futility of that critic are expofed. There paffed alfo fome very smart pamphlets on each fide; till at length fome common friends, as much fatigued with this literary war as Puffendorff, fet themselves to put an end to it: they effected their purpofe, and the two combatants laid down their arms. The queftion agitated in this dif pate was, "Whether the law of nature was to be derived from nature, before, or after, the fall of man, in the state of fin, or of innocence?" a queftion merely theological, and which might have been kept from a philofophical work. if he failed the appointment. Our philofopher paid no regard to this letter, and, without deigning to anfwer it, fent it to the confiftory of the academy, who proceeded against Beckman. This circumftance worked up his rage to the highest pitch. He meditated how to affafinate his adverfary, but was happily checked in his defign: the only refource left him was to vent his gall upon paper. He did fo, attempting to render Puffendorff odious by repeated writings; all of which were either refuted by the latter himself, or his friends. Schwartz, during the process of his confederate, had kept a prudent filence, and behaved with the fame circumfpection, till he had procured a poft elsewhere; having obtained which, he quitted his profeffor's chair at Lunden, and retired to Denmark. There, under the name of Severin Wildfchutz, whofe mother he had married, he published a writing, This difpute was fcarcely ended, when Meffrs, Beckman and Schwartz began theirs anew. The first, in despair at having injured himfelf, while he aimed at hurting our philofopher, confidered in his exile only how to revenge himself. He began by publishing a very fatirical piece against him, in which he treats him as a devil'intitled, " A difcuffion of the caincarnate. The title alone is a fufficient indication of the most unbridled rage. After this ftroke, M. Beckman determined to attack him perfonally; accordingly, he challenged him to a duel, and wrote to him from Copenhagen, where he then was, demanding a reafon for his conduct, by way of arms, and pointing out the place where he was to meet and fight with him; at the fame time threatening to purfue him wherever he might be, lumnies bafely advanced in the Eris Scandica of Samuel Puffendorff, against a venerable man, under the pretence of a lift of his errors, &c." Puffendorff, fatiated with thefe kind of hoftilities, did not think proper to give this difcuffion a ferious anfwer, but contented himself with refuting it by a letter, which he fuppofed written by Joshua Schwartz, to his fon-inlaw Severin Wildfcbyfius; giving the name of the latter an ironical termination to exprefs the Nicolai Beckmanni legitimi defenfio contra magiftri Samuelis Pufendorfii, execrabiles fictitias calumnias, quibus illum contra omnem veritatem et juftitiam, ut carnatus diabolus et fingularis mendaciorum artifex per fictitia fua entia morelia (diabolica puto) toti honesto ac erudito malitiofe exponere vsluit. "Naturalis five brutalis et gentilis Puffendorfii spiritus, &c." contempt Contempt he entertained of his perfon, and turning both characters into ridicule. Other fatirical writings appeared against our philofopher; which he took no pains to anfwer: a more important office engaged his time; the abridgement of his treatife of the laws of nature and nations, which he published in 1673, under the title De officio bominis et civis juxta legem naturaem; "The duty of a man, and a citizen, according to the law of nature" which he followed, in 1682, by an Introduction to the general and political history of the univerfe. He found that the law of nature and nations could not be confidered as an hiftory, and that without it, it is but an abstract fpeculation, and apt to milead. This work had alfo its utility independent of every other confideration. In the abridgments of history published before his introduction, the writers had neglected to refer back to the general principles common to all human focieties, however they might have confidered thofe particular ones which are fo effential to this or that people, as not to be given up without danger: Principles dependant upon the fituation of the country, the manners and genius of the inhabitants, greater or lets power of its neighbours, its own forces, which are not always in the fame degice, and a variety of other circumftances. In his introduction, our philofopher attended to all thee; was highly ellcomed by all men of learning; and by them duoully spread through the world, in various tranflations which they made of it into different languaXe the While he endeavoured to ba ufeful to mankind in the folitude of his study, difturbances took place in the province of Schenen, where he then refided: and it foon became the feat of war: upon this he left Lunden, and retired to Stockholm, where he was received by the court with the greatest diftinction, and honoured with the place of fecretary and historiographer to the king. In this character he wrote his excellent hiftory of Sweden, in twenty-fix bocks, commencing with