Hutton according to Play fair. 259 



tinguished. It is indeed melancholy to reflect, that with all 

 who make proficiency in the sciences, founded on nice and deli- 

 cate observation, something of the sort must unavoidably hap- 

 pen. The experienced eye, the power of perceiving the minute 

 differences and fine analogies which discriminate or unite the 

 objects of science, and the readiness of comparing new pheno- 

 mena with others already treasured up in the mind; these are 

 accomphshments which no rules can teach, and no precepts can 

 put us in possession of. This is a portion of knowledge which 

 every man must acquire for himself, and which nobody can 

 leave as an inheritance to his successor. It seems, indeed, as if 

 nature had, in this instance, admitted an exception to the rule, by 

 which she has ordained the perpetual accumulation of knowledge 

 among civilized men, and had destined a considerable portion 

 of science continually to grow up and perish with the individual. 

 A circumstance which greatly distinguished the intellectual 

 character of the philosopher of whom we now speak, was an 

 uncommon activity and ardour of mind, upheld by the greatest 

 admiration of Avhatever in science was new, beautiful, or sublime. 

 The acquisitions of fortune, and the enjoyments which most 

 directly address the senses, do rot call up more lively expres- 

 sions of joy in other men, than hearing of a new invention or 

 being made acquainted with a new truth, would at any time do 

 in Dr Hutton. This sensibility to intellectual pleasure was not 

 confined to a few objects, nor to the sciences which he particu- 

 larly cultivated : he would rejoice over^ Watt's improvements on 

 the steam-engine, or Cooke's discoveries in the South Sea, with 

 all the warmth of a man who was to share in the honour or the 

 profit about to accrue from them. The fire of his expression, 

 on such occasions, and the animation of his countenance and 

 manner, are not to be described ; they were always seen with 

 great delight by those who could enter into his sentiments, and 

 often with great astonishment by those who could not. With 

 this exquisite relish for whatever is beautiful and sublime in 

 science, we may easily conceive what pleasure he derived from 

 his own geological speculations. The novelty and grandeur of 

 the objects offered by them to the imagination, the simple and 

 uniform order given to the whole natural history of the earth, 

 and, above all, the views opened of the wisdom that governs 



