X GEOLOGICAL REFORM 315 



assume that the evidence of the beginning, or end, 

 of so vast a scheme lies within the reach of our 

 philosophical inquiries, or even of our speculations, 

 appears to be inconsistent with a just estimate of 

 the relations which subsist between the finite 

 powers of man and the attributes of an infinite 

 and eternal Being." 1 



The limitations implied in these passages appear 

 to me to constitute the weakness and the logical 

 defect of Uniformitarianism. No one will impute 

 blame to Hutton that, in face of the imperfect 

 condition, in his day, of those physical sciences 

 which furnish the keys to the riddles of geology, 

 he should have thought it practical wisdom to 

 limit his theory to an attempt to account for " the 

 present order of things " ; but I am at a loss to 

 comprehend why, for all time, the geologist must 

 be content to regard the oldest fossiliferous rocks 

 as the ultima Thule of his science ; or what there 

 is inconsistent with the relations between the 

 finite and the infinite mind, in the assumption, 

 that we may discern somewhat of the beginning, 

 or of the end, of this speck in space we call our 

 earth. The finite mind is certainly competent to 

 trace out the development of the fowl within the 

 egg ; and I know not on what ground it should 

 find more difficulty in unravelling the complexities 

 of the development of the earth. In fact, as Kant 



1 Principles of Geology, vol. ii. p. 613. 



