XL] GEOLOGICAL REFORM. 201 



And so clear is he, that no causes beside such as are now in 

 operation are needed to account for the character and disposition 

 of the components of the crust of the earth, that he says, broadly 

 and boldly : &quot; . . . There is no part of the earth which has not 

 had the same origin, so far as this consists in that earth being 

 collected at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards produced, as 

 land, along with masses of melted substances, by the operation 

 of mineral causes.&quot; 1 



But other influences were at work upon Hutton beside those 

 of a mind logical by nature, and scientific by sound training ; 

 and the peculiar turn which his speculations took seems to me 

 to be unintelligible, unless these be taken into account. The 

 arguments of the French astronomers and mathematicians, 

 which, at the end of the last century, were held to demonstrate 

 the existence of a compensating arrangement among the celestial 

 bodies, whereby all perturbations eventually reduced themselves 

 to oscillations on each side of a mean position, and the stability 

 of the solar system was secured, had evidently taken strong hold 

 of Button s mind. 



In those oddly constructed periods which seem to have pre 

 judiced many persons against reading his works, but which are 

 full of that peculiar, if unattractive, eloquence which flows from 

 mastery of the subject, Hutton says : 



&quot; We have now got to the end of our reasoning ; we have no 

 data further to conclude immediately from that which actually 

 is. But we have got enough ; we have the satisfaction to find, 

 that in Nature there is wisdom, system, and consistency. For 

 having, in the natural history of this earth, seen a succession of 

 worlds, we may from this conclude that there is a system in 

 Nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions of the 

 planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they 

 are intended to continue those revolutions. But if the succession 

 of worlds is established in the system of Nature, it is in vain to 

 look for anything higher in the origin of the earth. The result, 



1 The Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 371. 



