Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth

Transcriber Note
ERRATA.
F. R. S. EDIN. AND PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.
Nunc naturalem causam quærimus et assiduam, non raram et foriuitam.
Seneca.
EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR CADELL AND DAVIES, LONDON, AND WILLIAM CREECH, EDINBURGH.
1802.
Entered in Stationers Hall.
Neill & Co. } Printers, Edinburgh }
THE Treatise here offered to the Public, was drawn up with a view of explaining Dr Hutton's Theory of the Earth in a manner more popular and perspicuous than is done in his own writings. The obscurity of these has been often complained of; and thence, no doubt, it has arisen, that so little attention has been paid to the ingenious and original speculations which they contain.
The simplest way of accomplishing the object proposed, seemed to be, to present a General Outline of the System, in one continued Discourse; and to introduce afterwards, in the form of Notes, what farther elucidation any particular subject was thought to demand. Through the whole, I have aimed at little more than a clear exposition of facts, and a plain deduction of the conclusions grounded on them; nor shall I claim any merit to myself, if, in the order which I have found it necessary to adopt, some arguments may have taken a new form, and some additions may have been made to a system naturally rich in the number and variety of its illustrations.
Of the qualifications which this undertaking requires, there is one that I may safely suppose my self to possess. Having been instructed by Di Hutton himself in his theory of the earth; having lived in intimate friendship with that excellent man for several years, and almost in the daily habit of discussing the questions here treated of; I have had the best opportunity of understanding his views, and becoming acquainted with his peculiarities, whether of expression or of thought. In the other qualifications necessary for the illustration o a system so extensive and various, I am abundantly sensible of my deficiency, and shall therefore with great deference, and considerable anxiety wait that decision from which there is no appeal.