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FURTHER ACCOUNT OF DR. HUGH BLAIR *.

HUGH BLAIR, Doctor in Divinity, Profeffor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in that Univerfity, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Honorary Member of the Highland Society of London, &c. and author of fome of the most popular works on fubjects of piety, tafte, and morals, which have ever appeared in Europe, was born at Edinburgh, in April 1718. His father was a younger brother of the ancient family of BLAIR, and a clergyman of the Church of Scotland. After a courfe of liberal education at the fchocis, and in the University of his native city, the fon took the degree of Mafter of Arts, and entered into holy orders, in the year 1742. He was prefented, that fame year, to the rural benefice of Collefie, in the county of Fife. From Collefie, he was foon tranflated to the Canongate Church, at Edinburgh. In the year 1758, he became firit Minifter of that which is called the High Church of Edinburgh. The University of St. Andrew's about that time conferred on him the honour of Doctor in Divi. nity. In 1761, the Profefforfhip of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres was inftituted

in the University of Edinburgh, for the purpose of being filled by Dr. Blair. He was one of thofe who promoted the collection, the tranflation, and the Englifh publication of the Poems of Ofian. His own first publication was, A Critical Differtation on thofe Poems, which accom panied the tranflation, by Macpherfon. In the year 1777, he published the fir volume of thofe Sermons which have been fo generally read and admired. The late Dr. Samuel Johnson was one of the first to praise them. The fuccefs of his firft volume encouraged him to add a fecond. A third, and a fourth, after different intervals, followed. They were all received with the fame ardent approbation. They have been re-printed, we believe, almoft to a twentieth edition, by the London proprietors of the copy right. In Ireland and America, they have paffed through various editions. In the year 1783, Dr. Blair was permitted to retire from the official exercife of his duties, as Profeffor of Rhetoric; ftill continuing. however, to enjoy the falary of that appointment, and to retain the character of Profeffor Emeritus. His Lectures

See Vol. IV. p. 201 and Vol. XXXIII. p. 219.

were

were foon after made public, from the prefs. Temperance, exercife, and the advantages of a conftitution of body naturally found and healthful, pre ferved him to within a few years of his death, in full ability to discharge

the clerical duties of his office. He had

furvived his wife, who died a few years fince; and his only child, a lovely daughter, who was fuddenly fnatched away by a fever, in the flower of her age. To the laft, he remained equal to the duties and the fober enjoyments

of domeftic life.

His emoluments, at firft moderate, were gradually increased. As a Minifter of Edinburgh, he had a ftipend of 200l. a-year as Profeffor of Rhetoric, he had an annual falary of 70l. From about the time of the publication of the fecond volume of his Sermons, he had a penfion from her Majefty of 200l. annually, which, when he ceafed to lecture on Rhetoric, was augmented to 3ool. The copy-money of his works, received at different times, might amount in all to nearly 4000l. His ftyle of living was comfortable and refpectable; he entertained his friends with elegant hofpitality; divided his year between the town and its rural environs; and kept his carriage. His expences were carefully regulated; and he has, it is faid, left a fortune of between 15,000l. and 20,000l.

If the merits of an Author may be estimated by the popularity and general ufefulness of his writings, it will be impoffible to deny Dr. Blair, as a man of tafte and judgment, almoft the very firft rank among his cotemporaries. His Critical Differtation on the Poems of Offian, combines the philofophy of Ariftotle with the eloquence of Longinus; mingles the metaphyfical criticifm of the Scots with that criticifm of mere tafte and erudition which is preferred by the English; difplays, above all, a foundnels of judgment, and a delicate fenfe of propriety, which are fcarcely rivalled by any other critical production either in ancient or modern times. At the period when his Sermons were first offered to the world, this fpecies of writing had loft almoft all its former power over the minds of the public. Mere elegance and propriety of style could have had but fmall effect to make fermons fo fuddenly popular and fo eminently fashionable. It was the skill with which they were adapted to the very tone of the public taste, humour,

and judgment-it was the union which they exhibited of mild religion, and of pure and liberal philofophy, with dif criminating obfervation on the modes of human conduct, and the fortunes of human life. It was in conjunction with fuch qualities, that epic unity of compofition, that luminous beauty and juftnefs of arrangement, that spirit of propriety and difcretion pervading them in every part, to which his Sermons owed that fudden but ftill rifing popularity which they have, ever fince their first publication, enjoyed.

