size, but her countenance is animated and expressive. There is nothing about her that indicates the writer; her manners are lively and unassuming; and the most incontrovertible proof that they are pleasing, is the estimation in which she is held by all who have the happiness of her acquaintance.

Celebrated as Mrs. Cowley is, as an author, the general tenor of her life has been by no means theatrical; at the Play-houses she is very seldom seen; and her life has been so strictly domestic, that whilst this propensity has prevented her from having any intercourse with the Theatres, beyond what was necessary for the production of her Plays it has also prevented the accumulation of materials for a more busy biography; perhaps, however, the very circumstance of want of incident is the highest praise; for to be public as a GENIUS, and private as a WOMAN, is to wear laurels gracefully veiled.

JAMES BEATTIE, L.L. D.

Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic in the Marischal College, or University of New Aberdeen; and Member of the Zealand Society of Arts and Sciences, &c. &c.

THE pretensions attendant upon birth, are generally admitted with reluctance; for as this species of merit is at most but equivocal, and in some measure detracts from the consequence of the rest of mankind, it is often submitted to with indignation, and when allowed at all, allowed with repugnance. The claims 1801-2.

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of wealth are at least equally suspicious, and we yield to them with a still worse grace: riches are often the patrimony or the acquisition of the basest of men, and so far from being an infallible sign of merit, they are not unfrequently either the inheri tance or the produce of crime. It is far otherwise with genius: swollen wealth, adventitious descent, fictitious distinctions, are often contemptible, because they are generally the result of accident, but the "heaven-taught soul," he whose mind is impressed with the seal of the Divinity, belongs to a higher order of beings, and experiences the voluntary respect of all whose minds are not replete with malice, or cankered with envy, or soured by the workings of an unsocial jealousy. These sentiments will be felt and acknowledged by those who possess any degree of intrinsic merit, and must be allowed to be peculiarly appropriate, when applied to the subject of the present memoir.

James Beattie is a native of Scotland, and was born some degrees to the north of " the hot-bed* of genius," being a native of Kincardineshire. His father appertained to that class of men who are scarcely on a level with our English peasantry, but he was actuated by a liberal and generous spirit peculiar to the little farmers of his native country, for he aspired and actually contrived to obtain an excellent education for his son. The parochial schools in North Britain are most excellent seminaries for this purpose, and

the five universities* spread over the face of the country, contribute in an admirable manner to instil a tincture of learning, philosophy, and science in the youth destined to attend their various classes.

After the requisite preliminary acquisitions in his own neighbourhood, young Beattie repaired to New Aberdeen, and went through a regular course of study in that university, in which he was destined to be a professor. It is common for such young men as are not distinguished by the gifts, of fortune to become Bursars, an idea of which is in some measure conveyed by the expression of being put on the foundation in our English universities. To the honour of the Scotch, ones, no opprobrious distinction-no menial office no degrading servitude is annexed to the term, which merely implies the receipt of a revenue. On the contrary, it is a proof of su

1st. Edinburgh. 2nd. Glasgow.

3rd. St. Andrew's.

4th. New Aberdeen, or Marischal College. And,
5th, Old Aberdeen, or King's College.

It was lately proposed to remove the last of these Institutions to Inverness, and so far as position ought to be consulted, the improvement must be obvious.-Editor.

†The Scotch formerly imitated the French in their colleges, as well as in all the other departments of civil life. The word bursar is evidently derived from bourse a purse, being a sum of money presented to a meritorious student, to enable him to proceed in his career. There were a certain number of bursars in the college of Paris, previously to the revolution, and the bourse de college in conformity to this idea has always been defined “un pension fondée pour l'entretènement d'un pauvre écolier durant ses études.” G g 2

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perior merit, for instead of being a sinecure into which a student is inducted without formality, it becomes the premium of a victorious contest, and the just reward bestowed on the victor after a competition, in which classical excellence alone carries away the palm:

"Non sine pulvere palma.”

It is not unusual for many of the students to attend the various college classes, during a certain number of months, when they support themselves on the bourse of from four or five to nine or ten pounds per annum, and to superintend a parochial school during the remainder of the year; and there is some reason to believe that this was the case with Mr. Beattie. Certain it is, that he acted in the capacity of a schoolmaster during a considerable portion of the earlier part of his life, first at Alloa in Fifeshire, and afterwards in Kincardineshire. At length an opportunity presented itself of removing to Aberdeen, the third town in Scotland in point of trade, extent, and consequence. There he acted for some time in the humble situation of an usher, to the grammar or principal Latin school; and having married the daughter of the master, he perhaps aspired to nothing more than becoming successor to his own father-in-law.

An event however occurred that soon taught him higher hopes, and afforded superior expectations. Mr. Beattie, who had long cultivated a taste for poetry, about this period applied himself with unremitting ardour to give a polish to his verses, that should entitle them to meet the public eye, and he soon realised the most sanguine wishes of his friends in this respect.

His first publication was a volume of "Original Poems and Translations," which appeared so early as 1760; some of these after being purified and refined from their juvenile dross, have been since preserved in a new edition of the author's poetry.

In 1765 appeared his "Judgment of Paris," and in 1767 he became known to Gray, and is said to have consulted him relative to the "Minstrel," chiefly written in 1768, although part of it had been produced during the inspiration of his earlier years. We shall give some account of this work here, although it did not make its appearance until some time after.

The author's object in the poem will be best gathered from the preface:

"The design was," says he "to trace the progress of a poetical genius born in a rude age, from the first dawning of fancy and Teason, till that period at which he may be supposed capable of appearing in the world as a MINSTREL, that is, as an itinerant poet and musician-a character which according to the notions of our forefathers, was not only respectable, but sacred.

"I have endeavoured to imitate SPENSER," adds he "in the measure of his verse, and in the harmony, simplicity, and variety of his composition. Antique expressions I have avoided; admitting, however, some old words where they seemed to suit the subject: but I hope none will be found that are now obsolete, or in any degree not intelligible to a reader of English poetry.

"To those who may be disposed to ask what could induce me to write in so difficult a measure, I can only answer, that it pleases my ear, and seems from its Gothic structure and original to bear some relation to the subject and spirit of the poem. It admits both simplicity and magnificence of sound and of language be yond any other stanza that I am acquainted with. It allows the sententiousness of the couplet, as well as the more complex mo