period, his turn for poetry began to show itself, and among his school-fellows he went by the name of the Poet. It was remarked, likewise, by his family at home, particularly by a sister some years older than himself, at whose house in Montrose, after her marriage, he occasionally visited, that, during the night-time, he used to get out of bed, and walk about his chamber, in order to write down any poetical thought that had struck his fancy.

In the year 1749, he commenced his academical course, and attended the Greek class in Marischal College, Aberdeen, at that time taught by Dr Blackwell. † Of Dr Blackwell's friendship to him, he retained through life the most grateful remembrance; frequently declaring, that the learned Principal was the first person who gave

very happy, in thus recalling to his imagination all the ideas. with which his favourite author had at first inspired him, even through the medium of such a translation.

* Mrs Valentine, who told this anecdote to Mr Arbuthnot, from whom I had it.

+ Dr Thomas Blackwell, Principal of Marischal College, and Professor of Greek, in which language he was eminently skilled; author of an " Inquiry into the Life and Writings of Homer;"« Letters concerning Mythology;" and " Memoirs of the Court of Augustus."

him reason to believe that he was possessed of any genius. By Dr Blackwell he was, to his astonishment, early distinguished as superior to all his class-fellows; and, at the close of the session 1749-50, he received from him a book, elegantly bound, bearing the following inscription: "Jaco"bo Beattie, in prima classe, ex comitatu Mernensi, * post examen publicum librum hunc apistvorti,

८८

præmium dedit T. Blackwell, Aprilis 3° MDCCL."

As his finances were but slender, he became a candidate for one of the bursaries, which are annually bestowed on such of the students as are unable to bear the usual expences attendant on a university education. These bursaries are small annual stipends, which the piety of our ancestors, and their zeal for the advancement of learning, had led them to establish.

But no opprobrious distinction, no menial office, no degrading servitude, is annexed to the appellation of Bursar at Aberdeen, which merely implies the receipt of a certain revenue. On the contrary, it is a proof of superior merit. For, instead of being a sinecure to which the student is

*«

The Mearns," to which Dr Blackwell has here given a Latin termination, is the vernacular name for the county of Kin cardine.

presented without trial, it is the reward of learning, after a competition among those who are the candidates, and of whose literary merits the professors of the university are the judges. And it not unfrequently happens, as was the case of young Beattie, that the Bursars, by being the best scholars, are found at the head of their class.*

He continued his attendance at the university of Aberdeen during four years, in the course of which, besides attending the Greek class, † he

* This alludes to those Bursaries which are in the gift of the university, and are publicly contended for by every candidate who chuses to make his appearance. Besides these there are several in the gift of private patrons, who bestow them, without trial, on whom they please.

† As a proof of the ardour with which he prosecuted his studies, not only while he attended the regular course of instruction at the university, but even after he had ceased to be an academical student, he wrote a book of notes on the Iliad, which has been found among his papers since his death. It consists of one hundred and forty duodecimo pages, closely written. § There was also found among his papers, a book of notes on some of the Italian classics, similar to those on Homer. In his library is an interleaved copy of Xenophon's Memorabilia of Socrates, divided into two volumes, with very copious notes in the same manner, most accurately written in a fair hand on the interleaved pages. Longinus on the Sublime is prepared for the same purpose, but no notes are written. In his copy of Virgil in Usum Delphini there are some notes written by him, but they are not

§ Vide Appendix, [A.]

studied philosophy under the late Dr Gerard; and during three sessions he attended the lec tures given by Dr Pollock, at that time professor of divinity in Marischal College, no doubt with a' view to the ministry;-a pursuit, however, which he soon relinquished. One of his fellowstudents has informed me, that during their attendance at the divinity hall, he heard Beattie deliver a discourse, which met with much commendation, but of which it was remarked by the audience, that he spoke poetry in prose.

*

very numerous, nor longer than can be easily contained in the blank spaces of the book itself. Yet they are sometimes not unimportant; for example, Æneid VI. v. 488. he has corrected the interpretation of the editor Ruæus, who has totally misun derstood the meaning of the expression et conferre gradum, which that editor renders et admovere pedem propius. On that passage, by a note in Dr Beattie's handwriting, we are referred to Georg. III. v. 169. where the same expression is used, when Virgil is giving directions how to teach heifers to walk side by side, to fit them for the plough. There Ruæus himself could not mis-> take the meaning of the expression, (for the same words are used,) and renders it as it ought to have been in Æneid VI.-by simul incedere. From his corrections of the text of this his favourite. Latin poet, as well as by what he has been heard to say, he seems to have preferred the readings of Nicholas Heinsius. In his library are several beautiful copies of Virgil. ||

* It is told, in the same manner, of Thomson, who had also been a student of divinity, that when he produced, as a proba

I owe the substance of this note to his assistant and successor, Mr Glennie.

Having finished his course of study at the university, he was appointed, on the 1st day of August, 1753, to be schoolmaster of the parish of Fordoun, a small hamlet, distant about six miles from his native village of Lawrencekirk, at the foot of the Grampian mountains, where he also filled the office of præcentor or parish-clerk.

In this obscure situation he must have passed many of his hours in solitude; for except that of Mr Forbes, the parish minister, who shewed him great kindness, and in whose family he frequently visited, he had scarcely any other society than that of the neighbouring peasantry, from whose conversation he could derive little amusement, and no information. But he had a never failing resource in his own mind, in those meditations which he loved to indulge, amidst the beautiful and sublime scenery of that neighbourhood, which furnished him with endless amusement. At a

tionary exercise, the explanation of a psalm, the professor reproved him for speaking a language that would be altogether unintelligible to a popular audience; which so disgusted Thomson with theological pursuits, that he resolved to betake himself entirely to the cultivation of his poetical talents, by which he afterwards rose to such distinguished eminence. §

§ Dr Anderson's Life of Thomson, in the Poets of Great Britain, Vol. ix, p. 274.