James Hutton

“ What a comfort to man, for whom that system was contrived, as the only living being on this earth who can perceive it; what a comfort, I say, to think that the Author of our existence has given such evident marks of his good-will towards man, in this progressive state of his understanding! What greater security can be desired for the continuance of our intellectual existence,—an existence which rises infinitely above that of the mere animal, conducted by reason for the purposes of life alone. ”

“ Now crystallization may be considered as a species of elective concretion, by which every particular substance, in passing from a fluid to a solid state, may assume a certain peculiar external shape and internal arrangement of its parts, by which it is often distinguished. But, to suppose the solid mineral structure of the earth explained, like an enigma, by the word crystallization, is to misunderstand the science by which we would explain the subject of research; and, to form a general mineral theory thus upon that term, is an attempt to generalise without a reason. ”

“ So soon as the fatal signal was given, one seized hold of his hands, the second grasped his legs and held him down, while the strangler tightened the roomal round his neck, and only relaxed the strain when life was extinct. Then the bearers of the daggers slashed the dead bodies, the grave-diggers quickly excavated a deep trench, the corpses were stripped and thrown in, the earth was hastily shovelled in and trampled down, and in an incredibly short space of time all traces were completely effaced of the terrible tragedy. ”

“ Short-sighted naturalists see springs of water issuing from the earth, one forming calcareous incrustations, the other depositing bituminous substances. Here is enough for them to make the theory of a world; on the one hand, solid marble is explained, on the other, solid coal. Ignorance suspects not error; their first step is to reason upon a false principle;—no matter, were they only to reason far enough, they would soon find their error by the absurdity into which it lands them. The misfortune is, they reason no farther; they have explained mineralogy by infiltration ”

“ If we shall suppose the continent of our earth to be a solid rock, on which the rain might fall, and the wind and waves might dash perpetually, without impairing its mass or changing its constitution, what an imperfect world would we have! ”

“ I am surprised to find this enlightened naturalist seeking, in the origin of this globe of our earth, a general principle of fluidity or solution in water, like the alkahest of the alchymists, by means of which the different substances in the chemical constitution of precious stones might have been united as well as crystallised. One would have thought, that a philosopher, so conversant in the operations of subterraneous fire, would have perceived, that there is but one general principle of fluidity or dissolution, and that this is heat. ”

“ On se trouve fort élevé au-dessus du Rhône quand on est sur le haut de ce chemin, dont on découvre un de plus singuliers, des plus riches, et de plus variés passages qu'on puisse imaginer. On voit sous ses pieds le Rhône serpenter dans le lit qu'il se creuse actuellement, car il change et tout prouve qu'il en a souvent changé; une quantité prodigieuse de petites isles le séparent et le coupent en une multitude de canaux et de bras; ces isles sont couvertes les unes d'arbres, d'arbustes, de pâturages, de bosquets et de verdure, d'autres de pierres, de sable, et de débris de rochers ”

“ Every revolution of the globe wears away some part of some rock upon some coast; but the quantity of that decrease, in that measured time, is not a measurable thing. Instead of a revolution of the globe, let us take an age. The age of man does no more in this estimate than a single year. He sees, that the natural course of things is to wear away the coast, with the attrition of the sand and stones upon the shore ”

“ L'arène ou se réunissent toutes ces eaux et où commence le Gave, est de forme irrégulière; sa surface inégale offre tantôt de grands plateaux de neige, des blocs de rochers écroulés et d'autre débris atténué et réduits à l'état terreux où végètent de belles plantes que le soleil éclaire à peine. Le Gave, en tombant sur les amas de neige, y a creusé un gouffre au fond duquel le soleil avant son déclin peint le cercle coloré de l'iris. Les eaux disparoissent sous la neige et renaissent ensuite comme sous un pont étroit ou sou la voûte d'un aqueduc ”

“ The globe of this earth is evidently made for man. He alone, of all the beings which have life upon this body, enjoys the whole and every part; he alone is capable of knowing the nature of this world, which he thus possesses in virtue of his proper right; and he alone can make the knowledge of this system a source of pleasure, and the means of happiness. ”

“ Thus there is a system of mountains and valleys, of hills and plains, of rivulets and rivers, all of which are so perfectly connected, and so admirably proportioned, in their forms and quantities, like the arteries and veins of the animal body, that it would be absurd to suppose any thing but wisdom could have designed this system of the earth, in delivering water to run from the higher ground; or that any thing could have formed this beautiful disposition of things but the operation of the most steady causes ”

“ Let us then consider how men of science, in examining the mineral state of things, and reasoning from those appearances by which we are to learn the physiology of this earth, have misled themselves with regard to physical causes, and formed certain mineralogical and geological theories, by which their judgment is so perverted, in examining nature, as to exclude them from the proper means of correcting their first erroneous notions, or render them blind to the clearest evidence of any other theory that is proposed. ”

