114 GEOLOGICAL CHANGE, AND TIME. 



genius, but with little recognition from the world at large. Men knew 

 not then that a great master had passed away from their midst, who 

 liad laid broad and dee^) the foundations of anew science; that his 

 name would become a household word in after generations, and that 

 ])ilgrims would come from distant lands to visit the scenes from which 

 he drew his inspiration. 



Many years might have elapsed before Ilutton's teaching met with 

 wide acceptance, had its recognition dei)ended solely on the writings of 

 the philosopher himself. For, despite his linn grasp of general prin- 

 ciples and his mastery of the minutest details, he had acquired a liter- 

 ary style which, it must be admitted, was singularly unattractive. 

 Fortunately for his fame, as well as for the cause of science, his devoted 

 friend and disciple, Playfair, at once set himself to draw up an exposi- 

 tion of Ilutton's views. After five years of labor on this task there 

 appeared the classic " Illnstratious of the lluttonian Theory," a work 

 which for luminous treatment and graceful diction stands still without 

 a rival in English geological literature. Though professing merely to 

 set forth his friend's doctrines, Playfair's treatise was in many respects 

 an original contribution to science of the highest value. It placed for 

 the first time in the clearest light the whole philosophy of Hutton regard- 

 ing the history of the earth, and enforced it with a wealth of reasoning 

 and copiousness of illustration which obtained for it a wide apprecia- 

 ation. From long converse with Hutton, and from profound reflection 

 himself, Playfair gained such a comprehension of the whole subject, 

 that discarding the non-essential parts of his master's teaching, he was 

 able to give so lucid and accurate an exposition of the general scheme 

 of Nature's operations on the surface of the globe, that with only slight 

 corrections andexi)ansions his treatise may serve as a text-book to-day. 

 In some respects, indeed, his volume was long in advance of its time. 

 Only, for example, within the present generation has the truth of his 

 teaching in regard to the origin of valleys been generally admitted. 



Various causes contributed to retard tlie progress of the Huttonian 

 doctrines. Especially potent was the influence of the teaching of Wer- 

 ner, who, thimgh he perceived that a definite <n-der of sequence could 

 be recognized among the materials of the earth's crust, had formed 

 singularly narrow conceptions of the great processes whereby that 

 crust has been built up. His enthusiam, however, fired his disciples 

 with the zeal of proselytes, and they spread themselves over Europe to 

 preach every where the artificial system w^hichthey had learned in Sax 

 ony. By a curiousfate PMinburgh became one of the great headquarters 

 of Wernerism. The friends and followers of Hutton found themselves 

 attacked in their own city by zealots, who i)roud of superior minera- 

 logical ac(purements, turned their most cherished ideas upside down 

 and assailed them in the uncouth jargon of Freiberg. Inasmuch as 

 subterranean heat had been invoked by Hutton as a force largely in- 

 strumental in consolidating and upheaving the ancient sediments that 



