Account of 
Dr Dryf@ale. 
44 HISTOR F, ofthe SOCIETY. 
and the fettlement ordered to proceed ;—a decifion which was 
finally affirmed by the General Afflembly. 
No fooner did Mr DryspDALe enter upon his new charge as 
minifter of Lady Yefter’s, than all were convinced, that how- - 
ever difagreeable to fome the mode of his introduétion might 
be, no oppofition was due to him as a man, and as a minifter. 
The fermons which he preached in that church attracted al- 
ways a great concourfe of hearers, whom he never failed to de- 
light and inftruct by an eloquence of the moft nervous and in- 
terefting kind. Both his train of thought, and his manner of 
expreflion, were evidently fuch as ftrongly indicated a vigorous 
underftanding, an original genius, and a profound knowledge 
of the human heart. 
His reputation as a preacher afterwards rofe fo high, that on 
occafion of an excurfion which he made to London to vifit his 
friends and relations there, the late Mr STRAHAN earneftly 
requefted, that he would furnifh him with a volume of fer- 
mons for publication. His friends prefled him much to em- 
brace this propofal ; and he feemed at length difpofed to com- 
ply with their wifhes. For on his return to Scotland, he began 
to revife his fermons with a view to make a felection for publi- 
cation; but he had not proceeded far till his diffidence induced 
him to procraftinate, and at laft to relinquifh, every refolution 
of that fort. 
Tue fame native difidence and modefty were likewife the 
caufe of his declining to appear as a fpeaker in the judicatories 
of the church. While he remained in the country, he feemed 
rather to avoid taking much concern in the management of 
church-affairs ; but on his coming to Edinburgh, he found 
himfelf fo much connected with Dr RoBERTSON, to whom he 
was always greatly attached as a friend, and to whom he con- 
fidered himfelf as under great obligations, particularly for the 
earneft and effectual manner in which he had efpoufed his in- 
tereft 