They prefent a fyftem of Peripatetic and Chriftian Philofophy, happily applied to regulate the conduct of men in every important condition of life. His eloquence is vigorous, lively, fplendid, always correct, but rarely rifing to the higheft pitch of vehemence or fublimity. The style is pure, and abounds in thofe felicities of expreffion which are named by the Roman Critics, "ardentia verba-by Gray, the "Words that burn." His eloquence is always ornamented to the very limits of claffical propriety-never beyond thefe. A fingular clearness of both thought and expreffion every where remarkably appears throughout his Difcourfes. He is often folemnly fublime, more frequently tender and foftly pleasing, fometimes meltingly pathetic. Such perfect correctnefs was never before united with a fire fo pure and vivid. His Lectures, after having, in their deliverance from the Academical Chair, operated in an extraordinary degree to correct and refine the taste of his countrymen, have been confefled, fince their publication, to afford the best fyftem of the principles of tafte and the laws of literary compofition, which has been offered to the world fince the age of Quintilian.

Superficial readers have fancied and affirmed, that, while fo popular, his writings wanted depth and originality of fentiment. Never was there a more egregious mistake-He ever feizes his fubject with a masterly grafp, views it on all fides, penetrates with keen difcernment through its moft fecret obfcurities, difcovers relations hitherto unknown, exercifes the happy art to illuminate the obfcure, to dignify the familiar, to bestow upon the new every eafy and natural charm.

His Sermons have been tranflated into the French Dutch, German, Sclavonic, and Italian languages. His Lectures

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QUID SIT PULCHRUM, QUID TURPE, QUID UTILE, QUID NON.

Secret Memoirs of the Court of Petersburgh, particularly towards the End of the Reign of Catharine II. and the Commencement of that of Paul I. forming a Description of the Manners of Petersburgh at the Clofe of the Eighteenth Century; and containing various Anecdotes collected during a Refidence of Ten Years in that Capital: together with Remarks on the Education of the Grand Dukes, the Manners of the Ladies, and the Religion of the People. Tranflated from the French. 2 Vols. 8vo. Longman and Rees.

THE HIS extraordinary publication is replete with political information, and enlivened with anecdotes to gratify curiofity, and to entertain the generality of readers. In many respects it may be confidered as a fupplement to Tooke's Life of Catharine, which was amply reviewed in our Magazines, Vol. XXXIV and XXXV, at the clofe of 1798, and commencement of 1799.

By an advertisement prefixed to the prefent tranflation, we are very properly informed, that the publishers were induced by a fenfe of decency and propriety, to fupprefs or foften a few anecdotes contained in the original, the grofsnefs of which would undoubt. edly outrage the public and private feelings of Englishmen. Having read this original with due attention, we think it a duty incumbent on us, as candid critics, to applaud the judgment,

VOL. XXXIX. JAN. 1801,

good tafte, and prudence of our countrymen, in withholding from the public eye, thofe impure defcriptive fcenes of a voluptuous Court, which would have tendency to inflame the paffions and corrupt the morals of our youth of both fexes. Let the conduct of thefe worthy bookfellers ferve as a beacon to the very few in the bufinefs who, regardless of every other confideration but felf-intereft, publish, under the fpecious titles of Memoirs and Anecdotes, fuch private tranfactions as violate all the rules of public decorum, and deferve the fevereft reprehenfion from every man of letters who is concerned for the honour and morality of the British prefs. In the hands of the libertine and the fenfualift, let the few copies of the original brought into England remain in privacy; and let us hope, that the Officers of the Customs

