into cordial regard and friendship. The masculine steadiness, and imperturbable resolution of his character, were impressed on all his proceedings; and it will be allowed by those who watched him through his career, as the publisher of a literary and political miscellany, that these qualities were more than once very severely tested. He dealt by parties exactly as he did by individuals. Whether his principles were right or wrong, they were his, and he never compromised or complimented away one tittle of them. No changes, either of men or of measures, ever dimmed his eye, or checked his courage."
Mr Blackwood was twice a magistrate of his native city, and in that capacity distinguished himself by an intrepid zeal in the reform of burgh management, singularly in contrast with his avowed sentiments respecting constitutional reform.
BLAIR, Hugh, D.D. one of the most eminent divines and cultivators of polite literature, of the eighteenth century, was born at Edinburgh, April 7, 1718. His father, John Blair, a merchant of Edinburgh, and who at one time occupied a respectable office in the magistracy, was grandson to Robert Blair, an eminent divine of the seventeenth century, whose life is commemorated in its proper place in this work. John Blair was thus cousin-german to the author of the Grave, whose life follows, in the present work, that of his distinguished ancestor. John Blair, having impaired his fortune by engaging in the South Sea scheme, latterly held an office in the excise. He married Martha Ogston, and the first child of this marriage was the subject of the following memoir.
Hugh Blair was early remarked by his father to possess the seeds of genius. For this reason, joined to a consideration, perhaps, of his delicate constitution, he was educated for the church. He commenced his academic career at the university of Edinburgh, October, 1730, and as his weakly health disabled him from enjoying the usual sports of boyhood, his application to study was very close. Among the numerous testimonies to his proficiency, which were paid by his instructors, one deserves to be particularly mentioned, as, in his own opinion, it determined the bent of his genius towards polite literature. An essay, Περι τον καλον, that is, upon the Beautiful,[1] written by him when a student of logic in the usual course of academical exercises, had the good fortune to attract the notice of professor Stevenson, and, with circumstances honourable to the author, was appointed to be read in public at the conclusion of the session. This mark of distinction, which occurred in his sixteenth year, made a deep impression on his mind; and the essay which merited it, he ever after recollected with partial affection, and preserved to the day of his death, as the first earnest of his fame.
At this time Dr Blair commenced a method of study, which contributed much to the accuracy and extent of his knowledge, and which lie continued to practise occasionally even after his reputation was fully established. It consisted in making abstracts of the most important works which he read, and in digesting them according to the train of his own thoughts. History, in particular, he resolved to study in this manner; and in concert with some of his youthful associates, he constructed a very comprehensive scheme of chronological tables, for receiving into its proper place every important fact which should occur. The scheme devised by this young student for his own private use was afterwards improved, filled up, and given to the public, by his learned relative Dr John Blair, Prebendary of Westminster, in his valuable work, "The Chronology and History of the World."
- ↑ A technical Greek phrase, expressing the abstract idea of the perfection of beauty In objects of taste. A devotion to the "To kalon" in that nation, was similar to what the moderns understand by a correct taste.
