T6 The late John Templeton, Esq. 



him withstand all solicitations to give the fruit of his labours 

 to the public; and on this account, many less scrupulous, and 

 with inferior pretensions, obtained fame and emolument, which 

 should more justly have been the recompense of his talents. 



" As a man, the late Mr. Templeton was highly esteemed by 

 a large circle of acquaintances : his downright honesty and 

 scrupulous fidelity, in all the relations and transactions of life, 

 were universally appretiated ; and in Ireland's most evil days 

 he still held fast his intergrity. He was one of the very first pro- 

 moters of the Belfast Academical Institution, and to the last 

 hour of his life a zealous friend to its prosperity and indepen- 

 dence. For the poor, his time, his services, and his property, 

 were ever ready ; and an abhorrence of cruelty and oppression 

 pointed him out as the natural resource of the unfortunate in 

 his neighbourhood, for whom, however, his exertions were 

 often frustrated by the apathy of others, and the want of ne- 

 cessary cooperation. 



" He was a strenuous and enlightened advocate of civil and 

 religious liberty — conceiving that rational beings in society 

 should be governed by reason ; and that the ruling powers of 

 a nation who did not make the unfolding of the human facul- 

 ties their principal object, and the improvement of the moral 

 character the rule of their conduct, were not entitled to the 

 name of a government. He conceived religion to be not a mat- 

 ter of human regulation, but strictly a personal affair betwixt 

 every man's conscience and his God — to his own master he 

 must stand or fall ; — and he abhorred the gross profaneness 

 which would pervert it into a test for civil rights, and the gross 

 hypocrisy which would make it a cloak for the acquirement of 

 emolument or honour. 



" His opinions further on this subject are probably known to 

 few : and those from whom they differ may cast over them that 

 veil of charity which he was so ready to extend to the con- 

 scientious opinions of others. The plainness of his manners 

 bespoke the sincerity of his heart, which expanded with bene- 

 volence for the whole human race, but kindled with extraor- 

 dinary warmth in the circle of his family and friends. — To 

 them, his loss is irreparable ; but it is hoped that his various 

 scientific collections and drawings will yet be forthcoming as 

 a valuable bequest to the public, equally beneficial to his 

 country and honourable to his own name and family. 



" The members of the Natural History Society of this town, 

 with a feeling most creditable to themselves, assembled by 

 appointment at his funeral, and, as a peculiar remark of their 

 attachment and respect for his talents and character, bore his 

 remains from the hearse to the grave." 



The 



