Author: BLAIR (Hugh):
Title: Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres.
Description: London: Printed for W. Strahan..., 1783. FIRST EDITION. 4to,295 x 230 mms., pp. viii, 496; [iv], 550 [551 - 567 Index, 568 blank], engraved portrait of Blair as frontispiece in volume 1, entirely uncut, contemporary quarter calf, black morocco labels; marbled boards (very worn and faded); tear in C1 volume 2 repaired, but a decent copy with the contemporary autograph "Anderson Smk" on the title-page of volume 1, and on the front paste-down end-paper of volume 2 the early 19th century bookplate for S. Haward's Circulating Library, No. 4 Colonade, Cheltenham. The first review of Blair's admired and frequently-reprinted book came in the Monthly Review, in which the reviewer affirmed that Blair had exemplified a "happy and singular union of taste and philosophy [and had] supplied a great defect in the science of criticism...." It also made a "valuable addition to the polite literature" of the late 18th century. A long and thorough review in The Critical Review 1783 was not so complimentary and concluded that there "were many inaccuracies of style in these Lectures. The passages, which we have now cited, will be sufficient to justify this observation; and may serve in some respect to show, that the Eloquence of this country has not yet fixed her residence on the north side of the Tweed. Some of these improprieties may be thought too trivial to deserve the attention of a celebrated author, and others may probably be defended by analogy, or the example of preceding writers. But the greater part of them are real violations of grammar, or of that purity, propriety, and precision, which Dr. Blair himself has justly recommended."

Keywords: rhetoric prose Scottish Enlightenment


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