Ballantine, (William), a Scotch writer who flourished in the beginning of the 17th century, was professor of humanity or belles-lettres at Edinburgh, and matter of the requests to James I. of England. But the former is supposed to have been only nominal, or early given up, and the latter also to have consisted in the name only, since he appears to have resided almost constantly at Paris, where by the favour of his sovereign he was enabled to live in easy circumstances. There he published, in 1668, his Cicero princeps, a singular work; in which he extracted, from Cicero's writings detached passages, and comprised them into one regular body, containing the rules of monarchical government, with the line of conduct to be pursued, and the virtues proper to be encouraged, by the Prince himself: And the treatise, when finished, he dedicated from a principle of patriotism and gratitude, to the son of his master, Henry, then Prince of Wales. Four years afterwards, namely, in 1612, he proceeded to publish another work of a similar nature, which he called Cicero Consul, Senator Scatylisque Romanus, in which he treated, with much perspicuity, and a fund of solid information, on the nature of the Consular office, and the constitution of the Roman Senate. Finding these works received, as they deserved, with the unanimous approbation of the learned, he conceived the plan of a third work, De Statu prius Orbis, which was to contain a history of the progress of government and philosophy, from the times before the flood to their various degrees of improvement under the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. He proceeded so far as to print a few copies of this work, in the year 1615, when it seems to have been suggested that his treatises, De Statu Principis, De Statu Republicae, and De Statu Orbis, being on subjects so nearly resembling each other, there might be a propriety in uniting them into one work, by republishing the two former, and intitling the whole Bellendenus de Statu. With this view, he recalled the few copies of his last work that were abroad, and after a delay of some months, published the three treatises together, under their new title, in 1616. These pieces have been lately reprinted by an ingenious political editor, who has thought proper to inscribe them to Mr Burke, Lord North, and Mr Fox, whose respective portraits are prefixed to each dedication, and whose talents and virtues he celebrates and defends in a preface of 76 pages, containing a very free and bold discussion of our public men and measures in very classical language, and a strong and satirical representation, under borrowed names of antiquity, of the chiefs of the other party, or the present ministry. Bellenden wrote another work, published after his death, De tribus Luminibus Romanorum, whom he conceives to be Cicero, Seneca, and the elder Pliny. The editor gives an account of this work, from whence he took his idea of drawing his characters of the three luminaries of Great Britain. He marks the proficiency in Greek and Roman literature which once distinguished the Scotch, before the civil dissensions drove their brightest geniuses abroad, and celebrates the ardour for philosophy and literature so prevalent in North Britain at present. Dr Middleton has been charged with borrowing not only the matter, but the arrangement, of his "Life of Cicero," from Bellenden, without the least acknowledgement, and the editor confesses himself of this opinion. It is surprising how little is known of Bellenden or his writings: concerning his lineage, birth, private life, and death, no notices have been transmitted even by tradition.