LIFE of Dr HU'TTOK 55 



"fteps of the fame progt-effioa, and that mineral fubftances are al- 

 ternately diflblved and renewed. Thefe viciflitudes may have been 

 ■ often repeated ; and there are not wanting remains among mine- 

 ral bodies, that lead us back to continents from which the pre- 

 fent are the third in fucceffion. Here, then, we have a feries of 

 great natural revolutions in the condition of the earth's furface, 

 of which, as the author of this theory has remarked, we neither 

 fee the beginning nor the end ; and this circumftance accords 

 well with what is known concerning other parts of the economy 

 of the world. In the continuation of the different fpecies of 

 animals and vegetables that inhabit the earth, we difcern nei- 

 ther a beginning nor an end ; and in the planetary motions, 

 where geometry has carried the eye fo far both into the future 

 and the part, we difcover no mark either of the commencement 

 or termination of the prefent order. It is unreafonable, indeed, 

 to fuppofethat fuch marks fhould any where exifl. The Author 

 of nature has not given laws to the univerfe, which, like the 

 inftitutions of men, carry in themfelves the elements of their 

 own deftrudlion ; he has not permitted in his works any fymp- 

 torn of infancy or of old age, or any fign by which we may 

 eftimate either their future or their pafl duration. He may put 

 an end, as he no doubt gave a beginning, to the prefent fyftera, 

 at fome determinate period of time ; but we may reft aifured, 

 that this great cataftrophe will not be brought about by the laws 

 now exifting, and that it is not indicated by any thing which we 

 perceive. 



It would be deferable to trace the progrefs of an author's 

 mind in the formation of a fyftem where fo many new and en- 

 larged views of nature occur, and where fo much originality is 

 difplayed. On this fubje(fl, however, Dr Hutton's papers do 

 not afford fo much information as might be wifhed for, though 

 fomething may be learnt from a few {ketches of an EfTay on the 

 ]Satural Hijlory of the Earth, evidently written at a very early 

 period, and intended, it would feem, for parts of an extenflve 



Vol. v.— p. III. H work, 



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