You'll find yourself mistaken, Sir, if you'll take on you to judge of these blades by their garbs, looks, .nd outward appearance. L'Estrange.

If we were able to dive into her secret recesses, we hould find that the smallest blade of grass, or most ontemptible weed, has its particular uso. Swift. Then, turning about to the hangman, he said, Dispatch me, I pri'thee, this troublesome blade.

Prior.

Be his this sword, whose blade of brass displays A ruddy gleam, whose hilt a silver blaze. Pope He fell most furiously on the broiled relicks of a shoulder of mutton, com.only called a bladebone.

Stir not-lest even to thee perchance Some erring blade or ball should glance.

Pope.

Byron. Bride of Abydos. BLADE, in botany, that part of a plant which arises out of the concave of the sheath, and, at he top, usually divides into two parts, which are covered with globules of the same nature as those of the apices, but not so copious. See BOTANY. BLADE, in commerce, a thin slender piece of metal, either forged by the hammer or run and cast in moulds to be afterwards sharpened to a point, edge, or the like. Sword blades are made by the armourers, knife-blades by the cutlers, &c. The English and Damascus blades are most esteemed. Among the French, those of Vienne nave the preference. The conditions of a good blade of a small sword are, that it be light and tough, apter to bend than break. When it will stand in the bend, it is called a poor man's blade.

BLADE-BONE. See ANATOMY.

BLADEN, a county of North Carolina, in the district of Wilmington, bounded on the south by Brunswick, on the north by Cumberland, on the east by New Hanover, on the west by the state of South Carolina, and on the north-west by Robeson county. The chief town is Elizabeth.

BLADEN (Martin), a lieutenant-colonel under the duke of Marlborough, was afterwards made a lord of trade, and employed in various civil capacities. He is principally known as the translator of Cæsar's Commentaries. Bladen was

the uncle of Collins the poet.

BLADENSBURG, a post town of Maryland, in Prince George's county, on the east side of a branch of the Potomac, about seven miles above Washington. It is thirty-eight miles south-west by south of Baltimore, and 140 south-west by west of Philadelphia.

BLADHIA, in botany, a genus of plants of the class pentandria, and order monogynia. The generic character is, CAL. five-partite: COR. rotata, fivefid: BERRY one seeded: SEED arillate. Four species are described, all natives of Japan. BLERIA, in botany, a genus of the tetrandria monogynia class of plants. Its characters are: CAL. quadripartite coR. quadrifid: STAM. inserted in the receptacle, and the fruit a capsule, with four cells, containing many seeds. There are two species.

BLÆSLING, in zoology, a synonyme of the greater coot, or fulica atenina. See FULICA. BLÆSUS, among medical writers, the same with balbus; a stammerer or lisper.

BLAFART, in commerce all coin cur

rent at Cologne, worth something more than a farthing of our money.

BLAGRAVE (John), was the second son of John Blagrave, Esq. of Bulmarsh-court in Berkshire, and descended of an ancient family. Being sent to Oxford, he applied himself chiefly to the study of mathematics; but without taking any degree. In his mansion near Reading, he passed most of his days, and died there in 1611. Among other charities, he left £10 to be annually disposed of in the following manner: On Good-Friday, the church-wardens of each of the three parishes of Reading send to the townhall one virtuous maid, who has lived five years with her master;' there, in the presence of the magistrates, the three throw dice for the £10. The losers are returned with a fresh one the year following, and again the third year, till each has had three chances. His works are, 1. A Mathematical Jewel, London 1585 fol. 2. Of the Making and Use of the Familiar Staff, London 1590, 4to. 3. Astrolabium Uranicum Generale, London, 1596, 4to. 4. The art of Dialling, London, 1609, 4to.

BLAGRAVE (Joseph), a descendant of the same family, was born at Reading about the year 1609, and died at the age of seventy, leaving behind him an Introduction to Astrology, of which art he was a noted professor. He also wrote the Astrological Practice of Physic, printed in 8vo. a book on surgery, and a supplement to Culpepper's Herbel.

BLAIN', n. s. Sax. blegene. Dut. bleyne; a pustule; a botch; a blister.

