48 HISTORY of the SOCIETY. 



IT feems proper alfo, that, at the death, even of every one of 

 the Members, a fhort notice of him fhould be inferted in our 

 Records : Mention ought to be made there of his birth and 

 death, of the remarkable incidents of his life, and the claim 

 he had to be inrolled among the Members of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh ; fuch a fhort and fimple account having been 

 previoufly read at a meeting of the Clafs to which he more 

 particularly belonged. 



BUT whoever has diftinguifhed himfelf in a fuperior degree 

 in the republic of Letters feems to have a claim to higher and 

 more public honours. Nor could the mofl faftidious referve be 

 offended, if the memory of fuch a character were celebrated 

 at an aflembly of the whole Society. 



THESE obfervations have been fuggefted by the recent lofs of 

 a worthy Member of our Literary Department. And as the 

 omiflion of this firfl opportunity of introducing a practice, 

 which feems fo laudable, might be afcribed to negligence, or 

 to an imperfect difcharge of that truft with which the Society 

 has honoured its Secretaries, I flatter myfelf the Meeting will 

 hear, with indulgence, the following fhort and fimple account 

 of the perfon to whom I have alluded. 



Account of WILLIAM L THIAN, D. D. fenior Minifter of Canongate, 



Dr Lothian. . * . . rr-j'ii 



and Member of this Society, was born in the city or Edinburgh 

 on the 5th of November 1740. Before he was fix years old, 

 he loft his father Mr GEORGE LOTHIA^N, a refpectable Surgeon ; 

 and his mother alfo having died when he was an infant, the 

 charge of his education devolved on other relations. 



HE had his academical education in the Univerfity of Edin- 

 burgh ; and both during the ufual courfe of Literature and 

 Philofophy, and during his application to the ftudy of Theo- 

 logy, he was diftinguifhed for diligence and promifing talents. 



THE 