the arrival of Guttavus Adolphus in Germany, and concluding with the abdi. cation of Chriftina. It is indeed efteemed the beit history now extant, of that famous war which laid Germany wafte for thirty years together. It appeared in 1685, and was afterwards continued by our author, with the life of Charles Guftavus, king of Sweden, and fucceffor to Chriftina; but the continuation was not publifhed till a long time after. During this interval, in the year 1687, he printed a little tract upon the connection between religion and civil life; the defign of which is to fet juft bounds betwixt ecclefiaftical and civil power, with a view to establish public tranquil lity. To this he afterwards added an appendix, refuting the principles of Adrian Houtin, refpecting the power of fovereigns in religious matters. All thefe works, particularly his great history of Sweden, gained Pufendorff fo high a reputation, that fovereign princes zealously made intereft to leave to polleriy the history of their adminifeation written by fo celebrated a pen. Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, invited him to Ber lin, and appointed him his hiftoriographer; and almost at the fame time, he was folicited by the emperor Leopold to write the hiftory of his reign. Private reafons forbade him to accept the latter request. He remained, therefore, at the court of Brandenburg, which, the more laftingly to attach him to its interefts, honoured him with the dignity of a privy counsellor, The emperor, far from taking ill our author's preference of this court, gave him a ftriking proof of his efteem, by conferring upon him the title of Baron of the holy empire. Puffendorff tock care properly to thank the emperor for fo high a favour; but thought it did not become him to interrupt the Hiftory of the elector Frederick William the Great, which he had begun. He finished it under the infpection of Frederick III. elector of Brandenburg, first king of Prufia. Always the friend to truth, he had written with greater fincerity than the court of Berlin required. He had freely availed himself of the archives of the houfe of Brandenburg, and had drawn from thence a variety of myfterious facts, the publication of which appeared dangerous. It was thought prudent not to reveal fecrets which ought to be kept entirely with minifters. For this reafon the history did not appear till after a fevere revifal, in which the cenfors erafed whatever they thought proper. Caution however was ufed, in confideration of the author, and fuch caution as it became neceffary to recur to when the work was publihed; feveral alterations were made in it, and in fome places whole pages fuppreffed. Our philofopher did not live to fee the end of the impreffion. A diforder in his foot, which he neglected, brought him to the grave: a flight matter at first; but it turned to an inflammation, followed by a gangrene, There remained no other refource for avoiding the progress of the complaint, than to cut off his foot, and he could not refolve to give his confent. The elector of Bran, denburg, who wished to fave his life, whatever it might coft, engaged the phyficians and furgeons to ufe every effort to promote a cure. They were of opinion that their patient's fear of the pains of amputation outweighed the fear of death: they concluded therefore to compofe him, and cut off his leg as he lay afleep. The operation was performed with fuccefs: and our author, on waking, found himself better; but when he learned what had paffed in his fleep, it fo powerfully chagrined him, that the fever, infeparable from this kind of operation, increased, and carried him off in a fhort time. He died October 26, 1695, aged fixty-three years. An account of the life and writings of George Buchanan; extracted from the French of M. le Clerc, Gorge Buchanan was born in the county of Lenox in Scotland, in February 1506. His fa. ther died young, and left his family, which confifted of five fons and three daughters, in great po verty. Nevertheless, James Heriot, George Buchanan's uncle, having obferved in him fome marks of genius, took the charge of his education, and fent him to Rudy at Paris. He there applied himself to Latin poetry, partly by inclination, and partly as that was the principal branch of the Belles Lettres then cultivated in the univerfity at Paris. He had fcarce been there two years, when his uncle died. Indigence, and an illness with which he was attacked, then obliged him to return to Scotland. After living a year at home, for the recovery of his health, he went into the army, with a defign to learn the art of war. This was probably in the year 1523, when John Duke of Albany, viceroy of Scotland, carried fuccours from France into Scotland against the English, with which, however, he could not take the fort of Werk on the Tweed; as Buchanan fays (in his Life) that on account of the fnows that fell, he drew off his army without attempting any thing. He fell ill again, and kept his bed all the winter: but being recovered at the beginning of the year 1524, as he was then in his 18th