BLAIR, Hugh, Scottish divine: b. Edin burgh, 7 April 1718; d. 27 Dec. 1800. He com menced his academic career at Edinburgh Uni versity in 1730. In 1741 he was licensed as a preacher, and the following year was ordained to the parish of Collessie, Fife, but a few months after he was elected to the second charge of the Canongate, Edinburgh. In 1754 he received one of the city charges, that of Lady Yester's Church, and in 1758 one of the charges of the High Church. In 1759 he com menced a course of lectures to students upon the principles of literary composition; and in 1762 he was made professor of rhetoric and belles-lettres in the University of Edinburgh, being the first that ever occupied this chair. He continued the course till 1783, when he pub lished his lectures, which received very high praise. In 1763 he published a dissertation on the 'Poems of Ossian,' in the authenticity of which he firmly believed. 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. One
of the sermons having been sent by Strahan, the King's printer, to Dr. Johnson for his opinion, Strahan received from him the following char acteristic note: •1 have read over Dr. Blair's first sermon with more than approbation; to say it is good is to say too little.' Strahan thereupon agreed to purchase the volume, with Mr. Cadell, for $500. The sale was so rapid and extensive, and the approbation of the pub lic so high, that the proprietors voluntarily doubled the stipulated price. The volume speedily fell under @le attention of George III, and by royal mandate a pension of $1,000 a year was bestowed on Dr. Blair. During the sub sequent part of his life Dr. Blair published three other volumes of sermons; and it might safely he said that each successive publication only tended to deepen the impression produced by the first.