86 DARWIN AND CAMBRIDGE 



Science, were it not for the * immortal journey ' 

 to Cambridge made by the Oxford man Halley 

 in August, 1684. 



Through the relationship and mutual inter- 

 dependence between great minds we can also 

 trace the influence of Oxford upon Darwin. 

 Sir Ray Lankester spoke this morning of the 

 debt which Lyell owed to the teaching of 

 Buckland at Oxford, and how similar it was to 

 the debt which Darwin owed to Henslow at 

 Cambridge. But there is the strongest evidence, 

 given in Darwin's own words, that he also owed 

 a deep debt to Lyell, and therefore indirectly to 

 Buckland and Oxford. 



The first volume of the first edition of Ly ell's 

 Principles of Geology came out in 1830, just 

 before Darwin started on the voyage of the 

 Beagle. He was advised by Henslow to read it, 

 but on no account to believe the views therein 

 contained; but Darwin was proud to remember 

 that, at the very first opportunity of testing Lyell's 

 reasoning, he recognized the infinite superiority 

 of his teachings over those of all others. Many 

 years later he wrote to L. Horner : ' I always 

 feel as if my books came half out of Lyell's 



brain I have always thought that the great 



merit of the Principles was that it altered the 

 whole tone of one's mind, and therefore that, 

 when seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet 

 saw it partially through his eyes.' * 

 1 See also pp. 5-7. 



