I suppose that it would be very easy to pick holes in the details of
Kant's speculations, whether cosmo-logical, or specially telluric, in
their application. But for all that, he seems to me to have been the
first person to frame a complete system of geological speculation by
founding the doctrine of evolution.
I have said that the three schools of geological speculation which I
have termed Catastrophism, Uniformitarianism, and Evolutionism, are
commonly supposed to be antagonistic to one another; and I presume it
will have become obvious that in my belief, the last is destined to
swallow up the other two. But it is proper to remark that each of the
latter has kept alive the tradition of precious truths.
To my mind there appears to be no sort of necessary theoretical
antagonism between Catastrophism and Uniformitarianism. On the contrary,
it is very conceivable that catastrophes may be part and parcel of
uniformity. Let me illustrate my case by analogy. The working of a clock
is a model of uniform action; good time-keeping means uniformity of
action. But the striking of the clock is essentially a catastrophe;
the hammer might be made to blow up a barrel of gunpowder, or turn on
a deluge of water; and, by proper arrangement, the clock, instead of
marking the hours, might strike at all sorts of irregular periods,
never twice alike, in the intervals, force, or number of its blows.
Nevertheless, all these irregular, and apparently lawless, catastrophes
would be the result of an absolutely uniformitarian action; and we might
have two schools of clock-theorists, one studying the hammer and the
other the pendulum.