Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth

by John Playfair

Note xxiv. § 129.

System of Buffon.

426. The affinity of Dr Hutton's theory to that of Buffon, is nothing more than what arises from their making use of the same agents, viz. fire and water, in producing the present condition of the earth's surface. In almost all other respects the two theories are extremely different. The order in which those agents are employed in them, is directly opposite, as has already been remarked; Buffon introducing the action of fire first, and of water only in the second place, to waste and destroy mineral bodies, and afterwards to dispose them anew, and arrange them into strata. He makes no provision for the consolidation of these strata, nor any for their angular elevation; he has no means of explaining the unstratified rocks; nor any, but one extremely imperfect, for explaining the inequalities of the earth's surface.

Again, Buffon mistook, in some degree, the true object of a theory of the earth; and though he did not go back, like the geologists just named, to a time when the laws of nature were not fully established, he begins from a condition of things too unlike the present to be the basis of any rational speculation. He does not, indeed, undertake to examine the state of our planetary system before the sun existed; for from such extravagance, even when most disposed to indulge his fancy, he would surely have revolted. But he treats of the world, when the earth and the planets had just ceased to be a part of the sun, and were newly detached from the body of that luminary.[231]

[231] According to Buffon, the granite is the true solar matter, unchanged but by its congelation.

This hypothesis concerning the origin of the planets, contrived chiefly to account for the circumstance of their motion being all in the same direction, and in other respects not only unsupported, but even inconsistent with the principle of gravitation, has nothing in common with a theory, confined as Dr Hutton's is, within the field which must for ever bound our inquiries, and not venturing to speculate about the earth, when in a condition totally different from the present.

427. In what relates to the future, the two systems are not more like than in what relates to the past Buffon represents the cooling of our planet, and its loss of heat, as a process continually advancing, and which has no limit, but the final extinction of life and motion over all the surface, and through all the interior, of the earth. The death of nature herself is the distant but gloomy object that terminates our view, and reminds us of the wild fictions of the Scandinavian mythology, according to which, annihilation is at last to extend its empire even to the gods. This dismal and unphilosophic vision was unworthy of the genius of Buffon, and wonderfully ill suited to the elegance and extent of his understanding. It forms a complete contrast to the theory of Dr Hutton, where nothing is to be seen beyond the continuation of the present order; where no latent seed of evil threatens final destruction to the whole; and where the movements are so perfect, that they can never terminate of themselves. This is surely a view of the world more suited to the dignity of Nature, and the wisdom of its Author, than has yet been offered by any other system of cosmology.

428. I have often quoted Buffon in, the course of these Illustrations, and most commonly for the purpose of combating his opinions; but I am very sensible, nevertheless, of the obligations under which he has laid all the sciences connected with the natural history of the earth.

The extent and variety of his knowledge, the justness of his reasonings, the greatness of his views, his correct taste, and manly eloquence, qualified him, better, perhaps, than any other individual, to compose the History of Nature. The errors into which he Has fallen, are almost all the unavoidable consequences of the circumstances in which he was placed; and if their amount is estimated by the proportion that they bear to the general excellence of the work, they will be reckoned but of small account. Buffon began to write when many parts of natural history had made but little progress; when the quantity of authentic information was small, and when scientific and correct description was hardly to be found. Many of the greatest and most important facts in geology were quite unknown, and scarcely any part of the mineral kingdom had been accurately surveyed; and, with such materials as this state of things afforded, it is not wonderful if some parts of the edifice he erected have not proved so solid and durable as the rest. Had he appeared somewhat later; had he been farther removed from the time when reasonings a priori usurped the place of induction; and had he been as willing to correct the errors into which he had been betrayed by imperfect information, as he was ingenious in defending them, his work would probably have reached as great perfection, as it is given for any thing without the sphere of the accurate sciences to attain. If he had examined the natural history of the earth more with his own eyes, and been as careful to delineate it with fidelity as force; if he had listened with greater care to the philosophers around him; had he attended to the demonstrations of Newton more, and despised the arrangements of Linnæus less; he would have produced a work, as singular for its truth as for its beauty, and would have gone near to merit the eulogy pronounced by the enthusiasm of his countrymen, Majestati Naturæ par ingenium.