LIFE of Dr HUTTON. 51 



ing the changes that have taken place on its furface, and of dif- 

 covering the caufes by which they have been produced. 



He had become a fkilful mineralogift, and had examined the 

 great fads of geology with his own eyes, and with the moft 

 careful and fcrupulous obfervation. In the courfe of thefe flu- 

 dies he had brought together a connderable collection of mine- 

 rals peculiarly calculated to illuftrate the changes which foffil 

 bodies have undergone. He had alfo carefully perufed almoft 

 every book of travels from which any thing was to be learned 

 concerning the natural hiftory of the earth; and, in confequence 

 both of reading and obfervation, was eminently fkilled in phy- 

 sical geography. 



If to all this it be added, that Dr Hutton was a good che- 

 mift, and pofTeffed abilities excellently adapted to philofo- 

 phical refearch, it will be acknowledged, that few men have en- 

 tered with better preparation on the arduous taik of inveftiga- 

 ting the true theory of the earth. Several years before the time 

 I am now fpeaking of, he had completed the great outline of 

 his fyftem, but had communicated it to very few ; I believe to 

 none but his friends Dr Black and Mr Clerk of Elden. 

 Though fortified in his opinion by their agreement with him, 

 (and it was the agreement of men eminently qualified to judge), 

 yet he was in no hafle to publifh his theory; for he was 

 one of thofe who are much more delighted with the contempla- 

 tion of truth, than with the praife of having difcovered it. It 

 might therefore have been a long time before he had given any 

 thing on this fubje<fl to the public, had not his zeal for fupport- 

 ing a recent inflitution which he thought of importance to the 

 progrefs of fcience in his own country induced him to come 

 forward, and to communicate to the Royal Society a eoncife ac- 

 count of his theory of the earth* 



As 



