After going through the usual course of studies at the university with more than common success, he was in the year 1759 licensed by the presbytery of Dumfries to preach the gospel, and in this capacity soon obtained a high reputation. In 1762, he mar ried Miss Sarah Johnston, daughter of an eminent surgeon in Dumfries; a connection which Providence seems to have intended as the solace and blessing of his future life. A few days after this event, he was ordained minister at Kirkcudbright, in consequence of a crown presentation obtained for him by the Earl of Selkirk, a benevolent nobleman, who took an inte rest in his welfare. Besides the natural prejudices of the people against a pastor deprived of sight, there were some other circumstances which combined to render his ordination unpopular amongst the inhabi tants of the parish. At that period the disputes con cerning patronage ran high throughout the kingdom; and the aversion of the lower classes to the exercise of that right, frequently, as in the present instance, prejudiced them against the presentee. Besides, it was known that the living had been bestowed on Blacklock through the•nterest of Lord Selkirk, with whom the town's people were at that period unfortu nately involved in some political animosities, which made them look on his interference with a jealous eye. Add to all this, that the poet's language and style of preaching, though in themselves extremely good, and well adapted to the taste of an enlightened congrega tion, were too refined and philosophical to be relish ed, or perhaps understood, by that description of peo ple of which his hearers were chiefly composed. It will not appear surprising, therefore, that much dis satisfaction should have prevailed at his nomination to that living ; and those who are acquainted with the habits and feelings of the Scottish peasantry, will easily conceive the violent lengths to which such a combination of irritating circumstances would natU rally lead them. The fact is, that he entered the town amidst the hisses and hootings of the populace ; that his passage to the church, where the ceremony of ordination was to be performed, was obstructed; and that it was not without imminent danger to the persons of himself and his friends, that a way was made for him through the enraged crowd. The lively sensibility of Blacklock's mind was deeply wounded by this undeserved hostility, and the scenes of happi ness which his benevolent heart and ardent imagina tion had pictured to him in the discharge of his cle rical duties, vanished from his view. Instead of find ing himself, as he had fondly hoped, installed in an office, every duty of which was to be a labour of love, lie saw nothing before him but unavailing wishes, thankless toils, and endless contentions. After dining with some friends who had accompanied him from Dumfries, finding rest necessary to recruit his haraa sed and exhausted spirits, Ile left the table and retired to bed, when the following extraordinary circumstance occured, which merits particular notice as a cu fact relative to the state of the mind in sleep. One of his companions, uneasy at his absence from the company, went into his bed-room a few hours af terwards, and, finding him, as he supposed, awake, •prevailed upon him to return into the dining room. When he entered the room, two of his acquaintances were engaged in singing, and he joined in the concert, modulating'his voice as usual with tasteand elegance, without missing a note or a syllable ; and after the words of the song were ended, he continued to sing, adding an extempore verse, . which appeared to the company full and quite in the spirit of the original. He then went to supper, and drank a glass or two of wine. His friends, however, observed him to be occasionally absent and inattentive. By and bye he was heard speaking to himself, but in so slow and confused a manner as to be unintelligible. At last, being pretty fore oly roused by Mrs Blacklock, who began to be alarmed for his intellects, he awoke with a sudden start, unconscious of all that had hap pened, having been the whole time fast asleep. The principal part of these remarkable particulars, is men tioned by Dr Cleghorn in his Thesis De Somno. Where the writer of this article has ventured to make some additions to that account, he is supported by the testimony of Mrs Blacklock, from whom he per sonally obtained the anecdote.