I feel my body all inflamed; Which, breaking out in boils and blains, With yellow filth my linen stains. Swift. BLAIN, among farriers, a distemper incident to horses, being a certain bladder growing on the root of the tongue, against the wind pipe, which swells so as to stop the breath. See FARRIERY.

BLAIR, (Hugh), an eminent divine and critic of the eighteenth century, was descended from the Blairs of Blair, in Ayreshire. His greatgrandfather, Robert Blair, was a strenuous opposer of Episcopacy in Scotland. The subject of this memoir was the son of Mr. John Blair, a respectable merchant, and one of the magistrates of Edinburgh. He was born on the 7th of April, 1718, and obtained his education at the high school. In the year 1739 he received the degree of M. A. He was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Edinburgh on the 21st of October, 1731. Upon the 23d of September, 1742, he was ordained minister of Colessie in Fifeshire. In 1743 he was admitted second minister of the Cannongate; he removed to lady Yesters, within the city, onthe 4th of October, 1754; and from thence to the high church on the 15th of June, 1758. In 1757 the university of St. Andrews presented him with the degree of D.D. In 1755 his friends prevailed on him to deliver a course

of lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres. This considerably raised his reputation, already of the first rank as a preacher, and in 1760 the town council of Edinburgh appointed him professor of Rhetoric in the university. In 1762 his majesty was pleased to confer a salary upon the office of £70 per annuin. Dr. Blair first proposed, and carried into effect a subscription, to enable Mr. Macpherson to collect what remained of Ossian's poems, and wrote a dissertation to establish their authenticity. After reading his lectures in the university more than twenty years, he was induced to publish them in 1783. But the composition of sermons, and pulpit eloquence, had always been his chief object of pursuit, and the basis on which he wished to rest his fame. Crouded audiences, of every rank in life, had long decided the public opinion of his merits as a preacher. He even rendered religion fashionable among many in the higher ranks by whom it had formerly been despised. In 1777, therefore, he published a volume of sermons, which required a most extensive and rapid circulation, and was succeeded by a second volume in 1779. In 1780 he obtained a pension of £200 a year, at the particular request it is said of her late majesty. His growing infirmities, in 1783, induced him to retire from the regular discharge of his professional duties, and an addition was now made of £100 a year to his pension. Other volumes of his sermons have been published since his decease. Their circulation has been unparalleled, and they have been translated into most of the languages of Europe. With a taste nice and discriminating, a judgment clear and well informed, language chaste and perspicuous, Dr. Blair attains a happy medium between the declamatory addresses of the French preachers, and the abstruse metaphysical style of many of our English divines. Every thing he discusses is made attractive, and our moral feelings are warmed and invigorated by the most exquisite and imperceptible art: but some reasonable objections have been taken to the singular absence of principles, peculiarly religious, in his sermons. Scriptural doctrines' says a valuable contemporary, 'do not always appear to have been illustrated by him with sufficient attention, nor Scriptural motives to have obtained a place due to their importance; and too strong a bias may perhaps be observed, in his writings, in favor of moral discussions, abstracted from the consideration of the truths inculcated by Revelation.' Dr. Blair died on the morning of Saturday the 27th of December, 1800, in the eighty-third year of his age, and the fifty-ninth of his ministry.

BLAIR (John), L. L. D. and F. R. S. an eminent chronologist, was educated at Edinburgh; and was for some time usher to a school in Hedge Lane, London. In 1754 he gave the world that valuable publication, The Chronology of the History of the World, from the Creation to the year 1753. Illustrated in LVI. Tables. This volume, in which he is said to have been assisted by his cousin Dr. Hugh Blair, is dedicated to lord chancellor Hardwicke; it soon established his fame, and produced a happy change in his destiny. In January 1758, he was elected F. R. S. and in

1761, F. S. A. In 1756 he published a second edition of his tables. In September 1757 he was appointed chaplain to the princess Dowager of Wales, and mathematical tutor to the duke of York; and in 1761 obtained a prebendal stall at Westminster, the vicarage of Hinckley, and the rectory of Burton Coggles in Lincolnshire. In September 1763 he attended his royal pupil on a tour to the continent; visited Lisbon, Gibraltar, Minorca, and the principal cities in Italy, aud several parts of France; and returned in August 1764. In 1768 he annexed to the new edition Fourteen Maps of Ancient and Modern Geography, for illustrating the Tables of Chronology and History, and a Dissertation on the progress of Geography. In March, 1771, he was presented to the vicarage of St. Bride's in London. In April, 1776, he resigned St. Bride's, and was presented to the rectory of St. John in Westminster. He died June 24th 1782. A course of his Lectures on the Canons of the Old Testament were published by his widow.

