Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/221

 object. A bishop is believed to have suggested to the king, that the author of the Essay on Truth might be introduced to the English church, and advanced according to his merits; to which the king, however, is said to have slily replied, that, as Scotland abounded most in infidels, it would be best for the general interests of religion that he should be kept there. George III., who had read and admired Beattie's book, and whose whole mind ran in favour of virtue and religion, suggested himself the more direct plan of granting him a pension of two hundred pounds a year, which was accordingly carried into effect. The king also honoured Dr Beattie with his particular notice at a levee, and, further, granted him the favour of an interview in his private apartments at Kew for upwards of an hour. The agreeable conversation and unassuming manners of Dr Beattie appear to have not only made a most favourable impression upon the king and queen—for her majesty also was present at this interview—but upon every member of that lofty circle of society to which he was introduced.

Even after he had been thus provided for, several dignified clergymen of the church of England continued to solicit him to take orders; and one bishop went so far as directly to tempt him with the offer of a rectorate worth five hundred a-year. He had no disinclination to the office of a clergyman, and he decidedly preferred the government and worship of the English church to the presbyterian system of his own country. But he could not be induced to take such a reward for his efforts in behalf of religion, lest his enemies might say that he had never contemplated any loftier principle than that of bettering his own circumstances. Nearly about the same time, he further proved the total absence of a mercenary tinge in his character, by refusing to be promoted to the chair of Moral Philosophy in the university of Edinburgh. His habits of life were now, indeed, so completely associated with Aberdeen, and its society, that he seems to have contemplated any change, however tempting, with a degree of pain.

About this time, some letters passed between him and Dr Priestley, on occasion of an attack made by the latter on the Essay on Truth. In his correspondence with this ingenious but petulant adversary, Dr Beattie shows a great deal of candour and dignity. He had at first intended to reply, but this intention he appears afterwards to have dropped: "Dr Priestley," says he, "having declared that he will answer whatever I may publish in my own vindication, and being a man who loves bustle and book-making, he wishes above all things that I should give him a pretext for continuing the dispute. To silence him by force of argument, is, I know, impossible."

In the year 1786, Beattie took a keen interest in favour of a scheme then agitated, not for the first time, to unite the two colleges of Aberdeen. It was found impossible to carry this project into effect, though it is certainly one of those obvious improvements which must sooner or later be accomplished. In the same year, Dr Beattie projected a new edition of Addison's prose works, with a biographical and critical preface to the extent of half a volume, in which ho meant to show the peculiar merits of the style of Addison, as well as to point out historically the changes which the English language has undergone from time to time, and the hazard to which it is exposed of being debased and corrupted by modern innovations. He was reluctantly compelled by the state of his health to retrench the better part of this scheme. The works of Addison were published under his care, in 1790, by Messrs Creech and Sibbald, booksellers, Edinburgh, but he could only give Tickell's Life, together with some extracts from Dr Johnson's "Remarks on Addison's Prose," adding a few notes of his own, to make up any material deficiency in Tickell's narrative, and illustrating Johnson's critique by a few occasional annotations. Though these additions to his original stock of materials, are very slight, the admirer of Addison is much gratified by some new