year, he refumed his ftudies, and was fent to St. Andrew's, to study under John Major, who then taught logic there, or rather, as Buchanan fays, fophiftry, or the art of difputing, in the manner of the fchools. In the fummer following, Major went to Paris, and Buchanan followed him thither, though it feems he had no high opinion of his tutor's learning, as he has fmartly ridiculed it in an epigram: As Luther's tenets were then the chief fubject of difcourfe at Paris, Buchanan there began to imbibe the doctrine of the reformers, though he did not profefs it, either through fear, or because he had not yet examined their fyftem. He lived there almost two years, without any employment, fo that he could fcarce find fubfiftence; but at length in 1526 he was made regent in the college of St. Barbe, and taught grammar there, being then twenty years old. He continued in this office about three years; before the expiration of which, Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Caffilis, took him into his family, where he kept him five years, and carried him with him into Scotland, about the year 1534Buchanan had a defign of returning to France, in order to purfue his ftudies there, but K. James V. detained him to be tutor to one of his natural fons, who was afterwards the famous James Earl of Murray. Buchanan, who, on account of his religious fentiments, or of his polite learning, to which the monks in general then were enemies, was no friend to the Cordeliers, had written a fatirical elegy against them, entitled Semnium. In it he pretends, that St. Francis had appeared to him, and invited him to turn Franciscan; but that he replied, that, he was by no means qualified, as he could be a flave to no man, nor could he become impudent, a cheat, a beggar; and that, befides, very few monks were • faved." The Cordeliers having had a copy of this poem, complained of it; and as that was not fufficient to ruin him, they accufed him of herefy; a charge of which they at that that time ufually availed themfelves to destroy thofe whom they hated; as indeed is ftill their practice. The behaviour of the monks confirmed him more than ever in his attachment to Lutheranifm. In May 1537, king James V. carried from France inte Scotland, Magdalen of France; and the partifans of Rome were very apprehenfive that that princefs might have the fame tenets as Margaret queen of Navarre, who had had the care of her education; but the death of that princefs, which happened foon after, difpelled these fears. The king having difcovered a confpiracy, and being perfuaded that fome Cordeliers had behaved with infincerity on that occafion, ordered Buchanan to write against them; not knowing that he before had had a quarrel with them. He therefore wrote against them, but with fome caution, and made ufe of equivocal expreffions, in order to defend himself, if neceffary, by a favourable conftruction. With this the king was not fatisfied, and infifted on his writing against the monks with more energy. He then compofed his Francifcanus, the beginning of which he delivered to the king. 'Tis a piece wholly fatirical, and in it Buchanan has comprised all the ill that could be faid of the monks in terms as clear and strong as poffible. He has rather imitated the flyle of Juvenal than that of Horace, and bites much more than he rallies. After fuch a defperate attack, it is no wonder that the Cordeliers employed all their efforts to ruin him. The king, who was weak and fickle, fuffered him, with maay others, to be arrested at the beginning of 1539, for herefy. But his friends having informed him that Cardinal Beaton, archbishop of St. Andrew's, was labouring to deftroy him, and had offered the king money, in order to detach him from his intereft, he thought it not prudent to wait in prifon for his fentence. So, deceiving his guards, he escaped by his chamber window, and withdrew into England. However, England was not a place in which he could live with fafety; and the partifans of Rome, and those who favoured the opinions of the reformers, were burned there at the fame time, and at the fame take. Buchaman thought he had better retire into France, whofe customs and manners, to which he was used, were far more fuitable to him. Accordingly, he went thither: but finding that Cardinal Beaton was ambaffador there, he was afraid to stay at Paris, and therefore went immediately from thence to Bourdeaux, to which place he was invited by Andrew de Govea, a learned Portuguese. There he taught three years in the college that was just founded there; and the fame year, prefented in the name of the college, fome beautiful Latin verfes to Charles V. as he paffed through that city in his way to Flanders. Buchanan wrote at Bourdeaux four tragedies, which were afterwards printed at different times: but the first of them, which was John the Baptift, was printed the last; excepting the Medea of Earipides. He wrote them in compliance with the custom of the cullege, which required the ftudents to act a tragedy every year; and with a view of diverting them from allegories, |