...trajectories of the far future could not be discerned. As Playfair would write, 'The author of nature ... has not permitted in his works any symptom of infancy...estimate either their future or their past duration.' Hutton was not saying the Earth was eternal (a point that was to be greatly misunderstood, as will...

...in themselves the elements of their own destruction. He has not permitted in His works any symptoms of infancy, or of old age, or any sign by which we...estimate either their future or their past duration. He may put an end, as He no doubt gave a beginning, to the present system, at some determinate time;...