- 
474 
The merits of this seminary appear 
to have been as scanty as its fame is ob- 
secure, if a knowledge of the bible in 
the vulgar Latin were all the proficiency 
made in it by a pupil, certainly not in- 
disposed to literature or diligence. From 
this inhospitable climate, however, at 
the age of twenty-one, he emerged into. 
the bright region of Paris, and was en- 
tered as-a meraber of the Scotch col- 
lege in that city. Here, under able 
teachers, and with every advantage for 
study, he appears to have made the 
most rapid progress in those branches 
of learning to which his attention was 
directed, and the acquisitions which he 
here formed were all subservient to those 
critical pursuits, for whiclr by this time 
his mind had received a decided, incli- 
pation. 
Having completed his course of study, 
he was invited by professor L’Avocat 
to remain in Paris, and take a share in 
the public labours of the college. his 
proposal he declined, and returned to 
Scotland in 1764, where he was shortly 
afterwards ‘instituted to the office of a 
priest among the catholics of the county 
of Angus. Scarcely had he entered 
into this situation, when he received an 
offer more congenial to his wishes and 
objects of pursuit, of becoming a vesi- 
dent in thefamily of Jord Fraquaire; and 
in the leisure and opportuniiies of this 
situation, began to meditate and pre- 
pare a new tranélation of the scriptures. 
His continuance in this asylum was 
however interrupted by .an incident of 
rather a romantic complexion, related 
with delicacy and propriety by his bio- 
grapher. Feeling in his mind the pro- 
gress of a growing affection, which he 
thought it his duty to repress, he snatched 
himself precipitately from danger, and 
again visited Paris. After such a resi, 
dence in that city as we may presume 
to have been. effectual for the attain- 
ment of its purpose, he revisited his na- 
tive country in the spring of 1769. 
Weshall here introduce the biographer, 
continuing his narrative more at large 
in his own words. 
«Jn returning a second time to his native 
country, Mr. Geddes dared not entrust him- 
self to the fascinating spot, or re-engage in 
the domestic situation from which, in the 
preceding year, he had found it so necessary 
tofly. He accepted therefore of the charge 
of acatholic congregation at Auchinhalrig 
in the county of Banfi, not far distant from 
the place of his nativity. This congregation, 
~ 
; : 
though numerous, labonred ander a vanciy 
BIOGRAPHY. 
of disadvantages, and at the time in which 
“the subject of this biography was elected to 
the pastoral office, was equally diminishing 
in zeal and number. The members of whom 
it consisted were, for the most part, poor; 
their chapel was in a state of irreparable 
dilapidation ; the condition ef the parsonage 
house was but little better, and the most un- 
ehristian rancour had long subsisted between 
themselves and their more wealthy, as well 
as more numerous, brethren of the protestant 
cenmunity. 
«* Never was there a man better qualified 
for correcting the whole of these evils than, 
Alexander Geddes, and never did man appl 
himself with more ardour to their wehionit, 
Activity and liberality were indeed the cha~ 
racteristic principles of his soul; much world- 
ly pradence he never possessed, but his hear, 
overflowed with the milk of human kind- 
ness, and his nerves, when in their utmost — 
state of diseased irritability, still vibrated. ~ 
with benevolence. He preposed that the 
old chapel should be pulled down; he pro- 
jected a new one; he rebuilt it on the spot 
which the former had eccupied. -He re- 
patred the dilapidations of the ea bes 
house; he ornamented it with fresh improve- 
ments, and rendered it one of the pleasantest 
and most convenient in his country. He 
not only, indeed, superintended these build. 
ings, but laboured at them bimself, being 
as ready a carpenter, and as, expert. in the 
use of the saw and plane, as if he had been 
professedly brought up to the trade. Gar 
dening and carpentering were in reality at all 
times favourite amusements with him; they 
constituted his chief relaxations ftom the 
severity of study to the last moment of his 
life; and 1 have frequently rallied him, when 
at work, upon the multiplicity of his tools, 
which, in the article of planes of different 
mouldings, were more numerous than those 
of many professed artists, and on the dex+ 
terity with which he handled them. 
“Po his humble, but neat and’ hespitable 
cottage, it is to be expected therefore that he 
added the luxury of a geod garden. Mr. 
Geddes had drawn his knowledge of botany 
rather frome practice than theory, which, 
nevertheless, he had not altogether neg- 
lected. Satisfied with the indigenous boun-_ 
ties, as well as beauties of nature, he did 
not largely seck for exotic ornaments; noy 
would the paucity of his means have ad- 
mitted of any considerable indulgence in this 
respect, had he even pessessed the inclina= 
tion. But his flower, his finit, and his 
kitchen-garden, though little boastful of fo- 
reign productions, were each of them. perfect 
in tts kind, and the admiration df his flock, 
who were generously supplied, according to _ 
their respective wants, from the abundange- 
it afforded : ; 
> 
—Dupibus mensas onerabat imemptis. ~ 
Vire. Georg. iv. 153. 
% 
He piled their tables with unpurchased stores. 
