Outlines of Geology. 75 



times adduces doctrines which neither experiment nor analogy 

 are competent to sanction, and which are rather adapted to 

 delight the fancy than to convince the reason. 



The Huttonian theory supposes the materials which compose 

 the present surface of the globe to have been derived from the 

 action of water upon a former order of things ; that they are, 

 in fact, the debris or ruin of ancient continents, which have 

 been pulverized and worn away by the continuous operation of 

 torrents and currents of water, which had transported them to 

 the bottom of the ocean, and that there they have been consoli- 

 dated by various causes, but chiefly by subterranean or volcanic 

 fires ; and we are to imagine the expansive power of the same 

 irresistible agent to have again elevated the strata from the 

 bottom of the ocean, to have given them various states of indu» 

 ration, and to have thrown them into those differing degrees of 

 inclination to the horizon which they now exhibit ; simply 

 raising them in] some instances ; dislocating and removing 

 them from their old posture in others ; and occasionally effecting 

 their entire fusion. The unstratified substances are supposed to 

 have been in the latter predicament, while the stratified bodies 

 are regarded as having been only ^isoftened by heat, or pene- 

 trated by melted matter. And as present continents were formed 

 from the disintegration and corrosion of prior rocks, so are 

 they supposed to be gradually restoring their materials to the sea, 

 from which new continents are hereafter to emerge, manifesting 

 a series of changes similar to the past. 



Though in the details of these theoretical views there is very 

 much that is fantastic and improbable, it must be allowed, that 

 there is also much that is consistent with the kno^vn agency of 

 bodies, and which is even directly borne out and verified by the 

 actual result of experimental investigation. Indeed, the pro- 

 gress of modern chemistry has disburdened the Huttonian doc- 

 trines of some of their heaviest inconsistencies. 



When facts and specimens are before you, I shall beg leave to 

 call your attention to some of the chief elucidations of the Wer- 

 nerian and Huttonian hypotheses ; and then, and not till then, 