Blacklock finding his situation in Kirkcudbright exceedingly irksome and painful, resigned his right to the living after a legal dispute of two years, and accepted of a moderate annuity in its stead. With this slender provision, he removed in 1764 to Edin burgh, where lie adopted the plan of receiving a cer tain number of young gentlemen into his house as boardcrii. In this situation he continued with much success for 23 years, studies of his board ers with the most affectionate care, and improving their minds by his enlightened conversation. " In the occupation which he thus exercised for so many years of his life," says the author of the Man of Feeling, in the elegant memoir he has prefixed to the posthumous edition of his poems, " no teacher was perhaps ever more agreeable to his pupils, nor master of a family to its inmates, than Blacklock. The
gentleness of his manners, the benignity of his dispo sition, and that warm interest in the happiness of others, which led him so constantly to promote it, were qualities which could not fail to procure him the love and regard of the young people committed to his charge ; while the society, which esteem and respect for his character and his genius often assembled at his house, afforded them an advantage rarely to be fotlnd in establishments of a similar kind." The writer of this account has frequently been a witness of the family scene at Dr Blacklock's ; has seen the good man amidst the circle of his young friends, eager to do him all the little offices of kindness which lie seemed so much to merit and to feel. In this society he seemed entirely to forget the privation of sight, and the melancholy which at other times it might produce. He entered with the chearful playfulness of a young man into all the sprightly narrative, the sportful fancy, the humourous jest, that rose around I him. It was a sight highly gratifying to philan thropy, to see how much a mind endowed with knowledge, kindled by genius,4and above all, lighted up with innocence and piety, like Blacklock's, could overcome the weight of its own calamity, and enjoy the content, the happiness, and the gaiety of others. Several of those inmates of Dr Blacklock's house, retained in future life all the warmth of that impres sion which his friendship at this early period had made upon them ; and in various quarters of the world he had friends and correspondents, from whom no length of time, and no distance of place, had ever estranged him.
In 1766, upon the unsolicited recommendation of his friend Dr Beattie, the degree of doctor of divi nity was conferred on him by the university of Aber deen.
In 1787, finding that his time of life, and the state of his health, required repose, he was induced to dis continue the receiving of boarders. In the mean time, the infirmities of age were rapidly and visibly advan cing. A constitutional lowness of spirits, to which•, even in the vigour of youth, the delicate sensibility of his nerves had at times rendered him subject, began to recur more frequently, and with greater severity ; and a general indisposition both of body and mind, indicated• the near approach of that period beyond which protracted life is often little more than pro tracted pain. Amidst these indispositions of body, however, and disquietudes of mind, the gentleness of his temper never forsook him, and he felt all that re signation to the will of the Supreme Being, and con fidence in his goodness, which, through every vicissi tude of life, had habitually supported his mind. In summer 1791, he was seized with a feverish disorder, which on the 7th July, after about a week's illness, ended in his death.
The character of Blacklock, whether we consider the qualities of his heart, or the endowments of his understanding, is worthy of admiration. To an eager sensibility and quickness of feeling, which is the pe culiar temperament of poetic genius, he joined an un common gentleness and candour of mind. His vigor ous understanding, and his ardent pursuit of know ledge, were chastened and adorned by an amiable modesty, and an innocent simplicity of manners. Deprived of sight in early infancy, nature seems to have compensated for this misfortune, by opening to him many sources of enjoyment unknown to common minds. As he was debarred from those amusements and avocations which distract and embarrass the mental powers, lie devoted himself to learning, and success fully cultivated the elegant pleasures of taste and fancy. Amidst disadvantages and discouragements which would have overwhelmed a more feeble mind, he was distinguished by his proficiency in classical literature, in belles lettres, in metaphysics, and in all the various branches of knowledge for which the age is distinguished. As a poet, his merit has been long known and acknowledged. The productions of his muse are marked with such an elegance of diction, such an ardour of sentiment, and such a glow and propriety of description, as must excite the approba tion, and affect the feelings, of every reader of taste. What is particularly remarkable in the works of one k. deprived from his earliest infancy of the of —• sight, is the accurate and beautiful descriptions of vi sible objects witl, which his writings abound. This circumstance has raised the astonishment of all who are capable of forming an opinion on the subject. Mr Spence, his elegant panegyrist, has treated this descriptive power in one labouring under such a de privation, as a sort of problem, which, in a very in genious but fanciful manner, he has endeavoured to explain. Professor Denina, an ingenious foreigner, in his Discorso della Literatura, has expressed him self on this subject in terms of admiration and surprise.