MODERN GEOLOGY 



" 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 organized body 

 such as has a constitution, in which the necessary 

 decay of the machine is naturally repaired in the exer- 

 tion of those productive powers by which it has been 

 formed ? 



" This is the view in which we are now to examine 

 the globe ; to see if there be, in the constitution of the 

 world, a reproductive operation by which a ruined con- 

 stitution may be again repaired and a duration of 

 stability thus procured to the machine considered as a 

 world containing plants and animals. 



" If no such reproductive power, or reforming opera- 

 tion, after due inquiry, is to be found in the constitu- 

 tion of this world, we should have reason to conclude 

 that the system of this earth has either been intention- 

 ally made imperfect or has not been the work of in- 

 finite power and wisdom." l 



This, then, was the important question to be an- 

 swered the question of the constitution of the globe. 

 To accomplish this, it was necessary, first of all, to ex- 

 amine without prejudice the material already in hand, 

 adding such new discoveries from time to time as 

 might be made, but always applying to the whole 

 unvarying scientific principles and inductive methods 

 of reasoning. 



" If we are to take the written history of man for 

 the rule by which we should judge of the time when the 

 species first began," said Hutton, "that period would 



123 



