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BIOGRAPHICAL

ANECDOTES AND CHARACTERS.

A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF DR. HUGH
BLAIR, BY DR. JAMES FINLAYSON.

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[From SERMONS by Dr. BLAIR, Vol. V.]

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R. Hugh Blair was born in Edinburgh, on the 7th of April 1718. His father, John Blair, a respectable merchant in that city, was a descendant of the ancient family of Blair, in Ayrshire, and grandson of the famous Mr. Robert Blair, minister of St. Andrew's, chaplain to Charles I, and one of the most zealous and distinguished clergymen of the period in which he lived. This worthy man, though firmly attached to the cause of freedom and to the presbyterian form of church government; and though actively engaged in all the measures adopted for their support; yet by his steady, temperate conduct, commanded the respect even of his opponents. In preference to all the other ecclesiastical leaders of the covenanting party, he was selected by the king himself to fill an office which, from the circumstances of the time, gave frequent access to the royal person; because,' said his majesty, that

man is pious, prudent, learned, and of a meek and moderate calm temper.'-His talents seem to have descended as an inheritance to his posterity. For, of the two sons who survived him, David, the eldest, was a clergyman of eminence in Edinburgh, father to Mr. Robert Blair, minister of Athelstonford, the celebrated author of the poem entitled The Grape; and grandfather to his majesty's solicitor-general for Scotland, whose masculine eloquence and profound knowledge of law have, in the public estimation, placed him indisputably at the head of the Scottish Lar. From his youngest son Hugh, who engaged in business as a merchant, and had the honour to fill a high station in the magistracy of Edinburgh, sprung the learned clergyman who is the subject of this narrative.

"The views of Dr. Blair, from his earliest youth, were turned towards the church, and his education received a suitable direction. After

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the usual grammatical course at school, he entered the Humanity Class in the university of Edinburgh, in October 1730, and spent eleven years at that celebrated seminary, assiduously employed in the literary and scientific studies prescribed by the church of Scotland to all who are to become candidates for her licence to preach the Gospel. During this important period he was distinguished among his companions both for diligence and proficiency; and obtained from the professors under whom he studied repeated testimonies of approbation. One of them deserves to be mentioned particularly, because in his own opinion it determined the bent of his genius towards polite literature. An essay, Ispirou xaλsu, or, On the Beautiful, 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 honcurable to the author, was appointed to be read in public at the conclusion of the session. This mark of distinction 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 he 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 rain 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 that 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 friend Dr. John Blair, prebendary of Westminster, in his valuable work, Chronology and History of the World.'

"In the year 1739 Dr. Blair took his degree of A. M. On that occasion he printed and defended a thesis De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis Natura, which contains a short but masterly discussion of this important subject, and exhibits in elegant Latin an outline of the moral principles, which have been since more fully unfolded and `illustrated in his Sermons.

"The university of Edinburgh, about this period, numbered among her pupils many young men who were soon to make a distinguished figure in the civil, the ecclesiastical, and the literary history of their country. With most of them Dr. Blair entered into habits of intimat● connexion, which no future competition or jealousy occurred to interrupt, which held them united through life in their views of pub lic good, and which had the most beneficial influence on their own improvement, on the progress of elegance and taste among their cotemporaries, and on the general interests of the community to which they belonged.

"On the completion of his aca demical course, he underwent the customary trials before the Presby, tery of Edinburgh, and received from that venerable body a licence to preach the Gospel on the 21st of October 1741. His public life now commenced with very favourable

prospects,

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