Smith, in Drummechee, Thomas Ness, Thomas Mortone, and William Jervies. After prayer, Alex Selcraige, scandalous for contention and disagreeing with his brothers, called, compeared, and being questioned concerning the tumult that was in his father's house, whereof he was said to be the occasion, he confest that he, having taken a drink of salt water out of the cane, his younger brother Andrew laughing at him for it, he did beat him twice with a stafe; he confest also, that he had spoken very ill words concerning his brothers, and particularly he challenged his eldest brother John to a combate, as he called it, of neiffells, then he said he would not come to do it even now, which afterward he did refuse and regrate; moreover he said several other things, whereupon the Session appointed him to compeare before the pulpit agst to-morrow, and to be rebuked in the face of the congregation for his scandalous carriage.

"Alex. Selcraige's public compearance before the Pulpit.

"November 30.-Alex' Selcraige, according to the Session's appointment, compeared before the pulpit, and made acknowledgment of his sin in disagreeing with his brothers, and was rebuked in face of the congregation for it, and promised amendment in the strength of the Lord, and so was dismissed."

THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.

AN ingenious antiquary and accomplished amateur of Italian literature, Mr. S. W. Singer, has in his possession a notice of the admirable Crichton, published when he was at Venice, in 1580. This notice, which is a single printed leaf, has been inserted in the second Aldine folio edition of the Cortegiano of Castiglione, printed in 1515. The book belonged to Francesco Melchiori of Venice, who made it the depository of some other curious papers, including a complimentary sonnet, addressed by Melchiori to Torquato Tasso, with the reply of the latter, as well as the interesting document relating to Crichton, of which the following is a translation:

"James Crichton, a native of Scotland, is a youth, who, on the 19th of August last, completed his twentieth year. He has a birth-mark over his right eye. He is master of ten languages. The Latin and Italian in perfection; the Greek, so as to compose epigrams in that tongue; Hebrew, Chaldee, Spanish, French, Flemish, English, Scotch, and understands also the German. He is most skilful in philosophy, theology, the mathematics, and astrology, and holds all the calculations hitherto made in this last to be false. He has frequently

maintained philosophical and theological disputes with learned professors, to the admiration of all present. He is well acquainted with magic;—of a memory so retentive that he knows not what it is to want recollection; and can recite word for word that which he has once heard. Latin verses, whatever the subject or the measure, he produces extempore; and these, too, (equally extemporaneous,) commencing with the last word of any verse. His orations are fluent and beautiful; and he reasons profoundly upon political subjects. In his person he is eminently handsome; most courteous in his manners; and winning, to the height of your wish, in conversation. A soldier at all points, he served two years with distinction in the French wars; unrivalled in the dance, and all feats of activity; most dexterous (as he has sufficiently proved) in the use of arms of every description, in horsemanship, and in tilting at the ring.

"He is noble;-by the mother, indeed, (who was a Stuart,) of royal blood. On occasion of the procession of the Holy Ghost, he maintained, with signal applause, a dispute with learned Greeks, adducing, in his argument, a host of authorities from Greek and Latin doctors, and from councils, as he is wont to do when treating of philosophy or theology, having, at his fingers' end, all Aristotle and his commentaries, and placing before us not an outline merely, but the full front of the Greek doctrine. Saint Thomas and Duns Scotus, with their adherents, the Scotists and Thomists, he has all by heart, and is ready to engage on either side the contest, as he has often done; nor, indeed, does he enter upon a discussion, except when the subject has been dictated by others. It has pleased the Doge and his illustrious lady to hear him, when they were struck with astonishment; and he received from his Serene Highness a present. In a word, he is a prodigy of prodigies, insomuch that some persons, observing qualities so wonderful and various in one body, so elegantly formed, and of habits so amiable, have thought the phenomenon supernatural. He is now shut up in retirement for the purpose of expounding two thousand propositions in all the different classes, which he designs two months hence to demonstrate at Venice, in the church of St. George and St. Paul; having found it impossible, with due attention to his studies, to comply with the wishes of persons, who would gladly listen to him through the whole day."

Printed at Venice, for the brothers Dom and Gio Batt. Guerra MD.LXXX.

SCOTTISH GRANDSIRE's ADVICE.

Letter from a Scottish Nobleman, of the time of James I., to his Grandson.

