65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 Pacis hyperboreae vinclum pax reddita nobis. Sic posita feritate omnes mansuevimus, omnes Et consuetudo duplici munimine vires. Nil quod dedeceat factum: morum integer, aevi Non animo indulsit sectari Heliconia serta, 105 IIO 115 120 125 130 135 Moribus indomito pereuntia saecula luxu, Primaque cura fuit divini nectaris haustu 140 145 150 155 160 165 170 Iudicii trutinans examine; pellere segnes, At non illa meae pavidae constantia mentis, Robertus Gordonus, a Straloch. 14. Ephyraea, Pirene on the Acrocorinthus (Ovid, Met. ii. 240). N 32. Dea, the silvery Dee, contrasted with Don winding through a peat soil. 34. Cardine. “Extremum hunc terrarum angulum, penè sub ipso mundi cardine iacentem, illustrem olim fecit Buchananus" (Arthur Johnston, Dedication of Delitiae Poet. Scot. i. p. 4), imitating Gordon here. 36. Hieronymus, Jerome born in Pannonia. 38. Levinia, The Lennox. "In Levinia Scotiae provincia natus," as Buchanan says of himself. 40. Thebes, with Pindar. The atmosphere of the low and swampy districts was supposed unfavourable to mind. "Boeotûm in crasso aere natum" (Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 244). But Homer, Iliad, v. 710, speaks of the Tíova dîμov. 40. Ascra, with Hesiod, who (Works & Days, 638) describes it as bleak and wintry. 42. Patrick Forbes, born at Corse, Aug. 24, 1564. Fourth in descent from Patrick Forbes, armour-bearer to King James III., to whom that king granted (Dec. 7, 1476) the lands of O'Neil and Corse; he was the third son of James, second Lord Forbes. 46. Text gives 'Forbesidum dom '. 66. Phariis, Egyptian Mathematicians like Euclid, Eratosthenes, and Hipparchus. 67. Coi, Hippocrates of Cos. 72-74. "The Scot Abroad," particularly in Germany during the Thirty Years' War (Scott, Tales of a Grandfather, ch. xl.; Fischer's Scots in Germany). 80. gemina, on both sides; of the father, William Forbes of Corse, and of the mother, Elizabeth Strachan, of the house of Thornton in Kincardineshire (Shand's Funerals, p. xxvi.). 92. Subject to deduction. "We may remark that the Bishop himself indulged in skips across the poetical field, for in his Eubulus (1627) he not only gives summaries of each division of his argument in rhyme, but appends two pieces to his main work" (Walker, Bards of Bon-Accord, p. 58). For them, and the citation of The Author his Meditation on the 63 year of his Age, now Outrunne, see Shand, Pref. cxv. 95. Chaldaean astrologers, astronomers, fortune-tellers, used broadly for Mathematicians; Babylonii numeri, Chaldaicae rationes (Hor. Odes, i. 11, 2). Often banished from Rome. "Mathematici, genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus fallax, quod in civitate nostrâ et vetabitur semper et retinebitur" (Tacitus, Hist. i. 22). 99. inerrat, roams. But he really means "is fixed," from the use of stella inerrans, a fixed star (Cicero, De. Nat. ii, 21, 54). 109-14. Strong and excellent lines on the 'gem of purest ray serene'. 116. "The redundancy of expression and fulsome flattery of the Monarch appearing in Forbes' letters according to the custom of the age,-while it cannot be said that they contain in so many words a positive and flat refusal of the office, they show distinctly that the mitre was not an object of his solicitude" (Shand, Pref. lxvi.). 122. "According to the custom, which not a little contributed to the unpopularity of the Episcopal Churchmen, both with the nobility and the mass of the people, King James VI. and his son Charles I. made use of the great abilities and talent for business possessed by Forbes, by giving him a seat at the Board of the Privy Council" (p. lxxxii. ibid.). 131. illex, enticing, fr. illicio. Ante and post-classical. Attempts to win him to the extreme ecclesiastical designs of the Court; a highly significant admission. 172. Rutupiae, Richborough (Juvenal, iv. 141) in Kent. In his De Insula Thule Dissertatio Gordon attempts to show that Thule of the Romans was neither the Orkneys nor Iceland, but the island of Lewis, PATRICK JAMIESON. Has not been traced. DIRGE FOR PATRICK FORBES. ARGUMENT. If you seek his descent, he was the hero of Corse. If you ask his early training, the Clyde that knows it is not yet silent over it. St. Andrews itself, where the Muses of Scotland justly raise their head, claims from him fresh titles to praise. As he was in youth the ornament of the Muses, so he was in age the chief glory of the senate and the mitre. Nor did his manhood belie his youth and age. His honour ever grew steadily. II. If notable signs bespeak a notable nature, Forbes carried off every vote. A winning and gracious amiability shone in his face, united to a grave dignity of manner. His words, dashed with nectar, hovered on his sacred lips, and gave thus an additional weight to his utterance. His mere reading, wonderful to tell, explained any dark page in a book that might occur. As his heart was stored with the hidden wisdom of Minerva, so his tongue was the happy dispenser of the riches of his mind. It was the care of Heaven that all human good, all that befits a bishop, should pass to him alone. III. Ten lustra and seven more he completed, strong in mind, in courage, in pen and counsel. If, for merit's sake, years gave way to virtues, he should have counted an infinity of days. |