Vide et infr. hujus Epiftolæ, v. 69.-Sic et Eurip. Marco citatus, 1.7.38. Τοις πράγμασι γαρ ουχι θυμεσθαι χρεων hic vero potius τα γινόμενα quain τα πράγματα. Vid. Sat. 7. 1. z. v. 75.

It has often been our custom to look on either fide of the beaten road of literature, and in our perufal of this volume, from the fame excentricity, we were led to pay a particular attention to the lives of the Courtens, chiefly because they have been fo much neglected. In fact we did not recollect that we had ever heard of them before. The author, whofe fignature is C N. appears to be an able and judicious writer. He has given a clear and apparently accurate account of the three merchants, and the fourth William Courten, who was a naturalift. He was known in the latter part of his life by the name of Charleton; for, having collected from the wreck of the eftates of his ancestors, what he could procure, he left the kingdom under that name to avoid litigious profecutions for his debts, Mr. W. Courten appears refpectable as the friend and companion of Locke, with whom his acquaintance commenced at Montpelier about the year 1675. He was alfo the friend and benefactor of Sir Hans Sloane, the correfpondent of Dr. T. Robinfon, Martin Lifter, Mr. Plunket, and Mr. E. Llwyd. He perhaps deferves more honour for being probably the fecond confiderable collector, whofe mufeum was freely and gratuitoufly fhown in England, and for affording, if not the foundation, the most valuable part of Sir Hans Sloane's very extensive collection. The part of this life which it is of most importance particularly to mention, relates to an observation in the fixth volume of the first edition of the Biographia, where it is faid that Mr. Courten left the whole of his collection to Sir Hans Sloane, on condition of his paying certain legacies, &c. On which account there are fome who do not fcruple to say he purchased Mr. Courten's curiofities at a dear rate.' Our present author obferves, that, before the augmentation in 1702, (the former biographer had faid 1701) Sir Hans Sloane's collection was comparatively fmall, as in reality he had collected for Mr. Courten, probably with the hopes of furviving him, fince he was eighteen years younger. Mr. Courten, however, died rich, left Sir Hans Sloane executor and refiduary legatee, with a legacy of 200 pounds. An attefted copy of his will, from the registry of the prerogative court of Canterbury, is fubjoined. We can only find room for the deductions of our author,

Mr. Courten's bequefts and debts, taken all together, amounted to no more than 2,0201. 6s. 8d. fterling. To pay this fum, his executor had in money fecured on two mortgages to dame Ann Knightley, and payable at the death of that lady, then aged eighty-eight, fourteen hundred pounds; and a le

gacy

gacy to himself of zool. more. Dr. Sloane therefore being fole executor and refiduary legatce, might, or might not fell, just as he pleased, and not chufing to part with any thing, he judge ed it most prudent to fecure to himfelf entirely Mr. Courten's mufeum, &c. by paying the expences of his friend's funeral, and a fum of 420l. 6s. 8d.

Now in point of time, thirty years before this, it has been faid in the courfe of the narrative, and it may be feen from the collector's own account of only a very few particulars then purchafed, that this price was not even one half of the fum which Mr. Courten had then expended in three years only, and during the very worst fate of his affairs, when he had the fmallest, indeed no certain income, and was involved in the greatest expence and folicitude.

It ought likewife to be obferved, that Mr. Courten, as appears from the MS. referred to, had not then even begun to collect coins, &c. His mufeum at that time was in its very infancy; the part of it, probably not inconfiderable in fuch an opulent mercantile family, which it is not unreasonable to fuppofe, came to him as an heirloom, augmented no doubt by the contributions of his friends, and his own preceding unapretiated collections, was not included in the estimate here fpoken of; and for more than thirty fucceffive years, it is faid, that "he employed all his time, and the greatest part of his fortune," in enriching and enlarging it.'

We think this a fufficient proof that the affertion, mentioned in the former life, was a rash and inconfiderate one. Mr. Courten's fortune was probably confiderable, independent of the 1400l. for his accounts of expences during two years, found in the MSS. Sloan. (British Mufeum) are ftill extant to prove it; and we have no reafon to think that any part of his income was drawn from a public office or from annuities.

