B E A 



B E A 



pTiy ; and m a poem hereafter to be mentioned, he warmly 

 coniriatulatcs himfcif on having efcapcd " From Pyrrho's 

 maze and Epicurus' fty." There is a vein of acrimony 

 and exafperation in all his allufions to the fceptical philofo- 

 phy, which renders not improbable the report of a perfo- 

 nal offence received by him from Hume ; though there is 

 no r;afon to doubt that when he UTote his bock, he was 

 \-ery fincerely impreflcd with the danger of the tenets he 

 oppofed, and that he ever after remained zealoufly attached 

 to the caufe of revelation. The author in this work is re- 

 garded as a philofophical difciple of Dr. Reid, admitting 

 an inftinftive principle of the perception of truth, and 

 founding it upon that faculty of common fetij'e, which afts in 

 a fimilar manner upoa all, or a great majority, of mankind. 

 As he wrote with more eloquence and a more popular 

 manner than Dr. Reid, his performance was much read, 

 and gained him a number of ver)' refpeClable friends and 

 admirers. It is allowed, that he has fuccefsfully detected 

 many of the lophifms of Hume, and has brought together 

 many ingenious and ufeful thoughts on this fubjeft ; but 

 the foundation of its philofophy has by fome, efpecially by 

 Dr. Pricllley, been treated as (hallow and fuperficial : and he 

 has been cenfured for the arrogance which he has difplayed 

 towards thofe of oppofite opinions, and for the readinefs 

 vith which he has inrputed to them conRquences fubver- 

 five of moral-ty. Indeed, many parts of his book favour 

 more of the rhetorician than the philofopher. Thefe de- 

 fedls, however, did not render lefs acceptable an attempt 

 from a layman to ferve the caule of religion ; and among 

 the friends Beattie acquired on the occafion, were lords 

 Mansfield and Lyttcltoc, bifliops Hurd and Porteus, Dr. 

 Johnfon, and Mrs. Montague. The influence of lord 

 Mansfield obtained for him a penflon of zool. from his 

 majefty's privy-purfe. 



In the following year, 1 77 1, his fame as a poet was ex- 

 tended throughout the kingdom by the publication of the 

 firft part of « The Minllrel." The fubjeft of this piece, 

 is the feigned birth and education of a poet. The term 

 rnhjirel is not very liapplly applied to the charafter def- 

 cribcd ; nor are the famed " Gothic days" in which he is 

 placed to be recognized in real hillcr\- : but there is great 

 beauty in the delineation of the native poetical difpofition 

 sffigned to him, and in the invention of circumftances by 

 which it is nourifhed. The ftanza is that of Spenfer, 

 which is managed with Angular dexterity, and made to 

 produce a melody of verfification fcarcely exceeded in the 

 range of EnglilTi poetry-. The fecond part of this poem, 

 which appeared in 1774, contains the maturer education of 

 the yoimg bard, and enlightens his mind with the leflbns 

 of hiftory, philofophy, and fcience. There are many fine 

 ftrains in this part, which, howevtr, deviates from the 

 original conception ; and the work is left 3 fragment, 

 probably becaufe its plan was found to involve unavoidable 

 incongruities. The " Minftrel," whatever be its defects, is 

 probably the performance on which Beattie's future fame will 

 chiefly depend ; and it may be regarded as having taken 

 fccure poflcflion of a place amid the moll approved poetry 



in the lan^uaire. 

 - - 

 Mr. Beattie vifited London in 1 77 1, and was received 



v.'ith great cordiality by his admirers. The degree of 

 L.L.D. was conferred upon him by his college at Aber- 

 deen not long afterwards, and he repeated his London 

 journey in 1773. A new edition in 410. of the " Eflay 

 on Truth" was publifhed in 1777, by a private fubfcription 

 among his friends, conducted on the moil liberal principles, 

 and to the volume were added three effays on fubjefts ap- 

 pertaining to polite literature, which had been read before 



a private fociety at Aberdeen, In the Eflay on Tiuth, 

 fon'.e corrections were made, and fome harfh rcfiei'tion* 

 were foftencd and modified. The other pieces difplayed 

 much refined tafte, found judgment, and acquaintance with 

 the befl authors, ancient and modem. 



