Baxter, Andrew

Baxter, Andrew a Scotch philosophical writer, was born at Aberdeen, in 1686, and educated at the university of the town. He was employed as private tutor to young gentlemen, among whom were lords Gray, Blantyre, and others. With the latter he travelled, and resided six years on the Continent. He published an Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul (Lond, 4to; 2d ed. 2 vols. 8vo). An appendix was subsequently published, and dedicated to the widely known John Wilkes. In 1779 Dr. Duncan collected from the MSS. of Baxter, and published, The Evidence of Reason in Proof of the Immortality of the Soul Independent of the More Abstruse Inquiry into the Nature of Matter and Spirit. Mr. Baxter published, for the use of his pupils and his son, a piece entitled Mathe sive Cosmotheoria Puerillis (Lond.

1740, 2 vols.). His treatise on the soul has been highly commended, and by no less authority than Dugald Stewart. Though he was not a graduate, he acquired a large amount of learninig. He died in Aberdeen in 1750. See Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v. (W. P. S.)