WILLIAM,** was born at Hawthornden on the 13th of December 1585. His father was Sir John Drummond, descended from the family of Carnock, a branch of the more illustrious family of Stobhall, from which the king derives his remote lineage throughabella Drummond, the mother of James the First. The poet's mother was Anne the daughter of William Fowler; and she is described as "a woman of excellent breeding, and of a good and virtuous life." William was the eldest of four sons, and there were three daughters by the same marriage. The earlier part of his education he received at the High School of Edinburgh, where he began to distinguish himself by the superiority of his talents; and being afterwards removed to the university, which was then a very recent institution, he took the degree of A.M. in the year 1605. We are particularly informed that he did not confine his attention to the metaphysical learning commonly taught in the schools, but likewise applied himself to the study of mathematics and of ancient authors. During the following year, his father sent him to complete his education in France; and in the university of Bourges he is said to have devoted himself with great assiduity and success to the study of the civil law; a study necessary to a lawyer, and useful to a scholar. After an absence of four years, he returned to his native country in 1610; and his friends now expected that he would devote himself to the practice of a lucrative profession, for which he seemed eminently qualified by his talents and learning. The bar must however have presented very few attractions to a youth of his elegant taste and delicate sensibility: the municipal law was then but a dreary path, beset with thorns which never blossomed; and, what was particularly discouraging, there was not a single elementary book, there were no institutions of our law, from which a young student could derive a comprehensive knowledge of those principles which were afterwards to direct his practice. His systematic doctrines were indeed to a great extent borrowed from the ancient civilians, and the study of the civil law was generally prosecuted in some foreign university; but, besides an indispensable attendance in the courts, his final preparation for the practice of his profession consisted in reading the statute law, and such collections of maxims and reports as were then circulated in manuscript. Nor was Drummond compelled by any domestic considerations to overcome his repugnance: he was beyond the reach of that original impulse which has directed many a lawyer to reputation and emolument; for, about the period of his return from the continent, the death of his father left him in possession of an estate sufficient to maintain him in the liberal style of a gentleman.

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1 He is commonly described as Sir William Fowler, secretary to the queen, but this account of his quality is evidently erroneous. The secretary was his son, who bore the same name with himself; nor does it appear that either of them received the honour of knighthood. The son followed the queen to England; and a list of the officers of her council, dated in October 1603, describes him as "Secretarie, and Master of the Requests." (Lodge's Illustrations of British History, vol. iii. p. 209.) In 1607, we find him denominated parson of Hawick; and the records of the presbytery, 2 Sept. 1612, mention him as then dead. It is however more than probable that he continued a layman, and, at a period when such irregular proceedings were not uncommon, enjoyed the temporalities of that living without residence and without qualification. His poems are not unknown to those who are acquainted with the literary history of that age. Of some of his manuscripts, as well as those of his nephew, Mr Laing has given an account in the Transactions of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. iv.

2 President Lockhart is said to have averred, that if he had followed the legal profession, he might have made the best figure of any lawyer in his time. But the accuracy of this tradition, says Mr Maclean, "may reasonably be doubted. Drummond has left a record of the books read by him between 1606 and 1614, from which it is apparent that literature occupied a much larger portion of his attention than law. In the detail of his studies, which were in a great measure confined to the most popular poetry and romances of the time, he mentions no other work on law than the Institutes of Justinian." (Introduction to Drummond's Poems. Edinb. 1832, 4to.) He now retired to his family residence at Hawthornden, six miles from Edinburgh, and resumed the study of the Greek and Latin classics. The immediate vicinity presents an air of such romantic beauty, that a poet could scarcely have found a more suitable habitation; his house is erected on the edge of a woody cliff which overhangs the river Esk; and at one extremity of the variegated and sequestered glen stand the ruins of the baronial castle and the collegiate church of Roslin. The ancient caves of Hawthornden, and the adjacent moor of Roslin, where Comyn and Fraser gained a signal victory over the English, have likewise their peculiar effect in impressing the imagination. Near the poet's house is a seat hewn in the solid rock, and still described by the name of Cypress-grove; a name which it obtained from the circumstance of his having frequented this spot when engaged in the composition of a work which bears that title.

Here Damon sat whose songs did sometime grace The murmuring Esk; may roses shade the place.

In this delightful seclusion he devoted himself to the general improvement of his mind, and to the occasional exercise of his fine talents; and many of his poems appear to have been composed about this period of his life. He chiefly cultivated the familiarity of the university men, and other individuals of genius and learning; among his own countrymen, he enjoyed the particular friendship of the earl of Stirling, the earl of Ancram, Arthur Johnston, and John Adamson; and among the English poets, his greatest intimacy and correspondence was with Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton. The grandfather of Jonson was originally from Annandale, where Johnstone is still a very prevalent name. In the year 1619, when this celebrated poet had attained the age of forty-five, he travelled from London on foot, for the express purpose of paying Drummond a visit; and at Hawthornden he spent three or four weeks with every appearance of satisfaction. The heads of some of Jonson's conversations on subjects of literature, together with his own impressions of Jonson's character, he committed to writing, with the manifest intention of occasionally referring to this as a private record; many years after his death, this paper was communicated to the public, apparently in a somewhat mutilated form; and as it does not represent his distinguished guest as altogether faultless, the amiable and esteemed writer has incurred the virulent and unmeasured censure of Mr Gifford, the late editor of Jonson's works. If Drummond had resembled some more recent authors, who have violated all the decencies of private life by ministering to the gross appetite of the public with ridiculous or disparaging tales of their friends and acquaintance, the justice of this strong condemnation could not safely have been disputed; but what person of ordinary candour will thus censure an act which, to all human appearance, was entirely unconnected with malevolent or ungenerous motives?

