106 BIOGRAPHIES OF SCIENTIFIC MEN 



ance of Lamarck's view." Nevertheless, The Principles of 

 Geology was " a work destined to assist in paving the way 

 for the removal of one difficulty attending the solution of 

 the theory of the origin of species, namely, the vast period 

 of time for the life-history of the globe which that theory 

 demands." Although at the time, when the book was first 

 published, its author had other aims in view than those to 

 which it contributed. Charles Darwin says, in the ninth 

 chapter of The Origin of Species : " For my part, following 

 out LyelFs metaphor, I look at the geological record as 

 a history of the world imperfectly kept, and written in a 

 changing dialect ; of this history we possess the last 

 volume alone, relating only to two or three countries. 

 Of this volume only here and there a short chapter has 

 been preserved, and of each page only here and there a 

 few lines. Each word of the slowly-changing language, 

 more or less different in the successive chapters, may 

 represent the forms of life which are entombed in our 

 consecutive formations, and which falsely appear to have 

 been abruptly introduced." 



In The Principles of Geology Lyell followed the 

 doctrines of geological uniformity and continuity of action 

 laid down by Hutton, Buffon, and William Smith, and 

 proved that the various formations of the earth's crust 

 were produced by the very same agencies that are still 

 active in the world. These views were assailed from all 

 quarters as trifling and insignificant trifling in attempting 



