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thought it moft expedient, within two years, to refign this 

 preferment, ami to retire upon a moderat*: aiiiiiiity. With 

 thii (lender provifion he removed in 1764 to Ediiihurgli, and 

 opened his houfe for the accommodation of young jjc-rf.ns 

 as boarders and iludents. In 1766 the marifchal college of 

 Aberdeen conferred upon him the degree of dortor in di- 

 vinity. From this time he continued to maintain his literary 

 chara£ler by feveral publications, which it will be fuflicient 

 to enumerate. Thefc were " Paracklis, or ConfoLitimis 

 deduced from natural and revealed religion," in two difkr- 

 tations, 8vo. 1767 ; '• Two Difcourfcs on the evidences and 

 fpirit of Chriilianity, tranfl.ited from the rrench of Mr. 

 James Armand," 8vo. 1768;," A Panegyric on Great 

 Britain," a fatirical piece, 8vo. 1773 ; " The Graham, an 

 heroic ballad, in four cantos," 410. 1774; " Remarks on 

 the nature and extent of liberty, &c. and on the julHce and 

 policy of the American war, occalioiied by peruling the ob- 

 fervations of Dr. Price on thefe fubjcfts," 8vo. 1776; and 

 a valuable article, communicated to the editors of the 

 Encyclopedia Britannica, " On the education of the 

 blind," I 783. A 4to edition of Dr. Blacklock's poems was 

 printed in 1793. This edition contains an elfay on the edu- 

 cation of (he blind, being a trandation of M. Haiiy's cele- 

 brated effay on this fubjcel ; and prefixed to it we have a 

 new account of the life and writings of the author by 

 Mr. Mackenzie, author of the Man of Feeling, S:c. Dr. 

 Blacklock died at the age of 70, in July 1791. With 

 refpedl to his talents, Mr. Hume obferves, " that he may be 

 regarded as a prodigy ;" and to his moral chaiaclcr he bears 

 this honourable telliniony, that " his modefty was equal to 

 the goodnefs of his difpolition, and the beauty of his 

 genius." In the dcprelTcd circumilances of his early life 

 he was fingularly contented a:id acquiefcing ; but his lofs of 

 fight deeply aiftcled his fenfibility, and he deplores it in 

 plaintive accents in one of his poems, written on occalion of 

 his elcape from falling into a deep well. At the fame time 

 he was diftrclTed by apprehenfions of finking into extreme 

 indigence ; however he expreffes his truft in Providence, and 

 his hope that the clouds which were gathering over him 

 would be diffipatcd. . Next to his religious principles, were 

 letters, converfation, and nmfic, from which he derived his 

 principal folace. His poetry is eafy, elegant, and hariTK - 

 nious ; and abounds with images, deduced from vifible 

 objcclj, and aptly applied. He is faid to have compofed 

 with rapidity, and hence it is owing that his vivacity and 

 animation are often indulged at tlie expence of correil- 

 nefsand regularity. In ft-iitiment he difplays much benevo- 

 lence and tendernefs of difpofition, as well as true piety and 

 philofophy. Spence, ubifupra. Gen. Biog. 



BLACKMORE, S1.1 Richard, M.D. an indefatigable 

 writer, poet, and phyfician, was born at Corfliam in Wilt- 

 ftiire, about the year 1650. After fome years fpent at a 

 grammar fchool in the country, he was fent to Wedminfter 

 fchool, and in 1668 to Edmund-hall, Oxford. In 1676 he 

 took his degree of mailer of arts, and continued to rclide at 

 college three years after, but apparently v^ithout receiving 

 much benefit from his long refidenee in this feat of the mufes, 

 fcarcely knowing the names or fituations of places, which an 

 intimacy with clalTical authors mull have made familiar to 

 him. At fome time in. his life, probably immediately on 

 quitting college, he kept a fcliool, but does not feem to 

 have remained long in that ftation, as he foon after went to 

 Paris, and to other places on the continent, with a view, it is 

 probable, of acquiring or improving his knowledge in medi- 

 cine, in which faculty he took his degree of' doftor'at 

 Padua. Returning to England, after a ramble of eighteen 

 months, he came to London, and fettled at fird in Cheapfide, 

 where he acquired fo much reputation, that iu 16S7, he was 



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admitted a fellow of the college of phyfieians. In 1 697, h© 

