Chapter XXI (3)

The teaching of the reformed preachers has prepared the Scots for the reception of the political opinions proclaimed by Buchanan: they were in harmony with the spirit of the time, and had a great influence. They offer a striking contrast to the slavish opinions then entertained by the majority of the English clergy. The English Church for more than a hundred and fifty years was the servile handmaid of monarchy, and the steady enemy of political liberty and freedom,¹ while the body of the English Puritans and the Scotch clergy struggled hard against the despotism of the Crown, and the clergy of the Church of England. They constantly taught the doctrine of the divine right of kings; and insisted that passive obedience and absolute submission to the will of the king was the first and highest duty of the people. The clergy of Scotland taught and preached a very different doctrine; they, at least, were not afraid of rebellion when it was necessary, and to maintain that it was unlawful for the people to rise against their King, if he proved an unworthy ruler or had encroached upon their freedom, would have been the last thing that they would have thought of.

¹ Hallam’s _Constitutional History of England_, Volume I.,
page 415. Jeremy Taylor said: “Eternal damnation is prepared
for all impenitent rebels in hell with Satan the first
founder of rebellion. Heaven is the place of good, obedient
subjects, and hell the prison and dungeon of rebels against
God and their prince.”――Homily on Wilful rebellion. Quoted
in Lecky’s _History of Rationalism_, Volume II., page 149.

The Scottish poets of the later half of the sixteenth century were not of high rank, and therefore need not detain us long. None of their writings appear to have been very popular, and they did not exercise much influence on the people. The name of Sir Richard Maitland, of Lethington, a lawyer, a Lord of Session, and a Privy Councillor, in the reign of Queen Mary, is associated with the history of Scottish poetry more from the fact of his having been a collector of the verses and poems of others, than for the importance of his own compositions. He was born in 1494, and after a long, an active, and honourable life, during the last twenty years of which he was deprived of his eyesight, died in March 1586, at the great age of ninety. His poems were all written after his sixtieth year, and they bear the impress of the sober reflection of mature age. None of his verses are soaring or glowing, but they contain some very pointed references to the state of society and the events of the period. The subjects of most of his poems are lamentations for the disturbed state of his country, such as the feuds amongst the nobles, the discontent of the common people, complaints against the courts for long delay in deciding cases, and the depredations of the border thieves. Touching a remedy for the delay of law suits, Maitland advised the King to increase the number of judges, and to augment their salaries out of the funds of the abbacies, parsonages, and provestries, which were then at the disposal of the Crown. His poems were first printed in a separate and complete form in 1830 by the Maitland Club; some of them, however, had appeared before in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, and in other collections of early poetry.¹

¹ Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_, Volume II., page
275‒345, 349‒353. Sibbald’s _Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_,
Volume III., pages 76, 319.

Maitland’s collections of early Scottish poetry consists of two volumes, containing two hundred and seventy-two pieces, and specimens of these have long been before the public. He was the author of a book entitled _The History and Chronicle of the House and Surname of Seytoun_, which was printed for the Maitland Club in 1829.

George Bannatyne was a writer of verses, but was more remarkable as a collector of early poetry, with the history of which department of our vernacular literature his name is inseparably associated. He formed his collection in the year 1568, when a young man, while the plague was raging in Scotland. His manuscript is neatly transcribed, and extends to eight hundred pages folio. He was engaged on it for three months. In the beginning of the manuscript he states that he was forced to have recourse to old and mutilated copies. There are only a few of his own compositions in the collection, two of which deal with amatory subjects. He concludes the manuscript with an address to the reader in the following words:――

“Here ends this book, written in time of pest,
When I fra labour was compelled to rest,
Into the three last months of this year,
From our Redeemer’s birth, to know it here,
Ane thousand is, five hundred, threescore eight.
Of this purpose no more needs be taught.
So, till conclude, God send us all good end,
And after death eternal life us send.”¹

¹ Many particulars about the poems contained in this manuscript
may be seen in _Ancient Scottish Poems_, published by Lord
Hailes in 1770; in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish Poems_; in
a volume printed by the Bannatyne Club, containing a memoir
of the worthy collector, Bannatyne; by Sir Walter Scott, and
in several of the writings of the late Dr. Laing, relating
to the early poetry of Scotland.

Only a few of Bannatyne’s own poems are preserved, and they have not much poetical merit, though they are interesting as the effusions of one that was so instrumental in transmitting to posterity the early poetry of bygone generations.

Alexander Scott wrote poetry during this period, and his poems were edited by the late Dr. Laing, but nothing has been definitely ascertained concerning his parentage or profession. From his writings it appears that he was married; but his wife deserted him, and fled with some wanton man; however, after expressing his sorrow for this mishap, he avowed his determination to choose another wife, and to forget the faithless one. His poems are mostly founded on subjects of an amatory character, and he often shows a considerable degree of fancy and harmony. The longest of his productions is entitled “A New-Year’s Gift to Queen Mary when she came first hame,” but it has little poetic merit. His “Justing between Adamson and Sym” appears to be an imitation of “Christ’s Kirk of the Green.”¹

¹ Alexander Scott’s _Poems_, 1821. Dr. Irving’s _History of
Scottish Poetry_, pages 417‒424. Eighteen of his pieces are
included in Sibbald’s _Chronicle of Scottish Poetry_, Volume
III., pages 115‒175.

