ful boldness, and in a spirit of manly indignation. Of the downfal of the papal grandeur we meet with the following prediction:

Appeirandlie it may be kend,

Quod he, thair gloir sall haue an end;
I mene thair temporall monarchie
Sall turne intill humilitie:

Throw Goddis word, without debait,
Thay sall turne to thair first estaite.
As Danielis prophesie appeiris,
Thairto sall nocht be mony zeiris.

Towards the conclusion of the poem, he speculates on death, judgment, and celestial beatitude. One passage is too remarkable to be overlooked:

To God alone the day bene knawin,
Quhilk neuer was to nane angell schawin;
Howbeit, be diuers coniectouris

And principal expositouris

Of Daniell and his prophecie,

And be the sentence of Elie;

Quhilkis hes declarit, as they can,
How lang it is sen the warld began,
And for to schaw hes done thair cure
How lang thay traist it sall indure,
And als how mony ages bene,

As in thair warkis may

be sene.

Bot till declair thir questiounis,

Thair bene diuers opiniounis.

Sum wryteris hes the warld deuydit
In ser ages, as bene decydit;

Into Fasciculus Temporum
And Cronica Cronicorum :
Bot be the sentence of Elie,
The warld deuydit is in thrie,
As cunning Maister Carioun
Hes maid plaine expositioun ;
How Elie sayis, without weir,
The warld sall stand ser thousand zeir
Of quhome I follow the sentence,
And lattis other buikis go hence,'
From the creation of Adam

Twa thousand zeir till Abraham;
From Abraham, be this narratioun,
To Christis incarnatioun,

Richt sa hes bin twa thousand zeiris :

And be thir prophecyis appeiris,

From Christ, as they mak till us kend,

Twa thousand till the warldis end:
Of quhilkis ar by gone sickerlie

Fyue thousand fiue hundreth thre and fyftie:

And sa remanis to come, but weir,

Four hundreth with seuin and fourtie zeir;
And than the Lord omnipotent

Suld cum untill his greit iudgement P.

• The Fasciculus Temporum is the production of Wernerus Rolewinck de Laer, a Carthusian monk of St Barbara at Cologne. He was a native of Westphalia, and died in the year 1502. (Vossius De Historicis Latinis, p. 569.) The Chronica Cbronicorum of Hartmannus Schedelius was printed at Nuremburg in 1493. Trithemius characterizes him as " ingenio præstans et clarus eloquio." For a particular account of the chronicle of Carrio, consult Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique, tom. ii. p. 56,

P A similar computation may be found in Wedderburn: “I vil arme me vith the croniklis of Master Ihone Carion, quhar he allegis the prophesye of Helie, seyand, that fra the begynnyng of the varld on to the consummatione of it, sal be the space of sex thousand zeir," &c. (Com playnt of Scotland, p. 54.)

The verity of this prediction cannot yet be ascertained but that of his countryman Napier has failed of its accomplishment. "The day of God's judgement," says Napier, " appeares to fall betwixt the yeares of Christ 1688 and 17009."

9 Napier's Plaine Discovery of the Revelation of St John, p. 12. edit. Edinb. 1645, 4to.-This illustrious man seems to have paid some attention to the study of poetry. In his curious treatise he has versified " certain notable prophecies extract out of the books of Sibylla," which without any apparent scruple he regards as genuine. His work is prefaced by the following address to Antichrist:

The book this bill sends to the beast,

Craving amendment now in beast.

God first to John in Pathmos me presents,
Who sent me syne the seven kirks untill.
As forth I foore with the two testaments,
God's truth to teach in witnessing his will,
Thou, bloody beast! us cruelly did kill,
In sack of schismes syling up our sense:
Our corps unkind then stonished lay still,
Till seventy years eighteen times passed hence.
But now since come is untill audience

of verity,

God's word from heaven, the voyce
Quickening these corps with true intelligence,
So long supprest by thy subtility;

I plain proclaime and proove by prophecy,
That thou, O Rome! rais'd up on hills seven,

City supream and seate of sodomy,

Under whose reign our Lord to death was driven,

And our martyrs rudely rent and riven,
Art heire and eroy to great Babylon;
Whereby her name God hath to thee given.

Thou whore! thou sit'st the bloody beast upon :

Thy dayes are done, thy glory now is gone:
Burnt shalt thou be, and made a den of devils.
Flee from her then, my flock; leave her alone,
Lest that ye be partaker of her evills:

To form a copious selection of striking and poetical passages which occur in the four books of The Monarchie, would be no very difficult task: but when a late writer observes that in many instances Lindsay displays a sublimity of conception which Milton probably disdained not to imitate, we can only admire the boldness of the critic without acquiescing in his decision. It would be equally rational to affirm that Milton borrowed the plan of his great poem from Sir Richard Maitland.

A Latin version of this dialogue was undertaken by David Carnegie of Aberdeen; but the scheme was defeated by his premature death'.

The next poem in the order of the volume is "The Testament and Complaint of our Souerane Lordis Papingo King James the Fyft, lyand sair woundit, and may not die till everie man haue hard quhat scho sayis; quhairfoir, gentill reidaris, haist zow that scho wer out of paine." The object of this work is to admonish the king and his courtiers, and to satirize the dissolute ecclesiastics. The poet undoubtedly discovers much humour and good sense: but most of the strictures might have proceeded from himself with more propriety than from a parrot. The following passage may be quoted as a favourable specimen :

For doth at hand aproach the latter day

When Christ his church shall reign with him for aye.

Gray. Orat. de Illustribus Scotiæ Scriptoribus, p. xxxi.

Dame Chastitie did steill away for schame,
Fra time scho did persaue thair puruiance.
Dame Sensuall a letter gart proclame,

And hir exylit Italie and France.

In Ingland couth scho get none ordinance.
Than to the king and court of Scotland
Scho markit her withouttin mair demand.

Traisting into that court to get comfort,

Scho maid hir humbill supplicatioun.
Schortly thay said scho suld get na support;
But boisted hir with blasphematioun :-
To priestis ga mak zour protestatioun ;
It is, said thay, mony ane hundreth zeir
Sen Chastitie had ony entres heir.

Tyrit for trauell, scho to the preistis past,
And to the rewlaris of religioun.
Of hir presence schortly thay war agast;
Sayand thay thocht it bot abusioun
Hir to resaue; sa with conclusioun,
With ane auise, decretit and gaue dome,
Thay wald resset na rebell out of Rome.

The concluding thought seems peculiarly happy.

The Dreme has been characterized by Warton and Ellis as the most poetical of Lindsay's compositions. After having spent a long winter night without sleep, the poet rises from his bed, and bends his course towards the sea-shore. His description of the faded appearance of the landscape is finely conceived and elegantly exprest: