Not the least of James's many ambitions was the desire to excel as an author. He left a body of writings which, though of mediocre quality as literature, entitle him to a unique place among English kings since Alfred for width of intellectual interest and literary faculty. His efforts were inspired by his preceptor George Buchanan, whose memory he cherished in later years. His first work was in verse, _Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie_ (Edin. Vautrollier, 1584), containing fifteen sonnets, "Ane Metaphoricall invention of a tragedie called Phoenix," a short poem "Of Time," translations from Du Bartas, Lucan and the Book of Psalms ("out of Tremellius"), and a prose tract entitled "Ane short treatise, containing some Reulis and Cautelis to be observit and eschewit in Scottis Poesie." The volume is introduced by commendatory sonnets, including one by Alexander Montgomerie. The chief interest of the book lies in the "Treatise" and the prefatory sonnets "To the Reader" and "Sonnet decifring the perfyte poete." There is little originality in this youthful production. It has been surmised that it was compiled from the exercises written when the author was Buchanan's pupil at Stirling, and that it was directly suggested by his preceptor's _De Prosodia_ and his annotations on Vives. On the other hand, it shows intimate acquaintance with the critical reflections of Ronsard and Du Bellay, and of Gascoigne in his _Notes of Instruction_ (1575). In 1591 James published _Poeticall Exercises at Vacant Houres_, including a translation of the _Furies_ of Du Bartas, his own _Lepanto_, and Du Bartas's version of it, _La Lepanthe_. His _Daemonologie_, a prose treatise denouncing witchcraft and exhorting the civil power to the strongest measures of suppression, appeared in 1599. In the same year he printed the first edition (seven copies) of his _Basilikon Doron_, strongly Protestant in tone. A French edition, specially translated for presentation to the pope, has a disingenuous preface explaining that certain phrases (e.g. "papistical doctrine") are omitted, because of the difficulty of rendering them in a foreign tongue. The original edition was, however, translated by order of the suspicious pope, and was immediately placed on the Index. Shortly after going to England James produced his famous _Counterblaste to Tobacco_ (London, 1604), in which he forsakes his Scots tongue for Southern English. The volume was published anonymously. James's prose works (including his speeches) were collected and edited (folio, 1616) by James Montagu, bishop of Winchester, and were translated into Latin by the same hand in a companion folio, in 1619 (also Frankfort, 1689). A tract, entitled "The True Law of Free Monarchies," appeared in 1603; "An Apology for the Oath of Allegiance" in 1607; and a "_Déclaration du Roy Jacques I. ... pour le droit des Rois_" in 1615. In 1588 and 1589 James issued two small volumes of _Meditations_ on some verses of (a)