303
appears to have been poetical: Rerum Judaicarum
Libri Duo, London, 1617. To these he added a
third book in 1619, and a fourth in 1632. The rarest
of his poetical effusions bears no date, but is entitled
" Three Decads of Divine Meditations, whereof each
one containeth three parts: I. History. 2. An
Allegory. 3. A Prayer. With a Commendation
of a Private Country Life." This work has been
priced so high as £8, 8s. Four Books of Epigrams
in Latin Elegiacs also appeared without a date;
and in 1642 he published "Mel Heliconium; or
Poetical Honey Gathered out of the Weeds of Par-
nassus. The first book is divided into vii chap-
ters, according to the first vii letters of the alphabet,
containing 48 fictions, out of which are extracted
many historicall, naturall, morall, politicall, and
theologicall observations, both delightful and useful;
with 48 Meditations in Verse." But his most cele-
brated work in the department of poetry, is his
Virgilii Evangelisantis Christiados Libri xiii., which
was published at London in 1634, and again in 1638
and 1659. This is a cento from Virgil, giving a
view of the leading features of sacred history, from
the murder of Abel to the ascension of Christ. It
excited considerable notice in its day, and was
more lately brought before the public attention by
Lauder, who accused Milton of having plagiarized
it. Lauder says, that by many Ross's Christiad is
esteemed equal with the Æneid. The opening lines
may serve as a specimen:—
"Acta, Deumque cano, cæli qui primus ab oris
Virginis in lætæ gremium descendit et orbem
Terrarum invisit profugus, Chananæaque venit
Littora, multum Ille et terra jactatus et alto
In superum, sævi memorem Plutonis ob iram."
His chief works in the department of history are,
"Animadversions and Observations upon Sir Walter
Raleigh's History of the World, wherein his Mistakes
are noted, and some Doubtful Passages noted," Lon-
don, 1653; and the "History of the World, the
Second Part, in Six Books, being a Continuation
of Sir Walter Raleigh's," London 1652. "This,"
says Granger (3d edit. vol. iii. p. 32), "is like a piece
of bad Gothic tacked to a magnificent pile of Roman
architecture, which serves to heighten the effect of
it, while it exposes its own deficiency in strength
and beauty." In 1652 was published, with a por-
trait of the author, "Pansebia, or View of all the
Religions in the World, with the Lives of Certain
Notorious Hereticks." Afterwards reprinted in
1672, 1675, 1683, &c. Ross entered into contro-
versy with Hobbes, Sir Thomas Browne, Hervey,
and Sir Kenelm Digby; and has left, among others,
the following controversial writings: Observations
upon Hobbes' Leviathan, 1653; " Arcana Microcosmi,
or the Hid Secrets of Man's Body Discovered, in
Anatomical Duel between Aristotle and Galen, with
a Refutation of Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors,
from Bacon's Natural History and Hervey's book
De Generatione," 1651; the Philosophical Touchstone,
or Observations on Sir Kenelm Digby's Discourse
on the Nature of Bodies and of the Reasonable Soul,
and Spinosa's Opinion of the Mortality of the Soul,
briefly Confuted," 1645. This does not exhaust the
catalogue of Ross's writings. Besides many ascribed
to him on doubtful authority, there remain to be
mentioned: the "New Planet no Planet, or the Earth
no Wandering Star, against Galilæus and Coperni-
cus," 1640; "Mystagogus Poeticus, or the Muses'
Interpreter," 1647, which went through six editions;
Enchiridium Oratorium et Poeticum, 1650; "Medicus
Medicatus, or the Physician's Religion Cured," 1645;
Melisomachia; Colloquia Plautina; Chronology in
English; Chymera Pythagorica, no date; Tonsor ad
Cutem Rasus, 1629; Questions and Answers on the
First Six Chapters of Genesis, 1620; The Picture of
the Conscience, 1646; God's House, or the House of
Prayer, Vindicated from Profaneness, 1642; God's
House made a Den of Thieves, 1642. These two
last pieces are sermons.
ROSS, ALEXANDER, frequently confounded with
the former, was the son of James Ross, minister at
Strachan, in Kincardineshire, and afterwards at Aber-
deen. The date of his birth has not been ascertained,
but it was probably between 1570 and 1580. He
was for some time minister of the parish of Insch,
in 1631 he was appointed minister of Footdee, a
catechetical charge in the close vicinity of Aberdeen;
and in 1636 was chosen one of the ministers of St.
Nicholas' Church in that city. Ross, like his col-
leagues, supported the Episcopal form of government,
and subscribed the Generall Demands propounded to
the commissioners appointed by the Tables to enforce
the subscription of the covenant in Aberdeen. The
day before their arrival he thundered from the
pulpit against their proceedings, and exhorted his
hearers to resist their threats. He appears also to
have been in correspondence with Laud. In March,
1639, the Covenanting forces approached Aberdeen,
and the chiefs of the Episcopal party fled. Ross
was unable to quit the town from a sickness, from
which he seems never to have recovered: he died on
11th August, 1639. His only publication appears
to be the following, which is extant in Bishop
Forbes' Funerals (p. 149-178): "A Consolatorie
Sermon, preached upon the Death of the R. R.
Father in God Patrick Forbes, late Bishop of
Aberdene. By Alexander Rosse, Doctour of Divi-
nitie, and Minister of the Evangell in Aberdene, in
Saynct Nicholas Churche there. Anno 1635, the xv
of Aprill."
ROSS, ALEXANDER, a poet of some eminence,
was born in the parish of Kincardine O'Neil, Aber-
deenshire, on the 13th April, 1699. His father was
Andrew Ross, a farmer in easy circumstances. Ross
received the first elements of his education at the par-
ochial school, under a teacher of considerable local
celebrity; and after four years study of the Latin lan-
guage, succeeded in gaining a bursary at the competi-
tion in Marischal College in November, 1714. Having
gone through the usual curriculum of the university,
e received the degree of Master of Arts in 1718, and
shortly after was engaged as a tutor to the family of
Sir William Forbes of Craigievar and Fintray; a
gentleman who appears to have possessed consider-
able taste and learning. How long the poet remained
in this situation has not been ascertained; but he
seems to have earned the good opinion of his patron,
who recommended him to study divinity, with the
assurance that his interest should not be wanting to
procure a comfortable settlement in the church.
Favourable as this offer was, from a gentleman who
had no fewer than fourteen patronages in his gift,
Ross declined it, on a ground which evinces extraor-
dinary modesty—"that he could never entertain such
an opinion of his own goodness or capacity as to
think himself worthy of the office of a clergyman."
On leaving the family of Sir William Forbes, Ross
for some time taught, apparently as an assistant, the
parochial school of Aboyne in his native county,
and afterwards that of Laurencekirk in Kincardine-
shire. While in this last situation he became ac-
quainted with the father of Dr. Beattie; a man who,
in our poet's opinion, "only wanted education to
have made him perhaps as much distinguished in the
literary world as his son. He knew something of