Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/40

68 which I at once very honourably carried from the other competitors; though some busy people would have had it divided among several, the senate declaring in my favour, and not one among so many excellent men, and eminent in every part of learning dissenting, besides Barnier. The choice being also approved by the consuls, and the other citizens, excepting some few whom I could name if they deserved it; but since they are unworthy so much honour, I shall let their envy and sly malice die with them, rather than contribute to their living by taking notice of them." At this period Dempster must have professed to be a Huguenot, the university of Nimes being destined solely for the professors of the reformed religion. Be this as it may, Dempster, driven from Pisa by the infidelity of his wife, proceeded to Bologna, where he obtained a professorship which he held till his death in the year 1625.

Dempster was the author of many books, and during his own life certainly enjoyed a most extensive reputation. His powers of memory were so great, that he himself was in the habit of saying, that he did not know what it was to forget. Nothing, it was said by some of his encomiasts, lay so hidden in the monuments of antiquity, but that he remembered it ; and they gave him on this account the appellation of a speaking library. He was also allowed to have been exceedingly laborious, reading generally fourteen hours every day. If he really devoted so large a portion of his time to reading, his knowledge of books, even though his memory had been but of ordinary capacity, must have been immense; but he wanted judgment to turn his reading to any proper account. What was still worse, he was destitute of common honesty; "and shamefully," says Bayle, " published I know not how many fables." In his catalogue of the Writers of Scotland, it has been observed that he frequently inserted those of England, Wales, and Ireland, just as suited his fancy; and to confirm his assertions, very often quoted books which were never written, and appealed to authors which never existed. "Thomas Dempster," says M. Baillet, "has given us an ecclesiastical history of Scotland in nineteen books, wherein he speaks much of the learned men of that country. But though he was an able man in other respects, his understanding was not the more sound, nor his judgment the more solid, nor his conscience the better for it. He would have wished that all learned men had been Scots. He forged titles of books which were never published, to raise the glory of his native country; and has been guilty of several cheating tricks, by which he has lest his credit among men of learning.

The catalogue of Dempster's works is astonishingly ample, and they undoubtedly exhibit proofs of uncommon erudition. Of his numerous writings, however, his Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, is the most remarkable, though, instead of being as its title would indicate, an ecclesiastical history of Scotland, it is merely a list of Scottish authors and Scottish saints. The work was composed in Italy, where, it is presumable, the works of Scottish authors were not easily accessible; in consequence of which he could not be expected to proceed with any very great degree of accuracy; but many of his errors, even candour must admit, are not the result of inadvertency, but of a studied intention to mislead. A more fabulous work never laid claim to the honours of history. Of the names which he so splendidly emblazons, a large proportion is wholly fictitious, and his anecdotes of writers who have actually existed, are entitled to any kind of commendation but that of credibility. In extenuation of this fabulous propensity, however, it ought to be observed, that he lived in an age when such fabrications were considered as meritorious rather than reprehensible. The rage for legends framed for promoting the practice of piety, as was foolishly imagined, gave a general obliquity to the minds of men, rendering them utterly insensible