One Master Andrew Ramsey likewise hath been the Author of books of very good Epigrams in Latine Several others in that Nation are and have been of late very good Latine Poets amongst which I must needs commemorate Doctor Arthur Jhonstoun a Physician by profession yet such a one as had been so sweetly imbued by the springs of Helieon that before he was full three and twenty yeers of age he was laureated Poet at Paris and that most deservedly as may appear by his Parâ—rgon his Paraphrastick translation of the Psalmes wherein if he excell not I am sure he equaleth Buchanan and some other Treatises by name to me unknown His brother also Doctor William Jhonstoun was a good Poet in Latine and a good Mathematician acknowledged to be such which was none of his meanest praises by Master Robert Gordon of Straloch one of the ablest men of Scotland in the Mathematical Faculties and who of all Mathematicians hath done it most honor by having taken the paines to set down all the Shires and Countries thereof in most exact Geographical Maps which designe though intended essayed and blocked by many others yet was never brought to its full and compleat perfection but by this gentleman of the name of Gordon intituled the Laird of Straloch who being loath his vertue and learning should expire with himself hath the most hopeful and best educated children of any whosoever within two hundred miles of his house These Mathematical blades put me in mind of that Dr. Liddel of whom for his abilities in Physick I made mention in p. 186. which I had reason to do because of his learned books written in Latin de Diaeta de febribus de Methodo Medicinae who for his profoundness in these Siences of sensible immaterial objects was everywhere much renowned especially at Francfort de maine Francfort on the oder and Heidelberg where he was almost as well known as the Monstrous Bacchanalian Tun that stood thre in his time He was an eminent professor of the Mathematicks a disciple of the most excellent Astronomer Tycho Brahe and condisciple of that worthy Longomontanus yet in imitation of Aristotle whose doctrine with great proficiency he had imbued esteeming more of truth then of either Socrates or Plato when the new Star began to appear in the constellation of Cassiopeia there was concerning it such an intershocking of opinions betwixt Tycho Brahe and Doctor Liddel evulged in print to the open view of the world that the understanding Reader could not but have commended both for all and yet in giving each his due praised Tycho Brahe most for Astronomy and Liddel for his knowledge above him in all the other parts of Philosophy As this Doctor Liddel was a gallant Mathematician and exquisite Physician so being desirous to propagate learning to future ages and to make his own kindred the more enamoured of the sweetness thereof especially in Mathematical Sciences he bequeathed fourty pounds English money a yeer to the new Colledge of the University of Aberdeen for the maintenance of a Mathematical professor with this proviso that the neerest of his own kinsemen
of the matter in hand whether Paradigmatical Iconical Symbolical by comparison or any other kinde of Simile or yet Paradoxical Paramologetick Paradiastolary Antipophoretick Cromatick or any other way of figurating a speech by opposition being formules of Oratory whereby we subjoyn what is not expected confess something that can do us no harme yeeld to one of the members that the other may be removed allow an argument to oppose a stronger mixe praise with dispraise and so forth through all manner of illustration and decorement of purposes by contrarieties and repugnance All those Figures and Tropes besides what are not here mentioned these Synecdochically standing for all to shun the tediousness of a too prolixe enumeration I could have adhibited to the embellishment of this Tractate had not the matter it self been more prevalent with me then the superficial formality of a quaint discourse I could have firreted out of Topick Celluls such variety of arguments tending to my purpose and seconded them with so many divers refutations confirmations and Prosyllogistick deductions as after the large manner of their several amplifications according to the rules of Art would contexed together have framed a book of a great quarto size in an Arithmetical proportion of length to its other two Dimensions of bredth and thickness that is to say its bredth should exceed the thickness thereof by the same number of inches and no more that it is surpassed by the length in which considering the body thereof could be contained no less then seven quires of paper at least and yet notwithstanding this so great a bulk I could have disposed the contents of its whole subjected matter so appositely into partitions for facilitating an impression in the Readers memory and presented it to the understanding in so sprucela garb that spirits blest with leisure and free from the urgency of serious employments would happily have bestowed as liberally some few houres thereon as on the perusal of a new-coined Romancy or strange history of love-adventures For although the figures and tropes above rehearsed seem in their actu signato as they signifie meer notional circumstances