Alexander Arbuthnot was born in 1538 at Pitearles, in Mearns, and educated at the University of St. Andrews. In 1561 he passed to France, and for five years prosecuted the study of the law under Cujacius, in the University of Bruges. He returned to Scotland in 1566, with the intention of following the profession of law, but was induced to enter the ministry, and became an able adherent of the Reformation. He was highly respected for his learning and knowledge, and in 1568 was appointed Principal of the University of Aberdeen. He took an active part in the proceedings of the Church Courts, and was twice elected Moderator of the General Assembly. To the study of theology he joined the study of letters, and was the author of an elegant Latin work entitled “Orations on the Origin and Dignity of the Law,” which was printed at Edinburgh in 1572. In his poems, which are in the Scottish language, he mostly confines himself to subjects of a serious cast, and some of his pieces are pervaded with a pleasing air of melancholy and a warm benignity. He died in 1583, regretted by his contemporaries, who united in recording his virtues.¹

¹ Spottiswood; _Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum II._, page 120. Dr.
M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume I., pages 114‒117, 283.

Only four or five of Arbuthnot’s poems are preserved. The most lively of them is the one entitled “The Praise of Women,” which extends to 224 lines, and contains a very warm encomium of the fair sex. His effusion entitled “The Miseries of a Poor Scholar,” is rather an interesting composition, and shows that he had a vein of keen and glowing, though somewhat carping, sentiment.¹

¹ These two poems are included in Pinkerton’s _Ancient Scottish
Poems_, Volume I., pages 138‒155; and quotations are given
in Dr. Irving’s _History of Scottish Poetry_, pages 432‒436.

Among the writers of rhyme of this period may be mentioned John Davidson, who was born about the year 1549 at Dunfermline. He studied at the University of St. Andrews from 1567 to 1570; and afterwards became a Regent of St. Leonards College. He was a strong adherent of the Reformation; and took a warm interest in promoting education amongst the people. He wrote a metrical panegyric on John Knox, entitled “A Brief Commendation of Uprightness,” which was printed at St. Andrews in 1573. The aim of this rhymed production is to record in popular language the memorable service that the Reformer rendered to the nation. Every stanza of the poem closes with the word _uprightness_. About the same time he composed a poem called “A Dialogue between a Clerk and a Courtier,” which was printed in the beginning of the year 1574. It contains an exposure of a practice adopted by the Regent Morton for the purpose of retaining at his own disposal a large part of the thirds of benefices, by uniting two, three, or four churches under the care of one minister, thus restoring the abuse of pluralities. Morton was much offended at the outspoken style of the poem; and its author was cited and convicted before a court at Haddington, and banished from the country. Lekpreuik, the printer of the rhyme, was also prosecuted, and imprisoned for some time in the Castle of Edinburgh.¹ They were indicted on an Act of Parliament, of 1551, “against blasphemous rhymes.” There is little in Davidson’s book that could have given reasonable ground of alarm to any well regulated government, as it merely describes a subject of public interest in a comparatively sober manner. Davidson returned to Scotland after the fall of Morton, and, as we have seen in preceding pages, took an active part in the proceedings of the Church.

¹ _Poetical Remains of John Davidson_, 1829; Melville’s
_Diary_, pages 27, 28; _Life of Knox_, pages 447‒460; 1855.
_Annals of Scottish Printing_, by Dickson and Edmond, pages
205, 270‒71.

The literary merits of the piece, which offended the Regent, are not great. The versification, however, is easy, and the conversation is carried on in a natural and spirited style. Shortly after its publication, Davidson composed a poem to the memory of Robert Campbell of Kinyeancleugh, a man that had shown his attachment to the reformed religion by his steadfast support of Knox. Campbell died while endeavouring to shelter Davidson from the effects of persecution, and the latter gratefully commemorated the virtues of his protector. The poem was published in 1595. Having returned from exile, Davidson was appointed minister of the parish of Liberton in 1579. Afterwards he incurred the displeasure of the King, and had to leave his charge, and retired to England. After his return he preached at various places in and around Edinburgh; and in 1596 he became minister of Prestonpans. But owing to his opposition to the King’s scheme of Church polity, he was imprisoned for a time, and afterwards his action was restricted to his own parish. After a life of activity and earnest work, he died in 1604, leaving behind him a collection of papers relating to the ecclesiastical history of Scotland.¹

¹ _Poetical Remains of J. Davidson_; Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of
Melville_, Volume I., pages 131‒132, 449‒453. Davidson’s
other writings consisted of a letter in answer to Dr.
Bancroft’s attack on the Church of Scotland: an account of
Scottish Martyrs, written in Latin, but this work is now
lost; though Calderwood had the use of it when he compiled
his history: a Catechism entitled, “Some helps for young
scholars in Christianity,” Edinburgh, 1602, which was
reprinted in 1708. “A little before his death he penned a
treatise, De Hostibus Ecclesiæ Christi, wherein he affirms
the erecting of bishops in this Kirk is the most subtle
thing to destroy religion that ever could be devised.”
――Row’s _History._

There were several other minor versifiers in the latter
part of this century, but their productions are hardly of
sufficient importance to warrant any lengthy notice. Robert
Semple was a versifier of some repute in his day; he wrote
a poem on the siege of the Castle of Edinburgh, which was
printed in 1573. Another of his rhymes is entitled, “The
Legend of the Bishop of St. Andrews;” this was an attack
upon the character of Archbishop Adamson; but Semple’s
compositions are rather coarse. _Scottish Poems of the
Sixteenth Century_, Volume I.; Pinkerton’s _List of the
Scottish Poets_; Birrel’s _Diary_, page 14; Ramsay’s
_Evergreen_, Volume I., pages 67, 71.