The poet's tranquillity was exposed to a severe interruption from the unfortunate issue of his first love. He became deeply enamoured of a beautiful young lady, the daughter of Cunningham of Barns; he met with a suitable return, and a day was fixed for their nuptials, but before that day arrived, her life was terminated by a rapid fever. Such an event as this, which would have affected a lover of the most ordinary sensibility, could not but sink deeply into the heart of one who had assiduously cherished the softer feelings, and whose habits of seclusion were so directly calculated to preserve a lasting impression of melancholy. He was so overwhelmed with grief that he found it necessary to try the effect of a change of objects; and he accordingly retired to the continent, where he spent about eight years. His longest residence was at Paris and Rome; but he travelled through France, Germany, and Italy, visited the most celebrated universities, and conversed with men of learning. In the course of his peregrinations, he is said to have formed an excellent collection, not only of the ancient classics, but likewise of the best writers in the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. He presented to the university of Edinburgh a collection of books and manuscripts, of which he printed a catalogue in the year 1627, prefixing to it an appropriate preface written in Latin. Of this well-known collection, the value, that is, the extrinsic or pecuniary value, which was far from being inconsiderable at first, has been immensely increased by the lapse of two centuries. It contains many Scottish and English publications of singular rarity. When Drummond returned to Scotland, he found his countrymen divided by fears and animosities. He now spent some time at the residence of his brother-in-law Sir John Scot of Scottarvet, a learned man, and an encourager of learning. Having continued in a state of celibacy till the age of forty-seven, he in 1632 married Elizabeth Logan, a lady in whom he traced a strong resemblance to his first mistress. She is commonly represented as the grand-daughter of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig; but, according to Hay, her father, who was altogether unconnected with that family, was minister of Edleston in the county of Peebles, and her mother was the daughter of a shepherd. Of this marriage there were five sons and four daughters. John, the eldest son, died in his youth; William was knighted by Charles the Second, and lived to an advanced age; Robert was married, but died about the age of forty without children; the two youngest, Richard and James, died in their infancy. The eldest daughter Elizabeth was married to Dr Henryson, an eminent physician in Edinburgh; but the other three, Margaret, Anabella, and Jane, died very young. The father was a decided

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1 The first edition of his poems has the following title: "Poems, amorous, funerall, divine, pastorall, in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains, Madrigals. By W. D. the author of the Teares on the Death of Medeidae." Edinburgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1616, 4to. Another edition, or the same edition with a new title, bears "Poems, by William Drummond of Hawthorne-Dene. The second impression." Edinburgh, printed by Andro Hart, 1616, 4to.

2 To this visit another poet of exquisite talents makes the following allusion:

Then will I dress once more the faded bower, Where Jonson sat in Drummond's classic shade.

Collins's Ode to John Home.

3 Gifford's Memoirs of Jonson, p. cxxx.—This charge has been sufficiently repelled by Sir Walter Scott in his Provincial Antiquities of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 133. See likewise Dr Drake's Mornings in Spring, vol. i. p. 296.

4 Hay's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 105. MS. Adv. Lib.

5 Sir William Drummond is more celebrated for his joviality than for his literature. See Dr Pennecuik's Poems, p. 49. 52. An honourable instance of his humanity is recorded in the Memoirs of George Brysson, p. 285.

6 This was probably Henry Henryson, M. D. of Elvington, whose Latin version of the hundred and fourth psalm occurs in the Octapla. Edinb., 1698, p. 116. He is also frequently called Hemmerso, which is a corruption of the other name. Elizabeth, the heiress of her father Dr Henry Henderson of Elvington, was married to John Clerk of Pennecuik. (Inquisitionum Abbreviatio, vol. i. Haddington, 341.)

7 Douglas's Baronage of Scotland, p. 573, compared with Sage's Life of Drummond, p. vi. cavalier, and wielded his pen, though not his sword, in the king's service; and being reputed a malignant, he was exposed to some of the usual molestations of those unhappy times. The tragic fate of his sovereign is said to have hastened his own dissolution: we are informed by Bishop Sage that Drummond, being weakened by hard study and disease, was so overwhelmed with extreme grief and anguish that he died on the 4th of December 1649. But as the king was executed on the 30th of January, an interval of more than ten months must have occurred between his death and that of his faithful subject; an interval so long as to render the biographer's inference somewhat questionable. He had nearly completed the sixty-fourth year of his age. His remains were interred in the church of Lasswade, which stands at the distance of about a mile from Hawthornden. He appears through life to have maintained a character of uniform respectability; uniting with his other qualities that of consistent piety, and blending morality with his devotion. His death was affectionately lamented by his friend Colonel Lauder of Hatton, who has left several other specimens of his poetical talents, and who was not the only Scottish soldier of this period that evinced his love of the Muses.

