der, his majesty's master-smith in Scotland, who seems to have been an industrious money-making person, and who, tradition says, acquired part of his fortune from a mistake on the part of government in paying in pounds sterling an account which had been stated in Scots money. The estate of Craigforth, which originally belonged to lord Elphinstone, was, in 1684, purchased by Mr Alexander Higgins, an advocate, who became embarrassed by the purchase, and conveyed his right to ——— Callander, from whom he had obtained large advances of money. From that period the estate has remained in the possession of the family, notwithstanding the strenuous, but unsuccessful exertions of Higgins to regain it; and of this family the subject of the present memoir was the representative.[1] Of his private history, very little has been collected; nor would it probably have much interest to our readers.[2] The next work published by him was "Terra Australis Cognita, or Voyages to the Terra Australis, or Southern Hemisphere, during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries," Edinburgh, 1766; 3 vols. 8vo., a work translated from the French of De Crosses. It was not till thirteen years afterwards that he gave to the world his "Essay towards a literal English Version of the New Testament in the Epistle to the Ephesians," printed in quarto at Glasgow, in 1779. This very singular production proceeds upon the principle of adhering rigidly to the order of the Greek words, and abandoning entirely the English idiom. As a specimen of the translation, the 31st verse of chapter v. is here transcribed. "Because of this shall leave a man, the father of him, and the mother, and he shall be joined to the wife of him, and they shall be even the two into one flesh." The notes to the work are in Greek, "a proof, certainly," as has been judiciously remarked, "of Mr Callander's learning, but not of his wisdom."—(Orme's Bibliotheca Biblica, p. 74. ) After it followed the work by which Mr Callander is best known: "Two ancient Scottish poems; the Gaberlunzie Man, and Christ's Kirk on the Green, with notes and observations." Edin. 1782, 8vo. It would seem that he had for some time meditated a dictionary of the Scottish language, of which he intended this as a specimen, but which he never prepared for publication. His principle, as an etymologist, which consists "in deriving the words of every language from the radical sounds of the first or original tongue, as it was spoken by Noah and the builders of Babel," is generally considered fanciful, and several instances have been given by Chalmers and others of the absurdity of his derivations. It is to be regretted, that, in preparing these poems for the press, he should have adopted so incorrect a text. In editing the latter of the two, he neither consulted the Bannatyne MS., nor adhered strictly to the version of bishop Gibson or Allan Ramsay, but gave such readings as appeared to him most consonant to the phraseology of the sixteenth century." Throughout the work he was indebted to his friend Mr George Paton, of Edinburgh; but it would appear, from one of the letters lately published, that the latter is not to be considered responsible either for the theories which the work contains, or for the accuracy with which it was executed.
In April, 1781, Mr Callander was, without any solicitation on his part, elected a fellow of the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, which had been formed in the preceding November, by the late earl of Buchan; and in the first list of office-
- ↑ Letters from Bishop Percy, &c. to George Paton. Preface, p. viii.
- ↑ Though a member of the Scottish bar, the early part of his life seems to have been devoted pursuits; in which it is acknowledged, he made great proficiency. A considerable portion of the results of these studies were presented by him to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, m August, 1781. His MSS., which are entitled, Spidlegia Antiquitatis Graecæ sive ex Veteribus Poetis Deperdita Fragmenta,"are in five volumes folio. The same researches were afterwards directed to the illustration of Milton's "Paradise Lost." "Paradise Lost," of which a specimen the first book was printed at Glasgow, by Messrs Foulis, in 1750, (4to. pp. 167.) Of these notes an account will afterwards be given.
