74 BISTORT of the SOCIETY. 



ly from eaft to weft. This is all the general information which 

 was obtained from an excurfion, which, in other refpects, 

 was very agreeable. Dr Hutton performed it in company 

 with his friend Mr Clerk, and they again experienced the po- 

 litenefs and hofpitality of the fame nobleman who had formerly 

 entertained them, on an expedition which deferves £o well to be 

 remembered in the annals of geology. 



Though from the account now given, it appears that Dr 

 Hutton's mind had been long turned with great earneftnefs to 

 the ftudy of the theory of the earth, he had by no means confi- 

 ned his attention to that fubjecl, but had directed it to the for- 

 mation of a general fyftem, both of phyfics and metaphyfics *. 

 lie tells us himfelf, that he was led to the ftudy of general phy- 

 fics, from thofe views of the properties of body which had oc- 

 curred to him in the profecution of his chemical and mineralo- 

 gical inquiries. In thofe fpeculations, therefore, that extended 

 fo far into the regions of abftract fcience, he began from che- 

 miftry ; and it was from thence that he took his departure in his 

 circum-navigation both of the material and intellectual world. 



The chemift, indeed, is flattered more than any one elfe with 

 the hopes of difcovering in what the efTence of matter confifts ; 

 and Nature, while fhe keeps the aftronomer and the mechani- 

 cian at a great diftance, feems to admit him to more familiar 

 converfe, and to a more intimate acquaintance with her fecrets. 

 Tfce vaft power which he has acquired over matter, the aftonifh- 



ing 



* At what time thefe laft fpeculations began to fliare his attention with the 

 former, I have not been able to difcover, though I have reafon to believe that be- 

 fore I became acquainted with him, which was about 1781, he had completed a 

 manufcript treatife on each of them, the fame nearly that he afterwards gave to 

 the world. His fpeculations on general phyfics were of a date much eai-lier than 

 this. 



The Phyfical Syftem, referred to here, forms the third part of a work, entitled, 

 Dijfertations on different SubjeEls in Natural Philofophy, in one vol. 4to, 1 79 a * 



