Beattie, James

BEATTIE, JAMES: Scotch poet; b. at Laurencekirk (70 m. n.n.e. of Edinburgh), Kincardineshire, Oct. 25, 1735; d. at Aberdeen Aug. 18, 1803. He studied at the Marischal College, Aberdeen (M.A., 1753), and, after seven years as a school-teacher, became professor of moral philosophy and logic at that institution in 1760. In reply to Hume he wrote An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth (London, 1770), which was popular and successful, but has little value as a philosophical work. Other works of his were: Dissertations, Moral and Critical (1783); Evidences of the Christian Religion (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1786); and Elements of Moral Science (2 vols., 1790–93). His poems, of which the chief is The Minstrel (books i-ii, 1771–1774), are much better than his philosophical writings; and it is for them that he is remembered.

Bibliography: Sir William Forbes, An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, Edinburgh, 1806; DNB, iv, 22–25.