234 ^ag j&erm0rts, (Essags, anb |jUbiefos. [xi. 



original " Theory of the Earth ; " the more is the pity ; 

 but which of us has not thumbed every page of the 

 " Principles of Geology " ? I think that he who writes 

 fairly the history of his own progress in geological 

 thought, will not be able to separate his debt to Hutton 

 from his obligations to Lyell ; and the history of the 

 progress of individual geologists is the history of geology. 

 No one can doubt that the influence of uniformitarian 

 views has been enormous, and, in the main, most 

 beneficial and favourable to the progress of sound 

 geology. 



Nor can it be questioned that Uniformitarianism has 

 even a stronger title than Catastrophism to call itself the 

 geological speculation of Britain, or, if you will, British 

 popular geology. For it is eminently a British doctrine, 

 and has even now made comparatively little progress 

 on the continent of Europe. Nevertheless it seems to 

 me to be open to serious criticism upon one of its 

 aspects. 



I have shown how unjust was the insinuation that 

 Hutton denied a beginning to the world. But it would 

 not be unjust to say that he persistently, in practice, 

 shut his eyes to the existence of that prior and different 

 state of things which, in theory, he admitted ;. and, lin 

 this aversion to look beyond the veil of stratified rocks, 

 Lyell follows him. 



Hutton and Lyell alike agree in their indisposition 

 to carry their speculations a step beyond the period 

 recorded in the most ancient strata now open to obser- 

 vation in the crust of the earth. This is, for Hutton, 

 " the point in which we cannot see any farther ; " while 

 Lyell tells us, 



" The astronomer may find good reasons for ascribing 

 the earth's form to the original fluidity of the mass, in 

 times long antecedent to the first introduction of living 



