ch. ix.J 18311844. 177 



a causation which was beyond our comprehension ; it re- 

 mained for Darwin to accumulate proof that there is no 

 break between the incoming and the outgoing species, that 

 they are the work of evolution, and not of special crea- 

 tion. ... I had certainly prepared the way in this country, 

 in six editions of my work before the Vestiges of Creation 

 appeared in 1842 [1844], for the reception of Darwin's 

 gradual and insensible evolution of species.'" 



Mr. Huxley continues : 



" If one reads any of the earlier editions of the Prin- 

 ciples carefully (especially by the light of the interesting 

 series of letters recently published by Sir Charles Lyell's 

 biographer), it is easy to see that, w r ith all his energetic op- 

 position to Lamarck, on the one hand, and to the ideal 

 quasi-progressionism of Agassiz, on the other, Lyell, in his 

 own mind, was strongly disposed to account for the origina- 

 tion of all past and present species of living things by natu- 

 ral causes. But he would have liked, at the same time, to 

 keep the name of creation for a natural process which he 

 imagined to be incomprehensible." 



The passage above given refers to the influence of Lyell 

 in preparing men's minds for belief in the Origin, but I 

 cannot doubt that it " smoothed the way "for the author 

 of that work in his early searchings, as well as for his fol- 

 lowers. My father spoke prophetically when he wrote the 

 dedication to Lyell of the second edition of the Journal of 

 Researches (1845). 



"To Charles Lyell, Esq., F.H.S., this second edition is 

 dedicated with grateful pleasure as an acknowledgment 

 that the chief part of whatever scientific merit this journal 

 and the other work of the author may possess, has been 

 derived from studying the well-known and admirable Prin- 

 ciples of Geology." 



Professor Judd, in some reminiscences of my father 

 which he was so good as to give me, quotes him as saying 

 that, " It was the reading of the Principles of Geology 

 which did most towards moulding his mind and causing 

 him to take up the line of investigation to which his life 

 was devoted." 



The role that Lyell played as a pioneer makes his own 

 point of view as to evolution all the more remarkable. As 

 the late H. C. Watson wrote to my father (December 21, 

 1859) : 



" Now these novel views are brought fairly before the 



