LIFE of Dr HUTTON. 95 



llender, but indicated activity ; while a thin countenance, 

 a high forehead, and a nofe fomewhat aquiline, befpoke ex- 

 traordinary acutenefs and vigour of mind. His eye was pe- 

 netrating and keen, but full of gentlenefs and benignity ; and 

 even his drefs, plain, and all of one colour, was in perfect har- 

 mony with the reft of the picture, and feemed to give a fuller 

 relief to its characterise features *. 



The friendmip that fubfifted between him and Dr Black 

 has been already mentioned, and was indeed a diftinguifhing 

 circumftance in the life and character of both. There was in 

 thefe two excellent men that fimilarity of difpofition which 

 muft be the foundation of all friendfhip, and, at the fame time, 

 that degree of diverfity, which feems necefTary to give to friends 

 the higheft relifh for the fociety of one another. 



They both cultivated nearly the fame branches of phyfics, 

 and entertained concerning them nearly the fame opinions. 

 They were both formed with a tafte for what is beautiful and 

 great in fcience ; with minds inventive, and fertile in new 

 combinations. Both pofTefTed manners of the mod genuine fim- 

 plicity, and in every action difcovered the fincerity and can- 

 dour of their difpofitions ; yet they were in many things ex- 

 tremely diflimilar. Ardour, and even enthufiafm, in the purfuit 

 of fcience, great rapidity of thought, and much animation, di- 

 ftinguifhed Dr Hutton on all occafions. Great caution in 

 his reafonings, and a coolnefs of head that even approached to 

 indifference, were characteristic of Dr Black. On attending to 

 their converfation, and the way in which they treated any que- 

 ition of fcience or philofophy, one would fay that Dr Black 

 dreaded nothing fo much as error, and that Dr Hutton dread- 



Vol.V.— P.Iil. N ed 



* A portrait of Dr Hutton, by Raeburn, painted for the late John Da- 

 vidson, Efq; of Stewartfield, one of his old and intimate friends, conveys a good 

 idea of a phyfiognomy and character of face t a which it was difficult to do complete 

 juftice. 



