CHAPTER VI 



'THE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY* 



WE have seen that as early as the year 1817, 

 when he visited East Anglia, Lyell began to ex- 

 perience vague doubts concerning the soundness of 

 the ' Catastrophist ' doctrines, which had been so 

 strongly impressed upon him by Buckland. And 

 these doubts in the mind of the undergraduate of 

 twenty years of age gradually acquired strength and 

 definiteness during his frequent geological excursions, 

 at home and abroad, during the next ten years. At 

 what particular date the design was formed of writing 

 a book and attacking the predominant beliefs of his 

 fellow-geologists, we have no means of ascertaining 

 exactly ; but from a letter written to his friend 

 Dr Mantell, we find that at one time Lyell contem- 

 plated publishing a book in the form of * Conversations 

 in Geology 42 / without putting his name to it. This 

 was probably suggested by the manner in which 

 Copernicus and Galileo sought to circumvent theo- 

 logical opposition in the case of Astronomical Theory. 



