256 
ris:—but other counfels prevailed ; and 
he returned to Scotlana in the year 1764. 
On os arrival at Edinburgh, he was fent 
to Dundee, to officiate as prieft to the 
Catholics in the county of Angus. But 
he did not remain long in that ftation ;_ be. 
ing removed in May i765, to Traquaire, 
where he refided nearly three years as do- 
meftic chaplain to the Earl of Traquaire. 
Of this connection he was accuftomed to 
fpeak with fatisfaétion and gratitude, as 
having afforded him much leifure for li- 
_terary purfuits, and the ule of a well- 
furnithed library, admirably adapted to 
affift him in his favourite ftudies. 
He leit Traquaire in the autumn. of 
1768; and, after a few weeks’ ftay in 
Angus, returned to Paris, where he re- 
mained the following winter; during 
which he was moftly in the King’s and 
other libraries, and made feveral extracts 
from rare books, particularly Hebrew ones. 
In the {pring of 1769, he returned to 
Britain ; and undertook the charge of a 
confiderable Roman Catholic congrega- 
tion at Auchirhalrig,in Banff-fhire ; where, 
in the fummer of 1770 he. projected 
and built a new chapel on the fame fpot 
where the old one ftood; and f6on after 
made the old houfe at Auchinhalrig one 
of the moit neat and convenient belong- 
ing to the Roman Catholic clergy in Scot- 
land. This, and other unavoidable ex- 
pences encumbered -him with debt; from 
which he was however relieved by the ge- 
nerofity of the late Duke of Norfolk. 
He then thought, that.a little farm would 
help him to live more comfortably; but 
the confequence was quite the reverfe ; he 
was obliged to borrow money to fteck it, 
and the failure of three fucceffive crops 
plunged him deeper anddeeper. Another 
chapel too, which he built at Fochabers, 
added confiderable to the burthen. The 
publication of his Satires that year 
brought him in fome money, but not 
enough. Still, however he had fpirit and 
hopes, and he was not, in the end, dif- 
appointed. 
¥ig; after having continued during ten 
years in the affiduous difcharge of the va- 
rious duties belonging to his paftoral of- 
fice ; and when he retired, it was with the 
moft fincere and unfeigned regret of all 
thefe among whom he had miniftered. 
‘The attention which he paid to the in. 
firuétion of the young had never been fur- 
pefied, and but rarely equalled, by any of 
his predeceffors. 
His great learning, which began now 
to be univerfally known among the lite- 
yati of the North, obtained for him, in 
the year 1780, a diploma, creating him 
Account of the late Dr. Geddes. 
In 1779, he left Auchinhal- 
(April 1, 
Dottor of Laws, from the Univerfity. of 
Aberdeen. This was an honour that had 
never, fin¢e the reformation, been conferred 
by that body on a Roman Catholic. 
About this period Dr. Geddes came te 
London, and officiated for a few months 
as prieft in the Imperial Ambaffador’s 
chapel, till it was fuppreffed at the end of 
the year 1780, by an order from the Em- 
peror Jofeph II. 
Dr. Geddes afterwards preached occa- 
fionally at the chapel in Duke-ftreet, Lin- 
coln’s Inn Fields, till Eafter 1782, when 
it is believed he totally declined the exer= 
cife of all clerical funétions. 
It was at a much earlier period than 
this that he formed a defign of giving a 
new. Tranflation of the whole Bible, 
About the. year 1760 he began to read 
with this view: he was then acquainted 
with only two verfions of that book, the 
vulgar Latin and the vulgar Englifh; in 
favour of the latter he had been much 
prepoflefied in the early part of his life; 
but when he had acquired a knowledge of 
the Latin language fufficient to enable him 
to compare the two tranflations, he gave 
a decided preference to the Vulgate. The 
Englifh appeared to him rugged, con- 
ftrained, and often obf{cure, where the 
Latin was {mooth, eafy, and intelligible. 
‘The former feemed to read like a tranfla- 
tion, the latter like an original. * Such 
(fays Dr. Geddes) at that time was my 
opinion; and I confefs, that. whatever I 
have fince read, has ferved only to confirm 
meinit. Let this be called prejudice ; I 
have no objeétion: but, certainly, it has 
not been fightly formed, nor blindly fol- 
lovpedd ols iit %, 
In the year 1762; he began to read 
the originals, with thefe verfions con- 
fiantly before him, when he quickly 
difcovered that the great object of the 
Englith tranflators had been to give a 
ftriétly literal verfion, at the expence of al- 
moft every other confideration ; while the 
author of the Vulgate had endeavoured to ~ 
render the original equivalently, into fuch 
language as was current in his age, 
Siruck with the advantages of the latter 
method, Dr. Geddes immediately refolved 
to follow the fame plan if he fhould ever 
tranflate the Bible. His original ideas, 
in this refpeé, though frequently reviewed 
by him, underwent but few alterations. 
The unwearied attention which he paid to 
the ancient verfions in the Polyglott con- 
firmed him in the opinion, that a ftri@ly 
literal verfion was not the moft proper to 
convey its meaning, and difplay its. beau- 
ties, fince even thofe tranflators, who had 
the text to render, not intoa different Jan- ~ 
: guage, 
a 