Drummond was evidently a man of superior talents and accomplishments. We are informed that he was familiarly acquainted with the best Greek and Latin authors; his long residence on the continent afforded him an excellent opportunity of acquiring a knowledge of the living languages; and he is said to have spoken French, Italian, and Spanish, as fluently as his native tongue. To his graver qualifications he added no mean proficiency in music; and he occasionally sought a relaxation from his studies by playing on the lute, "which he did to admiration." He seems to have devoted a considerable portion of his time to the invention or improvement of various instruments and machines, applicable to various purposes of peace or war. They are curiously enumerated, to the extent of sixteen, in a patent which he obtained in the year 1627, and which secured to him the sole right and property within the kingdom of Scotland for the space of twenty-one years.

His literary productions exhibit considerable variety. His compositions in prose chiefly consist of the Cypress Grove, some political tracts, and the History of the five Jameses; a work which embraces the history of Scotland from 1423 to 1542. "The best of Drummond's prose works," says Mr Headley, "is his Cypress Grove, which, though quaint in its style, is worth reading for its vein of dignified morality." His history, which has alternately been the object of extravagant commendation and unsparring censure, cannot now be regarded as a work of much value or interest: the author's materials are not generally drawn from recondite sources, and his manner is too rhetorical. For the reputation which he still retains, Drummond is chiefly indebted, not to his historical, but to his poetical excellence; and, in the opinion of competent judges, he is entitled to a distinguished place among the English poets of that age. As few of his poems extend to a considerable length, his genius cannot be estimated by the success of any great and continued effort; but notwithstanding the shortness of his flights, he generally soars on bright and steady wings. He is conspicuous for his delicate sensibility and warmth of fancy; and with these qualities, so essential in an amatory poet, he unites uncommon skill in versification. His taste seems in a great measure to have been formed upon the Italian model, nor are his compositions entirely free from Italian conceits; but he commonly maintains a degree of elegant simplicity to which few English poets of that age have attained.

The reputation which Drummond enjoyed during his life, appears to have suffered some diminution after his death. He was a gentleman, says Edward Phillips, "who imitating the Italian manner of versifying, vented his amours in sonnets, canzonets, and madrigals, and, to my thinking, in a style sufficiently smooth and delightful; and therefore why so utterly disregarded and laid aside at present, I leave to the more curious palates in poetry." After an interval of more than a century, the same complaint of unmerited neglect was repeated by Mr Headley. "Without ostentatious praise (which is always to be suspected), it is but truth to observe that many of his sonnets, those more especially which are divested of Italian conceits, resemble the best Greek epigrams in their best taste, in that exquisite delicacy of sentiment, and simplicity of expression, for which our language has no single term, but which is known to all classical readers by the word ἀπολαμβάνει. It is in vain we lament the fate of many of our poets, who have undeservedly fallen victims to a premature oblivion, when the finished productions of this man are little known and still less read."

Drummond's sonnets form a very considerable proportion of his poetical works. The following four may be selected as a specimen of the entire collection; and they are here exhibited in modern orthography.

I know that all beneath the moon decays, And what by mortals in this world is brought, In Time's great periods shall return to nought; That fairest states have fatal nights and days: I know how all the Muse's heavenly lays, With toil of sprite which are so dearly bought, As idle sounds, of few or none avail, As that slight lighter in the airy prize, I know frail beauty like the purple flower, To which one morn oft birth and death affords: That love a jarring is of minds' accords, When sense and will invassal reason's power. Know what I list, this all cannot me move But that, O me! I both must write and love.

With flaming horns the Bull now brings the year, Melt do the horrid mountains' helms of snow, The silver floods in pearly channels flow, The late-bare woods green avenues do wear; The nightingales, forgetting winter's woe, Calls up the lazy morn her notes to hear; Those flowers are spread which names of princes bear, Some red, some azure, white, and golden grow. Here lows a heifer, there bewailing stray; A harmless lamb, not far a stag rebounds; The shepherds sing to grazing flocks sweet lays, And all about the echoing air resounds.

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1 Sir Thomas Urquhart is said to have expired in a paroxysm of laughter, on hearing of the restoration of Charles the Second; a statement which is rendered sufficiently probable by the record of similar cases, and by the eccentric character of the individual. Aretaeus, an ancient physician, specifies unextinguishable laughter as one of the causes of death: ἀπὸ διαφθορᾶς μίζης ἀναπνοῆς. (De Causis et Signis Morborum, lib. i. p. 35. edit. Boerhaave. Lugd. Bat. 1735, fol.) And other ancient writers have mentioned the names of different persons who died of excessive joy. (Valerius Maximus, lib. ix. cap. xii. Plini Hist. Nat. lib. vii. cap. liii.) According to the common account, Sophocles was of this number.

2 Drummond's Works, p. 233. Edinb. 1711, fol.

3 The History of Scotland, the first edition is that of London, 1655, fol. The introduction was written by Mr Hall of Gray's Inn. There are other three editions.

4 Phillips's Theatrum Poetarum, or compleat Collection of the Poets, part ii. p. 192. Lond. 1675, 12mo.

5 Headley's Biographical Sketches (p. xiv) prefixed to Select Beauties of Ancient English Poetry. Lond. 1787, 2 vols. 8vo. Hills, dales, woods, floods, and every thing doth change, But she in rigour, I in love am strange.

