l^tjl. CHARACTER OF G. BUCHANAN; 321 



not bo tnnfiated with decency. In feducing a young 

 giri, our author fays, — 



" F.t neae taiige pedem, dextratu dextra, oribus ora : 

 " Sic, dicis, ridts, fie moUirer ofcula jungis, 

 " OfiiJa co.amijfji inter liiiiJHiia lit^^uas : — •• 



II. Another fci^iort of his works is entitled Fratres 

 Praiern:iii,:ind confifts chiefly of fatires, in various kinds 

 of verle, againft the Cathohc clergy of every defcription, 

 from fcvcral of the popes, one of whom he compares 

 to Judas Ifcariot, down to the monksi Tlie collec- 

 tion concludes with fome of thofe juvenile effays which 

 the author compofed againft the Francifcans at the de- 

 firc of the Scottiih monarch. Several Englilhi poets 

 have, at a mature age, a.fFe£ted to print pieces exactly 

 as they had been written hy themielves wlien at fchoo!. 

 Milton, among others, has encumbered poilerity with 

 this fort of trumpery. In the works of Drydcn we can 

 eafily diftinguifh that his ftile is gradually improving 

 down to his tranilation of Virgil ; and the nobJeft ode 

 in any language was itfclf the very lait effort of his mufe. 

 In the text of Buchanan no fuch diltincflon is difeerni- 

 ble. What he had written in youth he either com- 

 mitted to the llanies, or improved into a perfe>£t equa- 

 lity with his later productions ; and he is above the 

 paltry vanity of telling us in the t;tle of a piece, that it 

 was written at twelve or fixteen- The reader has no*< 

 thing to do with the age of an author, but with the 

 merit of liis writings. From this digrcfTion I return to 

 the Fratres Frat^rrlini. Tliis mifcellany Confiils of 36 

 articles, with a humorous dedication to a man of letters. 

 The worOiip of images and pictures, and tranfubftan.* 

 tiation, the columns upon which popery refted, are 

 here overwhelmed in a torrent of ridicule. An odein- 

 fcribed to Q^een Elizabeth, is written in the higheit 

 Itile of Horace, and contains an eloquent fummary of 

 the preceding glories of her reign ; among which the 

 rxtirpation of monkery flands forcmoft.— ^There is a 



Vot. V. t ^ » 



