Theory of the Earth

James Hutton (1726-1797) is considered the father of modern geology. Although less well known than Darwin, Hutton's theory is one of the cornerstones of the modern rationalist view of the world. Hutton was one of the first scientists to propose that the Earth is extremely old, much older than the few thousand years that a literal reading of Genesis would indicate. This caused a furour much like Darwin's Origin of Species when it was first released.

Leonardo Da Vinci had privately speculated about this two centuries earlier in his notebooks, noting the presence of marine fossils on the top of mountains, and estimating the huge amount of time it would take to carve out river valleys. But Hutton was the first to reject the 'Neptunian' theory of his day which saw a universal deluge (presumably, the Noachian flood) as the source of geological formation. Instead he proposed a 'Vulcanian' theory, in which processes of heat from the earth's interior had built up continents and mountains over a long period of time.

In later times this became couched in terms of 'Catastrophism' versus 'Gradualism,' with the gradualists eventually winning out. This is why conventional geologists reject ideas such as Atlantis, Lemuria, or pole shifts out of hand, working from first principles. However, 21st century geologists have become less prickly about the occasional catastrophic event, such as the Oregon Scablands, which were formed when a glacial dam broke at the end of the ice ages.

The two texts provided here are his 1788 paper Theory of the Earth, read before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the two extant volumes of his 1795 book of the same name in which he not only elaborated his views but defended them against the bitter criticism that had been leveled against him in the interim. Although his books, filled with long quotes in French, make difficult reading, Hutton deserves to be better known as one of the makers of the modern view of the Earth.

The third volume is available in image format from Google Books.