affections adjuncts and dependences on words to be a little Pedantical and to the smooth touch of a delicate ear somewhat harsh and scabrous yet in their exerced act as they suppone for things reduplicatively as things in the first apprehension of the minde by them signified I could even in far abstruser purposes have so fitly adjusted them with apt and proper termes and with such perspicuity couched them as would have been suitable to the capacities of courtiers and young Ladies whose tender hearing for the most part being more taken with the insinuating harmony of a well-concerted period in its Isocoletick and parisonal members then with the never-so-pithy a fancy of a learned subject destitute of the Illustriousness of so Pathetick ornaments will sooner convey perswasion to the interior faculties from the ravishing assault of a well-disciplined diction in a parade of curiosly-mustered words in their several ranks and files then by the vigour and fierceness of never so many powerful squadrons of a promiscuously-digested elocution into bare Logical arguments for the sweetness of their disposition is more easily gained by undermining passion then storming reason and by the musick and Symmetry of a discourse in its external appurtenances then by all the puissance imaginary of the ditty or purpose disclosed by it But seeing the prime scope of this Treatise is to testifie my utmost endeavours to do all the service I can to Sir Thomas Vrquhart both for the procuring of his liberty and intreating the State whose prisoner he is to allow him the enjoyment of his own lest by his thraldome and distress useful to no man the publick should be deprived of those excellent inventions whose emission totally dependeth upon the grant of his enlargement and freedom in both estate and person and that to a State which respecteth substance more then ceremony the body more then the shadow and solidity more then ostentation it would argue great indiscretion in me to become no other waies a suiter for that worthy gentleman then by emancipating my vein upon the full carreer of Rhetorical excursions approving my self thereby like to those Navigators Gunners and Horsemen who use more saile then ballast more powder then ball and employ the spur more then the bridle Therefore is it that laying aside all the considerations of those advantages and prerogatives a neat expression in fluent termes hath over the milder sexe and Miniard youth and setting before my eyes the reverence and gravity of those supereminent men to whom my expectation of their non-refusal of my request hath emboldened me to make my addresses I hold it now expedient without further adoe to stop the current of my pen and in token of the duty I owe to him whose cause I here assert to give way to his more literate and compleat elucubrations which that they may the sooner appear to the eyes of the world for the advancement of both vertue and learning I yet once more and that most heartily beseech the present State Parliament and supream Councel of great Britain to vouchsafe unto the aforesaid Sir Thomas Vrquhart of Cromarty knight heritable Sheriff and proprietary thereof a grant of the releasement of his person from any imprisonment whereunto at the discretion of those that took his parole he is ingaged the possession likewise of his house of Cromarty free from garisoning and the enjoyment of his whole estate in lands without affecting it with any other either publick or private burthen then hath been of his own contracting and that with the dignities thereto belonging of hereditary Sheriff-ship patronage of the three Churches there and Admiralty of the Seas betwixt Catness and Innernass inclusively with subordination nevertheless to the high Admiral of the land together with all the other priviledges and immunities which both in his person and that of his predecessors hath been from time to time accounted due by inheriitance to the house of Cromarty and that for the love of the whole Island on which he offereth in compensation to bestow a benefit under pain of forfeiture of all he hath of ten times more worth As this is my humble petition so is it conform to the desires of all the best spirits of England Scotland Wales and Ireland Pity it were to refuse such As ask but lâ—ttle and give much The List of those Scots mentioned in this book who have been Generals abroad within these fifty yeers Sir Patrick Ruven Gen. Ruderford Lord Spence S. Alexander Lesly Dux foederis S. Alexander Lesly in Moscovy James King Marquis Lesly Marquis Hamilton The List of other Scotish Officers mentioned in in this Treatise who were all Colonels abroad and some of them General persons Lieutenant Generals David Lesly S. James Livingstoun William Bailif Major Generals Lodovick Lindsay Robert Monro Thomas Ker. S. David Drumond S. James Lumsden Robert Lumsden S. John Hepburn Lord James Dowglas Watchtoun Hepburn John Lesly Colonels Alexander Hamilton General of the Artillery Alexander Ramsay Quarter-master General Col. Anderson Earl of Argyle Col. Armestrong Earl of Bacluch S. James Balantine S. William Balantine S. David Balfour S. Henry Balfour Col. Boyd Col. Brog Col. Bruce James Cockburne Col. Colon. Lord Colvil Alex. Crawford Col. Crichtoun