fcholaftics. By this means he at tacked powerful parties, and expofed himfelf to heavy perfecutions, which failed not to fhew themselves the moment the book was published*. A whole cloud of critics were inftantly up in arms against it, nor could he efcape repeated infults. The immortal reputation which this great perform ance procured him, coft him his repofe, and almost his life.

The firft who-attacked him were Nicholas Beckman, profellor of Jaw, and Joshua Schwartz, profelor of divinity, who published together an anonymous writing, intitled, "A lift of certain novel. ties advanced by Mr. Samuel Puffendorff, againft orthodox principles in his book on the law of nature and nations;" in which he is roughly treated, and called reproachfully a Pagan, Zuinglian, Socinian, Papift, Pelagian, Hob. befian, and Cartefian.

Puffendort in reply publifhed in 1674, "An Apology as well for himself as his book against the author of a defamatory libel, intitled, “A List, &c." fetting forth the malice of his antagonists. But the magiftrates of Sweden vindicated him fill more effectually: they treated the lift as a pafquinade and a libel; ordered it to be eut to pieces, and barned by the bands of the executioner, and that profeffor Beckman fhall be difplaced and banished the kingdom; this was executed in April 1675. The court of Sweden allo interpofed in the affair. It received the lift; and fuch endeavours had been ufed to prejudice that court against

the law of nature and nations, that it appeared to be alarmed at the pretended innovations found in that book. For peace fake, therefore, at the folicitations of M. Shertzer, profeffor of divini ty at Leipfic, a decree of the king was granted, enjoining all profeffors to watch, with the ut moft poffible care, to preserve the youth from every innovation contrary to orthodoxy, and the doctrine received by the univerfity. The end of obtaining this decree, was to give a fanction to the trou bling Puffendorff; he faw through the defign, and prevented the blow by a Latin letter, which he published in 1674.

" An

The fecond profeffor who entered the lifts with our philofopher, was Valentine Alberti. This theologift's first effay was in the preface of a manufcript commen tary which he dictated to his fcholars, upon Grotius's rights of war and peace.. He then publifhed a criticism in an "Abridgment of the law of nature, rendered conformable to orthodox theology." Puffenderff answered it in a writing, intitled, effay on the controverfies against Samuel Puffendorff, refpecting the law of nature:" to which Alberti replied by an," Effay by way, of replication to the Effay on the controverfies, &c." Our philofopher oppofed to this reply his famous book, Eris Scandica, i. e. The difcord of Schone; and his antago nift answered it by a writing, entitled Eros Lipficus, which was treated with great contempt in a work, in which the calumnies and

It came out in 1672, under the title, De jure naturæ & gentium, libri viii, and has been fince tranflated into French by Barbeyrac, with notes; and alfo into German and English.

futility

futility of that critic are expofed. There paffed alfo fome very fmart pamphlets on each fide; till at length fome common friends, as much fatigued with this literary war as Puffendorff, fet themfelves to put an end to it: they effected their purpofe, and the two combatants laid down their arms. The queftion agitated in this difpute was, "Whether the law of nature was to be derived from nature, before, or after, the fall of man in the ftate of fin, or of innocence?" a queftion merely theological, and which might have heen kept from a philofophical work.

This difpute was fcarcely ended, when Meffrs. Beckman and Schwartz began theirs anew. The firft, in defpair at having injured himfelf, while he aimed at hurting our philofopher, confidered in his exile only how to revenge himself. He began by publishing a very fatirical piece againft him, in which he treats him as a devil incarnate. The title alone is a fufficient indication of the moft unbridled rage.

if he failed the appointment. Our philofopher paid no regard to this letter, and without deigning to anfwer it, fent it to the confiftory of the academy, who proceeded against Beckman. This circumftance worked up his rage to the highest pitch. He meditated how to affffinate his adverfary, but was happily checked in his defign: the only refource left him was to vent his gall upon paper. He did fo, attempting to render Puffendorff odious by repeated writings; all of which were either refuted by the latter himfelf, or his friends.

Schwartz, during the procefs of his confederate, had kept a prudent filence, and behaved with the fame circumfpection, till he had procured a poft ellewhere, having obtained which, he quitted his profeflor's chair at Lunden, and retired to Denmark. There, under the name of Severin Wildfchutz, whofe mother he had married, he published a writing, intitled, "A difcuffion of the calumnies bafely advanced in the Eris Scandica of Samuel Puffendorff, against a venerable man, under After this ftroke, M. Beckman the pretence of a lift of his errors, determined to attack him perfon- &c." Puffendorff, fatiated with ally; accordingly, he challenged thefe kind of hoftilities, did not him to a duel, and wrote to him think proper to give this difcuffion from Copenhagen, where he then a ferious antwer, but contented was, demanding a reafon for his himfelf with retuting it by a letter, conduct, by way of arms, and which he fuppofed written by pointing out the place where he Joshua Schwartz, to his fon-inwas to meet and fight with him; law Severin Wildfchyffius; givat the fame time threatening to ing the name of the latter pursue him wherever he might be, ironical termination to exprefs the

an

Nicolai Beckmanni legitimi defenfio contra magiftri Samuelis Puffendorfii, execrabiles ficinas calumnias, quibus illum contra oinnem veritatein er juftitiam, ut carnatus diabolus et fingularis merdaciorum artifex per fictitia fua entia moralia (diabolica puto) tot: honeßo ac crudito militiofe exponere volu.t.

