37 Facts About Hugh Blair

Hugh Blair FRSE was a Scottish minister of religion, author and rhetorician, considered one of the first great theorists of written discourse.

Best known for Sermons, a five volume endorsement of practical Christian morality, and Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, a prescriptive guide on composition, Hugh Blair was a valuable part of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Hugh Blair was born in Edinburgh into an educated Presbyterian family.

Hugh Blair was great-great-grandson of Rev Robert Blair of St Andrews and great nephew of Very Rev David Blair the Moderator of the General Assembly in 1700.

In 1741, two years after the publication of his thesis, Hugh Blair received his license as a Presbyterian preacher.

Hugh Blair was appointed to the sole charge of Lady Yester's Kirk in 1754, and four years later in 1758 was translated to the second charge of the High Kirk of St Giles under Rev Robert Walker as "first charge".

Hugh Blair maintained this position for many years, during which time he published a five-volume series of his addresses entitled Sermons.

At first Hugh Blair taught without remuneration from the university and was paid direct by his students, but the popularity of his course led to the institution of a permanent class and Hugh Blair was made Professor Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the university in 1762, a position ratified by King George III.

Hugh Blair retained this position until his retirement in 1783.

In 1773 Hugh Blair was living at Argyle Square on the south side of Edinburgh's Old Town.

In 1783 Hugh Blair was one of the founder members of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Hugh Blair served as its Literary President from 1789 to 1796.

Hugh Blair's life was very full in both the public and the private spheres.

Hugh Blair had a summer residence in the small village of Restalrig north-east of Edinburgh.

Hugh Blair died at home in Argyle Square on 27 December 1800.

Hugh Blair is buried near his home, in Greyfriars Churchyard in Edinburgh.

Hugh Blair was succeeded in his chair at Edinburgh University by Andrew Brown.

Hugh Blair had been Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1739.

Hugh Blair outlived his wife, who died in February 1795 five years before his own death in December 1800.

Hugh Blair was described as "amiable, kind to young authors, and remarkable for a harmless, but rather ridiculous vanity and simplicity".

Hugh Blair is best known for the publication of three major works: A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, Son of Fingal; Sermons; and Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres.

In 1763 Hugh Blair published A Critical Dissertation on the Poems of Ossian, his first well known openly authored publication.

Hugh Blair, having long taken interest in the Celtic poetry of the Scottish Highlands, wrote a laudatory account of the poems of Ossian, the authenticity of which he maintained.

Hugh Blair serves as the voice of authority on the legitimacy of the poems that he himself had urged friend James Macpherson to publish in Fragments of Ancient Poetry.

Hugh Blair published the first of his five volume series Sermons in 1777.

Hugh Blair's success is credited to the ease with which the audience could follow his polite, organised style; a style that was translated easily into print.

Hugh Blair did not believe in radical change, as his teachings were safe and ultimately prepared for the upper classes.

Hugh Blair had liberal tendencies demonstrated in his rejection of Calvinistic doctrines such as original sin, total corruption, and damnation.

Hugh Blair encourages people to improve their natural talents through hard work, but to be content with their appointed stations in society.

Hugh Blair urges people to play an active role in society, to enjoy the pleasures of life, to do good works, and to maintain faith in God.

Lectures, a compilation of 47 of Hugh Blair's lectures given to students at the University of Edinburgh, serves as a practical guide for youth on composition and language, a guide that makes Hugh Blair the first great theorist of written discourse.

Hugh Blair himself admits that the work is a suffusion of his understanding of classical and modern theories of language.

Hugh Blair believed that social cultivation, and most importantly the proper use of polite literature and effective writing, was the key to social success.

Hugh Blair acknowledged that a person must have virtue and personal character, as well as knowledge of literature to be an effective speaker or writer.

Hugh Blair argues that invention is the result of knowledge and cannot be aided by devices of invention as outlined by classic theorists.

Hugh Blair wrote in a time when print culture was flourishing and traditional rhetoric was falling out of favour.

Lectures too did not maintain its popularity as theorists such as Whately and Spencer, drawing on Hugh Blair's theories, dominated the domain of composition theory.