caeteris paribus should be preferred before any other This any rational man would think reasonable nor was it truly much controverted for the space of fourteen or fifteen yeers together after the making of the Legacy at which time his Nephew on the brothers side being a childe and but then initiated to the rude elements of Latine one Doctor William Jhonstoun was preferred to the place because there was none at that time of Doctor Liddels consanguinity able to discharge it a reason verily relevant enough But by your leave good Reader when Doctor William Jhonstoun dyed and that Doctor Liddels Nephew Master Duncan Liddel by name was then of that maturity of Age and provection of skil in most of the disciplines Mathematical as was sufficient for the exercise of that duty and the meriting of his uncles benefice did the good men rulers at the helme there make any conscience of the honest Doctors latter will no forsooth the oracle must be first consulted with The Ministerian Philoplutaries my tongue forks it I have mistaken it seems one word for another I should have said Philosophers thought fit otherwayes to dispose thereof for say they Master Duncan Liddel hath committed the hainous sin of fornication and begot a young Lass with childe therefore his uncles Testament must be made voide in what relates to his enjoyment of that dotation O brave Logick and curious commentary upon a later Will for the better explication of the mind of the defunct Which Presbyterian doctrine had it bin in request in the daies of Socrates what fine pass would the world have been brought to ever since that time by that ignorance which should have over-clouded us through our being destitute of the works of Plato Aristotle and Euclid with all the Scholiasts that have glossed on them these two thousand yeers past for by all appearance those three prime Grecians would have been forced in their younger yeers to betake themselves to some other profession then Philosophy for want of a master to instruct them in the principles thereof for the Presbytery of Athens no doubt would have pearched up poor Socrates upon a penitentiary Pew and outed him of his place for having two wives at once neither whereof whether Xantippe or Myrto was either so handsome or good as Master Liddels concubine and in lieu of that trespasser supplyed the Academical chaire with the breech of a more sanctified brother whose zealous jobernolisme would never have affected the Antipresbyterian spirits of Plato Euclid or Aristotle nor gained to his schoole any disciples who should have been able from such a muddy fountain to derive any clear springs of learning to after-ages nor benefit posterity with any other kind of literate works then such as the pretended holy men and accusers of Socrates Anitus Lycon and Melitus by name did set forth which to the eyes of both body and minde have ever since their time been of the colour of the Duke of Vandomes cloak invisible But if one durst make bold to speak to those great professors of piety I would advise them out of the Evangile to take the beam out of their own eye before they meddle with the moat that is in their neighbors and to consider that the sin of theft which they committed in robbing Master Liddel of his due is a far more hainous transgression then that single fornication for which besides the forfeiture of what was mortified to him he was by them for a long time together most rigorously persecuted Nor do I think their fault can be better expiated then by fulfilling the contents of the legacy and investing Liddal in his own right which that I may seem to avouch with the better ground of reason I dare almost perswade my self that there is not any within the Isle of Britain with whom taking in all the Mathematical Arts and Sciences together practical and theoretick he will not be well pleased upon occasion to adventure a dispute for superiority in the most and that with a willingness to forego and renounce any claim title or priviledge he can or may pretend to for the chaire of Mathematical professor in new Aberdeen in case of non-prevalency This is more some will say then his outside doth promise and that to look to him one would not think he had such abilities What then do not we see in Apothecaries shops pots of the same worth and fashion containe drugs of a different value and sometimes the most precious oyntment put in the coursest box so may a little and plaine man in outward shape inclose a minde high and sublime enough a giant like spirit in a low stature being able to overtop a Colossus with Pygmaean endowments But were there no other Remora or obstruction to retard his intended progress in Mathematical designes the inward qualifications of his minde to the advancement of those Sciences would quickly raise his person to a greater estimation yet truly as he is in London for the present I can no better compare him then to an Automatary engine wherein there are many several springs resorts and wheels which though when once put into a motion would produce most admirable effects are nevertheless forced for want of a convenient Agent to give them the due brangle to lye immobile and without efficacy Such an Agent is a Mecaenas a Patron a promover of learning a favorer of the Muses and protector of Sholars in the production of which kind of worthy men were this land a lone but a little more fertil not only great Britain but the whole world besides would be the better for it As for such of the Scotish Nation as of late have been famous for English Poesie the first that occurs is Sir William Alexander afterwards created Earle of Sterlin he made an insertion to Sir Philip Sidneys Arcadia and