Hutton was such an observer of facts that he rarely read any books of a theoretical nature, and he never would concede anything to mere authority. He was indefatigable in study, and wrote largely, expressing his thoughts constantly with his pen. He rose late, and began to study at once, and until early dinner. He rarely dined from home, and was a most sparing eater, and he drank no wine. After dinner he resumed his studies, or, if the weather was fine, walked for two or three hours, when he could not be said to give up study, though he might, perhaps, change the object of it. He rarely departed from this kind of life, except when he was travelling. To his friends his conversation was inestimable; as great talents, the most perfect candour, and the utmost simplicity of character and manners, all united to stamp a value upon it. His slender, active figure, thin countenance, high forehead, and somewhat aquiline nose, gave him the appearance of being acute and vigorous in body and mind. He was full of ardour and enthusiasm, gay and humorous, and most forcible in argument. The man’s simplicity, determination, and desire for truth, his carelessness of the opinion of men, and his great regard for his fellow labourers who were not led away by prejudice and authority, were his great characteristics. Hutton founded geology as a logical science; and although he was ignorant of the succession of the forms of life on the globe, yet his method of studying the past from the present has been, and still is used as the way in which the extinct animals and plants can be comprehended in the scheme of nature. Hutton’s works were carefully studied by, and in after years they were the mainspring of the toil of Lyell. There is a very interesting notice of the life of this great man in the “Encyclopædia Britannica,” by Professor Geikie, and in an essay by Playfair in the “Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh” to which the author of this memoir is indebted. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XI. THE LIFE OF WILLIAM SMITH. The succession of the strata recognized—Strata known by their fossils, position, and mineral contents—England surveyed by Smith and made the type of the results of the succession of changes studied by geology. The ancestors of William Smith were a race of farmers who owned small tracts of land, and had been settled in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire for many generations.