highly magnify him whose judicious inquiry into his acts, and deliberate research into his creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration.

CHARITY.

But to return from philosophy to charity: I hold not so narrow a conceit of this virtue, as to conceive that to give alms is only to be charitable, or think a piece of liberality can comprehend the total of charity. Divinity hath wisely divided the acts thereof into many branches, and hath taught us in this narrow way many paths unto goodness: as many ways as we may do good, so many ways we may be charitable; there are infirmities, not only of body, but of soul and fortunes, which do require the merciful hand of our abilities. I can not contemn a man for ignorance, but behold him with as much pity as I do Lazarus. It is no greater charity to clothe his body, than apparel the nakedness of his soul. It is an honourable object to see the reasons of other men wear our liveries, and their borrowed understandings do homage to the bounty of ours. It is the cheapest way of beneficence, and like the natural charity of the sun, illuminates another without obscuring itself. Tc be reserved and caitiff in this part of goodness, is the sordidest piece of covetousness, and more contemptible than pecuniary avarice. To this (as calling myself a scholar) I am obliged by the duty of my condition: I make not, therefore, my head a grave, but a treasure of knowledge; I intend no monopoly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves. I envy no man that knows more than myself, but pity them that know less. I instruct no man as an exercise of my knowledge, or with an intent rather to nourish and keep it alive in mine own head, than beget and propagate it in his; and in the midst of all my endeavours, there is but one thought that dejects me, that my acquired parts must perish with myself, nor can be legacied among my honoured friends. I can not fall out, or contemn a man for an error, or conceive why a difference in opinion should divide an affection: for controversies, disputes, and argumentations, both in philosophy and in divinity, if they meet with discreet and peaceable natures, do not infringe the laws of charity. In all disputes, so much as there is of passion, so much there is of nothing to the purpose; for then reason, like a bad hound, spends upon a false scent, and forsakes the question first started. And this is one reason why controversies are never determined; for though they be amply proposed, they are scarce at all handled, they do so swell with unnecessary digressions; and the parenthesis on the party is often as large as the main discourse upon the subject.

We have now brought our remarks upon the literary era of Elizabeth and James to a close; but before we entirely dismiss the subject, we must briefly notice the few Scottish prose writers which this period produced. The principal of these were Knox, Calderwood, Melvil, Lesley, and Spotiswood.

JOHN KNOX, the celebrated reformer, was born at Haddington, in 1505. Though educated at the university of St. Andrews, and bred a friar, still he early embraced the doctrines of the Reformation, and while disseminating them, was, in 1547, carried prisoner to France as a punishment for his offence. Being set at liberty two years afterward, he returned to England, and there continued to preach till the accession of Mary, in 1553, when he retired to the continent, and, for some time, resided alternately at Geneva, and Frankfort. In 1555, he visited Scotland, and by his exertions in Edinburgh, greatly strengthened the Protestant cause; but at the earnest solici

tation of the English congregation at Geneva, he, in 1556, once more took up his abode in that city. At Geneva he published The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, directed chiefly against Mary of England, and the Queen-regent of Scotland. In 1559, Knox returned to Scotland, and continued his exertions in behalf of Protestantism, which, by the aid of an English army, triumphed in the following year. He died on the twenty-fourth of November, 1572, and when laid in his grave, was characterized by the Earl of Morton, as one 'who never feared the face of man.'

The theological works of Knox are numerous; but his most important. literary production is a History of the Reformation of Religion within the Realm of Scotland, published after his death. Although, from having been written at intervals, and amid the distractions of a busy life, much of the work is in a confused and ill-digested state, yet it still maintains its value as a chief source of information in the ecclesiastical history of the eventful period during which the author lived; and though sometimes inaccurate, and the production of a partisan, its statements have, in the main, been confirmed by the researches of later historians.

DAVID CALDERWOOD, another zealous Presbyterian divine, wrote in the early part of the reign of James the Sixth, a work similar to that of Knox, but on a much more extensive scale, more minute, and involving many important public documents. The original production, in six folio volumes of manuscript, reposes in the library of Glasgow, but an abridgment has been printed under the title of The True History of the Church of Scotland. Thy style of this performance deserves little commendation; but, though deeply tinged with party feeling, it has always been highly valued as a repertory of historical facts. The date of Calderwood's birth is not known, but his death occurred in 1657.