BLAIR (Robert), a Scottish divine and poet, was born in 1701, and died in 1747. He was the author of the well-known poem entitled The Grave, first printed in 1743, and since frequently reprinted.

BLAISE, a river of France in the department of Eure and Loire, formerly giving name to the Blaisois, a ci-devant province of France, bounded on the north by Beauce, on the east by the Orleannois, on the south by Berry, and on the west by Touraine.

BLAISE (St.), a martyr who suffered in the fourth century, under Dioclesian, by command of Agricola, governor of Cappadocia. He is said to have had his flesh torn with iron combs previous to his being beheaded, which seems to be the cause for the respect paid to his memory by wool-combers.

BLAISE (St.), KNIGHTS OF, a military order instituted by the kings of Armenia. Justinian calls them knights of St. Blaise and St Mary, and places them not only in Armenia, but in Palestine. The precise year of their institution is not known,

BLAIZE, CAPE, a promontory on the coast of West Florida, in the Gulf of Mexico, which separates the bay of Apalache on the east from that of St. Joseph; into which last it turns in the shape of a shepherd's crook.

BLAKE, (Robert), a famous English admiral, born in August 1589, at Bridgewater in Somersetshire, where he was educated. He went from thence to Oxford, in 1615, and in 1617, he took the degree of B. A. In 1623 he wrote a copy of verses on the death of Camden, and soon after left the university. The puritan party returned him member for Bridgewater, in 1640; and he served in the parliament army with great courage during the civil war: but when the king was brought to trial, he highly disapproved the measure as illegal, and said frequently, he would as freely venture his life to save the king, as ever he did to serve his parliament.' In 1648-9 he was appointed, in conjunction with colonel Dean and colonel Popham, to command the fleet; and soon after blocked up prince Maurice and prince Rupert in Kinsale

harbour. On their getting out, Blake followed them from port to port: and at last attacked them in that of Malaga, burnt and destroyed their whole fleet, two ships only excepted; the Reformation, in which prince Rupert himself was, and the Swallow, commanded by prince Maurice. In 1652 he was constituted sole admiral; when he defeated the Dutch fleet commanded by Van Tromp, Ruyter, and De Wit, in three several engagements, in which the Dutch lost eleven men of war, thirty merchant ships, and 15,000 men. Soon after, Blake, and his colleagues, with a grand fleet of 100 sail, stood over to the Dutch coast; and forced the enemy into the Texel, where they were kept some time by Monk and Dean, while Blake himself sailed northward. At last, however, Tromp escaped and drew to gether a fleet of 120 men of war. On the third of June, therefore, Dean and Monk came to an engagement with the enemy off the North Foreland, with indifferent success: but the next day Blake coming to their assistance with eighteen ships, gained a complete victory. In April 1653, Cromwell having turned out the parliament, and assumed the supreme power, Blake is said to have observed on this occasion to his officers, 'It is not for us to mind state affairs, but to keep foreigners from fooling us.' In November 1654 Cromwell sent him with a strong fleet into the Mediterranean, with orders which he well executed to support the honor of the English flag. In the beginning of December, Blake came into the road of Cadiz, where he was treated with all imaginable respect: a Dutch admiral would not hoist his flag while he was there; and his name was now so formidable, that a French squadron having stopped one of his tenders, which had been separated from Blake in a storm, the admiral, as soon as he knew to whom belonged, sent for the captain on board, and drank Blake's health before him with great ceremony, under a discharge of five guns. The Algerines were so much afraid of him, that, stopping the Sallee rovers, they obliged them to deliver up what English prisoners they had on board, and sent them freely to Blake, to purchase his favor. This, however, did not prevent his coming on the 10th of March before Algiers, and sending an officer on shore to the dey to demand satisfaction for the piracies committed on the English. The dey conciliated him by an apology, accompanied with a large present of fresh provisions, and Blake leaving Algiers, sailed on the same errand to Tunis, where the dey returned for answer a defiance and denied him the liberty of taking in fresh water. Here, said he,' are our castles of Goletta and Porto Ferino; do your worst.' Blake now, therefore, deliberately demolished these for tresses, and sent nine of the enemy's own ves

sels, which he found in the harbour, up to the town as fire-ships. This daring action spread the terror of his name through Africa and Asia. From Tunis he sailed to Tripoli, and to Malta, and obliged the respective governments to restore the effects taken by privateers from the English, and so established the glory of the English name, that most of the princes and states of Italy thought fit to pay their compliments to the protector, by solemn embassies.

