Dr Beattie shrinks, will not every man of ability shrink too?"

To these communications from Lord Hailes, which I expected would have produced some effect in making him yield to the solicitation of his friends, I had the mortification, however, of receiving the following copious reply.

LETTER LXXVII.

DR BEATTIE TO SIR WILLIAM FORBES.

Aberdeen, 19th April, 1774.

"I have just received your two letters of the 16th current, inclosing two from Lord Hailes to you, which, according to your desire, I return under this cover. I cannot sufficiently thank you, or his lordship, for your zealous good wishes, and for the very favourable opinion you and he are pleased to entertain of me. As I desire nothing more earnestly, than to secure the con

tinuance of that favourable opinion, I must beg leave to be somewhat particular in answering two accusations, which, from two passages of his lordship's letter, I have reason to fear are likely to be brought against me, even by my friends. It is insinuated, that my disinclination to resign my present employment, may be the effect of obstinacy, or of fear.

Now, I humbly think, that when a man's conduct, and the reasons of it, are approved by a very great majority of those who are acquainted with both, it would be rather hard to charge him with obstinacy, for adhering to such conduct. And most certain it is, that, by all my English friends to whom I have had occasion to explain the affair in question, and by many respectable friends in Scotland, this conduct of mine, and the reasons of it, have been highly approved. Another thing, too, on this head, deserves attention. A man should not be accused of obstinacy, till he have told all his reasons, and till it appear that they are all unsatisfactory. I have never told all my reasons: I have told those only which are of a less private nature: other reasons I could specify; but they are of such a sort, that.

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I should think it petulance to obtrude them on the public.

"To the second accusation, I know not whether I can decently reply. When I see a man solicitous to prove that he is sober, I generally take it for granted, that he is drunk; and when one is at pains to convince me that he is brave, I am apt to set him down for a coward. Whether I deserve to be considered as a timorous asserter of good principles, I leave the world to judge, from what I have written, and from what I have done and said on occasions innumerable. Many hundreds in Great Britain, and some too elsewhere, think, that no Scottish writer, in my time, has attacked the enemies of truth with less reserve, and confuted them more zealously, than I have done. I have declared, in a printed book, which bears my name, that I detest their principles, and despise their talents; and that very book is, in the opinion of many, a proof that I have no reason to retract the declaration. What I have avowed, I am still ready to avow, in the face of any man upon earth, or of any number of men; and I shall never cease to avow, in plain language, and without concealment or subterfuge, so long as the Deity is pleased to continue with me the

use of my faculties. I cannot think that my friends will treat me so hardly, as to give out, that I fear every thing which I dislike. I dislike the croaking of frogs, and the barking of curs; but I fear neither. I dislike the conversation of infidels; but I know not in what sense I can be said to fear it. I should dislike very much to live in a society with crafty persons, who would think it for their interest to give me as much trouble as possible, unless I had reason to think, that they had conscience and honour sufficient to restrain them from aspersing the innocent; yet, if my duty were to call me thither, I should not be in the least afraid to live in such a society; for I know, that, while an honest man does his duty, the world seldom fails to do him justice. As to obloquy, I have had a share of it, as large as any private man I know; and I think I have borne it, and can bear it, with a degree of fortitude, of which I should not need to be ashamed, even if my station were as public, and as important, as that of a judge. Every honest man, whether his station be public or private, will do his duty without minding obloquy, which, in fact, was never more harmless than at present, because it never was more common. Convince me

that it is my duty to remove from hence to Edinburgh, and you shall see me set out immediately, as regardless of the snarling of my enemies there, as of that of the curs, who might snap at my heels by the way. So very little ground is there for suspecting me of an inclination to shrink from my principles, that one chief reason which determines my present choice is, that I may have the more leisure to apply myself to those studies, which may tend to the further confutation of error, and illustration of truth: so that, if they think I have any talents in this way, and if they know what my present resolutions are, my adversaries would wish me rather in Edinburgh, where I should have but little leisure, than at Aberdeen, where I have a great deal. On this account, as well as on others, I am morally certain, that I shall have it in my power to do more good to society by remaining where I am, than by moving to Edinburgh.

"That I am entirely useless in my present profession, is not the opinion of those in this country, who have access to know how I employ myself. My lectures are not confined to my own class. I do what no other professor here ever did, and what no professor in any other part of Great Bri