Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/76

422 he laboured to gain their affections by the most punctilious attention to every part of his pastoral duty, and by the most unbounded charity and benevolence. The ceremonies of popery he despised as heartily as any presbyterian. The Scriptures he earnestly recommended to his people, and exhorted them to think for themselves, and to allow the same privilege to others. Many of the peculiarities of popery, indeed, he denounced as most iniquitous, and utterly repugnant to the spirit of genuine catholicity. In his judgment of others, Geddes himself showed the utmost liberality; and he even ventured to appear as a worshipper in the church of a neighbouring parish on different occasions. By these means, if he did not convert to his views the papists of Auchinhalrig, which we believe he did not, he acquired a very high character to himself, and formed many valuable friendships among men of all descriptions. Than this conduct nothing could be better fitted to attain the object which the papists were by this time very generally beginning to entertain, that of obtaining political power and influence; and in this respect, Geddes, by dereliction of principle, did more for their cause than all other men beside: yet their zeal could not be restrained, even for this most obvious purpose, and he had the mortification to find that he was provoking very generally the resentment of his clerical brethren. His diocesan bishop, Hay, threatened him with suspension if he did not behave with greater circumspection, particularly in regard to the dangerous and contaminating influence of heretical intercourse; but having no supreme court before which to bring the refractory and rebellious priest, the bishop was under the necessity of letting the controversy drop. Unfortunately the poor priest had become personally bound for considerable sums expended in building the chapel and repairing the manse, for the payment of which he had trusted to the liberality of his people. There was no appearance of his expectations being realized, and his creditors a class of people whom he could not so easily set at defiance as the bishop, becoming clamorous, a "charge of horning," was likely to suspend him more effectually than the order of his diocesan, when, through the friendship of the earl of Traquair, he was introduced to the notice of the duke of Norfolk, who, having learned the extent of the obligations he had come under in his pastoral capacity, claimed the privilege of discharging them as an earnest of future friendship. Geddes was thus relieved from serious embarrassments, but his income was far too scanty to supply his necessities, though they were by no means so numerous as those of many others in his situation. In order to provide for himself without burdening his congregation, he took a small farm at En/ie, in Fochabers, in the vicinity of Auchinhalrig, which he stocked by means of a loan, built a little chapel upon it, where he proposed to officiate as well as at Auchinhalrig, and in imagination saw himself already happy and independent. There have been men of letters, who have been, at the same time, men of business. They have been, however, but few; and Geddes was not of the number. It was in the year 1775 that he commenced his agricultural speculations, and by the year 1778, he found himself in a still deeper state of embarrassment than when he had been relieved by the duke of Norfolk. The expedient he adopted on this occasion, was one that was much more likely to have added to his embarrassments than to have relieved them. He published at London "Select Satires of Horace, translated into English verse, and for the most part adapted to the present times and manners." This publication, contrary to all human probability, succeeded so well that it brought him a clear profit of upwards of one hundred pounds, which, with some friendly aid from other quarters, set him once more clear of pecuniary embarrassments. The remark of one of his biographers on this circumstance ought not to be suppressed: "To be brought to the brink of ruin by farming and kirk building,