distempered imagination, which, in a very few years after their marriage, showed itself in caprices and folly, that embittered every hour of his life, while he strove at first to conceal her disorder from the world, and, if possible, as he has been heard to say, to conceal it even from himself; till at last from whim, and caprice, and melancholy, it broke out into downright insanity, which rendered her seclusion from society absolutely necessary. . . . When I reflect on the many sleepless nights and anxious days, which he experienced from Mrs. Beattie's malady, and think of the unwearied and unremitting attention. he paid to her, during so great a number of years, in that sad situation, his character is exalted in my mind to a degree which may be equalled, but I am sure never can be excelled, and makes the fame of the poet and the philosopher fade from my remembrance.

In his person, Dr.

Beattie was of the middle size, though not elegantly, yet not awkwardly formed, but with something of a slouch in his gait. His eyes were black and piercing, with an expression of sensibility, somewhat bordering on melancholy, except when engaged in cheerful and social intercourse with his friends, when they were exceedingly animated. As he advanced in years, and became incapable of taking his usual degree of exercise, he grew corpulent and unwieldly, till within a few months of his death, when he had greatly decreased in size. When I last saw him, the diminution of his form was but too prophetic of the event that soon followed.-FORBES, SIR WILLIAM, 1806, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, vol. III, pp. 176, 177, 187.

Read "Beattie's Life," by Sir Wm. Forbes (from Barjarg, where I was some days ago), Schneidermässig, religious "Gigmanity," yet lovable, pitiable, in many respects worthy. Of all literary men, Beattie, according to his deserts, was perhaps (in those times) the best rewarded; yet alas! also, at length, among the unhappiest. How much he enjoyed that is far from thee!-converse with minds congenial; an element not of black cattleism, but of refinement, plenty, and encouragement. Repine not; or, what is more to be dreaded, rebel not.-CARLYLE, THOMAS, 1834, Journal, Feb. 9; Life by Froude, vol. II, p. 327.

Let us recall his black and piercing eyes, "with an expression of sensibility bordering on melancholy" when in repose, but brightening into animation when he addressed those whom he loved. He afterwards I grieve to say it of any poetgrew corpulent; but at this time he carried with him to those levées of talent a spare person, and the rare qualities of a mind which I shall briefly characterise. imagination was, perhaps, subservient to his taste. The cultivation of his mind. had been carried almost to what human nature can conceive of perfection, his chief acquirements being in moral science. As a professor, he was revered; as a friend and companion, fondly cherished. In literature he held an eminent place. The deepest piety, a true sensibility and gentleness, and a humility sincere as it was rare, softened and elevated all his mental attributes.-THOMSON, KATHERINE (GRACE WHARTON), 1848, The Literary Circles of the Last Century, Fraser's Magazine, vol. 37, p. 80.

Throughout the whole of the North of Scotland in these days, there was not one that could compete with Dr. Beattie, the recluse professor at Aberdeen, in variety of accomplishments; for he was an excellent classical scholar, a veritable poet, a scientific as well as practical musician, and indefatigable student, and, as a metaphysician, unsurpassed at that epoch, unless it were by his friend and colleague, Dr. Ried.-GILLIES, ROBERT PIERCE, 1851, Memoirs of a Literary Veteran.

This excellent and amiable man; for such he was, whatever we may think of him as a writer. Scepticism was at this time. fashionable among the wits and men of letters. It was thought a great thing that such a man as Beattie, not a clergyman, should have taken up the pen against Hume and Voltaire. The essay had won him popular fame, royal favour, and a pension. The Edinburgh Town Council had wooed him to the chair of moral philosophy; the Archbishop of York had solicited him to enter the Church of England.LESLIE, CHARLES ROBERT, AND TAYLOR, Tом, 1865, Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. II, p. 56.

During the latter half of the eighteenth century the literary traditions of the most northerly university town of Scotlandthe city of John Barbour and of Hector

Boece were honourably upheld by a small knot of poets. Of these the most academic remains the most famous. Poet and professor, philosopher and man of letters, James Beattie was no less distinguished in his time by his "Minstrel" and his prose "Essay on Truth" than by the encouragement and help which he constantly afforded to men of genius less fortunately placed. Not only were Ross and Blacklock substantially indebted to him for the furtherance of their literary fortunes, but constantly in the literary history of the time one comes upon hints and helps given now to one poet and now to another, which again and again bore valuable fruit. Beattie indeed may be said to have been for forty years a gentle and more generous Johnson, at once the literary dictator and the Mæcenas of the far north.-EYRE-TODD, GEORGE, 1896, Scottish Poetry of the Eighteenth Century, vol. II, р. 1.

ESSAY ON TRUTH

1770

I am not at all surprised to hear, that your spirited attack on the head-quarters of scepticism has drawn upon you the resentment of Mr. Hume and his followers. -PORTEUS, BIELBY, 1772, Letter to Beattie May 22; Forbes' Life of Beattie, vol. I, p. 293.

