published in 1729, is a work of real learning and importance. Arbuthnot, the friend of Pope and Swift, was another successful candidate for literary distinction. His character is thus sketched by the masterly hand of Dr Johnson: "Arbuthnot was a man of great comprehension, skilful in his profession, versed in the sciences, acquainted with ancient literature, and able to animate his mass of knowledge by a, bright and active imagination; a scholar with great brilliancy of wit; a wit who, in the crowd of life, retained and discovered a noble ardour of religious zeal." Cunningham and Ruddiman rendered themselves eminent in the department of philology; and the former is also known to posterity as a historian of no inconsiderable merit".

V

Johnson's Lives of English Poets, vol. iv. p. 118.

w Mr Chalmers supposes himself to have proved " that George Logan was not, as we have been lately told, the nephew of Alexander Cunnyngham, the historian and critic, 'who' was a very different man from the professor of civil law." (Life of Ruddiman, p. 191.) But the reverse may verily easily be proved by referring to the publisher's preface to Cunningham's Virgil. (Virgilius ex recensione Cuningamii. Edinb. 1743, 12m0.)—“ Qued cl. Cuningamii curæ in Horatium posteriores, majusque opus in pandectas juris civilis, lucem non aspexerint, dolet, neque immeritò, respublica literaria." From this quotation, it is sufficiently evident that the editor of Horace and Virgil was no other than the civilian who undertook a new edition of the Pandects; and from the following, it is equally evident that the Rev. George Logan was the nephew of this celebrated critic: "Si castigatior nunc prodit Virgilius, id cl. Cuningamio, simul et viro eruditissimo Georgio Logano, sacra munia in hac urbe summâ cum laude obeunti, qui has avunculi sui curas mecum

THE publication of Thomson's Seasons forms a new era in the history of Scotish literature. Our countrymen had now ceased to cultivate Latin poetry with their former assiduity and success*; and Drummond had hitherto found no worthy successor but the appearance of this admired writer served to rescue the nation from that discredit into which it was apparently sinking". Mallet, who commenced his literary career about the same period, was a poet of considerable ingenuity. Armstrong, by the composition of his Art of Preserving Health, has acquired a solid and extensive reputation; but the rest of his compositions may, without much detriment to his character, be permitted to sink into speedy oblivion. The fastidiousness of his Sketches, the indecency of one of his juvenile poems, and the general in

humaniter communicavit, acceptum referas." Had Mr Chalmers perused Dr Thomson's admirable introduction with adequate attention, the present note would have been unnecessary.

In the year 1645 it was enacted by the General Assembly, "for remedy of the great decay of poesy, that no schoolmaster be admitted to teach a grammar-school in burghs, or in other considerable parishes, but such as after examination shall be found skilful in the Latine tongue, not only for prose, but also for verse." (Dundas's Abridgment of the Acts of the General Assemblies, p. 45.)

y Dr Johnson's compendious criticism on Thomson's Liberty is too well known: the following is that of the ingenious and amiable Aaron Hill: "I shall never be able to think of a loveliness in moral, a frankness in social, or a penetration in political life, to which you have not, in this inimitable master-piece, both of language and genius, given a force and a delicacy which few shall be born with a capacity to feel, and none ever with a capacity to exceed." (Hill's Werks, vol. i. p. 247.)

elegance of his rhyming couplets, can only be recollected with painful emotions. The few poetical compositions which have proceeded from the pen of Smollett are distinguished by many beauties. His Ode to Independence is to be ranked among the finest lyric poems in the English language. Mickle's Sir Martyn is an admirable imitation of the manner of Spenser; and his translation of Camoens confessedly displays the spirit of an original composition. The poems of Michael Bruce are of a most interesting character: and had a longer term of years been allotted to the amiable author, he might have elevated himself to a level with Pope or with Thomson. The works of Wilkie, Blair, and Logan, tended to rescue the Presbyterian clergy from the charge of barbarism. Dr Beattie's Minstrel breathes the genuine spirit of poetry; and may undoubtedly be classed among the finest compositions which Scotland has produced. The other works of the excellent author do not reach the same standard; although some of them are entitled to no parsimonious praise. The vigorous powers of Burns attracted the attention of every admirer of native genius; and reflected the highest honour on the intellectual character of the Scotish peasantry.

