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BLAIR, ROBERT, author of "The Grave, a
Poem," was the eldest son of the Rev. David Blair, one of the
ministers of Edinburgh, and chaplain to the King, who, in his turn, was
son to the subject of the preceding article. The mother of the author of
"The Grave,’ was a Miss Nisbet, daughter of Mr Nisbet of Carfin. He
was born in the year 1699, and after the usual preparatory studies, was
ordained in 1731, minister of Athelstaneford, in East Lothian, where he
spent the remainder of his life. Possessing a small fortune in addition to
his stipend as a parish-clergyman, he lived, we are told, rather in the
style of a country gentleman than of a minister, keeping company with the
neighbouring gentry, among whom Sir Francis Kinloch of Gilmerton, patron
of the parish, was one of his warmest friends. Blair, we are further
informed, was at once a man of learning, and of elegant taste and manners.
He was a botanist and florist, which he showed in the cultivation of his
garden; and was also conversant in optical and microscopical knowledge, on
which subjects he carried on a correspondence with some learned men in
England. He was a man of sincere piety, and very assiduous in discharging
the duties of his clerical functions. As a preacher, he was serious and
warm, and discovered the imagination of a poet. He married Miss Isabella
Law, daughter of Mr Law of Elvingston, who had been Professor of Moral
Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh; by this lady, who survived him,
he had five sons and one daughter. His fourth son, who bore his own name,
arose, through various gradations of honour at the Scottish bar, to be
President of the Court of Session.
Blair had turned his thoughts, at an early
period of life, to poetry. While still very young, he wrote some verses to
the memory of his future father-in-law, Mr Law, who was also his blood
relation. We have his own testimony for saying, that his "Grave"
was chiefly composed in that period of his life which preceded his
ordination as a parochial clergyman. An original manuscript of the poem,
in the possession of his son the Lord President, was dated 1741-2; and it
appears, from a letter written by the author to Dr Doddridge, in February
that year, that he had just been endeavouring, through the influence of
his correspondent, Dr Isaac Watts, to induce the London booksellers to
publish it. It was rejected by two of these patrons of literature, to whom
it had been recommended by Dr Watts; but was finally printed in London, in
1743, "for Mr Cooper." The author appears to have been seriously
anxious that it should become a popular work, for he thus writes to Dr
Doddridge: - "In order to make it more generally liked, I was obliged
sometimes to go cross to my own inclination, well knowing that, whatever
poem is written upon a serious argument, must, upon that very account, be
under serious disadvantages; and therefore proper arts must be used to
make such a piece go down with a licentious age, which cares for none of
those things." This is not very clearly intelligible but perhaps
alludes to the plain, strong, rational, and often colloquially familiar
language of the poem, which the plurality of modern critics will allow to
be its best feature. "The Grave" is now to be esteemed as one of
the standard classics of English poetical literature, in which rank it
will probably remain longer than many works of greater contemporary, or
even present fame.
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