laft letter, (whofe name I hope you will not be under the neceffity of concealing from me) and affure him, that, though I have taken the liberty to decline his generous offer, I fhall, to the laft hour of my life, preferve a moft grateful remembrance of the honour. he has condefcended to confer upon me; and, to prove myself not altogether unworthy of his goodnefs, fhall employ that health and leifure which providence may hereafter afford me, in oppofing infidelity, herefy, and error, and in promoting found literature, and chriftian truth, to the utmost of my power." Vol. I. p 359.

After this candid difclofure of Dr. Beattie's motives and

principles, which to us appear fatisfactory, it is proper to, add, that the prelate who made the offer was Dr. Thomas, then bishop of Winchester.

From this time Dr. Beattie remained at his poft, as profeffor of moral philofophy and logic, in the Marifchal College of Aberdeen, unfolicited to quit a ftation which he filled with fo much honour to himfelf, and fo much advantage to his country. The only other public mark of friend hip be ftowed on him, was a large and liberal fubfcription for a quarto edition of the " Effay on Truth," in 1776, to which were added "Effays on Poetry and Mufic, on Laughter and Ludicrous Compofition, and on the Utility of Claffical Learning." This fubfcription was conducted in the most delicate manner by his friends in England. The other effays in 1783, and the remainder of his works publifhed between that period and his death, ac illuftrated by his correfpondence with his friends, which evinces with what caution and deference he upon every occafion appeared in print. The other events of his life may be comprifed in his occafional vifits to London, &c. during college vacations, in which his chief objects were health, and fome intermiffion from family afflictions, which were of the fevereft kind, and generally received fome alleviation from the kindnefs of his friends.

66

When, however, we pafs from "Life" to " Letters" in this publication, we meet with an extent and variety of information and entertainment, which render felection no very cafy talk. Of this our readers may form fome idea, when we add, that the two hundred and forty letters contained in thefe volumes, embrace a very large portion of the literary hiftory of the laft forty years, and prefent us with many anec dotes and much elegant and original criticifm on the lives and works of Addifon, Arbuthnot, Armstrong, Bp. Berkeley, Dr. Blair, the Bowdlers, Bruce, Burke, Bp. Butler, Dr. Campbell, Chesterfield, Mrs. Delany, Dryden, Dr. Fergufon, Lord Gardenftown, Garrick, Dr. Gerard, Gibbon, Goldfmith, Gray, Dr. John Gregory, Lord Hailes, Handel, Hawkesworth,

Hawkefworth, Hayley, Hoole, Bp. Horne, Hume, Bp. Hurd, Soame Jenyns, Dr. Johnfon, Sir Wm. Jones, Lord Kaimes, Bp. Law, Locke, Bp. Lowth, Lord Lyttelton, Macpherson, Lord Mansfield, Mafon, Monboddo, Mrs. Montague, Mifs Hannah More, Right Hon. Wm. Pitt, Dr. Porteus, Bp. of London, Duchefs Dowager of Portland, Dr. Prieftley, Purcel, Dr. Reid, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Richardfon, Dr. Robertfon, Rouffeau, Scott of Amwell, Shakspeare, Dr. Adam Smith, Smollett, Spenfer, Swift, Thomfon, Tytler, Voltaire, Young, and many others. The letters, too, of fome of thefe diftinguifhed characters, form a part of this valuable collection, from which we fhall felect a few paffages, such as may fuit our limits, but cannot fairly exemplify its variety

or value.

Previously to Dr. Priestley's publication, in 1774, of "An Examination of Drs. Reid, Beattie, and Ofwald," he wrote a letter to Dr. Beattie, who gives the following account of it in his correfpondence with Mrs. Montague.

DR. BEATTIE TO MRS. MONTAGUE.

Peterhead, 5th August, 1774.

