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considerable accession of emolument and fame.

They

have been frequently reprinted in various shapes, and deservedly occupy a place in our schools and universities, as an excellent elementary treatise on the studies of composition and eloquence. They contain an accurate analysis of the principles of literary composition, in all the various species of writing; a happy illustration of those principles by the most beautiful and apposite examples, drawn from the best authors, both ancient and modern; and an admirable digest of the rules of elocution, as applicable to the oratory of the pulpit, the bar, and the popular assembly. They do not aim at being purely original, for this would have been to circumscribe their utility; neither are they polished with the same degree of care as his Sermons; yet, so useful is the object of these Lectures, so comprehensive their plan, and such the excellence of the matter they contain, that if not the most splendid, they will perhaps prove the most durable monument of his reputation.

From this period his talents were consecrated solely to the instruction of his congregation, and the private and unseen labours of his office; preparing for the world the blessings of elegant instruction, and tendering to the mourner the lessons of divine consolation. From that part of his professional duty which regarded the government of the church, he was prevented by his diffidence from taking any active part; but he was steadily attached to the cause of moderation, and his opinion was eagerly courted by Dr Robertson, Dr Drysdale, Dr Hill, Dr Finlayson, and others, who managed the business of the church. The outline of the pastoral admonition which the General Assembly, in 1799, addressed to the people under their charge, proceeded from his pen.

In the course of his life he had frequently visited London, and had been introduced to the acquaintance of Dr

On

Johnson, Dr Percy, afterwards Bishop of Dromore, and other distinguished literary characters in England. the recommendation of Dr Percy, the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland committed to him the care of their second son, Lord Algernon Percy, afterwards Earl of Beverly, when he prosecuted his studies at the University of Edinburgh. Among his countrymen, Lord Kames, David Hume, Dr Smith, Dr Robertson, Dr Fergusson, Mr John Home, and Dr Carlyle, were the persons with whom he lived in habits of intimacy, and with whom, during the greater part of his life, he maintained social inter

course.

Upon the death of Dr Robertson, Principal of the University of Edinburgh, in the year 1793, the unanimous voice of the country acknowledged his claim to be appointed the successor of that illustrious man. When the Magistrates and Council of Edinburgh gave the appointment to another, it is known that he felt the oversight as injurious to his pretensions. Flattered with the respect of the world, and unaccustomed to disappointments during a long life devoted to literary pursuits, he could ill brook any neglect when that life was drawing to a close.

In the year 1795 he suffered a heavy domestic calamity by the death of Mrs Blair, who had shared, with the tenderest affection, in all his fortunes, and contributed for nearly half a century to his happiness and comfort. By her he had a son, who died in' infancy, and a daughter, of a most amiable disposition and elegant accomplishments, who died at the age of twenty.

For some years he had felt himself unequal to the fatigue of instructing his congregation from the pulpit, yet he continued to the end of his life in the active and cheerful discharge of all his other official duties. At the solicitation of his friends, he preached the annual Sermon for

the benefit of the Sons of the Clergy of Scotland in 1797, which produced a liberal collection, and closed his labours in the pulpit.

Though his bodily constitution was not robust, yet he enjoyed a general state of good health, and, through habitual cheerfulness, temperance, and ease, survived the usual term of human life. During the summer before his death, he was employed in preparing the last volume of his Sermons for the press, and evinced his usual vigour of understanding, and capacity of exertion. A few days before he died he had no complaint; but on the 24th of December 1800 he complained of a pain in his bowels, which was not then suspected to proceed from an inguinal hernia, and which he considered as trifling. On the afternoon of the 26th, however, the pain increased, the symptoms became violent and alarming, and inflammation commenced, which it was impossible to resist. Retaining to the last moment the full possession of his mental faculties, he expired on the morning of the 27th, with the composure and hope of a Christian pastor, in the 83d year of his age, and the 59th of his ministry.

He bequeathed his house in Argyll-square, which had been his residence above thirty years, and his personal property, which was considerable, to his relation, Mr Richard Bannatyne, merchant in Edinburgh, with an explicit injunction, suggested by an excusable solicitude for his reputation, that all his manuscript sermons and letters should be destroyed.

The Sermons which he had transcribed, and, in many parts, re-composed for the press, after he had completed his eighty-second year, were delivered to the publishers about six weeks before his death, and printed in 1801, with a short account of his Life, written by his friend and colleague Dr Finlayson; who himself now needs a simi

lar memorial of his talents and virtues. He had himself paid a similar tribute to the memory of his colleague, Mr Robert Walker, by prefixing a candid and affectionate Preface to the last volume of his Sermons. A more ample and elaborate account of his life and writings, drawn up by Dr John Hill, Professor of Humanity in the University of Edinburgh, was printed in 1807, when the writer himself was beyond the reach of praise or censure.

The name of Dr Blair needs no panegyric. His literary honours are a trophy which time will not destroy. Posterity will justly regard him as a benefactor of the human race, and as no ordinary instrument, in the hand of God, for refining the taste, improving the morality, and promoting the religion of the Christian world.

LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTION.

ONE of the most distinguished privileges which Providence has conferred upon mankind, is the power of communicating their thoughts to one another. Destitute of this power, reason would be a solitary, and, in some measure, an unavailing principle. Speech is the great instrument by which man becomes beneficial to man; and it is to the intercourse and transmission of thought, by means of speech, that we are chiefly indebted for the improvement of thought itself. Small are the advances which a single unassisted individual can make towards perfecting any of his powers. What we call human reason, is not the effort or ability of one, so much as it is the result of the reason of many, arising from lights mutually communicated, in consequence of discourse and writing.

It is obvious, then, that writing and discourse are objects entitled to the highest attention. Whe

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