LIFE of Dr BLACK. ' n^ 



out a driver. This joke, however, has become ferious, and is now 

 the general pfadice from one end of Scotland to the other *. 



In returning to Black from this enumeration of his intimate 

 friends, ferving, perhaps, to difclofe his charafler no lefs than 

 any other circumftance relating to him, we but haften to the 

 • eonclufion of a life no lefs diftinguilhed by correflnefs and pro- 

 priety of condudl, than by ingenious reafoning, and fcientific 

 refearch. Fully entitled to the appellation of Frugi\, — that 

 feemingly cant expreffion, of which the old Romans were fo 



fond, 



. ♦ Having faid fp much of Hutton in this occafional notice, fo far fliort of his 

 merits, it may not be improper to prepare thofe who may confult him as an au- 

 thor, to meet with a difappointment for which his friends could never right- 

 ly account. Though uncommonly luminous and pleafant in converfation, he was 

 obfcure, unintelligible, and dry in writing, to an equal degree. His favou- 

 rite fpecimens of natural hiftory, he ufed to fay, were GoB's Books, and he treat- 

 ed the books of men comparatively with negleft. This may, in fome meafure, 

 account for his want of ftyle or his indifference to language. In company, he fpoke 

 t*ibe underftood by fuch as Were prefent, and when obfcure, was called upon to 

 explain himfelf. But alone, he was not aware that others could be at a lofs for a 

 . meaning fo clear to himCelf. From this circumftance, (notwithftanding many vo- 

 iumes written in the laft years of his life, more numerous, perhaps, than all he 

 ever read that were written by others, except the voyages and travels, from which 

 he was perpetually coUefting fafts to complete his view of the terreftrial fyfteih), 

 his very ingenious conceptions, to be received as they ought, muft come from fome 

 other pen than his own. 



\'-'bi this fubjeft we may confult the following paffage of Cicero, Tufc. ^ajl. 

 -lib. iii. c-soo. " Sed quia, n«c qui, propter metum, prsfidium rcUquit, quod eft 

 " Ignavise ; nee qui, propter avaritiam, clam depofitum non reddidit, quod eft In- 

 " juftitiw ; nee qui, propter temeritatem, male rem gelfit, quod efl Stultitj^, Fru- 

 "^^ appeUari folet. Eas tres virtutes, Portitudinem, Juftitiam, Prudenti^m, 

 ** fnigalitas eft complexa ; etfi hoc quidem commune eft virtutum : omnes enim' 

 « inter fe connesse et jugatse fuftt. Reliqua igitur et quarta virtns, ut fit ipfa 

 " Fnigalitas. Ejus enim videtur efle prpprium, moms animi appeteatis reg^iie.et 

 " fedare ; femper adverfantem libidjni, moderatam in omni f4 fervare «firtft>(ri. 

 " tiam, cui contrarium vitium Nequitia di<:itur." 



