to flourish; that is to bud; to blossom; to bear flowers. Ency. Met. Bloom carries with it the idea of freshness as well as fragrance; whatever has the bloom upon it, is in its loveliest, freshest state; pure; untouched; untainted: thus it is applied, figuratively, to youth in its vigor; to beauty in its prime; to intellectual and moral excellencies in their state of unsophisticated maturity.

The rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. Numbers xvii. 8. Rites and customs, now superstitious, when the strength of virtuous, devout, or charitable affection bloomed them, no man could justly have condemned Hooker. It is a common experience, that if you do not pull

as evil.

off some blossoms the first time a tree bloometh, it will
blossom itself to death.
Bacon's Nat. Hist.

Milton.

Id.

talents in making verses, some of which he sent to the newspapers. At length he produced a poem of considerable extent, entitled, "The Farmer's Boy,' describing the occupations of the husbandman through the four seasons of the year. This piece was shown in manuscript to booksellers and others, from whom it attracted little attention, till it fell into the hands of Capel Lofft, Esq., of Troston, near Bury, who, on perusal, was so much struck with its beauties, that he immediately corrected and prepared it for the press, and shortly after published it with notes, and a prefatory account of the author, from which the preceding facts are derived. Both the poem and the poet now became the objects of general curiosity and applause. His book passed through many editions in a short time, and Messrs. Vernor and Hood, by whom it was published, acted with considerable liberality to the author. The duke of Grafton became his patron, and bestowed on him a small annuity, and appointed him under-sealer in the seal-office; but this situation he was forced to resign on account of ill health. He then again worked at his trade as a shoemaker, and employed himself in constructing Eolian harps. He also published Wild Flowers, and two or three other volumes of poetry, Comus. which must haveadded to his emoluments; but engaging in the book-trade, he became a bankrupt; and to add to his difficulties, in the latter part of his life, he was afflicted with violent head-aches, and became nearly blind. At length he left the for the benefit of his health. metropolis, and went to Shefford in Bedfordshire, He, however, was gradually reduced to such a state of nervous irritability, that apprehensions were entertained of his becoming insane. His death took place August 19th 1823. His last production, HazlewoodHall, a Village Drama, appeared shortly before his decease. But his literary reputation will always rest principally on his first work, which, under the disadvantageous circumstances of its composition, must be considered an extraordinary performance.

How nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on her bloom, extracting liquid sweet.
O nightingale! that on yon bloomy spray
Warblest at eve, when all the woods are still
Beauty, like the fair Hesperian tree
Laden with blooming gold, had need the guard
Of dragon-watch with unenchanted eye,
To save her blossoms and defend her fruit
From the rash hand of bold incontinence.

Id.

Departing spring could only stay to shed
Her bloomy beauties on the genial bed,
But left the manly summer in her stead.
Were I no queen, did you my beauty weigh,
My youth in bloom, your age in its decay.

Dryden.

Id. Aurengzebe.
The bloom of opening flowers, unsullied beauty,
Softness, and sweetest innocence she wears
And looks like nature in the world's first spring.
Rowe's Tamerlaine.

Oh she is all perfection!
All that the blooming earth can send forth fair;
All that the gaudy heavens could drop down glorious.
Lee's Theodosius.
Hear how the birds, on every bloomy spray,
With joyous musick wake the dawning day.

Pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.

One spot exists-which ever blooms, Even in that deadly grove.

Pope.

Burns.

Byron. Bride of Abydos. BLOOM, in the iron-works, has yet to undergo many hammerings before it become iron fit for the smith's use, and be made what they call the ancony. See ANCONY.

BLOOM, HALF, a round mass of metal, which comes out of the finery of an iron work.

BLOOMFIELD (Robert), an English poet, was born in 1766, at Honington, near Bury St. Edmund's, in Suffolk, where his father was a tailor; and his mother, who became a widow shortly after our poet's birth, kept a village school. Being taught to read by her, at the age of eleven he was taken into the employ of his uncle, a farmer, and engaged for a year or two in the labors of husbandry; after this, the delicacy of his constitution induced his elder brother, who was a shoemaker in London, to bring him to the metropolis, and teach him that trade, at which he worked for several years. Being fond of reading books of amusement, and especially poetry, he at an early age began to exercise his

BLOOT (Peter), a Flemish painter, whose works are seldom seen in Britain: nor are they easily purchased abroad, being highly esteemed and carefully preserved in private collections. His subjects were boors drinking, feasting, dancing, &c. He died in 1667.

BLORE', n. s. from blow. Act of blowing; blast: an expressive word, but not used.

Out rushed, with an unmeasured roar,
Those two winds, tumbling clouds in heaps; ushers
to either's blore.
Chapman's Iliad.
BLOSSOM, v. & n.
BLOS'SOMED,
BLOS'SOMY.

See BLOOM. To put forth flowers; to have the hue, the sweetness, the freshness of flowers newly blown. We generally call those flowers blossoms, which are not much regarded in themselves, but as a token of some following production.

Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither
shall fruit be in the vines, yet will I rejoice in the
Lord.
Habb. iii. 17.

Lo how the trees grenyth that naked wer, and
nothing

Bare this month afore; but their sommer clothing

Lo how Nature maketh for them everichone!
And as many as ther be he forgetteth none!

Lo how the season of the yere and Averell shoures,
Doeth the bushin burgyn out blossoms and floures.
Chaucer. Canterbury Tales.
Long worke it were

Here to account the endlesse progeny

Of all the weeds that bud and blossome there.

Spenser.
The blossome which my braunch of youth did beare
With breathed sighes is blown away and blasted. Id.
This is the state of man: to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him.
Shakspeare. Henry VIII.
Cold news for me:
Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud,
And caterpillars eat my leaves away.

Id. Henry IV.
The pulling off many of the blossoms of a fruit tree,
doth make the fruit fairer. Bacon's Natural History.
To his green years your censure you would suit,
Not blast the blossom, but expect the fruit. Dryden.
It called Narcissa long before her hour;
It called her, tender soul, by break of bliss,
From the first blossom,-from the buds of joy;
Those few our noxious fate unblasted leaves
In this inclement clime of human life.

Young. BLOT', v. & n. Į Fr. blottir; Ang.-Sax. beBLOTTING. hlidan. Be-hlot is the regular past tense and past participle; hence our English blot, which is literally to cover. Tooke observes, and the Metropolitana after him, that a blot upon any thing extends just so far as that thing is covered, and no farther' To render illegible by covering. It is figuratively used to express any mark of disgrace, any stigma that may be fixed upon a particular action, or a general character.

A lie is a foul blot in a man; yet it is continually
in the mouth of the untaught.
Eccl. xx. 24.

And sad repentaunce used to embay
His body in salt water smarting sore,
The filthy blottes of sin to wash away. Spenser.
Amongst all knights he blotted was with blame,
And counted but a recreant knight with endless

shame.

What foul disgrace is this

To so faire ladie, as ye seeme in sight,
To blot your beautie, that unblemisht is,

With so foule blame as breach of faith once plight,

Or change of love for any world's delight.

Make known,

It is no vicious blot, murder, or foulness,

Id.

Id.

For thee I would my dearest friend resign, And from my heart blot every name but thine. Id. Even copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, The last and greatest art, the art to blot. Pope. A man of the most understanding will find it impossible to make the best use of it, while he writes in constraint, perpetually softening, correcting, or blotting Swift. out expressions.

A disappointed hope, a blot of honour, a stain of conscience, an unfortunate love, will serve the turn. Temple.

BLOTCH', v. & n.' From the Ang.-Sax. blodig, that is, bloody; for instance, a bloody tumor: or from blæse, a blaze, which it resembles in its fiery appearance, and its burning heat. Skinner, as quoted by the Metropolitana.

The one might be employed in healing those blotches and tumours which break out in the body, while the other is sweetening the blood and rectifying Spectator.

the constitution.

Spots and blotches, of several colours and figures, straggling over the body; some are red, others yellow, or black. Harvey.

To BLOTE, v. a. To smoke, or dry by the smoke; as bloted herrings, or red herrings.

BLOTED CHINA-WARE, a sort of china, loaded with color in an irregular manner. This pleases some, but it is a defective sort of ware, the large blotches of colors having been only laid on to cover the blemishes of the first baking. BLOTELING, or BLOOTELING (Abraham), a designer and engraver of Amsterdam, flourished about 1670. From the style of his etchings, which have great merit, he is supposed to have

That hath deprived me. Shakspeare. King Lear, frequented the school of the Visschers.

You that are king

Have caused him, by new act of parliament,
To blot out me, and put his own son in.

Id. Henry VI.

Unknit that threatening unkind brow; It blots thy beauty, as frost bites the meads, Confounds thy fame. Id. Taming of the Shrew. I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakspeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never blotted a line. My

answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand. Ben Jonson.

Powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones; Though of their names in heavenly records now Be no memorial, blotted out and rased

By their rebellion from the books of life. Milton.

BLOUNT (Sir Henry), an English writer, born at Tittenhanger, in Hertfordshire, in 1602. After a regular education, he set out on his travels in 1634; and, becoming acquainted with a janissary at Venice, accompanied him into the Turkish dominions. Having been abroad two years, he returned and published a relation of his veral editions. He was knighted by Charles I. travels in the Levant, which went through seand was at the battle of Edge-hill; but after the king's death was employed by the parliament and by Cromwell. After the Restoration he was high sheriff of Hertfordshire. He published, 1. An account of his Travels. 2. Six Comedies written by John Lilly, under the title of Court Comedies. 3. The Exchange Walk, a satire;

in them, were so blown to give forth their uttermost heat, that justly it may be affirmed, they inflamed the affections of all that knew them. Sidney.

All the sparks of virtue, which nature had kindled

Where the bright Seraphim in burning row, Their loud uplifted angel trumpets blow. Milton. His praise, ye winds, that from four quarters blow Breathe soft or loud; and wave your tops ye pines, With every plant in sign of worship wave.

What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, Awaked should blow them into sevenfold rage, And plunge us into flame.

Fair daughter, blow away those mists and clouds, And let thy eyes shine forth in their full lustre.