The Scottish Philosophy [139]
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),[67] who are shrinking away from the light of the sun, beaming from the breast of the angel.
His defences of religion were highly esteemed by several of the bishops and a number of the clergy of the Church of England, and he was offered a rich living if he would take orders in that church. This he declined, not because he disapproved of the doctrine or worship of the Episcopal Church, but he was apprehensive that by accepting such preferment he " might strengthen the hands of the gainsayer and give the world some ground to believe that the love of the truth was not quite so ardent or so pure as he had pretended." In 1773, Oxford University conferred an honorary degree of LL.D. upon him. The same year, he was offered the chair of moral philosophy in Edinburgh, but declined, as he preferred Aberdeen as his sphere, and was indisposed to go to a place where he would be in the heart of those he had attacked. His declining days were embittered by trials, which sank deep into his soul; such as the state of his wife, and the death first of one and then of the other of his sons, one of them being a very promising young man, called in early life to be his father's assistant in the college.[68] We discover traces of irritation in his afflictions; and one could have wished to see him sustained not only by what he sincerely entertained, a belief in providence and in the word of God, but in the peculiar doctrines of redemption and grace, so specially fitted to give comfort in trouble. He died Oct. 5, 1802. {234}
In person he was of a middle size, with something of a slouch in his gait; and in his latter years he was inclined to corpulency. He had dark eyes, and a mild and somewhat pensive look. There is an account of his life and writings in a work by Sir W. Forbes, in three volumes. It contains many of his letters, which are full of criticisms of no great profundity, and display at once the amiabilities and weaknesses of the author.
The following are the titles, with the dates, of his works:
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),[67] who are shrinking away from the light of the sun, beaming from the breast of the angel.
His defences of religion were highly esteemed by several of the bishops and a number of the clergy of the Church of England, and he was offered a rich living if he would take orders in that church. This he declined, not because he disapproved of the doctrine or worship of the Episcopal Church, but he was apprehensive that by accepting such preferment he " might strengthen the hands of the gainsayer and give the world some ground to believe that the love of the truth was not quite so ardent or so pure as he had pretended." In 1773, Oxford University conferred an honorary degree of LL.D. upon him. The same year, he was offered the chair of moral philosophy in Edinburgh, but declined, as he preferred Aberdeen as his sphere, and was indisposed to go to a place where he would be in the heart of those he had attacked. His declining days were embittered by trials, which sank deep into his soul; such as the state of his wife, and the death first of one and then of the other of his sons, one of them being a very promising young man, called in early life to be his father's assistant in the college.[68] We discover traces of irritation in his afflictions; and one could have wished to see him sustained not only by what he sincerely entertained, a belief in providence and in the word of God, but in the peculiar doctrines of redemption and grace, so specially fitted to give comfort in trouble. He died Oct. 5, 1802. {234}
In person he was of a middle size, with something of a slouch in his gait; and in his latter years he was inclined to corpulency. He had dark eyes, and a mild and somewhat pensive look. There is an account of his life and writings in a work by Sir W. Forbes, in three volumes. It contains many of his letters, which are full of criticisms of no great profundity, and display at once the amiabilities and weaknesses of the author.
The following are the titles, with the dates, of his works: