34 Memoirs of the late 
geniality of pursuit, furnishes a powerful in- 
citement to active and persevering exertion. 
In the early stage of the society which I 
am now addressing, more than one of our de- 
ceased members received this posthumous 
applause. Several of our first meetings were 
enlivened by the presence of a most amiable 
and accomplished man, whom it was impos- 
sible-to know without feelings of the warmest 
affection, or to remember, even at this distant 
period, without lively regret. The talents and 
virtues of Mr. de Polier called forth from — 
the pen of Dr. Percival, an elegant and me- 
rited tribute to hismemory, which adorns the 
first volume of our memoirs.. And in the suc- 
ceeding volume, the character of another dis- 
tinguished member of the Society, Dr. Bell, 
has been sketched by a friend whose esteem 
would alone have been a sufficient passport to 
honour. The Eulogist himself, (Dr. Currie), 
has since been cut off, in his useful and honour- 
able career; and though no similar offering 
of respect has been paid through this Society 
to his memory, yet he has left a durable mo- 
nument of his professional skill and know- 
ledge in his “Medical Reports,” and of the 
strength of his genius, and the refinement of his 
taste, in his masterly Life of the poet Burns. 
It has frequently been a subject of regret 
