to every vicious impression or habit, -which 
may be imbibed or contracted from the low- 
est and most abandoned of mankind. If yortr 
pupil, therefore, is not endowed with natural 
talents exquisitely proper both for the theory 
and practice of "this art, suffer him by no 
means to be initiated in it. If his natural ge- 
nius favours your attempts, the piano, harp, or 
organ, are’ the most proper instruments for 
him to begin ; because by these instruments 
he may be made more easily acquainted wits 
the extent of musical scales, with the powers 
of harmony, with the relations of which it ih 
constituted, and of course with the theory of 
his art. When he becomes a practical adept, 
tangible signs may be used, by which he may 
not only be enabled to read, but even to set 
music for himself. Such exercises will ren- 
der him infinitely more accurate, both in his 
principles and practice, than he would other- 
wise be. 
For the present article we acknowledge 
ourselves chiefly indebted to the Encyclope- 
dia Britannica, a work of established merit ; 
and we have even extended our limits, con- 
trary to our professed design, beyond the 
practical' part of science, because this article 
cannot fail to be interesting if it is known, as 
we are informed it is, to be the production of 
Dr. Black lock.. As an encouragement to 
the blind, or those who have blind children, 
we subjoin a few instances of extraordinary 
attainments in blind persons. 
The most illustrious instance is the gentle- 
man whom we have just had occasion to 
name, Dr. Thomas Blacklock ; he was born in 
1720, at Annan, in Dumfriesshire. His fa- 
ther was a bricklayer, and his mother the 
daughter of a dealer in cattle ; both respect- 
able in their characters and station. Before 
he was six years old he lost his sight by the 
small-pox, which prevented his father from 
-executing his intention of bringing him up to 
some trade. He therefore encouraged the 
inclination lvc had early shewn for books, by 
reading to amuse him; first, the Small publi- 
cations usually put into the hands of children, 
and afterwards the works of our best authors, 
such as Milton, Prior, Pope, Addison, &c. 
His companions, attached to him by affec- 
tion as well as compassion, were assiduous in 
reading to amuse and instruct him. By their 
aid he acquired some knowlege of Latin. 
Poetry was early his delight ; and at twelve 
years of age he began to write poems him- 
self, of considerable merit. He had attained 
the age of nineteen, when his indulgent fa- 
ther, whose kindness made a grateful and in- 
delible impression on his mind, was killed by 
the fall of a malt-kiln. This loss, severe to 
any one, but doubly so to one in his circum- 
stances, and endued with his sensibility, 
led the way, however, to his receiving advan- 
tages which, perhaps, had his father lived, he 
might never have obtained. He had lived 
with his mother about a year after his father’s 
death, when he began to be spoken of as a 
young man of uncommon genius ; and se- 
veral of his poetical productions were handed* 
about, which enlarged the circle of his friends 
and acquaintance. Some of these being 
shewn to Dr. Stevenson, of Edinburgh, that 
gentleman formed the benevolent design of 
carrying him to the metropolis, and giving 
him a classical education. He accordingly 
came to Edinburgh in 1741, and was enrolled 
as a student of divinity in the university, 
VOL. I. 
BLINDNESS. 
where he continued his studies till I'M*!;! 
when, on account of the national, distur- j 
bances,' he returned to Dumfries, and resided 
with Air. M ‘Mur do, his sister’-s husband. In 
1746 he published a volume of his poems in 
8vo. Upon his return to Edinburgh he ob- 
tained, among other literary acquaintance, 
that of the celebrated David Hume; who 
warmly interested himself in his favour, and 
assisted him in the publication, by subscrip- 
tion, of the quarto edition of his poems, 
which in 17.14 had undergone a second edi- 
tion in octavo. To the quarto edition Mr. 
Spence, professor of poetry at Oxford, from 
regard to the author, prefixed an ingenious 
account of his life and writings. About this 
time, while prosecuting his studies in the lan- 
guages, and every other branch of science 
from which his want of sight did not preclude 
him, he became a complete master of the 
French tongue, by his intercourse with the 
family of provost Alexander, who had mar- 
ried a French lady. After passing the usual 
trials, he was licensed as a preacher by the 
presbytery of Dumfries, in 1759; and ob- 
tained no small reputation by the different 
sermons he preached, of which he left some 
volumes in manuscript. In 1762 he married 
Miss S. Johnston, daughter of Mr. Jos. John- 
ston, a respectable surgeon in Dumfries : a 
connection which proved the great blessing 
and comfort of his after-life. A few days 
after, by lord Selkirk’s interest, he obtained 
the royal presentation to the parish of Kirk- 
cudbright : but the inhabitant ', from various 
motives, opposing the presentation, the mat- 
ter was compromised by settling a moderate 
annuity on Mr. Blacklock, upon his resigning 
his right to the living. With this slender 
provision he removed, in 1764, to Edin- 
burgh ; and adopted the plali of keeping 
young gentlemen as boarders, whose studies 
he could assist and superintend: which he 
continued until within four years of his 
death, when his weak state of health obliged 
him to give it up. In 1767 the university of 
Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of 
D. D. In summer 1791 he was seized by a 
feverish disorder, which, though at first it ap- 
peared slight, and never rose to a violent 
degree, overpowered his weak frame, and 
carried him off on the 3d of July, 1791, in 
his seventy-sixth year. A foreign author cha- 
racterises this extraordinary man in few 
words. “ Blacklock,” says he, “ will appear 
to posterity a fabulous character ; even now 
he is a prodigy.” 