He passed the next winter either in lying before Cadiz, or in cruising up and down the straits; and was at his old station, at the mouth of that harbour, when he received information that the Spanish plate fleet had put into the bay of Santa Cruz, in the island of Teneriffe. Upon this he weighed anchor, with twenty-five men of war, on the 13th of April 1657; and on the twentieth rode off the bay of Santa Cruz, where he discovered sixteen Spanish ships, in the form of a half-moon. Near the mouth of the haven stood a strong and well defended castle; besides which there were seven forts round the bay, joined by a line of communication manned with musketeers. To make all safe, Don Diego Diagues, general of the Spanish fleet, caused the staller vessels to be moored close along the shore; while the six large galleons stood farther out at anchor, with their broadsides towards the sea. Notwithstanding these advantages possessed by the enemy, and the strength of the place, Blake burnt or sunk all the ships of the Spanish fleet, and by a fortunate change of wind came out without loss. It is here worthy of remark, that Blake's own brother having failed in some part of duty during this service, he immediately removed him from his command, although he still behaved to him with fraternal affection. Finding a complicated disorder of a dropsical and scorbutic kind, now making rapid progress, he sailed for England, and amidst his frequent enquiries for the sight of the English coast, expired while the fleet was entering Plymouth-sound, August 27th, 1657. The protector ordered him a magnificent public funeral in Westminster Abbey, whence, however, his body was pitifully expelled at the Restoration; and Englishmen suffered a prince, who himself betrayed their country, to remove this brave admiral's bones, as those of a a rebel, to St. Margaret's church-yard.

BLAKEA, in botany, a species of the class dodecandria monogynia: with a calyx composed of six leaves below, and entire above; six petals, and a six-celled polyspermous capsule. There is only one species.

BLA'ME, v. & n. BLAM'ING, BLAMA BLE, BLAM ABLENESS, BLAME ABLY, BLAMEFUL, BLAME LESS, BLAME LESSLY, BLAME LESSNESS, BLA'MER,

Dut. blamen. Fr. blasmer. Ital. biasimare Probably from the Greek, Beẞλapμai, perfect of the verb βλάπτω, to hurt, signifying to deal harshly with.Blame is the mildest daughter in the severe family of censure; to blame, expresses less BLAME WORTHINESS. than to reprove; we simply charge with a fault in blaming; but in reproving, severity is mixed with the charge; blame acrimoniously; to blame is simply to find reproach expresses more than either; it is to fault with; to pass an unfavorable judgment upon; it is, for the most part, the act of a superior.

BLAME WORTHY,

upon one.

Pope.

In arms, the praise of success is shared among many; yet the blame of misadventures is charged Hayward. They lay the blame on the poor little ones, sometimes passionately enough, to divert it from themselves. Locke. It is the wilful opposing explicit articles, and not the not believing them when not revealed, or not with that conviction, against which he cannot blamelessly, without pertinacy, hold out, that will bring dan ger of ruin on any. Hammond. BLAMONT, or BLANBENBERG, a town of France, in Lorraine, the head of a canton in the department of the Meurthe. It is seated on the Vezouse, sixteen miles east of Luneville, and thirty-two E.S. E. of Nancy. Population 1860. Long. 6° 52′ E., lat. 48° 40′ N.

