49
we said, flourished about the close of the fifteenth
century, and who was Principal of the King's Col-
lege in Aberdeen, was born in the parish of Bar-
rie, near Dundee, and received in that town the first
part of his education ; which he afterwards com-
pleted in Paris, according to the custom of that
time, of repairing to foreign Universities, to acquire
those branches of literature which were only be-
ginning to make their appearance in this part of the
island. At Paris he was honoured with the friend-
ship and commendation of Erasmus, the successful
opposer of superstition ; who contributed by his
writings to the overthrow of astrology and the vain
chemical pursuits after the philosopher's stone, as
much as the inimitable Cervantes did to the com-
plete expulsion of knight-errantry from the nations
of Europe. Boethius, in his partiality to his native
place, relates many ancient particulars, which are
now classed among the fabulous part of its history.
In this he seems to betray weakness and great cre-
dulity ; but it is probable that he paid more atten-
tion to the truly classic style of his narrative, than
jto the certainty of the facts he meant to record.
In the sixteenth century, Dr Kinloch, physician
| to James VI., and Mr Goldman, whose poems ap-
pear in the small collection of early Scots poetry,
and both eminent for their acquirements in Belles
Lett'res, were natives of the town and students at
Ithe schools. The elder Marr, who was greatly
distinguished by the same monarch, and was the
friend and fellow-labourer of Baron Napier of Mer-
chiston, the inventor of Logarithms, spent his first
[and early days in the seminaries of Dundee.
E