willing that it should be lost to the world, they inclosed Dr. Beattie a bank bill for fifty guineas, telling him that his work had sold for that, but not saying, to whom. These friends afterwards published it at their own risk. Such were the circumstances that attended the appearance of this volume, which served to establish the fame of its author, and whose hopes were so humble, that he says, in a letter to Sir. William Forbes, the price really exceeded his warmest expectations.

Dr. Beattie was a very patient reviser of his writings. He affirms, that he wrote the Essay three times over, and some parts of it oftener. Much labour was employed by his friends to give it publicity; and when it ap peared, Dr. Blacklock undertook to give a short analysis of it in the Edinburgh newspapers. Hume, however, against whose writings it was principally directed, did not deign to reply to it, from a fixed determination, which he had very early adopted, of not replying to any thing that might be matter against him. The sale of the book was rapid: it passed through a second edition in 1771, and with some alterations and amendments.

Soon after the publication of the Essay, he b

presented the world with the first canto of the Minstrel, a work of singular design, and of singular merit, but which the author never completed. It were, perhaps, to be wished, (notwithstanding the felicity with which Beattie has used the stanza of Spenser,) that he had employed the common English heroic couplet. What he says of its admitting simplicity and magnificence of sound, is perhaps true: but I do not know how it can be maintained that it allows the sententiousness of the couplet, when the closing of the sense is too often protracted to the fourth line, and sometimes dilated through a whole stanza.

The language of Beattie, in this poem, is very rich and poetical; and, if I might venture to dispute the authority of so eminent a judge as Gray, I should consider the occasional adoption of ancient words as strictly characteristical, and as imparting a degree of soBeattie has shown lemnity to the subject. that the words he has used have been employed by writers much posterior to the era of Spenser, which at once removes the charge of their being obsolete.

Some of the stanzas of the Minstrel are composed in the highest character of poesy; but,

generally speaking, the second book is inferior to the first. Beattie seems to have exhausted his strength by a single effort.

In 1771, he again visited London, and was admitted into all the circles of literature and fashion. He was in the bloom of his reputation, and could not be undelighted with its fragrance. He had previously obtained the epistolary acquaintance of Mrs. Montague, who praised him lavishly, and whom Beattie in return praised most servilely.* At her house he was introduced to Lord Lyttleton, Mrs. Carter, and others of her distinguished assembly. He also obtained the intercourse of the late Dr. Porteus, Dr. Johnson, Garrick, and Goldsmith, and all the principal literary persons then living.

In 1773, he obtained a pension, for which, I am sorry to find, he petitioned his majesty. The meanness of such a procedure deserves reprobation: it was unworthy a man of genius. Dr. Beattie should have felt, that if he possessed any claim to royal munificence, that claim should be allowed to operate by itself: if he did not possess any claim, he should have disdained to sue for it with the servility of a

See all his letters to that lady.

mendicant. His pension was not the reward of talent, but the success of supplication. He begged, and he obtained. His petition was supported by proper court influence, and it was granted. But he had policy as well as meanness; for when the Queen was instructed to make an offer of assistance to him, he defer red acceptance till he should know what success his petition to the king would have. I hope, for the honour of literature, that there are not many men of genius who would pursue such a course.

As a contrast to this scene of humiliation, we find him refusing a hundred pounds from the Duchess of Portland; and declining the conditional offer of pecuniary aid from Mrs, Montague. Surely Dr. Beattie must have ap. peared something like a literary pauper in the eyes of these persons, or they would not have ventured to make proposals to him which would have been rejected with indignation by

many.

While his pension was yet undecided, he had the honour of being presented to the King at the levee, by Lord Dartmouth, and of kis sing His Majesty's hand.

About this time the university of Oxford.

conferred upon him an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws.

At length, on the 20th of August, 1773, he received a letter from Lord North's secretary, informing him that the King had been pleased to confer upon him a pension of two hundred pounds a year; and on the 24th of the same month he had the honour of a private interview with his Majesty at Kew. The conversation that passed between them is recorded by Sir William Forbes, but it contains nothing worthy of being remembered.

In October, 1773, a vacancy occurred in the university of Edinburgh, which Dr. Beattie was solicited to accept; but he declined the offer.

In 1773, while Dr. Beattie was in London, his friends, apprehensive that nothing might be done for him by his Majesty, proposed to publish, by subscription, (another species of literary mendicity,) his Essay on Truth, by which subscription it was hoped a considerable. sum might be raised. The subscription was not to be public, for the public, it was thought, would feel no motive to buy a book a second time at a higher price: but a few friends, Lord Mayne, Mrs. Montague, Dr. Porteus,