well known for her valuable writings on religious subjects; lord Hailes, the
sagacious and enlightened antiquary of Scottish law; Mr Garrick, and Mr
Burke, were also among his acquaintances. But it is superfluous to go farther
into detail on this subject ; suffice it to say, that he was an early member of the Literary Club in London, and lived all his life in terms of acquaintance or intimacy with its members, which contained a list of names immortal in English history; Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Joshua Reynolds, Oliver Goldsmith, Thomas Warton, Edward Gibbon.
The friendship and acquaintance of such men necessarily led Sir William Forbes into a very extensive and interesting literary correspondence, a species of composition then much more usual than at this time, and which, if it sometimes engrossed time which might have been employed to more advantage, always exhibited a picture of thoughts and manners which future ages will look for in vain in the present generation of eminent men. His papers accordingly, contain a selection of interesting letters from great men, such as it rarely fell to the lot of any single individual, how fortunate or gifted soever, to accumulate. He was employed after the death of his esteemed and venerable friend, Mr Carr, of the Cowgate chapel, by his bequest, in the important duty of arranging and preparing the sermons for publication, which were afterwards given to the world; and he prepared, along with Dr Beattie and Mr Arbuthnot, the-simple and pathetic inscription, which now stands over the grave of that excellent man, at the west end of St Paul's chapel, Edinburgh.
His intimate acquaintance with the first literary characters of the day, and the extensive correspondence which had thus fallen into his hands, probably suggested to Sir William Forbes the idea of writing the life of Dr Beattie, one of his earliest and most valued friends, and whose eminence was not only such as to call for such an effort of biography, but whose acquaintance with all the eminent writers of the time, rendered his life the most favourable opportunity for portraying the constellation of illustrious men who shed a glory over Scotland at the close of the eighteenth century. He executed this work accordingly, which appeared in 1805, shortly before his death, in such a way as to give the most favourable impression of the distinction which he would have attained as an author, had his path in general not lain in a more extended and peculiar sphere of usefulness. It rapidly went through a second edition, and is now deservedly ranked high among the biographical and historical remains of the last century. Independent of the value and interest of the correspondence from the first characters of the day which it contains, it embraces an admirable picture of the life and writings of its more immediate subject, and is written in a lucid and elegant style, which shows how well the author had merited the constant intercourse which he maintained with the first literary characters of the age. Of the moral character of the work, the elevated and Christian sentiments which it conveys, no better illustration can be afforded, than by the transcript of the concluding paragraph of the life of his eminent friend; too soon, and truly, alas ! prophetic of his own approaching dissolution:
"Here I close my account of the Life of Dr Beattie; throughout the whole of which, I am not conscious of having, in any respect, misrepresented either his actions or his character; and of whom to record the truth is his best praise.
"On thus reviewing the long period of forty years that have elapsed since the commencement of our intimacy, it is impossible for me not to be deeply affected by the reflection, that of the numerous friends with whom he and I were wont to associate, at the period of our earliest acquaintance, all, I think, except three, have already paid their debt to nature ; and that in no long time,
