Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/75

Rh personal acquaintance with him." Here, to a knowledge of the vulgar English Bible, he added a knowledge of the vulgar Latin one, which appears to have been all the benefit he received by a seven years' seclusion from the sun, and from the world which he illuminated. Having attained the age of twenty-one, he was removed to the Scots college at Paris, where he completed his knowledge of the Latin language, to which he added Hebrew, Greek, Italian, French, Spanish, German, and Low Dutch. Theology and biblical criticism were the principal objects of his attention, for he had already formed the design of making a new translation of the Bible for the 'use of his Catholic countrymen, to the accomplishing of which all his studies seem to have been directed from a very early period of his life. When he had completed his course in the Scots college at Paris, he was solicited to take a share of the public labours of the college, and to fix, of course, his residence in that gay metropolis. This, however, after some hesitation, he declined, and, after an absence of six years, returned to his native country in the year 1764. Having entered into orders, Geddes, on his arrival in Scotland, was, by his ecclesiastic superior, ordered to reside at Dundee, as officiating priest to the Catholics of Angus. This situation he did riot long fill, being invited by the earl of Traquair to reside in his family at Traquair house, Avhither he repaired in the month of May, 1765.

Here Mr Geddes was situated as happily as his heart could have wished, he had plenty of time, with the use of an excellent library, and he seems to have prosecuted his favourite study with great diligence. He had been in this happy situation, however, little more than a year, when the openly displayed affection of a female inmate of the house, a relation of the earl, rendered it necessary for him, having taken the vow of perpetual celibacy, to take an abrupt departure from the Arcadian scenery of the Tweed. Leaving with the innocent author of his misfortune a beautiful little poem, entitled The Confessional, he again bade adieu to his native land, and in the varieties and volatilities of Paris, endeavoured to forget his pain. Even in this condition, however, he did not lose sight of his great object, as, during the time he remained in Paris, he made a number of valuable extracts from books and manuscripts which he consulted in the public libraries.

Paris never was a place much to his mind, and it was less so now than ever, when it presented him with no definite object of pursuit. He therefore returned to Scotland in the spring of the year 1769. He had by this time recovered, in some degree, possession of himself, but he dared not encounter the fascination of the beloved object, or re-engage in the domestic scenes from which he had found it necessary to fly. Turning, therefore, to the scenes of his early life, he was offered the charge of a Catholic congregation at Auchinhalrig, in the county of Banff, which he accepted. The members of this little community were poor, their chapel was in ruins, and the most inveterate rancour subsisted among themselves, and between them and their Protestant neighbours. Mr Geddes, however, was not to be appalled by the prospect of difficulties, however numerous and formidable. His first object was to pull down the old chapel, and to build a new one on the spot. His own house, too, which his biographer dignifies with the name of a parsonage-house, he found necessary to repair almost from the foundation, and he added to it the luxury of an excellent garden, from which he was able, on many occasions, to supply the necessities of his people. In these proceedings, Mr Geddes was not only useful, in directing and overseeing the workmen, but as a workman himself, many of the most important operations being performed with his own hands. Having thus provided for the assembling of his congregation, his next object was to correct that extreme bigotry by which they were characterised. For this end,