Slike strani
PDF
ePub

philosophy and logic in Marischal college; and, during a long course of years, he was indefatigable in the discharge of all the duties of that important and honourable office. By the gentlest means, he preserved the most exact discipline. He took particular pains deeply to impress the precepts of morality and religion on the minds of the young men committed to his charge. His mild manner, his amiable disposition, and his fine talents, rendered him the object of their mingled love, respect, and admiration.

[ocr errors]

In 1770, he published his first work, (except some juvenile poems,) his celebrated " Essay on the nature and immutability of Truth, in opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism ;" and, soon after, his beautiful poem of The Minstrel" appeared. In testimony of high approbation of these works, particularly of the " Essay on Truth," he received, in 1773, the honorary degree of doctor of laws from the University of Oxford, and a pension of two hundred pounds a year from the king.

In the latter years of his life, Dr. Beattie experienced great afflictions, which he endured with Christian patience and resignation. His wife had sunk into a state of incurable derangement, which wholly deprived him of her society and assistance his own health was very infirm; and he lost his two sons, the darling objects of his affection; the elder at twenty-two, and the younger at seventeen years of age.* The death of the latter of them Montagu Beattic, who was his last surviving child, took place in 1796: it seemed almost to overwhelm him; and, from that time, his health and faculties declined so rapidly, that he became incapable of all application to study or business. After repeated paralytic attacks, he had a severe stroke on the of fifth October, 1802, which deprived him altogether of the power of motion. He languished till the eighteenth of August, 1803, when it pleased the Almighty to remove him from this world, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, without any pain or apparent struggle.

Virtuous tenderness of heart, and acute sensibility, were distinguishing traits in the character of Dr. Beattie. His gratitude for favours received, seemed to know no bounds.

Of these two promising young men an account is given in "True Stories, or, Interesting Anecdotes of young Persons."

His piety was ardent. He discharged, in the most affectionate, conscientious an 1 exemplary manner, all the relative duties of a son, a brother, a husband, a father and a friend.

The works of Dr. Beattie, besides those already mentioned, are: "Miscellaneous Poems;" "An Essay on Poetry ;" "Dissertations Moral and Critical;" "Evidences of Christianity," a popular and highly useful little treatise; and "Ele ments of Moral science."-A considerable collection of his familiar letters is contained in his Life, published by his friend and executor, sir William Forbes, in two volumes quarto; from which the preceding account is extracted.

BOYSE, Samuel,- -an ingenious poet, was born at Dublin, in the year 1708. He was the son of a respectable dissenting minister. He received a liberal education; his talents for poetry procured him, in early life, considerable patronage; and he had many opportunities of advancing himself in the world: but through his indolence, extravagance, and dissolute conduct, he sunk into contempt, indigence, and wretchedness. The best of his performances is his poem entitled "Deity." Pope being asked, on the first publication of it, if he were not the author, said, he was not; but that there were many lines in it, of which he should not have been ashamed. Hervey, in his Meditations, calls it "a very beautiful, sublime, and instructive poem." And in his Letters, he says: "It is a noble piece, quite poetical, truly evangelical, and admirably fitted to alarm and comfort the heart, to delight and improve."

Hearing of the author's distress, this pious and benevolent man sent him a present of two guineas, accompanied by some admonition and advice. Of his kindness, Boyse expressed a very grateful sense, in the elegant and pathetic letter, inserted in this volume; which shows that, in his last moments, he was not devoid of real piety. Indeed, he often appeared seriously disposed to religion; he frequently talked upon that subject; and probably he suffered very severely from remorse of conscience. The early impressions of a good education, were never entirely obliterated from his mind; and his whole life was a continued struggle between his will and his reason, After a lingering illness, he died, in May, 1749, in obscure lodgings in London, in the forty-first year of his age; and he was buried at the expense of the parish.

"This relation" (to use the forcible language of Dr. Johnson on a símilar occasion)" will not be wholly without its use, if it remind those, who, in confidence of superior capacities or attainments, disregard the common maxims of life, that nothing can supply the want of prudence; and that negligence and irregularity, long continued, will make knowledge useless wit ridiculous, and genius contemptible."

