i 7 o HUTTONIAN THEORY 



territories of human knowledge have been many and 

 ample. Nevertheless, there are certain departments ot 

 investigation to which we may profitably restrict our 

 attention on the present occasion, and wherein we may 

 see how the leading principles that were proclaimed 

 in this city a hundred years ago have germinated and 

 borne fruit all over the world. 



From the earliest times the natural features of the 

 earth's surface have arrested the attention of mankind. 

 The rugged mountain, the cleft ravine, the scarped 

 cliff", the solitary boulder, have stimulated curiosity 

 and prompted many a speculation as to their origin. 

 The shells embedded by millions in the solid rocks 

 of hills far removed from the sea have still further 

 pressed home these ' obstinate questionings.' But for 

 many long centuries the advance of inquiry into such 

 matters was arrested by the paramount influence of 

 orthodox theology. It was not merely that the Church 

 opposed itself to the simple and obvious interpretation 

 of these natural phenomena. So implicit had faith 

 become in the accepted views of the earth's age and 

 of the history of creation, that even laymen of in- 

 telligence and learning set themselves, unbidden and 

 in perfect good faith, to explain away the difficulties 

 which Nature so persistently raised up, and to re- 

 concile her teachings with those of the theologians. 

 In the various theories thus originating, the amount 

 of knowledge of natural law usually stood in inverse 

 ratio to the share played in them by an uncontrolled 

 imagination. The speculations, for example, of 

 Burnet, Whiston, Whitehurst, and others in this 

 country, cannot be read now without a smile. In 



