are the most agreeable reading of the day. The Lives are not of
undue length, and anecdote and judicious remark are abundantly scattered
along each of them. There are no dry details of "birth, parentage, and
education;" but these particulars are given with more attractions. In
short, the Lives are just suited for parlour and drawing-room libraries,
and many a reader who could not be persuaded to turn to Dr. Chalmers's
lengthy two-and-thirty tomes of Biography, would be tempted to sit down
and read a volume of the _Family_ Lives outright.

The volume before us is the first of "the Lives of Scottish Worthies,"
by Mr. Patrick Fraser Tytler, author of an excellent History of
Scotland. It comprises Alexander III., Michael Scott, Sir William
Wallace, and Robert Bruce. We quote from Scott, who, though a wizard,
deserves rank among "Worthies," and the philosophers and scholars of his
time. Thus, Mr. Tytler says "he was certainly the first who gave
Aristotle in a Latin translation to the learned world of the West. He
was eminent as a mathematician and an astronomer, learned in the
languages of modern Europe--deeply skilled in Arabic, and in the
sciences of the East; he had risen to high celebrity as a physician--and
his knowledge of courts and kings, had recommended him to be employed in
a diplomatic capacity by his own government." The following passage is,
however, from "his more popular and wider honour"--his superstitious
character,--whilst, as Mr. Tytler prettily observes, "his miracles and
incantations are yet recorded beside the cottage fire, by many a
grey-headed crone, and his fearful name still banishes the roses from
the cheeks of the little audience that surround her."

In the brief but interesting accounts of this singular man, which we
meet with in the ancient Chronicles of Italy, it is mentioned that he
was the inventer of a new species of casque or steel basnet, denominated
a cervilerium,[6] which he commonly wore under the furred or velvet cap,
used by the learned of those times. The origin of this invention is
curious. In those dark periods, when the belief of magic was universal,
not only amongst the lower ranks, but with the learned and educated
classes of the community, it was reported that the Wizard, having cast
his own horoscope, had discovered that his death was to be occasioned by
a stone falling upon his bare skull. With that anxiety which clings to
life, he endeavoured to defeat the demon whom he serv