LIFE of Dr IlUf'TON. 89 



ferences among geological appearances, he had an acutenefs hard- 

 ly to be excelled. The eulogy fo happily conveyed in the Italian 

 phrafe, of ojfervatore oculatijjimo, might moft juftly be applied to 

 him ; for, with an accurate eye for perceiving the characters of 

 natural objects, he had in equal perfection the power of inter- 

 preting their fignification, and of decyphering thofe ancient hie- 

 roglyphics which record the revolutions of the globe. There 

 may have been other mineralogifls, who could defcribe as well 

 the fracture, the figure, the fmell, or the colour of a fpecimen ; 

 but there have been few who equalled him in reading the cha- 

 racters, which tell not only what a foflil is, but what it has been, 

 and declare the feries of changes through which it has paffed. 

 His expertnefs in this art, the finenefs of his obfervations, and 

 the ingenuity of his reafonings, were truly admirable. It 

 would, I am perfuaded, be difficult to find in any of the fci- 

 ences a better illuftration of the profound maxims eftablifhed by 

 Bacon, in his Prerogative Injlantiarum, than were often afford- 

 ed by Dr Hutton's mineralogical difquifitions, when he exhi- 

 bited his fpecimens, and difcourfed on them with his friends. 

 No one could better apply the luminous inftances to elucidate 

 the obfcure, the decifive to interpret the doubtful, or the fimple 

 to unravel the complex. None was more fkilful in marking the 

 gradations of nature, as fhe panes from one extreme to another ; 

 more diligent in obferving the continuity of her proceedings, or 

 more fagacious in tracing her footfleps, even where they were 

 moft lightly imprefTed. 



With him, therefore, mineralogy was not a mere ftudy of 

 names and external characters, (though he was Angularly well 

 verfed in that ftudy alfo), but it was a fublime and import- 

 ant branch of phyfical fcience, which had for its object to un- 

 fold the connexion between the paft, the prefent, and the future 

 conditions of the globe. Accordingly, his colleclion of foj/ils was 

 formed for explaining the principles of geology, and for illuftra- 



M 2 ting 