SIR JAMES MELVIL, privy councillor and gentleman of the bed-chamber to Mary Queen of Scots, was born at Hall-hill, Fifeshire, in 1530, and died in 1606. He left in manuscript an historical work, which for a considerable time lay unknown in the castle of Edinburgh, but having at length been discovered, was published in 1683, under the title of Memoirs of Sir James Melvil of Hall-hill, containing an Impartial Account of the Most Remarkable Affairs of State during the Last Age, not mentioned by other Historians; more particularly Relating to the Kingdoms of England and Scotland under the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth, Mary Queen of Scots, and King James. In all which Transactions the Author was Personally and Publicly Concerned. This work, for the simplicity of its style, and as the sole authority for the history of many important events, is very highly es

teemed.

JOHN LESLEY, bishop of Ross, was born in 1527, and educated at the

university of Aberdeen. He was a zealous partisan of Queen Mary, and actively exerted himself in her behalf during her imprisonment in England. In consequence of being identified with various conspiracies against the life of Elizabeth, he was obliged to flee to the continent, where he was made, in 1593, bishop of Constance, and in that situation employed his wealth and influence in founding three colleges for the instruction of his countrymen--one at Rome, one at Paris, and one at Douay. Being, however, far advanced in life, he soon after resigned the mitre, and retired to a monastery in the Netherlands, where he died on the thirty-first of May, 1596.

Lesley's principal works are a Treatise in Defence of Queen Mary, and Her Title to the English Crown; a Description of Scotland and the Scottish Isles; and a work on the Origin, Manners, and Exploits of the Scotch. All these are in Latin; the last two forming a volume which he published at Rome, in 1578. He wrote also, in the Scottish language, a History of Scotland from 1436, to 1561, of which a Latin translation was published by himself; the original, however, was published in Edinburgh in 1830. In 1842 a work appeared entitled Vestiarium Scoticum, the body of which consisted of a catalogue of the tartans peculiar to Scottish families, composed by Bishop Lesley in the Scottish language, and which had long been preserved in manuscript in the college of Douay.

JOHN SPOTISWOOD, the last of these writers whom we shall notice, and who was successively archbishop of Glasgow, and of St. Andrews, was born in 1565. A strenuous and active promoter of the schemes of James the First of England to establish Episcopacy in Scotland, he stood high in the favor of that king, as well as of Charles the First, by whom he was made chancellor of Scotland, in 1635. His death occurred in 1639, in London, whither the popular commotions had obliged him to retire.

Spotiswood wrote, at the command of James, a History of the Church of Scotland, from 203 to 1625. When the king, in expressing his desire for the composition of that work, was told that some passages might possibly bear too hard upon the memory of his mother, he desired Spotiswood to 'write and spare not.' The history was published in London, in 1655, and is considered to be, on the whole, a faithful and impartial narrative of the events of which it treats.

Lecture the Twenty-First.

JOHN MILTON.

the last lecture we closed our remarks upon the writers of the age of

I Elizabeth James, and in the present we shall speak of Milton, the

great connecting link between the school of Elizabeth and that of Anne-uniting, in himself, all the genius of the former, with the delicacy, the polish, and the elegance of the latter.

JOHN MILTON was born in the city of London on the ninth of December, 1608. He was descended from the ancient and honorable family of Milton, in Oxfordshire—his grandfather being an underranger to the king. In his religious sentiments, Milton's grandfather was a decided Papist, but his father early embraced the Protestant faith, in consequence of which he was disinherited, and turned from his home. Having, however, received a good education, he went to London, where he thought the means of acquiring a livelihood would be more readily found than at any other place. Soon after his arrival in that city, he engaged in the business of a scrivener, which, at that period, was not only a respectable, but even an honorable calling; and he soon after married a lady of rank and fortune. This lady was also of the Protestant faith, and was devotedly pious, in consequence of which John, who was their eldest child, was trained up with the greatest care, even from his infancy, in piety and virtue. When yet a mere child, his parents placed him under the care of Mr. Young, who was at that time one of the most devoted and successful teachers in London, and by whom Milton was carefully instructed in those rudiments of classical learning which laid the foundation for his future eminence as a scholar; and the grateful expression of Milton's recollection of Mr. Young's careful attention to his studies, forms one of those delightful pictures which are so sweet a relief to the instructor's laborious avocation.

When sufficiently advanced in his studies, Milton was placed at St. Paul's School, with a view of immediate preparation for the university; and at twelve years of age, such was his devotion to learning, that, not considering the day of sufficient length to afford the time which study required, he de