Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 1.djvu/283

 No production of his pen had yet been given to the world by himself, except two sermons preached on particular occasions, some translations of passages of Scripture, for the psalmody of the church, and the article on Hutcheson's system of Moral Philosophy for the Edinburgh Review, a periodical work begun in 1755, by Hume, Robertson, and others, and which only extended to two numbers. Standing, as he now did, at the head of his profession, and released by the labour of former years from the drudgery of weekly preparation for the pulpit, he began to think seriously on a plan for teaching to others the art which had contributed so much to his own fame. Some years before, Dr Adam Smith had delivered in Edinburgh a series of lectures on rhetoric and elegant literature, which had been well received. In 1759, Dr Blair commenced, with the approbation of the university, a course upon the principles of literary composition. The most zealous friends to this undertaking were David Hume and Lord Kames, the latter of whom nad devoted much attention to the subject. The approbation bestowed upon the lectures was so very high, and their fame became so generally diffused, that the town-council resolved to institute a rhetorical class in the university, under his direction; and, in 1762, this professorship was taken under the protection of the crown, with a salary of seventy pounds a year. Dr Blair continued to deliver his lectures annually till 1783, when he published them for the more extensive benefit of mankind. They are not by any means, nor were they ever pretended to be, a profound or original exposition of the laws of the belles lettres. They are acknowledged to be a compilation from many different sources, and only designed to form a simple and intelligible code for the instruction of youth in this department of knowledge. Regarded in this light, they are entitled to very high praise, which has accordingly been liberally bestowed by the public. These lectures have been repeatedly printed, and still remain an indispensable monitor in the study of every British scholar.

In 1763, Dr Blair made his first appearance before the world as an author or critic. He had, in common with his friend John Home, taken a deep interest in the exertions of Macpherson, for the recovery of the Highland traditionary poetry. Relying without suspicion upon the faith of the collector, he prefixed to the "Poems of Ossian" a dissertation pointing out the beauties of those compositions. The labour must of course be now pronounced in a great measure useless; but nevertheless it remains a conspicuous monument of the taste of Dr Blair.

It was not till 1777, that he could be prevailed upon to offer to the world any of those sermons with which he had so long delighted a private congregation. We have his own authority for saying that it was his friend Lord Kames who was chiefly instrumental in prompting him to take this step. For a long period, hardly any sermons published either in England or Scotland, had met with success. The public taste seemed to have contracted an aversion to this species of composition. We are informed by Boswell in his life of Johnson, that when Blair transmitted a volume to Mr Strahan, the King's printer, that gentleman, after letting it lie beside him for some time, returned a letter discouraging the publication. It is probable that this opinion, which seems to have been given only on general grounds, might have caused Dr Blair to abandon his intention; but fortunately, Mr Strahan had sent one of the sermons to Dr Johnson for his opinion, and after his unfavourable letter to Dr Blair had been sent off, he received from Johnson, on Christmas eve, 1776, a note, of which the following is a paragraph: "I have read over Dr Blair's first sermon, with more than approbation; to say it is good is to say too little." Mr Strahan had very soon after this time a conversation with Dr Johnson, concerning the sermons; and then he very candidly wrote again to Dr Blair, enclosing Johnson's note, and agreeing