Another no less striking instance is Dr. 
Nicolas Bacon, a blind gentleman, de- 
scended from the same family with the ce- 
lebrated lord Verulam, was, in the city of 
Brussels, with high approbation created LL. 
D. He was deprived of sight at nine years 
of age, by an arrow from a cross-brow whilst 
he was attempting to shoot it. When he had 
recovered his health, which had suffered by 
the shock, he pursued the same plan of edu- 
cation in which he had been engaged; and 
having heard that one Nicasius de Vourde, 
born blind, who lived towards the end of the 
15th century, after having distinguished him- 
self by Iris studies in the university of Lou- 
vain, took his degree as D. D. in that of 
Cologne, he resolved to make the same at- 
tempt; but the public, cursed with prejudices 
for which the meanest sensitive nature might 
blush, prejudices eoually beneath the bru- 
£33 
tality and ignorance of* the lowest animal in- 
stinct, treated his intention with ridicule: 
even the professors themselves were not far 
from being of the same sentiment ; and they 
admitted him into their schools rather from 
an impression that it might amuse him, than 
become of any use to them. He had the 
good fortune, however, contrary to their ex- 
pectations, to obtain the first places among 
his condi -:cip!es. It was then said, that such 
rapid advances might be made in the pre- 
liminary branches of his education, but would 
soon be effectually checked by studies of a 
more profound and abstracted nature. This, 
it seems, was repeated from school to school, 
through the whole climax of his pursuits-; and 
when, in the course of academical learning, 
it became necessary to study poetry, it was 
the general' voice that all was over, and at 
length he had reached his ne plus ultra. But 
here he likewise disappointed their pre- 
judices, and taught them the immense differ- 
ence between blindness of body and blindness 
of soul. _ After continuing his studies in learn- 
ing and philosophy for two years more, he 
applied himself to law, took his degree in that 
science, commenced pleading counsellor or 
advocate in the council of Brabant, and 
had the pleasure of terminating almost every 
suit in which he was engaged to the 
satisfaction of his clients. The attainments 
of professor Saunderson are not less extra- 
ordinary, and yet as well established not only 
on the testimony of his pupils, but by bis 
works. The following anecdotes of Dr. 
Moyes were not long ago presented to the 
Manchester society by Dr. G. Bew, and 
afterwards published. “ Dr. Henry Moyes, 
who occasionally read lectures on philoso- 
phical chemistry at Manchester, like Dr, 
Saunderson, the celebrated professor of Cam - 
bridge, lost his sight hy the small-pox in his 
early infancy. He never recollected to have 
seen: ‘ but the first traces of memory I have 
(says he), are in some confused ideas of the 
solar system.’ lie had the good fortune to 
be born in a country where learning of every 
kind is highly cultivated, and to be brought 
up in a family devoted to learning. Possessed 
of native genius, and ardent in his application,, 
■he made rapid advances in various depart- 
ments of erudition, and not only acquired the 
fundamental principles of mechanics, music, 
and the languages, but likewise entered 
deeply into the investigation of the pro founder 
sciences, and displayed an acute and general 
knowledge of geometry, optics, algebra, as- 
tronomy, chemistry, and in short, of most of 
the branches of the Newtonian philosophy. 
Mechanical exercises were the favourite em- 
ployments of his infant years. At a very 
early age he made himself acquainted with 
the use of edged tools so perfectly, that not- 
withstanding liis entire blindness, lie was able 
to make little windmills ; and he even con- 
structed a loom with his own hands, which 
still show the cicatrices of wounds he re- 
ceived in the execution of these juvenile ex- 
ploits. By a most agreeable intimacy and 
frequent intercourse which I enjoyed with 
this accomplished blind gentleman, whilst he 
resided at Manchester, 1 had an opportunity 
of repeatedly observing the peculiar manner 
in which lie arranged his ideas and acquired 
his information. Whenever he was intro- 
duced into company, I remarked that he 
continued for some time silent. The sound 
