XXVIII 



SIR CHARLES LYELL 



1797-1875 



Sir Charles Lycll, the son of a Scottish botanist of literary tastes, 

 was born at Kinnordy, Scotland, November 14, i/p/. He went to 

 Oxford University, from zvhich he graduated in i8ip. He was ad- 

 mitted to the bar in i82j. In 182/ he abandoned law for geology, 

 and published his ''Principles of Geology" in 18^0-18^^. LyelVs 

 thesis was that all the past changes of the earth were explainable by 

 forces now operative — an idea which underlies modern geology. He 

 published his ''Antiquity of Man" in 186^, providing proofs of man's 

 long existence on earth and thus contributing to the establishment of 

 the Darwinian theory. He died February 22, i8y§. 



UNIFORMITY IN THE SERIES OF PAST CHANGES IN 

 THE ANIMATE AND INANIMATE WORLD * 



Origin of the doctrine of alternate periods of repose arid disorder. — 

 It has been truly observed that when we arrange the fossiliferous for- 

 mations in chronological order, they constitute a broken and defective 

 series of monuments ; we pass without any intermediate gradations 

 from systems of strata which are horizontal, to other systems which 

 are highly inclined — from rocks of peculiar mineral composition to 

 others which have a character wholly distinct — from one assemblage 

 of organic remains to another, in which frequently nearly all the 

 species, and a large part of the genera, are different. These violations 

 of continuity are so common as to constitute in most regions the rule 

 rather than the exception, and they have been considered by many 

 geologists as conclusive in favour of sudden revolutions in the inani- 

 mate and animate world. We have already seen that according to 



* From the Principles of Geology, Bk. I, Ch. XIII. 



206 



