passion. We can conceive him, too, the "lone enthusiast," repairing
often to the resounding shore of the ocean, or leaning where a greater
than he was by and by to lean, over the Brig of Balgounie, which bends
above the deep, dark Don, or walking out pensively to the Bridge of Dee,
and watching the calm, translucent, yet strong, victorious river running
through its rich green banks and clustering corn-fields to wed the sea.
No university in wide Britain can be named with Aberdeen, in point of
the wild romantic grandeur of its environs, if we include in these the
upper courses of the two rivers which meet beside it and Byron Hall.
Macintosh, as well as Beattie, have owned the inspiration which the
scenery, still more than the scholastic training of the Northern
Metropolis, breathed into their opening minds.

In 1753, having cultivated assiduously every branch of study taught at
college except mathematics, for which he had neither taste nor aptitude,
Beattie took the degree of A.M. He had hitherto been supported by the
kindness of his brother David, but now he was to look out for a
profession for himself. The situation of parish schoolmaster at Fordoun
falling vacant, he determined to apply for it; and on the 11th of August
1753 he was elected to the office. Fordoun is situated a few miles to
the north-east of Laurencekirk, and is surrounded by similar scenery. A
series of gentlemen's seats extend, at brief intervals, from Brechin to
Stonehaven, along a ridge of bare and bold mountains, and overlooking a
fair and rich plain, so that thus the neighbourhood of Fordoun includes
a combination of the soft, the beautiful, the luxuriant, and the
nakedly-sublime, which must have fed to satiety the eye and heart of
this true poet. Otherwise, the situation could not be called eligible.
The salary was small, the society at that time indifferent, and the
sphere limited. There were, however, some counter-balancing advantages.
Near the village resided Lord Gardenstown, who met Beattie in a romantic