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he approved of, yet he never could be prevailed on to begin any thing of that kind'. It may seem remarkable, but as far as I know, it was invariably the case, that he never could think or write on any subject proposed to him by another. "I have frequently admired with what readiness and rapidity he could sometimes make verses. I have known him dictate from thirty to forty verses, and by no means bad ones, as fast as I could write them; but the moment he was at a loss for a rhyme or a verse to his liking, he stopt altogether, and could very seldom be induced to finish what he had begun with so much ardour."

To this his elegant biographer adds, "All those who ever acted as his amanuenses, agree in this rapidity and ardour of composition which Mr. Jameson ascribes to him in the account I have copied above. He never could dictate till he stood up; and as his blindness made walking about without assistance inconvenient or dangerous to him, he fell insensibly into a vibratory sort of motion of his body, which increased as he warmed with his subject, and was pleased with the conceptions of his mind. This motion at last became habitual to him, and though he could sometimes restrain it when on ceremony, or in any public appearance, such as preaching, he felt a certain uneasiness from the effort, and always returned to it when he could indulge it without impropriety."

In 1762, he married Miss Sarah Johnston, daughter of Mr. Joseph Johnston, surgeon in Dumfries, a connexion which formed the great solace of his future life. About the same time he was ordained minister of the town and parish of Kircudbright, in consequence of a presentation from the crown, obtained for him by the earl of Selkirk; but the parishioners having objected to the appointment, after a legal dispute of nearly two years, his friends advised him to resign his right, and accept of a moderate annuity in its stead. If their principal objection was to his want of sight, it was certainly not unreasonable. He would probably in the course of a few years have found it very inconvenient, if not painful, to execute all the duties of the pastoral office.

With the slender provision allowed by this parish he returned to Edinburgh in 1764, and adopted the plan of receiving a limited number of young gentlemen into his house, not only as boarders, but as pupils whose studies he might occasionally assist. And this plan succeeded so well that he continued it till the year 1787, when age and infirmity obliged him to retire from active life.

In 1767, the degree of doctor of divinity was conferred upon him by the University and Marischal College of Aberdeen, doubtless at the suggestion of his friend and correspondent Dr. Beattie, to whom he had in the preceding year sent a present of his works, accompanied by some verses. Dr. Beattie returned a poetical epistle, which is now prefixed to Blacklock's poems, and ever after maintained a correspondence with him, and consulted him upon all his subsequent works, particularly his celebrated Essay on Truth.

1 Mr. Jameson was probably ignorant of the circumsta e of his writing, at a subsequent period, a tragedy; but upon what subject, his relation, from whom I received the intelligence, cannot recollect. The manuscript was put into the hands of the late Mr. Crosbie, then an eininent advocate at the bar of Scotland, but has never since been recovered. Mackenzie.

VOL. XVIII.

N

In the same year he published, Paraclesis: or Consolations deduced from Natural and Revealed Religion: in two Dissertations; the first supposed to have been composed by Cicero: now rendered into English: the last originally written by Dr. Blacklock. The plan of the original dissertation is to prove the superiority of the consolations to be derived from the Christian revelation, but it is painful to find by his preface that his motive for writing it, was " to alleviate the pressure of repeated disappointments, to soothe his anguish for the loss of departed friends, to elude the rage of implacable and unprovoked enemies, in a word, to support his own mind, which, for a number of years, besides its literary difficulties, and its natural disadvantages, had maintained an incessant conflict with fortune." Of what nature his disappointments were, or who could be implacable enemies to such a man, we are not told. His biographer, indeed, informs us, that he "had from nature a constitution delicate and nervous, and his mind, as is almost always the case, was in a great degree subject to the indisposition of his body. He frequently complained of a lowness and depression of spirits, which neither the attention of his friends, nor the unceasing care of a most affectionate wife, were able entirely to remove." Let us hope, therefore, for the honour of mankind, that his complaints were those, not of a man who had enemies, but of one who was sensible that, with strong powers of mind, and wellfounded consolations, he was yet excluded from many of the rational delights of which he heard others speak, and of which, if he formed any idea, it was probably disproportioned and distressing.

In 1768, he published a translation, from the French of the rev. James Armand, minister of the Walloon church in Hanau, of two discourses on the spirit and evidence of Christianity, with a long dedication from his own pen, calculated for the perusal of the clergy of the church of Scotland. In this, as in all his prose writings, his style is elegant, nervous, and animated, and his sentiments such as indicate the purest zeal for the interests of religion. His last publication, in 1774, was the Graham, an Heroic Ballad; in four Cantos: intended to promote harmony between the inhabitants of Scotland and England. As a poem however, it added little to his reputation, and has been excluded from the collection formed by Mr. Mackenzie, which is here adopted.

In 1791, he was seized with a feverish disorder, which at first seemed of a slight, and never rose to a very violent kind; but his weak frame was unable to support it, and he died after about a week's illness, July 7, 1791, in the seventieth year of his age. A monument was afterwards erected to his memory, with an elegant Latin inscription from the pen of Dr. Beattie.

Such are the few events of Dr. Blacklock's life. His character, and the character of his writings, are more interesting, and will probably ever continue to be the subject of contemplation with all who study the human mind, or revere the dispensations of Providence. His perseverance in acquiring so extensive a fund of learning, amidst those privations which seem to bar all access to improvement, is an extraordinary feature in his character, and notwithstanding the kind zeal of the friends who endeavoured to make up for his want of sight by reading to him, many of his attainments must ever remain inexplicable.

With respect to his personal character, his biographer, and indeed all who knew him, have expatiated on the gentleness of his manners, the benignity of his disposition

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