74 



HUTTONIAN THEOKY. 



[Ch. IV. 



Hutton 



rary of tlie Saxon geologist. The former naturalist had been 

 educated as a physician, but declining the practice of medi- 

 cine, he resolved, when young, to remain content with the 

 small independence inherited from his father, and thenceforth 

 to give his undivided attention to scientific pursuits. He 

 resided at Edinburgh, where he enjoyed the society of many 

 men of high attainments, who loved him for the simplicity of 

 his manners and the sincerity of his character. His appli- 

 cation was unwearied ; and he made frequent tours through 

 different parts of England and Scotland, acquiring consider- 



miner 



com 



He 



results of his observations unreservedly, and with the fearless 

 spirit of one who was conscious that love of truth was the 

 sole stimulus of his exertions. When at length he had 

 matured his views, he published, in 1788, his ' Theory of the 

 Earth/ * and the same, afterwards more fully developed in a 

 separate work, in 1795. This treatise was the first in which 

 geology was declared to be in no way concerned about 

 ' questions as to the origin of things ;' the first in which an 

 attempt was made to dispense entirely with all hypothetical 



forme 



■» 



by reference exclusively to natural agents. Hutton laboured 

 to give fixed principles to geology, as Newton had succeeded 



omy 



made 



furnishing: the necessary 



data, to enable any philosopher, however great his genius, to 

 realise so noble a project. 



Huttonian theory. — 'The ruins of an older world/ said 

 Hutton, ' are visible in the present structure of our planet ; 

 and the strata which now compose our continents have been 

 once beneath the sea, and were formed out of the waste of 

 pre-existing continents. The 

 by chemical decomposition or mechanical violence, even 

 the hardest rocks, and transporting the materials to the sea, 



same 



form 



more 



Although loosely deposited along the 



* Ed. Phil. Trans. 1788. 











