Xlii PKOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



title than catastrophism to call itself the geological speculation of 

 Britain, or, if you will, British popular geology. For it is eminently 

 a British doctrine, and has even now made comparatively little pro- 

 gress on the continent of Europe. Nevertheless it seems to me to 

 be open to serious criticism upon one of its aspects. 



I have shown how unjust was the insinuation that Hutton denied 

 a beginning to the world. But it would not be unjust to say that 

 he persistently, in practice, shut his eyes to the existence of that 

 prior and different state of things which in theory he admitted ; and 

 in this aversion to look beyond the veil of stratified rocks Lyell fol- 

 lows him. 



Hutton and Lyell alike agree in their indisposition to carry their 

 speculations a step beyond the period recorded in the most ancient 

 strata now open to observation in the crust of the earth. This is, for 

 Hutton, " the point in which we cannot see any farther ; " while 

 Lyell tells us, — 



" The astronomer may find good reasons for ascribing the earth's 

 form to the original fluidity of the mass in times long antecedent to 

 the first introduction of living beings into the planet ; but the geo- 

 logist must be content to regard the earliest monuments which it is 

 his task to interpret, as belonging to a period when the crust had 

 already acquired great solidity and thickness, probably as great as 

 it now possesses, and when volcanic rocks, not essentially diifering from 

 those now produced, were formed from time to time, the intensity of 

 volcanic heat being neither greater nor less than it is now"*. 



And again, " As geologists, we learn that it is not only the present 

 condition of the globe which has been suited to the accommodation 

 of myriads of living creatures, but that many former states also have 

 been adapted to the organization and habits of prior races of beings. 

 The disposition of the seas, continents and islands, and the climates 

 have varied ; the species likewise have been changed ; and yet they 

 have all been so modelled, on types analogous to those of existing 

 plants and animals, as to indicate, throughout, a perfect harmony of 

 design and unity of purpose. To assume that the evidence of the 

 beginning, or end, of so vast a scheme lies within the reach of our 

 philosophical inquiries, or even of our speculations, appears to be in- 

 consistent with a Just estimate of the relations which subsist between 

 the finite powers of man and the attributes of an infinite and eternal 

 Being " f. 



The limitations implied in these passages appear to me to consti- 

 tute the weakness and the logical defect of uniformitarianism. No 

 one will impute blame to Hutton that, in face of the imperfect con- 

 dition, in his day, of those physical sciences which furnish the keys 

 to the riddles of geology, he should have thought it practical wisdom 

 to limit his theory to an attempt to account for " the present order 

 of things " ; but I am at a loss to comprehend why, for all time, the 

 geologist must be content to regard the oldest fossiliferous rocks as 

 the vltima Thule of his science, or what there is inconsistent with 

 the relations between the finite and the infinite mind in the assump- 



* Principles of Geology, vol. ii. p. 211. t lb. p. 613. 



