and there can be little marvel that the book excited the resentment of James. The latter made several efforts to have it suppressed; more than once it was formally condemned during succeeding reigns, and it was solemnly burned at Oxford in 1683. The wholesome if uncompromising tone which Buchanan assumed towards his royal pupil may be gathered from the tone of this publication, and again from the preface to his "Baptistes," which in 1576 he prepared for the press. In the dedication of the latter to the king he makes the somewhat blunt intimation "This circumstance may seem to bear a more peculiar reference to you, that it clearly discloses the punishment of tyrants and the misery which awaits them even when their prosperity seems at the height.. I wish this work to remain as a witness to posterity, that if, impelled by evil counsellors, or suffering the licentiousness of royalty to prevail over a virtuous education, you should hereafter be guilty of any improper conduct, the fault may be imputed not to your preceptors, but to you who have not obeyed their salutary admonitions."

Language of this strain was quite in keeping with the discipline which had been exercised by Buchanan upon James during his more childish years. Of one occasion in these early years a story is told. The royal playfellow, the Master of Mar, possessed a tame sparrow which chanced to excite the cupidity of the young king. After vainly trying to coax its owner to part with it, James laid violent hands on the bird, and killed it in the struggle. The mutual recrimination of the boys presently brought Buchanan upon the scene, and listening to the cause of quarrel, without more ado he boxed the youthful monarch's ears, calling him at the same time a "true bird of a bloody nest." Treatment and words like these, wholesome and honest ? they might be, naturally gave James a stern impression of his and, to the last, Buchanan was remembered in the king's with awe than love.

More and more as age crept upon him Buck efforts to the completion of his master-work. T of Scotland," in the collection, arrangement, an he had been more or less engaged for twenty than many another author in his greatest to make an end of his undertaking. Reg press a story is told in the diary of I curious light upon the historian's habi

"That September," says the di vncle Mr. Andro, Mr. Thomas B George Buchanan was weak and

ower to Edin' annes earend to visit him and sie the wark. When we cam to his chalmer we fand him sitting in his chaire teatching his young man that servit him in his chalmer to spel a, b, ab ; e, b, eb, &c. Efter salutation Mr. Andro says, I sie, sir, ye are not ydle. Better this, quoth he, nor stelling sheipe, or sitting ydle whilk is als ill. Therefter he shew ws the epistle dedicatorie to the king; the quhilk when Mr. Andro had read, he tald him that it was obscure in sum places and wanted certean wordis to perfyt the sentence. Sayes he, I may do na mair for thinking on a nother mater. What is that? sayes Mr. Andro. To die, quoth he: bot I leave that an mony ma things to you to helpe. (He was telling him also of Blakwood's answer to his buik de iure regni.) We went from him to the Printer's wark hous whom we fand at the end of the 17th buik of his chronicle, at a place quhilk we thought verie hard for the tyme, quhilk might be an ocasion of steying the haill work, anent the burial of Davie. Therefore, steying the printer from proceiding, we cam to Mr. George again and fand him bedfast by his custom, and asking him whow he did, Even going the way of weilfare, sayes he. Mr. Thomas, his cusing, shawes him of the hardnes of that part of his storie, that the king wald be offendit with it, and it might stey all the wark. Tell me, man, sayes he, giff I have tauld the treuthe. Yes, says Mr. Thomas, sir, I think sa. I wyl byd his fead and all his kins then, quoth he. Pray, pray to God for me, and let Him direct all. Sa, be the printing of his Cronicle was endit, that maist lerned, wyse and godlie man endit this mortal lyff."

Buchanan died at Edinburgh on Friday, September 28, 1582, seventy-six years of age, having accomplished a full tale of honourable labours. He was buried next day, as was the custom of the time, in the Greyfriars churchyard, "a great company of the faithful attending his funeral."

These are the outlined facts of the life of this Scottish scholar, poet, and historian. That they should be so minutely known is surprising, and, when the poverty of information regarding his English contemporaries, the brilliant constellation of Elizabethan poets, is considered, somewhat significant. The details, though recorded without the analytical intention of modern biography, are amply sufficient to afford a portrait of his personal character. This, while partaking of the ascetic habit of his religious party, was not without a certain attraction of its own. A writer of successful satires, as he was, could not be without humour; and no better specimens of that commodity, of the dry, caustic sort peculiar to his north country, could be found than some of the passages of his familiar letters. To

his friend Sir Thomas Randolph, Elizabeth's ambassador, for instance, he wrote: "For the present I am occupiit in writyng of our historie, being assurit to content few and to displease mony tharthrow. As to the end of it, yf ye gett it not or thys winter be passit, lippen not for it, nor nane other writyngs from me. The rest of my occupation is with the gout, quhylk haldis me besy both day and nyt." The real kindliness of his nature, as well, is exhibited in the story of a Glasgow schoolmaster. This worthy had written a work in Latin verse explaining the proper names mentioned by the classic poets, and he carried his MS. for revision to George Buchanan at Stirling. One can imagine the reception likely to be met with at the present day by the budding didactic poet who should carry his verses "for revision" to one of the busiest scholars and statesmen of the hour. Here is the schoolmaster's account of his interview with George Buchanan. "I found him in the royal palace of Stirling, diligently engaged in writing his History of Scotland. He was so far from being displeased with my interruption, that he cheerfully took my work into his hands, and after continuing to read two or three pages of it, he collected together his own papers, which were scattered on the table, and said, I will desist from my undertaking, till I have done what you wish. This promise he accurately performed, and within a few days gave me a paper written with his own hand, containing such corrections as he thought necessary."

