and we have here feveral letters concerning it, between him and his friends. His opinion of the prefent verfions is

thus given.

"The ground-work of this new verfion, ought (I think) to be that which we now ufe in the church of Scotland, and which, according to my notions in these matters, is the best that has yet appeared in English; though it is neither fo elegant in the language, nor fo perfpicuous in the meaning, as it might easily be made. Tate and Brady are too quaint, and where the Pfalmift rifes to fublimity, (which is very often the cafe) are apt to sink into bombaft; yet Tate and Brady have many good paffages, efpecially in those pfalms that contain fimple enunciations of moral truth. Sternhold and Hopkins are in general bad, but have given us a few ftanzas that are wonderfully fine, and which ought to be adopted in this new verfion. Watts, though often elegant, and in many refpects valuable, is too paraphraftical: from him, I would propofe, that a good deal fhould be taken; but I would not follow him implicitly. King James's verfion, which is the bafis of that which we ufe in Scotland, is, confidering the age and the author, furprisingly good and in many places has the advantage of ours, notwithstanding that this was intended as an improvement upon it." Vol. I. P. 407.

In the correfpondence of men of fuch tafte and principles as the friends of Dr. Beattie, the reader will naturally expect notices of new books and remarks upon them, imparted in the confidence of unreferved friendship, and fometimes, upon that account, more valuable than studied criticisms. We cannot give a more pleafing fpecimen of this kind of communication than is contained in the following letter from the bishop of Chefter (now bishop of London) to Dr. Beattie.

66 BISHOP OF CHESTER TO DR. BEATTIE.

Of

"Hunton, November 28th, 1777During our stay here, Dr. Robertfon's "Hiftory of America" has been part of our evening's amufement. He is, with out difpute, a very judicious compiler, and very elegant writer, and feems to have taken great pains in this work to collect all the information that could poffibly be obtained from books and manufcripts, of which he has confulted a confiderable number. thefe, fome of the most curious were communicated to him by my friend, Lord Grantham, Ambaffador at Madrid, and his chaplain, Mr. Waddilove. But ftill the grand fource of original information was not opened to him; I mean the letters and papers written to the Spanish Court by the first conquerors of America, and ali the authentic documents relative to that tranfaction, which were collected by Philip the Second, and depofited amongst the archives

of

of the Spanish monarchy, at a place called Simanca, near Valladolid, above a hundred miles from Madrid. To these he could obtain no accefs; and till these are produced to the world, I fhall never fuppofe that we have any history of South America that can be abfolutely relied upon. As far, however, as Dr. Robertfon's materials go, he has fet them off to the best advantage, and has enlivened them by many ingenious and ufeful obfervations on the natural and moral hiftory of the Aborigines of that country. He has, however, I think, miffed fome opportunities, which this part of his work threw in his way, of drawing a comparifon between the state of the favage and of the Chriftian world. He attributes the difference between them folely to the improvements of civil fociety. I am of opinion, that the gospel has had a large fhare in this happy change; and it would have been of infinite fervice to religion, to have had all its beneficial confequences fet forth by fo fine a pen as Dr. Robertfon's. Such incidental arguments, in favour of religion, interfperfed occafionally in works of acknowledged merit and reputation, are perhaps of more general use than profeffed defences of it. The enemies of Christianity have long taken this method of undermining it, and its friends therefore fhould not be backward in taking the fame means to recommend it. Mr. Gibbon and the Abbé Raynal have more especially diftinguifhed themfelves by this fpecies of hoftility; for which reafon I am forry that Dr. Robertson has paid them both fuch high compliments as he has done,

"I hear of nothing new and important in the literary world that is likely to make its appearance this winter, except a new tranflation of Ifaiah, by Bishop Lowth; of which the public has raifed its expectations very high, from the known abilities and learning of the author. This, I believe, is in very great forwardness. There is alfo an edition of "Strabo," by Mr. Falkner, a gentleman of Chefter, every way equal to the undertaking, which is pretty far advanced. Archbishop Markham fhewed me, the other day, a collation for him, of a manufcript in the Efcurial, made under the direction of Canonico Bayer, and procured by the affiftance of Lord Grantham." Vol. II. p. 13.

