The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer by Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]

The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer by Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.] The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer by Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.] Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Clytie Siddall, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. THE POETICAL WORKS OF BEATTIE, BLAIR, AND FALCONER. With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes, BY THE REV. GEORGE GILFILLAN. page 1 / 436 CONTENTS Beattie's Poetical Works The Life and Poetry of James Beattie The Minstrel; or, the Progress of Genius Miscellaneous Poems Ode to Hope Ode to Peace Ode on Lord Hay's Birthday The Judgment of Paris The Triumph of Melancholy Elegy Elegy, written in the year 1758 Retirement The Hermit On the Report of a Monument to be erected in Westminster Abbey, to the Memory of a late Author (Churchill) The Battle of the Pigmies and Cranes The Hares. A Fable The Wolf and Shepherds. A Fable Song, in imitation of Shakspeare's "Blow, blow, thou winter wind" To Lady Charlotte Gordon, dressed in a Tartan Scotch Bonnet, with Plumes, &c Epitaph: being part of an Inscription designed for a Monument erected by a Gentleman to the Memory of his Lady Epitaph on Two Young Men of the name of Leitch, who were drowned in page 2 / 436 crossing the River Southesk Epitaph, intended for Himself Blair's Poetical Works The Life of Robert Blair The Grave A Poem, dedicated to the Memory of the late learned and eminent Mr William Law, Professor of Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh Falconer's Poetical Works The Life of William Falconer The Shipwreck Occasional Elegy, in which the preceding narrative is concluded Miscellaneous Poems The Demagogue A Poem, sacred to the Memory of His Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales Ode on the Duke of York's second departure from England as Rear-Admiral The Fond Lover. A Ballad On the Uncommon Scarcity of Poetry in the Gentleman's Magazine for December last, 1755, by I. W., a sailor Description of a Ninety-Gun Ship POETICAL WORKS OF JAMES BEATTIE. THE LIFE AND POETRY OF JAMES BEATTIE. page 3 / 436 James Beattie, the author of the "Minstrel" was born at Laurencekirk, in the county of Kincardineshire--a village situated in that beautiful trough of land called the Howe of the Mearns, and surmounted by the ridge of the Garvock Hills, which divide it from the German Ocean--on the 25th day of October 1735. His father, who was a small farmer and shopkeeper, and who is said to have possessed a turn for literature and 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 page 4 / 436 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 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 page 5 / 436 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 glen near his house, with pencil and paper in his hand--entered into conversation with him--found out that he was a poet--and gave him the "Invocation to Venus" in the opening of Lucretius, to translate, which he did on the spot, and thus removed some doubts Lord Gardenstown had entertained as to whether his poetry was actually his own; and, besides, Lord Monboddo, a remarkable man, alike in talent and eccentricity; and both vied with each other in their patronage of the poetical _dominie_ when he had undisturbed leisure for study and solitary communion with nature. On the whole, perhaps, the future "Minstrel" was happier as a parish schoolmaster than in any part of his after life; and perhaps often, in more brilliant but less easy days, would revert with a sigh to the simple school and the stream which murmurs past the small kirkyard of Fordoun. page 6 / 436 While there, he wrote a few poetical pieces, which he sent with his initials, and the name of his place of abode, to the _Scots Magazine_. We can fancy him, like the immortal Peter Pattieson, on the day the Magazine was due, walking as far as the little height of Auchcairnie, to watch and weary for the long-expected carrier's cart wending its slow way from the south and, when the parcel reached his hand, with eager, trembling fingers, opening it up, to have all the joy of virgin authorship awakened in his soul. In these days a poetic production from the country seemed a phenomenon--as great, to use an expression of De Quincey's, as if "a dragoon horse had struck up 'Rule Britannia,'" and no doubt, many an eyebrow in Auld Reekie rose in wonder, and many a voice exclaimed, "Who can this be?" when verses so good by J. B. Fordoun, flashed upon the public from time to time. But, although his poetry procured him more fame than he was then aware of, it brought him nothing more, and his way to competence and elevation in society, seemed as completely blocked up as ever. It would seem that he had, from an early period of his life, looked forward to the Church as his profession; and, having taught for some time in Fordoun, he returned to Aberdeen, to prosecute those preparatory studies which he had for a while abandoned for a parish school and poetry. Here he attended the lectures of Dr Robert Pollock of Marischal College, and Professor John Lumsden of King's-and performed the exercises prescribed by both. It was at this time that he delivered a discourse in the Divinity Hall in language so lofty, that the Professor challenged him for writing poetry instead of prose--a story reminding us of similar facts in the history of Thomson, Pollok, and others whose page 7 / 436 names we do not mention--and corroborating the truth, that poetical genius and the halls of philosophy or theology are seldom congenial, and that "musty, fusty, crusty" old professors are in general harsh stepfathers to rising poets.

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