Editing James Hutton (section)

==Publication==
Though Hutton circulated privately a printed version of the abstract of his Theory (''Concerning the System of the Earth, its Duration, and Stability'') which he read at a meeting of the [[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] on 4 July 1785;<ref name=abstract>[http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/hutton/Abstract-facsimile/abstract1.htm ''Concerning the System of the Earth''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907225227/http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/hutton/Abstract-facsimile/abstract1.htm |date= 7 September 2008 }} abstract</ref> the full account of his theory as read at 7 March 1785 and 4 April 1785 meetings did not appear in print until 1788. It was titled ''[[Theory of the Earth]]; or an Investigation of the Laws observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land upon the Globe'' and appeared in ''Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh'', vol. I, Part II, pp.&nbsp;209–304, plates I and II, published 1788.<ref name=TOE>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030729055405/http://www.uwmc.uwc.edu/geography/Hutton/Hutton.htm ''Theory of the Earth''] full text (1788 version)</ref> He put forward the view that "from what has actually been, we have data for concluding with regard to that which is to happen thereafter." This restated the [[Scottish Enlightenment]] concept which [[David Hume]] had put in 1777 as "all inferences from experience suppose&nbsp;... that the future will resemble the past", and [[Charles Lyell]] memorably rephrased in the 1830s as "the present is the key to the past".<ref name="KEY TO THE PAST">{{cite web |url=http://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002CD/finalprogram/abstract_34786.htm |title=The Present is the Key to the Past is the Key to the Future |author=Elizabeth Lincoln Mathieson |date=13 May 2002 |publisher=The Geological Society of America |access-date=28 September 2010 |archive-date=9 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309124435/https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2002CD/finalprogram/abstract_34786.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Hutton's 1788 paper concludes; "The result, therefore, of our present enquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,–no prospect of an end."<ref name=TOE/> His memorably phrased closing statement has long been celebrated.<ref name="VestigeProspectAMNH"/><ref name="KS Thomson">{{cite journal |last1=Thomson |first1=Keith |title=Vestiges of James Hutton |url=http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/num2/vestiges-of-james-hutton/2 |journal=American Scientist |date=2001 |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=212 |doi=10.1511/2001.3.212 |quote=It is ironic that Hutton, the man whose prose style is usually dismissed as unreadable, should have coined one of the most memorable, and indeed lyrical, sentences in all science: "(in geology) we find no vestige of a beginning,—no prospect of an end." In those simple words, Hutton framed a concept that no one had contemplated, that the rocks making up the earth today have not, after all, been here since Creation. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110611161755/http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/id.3275,y.0,no.,content.true,page.2,css.print/issue.aspx |archive-date=11 June 2011 }}</ref> (It was quoted in the 1989 song "[[No Control (Bad Religion album)|No Control]]" by songwriter and professor [[Greg Graffin]].<ref name="Lyrics">{{cite web |url=http://www.altmusic.ru/bands/BadReligion/NoControl.html |title=Lyrics, No Control |author=Greg Graffin |work=[[No Control (Bad Religion album)|No Control]] |year=1989 |quote=there's no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end (Hutton, 1795) |author-link=Greg Graffin }}</ref>)

Following criticism, especially the arguments from [[Richard Kirwan]] who thought Hutton's ideas were [[atheist]]ic and not logical,<ref name=TOE/> Hutton published a two volume version of his theory in 1795,<ref name="TheoryEarthGutenbergVolONE">{{gutenberg|no=12861|name=Theory of the Earth, Volume 1|bullet=none}}</ref><ref name="TheoryEarthGutenbergVolTWO">{{gutenberg|no=14179|name=Theory of the Earth, Volume 2|bullet=none}}</ref> consisting of the 1788 version of his theory (with slight additions) along with a lot of material drawn from shorter papers Hutton already had to hand on various subjects such as the origin of granite.  It included a review of alternative theories, such as those of [[Thomas Burnet (theologian)|Thomas Burnet]] and [[Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon]].

The whole was entitled ''An Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge and of the Progress of Reason, from Sense to Science and Philosophy'' when the third volume was completed in 1794.<ref name="Pearson">{{cite journal |last1=Pearson |first1=Paul N. |title=In retrospect |journal=Nature |date=October 2003 |volume=425 |issue=6959 |pages=665 |doi=10.1038/425665a|bibcode=2003Natur.425..665P |s2cid=161935273 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Its 2,138 pages prompted Playfair to remark that "The great size of the book, and the obscurity which may justly be objected to many parts of it, have probably prevented it from being received as it deserves."