James Hutton - Theory of the earth (1785)

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It is only in science that any question concerning the origin and end of things is formed; and it is in science only that the resolution of those questions is to be attained.

James Hutton
Where so many living creatures are to ply their respective powers, in pursuing the end for which they were intended, we are not to look for nature in a quiescent state; matter itself must be in motion, and the scenes of life a continued or repeated series of agitations and events.

James Hutton
The surface of this land... is made by nature to decay...

James Hutton
The system of this earth has either been intentionally made imperfect, or has not been the work of infinite power and wisdom.

James Hutton
Man is not confined to what he sees; he has the experience of former men.

James Hutton
The man of scientific observation, who looks into the chain of physical events connected with the present state of things, sees great changes that have been made, and foresees a different state that must follow in time, from the continued operation of that which actually is in nature.

James Hutton
We are to examine the construction of the present earth, in order to understand the natural operations of time past.

James Hutton
Time, which measures every thing in our idea, and is often deficient to our schemes, is to nature endless and as nothing.

James Hutton
So far as we know our error, or the deficiency in our operation, we proceed in science, and shall conclude in reason.

James Hutton
A volcano is not made on purpose to frighten superstitious people into fits of piety and devotion, nor to overwhelm devoted cities with destruction; a volcano should be considered as a spiracle to the subterranean furnace, in order to prevent the unnecessary elevation of land and fatal effects of earthquakes.

James Hutton
It would be very improper to adduce any example of a particular, where the force of the argument lies in the generality alone.

James Hutton
Let us, therefore, open the book of Nature, and read in her records, if there had been a world bearing plants, at the time when this present world was forming at the bottom of the sea.

James Hutton
We have but to enlarge our thoughts with regard to things past by attending to what we see at present, and we shall understand many things which to a more contracted view appear to be in nature insulated or without a proper cause —

James Hutton
This globe of the earth is a habitable world; and on its fitness for this purpose, our sense of wisdom in its formation must depend.

James Hutton
A theory is nothing but the generalization of particular facts; and, in a theory of the earth, those facts must be taken from the observations of natural history.

James Hutton
Surely, if there is in the system of nature wisdom, we may look for compensation between the destroying and repairing operations of the globe.

James Hutton
Chaos and confusion are not to be introduced into the order of nature, because certain things appear to our partial views as being in some disorder. Nor are we to proceed in feigning causes when those seem insufficient which occur in our experience.

James Hutton
It is in the philosophy of nature that the natural history of this earth is to be studied; and we must not allow ourselves ever to reason without proper data, or to fabricate a system of apparent wisdom in the folly of a hypothetical delusion.

James Hutton
If we knew all the powers of nature, and all the different conditions in which those powers may have their action varied, that is to say, if we were acquainted with every physical cause, then every natural effect, or all appearances upon the surface of this earth, might be explained in a theory that were just.

James Hutton
It is in vain to attempt to measure a quantity which escapes our notice, and which history cannot ascertain; and we might just as well attempt to measure the distance of the stars without a parallax, as to calculate the destruction of the solid land without a measure corresponding to the whole.

James Hutton
If our knowledge is imperfect, we may form erroneous principles, and deceive ourselves in reasoning with regard to those works of nature, which are wisely calculated for our instruction.

James Hutton
To a naturalist nothing is indifferent; the humble moss that creeps upon the stone is equally interesting as the lofty pine which so beautifully adorns the valley or the mountain: but to a naturalist who is reading in the face of the rocks the annals of a former world, the mossy covering which obstructs his view, and renders indistinguishable the different species of stone, is no less than a serious subject of regret.

James Hutton
Error, never can be consistent, nor can truth fail of having support from the accurate examination of every circumstance.

James Hutton
The past history of our globe must be explained by what can be seen to be happening now. No powers are to be employed that are not natural to the globe, no action to be admitted except those of which we know the principle.

James Hutton
Man is made for science; he reasons from effects to causes, and from causes to effects; but he does not always reason without error. In reasoning, therefore, from appearances which are particular, care must be taken how we generalize; we should be cautious not to attribute to nature, laws which may perhaps be only of our own invention.

James Hutton
In matters of science, curiosity gratified begets not indolence, but new desires.

James Hutton
With such wisdom has nature ordered things in the economy of this world, that the destruction of one continent is not brought about without the renovation of the earth in the production of another.

James Hutton
[It] is the little causes, long continued, which are considered as bringing about the greatest changes of the earth.

James Hutton
The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry [into the age of the earth] is, that we find no vestige of a beginning—no prospect of an end.

James Hutton
Granite, considered by itself, does not appear to have any claim to originality in its nature. It is composed of bodies which are capable of being analysed; and these are then found to be compositions of different substances, which are also sometimes variously proportioned.

James Hutton