There were also a number of anonymous poems and rhymes
relating to public events, published about this time.――“The
Testament and Tragedy of the late King Henry Stuart of
good memory;” another, “A declaration of the Lord’s just
Quarrel,” both were printed in 1569; and are very bitter
against Queen Mary. “A Tragedy in the form of a Dialogue, in
commemoration of the merits and fate of the regent Moray,”
was published in 1570. This performance has little or
no poetic value; many of the author’s expressions are in
extremely bad taste. Some parts however of the Regent’s
public service was clearly stated, and his subjection of
the borderers was narrated quite distinctly. This rhyme is
printed in _Scottish Poems of the Sixteenth Century_. “The
Lamintation of Lady Scotland,” which was published in 1572,
is a production of a similar description; but it contained
some important information regarding the state of the
people; and the oppressive character of the nobles was very
plainly stated. Lady Scotland concluded with a fling at the
practices of the dignitaries of the Roman Church. _Scottish
Poems of the Sixteenth Century._ There were several
rhymers who frequented the court of James VI., some of them
Englishmen, but their writings are of little interest.――Dr.
Irving’s _History of Scotish Poetry_, pages 461‒470.

Alexander Montgomery was one of the most eminent and popular of the Scottish poets of the later half of the sixteenth century. Of his life and character very few facts are known. He seems to have been for sometime employed in the service of James VI.; while it also appears that he experienced some of the vicissitudes of favour which so often fall to the lot of the courtier. It is supposed that he died about 1609. Several of his short poems occur in Bannatyne’s manuscript, and must have been composed forty years before his death.¹ Montgomery’s poems are numerous, embracing sonnets and short pieces of very varied degrees of merit. It has been supposed that his taste was partly formed by the study of the Italian poets, as some of his quaint turns of fancy betray their Italian origin. He has written on many subjects, and tried his ingenuity in a variety of measures, but his happiest efforts were those of a lyric cast. To him amorous subjects afforded the most common themes for the exercise and the display of his powers. He had a good command of language, and, like some of his predecessors, especially of words of abuse and scorn.²

¹ _Poems_ of Alexander Montgomery, by Dr. D. Laing;
_Biographical Notices_, pages 5‒16; 1821.

² The production entitled “The flyting between Montgomery
and Polwart” (Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth) teems with
the coarsest and most abusive strings of terms to be found
in any language. It is equally as coarse and vulgar as
the performance between Dunbar and Kennedy, in the same
department. Montgomery began the sport with the following
lines:――

“Polwart, yee peip like a mouse amongst thornes;
Na cunning yee keipe. Polwart, yee peip;
Ye look like a sheipe, and yee had twa hornes.
Polwart, yee peip like a mouse amongst thornes.
Beware what thou speiks, little foule earth tade;
With thy Cannigate breiks, beware what thou speiks,
Or there sal be wat cheiks for the last that thou made.
Beware what thou speiks, little foule earth tade.”
――Page 103.

The quantity of low slang that occurs in this composition
is very great, and many of the words are still current among
the lowest class in Scotland.

His greatest effort is “The Cherrie and the Slae,” a poem of considerable ingenuity, extending to one hundred and fourteen stanzas, comprising one thousand five hundred and ninety-five lines. The poem begins in an amatory mood, and ends with a moral. Though the allegory is rather obscure, and the thought too dim, many of the stanzas are rich in imagery and smooth in diction. It was very popular, and continued to be printed till a recent period.¹

¹ As far as known, the first edition of _The Cherrie and
the Slae_ was published at Edinburgh in 1597; in that year
two editions were printed by Robert Waldegrave. Several
stanzas were afterwards added by the author to an impression
which appeared in 1615, from the press of Andrew Hart. The
subsequent editions were――one at Edinburgh, 1536; another
there, 1675; another, 1706; and one inserted in Ramsay’s
_Evergreen_, 1724; one at Aberdeen, 1645: and editions
printed at Glasgow in 1668, 1746, 1751, 1754, 1757, and 1768;
and a modernised edition printed at Edinburgh, 1779: The
Scottish Text Society issued a complete edition in 1886‒87,
edited by Dr. James Cranstoun, with numerous notes and a
very useful Glossary.

Montgomery’s sonnets were mostly all addressed to some of his contemporaries or friends, to the King, the Lords of Session, and to others, male and female. They have not much poetical merit, nor much interest now; some of his miscellaneous poems, however, are more valuable and interesting. The following lines are from his short piece headed “The Opposition of the Court to Conscience”:――

“The court some qualities requires
Which conscience cannot but accuse;
And specially such as aspiris
Mon honest adulation use.
I dar not say, and doubly deill,
But court and conscience wallis not weill.

* * * * *

Sin every minioun thou must make
To gar them think that thou art theirs,
Howbeit thou be, behind their back,
No furtherer of their affairs,
But mett them moonshin ay for meill;
So court and conscience wallis not weill.”¹

¹ _Poems_, pages 136, 137; Dr. Laing’s Edition.

Montgomery also versified several of the Psalms, and wrote many devotional verses.¹

¹ _Poems_, pages 247‒287.

