"On the 7th of March and 4th of April, 1785, Hutton read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh his Memoir on a "Theory of the Earth ; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution and Restoration of Land upon the Globe." Extending to no more than 96 quarto pages, it was written in a quiet, logical manner, with no attempt at display but with an apparent anxiety to state the author's opinions as tersely as possible. Probably no man realised then that this essay would afterwards be regarded as marking the turning-point in the history of geology. For some years it remained without attracting notice from friend or foe."
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Sir Archibald Geike, The Founders of Geology (1897)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_Earth
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Theory of the Earth
Theory of the Earth; or An Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe (first published in 1788) was written by James Hutton, laying 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 importan
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