Note 804 — Chapter V · (continued 2)

See the remarks of Sir James Hall, in Transactions, vol. vi. pp. 74, 75. He observes that Hutton's ‘system, however, involves so many suppositions, apparently in contradiction to common experience, which meet us on the very threshold, that most men have hitherto been deterred from an investigation of its principles, and only a few individuals have justly appreciated its merits.’ … ‘I conceived that the chemical effects ascribed by him to compression, ought, in the first place, to be investigated.’ … ‘It occurred to me that this principle was susceptible of being established in a direct manner by experiment, and I urged him to make the attempt; but he always rejected this proposal, on account of the immensity of the natural agents, whose operation he supposed to lie far beyond the reach of our imitation; and he seemed to imagine that any such attempt must undoubtedly fail, and thus throw discredit on opinions, already sufficiently established, as he conceived, on other principles.’