

CHAPTER X. 



THE LIFE Ox^ HUTTON. 



The rise of the modern school of geology — The continuity of the 

 operations of nature and their sameness — The necessity of 

 studying the existing state of things in order to comprehend 

 the past — The denial of catastrophes — Hutton's theory of the 

 earth the foundation of scientific geology. 



Many facts had been recorded regarding the 

 ancient history of the earth, and a host of ideas, 

 more or less absurd, had been given forth on 

 geology, during the years which preceded and 

 followed the reformation. Several Italian geolo- 

 gists had examined into the truths discovered by 

 Pythagoras, and, as stated in the preceding pages, 

 the nature of fossils had become understood by a 

 few liberal minded men. The age of Newton, and 

 the years which followed his time, were consumed, 

 however, so far as the history of the earth was 

 concerned, by vain attempts to form cosmogonies, 

 to account for the origin of the globe and visible 

 universe. There was also a fierce struggle between 



