Reginald Scott. DIED A. D. 1599. REGINALD OF REYNOLD SCOTT, was the son of John Scott, Esq. of Scott's hall near Smeeth in the county of Kent, where it is probable he was born about the middle of the sixteenth century, but the precise date of his birth does not appear. He is chiefly remarkable in the history of his country for having effectually counteracted the popular notions which prevailed till his time concerning witchcraft,—a service which justly entitles him to the respect and gratitude of all who feel interested in the civilization and improvement of human society. At the age of seventeen he was sent to Hart hall, Oxford, where he continued to pursue his studies for some time, but without taking any degree. Upon leaving the university, he returned to his native place and continued to devote himself to the pursuits of science and literature. After his marriage, which took place early, he turned his attention to agriculture and gardening. The growth of the hop had about that time excited much attention, and had been successfully introduced into the county of Kent. The first work which Mr Scott published was upon its culture, and was entitled, A perfect Platform of a Hop-garden.' But his thoughts were soon after directed to a widely different and more im portant subject. The frequent charges brought against unhappy and misguided persons for witchcraft, the prevalence of most pernicious errors, not only among the vulgar, but some of the learned,—and the absurdity and cruelty of the laws upon this subject, powerfully drew his mind to an examination of the origin and history of the prevalent opinions. His great and useful work, entitled 'Discoveries of Witchcraft,' first appeared in 1584, and had a few years after the rare honour of calling forth, as its opponent and refuter, the high and mighty Prince James I. whose Demonologie' was printed at Edinburgh, in 1597, and directed, as the preface states, against the damnable opinions of Wierus and Scott. The Discoveries of Witchcraft' produced a deep and powerful impression. The author appealed both to the reason and benevolence of the Christian world, and alleged that his object was by his work to prevent the abasement of God's glory, the rescue of the gospel from an alliance with such peevish trumpery, and to advocate favour and Christian compassion towards the poor souls accused of witchcraft, rather than rigour and extremity. But the popularity of the doctrine assailed, continued for a time to bid defiance to the attack. The author drew upon himself universal scorn and odium. Several learned and skilful champions stepped forth to rescue the popular notions from the destruction to which they were doomed. Meric Casaubon, Joseph Glanvil, and Dr John Raynolds, became strenuous defenders of the prevalent opinions, and revivers of them from time to time as they appeared to be gradually decaying. But all in vain. Even the charge of being Sadducees soon wore itself out. The motives and the fears of such writers as Glanvil are to be respected. He saw, or thought he saw in the doctrine of Scott, covert atheism, and therefore fought in this controversy less against the scepticism which denied witchcraft, than against that disbelief in spiritual agency which he thought implicated the im mortality of the soul, and the being of a God. “We live in an age," says Glanvil," wherein atheism is begun in Sadducism, and those that dare not bluntly say there is no God, content themselves, for a fair step and introduction, to deny there are spirits or witches. Which sort of infidels, though they are not so ordinary among the mere vulgar, yet are they numerous in a little higher rank of understandings." Glanvil's essay entitled Philosophical considerations against modern Sadducism,' is a very curious and ingenious piece of sophistry, written under the impulse of commendable motives, but at the same time evincing little of the enlargement of mind and freedom from vulgar prejudice which should characterize a sound philosophy. Yet the amiable author flatters himself continually with the persuasion, that his opponents were the only parties that had forfeited the character of true philosophers. He says, "I profess, for mine own part, I never yet heard any of the confident declaimers against witchcraft and apparitions, speak any thing that might move a mind in any degree instructed in the generous kinds of philosophy and nature of things. And for the objections I have recited, they are most of them such as rose out of mine own thoughts, which I obliged to consider what might be to be said upon this occasion. For though I have examined Scott's discovery, fancying that there I should find the strong reasons of men's disbelief in this matter; yet I met not with any thing in this farrago that was considerable. For the author doth little but tell odd tales and silly legends, which he confutes and laughs at, and pretends this to be a confutation of the being of witches and apparitions. In all which his reasonings are trifling and childish; and when he ventures at philosophy, he is little better than absurd: so that I should wonder much if any but boys and buffoons should imbibe prejudices against a belief so infinitely confirmed, from the loose and impotent suggestions of so weak a discourse." It is probable, however, that this attempt to prop up the failing prejudices of the common people and the fond fancies of the learned, only contributed to root up more thoroughly all belief in the doctrine, at least in the minds of educated and benevolent Christians. Glanvil wrote long after Scott's death, but the seventeenth century saw Scott's work revived in two editions. The author lived to read the Royal controvertist's refutation, but died in 1599, two years after its appearance. He is represented as an amiable benevolent man, living much in retirement and conversing chiefly with his books. Thomas, Lord Sackville. BORN A. D. 1536.