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will have timely orders from their fuperiors to prevent any future importations of thefe mental poifons. We dwell more particularly upon this fubject, because a report is current, that the French originals "will be allowed to be imported," and because we recollect the fatal effects of the indifcreet tranflation, fome years fince, of a molt pernicious novel, entitled, Les Liafons Dangereufes, from which were imbibed principles highly injuricus to matrimonial fidelity, destructive of domeftic harmony, and calculated to feduce the higher claffes of females to imitate the loofe manners of the Parifian women of the fame rank, at the time when the corrupt manners of the profligate Duke de Chartres, afterwards too well known as Orleans, prevailed generally at Paris, and too much at the Court of Verfailles.

In the first Chapter, fome interefting particulars are related refpecting the projected marriage of the young King of Sweden and the Princefs Alexandra, the prefent Grand Duchefs, and the eldest daughter of the Emperor Paul, which, we believe, never before appeared in print. "This amiable Princefs was educated and trained up in the idea of being one day Queen of Sweden; every perfon about her confirmed her in this idea, and entertained her with the charms and early ripening accomplishments of the young Gufta

vus.

Catharine one day opened a port folio, containing portraits of feveral unmarried Princes, and preffed her to point out which of them the fhould like beft for a husband. The child, blushing, chofe the portrait of him, of whom he had heard fo many fine things, and who was already the lover of her rifing imagination. The good old lady, not confidering that her grand-daughter could read, and knew the Prince of Sweden by his name at the bottom of the picture, perfuaded herfelf, that fympathy had decided in his favour, and purfued her fcheme with redoubled ardour."

By the violent and fudden death of his father, the young Prince unexpectedly became King of Sweden, and care had been taken previous to this event, by the emiffaries of Catharine, to engage thofe perfons who had the most frequent accefs to him, to infpire him with fentiments of reciprocal partiality in favour of Alexandra; but the grand obftacle to this connexion was, the ani

mofity which the Duke of Sudermania, the young King's uncle, and Regent of the Kingdom during his minority, foftered fecretly in his breaft, not only against Catharine, but against the system of Ruffian politics. Yet, by the powerful influence and deep intrigues of the Emprefs, this difficulty appeared to be furmounted, and the Duke was prevailed upon to accompany his royal ward in a vifit to the Court of Peterf burgh, and to break off a negociation which he had entered into for marrying the young King to a Princess of Mecklenburg. The reconciliation of two fuch illuftrious perfonages as the Duke and the Emprefs, after having exhibited to all Europe proofs of an implacable hatred, was the wonder of the day, a Genevefe of the name of Chriftian, formerly the right hand and Secretary to Calonne, the famous French financier, being at Stockholm, wrought this political miracle."

On the 25th of August 1796, the King of Sweden, then only feventeen years of age, arrived at Petersburgh, with his uncle and a numerous fuite. At his first interview with the Emprefs, the appeared enchanted, and, to use her own expreffion, almoft in love with him herself. The interview with the young Princefs was still more interefting; and the eyes of the whole Court being turned towards them, their confufion increased. Then it was, that each feemed to find the other worthy of the fentiments with which they had been infpired from infancy. All the pomp of the Ruffian empire was fedulously difplayed to his view; but it did not dazzle him. His attention was wholly taken up with noticing every thing the moft worthy of his obfervation. Though in a ftate of continual enchantment, in the midit of a moft brilliant and numerous Court, and the moit fplendid entertainments, he wifely employed his mornings in traverfing the city with the Regent, and feeing every thing that could be interefting or inftructive. Every where, he put fuch queftions, or gave fuch anfwers, as fhewed the underftanding he poffeffed, and the educa

tion he had received.

