Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/224

 "to inure young minds to habits of attentive observation; to guard them oo-ainst the influence of bad principles; and to set before them such views of nature, and such plain and practical truths, as might at once improve the heart and the understanding, and amuse and elevate the fancy." His "Elements of Moral Science" was a summary of the whole of that course of lectures, a little enlarged in the doctrinal parts, with the addition of a few illustrative examples. In a certain degree, this work may be considered as a text-book; it is one, however, so copious in its extent, so luminous in its arrangement and language, and so excellent in the sentiments it everywhere inculcates, that if the profound metaphysician and logician do not find in it that depth of science which they may expect to meet with in other works of greater erudition, the candid enquirer after truth may rest satisfied, that, if he has studied these " Elements " with due attention, he will have laid a solid foundation, on which to build all the knowledge of the subject necessary for the common purposes of life. Of such of the lectures as had already appeared in an extended shape, under the name of "Essays," particularly those on the theory of language, and on memory and imagination, Dr Beattie has made this abridgment as brief as was consistent with any degree of perspicuity; while he bestowed no less than seventy pages on his favourite topic, the Abolition of the Slave Trade, and the subject of slavery connected with it.

While delighting the world with the quick succession and variety of his productions, Dr Beattie was himself nearly all the while a prey to the severest private sufferings. Mrs Beattie had unfortunately inherited from her mother a tendency to madness. Though this did not for a considerable time break out into open insanity, yet in a few years after their marriage, it showed itself in caprices and follies, which embittered every hour of her husband's life. Dr Beattie tried for a long time to conceal her disorder from the world, and, if possible, as he has been heard to say, from himself; but at last, from whim, caprice, and melancholy, it broke out into downright phrenzy, which rendered her seclusion from society absolutely necessary. During every stage of her illness, he watched and cherished her with the utmost tenderness and care; using every means at first that medicine could furnish for her recovery, and afterwards, when her condition was found to be perfectly hopelesss [sic], procuring for her, in an asylum at Musselburgh, every accommodation and comfort that could tend to alleviate her sufferings. "When I reflect," says Sir William Forbes, "on the many sleepless nights, and anxious days, which he experienced from Mrs Beattie's malady, and think of the unwearied and unremitting attention he paid to her, during so great a number of years in that sad situation, his character is exalted in my mind to a degree which may be equalled, but I am sure never can be excelled, and makes the fame of the poet and the philosopher fade from my remembrance."

The pressure of this calamity—slow but certain—the death of his eldest son, and the continued decline of his health, made it necessary, in the session of 1793-4, that he should be assisted in the duties of his class. From that period till 1797, when he finally relinquished his professorial duties, he was aided by Mr George Glennie, his relation and pupil. He experienced an additional calamity in 1796, by the sudden death of his only remaining son, Montague, a youth of eighteen, less learned than his brother, but of still more amiable manners, and whom he had designed for the English church. This latter event unhinged the mind of Beattie, who, it may be remarked, had always been greatly dependent on the society, and even on the assistance, of his children. The care of their education, in which he was supposed to be only over indulgent, had been his chief employment for many years. This last event, by rendering him childless, dissolved nearly the last remaining tie which bound him to the world; and left