We have already seen that James VI. was fond of displaying his learning and his theological knowledge. He was equally anxious to show his subjects and the world that he was a poet. In 1584, when only eighteen years of age, he published his first work, entitled “Essays of a Prentice in the Divine Art of Poesie.” This publication consists of a mixture of poetry and prose: the poems are mostly a kind of sonnet. None of them are of high merit, but, emanating from such an exalted personage, they were greatly praised, and James was soon recognised as a poet and a scholar. He appeared as a contributor to the Cambridge collection of verses on the death of Sir Philip Sidney, published in 1587. In this book the king’s verses were placed first.¹ His subsequent writings were numerous, but a review of them would not repay the trouble and the space which it would occupy. It may at once be stated that his books have contributed nothing to the advancement of an enlightened and liberal policy of government, nor to the progress of civilisation.²

¹ There is much information about the writings of James the VI.
in Dr. Harris’s account of his life, 1753.

² In the list of King James’s works the following may be
mentioned:――1. _Ane Fruitful Meditation_, containing a
plain and facile exposition of the seventh, eighth, ninth
and tenth verses of the twentieth chapter of Revelations,
in form of a sermon; set down by the most Christian king,
and sincere professor and chief defender of the truth, James
the Sixth, King of Scots. Edinburgh, 1588. 2. _Demonology_,
in form of a dialogue, divided into three books, Edinburgh,
1597; again, 1600; and at London, 1603. 3. _His Majesty’s
Poetical Exercises in vacant hours_, Edinburgh, 1591. 4.
_Instructions to his Son, Prince Henry. Basilicon Doron_,
1603. 5. _The True Law of Free Monarchies_, 1598. 6.
_Counterblast to Tobacco._ 7. _Mysteries of State._ 8. His
other writings chiefly consist of speeches, declarations,
and the like. There is an enumeration of them in Dr. Watt’s
_Bibliotheca Britannica_, Volume II., page 541.

Towards the end of the century, there is some indication of an improvement in the moral sentiment and tone of the popular literature. Alexander Hume, minister of Logie, who died in 1609, produced in the later years of his life a number of hymns or sacred songs. A volume which he printed at Edinburgh in 1599, contains eight hymns, a short poem on the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and a prose Epistle in which he records the experiences of his youth. In the Epistle he expresses himself pretty freely respecting the corruption of the judges, and animadverts boldly on the Scottish Court.¹ His hymns are very unequal, but the versification is occasionally fluent and easy; and some of his descriptions are natural and vigorous. The following lines are taken from the hymn entitled “the Day Festival:”――

“O perfect light! which shed away
The darkness from the light,
And left one ruler o’er the day,
Another o’er the night.
Thy glory, when the day forth flies,
More vively does appear,
Nor at midnight unto our eyes,
The shining sun is clear;
The shadow of the earth anone,
Removes and drawis by;
Syne in the east when it is gone,
Appears a clearer sky:
Which soon perceives the little larks
The lapwing, and the snipe;
And tunes their songs, like nature’s clerks,
O’er meadow, moor, and stripe.

* * * * *

What pleasure ’twere to walk and see
Endlong a river clear,
The perfect form of every tree
Within the deep appear;
The salmon out of crooves and creels
Up hauled into skouts,
The bells and circles on the weills
Through louping of the trouts.
O then it were a seemly thing,
While all is still and calme,
The praise of God to play and sing
With cornet and with shalme.”

This is certainly a great advance from the rude and coarse rhymes of the “Gude and Godlie Ballads.” There is an ease and artless vividness of description in this beautiful hymn which renders it exceedingly pleasing to read; and it must have been more touching when sung.

¹ “Hymns or sacred songs, wherein the right use of poetry
may be espied. By Alexander Hume. Whereunto are added,
the experience of the author’s youth and certain precepts,
serving to the practice of sanctification.” Edinburgh, 1599.

James Melville, the nephew of Andrew Melville, whose valuable and interesting _Diary_ has been often referred to in the preceding pages of this work, also indulged in writing Scottish poetry. In early life he acted as a professor at Glasgow and at St. Andrews, and afterwards as a parish minister. He was one of the ministers that were deprived of their livings and liberty after the accession of the King to the throne of England. He died at Newcastle in 1614. He was a mild and estimable man, more remarkable for his piety than for any original poetic power. In 1599 his work entitled a “Catechism” was published at Edinburgh. The first part of it is in prose, and consists of prayers and meditations for different occasions, directions for self-examination, a form of examination for those seeking to be admitted to the communion, in the order of question and answer. The second part is in verse, and has the following title――“A Morning Vision, or Poem for the Practice of Piety, in devotion, faith, and repentance: wherein the Lord’s Prayer, Belief, and Commands, and so the whole Catechism, and right use thereof, is largely expounded.” He composed many other religious pieces in verse, but his poetry is very homely and tame; and it appears that his Catechism was not popular. His writings are interesting, however, as specimens of the native language, and for the curious and plain statement of customs and notions which prevailed in Scotland in his day.¹

¹ James Melville’s _Diary_, edition by Robert Pitcairn,
_Prefatory Notice_, pages 8‒31, 45. The editor gives a list
of his various works, pages 44‒48. But the _Diary_ itself is
by far the most valuable of his writings to the student of
history.

