customary contribution laid upon all subjects, according to their abilities. Whoever were affected in any sum, though not in equal proportions, were said to pay feet and lot.

Scot (Michael) of Balwirie, a learned Scottish author of the 13th century. This singular man made the tour of France and Germany; and was received with some distinction at the court of the emperor Frederic II. Having travelled enough to gratify his curiosity or his vanity, he returned to Scotland, and gave himself up to study and contemplation. He was skilled in languages; and, considering the age in which he lived, was no mean proficient in philosophy, mathematics, and medicine. He translated into Latin from the Arabic, the history of animals by the celebrated physician... fician Avicenna. He published the whole works of Aristotle, with notes, and affected much to reason on the principles of that great philosopher. He wrote a book concerning The Secrets of Nature, in which he treats of generation, physiognomy, and the signs by which we judge of the temperaments of men and women. We have also a tract of his On the Nature of the Sun and Moon. He there speaks of the grand operation, as it is termed by alchemists, and is exceedingly solicitous about the projected powder, or the philosopher's stone. He likewise published what he calls Menia Philosophica, a treatise replete with astrology and chiromancy. He was much admired in his day, and was even suspected of magic; and had Roger Bacon and Cornelius Agrippa for his panegyrists.

Scot (Reginald), a judicious writer in the 16th century, was the younger son of Sir John Scot of Scot's-hall, near Smeethe in Kent. He studied at Hart-hall in the university of Oxford; after which he retired to Smeethe, where he lived a studious life, and died in 1599. He published, The perfect Platform of a Hop-garden; and a book intitled, The Discovery of Witchcrafts; in which he showed that all the relations concerning magicians and witches are chimerical. This work was not only censured by king James I. in his Daemonology, but by several eminent divines; and all the copies of it that could be found were burnt.