Trust not, sweet soul, those curled waves of gold, With gentle tides which on your temples flow, Nor temples spread with flakes of virgin snow, Nor snow of cheeks with Tyrian grain enroll'd; Trust not those shining lights which wrought my woe, When first I did their burning rays behold. Nor voice, whose sounds more strange effects do show Than of the Thracian harper have been told. Look to this dying lily, fading rose, Dark hyacinth, of late whose blushing beams Made all the neighbouring herbs and grass rejoice, And think how little 'twixt life's extremes. The cruel tyrant that did kill those flowers, Shall once, aye me! not spare that spring of yours.

What doth it serve to see sun's burning face, And skies enamell'd with both the Indies' gold, Or moon at night in jety chariot rolled, And all the glory of that starry place? What doth it serve each beauty's beauteous to behold, The everlasting praise, the volume of flowing grace, The stately森ness of forests old. The sport of floods, which would themselves embrace? What doth it serve to hear the Sylvan's songs, The wanton merle, the nightingale's sad strain, Which in dark shades seem to deplore my wrongs? For what doth serve all that this world contains, Sith she, for whom those once to me were dear, No part of them can have now with me here?

To some of his compositions, which he has described as songs, this title is by no means applicable; it is neither applicable to the vein of poetry, nor to the measure of the verse. One striking poem, which he entitles a song, is written in heroic couplets, and contains such passages as this:

And tell me, thou who dost so much admire This little vapour, smoke, this spark or fire, Which life is call'd, what doth it thee bequeath But some few years which birth draws out to death? Which if thou paragon with lustre run, And all whose theme this vast sea far less near, In darkness vast than that which far less near, Than with the star which matches is a tear. But why wouldst thou here longer wish to be? One year doth serve all nature's pomp to see, Nay, even one day and night: this moon, that sun, Those lesser fires about this round which run, Be but the same which, under Saturn's reign, Did the serpentine seasons interchain. How oft doth life grow less by living long, And what excelleth but what dieth young?

His collection of sacred verses, which he entitles Flowres of Sion, contain much poetical imagery and expression. Some of the topics cannot be very safely approached by a poet, who must place his chief reliance on the exercise of his fancy; and the subsequent lines of this writer may sometimes occur to the recollection of his reader:

Who would this Eden force with wit or sense, A cherubim shall find to bar him thence.

One of the longest poems in this collection, entitled a Hymne on the fairest Faire, contains the following among many other striking passages:

Ah! as a pilgrim who the Alps doth pass, Or Atlas' temples crown'd with winter's glass, The airy Caucasus, the Apennine, Pyrenees cliffs where sun doth never shine, When he some heaps of hills hath over-went, And from the mountains where they spake, Till, mounting some tall mountain-peak, doth find More heights before him than he left behind: With halting pace so while I would me raise To the unbounded circuits of thy praise, Some part of way I thought to have o'er-run, But now I see how scarce I have begun, With wonders new my spirits range possess, And wand'ring wayless in a maze them rest.

It has been suggested by Mr Headley that one would be induced to suppose Pope must have remembered these lines when he wrote a well-known passage in his Essay on Criticism. The subsequent couplet, which occurs in the same hymn, is remarkable for its energetic simplicity:

Uncomprehensible by reachless height, And unperceived by excessive light.

Another poem of considerable length he entitles the Shadow of the Judgment. It is left in an unfinished state, and is not included in the collection published under the direction of Sir John Scott; but it nevertheless contains many passages worthy of the author's reputation. An elegant critic has remarked that the following verses, describing God moved to wrath, are in Milton's manner:

So seeing earth, of angels once the inn, Mansion of saints, defacred all by sin, And quite confus'd by wreathes here beneath, The world's great sovereign moved was to wrath, Thrice did he reuse himself, thrice from his face Flames sparkl'd did throughout the heavenly place: The stars, though fixed, in their rounds did quake, The earth, and earth-embracing sea did shake: Carmel and Hammon felt it, Athos' tops Afrighted shrunk, and near the Ethiops Atlas, the Pyrenees, the Apennine, And lofty Grampius, which with snow doth shine. Then to the synod of the sprights he swore, Man's care should end, and time should be no more.

Drummond's poem in commemoration of Prince Henry commences in a strain somewhat bombastic, but it contains some elegant and striking passages. The subsequent lines exhibit a very favourable specimen of his versification; and it is proper to recollect that the poem was printed so early as the year 1613. He describes the lamented youth as rejoicing to look down to the azure bars of heaven,

And in their turning temples to behold, In silver robe the moon, the sun in gold, Like young eye-speaking lovers in a dance, With majesty by turns retire, advance. Thou wonderest earth to see hang like a ball, Clo'sd in the ghastly cloister of this all;

Menandri Fragmenta, p. 48 edit. Meineke.

Flowres of Sion. By William Drummond of Hawthorne-dene. To which is adjourned his Cypress Grove. 1623, 4to. Edenburgh, printed by John Hart, 1630, 4to.