Latin poetry has not of late been generally cultivated by the scholars of North Britain: but in this department of literature the names of Dr Geddes and of Mr Beattie may be mentioned

with some degree of respect. When Mr Good observes, that the former possessed an elegance and facility, a fecundity and correctness of style, which have not often been exceeded by his countrymen since the age of Buchanan, the assertion, however gratifying it may be to the admirers of Dr Geddes, is somewhat injurious to the literary character of the nation". Geddes was undoubtedly a man of uncommon talents; but in the composition of Latin poetry he has been surpast by many of his countrymen2.

z Good's Life of Geddes, p. 22. Lond. 1803, 8vo.

a In the Latin poems of Dr Geddes a rigid grammarian may find something to reprehend. Similar delinquencies have however been committed by the most accomplished scholars of whom modern Europe can boast.

Salmasius has detected several false quantities in the Latin poems of Milton. (Ad Joannem Miltonum Responsio, p. 5. Divione, 1660, 4to.). Vavassor has mentioned those of Beza as containing various errors in prosody and syntax. (De Epigrammate, p. 301.) Barthius has particularized several false quantities in the compositions of Politian, J. C. Scaliger, Taubman, Jovius, Fracastorius, D. Heinsius, Douza, and other modern writers of Latin verse. (Adversaria, tom. i. col. 1276.) Scioppius has specified many false quantities in the productions of the Italians. (Paradoxa Literaria, epist. v.) In the miscellaneous compositions of J. J. Scaliger, I. Casaubon, Thuanus, Lipsius, Strada, Mariana, H. Stephanus, Manutius, and other eminent scholars, several barbarisms have been discovered by the same critic. (De Rhetoricarum Exercitationum Generibus, passim.) And to conclude this enumeration, which might easily be extended to a much greater length, Vossius has detected false quantities in the poems of Buchanan. De Arte Grammatica, p. 210. 225.)

Instances of this kind ought to be received as lessons of modesty. The most stern grammarian may himself be betrayed into the very errors which he is so eager to expose in others. Halley, a Professor in the University of Caen, though an unrelenting exactor of prosodical nicety, was detected in a false quantity by Huet, at that time one of his own

Of living merit it is hazardous to speak: friendship may prompt to unmerited panegyric; resentment may produce undue severity. The writers who have lately aspired to the poetical character, shall therefore be left to the unbiassed decision of time. A length of days, says Pindar, is the most impartial witness.

IN the composition of fictitious history several Scotish writers have evinced great versatility and compass of talent.

Dr Arbuthnot, an author of varied excellence, has made a successful incursion into a favourite province of his friend Dr Swift. The merit of his History of John Bull has long been acknowledged. The Memoirs of Scriblerus are commonly printed among Pope's works; but they seem, as Dr Johnson has remarked, to be the production of Arbuthnot, with a few touches perhaps by Pope'. This composition displays a remarkable union of wit, humour, and learning.

Dr Smollett's general character as a novelist is

pupils. (Huetiana, p. 123.) It is remarked by Vavassor and other writers, that in advancing a charge of barbarism against his more learned antagonist Salmasius, Milton has himself been guilty of a manifest solecism. (Vavassor De Epigrammate, p. 301. edit. Paris. 1672, 8vo. Morhofii Polyhistor, tom. i. p. 302.) The candour of Markland is more worthy of imitation this respectable scholar has pointed out a grammatical error in Burman's notes on Quintilian; but he at the same time confesses that his own notes on Maximus Tyrius betray a similar inadvertency. (Re marks on Cicero, p. 36.)

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b Johnson's Lives of English Poets, vol. iv. p. 122.