THE THIRD ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, ScC. 41$ 



XXV. 

 THE 



Third Anniversary Discourse, 



Delivered 2 February, 1786, 



BY 



THE PRESIDENT. 



TN the former difcourfes which I had the honour of 

 **■ addrefling-to you, Gentlemen, on the inflitution and 

 ohjefis of our Society, I confined myfelf purpofely to 

 general topicks; giving in the firft, a diftant profpect of 

 the vaft career on which we were entering; and, in the 

 fecond, exhibiting a more diffufe, but ftill fuperficial, 

 fketch of the various difcoveries in Hiftory, Science, 

 and Art, which we might juflly expecl from our inqui- 

 ries into the Literature of Afia. I now propofe to fill 

 up that outline fo comprehenfively as to omit nothing 

 etfential, yet fo concifely as to avoid being tedious ; 

 and, if the ftate of my health fhall fuffer me to continue 

 long enough in this climate, it is my defign, with your 

 permiffion, to prepare for our annual meetings, a feries 

 of fhort diflertations, unconnected in their titles and 

 fubjects, but all tending to a common point of no fmall 

 importance in the purluit of interefting truths. 



Of all the works which have been publifhed in our 



own age, or, perhaps, in any other, on the Hiftory of the 



3 Ancient 



