92 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



earth has a place in space and in time, and relations 

 to other bodies in both these respects, which con- 

 stitute its distribution. This subject is usually left 

 to the astronomer ; but a knowledge of its broad 

 outlines seems to me to be an essential constituent of 

 the stock of geological ideas. 



All that can be ascertained concerning the 

 structure, succession of conditions, actions, and 

 position in space of the earth, is the matter of fact 

 of its natural history. But, as in biology, there 

 remains the matter of reasoning from these facts to 

 their causes, which is just as much science as the 

 other, and indeed more ; and this constitutes geo- 

 logical aetiology. 



I suppose that it would be very easy to pick holes 

 in the details of Kant's speculations, whether cosmo- 

 logical, or specially telluric, in their application. 

 But for all that, he seems to me to have been the 



geological 



speculation which I have termed Catastrophism, 

 Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism, are commonly 

 supposed to be antagonistic to one another ; and I 

 presume it will have become obvious that in my 

 belief, the last is destined to swallow up the other 

 two. But it is proper to remark that each of 

 the latter has kept alive the tradition of precious 

 truths. 



To my mind there appears to be no sort of 

 necessary theoretical antagonism between Cata- 

 strophism and Uniformitarianism. On the contrary, 