I have lately been employed in reading Beattie and Blair's "Lectures." The latter I have not yet finished. I find the I find the former the most agreeable of the two; indeed the most entertaining writer upon dry subjects that I ever met with. His imagination is highly poetical, his language easy and elegant, and his manner so familiar, that we seem to be conversing with an old friend, upon terms of the most social intercourse, while we read him.... In Blair we find a scholar; in Beattie both a scholar and an amiable man; indeed so amiable, that I have wished for his acquaintance ever since I read his book.COWPER, WILLIAM, 1784, Letter to Rev. John Newton, April 26; Works, ed. Southey, vol. III, p. 103.

Dr. Beattie's great work, and that which was undoubtedly the first foundation of his celebrity, is the "Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth;" on which such unmeasured praises are bestowed, both by his present biographer, and by all the author's male and female correspondents,

that it is with difficulty we can believe that they are speaking of the performance which we have just been wearying ourselves with looking over. That the author's intentions were good, and his convictions sincere, we entertain not the least doubt; but that the merits of his book have been prodigiously overrated, we think, is equally undeniable. It contains absolutely nothing, in the nature of argument, that had not been previously stated by Dr. Reid in his "Inquiry into the Human Mind ;" and, in our opinion, in a much clearer and more unexceptionable form.-JEFFREY, FRANCIS LORD, 1807-44, Life of Dr. Beattie, Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, vol. III, p. 365.

Beattie is among the philosophers what the Quaker is among religious sectaries. The Koos vous, or common sense, is the spirit whose illapses he sits down and waits for, and by whose whispers alone he expects to be made wise. It has sometimes prompted him well; for there are admirable passages in the Essay. The whole train of his argument, or rather his invective, in the second part, against the sceptics, is irresistible.-CARY, HENRY FRANCIS, 182124-45, Lives of English Poets, p. 310.

The book was received very favourably, passed through five large editions in four years, and was translated into French, German, Dutch, and Italian. In the history of philosophy it has not the slightest importance. The loose, commonplace character of the professor's reasoning made the essay popular among such readers as wish to be thought acquainted with the philosophy of the day, while they have neither the ability nor inclination to grapple with metaphysical problems. Attacks on Hume in singularly bad taste abound throughout the book. Hume is said to have complained that he "had not been used like a gentleman," and this probably is the only notice that he deigned to take of the professor's labours.-BULLEN, A. H., 1885, Dictionary of National Biography, vol. IV, p. 23.

The book had an enormous vogue, and procured for its author a renown which, however evanescent, was for the moment astonishing. But it was in England rather than in Scotland that its reception was most flattering.. But as a fact

the book was but a piece of literary flotsam such as is often cast up by the breaking

waves of controversy. As a philosophical disputant Beattie is beneath contempt. Occasionally he scores a good point, but it may almost always be traced to Reid. He makes a sound accusation against the Scottish school, that they were ignorant of the work of the ancient philosophers and blind to their merits; but the accusation is one which he was utterly incapable of pushing home. The book is indeed a commonplace and frothy mixture of popular invective and almost childish argument.-CRAIK, SIR HENRY, 1901, A Century of Scottish History, vol. II, p. 219.

THE MINSTREL 1771-74

The design was to trace the progress of a Poetical Genius, born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and reason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a Minstrel, that is, as an itinerant Poet and Musician; a character which, according

to the notions of our forefathers, was not only respectable, but sacred. I have endeavoured to imitate Spenser in the measure of his verse, and in the harmony, simplicity, and variety of his composition. Antique expressions I have avoided; admitting, however, some old words, where they seemed to suit the subject; but I hope none will be found that are now obsolete, or in any degree not intelligible to a reader of English poetry. To those who may be disposed to ask, what could induce me to write in so difficult a measure, I can only answer that it pleases my ear, and seems, from its Gothic structure and original, to bear some relation to the subject and spirit of the Poem. It admits both simplicity and magnificence of sound and of language beyond any other stanza that I am acquainted with. It allows the sententiousness of the couplet, as well as the more complex modulation of blank verse. What some critics have remarked, of its uniformity growing at last tiresome to the ear, will be found to hold true only when the poetry is faulty in other respects. BEATTIE, JAMES, 1771, The Minstrel, Preface.

I read the "Minstrel" with as much. rapture as poetry, in her noblest, sweetest charms, ever raised in my soul. It seemed to me that my once most-beloved minstrel, Thomson, was come down from heaven, refined by the converse of purer spirits

than those he lived with here, to let me hear him sing again the beauties of nature, and the finest feelings of virtue, not with human, but with angelic strains.LYTTELTON, LORD, 1771, Letter to Mrs. Montagu, March.

I am charmed with "The Minstrel," and have circulated its fame. I have enclosed a note, by which you will see how much it pleased Lord Lyttelton. I have sent one into the country to Lord Chatham; and I wrote immediately to a person who serves many gentlemen and ladies with new books, to recommend it to all people of taste. I am very sorry the second edition of Dr Beattie's book is not yet in town. I have recommended it, too, to many of our bishops and others; but all have complained this whole winter, that the booksellers deny having any of either the first or second edition.-MONTAGU, ELIZABETH, 1771, Letter to Dr. John Gregory, March 13; Forbes' Life of Beattie, vol. 1, p. 251.