BLANC, MOUNT, so called from the mountain, was a French department from 1792 till 1815. It consisted of the Duchy of Savoy. It was bounded on the west by the Rhone, which separates it from the department of the Ain; on the north by the lake of Geneva; on the east by the Alps, which divide it from the Valais and Piedmont; and on the south by the departments of the Upper Alps and Isere. It was eighty-three miles in length from west to east, and sixty-seven in breadth from north to south; though some geographers make it ninety miles long and eighty broad. The surface is hilly, and the air cool, but the soil is fertile; and those mountains which are not covered with snow in winter abound with pastures that feed vast numbers of cattle. The lakes swarm with

fish, and the woods with stags, fallow deer, roebucks, wild boars, marmots, hares, partridges wood-cocks, pheasants, &c. The inhabitants are sober and industrious. The principal rivers are the Arc, the Isere, and the Arve. Chamberry is the capital. This was the ancient patrimonial inheritance of the dukes of Savoy, before they became kings of Sardinia. For its history, before its annexation to France, see SAVOY.

BLANC, MOUNT; Fr. Mont Blanc, i. e. the white mountain; a stupendous mountain of France, in the above department, the highest elevation of the Alps, and, indeed, of Europe. Its mantle of circumvenient snow gives it this

name.

As seen from the Col de Balme, and the vale of Chamouni, the summit of Mont Blanc seems to be of a roundish form, its surface smooth and covered with snow, its whole appearance uniting beauty with grandeur, and its towering head rising majestically above the surrounding mountains; but, when seen from the valley of Aosat, its sides are less completely covered with snow, its aspect is more rugged and dark, and the prospect which it presents partakes more of the wild and terrific. It rises imperceptibly from amidst the numerous irregular mountains which bound the vale of Chamouni, then terminates rather abruptly in a point or top called Aiguille de Goute, or Dôme de Gouté. Beyond this height, with a considerable hollow between, it forms another mount, called by some Little Mont Blanc, or, more properly, the Middle Dome. From this station it gradually sinks again into a concave surface, in the midst of which is a small pyramid of ice; and then reaches its highest point of elevation, which is in the shape of a compressed hemisphere, and is called from its form La Bosse du Dromedaire. Upon a nearer inspection, the summit of this gigantic mountain is found to be a very narrow ridge, lying nearly in a horizontal direction, resembling the roof of a house; and, at its west end particularly, scarcely sufficiently broad to admit of two persons walking abreast. The snow which covers the top is encrusted with ice, of a firm consistence, but penetrable by a staff; and beneath this icy surface, especially on the declivities of the summit, is discovered a soft dusty snow without any cohesion.

Strata of granite form the highest rocks of Mont Blanc, running parallel to one another, and nearly in a vertical direction. Those on the east side are mixed with steatites; those c the south with schorl and lapis corneus; and some of them, about 150 yards below the sumirit. have the appearance of having been shivered with lightning. According to M. De Luc. its height above the level of the sea is 2391} French toises, or 15,304 English feet; according to Sir George Shuckburgh 15,662 feet; and, according to other observations, 15,680 feet, or nearly three English miles above the level of the sea.

M. De Saussure observed the silene acaulis, or moss campion, in flower, at the elevation of 11,392 feet above the sea; still higher, on the most elevated rocks, he found the lichen sulphureus and lichen rupestris of Hoffman; and, on the summit, he noticed two butterflies on the wing which he supposed to have been driven

a

thither by the wind. On the top of Mont Blanc, on the third day of August, Reaumur's thermometer stood, in the shade, at 2 below the freezing point, or 27 of Fahrenheit; while, at the same time, at Geneva, it was found at 22:6 or 82 of Fahrenheit, which gives a difference of nearly 25 degrees of Reaumur, or 55 of Fahrenheit, between the temperature of the atmosphere at both places. De Luc's barometer fell to 16.014, while it stood at Geneva at 27.21888, difference of 11-2, with a small fraction. By experiments with the hygrometer the air was found to contain six times less humidity than that of Geneva; and to this extreme dryness of the atmosphere, the burning thirst, which Saussure and his companions experienced in the extraordinary elevation, is supposed to have been owing. While fifteen or sixteen minutes are sufficient to boil water at Geneva, and fourteen or fifteen at the sea side, it requires half an hour on the top of this mountain. By experiments with the electrometer, the electricity of the air was found to be positive, and the balls diverged only three lines; and by experiments with lime water, and the caustic alkali, atmospheric acid, or fixed air, was detected in the atmosphere. Owing to the extreme rarefaction of the air, sounds were remarkably feeble, and the report of a pistol discharged on the summit, did not exceed that of a small Chinese cracker in a room. From the same cause respiration becomes exceedingly difficult at so immense an altitude; and it was found that the pulses of three persons which beat at Chamouni, in a state of repose, 49, 60, and 72, were increased, on the summit of Mont Blanc, to 98, 112, and 100.

