OF THE ASIATICS. 1$£ 



general disquisitions with topics measureless in ex- 

 tent, but less abstruse than that which has this day- 

 been discussed ■> and better adapted to the gaiety 

 which seems to have prevailed in the learned ban- 

 quets of the Greeks, and which ought surely to 

 prevail in every symposiac assembly. 



A DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED AT 



A MEETING OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



ON THE 22d OF MAY, I 794. 



BY SIR JOHN SHORE, BART. PRESIDENT. 



TF I had consulted my competency only, for the 

 station which your choice has conferred upon me, 

 1 must, without hesitation, have declined the honour 

 of being the President of this Society ; and although I 

 most cheerfully accept your invitation, with every 

 inclination to assist, as far as my abilities extend, in 

 promoting the laudable views of our association, I 

 must still retain the consciousness of those disquali- 

 fications, which you have been pleased to overlook. 

 It was lately our boast to possess a President, 



whose 



