GEORGE, a celebrated scholar, of whom any country might be proud, and whose name is peculiarly dear to Scotland. Of the very early part of his life we know wonderfully little ; and the little that we do know, is not unmixed with conjecture. Ile was born in the parish of Killearn, and county of Stirling, about the beginning of February, in the year 1506. his father occupied the farm of Mid•Cowen, or the Moss ; hut through his premature death, and the contempora neous insolvency of the grandfather, the family, consist ing of five sons and three daughters, were left in ex treme poverty. The mother, being a woman of spirit and management, made a successful struggle with the difficulties of her situation, and contrived to rear her nu merous offspring in a decent and respectable manner. We have it from tradition, that George got the rudi ments of that literature in which he ultimately became so eminent, at the public school of Killcarn, which was two miles distant from his native place ; and we have it from authority not much superior to tradition (Macken zic's Lives of Scotch Writers), that he afterwards went, whether from choide or from necessity we are not in formed, to prosecute his youthful studies in the school of Dumbarton. His maternal uncle, James Herim, per ceiving the superiority of his talents, paid him the at tenhon of a kind and liberal patron, and sent him, when he was about fourteen years of age, to the university of Paris, where he improved his knowledge of Latin, ac quired the Greek language by his own unaided exer tions, and first began to show and cultivate his poetical powers. He had not been two years at Paris, when his uncle died, and left him in a state of great destitution, the misery of which was aggravated by a severe distem per, induced, it is probable, by disappointment and mor tification. This unfortunate event obliged him to return to Scotland. After devoting a considerable time to the restoration of his health, he entered the army, in which he continued for a year, engaged in active and dangerous warfare with England, mingling with enthusiasm in mili tary operations, and preparing himself for giving those animated descriptions of gallantry and fortitude which are to be met with in his History of Scotland. The first campaign, however, in which he served as a soldier, was extremely inglorious; and while no honour was ac quired, the hardships which he had to suffer so much affected his constitution, that he was for several months confined to bed. As soon as lie had completed his eigh teenth year, he went to the university of St Andrews. He there received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in the year 1535, at which time he was a pauper or exhibi tioner. He soon after went a second time to Paris, where he became a student in the Scotish college. There he obtained various degrees of merit ; and in the year 1529, secured, by competition, the procuratorship of the German nation, which was one of the four classes into which'the students were divided, and comprehend ed those from Scotland. But what was of still greater consequence, he there imbibed the spirit and sentiments of the Reformers, which by that time had made conside rable progress on the Continent. At the expiry of two years, he was appointed a professor in the college of St Barbe. In that situation, he taught grammar for three years, without receiving, however, any remuneration that was at all adequate to the extent or value of his la bours. Indeed, it appears from his elegies, and from the writings of other authors, that the teachers of hu manity were, at that time, in a most wretched condition in point of emolument, and that Buchanan, in this case, experienced only what was common to all who held that honourable and useful office. In the year 1532, he be came tutor to Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Cassilis, to whom he inscribed his first work, a Translation of Lina cre's Rudiments of Latin Grammar, and whose conduct in after life reflected no small credit on the abilities and virtue of his preceptor. With this young nobleman, Bu
chanan returned to Scotland in 1537. Having spent some time in his native country, during which he quar relled with the Franciscan friars, in consequence of a satirical poem, entitled Soinnium, he determined to go back to France, and betake himself to his former em ployment ; but James V . retained him as preceptor to his natural son James Stuart, who died in the year 1548. The Franciscans, whom Buchanan had deeply offended, and whose favour he spew ed no inclination to regain, endeavoured to make the king his enemy ; but so far were they from succeeding in this attempt, that James, who had no reason to love them, only instigated the poet to make fresh attacks upon their principles and charac ter. In his Franciscanus, he exposed their ignorance. their irreligion, and their vices, in a strain of such ap propriate and masterly ridicule, and in language so pow. ciful and captivating, as to render him, ever after, the object of their unqualified hatred and resentment. Very soon, indeed, they tried to sacrifice him to their ven geance, by comprehending nim in the general arrest to which many Lutherans were then subjected, and giving him over to trial and punishment for his alleged here sies. But he had some friends at court by whom he was warned of his danger; and, though Cardinal Beaton was his active and zealous enemy, he fortunately es caped from the apartment in which he had been con fined, and succeeded in getting to London, where he was protected from the hostility of the Papists by Sir John Rainsford, to whom he has gratefully inscribed a poem. In London, however, he did not remain long. his spirit was too proud to brook the necessity under which his indigence had laid him, of practising literary mendicity ; and his love of freedom was too ar dent to admit of much attachment to a country in which the monarch was a capricious, unprincipled, and cruel tyrant. He therefore went again to Paris, where there was more of that civilization which his mind relished— where he had a greater number of literary associates— and where he could hope to enjoy a larger share of per sonal safety : but, on his arrival at Paris (1539), he found Cardinal Beaton living there in the capacity of ambas sador; and knowing well both the power and the tem per of that relentless persecutor, he embraced an oppor tunity which immediately occurred, of retreating to Bor deaux, and fixing his residence there, as a professor of the Latin language in the college of Guienne, which had been lately founded, and became, chiefly through his exertions, one of the most distinguished schools of learn ing in France. In Bourdeaux, Buchanan was respect ed and happy. His accomplishments, both as a scholar and as a poet, were such as to insure the esteem of all with whom he associated, or to whom he was known; and not only in the college and the city, but also in the neighbourhood, he found a considerable number of men, whose taste and pursuits and attainments were similar to his own, and whose society, therefore, he enjoyed with a peculiar relish. Among these, the elder Scaliger, who resided at Agen, deserves to be particularly mentioned, as one who was himself a great scholar, and whose ad miration of the Scotish poet was high and permanent ; who entertained Buchanan, and other enlightened inha bitants of Bordeaux, with the utmost hospitality ; and who, in the company of such men of learning, equally forgot the tortures of the gout and his natural love of dogmatism and contradiction, for his own personal satis faction, and the advantage of others.