A sketch of the adventurous attempts to ascend this noble mountain may not be uninteresting to the reader. The first adventurer upon this arduous task was M. Couteran, who took the three guides of Chamouni, Michael Paccard, Victor Tissay, and Marie Coutet. They set out from the priory about eleven o'clock in the evening, on the 13th of July 1776; and after spending fourteen hours in surmounting many dangerous ascents, crossing valleys of ice, and traversing plains of snow, reached the top next to Mont Blanc, about 13,000 feet above the Mediterranean. They at first imagined themselves to be within a league of its summit; but soon perceived that it would require four hours more to reach it; and as the day was advanced, and the vapors gathering into clouds, they were obliged, with regret, to relinguish their enterprise; and, after a journey of twenty-two hours, arrived at Chamouni about eight o'clock in the evening.

The indefatigable Bourrit was the next traveller, who, after repeated unsuccessful attempts, departed from Bionasay on the 11th of September 1784, accompanied by six guides, and was scaling, as he expressed it, the rampart of Mont Blanc, when he was so extremely affected by the intensity of the cold as to be unable to proceed. But two of his guides, Marie Coutet, and Francis Guidet, having gone before their company, ascended to the dome of Gouté; passed the middle dome, and walked along the ridge between that and the summit, as far as some high rocks, which appear from the vale of Chamouni like small points in

the snow; but the approach of night compelled them to return.

On the 4th of September, 1785, Marie Coutet, and James Balmat, reached a place under a rock at a considerable elevation, where they passed the night; and setting out before sun-rise, passed the dome of Gouté, and were proceeding towards the summit, when a violent storm of hail obliged them to desist. On the 13th Messieurs de Saussure and Bourrit, with twelve guides, left Bionasay, passed the night at a hut, which they had ordered to be constructed, about 7808 feet above the level of the sea, and reached the dome of Gouté next morning without much difficulty; but a fresh fall of snow rendered farther progress impracticable. In July, 1786, six guides of Chamouni failed in another attempt; but James Balmat, one of their number, having been separated from his companions, passed the night in a spot above the dome of Gouté, more than 12,000 feet above the level of the sea; and, having reconnoitred the situation next morning, observed a place of more easy access than any that had hitherto been attempted. On his return to Chamouni he communicated his observation to Dr. Paccard, a physician of the place, who attended him during a severe indisposition, the effect of the cold and fatigue to which he had been exposed; and, in gratitude for that gentleman's attendance, engaged to conduct him to the summit of the mountain. They set out from Chamouni on the 7th of August, spent the night on the mountain of La Cote; at three in the morning pursued their route to the dome of Gouté; passed under the middle dome towards the east, along the ridge which is seen from Geneva, and which lies on the left of the summit. Here Dr. Paccard was almost deterred by the cold and fatigue from pursuing the enterprise; but encouraged by Balmat to proceed, and frequently walking sideways to shelter their faces from the piercing wind, they at length, about six o'clock in the afternoon, and after an ascent of fifteen hours, attained the summit of Mont Blanc. They remained about half an hour on this memorable spot, where the cold was so intense as to freeze the provisions in their pockets, congeal the ink in their inkstands, and sink the mercury of Fahrenheit's thermometer to 18 degrees; their faces were excoriated, their lips swelled, and their sight greatly debilitated by the reflexion of the snow.

On the 13th of August, 1787, M. de Saussure set out from Chamouni, accompanied by eighteen guides, and provided with a tent, mattrasses, philosophical instruments, and all necessary accommodations. They passed the first night on the top of the mountain La Côte; encamped at four o'clock in the following afternoon, about 12,762 feet above the level of the sea; and next morning pursued the ascent in places frequently so steep that the guides were obliged to hew out steps with a hatchet. After a very slow progress, and frequent halts for breath, they reached the summit about eleven o'clock in the forenoon; where they remained four hours and a half, enjoying a most sublime and extensive prospect, and making a variety of useful and interesting experiments. Here they observed the surround