Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 5.djvu/121

Rh illness in the summer of 1793, and, although before this time he had enjoyed a long continuance of good health, such was the painful nature of his complaint that he was reduced to great weakness, and confined to his room for many months, where, on his regaining some degree of strength, he amused himself in superintending the publication of the work just mentioned. During his recovery he was roused from his quiet into further exertion by a severe attack made on his Theory of the Earth, by Dr Kirwan, in the Memoirs of the Irish Academy, rendered formidable by the celebrity of the author. Before this period, Dr Hutton had often been urged to publish the entire work on the Theory of the Earth, \vhich he had constantly put off so much so, that there seemed some danger of its not appearing in his life-time. The very day, however, after Kirwan's paper was put in his hands, he began the revisal of his manuscript and resolved immediately to send it to press. The work was accordingly published in two volumes octavo, in 1795. He next turned his attention to a work on husbandry, on which he had written a great deal, the fruit both of his vast reading and practical experience. He proposed to reduce the whole into a systematic form' under the title of "Elements of Agriculture." The time, however, was fast approaching which was to terminate the exertions of a mind of such singular activity and ardour in the pursuit of knowledge. In the course of the winter, 1796, he became gradually weaker, and extremely emaciated from the pain he suffered from a recurrence of his former complaint, though he still retained the full activity and icuteness of his mind. "Saussure's Voyages aux Alps," which had just reached him that winter, was the last study of one eminent geologist, as they were the last work of another. On Saturday the 26th March, 1797, although in great pain, he employed himself in writing and noting down his remarks on some attempts which were then making towards a new mineralogical nomenclature. In the evening he was seized with shivering fits, and as these continued to increase, he sent for his friend Dr Russel. Before he could arrive, all assistance was in vain. Dr Hutton had just strength left to stretch out his hand to the physician, and immediately expired.

Dr Hutton was possessed of an uncommon activity and ardour of mind, upheld in science by whatever was new, beautiful, or sublime; and that those feelings operated with more intense power in early life, may account for the want of stability he displayed, and the difficulty he felt in settling down to any one fixed pursuit. Geology and mineralogy were to him two of the most sublime branches of physical science. The novelty and grandeur offered by the study to the imagination, the simple and uniform order given to the whole natural history of the earth, and above all, the views opened of the wisdom that governs the universe, are things to which hardly any mind could be insensible, but to him they were matters, not of transient delight, but of solid and permanent happiness.

He studied with an indefatigable perseverance, and allowed no professional, and rarely any domestic arrangement, to interrupt his uniform course. He dined early, almost always at home, ate sparingly, and drank no wine. The evening he spent in the society of friends, who were always delighted and instructed by his animated conversation, which, whether serious or gay, was replete with ingenious and original observation. When he sought relaxation from the studies of the day, and joined the evening party, a bright glow of cheerfulness spread itself over every countenance; and the philosopher who had just descended from the sublimest speculations in metaphysics, or risen from the deepest research in geology, seated himself at the tea-table, as much disengaged from thought, and as cheerful and joyous, as the youngest of the company.

Professor Stewart, in his life of Mr Smith, has alluded to a little society that