Alex. Cuningam George Cuningam Robert Cuningam William Cuningam George Dowglas Col. Dowglas Col. Dowglas Col. Edinton Col. Edmond Col. Erskin Alex. Forbas Alex. Forbas Arthur Forbas Fines Forbas John Forbas Lord Forbas S. John Fulerton Thomas Garne Alex. Gordon Alex. Gordon John Gordon Col. Gordon S. Andrew Gray William Gun Col. Gun S. Frederick Hamilton James Hamilton John Hamilton Hugh Hamilton S. Francis Henderson S. John Henderson Thomas Hume Col. Hunter Edward Johnston James Johnston William Johnston S. John Innes Earl of Iruin William Keith Jhon Kinindmond Patrick Kinindmond Thomas Kinindmond William Kinindmond Walter Lecky Col. Lermond Alex. Lesly George Lesly John Lesly Robert Lesly Col. Liddel Andrew Lindsay George Lindsay Col. Litheo Col. Livingstoun Robert Lumsden Col. Lyon Col. Mathuson S. John Meldrum Assen Monro Fowles Monro Hector Monro Obstel Monro Col. Morison S. Pat. Morray Col. Mouat Col. Ramsey James Ramsey Lord Reay Col. Robertson Col. Rower Frances Ruven John Ruven L. Sancomb Col. Sandilands Robert Scot. James Seaton James Seaton S. John Seaton William Sempil Francis Sinclair Col. Spang James Spence L. Spynay Robert Stuart Thomas Thomson John Urquhart Col. Wederburne Col. Wilson I Have not mentioned here Lieutenant General John Midletoun Lieutenant General Sir William Balfour nor General Major Sir George Monro c. because they returned from the forraign countryes where they did officiate though in places over both horse and foot of great concernment before they had obtained the charge of Colonels As for pricking down into colums those other Scots in my book renowned for literature and personal valour I held it not expedient for that the sum of them doth fall so far short of the number I have omitted that proportioned to the aggregate of all who in that Nation since the yeer 1650. without reckoning any intrusted in military employments either at home or abroad have deserved praise in Armes and Arts joyntly or dis-junctively it would bear the Analogy to use a lesser definite for a greater indefinite of a subnovitripartient eights that is to say in plain English the whole being the Dividend and my Nomenclature the Divisor the quotient would be nine with a fraction of three eights or yet more clearly as the Proportion of 72. to 675. FINIS
worlds more worth then gold or silver All this from their imagination being convoyed into the penitissim corners of their fouls in that short space which I have already told she rending her garments and tearing her haire like one of the graces possest with a fury spoke thus O villains what have you done you vipers of men that have thus basely slaine the valiant Crichtoun the sword of his own sexe and buckler of ours the glory of this age and restorer of the lost honor of the Court of Mantua O Crichtoun Crichtoun At which last words the Prince hearing them uttered by the Lady in the world he loved best and of the man in the world he most affected was suddenly seazed upon by such extremity of sorrow for the unhappiness of that lamentable mischance that not being able to sustaine the rayes of that beauty whose percing aspect made him conscious of his guilt he fell flat upon his face like to a dead man but knowing omne simile not to be idem he quickly arose and to make his body be what it appeared fixed the hilt of the sword wherewith he had killed Crichtoun fast betwixt two stones at the foot of a marble statue standing in the Court after the fashion of those staves with iron pikes at both ends commonly called Swedish feathers when stuck into the ground to fence Musketeers from the charge of horse then having recoyled a little from it was fetching a race to run his brest which for that purpose he had made open upon the point thereof as did Cato Vticensis after his lost hopes of the recovery of the Commonwealth of Rome and assuredly according to that his intent had made a speedy end of himself but that his three Gentlemen one by stopping him in his course another by laying hold on him by the middle and the third by taking away the sword hindred the desperate project of that autochtony The Prince being carryed away in that mad frantick and distracted humour befitting a Bedlam better then a Serralio into his own palace where all manner of edge-tools were kept from him all that sad night for fear of executing his former designe of self-murther as soon as to his father my Lord Duke on the next morning by seven a clock which by the usual computation of that Country came at that season of the yeer to be neer upon fourteen hours or fourteen a clock the story of the former nights tragedy was related that he had solemnly vowed he should either have his son hanged or his head struck off for the committing of a so ingrate enormous and detestable crime one of his courtiers told him that by all appearance his son would save his highness justice a labour and give it nothing to do for that he was like to hang himself or after some other manner of way to turn his own Atropos The whole Court wore mourning for him full three quarters of a yeer together his funeral was very stately and on his hearse were stuck more Epitaphs Elegies Threnodies and Epicediums then if digested into one book would have out-bulk't all