“ When philosophers propose vague theories of the earth, theories which contain no principle for investigating either the general disorder of strata or the particular form of mountains, such theories can receive no confirmation from the examination of the earth, nor can they afford any rule by which the phenomena in question might be explained. This is not the case when a theory presents both the efficient and final cause of those disorders in bodies which had been originally formed regular, and which shows the use as well as means for the formation of our mountains. ”

“ Whatever changes take place from the operation of internal causes, the habitable earth, in general, is always preserved with the vigour of youth, and the perfection of the most mature age. We cannot see man cultivate the field, without perceiving that system of dry land provided by nature in forming valleys and rivers; we cannot study the rocks and solid strata of the earth, those bulwarks of the field and shore, without acknowledging the provident design of nature in giving as much permanency to our continent, as is consistent with sufficient fertility ”

“ For, whether we are to consider those great and constant explosions of mineral fire as a principal agent in the design, or only as a casual event depending upon circumstances which give occasion to an operation of such magnitude, here is an object that must surely have its place in every general theory of the earth.
In examining things which actually exist, and which have proceeded in a certain order, it is natural to look for that which had been first; man desires to know what had been the beginning of those things which now appear. ”

“ But to form a system in direct opposition to every order of nature that we know, merely because we may suppose another order of things different from the laws of nature which we observe, would be as inconsistent with the rules of reasoning in science, by which the speculations of philosophy are directed, as it would be contrary to common sense, by which the affairs of mankind are conducted. ”

“ Those water formed plains which we perceive subsisting at unequal levels immediately adjoining to each other, while they present us with a view of the degradation of the elevated earth, at the same time illustrate the indefinite duration of a continent; for, we judge not of the progress of things from the actual operations of the surface, which are too slow for the life of man, and too vague for the subject of his history, but from the state of things which we contemplate with a scientific eye, and from the nature of things which we know to be in rule. ”

“ «L'Angle même de la montagne est partagé par une fente qui le traverse de part en part. Cette profonde fissure mérite qu'on la voye, et même qu'on la pénètre. Elle est tortueuse, et dans quelques endroits si étroite, qu'à peine un homme peut il y passer. Quand vous y êtes engagés vous trouvez des places ou les sinuosités du rocher vous cache le ciel, plus loin elles le laissent apercevoir par échappées; ailleurs vous voyez des blocs de rochers engagés dans la crevasse, et suspendus au-dessus de votre tête.» ”

“ In studying this part of the economy of nature, we may perceive the most perfect wisdom in the actual constitution of things; for, while it is so ordered that the solid mass of earth should be resolved for the purpose of vegetation, the perishable soil is as much as possible preserved by the protection of those solid parts; and these consolidated masses are resolved in so slow a manner, that nothing but the most philosophic eye, by reasoning upon a chain of facts, is able to discover it. ”

“ It is this operation of nature which we see performed, more or less, every day, which some natural philosophers have such difficulty in admitting at all, and which others overlook in seeking for some wonderful operation to produce the effect in a shorter time. The prodigious waste that evidently appears, in many places, to have been made of the solid land, and the almost imperceptible effects of the present agents which appear, have given, occasion to those different opinions concerning that which has already happened, or that natural history by which we are to learn the system of this world. ”

“ Toute la surface de la terre, les rocs les plus durs, les sables et les graviers les plus arides, les métaux même, éprouvent l'action rongeante de l'air et leurs particules atténuées, décomposées, recomposées de mille manières, sont probablement la source principal de la végétation. L'air lui-même ainsi que l'eau, s'y combinent: beaucoup d'observations et d'expériences nous prouvent que ces deux fluides fournissent leur propre substance aux parties solides des végétaux, et par conséquent à la terre végétable qui les produit et qu'ils déposent. ”

“ Not only are no powers to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted of except those of which we know the principle, and no extraordinary events to be alledged in order to explain a common appearance, the powers of nature are not to be employed in order to destroy the very object of those powers; ”

“ Ces monticules avec leurs fabriques s'élèvent au-dessus de tous ces objets variés; quelques-unes se distinguent par leur côtés écroulés qui sont à pic; la blancheur de ces éboulemens contraste singulièrement avec les verts qui sont les couleurs dominantes du vallon. Au-de-la des coteaux, des montagnes s'élèvent et vont s'appuyer et s'adosser à ces masses, à ces colosses énormes de rochers à pic élevés comme des murailles et d'une hauteur prodigieuse qui forment cette barrière qui sépare le Vallais de la Savoie. ”

“ Si un observateur attentif parcourt les plaines immenses de l'Amérique méridionale, s'il monte les fleuves rapides et profonds qui les traversent, et les inondent, et s'il franchit les montagnes prodigieuses que l'action des eaux détruit, il apercevra bientôt qu'un développement successif et inévitable de ce nouveau continent tend à l'agrandir dans tous les sens, et rendra peut-être un jour sa surface égale à celle de notre hémisphère. ”

“ We have but to consider the surface of this earth as having been upon a higher level; as having been every where the beds of rivers, which had moved the matter of strata and fragments of rocks, now no more existing; and as thus disposed upon different planes, which are, like the haughs of rivers, changing in a continual succession, but changing upon a scale too slow to be perceived. ”