«.] GEOLOGICAL REFORM, 235 



beings into the planet ; but the geologist must be content 

 to regard the earliest monuments which it is his task to 

 interpret, as belonging to a period when the crust had 

 already acquired great solidity and thickness, probably 

 as great as it now possesses, and when volcanic rocks, 

 not essentially differing from those no T v produced, were 

 formed from time to time, the intensity of volcanic heat 

 bein^ neither greater nor less than it is now." 1 



And again, " As geologists, we learn that it is not only 

 the present condition of the globe which has been suited 

 to the accommodation of myriads of living creatures, but 

 that many former states also have been adapted to the 

 organization and habits of prior races of beings. The 

 disposition of the seas, continents and islands, and the 

 climates, have varied ; the species likewise have been 

 changed ; and yet they have all been so modelled, on 

 types analogous to those of existing plants and animals, 

 as to indicate, throughout, a perfect harmony of design 

 and unity of purpose. To assume that the evidence of 

 the beginning, or end, of so vast a scheme lies within 

 the reach of our philosophical inquiries, or even of our 

 speculations, appears to be inconsistent with a just 

 estimate of the relations which subsist between the finite 

 powers of man and the attributes of an infinite and 

 eternal Being." 2 



The limitations implied in these passages appear to 

 me to constitute the weakness and the logical defect of 

 uniformitarianism. No one will impute blame to Hutton 

 that, in face of the imperfect condition, in his day, of 

 those physical sciences which furnish the keys to the 

 riddles of geology, he should have thought it practical 

 wisdom to limit his theory to an attempt to account for 

 " the present order of things ; " but I am at a loss to com- 

 prehend why, for all time, the geologist must be content 



1 Principles of Geology, vol. ii. p. 211. a Ibid. p. 613. 



