“We have now got to the end of our reasoning; we have no data further to conclude immediately from that which actually is.  But we have got enough; we have the satisfaction to find, that in Nature there is wisdom, system, and consistency.  For having, in the natural history of this earth, seen a succession of worlds, we may from this conclude that there is a system in Nature; in like manner as, from seeing revolutions of the planets, it is concluded, that there is a system by which they are intended to continue those revolutions.  But if the succession of worlds is established in the system of Nature, it is in vain to look for anything higher in the origin of the earth.  The result, therefore, of this physical inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning,—­no prospect of an end."[43]

Yet another influence worked strongly upon Hutton.  Like most philosophers of his age, he coquetted with those final causes which have been named barren virgins, but which might be more fitly termed the hetairae of philosophy, so constantly have they led men astray.  The final cause of the existence of the world is, for Hutton, the production of life and intelligence.

“We have now considered the globe of this earth as a machine, constructed upon chemical as well as mechanical principles, by which its different parts are all adapted, in form, in quality, and in quantity, to a certain end; an end attained with certainty or success; and an end from which we may perceive wisdom, in contemplating the means employed.

“But is this world to be considered thus merely as a machine, to last no longer than its parts retain their present position, their proper forms and qualities?  Or may it not be also considered as an organized body? such as has a constitution in which the necessary decay of the machine is naturally repaired, in the exertion of those productive powers by which it had been formed.

“This is the view in which we are now to examine the globe; to see if there be, in the constitution of this world, a reproductive operation, by which a ruined constitution may be again repaired, and a duration or stability thus procured to the machine, considered as a world sustaining plants and animals."[44]

Kirwan, and the other Philistines of the day, accused Hutton of declaring that his theory implied that the world never had a beginning, and never differed in condition from its present state.  Nothing could be more grossly unjust, as he expressly guards himself against any such conclusion in the following terms:—­

“But in thus tracing back the natural operations which have succeeded each other, and mark to us the course of time past, we come to a period in which we cannot see any farther.  This, however, is not the beginning of the operations which proceed in time and according to the wise economy of this world; nor is it the establishing of that which, in the course of time, had no beginning; it is only the limit of our retrospective view of those operations which have come to pass in time, and have been conducted by supreme intelligence."[45]