ABSTRACT
In the history of Letters the experience is not uncommon; but it does not very often occur in the case of those who, to important matter and a vogue more than merely popular, have added a competent style. Adam Blair observed both the "dignity of literature" and the necessity of confining himself to serious topics. Men, who have obtained, as Blair did, applause from the qualified few as well as from the unqualified many, never deserve to be neglected. In the study of literature almost everything, when rightly understood, is delightful, and the kind and varieties of advantage are almost co-extensive with the province of literature itself. The functions of a professor of literature become perhaps more arduous but certainly more important. The more sober and less attractive subject of value, the exact addition to education made by a proper study of literature, atones for its want of piquancy by lending itself better to description.