-DIED A. D. 1608. THIS nobleman, the son of Sir Richard Sackville of Buckhurst, in the parish of Withiam, Sussex, was born in the year 1536. Mr Warton, however, affirms, that his birth should be placed at least siz years earlier. It appears that the ancestors of the family came into England with William the Conqueror, and that their descendants have been of great note here ever since. Thomas Sackville first received a private education, and was then entered, it is conjectured, at Hart hall, now Magdaien college, Oxford, whence he removed to Cambridge, and at a suitable time took the degree of M. A. He was early distinguished by his talent both for Latin and English poetry. After quitting the university, he removed to the Inner temple, where he continued to cultivate his poetic genius. He prosecuted the law so far as to be called to the bar, but without any intention of practising it, having expectations of an ample patrimony. He became a representative in parliament for Westmoreland, in the 4th and 5th years of Queen Mary. About the year 1557, he sketched the plan of a poem, and wrote the introduction to it, under the title of The Mirrour of Magistrates' It was intended to comprehend a view of all the illustrious but unfortunate characters of English history, from the Conquest downward. He found leisure to complete only what he called the Induction and one legend, or the Life of Henry Stafford, duke of Buckingham. The design was committed in its completion to other hands. Some years after, he produced a tragedy, entitled Gorboduc,' which was performed in the Inner temple, and afterwards before Queen Elizabeth with great applause. Its popularity was probably increased by the courtly politics which it taught. About the year 1557, he married a lady, his own kinswoman, with whom he passed the whole of his subsequent life. During the first years of Queen Elizabeth's reigns, he became member of parliament for Sussex, and afterwards for Buckinghamshire. After this he went abroad, owing, it is believed, to his extravagant mode of living in his youth, by which his affairs had become embarrassed. His father died in 1566, while he was at Rome, and confined to a prison, but for what cause is not known. His liberation was, however, soon after obtained, and he returned to England to take possession of his large inheritance. In the following year, he received the honour of knighthood, and was raised to the peerage by the title of baron of Buckhurst. He was selected in 1570, on account of his character and accomplishments, by Queen Elizabeth, to head an embassy to the court of Charles IX. of France, to compliment that monarch on his marriage with the daughter of the Emperor Maximilian. His taste for magnificent display on this occasion again embarrassed him with heavy debts. He was afterwards employed on several important missions to foreign courts. One of these, which was designed to inquire into the complaints of the Low Countries against the earl of Leicester, was the occasion of his being confined to his own house. The reports which he brought home were so displeasing to the royal favourite, that the queen forbade him the enjoyment of his liberty for nine months. On the death of Leicester, he was, however, immediately released. Such was the spirit of submission to royalty in this chivalrous age, that Lord Buckhurst, upon the testimony of his chaplain, Abbot, during all this period, refused to see either wife or child. But the removal of Leicester made way for the promotion of Buckhurst. In 1589, the queen conferred upon him the order of the garter, and employed her royal will to procure for him the chancellorship of Oxford, in opposition to the earl of Essex, whom, though another new favourite, she occasionally took a delight in humiliating. While residing at Oxford as chancellor, the queen honoured him with a visit of several days. In 1598, Lord Buckhurst was united with the treasurer Burleigh in negotiations for a peace with Spain, and subsequently signed a new treaty with the States-general, very advantageous to Eng land. Upon the death of Burleigh, the queen nominated him to the office of treasurer. In this situation, he is said to have been eminently serviceable to her majesty in detecting and defeating the ambitious projects of the earl of Essex. He also sat as high steward, and conducted himself with great propriety and humanity at the trial of that unfortunate nobleman. He was distinguished by political independence, though he appears to have been entirely devoted to the service of his queen, and to have stood entirely in her good graces. On this account she continued to place her confidence in him, and to employ him in the most important affairs as long as she lived. After the queen's death and the accession of James I., his office of treasurer was confirmed to him for life. In 1604, he was created earl of Dorset, but did not long survive to enjoy his new honours. He continued his attention