BAXTER, Andrew, a very ingenious metaphysical writer, was born in 1686 or 1687, at Old Aberdeen (where his father was a merchant), and educated in King's College there. His principal employment was that of a private tutor to young gentlemen; and among others of his pupils were Lord Gray, Lord Blantyre, and Mr Hay of Drummelzier. About 1724 he married the daughter of a clergyman in the shire of Berwick. A few years after he published in 4to, "An Inquiry into the Nature of the human Soul, wherein its immateriality is evinced from the principles of reason and philosophy;" without date. In 1741 he went abroad with Mr Hay, and resided some years at Utrecht; having there also Lord Blantyre under his care. He made excursions from thence into Flanders, France, and Germany; his wife and family residing, in the mean time, chiefly at Berwick-upon-Tweed. He returned to Scotland in 1747, and resided till his death at Whittingham, in the shire of East Lothian. He drew up, for the use of his pupils and his son, a piece entitled Mathesis; five, Cosmotheoria puerilis, Dialogus. In quo prima elementa de mundi ordine et ornatu proponuntur, &c. This was afterwards greatly enlarged, and published in English, in two volumes 8vo. In 1750 was published, "An Appendix to his Inquiry into the Nature of the human Soul;" wherein he endeavours to remove some difficulties which had been started against his notions of the vis inertie of matter, by Maclaurin, in his "Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophical Discoveries." To this piece Mr Baxter prefixed a dedication to Mr John Wilkes, with whom he had commenced an acquaintance abroad. He died April the 23d, 1750, after suffering for some months under a complication of disorders, of which the gout was the chief. He left a wife, three daughters, and one son, Mr Alexander Baxter; from which last the authors of Biographia Britannica received, as they inform us, sundry particulars of his life.
His learning and abilities are sufficiently displayed in his writings. He was extremely studious, and sometimes sat up whole nights in reading and writing. His temper at the same time was very cheerful, and he was a friend to innocent merriment. It is said of Mr Baxter, that he entered with much good humour into the conversation and pleasures of young people, when they were of an innocent nature; and that he presided, all the time of his abode at Utrecht, at the ordinary which was frequented by all the young English gentlemen there, with much gaiety and politeness, and in such a manner as gave universal satisfaction. He also frequented the most polite assemblies in that city, and his company and conversation were particularly acceptable to the ladies. So that Mr Baxter appears to have studied the graces, though without neglecting
neglecting more valuable acquisitions and accomplishments. He was at once the scholar and the gentleman. In conversation he was modest, and not apt to make much show of the extensive knowledge of which he was possessed. In the discharge of the several social and relative duties of life, his conduct was exemplary. He had the most reverential sentiments of the Deity, of whose presence and immediate support he had always a strong impression upon his mind; and the general tenor of his life appears to have been conformable to the rules of virtue. Mr Baxter paid a strict attention to economy, though he dressed elegantly, and was not parsimonious in his other expences. It is known also that there were several occasions on which he acted with remarkable disinterestedness; and so far was he from courting preferment, that he has repeatedly declined considerable offers of that kind which were made him, if he would have taken orders in the church of England. The French, German, and Dutch languages were spoken by him with much ease, and the Italian tolerably; and he wrote and read them all, together with the Spanish. His friends and correspondents were numerous and respectable; and among them are particularly mentioned Mr Pointz, preceptor to the late duke of Cumberland, and Dr Warburton, bishop of Gloucester. He was a man also of great benevolence and candour; which appears most strikingly from this, inasmuch as though Mr Wilkes had made himself so very obnoxious to the Scotch nation in general, yet Mr Baxter kept up with him an affectionate correspondence to the last, even after he was unable to write with his own hand. He left many manuscripts behind him; he would gladly have finished his work upon the human soul: "I own," says he, in a letter to Mr Wilkes, "if it had been the will of heaven, I would gladly have lived till I had put in order the second part of the Enquiry, showing the immortality of the human soul; but Infinite Wisdom cannot be mistaken in calling me sooner. Our blindness makes us form wishes." It was indeed, what he considered it, his capital work: a second edition of it was published in two volumes 8vo in 1737, and a third in 1745. In another letter, speaking of his endeavours to establish the particular providence of the Deity, and to show his incessant influence and action on all the parts of matter, through the wide universe, from the inactivity of this dead substance; expresses his hope, that when the present party-zeal subsides a little, men will come more easily in to own such a plain truth. "His prediction," the editors of the Biographia Britannica observe, "hath not yet been accomplished. Several eminent names seem rather disposed to increase than to lessen the powers of matter; and they have expressly maintained that the soul of man is material. However, other names equally eminent have asserted the essential distinction between the mind and the body. Perhaps, in the revolutions of opinion, the doctrine of immateriality may again obtain the general suffrage of metaphysical and philosophical inquiry."