Note Y — MEMOIR OF BEATTIE, BY THE REV. ALEXANDER DYCE.
Reading edition
I possess a copy of it which bears the following inscription:
"To William Hayley, Esq., in testimony of the utmost respect, esteem, and gratitude, from J. Beattie. 1st January, 1796."
On one of its fly-leaves the ever-ready pen of Hayley has written the subjoined sonnet:
TO DOCTOR BEATTIE, IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF HIS VERY INTERESTING PRESENT.
"Bard of the North! I thank thee with my tears For this fond work of thy paternal hand: It bids the buried youth before me stand In nature's softest light, which love endears. Parents like thee, whose grief the world reveres, Faithful to pure affection's proud command, For a lost child have lasting honours plann'd, To give in fame what fate denied in years. The filial form of Icarus was wrought By his afflicted sire, the sire of art! And Tullia's fane engross'd her father's heart: That fane rose only in perturbed thought; But sweet perfection crowns, as truth begun, This Christian image of thy happier son."