IV 



THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN 

 GEOLOGY 



JAMES BUTTON 



ONE might naturally suppose that the science of 

 the earth which lies at man's feet would at least 

 have kept pace with the science of the distant stars. 

 But perhaps the very obviousness of the phenomena 

 delayed the study of the crust of the earth. It is the 

 unattainable that allures and mystifies and enchants 

 the developing mind. The proverbial child spurns its 

 toys and cries for the moon. 



So in those closing days of the eighteenth century, 

 when astronomers had gone so far towards explaining 

 the mysteries of the distant portions of the universe, 

 we find a chaos of opinion regarding the structure and 

 formation of the earth. Guesses were not wanting to 

 explain the formation of the world, it is true, but, with 

 one or two exceptions, these are bizarre indeed. One 

 theory supposed the earth to have been at first a solid 

 mass of ice, which became animated only after a comet 

 had dashed against it. Other theories conceived the 

 original globe as a mass of water, over which floated 

 vapors containing the solid elements, which in due time 

 were precipitated as a crust upon the waters. In a 

 word, the various schemes supposed the original mass to 



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