68 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



versation that occurred.' His successor, Dr. Thomas 

 Thomson, found Dr. Robison's estimate of Black's char- 

 acter so just that he appropriated it almost verbatim in 

 his History of Chemistry without the formality of quota- 

 tion marks. 



His pupil, Henry Brougham, one of the founders of the 

 college in which I have the honour to hold a chair, por- 

 trays him in his Philosophers of the time of George III. 

 as 'a person whose opinions on every subject were marked 

 by calmness and sagacity, wholly free from both passion 

 and prejudice, while affectation was only known to him 

 from the comedies he might have read. His temper in 

 all the circumstances of life was unruffled. . . . The sound- 

 ness of his judgment on all matters, whether of literature 

 or of a more ordinary description, was described by Adam 

 Smith, who said he " had less nonsense in his head than 

 any man living." ' Brougham, writing as an old man, 

 said: 'I love to linger over these recollections, and to 

 dwell on the delight which I well remember thrilled me 

 as I heard this illustrious sage detail the steps by which 

 he made his discoveries, illustrating them with anecdotes 

 sometimes recalled to his mind by the passages of the 

 moment, and giving them demonstration by performing 

 before us the many experiments which had revealed to 

 him first the most important secrets of nature. Next to 

 the delight of having actually stood by him when his 

 victory was gained, we found the exquisite gratification of 

 hearing him simply, most gracefully, in the calm spirit of 

 philosophy, with the most perfect modesty, recount his 

 difficulties, and how they were overcome; open to us the 

 steps by which he had successfully advanced from one 

 part to another of his brilliant course ; go over the same 

 ground, as it were, in our presence, which he had for the 

 first time trod so many long years before ; hold up per- 

 haps the very instruments he had then used, and act over 



