20 MEMOIR OF JOHN BARCLAY. 



tioner" by the presbytery of Dunkeld. Although his 

 natural taste led him eventually to prefer the study 

 of Medicine, he always through life maintained the 

 highest respect and regard both for the services 

 and the members of the sacred ministry ; and even 

 after he had fully directed his attention to the study 

 of Anatomy, he occasionally assisted his clerical 

 friends, being wont to preach for the late Dr. Hardy, 

 professor of Church History in the University of 

 Edinburgh, and Mr. Grant of Libberton ; nor did he 

 give up his attention to clerical matters even after he 

 began to lecture upon Anatomy, having been several 

 times a member of the General Assembly, in whose 

 proceedings he took great interest, although he never 

 exhibited among the orators of that venerable court. 



Soon after he received his licence, he was engaged 

 by Charles Campbell, Esq. of Loch Dochart, as a 

 tutor in his family ; and while there, having consider- 

 able leisure, he gave way to the bent of his genius, 

 and prosecuted with avidity his researches in Natural 

 History. These he continued with peculiar advan- 

 tage, when he afterwards became an inmate in the 

 family of the late Sir James Campbell of Aberuchill, 

 to whose sons, William and Frederick, he became 

 tutor in Edinburgh, at the commencement of the 

 Winter Session 1789. 



Relieved from all care about temporal support, 

 and giving up every idea of Church preferment, the 

 study of anatomy, almost entirely absorbed his inde- 

 fatigable mind. About this time he enjoyed an essen- 

 tial advantage in being admitted assistant to the cele 



