Men of the Time, eleventh edition/Blackie, John Stuart
BLACKIE, John Stuart, Professor of Greek in the University of Edinburgh, son of a banker in Aberdeen, born at Glasgow, in July, 1809, was educated at Aberdeen and Edinburgh. During two years passed in Göttingen and Berlin, and at Rome, he devoted himself to the study of German, Italian, and classical philology. In 1834 he published a metrical translation of Goethe's "Faust," with notes and prolegomena (2nd edit., 1880), and was called to the Scottish bar. He became a frequent contributor of articles bearing on German literature to Blackwood, Tait, and the Foreign Quarterly Review. In 1841 he was appointed to the newly-formed chair of Latin Literature in Marischal College, Aberdeen. This post he held for eleven years, during which time he entered warmly into the movement for University Reform in Scotland, which resulted in the appointment of a Parliamentary Commission on that subject in 1858, by which some important changes were effected in the higher branches of education in Scotland. He contributed several philological articles to the Classical Museum, published in 1850, then edited by Dr. L. Schmitz, and a metrical translation of Æschylus, which led to his appointment, in 1852, to the Greek chair in the University of Edinburgh. This was followed by an essay on the "Pronunciation of Greek, Accent and Quantity," 1852; a "Discourse on Beauty, with an Exposition of the Theory of Beauty according to Plato appended," 1858; "Songs and Legends of Ancient Greece," 1857, 2nd edition, 1880; and another volume of Poems, English and Latin, 1860. In 1853 he travelled in Greece, and published a lecture warmly recommending the study of modern Greek, and articles on modern Greece in the Westminster and North British Reviews. He is the author of various articles in the North British Review, an article on Plato in the "Edinburgh Essays," and the article "Homer," in the "Encyclopædia Britannica." In addition to his academical work, which, since he settled in Edinburgh, has been principally connected with Plato and Homer, Professor Blackie has been very active as a popular lecturer, and made himself somewhat conspicuous as a warm advocate of Scottish nation-laity. In the discussions which preceded the passing of the Reform Act of 1867 he took a warm interest, and supported the principles of the British constitution against the advocates of American democracy in a public debate with Ernest Jones, the well-known Chartist. Professor Blackie's argument on "Democracy," on this occasion, was published, and went through six editions in a fortnight. His name is closely connected with the movement which resulted in the abolition of the Test Act, requiring the professors of the Scottish Universities to be members of the Established Church. In 1866 he published "Homer and the Iliad," containing a translation of the Iliad in ballad measure, a third volume of Critical Dissertations, and a fourth of Notes Philological and Archæological; and in 1869 "Musa Burschicosa," a volume of songs for students and university men. In 1870 he put forth a volume of "War Songs of the Germans," with historical sketches, in which he advocated the cause of the Germans against France with great energy and decision. In 1872 he published "Lays of the Highlands and Islands." Professor Blackie also appeared as a lecturer in the Royal Institution, London, where he combated the views of Mr. John Stuart Mill in moral philosophy, of Mr. Grote in his estimate of the Greek sophists, and of Max Müller in his allegorical interpretation of ancient myths. His views on moral philosophy against the Utilitarian school were set forth in "Four Phases of Morals," Edinburgh, 1871, 2nd edit., 1874, reprinted in America. His principal philological papers appeared in a collected form in 1874, under the title of "Horæ Hellenicæ;" and in the same year he put forth a little volume of practical advice to young men, entitled "Self-Culture," which had a large sale in England, India and America, has gone through thirteen editions, and has been translated into French, German and Bohemian. His more recent works are "The Wise Men of Greece; or, Sketches of ancient Greek philosophy from Thales to Plato in a series of dramatic dialogues," 1877; "The Natural History of Atheism; a defence of Theism against modern Atheistic and Agnostic tendencies," 1877; "Lay Sermons: a series of discourses on important points of Christian doctrine and morals," 1881; "The Language and Literature of the Highlands of Scotland, with poetical translations of some of the most popular pieces of Gaelic poetry," 1875; "Altavona; or, fact and fiction from my life in the Highlands," 1882. Professor Blackie has crowned his contributions towards a proper estimate of Scottish Celts by the foundation of a Celtic chair in the University of Edinburgh, for which by four years' considerable exertion he collected a sum of £12,000 sterling. He resigned the chair of Greek in the University of Edinburgh in Aug. 1882.