nary rapidity, taste and genius were discoverable; nor did he tread in only one or two walks of the art. In the difficult game of chess, though opposed by various competitors, and by some of long experience and tried skill, he was rarely conquered; and his handwriting, in ease, in decision of character, in exquisite beauty, was surpassed by very few men of the most acknowledged eminence in penmanship. But his sedentary or domestic amusements, no more than his studies, were permitted to impair the stoutness of his limbs, the clearness of his complexion, or the crimson colour of his cheeks. Of gardening he was peculiarly fond. Careless of fatigue, and patient of heat and cold, he spent much time in the open air, discovering, in his recreations, an uncommon share of animation and activity, of courage and a spirit of enterprise; and, when he was merely walking, his taste was particularly displayed in his remarks on the picturesque objects and the glowing tints of the distant landscape; and his vigilant curiosity was particularly excited by the diversities of the insect tribe, and by the varied productions of the vegetable world. JAMES HAY BEATTIE. JAMES HAY BEATTIE was the son of the learned and ingenious Dr. Beattie, professor of moral philosophy and logic in the Marischal College or University of New Aberdeen in Scotland; and was born in 1768. His mildness and docility were such, that the Doctor had never occasion to reprove him above three or four times; bodily chastisement he never experienced at all. The first rules of mo rality taught him by this affectionate parent, were, To speak truth and keep a secret; "and I never found," says he, "that in a single instance he transgressed either. The doctrines of religion I wished to impress on his mind, as soon as it might be prepared to receive them; but I did not see," adds Dr. B. "the propriety of making him. commit to memory theological sentences, or any sentence which it was not possible for him to understand; and I was desirous to make a trial how far his own reason could go in tracing qut, with a little direction, the great and first principle of all religion, the being of a God. When he attained his fifth' or sixth year, and had as yet received no particular information with respect to the Author of his Being, his father recurred to an ingenious device for this purpose. In a corner of a little garden, without informing any person of the circumstance, he wrote in the mould. with his finger the three initials of his son's name, and sowing cresses in the furrows, covered up the seed, and smoothed the ground. On discovering "his name growing in the garden," the child was astonished, and on being told it might be accidental, he denied that such a circumstance could be the effect of chance, On this the Doctor, alluding to his own person, |
