78 



PLAYFAIE'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF BUTTON. 



[Ch. IV. 



followed each, other in succession in every region of the globe • 

 but it may be equally true, that the energy of the subterra- 

 nean movements has been always uniform as regards the 

 whole earth. The force of earthquakes may for a cycle of 

 years have been invariably confined, as it is now, to large 

 but determinate spaces, and may then have gradually shifted 

 its position, so that another region, which had for ages been 

 at rest, became in its turn the grand theatre of action. 



Play fair's illustrations of Button. — The explanation proposed 

 by Hutton, and by Playfair, the illustrator of his theory, 

 respecting the origin of valleys and of alluvial accumulations, 

 was also very imperfect. They ascribed valleys in general 

 too exclusively to the action of the rivers now flowing in 



>ntly for the excavating and 



them, not 



alio win g 



suffici 



transporting power which the waves of the ocean must exert 

 on land during its 



emer 



mo"v 



the surface which must be pro 

 panying the upheaval of the land. 



Although Hutton' s knowledge of mineralogy and chemistry 

 was considerable, he possessed but little information con- 

 cerning organic remains ; they 



me 



did Wei 



mar 



er, to characterise certain strata, and to prove 

 ne origin. The theory of former revolutions 

 in organic life was not yet fully recognised ; and without 

 this class of proofs in support of the antiquity of the globe, 

 the indefinite periods demanded by the Huttonian hypothesis 

 appeared visionary to many ; and some, who deemed the 

 doctrine inconsistent with revealed truths, indulged very 

 uncharitable suspicions of the motives of its author. They 



him 



ma 



world ever had a beginning. Playfair, in the biography oi 

 his friend, has the following comment on this part of their 

 theory: — ' In the planetary motions, where geometry has 

 carried the eye so far, both into the future and the past, we 



mt or termina- 



mark either of the commencem 



tion of the present order. It is unreasonable, indeed^ to 

 suppose that such marks should anywhere exist. 

 Author of Nature has not piven laws to the universe, which, 



The 







C* 



of 



to 





