The Scottish Philosophy [140]
Poems (1760) Essay on Truth (1770); Minstrel, B. l. (1771); B. ". (1774); on Poetry and Music, on Laughter and Ludicrous Composition, on Classical Learning (1776); Dissertations on Memory and Imagination, on Dreaming, on the Theory of Language, on Fable and Romance, on the Attachments of Kindred, on Illustrations of Sublimity (1783); Evidences of Christianity (1786) Elements of Moral Science (1790-93). He has also Scotticisms, and original notes to an edition of Addison's papers.
His poems will ever hold a place among the classical writings of Great Britain. His " Minstrel " and his " Hermit" are exquisite poems of their kind: simple, graceful, tender, and leaving a peaceful and peace-giving impression on the mind; and therefore not likely to be appreciated by those whose tastes were formed by the passionate and startling style of poetry introduced in the next age by Byron, who was at school in Aberdeen while Beattie was in his declining years. His prose works do not exhibit much grasp or depth of thought, but are characterized by much ease and elegance. In his lectures he dwelt fondly on style (" Elements of Mental Science," part 10), and his remarks are clear and judicious, though somewhat tame and commonplace, but not on that account the less useful. His criticism of the " Pilgrim's Progress " may be compared with that of Macaulay, written in a later age: " It was written about a hundred and thirty years ago, while the author, who had been a tinker, was in prison in Bedford, where he was confined twelve years. Some false notions in theology may be found in it; and the style is vulgar, and savors of the author's trade; but the fable is ingenious and entertaining." He everywhere holds forth Addison as the model English writer. His own style is without the idiom, the playfulness, the corruscations, the flexible windings by which the best papers of the "Spectator" are characterized. In reading such a work as his Moral Science," we feel as if we were walking along a road with pleasant grass and corn fields on either side, but without a {235} turn in it, and without a rock or stream, without a hill or valley. His papers on literary subjects are more attractive, as allowing free scope for his fine taste.
In his "Theory of Language" he argues strongly that speech is of divine origin. In his "Dissertation on the Imagination," which is very pleasantly written, he holds the theory, afterwards expanded by Alison, that the feeling of beauty arises from the association of ideas. He begins his " Elements of Moral Science " with psychology. He mentions the twofold division of the faculties into perception and volition, but says it is not accurate, and adds affections, approaching thus to the threefold division adopted by Kant and Hamilton. He mentions nine perceptive faculties: external sensation, consciousness, memory, imagination, dreaming, speech, abstraction, reason Judgment or understanding), conscience. I rather think he is right in giving speech a place among the native faculties, but we wonder to find dreaming there. His account of consciousness is loose and popular, but he avoids the error of Dugald Stewart in making it look merely at qualities, and of Kant in making it look merely at phenomena. " Of the things perceived by this faculty, the chief is the mind itself," &c. He has often valuable remarks on the faculties. Thus, under memory: " What we perceive by two senses at once has a good chance to be remembered. Hence, to read aloud slowly and with propriety, when one is accustomed to it, contributes greatly to remembrance; and that which we write in a good hand, without contractions, with dark-colored ink, exactly pointed and spelled, in straight lines, with a moderate space between them, and properly subdivided into paragraphs as the subject may require, is better remembered than what we throw together in confusion. For by all these circumstances attention is fixed, and the writing, being better understood, makes a deeper impression. Those things, also, which are related in two or more respects are more easily
His poems will ever hold a place among the classical writings of Great Britain. His " Minstrel " and his " Hermit" are exquisite poems of their kind: simple, graceful, tender, and leaving a peaceful and peace-giving impression on the mind; and therefore not likely to be appreciated by those whose tastes were formed by the passionate and startling style of poetry introduced in the next age by Byron, who was at school in Aberdeen while Beattie was in his declining years. His prose works do not exhibit much grasp or depth of thought, but are characterized by much ease and elegance. In his lectures he dwelt fondly on style (" Elements of Mental Science," part 10), and his remarks are clear and judicious, though somewhat tame and commonplace, but not on that account the less useful. His criticism of the " Pilgrim's Progress " may be compared with that of Macaulay, written in a later age: " It was written about a hundred and thirty years ago, while the author, who had been a tinker, was in prison in Bedford, where he was confined twelve years. Some false notions in theology may be found in it; and the style is vulgar, and savors of the author's trade; but the fable is ingenious and entertaining." He everywhere holds forth Addison as the model English writer. His own style is without the idiom, the playfulness, the corruscations, the flexible windings by which the best papers of the "Spectator" are characterized. In reading such a work as his Moral Science," we feel as if we were walking along a road with pleasant grass and corn fields on either side, but without a {235} turn in it, and without a rock or stream, without a hill or valley. His papers on literary subjects are more attractive, as allowing free scope for his fine taste.
In his "Theory of Language" he argues strongly that speech is of divine origin. In his "Dissertation on the Imagination," which is very pleasantly written, he holds the theory, afterwards expanded by Alison, that the feeling of beauty arises from the association of ideas. He begins his " Elements of Moral Science " with psychology. He mentions the twofold division of the faculties into perception and volition, but says it is not accurate, and adds affections, approaching thus to the threefold division adopted by Kant and Hamilton. He mentions nine perceptive faculties: external sensation, consciousness, memory, imagination, dreaming, speech, abstraction, reason Judgment or understanding), conscience. I rather think he is right in giving speech a place among the native faculties, but we wonder to find dreaming there. His account of consciousness is loose and popular, but he avoids the error of Dugald Stewart in making it look merely at qualities, and of Kant in making it look merely at phenomena. " Of the things perceived by this faculty, the chief is the mind itself," &c. He has often valuable remarks on the faculties. Thus, under memory: " What we perceive by two senses at once has a good chance to be remembered. Hence, to read aloud slowly and with propriety, when one is accustomed to it, contributes greatly to remembrance; and that which we write in a good hand, without contractions, with dark-colored ink, exactly pointed and spelled, in straight lines, with a moderate space between them, and properly subdivided into paragraphs as the subject may require, is better remembered than what we throw together in confusion. For by all these circumstances attention is fixed, and the writing, being better understood, makes a deeper impression. Those things, also, which are related in two or more respects are more easily