120 LOUIS AGASSI Z. [CHAP. xvm. 



Vol. II., p. 732). The influence of Lyell on geology, 

 outside of a very limited circle in the British Isles, is 

 absolutely insignificant. Geology has been built up 

 entirely outside of his "line of work," by practical 

 geologists and original observers, as well as by great 

 thinkers. That Lyell was a charming character is true, 

 and it is also true that he influenced Darwin, but he did 

 not in the least change the face of geology. 



The publication of some letters of Darwin, Lyell, and 

 Gray, in their respective biographies, although carefully 

 selected, apparently to do honour to their authors, shows 

 in part the inside history of the strong divergences exist- 

 ing among evolutionists and uniformitarians. Both Lyell 

 and Gray feel "cold chills" every time they come to 

 the full conclusions drawn by Darwin, Huxley, and 

 Wallace. They had to come face to face with agnostic 

 and antitheistic ideas. The bridge they had to cross 

 seemed to both of them too insecure to trust their 

 feet on it, just as Agassiz and many others refused 

 to cross the bridge of the " Origin of Species " of 

 Darwin. 



Some of the quotations from the letters of Darwin 

 arc certainly amusing. He calls Hooker " a barrister, 

 a great lawyer"; Lyell is "a Lord Chancellor"; Asa 

 Gray is " a born reviewer, a capital reasoner, a poet, a 

 hybrid, a complex cross of lawyer, poet, naturalist, and 

 theologist ! was there ever such a monster seen be- 

 fore ?" And he wrote to Asa Gray, "You have made 

 a mistake in being a botanist ; you ought to have been 

 a lawyer" (" Darwin's Life," Vol. II., p. 120). This is 

 true. Lyell, Hooker, and Gray were certainly lawyers, 