Homers works some of them being couched in such exquisite and fine Latin that you would have thought great Virgil and Baptista Mantuanus for the love of their mother-City had quit the Elysian fields to grace his obsequies and other of them besides what was done in other languages composed in so neat Italian and so purely fancied as if Ariosto Dante Petrark and Bâ—mbo had been purposely resuscitated to stretch even to the utmost their Poetick vein to the honour of this brave man whose picture till this hour is to be seen in the bed-chambers or galleries of the most of the great men of that Nation representing him on horseback with a Lance in one hand and a Book in the other and most of the young Ladies likewise that were any thing handsome in a memorial of his worth had his effigies in a little oval tablet of gold hanging 'twixt their breasts and held for many yeers together that Metamazion or intermammilary ornament an as necessary outward pendicle for the better setting forth of their accoutrements as either Fan Watch or Stomacher My Lord Duke upon the young Lady that was Crichtoun's Mistris and future wife although she had good rents and revenues of her own by inheritance was pleased to conferr a pension of five hundred ducats a yeer the prince also bestowed as much on her during all the dayes of his life which was but short for he did not long enjoy himself after the cross fate of so miserable an accident The sweet Lady like a Turtle bewailing the loss of her mate spent all the rest of her time in a continual solitariness and resolved as none before Crichtoun had the possession of her body that no man breathing should enjoy it after his decease The verity of this story I have here related concerning this incomparable Crichtoun may be certified by above two thousand men yet living who have known him and truly of his acquaintance there had been a far greater number but that before he was full 32 yeers of age he was killed as you have heard And here I put an end to the Admirable Scot. The Scene of the choicest acts of this late Heros of our time having been the Country of Italy the chief State whereof is Venice it cannot be amiss as I have done for Spaine France Holland Denmark Swedland and Germany that I make mention of these four Scotish Colonels Colonel Dowglas Colonel Balantine Colonel Lyon and Colonel Anderson who within these very few yeers have done most excellent service to the Venetian Commonwealth nor can I well forget that Sea-Captain Captain William Scot whose martial atchievements in the defence of that State against the Turks may very well admit him to be ranked amongst the Colonels he was Vice-admiral to the Venetian Fleet and the onely renowned bane and terror of Mahometan Navigators whether they had Galleys Galeoons Galiegrosses or huge war-ships it was all one to him he set upon all alike saying still The more they were the manyer he would kill and the stronger that the encounter should happen to be the greater would be his honour and his prise the richer He oftentimes so cleared the Archipelago of the Mussulmans that the Ottoman family at the very gates of Constantinople would quake at the report of his victories and did so ferret them out of all the creeks of the Adriatick gulph and so shrewdly put them to it that sometimes they did not know in what part of the mediterranean they might best shelter themselves from the fury of his blows many of their mariners turned land-souldiers for fear of him and of their maritime officers several took charge of Caravans to escape his hand which for many yeers together lay so heavy upon them that he was cryed up for another Don Jean d' Austria or Duke d' Orea by the enemies of that Scythian generation
a number for how many soever that could have looked out but for one day like gentlemen and given him but one hundred and fifty pounds Sterlin without any need of a keyâ—or opening the gate to enter through the Temple of Vertue which in former times was the only way to honour they had a scale from him whereby to ascend unto the platformes of Vertue which they treading underfoot did slight the ordinary passages and to take the more sudden possession of the Temple of honour went upon obscure by-paths of their own towards some secret Angiports and dark posterndoors which were so narrow that few of them could get in till they had left all their gallantry behind them yet such being their resolution that in they would and be worshipful upon any tearms they misregarded all formerly-used steps of promotion accounting them but unnecessary and most rudely rushing in unto the very Sanctuary they immediately hung out the Orange colours to testifie their conquest of the honour of Knight-Baronet Their King nevertheless not to staine his Royal dignity or to seem to merit the imputation of selling honor to his subjects did for their money give them land and that in so ample a measure that every one of his Knight-Baronets had for his hundred fifty pounds Sterlin heritably disponed unto him six thousand good and sufficient Acres of Nova Scotia ground which being but at the rate of six pence an Acre could not be thought very dear considering how prettily in the respective parchments of disposition they were bounded