Blacklock,' says he, " to posterity, will seem a fable ; as to the present age, he is a prodigy. It will be thought a fiction, that a man blind from his in fancy, besides having acquired a surprising know ledge of Greek, Latin, Italian, and French, should at the same time be a great poet ; and, without having almost ever seen the light, should, notwithstanding, be singularly happy in his descriptions." Though we may not be inclined to subscribe to the theory which Mr Spence has adopted, or to ascribe to Black lock any extraordinary or supernatural conception of visible objects, we may at least fairly claim for him a singular felicity of combination in his use of the ex. pressions by which these objects are distinguished. A retentive memory, and an intimate acquaintance with poetical language, joined to an enthusiastic and creative fancy, which embodied all his ideas, may per haps go far to account for a phenomenon which has exercised the talents of ingenious men both at home and abroad. With respect to the other qualifications of Blacklock as a poet, we do not hesitate to say, that he exhibits proofs of an ardent imagination, a refined taste, and a feeling heart. " One other praise," says Mr M'Kenzie, with no less truth than elegance, " which the good will value, belongs to those poems in a high degree,—they breathe the purest spirit of virtue, and benevolence. These indeed are the muses of Blacklock ; they inspire his poetry, as they animated his life ; • and he never approaches the sacred ground on which they dwell, without an expansion ground mind and an elevation of language."Besides the publications already mentioned, Black lock was the author of several other works, which add to his fame as a poet the character of a profound philosopher and skilful theologian. In 1756, he pub
lished at Edinburgh, An Essay towards Universal ,Etymology, or the Analysis of a Sentence, 8vo. In 1760, he published, The Right Improvement of Time, a sermon, 8vo ; and in the same year, he contributed se veral poetical pieces to the first volume of Donaldson's Collection of Original Poems by Scots Gentlemen, 12mo. In 1761, he published, Faith, Hope, and Charity compared, a sermon, 8vo. In 1767, he gave to the world his Paraclesis ; or Consolations deduced from Natural and Revealed Religion,in two Disserta tions. Thefirst supposed to have been written by Cicero, now rendered into English, the last originally compo sed by Thomas Blacklock, D. D. In 1768, he published without his name, Two Discourses on the Spirit and Evidences of Christianity, translated from the French of the Reverend James Armand, Minister of the 1Valoon Church in Ilanau. In 1773; he published a poem, entitled, A Panegyric on Great Britain, 8vo. j In 1771, he published, The Graham, an Heroic Bal. 1 lad, in four cantos, Ito. In 1793,a posthumous edition, of his poems was published by Mr M'Kenzie. There are still unpublished some volumes of sermons in manu script, together with a treatise on morals, both of which his friends have had it in contemplation to give to the world. See an account of Blacklock's life by Mr Gordon, prefixed to the edition of his poems published at Edinburgh in 1754 ; another by Mr Spence, prefixed to the edition of his poems publish ed at London in ; another by Mr M'Kenzie, prefixed to the posthumous edition of his poems in 1793 ; and another by Dr Anderson, in his Lives of the Poets. (it. D.