Among literary difcuffions of another order, the following affords a proof of the extent and variety of Dr. Beattie's ftudies, and of the facility and freedom with which he communicates, in a friendly letter, refults that fome authors would have referved for the more folemn parade of original difcovery. It occurs in a letter to the Dutchefs of Gordon.

"Your Grace will perhaps remember, that at Gordon-caftle there was fome converfation about Petrarch. Knowing that it was the cuftom of his age to write gallant verfes; and conjec. turing, from other circumftances, that his paffion for Laura was not fo ferious a bufinefs as his French biographer pretends, I happened

X 2

pened to fay, that there was fome reafon to think, that he wrote his Italian fonnets as much to difplay his wit as to declare his paffion. I have fince made fome difcoveries in regard to this matter, which amount to what follows:

"That Petrarch's paflion for the lady was fo far fincere, as to give him uneafinefs, appears from an account of his life and character, written by hi felf in Latin profe, and prefixed to a folio edition of his works, of which I have a copy, printed in the year 1554. But that his love was of that permanent and overwhelming nature, which fome writers feppofe, or that it continued to the end of his life, (as a late writer afirms) there is good reafon to doubt, upon the fame authority. Nay, there is prefumptive, and even pofitive evidence of the contrary; and that he was lefs fubject, than moit men can pretend to be, to the tyranny of the "Winged Boy.”

"The prefumptiv. evidence is founded on the very laborious life which he must have led in the purfuits of literature. His youth was employed in study, at a time when ftudy was extremely difficult, on account of the farcity of books and of teachers. He became the mod learned man of his time; and to his labour in tranfcribing feveral ancient authors, with his own hand, we are indebted for their prefervation. His works, in my edition of them, fill 1455 folio pages, clofely printed; of which the Italian Sonnets are not more than a twentieth part: the rest being Latin Ellays, Dialogues, &c. and an epic poem in Latin verfe, called " Africa," as long as "Paradife Loft." His retirement at Vauclufe, (which in Latin he calls Claufa) was by no means devoted to love and Laura. "There," fays he, in the account of his life above mentioned, "almost all the works I ever publifhed were completed, or begun, or planned: and they were fo many," thefe are his words, "that even to thefe years they employ and fatigue me.” In a word, Petrarch wrote more than I could tranfcribe in twenty years; and more than I think he cnuld have compofed, though he had ftudied without intermiflion, in forty. Can it be believed, that a man of extreme fenfibility, pining, from twenty-five to the end of his life, in hopeless love, could be fo zealous a ftudent, and fo voluminous a writer?

"But more direct evidence we have from himfelf, in his own account above mentioned of his life, converfation, and character. 1 muft not tranflate the paffage literally, on account of an indelicate word or two; but I fhall give the fenfe of it: "In my youth I was violently in love; but it was only once; and the pation was honourable, or virtuous; and would have continued longer, if the flame, already decaying, had not been extinguished by a death, which was bitter indeed, but ufeful."

And a little

after, he fays: Before I was forty years of age, I had banished from my mind every idea of love, as effectually as if I had never feen a woman." He adds fome things, in a ftrain of bitterness, execrating the belle paffion, as what he had always hated as a vile and a difgraceful fervitude.

"In the above paffage, your Grace will obferve, that Petrarch does not name his mistress. This, if we confider the manners of that age, and the piety and good fenfe of Petrarch, may make us doubt whether Laura was really the object of his paffion. I had this doubt for a littl while: but Hieronymo Squarzafichi, a writer of that age, and the author of another Latin Life of Petrarch, prefixed to the fame edition of his works, pofitively fays, that the name of the lady whom the poet loved was Lauretta, which her admirer changed to Laura. The name, thus changed, fupplies him with numberlefs allufions to the laurel, and to the story of Apollo and Daphne. Might not Petrarch, in many of his fonnets, have had an allegorical reference to the poetical laurel, which was offered him at one and the fame time by deputies from France and from Italy; and with which, to his great fatisfaction, he was actually crowned at Rome with the cuftomary folemnities? In this view, his love of fame and of poetry would happily coincide with his tenderness for Laura, and give peculiar enthufiafm to fuch of his thoughts as might relate to any one of the three paffions.

