versifying, died when James was only seven years old; but his brother
David, the eldest of a family of six, undertook the superintendence of
his education till he was fit to go to the parish school. That school
which had been raised to celebrity by Thomas Ruddiman, the grammarian,
was now taught by one Milne, whom his pupil describes as also a good
grammarian and an excellent Latin scholar, but destitute of taste, and
of all the other qualifications of a teacher. Milne preferred Ovid to
Virgil; but Beattie's taste, already giving promise of its future
classical bent, was attracted by the less meretricious beantics of
Virgil; and this author, in Dryden's translation, as well as Milton's
"Paradise Lost," and Thomson's "Seasons," were devoured with eagerness,
and copied with emulation, by him in the intervals of his school hours.
He was assisted in his studies by Mr Thomson, minister of the parish. In
1749, when he reached the age of fourteen, he entered Marischal College,
Aberdeen, and such was his proficiency that he took by competition the
first of those bursaries or exhibitions which are given to those
students who are unable to support the expenses of their own education.
Aberdeen has been always distinguished by its eminent professors.
Blackwell, Gerard, Reid, Campbell, the subject of this sketch, Brown,
Blackie, &c. are only a few of the celebrated names the roll of its two
colleges contains. The two first-mentioned were flourishing at the time
when young Beattie entered the University. Blackwell was a learned but
pedantic Grecian, who wrote with considerable power and great pomp on
"Mythology," "Homer," and the "Court of Augustus." Alexander Gerard was
the author of some books of some merit, although now nearly forgotten,
on the "Genius of Christianity," on "Taste and Genius," &c. Under both
these Beattie profited very much. He gained a high prize in Blackwell's
class, for an analysis of the fourth book of the "Odyssey." He did not
neglect general reading, nor the art of poetry. He spent much of his
leisure in studying and practising music, which he always loved with a