The ten years following his retirement were spent by Professor Blackie in an activity by no means abated, although it was more under his control. He had time for correspondence, for reading, for constant comment in the pages of newspapers and magazines on such questions as had long occupied his thoughts or anew attracted them, for writing books, for lecturing, for visiting,—and all these occupations increased upon his hands. Constantly his voice was uplifted in the old war-cries against Tory and Radical alike, ringing defiantly in the peace-loving groves of Oxford, appealing to the world in the columns of the ‘Times.’ Perhaps his crusades were for the time depreciated by reiteration, or by his indifference to the quality of the ears to which they were proclaimed. A more elegant propaganda might have propitiated Olympus; but his way was to deliver his message to all comers in season and out of season.

He was busy during the winter after his resignation with compiling his ‘Wisdom of Goethe,’ published by Messrs Blackwood & Sons early in 1883, and dedicated to his friend Dr Walter C. Smith. This little book was suggested by his experience of the failures made by many young men for want of a clear understanding of their relations to life, and he desired to bring to their notice the principles of “sound thinking and noble living” which he himself had found in Goethe's reflections. The selections were made to illuminate all the conditions of a man's environment or development, and they were prefaced with an “Estimate of the character of Goethe,” partly biographical and partly apologetic.