LIFE of Dr HUTTON. 8i 



conclufions of the antiphlogiftic theory have been drawn with 

 too much precipitancy, and carried farther than is warranted by 

 the ftridi: rules of indudlive philofophy. 



The fubjedt of Fire, Light and Heat was refumed by Dr 

 HuTTON feveral years after this period, and formed the fubjedl 

 of a feries of papers which he read in the Royal Society of Edin- 

 burgh, and afterwards publilhed feparately. He there explains 

 more fully his notion of the fubftances juft mentioned, which 

 he confiders as different modifications of the folar matter, alike 

 deftitute of inertnefs and of gravity. 



A MORE voluminous work from Dr Hutton's pen, made its 

 appearance foon after the Phyfical Diflertations, viz. An lnvejli~ 

 gation of the Principles of Knowledge, and of the Progrefs of Rea- 

 fon fro7n Senfe to Science and Philofophy, in three volumes quarto. 



He informs us himfelf of the train of thought by which he 

 was led to the metaphyfical fpeculations contained in thefe vo- 

 lumes. He had fatisfied himfelf, by his phyfical inveftigations, 

 that body is not what it is conceived by us to be, a thing necef- 

 farily poflTeffing volume, figure and impenetrability, but merely 

 an affemblage of powers, that by their adion produce in us the 

 ideas of thefe external qualities. His curiofity, therefore, was 

 natvii-ally excited to inquire farther into the manner in which 

 we form our conceptions of body, or into the nature of the in- 

 tercourfe which the mind holds with thofe things that exifl 

 without it. In purfuing this inquiry, he foon became convin- 

 ced, that magnitude, figvxre and impenetrability, are no otherwife 

 perceived by the mind than colour, tafte and fmell ; that is, that 

 what are called the primary qualities of body, are precifely on 

 the fame footing with the fecondary, and are both conceptions 

 of the mind, which can have no refemblance to the external 

 caufe by which thofe conceptions are produced. The world, 

 therefore, as conceived by us, is the creation of the mind itfelf, 

 but of the mind a(Sled on from without, and receiving informa- 



L 2 tion 



/ 



