es of the Scottish Crown, "in which," he says, "I endeavoured
to explain from their very cradle, so to speak, the reciprocal rights
and privileges of kings and their subjects." He goes on to say that the
book was written in the midst of the public troubles with a view to
enlightening the disturbers of the commonwealth as to their duties: but
that peace beginning to be established he had sacrificed his argument
for the sake of public tranquillity. Now, however, that it may be useful
to the development of the King he brings it forth again. The direct
address to James is full of that curious self-deception or defective
insight which is so common among those who have the training of a pupil
of great importance in the world. The boy had grown beyond the age of
personal chastisement; he had reached that in which the precocious
facility of comprehension, which is so strongly fostered by the
circumstances of such a position as his, looks to the dazzled pedagogues
and attendants like genius, and there seems no prognostic too happy or
too brilliant for the new career in which at last there is about to be
fulfilled all that men have dreamed of a king.

"Many circumstances tend to convince me that my present exertions
will not prove fruitless, especially your age, yet uncorrupted by
perverse opinions; a disposition beyond your years, spontaneously
urging you to every noble pursuit; a facility in obeying not only
your preceptors, but all prudent monitors; a judgment and dexterity
in disquisition which prevent you from paying much regard to
authority, unless it be confirmed by solid argument. I likewise
perceive that by a kind of natural instinct, you so dislike
flattery, the nurse of tyranny, and the most grievous pest of a
legitimate monarchy, that you as heartily hate the courtly solecisms
and barbarisms as they are relished and affected by those who
consider themselves as the arbiters of every elegance, and who, by
way of seasoning their conversation, are perpetually sprinkling it
with majesties, lordships, excellencies, and, if possible, with
other expressions still more nauseous. Although the bounty of nature
and the instruction of your governors may at present secure you
against this error, yet am I compelled to entertain some slight
degree of suspicion lest evil communication, the alluring nurse of
the vices, should lend an unhappy impulse to your stil