THE LIFE OF BLACKLOCK, BY MR. CHALMERS. THIS very extraordinary poet was born in the year 1721, at Annan in the county of Dumfries, in Scotland. His parents were natives of Cumberland, of the lower order, but industrious and well informed. Before he was six months old he lost his sight by the small-pox, and therefore as to all purposes of memory or imagination, may be said never to have enjoyed that blessing. His father and friends endeavoured to lessen the calamity by reading those books which might convey the instruction suitable to infancy, and as he advanced, they proceeded to others which he appeared to relish and remember, particularly the works of Spenser, Milton, Prior, Pope, and Addison. And such was the kindness which his helpless situation and gentle temper excited, that he was seldom without some companion who carried on this singular course of education, until he had even acquired some knowledge of the Latin tongue. It is probable that he remembered much of all that was read to him, but his mind began very early to make a choice. He first discovered a predilection for English poetry, and then at the age of twelve endeavoured to imitate it in various attempts, one of which is preserved in the present collection, but rather with a view to mark the commencement than the perfection of his talent. In this manner his life appears to have past for the first nineteen years of his life, at the end of which he had the misfortune to lose his father, who was killed by the accidental fall of a malt-kiln. For about a year after this, he continued to live at home, and began to be noticed as a young man of genius and acquirements such as were not to be expected, in one in his situation. His poems, which had increased in number as he grew up, were now handed about in manuscript, with confidence that they were worthy of the attention of the discerning, and some of them having been shown to Dr. Stevenson, an eminent physician of Edinburgh, he formed the benevolent design of removing the author to that city, where his genius might be improved by a regular education. He came accordingly to Edinburgh in the year 1741, and continued his studies in the university, under his kind patron, till the year 1745, and in 1746 a volume of his poems, in octavo, was published, but with what effect we are not told. The rebellion, however, which then raged in Scotland, disturbed arts and learning, and our author returned to Dumfries, where he found an asylum in the house of Mr. M'Murdo, who had married his sister, and who by company and conversation, endeavoured to amuse his solitude, and keep up his stock of learning. At the close of the rebellion, he returned to Edinburgh, and pursued his studies for six years longer. He now obtained the acquaintance of Hume, the celebrated historian, who interested himself with great zeal in his behalf, and among other services, promoted the publication of the quarto edition of his poems in 1756, but previously to this a second edition of the octavo had been published at Edinburgh in 1754. In this last mentioned year, he became known to the rev. Joseph Spence, poetry professor of Oxford, who introduced him to the English public, by An Account of the Life, Character and Poems of Mr. Blacklock, student of Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. In this pamphlet Mr. Spence detailed the extraordinary circumstances of his education and genius with equal taste and humanity, and a subscription was immediately opened at Dodsley's shop for a quarto edition to be published at a guinea the large, and half a guinea the small paper. Having completed his education at the university, he began a course of study, with a view to give lectures on oratory to young gentlemen intended for the bar or the pulpit, but by Hume's advice he desisted from a project which the latter thought unlikely to succeed, and determined to study divinity, which promised to gratify and enlarge the pious feelings and sentiments that had grown up with him. Accordingly, after the usual probationary course, he was licensed a preacher of the gospel, agreeably to the rules of the church of Scotland, in the year 1759. In this character he attained considerable reputation, and was fond of composing sermons, of which he has left some volumes in manuscript, as also a treatise of morals, both of which his friends once intended for the press. Two occasional sermons are said to have been published in his life-time, but probably never reached this country, as no notice of them occurs in our literary journals. His occupations and disposition at this period of his life are thus related by the rev. Mr. Jameson, of Newcastle, who knew him intimately. "His manner of life," says that gentleman, "was so uniform, that the history of it during one day, or one week, is the history of it during the seven years that our personal intercourse lasted. Reading, music, walking, conversing, and disputing on various topics, in theology, ethics, &c. employed almost every hour of our time. It was pleasant to hear him engaged in a dispute, for no man could keep his temper better than he always did on such occasions. I have known him frequently very warmly engaged for hours together, but never could observe one angry word to fall from him. Whatever his antagonist might say, he always kept his temper. "Semper paratus et refellere sine pertinacia, et refelli sine iracundia." He was, however, extremely sensible to what he thought ill usage, and equally so whether it regarded himself or his friends. But his resentment was always confined to a few satirical verses, which were generally burnt soon after." "The late Mr. Spence (the editor of the quarto edition of his poems) frequently urged him to write a tragedy; and assured him that he had interest enough with Mr. Garrick to get it acted. Various subjects were proposed to him, several of which |