308 GEOLOGICAL REFORM x 



So far as the not-living world is concerned, uni- 

 formitarianism 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 curiously limited, the 

 answer appears to me to be plain. 



Hutton was in advance of the geological specu- 

 lation 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 pheno- 

 mena, 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 from these I reason with 

 regard to that which must have been." l 



1 The Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 173, note. 