Poems by that most famous wit Mr William Drummond of Hawthornden. Lead. 1659, 8vo. The editor was Edward Phillips, the nephew of Milton. The same edition was exhibited under a new and fantastic title, with the date of 1659. A more extensive collection of his poems is to be found in the Works of William Drummond of Hawthornden. Edinb. 1711, fol. Bishop Sage's life of the author is prefixed to this publication. But the most complete, as well as the most elegant edition was printed under the superintendence of Mr Maitland; "The Poems of William Drummond of Hawthornden." Edinb. 1832, 4to. The book however is not published: it was the splendid contribution of William Macdonald, Esq. of Garthland to the Maitland Club.

Tears on the Death of Morilades. Edinburgh, printed by Andrea Hart, 1613, 4to. His two sonnets and epitaph, which appear in this volume, are likewise inserted in the "Mavysworth," or choicest Flowres of the Epitaphs, written on the Death of the newer-too-much lamented Prince Henrie." Edinb. 1613, 4to. A third edition of the "Tears on the Death of Morilades" soon followed. Edinb. 1614, 4to. The second we have not seen.

VOL. VIII. And that poor men should prove so madly fond To toss themselves for a small food of grass: Nay, that they even dare to seek the stars above, From this base stage of chance that cannot move. All worldly pomp and pride then seem arise Like smoke, that scatters in the empty skies. Other hills and forests, other sumptuous tow'rs, Amaz'd then find'st excelling our poor bow'rs; Courts void of flattery, of malice minds. Pleasure which lasts, not such as reason blinds.

Forth Feasting, a poem written in the year 1617 on the king's visit to his native country, may be considered as his best performance; it abounds with poetical imagery, and the versification possesses uncommon terseness and harmony. In all poems of the same age and denomination, the reader must necessarily expect a certain sprinkling of mythology: this is a prevailing vice, an endemic disease, among the poets of that period; but Forth Feasting is enlivened by an elegant vein of fancy, and contains various passages of distinguished felicity. In the following nervous lines, he pays a warm and not unmerited compliment to the monarch's love of peace:

Now, where the wounded knight his life did bleed, The wanton swain sits plodding on a road, And where the cannon did Jove's thunder scorn, The gusty human winds his shrill-tun'd horn: Her green locks Ceres without fear doth dye, The pilgrim safely in the shade doth lie. Both Pan and Pales careless keep their flocks, Seas have no dangers save the winds and rocks: Thou art this isle's Palladium, neither can, While thou art kept, it be o'erthrown by man. Let others boast of blood and spoils of foes, Fierce rapines, murders, Iliads of woes, Of hated pomp, and trophies reared fair, Gorgons hang'd on every street and in the air, Count how they make the Scythians them adore, The Gaetian, the soldier of Aurora; Unhappy vanity! to enlarge their bounds, Which charge themselves with cares, their friends with wounds, Which have no law to their ambitions will, But, man plagues, born are human blood to spill: Thou a true victor art, sent from above, What others strain by force to gain by love; World-wand'ring Fame this praise to thee imparts, To be the only monarch of all hearts.

When the successor of this king visited his northern dominions in the year 1633, Drummond contributed the verses for the pageants which welcomed his arrival in Edinburgh. These verses, although they do not exhibit passages equal to those which we have lately examined, are not destitute of merit. Of the frequent compression and harmony of his compleats, every reader must be sufficiently aware; and the excellence of his versification has been highly extolled by an English critic. Waller and Denham are often regarded as the great improvers of a mode of versification which was carried to greater perfection by Dryden; but the Tears on the Death of Moeliades, and Forth Feasting, were composed several years before either of those poets had reached the age of manhood.

Drummond, Sir William, of Logie-Almond, a distinguished scholar, acute philosopher, and accomplished writer, died at Rome, of a lingering and painful disease, on the 29th of March 1828. The date of his birth we have not been able to ascertain, and consequently cannot pretend to determine his age at the time of his decease.

He seems to have been early ambitious of literary distinction, and in 1794 he published A Review of the Government of Sparta and Athens, large 8vo; a work which, though not destitute of merit, and exhibiting considerable traces of a vigorous mind, yet gave no promise of that bold spirit of speculation for which its author was afterwards so much distinguished. At the close of the year 1795, he was returned to parliament for the borough of St Mawes, in the representation of which a vacancy had occurred; and in the two following parliaments, which met respectively in 1796 and 1801, he sat for the town of Lostwithiel. At the time of his second election he had been appointed envoy-extraordinary to the court of Naples.

In the year 1798, he published The Satires of Persius Translated, 8vo, which happened to appear about the same time with the rival translation of the Roman satirist by Mr Gifford, author of the Baviad and Maviad, and afterwards editor of the Quarterly Review. This translation alone would have been sufficient to fix his reputation as an accomplished classical scholar; and, in point of fact, it has been much admired by all who are competent to appreciate the difficulty of the task which he so successfully performed. It would not be easy, indeed, to overrate the skill with which the niceties of Persius have been discriminated, or the felicity with which the idiomatic peculiarities of that difficult author have been converted into equivalent forms of expression. Drummond's versification is easy, graceful, and precise; and though it wants the piquancy of allusion, the congenial bitterness of spirit, and the occasional point and concentration, which impart so strong a zest to the translation of Mr Gifford, it is yet distinguished for greater freedom and equal fidelity, two things which Drummond has shown that it is not impossible to reconcile.

