Epitome of the Progress of Natural Science, 255 



immensity of time involved in the theory, nor the uniformity of 

 action alluded to ; seeing that the proofs are co-extensive vfi\h 

 investigations made in the most distant parts of the globe, that 

 until the period of the lower secondary rocks, the evidences of an 

 immeasurable and peculiar subterranean power, form the most 

 obvious of all the geological phenomena ; and from which we 

 may, in conjunction with other important branches, infer the fu- 

 ture establishment of a geological theory of a progressive charac- 

 ter, rather than one of uniform mutations. 



For a long time the opinions of Hutton were injurious to the 

 advancement of sound geological knowledge ; for though he was 

 much nearer the truth than his Wernerian adversaries, still, 

 inferences were raised, which gave occasion to the imputa- 

 tion of atheistical tendency, and thus 'an alliance was formed 

 between the Wernerians and the theologico-geologists, who 

 were less concerned for the safety of .science, than for the Mosaic 

 account of the creation and the Noachic deluge ; and thus, with 

 many, geology was brought into disrepute. But the controver- 

 sies and illiberalities to which these conflicting opinions gave rise, 

 are now happily buried, never to be revived, as long as the spirit 

 which now prevails, of reasoning from facts alone, shall have au- 

 thority in science. 



About the time that Button's published opinions were bring- 

 ing their attacks upon him, a young man named William Smith, 

 born in 1769, a native of Churchill, in Oxfordshire, who followed 

 the profession of a mineral and land surveyor, was, unaided, si- 

 lently laying down the foundations of true geological knowledge. 

 Fossils had been the playthings of his childhood, and when at a 

 mature age he recognized them imbedded in the rocks he was 

 traversing, they receiyed more than ordinary attention from him. 

 He not only learned to distinguish them wherever he found them, 

 but the rocks in which they were imbedded, however remotely 

 they might be situated ; for he found that particular fossils were 

 peculiar to rocks that observed an uniform succession to each 

 other as to superposition. These discoveries led him to examine 

 with more attention than had hitherto been done, the range and 

 extent of the successive deposites, with their general line of dip. 

 In this manner he proceeded from step to step, until he had ex- 

 amined extensive territorial surfaces, and had satisfied himself 

 that the order of succession of the rocks was never inverted. 



