76
"1533, July 26. To Maister John Ballentyne,
for ane new Chronikle gevin to the kingis grace, £12.
"Item, To him in part payment of the translation
of Titus Livius, £8.
"------ Aug. 24.    To Maister John Ballentyne,
in part payment of the second buke of Titus Livius,
£8.
"------Nov. 30.    To Maister John Ballentyne, be
the kingis precept, for his laboris dune in translat-
ing of Livie, £20,"
The literary labours of Ballentyne were still fur-
ther rewarded by his royal master, with an appoint-
ment to the archdeanery of Moray, and the escheated
property and rents of two individuals, who became
subject to the pains of treason for having used in-
fluence with the pope to obtain the same benefice,
against the king's privilege. He subsequently got
a vacant prebendaryship in the cathedral of Ross.
His translation of Boece was printed in 1536, by
Thomas Davidson, and had become in later times
almost unique, till a new edition was published in a
remarkably elegant style, in 1821, by Messrs. Tait,
Edinburgh. At the same time appeared the trans-
lation of the first two books of Livy, which had
never before been printed. The latter work seems
to have been carried no further by the translator.
Ballentyne seems to have lived happily in the sun-
shine of court favour during the remainder of the
reign of James V. The opposition which he after-
wards presented to the Reformation brought him
into such odium, that he retired from his country in
disgust, and died at Rome, about the year 1550.
The translations of Ballentyne are characterized by
a striking felicity of language, and also by a freedom
that shows his profound acquaintance with the learned
language upon which he wrought. His Chronicle,
which closes with the reign of James I., is rather
a paraphrase than a literal translation of Boece, and
possesses in several respects the character of an
original work. Many of the historical errors of the
latter are corrected—not a few of his redundancies
retrenched—and his more glaring omissions supplied.
Several passages in the work are highly elegant, and
some descriptions of particular incidents reach to
something nearly akin to the sublime. Many of the
works of Ballentyne are lost—among others a tract
on the Pythagoric letter, and a discourse upon virtue
and pleasure. He also wrote many political pieces,
the most of which are lost. Those which have
reached us are principally proems prefixed to his
prose works—a species of composition not apt to
bring out the better qualities of a poet; yet they ex-
hibit the workings of a rich and luxuriant fancy, and
abound in lively sallies of the imagination. They
are generally allegorical, and distinguished rather by
incidental beauties than by the skilful structure of
the fable. The story, indeed, is often dull, the allu-
sions obscure, and the general scope of the piece un-
intelligible. These faults, however, are pretty general
characteristics of allegorical poets, and they are
atoned for, in him, by the striking thoughts and the
charming descriptions in which he abounds, and
which, "like threds of gold, the rich arras, beautify
his works quite thorow.
BALMER, REV. ROBERT, D.D.—This profound
theologian and valued ornament of the Secession
Church, was born at Ormiston Mains, in the parish
of Eckford, Roxburghshire, on the 22d of November,
1787. His father, who was a land-steward, was a
man in comfortable though not affluent circumstances,
and Robert's earliest education—besides the ordi-
nary advantages which the peasantry of Scotland
possessed—enjoyed the inestimable benefit of a care-
ful religious superintendence, both of his parents
being distinguished for piety and intelligence. The
result of such training was quickly conspicuous in the
boy, who, as soon as he could read, was an earnest
and constant reader of the Bible, while his questions
and remarks showed that he studied its meaning
beyond most persons of his age. His thirst for
general knowledge was also evinced by a practice
sometimes manifested by promising intellectual boy-
hood—this was the arresting of every stray leaf that
fell in his way, and making himself master of its
contents, instead of throwing it carelessly to the
winds. On the death of his father, Robert, who,
although only ten years old, was the eldest of the
family, on the evening of the day of the funeral,
quietly placed the books for family worship before
his widowed mother, as he had wont to do before
his departed parent when he was alive. She burst
into tears at this touching remembrance of her be-
reavement, but was comforted by the considerate
boy, who reminded her that God, who had taken
away his father, would still be a Father to them, and
would hear them—"and, mother," he added, "we
must not go to bed to-night without worshipping
him." Consolation so administered could not-be
otherwise than effectual: the psalm was sung, the
chapter read, and the prayer offered up by the
sorrowing widow in the midst of her orphans; and
the practice was continued daily for years, until
Robert was old enough to assume his proper place
as his father's representative.
The studious temperament of Robert Balmer,
which was manifested at an early period, appears to
have been not a little influenced by his delicate
health, that not only prevented him from joining in
the more active sports of his young compeers,
but promoted that thoughtfulness and sensibility
by which sickly boyhood is frequently characterized.
The same circumstance also pointed out to him his
proper vocation; and he said, on discovering his
inability even for the light work of the garden,
" Mother, if I do not gain my bread by my head, I'll
never do it with my hands." As to which of the
learned professions he should select, the choice may
be said to have been already made in consequence
of his domestic training: he would be a minister of
the gospel, and that too in the Secession Church to
which his parents belonged. He proceeded to the
study of Latin, first at the parish school of More-
battle, and afterwards that of Kelso, at the latter of
which seminaries he formed a close acquaintanceship
with his schoolfellow, Thomas Pringle, afterwards
known as the author of African Sketches, which was
continued till death. In 1802 Mr. Balmer entered the
university of Edinburgh, and, after passing through the
usual course of classical, ethical, and scientific study,
was enrolled as a student in theology in connection
with the Associate Synod. Even already he had
established for himself such a respectable intellectual
reputation, that his young brethren in preparation
for the ministry received him with more than or-
dinary welcome. As Dr. Lawson, the theological
professor of the Associate Synod, lectured only for
two months of each year, at the end of summer and
commencement of autumn, Mr. Balmer, in common
with several of his fellow-students, attended the
regular course of theology during the winters at the
university of Edinburgh. They thus availed them-
selves of the twofold means of improvement which
they possessed, without any compromise of their
principles being exacted in return; and the fruits of
this were manifest in after-life, not only by the highly
superior attainments of many of the Secession ministry,
but the liberal spirit and kindly feeling which they