CARTER, Elizabeth,-the learned translator of Epictetus, and the author of several very pleasing little poems on moral and religious subjects, was born at Deal, on the sixteenth of December, 1717. She was the eldest daughter of the Rev. Nicholas Carter, D. D. perpetual curate of the chapel in that town. Her early childhood afforded but little promise of those extraordinary attainments by which she was afterwards so eminently distinguished. She acquired the rudiments of learning with great labour and difficulty. But she had an earnest desire to be a scholar; and by the able instructions and assistance of her father, and her own indefatigable application and perseverance, she accomplished her purpose. Dr. Johnson speaking of a celebrated scholar, said he understood Greek better than any person whom he had ever known except Elizabeth Carter.-To relieve her father, she voluntarily took upon herself the sole care of educating her youngest brother, by her father's second marriage; and she discharged the office with maternal tenderness, unwearied diligence, and the most satisfactory result. In the year 1756, her pupil, who was designed for the church, was entered at Cambridge, a pensioner of Benet College; having undergone the previous examination with great credit both to himself and his sister. About the same time, she completed her translation of the works of Epictetus from the original Greek.

Mrs. Carter, both during her father's life and after his death, resided chiefly at Deal; but she usually spent a considerable part of the year in London, where she was much noticed, and her society courted, by the most distinguished persons of her time. The Pulteney family were particularly attached to her, and entertained a high respect for her talents and virtues. Knowing that her fortune was not adequate to her merit, they settled upon her, in 1767, an annuity for her life, of one hundred pounds a year. Mrs. Montagu, in 1775, becoming, by the death of her husband, mistress of a large

fortune, did honour both to herself and to her friend, by conferring upon her, in the most delicate manner, a similar testimony of esteem and regard.

Mrs. Carter, lived to a very advanced age. Her health and bodily strength visibly declined some years before she died; but she retained the calm, and almost unimpaired possession of all her mental powers, till within a few hours of her close. She went to London a short time before her decease; and died there, on the nineteenth of February, 1806, in the eightyninth year of her age. She expired without a struggle or a groan.

Mrs. Carter was good and pious from her childhood; and as she advanced in years, her goodness and piety increased. She never allowed her literary pursuits, nor the flattering distinctions which they procured her, to interfere, in the smallest degree, with the regular and conscientious discharge of all her religious and domestic duties. Though remarkably humble, and, in early life, diffident, she took great pleasure in promoting the moral and intellectual improvement of her relatives and friends; and, indeed, of all persons with whom she was connected. When dining at the tables of the great, she always endeavoured, as far as she could without violating the established forms of society, to give the conversation such a turn, as might be useful to the servants who were in attendance and thus indirectly and in the most gentle and winning manner, often impressed upon their minds truths of the greatest consequence. They listened to her discourse with the utmost earnestness; and in all the families where she was accustomed to visit frequently, they showed her a marked and zealous attention. A lady of high rank, with whom she was intimately acquainted, used to say, that she attributed, in a very considerable degree, the general good conduct of her servants, of whom she had a large number, to their hearing so frequently the conversation of Mrs. Carter.

In the following striking admonition to young ladies, Mrs. Hannah More has paid a just and noble tribute to the great worth of Mrs, Carter, and of another lady, scarcely less celebrated, whose early removal has given peculiar interest to her example. "Against learning, against talents of any kind, nothing can steady the head, unless we fortify the heart with real Christianity. In raising the moral edifice we must sink

deep in proportion as we build high. We must widen the foundation, if we extend the superstructure. Religion alone can counteract the aspirings of genius, can regulate the pride of talents. And let such women as are disposed to be vain of their comparatively petty attainments, look up with admiration to those contemporary shining examples, the venerable Elizabeth Carter, and the blooming Elizabeth Smith. I knew them both; and to know was to revere them. In them, let our young ladies contemplate profound and various learning, chastised by true Christian humility; and in them, venerate acquirements, which would have been distinguished in a University, meekly softened, and beautifully shaded, by the gentle exertion of every domestic virtue, the unaffected exercise of every feminine employment."

CHATHAM, William Pitt,-earl of, a most, eminent English statesman and orator, and father of the late Mr. Pitt, was born in 1708, and died in 1778.

His letters addressed to his nephew, chiefly during his residence at Cambridge, were published by lord Grenville, with the concurrence and approbation of Mr. Pitt. "They are few in number," says the noble editor," and they contain only such detached observations, on the extensive subjects to which they relate, as occasion might happen to suggest, in the course of familiar correspondence. Yet imperfect as these remains are, they exhibit a great orator, statesman, and patriot, in one of the most interesting relations of private society. Not in the cabinet or the senate, enforcing by a vigorous and commanding eloquence, those councils to which his country owed her pre-eminence and glory; but implanting, with parental kindness, in the mind of an ingenuous youth, seeds of wisdom and virtue, which ripened into full maturity in the character of a most accomplished man; directing him to the acquisition of knowledge, as the instrument of action; teaching him by the cultivation of his reason, to establish and strengthen in his heart the principles of moral rectitude; and above all, exhorting him to regulate the whole conduct of his life by the predominant influence of gratitude and obedience to God, as the only sure ground-work of every human duty."

« PrejšnjaNaprej »