4 A Reply to Mr. Play/air's Refle£lion$ o» 



Mr. De Luc, SaufTure, and Dolomieii, were not deficient 

 either in common lenlc or found philofophv, yet thev all 

 ailert tliat we may difcover evident marks of the beginning 

 of the world in its prefent (hte: nay. Dr. Hutton himfelf 

 allows it, for he judged the aftual world to have proceeded 

 from a preceding, and aflerts that it will have an end. What 

 Mr. Playf;iir muft then mean is, that we can fee no trace of 

 the beginning of this fucceffion of worlds. Of fuch fucceflion, 

 it is true, we can trace no beginning, becaufe it is merely ficti- 

 tious : but while Dr. Hutton alTcrted the reality of fuch a fuc- 

 ceflion without afiigning any limit, it was natural for me, 

 who was totally unacquainted with him, to infer that he 

 really judged it to have no beginning : this conclufion was 

 fo natural, that it occurred to others long before I had written 

 Qn this fubje£l. Mr. Williams, his countryman, who was 

 probably acquainted with him, fays, "That Dr. Hutton aims 

 at eilablifhing the belief of the eternity of the world, is evi- 

 dent from the whole drift of his fvfiem, and from his own 

 words ; for he concludes his Angular Theory with thefe An- 

 gular expreflions : 'Having in the natural hillory of the earth 

 fecn a fucceflion of vi-orlds, we may from this conclude that 

 there is a fyftem in nature — in like manner as, from feeing the 

 revolutions of the planets, it is concluded that there is a 

 fyftem by which they are intended to continue thefe revolu- 

 tions. But, if the fucceflion of worlds is eftabliflied in the 

 fyftem of nature, it is in vain to look for any thing higher 

 in the origin of the earth. The refult, therefore, of our pre- 

 fent inquiry is, that we find no vefiige of a beginning, no 

 profpeft of an end.'" — Williams's Natural Hiliory of the 

 Mineral Kingdom, Preface, Ix. 



Now, I alk what can be the meaning of thefe laft words, 

 it is in I'uin to look for any thing higher in the origin of the 

 earth. Higher than what ? Is it not plain that the meaning 

 is, higher than that ellabliflicd fucceflion, of which fucceflion 

 we can trace no begiiming ? And what is a fucceflion of which 

 ve can trace, and to which we affign, no beginning ? Now 

 Dr. Hutton, in his firfl edition, no where mentioned that it 

 had a beginning, though fuch beginning were not apparent 

 on hare infpt6lion of the aftual world ; was not then his 

 meaning at leaf! ambiguous? 



So alio Mr. Howard, in his learned work on the Strufture 

 of the Earth, p. 549, fays: " Dr. Hutton rejects all time, 

 the operations of his living renovating nature fcorn all limits: 

 time (fays he), which meafures every thing, is to nature 

 fcndlefs and nothing." But to return to Mr. Playfair : 

 " Mr. Kirwan, in bringing forward this rafli and ill-founded 



cenfure, 