Nor tremble lest the tuneful art expire, While Beattie strikes anew old Spenser's lyre; He, best to paint the genuine minstrel knew, Who from himself the living portrait drew. -MORE, HANNAH, 1782, Sensibility.

I thanked you in my last for Johnson; I now thank you, with more emphasis, for Beattie, the most agreeable and amiable writer I ever met with; the only author I have seen, whose critical and philosophical researches are diversified and embellished

by a poetical imagination, that makes even
the driest subject and the leanest, a feast
for an epicure in books. He is so much
at his ease, too, that his own character
appears in every page; and, which is very
rare, we see not only the writer, but the
man; and that man so gentle, so well-
tempered, so happy in his religion, and so
humane in his philosophy, that it is neces-
sary to love him, if one has the least sense of
what is lovely. If you have not his poem
called "The Minstrel," and cannot borrow
it, I must beg you to buy it for me; for,
though I cannot afford to deal largely in
so expensive a commodity as books, I must
afford to purchase at least the poetical
works of Beattie.-COWPER, WILLIAM,
1784, Letter to Rev. William Unwin, April 5.
No gifts have I from Indian coasts
The infant year to hail;

I send you more than India boasts,
In Edwin's simple tale.

-BURNS, ROBERT, 1787, To Miss Logan, with Beattie's Poems.

It was his supreme delight to saunter in the fields the livelong night, contemplating the sky, and marking the approach of day; and he used to describe, with peculiar animation, the pleasure he received from the soaring of the lark in the summer morning. A beautiful landscape which he has magnificently described in the twentieth stanza of the first book of the "Minstrel," corresponds exactly with what must have presented itself to his poetical imagination, on those occasions, at the approach of the rising sun, as he would view the grandeur of that scene from the hill in the neighbourhood of his native village. The high hill which rises to the west of Fordoun, would, in a misty morning, supply him with one of the images so beautifully described in the twenty-first stanza. And the twentieth stanza of the second book of the "Minstrel" describes a night-scene unquestionably drawn from nature, in which he probably had in view Homer's sublime description of the moon, in the eighth book of the

Iliad, so admirably translated by Pope, that an eminent critic had not scrupled to declare it to be superior to the original. He used, himself, to tell, that it was from the top of a high hill in the neighbourhood that he first beheld the ocean, the sight of which, he declared, made the most lively impression on his mind.-FORBES, SIR WILLIAM, 1806, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, vol. 1, p.25.

"Lives there the man," who has a heart to feel, and an understanding to appreciate, who does not even hug the "Minstrel" of Beattie? Most sweet and soothing and instructive is that thoroughly picturesque and sentimental poem, throughout while the stanza exhibits one of the happiest of modern attempts at that of the Spencerian structure.-DIBDIN, THOMAS FROGNALL, 1824, The Library Companion, p. 735, note.

His fame now rests upon "The Minstrel' alone. Since its first publication, many poems of a far loftier and more original character have been produced in England; yet still does it maintain its popularity; and still in Edwin, that happy personification of the poetic temperament, do young and enthusiastic readers delight to recognize a picture of themselves. Though we cannot fail to regret that Beattie should have left it incomplete, yet we do not long

for the concluding books from any interest which we take in the story, such as is excited by some other unfinished works of genius, the tale of "Cambuscan," for instance, or the legend of "Christabel." In "The Minstrel," indeed, there is but little invention; it is a poem of sentiment and description, conveying to us lessons of true philosophy in language of surprising beauty, and displaying pictures of nature, in her romantic solitudes, painted by a master's hand.-DYCE, ALEXANDER, 1831, Beattie's Poems, Aldine ed., Memoir.

No poem has ever given more delight to minds of a certain class, and in a certain stage of their progress . . . that class a high one, and that stage perhaps the most delightful in the course of their pilgrimage. It was to this class that the poet himself belonged; the scenes which he delineated were those in which he had grown up, the feelings and aspirations those of his own boyhood and youth, and the poem derived its peculiar charm from its truth.-SOUTHEY, ROBERT, 1835, Life of Cowper, p. 340.

This afternoon I read through Beattie's "Minstrel," which I never read carefully before. It does not seem to me in most parts to possess fire enough you can't see the "kindling touch" of genius in it. LOWELL, JAMES RUSSELL, 1837, To G. B. Loring, April 14; Letters, ed. Norton, vol. 1, p. 18.

"The Minstrel" is an harmonious and eloquent composition, glowing with poetical sentiment; but its inferiority in the highest poetical qualities may be felt by comparing it with Thomson's "Castle of Indolence," which is perhaps the other work in the language which it most nearly resembles, but which yet it resembles much in the same way as gilding does solid gold, or as colored water might be made to resemble wine.--CRAIK, GEORGE L., 1861, A Compendious History of English Literature and of the English Language, vol. II, p. 307.

Beattie had not the same power of luscious delineation, nor the same command over language, which belonged to Thomson; yet, on the other hand, he sometimes rises to a strain of manly force and dignity which was beyond the compass of the other. ARNOLD, THOMAS, 1868-75, Chaucer to Wordsworth, p. 362.