230 ^ag S*rm0ns, dEssags, mtb |Ufaufos, [xi. 



now no parallel There was a time when catastrophism 

 might, pre-eminently, have claimed the title of " British 

 popular geology ; " and assuredly it has yet many ad- 

 herents, and reckons among its supporters some of the 

 most honoured members of this Society, 



By UNIFOKMITARIANISM, I mean especially, the teach- 

 ing of Hutton and of Lyell. 



That great though incomplete work, " The Theory of 

 the Earth, seems to me to be one of the most remarkable 

 contributions to geology which is recorded in the annals 

 of the science. So far as the not-living world is con- 

 cerned, uniformitarianism lies there, not only in germ, 

 but in blossom and fruit. 



If one asks how it is that Hutton was led to entertain 

 views so far in advance of those prevalent in his time, in 

 some respects ; while, in others, they seem almost curi- 

 ously limited, the answer appears to me to be plain. 



Hutton was in advance of the geological speculation 

 of his time, because, in the first place, he had amassed a 

 vast store of knowledge of the facts of geology, gathered 

 by personal observation in travels of considerable extent ; 

 and because, in the second place, he was thoroughly 

 trained in the physical and chemical science of his day, 

 and thus possessed, as much as any one in his time 

 could possess it, the knowledge which is requisite for 

 the just interpretation of geological phenomena, and 

 the habit of thought which fits a man for scientific 

 inquiry. 



It is to this thorough scientific training, that I ascribe 

 Button's steady and persistent refusal to look to other 

 causes than those now in operation, for the explanation 

 of geological phenomena. 



Thus he writes : " I do not pretend, as he [M. de Luc] 

 does in his theory, to describe the beginning of things. 

 I take things such as I find them at present ; and 



