nguished him by the name of the Poet.

At the age of fourteen, he was sent to Marischal College, Aberdeen,
where he attended the Greek class, taught by Dr. Blackwell, author of
the Memoirs of the Court of Augustus, and was by him singled out as the
most promising of his scholars. The slender pittance spared him by his
mother would scarcely have sufficed for his support, if he had not added
to it one of the bursaries or pensions that were bestowed on the most
deserving candidates. Of a discourse which he was called on to deliver
at the Divinity Hall, it was observed, that he spoke poetry in prose.
Thomson was censured for a similar impropriety in one of his youthful
exercises; but Beattie gained the applause of his audience.

His academical education being completed, on the 1st of August, 1753, he
was satisfied with the humble appointment of parish-clerk and
schoolmaster at the village of Fordoun, about six miles distant from
Laurencekirk. Here he attracted the notice of Mr. Garden, at that time
sheriff of the county, and afterwards one of the Scotch judges, with the
appellation of Lord Gardenstown. In a romantic glen near his house, he
chanced to find Beattie with pencil and paper in his hand; and, on
questioning him, discovered that he was engaged in the composition of a
poem. Mr. Garden desired to see some of his other poems; and doubting
whether they were his own productions, requested him to translate the
invocation to Venus at the opening of Lucretius, which Beattie did in
such a manner as to remove his incredulity. In this retirement, he also
became known to Lord Monboddo, whose family seat was in the parish; and
a friendly intercourse ensued, which did not terminate till the death of
that learned but visionary man. In 1758, he was removed from his
employment at Fordoun, to that of usher in the Grammar School at
Aberdeen, for which he had been an unsuccessful competitor in the
preceding year, but was now nominated without the form of a trial.

At Aberdeen, his heart seems to have taken up its rest; for no
temptations could afterwards seduce him for any length of time to quit
it. The professorship of Natural Philosophy in the Marischal College,
where he had lately been a student, being vacant in 1760, Mr. Arbuthnot,
one of his friends, exerted himself with so much zeal in the behalf of
Beattie, that he obtained that appointment; although the promotion was
such as his most sanguine wishes did not aspire to. Soon af