to affairs of state to the last hour of his life, dying at the council-table in April, 1608, at the age of eighty, or nearly so. Although the earl of Dorset is not to be placed in the foremost rank of statesmen, yet, as a speaker and writer, he is entitled to the highest respect of posterity. He composed nearly all his state-papers himself, and made valuable improvements in the style and taste of English poetry. It is no light praise that he perceived the absurdity and impiety of scriptural dramas, and struck out a less questionable amusement for mankind in the incidents of common history. He brought the English heroic verse nearly to perfection, and gave the first specimen of tragedy in blank verse. His Gorboduc' was the first dramatic piece of any note in the language, and was written many years before Shakspeare composed his plays. Its first title was 'The Tragedie of Ferrex and Porrex.' He was assisted in it by Norton, a fellow-labourer of Sternhold and Hopkins. It was surreptitiously and incorrectly printed in 1565; but more completely in 1570; and in 1590, took the title of Gorboduc.' It was republished in 1736 by Dodsley, with a preface by Mr Spence, at the suggestion of Pope, who "wondered that the propriety and natural ease of it had not been better imitated by the dramatic authors of the succeeding age." Sir Philip Sydney, in his Apology for Poetry,' gives this lofty character of it: It is full of high sounding phrases, climb ing to the heights of Seneca's style, and as full of notable morality, which it doth most delightfully teach, and so obtain the very end of poesy." The Mirrour of Magistrates' which he commenced and sketched, was completed by Mr Baldwine, Mr Higgons, Mr Ferrers and Mr Churchyard, men highly esteemed for their genius and accomplishments. The earl also wrote a Latin letter prefixed to Clarke's translation into Latin of Castiglione's Courtier,' printed 1571. There are also several letters of the earl's preserved in the Cabala, and one to the earl of Sussex, printed in the Howard Collection, p. 297.1 The following epigram on his death is preserved by Aubery, in his Letters of Eminent Persons,' vol. ii. p. 331: Uncivill Death, that wouldst not once conferre. Dispute or parle with our treasurer! Had he been thee, or of thy fatal tribe, He would have spared thy life, and ta'ne a bride. 1 Collin's Dict. —Aiken's Biog.—Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors. He that so often had, with gold and witt, The allusion in the two last lines is to the statement, that a trial was proceeding before the council, when the lord-treasurer, Dorset, took from his bosom some writings to give as evidence, saying, "There is that will strike you dead; and as soon as he had spoken these words. fell downe stark dead in the place." John Dee. BORN A. D. 1527.—died A. D. 1608. FEW names occur in the early history of English science more deserving of notice than that of John Dee. Living in an age when philosophy was encumbered with a load of scholastic subtleties, and perverted in its very spirit by superstition and credulity, he evinced a strength and vigour of intellect, which were sufficient for every thing, but to overcome the temptations peculiar to the period in which he laboured. Had he lived posterior to Bacon, and possessed the light which the inductive system would have afforded him, the happiest results might, in all probability, have crowned the almost gigantic energy with which he pursued the sciences. But an ardent temperament led him to espouse the wildest theories that were afloat in his age, and the little solid reputation he has enjoyed with posterity, is owing not to the value of his works, but to the records which remain of his wonderful assiduity and acquirements. This remarkable man was born in London, July 13, 1527, and could boast of being descended from one of the most ancient fa.nilies in Wales. His father, who is generally stated to have been a vintner, was a man of property, and sent his son, at the age of fifteen, to Cambridge, where he was entered at Saint John's college. The devotion to study which distinguished him through life, characterised the very commencement of his career. "I was sent by my father"—says he in an account he gives of himself at this period-" to the university of Cambridge, there to begin with logic, and so to proceed in the learning of arts and sciences, for I had before been meetly well furnished with understanding of the Latin tongue, I being then somewhat above fifteen years old. In the years 1543, 1544, 1545, I was so vehemently bent to study, that for those years I did inviolably keep this order; only to sleep four hours every night; to allow to meat and drink, and some refreshing after, two hours every day; and of the other eighteen hours, all, except the time of going to, and being at, the divine service, was spent in my studies and learning." The same enthusiastic love of learning which had kept him to this laborious course of probationary application at the university, induced him, in the year 1547, to visit the Netherlands, then the residence of many of the most erudite scholars in Europe. He continued there several months, and on his return to Cambridge was elected to a fellowship in the newly erected college of Trinity. The following year he made a journey to the university of Louvain, and such was the reputa tion he had already acquired, that he was visited during his residence |