MEMOIR 



JOHN BARCLAY, M.D. 



IN the whole circle of biography, there is, perhaps, 

 no memoir so pregnant with beneficial instruction, 

 as that of an individual who, without any of the wild 

 impulses, or as they are styled, " corruscations of 

 genius," or without any fortuitous incident or ad- 

 venture, raises himself by his own industry by a 

 patient persevering cultivation of substantial natural 

 talents to an eminent situation in society, and 

 maintains till the close of life the eminence that he 

 has reached. There is generally connected with 

 that elevation a moral worth, which gives a grandeur 

 and stability to the character that nought else can 

 possibly bestow. 



Such, in an eminent degree, will be found to have 

 characterised the life of JOHN BARCLAY. He owed 

 little to fortune, much, if not all, to the persevering 

 application of his powers in a profession, the object 

 of his choice, and the end of his ambition. He was 

 born on 10th December 1758. His father then ten- 



