Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 7.djvu/74

210 Mr Ruddiman, however, was not permitted long to rejoice in the possession of' this elegant testimony of his patron's esteem for him. His house was shortly after broken into by robbers, and the silver cup, with many other articles carried off.

The reputation which the learned and acute grammarian had acquired by the new editions of the works just named, was still farther increased by that in which he next engaged. This was an edition of Virgil's Æneid, as translated into Scottish verse by the celebrated Gawin Douglas. To this work, which was published by Freebairn of Edinburgh, besides superintending and correcting the press, he contributed a Glossary, explaining difficult and obsolete words; a performance which bespeaks great depth of research, soundness of judgment, and singular acuteness of perception. Mr Ruddiman's modesty, (for he was as modest as learned,) prevented him from associating with the Glossary any kind of notice which should point out to the public that he was the author of it; but after some time this fact transpired, and compliments poured in upon him from the most eminent and learned men of the day.

A vacancy happening to occur about this period in the grammar school of Dtuidee, Mr Ruddiman, whose fame as a scholar was now rapidly spreading abreid, was invited to become rector of that seminary; but an advance of salary having been tendered him by the faculty of advocates to induce him to remain, he accepted it, and declined the offer of the magistrates of Dundee, although he thereby sacrificed his pecuniary interests to a considerable amount, for the additional salary which was conferred upon him was still short of the amount of emolument which the rectorship of the Dundee grammar school would hare produced to him.

Still pursuing his literary labours with unremitting industry, he, in 1711, assisted in preparing a new edition of the works of Drummond of Hawthornden, printed by Watson of Edinburgh, and immediately after lent his aid to Abercromby, to publish his "Martial Achievements of the Scots Nation." Mr Ruddiman next devoted himself to philological pursuits; and in 1713, published a new edition of the Latin Vocabulary of John Forrest, with improvements. In the year following, he published that work which filled up the measure of his fame. This was his "Rudiments of the Latin Tongue;" a work which he lived to see go through no less than fifteen editions. It is almost unnecessary to add, that it immediately supplanted all those of a similar kind which had been previously in use, every one of which was singularly defective; and that it has remained in extensive use throughout the grammar schools of Scotland ever since.

Shortly after this, Mr Ruddiman was employed by Freebairn to edit "Buchanan! Opera Omnia," now collected for the first time. To this work, which was published in 1715, in two vols. folio, he contributed large annotations, in which he treated freely both the character and political principles of the author; a procedure which raised him a host of enemies, and involved him in a litigated and annoying controversy. This hostility assumed in one instance the formidable shape of a "Society of the Scholars of Edinburgh, to vindicate that incomparably learned and pious Author (Buchanan) from the Calumnie of Mr Thomas Ruddiman." This association, however, though it included no less than four professors of the university, never made any progress in their proposed "Vindication," and finally dissolved, without accomplishing any thing, although they frequently and confidently promised the world a new edition of Buchanan, with a confutation of Ruddiman.