X GEOLOGICAL REFORM 311 



been named barren virgins, but which might 

 be more fitly termed the hctairce of philosophy, 

 so constantly have they led men astray. The 

 final cause of the existence of the world is, for 

 Hutton, the production of life and intelligence. 

 " We have now considered the globe of this 

 earth as a machine, constructed upon chemical 

 as well as mechanical principles, by which its 

 different parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, 

 and in quantity, to a certain end; an end at- 

 tained with certainty or success; and an end 

 from which we may perceive wisdom, in contem- 

 plating the means employed. 



" But is this world to be considered thus 

 merely as a machine, to last no longer than its 

 parts retain their present position, their proper 

 forms and qualities ? Or may it not be also 

 considered as an organised body ? such as has 

 a constitution in which the necessary decay of 

 the machine is naturally repaired, in the exertion 

 of those productive powers by which it had 

 been formed. 



" This is the view in which we are now to 

 examine the globe ; to see if there be, in the 

 constitution of this world, a reproductive opera- 

 tion, by which a ruined constitution may be 

 again repaired, and a duration or stability thus 

 procured to the machine, considered as a world 

 sustaining plants and animals." 1 



1 The Theory of the Earth, vol. i. pp. 16, 17. 