The fashion of the age led the learned to make attempts to write Latin poetry and rhymes. The quantity of effort spent in learning to read and compose in the Latin language was enormous; and although this had a tendency to improve the standard of culture, it may be doubted if it was not carried too far. We are also told that “in all the schools and colleges, and from the age of six to sixteen, the youth spoke and heard nothing but Latin;” also that in their correspondence and ordinary conversation with each other, the learned used the Latin tongue.¹ Supposing this to be literally true, it can hardly be said to have been the most effective way to develop the faculties of the mind, or to advance the civilisation of the nation. This mode of culture tends to separate men of letters from the general community, and prevents them from exercising an influence over the mind of the people; and thus deprives literature of the advantages to be derived from its diffusion among all ranks of society. It may be said, indeed, that the Scottish Latinists of this period exercised an indirect influence upon the national mind, which in one sense may be granted; but after the Reformation the spell of Latin Christianity was broken, and in Protestant nations the Latin language as a formative power inevitably became greatly circumscribed. This was a consequence of the Reformation, whether learned men saw it or not, that did not effect its operation.

¹ Dr. M‘Crie’s _Life of Melville_, Volume II., pages 328,
330‒332. “But perhaps, the most extraordinary circumstance
in the history of our literature at this period was the
enthusiasm with which Latin poetry was cultivated by our
countrymen; divines, lawyers, physicians, country-gentlemen,
courtiers, and statesmen, devoted themselves to this
difficult species of composition, and contended with each
other in the various strains which the ancient masters
of Roman song had employed. The principal poems in the
collection entitled ‘Delitiæ Poetarum Scotorum’ were
originally published, or at least written, at this time.
They are of course possessed of very different degrees of
merit, but of the collection in general we may say that it
is equal to any of the collections of the same kind which
appeared in other countries, except that which contains
the Latin poems composed by natives of Italy. If this was
not the classic age of Scotland, it was at least the age of
classical literature in it, and at no subsequent period of
our history have the languages of Greece and Rome been so
successfully cultivated, or the beauties of their poetry so
deeply felt and so justly imitated. Besides Andrew Melville,
the individuals who attained the greatest excellence in this
branch of literature were Sir Thomas Craig, Sir Robert Ayton,
Hume of Godscroft, John Johnston, and Hercules Rollock.”
To these may be justly added――Archbishop Adamson, who wrote
sacred poetry, translations of various books of the Bible in
verse, a Catechism, and other treatises in Latin. He died in
extreme poverty in 1591. He also wrote several works which
have never been published.

Remembering the comparatively unsettled state of the nation, the religious and theological literature produced in the later part of the century was considerable. Before this period no commentary on Scripture, nor any collection of sermons, had appeared in Scotland; for the writings on the Four Gospels of the Scottish Scholastic, John Mair, were published in Paris. But Robert Rollock, the first Principal of the University of Edinburgh, was an earnest educationalist and a warm promoter of literature, whose name is closely and honourably associated with the history of education and religious literature in Scotland. In connection with his profession, he composed commentaries on many parts of the Bible, some of which were published at Edinburgh toward the end of the century, and were shortly after reprinted at Geneva, and commended by several foreign divines. He wrote in Latin, and though his mode of exposition was not free from the fetters of the pedantic logic of Scholasticism, and themes that involved the most momentous moral issues were handled as mere abstractions. Having formed certain premises, the intermediate conclusions to which the rules of their method led, they treated these deductions as logical symbols, and reasoned them out, utterly ignoring the difficulty and the doubt which so often attends the steps of moral reasoning. Everything rested on the truth of the definitions and the premises; and to change or doubt any of these was fatal to the whole structure. Protestantism has only gradually and with difficulty extricated itself from this purely dogmatic method; and even yet we are not altogether clear of its meshes. Rollock’s good sense and feeling of the practical often appears in his commentaries on the Scripture in spite of the art of the dialectician, though in some of his Latin writings he revels in dialectics. His sermons in the Scottish dialect, published at Edinburgh in 1599, from notes taken by some of his students, are pretty concise and practical discourses, and exhibit him in a favourable light. His work entitled “God’s Effectual Calling,” originally published in Latin at Edinburgh, 1597, is rather an elaborate performance. It formed a portion of the system of theology which he taught. In this treatise Rollock touches upon a variety of topics relating to the Scriptures; and like other Protestant divines of the period, exhibits an unhesitating and firm belief in revelation. He mentions various early translations of the Old and New Testament, and briefly discusses the authorship and claims of the Vulgate. Passing to the consideration of translations into the modern tongues, he inquires whether it is lawful to translate the Bible into every modern language, whether the common prayers should be in the mother tongue, and whether the people should read the Scriptures. The arguments of the Roman Catholics against the free communication of the Bible to the people he minutely examines and effectively exposes.¹

¹ _Select Works of R. Rollock_: Wodrow Society, 1849, Volume
I., pages 127‒160. A list of his works is given at pages
eighty-nine and ninety-five of the introduction to this
volume. Some of his writings were popular for several
generations after his death.

Robert Bruce, whom we have seen in preceding pages, as a bold and popular preacher, was a man of strong and vigorous mind, intensely earnest, honest, and steadfast in principle. His sermons in the Scottish dialect were published at Edinburgh in 1590 and 1591; and are exceedingly interesting specimens of vernacular composition, shortly before the period when it was generally superseded by modern English. They are full of doctrinal points and arguments, remarkably regular in style and clear in expression. He had a good sense of method, and the faculty of making an intricate subject intelligible to the ordinary understanding.¹

¹ His sermons were translated into English, and published at
London in 1617; they were reprinted for the Wodrow Society.
――_Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ_, Volume I., page 18.

