Notwithstanding the success of Mickle's translation of the "Lusiad," for which he received nearly a thousand pounds, not to speak of his other literary work, he was in straitened circumstances-not on account of extravagance or profligacy by any means, but because he paid his creditors in full who had suffered by his bankruptcy in Scotland, and he also maintained his sister. In the knowledge of this, his friends appealed to the Crown to procure him a pension as a man of letters, but their application failed, and he had to continue to rely upon his own efforts. It is alleged that Dr Lowth, at that time Bishop of London, and also distinguished for his literary tastes, offered to provide for him in the Church, but he declined the offer. Although he was extremely orthodox in his theological views, the philosophy of Voltaire and David Hume being his greatest detestation, he had the impression that a clerical life was unsuited to his disposition. Both as a man and as an author many are the tributes of praise and honour bestowed upon him by those who knew him as a man, and could judge of him as an author. For one, Southey said of him that he was a man of genius, who did not overrate the power he was conscious of possessing, and his character was without spot. As to the comparative merits of his translation of the "Lusiad," there was much diversity of opinion amongst the literary men of his own day. It is alleged by one of Mickle's biographers that the two most violent assailants of his translation were Voltaire and Rapin. While the assertion with regard to Voltaire is substantially correct, it is unfortunate for his veracity that Rapin was included, since he died some nine years before Mickle was born, and could not well criticise a work which did not appear in its entirety til some fifty years after Rapin's death. With regard to Voltaire's criticism of Mickle's translation, little importance can be attached, as he was not acquainted with the Portuguese language in which Camous wrote, and his knowledge of the "Lusind" was derived from Fanshaw's imperfect English version, as no translation had yet appeared in French. Musgrave, who published a literal translation of the "Lusiad" upwards of seventy years after that of Mickle, states that though Mickle "was occasionally guilty of omissions and interpolations in poetical elegance, he did not presume to enter into competition with him." Indeed, as a translation, Mickle's "Lusiad" in force and eloquence was regarded as second only to Pope's translation of the "Iliad," and it now rivals it in popularity. Although Mickle employed the versification of Pope, it is more direct and less ornate, giving a fairly good idea of the original, and at the same time is more free from the artificial striving for the harmony of numbers so apparent in Pope's "Iliad." Dr Alexander Geddes, with whom this chapter concludes, was the very antithesis of his literary contemporary in every particular; he was not only an Dr Alex. Geddes, 1737-1802. uncommon personality, but he was one of the most gifted men of his time, with an outspoken courage which frequently verged on recklessness. In his lifetime he played many parts; he was poet, priest, linguist, biblical critic, translator, and miscellaneous writer, and in his various rôles is an author whose name should be mentioned with respect by his countrymen, inasmuch as few, if any, of his contemporaries did more to advance the reputation of Scottish literature in the domain of higher scholarship. His father was a farmer, and our author was born at the small farm of Arradowl, in the parish of Ruthven, Banffshire, in 1737, and was brought up a devout Roman Catholic. From an early age he manifested an uncommon devotion to study, which was encouraged by his parents, and it proved a useful acquisition in later years. Almost the first book that fell into his hands was a copy of the English Bible, which for the most part comprised his father's library, being a man of few wants and few books. According to his own account his parents taught him to read it with attention and reverence, and before the age of e'even he had committed all the historical parts to memory. His education commenced early, and he was first taught to read by a village schoolmistress named Sellar, of whom he always spoke with the greatest respect in after years. Subsequently he was educated as a Catholic priest at Scalan, a monastic seminary in the Highlands, from which he was transferred to the Scots College in Paris, where he acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Italian, Latin, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. In 1764 he returned to Scotland, and after his arrival in Edinburgh was ordered to fix his residence at Dundee, in the capacity of officiating priest, but soon afterwards became the domestic chaplain to the Earl of Traquair, where he had access to a well-selected library, which enabled him to continue his favourite study of biblical criticism. While at the residence of Lord Traquair there was a young female relation of the noble Earl residing with the family who became fascinated with the young priest, and though he turned philosopher with the view of suppressing his own feelings, he felt it difficult to refrain from returning her affections. As he had taken the vow of celibacy, however, and determined that its sanctity should not be trifled with, he abruptly broke away from the delightful shades of the noble