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230 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



which referred to physical geography was carefully 

 studied, so that at last no man of the age was so 

 fit to deal with the great problem he had been 

 revolving in his mind for thirty years. All his 

 studies of nature, all his examinations of the 

 surface of the earth, were with a view of ascer- 

 taining the changes that have taken place on its 

 surface, and of discovering the causes by which 

 they have been produced. He was impressed with 

 the belief that the former changes in the earth's 

 surface have been of the same kind as those now 

 in progress ; that the ancient history of the earth 

 could only be studied by taking the example of 

 modern changes, and that the past could be studied 

 from the present, because there was uniformity and 

 constancy and law in nature. The same energies 

 and forces have always been and have acted by law 

 in much the same manner as at the present time. 

 With his true scientific spirit Hutton would have 

 nothing to do with convulsions or with the origin 

 of the globe ; he did not want to guess or speculate, 

 but to argue logically on facts which anybody could 

 observe. He took geology out of the age of the 

 marvellous and laid the foundations of the present 

 aspect of the science. He was in no hurry to 

 publish his views, possibly because his temperament 

 was cautious, and possibly he was aware what a 

 furious fuss there would be made about it ; how 

 he would be abused, scolded, and anathematized. 

 There is no doubt that the lights of the age and 

 public opinion were perfectly incompetent to judge 



