ALEXANDER, a learned Scots Catholic divine and eminent bible critic, was born in the parish of Ruthven in Banffshire, in the year 1737. His parents were respectable, although not opulent. His father was a farmer, who deemed no trouble too great, in order to procure for his children as liberal an education as possible. Both father and mother were of the Catholic persuasion, and the only book of consequence which the former had in his library was an English translation of the bible, in which young Geddes was instructed with such care and attention, that he was able to give an account of the history of it before he had reached the eleventh year of his age. The first instructions he received, after those of his parents, were communicated by a school-mistress in the vicinity, by whom he was so much distinguished, that it became the first mental gratification which, in his own opinion, he ever felt. He was next put under the tuition of a young man from the city of Aberdeen, who had been engaged by the laird for the education of his own children; and afterwards went to a place called Scalap, in the Highlands, where those were to be trained up who designed to devote themselves to the Catholic priesthood, and to finish their education at some foreign university. Here it was, in this obscure retreat, that Geddes laid the foundation of that intimate acquaintance with the learned languages, by which he was so eminently distinguished in the subsequent part of his life. He went to the Scots university at Paris in the year 1758, and soon after began the study of rhetoric in the college of Navarre. By the strength of his genius and his indefatigable attention, he was soon at the head of this class, although he had to contend with two veterans, and became the favourite of Vicaire the professor, whose friendship lasted to the close of life.

Instead of entering into the philosophical class at the usual time, he studied that subject at home, in order to facilitate his theological studies, on which he entered under M. M. Buré and de Sauvent, at the college of Navarre, and Lavocat at the Sorbonne was his Hebrew preceptor. So great, or rather astonishing, was his progress, that Professor Lavocat urged him strongly to continue at Paris; but his friends prevailed with him to return to his native country in 1764. His first charge as a priest was in a Catholic chapel in the county of Angus, from which he removed to Traquair in 1765, and became chaplain to the earl of that name, where he remained for about three years. This situation was most agreeable to his literary pursuits, as he had unlimited access to a very extensive library, which greatly assisted him in the prosecution of his darling studies. He left the earl's house in the year 1768, and returned to Paris, where he devoted his time during the following winter to the perusal of books and manuscripts in the king's libraries, making large extracts from scarce copies, particularly such as were in the Hebrew tongue.

In the spring of 1769, he returned to his native country, and became pastor of a congregation at Auchinharg in Banffshire, where he was for some time involved in pecuniary difficulties, out of which he was extricated by the liberality of the then duke of Norfolk. These were occasioned by the debts he incurred in building a new chapel for his flock, and in making the parson's house one of the neatest and most convenient in Scotland. With the view of bettering his circumstances he commenced farmer; but as he had to borrow money to stock his farm, and as the crops failed for three successive seasons, he was under the necessity of abandoning this scheme in a much poorer state than when he first projected it. But his unwearied exertions, joined to the assistance of friends, again relieved him, and he was enabled to discharge every claim against him of a pecuniary nature in an honourable manner.

In the year 1779 he resigned his pastoral charge at Auchinharig, which was a heavy stroke to the members of his congregation, as the zeal and diligence with which he discharged the duties of his ministerial function had endeared him to all. He was also justly esteemed for his attention to the instruction of youth. Next year the university of Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of LL.D., a literary honour which was never bestowed on any Roman Catholic by that body since the Reformation. He afterwards went to London, that he might prosecute his favourite studies with greater facility, and give the world his English translation of the Old and New Testament, to which he had turned his attention for a number of years. He officiated for some months after his arrival at the imperial ambassador's chapel in Duke-street, till the term of Easter 1782, at which time it was suppressed by order of the emperor Joseph II, after which Dr Geddes seems to have declined entirely the exercise of his clerical functions.

No sooner had the design of Mr Geddes, relative to a new translation of the Bible been made public, than he met with formidable opposition from his Catholic brethren; an event which the doctor with good reason seems to have anticipated. His own words on this occasion were: "I expect not excessive profits from excessive exertion. I trust I shall never want meat, and clothes, and fire; to a philosophical and contented mind, what more is necessary?" He was many years employed in preparing this important work for the press, before he had any prospect of adequate success. In addressing the English Catholics on the subject of his translation, he has these memorable words: "At any rate, I do what I think it my duty to do, and do it fairly and openly. In the following pages ye will find neither palliation nor disguise. I pour out my sentiments with the same sincerity as if I were before the tribunal of Him who is to judge the living and the dead. Mistake I may, but prevaricate I never will." He discovered this noble spirit in every action of his life, and in all his transactions and intercourse with mankind, although he did not conciliate the regard of those who could have bestowed upon him the most effectual assistance.

After spending much of his life in biblical studies, he met with a long and cruel interruption, of which he thus speaks: "I had but little hope of ever living in a situation to resume them, when Providence threw me into the arms of such a patron as Origen himself might have been proud to boast of—a patron, who, for these ten years past, has, with a dignity peculiar to himself, afforded me every convenience that my heart could desire towards the carrying on and completing of my arduous work."