Robert Pont was born about 1528. Educated in St. Leonard’s College at St. Andrews, he early embraced the reformed opinions, and his name appeared among the members of the first General Assembly. From this time till his death in 1606, he took an active part in the affairs of the Church. In 1572, with the consent of the General Assembly, he accepted an appointment to act as a senator of the college of justice, and he held a seat on the bench till 1584. He was chosen minister of St. Cuthbert’s Church, Edinburgh, in 1574; the same year, he was appointed to revise all the books that were printed and published.

Pont was one of the most learned of the early ministers of the Church of Scotland. In 1566 he published _A Translation and Interpretation of the Helvetian Confession_. At the request of the General Assembly, he composed three sermons against sacrilege in 1594, which were published in 1599. This is an interesting subject, and has been often touched on, in preceding chapters; yet a short quotation from a well informed contemporary cannot be out of character:――“From the year of our Lord 1560 to this present time, the greatest study of all men of power of this land has been, by all kinds of inventions, to spoil the Kirk of Christ of her patrimony, by chopping and changing, diminishing of rentals, converting of victual in small sums of money, setting of feus under the value, long tackes upon tackes, with two or three life-rents, with many twenty years of a tack, annexations, erections of Kirk-rents into temporal livings and heritage, pensions, simple donations, erecting of new patronages, union of teinds, making new abbots, commendators, priors, and other papistical titles, which ought to have no place in a reformed Kirk and country, with many other corrupt and fraudful ways, to the detriment and hurt of the Kirk, the schools, and the poor, without any stay or gainsaying.”¹ His other writings chiefly related to chronology. “A new treatise on the right reckoning of the years and ages of the world and men’s lives, and of the state of the last decaying age thereof, this year of Christ, containing sundry singularities worthy of observation, concerning courses of times and revolutions of the heavens, reformation of kalendars, and prognostications,” etc., published at Edinburgh, 1599. His work, entitled _Chronologiam de Sabbatis_, was published at London in 1626. He also wrote a tract on the union of the kingdoms, in the form of a dialogue, which was published in 1604. In this dialogue he gives a deplorable description of the tyranny of the aristocracy, the weakness of the law, and the terrors of the judges, who trembled before the power of the nobles.²

¹ Pont’s _Sermons against Sacrilege_.

² _History of the Church and Parish of St. Cuthbert’s_, 1829;
Tytler’s _Life of Sir Thomas Craig_, page 218; Wodrow’s
_Biographical Collections_, Volume I.

The Reformation movement was admirably adapted to call forth any latent talent that existed in the nation; as it tended to arouse the latent powers of the mind, and to widen the range of ideas and the objects of study. After the Revolution, the department of jurisprudence began to receive more attention; and indeed, it may be said that in Scotland the teaching of the civil law only commenced at this period. Previously, the canons were the great object of study; those who delivered lectures occasionally on the civil law were in priests’ orders. It was not till the later part of the sixteenth century that the institutes and pandects began to be substituted for the sacred canons and decretals. Dr. Edward Henryson edited and wrote a preface to a collection of the acts of parliament, from 1424 to 1564, which was published at Edinburgh in 1566: this volume, however, is rather carelessly arranged.¹ Sir John Skene, the clerk registrar, edited a collection of the Acts of Parliament, from 1424 onwards to the later part of the sixteenth century, which was published at Edinburgh in 1597. He also, for the first time, published in 1609, in Latin and in English, a collection of the laws and constitutions of Scotland, from the days of Malcolm II. to the reign of James I.; to this he added a treatise on the explanation of difficult words and terms.² Although modern investigators have found many reasons for the rejection and modification of not a few of Skene’s opinions and conclusions touching the early laws of Scotland, it must be acknowledged that his labours were valuable and meritorious, and at the time of their publication threw much light on the ancient customs and laws of Scotland.

¹ Dr. Henryson is the author of a work, entitled _Commentatio
Title X. Libri Secundi Institutionum de Testamentis
Ordinandis_, published in 1555. It is a kind of running
commentary, and it was inserted in the great work of
Gerard Meerman, _Novus Thesaurus Juris Civilis et Canonici_.
Henryson is reported to have written some other books, which
are not now extant.

² Skene’s first edition of the _Regiam Majestatem_, was
published in 1613; and the origin and authorship of this
book has caused much disquisition.

Sir Thomas Craig was an eminent and successful lawyer in the reign of James VI. His best known work is the learned treatise on the feudal law, “Jus Feudale, Tribus Libris Comprehensum,” which he finished in 1603, but it was not published till 1655, forty-seven years after the author’s death. It is written in a vigorous Latin style. It obtained a wide and authoritative reputation; many translations and editions of it were published. He was a vigorous thinker, and made the first regular attempt to treat the feudalism of Scotland in a philosophic spirit. It is not surprising, however, that he failed to explain the peculiar form that feudalism had assumed in Scotland; when he wrote, feudalism was full of life in the kingdom; and it may be questioned, if a professional lawyer is the best qualified person to give a true exposition of the system in operation around him. Every one that has tried to grasp and comprehend the special form of feudalism which so long prevailed in this country, is well aware of the difficulties of the subject. As we have seen, Scotch feudalism was not a natural growth of the clan organisation. In the days of Craig, the distinctive feature of feudalism was connected with the holding of land――the customary rights and claims of the superior, and the obligation of his vassals to satisfy all his demands; but one by one, here and there, the feudal burdens were gradually lightened and outgrown, till at last the tenants of the land only paid a money rent.

