...of a question with which we have been occupied since the beginning of the fifth chapter — namely, whether there has been any interruption, from the...still more slight in degree, between the causes which pro(28) HC xxxvni duced the former revolutions of the globe, and those now in every-day operation....

...continuous system of change in the animate and inanimate world. We were induced to enter into that inquiry by reflecting how much the progress of opinion in...that the earlier geologists had not only a scanty acquaintance with existing changes, but were singularly unconscious of the amount of their ignorance....