VISIT TO EUROPE: RESIDENCE IN EDINBURGH. 167 



published his father's elementary work on chemistry, post 

 ing it up to the time. The principal advantage which I 

 derived from Dr. Murray's course of chemistry was from his 

 perspicuous and highly philosophical views of the science, 

 as such. His experiments were few and simple, and not 

 very remarkable for tact and beauty in the performance. 



His mind was of a highly philosophical cast. The 



flow both of his language and the thoughts of his mind was 

 like that of a deep river, smooth on the surface, transparent 

 to the very bottom, and whose evenness, free from rocks 

 and eddies, presented no impediment to the equable cur 

 rent. Dr. Murray's course was a valuable adjunct to that 

 of Dr. Hope, and, both united, gave a finish and complete 

 ness which was all I could desire to enable me to resume 

 my course of instruction at home. 



Dr. Hope and Dr. Murray on Geology. There was no 

 distinct course of geology in Edinburgh in 1805-6. Some 

 dissatisfaction was indeed expressed regarding Professor 

 Jameson, who had then recently returned from Werner's 

 celebrated school of geology at Freiburg, in Saxony, and 

 who was fully imbued with the doctrines of his great master, 

 that he did not commence his course of instruction. He 

 had, however, an able substitute in Dr. Murray, who was 

 a well-instructed and zealous advocate of the Wernerian 

 theory on the agency of water ; while Dr. Hope, on the 

 other hand, was an ardent and powerful supporter of the 

 Huttoriian or igneous theory. The discussions on these 

 subjects were held in the midst of the chemical lectures, 

 being introduced in connection with the elementary and 

 proximate constitution of rocks and minerals. My geolog 

 ical notions were crude and unsettled when I left home ; I 

 had not enjoyed any opportunities of geological instruction, 

 and was slowly climbing up the ladder of mineralogy, when 

 I took my departure for England. Both subjects began to 

 be unfolded in the mines and mineral districts of England, 



