“We find no vestige of a beginning - no prospect of an end.”
James Hutton book Theory of the Earth
Theory of the Earth (1795)
Quotes from bookTheory of the Earth
Theory of the Earth was a publication by James Hutton which laid the foundations for geology. In it he showed that the Earth is the product of natural forces. What could be seen happening today, over long periods of time, could produce what we see in the rocks. This idea, uniformitarianism, was used by Charles Lyell in his work, and Lyell's textbook was an important influence on Charles Darwin. The work was first published in 1788 by the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and later in 1795 as two book volumes.Hutton recognized that rocks record the evidence of the past action of processes which still operate today. He also anticipated natural selection, as follows:
James Hutton book Theory of the Earth
Source: Theory of the Earth (Paper, published in Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1785)
