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Pacis hyperboreae vinclum pax reddita nobis.

Sic posita feritate omnes mansuevimus, omnes
Diversis agimur studiis, sua cuique voluptas.
Pars Themidis streperique fori subsellia tentat :
Pars Phariis numeris vigilat, magnique recursus
Explorare poli: veteris pars dogmata Coi
Indagare senis, iuvat ars ex arte medendi:
Hi sua rura colunt, validisque ligonibus instant.
Oceanus placet his, per stagna immensa profundi
Consectantur opes nec terrent proxima leti.
Et non exiguus populus, quem taedia vitae
Otiaque exagitant, cupide nova proelia poscens,
Exulat atque aliis Martem vestigat in oris.
At non Forbesio stadio decurrere tali
Fert animus; dura placitum sudare palaestra.
Ergo cupita sibi indicens certamina, nulla
Tempora, nil nimium procrastinat, incitus, ardens,
Legibus obsequitur quas dixerat ipse; profunda
Hinc probitas gemina diffusa propagine sanctum
Altius impellit pectus; natura ministrat

Et consuetudo duplici munimine vires.

Nil quod dedeceat factum: morum integer, aevi
Integer, innocuis vix laxat frena iuventae
Deliciis, canus studiis lanugine prima,
Atque inclinati reparator plurimus aevi.
Rara quies, comis gravitas, tranquilla serenae
Temperies frontis, parcis dapibusque, profundo
Nunquam mersa mero sunt pocula, nulla profanis
Gratia convivis, castus sermonibus, asper
Et castigator tristis peccantis amici.

Non animo indulsit sectari Heliconia serta,
Displicuitque comis necti Phoebeia laurus.
Et dedignatus Themidis fora, Paeonis artes,
Nec Chaldaeorum damnata scientia cordi est.
Sed vegetum ingenium regerens ad originis altae
Semina, caelestum vetera ad primordia rerum
Fert avidos passus, animoque oculisque salutis
Auctorem agnoscens caelo defixus inerrat.
Et labefacta gemens pietatis germina, laxis

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Moribus indomito pereuntia saecula luxu,
Hinc caligantes sensus mentisque veternum
Et libertatis quaesito nomine certum
Exitium, serpente malo, crescente ruina,
Indoluit miseris, sacrisque operarier infit.

Primaque cura fuit divini nectaris haustu
Perfudisse lares; mox proxima limina sacrae
Aedis inexhaustae senserunt fulmina linguae.
Ac veluti occulto quae fulvi vena metalli
Monte latet, vel quae nescitur clausa profundo
Gemma mari, nullos hominum poscuntur in usus,
Eruta diversis ludunt capiuntque figuris ;
Talis erat, nondum curis immissus apertis,
Divitiis opulens tacitis tectoque metallo.
Agnitus extractus placuit, penitusque probatum
Ambitiosus honos nulla ambitione petitus
Consequitur, sacer ordo premit celsique fatigat
Imperii diadema tenens; communia vota
Contulit haud tacitum iusta ad suffragia vulgus.
Infula sacra sacris manibus collata decoram
Canitiem velat. Sed non hic limes honorum
Constitit; ille artes atque haud vulgariter artes
Edoctus princeps, quibus est respublica sospes,
Addidit augusti fastigia celsa senatus.
Arbitrium patuit rerum, penetralibus altis
Curia, suscepitque lubens; arcanaque regni
Cum patribus consors consortibus ardua tractat.
Non tamen ingenium (tanta est constantia) cedit
Dulcibus illecebris, aut pondere victa laborat
Ignea vis animi, curis gravioribus impar.
Et quanquam illicibus certaret curia fallax
Obsequiis tentare gradus, non fulgor honorum
Emollit rigidum et non exorabile pectus
Illius infixum cordi. Placet una voluptas,
Excubias agitare gregi, vigilantia semper
Lumina, custodes oculos praetendere: siquem
Devius error agat, reducem mox sistere: si quid
Collapsum offendat mox instaurare, labori
Parcere difficilis, pastorum munia recti

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Iudicii trutinans examine; pellere segnes,
Emeritos donis meritisque ornare tropaeis.

At non illa meae pavidae constantia mentis,
Ut te digna canat (magni haec sunt munia vatis,
Et mihi desuetas musas revocare molestum
Implicito curis gravioribus) aut mea vires
Sufficiunt in vota leves, ut grandia rerum
Exsequar inculto versu. Violare pudorem
Hoc erit atque tuae maculas adspergere famae.
Nec tua carminibus vita indiget, error amoris
Pierios agitat numeros; tu solus inani
Nec strepitu crescis verborum, nec tibi livor
Pallidus emeriti decerpit culmen honoris.
Audax morte tua dissolvo vincula linguae
Libera, non calamo venali posco laborum
Praemia, non vocis pretium; pretiosius auro
Sit mihi vera loqui, poscunt tua funera verum.
At quae saepe meo volvi sub pectore, quaeque
Faucibus errabant dubiis, audita severo
Illa supercilio tibi fastidita, supremo
Fas cineri, fas exsequiis maestoque sepulchro
Promere, fas nato tanti solatia luctus
Quaerere, quo vivis redivivus sospite, nulla
Busti damna feres, nulla damnabere longi
Temporis invidia, seris memorabere saeclis.
Aeternumque manent victura volumina, culti
Ingenii decus, et priscos referentia mores.
His commissa tuae quondam tot millia curae
Pascis adhuc dapibus plenis, laticesque ministras
Gurgitibus, nec sola tui provincia nostra
Sentit opes calami, sed Tethys quicquid amaris
Cingit aquis gelidae porrecta per ultima Thules
Littora diversam Rutupini ad marginis oram.

Robertus Gordonus, a Straloch.

14. Ephyraea, Pirene on the Acrocorinthus (Ovid, Met. ii. 240).
15. Cirra, in Phocis (Juvenal, vii. 64; Martial, i. 76, 11).
23. Eridanus, the Constellation, not the river, of that name.
23. Canopi, bright star in constellation Argo. (Lucan, viii. 180).
24. Caurus, N.-W, wind,

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.
I.

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.

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