Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 4.djvu/78

424 Easter holidays of 1782, when lie found his time so completely taken up by his literary projects, especially his translation, that he voluntarily withdrew from every stated ministerial function. The following year Dr Geddes paid a visit to Scotland, during which he wrote "Linton, a Tweetldale pastoral, In honour of the birth of a son and heir to the noble house of Traquair." He passed with the earl and his countess on a tour to the south of France, came back with them to Scotland, and shortly after returned to London. He was about this time introduced toUr Kennicot, by whom he was introduced to DrLowth, and both of them took a deep interest in his undertaking. At the suggestion of the latter, Dr Geddes wrote a new prospectus, detailing more fully and explicitly the plan he meant to follow. This was given to the public in 1786: it had a very general circulation, and was well received. In the year 1785, he was elected a corresponding member by the Society of Scottish Antiquaries, an honour which he acknowledged in a Poetical Epistle to that respectable body. This epistle is printed in the first volume of the transactions of the society, as also a dissertation on the Scoto-Saxon dialect, with the first eclogue of Virgil, and the first idyllium of Theocritus, translated into Scottish verse.

He was now advancing with his translation; but in the year 1787, he published an appendix to his prospectus, in the form of a "Letter addressed to the bishop of London, containing queries, doubts, and difficulties relative to a vernacular version of the Holy Scriptures." He published the same year a letter to Dr Priestly, in which he attempted to prove, by one prescriptive argument, that the divinity of Jesus Christ was a primitive tenet of Christianity. About the same time he published his letter on the case of the Protestant dissenters. In the year 1788, he engaged as a contributor to the Analytical Review, for which he continued to furnish many valuable articles during the succeeding five years and a half. It was during the year just mentioned, that he issued "Proposals for printing by subscription a new translation of the Holy Bible," &c. His "General Answer to the counbels and criticisms that have been communicated to him since the publication of his proposals for printing a New Translation of the Bible," appeared in the year 1790. Of the same date was his "Answer to the bishop of Comana's Pastoral Letter, by a protesting Catholic," followed by "A letter to the R.R. the archbishop and bishops of England, &c. Carmen Seculars pro Gallica, &c. and an Kpistola Macaronica ad Fratrem," &c. In the year 1791, he was afflicted with a dangerous fever, and on his recovery, accepted of an invitation to visit lord Petre at his seat at Norfolk. This journey produced "A Norfolk Tale, or a Journey from London to Norwichj with a Prologue and an Epilogue," published in the following year. The same year he published "An Apology for Slavery," a poem, entitled l'Avocat du Diable, &c. and "The first book of the Iliad of Homer, verbally rendered into English verse," &c. Amidst these multifarious avocations, he was Btill proceeding with his translation, and in the year 1792, though his subscription list was far from being filled up, he published "The first volume of the Holy Bible, or the books accounted sacred by Jews and Christians, otherwise called the books of the Old and New Covenants, faithfully translated from corrected texts of the originals, with various readings, explanatory notes, and critical remarks."

Dr Geddes had by this time engaged a house for himself in Alsop's Buildings, New Road, Mary-le-bone, which he had fitted up with his own hands in a curious and convenient style. He had also a garden both before and behind his house, which he cultivated with the industry of a day labourer, and with the zeal of a botanizing philosopher; he had "a biblical apparatus [a library] through the princely munificence of lord Petre," superior to most individuals, and he wanted only the incense of the world's applause to this idol of