MEMOIR 
OP 
JOHN WALKER, D.D. 
John Walker, D.D., -was bom towards the begin- 
ning of the last century in the Canongate suburb of 
Edinburgh, and received his education at the gram- 
mar-school of that district, of which his father was 
at the time rector. His early proficiency in classical 
literature is said to have been so great, that he was 
able to relish Homer at ten years of age ; and if 
this be correct, he must have owed much to paternal 
instruction. 
He tells ns himself, in a letter to Lord Karnes, 
that he was a hind of naturalist by intuition : “ Let 
your lordship pursue tho analogy between plants 
and mankind as far as you will, it is not likely I 
shall be as much offended as with my friend Lin- 
naeus. I have been, from my cradle , fond of vege- 
table life; and though I like my species and the 
rank I hold in the creation, I declare I would sooner 
claim kindred to an oak or to an apple-tree than to 
an ape." 
B 
