"When land, and water, and fire, combine to de"ftroy mankind; when fo many perish by difeafe, and "fo many are butchered by barbarous war; when hu man invention, ever fertile in framing mifchief, is "perpetually pointing.out fresh paths to deftruction 5 dareft thou to forbid the commerce of love? By the "expulfion of concubines how many of the enjoyments. "of love are deftroyed? Dareft thou to prohibit the "pleasures of love, the fingle refuge left us to repair, "the ravages of the fpecies?" The poet proceeds to remind him that mankind cannot now be propagated like the Myrmidons from pifmires, or from clay and stones, as in the days of Prometheus and Pyrrha. The fourth elegy is addreffed to two of his literary friends, and contains an account of his fufferings in a fevere illness. The fifth is infcribed to the Chancellor of France, and is a petition in behalf of the fchool of Bourdeaux. The fixth, which confifts of fifty-four lines, is addreffed to a lady on her recovery from fickness, and is, in point of tenderness, perhaps the mafter-piece of our author. It is one of thofe happy productions which we can never tire of reading. The feventh and eighth elegies are of a very different nature; they are infcribed to a trumpet, on whom Buchanan difcharges himself in a torrent of abufe. The ninth elegy is in a fuperior file. 4. The next part of the collection is entitled Silve, and confifts of feven articles, all in hexameter verse. The first is dated in 1539, and inscribed in the name of the ftudents at Bourdeaux to the Emperor Charles V. With great eloquence and dignity he touches on the principal events in the reign of Charles, and compares his condefcenfion in vifiting Bourdeaux to that of Jupiter entertained by the Ethiopians. The Emperor had not yet, by the execution of fifty or an hundred thoufand of his proteftant fubjects in the Netherlands, for feited all pretence to the tenderness or esteem of mankind. The second is infcribed to a friend, whose absence he regrets in a ftrain of beautiful and pathetic poetry. The third is entitled Defiderium Lutetiæ. In this poem Buchanan deplores, in affecting language, his abfence from Paris, which he represents under the character of a mistress, whose charms had for seven years inceffantly disturbed his peace. He concludes with the strongest proteftations of fidelity. "Et prius æquoribus pifces et montibus umbræ, "Sooner fhall fishes be wanting to the fea, and the "mountains ceafe to reflect their fhadows; fooner "fhall birds leave their woods, and noise to attend "the tempeft, than my paffion for Amaryllis fhall de<< fert me. She firft kindled the flames of love in my breaft, and her death fhall extinguish them for ever." The next article is an epithalamium on the marriage of Francis the fecond with queen Mary. In this poem, fo different from the ftrains of a modern laureate, the genius of Buchanan fhines in all its glory. To give a proper idea of a performance which extends to two hundred and eighty-feven lines is here impoffible, The poet, after enlarging on the felicity of the young couple, and the joy that their union diffused over both nations, proceeds to give them a series of advices for their conduct in the exalted ftation which they were destined to fill. He begins with the French monarch, and, after a profufion of compliments, proceeds in the most elevated language of poetry to remind him of the honours and advantages he derived from a confort fo illuftrious as the queen of Scotland. Не ехраtiates on the ancient independence of his country, and the valour of its inhabitants. Of this paffage, which has been often quoted, one need only fay, that that it has hardly ever been excelled, even by our author himself a few lines may ferve as a fpecimen. After having enlarged on the martial virtues of our ancestors, he adds: "Artibus his, totum fremerent cum bella per orbem, Externo fubjecta jugo, gens una vetuftis Sedibus antiqua fub libertate refedit. Subftitit hic Gothi furor, hic gravis impetus hæfit Præcipitem Romana gradum : quem non graves Auster Non vafti fpatiis campi Romana poteftas, Sed muris foffaque fui confinia regi Munivit gentefque alias cum pelleret armis "Hence it was, that when wars raged in every "other part of the world, when there was no country "which did not change its ancient laws and bend "under a foreign yoke, that a fingle nation maintain"ed its native poffeffions, and its former liberty. "Here it was, that the fury of the Goths was forced "to paufe, here was checked the dreadful force of "the Saxons, of the Danes who vanquished the Sax"ons, and of the Normans who vanquished the "Danes. We have no caufe to blufh at the annals "of our ancestors: here it was, that victorious "Rome ftopped in her rapid courfe.