formerly. There are two quartos with a striking likeness of the author prefixed. He seems to abound too much in our new-fashioned English, but I cannot yet take it upon me to criticise his work." Among the letters received by Beattie this year, the first place must be given to that of his faithful correspondent and affectionate friend, Mrs. Montagu, as it is perhaps the last she ever wrote to him, certainly the last preserved. "MY VALUABLE AND DEAR FRIEND, "SANDLEFORD, "The sad condition of my eyes in spring and a fever in the summer obliged me to defer till now my inquiries after your health. The rumours of an invasion made me delay making my retreat to Sandleford at my usual time, and I was afterwards visited by a fever, which reduced me to a weak and languid condition, from which I am but lately recovered. My dear nephew, Montagu, his amiable wife, and nine lovely children form a circle around me which would make me very happy if the public state of things did not disturb domestic tranquillity; I will not dwell on this subject. My weak eyes admonish me not to add anything more to my letter than my request that you would send me a particular account of your health, etc. With the most affectionate respects of my friends here, and with most perfect esteem and affection, "I am, ever yours, "E. MONTAGU.” A letter from the Rev. Colin Gillies, Paisley, a minister of the Church of Scotland, begins with an acknowledgment of his own indebtedness to Beattie's "Essay on Truth": "It is many years since the writer of this letter first read your Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth' with so much pleasure and edification as might offend your modesty fully to express, but must gladden your pious and benevolent mind to know, was produced by the blessing of God on your labours, even with respect to a humble individual." He then expresses his thankfulness that, since writing that work, Beattie had been spared "to favour the world with many other useful productions." Amongst these, his attention had "been lately fixed in particular on your 'Evidences of Christianity,""—a book which appears to him just such a work as he has been in search of to circulate "amongst the lower ranks of people for their comfort and edification, through the Divine blessing, amidst the deplorable infidelity and licentiousness of the present age." But its price forbids this general circulation, and he writes to beg 1 Dilly informed Beattie that he believed Mr. Gillies was a brother of Dr. Gillies, the historian of Greece. that, as the book has run through four "elegant" editions, it may now be printed in a cheap form. Beattie replied he had no objection provided the booksellers, to whom he had sold the copyright, gave their consent. Mr. H. Fraser writes from Fraserfield, near Aberdeen:1 "I have just received from the Bishop of London a letter, part of which I take the liberty of sending you the following transcript: 'If Dr. Beattie is at Aberdeen, be so good as to call upon him and ask him whether he received a letter from me lately. If he has I should be glad to hear from him, both to have some account of his health and also to know whether he has any objection to the design I mentioned to him.'" We have no certainty as to what "design" the Bishop alludes; but it, probably, was that of giving to the public the Memoir and Works of his son along with another edition of his own poems. This the Bishop advised, in consequence of finding that an unauthorised copy of the Memoir and Works had been issued, taken from the small edition of a hundred copies, which Beattie had intended merely for circulation among his friends. Whether this was so or not, this publication, we learn from a letter of Dilly's, was now resolved upon. Mr. Sylvester Douglas sends him a copy of his brother-in-law, Major Mercer's poems, which he had edited and published without the author's leave, and against his opinion, adding: "I will not say anything on the merits of the poetry to one who is so great a master of the practice and the theory of the art, but I am persuaded that if any partiality has led me to an opinion of its excellence beyond the truth, even your superior judgment will not be entirely free from a similar bias." 1 Beattie had introduced Mr. Fraser, a young clergyman of the Church of England, to the Bishop of London. In this letter, he hopes that as Beattie has returned from Peterhead, he may "have the pleasure of expressing to you in person how much I feel myself indebted to you." 1799. CHAPTER XXXIV. LAST YEARS. False report of Mrs. Montagu's death, and remarks-Letter from Mr. Arbuthnot-First stroke of paralysis-New Edition of "Minstrel" and James Hay's Poetical Works in two small volumes-Miss Harriet Bowdler's Letter-Letter from Mr. Peter Wilson, a former student. IN the beginning of this year, a false report of Mrs. Montagu's death reached Beattie. Of what he felt towards her he writes to Dr. Laing: "ABERDEEN, "I have just now heard, by the post of this day, a piece of news that affects me very much; the death of my excellent friend Mrs. Montagu. Her age was not less than fourscore, so that on this point she is not to be regretted. But many people depended on her; and to me on all occasions, ever since 1771, when I first became acquainted with her, she has been a faithful and affectionate friend, especially in seasons of distress and difficulty. You will not wonder, then, that her death afflicts me. For some time past a failure in her eyes had made writing very painful to her, but for not less than twenty years she was my punctual correspondent. She was greatly attached to Montagu, who received his name from her, and not less interested in my other son, and in everything that related to my family. I need not tell you what an excellent writer she was; you must have seen her book on Shakespeare, as compared with the Greek and French dramatic writers. I have known several ladies eminent in literature, but she excelled them all; and in conversation she had more wit than any other person, male or female, whom I have known. These, however, were her slighter accomplishments; what was infinitely more to her honour, she was a sincere Christian, both in faith and practice, and took every proper opportunity to show it, so that by her example and influence she did much good. I knew her husband, who died in extreme old age in the year 1775, and by her desire had conferences with him on the subject of Christianity; but to her great concern he set too much value on mathematical evidence, and piqued himself too much on his knowledge on that science. He took it into his head, too, that I was a mathematician, though I was at a great deal of pains to convince him of the contrary." 