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XXXIV.—A Biographical Notice of the late Tuomas Ouatuers, D.D. § LL.D. 
By the Very Reverend E. B. Ramsay, M.A., F.R.S.E. 
(Read 4th March 1849.) 
Mr PreEstDENT,—It has been a practice from the foundation of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, to commemorate its deceased distinguished members by me- 
moirs or biographical notices, read at the ordinary meetings of the Society. Some 
of these have been printed in the Transactions ; and our published volumes are 
enriched by papers of DucaLp Stewart, Professor PLAYFAIR, Sir JOHN MAcngEIL, 
and Dr Trait, on the characters and writings of Apam Smrru, Dr Huron, Pro- 
fessor Rosison, Sir CHARLES Beuu, and Dr Hore. A biographical notice is now 
due to the memory of a distinguished countryman, late Vice-President of the 
Royal Society ; and the following remarks will, in attempting that object, make a 
deviation from those more severe discussions with which the time of the Society 
is usually occupied, in connection either with pure mathematics, natural philoso- 
phy, or natural history. 
I consider it scarcely becoming for the reader of a paper to occupy the time 
of the Society, by details or explanations which are merely personal. I would, 
however, ask permission to state, that I did not enter upon this office till I knew 
that it had been declined by one far better qualified for its performance ; one who, 
if named, would, I am confident, be recognised as the individual of our body best 
calculated to do justice to the subject. 
I feel assured, however, that, from those whom I have the honour to address, I 
shall receive every sympathy and indulgence in the few observations which I pro- 
pose to offer in attempting to delineate those literary characteristics—those efforts 
of practical benevolence—by which the subject of this brief notice was distinguished 
during the many years which, as a public man, he came before his contemporaries. 
THoMAS CHALMERS was born at Anstruther, 17th March 1780, and at its paro- 
chial school received his early education. He studied at the University of St An- 
drews the usual course of eight years, from 1791 to 1799. He received licence from 
the Presbytery of St Andrews, 31st July 1799. During the sessions 1799-1800, 
1800-1801, he studied at Edinburgh under Professors Ropison, Stewart, and Hope. 
He commenced his clerical life as assistant at Cavers, December 1801—was in- 
stituted to the Parish of Kilmany, Fife, 12th May 1803—removed to Glasgow, 1815 
—to St Andrews, as Professor of Moral Philosophy, 1823. He came to Edinburgh 
as Professor of Divinity, 1828, and filled that chair till the Disruption in 1843. In 
February 1834 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, Edinburgh—in 1835 
a Vice-President. In January 1834, he was elected a corresponding member of the 
Institute of France, before which distinguished body he read, in 1838, a paper, in 
VOL. XVI. PART V. 6M 
