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NATURE 



{Aug. 26, 1875 



achieved by any such energy as is still left upon the 

 earth. Accordingly, on the whole they were disposed to 

 neglect the consideration of proofs of modern changes on 

 the earth's surface, looking upon these as mere faded 

 relics of the power with which geological changes were 

 formerly effected. It is impossible to exaggerate the 

 service which Lyell did to the cause of truth by boldly 

 striking at the very root of this fundamental postulate 

 of his contemporaries, and showing, by a wide induc- 

 tion of facts from all parts of the world, how really potent 

 were the present apparently quiet and ineffective pro- 

 cesses of change. With most uncompromising logic he 

 drove it home to the hearts and consciences even of 

 sturdy convulsionists, that they had all along been reason- 

 ing in a circle, and that the evidence on which they so 

 confidently relied demanded and could receive another 

 and very different interpretation. 



It was a great matter to shake the old convulsionist 

 faith and bring men back to the study of the actual opera- 

 tions of nature at the present time. Greatly more diffi- 

 cult, however, was the task to build up another creed and 

 gain adherents to it. Yet this was accompUshed by Lyell 

 with an abundant measure of success. He came to be 

 recognised as the great reformer in geology, the high 

 priest of the Uniformitarian school, the leader under 

 whom in this country the younger men eagerly ranged 

 themselves. Through the influence of his writings a fresh 

 and healthy spirit of scrutiny and observation spread 

 through the study of geology. And as edition after edition 

 of his work appeared, each more richly laden than its 

 predecessors with stores of facts gathered from all 

 branches of science in illustration of his subject, men were 

 led to realise how narrow had been the old conception 

 which limited the scope of geology merely to the study of 

 minerals and rocks and the elaboration of cosmological 

 theories. Every department of nature which could throw- 

 light upon the terrestrial changes now in progress and 

 thereby elucidate the history of those which had taken 

 place in former times was made to yield its quota of 

 evidence. Hence it came about that the study of geology 

 received in Britain a breadth of treatment which had 

 never before been given to it either in this or any other 

 country. The main share in this reform must be assigned 

 to the genius and perseverance of Lyell. 



But in science as in politics no reform can provide for 

 all the requirements of the future. In proportion to the 

 zeal with which the new creed is adopted and proclaimed, 

 there may be and often is an inabihty to recognise such 

 measure of truth as may have underlain the older faiths, 

 as well as to realise the weak points in that which is set 

 up in their place. The essential doctrine of the Unifor- 

 mitarian School was in reality based on an assumption 

 not less than those of the older dogmas. It was an 

 assumption indeed which did not rest on mere crude 

 speculation, but on a wide range of observation and in- 

 duction, and it claimed to be borne out by all that was 

 known regarding the present economy of nature. It 

 professed to be in accordance with the logical method 

 of reasoning from the known to the unknown. Never- 

 theless, in the course of years the Uniformitarians 

 gradually lost sight of the fact that the present order 

 of nature on which they asserted that their system 

 rested could not, without a manifest and perhaps in 



the end an unwarrantable assumption, be taken as 

 the standard whereby the order of nature in all past 

 geological time was to be gauged. The information 

 gained by human observation during the few centuries in 

 which man had taken intelligent interest in the world 

 around him was valuable as a basis for hypothesis, but 

 only for hypothesis which should be cast aside so soon as 

 the requirements of a wider knowledge might demand. 

 The Uniformitarians, however, gradually slid into the 

 belief that though perchance they had not absolutely 

 proved terrestrial energy never to have been more powerful 

 than at present, yet they had shown that the supposed 

 proofs of former greater intensity were illusory, and hence 

 that their own doctrines should be accepted as by far the 

 most reasonable, and indeed as the only safe guide in the 

 interpretation of the past history of the earth. Most 

 admirable has been the work done by the Uniformitarians, 

 and deep are the obligations under which Geology must 

 ever lie to them. But in the onward march of mental 

 progress it is now their turn to have their confident belief 

 called in question. Another School is rising among them, 

 accepting from them by far the larger part of their 

 doctrines, but in their own spirit of bold inquiry and with 

 their own zeal in the cause of truth, seeking to enlarge the 

 basis on which our ideas of the full sweep of nature's 

 operations are to rest. 



The other, or biological side of geological science, 

 owes much of its development to the skill with which it 

 was handled in the successive editions of the " Principles." 

 Though not himself in the strict sense either a zoologist 

 or botanist, Sir Charles Lyell throughout his life kept 

 himself abreast of the progress of the biological sciences 

 and on terms of intimate relationship with those by 

 whom that progress was sustained in this country and 

 abroad. He was in the true meaning of the word a natu- 

 ralist. He had in his day few equals in the grasp which 

 he could take of natural history subjects in their geo- 

 logical aspects. The geographical distribution of plants 

 and animals was one of those subjects which received 

 more and more ample treatment from him as he advanced 

 in years. The succession of living forms in time was 

 another theme which gave him full scope for accurate 

 and eloquent description. In fact, the breadth of his 

 conception of what geology ought to be was not less con- 

 spicuously marked in this than in the physical department 

 of the science. He enlisted in his service every branch 

 of biological inquiry which could elucidate the former 

 history of the earth and its inhabitants. And not merely 

 the published information on these questions, but many 

 of the floating ideas of discoverers found exposition and 

 illustration in his pages. 



One of the biological subjects to which he devoted 

 much time and thought was one which in recent years 

 has received renewed attention and provoked increased 

 discussion — the origin of the successive species of 

 plants and animals which have appeared upon the 

 earth. During the greater part of his career Sir 

 Charles Lyell distinguished himself as one of the most 

 uncompromising opponents of development theories such 

 as those of Lamarck and the author of the " Vestiges of 

 Creation." Such views ran counter to his uniformitarian 

 faith, and he brought against them a large armoury of 

 geological weapons. The non-appearance of higher 



