THE BEE, OR LITERARY WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, BOR WEDNESDAY, December 21, 1791. Sketches of the Life of ADAM DONALD, who was well known in Aberdeenshire, for many Years, by the Name of the PROPHET of Bethelnie. In all ages, and nations, mankind have discovered a ftrong propensity to believe in the fupernatural agency of fuperior beings on the human mind, and an invincible defire to pry into the fecrets of futurity. It has alfo been a very prevalent notion, among all nations, that thofe perfons, whofe bodies are deftorted, or who are deprived of fome of thofe faculties that are common to the greatest part of mankind, are, in a peculiar manner, under the influence of fuperior agents. The Pythean prieftefs, before fhe delivered her oracles, appeared to be convulfed by the irresistable power of the god; and those who are affected by epeleptic fits, have been often viewed with a reverential awe by the vulgar. Upon this principle, it has also happened that the violent contortions of dumb persons t VOL. VI. Hh in their efforts to make themselves be understood, have been very generally confidered as the fenfible operations of fome invifible agent ftruggling within them, from whofe fuperior knowledge the credulous have hoped to derive information respecting those things that have been wifely hid from the knowledge of man. Dumb persons have thus been confidered as capable of foretelling future events, and of knowing by what agency past events, in many cafes, have been brought about. On this foundation has been built the fuccessful plans of fortune-tellers, who have guled the vulgar in all ages. The fingular object of the prefent memoir, has remarked with what a fuperftitious veneration the ignorant people around him contemplated that uncouth figure he inherited from nature, and fhrewdly availed himfelf of this propenfity for obtaining a fubfiftence through life. He therefore affected an uncommon refervednefs of manner. Pretended to be extremely ftudious fpoke little; and what he said was uttered in half fentences, with aukward gefticulations, and an uncouth tone of voice, to excite confternation, and elude detection. In Aberdeenshire, at the period he was born, an opinion univerfally prevailed, nor is it yet entirely abolished among the vulgar, that children, when in their infantine ftate, were often carried away by the fairies (an ideal fet of puny beings whom Shakespear has immortalifed); and in their ftead was fubftituted other children, which poffeffed faculties very different from thofe of the human race. In this manner, they invariably accounted for fuch fickly mifgrown children as did not increase in fize with their years, whofe fmall fickly features, and weakly voice feemed not to accord with the common ftandard of human nature. If these children died, it was a deliverance that the neighbourhood thought a happy one. If they and lived they were always viewed as fupernatural in mind. as well as in body. To the operation of thefe caufes, Adam Donald, who was, for many years, known by no other name than that of the prophet of Bethelnie, owed the foundation of his extenfive celebrity. His parents were in no respect distinguished from the ordinary clafs of poor people in that country, who, at that time, found great difficulty to provide a fcanty fubfiftence for themfelves. Nor could their fon, from the distorted nature of his body, undertake the fatigue of thofe robust employments in which people, who live in the country, must engage for obtaining their fubfiftence. He therefore was induced to amufe himself with fuch books as chance enabled him to obtain; and though he could scarcely read the English language, yet he carefully picked up books in all languages that fell in his way; and the writer has at prefent, in his poffeffion, books in French, Latin, Greek, Italian, and Spanish, that were bought at the fale of his effects, after his death. He delighted chiefly in large books that contained plates of any fort; and Gerard's large Herbal, with wooden cuts, might be faid to be his conftant vade mecum, which was difplayed with much parade on the table, or the shelf, among other books of a like portly appearance, to all his vifitors. The place called Bethelnie, where he was born, lies about twenty miles northward of Aberdeen, and is now a fmall hamlet, though it had been, for many years, the feat of the parish church, which was moved from thence to Old Meldrum, a new-built village in the fame parish, in the beginning of the prefent century nor did the prophet fail to avail himself of this circumftance to excite the veneration of the people. As the parish church was allowed to fall to ruin, and the walls of the church-yard were kept up, he made a practice of frequenting that fequeftered spot, by himfelf, where it was not doubted but he held frequent |