JOSEPH BLACK: HIS LIFE AND WORK 69 



again the same part before our eyes which had laid the 

 deep and broad foundations of his imperishable renown. 

 Not a little of this extreme interest certainly belonged to 

 the accident that he had so long survived the period of 

 his success that we knew there sat in our presence the 

 man now in his old age reposing under the laurels won 

 in his early youth. But take it altogether, the effect was 

 such as cannot well be conceived. I have heard the 

 greatest understandings of the age giving forth their 

 efforts in its most eloquent tongues have heard the com- 

 manding periods of Pitt's majestic oratory the vehe- 

 mence of Fox's burning declamation have followed the 

 close compacted chain of Grant's pure reasoning been 

 carried away by the mingled fancy, epigram, and argu- 

 mentation of Plunket; but I should without hesitation 

 prefer, for mere intellectual gratification (though aware 

 how much of it is derived from association) to be once 

 more allowed the privilege which I in those days enjoyed 

 of being present while the first philosopher of his age was 

 the historian of his own discoveries, and be an eye-witness 

 of those experiments by which he had formerly made 

 them, once more performed with his own hands.' 



Truly, Scotland in the last half of the eighteenth 

 century was the home of many great men. Adam Smith, 

 the first political economist ; David Hume, the historian ; 

 James Hutton, the geologist; and James Watt, the 

 engineer : all these were intimate friends of Black's, and 

 each in his way was an originator of the first order. 

 And it is my pleasant task to present to you an account 

 of Black's discoveries and their consequences, and to 

 attempt to show that his work began a new epoch for 

 chemistry and physics. 



There is little to tell of Black's early history; nor, 

 indeed, was his life even remotely adventurous. His 

 career may be told in a few words. 