and designed fruitful corne-land watered with pleasant rivers running alongst most excellent and spacious Meadows nor did there want abundance of Oaken groves in the midst of very fertil plaines for if they wanted any thing it was the Scrivener or Writers fault for he gave order as soon as he received the three thousand Scots marks that there should be no defect of quantity or quality in measure or goodness of land and here and there most delicious gardens and orchards with whatever else could in matter of delightful-ground best content their fancies as if they had made purchase amongst them of the Elysian fieldes or Mahumets Paradise After this manner my Lord Sterlin for a while was very noble according to the rate of Sterlin money was as twelve other Lords in the matter of that frankness of disposition which not permitting him to dodge it upon inches ells better and worse made him not stand to give to each of his champions territories of the best and the most and although there should have happened a thousand Acres more to be put in the Charter or writing of disposition then was agreed upon at first he cared not half a piece to the Clerk was able to make him dispense with that But at last when he had inrolled some two or three hundred Knights who for their hundred and fifty peeces each had purchased amongst them several millions of Neocaledonian Acres confirmed to them and theirs for ever under the great seal the affixing whereof was to cost each of them but thirty peeces more finding that the society was not like to become any more numerous and that the ancient gentry of Scotland esteemed of such a whimsical dignity as of a disparagement rather then addition to their former honor he bethought himself of a course more profitable for himself and the future establishment of his own state in prosecuting whereof without the advice of his Knights who represented both his Houses of Parliament Clergy and all like an absolute King indeed disponed heritably to the French for a matter of five or six thousand pounds English money both the dominion and propriety of the whole continent of that kingdom of Nova Scotia leaving the new Baronets to search for land amongst the Selenits in the Moon or turn Knights of the Sun so dearly have they bought their Orange Riban which all circumstances considered is and will be no more honorable to them or their posterity then it is or hath been profitable to either What I have said here is not by way of digression but to very good purpose and pertinent to the subject in hand for as armes and arts commonly are paralleled and that Pallas goes armes with a Helmet I held it expedient lest the list of the Scholars set down in this place should in matter of preeminence be too far over-peered by the roll of the souldiers above recited that my Lord Sterlin should here represent the place of a King for the literatory part as well as there did the great uncircumcised Garne for the military and bring nova Scotia in competition with Bucharia Besides this Lord Alexander Drummon and Wishart have published very good Poems in English Nor is Master Ogilvy to be forgot whose translation of Virgil and of the fables of Aesop in very excellent English verses most evidently manifesteth that the perfection of the English tongue is not so narrowly confined but that it may extend it self beyond the natives on this side of Barwick I might have named some more Scotish Poets both in English and Latine but that besides as I often told I intend not to make a compleat enumeration of all there is a Latin book extant which passeth by the name of Deliciae poetarum Scotorum wherein the Reader may finde many even of those that have lived of late yeers whom I have here ommitted as I have done several other able men of the Scotish Nation in other faculties such as Master David Chalmers who in Italy penned a very good book and that in neat Latine treating of the Antiquities of Scotland and had it printed at Paris as also one Simson who wrote in Latine four exquisite books of Hieroglyphicks and one Hart in the City of London at this present who wrote the Fort royal of Scripture c. The excellency of Doctor William Davison in Alchymy above all the men now living in the world whereof by his wonderful experiments he giveth daily proof although his learned books published in the Latine tongue did not evidence it meriteth well to have his name recorded in this place and after him Doctor Leeth though in time before him designed in Paris where he lived by the name of Letu who as in the practise and theory of Medicine he excelled all the Doctors of France so in testimony of the approbation he had for his exquisiteness in that faculty he left behinde him the greatest estate of any of that profession then as the vast means possest by his sons and daughters there as yet can testifie Amongst those eminent Doctors of Physick I ought not to forget Doctor Fraser who was made Doctor at Toulouse with the universal approbation and applause of that famous University and afterwards succeeded to Doctor Jhonstoun's place of Physician in ordinary to the late King There is another Scotish gentleman likewise of the name of Wallace in France called Devalois who enjoyeth and hath so done these