translation.en: It wasn't until the turn of the 19th century that our blinders were removed, first, with the publication of James Hutton's "Theory of the Earth," in which he told us that the Earth reveals no vestige of a beginning and no prospect of an end; and then, with the printing of William Smith's map of Britain, the first country-scale geological map, predictive insight into where certain types of rocks might occur.
translation.zh: 直到19世纪的到来， 我们的无知才渐渐消失 首先，James Hotton所著的《地球理论》向我们揭示了 地球的初始毫无痕迹， 终结也会毫无预兆。 随着William Smith绘制了第一张国家疆域范围的英国地图， 我们得以预见 哪里会有特定年代的岩石。