composed several Tragedies Comedies and other kind of Poems which are extant in a book of his in folio intituled Sterlins works The purity of this Gentlemans vein was quite spoiled by the corruptness of his courtiership and so much the greater pity for by all appearance had he been contented with that mediocrity of fortune he was born unto and not aspired to those grandeurs of the Court which could not without pride be prosecuted nor maintained without covetousness he might have made a far better account of himself It did not satisfie his ambition to have a laurel from the Muses and be esteemed a King amongst Poets but he must be King of some new-found-land and like another Alexander indeed searching after new worlds have the soveraignty of Nova Scotia He was born a Poet and aimed to be a King therefore would he have his royal title from King James who was born a King and aimed to be a Poet. Had the stopped there it had been well but the flame of his honour must have some oyle wherewith to nourish it Like another King Arthur he must have his Knights though nothing limited to so small
Escrime and Fencing-masters of Italy which in matter of choice professors in that faculty needed never as yet to yeild to any Nation in the world were by him beaten to their good behaviour and by blows and thrusts given in which they could not avoid enforced to acknowledge him their over commer bethinking himself how after so great a conquest of reputation he might by such means be very suddenly enriched he projected a course of exchanging the blunt to sharp and the foiles into tucks and in his resolution providing a purse full of gold worth neer upon four hundred pounds English money traveled alongst the most especial and considetable parts of Spaine France the Low-countryes Germany Pole Hungary Greece Italy and other places where ever there was greatest probability of encountring with the eagerest most atrocious duellists and immediately after his arrival to any City or Town that gave apparent likelihood of some one or other champion that would enter the lists and cope with him he boldly challenged them with sound of Trumpet in the chief market-place to adventure an equal sum of money against that of his to be disputed at the swords point who should have both There failed not several brave men almost of all Nations who accepting of his cartels were not afraid to hazard both their person and coine against him but till he midled with this Crichtoun so maine was the Ascendent he had above all his Antagonists and so unlucky the fate of such as offered to scuffle with him that all his opposing combatants of what State or Dominion soever they were who had not lost both their life and gold were glad for the preservation of their person though sometimes with a great expence of blood to leave both their reputation mony behind them At last returning homewards to his own country loaded with honor and wealth or rather the spoile of the reputation of those forraginers whom the Italians call Tramontani he by the way after his accustomed manner of abording other places repaired to the City of Mantua where the Duke according to the courtesie usually bestowed on him by other Princes vouchsafed him a protection and savegard for his person he as formerly he was wont to do by beat of Drum sound of Trumpet and several printed papers disclosing his designe battered on all the chief gates posts and pillars of the Town gave all men to understand that his purpose was to challenge at the single Rapier any whosoever of that City or country that durst be so bold as to fight with him provided he would deposite a a bag of five hundred Spanish Pistols over-against another of the same value which himself should lay down upon this condition that the enjoyment of both should be the conquerors due His challenge was not long unanswered for it happened at the same time that three of the most notable cutters in the world and so highly cryed up for valour that all the Bravo's of the Land were content to give way to their domineering how insolent soever they should prove because of their former constantly-obtained victories in the field were all three together at the court of Mantua who hearing of such a harvest of five hundred Pistols to be reaped as they expected very soon and with ease had almost contested amongst themselves for the priority of the first encounterer but that one of my Lord Dukes Courtiers moved them to cast lots for who should be first second and third in case none of the former two should prove victorious Without more adoe he whose chance it was to answer the cattel with the first defiance presented himself within the barriers or place appointed for the fight where his adversary attending him as soon as the Trumpet sounded a charge they jointly fel to work and because I am not now to amplifie the particulars of a combat although the dispute was very hot for a while yet whose fortune it was to he the first of the three in the field had the disaster to be the first of the three that was foyled for at last with a thrust in the throat he was killed dead upon the ground This nevertheless not a whit dismayed the other two for the nixt day he that was second in the roll gave his appearance after the same manner as the first had done but with no better success for he likewise was laid flat dead upon the place by means of a thrust he received in the heart The last of the three finding that he was as sure of being engaged in the fight as if he had been the first in order pluckt up his heart knit his spirits together and on the day after the death of the second most couragiously entering the Lists demeaned himself for a while