"Dr. Prieftley's Preface is come out, without any acknow ledgment of the information conveyed to him in my letter. But he has written to me on the occafion, and fays, he will publish my letter in that book which he is preparing, in oppofition to the "Effay on Truth," as he thinks fuch a letter will do me honour. He praifes the candour and generofity which, he fays. appear in my letter, and feems to be fatisfied, that I wrote my book with a good intention; which is the only merit he allows me, at least he mentions no other. He blames me exceedingly for my want of moderation, and for fpeaking, as I have done, of the moral influence of opinions. He owns, that his notions, on fome of the points in which he differs from me, are exceedingly unpopular, and likely to continue fo, and fays, that perhaps no two perfons, profeffing chriftianity, ever thought more differently, than he and I do. It is a lofs to me, he feems to think, that I have never been acquainted with fuch perfons, as himself, and his friends, in England: to this he is inclined to impute the im proper ftyle I have made ufe of on fome fubjects; but he hopes a little reflection, and a candid examination of what he is to write against me, will bring me to a better way of thinking and speaking. His motive for entering the lifts with me, is no other, he fays, than a fincere and pretty ftrong, though perhaps a mif taken regard to truth." This is the fubftance of his letter, as I understand it. There are indeed fome things in it, which I do not diftinctly understand; and therefore, I believe, I fhall not at prefent make any reply. He does not tell me, what the points

of

of difference between us are: but I find from fome reports, that have penetrated even to this remote corner, that he has taken fome pains to let it be known, that he is writing an answer to my book. A volume of his "Inftitutes of Religion" lately fell into my hand, which is the first of his theological works I have feen; and, I muft confefs, it does not give me any high opinion. of him. His notions of chriftianity are, indeed different from mine; fo very different, that I know not whether I fhould think it neceffary or proper to affume the title of a chriftian, if I were to think and write as he does. When one proceeds fo far, as to admit fome parts of the Gofpel Hiftory, and reject others; as to fuppofe, that fome of the facts, recorded by the Evangelifts of our Saviour, may reafonably be difbelieved, and others doubted; when one, I fay, has proceeded thus far, we may without breach of charity conclude, that he has within him a spirit of paradox and prefumption, which may prompt him to proceed much further. Dr. Priestley's doctrines feem to me to ftrike at the very vitals of Christianity. His fuccefs in fome of the branches of natural knowledge feems to have intoxicated him, and led him to fancy, that he was master of every subject, and had a right to be a dictator in all for in this book of his, there is often a boldnefs of affertion, followed by a weakness of argument, which no man of parts would adventure upon, who did not think that his word would be taken for a law. I am impatient for the appearance of his book against me; as I cannot prepare matters for a new edition of the "Effay on Truth," till I fee what he has to fay against it." Vol. I. p. 368.

We do not recollect that the turbulent and unfettled character of that polemic has been any where appreciated with fo much juftice and in fo few words. His affectation of candour, and the exclufive merit of fenfe and good-writing, which he affumes to himself and his friends, are truly cha racteristic. It is well known, however, that the arrogant fpirit of his "Examination" was cenfured even by his own party, and that having failed in producing, what he dearly loved, a protracted controverfy, it was foon forgotten.

The following remarks on Dr. Hawkefworth, and on travel-writers in general, are not undeferving of confideration.

"Your reflections on the little difafter, with which our jour ney concluded, exactly coincide with mine. I agree with Hawkefworth, that the peril and the deliverance are equally providential; and I wonder he did not see that both the one and other may be productive of the very best effects. Thefe little accidents and trials are neceffary to put us in mind of that fuperintending goodnefs, to which we are indebted for every breath we draw, and of which, in the hour of tranquillity, many of us are too apt to be forgetful. But you, Madam, forget nothing which a

