Memoriae. Sacrum. JACOBI. BEATTIE. LL.D. Ethices. In. Academia. Marescallana. hujus. Urbis. Per. XLIII. Annos. Professoris. Meritissimi. Viri. Pietate. Probitate. Ingenio. atque. Doctrina. Praestantis. Scriptoris. Elegantissimi. Poetae. Suavissimi. Philosophi. Vere. Christiani. Natus. est. V. Nov. Anno. MDCCXXXV. Obiit. XVIII. Aug. MDCCCIII. Omnibus. Liberis. Orbus. Quorum. Natu. Maximus. JACOBUS. HAY. BEATTIE. Vel. a. Puerilibus. Annis. Patrio. Vigens. Ingenio. Novumque. Decus. Jam. Addens. Paterno. Suis. Carissimus. Patriae. Flebilis. Lenta. Tabe. Consumptus. Periit. Anno. Aetatis. XXIII. GEO. ET. MAR. GLENNIE. H.M.P. "In his person," says Sir William Forbes, "Doctor Beattie was of the middle size, though not elegantly yet not awkwardly formed, but with something of a slouch in his gait. His eyes were black and piercing, with an expression of sensibility somewhat bordering on melancholy; except when engaged in cheerful and social intercourse with his friends, when they were exceedingly animated." In a portrait of him, taken in middle life by Reynolds, and given to him as a mark of his regard by the painter, he is represented with his Essay on Truth under his arm. At a little distance is introduced the allegorical figure of Truth as an angel, holding in one hand a balance, and with the other thrusting back the visages of Prejudice, Scepticism, and Folly. He is, I believe, the solitary instance of a poet, having received so much countenance at the Court of George the Third; and this favour he owed less to any other cause than to the zeal and ability with which he had been thought to oppose the enemies of religion. The respect with which he was treated, both at home and abroad, was no more than a just tribute to those merits and the excellence of his private character. His probity and disinterestedness, the extreme tenderness with which he acquitted himself of all his domestic duties, his attention to the improvement of his pupils, for whose welfare his solicitude did not cease with their removal from the college; his unassuming deportment, which had not been altered by prosperity or by the caresses of the learned and the powerful, his gratitude to those from whom he had received favours, his beneficence to the poor, the ardour of his devotion, are dwelt on by his biographer with an earnestness which leaves us no room to doubt the sincerity of the encomium. His chief defect was an irritability of temper in the latter part of his life, which shewed itself principally towards those who differed from him on speculative questions.