Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/299

Rh years old, when Crichton displayed his talents at Padua; and, besides, his authority is appealed to for no more than a single fact, and that a doubtful one, since it does not accord with Manutius's narrative: and who ever heard (asks the learned critic with great simplicity) of the famous philosopher Arcangelus Mercenarius?" Mr Tytler, after a painful research, has discovered that he was a professor in the university of Padua.

The only other authority, which we at all think it necessary to animadvert upon, is that of Astolfi; and, as much is made of his testimony, we shall lay it fully before the reader: "The abilities of this Scotsman," says he, "are known to all. His name was James Crichton, who appeared like a prodigy in these our times, and was admired for the stupendous powers of his memory. Although a youth of only twenty-two years of age, he yet penetrated into the most recondite sciences, and explained the most difficult passages and the most obscure processes of reasoning in the writings of theologians and philosophers; so that, to all who considered only his early youth, it seemed impossible that he could have read through, to say nothing of committing to memory, such a mass of erudition." That we may not appear invidious in reducing this account, as we have already done a similar one, to, what we conceive to be, consistency; we shall balance it with another contemporaneous document of a rather opposite tendency, that, between the two, we may possibly arrive at something like the truth. This authority is no other than that of the learned Scaliger; the most respectable name which has come in our way, in the course of this inquiry.

" I have heard," says this author, " when I was in Italy, of one Crichton, a Scotsman, who had only reached the age of twenty-one, when he was killed by the command of the duke of Mantua, who knew twelve different languages; had studied the fathers and the poets; disputed de omni scibili, and replied to his antagonists in verse. He was a man of very wonderful genius; more worthy of admiration than of esteem. He had something of the coxcomb about him, and only wanted a little common sense. It is remarkable that princes are apt to take an affection for geniuses of this stamp, but very rarely for truly learned men.' We do not agree with Mr Tytler, when he says, that the encomium of Scaliger, 'he was a man of very wonderfull genius,' "comes with infinite force when we take into account the sarcastic matter with which it is accompanied;' and we cannot but be painfully sensible of the utter poverty of this well-intentioned writer's cause, when he makes appeal to the reader of the fact, that Crichton was even on terms of intimacy with Sperone Speroni.

It still remains, that we notice the four Latin poems, written by Crichton; and we shall do this in the words of Dr Kippis. "Some fancy, perhaps," says he, "may be thought to be displayed in the longest of his poems, which was written on occasion of his approach to the city of Venice. He there represents a Naiad as rising up before him, and, by the order of the muses and of Minerva, directing him how to proceed. But this is a sentiment which so easily presents itself to a classical reader, that it can scarcely be considered as deserving the name of a poetical invention. The three other poems of Crichton have still less to recommend them. Indeed, his verses will not stand the test of a rigid examination, even with regard to quantity."

"What, then," concludes the same learned authority, "is the opinion, which, on the whole, we are to form of the Admirable Crichton? It is evident, that he was a youth of such lively parts as excited great present admiration, and high expectations with regard to his future attainments. He appears to have had a fine person, to have been adroit in his bodily exercises, to have possessed a peculiar facility in learning languages, to have enjoyed a remarkably quick and retentive memory, and to have excelled in a pow r er of declamation, a flu-