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and valleys, rivulets and rivers, and these rivers return the waters of the
atmosphere into the general mass, in like manner as the blood, returning to
the heart, is conducted in the veins" (1795, II, 533). But the earth's renovation
of its eroded topography recalls the processes of growth, feeding, and healing
that restore an animal's body: "We are thus led to see a circulation in the
matter of this globe, as a system of beautiful ceconomy in the works of
nature. This earth, like the body of an animal, is wasted at the same time that
it is repaired. It has a state of growth and augmentation; it has another state,
which is that of diminution and decay" (1795, II, 562).
Finally, these cycles of erosion and renovation proceed hand in hand, just as
human births balance deaths to maintain a stability of population through the
ages. Consider, as a summary of Hutton's metaphors, this commingling of his
two favorite sources, planets and bodies:
Why refuse to see, in this constitution of things, that wisdom of contrivance,
that beautiful provision, which is so evident, whether we look up into the
great expanse of boundless space, where luminous bodies without number are
placed, and where, in all probability, still more numerous bodies are
perpetually moving and illuminated for some great end; or whether we turn
our prospect towards ourselves, and see the exquisite mechanism and active
powers of things, growing from a state apparently of non-existence, decaying
from their state of natural perfection, and renovating their existence in a
succession of similar beings to which we see no end. (1795, II, 468-469)
Perfection and the Denial of History
I have traced Hutton's direct and metaphorical statements disavowing any
interest in history; I shall document shortly his peculiar treatment of history's
primary data in geology (fossils and strata).
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