BAXTER, ANDREW, a very ingenious metaphysical writer, the son of a merchant in Old Aberdeen, was born in 1686 or 1687, and educated in King's College there. His principal employment was that of private tutor to young gentlemen; and among his pupils were Lord Gray, Lord Blantyre, and Mr Hay of Drummelzier. About 1724 he married the daughter of a clergyman in Berwickshire. A few years afterwards, he published, in quarto, but without date, An Inquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul, wherein its immateriality is evinced from the principles of reason and philosophy. In 1741 he went abroad with Mr Hay, and resided several years at Utrecht, having Lord Blantyre also under his care. From this place he made excursions 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 county of East Lothian. He drew up, for the use of his pupils and his son, a piece entitled Matho, sive 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, in which he endeavours to remove some difficulties which had been
started against his notions of the ris inertiae 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 on the 23d April 1750, after suffering for some months under a complication of severe disorders, of which the gout was the chief.
Baxter's learning and abilities are sufficiently manifested in his writings. He was also greatly esteemed for the benevolence and candour of his disposition, and had numerous friends and correspondents of eminence, among whom was Dr Warburton, bishop of Gloucester. He left many manuscripts behind him, and intended, had he lived, to complete his work upon the human soul. A second edition of it was published in two volumes 8vo in 1737, and a third in 1745.