Epistles (Horace) he had already written. However, as a rule, the Epistles "are compositions like those which Pope, following the manner of Horace, has made familiar to us as Moral Essays." The "Epistles" were published about four years after the first three books of "Odes," and were introduced by a special address to his patron Maecenas, as his "Odes," "Epodes," and "Satires" had been. The form of composition may have been suggested by some of the satires of Lucilius, which were composed as letters to his personal friends... "From the "Epistles"... we gather that [Horace] had gradually adopted a more retired and
Alexander Geddes on as far as the Book of Second Chronicles and the Prayer of Manasseh which was published in 2 volumes (1792–1797). A translation of "Psalms" was published in 1807. This was followed by "Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures" (1800), in which he largely anticipated the German school of Higher Criticism. The result of this publication was Geddes's suspension from all ecclesiastical functions. Geddes was also a poet, and wrote "Linton: a Tweedside Pastoral", "Carmen Seculare pro Gallica Gente" (1790), in praise of the French Revolution. He died without recanting, but received absolution at the hands of a French priest,