Of the most Eminent

Lives and Characters
WRITERS
SCOTS NATION;

OF THE

W I TH

An Abstract and Catalogue of their Works;

Their various EDITIONS;

A N D

The Judgment of the LEARN'D concerning

Them.

B Y
GEORGE MACKENZIE, M. D.
Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh.

V O L. II.
Qui autem ducti fuerint fulgebunt quasi Splendor firmamenti. Dan. Cap. XII. V. 3.
Nescio qua natale folum dulcedine cunctos

Ducit, & immemores non finit esse sui. Ovid.
Majorum gloria posteris quafi lumen est; neque buna eorum, neque mala in occulto

patitur. Saluft. de Bell. Jugurth.

Ε Φ Ι Ν Β Ο R G H,
Printed by James Watson in Craig's-Closs, on the North-fide of the

Cross. M. DCC. XI.

Η Ν

Earl of

Jo

of M A R, Lord Garioch, Erskin and Alloway, &c.

Heritable Governour of the Castle of Stirling, hil? Searbowald A N D 3 Val?Auchincruive

Knight of the most Ancient and most Noble Order of the Thistle.

MY LORD

HE Lives of Learned and Eminent

Men naturally claiin the Patronage
of Persons of your Birth and Quality:
For it has been the constant Observa. ,

tion of all Ages, That never any had
T.

the Character of a truly Great Mari
bestowed upon him, but he who was
a Patron to the Muses. Upon which
Account, My Lord, I could not have
published a Work of this Nature, un-
der a inore suitable Patronage than

that of your Lordship; your Family having produced so many Illustrious Persons both in Literature and War, that it were hard to determine, Whether they have deserved most of their Country for their Performances in the One, or Atchievements in the Other. And altho' the brave and shining Actions of Heroes amuse the World more than the Perforinances of the Learned; yet we are told by the Roman Orator (a), That there is a certain Sort of Domestic Valour mbich is equal to the most Glorious Actions of the greatest Heroes; and that the Exploits of the Learned, in their Retirements, are mnie to be value i than all the Victories of the greatest Conquerors, because they are more useful to Nerhind. But, My Lord, altho' the great and main Design of this Work be, to show what amazing Heighths of Knowledge, in all the Sciences, our Predeceffors have arrived to, yet there is likewise an Account of their Noble and Heroic Exploits, no less surprisingly Great than that of their Learning ; in so much, that what the above-cited Orator says of Italy (3), when A

under

(4) Sunt domefiicæ fortitudines non inferiores militaribus, in quibus plus etiam quam in iis operæ ftadiique ponendum. Cic. Orfic: lib. i. (b) Perfecerit ille ut fi montes resediflent, amnes exaruifent, non naturæ præfidio, fed victoria fua rebusque g: His Italiam musitam haberemus, Cic. cont. Pifoni