 received the honour of knii;hthood from king William, ac» 

 compiniedwidi a prefent of a gold chain and medal, which, he 

 intimates, \ ere given him as a reward for fome fervicts per- 

 formed at the revolution. The fame year he was made phyfician 

 in ordinary to the king ; an office he held alterwards under his 

 fuccefl'or, queen Anne. He was now in the zenith of his 

 reputation, and having as yet but little expofed himfelf to 

 the fcrutiiiy of the critics by writing, his merit was piobably 

 rated mueh beyond its real ftandard. To his popularity as 

 a phyfician, and his excellent and unimpcachtd moral clia- 

 rafter, it was probably owing, that his firil produftion, 

 " Prince Arthur," an epic poem, in ten books, publilhed 

 a little before this time, acquired fo much celebrity as 

 to pafs tlirough three editions in the fpace of two years. 

 Encouraged by this fuccefs, in 1699 he publilhed his " King 

 Arthur" in twelve books, with paraphrales on the book of 

 Job, a'nd on other parts of fcripture; and in 1700, his " Satire 

 on Wit," in which he took occafion to retort the farcafius 

 which had been heaped with no fparing hand on his lalb 

 poems by Dennis, Dryden, Pope, and molt of the wits of the 

 time. Not deterred by their cenfures, in 1705 he publifheJ. 

 "Eliza," another heroic poen",in tenbooks. "This excited," 

 Johnfon fays, " neither praife nor blame, but feenis to have 

 dropped dead born from the prefs." In 1712, appeared 

 " Creation," a philofophieal poem, certainly the beil of his 

 productions. It had the honour of being praifed by Addi- 

 fon, in the Speftator, and Dr. Johnfon has fince infertcdit in 

 his co'-lcftion of Englifh poets, with commendation much be- 

 yond its merit. This for a time revived its credit, and gave it 

 a degree of celebrity, which feems again to be declining apace. 

 Pleafed with the reputation procured by this poem, he foou 

 after produced his fourth and lall epic poem in twelve books, 

 intended to commemorate iheaftions of king Alfred, whofe 

 name it bore, but like Eliza, it excited little notice ; benevo« 

 lence being afhamed any longer to patronize, and malevolence 

 weary of infulting, fuch frigid abortions. But as if it was 

 to be the fate of this author to try every fpecies of writing, 

 and to fail in all, on the Speftator ceafing, he produced, in 

 conjunction with Mr. Hughes, the " Lay Monaltery ;" one 

 paper of which was publiflied three times in the week. This 

 was only continued to the 40lh number. Soon afier he gave 

 the world two volumes of elFays. As ihefe were intended to 

 promote the caufe of virtue and religion, they met with fome 

 favour. Befides thefe works. Dr. Blackmore wrote feveral 

 tradls on different branches of medicine ; on the fpleen, the 

 gout, the rheumatifm, the king's evil, the dropfy, the jaun- 

 dice, the diabetes, the plague ; and as inoculation for the 

 fmall-po.x was making fome piogrefs in his time, he thought 

 it incumbent on him to give his decided difapprobation of the 

 praclice. But as by this time he began to be efteemed fcarce 

 a better phyfician than a poet, his opinion had fortunately 

 very little weight with tlie public. The medical trafls are 

 publifhed together in an 8vo volume, but are little known or 

 noticed. He died on the 8th of Oftober 1729. Gen. Biog, 

 Johnfon's Lives of the Poets. 



BLACKNESS, the quality of ;> black body ; or a co. 

 lour arifing from a texture ard fifjation of the fuper- 

 ficial parts of the body, which, as it were, ilifle, or rather 

 abforb, the light falhng on it, without reflcfting any, or very 

 little of it, to the eye. In which fenfe, blacknefs flands 

 direttly oppofed to whitenefs ; which confifts in fuch a 

 texture of parts, as indifferently reflefts all the rays thrown 

 upon it, of whatfoever colour they be. 



Defcartes, fays Dr. Prieftley (Hift. of Vifion, p. 127 and 

 143, &c.), though miftaken with refpeft to the nature of 

 hght and colours, yet dillinguifhes juilly between black and 

 white, gbferving, that black fuffocates and extinguilhes the 



rays 



I 



