Some years afterwards (1716 and 1717) he published two volumes of
essays in prose, which can be commended only as they are written for
the highest and noblest purpose--the promotion of religion.
Blackmore's prose is not the prose of a poet, for it is languid,
sluggish, and lifeless; his diction is neither daring nor exact, his
flow neither rapid nor easy, and his periods neither smooth nest
strong. His account of WIT will show with how little clearness he
is content to think, and how little his thoughts are recommended by
his language.

"As to its efficient cause, WIT owes its production to an
extraordinary and peculiar temperament in the constitution of the
possessor of it, in which is found a concurrence of regular and
exalted ferments, and an affluence of animal spirits, refined and
rectified to a great degree of purity; whence, being endowed with
vivacity, brightness, and celerity, as well in their reflections as
direct motions, they become proper instruments for the sprightly
operations of the mind, by which means the imagination can with
great facility range the wide field of Nature, contemplate an
infinite variety of objects, and, by observing the similitude and
disagreement of their several qualities, single out and abstract,
and then suit and unite, those ideas which will best serve its
purpose. Hence beautiful allusions, surprising metaphors, and
admirable sentiments, are always ready at hand; and while the fancy
is full of images, collected from innumerable objects, and their
different qualities, relations, and habitudes, it can at pleasure
dress a common notion in a strange but becoming garb, by which, as
before observed, the same thought will appear a new one, to the
great delight and wonder of the hearer. What we call genius results