J/AMES B/EATTIE was born Oct.25, 1735, at the north-east end of Lawrencekirk, a village in the heart of the <Howe of the Mearns> in Kincardineshire, where his father kept a retail shop, and rented a small farm in the neighborhood.He was educated, {231} as so many eminent Scotchmen have been, at his parish school, and showed an early taste for reading, especially books of poetry.In 1749, he entered Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he competed for and received a bursary; and there his classical tastes were at once discovered by Dr.Blackwell, and there in coming years he studied philosophy under Dr.Gerard.In 1753, he was appointed schoolmaster of the parish of Fordoun about six miles from his native place, in a hollow at the base of the Grampians.He had all along a taste for the beauties of nature; and his poetical genius was kindled, and may have been partly guided into the direction which it took, by the peculiar scenery of the country, where a fine rich plain stretches out with a low range of hills overlooking the German Ocean on the one side, and the lofty Grampians on the other.The tradition is, that at this period of his life he would saunter in the fields or on the hills the livelong night, watching the aspects of the sky and welcoming the approach of day, and that he was specially fond of wandering in a deep and finely wooded glen in the neighborhood.While at this place he secured friends and patrons in the parish minister, in Lord Monboddo and Lord Gardenstone.The last named of these having seen some pieces of his poetry in manuscript, and being in doubt whether they were entirely the composition of so young a man, asked him to translate a passage of Lucretius; whereupon Beattie retired into an adjoining wood, and produced a translation in a very short time.While a schoolmaster at Fordoun, he seems to have attended divinity lectures during several winters at Aberdeen, with a view to the gospel ministry; but he soon relinquished the pursuit.In 1757, he stood a competitive examination for the office of usher in the grammar-school of Aberdeen, and was defeated; but so satisfied were the judges of his qualifications that, on the office falling vacant the following year, he was appointed to it without any farther examination.In this more public position, his literary abilities became known; and, through the influential friends whom he had acquired, be was installed professor of moral philosophy and logic in Marischal College in 1760.About this time he became a member of the Aberdeen Club, and associated with such men as Reid, Campbell, John Gregory, and Gerard.
As professor, he lectured and examined two or three hours {232} every day, from November to April, on pneumatology, embracing psychology and natural theology; on speculative and practical ethics, economics, jurisprudence, politics, rhetoric, and logic, with readings in Cicero and others of the ancient philosophers.As a moral philosopher, he felt himself called to oppose the scepticism of which Hume was the champion.It appears from letters of Dr.John Gregory, published in Forbes's Life of Beattie," that atheism and materialism were at that time in high fashion, and were spouted by many who used the name of Hume, but who had never read his works, and who were incapable of understanding them.Reid had for years been examining the foundations of philosophy, which Hume had been undermining, and published his " Inquiry" in 1764.Beattie followed in 1770, with the Essay on "The Nature and Immutability of Truth." This work was his principal study for four years: he wrote it three times over, and some parts of it oftener.It had so rapid a sale that, in 1771, a second edition was demanded; and, shortly after, there were proposals to translate it into French, Dutch, and German.While engaged in these severer labors, he was all the while cherishing, what I suspect was to him the more congenial occupation, his taste for poetry.So early as 1766, he is laboring in the style and stanza of Spencer, at a poem in which he is to give an account of the birth, education, and adventures of one of the old minstrels.The First Book of the " Minstrel "was published anonymously in 1771, and a new edition of this Book and the Second Book, with his name attached, in 1774.
Beattie, it may be acknowledged, stands higher as a poet than a philosopher.Some of his poems are in the first rank of their kind.
The personal incidents in his remaining life worthy of being recorded are not numerous.In 1767, he had married Miss Mary Dunn, who was inflicted with a tendency to mental disease, which broke out first in a distempered mind, and afterwards in insanity, which greatly distressed the kind husband, and compelled him at last to provide for her living separate from him.His quiet life was varied by several visits paid to London, where, as he became known by his works, he received considerable attention and was introduced to many eminent literary men.On two several occasions he had the honor of {233} an interview with George III., who had a great admiration of the character and object of his works, and granted him a pension.The famous painter Sir Joshua Reynolds took a fine portrait of him, with the "Essay on Truth " under his arm, and above him a winged angelic being holding scales in one hand, as if weighing truth, and with the other pushing three hideous figures, supposed to represent Sophistry, Scepticism, and Folly (Reynolds meant two of these to be Voltaire and Hume),
who are shrinking away from the light of the sun, beaming from the breast of the angel.
