BLAEU, WILLEM JANZSOON, Dutch cartographer, born at Alkmaar; his terrestrial and celestial globes have been admired for their excellence and accuracy (1571-1638).  His son JAN edited a valuable atlas called “Atlas Major,” in 11 volumes; d. 1673.

BLAINVILLE, HENRI MARIE, a French naturalist; devoted himself to medicine; became assistant to Cuvier; succeeded him as professor of Comparative Anatomy; wrote largely on natural science, and particularly on subjects connected with his appointment as a professor (1777-1850).

BLAIR, HUGH, clergyman, born in Edinburgh; held in succession several charges in Scotland, and became professor of Rhetoric in Edinburgh University; author of “Lectures on Rhetoric” and “Sermons,” which latter are of the nature of moral essays rather than sermons, were much esteemed at one time for their polished style, and procured him a pension of L200 from the king; he was a man of great critical acumen, and the celebrated Schleiermacher did not think it beneath him to translate some of them into German (1718-1800).

BLAIR, ROBERT, author of “The Grave,” a thoughtful and cultured man, born in Edinburgh; minister of Athelstaneford, where he was succeeded by Home, the author of “Douglas.”  His poem has the merit of having been illustrated by William Blake (1699-1743).

BLAKE, ROBERT, the great English admiral and “Sea King,” born at Bridgewater; successful as a soldier under the Commonwealth, before he tried seamanship; took first to sea in pursuit of Prince Rupert and the royalist fleet, which he destroyed; beat the Dutch under Van Tromp de Ruyter and De Witt; sailed under the great guns of Tunis into the harbour, where he fired a fleet of Turkish pirates; and finally, his greatest feat, annihilated a Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz Bay under the shadow of the Peak of Teneriffe, “one of the fiercest actions ever fought on land or water” (1598-1657).

BLAKE, WILLIAM, poet, painter, and engraver, born in London, where, with rare intervals, he spent his life a mystic from his very boyhood; apprenticed to an engraver, whom he assisted with his drawings; started on original lines of his own as illustrator of books and a painter; devoted his leisure to poetry; wrote “Songs of Innocence,” “Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” “Gates of Paradise,” and “Songs of Experience”; was an intensely religious man of deep spiritual insight, most vivid feeling and imagination; illustrated Young’s “Night Thoughts,” Blair’s “Grave,” and the “Book of Job.”  He was a man of stainless character but eccentric habits, and had for wife an angel, Catherine Boucher (1757-1828).

BLANC, CHARLES, a French art critic, brother of Louis Blanc (1813-1882).

BLANC, JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS, a French Socialist, born at Madrid; started as a journalist, founded the Revue du Progres, and published separately in 1840 “Organisation of Labour,” which had already appeared in the Revue, a work which gained the favour of the working-classes; was member of the Provisional Government of 1848, and eventually of the National Assembly; threatened with impeachment, fled to England; returned to France on the fall of the Empire, and was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1871; wrote an “elaborate and well-written” “History of the French Revolution”; died at Cannes (1811-1882).