554 



BL ACKMOHE BLACKSTON E. 



cf Cumberland, although poor were industrious and 

 well- informed. At Uie age of six months, he lost his 

 sight by the small-pox; and, as he grew up, his 

 iliilicr, with exemplary industry ami affection, endea- 

 voured to lessen his calamity by reading to him Mich 

 (looks as instructed or entertained him, when he al- 

 ways appeared to be particularly pleased with the 

 works ot Spencer, Milton, 1'nor, Pope, and Addison. 

 Such was the kindness his peculiar situation mid 

 gentle temper exited, that he was seldom without 

 some companion, who aided in his singular course of 

 education, until he had even acquired some know- 

 ledge of the Latin tongue. At the age of twelve, he 

 began to versify, and his performances at length be- 

 came the subject of discourse in his neighbourhood. 

 At the age ol twenty, he lost his father, on which he 

 was invited by Dr Stephenson, a physician in Edin- 

 burgh, to visit tli.it metropolis, in order to pursue his 

 studies at the university. He soon became a profi- 

 cient in Latin, as also in French, which he chiefly 

 acquired by conversation with a French lady, the 

 wite of provost Alexander. He also, in the course 

 ot" nearly ten years' study at the university, made a 

 considerable progress in the sciences. In 1754, he 

 brought out an edition of his poems, which gained him 

 the patronage of Mr Spence, who wrote an account 

 of his life, character, and productions ; and a quarto 

 edition of his poems being soon afterwards published 

 by subscription, a considerable sum was thereby raised 

 for his benefit. He now devoted himself to the study 

 of theology, and, having passed through the usual 

 course, was licensed, in 1759, by the presbytery of 

 Dumfries. In 1762, he married the daughter of Mr 

 Johnson, surgeon, of Dumfries ; a connexion which 

 proved to him a source of comfort and felicity for the 

 remainder of his life. He was soon after appointed 

 minister of Kirkcudbright, on the presentation of the 

 earl of Selkirk ; but, Tjeing opposed by his parish- 

 ioners, after two years' contention, he resigned his 

 living, upon a moderate annuity, and retired to Edin- 

 burgh, where he adopted the plan of receiving a few 

 students of the university as boarders, and of assisting 

 them in their studies when desirable. In 1766, he 

 was created D. D. ; and, having now taken a re- 

 spectable station among the literati of Scotland, he 

 maintained it by various publications, until his death, 

 July, 1791, at the age of seventy. His private cha- 

 racter, according to the testimony of Hume and others, 

 was singularly amiable. Letters and conversation 

 vere his solace, to which he joined the practice of 

 music. His poetry is easy , polished, and harmonious ; 

 and he composed with considerable rapidity. The 

 number of his images from visual objects will surprise 

 those who are not aware of the uniform strain of imi- 

 tation in common-place poetry. Blacklock wrote, 

 besides his poems, several prose works. 



BLACKMORE, Sir Richard, a physician and poet of 

 notoriety, if not of eminence, was the son of an attorney 

 in the county of Wilts. In 1668, he entered the uni- 

 ver>ity of Oxford. There he remained thirteen 

 years, and, for some time afterwards, appears to have 

 followed the profession of a schoolmaster. At length 

 he turned his attention to physic. In 1697, he had 

 risen to so much eminence in his profession, as to be 

 appointed physician to king William, who knighted 

 him. The preceding year, he had made himself 

 known, as a poet, by the publication of his heroic 

 poem of Prince Arthur, which was soon followed by 

 King Arthur ; and, in 1700, he published a para- 

 phrase of the book of Job, in folio ; as also a poem 

 entitled a Satire on Wit, being an attempt to retort 

 on the wits by whom he had been very successfully 

 assailed. By the strictness of his whiggish principles, 

 he had incurred the resentment of the tory junto, 

 composed of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, and others ; 



while something solemn in the complexion of his re- 

 ligion and morality, added to the real absurdity of 

 starting epic lifter epic in quick succession, insured 

 the raillery of all those to whom his gravity, perse- 

 verance, and mediocrity afforded so much subject for 

 ridicule. This worthy man and middling poet be- 

 came the common butt of his day, and for almost two 

 generations, for Pope took up the qunrrel which 

 Dryden began. The work which produced him the 

 greatest reputation was the Creation, a poem in seven 

 books, which went through several editions, and \\ii-. 

 greatly applauded, but is, generally speaking, very 

 tamely elaborate. In 1721, he published a New Ver- 

 sion of the Psalms of David, which, although recom- 

 mended by authority, lias never been adopted. He 

 died, at an advanced age, in 1729, leaving behind 

 him the character of a pious, well-meaning, and re- 

 spectable man of limited genius and little taste. Be- 

 sides the epics already mentioned, he wrote Eliza, in 

 ten books ; the Redeemer, in six books ; King Alfred, 

 in twelve books, &c. He also composed a History of 

 the Conspiracy against King William III., and several 

 medical and theological treatises, especially against 

 the Arians, all ot which have quietly reached 

 oblivion. As a physician, he was a strenuous op- 

 poser of the new system of inoculation for the small 

 pox. 



BLACKS-TONE, Sir William, knight and LL. D., a 

 celebrated English lawyer, and the most popular 

 writer on the laws and constitution of his country, 

 was born in London, in 1723. He was the third son 

 of Mr Charles Blackstone, a silk-mercer, but, being 

 left an orphan, was brought up by his maternal 

 uncle, Mr Thomas Bigg, surgeon, from whose kind- 

 ness he received an education, which the narrow cir- 

 cumstances of his father could scarcely have supplied. 

 He was educated on the foundation of the charter- 

 house, whence, in 1738, he was removed to Pembroke 

 college, Oxford. He was much distinguished, both at 

 school and at the university, and at an early age com- 

 piled a work for his own use, entitled the Elements 

 of Architecture, which lias been much praised. 

 Having chosen the profession of the law, he was in 

 due time entered at the Middle Temple, and on this 

 occasion published the admired verses, called the 

 Lawyer's Farewell to his Muse, which appeared in 

 Dodsley's Miscellany. In 1743, he was elected fel- 

 low of All Souls' college, Oxon., and, in 1746, was 

 called to the bar, and commenced the practice of Law. 

 Being deficient in elocution, and not possessed of the 

 popular talents of an advocate, his progress was 

 slow. Having attended the courts of law at West- 

 minster for seven years, without success, he deter- 

 mined to quit the practice of his profession, and re- 

 tire to his fellowship at Oxford. The system of 

 education in the English universities supplying no 

 provision for teaching the laws and constitution of the 

 country, B. undertook to remedy this defect, by a 

 course of lectures on that important subject ; and the 

 manner in which he executed the task has conferred 

 a lasting distinction on Oxford. His first course was 

 delivered in 1753, and was repeated for a series of 

 years with increasing effect and reputation. These 

 lectures doubtless suggested to Mr Viner the idea of 

 founding, by his will, a liberal establishment in the 

 university of Oxford for the study of the common 

 law ; and B. was, with great propriety, chosen the 

 first Vinerian professor. His engagements at Oxford 

 did not prevent his occasional practice as a provincial 

 barrister, and, in 1754, being engaged as counsel in 

 a contested election for the county of Oxford, he was 

 led into considerations on the elective franchise, 

 which produced his work entitled Considerations on 

 Copyholds. In this treatise he denied the right of 

 copyholders to vote as freeholders ; which led to a 



