II. A Jhort Account of the Life and Writings of William 

 TriLER^ Efqj of Woodhoufelee, F. R. S. Edin. By HENRY 

 Mackenzie, Efq; F. R. S. Edin. 



\_Read by the Author, June 20. 1796.] 



THE cuftom which this Society has eflablifhed, of giving 

 fome account of the lives of its deceafed members, is jn 

 every cafe gratifying to friendfhip, in many interefting to cu- 

 riofity, but in thofe which ferve to record the purfuits and oc^ 

 cupations of men of letters, it is more ftridtly and properly an 

 object coming within the views of a literary inftitution. The 

 hiftory of the authors is always in a great degree the hiflory of 

 the literature of a country ; and even exclufive of an immedi- 

 ate relation to their works, the narrative of their private and 

 domeftic habits is often, in a moral point of view, ufeful and 

 interefting to the fcholar and the author. In both thefe re- 

 fpedls, I may claim the attention of the Society to the following 

 fhort account of the life and writings of our late worthy col* 

 league, Mr William Tytler, 



Mr Tytler was the fon of Mr Alexander Tytler, wri- 

 ter in Edinburgh, by Jane, daughter of Mr William Leslie, 

 merchant in Aberdeen, and grand-daughter of Sir Patrick 

 Leslie of Iden, Provoft of Aberdeen. He was born at Edin- 

 burgh, Odlober 12. 171 1. He received his education at the 

 High School and Univerfity of his native city, and diftin- 



VoL. IV. (C) . guifhed 



