Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/173

Rh Logan's fifth letter is dated as late as the last of July, and yet it does not appear that the writer knew at that time of the Perth project. Taking these facts in conjunction with the hair-brained character of Gowrie's attempt, it seems highly probable, that although some scheme might be in agitation with Logan, and perhaps some other conspirators, the outrage of the fifth of August was the rash and premature undertaking of two hot-blooded fantastical young men, who probably wished to distinguish themselves above the rest of their associates in the plot

The very scanty information that we possess respecting the character and previous habits of these two brothers, is quite in accordance with this view of the matter, and goes a good way to corroborate it. They are allowed, on all hands, to have been men of graceful exterior, of winning manners, well advanced in the studies of the times, brave, and masters of their weapons. It is not necessary surely to prove at this time of day, how compatible all these qualifications are with a rash and headlong temper, completely subject to the control of the imagination—a turn of mind bordering upon frenzy. A man of quick perception, warm feeling, and ungoverned fancy, is, of all others, the most fascinating, when the world goes smoothly; but he is of all others the most liable, having no guiding reason, to err most extravagantly in the serious business of life: being "unstable as water," he is easily irritated and lashed into madness by adverse circumstances. How much Gowrie was the dupe of his imagination, is evident from the fondness with which he clung to the delusions of the cabala, natural magic, and astrology. Armed (according to his own belief) with powers beyond the common race of man, doomed by his stars to achieve greatness, he laughed at danger, and was ready to neglect the calculations of worldly prudence alike in his aims, and the means by which he sought their attainment. The true state of his brother's mind is pourtrayed, incidentally, by Logan, in his first letter:—"Bot incase ye and M. A. R. forgader, because he is somqhat consety, for Godis saik be very var with his rakelese toyis of Padoa; ftbr he tald me ane of the strangest taillis of ane nobill man of Padoa that ever I hard in my lyf, resembling the lyk purpose." This suggests at once the very picture of a young and hot-blooded man, whose brain had been distracted, during his residence in Italy, with that country's numerous legends of wild vengeance. Two such characters, brooding conjointly over real or fancied wrongs, were capable of projecting schemes, against which the most daring would remonstrate; and irritated by the coldness of their friends, were, no doubt, induced to undertake the execution alone, and almost unassisted.

It only remains to inquire what was the object which Gowrie proposed to himself, in his mad and treasonable attempt, and upon whose seconding he was to depend, suppose his design had succeeded? These two inquiries are inseparably connected, and have been rendered more interesting, by a late attempt to implicate the presbyterian party in the earl's guilt. We are not a little astonished that such an attempt should have been made at this late period, when we recollect, that notwithstanding all the ill odour in which the presbyterian clergymen stood at court, not one of the thousand idle rumours to which Gowrie's enterprise gave birth, tried to direct suspicion towards them. The sole grounds upon which such an accusation can rest for support, are the facts,—that Gowrie's father was a leader among the presbyterians, and his son strictly educated in that faith; that shortly after his arrival in Italy, he wrote one letter to a presbyterian minister; and that some of the Edinburgh clergymen manifested considerable obstinacy in throwing discredit upon the reality of the conspiracy. The two former are of themselves so weak, that we pass them over the more willingly, that we shall immediately point out the motives from which