HUCHI BLAIR D.D. Painted by D.Martin Published according to Act of Parliament, May 1.1783, Engravd by Cal ΟΝ RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRE S. By HUGH BLAIR, D. D. & F. R. S. ED. ONE OF THE MINISTERS OF THE HIGH CHURCH, AND PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND BELLES LETTRES IN THE UNIVERSITY, OF EDINBURGH, IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. THE THIRD EDITION. LONDON: PRINTED FOR A. STRAHAN; T. CADELL, IN THE STRAND; AND W. CREECH, IN EDINBURGH. MDCCLXXXVII. H PREFACE. T HE following LECTURES were read in the University of Edinburgh, for Twenty-four years. The publication of them, at prefent, was not altogether a matter of choice. Imperfect Copies of them, in Manufcript, from notes taken by Students who heard them read, were first privately handed about; and afterwards frequently exposed to public fale. When the Author faw them circulate fo currently, as even to be quoted in print*, and found himself often threatened with furreptitious publications of them, he judged it to be high time that they fhould proceed from his own hand, rather than come into public view under fome very defective and erroneous form. THEY were originally defigned for the initiation of Youth into the study of Belles. * Biographia Britannica. Article, ADDISON. A 2 Lettres, Lettres, and of Compofition. With the fame intention they are now published; and, therefore, the form of Lectures, in which they were at first compofed, is ftill retained. The Author gives them to the world, neither as a Work wholly original, nor as a Compilation from the Writings of others. On every fubject contained in them, he has thought for himself. He confulted his own ideas and reflections: and a great part of what will be found in thefe Lectures is entirely his own. At the fame time, he availed himself of the ideas and reflections of others, as far as he thought them proper to be adopted. To proceed in this manner, was his duty as a Public Profeffor. It was incumbent on him, to convey to his Pupils all the knowledge that could improve them; to deliver not merely what was new, but what might be useful, from whatever quartér it came. He hopes, that to fuch as are ftudying to cultivate their Tafte, to form their Style, or to prepare themselves for Public Speaking or Compofition, his Lectures will afford a more comprehenfive view of what relates to thefe fubjects, than, as far |