An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, Including Many of His Original Letters

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Fb&c Limited, 27 de jun. de 2015 - 563 páginas
Excerpt from An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, Including Many of His Original Letters

Mr Mason prefaces his excellent and entertaining Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Gray, with an observation, more remarkable for its truth than novelty, that "the lives of men of letters seldom abound with incidents. A reader of sense and taste, therefore," continues he, "never expects to find, in the memoirs of a philosopher or poet, the same species of entertainment or information which he would receive from those of a statesman or general. He expects, however, to be either in formed or entertained. Nor will he be disappointed, did the writer take care to dwell principally on such topics as characterize the man, and distinguish that peculiar part which he acted in the varied drama of society."

Keeping in view this rule of Mr Mason's, it is my purpose to give to the world some account of the late Dr Beattie; a man, whose life, if it docs not afford many striking incidents, yet furnishes no useful lesson, and no mean incentive, to men of genius, how obscure soever their origin may be, or unpromising their early prospects; as it shews the degree of celebrity and independence at which they may reasonably hope to arrive, by die exertion of those talents which they inherit from Nature, and a virtuous conduct in the society in which Providence has placed them.

Before I enter, however, on this undertaking, I deem it necessary to offer some apology for my attempting it at all.

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