57 
of Edinburgh, Session 1 862-G3. 
the interest of the details was considerably diminished. Perhaps 
partly from this cause, the circulation of the work was, I believe, 
not great, and in this country it is certainly much less known than 
it deserves to be. It is written, for the most part, with great 
animation, and conveys a lively impression of the literary society of 
Edinburgh at that day, and of the state of society in the remoter 
Highlands and Islands, as. well among the higher as the lower 
classes. It includes many excellent descriptions of scenery, and 
many accurate details of the mineralogy and geology of the places 
he visited, written evidently in the manner of He Saussure, whose 
writings were naturally the object of his life-long admiration. 
Though admitted to the intimate society of many amiable and 
accomplished families, he exercised a wise discretion in giving no 
personal details, and he confined his public references to scientific 
and literary men, whose attainments and opinions were open to the 
remark of every one. The caution with which he holds the balance 
between Huttonian and Wernerian doctrines is almost amusing. 
But though the decidedly Wernerian views of his illustrious grand- 
father tended, perhaps, more than anything else to secure his 
favourable mention of Werner’s classification of Eocks, and his 
adoption of his nomenclature, the Huttonian bias of his mind is 
everywhere visible ; and he does not hesitate to declare, that what- 
ever may be the worth of Hutton’s Theory of the Earth in its most 
wide and speculative sense, yet that the facts of geology have been 
more correctly and impartially stated by his followers than by their 
opponents.* 
These volumes also show a general acquaintance with other 
branches of science besides geology, and with literature and art, 
highly characteristic of the man. Ornithology, in particular, was 
then and afterwards a favourite study. They contain a great deal 
on matters connected with the social condition of the country, and 
its progress in civilisation, and on various questions of the day, 
3 vols. 8vo. Geneva, 1821. I may here note, that it is, or was the custom at 
Geneva, for unmarried men to assume their mother’s surname after their 
own ; after marriage, their wife’s. Hence, M. Necker is sometimes spoken of 
as if his family name were De Saussure. 
^ Mr Gumming Bruce, M.P., recollects that at this period, Necker “used to 
express his regret that the party spirit then at its height between the Wer- 
nerians and Huttonians did not allow either to give due weight to facts 
which might have made them more tolerant of each other.” 
