THE PORTRAITS OF JOHN KNOX. 217 wanting ; but on the whole a gentle and quiet frame of mind is traceable in Beza throughout ; — and one almost has the suspicion that, especially as his stock both of Icons and of facts is so poor, one considerable subsidiary motive to the publication may have been the Forty Emblems, ' picturce qiias Emhhmata vocaiit,' pretty little engravings, and sprightly Latin verse, which follow on these poor prose Icons ; and testify to all the intelligent world that Beza's fine poetic vein is still flowing, and without the much- censured erotic, or other impure elements, which caused so much scandal in his younger days. About the middle of the Book turns up a brief, vague eulogy of the lleformation in Scotland, with only two characters introduced; Patrick Hamilton, the Scottish proto-martyr, as second in the list ; and, in frank disregard of the chronology, as first and leading figure, ' Johannes Cnoxus Giffordiensis Scotus ' ; and to the surprise of every reader acquainted with the character of Knox, as written indelibly, and in detail, in his words and actions legible to this day, the following strange Icon ; very difficult indeed to accept as a bodily physiognomy of the man you have elsewhere