chriftian

christian ought to remember; and therefore I hope and pray that Providence may defend you from every alarm. By the way, there are several things, befides that preface to which I just now referred, in the writings of Hawkefworth, that shew an unaccountable perplexity of mind in regard to fome of the principles of natural religion. I obferved, in his converfation, that he took a pleasure in ruminating upon riddles, and puzzling queftions, and calculations; and he feems to have carried fomething of the fame temper into his moral and theological researches. His "Almoran and Hamet" is a strange confused narrative, and leaves upon the mind of the reader fome difagreeable impreffions in regard to the ways of providence; and from the theory of pity, which he has given us fomewhere in the " Adventurer," one would fufpect that he was no enemy to the philofophy of Hobbes. However, I am difpofed to impute all this rather to a vague way of thinking, than to any perverfity of heart or underftanding. Only I with, that in his laft work he had been more ambitious to tell the plain truth, than to deliver to the world a wonderful story. I confefs, that from the first I was inclined to confider his vile portrait of the manners of Otaheite, as in part fictitious; and I am now affured, upon the very best authotity, that Dr. Solander difavows fome of thofe narrations, or at leaft declares them to be grofsly mifreprefented. There is, in almost all the late books of travels I have feen, a difpofition on the part of the author to recommend licentious theories. I would not object to the truth of any fact, that is warranted by the tettimony of competent witnefits. But how few of our travellers are competent judges of the facts they relate! How few of them know any thing accurately, of the language of those nations, whofe laws, religion, and moral fentiments, they pretend to defcribe! And how few of them are free from that inordinate love of the marvellous, which stimulates equally the vanity of the writer, and the curiofity of the reader! Suppofe a Japanese crew to arrive in England, take in wood and water, exchange a few commodities; and, after a stay of three months, to fet fail for their own country, and there fet forth a hiftory of the English government, religion, and manners: it is, I think, highly probable, that, for one truth, they would deliver a fcore of falfehoods. But Europeans, it will be faid, have more fagacity, and know more of mankind. Be it fo: but this advantage is not without inconveniencies, 'fufficient perhaps to counterbalance it. When a European arrives in any remote part of the globe, the natives, if they know any thing of his country, will be apt to form no favourable opinion of his intentions, with regard to their liberties; if they know nothing of him, they will yet keep aloof, on account of his ftrange language, complexion, and accoutre. ments. In either cafe he has little chance of understanding their laws, manners, and principles of action, except by a long refidence in the country, which would not fuit the views of one

traveller

traveller in five thoufand. He therefore picks up a few ftrange plants and animals, which he may do with little trouble or danger; and, at his return to Europe, is welcomed by the literati, as a philofophic traveller of moft accurate obfervation, and unqueftionable veracity. He defcribes, perhaps with tolerable exactnefs, the foils, plants, and other irrational curiofities of the new country, which procures credit to what he has to fay of the people; though his accuracy in defcribing the material phenomena, is no proof of his capacity to explain the moral. One can eafily dig to the root of a plant, but it is not fo eafy to penetrate the motive of an action; and till the motive of an action be known, we are no competent judges of its morality, and in many cafes the motive of an action is not to be known without a most intimate knowledge of the language and manners of the agent. Our traveller then delivers a few facts of the moral kind, which per haps he does not understand, and from them draws fome inferences fuitable to the taste of the times, or to a favourite hypothefis. He tells us of a Californian, who fold his bed in a morning, and came with tears in his eyes to beg it back at night; whence, he very wifely infers, that the poor Californians are hardly one degree above the brutes in understanding, for that they have neither forefight nor memory fufficient to direct their conduct on the moft common occafions of life. In a word, they are quite a different fpecies of animal from the European; and it is a grofs mistake to think, that all mankind are defcended from the fame first parents. But one needs not go fo far as to California, in quest of men who facrifice a future good to a prefent gratification. In the metro. polis of Great Britain one may meet with many reputed chriftians, who would act the fame part, for the pleafure of caroufing half a day in a gin-fhop. Again, to illuftrate the fame important truth, that man is a beaft, or very little better, we are told of another nation, on the banks of the Orellana, fo wonderfully ftupid, that they cannot reckon beyond the number three, but point to the hair of their head, whenever they would fignify a greater number; as if four, and four thoufand, were to them equally inconceivable. But, whence it comes to pafs, that thefe people are capable of Ipeech, or of reckoning at all, even fo far as to three, is a difficulty, of which our hiftorian attempts not the folution. But till he fhall folve it, I muft beg leave to tell him, that the one half of his tale contradicts the other as effectually, as if he had told us of a people, who were fo weak as to be incapable of bodily exertion, and yet, that he had seen one of them lift a stone of a hundred weight.-I beg your pardon, Madam, for running into this fubject. The truth is, I was lately thinking to write upon. it; but I shall not have leifure thefe many months." Vol. I. p. 390.

About the year 1777, a plan was in agitation for a new verfion of the pfalms, for the ufe of the church of Scotland. Dr. Beattie entered with his ufual fpirit into the fubject,

BRIT, CRIT, VOL. XXVIII, SEPT. 1806.