In the year 1801, Mr Drummond being then ambassador to the Ottoman Porte, was honoured with the order of the Crescent, which was confirmed by license, in the London Gazette, dated the 8th of September 1803.

In 1805 Sir William published his Academical Questions, in 4to, and thereby greatly extended his fame as an author. Hitherto he had appeared only in the character of an elegant and accomplished scholar; but in this work he boldly entered the domain of philosophy, and in a free and fearless spirit attacked every species of dogmatism, whether consecrated by time, or sustained by authority, exposing the weakness of the human understanding, and mortifying the pride of pretended wisdoms, by a collection of what appear to be insoluble cases and indeterminate problems. In this work, however, it is only the task of demolition which he proposes to accomplish; and it must be owned that he has spread abroad the rubbish and scattered the dust of philosophical systems in a somewhat ap-

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1 Forth Feasting. A Panegyricke to the Kings most excellent Majestie. Edinburgh, printed by Andre Hart, 1617, 4to.—This poem occurs in the Muses Welcome, p. 25. 2 Drummond's verses appeared in a publication entitled "The Entertainment of the high and mighty Monarch Charles, King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, into his ancient and royall Citie of Edinburgh, the fifteenth of June 1633." Printed at Edinburgh by John Wreestoun, 1633, 4to. 3 To the Exequies of the Honourable Sir Antwoye Alexander, Knight, &c. A pastorall Elegie. Edinburgh, printed in King James his Calender, by George Anderson, 1633, 4to. Mr Macmillan has reprinted the Poetica Meditata from the earliest edition that has been traced. Edinburgh, 1894, 4to. 4 Nerve's Curious Remarks on some of the Ancient English Poets, particularly Milton, p. 49. Lond. 1789, 8vo.—With respect to the supposed merit of Waller and Denham as improvers of English versification, the reader may consult Mr Crowe's Treatise on English Versification, p. 166. Lond. 1827, 8vo. palling manner. "The author of Academical Questions," says the able critic of the work in the Edinburgh Review, "is indubitably a person of great reading, and much natural acuteness; but he has taken too wide a range, and indulged somewhat too much in a vein of controversial declamation. He often seems to think more of demolishing his antagonist than of enlightening his reader; and sometimes appears to enlarge upon a topic as much for the display of his eloquence as for the support of his reasoning. By frequent reference to the Greek writers, and continual allusions to the usages of antiquity, he expected perhaps to seduce the scholars of the South into metaphysical investigations, and to engage the attention of polite readers by a certain vivacity and polish in the turn of his expression. If this was his view, however, he certainly ought not to have plunged at first into the great gulf of substance and entity." (Edinburgh Review, vol. vii. p. 185.) To these observations, however, it is proper to add, that the author avowedly reserved the full exposition of his own theory for a subsequent volume, though in point of fact it never appeared; and that in this preliminary publication he conceived himself to be only clearing out the foundation on which it was his intention afterwards to build.

In the year 1810, Sir William Drummond, in conjunction with Robert Walpole, Esq., published Herculaneumia, in 4to, containing archæological and philological dissertations, and a copy of a manuscript found amongst the ruins of Herculaneum; and in 1811 appeared an Essay on a Punic Inscription found in the Isle of Malta, royal 8vo; both works of great merit and erudition. Sir William was also an occasional, if not a frequent, contributor to the Classical Journal; in which his papers on subjects of antiquity, particularly the zodiac of Denderah, which occupied without exhausting his ingenuity, attracted the general admiration of the learned, if not always on account of their soundness, at least by reason of the acuteness and originality they display, and the resources of learning which the author had always at command for the illustration of his peculiar views. About this time, Sir William Drummond, whose residence at Constantinople had turned his attention to oriental literature, sacred as well as profane, consigned the fruits of his researches and investigations into the historical hooks of the Old Testament, in his Oedipus Judaicus. This singular work was never published, having been printed solely for distribution amongst the author's friends and acquaintance; but as he had caused a considerable impression to be struck off, copies of it soon found their way into the hands of persons connected with the periodical press, and those of others; and, as might have been expected, it was most fiercely attacked. The first onset was made by a churchman of the name of D'Oyly, in Letters to the Right Hon. Sir William Drummond, in Defence of particular Passages of the Old Testament against his late work entitled "Oedipus Judaicus;" and the attack was renewed in the Quarterly Review, with equal vigour and ability. Whether it was altogether fair thus openly to stigmatize a book which had never been published, we shall not stop to inquire; more especially as the principal cause of regret is, not that it was severely criticised, but that it was ever written, far less printed. In the controversy which thus arose, however, Sir William was overmatched, both in science and in Hebrew, with which D'Oyly and the Reviewer evinced a most intimate acquaintance; and although his reply displayed much ingenuity, no skill could evade, far less destroy, the force of some of the criticisms. The truth is, the allegorical theory which he undertook to establish was taken at second hand from the work of Dupuis; and although the author, notwithstanding all the errors charged against him, brought great stores of learning and erudition to bear upon it, yet the absurdities to which it leads are so glaring, and the consequences which follow from it are so pernicious, that it is surprising Sir William Drummond should not have foreseen the one, or been prudent enough not to hazard the other. The preface, too, though beautifully written, contains observations which nothing can excuse, and irreverences so gross as even to shock persons the least scrupulous about subjects of religion. The profane joke about veal cutlets is worthy only of Mr Thomas Paine, and fit to appear in no work where the ordinary humanities of taste and reason are duly observed.