Dr. Beattie, in 1783, publifhed a quarto volume confiil- 

 ing of " Diifertations, Moral and Critical." Thefe are de- 

 tached effays on varicjus fubjefts, which formed a part oi a 

 courfe of leflures read by the author in his profeffional capa- 

 city. Many ufeful and curious topics are difcuffed in them, 

 without any pretenfions to extraordinary fubtlety and acute- 

 ncfs, but in a mode calculated to improve the heart as well as 

 the underftanding. The work is not free from fomewhat 

 of the warm and dogmatical manner which charaflerifes 

 the Effay on Truth ; and though not unwortViy of the 

 writer's fame, it appears to have made little addition to it. 

 The applaufe given by the bifhop of London to a flvctch 

 of nianufcript lectures to young perfons on the evidence of 

 Chriftianity, ir.duced Dr. Beattie to draw up and pubhth 

 in 1786, a work entitled " Evidences of the Chrif^ian Re- 

 ligion, briefly and plainly dated," 2 vols. 8vo. This was 

 efteemed a plain, elegant, and popular view of the fubjeft, 

 well calculated for its intended purpofe. It w?.s the lalt 

 publication of the author, whofe time was much occupied 

 with the dutiesof his ftation,and with focial'and domeflic con- 

 cerns; of which oneof the deareft to his heart was the education 

 of his eldeft Ion, James Hay Beattie, a youth of very ex- 

 traordinary endowments and uncommon moral excellence. 

 He was fo fuccefsfully trained by his father, as to be made 

 his afliftant in the profefforial chair at the age of nineteen ; 

 and he was become the moll intimate friend and beloved 

 companion of his revered parent, when he fell into a declire, 

 which carried him off in 1790, at the age of 22. Dr. 

 Beattie had fortitude enough to be the editor cf a fraall 

 volume of the youtli's compofitions, in verfe and profe, 

 to which he prefixed a memoir on his life and charafter, 

 highly interefling and unalfeftedly pathetic. This griev- 

 ous lofs was followed in 1796 by that of hir. younger fon, 

 Montague Beattie, in his eighteenth year. The unhappy- 

 father was unable, with all his refources, to bear up under 

 this accumulated forrow. The latter years of his life were 

 a blank of exiilence, which terminated at Aberdeen, on 

 Augufl 18, 1803, in the 68th year of his age. Dr. 

 Beattie was amiable zixA exemplary in every department of 

 private life, and fulfilled the duties of his public ftation ia 

 fuch a manner as to confer honour and credit upon the 

 univerlity of which he was a profcfTor. He was a fellow 

 of the Roval Society of Edinburgh. 



BEATL'S Rhfnan'us, a learned man of the i6th cen- 

 tury, whofe father Anthony Bilde, affumed the name of 

 Rhenanus from Rheinach, the place of his bir'h, was born 

 at Schletftad in Alface, in 1485. He purfued his fludies 

 at Paris and Stra(burg, and from thence proceeded to Bafil, 

 where, in 1514, he formed an intimate acquaintance with 

 Erafmus, and applied to the Greek language under J. Conon 

 of Nuremberg, and became a correelor of the prefs to the 

 celebrated Frobenius. At the age of 35 he returned to 

 Schlf tftad. He fii 11 piiblifiied the two books of the " Hif- 

 tory of Velleius Paterculus," and firft caufed the works of 

 Tertullian to be printed from two MSS. which he bor- 

 rowed from two monalteries in Germany. His notes to 

 Tertullian were ceufured by the Spanifh inquifition, and 

 placed in the Index of prohibited books, becaufe they con- 

 tained fome free reflections on the fenfuality of the clergy 

 in his time. Rhenanus was a man of extcnfive learning, 

 particularly in the Greek language, church hillory, and tl<€ 

 antiquities of Germany. Scaliger fays, that he contributed 



greatly- 



