The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair and Falconer

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Title: The Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer
With Lives, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes
Author: Rev. George Gilfillan [Ed.]
Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8695]
[Yes, we are more than
one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on August 2,
2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WORKS OF
BEATTIE, BLAIR, AND FALCONER ***
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.
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 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.
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