William Welwood was for sometime Professor of Law in the University of St. Andrews, and published several useful treatises on juridical subjects. He wrote both in Latin and English. In one of his works, he drew a parallel of the points of resemblance between the Jewish and the Roman codes. His tract on ecclesiastical processes was intended to distinguish the forms of procedure in the civil courts, from the forms that should be used in the Church courts, touching citation, the mode of trial, and appeals. His abridgment of sea laws――one of the most useful of his productions――was the first systematic book on maritime jurisprudence which appeared in Britain. But Welwood ventured into other fields: he wrote a treatise on practical theology, which was published at Middleburgh in 1594. He had an inquiring mind, and in all his writings there is a worthy desire to turn his knowledge to the good of mankind.¹

¹ This work has the following title: “Abridgment of all Sea
Laws; gathered forth of all Writings and Monuments, which
are to be found among any People or Nation upon the Coasts
of Great Britain and the Mediterranean Sea,” London, 1613.
Watts’ _Bibliotheca Britannica_, Volume II., page 957. The
learned Selden afterwards wrote on this subject, in the
seventeenth century, and even later various points of the
law relating to the sea were fiercely disputed.

This very industrious man was also connected with the progress of physics and the arts. In 1577, while teaching at St. Andrews, he obtained from the Government a patent for a new mode of raising water with greater facility from coal pits, sinks, and low places. He afterwards published an account of his plan, and of the principles upon which he calculated that it would produce the intended effect: this publication appeared in 1582. It is an interesting indication of the state of hydraulic science at the time, and of the experiments which gradually led to the discovery and to the application of its true principles.¹ In 1594, Parliament granted to two men the exclusive right of making certain pumps for raising and forcing water out of mines.²

¹ His plan of raising water has been thus summarised:――“If
Welwood had persevered in his experiments, he might have
accidentally made the discovery which afterwards occurred
to Galileo. He proposed to produce the effect by means of a
leaden pipe bent into a syphon, and extended on the exterior
so as to discharge the water at a point below the surface of
the well. Having shut up the two extremities of the pipe, he
introduces water into both legs by an aperture at the upper
point or elbow of the syphon, till they are completely full;
and then closing this aperture with great exactness, and
opening both ends of the syphon, he maintains that the water
will flow out of the exterior or lower leg, as long as there
is any in the well. It cannot, he argues, flow out of the
shorter leg, for it has no head or difference of level to
give it the power of issuing in that direction. It cannot
flow out of both legs at the same time; for then it behoved
to separate somewhere in the middle, which, according to him,
is impossible, as nature abhors a vacuum. Therefore, it must
flow out of the well by the longer leg. The well is supposed
to be 45 cubits deep (for our author was not possessed of
the important fact that water will not rise to a height
above 33 feet). In other respects the principles of his
demonstration are not more unscientifical than those which
Galileo would have employed sixty years after the time of
Welwood.” Dr. M‘Crie, _Life of Melville_, Volume II., pages
320‒321.

² _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume IV., page 176.

But the most celebrated name in connection with the history of science in Scotland was John Napier of Merchiston. This remarkable man, who contributed so much to extend the bounds of knowledge, was born in the year 1550. He was educated at the University of St. Andrews, and afterwards in France at the University of Paris. He had returned to Scotland before 1571, and for many years took an active interest in the affairs of the Church. He was twice married, and had a family of sons and daughters. Although he was of a studious and inquiring turn of mind, he was by no means a mere recluse, as he attended to his domestic duties and the business of his father, who was connected with the mint and mining operations of Scotland. In short, he interested himself in many projects, and seems to have passed a comparatively happy life. He died in the month of April, 1617.¹

¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier of Merchiston_, 1834,
pages 56, 91, 104‒107, 129‒131, 147‒173, 227‒234, 282, 415,
430; _Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland_, Volume III.,
page 559.

The dominant feelings and the belief of the age had taken a firm hold upon Napier’s mind, as his earliest publication manifested. This was an ingenious and extremely curious book, containing an exposition of the whole Revelations of St. John. He prefaced this work with a short poetical address to Antichrist; and to his interpretation, he annexed certain oracles of Sibylla, which he conceived to agree with the Revelations and other parts of Scripture.¹ The full title of this work will perhaps give a better idea of its contents than any lengthy description: “A Plain Discovery of the Revelations of St. John, set down in two Treatises; the one searching and proving the true interpretation thereof; the other applying the same paraphrastically and historically to the text: by John Napier; with a resolution of certain doubts, moved by some well affected brethren; whereunto are annexed certain oracles of Sibylla, agreeing with the Revelations and other places of Scripture; and also an epistle omitted in the last edition, 1645. This was printed for Andrew Wilson, and sold at his shop at the foot of the Ladie’s Steps.”

¹ _A Plain Discovery of the Revelations of St. John_, page 61;
edition 1645.

The conclusions which he draws from the introductory and expositive treatise on the Revelations of St. John were thus stated in his own words:――“Then for conclusion, by these interpretative propositions followeth four things, marvellous and notable. First, that the interpretation of every part of the Revelations is accessory or consectory to another――that is to say, it is so chained and linked together, that every mystery opens the other, to the discovery of the whole. Secondly, that the first half of the book is orderly――that is to say, it containeth in order of time the most notable accidents that concerneth God’s Church, from the time of Christ’s baptism successively to the latter day. Thirdly, that every history prophesied is limited or dated with its own number of years. Fourthly, and last of all, that whatsoever history is more orderly and summarily than plainly set down in the first orderly part of the book, the same is repeated, interpreted, or amplified in the last part of the book, which therefore we call the amplicative part of the book, dividing the whole Revelations according to the following table, before we proceed to the principal matter.”¹ The table which Napier drew is ingenious and elaborate, and his interpretation and exposition of the Book of Revelations is fully as sensible as many others that have appeared since his day. This treatise must have been comparatively popular, as the first edition was published at Edinburgh in 1593, and the fifth, corrected and amended, appeared in 1645.

