238 CHARACTER OF GEORGE BUCHANAN. Oft. 26, 



century fupplled inceflant exercife for a mind addifted 

 to the language of indignation and defiance. Buchanan 

 was not only more fteady in the exertion of his talents, 

 but more fortunate in the objefts of his choice. For 

 the purpofes of a laureate, Elizabeth and Mary were bet- 

 ter adapted than the penfioner Charles, or the jefuit 

 James. The foibles of the preibyterians prefcnt the 

 mind with no image paralell to the fcenes of impofture 

 and debauchery fo copioufly defcribed in the Francif- 

 can. Even Monmouth and Shaftcfbury were but pig- 

 mies of fedition, when compared with the ftupenduous 

 atrocity of the houfe of Guife. In his addrefs to 

 the Cardinal of Lorraine, Buchanan bids him furvey 

 the price of his grandeur — a nation of widows and or- 

 phans — a country covered with blood and allies — and 

 fternlv affiires him, that to fuch a prodigy of guilt, 

 hell muft be a defireable refuge from the curfes of man- 

 kind. Thefe fallies offend not our feelings, for they 

 confill with truth. But they would have been utterly 

 inapplicable to the heroes of Abfalom and Achltophel. 

 On Ravilliac and Felton, the laft century would not 

 have endured an encomium ; but no reader can be 

 much difgufted when Buchanan refers, with gratitud^ 

 to the blunderbufs of Poltrot. Dryden wrote merely 

 for money, to gratify his own paflions, or thofe of his 

 contemporaries. His tafte had been early corrupted 

 by the conceits of Donne and Cowley, and it was the 

 fummit of his ambition to pleafe the audience of a 

 play-houfe, or the concubine of a prince. Buchanan 

 took his flight from higher ground. The greatcft part 

 of his life was fpent, not behind the curtain of a 

 theatre, but in the retirement of a college. He held 

 the ancients ever in his eye. On every occafion how- 

 ever trifling, he feems to have been mindful of fame 

 and pofterity ; nor did his meal depend on the caprice 

 of a purfe-proud tradefman capable of eftimating his 

 volumes only by their bulk. The diftlnftion is eafily dif- 

 cernible. Dryden is ever difturblng our tranquillity with 



