Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/131

Rh whom Scotland lias boasted. In 1724, Jack published another work, entitled "Institutiones Medicae," republished in 1631. About this period his celebrity had reached the British isles ; and, like his illustrious friend and comrade Vossius, the author of the History of Pelagianism, he was invited to fill the chair of civil history at Oxford, a proffer he declined. This eminent man died on the 17th day of April, 1628, leaving behind him a widow and ten children. He seems to have been on terms of intimate and friendly familiarity with the greatest men of the age. He is said to have been a hard student, to have possessed vast powers of memory, and to have been more attentive to the elegancies of life, and to his personal appearance, than scholars then generally were.

JACK, or JACHEUS,, a classical scholar of eminence, and author of the "Onomasticon Poeticum." The period of the birth of this author is unknown: Dr M'Crie has with his usual industry made investigations into his history, but excepting the circumstances to be discovered from the dedication to his work, none but a few barren facts have been found, which must have ill repaid the labours of the search. He was master of the grammar school at Glasgow, but at what period he entered that seminary is unknown. He relinquished the situation in 1574, and became minister of the neighbouring parish of Eastwood, from which, in the manner of the time, he dates his book "ex sylva vulgo dicta, orientali;" his work is entitled "Onomasticon Poeticum, sive propriorum quibus in suis monumentis usi sunt veteres Poetae, brevis descriptio Poetica;" it is neatly printed in quarto, by Waldegrave, 1592, and is now very rare. It may be described as a versified topographical dictionary of the localities of classical poetry, expressing in a brief sentence, seldom exceeding a couple of lines, some characteristic, which may remind the student of the subject of his readings. He mentions that he has found the system advantageous by experiment; and most of our readers will be reminded of the repeated attempts to teach the rules of grammar, and other matters necessary to be committed to memory, in a similar manner. The subject did not admit of much elegance, and the chief merit of the author will be acknowledged in the perseverance which has amassed so many references to subjects of classical research. A quotation of the first few lines may not be unacceptable:

This passage contains the accounts of Abaris, Abantiadse, Abas, Abates, and Abdera.

In the dedication, which is addressed to James, eldest son of Claud Hamilton, commendator of Paisley, a pupil of the author, Jack complacently mentions that he had been induced to publish by the recommendation of Andrew Melville and Buchanan, and that the latter eminent person had revised the work, and submitted to a counter revision of works of his own. Prefixed to the Onomasticon are encomiastic verses by Robert Pollock, Hercules Pollock, Patrick Sharpe, Andrew Melville, and Sir Thomas Craig. Dr M'Crie has discovered that Thomas Jack, as minister of Rutherglen, was one of those who, in 1582, opposed the election of Ro-