AN

ACCOUNT

OF THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

OF

JAMES BEATTIE, LL.D.

LATE PROFESSOR OF MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND LOGIC IN
THE MARISCHAL COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY
OF ABERDEEN.

INCLUDING MANY OF HIS ORIGINAL LETTERS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

BY

SIR WILLIAM FORBES

OF PITSLIGO, BART.

ONE OF THE EXECUTORS OF DR BEATTIE.

SECOND EDITION.

VOL. I.

Earum rerum omnium vel in primis hic fructum a me repetere prope
suo jure debet. Nam hunc video mihi principem, et ad suscipiendam, et
ad ingrediendam rationem horum studiorum extitisse.-Cic. pro Arch.

EDINBURGH:

PRINTED FOR ARCH. CONSTABLE and Co. Edinburgh;

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, T. Cadell and W. DAVIES,
AND JOHN MURRAY, LONDON.

1807.

1

ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL, &c. &c. &c.

MY LORD,

As soon as I formed the re

solution of attempting to write the Life of Dr Beattie, I determined to request permission to inscribe it to your Lordship; be

cause I well know the high value he justly

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vi

set on your friendship, and how much it would have gratified him to think, that his name should be joined with that of the Bishop of London.

Your Lordship well knew Dr Beattie's merit as a Philosopher and a Poet, and his worth as a Man and a Christian. If in this attempt, therefore, to delineate his character, I am so fortunate as to gain, in any degree, your approbation, I shall look upon my work with no ordinary degree of complacence.

I embrace, with the greatest satisfaction, and with peculiar propriety, this opportunity of expressing my respect for you ;

as it was to Dr Beattie's kind partiality