"Among other advantages... we must reckon that of being able to enjoy, with less interruption, the society of his literary friends, among whom were Dr Black, Mr Russel, professor of Natural Philosophy, Professor Adam Ferguson, Sir George Clerk... his brother Mr Clerk of Elden, Dr James Lind... and several others. Employed in maturing his views, and studying nature with unwearied application, he now passed his time most usefully and agreeably to himself, but in silence and obscurity with respect to the world. He was, perhaps, in the most enviable situation in which a man of science can be placed. He was in the midst of a literary society of men of the first abilities, to all of whom he was peculiarly acceptable, as bringing along with him a vast fund of information and originality, combined with that gayety and animation which so rarely accompany the profounder attainments of science. Free from the interruption of professional avocations, he enjoyed the entire command of his own time, and had sufficient energy of mind to afford himself continual occupation."