"But how, you will fay, is all this to be reconciled to the account given by the French author of that Life of Petrarch, which Mrs. Dobfon has abridged in English?

"I answer: First, That Petrarch's own account of his life, in ferious profe, is not to be called in queftion; and, Secondly, That to a French biographer, in a matter of this kind, no degree of credit is due. I have feen pretended lives, in French, of Horace, Tibullus, Propertius, &c. in which there was hardly one word of truth; the greateft part being fable, and that fort of declamation which fome people call fentiment. And your Grace knows, that no other character belongs to the "Belifarius" and "Incas of Peru" by Marmontel. The French life of Petrarch I confider in the fame light; and that what is faid of his manuscript letters and memoirs, is no better than a job contrived by the bookfeller, and executed by the author." Vol. II. p. 103.

In the year 1790, Dr. Beattie loft his eldeft fon, an amiable and promifing youth, whofe fhort and blameless life he afterwards confecrated in a very affecting memoir, drawn up for the ufe of his friends, and at firit printed privately. A few years after, his only furviving fon, Montague, was alfo fnatched from him, and this laft hope gone, he appears to have been overpowered by his feelings. But it would be in vain to attempt any defcription of his fufferings, after reading the following paffage of tranfcendent excellence for fimplicity and pathos. It may be neceffary, however, to pre

* See Brit. Crit. Vol. xv. p. 154.

mife that Mrs. Beattie had long been deprived of the ufe of her reafon, and that her fituation, and the dread of her having communicated her malady to her children, embittered the latter days of their affectionate father.

"The death of his only furving child, completely unhinged the mind of Dr. Beattie, the firft fymptom of which, ere many days had elapfed, was a temporary but almoft total lofs of me. mory refpecting his fon. Many times he could not recollect what had become of him; and after fearching in every room of the houfe, he would fay to his niece, Mrs. Giennie, "You may think it strange, but I muft afk you if I have a fon, and where he is?" She then felt herfelf under the painful neceffity of bringing to his recollection his fon Montagu's fufferings, which always restored him to reafon. And he would often, with many tears, exprefs his thankfulnefs, that he had no child, faying, "How could I have borne to fee their elegant minds mangled with madnefs!" When he looked for the last time on the dead body of his fon, he faid, "I have now done with the world:" and he ever after feemed to act as if he thought fo. For he never applied himself to any fort of ftudy, and anfwered but few of the letters he received from the friends whom he moft valued. Yet the receiving a letter from an old friend never failed to put him in fpirits for the reft of the day. Mufic, which had been his great delight, he could not endure, after the death of his eldest fon, to hear from others; and he diiliked his own favourite violoncello. A few months before Montagu's death, he did begin to play a little by way of accompaniment when Montagu fung: but after he had loft him, when he was prevailed on to touch the violoncello, he was always difcontented with his own performance, and at laft feemed to be unhappy when he heard it. The only enjoyment he seemed to have was in books, and the fociety of a very few old friends. It is impoffible to read the melancholy picture which he draws of his own fituation about this time, without dropping a tear of pity over the forrows and the sufferings of fo good a man, thus feverely vifited by affliction, who at the fame time was bearing the rod of divine chastisement with the utmost patience and refignation." Vol. II. p. 307.

His death is thus related

"Dr. Beattie's fufferings were now drawing to a conclufon. In the beginning of April, 1799, he had a stroke of palfy, which for eight days fo affected his fpeech, that he could not make himself understood, and even forgot fome of the most material words of every fentence. At different periods after this,

"Alluding, no doubt, to their mother's melancholy fituation."

be