X GEOLOGICAL REFORM 309 



And again : " A theory of the earth, which 

 has for object truth, can have no retrospect to 

 that which had preceded the present order of the 

 world; for this order alone is what we have to 

 reason upon ; and to reason without data is 

 nothing but delusion. A theory, therefore, which 

 is limited to the actual constitution of this earth 

 cannot be allowed to proceed one step beyond the 

 present order of things." l 



And so clear is he, that no causes beside such 

 as are now in operation are needed to account for 

 the character and disposition of the components 

 of the crust of the earth, that he says, broadly 

 and boldly : " . . . There is no part of the 

 earth which has not had the same origin, so 

 far as this consists in that earth being collected 

 at the bottom of the sea, and afterwards pro- 

 duced, as land, along with masses of melted 

 substances, by the operation of mineral causes." 2 



But other influences were at work upon Hutton 

 beside those of a mind logical by nature, and 

 scientific by sound training; and the peculiar 

 turn which his speculations took seems to me 

 to be unintelligible, unless these be taken into 

 account. The arguments of the French astro- 

 nomers and mathematicians, which, at the end 

 of the last century, were held to demonstrate 

 the existence of a compensating arrangement 

 among the celestial bodies, whereby all perturba- 

 1 The Theory of the Earth, vol. i. p. 281. 2 Ibid. p. 371. 