In 1596, Napier published a letter, entitled “Secret Inventions, profitable and necessary in those days for the defence of this Island, and withstanding of strangers, enemies of God’s truth and religion.” The inventions which he proposed do not appear to be very hopeful, and at first sight they seem to hover between the possible and impossible; yet some of his schemes were not incredible or beyond the limits of realisation. The following are the words in which he announced the new inventions:――

“First, the invention, proof, and perfect demonstration, geometrical and algebraical, of a burning mirror, which receiving the dispersing beams of the sun, doth reflect the same beams altogether united and concurring precisely in one mathematical point, in the which point most necessarily it engenders fire, with an evident demonstration of their error who affirm this to be made a parabolic section. The use of the invention serveth for burning the enemies’ ships at whatsoever appointed distance.

“Secondly, the invention and sure demonstration of another mirror which, receiving the dispersed beams of any material fire or flame, yields also the former effect, and serveth for the like use.

“Thirdly, the invention and visible demonstration of a piece of artillery, which shot passeth not linally through the enemy destroying only those that stand on the random thereof, and from them flying idly as others do; but passeth superficially, ranging abroad within the whole appointed place, and not departing forth of the place till it hath exhausted its whole strength, by destroying those that be within the bounds of the said place. The use hereof not only serveth greatly against the army of the enemy on land; but also by sea it serveth to destroy and cut down, and one shot the whole masts and tackling of so many ships as be within the appointed bounds, so long as any strength at all remains.

“Fourthly, the invention of a round chariot made of metal of the proof of double musket, which motion shall be by those that be within the same, more easy, more light, and more speedy by much, than so many armed men would be otherwise. The use hereof, as well in moving, serveth to break the array of the enemy’s battle, and to make passage, as also in staying and abiding within the enemy’s battle, it serveth to destroy the environed enemy by continual charge and shot of harquebush through small holes; the enemy in the meantime being abashed, and altogether uncertain what defence to use against a moving mouth of metal.

“These inventions, besides devices of slaying under the water, with divers other devices and stratagems for harming of the enemies, by the grace of God and work of expert craftsmen I hope to perform.”¹

¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 247, 248.

They afford evidence of his speculative powers, and the scientific bent of his mind struggling with the narrow resources within his reach to produce practical results. Although the existing conditions――say the requisite mechanical skill――may not admit of the immediate application of a discovery or an invention, that is no evidence of the possible value and ultimate practicability of such things. In the Introduction of this history it was observed, that the lack of combined action and organised means have always greatly retarded the realisation of many things, even after the discovery, the invention, or the knowledge of a principle, had been reached.¹ Most of the sciences began at a point too remote from the real struggle of human life to be obviously useful, and would have made no progress at all if they had waited to justify their existence by their usefulness: their progress is mainly due to their own internal, intellectual, and moral interest. If science had always been absorbed in the search after obvious utilities, the highest discoveries would never have been made, and the greatest utilities would in all likelihood have been missed.²

¹ Volume I., pages 37, 65‒71, 157‒175.

² Joseph J. Murphy. _Habit and Intelligence_, Volume II.,
pages 225, 226. “All inorganic science, at least, depends on
measurement; and all other measurements ultimately depend on
the measurements of space. Now space is altogether external
to the mind; we think in time, and not in space; yet the
measurement of time depends on that of space, and not
the converse; and geometry, which is the science of the
properties of space, was the earliest of the sciences.”
――_Ibid._

In 1614, Napier published his _Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio_. This work presented a mode of calculation which greatly abridged the labour and facilitated the solution of all the vast problems involving numbers. “The general idea which Napier formed was that of two flowing points, generating magnitudes by infinitely small degrees, so regulated in their respective motions, that in the one case, the successive increments would be equal to each other; and in the other case, would differ proportionately from each other in an infinitely small degree.” He had a fine faculty of exposition, and he developed his conception with unrivalled clearness. The invention was soon known throughout Europe amongst men of science. The work was speedily translated into English by Edward Wright and Henry Briggs: the former set himself to translate it, and the latter became a warm and able co-operator of Napier’s in computing improved tables. Wright finished his translation and sent it to the author for revisal in 1615. He shortly after died, and the task then devolved upon his son, Samuel Wright assisted by Briggs, and the translation was published in London, in 1616. Edward Wright had specially directed his attention to navigation, which stood greatly in need of the aid of exact science. He published a treatise at London in 1559, entitled “Certain errors in Navigation detected and corrected;” he also computed tables of latitude, and is distinguished for his sea rings, his great quadrant, his sea quadrant, and other ingenious astronomical contrivances.¹

¹ M. Napier’s _Memoirs of John Napier_, pages 328, 438‒444.
For comprehensive views of the theory of logarithms, see the
_Works of Bailly, Astronomie Moderne_, Tome II.; _Delambre
Histoire de l’Astronomie Moderne_; _Montucla Histoire des
Mathematiques_, Tome II., page 2, _et seq._; Dr. Minto’s
_Account of Napier’s Inventions and Writings_; Colin
Maclaurin’s _Treatise on Fluxions_, and several articles
in the eighth edition of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_.