much freedom. I have heard of his virtues. I know he has many virtues; God forbid I fhould ever feek to leffen them, or with them to be found infincere; I hope they are fincere, and that they will increase in number and merit every day. To his virtues I fhall do juftice; but I muft alfo do juftice to his faults, at least to those faults which are public, and which, for the fake of truth and of mankind, ought not to be concealed or disguised. Perfonal reflections will be carefully avoided; I hope I am in no danger of falling into them, for I bear no perfonal animofity against any man whatfoever; fometimes I may perhaps be keen; but I truft I shall never depart from the Chriftian and philofophic character.

"A fcheme like this of mine cannot be popular, far lefs can it be lucrative. It will raife me enemies, it will expofe me to the fcrutiny of the moft rigid criticifm, it will make me be confidered by many as a fullen and illiberal bigot. I trust, however, in Providence, and in the goodness of my cause, that my attempts in behalf of truth fhall not be altogether ineffectual, and that my labours fhall be attended with fome utility to my fellowcreatures. This, in my eftimation, will do much more than counterbalance all the inconveniences I have any reafon to apprehend. I have already fallen on evil tongues (as Milton fays), on account of this intended publication. It has been reported, that I had written a moit fcurrilous paper against Mr. Hume, and was preparing to publish it, when a friend of mine interpofed, and, with very great difficulty, prevailed on me to fupprefs it, because he knew it would hurt or ruin my character. Such is the treatment I have to expect from one fet of people. I was fo provoked when I first heard this calumny, that I deliberated whether I should not throw my papers into the fire, with a Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur: but I rejected that thought; for fo many perfons have told me, that it was my duty to publish thefe papers, that I almost began to think fo myself. Many have urged me to publish them; none ever diffuaded me. The gentleman, named in the report, read the effay, and returned it with the highest commendations; but I do not recollect that he ever spoke a fyllable about publishing or fuppreffing it. But I have certainly tired you with fo long a detail, about fo trifling a matter as my works. However, I thought it neceflary to fay fomething by way of apology for them, for I find that your good opinion is of too much confequence to my peace, to fuffer me to neglect any opportunity of cultivating it." P. 130.

period here fpoken of. In confequence of what Dr. Beattie favs here, of Mr. Hume's being a friend of Dr. Blacklock's, I find among Dr. Beattie's papers a long letter to him from Dr. Blacklock, giving a detail of the whole of the intercourfe between him and Mr. Hume, from its commencement to its close.''.

The "Effay" being prepared, many difficulties occurred in procuring it to be published. The bookfellers (times are happily altered) were afraid to venture on the purchase! Sir W. F. therefore, and Mr. Arbuthnot, (a learned and amiable friend) undertook the management of what required fome pardonable artifice, which is thus explained.

"In this dilemma it occurred to me, "Sir W. F.," that we might, without much artifice, bring the bufinefs to an eafy co... clusion by our own interpofition. We therefore refolved, that we ourfelves fhould be the purchafers, at a fum with which we knew Dr. Beattie would be well fatisfied, as the price of the first edition. But it was abfolutely neceffary that the bufi.. nefs fhould be gloffed over as much as poffible; otherwife, we had reafon to fear he would not give his confent to our taking on us a rifk, which he himself had refused to run.

"I therefore wrote to him (nothing furely but the truth, although, I confefs, not the whole truth), that the manufcript was fold for fifty guineas, which I remitted to him by a bankbill; and I added, that we had ftipulated with the bookfeller who was to print the book, that we fhould be partners in the publication. On fuch trivial caufes do things of confiderable moment often depend. For had it not been for this interference of ours, in this fomewhat ambiguous manner, perhaps the "Effay on Truth," on which all Dr. Beattie's future fortunes hinged, might never have feen the light. It also strongly marks the flender opinion entertained by the bookfellers at that period, of the value of a work which has fince rifen into fuch well-merited celebrity." P. 147:

What renders this negociation all of a piece, as to the "flender opinion," is, that Dr. Beattie immediately fent a gratefal letter to his friends, in which he fays, that "the price really exceeds his warmeft expectations!"

In May 1770 this Ellay was published. Of Hume, thus powerfully attacked by a young man, comparatively of no celebrity, Sir W. F. fpeaks with candour, and yet with firmnefs, as a man who "at an early period of his life, imbibed the principles of a cold-hearted and gloomy philofophy, the direct tendency of which was to distract the mind with doubts, on fubjects the moft ferious and important, and, in fact, to undermine the best interefts, and diffolve the Atrongest ties of human fociety."-No fooner did the "Eflay on Truth" make its appearance, than it was affailed by the admirers of Hume, (unfortunately a very numerous body in his own country) as a violent and perfonal attack on that writer. The correfpondence which occurs in this part of

.

thefe

thefe memoirs, gives a curious account of the various methods they employed, and which will be thought very little to the credit of their philofophy. Mr. Hume's own objec tion is thus mentioned in a letter from Dr. Beattie to Dr. Blacklock.

