BLOUNT, CHARLES, younger son of Sir Henry Blount, was born at Upper Holloway, April 27, 1654, and died 1693. He gained considerable reputation as a politician and man of letters, but his abilities were not great, and his strength lay in scoffing infidelity. His Anima or an Historical Xarration of the Opinions of the Ancients concerning Han' s Soul after this Life, according to Unenlightened Xatnre, gave great offence; and his translation of Philostratus's Life of Apollonius Tyancens was suppressed for the flippancy and impertinence of its attacks on revealed religion. A similar work of his, called Great is Diana of the Ephesians, under colour of exposing super' stition, struck at revelation. In 1681 lie printed a kind of introduction to polite literature, under the title of Janus Scientiarum. His Just Yin-dication of Learning and of the Liberty of the Press (1693) is a shameless plagiarism from the A reopagitica. The pamphlet which he sent anonymously to Bohm), the censor, entitled King William and Queen Mary Conquerors, set all London in a flame, and completely attained its object., the ruin of Bohan. Indirectly it had a good result in directing attention to the folly of the censorship. After the death of his wife, he proposed to marry her sister, and wrote a letter on that subject with great learning and address; but the archbishop of Canterbury and other divines decided against him, and the lady having therefore refused him, lie is said to have shot himself, or, according to Pope's account, to have given himself a mortal wound in the arm. A collected edition of his works was published in 1695 by Gildon, with a life by the editor. See Macaulay, History, iv. 352, sqT. ; Lechler, G es. d. Englisch. Deism ice, 114-127.