-She whom "neither the formidable Carthagenian repulfed, nor "the horrid defarts of Parthia, nor the burning fun "of Ethiopia, nor the frozen Elbe, nor the Rhine "could ftop, was compelled to paufe on the confines "of Scotland. This was the only country in which "the Roman Empire was bounded, not by inaccefl"fible mountains, not by the banks of a rapid river, "not by a foreft, or by an extenfive plain, but by "walls and trenches. While by her arms fhe was "driving other nations from their native feats, or reducing them to difgraceful fervitude, here alone "Rome was contented to defend her limits, and pro"tect herself by ramparts from the Caledonian bat"tle ax. Here, laying afide the hope of conqueft, "Terminus, upon the banks of Carron, fixed the limits "of the Italian empire."-He proceeds in a stile not very courtly, to remind Francis that the French nation had never, fince the days of Carlemagne, performed any martial exploit of confequence, where the Scots had not born away a full fhare of the honours of the field. He concludes by the ufual predictions of profperity and happiness. The next article contains a triking picture of the miferies of France, occafioned by the death of that young prince. Buchanan seems to have been fond of horsemanship; for we have a fhort but elegant poem in praise of the horse. The laft piece in this divifion, is a poem upon the birth of James VI. He begins by anticipating the natural and happy confequences of an union between the two kingdoms, and expreffes, in the language of a man who loved his country, his wifhes that the royal parents may educate their fon in fuch a manner as to qualify him for his exalted station. The rest of this performance confifts entirely of a feries of excellent. moral leffons, of which it feems highly proper to remind the prefent generation. We have feen the mad prodigality of three or four individuals precipitate into bankruptcy the government of a great nation. We can have no doubt that, in other countries, the fame conduct will, in due time, produce the fame just and natural effects. Buchanan affirms that the manners of a people depend much lefs upon the laws of the ftate than upon the example of their prince. He has not indeed infulted his intended pupil, by infinuating that he may one day, forgetting the refpect that is due to his flation, demean himfelf fo far as to become a companion for the moft defpicable clafs of his fubjects; but he expatiates upon the ruin and infamy which attend an abufe of wine or women. "What man," fays Buchanan," is not ashamed of being drunk, when " he knows that his king is fober." He warns James against profufion in his perfonal and domeftic expences, and informs him that a worthlefs fovereign is the greatest curfe of fociety. Alexander, Nero, and Domitian are brought forward as examples of the fatal effects of barbarity and defpotifm. In short, the whole poem, except a few lines at the beginning, is a rigid lecture of which Hampden or Sully would not have been afhamed; and for which he would have been fincerely thanked by a Guftavus Adolphus *, or a Frederick. He concludes with an advice to study letters and philofophy, as the beft fchool for the. art of government. If in the bufinefs of life," fays the poet," he is attentive to thefe rules, he fhall "be happy in fwaying the fceptre of his ancestors." How oppofite, how deplorable on the birth of a prince, is the language of Dryden, who compares the junction of three kingdoms in one, to the facred myfteries of religion. Dryden, however, would certainly, in our luxurious and fervile age, have born away the palm of popularity and preferment from his cynical predeceffor. Though he lived and died in the bofom of treason, rapine, and profcription, Buchanan would have feen, with furprise, our modern standard of morality. We call ourselves a free people, and yet we have fubmitted * Harte tells us that the Swedish monarch, having, after an obftinate fiege, forced a town to furrender, to convince the inhabitants of their perfe&t fecurity, entered first himself, without a fingle attendant, and going into a bookfeller's fhop, enquired for a copy of Buchanan's poents. |