o support the recollection of such a
load of sorrow. "Many times," says Sir William Forbes, "he could not
recollect what had become of his son; and after searching in every room
of the house, he would say to his niece, 'Mrs. Glennie, you may think it
strange, but I must ask you, if I have a son, and where he is?'" That
man must be a stern moralist who would censure him very severely for
having sought, as he sometimes did, a renewal of this oblivion in his
cups.

He was unable any longer to apply himself to study, and left most of the
letters he received from his friends unanswered. Music, in which he had
formerly delighted, he could not endure to hear from others, after the
loss of his first son; though a few months before the death of the
second, he had begun to accompany him when he sang, on his own favourite
instrument, which was the violoncello. Afterwards, as may be supposed,
the sound of it was painful to him. He still took some pleasure in
books, and in the company of a very few amongst his oldest friends. This
was his condition till the beginning of April 1799, when he was seized
with a paralytic stroke, which rendered his speech imperfect for several
days. During the rest of his life he had repeated attacks of the same
malady: the last, which happened on the 5th of October, 1802, entirely
deprived him of motion. He languished, however, till the 18th of August
in the following year, when nature being exhausted, he expired without a
struggle.

He was interred, according to his own desire, by the side of his two
sons, in the churchyard of St. Nicholas, at Aberdeen, with the following
inscription from the pen of Dr. James Gregory, Professor of Physic, at
Edinburgh.

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 awkw