In 1818 Sir William Drummond published, experimentally we believe, the first part of a poem entitled Odia, 4to, the object of which was to embody in verse some of the more striking features of the Scandinavian mythology. The poem, however, did not succeed in attracting public attention, which was then almost exclusively fixed on some of the greatest masters of song, whose deep voice of inspiration filled the land; and although it contained passages of very considerable power and beauty, it fell into almost immediate oblivion.

But the work on which the reputation of Sir William Drummond as a scholar and antiquary must chiefly rest, is his Origines, or Remarks on the Origin of several Empires, States, and Cities, in 3 vols. 8vo. The first volume, embracing the origin of the Babylonian, the Assyrian, and the Iranian empires, appeared in 1824; the second, which is wholly devoted to the subject of Egypt, including the modern discoveries in hieroglyphics, came out in 1825; and the third, which treats of the Phoenicians and Arabia, was published in 1826. It would be exceedingly difficult, by a general statement, or by critical observations apart from details, to convey an accurate idea of the real character and merits of this work; which, with much that is strained, exaggerated, or defective, to say nothing of errors into which the author is sometimes betrayed by the excessive refinements of an ever active ingenuity, is in several respects one of the most remarkable productions of modern times. A principal feature of the Origines, though certainly the least obtrusive, is, that here the author labours quietly to build up and fortify the authority of the historical books of the Old Testament, which, in the Oedipus Judaicus, he had (probably without intending it) contributed to impair, if not to pull down: whilst by concentrating, as it were, into one focus the various scattered lights of tradition, history, philosophy, science, etymology, and archaeology, he has contrived to illuminate many of the darkest passages in the records of the ancient world; to dispel no inconsiderable portion of the obscurity which overshadowed the origin and annals of the great empires of antiquity; and, even in the merest archæological discussions, to interweave incidental illustrations, alike curious in themselves, and valuable to the scholar, the theologian, and the antiquary. Upon this work, therefore, as on a fixed and enduring pedestal, the fame of Drummond as a scholar must in a great measure rest. Besides its other great and singular merits, it has that which indeed is peculiar to almost all Drummond's works, of being written in a pure, chaste, classical style, full of vivacity and vigour, and sometimes even rising into a rich and lofty strain of eloquence. The dialogue between Neomathes and Philothothe, in the second volume, where the one impugns and the other defends the astronomical and mathematical skill of the ancient Egyptians, may be instanced as a specimen of the grace, elegance, and force of Drummond's style, when it flows in a continuous stream, unbroken by the projecting corners and edges of a hard and rugged erudition.

Sir William Drummond's appreciation of the modern discoveries in hieroglyphics (a subject to which three consecutive chapters of the second volume are devoted) Drummond is, in general, sound and discriminating; and he foresaw sooner than almost any one else, that the powers of the phonetic alphabet, as an instrument of discovery, would be found to have been greatly over-rated. In a letter, dated Naples, 27th April 1827, and addressed to the author of this imperfect notice, he very distinctly shows how fully he had estimated the difficulty which M. Champollion had overlooked, and which now appears to be nearly, if not altogether insuperable. "That M. Champollion's system is accurate to a certain extent," says he, "I admit; and his discoveries do him great honour. Whether he be right in all the details of his system is another question. He establishes the existence of a very great number (I forget the precise number) of phonetic hieroglyphs; and to these, he says, are to be traced all the characters of the running-hand, which he reads with so much ease. Now I cannot help observing, that where there are so many signs to represent each alphabetical letter, and where consequently there must have been various contractions for each of these signs in the running-hand, the task of learning all these contractions without the aid of a master, and of accurately referring them to their prototypes, must be immense. In Sanscrit there are fifty-two letters, and yet there are above eight hundred contractions. To refer these Sanscrit contractions to their original letters is not always very easy; but the difficulty in Egyptian must have been much greater, in which language the phonetic characters, and consequently the contractions, are far more numerous." Here we have the germ of those principles which, developed and applied by Klapproth to the values of characters as set down by M. Champollion, have made terrible havoc of his discoveries, and left him at last little more than what he took without acknowledgment from Dr Young.

Of Sir William Drummond in his public capacity we are not prepared to speak with any degree of confidence, having little knowledge of his services as a diplomatist, or of his capabilities for acting in that character. The habit of his mind was a cautious or rather tentative boldness, accompanied with perseverance, yet tempered with a conciliating blandness of disposition, and an amenity of manners, native to his character; and it is to be presumed that this prevailing tendency showed itself in the conduct of affairs, as well as in abstract or speculative pursuits. In 1808, we find him, whilst resident at the court of Palermo, ostensibly embarked in a scheme for securing the regency of Spain, which had then just risen in arms to throw off the yoke of France, to Prince Leopold of Sicily. As might have been expected, the project misgave at the very commencement, and Sir William Drummond has not escaped censure for the part he had in it. "Sir William Drummond, the British envoy at Palermo, Mr Viale, and the Duke of Orleans," says Colonel Napier, "were the ostensible contrivers of this notable scheme; by which, if it had succeeded, a small party in a local junta (that of Seville) would have appointed a regency for Spain, paved the way for altering the laws of succession in that country, established their own sway over the other juntas, and created interminable jealousy between England, Portugal, and Spain; but with whom the plan originated does not very clearly appear. Sir William Drummond's representations induced Sir Alexander Ball to provide the ship of war, nominally for the conveyance of the Duke of Orleans [since king of the French, who had made no secret of his intention to negotiate for the regency of Spain], but in reality for Prince Leopold, with whose intended voyage Sir Alex-

