Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/252

 well heard by a large audience. His discourse was remarkable for plainness and perspicuity; all his illustrations, whether by experiment, or by reference to the processes of nature, were quite apposite; his hearers rested with the most entire confidence on his conclusions, and even the most illiterate could not mistake his sentiments.

Dr Black's conduct in private life was marked by a striking degree of decorum, without the slightest approach to formality. His habit of studying physical science rendered him very much a man of facts and demonstrations; he is said to have been so entirely destitute of fancy, or to have so effectually repressed that faculty, that he never was known to utter a joke. In his domestic affairs, he was rigidly frugal and methodical; yet his house was open to an enlightened hospitality, in which he enjoyed as much of the society of his friends as his delicate health would permit. His chief friends were Smith, Hume, Carlyle, Home, and Hutton. The last was closely connected with him in philosophical pursuits, as well as in the bonds of private friendship—notwithstanding that there were some striking points of difference between the two men. In the latter days of Dr Black, he sunk into a low state of health, and only preserved himself from the shocks of the weather in this variable climate by a degree of care almost fantastic. Thus he spun out the thread of life to the last fibre. It was his generous and manly wish that he might never live to be a burden to his friends; and never was the wish more completely gratified. On the 26th of November, 1799, and in the seventy-first year of his age, he expired, without any convulsion, shock, or stupor, to announce or retard the approach of death. Being at table with his usual fare—some bread, a few prunes, and a measured quantity of milk, diluted with water, and having the cup in his hand when the last stroke of the pulse was to be given, he had set it down upon his knees, which were joined together, and kept it steady with his hand in the manner of a person perfectly at ease, and in this attitude expired, without spilling a drop, and without a writhe in his countenance; as if an experiment had been required, to show to his friends the facility with which he departed. His servant opened the door to tell him that some one had left his name, but getting no answer, stepped about half-way towards him, and seeing him sitting in that easy posture, supporting his basin of milk with one hand, he thought that he had dropped asleep, which he had sometimes seen happen after his meals. The man went back and shut the door, but before he got down stairs, some anxiety that he could not account for, made him return, and look again at his master. Even then, he was satisfied, after coming pretty near, and turned to go away, but again returned, and coming quite close, fount! his master without life. Dr Black, who had never been married, left more money than any one had thought he could have acquired in the course of his career. It was disposed of by his will in a manner highly characteristic. Being divided into ten thousand shares, it was parcelled out to a numerous list of relations in shares, in numbers, or fractions of shares, according to the degree in which they were proper objects of his care or solicitude.

, a distinguished preacher of the time of the persecution, was the representative of an ancient but decayed family—Blackadder of Tulliallan—and was born in the year 1615. He was nephew to principal Strang of Glasgow, and grand-nephew to the famous chorographer Timothy Pont. His theological education took place under the eye of the former of these eminent men, and having been duly licensed by the presbyterian church, then in its highest purity and most triumphant domination, he received a call, in 1652, to the parish-church of Troqueer, in the neighbourhood of Dumfries. Previous to this period, he had married the daughter of a wealthy merchant of that town, named Haning. Mr Blackadder commenced his ministerial labours with a zeal which