Earl's hospitable mansion, leaving a short poem, entitled "The Confessional," to the fair but innocent author of his misfortunes. He once more repaired to France, with the determination of subverting his more tender thoughts for others of a more stern and intellectual character. After nine months' absence he returned to his native country in the spring of 1769, and was entrusted with a congregation at Auchinhalrig, in Banffshire, where he remained for ten years, and was much respected by his congregation. While here he manifested a breadth of opinion and religious toleration seldom to be met with in one holding the office of priest or cleric. Such was his toleration that he not only lived on the most friendly terms with his Protestant neighbours, but went so far as to occasionally appear in the Church of a Protestant friend as a listener if not a worshipper. In any case it resulted in his being deposed from all his ecclesiastical functions by the less tolerant prelate, Bishop Hay. This action on the part of the Bishop did not much disturb his equanimity; he continued to cultivate the kindly feelings of his Protestant friends, amongst whom were the Earl of Buchan, Lord Findlater, Principal Robertson, the Poet Beattie, and Dr Reid, and almost all the Professors of both Edinburgh and Aberdeen. These men thought so highly of his scholastic attainments that they made him LL.D. of Aberdeen University. After his deposition Geddes resolved to go to London, and there devote his time to literature, where he arrived in 1780, being then forty-two years of age. He had long contemplated a new translation of the Scriptures for the use of Roman Catholics, and by the munificence of Lord Petre he was enabled to devote himself to the work. In the first instance he issued an elaborate prospectus, which he submitted to Dr Lowth, the Protestant Bishop of London, at whose suggestion he wrote an entirely new prospectus setting forth the plan he proposed to follow in his translation. When it was completed he again submitted it to Dr Lowth, who returned an answer this time highly gratifying to the feelings of the author. The first volume appeared in 1792, the second in 1793, carrying the translation as far as the end of the historical books; and the third was issued in 1800, containing his critical remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures. It was not long before the learned public discovered that these volumes were conspicuous for their heretical views, more especially the last one, which offended Catholic and Protestant alike. All of them, however, revealed a pronounced Rationalistic tendency which was as exceptional as it was unpopular at that time of day even to the most advanced Protestant, not to speak of the orthodox Catholic. Indeed, he went a considerable length in the direction of eliminating the supernatural element from the Scriptures altogether, broadly insinuating that such stories as that of the description of the creation in Genesis should be classed amongst poetical or philosophical fictions, the authorship of which. could not be definitely assigned to Moses. Assuming that Moses did write them, however, it could only establish his claim to great talents such as Numa and Lycurgus had, but like them he was a false pretender to personal intercourse with the Deity, and should be identified with men, who by a pious fraud contrived to add a divine sanction to mere human wisdom. Such in brief were the views of Geddes on the Scriptures, which had a disquieting effect upon those who had been accustomed to accept the Bible as an infallible book. Moreover, he claimed that the Bible should be submitted to the same critical test as that which had been applied to the Greek and Roman classics. What wonder that such views should have exposed the author to the charge of infidelity in those days when the enunciation of similar views by Professor Tyndall, in his famous Belfast Address, nearly a century later, exposed him to the charge of Atheism? In addition to his contribution of English biblical criticism, Geddes wrote a number of articles and pamphlets in his own defence-"A Disquisition on the Penal Law," "An Apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain," also several poems in Latin, English, and the Scottish vernacular. On his being enrolled a member of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, he made it the occasion of a long Scottish poem, in the course of which he makes humorous references to Ramsay, Fergusson, and Burns. In the poem he refers to Burns several times, but the following four lines are the most pointed : "An' Burns in gowden cyphers shine In the first and only volume of the Antiquarian Transactions, published in Edinburgh in 1792, there are three Scottish poems with a dissertation on the Scoto-Saxon Dialect, by the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D. Moreover, in the Analytical Review, which was commenced in 1788, Geddes contributed a number of criticisms and reviews, amongst which were a review of Dr Campbell's translation of the four Gospels, upon which he was well qualified to pass judgment, and Wakefield's Sylva Critica. In 1797 he published the "Battle of Bangor, or the Church's Triumph," a comic heroic poem in nine cantos, in the course of which he submits his own Church to a good deal of clever sarcasm, and it is perhaps the most finished of Geddes's English poems. In it he has taken Boileau and Pope as his |