Buchanan's attitude towards Queen Mary is the one regrettable episode in his career; yet it cannot be doubted that his sole motive in that matter was the stern prosecution of what he considered right. The disinterested integrity of his character is vouched for by the fact that at his death in 1582, notwithstanding the opportunities for private emolument which as Court minister he must constantly have possessed, his whole estate amounted to one hundred pounds, due to him from the temporalities of Crosraguel. The hard and arduous experience of his life accounts sufficiently for the fact that his manners as well as his countenance conveyed an impression of austerity; yet proofs are not lacking to show that under its stern. crust the heart of the grim bachelor-scholar was warm and kind. The keynote of Buchanan's character appears to have been a strict integrity which could be turned aside neither by the bribes of sentiment nor by the threats of power. For him the necessity was to be honest before he was complaisant.

It is, however, as an outstanding type of the scholar of that day that Buchanan's career and work are chiefly interesting. His life illustrates the Reformation movement in Scotland.

A work of vital importance was performed by the free scholars of the sixteenth century, men like Lord Bacon and George Buchanana service to modern civilisation which is but meagrely recognised today. During the dark ages in Europe, the flower and fruit of ancient thought had lain buried and forgotten. By the divines of the medieval church during its three centuries of supreme ascendency, so much only of the classic heritage as was cognate to their work received cultivation. They spoke the language of Rome without inheriting Rome's ancient ideals, and, dominated and engrossed as they were by the doctrines of a feudal church, the spirit of ancient Greece was to them like the Greek gods, pagan and dead. In the sixteenth century, however, it was as if an intellectual spring had dawned on Christendom. A new hopeful life was stirring in the hearts, and a new light had begun to shine in the eyes of men. A new continent had opened beyond the sunset in the golden West, and the breath of a new era was beginning to blow over the world. Then it was that the scholars of Europe, bringing out of forgotten corners the stores of classic thought, the ripe culture of an older time, scattered the seeds broadcast in a teeming soil. The theories of political life, the ideal relations of the individual and the state, had been wrought to great perfection, especially in classic Greece, and it was by the work of men like Buchanan that these theories and ideals took root again, and put forth blossoms amid the fresh conditions of the sixteenth century. Conspicuous among revivals of this kind was the principle of constitutional government, the rationale of a free state put forth by Buchanan in his "De Jure Regni." Out of the dark ages and the feudal system in Europe, and partly, perhaps, from the Church's teaching of a direct heavenly dispensation, there had grown up an idea of the state no longer compatible with the growth of general enlightenment. Political economy was made to begin at the wrong end with a doctrine of the divine right of kings. By the treatise "De Jure Regni," the fallacy of this hypothesis was exposed, the rational nature of state institutions made clear, and the foundation laid for modern political science. In attributing all political power ultimately to the goodwill of the people, and in declaring that the king existed for the state, and not the state for the king, it is not difficult to see that Buchanan was inspired by the philosophy of classic Greece. The treatise, as has been said, was eagerly and widely read, both on the Continent and at home, and it does not seem too much to say that by it was fired one of the first signals of the Revolution of 1688.

Of Buchanan's poetry, the more purely poetical and scholarly

compositions, including his famous version of the Psalms, labour for modern readers under the disadvantage of the tongue in which they were written. Life nowadays is too short for the popular perusal of much medieval Latin, and it is to be feared that all but the most ardent students are inclined to admit the poet's claim to repute upon the faith of earlier appraisers, while his volumes are left to gather dust upon the shelf. The political service, however, rendered by the "Somnium," the "Franciscanus," and the two later volumes of satires, has a place in history, and, along with the poems of Sir David Lindsay, must be remembered as important factors of religious freedom in Scotland.

It is in his history that Buchanan's best promise of remembrance lies. The elegance, purity, and strength of the diction in which it is composed have drawn enthusiastic admiration from every student. "Buchanan," says Leclerc, "has united the brevity of Sallust with the elegance and terseness of Livy." Another critic has declared that it was his chief praise, not that he wrote like a diligent imitator of the ancients, but that he wrote as if he himself were one of the ancients. And Lord Monboddo did not hesitate to pronounce the style of Buchanan's narrative better than that of Livy. "It is," said he, "as pure and elegant, is better composed in periods, not intricate and involved like those of Livy, and without that affected brevity which makes Livy's style so obscure." Nevertheless, it is not from the literary but from the historical point of view that the "Rerum Scoticarum Historia" is chiefly of value. In order to understand the extent of Buchanan's services to Scottish history it is necessary to remember the misfortunes of the country's records. The early state papers had been destroyed by Edward I. in the thirteenth century, and the later documents, seized by Cromwell, were lost at sea while being returned at the Restoration. Accomplishing his work before the second of these misfortunes, Buchanan had the use of many papers now lost. As Privy Councillor, moreover, and as tutor to the king he had exceptional access to means of information, and there is no doubt that the preservation of many important facts of Scottish history is owed to him.

The first part of the history was based upon the work of Boece, and to this part exception has been taken upon several grounds. His narrative of the early peopling of the country by the Picts and Scots has been adversely criticised by the framers of later theories, while by critics sceptical of the antiquity of the Scottish kingdom his list of the early kings of the country has been decried as purely imaginary. There is much, of course, to be said, and much has been said, for both