H4 HISTQRT of the SOCIETr. 



phyfiCal fciehce, and rigid adherents to fact, in exclufion of hy- 

 pothesis or vain conjecture. Both of confummate humanity and 

 candour. Black was ferious, but not morole ; Hutton play- 

 ful, but not petulant. The one never cracked a joke, the other 

 never tittered a farcafm. Black was always on folid ground, 

 and of him it might be faid, Nil molltur inept e. Hutton, whe- 

 ther for pleafantry or ferious reflection, could be in the air, fpe- 

 culate beyond the laws of nature, and treat the common notion 

 of body, with its magnitude and figure, as a miftake. In thefe 

 fpeculations Black never took any part, farther than to be 

 diverted with any play of fancy, or refinement of thought, 

 which, he well knew, in the cafe of his friend Hutton, did not 

 preclude the ufe of correct; and fober reafon when the fubject 

 required it, or was within its cognifance. The refearches of 

 Hutton were unremitted, and his reference to the order and ar- 

 rangement of this, which he called a Living World, was judi- 

 cious and happy *. Unreal as corporeal fubjects were in his ap- 

 prehenuon, he eftablifhed a lucrative manufacture, on principles 

 of chemiftry, and was for many years of his life keenly employ- 

 ed in the practice of agriculture. To this he was led by becoming 

 a proprietor of land on the death of his father, when he haftened 

 to Norfolk, where, he had formerly lived with a farmer, to ob- 

 ferve the hufbandry of that country. . There he purchafed a 

 plough, hired a ploughman, and brought both on the poft-chaife 

 with him to Berwickfhire. The neighbours were diverted with 

 this aflbrtment of company and baggage, and no lefs with the 

 attempt which followed, to plough with a pair of horfes with- 

 out 



* He, too, had carried his Audits fo faf as to obtain a degree in medicine ; but 

 an attempt to eonfult ot fee him would have been met with a laugh, or fome ludi- 

 crous fancy, to turn off the fubjeft. 



