James Hutton presented his 'Theory of the Earth' to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, proposing that the Earth was immeasurably old and had been shaped by cyclical processes of erosion and uplift. This revolutionary concept of 'deep time' provided a vast, almost incomprehensible timescale for geological change and the history of life. It fundamentally challenged the biblical chronology of a young Earth and provided the conceptual framework for modern geology.

Hutton's concept of 'deep time' became a central source of sublime anxiety and inspiration for the Romantic poets. The immense age of the Earth, 'no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end,' challenged human significance and forced poets like Wordsworth and Shelley to reconsider humanity's place within a vast and indifferent natural world. This concept permeated the era's most profound meditations on nature and existence.