sation of a man of letters. In this situation he remained till the necessities of
the church required the episcopal order to be preserved by new consecrations.
The mildness of his manners, the extent of his learning, and his experience recommended him as a fit person on whom to bestow the episcopal character. He was accordingly consecrated a bishop, on the 25th January, 1705, when no
temporal motives could have induced him to accept an office at all times of
great responsibility, but at that time of peculiar personal danger. His consecrators were John Paterson, the deprived archbishop of Glasgow, Dr Alexander Rose, deprived bishop of Edinburgh, and Robert Douglas, deprived bishop of
Diuublnne.
Soon after his promotion, this illustrious man was seized with that illness, the seeds of which had been sown in the difficulties and privations of his youth. After patiently lingering a considerable time in Scotland without improvement, the persecutions to which he was subjected increasing his malady, he was induced to try the efficacy of the waters at Bath, in 1709. But this also failed him: the seat of his disease lay deeper than medical skill could reach. He remained a year at Bath and London, where the great recognized, and the learned caressed and courted him, and where it was the wish of many distinguished persons that he should spend the remainder of his life. The love of his country and of his native church, overcame all entreaties, and he returned to Scotland in 1710, with a debilitated body, but a mind as vigorous as ever. Immediately on his arrival, he engaged with undiminished ardour in the publication of Urummond's Works, to which Ruddiman, whose friendship he had for many years enjoyed, lent his assistance. Worn out with disease and men- tal anguish, bishop Sage died at Edinburgh, on 7th June, 1711, lamented by his friends, and feared by his adversaries. His friend Ruddiman always spoke of him as a companion whom lie esteemed for his worth, and as a scholar whom he admired for his learning. Sage was unquestionably a man of great ability, and even genius. It is to be lamented, however, that his life and intellect were altogether expended in a wrong position, and on a thankless subject All the sophistical ingenuity that ever was exerted, would have been unable to convince the great majority of the Scottish people, that the order of bishops was of scriptural institution, or that the government of the two last male Stuarts, in which a specimen of that order had so notable a share, was a humane or just government. He was a man labouring against the great tide of circumstances and public feeling; and, accordingly, those talents, which otherwise might have been exerted for the improvement of his fellow creatures, and the fulfilment of the grand designs of providence, were thrown away, without producing either immediate or remote good. How long have men contended about trifles—what ages have been permitted to elapse uselessly—how many bright minds have been lighted up, and quenched—before even a fair portion of reason has been introduced into the habits of thinking, and the domestic practice of the race.
SCOTT, Michael, a learned person of the thirteenth century, known to the better informed as a philosopher, and to the illiterate, especially of Scotland, as a wizard, or magician, was born about the year 1214. The precise locality of his birthplace is unknown, although that honour has been awarded to Balwearie, in Fife, but on insufficient authority. Neither is there any thing known of his parents, nor of their rank in life; but, judging of the education he received, one of the most liberal and expensive of the times, it may be presumed that they were of some note.
Scott early betook himself to the study of the sciences; but, soon exhausting all the information which his native country afforded in those unlettered times, he repaired to the university of Oxford, then enjoying a very high reputation,
