Ossian Collection > Dr. Hugh Blair

DR. HUGH BLAIR.
This venerable clergyman was a lineal descendant from an antient family in the west of
Scotland ; he was born on the 7th of April I71i5. The fortune of his father had been
much impaired, but not so as to prevent him from giving his son a liberal education.
After going through the usual course at the high school, Hugh Blair became a student
at the university of Edinburgh, in October 1730. From the delicacy of his constitution
he was unable to partake much in the sports of the boys, but preferred amusing himself
in his solitary walks by repeating the poems of others, and sometimes attempting to
make some of his own.
When he became a student at the university, liis constitution grew more vigorous, and
he could pursue both the amusements and the studies proper for his age. In all his
classes he attracted attention, but in the logic class he was particularly distinguished ;
and, while attending it, he composed an essay on the Beautiful, in wliich the bent of his
genius first displayed itself, both to liimself and to others.
In the year 1739, when the course of Mr. Blair's academical studies was nearly
finished, he published a thesis, " De Fundamentis et Obligatione Legis Natures.^'' The
discussion, though short, is able. After spending eleven years at the university in the
study of literature, philosophy, and divinity, Mr. Blair was licensed to preach by the
presbytery of Edinburgh, in 1741. In the pulpit his doctrines were sound and practical,
and his language elegant : oue sermon of his in the west church was particularly noticed,
it arrested the attention of a very numerous congregation. The Earl of Leven was de-
sirous to reward the preacher, which he did by procuring him a presentation to the church
of Colessie, in Fifeshire. There Mr. Blair continued nearly ten months, when his talents
were brought into a sphere, in which they became conspicuous and extensively useful. In
consequence of a vacancy in the Canongate of Edinburgh, he was admitted second mi-
nister in July 17-13; though to obtain this situation no small exertion was necessary on
the part of liis friends, and during the eleven years that he continued minister of the
Canongate his reputation was continually growing. He was, in 1754, translated to that
church in Edinburgh, called Lady Yester's, and from thence to the High church, in
J 758. During the four years that Mr. Blair was minister of Lady Yester's, several im-
portant events in his life occurred.
In June 1757, the university of St. Andrew showed its discernment by presenting him
with the degree of doctor in divinity, and as this academical honour was then hardly
known in Scotland, it was the more creditable for those who attained it. The town
council of Edinburgh, in August 1760, instituted in the university a professorship of
rhetoric, to which they elected and appointed Dr. Blair ; and in April 1 762, his r"ajesty
erected and endowed a professorship of rhetoric and belles-lettres, appointing Dr. Blair
professor, with a salary of 70^. After reading his course of lectures in the university
above twenty years. Dr. Blair found it proper to publish them, in 1783 ; and observes, in
his preface, that their publication then was not altogether a matter of choice. Imper-
fect copies had been exposed to sale, and it became necessary that the lectures should
proceed from his own hand. He had married, in 1748, his cousm, Miss Bannatyne, and
from their union, which lasted 47 years, he derived much domestic happiness ; and her
death, which happened five years before his own, deeply aflected him. The summer
before his death he prepared the last volume of his sermons for the press ; and died in
December 1800, in the 83rd year of his age.