LEARNING AND LABOUKS. 



23 



vespers in the temple of Jupiter, ! 

 that the idea of writing the Decline 

 and Fall of the city first started to 

 my mind. But my original plan 

 was circumscribed to the decay of 

 the city rather than of the empire : 

 and, though my reading and reflec- 

 tions began to point towards that 

 object, some years elapsed, and seve- 

 ral avocations intervened, before I 

 was seriously engaged in the execu- 

 tion of that laborious work. (Gib- 

 bon.) 



BUCHANAN'S SCOTLAND. 

 If Buchanan's history had been 

 written on a subj ect far enough back, 

 all the world might have mistaken 

 it for a piece writ in the Augustan 

 age ! It is not only his words that 

 are so pure, but his entire manner 

 of writing is of that age. (Dean 

 Lockier.) 



LEYDEN "COMPLAYNT OF SCOT- 

 LAND." 



A new edition of an ancient and 

 singularly rare tract, bearing this 

 title, written by an uncertain au- 

 thor, about the year 1548, was pub- 

 lished in 1801, by Dr. Leyden. As 

 the tract was itself of a diffuse and 

 comprehensive nature, touching up- 

 on many unconnected topics, both 

 of public policy and private life, as 

 well as treating of the learning, the 

 poetry, the music, and the arts of 

 that early period ; it gave Leyden 

 an opportunity of pouring forth 

 such a profusion ot antiquarian 

 knowledge in the preliminary dis- 

 sertation, notes, and glossary, as one 

 would have thought could hardly 

 have been accumulated during so 

 short a life, dedicated, too, to BO 

 many and varied studies. The in- 

 timate acquaintance which he has 

 displayed with Scottish antiquities 

 of every kind, from manuscript his- 

 tories and rare chronicles down to 

 the tradition of the peasant, and the 

 Thymes even of the nursery, evince 

 an extent of research, power of ar- 

 rangement, and facility of recollec- 



tion, which have neverbeen equalled 

 in this department. This singular 

 work was the means of introducing 

 Leyden to the notice and corre- 

 spondence of Mr. Ritson, the cele- 

 brated antiquary, who, in a journey 

 to Scotland, in the next summer, 

 found nothing which delighted him 

 so much as the conversation of the 

 editor of the Complaynt of Scotland, 

 in whose favour he smoothed down 

 and softened the natural asperity of 

 his own disposition. The friendship, 

 however, between these two authors 

 was broken off by Leyden's running 

 his Border hobby-horse a full tilt 

 against the Pythagorean palfrey of 

 the English antiquary. Ritson, it 

 must be well remembered, had 

 written a work against the use of 

 animal food ; Leyden, on the other 

 hand, maintained it was a part of 

 a masculine character to eat what- 

 ever came to hand, whether the 

 substance was vegetable or animal, 

 cooked or uncooked ; and he con- 

 cluded a tirade to this purpose, by 

 eating a raw beef-steak before the 

 terrified antiquary, who never after" 

 wards could oe prevailed upon to 

 regard him, except as a kind of 

 learned ogre. (Memoirs by Sir 

 Walter Scott.) 



DANTE'S COMEDIA. 

 Dante wrote before we began at 

 all to be refined ; and, of course, his 

 celebrated poem- is a sort of Gothic 

 work. He is very singular and 

 very beautiful in his similes, and 

 more like Homer than any of our 

 poets since. He was prodigiously 

 learned for the time he lived in, and 

 knew all that a man could then 

 know. His poem got the name of 

 Comedia after his death. He, in 

 that piece, had called Virgil's works 

 tragedies (or sublime poetry), and, 

 in deference to him, called his own. 

 comedy (or low); and hence was 

 that word used afterwards by mis- 

 take, for the title of his poem. 

 (Ficoroni.) 



