vi] OF EVOLUTION 63 



greater intensity in past times of the agencies causing 

 geological change, and for the legitimacy of discussing 

 the mode of origin of the earth. Lyell, like Hutton, 

 argued that he saw ' no signs of a beginning,' but his 

 characteristic candour is shown when he wrote : 



' All I ask is, that at any given period of the past, 

 don't stop enquiry, when puzzled, by a reference to 

 a " beginning," which is all one with " another state of 

 nature," as it appears to me. But there is no harm 

 in your attacking me, provided you point out that 

 it is the proof I deny, not the probability of a 

 beginning 56 .' 



Lyell clearly foresaw the opposition with which 

 his book would be met and wisely resolved not to be 

 drawn into controversy. He wrote : 



*I daresay I shall not keep my resolution, but 

 I will try to do it firmly, that when my book is 

 attacked...! will not go to the expense of time in 

 pamphleteering. I shall work steadily on Vol. II, 

 and afterwards, if the work succeeds, at edition 2, 

 and I have sworn to myself that I will not go to the 

 expense of giving time to combat in controversy. It 

 is interminable work 57 .' 



In order to maintain this resolve, Lyell, the 

 moment the last sheet of the volume was corrected, 

 set off for a four months' tour in France and Spain. 

 While absent from England, he heard little of what 

 was going on in the scientific world ; but, on his 