1 About a hundred and forty; whilst, even by the lowest estimate, the total number of hieroglyphs on the monuments exceeds eight hundred. The drunkard begins to feel the earth unsteady beneath his feet; his sense of equilibrium gives way, and total insensibility succeeds, in which a state of stupor, wild dreams, and horror, strongly contrasts with that of previous excitement. Different individuals are differently affected by the inebriating liquid. The state of the passions at the period of indulging in strong liquors also operates powerfully in modifying its effects. Persons under sentence of death, and immediately before execution, have been known to swallow with impunity draughts of the strongest alcohol, which, under other circumstances, would have rendered them senseless. Hence the remarkable propriety of the language put into the mouth of Lady Macbeth previously to the contemplated murder, when, alluding to the manner in which she had "drugged the possets" of the grooms, she says, "that which hath made them drunk hath made me bold." In some persons constitutional moroseness and melancholy are dispelled; in others their habitual gloom is aggravated. Cases of the latter description, however, are by no means so numerous as those of the former, and the general effect of indulgence in "thick potations" is to dispel the clouds of care, at least for the time being. But the reaction which eventually follows over-excitement serves to deepen the darkness, and, by a dispensation of retributive justice, to inflict certain punishment for the previous delinquency. Drunkards who are of a sanguineous temperament are most intensely excited by the use of strong liquors.

It is unnecessary to enumerate the various inebriating agents, which, as well as temperament, influence the nature of the intoxication produced. Thus ebriety from ardent spirits differs from that generated by malt liquors. Besides alcohol, which is the intoxicating principle in all liquors, there are various substances taken, both in the solid and fluid state, which induce intoxication. The most remarkable are opium, hang, and nitrous oxide gas. The former, it is well known, is in extensive use for this purpose in the East, but the latter has not yet been employed out of the laboratory of the chemist. The effects produced by this gas are described by the discoverer, Sir Humphry Davy, and others who have experienced them, as very delightful, and similar to those felt during the earlier stages of intoxication from wine, but of a purer and more ethereal nature.

Amongst the physiological effects of drunkenness are vertigo, double vision, staggering and stammering, heat and flushing, ringing in the ears, and other analogous affections. Vertigo, though partly produced by the ocular delusions under which the drunkard labours, seems principally to arise from the close sympathy which subsists between the brain and the nerves of the stomach. Double vision is readily accounted for by the influence of increased circulation in the brain upon the nerves of sight. Staggering and stammering may likewise be explained by the disordered state of the nervous system. Heat and flushing result from the strong determination of blood to the surface of the body, and ringing in the ears particularly from the throbbing of the internal carotid arteries, which run in the immediate neighbourhood of the ear. The mental pleasure arising from intoxication is not so easily explained, though the primary cause no doubt is physical or rather nervous excitement gradually superinduced, and thus stimulating both the imagination and the passions. The evil consequences of drinking, both in a physical and moral point of view, are numerous and distressing. On the unhappy victim of this propensity a long train of bodily diseases and infirmities are entailed. The liver, stomach, brain, kidneys, indeed all the functions of the body, are seriously impaired by the practice; and in this state the frame is not only more liable to attacks of disease, but when they do come they are likely to exhibit tenfold inverteracy. Thus life is either suddenly shortened, or protracted into a long disease. Death itself is frequently an immediate consequence of over indulgence. We shall not attempt a classification of the bodily infirmities and pernicious effects which drunkenness produces; but we may mention madness, and spontaneous combustion of the body, as belonging to the number. The former is by no means a rare occurrence, and there are well authenticated cases of the latter. Drunkenness in a judicial point of view is not punishable by our laws; but acts of violence committed under its influence are held to be aggravated rather than otherwise; nor can the accused allege it as an extenuation of the crime of which he has been guilty. In proof of this it may be stated, that a bond signed in a fit of intoxication holds good in law, and is perfectly binding, unless it can be shown that the person who signed it was inebriated by the collusion or contrivance of those to whom the bond was given.

Drunkenness has been known from the earliest ages. Wherever the grape flourished inebriation soon made its appearance. It has greatly varied at different times and amongst different nations. There can be no doubt that in a rude, uncivilized state of society, it prevails to the greatest extent, and assumes the most revolting forms. It is also found to exist more extensively in northern than in southern latitudes, owing no doubt to the difference of climate. As society is refined, the vice certainly diminishes amongst the higher orders, although amongst those in the lower ranks it is still found to exist to a fearful extent. For checking this demoralizing practice various moral engines have been set to work, but without a success commensurate with the philanthropy of the design or the importance to society of the anticipated results. (J. F. S.)