1 791' CHARACTER OF GEORGE BUCHANAN. 23! 



difpofitlon; and as poverty, or rather a neglect of mo- 

 ney did not permit him to purchafe, nor his temper to 

 court applaufe, we may prefume that it was finceie. 

 Poetaruni fill feculi facile priticeps f has been the encomi- 

 um beftowed upon him for two cnturies by the gene- 

 ral confent of Europe. " He was," fays one of his 

 editors, " fo great a matter of the elegance of the 

 « Latin language, that the blood of every Roman 

 ** poet feems to hs.ve flowed in his veins X" " The 

 *« happy genius of Buchanan," fays Dr Robertfon, 

 " equally formed to excel in profe and in verfe j 

 " more various, more original, and more elegant than 

 " that of almoft any other modern who writes in La- 

 " tin, reflefts, with regard to this particular, the great- 

 « ell lullre on his country." Of citing fuch attetta- 

 tions there would be no end. " The name of Buch- 

 « anan," fays the late Dr Samuel Johnfon, " has 

 *' as fair a claim to immortality as can be conferred 

 *' by modern Latinity, and perhaps a fairer than the 

 *' iiiliabllity of vernacular languages admits." 



In perufing this great man's compofitions, the firft 

 circumftance which iirikes us is his uncommon fertility. 

 Though the greater part o: his life was fpent in the 

 talk of teaching, — a profefiion of which he bitterly com- 

 plains, and tliough the hiltory of Scotland, in which 

 he has difplayed fuch a profufion of excellence, might 

 have exhaulted a comprehenfive mind, he has yet 

 found leifure to write upwards of twenty thoufand 

 Latin verfes, which are equal to three times the extent 

 of the works of Horace. Of thefe verfes, about one 

 third are occupied in his tranllation of the Pfa!ms> 

 where he has wandered into twenty-nirre different 

 kinds of metre. In tlie variety of his numbers, there-* 



f *• The firft pwt of his age." 



\ " Tantus crat Biuhicanus I.atini'a^is et elegantiaj artifex, ut po- 

 " tiusau<Aor quum iiniutor, utquc omnium poeuirum fknguis ejus vc- 

 *■ nam compI^iTc videatur." ViJ. preface to an edition Oi iiis verCou of 

 t « I'fdini', printed at Edinburgh in 1 73 7. 



