40 HIStORT of the SOCIETK 



them fingly diflblve any of the bafer metals, mud unite their 

 ftrength before they can attack the mod precious, was mention- 

 ed by the Profeflbr as an illuftration of fome general doctrine. 

 The inftinct of genius, if I may call it fo, enabled Mr Hutton, 

 young as he then was, to feel, probably, rather than to under- 

 stand, the importance of this phenomenon ; and as if, by the 

 original constitution of his mind, a kind of elective attraction 

 had drawn him towards chemiftry, he became from that mo- 

 ment attached to it by a force that could never afterwards be 

 overcome. He made an immediate fearch for books that might 

 give him fome farther instruction concerning the fact which he 

 had juft heard of ; but the only one he could procure, for a long 

 time, was Harris's Lexicon Technicum, the predeceflbr of thofe 

 voluminous compilations which have fince contributed fo much 

 more to extend the furface, than to increafe the folidity of 

 fcience. It was from the imperfect fketch contained in that 

 dictionary, that he derived his firfl knowledge of chemiftry, his 

 love for which never forfook him afterwards, and was in truth 

 the propensity which decided the whole courfe and complexion 

 of his future life. 



Though his tafte and capacity for instruction were fufficient- 

 ly confpicuous during his courfe of academical ftudy, his friends 

 wifhed him rather to purfue bufinefs than fcience. This was a 

 meafure by no means congenial to his mind, yet he acquiefced 

 in it without difficulty. 



Accordingly, in 1743 he was placed as an apprentice with 

 Mr George Chalmers, writer to the Signet ; and fubjection to 

 the routine of a laborious employment, was now about to check 

 the ardour and reprefs the originality of a mind formed for dif- 

 ferent purfuits. But happily the force of genius cannot always 

 be controlled by the plans of a narrow and fhort-fighted pru- 

 dence. The young man's propenfity to ftudy continued, and 

 lie was often found amusing himfelf and his fellow apprentices 



with 