"Naturalis tive brutalis et gentilis Fuffenderfi fpiritus, &c."

contempt

lia, and appointed him his hiftoririographer; and almoft at the fame time, he was folicited by the emperor Leopold to write the hiftory of his reign. Private reafons forebade him to accept the latter request. He remained, therefore, at the court of Brandenburg, which, the more laftingly to attach him to its interefts, honoured him with the dignity of a privy counfellor. The emperor, far from taking ill our author's preference of this court, gave him a ftriking proof of his efteem, by conferring upon him the title of Baron of the holy empire. Puffendorff took care properly to thank the emperor for fo high a favour; but thought it did not become him to interrupt the History of the elector Frederick William the Great, which he had begun. He finished it under the infpection of Frederick III. elector of Brandenburg, firft king of Pruffia. Always the friend to truth, he had written with greater fincerity than the court of Berlin required. He had freely availed himfelf of the archives of the houfe of Brandenburg, and had drawn from thence a variety of myfterious facts, the publication of which appeared dangerous. It was thought prudent not to reveal fecrets which ought to be kept entirely with minifters. For this reafon the hiftory did not appear till after a fevere revifal, in which the cenfors erafed what

ever they thought proper. Caution however was uled, in contideration of the author, and fuch caution as it became neceflary to recur to when the work was publifhed; feveral alterations were

made in it, and in fome places whole pages fuppreffed.

Our philofopher did not live to fee the end of the impreffion. A diforder in his foot, which he neglected, brought him to the grave: a flight matter at firft; but it turned to an inflammation, followed by a gangrene. There remained no other refource for avoiding the progrefs of the complaint, than to cut off his foot, and he could not refolve to give his confent. The elector of Brandenburg, who wished to fave his life, whatever it might coft, engaged the phyficians and furgeons to ufe every effort to promote a cure. They were of opinion that their patient's fear of the pains of amputation outweighed the fear of death: they concluded therefore to compofe him, and cut off his leg as he lay afleep. The operation was performed with fuccefs: and our author, on waking, found himfelf better; but when he learned what had paffed in his fleep, it fo powerfully chagrined him, that the fever, infeparable from this kind of operation, increafed, and carried him off in a fhort time. He died October 26, 1695, aged fixty-three years.

An account of the life and writings of George Buchanan; extracted from the French of M. le Clerc.

Eorge Buchanan was born in

the county of Lenox in Scotland, in February 1506. His father died young, and left his tamily, which confifted of five fons and three daughters, in great po

verty,

verty.
riot, George Buchanan's uncle,
having obferved in him fome
marks of genius, took the charge
of his education, and fent him to
ftudy at Paris. He there applied
himfelf to Latin poetry, partly by
inclination, and partly as that was
the principal branch of the Belles
Lettres then cultivated in the uni-
verfity at Paris. He had fearce
been there two years when his
uncle died. Indigence, and an
illness with which he was attack-
ed, then obliged him to return to
Scotland. After living a year at
home, for the recovery of his
health, he went into the army,
with a defign to learn the art of
war. This was probably in the
year 1523, when John Duke of
Albany, viceroy of Scotland, car-
ried fuccours from France into
Scotland against the English, with
which, however, he could not take
the fort of Werk on the Tweed;
as Buchanan fays (in his Life) that
on account of the fnows that fell,
he drew off his army without at-
tempting any thing.

Nevertheless, James He- the chief fubject of difcourfe at Pa

He fell ill again, and kept his bed all the winter; but being recovered at the beginning of the year 1524, as he was then in his 18th year, he refumed his ftudies, and was fent to St. Andrew's, to tudy under John Major, who then taught logic there, or rather, as Buchanan fays, fophiftry, or the art of difputing, in the manner of the fchools. In the fummer following, Major went to Paris, and Buchanan followed him thither, though it feems he had no higit opinion of his tutor's learning, as he has fmartly ridiculed it in an epigram.

As Luther's tenets were then

ris, Buchanan there began to im bibe the dictrine of the reformers, though he did not profefs it, either through fear, or becaule he had not yet examined their fyftem. He lived there almost two years, with out any employment, fo that he could fearce find fubfiftence; but at length in 1526 he was made regent in the college of St. Barbe, and taught grammar there, being then twenty years old.

He continued in this office about three years; before the expiration of which, Gilbert Kennedy, Earl of Caffilis, took him into his famity, where he kept him five years, and carried him with him into Scotland, about the year 1534. Buchanan had a defign of returning to France, in order to purfue his ftudies there, but K. James V. detained him to be tutor to one of his natural fons, who was afterwards the famous James Earl of Murray. Buchanan, who, on account of his religious fentiments, or of his polite learning, to which the monks in general then were enemies, was no friend to the Cordeliers, had written a fatirical elegy against them, intituled Somnium. In it he pretends, that St. Francis had appeared to him, and invited him to turn Franciscan ; but that he replied, that, he was by no means qualified, as he could be a flave to no man, noţ could he become impudent, a cheat, a beggar; and that, be'fides, very few monks were faved.”

The Cordeliers having had a copy of this poem, complained of it; and as that was not fufficient to ruin him, they accufed him of herefy; a charge of which they at

that