64 HISTORr of the SOCIETT. 



Account of gj Thomas Miller of Glenlee, late Lord Prefident of the 



Lord rrchdcnt 



Miller. Court of Seflion, was the fecond fon of William Miller, 



writer to the Signet, who was himfelf the fecond fon of Mat- 

 thew Miller of Glenlee, and fucceeded to that eflate, along 

 with the lands of Barfkimming, on the death of his elder 

 brother. 



Sir Thomas was born on the 3d of November 1717. He 

 received the firft rudiments of his education at Glafgow, and 

 afterwards went through the ufual courfe of academical ftudies 

 in the Univerfity of that place ; where he acquired a relilli of 

 the purfuits of literature and fcience, that never forfook him, 

 and efpecially a fondnefs for the Greek and Roman claflics, 

 which, even in the bulieft periods of his life, he occafionally 

 found opportunities to indulge. Horace was almofl his con- 

 ftant companion ; and even in his laft years, after his promo- 

 tion to the moft laborious office in the law, Homer, during a 

 vacation, was often on his table. 



Another branch of knowledge for which he there imbibed 

 an early prediledlion, was that of Ethics, or Moral Philofophy. 

 This he had the advantage of ftudying under the celebrated 

 Dr HuTCHESON, of whom he was a favourite pupil. The 

 warmth of eloquence with which this Philofopher poured forth 

 his ledlures, attached to him extremely all thofe of his hearers, 

 who had any liking to the fubjedl he treated, or were fufcepti- 

 ble of being moved ; and Mr Miller, in particular, contradled 

 not only a high admiration of his talents, but fuch love to 

 him as a man, that long after his death, and when he himfelf 

 had grown old, he could not mention his name but in terms 

 of gratitude and veneration, equal to thofe in which the difci- 

 ples of Socrates fpoke of their mafter. Like Socrates too, 

 Dr HuTCHESON taught his difciples to value Ethics beyond all 

 other fciences ; and with Mr Miller this prefei-ence was fo 

 ftrong, that he ufed habitually in converfation, when diftin- 

 guifhing it from the reft, to give it the appellation of Philofophy. 



Haying 