with great activity and skill but at last his luck being the same with those that preceded him by a thrust in the belly he within four and twenty hours after gave up the ghost These you may imagine were lamentable spectacles to the Duke and Citie of Mantua who casting down their faces for shame knew not what course to take for reparation of their honour The conquering Duellist proud of a victory so highly tending to both his honour and profit for the space of a whole fortnight or two weeks together marched daily along the streets of Mantua without any opposition or controulment like another Romulus or Marcellus in triumph which the never-too-much-to-be-admired Crichtoun perceiving to wipe off the imputation of cowardise lying upon the Court of Mantua to which he had but even then arrived although formerly he had been a domestick thereof he could neither eat nor drink till he had first sent a Challenge to the conqueror appelling him to repair with his best sword in his hand by nine of the clock in the morning of the next day in presence of the whole Court and in the same place where he had killed the other three to fight with him upon this quarrel that in the Court of Mantua there were as valiant men as he and for his better encouragement to the desired undertaking he assured him that to the aforesaid five hundred pistols he would adjoyn a thousand more wishing him to do the like that the Victor upon the point of his sword might carry away the richer booty The Challenge with all its conditions is no sooner accepted of the time and place mutually condescended upon kept accordingly and the fifteen hundred pistols hinc inde deposited but of the two Rapiers of equal weight length and goodness each taking one in presence of the Duke Dutchess with all the Noble-men Ladies Magnifico's and all the choicest of both men women and maids of that citie as soon as the signal for the Duel was given by the shot of a great Piece of Ordnance of threescore and four pound ball the two combatants with a lion-like animosity made their approach to one another and being within distance the valiant Crichtoun to make
courted him for his affability and good fellowship the rich did favour him for his judgement and ingeniosity and for his liberality and munificence he was blessed by the poor the old men affected him for his constancie and wisdome and the young for his mirth and gallantry the Scholars were enamoured of him for his learning and eloquence and the Souldiers for his integrity and valour the Merchants for his upright dealing and honesty praised and extolled him and the Artificers for his goodness and benignity the chastest Lady of that place would have hugged and imbraced him for his discretion and ingenuity whilst for his beauty and comeliness of person he was at least in the fervency of their desires the paramour of the less continent he was dearly beloved of the fair women because he was handsom and of the fairest more dearly becaus he was handsomer in a word the affections of the beholders like so many several diameters drawn from the circumference of their various intents did all concenter in the point of his perfection After a so considerable insinuation and gaining of so much ground upon the hearts of the auditory though in shorter space then the time of a flash of lightning he went on as before in the same thred of the conclusive part of his discourse with a resolution not to cut it till the over-abounding passions of the company their exorbitant motions and discomposed gestures through excess of joy mirth should be all of them quieted calmed pacified and every man woman and maid there according to their humour reseated in the same integrity they were at first which when by the articulatest elocution of the most significant words expressive of the choisest things that fancie could suggest and conforme to the matters variety elevating or depressing flat or sharply accinating it with that proportion of tone that was most consonant with the purpose he had attained unto and by his verbal harmony and melodious utterance setled all their distempered pleasures and brought their disorderly raised spirits into their former capsuls he with a tongue tip't with silver after the various Diapasons of all his other expressions and making of a leg for the spruceness of its courtsie of greater decorement to him then cloth of gold and purple farewel'd the companie with a complement of one period so exquisitely delivered and so well attended by the gracefulness of his hand and foot with the quaint miniardise of the rest of his body in the performance of such ceremonies as are usual at a court-like departing that from the theater he had gone into a lobbie from thence along three spacious chambers whence descending a back-staire he past through a low gallerie which led him to that outter gate where a coach with six horses did attend him before that magnificent convention of both sexes to whom that room wherein they all were seemed in his absence to be as a body without a soul had the full leisure to recollect their spirits which by the neatness of his so curious a close were quoquoversedly scattered with admiration to advise on the best expediency how to dispose of themselvs for the future of that licentious night during which time of their being thus in a maze a proper young Lady if ever there was any in the world whose dispersed spirits by her wonderful delight in his accomplishments were by the power of Cupid with the assistance of his mother instantly gathered and replaced did upon his retiring without taking notice of the intent of any other rise up out of her boxe issue forth at a posterne-door into