"SEEING it has pleased God, of his unspeakable mercy, to bring me through infinite troubles and feuds with honour, the particulars whereof I remit to others' declarations, and in particular to my wife, (your guidam,) who knows best of any lyving my estate, and whose concel I pray you to follow, as one who has lived most carefully in that house for the honour and weel of it. God took my lord Guidseir, and my father, (of good memories,) from me when five years old, and the whole friends and name all in one day; so that I was parentless and friendless altogether. What, in my time, I have done for the welfare of my house, the writes of my charterchest will testify. Now, after a longsome and troublesome time that I have had in this world, it has pleased God, fatherly, to visit me with extreme sore sickness, to bring me out of this miserable life to enjoy that blist life that came never in the heart of man to know what it is. Now, since my request shall be to you to give yourself wholly to God and his service, and to take some hours particularly for that effect, and to learn some psalms and prayers perqueir* out of the auld and ancient docters, that when you are in the fields gangang or riding, ye meditat with God theron. Haunt grave and wise company; and frequent you meikle with reiding histories. Honour your father and mother as you are commanded; the break whereof has brought kingdoms and houses to decay; as daily experience gives proof, that he punishes as weel here as hereafter. Love and respect your friends, as well of your own name as of others that have been friends and followers thereof; and know their natures well, that you may accommodate yourself thereto, seeing many of them hold nothing of you but guid-will and kindness. Be cheerful in your countenance, and ready and honest to protect and assist them for it is the greatest treasure my house has (their friends). Eschew pride as far as possible is in you; for it is a sin against God: it has brought houses in our time to ruin. Eschew coveteousness sichlike, which (the eschewing thereof) is very acceptable to God. When it shall please God that you shall come to the room that I and your father possessed afore, hold ane gude and honest house, be favourable to your

*. By book.

tenants; place in your bailiaries honest and discreet men, to execute justice equally amongst them. Give them a' gude countenance; and if I have overseen myself, or your father, in taking more then enough from them, amend it; for, they say, rich tennants make a rich master, and they ought (being the image of God) to have even full. Be charitable to the poor, and look ever with pityfull eyes upon them. Seeing, now-a-days, many young scholars give themselves curiously to understand magick and necromancie, which are the greatest sins against God which can be, and hath been the destruction of both body and soul, and their houses; I will beseech you, in the name of God, never to let that enter into your mind. Betwixt prosperity and adversity, tak' a magnanime and constant course, neither with the one be puffed up, nor with the other be dejected; but thank God for either of the two, as they shall happen. Serve and obey your king above all worldly things; for my house has ever done so, and they flourished the better. Albeit, in battles, we have received great skaith in their service; yet God has ever augmented the number of us. This I end with God's blessing, and mine to you and your brothers and sisters.

66 At

"I am, your most loving GUIDSeir. 4th June, 1606."

NATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS.

THE following character of the principal nations of Europe was written about the middle of the last century by Mr. Mozer, who was envoy from the elector Palatine to Hanover. Though it may appear somewhat tinctured with prejudice, and time may have made some alterations, yet the moral and political features of each country are pretty correctly drawn, and may be recognized as portraits at the present day.

"ENGLAND. The domain of liberty and property; the country of extremes. Virtue is here divine-vice infernal. Here are liberty of conscience, political liberty, civil liberty, commercial liberty, liberty of thought, tongue, and pen, to and beyond the limits of the most profligate licence; newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, registers; turfs, cockpits, clubs, maccaronies, blackguards, stocks, lotteries, schemes, lame ducks, clever fellows, humour, and Novembers big with suicide; post chaises, Italian music and pictures, but few

with ears or eyes; the nest of foreigners; the country of Shakspeare, Newton, and Hogarth.

"FRANCE.-The country of CITOYENS and MODE. Here things are estimated by their air. A watch may be a masterpiece without exactness, and a woman rule the town without beauty, if they have air. Here life's a dance, and awkwardness of step its great disgrace. Character here is dissolved into the public, and an original a name of mirth. Cela se fait, et cela ne se fait pas,' are here the supreme umpires of conduct. Their religion is superstition, fashion, sophism. The ladies lay on rouge in equilateral squares, and powder with brick-dust. Tyranny may grind the face, but not the countenance of a Frenchman: his feet are made to dance in wooden-shoes. The parliament resembles an old toothless mastiff. France was the country of Le Sueur and Racine, and is that of Voltaire.

"SPAIN. The dregs of a nation two centuries past the arbiters of Europe, and leaders of discovery. Still sense, sagacity, and cool courage, are tamely submitted here to the iron yoke of the inquisition; and each note of humanity drowned in the yells of Dominic's victims. The prerogatives of society moulder here in provincial archives: these are the execrable lords of one hemisphere, and the humble factors of Europe. To see a sceptre in the gripe of women. Confessors and favourites make no characteristic of Spain; nor is the country of Calderon and Cervantes, more than its neighbours, the land of ignorance, vanity, indolence, poverty, envy.

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PORTUGAL. Something of literature and history, glare, gallantry, superstition, earthquakes, daggers, inquisition; the bloody dawns of an uncertain day; the country of Camoens. GERMANY.-Its heroes, like Italian pictures, shew best at a distance. The rest parcel out to deserts, petty tyrants, priests, pedigreed beggars, and pedants; and all her neighbours know Germany. Yet this is the mother of Arminius and Frederic, of Leibnitz and Wolfe, of Handel and Graun, of Mengs and Donner, of Winkelman and Reimarus.

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RUSSIA. The motley creation of Peter, called the Great. Imitators of all Europe, but not Russians: a country taught to rear the produce of southern climates to vapid life, and to neglect its own vigorous offspring. History, mathematics, geography, a general balance of trade, inhuman intrepidity, slavery, savage glare of wealth.

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HOLLAND.-A country, through all its ages, fertile of patriots, though now plethoric with wealth, and unstrung by public indolence. A nobility once full of republican metal, sneaking by degrees into courtiers. Here are scholars, civilians, laborious triflers, trade. Here absence of misery is