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
? 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 of the celebrated names the roll of its two colleges contains. The two first-mentioned were flourishing at the time when young Beattie entered the University. Blackwell was a