some secret transes from whence going down a few steps that brought her to a parlour she went through a large hall by the wicket of one end whereof as she entered on the street she encountered with Crichtoun who was but even then come to the aforesaid Coach which was hers unto which sans ceremony waving the frivolous windings of dilatory circumstances they both stepped up together without any other in their company save a waiting gentlewoman that sate in the furthest side of the Coach a Page that lifted up the boot thereof and walked by it and one Lacky that ran before with a kindled torch in his hand all domestick servants of hers as were the Coach-man and postillion who driving apace and having but half a mile to go did with all the expedition required set down my Lady with her beloved mate at the great gate of her own palace through the wicket whereof because she would not stay till the whole were made wide open they entred both and injunction being given that forthwith after the setting up of the Coach and horses the gate should be made fast and none more then was already permitted to come within her Court that night they joyntly went along a private passage which led them to a Lanterne Scalier whose each step was twelve foot long thence mounting up a paire of staires they past through and traversed above nine several rooms on a floor before they reached her bed-chamber which in the interim of the progress of their transitory walk was with such mutual cordialness so unanimously aimed at that never did the passengers of a ship in a tedious voyage long for a favorable winde with greater uniformity of desire then the blessed hearts of that amorous and amiable couple were without the meanest variety of a wish in every jot united Nevertheless at last they entred in it or rather in an Alcoranal paradise where nothing tending to the pleasure of all the senses was wanting the weather being a little chil and coldish they on a blew Velvet couch sate by one another towards a Char-coale fire burning in a silver Brasero whilst in the next room adjacent thereto a prety little round table of Cedar-wood was a covering for the supping of them two together the cates prepared for them and a week before that time bespoke were of the choisest dainties and most delicious junkets that all the territories of Italy were able to afford and that deservedly for all the Romane Empire could not produce a completer paire to taste them in beauty she was supream in pedigree equal with the best in spirit not inferiour to any and in matter of affection a great admirer of Crichtoun which was none of her least perfections she many times used to repaire to my Lady Dutchesses Court where now and then the Prince would cast himself as a l'improviste into her way to catch hold the more conveniently of some one or other opportunity for receiving her employments with the favour whereof he very often protested if she would vouchsafe to honour him and be pleased to gratifie his best endeavouors with her only gracious acceptance of them none breathing should be able to discharge that duty with more zeal to her service nor reap more inward satisfaction in the performance of it for that his obedience could not be crowned with greater glory then by that
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
benefactor they should have dealt with such severity and rigour contrary to all reason and equity their answer was They were inforced and necessitated so to do by the synodal and presbyterial conventions of the Kirk under paine of deprivation and expulsion from their benefices I will not say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but may safely think that a well-sanctified mother will not have a so ill-instructed brat and that injuria humana cannot be the lawfull daughter of a jure divino parent Yet have I heard him notwithstanding all these wrongs several times avouch that from his heart he honoureth the ministerial function and could wish that each of them had a competency of livelihood to the end that for not lacking what is necessary for him he might not be distracted from the seriousness of his speculative imploiments with which above all things he would have one busied that were admitted to that charge and to be a man of a choice integrity of life and approved literature he alwayes esteeming Philosophy in all its Mathematical natural and prudential demonstrations rules and precepts so convenient for inbellishing the minde of him whose vocation it is to be sequestred from the toil of worldly affairs that the Reason and Will of man being thereby illuminated and directed towards the objects of truth and goodness a Church-man or pretender to divinity regardless of those sciences might be justly suspected to be ignorant of God by caring so little for the knowledge of his creatures and upon a sacred text oftentimes to make an unhallowed comment I have heard him likewise say he would be glad that in every Parish of Scotland there were a free Schoole and a standing Library in the custody of the Minister with this proviso that none of the books should be embezeled by him or any of his successors and he impowered to perswade his parishioners in all he could to be liberal in their dotations towards the School and magnifying of the Library To the end that besides the good would thereby redound to all good Spirits it might prove a great encouragement to the Stationer and Printer that being the noblest profession amongst Merchants and this amongst Artificers As also to intreat the Civil Magistrate by the severity of the Law to curb the insolency of such notorious and scandalous sinners as should prove unpliable