Another new life, which the editor feems to have written with uncommon care, is that of the admirable Crichton; in his attempt he was greatly affifted by the earl of Buchan, and he has cleared much of this hiftory from the fallacy and fable with which it was defignedly or accidentally inveloped. The year of his arth is fixed by lord Buchan to have been 1560, instead of 1551; and he is faid to have been killed by Gonzaga, or at least in an accidental rencounter, from the fame authority, in July, 1582. He was therefore confeffedly twenty years old when he went abroad, and twenty-two only at the time of his death. He was related to Robert II. king of Scotland, by his mother Elizabeth Stuart, a defcendant of the third fon of Robert, the duke of Albany. Rutherford, a commentator on Ariftotle's Logic and Poetics, was his tutor; but he is faid alfo, by Aldus Manutius, to have fhared with the

king in the inftructions of Buchanan, Hepburn, and Robertfon. From Paris, where he is fuppofed to have difplayed uncommon proofs of learning, he went to Rome, from thence to Venice, Padus, and Mantua; and at each place it is afferted that he diftinguished himself with equal fpirit and abilities. Thefe are

the facts which are to be examined.

с

The first particular notice of these admirable' exertions occur feemingly in fir T. Urquhart's Tracts. From this account Mackenzie copied, in the third volume of his Writers on the Scotish Nation' it is this life, which was abridged and dictated from memory, by Dr. Johnfon, to be inferted in the eighty-first number of the Adventurer; and its republication at Aberdeen afforded Mr. Pennant the narrative which we find in his Scotch Tour. The chief facts, therefore, reft on Sir Thomas Urquhart's veracity; for the incidental accounts of Crichton, by Imperialis and Aldus Manutius, fhall be noticed hereafter.

Dr. Kippis does not hesitate to declare his full perfuafion that Urquhart is an author whofe teftimony to facts is totally unworthy of regard. His tracts, our author thinks, afford fufficient proof of this affertion, and one inftance is adduced, where the pedigree and lineal defcent of his family is deduced from the creation of the world: it is the production of an extravagant and erring fpirit.' With respect to two circumstances of his particular story, he mentions that Gonzaga foon died of remorfe, though it is known from hiftory that he fucceeded his father five years and lived thirty years, after Crichton's death; he afferts alfo that, when he wrote, two thousand perfons were living to certify the truth of his narrative; and he wrote nearly feventy years afterwards. In fact, the whole of Urquhart's object was to raise himself and his nation at any rate.

Mackenzie fupports the extraordinary tranfactions of Chrichton at Paris by a quotation from Pafquier's Difquifitiones;" and it has been called the teftimony of an eye-witnefs. But the Difquifitiones is a Latin abridgement of a French work, and, in the original, the ftory is exprefsly faid to be taken from a MS. and to have happened nearly a hundred years before the birth of Crichton. Imperialis, who mentioned the tranfactions in Italy, published his Mufeum Hiftoricum in 1640, fixty years. from the event; and the accounts, recorded by his father, must have happened when he was only thirteen years old; confequently when he was incapable of accurately and clearly under tanding the peculiar circumftances of the facts.

6

The truth of the matter is, that, fome flight circumstances excepted, neither Dempiter nor Imperialis have produced any evidences of Crichton's extraordinary abilities befides thofe which are recorded by the younger Aldus Manutius. He,

