"He should obtain all his desires, Who offers more than he requires."
The fragment of the treatise concerning the Universal Language, which was picked up out of the gutter of Worcester streets, wiped clean, and presented to the public in _The Jewel_, was republished with additions in Sir Thomas Urquhart's next work, so that we may here pass it over without further notice and allude to some of the other matters treated of.
In order to vindicate the honour of his country, Sir Thomas Urquhart tells at considerable length of the fame won by various compatriots of his in war in every part of Europe, during the earlier half of the seventeenth century, and he draws the attention of his readers to the fact that, at no battle in the period named, were all the Scots that fought overthrown and totally routed. The explanation of this statement is that there were always Scots on both sides, so that, if some were defeated and taken prisoners, others of that nation were victorious and givers of quarter. This part of the work is of great historical value, and, as Burton remarks, is not liable to the reproach of Urquhart's usual wandering profuseness of language--its leading defect, on the other hand, being its too great resemblance at times to a muster-roll.
The choicest and most remarkable passage in Sir Thomas Urquhart's original works is, undoubtedly, the description he gives in _The Jewel_ of his fellow-countryman "the Admirable Crichton," who belonged to the latter part of the sixteenth century. In an appendix[205] our readers may find a long extract from it, in which that hero's feats are related. But for fear of making the appendices out of all proportion to the size of this volume, the whole sketch might have been given. To most people the name of "the Admirable Crichton" is now a mere proverbial phrase to describe a universal genius, and whether the person who bore it is a historical or a mythical character, is a matter of some uncertainty. If any who are possessed of only this amount of information on the subject seek for more by reading our author's description of Crichton, the probability is that they will decide that he is quite mythical. The extraordinary flightiness, turgidity, and bombast which mark the narrative, in spite of its many conspicuous merits, make it seem a mere piece of burlesque, rather than a genuine history;[206] and yet there is ample evidence of an unimpeachable kind of the truthfulness of the main statements which it contains. Sir Thomas Urquhart's narrative was for a long time one of the principal sources of information concerning the brilliant young Scotchman, and the result was that a general disbelief in the whole history became prevalent.[207] As Burton says, "It was from the hands of Sir Thomas Urquhart that the world accepted of an idol which, after a period of worship, it cast down, but so hastily, as it was discovered, that it had again to be set up, but rather in surly justice than the old devout admiration."[208] Tytler, in his _Life of the Admirable Crichton_, gives full proof from contemporary writers that the accomplishments and feats ascribed to that personage are authentic.