7 
earth and therefore, (harmonizing as they do with the detailed 
field work of later geologists,) his generalizations read almost as 
if dictated by a prophetic spirit — an impression not diminished by 
his massive and somewhat obscure diction. There wanted but 
one discovery to give that direction to the science which has led 
to the present high point of knowledge, I mean the doctrine of 
succession of species in time. Nevertheless, even had Scotland 
been a country geologically favourable to the easy development 
of that doctrine, it may be doubted, whether Hutton’s mind was 
so modelled that it would spontaneously have entered on such an 
investigation. He perceived the great truth, that from the waste 
of continents, broad and thick contemporaneous deposits, con- 
taining the relics of life, are being formed in the seas, and that 
in all traceable past time the same law’s have prevailed ; but he 
knew not of the existence of a rule by which, independently of 
mineral character, contemporaneous strata may be identified, 
although widely separated from each other. The germ of this ' 
truth is, indeed, contained in the writings of an earlier writer 
(Fuclisel); but -when he lived, the progress of discovery had not 
sufficiently prepared the way for its reception ; and it is to the 
independent observations of that “ great original discoverer ” 
William Smith, that we ow T e the first clear enunciation of the 
law of the stratigraphical succession of species — a law alike 
great in theoretical results and in the strictly practical appli- 
cations arising therefrom. 
In the whole history of geology there is no chapter more 
touchingly interesting than the manner in which Smith arrived 
at his conclusions. From the moment the light first dawned on 
him, he never ceased to follow his convictions, with unflagging 
patience, industry, and energy, full of enthusiasm, undaunted by 
difficulties, or by the little heed that for many years was paid 
him by the celebrated men, the results of whose subsequent 
work are in great part based on his discovery. “ It plainly 
appeared ” to him, that his “ was to become a system of experi- 
mental philosophy that would embrace the whole surface of the 
globe.”* Homely in exterior and manner, ungifted with the 
* Phillips’s Memoirs of Wm. Smith, p. 10. 
