he never astonished in conversation by any original remark. In company, hie made a far less striking appearance than the half-instructed peasant Burns, who, at his first visit to Edinburgh, was warmly patronized by Dr Blair. In some points of view, his mind bore an unprepossessing aspect He was content to read and weak enough to admire the wretched fictitious compositions which appeared in that age under the denomination of novels. He would talk profusely of the furniture of the room in which he was sitting, criticising every object with a sincere and well-weighed attention, which would not have been ill-bestowed upon the most solemn subjects. In his dress, and in almost all points of mere externe and ceremonial form, he was minutely fastidious. He was also so fond of the approbation of his fellow-creatures—in moderation, a most useful feature of character—that even very marked flattery was received by him not only without displeasure, but with an obviously keen relish, that said little either for his discrimination or his modesty. Yet, with these less worthy points of character, Blair had no mean moral feelings. He was incapable of envy; spoke liberally and candidly of men whose pursuits and opinions differed from his own, and was seldom betrayed into a severe remark upon any subject unconnected with actual vice.
Though his bodily constitution was by no means robust, yet by habitual tern perance and by attention to health, his life was happily prolonged beyond the usual period. For some years he had felt himself unequal to the fatigue of instructing his very large congregation from the pulpit; and under the impression which this feeling produced, he has been heard to say, with a sigh, that, "he was left almost the last of his contemporaries." Such, nevertheless, was the vigour of his mind, that, in 1799, when past the eightieth year of his age, he composed and preached one of the most effective sermons he ever delivered, on behalf of the fund for the benefit of the sons of the clergy. He was also employed during the summer of 1800, in preparing his last volume for the press; and for this purpose, he copied the whole with his own hand. He began the winter, pleased with himself on account of this exertion; and his friends were flattered with the hope that he might live to enjoy the accession of emolument and fame which he expected it would bring. But the seeds of a mortal disease were lurking within him. On the 24th of December, he felt slight pain in his bowels, with which neither he nor his friends were alarmed. On the afternoon of the 26th, this pain encreased, and violent symptoms began to appear; the causes of which were then unfortunately unknown both to himself and his physician. He had for a few years laboured under an inguinal hernia. This malady, which he was imprudently disposed to conceal, he considered as trifling; and he understood that by taking the ordinary precautions, nothing was to be apprehended from it It settled, however, into a stoppage of the bowels, and ere the physician was made aware of his condition, an inflammation had taken place, and he consequently survived only till the morning of the 27th, thus expiring almost at the same time with that century of the Christian epoch, of which he had been one of the most distinguished ornaments. He died in the eighty-third year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his profession as a minister of the gospel.
BLAIR, JAMES, an eminent divine, was reared for the episcopal church of Scotland, at the time when it was struggling with the popular dislike in the reign of Charles II. Discouraged by the equivocal situation of that establishment in Scotland, he voluntarily abandoned his preferments, and removed to England, where he was patronized by Compton, Bishop of London. By this prelate he was prevailed upon to go as a missionary to Virginia, in 1685, and, having given the greatest satisfaction by his zeal in the propagation of religion, he was, in 1689, preferred to the office of commissary to the bishop, which was the high-
