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Blacklock. deprived from his earliest infancy of the blessing of 

 ' v sight, is the accurate and beautiful descriptions of vi- 

 sible objects witr which his writings abound. This 

 circumstance has raised the astonishment of all who 

 are capable of forming an opinion on the subject. 

 Mr Spence, his elegant panegyrist, has treated this 

 descriptive power in one labouring under such a de- 

 privation, as a sort of problem, which, in a very in- 

 genious but fanciful manner, he has endeavoured to 

 explain. Professor Denina, an ingenious foreigner, 

 in his Discorso delta Literalura, has expressed him- 

 self on this subject in terms of admiration and surprise. 

 ' Blacklock," says he, " to posterity, will seem a 

 fable ; as to the present age, he is a prodigy. It will 

 be thought a fiction, that a man blind from his in- 

 fancy, besides having acquired a surprising know- 

 ledge of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, should at 

 the same time be a great poet ; and, without having 

 almost ever seen the light, should, notwithstanding, 

 be singularly happy in his descriptions." Though 

 we may not be inclined to subscribe to the theory 

 which Mr Spence has adopted, or to ascribe to Black- 

 lock any extraordinary or supernatural conception of 

 visible objects, we may at least fairly claim for him a 

 singular felicity of combination in his use of the ex- 

 pressions by which these objects are distinguished. 

 A retentive memory, and an intimate acquaintance 

 with poetical language, joined to an enthusiastic and 

 creative fancy, which embodied all his ideas, may per- 

 haps go far to account for a phenomenon which has 

 exercised the talents of ingenious men both at home 

 and abroad. With respect to the other qualifications 

 of Blacklock as a poet, we do not hesitate to say, 

 that he exhibits proofs of an ardent imagination, a 

 refined taste, and a feeling heart. " One otherpraise," 

 says Mr M'Kenzie, with no less truth than elegance, 

 ' which the good will value, belongs to those poems 

 in a high degree, they breathe the purest spirit of 

 piety, virtue, and benevolence. These indeed are the 

 muses of Blacklock ; they inspire his poetry, as they 

 animated his life ; and he never approaches the sacred 

 ground on which they dwell, without an expansion 

 of mind and an elevation of language." 



Besides the publications already mentioned, Black- 

 lock was the author of several other works, which 

 add to his fame as a poet the character of a profound 

 philosopher and skilful theologian. In 1756, he pub- 

 lished at Edinburgh, An Essay towards Universal 

 Etymology, or the Analysis of a Sentence, 8vo. In 

 1760, he published, The Right Improvement oj Time, 

 a sermon, 8vo ; and in the same year, he contributed se- 

 veral poetical pieces to the first volume of Donaldson's 

 Collection of Original Poems by Scots Gentlemen, 

 12mo. In 1761, he published, Faith, Hope, and 

 Charity compared, a sermon, 8vo. In 1767, he gave 

 to the world his Paraclesis ; or Consolations deduced 

 Jro'ii Natural and Revealed Religion,in two Disserta- 

 tions. Thejirsl supposed tohaveoeenwrilten by Cicero, 

 now rendered into English, the last originally compo- 

 sed by Thomas Blacklock, D.D. In 1768, he published 

 without his name, Two Discourses on the Spirit and 

 Evidences of Christianity, translated from the French 

 f the Reverend James Armaud, Minister of the 

 Waloon Church in llanau. In 1773, he published 



a poem, entitled, A Panegyric on Great Britain, 8vo. Elacklock. 

 In 1774, he published, The Graham, an Heroic Bal- Blackmore' 

 lad, in four cantos, 4to. In 1793, a posthumous edition v 



of his poems was published by Mr M'Kenzie. There 

 are still unpublished some volumes of sermons in manu- 

 script, together with a treatise on morals, both of 

 which his friends have had it in contemplation to give 

 to the world. See an account of Blacklock's life by 

 Mr Gordon, prefixed to the edition of his poems 

 published at Edinburgh in 1754 ; another by Mr 

 Spence, prefixed to the edition of his poems publish- 

 ed at London in 1756 ; another by Mr M'Kenzie, 

 prefixed to the posthumous edition of his poems in 

 1793 ; and another by Dr Anderson, in his Lives of 

 the Poets, (h. d.) 



BLACKMORE, Sir Richard, was the son of 

 Mr Robert Blackmore, attorney at law, and was born 

 at Corsham, in Wiltshire, about the year 1650. He 

 received the first elements of education in a country 

 school ; removed to Westminster in the 13th year of 

 his age ; and was sent to the university of Oxford in 



1668, where he resided twelve or thirteen years with- 

 out much apparent improvement in literary acquisi- 

 tions. It is supposed, that, after leaving the univer- 

 sity, he was engaged a short time in the profession of 

 a schoolmaster ; but it is better ascertained, that he 

 travelled into Italy, and took the degree of doctor of 

 medicine at the university of Padua. Having spent 

 about a year and a half on the continent, during 

 which period he visited France, Germany, and the 

 Low Countries, he returned to London, where he 

 commenced the practice of physic, and was chosen 

 fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1687. His 

 growing reputation in his profession, and his decided 

 attachment to the principles of the revolution, recom- 

 mended him so strongly to the notice of King Wil- 

 liam, that, in 1697, he was chosen one of his majesty's 

 physicians in ordinary, and received, about the same 

 time, the honour of knighthood, accompanied with 

 the gift of a gold chain and medal. A few years be- 

 fore this exaltation, he had commenced his literary 

 career, by the publication of Prince Arthur, a heroic 

 poem, which was so favourably received, that it pass- 

 ed through three editions in the space of two years. 

 He published, in 1697, a similar poem, entitled, King 

 Arthur ; in 1700, A Paraphrase on the book of Job; 

 and, in the same year, a poem entitled, A Satire upon 

 Wit, which was intended as a censure upon the li- 

 centious tendency of many of the productions in his 

 time ; in 1705, another heroic poem, entitled, Eliza; 

 in 1712, a philosophical poem, the best of his produc- 

 tion.,, entitled, Creation; in 1714', a volume under 

 the title of The Lay Monastery, consisting of forty 

 numbers, which had appeared periodically in the pre- 

 ceding year; in 1716, Essays upon several Subjects, 

 2 vols. 8vo. ; in 1718, // Collection of Poems, in one 

 volume, 8vo. ; in 1721, The Redeemer, a poem; in 

 the same year, A new Version of the Psalms of Da- 

 vid, which was recommended, by an order of council, 

 as proper to be used in the churches and chapels of 

 England ; and a variety of other piects, partly theo- 

 logical, but chiefly on medical subjects, such as the 

 plague, small-pox, consumption, spleen, gout, rheu- 

 matism, king's evil, dropsy, tympany, jaundice, stone, 