to the stamp of his wholesome admonitions As for his wife and children if he follow the footsteps of Solomon ask sincerely for wisdome of God before he wed he will undoubtedly endow him with wealth sufficient for both for whoever marieth if he be wise will either have a vertuous or a monyed woman to his mariage-bed by means of either whereof the discretion and foresight of a judicious husband will provide a dowry for her and education for her issue which in a well-policied Country is better then a patrimony The taking of this course will advance learning further piety improve all moral vertues establish true honour in the land make trades flourish merchandise prosper the yeomanry industrious Gentlemen happy and the ministers themselves richer then when their mindes were totally bent on the purchase of money for as patterns of godliness without morosity and literature without affectation being men qualified as aforesaid by their sweetness of conversation and influence of doctrine they would gaine so much ground upon the hearts of their acquaintance that Country-men would not onely gratifie them dayly and load them with variety of presents but would also after their decease rather chuse to starve themselves then suffer the wives and children of persons so obliging to be in any want or indigence specially if the traffick and civility of Scotland were promoved by a close union with England not heterogeneal as timber and stone upon ice stick sometimes together bound by the frost of a conquering Sword but homogeneated by naturalization and the mutual enjoyment of the same priviledges immunities which design being once by King James set abroach although some of his compatriot subjects out of ambition to be called rather profound Scholars and nimble wits then good Country-men and loyal Counsellors did pertinaciously withstand the motion Yet seeing a wedge of Wainscot is fittest and most proper for cleaving of an oaken tree and that Sir Francis Bacon othewise designed by the titles of Lord Verulam and Viscount Saint Albans was pleased to make a speech thereupon in the Honorable House of Commons in the fifth year of King James his raign in this Dominion it is the humble desire of the Author that the States of this Isle vouchsafe to take notice of his reasons he being both a wise man and a good English man after the manner as followeth He begins his discourse thus IT may please you Master Speaker preface will I use none but put my self upon your good opinions to which I have been accustomed beyond my deservings neither will I hold you in suspense what way I will chuse but now at the first declare my self that I mean to counsel the House to naturalize the nation of Scotland wherein nevertheless I have a request unto you which is of more efficacy to the purpose I have in hand then all that I shall say afterwards and it is the same request which Demosthenes did more then once in great causes of estate make to the people of Athens that when they took into their hands the balls whereby to give their voices according as the manner of them was they would raise their thoughts and lay aside those considerations which their private vocations and degrees might minister and represent unto them and would take upon them cogitations and mindes agreable to the dignity and honour of the estate For Master Speaker as it was aptly and sharply said by Alexander to Parmenio when upon their recital of the great offers which Darius made Parmenio said unto him I would accept these offers were I as Alexander he turned it upon him again so would I saith he were I as Parmenio So in this cause if an honest English merchant I do not single out that state in disgrace for this Island ever held it honorable but onely for an instance of private profession if an English Merchant should say Surely I would proceed no further in the union were I as the King it might be reasonably answered No more would the King were he as an English Merchant and the like may be said of a Gentleman in the Country be he never so worthy or sufficient or of a lawyer be he never so wise or learned or of any other particular condition in this Kingdome for certainly Master Speaker if a man shall be onely or chiefly sensible of those respects which his particular affection and degree shall suggest and infuse into him and not enter into true and worthy considerations of estate we shall never be able aright to give Counsel or take Counsel in this matter for if this request be granted I account the
Laws I do consent to the full A little after he sayes that this union of Laws should not precede the naturalization nor go along with it paripassu but altogether succeed it and that not in the precedence of an instant but in distance of time because the union of Laws will ask a great time to be perfected both for the compiling and for the passing of them during all which time if this mark of strangeness should be denied to be taken away I fear it may induce such a habit of strangeness as will rather be an impediment then a preparation to further proceeding And albeit in the conclusion of his speech he saith that he holdeth this motion of union of Laws very worthy and arising from very good minds but not proper for that time yet do I think that for this time and as the juncture of affaires is for the present it is very proper and expedient Therefore although in some parcels of the foresaid discourse not here recited many pregnant reasons to those that opposed the naturalization of the Scots because that Nation was annexed to England by inheritance and not conquest be exhibited to shew that the grant of the benefit thereof should not be obstructed for that