It is needless to inform the public, that the patron to whom the learned doctor here alludes was Lord Petre. For this munificence, continued through the whole of his life, and even beyond it by his latter will, Christians of every denomination will feel sentiments of gratitude, when they are qualified to make a true estimate of the advantages of free and impartial enquiry.

In the year 1792, the first volume of his translation was published, dedicated to his patron Lord Petre, containing the first six books of the Old Testament. Soon after this volume made its appearance, three apostolic vicars, calling themselves the bishops of Rama, Acanthos, and Centurio, issued a pastoral letter, addressed to their respective flocks over which they presided, warning them against the reception of Dr Geddes's translation. In his reply to the bishop of Centurio we find these words: "Perhaps, my lord, you wish to have another occasion of exercising your episcopal authority, and of playing with censures as children do with a new ball.—I wish your lordship much joy of the bauble; but however, my lord, beware of playing too often with it. Read St Chrysostom on Ecclesiastical Censures, and learn from him a little more moderation. Permit an old priest to tell you, that it is a very great ornament in a young bishop. As to myself, my lord, I am not afraid of your threats, and shall laugh at your censures as long as I am conscious that I deserve them not.—You cannot hinder me from praying at home; and at home I will pray, in defiance of your censure, as often as I please. The chief Bishop of our souls is always accessible; and through him I can, at all times, have free access to the Father, who will not reject me, but for voluntary unrepented crimes. In the panoply of conscious innocence, the whole thunder of the Vatican would in vain be levelled at my head."

The second volume of his translation, owing to a variety of interruptions, did not make its appearance till the year 1797, to which was prefixed a dedication to her royal highness the duchess of Gloucester, as an "early, spontaneous, and liberal encourager of the work." In this volume the doctor gives up, and boldly combats, the absolute inspiration of scripture, believing that the Hebrew, like all other historians, wrote from such human documents as they could find, and were of consequence liable to similar mistakes. This latitude of thinking naturally led the doctor to give up as fabulous, and wholly unworthy of the divine philanthropy, every command, precept, and injunction, which appeared unworthy even of human authority. He denied of consequence, that the command given to destroy the Canaanites could have God for its author. This volume of Critical Remarks was published in 1800, in which he enters into an able vindication of his own theory, which rather increased than diminished the number of enemies, for as he wrote to please no party, he foresaw that he would have enemies in every party, and so it happened.

Dr Geddes was a man of extensive literature, uncommon liberality of thinking, the friend of all mankind; a man of integrity, honour, and benevolence; in the strictest sense of the word, a truly genuine Catholic, and whose love of truth was so invincible, that neither hopes nor fears could induce him to conceal it.

His prospectus of a new translation of the Bible in 4to was published in 1786, and a letter to the bishop of London on the same subject in 1787. His proposals were printed in 1788. As a controversial writer, Dr Geddes was eminently distinguished by his letter to Dr Priestley, in defence of the divinity of Jesus Christ, and by one to a member of parliament, on the expediency of a general repeal of the penal sta- tutes which have a respect to religious opinions. In the spring of the year 1800, he published an apology for the Roman Catholics of Great Britain, in which he zealously defended his peculiar tenets, but displayed a commendable moderation, when he mentioned the in- juries to which he himself and brethren were subjected by the continuance of persecuting laws; and, when he argued in behalf of abolishing all legal disabilities, he discovered the soundest logical understanding.

We shall close our short account of this great man in the words of one who was well acquainted with him, and fully qualified to appreciate his merits. "It must be lamented, that, in the death of Dr Geddes, the world has lost the services of a man, who by his acute and pe- netrating genius—his various, profound, and extensive erudition—his deep research—his indefatigable appli- cation—and his independent, dignified, and unfettered spirit, rising superior to the prejudices of education; nobly disdaining the shackles of system; spurning the petty temporizing arts of unmanly accommodation; and setting at defiance all the terrors of malignity, bi- gery, and intolerance, was supereminently qualified for the great, laborious, and important work in which he had, for a long series of years, been engaged, of giv- ing an English version of the venerable literary re- mains of sacred antiquity, the scriptures of the Old and New Testament. During his life, this work did not meet with encouragement adequate to the magnitude of the design; or, it may be added, to the merit of the execution. In this last respect, it will be matter of surprise to all who are competent to judge of the nature of such an enterprise, how much has been done, and with what uncommon ability and success. It every- where displays the skilful hand of a master."

He had corrected and prepared his translation for the press up to the hundredth and eighteenth psalm, when he was seized with a most painful and excrucia- ting distemper, which put a period to his inestimable life on the 26th of February 1802. The learned world will unquestionably have cause to lament, that Dr Ged- des was arrested by the hand of death in the midst of his career, unless that unexpected phenomenon, an- other Geddes, should make his appearance, and happily finish what his extraordinary predecessor conducted so far with such astonishing abilities; but rara avis in terris.