APPENDIX. (19) 



the profelTional obiedls are i^reater and more exteiiiive, and the Account of 



^ . \V. Tytler, Eli^; 



different claffes of men are more decidedly feparated from one 

 another, there is a fort of divihon of mind as well as of labour, 

 that makes the lawyer or the merchant a perfecft lawyer or mer- 

 ■chant, whofe mind and time are wholly engroffed by the ob- 

 je(5ls of his profeffion, and whom it might confiderably difcre- 

 dit among his brethren of that profeffion, were he to devote any 

 portion of either to claffical fludy or literary compofition. In 

 Edinburgh it is other-wife ; the profeffional duties are not in 

 general fo extenfive as to engrofs the whole man, and his con- 

 ne(5lions in fociety extending through many different claffes of 

 his fellow-citizens, he has opportunities of converfing, of read- 

 ing, and of thinking on other objecfts than merely thofe imme- 

 diately relating to the bufinefs which he follows. This is per- 

 haps the moft agreeable ftate of fociety of any, which, if it 

 may fometimes prevent the highefl degree of profeffional emi- 

 nence and fkill, (though even on that ground many arguments 

 'might be offered in its favour), certainly tends to enlarge the 

 mind, and to polifh the manners ; to give a charm and a digni- 

 ty to ordinary life, that may be thought ill exchanged for the 

 inordinate accumulation of wealth, or the felfifh enjoyment of 

 profeffional importance. 



Among that Society of which Mr Tytler, at the period I 

 have mentioned, was admitted a member, the Writers to the Sig- 

 net^ there were always many individuals poffeffed of much ge- 

 neral learning and knowledge ; and the claffical education which 

 was generally beflowed on young men deflined for that Society, 

 frequently led them to indulge in hiflorical and literary difqui- 

 fitions, little connected with the ordinary courfe of their pro- 

 feffional employments. Mr Tytler was one of thofe who, 

 from his earliefl years, had applied himfelf to letters and claffi- 

 cal fludy ; and amidft an accurate knowledge and unremitting 

 attention to his bufinefs, he never ceafed to cultivate and to en- 

 joy them. 



(C 2) The 



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