Scotland was not a conquered Country as also why the Scots unwilligness to receive the English Laws should be no impediment to their Naturalization and that in Calvin's Case which is extant to be seen in the seventh book of Sir Cook 's Reports many excellent things are deduced in favour of the postâ—ati of that Realm notwithstanding the diversity of Laws and Scotland's then unacknowledged subordination to the meer Authority of this Land Yet seeing the face of affairs is quite altered from what it was then and that the English civility and good carriage may gain so much upon the affections of the people there as to make them in a very short space to be of the same Customs Manners and Language with them I do really believe if Sir Francis Bacon and Sir Edward Cook were now living that both of them would unanimously advise the State and Soverainty of this Island to allow unto Scotland which neither is nor never was a Kingdom more then Wales was of old the same priviledges and immunities in every thing that Wales now hath and which the Scots have in France a transmarine Country to enjoy everywhere in all things the emoluments and benefit competent to the free-born subjects of England and to this effect to impower that Nation with liberty to chuse their representattves to be sen hither to this their soveraigne Parliament that the publick trustees of England Scotland and Wales may at Westminster jointly concur for the weal of the whole Isle as members of one and the same incorporation These two Knights one whereof was Lord high Chancellor of England the other Atturny General and Lord chief Justice of the Common pleas were good and wise men full of honour free from prevarication and by-respects learned Lawyers excellent Scholars fluent Orators and above all worthy loving and sincere patriots of England for which cause I hope so many exquisite qualities meeting as it were in one constellation by vertue of a powerfull influence upon the mindes of the supreame Senate of the Land will incline the hearts of every one not to dissent from the Judgement and approbation of these two so eminent Judges and zealous English men and that so much the rather that to the accomplishment of so commendable a work we are conducted by nature it self which having made us divisos orbe Britannos sheweth by the antiperistatick faculty of a fountain or spring-well in the Summer season whose nature is to be the colder within it self the greater circumobresistence of heat be in the aire which surrounds it that we should cordially close to one another unite our Forces and the more vigourously improve the internal strength we have of our selves the greater that the outward opposition and hostility appear against us of the circumjacent outlandish Nations which inviron us on all sides This was not heeded in ancient times by reason of the surquedry of the old English who looked on the Scots with a malignant aspect and the profound policie of the French in casting for their own ends the spirit of division betwixt the two Nations to widen the breach But now that the English have attained to a greater dexterity in encompassing their facienda's of State and deeper reach in considering what for the future may prove most honourable and lucrative will like an expert Physician to a patient sick of a Consumption in his noble parts who applieth cordials and not corosives and lenitives rather then cauters strive more as I imagine to gain the love and affection of the Scots thereby to save the expence of any more blood or mony then for overthrowing them quite in both their bodies and fortunes to maintain the charge of an everlasting war against the storms of the climate the fierceness of discontented People inaccessibility of the hills and sometimes universal penury the mother of plague and famine all which inconveniences may be easily prevented without any charge at all by the sole gaining of the hearts of the country By which means patching up old rents cementing what formerly was broken and by making of ancient foes new friends we will strengthen our selves and weaken our enemies and raise the Isle of Britain to that height of glory that it will become formidable to all the world besides In the mean while the better to incorporate the three Dominions of England Scotland and Wales and more firmely to consolidate their union it were not amiss in my opinion that as little rivers which use to lose their names when they run along into the current of a great flood they have their own peculiar titles laid aside and totally dischaged into the vast gulph of that of Great Britain But if upon any emergent occasion it be thought fit to make mention of Ireland and the several Dominions of Brttain in an orderly enumeration to place Ireland as I conceive it before Scotland is very preposterous not but that Ireland is a far more fertil Country and that the Irish may be as good as any men that the Scots in these latter yeers may be much degenerated from the magnanimity of their fore-Fathers and that the succeeding progeny may perhaps prove little better or as you will for be the soile or climate never so good or bad with a permanence or rather immutability in either of those qualities the respective natives and inhabitants thereof will nevertheless according to the change of times be subject to a vicissitude of vice and vertue as may appear by the inclinations of the Greeks and Romans now compared with those of their Ancestors in the days of Xerxes and Hannibal but onely that I conceive priority to be more due to Scotland although I should speak nothing of its more immaculate reputation both
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