therefore,

therefore, is to be regarded as the only living authority upon the fubject. Manutius was contemporary with Crichton; he was clo ely connected with him in friendship; and he relates feveral things on his own perfonal knowledge. He is a pofitive and undoubted witnefs with respect to our young Scotfman's intellectual and literary exertions at Venice and at Padua ; and from him it is that our account of them is given above. Neverthelefs, even Aldus Manutius is to be read with fome degree of caution. Dedications are apt to affume the flyle of exaggeration, and this is the cafe with Manutius's dedication of the Paradoxa Ciceronis to Crichton. In addition to the general language of fuch addreffe, he might be carried too far by his atfection for his friend, which appears to have been very great: nor was the younger Aldus eminent for fteadinefs and confiftency of character. It is even faid that, by his imprudencies, he fell into contempt and mifery. But independently of any confideration of this kind, it may be obferved, that Manutius's narrative, previously to Crichton's arrival at Venice, could not be derived from perfonal knowledge. For that part of it (which is fufficiently erroneous) he was probably indebted to Crichton himfelf. Neither does he appear to have been an eye-witness of the whole of the difputations which were held at Padua; for, fpeaking of his young friend's praise of ignorance, he relates that those who were prefent told him afterwards how much they were ftruck with that oration. However, at the other difputation, which lafted three days, Manutius feems certainly to have attended; for he concludes his accounts of it with faying, that he was not only the advifer but the spectator of Crichtou's wonderful contests. It is evident, however, from the dedication, that his extraordinary abilities were not univerfally acknowledged and admired. Some there were who detracted from them, and were difpleafed with Manutius for fo warmly fupporting his reputation.'

The Dedication is fubjoined. We fhall also tranfcribe our author's conclufion :

One important method yet remains, by which we may be enabled to form a judgment of Crichton's genius, and that is, from a perufal of the four poems of his which are fill preferved. It is, however, to be feared, that thefe will not exhibit him in a very high point of view. Some fancy, perhaps, may be thought to be difplayed in the longest of his poems, which was written on occafion of his approach to the city of Venice. He there reprefents a Naiad as rifing up before him, and, by the order of the Mufes and of Minerva, directing him how to proceed. But this is a fentiment which fo eafily prefents itfelf to a clafical reader, that it can fcarcely be confidered as deferving the name of a poetical invention. The three other poems of Crichton have fill lefs to recommend them. Indeed, his verfes will not stand the test of a rigid examination even with regard

to

to quantity. That our readers may be able to judge for themfelves upon the fubject, the four poems fhall be given in a note*; and this will probably be the more acceptable, not only as they constitute the whole remains of Crichton's productions, but as copies of them, and especially of the two latter odes, are extremely difficult to be obtained.

What, then, is the opinion, which, on the whole, we are to form of the admirable Crichton? It is evident that he was a youth of fuch lively parts as excited great prefent admira- ' tion, and high expectations with regard to his future attainments. He appears to have had a fine perfon, to have been adroit in his bodily exercites, to have poflefied a peculiar facility in learning languages, to have enjoyed a remarkably quick and retentive memory, and to have excelled in a power of declamation, a fluency of fpecch, and a readiness of reply. His knowledge, likewife, was probably very uncommon for his years; and this, in conjunction with his other qualities, enabled him to fine in public difputation. But whether his knowledge and learning were accurate or profound may juftly be queftioned; and it may equally be doubted whether he would have arifen to any extraordinary degree of eminence in the literary world. It will always be reflected upon with regret, that his carly and untimely death prevented this matter from being brought to the teit of experiment.'

From a perufal of the poems we are fully of opinion with the learned author, if we except a few lines from thofe addressed to Aldus Manutius. Perhaps we might add, that, in dif· putations respecting the errors of Ariftotle and his commentators, a quick comprehenfion and a ready elocution were only neceffary to combat with effect. Memory, ingenuity, and a command of languages, qualities neither incompatible with Crichton's years, or his opportunities, might probably have accomplished all that can be fatisfactorily established relating to his difplays of erudition; and, from any degree, or even a complicated exertion of thefe qualities, he will not be found to merit very high commendations, for in early youth they expand and flourish with most luxuriance. Judgment, fteadiness, clofe appli cation, and repeated examination, are to be found only in maturer years; and it is by their exertions that a great literary character can ever be eftablished.

We purpose to examine fome other new lives, and to point out those to which additions have been made, in a future Article.

For thefe poems we refer our readers to the work.

Travels