"I have heard, from very good authority, that he speaks of me and my book with very great bitternefs (I own, I thought he would rather have affected to treat both with contempt); and that he fays, I have not used him like a gentleman. He is quite right to fet the matter upon that footing. It is an odious charge; it is an objection eafily remembered, and, for that reafon, will be often repeated, by his admirers; and it has this farther advantage, that being (in the prefent cafe) perfectly unintelligible, it cannot poffibly be anfwered. The truth is, I, as a rational, moral, and immortal being, and fomething of a philofopher, treated him as a rational, moral, and immortal being, a fceptic, and an atheistical writer. My defign was, not to make a book full of fafhionable phrafes and polite expreffions, but to undeceive the public in regard to the merits of the fceptical philofophy, and the pretenfions of its abettors. To fay, that I ought not to have done this with plainnefs and fpirit, is to fay, in other words, that I ought either to have held my peace, or to have been a knave. In this cafe, I might perhaps have treated Mr. Hume as a gentleman, but I should not have treated fociety, and my own confcience, as became a man and a Chriftian. I have all along foreseen, and till forefee, that I fhall have many. reproaches, and cavils, and fneers, to encounter on this occafion; but I am prepared to meet them. I am not afhamed of my caufe; and, if I may believe thofe whofe good opinion I value as one of the chief bleffings of life, I need not be ashamed of my work. You are certainly right in your conjecture, that it will not have a quick fale. Notwithstanding all my endeavours to render it perfpicuous and entertaining, it is still neceffary for the perfon who reads it to think a little, a task to which every reader will not fubmit. My fubject too is unpopular, and my princi. ples fuch as a man of the world would blush to acknowledge. How then can my book be popular! If it refund the expence of its publication, it will do as much as any perfon, who knows the prefent ftate of the literary world, can reafenably expect from it." P. 171.

In a letter from Dr. Gregory to Dr. Beattie, we have the following animated fentiments on the fame fubject:

"In fhort, the fpirit and warmth with which it is written, has got it more friends and more enemies han if it had been written with that polite and humble deference to Mr. Hume's extraordinary abilities, which his friends think fo juftly his

due.

due. For my own part, I am fo warin, not to fay angry, about this fubject, that I cannot entirely truft my own judgment; but I really think, that the tone of fuperiority affumed by the prefent race of infidels, and the contemptuous fneer with which they regard every friend of religion, contrafted with the timid beha viour of fuch as fhould fupport its caufe, acting only on the defenfive, feems to me to have a very unfavourable influence. It feems to imply a confcioufnefs of truth on the one fide, and a fecret conviction, or at leaft diffidence of the caufe, on the other. What a difference from the days of Addifon, Arbuthnot, Swift, Pope, &c. who treated infidelity with a fcorn and indignation we are now ftrangers to. I am now perfuaded the book will anfwer beyond your expectations. I have recommended it strongly to my friends in England." P. 174.

In that country, indeed, he was amply repaid for the neglect or oppofition of the friends of Hume. In 1771, a fecond edition, corrected and improved, was published, to which he added a poftfcript in defence of the manner he had employed in confuting the fceptical writers. But this postfcript he previoufly thought fit to fubmit to the judgment of his friends, Sir W. F., Dr. Gregory, and Mr. Arbuthnot, who remarked, that "the warmth of his zeal in the cause of. truth, and his defire to vindicate himself from fome attacks which been made upon him, as he conceived moft unjustly. had led him to express himself, in fome inftances, with a degree of acrimony which they thought had better be corrected. And they did not fcruple to ftate to him their fentiments on this head, with the freedom which friendship permitted, and which the truft he had done them the honour to repofe in them, fully demanded. A letter from Dr. Beattie, which follows this, fhows that fuch freedom will never be taken amifs by a really liberal mind. He received their obfervations with thanks, and complied with their wishes in every respect,

Soon after the publication of the fecond edition of the Effay on Truth," Dr. Beattie produced the firft Canto of "The Minstrel," a poem fo univerfally known and admired, that we think, with the biographer, "it is scarcely neceffary to fay any thing farther in its commendation." The correfpondence on this fubject, however, with Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Montague, Mr. Gray, &c. will be found very interefting, and contains much found and elegant criticifm. In 1771, the author vifited London, where his fame as a philofopher, and now as a poet, having preceded him, his reception was highly flattering. He became, on this occafion, perfonally acquainted with Mrs. Montague,

Lord

Lord Lyttelton, Lord Mansfield, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Hawkefworth, Dr. Armstrong, &c. His fervices to the religious world foon after procured him what we know was often the boaft and folace of his life, the friendship of the prefent Bishop of London; who is juftly characterised in a letter from Dr. Percy (now Bishop of Dromore) as "one of the highest ornaments of the church of England," and a "man of the moft engaging and amiable manners, and moft distinguifhed abilities." The following fentiments in Dr. Porteus's firft letter to Dr. Beattie must have been highly gratifying. "Whatever unjust afperfions may be thrown upon you by your own countrymen, let this be your confolation (if you need any) that in England your book has been received with univerfal applaufe. In the range of my ac-quaintance, which is pretty extenfive, both among the clergy and the laity, I have never yet met with a fingle perfon, of true taste and found judgment, who did not fpeak of your "Effay" in the warmeft terms of approbation. In this they have always had my moft hearty concurrence, and I was glad of an opportunity of giving fome public teftimony of my great efteem for your writings; as you will fee I have done in a note*, which very honeftly expreffes my real fenments, and fays nothing more than is juflly your due."

In answer, Dr. Beattie obferves, "I can never forget what I owe to the candour and humanity of the English nation. To have obtained the approbation and patronage of those who have fo long been, and who will, I hope, continue to the latest ages to be, the patrons of truth, and the great affertors of the rights of mankind, is an honour indeed, of which I feel the high value. While animated by this confideration, I can overlook, and almost forget, the oppofition I have met with from a powerful party in this country, who, fince the publication of the "Effay on Truth," have taken no little pains to render my condition as uneafy as poffible. In other countries, infidels appear but as individuals; but in Scotland they form a party, whofe principle is, to discountenance and` bear down religion to the utmoft of their power."

Sir W. F. we obferve, refers from this paffage to a preceding page, in which he feems to be of opinion, or rather wishes to think, that "the character of the age" is amended, as far as refpects infidelity among men of parts in Scotland. We hope the cafe is fo, and fhould be unfeignedly forry to

* To a Sermon of Dr. Porteus, published in 1772. Rev.

be