In 1760, through the exertions of his friends, especially the Earl of
Erroll, and Mr Arbuthnott, Beattie was appointed Professor of Philosophy
in Marischal College. It was thought at the time a startling experiment
to appoint a man so young--and who had given no proof of peculiar
proficiency in philosophical lore--to such an important chair; and was
no doubt stigmatised as one of those arrant 'jobs' by which the history
of Scotch Colleges has been often disgraced. In Beattie's case, however,
as well as in the kindred one of Professor Wilson, the issue was more
fortunate than might have been expected. He set manfully to work to
supply his deficiencies--read and wrote hard--and in a few years had
prepared a very respectable course of lectures--and became able to
front, without shame, such men as Gerard and Gregory, Campbell and
Reid--with whom he was now associated. In the same year appeared, in a
very modest manner, "Proposals for Printing Original Poems and
Translations." In 1761, the volume itself was published--consisting of
the pieces formerly printed in the 'Scots Magazine', corrected and
altered, and of some new productions. The book appeared simultaneously
in Edinburgh and London, and was hailed with universal applause; the
critics generally maintaining that no poetry so good had been written
since Gray's; which they thought Beattie had taken for his model. He
himself entertained, after a while, a very different opinion of their
merits; he was, in fact, seized with a fastidious loathing for them; he
destroyed every copy he could procure; and on republishing his poetry
before his death, he acknowledged only four of these early effusions.

In 1765, he published, in quarto, his "Judgment of Paris," which met
with the unfavourable reception it deserved. He added it to an edition
of his poems printed in 1766; but afterwards refused to reprint it. We
have given it, however, as well as all his original minor poems, in our
edition, including a poem on Churchill, published by him in 1766, and