THE EIGHTH 



ANNIVERSARY DISCOURSE, 



Delivered 24 February 1791. 

 BY THE PRESIDENT, 



GENTLEMEN, 



WE have taken a general view, at our five laft annual meetings, of 

 as many celebrated nations, whom we have proved, as far as the 

 fubject admits of proof, to have defcended from three primitive ftocks, 

 which we call for the prefent Indian, Arabian, Tartarian ; and we have 

 nearly travelled over all Afia, if not with a perfedl coincidence of fentiment, 

 at leaft with as much unanimity, as can be naturally expected in a large 

 body of men, each of whom mull: aflert it as his right, and confider it as 

 his duty, to decide on all points for himfelf, and never to decide on obfeure 

 points without the beft evidence, that can poffibly be adduced : our travels 

 will this day be concluded, but our hiftorical refearches would have been 

 left incomplete, if we had patted without attention over the numerous races 

 of borderers, who have long been eftabliftied on the limits of Arabia, 



A 



