404 Biographical Account of [Dec. 



of a young man, both by the variety of powers which it demands 

 and the importance of the distinctions to which it leads. It was 

 to this end, accordingly, that his studies were now chiefly 

 directed ; and although he attended the lectures of Dr. Russell 

 upon natural philosophy, and of Dr. Black upon chemistry, yet 

 he seems to have limited himself to a general knowledge upon 

 the subject of physical science, and to have reserved the vigour 

 of his attention for those classes that more immediately related 

 to his future profession. While he was pursuing, therefore, the 

 study of civil law, under the tuition of Dr. Dick, and afterwards 

 of municipal law, under that of Mr. Wallace, he followed with 

 interest the useful and perspicuous prelections of Dr. Stevenson 

 in the science of logic : he improved his taste by the celebrated 

 lectures which Dr. Blair was then delivering upon the subject of 

 rhetoric and belles lettres ; and he listened with ardour to that 

 memorable course of moral science in which Dr. Ferguson illus- 

 trated, with congenial power, the various systems of ancient 

 philosophy, and occasionally exhibited all the splendours of 

 ancient eloquence. 



Of the progress, or success, of Mr. Tytler's studies during 

 these years, no record, indeed, remains in the annals of the Uni- 

 versity. It has been the practice, and, perhaps, the wisdom of 

 the Professors of that distinguished seminary, to seek more to 

 gratify the desire of knowledge in the young by the instruction 

 they convey, than to stimulate it by the distinctions they confer; 

 and to look for their reward rather in the future eminence of 

 those they instruct, than in the display of early and premature 

 exertion. Of the dispositions or attainments of the young, 

 however, there is at this age one unfading proof to be found in 

 the character of the friends and associates whom they select. 

 The circumstances of the times and the celebrity of the Profes- 

 sors had at this period excited in the young men of the University 

 an unusual spirit of literary ambition ; and many of those who 

 have now arisen to the highest distinctions in their country were 

 at this time laying the foundations of the eminence to which they 

 have attained. It was in this class that Mr. Tytler sought for 

 friends, and it was in this class he found them. The vivacity of 

 his temper, the variety of his attainments, and the high spirit of 

 honour which distinguished even his earliest years, rendered him 

 acceptable to all the young and spirited of his own age ; while 

 his zeal for knowledge and his ambition of distinction conciliated 

 the regard of those who were older. It was in these years, 

 accordingly, that the great friendships of his life were formed ; 

 and it was his peculiar happiness that among those to whom 

 the affections of his youth were given, the course of his mature 

 life was passed, and its final period was closed. The list is an 

 ample one, and will not be heard in this Society without emo- 

 tion ; for it contains the names of Henry Mackenzie, of Alex- 

 ander Abercrombie (late Lord Abercrombie), of William Craig 



