Xlvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



undergone and is still undergoing," and is in fact a brief and pregnant 

 essay upon the principles of geology. Kant gives an account first 

 " of the gradual changes which are now taking place " under the 

 heads of such as are caused by earthquakes, such as are brought about 

 by rain and rivers, such as are effected by the sea, such as are pro- 

 duced by winds and frost, and, finally, such as result from the ope- 

 rations of man. 



The second part is devoted to the " Memorials of the changes 

 which the earth has undergone in remote antiquity." These are enu- 

 merated as: — A. Proofs that the sea formerly covered the whole earth. 

 B. Proofs that the sea has often been changed into dry land and 

 then again into sea. C. A discussion of the various theories of 

 the earth put forward by Scheuchzer, Moro, Bonnet, Woodward, 

 White, Leibnitz, Linnaeus, and Buffon. 



The third part contains an " Attempt to give a sound expla- 

 nation of the ancient history of the earth." 



I suppose that it would be very easy to pick holes in the details of 

 Kant's speculations, whether cosmological or specially telluric in 

 their application. But, for all that, he seems to me to have been 

 the first person to frame a complete system of geological specula- 

 tion by founding the doctrine of evolution. 



With as much truth as Hutton, Kant could say, " I take things just 

 as I find them at present, and from these I reason with regard to 

 that which must have been." Like Hutton, he is never tired of 

 pointing out that " in nature there is wisdom, system, and constancy." 

 And as in these great principles, so in believing that the cosmos has 

 a reproductive operation " by which a ruined constitution may be 

 repaired " he forestalls Hutton : while, on the other hand, Kant is 

 true to science. He knows no bounds to geological speculation but 

 those of the intellect. He reasons back to a beginning of the pre- 

 sent state of things ; he admits the possibility of an end. 



I have said that the three schools of geological speculation which 

 I have termed Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism 

 are commonly supposed to be antagonistic to one another ; and I 

 presume it will have become obvious that, in my belief, the last is 

 destined to swallow up the other two. But it is proper to remark 

 that each of the latter has kept alive the tradition of precious 

 truths. 



Catastrophism: has insisted upon the existence of a practically un- 

 limited bank of force, on which the theorist might draw ; and it has 

 cherished the idea of the development of the earth from a state in 

 which its form, and the forces which it exerted, were very different 

 from those we now know. That such difference of form and power 

 once existed is a necessary part of the doctrine of evolution. 



XJNiEORMiTAEiAiirisM, OH the othor hand, has with equal justice in- 

 sisted upon a practically unlimited bank of time, ready to discount 

 any quantity of hypothetical paper. It has kept before our eyes the 

 power of the infinitely little, time being granted, and has compelled 

 us to exhaust known causes before flying to the unknown. 



To my mind there appears to be no sort of necessary theoretical 



