CHAPTER XII 



THE PLACE OF LYELL AND DARWIN IN HISTORY 



FROM the account given in the foregoing pages, 

 it will be seen that without detracting from the 

 merits of their predecessors or the value of the 

 labours of their contemporaries we must ascribe 

 the work of establishing on a firm foundation of 

 observation and reasoning the doctrine of evolution 

 both in the inorganic and the organic world to 

 the investigations and writings of Lyell and Darwin. 



Lyell had to oppose the geologists of his day, who 

 led by Buckland in this country and by Cuvier 

 on the continent, were almost, without exception, 

 hopelessly wedded to the doctrines of ' Catastrophism,' 

 and bitterly antagonistic to all ideas savouring of con- 

 tinuity or evolution. And, in the same way, Darwin, 

 at the outset, found himself face to face with a 

 similarly hostile attitude, on the part of biologists, 

 with respect to the mode of appearance of new 

 species of plants and animals. 



While Darwin doubtless derived his inspiration, 



