Letters Some Of Them Fragmentary From James Beattie

Author : William Forbes
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330239674
Total Pages : 563 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (396 download)

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Download or read book An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, Including Many of His Original Letters written by William Forbes and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-27 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from An Account of the Life and Writings of James Beattie, Including Many of His Original Letters Mr Mason prefaces his excellent and entertaining Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Gray, with an observation, more remarkable for its truth than novelty, that "the lives of men of letters seldom abound with incidents. A reader of sense and taste, therefore," continues he, "never expects to find, in the memoirs of a philosopher or poet, the same species of entertainment or information which he would receive from those of a statesman or general. He expects, however, to be either in formed or entertained. Nor will he be disappointed, did the writer take care to dwell principally on such topics as characterize the man, and distinguish that peculiar part which he acted in the varied drama of society." Keeping in view this rule of Mr Mason's, it is my purpose to give to the world some account of the late Dr Beattie; a man, whose life, if it docs not afford many striking incidents, yet furnishes no useful lesson, and no mean incentive, to men of genius, how obscure soever their origin may be, or unpromising their early prospects; as it shews the degree of celebrity and independence at which they may reasonably hope to arrive, by die exertion of those talents which they inherit from Nature, and a virtuous conduct in the society in which Providence has placed them. Before I enter, however, on this undertaking, I deem it necessary to offer some apology for my attempting it at all. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.