a very ingenious metaphysical writer, was born in 1686 or 1687, in Old Aberdeen, where his father was a merchant, 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 Drumelzier. About 1724 he married the daughter of a clergyman in Berwickshire. A few years afterwards, but without date, 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. 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 Cosmoeitheria 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 vis 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 23rd April 1750, after suffering for some months under a complication of severe disorders, of which the gout was the chief. He left a wife, three daughters, and one son, Mr Alexander Baxter, from whom the authors of *Biographia Britannica* received sundry particulars of his life.

Mr Baxter's learning and abilities are sufficiently displayed in his writings. He was extremely studious, and sometimes sat up whole nights reading and writing. At the same time his temper 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 during the whole of his residence at Utrecht he presided at the ordinary, which was frequented by all the young English gentlemen there, with much gaiety and politeness, and in such a manner as to give universal satisfaction. He also attended the most polite assemblies in that city, and his company and conversation were particularly acceptable to the ladies; so that Mr Baxter appeared to have studied the graces, without 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 he was possessed of; while 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 expenses. 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 repeatedly declined considerable offers of that kind which were made him on condition of his taking orders in the church of England. The French, German, and Dutch languages he spoke with much ease, and the Italian tolerably; and he wrote and read all of them, together with the Spanish. His friends and correspondents were both numerous and respectable; amongst these was Dr Warburton, bishop of Gloucester. He was also a man of great benevolence and candour; insomuch, that although Mr Wilkes had made himself very obnoxious to the Scottish nation in general, Mr Baxter maintained an affectionate correspondence with him to the last, even after he was unable to write with his own hand. He left many manuscripts behind him, and 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 Inquiry, showing the immortality of the human soul; but infinite wisdom cannot be mistaken in calling me sooner. Our blindness makes us form wishes." This, indeed, he considered his capital work. A second edition of it was published in two volumes 8vo in 1737, and a third in 1745.