At length, all the preliminaries being, as it was fuppofed, duly adjusted, the day was fixed for the ceremony of betrothing the young couple. It was the 21ft of September. The whole Court received orders to affemble in full drefs, in the apartment of the Throne,

Throne. The young Princess habited as a bride, and attended by her filters, the Grand Dukes and their wives, and all the Ladies and Gentlemen; alfo the Grand Duke Paul and his confort, the father and mother of the Princefs, were affembled by feven o'clock in the evening. The Empress herfelf arrived foon after, in all imaginable pomp. No one was wanting but the young bridegroom, whofe tardinefs at firft excited aftonishment. The repeated going out and coming in of Zubof the favourite, and the impatience which the Emprefs exhibited, foon excited the curiosity and whisperings of the Ladies. The King, however, did not appear. The reafon was, that the Ruffian Minifters of State, Zubof and Mackof, had carried him the marriage contract to fign at fix in the evening, which having read over, he found a ftipulation for the Princess to have a chapel, and Ruffian priests in the Palace, that the might profess the Greek religion publicly, which was incompatible with the Swe difh constitution. The King had only agreed not to lay any restraint on the confcience of the Princefs in the private exercife of the Greek religion, but in public he had infifted that the fhould conform to the religion of his country, and he conceived that Catharine had confented to this arrangement. With surprise, therefore, he afked Mackof, if the Empress herfelf had fent him that contract to fign; and being anfwered in the affirmative, he pofitively refufed to fign; and after repeated folicitations, to avoid further importunities, he retired to his apartment, and fastened

the door.

Thefe debates, however, kept the whole Court in waiting till past ten o'clock, when it became neceflary to inform the Emprefs, that the Treaty was broken off. She rofe, attempted to fpeak, but her tongue faultered; the nearly fainted, and had a flight fit, the precursor of that which carried her off a few weeks after. The very affecting circumstances which followed this unexpected disappointment, both with refpect to the Emprefs, the young Princefs, and the King himfelf, are related in a manner that carries with it every evidence of genuine truth and candour. The firmnefs and patriotifm of the young King, who facrificed his growing affection for the Princefs to the confervation of the laws and customs of his country, the fuffering of the Prin

cefs, and the agonizing vexation of the Emprefs, who fhut herself up in her Palace of Tauris, excited pity for their fate, and general execration againft her Minifters.

Some circumstances refpecting the death of the Emprefs, are fecrets not revealed till this publication appeared; for particulars we refer the curious to Chapter II. containing an account of her fickness and death; but the following reflections on the fate of herself and two of her favourites, are too inftructive to be passed over.

"What a contrait, what a leffon does the death of the three greatest perfonages of Ruffia offer! Oriof, who reigned twelve years bythe fide of Catharine,died in a state of wretched infanity.Potemkin, the powerful, the magnificent Potemkin, the founder of fo many cities and palaces, the conqueror of a kingdom, expired by the road-fide, lying on his cloak; and Catharine, the renowned Empress of all the Ruffias, fell down in a fit in her water clofet, and died on the floor with a lamentable thriek! Strange as it may appear, this mighty woman, who had exhibited fuch amazing pomp and fplendor in her court not many weeks before, was fo neglected by her numerous retinue, attendants, and fervants of different denominations, that none of them thought of taking her up, and carrying her to fome of the beds or fophas of the Palace; the was literally drawn from the paffage of the waterclofet into the anti-chamber, placed on a mattress under the window, where the lay thirty-feven hours, moftly in a state of X infenfibility, in the cold month of November, and in that fevere climate, without any attempt to recover her by the warmth of down-beds."

Great pains have been taken by our Author to delineate the real characters of Catharine, of her courtiers, and of her favourites, who, in fact, were her Minifters; and if long experience be confidered as a qualification for this tafk, he may juftly claim it, as he informs us, that he was well acquainted with the Court, was refident in the capital during the laft ten years of her reign, and near the perfon of the Emprefs, whom he ufually faw twice a week. On the other hand, many of his readers may doubt the impartiality of a Frenchman-to fuch let the following apoftrophe ferve as a guide.

"O Catharine! dazzled by thy greatnefs, of which I have had a near view; charmed

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