1 She did not die till the following year. About the same time as this was written, Beattie had a long letter from Mr. Arbuthnot, in which he speaks of his own failing health and that of Sir William Forbes. Of himself he says, that owing to a persistent cough, which however he hopes he may lose in summer, he is in the meantime obliged to confine himself very much to the house, "nor do I ever go abroad except to pay a visit to Sir William Forbes, which I do once or twice every week, although generally in a carriage or a chair. I am sorry I cannot give you very favourable accounts of our worthy friend, for although his health is certainly upon the whole better than it was in autumn, yet I am afraid the cause of his distemper is far from being removed. . . . When I visit him we are always left by ourselves, and as the subjects of our conversations are for the most part very interesting to us both, it has a very good effect and produces very good spirits in him. He never has an idle or a vacant moment, but is always employed, very often on account of his friends, to whom he is as willing and ready to do good and kind offices as when he was in full possession of his health; and his judgment continues as sound, and his understanding and memory as correct, as ever. . . . He frequently mentions you, and always with regard and affection. ... "That Major Mercer's company and conversation should afford you great comfort I can easily believe, nor will his visits be the less frequent that the state of your health and spirits stand in need of them. I have been long and intimately acquainted with him, and I declare I never knew a human being on whose friendship, on the day of adversity or distress, I could have greater dependence than on Mercer's." As to Beattie himself, Mr. Arbuthnot exhorts him "not to indulge a disposition to despondency, but still to hope for better health. You have experienced greater trials than bodily ailments, and sustained them with magnanimity and resignation, nor have I any doubt but you will continue to practise those duties which you know so well." But Beattie's own feelings were the true index of his state, and justified his hopelessness as to improvement in his health. Very shortly after, in the beginning of April, he had his first stroke of paralysis. By it his speech was for some time much affected, but he rallied, and in the last letter we have written by himself, we find him striving to arrange his plans for the summer, and to treat of other matters as in former days, though the handwriting betrays the effort it must have cost him physically; and, in the letter, he acknowledges his mental failure: "since the illness which I had in March (or April) I have been very deficient in many of my faculties, and hardly able to manage my own affairs, trifling as they are.' Of The letter was addressed to Dr. Laing arranging about lodgings for himself and Mr. and Mrs. Glennie at Peterhead, and is dated July 8th, 1799. other matters he says: "Mr. Charles Dilly, who is fond of illustrating his books with cuts, and who is just now employed in printing a new edition of the 'Minstrel,' and of my son's poetical things, in two small volumes, has got a head of my son very well engraved by Heath, and I have just received copy of it in a frank. Dilly wished to have other prints in this book, but my bad health made me unable to contrive them." There are but few letters remaining in the correspondence. Of these, two may be mentioned. 2 In this year, Miss Harriet Bowdler,1 writing from Bath, sends her thanks for a copy of the Memoir of James Hay, and adds: "The hour I once had the happiness in spending in your company has made a deep impression on my mind, and the sentiments you then expressed, when speaking of your recent loss, make this publication particularly interesting. I have often reflected on the lesson I then learned from you, though it pleased God to spare the life for which I was then most anxious, and after eight years' absence I hope now to see my sister return to England in tolerable health." In the following year, there is a letter from an old student, a Mr. Peter Wilson, thanking Beattie for the kindness he had received from him at College, and giving his own history from the time of his going to America in 1765, a youth of seventeen, "without experience, without friends, and without funds," till the time he writes in 1800. Beginning as an assistant in a Grammar School in New York, he had afterwards conducted an Academy in the State of New Jersey, and was now Professor of Languages, and Greek and Roman Antiquities, in Columbia College, New York. There is little more to record; for, though Dr. Beattie lived four years after he was first struck by paralysis, they were years of ever failing strength and of repeated returns of the same malady. By the last of these strokes, which occurred in October, 1802, he was completely deprived of the power of motion; and in this condition he remained till the 18th of August, 1803, when he passed peacefully away. It was during these last sad years that, as one day, leaning on Mrs. Glennie's arm, Beattie was going feebly along the street, a stranger met him, paused, and after Beattie had passed, was heard to repeat the first two lines of the second part of the "Minstrel " "Of chance or change O let not man complain, Else shall he never, never cease to wail.' The other incident of those days that comes down to us shows how keen his feelings were to those he loved till the last. A little 1 Sister of Miss Jane Bowdler, who published a volume of Poems and Essays, and herself author of "Sermons on the Doctrines and Duties of Christianity," published anonymously. The death of James Hay. |